Let us address the point of how a self can always project that it is right. In the previous section this was described this as a game that sprang from the security games. On the individual level it truly is a game. Yet the manipulators have taken this game and have used it to define and justify the dualistic dramas.

Many spiritual seekers – as well as religious and non-religious people – have spent lifetimes on the quest of proving their selves right. They have been happily following the false path instead of finding the true path to spiritual freedom. 

Many people are caught in the game of proving that some thought system is the only right one and that all others are false. This game takes on many disguises, and it can indeed keep people occupied for lifetimes. Yet eventually, the real you will tire of this game and begin to wonder if there isn’t something beyond the thought systems found in this world, some form of ultimate truth, ultimate reality.

At that point, you are facing the essential choice that can take you onto the path of higher awareness. That choice is whether you are willing to find a higher reality or whether you will simply accept a more sophisticated version of the game to establish the ultimate belief system. Most people, of course, do not understand the choice they are facing.

How separation leads to idol worship

You might conduct a simple thought experiment. When you see the word “apples,” take note of what happens in your mind. Immediately, a mental image comes up, a mental image of what apples mean to you. 

Now imagine that someone tells you that a new fruit has been discovered on a remote island. The person may describe it, and based on that description, you will formulate a mental image. The difference is that you have had a direct experience of apples so your mental image of apples is at least somewhat tied to reality (taking into account that the physical senses cannot be entirely trusted). On the other hand, your mental image of the unknown fruit is not tied to reality since you have not experienced it.

This shows the fundamental problem with the selves’ perception of higher awareness, including God. The selves are born from your separation from your source, and thus the selves can never have a direct experience of higher awareness. 

The selves will for their entire existence be basing their concept of God on a mental image that they can never compare to reality. The selves will always seek to defend their mental image of God, which means they must prevent the conscious self from experiencing higher awareness. The difference being, of course, that because the conscious self is an extension of higher awareness, the conscious self can actually have an experience of higher awareness. 

The conscious self has the ability to have a direct experience of higher awareness. People who are not willing to make use of this ability will be worshiping idols, and their entire approach to religion is based on a graven image of God. That is why you see so many religious people who insist that their religion is the only true belief system. Of course, you also see people who are doing the exact same thing with a political belief system or even the belief system called scientific materialism.

Understanding the origin of duality

Let us now move on to consider what should seem like a peculiar fact, namely why so many people can be absolutely convinced that their belief system is the only true one when there are so many conflicting belief systems that they cannot all be true. This should make people wonder whether perhaps all of them are out of touch with ultimate reality.

Let us make an absolute statement. Any belief system that has ever existed or that could ever exist on earth will give an incomplete description of God. Why is this so? Because the Creator is beyond its creation, is beyond the totality of the material universe. No belief system could ever give an accurate or complete description of God. It is like trying to describe the sun by looking only at the moon.

The subtle difference is that because the selves are separated from higher awareness, they cannot have a direct experience of higher awareness. The selves think God can be reduced to a description, to a mental image—which then inevitably becomes a graven image. The conscious self can indeed have a direct experience of higher awareness, and when you have this experience, you will know that God could never be described by any belief system. God can only be experienced, and as soon as you try to put words on the experience, you degrade it.

To the selves, God is not a real, Living Presence. God is a concept, a mental image. The conscious self can experience God as a Living Being that is right here whereas the selves can only see God as a remote, conceptual being. 

As said with the analogy of apples and the unknown fruit, the selves can never compare their mental image of God to reality, meaning they can never overcome their idol worship. It is up to the conscious self to extricate itself from your selves’ graven images of God. In order to do that, you need to understand how the selves express their insatiable desire for security in creating an infallible belief system.

It is actually not entirely correct to say that the conscious self can have an experience of higher awareness. The reason is that using the word “experience” often makes people think of experiences they have in their normal state of awareness. 

For example, you may go to the beach and watch a beautiful sunset, but you are aware that you are a separate observer watching the scenery from a distance. This “observing from a distance” is precisely how the selves think of God and think of the concept of experiencing God—and everything else for that matter. They think you have to experience God as the remote being in the sky. In reality, you will never experience God as long as you look for him outside yourself, which is why Jesus said that the kingdom of God is within you.

In order to experience higher awareness, you have to be willing to stop seeing yourself as a separate being – at least for a moment – and instead come to experience your oneness with higher awareness. You can experience higher awareness only through what is called “gnosis,” which means a oneness between the knower and the known. 

The normal separation between the object and the observer is set aside and the observer becomes one with the object being observed. As a side note, this is possible because everything has consciousness. The conscious self can experience oneness with the consciousness of any object, even a rock.

The selves can never experience Gnosis, for if they did, they would instantly cease to exist. Gnosis is oneness, and in oneness there is no room for separation, meaning that there is no room for opposing viewpoints. Because the selves were born from separation, their world view does indeed have room for opposing polarities. The selves can never escape the form of thinking that incorporates at least two polarities. Why is that so? 

In the reality of higher awareness there is only oneness. How can you separate yourself from oneness? You can do so only by creating a distance, which can be done only when there are two opposing polarities that are seen as being separated by space—for in oneness there is no space for distance. 

Only when there is distance, is there room for the illusion that you are separated from oneness and can have an existence outside of oneness, even being able to hide something from God, as Adam and Eve supposedly hid from God in the Garden.

Why are people so sure they are right?

How does this allow the selves to believe they are always right? When you create two opposing polarities, you have created a dualistic system, a dualistic world view. The selves will then impose a value judgment upon the system, defining one polarity as good, right or true and the other as evil, wrong or false. 

If you belong to the good polarity, you are always right compared to the people in the opposing polarity. This means you can now ignore, refute or deny any evidence or viewpoints that do not conform to your belief system. If you dismiss all contrary evidence, you can prove any point.

Most people tend to believe that if there is a conflict between two belief systems, one must be right and the other wrong. The reality is that people on both sides of a dualistic debate are out of touch with higher awareness because they are all separated from the reality, which is oneness. 

The selves can never see this, and as long as people’s conscious selves cannot see through the dualistic logic, they cannot see it either. They are stuck in playing the game of seeking to prove that their side is right, constantly being challenged by those in the other polarity who, although they are obviously wrong (to the first people), still insist that they are right.

What is the mechanism that allows people to be so convinced that they are right? When you are experiencing oneness, you are not having a mental image of reality. You experience oneness, and you clearly experience that everything within the Sphere of Oneness is real whereas everything outside that sphere is unreal. You also experience that only oneness exists, which means that what is outside oneness only has a temporary existence in the minds of beings caught in duality.

When you experience oneness – the Christ consciousness – you have no mental image and no value judgment. You distinguish only between what is real and what is unreal, not what is good or evil, true or false, right or wrong. 

When you separate yourself from this oneness, you become blinded by the veil of duality, which hides oneness. Instead, everything you see is based on a dualistic view in which there are two polarities. (As a side note, a person in Christ consciousness still creates mental images of what he or she wants to co-create. Yet such a person does not mistake mental images for reality.)

The selves were born from separation, and they are incapable of seeing beyond it or even questioning it. The statements just made about oneness cannot be grasped by the selves, which will struggle to fit them into their dualistic world view. Likewise, when the conscious self has forgotten its origin, it too does not think to look beyond or question the dualistic world view—although it is capable of doing so. 

People blinded by duality do not question the basic world view that everything can be defined based on two opposing polarities, such as good and evil. They uncritically accept the dualistic world view. 

They unknowingly accept the basic concept of this world view, namely that there is a division between right and wrong, true and false, good and evil. They also accept that this division is real in an ultimate sense, such as being defined by God. They fail to see that this division is defined by the dualistic system itself and has no reality outside the system.

The Christ mind sees everything in terms of what is real and unreal based on a direct experience of oneness. The mind of anti-christ sees everything in terms of right and wrong—the difference being that because it has no experience of oneness, its definition of right and wrong is based on a mental image. 

In the dualistic mind, right is defined in relation to – is defined as the opposite of – wrong. Yet both right and wrong are defined by the dualistic mind and have no connection to the reality of oneness. They are both graven images.

In the Christ mind, reality is not defined in relation to or in opposition to unreality. Oneness simply is, and it does not have, nor does it need, an opposite. In oneness there can be no opposites. Because of free will, it must be possible to step outside of oneness, and this can be done only by stepping into duality. 

When you do step behind the veil of duality, you suddenly see everything as being on a relative scale with an opposing polarity at each end. This means that any dualistic thought system is based on a mental image of the world not on reality itself. This mental image is created by defining two opposites, such as God and the devil. 

When a dualistic thought system is defined, it is of necessity based on an assumption, what is often called an “axiom” in logic. This is so because duality cannot experience oneness, and thus it must make an assumption about what is real and unreal. The assumption must of necessity be limited because it is separated from reality, from oneness! The assumption is based on a mental image that is disconnected from reality and can never be compared to reality—by the selves.

An axiom is a statement or premise that is thought to be self-evident or universally true, meaning it does not need to be proven or questioned. Once people have accepted a dualistic thought system, they rarely question the basic assumption upon which it is based. They accept it as universally true, and that is why they are so absolutely convinced that their thought system is the only right one and has ultimate authority. 

The manipulators define an axiom and define that it is an absolute truth. They then build a thought system upon that “truth,” meaning that the thought system must of necessity be true. As long as you do not question the basic axiom, you will be absolutely convinced that your system is superior to any other. 

You will have the perfect excuse for ignoring conflicting views. You might even feel justified in seeking to destroy such ideas or the people who promote them. The excuse is, of course, that since your thought system is based on an infallible truth, any opposing views must – per definition – be false. 

You cannot start growing on the path to higher awareness until you become willing to question your thought system and the world view based on it. A closed mind is incompatible with growth in awareness. 

Examples of infallible belief systems

Let us look at a couple of examples. Fundamentalist Christianity is based on an axiom which states that the Bible is the infallible word of God, meaning that it has the highest possible authority. Anything conflicting or going beyond the Bible must be false. 

Another axiom is that the Bible should be “interpreted” literally (of course, the words “literal” and “interpretation” are contradictory). A fundamentalist church will claim that its particular “literal” interpretation of the Bible is the only true one. 

All conflicting interpretations must therefore be of the devil, which means fundamentalists have the perfect excuse for ignoring them. Of course, they fail to see that they are using the exact same logic that the scribes and Pharisees used against Jesus when he stood before them in the flesh.

Another example is materialistic philosophy. It holds as an axiom that science – for example through the theory of evolution – has proven that there is nothing beyond the material universe, thus there is no God. Again, such people have the perfect excuse for ignoring any contradictory evidence – even when produced by science itself – since it is just superstition or the subjectivity of the mind.

You also have political thought systems, such as the Marxist belief that the driving force in society is the struggle between the ruling class and the workers. Again, any conflicting system must be false, and this leads to the struggle between capitalism and communism. 

Of course, capitalism is also a dualistic thought system based on the axiom that capitalism represents free enterprise, as opposed to a communist system with state ownership and control. Obviously, capitalism is simply another elitist system (as is communism) and thus has nothing whatsoever to do with freedom.

All of these systems cause people to accept the underlying axiom as something that should never be questioned. This means that the systems form closed boxes, and once people accept the underlying axiom, they can remain trapped indefinitely—unless they dare to question the unquestionable.

Any dualistic thought system has the perfect way to prevent people from questioning its axioms. That way is to engage people in the dualistic struggle against the enemies of the system. This can keep people’s minds so preoccupied that they never actually get around to questioning the underlying assumption of their own system or of duality itself. 

Any thought system in this world is based on an axiom, an assumption, a mental image. Such a system may still help you make progress by expanding your understanding, as many spiritual thought systems can do. Yet any such system sets limits for how far you can go in your quest for ultimate truth—for in order to remain within the system, you cannot question its basic axioms. 

You will not go beyond those limits until you are willing to question the basic assumptions upon which the system is built. This is the difference between a religious person – who never questions the basic tenets of his or her religion – and a mystic who accepts no limits for the mind.

The “advantage” of a dualistic system

Why do people accept these dualistic thought systems? They do so because the systems offer some very clear advantages—that is, advantages for people who are trapped in duality. 

In the previous section, we talked about the selves’ need for security, and it should be obvious that this need is cleverly filled by a dualistic thought system. The system promises that its members are superior to all other people, and the selves of the members can feel secure. For example, a fundamentalist Christian system promises that its members are the only ones who will go to heaven whereas all others will burn in hell—for all eternity.

There is also a more subtle advantage. When you accept an absolute thought system, you can no longer be proven wrong—and the selves hate nothing more than being proven wrong. You can feel secure in knowing that no matter what arguments other people come up with, you will ultimately be proven right. You can easily brush aside or ignore anything that conflicts your beliefs. 

This means that you can avoid looking at the beam in your own eye, for since you are already right or superior, it can only be other people who have a problem—not you. Just look at how many fundamentalist Christians feel they are Jesus’ true followers and feel they can safely ignore the beam in their own eye—and instead focus on the splinters in the eyes of other people.

There is an even more subtle advantage. Once you accept an infallible belief system, you can basically stop thinking about the more difficult questions of life. This makes your selves feel very secure and comfortable because on a surface level they can never be proven wrong by anything outside yourself. 

The real “advantage” is that the selves can feel they have the conscious self under their control. As long as you are not using your ability to step outside your current mental box, there is no risk that you will question the “reality” of your selves. You are truly trapped and your growth has come to a complete stop.

Your choice

What is the basic choice you have to make in order to engage in the path? You have to decide whether you want to be right with higher awareness or whether you want to be “right” in a dualistic world. Do you want to experience the ultimate reality, or do you want to remain in the dualistic world where you can always be proven right in opposition to something that is wrong?

If you want to be right with higher awareness – which ultimately means being in oneness – how do you get started? You need to start by taking an honest look at your belief system, your world view. You need to consider the axioms – the underlying assumptions – upon which your world view is based. You need to systematically – not all at once, but one at a time – question your axioms. 

This will make your selves very uncomfortable because they will feel this is the ultimate threat to their control over you and their very survival. You should not be surprised that your selves will do everything they can to prevent you from starting or completing the process. What is their primary weapon? It is the argument that there must be something in your world view that is true—there must be something you can trust, something you can rely upon. 

Your selves can turn any spiritual teaching into a closed mental box, into an absolutist belief system that supports their quest for security. Many of the people who have been following the spiritual path the longest are precisely the ones who have allowed their selves to use spiritual teachings to build a sense of security—without seeing what was happening. How can you tell? If you sense any uncomfortability toward questioning your basic beliefs about life, then that uncomfortability can only come from your selves. 

This is not in any way saying that everything you know or believe is wrong. It is only saying that if you truly want to make progress on the real path to higher awareness, you have to be willing to question any aspect of your world view. It is what you are not willing to question that will inevitably keep you from reaching the ultimate goal of the path.

What is that goal? It is the complete oneness with higher awareness, your higher self. What happens when you are in that oneness? You no longer need any thought systems. When you have a direct experience of oneness, why would you need a mental image of anything?

You can still use an outer teaching as a way to communicate with other people. It is not the intent to say that spiritual teachings are worthless. They are – at their best – tools for communicating an understanding that can help people progress toward a direct experience of oneness. The problem is that far too many spiritual seekers fall prey to the game of using a spiritual teaching to build the selves’ sense of security, their sense of always being right. 

The spiritual teaching that was meant to liberate them from duality now becomes an extremely efficient tool for keeping them trapped in duality. There are no people who are more firmly trapped in duality than those who have used a dualistic system to convince themselves that they are already saved. No one is more firmly trapped than he who thinks he is free. Ultimate freedom comes only through oneness. 

Your conscious self has ears to hear—if you will stop listening to the subtle temptations of the selves and admit that even if every person on earth thinks you are right, you are not right with higher awareness until you are one with your higher self. In oneness there is no right or wrong. Oneness is all there is.