One of the most subtle and difficult to recognize effects of a drama is that it creates a mental box. As a result, people in the box are constantly projecting mental images upon everything that happens to them.

Even a teaching that talks about dramas will be read by people through their personal filters, meaning they will superimpose their mental images upon the teaching and – depending on their particular drama – find cause to either reject the teaching outright or (the most common reaction) see how it applies to other people while failing to see how it applies to themselves.

The one fundamental realization that is the foundation for all spiritual progress is that: “There is something I don’t know.” There is something you do not see, there is a veil that prevents you from seeing a reality that is beyond your own mental box and the collective mental box of humankind. The Buddha called it the “veil of Maya,” and Jesus talked about it in various ways, including the beam in your own eye and calling for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. In this day and age, we can be a lot more specific.

Quantum physics and mental boxes

The findings of quantum physics are revolutionary in many ways. In this context, let us begin with the fact that quantum physics has proven that for a human being it is impossible to make a truly objective observation, meaning an observation that is not affected by your mind.

In classical physics, the universe was divided into two realms, a realm of matter that existed independently of any mind (and was objective) and the realm of mind that was entirely subjective. By using proper instruments and procedures, scientists could – so it was claimed – make an observation that was not affected by their minds.

What quantum physics has shown is that the realm of matter is an illusion created by the physical senses and a particular mindset, a particular mental box. The deeper truth is that consciousness is the fundamental reality and that matter is a creation of consciousness. Quantum physics talks about this by saying that everything that exists is made from quantum waveforms, which in reality are mental images superimposed upon the base energy by self-aware beings.

What is currently keeping quantum physicists in a deadlock is that they will not acknowledge that there are self-aware beings who are not human beings and that these beings have also superimposed mental images upon the base energy. Scientists are left to ponder such questions as: “Is the moon really there if no one is looking?” The reality is that the moon truly is there even when no human being is looking because the moon was created by spiritual beings who are always looking.

There is something which we might call an objective reality, in the sense that it was not created by human beings, meaning beings trapped in the duality consciousness. The earth in its pure form was created by the Elohim and the spiritual realm was (and is) created by higher beings. There is indeed a reality that is not affected by the duality consciousness and its illusions.

You will not be able to perceive this reality in its fullest as long as you are looking at life through any mental box. The reason being that as long as you are looking through a mental box, you will inevitably project the mental images from the box upon everything you see. As quantum physics explains it, the act of observation is influenced by your consciousness. What you see is a product of an interaction between the quantum waveform of your consciousness and the quantum waveform of whatever you are observing.

The conclusion is that as long as you are looking though a mental box, you cannot see the reality created by spiritual beings (at least not fully). Instead, you are seeing something that you have created by superimposing your own mental images (or the collective images of your “group”) upon that objective reality.

As an example, consider a fundamentalist Christian who finds this website. He or she is looking through a particular mental box and is very attached to having that mental box confirmed. As soon as the person finds something that does not confirm the mental box, the only possible reaction is to reject the entire site. Did the person actually hear what is being said, or did the person only “hear” an echo created by his or her consciousness superimposing a fixed mental image upon the words?

Now take this one step further and be willing to look in the mirror. No matter who you are, no matter how long you have been on the spiritual path, no matter how many teachings you have studied or what techniques you have practiced, you are also looking at these words through your current mental box. The essential dividing line between those who are teachable for a spiritual teacher and those who are not is the following realization:

I too have a mental box.
It does inevitably affect the way I look at everything, including the spiritual teacher/teaching.
I do not see how my mental box is affecting my vision of everything and the conclusions I draw based on my observations. I tend to think that what my mental box is showing me is reality.
I need a spiritual teacher precisely because I cannot, on my own, see beyond my mental box.
My ability to make progress depends on my willingness to let the teacher challenge my mental box and show me its inconsistencies and limitations.
I only make progress to the extent that I allow the teacher to show me what I cannot see.
If I seek to protect and defend my mental box, I close my mind to the teacher’s help and become unteachable.
It is my responsibility to keep my mind and heart open to the teacher by being willing to question everything. It is my responsibility to continually purify my mind of all dualistic illusions, even the most subtle ones that seem like absolute truth. What I am not willing to question becomes my prison.

One might say that the central question is whether you want to defend your current mental box/drama by projecting and rejecting or whether you will let the teacher open your mind to a higher vision of reality by seeking to understand and expand. Most people on earth are completely unaware of the fact that what they see is not reality but a product of their own mental images superimposed upon not only reality but the distorted “reality” created by humankind for eons.

You will have a mental box as long as you are in embodiment. However, as you do purify your mind, the conscious self can begin to disassociate itself from your mental box. Because the conscious self is an extension of the Creator’s Being, it can step outside of any mental box and experience an objective reality.

Having such an experience is extremely valuable. However, once you come back to your normal awareness, you will inevitably look at and interpret the experience through your mental box. We again see the need to continually purify your mind of dualistic illusions so that you do not seek to force a transcendent, infinite experience to fit into a finite mental box.

Growth is a product of your life experience

Let us again look at classical physics and the claim of an objective reality. In a sense, this claim is not wrong, merely incomplete. There is a reality that was not created by the minds of human beings in duality and one could call this an objective reality. The problem with classical physics was that it portrayed this reality as a mechanical “device” that functions according to invariable and deterministic laws, meaning that the fate of the universe was determined from the beginning.

Human beings can only observe but cannot influence the clockwork universe. Quantum physics has proven this to be incorrect because there is a fundamental uncertainty in the universe. Events are not predetermined, but a particular outcome is selected only as an observation is made—and the consciousness of the observer is co-creating the outcome.

Now let us look at the situation of a new co-creator that comes into existence. The co-creator is aware that it exists in an environment that it has not created (environmental awareness) and it is aware that it exists as an individual being in that environment (self-awareness).

Compare this to a baby on earth. The baby has an awareness of its immediate environment, such as its nursery, but it has no awareness of anything beyond what it can observe. Some babies have self-awareness while others have very little. As the baby grows, there is an expansion of its environmental awareness and self-awareness.

The baby gradually becomes aware that the room it can see is only one room in a larger unit, namely a house. It then becomes aware of itself as a being within that house. Next, it becomes aware that the house is in a larger unit, called a garden. It then becomes aware that there are other houses in a neighborhood.

Then it realizes there are many neighborhoods in its city, that there are other cities in its country, other countries in the world and so on. As the child grows into an adult, it might travel all over the world and expand both its environmental awareness and its self-awareness (as part of a larger whole) far beyond what it was as a baby.

Likewise, a new co-creator starts out with a highly localized environmental awareness and self-awareness and it gradually expands both. As part of the expansion of environmental awareness, the co-creator becomes aware that there is indeed a larger reality with which it can interact.

This starts with awareness of its immediate environment but ideally expands until the co-creator sees the material universe as a whole and also sees the spiritual world beyond it. This larger reality was not created by itself, but it does respond to the co-creator’s actions and choices.

As part of the expansion of self-awareness, the co-creator will ideally become aware that although there is an external reality, the co-creator’s experience of that reality, of life and of itself is not taking place “out there” but “in here.” The normal growth in self-awareness makes a co-creator aware that its purpose for existence is to grow in self-awareness and that this growth happens as a result of what is going on inside its own mind, namely its life experience. We could say that environmental awareness can be forced upon you from without whereas the growth in self-awareness can happen only from within, as a result of your life experience.

When a co-creator becomes aware of this, it realizes that its external environment is reacting to its internal environment. As said many times, the universe is a mirror. When you begin to see this, you realize that your state of mind has a major impact on both your external circumstances and how you react to or experience those circumstances—and this is when you begin to grow consciously.

If we use the language of quantum physics, you begin to realize that your environment is a quantum waveform and so is your consciousness. Your life experience is a product of the interaction between the two waveforms. In the beginning, it will seem like your mind does not have the power to directly change your environment, but as a co-creator grows, it begins to realize that it has the power to change the contents of its mind, and this will have a direct impact on its life experience.

Taking command over your life experience

To put it simply, if you take a positive attitude to life, your life experience will improve whereas a negative attitude will cause your life experience to deteriorate. Regardless of your outer circumstances, there is always something you can do to improve your life experience, namely to change the contents of your mind, your container of self. As you adopt a more positive attitude, you realize that you are now attracting (actually co-creating, although this awareness usually comes later) more positive outer circumstances.

This stage of conscious growth leads toward the point described in the previous discourses where your teacher will confront you with the need to become spiritually self-sufficient by accepting full responsibility for your ability to take dominion over your life experience. Instead of playing predefined roles, you now define your own role, define what kind of experience you want to have in the material universe.

The entire universe is designed to facilitate your own growth in self-awareness, which means that you have both the capacity and the right to create your own life experience. The external reality created by higher beings has only one purpose, namely to allow you to create any experience you desire, and the base energy will literally take on any mental image projected upon it.

Some co-creators take this initiation with enthusiasm and immediately start experimenting while others are reluctant. It is much like a writer who is facing a blank sheet of paper upon which anything can be written. Suddenly, the person has writer’s block and cannot write anything at all. The same can happen to a painter who faces a blank canvass—he or she is overwhelmed by the total freedom to create absolutely anything.

Why does this happen? Up until this point the co-creator has looked upon the external reality as something it could not change. Its life experience has been seen as a product of interacting with and adapting to the external reality created by others. Now it needs to realize the – for some shocking – truth that it has the capacity to create any experience for itself that it desires.

It can redefine its external environment, but it can also use any existing environment to grow by changing its inner experience of the environment. Up until now the co-creator has believed that its life experience was shaped at least partly by external factors. It now needs to take full responsibility by accepting that there is nothing outside itself that can influence its life experience.

Some co-creators have come to feel secure in an environment that is defined by others, and they feel they have to give up this security in order to define their own life experience. Some want to keep reacting to circumstances created by others, and they are reluctant to admit that they can create their own circumstances.

Some are content in the belief that their life experience is dependent upon outer circumstances and are reluctant to admit that it is completely created by themselves. It is comparable to college students who would rather stay in school than graduate and get a job.

The central question here is whether the co-creator will take full responsibility for itself and accept that it can define any experience it desires to have and that the external environment is not a limitation. If a co-creator accepts full responsibility, it will define a role that enhances both its own growth, the growth of other co-creators and the growth of the universe.

If the co-creator does not take full responsibility, it has to justify this (in its own mind) by creating a drama. The reason is that when you do not take full responsibility, you will not accept the basic fact that you create your own life experience. You must create a drama that is based on the following illusions:

You live in a world where there is an external reality that you did not create and that will not respond to your mind’s abilities. You have only limited options for changing your environment.
Your inner environment – your life experience – is wholly or partly determined by your external environment. You have only limited options for taking command over your mind and creating your own life experience. Only if external conditions change, will your internal conditions change.
You do not have complete freedom to create any experience you want, for you are being forced by something outside yourself, be it God, the devil, a spiritual teacher, other people or the Great Pumpkin Man. You have to resist this external force in order to get what you want.

Instead of admitting that you are an extension of higher self and that with higher awareness all things are possible, you come to believe that you cannot change the external environment. You begin to see it as something that imposes restrictions upon you.

This leads to a world view similar to that espoused by classical physics and even contemporary materialism, namely that there is an objective universe with natural laws that you can do nothing about. The psychological effect is that you now have the perfect excuse for not taking responsibility for yourself and for not creating your own life experience.

You no longer see yourself as a co-creator with unlimited potential, but you see yourself as a being who is forced by an external God to live in and adapt to an external environment. Because you do not have the power to change your external environment, you have no power to determine your life experience, as it will inevitably be determined by the environment, external events and other people. Instead of accepting that you have total freedom to create any life experience you desire to have, you see your life experience as a product of factors over which you have no control.

Denying your potential

The purpose of the universe is the growth of self-awareness of individual lifestreams. This growth is a product of your life experience. Taking full responsibility for yourself means accepting that regardless of your environment and the actions of other beings, you are creating your own inner experience.

If you desire to go beyond your current or previous experiences, there is some place in this vast universe where you can either fit into an existing environment or create your own environment in order to have that experience. Regardless of your external environment, you are still able to have any inner experience you want.

We might say that when you accept full responsibility for yourself, you become self-determined in that you determine your life experience. When you deny responsibility, you become other-determined, in that you create or accept a drama that defines your life experience as being the product of external causes. Even then, your life experience is still the key to your growth and to your escape from the drama.

When you are trapped in a drama, you think your life experience (what happens inside of you) is wholly or partly dependent upon what happens outside of you, your external circumstances. Your only way to change your life experience is to change something outside of you.

This is what keeps you trapped in a drama that promises you that when certain outer conditions are met, then will you be happy, at peace or whatever it may be. When you truly understand the path, you see that it is your responsibility to take command over your life experience and create the life experience you want independently of external circumstances.

When you do take command over your internal circumstances, you realize that your external circumstances will begin to mirror the internal. The reason being that the universe is a mirror that can only reflect back what you project through your mind.

Your life experience determines your external circumstances, not the other way around. It is only when you change the internal that the external begins to change. That is why a drama will indefinitely prevent you from achieving your goals—because it keeps you trapped in the illusion that you have to change the external first, that you have to keep putting the cart before the horse

Who are you?

What is a drama? It is an illusion that defines you as a being who is less than what you really are. You are a spiritual being with the potential to take command over matter. It is not mind over matter but Spirit over matter. The drama makes you believe that you either are not a spiritual being or that even though you are a spiritual being, matter has power over you and can thus define your life experience.

How do you escape a drama? There is only one way. You must come to see through the illusions defined by the drama so you no longer accept that the material world can limit your Spirit. The ascended masters have proven this and that is why they are ascended. The question is what options the ascended masters have for helping unascended beings prove this so they can also accept it as reality. How can the masters help people transcend their dramas?

In order to fully understand this, we have to take a closer look at a very subtle effect of dramas. In order to explain this effect, we first have to take a closer look at who you are. Keep in mind that your existing world view and understanding will form a mental box that will impact your ability to truly understand the (admittedly limited) words.

We have looked at the situation of a new co-creator, but what exactly is a new co-creator, how does such a being function, how does it look at itself and the world, what is going on in its mind? A new co-creator is a self-aware being, but what exactly does this mean? One way – and certainly not the only way – to describe this is to say that self-awareness has two aspects, namely pure awareness and the contents of awareness, the awareness of something. There is “awareness” and there is “self.”

Most people will immediately wonder what pure awareness is, and the reason is that they have not experienced it in conscious memory. The reason is that they have come to identify themselves so completely with their current mental box that they cannot still the mind. They cannot look beyond the awareness of some object and experience pure awareness.

One of the major benefits of meditative practices is the experience of this pure awareness. It inevitably changes your self-image because you realize that you have a self that is more than the contents of the container of self. Your awareness is more than your current self.

Looking at a new co-creator

If you took a new co-creator and put it in an environment with no forms and no external stimuli, the co-creator would still have pure awareness. It would be aware that it exists, and it would be aware that it is an extension of something beyond itself.

However, the co-creator would remain in this awareness indefinitely, meaning that it would not grow as it has nothing to relate to, no way to express itself. That is why a new co-creator is placed in a predefined environment and given a role to play. This gives the co-creator something to relate to and a way to express itself. As it adapts to the external environment and expresses itself, it begins to develop a sense of self, a sense of who it is in relation to its environment.

We now have two components of self, namely the original pure awareness and the sense of self developed in response to a particular environment. The original pure awareness is what we have called the conscious self because it is awareness that is beyond anything in the world of form.

It is your ability – safety mechanism – that allows you to always know that you are more than any self you have defined in the world of form. Obviously, unless you have had a direct experience of this pure awareness, the concept of the conscious self will be just that: a concept upon which you will project the mental images from your current mental box.

The explanation for this is that a new co-creator usually becomes so absorbed in playing its predefined role that it forgets its pure awareness and its connection to its source. It quickly creates a sense of self in relation to its environment, and it easily forgets that it is more than that sense of self.

This is comparable to a baby, who often has an awareness of past lives but forgets this as it becomes involved with its present life. The conscious self truly is who it is, but in the here and now, the conscious self is – for all practical purposes – who it thinks it is, who it sees itself as being.

This forgetting of your source is not a sin and is not the fall into duality. It is simply an inevitable and natural part of starting out as a new co-creator. There never has been a new co-creator who did not go through this process, what has sometimes been called the “first forgetting.”

As a co-creator plays many predefined roles and as it is guided by a spiritual teacher, it will ideally begin to overcome this first forgetting. It will begin to realize that it can play many different roles because there is a core of its being that is beyond any role, any form. It will begin to experience glimpses of its pure awareness and its connection to its source.

This will set the foundation for the co-creator reaching the point where it can define its own role and take full responsibility for its life experience. Here is where some co-creators run into trouble that makes them susceptible to dramas.

A co-creator is not created to remain in pure awareness, it is created to co-create whereby it expands its sense of self until it reaches the level of the Creator. When you place a new co-creator in a predefined environment, the co-creator cannot remain passive. It must react to its environment, yet in order to react and express itself, it must create a sense of self as a vehicle for dealing with its environment.

The equilibrium effect

In the beginning, this will seem like a chaotic, for some even threatening, process. As a co-creator develops a sense of self, it begins to feel that now it has things more under control. The co-creator develops a sense of equilibrium, and as long as this equilibrium is undisturbed, it feels it can easily deal with life in its environment.

What happens to some co-creators – and quite frankly it often happens to the more eager and bright students – is that they eventually develop such an ability to deal with their environment that they feel they have mastery of every aspect of it, meaning they can play any role defined in that environment. This mastery is genuine, and it indicates that the student is ready to graduate and move on.

When the student faces graduation, it suddenly realizes that moving on means that it no longer responds to a predefined environment, but that it now has to define its own environment, its own role, its own life experience. Take note that before this realization, the student had a sense of mastery, meaning it had a sense of equilibrium, feeling it could handle anything in its environment.

Now the student realizes that this sense of equilibrium has to go, that its sense of self in its existing environment has to die so that it can be reborn into a new sense of self. This means losing your sense of equilibrium!

This is what Jesus expressed when he said that those who seek to save their lives shall lose them whereas only those who were willing to lose their lives for his sake would attain eternal life. If a co-creator has become attached to its own sense of self and the sense of equilibrium that comes from it, then it will not be willing to give up this known security in order to enter into a new phase with no equilibrium, no sense of security.

This is, of course, perfectly within the Law of Free Will. The co-creator can take another round of playing predefined roles, but as explained in previous discourses, it cannot stop other co-creators from moving on. A magnetic pull is created by those who do move on, and as it becomes stronger, it becomes more difficult for the remaining co-creators to ignore.

The upward pull will begin to disturb the equilibrium of those students who refuse to graduate. That is why they must create a drama that makes it seem like they do not have to graduate and that it is legitimate to resist the upward pull of higher awareness, the River of Life.

This means that any drama that is defined – be it personal or epic – defines a justification for a new sense of equilibrium. The most subtle effect – and in a sense the fundamental “benefit” – of a drama is that it gives those who enter it a sense of equilibrium.

The consequence is that the sense of equilibrium is based on the illusions of the drama, which means you are now bound to defend those illusions at all cost. Since the material universe will inevitably challenge all illusions, your life becomes a constant struggle.

Becoming comfortable in the struggle

Even this struggle can give people a sense of equilibrium, as for example Jews and Arabs have found a certain equilibrium in their age-old struggle. The only question is how intense the struggle has to become before you are willing to give up your sense of equilibrium in order to be free of the struggle.

The equation is simple. Your attachment to your current sense of equilibrium will determine how hard you are willing to struggle in order to defend the mental box upon which your equilibrium is based. Because of the upward momentum built by others and the second law of thermodynamics, the struggle will inevitably intensify. The only question is how intense it has to become before you have had enough and you are willing to give up your current sense of equilibrium and seek the true peace of the Christ mind.

The situation that the ascended masters face as they attempt to help people escape their dramas is quite simple. The only way they can help people escape their dramas is to challenge the mental box of the drama. People will inevitably experience this as a threat to their sense of equilibrium. This means that those who are the most attached to the sense of equilibrium will resist the maters’ efforts with the greatest force. Those who are most in need of help are the least likely to accept help.

We have now seen why people often cling to their dramas as if it was a matter of life or death. They do this because they have become attached to – addicted to – the sense of equilibrium and security offered by their drama. They feel that if they were to give up their drama – and the world view that makes them think they have the entire universe under control in their mental box – they would die. Of course, their selves would indeed die if they gave up their dramas.

What the epic dramas add to this is that they make people believe that if they gave up the world view that makes them feel they have the universe under control, something bad of epic proportions would happen. For example, the earth or the entire universe would be destroyed or taken over by the devil. Or the devil would take all souls to hell and God’s plan for the universe would be sabotaged.

A personal drama ties your sense of equilibrium to what happens in your personal life. The effect of the epic dramas is to tie your sense of equilibrium to what happens in the entire universe. While you may actually be successful in controlling your personal life, you will never be successful in controlling the entire universe (even though some beings think they can). You are bound to remain unfulfilled indefinitely.

The irony is that a drama is adopted because you are not willing to take full responsibility for your inner circumstances and take control over your life experience regardless of external circumstances. The effect of the drama is to make you believe that your life experience depends on external circumstances. This means that your sense of equilibrium will be dependent upon external circumstances for as long as you are trapped in the drama, which is why you have to try to control your environment, including other people.

If you would only accept full responsibility for your inner situation, you would realize that you have everything you need – right within yourself – to create a true sense of equilibrium. If you think your sense of equilibrium is based on external circumstances, it will be a house built on sand. You may still feel quite secure for a time, but when the rains come, they will wash away your house.

If you build your sense of equilibrium on taking command over your inner circumstances, it will be a house built on rocky ground, the rock of Christ. No external circumstances can wash away that house. When you know you are more than anything in this world, how can your sense of self be threatened by anything in this world?

Understanding life and death

We have talked about two basic forces working in this universe:

There is the force of Life, namely, higher awareness, the Holy Spirit or the River of Life. This force is created by those co-creators who have been willing to take responsibility for their life experience and thus attain Christ consciousness, meaning they are constantly transcending themselves, never seeking to hold on to anything.
There is also the second law of thermodynamics, which breaks down all organized structures, seeking to return the base energy to a state where no mental images are superimposed upon it and no forms exist. You might call this the force of death.

Now take this further. We might say that in the material universe, the basic force working is the second law, the force of death. As a self-aware being you have two basic options. One is to give in to the force of death and see everything around you be broken down until there is not even a sense of self. The other is to lock in to the River of Life whereby you self-transcend so quickly that you stay ahead of the force of death.

The force of death has a delay factor, a certain speed with which things are broken down. If you transcend your old sense of self faster than the deterioration speed, you will never experience a sense of loss, you will never experience death.

The condition is that you cannot hold on to the old sense of self, the old mental box, the old sense of equilibrium. You must be willing to let the old self die, but when you know that you will instantly be reborn into a greater self, you will not experience this as death but as a new birth into something more.

Of course, you also have a third option and that is to resist the force of death. Very few co-creators give in to this force, the majority seek to resist it. How do you resist death? By creating a drama that makes you believe you can actually resist the basic force of the universe. It is precisely the delay factor of the second law that makes dramas possible, as it is possible – for a time – to believe that one can actually resist and that one can hold on to and own something in this world.

Do you grasp the difference between transcending the force of death and resisting this force? If you do, you have started separating yourself from your drama.

You can now gain a new perspective on the concept of death. We might say that everything in the material universe is designed to facilitate your growth in self-awareness. This growth can happen in two ways. One is to flow with the River of Life whereby you never have to struggle, never have to resist.

The other is to enter into the consciousness of a drama, which is what Jesus called “death,” as when he told the young man to let the dead bury their dead. This can also be called the consciousness of sin or the fall into duality. It has sometimes been called the second forgetting.

People who enter into a drama set themselves outside the flow of the River of Life, and they automatically and inevitably become subject onto death, to the second law. They will experience the force of death as a threat that is seeking to take away their sense of security and anything they seek to own.

The two forces actually have the exact same aim, namely to facilitate your growth in self-awareness. The River of Life creates an upward pull that disturbs the sense of equilibrium of those in a drama and pulls them higher. The force of death creates a downward pull that seeks to break down the illusions, even the structures, created from the consciousness of the drama. The stark reality is that both forces are designed to set you free from the drama consciousness.

The only real difference is how you respond to life:

If you take a positive approach, you join the River of Life and you voluntarily give up your sense of equilibrium, your mental boxes, in order to attain the true peace of the Christ consciousness.
If you take a negative approach, you become subject to the force of death that will eventually break down all your mental boxes and your sense of equilibrium until you finally have had enough and give up the attempt to hold on to the equilibrium built on sand.

Either way, you will end up with no mental boxes and both ways can take you to Christ consciousness. One is infinitely harder, for you are creating your own opposition through the images you project into the cosmic mirror, images that are a product of your drama.