The Game of Life

[SL: This insightful article appeared some ago in my popular free ezine, DNA MONTHLY. Enjoy!]

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Jed Shlackman

The Paradox Of Perspective

Any particular reality can be experienced and observed from countless different perspectives. These perspectives represent points of awareness with their own experiential context. Each perspective and experience is useful and meaningful and all co-exist synchronistically within the One Source to generate the fulfillment of existence.

These different perspectives are all appropriate within themselves to facilitate the experiences needed by consciousness. Some are more primitive and imbalanced than others, yet that is a valid and purposeful part of the expression of Infinite Self imagining its own evolution.

s the human perspective more expansive than that of a cockroach or a patch of mold? The roach and the mold would not be engaged in the philosophical dialogue necessary to ponder such a question, so I will take a brave guess and conclude that humans are more self-aware (and more aware of Self) than the spiritual expressions operating through simpler biological vehicles. Yet, there is nothing “wrong” with the level of awareness of insects and fungi. That fungi might really seem like a “fun guy” if you were a natural “decomposer” living in the same environment.

One individual’s pleasure may be another’s pain and suffering. At this physical level of reality, experience is largely guided by polarized programs operating in one’s consciousness. This includes genetic and biological programs, such as those that generate fear when safety or security are threatened, hunger when the body needs nourishment, passion and arousal when the mating instinct is activated, and more.

Soul memory and social and cultural beliefs are also filters for experience. Beliefs about life roles, justice, freedom, religion, gender, relationships and other aspects of human existence operate within our minds to shape our experience. By partaking of all these experiences and experiencing the results of these patterns of consciousness, we evolve toward a greater understanding of creation and a greater ability to generate balance and harmony within our environment and our selves. “Self” cannot be fully understood and appreciated without an experience of “other” in relationships with self.

One thing we can recognize as we interact with others is that each individual has a unique personal memory record of his or her experiences. This recorded history of experiences informs the individual’s perspective, from which it is logically concluded that no two individuals can share exactly the same perspective on life. Despite this obvious fact, we often mistakenly assume a shared context of experience or shared perspective when we interact with people. Likewise, people often experience unease with persons who have a starkly different perspective from their own.

Examples might include something as important as assuming that others share one’s political or religious beliefs, or something comparatively mundane such as assuming that someone has been exposed to the same music, TV shows, films, foods, stores, or other aspects of one’s cultural environment. The tendency to expect similarity of perspectives exists for convenience, just as we place things in our environment into categories for convenience and develop prejudices as a type of convenience for our mind to make quick judgments when responding to the environments we encounter.

It is possible to enhance our awareness of self and others by deliberately halting our assumptions and seeking to learn about the actual perspectives of those with whom we interact. To do so requires identifying more with our higher selves than with our animal instincts and human personae. Spirit is curious and desires to learn, while the animal organism and ego often seek to preserve themselves from real or imagined fears.

It’s All Good vs. It’s All God

The imbalances perceived in the human realm of existence are inevitable projections of polarized consciousness experiencing external reflections of these patterns of consciousness in order to grow, learn and evolve toward greater balance, integration, and wholeness. Therefore, as we become more aware, we can become more appreciative and accepting of all that exists, recognizing that all the distortion and dysfunction in the world facilitates a learning process in which spirits can more fully understand and appreciate balance and harmony.

In human lingo people sometimes say, “It’s all good.” It would be even more accurate to change that phrase to, “It’s all God,” with an understanding of God as the sum and essence of all that exists. The word “good” has been used by humans to refer to that which they find positive or desirable, a concept which has been distorted to be associated with the concept of that which the Creator approves of. People want to be “on God’s side,” so they label what they value as good to indicate it is what they believe God would like.

It is also believed by many that God has an enemy, some “dark force” that wishes to subvert the Creator. So people associate God with the light polarity and refer to a personification of the dark polarity as “the Devil” or “Satan.” Yet, both polarities are part of the One Source—actually, they are vibratory illusions generated within the One in order that experience may occur. Light represents our openness to the flow of Source energy and darkness represents resistance to the energy stemming from Oneness.

Freedom is the underlying principle that allows any focus of consciousness to choose how it uses and responds to energy. Freedom allows for experience, learning, and evolution. Since people have created the conceptual polarities of good and bad, “bad” is part of God’s Creation as well, since God is all there is. It’s just our subjective viewpoint that something is bad. If it exists, then it has value and purpose. That value could be an opportunity to help one recognize the implications of thoughts or actions, to help another develop more balanced intentions, or any number of other possible learning opportunities.

Observation of human experience can quickly illustrate how “dark” and “light” need one another to provide a medium for experience and greater understanding of and appreciation of Self. When seemingly “tragic” events occur (usually involving “death,” which seems cruel and unfair to those attached to the illusory physical identity), people are often motivated to change their focus in life. This often leads to altruistic ventures or efforts to create change or progress in society. During wars many people get to aid wounded persons and care for those affected by loss and separation. Meanwhile, people who desire a more harmonious world get to voice their desire for peace.

In Florida, where I currently reside, a man whose child was kidnapped and murdered went on to become an advocate for enlisting cooperation between media, law enforcement and citizens in capturing persons suspected of carrying out serious crimes. The TV show “America’s Most Wanted” arose from John Walsh’s experience of losing his son Adam. Similarly, people who have been affected by drunk drivers, environmental pollution and sexual violence are examples of those who have become involved in educating the public to help others avoid encountering the trauma and injuries that they and their loved ones have gone through.

One metaphor to help elucidate the polarized dynamic I am describing is that without darkness there is nowhere for light to shine. The darkness exists so long as the related experiences are needed by those expressions of consciousness that have intended to participate in exploring such potentials of existence. All involved in these types of issues and circumstances have at some higher level chosen to co-create the drama … Otherwise, the drama could not exist! So all is One and you can appreciate even those who seem vile and totally contrary to your values, for they have conspired with you as sparks of the Infinite to create that which you are experiencing.

This is a difficult concept to accept for any science that only examines the surface of reality. Time and space exist on the surface of vibrational existence and are observed from within the level of illusion where they appear to exist. From within that context, it cannot be directly demonstrated that time and space are just illusions generated to provide a medium for certain types of experience.

If your radio is only designed to tune in to FM frequencies, then you have no way of knowing or demonstrating that AM stations exist. Science is often trapped in a similar dilemma, in that it operates within a reality that is an illusory creation of deeper layers of reality that are psycho-energetic (founded on conscious energy) in nature and cannot be measured by material devices.

Synchronicity & Virtual Reality

Synchronicity is a concept that is difficult for many to comprehend. In Western society, it became popularized by the psychoanalyst Carl Jung, a student of metaphysical topics whose ideas became widely explored in the midst of the “hippie” era and rise of the “new age” movement. Even a platinum selling rock music album promoted this term, as the album SYNCHRONICITY by The Police brought Sting and his two band mates international success.

The idea of synchronicity posits that there are truly no coincidences. Nothing is actually random and everything is meaningful. In an article about synchronicity, Val Valerian shares the following quote about synchronicity (source unknown): “Synchronicity is the conscious perception in a physiological time track of the simultaneous manifestation of the multidimensional universe. It is the conscious recognition that all events, objects, relationships, points of view, perceptions and interactions are ONE thing viewed from different perspectives.”

Virtual Reality of Existence

Imagine playing a computer game where something pleasant and rewarding happens with everything you do, no matter what. That game would get pretty dull and tiresome quickly because it would provide no challenge or learning system. Meanwhile, a game with all kinds of hazards and challenges is engrossing and helps the game player refine skills needed to achieve progress.

We, as aspects of Source, are playing a game at a certain level of existence. A higher intention generated the game and patterns of spirit were drawn to participate due to their intentions for experience and growth and desire to understand and experience the essence of and union with the Ultimate Source.

Just as in the virtual world of a computer game, an entity controlling a character or characters in the game exists beyond the game and can’t be truly harmed or destroyed by anything that happens in the game. Similarly, the game and all the potential experiences existing within its matrix or field of probabilities can be played over and over until there is nothing left to master. Additionally, the entire game and all experiences involved are “stored” in universal memory. In this context, memory does not refer merely to recollections of an apparent past, but rather includes all patterns of experienced realities.

There is a paradoxical quality to this game, as the creative process is interactive, nonlocal, and nonlinear. While we are immersed in the game, everything seems linear and sequential. Simultaneously, Source is aware of the full spectrum of experiences in the past, present and future of the temporal game player. For the player immersed in the game, the future doesn’t exist and varies according to choices made within the game. Yet, from a higher perspective, the future already exists because it is part of the intrinsic matrix of potentials that becomes “real-ized” when interacted with.

All experience is imaginary from the perspective of the awareness that is detached from the experience, while it is made real by the awareness immersed in experience. In altered states of consciousness, an individual may interact with information and energies from either the past or the future because at the deeper level of reality all awareness is simultaneous and contiguous.

When someone gets a precognitive psychic impression, s/he is tuning in to vibrational information concerning experiential potential that is in close vibrational proximity to the individual present in this reality. The thoughts, choices and energies generated by the individual and others will shape whether or not the prophetic details will actually be experienced within linear time.

Clearly, without an experiential layer of reality, all that could exist would be purely imagination. It is the realm of experience that actualizes reality, so to speak. By using one’s consciousness to bridge the world of the game and the world outside the game, or the self and higher self, it is possible to facilitate tremendous transformative effects, including miraculous healings and dramatic life shifts.

Copyright © Jed Shlackman. All Rights Reserved.

Jed Shlackman, M.S. Ed., LMHC is a professional counselor, hypnotherapist and regression therapist, Reiki master and energy healer, and a sound healing musician and writer who is based in Miami, Florida. Jed has degrees in counseling and psychology from the University of Miami and has worked as a counselor and healer with thousands of clients over the past couple of decades. Jed’s website is www.phinsights.com, his facebook links are www.facebook.com/jedishamanreiki and www.facebook.com/jediholistichealing, and his meditation and music recordings are at jedishaman.bandcamp.com. Jed’s book, CONSCIOUSNESS, CREATION & EXISTENCE: A GUIDE TO THE GRAND ADVENTURE, is available from Amazon.com and other booksellers.