What are the portals of experience beyond the fields of time and space? Aren’t we confined to this dimension? But, hey, what about dreams? Aren’t they outside of normal reality?
It’s hard to explain things when you don’t have a reference in your experience. So, we can use an analogy. Think of consciousness like a road; on this road, there are intersections and other roads leading in other directions. We can access these other portals at these intersections.
Not the Only Two Portals of Experience
Most people discount non-ordinary reality. They overlook the proof of dreams. Dreams occur outside the bounds of ordinary experience.
“If you see the intersection of time and space, you experience complete freedom of being. This state of existence is completely beyond any idea of time, space, or being. In that liberated state, you can see fundamental truth and the phenomenal world simultaneously. That is called Buddha’s world. That is the place where all sentient beings exist, so you can stand up there and see all beings, myriad beings. Then you know very clearly, through your own emotional and intellectual understanding, how all beings exist.” — Dainin Katagiri
Remember, everything we experience takes place in the mind. The physical senses provide input but are not the only means of experience. Experience is, therefore, something outside of space and time.
Life is the opportunity to explore this reality from a single point of view. From this sphere of awareness, we embark on a special mission. The mission is a spiritual quest.
This quest is challenging because we have different skills and abilities. Many people don’t realize life is a quest until it is too late. Some only get the big picture when they are on their deathbed. It’s too late, then. Procrastination is one way to miss the opportunity. We can also get sidetracked and waste time. Religion and commercialism are the other ways to waste valuable time.
Space and Time are Conditioned Behavior
“Time and space are the prime conditioning factors of our human lives.”
— Joseph Campbell
Here is where we get the first clue. Here’s why this phenomenon isn’t more common and accepted as part of our cultural narrative. Mr. Campbell’s observation contains an essential element of wisdom. He talks about the elements of space and time as prime conditioning factors.
Conditioning in our culture is another name for brainwashing. It is a process that influences someone to adopt ideas and beliefs through systematic indoctrination.
“Time and space are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live.” — Albert Einstein
Einstein clarifies the dimensions of space and time as modes or the specified manner in which something is to be experienced.
It is easier to control something or someone if you condition their behavior by imposing limitations. You’ve probably seen the picture of the horse with the rope attached to a chair. The horse could get away easily if it just tried, but it’s conditioned to believe it can’t move when it is tied. The next obvious question is, who or what is programming our experience?
It suggests other factors or other portals of experience. Most people ignore the proof of non-ordinary reality. Yet, they do not discount the fact that they have dreams.
The dream state is a universal proof of non-ordinary reality, but it’s not only a scientifically verifiable partition of experience outside of space and time. The fourth state of consciousness is another experience of non-ordinary reality. It has distinct physiological attributes different from waking, dreaming, or sleeping. This partition presents us with the experience of pure awareness. It is a state without the awareness of space or time.
The state of pure consciousness is another partition that proves space and time are not the only portals of experience. Space and time are simply factors of ordinary existence. These conditions do not apply to our perception of non-ordinary states.
“If we do not or cannot experience anything outside of the fields of time and space. Kant calls this the aesthetic forms of sensibility. In India, they call it Maya. Maya is that which transforms that which is transcendent of the manifestation into a broken-up world. When you think about what you have experienced in the apprehension of forms in space and time, you employ the grammar of thought, the ultimate categories of which are: being and non-being.” — Joseph Campbell
Notice what Mr. Campbell says if we do not, or cannot, experience things outside of the dimensions of space and time. So, this means there is a choice. It’s an aesthetic sensibility to remain within the boundaries, but it is still a choice.
The Skewed Grammar of Everyday Reality
It’s a skewed construct that keeps you from moving beyond the fields of time and space. The culture discourages this type of venture because it can’t control what happens. If it can’t control your experience, it can’t control you.
Life in a controlled cultural unit is a kind of cultural grammar. It provides a shared context for “ordinary” experience while affording those who program the culture a high degree of control.
However, this cultural grammar is highly skewed. It endorses a specific madness we call religion. It is not benign or harmless by any means. The fact is, religion is protecting itself violently, like a wild animal. We see the effects plainly but give it special treatment instead of eradicating this cultural disease.
For example, if an average individual expresses violent intent, we call the police, and he is arrested for making a threat. However, if the same individual joins a religion and expresses violent intent, we allow them protection to voice their opinion.
We allow them to picket in front of medical facilities and shame those who seek family planning counseling. If you tried to warn people about the dangers of groupthink manipulation by entering a Church, Synagogue, or Mosque, you would be prosecuted for violating their rights to practice their religion.
“To benefit by others’ killing and to delude oneself into the belief that one is being very religions and nonviolent is sheer self-deception.” — Mahatma Gandhi
“Senseless violence is, almost by definition, hard to understand. Not that I can understand terrorists who kill from hate, but at least we can identify a reason – a terrifying one, to be sure, grounded in a violent belief system — for what they do. Two gangs go to war. Extremists kill in the name of belief.” — Susan Estrich
What is God?
“Is there a God? If the word God means anything, it must mean nothing. God is not a fact. A fact is an object within the fields of time and space. God is no fact — God is a word referring to us past anything that can be conceived of or named. Yet people think of their God as having sentiments like we do, liking these people better than those, and having certain rules for their lives. Moses received a great deal of information from what we might call this non-fact. As understood, particularly in the Judeo-Christian tradition, God is a final term.” — Joseph Campbell
God is a catch-all answer when the answer is beyond our knowledge or understanding. It is no more or less accurate than any imaginary friend. It is part of the conditioning of the cultural narrative. It doesn’t want us to know space and time are not the only two portals of experience.
Moving Beyond the Fields of Time and Space
By this point, we hope you see why religions want to keep you pinned into the dimensions they can control. It starts with the selling idea of the belief in Hell. You don’t want to end up there, so you need to believe in an imaginary friend. Once they’ve sold you on these concepts, making you a paying customer is easy.
Religion can’t compete with experiences they can’t control. They can control the mythologies and superstitions they create. So, everything outside of their preview becomes evil. They can’t afford to have you exploring consciousness because they can’t control what you’ll find.
Meditation and the Shamanic Journey are just two methods that take you beyond the fields of time and space.
We recognize there are other possibilities outside of everyday reality. Space and time are just limitations we accept as part of the cultural narrative. They are human-made constraints that are used to control us. No one can control our experience of non-ordinary reality.
Why the Focus on Space and Time?
If space and time are not the only two portals of experience, why emphasize them? It is simple. If you confine your experience of ordinary reality, you are easier to program and control. If you experience a non-ordinary reality, you will not fall for organized religion’s false arguments.
In Conclusion
The fields of space and time do not need to be boundaries. They are only a point of reference for starting our spiritual journey. It is a choice to remain the sensible, skewed cultural construct. If we choose, we can move beyond the fields of time and space.