Since every individual is accountable ultimately to the self, the formation of that self demands our utmost care and attention. – Darwi Odrade, Chapterhouse Dune

Miles and i were watching an episode from the final week of Avatar today. On our way upstairs to bed he started crying as a response to my not carrying him up the steps. Responding to it as a manipulative tactic, which it was, i said, “that’s not a good way to get me to do what you want, Miles. “

At that moment it recurred to me how i often frame things like this to him…the presupposition i’m teaching is that the point of the game is to know how to get what you want. Tonight i added something else.

“The most important thing is to be a good person.”

Though the black and white distinction of good and bad will need to be refined, this is one of the categories that i’ll fit a lot of other instruction into. The formation of self can in part be contained in the core operating program called, “being a good person.” The best way to know how to get what you want is framed within being a good person.

And of course being a good person means Integrity Uber Alas.

Karen and I took Miles and Gwen to the park today. We pushed them on the swings and played on the jungle gym with them for about 45 minutes before they settled into the sandbox; a place where Karen and I can sit on a nearby bench, have a few minutes off duty, and talk.

Karen: Sometimes i think Miles is really advanced for his age.

Me: How do you mean?

Karen: Just the way he puts things together…

…Uh oh…looks like Gwen wants to get out and go on the swing again.

Me: Just define some boundaries for where she can go. Make swings outside of that.

Karen: Gwen, stay here, there and there – not over on the swings right now.

Gwen: Why?

Miles: Because then your mama and my daddy can keep talking on the bench. Cause they don’t want to get up.

Me: Why do you say that Miles?

Miles: Cause i can read your mind.

Me: You can?

Miles: Yeah, my mama says i can’t read minds but i can.

Me: You know who else can read minds?

Miles: You.

Me: You know it.

Karen: In addition to that definitely being your kid – that’s exactly what i was talking about.

Lately, several times a day, i’ve been asking Miles,

Is this a dream?

When i ask, he sinks into his pelvis, his eyes dilate, his hearing opens and he turns his head around slowly, surveying his surroundings. He makes his decision each time and reports.

To date, i’ve told him some of the dream signs.

* Reading some text, looking away from the text, and reading it again – the text will probably have changed.
* Looking at one’s watch (remembering the time), looking away, and looking back. As with the text, the time will probably have changed at the second glance.
* Flipping a light switch. Light switches rarely work properly in dreams.
* Looking into a mirror; in dreams, reflections from a mirror often appear to be blurred, distorted or incorrect.
* Plugging one’s nose shut, and attempting to breathe through it. It is usually possible to breathe while doing this because the tester is not actually plugging their nose in real life.
* Looking at one’s hands one or more times. Hands may look distorted, or grow additional fingers in a dream.
* Jumping into the air. Gravity is often distorted in a dream state and floating, flying or “moon jumping” will occur.

- From Wikipedia.

All but once when i’ve asked him he’s decided that he was awake. That once was tonight as we were laying down in the dark readying ourselves for sleep when he said, “i am in a dream now daddy.”

INTENTIONS

The largest consideration for organizing his attention in/toward Lucidity is that Lucidity is such a powerful and distinct state from wakefulness. I want Miles to be able to access the state of INTENT from as many states as possible. Accessing INTENT from divergent states breathes life into the state beneath each. This is a journey into deep ontology.

Also, when Lucid Dreaming, you have the ability to create literally anything – so its good practice for reality bending.

On a smaller scale, lucid dreaming just kicks ass and as a skill for a little boy to have, it rules.

Working on Installing Inner Game feels like it’s yoking me deeper into my own essential awareness.

Singularity.

Secret depths previously hardened into stationary patterns are releasing; subterranean personality structures. Patterns i learned from my parents, set and imprinted long ago, are becoming accessible.

My fascination continues to resolve around The Art. In the trope of depth and purity – what is the deepest and purest form of artistic co-creation? What is the language of the Creator, the master Reality Artist. This question pulls me naturally to leverage points offered by the world of physics. A lot of the great innovators have given useful tools. Wheeler for example:

Wheeler (1990) has suggested that information is fundamental to the physics of the universe. According to this “it from bit” doctrine, the laws of physics can be cast in terms of information, postulating different states that give rise to different effects without actually saying what those states are. It is only their position in an information space that counts. If so, then information is a natural candidate to also play a role in a fundamental theory of consciousness. We are led to a conception of the world on which information is truly fundamental, and on which it has two basic aspects, corresponding to the physical and the phenomenal features of the world.
- David Chalmers of the Australian National University

Wheeler himself says, “it is not unreasonable to imagine that information sits at the core of physics, just as it sits at the core of a computer.” …just as it sits at the core of consciousness.

In a longer thought he writes,

“It from bit. Otherwise put, every ‘it’ – every particle, every field of force, even the space-time continuum itself – derives its function, its meaning, its very existence entirely – even if in some contexts indirectly – from the apparatus-elicited answers to yes-or-no questions, binary choices, bits. ‘It from bit’ symbolizes the idea that every item of the physical world has at bottom – a very deep bottom, in most instances – an immaterial source and explanation; that which we call reality arises in the last analysis from the posing of yes–no questions and the registering of equipment-evoked responses; in short, that all things physical are information-theoretic in origin and that this is a participatory universe”

Using Wheeler’s model as a jumping point, what must be true to be participating cleanly at the most participatory (deepest) informational level? What must be true of me? What must be true of you?

The central question guiding all reality bending:

What do you want?

A quote from Heretics of Dune:

Teg had never been a good liar, not even to himself. Quite early in his training, he had realized that his mother and the others involved in his upbringing had conditioned him to a deep sense of personal honesty.

Adherence to a code of honor.

The code itself, as he recognized its shape in him, attracted Teg’s fascinated attention. It began with the recognition that humans were not created equal, that they possessed different inherited abilities and experienced different events in their lives. This produced people of different accomplishments and different worth.

To obey this code, Teg realized early, that he must place himself accurately into the flow of observable hierarchies accepting that a moment might come when he could evolve no further.

The code’s conditioning went deep. He could never find its ultimate roots. It obviously was attached to something intrinsic to his humanity. It dictated with enormous power the limits of behavior permitted to those above as well as those below him in the hierarchical pyramid.

The key token of exchange: loyalty.

Loyalty went upward and downward, lodging itself wherever it found a deserving attachment. Such loyalties, Teg knew, were securely locked into him. He felt no doubts that Taraza would support him in everything except a situation demanding that he be sacrificed to the survival of the Sisterhood. And that was right in itself.

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