I have a question that I can't seem to find the answer for - and it has been rolling around within me all these years. You see, I am an alcoholic. According to most definitions of this condition, I am caught in this illness. Now I haven't had a drink in nigh on 13 years, and I don't have a desire to drink at all. The thing is, how does the concept of being an alcoholic (therefore, one cannot ever drink again without triggering alcoholic drinking) fit in with Seth's message that we create our reality, and can recreate it. In AA, we have a humorous analogy: once a cucumber becomes a pickle, it can never go back to being a cucumber again! Doesn't Seth tell us that we can, indeed, become a cucumber again?

 

Barrie: There's another saying that sometimes holds true..."If it ain't broken, don't fix it." If you are successfully working the AA program and have no desire to drink...that's great. Keep up the good work! Your life must have been pretty unpleasant and unmanageable to enter the program in the first place. I'm sure you've accomplished things in your life you never dreamed possible while at or near your bottom. So, in a practical, every day way, it doesn't matter what Seth's philosophy or position may be. If you're happy, continue on your path.

There is no reason to embark on a Sethian experiment; one such as: "Can I alter my belief system enough so that I can drink and not be an alcoholic?" This experiment is not worth the price. On the one hand, you can lose all your "time" in the program, and start losing friends, jobs, relationships, etc...and, if successful, on the other hand, you can have a drink or two. Is it worth it? If you weigh the pros and cons, what you could gain and what you could lose, is it worth it? I say, no. Seth also says that we can heal ourselves with no doctors or medicine...yet, he says, as long as you believe in doctors...keep your appointments.

Now, putting aside you actually risking all for the chance to have a beer, on an intellectual level, as a theory to toss about...according to Seth...we create the cucumber and we create the pickle. The pickle you see one moment is not the same pickle you see the next moment...it has been totally recreated by your thoughts. If I was in the room, and there was an actual pickle on the table, I would see "my" pickle and you would see "your" pickle. There would be as many pickles as people in the room. To get back to the AA slogan, the cucumber is never the pickle anyway. The past is alive and well and changing...and multitudenous. You have an infinite number of probable pasts, presents and futures...all ongoing, all further creating their own flowering of even more pasts, presents & futures. In some of these you have died, killed people, been killed, drank with no problem, never drank at all, drank and became a bum, joined AA, etc etc etc.

We create our own reality. You created a reality in which you had a severe drinking problem, found a great solution, and then decided to face all your feelings, fears and pains without the escape of alcohol. Booze would keep you from truly consciously searching your mind and heart to understand why you feel what you feel. Perhaps, in past lifetimes you similarly avoided this inner quest...and said to yourself, "Self, I'm finally gonna create a lifetime in which I face my fears, my pains, and see with a clear eye why I do what I do. I'm tired of running. Hey, the 20th Century looks cool...here I go..."

Enjoy your reality. Choosing to be an alcoholic successfully in AA means you can do any thing in the whole world except drink booze. Its a good trade off. Some people in Africa have to have their clits cut off in order to be accepted. You just have to have an OJ or a Pepsi...or, of course, the ever-bubbly Seltzer. So, enjoy yourself! Stay sober. Be happy...and respect the courageous path you have chosen--to explore those inner regions with a clear mind. That's a hero in my big book.

Lisa:

1. According to Seth, each of us create our own reality continuously, and we are limited only by our own imagination. But at the same time there are certain "rules" that we all agree to follow in order to focus on 3-D existence. Does this not, in effect, put real limits on the reality that we are able to create?

 

Barrie: I agree with your description of what Seth says. And yes, Virginia, uh, Lisa, it puts limits on the reality we can physically create. We don't automatically go around physically creating everything we think and imagine...could you imagine if we did? The dead people we'd leave behind in our wake of hate erupting on the spurs of the moment after moment; and other musings such as: "Hey, I wonder what it would be like to have 3 arms for a week?"; I wish I was never born; I wish you were dead. Imagine what would happen if all the wonderful "what-ifs" that children and adults contemplate...would instantly materialize. So, yes, there are limits to creating our own reality...thank God, or Hershey's or whoever.

About these "rules." There are two sets of rules, for our purposes now. One set of rules we all agree on en masse as individual souls in the universe who have created us physical folks in the first place to frolic in the camouflage of physical reality. Let's call them mass rules, collective rules, or whatever you like. Then, there is our own personal set of rules...or beliefs...things we don't have to believe, but which we do believe, whether we are aware of these beliefs or not. We may consciously say or think one way, yet on a deeper, semi-conscious or subconscious level...we may believe otherwise. For example, you may say, "I want to be rich. I want to win Lotto." Yet, on a deeper, inner level, you may be saying something quite differently. If you desire to be rich and find yourself poor or less rich than you'd like...this is a point of conflict. These points of conflict highlight where invisible beliefs exist. Invisible beliefs cannot be seen by definition; like black holes. Supposedly, scientists can "see" a black hole by what's surrounding it as its being sucked inside. Invisible beliefs can be seen by the crash of realities. For example, I want to be rich but I'm poor.] Instead of simply wishing to be rich, why not ask yourself: What are my beliefs about money? What are my beliefs about being rich? Being poor? Poverty? Greed? Security? Insecurity? Etc. Etc. You may find deeper answers and desires other than the ones you banter about during lunch.

In any case, Seth does give some exercises for achieving things you desire. He says something like: for a five minute period each day, imagine or visualize what it is you want...and then forget about it for the rest of the day. Supposedly, after a period of time you will get it. I'm simplifying the whole process...but the point is...ultimately, we are in charge of our beliefs, we do create our reality, and we can "manipulate" reality to bring about the results we wish for...but you gotta do a little more than just wishing...you gotta somehow really believe or want what you wish for...Isn't that what Peter Pan told Wendy? By the way, on the set of tapes that Ricky Stack sells, Seth talks about this exercise that I'm so poorly paraphrasing. I'm sure it and variations of it...are also scattered in Seth's books as well.

2. For example, if I decide that I would like to "draw" vast wealth into my life, it seems that the chances of this happening are pretty slim unless I take certain actions, such as buying a lottery ticket, or getting a high paying job. But if this is the way to creating what I want, how do I distinguish between "Sethian" truth and the "ordainary" ideas which we are all taught from birth? I hope I'm making sense. Any help would be appreciated, as this has been bothering me for a long time.

 

You're not alone. Most Americans contemplate being rich, winning Lotto, somehow drawing vast wealth into their lives. True, too, that usually some action has to be taken to do this...actually buying a Lotto ticket, getting a job, writing a book, song, play, robbing a bank, inventing the best chocolate ice cream in the world. Sometimes it happens by "accident"--someone finds a Lotto ticket; the hobo you help is really a billionaire; etc.

How to distinguish between "Sethian" truth and the cultural ones we learn after we're born? Only inside you...can that be achieved. You have to ask yourself, question yourself, wonder, delve, guess, hit, miss, smile, cry, etc.

Your whole life is spent in a constant quest of self-awareness; wondering about what beliefs you hold and why; and how do these beliefs affect your life. Which ones are changeable? Which ones are rock-bed beliefs of the ages? Which one's are from Brooklyn? Its hit-and-miss and have fun; share love, be compassionate, help others, and smile, you're on simultaneous camera.

Remeber to ask yourself: "If I look around me...and if my life was a dream; how would I interpret the events in it? What would be symbolic of what?" The answers should prove of value. In any case, if ever you think about it, you will find that you've created your life precisely the way it is in order to find answers to the questions you are asking yourself. The purpose is to answer those questions and follow where those answers lead and to answer the new questions which arise.

Marlon Hartshorn:

Now that I know all this material, I feel I am swimming in all of it. It has consumed me yet, I find myself unable to create the reality I KNOW is there waiting 4 me. I have tried heartily for the last six years, with little success. I am just now coming into more abundance and feelings of love. How can I create this life?

 

Barrie: Your question is a little vague, but if you think you are not creating the reality you want, you are wrong. You real question should be, why do I want the reality I am creating? From that standpoint and unfolding answers exists the groundwork to create changes in your belief system to create changes in your life. If you have tried for 6 years without success, your landscape is ripe with reasons. You simply have to ask the right questions. If things are starting to improve now, that's great...let it continue to improve.

If you have conflict between what you consciously desire and what you physically have, then invisible beliefs are at work. These conflicting locales are the areas you must delve into...asking yourself for answers in the dreamstate (with trusty notebook beside the bed); contemplating the whys in your imagination, stream of consciousness, conversations with friends and self.

Also, you should realize that you are already living in the great reality you envision...in a probable reality. Probable realities are just a real as the ones we actualize and make phsycal.

James J. Brunelle:

What is the one event in your life that you can point out that proved to you that you create your own reality?

 

Barrie: There wasn't any one event. There wasn't any one epiphanal breakthru, yahoo-awareness, reality-poking-thru-my-soul-&-into-my-eye event which proved to me, mouth agape, hands dangling by my side, that you create your own reality. Rather, it was just an inner clicking and smile that came upon first reading and hearing this concept; it was an ancient "oh yeah" that relaxed out of my soul and into my every day world.

While we're on the subject, once you open yourself up to the possibility that you create your own reality...then it becomes clear...and all the answers and reasons start pouring in...in response to the questions which arise upon accepting that you create your own reality; and any other explanations of things just droop in comparison. For either you create your own reality...or you are a semi-helpless victim in a random universe of random accidents and random bricks falling from the sky or roof. For some (like me) the former clicks; for others, the latter clicks...and so they keep creating random events to support their beliefs; creating events which appear to appear with no rhyme or reason. In any case, we all have our earmarked legion of events and explanations which purport to support the way we each "know" reality is.

What I do, when something happens, usually unpleasant or unexpected, I ask myself: What am I getting out of this? What am I now thinking about that I wouldn't have thought about had this thing not happened? What was I thinking about right before (or days or weeks before) it happened? What am I feeling or remembering now that this thing has happened? What am I gonna do now, that I wouldn't have done otherwise? You'd be surprised (if you have never done this) how willing you are to supply yourself with very significant and valid answers to these questions. If you think it was just an accident or a coincidence, the asking of these questions would be absurd and would make absolutely no sense; and so you wouldn't ask them; and so you wouldn't consciously receive any answers to learn by and grow from. But of course, on deeper, inner levels, along with your wetdreams and floating bagels turning into broken clocks, you'd be asking these questions and learning from them anyway.

Helen M. Fisher:

From ADC site: What are your thoughts on two people being in a dream and one having no memory of it?

 

Barrie: I think its the norm and it happens all the time. I also think the "reality" of dreams is unrecognized by most people. Some dreams are personal hallucinations of meaning or release of emotions/feelings for the person having them. Other dreams are a shared reality albeit not physical; but just as real. These dreams occur regularly...they are a normal function of life & physical reality; an ongoing "meeting ground" between us physical folks and those who no longer need the camouflage of physical reality. These dreams go unremembered a great deal of the time; or are remembered a little...but as "just a dream." These are the dreams that I believe are the shared dreams that you write of...often, of which, only one person remembers parts of.