01-21-2011, 01:16 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-21-2011, 01:20 PM by rva_jeremy.)
Wanted to get your opinion on something, folks. I'm open to any reaction to this.
For the past ten years of my involvement with the Law of One material, I have often found it difficult to inspire curiosity in people whom I think would be open to the non-transient, core spiritual message so well represented in the sessions. This has nothing to do with what I (admittedly imperfectly) judge to be their resonance with the Law of One in its simplicity. Instead, it is the extent to which the spiritually valuable material is mixed in with what I call "space opera" details - things like having to explain that the entity bringing this through is called "Ra", having to justify the whole UFO and exo-political Confederation drama, etc. These are things that are difficult to accept on their own if somebody is not predisposed to UFOs, conspiracies, etc. Given that they are often transient matters, would it not make sense to formulate a version of the spiritual material in a condensed format?
As I re-read the Law of One for the first time in years, I really do go back and forth on this. There is a sense in which a lot of the "space opera" details inspire a sense of mystery which, properly balanced, need not be distracting at all. The issue is the degree to which this information is accessible to somebody not familiar with the ancillary issues. The primary goal in the original contact was fidelity to the transmission and total transparency of the experimental conditions. I am not challenging the value of the source material one iota; I am wondering whether the presentation of the original sessions is always the best way to encounter the material.
Example: I read the study guide before ever reading the sessions themselves. This was, in my opinion, of unspeakable advantage to my appreciation for the sessions when I did encounter them. But the study guide uses all the elements of the sessions with equal weight, I'd say. It's a study guide to the sessions. What I'm talking about is a study guide or commentary on the concepts themselves.
I do wonder if there's any way we could condense this material in a more readable and immediately useful way. It may not be viable or possible without something too important being lost. It's something I'm contemplating as I move forward in my rereading. Essentially, even something like the well known study guide could be refashioned in this way. The overall progression of the sessions, speaking VERY broadly, is to progress from more interest in transient matters to less interest. What would be interesting would be a study guide or companion commentary that reversed this: instead of focusing on the transient matters first and getting less transient, focus on the non-transient matters first and bring in the transient "space opera" details as more fundamental matters are developed (if at all).
The problem here is that, in reformulating Ra's messages without many of the examples of the more fantastic details, there is significant opportunity for distortion, through personally filtering the material in precisely the way those of L/L did not, at least not consciously.
Perhaps what Carla did with "Law of One 101" was the right way to go about this: if you are going to restate the Law of One in your own words (i.e. channel the Law of One from yourself, so to speak) you might as well at least be up front about its personal character. Carla has always demonstrated talent in using examples from her life to frame her understanding of these matters. Maybe what I'm doing is trying to convince myself to write something like this, but I feel like I'd need to approach the degree of dedication to this material that Jim and Carla have achieved before I'd have anything useful.
Anyway, this is something that's been on my mind for years, and I was just interested if anybody had feedback.
For the past ten years of my involvement with the Law of One material, I have often found it difficult to inspire curiosity in people whom I think would be open to the non-transient, core spiritual message so well represented in the sessions. This has nothing to do with what I (admittedly imperfectly) judge to be their resonance with the Law of One in its simplicity. Instead, it is the extent to which the spiritually valuable material is mixed in with what I call "space opera" details - things like having to explain that the entity bringing this through is called "Ra", having to justify the whole UFO and exo-political Confederation drama, etc. These are things that are difficult to accept on their own if somebody is not predisposed to UFOs, conspiracies, etc. Given that they are often transient matters, would it not make sense to formulate a version of the spiritual material in a condensed format?
As I re-read the Law of One for the first time in years, I really do go back and forth on this. There is a sense in which a lot of the "space opera" details inspire a sense of mystery which, properly balanced, need not be distracting at all. The issue is the degree to which this information is accessible to somebody not familiar with the ancillary issues. The primary goal in the original contact was fidelity to the transmission and total transparency of the experimental conditions. I am not challenging the value of the source material one iota; I am wondering whether the presentation of the original sessions is always the best way to encounter the material.
Example: I read the study guide before ever reading the sessions themselves. This was, in my opinion, of unspeakable advantage to my appreciation for the sessions when I did encounter them. But the study guide uses all the elements of the sessions with equal weight, I'd say. It's a study guide to the sessions. What I'm talking about is a study guide or commentary on the concepts themselves.
I do wonder if there's any way we could condense this material in a more readable and immediately useful way. It may not be viable or possible without something too important being lost. It's something I'm contemplating as I move forward in my rereading. Essentially, even something like the well known study guide could be refashioned in this way. The overall progression of the sessions, speaking VERY broadly, is to progress from more interest in transient matters to less interest. What would be interesting would be a study guide or companion commentary that reversed this: instead of focusing on the transient matters first and getting less transient, focus on the non-transient matters first and bring in the transient "space opera" details as more fundamental matters are developed (if at all).
The problem here is that, in reformulating Ra's messages without many of the examples of the more fantastic details, there is significant opportunity for distortion, through personally filtering the material in precisely the way those of L/L did not, at least not consciously.
Perhaps what Carla did with "Law of One 101" was the right way to go about this: if you are going to restate the Law of One in your own words (i.e. channel the Law of One from yourself, so to speak) you might as well at least be up front about its personal character. Carla has always demonstrated talent in using examples from her life to frame her understanding of these matters. Maybe what I'm doing is trying to convince myself to write something like this, but I feel like I'd need to approach the degree of dedication to this material that Jim and Carla have achieved before I'd have anything useful.
Anyway, this is something that's been on my mind for years, and I was just interested if anybody had feedback.