How Do I Make a Breakthrough?

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By George A. Boyd © 2013

People envision different breakthroughs, depending on what they sense is an obstacle to their happiness. This obstacle might be construed as fear; a lack of faith or vision; insufficient money, knowledge, or skill; or a need for personal or spiritual transformation. Here are some examples:

  1. Do something that is scary. Face and conquer your fear.
  2. Do something on faith it will work out. Trust God.
  3. Spend money to enhance your knowledge and your skills; invest in a program that will teach you to make more money.
  4. Make a new courageous choice.
  5. Go beyond your limits. Expand your awareness.
  6. Surrender to God, and let yourself be guided and taught.
  7. Allow yourself to dream big.
  8. Deliver an irresistible product or service that everyone wants to buy.
  9. Make enough money to realize your dreams.
  10. Overcome an inner obstacle that holds you back. Undergo personal transformation.
  11. Learn a key technique that allows you to accelerate your spiritual evolution.
  12. Undergo spiritual transformation.
  13. Complete your spiritual path. Achieve Liberation

We teach specific techniques in our Mudrashram® Course in Meditation and the Accelerated Meditation Program to enable you to work on type 5, 10, 11, 12, and 13.

  • The methods of Raja Yoga show you how to expand beyond your limits, assisting you to achieve a type 5 breakthrough.
  • Techniques from the invocational methods, Jnana Yoga, and Agni Yoga can be applied to help you overcome personal obstacles, enabling you to generate type 10 breakthroughs with selected issues in your life.
  • Learning transformational mantra keyed to the cutting edge of spirituality that we teach empowers you to accelerate your spiritual evolution, to bring about spiritual transformation, and ultimately, complete your spiritual development in Planetary, Transplanetary, Cosmic, Supracosmic, and Transcendental bands of the Great Continuum of Consciousness, and reach Liberation and Mastery—this one key method produces breakthrough types 11, 12, and 13.

We take you even further towards achieving a type 10 breakthrough for three areas in our coaching programs for Dysfunctional Family, Cult Recovery, and Addiction Recovery, which will help you get down to the core of these life issues, and work to overcome them.

For those of you who elect to take our Life Coaching program can begin to work on the fears that hold you back (type 1), make courageous choices (type 4), go beyond your limits (type 5), and get in touch with the larger vision for your life (type 7). Some of you doing this deep inquiry into the wellsprings of your life might also discover an inner talent or gift that will enable you to have more money to invest in your skills (type 3), and realize your dreams (type 9).

Having a breakthrough in one of these areas is not a miracle. It’s not magic. If you do the work required, you can make a breakthrough.

You don’t make a breakthrough by blaming other people, blaming your past, or cursing your fate. You must make new choices. You must make a bridge to where you want to be and walk on that path.

This might be the hardest thing you have ever done. There may be setbacks and disappointments. You might try different methods and not succeed. But, if you persevere; if you don’t give up; and if you will not settle for anything less than achieving that goal: you will attain it. You will make your breakthrough.

Observing the Seven Rays in Action

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By George A. Boyd ©2023

Q: Is there a way that someone can detect which Ray is active in human behavior?

A: There are certain qualities or characteristics associated with the Seven Rays as they express through the personality. For example:

First Ray – Giving directives, orders, or commandments; prescribing specific actions others must take

Second Ray – Disseminating precepts or wisdom teachings, giving guidance for living; inspiring others to treat other people and living creatures with love, compassion, and empathy

Third Ray – Delineating steps or making plans to reach a goal; using intelligence to solve problems; creating a clear goal image of what one wishes to achieve

Fourth Ray – Immersion in present time experience and the flow of consciousness; pursuing creativity; and exploring new possibilities for living

Fifth Ray – Using analysis, study, and testing to gain exact knowledge; performing construction and deconstruction to isolate causal factors

Sixth Ray – Living in faith and obedience to religious or moral precept; developing virtues and a good character; being conscientious and striving for excellence

Seventh Ray – Bringing ideas and inspirations into expression; putting ideas together in a coherent theme (synthesis)

The Seven Rays do not exist in isolation; individuals may operate under the influence of different Rays, depending on the context where they are:

  • If they are parenting their children or managing others, they may utilize a First Ray approach.
  • If they are meditating or contemplating, they may adopt the Second Ray perspective.
  • If they are setting goals for their life or working on a project at work, they may employ the methods of the Third Ray.
  • If they are surfing or hiking in Nature, they may drop into the frame of the Fourth Ray experience.
  • If they are investigating or scientifically studying an object or behavior, they may assume the mindset of the Fifth Ray.
  • If they are religious and are attempting to live up to the moral guidelines of their faith, they may enact the behavior of the Sixth Ray.
  • If they are inventing a new product or receiving ideas from their Soul, they may step into the Seventh Ray viewpoint.

    • If you understand these general patterns of how the Seven Rays express in the personality, you can recognize them when they are engaged. You can also come to recognize the environmental cues and the etheric resonances that influence people to shift into one of these frames of mental activity and behavior.

    While we can characterize that one of these expressions of the Seven Rays is a dominant or preferred mode for a person, most people can flexibly shift into other Ray expressions, as the situation requires.

    We give a succinct overview of the Seven Rays in our book, A Mudrashram® Reader: Understanding Integral Meditation. The interested reader may wish to start there to gain a better grasp of what the Seven Rays are, and how they express at the different levels of the mind.

The Three Platforms of Life

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By George A. Boyd ©2023

Q: I read an article by Dan McAdams [1] where he distinguished between episodic life and narrative life. Can you she some light on this distinction?

A: We can describe three platforms of life: episodic, narrative, and purposive. Across the Seven Rays, these modes of expression break down as follows:

Episodic – This is the experience of the ego in the present time; there is no continuity of experience.

First Ray – You seek to win at all costs, through any means, fair or foul. You will lie about or distort what you tell others about your behavior to avoid the shame of the appearance of loss or failure.

Second Ray – You want to help others; you want to make a difference in others’ lives. You try to be helpful in whatever way you can.

Third Ray – You adapt a strategy to achieve what you want; this strategy may be legal or illegal—illegal, if you do not overrule this plan with your conscience or the advisement of a mentor or counselor.

Fourth Ray – You experience creativity and spontaneity in each moment. You “go with the flow” to discover what new discovery awaits you.

Fifth Ray – You investigate mysteries and try to troubleshoot problems. You try to find out what is true and what makes things work.

Sixth Ray – You try to be good through living up to rules, policies, laws, or moral guidelines. You may be a people-pleaser to have people like and accept you. You can be a perfectionist or obsessive about following the rules you adopt.

Seventh Ray – You aim to produce a lasting impression through your actions and words; you may demonstrate this through drama, entertainment, or comedy. You may engage in impression management, so you shape what other people believe about you.

Narrative – This establishes a continuity of experience or life story where you perceive that your Self is the actor in your life. The Self learns from its mistakes and its successes to continually improve performance, knowledge, and skill. It aims to pursue and realize its dreams.

First Ray – You experience life as a series of wins or losses, or successes and failures. You attempt to learn from your experience to improve your performance to have more wins and fewer losses; more success and fewer failures. You look at loss and failure as opportunities to learn and grow. You seek to build a track record of success. You may motivate others as a leader to greater achievement and better outcomes.

Second Ray – You look for opportunities for learning ways to help other people and applying your skills you learn. This may take the form of selecting a career where you can help others, such as teaching, counseling, therapy, coaching, mentoring, or the healing arts.

Third Ray – You regularly evaluate your performance to improve it. You gather information about the outcome of the different alternatives you might select to reach your objectives and attempt to choose the best one. You create plans that enable you to reach your goals, systems to streamline work, and policies to manage other people.

Fourth Ray – You find meaning in life when you are creative and productive. You employ art and invention to express the creative inspiration within you.

Fifth Ray – You find satisfaction when you can discover what is correct through using analysis, scientific method, and mathematics. You analyze your behavior to enhance your efficiency and productivity.

Sixth Ray – You seek to overcome character weaknesses, establish healthy habits, recover from any addiction you may have, and live a virtuous life. You are scrupulous and conscientious, and pay attention to details.

Seventh Ray – Your life becomes memorable through heroism and courage— through moving beyond your comfort zone to achieve greater performance and achievement. You push yourself towards excellence and work on continued personal growth. You are results-oriented and seek to reach the ever-higher benchmarks you set for yourself.

Purposive – Life becomes a channel to express the Soul. Your personality enacts the Soul’s Purpose.

First Ray – You may combat injustice, corruption, and criminality. You empower others to be their best and aim to improve the community around you.

Second Ray – You bring love and compassion into expression in your life. You may teach or guide others to connect them with their Soul and bring their deepest nature into expression.

Third Ray – You create systems and organizations that improve the collective welfare, and help others overcome poverty and enhance their lives.

Fourth Ray – You express the creative gifts of the Soul to inspire others, an promote insight, reflection, and discovery.

Fifth Ray – You seek to make new scientific discoveries and technological innovations to improve the world.

Sixth Ray – You aim to make yourself into an instrument to minister to others. You become a channel for Grace, Divine Love and Comfort, and spiritual healing.

Seventh Ray – You discover and enact the Soul’s purpose. You prepare your personality through education, skill building, and experience to express the Soul’s love, wisdom, and abilities in human life.

Those who are polarized at the level of the ego operate on the episodic platform. Those in whom the Self is dominant can work on the narrative platform. Those who have broken through to discover their Soul can express from the purposive platform.

It appears that the author of this article believes that the former president’s main style of expression is First Ray episodic, which functions from the ego. The ex-president seems unable to transcend this limited perspective, so he does not change.

We suggest you study these expressions of the Seven Rays through each of the three platforms. You may wish to identify the major ways you express on these platforms, and learn to recognize these expressions in others.

[1] McAdams, Don P. 8/5/2020 Op Ed: “The Truth Behind Trump’s Need to Lie,” Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from https://www.latimes/opinion/story/2020-08-05/donald-trump-lies-character-psychology/

 

Identity, Community, Purpose

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By George A. Boyd ©2023

Q: How does identity affect spiritual community and the sense of purpose that informs that community?

A: A spiritual community is a collective group that that forms when people share the same state of identity. Whatever purpose or addenda they carry out may come from scriptural injunctions or commandments, or from the urging of the leaders and clergy of the spiritual group.

For example, many people who are Christian identify with the Moon Soul nucleus of identity, and they see this essence in those who are Christians. This sense of shared identity—which Hans Kohut called twinship—occurs when someone’s attention is united with a spiritual essence, and they see this same essence in other people.

As for a sense of purpose, for Christians—and this is true for other groups who proselytize for their faith or Path—they are imbued with a drive to convince other people to accept the salvation of their spiritual Master and receive the Grace of the form of the Divine they worship. The scriptural injunction in the Bible to being the gospel to everyone underpins their extensive worldwide missionary work and evangelism.<./p>

The scope of the purpose of spiritual groups varies: while religions like Christianity and Islam want to bring everyone in the world into their shared identity and worldview, other groups are willing to share their state of identification with whoever sincerely wants to join the group and be initiated—but don’t aspire to be a global faith and movement.

We can tease out two aspects of purpose in spiritual groups: extrinsic and intrinsic.

Extrinsic group purpose is the mission of the group in the world—what it strives to achieve. In different spiritual groups, this may take the form of evangelism, social service, political advocacy, fundraising, publication of group teachings and doctrine, establishment of spiritual centers and places of worship, or carrying out religious rites and ceremonies.

Intrinsic group purpose involves the development of the spiritual essence with which members of the group identify. This may express as Light attunements with this spiritual essence, use of a transformational technique to unfold it along its track to its origin, and detailing the stages of potential development of that spiritual essence within its cosmology.

The relative percentage of extrinsic and intrinsic group purpose also differs between groups: some spiritual communities may be entirely focused on their external mission in the world, whereas others emphasize spiritual development and internal transformation in those who are initiated into communion with the spiritual essence with which they identify. Many groups are an admixture of both group purposes: they have a public agenda they are enacting in the world, but they also embrace a meditation tradition that aims to develop the spiritual essence with which they identify.

We detail these different stages of identification found in different spiritual traditions in our book, Religions, Cults, and Terrorism: What the Heck Are We Doing? Articles on this topic may also be found in our web log, and in our online library. Our newest print volume, which will be released in October 2023, entitled The Path Across the Sky, has additional writings on the different types of spiritual identification.

We encourage aspirants to investigate with what spiritual essence do members of different faith or meditation communities identify, and gradually develop the ability to discern that spiritual essence when it is activated through attentional union with it. As you become more familiar with the spiritual essences that dwell within you at different levels of the Continuum of Consciousness, you will come to understand how people see the world—inner and outer—the way they do. Ultimately, you will find the spiritual communities of each faith and spiritual tradition within you, and you will behold where they colonize different bands on the Continuum.

What Is the Fifth Dimension?

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By George A. Boyd ©2023

Q: What is the fifth dimension? I hear a lot of the New Age people talk about the third dimension, and the fifth dimension. They advocate that people relate to the world from the fifth dimension. What the heck are they talking about?

A: It appears their description corresponds to discrete locations upon the thread of consciousness.

The third dimension appears to be what we call the waking state of awareness. You are aware of the world around your body and the actions of your body in the environment. From this perspective, the world seems to be real and the law of cause and effect operates—you can create changes in the world around you through your actions.

The fourth dimension looks like it is the wave of the present time on the Akashic Records Subplane of the Abstract Mind Plane. At this level, you are aware of the Soul’s thought and intention influencing human life. From this standpoint, it appears that through doing Process Meditation, you can trace issues back to their origin and have the Soul re-create a new pattern. This is the dimension of experiential time.

The fifth dimension, from what they describe, is a state of the union of the attention with the Soul and identification with this spiritual essence. It gives those who abide in this state the conviction that they are a godlike being, who can create anything they desire.

Many New Age teachers tell their students to perpetually remain in union with the fifth dimension. We take issue with this, because this godlike state—if you remain in it continuously—can yield unintended consequences:

  1. Grandiosity – Remaining in attentional union and fully identified with this Divine Atom within the Soul leads some people to feel they are superior to those who are not in this state of consciousness, and they look down on those who are not at this level. Conceiving of one’s true nature as a godlike being, moreover, may influence others to expect that others will worship them and fulfill their every desire.
  2. Delusion – Maintaining this mental frame spawns magical thinking where you believe you can always manifest whatever you visualize. If you carefully study the results of this conviction, you will likely find that you do not manifest 100% of the time; you might have successful manifestation 20% to 30% of the time, if you can set up optimal conditions.
  3. Distorted beliefs – Without subjecting your intuitions and impressions to careful examination, you can come to believe really strange things, which cannot be verified. Keeping your attention fixed in union with the Soul makes you susceptible to believing in conspiracy theories and truly odd ideas.
  4. Avolition – You may stop setting goals and making plans to achieve them. Instead, you are absorbed in the flow of consciousness, where you are continually processing and gaining insights. You do not take constructive action, however, so you do not move forward in your life to achieve worthy personal goals. You spend your time drifting and dreaming; as a consequence, you accomplish little or nothing in your life.
  5. Obsession – Since you continually hold your attention focused within, you may come to obsess over metaphysical ideas. You may contemplate the meaning of symbols and dreams, and use divinatory systems to make sense of your life—such as astrology, numerology, or tarot—or use hermeneutic systems like Gematria or language analysis to find hidden meanings. Meanwhile, you achieve nothing practical in your life.
  6. Emotional disruption – The emotional component of constant fixation on the Soul is emotionalized beliefs that color your mood and attitude. This may contribute to emotional lability, where you rapidly shift from depression to euphoria. For some individuals, they may paradoxically no longer be able to feel their emotions, and they dwell in the state of dissociation and detachment.
  7. Unreality – Some individuals experience sustained union with the Soul as a Cosmic Joke. They may come to feel the world is unreal (derealization) and their personality and life are unreal (depersonalization). It is hard for them to make a commitment to personal goals, for human life seems like an illusion to them.

In Mudrashram®, we counsel our students to not remain in an altered state of consciousness for any longer than is necessary for you to accomplish the objective of your meditation—for example, spiritual transformation, working with personal issues, or receiving intuitive guidance. Coming back to ground avoids many of the negative consequences of consistently dwelling in “the fifth dimension,” and enables you to move forward in your personal life, and not merely “float in the air.”

The Psychic Realm is called the World of Illusions or the Realm of the Divine Imagination. Without discernment, it is easy for well-meaning aspirants to get caught up in the illusions and distortions of this level of the Continuum, and spend many years of their lives in fantasy. Those who wish to learn more about this Plane may wish to read our book, The Psychic Realm: Finding Safe Passage through the Worlds of Illusion.