Phantom Quantum

L had addressed the exercise by playing a version of chess which allows a maximum of one minute in total for each opponent. He thought this fitted well with recent exercises in one-minute meditation and awareness. He discovered it worked best if there was no thinking,  and indeed time did slow down for him. Sometimes a mere fraction of a second was the margin of victory or defeat. The games were measured by a rating system, and while his rating was still low it had advanced by reducing thinking.

E had been reading the new book by Gil Friedman which advises not identifying with feelings of anxiety when things like misplacing keys happen. In fact, this happened to him a week after reading the book. One morning, he couldn't find his work keys. He remembered himself, and reasoned that he could get into work without them as someone else had keys. That evening he found the keys behind a bedside table. He had observed his feelings and negative emotions, was aware how he was reacting, and did not get too involved.

RM has introduced a system of four minutes of meditation to his Insight Timer group. A bell sounds after each minute and he had observed that some minutes go quicker than others

The most significant meeting for "R" during the month was with the new partner of one of her children, who was brought to visit her. It entailed an arrangement, and waiting for the lift to come up to her floor, during which time, having had no previous meeting, she had the feeling that she could influence who it could be. She sensed herself waiting, aware of how necessary it is to be open and not prejudiced in advance. She was aware of her posture, her straightened spine. Then the lift came. The most important thing has been sensing her physical presence. Without that it was just a dream.

For T, her whole studio day had been a complete distraction. She had felt an urge to write about something extremely important, which she did for four hours without looking up. This had been her biggest avoidance for many months, but she had completely believed in it. Had she really intended to do the art, she would immediately have picked up the brush and set paint on the canvas.

DM was trying to adapt following the high he had felt after the performance of his new play. People liked it and wanted more. He couldn't continue for now as he had been because the others involved were going on tour. After his previous play he had had no idea for a year, but this time he did have an idea. He found he could be creative with his mind through meditating and observing. He said he was not sorry or down, but down and up. He was pleased to be coming to the group and not affected by anything.

GC spoke of how it was possible to leave a bad area if it felt unsafe. The same thing happens in the mind. If you feel unsafe you can leave that area of the mind. When experiencing something, you can step aside.

N thought this was very true. Years ago he had a boss who was very dominating, which used to reach him internally. On one occasion he did not respond. The boss's attitude was different the rest of that day, and he came back to apologise three times.

Z responded to E and GC, with the idea "use what you can". Recently she had been reading a book by Eckhart Tolle expounding his thoughts on the painbody, which resonated with her experience.

T responded to D, saying it is easy to be high, but hard, like the labour of Sisyphus, to get working. It would be nice to be able to do both. D replied that he was enjoying it, and actually had some ideas. 

Responding to "R" and her thoughts whilst waiting for the lift to arrive, L mentioned the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. There are those who take it seriously. The idea is that each moment the universe divides into myriad others in which alternative possibilities happen, and that a person might be able to steer through the sea of possibilities towards appropriate universes. GC said that there was a negative aspect to most people, who generally expect things to go wrong. L said that fits with the assertion in Beelzebub's Tales that the "Holy-Denying" is what prevails on Earth.

GC brought up the issue of whether the mind-expanding, awakening effects of drugs were overlooked by our society. L said he had recently read an article putting trance music events in the context of the Gurdjieff work. RM spoke of C influence. He suggested also that a person might ask, instead of What would I do now?, the modified question, What would a wise man do now?

After 9:45 the reading of Beelzebub's Tales continued, from the point early in Chapter 18, The Arch-Preposterous, which had been reached the previous month.

... The only difference is that while everywhere else, even on all the other planets of the same system, there is one such king for the whole of the given planet, on your peculiar planet Earth there is a separate king for every accidentally segregated group of these favourites of yours and sometimes even several.

GC interpreted the talk of separate kings as a metaphor for separate I's. In view of the large number of invented words in the book, it was decided to put a link to a glossary on the website, if possible.

... Strictly speaking, it was owing to just this Teskooano that my observatory was afterwards considered one of the best constructions of its kind in the whole Universe; and, most important of all, it was by means of this Teskooano that I myself thereafter could, even while staying at home on the planet Mars, relatively easily see and observe the processes of the existence occurring on the surfaces of those parts of the other planets of that solar system …

… I think it not inadvisable to warn you once and for all that all my conversations with various three-centred beings arising and existing on various planets of that system … all proceeded in dialects still quite unknown to you, and sometimes even, by the way, in such dialects the consonances of which were quite 'indigestible' for perception by normal beingfunctions assigned for this purpose.

It was queried what a teskooano was, and "R" said it was a type of telescope. Z raised the issue of the different dialects mentioned in this paragraph. For D it brought again to mind GC's comment about moving to a different area, in this case a different area of language, of communication. If one person were angry, another might not even be aware of it.

Following the reading, there was a discussion on what the exercise for the coming month should be. A suggestion by DM and "R" was adopted, that when experiencing an emotional response to a situation, to observe the reaction, step back from it and physically experience feeling the feet on the ground.