Busting Loose question
 

So, I just finished "Busting Loose from the Money Game"...and I can't quite figure out if the author is claiming that the reader is the only person in the universe? On Earth? If EVERYTHING in my world is just a hologram I created to play with it, who are all the other folks? Is there only one person in the universe?
:confused::confused::confused:

Color Me Confused!

Not really I think...

As he is explaining it, and as I am understanding it.. you are not real either.. :D

So you are not alone in the universe... the universe doesn't exist :D:D

From my understanding, all the other people are you. "You" however can only perceive the PART of you that is called LifeIsNotADressRehearsal. I am you as well, but for the purposes of the hologram, you can only see the world through the eyes of your current avatar, even though in reality, there is no difference between you or me, "we" just see the illusion of being separate.

If someone here thinks I'm off track, let me know.

Don't know if that makes much sense. It's a difficult concept, I'm still coming to terms with it. In the book he talks about your dreams and how everything in the dream is YOU. If that part of the book makes sense, then I'd apply that to the "non-dream" world (which is just as illusory as the dream world anyway).

He also says that we can't possibly really understand the problem of "other people" at our current level of consciousness. That's not the most satisfying answer.

I think according to him, everything is a part of the hologram, including "you".

If you haven't heard it yet, here's a free audio he has on this very topic on his site:

Audio Discussion Of The Role "Others" Play In Your Hologram

It doesn't really explain anything, but I like to imagine that we're all facets of a single metaphorical gem...

I would suggest this should read, you currently (not you can only), predominately see the world through the eyes of your current avatar, even though in reality, there is no difference between you or me...

What I'm suggesting here is that you can "see" a whole 'nother world, it's just blocked out for some reason (or better put, focused on separation). I've seen this "other world" or "hidden world" several years ago... It was like a whole new dynamic to life, but yet right now remains hidden for some reason. We/I need to "see" ourselves as not separate entities but as one, which may require "new eyes" if you catch my drift? (a new perception, a perception of connectedness)

There are many "persons" in the Universe. You are one of them. But what is a "person"? You're not your body, you're not your thoughts, you're not your ideas, you're not your memories, you're not your job, you're not your gender... After you take away all the things that you're not, what ARE you? Just a unique point of consciousness. You're a sort of lens for Universal Consciousness to use. You FEEL like you're a separated being, but that's all part of the illusion. "You" are an illusion. So am "I". So is my desk, so is "Steve Pavilina", so is everything. That's the point of the hologram metaphor.

There is only ONE continuous, undivided, infinite Consciousness in the Universe. There are billions of unique Points of View (i.e., Persons) used by that Consciousness. All of us Persons all have our own, unique reality because we are all unique Points of View. By assuming the role of Absolute Creator within your own reality, you automatically assume that other persons are merely players in that (and from your Point of View, they are).

Does that make any more sense?

An analogy I've heard somewhere along the line was this - imagine "all that is" as a glass ball (like a Christmas ornament or something). It is one whole, cohesive unit. Now, take it and throw it up against a wall and smash it to pieces. The pieces are us...still part of the whole and yet now separate. However, if you put the ball back together, it's a ball again. The pieces are still part of the whole but now are separate and can be percieved like that - different from each other (some are big, some small, some jagged etc.) but "technically", they are still part of the original glass ball. Independent but same at the core...and will eventually become whole again (only to be broken again over and over and over forevermore as this is an eternal deal). It helped me to see it this way at first. As my awareness grows, this may change. Go with what resonates with you...until it changes. ;)

I picture it as we're all part of this goop and we rise up from it (everything does as it's created) but we are all still connected. We can just as soon meld back into the goop. I try to think of being part of the goop to remember the "something more" than just my own "person" and to feel one with the consciousness.

Wow! I found something really cool that is all about helping to answer this question of the illusion of being separate from each other. It's a guided "awakening experience" to help us realize we are all one. Steve mentioned it in one of his posts I saw today.

It's a print book called "Lucid Living" but I got the audio version read by the author... 45 minutes and it's only $2.95 at iTunes. Worth investigating:

iTunes Store--Lucid Living

That's the US iTunes store... I actually got it at audible.com though.

Really excited about this.

Have you tried it already? Could you place a review for us? Or link us to Steve's article? But best a review from you as well :)

I just listened to it. It's great. The author asks you to just sit back and he asks you a series of philosophical questions and introduces the concept that we are all one, and explains why. It's like a guided meditation except you're supposed to stay normally conscious while listening. It's about "waking up" from the dream that is our reality.

I can't really explain it that well, it's worth $3 though, definitely. It's a lot of value for a 45 minute presentation.

Steve didn't write an article about it he just mentioned it in passing, so I looked it up.

Here's a page from his official site, with a good video overview:

Tim Freke

What's interesting is years ago I read one of his other books "The Jesus Mysteries", which is way more dense and heavy than this one.

Nice long interview with the author about us being one:

YouTube - Spirituality/Gnostic author Timothy Freke in-depth interview

There's a lot of stuff about Christianity in the beginning but the last half is pretty much this topic.

I heard Timothy Freke speak at the I Can Do It Seminar last year that Steve & Erin presented at -- he is wonderful! Very funny and light hearted, and a great speaker. I like his message very much.

I don't remember Scheinfeld ever mentioning oneness or universal consciousness in the book.

He did however state that the other people in your reality exist in your reality because you created them. They are just as real as you are however as they are also creating you in their reality. He doesn't go into depth on that subject but hides behind the "tangled hierarchy" to avoid answering how that can happen.

I managed to come up with a metaphor.
Imagine that we are both playing an online computer game.

You have a character you see as "you" in the game and I have a character I see as "me" in the game.

My computer creates the game world on my screen. In this game world my computer creates "you".

Your computer creates the game world on your screen. In this game world your computer creates "me".

Of course the two game worlds send information between themselves and they try to synchronize so they are as similar as possible but they will never be exactly the same. No matter what transpires in the game my game world is always personally mine even if "me" in the game doesn't really exist and your game world will always be personally yours even if "you" in the game don't really exist.

This way we can both create one another without running into a paradox.