Many of you have asked that I write about Holosync, so beginning with this post, your wish is granted. There’s so much I could say about Holosync that it’s difficult to know where to start.
Here are just a few of the topics we could touch on:
- How Holosync affects the brain, and how those changes in the brain create changes in awareness and consciousness…
- The various brain wave patterns and what happens when your brain makes each of them…
- How Holosync affects what Eastern meditation schools call the subtle body..
- How Holosync affects dysfunctional feelings and behaviors…
- How Holosync affects your ability to think more clearly and effectively…
- How Holosync affects such things as ADD, hyperactivity, autism, addictions, and other such problems…
- What neurochemical and hormonal changes are created when you use Holosync, and how those changes affect how you feel and function…
- How Holosync affects awareness, what awareness actually is, and how increased awareness affects your life…
- The difference between Holosync meditation and traditional meditation…
- Why we provide progressively deeper levels of Holosync–and the huge benefit of continuing through those levels…
- An overview of what happens when you use Holosync, why it happens, and what to do about it…
- How Holosync raises your threshold for what you can handle from life…
- How Holosync improves physical health, longevity, and resistance to disease…
- Why some people have trouble using Holosync, and what they can do about it…
- How Holosync affects the developmental process I’ve written so much about, and…
- How Holosync affects enlightenment or awakening.
Whew! How do I write about all of that? A fair amount of this is addressed in the Support Letters I’ve written for Awakening Prologue and Awakening Level 1 (those for Awakening Level 1 are new, and just starting to go out to people), and in my other writings. I’ve found, though, that most people read this stuff once (if I’m lucky), and don’t absorb a lot of it.
Why does this happen? Because if I describe something that happens as you use Holosync, but it hasn’t happened for you, YET, you probably won’t remember having read about it when, later, it does happen. It just wasn’t of concern when you read it, so your brain deleted it, disregarded it. Then, when you do have the experience, you probably won’t remember my reference to it.
For that reason, I highly suggest that you go back and reread the Support Letters and Special Reports I’ve sent you. You’ll find yourself having all kinds of ah-ha’s if you do, because what I’ve said will mean much more to you now–and you’ll much better understand what you’re experiencing, and where all of this is heading.
I realize that doing this takes time. I’ve written a ton about Holosync over the years, and that you have other things to do besides use Holosync and read what I’ve said about it. On the other hand, when you use Holosync you’re exposing your nervous system to a very potent stimulus that creates some rather amazing changes in the way you see and experience yourself, your world, and other people. If I were you, I’d want to know what I was feeding into my brain and how it works.
Since we’ve been talking about enlightenment in this blog, and because several of you have specifically asked about this, let’s talk about Holosync and enlightenment. So, are you going to become enlightened if you use Holosync?
First, perhaps we’d better decide what we mean by enlightenment.
I realize that in posing this question I’m opening Pandora’s Box. Defining enlightenment isn’t easy, partly because the whole subject is ineffable, which means it resists description. We’re trying to describe something non-dualistic with language, the whole premise of which is dualistic (i.e., that certain separate things do something to other things).
Another potential problem is that every reader will interpret what I say from his or her own individual perspective (his or her current developmental level) which by definition (excuse me for saying this, but it’s true) is incomplete, making what I say only partially understandable. Nearly everyone’s perspective on enlightenment is a collection of IDEAS, not something they know from experience.
Whatever. Let’s give it a try, and see what happens.
You could say that enlightenment is waking up to the truth about reality, or the truth about who you really are. So, then, what is the truth about reality? And who are you, really? Again, we have a problem, because you can’t really say what reality is. Being ineffable, it’s beyond description. We are part of a multidimensional reality that cannot be described with linear and dualistic language.
For this reason reality is generally described by saying what it ISN’T. (In theology this is called the apophatic approach. Another approach is to describe what reality is like, which is called the cataphatic approach–the approach of poetry or metaphor, as when we say, for instance, that God is love, or God is like a father and we are his children.)
So what I’m about to say will be partly what reality is like, partly what it is not, and partly what it is–even though anything you can say about it really isn’t it.
So, on one hand, we have the common sense notion that reality is composed of separate things and events–and that you are one of those separate things. The awakened person would see that this chopping of reality into separate bits is an illusion created by the mind, and that in actuality everything goes together and exists in relation to everything else. It’s all one continuous thing and one continuous event. For the awakened person this isn’t a way of thinking about the world, a theory, but rather an experience of the way things are.
As I’ve said in previous posts, this also includes the realization that all pairs of seeming opposites are really one, that they arise together and depend upon each other, and that the supposed conflict between opposites is also an illusion created by the mind. This is what I’ve referred to as the Game of Black and White–the idea that life, for instance, must (or could) win over death, that good must win over evil, that having must win over not having, or in general that what you want must (or could) win over what you don’t want.
Further, the very nature of who you are–and the nature of every other “thing-event” in the relative world–is emptiness. In Buddhism they say, “Emptiness is form, form is emptiness.” This “emptiness” is called Śūnyatā in Buddhism, and signifies that everything one encounters in life is empty of any absolute identity, permanence, or any sort of in-dwelling ’self’.
This is because everything is interrelated and mutually dependent, as I said above, which means that nothing has any independent existence (when they use the term emptiness Buddhists don’t mean that everything is NOTHING–emptiness is their way of describing this lack of independent nature). All things are in a state of constant flux where energy and information are continuously and forever flowing throughout the natural world giving rise to, and themselves undergoing, major transformations with the passage of time.
In other words, everything is impermanent. What seem to be substantial and discrete things come into being and pass away, endlessly. This misperception that there are solid and separate things with some sort of independent existence (including the idea that there is a separate you with an independent existence) is caused by the psychological tendency to grasp at all objects of perception as if they really existed as independent entities.
Some think that this is a result of our resistance to impermanence, particularly death. This resistance causes ordinary (unawakened) beings to believe that separate and stable objects exist ‘out there’ as they appear to perception. (Ironically, when you stop resisting impermanence, and embrace it, you are free.)
This delusion that there are stable things out there is like seeing a whirlpool in a river and thinking that it is a solid, permanent thing, when in really it is a constantly changing flow that just looks like a stable and constant ”thing.”
Here is what the Dalai Lama said about the Buddhist idea of emptiness in his book The Universe in a Single Atom (and yes, I will get back to Holosync):
One of the most important philosophical insights in Buddhism comes from what is known as the theory of emptiness. At its heart is the deep recognition that there is a fundamental disparity between the way we perceive the world, including our own experience in it, and the way things actually are.
In our day-to-day experience, we tend to relate to the world and to ourselves as if these entities possessed self-enclosed, definable, discrete and enduring reality. For instance, if we examine our own conception of selfhood, we will find that we tend to believe in the presence of an essential core to our being, which characterises our individuality and identity as a discrete ego, independent of the physical and mental elements that constitute our existence.
The philosophy of emptiness reveals that this is not only a fundamental error but also the basis for attachment, clinging and the development of our numerous prejudices. According to the theory of emptiness, any belief in an objective reality grounded in the assumption of intrinsic, independent existence is simply untenable. All things and events, whether ‘material’, mental or even abstract concepts like time, are devoid of objective, independent existence. To intrinsically possess such independent existence would imply that all things and events are somehow complete unto themselves and are therefore entirely self-contained. This would mean that nothing has the capacity to interact with or exert influence on any other phenomena.
But we know that there is cause and effect – turn a key in a car, the starter motor turns the engine over, spark plugs ignite and fuel begins to burn… Yet in a universe of self-contained, inherently existing things, these events could never occur!
So effectively, the notion of intrinsic existence is incompatible with causation; this is because causation implies contingency and dependence, while anything that inherently existed would be immutable and self-enclosed. In the theory of emptiness, everything is argued as merely being composed of dependently related events; of continuously interacting phenomena with no fixed, immutable essence, which are themselves in dynamic and constantly changing relations. Thus, things and events are ‘empty’ in that they can never possess any immutable essence, intrinsic reality or absolute ‘being’ that affords independence.
Suffering happens when we cling to these phantom “things” and “events”–and in particular, to the most significant phantom of all, ”me.”
When a person awakens, they see through all of this–or, you might say, “there is a seeing-through of all of this,” since part of the waking up is the realization that there is no separate person there to actually see anything. (This is why it’s so hard to describe this with language, which implies the very separate things and events we’re saying aren’t real.)
This realization isn’t a theoretical understanding, or a belief. It’s an experience, and at first a quite stunning experience. And along with that experience is a complete freedom from clinging to the idea of ”me,” or to the world being any certain way. All the conflicts that seem so real in the Game of Black and White are seen through, and in seeing through all of this, there is complete freedom.
Geez, I just wanted to talk about Holosync, and here I’ve been sucked into explaining one of the deepest philosophical questions ever raised. So let’s just say that the above describes the awakened experience, even though such an experience can’t be described. And, if this doesn’t make sense to you, let that be okay. Before you start to actually see/feel/experience the truth of the above, it can just seem to be theoretical mumbo-jumbo. Once you have the experience, though, the above just seems like a description (though incomplete) of what is obvious.
So how does Holosync tune you in to this experience and awaken you to the illusion of separate things and events and the futility of resisting the universe the way it is?
It actually makes more sense to look at this question the other way around–to ask how in the world a human being can come under the illusion that there are separate things and events, and that there is a separate doer who can move them around through some sort of power that is separate from the whole.
Here’s the typical explanation. The mind, by its very nature, chops the universe into separate things and events, something I’ve discussed at length in other posts. This chopping is called maya in Hindu and Buddhist thought. Maya comes from the same root word as measurement, and it’s the idea that we take an essentially wiggly world and try to “straighten it out,” to explain it (ex-plane it, flatten it out), to “square things away,” to “iron things out,” and so on.
If humans were in charge of clouds, for instance, they would all probably have regular geometrical shapes. The natural wiggly world is too complex for our simple minds, so we try to simplify it by dividing it into this and that, separate things and events, and create simple representations of the exceedingly complex (actually, infinitely complex) multi-dimensional goings-on of the natural world.
For instance, if you tried to describe what happened to you during the last five minutes whatever you said would be a tiny fraction of what really happened, because what happened actually included all your sensory impressions, attended to or not, all your relationships with everything else (ultimately) in the universe, all the cells that divided in your body, all the heartbeats that happened, all the muscle movements, and a whole lot more–and that just can’t be described. It would take an infinite amount of time to explain all of this, since it’s all happening all at once. We live in a multi-dimensional universe that just cannot be grabbed hold of, physically or mentally! (It’s been said about Reality, the Tao, that “You can’t grab hold of it, and you can’t get rid of it.”)
So the way out of this fragmented way of living and seeing the world (a way of seeing that is the root cause of the suffering in the world) is to stop mistaking this chopped-up way of looking at the universe, through the filter of the mind, for the real thing. And, to do this, you first have to get out of the mind entirely (though once you “get it” you can go back to using the mind, but this time without being fooled that what it creates is more than just a representation of reality).
Holosync (as well as traditional meditation, for that matter) creates connections in the brain that gradually allows you to see more and more how everything really does go together, to see how everything is really one big “thing-event”, and how separate things and events (especially the separate “me”) are illusory.
This, of course, is the end-of-the-line ultimate realization. As you know if you’re using Holosync, this isn’t what happens during the first week. As you use Holosync, though, you gradually see how things go together and, as this happens, you relax. Things that bothered you before (aspects of life around which you were playing the Game of Black and White) don’t seem to bug you as much. Seeing the world as a conglomeration of separate things and events (that aren’t you, and are potentially dangerous) creates anxiety, because it makes it SEEM as if you are separate from the rest of the universe–and, as a separate self, that you are in danger, or at least potentially in danger.
As you increasingly see how things go together your anxiety diminishes, along with depression, anger, fear, and other “negative” emotions (the emotions of separation). At the same time, your various coping methods for dealing with what seems like the danger of existence also calm down–addictions, eating problems, withdrawal, projection, behavioral acting out, and so on.
Most people don’t, at first, see these changes as being a result of seeing how everything goes together, because that isn’t apparent in the beginning–at least to most people. But just a little bit, even if you aren’t yet consciously aware of it, is enough to change your experience of life. The ah-ha, where you see that, yes, everything is connected, and you are not separate, comes later.
Another way to approach this is to realize that the mind, in chopping the universe up into separate bits, creates an illusion. As the mind calms down, this illusion loses power. Holosync quiets the mind, at least over time, and as this happens you become calmer, you feel more connected to everything, and the emotions and behaviors characteristic of separation diminish.
On the other hand, as many of you know, you can experience upheaval as you use Holosync. With any kind of meditation, the mind, the ego, will fight back. All those areas of life where you’re playing the Game of Black and White (trying to resist or get rid of something) will eventually surface, and the upheaval you experience is really just your own resistance to what is.
In other words, all the areas of life where you think things should be THIS way and not THAT way, will come up, and you might have strong resistance around each of them. Of course, you don’t have to resist. You could surrender to what is and let the world be the way that it is, but most people fight for their IDEAS about how this should win over that. This fighting, of course, creates upheaval and suffering. This is what I’m referring to when I tell people as they use Holosync to let whatever happens be okay. Most people, at first, have a hard time taking this advice. Still, I give it.
(By the way, I am not saying that you can’t do something to create change in your life. As long as you do so without resistance, create all the change you want.)
The more you’ve been traumatized in your life, the more likely you’ll fight for your version of the Game of Black and White. This happens because the trauma you’ve suffered gives you a strong belief that the world is a dangerous place, and that you MUST protect yourself from that danger. What you think of as danger is Black in the Game of Black and White, and you can’t let it win, so you play a HARD version of the game in an attempt to defeat it. The Game of Black and White, though, is an unwinnable game. This is because in reality Black and White go together and are really one thing. Having one side “win” and eliminating the other would be like having up win over down. What’s more, ultimately, Black and White are just ideas, not realities. Desirable and undesirable are not qualaties that are intrinsic to anything. They are ADDED by the mind, from the outside.
So, if your experience is intense from time to time as you use Holosync, you have to realize that you are doing it, by (unconsciously) playing the Game of Black and White–which means clinging to your idea of how things should be, in other words, resisting what is. Again, this is why I suggest that you let whatever happens be okay, at least emotionally, and just watch with curiosity. And, I’ll admit that at first this isn’t easy to do, so you might have to go through a bit of upheaval from time to time. I sure did.
So, will you become enlightened? This, of course, is a trick question. The truth is that there is no “you” that could become enlightened. The “you” you’re hoping will become enlightened is the ego, and since enlightenment is an ending of unconscious identification with the ego, your IDEA of who you are, “you” can’t become enlightened. Trying to become enlightened ultimately bumps up against the fact that the trying is just a strengthening the very thing that stands in the way of it happening.
Well, shit, you say. Bummer. Maybe I’ll go to someone who’ll be more encouraging. But what I’ve just said isn’t bad news. The reason you can’t become enlightened is that you don’t exist, and that realization IS enlightenment (or at least one stage of it). The truth is that enlightenment can HAPPEN, but “you” can’t do anything to make it happen because you don’t exist!
As Ken Wilber says, enlightenment is an accident, but meditation makes you more accident prone. Enlightenment happens, but there is no separate self that it happens to. I will say that since meditation makes you more accident prone, and Holosync meditation is undeniably faster and more potent than traditional meditation, using Holosync makes you REALLY accident prone. And, even if enlightenment doesn’t “happen,” “you” will, over time, at the very least drop a lot of your emotional bullshit, gain a tremendous clarity of mind, and dramatically reduce the amount of suffering you experience.
Again, if you’ve suffered a lot of trauma in your past, you’re almost sure to be playing a seriously hard Game of Black and White, in which case your path will probably be much more intense (the more trauma, the harder we play the Game of Black and White). When this happens, the mind, the ego, fights back even harder.
This was the way it was for me. I had HUGE upheaval, tons of cathartic stuff. I made the whole process very difficult for myself. But if I can come out the other side, anyone can. It’s because of the potential for upheaval that I created the support letters and the support hotline. Some people need more support. I didn’t have any support, which meant that I unknowingly made things more difficult than they needed to be. Now the only way you can do that is if you don’t ask for support, or reject it when it’s offered (as many people do–we tell them exactly what they need to do to stop suffering and they get pissed off at us).
To make all of this even more paradoxical, once you’ve realize that you are IT (or, rather, that the center you thought was you is just an idea, and that the real you is the entire going on of it all), once you get that there is no separate you, you have to somehow integrate that realization back into the relative world.
The truth is that humans DO create a world of separate things and events, and you can’t get away from the relative world. Trying to do so is just as much a delusion as failing to see that separate things and events aren’t real. So once you realize that the relative world, the world of separate things and events, is a mentally created illusion–what is commonly referred to as awakening (the Third Rank of Tozan I described in a previous post) you go back into the relative world and learn how to function in it WHILE AT THE SAME TIME knowing who you really are.
This is necessary because of one of the basic laws of reality: everything is in time and eventually passes away. There’s no getting away from this, and it’s for this reason that to be here, as a human, there is going to be SOME suffering. To be here you have to become attached, at least a little bit. You have to play a LIGHT version of the Game of Black and White. There’s no reason to be here unless you do. Genpo Roshi, for instance, is attached to some things, but it’s by choice. He’s attached to his children, his wife, his friends, to Zen, to helping others wake up, and so on. In the same way, I’m attached to certain things. And, because all things come into being and pass away, there is suffering built into all attachment.
The difference between Genpo Roshi (or anyone who has awakened and then goes back into the relative world) and the average person is that the awakened person chooses what to become attached to. Genpo Roshi calls such a person ”the one who chooses to be a human being.” Once you “get” the truth that everything is one thing, you could just sit in that place, in Big Mind, but in that place there’s nothing to do, nowhere to go, nothing to get. In that case, why be here? This relative world is a place where we at least play as if there IS something to get, somewhere to go, something to do. It’s just that the awakened person is choosing those things, while the unawakened person–busy playing an unconscious Game of Black and White–unconsciously stumbles from one type of suffering to the next, without choice.
So the answer to the question of whether or not you will become enlightened if you use Holosync is yes. And, it’s also no. And maybe. I’ll tell you this, though. Enlightenment is about two things: awareness (of what is real and what is illusion, and who you really are), and surrender to what is (in particular, to impermanence). You must see things the way they really are, and awareness is needed if you are to do that. Then, you must accept things the way they are, which means that you stop playing the Game of Black and White, except as a conscious choice. You see the way things are, and also that ultimately there is no escape from the way things are.
Once you do that (again, accepting the fact that, in reality, there’s no “you” to do this, but that’s the limitation of explaining this using language), you are FREE. People think that freedom is winning the Game of Black and White. It isn’t. Freedom is stepping out of the game, then stepping back in, but this time doing so consciously, intentionally, knowing and accepting the consequences.
Whew! This was a long one. I hope this is helpful. See you next time.
Before I go…
1) I just returned from presenting a workshop with Genpo Roshi in New York. Again, it was mind-blowing. Everyone raved about their experience. If you were there, please post something about your experience. I strongly urge you to come to our next workshop, in Las Vegas, on September 20-21. You can sign up at www.centerpointe.com/bigmind.
2) Also, if you haven’t registered for my FREE online course about the work of Eckhart Tolle, please do. Those who are taking this course are raving about how helpful it is. Just go to www.understandingthepowerofnow.com to register.
Please tell EVERYONE YOU KNOW about this course, which features Genpo Roshi, Ken Wilber, Byron Katie, Diane Hamilton, Sally Kempton, Saniel Bonder and Linda Groves-Bonder, and…me!
Be well.
Bill,
You are absolutely on the mark about “Awakening is partly the transcending, and including, of both the taking of personal responsibility AND the fact that there is no you that really makes any decisions or takes any INDEPENDENT actions.” That’s what makes this life so much fun to me. I have a particular meditation that I enjoy very much while using Holosync – I visualize myself as a leaf floating down a river, going where the current takes me. Occasionally “I” bump into the rocks or shore, swirl around in a whirlpool, join up with other leaves, get stuck on a tree limb, but always continuing the journey of where the river takes me. It is a visualization that is so very much like every day life that it helps make every day life flow for me because “I” know that no matter what I bump up against during the day, the current will continue to take me and I can relax and let whatever happens be okay. It is transcendence and inclusion.
Dear Bill,
I too just want to say thanks for another amazing piece of work. I’ve only been using Holosync for nearly a year now and my state of mind has improved more than I ever could have imagined. I fully believe that it is largely due to my use of Holosync and all of your writings to which I always look forward to. I’ll be eternally grateful for your contribution to my awakening – however far it may go. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Bill:
This is for Michelle who asked for comments from long time Holosync users. I am in the middle of the third set of Flowering, which is the last phase of Holosync. In other words I have one set of four discs left after this one. How long have I been doing Holosync? Well I have been meditating in some way or other since 1972, and doing two hours per day since 1980 and have tried various methods. So I am not really sure when I began Holosync, but it has been many years. Am I Enlightened? No. Do I feel much better? Yes. Holosync is by far the best method I have tried.
I need to share a little of my personal history so you can put this into perspective. My Internal Map is geared toward SAFETY as I have two chronic illnesses, starting with polio when I was 4. I can barely walk now and experience great fatigue and coldness. In my teens I began noticing symptoms of Crohn’s which is an inflammation of the intestinal track. It is like having an open sore in your intestines and you can imagine the discomfort when your stomach juices (acids) pass that spot. Unfortunately I did not repond to any of the treatments so have had 4 major surgeries to remove the infected spots. The trouble is the Crohn’s returns. So now I just live with it because there is not enough intestine left to take out. It causes acute stomach pain along with constant diahrrea. (I am on morphine for pain so I haven’t mastered the art of letting eveything be okay.). Along the way I have also had surgery for irregular heart beat, both gall and kidney stones, insomnia, four minor strokes and numerous other ailments including gout and skin diseases besides drug reactions. I list all these not to draw sympathy but to emphasize how my world view was shaped by my experiences. The world was a scary place for me, thus my need for safety in my Internal Map.
So my journey with Holosync has not always been a smooth one as resistance was the name of the game for me. But I persisted, reading everything Bill sent out, taking his on-line courses and have finally gotten to a place where I can “let whatever happen be okay” most of the time. I also experience peace and happiness inside which was always overwhelmed before by my physical circumstances. I volunteer where ever I can, particate in chat groups and do what I can to help others. I look forward to finishing the Holosync program, although I will probably continue to meditate with it just because it is so ingrained in my daily program.
After reading Bill’s description of the 5 Stages of Tozan I realize there is a lot more to come. But I just focus on the peace and happiness I feel today, even though I know it is not the Ultimate Reality. And as I said before if I reach that level fine, if not, that is fine also.
Terry M
Thanks, Bill for responding to my comments on the ‘accidental’ nature of enlightenment. The notion quite sent me into a tail spin for a few hours and your response has made me realise how fearful I still am, to have taken the idea so literally.
I am committed to seeing Holosynch through to the end. I am nearly 6 years into the programme now. Recently I had an urge to do ‘regular’ meditation, which I have always had difficulty with, and so sit for just 1/2 a day. It seems to be helping me with my Holosynch experience as well, as my mind is less frantic when listening, and I can stay awake more during HS.
I have also had the great fortune to find an enlightened being with whom I spend 2 hours meditating once a week – right here in the backwoods of southern Australia!. In addition, I do A Course in Miracles, work with my dreams and watch and read and listen to a heap of stuff like Eckhart’s.
I truly was beginning to wonder if there was something so badly wrong with me that I needed to do all of this, but I am slowly coming around to the realisation that I had a very, very, messed up childhood which led to creating much suffering in my adult life and this is just ‘my’ way of clearing all the karmic goop.
In surrendering to the fact that I am in this process, I have found, much to my surprise that I am ENJOYING it all. What felt like hard work, forced onto me by life’s unfariness, is becoming a joy and a pleasure. Gone is the resentment over my ‘forced’ withdrawal from the world and the guilt that I should be doing more in the outer world. I am seeing at last that resistance itself is the problem and not what is being resisted.
Thanks, Bill and to all the posters. I love reading the comments as much as the blog.
Have just read Michelle Beaton’s comments and thought it might be worth mentioning that I am halfway through Purification Level 3 and the levels really don’t mean much anymore. I have used the CDs pretty much everyday for the past 5 years, 9 months and joined the inner circle after about 2 years. I used to worry that Centerpointe would go bust before I finished the programme!!!
Hey Bill,
I’ve been using the Holosysnc solution for the past eight months and I’m waiting for the arrival of Level 1. Now, I got involved because for the past few years I’ve tried a whole range of other things for personal development to no avail however just doing the Awakening Prologue has made a tremendous difference. Anyway, I know a few people who meditate traditionally and have never heard of Holosync. I’m not after their approval however they have an intriguing question, “How do you ask Q’s and receive answers from the subconscious mind/expanded self/source energy/big mind (or whatever you’d like to use) if your mind is not actually quiet?
Any help is much appreciated.
Robert
From Bill: First of all, the Holosync soundtracks do not keep you from experiencing your own intuition of Higher Self, or whatever you want to call it. Second, the purpose of meditation isn’t to ask quesitons and get answers. Third, your intuition (which does become super-strong as you use Holosync) is accessible any time, not just during meditation. Fourth, using Holosync dramatically quiets the mind. These questions really come from not having a true understanding of meditaiton and how it works.
“The truth is that enlightenment can HAPPEN, but “you” can’t do anything to make it happen because you don’t exist!”
The mere listening to holosync to ‘achieve’ enlightenment means that once again you’re trapped in the intellect. If englightenment is an intuitive perspective only apparant when the mind is free of thought then trying to use the mind to become enlightened is pure folly. The mind can’t comprehend the uncomprehendable, so why attempt to use the mind to achieve it. Most peoples motive for using holosync is fear, fear of death, fear of trauma, fear of the little ‘me’ dying, etc. Whilst I’m motivated by that fear then my thoughts are conditioned and limited by that fear and so cannot be open to allow that which is beyond the mind to be. The same would be for formal/normal meditation.
If however, I decide to use holosync like I might choose to brush my teeth, then I may be closer to being open to allow this thing to happen.
Why does someone need someone else to explain about Eckart Tolle? Why don’t you readers just go and read his books for yourself and see his DVDs yourself, or watch excepts of him on YouTube and make up your own mind. If you go running to someone else constantly to answer your questions, then you’re throwing away responsibility, or at the worst handing that responsibility over to someone else. It’s something that you need to come to yourself, no amount of having someone else tell you about it will help. It’s like reading books on how to swim, they mean nothing once you’re thrown into the water.
Dear Bill, Where can I start? Maybe back in 2003 when I “jumped off” and joined the inner circle and started meditating every day with holosync. I am on the edge of starting “flowering”. There is no rush with this program. My life has become more and more amazing to me – pushing beyond limits is my passion. Before the “Law of Attraction” hit the mass media (very cool) it was working for me because I was able to “get it” by following Bill’s teaching (starting with the “Nine Principles” and through his excellent Life Integration series of courses). Here is what he taught me: “Focus on what you want” and “Let whatever happens be OK”. When you dive back in to play the game of life it is actually FUN most of the time because “you” know that you now have the power of “YOU (Big Mind)” in your court at all times and you just need to focus, act, trust and the little you will be amazed. I think of it as Super Consciousness (God) and God’s love for every one of us is limitless. so ASK! And believe that it CAN happen! If you ask for bread, God WILL NOT give you a stone! (And don’t forget to thank Him!)
Bill, I can’t thank you enough for being a BIG part of helping me break through my self imposed limits to an ever expanding awesome life! I am planning to schedule one of your retreats into my life in the coming year.
Again, thank you, and I also thank myself for letting you into my life!!
Hi,
Another cracking post
im really into this atm
the best things 4 me aside from all the enlightenment stuff is the conciousness holosync brings into your world, it has really helped me in bringing up my two little girls, in so much as the behaviour that i see in them is really just a reflection of my own behaviour and i can now clearly witness it in me instead of just flying off the handle with auto react ego.
The way i interact with the folks that come into my universe has changed in massive ways and im only half way thru level2. I aplaud you on your knowledge of all this and am inspired every time i come back to read your blog. As i was lying in bed last night after another session of h/s the immense gratitude i was feeling is just undiscribable it almost brought me to tears and it wernt because i was sad (i was wondering if it was upheaval lol) but anyway i could go on with more slush but hey you know it all already
Bill Harris
Top Bloke
Loadsa love
Bob
Hi,
And thanks for ‘Will Holosync make you enlightened?’ A question I, and I guess many others, have been waiting to be answered. You have of course answered this question before (google, Mind Chatter issue 25 Sept 1999) in replying to ‘the’ question by Neil Myres.
Comparing the two articles, almost ten years apart, makes for interesting reading!
Your answer this time round is a lot less vague than in 1999, but the question still remains: Do you know of Anyone who has used Holosync(as their main spiritual practice) that is at Tozan Zen rank 3, what generally most people would consider Enlightenment.
i.e Quote from yor post:
This realization isn’t a theoretical understanding, or belief. It’s an experience, and at first a quite stunning experience. And along with that experience is a complete freedom from clinging to the idea of ‘me’, or to the world being any certain way. All the conflicts that seem so real in the Game of Black and White are seen through, and in seeing through all of this, there is complete freedom.
The above sounds good to me and an EXAMPLE of someone experiencing this realization who mainly used Holosync to make them,as you said, ‘REALLY accident prone’ and fall into this realization, would I feel give a definitive answer to the question Will Holosync make me enlightened.
Thanks again,
Will.
Hi Bill,
Great Post, As usual.
- Julius
Bill, it’s my first post!! Thanks for posting this as this has helped me so much with a description to the feelings/thoughts I’m getting from Holosync.
I’ve found it so difficult to put into words my “experiences” to date since joining about a year ago!
I’ve read and watched a lot of your DVDs/Books you send however this post is where I seem to “get it”!
Thank so much for help putting my “transformational experiences” into words.
Healthy Regards,
Spida
wowow, Thank you for this blog, I have been working last years with this and I heve been finding benefits in all ways in my life, a great experience of awareness and a process since 1999 still learnig this and how to handle every day…
Thnak you so much for your support
love & light
Namaste
Yaneth
Thanks for the excellent post. First, enlightenment has not been something Ive thought to seek. It seemed too ephemeral, almost non-human after reading too much that was paradoxical or simply too complex in the efforts to explain the unexplainable.
This post, however, provided the one thing that now allows me to know it is attainable. After all, why spend all that effort on something that is unattainable? But the assertion that one may achieve enlightenment, be conscious of it, BE it, and then return to our ultimate – which I think of as – Birth reality. We did incarnate into these lives, therefore, we must be here for a reason – perhaps it is as simple as Awakening.
The Holosynch connection for me is this: I have been unable to figure out a reason or reasons for being here. And was unable to stop looking for it, to just BE. The resistance to being unable to find a reason, (my attachment) has lessened considerably with Holosynch use. More importantly, resistance in general to all that does not serve being peaceful and in the moment is lessened. Now, I still do not know the reason I am (we are) here but I am at peace with it – do not search for it. This is the “letting it be ok” Centerpointe refers to – a concept that made me quite angry in the beginning. I’m “ok” with many others things too now – and it did simply happen.
Bottom Line – my goal, after reading this post, is to become fully conscious within both experiences: the human duality reality and an awakened consciousness. For those making note of Holosync reactions: I am just switching from Awakening Prologue to Level I. This took about five months. Within AP I progressed from resistance reactions that included physical illness (flu, nausea, depression, serious nervous agida) then through more psychologically based resistance: trying not listen, anger (this I treated exactly the same as I did my young son’s behavioral outbursts – with compassion and loving firmness – “just do it and stop whining, it’ll be OK”) and finally, onto knowing that, like drinking water each day – it is a wonderful, refreshing, caring thing necessary to quality of life.
Potential users please note this is not necessarily a linear progression! Regression to be anticipated.
It is my intention to continue and to grow and Let It Be Ok, and to get back on the horse when I fall off. Perhaps I shall become awakened, if not, I am already more happy, peaceful and centered.
Thanks to all at Centerpointe
Bill what happens if you meditate (using holosync technology) more than one hour, will that increase the probabilty to get enlighted.
Thanks
Keep it up
Matthew
Where’s the Presence?
I am new to Holosync (and to Beaverton, Oregon!) so perhaps you have addressed the issue of Presence before. I enjoyed the new online interviews relating to Tolle’s rudimentary teachings and I tried the demo CD, which was like being bathed. Lovely. So, I have begun the program for the sheer deliciousness of being bathed in light. Certainly more fun that, say, an hour of TV!
I am a long time meditator and can access a state of Oneness at will. After the first day using Holosync, I added the Immersion CD and I find it wonderful. Like my regular meditation, it puts me in an oceanic state of peaceful non-duality. However – what it didn’t do was activate the dimension of Presence. Only after I additionally opened my heart, invoked gratitude for constant Presence, surrendered to the divine, and dissolved into Oneness, that I instantly felt that dimension of infinity within eternal infinity. That is home to me; that is enlightenment as I have experienced it.
I wonder if you have thoughts on this in relation to your concept of enlightenment. There is certainly a dimension of feeling-perception (not emotion, but a kind of awareness) that I did not feel with Holosync. Some may call it bliss, I suppose. I’m quite interested in your opinion because I don’t find the concept of this Presence or bliss in classical literature, notably in the Buddhist writings. I think perhaps this missing element is the Presence which Tolle writes about. It is hard to tell – as you pointed out, it feels rather silly to try to describe the wholly ineffable with verbal analysis and description. Any thoughts?
‘INEXTRICABLY CONNECTED’ by DragonRyderWhiteWhirl, Pen Name of: David Lee Finley
Form: Quatern
All the dots are connected and all the paths lead to the same place.
INEXTRICABLY CONNECTED
An active acceptance of faith,
The substance of my religion.
Belief inextricably mine,
Following me all of the time.
Spiritual well at my side,
An active acceptance of faith.
Characteristically developed,
Temperament so instrumental.
The degree this feeling exists,
Conditions themselves will surmise.
An active acceptance of faith,
Enveloping with no surprise.
Now, how can this be explained,
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Existence is interpreted,
An active acceptance of faith.
© David Lee Finley 2008
A Quatern is a sixteen line French form composed of four quatrains. It is similar to the Kyrielle and the Retourne. It has a refrain that is in a different place in each quatrain. The first line of stanza one is the second line of stanza two, third line of stanza three, and fouth line of stanza four. A quatern has eight syllables per line. It does not have to be iambic or follow a set rhyme scheme.
line 1
line 2
line 3
line 4
line 5
line 6 (line 1)
line 7
line 8
line 9
line 10
line 11 (line 1)
line 12
line 13
line 14
line 15
line 16 (line 1)
Thank you Bill!
Your post addresses exactly concerns I´ve had lately, ever since the separate self was seen through and replaced by This Ever-Present Self-shining Awareness that I Am which is Emptiness and yet not other than Form. Enlightenment is the Great Joke. How could you leave the Now (Eckhart Tolle would say)? Tolle defines enlightenment as the separation of Awareness from thought, I like that one. What´s wrong with right now unless thinking about it?, says “Sailor” Bob Adamson.
Then there is “once you get that there is no separate you, you have to somehow integrate that realization back into the relative world.” That is an issue that has arisen in Awareness now and then lately. And I´m grateful to You for having addressed it here!
Brothers and sisters – Holosyncers everywhere please look closely and tell me who or what You Are, without words. Take the shortest path and notice What Is doing the looking. You say you cannot see it… That is it. That is the No-thing that You Are. Do you see that Everything is arising in You? That is your Original face.
Namaste
Fredrik
Hello,
I am a holosync participant. I just started level 2 and am feeling positive effects of the program.
Could you touch on psychic phenomenia that could occur while meditating, such as remote viewing or lucid dreaming. These are very interesting & whenever I try to do research on it, all I seem to find are websites selling a product. What do you think about these topics?
Brian
Thank you Bill!
Explaining upheaval with the Black and White metaphor is an AWESOME idea! I hadn’t seen that in any of the support material. I definitely suggest that you add that metaphor in. I have had so much upheaval – I’ve been on Holosync for 3 1/2 years and I still can’t finish Level 1 CD#1. I denied to myself that I’ve been highly traumatized because my past seems so normal. Just to admit to myself that the first 20 years of my life included a lot of trauma has been so difficult!
You have done an excellent job explaining enlightment and “why are we here?” I think more explanations about upheaval and what specifically happens to the body during upheaval and how the ego fights for its version of reality would be VERY beneficial in the support material.
Again, thank you for giving me an ah-ha with the Black and White metaphor!
FROM BILL: Whether there has been trauma or not, the problem is playing The Game of Black and White, where you have divided the world into what is okay and what isn’t, and then decided that the okay MUST win. Trauma just creates a BELIEF (not a reality) that certain things are not okay. And, regardless of whatever has happened to you, or anyone, what matters is what happens NOW. Leave the past in the past and stop importing it into now as if it was still here.
I guess I am not sure what I have read or how to interput what I have read. I guess that is because I have not been able to bring meditation and prayer into the normal everyday activities of my life. I have tried for about ten years. I do meditate almost everyday but I am still not consistent where I feel I can move to a higher level in Holosync.
As I finished reading this blog for the third time I thought why am I spending an hour or sometimes two a day meditating to find big mind when once I get there There is nothing. Is the problem that I am still in the physical world and cannot figure out the difference between the two.
I am not asking for advise I am just trying to figure out my own path. This blog has certainly made me think a a litlle.
Craig
FROM BILL: Stop meditating to try to get something. That, too, is playing the Game of Black and White. Stop trying to get rid of anything and stop trying to get anything. Embrace everything. Just do your meditation and BE AWARE. Watch with awareness and curiosity. If you see something you are seeking, observe that, without any agenda. If you see something you are trying to get rid of, observer that, again without any agenda. Just watch. And how do you know if you aren’t ready for the next level? Maybe you are. I suspect you’re looking for perfection before you go on. Check the instructions for guidelines for going on. And, are you using the support coaches, or just struggling on your own? Finally, the “nothingness” you talk about might just be the answer you are seeking (and, by the way, I said “emptiness,” not nothingness).
Bill, you write: “Part of the waking up is the realization that there is no separate person there to actually see anything…..This realization isn’t a theoretical understanding, or a belief. It’s an experience, and at first a quite stunning experience.” For me it only creates feelings of panic and utter isolation – realizing that there is only “one”. That to experience or just imagine being another (person/being) it must be done – can only be done – the way one is now. Put another way: think in terms of the five senses, the capacity for thought, and the capacity to do action – if you were another person there would be no difference – oh you would have a different set of memories, different history, different preferences, and different physical capacities, etc. – but I’m speaking from the perspective of simply the knowing of, and experiencing of, another person/being. There is always a center from the inside looking out – which could lead one to ask if there really is another, if the only way to be sure there is another is to experience/know through one’s present state. This is where the isolation comes in; the panic from realizing everything has been – is an illusion, wondering what is real, if anything is “real”. Of course, I’m using a lot dualistic expressions which can lead to all sorts of counter arguments, debates, “corrections” etc., I’m probably even contradicting myself many times, but your writings, Bill, are the only ones that have come close to discussing the experiences I’ve felt, although not with the outcomes I’ve had. My “nightmare” (for want of a better term, perhaps) is that no one will understand what I’m attempting to explain, no matter how clear I try to be; and get hung up discussing/debating other details of my descriptions; not understanding it and writing it off with a clever comment; or understanding but “not wanting to go there”; or not being posted!! The most frivolous and ignorant comment I’ve ever had was “If you’re not experiencing bliss and a freedom and release, then you haven’t been experiencing what we’re talking about”. Case closed, the rest of my explanations be damned! Maybe I’ve missed something and it’s just not obvious to me; if so, Bill, I would sincerely be interested in your response.
FROM BILL: If the experience of oneness creates panic, I don’t see it in those I know who are in that place, and I don’t experience that myself. This place is one of peace. Your lack of peace has to do with your continuing to play the Game of Black and White, where something MUST be a certain way. The universe is the way it is, and dividing it into things/events that must be and others that must not be creates suffering–even panic. This includes wanting/needing others to understand.
There certainly is a “looking out” from your senses. The universe is looking out through ALL senses, of all sentient beings. There is something “real” out there. The illusion is that IDEAS about the universe, and particularly your ideas about who you are are the same as the real thing. They represent the real thing, but are not the same. Confusing the two creates suffering.
Bill, I am using Holosync and listenting to level 4 of the deeper levels now. Bill my friend, and I am not using the term my friend lightly. You and Holosync have literally changed my life. Everything you say in this blog is true and a whole lot more could be said. I listen daily in the morning and evening. But your suggestion to also record personal affirmations within the sound bed of the audio is brilliant. I remember Brian Tracey recommended that a number of years ago on his Phoenix Seminar tapes. I did that back then and it produced miracles in a couple areas of my life. However Holosync and the personal affirmations are even more powerful. Thank you Bill Harris… thank you so very much.
When I saw the title of the post I realized it doesn’t matter to me. After 2.5 years I am busy inhabiting the present and everything is ok.
Hi Bill,
I’m in the Awakening Level ( 2+ years now), and I wish that could say that it has changed my life for the better. But I can’t.
Much resistence, much resistence, much upheaval, and more resitance.
I accept and own the fact that I’m the one or at least my internal map of reality is generating the upheaval and resistance to what is. Or at least I try to at times ( I hate to admit that I have a PhD. in projection).
Will the upcoming workshop with Roshi really help me get around all the beliefs that keep me playing the Black-White game. (Shadow material I guess)
When I was three and four my mother would beat me senseless if I ever challenged her dictate and demands. And I mean senseless. When she finished wiith me everything around me took on different prespective.
Sorry
I need to stop this comment right now —- for I feel everything inside starting to unravel.
Robert
FROM BILL: First of all, you very probably need some expert therapeutic help, either a local therapist who specializes in traumatized people, or call Dr. Beverlee Taub, who works with a lot of Centerpointe people by phone and is truly a genius and really can help. Here phone is 503 640 9342. And, yes, the workshop with Genpo Roshi ia nearly all about getting rid of shadow material–which are those things that cause us to play a HARD version of the Game of Black and White (which you are doing–when a person is traumatized they tend to dramatically catagorize everything into okay and not okay, safe and unsafe). You can’t count on JUST Holosync, or JUST a course or workshop, to shift this. It ultimately comes down to what YOU do, now. Though you were abused, that was then, this is now. It’s what you do now that matters, and that is a choice, even if it doesn’t feel that way. Because you have been abused you have certain chronic negative thoughts and beliefs, which you BELIEVE. When you entertain them you feel bad. However, these thoughts are NOT true, and they are not resourceful. You need to distance yourself from those thoughts–watch them, but without believing that they are true. “Oh, there are those thoughts again. Hmmm.” Watch with curiosity but without getting involved with the thoughts as if they were YOU or represent the truth about you. Call Dr. Bev and do come to Las Vegas.
Hope I am not too late to post … I’m sure it has been said here. To reiterate…We are already Enlightened we just have not awakened to it. I know their are different schools of thought of what is enlightenment is but to me it’s awakening to our Divinity. Once we know this …we are.
Wow Bill what an “enlightening” post… hehehe
Just me “The Great Fool, Great Joker”
)
Hi Bill!
Thank you for Holosync!
Thank you for the onLine LPIP Course!
Thank you for this blog!
Thank you for the onLine 6 Lesson Course!
P.S.
I would like to read more about the ideas of Ken Wilber from your perspective!
Are there any ‘enlightenment’ communities that meet in person regularly? Like I feel that centerpointe, wilber’s integral institute, etc; but is there a ‘hub’ that connects that in-person as well?
- Julius
o you guys still show these to people?
I’d like to thank you for developing a tool that has helped me become as resilient as I am now.
This was written online by myself the summer before eleventh grade:
“I have enough friends I should say. Of course I’d like to have more, but most people I’m too eccentric for or too shy to talk to or just downright annoy me. So I’ve found my niche among decent, long-haired citizens who seem like stoners but have never smoked pot, and a couple goofy girls who actually are potheads, something rather annoying to be around constantly. My friends listen to everything from Motley Crue to Bob Marley to Built To Spill to David Bowie and everything in between, but nobody I hang out with listens to metal.
Most of the people I know who listen to the same metal I do are the most immoral, slutty, drug-addled freaks you will ever find. I like their style, respect their individuality, and obviously enjoy the same music they do, but really they need to get back on track.
So really the only people I can talk to about extreme metal are people whose faces I’ve never seen, whose dirty deeds I’ve no awareness of. Then again, I did talk to someone whose favorite bands include Tool, Opeth, and Amon Amarth for like an hour at my brother’s graduation ceremony (I was pretty bored I guess), and I’ll be in orchestra with him next year, so maybe I’ll gain a metal friend yet. He certainly seems more moral than any of his friends…
I’m not really on topic, am I? Well basically I’m trying to say that one reason I frequent this forum is because I don’t have any metalhead friends. Another is out of sheer boredom. And also maybe a little out of loneliness, though I’m not constantly using internet forums to absolve any shyness or depression like I used to. That was really a dark chapter of my life.
I think the main reason I use this forum so much is that people get so tired of hearing me rant out the music I’m so passionate about that I need an outlet where I can express it as much as I please. Actually, that sounds pretty healthy. I don’t feel bad about wasting time here any more.”
… And fall of eleventh grade:
“I fell hard for this girl, you see, and didn’t know how to handle it at the time. I was going through changes and was trying to make them all myself. Everything matured, ultimately, except my true feelings for her. I just buried them under heaps of bullshit that was only relevant to me.
When I came back to school and realized that there are so many better people to get involved with, I began to question my “love” for her. She really was just a very, very unhappy pot-smoker when it came down to it, I thought. So I got judgmental. I avoided her, and when she asked me about it I just exploded. I just basically yakked at her about how I’d rather smoke pot with her than watch Corpse Bride. Since then we’ve tried to rebuild our relationship. It hasn’t worked.
Today I told her what I was going through as it applies to her. I just said I had no idea if we could be friends right now, and that was enough for then.
And I realized that rather than throw my love of music out the window, I have to unravel my choice of music, figure out what it has said about me in the past and still says about me.
I went back to an album that spoke to me very deeply, though I couldn’t place why in Spring of last year…
Disintegration (The Cure)
I’ve jammed “Love Song” so many times now, I just knew there had to be a reason it wasn’t coming out right. I poured my recent spirituality into the song last night at church band practice, and maybe they could tell, because it finally came out right.
Just now I played the song, first on my bass and then with my voice, that spoke to my subconscious the loudest:
“Disintegration”
And I realized something: I had based a very large portion of my emotions towards this girl on that song. With this in mind, I realized the true horror of the lyrics. When I sang it out, it came out right, because I now know how it had spoken to me.
The song is all about false love. It’s all about unrealistic expectations and insincerity, and where it lead Robert Smith. Yeesh, I don’t want to be Robert Smith…
And now I’m finally able to laugh about it. No joke.
And now iTunes has moved on to “Lost” by the same band. And now I realize how insane it was to get lost in those lyrics. So I feel good about where they’re ultimately taking me.
Don’t do drugs, do music.”
…
I was obviously really into my own beliefs and drama. Just after I wrote that second forum post, I began meditating with Holosync. I’ll never forget my first session. I felt like my life was falling apart; felt like shit. I came home with my head downcast, and was mumbling about my bad day when my mom was like, “Just put on these headphones and let it take you to a different place!” After the 1/2 hour session of Awakening Prologue, I felt more at peace within my dramatic social situation. Life didn’t seem hopeless anymore; moreover, it seemed that I didn’t have to create attitudes about my situation that would “make life hopeless.”
I spent most of high school as a melancholy hermit, but I grew internally with Holosync. In twelfth grade I had my first girlfriend, and a support representative recommended me what is now my favorite book, Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now. Upon first reading it I probably just made a bundle of beliefs out of it. But over time, those beliefs have acted as “signposts” to help me access my inner body and get out of my head and into the now.
I’m now on Awakening Level 4, disc 4. It’s been a long, slow journey out of “hell,” but I’m beginning to really love life! I have an AMAZING girlfriend right now who is going to grad school to study poetry, and I’m a music student at the College of Idaho. I’m working as a Cutco sales representative now, a job that I initially resented, but I am now enjoying the opportunity to interact with all kinds of people one-on-one and get paid for it!
I still have issues sleeping – I’m not totally comfortable with the Floating soundtracks, so I don’t sleep with them. But I’ve put my pride away and I’m going to get some help with that at a sleep clinic. My “sleep schedule” has been really scattershot lately, but I feel pretty good anyways… I guess you’d call that resiliency!
Things are much the same as they ever were. I still listen to melodic death metal; I’d be lying if I said I never took anything that could be called a “drug” (alcohol, coffee, meds, etc.); I’m still attracted to superficial girls sometimes. However, I have enough distance from my “dharmas” (thoughts & beliefs) to watch those tendencies, see them for what they are, and even enjoy them a little.
So. Bill, staff, and everyone else involved: You truly have made the world a better place with your contribution. I encounter nay-sayers to “electronic meditation” every so often, but, for example – I told my Intro to Buddhism professor about it, and he said the traditional equivalent would be Zen chanting. So people are really opening up to this stuff!
I’m really stoked for next year. I’ll be living in a Delta Tau Delta frat house with really down to earth, unique people who strive to understand one another, and I want to get involved with a lot else! I could resurrect the “mens’ group” that used to be on campus and was a group for men to share their emotions with one another and just be heard. I could run for “choir board.” We’ll see!
Thank you so much,
Devin Rand
FROM BILL: You can tell your intro to Buddhism prof that one of the top Zen masters in the world (Genpo Roshi) uses Holosync every day (as do many of his monks and several of his Dharma successors) and he just told me that he is going to insist that all his new Zen students use Holosync for 6 mo. to a year before he teaches them traditional Zen meditation. And although Buddhist chanting does, in a crude way, create a trance-like state (as does drumming, singing devotional songs, Sufi dancing, and several other rhythmic practices) Holosync is MUCH more precise and takes people to states none of these can create. Buddhist chanting has other benefits, as well, of course.
Hi Bill,
Your favourite student again. A couple of thoughts that came to me which I thought would be fun to share.
Is it possible to talk about disidentification with the mind and enlightenment as though they are separate? In other words, would you say that disidentification with the mind is enlightenment or would you say there is more to it than that? Perhaps yet a clearer way of asking is, is it possible to be disidentified with the mind and NOT enlightened?
If the answer to that question is no, then it seems highly unlikely that after several years of holosync use along with a lifestyle that is supportive of evolutionary growth, one will not become enlightened. So with that in mind, perhaps your answer could have been ‘yes’, as opposed to ‘yes, no and maybe’.
Perhaps a couple of case studies of of five or six people who have used holosync over a period of 10 years or so and completed the programme would be helpful. It would be good if this included individuals who just used holosync and no other transformational practice.
Another thing that could be beneficial would be a few examples of ways in which one can combine holosync use with other transformational practices such as ILP in order to accelerate their spiritiual growth – a discussion of how holosync affects the causal and subtle bodies would be great in that regard.
Whichever way you go, I’m sure it’ll be great but I do think it would be best to discuss things that are not covered in the support materials.
Until the next time.
Terry
FROM BILL: A baby, and children up to the age where they are capable of abstract thinking, are not identified with the mind, yet are not enlightened. Some mentally impaired people are not identified with their mind and an IDEA of who they are.
A child does not divide the world into bits until adults teach it to do so. However, it seems to be necessary that we learn to do this, in order to get around in the world. We learn it so well, however, that we forget that it is just a TOOL, and take it for reality.
Bill, I caught you on the Secret… I just bought and am so pumped about this program. i have suffered from depression, relationships falling apart and a big anger issue. i had no tolerance for anything…. if this does what i am hoping it will…. i will owe you my life. I am to the point in my life where I have no choice but to reclaim what has been lost forever.
Thank you very much
Darren L Utah
Hi Bill,
I take your point about the mentally impaired and babies being disidentified and not being enlightened. But I was thinking more in terms of a person with a ‘normal’ identification with their thoughts and feelings, who undergoes a powerful transformational practice (like holosync together with a supportive lifestyle) on a consistent regular basis over a period of several years.
Is it not most likely that this person will become disidentified with their mind? In the sense that they come to see it as object rather than subject. And isn’t that what enlightenment is? Isn’t that freedom? An experiential awareness of the fact that we are not our minds, thoughts and feelings. I can’t imagine anything more freeing. But if there really is more to it than that, I would love to hear what else there is.
Incidentally, I took the sentence completion test and found it pretty interesting. It actually confirmed my assessment of where I felt I was on the devlopmental ladder. Individualist. Obviously, my aim is to broaden my awareness to the point where I fully wake up. I’m currently on Awakening L3 and using the ILP starter kit – 321, and weight training. I’m finding 321 in particular really illuminating. But I still wonder if I’m doing enough to achieve my goal (waking up). It would be good to hear your thoughts.
Until the next time,
Terry
FROM BILL: Disidentifying with the mind is part of it. I’ve written a lot in this blog about what else is involved.
Hi Bill;
I am on the third CD of Awakening Level 4. So far it does not seem to have affected me in any strong defining way. I have not had any great upheaval, I have not had any thoughts of resistance, I have had thoughts that this is not having any affect on me whatsoever. I may be more calm (I’m not really sure); I may have some more awareness, but I often think that calmness and wareness is a part of getting older and simply learning about myself as time goes on. I have been a United Methodist Minister, and a psychiatric social worker, and I consider myself to be resonably intelegent, and I have been paying attention to how I behave and respond to others for a longer time than I have been using this program. So it seems that this program, for me at this time, may just be sitting and listening to gongs and rain. I really cannot clearly identify any significant changes in my overall behavior or level of awareness at this point in time.
FROM BILL: Hmmm. All the things you say are happening is what I tell you is going to happen. So how can you say that nothing is happening? If you are calmer and more aware, it’s working. If that is the effect of getting older, why aren’t all older people calm and aware?
Hi,
And thanks for clearing up the issues surrounding enlightenment.
Of course there is plenty of misleading information available. For instance any one who becomes a ’seeker’ is very likely to read Yogananda’s Autobiography of aYogi.
From a previous post you write: ‘I love Yogananda, but that dosen’t change the fact that a belief in miracals that still surrounds him is preconventional, magical thinking. No evidence whatsoever exists that people can dematerialize, for instance or that any of the other soughts of magic described in that tradition can actually happen.’
So why would Yogananda write such a misleading book? Was he at a preconventional level? Was he not expecting it to be used as a ‘bible’ by future generations? Was there some other reason?
Yogananda was 52 when the book was published and had been accoustomed to the West for 25 yrs, people hanging on his everyword. Why would he put forward such misleading information about Enlightenment?
Thanks again for the clarification.
will.
FROM BILL: Much of the Hindu world is at preconventional, which involves magical thinking. A person can be enlightened at ANY developmental level, at least in the sense that they can be established in the transcendent. You could be having an ongoing unitive experience at a conventional level, a preconventional level, a postconventional level, an integral level, and so forth. Ken Wilber has a new way of looking at this, which I think is very intriguing–that a truly enlightened person is fully established in the transcendent AND ALSO living at the highest developmental level currently existing on the planet. These two he calls “state stages” (one of which is unity consciousness) and “structure stages” (the developmental levels I have written about). Sorry, but the laws of nature and cause and effect are LAWS, and those who believe they can be broken (that something can “magically” happen that does not follow those laws) is deluded, even if they are experiencing unity consciousness in terms of state stages.
Bill,
Good post.
However, I believe you went wrong about one tiny thing. My primary intention is to correct you in it. As a secondary, it tells me that there is more of the waking up, that you will have to go thru (sorry, if that comes hard).
The thing where I think you went wrong is proposing, or at least playing with the concept of a “awakened” person, going back to live amidst the sleeping “world”. That’s grossly off the mark.
Those who wake up, wake up for good. I heard this Buddhist saying, “those who awaken, awaken forever”. there is NO GOING BACK in awakaning. so all a awakened person does is “find out his own work and applying himself entirely to it”. which is not much different from what a non-awakened person’s gotta do really. coz, the reality is there is not much difference between a sleeping and a awakened individual. both are in reality, one with the Tao, the Brahman, this infinite-dimesioned reality. BOTH ARE the Brahman. One is suffering from the illusion of being a separate entity and the other is established in the knowledge of the fact of BEING the brahman. the rest of the mind-body functions remain the same. only the attitude changes in such a way, that doing exactly the same thing, one draws a cartload of attachment (packaged with the associated suffering) and the other stays free…NO KARMA GENERATED.
so summerising my point…enlightenment is a one way door. there never had been and never will be any “going back” in it.
and the disclaimer goes like: this comes from my own years of work at understanding the phenomena of enlightenment and the enlightened themselves.
Thanks….
Regards
Indrajit
FROM BILL: I didn’t say there was any “going back.” You’re readling too much into what you think I’m saying, and you’re reading too many books about enlightenment.
Okay, this will be my last go on this one as I’m not sure I’m understood, probably in part because of the limiting nature of language that you’ve touched upon. Or maybe my perspective isn’t sufficiently broad to grasp the material, or maybe both.
My understanding is that the reason we don’t live from our true nature is that the mind gets in the way. So what I am suggesting is once the mind is out of the way, we will live from our true nature. Of course I have noted the ‘levels’ or ’stages’ of the experience of this true nature that have been touched upon in both the recent blog and previous ones. But as they are all experiences of our true nature, it seems to me that they could all reasonably be described as enlightenment. It seems to me that everything comes down to moving beyond the feeling of separateness and dualism which derives from identification with the mind. And all of the other things – feelings of oneness, seeing how things fit together, broader perspective, falling of way of dualism, peace compassion etc.. seem to me to be natural consequences of a healthy disidentification with the mind.
I wonder if you have read the book “My Stroke of Insight” by Jill Bolte Taylor – a fascinating story about a brain surgeon who had a stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. She ‘lost’ her mind, along with her ability to communicate as well as various other motor skills. Naturally most people would view such an experience with horror. But fully conscious with an undamaged right hemisphere and a self that was free of mind chatter and devoid of an attachment to a separate ‘me’, Jill experienced what she described as nirvana – a feeling of oneness with the universe. Through a painful rehabilitation process (which she chose as recovery was a decision), she subsequently recovered her faculties. However she now exercises choice with her thoughts and sees her mind as object rather than subject. She now lives from a place of peace and compassion, and appears to be extremely healthy and functional. Regardless of the various stages, ranks and so on…it seems to me difficult to make a persuasive case that such a person is not enlightened, because they haven’t experienced the ‘great fall’ or some of the other things mentioned as being part of the waves of development leading towards enlightenment.
But perhaps my mistake is in getting caught up in taking the descriptions of these ranks too literally, and I need to remember that they are the map and not the territory.
I look forward to hearing from you again either in response or on your future blogs.
Until the next time,
Terry
FROM BILL: Terry, I’m not sure why you want to tie this up in a neat package, where everything depends on disidentification with the mind. Certainly seeing through the mind is an important aspect of this process, but it isn’t the only thing. And, quite frankly, I suspect that you may be trying to get rid of the mind with the mind.
I believe Bill is fundamentally right, as I argued in my blog entry this week.
A commitment to a Holosync-type program is an excellent addition to a serious Integral Life Practice or ILP.
I agree with some of the comments voiced here in the sense that we cannot force enlightenment: and yet it would be a great mistake to believe that crossing our arms is a valid option.
It is simply short-sighted to close ourselves to the great possibilities offered by this novel technology for humanity’s spiritual and psychological development. Let us keep an open mind and continue to research and refine this promising technology just as Bill and the Centerpointe Institute are doing.
I don’t want you to get fed up with me so I’m going to resist the temptation to engage you in debate about the notion that one cannnot use the mind to transcend the mind. I’ll just say that I disagree and leave it at that
Thanks for the blogs. Thanks for Holosync. And thanks for your generosity of spirit in taking the time to answer all of these comments.
I look forward to hearing more from you in the future.
Until the next time,
Terry
I am so grateful for getting involved with Holosync and experiencing what I think is what a person should be, at my level (which is level 1). It took me around a year to listen to the demo that was a regrettable thing for me to do. My family has noticed such a difference in my attitude and my personality they say many positive things about me. I have already done the Silva Mind control course and that fulfilled me long ago. It set me on my path but there are many things that passed in front of me to tempt me away from the new path and made me leave. But because I do the holosync meditations every day now I don’t feel that the temptation isn’t there anymore to make me leave. I like this technique so much it has positive effects on me. The whole idea is to quiet that thinking mind and when its almost peaceful thats when your life comes together.
I feel compelled to respond to Indrajit s message above.There is no sophisticated process involved in becoming ‘enlightened’ Indeed one should stop trying to get enlightened, though i wont say it is a prerequisite. Just one thing i want to emphazise .. this can be a valuable marker for everyone on the ‘path’ the one word is silence or stillness . Experience it . there is no place for intellectual exercises in that vast ocean of stillness. And Bill , there is still something more about the ‘magical’ aspect of hinduism
Its not too far when science becomes religion.
FROM BILL: What I’m trying to get across is that there is no one to become enlightened. The idea of a separate you is an illusion, so who is it who becomes enlighened? Enlightenment is the realization that what you thought was a separate center, an ego in a bag of skin, is just a mentally-created phenomenon, and that who “you” really are is the entire matrix of relationships that makes up EVERYTHING, looking out from the organism you used to think was a separate you.
Interesting Bill,
Following up on your “accident” metaphor:
You say, “using Holosync makes you REALLY accident prone.”
Well, ’shit,’ you say.
Good advice, Bill.
For me, at least, post-prostatecomy incontinence takes REAL accident proneness to new levels.
Actually, meditating with Holosync after emptying bowel/bladder makes it much easier to get into the Now/Presence/Enlightened state.
So I wonder if there is any relationship between internal-fullness and the lower frequency brain waves?
Aren’t they both connected with the hypothalamus?
I’ll continue to sit on this problem.
Bummer.
Hi Bill,
Et al if there is still anybody reading these blogs. — Hi to Connie and Terry and Oscar. You probably thought everyone had quit and gone home. I just got here late, but I love you all.
Thanks to Bill and Holosync, people are still thinking. I refer everyone to this product. I think it’s a miracle.
Whether we are enlightened, or not, and whether we can give up our egos for a little while, or not, Holosync still makes life more enjoyable, less stressful, and my partner and I are finding that we seem to be smarter! We don’t really think that we’re smarter, but that we ARE able to use more of our brains, and more of the creative right side that recognizes our connection to everyone.
I don’t know if we are allowed to post website connections in this blog. Forgive me if we aren’t, but this is the only way I know of to get to this video of a neuro-anatomist who talks about the left-right brain in the most enlightening way. From her description, clearly the ego resides in the left brain. Enlightenment resides in the right brain. Holosync allows us to visit both consciously. http://www.mindbridge-loa.com/who-are-we.html
Bravo to Bill and team!!! We love you!!!
Thanks,
Nancy
Thanks Bill. Enlightenment is the same as Realization. Thats as simple you can put it
. As is above so below,as inside so outside. Cryptic but meaningful.
i just have to say WOW, i received my awakening package on Tuesday this week. so far listened 3 times. i get back to my feet and i am wasted
i can definitely feel something going on. it is the best 1/2 hour of my day.
Bill i just have to tell you thanks.
I have come to a point in my life where I need to change almost everything about me or I am going to loose the most important thing that has ever came into my life, and that is my wife Kristy. this woman has had the patience of a saint. To be able to live with my Outbursts and shutting her out of my life. Bill, if this program will straighten out my depression, anger and walls i have built….. Then I will owe you my life.
i have been to the doorstep of suicide a number of times.
i no longer think about it. this program is helping me right from the get go
God Bless you sir.
between holosync and living the law of attraction my life is making an amazing transformation.
Bill, you always end with “be well” It is something that I know you really mean.
Darren M Liston
Springville Utah
A brief response to Ms Strummels observation above. The compartmentalisation of the brains region for various functions is a bit dated theory.Its true that the motor functions can be elicited by stimulating certain cortical areas.But the thought and emotive aspects are far more complex and cannot be put down to any single region.The latest theories are about plasticity wherein any part of the brain can seemingly take over the function of a damaged area.Nerology and psychiatry has still a long way to go for us to have a proper understanding about thought and consciousness.So mathematics does occur in the right brain just as einstein said
.
Hi Balu,
I appreciate your wanting to put out the most up to date information. I suggested that people look at Dr. Jill Bolte’s video, because her experience was only a few year’s ago, enough for recovery and to do this video to describe her experience. She is a neuro-anatomist who suffered a stroke that took out her left brain (literally, physiologically) and allowed her to experience what it was like to be a totally right brained person.
I would like to hear from someone who has seen the video. Since Holosync is strengthening the connection between our left and right brain, wouldn’t you like to know more about the two?
Again, you can find it at http://www.mindbridge-loa.com/who-are-we.html
Thanks again, Bill
And so now Bill, the big question is……
“Is Bill Harris Enlightened?”
By the way, you should interview our mutual friend, Scott D. for the Understanding the Power of Now series. I’ve learned a lot from him about it at our office and it’s been huge help. He’d be a great bonus to have.
–Sean
FROM BILL: There is no Bill Harris. Who, then, would be “enlightened”?
Hi Nancy
Thanks, thats a great video.I would like to suggest one very good book ‘Phantoms in the Human Brain’ by Prof V S Ramachandran.I would like to put in some comments regarding the experiences by Dr Jill Bolte from a purely medical perspective but i am not quite sure in which way i should put it.So i guess i can do it a bit later when i have more time.But for the time being please read prof Ramachandran.I would say its truely humbling to know how much we dont know !
Balu S Nair
ps : to Bill .. i am curious about this one. this is something i have experienced myself, it doesnt matter to me now but at that stage it was indeed a bit of problem .As we strengthen the internal communications between the left and right brain .. ( actually i did a test to find out whether i was balanced and indeed it came out as 51% for the left brain and 49% for the right brain.)Now at this point in time everything was ok , i was able to make the most of both, but here was the catch .. my decision making was good too but it took a long time !! Now the whole point is was i right in balancing the two.It was a lot easier when i was left brained ! Does this happen to everyone? and is this a process that happens along the ‘way’.I guess you would be the better person to know about this after relating to experiences from a lot of people.
FROM BILL: Hmm. I make almost instant, intuitive decisions (though I can “analyze” if it is appropriate to do so) and they are rarely wrong. There’s more to this than just synchronizing your brain. It’s about 1) awareness, and 2) knowing WHAT to be aware of (at least when operating in the relative world). This second criteria is the equivalent of a musician being able to improvise, without thought, because he spent years learning his chords and scales, tediously, day after day. Awareness allows you to make/see instant connections and understand all the possibilities and all their consequences, without analytical thought. Practice at whatever you need to make decisions about–learning ALL about it–allows you to know where to place that awareness. I would HIGHLY suggest that you take my Life Principles Integration Process online courses, where I teach you how to do this. You can listen to a free preview lesson at http://www.centerpointe.com/life/preview.