Since humans began to think, we developed ideas and beliefs to feel safe and secure in our abstract and physical reality. But now, the mutually confirmed beliefs and identity of our traditional cultures have collapsed.

Nowadays, individuals must find their own safety.

Now we have to 'find ourselves' on a practical and spiritual level.

The main modern challenge to all educators and parents, is encouraging us to discover and develop what we want to do and who we want to be.

Being a fulfiled individual and believing in ourselves are modern cultural ideals – "you are unique, a special individual", "believe in your dreams".

Traditonally this took the form of a super almighty focal point like God. These days, new-age gurus talk about finding the true self or the higher self – a deeper sense of self in a state of pure and universal consciousness.

And this was inevitable. Ever since we started developing our individuality, it was clear that self-development and self-realisation would become the ideals for perfection.

Focused thought is so self obsessed, it has developed its own tunnel vision in the abstract world.

Einstein told us everything is energy and light. Perhaps in another million years humans will evolve to perceive themselves as a 'real self' full of light and energy.

But it's ridiculous, right now we could be doing what every animal does, experiencing the safety and wholeness of panaral reality.

We just don't recognise any alternative to our focused perspective. We're focusing so intensively, we don't remember that there's any other way of sensing. Focused sensing is blind to panaral reality.

Panaral reality is safe and whole, being and doing without knowing or needing to know.

What it lacks, is a sense of individual purpose and identity. And also any need for a purpose and identity.

Our identity won't disappear, our sense of purpose and meaning in life won't vanish, it'll just be secondary for a moment, not compulsively repeating its own habitual routines all the time.

We need these brief panaral periods like every other animal. Other animals need them to be safe in actual reality, we need them to be safe in our abstract reality.

We need to be able to forget about ourselves and stop our habitual background thinking, at any time, spontaneously and naturally.

And then i'm not sure what could happen. It opens up new worlds of possibilities, and we will always exist in a far deeper way than we can define.

But what we are now, and what we think we can become, is being severly limited by only recognising what we can sense by focusing. The individual and social situation we've created with the self-obsessed focused box we're stuck in is crazy.

So it's not our essential nature which dominates modern social principles – it's how we identify ourselves.

The justifiable and even legally acknowledged sense of our individual self, is our abstract image, our idea of who we are, who we think we are.

And socially, all our codes of work and play, of etiquette, mating habits, and the possibilties of how to break those codes, have recently, all rapidly diversified and multiplied.

A chaotic state in our herd mentality – our collective social identity – has developed.

So now, if we want to achieve a society of free individuals, then we need to follow Gandhi and Mandela; we have to learn their lessons on forgiveness and respect for all beliefs.

Without embracing the entirity of humanity, in sickness and in health, our modern collective psychology lacks security. These are familiar ideas, the clichés of modern social thinking. So we created laws to protect our individual rights and integrate us.

And our modern liberal thinking to contain the diversity of beliefs – rather than infallible rulers forcing a consensus of ideas – is a great step for civilisation.

Rejoicing in the rich tapestry of life is a modern social skill. It's something the best of us agree on and aim at, it's one of our central cultural beliefs.

And this is truly the best option our exclusively focused understanding of life can offer.

Panaral reality is an awareness of everything happening – and how on earth could we ever hope to develop empathy for 'everything', for the common good, without first being aware of it.

Panaral reality is another way of experiencing life. It's a sense of the attitude of other people, the volume and tone of their voice – it never even considers what people say or how they identify on an abstract level.

The colours in our rich tapestry, and the groups within groups, are always multiplying. It's not going to stop suddenly. There will always be an increasing amount of hippies, punks, emos, straights and queers.

There will always be more crazy conspiracy theories, political lies, influencers displaying new forms of religious and political extremism, the fragmentation is relentless. And all the new trends and their derivations are rapidly becoming more sophisticated and clever, even more individualistic and more abstract.

And we accept it, even when we don't like it we accept this chaos is happening and think there's nothing we can do about it.

But this or something like it is what we could expect from a culture which only looks for security and safety by focusing. Even exclusively and intensely training it for at least 10 formative years – forcing all panaral sensitivity out of existance.

And even when, in a panaral moment of inspiration, there is a new idea or experience, it must be processed, expressed, and understood, by rational focused thought.

Our rational and abstract ten year education thought tube, is training a specialised form of abstract focused humanity.

Our abstract idea of who we are and how we want to be recognised, has rights and the highest social validity.

Regardless his/her biology, little Bobby is encouraged to make a free gender choice. Then whatever you think you are, IS the deciding point.

Quite generally in modern society, projected images are the form in which life is recognised.

There is a point to be made about the development of everyday industrial mirrors around 1850, when our self-image rose from the murky depths of reflections in water. And a century later we could record and pre-record our reflected image.

It's so normal that we don't notice but television through to social media, are abstract images. They are projections on a screen.

What we're looking at, listening to, and understanding, are representations of reality which are continually becoming more abstract.

And we think it's real because so many people use it that it is part of our human reality. But it's only a representation of reality. It has been designed with our focused abstract thoughts for us to focus on.

In 2011 image filtering (to show what you would look like if you were the opposite sex, or another species, or with perfect make-up), started on Snapchat and Instagram. And now AI is creating a new range of pictures and music in an abstract reality which is even more fascinating, amazing, and compelling.

We're comstructing life in an ideal tunnel vision world.

And again the point is, we accept it even if we don't like it, we accept this is happening and think there's nothing we can do about it... and there is nothing we can do from a focused perspective.

And this has happened because focusing needs focal points, focused thought needs images, and individuals need beliefs to feel whole.

So now, we have an abstract image of ourselves, which we try to believe in and then celebrate openly. And it's basically the same situation early man was in – it doesn't matter so much if it's the actual truth, as long as it's socially confirmed and emotionally gratifying.

There is a fascinating variety of psychological conditions which this generates; and we could spend centuries analysing all the curiosities.

But the central energy and confusion is still coming from the age old question of "Who am I?".

And all the time we're ignoring part of our essential nature – reality as experienced panarally.

With panaral awareness there's no sense of abstract reality, and no question about "who am I?". We can experience just being. And it is no coincidence that this is the way all other animals find a sense of wholeness and reassurance about their safety.

We have developed so successfully as a species, that we don't need to worry about the buzzards and wolves... we don't have to run away, but we do have to just be still and directy aware of our environment for a few moments – like every other animal.

We're habitually almost psychotically wanting to be doing something, or thinking something. This is the nature of wanting and learnt behaviour. We focus on the things we want and how to get them. And then we focus on repeating the process.

The tunnel vision of our human experiment has become a mad scientist who is still looking for reasons and safety through focused eyes.

And it's all such a hopelessly pessimistic view of modern civilised man that it would be unmentionable, except for the solution that if we want safety, peace, and a feeling of wholeness and wholesomeness, then we need to learn how animals do it.

We desperately need short interruptions to the continuous mechanics of the ego and its projections. Short experiences of pure panaral receptivity to interrupt our habitual sense of ego, our subject-object consciousness, our making-thinking-knowing consciousness.

Panaral reality is a moment of being without the constraints of individuality or need for purpose. Without wanting to do anything except feel the satisfaction of being panaral and connected with the environment.

We need a purpose in life. We need focal points, but we need to learn to coordinate or alternate them with panaral sensing. Panaring makes focused activity secure, safe, and reliable.

We have inadvertently suppressed part of our basic awareness, and intelligence. Regular periods of panaral sensing are necessary for our human sanity.

We have an ingrowing self absorbed understanding of life. To continue on this path will lead to stupidity, anxiety, and insanity.

We're not using all our basic and natural sensory abilities to experience and understand the world and our lives.

The panaral experience isn't a new religion, we don't have to believe in it for it to work. It's not a belief it's not even really a skill, it's something animals just do without even thinking about it. It's a natural way of being.

It's been tried and tested by animals for billions of years – it is obviously part of a self-perpetuating and successful method to survive. Every animal uses it. Every animal except humans.

Please continue with Solid Ground

Back to Chapter Three : Civilisation's Habitual Ruts
Back to THE SENSE OF IT ALL Priority Pages