Years ago, I came across a suggested exercise that I would recommend to anyone: Describe yourself in six words or less. In roughly six seconds, I came up with the following for myself: He knows there is another level.
I am (or at least I believe I am) in hot pursuit of the “Next Level” of “Earth Game”. (I posited such a “next level” in the course of my book Earth Game: The Evolution of Consciousness.) Consider this my interim report, which I offer in the sincere hope that it may be of assistance to at least someone somewhere sometime.
Am I there yet? Heck no. But it is as if I can smell it, taste it, touch it. And, as I used to encourage my then-young son when we were tossing the football or a frisbee: If you can touch it, you can catch it.
Besides, the “Next Level” is on its way to us. Call it what you will: “Ascension”, or “Heaven on Earth”, or “Multi-dimensionality”, or “Going Quantum” (my favorite), or whatever; the “Next Level” is more accessible to us than it has ever been. The door is opening wide, and we are moving through it. First individually, eventually collectively. A place in the vanguard is ready for you now, should you be inclined to answer the call.
So, here is what I have learned so far. I have organized my thoughts into initial impressions of what the “Next Level” isn’t, what it is, what you can expect in your own explorations, and finally, why you should care about any of this.
What the Next Level isn’t:
It isn’t about doing.
You don’t do your way to the Next Level. You don’t earn it; it is not a reward. It isn’t a test you have to pass.
The above truth is counter-intuitive relative to our experience of life. Achievement, accomplishment, success – all about doing (and efforting). Not so much, this time.
No, it is more about unpacking – i.e., letting go, releasing – than adding anything to your resume. (More on this below.)
It isn’t about saving the world.
Not only do you not bring the world along with you to the Next Level, you don’t bring anyone along with you. Not your significant other, not your loved ones, not someone you know who is desperately needing a miracle. Your journey and your passage is in one sense a solitary one. Know this, though: the most powerful and most beneficial thing you can do for those you love and those you care about and for all of humanity is to cross through to the Next Level. The energetic trace that you create – and the map that you make as you go – will be the most beautiful gift you will ever give to others.
It isn’t about fortune and fame.
Go ahead, create all the money and all the attention you want; after all, this is your Earth Game adventure. But don’t think for a moment that any level of fortune and fame are either (i) what gets you to the Next Level, or (ii) what the Next Level is inevitably about. Abundance in all things and being of service to others are wonderful things, but if your motivation is fortune and fame as such, then the game you are playing is at the human/psyche/ego level. Nothing wrong with that per se, but it will not lead you to the Next Level of Earth Game.
It isn’t about exiting your reality.
In the Next Level, you are still here, on Earth, in the flesh. You don’t die, no spaceship beams you up, you don’t cease to have a body, you don’t become invisible. No, your physical interactions with four-dimensional reality carry on; you still see and hear and taste and smell and touch.
You absolutely will want to continue to explore what I like to call “Theme Park Earth”. As you progressively do so from a “Next Level” foundation, the physical senses will be all the richer. The sweetness of life can become even more sensuous; the beauty of it can lift to rapture. This is because, as you progressively lift out of density, you also lift out of what distracts you from physical experience. Think about it: when you are caught up in the density, you don’t really hear music, you don’t really taste food, you don’t even notice the scenery passing by in the course of your daily commute. When you are enmeshed in the “noise” of life, you are barely engaging the physical senses. Turn down that noise, and you can turn up your experience here in the physical.
It isn’t about somehow achieving a perfect world.
You will not wake up one morning and find that everyone in the world is now nice to each other. No, there will still be density and polarity in the world you experience from the “Next Level”. But, you will experience it differently. There will still be things to fear, but you won’t get caught up in the fear. There will still be things that spark outrage, but they won’t trigger you (or at least not for long). And there will still be things to be sad about, but you won’t become mired there.
Gradually, your personal world will become lighter and easier – more and more filled with love and peace and joy. As you progressively change what you react to, that will correspondingly change what you attract into your personal world. In time, the world out there will similarly trend up; but for the most part your trajectory in the vanguard will need to go out ahead of all that.
What the Next Level is:
It is an internal event.
You don’t do it out there. There is no certificate, no plaque, no announcement, no parade. No, it is an inside job. There is no credentials organization to issue permission to you. Rather, you give yourself permission, and allow your imagination to guide the way forward.
It is a progressive transition.
It is not a single flash of “enlightenment”. Oh, we want it to be like that, don’t we? – just give me one simple “hack” and I’m there. Not so. There is no magic hook or technique or secret that instantly gets you there. However, once you let it in that your quest is a progression rather than a singular event, you can resolve to relish the journey and enjoy the adventure.
It is about freedom.
It is about letting go, releasing, rather than “grabbing the brass ring”. It is about freedom from the tyranny of density, freedom from the past. It is about the end of karma; you go forward with no unfinished business.
Beyond karma being over, any grievances you hold about the past must also be let go. What happened in density stays in density. You cannot carry it with you across the bridge to the Next Level. The price of admission – and it is in truth the smallest imaginable price to pay – is that you must willing to let your future be, for now, a blank piece of paper.
If releasing your own grievances of the past seems somehow a hill to climb rather than a step into freedom, then try thinking of it this way: everything in your past has gotten you here, to a bridge that you are now ready to cross. A bridge which is beyond the imagination of the vast majority of players within “Earth Game”. Your past has done its job; now let it go.
It is about accessing more than just four dimensions of what is.
Recall that, for purposes of your participation in Earth Game, your consciousness is (mostly) compressed down into three dimensions of space and one of time. However, there is so much more going on here; beyond physical matter, there is the other side of the Duality of spirit (ethereal) and matter (corporeal). The quantum reality – the multi-dimensional spectrum – awaits your explorations. The quantum “Field”, the realm of so-called “dark energy” that has been identified as comprising most of what is within our Universe; these beckon to you and await your adventuring.
To some degree, you already participate in such explorations. No, your physical brain, limited as it is to four dimensions, cannot venture there. Yet you do sense this more expansive world through your intuitive brain and you feel it through your heart. (Look for my soon-to-be-posted article “Your Three Brains”.) The “Next Level” will see you progressively engaging more and more in those explorations.
It may help you to imagine for a moment a multi-dimensional consciousness – your consciousness – compressing itself down into four dimensions of physicality. You can reasonably surmise that it takes a considerable amount of mental energy to achieve that compression, and to hold consciousness in that confining density. Imagine what it would be like to just stop holding it in. Feel yourself floating upwards. I release the density, you might say to yourself (ideally, in the depths of meditation). Just let go, and see where it goes. Like a cork you are holding underwater, release your hold, and it will float up with no efforting required on your part.
It has much to do with integrating Duality and mastering Polarity.
I have previously drawn a distinction between Duality and Polarity; see my posted article “Duality and Polarity” – and the definitions I ascribe to each of those terms for purposes of understanding “Earth Game”. Each of these concepts appears to have a role in accessing the “Next Level”.
Yes, I realize that these two expressions are often used as if they were interchangeable. But the more I study each concept the more persuaded I am that two distinct concepts are involved. In a nutshell, “Duality” is Oneness that became bifurcated; “Polarity” is any archetypal construct of our physical world that consists of a concept and its opposite. The two elements of a Duality – e.g., spirit/matter or quantum/Newtonian or feminine/masculine – are not opposites in the way that, for example, long and short or large and small are opposites.
I have come across various references to “integrating polarities” as a critical step in accessing the Next Level (whether described in terms of “ascension” or whatever). However, it seems to me necessary here to apply the above distinction between Duality and Polarity. Integrating the two aspects of the fundamental Duality of our reality (whether expressed in terms of spirit/matter, quantum/Newtonian, yin/yang, or feminine/masculine) does appear fundamental to making the step up to the Next Level. Conversely, the archetypal energy reflected in any particular Polarity (i.e., in the sense of opposites) does not seem to me to lend itself to putting the two poles together. Accordingly, I prefer to think in terms of integrating Duality and mastering Polarity. Each of these will be separately expanded upon in a soon-to-be posted article. For now, the point worth noting is that encountering Duality and Polarity, however you choose to explore them, will be signposts along the way on your own very personal quest for the Next Level.
What to expect along the way:
You are going to deal with letting go of your protective “crust”.
I am referring here to the protective crust that your human/psyche/ego has very deliberately been building your entire life. It is not going to be enthusiastic about your plan to dismantle that crust. More likely, it will go into panic mode when it sees what you are up to (which it will).
The problem is that all the baggage you have collected along the way (including your current lifetime and whatever else you carried into it) can’t fit through the doorway to the Next Level. Put another way, the density can’t go there with you. But much of the “stuff” you have accumulated is there because you think you need it for protection or to succeed or to be loved. None of that is true, of course, but your decision to trash any of that stuff is going to generate resistance from some part of you. The degree to which you encounter difficulty will depend on how elegantly and how quickly you can get past that resistance.
As you progressively succeed at unpacking your baggage, there is a sweet dividend. The protective layers – the screens, the crusts, the reflexive actions – all take energy to maintain. As you progressively release them, you are going to free up energy that can be used for all sorts of good things.
You can ask for help – and it will be there.
We Earthlings are not the first to arrive at this transition point. Each of the Galactic civilizations that preceded us in their evolution (including but not limited to those of Pleiades, Sirius, and Orion) found their way to and through the passage that we are now encountering. Having been there and done that – while experiencing varied but similarly challenging difficulties in their passage – those beings have tremendous compassion for (and interest in) our current situation on Earth. Moreover, they are ready, willing, and able to offer assistance – to the extent that we are ready, willing, and able to receive it. I won’t attempt a fuller description here of galactic history, but if this aspect calls to you at all, then do check out what the likes of Lyssa Royal-Holt, Darryl Anka, or Lee Carroll (among others) have had to say about the precursors to “Earth Game” in our galaxy.
You won’t find a step-by-step “can’t miss” guide that is one-size-fits-all.
The difficulty with attempting to construct any such guide is there are no four-dimensional tools capable of describing the transition to the Next Level. Just as the inhabitants of the fictional two-dimensional Flatland were incapable of contemplating a third dimension of “up”, our four-dimensional brains are not capable of contemplating or describing the multi-dimensional reality that lies ahead for us. (This is one reason why you need to engage your intuitive brain and your feeling brain – both of which can access the multi-dimensional or “quantum”. Look for my soon-to-be-posted article “Your Three Brains”.)
Our four-dimensional reality is by its nature linear, measurable; everything has a beginning and end. The multi-dimensional reality that we are about to poke our heads into is not so limited. As such, it cannot be described in a linear way – which means our linear language cannot possibly be up to the task. As expressed by Kryon (as channeled by Lee Carroll), attempting to describe multi-dimensional reality in linear language is akin to trying to describe the color red to someone who has been blind from birth.
Another difficulty with attempting any paint-by-number guide is that your journey and your passage will be somewhat unique to you. Maps made by others may assist at some junctures, but your way to the Next Level will be your own.
The one thing I believe can be offered (e.g., by this article, hopefully) is a foundation of understanding that just might be sufficient to allay your concerns and quell your fears so that you don’t sound a retreat every time you are about to make significant headway. If you can grasp that this is real, this is available, and this a grand adventure that is available to you, then you will have a foundation, a base-camp if you will.
Most likely, it is impossible to fail at this.
If you are one of the relative few with whom this concept of a Next Level resonates at all, I expect this particular aspect of “Earth Game” is rigged in your favor.
You are free to decline, of course. That is, you can say “no” to the Next Level. You can do that directly – i.e., by saying, no, I don’t want that (whether because part of you finds it too scary or just too “off the wall”). Or, you can do it indirectly, by being “too busy”, or too invested in baggage that can’t come with you to the Next Level. Conversely, if your answer at each stage is an unequivocal “Yes, I’m in, let’s do this”, something tells me the Universe will find a way to make it so.
Of course, if there are aspects of you that feel unsure about whether this is what you want, work with those aspects. They can only make you fail if you abet their sabotage. Dialogue with those aspects of you, understand their concerns and uncertainties. And then explain to them why, their concerns and uncertainties notwithstanding, you are affirming your unequivocal “Yes” to the Next Level.
As for the when and the how of it, and the where you will find yourself as you progressively poke your head above the density of four-dimensional living, no fixed timetable or itinerary can be provided for any of that. Just assume you are on your way and that all will work out beautifully and with just the right timing (whatever that might be), and decide to enjoy the journey. In response to my own expressed impatience and uncertainty, the following guidance recently came to me:
- Have you ever seen the first light of dawn without a sunrise following? Well, you have seen the first light of this (metaphorical) dawn. The sunrise will follow. Just relax in the beauty of it all and enjoy the unfolding.
- When, after much planning and readying, you are at last on a plane to your idyllic destination, and the plane has lifted off, do you find yourself fidgeting and fussing over whether you will get there and when and the details of the destination? Or do you relax, breathe, and bask in the knowing that you are finally on your way? Which do you think would feel better? Know that you are “on the plane”, and you have lift-off.
Why you should care:
Before closing this interim report, I will reprise a question I posed in the course of Earth Game: The Evolution of Consciousness. That question: So what? With all the things clamoring for your precious attention in the hours of your day, why should you spend some of that attention in search of the “Next Level” of Earth Game?
In answer to the above question, there is the obvious: a better gaming experience. More joy, more fun, more love, more abundance. (And by “abundance”, I am not referring here to an obsessive quest for fortune and fame, but rather abundance in the more holistic sense – abundant means, abundant time, abundant energy and health, abundant connections and relationships, and perhaps most important of all, abundant joy in your day-to-day living.)
Having a markedly more enjoyable time in “Theme Park Earth” should be motivation enough. But beyond that, there is the thrill of “cracking the code”, of solving the “escape room”, of achieving the mastery and freedom that has always been the je ne sais quoi we have all been searching for (whether knowingly or unknowingly). After all, the entire adventure here within Earth Game has been about getting lost in density and polarity and then finding our way home. This is exactly why we, when we collectively were “God”, meticulously planned and launched the “Big Bang” of creation.
There is also the aspect of being part of something big. Of being of service to something that truly matters. Of contributing to an evolution of humanity on Earth and to the broader evolution of Consciousness throughout our galaxy and, beyond even that, the physical universe.
Perhaps you (like me) have always had a sense that there was something important that you would “do” in this lifetime. And yet, much as you have explored the broad menu of options for doing out there in the world, perhaps you have always felt there was something missing from that menu, something more, something somehow grander. (I find myself reminded here of the title of a children’s book: Higglety-Pigglelty Pop! or There Must Be More to Life.) Well, here you go! Ironically, the grand adventure that you may have long sensed is not so much about doing anything in physical reality, as it is about transcending physical reality. if you really want to do something grand in the world and for the world, get yourself across the bridge! Simply achieving that will likely have more impact on the world than all the doing you happen to do from the other side of the bridge. Which is not to denigrate the doing you will want to do from the other side of the bridge; my point here is that crossing the bridge to the Next Level may of itself be the “Great Work” calling to you from the depths of your Soul.
(Yes, I realize that the above paragraph may have been mostly written as a message to myself. But, perhaps I also wrote it for you.)
As you begin to function more and more at the Next Level, it will progressively change the game for you. In Earth Game as played when one is mostly clueless (i.e., fully amnesiac), one is continually responding to the physical world as it unfolds. But at the quantum level – out of which precipitates all things physical – your physical world responds to you. Which way would you prefer to play the game?