In the field of metaphysical discourse, how can we tell what is true and what is nonsense? How can one navigate a path of “Metaphysical Discernment”? And, what really is the truth about 3I ATLAS?
I acknowledge that some would view the phrase “Metaphysical Discernment” as an oxymoron. From their perspective, once you are into the terrain of Metaphysics, you have abandoned all discernment, and you are lost. But, this article is not written for those people, and they would not read it anyway. So I will proceed with my attempt to chart a course for Metaphysical Discernment.
The first thing I learned in law school was that every asserted proposition must be backed by some measure of authority, evidence, or logic. In other words, don’t say it if you can’t back it up. And expect anything you assert as true to be subject to challenge. In life as in law, a healthy skepticism is, well, healthy.
The other side of wisdom is that one should always remain open to new evidence, new ideas, new learnings, new truths. To assert that any exploration of knowledge is forever closed is to be unscientific. When knowledge calcifies, that spells the end of science and the end of philosophy; one is left with only an imprisoning dogma.
Between the above Scylla and Charybdis (being mythological sea monsters guarding a narrow strait), one must sail a path of discernment. Neither gullible nor closed-minded. We do our best in that regard. Through experience, we accumulate knowledge and we learn wisdom.
Our primary tools for discernment, however, are rooted in the physical realm. On the one hand, observation; i.e., our physical senses. On the other hand, logic and reason. However, each of these sets of tools are rooted and bound in Spacetime. That is, they are the stuff of four-dimensional reality. Our physical senses cannot navigate in the Multi-Dimensional reality that is all around us and yet beyond the four dimensions of Spacetime. Similarly, our linear logic is rooted within Spacetime. Every written sentence, every mathematical equation, is unavoidably linear, with a beginning , a progression, and an end: A + B = C.
As an aside, we think we can know things through trusting our physical senses. As the age of AI dawns, that is no longer true relative to anything we see on a screen or hear via a recording. The scope of trustability has narrowed to what we directly see and hear. Still, for the most part we can trust that if something looks and feels like an apple and tastes like an apple, then it is an apple.
But even our physical senses are misleading as to the true nature of matter. My hand, for example, seems to me made up of “solid” matter. And yet, each of the hundreds of billions of cells that constitute my hand each consist of more than a trillion atoms, each one of which is almost entirely empty space. That is, the solid-ish nucleus of each of those atoms is a tiny dot in the center of a vast and almost completely empty space where electrons routinely pop in and out of existence. Matter itself may be mostly the stuff of illusion; not in the sense that it does not exist, but rather in the sense that it is not quite what it appears to be.
Our senses, by design, mislead us in other ways as well. For example, as we stand in place, we are quite certain we are not moving. However, we are rotating, with the Earth, at a speed of as much as 1,000 miles per hour (being the speed at the equator). Beyond that, the Earth is revolving around the Sun at about 67,000 miles per hour. Even though our senses would swear that it is the Sun that is revolving around the Earth.
The details of matter (including subatomic particles) are made available to us only through the use of remarkable technologies. Unfortunately, those technologies, like our physical senses, cannot reach beyond the four dimensions of Spacetime.
Regardless, we do want to know what is going on beyond Spacetime. We want to understand the machinery of Metaphysics, break it down, catalogue the processes. And we can’t. Yes, thoughts and what I call the “Quantum Signal” that any particular thought emits are affecting what precipitates into our personal and global realities. But we cannot see the mechanics of that.
As for why we want to understand Metaphysics, that is because many of us (although admittedly not all of us) have an inkling (or perhaps even a certainty) that there is a whole lot more going on here in “Earth Game” than atoms randomly interacting with other atoms. To most of us, the notion of randomness as the organizing principle of life seems preposterous. The sheer unlikelihood of all the cosmological constants happening to line up just as needed to support life on Earth demands another line of inquiry. The notion of our lives as a random thing and thus a meaningless collage of chaos fails the test of plausibility. We want to know what is really going on here – and we want to know the why of it all.
And so we dive in. That dive necessarily takes us beyond the reach of physics – into Metaphysics. Into Multi-Dimensionality. And into Spirituality.
(To recap from a previous article on this Blog, “Metaphysics” and “Spirituality” differ only in the direction from which they approach the all-important bridge between matter and spirit (i.e., between science and spirituality). Metaphysics approaches that bridge from the direction of science – reaching beyond physics into Multi-Dimensionality. Whereas Spirituality approaches that bridge after first touching something of the divine and then working its way back towards the world of matter.)
As we climb the mountain of spiritual learning, the big-picture progressively reveals itself. We find our way to a “higher logic” that reaches beyond four-dimensional Spacetime.
Whatever path one takes up the mountain, as one climbs the lexicons begin to converge. Every spiritual path progressively reveals the same truths. Soon enough, there are some things of a metaphysical nature that we can confidently say we know. The big-picture truths ultimately emerge as self-evident. For me, those big-picture truths can be encapsulated in two sentences that have become mantras for me:
Everything that exists in any realm is Consciousness (aka Source/God) at play in a sea of energy.
Every one of us is Source/God having an adventure, playing a game, and weaving a story.
This is why I like to think of this reality, and our role in it, as “Earth Game”. We are playing the game together, each of us as an individualized adventure of Source/God.
These big-picture truths can provide a measure of Metaphysical Discernment. Assertions that resonate with them are more likely to be true than those that are in disharmony with them. Still, the basic principles don’t explain to us what may be happening now in our reality, and they do not tell us what is about to happen next. Nor do they help us sort out assertions that are true from assertions that are not.
To fill in the details, we can rely on a developing metaphysical intuition. Beyond the five physical senses, we can progressively develop Multi-Dimensional senses that give us hints and clues about what is happening now and what is likely to happen. One of those senses is the ability to sense the truth – or falsehood – of particular propositions. The limiting factor there may be that I think I can tell when someone speaking knows they are not speaking truthfully; however, that sixth sense is less effective when someone fervently believes they are speaking the truth, but they are not. Still, I have come to find that I can generally trust certain YouTube channels to be providing useful information, whereas certain others not so much. There is the “feel” of truth, and there is also some old-fashioned discernment that can be brought to bear: the more sensationalist the messaging, the more likely it is useless click-bait. As for the “shocking” reveals, they generally seem to have a predictability to them; i.e., this is exactly what someone would make up if their sole intent was to entice people to click on their offering. Conversely, some of the more credible offerings I have encountered have got me thinking the following thought: If they were just making stuff up, there is no way they would have made it up this way. That is, information that is truly being sourced from the Multi-Dimensional often seems to have an originality to it that came from somewhere beyond our normal reality.
Another hallmark of credibility, it seems to me, is the feel of what is being communicated. The sources I most trust tend to communicate with what feels like a reverence. They seem almost in awe of the information they feel drawn to share; the feel of it is joy and wonder. For example, when I hear Robert Edward Grant (especially when he talks about the magic of numbers), or Irini Dieringer’s recent YouTube series, or Gregg Braden, or Bruce Lipton, or Kryon as channeled by Lee Carroll, or Abraham as channeled by Esther Hicks, there seems to me a purity of intent that makes me feel I can trust the information.
In stark contrast to the above, some communications strike me as Ego-generated pronouncements that seem to be driven by a motivation to impress (or worse yet, to harvest). With those, the apparent intent to shock-and-awe contrasts sharply with someone who is expressing and sharing their own sense of being in awe.
The other thing about truth is that it always hangs together. Yes, each communicator will have their own perspective and their own focus, but the pieces will fit – even though new lexicons sometimes have to be sorted out in order to see how the different perspectives fit together. Ultimately, truths cohere. In contrast, falsehoods go all over the map, and leave us feeling disjointed, scattered.
The veracity of an idea can sometimes be felt in the form of “truth tingles”. (If you have felt them, you will know exactly what I mean.) Other times, for some of us, telepathic communications from beings wiser and more knowledgeable than us may become available. We can begin to fill in the blanks. We can develop a sense of “Spiritual Knowing”. Yes, it is knowing without certainty, and it is information without proof; as such, one’s inner skeptic will rail at that. But when such knowing comes, we can feel relatively certain it can be trusted. Oh, we may misinterpret it, or we may extrapolate incorrectly from it, but whatever comes in as Spiritual Knowing can be counted on.
The limitation of “Spiritual Knowing” is that it comes when it comes. Sometimes the channels seem wide open. Other times, can’t get a dial tone.
The other limitation is that Spiritual Knowing is an individual, internal knowing, that is beyond logic, and thus comes in without the support of any logic. I fully acknowledge that the voices inside my head have no probative value in your reality. Likewise with your Spiritual Knowing; you may be able to place your trust in it, but I’m not sure that I can or should.
In summary, here is what we can achieve in terms of Metaphysical Discernment. We can discern the big picture, and interpret things in accordance with the higher logic of that. Beyond that, sometimes we can reach beyond logic, and have a Spiritual Knowing about things. Short of knowing, we can sometimes feel the truth (or absence of truth) in what we hear or read.
One might think the best course is to be on the fence, i.e., be skeptical about everything, but open to everything. There is a place for that approach; sometimes it does make sense to await further information before making an assessment. The shortfall of the strategy is that it doesn’t get you anywhere – because you are always running in place. Which runs afoul of Goethe’s famous quote: “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, a chance to draw back … [T]he moment one definitely commits oneself, Providence moves too.” We do kinda know when we know; and when that happens, you have your signal to boldly move forward – even though you do so without certainty. Discernment is not a function of certainty or physical proof. On the things that matter, soon enough there will be enough guidance. In that moment, you may not be able to silence the naysayers inside your head, but you will have enough reason to override their objections.
Case in point in relation to all of the above: 3I ATLAS. Is this thing (a) basically a comet, albeit an unusual one, (b) a “game-changer” for Earth Game, or (c) both? Answer: I don’t know! Now, I have read everything I could find to read about 3I ATLAS, and I have watched more YouTube videos about it than I want to admit to. On the one hand, the hard-core science types (aka the Materialists) seem quite certain that this is just a comet, albeit an unusual one (which unusualness is fully explained, they say, by the comet’s age and interstellar travel). On the other hand, there are assertions that 3I ATLAS will change everything. For example, it is said to be (i) designed to give us individually and collectively a spiritual “upgrade”, (ii) providing an upgrade to our Sun’s “photonic structure”, which will sequentially result in solar-conferred upgrades to us, (iii) fulfilling a Hopi prophecy about a “blue star” that will change the course of humanity’s future, or (iv) catching our attention and imagination so that we will begin to contemplate the possibility that advanced civilizations from other solar systems will be coming soon to a neighborhood near you. I am not ruling any of that out.
There are only two possibilities about 3I ATLAS that I think I can rule out. The first is the possibility that the appearance of 3I ATLAS is entirely random. Why? Because nothing in our reality is entirely random, and nothing about Earth’s story is random. Yes, there is an unfolding “Earth’s story”. And, both logic (albeit a “higher logic”) and spiritual intuition point to the next few years as a key period in the unfolding of Earth’s story. I do realize that my intuition in that regard may promote “confirmation bias” in regard to 31 ATLAS being something more than meaningless. But, I figure that is likely balanced out by the scientific bias against anything new and exciting happening here. To use an absurd example, if NASA were to spot little green men on the surface of 3I ATLAS, do you think they would (a) tell us about that, or (b) hush it up? I think we know the answer.
The second possibility about 3I ATLAS that I would rule out is any notion that it will somehow instantly transform our reality into an ascended version that has a utopian quality to it. That would not be much of a story, would it? That is, if we intuit (as I do) that the next five years will be of major significance in Earth’s story, I can’t see why that would be mostly the function of a single transformative event timed to occur at the beginning of that narrative. If one thinks of the next five years as if it were a five-episode miniseries, would it make any sense at all to write the major climactic event into the first episode, such that the remaining episodes would be mostly a drawn-out denouement?
I do think 3I ATLAS is here to complete some sort of mission. Put another way, since its arrival cannot be considered a random event, its arrival here at this time is purposeful. (I suppose some celestial events could fall into a third category of non-random but inconsequential, but given the extent to which 3I ATLAS has drawn the attention of renowned scientists as well as all sorts of metaphysicians, I think I can rule out inconsequential.) It does occur to me that we appear to be in desperate need of some sort of upgrade. As I have written in a previous article, absent something(s) in the nature of “I Did Not See That Coming”, the pessimists seem to have the stronger argument, based on current circumstances.
Still, I don’t know what kind of role 3I ATLAS has been assigned in Earth’s story. I don’t even know whether its role is major is minor. Here’s the worst part: we may never know. (At least, not within one’s current lifetime; no doubt the question will be answered in the course of the “Life Review” that will take place when I eventually take my leave from this round of Earth Game.)
It occurs to me that, in the meantime, I need to be okay with not knowing. Not just about 3I ATLAS, but about a whole lot of things. I do know enough about what this reality is and who I am and why I am here. Do I – or you – really need to know much more than that in order to carry out the purposes of a lifetime? Do we really need to jump ahead and see how the story will unfold? Would we actually want to have “spoilers” revealed to us? Wouldn’t that ruin the story?
Let’s look at the above question from the perspective of the “Universe” that, on behalf of Source/God, runs the Multi-Dimensional “machinery” of Earth Game. Or from the perspective of the “Founders” who designed this place on behalf of Source/God. They don’t want to spoil the story for us! They want us to live out the story, experience the story, participate in the story. Which is what we are here to do – again, on behalf of Source/God. Each one of us is Source/God on an adventure. A linear adventure, at that. Just like our stories; with a beginning, a developing plot, and an ending. Why would we flip ahead to the end of the story and see how it ends, even if we could? Just watch the movie, play out the story, live the adventure.
None of which is to make a case for being an ignoramus, or for regarding spiritual cluelessness as somehow being a virtue. But even spiritual cluefulness unfolds in due time for us, both individually and collectively. Just as new technologies become available for imagining at just the right time, new understandings about the nature of our reality become available right on schedule. And will continue to become available. Even in metaphysical explorations, I like to think of “new releases” becoming available for download from time to time; I find that an exciting notion. But do we need to somehow jump ahead of that process? No. Just pursue knowing what can be known at the present time. And don’t even ask for spoilers that would ruin the story that is beginning to unfold.
Contrary to the above, humanity has long held soothsayers in high esteem. Those who claim to know the future can line up followers, subscribers. But other than the unfolding of the big picture of Earth’s story, the details of the future are always a work-in-progress, shifting with each perturbation in the field of energy as thoughts are spiralled into that field.
I do understand why we sometimes desperately want to know about the future. Mostly, because we are afraid of the future. Or, more existentially, because we are afraid there is no meaningful future, and/or that we might ourselves be meaningless. But we know better than that, do we not? We can know that our lives are the antithesis of meaninglessness. We – each of us – can know that we are Source/God having an adventure, playing a game, and weaving a story. I suggest letting that be enough. Enough so that you can kick back, get a (metaphorical) bowl of popcorn, and experience your story as it unfolds – all within the context of Earth’s ever-unfolding story.
Some say (and I believe) that many beyond Earth are fascinated by our collective story here on Earth. We can take a cue from that. When one is prompted to participate in some way in that story, the tap on the shoulder will be impossible to miss. On cue, step forward, and play your role. In the meantime, drink in the sights and sounds (and tastes and smells and touches) of physicality. And be here now. Even if the now comes with uncertainty about what will happen next, and with truths yet to be discovered.