Diagram 004
Re talk: 7
Diagram # 004 illustration
"The drawing above is a tree; the branches continue to grow and sprout. There are several things here you should attempt to Consider. The expansion of humanity can be seen in this symbol. This expansion is not a simple process of humanity evolving in one particular direction. You should see humanity as a living organism on the surface of a balloon, and the balloon continually gets larger, continually expands, so that progress is not either good or bad, or even in an x or y direction. Rather, the entire surface expands and everything changes in its relationship to everything else.
Ordinary people have always had the continuing feeling that things are progressively getting either better or worse. The latter view is normally called taking a conservative or right wing position. People who hold this view often call for a return to the past; they are living down at the bottom end of the nervous system. This conservative segment of humanity which resists change is representative of one of the Three Forces, while those people normally referred to as liberals or the left wing -- who find the answer to everything in change -- are simply representatives of another of the Forces. Each serves a particular purpose.
I have described the growth of the nervous system and its constant, temporary arrival at the Horizontal Line; the Line of ordinary consciousness. The energy that has developed each apparent person moves upward, but in fact reaches no ultimate conclusion. It runs a certain course through the nervous system and it stops, at an invisible Line, and at that Line the energy is diffused.
Without understanding it, people derive their imagination of some superior state of consciousness, their ideas about the gods, from what's beyond this invisible Line where the energy is spent. This area above the Line also fosters a need and desire for the new: new social and political conditions and what appear to be personal needs. A man wants a new car; a woman changes her hairstyle; you are always buying things or adding to your stamp collection. These are not examples of people's individual problems. They are manifestations of the same urge, representations of the real need all of humanity has for something new.
A good fundamentalist minister might approach this by preaching about "the folly of man trying to store up treasure -- he's going to die anyway, so what's the use!" A social critic might scoff at trendy Southern Californians: "Last year it was nude encounter groups, this year it's hot tubs!" But my comments are not an attack. The desire for the new is and always has been felt by humanity. This desire emanates from above Line-Level consciousness; it is the call of tomorrow. Such desires are not objectively profitable or unprofitable for one attempting to ignite higher areas of the nervous system; they simply are.
The continuing drive within humanity (reflected in each individual) for "things to change," is increasing in tempo. This drive is the objective basis for such things as trends in fashion and popular music. If you can look from somewhere beyond your limited development as an electronic "I", you can see this in yourself. The need is in every person. It is the basis of you sitting around -- not in a particularly negative state -- thinking, "Well, maybe I'll learn to skate." "Maybe I ought to trade in my car." "I need a new blouse to go with that skirt." "I think I'll read a book."
These are the voices of the upper ends of the nervous system attempting to reach higher. It is the branches of the tree attempting to grow just a little bit farther. The authentic results of this urge are not evident in one individual's lifetime. A person attempting to evolve beyond Line-Level consciousness in his lifetime must find that ordinary change ("If I just had a new car" -- "If I inherited a million dollars") will never make his life better. A new car, or a new anything, will alter nothing. Nothing is available at or below the Line to aid a person in This 'struggle.' " JC talk 0007
