Patti Frankel

"Having once seen through the visible world, we must make the leap of faith to enter into and to experience the world of mystery. This brings about a changed perception, the essence of which is a recognition that knowledge (information) and wisdom (gnosis or the awareness of the indwelling spirit) both exist, and that both are real. Still, a change of perception or a change in attitude is of little value unless it brings with it a change of behavior. In our culture, knowledge has been overvalued and wisdom undervalued. Wisdom comes into being largely through gaining access to the invisible world. That world has been called by many names: the unconscious, the Kingdom of the Spirit, heaven and hell and purgatory, Eden, the world beyond the senses. Esoteric though it sounds, all that is required to perceive that world is a change of focus from the foreground of consciousness to its background. The courage of one's convictions is needed to shift the viewpoint, if only temporarily, from seeing oneself as central in the universe to seeing oneself as a grain of sand on the beach. ... New modes of behavior are relatively simple to enact once the basic underlying concepts are grasped, yet they can be tremendously powerful. ... Behavior that exemplifies the conviction of a unitary world in which every act has its far-reaching consequences, is transformative behavior. It influences everyone it touches. Although we are finite beings, we participate in life, which is infinite, having neither beginning nor end; and although in this lifetime we reside in a finite space, our experience of life in the wider sense is nonlocal. The invisible world permeates the visible world like radio waves or television signals in the atmosphere. It makes itself known wherever there are instruments tuned to receive it. To the degree that we can bring this wider consciousness to our perceptions, we gain the capability to alter the shape of both of the worlds we inhabit. ... With dizzying rapidity we have been gaining speed and momentum in the visible world through industry, technology, and access to information. What is needed now is a commensurate gain of speed and momentum in the other world; else our lack of vision will lead us ever more swiftly toward annihilation." ----June Singer, from Woman in Search of Soul