As indicated in my last post, many believe that 2012 — in particular the winter solstice, December 21st — offers an opportunity for positive, largely spiritual, change — an opportunity for  us to shift, or for “Shift,” as David Ian Cowan puts it in his 2011 book Navigating the Collapse of Time: A Peaceful Path through the End of Illusions.

Below are my notes on the book, offered in my usual attitude of agnosticism. As a bumper sticker I saw once said, “Militant Agnosticism: I don’t know and you don’t either.” Cowan’s thoughts are interesting, even fascinating, and they might give us positive hints for our lives here in the nitty gritty trenches of Earth 2012, but nobody really knows. We’re just gonna hafta do the best we can.

I pored intently over the sections of this book presented below, and completely skipped others in the spirit of “take what you like and leave the rest.” The last few paragraphs I share with you seem a bit woo-woo to me, reminding me of the non-event of Y2K, but we’ll see…It doesn’t hurt to have a meditation practice and extra water on hand.

Navigating the Collapse of Time: A Peaceful Path through the End of Illusions by David Ian Cowan, 2011

The Great Year, the rotation of our solar system in a 26,000-year cycle, known to the ancient Vedic culture, Sumerians, Egyptians, Chinese, Mayans, Incas, and Aztecs, is responsible for the precession of the equinoxes – the gradual change in our alignment with the constellations. Each astrological “age” lasts about 2,160 years (times 12, the number of signs in the zodiac = 26,000). Most astronomers attribute this phenomenon to a “wobble” in Earth’s axis, but it’s more likely due to the fact that our sun is probably gravitationally bound to Alcyone, a fixed star, the central sun in the Pleiades. The Pleiades, in the galactic photon belt of the Milky Way, thus serve as our “galactic connection.” Our solar system passes through the galactic photon band twice in every 26,000-year cycle, a process that takes 1,000 years to complete. We “stood in front of” the entry gate to the photon band in 1986, and will go through it in 2012 (25 years later). The amount of light/awareness/information we receive increases as we move into the band, so more seems to happen in less time, and our consciousness, both as individuals and as a group, can evolve. We’ve been “pre-entry” for 500 years, we’ll spend 1,000 years in the band, and we experience 500 years of “decompression” post-exit.

The Dimensions

The first dimension, comparable to the post of a child’s stacking toy, is the earth’s core, the source of gravity, which consists of intensely dense iron crystals. This dimension corresponds to the root chakra and the process of grounding or “earthing.” You can do this by feeling your body touching the earth.

The second dimension is the body of earth, the elemental biosphere. It extends miles within the earth and includes the physical elements, viruses, bacteria, and substances like petroleum that don’t belong on earth’s surface. Some people believe elemental nature spirits like gnomes, fairies, sylphs, and devas correspond to this dimension, which corresponds to the theta brain-wave state (a lower frequency than the beta waking state) experienced by children under the age of three, the elderly, and all of us upon falling asleep or awakening.

The third dimension is that of earth’s surface: linear space measured in height, width, depth, and time. This is the realm of opposites and polarity: hot-cold, up-down, right-left, north-south, day-night, joy-sorrow, health-illness, life-death, and good-evil. Navigating the pull of these seemingly endless opposites is challenging – a setup for both conflict and learning. Constantly choosing where to be on these axes, we eventually discover our true identity as One with the Divine Will (Love). Constantly shifting between two modes of seeing (dualistic and non-dualistic), we can transcend duality while living in 3-D by using our thoughts differently, essentially choosing non-dualistic thoughts to get over the idea that we need to make so many choices – or, perhaps, any at all. The test in 3-D is to balance polarities and unitize dualities, collapsing mental conflict and opening to Peace and our true identity as Spirit. Conflicts are always between two opposing perceptions, which are always in some way illusory. Bottom line: Living in 3-D can be a fast track to spiritual evolution.

The fourth dimension, also called the astral plane, is the world of myth, archetype, thought forms, and collective consciousness. It vibrates fast enough energetically to be the first non-physical dimension (at lower rates, energy appears to congeal into solid matter, even though it’s still mostly empty space). As thought experiencers, we’re non-material and non-local – unbound by the 3-D constraints of space and time. In 4-D, thought forms pre-exist prior to our experience of them. All minds are at least potentially joined on this level. Because of the attention/intention/observer effect, the thoughts you entertain attract more thoughts of the same quality. 4-D is between the duality of 3-D and the non-duality of 5-D. Perception is always dualistic, as it leaves out everything but the focus of attention, but we touch upon 5-D in thoughts of non-duality. Positive thoughts are upper 4-D and right-brain, and negative thoughts are lower 4-D and left-brain. Linear discrimination, cause-and-effect thinking, problem solving, and language-based intelligence are left-brain, while right-brain nonverbal intelligence includes appreciation of art and beauty, intuitive awareness of patterns, and nonverbal states of consciousness, including states of Oneness. Our planet has been imprisoned within the limitations of the lower 4-D thought field for so long it seems normal. More of us switching to upper 4-D thought will help us take advantage of the 2012 opportunity for Shift.

At the vibrational speed of the fifth dimension – that of a fast, powerful blender – duality can no longer be sustained. Another way of looking at it is that the body resonates with 3-D, the mind with 4-D, and the unconditionally loving heart with 5-D. The modern world of hierarchy and conflict reflects an inner division between 4-D brain intelligence (logic and “common sense”) and 5-D heart intelligence, but scientists are beginning to recognize that we’re actually more heart-centered than brain-centered (the heart actually has more “intelligent” cells than the brain – the gut has a lot of them, too). The mind perceives, judges, projects, and reasons; the heart accepts. Buddha, Lao-tse, and Jesus are examples of the few humans who’ve reached a state of 5-D Unity Consciousness while still in the body, and many of us are now poised to do the same. Your heart’s desire is the same as everyone else’s and the heart of the Creator – to be happy, to be at peace, to experience joy, and to create. No matter how someone’s behavior appears, it’s being driven by this urge – all behavior is either Love or a call for Love. Only Love is real. Thus, the only appropriate response to any behavior is Love/acceptance. There’s no need to forgive in a morally superior 4-D way. Love is Forgiveness.

If you start thinking like a 5-D human, you’ll quickly become one! Begin to process your experiences in your heart space instead of trying to “figure them out” in your head. Use the natural pull of the in-breath to focus your attention on your chest and belly, and use the out-breath to send out the Love that lies waiting there into each situation and relationship. Listen and speak from your heart.

The sixth dimension is that of sacred geometry – mathematical constants like the circle and the triangle, and universal energy templates/morphogenic fields. Forms in the “lower” dimensions are “informed” from the higher vibration. Duality returns in this dimension, as 6-D forms can be forces of creation or destruction. “Negative” examples: cancer-causing energy lines, black arts, and nuclear radiation. “Positive”: Hindu yantras (meditation mandalas), yoga postures, classical art and architecture (European cathedrals, labyrinths).

The seventh dimension is one of sound and light (there are octaves of light beyond the physical). 7-D sound can create 6-D sacred geometry, as when sand is vibrated on metal plates or chanting heals. This could be the medicine of the future. We can give ourselves respite from the sounds and energies of the mechanical world and the noises and ravings of the ego-dominated media and entertainment industry. We can “hear” the sound of 7-D in physical terms in silence, something we can cultivate mentally and physically. You can focus your attention on 7-D and pull some Divine Light into your 3-D experience, outdoors facing the sun or indoors facing in the sun’s direction. Put your forefingers and thumbs together to form a triangle and hold it over your heart space or forehead, saying, “I now receive the Light from beyond the light.” Repeat until you feel a sense of completion. You can also hold an image of the sun (or moon) pulling in and reflecting to you the light emanating from the galactic center.

The eighth dimension is the Mind of God, the primordial creative impulse, the inspiration of life. God didn’t create duality, suffering, time, death, ego, or any Fall from Grace – we did, via our own mental image of separation. The separation of All That Is (God) into dimensions of vibrating energy is similarly imaginary, but as an expression of our own Divine creative impulse, it has an 8-D flavor. The Divine Will expresses through us – it’s just colored or compromised by our desire to be separate egos. Earth is the world of all possibilities where we get to play out our fantasies of being other than what we are, and then – when we’ve had enough – to go home. While we’re still here in our bodies and time, we can receive directly from the Source via our 8-D connection, the closest we can get to God and still remain in the universe of form.

The ninth dimension is the source of the time waves that emanate locally via the black hole (the “dark rift”) in the center of the Milky Way, a transformational vortex. Remembering that time is an illusion, part of the dream of form, we can visualize the current time wave about to crash on the galactic shore. A new experience of time may then begin – a series of complete-in-themselves moments unfettered by a past or future (thus, the End of Time). This idea generates fear, because “running out of time” = the death of the ego, so think of it instead as the beginning of a new, less limiting interpretation of time (which readers of Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now should be familiar with).

The tenth dimension is the totality of the previous nine (and there could easily be more). It’s Unity Consciousness/Bliss/samadhi. Say “I am One with All That Is” to touch upon it.

According to current understanding of Mayan cosmology, the nine-step Mayan pyramids represent nine underworlds supporting each other, periods of time, none of which will be complete until 12-21-2012. Each underworld accelerates time-wise over the previous one by a factor of 20.

Universal  (260 days, 4-15-2012 to 12-21-2012): Conscious Co-creation

Galactic  (12.8 years, 1999 to 2012): Ethics

Planetary  (256 years, 1755-2012): Global Connections

National  (5,125 years, 3115 BC-2012): Sovereign Nations, Laws

Regional  (102,000 years): Agriculture, Religion, Art

Tribal  (2,000,000 years): Homo Sapiens, Tools

Familial  (41,000,000 years): Family Relationships

Mammalian  (820,000,000 years): First live births

Cellular  (16,400,000,000 years): First live cells

After the 2012 solstice time shift, systems or institutions based on the old paradigm of separate interests will need to be dismantled, and new ways of cooperating with each other and Nature implemented.

The ego is nothing but the collected thoughts we have about who we think we are – thought collections easily formed into habits, beliefs, and attitudes that seem so solid and real to us that we  don’t question them. In non-duality, it isn’t necessary to ask who we are, as all existence is obviously One. A Course in Miracles begins with the non-dual declaration: “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the Peace of God.” Whatever your path, it is perfect for you now. If and when you feel a Divine discontent with it, look within for your Divine Self, and it will guide you on the next step.

Practical Things to Do :

1. Eat less (we’re getting more spiritual nourishment as we approach the transition).
2. Drink more water.
3. Avoid sugar, gluten, and dairy.
4. Ground.
5. Rest and sleep.
6. Meditate for 10-20 minutes AM and PM and do yoga (mind still, heart open).

The Shift could douse all lights, even natural ones, and knock out electronics and communication systems for a period of three days. If it does, don’t panic – meditate and drink water set aside beforehand. Afterwards, there could be two Earths (one for those who are still 3-D), or 3-Ds might go to other planets. Either way, there could be the appearance of mass death. Pollution and filth (things that don’t belong on the surface of the earth) might also return spontaneously to 2-D.

Whatever happens, an attitude of gratitude and non-resistance to what is will get us through.

The mark of truth is the peace it brings. If your thoughts aren’t bringing you peace, exchange them for ones that do. May the peace within you be born into your awareness daily. May you awaken to who you already are.