by Harry Palmer

In native state, awareness is singular, undefined source.

Creations, Agreements, and Changes

There are three apparent, interwoven universes that awareness functions in: 1) the universe of self, 2) the universe of the other, and 3) the shared physical universe. Creations, agreements, and changes, respectively, are the principle elements of these universes.

The problem is that the method of operation (creating, agreeing, or changing) that is successful in one universe may not succeed in another universe. For example, creating with certainty is very successful in the universe of self, but the same certainty may look like arrogance from the viewpoint of the other or an uncompromising stubbornness in relation to the physical universe.

1. Universe of Self (I am)

Awareness manifests itself in the universe of self as a mental recognition of I am.

The universe of self is composed of intentions, viewpoints, beliefs, emotions, and thoughts. Successful operation in this universe is achieved by acquiring the ability to manage these mental creations. (The sum of I am's mental creations is called mind.)

The tool for managing the mind is the Creation Handling Procedure (CHP). The mind is never resisted, dominated, nor created over. These three efforts—resistance, domination, and creation over (pretense)—are what trap awareness into intentions, viewpoints, beliefs, emotions, and thoughts.

With the Avatar^® materials, successful operation in this universe is accomplished by assuming an I am awareness that is separate from the mental processes. In the basic materials, thought, emotion, and belief are brought under control.

In the more advanced materials, viewpoints and intentions are brought under control. And the Wizard materials address beingness itself, which is the gateway to and from the universe of self.

Within this universe, when I am makes a primary, the primary manifests as a self-enveloping experience. If there are any secondaries, they can be re-owned, experienced, and discreated.

The major reason people have trouble living successfully...comes down to a confusion of universes.

2. Universe of the Other

Awareness manifests itself in the universe of the other as perceived by or as I am.

The universe of the other is composed of unknowns, projected motivations, identities, and assumptions. A basic assumption is that the universe of the other bears a resemblance to the universe of self.

Successful operation with the universe of the other is achieved by assuming control over your own assumptions, identities, and projected motivations, and then offering a predictable, defined presence while respecting the undefined presence of the other.

Rapport, common concerns, and patient communication pave the route to reaching agreements. Compassion makes for equitable agreements. Integrity is an alignment of the agreements with a purpose beyond selfish concerns.

The sane purpose behind these agreements is to regulate a mutually satisfying exchange. The exchange may be goods, services, information, beliefs, affection, companionship, respect, admiration, security, or anything that either party finds valuable.

Broken agreements trap awareness in the universes of others.

3. The Physical Universe

The physical universe is a reality that I am recognizes as space, substance, tendency, motion, and time. I am's mind colors this reality with various interpretations and importances.

Substance is a mixture of matter and energy. Tendency is a higher order of intention (divine intention or nature) that compels substance into organized patterns of motion (biological evolution and physical laws). Time is the duration of a change.

Successful operation of a self in the physical universe is dependent upon establishing an objective viewpoint (perspective) that can observe, predict, and align its effort with tendency. Reasoned results are achieved by using mind and effort to steer substance and motion into imagined forms or circumstances.

When this is done spontaneously, without reasoning, it is called instinct or intuition.

Awareness manifests as the space of the physical universe, and, as already discussed, harmonics within this space as I am or as perceived by. (The heart of unmanifest awareness can be reached by successively discreating all as perceived by definitions, all I am creations, and finally, all space. It's quite an enlightening trip.)

Confusion of Universes

The major reason people have trouble living successfully (i.e., achieving their goals, creating relationships, or being happy) comes down to a confusion of universes. They mistake the universe of the other for the universe of self, and I am awareness is replaced by an as perceived by awareness. Or they employ a method they learned in the physical universe to the universe of the other to force a selfish agreement. Or they employ a tool (CHP) that works in their private universe to try to operate in opposition to the tendency of the physical universe, e.g., trying to discreate gravity or aging.

People who are ungrounded (i.e., responding inappropriately to their surroundings) have simply confused universes. Often they fashion the universe of self after the physical universe and then struggle with cause-and-effect relationships. What cause will make me happy effect?

The truth? Causes are physical universe phenomena. They move things or hold things still. They are localized events of the overall tendency of the physical universe. They make things grow or decay, but they don't produce happiness.

Happiness is an intentional creation of the self universe: I am happy. Of course the self can believe in all sorts of appropriate reasons for being happy or unhappy, but the bottom line is that the self decided.

Sometimes a person resists something in themselves and projects it into the universe of the other. It becomes the unspoken thing that they are always trying to come to agreement with the other about (actually it should be handled as their own creation with the CHP). So the attempt to reach agreement unravels, and a relationship breaks up. Why? A confusion of universes. They are not really interacting with the other. They are living in the mind. The interactions are really monologues.

There is also the person who employs a style of operating that was successful in the physical universe (hard fact, cause-and-effect systems, limits and freedoms) to their self universe. The result is a being who is always figuring on self. What caused me to think this, why that, why me? No source. No spontaneous creative freedom. All of their primaries are preceded by secondaries. (Their primaries, you see, are really reactions.) They feel that all the events of their life are predetermined by past events and that there is nothing they can do about it, except maybe explain them. They believe they are either lucky or unlucky. They feel powerless, victims of circumstance.

It's amazing when you realize that the inventively cruel bully engaging in international or domestic violence and the unconditionally loving astrologer who can't keep a job are both suffering from the same impairment: they believe themselves to be victims of circumstance.

If someone is confusing universes, you can sometimes sort them out with one of the following: have them find differences between 1) two objects, or 2) between a present time observation and a similar memory, or 3) between someone they are having a conflict with and someone similar they once knew. This is only a quick patch. The real solution is doing Avatar to the full expected results.

Universes and the New Avatar Student

Think of these universes as three concentric spheres. In the middle is the private universe of self. In a healthy state, this universe has the least definition. It is flowing and flexible, pliant and supple. The next sphere is the universe of the other. In a healthy state, this universe contains agreed upon customs, rules of conduct and manners, but it is still flexible to cooperative adjustments. The outside sphere is the physical universe. In a healthy state, it is solidly defined and governed by cause-and-effect relations. In short, it is predictable. Physical events have determinable causes. Miracles in this universe are rare.

Your potential Avatars often begin in a condition just the opposite of the above. Their private universe of self will be very solidly defined: an inflexible asserted ego. The universe of the other is hidden under resisted identity projections. The physical universe appears as a chaotic flux governed by unpredictable chance.

As a Master, you are faced with one of the toughest tasks that anyone can undertake. You are going to coax your student into operating deliberately in their private universe of self. This is quite a trick since you have to operate through and beyond your own assumptions.

It's a big jump for a person to wake up from the as perceived by to the I am of his or her own private universe.

That's the first essential awakening on the path of Avatar. 

Discover more about The Avatar Course.