'Yes, We're Living In A Simulation (But We're Not Just Avatars)'

'Yes, We're Living In A Simulation (But We're Not Just Avatars)' ©2017 Joan M. Newcomb, CPC

This is the *rough draft* of my talk to Ignite Seattle on May 18th (it's still under construction)!

Have you ever played video games? How about online ones with gamers around the world?

Elon Musk, says there’s a strong probably that we’re living in a simulation and is working on how to break out of it.

The idea came from  'The Simulation Hypothesis’, a paper published in 2003  by Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at Oxford University, which stated that we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation.

Last year Neil DeGrasse Tyson led the Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate "Is the Universe a Simulation?" in NYC with a panel of cosmologists, physicists, from MIT and Harvard.

So here’s the flaw with most of their (arguments) - they’ve coming from the perspective of being an avatar in the game.

Yes, life is a simulation, but we're not just avatars!

At the Avatar level, in the Physical Realm, life seems to be like a full immersion, virtual reality, where you’re playing with other gamers all around the world. At this level, even though this game is preprogrammed, and is structured in specific and measurable ways such as time and space, there’s a certain amount of choice. If you go left, you set in motion a different series of events than if you turn right. Also at this level, other people can influence your game. Say you decide to go to the grocery store. The moment you get in your car and head out on the road, everyone else in their car, can affect your trip. As an avatar you experience limitations, and take things very seriously. It’s a pretty frustrating and powerless experience.

The next level up is the Programmer level, in the realm of Thought.  This is the area talked about in The Secret, by Abraham-Hicks, The Law of Attraction, and Mike Dooley’s “Thoughts become things”,  if you focus on something enough, you can bring it into your reality. You can change your reality by changing your thoughts. It’s like your brain is your 'Inner GPS', and, you can rewire your neural pathways with positive thinking.  You can program your GPS through affirmations and vision boards.  This can be a big deal for people to discover, because it feels like you have more control. And yet, even at this level of the programmer, you can be operating as if you’re the avatar.

So what’s the next level of awareness? That you are the game designer.

As the Designer, in the realm of Consciousness, there’s no need to break out of the game. Because you’re simultaneously in the game AND outside of it. Outside of constructs of time and space. And you as Consciousness are creating this down to the smallest detail. 

Let that sink in. How would your life be different if you knew that you’re the creator of everything in your reality?  How would it change your choices, and how you looked at life?

When you begin navigate this reality *as* Consciousness Designer rather than as your avatar, you feel this tremendous shift. It’s like going from Newtonian Physics to Quantum physics. Reality, time and space, becomes more malleable.  The story of your life appears to break down. It may seem that everyone is scripted, but *you* get to ad lib.You feel joyous, happy, expansive, maybe even bouyant, like gravity has changed.

At this level, strange out of the box things happen. Storylines take unusual twist and turns. Reality show TV stars become president. Idiocracy becomes real.

But wait, there’s more.

Consciousness exists outside of time and space. So from the perspective of Consciousness, this lifetime happens in the blink of an eye. To Consciousness, everything is happening instantaneously AND simultaneously. All lifetimes are happening as once. All possibilities are happening at once. As Consciousness, You’re not just turning left or right, you’re turning left AND right. You can shift your individual experience by effortlessly stepping into a parallel universe.

If this idea excites you and you want to know more, I have free monthly meetups Seattle-Consciousness-Conversations

A free weekly podcast Conscious Conversations with Joan and Janet

A free weekly YouTube video /joannewcomb

Wealth & Poverty

(c)2010 Joan M. Newcomb

A while ago I read a travel blogpost responding to a comment criticizing the blogger.  The comment said you can do all this traveling because you're a rich American.  Think about the people in the countries where you're staying, that redcap at the airport, the busboy at that restaurant, that desk clerk at the hotel, aren't able to travel.

The blogger responded saying, to the effect, that he'd rather hold a vision where everyone is able to travel.  (And I've also read that this guy only makes $40,000 a year, which is pretty modest by US standards).

Someone posted on FB an article to "Make Affluence History", that the only way to end poverty is to end affluence.  It then listed a bunch of suggestions on how you could do that, including telling your boss to cap your salary, skimp on consumption, and make a low-tech bracelet from an old bicycle tire.

The problem is, the people who would follow those suggestions aren't affluent to begin with.  They've actually poverty conscious ideas.  You don't raise vibration by bringing another vibration down.

And, with the current economy, it's bizarre that an article like this would come out, when so many in the US are experiencing poverty (or maybe not bizarre, just reflecting the mass poverty consciousness that's being projected right now).

The energy of poverty is contraction.  It's held in tight, a constricted feeling.  Everything is seen through the lens of limitation.  When you're poor, it feels like being hunched down, in a squatting position, for a very long time.

Getting out of poverty can be painful.  Standing up after squatting for a while, hurts.

The energy of wealth is expansion.  It feels like freedom, like release.  Everything is seen through the eyes of possibility.  When you're truly wealthy (more on that in a moment), you feel generous and giving.  You feel like anything is possible.

Now, there's an aspect of being wealthy that's the opposite of the description above.  There's a level of being wealthy where you are disconnected from your feelings; you have all the 'right' material things and social status, so you must be happy.  There's distorted wealth, where you can't empathize or feel compassionate towards others.  The reason that person is homeless is because they're not working hard enough, or that person doesn't have health insurance because they're too lazy to get it.  Distorted wealth is unconscious.

Distorted poverty is, as well.  Distorted poverty wants everyone to be down at their level.  They judge and feel resentful of 'rich people'.  If someone they know gets a raise, or starts to do better, they assume that person is going to become a snob. 

Underearning is an aspect of distorted poverty.  Tolerating a low hourly wage or accepting a less-than-market level fee for one's services 'because of the economy', 'because people can't afford it', 'because I'm spiritual', is distorted thinking.

Being poor isn't noble. 

Now there are people without much money who are happy.  There are villages in India and Africa with few material resources, who, if measured by their openheartedness, their connection to family, their awareness of Spirit, are wealthy.

There are people with vast amounts of money who are miserable.  They're concerned with having enough in their account for the entire year, and more focused on their portfolio than the actual quality of their lives.

Not all rich people are unconscious.  Bill Gates is putting his Microsoft billions into smart ways of helping elimate diseases and improve infant mortality overseas.  Warren Buffett is encouraging other billionaires, by example, to give most of their fortune away.  Richard Branson is an example of endless fun and enthusiasm and continuous creativity.

Now, from the perspective of Source, there is no good or bad to being rich or poor.  It's all an example of our Spiritual creativity.  As Spirit, we created this planet of dichotomies to experience the opposite of who We are.  From Spirit's viewpoint, it's fun to roll about in effort, we get excited by the challenges of limitation.  Because our Essence knows it's all a game.  The more challenges you creates in your life, the more spiritually creative you are!  Essence doesn't take any of this very seriously because, hey, in the blink of an eye this storyline will end and poof! We'll create a whole new lifetime to act out in.

If you go back to the essential qualities of wealth and poverty, they are simply energy patterns.  Wealth is expansion and freedom, poverty is contraction and limitation.

How do you break out of a limiting pattern, so you can experience more expansion?  It starts by seeing a bigger picture of your life.  It takes stepping out of your comfort zone, because what is familiar isn't always functional.

The energy of abundance is appreciation.  Whenever you pay for something, you're expressing appreciation for it.  Whenever you receive payment for something, you're receiving appreciation for it.  Think about this the next time you pay your bills.  Don't you really appreciate the things you purchased with that credit card?  Isn't it great having a place to live, and electricity and water?  Wasn't that a really delicious meal at the restaurant?

Rising out of poverty patterns takes appreciation, too.  Wow, I am so capable that I created this really complex storyline so I can't afford Christmas presents this year.  It is going to sound *great* when I write my memoirs!  Wow, not having a job is *really* uncomfortable.  I get to let go of the illusion of being (such-and-such career person).  How fun to step out of the limitations of 8-5, 50 weeks a year, into a realm of new possibilities.

Appreciation is one step towards increasing your own experience of wealth.  I enjoy a feeling visualization as well.  Abraham-Hicks says that prosperity is all around us, like Niagara Falls, but most of us are standing around with teaspoons.  Think of the powerful flow of Niagara Falls, and the ionized air around it.  Imagine that energy flowing into the top of your head and throughout your aura.  Imagine your space filled with this energy.  Let it's high vibration disintergrate any limitations.

What this is doing is raising your vibration so you can receive more in your life.

In order to have more money (or anything) you have to expand your ability to Have it.

Sometimes a technique for increasing money is to start spending it.  There's a misunderstanding to that idea.  On one level, expressing appreciation with money is telling the Universe that you trust more is flowing in, but some people compulsively spend everything they have and nothing comes in, because acting compulsively comes from poverty consciousness.  They're spending from fear, not generosity.  Tithing is more in alignment, because giving a small portion of what's coming in towards things that support you spiritually and emotionally is expressing appreciation towards Source (it's like leaving the Universe a tip for services rendered)!

Now, what happens for some people is they increase their monetary inflow, and immediately their expenses increase.  Because, what flows in, must flow out, right? 

Instead of seeing Niagara Falls flowing in and then rushing right out again, imagine it flowing into a pool.  That way your money flow can 'pool' and you can siphon out whatever you need.

You can do this visualization remotely as well.  If there are relatives or communities you're concerned about, imagine Niagara Falls for them as well.

Play with these ideas this week.  Notice when you're feeling contracted or limited.  Allow yourself to breath in and expand.  Use the Niagara Falls (and pooling) visualization, whenever you feel like it.  Gift others with the visualization as well.

Try this for a week and see what happens!

Being In Receptive Mode

©2008 Joan M. Newcomb

One of the things that happens when people start practicing the Law of Attraction is that they put all their focus onto what they want to attract. They get the idea that they create their reality through their thoughts and immediately start thinking of prosperity, and all the goodies that go with it.

This may work a little bit at first, but usually what happens is they get frustrated their stuff isn't getting here fast enough. So they try harder, making their vision boards, saying their affirmations, staring at their mind maps. Then finally decide it's all a bunch of horseradish and quit.

That's not how Law of Attraction works. In fact, it's the opposite. It's using body-level exertions to work a spiritual-energetic tool. It's like using a chisel and hammer to work on your internet connection.

When you try hard at anything, you're using the body-level energy of effort. Effort is required by your muscles to get your body out of a chair, and works fine to push-start a car, but has the opposite effect when applied to high vibrational techniques. It stops them from happening.

That's why many of your manifestations happen when you no longer need or want them. You've taken your attention off them and the Universe finally has a chance to release them to you.

When you focus intently on something, your point of awareness goes into that item, and out of yourself. You're no longer 'home' in your body or your life. So the Universal Parcel Service doesn't have the address to send your desires to you! And if they're left at your doorstep, you're not home to receive them.

That's what happens when you actually get what you want, but you can't have it. You finally manifest Mr. Right, but your life is such a shambles he doesn't stick around. You win the lotto but haven't handled your shopping addiction or learned about investing, so it's gone within the year.

The trick (and it isn't really a trick) is to know what you want (the thought alone is an email request to the Universe via the Cosmic Internet). Then focus within yourself to prepare to have it.

I call it being in receiving mode. Generating an energy of receptivity, of drawing in that which you desire. Abraham-Hicks calls it delicious anticipation. I've called it 'raising your havingness'. Ultimately you don't have to do anything, and your life rearranges itself so that things fall into place, including what you've asked for.

People find this happening automatically when they get off the fast track. When they consciously slow down to enjoy life. Choosing to start the day with meditation or a cup of herbal tea and journalling instead of espresso and the news, brings this about. Turns out much of what you desire you already have in some form or another, but you've been too busy to enjoy it!

So try these suggestions -
Stop thinking about what you don't have.
Stop focusing on all the terrible things happening in the world today.
Start enjoying the present moment - even in tiny increments
("the leaves are so pretty right now", "this tea tastes so good", etc.)
Let yourself Know that the Universe is on your side and supporting you beautifully.

Taking pleasure in what you do have attracts more pleasurable things to you. And that's what Law of Attraction is all about.