Understanding Illusion

Larry Woods asked me a question that has not been covered before so I thought I would give the answer to the group.

In the past I have taught that a third degree initiate is one who has overcome illusion. This is an accomplishment a disciple must achieve if he is to be trusted by the Hierarchy. Before he or she overcome illusion one can be deceived sufficiently to do a lot of damage to the spiritual work – not because of evil intentions but because the seeker can be tricked by circumstances and emotion to going off course.

With this in mind Larry was perplexed that some who he considered to be third degree initiates seemed to be in error, especially concerning prediction they made.

First of all let me clarify that no one is perfect, not even a fifth degree master or higher. Even DK made a number of predictions that did not come true on schedule. On the positive side, he made some impressive ones that did. I do not know of anyone who has been more than about 50% accurate when making specific predictions of the future.

So, what then sets a third degree initiate apart from the crowd if he can still make mistakes? What does it mean that he has mastered illusion? And if he has mastered illusion then why can he not predict the future with 100% accuracy?

To understand the answer we must comprehend what illusion is, what it does and how the disciple behaves when he has transcended it.

Illusion in the seeker is caused by two things. The first is a wrong belief or dogma implanted into his belief system that he has not examined in the light of day and weeded out. This can be apply to various areas of inclination.

Religion. He may have had a wrong religious belief implanted into his mind when he was young. For instance, he may believe that Jesus was perfect (as we define the word today). Everyone says this and he has just accepted it and never examined such a belief with pure reason.

He may believe we are born in sin and thus sees humanity as a virus not able to do anything that is good in the world.

Politics. He may see freedom only as it affects him and not the whole. He may thus endorse policy that brings him more freedom but enslaves the masses.

Science. He may accept scientific consensus and theories that are popular without questioning them and thus not see error when there is error to be seen.

Education. He may rely too strongly on being taught by others and thus absorb their illusions. The disciple has no problem learning from others but he always does a lot of self-education and questions all that he has been taught.

The list could go on but this should make the point.

The second thing that causes illusion is a flaw in his thinking or reasoning process. This flaw is usually there, not because he is not smart but is caused by a hidden emotional attachment that causes his focus to be blurred. As a result he concludes that 2+2=5 rather than 4.

A good example of this type of illusion is illustrated in the recent discussion over the Comet Elenin. When it was way beyond the orbit of Jupiter many were declaring that it was a red dwarf star that was going to cause great destruction.

Now the logical mind can conclude that there is always the possibility that some type of destruction could occur when it reaches a certain alignment but the chances of it ever being a red dwarf star is about as close to zero as one could get.

Illusion got the best of these believers for several reasons.

A tremendous number of people in the new age and religious world believed this so many were subject to group think or the thoughtform generated.

Secondly many have an emotional attachment to the belief in Planet X and are expecting it return soon and will not use a discerning mind when someone falsely identifies it.

When the disciple has mastered illusion he will use all resources at his disposal to find the truth. 2+2 must equal four. And if he does not have enough information to know the truth for sure he will surely reject or strongly question reasoning that tells us it equals five.

For instance, when the seeker was told that Elenin was a brown dwarf when it was beyond the orbit of Jupiter what would he do if not subject to illusion?

First of all, he would do some research and find out what a brown dwarf is. When he finds this out he could add 2+2 and figure that Elenin could not possibly be one because it would have been as bright as the moon in the sky and at that time one needed a powerful telescope to see it as a tiny dot.

The third degree initiate does not let distortion, bull headed flawed beliefs, dogma, group think, or trusted authorities convince him that two plus two equals anything other than four.

Even though the third degree initiate has transcended illusion he is far from infallible and may only be average in predicting the future. He will be able to spot illogical predictions, however.

If he has bad information that he has no way of verifying then he can indeed be mislead. For instance, if he asks for directions to the grocery store and someone tells him to go left when it is really on the right then he will spend some time going the wrong direction.

If the weatherman tells him it is 70 degrees when it is really 80 the he is likely to think it is warmer than it is.

The initiate uses the Second Key of Judgment and will not concern himself with being right with inconsequential details, but on an important issue he will leave no stone unturned and not let astral thinking get in the way of getting to the truth – as far as possible.

Copyright 2011 by J J Dewey

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