Ways Out of Illusion

More importantly, my studies of people s experiences in various d-ASCs have convinced me that people can and do have vital, living experiences that are ways out. People have what Maslow 36 called peak experiences of openness, freedom, and belonging in which they feel they transcend, at least temporarily, the samsaric condition of ordinary consciousness. It can be argued that these experiences are just other illusions, that there is no freedom. But the belief that a way out does not exist may be just as illusory. 

Yours is the sign of dreams, imagination, poetry, and matters of the spirit. Ruled by mysterious Neptune, the planet of glamour and illusion, your challenge is to find a way to live in a workaday world when you have an out-of-this-world sensibility. 

On dropping it into a glass of water it first sinks to the bottom, but after a few seconds rises to the surface and there remains. Any other lumps dropped into the water behave, of course, like ordinary sugar. The prepared lump really dissolves in the water—it is the collodioiiised shell only that rises. To the eye the illusion is perfect, but not to the touch—no one must be allowed to handle it after it has risen. Another way of exhibiting this experiment is first to allow one or two persons to drop in lumps out of the basin, in w hich there is none prepared. Then, by a little piece of sleight of hand, the prepared lump is introduced and dropped in. 

The temperature drops noticeably. The stars in the sky seem to wink out, but perhaps it is just an illusion. Come this way, the Nephilim say. Their sharp, thin claws retract with a whir. Their folded wings, when viewed from different angles, seem to form pictures or shapes, the content of which depends on who is viewing the wings. 

On September 11, 2001, the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center Twin Towers and U.S. Pentagon ended America s illusion that the continental shores of the United States were immune from direct attack by terrorists. American society was forced to change in many significant ways, the most common of which is the extraordinary precautions taken to ensure the safety of airline passengers. More shocking news came out later when it was reported that terrorists could be planning attacks on chemical plants and oil refineries. 

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