What goes on in the Mind? The Route to Prophecy

I’ve been meaning to write on this subject for a while now, but kept putting it off as every week there are so many Torah secrets to reveal and current events keep playing into the prophecies, but nevertheless, it’s important that we not only understand what we see but what’s in our heads. We know cognitively that everything around us is an illusion and the only reality is the tree-of-life reality, referred to the world to come, or Olam Haba (the world above), but most of us have no concept what that is. We can imagine it a little, but not really fathom it.

In a sense, that’s one of the roles that Hollywood plays in the grand scheme of things. Certainly, The Matrix went a long way in opening up our minds, but Sci Fi and fantasy in general also broaden our perspectives on reality.  Drugs helped too, but we’re not advocating anyone go out and get high, only that the universe is opening up and preparing us for what’s to come to those that are ready, meaning to those that really want it.

But there is something very real that’s blocking us: our minds.

For the most part our eyes just transmit what out there, but it’s our brains and minds that transform those images into what it wants to see. That’s right: a 100 people witness something and we get 100 different descriptions. How can that be if there were a universal reality?

It can’t, because there’s not. There’s a consensus reality that helps to form and reinforce one grand illusion. You may fleetingly see past the illusion, but if enough people tell you you’re wrong it wont be long before you’re agreeing with them. And I don’t mean about your personal issues because no matter how many people point those out to us we wont see them, and that’s another form of illusion–called ego.

But there are two groups of people that see past the illusions. My young son can watch a TIVO’d football game after he already knows who won and thinks that he can alter the outcome of the game by the color of the jersey he’s wearing. He doesn’t see the impossibility of his reasoning and the sad part is that he’s right. He, as most kids, get the Tree-of-life reality. With multiple parallel universes, all the outcomes of the game are possible, you just have to dial into the right one with your mind. Why not?

There’s an adage in the Talmud (Baba Bathra 12b) which says that in our times prophecy is restricted to “children and fools.” and the Zohar in Trumah confirms

it about children in the verse “And all your children shall be taught of Hashem….as prophecy stems from there.”

And “the Baal Shem Tov told his students: ‘Despite the profound levels of understanding that I have attained in the [supernal] roots of the Torah and the mitzvos, and despite all the spiritual ecstasy that I have experienced, I put everything aside to serve G–d in simple faith. I am a fool and believe – Ich bin a naar un gleib! And even though it is written: ‘A fool believes in everything,’ it is also written: ‘G–d protects the fools.’ (Psalms 116:6)
Yesod Ha’Avodah, letter 24″

So yes, we can learn a lot from our children and we need to if we are to reach a state where we can comprehend the tree-of-life reality, the state of Mashiach consciousness.

Children often give us true prophecy because they say what they see and haven’t learned to filter out their thoughts.   Sometimes we see signs too, but once filtered through our personal agendas all we do with them is confuse ourselves.

Children see a wondrous world full of awe and love, full of desire and possibilities, until we teach them otherwise. What a child imagines is real to them, until we tell him otherwise. We need to be children again. For a while, in the 60’s, the flower children were touching the tree-of-life; that’s because they were children. If we can open the doors to our inner child, the gates of wonder will open for us, and Abraham and Sarah will come to help us the rest of the way.

But the collective, or consensus reality will not let happen easily. The same way we shut our children’s connections to the upper worlds, society does with us. If you go around being childish, you will be branded nuts, and if you really connect and start having visions, you’ll be called a lunatic. And in these dark somber times, it will be all that more difficult. Instead of more tolerance, we may find less. And we may be branded fools. Nevertheless, the route to prophecy is through the inner child, through being foolish, through the naiveté to let go of the illusory world around us.

Those who choose to are considered mentally off. There are degrees of mentally off, from people on the spectrum, from psychotics, to those that seem to act a little weird. It’s a wide net.

That’s because the world we call life is a world of consensus reality, where thinking outside the box (the real box) is banded–literally doesn’t exist. Even artists, whose inspiration and creation comes from their fleeting exploration of the tree-of-life world, are limited to what they can do. They can choose to create and celebrate their expressionism any way they see fit, but very few are actually accepted by the critics and fewer yet by society once the critics have given their seals of approval.

Yet, anyone who has touched that world, knows the awesome energy and boundlessness of it, and yearns for more. It’s a high, not unlike drugs, where you crave even more and feel the lack (depression) when you’re not connected. It’s the same elevated feeling when you’re legitimately (without a personal agenda) helping someone. But as you settle back into your ordinary life, the feeling quickly fades, and your left with a lack. This is why so many of the artists and creative geniuses of all types have had some degree of manic depression. It can’t be helped; all inspiration comes from the upper world and you must go there to get it.

The problem isn’t reaching the upper world; it’s that most people’s goals are to return to our world and incorporate what they learned. That only works short term. The real goal needs to be to build a home, or palace, in the upper world. Take the sparks from this world and elevate them, not grab the sparks from above and drag them down to our level. You elevate them by using the inspiration gleaned from above to inspire others, and by making yourself an example.

What we need to do it accept the true reality of endless possibilities. Let go of the need for consensual approval. And to stay pure in our intent. It’s very important to stay as pure as possible for just as there are 10 sefirot of positivity there are also 10 of negativity and we don’t want to connect with that. When a kid says he sees a monster under the bed, he’s not kidding. And when a psychotic individual hears voices telling him to do bad things, he’s hearing real voices from unseemly characters.

If we stick with love, the lessons of Torah, and keep our intent pure, we’ll be fine.  The signs will come to us to help us on out path and we’ll be able to recognize them.  Remember, it’s G-d’s intent that we escape the boundaries of our minds, that we reach past the illusions and into tree-of-life reality, so as hard as the first steps are, they are only illusions. Laugh, love, share, set your goals on Moshiach, and be a little mentally off; the rewards are extraordinary.

There is yet another category of mentally off: the people on the autistic spectrum and other assorted special needs children and adults. As they have communication barriers set by the functioning of their brains (and or minds) and also by society, they are free to explore the tree-of-life as they choose. And with the purity that most of them have, they are nurtured and loved from above and blossom inwardly (if not always outwardly) soaked in the heavenly dew (tal). Unbound by the limitations we put on each other, they soar daily to the places we barely tap into in our dreams.

An autistic young man explains it better than I ever could, so we should hear it in his own words, written by pointing to Hebrew letters on a piece of cardboard. His message is of a Jewish autistic child, but he speaks for all autistic, handicapped, and special needs children everywhere. There’s no soul that doesn’t merit our love, and no human more than these children.

I am autistic – A glimpse of the truth, By Binyamin Golden.

“I am autistic and I see the world much differently than most other human beings.

“I see the Adam that is G-d’s creation. I see clearly body and soul and their connection with the higher worlds.