Crossing the Line to a New Existence

Everyone has an Enlightened Self. It is the part of you that already is enlightened, already knows peace, and already has attained the goal of your evolution. As you seek out your Enlightened Self, your state of consciousness rises to approach its level. Finally, you inhabit that level, and the difference between you and your Enlightened Self evaporates. Uniting with your Enlightened Self is the completion of your quest.

At the age of 13, I started talking with my Enlightened Self. I mentally posed questions about life and living. I received answers to those questions, and they were answers that I would not normally have thought of. They consistently came from a wise and elevated viewpoint.

I consulted with my Enlightened Self sporadically over the next two  decades. Then in 1985, I simply asked what it was that I needed to know. The response was, “Love yourself and congratulate yourself. You are doing very well. Talk here more often, since the channel is open to you.” This initiated a long, continuous series of dialogues between 1985 and 2002.

I kept a diary of those interviews, and most of Answers From Silence is drawn from them. My criterion for selecting material and including it in the book is that it would have the potential to be useful to people other than myself. The purpose for this book is to provide information that could have a positive effect, to portray the progressive stages of developing awareness, and to deliver the message that this type of experience is available and applicable for people with a contemporary lifestyle.

On the surface, the dialogues tracked the dominant current interests in my life. But whenever I held a conversation with my Enlightened Self, the real topic was always enlightenment. I once was told, “You want the local news. Our aim is to bring you into the largest context.”

Accordingly, each chapter points to enlightenment by way of a particular subject. Chapter 1 deals with career issues such as money, success, and professional jealousy. Chapter 2 addresses the ups and downs that come with relationships. Chapter 3 is about personal growth, with insights into emotions and self-image. Chapter 4 gives answers regarding occult and metaphysical matters. Chapter 5 is devoted to the more mature aspects of spirituality such as suffering, forgiveness, and healing.

Chapter 6 is explicitly about enlightenment. It chronicles the period of a month and a half when my Enlightened Self started calling on me instead of me calling on my Enlightened Self. By the end of that time, the gap between my everyday awareness and my Enlightened Self’s cosmic awareness had closed completely. It was like crossing over a line to an entirely new mode of existence. The auspicious thing about it was that at the moment I crossed the line, I had pen in hand and was writing down the entire event.

Chapter 7 describes what it can be like to live and function in higher consciousness. Some of that material came out of my conversations with Gideon, a student with whom I frequently discussed spirituality and whose questions enabled me to clarify and to articulate my new way of being.

Thus, the sequence of chapters follows the evolution of inner awareness—from a focus on personal gain, to sharing life with others, to striving for self-improvement, to the flashy early stages of spiritual curiosity, to genuine devotional qualities, and finally to permanent transcendence.

–J.C.