Butterflies Are Free To Fly

In the Preface to Part Two, Inside the Cocoon, the author makes an important distinction between a “model” and a “belief system,” and insists that the remainder of this book will be about models based on the results of the experiments in quantum physics and brain research discussed in Part One - “models that have been tested and found to work. You are not going to be asked to believe anything. Instead, you are invited and encouraged to test these models for yourself.”

In Chapter Nine, the author discusses the “consciousness model.”

“A number of highly respected and thoughtful quantum physicists have concluded that consciousness is what chooses the exact wave frequencies from The Field it wants to use to create our holographic experiences.”

“Quantum Physics enables us to see directly that we can make sense of the world only if we base the world on consciousness . The world is made of consciousness; the world is consciousness.... Quantum Physics makes this as clear as daylight ....” - Dr. Amit Goswami.

In Chapter 8, the author returns to his movie theater metaphor to ask the questions:

~ Who or what is creating the holographic movies I’m experiencing as my reality?

~ If the movies I’ve been watching and thinking were my life aren’t real (along with the movie theater itself), then what is real?

~ Why do the movies seem to contain so much drama and conflict and pain and suffering, both internal and external?

~ What does it all mean in the end?

And perhaps even more importantly, in light of the discoveries in quantum physics...

~ Who am I, really?

~ Where did I come from?

~ How did I get here?

~ What am I doing here?

He concludes Part One of the book by saying that the answers to those questions cannot be found inside the movie theater, and invites the listener to join him as he walks out the back door marked, “Do Not Enter - Extremely Dangerous,” and gives us a little taste of what we might expect if we do.

In the last chapter of the book, the author suggest that “toward the end of your time in the cocoon, you begin to see ripples in the Universal ocean, movement in the ‘Earth Environment’ template; and sometimes it’s fun to speculate – in a general sort of way – where those ripples might be heading. I’m seeing a couple ripples I want to focus on for a few minutes before I end this book, simply because I find some of this stuff fascinating.”

“The first ripple I see is that the drama and conflict and pain and suffering and war and violence and hardship in the 'Earth Environment' template are actually increasing across the world, despite – or perhaps, as explained in Chapter Eighteen, in part as a result of – the resistance of more and more 'peaceworkers.' Some of the 'developed' countries haven’t been so hard hit yet, but they will be as the global economic system becomes more chaotic. It seems like every day the news is full of more deaths from war and violence, and from natural disasters as well. More people are out of work around the world, more barely living from hand to mouth, more losing their homes, more with no idea how they or their families will survive. More economies are failing, more governments are collapsing or being challenged, and more theories of everything are falling by the wayside. For me, however, this is not a 'bad' thing at all.”

“Ripple #2, going in the opposite direction, is that there are also signs more and more Players are waking up from their dreamstate, or at least waking up within their dreamstate. Now the interesting question is: What if a large number of Players were to leave the movie theater; make their way through their cocoon; let go of their judgments, beliefs, opinions, and fears; and were able to perceive this new frequency range? What effect would that have on the 'Earth Environment' template in The Field – the one the Infinite I’s use when creating holographic experiences for their Players?”

Chapter 31 begins with the question: "You’ve been pretty hard on the ego throughout this book. Isn’t that a judgment in itself?" The author explains that "we have assigned the ego a lot of power during the first half of the Human Game, and we have rewarded it time and time again for the good job it has done, to the point that it seems to have taken on a life of its own. But we should not make the mistake of judging or blaming the ego, or view the transformation into a butterfly as an all-out war with the ego. After all, the ego is simply another piece of the hologram that isn’t real, but only looks and feels real; and it has played its part perfectly in our holographic experiences just like anything and anyone else we have encountered while playing the Human Game."

In Chapter 32, the author tackles the very difficult question of Compassion. "This whole model seems to me a very selfish way to live. Where’s your heart? Where’s your compassion for the pain and suffering of others?"

The author responds that the concept of Compassion, by definition, "belongs in the first half of the Human Game, inside the movie theater, and not in the second half. Why? What’s “wrong” with compassion? Nothing is “wrong.” That would be a judgment. But compassion as it is defined (and practiced) automatically leads a Player to judge the experiences of someone else as “bad” or “wrong,” to think they have the power to change that person’s reality, and to entertain the wish to do so; and none of that is possible or appropriate in the second half of the Human Game. It also inevitably leads the Player who’s trying to be compassionate into frustration, sadness, and sometimes even despair; or, in other words, it leads further into limitation and restriction."

In Chapter 35, the author uses a lot of quotes from U.G. Krishnamurti (no relationship to J. Krishnamurti), as an example of the way other scouts talk about the transformation into a butterfly. For instance...

“People call me an ‘enlightened man’ – I detest that term – they can’t find any other word to describe the way I am functioning. At the same time, I point out that there is no such thing as enlightenment at all. I say that because all my life I’ve searched and wanted to be an enlightened man, and I discovered that there is no such thing as enlightenment at all, and so the question whether a particular person is enlightened or not doesn’t arise. I don’t give a hoot for a sixth-century-BC Buddha, let alone all the other claimants we have in our midst. They are a bunch of exploiters, thriving on the gullibility of the people.”

“The holy men are all phonies – they are telling me only what is there in the books. That I can read – ‘Do the same again and again’ – that I don’t want. Experiences I don’t want. They are trying to share an experience with me. I’m not interested in experience. As far as experience goes, for me there is no difference between the religious experience and the sex experience or any other experience; the religious experience is like any other experience. I am not interested in experiencing Brahman; I am not interested in experiencing reality; I am not interested in experiencing truth. They might help others; but they cannot help me. I’m not interested in doing more of the same; what I have done is enough.”