The more evolved a being becomes the less it identifies with stuff. The path upward goes from identifying with a body, to identifying with mental concepts, to being an undefined presence (the state of Avatar). Each of these stages of being faces different challenges in its own domain. Bodies are concerned with efforts, minds are concerned with beliefs and thinking; and undefined presence—pure being—is concerned with the powers of will.

Bodies are a product of the physical plane of reality and are subject to physical laws. Also, to a lesser extent, they are subject to mental phenomena and the powers of will. But mainly bodies respond to physical universe energies. If a large rock falls on your body, it is going to hurt. It doesn't really matter what you believe or what you are intending, it is going to hurt. And it is going to continue to hurt until you become accustomed to the rock or remove it.

The body exists in an environment of change, subject to causes outside of its control: rocks, thorns, viruses, etc. There are certain actions that can enhance or endanger a body. Therefore, and this is where the mind becomes involved, survival depends upon identifying the efforts that sustain and protect the body—all those things you should have learned about in high school: good hygiene, nutritious foods, protective clothing, physical fitness, etc.

The mind is an obsessive problem solver. If it doesn't have a threat to survival to work on, it will broaden its concern until it can imagine one.

When self is identified with mind, it is trapped in a maze of beliefs, thoughts, and dreams; some of which it is aware and some of which it is not. The mind will offer many avenues of escape, but most, when examined without prejudice will be revealed as nothing more than new dreams of mind.

The critical challenge of any spiritual practice is achieving control of the mind. Hundreds, if not thousands, of techniques have this as their ultimate goal. There are passive methods (meditation), active methods (disciplines), and combinations of methods (technologies). Some are safer and more effective than others.

Repeatedly achieving control of mind, even for short periods of time, results in a natural awakening of a Watcher of Mind. This Watcher, considered through the fog of mind, is variously described as aware will, spirit, higher self, I am, soul, atman, etc., but in truth, it really has no description. It cannot be understood. It cannot be harmed. It can only be experienced. That is the gift of the Avatar training.

Hmmm...more wishes, right?

Ok, here’s another question: "If you could know everything there was to know about any subject, what subject would you pick?

I would pick consciousness, because I have a suspicion that if I knew everything there was to know about consciousness, I’d know everything there was to know about everything.

So, how does someone study consciousness?

They could read a lot of books about the subject; they could do a search on the internet; they could go to a library; they could volunteer at a research foundation where they put electrodes in people’s heads; and maybe in ten years they could be considered an expert.

They could quote from William James, Sigmund Freud, and Carl Jung. They could talk about the ego and the id and super-consciousness. They could name-drop Baba Whatchamacallit and Ken Wilbur. And they could write a book called, WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS?

And maybe when they’re not completely absorbed in their study, their life feels empty, lonely, meaningless. Their new book on consciousness is not selling as well as Deepak’s new book on consciousness. And the last two jobs they had fell through. And their girlfriend is dropping them for a part-time lawnmower mechanic.

Sad story.

I could go on, but here is what’s wrong with the picture? They are lost in concepts. A concept is something that is thought or imagined—somebody has thought up or imagined it. And, you see, they haven’t really been studying consciousness at all; they have been studying the concepts of consciousness.

Can you imagine studying food and never eating any? You could be an expert on cuisine and still starve to death.

Interested in where this is going?

Watch "Bottled Consciousness" online and start experiencing your own exploration of consciousness - http://www.avatarepcmedia.com/en/video/76-bottledconsciousness.html

by Harry Palmer

The Avatar materials are designed and intended to be an effective means for inspiring the realizations and changes that will move you toward a stable spiritual awakening. They should be considered as means (tools), rather than doctrines.


How do you achieve enlightenment?

Siddhartha Gautama lived in the forest, and then he moved to the city, lived there for a while, and then he moved to a mountain, lived there for a while, and then he moved to a river and lived beside the river for a while. Finally, under a banyan tree, he achieved a state of perfect enlightenment, and was henceforth called the Buddha.

So it seems to me that the path is pretty simple. First you live in the forest, then move to the city, then go live on a mountain, then live along a river, and then look for a banyan tree.

No? Then I guess it wasn’t where Buddha was living that was important. What was important was that certain realizations and transformations were happening to him that culminated in his enlightenment. How does a spiritual path bring about these realizations and transformations leading to enlightenment?

Most spiritual paths employ various instructions, teaching techniques, rituals, and individual practices. Together these constitute the tools of a spiritual path. Some paths are more effective than others, and some paths are more personally suited to some mindsets than others. If a tool is used properly, it either produces the expected results or it doesn’t. Of course, tools have other qualifying factors: ease of use, speed of result, effort involved, cost involved, and in some cases, avoidance of collateral damage.

The Avatar tools rate favorably in all categories and are remarkably effective considering the general mental condition of the people to which they are being introduced.

If you examine the current state of the world, you will find that most people are reacting according to deeply indoctrinated beliefs. Some will argue that they are not reacting and are making free will choices, but the truth is that past conclusions and old fears make most of their decisions. Nearly everyone is operating according to someone else’s rules rather than their own intuitive principles. People live in what was, and they selectively perceive only enough of the present to excite their conclusions about things. The major aspiration is to be right rather than to be aware.

In this compulsive commerce of approval, most interactions are consciously or unconsciously manipulative. Most are governed by praise (pleasure) or criticism (pain). What people do and say to each other creates reactions. If the experience of the reaction is considered pleasurable, attachment develops. If the experience of the reactions is considered painful, resistance develops.

Some paths are more effective than others, and some paths are more personally suited to some mindsets than others.

The same experience may affect different people differently. People’s considerations of what is painful and what is pleasurable follow patterns created by their beliefs and memories of past experiences. If you traced the considerations of pain and pleasure all the way back to their roots, you would most likely find them associated with survival concerns: food, shelter, and reproduction.

At the present time, most of human consciousness operates like a roll of exposed film. It seldom pictures the world moment to moment as it is, but carries around pictures of what the world was like. Individuals wrestle with the fears and sufferings of the past-obstructions that rightly should be assigned to history and left there.

So this is how we begin.

The sections of Avatar are designed to encourage the realizations and changes that a person must go through to move from a life of indoctrinated responses into a life of living deliberately. The necessary realizations and changes are not the same for everyone.

Also the realizations and changes are not a straight line or an exact series of steps. Instead, they follow a winding path of necessarily unique experiences that sometimes nurture the ego self, sometimes a compassionate self, and slowly or suddenly, arrive at an experience of spiritual self. It may sound like a linear process, but it seldom is.

Yes, word lessons can be presented as a straight path to understanding enlightenment, chapter following chapter, but world lessons wander; life stops to explore. It loses its place. It falls down, runs into walls, sheds tears, and then has a good laugh as it gets up and brushes itself off. If only perfect people could experience enlightenment, very few would arrive.

Progress does not always mean that you are moving in the direction of being more compassionate, righteous, or spiritual. The unique experience you need might be painful or destructive. Sometimes the next lesson is negative, or ego strengthening, or overwhelming. Unless you are able to live a cloister life, your spiritual tools need to work on practical matters as well as metaphysical matters.
As an aside, religions tend to stall out around the high points of a spiritual path. These hesitations can be obstructions to moving forward. Sometimes a parishioner has to fall into sin and be excommunicated before he or she can move on. The last step before personal freedom may be to commit an unpardonable sin in your faith. The transgressions, honestly confronted, transform your judgments into compassion and empathy for others: Someone who always acts kindly has trouble understanding someone who fails to act kindly; not doing good might seem unforgivable to someone who always does good.

Next I am going to take you through the sections of Avatar one by one and roughly describe the changes that are expected to occur in each section. But let me caution you, reading about these changes, even in detail, is not the same as experiencing them.

Section I of Avatar is called ReSurfacing. It refers to the action of disentangling you from your creations; it is an awakening of interested self-awareness. This section could be called a self-discovery course. It is waking you up from the movie you were lost in.

ReSurfacing reminds people that there is a difference between the experience of self and the experience the self is having. Later on the path, these two may again merge, but at this level of awakening the direction is to realize that there is a difference between the perceiver and the perception. There is a difference between one’s self and one’s role model. There is a difference between acting deliberately and reacting. There is a difference between you and your problems.

The fundamental change that occurs on ReSurfacing is a deepening of the experience of “I am.” This is a transformation from, “Oh sure, I am,” to “Oh my God, I am. I really am.” This is an “I am” that is discovering personal responsibility. This opens the door to powerful realizations that break the grip of indoctrinated beliefs. Experiencing “I am” as something more than a mental concept causes a transformation and a healing. Personal responsibility replaces robotic reactions to authority. Suddenly you can observe and choose how, or even if, you will act. When somebody talks about Avatar as a self-discovery course, they’re talking about this level of realization and change.

The sections of Avatar are designed to encourage the realizations and changes that a person must go through to move from a life of indoctrinated responses into a life of living deliberately. The necessary realizations and changes are not the same for everyone.

Section II of Avatar is self-empowerment training. The prerequisite to doing Section II is that on ReSurfacing you discovered a real self to empower.

All suffering arises from mental processes, in particular from beliefs and judgments. Resistance to what is inevitable produces suffering. It is no surprise that certain philosophies and religions consider life to be suffering. They don’t have an effective technology to handle mental resistance. The best they can do is to still the mind by discipline; when the mind is still, the suffering ceased, but so too do the lessons conveyed by suffering.

Section II is a modern approach to achieving control over the mind; there is more subtly to the mind than turning it off and on. This control is such an unusual accomplishment that many people, until they experience it, do not believe it can be done. But it can, and it is part of the changes that happen on Section II of Avatar.

After you sort out who you are and how your mind operates, the next issue is what can you deliberately create?

Section II is where the path begins to wind. You might take a detour into the material world. Ego development is built into the exercises in order to prepare for the next transformation. After the experience of “I am,” the next experience on the path is, “And I’m pretty darned cool.” Section II removes your limitations and releases your creative powers. Your first response will probably be to create something that you have long desired. This is the ultimate pleasure of the ego, to create exactly what one wants.

Why, you might ask, would Avatar encourage the development of the ego when we know the ego is the source of many difficulties in the world? The answer is that it is the next necessary experience that you need to integrate. The ego is an area that needs to be explored without judgment. Remember, sometimes it is the egotistic efforts at self-aggrandizement that produce some of our greatest cultural treasures. Developing the ego is a necessary rite of passage to transcending the ego. If your ego fails to flower, there is no harvest, and no further spiritual growth.

The main change on Section II is achieving a balance in your life. If you have experienced unhappiness, you can create happiness. If you have experienced failure, you can experience success. If you have experienced feeling submissive, you can balance it with feeling dominant. The Section II Source List processes and Reality Creation processes afford an ethical way for you to achieve this balance.

Restoring balance is the real goal of self-empowerment. You could say that Section II puts you on the route to achieving karmic balance with the universe; whatever twists and turns your spiritual path has taken, or needs to take, the balance can be restored with the Section II tools.

On to Section III, the first rays of self-awareness are often paralyzing; they tend to brightly illuminate your shame and guilt, rather than your deeper nature. This changes with the initiation of Section III; self-awareness becomes functional, compassionate, and empowering.

The Section III rundowns are a journey inward to unlimited self. They bring you into the space that has the power to define self. The rundowns identify and release the tentacles of the past, and you come effortlessly into a deep level of the present. The present rather than the past now shapes whom you are and what you choose to experience. In this state, you act intuitively, are motivated by high principles, and operate from an awareness that is independent of self.

So these are the sections that make up The Avatar Course. They are intended to be experiential rather than intellectual.

All content copyright 2008, Star’s Edge, Inc. EPC is a service mark of Star's Edge, Inc. Avatar®, ReSurfacing®, Thoughtstorm®, Love Precious Humanity®, Enlightened Planetary Civilization® and Star’s Edge International® are registered trademarks of Star’s  Edge, Inc. All rights reserved.

Harry Palmer, author of the Avatar materials

The problem with self-determined will is that the motivational forces of its lesser cousins—moral indoctrination, emotional reaction, and instincts—exert hidden influences on it. For example, a person, let us say his name is Fred, may represent his choice of pink slippers over yellow slippers as an exercise of his self-determined will. But careful investigation will reveal that pink slippers were the habitual footwear of his doting mother, a fact that he has forgotten.

So is his choice of pink slippers a coincidence, or is there some motivational force (hidden influence) that predisposes his attention to desire pink?

Do you know this word “predisposed”? In psychology it means to have unconscious reasons for favoring a certain choice even before the choice is offered. In another sense, it means the outcome is highly predictable. If you have ever gambled at a casino, you could say that the odds of winning are predisposed in favor of the casino. You might win occasionally, but the longer you play the more predictable the outcome of your losing will be.

Self-determined choices don’t really appear until the motivating forces of the lower realms of will go off-line.

A predisposition is a hidden influence on reasoned choice. It arises from the motivational forces of the lower realms of will. Without effective education, people may insist that their behavior, regardless of how senseless or destructive, is really an exercise of their self-determined will. Here you will find the emphysemic smoker who insists that she smokes by choice, and the alcoholic who insists that he could quit any time. Unreasonable insistence upon a viewpoint is a characteristic of predisposed influences. The smoker and the alcoholic are under the delusion that they are making self-determined choices, but they aren’t. These are predisposed behaviors being justified by the self-determined will. This self-deception becomes apparent as soon as you awaken the viewpoint of transcendent will.

So back to Fred, is he predisposed to choose pink slippers? The answer can be determined by observing how consistently Fred chooses pink slippers. Imagine some magic that would allow you to offer Fred the same choice over and over without his remembering. How often would you expect Fred to pick the yellow slippers over the pink slippers?

If he always picks the pink slippers, then this is really a predisposition, a habit, rather than a self-determined choice. If Fred’s choice was self-determined, and all else was equal, you could expect a 50-50 split—50 percent of the time he would choose yellow slippers.

Let’s say you discover that Fred always chooses the pink slippers, even insists upon pink slippers. Now you know that Fred is predisposed to choose pink. Maybe the predisposition came from his genetic instincts, or from some emotional reinforcement, or from his indoctrination that pink is the right choice. Fred experiences the delusion of self-determinism, because he has not been awakened to the transcendent will viewpoint. He is not aware of his own predispositions. And even though Fred will give hundreds of good reasons for choosing pink, for instance they match his pink bathrobe, his choice is really motivated by lower realms of will. Many people who are acting under the influence of emotional or moral motivations will argue that they are being self-determined.

This may lead you to wonder how many of Fred’s apparent self-determined choices are really nothing more than justified predispositions motivated by his lower realms of will?

As long as you’re experimenting on Fred, imagine that you could teach Fred to transcend his mind. Fred-the-source-being (Avatar state) is fully present, aware of, but in control of the motivating forces of the lower realms of will. In other words, any predispositions that he might have are off-line. Transcendent Fred looks the same, but he acts differently. Fred has found his millions.

Now offer Fred the choice between yellow and pink slippers and you’ll find that as long as both fit and keep his feet warm, he doesn’t really care about the color. He has achieved the ability to really make a self-determined choice based on what is in front of him. He is no longer influenced by any subjective preferences. Ironic, isn’t it? Self-determined choices don’t really appear until the motivating forces of the lower realms of will go off-line.

This natural self-determinism of the being, so often lost in a maze of predispositions, reawakens with the waking of the transcendent will.

If you talk with Fred-the-Avatar, you will find him intelligent, logical, with high integrity, and refreshingly free of any asserted opinions or habitual preferences. And, as he gains more and more experience with the Avatar tools, he will recognize more and more the motivating forces of lower realms of will and discreate (become free of) their influence.

You will discover that his life and his environment have suddenly become much happier and more peaceful.

All content copyright 2010, Star's Edge, Inc. EPC is a service mark of Star's Edge, Inc. Avatar®, ReSurfacing®, Thoughtstorm®, Love Precious Humanity®, Enlightened Planetary Civilization® and Star's Edge International® are registered trademarks of Star's Edge, Inc. All rights reserved.

Harry Palmer, author of the Avatar materials, greeting students at the close of an Avatar Wizard Course.There are moments on The Avatar Course when all thought processes stop, and one becomes fully aware of existence without creating any reaction or response to it. Self moves beyond the scope of daily concerns, slips time and definition, and realizes itself as a facet of the descriptionless source from which all things, real or imagined, have their beginning. It is a moment of intuitive insight. An epiphany.

The Avatar student learns firsthand that no words or symbols will ever contain this state. And even though it is the source of description, it is itself always beyond description.

This is the transcendental experience. It turns the abstractions of philosophy into an experience that is profoundly more real than any other life event. It is a spiritual awakening. A wave of under-standing is released that flows backward into the past and forward into the future of your life. The upsets and injustices of the past are soothed. The fears and anguish of the future fade back into the imagination. This is consecrated ground. This is the divine connection, the source from which all differences arise and to which all differences ultimately return. It is an eternal moment in which the seer and the seen, the knower and the known, share the same root.

In this state there is no conflict with the interests of others, no struggle between opposites. With crystal clarity, you know both your own suffering and the suffering of the world as the result of the arbitrary structures of indoctrinated preferences and judgments. The illusion of separation vanishes. In all probability, your eyes will overflow with compassionate tears, and your heart will open to more love than you can imagine. Attention-energy, once trapped in emotionally painful memories, returns to empower the senses to new thresholds of perception. Detail and beauty return to the world.

You realize that this state, which is far closer to your true essence than the labels you wear in ordinary existence, is always available to you. It is deeper than the changing qualities of the world. It prioritizes the importances of life. In all probability, you will have a good laugh.*

Buddhist scriptures have called this state of awareness nirvana. Hindu scriptures have called it Brahman. Christian scriptures have called it Christ consciousness. But the experienced Buddhist, Hindu or Christian will all quickly tell you that nirvana, Brahman, or Christ consciousness are really just labels that point to an experience that cannot be described or conveyed by words. The mind struggles with concepts such as "eternal and infinite sea of awareness," "being a clear descriptionless void," "formless and unnameable wellspring of life."

So just relax and enjoy the experience. The Avatar students, who typically encounter this state in the third or fourth day of training, refer to the state as "source awareness." Presence replaces preconceived notions. Observation replaces judgments. Self-criticism and asserted rightness give way to a nonjudgmental, compassionate view of existence.

The value of Avatar (and the principle reason for its worldwide success) lies not in the written materials which admittedly are fascinating, not in the discussions which are lively, not in the lectures which are often insightful, but in the ability of the well-trained Avatar Master to lead a student through a precise series of practical exercises that unlock the mind and open the path to this often-sought-but-seldom-obtained state of being.

When you can experience yourself as distinct from the intellect, you are able to see the patterns of assumptions and beliefs that filter and distort your understanding of (and control over) reality.

The Avatar Master is the key. The path is narrow and its sides slope steeply. The unguided seeker is more likely to fall into delusion or discouragement than he or she is to find enlightenment. You can't see something while you are being it. You can't drive a car by looking at the road behind you in the rear view mirror. The great trap—and whole nations have succumbed to this trap—are the leaders and teachers who preach out of their own experience of delusion or discouragement. It is the world's misfortune that they didn't have an Avatar Master who knew the path.

Why travel this path?

Putting aside all the spiritual reasons, the practical answer is: the closer you come to source awareness, the more control you have over your life.

When you can experience yourself as distinct from the intellect, you are able to see the patterns of assumptions and beliefs that filter and distort your understanding of (and control over) reality. These beliefs, either because they were indoctrinated to serve someone else's interest or because they were embraced in a painful moment of fear or confusion, are rarely beneficial to you. More likely, they are limiting and self-sabotaging. In the worse case, they are completely debilitating. Collectively, they determine your viewpoint of life, but they are hidden from the ordinary intellectual awareness.

The difficulties for a non-Avatar are first, discovering the existence of these beliefs (along with the motives that are sustaining them), and second, replacing these beliefs with a self-controlled discriminating wisdom. Both of these difficulties, as well as many other potential difficulties, are resolved by learning to use the Avatar tools skillfully. Freedoms replace limitations. Opportunities replace problems. Enemies turn into allies.

How many aspects of reality are determined by the viewpoint that you hold? More than you might think. Change your viewpoint, and you can change your life.

* While some people may liken this experience to descriptions of states induced by psychoactive drugs (e.g., LSD, mescaline, psilocybin) or yogic breathing exercises, it should be emphasized that Avatar does not employ either chemical or physical means to reach and sustain a transcendental state.

All content copyright 2010, Star’s Edge, Inc. EPC is a service mark of Star's Edge, Inc. Avatar®, ReSurfacing®, Thoughtstorm®, Love Precious Humanity®, Enlightened Planetary Civilization® and Star’s Edge International® are registered trademarks of Star’s  Edge, Inc. All rights reserved.