Imbas vs Imagination Searles Sat Jul 22 01:10:19 2000 Imbas vs Imagination *p*The results that I achieved in "seeing the light" after years of searching for the truth and meditating on it were not easily achieved. They required three things on my part: *p*An honest devotion to finding the truth of being, *p*An investigation into the text available on all manner of religious experience (including shamanism), *p*A dedication of myself to the task through daily meditations. *p*I do not consider what resulted to be imagined (it was actually the most *real* experience that I have *ever* had); to be easy (it took me two years of trying); to be New Age (at least not in the current sense, though if you included Edgar Cayce in New Age then the waters become muddied). I left the ordinary reality for a greater reality, in a manner that seems to directly parallel those described by people who have reported Near-Death-Experiences (NDE). *p*In my experience, the darkness came alive in golden shimmering lights that formed a portal into the Otherworld. I literally felt my spirit being sucked out of my body into the vortex of golden light. Once I had entered, I was enveloped within a consciousness matrix that touched all things, though my own consciousness was distinct from the others, I was capable of touching all of them through the need for awareness. I had only to form a question and I had an answer. Within this Otherworldly Consciousness, I had what we would call a guide, who was able to take me to places beyond my awareness. My own consciousness was only able to formulate questions, or to make trips to places, based upon my own knowledge of place and person. If I had a need to be in a place I could be there without being perceived by the persons within it. I visited my parents in just such a journey. My guide took me to other places that I cannot describe to you.*p*This manner of altered consciousness that sprang from the well of my own imbas, is a form of knowing that is beyond thinking. It is an experience of the form and matrix of a thing, rather than an understanding of the interlinked ideas and concepts that we use here to understand a topic (which are called thought and thinking). I have chosen to call this experience imbas forosna, because it brought me knowledge suddenly through a golden light. This stream of knowledge, once established, continues to flow within a person and remains accessible to those who honor its truth. As far as I'm concerned, it is "The Truth Against the World." After this experience, I had episodes where I would start talking about a subject and the form of the words would *point* me to other words and concepts in a continuing interlinked stream of words and concepts. People would ask me where I had read that information, since it was obviously beyond what we had learned in school. I could only say that it just came out of my mouth and that the words just seemed to be leading me to one another. This creation of knowledge was never proven to be false if it was investigated.*p*It was also at this time that I realized how to practically use the interconnected nature of our reality matrix to determine the truth of a situation. If the truth of a word could lead one to another word and another truth, then the truth of concepts and facts would interlink within a greater structure that could be seen by those who would open themselves to an unbiased sight or vision. This technique, I liken to dichetal do chennaib. It is a matter of hearing all of the evidence about a matter (lies, imaginings, distortions, half-truths, observations and facts), then blanking the mind and expanding it into a multi-dimensional world. Once the space has been created for truth, then the barriers are dropped and the testimony is allowed to enter to form its own reality. Those matters that are interlinked and support one another form a structure of being and truth. Those ideas and untruths that are left seek ways to attach themselves to the new creation but are only transiently successful. Because I have developed this ability and because I have sought to be truthful in everything that I do, I have frequently been asked to give my opinion or judgement on matters. My success in these endeavors is only as good as my own service of the truth. If I let myself be influenced by emotion, need, imagination, or bias, then what I have to say will not be true. Serving the truth is a harsh service and discipline, though it can be as pleasurable as a kiss, or as wonderful as the beauty of a flower, at times.*p*These techniques that I've used were not passed to me from traditional knowledge (fios). They were gifted to me through the knowledge of experience (eolas) and the knowledge that illumines (imbas). My own skills in this area would probably be much more efficient if I had received training from a traditional Druid, yet their discovery would *still* have required me to perform my own personal quests and work. There is a reason why offerings to the gods were thrown downward into pits beneath the earth. Those whom we seek are beyond us, around us, and within us. We make oaths to them but we have no hope of communing with them, unless we seek the roots of our own being first. We must be immersed within the Cauldron of Unbeing, experiencing the death of the transient, so that we may find ourselves (our Mac ind Oic-Mabon-Maponus) within our own inner self (our Ca/er Ibormeith-Caer Sidi-???). This truth of self and being must first be obtained by those who seek Drai/ocht IMO. One cannot find truth without being true. Truth, life and being are the Three Gods of Danu. They are the wellspring of Imbas and they are the fire of the Word Goddess. Fire from Water within the enclosure of the Land, the breath of Creation, the Brugh na Bo/inne, the Sun within the basins of the Brugh.*p*Though these techniques may appear to vary between individuals and traditions, the human spirit, which is the host for imbas remains constant within each of us. The human spirit has not changed from the moment that the first human existed. We connect across time and space to our many selves as well as our gods. The spirit of the gods remains true to their Creation as well. The experience of imbas is itself a great truth against the world, which is available to all who seek diligently. It would be better if we were able to seek this truth in the Old Ways, but we are so conditioned by modern life that we cannot approach them properly. We do not understand the practice of sacrifice as the Ancestors did it. We abhor the death and the gore that were contained within some of the ancient practices. We are far removed from the truth of the spirit that allowed them to understand natural acts (death, sexuality and battle) as being symbols of greater truths. If our lives were different then such acts would have meaning to us, but we are not them, and our lives are not as theirs were. The truth remains the same. Imbas is still imbas and the streams of knowledge and power still flow from their sources. Can we not embrace the truth of their being in our own ways and let the untruths slide away? Can we not, in this day and age, find the matrix that connects ourselves to the light of truth? Can we not realize the Truth that is against the World always? That Truth is within each of us and it surrounds all of us, as surely a child's life exists within the belly of its mother. If we are to find truth , we must seek it and if we are to truly be, then we must seek within ourselves. That is where the Well of Segais is to be found and that is where the nine hazels of our own du/ile surround it.*p*Searles*br*