Beyond The Edge - Worthy

Good Morning Clockers. Hello Newbies to UDCC, you've arrived on a good day. The reason is that today you can get a fuller understanding `about my mental positioning' if you tune into an internet radio show this evening. If you have never done that - this might be the time - 8PM-10PM eastern at http://www.beyondtheedgeradio.com/ (I will be on from about 8:30 onward I'm told) - it will at least begin as a SKYPE interview so you can even see my ugly puss.

The show is run by Eric Altman and Lon Strickler - both deeply into the paranormal on an investigative basis - and since most people with this orientation get that from experiences of an anomalous nature - when combined with MY OWN anomalous phenomena experiences - and my very dry and non-standard thinking about such matters (that virtually all of it is Phenomenology related) - should make for some very interesting listening. Yes, tonight you can turn off the TV for internet TV. I'D LOVE for my readers to participate and the website BTER (beyond the edge radio) - has a chatroom too.
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This will be the third time I've been on Internet Radio - The First on the UK show `Now That's Weird' and last year on L.A. Marzulli's very edgy show. -------- One of the things that shows ask for on occasion is a bio - so let me reveal via this slightly altered bio that I sent to BTER just a start to where I `come from'.
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The Phillips BIO
Rick Phillips was born in 1952 in Shamokin PA but lived in Ohio within a year and grew up in Euclid Ohio. His first memory was on the day of his third birthday party while walking outside, and, he had his first `thought in his head', which was `I AM THREE'. His first startling I AM moment. Soon after, his family moved into `the projects' built for the returning GI's after World War 2 and Korea; his dad was a returning Navy man and destined to become a Fireman and eventual President of his firefighters union. His group organizational skills would have a strong influence on Rick - as did his fathers interest in gambling and a full understanding numbers and chance.

Phillips's mother was a young beauty - under twenty when Rick was born and somewhat of a rebel shortly after. Certainly one who spoke her mind as upon seeing her son for the first time at birth, described him to her mother as `ugly, with red hair like you' (the one thing she didn't want was a red haired boy). Phillips never really had red hair - and the dark blond color he had started going gray at 25 and now is nearly fully white in appearance. But, the rebel spirit was certainly imbedded by early influences of his mother such as declaring that `Ricky will not go to Sunday School' - followed fairly quickly by his mother finding `Humanitarianism' as her new religion. She was one of the first to attend a Rock And Roll Show in Cleveland Ohio (another strong Rick Phillips Influence) and one of the first `working mothers' - which quickly lead to her divorce and she and Rick moving elsewhere (4 times in 6 years) all in Euclid. During one of these situations Rick lived with his mother and her parents - including a grandmother that often said about UFOs (in Rick's earliest memories) `Oh, I wish they would land and take me'. When Rick's mother eventually re-married - Rick's political positions would be influenced by his slightly older step-brother returning from Vietnam shot up with shrapnel and addicted to heroin.
So, perhaps as a result of the above - Phillips followed the path that ultimately would include the strongest of the aforementioned attributes. Indeed, even from the earliest of ages, and awareness, Phillips remembers many possible non-ordinary realities; such as:


Time Distortion as a child when throwing a stone at someone and as the stone went towards the persons back - time slowed down significantly in his perception.


A one time `we won't hurt you' bedroom visitor who instilled sleep movement immobilization and speech immobilization - under age six.


Poltergeist phenomena in home - most likely of the grandfather he was living with at the time of his sudden death when 13 years old.


Automatic writing/Thinking - From 1974-1976 would have to suddenly write concepts he knew nothing about - later to find he was writing Phenomenology ideas similar to Husserl and Sartre when he found those thinkers works. Phillips calls these ideas `The Phillips Phenomenology' and it forms one of his foundations of looking at the anomalous phenomena in the world. He has two blogs that deeply dig into his phenomenology - one called `What Is Not Able To Not Be Is' http://whatisnotabletonotbeis.blogspot.com/
 and the other is Phillips's main esoteric blog and his first investigations into the worlds Fortean phenomena - it's called `The Heavy Stuff' -
http://theheavystuff.com/ .


Telekinesis witness - 1973 with former roommate at Ohio University, Curt Chaplin - the hallway interview guy, of `The People's Court' for the past 15 years. The telekinesis happened at a pre-selected `power spot' and was during extreme talks of Chaplin and Phillips about Carlos Castaneda's first book - The Teachings of Don Juan. Specifically, Chaplin and Phillips were by far MOST interested in the appendix of the book called `The Structural Analysis'. (Have REVERSE related event with John Flower.)


Full blown Missing Time Incident with Two Others - 1986 with intellectual friend John Flower (so intellectual that he was once an actor for an ad in Rolling Stone that called for a `40's bearded intellectual'). The description of what is remembered of the structure of this `time gap' is worth listening to and thinking about. One great post on The Heavy Stuff Phillips wrote was called `The Missing Space of Missing Time Incidents'. Phillips also may have had a `smaller' missing time incident in the mid-70's also.


Controlled Lucid Dreaming - About a dozen times using Carlos Castaneda's technique of `finding ones hands' in a dream and then setting up a phenomenology there. Phillips describes this reality state as totally unique.


Close Up UFO Sighting - 1991 - Very close sighting with a great background story. Ultimately, this has led Phillips to be a near daily UFO blogger. His highest rated (Alexa) blog is called UFO Disclosure Countdown Clock -
http://ufodisclosurecountdownclock.blogspot.com/
 started in 2007 and put into near daily full gear since 2010 and now with over 450 posts.


But, all of the above - has been fed into the mind of Phillips - which also has had `interesting experiences' beyond the near automatic esoteric phenomenology writing (BTW, most of Phillips's blogs are indeed just that type of approach.) Most of those `outside influences' came as the result of exposure to some of the best thinkers of `un-natural things' - Such as Ouspenski and Gurdjieff, -- when in the mid 1970's - Phillips attended along with J.Flower some `4th Way' Meetings; barely skirting the `higher awareness' cultlike folk they met at the meetings. Nonetheless, Phillips found and finds the awareness teachings of The 4th Way extremely powerful in being aware of mental processes.


In his business career, Phillips has done marketing research, both qualitative and quantitative for some of America's biggest companies and did one-on-one and focus group research, as the moderator and analyst, on new products decades ago - that are used in everyday life today. His `Qualitative' business bio can be found here
http://streetlevelviews.com/5.html.
 Indeed, eventually when Phillips moved into doing Restaurant Trade Area Research as a recognized expert - clients would be making million dollar decisions based on his recommendations.


The ultimate result of all the above is an engaging speaker with possible insights and definite opinions that are often unique. Phillips also has contributed to a new book about to be released in 2012 by Robert Cheatham called Materialization's and Manifestations (UFO Drag Queen) - who has gathered bloggers such as Phillips, Bruce Duensing and Eric Kuersten all of whom can be found on Phillips's Esoteric Blog called `The C Influence' -- Oh, BTW, Lon Strickler also is a contributor to TCI.


Phillips has also appeared on internet radio shows such as L. A. Marzulli's, and the UK show `Now That's Weird', and, is also considering using some of the posts of his blogs as a basis for a solo book project.
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To the above I should also add a family historical written piece from my wife's side of a `Living Doppleganger' in her family history. My wife also saw one of the `hanging jetliners' in the last few months. ----------- And, my experiences with John Flower includes one on record at the Rhine Institute of a VANISHING object. ------ Oh, I am also a juggler and the object related to juggling.
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Friends have always said `You Are Out There, Phillips' - and tonight you get to find out why - so tune in. And, thanks for your visit today.
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Lastly I posted this about an hour ago - http://theheavystuff.com/?p=150 - it's the type of mind-exercise I do regularly at The Heavy Stuff, my esoteric blog. The post is titled What Humans Must Forget - To `Know’ Their Human Reality!
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Then Again, Lujan Matus may be correct - all perception is structure and  learned - and can be unlearned to see another `structure'.

In Search Of The Miraculous - Esoteric

UDCC will take a slight diversion today into another dimension - put on your afterburners - time for a Sunday ride into the country, like in the good ole days.
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The title of today's post, is the title of a book by P.D. Ouspensky written many many years ago - *(before your mother was born) - about his search for `esoteric' knowledge held by humans here on planet Earth. What he found was the supposed esoteric knowledge of G.I. Gurdjieff - who elaborated on many `truths' about mankind and his condition within the world and universe. Indeed, Ouspensky found his miracle which he described with just five words on page 261 that I will never forget:

`And then, the miracle began.'
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I'm going to get back to Ouspensky momentarily - but - the phrase `In Search Of The Miraculous' (ISOTM) certainly can be applied to the whole field of anomalous actualization's from UFOs to Bigfoot, Ghosts and beyond - perhaps. `Imagined' or not - when humans come across some `space' of what I call `the able to not be' - within them or around them - it may seem that the word `miracle' is the only word that is appropriate.

I think of Blossom Goodchild believing she was being told a `alien contact date'. I think of the exopolitics folks being convinced that a web bot was suggesting Nov. 27th, 2009 as a `alien contact date'. I think of Stanley Fulham and his `special contacts mentally' which brought to him a process of `alien contact dates'. And on and on and on.

I am of the belief the some events are miraculous - to the singular human observer/experiencer. Events that are embedded with the quality of `real' as humans think they experience it. But which, are events that simply `cannot continue' within our phenomenological structure upon the loss of a certain quality associated with their space actualization.

For Ouspensky, like Goodchild and probably like Stanley - `the other' `spoke' `within them'. An other that somehow one was able to objectively separate from our own internal space/body/actualization. Something, that when it happens, almost compels one to `report' about it.
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But, back to I-SO-TM, - today I was looking at the reviews of the book on Amazon (link later) and wanted to feature a few of them:
First, the Amazon Description:
 Since its original publication in 1949, In Search of the Miraculous has been hailed as the most valuable and reliable documentation of G. I. Gurdjieff's thoughts and universal view. This historic and influential work is considered by many to be a primer of mystical thought as expressed through the Work, a combination of Eastern philosophies that had for centuries been passed on orally from teacher to student. Gurdjieff's goal, to introduce the Work to the West, attracted many students, among them Ouspensky, an established mathematician, journalist, and, with the publication of In Search of the Miraculous, an eloquent and persuasive proselyte.

Ouspensky describes Gurdjieff's teachings in fascinating and accessible detail, providing what has proven to be a stellar introduction to the universal view of both student and teacher. It goes without saying that In Search of the Miraculous has inspired great thinkers and writers of ensuing spiritual movements, including Marianne Williamson, the highly acclaimed author of A Return to Love and Illuminata. In a new and never-before-published foreword, Williamson shares the influence of Ouspensky's book and Gurdjieff's teachings on the New Thought movement and her own life, providing a contemporary look at an already timeless classic.
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First, an admission; I first became aware of O and G from the book called `The Fourth Way' - as potentially an `esoteric' book as you are ever likely to encounter, that led to reading many works by O and a couple more by G. These are books, as the Amazon description above said - inspire folks. Inspire folks to think that their brain can be organized in perhaps a different manner than what is normal accepted.

Indeed, these books inspired a `movement' (with devotees probably like those who ascribe to the coming Thrive Movement perhaps) of folks that EXIST TO THIS DAY - who get together in almost cult like groups to `practice' THE WORK. ----- Yes, the esoteric thought about ones mind for folks following O and G is called `The Work'.

I know, I went to a few `meetings'. Or. This one knows, this one went to a few meetings.

You see, you are forbidden to use the word `I' when attending one of these meetings and are `reminded' EVERY time one speaks in such a manner. And, it really, meaning `the work', IMO, is built upon building awareness via following certain guidelines (and understanding the reasons behind how they build awareness-consciousness). And, as one into the whole consciousness saga, I enjoyed nearly all of O's and G's readings I came across or could find.
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The book ISOTM has over 70 Amazon reviews and the average is nearly a FIVE - it's that good a read. Nonetheless, here's some reviewers words:
The core of the "work" is a powerful methodology, but no more so than, say, vipassana, zen, dzogchen or other solid, meditation-based tradition. There is nothing about the fourth way that is any more "esoteric" than these other traditions (that's right, nothing). The biggest difference is that Gurdjieff left behind a legacy of fraudulent teachers and cults, whereas there are many Buddhist and other groups that are reliable. (Certainly, Buddhist and other groups, being made up of people, have their flaws, and there are things to be learned in some (not all!) Gurdjieff groups, but decades of hard-won experience allows me to say that the Gurdjieff tradition is peculiar in attracting power-hungry charlatans who exploit the "rascal sage" idea to gather suckers around themselves. It happens in other traditions, but there, it tends to end in disgrace. In fourth way groups, duping people seems to be a point of pride.) Even groups that are not necessarily exploitative or fraudulent tend to attract people who especially like the idea of being "esoteric," to use a term Ouspensky used, but which was far more appropriate eighty years ago than it is today.
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At the very end of his life, Ouspensky seemed to repudiate "the System", as he understood it, although glassy-eyed disciples in that time and this try to rationalize that fact away. Perhaps he realized that any systematic approach to developing our consciousness is impossible, since if we are on a road with a known destination that destination can only be our own projection of what we imagine it to be. No matter. The ability of this man Ouspensky to think systematically was indeed his great strength, and it lent all his writing a clarity and throughness simply unmatched in all of twentieth century "occultism". Nowhere did he need it more than in this reporting of the early teachings of Gurdjieff, when that particular unique idiot was at the zenith of his own development.
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 discovered this amazing gem in a used book store and interestingly read it at the same time I read Kuhn's "Structure of Scientific Revolutions". I couldn't possibly heap too much praise on either of these books. Both are life-transforming for those of a scientific bent, and for others too. I opened Ouspensky at random and started reading about the distribution of knowledge among people. He cured me of untold anxiety concerning why so few people have a clue when he said that knowledge has power only to the extent it is concentrated in a few people, how the mass of humanity freely discards what little knowledge is allotted them, and particularly how at certain times humanity discards vast amounts of knowledge in favor of mass insanity.
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So, yes, I'm using the bully pulpit to push some `knowledge' at you. LOL. As I know that when UDCC did our focus on those who follow this blog - many have an esoteric bent. So, IF you are not familiar with O and G and you have been warned that the knowledge may make you join a cultlike train of thought - then you are approved to dig into any of the offerings below.
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Oh, thanks to the TWO people who picked up THEIR OWN 2012 UFO Calendars - YESTERDAY. Link at the top of the page.
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Begin Your Own Mind Trip Today
 - The book about The Work
Find out what G did To O.
Another view of both of them.
 A G book of interest.
G's most known work perhaps.
 click books for more info. Here's the latest from an insider.