Design-Based Research Methods (DBR)

he laller is a shame to Mankind, as being a plain sign that 'tho they discern and commend what is Good, they have not the Vcrtuc and Courage to Act accordingly

So advantageous is practice to the discern­ment of beauty,

CTP is a key method for reflective design, since it offers strategies to bring unconscious values to the fore by creating technical alternatives. In our work, we extend CTP in several ways that make it particularly appropriate for HCI and critical computing.

CTP synthesizes critical reflection with technology production as a way of highlighting and altering unconsciously-held assumptions that are hindering progress in a technical field.

In the academic setting especially, a premium will beplaced on clinical quality improvement, the develop-ment of practice guidelines, and outcomes research,not only to provide the physician with a creative out-let and a potential source of funding during thenonclinical months but also to give the academiccenter a practical research-and-development arm

teach-ers are generally not prepared to address the intersections of healing, politics, and emotion in classrooms.

But addressing problematic internal culture of design teams is not enough. As an industry we must also confront the real-world socio-political outcomes of our practice. If we accept a code of conduct as necessary, we must also accept a code of outcomes as necessary. We must create ethical frameworks to evaluate our work at all stages, especially once it is alive in the world. Our lack of ongoing critical evaluation of our profession means that design continues to reinforce a harmful status quo, creating exploitable systems at the expense of societies.

Beyond better design paradigms, designers must look beyond the field, toward practices that directly criticise or oppose their work. In particular, security research and user experience design have significant practice and goal overlap and this relationship is often antagonistic. Both fields primarily focus on the systems of wide-scale interactions between users and technology, but the goals of the two fields are diametrically opposed; design is to create the best possible experience for a user, security is to create the worst possible experience for an attacker. By focusing of the outcomes of the two fields, it’s clear that security research is a form of user experience design. Design should reciprocate, and become a form of security research.

Design is inherently political, but it is not inherently good. With few exceptions, the motivations of a design project are constrained by the encompassing platform or system first, and the experiences and values of its designers second. The result is designers working in a user hostile world, where even seemingly harmless platforms or features are exploited for state or interpersonal surveillance and violence.As people living in societies, we cannot be separated from our political contexts. However, design practitioners research and implement systems based on a process of abstracting their audience through user stories. A user story is “a very high-level definition of a requirement, containing just enough information so that the developers can produce a reasonable estimate of the effort to implement it23.” In most cases, user are grouped through shared financial or biographical data, by their chosen devices, or by their technical or cognitive abilities.When designing for the digital world, user stories ultimately determine what is or is not an acceptable area of human variation. The practice empowers designers and engineers to communicate via a common problem-focused language. But practicing design that views users through a politically-naive lens leaves practitioners blind to the potential weaponisation of their design. User-storied design abstracts an individual user from a person of lived experience to a collection of designer-defined generalisations. In this approach, their political and interpersonal experiences are also generalised or discarded, creating a shaky foundation that allows for assumptions to form from the biases of the design team. This is at odds with the personal lived experience of each user, and the complex interpersonal interactions that occur within a designed digital platform.When a design transitions from theoretical to tangible, individual user problems and motivations become part of a larger interpersonal and highly political human network, affecting communities in ways that we do not yet fully understand. In Infrastructural Games and Societal Play, Eleanor Saitta writes of the rolling anticipated and unanticipated consequences of systems design: “All intentionally-created systems have a set of things the designers consider part of the scope of what the system manages, but any nontrivial system has a broader set of impacts. Often, emergence takes the form of externalities — changes that impact people or domains beyond the designed scope of the system^24.” These are no doubt challenges in an empathetically designed system, but in the context of design homogeny, these problems cascade.In a talk entitled From User Focus to Participation Design, Andie Nordgren advocates for how participatory design is a step to developing empathy for users:“If we can’t get beyond ourselves and our [platforms] – even if we are thinking about the users – it’s hard to transfer our focus to where we actually need to be when designing for participation which is with the people in relation to each other25.”Through inclusion, participatory design extends a design team’s focus beyond the hypothetical or ideal user, considering the interactions between users and other stakeholders over user stories. When implemented with the aim of engaging a diverse range of users during a project, participatory design becomes more political by forcing teams to address weaponised design opportunities during all stages of the process.

must keep the focus first on best practices

The serendipity of networked practice together with a heightened attention to the importance of protecting the place of human interaction in education resulted in many conference presentations and publications

this inspired me to research through my teaching and this community

And although I wouldn’t consider this a polished question bank ready for use by other instructors,

Rather than framing everything at the course level, we should be deploying these technologies for the individual.26

A behavioral route can be taken instead to these simulations, side-stepping direct reference to the rule. In some ways it is more revealing of our simulation. Here we engage in repetitive behaviors that conform to a reciprocity convention that conforms to the rule. We do not act out of adherence to the rule, but only out or imitation of its applications or illustrations. This again was the Aristotelian approach to learning virtues and also the Confucian approach for starting out. In Japan, this sort of approach extended from the Samurai tea ceremony to the Suzuki method of learning the violin (See Gardner 1993). Such programming is akin to behavioral shaping in behaviorist psychology though it rests primarily on principles of competence motivation, not positive and negative reinforcement. Social psychology has discovered that the single best way to create or change inner attitudes and motivations is to act as if one already possessed them. Over time, through the psychology of cognitive dissonance reduction, aided by an apparent consistency process in the brain, the mind supplies the motivation needed (Festinger 1957, Van Veen, and others, 2009).  These processes contradict common opinion on how motivations are developed, or at least it does so long as our resolve does. Unless one keeps the behavior going, by whatever means, our psychology will extinguish the behavior for its lack of a motivational correlate. Here, as elsewhere, the golden rule can act as a conceptual test of whether the group reciprocity conventions of a society are ethically up to snuff. As a means to more morally direct simulation, those interested in the golden rule can try alternative psychological regimens—role-taking is one, empathy might be another. And these can be combined. Those who assume that exemplars must have taken these routes in their socialization may prefer such practices to conventional repetition. However, each is discretionary and but one practical means to it. Each has pros and cons: some routes serve certain personality types or learning styles, others not so well.  In certain cultures, mentoring, mimicking and emulating exemplars will be the way to go.

B

this is common sense.

Mozilla Web Literacy Map (https://wiki.mozilla.org/Webmaker/WebLiteracyMap).

practice makes practice

Pr a c t i c e Ma k e s Pr a c t i c e

Unlike Crowley from the first section, Walker emphasizes repetition as productive for learning; however, like deliberate practice or critical practice, reflection is once again practice’s central mechanism

You will be somewhat surprised how expanding your search in these ways will yield a bigger, better, and deeper pool of literature that can be used to inform your research questions and design

The lure of a reindeer herding community was simple: the economic independence of herding, which was inherent in the Nenet community’s cultural practices, would serve as a fascinating study on the interplay between the lifestyle of an indigenous community and the ability for external forces to disrupt that lifestyle.

One of the earliest nonscience scholarly uses of this technology was the listHumanist,

Apparently no new theory was needed; certainly none was forthcoming.

This advocacy meme is widely used in law courts and political debates, and it can work well when the question at hand is one of taste or morality

practice and objectiveness.

can include

Open textbooks are a fantastic start.

http://openideo.com/open/youth-employment/concepting/youthhostel/

how we may remedy

practice

practice

Virginia’s Faculty Collaboratives Project

God commands us to be fruitful and multiply."

When people speak of religion and argue about which is best or truest or has God's blessing to the greatest degree, we must always ask, "What do you do for practice? What are you doing that is advancing yourself and enabling you to be exemplary to others?" That is the only question we need to ask about religion. God is not interested in religion, only in advancement. That is all that matters. If you think of it like this, it will make sense to you. You can leave all sectarian controversies behind for those who cannot practice.

You can have a maximum of two access keys (active or inactive) at a time.

It is not time to be silent. It is not time to be aloof. It is not time to be uninvolved. It’s not time to be in a false sense of peace within yourself rehearsing platitudes such as, “Oh, God will take care of everything,” or “Oh, this too shall pass away.” What you don’t want to have you must withdraw your support from. You must withdraw your support and replace it with correction!

who will (and will not) control and define the learning process, who will (and will not) profit from the ways that learning processes are enacted, who will (and will not) have access to science and scholarship and the infrastructure necessary for creating it, who will (and will not) participate in the design of curriculum and assessment and learning spaces, who will (and will not) profit from the benefits of science and artistry, and who will (and will not) have opportunities to attend schools and colleges.

Before that meeting was held, however, a second letter arrived, written this time by "my" president, informing me that the constitution was in fact already available in the form of the constitution, ready made as it were, of the Milton Society, which also, the letter went on to say, was to provide the model for a banquet, a reception, an after-dinner speaker, an honored scholar, and the publication of a membership booklet, the chief function of which was to be the listing of the publications, recent and forthcoming, of the members. The manner in which work on Spenser is to be recognized and honored will have its source not in a direct confrontation with the poet or his poem but in the apparatus of an organization devoted to another poet. Spenser studies will be imita- tive of Milton studies; the anxiety of influence, it would seem, can work backwards. Moreover, it con- tinues to work. The recent mail has brought me, and some of you, an announcement of a new publication, the Sidney Newsletter, to be organized, we are told, "along the lines of the well-established and highly successful Spenser Newsletter," which was organized along the lines of the well-established and highly successful Milton Newsletter

Here is the real message of the letter and the real rationale of the Spenser Society of America: to multiply the institutional contexts in which writing on Spenser will at once be demanded and published. It so happens that the letter was written before the society's first meeting, but as this sentence shows, the society need never have met at all, since its most impor- tant goal-the creation of a Spenser industry with all its attendant machinery-had already been achieved

what the Waddington-Lewis example shows (among other things) is that merit, rather than being a quality that can be identified independently of professional or institutional conditions, is a product of those conditions; and, moreover, since those conditions are not stable but change con- tinually, the shape of what will be recognized as meritorious is always in the process of changing too. So that while it is true that as critics we write with the goal of living up to a standard (of worth, illumi- nation, etc.) it is a standard that had been made not in eternity by God or by Aristotle but in the profes- sion by the men and women who have preceded us; and in the act of trying to live up to it, we are also, and necessarily, refashioning

When Blogging Goes Bad: A Cautionary Tale About Blogs, Email Lists, Discussion, and Interaction

Blogging in the Classroom: A Preliminary Exploration of Student Attitudes and Impact on Comprehensio

Black&Wiliam’s(2000)developingtheoreticalframeworkofformativeassessmentempha-sisestheinteractionsbetweenteachers,pupilsandsubjectswithin‘communitiesofpractice’

finally how to control and utilizeyour desires so that they will always serve YOU, instead of your being a slave to them.You have within you all possibilities. For I AM there. My Idea must express, and It must expressthrough you. It will express itself perfectly --- if you but let it; if you will only still your humanmind, put aside all personal ideas, beliefs and opinions, and let if flow forth. All you need to dois to turn within to Me, and let Me direct your thinking and your desires, let Me express whateverI will, you personally accepting and doing what I desire you to do. Then will your desires cometrue, your life become one grand harmony, your world a heaven and your self one with My Self.When you have begun to realize this and have glimpsed somewhat of its inner meaning, then youwill be ready to grasp the real import of what follo

When you can once realize this and can know that I AM Consciousness within you is one withthe consciousness of all animate and inanimate matter, and that Its will is one with your will,which is My Will, and that all your desires are My Desires, then will you begin to know and feelMe within, and will acknowledge the Power and Glory of My Idea, which is eternally expressingItself Impersonally through you.But it is first wholly necessary that you learn HOW to think, how to know Your thoughts, thosedirected by Me, from the thoughts of others;

Think this out and prove it for yourself.This you can do, if you will, by taking any Idea that comes and following it out through theabove process to realization; or by tracing back any feat you have accomplished, any picture youhave painted, any machine you have invented, or any particular thing or condition now existing,to the Idea from which it sprang

Once I have given your human mind a view of Its possibilities, and have enlisted your interest,then does your human personality take up its task; for as I created and inspired the Idea in yourmind, so did I cause that Idea to fructify therein and give birth to Desire, -- desire to bring intoouter manifestation all the possibilities of the Idea, Desire thus becoming the mortal agent of MyWill and supplying the motive Power; just as the human personality is the mortal instrumentused to confine and focus that Power

Therefore you can change them by the same process, if they do not please you; you can makethem whatever you will, by thinking them so. Can you not?But how can one do real thinking, conscious thinking, so as to bring about this change? You ask.First know that I, your Real Self, purposely brought to your attention these things which now aredispleasing and which cause you to think them as being what they now seem to be to you. I, andI alone, AM thus preparing your human mind so that, when you turn within to Me in abidingFaith and Trust, I can enable you to see and bring into outer manifestation the Reality of thesethings which now seem so unsatisfactory.For I bring to you everything that, by its outer seeming, can attract or lure your human mindonward in its Earthly search, in order to teach you of the illusoriness of all outer appearance ofmaterial things to the human mind, and of the fallibility of all human understanding; so that youwill turn finally within to Me and My Wisdom, as the One and Only Interpreter and Guide.When you have turned thus within to Me, I will open your eyes and cause you to see that theonly way you can ever bring about this change in thinking, is by first changing your attitudetoward all these things you now think are not what they ought to be.That is, if they are unsatisfactory or obnoxious to you and affect you so as to cause youdiscomfort of body or disturbance of mind, --why, stop thinking that they can so affect or disturbyou

Now you may not even yet know I AM, or believe that I AM really you, or that I AM likewiseyour brother and your sister, and that you are all parts of Me and One with Me.You may not realize that the Souls of you and your brother and sister, the only real andimperishable parts of the mortal you, are but different phases of Me in expression in what iscalled Nature.Likewise you may not realize that you and your brothers and sisters are phases or attributes ofMy Divine Nature, just as your human personality, with its mortal body, mind and intellect, is aphase of your human nature.No, you do not realize this yet, but I speak of it now, that you may know the signs when theybegin to appear in your consciousness, as they surely will.In order to recognize these signs, all that now follows must be considered carefully and studied,and should not be passed by until My meaning, at least in some degree, is grasped.Once you fully understand the principle I here set down, then all My Message will become clearand comprehensible

You may, with your personality, try a thousand times a thousand times to burst through the shellof your human consciousness.It will result only, if at all, in a breaking down of the doors I have provided between the world oftangible forms and the real of intangible dreams; and the door being open, you then no longercan keep out intruders from your private domain, without much trouble and suffering.But even through such suffering you may gain the strength you lack and the wisdom needed toknow that, not until you yield up all desire for knowledge, for goodness, yes, for union with Me,to benefit self, can you unfold your petals showing forth the perfect Beauty of My Divine Nature,and throw off the shell of your human personality and step forth into the glorious Light of MyHeavenly Kingdom.Therefore I give you these directions now, at the beginning, that you may be learning how torecognize Me

Then, when somewhat of their vital significance begins to dawn upon your consciousness,speak these My Words slowly, imperatively, to every cell of your body, to every faculty of yourmind, with all the conscious power you possess: --"Be still! --- and KNOW --- I AM --- God."Speak them just as they are herein written, trying to realize that the God of you commands anddemands of your mortal self: implicit obedience.Study them, search out their hidden potency.Brood over them, carry them with you into your work, whatever it be. Make them the vital,dominating factor in your work, in all your creative thoughts.Say them a thousand times a day,Until you have discovered all My innermost meaning;Until every cell of your body thrills in joyful response to the command, "Be Still," and instantlyobeys;And every vagrant thought hovering around your mind hies itself off into nothingness.Then, as the Words reverberate through the caverns of your now, empty being

Now, in order that you can become wholly oblivious of your mind and its thoughts and yourbody and its sensations, so that you can feel Me within, it is necessary that you studiously obeythese, My instructions.Sit quietly in a relaxed position, and, when wholly at ease, let your mind take in the significanceof these words:"Be still! --- and KNOW --- I AM --- God."Without thinking, allow this, My Divine Command, to penetrate deep into your Soul. Letwhatever impressions that come to your mind enter at will --- without effort or interference onyour part.

choose to invite Hypothesis annotators by embedding our client.

Teaching: Just Like Performing Magic

So, you must arrive at a conviction, and a willingness to commit to that conviction, which allows you to abandon reason for the apparently unreasonable. It is because what we are doing at this moment, you and I, does not compute with your preexisting conditioning that it seems unreasonable and impractical, and will seem so if you do not stay in touch with the unjustifiable claim that I am making—that you and I are together, actively and consciously together, to the degree that you are Hearing me, in the Fourth dimension, in the Kingdom of Heaven, in the middle of Reality, and that it is only by means of this connection and your embrace of the ability to conceive of your being Here with me that you can break through your “amnesia.”

You must stop valuing the inputs which bolster the ego and satisfy it. I mean by that, the actions that get approval. You must at this point value the marvelous fact that you are, at this instant, connecting with me from That of you which is Fourth-dimensional. It is a concrete demonstration of your Sanity—your presence of Mind—and therefore an illuminated experience of your Being, with no distortion present.

You must understand that what is happening here in our connection partakes in no way of belief, and that is a very important point. When we are connected, you are not standing back, separate and apart, observing, analyzing, and grasping intellectually what is happening. Therefore, there can be no belief associated with it. You see, what you have in the past wanted was a break to get back to the familiarity of belief—of your beliefs, of your protocols, your so-called orderly structures of dreaming. You have wanted relief from unfamiliarity, relief from having to pay attention, relief from being vital.

In your connecting with me—and now, by virtue of connecting with me and having an experience of the fact that you must be with me where I am in order to do so—this is the essential step in terms of your release from the dream, the personal sense of self and the distorted perception of Reality which is inseparable from it.

Therefore, the more consistently you dialogue with me, the more consistently you are letting in the possibility of an experience of Reality different from what you have decided reality is going to be for you. And that is the beginning of Sanity, of waking up! Your practice of Listening is your practice of coming out from seclusion in your own private, tiny sense of self and world.

Now, I wish to address another point. In your choosing to check in with me frequently, even if it is to hear a brief response from me, it is the means by which you do not slip into distraction in a cozy and comfortable sleep and dream. In spite of the drama of the day’s events, and in spite of the drama/dynamics of your personal experience of limitation, you have not become distracted so completely by them that you have neglected to speak with me and experience the reminder—or shall I say, have the remindful experience—of not being in the drama or the dynamics. As a result, you have not lost perspective, and the dream, the limited perception, has not consumed you. You have, in the last twenty-four hours spent more time being consciously present, Fourth-dimensionally speaking, than in the whole history of your dreaming. Humanly speaking, that would amount to thousands of years.

I encourage you, during the next twenty-four hours, to check in with me even more frequently. And again, I caution you not to become concerned because of a lessening of your ability to tell what is real and what is not, what is important and what is not. Allow that flux, and address yourself to the one unchanging, anchored aspect—that of our connection and the fact that that connection is occurring Fourth-dimensionally; that you are not connecting with me from the three-dimensional-only frame of reference, but are connecting with me from and as the Fourth-dimensional conscious experience of Being.

You wordlessly initiated this evening’s conversation with a confusion about what truly constituted the issue that needed to be addressed, and whether the money issue was any more real than the world issue. That confusion is indicative of the shift that is currently, actively, and really occurring within you, of Awakening. And I have been, and am, addressing the issue, and am telling you that your practice of checking in with me frequently during the last twenty-four hours has constituted the most significant forward movement you have engaged in, and is not irrelevant to the apparent issues at hand, but constitutes the specific answer to the issues at hand.

By examining participation we see our relationship to “content” – whether that is educational or entertainment-centered – as part of shared practice and cultural belonging, not as a process of individual “internalization.”

You are realizing that when that sensation occurs to you in a healing session, it indicates not a three-dimensional point of view on your part, but an awareness of a pervading feeling (distress) in the area of the person you are working with.

Raj, is there anything you can do to help me quit smoking, or is there anything you can suggest to me that will allow me help myself more effectively quit smoking? RAJ: As you asked the question, you realized that all you have to do is set into motion the fact that you are not addicted to cigarettes—or, more positively, that you are free of the desire to smoke cigarettes—and that that is the most effective means you could possibly use in order to give them up. As I said earlier, they, as part of Your infinitude, are going to be more than willing to cooperate with that desire, placed at the point of Conscious Being, and set into action by the Law of Being. I would suggest that you simply begin to use that facility to see your desire manifest in your life. You see, Paul, it all has to connect up. There is truly only one thing going on. From the first through the Fourth Dimension there is only one Activity, and that is the Activity occurring as Conscious Being. All of you is always present, and all of you is always functioning and the manner or the means by which it is present and functioning is the simple practice with which I began our conversation today. As you can see, this is not self-hypnosis, nor is it an attempt to influence the three-dimensional conscious frame of reference. It does not involve manipulation of things “out there,” or ideas within your head. You simply go to the Source, bringing to it the perfect desire. The Law, then, together with the Nature of Substance Itself, takes care of the objects “out there” and the beliefs “in here”—in three-dimensional awareness. You are going to have fun with that.

As you found, all you had to do in order to contact that part of your infinite Being called “Raj,” was to simply acknowledge my existence. Even though you had no idea who I was, you reached out with a simple, heartfelt acceptance of the possibility of my responding to you; and I was there. So is every other aspect of your Being. It’s all present. It’s all active. It’s all You.

Now we are going to talk for a bit about the idea of what it is that you are going to practice on. As your entire Being is becoming consciously integrated as your conscious experience of your Self, it will appear as though the Reality of your Being—to whatever degree you are aware of it—will be brought to bear upon that disowned portion of your experience which is not clear to you is your own Being. It will appear as though that aspect will be “healed,” “improved,” “changed,” or “reversed.” But, the actuality of such appearances is one of the revealing of its true nature as your Being. Every time you have a healing session with anyone, do not believe for a moment that, through your inner growth and development, you are being able to do something wonderful for “them.” It is your Self that you are experiencing, working with, and handling. Figuratively speaking, it amounts to nothing less than your discovery that the piece of the puzzle—which is difficult to identify on its own—is actually some part of the universal portrait of your Self. The Bible quotes Jesus the Christ as saying, “I have overcome the world.” This means that He had come over into the Christ-consciousness of His world, and no longer disowned any part of it as being separate or other than His Being.

Immediately upon such willing relinquishment of the false sense of identity, the Intelligence of your Being, which constitutes the Law of Your Being, may be recognized as already functioning. This will further relieve any false sense of responsibility, and inhibit any sense of attempting to bring along the finite concept of “putting these Laws into action.“

RAJ: It has a direct bearing, an exact bearing, on it. You are trying to make everything fit into your concept of what is right, instead of simply flowing with What Is. You are so busy reacting to your own thought structures and concepts, and how things look to you, that you are not able to perceive what is really taking place. It is not destructive or unprincipled in any way.

RAJ: Paul, you are suffering from your “should” system. You are experiencing how difficult it is to lay down conceptualized processes and theories. I will not leave my position that this conceptual thinking relates in no way to what is Actually going on—which is the infinitude of your Being unfolding Itself perfectly, properly, and nondestructively—except of course, in terms of these concepts which are binding you. They will be destroyed. They no longer serve to move you to a new base. As you are discovering, the concepts are actually impeding your growth. You must lay them down. The growth will occur. The growth is occurring. This is why you feel shoved into the corner right along with the concepts. Figuratively speaking, this is why you feel that you are going to be blown up in the blowing up of your concepts.

PAUL: I feel like I’m going crazy. RAJ: I know you do. But remember, Paul, that is just an idea, just one of an infinitude of ideas, and it therefore holds no position of authority or dominance in your experience. Do not credit it with any value, for it has no more value that any other spurious thought which states an absurd impossibility. Do not attempt to handle it, but simply pass on by.

PAUL: Raj, as you know, nothing has apparently changed since the first conversation we had—objectively, at least—although subjectively speaking, I feel a lot has occurred. As we have progressed into the last few weeks, I have become more and more concerned about the dire straits I find myself in, objectively speaking. It has been very difficult for me to relax and to have faith in the validity of what you have been telling me. Nevertheless, something keeps me coming back, and here I am again. I will do my best this evening to be still and attentive and receptive. I will listen to what you have to say, and not busy myself with arguments and questions and doubts and fears.

You must be alert at the inception. Then you will not waste your time attempting to do something which is already done by virtue of the immovable completeness of your Being. Indeed, your Being will be identified completely, and is identified completely—and that means manifest completely. Otherwise, the omnipresence of your Being would be only partial, which is an impossibility. You must be willing to face the suggestion of lack, and meet it head on, with the recognition that such a suggestion is an exact opposite of the Fact. If you will reverse the suggestion and be conscious of the specific truth which you will discover in that Place where you are right now, and abide with that truth, then you will be able to respond appropriately. Everything you do will identify the Fact. It is not enough to know what the Fact is. You must also include consciously in your awareness of the Fact that It is not omnipresent if It is not present as that which identifies your completeness. This must be done from that Place wherein you are experiencing the omnipresence of your Being as Conscious Being. It is essential that you keep this in mind.

We need to remember that all of Life, infinitely speaking, is unfolding Itself at every moment, and not just an isolated part of that infinity. It is essential for you to realize that your thinking processes do not in any way have any effect, whatsoever, on this infinitely detailed, yet harmonious unfolding of Being. This does not mean you have nothing to do with it, but it simply means that you have no three-dimensional control over it. You must come to the realization that it is your Being which is unfolding Itself infinitely on the basis of Its Nature as Intelligence, as Life, and as Mind. Therefore, It is—before you think a single thought about it—unfolding Itself (your Self) with all the precision, Intelligence, and Principle which constitutes Itself. It is this infinite unfolding of your Self that you must learn to bring your thought in line with. You cannot use your thoughts to bring your Being into line with them. This is a part of the letting go which is necessary for you in order for you to experience the unfolding of your Being as complete Harmony. Until you are willing to let go of this concept—that you must in some way be able to control your environment and your life experience with your thought—you will seem to suffer from the unfoldment of your Being.

You have kept yourself quite busy, and constructively so for the most part. But you are beginning to realize that you cannot operate successfully “out there,” in the three-dimensional frame of reference, without, in so many words, shriveling up and feeling barren and dry. You need to take some time each day to specifically be out from Mind and ignore the demands which seem to be coming from “out there.“ There is no requirement for you to labor through the desert of human experience without draughts of inspiration and the direct experience of the divinity of your Being. No matter what your situation claims, you are not required to exist that way. In fact, it is only the lack of taking the time to stand as the Door that makes your experience seem to be a desert.

As I said yesterday, your Being is unfolding Itself infinitely in all Its perfection. This is the Fact which underlies everything that Is, as well as everything that seems to be. Do not get hung up on what seems to be the case. Your Being is capable of manifesting Itself as your conscious experience of being, and has never stopped doing so. It is this ongoing eternal, abiding Fact which needs to become an integral part of your conscious experience. Cultivate It and you will not be sorry.

If “form follows function,” then it is imperative that your attention be on the function and not the form. What is the Function which you see as the unfolding of daily activities? It is the unfolding of Your Being, identifying and fulfilling Itself as Itself. Activity, money and profit are all aspects of that identification. Money—income—is not the end goal of it all. Every aspect of your day identifies your Being, and not any one is more important or less important than another. Work does not generate income. Being generates work and income and leisure and growth. Yet, not any one of these things exist for their own independent purpose or identity. They identify Being, and Being is the Alpha and Omega—that which is and is identifying Itself completely and successfully. It is the flow of Being which is the Function. It is identified by the forms which constitute your daily activities. Your need is to identify yourself as Being and not as form.

Stay with the Fact that your Being is totally present. THAT’S FACT. Your Being is totally functioning. THAT’S FACT. Your Being is being totally successful in fully identifying Itself. THAT’S FACT. You are not a small part of the totality of God’s Universe. THAT’S FACT. And you are not part of God’s Universe, because God is the only Identity you have. Therefore, your Being is infinite and cannot be contained. Do not let yourself be coerced into accepting the pea-sized concept of Identity called three-dimensional man. You must stay with the Infinity of your Being, together with Its Omnipresence and Omnipotence. You are all of It. It is all of You. God is the only thing going on. it is the Happening. Do not buy the hypnotic suggestions being put forth by “ego.“

The process of “observing” is the Conscious Function of Mind. That which is being “observed” is Mind’s Universal Function of being Conscious Being. In other words, Being—Mind—by being, projects or manifests Itself, and is the Observing of the Process. It is the projector, the image, and the observing of it. The more you learn to be out from Mind—rather than believing that you are some part of the image on the screen—the more you will become aware of the total harmony of the total process or function that constitutes your Being. What you apparently do, and what apparently is done to you, will become apparent as being totally harmonious. There will be no sense or experience of separation, lack, division, or opposition. The conscious experience of Being is all that is going on. The details, the drama, the story line, et cetera, are incidental to the whole Process.

RAJ: Whenever you are faced with a demand to give specific attention to some part of your infinitude and it presents itself as being “problematic,” it is simply the time and place for this aspect of You to be consciously incorporated into and as your conscious experience of being as Yours! You say you don’t want to be bothered, that this is not a good time because of other more pressing demands. But, Paul, your Being unfolds Itself as You according to divine Intelligence, Universal order and priorities. Every problem is your opportunity to be the Christ—that accurate perception of Reality (Your Being) that is not deluded in any way—and for that perception to become irrevocably “incorporated” into and as your Self-awareness. There is no more pressing need than that, because when seen, it becomes apparent that pressing needs are illusions of the partial view. They never existed as anything for you to sweat over and tense yourself up about.

Now, I do want to deal with some of these issues which are confusing to you at the moment. First of all, it is an accurate perception on your part that your allegiance, your trust, and your energies need to be placed unequivocally where they have been for the past six months—in other words, in your direct perception of your Self as Fourth-dimensional Conscious Being. You will be foolish to use any external source as a gauge or measuring stick by which to know whether you are on the right track. It would be a backward step for you to allow the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, or any other author, or the current point of unfoldment of any group or organization to become in any way the authority for what you are to think or do. These sources most certainly have their place when one seems to be unable to consciously perceive the Divinity of his own Being directly as his very own conscious experience. But, this is not where you are. Therefore, you cannot afford to place the authority for what you think, believe, or do at any point external to that direct perception of your Conscious Being.

I want you to consider that in everything we are doing, we are harmonizing and flowing with the divine energies—with the outpouring of the river of Life, right at Its source. This river of Life flows freely and totally through and as your conscious experience of Being. It is always doing this, whether or not you have placed yourself properly in that Place. This is important to understand, since it makes clear that the only thing we need to do in order to find the resolution to whatever situation we are faced with, is simply go to the Source as the Door.

It is apparently new territory for you, Paul, although you could say it is your “native land.” Nevertheless, as the shift is made from the finite to the infinite view, you are going to have to be a stranger in a strange land, a babe in a new world. Although there will be no aspect of danger involved, it will be necessary to patiently explore, sense, perceive, and understand how to be, rather than do.

RAJ: I know you feel like you need help, but no one can help you at this point. There is no other One but You, and you had better be sure that you have no other “ones” before You, You Self, God. Your entire Being, in all Its infinitude, is harmonizing with You, loving You, and supporting You because of the Integrity of your Being. No one but You can relinquish consciously your hold on the false sense of self—the misidentification which feels it can’t do it.

RAJ: Don’t add that “but.” Stay with the simple Fact you have just stated. The “but” is the hooker! “All is infinite Mind and Its infinite manifestation.“1 There aren’t any “buts” about it! Being is “neither behind the point of perfection nor advancing towards it. It is at that point and must be understand therefrom.“2 It will never be understood from the standpoint of the three-dimensional frame of awareness (ego). You must stop looking for clues, helpful hints, or reassurances objectively. Being doesn’t need them, and “ego” only needs them in order to hook you. Remember, as you “do battle,” that there is no battle going on at all. It is a process by which you are becoming less slipshod in your self-identification. It seems as though it is an attempt to influence you in the direction of misidentification, but you are at a point where the thrust truly cannot reach you because you are hidden in the Secret Place of the Most High. You have experienced It.

PAUL: I feel as though I’m really going out on a limb here by maintaining the position which you outlined this morning and previously. RAJ: Why? PAUL: Because it appears that I might lose something. RAJ: There it is! Ego. If nothing can get outside the infinitude of your Being, then how can You lose anything? Paul, you must be very strict. If you can’t lose anything, then you haven’t lost anything. All of You is still present and functioning, and all of You will continue to be present and functioning.

RAJ: You are at a point where you need to see that there is only One Cause, only One Action, only One Life, Mind, Being, Consciousness. This does not mean that everything you seem to experience is included in that One Mind, Being, Consciousness, but it means that the step that needs to be taken here is to not deal with specific little “causes.” It means that it is time to have no other gods but God. I don’t care what anybody else seems to have to be doing at the present moment, or whether they are seeming to have to learn this, or be faced with what you are being faced with. YOU HAVE GOT TO HANDLE THIS AS THOUGH YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE! AND YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO HANDLE THIS AS THOUGH THERE IS ONLY ONE PRESENCE AND POWER! The time is past to handle anything from the standpoint of “handling” this or that or the other “thing,“—whether it be thought, belief, object, or circumstance.

Your focal point must remain at that within Point wherein you are constantly aware of being as Conscious Being, not as the operator of a business, or the promoter of a service. You must let the business and the service be what they will, as the ever-fluid manifestation of that living Being which You Are. Do not let what “occurs” become the repository of yourself. This is because Your Self, being infinite, cannot be confined to any manifestation or visibility which It evolves for Its identification. Yes, in your terms, it would mean a dispassionate, uninvolved experience of what is appearing. You must learn to get your satisfaction from being What You Are as Conscious Being, rather than what you appear to be by virtue of what is done three-dimensionally.

The only solution which can actually resolve a relationship problem is for the one experiencing discomfort to drop the personal sense of involvement, thus resolving it actually back into the normal Universal Harmonies that constitute the existence of the individualities involved. This is a phrase which you have heard many times before, but it has been unclear to you how to do it. Trying to lay down a personal sense is like trying to lay down a piece of flypaper. The more you attempt to put it down, the more firmly it sticks! The only way to lay down a personal sense of things is to go within to that Place of quietness and attentiveness, and listen for the influx of your Being as It sees Itself from Its infinite standpoint. This can be achieved through meditation, if one is a beginner. Here, you not only see things as they are, but you experience them as they are. In that experience you cannot find a trace of that personal sense of things from which you had been suffering.

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Be very wise, and do not bother to waste your time trying to accommodate the three-dimensional viewpoints of those around you. Do not allow yourself to give authority to anything outside of your own demonstrated conscious experience of Reality, of Fourth-dimensional Being, under any circumstances.

You must be willing to stand with things the way they are unfolding in and as your conscious experience of Being. Reality does not exist to fit into or coordinate with partial views of Reality. As long as you are expressing clear explanations of Reality, you must fully expect those seeing with a partial view to attempt to discredit Truth if It doesn’t agree with or come in the form that they conceive that It must come.

The same old story which is going on is that Reality, the Actuality, Fourth-dimensional Conscious Being, is what is going on and is what has always been going on in Its Totality. You must be very strict in your observance of what you know Actually to be true. Be willing to act, think, and respond from that standpoint. The need is to see the Actuality, not to respond or react to the partiality. Right now you are geared to spontaneously react to the way things appear. You are beginning to perceive that the necessity is to spontaneously respond to the Actuality as though that were the urgent need, rather than the limited, finite, three-dimensional view. I realize what I am telling you is not something new, but it is, nevertheless, the step that needs to be taken. It is the needed thing.

Now, what does this have to do with you? It is that which constitutes your Being. What it is and how it works as the inherent Nature of your Being is essential to understanding how to Practice what You Are. You see, you cannot put these Laws into practice, you cannot set them into motion, because they are already functioning totally before you can even make the mistake of thinking that you are a finite mentality—a three-dimensional awareness—which could use them to bring about your good ends.

The more practice you get at moving as Your World, as Conscious Being, the more you find yourself recognizing your Self as All, what traces of egotism remain will dwindle spontaneously for lack of nourishment.

In the process of desiring to Awaken, keep in mind what we have been discussing about Substance. In fact, keep in mind everything we have discussed because these Facts are substantial and are constituted of the Substance which is Light. Allow this Light to illumine your way, no matter how abstract this may seem to you. Keep more in touch with the Fourth-dimensional Actuality of your family experience, and of any activity which you are involved in during the day. If necessary, remind yourself of the Facts of which we have spoken. Measure your daily experience according to these Facts, rather than the way the day seems to be appearing or what it seems to be claiming. The simple fact is that you need to proceed as though the divine Facts were Facts—which They are. And, on the basis of these Facts, you must be alert with a sense of active expectancy to see Them become apparent in and as your conscious experience.

RAJ: Good morning, Paul. You are beginning to grasp that there truly is a more infinite and accurate view of what you are experiencing, and yet you feel you have no basis upon which to wake up to that larger, more accurate perception. You recognize the demand for something, and I have told you that the three-dimensional situation will not be relieved until you wake up. Thus, you find yourself in a bind from which you see no escape. The fact is that Being has no dead ends. It is only the finite view which would make Infinity appear to be blocked off. You are sitting, right now, as the Omnipresence of infinite Good, actively, Omnipotently unfolding and fulfilling Itself without exception. It is the intuitive perception—it is the desire, faith, and intuition of there being something to wake up into—which must remain the focal point of your conscious experience, regardless of the illusion of being boxed in. Then you must desire to wake up. Do not waste any energy in attempting to overcome any facet of the dream, since the way things appear is imaginary. It, therefore, cannot be dealt with in any way other than waking up!

Raj, you really know how to put the screws to me. It isn’t easy coming up with pertinent questions, I am finding. RAJ: That’s correct. Learning what questions to ask is half the battle of learning what you need to know. Abstract generalities mumbled in consciousness serve no practical purpose, even though a temporary sense of satisfaction can be gained from such mumbling.

As I observe myself, it seems incredible to me that there is this definite reluctance to get into the subject of Substance, or into the specific answer to the problems we have been faced with over the past number of months. It is extremely strong. RAJ: And, Paul, it is entirely operating at the level of belief. It is a totally ignorant experience. That is what makes it most incredible. It simply means that you are going to have to move through it purposely, and not hope for some way to get around it.

Be aware of your reluctance to have this conversation. Simply recognize it. Notice that the reluctance is because you are wanting to glide over the information and understanding which you imagine you are going to be confronted with. You imagine it is going to discredit you in some way. Realize, further, to what extent this fear or reluctance is manifested physically in terms of strong perspiration, discomfort in the pit of your stomach, and just a general yukkiness. I am going to suggest that you clean up your act mentally and physically before we continue further. Go take a bath! And while you’re taking the bath, refresh your consciousness also.

RAJ: You are correct. This jelling, as you have put it, will continue. The facts will become more meaningful to you as each day goes by. Since you already know that there truly is no process to it, I would encourage you to relinquish this idea that standing as the Door is something “special,” and therefore not something to waste your time doing during everyday activities. Nothing exists outside the infinitude of Being. Therefore, what you denominate “everyday activities” in a somewhat demeaning way, needs to be seen as equally worthy of being embraced and perceived from the standpoint of being the Door. Remember that standing as the Door, at the edge of the Unknown, will become a constant activity or point of observation in your life. You might as well see it in its proper perspective right from the beginning as being totally normal and not “special” in any way.

What is not excellent is that you are not yet spontaneously choosing to avail yourself of the answers by means by being the Door on a continuous basis. It is as though it were in some way more laborious than figuring the answer out, or simply postponing having the answer. I want you to take some time to examine what this reluctance is, so that you may understand it better. I could tell you, but I want you to learn it for yourself.

RAJ: Good evening, Paul. You are beginning to notice the limitations you place upon yourself by virtue of assuming that you don’t know something or that you can’t figure it out, or that it’s not the right time, or any of a number of excuses which are totally false, but which you totally believe. You are beginning to discover that you truly do not have to figure a single thing out. You, Paul, person, three-dimensional finite consciousness, do not have the answer! Yet, the answers are available. The answers are available because of What You Are when you are standing as the Door. You are really beginning to see this, and this is excellent. You are also beginning to find more satisfaction from being that which is the Answer unfolding Itself, rather than being the one who is figuring out what the Answer is, or being able in any way to claim credit for the Answer. This also is excellent.

Because it is a well-established habit, it is so very easy to attempt to take the infinite unfoldments of our Being and try to channel them into habits of action. The need is to give up our habits of “doing,” and replace them with being what the infinity of our Being is being at every moment. The call for action this evening is for you to consciously relinquish your attempts at control and conceptualization and get back to that Point where you stand as Nothing. Thereby you allow the Somethingness of your Being to become apparent as your conscious experience of being.

You will remember that, at the beginning of our conversations, we talked about the necessity of being willing to stand at the edge of the Unknown—knowing nothing. And at this point, you are attempting to take what we have been speaking about and using it as the basis for knowing something now. In Actuality, the necessity still remains, and will forever remain, for you to continue to stand at the edge of the Unknown—knowing absolutely nothing. Let the infinitude of your Being flow through and as your conscious experience at each and every moment. This is essential.

It is equally imperative for you to begin to really grasp that your “others” are your Self seen infinitely. Therefore, “competition” is useless and baseless. No one can control you, and you can control no one, because there is only One Thing going on. You must stop challenging Susan, and you must stop seeing Susan as someone separate who is challenging you. This is extremely important, because none of it is happening that way. The necessity here is for you to own all of yourself as your Self. The infinity of your experience is your Infinitude identifying the Oneness of your Being.

Remember that letting go of control—letting go of these intellectual thought structures—will not cause disorganization and disorientation of the Universe. Rather, it will reveal from an experiential standpoint, the fact that the Universe is already organized and orderly and intelligent in Its Function, whether you are intellectualizing about it or not. Remember, too, that until you do go ahead and let go, you will not have the opportunity to observe It working in Its absolute perfection and spontaneous and effortless harmony.

You are simply setting up blocks to the effortless unfoldment of your Being by attempting to structure your Being, and you are doing nothing but causing yourself unnecessary distress. You must get back to the fact that it is the infinitude of your Being with which you are confronted. Stop separating It into compartments—dividing It up into “me” and “thee”—and then attempting to organize the bits and pieces according to concepts. Your problem at this point is truly a matter of attempting to place an overlay of intellectual patterns upon Infinity. Nothing less than the infinite view will do for you any longer.

PAUL: Raj, I am going to change the subject here, because I have a question that is demanding attention. The question is: Why does it irk me when Susan asks to speak to you? Why do I feel that her questions will be an imposition upon you, and why does it make me mad that she doesn’t contact her own Guide? RAJ: Because you have not learned that Being is truly unfolding Itself infinitely and not according to concepts. It is true that she has a Guide whom she can contact, but you need to learn to flow with what is happening, rather than with what you think ought to be happening.

You give the weight to the Law of Perfection by beginning with the perfect concept. You seem to diminish your awareness of that Perfection unfolding when you begin with a finite concept of what is going on. You cannot actually change the Fact, but you can seem to blind yourself to It. If All is Infinite Mind, then All is Infinite Mind! One must live his experience of the infinitude of his Being as though that were the Fact. Not because that will help make it so, but because that is what is so! And such thinking is, therefore, in line with what is already true.

This means that, rather than trying to figure out what you can do which will be best for your family, you can abide in that Place of observing with understanding that Being is unfolding Itself perfectly as each specific identity in your family. This perfect unfoldment is, because of Its infinity, occurring in a way which appears to be harmonious for all concerned. I say “appears” because, no matter how many It appears to be, It is still One infinite Event.

In fact, the more you can find your answers coming from that which you recognize to be your own Being, without any possibility of imagining that it is coming from someone or something separate from yourself—such as me—the better it will be for you in tying together those aspects of your Being which you have not consciously been aware of as Your Self. The fact is that it is all You. But, it must become your conscious experience of your Being, without any dichotomy of any kind.

I cannot force you to do it, but I would suggest that you get back into that Place as an ongoing state of Being and remain there. Being out from Mind is the only state of Being in which illusion is absent. Illusion is always distressing and uncomfortable, as you well know.

I am not going to give you specific outward steps to take, because then you will not do the needed thing. That thing is to go within and remain in that Place—in touch with Your Universal Being—and flow with It. The specific, detailed steps which identify the establishment of your Being Universally—as well as specifically in Spokane—will become clear when you follow the directions I have given you.

It is important to realize that the establishment is Universal. You must begin to perceive and experience the fact Your Being is Universal, and not localized only to that point at which your consciousness is attentively focused. It will be wise for you to remain in touch with this Universal establishment of Your Being. You need to flow with your whole Being, and not just with what appears to be happening right now in Spokane. In this way, whatever you do in Spokane will identify and illustrate the Universal establishment of your Being. It will keep you from being fooled into believing that you are nothing more than a finite point in the Universe, eking out an existence, struggling, trying to become, and constantly failing.

Now, let’s clarify that by dropping the last word. You are seeing the appearance of things not working. What is happening here is that you are objectively seeing the fact that things do not work the way you thought they worked when you were seeing three-dimensionally. What you can count on is: Everything that appears not to be working is working right now, right where you are, unchanged in any way from the Actuality of its working. This is an illusion caused by the shifting of the frame of reference from the finite to the infinite view. The illusion will not continue indefinitely. It is a “reverse landmark” or waymark which, because it is reversed, usually stops one from moving forward in the direction of Infinity until he has the kind of guidance, encouragement, and development which provides him with the proper perception of its significance. It is simply to be observed. It is not to be dealt with.

Paul and Susan, you are both making the transition very smoothly, no matter how it seems to you. It is because this transition is being made that you find yourselves not able to communicate well with those bound by their three-dimensional-only thinking. Do not be surprised at it, and do not be offended by it. The necessity here, and the only choice you have, is to move forward—or rather, I should say stand still—as Being, as you are both intuitively doing quite well. Do not look for substantiation of the correctness of your position from the finite frame of reference.

It is the “consideration” of beliefs, the manipulations of objects “out there,” the orienting of “position” and “power” which ties us into the three-dimensional frame of reference. Religion works in this realm. Economics works in this realm. Indeed, all of life is “worked” from this realm. It is time to move out of this realm, and there is no way to do it half-way. There is no way to keep a little bit of the finite view to “work with” and yet move into the Fourth-dimensional experience of Being (Your Being). Being is not finite (dimensional) in the very heavy, burdensome, sweat-producing way that three-dimensional things and thoughts are.

PAUL: Alright, Raj. I shall forge forward. I will tell you this: It would be much easier if my family’s needs were being better met. RAJ: You are right, absolutely right. Now, do something about it! You’ve got the necessary tools.

PAUL: Raj, I am failing miserably at demonstrating or seeing the omnipresence of my Being in terms of supply. It’s true that from day to day we have what we need, but it’s far from a comfortable way to live. All we’re getting are basics. The larger debts we owe are not being met. RAJ: Paul, I want you to be aware that you are beginning to give up your faith, trust, and belief in the validity of our conversations. This is indicated by the flip-flopping back and forth between knowing they are real and doubting they are real. I point out also that the doubting comes into play when you are challenged by opinions or circumstances. This certainly is a natural response, but it is not the consistent vantage point which you will find necessary if you’re going to be free from being dangled like a yo-yo or blown to and fro on the breeze of chance. PAUL: Well, if you are wanting me to develop some inner strength which will not yield, no matter what I’m confronted with—and if I’m supposed to do this while it’s my family’s lack that I’m faced with—then I don’t think you should be surprised! Theoretically, intellectually, I can grasp its value. But when it comes down to the nitty-gritty of life, it often seems like nonsense. RAJ: I understand, Paul. I want to refer you to what your Supply told you about how to set the Law in motion. I want you to begin doing this on a regular basis. A word to the wise: Be sure of what you are asking for, because you shall surely get it. PAUL: Alright, Raj. I shall forge forward. I will tell you this: It would be much easier if my family’s needs were being better met.

RAJ: I know you feel like you need help, but no one can help you at this point. There is no other One but You, and you had better be sure that you have no other “ones” before You, You Self, God. Your entire Being, in all Its infinitude, is harmonizing with You, loving You, and supporting You because of the Integrity of your Being. No one but You can relinquish consciously your hold on the false sense of self—the misidentification which feels it can’t do it. At this point I want to terminate the conversation. I will be instantly available if you need to talk, but I want you to be consciously and quietly alone with your own Being and the Reality of things. This is your baby!

PAUL: Okay. I know that all of me has to be present and functioning… RAJ: Don’t add that “but.” Stay with the simple Fact you have just stated. The “but” is the hooker! “All is infinite Mind and Its infinite manifestation.“1 There aren’t any “buts” about it! Being is “neither behind the point of perfection nor advancing towards it. It is at that point and must be understand therefrom.“2 It will never be understood from the standpoint of the three-dimensional frame of awareness (ego). You must stop looking for clues, helpful hints, or reassurances objectively. Being doesn’t need them, and “ego” only needs them in order to hook you. Remember, as you “do battle,” that there is no battle going on at all. It is a process by which you are becoming less slipshod in your self-identification. It seems as though it is an attempt to influence you in the direction of misidentification, but you are at a point where the thrust truly cannot reach you because you are hidden in the Secret Place of the Most High. You have experienced It.

PAUL: I feel really shaky. RAJ: No, Paul, it is not You. Ego is feeling really shaky right now. That’s a positive indicator! PAUL: I feel as though I’m really going out on a limb here by maintaining the position which you outlined this morning and previously. RAJ: Why? PAUL: Because it appears that I might lose something. RAJ: There it is! Ego. If nothing can get outside the infinitude of your Being, then how can You lose anything? Paul, you must be very strict. If you can’t lose anything, then you haven’t lost anything. All of You is still present and functioning, and all of You will continue to be present and functioning.