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THE VOID OF SPIRIT
© Cinnamon Moon

In her book Dancing the Dream, Jamie Sams goes into detail about the Void and I can't express it
any better myself. I'd like to post several excerpts from comments she makes about this to open a
discussion.

"We have ultimate respect for every role within the whole and begin the journey to the Hunab
K'u, the Mayan word for the center of the universe, the zero/rest/balance point, the Void of
divine neutrality."

"Suddenly personal will and sense of identity are subjugated to the degree that we must learn to
maintain a grounded focus on having any identity in the material world."

"We will face and enter the center of the universe and be shocked that inside the void, time does
not exist and space is infinite. There are no emotions, inside of us or outside of us, because the
Void exists simultaneously in all realms of awareness. In this state of ultimate, absolute
nothingness, which lasts for a time, we could be confronted with the most traumatic situations
imaginable, and we would not respond, emotionally, spiritually, or mentally. The slate is wiped
clean."

"At the end of this initiation, feelings and life force begin to return, and we learn how to use the
two melded viewpoints of the seen and unseen worlds in unison with the third viewpoint of
divine, infinite neutrality.

Earthwalker:
Cinnamon, There are times in all of our lives where so much has occurred that you no longer
feel. I have always equated it to doctors’ or nurses’ objectivity. Isn't this the same place you are
when you have no more capability of feeling, when you are just going through the motions of life
without emotion. It is place you need to be to survive; it is life giving?

Cinnamon:
No. This is a dimensional co-existence within Spirit Itself, sort of like being in the belly of Spirit
and pushing through leads to a renewal or raised state of consciousness that brings deep
enlightenment in its wake. It's a place you go in a state of projection of your spirit or trance. It's
not the physical reality, it's outside it.

Mum Osprey:
I was nursing the elderly for 30 plus years and although I have seen many pass over to the other
side and I had to put on a brave face for the families I never really lost my feelings and we as
nurses still have a deep feeling for the person who has passed, and can show it by little gestures.
( a rose or flower given)

Earthwalker:
Mum Osprey, I expressed what I meant incorrectly. It was not meant to be a criticism and the
closest thing I can compare this to is the needed objectivity that nurses and doctors have. It is a
state somexwhat a kind to that place in which you still care immensely but don't feel or allow
emotions to control you. It is not about death but life. Death is not something I fear but will fight
for life until death is evident.

I will try to explain but I don't know if there are the words. I 'll try to give an example, when
your child is dying, when the establishments of the world are willing to let that happen because
of bias and uncertainty, when you feel instinctively another way is correct etc., when you are
working full time and when you are trying to keep 150 appointments a year, I found myself
pulled in so many directions with such intense feelings that in order to make the changes
required, in order to survive you need absolute clarity of thought. I was given a gift of going into
a place where the intense emotions are there but they are more or less put on a bookshelf to be
dealt with at a later time. They are there but Spirit provides a way in which to survive otherwise
choices couldn't be made or fought for. It is powerful life-saving gift not one of non-feeling but
more of clarity of focus. Where words are provided or come together and you say things that are
much more powerful than you would normally come up with on your own. It may even be more
like being the hollow bone and letting Spirit take over through you; yet it is also involves. It is
not channeling. You become direct, rational to a point and obviously in control without letting
emotion and feelings come through. One part of your brain is working (analytical), the other is
placed on hold (emotional) and you are open to guidance from a force not visible. You can feel
the different sides of your brain working. You still care immensely but don't feel since it would
impair your ability to function, a necessity for life at that point in time.

I have only been to this place during two phases in my life and it allowed me to keep moving
forward through what looked like insurmountable odds. Possibly a way of describing this would
be times when you are given a clarity of intent and focus so intense that all other feelings become
so miniscule by comparison that they are not felt. One functions but does not feel or succumb to
emotion. It’s a time where every preconceived feeling and thought you have ever had has been
altered and you yourself know that you are alone separate from all others in this problem. But it
is a time when you tap into something that is powerful, it’s neutral but provides intense focus.
Intense direct focus without any emotions. This is the best way I can describe it. It is hard to put
this feeling of neutrality or focus into words. It is a very positive thing and lasts for a period of
time until emotions can be released in an environment that is appropriate. It is a gift of survival.
It is a powerful communion with something but something that is neutral and internal to oneself.
Sorry about the confusion! Words are such a hard tool to use when trying to express feeling.

Cinnamon:
Earthwalker, What you describe is not the Void. To reach that you leave the physical reality
completely and just exist within the Void. There is no landscape, nothing to view other than
emptiness. No walls, ceilings, floors, it's more like (at least in my experience) standing in a grey
fog or vacuum that has no parameters you can define. It's not solid, it's not liquid, it's not
anything that relates to a physical description other than fog, cloud, or a vacuum in substance.
It's thick but you can see through it clearly and perhaps to say you were within a membrane of
some sort would more accurately describe it. It is certainly not walking around in the physical
reality. You are out of body there, not in it. You have form yet are formless. The Void has form
yet is formless. It's a place much like a womb for when you push through it you are born into the
light of enlightenment and you have a new understanding of life and your path. It's not what
you're describing. It's a haven and a place of transformation within Spirit.

I'm re-reading Jamie Sam's "Dancing the Dream" looking for something she'd said on a specific
matter and couldn't recall the chapter it was in. In the process of re-reading the book I came
across her section on the Void and felt it would be best to quote her in more depth to aid those
who want to understand this dimension. This library article always felt lacking in substance and
comprehension to me and Jamie has done an outstanding job of defining the Void. Here's some
of what she has to say and if you are looking for more detail please do purchase a copy of her
book. The material I'm quoting is from her chapter on the 6th Path:
“Holy Cow! What's That Place Up Ahead That I Can't See? … In the Below Direction we
discover and explore the energy that animates life in the natural world and how that energy
connects to layers of life force in the universe as a whole. As we continue to explore the levels of
consciousness, lines of energy, and layers of spirit within the Dream Weave, we also discover the
same energy in earth-connections spanning our natural world. We feel the same universal
energy and perceptions inside the physical body as we become secure in our ability to BE in the
experience and to ground the energy into the Earth Mother. By following those flows of energy
into the center of the Earth, we continue to discover the life forms and life force in our planet.
Experiencing the energies of planetary consciousness and all levels of awareness in the cosmos
creates larger and larger circles of awareness that grow within us. Eventually we end up in the
center of the void of the unknown and unknowable.

“In life we all have spaced out from time to time, experiencing points of bewilderment or
blankness when we have been daydreaming or when we have become ungrounded. When our
minds or emotions drift away from being fully present and attentive, we usually feel like we got
lost in our thoughts or skipped a step. Or recall earlier paths, where we experienced the
complete destruction of belief structures or we encountered the domino effect, when all of our
mental processes, emotional responses, or behavioral gears were stripped. These types of
experiences gave us a tiny inkling of what it means to face the void. On the sixth path we are
more present than we have ever been in our lives. We observe the obvious, discern the intent,
and funnel the neutral energies of many realms of consciousness through our bodies while
remaining fully aware of everything material and intangible. Yet, when we consciously encounter
the center of this universe, we can unexpectedly be swallowed by the lack of movement, light,
sound, color, energy, emotion, thought, and intent.

“The Mayans call the center of our universe the Hunab K'u. The Southern Seers call this place
the heart of the Great Mystery. The heart of all contains the pregnant void of Creation and exists
beyond the enormous bright light that people see in near-death experiences. Beyond chaos and
beyond order, the heart of the universe contains such a vast nothingness that Dream Weave
explorers can become lost or consumed by the void. The heart of the Great Mystery is the
'original Sacred Point of View', which created this universe. The void is unknown and
unknowable because it contains all that has not taken on energy or developed form.”
“This experience is not like encountering a black hole in space while journeying out of body,
dreaming, or meditating, because those areas contain vortexes of energy that can be felt and
movement that can be perceived. When we approach the void of the Hunab K'u, we can feel like
we are succumbing to being devoured by nothingness or like we are having a near-death
experience without the blinding light to welcome us to our next level of experience.

“For a few years prior to actually entering the void, we vaguely feel something happening that
we cannot understand, and we are confronted with our own resistance to moving beyond a
comfort zone that has given us wonderful insight and a multitude of spiritual bursts of
information and energy. On a subconscious level there is a feeling that we have the right to stay
in this place of inner knowing because we have earned it. We forget the universal law that
everything evolves and that movement is required in order to go to the next level of the dance.
The closer we get to the void, the more precise we think we are becoming in using our integrity
and impeccability. In fact, we usually have developed a whole new set of spiritual belief systems
and judgments, which keep us from seeing the truths presented in daily life because we think we
know exactly what the authentic, universal spiritual truths are. The illusion is created by the
mind's tendency to neatly package and label our own discoveries, which usually blinds us to
other possibilities. Because we have adopted certain behaviors and ideas that have stood us in
good stead on our paths, we tend to stay close to what works for us, and we inappropriately let
others know that their choices are not as appropriate as ours are. Nothing could be further from
the truth.

“As we move through the layers of universal consciousness, closer and closer to the void at the
center of the universe, we usually have no idea that we have developed an attitude and are
bantering our spiritual opinions or holding our hard-earned states of understanding as medals
of honor. Since we are fully in touch with heightened states of awareness a lot of the time, we do
not notice that we have become opinionated regarding the less-than-perfect behaviors of others
and are possibly inflicting on them our own spiritual truths or the adopted beliefs found on our
paths or the moralistic rules that once gave us the discipline we needed. In one way or another,
the Great Smoking Mirror will allow life situations to reflect back to us examples of how our
newly created judgments or unconscious opinions are keeping us from maintaining the neutral
or unbiased view moment to moment.

“On some level, the mind senses the approach of the void and triggers behaviors that prevent
having to fully let go and enter the nothingness. The mind's last-ditch effort to remain in control
floods our consciousness with all of our former decisions, opinions, beliefs, and determinations
in order to keep us from consciously noticing the void that we are approaching. The mind uses
our self-righteous attitudes and our beliefs about what is spiritually impeccable to make us feel
self-assured and to keep us from banishing the last vestiges of old brain circuitry, which
sometimes is our only anchor to a sense of well-being or balance. The mind's unconscious fear of
surrendering to the void that it perceives but does not understand is a natural phenomenon. It
occurs because we are in a spiritual comfort zone that supports our certainty. However, the
mind's expanding understanding of consciousness within our universe can also feed our spiritual
arrogance. Every time we find fault with another person at this point in our process, we are
being given the gift of being shown where the mind still holds fixed determinations and
judgments. Unfortunately, because the sixth path contains so much paranormal activity, often we
are not grounded enough to acknowledge what is actually occurring and to see ourselves as the
source of the imbalance.”

***Jamie's chapter on the 6th path at pp 222 continues to explain what happens within the Void
and how we work through it to the other side where we regain our neutrality and state of
balance. While in the Void, our abilities do not function and we must learn to bring them back
into working order. I highly recommend her book "Dancing the Dream" for anyone who is
seriously trying to understand their own growth patterns and the sensations that run through us
while we develop. It's a wonderful resource to have handy and the sort of book that takes on
greater meaning each time you read it. I hope that those of you who want to understand the Void
better find this helpful.

I can say from personal experience that I relate to everything she says about the subject. The
first time I was drawn into the Void I fought it like I was fighting for my life. I refused to 'go'
when my spirit was summoned on several different occasions that spanned a few years. So I
understand what she's saying about that. Eventually I did go, however, and the way she
describes it is exactly what I experienced--nothingness which meant that my abilities and
consciousness we ineffective and I had to find my way 'back' from there by pushing through to
the other side. Once on the other side I had to reorient to my abilities. This is totally an
Otherworldly experience and one in which consciousness and the spirit within are the only
aspect of awareness that function. There is no sensation, even the fear vanishes when you enter
the Void. There is nothing then, just emptiness that is not darkness or light. For me it was a
greyness and true neutrality wherein while I was there I became impregnated with
understanding I needed to come out the other side and why. It really is something you have to
experience to fully understand but I truly hope that it helps those of you who are struggling with
this.

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