Metaphorically speaking, this is how the fighter moves with the flow of life: pendulums provoke the fighter who then swims against the current, not understanding that it would be easier and more advantageous to use the flow. The fighter’s mind is gripped by pendulums, but the fighter is resolutely set on battle and, by making resolute decisions, whips the water with all his might, in places where calm, smooth movements would have sufficed.
Now imagine a person who neither goes against the flow causing additional eddies in the water, nor lets the current carry them utterly, like a little paper boat. They would be intentionally moving in harmony with the flow noting the sand banks, obstacles and dangerous areas along the way, making smooth movements to keep to their chosen course. This is the person at the helm.
How useful is it to think of life in terms of flow and why is it so injurious to swim passively or try to resist the flow? The information that lies in the alternatives space is stationary, like a matrix. At the same time, the information structure is organized into chains of cause-and-effect which give birth to the flow of alternatives. This is what we mean when we talk about flow in the context of Transurfing.
The main reason to avoid actively resisting the flow is that in doing so you expend a huge amount of energy either in vain or to your own detriment. Neither can you rely entirely on the alternatives flow, for it could carry you into a calm lagoon as easily as to the edge of a waterfall. One should therefore, proceed with a sense of caution correcting one’s movements with smooth actions. A person should also be aware of the general direction of the flow which is determined by their chosen goal and the means of achieving it. Once the general course has been determined one should rely on the flow as far as possible.
Everyone has a rough sense of the general flow of events in their life. Most people first study then get a job, have a family, work their way up the employment ladder, build a house, and so on. Many people make a lot of mistakes along the way, in retrospect wishing they had done things differently, but it is too late to change anything. What is done is done. The flow takes them in a direction far away from their goal and the rational mind is powerless to do anything about it. All they can do is regret, knowing that if only they had known where they would fall, they would have put something there to soften the landing.
Everyone wants to know what awaits them just around the corner. Not everyone is serious about turning to fortune-tellers and astrologers for advice, but many are interested in them, at least out of curiosity. The advantage of a reading is that an optimistic astrological forecast or prediction can light a spark of hope whereas an unpleasant prediction can be trivialised as meaningless and later forgotten. Despite the fact that astrological calculations and clairvoyance cannot guarantee one hundred percent accuracy the Transurfing model does not negate their value because prediction and sight are sourced in the alternatives space. In any case, if the accuracy rate was too low, no one would take these translunary predictions seriously. Astrology does not only exist because people are curious to take a peep into the future. The alternatives flow also allows us to take a glance at other sectors of the field that exist in physical reality.
How much one chooses to rely on forecasts and astrological predictions is also a very personal thing so we will respectfully place this subject to one side and consider what we can usefully conclude from the simply knowledge that the alternatives flow exists. The main questions that arise, are to what extent we can surrender ourselves to the flow, how to determine whether we are going in the right direction, and why we should surrender ourselves to it at all.
As we mentioned previously, the mind is constantly under pressure from projected levels of importance and so hindered from make truly efficient decisions. Inner and outer importance is, essentially, the main source of the problem causing balanced forces to manifest in the form of rapids and whirlpools along a person’s path. If you reduce the intensity of projected importance, the flow will return to a calmer current. The question of whether one should surrender oneself to the flow is also important. Outer importance encourages the mind to look for complicated solutions to simple problems. Inner importance convinces the mind that its reasoning is sound and capable of making the only right decision.
If we reduce the intensity of projected importance the mind can breathe freely. Because it has been released from the influence of pendulums and the pressure of artificially created problems it can make more objective, appropriate decisions. The beauty of this lies in the fact that once the mind is free of the burden of importance it has no great need for a powerful intellect. Of course, to solve everyday problems you need logical thinking, knowledge and analytical skill, but this requires much less energy. The flow of alternatives is a luxurious gift which, paradoxically, the mind hardly ever uses.
The alternatives flow contains the solutions to all our problems. The majority of problems are in fact artificially created by the mind. Pendulums prod the anxious mind which sets about solving all sorts of problems just to try and keep the situation under control. Its wilful decisions are for the most part pointless like randomly slapping your hands on the surface of the water. The majority of problems, particularly minor problems, resolve themselves if the alternatives flow is allowed to take its course.
There is no essential need for a powerful intellect if the solution to a problem already exists in the alternatives space. The optimum solution will appear of its own accord as long as we do not go rooting around in the debris interfering with the alternatives flow. Optimality is a principle that is inherent in the structure of the information field. Chains of cause-and effect create separate streams in the flow of alternatives. These streams represent the best possible ways in which cause and effect can move. Everything exists in the alternatives space, but it is the optimal or most energy-efficient alternative that is more likely to be realized. Nature never wastes energy which is why people walk with their feet and not their ears. All processes strive to move along paths which are most energy efficient so the alternative streams are organized along the path of least resistance. This is where the optimal solution to any problem lies. The mind is constantly losing a sense of the flow because it is influenced by pendulums and acts in their interests. In other words, the mind gets caught up in a maze looking for complicated solutions to simple problems.
All these abstract notions may appear overly conjectural. However, you can try out some of the ideas in this book in practice and then decide whether you think the flow exists or not. The alternatives flow is a truly sumptuous gift for the mind. The keys to any problem are encoded within it. To access them you have to learn to move in the direction of least resistance. As a rule, people look for complicated solutions because they perceive the problem as an obstacle and as we know, obstacles can only be overcome by applying much effort. It helps to get into the habit of choosing the simplest possible solution to any given problem.
We all have to learn to something new at some point, or think about how we can do familiar tasks in a more effective way. One approach to doing things in the most efficient manner is so simple it is hard to believe it actually works: in accordance with the principle of harmonious movement everything should be done by the easiest and simplest means possible.
The most optimal alternatives to any action are organised in streams which are like chains comprised of links which represent optimal cause and effect. Deciding to take the next step in a given action is like choosing the next link in the chain. It is a matter of deciding which link is a part of the stream. What normally happens though, is that a person makes a logical decision based on what they think would be most correct based on their day to day experience of life.
The mind makes wilful decisions believing that it is capable of calculating and explaining anything but this is not true. You can probably recall many occasions when you have suddenly seen how things could have been done differently and yet it was too late. It is not that the mind is scattered or lacking in sharpness so much as that the chain in the stream does not always correspond to logical construction.
However meticulous you are, you will rarely choose an optimal action relying solely on logic. Generally speaking, the mind is always under some kind of pressure, be it stress, anxiety, depression or heightened activity. In other words, the mind is constantly distracted by pendulums, which makes it a little bit pushy, or prepared to launch an attack on the outside world.
In order to choose the next chain in the stream all you have to do is free yourself from the puppet strings and have enough compliance to follow the flow. This means adopting a condition of balance and having enough mindfulness not to project inflated importance.
Once you feel that you are in a condition of balance and harmony with the world just follow the flow. You will notice a multitude of signs that will guide you. Let go of the situation. Be the objective observer rather than the participant. Perform your actions simply adopting neither the position of slave nor master. Instruct your inner Guardian to nudge you every time your mind tries to make a ‘sensible’ but nonetheless wilful decision. Detach yourself emotionally as if you were simply an administrator and observe your work from the outside. Everything can be done a lot more simply than you think. Yield to the simplicity. It is the mind not the alternatives flow that carries you to the edge of the waterfall.
Imagine that there is something you need to buy, but you do not know where to find a shop that sells it. You rely on your mind which suggests the most sensible and the most complicated way of finding the shop you need. You drive round half the town looking for the right shop, only to find one, right next door to your house. If you had attributed less importance to the search, the mind would not have been set on finding such a difficult solution.
Here is another example. You have a list of things to do and you are wondering which task to start with and which to put off until later. Do not think about it. If there is no particular need for the tasks to be done in a specific sequence, do the task that you feel most inclined to start with. Go with the flow; Separate your mind from the influence of the pendulums. It is about learning that smooth, light, simple movements are enough to navigate the water. You do not have to be an impotent paper boat or splash your hands wildly about in the water,
I will not go on with a long list of examples. If you spend even just one day truly going with the flow you will discover for yourself just how helpful and surprising living your life in this way can be. Every time you have to come up with a solution to a problem ask yourself which approach would be the easiest and go with that. Every time something or someone comes in to distract you, do not hurry to resist it or skirt around it. Try detaching yourself from the situation and then observing what happens next. Every time you face a new task, ask yourself: How can I do this as simply as possible? Then allow whatever it is to get done with as much ease as possible. Every time someone suggests something different or tries to prove their own point of view try not to jump in and argue back. Maybe the rational mind just cannot understand the advantage or see the alternative. Activate your inner Guardian. First observe and only then take action. Come down into the auditorium. Do not hurry to take control. Let the game develop as far as possible of its own accord under your supervision. There is no need to madly splash your hands about in the water. Try not to get in the way of the flow of life and you will feel much better for it.
Guiding Signs
How can we distinguish between an approaching sandbank or waterfall and a normal turn in current? There are always tangible signs that will help us navigate ourselves through life. Life is constantly sending us signs.
The most common, well-known sign is an omen. There are good and bad omens. Seeing a rainbow is a good omen. A black cat crossing the road is an omen of misfortune. Widely acknowledged omens are created as a result of multiple observations and comparisons. If the percentage of correctly predicted omens is high enough, a certain pattern is determined which then becomes public opinion, because people love to talk to one another about strange phenomena. However, omens do not always come true; far from it in fact.
In Russia, when you forget something and have to go back for it people worry because they say that returning to a place you have just left is a bad omen. Even if a person is not particularly superstitious the strong social stereotype throws a shadow across their subconscious. The person begins to fear that something unpleasant will happen and so decides that it is not worth returning to pick up the thing they left behind. Unfortunately, that does not help either, because an even flow has already been disturbed and the person is already slightly out of balance. The expectation of misfortune introduces change into the parameters of a person’s thought energy and they shifts to a life line that corresponds in quality. Not surprisingly, they then end up experiencing whatever it was they were feared. In effect, the person has allowed the possibility of the event to enter their personal script. This explains why an increasing percentage of omens are fulfilled.
As you can see, the omen of itself cannot serve as a law or pattern. Why is it that everyone considers a black cat in particular to be a bad omen? Or, put differently, how is it that a black cat can have any kind of influence on our lives? Of course it is not the cat that has the influence but a person’s response to seeing a cat. If you believe in omens they will play a role in shaping the events of your life. If you do not believe in omens, but still experience doubts when you realise you have seen one, the influence will be slight. If, however, you do not believe in omens at all and pay absolutely no attention to them, they will have no influence in your life whatsoever. The principle is very simple: you experience what you allow into your personal life script. A person who believes omens to be empty superstitions will experience no indication of their validity in the layer of their world. Omens may appear real in the layers of other people’s worlds because those people look for confirmation of them, whereas the sceptic does not.
If omens have no direct influence on the events in our lives, then what do we mean when we talk about guiding signs? The black cat cannot have any direct influence over you but it can serve as a sign warning you of an event that will take place further down the line in the alternatives flow. It is amazing how many signs you can spot once you decide to be observant of what is happening around you. You can end up seeing them just about everywhere. So which signs should be considered guiding signs? The other issue is how signs should be interpreted but we will not go into that as it is too comprehensive and vague a topic. All you can reliably do is increase your inner Guardian’s level of watchfulness and vigilance, notice the sign and take its presence into account.
Guiding signs are signs that indicate a possible turn in the alternatives flow. In other words, a guiding sign serves to herald an event that will substantially change the flow of everyday life. If you are expecting some sort of change in the current however small, a sign will appear to signal its onset. A characteristic sign may also appear if an unexpected turn is coming up in the near future.
When the alternatives flow makes a turn you shift onto a different life line. The life line will be more or less homogeneous, as far as quality of life is concerned. The stream in the alternatives flow can intersect many life lines that have different parameters. The changes may be relatively insignificant, but you will nonetheless experience the difference. The qualitative change is noticed either consciously or subconsciously with the knowing that something is not quite the same as it was a minute ago.
Guiding signs only appear when a shift to a different life line is initiated. If for example you pay no particular attention to a separate event such as a crow squawking, if it does not put you on your guard and you do not feel any qualitative difference in that moment it suggests that you are on the same life line as before. If, however, the phenomenon does attract your attention and you feel that there is something unusual or odd about it then it is probably a sign.
A sign differs from other everyday phenomena in that it signals the beginning of a shift to a life line that differs considerably from the current one. Often we find signs like this a little disturbing especially if they are spotted immediately after a shift to a different life line. This is because there is a qualitative difference in the current and former life line that we cannot rationally account for. Often it is hard to put your finger on what exactly has changed. You may just have the feeling that something is not quite right. When a shift has been made it is sensed intuitively and sometimes we even notice change in the type of signs we spot. It is as if out of the corner of our eye we see, or suspect that something new has appeared in the flow. So signs serve as indicators that a shift has occurred, or is in the process of occurring.
Some people are unaware of most of what is happening around them, and so are unlikely to notice even the most obvious signs. Generally speaking though, if we fail to notice anything unusual about an event that takes place on our current life line it is probably because it has the same quality as all the other phenomena we experience. The shift to a substantially different life line normally occurs gradually, passing through intermediate lines along the way. The signs on these lines can appear as warnings with different levels of severity. Sometimes a person ignores their first warning. The shift continues and then a second warning appears and then a third and if the person has still taken no heed of the danger an event finally occurs that is encoded in the final line of the shift.
Interpreting signs unambiguously is very difficult to do. Sometimes you cannot even be one hundred percent certain whether the phenomenon that attracted your attention is a sign or not. All you can do is take into account the fact that the world seems to be trying to communicate something to you. We are mostly interested in approaching sand banks and rapids so it would be nice to at least get a hint of what lies ahead. In most cases, you can explore the sign by phrasing a question in such a way that it will produce a yes or no answer. For example: “Will it work out or not? Will I get it done in time or not? “Will I be successful in doing something or not?” “Is it good or bad, dangerous or not”, and so on. The interpretation of a sign should be simplified enough to hint at a “positive” or “negative” type of answer. There is no point in expecting a high level of precise detail.
The sign carries a hint of the quality of the forthcoming turn in the flow. If you associate the sign with an unpleasant sensations or it fills you with misgiving, unpleasant surprise or anxiety it means that the sign signals a negative turn of events. If the sensation is ambiguous there is no point in trying to interpret the sign, as your evaluation of it will be too subjective to be reliable. A sign may bring a warning that you need to be more careful, change your behaviour in some way or stop doing something. For this reason it is important neither to negate a sign nor to let it worry you too much by attributing it too much significance.
Signs can take various forms but in each case the most useful thing to do is decide whether their meaning is positive or negative. For example, if you are in a hurry and an old lady with a stick blocks your way this could be interpreted as meaning that you will be delayed, that the bus that normally crawls along will for some reason fly past today; Perhaps you went too far in a situation and should be more careful, or maybe you are trying to do something that is not going very well and no matter what you do obstacles keep getting in the way bringing things to a grinding halt. Maybe you have chosen a dead-end road and should take a different route.
The main benefit of signs is that they have the capacity to wake you up in time making you see that you are acting in the interests of a destructive pendulum or to your own detriment. People often make fatal mistakes when they are under the zombifying anaesthesia of a pendulum, only later realizing that they were unaware of their actions and had forgotten to be vigilant. It can be useful to interpret even innocent signs as simple warnings. It is always wise to maintain a sense of caution and awareness with regard to what is happening around you as long as cautiousness does not deteriorate into anxiety and suspicion. You have to be able to take care without worrying. Be detached at the same time as impeccable in everything you do.
However strange it may seem, sometimes the clearest and most concise guiding signs are phrases, spoken spontaneously as if they were of no import. When someone is trying to force their opinion on you it is better to pay no attention, but a spontaneous phrase uttered as a casual recommendation or piece of advice might be worth taking seriously. Spontaneous phrases are spoken without the speaker planning what they are going to say beforehand. You can probably recall an occasion where you responded to a comment immediately, without thinking. It is as if the answer already exists somewhere deep in your consciousness and it just comes out, bypassing the analytical mind. The same thing happens when your mind is dozing or busy with something else and seemingly random phrases are uttered. When the mind is dozing the soul speaks and the soul, after all, has direct contact with the information field.
For example, someone just on the off chance says: “Don’t forget your scarf. You’ll catch cold”. If you do not take their advice the likelihood is that you will regret it later. You might be absorbed in thoughts about some problem and someone makes a recommendation in passing that at the time does not seem very relevant. Listen to these words and phrases. Do not be too quick to discard them. You may be convinced you are right about something and then someone opens your eyes to see things differently without even intending to do so. Try not to be too stubborn to reconsider your point of view and ask yourself whether you were not in fact just randomly splashing your hands about in the water.
Feelings of inner discomfort are also a very clear sign, although as a rule, we do not pay these feelings due attention. If you have to make a decision, no one better than your own soul knows what that decision should be. It is often very difficult to understand what exactly the soul is trying to tell you but the principle is the same as with all other signs. You can quite unambiguously determine whether the decision is to the soul’s liking or not. When you have to make a decision, stop and listen to the rustle of the morning stars. If in your mind you have already made the decision and remembered about the rustle too late, try to recall what type of feelings you were experiencing when you were making the decision. These feelings can be characterized either as “I feel good” about it or “I don’t feel good” about it. If you made the decision reluctantly, and it left you feeling cold then this feeling would clearly fit into the “I don’t feel good” category. If it is not too late to change your mind, do so.
Listening to your gut feeling, assessing how comfortable you feel is not difficult. What is difficult however, is remembering soon enough to listen to your heart, for the mind reasons with authority with no inclination of listening to anyone else. The loud drumming of common sense drowns out the whispering voice of the heart. The mind is always trying to substantiate and prove its position. Here you have a choice: “yes” or “no.” The soul tries timidly to object: “no”. The mind is aware of the soul saying “no,” but pretends it does not hear, putting forward persuasive arguments based on “sound judgement” to support its own “yes”. Having read these lines, store them away in a separate file in your memory and the next time you make a decision pull out the file. You will see that the process is just as I have described.
I would suggest keeping in mind this simple, reliable exercise as a way of recognising your inner “no”: if you have to convince yourself and talk yourself into saying “yes”, then your soul is really saying “no.” When your soul says “yes”, you do not have to talk yourself round. We will return to this later.
Pay attention to the signs the world is giving you without going over the top and looking for signs everywhere. It can get a little absurd if you say: “Look! The birds are flying high in the sky today. I wonder what that means” Maybe it just means that birds are not afraid of heights and so are able to fly at high altitudes. It is sufficient to be aware of what you notice and keep in mind that something you have seen might be a guiding sign. As soon as you forget to be vigilant pendulums will latch onto you and you could become the victim of circumstance.
It is also worth meticulously checking out desires and actions that could dramatically change the course of your destiny. If you get a negative gut feeling about something you are thinking of doing, if it is at all possible, do not do it because the negative feeling you are experiencing indicates that the original desire came from the mind, not the heart. Desires and actions that come from the mind are always imposed by pendulums. If you ignore a negative gut feeling in the majority of cases nothing awful will happen, but sometimes you may deeply regret doing so. Therefore, whenever possible, it is better to forego desires and actions that evoke feelings of guilt, doubt or apprehension. If you can get into the habit of doing this it will greatly simplify your life and free you from all sorts of problems.
There is just one ‘but’. If a series of misplaced steps have got you all tied up in a knot it might not be enough simply to rethink certain desires and actions, because sometimes a person is called to do something which causes them “discomfort” like not telling the truth or going to work when you hate your job. However, once a knot has been untied and you are freed from a more complex situation you can confidently try out the principle of foregoing desires or actions that evoke a feeling of inner discomfort.
This is all that can be said about guiding signs within the context of the Transurfing model. Ultimately, only you can interpret the signs that are personal to you. There is no need to teach you how to interpret signs. You will instinctively understand their meaning if you are observant of yourself and the world around you. Be wary of attributing excess importance to signs that are not sufficiently clear or that would introduce negative interpretations into your personal life script. You will not get caught up on a sandbank or fly off down the rapids if you avoid creating excess potential. After all is said and done we can survive quite well without signs if we have to. It is not given to us to understand their meaning fully. The only sign particularly worth focusing on when you are making a decision is your gut feeling and intuition. It really is worth listening to the rustle of the morning stars.
Letting Go
The existence of streams in the alternatives flow can potentially free the mind of two overwhelming burdens: the need to solve problems rationally and the need to control. That is, if the mind will allow itself to be freed. The mind will require a more or less rational explanation to be comfortable enough to let go. As you may have noticed quite a lot of what is described in this book is irrational which is why, although it is not the purpose of Transurfing to offer a description of the structure of the universe, I try to validate the conclusions I have drawn that would otherwise be difficult for the mind to accept.
Providing an explanation the mind can accept is actually essential because the mind will not take anything on faith and it is extremely difficult to shake the monolith of common sense. The mind demands proof and circumstantiation which you can provide yourself if you try putting the principles of Transurfing into practice. I offer a couple of feasible explanations here to sooth the incredulous mind, for if I did not, the reader would be unlikely to try out the Transurfing principles or read any further. And this is just the beginning. Many exciting revelations lie ahead.
The burdens of the mind are placed on us in childhood. As children we are constantly being reprimanded: “Think with your head!”, “Do you realize what you are doing?”, “Explain yourself!” “Do your homework. You won’t get anywhere in life without a brain!”, “Don’t be so stupid. Will you ever learn?” Teachers and circumstances sculpt a soldier from our minds ready at any moment to produce an explanation, give an answer to a question, assess a situation, make a decision and control those around us. The mind is trained to act in a practical manner based on common sense.
I am not presumptuous enough to advocate getting rid of common sense altogether; quite the opposite. Common sense provides us with a minimal set of rules on how to behave in life in order to survive. The mistake of the mind is that it follows the behavioural code too literally. An obsession with common sense prevents the mind from opening up, looking around and noticing all the things that do not fit the rules.