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Interview with Corvus
Night
Co-author of The Experiment: An Exploration of Perception and Focus
by Tim Miejan
First of a two-part series
"My reality will never be the same." -- from the Foreword, by Robert F.
Butts of the Seth books
Ketherin Michaels and Corvus Night, partners for nearly 30 years, spent their life
together with tarot, I ching, metaphysics and Western mystery studies. They went
deeper and deeper into the mystery and into the truth that lies beyond the visible
world.
Michaels, a natural intuitive who became a highly skilled medium, worked with discipline
and diligence to attune her perception to what she described as "the voice of
the inner teacher." In her weekly sessions, she journaled what she was told.
The Experiment: An Exploration of Perception and Focus -- A Primer (Greybear Publishing
Co., 2002) is the record of her philosophical journey.
The book is filled with more than 200 full-color illustrations by Night, a writer,
illustrater, healer and philosopher. His colored drawings, charts and diagrams complement
the text perfectly, making it possible for readers to apply the experiments on their
own perception and begin to discern for themselves whether anything exists beyond
what the eye can see.
Michaels made her transition from this lifetime in 1998. Night spoke with The EDGE
by phone from his office in Santa, Fe, N.M.
What was Ketherin Michaels like as a person?
Corvus Night: As a child, she was a naturally gifted psychic. Once, her father
put her on a plane to go visit her relatives in Philadelphia, and she just refused
to get on the plane. Of course, he was totally furious and thought she was being
an idiot. And then the plane crashed. Things like that happened to her before she
had any formal training. It was pretty obvious to everyone in her family that there
was something at work there, but they didn't have a context in which to develop that
skill.
It was a natural talent until we met in the early '70s here in Santa Fe. We started
feeling our way through things and then discovered one of the early Seth books (channeled
by Jane Roberts). That was really exciting for us. We both had always been interested
in tarot, and through tarot we found our way to Paul Foster Case, who was the teacher
who started the B.O.T.A. (Builders of the Adytum -- mystical, occult teachings and
practices of the Holy Qabalah and Sacred Tarot) and was affiliated with (Thoth-Hermes
Temple of) the Golden Dawn.
So we started doing his course of study, and we also were drawn to the I Ching. Don
Juan (teachings presented by Carlos Castaneda) was a particularly strong influence
on Ketherin -- on both of us, really.
Through her studies with Paul Case, who teaches you to go within and contact the
inner teachers, Ketherin went into training in the mid-'70s and really started concentrating
on making an effort to still the inner dialogue and cancel out the "small me"
chatter that keeps our mind so busy, and make some kind of inner contact. It turns
out there was a group of teachers waiting for her to make that contact. She began
having regular sessions with these inner teachers and they'd talk to her and she
would write down what she was hearing. That went on for a few years as she developed
the skill in what she was doing.
Then one day in her sessions they said, "OK, get ready, we're going to switch
you over now." And they switched her over to these higher teachers who introduced
the idea of the concept pool, which is described in the book. From that point on,
her meetings with these teachers turned into basically book dictation. I think she
knew all of her life that she was going to be writing this book.
The Experiment is described as a series of strolls around the "concept pool."
What is it and how does it relate to our everyday lives?
Night: The concept pool was a place of concepts and ideas where Ketherin and
these higher teachers met. They introduced the idea of the concept pool in the early
sessions. Their method of teaching was to stroll around the concept pool and just
pick out ideas for discussions. That's what they would do. They would bring out a
concept and they would talk around it and start explaining it, and then they would
go on to another one and another one. Really, the whole book -- and this first volume
is just a tiny beginning -- is a series of strolls around the concept pool.
It can be compared to what Plato called the archetypal plane of shape. To Plato and
the early Greek philosophers, this was an area on an archetypal plane -- meaning
it was quite a few levels removed from physical existence -- and it was a source
of all physical reality. Reality begins to take shape on the idea level, and as it
acquires mass, it descends into various different levels -- the creative plane, the
formative plane -- and finally takes shape on the Earth level.
Basically what they were doing on strolls around the concept plane was to educate
us about the larger view of reality. Historically, we tend to be overly focused on
the outer level of reality. There's a large emphasis on making sure everyone knows
how to operate efficiently on their job or in their roles in society, most of it
being centered on the outer appearance world. So a lot of their teaching in the concept
pool was to point out that there's a larger world, that there's an invisible world
that surrounds us, and that all that appears to us on the outer level is coming to
us from a larger source. And they made the point that we can start incorporating
that larger world into our everyday lives and that we can open up a channel so that
information from these larger levels, which are really the source of our being, has
some means of flowing into our daily lives, informing our decisions and our actions
and, in general, widening our perception of who we are.
Aside from Plato, there is much discussion of Socrates and Pythagoras and other
historical thinkers at the beginning of The Experiment. Were they quite influential
in the creation of this book?
Night: They are. The whole Greek legacy has been such an important part of the
development of our culture in the West, and even in the Arab countries, which were
completely influenced by Greek philosophy.
On a background level, that philosophy influences almost everything that we do, whether
we're consciously aware of it or not. Our whole philosophical underpinning comes
from the early Greek philosophers. One of the particular influences, and I speak
of this a little in the book, is the Pythagorean concept of space as being a Sacred
Space. When we move from here to there, it's become very mundane, almost invisible
to us. To the Pythagoreans and the Greek philosophers, this is a very important concept.
From their perspective, space is the ground of our being, the base from which we
acquire meaning. To them, it wasn't just some neutral thing we move through to get
from one place to another. It was the force that brings us into being.
Of course, you can get into Pythagorean number theory. Geometry to them was almost
a religion, although it's been somewhat distorted, with people talking of Pythagoras
as being a bit kooky or secretive. But the basis of their ideas was that three-dimensional
space comes into being from the movement of the creative life force. They talk of
the monad as being the initial point that holds all the possibilities of creation
within it. That the monad exists in a period that exists before a cycle of manifestation
begins.
As the monad, the number one, moves into the number two, manifestation begins to
occur. In geometry we know that the number one signifies the point, which is the
area of no dimension. When a second point is added, it creates a line, which is the
first dimension. And you add the third point as width, the second dimension. These
were spiritual movements to the Pythagoreans. This is like a creation myth, in a
way. They saw this progression of numbers as the way the world became formed.
There are examples that constantly come to us about the role of numbers in the
organization of our universe. The disturbing but compelling film Pi comes to mind.
Night: I've seen that one. The Kabbalah is based on number theory. The Hebrew
alphabet, which is tied into Tarot images, really describes the entire world at its
basis through numbers. The numbers give rise to concepts. Mathematicians and scientists
from the Greeks on through agree that numbers are the fundamental description of
reality. It's very abstract, but when you get into studying some of these various
disciplines, you start to get a feel for the spiritual quality of numbers.
Why is phrase "The experiment" used in connection with this series of
books?
Night: It's an experiment in that as we read the concepts and hear the descriptions
from the teachers and the teachings, these are things we can all try out on ourselves.
It's the nature of the experimenter to try something out, observe the results, make
adjustments and try something else. That's what the book is about. It's there as
a tool for people to explore the Self.
All of the concepts lead you within, to a larger source of reality. It's a process
of incremental steps. As you read the book, say you get an idea about something,
so you try it out in your life and see how it reflects into your reality. As you
make changes in how you look at the world, the reality around you shifts in response
to that.
It is an ongoing experiment as we take the concepts and put them to practice in our
lives.
Reading through the book, it contains a lot of science and appears to be a very
dense read, but yet it is also intuitive and seems to flow in a circle.
Night: It's all those things. It is dense on the surface, and yet it's friendly.
The concepts that the teachers describe are often abstract. The whole idea of going
within and accessing an invisible reality tends to be abstract to us, because we're
not trained to look at the world in those terms. Sometimes the conscious mind, which
is used to dealing with the outer appearance level, will sometimes blank out on something
the teachers are saying. If at one point your reasoning, logical mind says, "Wait
a minute -- I don't exactly understand that," there are a series of images that
speak to you on another level, oftentimes saying the same thing and leading you in
the same direction.
In terms of your description of it as a circular movement, it is just that. It's
strolling around the concept pool, and you're always returning to these basic core
concepts of showing us that there's more to it than the appearance level.
And of course, a lot of us who have studied metaphysics and philosophy are aware
of this on many different levels, but the teachers bring it home in a way that is
very concrete and in a way that involves you in this invisible side of yourself so
you begin to become more comfortable with it -- and start to really use it in your
day-to-day existence.
The subtitle to The Experiment is: An exploration of perception and focus. Explain
how you explore perception and focus?
Night: The book begins in the introduction with a historical perspective on perception.
At one time, in a period that we think of as myth or legend, our inner senses or
our ability to see the invisible side and use the powers from the invisible side
were more available to us.
History is not necessarily a straight line back. If you think of reality as being
layered in every direction, these times of myth in which the invisible powers were
more available to us still exist on a different layer or level of reality. They're
still very accessible to us. We can pick up a book and read a story about how the
Egyptians built the pyramids by being trained in using sound to move matter, which
on one level they certainly did.
So the book starts out with this historical look at how at one time these powers
were more available, and how gradually through the development of history and our
progress, particularly with science as of late, we've become more and more focused
on the outer world -- and our perception has become more and more limited in perceiving
the outer world.
And then the book moves from there to a series of color experiments, which are very
powerful in moving the perception into this invisible realm. Through the experiments
with color that we introduce pretty much at the beginning of the book when the concept
pool strolls are launched, they put you in touch with the invisible side. When you
realize that the visible world that you see is only half of the picture and let the
color experiments work on your psyche, you end up in a place where you realize that,
"Hey, I'm not seeing the whole picture. There is more to it here." And
by following the teaching throughout the book it's a gradual unfoldment of this invisible
world.
Again, it's abstract because you can't see it. Our equipment is focused on what's
visible. So what the book does in terms of exploring perception and focus is it gradually
takes you to a place where you can start opening up these channels for information
to come through from the invisible side, first by recognizing that it exists by doing
the color experiments that really show you in a graphic, physical way that, yes,
you are only seeing a part of the picture, there is more of it there, and if there
is more of it there, how can I get to it?
The Experiment is a series of movements toward incorporating those invisible worlds
and invisible realities into our lives.
What value is there to our lives in seeing more than meets the eye?
Night: The value is that in expanding your awareness into these other levels,
you come in contact with more information. As you begin to allow that these other
realities exist, and that there is knowledge in these other realities that may be
hidden from someone who doesn't explore them, the value is in opening up these channels
so direction and guidance and support begins to come to you from these inner levels.
One way of looking at it would be that at the appearance level, a person seems to
be at the mercy of events and circumstance. But if you begin to work on both sides
of the mirror, as the book describes it -- they say this appearance level is like
a reflection in a mirror -- you become integrated into yourself. You become more
whole and more in control of the circumstances and the events you encounter in your
day-to-day life, so it's very empowering.
You become aware of your role in creating the circumstances.
Night: Absolutely. And the color charts play a role in that. The teachers gave
us a gift with these charts. They're pretty amazing.
You call them color charts of the keys of music, and there are also the SevenStar
designs.
Night: Yes, they all generally work on the same principle, which is to take color
and, in the case of the music charts, harmonize it to the sounds of the keys of music.
For example, the chart for the key of E major corresponds to the sounds of the notes
of the key of E and the colors of the spectrum. And when you place those colors in
that kind of an aligned pattern, it has a strong influence on you.
Think about the power of vision. Let's say you just saw an accident take place. That
affects you. If you see a field of flowers and it's really beautiful, it lifts your
spirit. What you see is so important to the way you feel and the way you go through
reality. We know instinctively or intuitively that we're uplifted by a scene of beauty
or compassion, but it's not really taught about the incredible influence it has on
who we are and how we feel.
Harmony in music is something that's built into this reality we inhabit. Once you
have a picture in front of you that uses that harmony and uses those colors as they
respond to the notes, that picture has a profound influence on your life. You may
be skeptical and say, "Well, it's just a picture," we have found through
using the charts and talking to others who have used them over the years that they
have a subtle, powerful influence of bringing a person into alignment.
The concept of alignment is very important. As consciousness in a body, our function
is to transmit the power of the universal will or the Source or God or whatever name
you have for it. That power flows through us. In an instrument that's not very well
aligned, there is going to be a lot of disruptions and turbulence as that force flows
through the instrument. So if we think of ourselves as instruments, the more aligned
we can be, the more clearly we can let that energy of the One, or the All, flow through
us, the happier we're going to be, the better things are going to work out for us
and the more easily our desires are going to be fulfilled. All those things depend,
to a certain extent, upon alignment.
The primary function of the charts is to align you. We feel they're incredibly important.
Just putting them up in your house has this amazing effect on your life. It's not
like there is a dramatic change where you put them up and you get rich the next day,
but over a period of time these energies pump energy and alignment into the space
that you are in. Once again, you're going back to the idea of the ancient Greeks
as being aware that the space in which we move and live is a reflection of a spiritual
movement, or the movement of the creator. So the ways that you can influence that
space that you're in have a strong effect on you.
Next Month: Corvus Night relates the magical blend of Science & Enlightenment.
For more on The Experiment, go to www.theakademe.com, e-mail greybear@theakademe.com, call (505) 424-0190, fax (505) 424-0168,
or write to P.O. Box 5158, Santa Fe, NM 87502.
Tim Miejan is editor of The EDGE. Contact him at (651) 578-8969 or e-mail editor@edgenews.com
Copyright (c) 2002 Tim
Miejan
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