Technically living ON the moment

I've read in recent news reports that people were queuing overnight to buy the new Apple iPhone (S model).

It reminded me of times past when I would look forward to purchasing some new gadget, only to notice how the wonder of the device soon dissipated.

But it also reminded me of one particular time years ago while driving in peak hour traffic, when I had a sense that I was living "on" the moment, not IN it. I was heading back to the office after some appointment, and it felt like I was scurrying around on the surface of life, not deeply in it.

It was perhaps one of those important insights that eventually led me to begin writing, and following my passions and dreams (of running my own business, and establishing the Belief Institute).

Technology is a wonderful convenience in life. I value the choices, ease and quality of life that technology and modern ulitlities gives me and others.  Unlike many who see technology as "bad", I appreciate that without any technology we'd quickly find ourselves running away from hungry animals while naked, in winter without fire (speers, guns, clothes and heating are forms of technology). As Apple founder Steve Jobs realised years ago, after seeking enlightenment in India,

"We weren't going to find a place where we could go for a month to be enlightened. It was one of the first times I started to realize that maybe Thomas Edison did a lot more to improve the world than Karl Marx and (guru) Neem Karoli Baba put together."1

and

"Steve's desire to find meaning in life gave way to a much stronger need to do something meaningful with his life."2

But being entirely reliant on technology takes us too far away from ourselves. We lose sight of our abilities to heal, to find more natural, intuitive3 ways of communicating, connecting and creating.

As I wrote in my book Be and Become,

While (technology) might appear to connect us (e.g. via telephones, the Internet) with other people who reside on the other side of the planet, it fundamentally reminds us that we are locally bound—separated from others by time and space. In emphasizing our space-time separation from others, technology asserts a masculine quality in our lives.

Primarily, the use of technology emphasizes that people are separate from other people.

If technology succeeds in reminding us that we can communicate nonlocally (through intuition etc.), then it serves a feminine role. If it remains in the realm of simply being a mechanical device without which we cannot know what is happening on the other side of the planet, then it is fundamentally compounds our sense of alienation (separation) from others.

Put more simply, if by using the Internet we remind ourselves that we can also use the “Innernet,” then technology will assist in bringing us closer together.4

So how do we live more IN the moment?

In my experience, it's being able to take time, reflect, 'listen' to my gut-feelings, and act upon them. It's the acting upon them that I believe is where most have (like myself) the greatest difficulty. It's not that we don't get the signals ... nonlocal signals and influences pervade our lives. We're swimming in them, and they support and enable our everyday experiences. They interconnect all with all. As physicist Nick Herbert explains, nonlocal connections don't just occur in "rare and exotic circumstances, but underlie all the events of everyday life. Non-local connections are ubiquitous because reality itself is non-local.”5

We get the signals, alright, it's that we don't act on them. And that's where trusting our gut-feelings and engaging our spontaneity is the real secret to living IN the moment. The so-called "law of attraction" is only half the story (who's doing all the action that enables others to receive? If you attract a valued telephone call, who acted to make the call?!)6

Unfortunately, as our society and culture becomes more disconnected (through over-reliance on machines and technologies), we lose the ablity to trust ourselves and to be ourselves.

We see as a result rising drug and alcohol use, autism (the inability to connect emotionally, intuitively, nonlocally) and depression.

• 1. Anthony Imbimbo, Steve Jobs: The Brilliant Mind Behind Apple, Gareth Stevens Pub, 2009. Pge 42.
• 2. Imbimbo, Pge 43.
• 3. i.e. tapping and using nonlocal awareness
• 4. Stephen Pirie, Be and Become, ProCreative Sydney, 2000. Pge 333.
• 5. Nick Herbert, Quantum Reality, Anchor Press/Doubleday, New York, 1985, page 215.
• 6. As was explained in Be and Become, the feminine is about being attractive, in every sense, while the masculine is about physical action, and asserting the space - "make, force, assert." I'll write an article on some of the more unhelpful new-age ideas that are going around. Stay tuned