NPCs, Enlightenment, Operators, and Things
What is the role of NPCs?
“How do you feel about the possible existence of NPCs?”Who Are We? I love these questions about NPCs (non-player characters) and how best to progress through our lives once we are aware that we can steer our lives, since they invite us to consider who we are. And the matter of who we are is one of the biggest, most unexplored questions. While we typically think of ourselves as singular individuals, perhaps a more accurate way to view ourselves is as levels of awareness. We can get a feeling of some of our levels of self when we notice in meditative states that we can be aware of simultaneously being both mortal Actors on the stage of life, and conscious Observers with awareness that we are not the emotions and thoughts running through us, but rather the consciousness observing these thoughts and feelings. We can see further evidence of having more than one sense of self or “Me” by considering how we have neural centers in our brains, in our hearts, and in our guts. We can benefit greatly by simply listening to our heads, hearts, and guts, and noticing if and when we discern uneasiness or misgivings that may be alerting us to something going on that we’d do well to pay attention to. Who are NPCs? There have been many metaphors shared in recent years by people attempting to describe what’s going on with so-called “Non-Player Characters.” In computer games, these are the “extras” who are not the lead characters, but rather are on the side-lines, filling in necessary functions as shopkeepers, for example. In real life, some people wonder about people who do not seem to be Seekers–who do not talk about observing their own thoughts and feelings, nor have much (if any) interest in exploring such topics as the true nature of reality, or who we really are. Some people point out that NPCs don’t change–they follow some kind of set pattern for how to think, speak, and behave, and they just stick to that, as if they’re on auto-pilot. My take on NPCs is that they might be considered to be a starting point for spiritual evolution–a point of living a pre-patterned life. They are therefore not expendable, like the unfortunate red-shirted Starfleet characters in the original Star Trek episodes, who would notoriously wind up on dangerous “away team” missions, and not always return to the Enterprise. I don’t as a rule use the term “NPC,” since it seems to have somewhat of a negative connotation to it, with a vibe of someone who is at best clueless and uninformed, and at worst part of the manpower fueling all that is going wrong with the world. I love the idea that NPC behavior is indicative of slow awakening, like flower buds gently opening, each at their own natural pace. We might then view people who seem to be asleep as Baby or Infant souls, who are developing ethical awareness and empathy by learning through experiences. When seen from the right vantage point, this process of soul maturation can be a beautiful, soul-stirring sight. There is advantage to choose to be kind, and to choose to be loving at every level of development, and to become courageous instead of fearful on this path. Operators and Things One of the most interesting books I’ve ever seen that addresses the matter of NPCs is called, Operators and Things, written by Barbara O’Brien in 1958. O’Brien describes her descent into schizophrenia, followed by a return to good mental health in this book–along the way sharing startling insights regarding how people can be influenced by “Hook Operators” who nudge and influence people to think, speak and behave differently than they would otherwise. One such individual described the relationship between Operators and Things and the ease by which Operators (the unconscious mind) can penetrates the minds of Things (the conscious mind) at any level thusly:
“Things… Think of the word with a capital initial, if you like. It may help your ego a bit. All people like you are Things to us–Things whose minds can be read and whose thoughts can be initiated and whose actions can be motivated. Does that surprise you? It goes on all the time. There is some, but far less free will than you imagine. A Thing does what some Operator wants it to do, only it remains under the impression that its thoughts originate in its own mind. Actually, you have more free will at this moment than most of your kind ever have. For you at least know that what we are saying is coming from us, not from you.”This ease of accessibility reminds me of how we humans can enjoy a higher dimensional view of hypothetical residents of Flatland, such that the lines, dots, circles and squares depicted on a page can be easily viewed by us from a birds-eye-view, thanks to our ease in navigating 2D reality, since our spatial reality is 3D. Just as we can look down at the 2D world and instantly see everything clearly laid out and nothing hidden, beings adept at higher dimensional levels could thus instantly see our entire world at a glance, with nothing hidden. O’Brien points out in Operators and Things that one quality that schizophrenics have in common is that they are uniquely gifted at accurately noticing and pointing out psychological vulnerabilities of their psychiatrists and analysts. O’Brien herself seems to clearly benefit from a string of exceptionally beneficial psychic / intuitive insights that help her evade capture by a mountain lion in one incident, make a series of successful monetary gambles in Las Vegas when she was in need of cash, and intuitively know precisely when to send a very short letter to a friend when that letter resulted in more much-needed money coming her way. It’s clear when O’Brien received helpful information that she was being inspired by what we might consider to be angels. During times when O’Brien could hear what she called “Hook Operators,” she was not always so delighted by what she was hearing, or what they were inspiring her to do. O’Brien could see how Hook Operators were influencing people around her, by first targeting psychologically weak areas where people had doubts and feelings of insecurity, and then suggestively introducing ideas that might influence the person to think, speak, or behave in accordance with the Hook Operator’s desired direction.
There are similar concepts of thoughtforms that arise from collective thoughts and emotions in the form of an Egregore (from Ancient Greek egregoros, ‘wakeful’). Some scholars envision Egregores as having independent existence, while others view them as the collective mind of a community–a kind of collective mind. In the Book of Enoch, the term Egregore referred to angelic beings, “Watchers,” where they were not arising from a collective consciousness, but rather had their own unique and individual conscious agency. It seems clear that Barbara O’Brien is noticing actions of Hook Operators that seem rather similar to Egregores in the Book of Enoch. When viewing the workings of Operators (unconscious mind) and Things (conscious mind), and the importance of establishing harmonious balance between the two, we can begin to see how in times of change or growth, rebalancing is necessary. At times of rebalancing, our assumptions and beliefs are challenged and re-evaluated as we change, grow, and evolve. Answers to the age-old questions, “Who am I?” and “What is reality?” and “Why does anything exist at all?” take on greater depth and dimensionality along with us. Path to Enlightenment Thomas Anderson 6568 on YouTube posted this comment on one of my videos: “The Monroe Institute explorers confirm what most of the ancient spiritual traditions teach: living in this world while being free of any mental and emotional attachment to anything of this world is a pass to higher tiers of progress after we “die”. In fact, this achievement seems to be the very reason we incarnate here! On the other hand I do resonate with the idea of living-breathing some earthly passion to rise your vibrations – so you could develop spiritually and then finally graduate from the “Earth University.” I’m tormented by this conundrum. Is living your passion only a stage of progress, leading to non-attachment? Or maybe the two are mutually exclusive? Would you please comment on that?”First of all, let’s start by contemplating ourselves as levels of consciousness, starting with awareness that we have a physical, mortal body experiencing three spatial dimensions and one dimensino of time–and we also have consciousness that is capable of viewing our thoughts and feelings and being the Observer of these (not just the Actor). Our ability to be both Conscious Observers as well as Physical Actors means that we are capable of living up to our species name of homo sapiens (“wise humans”). We are capable of looking more closely at our Observer nature in meditation, and when noting that we can explore reality via lucid dreams, astral travel, and by experiencing synchronicity, reality shifts, and the Mandela Effect. Explorations through consciousness can bring us to awareness of levels of conscious agency which are involved with shaping and co-creating physical reality as we know it. On the Physical Actor side of things, we can become aware of neural centers in our heads, our hearts, and our guts. We also have three separate diaphragms, so we can bring “in-spiration” (breathing) to each center. Addressing the question of developing spiritually, this is a process of making choices that consistently bring one to higher levels of conscious agency, while not denouncing physical and lower levels. We can glean insights into what’s going on by considering the lessons humans learn when exploring each level of self. Developmental psychologists like Erik Erikson outline stages that humans naturally grown through: Trust VS Mistrust,Autonomy VS Shame and Doubt,Initiative VS Guilt,Industry VS InferiorityIdentity VS Confusion,Intimacy VS Isolation,Generativity VS Stagnation, andIntegrity VS Despair. We can acknowledge the challenge and opportunity at each stage, with appreciation for the way we can revise our assumptions and beliefs about ourselves and the cosmos as our own awareness grows and expands. Intriguingly, the eight stages of Erik Erikson correspond rather closely with what we notice in the primary chakras, starting with the Root Chakra at the base of the spine matching up with Trust VS Mistrust. The root chakra has to do with safety and security and grounding, and the challenge is to feel safe rather than fighting or taking flight. This stage and chakra corresponds to ages birth to age two. The Sacral Chakra dovetails with Erikson’s Autonomy VS Shame and Doubt, and has to do with sexuality, gender identity, and creativity. Humans go through this stage from age two to five. The Solar Plexus Chakra aligns with Erikson’s Initiative VS Guilt, as it relates to personal power, will, assertiveness, and individual charisma. Humans establish balance for this stage at ages five to seven. The Heart Chakra matches Erikson’s Industry VS Inferiority stage, where we establish relationships with who and what we most love and care about. We are challenged to establish respectful boundaries at this juncture, and get our first opportunity to this from ages seven to nine. The Throat Chakra fits Erikson’s Identity VS Confusion stage, where we first master the fine art of communicating via listening, speaking, and writing. This first transpires from ages nine to thirteen. The Third Eye Chakra corresponds with Erikson’s Intimacy VS Isolation stage, where we listen to intuition and inner wisdom, practice the art of discernment–managing to have a sense of self even when relating very closely with another. This first occurs after age thirteen or fourteen. The Crown Chakra aligns with Erikson’s Generativity VS Stagnation stage, where we feel alignment with our personal meaning and purpose, and find ways to share our wisdom in service to others. The Eighth Chakra aligns with Erikson’s Integrity VS Despair stage, where we have access to a kind of full life review, able to benefit from seeing how our choices of our own character have far greater influence in the world than we typically realize in any given moment. To answer Thomas Anderson’s question, we thus see the idea of living true to our passions being felt in the second and third stages, or Sacral and Dan Tien chakras, which align with stages of development along the way toward Enlightenment, where we attain a state of Integrity.
This also neatly aligns with the emotional energies depicted on the David Hawkins Map of Consciousness. The levels of consciousness depict higher emotional/energetic states of consciousness as corresponding to such enjoyable feelings as: Bliss, Serenity, and Reverence associated with levels of Peace, Joy, and Love. When we consciously choose to incorporate highest level character qualities, we can clear out negative influences, and be guided by highest wisdom, inspiration, and divine love. You can view the video version of this post at:https://youtu.be/LQ-W0fqV1GE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
REFERENCES:
Charles, R.H. ed. “The Book of Enoch, Section 1.” The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament. Oxford. The Clarendon Press. 1913. Erikson, Erik H. Identity and the life cycle. WW Norton & company, 1994. Hawkins, David R. The Highest Level of Enlightenment: Transcend the Levels of Consciousness for Total Self-Realization. Hay House, Inc, 2024. Larson, Cynthia Sue. Aura Advantage: How the Colors in Your Aura Can Help You Attain Your Desires and Attract Success. Lightworker, 2006. Larson, Cynthia. “Tune Up Your Chakras and Shift into Higher Love.” https://www.realityshifters.com/pages/articles/tuneupchakras.html O’Brien, Barbara. “Operators and Things.” Arlington Books, Inc. 1958.You can watch the companion video to this blog here:
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Cynthia Sue Larson is the best-selling author of six books, including Quantum Jumps. Cynthia has a degree in physics from UC Berkeley, an MBA degree, a Doctor of Divinity, and a second degree black belt in Kuk Sool Won. Cynthia is the founder of RealityShifters, and first President of the International Mandela Effect Conference. Cynthia hosts “Living the Quantum Dream” on the DreamVisions7 radio network, and has been featured in numerous shows including Gaia, the History Channel, Coast to Coast AM, One World with Deepak Chopra, and BBC. Cynthia reminds us to ask in every situation, “How good can it get?” Subscribe to her free monthly ezine at:
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