Everything Becomes Tiger (Jan Doc 3)

Copyright(c) Jan M. Cox, 1981 Document: 3, GSIBM, December 31, 1981

EVERYTHING BECOMES TIGER
There is a difference between those who lead a true form of This and those who
follow. There is a line which followers never cross, a certain domain which
followers never enter. Simply put, there is a real difference between you and
me.
Those who lead are faced with perpetrating a kind of trickery on their
followers. This is not an attack, and I'm certainly not pointing out some
gullibility on your part, because "trick" is just a word. I can say it in other
ways; I can say I have to soothe people. I've, at least so far, had to keep this
on an emotional, spiritual, dreamy level. But now I'm getting closer and closer
to pointing you toward the real secret. And it's a gamble; it's a gamble,
because in so doing, I'm stripping my descriptions of this particular dreamlike
spiritual quality.
The reality behind all men's dreams, all your past ideas about spiritual
enlightenment and extraordinary states, is in fact more astounding than you
could ever imagine. But at the same time, it's not as mystical as you'd imagine.
It's not as invisible, because the reality of it is based on the actual,
physical development and extension of the nervous system itself. And this is
what I've been moving you toward with my diagram of the nervous system, and the
descriptions of extending yourself above and beyond the cut-off Line of ordinary
consciousness.
It's now accepted as fact in the scientific community that all physical
creatures operate on a very simple on/off basis. Every creature that is capable
of altering its behavior on the basis of incoming impressions does so by a kind
of switch. In other words, the mechanism that keeps every animal alive --
including your own animal body -- is a simple, binary switch, and it's always
either on, or off. For a dog, there is no in- between; there's no "thinking
about it"; there's no process of interpreting the impression before it's acted
upon. And it's the same with your own lower nervous system. Your body -- your
lower system -- has no ability to interpret. It can't think, and it's not
supposed to think. The body's ability to interpret is confined to the level of
determining whether to flee or fight, whether to sleep or eat. It is functioning
at the binary level of being switched either on or off. The interpretive ability
that you know, the ability to think, lies entirely in the domain of the higher
nervous system. The lower system has no need for such capabilities; indeed, such
an "ability," if it could be introduced into your physical body, would severely
interfere with its normal, maximal operation. The body operates mechanically,
and most properly so. And there is no need to interfere with it.
You might find it interesting that this -- interference with the physical body
-- is the focal point of the efforts of those involved with pseudo systems. Of
course, they don't look on it as interference; they don't intend to harm
themselves. They are, in a sense, trying to enlighten the body. They're trying
to enlighten themselves by working on the lower system. But you must eventually
understand that the lower system already operates exactly as it should. It
operates, on the binary on/off basis, as efficiently as it should, as properly
as it ever will. You can't do anything else to it -- you can't develop it any
further. It is now all it will ever be.
You may further note that some of my methods and directives to you are indeed
aimed at producing a more balanced, more complete development of your lower
system. But this is not a matter of trying to enlighten the body. It's simply
that the lower system must be developed in as sane and balanced a manner as
possible, if you are to ever extend your upper system beyond its present
confines. By and large, anyone seriously involved with This is already fairly
sane in the lower system. That seems to be part of the genetic make-up of anyone
attracted here. You can't be physically inept -- you can't feel disjointed from
your lower system or be continually hampered by your own body -- and make
profitable efforts in This. But at the same time, all the lower-system efforts
in the world will never, by themselves, ignite your level of consciousness
beyond the common ordinary Line. You have to get the body to the point where it
can look after itself -- and you have to get yourself to the point of realizing
that the body can look after itself. Then leave it alone so that you can focus
your attentions elsewhere.
What is incomprehensible to Line-Level consciousness is that the mind -- what
people conceive as the seat of thought and interpretation -- operates on exactly
the same on/off basis as the body. What I am pointing toward is another aspect
of the Three Forces. There must be a background, a Third Force, upon which
everything operates. The whole world engages in psychological conflict: "My
opinion is right, and yours is wrong," or "This information is either true or
it's not true." The nature of the intellect itself is to be either on or off,
and those two Forces require a backdrop, a third sustaining Force upon which to
play out their dance. Men are hit with impressions and their response is either
on or off: either "yes" or "no," accept it or deny it, claim it's true or false.
Just as a physical battle is waged within the body, there is an ongoing
psychological fracas within the intellect. And if there were only two Forces --
only constructive and destructive or positive and negative -- nothing would ever
happen. It would all just go round and round. But a Third force is always
present, though no one can see it. No one can see it because the Third Force is
the background itself. Under ordinary conditions the Third Force can never be
seen because the ordinary conditions are the backdrop. That is, a man's sense of
"I" is the stabilizing backdrop. And it is what passes for a man's personality.
Picture the mind as a prowling tiger. You can feed him new food; you can travel
the globe to offer him new impressions, you can spend ten years in graduate
school so he'll have new information to eat. But note: everything the tiger
eats, from the most extravagant of impressions to the most mundane, simply
becomes more tiger. I could verbally describe THE secret, but if the tiger got
hold of it, it would do you no good. The secret would become part of the tiger.
To put it more bluntly, and less metaphorically, this stable, predictable,
hard-wired creature called "I" can learn nothing new. This can sound, at first,
as though it's an attack on everyone's personality. It is, and it isn't. It
sounds as though, "The immediate identifiable enemy is me." But remember "I" is
the backdrop. It must be stable and fixed to operate as the sustaining force
between on and off; it has to be stable for any further growth to occur, just as
you have to be fairly sane in the ordinary sense and balanced in all levels of
your system to extend yourself further. The nervous system of man continually
grows into higher areas. This can't be seen in an individual lifetime, but just
a passing knowledge of history shows you that the level of humanity's
consciousness has evolved. In a sense, man as a whole is becoming more
enlightened. We can say that you are more developed, more conscious, than your
grandfather. But for an individual man or woman attempting to awaken the higher
reaches of his or her nervous system -- for you -- such growth is irrelevant,
because it is mechanical. It was not done by you through your own willful
effort. It is Life's mechanical expansion, and it will continue in generations
to come. Your grandchildren will live at a level which supersedes that of your
generation. But they'll be no more conscious than you are at the ordinary level.

Everything you know -- everything you can learn -- is contained in and

determined by this common mechanical level. Outside your efforts in This, no
change is possible. There is no ordinarily available information that will take
you above the level of the Line. It all becomes tiger. And the tiger is the
Line. It is your personality; it is your, and Life's, stabilizing force.
Your "personality" is not a specific Life induced curse. Nor is it accidental.
It is the backdrop; it is your stability. It is everyone's ordinary sanity, and
is absolutely necessary to keep everything functioning. At a more primitive
level of nervous system development, the body itself was the sustaining Force,
the background upon which the battle between the constructive and destructive
Forces transpired. At the present level, personality is the necessary backdrop,
and it must be as virtually unchangeable as the body itself.
Picture what might occur if the body were unpredictable. One day the liver would
break down sugar as it should and then the next day it might go, "Hey, gimme a
break. I'm taking the day off." The biological level has to be absolutely
predictable. The only way you know you're sick is by experiencing a change in
the ordinarily predictable physical functions. You feel an odd sensation here or
an unusual ache there. Obviously the body must operate automatically and
repetitively. It must operate predictably. And the same holds true for the
intellectual functions. Individual development and human progress require the
stability, the automatism, of "I".
Although this sounds like an attack -- which it is, for one attempting real
change -- I'm trying to point you to a more clarified view of what "the enemy"
is. Certainly it seems as if man's prejudice, his ignorance, is the absolute
enemy. And it is. But you must see that it is also his absolute guardian. It's
the only thing that brought you and everyone else this far. So when somebody
says, "I hate all green people," -- as far removed as that is from any
understanding -- it is an absolute necessity for that particular person; it is
as automatic and reflexive as jumping back from a hot stove. On one level, both
types of responses are the same. Physical reflexes are obviously proper and only
an idiot would interfere with them. But dealing with the mechanical nature of
the upper end of the nervous system is a different story for one with an Aim. No
matter who you seem to be personally, all of your education, your opinions, your
apparent knowledge -- the whole make-up of your personality -- is the backdrop.
It is the tiger. And it will never be more.
That "certain hunger" indigenous to the Few can be attributed to the Horizontal
ceiling of their consciousness being incompletely solidified. The plasterers of
automatic life never quite finished the ceiling all the way; they left a slight
crack somewhere. In your case, they went out for lunch and never came back. It
is a fact that the nervous system is continually developing, but at its normal
rate growth is not visible to the ordinary eye over a period of only 20 or 40
years. Ordinarily when a person reaches adulthood he has grown to the level
appropriate and fixed for his generation. His ceiling is plastered; his uniform
now fits; he's been issued a number. The Few with the "certain hunger" attempt
to ignite the higher nervous system at an accelerated rate, to reach the domain
above the Line that will ultimately be the level of consciousness of future
generations. This Thing speaks to those Few. But it is not here to enlighten all
of humanity -- on the contrary.
If I could, through some trickery, make an average, ordinary person more
conscious, he'd either go crazy or it would kill him. I would have erased his
background; he couldn't defend himself, he would simply cease to exist. If this
could be done world- wide, it would mean certain destruction. Make mankind more
conscious -- wipe away people's prejudice and stupidity, all the apparent evils
that stand in the way of the ultimately civilized, idealized man -- and you may
as well destroy the body's immune system. It would stunt Life's growth and
movement. It would stop man's continuing evolution.
Can you begin to See, in light of all this, why people can't "study themselves"?
It's a current idea, a popular one, and people believe it can be done. But it's
impossible. It's always been impossible because the background cannot comprehend

itself, regardless of the level of one's intellectual acumen. Whether we're

speaking of a contemporary nervous system or the nervous system of 5,000 years
ago, what people call the intellect, the personality, has always been the high
end of the system. And it cannot conceive of itself because it is the backdrop,
just as the air does not know what it carries, and the ocean cannot conceive of
the movement of waves. Man's sense of "I", the background, cannot conceive of
itself.
The intellect is a biological on/off mechanism; it guards the defense and
preservation of the total being from bottom to top. And personality is the
stabilizing influence for the organism's defense and growth. Yet for so long
we've described this dull, unchangeable, ineducable "I" as the absolute
definable enemy. But it is also the description of a properly developed,
ordinary man. "I" must be fixed, and men must believe that, "Everyone should be
like I am; everyone should at least believe what I believe." And that is the
very proper background. Indeed, note that those who are unstable and
unpredictable are regarded by the collective whole as dangerous. It's a
description of insanity. Yet from another viewpoint you can correctly observe
that these people have aspects in common with someone more evolved. They have no
great opinions, no particular preferences. Someone sits them up in the morning
and asks if they are too hot or too cold, and they have no great complaints. Of
course, there is a difference. Their Aim was not to awaken the higher areas of
the nervous system, plus they very likely have a physical break in the
development of their nervous system. But the point I am making is that the very
things that can be properly described in the beginning as "the enemy" are what
make a man a living, defensible, ordinary creature.
So, Consider: What is a man, in this attempt to awaken higher neural areas,
doing to the stabilizing background? What is happening, and what will happen,
when you attempt to interfere with the fixed, necessary backdrop called "I"?
As a verbal springboard, I'll use the accepted scientific reality of the term
"entropy" which refers to either a measurement of available energy in a system
or the manner in which energy in a system continually runs down toward greater
and greater disorganization. I'll use the term in a more specific,
individualized level in relationship to the Horizontal Xross of time in which a
man is dropped onto the Horizontal Line at birth and develops to maturity, to
Line-Level ordinariness. For ordinary man, that moment, the moment of birth, is
the beginning and end of any apparent "new energy." A man is dropped onto the
Line of Horizontal life with sufficient energy to develop him to maturity. It
runs him until age 21, and after that entropy takes over and he begins to
disintegrate. You should regard it as physical fact, but also Consider the
situation as more than simply physical death. It is a gradual disordering of the
total being. After maturity what people call new energy is not in fact new. What
normally passes for energy is one billiard ball hitting another. It is friction
energy. One billiard ball travels at 2 miles per hour and hits another traveling
at one mile per hour. After colliding they both travel in different directions
at 1.5 miles per hour. This gets almost impossible to describe, but if you could
see all the invisible lines connecting everyone you could see how you, how
groups of people, get "hit" and then "decide" to take action. There is no new
energy. There are simple external, automatic pressures. It's friction energy
that moves people through their lives; psychological billiard balls make people
do things, from seeking revenge to joining a new crusade. That's why no one can
change; no one can move out of this level. Because there's no new energy.
Consider my classic example of the drunk who wakes up in the hospital and learns

that last night he killed his child and injured his wife in a car crash. He
becomes an evangelical teetotaler walking the streets to reform winos, lecturing
at alcohol rehabilitation hospitals. Anyone knowing this man would claim, "Look
at how he's changed." It appears to be an infusion of new energy, but it is not.
It's friction energy, and it was stolen from somewhere else. It was stolen
partly from the liquor stores he used to frequent. That's a very crude level of
description. It's true, but your own Considerations should carry you further.
The immediate point is that there is no new energy available at Line-Level. Men
move by friction, and so no true change (i.e., no growth beyond one's present
confines) is possible. Now Consider: if I'm telling you the truth (and I am) how
can a man ever find new energy? How do you find energy for Vertical extension,
the energy to grow beyond Line-Level?
Even This Thing is subject to the laws of entropy. Things run along for a while
and then become more and more mechanical. Then I step in, inject a new shot of
energy and off everything goes in a new, enthused direction -- for a while. And
you should be able to see this tendency toward disorder in your own life, in the

life of your efforts here. It gets back to where I started tonight: the reality
of the difference between leaders and followers.
If you begin to understand this you can appreciate why there are so few
remembered traces of past systems. There is always a leader involved, no matter
the time and place, who must keep infusing new energy on a continual basis. It
happens here as it has happened with every true system; the shock works for a
while, then things gradually run down. The leader hits it again, gives it
another shock; everyone comes to their senses and makes new, revitalized
efforts; things run along for a time and again begin to disintegrate. In the
past, the answer was for the group -- the people involved -- to secret
themselves behind closed walls. With us, it is not so simple.
Your Considerations should carry you beyond any negative aspects of this. As I
said, there is a real difference between leaders and followers. And this hits
right at the heart of it. That's why you're there and I'm here. That's why it
can't be otherwise; our positions can never be reversed.
You should Consider my shocks -- my injections of energy. They come sometimes in
the form of new, extraordinary requirements, sometimes as new, drastic
information. But there is no information without energy. That's why there is no
secret word, no mystical writing or chant that will invariably shoot your
nervous system above the Line. For the information to be new, the energy must be
new. And there is no one at Line-Level who has access to new energy.
And as for new requirements, you can see it in yourself. Of course, you should
always be transposing all of this to an internal key. Consider the apparent
energy produced by a change in environment. It's recognized even at the ordinary
level. To wit, we have vacations. But consider the possibility of changing
internal locales. Consider the possibility of changing the background,
everything that seems to be "I". If a change in external environment produces
such an increase in enthusiasm, Consider the energy you could produce by putting
yourself in a new place internally.