The 1% Factor

Psychologists estimate that even the most talented people use less than 10% of their ability and most of us use only 1% or less. No wonder we are so frustrated! This lack does not appear to be merely a lack of effort but a constriction of awareness. Alan Walter has prepared a chart which illustrates this contracting of awareness as a loss of energy units.

Scientists tell us that the visible light spectrum is less than 1% accessible to our sight, and the audible spectrum is not much more. Both of these elements of the electromagnetic spectrum added together take up very little space on the chart. . The vast majority of energy vibrations in the universe are not accessible to human perception.

Brain physiologists report that of the 10,000 pieces of data available to our perception each second, only 5-7 bits can be sensed at once. That leaves 9,993 bits of data that are not active in our awareness. According to the research of Dan MacDougald, this limited amount of data is accessed through three major filters in the mind: fear, hostility and love. The fear filter only tunes into threatening and fearful data; the hostility filter only allows us to access irritating and negative data, and the love filter allows to see what is good in any situation.

Infinity Theory maintains that reality is not what it seems because our view of reality is shaped and controlled largely by our story. For example, we have a story that matter is solid and pervasive, but in actuality at the subatomic level there is less than 1% of what could be called matter in the entire universe.

It is as though there are dots and we fill in the lines between the dots with our imagination. Then we name things and they become objects in our semantic brain dictionary and we have little if any awe, wonder and mystery left about them. The infinite living universe has become largely (99%) a world of finite forms, a world which Buber characterized as an "It" world. The sense of "Thou" has been lost. Man the Manipulator has learned various tactics and strategies for "controlling" his environment, the success or failure of which becomes the measure of his self-esteem. But alas, in spite of all of man’s wishes to the contrary, control is largely a failure (99%) as a strategy.

The human sense of failure is one of the most painful experiences that humans have, especially in the light of our infinite potentialities.

Shrouded in a secret sense of shame, guilt and fear, we develop a mask of success which serves to temporarily hide our inner doubts and shadowy subconscious inferiority. This mask, however, does not work because of the appearance of what we have called our symptoms. As hard as we may try to hate and hide the symptom signal, it is not possible. In fact, the more we deny its presence and meaning, the more tenaciously and ferociously it re-appears in various forms to get our attention. Since we have no idea what a symptom means, we usually resist and reject is life-giving message.

I have argued in this book that the symptom is a symbolic life-giving message that appears as a humiliating representation of our self-deceptive ego story. I have listed elsewhere a half page of typical symptoms, whether they be called stress, headaches, or failure.

These symptoms consume so much of our energy (up to 99%) that we spend almost full-time trying to self-medicate what they represent. We are focused so much upon the survival of our ego story and what it masks that we have lost the awareness of our true divine identity and capabilities.

The infinite power of our spiritual self, which I have called the imagination, is now operating almost entirely (up to 99%) unconsciously. Our awakening to the infinite power of imagination, therefore, is our major task in life.

"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside dreams; who looks inside, awakens." – Carl Jung

This awakening is called for in our symptomatic "problem". We are so controlled and victimized by our story, however, that we have little or no time for such intangible trivialities. We just want to be distracted or we go to the doctor for pills. In most cases, a terrific shock

is needed, and life usually provides that disturbance in our increasingly frustrating and annoying symptoms. The ego’s denial of this infinite universe is massive and almost complete at times (up to 99%).

I am arguing here that the denial and unawareness of infinity may be 99% but it can never be 100% because of the Grace of our Creator. 1% of infinite power remains as a signal of our lost imaginative connection to God. This 1% cannot be lost, buried, rejected, repressed, or forgotten. God has not left himself anywhere without witness. There is a door to the infinite universe within your self, and it is at least 1%. It is often called the "still small voice". In the scriptures it is called the "mustard seed". It is the tiniest of all the seeds, and yet when planted and nurtured it grows into a giant tree in which the birds build their nests.

The stone that the builders rejected (the Self) becomes the chief cornerstone of the entire edifice.

1% is all that is needed. That 1% Factor is the doorway to the Infinite realization of who you are. The 1% Factor, which I call the imagination, has been discounted and relegated to the refuse pile by most people and especially by western culture. Imagination has been discredited and discounted by such slighting terms as wishful thinking, fantasy, daydreaming, and unrealism

For the most part, imagination is reserved for artists, poets, children and women. The left brain dominates the right brain.

But just suppose that imagination is the door to self-discovery. Just suppose that its presence is signaled by our symptoms. Just suppose that imagination is God. Just suppose that this secret passageway to the limitless is already being mis-used unconsciously by every human being on a daily basis, which keeps us separated, deprived and trapped in a failure story. Just suppose that human suffering in all of its myriad forms arises from the abuse of the imagination.

Just suppose that the cost for the knowledge of this secret passageway to the infinite is not a million dollars or even ten thousand dollars, and just suppose that you would not have to go to India or to New York City or to graduate school, or wait til your dying breath, to find this door.

Just suppose that the price of admission to get your foot into the door of this infinite world is only 1% of your time each day! (1% of your waking time would be 9.6 minutes). Close your eyes and relax for 9.6 minutes. Whatever thoughts, words, feelings and images come into your mind, drop them and let your attention penetrate these forms. Do not get carried away with your story, with all of its so-called problems and solutions. Just breathe consciously. Your breathe is the spirit and it knows where that door is.

Your ego story cannot go there. Your ego has created the very story that causes you to ignore this still small voice and its secret knowledge of the 1%.

At some point in your dedication of this 1% of your day to this priceless journey, you will encounter a light. This living light is yourself, hidden under a basket of words, thoughts, and images, which we have called the story. In an ancient Japanese dialect, I discovered the word YAMI. As in many oriental languages, words are made up of images. In the case of YAMI, there were two images: a flame and a covering. YAMI means sickness

The hidden light is the cause of our sicknesses, and the symptoms thereof. Jesus said that we are not to hide our light under a bushel basket. Isn’t it interesting that probably for centuries, going back to the very beginning of language itself, it was known that sickness was a covered light. What is it that covers that light? I believe it is our story, our ego self-deception. And I believe that our story may have darkened our awareness up to 99%, but not 100%.

1% of your consciousness remains available, guaranteed!. Most warranties are only for a year or two. This warranty is forever. A warranty is only as good as the strength of the manufacturer. Fortunately for us, God’s guarantee is as good as God himself.

God created you in his own image, in his own imagination, and you are a spiritual being, guaranteed!

The fact that your finite story has covered up the awareness of this Light does not matter. 1% remains and that is all that is necessary for awakening. That 1% mustard seed represents the entire infinite mind of God that exists in you. That 1% Factor is alive and it is guaranteed. Jesus discovered that 1% doorway to the infinite imagination. In his consciousness, that seed took root, grew and blossomed into a giant awareness that continues to grow and produce fruit until this day. He said "The Father and I are one." He realized who he was, and he claimed that realization for the entire humanity. No one can realize this fact for you, that you are one with your source. Jesus stated it for himself and I must be able to state it for myself. No one can do it for me or to me. Until I make this discovery, I will remain a victim of my story of limitation, restriction, separation, deprivation, entrapment and suffering. And I will have symptoms, guaranteed. And those symptoms are the 1% doorway of return and awakening, guaranteed.

What is the basic problem in this world which prevents our self-realization? The major human problem is sick religion.

In the Japanese language, I am told, there is a symbol for the word sickness: Yami. Yami is made up of two characters, one of which is like a little box and inside of that little box is a flame-like character. Sickness then is a covered light. I was quite surprised to discover that this ancient archetypal understanding of sickness was built right into an oriental language. It reminded me of Jesus teaching in the Sermon on the Mount in which he said "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all that are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."

A Course in Miracles, WB 188

Every person has his or her own sick, distorted, perverted, incomplete, endarkened story by which he or she lives and dies. Everyone prays to his own homemade god all day long every day. Non-worship is impossible. We give our power and glory to something. We never stop seeking for the infinite.

It is impossible. We make our preferred finite forms into the infinite, excluding their opposites. In all opposing forms, God is excluded. In our rush for safety and our desire to be right and to succeed at our game, our world narrows and contracts until we are imprisoned in a self-fulfilling prophecy which is our story. But our Guaranteed 1% remains and cannot be destroyed, and appears in our symptoms.

Even after the ravaging fires of unbelievable human crises, a seed remains in the stump of the burned trees of life (See Isaiah 6). The remaining seed of imagination is all that you will ever need to recover your lost life force. That seed has always been present, and has been used for good or for evil, and cannot be destroyed.

A large sealed earthenware pot about 10,000 years old was discovered in an Egyptian pyramid. When it was unsealed, it was discovered to be full of wheat seed. When some of these seeds were planted, they sprouted and grew wheat!