From owner-wod-l@netcom.com Fri Mar 8 07:55:27 1996 Received: from mail2.netcom.com (root@mail2.netcom.com [192.100.81.122]) by mail.nada.kth.se (8.6.10/8.6.10) with ESMTP id HAA17659 for ; Fri, 8 Mar 1996 07:55:24 +0100 Received: by mail2.netcom.com (8.6.13/Netcom) id XAA16202; Wed, 6 Mar 1996 23:09:18 -0800 Received: from fn3.freenet.tlh.fl.us by mail2 (8.6.13/Netcom) id XAA16011; Wed, 6 Mar 1996 23:08:06 -0800 Received: (from sween@localhost) by fn3.freenet.tlh.fl.us (8.6.10/8.6.9) id CAA12747; Thu, 7 Mar 1996 02:08:07 -0500 Date: Thu, 7 Mar 1996 02:08:05 -0500 (EST) From: The Sween DOG Subject: Learn your lesson. To: Mage-l@netcom.com cc: wod-l@netcom.com Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Sender: owner-wod-l@netcom.com Precedence: list Reply-To: wod-l@netcom.com Status: RO X-Status: "I don't understand, master." The old woman just looked at me with a blank expression, "What is there not to understand?" "Okay. This "Reality". Does it simply exist in my mind?" She only looked at me. "I mean, Is it in my mind or is it out there? I mean, If I change my mind, I change reality. Right? Wrong. What? I'm confused." She stared off into space as she answered me, "You are confused because you don't want to be clear. Briefly, reality is what everyone exists is real. What everyone agrees is not real, does not exist." "How do you know that?" "How do you know otherwise?" I stopped. (She's tricking me), I thought. "I just do. I mean, I don't. I mean, does anybody? Is that the answer?" She looked at me incredulously, and laughed, "No. You are mistaking the pattern for reality. Let me show you. As an example, I will use money" "Money. Okay, I like money; What about it?" She held up a fifty dollar bill and a slip off of a note pad. "I'll use these two pieces of paper. Do you see?" "I see one piece of paper. The other's money." "TWO pieces of paper!" She practically yelled at me. I blinked, "What?" She took on that annoying teacher's tone, "Here are two pieces of paper. Both the same size. Both just paper. People are obsessed with money." (Another test!) "Not all people, just some of them." She looked at me. "Most of them." She kept staring. "Most of us," I finally admitted. One piece of paper is worth fifty American dollars. The other is worthless, not even a penny. Do you know why?" "Sure. One's a piece of paper, and the other's money," I blurted out. She yelled again, "They are BOTH paper!" I couldn't understand, "yeah. right." She held up the fifty, "One has been blessed by the $yndicate's Treasury Wizards," she held up the note pad slip, "and the other has not." I thought about this, "That's it!?" "The pattern is controlling your mind. You must let go and control the pattern." "Hmm...I think I see." She passed both pieces of paper through a candle flame. I flinched. The old woman chuckled. "You have much to learn, my boy." Everybody's Friend, The Sween DOG