An Introduction to Understanding the Layers of Human Maturation

First, what is most important is to use mature free choice to answer The 10 Questions on this website, or in the first chapters of Sensation of Oneness, to discover it is an obvious fact the universe operates as an indivisible whole. Mature free choice was described there and will be described below. It is not enough to know intellectually, that is, solely using words, the universe operates as an indivisible whole. As you will discover, mastering the skill of human self-consciousness is more important than the words you use to describe it or any of your beliefs in words.

Before you learned a human language, mature free choice was how you repeatedly discovered rocks are hard and fire is hot. You repeatedly touched a rock or got close to fire. If a few times, when using mature free choice to answer The 10 Questions, it is discovered to be a fact the universe operates as an indivisible whole, you won’t ever be able to fool yourself into thinking you do not know the most fundamental fact of how the universe operates. 

That fact will then naturally, effortlessly, freely, and permanently, and without the need of effort, force, or discipline, become knowledge you know is accurate, a skill to honor it, and a habit to consistently honor that fact. This will occur in the exact same way you habitually know rocks are hard and fire is hot. It was by keeping your power to choose inside your physical body and repeatedly studying your present experiences to identify the most important  fact you will use to guide your thinking. That is, by using mature free choice.

 This is being what can be labeled a “personal scientist.” It is keeping your power to choose inside your physical body instead of giving it to a second thing—another person, organization, or belief in words—you now know does not exist. You now know separate parts only exist in the mutually agreed upon illusion tools of words. (There are over 6,000 human languages; each is a set of mutually agreed upon illusions, sounds and symbols called “words,” that are not what they are representing.)

This is maturing from primarily using individual free choice to primarily using mature free choice to identify the most fundamental fact you will use to guide your thinking. It is the fact with which all other facts are in alignment: the fact the universe operates as an indivisible whole.

Humanity now knows, primarily from our study of the Piraha tribe in the Amazon jungles of Brazil that has not yet invented time, our skill of using words, and the skill of human self-consciousness they make possible, are skills. They are not biological mutations that occurred hundreds of thousands of years ago. Therefore, like learning to ride a bicycle, there are smaller skills you need to learn in the natural sequence because they build on one another. Thus, the mastery of a smaller skill in the sequence can’t be skipped. When integrated together into one skill, they allow you to achieve full maturity in the skill of human self-consciousness.

For instance, when you have mastered the skill of riding a bicycle, you can be riding it around town thinking in words about other things the entire time. It has become a habit no longer in need of your primary attention. It is the same when you have mastered the skill of human self-consciousness. You can be going through life thinking about other things in words the entire time. At the same time, you can use words and beliefs to talk about this skill when you want to, but all words and beliefs are now always secondary in importance to exercising your fully mature skill of human self-consciousness. 

Consciousness is doing what things naturally do. All the parts of the universe are conscious, doing what they naturally do. What can be labeled “self-consciousness” is knowing what you are doing while you are doing it. This allows you to exercise free choice, then individual free choice, and eventually mature free choice. It also allows you to analyze the past, develop a plan for the future, and consistently execute it in the present, alone or with others. It also allows you to self-elder yourself to full maturity in the skill of human self-consciousness. 

Full maturation in this skill can only be accomplished by you building on your ability to use individual free choice. This is because once you reach the teenage years your physical body is sufficiently developed to where you naturally give priority to exercising your newfound skill of individual free choice. From that time on maturation up the remaining three layers is an inside job: no one else can choose to do it for you. 

Only you can freely choose to take the initiative to self-elder yourself into the mastery of the smaller skills of the last three of the seven layers.

You naturally operate on the assumption the universe is separate parts for the first five layers of maturity of this skill. That is necessary to learn the words of a human language, thereby become self-conscious, and discover you can exercise individual free choice. Thus, operating on the assumption the universe is separate parts to master the smaller skills of the first five layers was a good thing.

We can only master the last two layers of maturity of this skill when we use mature free choice to answer The 10 Questions to discover the universe operates as an indivisible whole. We then understand that operating during the first five layers on the assumption the universe is separate parts was a necessary assumption to master the skills of using the words of a human language and, thereby, capable of being self-conscious, exercise individual free choice, and eventually freely choosing to use mature free choice to answer The 10 Questions.

Now, without a doubt, you know you must always give priority to using mature free choice.  You now know there is not a second thing to receive your power to choose.

Full maturity in the skill of human self-consciousness is the achievement of mature freedom: there is no longer the possibility of a second thing to which you need to respond or could receive your power to choose. You are now a personal scientist. Your life is based on facts you have personally discovered using mature free choice.

When you came out of the womb your priority was sensation to find milk to survive (Baby layer). Next, you matured into recognizing differences such as mommy-no mommy (Toddler layer). Later your reaction to these different experiences will be labeled “relative feelings” and are derivatives of mad, glad, sad, and scared.

Next, you mature into learning the words of a human language. This eventually allows you to know what you are doing while you are doing it, being self-conscious. This also allows you to exercise choice, but in childhood someone else is always providing the options of choice. For instance, you might be asked “Do you want chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry ice cream?” (Child layer)

At the early teenage years your brain is sufficiently developed to where you discover you can mature into exercising individual free choice (Teen layer). You discover you could make up the options of choice. For instance, “I don’t want to talk about ice cream now. I want to talk about getting a car.” Now you use individual free choice to create the rules you will follow when relating with dad, mom, friends, teachers, coaches, and bosses.

Next, you discover there are too many rules to remember, and you made them all up! Instead, you want one rule you can use at all times and in all places (Adult layer). Most people choose a spiritual, religious, philosophical, or scientific worldview. Some just create their own, the two most popular usually being to “love thy neighbor as thyself” (have at least an intuitive awareness of the oneness of nature) or “it is natural to give priority to my physical body’s self-interest” (still operating on the assumption one is only one’s physical body). 

Often people get stuck at this Adult layer the rest of their lives. 

To discover and mature into the sixth layer, the Elder layer, you need to ultimately respond to the frustration of still not having achieved the happiness of full maturity in the skill of human self-consciousness by taking back your power to choose from wherever you have given it. Only then can you solely use it to repeatedly study your present experiences to discover it is obvious the universe operates as an indivisible whole. This is most easily done by using mature free choice to answer The 10 Questions. 

This has you realize there is not a second thing to receive your power to choose. You now also realize from the Baby layer to the Adult layer you were still giving your power to choose to a second thing and obeying it. First your parents had it (Baby to Child layers), you then gave it to the rules you created (Teen layer), and ultimately to a belief in words (Adult layer).

Since up to now in the history of humanity there has been little awareness self-consciousness is a skill and mastering all the smaller skills in the natural sequence to achieve full maturity in it is the most important skill for us to master and teach our children, many people live their entire lives not maturing beyond the Adult layer. You now know this. You also now know what is of paramount importance to end all immature human behavior. It is to assist each person to master the full skill of human self-consciousness. Therefore, from this time forward increasingly the highest priority in parenting and education will be eldering ourselves, our children, and each other into full maturity in the skill of human self-consciousness.

At full maturity in this skill, you will give priority to experiencing everything occurring in three-dimensionality. It is adding an awareness of the oneness of nature to your already awareness of times and places (the assumption of separate parts). You now know the latter two are illusions—valuable illusions because they allow you to be a self-conscious part of the indivisible universe, and only the sensation of oneness is real. This is experiencing life as a three-dimensional experience—times, places, and oneness. And it is now a self-consciously known, freely chosen, and recognized as the most enjoyable sensation. And you discover it is the sensation that can always be the container experience of all other experiences. 

This is the achievement of full maturity in the last layer, the Mature Elder layer. You now know what you thought was the sensation of being alive is really the sensation of oneness, the only sensation that is real.

This results in awareness you are now consistently experiencing the fundamental feelings of natural confidence, contented joy, and compassion. You are now always aware of them and naturally give them priority over your relative feelings that exist within the assumption there are separate parts. As stated twice earlier, they are derivatives of mad, glad, sad, and scared. However, the fundamental feelings are only recognized as more important than relative feelings when full maturity in this skill is achieved. They are the result of living within the self-consciously known reality of the oneness of nature.

You experience natural confidence because by using mature free choice you now know the most fundamental fact is the universe operates as an indivisible whole. Also, you can in any moment again confirm those words represent a fact by using mature free choice when answering The 10 Questions.

You experience contented joy because you now know there is no place you are coming from or going to where you are not already: you are first the indivisible universe that will not die and only secondly your physical body part of it that will die. There is nothing to be afraid of or desire. The default experience is contented joy. 

You experience compassion because everything is experienced as another part of yourself: there is not a second part. Yes, from the inside you only have sole and complete control of your physical body, but it is not a separate part.

Your liver can only do the liver thing, but it is not experienced as a part separate from your physical body. You now know the one place where you have assumed oneness is inside your skin: you assume all the parts are cooperating with one another for the health and maturation of your entire physical body. If you get a cut on your finger, all the parts within your physical body cooperate to be sure the blood does not run out that whole. Also, since you now know the universe operates as an indivisible whole, you know whatever is the fundamental process anywhere must be the fundamental process everywhere. Therefore, since you now know yourself as first the indivisible universe, you care about all the parts of the universe as much as you care about the parts within your skin. That is the fundamental feeling of compassion.

By default, you are left with only one activity that has your physical body experience your life as meaningful. It is each moment giving priority to your judgment of the best action you could take that is your unique self-conscious participation in what you now know is the fundamental process in nature: cooperation of all the parts for the health and the maturation of the indivisible universe. That is self-conscious participation in it. It is the only activity that is honoring what is real: the universe operates as an indivisible whole, as one thing. Herein this activity is labeled what it has most often been labeled through the ages, “Eldering.”

In your thinking and actions each moment you discover there is nothing more enjoyable than giving priority to Eldering. You also discover it is the only priority that sustains the primary experience in your physical body being the most enjoyable sensation, the sensation of oneness. It is always giving priority to the self-conscious reality of the three-dimensionality of the oneness of nature. It is giving second priority to the mutually agreed upon illusions tools of the two-dimensionality of words that allows you to self-consciously enjoy the sensation of oneness.

Now, as when you were a baby, your priority is sensation, your physical body’s most direct contact with the rest of the universe. It is the self-consciously known, and skillfully and freely chosen sensation of oneness. 

And each moment your physical body experiences life as meaningful because you always know what to give priority: Eldering.