Reading Matter

            This document outlines a number of different approaches in the training required to read these words directly from the memory of the matter. This training begins with the premise that these words (and all things written) have been recorded not only in the matter of this page, but also in the matter of the room in which they were written. From the table and chair where this writer sits, to the pillows and sheets on the bed, right down to the dust on the widow sill, all of this matter contains a record of these words. This document has been produced to explain certain aspects of the training required to read these words not only from the particles and objects that surrounded them at the time of production, but also (and finally) from all existing matter.

            The ability to read this text from dust particles floating in the furthest reaches of the universe, depends both on the training of the reader, and on the consciousness with which this text has been written. For a record of these words to exist in those distant corners of the universe, the writer must be open to the sensation associated with the inscription of the particles that float in those spaces. This is not to say that the writer necessarily has to be consciously aware that this is what is transpiring. Certain words by their very nature will find their way into the particles of all matter, regardless of whether or not the writer  has a conscious knowledge of this process. So more than anything else it is an openness to the expansive feeling associated with the inscription of the matter of the universe, that is required on the part of the writer.

            This expansive space then becomes something that a skilled reader can enter, in order to find the words inscribed in those distant particles. In entering the space opened by these texts the reader is also provided with the opportunity to view some of the other realities that have been inscribed in these particles. These are realities that share the link, of the knowledge, of this training in the reading matter. In realities such as ours this knowledge occupies an important and ritualised place. Here we have the privilege of being able to train in the reading of matter from an early age. Therefore for us it is not uncommon for someone who is skilled in this training  to establish direct portholes to other realities. Such portholes have led to the proliferation of this knowledge and to reports from realities in which reader training is practiced only by an isolated few, who have to resist the dominant tendencies of their society, in order to continue with their practice.

            The power of this knowledge in providing the means to travel the universe via these portholes will be discussed in detail in the final section of this book. This power is mentioned here so that  reader in training has a full knowledge of the implications of the exercises outlined below. It is also mentioned in order to  debunk the myth that this training must be followed in a linear form. For some it will be necessary to start with what appear to be easier tasks (eg completing a sentence) and moving on to the more difficult  (eg reading this text from a tortilla being consumed on the other side of the universe) but for others the mere suggestion of a particular possibility in the reading of matter, can be enough for that possibility to be successfully subsumed in a practice. 

            This form of learning stems from an instinctive understanding of this knowledge, an understanding that has been given to the student through his or her dreams, or through direct experiences with the phenomena that emerge from the training. This document has been produced out of a dialogue between the dreams and experiences of these exceptional students and the ability to translate such experiences into a program of training that can make this knowledge accessible to those who do not have this experiential or instinctive understanding. So this document has been written to provide both a methodical and linear approach to a reader training that anyone might undertake, and also in order to offer further possibilities in training for those exceptional minds who are able to read matter with a relative ease.

            Reading the Writer

            In order to outline a program of training for the reader, it is also necessary to describe the way the texts that form the basis of this program are written. In the following chapter, on the reading and writing of blank pages, it becomes quite clear that for some forms of reader training, it is necessary for the reader in training also to be a writer in training. The links between reader and writer training are reflected in the fact that in the initial stages of the linear form of reader training, all the texts that are the subject of the reader's studies are written by hand.

            Handwriting, (with its individualised forms and records of specific moments of thought in the mark making process), provides the majority of readers in training with a much stronger link to the mind of the writer at the time he or she produced the text. As a direct transcription of the creative process of writing, the handwritten form also provides the reader in training with clues as to the creativity required to read the mental inscriptions contained in these texts. The first of the handwritten texts given to the reader in training are written using a process known to some as 'stream of consciousness' writing. The only rule adhered to in this form of writing is that the whole document should be written without pause, and where possible, thought should go no further than the letter that the writer is in the process of producing.

            In this way the writer attempts to avert the processes of the mind that seek to construct sentences before the hand has the opportunity to write them. When this occurs its the hand that's trying to keep up with the mind, who's incessant ramblings become something like the hand's 'to do' list. The preparation of these documents for the reader in training involves an attempt on the part of the writer, to keep the hand and mind in time with each other, so that the thought behind the writing of each word coincides with the completion of the writing of that word. Before the word is complete it is the making of the mark that forms the letter that is the centre of the writers focus.

            The most useful documents for the reader in training have been written with this level of consciousness. It is a total consciousness in the process of making both marks and meaning on the page. In the writing of these documents thought travels neither forward nor backward, but is focused completely on the mark that the hand is currently making. Documents written in this way provide the reader in training with an incredibly focused inscription of matter, in which consciousness, (free from the need to be completing the sentence, or thinking about what has been written), is able to expand and inscribe not only the matter of the page but also all things, (from the pillow and blankets on the bed, to a tortilla on the others side of the world, to the matter floating in the most distant parts of the universe).

            It is important that new trainees are provided with documents of this quality so as not to limit what they may be able to uncover on their first reading. This sort of document by its very nature, will always vary in its content but the overall form is one that never changes. There are forty five lines to a page, seventeen lines are written using the stream of consciousness process outlined above. The eighteenth line is then written with the pencil continuing to form the shapes of the letters, and continuing to move from left to right, but without coming into contact with the page. These air written spaces will appear to be blank, but never the less these are spaces in which words have been inscribed. It is the task of the reader in training to find the words that were written in this way. This involves following the logical thread and voice of the writer to establish what was written in that space.

            In this initial stage of training the reader is asked to remember that there were once words where they now encounter space, and it is these exact words that they must uncover. This is an exercise in attempting to occupy the mental space of the writer at the time he or she produced the text.

            Now returning to the form of such texts. Lines nineteen to thirty five are written making clear marks on the page. Lines thirty six, thirty seven and thirty eight are once again written using the air writing technique. The last seven lines of the page are then written in the conventional manner. In this instance the skill on the part of the writer involves linking the end of line thirty five to the beginning of line thirty nine, so that despite the space the text appears to be complete and continues to flow even if those three lines of air written material are left out. The challenge this provides for the reader in training is obviously somewhat more difficult that the task of finding the words of a single air written line. Here the reader must find the air written words in a text which, in content and continuity, appears to be complete. 

            Once again the reader in training is asked to remember that there are specific words written in these spaces and that in order to be able to read the invisible text he or she must occupy the mental space of the writer who produced the text. Some readers will spend several years looking for these lines thirty six to thirty eight without ever finding the words mentally inscribed by the writer. In this search into the spaces between the words they study, such readers have contributed a great deal  to the original texts, finding new permutations and unique readings. On the other hand, amongst those who do successfully uncover these mental inscriptions, the techniques are as many and varied as the permutations uncovered by those who never reach this stage of reader training. The chapter entitled 'Case Studies' contains several hundred descriptions of the methods of those individuals who have successfully subsumed this aspect of reader training.

            Obviously these descriptions are intended to assist those who are beginning their training in the reading of matter. However, (and further to this) in providing an extensive list of possible ways of learning how to read these mental inscriptions, these case studies emphasize the fact that there is no singular way to approach this training. In fact it is essential for each individual reader to find their own means to encounter these texts. So these case studies and the exercises that follow are dedicated to providing guiding principals and examples of techniques that have led to successful readings of mental inscriptions, rather than offering a specific program of study for learning this skill.

            One of these guiding principals is attempting to occupy the mental space of the writer at the time they produced the text in question. This task involves rediscovering the creative energies that produced the text.  These energies are rarely encountered by mimicking the writer of the text, (through word for word transcriptions or persistent recitations). Rather in order to rediscover the creative energy that produced the text one must be actively engaged in a creative process. So in suggesting training exercises in this manual, the emphasis is on providing a frame in which the reader in training can create. In reading this manual the instructions it offers may at times seem somewhat general or ambiguous. This generality or ambiguity is a product of the delicate task of writing this document. The often illusive equilibrium being sought here is only found when a balance is struck between the necessity to provide specific instructions for the reader in training, and the need for this training to remain fluid and a creation of the trainee.   

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