“I think that I transitioned at the end of Method 9 week, but my transition into Fundamental Wellbeing was so subtle that I didn’t notice that anything had changed until the end of Method 10 week. It was then that I began to see that I could sink in to a state of quiet contentment by simply staring at the wall. The flow of thoughts would slow down and dramatically, and I would feel that, no matter what was going on in my life, I could always sink back into this state. It was only then that I understood what Stefanie meant when she said that awakening is not something that gets added on. It is what’s left when everything else goes away. I still experience plenty of negative thoughts and emotions, but I also have a sense that I am not the one who is feeling these emotions and thinking these thoughts. Whenever I notice negativity unfolding, I can view it from a zoomed-out perspective. I am not angry. Anger is appearing within the space of awareness. The anger is constantly changing, but the space remains the same. I am this unchanging space. I am the capacity in which everything arises, and I will never die. I often experience periods of misidentification in which I pretend to be the body-mind (the “me” that wants to be the center of everything). However, I’m getting better at noticing the absurdity of this, and reminding myself that I don’t have to pretend to be this character. I can just be.”

“i transitioned gradually and i already had a high well-being so i didnt notice the shift. i realized i had shifted once i watched the Special Supplemental Video #4”

“Although I was unaware of the terminology “location” used to describe Fundamental Wellbeing, I experienced either location 3 or 4 after a retreat four months before the course began. However, I was unable to remain at the same level of consciousness and felt I was “losing” “it.” Stressful event occurred in my life that threatened to derail my progress. By the time I started the course, I had almost, but not entirely, returned to a totally normal state of mind. During the course, I did not experience a sudden shift, but rather a gradual (over a period of about two weeks) return of the well being I had earlier experienced. Two methods were the most helpful. The course gave me the tools to recreate, stabilize and integrate the experience into my life.”

“Yes I believe I have been experiencing Fundamental Wellbeing for several weeks now. It clearly occurred during the practice of the method called Method 10. It seems trite to say I had a revelation but really it was kind of like that. While drawing my focus sharply out into the world around me by focused intent on objects of beauty in front of me. I had the revelation that everything in my world was beautiful and complete and I as a part of it was beautiful and complete also and I had everything I needed to be happy already. It was there all along but I couldn’t allow myself to see it. I developed a very deep sense of gratitude that has persisted. I find I can zoom in and out of this state of thoughtless gratitude and causeless happiness mostly at will. I think I have the tools I need to maintain this state of being but time will tell.”

“Based on descriptions from Jeffrey’s book, I think at time I’ve entered the Finders Course I was at Location 1. After the Method 9 week I had a “figure ground reversal” in my perception. And I saw everything around as a field of Consciousnesses, I was this field, while sensations, thoughts and my senses were kind of like a clusters floating. There was no sense of physical body. This awareness was not constant, it was buzzing in and out. But with time it was becoming more stable. Then after Inquiry week, when question was asked if I can separate “Flow” and “Stillness” in my perception, I experienced Deep Emptiness. It took my body about 10 – 12 hours to digest this experience , and then my system went through the shock of Existential Fear. After that cleared out, I feel I landed on outskirts of Location 4. Reading some material on Spiritual bypassing, and feeling something in my chest area(that felt I am hiding in bliss of Awakening from emotional baggage) I decided to give a fair chance to dyads with Method 14 as of 11/4/17 I am still doing a lot of Dyad work and it feels it clears out my system very well. I feel that I am very stable Location 3 at the moment, having all the intentions to move to Location 4 when I will be done with “housecleaning” .”

“In the second essay on my life story that I submitted for this course, I pretty much summed up my spiritual journey, experiences and insights I had leading up to joining the Finders Course. For this assignment, I will do my best to put into words where I am now and whats changed from the beginning of the Finders Course course to now. I watched some of the videos again of Jeffery talking about Fundamental Wellbeing and locations yesterday and today and they are so helpful. During the first part of the course, I remember feeling as though I were trapped at the level of the mind and was feeling some despair about ever being free from it. During the second half of the FC, I started to have some periods of unconditional acceptance and realized I didnt need to change what was happening, that I was aware and conscious even though I was thinking and my mind was wandering, etc. At times, I feel somewhat annoyed or frustrated that my mind is active and think I am not doing enough to try to focus or reign it in. Most of the time now, I can just relax and accept it. My emotional state has improved as well. For the first couple of months of the course, I was feeling down and had more anxiety. Also, I rated low on the Happiness Scale. During the second part, I began to have more energy, feel more optimistic and outgoing, experience love and acceptance for myself and others, and have fun. For a few weeks, my feelings were much higher than I am used to having and I felt very energized and alive. That has dissipated some now. I also have very few feelings of anger or animosity and when they do arise, they dont last long. Again, my romantic relationship is revealing many things to me. When the relationship started, I was feeling balanced and together and was coming more from a place of unconditional love. In the past couple of weeks, Ive been feeling lots of old conditioning coming up – feelings of insecurity, old pain and disappointment from past relationships, projecting into the future rather than just allowing things to happen, etc. A couple of times, I burst out crying and was surprised by the emotions that were arising. But, my negative emotions arent sticking around for too long and through any discomfort I may feel, underneath it all, I do know all is well. And, had I not been feeling so happy and open, I probably wouldnt have been willing to even explore this relationship to begin with. I notice some differences before and after the course with my memory. I need to write things down and make lists in order to remember to do certain things, but I was doing that before the FC started. I had a college friend visit me last weekend and she was talking about a lot of people from school that I couldnt remember, but thats not new either. I chalk that up to being an introvert – if I didnt have much interaction with them while I was in college, they didnt really register with me. What is changing though, is the way I perceive my memories from the past. As I look back, I see that I have always been loved and fully supported, and that I have been showered with abundance and blessings. I wasnt able to perceive that all along, but am grateful that now I can. Also, some memories of painful experiences seem pretty amusing to me now. I wouldnt have necessarily realized it, but now I am aware I do have less memories from the past popping up. As for where I am on the continuum, I think Im in the early stages of Location One. Im aware I am experiencing Fundamental Wellbeing because of the way Jeffery described it in a video, that when I drill down beneath whatever is happening on the surface, I feel a fundamental sense of okayness and wellbeing. While attempting to evaluate and express where I am on my surveys and measures, I was often feeling as though my perceptions were contradictory. Now I realize my answers were probably varying depending on whether I answered from a zoomed out or zoomed in place. For instance, while zoomed in I may doubt that I have experienced oneness, while zoomed out, I know of course I am experiencing oneness. My thoughts, sense of self, and body, are not excluded from oneness. And I am continuing to evolve and shift. My perceptions today in this moment are more expanded than they were two days ago, or even since I started writing this essay. As Jeffery mentioned, I see how my concepts of what I imagine certain states should be like based on what Ive read and heard have been clouding my perception of the way things are. It is simple – I am and I exist. Sometimes I think theres more to it all than that and want to complicate things, but I also trust that all this stuff is just playing itself out. And Im going to do my best to relax and enjoy it all.”

“During the course, I experienced several shifts, but the one that stood out came after doing the inquiry exercise. In the evening after the exercise was assigned, I asked myself “who am I?” That questioned seemed a little conceptual, so I switched the question to “what am I?” and began to look for the location or sensation in myself that I can pin point and say “that is what I am!” Started with my body and gradually narrowed down what i might be to a cluster of sensations behind my forehead. But that could not be me since there was something aware of the sensations. Then, I noticed there was a capacity of awareness that was aware of the sensations. I thought that must be it. But as subtle as this capacity of awareness was, it was still a “thing” that was being noticed by something else… When I got that far, I felt as if I was sucked into a dark vacuum deep inside with a faint flash of light. That was as much as I could do, and I fell asleep after that. The next morning, as I awoke in bed, I wanted to get up and go to the bath room to get ready for the day as usual. But for some reason, I felt like I could’t do that because I was missing something… I wondered about what I was missing, and after a while I realized that I couldn’t find “myself.” Where my sense of self used to be, there was a large opening, and I couldn’t locate where I was. This was a very strange situation. How could I get out of bed if I couldn’t find where I am? But somehow, the decision to roll out of bed was made and I went on to do my routine. The actions happened while my normal sense of self was completely absent. And a thought arose in a void “Cool, I can function without myself.” After a few days, I became accustomed to this feeling of not having a self, and now it just feels normal. As I became involved in the busyness of life over the weeks, my thoughts became as active as ever, but they don’t really have a place to land anymore.”

“Prior to taking the Finder’s course, I had a fair amount of inner dialogue, was less happy, more reactive and worried more in general. I also had compassion for things in general. At the beginning of the Finder’s course I noticed even after a couple of weeks my inner dialog started to diminish and it was replaced eventually totally by songs. This lasted for awhile and then stopped. Continuing to do the daily assigned exercises helped to quiet my mind even more. I did have some set backs when I had the flu for a couple of weeks but I was able to resume my progress thereafter. I noticed -I went back to worrying and being irritable and having a lot of inner dialogue- and was less happy in general. I did not like it at all. One day I had a fleeting feeling of unconditional love for everything.It was really incredible. Eventually- my inner dialogue was quieter- I could focus on tasks without day dreaming, I had more energy and motivation, and more compassion and love in general. I felt my level of happiness increase and a great feeling of well being,an ok-ness even during stressful times all continue daily. I do not fear somethings at all the way I used to prior to taking the course. I can also detach my emotional investment after in stressful situations while still caring and showing compassion to someone. I do not worry nearly as much about it later. I certainly feel more present. It is really such an amazing transition but I feel like I entered a new wonderful life from taking the course.”

“Well, it was rather gradual and continues to gradually deepen. I first completely lost my sense of self learning to do the ring meditation. The meditation was so hard! But I kept at it, not moving at all while meditating and I no longer identified with the body. I became cloudlike. Then it really sank in during the group awareness exercises. I enjoy describing awareness. The Method 9 stuff was literally mind-blowing and I have never driven my car the same again. I drive headless! I have always been kinda spacey, but now i forget things way more, yet I am more engaged with what is going on with my sensations, and such. I am no longer driven by my thoughts, constantly reacting to them. I simply engage with them, not jumping to conclusions, reacting/avoiding/clinging. It is so freeing! Time goes by so fast especially when I am working. My emotions are gone. It makes dating kinda odd. On a first date I am so NOT nervous it makes the nervous girl even more so. It’s kinda funny. I don’t date much, but my last relationship moved fast, which is not my thing normally, but I just let it be and it lasted a few months and faded out. She was way more excited just being around me, my touch and such and I was fine with it the way it was, but we work with each other, and I just work when I am at work and not very attentive to her, so it didn’t last. She was also 20 years or so my younger. I am 46. So anyway, I am comfortable with this new state of being and am convinced it was always there…this course just paved the way for it.”

“The week before the first 2 week intensive was when I transitioned. During my daily meditation using the eraser technique I felt waves of energy rushing up my body which made me really hot to the point of sweating. I saw a beautiful golden light which became more intense as did the heat inside my body and this continued for 60mins of my 90mins meditation. I felt euphoric, bliss and extreme happiness during the meditation. The golden light seemed to encase my whole body as well as be inside my body. Once the meditation had finished I went for a walk and I slowly noticed that the trees and grass around me were extra green and sky was extra blue. My eye sight had seemed to of improved, everything was in a super sharp focus, I could see the shine on the individual leaves of each tree. Then I became aware that my hearing had also improved, the birds seemed really loud. I felt awe and blissfully happy, and the most present I had ever experienced. Later that day I became aware of smell becoming much more intense and I actually felt quite shocked at how much more everything smelled. Then slowly over the coming days I noticed much more as I began to deepen into location 2. The most noticeable and puzzling thing was that the trees and road were moving towards me, past me and kinda through me as I walked/drove. It took me until when we did the Headway exercises to work out what was happening, as in my center stayed still but the world moved through me. I also became aware of non stop songs in my head it was like having my very own radio station inside my head which lasted for about 8/10days, it was actually very uplifting constantly singing to myself. As the songs got less I started to notice that my mind was becoming much more empty and peaceful. I have continued to deepen from this time and the transition has been constant and ongoing. I have moved from location 2 into location 3 and out to early edges of 4 and then I consciously moved back into location 3. I am currently choosing to stay in location 3 for now but I may well focus again on moving into 4 as I am aware of which exercises move me within a few days in each direction. This has been the best course I have ever taken I am truly grateful to the FC team for everything they have shown, helped and supported me with. Much love to you all.”

“I started the course with a noticeable negative emotional charge. I had been practicing Vipassana for three years and had experienced notorious transformations for good, such as a decrease in my anxiety, a decrease in my fear and an increase in my ability to focus on my daily tasks. However, the same habitual patterns experienced for years, of negative thoughts and reactions to daily events that trigger my anger, such as being stuck on traffic, differences with my partner, unpunctuality of others, that things did not go as I wanted, etc. I started the course with the expectation of leaving all this behind. A few weeks later I began to notice advances, more moments of calm and joy than usual. I attributed these developments to positive psychology exercises and to the recovery of a daily discipline. But still dawning with an experienced anxiety like a feeling of pressure in the chest, which appeared at different times throughout the day. As I advanced the course, I began to notice it more clearly, both when it was present and when it was not. I began to understand that this sensation was the product of a permanent thought of anticipation of the future and concern for something bad that could happen. Dawning with fear. But about week 12 I noticed that the feeling was gone completely in the morning, at most it appeared for a few moments during the day in reaction to “bad news” in which I was informed that something was not going as planned. However, at that time I still considered that the emergence of negative thoughts and emotions during the day was an evidence of no Fundamental Wellbeing. During the weeks 13 and 14 it became more evident that not only had this feeling of fear disappeared in the morning, but that it practically no longer manifested itself during the day and that there was a considerable level of equanimity in my daily life. I re-read the manuscript on Fundamental Wellbeing and found a lot of coincidence with location 1. The most notorious: I could recognize a sense of permanent well-being throughout my experience. Sometimes obscured by negative thoughts and emotions, but only for moments, at most minutes, but never hours. I listened to the experiences of my colleagues, videos of Q&A where more accuracies were made on Fundamental Wellbeing and I ended up understanding that I had made a very stealthy transition. I tend to think that the transition could have started in January of this year (2017) during the last 10 days of Vipassana retreat that I did, but that it was evident until Week 12 of the Finders Course after having reinforced positive thinking patterns and reinforced The capacity for attention and concentration with the other techniques. One technique I once considered to have done a great job was the love exercise of Lester Levenson. There came a time when I could not think of anyone to think about who might provoke me some negative emotion. Then I started to work with “events” that caused me negativity but were not associated with specific people. I began to change the mental energy associated with past events and possible future events. As the weeks went by, I began to notice changes during the Eraser Method. The last 15 minutes were very pleasant, the mind very awake, the sensations very clear, the equanimity very evident. At the same time, group practice of awareness description was important. On a couple of occasions I experienced thinking gaps in which I could not conceptualize what I was experiencing (in one of them I experienced being the keyboard I was observing and at the same time being observed by the keyboard itself, in another I simply could not think, so Just experiment. I believe that the Lester Levenson technique together with the different changes of the Eraser Method and Awareness sessions, were the ones that helped me to settle in location 1. During the weeks 13-14-15 I experienced a permanent joy that I had not felt for a long time (I still experiment it, and with the intention to further diminish the negative thoughts and emotions that arise from time to time).”

“I resonated with Lester Levenson’s story, and while reading it remember thinking, “This is going to be the one.” It allows for a playfulness and use of the of mind that appeals to me. The trouble I have with samatha/concentration practice is that it presupposes a lack of prior trauma, and if you happen to have it, you’re essentially supposed to repress it. After the repression, then the fun begins. My trouble has always been my relationship to the past, and my feverish, unsuccessful attempts to repress it. Lester Levenson technique allows me to use the same power of thoughts and emotions to undo itself, or create new positive stories. I noticed soon in that I could use my sense of humour and nice memories to reconsolidate trauma. I just kept going back, over and over, bringing positive vibes into bad memories, and developed my own techniques as well. For example, I’ll pause memories and enter them as myself, now, and talk to my old self or the other person. I’ll imagine myself as them and talk to myself in the past. I’ll say things I wanted to say; I’ll have things said to me that I wanted to be said. Somewhere about two weeks into this process, I just noticed a giddiness and presence that I hadn’t ever felt. I recall one day doing a 45minute Lester, a 45minute concentration, then a 45minute body scan sit. Afterwards, I did an awareness session and recall setting a positive intention to really let this happen. The next group meet, one of my members suggested I may have transitioned as I seemed different. For the rest of the month it hurt to smile, as I had used those facial muscles so much they were sore. In terms of a specific moment, I don’t really have one. It was a slow realization – but once it was realized, it was powerful. I had been coming from a place of 4/5 out of 10 on the well-being scale, so to change to swift made it all seem like a new world. I drove past old areas of painful memories, and I wasn’t triggered. I experienced a substantial reduction in negative thinking and obsessive thoughts, although there is still more than I would like. However, the method is still effective. Within about 20seconds of doing the method, I can generate a crinkle smile, something that never happened in 1000 hours of concentration practice.”

“I believe that I had laid a foundation for ONE before the course, but the structure and guidance given during the course helped me advance my underlying state of consciousness. Based on the descriptions provided by Jeffery, I believe that I’m in location 1. I’ve developed the ability to access a peaceful calm equanimous state quite readily, which was not the case before. Even though I can still be triggered, there always seems to be balance and peace nearby and I can access it once I stop and bring my attention into the present moment. Also, I have the sense (which I cannot explain) that I’m close to further deepening and understanding. My mood is almost always happy and positive and I’m never depressed or down. I started out with good wellbeing and happiness but FC has deepened and solidified both to new levels.”

“For me it was subtle, a deepening and a knowing of what was, and a very strong sense of what/who I am. Before the course, I had been meditating a lot, with a great routine, lots of change had been taking place, but there was still a lot of searching (hence this course). During the course, especially when we started doing the proper techniques (not the prep stuff), something really changed and the seeking dropped away. I just feel here, now, very deep and very calm. The Method 9 and then especially the Method 10 put me into a very unattached awareness that I recognised that I had felt before (before the course) without knowing what it was. I had always thought the heart based location 3 would be the place for me (I’m a very loving father of 4), so location 4 was a strange place to be but it was nice to be guided through it and it felt very interesting. Since then, I’ve really been challenged in my professional life. I co-own a successful company, and I’m really being pushed to step up (investment round etc), however my ‘truth’ is so taking me in the opposite direction – I really don’t give a damn about that world anymore and would rather be teaching or just growing veges on my wonderful small family farm. Tough times, and at the end of this year (2017) I plan to pull back, to follow my heart. Also my relationship, my wife has a tough time with depression, so this too if very difficult. So all this ‘resistance’ has pummelled me around, and I wondered if I was still even in Fundamental Wellbeing, but the great sense of Wellbeing is totally always available with just a small prompt or remembering, instantly. And often with much Love, as my children are young and always around. So this leads me to say I am in Location 1 – 2. And 3 is not unknown to me, I can turn on the heart feeling and it expands to bursting. Overall, I feel solid, but life continues to be challenging and its lovely to tack the times throughout the day to ‘remember’. And if just a little of the challenges drop away, the Universe will flow so strong through me. I am being guided to clean up my life and really live :)”

“Began the journey here with serious anxiety and sleep issues and still in a relationship that was miserable. Conditions were considered serious enough that medication prescribed to sleep, but some nights would still wake with heart pounding wildly and not get back to sleep for hours. According to notes and some recollection, the practice was rough at first, many tears and anger and discomfort gradually unfolding into discovery, education and realization. The shift was gradual and natural…no defining moment until the shedding of some deep pattern was recognized. Then smoothness and wellness and trust pervading everything… even the discomforts in life, punctuated by heights and insights. Now, sitting in Location 1 fully, All is well, All the time, even when forgotten shortly. In Location 2 some days a happy buzz fills the air and more creativity flows. The life lived now bolder, grateful, inspired, decisive, clear, little to no fear and new actions arise in the space, new opportunities. A sense of ease. And so natural as if there was never any other way of Being.”

“For me, The first signs of transition was the dropping away of my willingness to engage in making up stories. I would start to fabricate a story, see it happening and have no desire to continue the process. There was no “eureka moment”. My sense of well-being steadily increased. I found myself joyful most of the time and realized I was laughing 6 to 10 times more often that I had in the past. I have traditionally considered the concept “we are all one as New Age nonsense. I had several experiences which contradicted this prejudgment and modified my world view. I went through several weeks where I would pop into what I referred to as the Viewmaster reality. Everything in my visual field was intensified: colors were intensified, solidity was intensified and space itself took on an almost palatable texture. I would enter and exit the Viewmaster without volition. Eventually I learned to enter it at will, but now rarely choose to go there. I spent a while there tonight, for entertainment, but this is uncommon. its a nice place to visit: but.. Last week I took a mini cocotte out of the oven, burned my hands and dropped it on the floor where it shattered. I watched this happen. In the past I would have been pissed, but probably would have quickly put this into prospective and the feelings would have dissipated in a couple of minuites. this time I watched it happen without feeling even a hint of anger, judgement, regret or any emotion at all: I simply watched it happen. My experience was similar to watching birds fly across the skyI watch and experience. I can think of about a half dozen similar experiences since I started the course: this has become my new normal. I rather like it. Thank you very much for the course; it has been extremely valuable for me.”

“I believe there were two steps in this event. First, on the first Saturday of the course, about 12 minutes into the first welcoming video, watching Jeffrey, seeing how happy he seemed – and suddenly I felt happy. It was a flop-over into happiness. It went from a hair’s breadth beside the unhappy side of the happy/unhappy line to a hair’s breadth to the happy side of that line. It was that simple – not a humongo event but a palpable one and I stayed happy all that week. During the week there were milestones (written about during the first survey but ones not saved so I no longer have access to all of the details). A memorable milestone occurred on Wednesday of that week, driving home, up the rise over the salt marsh overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and a thought arose – happiness is not an emotional experience. That thought resonated and deepened for the next day or so. The second step in this process occurred in the wee hours of Friday morning; there was a peak experience that lasted for several hours – a gripping sense for some time in which there was a sense of fear but I was not afraid – some of the experience thereeafter occurred in meditation for about 45 min to an hour or so, sensations of fiery energies moving throughout the body, losing the sense of body parts and large sections of the body and then of the whole body. The next day – Saturday of FC week 2 – on the phone with my sister and suddenly there was no ability to generate emotion as I had experienced it before; even though my sister was in clear emotional distress I was not able to generate compassion as I’d known it before or love or sadness for her. What was there were sensations of energies moving throughout the body. This state of being – experiencing energy flows and no emotions – has persisted since. There have been several triggers related to old memories – times of tears that lasted for several seconds but without sadness – energy movements in the body. Because the second step in this process was a peak experience and Jeffrey noted along the way that peak experiences do not typically last, I did specific things to deepen into the experience, like sitting in beingness, doing extra group and individual awareness exercises, meditating for longer sittings every day throughout the entire course, and, later in the course, doing extra practices in addition to the assigned ones – often practicing 3-5 hours each day.”

“I struggled at first, especially when I did not see the immediate benefit of the exercise. Having meditated, participated in daily gratitude, prayer, goal setting and forgiveness activities, I was concerned in the beginning of the course that I would not learn anything new of useful in the course. But when I let go and practiced faithfully, I did realize gains in overall well-being. I can’t even fully recall when I felt as though I had transitioned to Fundamental Wellbeing, but I think it was more gradual than sudden. I noticed a preference for company with only a select few people in my inner circle. I also would rather have just stayed home and read or meditated and more often than that, gone hiking in the forest than been in crowds. But I have also noticed a more smooth recovery, so to speak, when it comes to disappointment or what may have otherwise been setbacks. I don’t get upset or irritated easily. I am a little more compassionate and grateful but I like to think I was prior, too. I am just content, peaceful and relatively even keel about life, in general, now with an attitude of patience I did not have before. I wonder. I believe that everything is possible. I don’t want to say I don’t care, but there are much fewer things that cause me concern. I just try to do what I am supposed to as far as work and allow everything else to simply flow. I am not concerned with being in control. But I am eager to continue on living the journey and readying myself for the adventure. With a loving and grateful heart…”

“It is difficult to tell a story, since the experience is that nothing has changed yet everything is different. There is no story of me awakening. It is now seen that ‘awakening’ is the absence of ‘me’. Awakening is seeing all that is, as it really is.. You could say ‘oneness’. But with the recognition that all there is, is oneness, how can there be anyone separate recognising that? That would imply that there are still two.. not one.. It possibly started during the second session of the Finders Course, from which a stronger sense of ‘okayness’ and equanimity developed. First it was seen as if ‘I’ was experiencing an increasing sense of ‘okayness’ and equanimity, but towards the end of the course there was a seeing that these changes appeared because of the decreasing of ‘I’ and therefor were not experienced by ‘I’. With the absence of ‘I’ it is seen that all there is is wholeness, it is seen that there never was anything separate, it only appeared to be…”

“I was doing a Method 9 experiment and went “all the way home”. The following weeks were bizarre- constantly missing body parts, fresh wonder, feeling emptiness and union with the divine.”

“I copied this story from survey #3. Looking back at it, I believe I had transitioned into level 1, but was unprepared for it. After about a week the residual contentment from this experience had left. I do believe that i worked back through all the portions of level 1 &2 individually through the rest of the course. I am glad that I wrote down this story because my memory of it is not the same…. : “I had become confused about the morning and night exercises, so I went back to the videos to review them all. While doing that and completing the tasks at the same time, I had a very extreme experience that left me crying and emotionally upset. It seemed to me at the time that the exercises were actually attacking me and I was finding that sensation most demoralizing. After wards I found my sensory processes confused and everything seemed out of whack. Since we had just received a most inviting video from our facilitators, I felt that maybe I should email them. At this time I really doubted that I had the stamina to finish this course. So they made contact with me and talked me through it. I guess that what I had considered a ‘breakdown’ might be considered a breakthrough of some kind. Since then the past two days have been so balanced and even keeled. Way more than ever for many months now. So I think it might have released some stresses. Another thing happened during that desperate day which I did not mention to them. For about an hour I noticed the lights were weird. I could see the light from outside coming in through the windows like normal, but there was also a kind of glowing phenomenon going on inside the rooms as well. I thought maybe I was imagining something, but it still seems like it happened. Couldn’t have been for more than 15-30 mins in duration. A good thing that I have noticed this week is that I have a craving to do the meditation. This is a change from when I started the course and I find it very positive.”

“i have been practicing buddhism for over a decade, meditating and nurturing loving kindness, but i had never had the experience i had a few months ago when i had transitioned into Fundamental Wellbeing: i had been waiting for someone to pack their car with groceries and their spot, and, as they pulled out, was unaware that another car had stopped to wait for the spot. as she pulled out, i pulled in and immediately heard a blaring car horn. i looked in my side mirror and saw a car parked in the middle of the parking lot, door swung open with a man furiously marching towards me. normally, i would have been afraid, but i calmly exited my car as he approached – he was screaming profanities at me and told me to get out of ‘his f’n spot!’ again, normally, i would have been afraid, but i wasn’t. i looked at him calmly, with my palm up as if to say ‘do not fear’ you have been heard and was about to explain what he hadn’t seen (that i was indeed waiting for the spot way before he had shown up.) at that moment, the original person that exited the spot had stopped her car, and came out to yell at this man who was screaming at me, indicating that he was mistaken and to stop what he was doing. in an instant, he realized what had happened – he realized what he had not seen from his view. all the color ran from his face and he was overwhelmed with emotion and regret, apologizing profusely. i smiled at him and wished him well, filled with compassion and kindness — it was at this moment that i remembered a similar experience but this time, i was the one screaming my head off! i felt so much love and compassion for him, because i saw myself in him…in presence, unattached to judgment, my heart filled with space and we were one and the same. i have inhaled the fragrance of this experience often, remembering the awakening of oneness that exists beyond our emotions and judgments. this is when i knew that i was indeed in Fundamental Wellbeing…nothing has been the same every since.”

“I am not sure if this qualifies as a transition story but thought i would put it down here. After the first week of the course i evaluated my general happiness in the weekly course survey as one or so higher than the previous week. I didn’t think much of it, but every subsequent week of the course i felt the higher evaluation was appropriate but still i felt it was a blip. It remained that way for the rest of the course and for me it felt like a significant increase in well being and so equanimity. The most significant thing was that the difficulties in my life, problems that arised during the course time were less of a burden, that the help I was giving to my family was not experienced as a burden but that i could do what i was doing with joy. That as i was more content/equananimous(?) my ability to help greatly increased. This was a wonderful surprise and such a gift”

“Well, it was a very subtle transition. First of all, before starting the course I already knew that I enjoyed some of the benefits this program could produce. What took me some time to realize was to what great extent this was true. Honestly, I wasnt aware of how high my natural fundamental well being was until well advanced the course. The questionnaires and chatting with my group mates helped a lot in realizing that. So there has been little improvement there. Also, It seems that I already payed not too much attention to myself. Thats not what Ive been thinking all my life, but the course made me inquire, observe and reflect about other peoples experiences, and, again, I was surprised to discover that what I considered a mind busy with ego stuff, was already quite calm. Ive known for many years that my autobiographical memory is really poor, which also suggests that I place not so much importance on what happens to me. Nevertheless, I really did notice a decrease in the narrative self type of thinking, which is great. Regarding emotions, all my life Ive been quite tempered, but always very positive oriented, so again, difficult to say if there has been any improvement there. The most evident sign of me having transitioned into Fundamental Wellbeing (more specifically, into a mild Location 2) is a very marked quieting of the mind. My thinking appears much fainter in my awareness, and sometimes is not noticeable at all. This started to happen really soon into the course, and I think that the Group Awareness Sessions were the main agent in it. It seems that it has become a structural feature, but I can sense that I could make more progress if I worked on it. Im pretty comfortable where I am right now, so I guess thats not gonna happen in the near future. The other marked change in how I experience existence is the development of an ability to change my perceptual perspective. I havent transitioned into a new permanent way of perceiving reality but, again, I sense that Ive gained the ability to do that transition if I want to. Ive experienced brief moments of that new state, but I havent chased them or tried to deepen in them. The Method 9 was the practice that achieved this for me. Also, I feel this perceptual transition would lead me right into the surroundings of Location 4, and I just dont feel Im ready for such a profound change.”

“I’ve meditated at different times in my life. The most I’ve done before was about 45 mins to an hour a day of Tai Chi. However, prior to Finders it had been a long time since i’ve had a regular routine of meditation and self reflection. The biggest challenge with this course is the time outside of meditation and positive psychology. When you add in the videos and the reading, at times it was difficult for me to keep up. There are some practices I am looking forward to getting back to now that the course is finished. My awakening has been more like a reconnecting with my true self. It started happening during the group awareness exercises. I also had profound results from the Method 9. During times of wide awakening, I have felt a sense of childlike wonder and freedom I haven’t felt in a very long time. As illusion life has fought back I am now focused on the balance of being able to interact with the physical world (much of which is living in illusion) and maintaining my equanimity in the background. It can be challenging, however, I feel like I can grow the awareness and keep the illusion interactions minimal. I don’t think they’ll ever go away completely (unless I moved into location 4 or beyond) but I do think they can be welcomed and accepted and allowed to exist without resistance. My hope is that my deep connection with fundamental well being will continue to grow forever.”

“My personal transition physically happened very early in the course on day 8. I at first was a little confused and yet I had such a profound sense of knowledge and contentment and certainty that I wrote to the course to confirm the event. The course supplied me the manuscript where I read about the locations and it became clear that I had transitioned to location one. I continued to explore location one and eventually moved to location two. This was a very different experience as i experienced non-duality for the first time. I had previously been skeptical about this style of human experience and deemed this to be the realm of the hippy sector. While not closed to the idea I was one of the scientific proof style of people. I understand now why science will never understand the true statue of humanity and our true nature as we are not capable of comprehending this being. This became quite a different state of being for myself after I awoke. The limited self thoughts and the increased clarity and direction and certainty was all well beyond what i believed could be experienced without years of dedicated practice and effort. It seemed quite fanatical to me and yet so simple. My amusement at the life that I had led to that point and the ego; narrative self that I had created and then chosen to live out of seemed like a very poor choice for my wellbeing. The simplicity of my new awareness and state of being has been persistent since. It is a much more satisfying existence now. I don’t think I could go back to where i was before the course. I no longer search for anything, I no longer think of myself as lacking anything or having any hole to fill. I feel complete.”

“It’s a fairly simple story. I didn’t realise till part-way through the course that I was probably already in location 1 when I started the course. For many years I’ve been happy with a sense of ok-ness and that everything is and will be ok and that I’m fundamentally safe, even though sometimes I do have negative emotions. What has changed in the course is a deepening of that experience, with the internal narrative reducing, emotions shifting towards the positive (i.e. fewer instances of negative emotions), and situations that previously would have stressed or angered me not doing so any more. The underlying joy/awe has come more to the foreground. As far as I can make out, I’ve probably moved into location 2 during the course.”

“During Group Awareness I felt a great sense of happiness. Unity with universe, inner peace and no fear of death. A very calm experience.After that I felt and knew that I have that inside me.”

“My personal awakening during the course was very subtle. I think I was so busy w/the course, trying to get the required assignments done, that I didnt notice it until I looked back I was suddenly aware that I had lost my narrative voice/self. At the start of the course, it was there and active, although not as active as 10 years ago. I have really focused on my practice during the last 10 years, even taking a 3-year isolated retreat which had done some damage to my narrative self. It just needed a little push to be expelled. I believe I shifted from location 3 to 4 about week two or three. Gradually, I realized I no longer had thoughts of a self; the inner dialogue/criticism had ceased. I no longer had a sense of a divine presence/consciousness, but a sense of a natural unfolding of things. I had lost emotional reactivity no drama. I had to force myself to complete tasks at work and home, because nothing seemed urgent or necessary, and I had a high sense of well-being and joy. Now that I look back and have the descriptions of the different locations, I realized that I shifted from location 2 to 3 about 8 years ago. I can remember the experience – I was asking my spiritual teacher for a blessing and after he gave it to me, I sat back and suddenly was in a space of timelessness and infinity. I was aware of his agelessness and vastness, as well as my own, and that we were connected and always had been. There was no separation. After that experience, I did shift back and forth between locations until I took this course. Since the end of the course, I have been shifting from 3 to 4, mainly because my work is so demanding and needs my attention and involvement that I cannot indulge in location 4 too much. I hope to be able to work that out by continuing w/the coursework going back through the techniques periodically and fine-tuning my practice. Also, I hope to be able to join in some of the discussions and support groups, to maintain that connection w/other finders.”

“I had two stand-out moments over the finders course. One was after using Lester Levinson for a while. I build up this intense feeling of love that was fairly persistent. Through it I reacted very differently to my daily existence, seeing the positive in all people and situations. As a result conflicts seemed to melt away as I saw an easy resolution when required. I was more relaxed and happier with my family and things felt less clouded – people were not different individuals as much as they were similar manifestations of consciousness. The other moment was brought about through the Method 9. The boundaries between myself and other people as well as the outside world started to dissolve. It further challenged my view of reality by removing my sense of distance. Many things stopped being real and became elements contained in my awareness. This shifted how I saw and related to my family. It was disconcerting. While this experience has moderated (perhaps also because I stopped focusing on growing it), shards of it come back to me. I can also encourage it if I focus.”

“In two words: spaciousness and perspective. FC has given me the mental space to see that there are alternate ways of being and seeing the world that doesn’t necessarily center around me and what I want/need. It has given me access to a world outside of self. From this selfless world, it has given me the perspective. My world often seems small and selfish from the outside looking in from the selfless place. It feels ironic that the more time that I spend in the selfless dimension, that more lines up as fulfilling in my selfish dimension. In other words, the outside, empirical world shows up differently when I operate from the selfless dimension. Now that I’m back into my “normal” life, I don’t have/find/make the time to meditate every day – only 1x – 2x/week for an hour at a time and I’m always kicking myself afterwards for having not done it more frequently. What does stick with me is that I now have access to this other state of presence (Location 1) as soon as I recommit to it. I now have access into an entirely different way of being. Thank you.”

“Before the course, I did not have many expectations about what the course may or may not result in. I had heard of terms such as “awakening” and “enlightenment” and did not really know what to think of them, they seemed like terms that were easy to abuse and use for selling “spiritual” snake oil products. I am not really sure why I even forked out the money for the course, I thought there was a slim but real probability that it was all just a scam. I am glad that I did though, it has been one of the most important decisions in my life so far. My current experience seems to keep flicking back and forth between late Location 2 and early Location 4. I did have a week where I was fasting and experienced a very energetic and blissful state that might have been me passing through Location 3, I am not sure. The biggest change is perhaps the one I least expected. I have seen straight through my sense of self. I can see clearly that there is no separate “I”, “me”, “<Name>”, whatever you want to call it. Fundamentally, those words are concepts only. There is no solid self here. This presents a funny conundrum, as I type using language in the way I have used it all my life; using subject and object to communicate with the reader. This shift in perspective did not come up in the way I expected. I am surprised at how readily I have accepted this new way of being. With this sense of self put to one side, I am able to function much more effectively in the world. I can respond appropriately to situations without being constrained by personal fear, desire and ignorance. Meeting things where they are, rather than where I want them to be, is liberating. Dropping expectation of what is going to come next makes that next moment all the more special. Curiosity reigns. I have found a great purpose in life: help others. This does not mean I am quitting my job and changing direction. Not yet at least. Rather, whatever comes up in my life, I aim to be spacious for other people. I try not to interfere with others, but instead be open for them, respond to their suffering in a way that makes sense for where they are in their life. My shift in perspective has been somewhat gradual and somewhat sudden. Getting to early Location 1 and Location 2 seemed to happen in the background without me noticing it. The methods seemed to have been working on breaking down my previous conditioning, leaving a nice clean slate. Moving on to this current place where the sense of self is an optional addition happened quite suddenly. I was watching an awful lot of videos about Method 10. Eventually I had seen enough that the concepts started to penetrate deeply into my experience. Concepts that used to sound like nonsense started to make complete sense. For example, “no separation” seemed like a very “in the mind” phrase to me previously, it seemed like a cold “factual” statement that meant something like “we are all in the same world”. I can contrast that now with my current experience, where the phrase “no separation” means to me that everything in existence is dependent upon every other thing. Differences can only be noted between apparently separate things. This was the missing piece for me. The way things are can only be this way. Thats’ all from me. Thanks :)”

“No big insights or sudden realisations. All gradual. Steadily more openness, spaciousness by doing the various methods in the course. I had some experience of this openness before the course with the various meditations and insight exercises I was doing, and when I started the second part of the Finders Course it strengthened this to much more of a foundation which was increasingly readily accessible. The Method 9 and the self-inquiry were probably the two most impactful, tho the mantra meditation was good (tho I didn’t need to do more than the assigned week of this) and I returned to Lester Levinson’s method at times. So I was increasingly sitting and moving in and out of simple awareness with increasingly less absorption in thoughts and feelings (and associated sense of ‘someone’ sitting there meditating). Sometimes there just seems to be this amazing space, without anyone being there. Just awareness and objects of awareness (as a way of describing the situation – tho when there are really no concepts in the way this separation isn’t relevant). This is still continuing in my practice now. It feels quite amazingly free that there is actually no-one here. ‘Me’ is just pure fiction. So obvious once seen. But I’m often absorbed in my thoughts, so this is certainly an ongoing practice for me.”

“I’ll be honest here. Taking the course was a bit of a roller coaster. I wasn’t able to fully immerse myself as I would have preferred. Nevertheless, the exposure to some of the techniques and methods which I was able to implement surely did help me to transition to at least Location 1, with brief moments of Location 2. I was happy and filled with a sense of joy before the course, but I’d say I’m much more happier and joyful today. What I noticed since taking the course was the amount of so-called ‘issues’ that seemed to pop up on a weekly basis. Lots and lots of stuff seemed to be getting in the way. However, despite these seeming obstacles, I have been able to maintain some form of equanimity. Unperturbed by the events in my life. Sure, I still experienced frustration and bits of anger, but they never lasted for too long, and I would completely forget about it afterwards. I’m at awe on how well I’m handling everything currently happening in my life. If I was mindful and aware of my thoughts before the course. They’re much more pronounced today; especially having read parts of Shinzen’s book, “Five Ways To Know Yourself”. I’m amazed on how much clarity I’ve gained from the little I’ve read. Reading Lester Levinson’s story and practicing his technique really had a positive effect. I didn’t realize how subtle the transition was until Jeffery pointed it out in one of the Q&A videos. I’m sure like most people who have taken the course assumed, I was expecting some great and brilliant experience. That may be the experience of some individuals, but it wasn’t in mine. Not to say it won’t ever happen, but at least I’ll be aware and not let my mind dictate how and when it should happen. During the entire time I was taking the course, all I was experiencing was a sense of child-like enjoyment. That’s how I’m currently feeling all the time, and for me, that’s how I characterize my transition. It’s a very playful feeling. I may not have had the types of experiences indicative to Location 3+, but I feel I’m heading in the right direction. I know that if I go back and review the course again and try out the techniques, methods, and exercises as Jeffery advised in one of the videos. I will be able to go much deeper and get to experience what I’ve been intent of achieving – The Source. Wouldn’t that be something.”

“I began meditating in 2004 to try to deal with depression related to a very difficult time in my life. After reading the finders course book, I recognized that in 2004 I had quickly shifted into location 1. My depression was immediately gone and I matched all of the other markers described in location 1. I believe that I continued to deepen in location 1 over the subsequent years as I continued meditating and attending retreats. Possibly I was in the early stages of location 2. During the finders course I feel I gradually shifted into late location 2 and have moments of location 3. I definitely felt a shift after doing the Lester Levinson technique in which I saw through all of the stories related to all of the people in my life and saw that everything was generated within my own mind. As a result, I feel that there was some significant “psychological cleansing” from this technique. The Method 10 technique also shifted me into seeing that “I” do not exist the way I thought I did. This shift continued while doing the Method 13 technique which I find to be very powerful in being able to see that I am awareness and to be able to live from awareness. Maybe this will happen in the short term after the course is over. So what is different in me with the shift I’ve described? Understanding in a way I never did before that it’s all about living from awareness and that this alleviates all of the suffering of the self. The mind is quieter and I have no real desire to be busy and have to accomplish things throughout the day. Emotions seem to arise less often and dissipate very quickly. I “forget” to worry about my children which is something I always did in the past. And I now longer worry about money and don’t think about it very often. Truthfully though I’m finding it difficult to look back and really see and describe the changes in my mind since any changes have happened gradually throughout the course and it feels like I can’t remember what it was like before.”

“It was probably when we did the awareness exercise when I was blown away with a deep softening of myself. I could fall into this state usually though the GAE. Since then there is a softening of self so I can always feel one with the universe or others and a connection at a totally different level. I fell like I am in location 3 mostly I think.”

“I think that I was in Location 1 before I came into the course because I have lived in a state of OK-ness for a very long time and sensed that I was in a different place than many other people regarding anxiety and outlook on life. I think that I have moved to Location 2 during the course, most definitely not Location 3 (I still have many different emotions) or Loc 4. My general feeling is of OK ness and although I can sense and perceive the workings of the ego I am in no doubt that they are not me at any time. The opening up to the vastness and depth of experience is something that is evolving as we speak with a lot of “just being” periods during the day and letting go of old habits of body-mind. If I should say anything about the transition to Location 2 is that I feel that the OK-ness that I felt is more in front and that the world has moved from outside to inside me. I now know in a tactile way that all is consciouness. All this is very hard to describe. I actively use Lester Levinson on all emotions that are troubling me. My life is not perferct from the outside but I really feel that I am so very happy now. This sure is well being!”

“It is a short story. I was listening to a video where Jeffery was talking and he said something like: there may be a lot of emotions but despite of that there is a sense of okayness. As I checked, I was surprised to find that sense of okayness. I was very happy to find this sense of okayness and that seemd to make it stronger. And since then I have focused on bringing it more into the forefront of my experience.”

“Not sure how much there is to tell. Over the first half of the course I slowly started feeling happier and happier. For a while I was wondering whether or not I was in Location 1 or not. One of the Q&A videos clarified a lot for me and I realized I had probably been in Location 1 for a couple weeks already. Both before and after this time I’ve had several very intense but temporary transitions which made it hard to tell where my stable “baseline” was. This roller coaster is still ongoing and I think I might be better able to tell my story in a few months with some perspective after things have settled down.”

“I discovered that I might be in ONE on 11 Oct 2017, after watching special supplemental video #3. Up until this point I had a number of temporary experiences, none of which I had successfully spent much time sinking into. For some reason when I had these temporary experiences I just wanted to keep doing what I was doing, even though I knew I should shift gears and focus on the temporary state. I’m not sure I remember them all, but there were at least five. I wrote this in my diary: Wed 11 Oct 10:16 “Just watching supplemental video #3, and I’ve started wondering if I’m in location 1. When I stop and look, I feel a deep quiet, no anxiety. It’s easy to become present on command.” The earliest temporary experience that was similar to my current experience of Fundamental Wellbeing was on October 5th: “I was sitting in the couch and suddenly everything shifted. All the guilt disappeared, and it was quiet inside my head. No chatter. I sat like this for a few moments, maybe a couple of minutes.” The day before discovering I was in Fundamental Wellbeing, I was doing Method 10 on the train into central London. I was looking at the other trains going by outside during the approach into London Bridge station. It was around 6 in the evening and sun was setting. Suddenly I was struck with a sense of beauty and purpose. I laughed out loud from joy. I was practically alone in the train car, and I looked around at the other passengers with a sense of having found something. Did they see what I was seeing?”

“I was on a flight from SFO to Sicily with two layovers in Amsterdam and Rome. It was for business and coincidentally kicked off the first week in the Finders Course where we would intensely meditate without new instruction. The previous weeks had been a rush; new instructions and meditation in the middle of daily life, with all its ups and downs. I had enjoyed the eraser method we were taught and I had modified it to what felt best for me: body scanning until I could easily have deep awareness of any body part quickly, then I sat in full body awareness while I focused on breathing through my nose. If body awareness dropped, focus on that body part and if too much body awareness drops, do a body scan again. “Sorry, we don’t have your preferred meal. Would you like chicken or fish?” said the flight attendant. This was to be the first of many inconveniences on this journey. I spent the rest of the flight reading, doing the eraser method and watching the movie Passengers, set in the future. I wondered if in the future people would meditate more. I certainly found it helpful since I started just over a year ago. After my intense retreat three months earlier, I had even entered into location one, although I was unaware of it at the time. All I knew is that I felt pretty calm, which was welcome after a short dark night. In Amsterdam I was exhausted since I hadn’t slept on the first flight. I opened my iPad and started reading a book for our course, which was full of information about different locations. I read as much as possible, making sure not to doze off too much. I kept up the eraser method whenever I had the opportunity. Finally, I found myself in Rome but a storm had canceled many flights, including mine. The next six hours were spent standing in line waiting to talk to someone. I made chitchat with the people around me while I continued the eraser method, out of habit at this point. Eventually I made it to the front and was rushed off to another plane leaving at the last minute. We arrived in Sicily during a storm. My luggage hadn’t made the switch with me and the taxi that was supposed to be waiting for me wasn’t there either. There was a huge line to register lost luggage and I was starving since I hadn’t eaten in since Amsterdam, over 12 hours earlier. Security told me I could leave and come back to register my luggage, but I couldn’t find how to get back in. Finally, I took a taxi to my hotel, hoping I could easily register it later. The taxi driver drove as fast as he could on an empty highway with lightning and thunder all around us, and we nearly crashed when he hit a huge patch of water. Finally we made it to town, but he dropped me off a few blocks from the hotel since the road was flooded. I waded my way to the hotel and finally arrived, exhausted, with my only a backpack and my clothes being completely soaked. All in all, it took 36 hours to get there. The next day I had to go back to the airport since any lost luggage registration had to be done in person. I took a bus and waited several more hours. At this point I just closed my eyes on a bench at the airport and meditated for an hour easily. I finally was able to speak to someone, who was nice but had little patience. He listened to my story, then typed on the computer. “Mamma mia!” he blurted out. My new arrival flight was the one that landed that day, if anyone asks. We searched for my luggage but it wasn’t there. I thanked him and finally returned after everyone else had dinner, so I ate alone at the hotel. After another mediation session, it was bedtime. I woke up in the middle of the night due to jetlag. I opened my phone and started reading. I was tired, so I just looked at the screen and let my awareness take over. Then, bam, a wave of intense bliss hit me from head to toe and I knew exactly what had happened. The bliss lasted about nine days and it left behind a constant feeling of energy and positive feelings. It was the sort of feeling I had felt deep on retreat, either right at the peak of a phase called the Arising and Passing or during a light jhana. The difference was now some aspect of it was around all the time, and when I meditated I would often experience intense pleasure. This was my new normal.”

“About two months into FC4, on 3.6.15, I was doing the required meditation. Jeffery had recently mentioned that people don’t usually “wake up” during meditation so with relief, I stopped trying. And BOOM! During my meditation, I got to a place of no-place, timeless, vast, alive and awake, almost no thought at all, no narrator saying awareness words or even noticing things, just deep, deep inner peace and wellbeing, ecstatic huge smile all over, deep light from somewhere, wisps of happiness and amusement as a random thought would disappear in an embodied manner. A sense of oneness with…the universe? of literally being a part of other people, sharing our hearts. Near the end (past the hour chime) the words IS and BE were there. I was there/here/present, but in a very different felt-sense. I came out of it and shed tears of ecstasy and gratitude, then went about doing ordinary household and work-related tasks with a sense of calm and equanimity, the words IS and BE floating through randomly. There is an ongoing experience of fundamental wellbeing that is pervasive, deep and extraordinary. I feel awake, alive, aware, full of joy, compassion, and most of all, gratitude. There is a deep sense of peacefulness and stillness inside that is palpable to those closest to me. There are almost no negative thoughts or emotions, certainly none that are sticky. My husband, whos been a barometer for me throughout this course, is a wonderful man, and the less wonderful parts of his personality have pretty much no effect on me anymore. My life is full of gratitude, excitement, joy, wonder, love, satisfaction, fullness and emptiness. Oneness. In my core or maybe Im in the core of Oneness its all one thing so the words, the descriptions, dont matter. Gone are the old feelings of anxiety, loneliness, emptiness, worry, agitation, need for approval, self-critical mental chatter. Gone are the thought-streams from the past and the worries about the future. To be fair, I am not in some perfect zone without a single uncomfortable or negative thing. But when such life events/thoughts/feelings occur, its like a bubble rising to the surface of a serene lake, and the bubble simply pops as its exposed to air, quite silently, quite seamlessly. Its there and its gone. I feel better, happier, more wellbeing, less or no anxiety (dont wake up with the knot in my stomach that has dogged me for years, despite Klonopin and therapy), more inner peace than ever before in my life. Im not experiencing the existential loneliness Id been feeling before since my kids left home for good or the related emptiness. I’m more in the present, more confident, not worried about future. My sleep is better and deeper. Almost no mental chatter and definitely no self-critical chatter. I still get reactive to Aaron (that will be a continuing challenge) but less often, and I recover much more quickly. I feel tremendous love and gratitude, and even much less tendency to say things that “build me up. Am I enlightened? Who cares! Its changed my life.”

“I was in Finders Course (FC2) and was fanatically intent on transitioning and spent far more time practicing the techniques and methods from the course making sure that I was not distracted from the path. In an email exchange with Jeffery I expressed my frustration with not having transitioned and he pointed out that it appeared that I was perhaps too intent on having a transition. I don’t recall the words he said, but it was clear that I was pushing myself too hard. So, I eased of on my practice without cutting back on the time spent. Instead, of being so goal oriented in my practice I was able to just practice without expectation. That helped. Also, I recall Jeffery suggested that I put some attention on releasing. Fortunately, I had the Sedona Method course on tape so spent hours listening to and practicing the Sedona Method. One of the sessions in the Sedona Method had me look at the pros and cons of transitioning into Fundamental Wellbeing. What I discovered, to my surprise, was that I had some resistance to transitioning because I was concerned that if I “became enlightened” I would loose my friends and relationship with my wife. After easing off on my goal oriented practice and releasing with the Sedona Method I found that the techniques and methods taught in the Finders Course became more effective and soon realized that I had transitioned into Fundamental Wellbeing, landing in L2. Soon after my transition to L2 I began coaching other Finders Course participants and in most cases recommended that they practice the Sedona Method. It seemed that most of those who came to me had similar issues with resistance that I had had.”

“The following are excerpts from a Journal I kept upon ‘Shift of Consciousness/Awakening’ during FC: 3/10 Watched Cosmos on TV last night, and was blown away at the timeline of our Universe/Solar System/Earth. They showed a graphic of a calendar, with the Big Bang at January 1st and Present Day at December 31st. Humans evolved in the last hour of the last day of the cosmic year. All recorded history is in the last 14 seconds of the cosmic year. It put things into such a sense of clarity of perspective for me that we, as human beings, have only existed but an infinitesimal blink of an eye. Ive always known this, of course, intellectually, but it really resonated at a new level for me last night. Everything we have accomplished in thought, word, & deed since cave man days to walking on the moon has taken milliseconds in the span of time and space. Our human minds almost cannot grasp the infinite vastness of our entire Universe. Wow I went to bed thinking in a whole different light/perspective, and meditated on it for awhilealmost forgot to do my nightly Course meditation. I had the thought of why on earth are we running around with all this drama and stress and hate and intolerance, etc etc when NONE of it really matters in the scheme of the Universe. Even my Course meditation was done in a whole new clarity of mindset. I thought to myself Im going to wake up tomorrow morning awakened into Being. And I did. This morning was incredible. I am walking around slightly euphoric, kinda like my feet are a few inches off the ground. It feels like Im sort of floating through my day. Had to take my car in for a service recall, and as I drove in, I was noting how totally functional I was, fully in my life, but slightly removed from it. Kinda like it was someone else observing it through my eyes. I honestly felt transformed from the person I was yesterday. My husband wanted to turn on the sprinkler system for Spring this morning, and that entails running a test check of all stations while he goes around checking for breaks, etc. This is usually done with all sorts of drama and angst and cursing and whatnot. My job is to get it turned on and wait while he runs around checking. It went smoothly, and calmly, and I just kind of stood there with infinite patience and felt the water running smoothly through the system. Only one damaged sprinkler head; no cursing, no drama. This is Heaven, I thought, laughing at myself. I mean I literally sat there on the golf cart for probably 15 minutes with my dog on my lap out in the front yard, waiting with a patience and calmness Ive never felt. Its like Im seeing with calmer eyes, with more clarity. I am me, but a different me. I am removed but observably more in tune with everything. Everything is all right, and everything is good. All of a sudden, I am not worried about the upcoming trip with all its drama and one particularly toxic person. It doesnt matterit will get done, and Ill do what is necessary, and everything will be all right. Its like a HUGE weight is liftedincredible lightness of beingwhich is one of my favorite terms. Ive felt it before, but momentaryIm really hoping this is permanent. Im reluctant to say anything to anyone (not even Jeffery) at this point. Im going to give it a few days to see if its permanent. I hope it is. I have a good feeling it will be. My emotions are still herein fact, I feel more loving, more patient, happier, brighter. Its like putting on a new pair of glassesmore clarity. I feel like Im observing life through a new filter, a new lens. I still feel a sense of me, but from a distance. Im observing the me that is Rebekah. Im thrilled that she is so happy. And now I sound kind of wacky! There was a quote from Carl Sagan last night on Cosmos. The Universe is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Cool! 3/11 Still observing with new eyes. The best word I can describe it is CLARITY. I can almost see why some people would think themselves going off the deep end a bit. I feel totally normal, but think this might be a bit of an adjustment in dealing with the new perspective. Its like things are so easy now, where there used to be small little conflicts or hasslestheres a flowingness to things that wasnt there before. I look back on the bad day I had last week, and wonder what in the heck happened there? Would much rather be here now, enjoying this way of being. Im wondering if Im just imagining all this? I totally SWEAR that I had not read Jefferys book and the descriptions of the Fundamental Wellbeing Locations prior to this happening. A huge stroke of synchronicity, however, as I read the descriptions last night and was in awe of some (a lot) of the similarities of my current experience. If I had not read this, I would think I was going a bit bonkers. Reassuring to know Im not. Plus Jeffery prepared us very well in the Finders Course. I cant believe this (but yes, I can!) but Ive been dealing with a situation for the last 2 hours with my mother-in-law (81y.o./mini-stroke) trying to find a very important document that the Title Company needs in order to close on her house next week. This entailed walking her through the contents of her VIPapers to find a Trust Agreement. I handled her with Infinite Patience for over an hour to no avail. I sort of got frustrated (it was like I was observing myself being slightly frustrated but was laughing inwardly), but knew it would work out and remained very calm and reassuring to her. The Title Company gave me a number of the attorney who drew up an accompanying document (in 2001). I called the number, talked to a bright young woman who answered the phone, and received the document by e-mail within 5 minutes! Im really happy that I remained calm and totally patient, whereas before I wouldve had high blood pressure by now! Just WOW! 3/12 – Continued extraordinary wellbeing. I thought of one of my favorite sayings this morning: Living an ordinary life in an extraordinary way. I always thought I was doing that. This is better. Things continue to flow with an easeIm dealing with a lot of pre-planning for the move next week. Paperwork, legal stuff, movers, coordinating lots of things. All flowing; everyone cooperating and communicating. Im being infinitely considerate, patient, cooperative. Key word: Patient. Not usually my strongest virtue! Incredible Practice Group Session today. I sensed a true communion with the group, every Being in the Universe, and with my Higher Power. The best exercise experience Ive had with this technique. It goes with my new way of Being, as it was so easy and free-flowing. You could just feel iteveryone was very in the moment and freely communicating. I think were all separating from our individual selves and sensing the oneness of all things. 3/13: I think my release of expectations regarding the course had a lot to do with my breakthrough. In my update to Jeffery on 3/7, I mentioned releasing my expectations for this Finders Course. When I let that go, and just enjoyed being in the class and less stressed out that I would miss a session, I think it freed me up to be open to the actual experience. Today in Yoga I experienced something really cool. For the last 5-6 weeks, Ive been sharing some of what Ive been learning in classin VERY broad strokesand just little things really. But little things to me have been very enlightening to one of the women in the class who has very little experience with even meditation or open-minded thought. Last week I shared the smiling meditationsuggested that if anybody felt like it, to smile through the relaxation after yogaand see if it uplifted their spirits. Well, today Jen came out of the relaxation totally in awe and wondering what the heck happened to her during the quiet timeshe said her arms levitated on their own and she couldnt bring them back down. She asked me & the yoga instructor what happened, and I simply said lightness of beingand to not be afraid of it, that it was her mind opening to new things. She said she had been smiling during relaxation for @week, and that she really liked the feeling. This is going to sound weird, but Im wondering if Im sending out some kind of psychic energy. Also during our centering time, the yoga instructor was bringing forth concepts that she has never brought forward, and they practically mirrored what was in my mind. Example: Yesterday in the Group Awareness Exercise, I was focused in on Clarity, Perspective, Seeing Life through a new filter, new lens (all photography metaphors which is predictable), and she actually used the words focused from a new perspective. I was thinking of Expansiveness & Radiating Energy Outward, and she used the term omni-directional expansiveness. To me, that couldnt be mere coincidence. Maybe Im elevating the energy in class in some way. I have waited @4 days to say anything to Jeffery. I wanted to wait to get through the GAE, and do a yoga class. I wanted to see if I was still experiencing the heightened awareness and clarity. I am. Im a bit nervous about sharing itI know what Im feeling is real. The euphoria has lessened somewhat, but Im still in a state of extreme well-being. Ive been internalizing it so much this week, that Im a bit nervous about externalizing it. 3/18 Havent written in a few days. Had a video chat with Jeffery on Friday 3/14 after deciding to e-mail him about what was happening. Was a little nervous, but he was very understanding and just let me talkI really dont even remember much of the conversation, to tell the truth. At least I know its real nowhe didnt laugh at me or anything! I feel very relieved having talked to him. He advised me to cut back on the analyzing/thought (which has been very helpful). In my meditation a couple of days later I had the thought: Awareness is Understanding; sometimes the two words I Understand is all you need to hear, or all you need to say. Our Finders Group got together on Saturday, and Jason joined us. We had an incredible session, and Jason was impressed with our groups progress. I shared very deeply and consciously. Laurie told me that it was wonderful to be in that space with me, and that my sharing was brilliant! That was really sweet of her. Im living with a background of Awareness. I am very calm; very positive about upcoming move. I was changing the sheets & ironing pillowcases on Sunday, and was in deep Awareness the whole time. Fully functional, but from a different perspective. 3/26 Laurie asked me what it was like to be in Awareness all the time. Heres what I answered her: Inner calmness, patience…everything flowing fluidly around me. Things that would have bugged me or irritated me have no effect. A constant feeling of extraordinary wellbeing and happiness. The first few days were slightly euphoric, but it’s settled into ‘elevated’. Experiencing everything with a new clarity and understanding. I am functioning normally, observing myself sort of from a new perspective. Sounds kind of bonkers, doesn’t it? But it’s the most natural feeling in the world..like life is simplified. It really is like awakening into a new way of Being, except it doesn’t end. I have this feeling that this is only the beginning of ‘enlightenment’. I’m describing it as a ‘shift in consciousness’. My meditations are now free-range, going deeper & deeper into awareness. 4/6 Response to Cheryl e-mail wanting to know about my new Awareness? After @month, Ive relaxed into a new normal of Being. Not analyzing whats happening so much as just living it. I believe that a couple of things were key to my shift in consciousness. 1) Right before it happened, I had released/let go any expectations of attaining enlightenment. Prior to our trip (which didnt happen YAY!), I was really stressed out that I would be missing our Finders classes. I thought to myself I shouldnt be stressing out over a course on enlightenment! and let go of the striving. Do you remember reading Lester Levinsons storywhere he describes stepping into Being? Thats exactly what it was like for me. 2) The GAE method was/is sort of always in the back of my mind. I am constantly sensing/noting Awareness to myself. I even woke up one night with insomnia and had an imaginary GAE session and was quite brilliant in my own mind! HaHa! I told the facilitator about this a few days later when he showed up for one of our sessions! When I say that Im now living with a background of awareness (Jefferys term), that is sort of what I mean: Im consciously, constantly recognizing moments of existence, consciousness, and Being. Even while doing very mundane things. And the guidance of consciously recognizing moments of joy and wonder has added on to the layers of awareness. My new focus in meditation (LOVE the Sri Yantra) is on simply Being. In the class on UH! the other day, the teacher said something (a lot of somethings) that really resonated with me. She was describing a meditation where she realized that all she really had to do was Be. How simple and profound is that? So Ive been simply Being’ in meditation, and experiencing moments of really simple, pure, conscious existence.”

“It happened either the first or second time I did one of the FC group awareness exercises. I remember feeling under pressure because we were supposed to record the session, and I was having trouble setting that up, and also several participants were having really silly problems with their computers and not being able to understand my directions, but I was still very new to the group and was trying really hard not to get upset at them for not being as good with computers as I am. And so the frustration when each thing I tried didn’t work transformed into a sort of faith that eventually we’d get through whatever the obstacles were, and sure enough we did. This may have actually been the beginning of the transition. During the session, I was sort of feeling like things were basically going along line normal, and I remember noticing myself thinking that and asking “is that really true?” And the answer was no. I was really full of love and joy, feeling total love for the other people in the group as they were describing their experiences of awareness, even when the descriptions seemed kind of repetitive, but especially when they said something that I hadn’t thought of that resonated. After the group session, I really felt like something extraordinary had happened, which I labeled as an interesting practice result that I hoped might be Fundamental Wellbeing. After the session I went to bed fairly quickly, but spent several hours lying in bed experiencing all kinds of interesting energy sensations and psychedelic visuals. At one point I had an experience that, if I believed in a personal God, I would have described as “seeing God sitting on his throne.” But because I don’t believe in that, I just saw it as a really interesting and powerful visual, with no clear meaning to attach to it. Afterwards, I felt like something had really changed, but it didn’t become totally obvious until I went to pick my wife up at the airport and nearly ran out of gas. This created a sequence of stressful triggers, none of which bothered me in the slightest. I could feel them going off, and expected to be really bothered by them, but they just popped off and died immediately. It was absolutely striking. Over the course of the next few days I got acquainted with an inner silence that also felt somehow like light, and that brought a feeling of tranquil joy when I sank into it. This persisted for several days after the transition, but eventually faded into the background. Nevertheless, the whole experience was quite tranquil. There were times afterwards when I would get triggered enough to worry that I’d fallen out, but that never happened. It was the consistent triggers that did it; realizing that there was such a thing as a continuous trigger and learning to recognize them really helped to free me from the fear that I was dropping out, and things just felt more and more stable as time went on after that.”

“The transition to ONE/Fundamental Wellbeing occurred on the 29th August 2016 during FC, although it wasn’t fully apparent until some time later probably in the order of 3 weeks later. Also, it was not an easy transition because it occurred during a period of great anxiety, although that anxiety was completely replaced with Unconditional Love for first 14 hours post-transition. Later on, it became clear that what had happened was a kind of blast into Location 3 that sprang back into a persistent form of non-symbolic experience somewhere between late Location 1 and early Location 2. Long-term this has persisted at Location 2, with greater ease as conditioning triggers have diminished through numerous techniques. In the 7 to 10 days leading up to the transition, the daily meditation practice involved the body focused method. This was an extremely difficult technique that created so much anxiety that it appeared to create the opposite of what meditation purports to achieve. I’d already had to start using a healing technique that involves tapping on the body while listening to certain soundtracks (PSTEC) to ease the anxiety levels. Several of my group members also reported similar difficulties with anxiety and frustration; which was helpful to hear that it was not just my experience. At this stage, it seemed that “I would fail” at the Finders Course; thinking of which formed part of the conditioning requiring healing and resolution post-transition. Lester Levinson’s Love method was also introduced into the course around this time. It just so happened that work from the casual engineering position that I held had dried up and so I was now dedicating 2-4 hours per day of just Lester Levinson Love technique work. This was on top of the normal daily 60-90 minutes of meditation plus Group Awareness sessions and other FC homework. The Group Awareness exercise was also critical and was amazing right from the start. It began to dawn on me that I would make the transition, this was despite the fact that the body meditation was causing such difficulties. I don’t know why I had that insight but it was almost like “if we can experience Fundamental Wellbeing in the Group Awareness, then what’s it going to take to just make the perspective ongoing?”. For some reason, it just didn’t seem like it would take much to transition; yet at the same time there was this overwhelming feeling “I am failing, I am a failure”. The day of the transition I had done my normal 60 or so minutes of meditation using the body meditation method. As per usual the meditation increased the level of anxiety and in particular when crossing over the stomach area the discomfort was extremely difficult. At the end of meditation hour, I decided to do some PSTEC tapping focusing on the anxiety experience of the stomach area. It occurred to me that this was related to my relationship with my mother; my relationship was very distant and disconnected. As this was one of the people on my Lester list it became apparent that resistance to forgiveness of my mum was what needed. As I used the tapping tracks and the Lester method together all of a sudden forgiveness came blasting through. Not only that but the feeling of love for mum was total such that there was just Unconditional Love. No other emotion was possible for the rest of the day until bed time. The rest of the day was spent sobbing, barely able to walk properly. No other emotion appeared to be possible. At one point during the day, there was the beginning of a feeling of anger towards someone whod dumped all of the newspapers on the ground near the group of letterboxes where I live. Immediately that feeling was transformed into intense love for whoever did that. I heard some people swearing from a distance and felt nothing but love, wanted them to have love, that they needed to be loved. My whole being felt like it had been tipped upside down and was having a meltdown. The next day the experience appeared to have subsided. In fact, with the benefit of hindsight, Id settled into a persistent form of Awareness. That translated into being able to see every thought that was occurring; many of which were not nice thoughts. Hence the journey of resolving conditioning started right from that day. From what I can tell it is also why a persistent Location 3 experience was not possible at that time because it requires such a deep level of trust to maintain. I came to spirituality through Alcoholics Anonymous in late 2001 and so have always had a lot of conditioning to work through. However, the consistent nature of Fundamental Wellbeing provides the ideal state for working on conditioning. In one form or another the resolution of conditioning is what has been occurring post-transition, albeit with a lot more ease today. Many more hours of PSTEC tapping and Lesters Love Method were applied during FC because there was such a pile of stuff to get through initially. Now it is like stuff naturally comes up and there is always a way, often with help from others to process the conditioning. So much thanks must go to Jeffery and his support staff who made this possible on such a large scale and to people from all over the planet.”

“Awakening was gradual- no big story. Just worked the FC program and found myself gradually in a state of more equanimity, love, and acceptance with connection to all creation thrown in.”

“Historians understand the value of detailed records for constructing a historical narrative. I am indebted to my brains lifelong tendency to record thoughts, feelings and insights on paper for the ability to reconstruct the following narrative. The records indicate a sort of concatenation of insights that led to the current state. At age eight it seems I decided that the notion of an anthropomorphic creator deity (e.g., the Christian God) made absolutely no sense. At the same time I readily accepted that all things were conscious, including my own hands and feet, which provided the underlying felt sense of a playful, friendly universe. The records indicate various emotional experiences and a sense of being starkly different from ones peers, and then the adoption of an absurdist worldview in late adolescence. There was then a conclusion that the universe was ultimately devoid of meaning and that therefore it was beholden upon the individual to assign meaning to ones own life. This led to a resolute shift away from a depression-prone perspective to an optimism-centered perspective and a renewed interest in the world around me. In grad school, reading Thomas Kuhn and fully grokking the implication of paradigm shift led to a further loosening of the notion that so-called reality is a fixed and immutable thing. Around this time it seems that I stopped taking my emotions seriously, and embarked on a DIY program of positive psychology exercises which led to high well being and resilience. By my early thirties, the records show that a sense of fundamental okayness had taken root, which seems to have been the product of both the high well being and sufficient traumatic life experiences which served to reinforce a fundamental, unwavering resilience. Approximately two years before FC5, the records show a departure from a loosely held science-centered way of thinking to something that was opened to the mystical. The journals contain frequent statements basically amounting to The Universe is made of love. References to suffering or perseveration about suffering are absent. There are certain statements questioning the veracity of the notion of a sense of self but no firm conclusions. I signed up for the online greatest hits Finders Course that was being offered in early 2015 because as an MD resident I lacked the time and the funds to afford the full FC. My main motivation, it seems, was to learn how to meditate because it felt like the right time for this, though there was a curiosity about awakening after hearing Jeffery talk about his pre-FC research findings on the Buddhist Geeks podcast some years earlier. The greatest hits course ended up being cancelled and I was upgraded to FC5. No major shifts occurred during FC5 (likely related to being incredibly sleep-deprived during my last months of residency). I graduated midway through FC5 and started practicing doubly in earnest. When FC5 ended I continued the morning and evening exercises and did an hour a day of Method 11 (using just the first three attitudes). One day, four months after FC5 had ended, I was writing an e-mail and looked inside and found that the felt sense of a localized me had utterly vanished. In its place was a dizzying sense of expansion to infinity and a pervasive sense that everything in the universe really was made of pure love, though there was no separation whatsoever between the love and something that was being loved. The fabric of the universe, including every molecule in the human body, was simply love. It was difficult to locate what had formerly been my body because there was such a starkly different way of experiencing the world. This settled down over the next weeks as the brain adjusted to a new way of being: no localized sense of self, no subjective experience of emotions (but an orders-of-magnitude increase in the fundamental okayness), no sense of agency, no sense of separation between this being and everything. Burning off of residual triggers and conditioning started happening, and it was found that by not resisting the process, things that might have become blockages were released. Life increasingly became a flow, with practices arising, it seemed, just as there was a need or use for them. At some point there was an acceleration, and a massive deconstruction/reconstruction process began. The mode of experiencing the world shifted again, less confusing but still quite profoundly altered. The shift was not toward emotions or a localized self, but toward something quite interesting”

“I have not transitioned beyond an early location 1; but I continue to meditate as often as I can as I feel the FC9 was a tremendous help to my life and experience of myself and others.”

“Towards the end of FC9 there was a gradual mild shift to location 1. During this past year location 1 has stabilized during most of my conscious activity. Now when I meditate it often feels that I am in location 2 , and it pops up now and then during the day but is not persistent. I am however encouraged to continue to be open to the possibility of location 3. I have also found great joy in maintaining a regular meditation practice.”

“Midway through the finder’s course I had an experience of Method 10. I was walking down a street where the cherry blossom petals were floating from the trees to the ground. I was thinking how free they were and that they had a simple purpose. No complicated thoughts or ideas they just had to fall to the ground. Then I shifted and the light and place changed. I don’t remember much except the connection was to everything. The depth of connection was huge. An incredible joy filled me. I carried the memory of this over the next few weeks but did not experience a recurrence. From that point on there was a gradual shift to less mind activity and other Fundamental Wellbeing symptoms. It was a slow steadfast transition that has stuck.”

“It was in the second week of the course after I did one eraser session early in the morning (6AM) (besides the general exercises) and one eraser exercise in the afternoon after lunch. I went to the beach with my wife and kids and upon walking it came to me. Everything around in perfect harmony, inside very quiet – no emotions, oneness with everything around. it stayed there while speaking with the people around and playing beach tennis with my wife and kids. During the night it wore off a bit but my sense of inner peace had increased much. Before starting the course I already had quite a good level of inner peace but this was a clear improvement, nothing I experienced before. During the course there were times where the sensation got less up some events where I got quite some emotions boiling up. afterwards I think I went through some barriers that still existed in me. Over time it got easier and easier to keep the feeling of total okayness up to a greater feeling of oneness with people and everything around. Sometimes I asked myself if this feeling of total okayness caused me to care a bit less about others judgements and if this could be harmful for my career and my responsibility towards my family to support them. As my inner critic got quiet I experienced more of my time in flow. I also experienced more and more that all the right things came up without me pushing for them. My sense of agency seemed to get less as the things just unfolded as they should and I am totally okay with that. Accepting what is and being in the moment got me there. During the course I experienced different levels of well being sometimes more sometimes less, though I noticed that most of the exercises had an impact and over all it has been the combination and the intensive long period of time of the course covered that made my experience persistent. I am very gratefull to you Jeffery, my fellow course mates, and the FC team.”

“Transitioning is a very subtle process. So there is no moment that stands out. It is just a noticing that something is different; changed. I seem to be going from Location 1 to Location 2. Location 2 is not constant yet. It is happening much more often and it is most every day.”

“I transitioned into Location 3 within the first three weeks into Finders Course 6 where I remained for the rest of the course. I then chose to take Finders Course 8 where I deepened my experience of Location 3. I then participated in the Explorers Course during which I transitioned to Location 4 and have subsequently remained.”

“First woke up on a retreat 15 or so years ago and landed in L2 since the division between the inside and outside disappeared completely. But there was still a sense of self at the center of experience. In FC3 the awareness based techniques started to have an effect. I also developed a Method 13 technique that made me more still and silent. Eventually the sense of there being a person in the mind or at the center of experience vanished. It’s like my identity came out of the mind/body and is now awareness itself.”

“I’ve had a few awakening experiences along the way. Two years before the FC, I had the most profound experience during meditation. The dimensions of time, space, and self all disappeared. There was only awareness, without object. When there was a moment of distant awareness of “an entity with a four letter name on it”, it seemed entirely inconsequential. Then there was just awareness again. (I know I’m describing it as if there was a time sequence; I’m just trying to explain what is beyond description). From then on I was informed by that experience about the nature of reality, form, world, person… Taking the Finder’s Course helped facilitate the application and integration of the awakening experiences into a more frequent state of being. It helped provide an array of practices with which to deepen awakening and “return” to it in the face of oscillation. And the Explorer’s Course provided important encouragement and tools to clear some of my triggers and core issues to “grow up”, and remove psychological obstacles to awakening.”

“I believe I may have entered shallow Fundamental Wellbeing about six weeks before FC5 started. For a few hours my mind spontaneously went quiet and after that I was always able to touch that stillness in the background, at least a bit. Sometime early in the course I jumped into what felt like deep Fundamental Wellbeing for a week or so, then fell back more or less to where I had been before that happened; I now view that as an extended glimpse. Losing that wonderful experience left me with a subtle feeling of grief, like a friend had died, and that persisted for a few months as I began moving very slowly back more noticeably into Fundamental Wellbeing. Basically, I’ve been deepening slowly ever since, characterized by many small but noticeable shifts. Early in the Explorers Course I was still in L1. A few months into the EC I shifted to L3, which seemed pretty unmistakable. After a few more months I began to shift out of L3. Everything was steadily getting “better” – deeper stillness, deeper equanimity, with the love/compassion/gratitude trifecta giving way to a feeling of deep peace without much emotional variability. But here’s the thing: even though I viewed that as positive progression to a better state I had to conclude I’d been demoted from L3 to L1 because I wasn’t experiencing the nondual aspects of L4. Things continued to deepen and I began having substantial perceptual changes coupled with a feeling that my head – where my sense of self had previously been felt – was being hollowed out and becoming more open and spacious at the same time the “outside world” was opening up and becoming more spacious.”

“I have been spiritually oriented since childhood. and committed to it over time and through the years. Had first transition at 32, sudden, strong, dramatic shift, lasted 3 weeks and was not what I imagined it would be, I turned it down so I could relate to others and they to me. still on path after that though more embodied. practices and studies ranging the gamut of shamanic plant medicine journies to communication courses and self empowerment courses etc…. my dear x boyfriend told me about the finders course because enlightenment was always a shared passion of ours. I took it last year because I was desperately caught in an unhappy cycle within myself and I wanted the answers. I found them here all along. lol. transistion was gradual, and peaceful. also knew when I started I wanted to remain engaged and active in the world, so have been fiddling with allowing myself to experience 3 or 4 + for short periods, but function at a healthy, proactive, empowered space. So far that is in the spectrum of location 1. Id like to move it to location 2. and dial from there!”

“It was a rough ride for me at first. Coming into FC3 I was in bad shape with pretty severe depression, anxiety and internal conflict. These started to improve during the first few weeks of the course, and the Group Awareness practice provided glimpses of the way through. Then a significant breakthrough happened during Method 11. My solo inquiry had reached a plateau, having stripped away almost everything but still straddling the knife-edge polarity of being either “everything” or “nothing”. A groupmate held my feet to the fire, face to the void, and helped me lean into the fear, and break through into the peace of emptiness. Words fail to describe it. That emptiness stuck with me for over a week, but then conditioning arose again in daily life. The steady peace dissipated, but I was still able to access it through practice, especially the Method 13 technique which Jenny, Steve and I were experimenting with at the time and afterward. Oscillation continued after FC3 concluded, still suffering at times, but with gradually increasing wellbeing. Then I re-took FC7, during which some of the other practices started to work for me. Mainly the Method 9, especially the peripheral vision technique, which reliably calms the monkey and expands awareness. Since then I’ve continued weekly practices with our small group. This group continued into the EC, and expanded. Some of us continue to practice Method 13, which reliably anchors calm abiding. The EC also brought other teachers and groups that have helped a great deal. Over the last year it feels that I’ve stabilized in location 2, but with a baseline of location 4’s near-zero emotional engagement. Something like you’ve described as “Fluid 4”. When alone or in presence with other practitioners, I can sit effortlessly in stillness for long periods. When engaging in the world, I can be present with whatever social and emotional dynamics arise, while still feeling that underlying effortless presence. The result is much easier access to flow-states in both work and creative pursuits.”

“During the Christmas break in FC7, i was taking a shower, and pondering the ineffability of spiritual experience. The words occurred to me: “oh! I know how to describe this! Everything is woven from nothing!” Then everything collapsed, and i was TERRIFIED. It was as though i was wing chased by a bear, everything changed in a snap. It was positively the most terrifying experience of my life. I get shivers describing it. I ran out of the shower and jumped into bed with my partner, and my “reality” settled back to a more normal state. After that though, I gradually rolled through location 1 and location 2, so I’m pretty sure that was my awakening.”

“I was in FC 2. It took me a while to realize that I had transitioned to location 1 or 2 because I had misunderstood the definition One of the most interesting aspects of my story, though, involves how I was led to enroll in FC. Prior to the class, I had developed a practice of moving my attention to my heart center both before going to sleep at night and before getting out of be in the morning after I had awoken. It was a state of consciousness that is in between sleeping and waking and that I began to call the “Twilight Awareness.” I found that this moving attention to the heart, aside from noticeably quieting my mind and also stimulating an uncanny joy, also served the function of stimulating my dream life. The difference was so noticeable and my dreams came to life so powerfully, that I began to develop ongoing relationships with some of the dream figures. It was during the morning Twilight Awareness that a meeting place with the dream figures was established, during which I could accompany the dream figures back into the dream. From that vantage point we could explore the meaning of the dream and engage in ongoing conversations about various issues. These conversations were then continued when I got out of bed. I would go to my computer where I write down the dream and allow the subsequent conversation to further unfold. Sometimes I received pertinent information that related to waking events. In this way my waking, dreaming, mediational and creative lives began to become integrated into a whole. One morning after the Twilight Awareness meditation, when I was at my computer continuing the conversation, a question came up that I had never considered before. I realized that throughout all my explorations of consciousness, no matter what the state or environment, my awareness was always from a particular point of view. I was an individual separate from, and acting within, my surrounding environment. In other words, there was a “me” operating in a context of “not me.” I was an explorer of fairly exotic realms, but it was always as if I still possessed an assumed “body” much like my waking world. Suddenly a question came to me that I had never asked before: Is it possible to have a different relationship with my sense of identity? No more than two hours after that question came to me, I received an email from Jeffery Martin, telling me about his Finders Course. I knew immediately that this was the answer to my question. That answer came while doing the “Who or what am I exercise” in FC2. For the first time I entered into a realm I call “undifferentiated silence.” It is perfectly still and there are no differentiated parts. It is all ONE. It is also the ground from which the phenomenal world arises. But the key was that I didn’t go into this realm as a separate “me.” Instead, I identified my very being with undifferentiated silence. There was no differentiation between “me” and “not me.” I had never dreamed anything like that was possible. But wait! I DID dream it. It was the dream that hatched the question that set in motion the events that led to that completely novel (for me) sense of identity. This, of course, begs the whole question of time. These events – the dream, the conversation, the question, Jeffery’s email, my enrollment in FC and the experience of my identity as undifferentiated silence – formed a whole. They were not discrete happenings, but were constructed with intent and purpose as a unity. They spanned across apparently sequential time, but they were interlinked from the beginning. This tells me that we are not locked into our cultural assumptions about time. There is much more here than meets the watch.”

“I transitioned to PSNE gradually without even knowing it. It was only in hindsight, upon reflection after watching Jefferys video describing how to do evaluation of experience before the class and current experience. The positive psychology methods of Morning and Evening exercises provided an excellent foundation to increase my awareness of emotions, ability to control them and the tools to do so. The method that shifted me the most toward Fundamental Wellbeing was Method 10. Training my mind to be simultaneously inquisitive and appreciative in every moment was key. Followed by the Method 10/Who Am I? methods got me the rest of the way there.”

“My life has been completely transformed by the Finders Course. My pre-course state was filled with depression, post-traumatic stress, and daily crying spells that had gone on for over 2 year, starting when teenage son committed suicide. My life since my wife and I found him dead had been a constant struggle. I tried to engage myself with my family, friends, work, and responsibilities, but the sorrow seemed to shield and deaden me from the world around me. I wasnt suicidal, but I could certainly understand why someone might choose to take their own life to escape their suffering. That just wasnt and option for me because I could never put my wife and surviving son through something like that again. This might have been different if I had lived on my own. It is now hard for me to remember some of those feelings since they are mostly gone; vanishing in an instant after doing the Eraser meditation for an hour and a half in the third week of the course. After completing the Eraser I was sitting in empty awareness, when a vision of my son and the detailed events of him deciding to and taking his life came into my mind. These sorts of thoughts would often arise during my meditations since he passed. I would normally try to sit as an objective witness to the thoughts, but the pain and sorrow would always soon overcome me and I would consciously end the meditation, usually in a heap of tears. The vision was much more intense and vivid this time as I wasnt just watching my son from a distance, but I was seeing everything unfold through his eyes and emotions, as if it was me and not just him this time. My whole being condensed into a mix of horror, confusion, and pain while watching this unfold, but I could not turn my attention away. Just when I didnt think I could stand the torture anymore, I just relaxed and surrendered to what was to come. But in that instant, instead of the train wreck I was transported into a pure spacious mindset of complete peace. It was as if I was reborn as infinite awareness that was identical and without separation between within and beyond me. My body, thoughts, and emotions were all still there, but they were now no different than any other object in the room. I could still sense the thoughts and emotions of sorrow of losing my son, but there was simply nothing about me as pure awareness that those emotions could attach to. Everything was unconditionally welcomed without any sort of judgement; in this way I had a profound feeling of equanimity and perfection pervading my entire experience. I cant say that I felt ecstatic joy, happiness, or oneness in any way that I had previously read about or conceptualized in my mind. What I did experienced was a peaceful unshakable calm devoid of any unhappiness or suffering. Those latter terms simply did not have any meaning in that place that I found myself. I felt closer to God than I ever have felt in my life. I sat in this state meditating for hours late into the evening until I fell asleep. When I awoke the next day, I no longer felt immersed in consciousness. However, my depression and post-traumatic stress have not yet come back the past 3 months. I do have a sense of fundamental contentment and even believe that my deceased son now resides where he needed to be, even if I dont understand why. This question why would always send me in a tailspin in the past, but now there is a conviction that the answer would not bring me a peace beyond what I have already experienced; it will certainly never bring him back. When I meditate now I can feel myself moving on and letting go of my son. When I do let go, I feel my conscious awareness deepen, my sense of a solid self dissolve, and I have a growing experience that I am not just a body but a broader awareness that expands into the space and objects around me. I feel this open awareness off and on throughout the day and during my meditations. It is not constant, but if feels like it is ever seeping in. I still have moments when I am sad about losing my son but the feeling doesnt last as long and just doesnt seem to attach to me. I also have more fond memories of him that now fill me with happiness, rather than griet. I did have a 2-weeks period bracketed around his 20th birthday (January 16th) where I felt like I was losing focus and regressing back into my depression. However, during the last two weeks of the Course have oscillated back into a clear place where the sorrow no longer sticks, my meditation practice is again solid, and I feel a more constant stream of contentment throughout the day.”

“It was early on in the finders course, enjoying the Group Awareness practices, one morning I started with a good hour of Eraser meditation, then this rolled into a 90min session of Group Awareness, which left me very open in my sense of being and identity, following this i jumped in my car and starting driving to work. along the journey i just starting giggling about how silly i was to have believed i was this ‘puppet’ call a person, and how obvious it was yet I’d not seen it all my life, its almost a really bad prank that i’d played on my self for 30+ years. the rest of the day was similar, though i did not talk about what i’d discovered with anyone, I was in a euphoric state all day. The following weeks this state came and went, the understand i had discovered has never left, neither has the underlying Peacefulness and ISness, but the euphoric state rarely comes, often on the back of a deep meditation. I have been deepening during the remainder of the course, trying further practices to help and have been noticing the conditioning/triggers slowly correcting themselves in line with this new state of being. My personal identity has been slowly fading and the sense on ONEness growing, though the ego is still here, its grip is weakening, but the journey of discover continues. Thank You for putting this course together and allowing me to participate, I feel crossing paths with you and the people in my group that i have gotten to know, was what was meant to be, and it is bringing blessings into my life, all unfolding within the ONEness.”

“Well, nothing much, I think. First noticed something was really different when driving and the way back home from work seemingly was slowed down a lot! lol. This continued on and off from the second month of FC to now Then I felt no attachment to bad vibes or negative feelings from others, when I usually could “feel it in my body”. This broadened to relationships and daily life. My relationship with my wife changed, to the better, but with some strange adjustments… By not clinging on reactions, bad weather is almost certain!! But funny enough she didn’t have anything to hold on to, so it was really a “transmutation?” on certain areas of relating. Important thing: obsessive thinking with a trauma which happened 8 years ago. Man, this is huge! I’ve been working on this with many techniques that helped, but this point of thought kept in my field all the time. This is the very first time I forget or it does not appear at all or when it comes it goes without damages. For that I am very very grateful!! Besides these wonderful episodes, I am still adapting with this new updated version of my being. I sometimes stay much of the time avoiding some of of the noisy and human crowded locations, which is very good for me. It is somehow difficult to explain when you are there and what? I still don’t have words I can use . Sorry And… who was that person anyway? lol”

“I’m pretty sure I transitioned to Location 1 in 2012 and had been kind of idling there for a few years. There certainly had arisen a desire to deepen and broaden the sense of OKness that seemed to exist in the back ground of my life. Through the Finder’s Course, that opportunity presented itself. As time has progressed over the last 4 months, I have found that anger and ill-will has dropped away, and craving for things in general has become greatly attenuated. The sense of OKness has moved far more into the foreground and I often feel spontaneously joyful and at peace. I still experience sadness spontaneously from time to time but it seems to be accompanied a delicious and very sweet acceptance that makes it quite a beautiful experience. I also have quite easy access to states of deep quiet and peace whenever needed. Thus it seems likely I’ve moved into location 2 – and very happy to be here!”

“As many other people I believed that transitioning would have to happen like a big bang – and that entailed both a little bit of fear and great expevtations. But in Dcember 2017 I realized that I HAD transitioned very, very gently to location 1, just by listening to Jeffreys video about background and foreground, where he explains this beatiful concept. I had thought that because of still existing negative emotions I couldnt have transitioned. But those where only existent only very few times (twice a week, maybe). On the other hand I was almost completely done with that inner voice, the narrative self. I just realized that then…! I realized – OMG, I don’t actualy HAVE those thoughts anymore, at least I didn’t have them today! 🙂 AND I had episodes of “Method 10”, of just being happy out of the blue. When I told my FC group, they just comfirmed my perception/ awareness… So since then my life is completely different from three monts ago – there is almost no more fear, still a bit anger, and funny enough – judgement of others that I dont feel guilty about (I dont take it too seriously anyway! .-)”

“Call me Ishmael…. 🙂 I did not “awaken” or ‘”transition” in an instant, or at any particular moment, or even over several hours or days. It crept up on me over months and by degrees. I “felt” and “saw” changes in my thinking, perception, emotion, feelings and physical body but subtly and gradually so. It was as if a process first started in my mind and began to un-knot both my thoughts and emotional patterns. Slowly and methodically this “undoing” worked it’s way deeper and deeper into how I see myself/my-world. What now on a day to day basis is an outlook of calm, steady, accepting and evenness previously might have been difficult, tedious, argumentative and tumultuous. From the mind’s changing I noticed my perceptions and emotions then seemed to change. As old thought patterns slipped away a new perception(s) began to emerge and this in turn seemed to then provided room for a different emotional response to the world. There was a time when certain situations might have caused any number of negative emotions, feelings or responses. However, these deep changes resulted in my feelings shifting with respect to myself, other people, the world and any number of concepts, beliefs and situations I encounter. A sort of quietness has tempered my inner self and subsequently my views and responses to that which is all around me as well as within me. Both the internal and external landscape of my existence has changed. Lastly, there was a physical change. My body is more relaxed naturally, as my mind became less reactionary my body likewise followed. The tension that I held in my body appears to have largely gone. In its place is an energetic aliveness which contains a more complete sense of physical bodily awareness and a sort of overall feeling of well being. In closing through the exercises and practices of the Finders Course I gradually eroded and unwrapped many of the parts of my mental and physical existence. A simpler state of being seems to have appeared. This new and naturally balanced state exists more peacefully, happier and at ease with itself and existence.”

“The shift itself was very subtle. After completing an Eraser meditation session about a few weeks into the program, I opened my eyes and was getting re-acclimated to my environment stretching my limbs and readjusting my gaze. Still sitting, I noticed my mind feeling unusually spacious. I waited, listening. The narrator that I was so used to was awfully quiet. As if after a power-outage I waited for it to come back on line, so to speak. While the narrator wasnt gone for good, it since has had a whole lot less to say and only appears to come back with force when Im upset. The contrast experienced with the spacious silence has made it possible for me to catch myself ruminating about situations and conversations past while working myself into a tizzy. When I notice that happening, Im able to stop, take a few breaths, and calm myself down. The voice quiets down too. In retrospect the only possible clue of something different happening that day was when sitting down to meditate it took less time and there was more ease in settling-in to the meditation practice. Usually, I have a period of physical & mental restlessness as Im attempting to get still. It felt as if resistance broke away and I was able to fall into my practice with more ease than I had previously ever experienced.”

“I was about 80% of the way through FC2, and at the time my normal experience at work was nearly daily anxiety, which I typically felt in my stomach. One day I noticed that a typical anxiety triggering event had just happened, but I felt no anxiety at all. I realized that I must have transitioned without noticing exactly when it happened. I payed close attention in the following days and weeks and noticed: Increased mood & energy. Any time I look, my awareness of awareness is effortlessly obvious – which has qualities of a mini temporary nondual experience. The absence of stomach anxiety is delightful. My emotional tone is more steady. Less excitable. Less anticipation. Less running conversations in my head before meetings. When emotions are triggered, they always pass pretty quickly. Much easier to disappoint people without having a reaction while doing it. I saw a friend recently who hadn’t seen me since before the course, and she said she sees a subtle openness and acceptance in me that she likes – but honestly no one else really notices anything – and her observation is tainted because she knows I took the course. More openness and friendliness towards people. Less OCD. More understanding of the other person’s viewpoint in a conflict. More awareness around judgements. Basic OK-ness. Content listening to close friend’s family stories that previously seemed pointless. Easier to initiate potentially “difficult” conversations. OTOH, I also noticed that I had become more spacey, and I did not like that at all.”

“I really did not have a discernible “wow” transition moment. No fireworks of sensations. I had many small short bursts of change until, one day, I realized I was not the same as I was before the course started. I can’t tell you when that day was, only that I have been making subtle shifts ever since then. I am sorry my story is a bit lackluster.”

“Pretty simple story! I probably started noticing changes pretty early on in the course– subtle changes, maybe location 1-type stuff– but it was during the Method 9 that things really started opening up for me. Being able to witness that impossibly huge empty, still awareness that was behind everything was really powerful. I’d say at that point I was more location 2. I would do the Method 9 exercises, and sometimes get these moments where it felt like everything was in this one box: the external world, my body, my thoughts and emotions… and I was back there observing it all. But it also sort of nagged in the back of my mind that there felt like there was a separate “me” that was observing both the ‘boundless capacity’ of the empty space, as well as the world at large. Later, with the noting practice, I realized that I was able to observe that place (what Culadasa calls “the Still Point”) through that practice as well. It was with the Method 10, however, that I feel like I was experiencing some of the more intense shifts. I did several Method 10 practices and all of them worked to varying degrees, eventually during the course of the practice causing some kind of “pop” or “shift” or “falling away”, and I would just sit in this openness where the room felt brighter than before. The method that ended up being the most effective for me, however, was provided in the supplementary document you gave from a previous FC participant, in which they suggested “once the practitioner has identified Awareness, then ask them ‘what is aware of awareness?’ and then ‘what is aware of that?’ etc.” Doing that practice– awareness of the awareness of the awareness, etc… I would finally get to this place where the whole practice would sort of fall away… that the question itself was silly, because there WAS NOTHING THERE. It was all just arising— there was no ‘core me’ observing it all. It was just the room. Then I would sit in that space for a bit… but eventually I would fall out From then on, my practice was: Noting—> Method 9—> Method 10, until the practice fell away and there was just presence…. Then, about five or six days ago, I realized that I had never left the practice. I also noted that there was no experience of emotion anymore– but far from the blandness that I feared, this space I’m in is very alive and awake, and enjoyable! There is no stress or weight on my shoulders. I went climbing the other day, and though it was difficult, at no point did I feel anything resembling fear. I do notice that going about my day there’s almost an ghost-like sense of self… but when I pause and investigate it, I find that there is nothing at the core. Just the environment that I am in coming in clear and bright. I do find, however, that I’m noticing a lot of thoughts on my end– even thoughts about myself in the future. They don’t feel like “my” thoughts, though they do often (though not always) seem to be more noticeable that other things in my environment. I’m now working on sinking in to this location-4ish place I’m in, and in particular am noticing the sense that there is no observer of the world– just the objects and the act of experiencing the objects. I’m hoping to find a way to shift so that even the idea of the objects falls away (just as the idea of an independent SELF has fallen away), but I’m not there yet! That’s about it for me! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions! Thanks!”

“My transition was gradual and subtle yet wonderful. My reactions to day to day “irritations” have reduced significantly. I stay home with my three kids and they have noticed, so has my husband. My mind has mostly become a much quieter place. The structure and accountability of the Course really helped me experience the benefits of a regular practice. I transitioned pretty far into Location 1.”

“When I started this course, I had been mediating for many years for 20 minutes a day. I was happier each day that I made a point to meditate, but there wasn’t any big change in me from that practice. Since sometime in the middle of the course everything has changed. I find myself in and out of awareness all day. I’m a psychotherapist and I would find myself sitting in a session and being very aware of everything around me but with a concentration on the client. I felt extremely happy. I had a ringing in my ears. I felt a vibration all over my body that sometimes felt like my body was expanding into the room. It was and is wonderful and happens off and on all day. I wake up in the morning feeling like either my body is expanding beyond my skin, or that I am being held by God. I see the whole world differently. I’ve had questions about certain decisions in my life and I wake up in the morning just knowing the right decision without any obsessing or discomfort. Everything in my life moves more smoothly. I make decisions about directions I want to go in and it just happens without me forcing to happen. My relationships with other people have totally changed because I don’t approach anything in life the same anymore. The little things and sometimes big things that used to bother me don’t anymore. And if something does bother me, I just sit in awareness and it goes away for good. I was happy before, but I’m really happy now. And I’m more gracious and open to others. I’m very grateful for this course. It has changed my life. I don’t know when it happened. I just know that very slowly I moved into this state and I seem to live in it.”

“I don’t have a specific event or story to tell. During my practice I focused a lot on getting into as deep of a meditative state as I could and then really worked on Method 10 and Method 11 techniques. In the latter part of the course I was meditating for 2-3hrs at a time at least once but sometimes twice a day. I had multiple experiences and really came to understand myself and the universe much differently. The MAIN factor that I notice the most is that when I started the course I was DEEPLY!!! depressed. I was hopeless, down and even suicidal. I do not feel that way at all anymore. It’s strange, I’m not really abundantly happy or anything either. I just feel content and that things are fine. Issues that used to really bother me and send me into depressive spiral of isolation and self doubt just don’t have much or any affect on me. I used to have a problem with anger outbursts. Mostly directed to one of my sons who is very strong willed and who lashes out violently at his two brothers. His activity has moderately improved but it just doesn’t bother me so much anymore. Now I just deal with it and try to have compassion for both sides of the conflict.”

“The objective of taking the course was to stabilise and deepen ongoing or temporary Fundamental Wellbeing experiences that were happening more and more often. This objective was achieved. It happened rather gradually during the course and it is still happening. Nevertheless I had one profound moment of experiencing lauching Buddha state. It was when I was doing Method 10 with my friend, face to face. I described that experience in the survey in details. Here is the copy of it: “The break through happened on day 4 during dyatic, face to face session with a fellow group member. We sat down and he asked me the question may be 3 or 4 times in 10 min and then I started going deep to the place where there was nothing about me. I stayed in this state of no thing, and there was just this that I can not name. At some point after about 35-40 min I noticed that i start to smile without any reason. Smile turned in to a out loud burst of laugh. It was very very intense laugh, and it took about 15 min without breaking. For the next hour I would spontaneously burst out with laugh every few minutes. Mostly whenever the question what am i was asked. I suspect that the laugh was connected to simplicity of the answer to the question what am I, and to the fact that at the same time answer can not be given. After the laughing session something happen to my Fundamental Wellbeing experience, It deepened quite significantly. At this stage I am still assessing this new experience and have very little to say, expect that it is deep and my well being increased significantly. Interestingly when I wake up in the morning it takes some time for it to come back. It is not there immediately. I need to sit down with a coffee and relax in to it. For the rest of the day it is usually with me and it is quite easy to zoom out to it whenever i want. Yesterday i went to see a movie with my wife, i could watch most of it in zoom out state and it was beautiful. I was mainly in amazed state not because the movie was good but because I had realisation of the miracules that come out of no-thing and how absolutely fantastic the world is seen from this new perspective. I have new understanding of what laughing Buddha means 🙂 How silly it was to think that deepening in to Fundamental Wellbeing was a serious business. Life surprised me again, I never expected such an intense fun and lough when transitioning deeper. it makes me smile again whenever i think of it.”

“I certainly felt a change that occurred mid way through. Initially I felt it may simply be ‘me’ and not the course. Indeed, I kept denying it was the course. However, on reflection, I do feel it was the content of the course and my usage of it. The change occurred slowly but in essence it has been and is one that is best described as a send of ‘everything is ok’. The ups and downs that occur daily – still do occur – but seem so much more trivial. For reasons that remain unclear. I awaken daily feeling clam, collected and most of the day unphased. I am more motivated and ‘happier (although this is not the correct word)’. I am more enamoured with meditation and try as much as I can to do it daily. Even with this – I seem no longer to do it for a pursue a goal but simply enjoy the process”

“I see awakening as a combination of – a gradual sinking into deep peace – a gradual falling away of false identity Both are happening in an accellerated way since being with my spiritual teacher over the past 3 years. This course has added glimpses of non-dual awareness and has solidified my experience and understanding of this underlying sense of OKness. I regard myself in location 1 at this point.”

“My story is pretty simple. I think I actually started this course at Location 1. When we went from the first part of the course into the second is when I gradually flowed into Location 2. I was starting to feel this renewed sense of OK-ness with the Method 9 and Method 10. For a number of weeks, I sank and deepened into these two meditation practices. Then came the Noting and Method 13. I had an experience with the dyadic portion of Method 13 that made me giddy. I thought too I was falling in love with my partner, and it felt mental, physical, emotional and sexual. It was an amazing feeling. We are continuing to do this exercise together because we both feel it is beneficial to our happiness and deepening.”

“I had my doubts when I first started finders course. I still had the believe deep down that awakening could only happen after years of struggle and decades of practice. My awakening was gradual and had a couple rough spots. When I transitioned to location 1 (40% into FC), I felt great for a couple days (I did not know I was even at location 1 at the time) then oscillations began. I did all the exercises and meditation as the program subscribed and it just happened 🙂 Even with the oscillations my well being went higher and higher and felt better and better. I eventually transitioned to location 2 and now I’m in location 3. Although I’m still having quite a bit of oscillation from time to time my overall well being has skyrocketed. I fundamentally feel like a different person, in a profound and wonderful way! I feel I’m at the beginning of a larger exciting journey!”

“The day after I committed to the Finders Course, one week before it started I deepened my meditation immensley. I believe in energy and felt it around the course. After a week it was clear I had arrived at what I now understand to be Location 1. My narrative self was silenced. It was so refreshing, like how it had been after 10 days silence at Vippassna meditation. It wasn’t a big aha moment it was more a gradual increase in my well being to the point where it did not go away. I have been sick once for a few days and my Fundamental Wellbeing did fluctuate during that time, but it returned when I became well again. I believe i had been visiting location one ever since I was 8 years old and have had a few peak experiences, but what happended during the course is it stuck. Very happy about that am I!”

“When I started the Finders Course I was a pretty happy content person. I signed up for the course in hopes of becoming enlightened. I had a conceptual idea of what that would look like and I had a sense that only certain lucky individuals would reach such a state. I entered the Finders Course with an open mind and a commitment to diligently try everything that the program suggested. I must say that there was no dramatic event that I had that I can pinpoint that resulted in my Fundamental Wellbeing More than half of the program I doubted that anything was really happening for me. However, I noticed that my sense of well- being increased slowly and my confidence increased. I felt a sense of stability and groundedness that was unwavering even in stressful situations. I initially contributed it to the hour long daily meditation that was required which helped quiet my typical mind chatter. My conditioned mind would question and doubt the changes noted but I kept noticing the constancy of the experience. The feelings that persisted was a familiar feeling I had as a child. It felt like I had a best friend that never left my side, which felt safe, calm and loving. I liked the weekly change of methods because it prevented me from getting bored and I noticed the effects of each method on my experience. It felt like each method built on the other and they resulted in my being less identified with my conditioned mind or ego self. The changes were subtle but insidious. I found the group awareness exercise, Method 10 and Method 9 were the three most powerful methods exercises that experientially awakened me to my constant sense of beingness. It was through these methods that my trust in what I was experiencing was established. I can honestly say that I experientally know that everything that I am seeing appears in awareness and is awareness. I must be honest that I am still hijacked by my conditioned mind, at times, and I lose this knowing but I can easily quiet myself and reconnect to my sense of beingness, very quickly. This results in a calmness and a sense of knowing that all is well even if the circumstances look terrible, and that what is occurring is, what is, without argument. This sense of knowing helps me have an experience that what is happening is supposed to happen because everything is connected and whole. My anxiety and fear has dramatically decreased and my sense of well being is more solid and grounded into something beyond my physical body. I am actually more involved in activities because my attention is more in the moment rather than being distracted with worries or referencing dialogue. I have a strong desire to deepen these experiences in the future so I am not as effected by my conditioned mind. So I can say I didnt have any spectacular event that occurred but I had a gradual transition that has resulted in remarkable changes.”

“I recognize now that I came into the Finders Course with some significant expectations based on the meditation systems I had been exposed to. Specifically, I wanted to achieve stream entry or “first path” in the Theravada tradition. While I didn’t find these, I was able to find a deep sense of stillness and relaxation consistent with Jeffery’s definition of Location 1. It’s been ongoing for the last few weeks. In a sense, I found something else that I forgot I was seeking. I’ve found (via direct experience) that meditation is a path that can take you all the way to higher and more lofty Locations. It’s like I have been wandering through the woods talking to people about a trail the leads to the top of the mountain. People have been describe the view from the top, I’ve taken it on faith their descriptions are accurate. During this course, I’ve found the path. I can see that it does indeed go to the top of the mountain. While I recognize it may take considerable work to get there, I no longer feel like I am wandering “lost” in the woods.”

“I’ve already had an experience of no-self in the past (a glimpse), with the help of Liberation Unleashed, and my experience now is different from that. But I’m sure that something has changed, and I’m really grateful for that. Thank you so much. Here is what happened: In the first night, after I practicing the Method 10 method, I had an incredible experience, that I believe was a temporary experience of Location 3, or the so called kundalini, I dont’t know. There were waves of gratitude flowing through my body, and everything was fascinating. I’ve never did psychedelics and still don’t, so I’ve never experienced nothing even similar to that. This experience lasted for hours, but was gone when I wake up in the next day. After practing Method 10 for some more days, it came back, but in a more soft way. There was no more a seer in the experience, just seeing. And the same applied for hearing, there was no one doing that, there were just the sounds. Everything was more beautiful, in high resolution, and colors and plants shined. The spaciousness of everything was also incredible. And there was a great sense of wonder, when looking at nature. Sometimes there was also an impression that everything was made of consciousness. That the walls and every object was a construction in consciousness. Sometimes there was also a strange and almost scary feeling of being in a dream. Thoughts stickied less, but were still common, and I could experience all range of emotions. Especially in work situations, I could notice the zoom-in that happened, and all the emotions and mannerisms that emerges when going back in those clusters of conditioning. This experience had lasted for weeks. After that, the experience had softened more, and part of that is maybe because I had got used to it. What I experience now is this absence of a seer, a more loose center in the experience, and also generally this okayness in relation to what is happening. Still there is some doubt that I’m the thinker or the body, but sometimes I have a sense of being this knowing-space, or part of a flow without a separate self.”

“During the last weeks of the course I had been relatively sure that I am in Location 1, so I can at at least describe how that came about. I have never had a special awakening moment that would change my life from one second to another. Change for me took place very slowly and gradually. I think it started with the Erazer Method, noting gone with the breath. During one meditation my mind fell completely silent for a couple of minutes. When I experienced this I decided to try to sustain this as good as possible after the meditation ends. Thats when I started to watch my thoughts and try to not follow any thought streams as good as possible. I continued doing this till the end of the course, almost all the time and it worked quite well. My mind got more and more quiet with fewer and also less sticky thoughts. The quieter my mind got, the more this timeless, awake presence moved into the foreground. Before the course I had these moments, too. But I didnt know anything about this awareness and simply overlooked it. Mainly thanks to GAE and Headless I now knew that this presence is what I was actually looking for and that I am supposed to go into that. This in turn led to a further reduction in thoughts and with that also less suffering, more peace and just less sticky emotions in general. During my best days there were many times when thoughts were only fleeting whispers in the background and this awareness moved so much to the foreground that it almost felt like time stood still. During all of this the identification with my body (this feeling that MY mind is quiet etc.) still remained, though. And on busy or stressful days when my mind got more active this presence moved far into the background again. I also never considered myself a Finder, as occasionally there is still suffering going on and there is also e.g. a strong longing to experience non-duality.”

“Through a series of experiences I think I have transitioned to Fundamental Wellbeing. The first instance was an acknowledgement that the GAE was effective when I heard Douglas Harding talk about coming home. This sense of coming home was prevalent right from the first GAE I participated in, that feeling brought tears to my eyes. The next unique experience was also during a GAE when I felt awareness was being supportive, this confused me and I began to laugh, then laugh uncontrollably, I had to leave the room and I was on the floor laughing (literally rofl). Initially I interpreted the laughing as a defense mechanism, or self protection, now I interpret the laughing as a release. Shortly after this I began to notice my wellbeing jumped to a much higher level. Then during a Method 10 dyad I discussed a traumatic experience that occurred when I was 20, the questioning lead to a release, and I have not experienced guilt, nor depressive thoughts related to that incident. Im amazed that the 40 years of guilt reactions Ive had whenever Im triggered about that incident have been released so completely. Again during a dyad I went into a deep state of relaxation and I perceived that the furniture in the room was breathing with me, I also thought there was some sort of stickiness was perceivable that connected me to animate and inanimate objects. Since then Ive had similar experiences being in concert with the furniture, and noticing ripples or waves in the connecting medium. Another thing that Ive noticed is at times a knowing, or certainty about things. That everything is ok, that Im able to communicate from a distance, that my thoughts/prayers are received, regardless of their effectiveness or immmediate impact. The best effect for me is the high level of wellbeing that Im experiencing.”

“Even though I think I’m now in L1, I don’t really have a “story” to share. There was no single big moment, but it was a process and sequence of events.”

“My transition to Fundamental Wellbeing was very intuitive. I can distinctly noticing a different feeling in my chest growing, as the uneasy, dreadful, anxious empty and moving sensations dissipated. One day I felt this sensation of okayness, stillness, completeness, warmness and fullness growing, I expanded it during meditation by concentrating on it and letting it grow, accepting and welcoming it, until over the course of a few days and nights I was always possessing that feeling, being absorbed in it. I stopped worrying, I let go of the impatience. Over the course of one month or more, I felt that that sensation, that fullness had merged with the world around me, that it was everywhere, and that I was a part of Everything, nothing was ever wrong, there was no more searching I was already at the place I needed to be, I did not need to look, I could enjoy any setting and stress did not effect my inner peace. The world was vivid and I was beholding it all. I felt that I was nowhere, and everywhere. The persistent smile was lost one day, I felt myself become stoic, the emotions were not felt, the highs and lows ceased to matter. The body was not an object of awareness, my relationships were fine, but I was not effected by the good company, I felt nothing in my chest, I felt almost nothing in my body, nothing was wrong, and not much seemed real, immediate, or as before. The thoughts of past and future were constantly vanishing before they arrived. When I closed my eyes for meditation, there was not impact, no change, nothing to contact and touch, nothing to behold and no journeys to take. Something was wrong, but I could not feel it as wrong, For several days I felt as if I may soon be on the verge of tears, but could not feel sad, and could not feel any magical presence. So, I waited and tried to grab a hold of any beautiful moments, any feelings of joy, they too vanished quickly, until I was able to grab a hold of one, although it felt put on and fake, I stayed with the feeling, smiled, began to feel something glowing in my chest again. The next day I awoke, and noticed I had returned to a different place, it felt real, I felt the peace, I felt emotion. The world and I were separate and that was okay, I didn’t feel as magical as before, things did not seem as automatic, but music was able again to stir my heart, and I felt that I was again called to participate in the world. Everything is fine, but less magical, and more human, there’s less flow, less mystical and spiritual moments, I feel like I am again doing and living although I do not know what I am, I just know that I can always contact the same presence and the same wakefulness that is inside.”

“I don’t have a story about transitioning to Fundamental Wellbeing during the course. Something happened, but I couldn’t tell you when (maybe my weekly updates could, but I don’t remember). My “bells and whistles” awakening experience happened in 2006 and I have already outlined that. What the course did was pull me more solidly into Location 1. After reading Jeffrey’s book I realised I have probably been in Location 1 (or perhaps in and out of it?) since my experience in 2006. Because in that experience I landed in Location 3 (with elements of L4), I thought (after the “me” came back) that that was awakening and I “lost” it. But things were never the same for “me” after that experience. I was never one to fear death, but even after the sense of self came back I had lost all fear of death. I knew that whatever was happening was OK, that it was all “god/divine”, even when things were shitty. And mostly I had a sense of calm or peace underlying everything. There was also much more of a welcoming of all the humanness of life. I had seen so clearly that it didn’t even matter if I was “awake” or not, that it was all equal, all one, all the divine dancing. So I started to just play in life (because all seeking dropped away and what else was there to do?) and without me noticing the “me” reconstructed itself. I find it so hard to say what the course has given me because it has been so subtle. Some of it is not at all subtle (like no interest in things I was formerly passionate about), but I couldn’t tell you exactly what has happened or when. I’m a bit in no-mans land. I’m OK there, but basically I think I have seen pretty well what I am not, but only getting glimpses of what I am or just not abiding there. Basically I’m not living from that awakeness/beingness all the time, but that’s OK. It’s not the non-dual seeing of 2006 where I was everything and no-thing and there was love and perfect intimacy (because no separation) and stillness, aliveness and peace. But I’m being with what’s here, what’s showing up, I’m not madly seeking or anything. So that’s my non-story. Something happened. I don’t really know what. There was no big bang, just gradual insights and deep fundamental changes I can’t put my finger on.”

“I think I have transitioned to Fundamental Wellbeing during the course but there is no awakening story to tell. I wasn’t sure if I had transitioned for quite a while because I think I had my own imaginations about transitioning or awakening. I knew that a transition could happen very subtle but I thought that I would realise it when it happened. I had some `newexperiences during the course as for example during the group awareness exercises or during the noting exercises. During those exercises I had experiences of silence and no thought, also I had experiences of a deep relaxation and joy and peace. I often had the impression that time would stand still and as if there was a great spaciousness. Also it always felt as if something would tune in- another reality or something I cannot really describe. At the beginning I thought I would make it up or That it was just some kind of relaxation. By the time these experiences became deeper and stronger and it felt as if I were in some kind of trance. Also the other group members realised it as well and by the time it tuned it straight away by starting a session. One time when I sat still on the sofa I had a very loud ear noise and all of a sudden it was completely silent in my head and I went blank though everything else was quite normal. I stayed in that state for nearly an hour. It appears unexpected and since that time I never had it again. By reading the finders book and by watching the QNA Videos I realised that I must have transitioned. I felt more happy, didn’t worry so much and didn’t have so many self referential thoughts. Also my memory changed and I sometimes had a different perception of things. Pretty much everything that is described for early location one seemed to fit. At present I sometimes wonder if I have lost it again or if it is just in the background. Also I might have gotten used to this new state. We don’t do GAE any more at the moment, so I don’t experience NSE very much. I am in the meditation course at present to keep up with practising and see if I’m still in location one. There never was a `clear awakening` or an instant change of perception. Also there is a strong sense of “I”. My believe system seems to have changed a little and sometimes I do understand things on a different level. I feel much more content with my life and I’m often grateful and happy. I wasnt really down or depressed since Ive started the course and I accept and love myself much more than before. Also little informations sometimes seem to be fitted into a greater picture. I see things different than before the course. Thoughts don’t have that power over me any more and I often feel `headless` in a sense of feeling that there is space instead of a head. A lot of synchronicity still seem to happen as well and I don’t have that massive urge to get somewhere. I would like to get more to myself or to get more aware of what I really am. Sometimes I do understand pointers I’ve read or heard long time before on a different level now. I am so grateful that a course like this is offered and that I was allowed to participate.”

“I don’t feel like I have have had an acute (nondual) awakening, but I think it’s likely in the cards. According to Jeffery’s description and course video, etc, I meet all of the requirements (off the charts) of being Fundamental Wellbeing location <something>, including memory decline, etc. I presume L1, maybe L1+, although L2 seems indistinguishable except for degree, and there are no objective measures of degree in either description. I have become a really solid meditator. I just competed a week of silent meditation with Adya, and it was easy for me to drop in and stay in state and power through 4-5 hrs/day of meditation. Some meditation sessions yield blissful samadhi, although that is not really my goal. After lots of meditation, some days I walk around in a bit of a daze, kinda spaced out. I am still figuring out what this means, whether I like it, and whether it constitutes “progress”. My partner says I am way more present and visibly happier.”

“Actually it began before FC, I’ve been doing TMI for 1.5 years and got some mindfulness outside of meditation. Then one week before New Year I had a serious trouble in relationships, objectively it wasn’t serious, but at that time it was for me. That day and I was in a lot of emotional pain, next morning too, it was impossible to suppress or distract myself from it, so I figured out that I pain is result of me being human and previous conditioning, and since I can’t get rid of it I’ll just be with it and watch it. At that moment suffering disappeared mostly completely. That was the first major insight. The next day I felt like the border between me, other people and world disappeared, and everything was very closely connected to “me”. During next 2 weeks suffering returned from time to time, I’ve remembered the insight, it kicked in and did it work. Suffering returned mostly during periods of weak mindfulness, like after just waking up in the morning, or while being half-awake during brief periods at night. Then FC started. After first week I went on vacation in Finland. It was pretty chill in all senses. The next day after first GAE it occured to me several times watching awareness with awareness, it was somehow different. After that I re-caled it from time to time, several times a day. There was no impact on emotions, but they were mostly positive due to external circumstances. I think it took about 1 – 1.5 month until I could be somewhat sure that something changed. It was probably Location 1. Everything was pretty easy, not much negative emotions, even in situations where I’d have damaging negative thought loops before, up to arising of desire to off myself. 2 weeks ago I began tracing craving / aversion during daily life and suffering that immidiately follows, and as a result there were mostly no negative emotions and total love. Though well-being got a down-swing when I was told by a fellow startuper that there is a new lead and our mostly dead startup can receive investitions. It was like, noo, I’ll have to work again. Not much negative emotions just energy drain surge. It resolved in 3-4 hours. Several days after I found out that I could be very drained emotionally and it makes very difficult to communicate with close people, but it still feels ok.”

“It was a wonderful Tuesday. One of those spring days when summer is somehow to be felt around the corner. Just a few days or weeks more, she, the Summer whispers. Self Inquiry with coffee at the terrace in the afternoon was my answer to her call. Somehow the expansion out into oneness with nature brought the notion, that lazy coffee drinking mediation is really enjoyable. Later, sitting on my sofa in the early evening, the thought that I should fulfill the quota of drilling into and beyond my identifications soon was replaced by a response to another nice invitation .. Sofa said: what about a nap? One can not say no to such an invitation, can one? Suddenly I woke up, maybe 5 or 10 minutes had passed, and I remembered that I wait a minute .. I ? Hello, I an echo is perceived, but no I responds. Strange, let me .. (try again) but also me is fairly empty. Funny, what is going on? Sit still and just think. Ok, thats Ok, that works. Good. Now, think of: I have .. (an appointment) .. sorry wrong number again. I is not at home, presently out for lunch or something, but you can just stop addressing I, there is no such thing around. The internal echo whenever I or me is thought of, seems to come from a space the size of some eight to ten heads (of my physical head size). Ok, it is funny, or something like funny, some thing realizes. It was actually really enjoyable, I can now remember. And somewhat dry at the same time. Funny-dry. So this should then be awakening? The question came from somewhere .. Hmm, there is still the body around. It looks, it feels, it is the same. The sound of that voice through the head is also well known good old ‘John’ voice. There is no red carpet or big band playing .. just a little loss of I:ness. That was the 17th of April, the sofa thing was shortly before seven pm. Since then John:ness has returned, and three times I though I had really lost it, but by now I know that loosing it is just the preparation for loosing even more John:ness. Its an ongoing adjustment between John:ness and whatevertocallit:ness Somewhere around the tenth of May the focus on burning through old stuff changed to just joyously growing into more no-thing-ness. Occasionally I need to remember myself of letting go of problem-solving, including that I or any part of I can in any way be problematic or unwanted. Its just a matter of re-framing, seeing the intelligent hint in any given confrontative situation or memory, past or present. Mostly John can go through a whole day without any specific notion of being enlightened. Meeting with other people did though bring on the realization of not being while talking and listening is immensely freeing. And closing the eyes .. bit by bit the notion of someone mediating, watching breath or anything like that is replaced by space and emergence. // End of story as of now.”

“I think I first touched into a location one back in late 2013 during a hypnosis therapy session. The technique used was dubbed “rapid resolution” and was a narrative based process. I was seeing a specialist because of large trauma from my past surfaced. The reason why I am writing this is because the process of the hypnosis was to “trick” my self-referential mind into realizing that what it kept thinking was happening, the resurfaced trauma, was not happening. The treatment, lets call it, was one of accessing a state of stillness or being which is and has always been unaffected by trauma, and noticing everything that was happening within the body/mind was happening outside of that unaffected self or state of being. It was a process of organization around how the narrative self is only responding to the past or the future. Once getting clear that there is a “core-self” and that mind/body is responding to something within the past. A deep sense of peace and “okayness” came over me, and my mind drastically reduced in thinking and increased in positive wellbeing, my life felt actualized. This experience was like a light switch turning on, and the world came into focus and connection and peace. However, this state was lost overtime, pushed into the background, covered by years of conditional emotional habits and behavior, yet the memory of that “okayness” stuck with me. Not until the Finder’s Course have I been able to tap back into that “okayness.” I was not meditating often, or actively creating a calm state of awareness which to drop into before starting the course. I had not trained myself to know how to find that state of “okayness.” In the course as I continued to focus more and more on this state of awareness certain parts of my being were lightly triggered by the past traumas, yet by and large I was able to process through them on my own having developed context for the traumas. Yet, very quickly, my being recalled, “YES! there is, there is that place of calmness, stillness, I remember.” Yet It was fleeting for weeks. Pretty immediately during the Erasure meditation did my body sink into a calm state and a zooming out of awareness across my body and pushed the boundaries outside of my body. As the course progressed a new sense of spaciousness developed. A sense of intimate distance between “me” and objects outside of “me” grew. There was one General Awareness Exercise where every thing dropped away and I felt that intimate aliveness with the objects around me, yet feeling like there was a distance, rightly because I tried to reach out and was unable to physical touch them, but I knew them as “me” or I as them, I suppose I can also say. This spaciousness ebbs and flows from more and less intense. I have not found the pattern. More importantly, the Lester Love exercise and the Method 11 Mediation were the two techniques which truly pushed me to the state which i am in now. Something about the process of centering on feelings, or emotions of love and appreciation has over the course changed this body/mind. I would say this because they provoked the greatest internal dialogue, physical response, uncomfortableness, flow sensations and peace within my being. I am unable to point point an exact moment where I settled into a a more stabilized state of ONE using these exercises, because it has been a gradual change. What is different, is a easier access to a deep whole body sense of “okayness” all I have to do is take a deep breath and I can pin point something which enlivens to the present moment. Visually when my eyes are closed there are images of bodies, and figures, and glowing centers where hearts would be within them. The images are of others or of myself. Just human forms arise thus far. Often when zooming in on these experiences there are flow sensations in sections of my body. This is were my experience has remained. As for now, my thinking patterns have shifted drastically away from any negative, shame based thinking, or self referencing memories. While these thoughts do arise during the day depending on circumstances they linger but for a few moments. Most of my day is kinda own the reality that peace is what this moment is, its just the sitting here, and feeling safe, content, and grateful.”

“When we started doing the headless method I immediately experienced some shift in consciousness. Over the week I was able to increasingly experience an expansiveness as I did the exercise. The following week when we did inquiry exercise I had some strong peak experiences where I blended into the visual world around me. As I continued to utilize these methods over the following weeks I increasingly found myself able to call upon this expansive state. After some peak experiences of seeing that I am consciousness and beyond that experiencing formlessness and emptiness it was so evident me that nothing is real, it is all consciousness. This consolidated my feelings of wellbeing, namely it added evidence to a new core belief; nothing matters. Any problem I may encounter, it does not matter, nothing matters. Since this expansion I have been having a lot of strong sensations and sometimes pain in my body therefore I am using the mantra technique daily to bring an openness to my heart. I see two paths, the non duality path, and the heart opening path. I am trying to hold these two paths open simultaneously. Now the sense of self osculates and expands and contracts. There is a sense of nothing matters. I have realized how much I dislike my job, there is no passion or hunger for things, but equally there is little distaste for anything.”

“The daily gratefulness exercises, the Lester Levenson method were key for me to transform my negative memories and thoughts into positives ones. The Method 9 provided a shift in my perspective of how I see myself and distinguish myself from my world body. The group awareness exercises and Method 10 method further strengthened this shift in perspective and enabled me to transition to location 1 where my fear, anxiety and worry dissipated to allow a peaceful awareness and a sense of OK’ness and a resiliency to any negative events I encounter every day.”

“On July 11, 2015 I choose to enroll into the Finders Course 6 to be taught by Dr. Jeffery Martin. By September 5th, at Mid-Course, I had transitioned into Location 3 with a Persistent Fundamental Wellbeing living in a state Pure Bliss, Joy and Happiness. However, during the second half of the Finders Course I started loosing ground and eventually finished at a Location between 1 and 2 but grateful that I had remained in Fundamental Wellbeing. I then chose to retake the entire Course by enrolling into Finders Course 8. I was able regain ground and achieve Location 3 which I was able to sustain. I then took Explorers Course and gradually transitioned into Location 4. My plan was to take Finders Course 10g for Alumni with hopes to sustain a Fundamental Wellbeing in Location 3, 4 or 5+. During this course I deepened into Location 4 and eventually became a “Fluid 4” with the capacity to transition between locations.”

“My transition started with the GAE practices inside and outside of the group. Very quickly, I began noting awareness outside of the group practices with my husband in a cafe and while outside at a park. A few days later, I knew something was happening and had shifted as I went for a walk with a friend who was completely unaware of my transitioning. I had sat in meditation earlier that day. By the end of the hour long eraser method using the breath, everything was completely still and effortless. I slowly opened my eyes maintaining that silence. Then waited to move because I wanted to maintain that silence and stillness. I continued through my life at home staying connected to it. By the time I went for the walk, my mind was quiet and still and the world was vibrant. A complete sense of peace was everywhere. As the days progressed that week, I found myself constantly in a state of stillness and peace. By Saturday, my mind was so still that in my group check-in that I shared with them that inside and outside of meditation was the same. That evening my family had several different places to be almost at the same time. Normally, I would have long conversations with my husband and daughter trying to figure out the logistics ahead of time. I had no interest in doing any sort organizing of having any sort of control. Completely detached from making things happened, everything happened perfectly with no need to do anything in particular. That evening, my sleep was disturbed and by morning, my mind had become noisy and unruly. I was deeply disappointed that I had lost the place I had arrived in. Continuing the practices, I was always able to zoom out to awareness. It was never lost even when I was struggling for several days with extreme exhaustion from my chronic fatigue and my mind was grasping again at self. As the second half of the course arrived, the Method 9 and Method 10 practices began to work their magic. Grasping to me and mine was lessened. The Method 10 session with a partner lifted a final piece. There was a moment as my mind grasped at the impossible and improbable. I felt or sensed this feeling of a key turning to unlock a secret door and what was not needed and not necessary completely fell away. What was now present was a deep sense of unity and oneness and what was there before could never be mistaken again as reality. As I continued on in my day, I began searching to see if any sense of boundaries still existed between a me and other or even a thing. Everywhere I searched all was the same. There was no true boundary at all. This is not to say that things appear the same. They certainly appear very differently and have shape, color and more. However, the illusion had completely fallen away and I continue to be in that space of unity and oneness. The stillness and silence is always there and clinging to a me and story is not at all interesting. I still do grasp at times to planning and organizing and arranging. For now, this is totally fine and I am okay to have settled into a slightly different place from where I first landed. For the remainder of the course, the new practices helped to stabilize and settle me further with the transition. I believe as I continue, the practices will change and adjust as I transition further along the path. There will be more places to arrive and more illusion to shed. I am very thankful for the course and the amazing toolkit of practices that are now in my hands.”

“My story is somewhat simple. I took FC9 and got to Location 1.”

“I started off Finder’s Course quite skeptical about its ability to do anything for me. My husband had taken it, and transitioned, and he convinced me to take the course. I had previously been extremely resistant to meditation, due mostly to people constantly telling me I should meditate, plus a few negative experiences when I tried (like when I went to a meditation meetup group, and asked if there was advice about how to not fall asleep, and was met with the response “well if you’re falling asleep, you’re not doing it right.” Thanks, Captain Obvious, I knew that much). Also, I am very much not “crunchy granola,” and I associated meditation with that type of person. However, my husband is very practical, not at all prone to any new-age type stuff at all, and I heard all sorts of amazing things that were happening for him. So in a moment of deep unhappiness, I said what the hell, and signed up the next day before I had a chance to think about it too much. The idea of meditating for an hour a day was extremely daunting. The first few times I meditated, I fell asleep despite doing everything I could think of to stay awake. I finally broke through that by doing walking meditation in the park, where the combination of movement, fresh air, and the accountability given from the presence of other people at the park helped me immensely. After that, I was able to meditate sitting down inside, although my best meditation sessions still occurred at the park, sitting on a quiet bench. I had decided I would go through all the motions, do all the required actions, but not invest my mind in what I was doing. Weeks went by and I didn’t feel any better, still disliked my meditation sessions, but as I proudly reported to my husband, I didn’t die. Then I learned about the Lester Levinson Love technique, and I decided to try it while sitting in a parking lot. My husband had gone into Kaiser to pick up a prescription, and he locked me in his car. I wasn’t sure if his car had an alarm and I didn’t want to find out by opening the door, so I was stuck. (Fortunately it was February and chilly!) I thought he would be back quickly, but I wanted to get some stuff off my to-do list, so I decided to try out the Love technique. I did it mentally, since obviously I didn’t have a list with me. I tried my best, did it for about an hour (it turned out that getting the prescription filled took much longer than we expected–almost 2 hours!), and I felt something shift in me. Then I did my meditation afterward, and I felt amazing. It was this magical, wonderful feeling, and I was just so HAPPY. It was super unexpected, but I knew something was up because who likes sitting for 2 hours in a parked car and feels elated after? The next day I was amazed at just how amazing I felt. I was so happy and blissful. The next days were pretty much like that too, so I made the mistake of decreasing my depression/anxiety medication. Then I did my taxes. And boom, back to nothing. Overnight, gone. I was so bummed out! I increased my dose again and worked and worked but for weeks and weeks, nothing. Finally I feel like the noting resonated with me. I found that group and dyatic sessions were much more powerful for me, and particularly once I started doing dyatic noting with someone who had transitioned, it was so powerful. We resonated so well, and he was very helpful in pointing out that he thought I had transitioned, although I hadn’t realized it. After he pointed it out, I realized that yes, actually I do have a feeling of deep peace, and feel like everything is okay, and that negative events kind of slide off my back in a way they had never done before. But it was hard to say because my overall wellbeing had increased so much over the course of Finder’s Course. Since I realized I had transitioned, I have continued to do once or twice-weekly sessions with the same partner, and every time I feel like I gain some new insight or feel better. He even helped me work out some deep conditioning, and after a rather painful session on my part (as I realized I was grieving something I had never grieved before), I had a blissful next session, followed by about 3-4 days of absolute joy, pleasure, happiness and bliss. That was a week ago. It gradually faded, and I feel like I need to “top up,” and I am currently feeling a bit stressed out about things completely unrelated to Finder’s Course. But I know in the past I would have been flipping out over everything going on (not even that much, but I used to always be quite tightly wound), and would probably be experiencing more stress on my marriage (my husband’s type B personality has grated on my type A personality much in the past when I am stressed). I think i am actually handling things decently well, and I don’t have even half or a quarter of the anxiety I experienced before.”

“My transition to Fundamental Wellbeing was subtle. I don’t feel that I really had a moment where I suddenly transitioned. However, around week 5 in the course I had an experience where I was talking with friends and felt that words just flowed out of my mouth without any pre-thought and it seemed as though I was hearing myself speak. My mind was incredibly clear, the sharpness of my vision increased, and I had an increased sense of wonderment. If I had to say that I transitioned it a certain point, it would be at this time. Ever since this point I’ve felt like aspects of this experience became my new normal, but overall it’s been difficult to keep it feeling permanent since my mind appears to continually be de-conditioning itself, introducing stress. Overall though, I feel like I am solidly in location 1 with glimpses of location 2.”

“Although I had been living from the place of Fundamental Wellbeing since 2008 after a Vipassana, life circumstances pulled me out of that state several years ago. Although meditating and grounding myself in my meditation practice, this was not enough to get me back to that place of equanimity, flow, and beingness. It was at the Transtech Conference that became clear that I wanted to try something different than attending another 10-day Vipassana retreat. The first 10 weeks of the course left me without any changes in existence. This said I was also experiencing still a lot of changes with my life partner that created states of dysregulation. It was not until we engaged in the Method 9 that I began experiencing glimpses of quietness and stillness within me. When practicing with my group, I would also experience times where my brain literally shut down (almost as if I was out or falling into a deep sleep). Nothing prevailed in those moments and unfortunately, I had no consciousness either. It was in week 11 with Method 10 that I jumped to a location 4 state where I had no more emotions and life circumstances no longer affected me. This was similar to an experience I had upon my return from my first Vipassana when I became bewildered at witnessing people’s suffering. This jarred me in that I became perplexed at how could we live in a world without compassion. My experience of location 4 was deeply welcomed as I had lived with suffering for over 3 years and was content in knowing that I was finally moving out of that space. My experience lasted a week and I felt nothing bothered me and I had no desire to help others in need and was simply content with all that existed. I perceived all experiences as neither good or bad and simply was an expression of life. There was no longing to change anything nor help to relieve suffering in others. The contrast in my emotional state gave me the sense that I was cold-hearted yet free from all binds. I no longer had attachments to my life partner nor affected by his midlife crisis. The week after, we were invited to step into a deeper heart opening practice with the Mantra. This experience had me fall back into a lower state of Fundamental Wellbeing where I ended up reconnecting with my emotional states (including compassion). With that, this also pulled me back into re-experiencing other aspects of emotions… and hop ….with a flash I was catapulted out of Fundamental Wellbeing again. It was not until I removed myself from my home environment (which created a continuous loop of trauma) that I was able to drop back into a location 2 and 3 of Fundamental Wellbeing. This time, what one may call difficult emotions had been stripped away to leave room for a more calmer tat-d’tre. The appreciation of life emerged as a deeper sense of calm permeated my body. It is now a few weeks since the class ended and I am still living in that place. At times I see my body respond to stressors or step into a fear response yet this time I witness it from a distance without letting it run my life. I am grateful for your support and commitment in making this world a better place as I continue to anchor myself with my daily practice .”

“Gradually I remembered my true nature, awareness. I realise I’m not a person, just playing one for the time being. Also I lost interested in stories about my self and others, so I keep this writing short. I just am.”

“I first discovered the Method 9 in 2008 and it changed my life. This didnt happen on retreat or in nature or any place like that. I was working at a project with my least favorite client of all time, the IT center of a large bank in Cincinnati. I tried to tell other people about this because is seemed so simple and obvious, but reactions ranged from glazed looks to hostility. My then husband, who was generally tolerant of my spiritual practice, was really upset by it. I dont know if it was because of a fear of alienating friends and losing my marriage or something else, but it seemed that after a couple of weeks the ability to see disappeared (even though that could never be entirely true). But, despite that, since that time Ive know that enlightenment/awakening/ whatever you want to call it, is real. I would still do the experiments from time to time and even went to one of Richard Langs workshops in Chicago last year. When weve done the group awareness exercises for the Finders Course Ive tried to do them from the headless, faceless Center. When I saw that wed be doing the Method 9 this week, I was initially disappointed because that seemed like something that had run its course for me; but I did all the experiments in the video anyway. But doing the experiments this time again brought that knowing that what I am is everything and nothing. I dont move through the world; the world moves through me. Everything is fundamentally ok and nothing can ever harm me. Ive been crying from a sense of relief. But at the same time, nothing has changed. Im cleaning the kitchen, trying to figure out what to do about the squirrels that have made a nest in the chimney, remembering that my taxes need to be done. I took a business call this morning. I dont know what else to say about this but thought youd want to know.”

“My story was not a big deal. I did what was directed. In the beginning it was a struggle. While I knew things were changing, I still didn’t know if I was on the right track.When we got to mid section and were given Sri Yantra I could feel my brain changing. While reading the book, I realized that it would not be something earth shattering for me. The second part made all the difference. I made use of what was offered. One evening in our GAE, I began to talk about an experience when I headed a shamanic group session. I realized that was probably an expeerience of Fundamental Wellbeing. I wrote about it in my weekly studies. I listened to Jeffrey’s video and realized that yes, it was a location 4 experience. I knew I was on the spectrum. I have bounced around in terms of location. I continue to work with the tools. I have had a bad bout of flu which has slowed me down but I am back at it again. I am now realizing the some of the nuances. I am really not so interested in the location at this stage but rather knowing and experiencing all the finer points of Fundamental Wellbeing.”

“Discussion of Fundamental Wellbeing for me is challenging. At this moment I am feeling immense joy,and the tallest I have felt in my life. People have commented that I appear very grounded, calm and wise. This elevated state of being occurred yesterday and I have woken up with it today. Over the period of the course I have experienced increasing wellbeing, but I have also been triggered by people and how I have perceived the wrongness of their actions. The rigour of the course has probably created some tension and I wonder that now it is finished there has been a relaxing or release into …. As for what level I speculate I am at , right now could be at 3, but this could be quite fluid and only time will tell! I have created a meditation habit and learned wonderful tools. I feel that I have just graduated from a basic level of learning and now we really get to integrate , practice deepen and expand this new way of being. I am extremely excited and grateful to have a local FC alumni group which is meeting up weekly to discuss, deepen encourage and deepen. Thank you so much (big smiley face )”

“I transitioned almost right away, in the first couple of weeks. By June 11, I was very obviously in location 3 because I was feeling ecstasy all the time, brimming and smiling, almost giggly.”

“Soon into the course, I realized I had had a previous experience transitioning into a location several years ago, which was temporary but profound. I didn’t want a return to that to become a ‘goal’ but rather had my journey throughout the FC flow naturally and in whichever direction it would take me. From that moment on, however, ‘something’ permanent stuck with me. An awareness of being in another place then previously experiences had found permanent foothold. That is not to say I don’t get triggered anymore. I do. But an immediate and natural(!) reaction to experience the experienced from a different angle is undeniably there; always there. As the universe does, once we’re better equipped to deal with anything, we seem to get more or a new level to deal with. And this is precisely what happened here as well. New levels of difficult circumstances presented additional challenge to the new status quo. And I HAVE wondered at times whether I had phased out of Fundamental Wellbeing again. But the truth is, although quality and quantity of Fundamental Wellbeing continues to change, reshape, fade and resurface all the time, THAT in itself is permanent. Teh experience will never leave me although I do have to play with or re-negociate with it occasionally. Other times, it is with me in overwhelming completeness asif it is going to stay like that forever. I love the journey. I love being present in Fundamental Wellbeing. I take the challenge of occasionally not being solidly aware of being into Fundamental Wellbeing as part of it all, knowing that this will always be mine, is always with reach even momentarily not being infused by it.”

“My story is rather mundane. I believe I transitioned to location 1 using Robert Scheinfeld’s program Being In Truth. It was the first program that stated that everything is an illusion. I was part of Finder’s Course 4, and transitioned to location 2 with this course plus the help of Joseph Riggio who is an executive coach. The meditation and deconditioning techniques helped with the transition to location 2. In 2018 I also studied Myers/Briggs personality types, and after I discovered the cognitive functions, this caused a huge deconditioning, and a significant deepening into location 2. The cognitive function theory tied all the stuff I learned from the Finders Course and all the other programs I did together. It was amazing. Also, the Grave’s society levels helped as well.”

“Unfortunately nothing dramatic. I believe I’m in Location 1. A gradual lessening of mind chatter both in occurrence and in impact. Best spiritual or mystical experience was during a dyadic inquiry, seeing objects continuously “reveal” themselves to me, feeling like they are here to help, that they are alive, and that all is love. Was great, want to experience it again, or more regularly. Also during dyadic inquiry, felt that I was some large being looking into a bubble of vision, and outside and surrounding this bubble of vision was black space awareness.”

“Going into the course there was an expectation of fireworks and the grand show like had happened on a previous occasion. This time around it was subdued and subtle. People around me noticed it more than I did since from this side the change was gradual, but in hindsight it can be seen. I can’t put my finger on a single moment that would have been the transformation, rather, there was more of a shift in ability to go back and find the quiet center, to sink into awareness even during the storm. A big player in this has been the cancel cancel technique. When driving there is a tendency for my mind to start telling stories of a million different outcomes (mostly bad) and how to prepare for them. The cancel cancel has been instrumental in subdung the chatter and allowing awareness itself to shine its beacon of presence. I have become much less reactive to situations and accepting of reality as it unfolds. Meditations have been instrumental as well, particularly the group ones. There is a stillness and connection that happens with a strong degree of regularity in the deeper states that can be called upon even during day to day life as a reminder of what is true and real. There is still identification with the story and a level of reactivity that coming into the course I had hoped to transcend, but the identification with story has been weakening progressively. There is oscillation, but at least there are the times of being less identified with the story. If I were to have to pick a moment, it would have been on a group awareness call where there was a realization of awareness being the interaction between the objects and it was moving inside of me, and i just had to get up and dace for joy and aliveness and being (a rather short dance, but there was that impulse to move and be alive. Possibly another would have been a couple of weeks ago on a group deep noting call where there was such profound stillness and calmness of being whilst also being completely suffused with life that the connection and being in awareness was incontrovertible.”

“My transition was incremental then finished with an almighty bang! When Jeffery talked in the beginning of the course about starving old neural pathways and feeding new ones I was captivated. Cognitively I had known that concept for a long time, but somehow this time I understood it in a new, profound way and began to consciously starve old patterns using strategies like “cancel, cancel” and the three questions “could you? would you? when?” Each time I used those strategies, I rotated a bracelet I wear on my wrist. This tactile, kinaesthetic adjunct seemed to reinforce the starving of the old pattern. I also followed up each time with labelling replacement behaviours/thoughts which would feed the new neural pathways. At this point, my interventions were strictly cognitive. There was nothing magical about them. I also began the morning and evening exercises and was astounded by the way in which forgiveness increased my sense of well-being. Levinson’s love exercise reinforced this. I’m blown away by the knowledge I can overlay an unsatisfactory experience/memory with a more loving one and change the original. Far Out! Random Acts of Kindness also increased my sense of wellbeing. I discovered a real joy in doing kind stuff for others. This dovetailed nicely with The Method 9 – capacity for the world. As my self-referential thought, narrative, conditioning and prior knowledge decreased, so my single eye capacity for the world increased. With this came a sense of increased freedom and joy. The Method 11 blew my mind and transitioned me into ongoing persistent well-being. The delivery of the instructions by Dr Eason was particularly powerful. I experienced Dr Eason as humble, wise, loving, gentle, encouraging and accepting. The mantras were overwhelmingly loving and positive. My body, which had been disavowed throughout my life, was honoured and accepted. I was unconditionally loved – which was a new experience for me. The inclusion of emotions as well as thoughts enlivened me. It goes without saying that when I experience being truly loved and accepted I can truly love and accept myself – and others. What comes round goes round! This further enables me to be capacity for the world. The mantra asterisks term that has morphed for me over time is “Pure Consciousness”. I’ve come to understand Pure Consiousness is synonymous with Presence. Presence is achieved/experienced when there are no strings attached, no narrative, prior conditioning, attachment, aversion etc. When I am truly present I am Pure Consciousness. This links in with Mindfulness characteristics I find useful and meditate on – Intentional, Flexible, Non-knowing, Non-controlling, Being rather than doing, Observing, Equanimous, Non-judging, Moving rather than static, Moment oriented, Non-attached, Non-averse, Embracing. An aspect of the mantra meditation that works for me is the allowing of thoughts. Dr Eason encouraged staying with thoughts until they dissipated before returning to the mantra. I have found this really enriching and in stark constrast to the Vispassana method of intentionally and equanimously letting thoughts go and returning to the breath. A exciting outcome of the course has been a proliferation of art works. I’m an artist and have had a powerful drive to create collages to visually represent learnings along the way. My favourite sold at a recent exhibition. Others are hung around our house and the houses of alumni. I feel grateful for the inspiration and a body of work to enjoy and remind me of my new learnings. There are more in the pipeline! Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this course – and the scholarship which made it possible.”

“I can’t recall a specific moment when a single transition occurred. But it felt like it gradually occurred over weeks, as a result of the Lester Levenson and Method 11 exercises. During these two exercises, a strong and inescapable persistent feeling of love for everything and a sense of the divine was building strongly and has remained ever since. Also during The Method 9, I had many nondual glimpses, which culminated during the Method 10 group exercise when my partner asked me to look back to find that which was aware of everything – I looked and found just a vast empty, infinite void, but one that was filled with luminosity and love and deep peace. That feeling still remains, to be touched any time I glance at it again, and is kind of just there in the background the rest of the time. Comparing these experiences later during questionnaires at the end of sessions it gradually became clear there was an Fundamental Wellbeing in progress. It also took some of the Q&A videos to clarify that this experience meets the criteria.”

“I’m sorry, I have been coming back to this all week, but I can’t remember the details. This has been much different than I thought it was going to be, but in a way, it is better than what I expected. It feels like things have always been this way, and yet I know that before the course I was in a terrible state of mind most of the time. It’s very simple, there isn’t much to describe. It seems like this is how we are meant to be. I wish that more people could experience it.”

“On Sunday, September 23rd I had a wonderful experience. The two days leading up to that I noticed an increased intensity of emotional states and my reaction to them. It came to a head on Sunday morning. I felt fear rising to the surface of my mind, growing in intensity. I walked downstairs in my house and my son was sitting in a couch cushion and bed sheet cave that my wife made for him. He was inside it watching one of his favorite shows. I slipped into his cave next to him and he smiled and just rested his hand on my head as I lay next to him. The fear was still rising, but it was difficult not to notice the joy that was behind it when I saw him smile. I closed my eyes and the intensity of fear moved to the foreground again. I began noticing the thoughts that typically take me down a path to a panic attack. Then something changed. In that moment I recognized that I had been spending my entire life trying to suppress that sensation and avoid the thoughts that came with the sensation. I was doing those things with tremendous effort. This time, I instinctively tried something different. I removed the thought label ‘fear’ from the equation. Not that I actually removed that thought, I just allowed it and recognized it for what it is. Simply a story cast adjacent to a series of sensations in the body. I then directly faced the sensations and simply allowed them to take place. I didn’t try to stop the sensations or the thoughts. I just watched them. Once I truly allowed them, the power of it faded and there suddenly there was a deep knowledge that wasn’t there before. I, awareness, cannot by harmed by these sensations. They are powerless to the true I. The true I can only experience the sensations and watch the thoughts unfold. There is no need to fight what is just passing through. In a moment, awareness completely understood that the narrative self was just a program of conditioning and that I am something much deeper, greater. I am the same consciousness that allows movement and flow of everything. My being instantly became different. There was an enormous shift of energy flowing through my mind and body and I felt God’s love flowing through my body completely. After some amount of moments, my body stood up and I felt incredible! The fear that clouded my being was replaced with peace and love. I became tremendously grateful for the experience of life. Colors around me became intensely sharp and my peripheral vision seemed enhanced. I walked around the remainder of the day with a deep understanding of who I really am. It was completely perfect. Eventually, the night time came on my day of awakening. I had never experienced such peace before and I suddenly became afraid to lose it. I didn’t want to go to sleep that night, because I was afraid that I would wake up and somehow forget the truth that I had experienced. Finally I did fall asleep. The next morning I woke up and immediately the narrative self kicked on and tried to remind me of its importance. The thoughts seemed to have more power than the day before, but not as much as they did before that. I seemed to experience the body sensations of fear and anxiety that day and the next, but the label and story around it was weakened. I contacted Patti for guidance and we spent some time talking on Tuesday. During our conversation she told me without any hesitation of doubt that I had already transitioned and that I was simply oscillating. She told me that I was in location 2 on Sunday, but not yet stable. Everything that she explained to me that day felt like a warm blanket easing me into the process. She told me to stop trying to regain something that wasn’t really lost. The bell of truth cannot be un-rung. Over the next 48 hours after our conversation, I tremendously reduced my effort and just allowed life to unfold. Somewhere during that time I settled in for a landing in (seemingly) location 1, with hints of location 2 happening progressively more frequently. I feel so much better than I did before. There is a sense of freedom that I have never experienced prior to this, and I know that it is just beginning! I tasted a stronger version of this experience on Sunday, and am looking forward to deepening, but even if I spent the rest of my life right here that would be perfectly fine with me! I feel a renewed sense of focus and energy. I am so happy and thankful for this change. Yesterday I went into a several social situations and felt much more relaxed than normal. The normal yearning to be liked seemed to be much more in the background. With that need for approval fading, the anxiety is largely dissipating. I am still having the body sensations associated with it, but again, they seem to lose power each time they come up for witnessing. Amazing! There is one other thing that I’ll mention. Last night I was completely asleep and had been for hours. I was lying on my side when all of a sudden an energy came over my body that instantly brought me back into awareness. It was a very similar energy to the one that I experienced during the awakening. It was so strong that it seemed to physically turn my body from the side lying position to a supine position. I allowed the intensity to take place and after it began to settle in, it felt as if all of the cells in my body tingling with a very high level of vibration. That was at 2:30 am and afterward I was unable to return to sleep. No matter! I wasn’t upset about losing sleep, it just gave me more of an opportunity to explore. This morning I feel as though I am still in location 1. After last night’s intense experience, I would not have been surprised to wake up in location 2. Intuitively, I sense that the lines between 1 and 2 are blurring. I would not be surprised if I deepened into that soon. I am so thankful for this journey and this course. Absolutely amazing. Fast forward to now: I am still being challenged by deeper branches of conditioning, but their strength is fading. I am dedicated to focusing on the truth and simply submitting as the witness instead of struggling as the controller. The lines between duality and non-duality are blurring. Occasionally, I seem to believe the narrative self and the duality that comes with it, but generally I focus on ‘I am’ and the illusions fade. Negative emotional states are becoming progressively more rare. They only seem to come up around my father and intense work stress at this point. I am enjoying playing the game of recognizing old patterns and simply seeing them instead of purchasing the story.”

“This story is a very simple one. My well-being was relatively high before beginning the course and spiked up even more after the first half. I don’t really know exactly when I transitioned because it was a very subtle change (somewhere towards the end of the course I think). In the last week of the course, I was driving, I stopped at a red light and noticed I hadn’t had any thoughts in the last few minutes, like at all. And I just felt calm. Going throughout my day I would pause and dig down. Every time I did, I would find a sense of emptiness below everything else (sometimes though I have to dig pretty deep). But, it is a positive, calming emptiness. Besides that I’ve noticed everything else is just less ‘sticky’ in general. So I don’t have a story of how it happened, it slowly came into existence. Nonetheless it’s awesome!”

“I don’t have a big dramatic story. Actually, what’s interesting about the FC is I don’t have a transition story, whereas I might have expected one entering it. I entered the course in location 1, and exit it somewhere between the depths of location 1 and the beginnings of location 2. I’ve been exploring nonduality now for 2.5 years, beginning with a temporary Fundamental Wellbeing in June 2016. What’s interesting is that in other contexts, I’ve often had huge shifts where in one moment, suddenly something drops or changes and my perspective vastly shifts. Roughly speaking, these gave me previews of what location 2 was like and one particularly amazing example of what location 3 was like. I also knew intuitively I wasn’t ready to settle into these locations in a persistent way. In this course, I’ve had virtually none of that. I’ve been far more of a diesel train – not very quick, but slowly building up power and momentum and making steady progress. I wouldn’t say there was one technique that for sure guaranteed me access to whichever location I chose, but almost all of them were effective and the most powerful seemed to have a short-term immediate burst of anywhere from 24-72 hours. So I’ve deepened a bunch over the course and am truly grateful for how much it has impacted and benefited me. I think it has set the stage for being able to persistently engage deeper locations. In the meantime, my sense of wellbeing is better than ever and I have a really good platform from which to jump up and live the rest of life. Looking forward to the Explorer’s Course.”

“Like some others, my Transition was not filled with choruses of angels or streaks of heavenly light descending from the heavens. I have been involved for many years in practicing different forms of meditation and other spiritual practices. Over the years, I believe I have been oscillating between Narrative Mind consciousness and varying levels of the different Locations. However, in no other context, did I have a reference for what I was experiencing and how to put it into an understandable progression. Going into the Finders Course, I believe I had pulled myself back into a normal state of consciousness by stopping meditation for over three years and not paying attention to the positive aspects of life. I was depressed, cynical and skeptical. That said, the Finders Course struck a chord in me. After the first few days of the course, I noticed a new spring in my step, a positive outlook and a pervasively good mood. I believe the first Group Awareness exercise was a rocket ship to a higher location for me. That was the first major shift. While I had a few days of oscillations after that, it seemed as though after the next Group Exercise, I was firmly in Location 1. I wasnt sure at the time, but as the course progressed, I realized that this is exactly what happened. During the course I have started to oscillate into Location 2 and Location 3. I have had many such experiences in the past, but as I said before, this is the first time I was able to have a firm understanding of what has been happening to me. I am most grateful.”

“Before finders I spent a lot of my time worrying. I would take at least 3 days to get over my mistakes and. I would mentally beat myself up during that time. In times of stress I would have a constant story playing in my head which made me feel worse. When I got to the part of the course where you can read the book I knew I was in location 1. My life since that point has mostly been okaynes and contentment. My mind is much quieter. I no longer stress over things like I used to. I no longer have much desire for things and am content with what I have. I feel and recognise gratefulness in so much of what I do. I have changed during this course and have no desire to return to what I was. I look forward to deepening further in location 1 or even location 2.”

“There does seem to be an enduring (so far) change. I keep asking my wife if Im different and she says yes definitely. I have told her and FC group members that something is missing that was there when I started the course. Hard to say what it is but Im lighter emotionally. I think the grief and sadness I had been carrying for years has gone or greatly reduced. Also theres much less background anxiety. I definitely get triggered as usual but after awhile I feel calm and pleasant again. Maybe theres less sense of a solid self with the course but Ive had a Swiss cheese experience of self for about three years, ie. more space than cheese and to extend the metaphor the cheese itself is somewhat immaterial. But with that I wasnt happy and often thought to myself I dont know who I am anymore . That not knowing is still there but doesnt seem to bother me too much. This inner emptiness became pleasantly light and fluid at times toward the end of the course. I have outlined various similar experiences in the end of week measures. So again I cant say what this is, I have had altered senses of self and world (the world appearing increasingly beautiful) for a long time following various mystical experiences, at least since aged 21. The peace and wellbeing side however was not present so this feels like a kind of emotional purification as a result of the course.”

“I didn’t have a loud or earth shaking awakening story. By the mid course break and listening to Sri Yantra I began to get the feeling that something was different. Then in the second half of the course with the love and awe practices I had birds waiting for me and we would sing together. I knew then that either I had lost it, the birds had lost it or something I definitely happened. So by the end of the course, yes, I knew that I had transitioned but I did not have a clue what Location I was in. That wasn’t really so important to me. But, we were to figure it out. So, I put Location 1 because I knew for sure it was that or better. My 16 year old grand daughter suffered a very unfortunate tragedy just over a month post graduation. I was distraught. I had a lot of emotion which was not positive. After several days of stewing in the emotion, I realized that I would need to do something to help myself or I was going to lose my all my work, my transition, and God forbid end up back where I had started. That scared me. I remembered reading in Patti’s weekly newsletter/schedule about a transmission class. I did indeed take the meditation/transmission class. That coupled with redoubling my efforts at doing the practices that had made the most difference for me helped me get back to where I was. I also found through the class that I could go deeper than I had previously gone. This made all the difference in the world for me. It additionally helped me learn what the deeper Locations meant inside my body and psyche. I was able to understand, probably for the first time in my life, that it was possible for me to live without emotion even in the midst of tragedy. I would say that on any given day, I am at Location 2 for the most part although I can still find myself in Location 3 and sometimes in Location 1 when I allow life to get hectic and stressful. I continue to do my practices as they serve me well and help me sustain the gains that I have made.”

“Before I had transitioned into Fundamental Wellbeing during this Finders Course, I had had temporary experiences of what I guess to have been Location 3 and Location 1. When the temporary experiences happened, I remember a clearly defined moment of shift. This time it was more of a gradual process, although I also remember a more or less subtle shift after the second or third of the group awareness sessions. I came down into the kitchen directly after the exercise, and for some reason the topic of being a body came up. My husband was in the middle of holding a spiritual online summit at that time, and topics like that were quite normal in our household. I had an outburst of laughter at the idea of being a body. I couldn’t say I knew exactly what I was, but definitely not this flesh and skin thing! It was totally obvious. How could anyone fall for that? I still didn’t think of having transitioned until Jeffery gave us “The Finders” to read about halfway through the course. I couldn’t take my eyes off the book and it stirred things up quite a bit in me to realize that yes, indeed, I was experiencing the things that were described. More positive emotions. Less negative ones. Triggers still there but pass a lot faster. The ability to pull myself out of thought streams. Still a lot of mind chatter, but definitely with a totally new quality to it, much less judging, hardly any worrying, much less self-referential talk. A feeling of everything being ok despite the challenges I faced in life. A feeling of being something spacious looking out of my eyes. I was very excited, and then I stressed out about it. Each Saturday the surveys asked for a new self-assessment whether I had transitioned or not. I started getting tense around the whole issue, not wanting to falsely claim “awakening”, trying to figure out where I was and not sure whether I could already label my experience “permanent”. Then, a few weeks later, in one of the Q&As Jeffery spoke about the ability to access peace in any given moment as sure sign of having transitioned. The following days I tested it. Due to 2 small kids and an ongoing very challenging conflict with my ex-husband I have lots of “opportunities” to feel triggered, totally exhausted and stressed out. When I found myself in one of these states, I checked if I could still find the peace. It was very faint sometimes, and other times I needed a minute or two to get into it, but I always found it and could bring it more and more to the foreground the more I focused on it. Even when having another very upsetting event with my Ex. Even with my head hanging upside down in the bathtub while my two kids playing to be my hairdresser and washing my hair. I determined that it was ok to assess myself as having transitioned successfully. I still practice stepping back into peace and bringing it to the foreground whenever I get stressed or triggered, and it gets easier all the time.”

“I wish I had a concrete moment to share but I don’t. It was a transition, a flow, punctuated by experiences of deep insight, peace, and awareness. The Fall of 2018 was an intense personal development time. I was having regular network spinal treatments, was taking FC12, and learning Vortex Healing. I had been under network spinal care since January of 2018. I started while I was spending 50% of my time on The Big Island of Hawaii working on a house renovation. Life there was very spiritually engaging. I met wise crones and learned from them. I studied Chinese Energy Medicine. I reveled in the beauty of the Island and the inherent energy from the land. It was there in March of 2018 I had my first profound completely content existence experience. I was living by myself in the house I had renovated and knew deep down in my core, not in my body, but in my Being that all was perfect just as it is. For the first time in my life is was 100% content and at peace at a very deep level. I then attended Donny Esptein’s yearly conference The Gate in August of 2018. It was there I experienced what it felt like when my energy moved from my body to my upper mind and beyond. I had been having these experiences in the past, but never realized what they were. And upon leaving the conference I personally thanked Donny and he grabbed my hand and pumped it for several seconds. As I left his presence my hand was physically tingling and I felt elated, absolutely happy, content and at peace and that lasted for several days. Then I started FC12 and for the first time in my life I meditated for an hour a day, every day. I had only done 20 minutes of meditation or centering prayer, very randomly over the years. This was the first time I started a meditation practice and stuck to it. I remember mediating in my backyard, sitting in a chair, on a beautiful sunny day. I decided to keep my eyes open and at some point everything turned into energy particles vs. things. My eyes were open but my body, the garden, the plants, the air, the birds – we were all a mass of energy particles buzzing around. It was so peaceful and beautiful. I was in awe. I kept practicing the Eraser method and was very taken with the ring scanning. It felt right to me to tap into crystal energy when I would start at my feet, pulling it up from the earth and then when I would scan to my head I’d release that, and would pull in a lavender sparkly light universe energy and pull that down as I would scan back to my feet. This was extraordinary and I believe was an important part of my transitioning. However, the group awareness exercises were also pivotal. I remember getting so deep into awareness I could barely speak when it was my turn. The feeling of not being my body was intense. I knew I was changing. I felt different. I was no longer the same person. What really confirmed it for me was one morning when I woke up, went into the bathroom, was getting ready, and in my mind I was thinking through something relating to the day and my inner voice said ‘I wonder what I think about that?’ and I looked up at myself in the mirror and was confused, and I asked back at the mirror ‘of which I do you speak?’ that was the moment I knew I had changed. I’ve loved every minute of this journey. Even the hard parts, because they are all a part of the process. I also realize now that I am not meditating an hour every day and doing all of the practices as intensely as I was, that I still have more to do, and I’ll do it. The peace and joy that result from no longer being controlled by the mind and emotions are worth every bit of effort it takes to maintain Fundamental Wellbeing. I’m stilling studying Vortex Healing and will be at Core Veil by November of 2019. I just finished FC12, as you know, and now need to develop my own ongoing practice to support sinking into Beingness. I look forward to the Alumni Group to help me continue to engage. Many, many thanks.”

“I had had mystical experiences prior to this class, but during this class I felt i finally found this sense of peace and okayness with life. I have become more in tune with my inner voice, was able to get on past the things that have happened to me, and have moved into a state of wonderful wellbeing. I experience life now as this miracle unfolding, and am so grateful to be experiencing it as i am. it is all very magical.”

“I felt that I had transitioned around the time of Method 10. While my “awakening” was gradual, I didn’t have the big shift. That occurred on June 26th, my grandson’s birthday, the week after Method 10. I just couldn’t wrap my head around Method 10 and was feeling very agitated. I decided to purchase Fred Davis’ “Awaken NOW” on Audible. I sat down in my office and listened just as if I were having an actual session. The “big shift” actually occurred. I finally got it! Afterwards I fell into a deep sleep for about 3 hours. When woke up I was immensely happy and grateful and felt that everything was perfect. These words seem so trite, because the experience was so much more than that – a feeling of Oneness, of the divine, limitless space but words are, in fact, simply inadequate to describe what I felt and how I continue to feel and experience life now.”

“It occurred in the most unusual way. During our Method 10 techniques week, I heard about Fred Davis from one of my group fellow students. I was plowing my way through the different “flavors” of Method 9 and Method 10, having traveled that path several years before, without making much progress, I must say. My fellow student mentioned a book called “Awaken Now” which piked my interest. It was about a Fred Davis awakening session with a fictional character named Alex. I hesitated a bit since I was reading a lot of stuff at that time, but after a bit of going back and forth in my mind and with myself, I purchased it and followed the advice of my friend, that said that I should listen to certain parts of the book instead of reading, since they required having my eyes closed for completing a specific exercise. Since I bought the regular, electronic version of the book, I started to read it and found the part where I was supposed to close my eyes and just listen to the dialogue Fred was having with Alex. Since I did not have the audio version, I just extracted the text and put it on my phone for it to read it aloud. I drove my girlfriend to a medical appointment and parked our car in a nice and quiet park to wait for her. Then I closed my eyes, put my headphones on and started to listen to what Fred had to say to Alex… Then it happened. I realized my True Self. I saw this body as part of the Absolute and That experiencing this body and not the other way around. When the audio stopped, I opened my eyes and saw the world in its true colors: a big, wonderful and elaborate dream. I was there, sitting inside our car, parked in the corner of this peaceful park, just watching life manifesting itself, beyond the body, the mind, thoughts, ideas, fears, feelings and so on. It was so wonderful and eye-opening so to speak. There were no angels singing or fireworks. It was a mundane, regular experience, but it changed my view of the world forever. Afterwards, I experienced a strong blissfulness for around a week and then I found “myself” (this body) slowly coming back to my “usual” life and experiences, nonetheless, the inner peace I experienced remained and strengthened. Right now somehow Im “back to normal” and Im focused in embodying and stabilizing this realization I had…”

“As my meditation work proceeded in the Finders Course, I would find my consciousness had shifted into a background of awareness and bliss. At first this occurred only with some meditations. When it did occur, this background awareness/bliss could last for hours. As my practice continued this background of awareness and bliss would become more prominent and frequent. This background feeling included a connection with a wide awareness that have been experienced in the group awareness exercises. There was a feeling of detachment, a quiet joy, a lessening of emotional range. There was also a growing background of well-being due to the Finders Course exercises and meditation. In June during week eight of the Finders Course, I attended a meditation retreat weekend associated with the Advaita Meditation Center of which I am a long time student and teacher. I went into this exercise highly tuned from my Finders Course work. When I fell silent I would immediately enter into this background awareness in bliss.. The power of the Satsanga intensified my work and I had a few remarkable experiences which, in retrospect, I would identify as moments of Awakeness. It was a very intense meditation retreat and I realized after it ended that this background of awareness, bliss, detachment and well-being was persistent. It was always there in the background. Meditating and other exercises would bring it to the foreground. But it was always there. It is this experience, this moment, that I identify as my transition to a Fundamental Wellbeing.. Later in the Finders Course, during the week of Method 10, I set up an appointment with Fred Davis who help me experience Awakeness. In that moment, among other experiences, I realized that I had been here before. That I was familiar with this Awakeness feeling. A week later, my second occurrence of Awakeness took the form of high humor as I quote got the joke”. Since then any moment I have of Awakeness is usually associated with laughter or chuckling. Since this time my Finders Course work has been oriented towards creating a propitious environment for Awakenings to occur. These experiences of Awakening have increased from once every week or two to once every day or so. My goal is to increase the frequency of these Awakenings until there is a sense of abiding Awakeness, of persistent background of Awakeness. Since there is no way that this Richardness can actually cause moments of Awakeness, this goal is ridiculous and tricky! But I am compelled to continue, laughing at myself frequently.”

“For me, it was a very gradual transition. I noticed that one week I was very lighthearted and didn’t seem to be worrying about things that would have concerned me before. For example, if there was something that might be an issue at work the next day, I wouldn’t even think about it; I would just assume it would turn out however it turned out and that I would be OK regardless of the outcome. I felt complete; there seemed to be nothing lacking in my life or any desire to change anything. This lasted for about 8 days. Sometime after that, I was stopped at a red light on my way home from work. I was on the top of a hill and had a nice view of the town in front of me, trees, sky, etc. I thought to myself, “So, is it really possible that all of this stuff, and even the space it occupies, is actually not real but is contained inside of a great Awareness that exists outside of space or time.” As I tried to imagine that possibility, suddenly everything seemed to be saturated with a richness, or a “beingness”, that it didn’t have before. It seemed as though the colors were more vivid. I suspected that my actual vision hadn’t changed, but that there was a rich sense of “aliveness” that was being superimposed over what I was seeing, and that made everything seem more vivid. As soon as I got home, I re-watched on one of my favorite documentaries about non-duality, which I had discovered on YouTube a few weeks prior. I did this as a test to see if I would understand what the people in it were talking about, and I did; everything they said made perfect sense to me. That night, and while laying in bed the following morning, I would try to make the same “vision” happen by doing the same thing I did while stopped at the red light. I would imaging everything as contained within a great Awareness, and when I did, the sense of aliveness and vividness would return. Much to my disappointment (but not surprise), this no longer worked after those first couple of days. The rest of the process was again very gradual. Method 10 and, to a lesser extent, the Method 9 worked really well for me. When I would do Method 10 on my own, or with a partner from my group, I would have perceptions of everything being one, and my body/mind/thoughts just being another illusory thing within that oneness. I bought an “Awakening Session” with Fred Davis, and that experience made me more certain that what I was experiencing was real and not just my imagination. I continue to study with Fred and do Method 10 daily.”

“It happened in the most simple and mundane way it could. After doing the module of Self Inquiry, I was sitting in my girlfriends car, waiting for her outside our Chinese Tai Chi teacher and acupuncturist office, in a calm spot in the middle of a park, and I started to read Fred Davis book “Awaken Now”. A fellow student recommended that, as I reach certain part of the text, it was better to listen to it instead of reading, which I did with the help of my phone. A robotic voice started to read a specific chapter of the book. I closed my eyes and left the words enter my head. I continued listening. At the end of the text, I had this profound revelation of reality as it is. I opened my eyes. I was in the exact same spot I started at: the same park, same trees, same people passing by, blue sky, fluffy clouds but somehow I finally was able to “see everything” without being filtered by the senses, without listening to the incessant chattering of the mind, without judging. It was a moment of awe and uncontrolled joy. “So this is it!” I said to myself. “It was here all the time, closer than close!” I said again, and started to laugh without any apparent reason. “Wow, the world is an amazing place!” I thought. I was completely flattered by the trees, the noise, the street, the people walking by, being seated in the car. It was incredible. Then my girlfriend came back and asked me if I wanted to drive. I was so astonished that barely could say “No, please drive”. And I felt silent. As we started our ride, I was finally seeing the world for the first time, as it is! My girlfriend was worried. “Are you ok? What happened while I was there?” “You look different”. I could not explain to her what happened a few minutes back. I just continued to be extremely happy and relieved. This bliss lasted for around a week and then I gradually went back to “normal”, but this inner peace has not left me for a second since then. Ive been through a lot of situations during the last 6 months, but something deep is still changing after that day in June…”

“As Jefferey would put it, it was a very subtle transition. So far, there are 3 chapters in the story. 1. When we started practicing Group Awareness, it took me at least 3 weeks to get it at first. It came in very gradually. Somewhere in the beginning of December, settling into awareness became easier in doing the GAE. I remember one particular session around December 8 where a new image/sensation came in, an image unseen before. It was dark, it was still, it was a kind of void/vastness extremely peaceful and quiet. I was not seeing myself. I was looking into this vastness and being part of it. I felt safe immediately (something extremely rare for me). At the same time, on the outside, I was excited and afraid. I knew something was going on and I did not want to lose it. Of course I lost the connection when I came back to my narration! To my amazement however, the second I was settling again into awareness, I was brought back to the same place instantly. For fun, I tried coming in and out and it worked each time! And so on the sessions after: always brought back into that same quiet and dark place. When describing awareness, I was shy at first to say that it was in darkness. It was not the idea I had of awareness (thought it would be more in the line of brightness). I remember describing darkness just one time in our group during a GAE but I really felt being out of line. So I kept it for myself. A couple of weeks later, everyone in our group was experiencing darkness! 2. So I was discovering awareness and loving it. At the same time, I was dealing with a great amount of back pain. It had been going for weeks. I was working really hard to get releases with my own little techniques. On December 16, the Method 9 was introduced. It did not make much impression on me at first, probably because I needed to concentrate to release the tensions in my back (the pain was severe and held me from sleeping for 4 weeks). Nevertheless, the Method 9 made its way in. Something was bugging me in the back of my mind. The week after, Unprovoked Happyness was introduced. I knew I would not resonate much with it. I tried it during the week-end but I was looking forward to go back Richard Langs videos. And so I did. And then it struck me. I got it! Decades of seeking and it had been there all the time! I could not believe how simple it was. Really I was struck. How could have I gone for so long with the answer so close, right here at my center! Unbelievable! Just to make sure I was not over simplifying the awakening, I watched the same videos several times to hear over and over his explanations and watch his demonstrations. No, it was all there was to be. Very simple. Home is right here at my center. And it was this awareness I found just a couple of weeks before. Of course, as Fred Davis would put it, now that I know that I am awake and that I can go and stay home anytime, I need to clear everything up! And it is a long way to go. But at least, I found the sparkle, the starting line! This sense of okness Jefferey was often talking about, I understood at last! 3. A deep sense of oneness came just about 2-3 weeks after. By that time, I had managed to get rid of the awful tensions in my back but gained headaches in the exchange! But I did not worry much about it (the new me did not bother!). The pressure in my forefront and skull was extreme at times, especially when meditating. Tylenol and the like were not of any help, nor the osteopath. On the night of January 6, I was meditating by the fireplace at home. At one point, in awareness, the skull of my head just got completely blown away, like a house losing its roof in one take by a storm (which blowing ended the headache at last!). The energy flow between my head and the sky was tremendous. It felt like a very powerful vortex, an extremely large bandwidth taking all the space in my head. No division at all between this being and the universe. I felt this very strong link with the ocean of awareness for about 24 hours. I know now by direct experience that awareness is one. It has never been parted nor divided with this being nor with any other things/being/etc. This thing alone is probably responsible for greatly diminishing the anxiety I used to live on. I estimate that my anxiety level dropped by 90% since. And counting! Forever grateful I am! Much love. xx”

“The effect of the GAEs started tentatively, but slowly seemed to deepen over time. As awareness itself became more clearly distinguished, the recognition of those characteristics would have a positive effect on my general experience. I was seeing for myself many of the aspects I had heard described in spiritual literature before, but never saw quite so clearly for myself. I began to find that during my day I could switch almost at will from the narrative self to deep presence-awareness, and that doing so created a sort of space into which a calm joy and sense of fundamental okayness would seep and gain momentum. Often this would affect perception, making surroundings seem more clear and even ordinary sights and objects seem wonderful. “Coming back to pure awareness” as I came to call this, also turned out, quite surprisingly, to be incredibly effective during work meetings and personal conflict! This was a further powerful confirmation that this truth was practical and effective in the mess of daily life. Then, engaging with pointers through Method 10 became like a process of confirmation of my actual experience, rather than how I would simply digest it as information previously. Although I had seen “no-self” very clearly and dramatically before, I looked again and found quite clearly, yet again, that I am a fiction. During a solitary sitting practice of “being aware of being aware” I also came to see very clearly how the mind, brain and body that identifies itself as “I” is simply another object within awareness, not terribly different from any other object. That is principally how I would describe my experiential understanding of the term “non-dual”, although that understanding may still be revised or deepened. Key for me was also recognizing and accepting the simplicity and ordinariness of the awake state: “just this” instead of some imagined spiritual experience. It really helped to have Jeffery assure us that the transition can be gradual and sometimes unremarkable, as that helped me recognize what was slowly happening. Fred Davis’s YouTube videos were also invaluable in making sense of the “oscillation” or “flip-flopping”. I began to ask more and more: “Who thinks he is not awake?” and “Who feels hurt by such and such?” This seemed to pull problems out at the root, and a pervasive sense of spaciousness, peace and okayness came into focus, sometimes in the background, sometimes in the foreground. Adding a bit of metta and/or Lester’s love technique would also easily flavor the experience in beautiful ways. The Method 9, although not terribly effective on its own for me, also contributed, and helps me recognize the sense of empty, infinite, spacious clarity roughly where I otherwise take my head to be. This has all changed my relationship to spirituality and spiritual practice tremendously. For a decade I have always felt that “I should really be meditating rather” no matter what else I was doing, thanks to a mental split between “doing something ultra-spiritual” and ordinary life. I was also wedded to Buddhism in a way I no longer am. This all feels very freeing, and even my narrative sense of self feels freed from some of its habitual self-definitions. My likes and dislikes and opinions are no longer so solid, and a wider horizon of possibility seems opened up. I no longer think of myself as particularly spiritual or unspiritual… introverted or extroverted… this or that. Finding coherence between the insight of non-dual truth and the entire field of psychology seems like a fruitful avenue to explore in the future… The goals I had in the beginning of the course (to stop obsessing over money and the shortcomings of my girlfriend) were certainly realized, and it felt as though reality conspired to test my progress in that regard! My financial fortunes took a nasty dip, and yet I was able ultimately to let it take up only a fraction of the discursive mind space it used to when there was financial abundance. Similarly, I became hugely accepting of my girlfriend in all her perfect imperfection and released my resentments around the many compromises I had made over the years. And then, in the final week of the course, just after noting that my non-symbolic experience had become quite stable, and thinking it might be good for something to occur to test my apparent imperturbability, by girlfriend up and dumped me out of the blue. For reasons she doesn’t seem quite clear on, from my perspective. For the first few days of this new reality, I was astonished to find myself nothing but calm and loving, being the space in which dramatic change could occur, asking:”Who got dumped?” and finding no problem. Only a month or two earlier I would definitely not have reacted like this. It was almost conducive of religious ecstasy to watch this loss of my life partner have almost no negative effect. But I did wonder if I was engaged in spiritual bypassing, and slowly started indulging in thinking, and now find myself in the “angry phase” as I have to start implementing practical boundaries. It is a shame to have had to do my final measures during this phase, as I believe the results would otherwise have been far more positive, and I know this is a temporary and necessary dip in an otherwise upward trajectory. Nonetheless, I feel like this is also an exciting and wholly appropriate development with huge potential for creativity, to explore this “I that is not real” as it grows into the ever-present future… What a trip! Deep gratitude for a world-class course that functions as advertised, and then some!”

“I learned about Finders Course through my sister Meshe, who took the course the year prior and successfully transitioned to Fundamental Wellbeing. I had also had taken 3 sessions with Fred Davis severaI months prior to starting the course, and through him, had an experience for about a day or two of non-doership. During the course, I found the positive psychology practices immediately and increasingly helpful as the course continued. I was very diligent with the practices at first. The Group work was excellent – I found that they were the only regular and understanding people I could talk to about my experience. The group diversity allowed me to hear others experiences and struggles and learn from them. The Group Awareness Exercises proved to be an incredibly powerful avenue directly to awareness. Upon reading Jeffrey’s book, I found I became slightly (and surprisingly) disenchanted with the path. It was almost like the idea that it’s something anyone can achieve, and that there wasn’t some moral test or daunting life-journey needed to pass into Fundamental Wellbeing, took some of the allure out of it. I decided that was entirely stuck-up of me, and that the fact that anyone could achieve it meant that I could as well. I didn’t know I was on the continuum until a video posting around the mid-point where Jeffrey indicated that people don’t typically know they’ve entered Location 1, especially if they had a high level of well-being initially. After his description that Location 1 people could tell by seeing if ‘there was anything fundamentally wrong or not’, brought me to the profound realization that There Was Nothing Wrong. That was pretty amazing. I could then take that specific question, and deepen into it, gaining confidence and strength in that knowledge. At one point after that during the Method 10 week, I found that my ‘self’ extended about a foot outside of my body. This lasted a day or so. After that, I slowly but surely found myself skipping meditation sessions. I believe this is old conditioning of procrastination, and other ideas of not being good enough, but also seeing this as part of my journey, and not being very hard on myself at all. I believe that I will continue to deepen and will resume my regular practice, as that I believe is the way I will be able to reach Location 4.”

“not much of a story. significantly increased sense of well-being in the early parts of the course, especially from forgiveness and gratitude exercises. then progressively strong responses to, in particular, noting gone, Method 10 and Method 11. i got a headless experience as a product of some dyadic inquiry, and can go back to that at will, but didn’t respond to the Method 9 exercises. i have been practicing/sinking into headlessness whenever i’m driving in particular, as well as periodically asking myself how i’m experiencing the moment. a few days ago i had a session with fred davis that led to a non-dualistic experience, which i can now revisit at will. my head has been gradually clearing, although i still have a fair amount of discursive thought. i have a greater sense of well-being and much greater equanimity than when i started the course. so no drama, just gradual shifts accumulating over the last several months.”

“I have not experienced one prominent event of transition. After reading “The finders” and looking at Jeffery’s videos, including the detailed explanation of the meaning of the term “persistence”, I think I came to the course in location 1. I did not consider myself in the past as being in a state of enlightenment, awakening or so. However, the state of fundamental o.k.ness has been my constant situation for many years. My emotions were mostly positive and my self-centered thoughts were not much. I remember Jeffery saying that many think so, but usually this is not the case. Still, that the way it seems to me today. During the course, I experienced small and cumulative steps that led me to the situation in which I am today. Many of the techniques I experienced during the course led me to different states of consciousness than usual. During group awareness exercises, I found myself, from time to time, identifying with awareness more than with the story of “myself”, and observing thoughts, feelings and feelings as objects of awareness. During the eraser exercises, body scan, through rings of attention, especially towards the end of the exercises, I had questions like “Who does the exercise?” Which led me to “Isness” consciousness for about 15 minutes at a tie. While exercising “The Method 9” experiments, I “managed” to observe a unified field of experience, through one large, boundless eye. During Method 10 exercises, I was able to achieve a state of delight from looking at different objects. After one of the times I practiced this technique, I entered a state of gratuitous physical pleasure for a few hours, during shopping in the supermarket, driving the car etc’. During the period of Method 10, more significant and lasting changes of consciousness took place. After watching videos of John Weeler talking about simple awareness as our real nature, during the reading of Fred Davis’s “looking glass”, I realized, for the first time, experientially, what is the same simple awareness, which is my true nature. The understanding stayed with me for several hours. Understanding was also accompanied by a clear vision of absence of separate self and a perception of the unity of the whole experience, including all its objects (including those previously thought of as myself, thoughts, body sensations, etc.) as a single, all-encompassing experience without dimensions of space and time. Later, in the course of doing Dyadic Method 10 exercises, the experience grew stronger, deeper and more solid. One of the most amazing things about this experience was that it felt completely ordinary, without fireworks, and yet completely different. These experiences lasted a few hours at a time, and were repeated several times during the period of Method 10, while watching video of non-dualism teachers, or reading materials of teachers in the field. In the course of doing “Method 13” as group exercise, I was able to get similar insights and experiences, from other directions. As of today, I am not in a consciousness of unity for most of the day. However, whenever I draw attention to the overall experience of reality, a nondual consciousness of reality emerges. I have learned that the very simple “knowing” of any “object” perceived, is my true nature. What is more, when I am in this state of consciousness, the simple “knowing” is the basic truth of every experience. All there is in the one experience is always knowing and knowing only. The consciousness of oneness is not at the forefront of activity during most of the day. However, it is in the background and goes up to the front whenever I pay attention to it. Now, I think, I can classify my position on the continuum of Fundamental Wellbeing, at the beginning of location 2.”

“My awakening was pretty gradual one didn’t really happen until the very end. Throughout I felt many glimpses, however. I was constantly amazed how well the order of techniques seemed to be for me. I think the shift for me started with Method 10 and came more solid in the final noting weeks. Mooji’s three hour YouTube video where he really breaks down the basic “I am” was my first understanding of that place and how to get there. The question and answer format particular helped me see the same obstacles I had answered. Method 13 seemed to get me to that place after enough time. However it wasn’t until shinzen’s style of noting that is based completely on three sensory labels that I was able to get it more persistently. At first glance his system seemed limited because of those few labels but I soon realized she was breaking everything down into these atomic sensory element. When I saw that emotions were body feelings and these sensory events were just chain reactions interplaying with each other experiences that seemed solid and blocking my view of awareness like an eclipse suddenly untangled. I finally experienced that space and distance from thoughts that I had been reading about. Positive and negative emotions lost their vector and merely became beautiful constellations or paint splatters of body sensation that could be experience with equanimity. My wakening was relatively undramatic in that there is no major experiential event. I would say equanimity and being able to diffuse negative emotions is the main thing I have gained. I haven’t actually felt much in the way of bliss were body sensation or overwhelming love and I still do need to remember and catch myself to untangle emotion. So my awakening is probably a fairly early location but I feel like I’m in a position where I could cultivate those other aspects much easier than before and I occasionally get hit with a very deep feeling of gratitude for what I have experienced so far.”

“I began meditating with Holosync about July 2015 for 1 to 1.5 hours per day and was also doing yoga almost every day. I also took some Holosync courses which included one that covered who the trueself actually was, oneness , true nature,…. I felt all of these actions helped me have numerous short awakening moments during meditation, yoga and just doing day to day chores. I then signed up for FC9 in August, 2016. I believe it was week 4 or 5 , I was having a Saturday group awareness session. We completed the session and had a brief feedback session on how it went. As I signed off ,I had a terrible feeling throughout the bodyand felt cramping in my stomach , arms and legs. I went upstairs to sit down and then I just started bawling for about 4-5 minutes, then started to laugh as hard as I have ever laughed. There was an exponential awakening, It was so clear and spacious, I felt overwhelming love for all beings. If a burglar had come to the door, I would have welcomed him in. After about one hour, I went to prepare lunch. I felt light headed and had difficulty making a simple lunch. There were some ants on he counter that I could not kill, so I brushed them off carefully. Sometime later I walked out for the mail and I felt like I was in a trance. Colors were brighter, the sky was clearer, I heard the birds singing. Spaciousness, I felt oneness with all. This intense feeling of awareness lasted for about 3 days. After that, I felt love and oneness even when working out at the gym. That feeling has never left me after the awakening. I still do Holosync for one hour a day with the use of some of the Finders Course meditations, such as Awareness, scanning of the whole body, and a few others. I also frequently watch videos of Spira, Tolle, Adyshanti, and Mooji. They keep me on track. I have deepened in Location 2 and have made progress in damping down the ego. Love to all , because we are all one of spirit.”

“I have found that I now can be aware of my relationship to Fundamental Wellbeing by “centering” locally to the heart chakra. This may feel like a shift or it may feel like a focusing, probably depending on how enveloping my experience externally is. Trying to write about this is not experiencing it, and probably why I am back to this so long from when I was working through the end reporting. I remember having glimpses and temporary shifts during meditations and practices such as Method 9. I had difficulty with the group awareness sessions, and when I had a particularly good session one evening I fell asleep perhaps still in the groove. When I awoke the next morn I was aware of something different. I was looking out the window noting that there was a different atmospheric to my world. I realized there was a silence. At first it was very noticeable in its goings, and quiet in its returns. As I moved through life thereafter I noted changes in how nice people were to me, an thus realized how different my outlook was.”