This implies that by virtue of the Unconscious Consensus, reality doesn't need us focusing on it in for it to exist. It operates automatically. It also implies that reality will quickly present objections to our beliefs whenever we happen to wake up or take notice in an awareness sense, and attempt to deliberately stray from within the boundaries of the Unconscious Consensus reality. So, reality, or the order in it, seems to exist very well without our help.

Let us further suppose that since reality seems to exist without any one of us at any given point in time, then past, present, or future, in all of their possible permutations, must also exist. In other words, reality just is!

Actually, this is already somewhat supported by how we actually enter or leave our world reality in the first place.

When we are born, we sort of pop up within consciousness in what is seemingly an already existent reality, a holistic and viable universe. It initially doesn't hold much meaning for us, because we have to learn experientially what its parameters are. By observing events and interrelated objects, we eventually create a string or linear file of information. We call this string of observations "time." At first we don't understand time, but we do quickly learn to position ourselves within it. We create a historical record of what we have seen or experienced (know to be true), and a present record against which we can compare the historical record to maintain our rather tenuous grasp on the Unconscious Consensus. Since everything we know, versus believe, hinges on our experiential learning, it soon becomes a well-integrated history file, and supports our grasp on reality. Real-time observations or experiences, and our history file, always support our current point of reference in space/time. This creates an illusion that our place in reality is pretty much fixed within time, and is thereby in total agreement with the Unconscious Consensus view of reality. It also supports the unspoken belief that we will always be subject to the Unconscious Consensus, which may not actually be true.

So what about the future? Is it something we therefore only allow ourselves to contemplate, or on occasion do we allow ourselves to conceptualize it—make it happen? How does change occur?

I believe there are at least two ways that we can bring immediate change to reality, that is, alter the Unconscious Consensus. One method is rather dramatic and one isn't. Both reside within our perceptions about how the future operates, and how we understand our connection to it. In both cases, we can actually alter reality. We can change the Unconscious Consensus and mold it to the way we want it to be!

 

Bucking the System

 

The first and most dramatic way to affect an overall change in reality, or the Unconscious Consensus, is through an overt act that deliberately violates our historical file and current reference point regarding reality, or what the Unconscious Consensus is currently dictating as necessary.

In other words, an individual decides to make something happen that can be observed or participated in experientially by others, which in turn changes worldwide belief or knowing. A sort of in-your-face departure from what has commonly been accepted until that point in time. But it has to be a demonstration that cannot be refuted, such as the following:

On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright made history's first powered, sustained, and controlled airplane flight from level ground without assistance at takeoff. They were two of probably less than a couple of dozen serious inventors attempting to be the first to fly. At the time, most of humanity (the Unconscious Consensus) was stuck within the belief "If God meant man to fly, he would have created us with wings and given us feathers."

Where and when did the Wright Brothers' ideas or concepts for building an airplane begin? Some believe that Wilbur was influenced by Otto Lilienthal's successful gliding experiments in Germany in the 1890s, or perhaps by observing how buzzards maintained their balance while in the air. But while no one is absolutely sure, it could also have been by an idea—a vision for a new reality. Perhaps it was a small but tenacious idea or vision that was unconsciously planted within Wilbur's mind while a student in school. The idea, or vision, could have come from seeing pictures drawn by another man, also a visionary, who lived in the Republic of Florence from 1452 to 1519. His name: Leonardo daVinci.

Regardless of the source or the earliest influence, what is important here is the fact that it didn't take approval from the Conscious or Unconscious Consensus to radically change an entire world view or pattern. It only took a "belief" concerning the future held by a few. Orville and Wilbur provided an "experiential observation," an in-your-face demonstration, which left little doubt in anyone's mind where belief left off and knowing began.

So, for a single instant in space/time, nearly all of humankind was suddenly and keenly aware of flight. It was at that point that the Unconscious Consensus made a sharp right turn, and was permanently and irrevocably changed. Suddenly, humans could fly.

 

Creating the Future

 

Through many years of incredible effort, Orville and Wilbur were able to affect a single belief. They made it a known. But there is also another way, another method, to directly affect the beliefs of many. There is a way to shake and mold the future before it actually happens, which may not be quite so dramatic, but which is certainly just as effective.

I believe Jules Verne understood this method, as do a handful of others within history. It is the ability to conceptualize, to envision a future that already exists—exists within the mind. The effect of future visions, whether by Jules Verne or another, will be twofold. Those who accept or believe in the visions will be opening a door. They are helping to conceptualize and create a future where things they have envisioned may one day come true.

On the other side of the coin are those who can't or won't open to new possibilities, who are essentially building walls across the road of progress. They are in effect restricting man's evolution and birthright, strangling the fruit of the vine. The point to remember is that predictive ideas or concepts, while subtle, are enormously powerful.

To illustrate, how many engineers who volunteered to participate in putting a man on the moon read Jules Verne's Journey to the Moon in their youth? Did that prepare them, at least psychologically, for their challenge? Predictive ideas gather momentum like snowballs rolling down a mountainside. Eventually they overwhelm and cover anything standing in their way.

 

Predictions or Creations?

 

What about Verne's lost manuscript that has been recently found? Only Verne and his publisher read it. How could that have affected change within the Unconscious Consensus?

I believe we live in a world where reality exists as a condition of the whole, where there is an illusion that the Unconscious Consensus rules and we feel we have no control over it, when in actuality we do. Some of us are awake and participant, while some of us choose to sleep. But we are all still inherently responsible for what is going to happen through both our actions as well as our inactions.

Reality is a fertile garden, ripe for new ideas. Thoughts by virtue of consciousness automatically become part of this whole—in fact, they are the very essence of what drives it.

It's really not that difficult to see where change comes from. I have simply to ask which came first, the handheld communication device on Star Trek, or a fluke idea that resulted in cellular phones? One of our basic abilities to modify the future, our future, lies within our very own hands. It is the penultimate expression of free will. It is our ability to conceptualize, not just conceptualize as in a fantasy, but to place the future of man within a context of believability not yet material or realized.

Where a single human being can conceptualize a cure for cancer, there will be thousands who can capture the vision and believe in its outcome. Visionary writers like Jules Verne and current-day psychics who are able to share their visions in a proactive sense, create rallying points within the Unconscious Consensus. They are sparks of light that awaken people to the possibilities. They perform an important service to mankind, by looking beyond the walls of our current place in reality. They stretch their vision beyond the safety of current belief and dare to envision a reality that lies out there, somewhere, waiting for us. Through their writings and predictions, they help create and develop the very context or soup within which strange and new ideas can take seed. These strange and new ideas are the seeds of our future. It is out of this future that humankind's hope is born. It is the power and vision to change the world, to make it a better place in which to live.

I believe we are responsible for this future. But I also believe we fear it. We fear it because many believe we are "subject" to it, instead of having some control over it. Have heart. All the evidence points to the latter. Our future—in fact, this very book—is birthed out of what we are willing to believe is possible. Our future is thoroughly within our grasp. We need no longer be subject to it, we have only to envision it to break out of our reality cage.

By our thoughts alone, we are capable of generating reality and controlling what is going to happen to us. We have only to clean up our act and begin to envision the positive changes possible instead of focusing on the negative. I predict that Jules Verne had a clear understanding of this process, and so will others.

Given such a responsibility, we are almost required to look at the future with promise, with a positive attitude, not with the apprehension and dark vision that most would associate with the unknown. The future and what it will contain is truly within our hands. We should address it in light of the fullest expression of our power.