Personalized Creation Model
Quotations on Personalized Creation Model 
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“The ‘ray’ of the soul coming from Spirit produces a picture of the body on the screen of human consciousness and of space.” ~ P. Yogananda The above statements (or slight variations) by the great mystic Yogananda appear several times in his writings. One thing that is always consistent in the statement is that he refers to the dream motion picture of the universe as appearing both on the screen of time and space (or the ether) and on the screen of human consciousness. This is a very powerful thought. The dream motion picture universe that appears on the screen of time and space is the basic creation model that was outlined earlier. One could say that this is the universal model that is created by Ishvara and is imbued by the presence of Ishvara. One could also say that the screen of time and space is the limitless consciousness of Ishvara. This dream universe appears whether or not any other conscious observer is present. It is the original and ever changing dream of the formless Spirit implemented and maintained through Its form as Ishvara – countless universes upon universes in an endless cycle of creation and dissolution. It is remarkable that the same dream motion picture of the universe also appears on the “screen of human consciousness”. Spirit is not only enjoying Its magnificent dream of the universe through the consciousness of Ishvara but also through the consciousness of each one of us. Each of us is a unique soul, an individualized extension of Spirit. As such, each of us “sees” or experiences the universe in our own personal, particular way. In fact, it can be said that each of us occupies our own “mini-universe.” Consequently, Spirit experiences Its creation from endless perspectives. “Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.” ~ Alan Watts “There’s really only One here! All appearance of multiplicity is a dream, an illusion - conjured up by the one Self for the purpose of multiplying Its enjoyment.” ~ Swami Abhayananda In addition to offering unique perspectives on creation, each one of us is also a co-creator. As such, we have the same ability as Spirit to “materialize” our thoughts and bring new structures into manifestation within the dream universe. The amount of materializing power each of us has depends on how we use it. If misused, the power is diminished and may ultimately be withdraw for a time. Most humans have forgotten their creative powers, through non-use. But, ultimately, each one of us is a “god in disguise.” Spirit plays and creates in His dream universal playground through each of us. “All happenings are determined by a conjunctive effort between God the macrocosmic Creator, and God the microcosmic creator through individualized expression in man.” ~ P. Yogananda “Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson So, within our personal “mini-universes,” each of us experiences things uniquely and co-creates in our own particular fashion. We are gods within our own domain. Due to karmic conditions, most of the time we do not feel like gods, but we are. We have freedom of choice and have powerful wills to shape our experiences. Our “mini-universes” exist within the consciousness of each one of us. Questioner - Did not Mr. Brunton find you in London? Was it only a dream? Ramana Maharshi - Yes. He had the vision. He saw me in his mind. Questioner - Did he not see this concrete form? Ramana Maharshi - Yes, still in his mind. The motion picture is playing on the “screen of our consciousness.” By changing our thoughts and our consciousness, we can change the pictures on the screen and literally change our world. “This very room and the universe are floating like a motion picture on the screen of my consciousness.” ~ P. Yogananda “This world is painted by you on the screen of consciousness and is entirely your own private world.” ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj “The world you perceive is made of consciousness; what you call matter is consciousness itself.” ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj “Quantum physics has discovered that our perception of the universe actually evokes the very universe that is observed. If we change the way we view the universe, the universe itself spontaneously reflects this change back to us, as the universe is not separate from our perception of it.” ~ Paul Levy “In quantum physics, we are no longer passive witnesses of the universe, but rather, we unavoidably find ourselves in the new role of active participants who inform, give shape to and in some mysterious sense ‘create’ the very universe we are interacting with.” ~ Paul Levy “According to quantum theory, the greenness of grass, the hardness of stones, the coldness of snow - in fact the entire “outside world”─does not exist “out there,” independently of and separate from ourselves, but rather, exists nowhere except within our own minds.” ~ Paul Levy “Out of the dreamlike nature of reality, quantum physics is revealing to us that we don’t live in the mechanistic, Cartesian world of classical physics, but rather, inhabit an enchanted world not separate from our mind’s creative imagination.” ~ Paul Levy “Is not the idea of a total world a part of your personal world? The universe does not come to tell you that you are a part of it. It is you who have invented a totality to contain you as a part. In fact all you know is your own private world, however well you have furnished it with your imaginations and expectations.” ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj “There is no one reality. Each of us lives in a separate universe. That's not speaking metaphorically. This is the hypothesis of the stark nature of reality suggested by recent developments in quantum physics … Consciousness is the only reality.” ~ M. R. Franks (member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, law professor at Southern University, Louisiana) “The world is me and I am the world.” ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti “Every man’s world picture is and always remains a construct of his mind.” ~ Erwin Schrödinger (physicist, Nobel Prize winner, 1887 – 1961) “This universe is nothing other than an embodied reflection of our own consciousness projected outside of ourselves.” ~ Paul Levy “Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.” ~ Rumi “To know that you are a prisoner of your mind, that you live in an imaginary world of your own creation is the dawn of wisdom.” ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj “Understand that what you think to be the world is your own mind.” ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj “Even when we intellectually accept the fact that our entire world of experience is a construction within the mind, as eventually we must, we still see this world ‘out there,’ around us.” ~ Peter Russell (scientist, futurist, philosopher, b1946) “It is we who are under an illusion when we believe that the world we see around us is actually around us, not within us. These inner explorers [mystics] have discovered that it truly is ‘all in the mind.” ~ Peter Russell (scientist, futurist, philosopher, b1946) And we are also reminded by quantum physics just how powerful our minds are. Nothing is manifested without consciousness. Outside of the “mini-universes’ of our minds, nothing else is manifested. Other parts of the universe may be manifested for others as part of their “mini-universes” or in full for the consciousness of Ishvara, but not for us. “There is no Madras for you while you live in Allahabad, and there is no Allahabad for you while you live in Madras.” ~ Sivananda “All those bodies which compose the mighty frame of the world, have not any substance without the mind … so long as they are not actually perceived by me, or do not exist in my mind, or that of any other created spirit, they must either have no existence at all, or else subsist in the mind of some Eternal Spirit.” ~ George Berkeley In fact, by withdrawing all thoughts from this “material” universe, it ceases to appear in our consciousness, and we are free to access the native soul awareness of infinite bliss. “When the mind ceases to think, the world vanishes, and there is bliss indescribable. When the mind begins to think, immediately the world reappears, and there is suffering.” ~ Sivananda “Shut yourself in a room for a fortnight, give up reading newspapers, engage yourself in deep meditation, and see whether there is a world or not.” ~ Sivananda “Without the seer there is nothing to be seen” ~ Ramana Maharshi “The universe exists because we are aware of it." ~ Martin Rees “It is only the waking state that brings before us this creation. This universe is nothing but a mode of the mind … The movement of the mind generates the universe.” ~ Sivananda “All depends on you. It is by your consent that the world exists. Withdraw your belief in its reality and it will dissolve like a dream.” ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj As quantum physics has shown, this solid, material universe is neither solid nor material. It is frozen light forms floating in the magically generated dimensions of time and space. The universe doesn’t really exist and yet is certainly appears to exist to our human senses. How is this so? It is the magic of maya. (The topics of maya and avidya are addressed in more detail later in the Cosmic Hypnosis section). We can think of maya as a kaleidoscope or a pair of magic glasses. The glasses cause light that is normally invisible at certain frequencies to appear real. Without the glasses, there is nothing there. Put on the magic maya glasses and we become immersed in a 3-D holographic projection in which galaxies, stars, planets, mountains, rivers, and people appear out of nowhere and everything seems so real. With the glasses on, we can see countless 3-D holographic universes floating like clouds in an endless sky. We can also see the holographic projection of small villages on earth and watch the activities of each of the villagers. Everything is condensed light but all appears real with the glasses on. Take off the glasses and everything disappears again. The seemingly real mirage is gone. This is the magic of maya. One could have much fun putting on the maya glasses and out of nothing become immersed in a magic world of endless beauty and fascinating activities. Similarly, we can think of avidya as a personal kaleidoscope or a personal pair of magic glasses. Our true existence is the soul, or Atman, a unique individualized extension of the formless, blissful Spirit. In this analogy, each one of us has our own unique pair of avidya glasses. Without the glasses, we exist as part of Spirit’s immortal, infinite, formless, undivided, bliss consciousness. If we put on our avidya glasses, each of us becomes immersed in a 3-D holographic projection of our own unique “mini-universe”. The “mini-universe” comprises a body-form and anything that is within range of the body-form’s senses, e.g. as far as the eyes can see and the ears can hear; houses, trees, mountains, rivers, other people, etc. The body-form can read or be told about places and activities in the bigger universe that is beyond its sense range, but for that body-form the only objects that manifest in its 3-D holographic “mini-universe” are those things within the range of its senses. All else does not manifest. However, should the body-form move to a different part of the bigger universe, the manifestation of its “mini-universe” changes to become the local surroundings of the new location. With the avidya glasses on, the soul becomes identified with this particular body-form. Other body-forms may occupy its “mini-universe,” but the soul identifies with the one body-form and takes it to be its own self. Once again, one can imagine the fun of putting on a pair of avidya glasses and becoming aware of a seemingly real “mini-universe” and occupy a holographically generated body-form that seems real and experience the wonders of the “mini-universe” through the sense instruments of the body-form. In fact, this is way that Spirit experiences Its creation. By creating a host of individualized versions of Itself, each under its own personal magic spell of avidya, Spirit can “play the fool” countless times within Its universal playground of maya. Of course, Spirit does this consciously, i.e. Spirit knows that this is all a game and that It is merely playing roles in this universal drama of countless “mini-universes” within the big universal playground. It’s all just playing with light forms. Nothing is actually real. Each body-form has a dual consciousness. One part is the avidya-induced ego-consciousness that identifies itself with the body-form, so as to experience creation from that perspective. The other part is soul-consciousness or god-consciousness, individualized Spirit. The god-consciousness is there to remind the body-form that it is all just a play and that the soul or Spirit is the only reality. The problem comes when the avidya-created pretend ego-consciousness becomes so attached to the body-form that the god-consciousness gets pushed to the background. At some point, the body identified ego-consciousness takes over completely. The pretend consciousness has become “real.” The holographically-generated “mini-universe” has become “real.” All memory of the soul’s true identity as immortal bliss consciousness is gone. More on this in the section on Our Adventures in Wonderland. “When the soul descends into body consciousness, it comes under the influence of maya (cosmic delusion) and avidya (individual delusion or ignorance, which creates ego consciousness) … the soul, as the ego, ascribes to itself all the limitations and circumscriptions of the body. Once so identified, the soul can no longer express its omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. It imagines itself to be limited – just as a rich prince, wandering in a state of amnesia in the slums, might imagine himself to be a pauper.” ~ P. Yogananda “The force of Avidya limits the consciousness to such an extent that the individual is falsely made to believe that its body is the entire truth. Not only the body but even the objects and persons fictitiously connected with the interests of the body … A shadow is taken to be the substance, a phantom is mistaken for the reality.” ~ Krishnananda “Just as a king acts the part of a beggar, out of his own free will on the stage in a drama, so also the Sat-Chid-Ananda Brahman acts the part of a Jiva in this drama of the world out of his own free-will for sport … It is understandable that as long as the king is conscious of his kingship even in the state of his counterfeit beggarliness, he is in sport and enjoys the fun! But if the king is to forget his pristine nature in his pretended state of the beggar, then the sport is no more a sport but an imprisonment in the consciousness of what he is not … The individual or the Jiva does not know that it is playing a sport, but thinks that it is actually what it appears to be in the imagined garb.” ~ Krishnananda A useful analogy is to see human consciousness, or the mind, as a mirror. The “screen of human consciousness” receives the motion picture projection of the universe and “reflects” its own “mini-universe” portion of the motion picture. Avidya makes the reflected “mini-universe” appear as if it were truly a real 3-D world existing in time and space. But is really is just a reflection. Everything is happening within our minds. We see our body-forms moving around from place to place and assume that it is really happening. But it is not. Everything happens in the mind, even if avidya suggests otherwise. “The illusion of solid objects in three-dimensional space … is fabricated within our brain and nervous system in such a way that a physical world appears to be really there outside of us, when in fact its real basis is a neurologically generated holographic pattern that is witnessed by consciousness in such a way as to trick us into seeing it as a solid external material world of physical objects.” ~ Paul Levy “Fleeting objects are mere phenomena which appear on your being like pictures which move across a screen. The screen does not move when the picture moves. Similarly, you do not move from where you are even when the body leaves the home and mixes in society. Your body, the society, the forest and the ways are all in you; you are not in them.” ~ Ramana Maharshi “The fact is that you are not the body. The Self does not move. The world moves in it.” ~ Ramana Maharshi “All these universes, humans, objects, thoughts and events are merely pictures moving on the screen of Pure Consciousness, which alone is real.” ~ Ramana Maharshi “You see yourself in the world, while I see the world in myself. To you, you get born and die, while to me the world appears and disappears.” ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj “You see me apparently functioning. In reality, I only look. Whatever is done, is done on the stage.” ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj Each of us has a distinctive “mirror” that is shaped differently by our unique consciousness. The more that ego-consciousness dominates the consciousness, the more the mirror is mis-shapen causing a distorted reflection such that inharmony, evil, unhappiness, etc. appears in our “mini-universe”. The more that god-consciousness dominates our consciousness, the more the mirror reflects a more harmonious world. A perfect mirror would be based on a fully god-conscious mind and would thereby reflect back only the blissful light of Spirit, without any pictures of the universe included. A perfect mirror requires a mind that is perfectly still, free from any thoughts. As Lao Tzu said, “To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders”, i.e. the whole universe disappears. Similarly, we have the biblical admonition, “Be still and know that I am God”, from the book of Psalms. Here “I” refers to one’s personal consciousness. More on this in the Journey of Awakening section. “Still the restlessly moving mirror of my mind, that it reflect only Thine infinite face” ~ P. Yogananda By changing one’s thoughts, one can change the shape of the mind “mirror” and reflect a completely different “mini-universe”. Once again, more on this in the Journey of Awakening section. Each of us has remarkable powers as unique, individualized extensions of Spirit. Yet, we often see ourselves as helpless beings carried down the river of life without the ability to steer to avoid the rocks. But it is not so. Yes, karmic conditions impact us but too often we blindly blame “our karma” or “our destiny” as an excuse to not exercise our formidable minds. As gods, we have powerful wills that can overcome much karma and at least mitigate major karma, if we so choose. We are ultimately the controllers of our destiny. We are gods within our “mini-universes”. Summary The Personalized Creation Model is a very powerful and profound concept. We are in control of our own experience of the universe – everything that happens to us as individuals is a result of our own individual free will choices; choices perhaps made in both this and previous lifetimes. Now, this can sometimes be the last thing we want to hear – that all of the problems in our lives are self-created and not due to outside factors or circumstances beyond our control. But it is true. Once we come to grips with this – not necessarily easy, of course – it is actually quite empowering. We now see that if it were our own consciousness that led to the problems, then it is our own consciousness that can remove them. We are actually in control – not puppets of external circumstances or people. Changing our consciousness is not always easy, but it is in our control to do so. We must change not only our normal conscious mind, but all levels of our consciousness. This requires affirmations of change and matching actions to penetrate these levels. But it works, for those with the requisite perseverance. The “cosmic mirror” now sees that we want to change things and reflects back into our “mini-universe” these changes. It is that simple. It is that profound. Constantly affirm the change you want and act according to that desired change and it will come about. Never give up, persevere and the change will come. Yes, there is karma and the school of hard knocks that impact us due to poor choices made in the past, in this or a previous lifetime. But what is the purpose of karma and the school of hard knocks? To push us to change our consciousness. Once we take responsibility and change our consciousness voluntarily, there is no further need for the school of hard knocks. This is our own personal portion of the universe that we play in. It can be changed, because ultimately it is not real, but a maya-based illusion (remember, everything is 99.99999999% empty space). By changing our consciousness, we change our situation, our illusion. We become the masters of our own destiny. As stated earlier, we are gods within our own “mini-universes”. “You are the maker of the world in which you live, you alone can change it, or unmake it.” ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
“We created our perception of the world … And, we are free to see it differently.” ~ Peter Russell (scientist, futurist, philosopher, b1946) “It is an amazing realization that no matter where you go those structures will go with you. You could go into the most paradisiacal island or to a planet that is heaven, but you would still be carrying with you the structures of the egoic mind and it will transform heaven into hell. It’s an enormous step forward to realize for oneself that all the unhappiness, discontent and conflict in most people’s lives originate within the structures of our minds rather than being externally caused.” ~ Eckhart Tolle “What does it avail you to attribute the cause of misery to the happenings of life when that cause is really within you?” ~ Ramana Maharshi “You are all gods, if you only knew it.” ~ P. Yogananda Additional quotations, by mystics, poets, scientists and philosophers, on the Personalized Creation Model are provided in the left column.
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