Though the sun is near the horizon, it still shines with brightness and warmth. Swallows play in the air and skim the surface of the water. Quail cavort in the bushes along the stream, and pheasant squawk in the fields.

Life is exploding around and within one. There is no division, outside or inside, not even as ‘outside’ and ‘inside.’ Looking beyond the fields to the canyon and foothills, one sees them as if for the first time.

Initially, passive observation vies with insistent questions for pre-eminence in the mind, but the questions give way to silence and a deep reverence and seriousness. Standing after an hour, I feel something ineffable, beyond words and all description. One is empty; there is (though I’m hesitant to use the word) love.

Much is being made of so-called neuro-divergence, but I’m sure the normal brain of any self-aware person is capable of observing without an observer. What is the observer? Is it the root cause of division, conflict and fragmentation in the world?

These are crucial questions, not only for awakening the meditative state, and for one’s psychological health and healing, but also for healing the planet and humankind.

Wikipedia gives this definition of observation: “observation in philosophical terms is the process of filtering sensory information through the thought process.”

That’s a good definition of the observer, not of observation. It assumes that the observer and observation are one and the same thing, when in fact they are distinct phenomena. True observation occurs when the illusory observer is negated in undivided observation, and the brain ceases filtering sensory information through the thought process.

The observer is the original division of the human mind, and from it all other divisions originate: “My family and your family;” “my country and your country;” “my religion and your religion.”

Thought, which is an inherently separative, utilitarian mechanism, operates in dualism. And as long as thought psychologically rules, dominating the human brain and defining our consciousness, fragmentation, ecological destruction, war and gross inequality will increase.

So what is the observer? At the most basic level, it is simply the psychologically separative mechanism and habit of thought. It is thought separating itself from itself, and subjectively and emotionally believing it is separate.

The observer is an infinite regress of separation giving rise to the self, the illusion of separate “agency.” In actuality, there is no “me” that chooses, just a bundle of memories and images that reacts from conditioning.

Indigenous people undoubtedly made the same seemingly inexorable mistake of allowing the functional adaptation (or exaptation) of “higher thought” to bleed over from the functional dimension where it belongs into the psychological dimension. But living close to nature, they were continually reminded that separateness isn’t real, and found ways of mitigating it.

All restraints are now off however, and man’s alienation and fragmentation are running rampant. There is no choice but to confront it at the root, which is the illusion of the separate observer and self.

Passive attentiveness allows awareness to grow quicker than man’s ancient habit of thought splitting itself off from itself as the observer. When the brain as a whole has the insight that the observer is inextricably part of thought, the infinite regress ends, and there is simply observing.

Though psychedelics have become fashionable again, one does not need drugs to disengage the “default mode” of the observer. It simply requires diligently taking the time for passive watchfulness in the mirror of nature, without expecting a result or seeking a goal, while persistently questioning, out of curiosity, the operation and conditioned reactions of one’s mind.

When one has the explosive insight that the observer is inextricably part of the entire movement of thought, the separative mechanism ceases and there is direct perception and wholeness.

The observer never sees itself because thought is continuously separating itself from the field of observation. That’s what allows the observer/self to be subjectively experienced as an entity apart. To end the observer, another capacity of the brain must be awakened, that of passive awareness and non-directed attention.

To catch the observer in the act of infinite regress, one has to allow passive awareness to grow quicker than thought. Paradoxically, passive awareness is the action and wellspring of unwilled attention that quiets the entire movement of thought.

In short, any action of effort or will prevents a meditative state from occurring, since effort and will inevitably emanate from the separate observer and self.

There is great urgency for enough individuals to give sufficient attention to the movement of thought as a whole, and end the habit of psychological division at the core of consciousness within themselves.

Because when enough individuals end the observer/self, it will ignite a revolution in consciousness and halt man’s infinite regress of separation and fragmentation, which are destroying the earth and humanity.

Martin LeFevre

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