"No man is an island", but your position in time and space is malleable, affected by you and those around you. The past is not fixed nor is the future guaranteed, but the general agreement is that the present is the point of power.
As an example, let us consider a person we'll call Norbert. When Norbert was younger, he "studied" various religions and philosophies, practiced "magic", and experimented with things which generally opened him up to different world views. As an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy, he was not restricted to "normal" variations of "reality" while his activities insulated him from others who did not share the same interests. Living in the Southwest, he became fascinated with the Castenada books and was increasingly dissatisfied with modern life. In his latter 20's, Norbert sold his stuff, and, with one of his roommates, moved into a National Forest in Central Arizona to a popular hot springs with inadequate gear and supplies. Over a 12-week period, Norbert and his friend settled into a period of voluntary service to the hot spring, keeping it clean and swept, picking up garbage along the trails, and otherwise adapting into the cycle of nature (zen) for where they were. And, as they simply existed there without demands (or mooching) upon the many visitors, reality started to adjust around them. Little things at first; regulars to the Springs would invite them to share meals, drinks and party materials. There was nothing that couldn't be explained by circumstance or coincidence, but many things were surprisingly consistent with earlier conversations or thoughts of the "I wish I had" variety. Then, material things began to appear as needed. Norbert's partner (we'll call him the Hardscrabble Kid) had no interest in metaphysics and was firmly grounded in his perception of reality. Eight weeks of Arizona desert had reduced his shoes to less than serviceable (he was "resoling" his boots with plastic coffee can lids). After spending part of the evening complaining about his footwear, Norbert suggested just asking the Universe for new boots. This was met with skepticism, followed by a "what the hell" moment, followed by a brief meditation and request. At the time, the two were living off the river about a half-mile down from the Hot Springs. They had built a rock-walled bathing tub off the river's edge and about six inches higher than the water level (to keep the soap and shampoo on). The Kid got up the next morning and went down to the tub to bathe and found, spinning lazily in the center of the tub, a new pair of boots with the laces tied together. For the river to have raised high enough to deposit those boots from elsewhere, it would have flooded their camp, so the Kid couldn't figure out where they came from. As a result, Norbert was roughly awakened and accused of "f***ing with the Kid in re: new boots, and by new I mean no observable wear. They looked like they had never been worn and were also the Kid's shoe size. While this moment stood out, it was by no means the last of these events, but was one of the harder to explain. (Later there was an incident deep in the Wilderness where a complaint in re: toothbrush worn out resulted in finding a shiny new one in the middle of nowhere, for example.)
I mentioned earlier about Norbert's fascination with the Castenada books. In them, Don Juan talked about the need for a "petty tyrant" to direct an apprentice's studies and create a core of being. At the 12-week mark enters TB and CT, a couple of "desert rats" living in the surrounding mountains. Offered room (tent), board (beans and rice), and seasonal enticements, Norbert and the Kid parted company and entered into something different. The Kid left with TB while Norbert went with CT to his "camp", about 20 miles from the Springs. He didn't realize it, but, at that time, he had found his "petty tyrant". Further, it was someone who was also familiar with Castenada as well as a plethora of authors of books Norbert had never studied--books by Ouspensky and Gurdjiff, the Egyptian and Tibetan Books of the Dead, John Lilly's books on the Nature of Personal Reality and Bioprograming, translations of the Koran, Bhagavad-Gita, and Sufi writings. With this information, Norbert's limited (Catholic) view of reality altered a bit more.
All of this led to the following year, when Norbert and the Kid rejoined to do their own "guerilla" camping and Norbert experienced his first major bounce. Now there were two ways of getting into the Mazatzal Wilderness areas that they haunted--travel rivers or creeks and climb up, or take roads (paths) on top of the mesas and climb down. Many times a year, especially in the spring and during monsoon season, clouds would settle on top of the mesas (think London fog without the smell). While camped on top of the mountain, in a heavy fog after two weeks of being "trapped" by the rains, Norbert walked off of a 1,500-foot cliff (remember "I'm gonna die" events) and miraculously fell 25 feet to a broad ledge where his plummet was rudely halted. Shaken (not stirred), he climbed back up and returned to camp to tell the Kid what had happened. The next morning presented clear skies, and the two of them followed Norbert's footprints to the cliff edge to see the area clearly. Looking down from the edge, they found no ledge whatsoever, just a clear drop without obstruction and footprints leading to the edge with another set some 50 feet away leading back, with nothing but a drop in between. While the "ledge" vanished, the lacerations from the fall did not. Later, observing the cliff face from the other side of the canyon with binoculars, it was apparent that at some time in the past, a section of the mesa had broken off, but weathering suggested an event years, if not decades, in the past. This was the beginning of Norbert's anomalies.
Later, during a peyote ceremony on top of the mesa, he became aware of other aspects mentioned in the Castenada books, such as power running and energy shifts.
Eventually returning to the city where he grew up, he found other discrepancies. Friends he went to school with remembered certain events differently, others he "knew" but didn't associate with, were suddenly "old friends" with memories he didn't share. Shortly thereafter, he moved out of state, and, with involvement in new places and people, "forgot" the fall; until it happened again.
At this time, Norbert was living with his nephew when, driving down a busy street and approaching a T junction ahead, a car shot the red light and caused a multiple car accident directly in front of him, less than 100 feet away. With no time to stop and nowhere to swerve, Norbert blinked and found himself on the other side of the wreck. Pulling over and walking back to help, a bystander commented to him that the guy who ran the light had just barely missed Norbert and how lucky he was. This WAS NOT what happened. Norbert had bounced. Once again, things afterward were changed slightly. Significantly, a few people he "knew" didn't remember him; others he didn't know claimed to have met him before. Also, there was a physical change that was harder to explain: the four wisdom teeth he had pulled in his early 20's reappeared intact, along with a few scars he didn't remember getting. These events happened with increasing regularity, and, with time, Norbert began to suspect that something radically different was going on. Other events, such as participation in "channeling" and a "firewalk" changed his perceptions even further. Gradually, a new (to him) expanded reality formed with additional changes in Norbert to match.
But enough about Norbert for now.
Remember the "threads" I mentioned earlier? Now, you must understand the soul part of the equation. The "soul" is a being and/or force of energy. All life exists through manifestation of soul and soul IS God. (Side note: there are many other non-corporeal beings of greater and lesser strengths; they were the first manifestations of life but a whole other subject, so we'll leave them out for the time being.) When a thread terminates, you do not lose the soul of your other part, it simply merges with the rest (conservation of energy, sort of). This can manifest in different ways--some minor and some not so minor. Sudden changes in personality, mid-life crisis events, eureka moments, or strong connections with people you didn't know before are some of the major ones. This depends upon the strength of the personality of the soul fragment in question--combination of "the strong eat the weak" and "you are what you eat" in a quite literal form. What you really need to know at this point is that when you become aware of what's happening, things change once again.
I told you to stop reading. Get over it.
Graduates of what Gurdjiff would refer to as a "school" have an advantage in that their personalities are more focused and less subject to fragmentation, resulting in less disruption when different fragments merge. There are many "schools"; what signifies them is their mark. Examples would be the military, religious orders, farmers and ranchers, or the martial arts, or most any system where your "will" is subject to control from the outside, whether by people or nature, until that school is imprinted or locked in place. This is why military people easily recognize other military people. Imprints are easily seen by those similarly imprinted or exposed to that imprinting. This is true for all the "schools". However, the more "ridged" the school, the harder it is to perceive the bounce or to use it. Once again, it is important to realize that there are exceptions to a general rule, or, in other words, none of this is "written in stone".
The other ways may appear to be accidental. Crisis imprints can have the same effects, if you survive them or bounce to where the outcome was different.
Now for the fun part: once you know, you can direct the bounce. Because awareness changes the base of the experience, you will see the events more clearly when they happen. Further, if you've gotten this far, you're now aware even without full consciousness of the same. If you're one of the newly aware, try to have fun with it, because you can't change what's happening anyway. It's like a roller coaster ride--you can't get off in the middle.
Which brings us together, here and now, for however long we occupy the same space/time; I'm writing this solely for selfish reasons, which are, primarily, to contact others of the Brother/Sisterhood I lost so many bounces ago and run into here and then, now and again. Feel free to contact or comment and we'll see how much we remember together.
One parting shot: karma exists as an impersonal force of balance that is also part of the system. It's also why you can't get off in the middle. So be good to one another, seriously, because There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch [TANSTAFL].
Namaste' (to the traditional); peace out (for the rest).
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