Encountering the Theory

After finishing high school, I intuitively opted for studying business and marketing instead of taking the academic route. With the rise of the internet and search engines, I became a “specialist in search” and online business development. Since 2009, together with my partner in life Marinka, I’ve done this work exclusively for our own projects. Our aim from the very start was to be able to work on our online business from any place in the world that has Wi-Fi, and to be able to create time for our true purpose: to be independent consciousness explorers.

Gee whiz & lucid light experiences

Our journey led us to an ongoing investigation of extrasensory perception, altered states of awareness, and (individuation of) the psyche. In early 2013, Marinka encountered a magical device called Lucia N°03—a computer-driven lamp system that produces a combination of frequencies of steady and flickering white light, which allows people to experience an inner world of colors and geometrical patterns with closed eyes. We set up a non-profit project and collaborated with the Austrian inventors of the lamp, with the shared goal of allowing people to simply enjoy the art their brain is capable of creating, without any further expectation. The “lucid light” of Lucia N°03 can have profound transformative effects on the user. We used to say, “We wish to grant everyone this experience, and that’s why we want to spread this light.” The follow-up question that kept me busy, however, was “What does the light spread?” I believe this question led to my discovery of Arthur M. Young and the Theory of Process.

The Theory of Process

After the summer of 2017, Marinka and I enrolled in the study of the (symbolic) psychology of C.G. Jung. Parallel to this, I read a book about the French philosopher Henri Bergson. Being fascinated by Bergson’s notion of “duration”, I tried to find out more about this subject online, and stumbled upon a video of Arthur M. Young talking with Arthur Bloch about Bergson. The discussion went from duration to learning to light! Up to this point I had never heard of Arthur M. Young, but after that one video I became hooked. I watched and read everything I could find about Arthur and the Theory almost non-stop. A few days after finding the video, I went for a walk in my hometown in the Netherlands, and for no particular reason a question popped up in my mind: Can you give me a sign, Arthur? I couldn’t believe my eyes, but right after I had this thought, I saw a helicopter flying towards me from a distance. I called Marinka, who was attending a course abroad at that time, to share my new discoveries. When she picked up the phone, she said, “Wait a second, before you speak, there’s a helicopter passing by and it’s a bit loud.” When I shared my story about Arthur and the significance of the helicopter, we were both flabbergasted. I love it when the universe “responds,” and so I decided that after the Lucia N°03 adventure, studying the Theory of Process was to become my next “purpose project.”

Anodos

In the years that followed, I continued reading and watching everything I could find about Arthur and the Theory. I even roamed the old Arthur Young message boards to find out more about the people who actually knew Arthur during his life. I thought about ways to contribute to the popularity of the Theory, and made a few premature attempts to start communicating my understanding of the Theory to others. In October 2020, I suddenly had a thought: I’m using the Arthur Young website so often, maybe I can make it a bit easier to read and search through, just for personal use. Music was playing from the wireless speakers in our home office, but for some reason it stopped abruptly, and a robotic male voice started repeating “that’s it, that’s it, that’s it.” I still can’t come up with a rational explanation for it. Make of it what you wish, but I say, “Gee whiz!” I took the robotic voice as confirmation that it was indeed a good idea, and so a few weeks later Marinka and I had transformed all the content and graphics into a shiny new site. Because we realized Arthur’s 115th birthday was approaching, we decided to offer the redesigned website to the Anodos Foundation as a gift, just in case they wanted to use it. We were worried that it would come across a bit rude, people from the Netherlands offering a website out of the blue without anyone asking for it. But it turned out that Joan Schleicher had in fact wished for a new site earlier that year, and that our email had reached her a few hours before the annual Anodos board meeting on November 3, 2020. We’re very happy to have been able to make a contribution to the invaluable work of Anodos, and to all the others who have helped preserve Arthur’s legacy over the years.

Playing with the Theory

Although I’ve never met Arthur M. Young (I was 14 years old when he passed), it does feel like I’ve come to know him—not just by studying him and by corresponding with some of the wonderful people who were close to Arthur, but also via various meaningful “encounter experiences” that confirmed my feeling that we’re being directed away from the scientific paradigm as the “global truth paradigm.” The fresh paradigm that seems to be pulling from above is one that reinstates the key importance of “soul” in our evolution, and unifies science and spirit in a way described by the Theory of Process.

Learning the Theory of Process almost feels like learning a secret language, which is the sacred language of the universe itself. It allows me to tie the ongoing elusive “level II experiences” (soul) to a communicable “level III understanding” (mind). By actively doing so, it helps manifest “level I purpose” (spirit) into “level IV physical reality” (body/matter). Fulfilling individual and collective purposes requires consciousness, and the Theory can assist in generating and containing that consciousness. My intention is to continue my ongoing study of the Theory, to apply it in ways which feel meaningful, and to be committed to contributing to the preservation and spread of the Theory.

Applying the Theory is currently taking Marinka and myself mainly into the realm of art. Here we can play freely with the Theory on a soul level. We’re creating and publishing stories/books for children (and adults), for example. One of these stories/books is a fairy tale about imagination, and it has been heavily inspired by the Arc of Process. Working on this project brings us the greatest of joys.

What does the light spread?

As a final note, I’d like to get back to my question from 2017: “What does the light spread?” It seems obvious now, but without Arthur M. Young and the Theory of Process I wouldn’t have been able to grasp the full significance of the answer: seeing (anew).