Henosis Foundation.

In Location 4, subjective experience is typically rooted in Layer 4, sometimes mixed with the deepest centerless aspects of Layer 3. Earlier layers are accessible to a degree but are usually experienced from the deeper layers. Perception increasingly roots deeper into Layer 4 in Location 5 and later, although these are very rarely reached by people. Location 4 and later essentially move in the direction of more extreme forms of transcendence, and often lead to increased isolation and disengagement from the world. 

It is relevant to note that subjective experience does not reflect the totality of what is happening in the human system. Subjective experience may be primarily rooted in Layer 1, for example. Yet, in reality, all of the layers are operating within everyone, all of the time. This means that, in this case, Layers 2, 3, and 4 are operating outside of subjective experience, but they are still operating. 

For late locations (Location 4 and on), subjective experience is typically rooted increasingly deeply in Layer 4. Despite this, Location 4 people function just fine in the world. This is because the other layers are still there, operating. They simply remain out of the Finder’s perception.

Layer 1

Layer 1 is accessible, to a limited degree, in Location 4 in that there can be a meta-awareness of what is happening at Layer 1. Essentially this is a meta-awareness of what is happening in the mind, but there is no sense of being able to engage with it like there is in previous locations.  

The most distinctive quality of Layer 1 in Location 4 and later is that the mind is experienced as functioning autonomously. Someone is just watching the process unfold without feeling as though they are doing any of it. This can lead to a wide range of outcomes, from extraordinary life results to some of the amoral behavior observed in late location teachers. The extensive compassion and ethical training in some spiritual systems may be designed less for seekers, and more to condition Finders’ systems to express these more positive qualities once they are subjectively no longer able to act volitionally.

Self-referential thought and any existential concern with meaning or purpose disappear by Location 4. After deepening in Location 4, many Finders experience a largely or completely silent mind.  Attention is so absorbed in the present moment and far away from the level of the mind, that memory is usually quite affected by this point, especially in relation to non-routine events. Finders in Location 4 and later usually develop strategies to deal with these memory deficits, like writing everything down and setting reminders. 

Most systems that target Location 4 and later tend to hold a belief that the mind/Layer 1 is something to get away from, and as someone deepens it does tend to become less accessible. This is typically not conducive to effectiveness in the world and moves increasingly in the direction of its transcendence. This can be fine if a person’s life circumstances allow for that. 

In Location 5 and later, Layer 1 increasingly recedes from subjective awareness, especially on the Path of Freedom. Like in Location 4, it functions autonomously but is now increasingly outside of even subjective awareness, despite continuing to impact behavior. Instead of action being experienced as the consequence of thought and intentionality, it feels intrinsic to the unfolding itself and is silent and self-revealing. Whatever thought processes precede it are at a level of the system that is out of subjective awareness. 

Layer 2

Layer 2’s primary qualities are the sense of all-containing spaciousness and emptiness. Layer 2 is accessible in Location 4, although it is far from the default and is usually experienced from a deeper layer. If a person really deepens into Location 4, they can essentially lose sight of this layer, and from Location 5 on it becomes increasingly difficult to access. The loss of perceptual access to Layer 2 can affect things like dimensionality of perception, which becomes progressively flat in later locations. 

Perceptually, Layer 2 of Location 4 seems like a desert of emptiness—it is profoundly stark and distant and can even feel like nothing exists at all. This is typically only passed through on the way to deeper layers because Location 4 does not stabilize in Layer 2. 

Layer 2 is essentially out of phase with Location 4 and can bring on difficult experiences for people. More than any of the other locations, transitioning to Location 4 is associated with difficult psychological experiences that are often referred to by terms such as the “dark night of the soul.” This is especially the case if someone is coming into Location 4 at Layer 2. In these cases, it can be beneficial to speak with someone who understands what is happening, because despite being in Location 4, the dissonance at the level of the mind/Layer 1, which is also often experienced in these cases, can still affect the overall system and make the adjustment more challenging. 

Layer 2 is not readily accessible in later locations, which tend to gravitate strongly to Layer 4. When it is touched upon it is typically blended with the deeper layers, and is mostly experienced as greater dimensionality in perception, including spatial perception. From the perspective of Layer 4, every level of experience and state of perception, including the emptiness of Layer 2, shows up as the unfolding of pure existence. Any quality beyond a sense of undifferentiated existence appears secondary and relative and, in contrast to existence itself, unreal. 

Layer 3

Layer 3 can remain accessible in Location 4, though usually only the deepest centerless aspects of it. This will typically be mixed with Layer 4. Finders often experience a mix of Layer 3 and Layer 4, and possibly other layers, after initially transitioning to Location 4. If they remain in Location 4, they will usually go through what they often describe as a “deepening” in that location, which typically involves their system moving more solidly into Layer 4. From this point on, it becomes more difficult access to Layer 3 and to return to previous locations.

This deepening process involves the falling away of remaining subtle layers of self at Layer 3. These relate to being/beingness itself, the most foundational layer of association. When these fall away, it subjectively feels as though the centerless field of beingness/awareness (i.e., Layer 3) disappears, or somehow collapses into raw, indivisible existence. Then, all that remains is existence in spontaneous unfolding. 

It is common for Location 2 or 3 Finders to experience Layer 3 as foundational to all existence, like the source or ground of being. It feels as though it is always there and untouched by all experience. As a consequence, the subjective experience is emmeshed with deep beliefs about what is ultimately real, and transitioning to and deepening into Location 4 can be disconcerting. This is especially the case for Finders who had a divine experience of Layer 3 before transitioning to Location 4, because divinity disappears. 

On the Path of Freedom subjective experience roots increasingly deeply into Layer 4, until Layer 3 becomes difficult to access. It can sometimes show up again in later locations in a highly integrated form where it will feel like every layer is a quality of reality/existence. If a Finder does work at restoring some perception of Layer 3, it can often appear extremely intense energetically at first. 

In contrast, on the Path of Humanity, the deeper aspects of Layer 3 remain accessible. This difference in where subjective experience centers appears to underlie the split in development after Location 4. Layer 3 has a quality of being/beingness that falls away at Layer 4, hence Finders on the Path of Humanity return to experiencing a subtle quality of self. Similarly, the continued perceptual awareness of Layer 3 results in greater dimensionality in perception, which can subjectively feel richer and more alive than Location 4. There is also some return of emotion on the Path of Humanity, usually impersonal forms of love, which also relate to Layer 3. 

The reintegration of Layer 3 on the Path of Humanity allows these Finders to return to feeling more human, while those on the Path of Freedom continue in the direction of Location 4, which feels profoundly alien and out of phase with the world. Nonetheless, the anchoring of subjective experience in Layer 3 precludes significant deepening into Layer 4, and as a result the Path of Humanity does not go past Location 6. By Location 7 there is a very deep and complete isolation of perception in Layer 4, which cannot be achieved on the Path of Humanity. 

Layer 4

Layer 4 is the home layer of Location 4 and later. Up until this location it tends to be experienced partially and temporarily. The descriptions relating to Layer 4 in general are largely based on the qualities of Layer 4 in Location 4 and later, where there is typically a deep and pure experience of Layer 4 (apart from the Path of Humanity where there is a mix with Layer 3). 

From the perspective of Layer 4, there is no separation or distinction of any kind. There is only This—only indivisible reality in spontaneous unfolding. It is without any sense of duality or possibility of duality. Nothing appears to have independent or essential existence, and there is only undifferentiated reality. The concepts of self and no-self cease to have meaning. There is no sense of “I” or “I am” —no process of association or reflection. This dissolution of sense of self is so complete in later locations that even the experience of “no self” falls away. That experience is relative to the experience of self and is a positionality or fixation in a perspective or reference point. As one deepens into late locations, this is no longer referenced, and there is only existence itself. This cessation of the reflective movement in consciousness is central to the falling away of the subjective sense of self in Location 4 and later.

Layer 4 feels like absolute, irreducible reality, in which there is no state or condition, nor any existent thing to which a state or condition could pertain. This way of experiencing Layer 4 is more relevant to Locations 4 and later, where it can stabilize. When it is only touched upon temporarily, it does not necessarily feel as though it is not a state because the sense of individual self remains partially intact in earlier locations. Layer 4 is then experienced in the context of there being a self-existent experiencer that entered and left the experience. In Location 4 and later, where the sense of self is dissolved on a very low level, it feels as though that illusion of self just fell away, leaving only existence in spontaneous unfolding. Hence it does not feel like anything is attained—who could attain it when nothing but existence could ever be? From this perspective, all perceptual states are illusory and there is only undifferentiated existence.

When shifting deeply and exclusively into Layer 4, which essentially only happens from Location 4 on, it can feel like Layer 3 collapses or disappears. This produces the sense of a “return to the body” in Location 4, because it is a return to the raw existence of everything. There is no longer the sense of anything within or beyond it—no sense of all-transcending or all-pervading formless presence or beingness. What remains actually and perceptually is the body and everything that is physically present. The experience of everything is reduced to raw sense data, and it feels as though it is all just existence unfolding spontaneously. The body itself appears as part of that unfolding and no different from any other aspect of life. 

There is a sense that nothing can die because nothing exists of itself, and it therefore has no independent existence to lose. Life in its totality has no opposite and cannot die. There is a sense that this is reality itself and can never be gained or lost, but is the condition of everything that is or could be. Presumably because all fundamental human fear originates from the fear of death, this perception brings an incomparable sense of freedom and peace. The peace is of a different order than that of any other layer because it is not dependent on any positionality, such as “I am awareness”, or “I am”. The untouchable quality of Layer 3 becomes irrelevant (untouchable in relation to what?), because nothing but reality could ever be. The peace feels absolute and of a different dimension than emotional or psychological peace.

There is a powerful directionality and gravity to Layer 4, which can be difficult to escape. Location 4 Finders often experience what they describe as a “deepening” after initially transitioning, which can last from a few weeks to a few months, and typically involves their perception being drawn more deeply and exclusively into Layer 4. From this point on, it becomes more difficult to access Layer 3 and to return to previous locations. This is even more so the case for Location 5 and later Finders. 

Layer 4 is increasingly deepened into on the Path of Freedom, which continues in the direction of Location 4. This correspondingly entails a deepening away from the other layers of the system, which increasingly fade out of subjective perception, along with access to the conditioning that remains at those layers. There is an ever greater depth of stillness/silence and an incomparable quality of freedom and peace, which is the classical “freedom from suffering” pursued by spiritual traditions for millennia. However, this freedom entails a loss of perceptual dimensionality—deepening into Layer 4 involves stripping away or getting beneath the processes that filter perception, until all that remains is increasingly raw sense data. This diminishes the dimensionality of perception, which becomes progressively flat in later locations (although someone is not likely to notice unless they come back to an earlier location).

Deeper into Layer 4 in later locations, the sense of unfolding diminishes, until everything feels instantaneous and total. It feels as though everything collapses into silence. The silence is total and intrinsic to existence itself. It no longer feels experiential. There is no sense of distance or space. Even the field of awareness disappears, leaving no sense of any dimension—only the all-present reality. With Layers 2 and 3, everything is inside. This notion loses all meaning—there is no inside and no outside, no locality or reference point at all. Everything appears as an intrinsic quality of reality, and does not feel experiential, nor does anything appear to independently or essentially exist of itself. There is only raw undifferentiated reality. This comes increasingly to the foreground of perception as locations get later, resulting in an extreme flatness to perception. There is a powerful gravity to these late locations, making it difficult and rare to get back from them. When it does happen, the experience of earlier locations is changed as a result of the system having deepened in late locations.