Consciousness has abilities that allow us to process and deal with the physical universe. Everyone is more or less aware of these abilities. Broadly they are imagining, thinking, and remembering. These are the aspects of mind.

Only a few people are aware that consciousness has a much broader, intrinsic nature behind mind. This intrinsic nature is the realm of the Being. When it is entered, what was previously held to be important by imagining, thinking, and remembering is likely to become totally irrelevant. From this fathomless realm, all of the events and experiences of normal waking consciousness are satisfactorily encompassed by the curiously wise expression, “That’s something.”

Three of the most mysterious things a person can experience are spiritual ecstasy, the ah–ha! moment of creative genius, and a verifiable “nonlocal awareness” event – what is often called a psychic event. Let me propose what I think a growing body of interdisciplinary research and a millennia of ethnohistory both suggest: These three enigmatic occurrences are, in fact, different manifestations of the same process, sometimes seen as spiritual,sometimes as brilliance, and sometimes as merely strange. Each is modulated by the intent of the practitioner and the context in which the experience is placed.

The Mayan culture has undergone substantial changes throughout its existence. It is part of the wider context of Mesoamerican civilization that stretched from Central America into present day southern United States. This civilization was based on the cultivation of Maize and shared the Sacred 260 day calendar. It is estimated that the Maya started to cultivate Maize about 5000 years ago, around the time set for the beginning of their Long Count. It is however only at about the time of Christ that we can talk about the emergence of a high culture among the Maya.

The greatest hunger in life is not for food, money, success, status, security, sex, or even love from the opposite sex. Time and again people have achieved all of these things and wound up still feeling dissatisfied – indeed, often more dissatisfied than when they began.

The deepest hunger in life is a secret that is revealed only when a person is willing to unlock a hidden part of the self. In the ancient traditions of wisdom, this quest has been likened to diving for the most precious pearl in existence, a poetic way of saying that you have to swim far out beyond shallow waters, plunge deep into yourself, and search patiently until the pearl beyond price is found.