Theos-Talk Archives (April 1994 Message tl00033)

Daniel...

Pretty heavy message.  I've been digesting it for the last several
days, so please forgive the lack of a quick reply.

First off the spiral 7 works for me enormously well, as I'm visualizing
progress as the ascension of a spiral staircase.  The musical allusions
reminded me that I'd also like a soundtrack keyed to various lives.
Coarser music, like rap or something for coarser lives, going up a
continuum (spiral ascension) to something like, say, Pachelbel's Canon.
Also, taking your suggestion to heart, I've written a FileMaker Pro
database to contain and cross-reference concepts as I go through and
start harvesting ideas.  What kind of computer are you on? FileMaker
runs on Macs or Windows machines and I have a demo version of the
database that will run anything I cook up.  I'd like to run this first
build by you to get your feedback, so if you could send me a mailing
address and what type of computer you're on, I'll fire this over to
you.

I've been thinking over the shape of the game and a good idea has come
to mind.  Imagine something like SIM City where you're making decisions
and things are jamming along and you're racking up all these 'points',
as it were.  In a similar fashion, a player would get to go through the
equivalent of a JP Morgan or Caesar or some other highly accomplished
personality.  A score would be kept of all the money they make, the
assets they have, the nations they've conquered, etc., mirroring the
typical score-keeping of life on earth.  Then they die, and all their
earthy acquisitions, scores, are wiped out, and then they find out how
they really did in terms of karmic debt and evolution.  It will only
smoke a player once, but I like the way it leads them to believe the
illusion is the important thing, only to show them otherwise later on.
I like the lesson inherent in that.

Between lives, Leadbeater's idea of the 3 laws of human life struck me
as a good starting point (The Inner Life, page 337).  Maybe something
like a menu of possible times, cultural environments (religion, social
norms, etc.) and such for the oversoul (Jane Roberts' term) to select
from, only to have the laws kick in and the person getting more or less
than what they asked for.

The 7 also works for me in the 7 levels of astral matter, those various
levels, if you're stuck in one, coloring how you view others.  The
oversoul who is less developed will see the environment and others as
more hostile and evil than the more highly developed oversoul who finds
all the beauty that is in the world.  I haven't come up with a good way
for a player to 'recognize' a co-reincarnational character other than
to have them thrown together and jibe really well.  I'd like for that
concept to ultimately be clear, even if it isn't at first.  The whole
idea of lessons being derived by the player instead of being beaten
into the player seems like it should be a fundamental goal of the game
structure.

Which brings me back to the huge question: of the multitude of lessons
within the teachings, which ones should be included? What criteria
should be used for selection? These questions are the reason I only
have 10 entries in my database so far.  I don't want to be cranking in
a bunch of stuff that I'm not likely to use.  A primary goal for me is
to teach the unity of all things.  I think that lesson alone can go a
long way toward fostering mutual understanding between people and
institutions in conflict every day.  Soundtrack: Elvis Costello's
'What's so funny about peace, love, and understanding?' I don't have a
strong feel for other concepts yet, aside from the workings of
reincarnation and karma.  Any thoughts in that direction? The goal of
this game is to better the world through the teachings of Theosophy.
What concepts fit that objective for you?

Looking forward to your reply,

Chris