A Spiritual Exploration of Humanity's Relationship to Creation

In this episode, Dean Graves discusses his new book, The Enigma of Consciousness. His book dives deep into the spiritual environments of human experiences, from the physical realm to the highest levels of consciousness. Enjoy!

Transcript

Hello, everyone. This is your host, Keri Logan at Master the Upper Rooms. And today I have a unique special guest. His name is Dean Graves, and he is a renowned meditation teacher, mental health counselor, and a spiritual guide with over 20 years of experience in the field. Throughout his expertise in mental health and deep spiritual understanding, he provides a holistic approach to healing and growth. With his compassionate and insightful guidance, he has inspired and empowered people from all walks of life to embrace mindfulness and meditation as a path to greater self-awareness and spiritual awakening. And he is the author of this fabulous book we're going to talk about today. So as you smile, Dean, welcome to Master the Upper Rooms. How are you today? 

I'm wonderful. Thank you, Kerry. I'm delighted to be here and I thank you for inviting me. Yes. And thank you. Thank you for introducing me to this book because it's great. I really, really get a lot of the concept and the insight and the ideas and it just speaks to me. It really does. And yes, it is good reading material. And there are moments where it's like, you're exhausted. You need to go to sleep. Well, there's sections you can read that will really help you with that. Hopefully you laugh. We were joking about that a little bit before the show. So what, from your perspective and opinion, what is stress and suffering and why is it, how is it impacting humanity right now? Because as you know, the world is sort of seems like it's upside down. 

What's your wisdom on that? Stress is our teacher. Stress is purposeful. It's not necessary, but by the design of our experience, it is inevitable. The earth population is a very difficult experience. Kind of like the Super Bowl, we have entered into a phase of culmination that the universe is watching us as if we were the latest version of Cheers or Game of Thrones because of how long and how difficult it has been to get to the point that we are now, and the imminent changes that we are in the process of experiencing. Stress is nothing more than the difference between, defined, stress is the difference between our expectations and how things really are. Which means that if we were simply able to experience, have our experiences, 

and enjoy them as they truly were, we would no longer experience stress. The long-term objective is to become bliss. And bliss is a condition of being. It is not an emotion. Bliss is the absence of stress. And we will evolve to that point. It is inevitable. But how quickly and with how... little resistance that we offer in achieving that point is entirely up to us as participants in the experience. Everyone has expectations. Our expectations are as a result of our experiences. Our experiences are our interactions with other aspects of consciousness. But We are all motivated to get more of what we like. No one wakes up in the morning with the ambition of going out and getting more of what they don't like. Whether they're successful or not is another question. But because we are motivated to get more of what we like, we are obligated to make an assessment of every experience as we have the experience. An experience is nothing more than a thought. Every thought in and of itself 

is a complete experience. Now we, because of our limited awareness, we perceive an experience to last some period of time, 30 minutes, 45 minutes or whatever. But in those perceived experience are dozens of thoughts. And before we can go to the next thought, we are obligated to make a decision about that thought. And that decision is that the thought that I'm thinking right now either feels good and I like it and I want more of it, or it doesn't feel good and I don't like it. I don't want more of it. And how we interpret that experience, that individual experience cumulatively over the term of that perceived experience will adjudicate our opinion of whether that was a pleasant or an unpleasant experience. Every time that we interpret a thought with that, I don't like it, 

decision that is stress and stress is a spectrum so we have very minor experiences that are really not earth-shaking but we also have an interpretation of those experiences as significant very strong but that is purely our interpretation of the experience no experience comes to us with emotion on it there is no emotion on any experience regardless of how we may perceive that experience. So the intensity of the experience and the effects upon us is all applied by us at the time that we make that decision. I do a lot of work with trauma patients, and that's primarily what I work with in my mental health practice. What distinguishes a trauma from a reality a strong experience, just a normal strong experience, is that that thought so challenges the authenticity of our perception of self, our identity, that we are unable to make that decision. And if you've ever experienced or if you've observed people that have just gone through a hurricane or a tornado or some 

catastrophic event, oftentimes they are diagnosed to be in a condition of shock. And what has happened to them is their awareness has left their body. Literally, their awareness is outside of their body. And until they're able to bring that awareness back into their body, they're going to remain in that condition of shock. In a traumatic experience, we interpret one, two, three, or maybe four, at the worst case scenario, individual thoughts and that perceived experience in a way that it is so overwhelming to our identity, our perception of self, that we are in shock for that one thought. And so it creates a gap in our stream of consciousness of our experiences. And until such time as we can go back and on those individual thoughts, interpret that thought, and we can interpret it negatively, it doesn't matter as long as we are able to make that decision and put it in perspective to our perception of self, it will remain a hindrance to us in our functioning. I work with a lot of veterans, mostly veterans lately, but not veterans. 

and veterans are diagnosed in great quantities of having PTSD and PTSD. The military has virtually no means of treatment other than reenactment of the experiencing the experience, which incrementally allows them to accomplish. But by their own admission, they're only 12 percent successful, which is horrible. And, but with proper guidance and proper methodologies, you can clear that experience of its traumatic nature by aiding the patient in going back to those individual moments, and they know it, you don't have to guess what it is, they'll tell you in a heartbeat what the strongest moment in that experience is, in guiding them to focus their awareness on that moment, make that decision, that it was either favorable or unfavorable, heal that moment and create unity in that stream of consciousness through that experience. And from that point, the trauma of it is healed. They can put the pieces of the puzzle together, the story. The story is, relatively speaking, inconsequential. And I try to explain to therapists that don't understand this, that 

The story, which is what they're trained to work with, is like going to the library and looking up the index card for the book that you want to find. The lesson is in the book. But if you stick only with the story, you're never going to get the message, the lesson that was brought to you in that experience. The book is the emotion. And so once you're able to resolve that conflict, of not being able to make that emotional decision about that thought that they were processing um you're you're never going to heal it um and so stress is our teacher because when we experience what we don't like, that is nothing more than an affront to our perceived identity, our perceived perception of self. And so as we were talking before we went on air um 

A mind is nothing more than a bundle of thoughts. That's all it is. There's nothing more to a mind. It's not mysterious as science would like to have you make it. It is a bundle of thoughts. From our parents, our siblings, our friends, society, culture in general, we don't make a decision that Yes, I'm going to include this belief in my mind because I've gone through a rational, logical process. And when we have an affront to our identity, our perception of self, it is challenging a belief that we've incorporated into this mind. And we were talking about we create an ego mind. That ego mind is, by design, something that we do in this range of consciousness. It is... essentially an obligation because of the design of the archetypical mind, which, based upon your explanation of reading, you haven't gotten to in the book yet. But that is a module in the archetypical mind that we begin our evolutionary process through third density by creating a hierophant, a false identity, false perception of self, which is that ego mind. And in order to progress 

through along the evolutionary process, which is synonymous with the enlightenment process, we are obligated to become aware of what we have incorporated into this ego mind and begin to surrender these individual beliefs. As we do that, we are allowing our authentic self, our enduring self to emerge. And as we do that, then our, the, the, uh, curriculum for this range of consciousness is being learned and we are following the path of eventual evolution of reuniting with the creator 100% 100% yes you are 100% because I like to say it we start off as and we see this all the time in teenagers it's all about the self it's all about the self And that's 3D human consciousness. And when you start to move up into the 4D, that's acceptance. That's forgiveness. That's compassion. That's patience. You know, that's hope. That's trust. That is, you're flexible and feasible. You're able to see both sides of the perspective instead of it just being rigid, black and white. And I call it, you're maturing. You're adulting. 

Because a lot of us have met people that are adults in their body, but in their mind, they're still a child. They're still a child. And I like to say 3D human consciousness is where people are in a state of separation because it is all about the self. But when you get up into the four and especially the five, you realize you're one with everything. You're connected with everything. Everything in this universe, even the creator, it's like we're cut from that cloth. We're a part of the creator. And when you tap into that consciousness and you look at it differently, like you said, it unpacks things. It lets things unravel because you cannot like a person. That's what you don't like is their personality. 

personality. Because I always say you can love a person, but still don't like them. You just don't, you don't like the way they behave. They don't like the way they treat other people. And that's okay. A lot of people can't do that. It's like a hard part for people with forgiveness, I'm sure you know, is they get stuck in that victim mentality. They think, well, if I forgive that person, I'm then I guess I'm saying what they did is, is okay. And they, they kind of, you know, get stuck in this rigid belief of really what forgiveness is. And it's all about you, you finding that forgiveness in your heart, because that person can live rent free in your mind forever. They could even be dead and still live rent free in your mind. You got to evict them. And I love what you said about the, the veterans, because I, 

100%. I do the same exact thing. I've worked with a veteran just recently, and how I met the veteran was his wife would tell me for the last 12 years how he drives her crazy, drives her crazy. He goes to the Veterans Administration for counseling every week. He's a complete mess. He can't even do EMDR. Can you help him? And all I had him do was shift his perspective because he was stuck in guilt. He was a sergeant and he was in the Vietnam War and it was horrible. He lost one of his arms from an explosion, a really bad injury. And he felt like he was a failure, always felt like he was a failure. And when we went back to that story, like you mentioned, 

And we were able to perceive it differently. He was like, I never thought of it that way. And it made it literally. The best way to put it, Dean, is the wife and he are so happy now. They're just like, oh, my God, I wish I would have done this earlier. So what I want to thank you about. for what you're doing, because it is true. I hear from so many people that are veterans that are stuck, and they served our country. And we, I feel, have a responsibility to support these people that put their lives on the line for us, and they're not getting the support that they need. Well, it's only because of failures in the mental health industry. Yes. Yeah, they don't understand what they're working with. And so they consequently don't know how to be of help. And, you know, it's their training. It is, you know, their training is that the mind is a manifestation of the body. And it's the exact opposite of that. The body is a manifestation of the mind. And so consequently, when you all of the mental health medications that they developed affect the 

brain, but that's not healing the problem. That's lowering their awareness and their awareness is both the discovery tool and the healing tool of what needs to be healed. And so when you're the more heavily medicated you become on psychiatric medicines, then the lower your awareness and the less likely that you are going to be able to heal from those experiences, you may be able to become more functional, your behavior changes, but only because you're functioning at a much lower level than you should be able to function. Okay. So I want to ask you an interesting question because I know my response, but I would like people to hear your response. Is there a God? No. No. There's not a God, because God is a religious concept. Every major religion that I'm familiar with is founded on the premise that there is a God and that there is a you, that there is separation, and that is erroneous. There is a One Infinite Creator, and we are all the One Infinite Creator experiencing ourselves at this range of consciousness. 

And so there is no separation. There's no God that's going to save us or that we're going to live in harmony with. There is only the one infinite creator that we will eventually evolve back to the realization of total unity with the creator because we have completely surrendered our perceptions of separation. Interesting perspective because a lot of people will be like, Well, I pray to God and God talks to me and or, you know, my my prayers are answered. And the way that I look at it is you are when people do put something out in the universe and it is heartfelt and you are praying, the universe is a exchange. I'll give this to you. You give this to me. And it is kind of like an exchange of how we learn, how we evolve. And because I pray all the time and I've had things, you know, unfold. And I think a lot of times it has to do with what our expectations wrapped around those prayers is a better way to, you know, kind of put it. 

And I think you just froze. Distorted to a degree. You actually froze. So if you go if you can go back and share what you were sharing because you completely froze. Go ahead. OK, I'm sorry. We are magnetic. And the more distorted that we are, the more distorted our attractions will be and less fulfilling. And so as we heal ourselves or heal our false perceptions of self, then we become more of a pure magnet and attract what we desire. how to manifest things in the law of attraction myths is you have to change you in order to be successful in what you attract that you desire. And so it's all the same process. It's all the same process of healing. When you make a commitment to heal yourself, when you make a commitment to others, primarily, it works also for those choosing the service to self path, but in a different way. 

If you make that commitment to be of service to others and to attract the experiences that are going to give you the information and opportunity to further heal yourself, the universe conspires to assist you. And so all you have to do is become aware and be aware of the opportunities and the people that are presented to you that will provide you with the information and the furtherance of your Pam. A hundred percent. Cause I, I remember back in the day, it was like around 2000, I think it was around 2010. I used to teach a law of attraction class. I taught it for two years. And then in 2012, I said, I want to do a mastermind class. I don't want to teach it. I want to do it. And what was so interesting is my class cut in half. I mean, more than that, 

it went from 30 people down to 10. And that's the thing is a lot of people will love, Oh, I'd read this. But if you don't apply the teachings and the wisdom within it, it means nothing. It means nothing. And literally within that, within a 10 month period, I manifested over 22 things my heart desired. And it was amazing, an amazing experience. And it's true when you can, And that was the key thing for me was when I wrote the book, Affirming and Focusing on Living a Better Life, which I channel just like you, everything I was taught is everyone should align with love, align with the frequency of love. And that frequency does vibrate at the energetic range of 500. It's that vibration. And like how you said, 

there's all these different levels of consciousness available to you. It's there 24 7 we just have to line up to it and then we have to embody it and literally become it. And live it yes and that's the hard part is everyone has experienced it. Everyone has, the best example is when it comes to forgiveness. Let's say when you were a little kid and you accidentally broke something, and you were begging for forgiveness, please, you know, I'm so sorry. If you got that, that was a gift. And when you got that, you felt joy and bliss and happiness, and you felt heard and understood. Now, if you didn't grow up with a parent that modeled those 40 consciousness behaviors, they'd get angry at you. They'd yell at you. They'd shame you. 

They make you feel like you're not good enough, you're unimportant, you're broken, you're unworthy, you're unlovable. And as you know, that's where all those core wounds start from. Yeah, it starts from early childhood. And in working with my mental health patients, I have a process that goes really deep and it deals directly with what we describe as your conditions. Not individual experiences, but what is the prevailing condition of your life that influences all of your decisions and so forth. And invariably, it will lead back to some version of I'm not worthy or I'm not good enough. Yep. Yeah, it does. You know, you can phrase it differently, but the effect is the same. Yeah. Now I hear you. So how was it? for you channeling this book? Was it something that was daily, every other day, every week? How long did it take you to... I know I just asked multiple questions. How long did it take you to... Because this is 500 pages. That's a good book. Well, good. Thanks. It took... My intense learning period began in about 2011. 

There was a lot of preparation before that, but in retrospect, it was cursory compared to what this began in 2011. I was provided with the opportunity to have solitude and devote myself to the two-step process, which is first healing emotional baggage. And that was about a three-year daily process, literally daily process for several hours a day. And then learning. And you have to ask questions. They're not going to sit you down and say, okay, now this is what you need to know. You have to ask questions because if you ask the question, then they know that you're ready for the answer, for the information. So you guide the... the instruction by virtue of how you can digest and understand what has been given and open yourself to more information. And that's an ongoing process. I still do that, you know, today. So, um, it, you know there there's no end to learning uh you don't reach a point and say, okay, well, I got my degree and i can quit now. It just is an ongoing process. 

No, I hear you. I hear you. So did it take you like months? Did it take you over a year to write this book? Like how long did it take you? Well, to write the book, you know, that was after not a lot of learning. So it took me probably about a year to write it. And I'm not a good writer. You know, I have to write and I'll go back and reread it and reread it and revise it and so forth. And there are many, many nights that I would go to go to bed thinking, my God, I have just written the greatest piece of literature that there ever was. And then I go to sleep and I wake up the next morning and reread what I wrote. And I just know that some third grader snuck in and rewrote what I thought was such great literature the night before. And so, you know, I finally refined it to a point that I think is easy to read and explain. 

and it explains things adequately for people to grasp it without too much difficulty. Okay. So I think everyone would like to know, and I would like to hear your opinion on this also, is what's the Earth's future? Like what speaks to you? What does it say about the Earth's future? Wow, we're in a tremendous point of transition. Yes, we are. Lots of chaos. Lots of chaos. Well, it, it appears to be chaos, but it's actually organized chaos. Yes. Uh, the third density experience on earth ended in February of 2016. And simultaneously, no one, no one noticed because we weren't supposed to notice. We began a new third density experience, which lasts a third density experiences approximately 75,000 years. Um, But simultaneously, we began, actually before then, a fourth density experience, which right now is commingled with the third density experience. And virtually all the children that have been born since 2005, 2006, are actually fourth density children. And they are in what is called the transitional bodies, a fourth density body, 

is significantly more electric. It is all electric. Once they make the transition, generational transitions into the fourth density, their bodies will be entirely electric. And third density is all chemical body. So the children are in transitional bodies where they're still predominantly chemical, but they're becoming more and more electric. And over the next several generations, each succeeding generation of fourth density generations will become more and more electric until eventually they're entirely electric. The plan is because Earth has had such difficulty in people graduating from the third density. And for a large segment of the population, what ended in February of 2016 was our fifth attempt to graduate any significant numbers. And so we have a long history of difficulty and failures. Prior to 2016, wanderers were introduced in great quantity to serve, and a wanderer is a higher density being that projects itself as a third density being and actually lives a third density life, but has 

has that connection of higher vibration and higher beingness. The Buddha, Jesus, Lao Tzu, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, just mass numbers of wanderers that serve to be a model for third density to emulate and hopefully elevate their path. their progression along the path. That was moderately successful at best. And so the plan is now that with these fourth density beings co-mingling with the third density beings that the close interactions of the fourth density beings will provide that stimulus for the third density to advance. And the question that i had is if most of the children are fourth density, they're coming in, how is third density going to perpetuate itself? and the answer was, well, the fourth density children, when they mature, will have, some will have fourth density children, some will have third density children, but the hope is the third density children being raised by fourth density parents will have that indoctrination and receive that vibrational stimulus to elevate their path along the third density journey but the third density 

The fourth entity will continue to bifurcate, to separate, as the generations... It's already evident now. What we see is the political contrast in the United States is worldwide. Oh, yeah. And so that is the beginning of the process. And as that progresses, the higher consciousness beings that are choosing service to others will... just migrate together. Those choosing to stay in the lower consciousness will migrate together until they no longer interact. And vibrationally, when fourth density separates entirely, we will both occupy Earth, third density and fourth density, but they will no longer interact. Third density will be unaware of fourth density, fourth density for a period of time, won't be aware of third density until they learn to shield themselves from detection by third density. Once they reach that point in their advancement and are totally electric bodies, then they will be aware of third density and provide additional non-physical guidance to third density. I love that you said that because it's going to, how can I put this? 

I don't want to sound weird when I say this, but... You heard what I just said, and you're saying what you're saying is going to be weird? No, I really heard and got what you said. Yeah, I understand that, but you're using the phrase weird, and I was just as weird as you can be. Yeah, so what it really says to me is I've always said... Like if I was going to do an elevator pitch, this is my elevator pitch. And it would be, you know, think about all these young people that graduate from, let's say college or high school, and they know they're going to dive into the deep ocean of life. Some are going to swim, some are going to sink. And wouldn't it be nice if we could teach these young kids to, you know, 

build a boat or even to wear a life vest. And because when you go along that journey in life, and let's say you're in your boat and you're cruising along and you're happy and you find someone that's drowning, you can pick them up and they could take a ride with you until they learn what they need to learn. And either you, you know, you part is friends or you stay together. And What I'm really talking about is mental health. We need to educate our youth about mental health. We need to educate our youth about trauma. We need to educate our youth about toxic people because that's what 3D human consciousness is, is a lot of toxic people stuck in toxic thoughts, toxic behaviors, toxic ways of living that don't serve us anymore. And so it is really important to, 

to me that all these young people that are coming into the world get that gift and get that knowledge because they can be deceived or manipulated or taken advantage of someone that is stuck in 3d human consciousness yeah and those lower densities they will get victimized they will get wounded and yes the key thing is to realize that person is your teacher. Yeah. And a lot of people can't grasp that concept sometimes because it's like, what? They're my teacher. I hate them. No, they are teaching you something that exists in the fourth dimension, which is forgiveness, acceptance, compassion, grace, mercy. You know, they're teaching you how to find your voice and stand up for yourself, how to set healthy boundaries. You If you just shift your perspective, how is it not so painful? Because a lot of people, they cling to their story. And they think their story defines them because sometimes people, they get attention. They get a need met based on that story of victimization. Oh, I'm getting, I get this or I get that. And a lot of people are afraid to let that story go because then who am I? 

Without my story. Yeah. Well, without that ego mind. Yes. That false identity, that hero fan that we're obligated to create. The difficult part of becoming aware of that and surrendering that is that's who we think we are. Right. And if I'm not who I think I am, then who I am. And that's scary. And so and there is a void period that, you know, when you got to surrender that before you can surrender. change the lens that you're looking at the world through and see the other path the other way. And so that's the scary part. But that's where that faith comes in. And I teach my students, you know, you got to have hope first. And the difference between hope and faith is say you had a job and you lost your job and you know, well, I got to get another job. So you go and you start knocking on doors and you have hope. 

when you're knocking on doors because you don't know if they have a job. They don't know what they would hire you. And so you have hope to knock on that door. But then you knock on a door and they say, yes, we have a job available. And they interview you and then they call you back for another interview and then another interview. And then that hope has transformed to faith because you know they've got a job. You know that they're interested in you because they've called you back three times for an interview. and that becomes faith that you're going to get that job. And so hope is uh the difference between hope and faith is information. And so you've gained information, but you had to have hope in the first place. And once you get that information, then that transforms that just wildly um unfocused hope 

becomes faith and directs you to what you need to do to do in order to attract the experience that you want. Yeah. Now I hear you. So, before we wrap all this up, Dean, where can people find you? Well, I have a website uh the initial d dean graves all one word, dot org. And it has my contact information there. It has the books that I have written there. I've got three others in addition to the one that we've been discussing a little bit today. What we talked about today is my compendium book. The other three are more focused on people beginning the path or dealing specifically with stress and suffering. And then one, Edifying Children of a Lesser God, is kind of 

An introductory level to what I've compiled into the Enigma of Consciousness book. And so if you're, you know, if you need incremental steps, you can go through the books in incremental steps before this one, before you get to this one. Each one is a little bit more complete than the one before. But it has, you know, the services that I offer, the how to, you know, where the books are, where you can get the books. You can get the Enigma of Consciousness. You can get everything on Amazon today. So they're all available on Amazon, but the Enigma of Consciousness is available from your local bookstore. And that's about it. I'm available to help, to offer class teaching, lectures, whatever people need in order to become a leader in their own community, you know, to stimulate a group that they can use 

as a resource for themselves and others to heal themselves. um so, you know, however i can be of service, that's, that's all that i do now is this sort of thing in the mental health counseling. Okay. Well, I'm also, to let everyone know, going to create a blog post with your information on there. So there'll be links to your Facebook, to your Instagram, to your LinkedIn, and also to your YouTube channel, because I'm sure you probably got some cool videos on there as well. Yeah, I've got 45 or 50 videos on there. Awesome. Okay. Well, thank you so much, Dean, for being here today. I really appreciate your time and all your wonderful wisdom. You're a great, great person to have on here. 

Thank you. I've enjoyed it. It's been tremendous. And you've been an excellent host. I'm very, very pleased to have had this chat with you. Thank you. I always like talking to like-minded people. So thank you. Okay. You take care, Dean. Okay. Bye-bye. All right.