The Key by Whitley Strieber

reality—the nervous system, as it were, of the body of God. There is much energetic life, for example, that is not intelligent. Life need not be planet-bound at all.
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    Why is life so common?
    Because perception is essential to the structure of the universe. If a thing is not perceived, it doesn’t have form. Life is thus the mechanism that gives form to nature. However, matter need not be perceived by an intelligent creature to have form. When it is, different laws apply, because the perception of intelligent creatures influences the form of what they perceive by the expectations built into their brains. The universe looks as it does to you, and functions by the laws that you see controlling it, because of the way your brain manages the process of perception. Conscious creatures, however, may control the form of the universe. The truly conscious are responsible for the laws that intelligent creatures follow by nature.
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    Will we ever be conscious?
    If you survive.
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    What is consciousness?
    Self-realization. A fully self-realized being understands the whole creation, for it is completely present everywhere.
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    I could understand everything?
    Not in your current state of being. You can only understand as much as the structures of your elemental body can support. But you understand only a small part even of that.
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    How far away from understanding all that I can now understand am I?
    If all you could understand in your present state was a star the size of the sun, then your understanding right now is a thimbleful of light.
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    Well, that isn’t much.
    On the contrary, it is a very great deal. You human beings are right on the edge of becoming a conscious species.
    This is why we are here. We’re midwives to your birth, as you yourself have speculated. You were to be born into consciousness before, but you miscarried. You fell from understanding because you misused the power that your growing consciousness gave you. Better to start over again.
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    How did we misuse this power?
    In those days, there were a few people on the earth with understanding greater than that of all your great scientists of today. But they guarded their knowledge ferociously. They were extremely secretive. The average man was little more than an animal, eating his brother for strength. So they lost everything, because you are a single being, and thus only as conscious as the least of you.
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    Theirs was a slave state?
    Your world is a slave state. You are all slaves to the demons who run it, who keep you in ignorance.
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    Our leaders are demons?
    They wish to conceal real knowledge from the common man, just as was true in the past civilization. Secrecy destroyed that world, and, if this one is to die, it is secrecy that will destroy it. This is why they conceal the truth about the past and the presence of those who seek to help you. They think that they do this on behalf of mankind, some of them, but they actually seek the destruction of the species. This hunger for self-destruction is the essence of your dark side, but we will speak of the death wish later. If you passively let them confine the wealth and keep the secrets, I will overturn your world yet again.
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    You could personally destroy our entire world?
    (Silence.)
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    Name some of these demons.
    Find the demon in your own heart, then I will betray the demon rulers of your world to you. Remember that the evil also serve me. Without evil, you could not taste of the good. Without them, you could not make the choice to follow me.
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    But a moment ago you said that aliens were here actively suppressing our progress. Now you say it’s our leaders. What does this mean?
    You must take your future from the hands of your oppressors. Do you think that there is a single human heart that is not filled with love for mankind? No, your demons make you strong.
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    Who are you? Christ? Or a demon yourself?
    Stop thinking this way. This is no longer