focus-4 - THE WIDER REALITY

FRANK KEPPLE MODEL OF THE WIDER REALITY

Here we intend to provide a detailed overview of Frank Kepple's model for Astral Reality, or what he refers to as the Wider Reality.

Frank's work has built upon the pioneering research of Robert Monroe and provides an update to it. Frank's new model is of critical importance and deserves to be promoted.

About Frank Kepple

Frank Kepple is an English researcher who has a long term interest in the theory and practical application of astral projection and exploration, out of body experiences and related areas of afterlife studies. He graduated in Electronics and worked as a Science Consultant in industry for many years before taking early retirement in the South of France so as to more fully concentrate on his research.

Frank first became interested in afterlife studies and the work of pioneering astral researcher and author Robert A Monroe when he came across one of his books in a second hand book shop over 20 years ago. On a whim, Frank decided to read it as he thought that the author was either completely mad or onto something. Frank did not blindly accept everything that Monroe wrote; neither did he automatically dismiss it all: His scientific outlook led him to put Monroe's findings to the test by trying to replicate his work. Only then would he be satisfied that Monroe was indeed onto something. He never looked back!

Not only did Frank replicate Monroe's work, he pushed the boundaries of Monroe's research even further. In recent years, Frank has spent a lot of time writing in a forum where he has provided a wealth of information and invaluable advice to many.

Frank has passed to afterlife. It is hoped that this resource will provide a detailed overview of his research to date, so that people will continue to build upon his work in the future, just as he built upon the work of Monroe. Modern research into the Wider Reality is only just beginning...

What follows is Frank in his own words:

INTRODUCTION

There IS a wider reality!

I will present you a model of its structure. My model does differ from most other people's ideas on the matter. But that's because I drop all the mystical attachments that, for some weird reason, have latched onto this topic. In essence, the structure of the wider reality is fairly simple to comprehend. Once you understand the various ground rules that apply and what goes on where, then it all starts to make some kind of sense.

Knowing about the wider reality as I do, on the occasions when I have flipped through the old mystical works I can readily see where they were coming from. I was quite amazed, in fact, at how well these early explorers had it all set out. But the BIG problem is that the basic structure is almost completely lost under layer upon layer of mystical conditioning. Any ordinary person reading it wouldn't be able to make head nor tale of it. But because I know how the wider reality is set out, I can separate all the wild assumption, from the bits they got right.

My goal is to present a model that people can understand.

Mystics revel in mysticism and by its very nature it wouldn't be mysticism if ordinary people could understand it. We need to move beyond mere beliefs and start talking about what actually IS.

The religious types always keep hitting me with this one. They always try to posit from the point of view of me pitching my beliefs against their own. Then they try and switch it by presenting the view that my beliefs are no more or no less valid than there beliefs. Nope, that is not where I am coming from. I am not presenting to you my beliefs on the matter and Phasing is not some kind of alternative religion! My goal is to inform you of what the wider reality entails, and to do that as accurately as possible. Quite what religion has to do with the wider reality is difficult for me to fathom. A person once said to me, "How can you possibly know anything when you don't even believe in God?" Thing is, while I do not believe in God, I understand why people have come to believe in the objective notion of a creator. It's all to do with the way Focus 4 of consciousness is structured. But more on that will come later.

There is a lot I need to get across to you first.

It's just that I never know what possesses these mystical and religious types to think that they somehow have a complete monopoly on this topic. As I have said many times, I do not have a religious or mystical bone in my body. Never have and never will have. I am a scientist, not a mystic. The religious and mystical types I have spoken to simply do not have a clue. All they have done is to learn various passages from whatever bible/book/paper they have chosen to believe represents a truth they feel suits them best, and they pitch it as knowledge. All the one's I've tackled on the matter, mainly out of curiosity more than anything just to find out what makes them tick, as it were, have virtually no practical experience. It has all been "book" learnt. To me, that does not qualify. I have hardly read anything on this topic. The 3 Monroe books, Astral Dynamics by Robert Bruce and perhaps 2 or 3 others, none of which stick in mind. Apart from one of the Seth books, Seth Speaks, I think it was. I particularly liked that one as Seth also presents a fairly clear model of consciousness that incorporates 4 areas that he calls Frameworks of Consciousness.

I am indebted to Monroe for giving me the clues that I needed to follow in his footsteps. This saved me a *lot* of time and propelled me to making even more discoveries about the wider reality that perhaps I would not have made otherwise. Or certainly not in the timescale that I did, put it that way. Monroe's linear focus model served me well for a number of years. But it was my frustration in my attempts to go "beyond" Focus 27 of the Monroe model that led to my developing a Phasing Model of consciousness that I will be presenting to you here.

How did it all begin?

People often ask this. I came across a copy of Monroe's Journeys Out of Body about 27 years ago. I happened to look in the window of this new "New Age" bookshop that had opened in Chiswick west London where I lived at the time. The book was there in the window. I don't know what made me buy it. I still actually have the book. Anyhow, after buying it, I read the book a couple of times and it got me thinking. I figured Monroe was either insane, or he had come across something important. So I gave his technique a try and, much to my surprise, I began getting some definite effects. The rest, as they say, is history.

The structure of the wider reality, while in a sense is logically ordered and fairly easy for the ordinary person to understand (after all, if I can understand it then most other ordinary people should be able to) there are some aspects about it that are flaming unbelievably vast and just totally beyond comprehension or explanation (well, at the moment that is). I could write a book on some of the more explainable aspects, for example, and no one would believe me. They'd just dismiss it as whacky nonsense, the worthless ramblings of a raving lunatic. And I wouldn't blame them one bit, as I'd think the same way if I hadn't actually experienced what I have.

So we are going to begin right at the beginning.

The Wider Reality: An Overview

More traditional mystical approaches tend to refer to all the 'astral worlds', 'planes' and the like, that are meant to exist beyond our physical world. The reality is that all these other 'planes/worlds', including the physical, are in fact part and parcel of one entire spectrum of consciousness, intertwined. I call the totality of our consciousness, when everything is included together, as the Wider Reality. As we are primarily focused on the physical world, we only really perceive the physical. This leads us to think that the rest of the Wider Reality is somewhere else. This is incorrect. The Wider Reality is in fact ALL here, the crucial factor is that we have chosen to focus our awareness into a specific area of that entire spectrum of consciousness for the purpose of gathering experience.

Now, the Wider Reality is apportioned into 4 Primary Areas that I label Focus 1 to Focus 4 inclusive. You can call them what you like. The actual label you place is irrelevant. For ease of understanding, however, we need to call them something simple and logical.

Right, so consciousness is apportioned into 4 areas. Someone asked me recently if there was anything beyond Focus 4, i.e. a Focus 5 or such like. The answer is, to my knowledge, within our particular system there are just 4 Primary areas. But consciousness doesn't end there. Consciousness is infinite. There may well be an infinite number of other systems either like ours or perhaps wildly different. But let's just concentrate on the structure of our particular system and get people projecting properly with that first.

Our system can be divided into Focus 1, Focus 2, Focus 3, and Focus 4. Together they form the totality of our Consciousness Continuum, or all that is (at least in our system). Each of us has our very own Consciousness Continuum that exists across these four areas.

Okay, so here's one of the most important aspects you MUST understand: When I say there are 4 Primary Areas in our Wider Reality, I want you to fully realize beyond any doubt that these areas are NOT places! They are FOCUSES OF ATTENTION along your very own 'Consciousness Continuum'.

Monroe was a pioneer in this and he was the very first person, to my knowledge, who realized that these areas were actually focuses of attention and not places. Hence the term "focus" in the focus numbers that Monroe talks about such as Focus 10, Focus 21, etc. Why "focus"? You might ask. Well, that is the reason.

Now, our Wider Reality is apportioned into 4 Primary Areas and each person has what is called their Primary Focus. Anyone reading this within the physical (Focus 1) has their Primary Focus set to the physical. When we project, our Primary Focus does not change. We may shift our focus of attention, but our Primary Focus remains Focus 1. Think of your Primary Focus as your "home focus" if you like. Say you visit a friend at another address. For the duration of your visit, the address of your friend's location has become the address of your location also. But that's only for the duration of your visit. Your home address remains the same. It's just that you've changed address temporarily. And that's what we do when we project. Our Primary Focus remains the same, but we temporarily shift our focus of attention to another area of our consciousness continuum.

Throughout the time we are alive and kicking within the physical, our Primary Focus is Focus 1. Now, when a person dies, what we objectively view as "death" is an objective representation or translation of the person switching their Primary Focus from Focus 1 to Focus 3 of consciousness. You see, when you switch your Primary Focus, all subjective interaction with your physical body is stopped. In other words, the physical shell stops functioning as you shed it and go to live within Focus 3. This area is known as the Transition Area for various reasons.

Now, I just want to say again, that all this is not some weird and whacky theory I happened to dream up one day. What I am saying to you is how it is, as far as I can tell. Everything I am putting across to you I have experienced first hand. With a little effort and a little practice on your part, you can experience it too. Ignore those that claim you have to reach a particular "level" of "incarnation" before you can access the "higher" areas. We actually occupy ALL of consciousness ALREADY. Every one of us has the EXACT SAME subjective structure! There is no such thing as any one person being more advanced than any other. In fact, the people who have the hardest or most difficult time in Transition, tend to be the highly religious and deeply spiritual types. They just get bogged down in their own belief constructs and end up trudging through the Astral Mud, as I call it.

One of the great benefits of knowing how the Wider Reality is organized is when you die, you know exactly where you are and exactly what to do. Rather than end up floundering in the dark not knowing anything. But there are many other benefits you can gain from this too while you are alive.

Now, there are 4 Primary Areas and your current Primary Focus is Focus 1.

I want you to also think of these Primary Areas as being intertwined with each other. They are not strung out in a big long line. They are all continually intertwined and connected. Remember they are NOT places. For example, in the physical you may be in one town, then you travel down the road to the next town. These areas are NOT like that. They are all intermeshed and intertwined with one another. Because of this, it is perfectly possible to objectively experience 2 or more Primary Areas at once simply by tuning your focus of attention. You do NOT have to "travel" anywhere. Within the physical, we have Time, Space and Distance to contend with. But once you "step outside" the physical there is no Time, so there is no Space or Distance either. But that's not to say you do not perceive the idea of Space and Distance coupled with a semblance of Time passing. But these notions are mere legacies from having lived within the physical world and have no bearing in fact.

Many people ask me how I travel from one area to the next. I don't, because there is no Space to travel through. I used to have difficulty in navigating the Wider Reality. Then, one day, the penny dropped. The difficulties I was having were not because navigation is difficult. My difficulties were coming about through my failing to realize just how easy it was. I was trying to travel from point A to point B as in the physical. In other words I was trying to travel through Space over a Distance and there is no such thing. Everything within the Wider Reality is contained within the same point. So if you are at one place, you are at all places at the same time. Because there is no Space. That is why I say we each occupy all of consciousness already. The only difference is in your objective perception of your surroundings in terms of where, along your consciousness continuum, you are focusing your attention. And that comes right back to what I was saying on the outset: these areas are NOT places, they are focuses of attention.

Are you beginning to see now why these areas are NOT places?

FOCUS 1:

So we all know Focus 1 of consciousness. It is the physical. Focus 1 incorporates what I call the Wider Physical. This would include the region some call the real-time-zone or RTZ. Personally, I dislike using the term real-time-zone as there is no such thing as "real" time and it is not a "zone". But, then again, I look at this with a scientific air and, in science, you have to be congruent as to the terms you use and get your definitions in order.

To be honest, I can't see the point of projecting into the RTZ (or the Wider Physical). Apart from the novelty value, there isn't much you can do and it would appear a LOT of effort for very little return. Because of that we will start with Focus 2 of consciousness.

FOCUS 2:

Focus 2 of consciousness is what is commonly known by psychologists, as your "sub conscious" but there is nothing "sub" about it. Focus 2 is where most people do their dreaming, lucid dreaming, their "astral projecting", their meeting up with all manner of demons and devils, etc. Focus 2 of consciousness contains all manner of personal faculties such as your memory and your imagination. Without Focus 2 of consciousness we simply wouldn't be able to think rationally or create anything within the physical. It holds all our belief constructs that we happen to subscribe to. And it is this latter point that is rather interesting. You can actually project within Focus 2 of consciousness and objectively view representations of your very own belief constructs that you hold. However, taking on board the fact that people typically think that this area of consciousness (to them the Astral) is a separate place, the Astral will actually become whatever you believe it is! This simple fact, unbelievably, has been the source of thousands of years of confusion as regards the wider reality.

The problem has been simply that mystics have always thought they were projecting to some place outside of themselves. Yet what you are actually viewing, within Focus 2 of consciousness, are the objective representations of your very own belief constructs. So if you actually believe the Astral is packed full of demons and devils... then demons and devils you shall perceive. Because what you are actually viewing are the objective representations of your own beliefs. People have the idea that "the Astral" is a weird and magical place where you get all manner of Alice in Wonderland effects such as your thoughts coming to life. Many mystics just accept this as a given and lead people into thinking they could possibly meet up with all manner of doom, gloom and danger.

But do these people ever stop to think, even for a moment WHY their thoughts come to life? WHY there is such a thing as an Alice in Wonderland effect?

It is only when you look at the situation from the point of view of a scientist trying to objectively make sense of it all that you realize the simple reason of why this effect comes about. For almost 5 years I battled with this question. I fought all manner of demons and devils and slayed dragons galore. Then, one day, the penny dropped. I realized that thought equals action. That was it! I was in a place where thought equals action. I remember the time distinctly even to this day around 18 years later. But it was only much later when I realized precisely WHY thoughts equaled action in this weird and wonderful kind of place called the Astral... WHY did thought equal action? Simple! It was because I was projecting into my own mind. In other words, I was offering myself the objective knowing of my very own internal subjective actions!

This simple realization led me on an amazing voyage of discovery through my very own mind. It was truly fascinating as I learnt to know myself from the inside out, so to speak. Wow, if I had a problem, I could now step right into myself and find a likely solution. Plus, it was from this realization that I got to know about the way the subjective and the objective translates both in terms of awareness and in terms of energy. This latter discovery has since helped me to make some very profound realizations about the Wider Reality.

FOCUS 3:

Focus 3 is even more interesting: This area of consciousness is a collective term that incorporates all of Monroe's Focus 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27 areas. This region features all the 'Hollow Hells', 'Hollow Heavens' and everything in-between. Monroe's Focus 27 represents the 'upper level' of my Focus 3. Focus 3 is where we all go when we 'die' i.e. after physical death our primary focus switches from Focus 1 to Focus 3. Focus 3 is also known as the Transition Area, for reasons which will be explained in due course.

Focus 3 is what I call a 'common area' of our Consciousness Continuum. This means that unlike Focus 2, which is ours alone and can only be experienced by ourselves, our Focus 3 area of consciousness intertwines with everyone else's; we can all share in each other's Focus 3 areas of consciousness and interact with each other. As you step into Focus 3 then you will find that it is much like the physical is. Here you can meet people in a totally objective sense exactly as you can while physical. Within this region it is obvious these people are not merely creations of your own imagination. It is as obvious as it is apparent that other people are not merely creations of your imagination within the physical.

There are billions of people on the mid to upper branches all interacting with each other in an objective sense, just as we all do within the physical. The upper branches of Focus 3 are VERY physical-world like indeed, even better in fact on the top-most branches. In my mind I call it the supra physical, sort of like the physical on steroids! In Focus 3 you will find an almost infinite variety of different environments that people have created for themselves to live in, either knowingly or unknowingly. Many of these environments are wonderful and beautiful, some are boring and others are horrific. When people create objects and environments in Focus 3, these things remain until removed, so it is possible to turn up at a location long forgotten about by its creator. It may even have other people hanging about in it! You could even stick around here and add your own touches if you like! Creating things in Focus 3 is slightly tricky as it involves the subjective creation process but with practice you can get the hang of it.

Note: One of the most fundamental rules of the Wider Reality that you must take on board is the rule of 'Like attracts Like'.

This is important in order to understand the myriad 'worlds' of Focus 3: After physical 'death', people with similar beliefs and values will tend to gravitate towards the environments in Focus 3 populated by those of similar beliefs (their collective beliefs created these areas). Furthermore, they will tend to stay there until they have a fundamental shift in beliefs and/or values, at which point they will move on to 'higher' regions of Focus 3 where people are more free thinking. These 'upper areas' of Focus 3, where people are happily free of dogmatic beliefs, are the regions labeled Focus 27 by Monroe. The number of environments in these upper reaches of Focus 3 is huge but here you will find many of the environments described by Monroe, such as 'The Park', the 'Life Review Centre' and so on.

Just to clarify: Focus 3 is HUGE! So say I have had experience with 2 thousand people on the lower branches, as I call them, of the Focus 3 tree. This 2 thousand may account for 10% of people (highly unlikely!), 1%, or 0.0000000000001% (perhaps looking more likely). I really have no way of knowing at this stage. There is so much to explore here!

FOCUS 4:

Focus 4 is the real mind blow! This is the 'top end' of our Continuum of Consciousness. It is pure subjective energy. When we engage with Focus 4 we become our 'Wider Selves'. This is the end goal of Focus 3. This is why Focus 3 is also called the Transition Area. Focus 3 allows us to prepare (at our own pace, be it centuries or thousands of years in some cases) for our eventual primary switch to Focus 4.

Primary Focus 4 of consciousness is the subjective source of all the actions in consciousness. You see, the energy for our actions has to come from somewhere. We don't just create something from nothing. An idea, for example, is an action in consciousness. It is energy with a particular direction, you could say. Now that energetic action had to be sourced from somewhere, in the sense that the raw energy didn’t just come from nowhere.

When we look at ourselves in terms of energy, what we are is essentially a human energetic transducer that converts raw subjective energy into objective becoming of all manner of description. When we project within subjective reality, each of us typically places ourselves in the position or anticipation of facing objects. But when you enter Primary Focus 4, you cast off all notions of “things” and begin merging with the underlying subjective energy. That same energy, down the line, as it were, will ultimately split off here and there (again all in a manner of speaking) and create a “thing”. That thing could be a soccer ball, a human being, a house, a plant, a giraffe, or whatever.

Now, in merging with energy, I do NOT mean you are merging into a vast pool of nothingness. On the contrary, typically, you are merging with a specific action of energy. I suppose you could say, in a very broad sense (and only in a very broad sense) you are merging with a “thing” but a thing in terms of its conceptualization, or it’s source in other words. And that source of all that is within our system is Primary Focus 4 of consciousness.

So, ultimately, all “things” can be traced to an action in energy, the ultimate source of which is Primary Focus 4. So you could say that Primary Focus 4 is the area of the action of the thought before it is created. But again, only in a manner of speaking because, from the Primary Focus 4 standpoint, there is no before. All simply is. The concept of “before” comes into it as the action is engaged further “down the line” as it were.

I freely admit that I (for one) do not have the full answers. I will not get them until I can take in the full picture of Focus 4 of consciousness. I am not even sure whether it is actually possible for a physically focused individual to take in that full picture. Focus 2 and Focus 3 are easy by comparison, as they are so “earth like” or “human like” and people have usually just made something up for the rest. In the olden days they called it “god” in significance of all they couldn’t explain. But technology moves on, our understanding widens, and this topic is no different. Today we are attempting to broaden our understanding and pave the way for the new paradigm. So here we are calling it Focus 4 of consciousness. An area in consciousness that we can now learn to experience for ourselves (with a little effort in the right direction, of course).

Now, anything involving Focus 4 of consciousness is completely mind blowing, and I do not say this lightly. It is an area I have not been able to “explore” as fully as I would like. It is my current challenge, you could say.

The BIG difficulty with Focus 4 is that it’s an area of fully subjective reality. There is no notion of Time, so in turn there is no notion of Space either. Focus 4 occupies no Space at all and yet it encompasses the other areas, namely, Focus 1, 2 and 3. So our whole physical universe (and all the other universes besides, but let’s put them aside for a moment) is encompassed by Focus 4. Yet “outside” of Focus 4 there is nothing because Focus 4 encompasses all that is within our system. Focus 4 occupies no space, yet it encompasses our whole physical universe. Okay, so that’s the first hurdle. Problem is, to us, if something occupies no space then it cannot possibly exist. Reason being we are so attached to “things”.

Second hurdle: to understand Focus 4 it is necessary to take on board an understanding of infinity. This latter aspect is perhaps the most mind-blowing of all. Because, in infinity, everything happens an infinite number of times. Which means everything that has or will come about, has already happened.

From our somewhat limited linear-time perspective, we may consider a life began, it ended, and it began again. But from the perspective of Focus 4, nothing has begun and nothing has ended. All simply IS. The whole notion of beginning and end is a physical construct. The good news about all this of course is that there is no true end and there is no 'death'. There is only ever expanding consciousness. When you actually step within Focus 4 and experience it for yourself, all begins falling into place. Well, that is what is steadily happening to me and I cannot be the only person in the world today who has stepped into Focus 4 of consciousness. I realise this kind of thing is quite rare and, hopefully, it will start to become more common as people begin duplicating my work.

How Frank's model correlates with Robert Monroe's

I have built upon the pioneering work of highly regarded astral explorer and author Robert A Monroe. My own experiences equate with those of Monroe in many key areas but as with any kind of ongoing research, I found that I soon had to modify Monroe's findings in order to take account of my own research and personal experience.

So how does my model equate with Monroe's? Well, in most ways they sit very well together. My model can best be viewed as a simplified version of Monroe's, but with additional features which are due to discoveries made by me during the course of my explorations.

For those familiar with Monroe's system of labels, here is a basic comparison as far as possible:

Monroe's Focus C1 = my Focus 1

Monroe Focus 3, 10, 12, 15 & 21 = my Focus 2

Monroe Focus 23, 24, 25, 26 & 27 = my Focus 3

Here the comparison ends, as my Focus 4 has no Monroe counterpart.