Ben Gazzara Has Died

Ben Gazzara has died.

I had the good fortune to see him on stage, in New York, before he became a 'celebrity', and so was not marred by the vicissitudes of that sort of life. He was, then, a pure force; not Ben Gazzara playing a part, but Ben what's-his-name being the part.

It was in a play called A Hatful of Rain, wherein he played the part of a junkie son and brother.

He was, in an all-encompassing word, good. Believable. Painfully so.

It was in late 1955 or sometime in 1956. I was living in Manhattan at the time - 'down and out'; living very frugally whilst I sought answers to my questions about the meaning of life in books in the New York Public Library. It was there that I discovered that we are all actors. On the stage of life. Simply playing parts.

The subject of reincarnation came up in the course of my investigations. I had heard of it; and vaguely knew that it was believed in in Eastern cultures, but to what extent and specifically in which cultures there (or, indeed, elsewhere), I was not all that sure. That was part of my doing, so to speak: my search. And, part of my undoing, from my carrying culture, of western civilization, and its various belief systems - religious, and economic. and political.

It was, to summarize, an eye-opening year in my life. And this subject, of reincarnation, was a primary key to that unfolding, in consciousness, into a greater reality. A greater sense of reality. A sense of the greater reality, that was carrying us in its bosom, like children of a Greater God than we, largely, seemed to be acknowledging at the time.

But that's just my projection on my culture of the time. All that I knew, then, was that something was missing, in our western culture, that was important to The Story. The Story of human experience, on planet Earth. And the Eastern religions seemed to me to have the key to that missing piece of the picture.

The picture, of What's It All About, Alfie; to quote a more recent source, of insight on the life experience, on stage, and in film. For us to reflect on.

My reflections led me to such sources of material on the subject of reincarnation (later on in my, and our, timeline) as Dr. Ian Stevenson's paper 'Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation', and, particularly importantly, Dr. Morris Netherton's book 'Past Lives Therapy', with its descriptions of how many people have been able to release psychic blocks in their lives this time around on the wheel of rebirth, from accessing, through a well-trained therapist, experiences in their past lives. So: there really was something to this matter, I was discovering. This 'belief'.

What am I getting at.

I am getting at the truth of things. And one of the most important of those 'things' is the realization, which I had already come to before My Year in Manhattan - which led me tothat period in my life; but which I needed to explore further, as a Far Country - that

the universe has Purpose; and that Purpose is Good.

And the way we unfold that Purpose is through the Plan of reincarnation.

Of playing parts in the drama that we call life. On the stage of life.

Now a prince; now a pauper. Now a male, now a female (or, depending on some interaction with our environment's storyline, something in between). Now of one race or religion or nationality, now another. For - as I say - a purpose.

For the purpose of growing from the experiences. Gaining awareness. Raising our consciousness. The latter aspect including learning to take responsibility for our actions - for, As we do unto others, so do we do unto ourselves. For not only is it true that We Are One Another, in the realm of The Play, but We Are All One, underneath that surface. Beneath the parts that we play, in this realm of duality.

Of - seeming - separation from our Source.

For a purpose.

And that purpose - I submit - includes the fact that it is now time, to acknowledge all this - all this play-acting business - in order, now, to 'go up a notch'. Unfold the Purpose a little further.

For when you realize 'what it's all about' - that it's all a play - why would you want to stay stuck in the role-playing? Why not decide to release that action - interesting, yes; but still play-acting - and take on more at least the role of the director?

Or the playwright himself??...

My play in life has led me to understand - really get - that that is all that it is. A matter of role-playing. And I don't want to play any roles anymore.

I want the real thing.

And we can get closer to the real thing, still on the stage of life (as we know it, currently), by now living our lives with that understanding. That they are, simply, roles. But with a higher consciousness, now.

That will allow us to progress further than we could have without that awareness.

Than we are doing at present.

With wars, and rumours of wars; and billions living in poverty...

Silly stuff.

We have more important business to be about.

The business, of incarnating more of who we are, really. So that we are living our lives more in harmony with the real thing.

And to say, with the awareness, that there is Plan in and Purpose to 'the universe'. To life. To the life experience. That it is part of a larger Whole.

And we are here, now, to do something about that truth; specifically, to help bring human consciousness up a notch, to a higher level. It could be called a higher dimension. it has been called a higher density. In comparison, with the present, wherein we are living in third density, and are on our way up, through fourth density, to fifth density level of consciousness; according to various sources.

All of that is speculation. But for myself - and I propose that this is true for each of us, to differing degrees - I know that I am here in order to help bring that raising of consciousness about. That it is part and parcel of why I am here, now.

My 'knowing' is based on the fact - you can call it a belief; but you would be doing so from a position outside of my skin - on the fact, then, that I know that I have not incarnated at this time accidentally. I will repeat: I know that it is no accident that I am 'Here Now'; that I have incarnated at this time. And further, I know - in my deepest gut, connecting me to my Higher Self - that I am not here to waste my time. I 'm here because it's time. Because I, and we, have work to do.

And that's not to get caught up further in the drama.


Ben Gazzara has died. He played a great part. And it's time, now, for him to move on.

And for us all.