Journeys of Nothing in the Land of Everything

a story by Edward Matchett, originally published by Turnstone Books in 1975, some copies are still available from the Matchett Foundation. More information on obtaining a copy can be found on the booklets page.

The following passage is taken from the paper 'The Sophiagenic Experience' (see papers) and serves as a good taster for the book. It is followed by another selection from the paper 'Living Knowledge' that also talks of the story, but from a somewhat different perspective.

Ted Matchett in 1970

In 1975 - again in the precincts of Glastonbury Abbey - I received a lot of additional illumination and initiation concerning the nature of the Sophiagenic Experience, much of which I recorded there and then in the manuscript of my first book 'Journeys of Nothing in the Land of Everything'. ...I would like to share with you its essential contents, because these are very important should you wish to enjoy the Sophiagenic Experience yourself. The central message of this book is that self has to be stripped away, aspect by aspect, layer by layer, so that Sophia can take its place.

"For nearly all his life, down the long corridors of disappointing years of "self-remembering", Nothing had been listening to nothing more than the sound of his own voice ... "I wouldn't do that" ... "I don't like it at all" ... "I would do this" ... "I would do that" ... "If only I had the opportunity" ... "I am" ... "I can" ... "I shall" ... "I desire" ... "I will it so" ... "I know" ... "I understand these things" ... "I am the expert" ... "I am the teacher" ... "I am the professional" ... "I am the master" ... "I am the greatest" ... "I am the one that passes judgement, who condemns and pardons" ... "I am the Saviour" ... "I am God". Whenever he tried to do something new, Nothing - in the days when he was still busy "self-remembering" had such a lot of himself to contend with. Almost anything should have been possible of course, since there was such a lot of himself to do it, but very little actually happened of any consequence. It was when Nothing emptied himself entirely, when he forgot completely all that he had formerly imagined himself to know and have done and be capable of knowing and doing, that he began to become very capable indeed."

This stripping away, 'dying to self', is of questionable value, probably silly, unless it is accompanied with a cry from the heart that Sophia shall replace it - which it undoubtedly will if that cry is genuine, and is itself relatively free from self-interest. Of course, it seems absurd that it could be that simple. But try it. See what happens when you begin to act in this way. Your world will soon change and keep on changing beneficially. Sophia will begin to create through you, and produce actions and products that you couldn't possibly have produced without your decision to allow this change. You will find - and others will notice - that you are indeed making the journey into maturity, creative genius and total inner freedom: a journey that once begun is virtually unstoppable.

Do not make the mistake of dismissing this as nonsense. Do recognize that Sophiagenics is a severe discipline; that you will not have progressed far enough with it until you feel absolutely free and unthreatened to face the whole world. While ever you still insist on clinging to anything that you label your own - special insights, areas of knowledge, particular skills, or whatever - you are still blocking the presence and the action of Sophia. Your key task is to learn how to allow Sophia to be your total support, total security. It isn't easy to make this switch, but until it is made you will never be creative, you will not be able to work like a Gustav Mahler, a Nikola Tesla or Michelangelo.

"One of Nothing's greatest discoveries, which brought him immense satisfaction and benefit, was that resources are limitless. He began to suspect this when he found that he had a song for everything - that music and words simply floated "out of the blue" ready-made for him to sing. He became more inclined towards the idea that resources might be limitless as he found himself doing more and more things in more and more ways: always without strain, and without any pre-knowledge of how such unfamiliar things might be accomplished.

Before crossing through the barrier he would have viewed such a possibility as ridiculous, but now he found - through actually doing so many new things, and doing them well - that resources are in fact limitless. All that is necessary, he found, is that there is a real need for a new little song or some new little thing - or some very big thing. Then, provided only that one continues in the dance, the action of the dance itself will provide whatever is necessary; always giving all that is needed, until the need itself has gone."

Journeys of Nothing in the Land of Everything,
taken from : LIVING KNOWLEDGE by Edward Matchett MSc CEng FRSA
a talk given at The Atrium, World Trade Centre, Jakarta, Indonesia
December 14th 1993:

My book 'Journeys of Nothing in the Land of Everything' depicts contact with Living Knowledge as it actually happens when we do experience it. This account is not merely a parable or allegory, as many who have read it have supposed. In the experiencing of Living Knowledge, any part of Nature can declare itself exactly as the book's central character named 'Nothing' discovered: informing consciousness directly - as a 'Living Presence'. When this happens to you, you will find that it is as though you are watching an actual phenomenon or event; or certainly one that is as vivid and 'real' as any that you might witness on a colour television screen. You have become a 'seer'.

Even species and mutations which have not as yet occurred - that are still latent but possible with your help - can come into your consciousness in full detail, and total clarity, when you are applying 'meta-control'. Such is not a form of mirage, a wild guess or the chance granting of a wish. It is a genuine vision of something that can be obtained, but which hasn't happened yet in the physical world.

You will notice that, in the book, 'meta-control' is presented - validly - as a dance, in which mind, body, soul and spirit are all engaged; and which all find very enjoyable and deeply satisfying:

"One of Nothing's greatest discoveries, which brought him immense satisfaction and benefit, was that resources are limitless. He began to suspect this when he found that he had a song for everything - that music and words simply floated "out of the blue" ready-made for him to sing. He became more inclined towards the idea that resources might be limitless as he found himself doing more and more things in more and more ways: always without strain, and without any pre-knowledge of how such unfamiliar things might be accomplished.

"Before crossing through the barrier he would have viewed such a possibility as ridiculous, but now he found - through actually doing so many new things, and doing them well - that resources are in fact limitless. All that is necessary, he found, is that there is real need for a new little song or some new little thing - or some very big thing. Then, provided only that one continues in the dance, the action of the dance itself will provide whatever is necessary; always giving all that is needed, until the need itself has gone. ..."

"This discovery was linked closely with another, namely that the whole world - the entire universe in fact, and perhaps much more besides - is coming into being all the time through the dance which Nothing had been persuaded to join. ..."

"As he sang his song, Nothing saw, with increasing clarity, that the resources that are needed for all new creation are contained within that which has always existed always, but he noted that most of them take up neither time nor space. It is only in the dance -at the precise moment when it is discovered that these invisible resources are needed - that they actually enter into our vortex of time and circumstance ...."

"The rhythms of the dance became increasingly varied and wonderful. At first, when he had only just broken through the barrier and was barely conscious of the dance, Nothing missed many of the cues. He was not used to such a vast number of openings and opportunities. He had no experience then of the never-ending richness and wonder of resources that were all around him waiting to be set free and creatively fashioned. But the more he danced the more he saw; and the more he saw the more he created. ..."

"Whenever he danced, and for as long as he danced, everything had a magical quality. Nothing knew exactly what had to be done, how to do it, and that whatever was necessary for the task was immediately at hand, always flowing into the dance - just in the exact moment that each need presented itself ...."

Note that Living Knowledge - which is sometimes described as 'creative energy', 'continuous illumination', 'pin-points of meaning', 'clear awareness', etc. - can permeate, illuminate and extend the recorded knowledge of every one of the sciences and all of the arts. It can also make important linkages between them; retracing any crucial findings if one is not previously aware of them.

It can be responsible for some new fundamental discovery which, later, does go into the textbooks and into the normal forms of learning; but then Living Knowledge is transposed into ordinary knowledge, that is far less vital and potent.