What is meant by the Astral as Thought Responsive?

[Justintime]

Hello Astral Pulse,

This phrase comes up frequently throughout the posts on this forum and throughout the astral literature. However, no one goes beyond the obvious. So, if the astral world is thought responsive, can we........
1. Fool ourselves by creating loved ones and familiar environments and then become stuck there due to our own mis creations and inability to recognize them as our mis creations?
2. If so how do we know we haven't done that already and are in fact the product of one mind who is experiencing its afterlife?
3. Does the astral respond to our thoughts as language or the actual real object that the language represents?
4. Why would the medium of creation(The Multiverse) respond to thought in the form of language? IDK, this assertion seems like we put ourselves, culture and the timeframe we live in as the center of the universe.

Any clarification to the Astral being thought responsive would help.

[Stillwater]

1. : You can definitely fool yourself for a small while at least with thought-forms. I think most people would be able to tell whether they were conversing with another entity or something responding to their every expectation though. Thought-forms never seem to have have ultimate resemblence, even if they are superficially close.

2. : With this question, welcome to the wide world of philosophical epistemology. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemology#Externalism_and_internalism
You will find no final or even convincing answer. Rene Descartes was famous for pointing out that the world could be any number of deceptions or self-deceptions that no one has any final argument against. That said, there are so many possibilities, that the possibility of one Cartesian deception (we are all in the Matrix ; an evil demon is deceiving us ; this is a dream ; this is simulation) over another ends up being small, but the chance that at least one of them is correct is very high. Some Metaphysical philosophers like David Chalmers say 50-50 even.

3. : The substance of the universe appears to be directly responsive to ideas and consciousness, if it isn't these things themselves. There is no apparent reliance on language that I am aware of, not the least because language is only useful to a very small segment of reality.

4. : Because language when it is accompanied by its source (a mind) is an expression of thought like any other. But the universe doesn't appear bound to respond only to thoughts expressed as language.

[Justintime]

Thanks for your response Stillwater, that makes sense that one would eventually, if not rather quickly recognize that what you are conversing is responding to your every thought and therefore must be an illusion of some sort. I've been wondering lately that if I die before my wife would I know her again in the astral/spirit world beyond a doubt? And seeing as the Astral/Spiritual world is thought responsive I began to second guess this. I'm sure I will know her from my own thoughts of her though.

I'm familiar with Descartes and after watching The Matrix for the first time in 99 it blew my mind. However after I read A Course In Miracles (ACIM) my questions to the whole the world is an illusion thing were answered in an empowering way. I've sort of been looking for a paradigm that disproves that tenants of ACIM and have not found one yet.

Last question here about the astral world and it being thought responsive is, Does it take intention into account? Or does it just project your thoughts outward one by one as they occur?

[Stillwater]

Yes and no. You will find you will see a lot of things that you thought about a split second before; sometimes a hair's-breadth-thought can drop you into a totally new place. I say yes as well though because intention is another word for "will", and will can be another word for "focus". As you would imagine, bringing something into focus strengthens the extent to which it manifests, so what you ultimately choose will be what happens to a very great extent most of the time. When you first explore though you will need to get used to having a meditative mindset because the "thought responsive" nature as you say is on a hair trigger.

You will have thought, "Wow I am really here!", and of course that will carry the implication that you could just as easily not have made it there, and back to your waking world you will go.