The 'I can / I can't' exercise and the physical as illusion

Frederic reports on the suggested exploration of 'I can' and 'I can't', finding many habits he can easily switch, with what remains stuck in the 'I can't' being physical - travelling back in time, morphing into another person - though he has already converted a vast number of former 'I can'ts'.

He asks whether the aim is ultimately to see the physical too as an illusion, noting that even people considered enlightened may have moments of transcending the physical but remain stuck in it.

The Wonders reply that his 'I can't' about time travel or entering another's body comes from the mind's perspective on how things work, and that moving past 'I can't' reveals that the mind's perspective is not the only one available.

Perhaps, they suggest, the enlightened do not do such things because they realize it is merely a choice available at any time, and that the mind requires a certain satisfaction while the self sees things differently.

They give the example of a tree: what one person's mind has decided is a tree another may see as a weed, and asked to call it a weed one says 'I can't, it's a tree' - as long as the mind defines it that way it stays that way.

They then ask why he confined the exploration to the physical.

Frederic answers that he tried to look at as many perspectives as he could but, as usual when he pushes past his current limits, ended up with a cold that brought him back to the physical - a pattern he recognizes.

The Wonders encourage him to continue the exploration and, even when a physical reaction (which is a fear reaction) occurs, to keep going past the illusion of physicality and the mind's attachment to the idea that all things end in the physical.