A concession (from an email)

One of the only theories evolutionists have that applies to something real is when they had to come up with so-called punctuated equilibrium. Because the fossil record didn't show what they needed it to show. So they posited that evolution happens in short periods of time when a lot of energy and activity is involved then things go back to long periods of time with nothing happening.

(Evolution as a metaphor, it needs to be stated, has never been useless. Just the notion of mechanical evolution. Ouspensky goes into this in his main books.)

I've observed before this is really how the effort part of Work development happens. A flurry of study and doing when a lot gets done. Then a period when time just goes on. Not that we don't make efforts in the latter period, but it's not the high energy study and doing of the shorter, active periods.

This is a concession, but I've also come to see that when we actively self-remember we probably are allowing to some degree, in some kind of way, bad spirits to enter us. I don't think it can be avoided because we are entering spiritual realms, or spiritual ground. Battleground. All types exist there. The backlashes though, we have to also say, come from our fallen nature which fights us. It is, after all, a three-front battlefield: the Devil, the world, and our inner, fallen nature. But when we self-remember we are making ourselves known in the spiritual realm in an unusual and real way, which attracts attention. We're overwhelmed because we get swarmed from three sources...three directions.

Is it necessary? I think yes. To provoke so as to be able to extend our limits we have to be there. The more conscious we are, though, of what we're up against is the key. OK, I am dealing with some evil spirit here. Let's fight it with the subtly and sophisticated weaponry the Work gives us, as-well-as the armor of God that we should be wearing itself.