# Presence > Full presence makes immediate experience the available point of action and power for channeling and change - Canonical: https://sassani.app/topic/presence # Presence In Bashar's framework, being fully here — fully present in the immediate experience of the moment — is the doorway to both the channeling state and the state from which excitement is best acted on. The here and now is the only real point of power: it is where you eternally and infinitely are, the place from which every story is written and every creation begins. Rather than waiting for the state to arrive before acting, Bashar's instruction is to choose to be in the state, so that you can always take action from it. ## There is only now Bashar frames presence first as a literal observation. There is only now; look at your watch and it is now, and it always will be. What you call past and future are always experienced as now — they are different perspectives on the one moment, never a place you travel to. The implications are direct: "you are exactly perfectly who you need to be right here, right now," and only by fully being this version now can you experience any other version of you. The There Is Only Here Now You transmission builds this into an explicit definitions class. Past lives are not really past, future lives are not really future, and even incarnation is not really incarnation — you do not actually inhabit your body; your body is within your consciousness. Body, spirit, soul, over-soul, and All That Is are not different things but the same one thing expressed in different contexts, all here and now. The instruction is to "unify, unify, unify, simplify, simplify, simplify" — to see the structure of existence "like an x-ray," clear and obvious to anyone. ## The now as point of power From this metaphysical base comes the practical claim: the present is the only point from which anything can be changed. If you are not in the now — if your attention is over there in the past or out there in the future — you cannot affect your life, because here and now is where your power is exercised. The Timeless Now holotope experience grounds the same teaching as a lived practice: bring the body to rest, let the day's concerns melt away, and recognize that "the only thing that matters is the state of being that you prefer, because it is from state of being that all circumstances arise." The present is reframed not as the result of the past but as the source of both past and future. Every moment you are literally a new person, with a new past and a new future, and "the past is illusion, so is the future, and you're creating them both from the present." Continuity is a created convenience; it is not a mechanical fact. ## "Why not? So what?" as a return to the present Bashar offers a simple, two-word tool for returning to the present when fear or shame threatens to drag attention elsewhere: "why not?" and "so what?" The teaching is that the question "why not?" is a way back into the moment when the mind insists something must be feared before it can be done; and "so what?" is the pivot point that allows action even when fear is present — "yes, it's scary, so what? Then do it because that's what you really want to do." The mechanism is that fear resists presence by projecting into an imagined future; the pivot question collapses the projection back into the now where action is possible. ## Withdrawal as compression, not depression A practical distinction: Bashar reframes what is often labeled "depression" or "withdrawal" as compression — a natural withdrawing into the center of your being to find answers you know do not lie in the outer world. From this relabeling, when you emerge from the compression, "you emerge as a different being, a different person, with different ideas and different beliefs and different feelings and different thoughts." Presence is not perpetual outward action; it is also the willingness to drop into the center and return from it anew. ## The purpose of life is to be more here When pressed on the purpose of life, Bashar answers within this same frame: "The purpose of life is to be lived. … It's a master class in transforming limitation into freedom. The purpose is to be more — to be more here." There is no destination to arrive at; the point is to be more fully present, and the many paths reflect the many beings. ## Practical implications A learner can take several concrete things from this teaching: Use the simplest test: "What time is it? It's now." Returning to the literal present is the first move whenever attention has wandered into past-regret or future-fear. Treat presence as a state you choose, not one you wait for. Choosing to be in the state lets you act from it immediately, rather than waiting for it to arrive. When fear blocks action, amplify the fear in imagination to its worst possible outcome, then ask "so what?" — the pivot collapses the projection and returns you to the moment where action is available. Reframe withdrawal not as failure but as compression: a returning to the center for answers that the outer world cannot supply. Emergence is then a new being, not a defeated one. Recognize that the past and future are created from the present; you are literally a new person each moment, with a new history. Continuity is a convenience of definition, not a cage. The framing is metaphysical and is not medical or psychotherapeutic direction. Bashar's relabeling of depression as compression is offered as a teaching reframe; it is not a clinical instruction and does not replace care. ## Representative passages There is only now. Look at your watch. What time is it? It's now. Now. It always will be. It'll never be then. It will always be now.— Bashar, The Purpose Of Life Keeping Focus In The Present To Remember (the-purpose-of-life-keeping-focus-in-the-present-to-remember#qa-1) Right here, right now is exactly who you perfectly need to be. For if you are not this you, as fully as you can be, you cannot truly be any other version of you. … Because it's all here and now and there's nowhere else to go and nowhere else to come from and nowhere else to be. It's all here. It's all now. It's all one.— Bashar, There Is Only Here Now You (there-is-only-here-now-you#text) The purpose of life is to be lived. It's fun. It's exciting. It's a growth experience. It's a master class in transforming limitation into freedom. The purpose is to be more — to be more here.— Bashar, The Purpose Of Life Keeping Focus In The Present To Remember (the-purpose-of-life-keeping-focus-in-the-present-to-remember#qa-2) So what? Yes, it's scary. So what? It's all right that it is scary. We are not saying that it ought not to be. But the way you do it is by saying, yes, it's scary, so what? Then do it because that's what you really want to do. That's how to pivot. So what? is the pivot point.— Bashar, Etheric Fauna And The Dragon (etheric-fauna-and-the-dragon#text) Many people on your planet call certain kinds of withdrawal depression. And when they call it depression in a negative labeling, it actually becomes a negative experience. But if they would actually recognize that sometimes withdrawal is necessary to go into the center of your being to find the answers you know do not lie in the outer world, then that simply can be recognized from a positive labeling context as compression.— Bashar, The Timeless Now (the-timeless-now#text) ## Related - [Channeling](https://sassani.app/topic/channeling) - [Excitement](https://sassani.app/topic/excitement) - [The Formula](https://sassani.app/topic/the-formula) - [The Now](https://sassani.app/topic/the-now) - [Time](https://sassani.app/topic/time) Markdown twin of https://sassani.app/topic/presence. The HTML page is the source of truth.