Layer 4 is the deepest layer and relates to the experience of undifferentiated existence/reality (although “experience” would no longer be viewed as a relevant or accurate term by someone at this layer). Layer 4 is the default layer of Location 4 and later, and experiences of it in earlier locations tend to be partial and temporary. When it is accessed in earlier locations, it is usually mixed with other layers, typically the deepest parts of Layer 3. Because one is unable to fully deepen in it in earlier locations, it tends to be experienced as a mystery or unknowable. An exception to this are fluid, late location Finders who find their way back to earlier locations after having more fully deepened into Layer 4 in later locations.

Up to Location 4, Layer 4 tends to be experienced partially and unclearly. Accordingly, the descriptions relating to Layer 4 are based largely on the qualities of this layer in Location 4 and later, where there is typically a deeper and more pure experience of it. Layer 4 is in many ways distinct from the preceding three layers and when the shift is total it is often unforeseeable. Because of its nature, the properties of the layer cannot be adequately communicated to someone who has not experienced it. Therefore, bear in mind throughout this section that descriptions are the best attempt at a literal description of what is actually subjectively experienced (i.e., not theoretical or mystical).

The primary change at Layer 4 is the loss of any sense of separation—there is no separation or distinction of any kind, and therefore no sense of individual existence or self. There is only “This,” only indivisible reality in spontaneous unfolding. It is without any sense of duality or possibility of duality (e.g. subject/object, self/not self, form/formlessness, dual/nondual, being/non-being, within/without, enlightened/not enlightened). Distinctions begin to fade into undifferentiated reality, becoming progressively flat perceptually, which happens increasingly the further out in locations one goes. This quality of flatness is so noticeable that Finders who experience it often use these terms when referring to it, such as calling it “the flat absolute”.

Everything is experienced as undifferentiated existence/reality unfolding spontaneously. There is no sense of a container. The unfolding does not happen in anything. Rather, it is total and complete in itself. Similarly, there is no longer any sense of an essence pervading everything like in Layer 3. There is nothing arising from or within it. It has no content and no distinctions—there is only reality/existence itself, which is complete and total as this moment.

From this perspective, nothing appears to have independent or essential existence, and there is only undifferentiated reality. Both the concepts of self and no-self cease to have meaning. There is no sense of “I” or “I am,” no process of association or reflection. Deep in Layer 4, the dissolution of sense of self is so complete that even the experience of “no self” falls away. That experience is relative to the experience of self and is a positionality or fixation in perspective (a reference point). As one deepens into Layer 4, this is no longer referenced, and there is only existence itself. This cessation of the reflective movement in consciousness is central to the falling away of the subjective sense of self in Layer 4 in Location 4 and later.

This final dissolution of separation tends to be realized in a partial way until Layer 4 can be stabilized, which typically requires being in Location 4 or later. This is because all preceding layers contain a sense of self or being, and thus, separation (even though it often does not feel like it). Any sense of being (e.g., “beingness”, “isness”, “This is”, “It just is”, “I am That”, “I am”, even just “I”) entails a subtle positionality that relates to the deepest aspects of Layer 3 and produces the perception of duality. Without this reference point, there can be no distinctions and no perception in the ordinary sense. This does not mean that someone deep in Layer 4 cannot see trees, mountains, and rivers; rather, the “reporter” or “interpreter” of experience has fallen away. This “reporter” or self is an artifact of the impersonal perceptual process of reflection on experience. Subjectively, Layer 4 is beyond the duality of being and non-being. Reality is beyond all attributes and conditions, including that of being. To say “This is” or “I am” is redundant and implies that “This” is subject to and distinct from the condition of being or existence. Although that can sound theoretical and abstract, it is subjectively experienced.

Layer 4 feels like absolute, irreducible reality, in which there is no state or condition (including the condition of being), nor any existent thing to which a state or condition could pertain. This way of experiencing Layer 4 is more relevant to Locations 4 and later, where it can stabilize. When experienced temporarily, Layer 4 is often seen from the perspective of one or more shallower layers, which means that the sense of self remain partially intact, and Layer 4 does not feel like it is not a state or condition.

In this case, Layer 4 is experienced in the context of there being a self-existent experiencer that enters and leaves the experience. This is the case even when viewed from locations and layers where it may subjectively feel as though all aspects of an individualized sense of self have fallen away. In reality, they have not, they just appear to have. The aspects of self that remain only become apparent upon their cessation, which typically only occurs upon rooting completely into Layer 4.

In Location 4 and later, where the sense of self is dissolved on a very low level, it feels as though that illusion of self just fell away, leaving only existence in spontaneous unfolding. Hence, it does not feel like anything is attained. Who could attain it when nothing but existence could ever be? From this perspective, all perceptual states are illusory and there is only undifferentiated existence.

In earlier locations, it is common for Layer 4 to be experienced as an unknowable or a mystery. This is partly because one is unable to deepen into and stabilize in it, and partly because it cannot be known objectively, or even subjectively in the usual sense. In Layers 1, 2, and 3 there is the subject of experience, and usually the perception of objects as well. Although the subject and objects may appear unified (nondual) depending on the location, they still appear to have inherent existence/beingness of themselves.

In Layer 4 there is only undifferentiated reality. There is only the entirety, no distinct thing appears to have intrinsic existence and there is neither the perception of subject nor objects. Being without subject and objects means that subjectively, is it also beyond experience or knowing in the usual sense. It feels contentless and indivisible. There is only reality unfolding as a revelation. Existence knows itself intrinsically and is self-revealing. It stands forth complete, total, and self-illuminating. It cannot be known objectively because it is beneath the perceptual process of reflection on experience. Because this process remains intact in earlier locations, Layer 4, which is raw non-reflexive subjectivity, can seem unknowable while in them.

If someone has a divine experience of an earlier location Layer 4 can be experienced as the ultimate mystery of the divine, sometimes called the Godhead, especially in Location 3. It is like the absolute unknowable depth of divinity. It feels like one’s self disappears into this unknowable depth and there is only That, beyond all distinction and comprehension. Note that like all experiences of Layer 4, this also entails an even more complete loss of the individual self, but in the context of its total dissolution in divinity. This experience is typically not persistent in earlier locations, and usually does not allow someone to be functional while it lasts.

When shifting deeply and exclusively into Layer 4, which essentially only happens from Location 4 on, it can feel like Layer 3 collapses or disappears, and with it the reflexive layer of perception. The shift is of a different nature than those of preceding layers, because up until this point, each successive layer feels as though it contains or enables the content and existence of the preceding layers. Each feels like a greater or more foundational context for the unfolding of experience at preceding layers (i.e. Layer 3 forms/contains Layer 2, Layer 2 forms/contains Layer 1).

Subjectively, this is not the case when shifting deeply into Layer 4, where all preceding layers disappear or collapse into undifferentiated existence. Finders will sometimes say “all containers fell away” when this layer is reached. It “is” what is happening and does not seem to be happening in anything. This produces the often-mentioned sense of a “return to the body” in Location 4, because it is a return to the raw existence of everything. There is no longer the sense of anything within or beyond it, no sense of all-transcending or all-pervading formless presence or beingness (such as in Layer 3). What remains actually and perceptually is the body and everything that is physically present. There is only raw, unfiltered experience and it feels as though it is all just existence unfolding spontaneously. The body itself appears as part of that unfolding and no different from any other aspect of life.

Another effect of this shift is that Layer 4 feels truly timeless. The experiences of time and causality relate to perceptual processes that fall out of subjective awareness deep in Layer 4. With no distinction or separation at all, there is no sense of cause and effect. There is only the spontaneous unfolding of existence/reality. Time then appears to be a conclusion produced by the sequential processing of perception, which is the consequence of positionality and has no objective reality.

Although these descriptions can sound far out, subjectively it feels in no way mystical or extraordinary. Rather, it feels like complete simplicity. All notions of sacredness or holiness lose relevance because they only have meaning in relation to a reference point. The completeness of reality is beyond attributes or conditions, because it is not relative. It is total and self-fulfilling.

There is a sense that nothing can die because nothing exists of itself, and it therefore has no independent existence to lose. Life in its totality has no opposite and cannot die. There is a sense that this is reality itself and can never be gained or lost, but is the condition of everything that is or could be. There is no starting or ending point, there is simply no frame of reference for these.

Presumably because fundamental human fear originates from the fear of death, this perception brings an incomparable sense of freedom and peace. The peace is of a different order than that of any other layer because it is not dependent on any positionality, such as “I am awareness”, or “I am”. The untouchable quality of Layer 3 becomes irrelevant (untouchable in relation to what?), because nothing but reality could ever be.

The peace feels absolute and of a different dimension than emotional or psychological peace. It is the classical “freedom from suffering” pursued by spiritual traditions for millennia. However, as noted previously, this freedom entails a loss of perceptual dimensionality—deepening into Layer 4 involves stripping away or getting beneath the processes that filter perception, until all that remains is increasingly raw experience. This diminishes the dimensionality of perception, which becomes progressively flat in later locations (although someone is not likely to notice unless they come back to an earlier location).

Presumably owing to the profound peace and freedom, there is a powerful directionality and gravity to Layer 4 in Location 4 and later, which can be difficult to escape. Location 4 Finders often experience what they describe as a “deepening” after initially transitioning. This can occur quite rapidly, or take months to unfold, and typically involves their perception being drawn more deeply and exclusively into Layer 4.

From this point on, it becomes more difficult to access Layer 3 and return to previous locations. This is even more the case for Locations 5 and later, making it difficult and rare to get back to earlier locations from these later locations. When it does happen, the experience of earlier layers and locations is permanently changed as a result of the Finder’s system having deepened so far into Layer 4.

Deeper into Layer 4 in later locations, the sense of unfolding diminishes, until everything feels instantaneous and total. It feels as though everything collapses into stillness/silence. The stillness/silence is total and intrinsic to existence itself. It no longer feels experiential. There is no sense of distance or space. Even the field of awareness disappears, leaving no sense of any dimension, only the all-present reality. With Layers 2 and 3, everything is inside. This notion loses all meaning. there is no inside and no outside, no locality or reference point at all. Everything appears as an intrinsic quality of reality, and does not feel experiential, nor does anything appear to independently or essentially exist of itself. There is only raw undifferentiated reality. This comes increasingly to the foreground of perception the further one goes beyond Location 4, resulting in an extreme flatness to perception.

Layer 4 is increasingly deepened into in Location 5 and later on the Path of Freedom, which continues in the direction of Location 4. This correspondingly entails a deepening away from the other layers of the system, which increasingly fade out of subjective perception, along with access to the conditioning that remains at those layers. There is an ever greater depth of stillness/silence and an incomparable quality of freedom and peace. However, as mentioned, this freedom entails a loss of perceptual dimensionality, and by Location 7 there is an extreme flatness to perception. All other levels of experience, including sense perception, fade into the background, and Finders who reach this location or later often make statements such as “There is only the universe/reality” (Location 7+), “It is like there’s only the universe looking out of these eyes” (Locations 8 and 9).

It is relevant to note that subjective experience does not reflect the totality of what is happening in the human system. Subjective experience may be primarily rooted in Layer 1, for example. Yet, in reality, all of the layers are operating within everyone, all of the time. This means that, in this case, Layers 2, 3, and 4 are operating outside of subjective experience, but they are still operating.

For late locations (Location 4 and on), subjective experience is typically rooted increasingly deeply in Layer 4. Despite this, Location 4 people function just fine in the world. This is because the other layers are still there, operating. They simply remain out of the Finder’s perception. In some instances, it is possible for late location Finders to regain perceptual access to Layers 1, 2, and/or 3 in a highly integrated form. In these cases, every layer is visible and perceived as a quality of reality/existence—although this is a highly altered way of experiencing the earlier layers.

Access to Layer 4 across Locations:

Location 1	Layer 4 is extremely difficult to access from Location 1 and generally experienced as a glimpse from other layers. Those who can experience it more fully are typically Finders who have deepened into Layer 4 in later locations and are pulled back down to Location 1 for some reason.
Location 2	Layer 4 is rare and difficult to access from Location 2, and it is nearly impossible to stabilize. When it is accessed, the experience is typically partial and temporary. It is usually mixed with other layers. Because one is unable to fully deepen in it, it tends to be experienced as divine, a mystery, or unknowable.
Location 3	Layer 4 is not easily accessible in Location 3, and experiences tend to be partial and temporary. When it is accessed, it is usually mixed with other layers, typically the deepest aspects of Layer 3. Because one is unable to fully deepen in it, it tends to be experienced as a mystery or unknowable. Those who experience the divine version of Location 3, sometimes refer to it as the Godhead.
Location 4	Layer 4 is the default in Location 4. It is often mixed with the deepest aspects of Layer 3 when a Finder first transitions to Location 4, and over a short period of time deepens into a more complete and pure experience of Layer 4. At this point it can become harder to access other layers and get out of Location 4. Layer 4 can be experienced at progressively greater depths as one deepens into Location 4, and significantly deepening into Layer 4 seems to be important to transitioning to Location 5 and later on the Path of Freedom.
Location 5 – 9	Layer 4 is the default for Location 5 and later, however, the depth of experience depends on whether someone is on the Path of Freedom or Path of Humanity. Layer 4 is increasingly deepened into on the Path of Freedom, which continues in the direction of Location 4. In contrast, the reintegration of Layer 3 on the Path of Humanity allows Finders to return to feeling more “human”. However, the anchoring of subjective experience in Layer 3 precludes significant deepening into Layer 4, and as a result the Path of Humanity does not go past Location 6. By Location 7 there is a very deep and complete isolation of perception in Layer 4, which cannot be achieved on the Path of Humanity.