Humanity should respect animals.

[Tenet Nosce]

Even as you speak the words, 'there is only one of us here', you expose the paradox. You speak to the fact that there is only one and yet you use the word Us to designate to whom you are referring.

Yes, exactly. I never claimed to have the paradox resolved!

What is an illusion? What do you mean by illusion? How do you suppose The One employs illusion?

That's actually a fascinating question! I would define 'illusion' as false light. Light that has been distorted and/or restricted.

We wouldn't be able to fathom exactly how the One employs illusion, being mostly illusion ourselves. However, we might invoke the great Hermetic principle of "as above, so below" and attempt to learn from analogy.

One of the simplest analogs I can think of would be a prism. A more complex, but likely more accurate analog would be a hologram.

We are speaking of the very essence of existence being energy waves extending from the Source as thought,sound or light.

Yes, exactly.

We are saying the same thing in different ways;semantics.

Yes, we are basically saying the same thing to a point. It would appear, for all practical purposes, to be the same thing.

But monism and dualism are two different points of view. A dualist would draw a real distinction between mind and matter, while a monist would say that the distinction is, itself, illusory.

Moreover, my understanding of the "Ancient Wisdom" is that it is a monistic philosophy. Though I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised if a dualist claimed otherwise!

In addition to this, science also tells us that light and matter are equivalent. They can be interchanged, although this is much easier in theory than in practice.

But why do you state that there is no distinction between the thought and the Thinker, regardless of semantics, when we acknowledge that it is by this Divine thought process that creation evolves and manifests as it does?

Where does the Sun end, and a ray of light begin? Yes, we can talk about them as if they are separate, and even learn something that way. But they are, in fact, identical.

The thought is NOT The Thinker. The Thinker has the identity. The process of it thinking does not have identity. It is just a process.

The thought has been endowed with consciousness, and because of this is has the potential to acquire identity. It does this through a process that Ra described as being akin to magnetic polarization.

The magnet becomes polarized when placed inside a larger, stronger magnetic field. The mind becomes polarized when placed inside a larger, stronger identity. The more polarized the thought/entity becomes, the more "light of harvestable quality" is attracted to their mind/body/spirit complex. This light is what carries the identity.

When the light of identity passes a certain threshold, then an entity may be harvested from the flesh and exist independently from it. This is, at least, according to the testimony of Ra. Eventually, after many epochs, eons and an eternity this same entity may come to penetrate the Mystery to the degree where it can literally manifest matter at will and create universes of its own. This is the work of seventh density.

Does this consciousness exist without a brain or body?

That depends upon the degree of polarization.

It can experience identity as each individual experience or process, but it cannot become The Source.

Not while in human form, no. In order to become The Source, the entity would need to attain complete formlessness.

There is One and all proceeds from It. The Other is that procession, not some other entity or identity.

What is the Other constructed from, if not the One?

This is why we are wrong to declare that we are The One or that we are The Creator. And wrong to conclude that there is no Other.

By wrong, I will assume you mean incorrect. But it depends on what sense we mean it.

You and I are two entities interacting with each other. We are two rays shining from the same sun. To whatever small degree that we have remembered our true identity, it is the exact same identity. There is no "my" identity and "your" identity. There is only identity, of which there is One.

What the average person thinks of as identity is not at all identity. That is merely a mask. Yes, I get that. But I am not talking about that kind of "identity." That kind of "identity" goes along with the popular notion of "love" and all other manner of nonsense of the masses.

The Other is the Mystery, which to us seems a paradox, and because of that curiosity, becomes the vehicle of evolution.

It certainly is a Mystery. Especially when trying to discuss with words.