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Word Gems exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
Soulmate, Myself:
The future of humanity’s evolution does not focus on “the group,” a corporate body-politic. Instead, it belongs to the individual.
we are headed toward a world and mode of living in which the individual is not sacrificed in favor of the group We see this emphasis on individuals rather than groups in the social ordering of Summerland. There, we enjoy a veritable “wild west,” some would say “anarchic,” expression of personal freedoms. The government in the next world, while existing, is of such a subtle nature that one is hardly aware of the governance. We will have full latitude to explore life and our own untrammeled potential. If you’d like a biblical phrase expressing this kind of autonomy, the apostle Paul gave it to us in Galatians: concerning those who live in the spirit, “against such there is no law.”
Yet even this brief snapshot of Summerland, I feel, does not adequately capture the sense of the coming fortified or magnified priority of the individual. Consider this article from the “Evolution” research:
the fossil record indicates that evolution is winding down Zoologist James Brough of the University of Wales sees “evolution as a decelerating process.” He points out that the phyla of today’s animals have existed since the Cambrian age, 500 million years ago. No new phyla have developed since then… In the same way, new classes within phyla stopped emerging during the lower Paleozoic era, about 400 million years ago… New orders stopped emerging at the end of the Mesozoic era, about 60 million years ago. Brough, noting a decrease in the production of new families, comments on this general trend: “Evolution seems to have worked in a series of more and more restricted fields with large-scale effects steadily decreasing … as to the future, evolution may go on working in smaller and smaller fields until it ceases altogether.” This trend argues that evolution is not a perpetual or unlimited force, but rather is subject to constraints and plays itself out in a large but finite time. The second law of thermodynamics says that the universe as a whole is running down. The fossil record says the same for the process of evolution. This “pattern of shift from few species in many groups to many species in fewer groups” flatly contradicts Darwinian gradualism; for if evolution proceeded by species accumulating small variations, we should see over long periods new orders, classes, and phyla emerging with increasing frequency. But just the opposite occurs in the fossils. Darwin’s model is backward. from Amit Goswami’s Creative Evolution:
Dr. Gerald Schroeder: “These [Cambrian] fossils … indicate that all animal phyla appeared almost simultaneously 530 million years ago in the [Cambrian Explosion]. All further development was confined to variations within each phylum. One of the great mysteries of animal evolution is why no new phyla have appeared since that Cambrian explosion of life.” … there have not been any new phyla since the Cambrian age… And new classes within a phylum stopped emerging some 400 million years ago… The next lower hierarchy, new orders, stopped emerging about 60 million years ago… Richard Goldsmith: “Can this mean anything but that the type of the phylum was evolved first and later separated into the type of classes, then into orders, and so on down the line.” … biological creativity [reflects the usual method of creativity at large]… All fields of human creative endeavor have one thing in common: Creativity in a new field takes off with an enormous flare. With time and proliferation of (subfields), complexity develops and the speed of progress slows. The same pattern is observed in biological evolution… 50 million years ago [we find that] mammals suddenly exhibited an amazing [burst of variety] into about 24 different orders – rabbits, rodents, elephants, [etc.]. The resultant Age of Mammals took only 12 million years to establish itself. After that the progress slowed down. Editor’s note: Evolution, as per the evidence of the fossil record, does not grow like weeds in every direction. It's being led by Universal Intelligence toward a very specific goal. The fossil record indicates that evolution, more and more, is narrowing its focus. The “Cambrian Explosion” 530 million years ago produced great diversity of body types [“phyla”], but since then no new phyla have appeared, with many of the earlier forms now extinct. Darwinism predicted the opposite, an increasing array of diversity over time, but this has not happened. Instead, as per the evidence of the fossil record, we find more and more complexity within increasingly narrow domains of life. The debut and rise of sentient homo sapiens was part of this “funneling down” process. The trajectory of evolution leads us to posit that the future of humanity is not one of “two heads and eight arms” but an intensification of complexity, that is, greater sentience, greater cerebral development, greater spirituality. In an earlier writing, we reviewed Dr. Goswami’s studied opinion on these matters. The quantum world’s infinite possibilities needed to be pared down to reflect only those outcomes favored by Universal Intelligence. This initial pruning resulted in the “hidden blueprints” of morphic fields spoken of by Dr. Sheldrake. These morphic fields encapsulated the anthropomorphic goals of Universal Intelligence. The first “creative discontinuity” produced matter in the Big Bang; then came biological life, then the coming of humankind. The final phase seems to be the advent of highly advanced humans which, in full circle, will mirror the spiritual mind and philosophy of Universal Intelligence. Mother-Father God has made man in the divine image, but in stages, over very long periods of time. Twin Souls, I would assert, represent this highest development of the homo sapien kind. Their progression will not be accomplished in one day but over the coming millions of years as they become more and more godlike in their thinking and doing. people can ignore The Inferential Life, somewhat, in this world and skirt the consequences, or so it would seem; however, there is a world coming in which, as per Sting's song lyric, 'all our secrets will be found out' In that world, those who’ve cavalierly dismissed The Inferential Life are suddenly reminded of the deficit. On the “Sensibility: 1-Minute” page, you will find extensive discussion, and evidence, concerning what happens to people upon crossing over. Most are not allowed to go to Summerland immediately. Instead, they will find themselves in a dark place, unable to see or to hear.
There is so much to discuss here, and I must refer you to the “Sensibility: 1-Minute” page lest I repeat the many pages of discourse. However, for our purposes concerning The Inferential Life, the relevant point becomes this: Many who “send themselves” to a dark place are not evil people. Most are just the average kind of neighbors, or shop keepers, or business people, or even teens, we see around us every day. we judge ourselves based on what we could have and should have known Why did they deposit themselves in a dark place? On what basis of natural law countermanded? Again, so much to be said here, and you’ll want to read the whole article, but, essentially, they ended up on the wrong side of natural law because there are things that not only they should have done but should have known that certain expressions of conduct and thought were “illegal.” But how should they have known? Most of these people were not philosophers, or theologians, or scholars, but just ordinary folks in the neighborhood or the workplace. And yet, they should have known. Who determines that they should have known? No external source. They, themselves, their own higher selves, their true selves beneath the ego and the false self, were well aware of the infractions to natural law mounting. We were made in the “image of God.” This means many things but not to exclude a “factory-installed” internal guidance system, a “still small voice” within, which will lead us – if we allow it. Most do not. Most stifle the “still small voice” which encourages us to lead The Inferential Life. And when we cross over, those thus burdened with “existential debt” to one’s higher self are suddenly plunged into crisis – are sent to “debtors’ prison,” if you see what I mean by this metaphor. The famous NDE life-review, in many cases, imposed upon people when they cross over, reveal to us how we ought to live our lives. We have a mind, we are to use it, to impartially evaluate ourselves, not just at the time of passing, but along the way, as part of our normal living. You’ll want to read the entire Sensibility article, one of the most important on Word Gems. The Inferential Life is no take-it-or-leave-it optional side trip for us. Our higher selves demand that we live this thoughtful life which mirrors the values of the Creator. And if we don’t, a day is coming when we’ll have to face the music of what we’ve done to ourselves. authentic romantic love, the best means toward self-realization and human evolvement As we learn from poet-philosopher Kahlil Gibran, via his biographer, "love is a means - perhaps the best means - to self-realization, without which one is less than a full person"; which suggests that we find our godlike maturity only with love's mediation. This augmented level of sentience is what "The Wedding Song" refers to as lovers "giving life," each to the other. Such reciprocity becomes aid to evolvement, an opening of the eyes to how things truly are and what they portend for us. The sacred beloved, more than any other agent of vivification, serves as catalyst to this enhanced awareness. With her, as van Gogh used the phrase, one “sees nothing but eternity,” a cosmic destiny unfurled, an invitation to the mind of God; without her, he will not find reason to fully develop himself. She is the one he stays alive for; it is she, her "made in the image" beauty, which ignites "the translucence," a shining through, "of the eternal splendor of the One" and of the Truth. Editor’s note: Many would disagree with Gibran; many see an inclination toward love and marriage as something to “grow out of,” something which the truly advanced and spiritual no longer require. But I side with Gibran. In the “500 tape-recorded messages from the other side” we discover a very large group over there who do not believe in love and romance. But then, they also believe in a cluster of other very bad ideas. You will want to read this article, another of the most important on Word Gems. Gibran sees authentic romantic love as aid to evolvement. He says that one cannot become a full, mature, and whole person without true love. Here’s why I think he’s correct. We can learn many things, advance in many fields of enquiry, without valuing love. One might even be credited with the most profound scientific insight of all history. And "the 500" of which I spoke include highly educated individuals. Yet, as one listens to their testimonies, a certain sense of unbalance, of brittleness and narrowness, is received from their spirits. One goes away glad not to be like them. the proportion of things is also a fact to consider I’m reminded of an insightful comment by novelist Dorothy L. Sayers: "The proportion and relations of things are just as much facts as the things themselves; and if you get those wrong, you falsify the picture really seriously." That’s how it is with the “love is too plebian” crowd. Some of what they say is true enough, but it’s the “proportion” and “relations of things” that are skewed. God / Universal Intelligence / Cosmic Consciousness, as evidenced by the creation and its goals unfolding, is an entity of love. Everything this being does is directed by motivations of love, of highest and best for all, of efforts to prepare others for maximum long-term happiness. And because our evolution leads us to become more and more like this Unseen Loving Force, we cannot avoid taking to ourselves a quality or trait of love. If we try to advance ourselves without valuing love, the defining element of our "made in the image" DNA, then, as Dorothy said, “you falsify the picture really seriously.” Without love, one's wisdom will lack a certain depth and authenticity. Editor’s note: Ironically, those of the “dysfunctional 500” and their compatriots speak much of love. It’s a buzzword with them. But when they speak of it, there’s that unmistakable “hollow ring” in accompaniment. They like to talk about love in terms of what I call the “kumbaya” principle. They make much of an attempt to “all join hands and sing around the campfire,” so to speak, as if world peace could be summoned by “getting the message out” and “trying very hard to be good.” These efforts, without “going within,” without accessing the “central sun” and the “living energy,” are doomed to failure. In the meantime, they keep on talking about love. Talk is as close as they’ll get to it. Love means many things, but not to exclude romantic love. There is a reason why the ancient Spirit Guides refer to God as “Mother-Father.” In some sense, though most likely not bodily, the God-Force exists and manifests as a Female-Male energy. summary statement: Imago Hominis, that mere image and scrawl of a man, is not necessarily fortified and elevated merely to cross over into Summerland. People on that side, as much as here, suffer from diminished perceptions of self. If you are prone, in this world, to join groups to feel better about yourself, you’ll probably do the same over there. And there’s no shortage of factions and sects to indulge the "spoiled self." In “The Wedding Song” we learned that that are many thousands of “brotherhoods,” philosophies, associations, circles, “isms,” religions, assemblies -- as we’ve said, it’s a zoo. Mind you, nobody is allowed to proselytize or get-in-your-face with their pet ideas and "one true doctrines," so that’s good, at least. However, if one has not discovered the “true self,” then there very well might be a drifting toward allying oneself with this-or-that group. As we’ve noted in the “Cultism” articles, each body-politic spouts its own version of reality and is only too willing to impose it on you – if you don’t know who you are.
We’re not meant to join groups. In Summerland we live as the glorified and exalted individual. Jefferson's "pursuit of happiness" for the sacred person is writ large all over Summerland society. Now we might enter into a temporary ad hoc alliance with others for charitable work or some such, as Elizabeth Fry does, but none of this issues for the cultish purpose of finding security and safety, of living under the authority-mantle of some “infallible guru.” These are psychological crutches, it’s what little children do, and we must grow out these defense mechanisms before we can negotiate Summerland as adults. 'safe in my garden, an ancient flower grows' The Inferential Life means many things; in Part II we spoke of various aspects. But really, there’s only one thing for us to keep uppermost in mind; and if we do that, then all other facets of how to live will naturally come our way and manifest in our lives. That one absolutely needful item is the precept we addressed in Part I.
There is a Living Energy, a central sun, at the core of ourselves and all creation. This Living Energy is embedded in Universal Consciousness. And as we come to know it, as we perceive that it is actually part - the larger part - of our own Selves, we find our lives enjoying everything that’s needed to make our way through eternal life: guidance, confidence, intelligence, virtue, peace, well-being, service-mindedness, wisdom, joy - we could go on. There is a song, featured elsewhere, which, I think, wonderfully captures this sense of the divinely protected life, the divinely provided-for life, the divinely directed life. safe in my garden
safe in my garden when you go out in the street
“Safe in my garden, an ancient flower grows.” Think of never feeling alone again. Yes, when you’re finally with your Twin Soul, you will have this blessing. But there is a more fundamental aspect which must be accessed and secured before we can be with our Twin. Remember? Iris explained it to us. We must "make our own music pure." We must become individuals, in the truest sense.
The Course In Miracles, Lesson #41 is entitled, “God goes with me wherever I go.” This is the reality. This is how we shall live as we come to recognize the Living Energy within. Think of yourself in Summerland and all that you'll be doing there. With a little advancement, you will be able to transport yourself, in a flash, anywhere in the universe, visting far-away peoples and civilizations. Think of yourself, at times, serving lost souls in the Dark Realms; or conversing with the egocentric members of the “brotherhoods” or “isms.” See yourself as a teacher, having acquired much knowledge. Your days will be very full; sometimes living as public figure with others looking to you for guidance; sometimes spending time in recreation, or with family and friends, or in quiet retreat to meditate and re-center. But in all of your activities, whatever you do, God goes with you. Once you’ve accessed the true self, one’s link to the Living Energy, then a sense of the nearness of God never leaves; or, if it does begin to wane, you can quickly get it back by “going within.” This is the grand life awaiting us. Of course, there’s no need to wait. The future begins today. Discover God, the Living Energy, the central sun, deep within, today. 'safe in my garden, an ancient flower grows' The quietude, the solace, the sanctity of one’s own mind, becomes an exclusive haven, a relaxing garden. We feel safe in this garden, there is no fear there at all; and no matter how far from home base we travel, we never travel alone. And in that garden an ancient flower grows. It’s a thing of great beauty, what everyone has been seeking, for thousands of years; and it's ancient because this kind of ready fellowship and instant communion, with its resultant peace of mind, is what God wanted for us, and with us, the divine Daughters and Sons, even from the beginning. 'safe in my garden, an ancient flower grows'; yet, even so, 'no one there to fill your desire' Is this a contradiction? We just finished assuring ourselves that the Living Energy provides an array of blessings, including peace of mind and joy. The question becomes: Can we find a love to “fill one’s desire” via fellowship with God alone? There are many religions that confidently answer yes. God is able, they say, to satisfy every need and desire. The religion of my early youth concurred. Marriage was viewed as “second class” with the chief seats going to the unwedded clergy. The solitary, prayerful life, they said, allowed more time to worship God. The aforementioned writing, the “500 tape-recordings from the other side,” also discounts the value of marriage. In the view of many of “the 500,” love and romance is something too plebian for the spiritually advanced, something to grow out of and to leave far behind. Yet, there is much trouble in celibate paradise. Clergy of churches that do not allow marriage have been rocked by scandal, the widespread gross sexual impropriety. And “the 500,” as will become plain to anyone who listens to their views, suffer from various forms of insanity. And so, let us ask the question again: Can we find a love to “fill one’s desire” via fellowship with God alone? The answer is, no, because Nature and Reality don’t work that way. There is a reason why God / Universal Intelligence created humans as female and male; and there is a reason why Genesis, rightly so, asserts that these sacred two were “made in the image of God” - God, according to ancient Spirit Guides, as “Mother-Father God.” We know so little about God, about Universal Consciousness, and we may never know – even a million years from now -- more than we know today via “going within” and sensing the virtues of God. But it seems that there is another avenue of approach to knowing God. Twins reveal the 'image,' the hidden face, of God, each to the other One’s Twin Soul mate, again, was “made in the image”; each for the other, this is true. And it appears that one of the tasks of Twins, as agents of that "image," is to reveal the image of God, the hidden face of God, each to the other. And as they do, they enter into perceptions of joy, wonder, and love inaccessible by any other means or manner of “knowing” God. But the infinite God is not revealed in a moment. Twins are to “travel on” in this process of mutually revealing the Divine. In this endeavor, they enter into fields of vision of more and more romantic love, joy, and intimacy.
Editor’s note: For some years I’ve ventured that Twins, each for the other, reveal the hidden face of God; further, that this should not be surprising, given their “made in the image” status. My assertion, some might consider to be provocative or even over-stated, however, I know that I am correct in this assessment. It was with considerable interest, therefore, that I discovered a comment by the great spiritual teacher Andrew Jackson Davis, who puts forward the same concerning Twins: “Each unto the other is the whole world — shall I say, God manifested in the flesh?” We sense that he hesitates, as I have, and yet it is exactly true, and Twins know it to be true: they love each other, stand in awe of their mutual love, as if meeting Divinity. It’s not that they count each other as God; no, that’s not it; it’s just that, what they mutually feel issues with such profound sense of the sacred and mystical bedazzlement. They are, indeed," the whole world" to each other. Never have they experienced this - fallen so hard, felt so much, been swept away so fast, taken so far - concerning anyone or anything.
We need that sense of Sayers' proportion spoken of earlier. Authentic romantic eternal love gives us the right balance of mind, a beginning effort toward making ours equal to the viewpoint of Mother-Father God. On the “Prologue” page of “The Wedding Song” we discussed the insights of mystic Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov. Better than others, he intuitively grasped the correct “proportion,” the sense of importance to be accorded Twin Soul love as vital component of the spiritual mind of wisdom. “The soul ... is itself only one-half of a complete being. For each Aivanhov gets it exactly right. It’s only through the union of destined Twins that a complete “freedom from illusion and the full experience of Reality” might be achieved. Notice the emphasis. We might have expected to hear of "a complete happiness" but instead "a complete freedom from illusion" is offered; which is not to say that happiness will not be part of the package, but the focus is on clarity of mind and soul. Why is Twin Soul love the doorway to ultimate wisdom and spiritual vision? Because it reflects the highest expression of ultimate reality, the architectonic female-male energy as the essence of nature, the subsuming influence and dominion of Mother-Father God. See much discussion on this freedom from illusion in a trilogy of articles. All this is Omega Point.
Editor's note: The concept of “highest reality” brings to mind a heretofore unmentioned item from my research. In “the 500 tape-recordings from the other side” one finds the occasional testimony from those who were famous during their Earth sojourn; very accomplished individuals – scientists, statesmen, and the like – and, at last report, they continue some of their work in Summerland. However, concerning their personal lives, many of these did not live a moralistic life, and, it seems to me, this attitude of using others for one’s private pleasure had not yet been expunged from their spirits. There was a certain “hollowness” and “brittleness” to their outlook on life. Despite their great accomplishments, one is left with an impression that they had not yet met “ultimate reality” in the form of sacred romantic love; they were still quite materialistic in their thinking. And this is what Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov is getting at when he says that true love is the doorway to freedom from illusion, the full experience of Reality, and highest wisdom. It would have to be that way as true love is part of the Divine Mind.
The quest to experience true love is no optional side-trip. Without success in this area, eventually, we will suffer "existential crisis," and fail to properly engage the "terrors of living forever." Some time ago, I wrote several paragraphs on the subject of "no one there to fill your desire." They're included as a kind of footnote to the "What We Stay Alive For" essay, but allow me to offer this writing here in closing:
"no one there can fill your desire" We were meant to live in community. We yearn for the company of friends and neighbors, supporting each other in life. So strong is this wish for brotherhood and sisterhood that, at times, as Father Chardin mused, it reaches almost to the level of “sensual longing.” Even so, affable association and cordial friend - none of this pleasant conviviality - can fill one’s desire. Neither avuncular favor nor maternal warmth, not even a large kindred gathering, an immersion into familial goodwill and amity, can fill one's desire. Even in that affectionate crowd of doting loved ones, a plenary session of fervent smiles, well-wishes, and hugs all around, you will still find yourself - if only subliminally, that vague uneasy sense of - missing someone. O thou soul of my soul Mourning the loss of his Elizabeth, Robert Browning in Prospice [“to look forward”] soars in high-flight, addressing her, O thou soul of my soul. Many in the history of literature have spoken of woman as the life of man, but never so poignantly and felicitously. And if one’s soul could shelter a soul of its own, what would this signify? - nothing less than epicenter of meaning, purpose, and “what we stay alive for.” And so, with O thou soul of my soul, we glimpse a remedy for "no one there can fill your desire." unlawful savior and covenant John and Mary cannot fill each other’s desire; "besotting infatuation” with illegitimate savior, the “ill-fitting covenant,” the settled-for second or third choice, albeit sprinkled with ecclesiastical blessing, cannot fill one's desire. Their problem is spiritual in nature, with biological impulse and instinctual response unable to offer solution. Only two souls in love, two created for each other, can fill the unremitting existential void, two spirits longing for authentic union. the great harmonia There are three bases for marriage: biological, psychological, spiritual. Andrew Jackson Davis offered analysis in his seminal work “The Great Harmonia.” The vast majority wed for the wrong reasons and, in so doing, counterfeit and debase what was meant to be, what Spirit Guide Margaret called, the holiest of human endeavors; even the Pope decried this merchandizing of human flesh. super stimuli Biological attractors animate the majority, licensing Niko Tinbergen’s “super stimuli,” mere temporary fever, a boiling of animal inclination. Psychological drivers, too, incite to riot not a few: here we find marriage as antidote to fears of never finding happiness, apprehensions of disgrace and not being chosen, terrors of facing old age alone. All this defines what passes for marriage in our world, but none of it is honored in the “better neighborhoods” of Summerland. It is only the spiritual marriage, the coming together of Twin Souls, which is recognized in the courts of heaven. true love: of the soul, not body “The Wedding Song” speaks of a “calling of the heart.” It is a desperate cry of the hidden person, a cry in the night - the long dark night of the soul; a cry to be answered only by a “union of spirits," the authentic accord of mind touching mind. In this "knowing as one knows oneself," the secret desolation within begins to recede. True love is rooted in the soul, not the body, and therefore only things of the eternal soul will endure; things of the flesh begin dying at the moment of birth. And unless one's affections represent an extension of the soul's purposes, there will be no enduring romantic relationship. This rule stands unmoved and inviolable. existential beauty, consummate mystical experience, freedom from illusion, full experience of reality The once “blind poet,” with her “lumbering, ponderous, helpless knowledge of books,” when true love came knocking, suddenly grasped the total field of what it means to be human. It is “not to eat and drink," Elizabeth exclaimed, "but to feel the life in you, down all the fibres of being, passionately and joyfully.” Yes, "to feel the life in you"; as such, this life, this “truth, is a living thing,” and when it becomes energized with the advent of the sacred beloved -- the "existential beauty," a "consonance with the whole," the consummate mystical experience -- it will not only pulsate with warming vitality at the core of being but brings “freedom from illusion” and offers “the full experience of reality.” more than one dared wish for There is but one particular girl to fill his desire; he offers her the same exclusive gift. They find each other in the Dazzling Darkness. Together then, as darling companions, adventuring through eternal life sharing all experiences, they enter a sense of wholeness and completeness attained, of meaning and purpose actualized; of sacred destiny realized, of soul-pledges deliciously satisfied. They inhabit perceptions of "coming home," of the utterly familiar, of "you are more than I dared wish for," of extreme delight, of "you are just like me," of "soulmate, myself." All this, indeed, issues as final answer to the "calling of the heart," an emergence from the abyss of aloneness, as it fills, to the top, the pleadings of unexpressed yearning, the indictments of unquieted passions. ready communion and unbroken fellowship, minds in ecstatic union With greater maturity, we perceive identities revealed - who’s who and for whom. And in that day of sightedness, minds created for each other will live in rapturous and euphoric union; an emulation of the joyous spirit of the Divine Parent(s). This ecstasy of ready communion and unbroken fellowship, of sharing all things as darling companions, of "the great relief of having you to talk to," of love "not for a reason," removes the terror of eternal life, provides impetus to unfold the soul's hidden potential, finally satisfies and fills beseeching human desire, and becomes ultimate reason to stay alive for.
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