|
Lovely,
and in some ways, comforting images. Perhaps an over-simplification. Doubtless,
everyone reading this will have some view or belief of 'life after death'.
Some will have beliefs shaped by their own experience; others will have
entrenched views laid down within the unshakable dogma of their religion
- sometimes comforting, sometimes frightening. Yet others will totally
deny, and refuse even to contemplate, the possibility of continuing into
a spiritual state. If you are one of the latter, yet nevertheless continuing
to read of my actual experiences, I am at a total loss to know what, if
anything, I can write to convince you, although truly, I can no longer
concern myself whether I do or not. Perhaps, consciously or unconsciously,
there is the unspoken belief that in acknowledging the existence of a
spiritual state of being, you have to take on board all of the paraphernalia
of a religion. A horror that you would have to go to some place of worship;
that your life would be constrained by thoughts of 'sin' and 'damnation'.
You may look at all of the human misery and turmoil, disputes and wars
fought in the 'name' of religion - stoked by concepts of 'promised lands'
or minute differences of textual interpretation - and curse all religions.
Believe me, you can accept the reality of the existence of a state of
spiritual being without even remotely embracing any religion, or altering
your way of life. But more important, much more important than your own
enlightenment, you could use the knowledge and understanding so gained
to achieve what I am so desperately trying to get you to achieve - the
release from torment of people who are plagued by intrusive spirits.
Sometime, on a clear night, go out of doors, look at the stars, and reflect
on what you can see. With your eyes or with the addition of your telescope,
they are all there for you. They mean what you want them to mean. You
do not have to be an astronomer to appreciate them, even to understand
much of what you see. Although such devices as the Hubble telescope bring
us wonders of vision, what you see is out of reach, out of touch. Some
will look at, for instance, the Pleiades and imagine communication with
Ascended Masters. Others will look for their future, and accept the predictions
of astrologers who will interpret the 'signs'. Look at Orion and Sirius
and reflect that, so we are told, the rulers of Ancient Egypt attempted
a physical/spiritual union with these stars and that the Ghiza pyramids
represent on earth a model of the constellation. In like wise, people
try to give you a view of religion, of spiritual interaction - but reflect
further, the only people who can tell you what it is like to walk on the
moon, to travel and walk in space, are the people who have actually been
there. So look at the stars, look at the planets, 'examine' the world
of 'spirit'; take your own view of them all - but also remember that there
are individuals who have had a different 'real' experience. Maybe they
have something to tell you.
And before we leave the stars, reflect also that the light from the nearest
star had already started upon its journey to you long before the first
human, homo sapiens, had taken a single step upon this planet. Yet here
you are, at the very forefront, the cutting edge of evolution; the very
latest model. What do you make of yourself? My oft quoted Paracelsus could
never have known how immense are the distances to the stars, but he, like
us, must have looked; imagined; dreamed - and as he dreamed, so he wrote:
"…the
human body is vapour materialised by sunshine mixed with the life of the
stars."
Poetic? Mystical? Or very near the truth in the language and thought of
his time? What do you think? Every atom of the material that makes up
your body was there in existence when the stars were formed. Over millennia
upon millennia they have been transmuted many times before they were assembled
around the nucleus, the egg and sperm, that became you. Take the sulphur
which inhabits every cell that forms your body; changed into organic form
by the algae it is dissolved in the rain, and, on falling to earth, is
taken up by plants that you eat, or by the animals that eat the plants
that at second hand you eat - all the way from a black smoker. The calcium,
so necessary for your bones and teeth, might derive from chalk or limestone
- the compacted remains of myriads of tiny crustaceans, worms, algae,
deposited in the seas over aeons. And virtually all dependent upon the
action of the sun.
Evolution or Creation? It is not for me to decide for you. The records
of the rocks show the remains of tiny mammals already in existence in
parallel with the dinosaurs, which latter seem to engage the imagination
of so many people. Is the source of the fascination the fact that they
were extinguished sixty-odd million years ago and that people can let
their imaginations rip, or be terrorised by someone else's imagination
in Jurassic film epics? Is it because big is exciting? Twentieth
century thinker Schumacher told us 'Small is beautiful', and there is
something exquisite in the thought that, over the last sixty million years
or so, that little fossilised mouse-like creature has developed into us.
Species living in a coherent environment have little cause to change or
develop - they are suited to their food or environment. But change causes
change, adaptation and development and survival - always with the main
imperatives of self-preservation, procreation and enhancement of the species.
All imperatives that still reside within us. Our problem is that we have
an intellect.
Fossil remains from over two million years ago show a transition from
quadruped to hominid; from homo erectus and homo habilis
to homo sapiens and neanderthalis, namely us, and our recently
extinct collaterals. Did they die out, were they exterminated by our ancestors,
these Neanderthal peoples, or did they and we merge, interbreed and become
one strand? If only we could find out, we might derive some clues for
the future destiny of the human race - after all, Neanderthals were around
for 150,000 years, far longer than sapiens has yet existed. This
is not a hypothetical, nor an allegorical question. Analysis tells us
that they were eminently adaptable, as we humans appear to be. They adapted
to changes that natural phenomena imposed upon them - climate changes,
ice ages and the like. Will we equally adapt to the changes that we ourselves
are imposing upon ourselves? Or will we drive ourselves to extinction?
We are already doing a very efficient job of preparing ourselves for the
latter fate. I do not mean by war, although we, with modern technology,
can manage to eliminate considerable quantities of people at a stroke.
No: what I am getting at is that we are becoming very efficient at making
ourselves ill. For as long as people have lived in societies there have
been social diseases, the products of malnutrition, poor dwelling conditions,
poor hygiene; but enlightenment and resource have eliminated many of these.
(I am writing essentially about the 'developed' world - much has to be
done to eliminate disease from the less developed people; a moral issue
too vast for my consideration here). The diseases and illnesses that we
are bringing on ourselves are those resulting from affluence and technology;
diseases that are both physical and mental. But, perhaps with more and
increasing relevance, we are imposing upon ourselves and others a range
of traumas that result from ignorance of, or a refusal to acknowledge,
the existence of a 'spirit' within each of us. And beyond that, a refusal
on the part of many to acknowledge the existence of intelligent and independently
acting spiritual 'beings'.
I have often wondered, and continue to wonder, how and when the concept
of 'spirit', of an 'otherness', arose in the minds of developing humanity.
To some, and particularly acknowledging that the spirit is always represented
as 'speaking', it may presuppose the existence of a language in the culture
of the 'hearer'. But this need not necessarily be so, for my experience
has shown me that very potent communication can be established subliminally
by the creation of ideas, concepts, feelings and moods, rather than by
statements or instructions spelled out in actual words. As I have written
earlier, in every part of the world and in every culture that has ever
left a record throughout history, there has been an acknowledgement of
a spiritual dimension and of the reality of invisible and independently
acting spirits. It has also been perceived and acknowledged that within
this dimension there is a source of knowledge and wisdom that far surpasses
the knowledge and wisdom that may be developing as the result of natural
observation and experiment. And knowledge and wisdom have always been
represented as coming from the 'supreme divine', who, it was always believed,
had the power to impose sanctions in the event of non-compliance with
the divine advice or instruction which had become enshrined in religion
and religious dogma.
Likewise, in each of these cultures, the obverse of the benevolent
source of divine wisdom and protection has been acknowledged - namely
the universal presence and action of spiritual malevolence. It
is a source that appears to have in equal measure to the divine, knowledge
and a perverted wisdom that are used to intrude into the minds, bodies
and lives of sensitive and vulnerable individuals; intrusions that can
encourage people into an actual practice of evil themselves, or
which can undermine the mental and physical functioning of a person and
lead to mental or physical illness, or both.
As I write, it is now twenty-three years since I began to experience the
reality of what hitherto might have been speculation - the actuality of
a spiritual state of existence, and the ability of spiritual 'entities'
to influence the minds and bodies of humans. At this point, you might
find it worthwhile to re-read the earlier section where I described the
manner in which I first experienced intrusion into my mind and body. Nothing
that has occurred during the intervening years has done anything to change
my understanding of those events. On the contrary, everything that has
happened to me since, all my experiences, have reinforced my certainty.
Every day, in a variety of ways, I am reminded (as if I needed
reminding) of the presence of the intruders. Gone, however, are the
gross, obviously malignant, presences. No domination: no threats: no obscenities
or salacious introductions into my mind. Everything that happens is at
a more subtle level, almost unnoticed - would indeed pass unnoticed, if
I had not gained an awareness of the whole process.
|