Only Somewhat Real: Forces that influence us

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Soul and spirit

Let us begin our long discussion of the forces that influence your lives, and that your lives use in order to make shapes.

Interesting way to think of it.

An analogy: Think of the air you breathe. Chemically, you change its composition; physically, within limits, you direct the outward flow of breathed air. You are not the air, and yet the air is a part of you, but not as a component so much as part of a process. Air flows through you. It is changed in predictable fashion as it does so, but this is not a one-time change, nor an accident, nor an incident: It is a process, and it must continue if you are to live. Eliminate humans and the air continues to exist and be influenced by other beings. But eliminate air and humans die. For good, for keeps.

So you may wish to think of these “vast impersonal forces” we have been mentioning as the equivalent of air to breathe. And in fact the same word is sometimes used for breath and spirit, and that’s what they are talking about.

I see. I thought I understood before, but this is clearer. The soul is us, the created physical beings attached to strands etc. The spirit is the force that flows through us, animating us, interacting with us, but not us.

That’s correct. You have been close to this understanding, closer sometimes than others, but now you have it. Spirit both is part of you (because you couldn’t exist without it) and is not a part of you (because it has its own independent existence that would not fail in your absence.)

Compound beings are soul and spirit, localized collections of strands and characteristics, serving as conduits for forces forever beyond them. So now that you are clear on that distinction – you interact with spirit; you embody soul – let us look at the forces flowing through you.

The forces of good and evil, I take it.

Good and evil

Well, not quite. Good and evil may be looked at more as effects than as causes.

Huh?

Remember, God looked at his creation and found it good. He didn’t find it good and evil, he found it good. Evil didn’t enter into the picture until a compound being chose to experience the result of perceiving things as good and evil. Dropping into duality, in other words.

But wasn’t “creation” – the 3D world in its widest ramifications – already by nature dualistic?

Only if experienced – seen – that way.

You’re going to have to explain that.

Oh yes, and it won’t be a brief explanation. By the time we have explained it as best we can, many things will appear in different light.

Remember if you can – the 3D world is not exactly a creation, more like a separation from the larger reality. It is a creation in so far as anything is a creation that is gathered together from a larger assemblage, a larger more comprehensive whole. But only in that sense. “The world was created out of nothing” can only mean – nothing like it existed before it was created. That doesn’t mean first there was a vacuum, then there was rubble filling the vacuum.

I get the sense of the 3D world as being a truncated part of reality, and it was the treating the truncated part as if it were a whole that is meant by creation. Is that right, or even partly right?

That is a serviceable interim way to look at it. Remember, we are reminding you, as Rita did, there is one reality, not two. The 3D world is part of the All-D, as we are calling it. So if 3D had been created out of nothing, in the way people commonly understand the idea, what of the rest of All-D? Yes, you might imagine that it was created and unnoticed, or was created and somewhat noticed and considered as the spiritual complement of the physical world, but there is no need for so complicated a reaction.

Considered as a world in itself, the 3D world came into existence when compound beings were – truncated, I suppose we should say – to experience only so much of reality and no more. But it is not this simple.

I notice it never is.

Over-simplifying is one of the great roots of fanaticism and determined ignorance.

So, to continue: The forces that flow through you manifest as good and evil not so much because it is their nature as because that is your nature. It isn’t spirit that is perceiving things as good and evil; it is your perception, just as was said in the Book of Genesis. But misinterpretation of intent leads to mistranslation and misunderstanding, and a devil of a lot of bad theology is based on logical conclusions from bad translations and incorrect assumptions.

“A devil of a lot.” Nice.

Energy flowing

That wasn’t merely a play on words, but no need to underline it. The “vast impersonal forces” that flow through you are beyond the human level in its 3D manifestation. That is, they themselves are a non-human energy transforming what they flow through and being slightly transformed in turn, but they should not be considered to be human energies merely because they flow through humans.

Again, this is going to need to be unpacked.

We’re well aware of it. Tackle this particular bit.

I get that the energy that flows through us manifests as our passions. So, sometimes – depending on what it is flowing through – it may manifest as one of the seven deadly sins, or one of the virtues. I imagine it may also manifest as mental energy, not necessarily associated with either. How different is it from what Freud called libido?

In the sense that it is an energy that does not originate within humans but flows through them, and in some it flows stronger than others, and in some it may get dammed up here, in others there, it is closer to Jung’s idea. It isn’t just sexual energy – that is, to speak more fully, it isn’t in itself sexual energy at all; it may (and often does) manifest in that way, but it is not itself limited to one kind of energy.

Then we should look at it as the source of our animation. Does that mean we each get different amounts, or does it mean our internal makeup means that we each allow different amounts to flow through us?

All the differences between people that may be observed are the results of their initial composition combined with the results of their choices on an on-going basis. But one person’s lesser amount of psychic energy flow does not imply a cosmic injustice. Don’t jump to that conclusion. Here, as everywhere, one size does not fit all. What some handle easily would electrocute others. What is comfortable for one would cause another to die of boredom, so to speak. Should it surprise anybody that it is as complicated and varied as life itself?

 

One thought on “Only Somewhat Real: Forces that influence us

  1. Very interesting. Look forward to reading it as a book. Trying to integrate this with other things (currently “The Real Christ” by Bernadette Roberts).

    I forgot to post about the ending of Papa’s Trial – very cool. I wonder how many of us will get those choices (as opposed to feeling lost, trapped, or stuck in dreams) when we die. I also am curious why those who you have Contact with seem so reluctant to specify what they do other than “relate”. I also relate but I engage in a number of specific activities.

    Thanks, always great material.

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