LSP55: You, Your Life, and Your Afterlife: Abundant Gifts and Blessings

It's often said the best things in life are free. Nowhere does this hold more true than in your relationship with God.

St. Lawrence was a 3rd century church deacon who was martyred in Rome in 258 CE. Tradition reports that when he was asked to turn over the wealth of the church to Roman authorities, he instead gave it to the poor and the marginalized, those who are the church's true treasures. This stained glass window was produced in 1889 by Charles Eamer Kempe, and is now on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England (gifted by Mr. Walter E. Tower). Photo credit JAT 2023.

The wonderful thing about having a relationship with God is that it's a gift -- a freely given gift between you and God -- that doesn't cost you any money and doesn't have to be carried out at a special time or a special place. It can happen anywhere. And it's an ongoing gift, not a one-time thing. Once you open your heart to a relationship with God, the blessings just keep coming.

Think of the things in your life that bring great joy. Start with your own conception. Maybe your parents had to spend some money to prepare a family home or to heal some medical issues that could complicate a pregnancy. But the moment of conception itself -- that was a gift from God, and it was free!

Think about your upbringing. Think about the experience of learning how to be a human being in a whole new world. When you picked up a something hard and heavy, like a rock, and you dropped it on your foot, you were learning about the laws of physics. And the courage to learn was free!

When you tasted what words meant, and you explored how the spices and flavours of words can shape your relationships, you were partaking of the mystery of language, a mystery that ties everything together in Creation. And it was free!

When you listened to songs and hymns and carols, and you sang them till your eyes brimmed with tears of devotion, that was free!

When you watched the buds on a plant unfurl in beauty, or paused at the majesty of a storm-filled sky, or smelled the gratitude of the soil after a long sought rain, you felt your humble connection to Creation, and the sacredness was free!

When your beloved one was close to death, and longed for release from pain and suffering, and you saw the time of passing was near, your grief couldn't take from you the trust that your loved one was close to God. As your heart broke, you felt the love -- the love which is free!

As you think about the most memorable, most transformative moments of your life (especially the feeling of God's presence, if you've had such an experience) you begin to realize that those feelings of connection, love, meaning -- they're all free. They all come from within your heart and soul. They're yours. You didn't "buy" them, because you didn't have to. You were born with them and you own them. Permanently. Nobody can take them from you unless you let them.

When you're going through a difficult time, it can help to think of your life as a one-of-a-kind story. The best stories are about rich characters, complex relationships, difficult decisions, and transformative change. Everything that's in your book belongs to you, and you'll take all of it home to Heaven when you die. There you'll have many opportunities to discuss with angelic friends and mentors what you learned during your life as a human being. You, in turn, will learn from the stories of your equally blessed friends. Every story adds to the tapestry of Divine Love. This early 14th century Book of Hours, once used for private devotions, is part of the Kenneth Thomson collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Photo credit JAT 2018.

This brings me to the question of religion. All major world religions do some good things (such as teaching people about human morality) and all major world religions do some bad things (such as teaching people they won't be saved and won't be allowed into Heaven unless they follow all the right doctrines, all the right practices, all the right Saviours).

Questions about the afterlife continue to haunt countless human beings in every generation. Many people turn to religious leaders to try to uncover what will happen to them when they die. Too often religious leaders use this deep seated human need as a way to acquire power for themselves, to manipulate their flocks, to demean and subjugate others with promises about future punishments from God or Source. But they say these frightening things about the End Times for themselves, not for you. They say they're worried about your soul, but what they really mean is they're worried about their own authority. They want you to be scared about what happens when you die because fearful people are much easier to control than courageous people.

These same religious leaders use the trump card of justice to explain why their doctrines of afterlife are not only true but necessary. They say that future punishment for earthly crimes is the only way to balance the universal scales of right and wrong and help good conquer evil. But they're assuming when they say it that God is too stupid and too weak to intervene in our daily lives in ways that Mother Father God -- not human leaders -- deem appropriate. It's the very idea that God constantly intervenes whether we like it or not that undermines everything religion has to say about Materialist laws of cause and effect. Just ask Dr. Eben Alexander. He didn't ask to be put in a coma and sent along on a soul journey to the very gates of Heaven. He didn't ask to become a human messenger about the inclusiveness and expansiveness of Divine Love. But it happened anyway.

Dr. Alexander's near-death experience was an unusual, but nonetheless valid, free gift from God to help him better understand the pathways open to him for building a relationship with God and Creation while he's still here on Planet Earth. Despite the struggles he went through after he awakened from his coma, I have no doubt he'd do it again in a heartbeat. He can now be of service in ways he never could have imagined before his awakening. Such service is in itself a profound gift.

As you reflect on the free gifts you've participated in during your own human life, let me ask you this: if God surrounds you with innumerable free gifts while you're here on Planet Earth, why would God suddenly take away all those free gifts just because you've transitioned to a non-Materialist state of being? Why would God suddenly punish you for mistakes you can no longer fix in the absence of a 3D biological body? Why would God give you love and forgiveness while you're a human being (as Jesus taught) but suddenly rescind these gifts and replace them with laws and contracts and covenants as soon as you die? Does this make any sense to you?

God the Mother and God the Father aren't fickle. And they don't play favourites. So whatever you've been told by religious or spiritual leaders about future punishment or karmic rebirth is a load of treacherous clickbait.

Heaven is the place where all of God's children are welcomed after our difficult lives on Planet Earth. No one is excluded. We were angels -- persons-of-soul -- before we were born here. When we die, we resume our lives as children of God, though we understand as never before how secure we are in the infinite wisdom of God's love.

We are, as Jesus once tried to tell us, forever blessed.

LSP22: Problems with Eternea.Org

Yesterday I visited the website (www.eternea.org) listed in the back of Eben Alexander's book Proof of Heaven and was again disappointed. It wasn't the first time. I signed up to be an Eternea member on February 2, 2013 so I could read forum posts on the message boards and also reply to them. Alas, there's no longer any point in signing up to be a "regular Joe Public" member of Eternea. Such members don't seem welcome.

 

At some point over the past few years (I'm not sure exactly when), the Eternea.org website was totally revamped. The original message board I complain about here was removed. In addition, the original Seven Statements were expanded to include Fifteen Elaborations (because apparently seven statements weren't enough). Eternea is now a non-profit group, and part of its mission statement says, "Eternea endorses a scientific approach to the study of spiritually transformative experiences and survival of consciousness after bodily death, as well as the relationship between consciousness and physical matter with special emphasis on torsion physics." Eternea appears to be trying to build yet another of humanity's failed Gnostic bridges to "Source," but it's not a bridge I recognize or recommend. As always, I suggest you learn to trust your own instincts about such teachings. Photo credit JAT 2021.

From the beginning, the Eternea forums were difficult to use because they were so heavily moderated. You'd post a comment, then wait for several days to see whether or not the moderator would approve it. Meanwhile, your comment wouldn't be visible to anyone but yourself. This made it difficult to carry on a dialogue or conversation with other members.

For months now, it's been rare to see a new comment appear on any of the Eternea forum threads. I tried starting a new thread on the Religion, Spirituality and Beliefs forum on April 13, 2014. As far as I can tell, it was never approved. (At least, I think it was never approved -- the way the message board is designed makes it awkward and confusing to figure out which of your own posts have been approved.)

So what's going on here? Why are there so few new comments? I doubt it's from a lack of interest among regular people. I think regular people want to talk about their unusual spiritual experiences. I think regular people want to share their stories with other people (without fearing their personal stories will be co-opted for Eben Alexander's next book projects). I think people want a safe place where they can talk about God and the soul and the afterlife without being laughed at, rejected, or treated as mentally defective.

Unfortunately, the Eternea site is not that safe place.

Dr. Alexander has a new book coming out in October 2014. It's called The Map of Heaven, and although I can't tell you anything about it (because it hasn't been released yet), it seems that in this book Dr. Alexander "shares some of the stories that . . . people have told him."

Well, I'm curious about that. I'm curious about the fact that when you go to Dr. Alexander's own website (www.ebenalexander.com) and click on "Stories of the Eternal: Share Your Story," you don't get to read stories left by other readers. You get to read this disclaimer:

"You understand that by submitting this letter/story it may be used on the website and in other media projects including books related to Dr. Alexander's work without restriction.  However, your email address will not appear.  Select 'No' if this is a private message."

For the record, I submitted a personal letter to Dr. Alexander via his lifebeyonddeath.net website on October 24, 2012. I sent him one personal snail-mail letter (addressed to Eternea's Deerfield Beach, Florida address) on November 14, 2012. I also submitted a "spiritually transformative experience report" to Eternea on November 6, 2012. In all these communications, I indicated that I'm a practising mystic who has a continuing and voluntary experience of connection with God in what Dr. Alexander calls "the Core." I expressed my willingness to share more about my ongoing experiences as part of the wider project of investigating consciousness and the soul. I've never heard back from anyone affiliated with Dr. Alexander or Eternea.

Fortunately, I keep records of all my communications, so I know exactly what I said to Dr. Alexander and Eternea. I told him I have scientific insights into the voluntary mystical state that allows one to connect with God and Divine Love on an ongoing basis. Yet, because I've had no reply, I've sadly come to the conclusion that the information I can offer isn't of interest to him or his team of researchers.

My personal story doesn't line up perfectly with Dr. Alexander's conclusions. In fact, I disagree with him on a number of major points he's raised. However, this kind of disagreement doesn't usually stop researchers from engaging in debate and ethical criticism. In fact, it's this kind of disagreement that usually leads to greater insights and stronger research.

Eben, you'll have to decide for yourself about the path you're following. Please take the time to recall that Divine Love doesn't insist you always be right. Instead, Divine Love calls upon you to be honest about your human limitations and to find the courage to admit it when you discover you've made a mistake. There's no shame in making mistakes. But there's lots of suffering in the attempt to cover them up.

Blessings,
Jen

The Eternea oganization seems to have fallen into the tragic cycle of planting a crop of hope and then failing to nurture it appropriately. Come on, people. Smarten up! There's no way in hell you're ever going to have all the answers, so stop pretending you're the only gateway to God's truth. We've all been through the perils of over-zealous gatekeeping many times over. It doesn't work! Swallow your pride, forgive yourselves, and move on. 

 

For Further Reflection:

I think it's very helpful for those on a spiritual journey to read widely about the transformative experiences of others. Sometimes we're encouraged by spiritual leaders to stop reading from "mundane" sources; that is, books and articles not specifically focused on spirituality and the Divine. We're led to believe we've risen above these mundane sources. But if every person on the planet is a child of God (whether he or she knows it), there's always the potential for people to contribute in meaningful ways to the growth of healing and Peace, with or without their direct knowledge of God.

Every tale of courage and loving commitment is important, because inspiring stories resonate with our souls and remind us who we can really be. We all learn a lot from each other's struggles. Just knowing that one other person has navigated the same difficult situation you're facing and has come out okay is a source of encouragement. Sharing and learning from our painful experiences brings us face to face with our own Hearts. In doing so, we begin to be able to see the face of God.

It's all in the pain, you see. You've been told by every major religion that pain is a sign of unworthiness, inferiority, karmic recycling, Divine punishment, and the like. The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, for instance, begin with the statement that life is dukkha (suffering). Pain is considered the opposite of salvation and enlightenment and pure Divine Love. Pain is the thing religion is supposed to rescue you from.

Absolutely nobody tells you that God the Mother and God the Father know more about pain than any of the rest of us will ever know.

One of the hardest things for angels to understand is the pain caused by Oneness. As angels, we belong to a vast Divine Family where we share a common morality (a morality of boundaries) and a common sense of devotion to each other (Divine Love), but in other respects we're very different from each other. The roots of our Mother and Father's loving relationship have grown a garden in Creation where untold diversity is possible. If you think the breathtaking variation of evolutionary life on Planet Earth blows your mind, you should see the indescribable breadth of colours and shapes and sizes and talents of the angels in God's universe!

Because God's universe is radically egalitarian -- because each unique soul is equally loved -- angels are all on different learning paths. We're not required to learn the same things in the same way at the same time. At some points in our growth, we'll need to receive more help than we give, and at other points, we'll give more help than we receive. It's organic. It's a blend of order and chaos. It's changeable. And sometimes it even hurts. But there's no obstacle and no pain that can't be transformed into something infinitely mysterious and beautiful by the courage of Divine Love. The Heart is the place deep within the self where this transformation takes place.

Angels live and breathe this kind of heart-based learning. So when Mother Father God try to explain to us that long, long ago and far, far away the universe was structured according to the mind-based principles of Oneness, we can't understand a word they're saying.

So some of us come here to Planet Earth to check it out.

It's important to note that Oneness and belonging aren't the same thing. As psychologist Abraham Maslow noted, one of the core human needs is a sense of love and belonging. We all need it. And when we don't get it -- when we don't have the sense of being warmly and sincerely accepted within our group despite our quirks and lack of perfection -- we feel disheartened, discouraged, and depressed. If we're using our Hearts (rather than just our Minds), we feel similarly depressed when painful things happen to our friends and family. Because we love, we share in the pain of those we cherish. Because we love, the journey toward healing, repair, and Peace is communal -- and sometimes painful. This is what Empathy means.

As the early seventeenth century English poet John Donne wrote, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.”

Oneness isn't a state of belonging. It's a state of control -- control over pain. It's an attempt to use pure logic, law, and knowledge to transcend all sources of pain and replace them with happiness.

It sounds absolutely wonderful at first, doesn't it? And because it sounds like the perfect pathway to Peace, millions and millions of people have tried to make Oneness work.

Here's why it doesn't work. It doesn't work because Oneness focuses on equality of outcomes instead of equality of relationships. The final goal -- "everyone is now happy" -- is considered far more important than any of the methods used to get to the goal. So relationships are discarded as those who are faster, smarter, and stronger take over the process to speed it up for everyone else. Those who are faster, smarter, and stronger consider themselves saviours, not tyrants. But before long, they start to believe that those who are slower, less smart, and weaker are inferior and farther down the ladder of perfection. Hierarchies develop. Then, before you can say Kim Jong-un, you have a despotic leader at the very top of the hierarchy who believes he's been divinely chosen to bring happiness to all his citizens by forcing every single one of them to believe what he believes, to learn things in the way he learns things, and to be happy in the way he defines happiness.

One of the great gifts of democracy (when it's done halfway right) is that individual citizens have the right to choose how they will handle pain and how they will approach happiness. This is a blessing that few of us recognize or appreciate. But without it, we become nothing more than the numbered drones in any of the dystopian science fiction novels and films that capture the terror of Oneness so well.

God thinks your story and your journey are uniquely important, and you should, too.

So be part of your community. But always remember to be your own self, too.

Don't let anyone else steal your right to heal your pain in the way that works best for you. Just don't steal anyone else's right while you're at it.

LSP18: Teeth-Gnashing and Gnosticism: The Question of Evil Entities

Okay. There's simply no way of getting around these three big questions: (1) Do evil supernatural entities exist? (2) Is there an ongoing battle in Creation between good and evil? and (3) If there is such a battle, do human beings play a significant role in restoring balance to the universe?

My short answers are (1) No; (2) No; and (3) No.

Although I'm generally supportive of Dr. Alexander's first book, there's one chapter I disagree with from beginning to end. It's Chapter 15 ("The Gift of Forgetting"), in which Dr. Alexander attempts to answer the question of why God allows evil and suffering in the world (i.e. the theodicy question).  I really wish he'd given more thought to this chapter before he decided to include it in his book. It's chockablock full of the damaging, dualistic, overly simplistic Gnostic ideas that have plagued the human-Divine relationship for centuries.

From the core assumptions of Gnosticism many different religious movements have sprouted (including the Qumran sect of Second Temple Judaism; the Persian religion known as Manichaeism; and assorted Christian heresies). At its root, Gnosticism assumes there's something seriously wrong with the world we live in, but if we have the correct secret knowledge ("gnosis" in Greek) we can escape from worldly evil and return to the love that's characteristic of our true home in Heaven. Central to Gnosticism's claims is a belief in a Christ-like Saviour figure who will risk -- or who has risked -- everything to reveal this secret knowledge to human beings.

Jesus was a man, mystic, and healer who knew God so well and trusted God so much that he rejected all the ancient religious ideas about good versus evil and taught something very different. His teachings started with the idea that God gives us full latitude to explore what free will means. Some people choose to follow the path of power and abuse, but there's always the possibility they'll use their free will to choose the other path -- the path of goodness and love and trust in God. If they don't, however, God will forgive them, bring them Home, heal them, and help them understand the free will lessons they experienced. There's no room in Jesus' paradigm for the Devil or Judgment Day or Hell or salvation of the elect. So Jesus' paradigm has never been a very popular idea, even among Christians (strange as that may seem). If you want to get to know God, and feel Divine Love in "the Core," you can't go wrong by following Jesus' teachings on courage, trust, gratitude, and devotion. This figure of the crucified Christ was made in the first half of the 12th century in Germany, and is on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Photo credit JAT 2018.

Dr. Alexander reveals his sympathy for the Gnostic position throughout Chapter 15. He says, for instance (and I quote), "Small particles of evil were scattered throughout the universe, but the sum total of all that evil was as a grain of sand on a vast beach compared to the goodness, abundance, hope, and unconditional love in which the universe was literally awash" (page 83).

Let's stop the bus right there. "Small particles of evil were scattered throughout the universe"!!??  Really? God is so stupid that God took a watering can and sprinkled evil around the garden of Creation? God is so stupid that God couldn't figure out any way to give us free will as human beings except to introduce seeds of evil into the world we live in (Proof of Heaven, page 83-84)?

Oh, come on!

This particular species of religious tree has been nurtured wherever people have been trying to reconcile the experience of deeply felt Divine Love with the realities of suffering and abuse in the world. Gnostics are the first to loudly trumpet the preeminence of Divine Love and the first to fall back on the myth of "good versus evil" as soon as they're asked to explain why suffering exists in the world.  In my view, the Gnostic answer to the three questions posed here is sloppy, lazy, and not the least bit courageous.

It takes courage and trust to hold fast to God's hand, to look beyond the simple black and white myths of Gnosticism, to open your whole heart, mind, body, and soul to another explanation for suffering besides evil and evil entities. It takes courage to completely let go of all belief systems that preach the existence of supernatural evil as a force in opposition to God. It takes courage to let go of the idea that "we can't truly know good unless we know its polar opposite, evil, so God must allow some evil to exist." This is the old idea, the Materialist idea of cause and effect, the New Age idea that makes no room for the wonder and mystery of Divine Love.

I should say, in closing, that I understand the position Dr. Alexander found himself in when he was writing his book. He was trying to find a logical explanation for suffering that would be accepted by an audience steeped in myths of good versus evil, light versus darkness. I once swallowed this logic myself (to my utter chagrin). However, if Dr. Alexander has to go through what I went through, his angels are gonna kick his ass around the block until he takes what he wrote in Chapter 15 and dumps it in the garbage can.

Good luck to you, Eben!  Call me if you need some help!

Best wishes,
Jen


For Further Reflection:

There's no question that human beings can spin webs of evil unimaginable to the heart of an angel, webs of evil so all-consuming that sometimes the shock waves last for decades, centuries, even millennia. It's natural and normal for us to wonder where such evil comes from. We all want explanations we can understand, because when we have explanations, we can begin the search for solutions.

Newton's third law states that for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. Most of us assume that Newton's third law applies in metaphysical physics as much as in classical physics. We believe that if we understand the cause of evil, the countervailing reactive force will become clear to us. We also assume the corollary: if pure love exists in the world, it must exist as a response -- an equal and opposite reaction -- to pure evil.

Our human minds find this Materialist approach appealing. After all, it seems eminently logical. It seems highly consistent with the laws of classical physics we've deduced through observation and experience. It suits our human preference for cause-and-effect justice.

Every major world religion is a response to our mind-based desire for explanations and solutions about evil. We turn to our religious leaders to explain the cause of evil so we can choose appropriate actions to heal and prevent evil.

While many of the healing actions appear similar from religion to religion (e.g. be kind, be merciful, be hospitable), the explanations for the causes of evil appear on the surface to differ widely. Christianity, Islam, and some branches of Judaism rely heavily on theories about evil entities. Buddhism, and the older traditions from which it sprang, preach the inescapable laws of karma. Dig deeper, though, to the tap roots of these religions, and you'll find a common link: the assumption that the true cause of evil is a vast, metaphysical force you can do battle with but never control (unless you're a bona fide saint, Bodhisattva, or Messiah).

Nobody wants to hear that the actual cause of evil lies in the scientific wiring of the human brain. Who's going to put money in the collection plate just to hear the bad news that we, as persons-of-soul, incarnated on purpose to see what it feels like to struggle with free will and seek redemption? That kind of teaching puts all the onus on us as human beings. It means we have to learn to take responsibility for our own thoughts, feelings, and actions. There's no supernatural force to blame when we screw up and harm our relationships, including our relationship with God. There's no get-out-of-jail free card. There's only ourselves, our families and communities, and our relationship with God.

So yes, your human brain allows you the possibility to choose some very evil, scary paths. But keep in mind that your human brain isn't supernatural. It's 100% temporary biological matter. It isn't going with you when you die. It's staying right here, with the rest of your biological body, to be recycled into the planet as organic and inorganic matter. So whatever evil your brain manages to create during your human lifetime, you can trust that God knows how fix it even if you don't.

God is much smarter about all these questions than we can ever be. Although it's okay for us to be upset and confused about evil on Planet Earth, it's not okay for us to believe that God and God's angels have been negligent in their care of us or the universe.

Don't EVER tell God or your angels that you need protection from evil entities. Asking for protection is a clear indication that you're not ready or willing to trust God.

Instead, ask God for help in understanding how you've been using your own free will to shoot yourself in the foot. Then ask for help in learning how to take control of your own free will.

It's kind of like learning to right a small boat in big waves. It's challenging, but God knows that, with help, you can do it.

LSP10: The Importance of Being (Earnestly) You: Throwing Humility Out the Window

In Dr. Alexander's book, one of the key themes is the importance of feeling you're wanted -- wanted by God and also wanted by your family. Dr. A. is very frank about an episode of depression and heavy drinking he fell into after he learned the birth parents he'd been searching for didn't want to make contact with him. (They'd given him up for adoption as an infant.) He understood at a logical level that those who loved him couldn't help him unless he participated in his own recovery (page 56-58), but at the same time he couldn't shake the despair of the heart that came from his belief that neither his birth parents nor God wanted him.

There's a deeply important truth embedded in this part of Dr. Alexander's story. It's the truth that you are important as yourself. As a soul and as a soul-in-human-form, it matters that you are you. Your job as a human being is not to empty yourself of your true self (a religious process most often called "humility") but to fully embrace the knowledge of who you are as a unique child of God.

I want to be very clear here on a couple of points. First, I want to emphasize that what I'm saying here is the very opposite of the doctrines -- the tree roots -- that underlie most major world religions. It's almost universally taught that if you want to get closer to God, you have to get farther away from your own defective "youness", your own corrupt ego, your own grasping illusory self. In other words, you have a religious duty to not be you.

Second, I want to emphasize I'm not in any way endorsing the idea that you can be whoever you want to be or the idea that nothing you do as a human being is wrong. This is the extreme opposite of pure religious humility. It's a belief system that's widely touted within New Age circles (as in the books of Neale Donald Walsch and Marianne Williamson). To be clear, the tree that grows from New Thought roots is a tree that insists that God is not just a bit stupid, but is also incredibly selfish and narcissistic as well as stupid. Just so you know . . .

Somewhere in the middle of this jungle of depressing religious beliefs about "who you are" is a fairly simple tree that fits with all our best ideas about healing and peace and relationship. It's the tree that grows from the belief (in my view, the truth) that you are a child of God. Not a defective child. Not an inferior child. Not a lost child. Just a child who is very brave (because you chose to incarnate) and a child who is deeply loved and trusted by your divine parents.

Note that I'm NOT saying you're a small piece of God, or a small spark of God who's trying to return to God, or a small drop of water in the great ocean of Absolute Reality, or a pure mind trapped in a corrupt human body who's trying to return to Ultimate Truth. (These, by the way, are all theories that have been put forward and endorsed by major world religions over the centuries. If you want to read more about this, you can check out my Master's Research Paper.)  What I'm saying is that you're exactly who you appear to be -- a unique child who needs to feel loved by his/her own family. What I'm saying is that it's normal and healthy for you to need to know you belong, that you belong in your human family (and also in your divine family) BECAUSE you are you.

Don't try to follow the example of asceticism practised by such traditional Christian Church Fathers as St. Jerome. Ascetic practices, which spring from the roots of religious humility, damage the brain networks you need in order to know yourself and feel God's presence in your life. In God's view, your biological body is a gift to you and should be treated with the utmost gratitude and respect. When you punish and subjugate your body with ascetic and obsessive-compulsive practices, you're saying to Mother Father God that you don't trust them. If, instead, you're moderate in all things related to your biological body, the spiritual path will flow more easily for you. This 18th century terracotta sculpture of St. Jerome, by Angelo Gabriello Pio, is on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Photo credit JAT 2018.

One of the most important things you can take away from Dr. Alexander's book is the fact that he's describing a journey about one person, one unique child of God. When he makes his journey, he doesn't see a big cloud of oneness. What he sees is unique individuals who choose to be together in a community of love. The love he feels is like a single force that unites everyone. But the love doesn't erase the boundaries between individual people. Each person, no matter how divine, is a unique individual. A different person. A different soul.

What makes divine love such a powerful force is the intense respect and trust shown by such very different people towards each other. They're all different people who are coming together as a community with a common cause. They don't all have to be the same. They don't all have to be the same size or the same colour or the same gender. They don't all come prepackaged with the same interests or abilities. But they do all share one thing, one very important thing that unites them as a family:

They're all using their powerful free will to choose to love and trust others, to respect others for their uniqueness.

So when Dr. Alexander says he came back from his journey with three major insights (page 41) -- "You are loved and cherished, dearly, forever; you have nothing to fear; and there is nothing you can do wrong" --  he's referring to the truth about our relationship with God as souls, as children of God. He's saying that when you're choosing to be your true self as a loving child of God, you can do amazing things in the universe, no matter where you happen to be incarnated.

It's an incredibly simple idea, really. It's also an idea that has huge implications for our ability to feel the love that comes from belonging to such a breathtakingly beautiful divine family. But first you have to be willing to believe in the idea that a loving God would not -- and could not -- bring into being any souls who were not already perfect in their own sweet way before they chose to incarnate as human beings on Planet Earth.

It's okay for you to believe you're wanted by God. This isn't pride. All children want and need to know they're loved by their parents for who they really are. Religion tells you this is the one thing you're not allowed to believe. I'm telling you, and Dr. Alexander is telling you, that this is the Number One thing you should be allowed to believe.

You are, indeed, loved, cherished, trusted, and respected, and it's okay for you to trust this truth.

The world would be a much happier place if people were allowed to trust in the brilliant love of their awe-inspiring divine parents and their divine brothers and sisters.


For Further Reflection:

A lot of spiritual people these days have some ideas about Divine Love that really don't pan out when you stop to think about it.

If you insist, as so many seem to be insisting, that humans are working to achieve an evolution towards greater love and harmony and unity in the universe, then we can assume you believe the universe is defective. We can assume you believe that after 13.8 billion years, Divine Love hasn't yet reached a state of "maximum penetration."

Why would you believe that? Why would you believe in a defective universe when you have the option to believe in a universe so strongly grounded in Divine Love and Divine Forgiveness that God is willing to let you incarnate on Planet Earth so you can learn more about who you really are and how the universe came to be?

Spiritual leaders have been talking about Divine Love as if it isn't already here, as if it isn't already surrounding you every moment of every day, as if its role as a fundamental field underlying all of quantum theory is still in need of some work.

Some spiritual leaders have even been talking about God the Mother and God the Father as if they don't already know who they really are.

Are you freakin' kidding me? Do you honestly believe the vast, multi-layered, infinitely complex universe we live in could possibly stay glued together if God was existing in some sort of psychodynamic fugue state? Do you honestly believe that God, who is already holding together all the underlying quantum fields and particles of the universe through the conscious application of free will, would suddenly decide they need a hefty dose of forgetfulness as a human being?

It's an incredible blessing to be able to trust that God is actually God, not an adolescent narcissist in need of self-actualization.

Despite what you may have been told, the universe is doing just fine, thank you very much. All the I's have been dotted and all the T's have been crossed in the great big Divine history of Love and Forgiveness. We'll continue to explore this history together, and we'll continue to find new ways to express our infinite gratitude to our wondrous Mother and Father for all that they do and all that they are. But the only reason you're here as a human being is because God, Master and Mistress of the science of Creation, know that it's safe for you as a child of God to temporarily incarnate.

You're just here for the history lesson.

LSP3: An Angel Feast

"An angel feast." This is what I wrote at the top of page 100 in Proof of Heaven. (I'm always making notes as I read, which is why I buy books rather than borrowing them from the library or studying them in digital format.)

Dr. Alexander's story about visiting Heaven isn't just about himself. It's also about his family and friends, all of whom were changed by his unique journey. You could say, in a way, that Dr. Alexander was a pilgrim who took an unexpected trip to a land few visit during their human lifetimes. When he returned, he brought with him Divine seeds that were sort of like pilgrimage souvenirs. These seeds of knowledge and truth became freely available to others to plant within their own Hearts if they so chose.

So in Proof of Heaven, page 100 describes events that were unfolding for Dr. Alexander's family and friends. They had spent five frightening days at the hospital as they tried to care for him and each other. Everyone's nerves were frayed, and three people (first Phyllis, then Sylvia and Peggy) decided to go back to Dr. Alexander's family home for a rest. At this point, Sylvia discovered that someone had left the freezer door open in the basement, and food had started to thaw. A puddle of melt water had already formed on the floor.

This puddle on the floor was the angels' invitation to a feast.

Faced with this new problem, the three women at the house had to choose between one of two paths that constantly confront us.

The first path (the usual, heavily travelled path) is to fall into patterns of blame and shame: "Who left the freezer door open? It's all your fault! What a waste of money! We don't have time to go to the grocery store to replace all this food! This is so unfair! Why is all this happening to us? God doesn't care about us. If God cared, he wouldn't have let this happen when we're so weary and full of despair! Doesn't he know we can't take this kind of stress? Why is he letting us suffer this way? It's not fair!"

Don't try to carry the weight of the heavens on your shoulders. That's God's job! This covered cup, showing Heracles supporting the heavenly sphere, was made in about 1630--1640, probably in Germany. It's on display as part of the Kenneth Thomson collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Photo credit JAT 2018.

The second path (the less common and more poorly understood path) is to see the potential for healing: "We're all heartsick and worried. It's all right for us to feel this way. It's normal!  But the truth is, we can't do this alone. We all need each other. We need to be together. We need to look after each other. And we need to look after ourselves. There's no point pretending we're superheroes who can go for five days without a rest. Let's stop for a short rest. We'll cook the food that's already thawed, and we'll invite our family to be together, and we'll even go to the store and buy some fresh bread because we all need a good meal and a chance to recharge our batteries together! We trust God to look after Eben while we're here. This is the right thing to do!"

As we know from the book, Dr. Alexander's loved ones chose the second path.

Being in daily relationship with God means learning how to think as an angel does (that is, as a person-of-soul, a term I often use for angels). It doesn't mean acting the right way according to a traditional set of Divine Laws (orthopraxy), and it doesn't mean having right faith in a traditional set of Divine Doctrines (orthodoxy). Being in daily relationship with God means you're willing to look for the invitations from God that are all around you every day. It means you're willing to see the blessing in a puddle of water on the floor.

A puddle on the floor that brings a heartbroken family together has more meaning to God and God's angels than all the "blame and shame" words written by history's many prophets.

Here is what I've learned as I've walked the Spiral Path: When all you see around you is lemons, ask for help in seeing the hidden lemonade your angels can see (even when it seems impossible that such lemonade could exist). It's always there. Always.


For Further Reflection:

Think about all the religious and spiritual traditions you've learned about so far in your life. If you could boil down each set of teachings to its essential image of God, would you find examples of Path #1 (where difficult situations are seen as punishments from God or the Universe) or would you find examples of Path #2 (where trials and tribulations are seen as opportunities for change, growth, and learning)?

Most spiritual seekers have no idea that it's the image of God they have in their heads that has the greatest effect on the direction of their path.

The second greatest factor is the image people have in their heads of themselves (that is, how they view the essence of their own core self, which is the soul).

If you have a negative image of God and a negative image of yourself, you'll always see the worst in every situation, and you'll spend a heck of a lot of time on Path #1.

If you have a negative image of God and a positive image of yourself, or a positive image of God and a negative image of yourself, you're again going to have a heck of a time.

It's only when you have a positive image of both God and your own soul that you'll be able to learn how to find Path #2 in your life, and, more importantly, how to stay consistently on the path where lemons become lemonade.

Though you may assume that all major world religions and all popular spiritual teachings already profess a positive image of both God and the soul, you'll find after careful reflection that few of them do.

This is why so many people in so many places have had such a difficult time reconnecting with God.

They're looking for God in all the wrong places.

LSP2: Journeying to the Core

In Dr. Alexander's book, we read about his frightening medical journey, a journey involving great pain and fear for himself, his family, his friends, and the medical staff who are desperately trying to reverse his coma. It's only while Dr. Alexander is deep in a rare form of coma that he's free enough to journey to the Core and find the wholeness and peace that come with reconnection with God.

Dr. Alexander did it the hard way.

I'm not in any way trying to deny or minimize what happened to Dr. Alexander and those who care about him. I've been a mystic long enough to know that everyone's journey on Planet Earth is unique, and no two situations are identical. God the Mother and God the Father always know what's best for each person and each family.

Having said that, I also know there's the easy way and the hard way. Dr. Alexander was conscripted into the hard way. It worked for him. It worked for many of those around him. And I've no doubt it has worked and will continue to work for many others.

But it isn't the only way.

Dr. Alexander makes this point himself near the end of his book. In Chapter 33 ("The Enigma of Consciousness"), he says, "Another aspect of the good news is that you don't have to almost die to glimpse behind the veil -- but you must do the work. Learning about that realm from books and presentations is a start -- but at the end of the day, we each have to go deep into our own consciousness, through prayer or meditation, to access these truths (pg. 157--158)."

It's right here, in this paragraph from Dr. Alexander's book, where I see (as I've often seen) the great plague that so often infects the spiritual journey. In one breath, there's the excitement and anticipation of truth and new healing possibilities. In the next breath, there's the depressing reality that people on a spiritual journey are repeatedly instructed to use only the "old toolkit" of ancient religions and to disregard at all cost any methods that might call into question the wisdom of teachers long dead.

What's with this idea that "old" is always "better" when it comes to the spiritual journey? If I were to say to you, "you're having a seizure because you're possessed by demons, and the only cure is for me to repeat this ancient incantation after you pay me a thousand dollars"  . . . would you accept that?

Getting to know God doesn't have to be like St. George fighting the dragon to the death. But you do need to work hard to know yourself as God truly knows you. There are many ways to "do the work" of healing your own brain-soul nexus so you can feel the life-changing touch of God's unconditional love in your Heart. This beautiful carved ivory is from the Kenneth Thomson collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Photo credit JAT 2018.

My own connection was built slowly and in the way that was right for me. Today my connection is so strong and sure that I can request the "channel" be opened up between God and myself at any time and in any place. I've had conversations with God while I'm sitting at a red light in traffic, and while I'm trying to troubleshoot a difficult issue at work. God is so kind and generous that no issue is too small for them to share with me. I feel constantly humbled and blessed to know them and to know their love for all their children.

Journeying to the Core isn't about escaping your human self through consciousness-altering techniques. It's about healing your own brain-soul nexus. The tools for this journey are already present inside your biological body AND inside all your RELATIONSHIPS.

As Dr. Alexander discovered, this a journey no one can -- or should -- embark on alone. It's the Heart, not the Mind, that shows us the way to the Core.


For Further Reflection:

The key to reconnecting with God is to remember at all times that you`re trying to build a relationship with God -- with God the Mother and God the Father. This may sound ridiculously obvious, but you`d be surprised how many people on the spiritual path lose sight of this crucial truth.

It`s very easy to get lost in all the excitement of ancient secrets and modern insights and exciting new techniques that may (or may not) help you expand your consciousness. What`s the end result of forgetting that relationships are the key? You usually find yourself trapped more than ever before in pure Mind where the lessons of the Heart can`t be heard and God can`t be felt.

Prayer and meditation won`t help you much unless you`re willing to start with the choice that relationship with God is the path you really, really want to know more about.

If you start with the idea that God the Mother and God the Father are phenomenally brilliant -- way smarter than you or any human being now or ever, in fact -- you`ll quickly realize there`s nothing they don`t already know about you and nothing that will stop them from doing what needs to be done. So if you want to reconnect with God, it has to be on their terms, not your terms.

Fortunately, God`s terms are founded on Divine Love and Divine Forgiveness.

LSP1: Proof of Heaven

Welcome to Lessons from the Spiral Path!

I've started this blog so I can talk specifically about questions raised for readers of Dr. Eben Alexander's bestselling book Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife.*

"Red Warrior" (detail) by J. MacDonald, (C) 2003.

I first read this book in November 2012. Dr. Alexander's evocative tale of being in a deep coma for seven days and then waking up with intense memories of his time with angelic beings didn't surprise or shock me. I have my own long experience of daily encounters with the Divine, though I've never had a near-death experience; nor do I use any of the consciousness-altering techniques suggested by Dr. Alexander (such as binaural beats, meditation, or traditional forms of prayer). I'm simply a mystic, one who has learned through slow, dogged work what to do and what not to do if you want to feel God's presence in your everyday life.

Some of my thoughts will be in response to the Seven Postulates proposed by a working group of scientists and researchers who call themselves Eternea. Dr. Alexander is one of the founders of this organization. You can read about Eternea's Seven Postulates here.

I welcome comments and questions from anyone, including angry skeptics. Comments will be moderated. I'll delete any comments with links to sites I consider "for-profit." I also welcome e-mails at realspiritik@gmail.com if you have questions about God, the afterlife, or the soul. I'll try to get back to you as quickly as I can.

What makes the information here different from what you've read on other sites?

Good question. Well, (though I don't ask you to take this on faith) . . .

As part of my daily mystical practice, I visit the Core (as Dr. Alexander calls it) every day. I talk to God the Mother and God the Father every day. They totally rock. I love them beyond what any words can describe, and I know in the very depths of my bones how much they love all of us. Feeling their love is a life-changing experience that takes about 5 minutes. But listening to them as they carefully explain why human life is the way it is . . . that takes years. You'll find many sites that talk about the love, but you won't find many sites that tell you how to get closer to God without almost dying. You're going to die some day, of course, but in the meantime, it's possible for you to feel so much more than you realize.

When you've learned how to connect voluntarily with the Core, you discover that God isn't serene and detached and transcendent. They're very chatty and very kind and very humble and also very funny (as in having a terrific sense of humour). They, along with a few particularly canny angels, have taught me what I know about the Spiral Path.

If you'd like to know more about God and God's unconditional love, please join me on the journey! I promise the path will never be straight, but it will always bring you the laughter and tears you need.

Blessings,
Jen     
 
* Eben Alexander.  Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012.  

Addendum November 15, 2020: I first wrote this post almost 7 years ago. Since then, my experiences with God and God's angels have deepened in ways I never thought possible. In particular, my studies have expanded more and more into the science of God's universe. As part of my recent research, I bought and read the 2017 book Proof of God, written by Ptolemy Tompkins and Bernard Haisch. As I read Proof of God, then visited Ptolemy Tompkins's website, I learned that Mr. Tompkins was the ghost-writer -- and therefore the actual author -- of the book Proof of Heaven. This was news to me. I have no objection in principle to ghost-writers, but a ghost-writer makes many decisions about what to include and what not to include in another person's story. Now that I've read Mr. Tompkins's Proof of God, I see that his lenses on the big questions about God and God's Creation are very different from my own. There's no possibility that Mr. Tompkins could have ghost-written Proof of Heaven and not allowed some of his own biases and assumptions about God to shade the depiction of Dr. Eben Alexander's unique journey. So I caution readers of Proof of Heaven and its sequel Map of Heaven (which I have not read) to bear in mind that these books were written in a collaborative way and not primarily by Dr. Alexander himself.