Some humans, I among them, have a gnawing dissatisfaction with the cosmic status quo. The emerging paradigm resembles ancient mythology in many respects:
- Physical death is inevitable.
- After death, we enter another plane of existence which has form, but where time and space obey different laws than in the physical realm, and where subjective consciousness has more influence on form than in the physical realm. The terrain is complex & multilayered. We maintain our basic identity, and for a while, a form that resembles the physical body we just left.
- In this alternate world, we enter a realm that resonates with our vibration. After an initial life review, we continue to learn and evolve. For most people, the main lessons are emotional, and in this refined condition, we can evolve more “rapidly” than in the physical world.
- Eventually, most of us choose to reincarnate, though some of us choose existences in places other than Earth.
- We live through many lifetimes, both physically and in-between lives, experiencing a great variety of life forms, suffering and triumph, failures and successes, creative outlets, relationships and lessons. Through this, we develop compassion, love, wisdom, knowledge, and other virtues.
- We become more and more acquainted with the interconnection of all life, and the sense of being one with the all. This increasingly governs our actions.
- We reach a level of mastery that takes us off the “wheel of life” and toward union with the Divine.
It’s a nice tale, and probably true from all the evidence gathered. We are encouraged to respect spiritual masters and mystics who reveal this paradigm to us in diverse ways. After all, it’s the way of the Universe, and we are just players in it. By surrendering to this reality, we gain happiness because it removes the fear of death, gives us faith in God’s goodness, and hope for an exciting journey with a good ending.
But there are aspects of this paradigm that have always bothered me.
- There never seems to be enough time to accomplish all that we want in a single lifetime. In other words, our reach exceeds our grasp. It is unjust.
- We have the resources to manage our evolution in a single lifetime. It feels almost condescending that we must go through the change-a-body routine to grow spiritually. We deserve better.
- Although past-life and in-between life memory can be learned, it’s not easy. The memory traces are often weak and speculative. The paradigm says this is by design – we are given only tendencies from past lives. It seems to me that a complete memory trace would be more helpful. A counterargument is that past-life memories would be “noisy” at best, jarring at worst. I say, we have the right to filter them out consciously, not have forgetfulness imposed on us via death and rebirth.
- Presumably, we are the designers of this paradigm. Really? Why would anyone choose death and discontinuity? We build on experience and memory. Death forces us to start over in each lifetime. Very inefficient! I suspect that the designers of this system have little experience in human form, and therefore little understanding of our needs.
- Proof of the afterlife is supposed to free us from fear. It does no such thing. It just displaces the fear of eternal death to temporary death. There’s no consolation here. When I die, there will never be another physical me, a me that is just as deserving of immortality as my eternal soul.
- We are told that the goal of life is to identify with our spirit, which supposedly makes it OK to die. The spirit encompasses all our past and future lives, and from that perspective, this physical existence is a drop in the ocean, nothing to fret about if it disappears. I say that every life is precious. The individuated 3-dimensional life is just as respectable as the oversoul and deserves the same chance at continuity.
- In lieu of high-quality immortal physical life, we could opt for physical access to the afterlife, and vice versa. That would go a long way toward resolving the forgetfulness problem. Which brings me back to the purpose of this blog and my mission – to bridge that gap.
- Cosmic consciousness is easy in the afterlife. You feel the love. But it can be just as easy in the physical existence, if we have the will to claim it! So the incentive to die to reach nirvana is less compelling if we can experience it while still alive.
- Is it possible that the existing paradigm that people gush about is actually a sinister plot to keep us down? We are gods. Let’s not let this design suppress our divinity!
I am a rebel in my community of believers. I dare to assert that we are co-creators with God and have a right to re-design the paradigm. But yes, we should learn about the existing paradigm thoroughly before changing it. Knowledge is power.