[ Setting: A lake path. ]
FELICIA: In life I was a scientist. I did not believe in life after death and was glad to deal strictly with facts. I believed in the physical universe and its laws. I am, of course, surprised I was wrong yet I am also glad to have survived. As you can imagine, I am very curious about all of this so I would like to ask you a few questions.
ALLEGENTIA: We can do that.
FELICIA: You say we are traveling from Earth to some other world at three times the speed of light. How are you able to move so fast?
ALLEGENTIA: The speed of light is a constant and your scientists have accurately measured it at nearly 300 million meters per second. I do not traverse space as an inanimate object like a space ship but can move through space in my own right at the speed of light and then I hitch a ride on lines of energy superimposed on streams of power and gravity, taking advantage of all of them together; thus my effective velocity is greater than the speed of light. Just as the soul is supra-material so I am partially transfinite, that is, I operate in relation to space based on more advanced physics than you were familiar with on Earth.
The details of this energy borderland may be of some interest to you. When you get a chance, ask your guardian angel to direct you to the Celestial Transport Center for more details.
FELICIA: Well that sounds pretty fantastic. And I do not mean to be rude, but of course, I have only your word for these things.
ALLEGENTIA: I take no offense. I can see your intentions are good. Clarity is one of the most important commodities anyone, especially a scientist, can possess.
You say you have only my word for these things but, to be strictly accurate, I am your only outside source of information. Of course, you are receiving and assessing the information as best you can with the faculties you have. Subjective reasoning is part of the process. You decide if other-than-self information is correct, partially acceptable, or totally off the mark.
FELICIA: I will believe you until I know more. I always did appreciate the way my mind could lock in on the truth. I will pursue the answers to this intriguing question in the future. It is still very strange for me to even think of the future, much less make plans for it. It does feel rather pleasant to do so, though. I will make the Celestial Transport Center one of my first stops.
ALLEGENTIA: You will find an astounding amount of information available on this subject and an unimaginable number of other subjects as well.
FELICIA: That’s nice to know. I remember my death and I remember my life although somewhat differently than when I was alive. I guess that is my next question. Am I really alive?
ALLEGENTIA: Yes, you are. However, if you wish the criteria for my answer to be your preconceived notion of life locked in your physical body, I could just as easily answer, “No you are not.” But given the self-evident facts you are currently experiencing and the fact of being self-conscious, I would imagine you do feel alive.
FELICIA: Well, I have to admit I do. As a scientist I had to adapt to new information all of the time. I wanted to explain the phenomena of the world in a way everyone could understand and then be able to share it with others. I wanted to know how everything actually worked, and I wanted these facts to be beyond dispute, even though we were only a few centuries into using the scientific method. At the time of my death great advances in tools and techniques were opening the sciences up to new areas of study and expanding existing areas greatly. The fact is we had to include the probability of change even as we published our results.
ALLEGENTIA: Scientists dare to confront the orthodoxy of the established assumptions, knowing full well their interpretation of the facts should also be viewed with equally healthy skepticism. There will always be a newer instrument or a keener mind to help align the facts with the truth. And I can see you have developed a quickly penetrating and perceptive mind.
Answers are forthcoming – along with the usual array of new questions. Isn’t that one of the reasons you enjoyed doing science so much? It is tremendous fun to play seek and find. When subjective reality matches well with Objective Reality it registers in the mind and soul, and you know it is true.
FELICIA: It was rewarding to pin down an answer and I guess you are saying this satisfaction can be experienced on more levels than just the emotional one. How many levels of reality are there?
ALLEGENTIA: There is only One Great Source and Center of Universal Reality. Yet humans live on three levels: physical, mental, and spiritual. And in your next state of existence there is a fourth, a blend of all three. These are interrelated and integrated in such a dynamic way it is possible to believe any one of them is the only real reality. As you spent most of your life concentrating on the matter/mind level, you know how intriguing it can be.
The materialist, a person whose existence is lived exclusively on the physical level, believes all reality is physical and is experienced with the senses only. When she thinks, she attributes such thought to her brain. When she feels, even the most profound spiritual insight, she attributes it to an electro-chemical reaction. She believes there are only two ways to continue after the death of the body: one is genetic in the form of offspring, and the other is in accomplishments left behind. And a person certainly can leave a legacy of a life well-lived.
FELICIA: You just described me before this all happened.
ALLEGENTIA: I assumed I was. But I said there were three levels on earth.
Some meditative monks decide that all reality is spiritual; thinking the physical is only a harsh shadow of the real spiritual realm. The physical is often referred to as the source of all evil and suffering. The answer, they say, is to escape into a modified form of, so called, “pure” spirituality; giving little thought to the fact of the body possessed of a powerful mind.
The mind is the third domain. There was a scholar in the Middle Ages who thought all things could and should be learned. He stayed up long hours studying all the books in the library. He was under the same illusion as the materialist and the spiritualist. He thought all reality could be discovered in only one realm, in his case, the mental.
These areas are so vast and so satisfying they give their proponents all they need to begin the search for true answers. Each is valuable and real and they are all interconnected. The more insightful person gives each one its due and thus coordinates and even creates new combinations as he moves forward in the endless quest to understand, feel, and become.
FELICIA: You remind me of my good friend, Myron. I used to kid around with him by calling him a religious fanatic. He did not reject new information because it was contradicted by some ancient text. He used to say, “God is Truth and he is trying to reveal himself to us all the time.” I liked him. He was fun to work with. We worked well together because our temperaments were compatible. We both liked to follow the data wherever it led and not let politics or ambitions get in the way of the findings. We came up with some good discoveries. He died a few years back and he said he would see me soon. I guess he will have the last laugh on the afterlife question.
ALLEGENTIA: Indeed you will see him again. And you will have a whole new wonderful set of things to explore. In addition to investigating the physical wonders of these new worlds, you will also be interested to learn something of how the soul contacts and interacts with the mind; and how your personality is directing your soul to associate with higher reality on the spiritual level. It was your soul in combination with your personality which responded so warmly to your friend.
FELICIA: I can see him now with his boyish and knowing grin. Will I get to see him soon?
ALLEGENTIA: We have a network in place to notify appropriate people for new arrivals. Since he means so much to you, I would think you would see him within the first three months.
FELICIA: From what you have said so far, I will be a busy girl getting settled in.
Not to knock it but I am wondering why am I here on my way to heaven? I was not a bad person but I did not live a particularly spiritual life. I thought only the holy got to go on – if anyone did.
ALLEGENTIA: On the contrary you lived an exemplary life. Think of it in scientific terms. The basic assumptions make all the difference when deciding how to fit the facts into the big picture. There was a time when these basic assumptions put the Earth in the center of the universe, everything was required to revolve around it, until a larger perspective was demonstrated. As you have seen, it often takes some time to replace the established beliefs. Scientists, above all others, know what is considered correct at any given time will either be confirmed or replaced with new discoveries.
Your assumptions were simply too narrow. You may have argued with others, not to mention yourself, that nothing other than energy and matter existed in the universe but you lived by a different principle. The effort to get it right was tedious, detailed work yet you did it gladly in order for your results to be accurate and valid. By having this attitude you not only did clean science but you, personally, acquired a brilliant array of wonderful qualities which are now evident in your soul. You have built up an impressive amount (both quantitatively and qualitatively) of focus, attention to detail, wonder, intuition, and knowledge. You honed a sharp fact-versus-fiction sensitivity which was expanded to its moral right-versus-wrong equivalent. Your soul shows you possess complex qualities like courage, creativity, logic, reason, patience, generosity, responsibility, and the most complex of all, love.
FELICIA: I guess there is more to it than I professed. I remember putting on a brave face when I felt my earth life coming to an end but, to tell you the truth, I was dreading it. I was hoping there would be more. It just seemed as if there should be. Now I see my instinct was correct. I am not at all disturbed to find there is more than just matter and energy in the universe.
ALLEGENTIA: Reality is indeed made up of energetic atoms but it is also made up of dynamic truth, sweet goodness, and astounding beauty. The mind is compelled to bridge the relationship between energy and spirit, deriving meaning. You are in for a new and wondrous shift in your reality, but you will make the transition rather easily because you enjoy no-nonsense logic and matter-of-fact reasoning. On Earth, when you were telling yourself to use your brain, you were, more often than not, really tapping into your mind. And on top of that you were exercising your spiritual muscles, thus acquiring greater dimensions of value. This is growth.
When a question is first formulated, and it is a very specific and precise question, you assume an answer will emerge. And a new conclusion does present itself when all of the investigation is complete. This has proven to be the case time and time again. This is why the scientific method is so valuable; it demands accuracy and gets results. While the study is going on, there are dozens, even hundreds, of possibilities, yet in the end there is the satisfaction of knowing a true answer. Which, of course, always opens up new and intriguing questions.
Your body had to die to find it out, but now you know the answer to one of the biggest questions humans have ever puzzled over, “Is there life after death?” Soon you will begin to answer the second question, “What is on the other side?”
FELICIA: I suppose I will. Maybe I ignored them, but I thought some answers were simply not available on Earth.
ALLEGENTIA: The foundation of all levels of reality were available. The different aspects of the self are accessible to be discovered. What is faith but an axiom? In science one has to assume an idea is true to begin the process. On the spiritual level an ideal is the prime truism.
The facts are often not the problem; it is the speculations and assumptions which may initially point in the wrong direction, more data increasingly indicates the right path.
FELICIA: As you said, Earth was earlier considered the center of the universe. We have come a long way from there. Myron and I were always delighted when we were able to add some new piece to the puzzle we were working on. And it is true, a guess is often all you have at the beginning.
ALLEGENTIA: Guessing is necessary, but it is only a guess until definitive evidence is gathered. Almost every guess is at least a little bit right. But it is important to re-investigate the answers. If they are confirmed then knowledge is relatively more solid. But when or if a flaw is discovered, the truth contained within is brought just that much closer to the surface.
Assumptions are the foundation of discovery but when the assumptions are not founded in truth, they will only get you so far. For example, at this time on Earth it is widely believed a clever scientist will one day be able to create life in a test tube. By beginning with dead molecules and chemically putting them together in the proper way – meaning the way nature puts them together – they will somehow simply spring to life. This will never happen because life is not simply a conglomeration of properly aligned molecules. The structure is important but life itself must be consciously and deliberately imposed upon the aggregate patterns. Nevertheless, as your fellow scientists continue their effort, brilliant and valuable discoveries will be made.
FELICIA: I did enjoy the hunt for good answers. So assuming there are good answers is a kind of faith?
ALLEGENTIA: Yes, it is. Myron would be proud you figured that out all by yourself.
FELICIA: I suppose he would be, but you helped quite a bit. Thank you for an interesting discussion. I am intrigued to see what is in store. I can see I am in for a big paradigm shift but I think I will enjoy it.