[ Setting: A small stream in Canyon Country. ]
WALDO: Thank you for this setting. I spent some wonderful time in canyons like these. It was a favorite place to play and reflect. It has been half of a lifetime though, since I have been able to hike such beautiful ravines .
ALLEGENTIA: It is very peaceful. I am glad you found such a natural cathedral for your body to be while your soul was refreshed and your mind contemplated important matters.
WALDO: Not that I was the brightest bulb in the marquee but by the end of my ninety-eight years I felt like I had just about used up every bit of mind I had. So I am interested in this “new mind” you speak of. Is it anything like the mind I was using on Earth?
ALLEGENTIA: At its core, yes. Let me speak of your earth mind first. There are various aspects of the mind all working together, they have been termed the unconscious, subconscious, conscious, and super-conscious. One of these was dominant – but they were all active – based on the individual, the circumstances, and the health of the brain. You could experience or create fact or fantasy, delusions or logic, common sense, imagination, and wishful thinking. Also found were genuine genetic intuition, and memories: true, embellished, and dimmed by time. From all of this you were expected to arrive at some meaning and understanding.
WALDO: We certainly did have a mishmash of thoughts and ideas. So how will my new mind work in heaven?
ALLEGENTIA: You will observe many environmental differences immediately since every physical and neural connection will be working to its fullest. The mind is the link between the physical level below and the spiritual level above. It will not be too long before you are able to distinguish how the new mind is different from your old one. On Earth you were, at first, almost completely dependent upon the brain as your thinking mechanism. As you grew, higher thoughts, spiritual insights, and meaningful connections made your soul more and more the true seat of your consciousness. The mind works better with the soul than it does with the brain. You will again have a brain-mind-soul link but this new integration will not be hampered with genetic codes, aging, injury, and the like. It will always function efficiently. Your mind will be razor-sharp, easier to access, and capable of quicker understanding and more dynamic associations.
As the memories from your earth life are gradually restored, you will notice your new memory to be much clearer and, again, accessible, even eidetic. You will be able to retrieve learned information with far less trouble than before. Best of all, you will be able to cross-reference and inter-associate different and divergent thoughts into new and more advanced concepts.
WALDO: Wow! That sounds great. Is that why I feel clearer now?
ALLEGENTIA: Remember that on this journey we are using a very specific form of mind, actually one of the purest forms available to humans. It is even higher than the super-consciousness you sometimes accessed on earth. Certain phases of mind are contained in your soul, else we would not be able to converse at all. Many meanings and most values of your previous life are resident in your soul. This soul-mind is the self-minded aspect of spirit itself attuned specifically to you since you created it. Your old mind was disconnected when your body died. You will be connected with your new mind when we arrive on the first Progress World. It will serve you well for a good long while as you grow into it. All along the way you will convert over to pure spirit self-mindedness. Once you have achieved a comparatively high level of true spirit nature, which will take quite a long time, you will use spirit-mind exclusively. Spirit consciousness does not need the intervening aid of the down-stepped human mind.
WALDO: I feel wonderful clarity now and I am so glad to hear my mind will remain sharp once I get reintegrated.
ALLEGENTIA: This is a very special time. You are unencumbered by most memories, have no worries, and the stresses of your old body cannot touch you. You are a free soul here. Even though you seem to be experiencing a verbal conversation, we are in fact communicating in whole bits of feelings and values which you interpret and understand as concepts with meaning in your soul-mind.
Back on Earth, and ahead in heaven, the experiences of your outer material/energy world are filtered through your mind. Everyone relates to the world through their individual, emotional, and physical filters. Until you are a true spirit being, your mind is the place you harmonize and interpret both the outer world and your valuable inner experiences.
The total you is made up of five parts – body, mind, soul, personality, and Spirit. They are all real and distinct yet they are all fused into one self-consciousness, one identity. They have only been temporarily disrupted during this short trip between the stars. The good news is the re-assembly process only uses, only can use, what is real and valuable.
WALDO: Death is, obviously, enough to disrupt these parts, as you call them, but it seems I just left a body that was barely holding them together. Sometimes I felt quite disassociated.
ALLEGENTIA: The debilitation of aging, as you experienced, and other health problems of the human body could compromise the brain-mind connections. Another disrupter was the instability of some mental illnesses. But the new body/mind/soul bond will forever be free of the chemical, neural, and other physical disorders capable of warping the interface.
It was also possible for some individuals to lessen the mind/body connection in favor of the mind/spirit association; most notably seen in extreme mysticism.
Some very rare persons have the ability to tap into the cosmic mind more directly than the normal population. This would better be called an intensification than a disruption.
Once you are on the other side there is only one form of disorder which you can experience, and then only if you consciously choose it. Each person always has free will and so can choose to disconnect from the true objective reality in favor of a fallacious, self-made, subjective reality. Knowingly choosing what is wrong is called sin. If a person continues to reject reality they can fall into a form of cosmic insanity. Even though you will run into new, difficult to understand, and sometimes hard to believe ideas, if you sincerely keep your highest ideals alive, this lamentable situation will never touch you.
WALDO: Sin leads to cosmic insanity?
ALLEGENTIA: Freewill is a very powerful gift. A person has the power to diminish the size of their soul with bad choices.
Let me move back some and explain what leads up to it. There is considerable misunderstanding about error, evil, sin, and iniquity on your confused world. Inherent in an imperfect environment is the inevitability of distorted reality. These natural misconceptions of truth will produce errors in judgment. Perfect choices can hardly be expected to be common when such limited understanding and a shortage of insight are your plight. However good choices always lead to better ones. Even the most primitive mind has a way to discover a relatively true course of action. Unfortunately, primitive people tend to stubbornly cling to their way of superstitious thinking as the only way of thinking. Lack of wisdom and maladjustment to universe reality may be evil but hardly sinful.
Evil can be something very small: a simple misstep, a mistake, a word said without thinking, a white lie, the child who shoves his sister aside for a toy. Any immature or selfish choosing constitutes resistance to goodness. The disruptive and warping influence of ignorance can result in evil. Yet the mind instinctively knows the difference between good and evil.
Only when evil is willfully endorsed does it become sin. Sin is the deliberate and purposeful choice of evil embraced; the conscious choice of a lesser reality when a greater reality is readily apparent. This resistance will produce spiritual confusion and can retard the soul, but it is not cosmically fatal.
The persistent pursuit of sin is iniquity. It can be found in the hearts of those individuals who consistently and intentionally choose to turn their backs on God and, therefore, on reality. Any repeated choice leads to habit. One can evolve the habit of doing good or one can devolve with the habit of choosing evil. No one can become cosmically insane without habitually choosing falsehood over truth, and selfishness over goodness.
Fortunately divine mercy is focused intensely on such a diffuse soul, disturbed mind, and vanishing personality. There have been those who have come back from this precipice of self-annihilation. All it takes is the faith to open the heart to love.
WALDO: How can God, if he is infinitely good, permit us to suffer the sorrows of evil? Why did he even create evil in the first place?
ALLEGENTIA: Once again it goes back to the gift of freewill, the power to choose between truth and error. This ability naturally holds the potential for both positive choices leading to Reality and negative choices leading to isolation. How you choose is your creation of a light or a dark path.
Unfortunately, it is still believed by many that God created both good and evil. This belief is erroneous. God did indeed create all reality but evil is not a separate and distinct reality. It is the shadow cast by putting your own flawed will in front of the True Radiance. It represents an incomplete God concept. Humans were correct to recognize God as the Infinite Creator. But remember God is love; and divine love is Absolutely Good; a goodness which cannot be tainted by temporal evil.
The small dots of evil, sin, and iniquity in the finite universe are shown against a dazzling background of light and love. Evil is only temporary. Humans, even though created at the lowest levels, eventually grow bright enough to pass beyond sin forever; always maintaining their freewill, having acquired enough wisdom and purpose to continually choose the attitude of love.
WALDO: I am glad to hear one cannot stumble into the darkness without deciding to go there. It seems I have a lot to learn about God.
ALLEGENTIA: We all do. You will enjoy the lessons prepared for you on the nature and attributes of God. It will help you considerably when you are able to see very spiritual beings, especially humans who have lived for millions of years beyond good and evil.
Your temporal accomplishments are with you, and you need only to continue to point your mind, will, and heart toward the light and you will continue to grow.
WALDO: I know I lost my body but I feel so vital. If I understand what you have said this feeling is from my soul?
ALLEGENTIA: Yes, nothing of a spirit nature can be lost. Spirit values are forever, including vitality. However, you would not be able to function very well with just the soul-mind you possess here. It is very small compared with what it, and you, will grow into. The mind and body gifts of the Universe Mother, along with the spiritual gifts of the Universal Father, will give you all you need to make your growth possible. Grace is yours by divine right. Yet nothing you can accomplish for yourself is ever handed to you without some effort. Progressive character development is yours to earn.
WALDO: The Universe Mother and the Universal Father, you are not talking about two Gods are you?
ALLEGENTIA: Not at all. There is only one God. But from our finite viewpoint we can appreciate different aspects which we give different names. Many of these facets have their own personality. But since all personality, even divine personality, comes from the same Absolute Source, they can be separate but super-ordinate with Him, like the Trinity. We finite beings are sub-ordinate. Mind is co-ordinate, but the indwelling spirit is always dominant and directive – if one lets it be.
WALDO: Okay, that’s pretty deep. I think I will get back to the mind. Is it hard to get to know how to use this new mind?
ALLEGENTIA: Not so hard. At first you will use it just as you did your old one. That, of course, is all you know how to do. Once things begin to get a little complicated you will need some assistance. There are angels called Mind Aids who specialize in helping you adjust to and make efficient use of the ordinary and extraordinary abilities of your new mind.
WALDO: Does everyone have to adjust to this new mind?
ALLEGENTIA: Everyone has to adjust to their new body, their new mind, and their new environment. Each person is still an individual and will deal with these things according to their unique character. Nonetheless, there are always groups of individuals who are, more or less, at the same level of progress and thus move together, and help each other, advance toward perfection. The Mind Aids will help you work together as a team. They will encourage you to tap into your ability to see the values in each other. To lean on someone, in a proper measure, and to let another trust you in return is a vital aspect of personal growth. Your sage said it truly, it is very important to “know thyself,” but it is equally as important to “know others.”
WALDO: Thank you very much. This has been very enlightening. I’m excited to move on.