[ Setting: A playground. ]
IRENE: Oh my, this is strange – I don’t mean this park, it is lovely – I’m talking about being alive again and with an angel. I am assuming because you are an angel you know the truth about a lot of things. If you do, then I have a few things I’ve been wondering about.
ALLEGENTIA: Yes, I am qualified to give quite a lot of information.
IRENE: I am gratified to know there is something more than what was on Earth. I always thought so and yet so many of my contemporaries would give me the “you simply cannot know” argument. They would say, “No one has ever been there and come back. Why do you persist in this afterlife fantasy?” I tried to explain but I did not get very far with them.
ALLEGENTIA: The desire to continue is universal. Even those who deny an afterlife tend to hope for it. Your friends who said there is nothing on the other side will wake up and be delighted, or at lease surprised, with a fact they dismissed. You will get to speak with them sometime after they arrive. There is nothing like experience to clarify the facts and the truth. You will not go through as much of a transition shock as they, but there are things radically different in the new environment you could never have even dreamt about; you too will make adjustments.
IRENE: I bet I will. There were so many stories on Earth as to what was beyond death. How was a person to pick the correct one – or even if there was a correct one? I think some of my friends simply gave up on trying to know the truth.
ALLEGENTIA: You started out with information presented to your young, innocent mind. You took for granted it was correct. Later you saw there were other people with different ideas and after some investigation you modified your belief a little; or a lot. There really was no way to know what heaven would look like. Anyone could have assured themself there was an afterlife if they paid attention to their inner truth sense. It is a unification of one’s spiritual intuition, their mind circuits, and their unique personality. The answer was available to those who listened but many people were more interested in earthly matters.
IRENE: I was surrounded by people who had a hard time with anything suggestive of the supernatural, and quite a few others who had some pretty strange notions.
ALLEGENTIA: We take special care of those with the most erroneous beliefs. We had quite a time of it with the likes of the Pharaohs. Death temporarily disconnects your body, mind, and Spirit but, when they are reunited, your essential mind-patterns return intact. We cannot, nor would we, alter them. Only you can change yourself. And, of course, the facts do speak for themselves.
IRENE: Are you saying the Pharaohs, as well as the rest of us, take our own beliefs to heaven?
ALLEGENTIA: Yes, every person retains all of the beliefs they formulated while in the flesh. The mind frames and the moral codes you lived by were the soil your soul was nurtured in.
IRENE: What do you mean by “mind-patterns” and “mind frames?”
ALLEGENTIA: I know the mind is a bit complicated. Let me give you a quick picture of its structure.
First of all your mind was not your brain, although your entire physical system, including your brain, was associated, interlinked if you will, with your super-mortal mind. Your brain held pre-existing survival instincts and animal emotions. It was also a very good tool to either automatically or consciously interface with your physical surroundings. Anything you experienced, depending on its relative value, could be stored exclusively in the brain or also in the mind and soul.
Your mind is divided into three main portions – intellect, higher emotions, and memories. Each person stores and accesses their memories with a unique formula, no two methods are identical. How you utilized all of these mind assets is a part of your personal overall mind-matrix. The mind-matrix is your total brain/mind/soul organization. Your mind-patterns are how you habitually put thought itself together. The hundreds of different earth languages are a general example of mind patterning.
Rational thought patterns fit together within your personal mind frame. It is subjective but it is growing as it interacts with new ideas and interfaces with the cosmic mind. You fashioned your one-of-a-kind mind frame over a lifetime of use to perform logical and innovative thinking.
IRENE: Oddly enough, I was able to follow what you just said. I doubt I would have been able to do so before; I may not even have been very interested, but I am now. Anything else?
ALLEGENTIA: There is always more and it is always important to ask. Just let me make a couple of other distinctions. Your soul is intrinsically associated with your valuable attributes, but your mind holds your personal character attitudes. Both of these were built up during your life. Your mind and your soul will remember all relationships – especially friendships.
A simplified distinction is lower/higher – for the brain think lower and for mind think higher. For example instinct is a brain function but insight is associated with mind. The brain is capable of simple fact gathering while the mind can move beyond facts into the realm of future possibilities, creative imagination, and truth recognition.
As a matter of course physical memories degrade over time, but all meaningful mind, and all soul features, are forever retained; they are intrinsically yours. They will be fully restored and re-synchronized when you get your new mind. And, as should be expected, your new neural system will be designed to interweave seamlessly with your new brain/mind.
IRENE: Am I still hooked up to my mind-matrix?
ALLEGENTIA: Right now I am speaking with a special part of your mind, your soul-mind. It holds your idealized memories, loftiest emotions, and earned values. Even though you have not been connected to your new-mind, we can still communicate because your soul-mind is self-aware and intelligent. Furthermore, it is more amenable and attuned to hearing the direct truth without harm. I can only impart a limited amount to each individual because a person’s ability to understand depends entirely upon the size and character of the soul they have created up to the present. When you are united with your new body you will be reconnected to an expanded version of the mind you used on Earth. Your personal mind-matrix, mind-patterns, mind frames, memory transcripts, belief structure, and emotional content will all be reestablished. You will know yourself as your self.
IRENE: Well that is comforting, it would sure be confusing if I felt like someone else. So I will be smarter because I will have a bigger mind to use?
ALLEGENTIA: We can use a bank account as an analogy. Let’s say your earth mind-bank contained $100,000, even though you may have acted as if you only had a $10,000 available. Some folks felt a bit richer and used more of their mind. In heaven your account will hold a million dollars, but you will not have access to it all at once. You will feel richer than the ten thousand you were using because everything will be working so well, but it will take some time and instruction for you to tap into your true mind potential.
IRENE: If everyone is the person they were when they left the last life then, as my Grand-mamma would say, there’s a whole heap-o’-trouble brewing; like you said with the Pharaohs.
ALLEGENTIA: The fact of survival, the new surroundings, and all of the new encounters – especially with teacher angels – are often enough for most people to update their beliefs. But a key must be found to unlock the heart and open the mind to greater possibilities. We Helpers are looking to find this key to free each of you from the bondage of your circumscribed beliefs. But we cannot force anything; you have to be willing participants.
IRENE: I see how it could be difficult with some of the hard-boiled characters from Earth. But doesn’t it depend on perspective?
ALLEGENTIA: Very perceptive. One’s perspective is always growing. You will always have a bottom-up perspective. You are reaching for, and will always make progress toward the top-down perspective. The top-down is God’s perspective. It is all-inclusive; thus it is called the existential unity perspective. The bottom-up perspective is from the finite point of view and therefore is an experiential synthesis perspective.
IRENE: And there is no way to get a unified perspective short of God’s big picture?
ALLEGENTIA: Not completely in your finite existence, but partially. You can enhance your reality perspective by correlating four phases of reality. You know all of them but humans do not normally use them in tandem. The first is the physical: matter, energy, space/time, and the like. The second is the mental: reflection, logic, intuition, etc. The third is the spiritual: primarily ideals. And the fourth is cosmic insight: a penetrating aspect of personality. The personality contains the freewill, and when a person desires (and then decides) to perceive an eternal purpose they are activating the personality engine. The process of focusing facts, meanings, and values actually lets a subjective being tap into the top-down cosmic perspective. This is possible because the personality is transfinite.
IRENE: That’s convenient. So the focal point is the top-down view?
ALLEGENTIA: There are three points of convergence. The personality provides a unity perspective plus the impetus of freewill choice. The mind recognizes what is fact, and some truth – what is in the field of play. And the Spirit/soul provides the inspiration and insight.
IRENE: I wish I had been more interested on this sort of thing while I was alive.
ALLEGENTIA: Humans have a greater range of understanding available than they normally exercise. For instance, the mind can tap into genetic knowledge or even planetary knowledge on the physical level. The mind understands meanings and, at the upper end, can connect with the ideals of super-conscious intelligence.
You are experiencing the clarity of your soul-mind during this conversation; therefore it should be somewhat obvious there is a self-contained, self-mindedness to any spiritual reality. But mind can do more. You will be pushing its boundaries, with our help, for a good long while. Your mind can begin to transcend time and space itself by correlating your search for origins, history, and destiny and then funneling them into the present.
IRENE: And all of this will lead to a top-down perspective?
ALLEGENTIA: Actually the mind is not the top form of cognition. As we alluded to before, you will come to know your personality as the umbrella which coordinates and recognizes genuine reality as it truly is. The universe is mind-made but it is personality managed. This unification of soul, mind, and Spirit under your personality is a fusion which will take some time and effort. The Progress Worlds are designed to continue what you started on Earth – to show you a way to accomplish this potential.
IRENE: Really, this is fascinating. So, the personality correlates these mind features?
ALLEGENTIA: That’s right. The mind can synthesize reality, but the personality can see truth in its cosmic setting; then patterns of higher reality really begin to emerge.
IRENE: I thought we are what we make of ourselves.
ALLEGENTIA: You are your accomplishments. But you are also more. You are also potential. Each person’s subjective reality is a bubble reality. It contains all of your experiences; some false beliefs; some logical assumptions; some half-truths; some things you want to be true and are; other things you want to be true but are not; and, finally, things you are longing and striving to make real.
Here lies the answer to how your subjective reality applies to your life. Objective Reality exists, and accepting it as a fundamental fact will allow you free access to the enormous possibilities existing therein. Even though our beliefs are subjective, they can be expanded, if they are truly aligned with Objective Reality. The harmonization itself is the path from the subjective to the Objective. And Objective Reality has no boundaries because it is the Supreme Reality.
IRENE: I remember an important realization I had, “We are all confined to the arena we believe to be real, yet it can be expanded.” I assume this is the “subjective reality” you speak of.
ALLEGENTIA: Very good. Each person is comfortable with, only allows, a certain horizon to exist. Beyond this boundary are questions and answers outside of their capacity, ability, interest, skill, or philosophy. However, as we grow, we gradually notice and explore that larger perspective.
Holding fast to limited beliefs is normal. A sense of personal security is often held together with a (more or less) cohesive belief system. When this system is threatened or shattered it takes a bit of time to regain a new and more stable foothold. The fact of death and resurrection certainly qualifies as a change in perception.
IRENE: I would certainly agree. I can feel my mind expanding even as we speak.
ALLEGENTIA: The structure of the mind and how to use it will be some of your earliest lessons. You will first establish a reliable foundation upon which to operate mentally by constructing a solid understanding of the relationships between things, meanings, and values. This will lead to a clearer idea of how to relate to each of them.
Ideas should not only be logical but also rational. Many people mistake the words logic and rational to mean the same thing. They are not. All too many so called “truths” begin with false assumptions, and no matter how logical the subsequent analysis, you are still left with a building sitting on sand. When the Earth was considered to be flat all subsequent cosmology was two dimensional.
The question, “Is this rational?” helps keep things on a realistic footing. Rationality is a fundamental mind gift of reality recognition.
IRENE: I know you mentioned harmonizing the subjective with the Objective, but other than just believing everything – accepting it “hook, line, and sinker,” as we used to say, how does one sort out truth from myth and know what is actually right? Is it possible to know for sure what you assume to be real, actually is real?
ALLEGENTIA: It is, but it is an expanding phenomenon. The heart of the matter is contained in your question. You are correct when you assume there is a right answer, an objective truth to be found. Your earth mind and life gave you some fundamental ways of discerning what was fact and what was not, no matter where the information came from. Your afterlife schooling will hone these abilities and give you more precise mind tools to sharpen your perception of the truth.
How true is any supposed truth? The first thing you asked me when we met was if I knew the truth. A trusted authority (or a genuine revelation) can oftentimes impart an accurate and greater truth. Since you had no visible spiritual authority on Earth – as is evident on normal planets – you had to rely heavily on your inner truth sense to tap into this often mysterious, but nonetheless available, information source. That took courage.
With your truth sense you can trust a thing by discerning how much value it contains. Does it help people? Is it consistent and elegant? Is it kind? All of these qualitative judgments were, and are, available in and with your mind and Spirit. Your mind is hardwired with the ability to know and trust three fundamental differences: fact vs. fiction, good vs. evil, and the hierarchy of good, better, and best.
IRENE: I suppose there were those on Earth who trusted their “truth sense.” But there certainly was a lot of evil and confusion.
ALLEGENTIA: We know all too well that with free will, and a circumscribed bottom-up perspective, comes the inevitability of unwise choices.
You are lucky, in a sense, because you come from a planet where you had so many conflicting ideas and diverse systems of thought available to you. Because of this exposure humans on your planet have built up a good deal of discriminative power. Each of you did use your cosmic intuitions to make some sense of your life and surroundings. Therefore we find people from Earth are keener and quicker to sort and sift between various ideas than those who have always been given truth from a sure and certain source.
Unfortunately, it is also sad how many people simply follow some human leader or philosophy without developing these more accurate inner beacons. On the Progress Worlds you will be given vast amounts of new information but also you will be encouraged to do reflective thinking. And if you do not already know, I can tell you, pure information is only one of the important foundations of accurate knowing.
IRENE: Are you saying we are going on to a world structured like a school?
ALLEGENTIA: The entire cosmos is one gigantic university. But as you know from life on your world, there are many ways of learning. Formal schools are valuable in their way, but there is no substitute in all the universe for experience.
Within the general direction you choose to take are many tasks to perform, ideas to portray, experiments to try, and places to explore. You will be given advice and training on how to proceed to accomplish whatever you decide to do. There are three natural phases of the student: first is instruction from others; then comes experience doing what you set out to do; and the third is as a teacher. The difference in heaven is, of course, you are working toward the values you want and need. All growth enhances progress toward the greater good and the Ultimate Goal.
IRENE: You make it sound reasonable but it also sounds like a lot of work.
ALLEGENTIA: Do you remember the time you were building that soapbox derby contraption? It was a lot of hard work, wasn’t it? But didn’t you enjoy it immensely? Heaven will not be all soapbox derby projects but you will be doing things you agree are interesting and valuable. All the while you will be afforded ample time to rest and rejuvenate. You will play and explore, and meet new and interesting people. The universe school is vast and exciting, difficult and rewarding, fun and useful.
Your progress is confirmed when it is possible for you to successfully teach what you have just learned to the new class of folks coming up just behind you. Thus you will advance from one cosmic phase to another. You will grow intellectually as well as spiritually.
IRENE: The religions and philosophies of my day always seemed to be incomprehensible, or more probably it was me who was not that good at plumbing their depths. You have given me a lot to think about. The future sounds pretty exciting. Thank you.