[ Setting: On a bench next to a sculptured fountain in a blooming private garden. ]
AIYANA: This place reminds me of my Grandpa’s garden. When I was a little girl, I was very close to him. He told me about his grandfather and how they were big buddies when he was a kid. Now I’ve got grandchildren of my own. I had this image of little boys and girls and grandparents all the way back to the beginning and out into the future, like the reflections going on forever in mirrors facing each other. It is pleasant to think we are all linked in the continuity of life. How many generations of ancestors can I meet?
ALLEGENTIA: You will be able to see and relate to many generations of your ancestors, if they are available. It is a far-flung universe and as people grow spiritually they move away, and distances are real.
A second factor limiting who you can literally see when you arrive will be your range of spiritual vision. With your Earth eyes you cannot see angels. With your Progress World eyes you will be able to see all lower spirit beings but there is a limit. You see, as you grow you incorporate more spirit substance. Therefore some of your distant ancestors may be near at hand but housed in much more spiritual bodies beyond your current visual command. However, they will be able to see you and an angelic intermediary could facilitate a conversation.
AIYANA: That would be fun. I bet they would have a lot of interesting stories and good advice. So I will not be able to see them because, even though I have a wider field of vision than on Earth, I have a smaller amount of this “spirit substance” compared to what I can acquire; to what they have already attained?
ALLEGENTIA: Precisely so! You left Earth with a measure of spiritual attainment and every new body can only integrate spirit substance, and a spiritual structure, to that exact degree. On each subsequent level of spirit ascendancy you will be able to recognize ever higher spirit beings unaided. As you advance, all of your senses will be enhanced by the greater amount of spiritual substance in your body. This usually happens gradually over many hundreds of years, although there is no standard time frame. However, once you do attain any advanced milestone you will always retain your capacity to respond and relate to all the previous levels you passed through.
AIYANA: Okay then, I will only be able to see or relate to beings on or near my own spiritual level?
ALLEGENTIA: For the most part, but there are also special times when the Master Physical Controllers are called in to manipulate the energies so that very high spirit beings can be shown to you. Then, through an interpreter, you will be able to communicate with them.
You will also be able to relate to those higher beings who have the ability to solidify themselves so they are visible to lower order beings. The prime example of this ability is Jesus. He always makes himself visible for everyone, high or low, just as he did on earth after he rose from the dead. This is not magic. No one can transcend the laws of physics applying to their state of existence. You will learn however, as you move up through the finite, that physics also adapt. Always is physics responsive to spirit substance; and sometimes this adaptation is subject to the will of the spirit Being in question.
AIYANA: Do I understand you to say the laws of physics are relative?
ALLEGENTIA: Your scientists have discovered physics to be very standard and immutable but they have also discovered there are differing levels or phases of actions and reactions. The common, observable, physical rules of matter are extremely consistent. This is why they are called laws. Naturally, the basic laws were described first – your so-called Newtonian physics. But as you look deeper into the extremes, for instance near an intense gravity well, seemingly contradictory things take place. This is also true when you delve into the relationships and rotations of the atomic and subatomic.
All of these layered phenomena are connected within finite reality. It all works together. There is no alchemy. What matter does in the cold regions of space is very different from what it does in the center of a star, but all of the temperatures and pressures in-between connect it all. It will be a most natural thing for you to move gradually from the standard formulas applying to the solid levels of the physical to the esoteric physics appropriate to the ethereal levels of the spiritual.
AIYANA: I wonder, then, is there a grand unified theory? Our scientists were looking for it.
ALLEGENTIA: The grand unified theory of physics will eventually be accurately described on Earth because it does exist. But your future holds a much larger, and even more complex, set to consolidate: the threefold actuality of matter, mind, and spirit.
AIYANA: Then, there is a transitional field of energy between the physical and the spiritual?
ALLEGENTIA: There are really two intervening areas between the physical and the spiritual. The first is mind. Since the physical is a completely different realm of reality than the spiritual there needs to be a bridge spanning the two. I say “needs to be” because everything is connected at the top; and this connection is always stable no matter how big the universe becomes or how far away from The Center one is located.
The second is a gradual transition from physical matter to spiritual substance. Your earth experience was with physical matter and everything you knew was made of this real substance. As you become more spiritual you will be able to experience the essence of spiritual substance in a real, although different, manner. You will be engulfed on the Progress Worlds in the supra-substances prevalent between the physical and the spiritual. One could use the analogy of the differences between solids, liquids, and gasses. You have already begun to feel the fact of spiritual substance and, of course, it is nothing like a gas.
AIYANA: This reminds me of the lively discussions I had with my circle of friends, all professionals. It was great fun learning with them. I was a physicist and a teacher but I was also always a student. Now I get to ask a real angel. It is a special treat to have a knowledgeable authority at my disposal. Please tell me more about the physical vs. the spiritual.
ALLEGENTIA: Neither the physical nor the spiritual is all of reality. The materialist would have you believe exclusively in physical realities because on Earth you could feel and touch and see them. Yet she is shorting herself when she decides only the physical level of experience with the five senses is all there is.
The spiritualist would have you believe all physical reality is simply a myth and only spiritual things are real. Both are real and substantive and they are connected. Nonetheless, the materialist is right in saying things are real if they can be experienced – spiritual experience is also real because, it too, can be experienced. There is always more.
AIYANA: You spoke of the mind being an intervening bridge between the physical and the spiritual. Can you explain that a little more?
ALLEGENTIA: Mind is the liaison harmonizing and ultimately unifying the physical and the spiritual levels. This great gulf was one of the first separations. God is Spirit. But the Absolute contains all possibilities. When he separated out the fact of energetic and physical matter there was a need to connect this dense reality with the Original Spirit reality since nothing in the universe can stand alone, separate from God’s nature. The primary connecting mechanism is the intervening realm of Mind. But the mind does not exist alone. The universe is mind made but it is personality managed. All aspects of the cosmic mind are inherent in Personalized Spirit Reality, therefore it, as is all spirit, is self-minded. Eventually all separate aspects fuse together into a single, spirit-minded personality.
AIYANA: The mind seems to have a lot of jobs to do.
ALLEGENTIA: The mind is extraordinarily malleable. It is designed to look at possibilities and probabilities. Mind is subject to free will under the direction of the real boss: personality. This is why there can be many subjective realities and only one Objective Reality. Your consciousness, as well as your conscience, are forever linked to both your personality and your mind.
Even if you do not understand God, you can know God is always the best a person can conceive. The so-called ‘leap of faith’ is not so much a command to believe in things mystical or beyond your understanding, but a personal recognition of God’s goodness. God is always good and he always has your best interests at heart. All of the details will be filled in as you grow, and you will best grow harmoniously by aligning your will with his will. Mental stability, actually all stability, is proportional to association with divinity. Your mind is manipulated, for good or ill, by your decisions. In that way the mind is like a ratchet. You can also grow by learning the hard way, gaining information by going down useless tracks of thought and action. One way or the other, experience is the great teacher.
AIYANA: What does it mean to be spiritual?
ALLEGENTIA: Being spiritual has been described as spirit identification, following the lead of the indwelling Spirit, living the will of the Father, dedicating oneself to union with the Absolute. They all amount to the same thing. The angels will use the concept you best sympathize with to instruct you. A good teacher uses the current knowledge of the student to teach new ideas, and the angels are very good teachers.
To be spiritual is to be Godlike. It all flows down from the fact of the absolute abundance of deity. So first identify with God; that may seem difficult, but it is simple if you remember God is love. The more you love the more you can love. The more you give, the more you have to give to others. There is a branch of metaphysics on the Progress Worlds which studies the economy of values.
AIYANA: What I hear is that love and service are the keys. Any other recommendations?
ALLEGENTIA: You are here because your spiritual choices have initiated the development of your soul. All facets of love produce positive growth toward your spiritual quest. Live sincerely every moment to your highest understanding of the best ideals you know. That may mean telling the truth with tact; or playing the game fairly; or being patient with someone who is struggling to say what they mean. In other words, to live the positive qualities you have identified as valuable. All true values are harmonized in love. As you live a quality you acquire it, and it becomes part of you forever. Your choices are what propel you forward. Your freewill is sacred.
AIYANA: That’s sensible and good advice, but what would you recommend I do first?
ALLEGENTIA: Focus first on a good overarching belief, an overall positive attitude. Decide to dedicate your life to God or at least to Goodness. A comprehensive, wholehearted, and continually renewed commitment to this, your highest ideal, is a great first step. Decide to live a life of love, to possess an attitude of gratitude, or to follow the ways of wonder – just as you did with your study of physics – the knowledge of nature. Now you know that nature is more expansive and includes all of reality.
AIYANA: I have a feeling that is not as easy as it sounds.
ALLEGENTIA: When you think about something, anything, it does not matter what, you feel something about that thought. There are, of course, many different feelings you can have, but the most basic and important one is your judgment of its value content. Is it true, beautiful, or good? What should you do about this thought? Will you reject it, store it for possible later use, or will you act on it? Experiences are the culmination of thoughts put into actions and they forever become a part of you. Decide to do what you know to be good. Although, know too that even your less-than-perfect actions have within them important instructions – but do not make the mistake of believing you have to do evil to learn the lessons contained therein. Wisdom dictates anything learned by doing something wrong can be learned better by doing what you know to be right.
AIYANA: We’ve all done some stupid things. Don’t the best lessons come from mistakes?
ALLEGENTIA: It is true that no matter if your action is prudent or ill-advised you can build upon it, make it better, learn the lesson it teaches. Your Spirit-self is interested in all you do, but mostly in your acquisition of anything remotely connected to positive values. There are hundreds of positive manifestations of love, the highest of all qualities. You can embrace any aspect, from profound truth to awe-inspiring beauty, to heartfelt goodness. What you do and how you do it are up to you. I can tell you humor is an essential quality but I cannot tell you what jokes to tell.
AIYANA: Humor is an essential quality? Well, that certainly is good to hear.
ALLEGENTIA: Do not think you have to focus solely on the sacred qualities. There is, of course, great reward in pursuing the serious realms of philosophy or the joy of worship; they should not be ignored. But, like the mind, qualities are malleable, extending all the way from the frivolous to the sublime. You will not be a well-rounded personality until you nurture the entire range. Fun and play are a great and necessary relief from the demands of existence. You’re going to heaven, the pressure is off, keep moving forward and progress is guaranteed.
AIYANA: And this will lead me to know the will of God?
ALLEGENTIA: The more you know, the more prepared you are for the next piece of information. Knowing what is right and what is wrong becomes obvious fairly soon. What is better than good or what is best of all takes some time to finesse.
AIYANA: I see I have a lot of rewarding effort ahead of me, thank you.