[ Setting: An overlook of a wide verdant plain. ]
ISAAC: I’m sorry but I am just finding this all too hard to believe. If I am actually here then there is more than meets the eye, more than I would have thought possible while I was alive. But how can I accept this? I was so sure the only reality was the one I was living back on Earth.
ALLEGENTIA: You only have to alter a few concepts to get started on the right track. Physical reality is real; you do not have to give that up. It is just that not everything is made of matter. You assigned all thought to the function of the brain, now you feel your soul-mind in operation so you know it, too, is real. When you loved your friends, made moral decisions, even followed the rules of the road; these were all real even though they were not physical energy. Instead of believing all reality needs to be experienced by the physical senses, you can simply move your idea to a more basic point. All reality is able to be experienced one way or another. Your experiences on Earth – sensual, intellectual, and especially spiritual values, willingly activated, were all real. You are, without a doubt, a more cosmically connected being than you once thought.
ISAAC: Considering the state I seem to be in, I may, being a realist, have to reconsider my basic assumptions about what is real. I am just very surprised to be here. I thought I would simply die permanently, although I tried to live a good life in order to leave a positive legacy.
ALLEGENTIA: Humans have a very short physical life. Now you know life is continuing. You will soon learn life is to be a continuum from here to eternity.
How did you come to the conclusion there was nothing more?
ISAAC: I was a literalist. I let others believe as they would but I felt more comfortable with the facts. My profession was the strict world of mathematics, nonetheless I read my share of philosophy, and even took religion seriously at one point, but most of it did not connect with the facts.
ALLEGENTIA: Now you have a new fact.
ISAAC: I guess I do – if this is real.
ALLEGENTIA: If it is not real then you are left believing what – a fantasy so real it seems like reality, or facts indistinguishable from fantasy?
ISAAC: I see what you mean. There has to be, at minimum, a clear sense of what is real and what is not, one must be able to know the difference.
ALLEGENTIA: This is one of the fundamental features of the mind. Reality is something you can know. Just as facts are real, so too, are meanings and values. You create connections and meanings in your mind and values in your soul as you go through life.
Though you do need to be discerning. Being a facts man you know all is not what it presents itself to be, many facts turn out to be incorrect, not only in and of themselves, but also because of the assumptions attached to them.
ISAAC: I know how that goes. I was fooled too many times to believe anything on face value alone. Yet I can believe there are things I do not understand. Even though I am compelled to believe you, it seems not to be in my nature to just accept what you say on first hearing. I would like more proof.
ALLEGENTIA: Totally understandable, you are prudent to give new things a bit of contemplation before confirmation. It is wise to keep an open mind and ask yourself. “What is reasonable?” Of course you will compare what I’ve said against your current sense of reality. One of the best ways to test a source is to acquire a large enough body of information to evaluate its internal consistency and overall dependability. This does not guarantee everything said to be true, but if the consistency holds steady, it does move it closer to being trustworthy.
ISAAC: Well, most of what you said in the introduction was new information. I’m not saying I did not understand it; it is just beyond what I am used to believing. I gave the afterlife some thought a long time ago, but after I decided it could not exist, I simply ignored it.
ALLEGENTIA: New information is always a challenge. The incurious man will unceremoniously discount what is outside the realm of his conscious network. But it will eat at the curious person, especially if it is too compelling to ignore. A natural tendency will be to invent an explanation, to make it somehow fit his current conceptual frame. A lot of folks will assume if it does not fit their current idea of reality, then it must be false, or is the purview of the gods. For instance, fire was a big mystery for your ancestors. Not understanding the physics of combustion they came up with various explanations. Since lightning appears to come down from the sky this convinced them fire was thrown at them by the gods. Modern peoples are still often unwittingly caught in this same desire to give the current question a fantastic explanation.
ISAAC: I saw that. People would believe just about anything. I was constantly amazed at how much foolishness humans were willing to accept without any, or very little, substantiation. Such gullibility! When I was an innocent kid, I would get teased mercilessly by my big brothers because I was precocious and had a lisp. I suppose that is one reason why I held my feelings and beliefs close to the vest.
ALLEGENTIA: I’m sorry you had such a difficult childhood. It is true those early childhood experiences tend to color a person’s outlook for the rest of their life. The extreme range of human beliefs is one thing we angels so enjoy about people from your planet.
As a species, though, discovery is often a matter of accepting the unproven possibilities. Survival is a long process; one thing does lead to another, and the value of a belief is in its usefulness. This inventiveness brought you magic, alchemy, astrology, and all forms of myths.
Many answers are undiscoverable without a greater perspective; and perspective is attainable in only two ways. The most direct way is to live long enough to experience the truth personally and, as you see now, the time to do just that is available. The opportunity to find out continues after your earthly demise. The second way, a short cut, is to believe someone else (a person or spirit) who claims they have accurate information to impart – true revelation.
ISAAC: Are you really saying I should believe you just because you are telling me the truth?
ALLEGENTIA: Since you know you just died and I am the first being you have encountered, you may be inclined to believe what I have to say, and I would not steer you wrong for I am honest and honorable. But you still ought to come to your own conclusions, judging what I say by your beliefs. As new information is gathered beliefs are bound to evolve. Luckily there are ways and means to know what is true and what is not.
ISAAC: So I do not have to believe anything until I am convinced it is real?
ALLEGENTIA: You are the only one who can decide the criteria for what is sufficient proof for you. If you restrict the opening, many true things will not be able to get through to you (as you have just discovered about the afterlife question). It would, at minimum, be advisable to include in your filter system the option of the possibility. The key is to find a true balance. Add potential to the pragmatic, and also find some room for the idealistic to run alongside. The practical may be the river bed of reality but spiritual energy is the river.
ISAAC: I hear you. I have no problem with keeping an open mind, but I learned from our scientists to accept new ideas as true only after they had been verified many times over.
ALLEGENTIA: All scientific questions will eventually be explained. In only a million more years your descendants will have solved them all. Nonetheless the answers to many fringe problems will only come to light if transfinite phenomenon are understood to impinge upon finite reality. Your scientists are just now investigating the mysterious properties of quantum forces. These discoveries will move them closer to an appreciation of how the finite is effected by realities surrounding it. This is where science meets philosophy; where metaphysics and religion harmonize. All of the connections will eventually be demonstrated unequivocally to even the most hardened skeptic, without making unconfirmed leaps.
ISAAC: All scientific questions will be answered?
ALLEGENTIA: Some physical phenomenon will forever be beyond planetary discovery because they will never be able to measure them from Earth. Judging a phenomenon from the inside is often incomplete. And yet, what else can you do? Accepting a piece of information from outside the system may prove to be misleading, but it often points to the truth and the way to more discoveries.
Every person is restricted by the extent of their ability to solve problems. The solutions within a given mind frame are, you understand, bounded by these limits. Some solutions can be discovered with research, and others with imagination and inventiveness. But some can only be solved by postulating the existence of a larger frame. The Ultimate Source and the final destiny are not wholly within the bubble of the finite but their probability is.
ISAAC: So all things are eventually discoverable, if not on Earth, then in heaven? And there are discoveries beyond the physical?
ALLEGENTIA: Yes, the unknown will always reveal itself. But as each breakthrough is made there are always more questions beyond the answers – there is no end to the infinite gift of discovery. And to solve most questions you will need some information from the outside. True, there are people who have amazing insights, and in a flash, know how things work without laboratory proof. And these flashes often come from outside the self.
ISAAC: You mentioned “true revelation” earlier. I know there was enough junk revelation around to assume you are saying there are some reliable sources.
ALLEGENTIA: That is precisely what I am saying. Your mind and your spirit are part of you, but they are also independent, part of the greater non-physical reality of the Cosmic Mind and the Universal Spirit. When a person receives an inspirational clarification it most often feels like it came from somewhere else. But from where? The Greeks had their muses, and other cultures have also named this spirit source; an Amazon native might say it came from the red frogs; a Christian may conclude it was from the mind of Christ; or it may feel like it, “just popped into my head.” Whatever the source, it is presumed to be from outside. In fact the mind and the personality are always searching for reasonable connections between these eureka moments and known reality, expanding reality in the process.
The fact remains, no matter what the source, you still have to define reality as what it is. You are still compelled to ask the question, “Is this true?” And this question is not a foolish one since there is an answer to it. Therefore there must be a mechanism which makes knowing possible. There is an innate truth sense within your mind; and your soul is a values detector. God would not leave you without suitable resources.
ISAAC: I see what you are getting at. I have had a few “flashes,” as you say, and at the time I was sure they were self-evident truths, but as time went on I was not so confident. I always fell back on my logic and reason to verify my insights.
ALLEGENTIA: Very sensible of you. Reason and logic are integral components of the mind gift. And here is a good example of how the trans-physical is connected to the physical. Let me first say the mind is not the brain. The mind is beyond the physical but connected to it. I can also tell you human freewill is part of the personality, a non-physical reality. Yet, as you have seen, logic and reason can be faulty, however they do not fail as often when they are partnered with positive qualities like attentive curiosity and focused honesty. One of the main ways to judge the reality of a proposition is by its positive content.
Positive qualities are essential for the accurate working of the mind. The quality of consistency, as I mentioned earlier, must also be attached to logic. Logic is not logic if it is inconsistent, and all of the appropriate connections need to be made in order to arrive at the correct conclusion. If a critical piece is left out, or the foundation is faulty, the remaining steps may still be logical but this internal error leaves the structure in peril of falling under its own weight. It is always wise to step back and ask, “Are my presuppositions, as well as my conclusions, reasonable?” And I would add, to be even more sure, they should also be elegantly beautiful and genuinely good.
ISAAC: So I can learn some things the slow way but will never be able to know other things without accepting them from some higher being who knows them from a larger perspective?
ALLEGENTIA: You may think this is an unfortunate state of affairs but you are always connected to resources beyond yourself.
It may seem, as a time-bound being, you have little to attach you to the reality outside time and the non-material realms, but you were, and are never, alone. You had available to you during your earthly existence (and still do) seven transfinite gifts: first is your personality (your individual link with the First Source); second is your inner Spirit Spark (a pre-personal fragment of God); third is spirit-gravity (which unerringly registers all spirit values, a circuit of the Eternal Son); fourth is mind-gravity (intellectual meanings drawing all thoughtful consciousness to the divine, a circuit of the Infinite Spirit); fifth is the interface between your subjective reality to Objective Reality (the unification of all finite reality in the Supreme); sixth is the Cosmic Mind, including spiritual reason, soul-intelligence, and faith-insight (mind endowments from the Universe Mother Spirit); and seventh is the Spirit of Truth (the circuit of recognized truth, idealistic beauty, and spiritual reality from Christ Michael).
In addition to all of these is the angelic corps pitching in wherever they can help. You live in the finite but you are not limited to it, and in the end, you are destined to transcend it.
ISAAC: Well, most of that was over my head but I guess, I hope, I will come to understand what you mean in time. I find myself wanting to believe you. I guess I will have one of those self-imposed criteria satisfied when I find myself standing on a new world. Just feeling alive again is so astonishing. To expect nothing and to get all you have promised is exhilarating; yet it is a lot to take in.
ALLEGENTIA: So it is. Some things you can ease into and others are thrust upon you. Some of what I just said to you are things you have never considered, but they are real and you will need to learn about them eventually. You will remember I mentioned them when they come up again.
ISAAC: Thank you.