God and Heaven
The Primacy of
Consciousness
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There is no external
‘reality’.
|
Our entire experience is a construction in our mind
(consciousness). Everything we know, including space, time and
matter, manifests from consciousness. Other names for
consciousness include God and the Quantum Vacuum Field. Source: The Primacy of Consciousness, an article by physicist Peter Russell.
More about the primacy of consciousness:
The Primacy of Consciousness -- physicist Peter Russell (video).
Why Explore Cosmos and Consciousness? -- physicist Andrei Linde (video), e.g. "Before
you observe, nothing exists. Once you observe, everything looks as if
it existed all the time. Consciousness exists without matter."
Scientific Proof of the Existence of God -- an interview with physicist Amit Goswami
(article), e.g. "Consciousness is the ground of all being."
Experiments Show Consciousness Affects Matter -- Dean Radin, PhD.
Quantum Entanglement
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Universal Oneness:
At the quantum level all things are connected.
|
A Quantum View of the World -- Dean Radin, Ph.D (video).
Entangled Minds and Beyond -- Dean Radin, Ph.D (video).
Continuity of
Consciousness (Life after Death)
 |
| Tunnel to the spiritual world. |
Many
people who are resuscitated from clinical death report that they had
left their physical body and continued life in another realm. These
near-death experiences, or NDEs, are consistent across people. A
typical experience is a dying man suddenly finds himself floating
above his body and watching what is going on; within moments
he travels at great speed through a darkness or a tunnel; he
enters a realm of dazzling light and is warmly met by recently
deceased friends and relatives; he hears indescribably
beautiful music and sees landscapes (rolling meadows,
flower-filled valleys, and sparkling streams) more lovely than
anything he has seen on earth. In this light-filled world he feels no
pain or fear and is pervaded with an overwhelming feeling of joy,
love, and peace; he meets a being (or beings) of light
who emanates a feeling of enormous compassion, and is prompted
by the being(s) to experience a “life review,” a panoramic
replay of his life; he becomes so enraptured by his experience of
this greater reality that he desires nothing more than to
stay; however, the being tells him that it is not his time
yet and persuades him to return to his earthly life and
re-enter his physical body.
Numerous
studies have found evidence of consciousness in patients during
clinical death, e.g. the research of cardiologist Pim van Lommel and
colleagues, published in the highly respected international medical
journal, The Lancet, in 2001. After resuscitation, many patients in
van Lommel's study reported NDEs involving heightened, lucid
awareness and logical thought processes while
clinically dead (flat EEG). These people felt as though they had
taken off their body like an old coat while retaining their identity
with the possibility of perception, emotions, and very clear
consciousness.
They say that in the realm of light and love, time and space do
not seem to exist; communication with deceased
loved ones there is by thought transfer; they felt home,
where they come from; the experience is more real than in
this world;
and they know that there is a continuity of
their consciousness, because they experienced it.
References:
van Lommel et al. (2001), van Lommel (2004, 2006), video interviews
of Dr van Lommel by Mel Van Dusen (2010) and Iain McNay (2013). All references are available on Dr van Lommel's site.
The Light
Emanuel
Swedenborg (1688–1772)
Swedenborg
was the Leonardo da Vinci of his era. He was the leading
mathematician in Sweden, spoke nine languages, was a politician,
astronomer, wrote books on metallurgy, colour theory, commerce,
economics, physics, chemistry, mining, and anatomy, and invented
prototypes for the airplane and the submarine. He meditated
regularly and as of middle age Swedenborg was able to enter deep
trances during which he left his body and visited what appeared to
him to be heaven, where he conversed with “angels” and “spirits.”
Swedenborg is one of several individuals in history who possessed the
ability to make out-of-body journeys to the subtler levels of reality
and he wrote
numerous volumes
about his experiences. Here is a video introduction to Swedenborg,
Who was Swedenborg? (Download
free ebooks and pdfs of Swedenborg's books at links in
the text beneath this video). Other
videos about Swedenborg include Splendors of the Spirit: Swedenborg's Quest for Insight and Outer Streams, Emanuel Swedenborg.
The
Nature of Creation
Swedenborg
said creation is made of two separate and yet coexisting “worlds”:
the natural world (where we are now) and the spiritual world,
comprising heaven, hell, and the world of spirits in
between. Reference.
The
spiritual world. Here people have bodies; live in houses; enjoy
community life; are surrounded by landscapes like those of Earth,
with familiar plants and animals (in addition to plants, NDE reports
include hearing wonderful birdsong and seeing animals, mostly dogs,
e.g. all the dogs of one's life); particular individuals are only as
near or as far away as our thoughts of them, and thinking of a person
or place can actually bring us there; and everything is vivid and
much more alive than in the natural world. Further, what we see
responds to what we are thinking, i.e. it is a realm where the inner
state of individuals is reflected in their surroundings. All life
is sustained by the love and wisdom of God and originates from the
spiritual world. Reference.
Swedenborg
said that heaven is: a more fundamental level of reality than our own
physical world and the archetypal source from where all earthly forms
originate, and to which all forms return; different from physical
reality in degree but not in kind -- the material world is
just a frozen version of the thought-built reality of heaven and “flows
in by stages” to the physical reality and “at each new stage it
becomes more general and therefore coarser and hazier, and it becomes
slower, and therefore more viscous and colder.” Reference.
Similarity
to NDE reports. Swedenborg’s accounts of the afterlife match
descriptions of modern-day NDEs, e.g. passing through a dark tunnel;
being met by welcoming spirits; landscapes more beautiful than any on
earth; a realm where time and space no longer exist; a dazzling light
that emits feelings of love; appearing before beings of light; being enveloped by an all-encompassing peace and serenity;
seeing the newly deceased in the spiritual
world being subjected to a life review during which a person
witnesses “everything they had ever been or done;” and angels
communicating by "thought balls" -- telepathic bursts of
knowledge as a picture language so dense with information that each
image contains a thousand ideas. Swedenborg also corroborates some of
the less commonly reported elements of the NDE, that in the spirit
world we no longer need to eat food, as information takes its place
as a source of nourishment. Reference.
Although it is not a feature reported by modern NDEers, Swedenborg said that in heaven there are also spirits from other planets. Reference.
The
Process of Crossing Over
A
person's experience in the spiritual world depends on what type of
life s/he has led. Most people start in the world of spirits.
The
World of Spirits
This is
the realm we enter immediately after death, an intermediate realm
situated between heaven and hell. It is like a “sorting out” zone
from which spirits go to either heaven or hell and it has three
states.
Heaven
1.
First state. Here we are essentially the
same as we were in this world, e.g. we have all our memories,
beliefs and attitudes. We often meet friends or relatives who crossed
over before us and spouses will be reunited, although not necessarily
forever. Here our inner nature becomes the whole of our being.
Friends and relatives are our guide to the spiritual world, and, with
the help of good spirits, our true inner nature will gradually be
revealed. The duration of this state depends on how long it takes
for our outer nature (what we outwardly say and do) to harmonize with
our inner nature (what we truly feel and believe). Anyone who has
become totally transparent in this life, whether transparently loving
or transparently hateful, is fully ready for either heaven or hell,
and goes straight in.
2.
Second state. Here we become aware of the deeper parts of
our inner nature. We start saying what we really think and we act
according to what we feel without worrying about appearances or
making other people happy. We act according to our inner values --
the way we might act on Earth when nobody else is watching or when
we're sure we won’t get caught. People who are truly good inside
will be kind and generous to others, while people who are inherently
evil will be openly selfish and cruel. While we can all be generous
or selfish sometimes, inherently good spirits will reject the selfish
thoughts and work to rid themselves of those impulses, while
inherently evil spirits will justify their bad behaviour and thereby
embrace it as part of themselves. At this point, like is drawn to
like, so the sorting out begins. No “judge” passes sentences of
guilt or innocence -- we seek out kindred spirits because that is
where we feel at home.
3.
Third state.
a) For
people who are ready for heaven, this is a time of instruction -- to
learn about heaven and how to lead a life that allows one to
experience it. At this point, the person is already in touch with the
community in heaven where s/he will ultimately live, but still has a
lot to learn about that community -- what it does, how the individual
can contribute to it, how the community can fill the individual’s
needs, and so on.
b)
People who have joined a community of evil spirits will continue to
descend further and further into hell until they reach those people
who are most similar to them. This is not a punishment; it is simply
the place where they feel most comfortable. If they have freely
chosen a path that is the opposite of love and wisdom, there is
nothing more the angels can do for them. The most merciful thing to
do is to let them live the life they have chosen.
All
people have an equal chance to go to either heaven or hell. That
decision is made by the individuals themselves, in the form of every
choice they’ve made to act in either a loving way or a selfish way.
Heaven
Heaven
has three levels: the heavenly or celestial, the spiritual, and the
natural.
Those
in the “highest” heaven are closest to God while those in the
“lowest” hell are described as being furthest away. At the top
of everything is God, who Swedenborg describes as a living sun
radiating divine good and truth throughout creation.
Heaven
is in a human form, with individual communities corresponding to the
function of the organs in our body, with God being the spiritual
“core” of the being, sustaining it just as we are sustained by
our souls. Heaven is a place of inexpressible joy and peace.
Heaven
is a collective entity made up of good people who perform an
important use, much as we ourselves are made up of individual cells
and atoms that are essential to the full functioning of our body. The
animating force of heaven, as well as of living creatures on earth,
is God’s love and wisdom. God is the very essence of life, love,
and wisdom itself, the source and sustenance of all that exists. We
are only close to God to the extent that we align ourselves
with God’s will, thus opening ourselves to the inflow of God’s
love and wisdom, i.e. heaven.
People
who are not ready to experience a certain level of heaven will feel
uncomfortable, even sick, and will be forced to retreat back down to
lower levels until they have been properly prepared. This is even
truer of spirits who are bound for hell.
Hell
Hell
Hell is
the part of creation that is furthest away from God. If we visualize
heaven as being in the form of a human being as described above, hell
would be the area beneath that being’s feet.
Swedenborg
did not describe hell as a place of fiery torment where God punishes
sinners. Rather, it is
human beings themselves who choose hell by consistently choosing to
act selfishly or cruelly toward others. Also, there is no one Devil
or Satan who is the counterpart to God. In hell the inhabitants are
"devils" or "satans" and they torture each other
by lying, manipulating and inflicting pain on others in an attempt to
dominate and gain power.
To
angels, the inhabitants of hell are twisted, misshapen and live in
buildings that are ugly, filthy, and stink horribly. However, to the
inhabitants of hell their surroundings seem pleasant and they can
even be attractive to each other. Therefore devils prefer hell to
heaven and would not choose to live anywhere else even if they were
given the option. They find heaven repulsive and cannot stand its
light for even a few moments. They perceive heavenly teachings as
sickly sweet and may dismiss good people as being too idealistic or
impractical.
As with
heaven, hell has different regions and levels. The deepest hells are
the darkest and coldest (as God is the source of light and heat in
the spiritual world). The only light and warmth in hell arises from
the fires of malice that emanate from its inhabitants. Those who live
in the deepest hells are the ones who embrace evil on the innermost
levels of their being, who love themselves more than anything else,
and who find great delight in inflicting pain on others.
Origin
of angels and devils. Like the angels in heaven, all devils were
once human beings; there are no beings in either heaven or hell who
were not once living on earth.
Marriage
Marriage (Conjugal Love)
If
two people were truly of one mind on earth, they will live together
as spouses in heaven too. However, if they were not happily married,
or if their personalities are fundamentally different, they will
eventually part ways. Swedenborg says those who did not find love on
earth will eventually find their perfect match in heaven -- no one is
ever alone unless they wish to be. Reference.
Consistent
with his observation that angels are not a separately created race of
genderless beings, Swedenborg is adamant that gender characteristics
are part of one’s spiritual substance and thus survive death. He
says not only that there are marriages in heaven, but that such
unions involve supremely pleasurable sexual experiences. Reference.
Civilization in the higher dimension
Individuals
such as NDEers, yogic adepts and ayahuasca-using shamans who are
privileged enough to have visited civilizations of the subtle realms
universally report seeing many vast and celestially beautiful
cities there. The most notable feature of these great cities is
that they are brilliantly luminous. They are also frequently
described as foreign in architecture, sublimely beautiful and
grand beyond words. In describing one such city Swedenborg
said that it was a place “of staggering architectural design,
so beautiful that you would say this is the home and the source of
the art itself.” They are also frequently described as having
an unusual number of schools and other buildings associated with the
pursuit of knowledge. NDEers have said that the buildings
of higher learning they visited were not just devoted to knowledge,
but were literally built out of knowledge. Reference.
