But when we advance from the Astral Plane or Fourth Dimension generally, of which Lower and Higher Summerlands are subplanes, to the Mental Plane, or Fifth Dimension, then we can be said to have ascended. This particular Ascension on the spirit planes involves a dropping of the astral body leaving us in the mental body like a Babushka doll that has dropped one casing.

In our Ascension, we will not have to drop the body. It has changed from a carbon base to a crystalline base, capable of enduring higher vibrations. That is one new development in the process of Ascension.

“There are many deaths and many births,” Silver Birch, the well-known British spiritualist guide once said. (1) “You ‘die’ and are born again and again.” (2) By “deaths and births” he meant what we call Ascension.

When the spirit, for instance, passes from the Astral Plane to the Mental Plane, or from the Fourth to the Fifth Dimension, it drops the astral body and enters the higher plane in the mental body. This could be considered a death and a birth.

Frederic Myers, the first President of the Psychical Research Society, says that “for the most part, we dwell in each state or world during the time we are attached to the appearances that constitute that world. … However, I would urge that no fixed rule should be applied to our sojourn in each world or state.” (3)

So long as we’re attached to our desires, we remain in the Astral Plane, which Hindus call the Kamaloka or Plane of Desires. Once we tire of simply catering to our wants and whims, we’re ready to pass into the Fifth Dimension or Mental Planes. The unnamed teacher of Betty Bethards communicates this lesson in slightly different terms as well: “You experience the level to which you have learned to attune your consciousness. When you learn the lessons of a particular vibration, you may move to a finer vibration of experience.” (4)

This is why our sources like Archangel Michael tell us to finish with our desire for Third Dimensionality. When we do so, we detach from it and are ready to move higher.

Silver Birch

Silver Birch puts the lesson of advancement in more general terms, but shines the light on how all is a question of learning and evolution: “As you advance beyond [one plane], you leave it behind. As the spirit qualifies itself, by growth, progress and evolution, so it naturally passes to the next stage of spirit life.” (5)

He says that advancement is not so much a matter of climbing as one climbs a mountain, but of evolving: “You do not climb from one sphere into another; you grow, you evolve. The lower gives way to the higher.” (6)

The spirit teacher “Imperator,” actually the prophet Malachi, emphasizes how the way we live now in the Third Dimension, the realm of experience, determines where we end up on the spirit planes and how fast we rise. “May you so live now,” he suggests, “that hereafter you may pass easily through the intermediary spheres, without pain, to the realms of joy.” (7)

The realms of joy are higher than the Mental Plane or Fifth Dimension, but we may consider it a realm of joy compared to Third Dimensionality.

The residents of the spirit planes are conversant with these facts, whereas we on the Physical Plane often are not. T.E. Lawrence, “Lawrence of Arabia,” tells us they are: “We know that our stay on any one plane is temporary and, however our estimate of time may compare with the earth calendar, this notion of progress from plane to plane as development justifies it is common knowledge here.” (8)

They still retain different opinions however about the ultimate purpose of life. Many don’t concern themselves with such questions and choose to remain on the Plane of Desires, the Astral Plane.

“There is room for much speculation and difference of opinion as to ultimate ends, of course. Much of the thought of higher spheres is open to those who care to know, but there are many here who are satisfied to enjoy the easy satisfactions of their care-free lives without speculating upon any further development.” (9)

T.E. Lawrence

Those who are concerned with the wider matters of life make the most progress the quickest, he says.

“In general, I think that those who have the farthest to go are most concerned with the journey. As I have said before, among thoughtful people at the university [here] much study is given to the progress of the human spirit, its ascent of the planes, and its probable return to earth when purification is complete.” (10)

The individual’s growth, progress, advancement, evolution are seen as the most important matter by spirit dwellers, Arthur Ford says.

“Growth of spirit as well as development of soul are essential whether here or there. We are the ones who must put forth the effort to grow. Nothing will grow in our behalf. That is why I would have you picture each of us as God, for you and we are gods who decide whether we grow or remain as embryos.” (11)

Professor William James discusses how the inquiring individual soon finds him or herself outgrowing their form and understandings.

“I feel myself growing out of myself in a certain fashion. My adopted characteristics are becoming too small and cramped to contain my new growth and development, and I will move on most certainly to larger psychological quarters.

“It is not only the physical body we outlive, but the psychological house we have chosen. First after death we add new rooms and suites to accommodate our greater experience, but it is soon obvious that the entire structure has had its day. We must move out of it completely.” (12)

Bishop Wilberforce

When he leaves the physical and psychological house he has long lived in, he will ascend from the Fourth or Astral Plane to the Fifth or Mental Plane.

“I do not know when I will finish this composition, but I will suddenly know that I had added my last comments, written my last words as a tenant of my present psychological manse, and will then move into the larger framework of myself which I feel is being constructed.” (13)

Bishop Samuel Wilberforce reflects the attitude of so many on the spirit planes, who are impelled to advance by the longing for liberation, a design feature built-in to sentient beings.

“Already, under the guidance of my guardians, I have passed through the first sphere, where are gathered those who are bound to earth by the affections or are unable to rise as yet. There I saw some whom I had known in the body and learned from them, and from others, much that I needed to know. My work will be of a similar sort till I reach my appointed sphere.” (14)

Periodic visits by higher-dimensional beings inspire residents of the Astral Planes and higher to continue evolving, as Philip Gilbert discusses in his comments on the high being he “works for,” whom he calls the Chief.

“Here we at least know by personal experience that there are higher strata and higher still: people like the Chief, for instance. … They look as if they were made of radium. We rarely see them but now and then one appears, to inspire us.” (15)

William James

An unnamed spirit communicator summarizes the process of Ascension on the spirit planes to medium Charlotte Dresser:

“’What constitutes a ‘higher plane?’

“’I think you will understand it better as a sort of higher grade, like college after high school. It is a different plane or sphere or space where those of a certain degree of advancement can remain for a time.

“‘These spheres or planes are separated more by spiritual advancement than by distance, though the latter is sometimes great. We ascend as we grow, or we remain to teach others.

“’But it is all normal, and like the different grades of advancement in college or school, if I may use the comparison.

“Each grade has its peculiar work or degree of advancement, not set by any rule except that of congeniality.”‘” (16)

So although Ascension is a new phenomenon to us, it is known much more widely to spirit communicators who look forward to ascending into the higher realms of the spirit life. They spend years studying in spirit universities or with higher beings to perfect themselves and move on to higher planes before needing to reincarnate on Earth in the Third Dimension again to “prove” the permanence of their learnings.

Like us, they too will ascend when the time arrives and need no more to descend into the Third Dimension. Duality is wrapping up all over the universe and will cause the progression of their world as well as ours.

Footnotes

(1) Silver Birch, Silver Birch Anthology. Ed. Wm. Naylor. London: Spiritualist Press, 1974; c1955, 57.

(2) Ibid., 58.

(3) Frederic W.H. Myers through Geraldine Cummins, medium, Beyond Human Personality.Downloaded from http://www.trans4mind.com/spiritual/cummins/cummins2.html, n.p.

(4) Unnamed spirit teacher through Betty Bethards, medium, There is No Death. Novato, CA: Inner Light Foundation, 1976; c1975, 15.

(5) Silver Birch, SBA, 57.

(6) Ibid., 58.

(7) Spirit leader Imperator in Stainton Moses, More Spirit Teachings. Electronically published by Meilach.com. http://www.meilach.com/spiritual/books/morest/mspteach.htm 7.

(8) T.E. Lawrence through Jane Sherwood, medium, Post-Mortem Journal.Communications from T.E. Lawrence. London: Spearman, 1964, 122.

(9) Loc. cit.

(10) Loc. cit.

(11) Arthur Ford through Ruth Montgomery, medium. A World Beyond. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1971, 17.

(12) William James through Jane Roberts, medium, The Afterdeath Journal of an American Philosopher: The World View of William James. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1978 159.

(13) Loc. cit.

(14) Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Winchester in Julia [Julia T. Ames] through W.T. Stead, medium, After Death. A Personal Narrative. New York: George H. Doran, n.d.; c. 1914., 86.

(15) Philip Gilbert through Alice Gilbert, medium. Philip in the Spheres. London: Psychic Book Club, n.d. , 45.

I have in other articles described the Ascension from the spirit side of life of people like “Dr. G” and “Jeannie.” (1) One of the pieces of work I wanted this series to accomplish was to depict what happens to people if they temporarily ascend to a higher vibratory plane without being spiritually equipped to handle the vibrations permanently.

Such a situation occurs when a person approaches a higher plane more or less as tourists or visits a higher plane by invitation. Today we’ll look at spirits approaching the border of the next higher plane; tomorrow we’ll look at spirits visiting higher planes.

Even though an Ascension is in reality the passage from one dimension or plane to another, here we’ll look at passages from one subplane to another as well.

Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson undertook to travel widely about the Astral Plane and describe what he saw as a way of compensating for his earthly life. Even though a psychic, he chose to disavow what he knew and toe the line demanded by his church in denying spirit life. Now, having passed over into it, he made amends by dictating several books that corrected impressions his religious colleagues had spread about the spirit planes. In this article we’ll stay with Benson’s descriptions.

On one occasion, he traveled to the borders of his own Summerlands realm and looked out over the expanse into the next higher subplane.

“We traversed the distance [between our own realm and the one above ours] that we were unable to observe the gradual alteration in our surroundings. Otherwise we should have seen the country taking on a higher degree of etheralization, a greater intensification of color and brightness, observable not only in the physical features of the realm, but also in the spirit raiment of those whose homes approximated the more closely to the border.” (2)

Each succeeding plane is not different in the sense of having something different than grass, trees, lakes, etc. It is the character of these features that changes, as Benson suggests.

Msgr Robert Hugh Benson

“As we draw closer to the higher realms the particles of the soil become finer, the colors more delicate, with a hint of translucency. A greater degree of resilience is at once observable underfoot when walking upon the thresholds of these higher realms, but the resilience comes as well from the nature of the realm as from the distinct change in the ground.” (3)

“As one approaches the boundaries to the higher realms, the pavements become noticeably more translucent in character and they seem to lose some of their appearance of solidity, though, indeed, they are solid enough.” (4)

“We found ourselves upon grassland, but with a striking difference. The turf upon which we were walking was infinitely softer than that of the interior of [our] realm. The green of the verdure was even brighter than we had thought possible.

“The flowers were growing in still greater profusion, and the intensity of color, of perfume, and of health-giving power transcended anything we had encountered. The very air seemed to be imbued with rainbow tints. …

“Just as we had been heavy with chill and oppression at the borderline of the dark spheres [which he had visited earlier], so were we now warmed and filled with such an elation that we were almost silent in wonderment. As we moved along, bathed in radiance, we felt such a spiritual exaltation that Edwin’s description of the visitations of personages from the higher realms at once came to mind, and I almost knew what to expect when I should be fortunate enough to witness such a visitation.” (5)

But now one of the difficulties asserts itself – he cannot breathe in this more refined atmosphere.

“We walked a little way forward, but we could proceed no farther. There were no visible barriers, but we felt that we could not breathe if we went onward. The whole atmosphere was becoming so much the more rarified the farther we penetrated, that in the end we were bound to retrace our steps on to our own ground.” (6)

But Benson had seen what he wanted to see and took back with him welcome memories of the loving souls who inhabited that higher plane.

“I could see many souls dressed in the most tenuous of garments, the soft colors of which seemed hardly to belong to them but to float about the fabric of their robes – if fabric one could call it. Those of them who came sufficiently near smiled to us with such a friendly greeting that we knew we were not in any way intruding, and some waved their hands to us.

“My friend told us that they were aware of our purpose there, and for that reason they would not approach us. They would allow us to enjoy our experience by ourselves, and quietly to absorb the beauties and splendor of this wonderful borderland.” (7)

Seeing the beauties of the higher realms excites Benson’s desire to advance.

“Standing here, one had the overwhelming desire to strive for that progression that would entitle one to inhabit one of the lovely houses [I saw around me], and to qualify for the honor of serving one of the dwellers in this higher sphere at whose gateway we were standing.” (8)

Unlike embodied souls, people on the spirit planes know that advancement is what life is all about and work hard to ensure their own progress, as Benson reports.

“We in this beautiful realm of light are all working for our spiritual advancement. It is not restricted to those who live in the dark regions. The people who inhabit the magnificent spheres above this wherein I dwell are all moving forward and upward in their triumphant progressional march. It never ceases and spiritual progress is the birthright of every single soul.” (9)

Thus, what Benson has shown us is that souls on one subplane cannot advance to the next higher subplane until they are spiritually ready. If they try to do so, they encounter difficulties such as a feeling that they cannot breathe in the higher setting.

They can descend if they like without difficulty, and many do, as we shall see later, to serve. But they cannot ascend as easily. Tomorrow we’ll look at how people from lower realms are enabled to visit the higher realms with assistance from the beings who live there.

Footnotes

(1) See “The Reality of Ascension on the Spirit Planes,” Sept. 26, 2012, athttp://goldenageofgaia.com/2012/09/the-reality-of-ascension-on-the-spirit-planes/ ; “What is Ascension Like on the Spirit Side of Life?” athttp://goldenageofgaia.com/ascension/the-mechanics-of-ascension/what-is-ascension-like-on-the-spirit-side-of-life/ ; “The Second Death: The Process of Ascension from 4D to 5D on the Spirit Planes,” at http://goldenageofgaia.com/spiritual-essays/life-death/death-process-ascension-4d-5d-spirit-planes/ ; “The Judgment and the Second Death Explained,” at http://goldenageofgaia.com/spiritual-essays/life-death/the-judgment-and-the-second-death-explained/

(2) Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson through Anthony Borgia, medium, Life in the World Unseen. M.A.P., 1993, 62.

(3) Ibid., 108.

(4) Loc. cit.

(5) Ibid., 61.

(6) Loc. cit.

(7) Loc. cit.

(8) Loc. cit.

(9) Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson through Anthony Borgia, medium, Here and Hereafter. San Francisco: H.G. White, 1968 (dictated in 1957), 19.

The Reality of Ascension on the Spirit Planes – Part 3

2012 NOVEMBER 12
Posted by Steve Beckow

In this part of our series we look at actual visits to the next subplane or plane. A visit to a subplane is not actually an Ascension. A visit to a different plane altogether is an Ascension. In the spirit world up till now an Ascension from the Astral Plane to the Mental Plane meant shedding the astral body. A mere visit did not. But it required some preparation.

And I also grant that these Ascensions are of the old variety, which our present Ascension is designed to supplant. They require a person to die to their astral forms and shed them, coming alive again, so to speak, in their mental bodies.

Our Ascension does not require us to die to our physical bodies. Instead our bodies change from a carbon base to a crystalline base, which can withstand the higher vibrations.

The Astral is the Fourth Dimension; the Mental is the Fifth. (The Mental Plane is a misnomer and does not mean a “plane of the mind.”)

Theologian Archie Mattson discusses the prospect of advancement from 4D to 5D on the inner planes.

“When a person has fulfilled his purpose and development on the astral plane, he may then proceed permanently to enter the mental plane and the higher planes, in succession, to work and develop more fully there. In that case, the astral body is cast off, as is the physical body at death, and its particles disintegrate to be reused in the creative processes.

“However, a person who has gone into the higher planes in this way can still communicate through to earth and can still manifest himself in the astral plane through materialization.” (1)

The unnamed teacher who speaks through Betty Bethards also describes this “second death.”

“When one advances through the various levels of the higher planes, there is an initiation which takes place which allows the soul to shed his ‘outer layer’ (as when he shed the physical body). The heavier matter which makes up your coat for one level is shed for a lighter coat when you move to the next. You shed your old beliefs and lessons and attune to your new body, a little like a snake shedding its skin.” (2)

American philosopher William James intuits that his second death is going to happen. He felt premonitions of becoming too small for his psychological quarters.

“I feel myself growing out of myself in a certain fashion. My adopted characteristics are becoming too small and cramped to contain my new growth and development, and I will move on most certainly to larger psychological quarters. It is not only the physical body we outlive, but the psychological house we have chosen. First after death we add new rooms and suites to accommodate our greater experience, but it is soon obvious that the entire structure has had its day. We must move out of it completely.” (3)

Her work finished in 4D, Frances Banks considers leaving the rest home she has been attached to and entering 5D.

“I am like a creature hibernating and yet, at the same time, sloughing off a skin which I no longer will be needing. I feel, sometimes, like a snake gradually shedding its skin. These coils of lower density are slipping away from me. I am emerging from regrets of earth memories, from disillusions, from idealizations which become illusions, ephemeral and of no true worth.

“I am viewing each piece of skin which peels off from me in its right connection with the true Self which it served to obscure. And more and more I become thankful for the Reality which, God be praised, was there beneath the skin, all the time.” (4)

She continues to observe the dissolution of her astral body. Most people lie down and go to sleep, so to speak, during this process, but not psychologist Frances. She observes the whole process.

“I realize that what is passing from me, like sloughing a skin, is insubstantial, impermanent, decomposing, as it drops from me into a dusty nothingness. What is left is essentially Light, is Reality, is permanent and is true. I call this my new Body of Light and that, indeed, is what it truly is. A Body of Light, not dense and material and dull and heavy as the physical body, not insubstantial, shadowy and unreal as the astral body in which I have been sheltering, but brilliant, ‘encelled’ with Light, ethereal in that there is no weight, no dragging down into matter but is enmeshed with colour and beauty and form and substance.

“Is that a difficult conception? You must remember that I am forming this, my spiritual Body, or should I be more correct in saying I am merging into it. That sounds a paradox but then much to which I am becoming adjusted here is paradoxical when viewed in the light of the restricted thinking of the human mind. I still have a mind, I still have a body, but both are inevitably changing and because of that I feel as if I am emerging, like a grub from a chrysalis, to a butterfly. Gradually I can function more readily and for deeper periods in my Body of Light, and, in it, can commune with more advanced Souls and imbibe their wisdom.” (5)

Is this not a description similar to what is happening for us right now?

And finally Dr. G., who is sensing that his time for transitioning is drawing near, tells T.E. Lawrence (the post-mortem Lawrence of Arabia):

“‘The timelessness of our life,’ he said, ‘misleads us into thinking that there is no longer any period to our happiness. We have no lengthening shadow of old age to put a natural limit to our activities and so, when we are happy and easy, we think it can continue indefinitely.

“‘But I know there are natural period in our time here and that I am approaching one of them. I could perhaps disregard the intimations and stay on here [in the Astral Plane], but, if I did so, I should be perverting the pattern. So you see, even this paradise may not be enjoyed for too long lest it thwart one’s proper growth. …

“‘I am growing old in this [astral] body and shall soon be done with it. Then I shall go on to explore this wonderful universe on another level [i.e., the Mental Plane].’” (6)

As Dr. G. spoke, “the illumination of his wise spirit made a glory around him and was more convincing than many words.” (7)

Lawrence comments: “I had heard about this second death and transition to the next sphere…. Now it seems that I may be privileged to watch it happening to another.” (8) In fact Lawrence does watch it.

Lawrence describes here the sudden Ascension of Dr. G. from the Astral Plane to the Mental Plane:

“The end came suddenly. I called on him and was told that he was sleeping. We stood around and watched his still form and the light which waxed and waned there. In a breathtaking second the change came. The light gathered itself together and burnt itself to a keen thought of light so intense and inward that we gasped and turned aside. Then it had gone and only a wraith of our friend remained which shrank away and disappeared as we watched.

“We sat speechless, absorbed in the beauty and meaning of the transition. It was long before anyone broke the silence and then one said: ‘I have heard that some time is needed for a spirit yto get sued to the new conditions, just as we needed time to adjust when we first came here, so we must not expect our friend to come to us yet. I suggest that when an interval has elapsed we should meet here again and wait and hope for his coming.’ We agreed to do this and went off full of thought to our various occupations.” (9)

Later Dr. G. descended to pay Lawrence and his friends a visit. Lawrence describes it:

“Dr. G. has kept his promise to come to us but he appeared when we were least expecting him. Some few of us were sitting quietly talking when his voice suddenly took up the parable and as we looked up, startled, we saw the outlinbes of a form which speedily filled in and took substance and there he was among us again.

“He brought with him an exalted air and we felt his presence as a spiritual baptism, a stream of pure joy absorbed hungrily by our thirsty beings. Light and happiness glowed up in us too with the pleasure of heightened being. He stayed only a short while … and left us again.” (10)

So, in this series, we’ve seen that going higher up the spirit planes can only be done once one has progressed sufficiently to tolerate the higher vibrations. Those who cannot tolerate them must return to their alloted place. Once one is ready to ascend, one experiences what is often called on the other side “the second death,” letting go of the astral body and awaking in the mental body.

However our Ascension will not be like this. For the first time in history, we’ll ascend in our physical bodies which will have changed from a carbon to a crystalline base.

Footnotes

(1) A.D. Mattson in Ruth Mattson Taylor, ed., Witness from Beyond. New Cosmic Concepts on Death and Survival from the Late A.D. Mattson, S.T.D., through the Clairvoyant Margaret Flavell Tweddell. Portland, ME: Foreword Books, 1975, 45.

(2) Unnamed spiritual teacher in Betty Bethards, medium, There is No Death. Novato, CA: Inner Light Foundation, 1976; c1975, 17.

(3) William James through Jane Roberts, medium, The Afterdeath Journal of an American Philosopher: The World View of William James. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1978, 159.

(4) Frances Banks in Helen Graves, Testimony of Light. London: Churches Fellowship for Psychical & Spiritual Studies, 1975; c1969, 124.

(5) Loc. cit.

(6) T.E. Lawrence through Jane Sherwood, medium, Post-Mortem Journal. Communications from T.E. Lawrence. London: Spearman, 1964, 76.

(7) Loc. cit.

(8) Ibid., 77.

(9) Ibid., 78-9.

I can’t think of a better statement of the perennial philosophy than the Bhagavad Gita or Song of God

A friend has just mentioned that he’s doing a film on the perennial philosophy, which invites comment. I don’t think there is any topic I find more interesting than that.

The phrase can be traced back to Agostino Steuco (1497–1548) who used it as the title of his treatise, De perenni philosophia libri X, published in 1540. It’s more generally associated with Gottfried Leibniz and Aldous Huxley. (1)

A synonym for it is the ageless wisdom or ancient wisdom. Hinduism is actually formally called sanathana dharma or (loosely translated) eternal law. That too is a synonym.

If I were to summarize the notion in a single word, I’d say the “perennial philosophy” means the Truth. The Truth at all levels, shorn of religious doctrine, dogma and orthodoxy – the Truth of reality.

One could say that the Truth is synonymous with God. God is all there is. There is no second, no other besides God. God being all there is, God must be the Truth of reality. He/She/It is the Dreamer as well as the dream.

God created a divine drama called “Life” and so the phrase “perennial philosophy” becomes extended to take in all the ins and outs of that drama – what could be called its design features and divine processes.

When most of these are little known, we consider statements of them to be the “mysteries” of life.

Our great spiritual teachers have gotten glimpses of these mysteries and attempted to put the wordless into words. Their teachings become the basis of religions and often become misinterpreted, but originally they were attempts to describe the Truth underlying reality.

An example of a teaching that forms a part of the perennial philosophy is the Christian teaching of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. It dovetails with the Hindu teaching of Brahman, Atman and Shakti. So far we might consider that we simply have teachings of Christianity and Hinduism.

But when we say that what is being talked about here is the Transcendental (the Father, Brahman), the Phenomenal (the Holy Ghost, Shakti), and the Transcendental within the Phenomenal (the Son, the Atman), we’ve translated the particular into the general, religious teachings into the perennial philosophy that underlies them, if even only in a most tenuous way

I don’t wish to develop that teaching here. I have in other places (2) I’d like more to simply point to it to demonstrate how a specific religious teaching relates to the more general perennial philosophy. (3)

The perennial philosophy reduces the particular to the general. It takes common elements or common denominators of the Truth contained in each religion and shows how they are common to each other.

Examples of design features of life are the various bodies we inhabit, the various dimensions we exist on, the longing for liberation, the organs of our bodies that sense, breathe, support locomotion, digestion, excretion, etc.

Examples of divine processes are birth, death, reincarnation, reproduction, breathing, thinking, feeling, digestion, excretion, etc. All of these are divinely planned, administered, and altered by divine command, just as we see Ascension being altered now, according to what is often called the Mother’s Plan. (4)

Previously one had to shed the body to ascend, but not this time around. The plan of reality is being changed before our eyes. Now we can ascend with the physical body intact. The changes in the plan of Ascension reflect the dynamic aspect of life at the hands of the creative forces.

The existence of a Creator and Its creation and the relations between the two are elements of the perennial philosophy. We can see that, at the level of the perennial philosophy, we can discuss these matters. At the level of religions, many discussions are looked upon as being heresy and may not be possible.

What are design features on one dimension may not be design features on another. In the Third Dimension we give birth live but my understanding is that that isn’t a feature of some higher dimensions. New residents of the Astral Plane are often surprised to find that they have no organs of reproduction, digestion or excretion. The astral body is different than the physical body.

In the lower dimensions, all is multiplicity but as we go higher and higher in dimensionality on our road back to God, many multiple things simplify and many unsuspected areas of life, such as manifestation, bilocation, telepathic communication, etc., expand.

But all explanations of these design features and divine processes can be considered to be, not parts of one religion’s teachings only, but also parts of the perennial philosophy generally, the truth underlying all religions.

Finally, the perennial philosophy is looked to for statements of important general matters like the purpose and meaning of life. Why was life created? What are we to do in life? The answer to questions like these we’ve discussed here many times. (5)

The purpose of God’s creating life was to offer the Unknowable an opportunity to know Itself. Each time one of us realizes our true identity as God in a moment of enlightenment, God meets God.

We don’t find that purpose much discussed in church doctrine or religious dogma, but we find it front and center in discussions of the perennial philosophy, whether those discussions are to be found in the writings of the galactics or Earth’s ascended masters or the celestials, and so on.

An example of a statement of the perennial philosophy might be “Spiritual Evolution: The Divine Plan for Life,” (6) written after I finished the book The Purpose of Life is Enlightenment. I’ll repost it as a companion piece to this article and an illustration of a partial presentation of the ageless wisdom.

Thus in general the perennial philosophy refers to the body of generic truths underlying the specific teachings of the world’s religions and spiritual paths. As we face the need to create a common, cross-cultural body of statements of spiritual truth, we’ll find ourselves more and more turning to the tenets of the perennial philosophy.

Footnotes

(1) Huxley’s statements on the perennial philosophy are excellent and exemplified by two works: (1) Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy. New York, etc.: Harper and Row, 1970; c1944 and his introduction to Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, trans., Bhagavad-Gita. The Song of God. New York and Scarborough: New American Library, 1972; c1944.

(2) However it is developed here: “Christianity and Hinduism are One,” athttp://goldenageofgaia.com/spiritual-essays/cross-cultural-spirituality/christianity-and-hinduism-are-one/ and “The One Became Two and the Two Became Three,” athttp://goldenageofgaia.com/spiritual-essays/cross-cultural-spirituality/the-one-became-two-and-the-two-became-three/

(3) For another take on the situation, see “An Introduction to the Perennial Philosophy” athttp://goldenageofgaia.com/spiritual-essays/back-to-the-basics-2/an-introduction-to-the-perennial-philosophy/

(4) See for instance “Transcript of Archangel Michael from An Hour with an Angel, Dec. 26, 2011,” at http://goldenageofgaia.com/the-2012-scenario/what-role-are-the-angels-playing/transcript-of-archangel-michael-from-an-hour-with-an-angel-dec-26-2011/an “Archangel Michael: Transcript of ‘An Hour with an Angel’” Dec. 12, 2011, athttp://goldenageofgaia.com/2011/12/archangel-michael-transcript-of-an-hour-with-an-angel/

(5) On these matters, see the papers in the section “The Purpose of Life,” athttp://goldenageofgaia.com/spiritual-essays/16244-2/

(6) At http://www.angelfire.com/space2/light11/divine1.html