Spiritual Possibilities

It may be that Apocalypse is the ideal and perhaps the only possible setting in which we can take the next big step in our evolution. Nowhere to run, no food or heat, people going nuts: a perfect setting for the emergence of something new and necessary.

But what? What will it take to survive years or decades of bone-crunching, heart-rending social and environmental ruin?

Will it take a local army, armed to the teeth and ready to conquer and kill at the behest of its ruthless leaders?

Will it take complete isolation from all other surviving fragments of humanity, coupled with intensive preparation and consummate self-reliance?

Or, will it simply take wisdom, which might translate into a total commitment to nonviolence, plus the balance and courage needed to rise out of chaos and open to Spirit?

The wisdom path might seem to be the least practical, as a strategy for getting through Apocalypse; but if you could operate from a state of highly connected spiritual response-ability (and in an environment in which the underpinnings of normal reality had been swept away), it might be possible to exercise "spiritual abilities," and those abilities might have considerable survival value.

You might be able to do things that were heretofore only possible in "Heaven" or the "Astral" realms, things that have been generally out of bounds to those in earthly bodies; but you might have to give up most of what you are now — your petty desires and hangups and limited sense of self, for starters — in order to get there. And at some point you might be damned glad to do so.

The Earth might be glad, too. If only a few (thousand? million?) people participate in bringing Heaven to Earth — in consummating the "Marriage of Heaven and Hell" that William Blake foresaw — then it might be more than enough.

Might might might. Maybe maybe maybe. What are all my hopes worth? What makes me think all this outlandish spiritual stuff is even possible? Certainly there is a body of shared experience that has grown up through traditional and New Age spiritual practice, supercharged (if not perverted) by psychedelic drug use and aided and abetted by writers (Blake, Yeats, Teilhard, Bear, Bradbury, Bryant, Clarke), filmmakers (Kubrick, Spielberg — who else?), and other artists, which strongly points toward transcendent human growth as the next great (and necessary) thing.

But I guess, if we're talking about real hopes and why I really believe what I do, then I have to fall back on direct personal experience.

To take an example of how "spiritual abilities" might aid earthly survival, I know firsthand that it is possible for a group of people to be openly telepathic, to the extent that they are constantly having clear group and one-on-one conversations, mind to mind. I was once part of such a group for several months. My own participation at the telepathic level was limited — that much openness scared me — but when I did let myself into the mix, there was just no doubt at all what was going on — and what a warm, welcoming, "heavenly" reception I had from the group on those occasions … like going Home.

Now imagine the practical benefits of operating in that way. You could be part of a group that was dispersed geographically — living all over town, let's say — and yet you could be in such close touch that the needs of any member could be made known to everyone instantly — whether the problem was as major as an accident or violent attack or as minor as a shortage of seed potatoes. And of course the spiritual and emotional support inherent in such an arrangement would make a huge difference to your survival chances if chaos and spiritual darkness were pressing all around.

Or consider the potential benefits of being able to leave your physical body at will. You could patrol your territory at any hour of the day, without having to move a muscle. That too is within reach: I've known people who routinely left their bodies; and I've been out and about a time or three myself, though not with a lot of control.

Teleportation and bodily invisibility are two other possibilities, though I've never known anyone to pull off either, around here. Still, in the Astral realm both are readily accomplished. You imagine being somewhere else, and voila, you're there, Astral body and all. That's because your Astral body is your own creation — and you can uncreate it, too: you can, for instance, reconfigure yourself as a tiny point of brilliant light (but still with full perceptics); you can also turn off the light and just be a "quiet witness." In the physical world, however, most of us don't enjoy that sort of flexibility: we consider that our bodies are of the world, created and supported by it, not by ourselves. To reframe that reality will take a lot of work and growth, so these abilities may be out of reach in the short term.

But I may be missing the point with all this talk of spiritual shenanigans. I find myself asking, What is the real meaning and significance of bringing Heaven to Earth? For hundreds if not thousands of years, people in Western societies have tended to put God "up there" in Heaven, hidden from view. But the meaning of Heaven come to Earth must be that we realize that God (Spirit, Light) is always and only here and now, all around and through us. We and our world (and all beings in all worlds) are part and parcel of God, and nothing but.

To truly accept, and directly perceive and feel, our spiritual unity, must be our primary mission now, because it is only through this living unity that we will be able to move into and through Apocalypse, and emerge reborn.

It may be that only a relatively few people are ready to take this step, but I believe it will make them equal to any challenge the future might throw at them. I don't think any lingering forces of darkness or chaos could stand up to that much love and spiritual power. Far from being the weakest survival strategy, I believe the wisdom path will probably be the strongest; and it may be the only one that really works.

And those of us who are not ready to take the step into unity can help one another out of our bodies and go off in search of unity Over There, where it may or may not be easier to come by.

Again, personal experience is all I can really offer to back up my claim that any of this is possible. A few times, in the course of this life, I have stood in the Light and felt its power (actually, I've been standing in it all along, but I haven't always felt its power…). I have known the absolute realness of God. I have been spoken to by Jesus Christ, and by the Earth Mother — both are real beings, and present in all of us at every moment.

And last but not least, there is the "Other" Factor.

I know that millions of others have experienced these things, too. That’s all we need. We're going to be successful.

If you have had such experiences, I hope you'll share them.

And remember: the Lord helps those who help themselves.

Next: The "Other" Factor