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Down to Earth

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Chapter One

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Chapter One Spirit on Earth We live in a world that places great value on the physical, material things that we can see and touch and explain, rather than the invisible, mysterious things of the spirit that we have more difficulty in sensing and understanding, yet that we are nonetheless able to experience. When our physical body dies, our consciousness lives on. Yet many people find this hard to believe. Most of us think we’re pretty rational, sensible, down to earth people. Our logical minds think they know all there is to know. But they don’t. There are many experiences that we can’t explain. Our logical minds don’t have all the answers. This is actually very good news, because whatever our minds keep telling us - that this is all there is, or that there’s no great purpose beyond ourselves - inside, in our quiet moments when our minds are still, when we allow ourselves to truly feel, we know that secretly we wish there was more. Being honest, we know we’re missing something. We only have to find it. There is a part of us, separate from our physical body, which is meaningful and alive. This is our spiritual essence, if you like. We can’t necessarily sense it through our physical senses. We can’t necessarily explain or understand it using the reason and logic of our rational minds. Yet it is there. The wonderful thing is that while we’re living in our physical bodies, now, here on earth, we’re also, all of us, already spiritual beings. We all have a spirit within. It’s just that we treat it a bit like a poor relation. We don’t take much notice of it, we’re not that interested in what it has to say, we don’t like our friends to see it. We quite like our bodies; they make us feel good, we can wear nice clothes, people comment on how we look. Our minds are okay too, they learn and remember, they win arguments, and we can use them in all sorts of clever ways to impress people. But our spirit is the life force that makes us alive. It is the powerful energy that gives us passion and enthusiasm and the will to achieve our purpose and make our dreams reality. It’s the gentle, soothing energy that allows us to forgive our mistakes and weaknesses, to view others with compassion, and to heal our pain. And it’s the beautiful, joyful energy that enables us to love, and to know that we are not alone. All of us have, at some time in our lives, felt moments of despair, when, forgetting that we are spirit, we are overwhelmed with a sense of loneliness and longing. When we lose our sense of our own spirit, we feel as if we have lost our very centre. Everything becomes a struggle; we experience pain and yet we don’t know what to do about it; we feel isolated, as if no one in the world can reach into what we’re experiencing, and we can’t reach out of ourselves to find any source of comfort or help. Our spirit is our consciousness; it drives us to question, to learn, to find meaning in our experiences. It is the place where everything comes together, where everything makes sense, where we are not separate and alone but together, connected and purposefully intertwined. Becoming aware of our own spirit, we feel that we are loved, that our lives have purpose, that we are part of a forgiving world. Often it is fear that stops us from recognising our own spirituality. We don’t ask questions because we fear the answers. We don’t give ourselves enough quiet time in which to come to understand who we really are and what we are capable of. In fact, the problem is that we don’t really trust ourselves. Fear constantly limits our possibilities. Then, worst of all, because we’re afraid of the spiritual dimensions within ourselves, we say they don’t exist. We deny the fact that there is spiritual life within life itself. So, just for a moment, we need to suspend fear. We can trust ourselves, for we already have all the answers within us. At some level, we already know much more than we give ourselves credit for. The first message of this book is simply that we are all spiritual beings. Our spirit is the life force that exists at the centre of our very being. It is the God force, which brings us love and healing, joy and compassion; the divine spark that creates our whole being and connects us to every other living thing in this immense and beautiful universe. The second message is that we need have no fear of death. The truth is that when we leave our physical body, we are still alive. Our beliefs often preclude us from hearing these messages. Many people are sceptical, they simply say, ‘I don’t believe in an afterlife.’ But then, just fifty years ago most people believed it was impossible to send a man to the moon. As has occurred in so many endeavours throughout history, a few people challenged the old beliefs and pursued their vision - with spectacular results. Today, at a global level, communication systems, technology and science are advancing so rapidly that old beliefs are being redefined all the time. At an individual level, we’re constantly reviewing and renewing our beliefs in the light of new knowledge and experience. So we needn’t worry too much about beliefs just at this point, because we never know when they’re going to change. What we do know is that we can choose what we believe. It’s as simple as that. Believing that something is possible, it becomes possible, and as our beliefs change, so too does our reality. It’s true also that our belief system can change instantly without any thought at all. Something happens - like watching a startling sunset, or listening to beautiful music, seeing a newborn baby, drifting out of body in meditation, or falling in love for the first time. Our whole world suddenly seems to expand. Such reality shifts are awesome, and tend to be unnerving. We’re likely to find ourselves, as Douglas Adams so beautifully says, ‘as stunned as a man might be who, having believed himself to be totally blind for five years, suddenly discovers that he had merely been wearing too large a hat.’(1) Just for a moment, we glimpse the vastness of the universe, the beauty of creation, the joy of our own spirit. We feel as if we’ve been touched by the gods. And we probably have. Oftentimes, of course, things go at a slower rate. With the legacy of fear and doubt and distrust that many of us carry, we plod along for years feeling as if we’re not really getting anywhere. We can want things to change, yet we can’t seem to make anything happen. Or we simply don’t feel ready. That’s when we could do with a bit of help. So why not ask? The spirit world around us is always at our service. There are those in spirit who dearly want to help mankind. It’s just that they operate at a higher vibration than we do, so we’re not always convinced that we’re receiving the energy and thoughts that they send to us. Often, with the denser, heavier energy associated with our physical body, we’re not at the right frequency to receive them. We’re so stressed out by the distractions of the external world, or so tied up in the repetitive worries of our conscious minds, that we can’t hear anything else. But it is possible for us, here on earth, to free our consciousness and become more closely attuned to our spiritual essence. Then we’re far more likely to be able to tune in to the energy frequency of those in the spirit world. There are many different ways of raising our own vibration to achieve this. By meditating, we switch off to the distractions of the outside world and the distracting thoughts of our own minds, and become aware of ourselves simply as energy. By praying from the heart, or by connecting to healing energy, we can raise our vibration. Sometimes it happens spontaneously when we go into a trance-like state, daydreaming, when our conscious minds are tied up in mundane things and our unconscious minds are open and receptive to energies outside of us. The energy of those who have passed into the other world, the world where the physical body no longer exists, is lighter, finer, of a higher frequency, so it’s easier for these spirit beings to channel healing energies and connect to other minds within the spirit world. And, when our minds are in a meditative, dreamy, trance-like state, it’s easier for them to connect to us. Mind to mind, or spirit to spirit, connection is always possible, it’s just that most of the time most of us here on earth are not in that state long enough or often enough for that communication to get through. But we have all experienced it. Even just in fleeting moments, there are times when we have a sense of something touching us in some way. We feel, not through our senses but with our sixth sense, that there is something there. We experience a hunch, a gut feeling, that we cannot explain. Or a moment of inspiration, when a thought or image comes to our minds that we know did not originate within ourselves. Without thinking, an insight just pops into our mind and we suddenly understand something with greater clarity than ever before. That’s why we are more creative when our unconscious minds are open and receptive to energies, ideas and images outside our normal range of conscious awareness. Anyone who has worked creatively will be aware of these moments of sudden inspiration or understanding, moments when, through our intuition, we receive knowledge or insight from outside of ourselves. Many poets, artists, musicians and philosophers have described this throughout history. It is as if a greater force is acting through them. They’re not doing it on their own. It seems that a hierarchy, an evolutionary or guidal chain, exists through which higher energies, greater wisdom, and a deeper understanding of love pass downward. The point is, we all have the capability to experience the spirit world in one or other of its facets. We just have to be in the right frame of mind. We have to do the groundwork, the preparation, which really means the work on ourselves. As with any creative act we must learn the basic techniques, whether of art or music, writing or meditation. We prepare the ground by learning and practising till we master the craft. We clear our minds of distracting thoughts and worries, and trust in our unconscious or intuitive mind, which can then reach into itself to discover something new and beautiful, and also reach out from itself to connect with the knowledge that exists in the universe around us, the energies and ideas and wisdom of all those who have gone before us. In this way we are part of this guidal chain, part of this spiritual consciousness. And this too is what happens when a medium is contacting the spirit world. By entering into an altered state of consciousness, or trance, and, if an audience is present, by also using some of the group energy to raise his or her rate of vibration, s/he becomes open to direct communication from spirit.