Fear

The physical world makes us fear many things. Because it is fundamentally a threat. Which is kind of crazy. That which created us is the greatest danger to us. Disease, injury, loss, death. Life is very much fear based. It and its companion – anxiety – are continuous undercurrents of our lives.

It’s sensible to say that the physical world is basically predatory, which leads to treachery, a chief instrument of evil.

I hasten to point out that “basically” does not mean wholly. Indeed there is also love, beauty, wonder and the sublime – there are selfless, heroic actions, there is compassion, charity, people who are full of love and kindness. Which I celebrate and am very thankful for.

But our history is evolutionary survival. You and I are here because our ancestors beat back threats across millions of years. This is what the physical world does – creates life then challenges it or sets it against each others throats in lethal attacks. That which survives goes on. But only for a time. More than 99 percent of species that ever lived are extinct. Notice how easily human life is snuffed out. And notice how accustomed and numb to it we are.

And there are new fears. Some very serious scientists say our ongoing plunder of the planet could cause civilizational collapse. And if that’s not enough – hello – here’s AI!

It took decades for the ecologic threat to emerge. AI by comparison happened a minute ago and to a lot of people it’s the scariest thing ever.

These two new threats – new concerns – are having very serious effects on young people, which is a shame. For the first time in modern history 20-year-olds are wondering if in their 50s life will be little more than bleak scarcity or if an uncontrollable technology will do us in. This is progress?

When children die of cancer and 20-year-olds have existential fears you know there’s a problem with our concept of the physical world. We have to recognize that the fundamental reality of material existence is endless creation and destruction. One could even say that the physical world is doing what it does best – failing.

But we are not just physical life. We are also spiritual beings, intermingled with the physical. Temporarily.

This is where there we can break out of fear and have hope.

What we popularly call the spiritual or soul is actually continuous consciousness. It has nothing to do with religion, though ongoing mind is not incompatible with religious belief in immortality. And “spiritual” captures the ethereal nature of our minds, our consciousness, our awareness and above all our sense that there is something more. It’s true. There is.

The evidence is overpowering that the afterlife is real. And I say that as someone who is iron-fisted fact based. I’m not talking belief or hope or supposition. I mean clear, hard, undeniable evidence that consciousness continues after physical end = because it is not generated by the physical. I’ve posted stunning examples of afterlife communications and will get much further into them in future essays.

The afterlife is ultimate victory for us. It defeats the remorseless, indifferent physical. It’s the supreme, unassailable solace. We do go to a better place – an infinitely better one.

But we can also gain strength here by what the afterlife reveals to us.

And it is that consciousness is a fundamental field of awareness, flowing thru all living things. Meaning it contains all minds – those still within bodies and those in free consciousness in the field – which is the afterlife, or heaven or spiritual existence, celestial life.

We exist within many minds. And what do they do? Communicate. I’m convinced that we constantly send and receive thoughts from like minded people – especially those we’re close to. Sometimes the messages are subtle. Other times dramatic and unmistakable.

Years ago I had an auto accident at night whereupon by then father-in-law sat up in bed and said “Something happened to Hank.” Incredible! How did my experience of the accident get into his head? Clearly not by brain-to-brain communication. The brain operates on just 20 watts of power. He was 50 miles away. No – his brain and mine were entrained and my thoughts about the accident traveled thru the consciousness field to him. What other explanation? And of course things like this happen all the time.

Messages from the like minded within the consciousness field explain things like intuition, sudden bursts of insight and flashes of great creativity.

A number of famous scientists and artists have said their ideas seemed more received than formulated. Einstein talked about “pre-knowing.” Tesla said he received images of fully-formed inventions. Tchaikovsky said symphonies would arrive completely composed. William Blake and Rudyard Kipling said entire works came to them. Paul McCartney said he woke with Yesterday playing in his mind as a finished song – so complete he thought he must have heard it before and was simply replaying it in a dream. He carefully checked to be sure it was indeed an original melody. Many other people have talked about this process. I think everyone – especially those engaged in creative work – has felt it to one degree or another.

This is exciting. It means we get help with ideas – so that we’re able to break out of the limits of our own imaginations. We don’t think alone. It’s impossible to say how much of our thinking is combined with the thoughts of others but I suspect it’s a lot.

With the thoughts of others maybe we’ll be able to pull ourselves out of what now seem to be impossible problems.

The afterlife defeats existential fear. Other minds expand our own.