A Higher Level of Being, Part 3

A Higher Level of Being, Part 3

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:1

In exploring the spiritual-physical Life Continuum I presented last week, it is helpful to assume that spiritual and physical matters differ only in our perception, not in their essence. What we perceive as physical is the part we can see with our eyes, taste with our mouths, and touch with our hands, which is perception occurring lower on the continuum. Physical objects appear tangible, meaning we can interact with them via our physical senses. We can measure, observe, and predict their normal impact on our physical nature. What some consider as spirit, broadly speaking, is everything else. Spirituality is often a catch-all term for what we know or suspect but cannot directly observe or explore with our physical senses. It is analogous to what scientists call dark matter or dark energy – they theorize its existence because of its impact on what is physically observable. The spiritual-physical continuum illustrates how there is no essential difference between the two – both are expressions of a single reality. How we experience an object, person, or situation is entirely dependent on where our perceptual awareness originates on the continuum.

I believe there is a direct equivalence between what we call energy and what we call spirit. In other words, the reality behind both terms is a single reality, whether in a scientific or religious sense. Both are invisible and non-measurable except by their observable influence over what we perceive as physical. We know electrical energy flows through and animates our bodies along intricate pathways of nerves. We can measure energy’s impact on our bodies, and we can observe the physical nerve cells that transmit it. We know the physical elements required to fuel the energy our bodies require, such as nutrients and oxygen, but we cannot observe the essential nature of the energy itself.[1] We know that when our bodily systems are no longer able to receive or process energy, through trauma or other degradation of its physical components, the bodily expression of our essence dies, and our conscious awareness is drawn back into the non-physical part of the life continuum.

It is interesting to compare the body’s energy centers as described today with descriptions from thousands of years before technology progressed to map our physical nervous system. The invisible energy centers known as chakras are relegated today more to spirituality than science. Yet, they correspond exactly to visible nerve bundles, sometimes called miniature brains, that concentrate and distribute the electrical energy driving our cardiac, respiratory, digestive, reproductive, and other major bodily processes. In other words, the chakras of old and the nerve bundles of more recent science are the same energy centers performing the same functions. The chakras, however, cannot be directly observed and so they are considered spiritual speculation instead of scientific reality. The chakras are the spiritual expressions of physical nerve bundles.

For example, the (invisible) heart chakra and the (microscopically visible) cardiac nerve bundle share a common location and function within the body – energizing our circulatory system. A spiritualist of old might describe the heart chakra as distributing the spirit-energy that governs the distribution of blood throughout the body. Today’s anatomist might describe the cardiac nerve bundle as distributing the electrical energy that powers the rhythmic beating of our heart. A mystical theologian might say the Holy Spirit animates, or energizes all bodily functions, including those of the heart. All three describe the same physical and spiritual phenomenon with different vocabularies and from different but equally legitimate perspectives on the life continuum.  

My point is that the essence of everything we consider physical is a partial expression of a parallel, non-physical reality. Everything is vaster and more complex than we perceive from its physical manifestation alone. There is a spiritual, or unseen essence behind everything in creation. Only from a higher level of being can this be perceived. Our bodies are not our essential self, any more than are our jobs, homes, ethnicity, or friends. They are, however, physical expressions or projections of our essential self or soul. When our physical bodies become uninhabitable, our soul sheds its dysfunctional outer shell like worn-out clothing and lives on. Unencumbered by physical shackles we remember who we are at our core, our true self: the loving and beloved child of God we’ve always known ourselves to be but were afraid to trust as real.

This is the 9 ^thin a series titled Crucifying Christianity, Resurrecting the Way. The opinions expressed here are mine. To engage with me or to explore contemplative spiritual direction, my email is ghildenbrand@outlook.com.

The New/Old Social Pandemic:

Homelessness, Marginalization, and Immigration

By Greg Hildenbrand

The New/Old Social Pandemic is an in-depth exploration of the social issues of homelessness, marginalization, and immigration as the predictable products of outdated, underfunded, and unjust social systems maintained by the privileged of society.

Now available from Greg or any major bookseller.

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[1] For an in-depth consideration of the energy/spirit equivalence, see my book, Space, Time, and Eternity, 2024, available at www.ContemplatingGrace.com or any major bookseller.