From a site visitor: “My wife has been visited at night by her deceased father who brings positive messages to her. It seems to me that those sighting dismiss your notion that there is no body or any form in an afterlife.”
F.: Your comments, along with your wife’s “sightings,” show that you have both missed the natural understanding and have been programmed to think supernaturally. There are actually two possible explanations for her “experiences”: (1) the sightings were “real” and involved a subtle or causal body state of consciousness or (2) the sightings were actually just visions—merely imaginings—of the types that happen in the Theta state of consciousness. In “The Glossary of Terms Used on this Site,” one entry in December 2005 offered this, in part:
Unmanifesting: The movement of consciousness (which was temporarily manifested into a space) back into that "field of conscious-energy" from which it came. Some speak of three bodies to help students picture the movement. Consider the gross body to be the space housing manifested consciousness; take the subtle body to represent something shifting beyond the personal, gross body; and take the causal body to correspond to the transpersonal stage that precedes total transcendence to the Unmanifest, to the no-body and no-mind Reality. (The erroneous beliefs in ghosts, angels, spirits, and an eternal life with a body were first given credence when the consciousness that was still manifested in some gross body became aware of subtle or causal stage manifestations of consciousness in the transition stage of unmanifesting. A woman who looked as if she'd seen a ghost approached me and told me her grandmother had just appeared to her and told her "everything is going to be OK." Fifteen minutes later, a call came that her grandmother had died fifteen minutes earlier. That event was nothing more than manifested consciousness being aware of unmanifesting consciousness. Rather than suggesting that some "magical world" exists out there or that "bodies last forever," that event merely illustrated that consciousness can know consciousness NOW.) Only use the "three body stages" to help you picture consciousness not unmanifesting in a micro-second but fading out of the manifestation and into the unmanifest. Many persons claim that consciousness is "the soul" and that the soul will go to another world and remanifest there into the same body it was in on earth—along with the same "mind" it had at the "time" of "death." Of course that is impossible since dust does not regroup and since "the mind" was a complete illusion...the storehouse of all illusions.
[ You may click on http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2005/12/glossary-of-terms-for-this-site-part_23.html
for the complete text ]
So that covers possibility number one, which is rare. Possibility number two—imagining such sightings and then believing that they were real—happens in the Theta state of consciousness. In that state, persons can dream or envision and be totally convinced that the dream or vision was real. You know that dreams can seem so real that people can often awaken from the dream state with screams or with cold sweats. That’s how real an illusion can seem to be. Which of those two types is your wife experiencing? Since the visits are at night, and since nighttime is generally the time when the Theta state is entered, I suspect the latter, but either case is possible.
However, rather than concern yourself with any of that, why not find if any dreams are being taken as the real? A far more positive impact on your relative existence could then happen. Of course the Theta state can provide visions that can reveal an understanding of the Functioning of the Totality. Regarding any “positive messages,” though, realize that truth does not come from without, whether that which is outside of you is the image of a deceased relative or is an imaginary power. Truth is found from within after all dreams and lies are seen and discarded and after any revealing vision is understood. [See "Articles" at www.floydhenderson.com for more.] Forget all imaginary outer resources and tap into the inner resource. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
TOMORROW: “What is with some Advaitans who talk of human misery and suffering? I used the teachings to detach from it all and move on. I take my adversities and make opportunities of them. If people have problems, they need to find solutions instead of wallowing in misery. Make clear to people that we are Brahman. We have the power to turn failures into success and move on.”
F.: Your comments, along with your wife’s “sightings,” show that you have both missed the natural understanding and have been programmed to think supernaturally. There are actually two possible explanations for her “experiences”: (1) the sightings were “real” and involved a subtle or causal body state of consciousness or (2) the sightings were actually just visions—merely imaginings—of the types that happen in the Theta state of consciousness. In “The Glossary of Terms Used on this Site,” one entry in December 2005 offered this, in part:
Unmanifesting: The movement of consciousness (which was temporarily manifested into a space) back into that "field of conscious-energy" from which it came. Some speak of three bodies to help students picture the movement. Consider the gross body to be the space housing manifested consciousness; take the subtle body to represent something shifting beyond the personal, gross body; and take the causal body to correspond to the transpersonal stage that precedes total transcendence to the Unmanifest, to the no-body and no-mind Reality. (The erroneous beliefs in ghosts, angels, spirits, and an eternal life with a body were first given credence when the consciousness that was still manifested in some gross body became aware of subtle or causal stage manifestations of consciousness in the transition stage of unmanifesting. A woman who looked as if she'd seen a ghost approached me and told me her grandmother had just appeared to her and told her "everything is going to be OK." Fifteen minutes later, a call came that her grandmother had died fifteen minutes earlier. That event was nothing more than manifested consciousness being aware of unmanifesting consciousness. Rather than suggesting that some "magical world" exists out there or that "bodies last forever," that event merely illustrated that consciousness can know consciousness NOW.) Only use the "three body stages" to help you picture consciousness not unmanifesting in a micro-second but fading out of the manifestation and into the unmanifest. Many persons claim that consciousness is "the soul" and that the soul will go to another world and remanifest there into the same body it was in on earth—along with the same "mind" it had at the "time" of "death." Of course that is impossible since dust does not regroup and since "the mind" was a complete illusion...the storehouse of all illusions.
[ You may click on http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2005/12/glossary-of-terms-for-this-site-part_23.html
for the complete text ]
So that covers possibility number one, which is rare. Possibility number two—imagining such sightings and then believing that they were real—happens in the Theta state of consciousness. In that state, persons can dream or envision and be totally convinced that the dream or vision was real. You know that dreams can seem so real that people can often awaken from the dream state with screams or with cold sweats. That’s how real an illusion can seem to be. Which of those two types is your wife experiencing? Since the visits are at night, and since nighttime is generally the time when the Theta state is entered, I suspect the latter, but either case is possible.
However, rather than concern yourself with any of that, why not find if any dreams are being taken as the real? A far more positive impact on your relative existence could then happen. Of course the Theta state can provide visions that can reveal an understanding of the Functioning of the Totality. Regarding any “positive messages,” though, realize that truth does not come from without, whether that which is outside of you is the image of a deceased relative or is an imaginary power. Truth is found from within after all dreams and lies are seen and discarded and after any revealing vision is understood. [See "Articles" at www.floydhenderson.com for more.] Forget all imaginary outer resources and tap into the inner resource. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
TOMORROW: “What is with some Advaitans who talk of human misery and suffering? I used the teachings to detach from it all and move on. I take my adversities and make opportunities of them. If people have problems, they need to find solutions instead of wallowing in misery. Make clear to people that we are Brahman. We have the power to turn failures into success and move on.”
