Spiritual and physical senses
- This page is part of an ERW course, section: Divine Principle - The spiritual world.
- By John Eagles, September 21, 2009.
Some people testify of their having spiritual experiences. Others believe that the reality of the spiritual world is only made up by religious or spiritual fanatics. Yet for those observing the spiritual world in some kind of way, the spiritual reality makes part of their lives.
How can we understand the relationship between the spiritual world and the physical world as we experience these in our existence as human beings living on earth in our physical bodies? Do we perceive the spiritual world with our physical senses? And why do some people think that there is no spiritual reality?
One way to understand the spiritual world is that it is complementary to the physical world. The two form a duality that have a relationship that is very similar in nature to that between mind and body or between masculine and feminine aspects of all that is. Many people see 'spirit' as synonymous to 'mind,' but that would only be possible in a rather confused definition of terms.
When we live on after death of the physical body, we will still be able to think and we also will be able to perform actions. That means that also our spirit has a mind and a body. Our 'mind' therefore is not the same as our 'spirit.' Our spiritual existence can be seen as one that is complementary to our physical life. In our physical existence, we desire, think, feel and act. The same is true for our spiritual life. The physical mind and body are more centered on survival and development in the physical existence, the spiritual mind and body are controlling life and growth in the spiritual dimension.
To understand the relationship between our spirit and our physical being, we could see the spirit as the occupant of a vehicle, which is the physical body. Our spirit dwells in our physical mind and body. We do not become a spirit after we died, we already are a spirit during our physical lives.
The human spirit dwells in the physical human being. When we are having spiritual experiences, it is actually our spirit having this. But we sense these spiritual experiences mostly in our physical bodies with our physical senses.
Let us take the example of the eyes. We have physical eyes and they see the physical world around us. Our physical eyes do not see the spiritual reality. Still, when someone sees something or someone in spirit world, it is also seen with the physical eyes.
From the outside of the eyes there comes in light from the physical reality that makes images for our physical perception. When someone sees a spiritual appearance, this seems to also come from the outside but in fact, the images were received by the spiritual eyes and then passed on to the physical eyes. In our physical existence, we constantly have sensory perceptions of all that is around us and because we are used to live by making use of these perceptions, these are very powerful and dominating. In order to perceive the spiritual reality, which comes into our physical senses from our spiritual senses, we need to kind of neglect our physical experiences for a while.
To illustrate how the spirit could be in our physical being, think of a laser image that is projected into a physical space. The laser image is real and yet is not of exactly the same substance as the physical room with the things into which it was projected. Our spirit is more or less like that laser projection and because our spirit is very much in form and appearance like the physical body, the two realities converge. Contrary to the laser projection though, our spirit has a life of itself, is even controlling the physical body to a smaller or larger degree. The energies of the spirit occupy our physical being. There is traffic of energies going back and forth between the spirit and the physical being. The spirit is influenced by what the physical mind and body do and vice versa.
It is only when heart, mind and body are centered on the same goals as our spiritual and physical being that not only mind and body but also spirit and 'physic' merge into one unity. In order to reach this unity, the highest goal must be pursued, that is a life of love centering on God the Creator.
Comments
- Question: How do spirits in the spiritual world see us if we relate to them? Do they see us as we are in the physical world or do we appear different to them?
It's important to note that spirits, angels or human beings, do not see the physical world in the same way as we do. I have often asked your question to angels and spirits and their answer always was more or less the same. But to give an adequate explanation I need to elaborate a little.
Spirits can see our spirits as these are dwelling in our bodies. They also can recognize the physical body, but it is seen more like an appearance of energy. They usually describe this kind of perception in terms like 'darker' or 'brighter' and also with colors of energy. Compare this to what some people describe as the aura of people, an energy field beaming out from our bodies. As for the spirit in the body: If the spirit of a person is down, it is much more difficult to see the spirit from the spiritual world. If the spirit is strong and shining, the spirit can be recognized very well.
Sometimes people are dominated by the desires of their bodies. In such cases the spirit cannot be seen so well from the spiritual world. Then still the physical body can be observed in the way as described above. As for the age of the spirit in the body: Very often the spirit of people has not the same age as the physical body. Some people are spiritual young even though their bodies are already old. Their spirit may look like that of a person of maybe 30 years old while the body is 70 or 80. Still such a younger looking spirit who has more life experience has a more 'mature' look than a spirit whose physical age is also about 30.
The opposite is also possible, that the spirit of people looks older than the physical body. Taking all these matters into account, it is essential to understand the nature of perceptions made by spirits. To see something in the spiritual world is not always a simple matter. It presupposes a kind of awareness.
The more awareness that a spiritual being has developed, the more that he or she can see. For example, many angels can recognize from spirit world houses that were built without spiritual content, where many less developed human spirits don't see anything in such a case. While some houses built on earth stand like strong rocks in the spiritual world because they were built by people having spiritual awareness, other houses, even palaces and churches, can almost not be recognized from the spiritual world.
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