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.
