CHAPTER 1 – Introduction

Writing this book, or series of blog posts, was not planned and did not start as such. It started as random notes on my phone when I realised that I needed a more structured and lasting approach to understand and manage the endless turbulences of my mind. I also do not consider most of the content to be mine. I think of it as the intuitive and subjective synthesis I created from the knowledge that has been made available to me, or that I was drawn to, throughout my life. The navigation of our inner worlds can be facilitated by outer guidance. Sometimes we rely on others to find the next step, other times we light the path for them. In many ways, this book represents the real world birthing of another reality for me. The process of writing cemented my new reality and allowed me to more systematically process and settle a lot of internal struggles. As I will keep reminding you, it will always be your own free choice to accept or reject any of the information or thoughts I provide. What you decide to assimilate and integrate into your own reality (which may be significantly different from mine) is entirely up to you. Everyone will make their own choices, at their own pace.

In this introductory chapter, I wish to provide a little background on my life and a few introductory mental queries, while the remaining chapters are dedicated to describe the reality framework that resulted from it.

Throughout my childhood, I never felt like an actual child. I always felt like a grownup, essentially the same person that I am today, even if I lacked any practical knowledge of adult life. All of my formative years were blurred and swallowed by what felt like a deeply resonating mismatch between my soul, a higher self that I sensed in the background but could not yet define, and my embodied self. The multilayered dissonance I felt was further exacerbated by my incredibly sensitive personality, which lead to a constant sense of bewilderment and alienation. I felt frozen, for lack of a better word. I never felt truly immersed in the dream or illusion of life and constantly sought yet lacked the ability to grasp its meaning. I felt caught in-between worlds and made myself comfortable in an experiential and mental no-mans land. Somewhat aimlessly, or so it felt, I chased after traditional ideals of success. Later, I embarked on a scientific career, which was well suited for my constant search for the underlying meaning to things. The general un-ease I felt, the lack of belonging, led me down a spiritual, yet deeply analytical, path. The search for resolution of that childhood trauma – essentially to be physically incarnated – was the catalyst for my spiritual growth and transformation.

Collating the themes that kept swirling through my mind was as an attempt, at first private, to reconcile my outer and inner realities. The reader can consider this book as a snapshot of my fleeting mental and intuitive processes, and as such, should not to be seen as absolute. Those thought processes convey a knowledge I wished I had earlier in my life. Although I hope they may have validity beyond my own life, I do not claim that they do. At best, they represent a single account of what a human search for meaning looks like. Paraphrasing the late Alan Watts, I do not want to convince anybody of anything. This book offers ideas to be played with, entertained by your own mind, without attachment.

Nothing ever came easy in my life, and so it comes to no surprise that the process of my mental rebirth was quite arduous. I could only recognise and accept the gift such process represents once I reclaimed myself, as perceived through the lens of my higher self. Unfortunately, the value of struggle and pain cannot be appropriately assessed through the narrow mental plane it is perceived in. A recurring theme of my life is the power of my inner strength, the inability to ever give up, which I always found to be utterly exhausting (revealing an obvious dichotomy between the part of me which felt exhausted and wished to give up, and the part of me which never let that happen). I cannot but acknowledge that the substantial amount of time (i.e. most of my life) I spent exploring what I now consider lower planes of energy were critical for the evolution of my soul. A natural urge to share the lessons I learned along the way followed.

Struggle comes in all shapes and forms. For me, it was mostly mental, from as early as I can remember. The world always appeared very foreign for me, and made very little sense. I didn’t understand why humans settled for particular types of interactions, rules, structures of society. I questioned everything, including myself. I guess that’s part of the reason I became a scientist. If nothing makes sense, might as well spend the time I have finding out why, and what the nature of this odd reality is that I find myself immersed in. The lack of understanding and acceptance of my outer world resulted in an unsettled state of being. The unwillingness to be moulded by my worldly surroundings meant that my mind never crystallised into a particular operating mode, but rather continuously changed and evolved, unwilling to provide me with any mental stability. I later came to realise that although uncomfortable and alienating, these attributes of my mind allowed and fuelled limitless growth and exploration.

My outer silence, introspection, HSP and typical INFJ-T, reserved personality masked the fact that I was in constant mental and emotional turmoil, a roller coaster of sorts, bracing for the next cognitive dive or anxiety attack, halfway between, as John Muir puts it, losing my mind and finding my soul. The mental and emotional flexibility that I came into this world with truly felt like a curse at first, even though it developed into a blessing in the later part of my life. The ability to bend reality is mentally very challenging, as your mind becomes both the object and subject of a perceived insanity, at times triggering panic attacks to avoid complete loss of control. Somewhat related to this mental phenotype, my perception of time was also different from others, and more generally I found deep resonance with Rumi’s praise for the inner world:

You have no need to travel anywhere – journey within yourself. Enter a mine of rubies and bathe in the splendor of your own light.

Rumi

Indeed, I felt that my inner experience gave me plenty of thrills and awe-inspiring experiences. My comparatively boring, repetitive external life gave me the space I required to dedicate myself to the exploration, but also creation, of a seemingly endless internal landscape. It felt almost necessary for me to make my outwardly life ordinary, so that my inner world could become extraordinary. The associated solitude further enhanced the intensity of this energetic groundwork.

In retrospect, my inability or unwillingness to fit in, although very burdensome and heavy at times, was also a fail-safe designed to keep me on a chosen path. Akin to the tower card in tarot, we willingly move, or jump, only when the house is on fire. And perhaps we are precisely the ones who set the house on fire for our own good; more on that perspective later. In my case, it had to be something significant enough to isolate me for a substantial amount of time. Time is quite relative but from a human perspective, lessons, knowledge and wisdom take time to develop; a peculiarity of human life. The large amount of time I had at my disposal was spent exploring different realms of consciousness and journeying deep into my mental fabric. The lack of mental rigidity was an asset and allowed me to proceed on that journey with as much objectivity as humanly possible. Yet what initially started as an objective exploration magically transformed into a creative dream, and analytical thinking made way to a co-creative voyage of a deeply spiritual nature. The analytical assessment of what I perceived to be a broken mind surrendered to the light that came through the cracks, my real identity.

As a scientist by trade, I define myself by the old definition of that vocation, a person who devotes themselves to the exploration or examination of the nature of reality. Over time, it became very apparent to me that truly objective, empirical observation is rarely found these days. The reason to bring science into this discussion, and why I am sharing the results of my own introspection, is that the inner world has a significant impact on how we perceive and shape our outer world, which in turns dictates the quality of our lives. This matters because although the conditions humans are living in are arguably the best in human history, the number of people struggling with mental health or related issues is on a steady rise, globally. My wish is that this book or series of blogs may provide a lifeline to those who may need it like I did. Yet I also wish to acknowledge the intrinsic value of the long and tedious process of self realisation and actualisation. Hardship is a powerful ally for self development and empowerment. Actionable help and advice just makes that path somewhat more bearable.

I perceive the scientific community and the world at large to be increasingly dogmatic and unwilling, to a large extent, to entertain uncomfortable yet valid hypotheses about controversial topics; altogether a very unscientific behaviour. This bothers me immensely, as it works against personal, societal and scientific progress. Dogmatic thinking strongly restricts opportunities for self-development, and therefore changes everything. While the human mind is intrinsically biased towards confidence and security, accepting and integrating beliefs only when they reach a particular level of certainty, a significant portion of the dogmatic thinking and behaviour encountered today has a societal origin, and is hence self-imposed. Extracting yourself from your own hardships therefore involves letting go of societal conformism and developing your independence in opinion, thought and action.

The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.

Charles Bukowski

Reflecting on my own field of scientific expertise, biomedical sciences in general and immunology in particular, I know for a fact that a very high degree of expertise, acquired over many years of self-directed research, is necessary to even start evaluating and discussing any particular field of knowledge, let alone claiming any type of truth. This does not necessarily imply objectivity, as objectivity is very much tied to the human concealed behind the scientist. Applied to various scientific fields of societal interest – picking from more controversial topics to which this discussion mostly applies to – there is no doubt in my mind that the vast majority of humans, across all levels of education, are not in a position to formulate any rigorous opinion by and for themselves on topics like the origins of climate change, vaccines, extraterrestrial life or ancient civilizations. Instead, they rely on curated, subjective social media outputs, personalities and influencers, to create an opinion for themselves. While this is anybody’s unquestionable right, I merely point it out here as a potential source of pain and suffering, reiterating that excluding possibilities limits your range of personal development. It is my strong belief that the integration of certain concepts could immeasurably transform your life for the better if you let it, but that again is a choice. Of course, if your life is a good and happy as you could ever wish, there is no obvious reason to change any of your beliefs.

Some of the topics I listed above have fascinated me for many years, particularly the ones related to the nature of human reality and our place in the universe. The main reason being that the acceptance or rejection of any aspect of the attached controversies invariably leads to a change in the perception of reality; at least it did for me. For instance, let’s consider ancient, advanced civilisations, which may have inhabited our planets many thousands of years ago. Controversy erupted recently around books published and points of discussion raised by Graham Hancock, including in recent Netflix series. What is being used as evidence for the existence of advanced civilisations, the remains of megalithic structures, are obvious for everyone to see and visit. What is less obvious is their precise age and how these would have been erected. When faced with the sheer size and weight of some of the stones used to create Stonehenge (UK), Gobekli Tepe (Turkey), Gunung Padang (Indonesia) and others, one is left wondering how ancient civilisations could have transported the giant stones across large distances and create these gigantic structures, let alone with laser-like precision. I have no expertise related to this topic and my understanding is strictly based on reading books, watching selected videos and physically visiting Stonehenge and surrounding stone circles. That being said, I have yet to read a logical, evidence-based narrative which would convince me that such structures could have been built using contemporary technologies and/or manpower only. Wherever you sit on such topic, absence of evidence does not constitute evidence of absence, like in any other scientific field, which means that there are mainly three options in such a scenario: to sit on either side, or consider both sides as legitimate; and I will come back to the critical element of choice throughout this book, because it informs and directs so much of our lives. Excluding the option which does not require an actual choice (i.e. sitting on the fence), the typical human mind essentially acts according to two distinct default modes of operation: it either rapidly disregards the presented information because it feels threatened (personally or as part of a scientific collective) by the implications if it was to integrate them into its reality, or, more rarely, it integrates the information as something potentially, even if temporarily, valid. It is important to realise that in the particular case of ancient civilisations, the truth (e.g. evidence which irrefutably validates or disproves the hypothesis) may never become available. We may never be able to travel back in time to know how these structures have been built. Therefore, what I refer to as integration is in the form of possibility, nothing more, but nothing less either.

My premise is that considering the possibility that ancient civilisations with highly advanced technologies lived on earth thousands of years ago as valid would significantly change your perception of reality. I invite you to the following thought experiment to find out: imagine such civilisations did indeed exist, putting any doubt aside (if you can), and for whatever reason disappeared. How does that make you feel? Would it be an uncomfortable truth or would it open your mind to all sorts of other possibilities? Would it precipitate a change in other aspects of your subjective reality, such as the existence of unidentified flying objects (UFOs)? How does it make you feel to accept these possibilities as real, even if only for the brief period of time?

As I was learning how to manage my mental flexibility, I used examples and exercises like these to explore the boundaries (and self-imposed limitations) of my mind, which kept changing. I followed an endless trail of breadcrumbs, one topic leading seamlessly to a myriad of other ones, each heavy with endless literature, opinions and controversies. A second example I wish to mention here, before we move on, is the old civilization of Sumer (located in Mesopotamia, or today’s Iraq) and the Sumerian tablets, as extensively covered by the books and lifelong quest of Zachariah Sitchin. I am no expert in this field either, and I never will be. Zachariah Sitchin dedicated many decades of his life painstakingly deciphering the Sumerian cuneiform scripts found on ancient clay tablets. I will never reach that level of expertise nor do I want to dedicate decades of my life working up to it; we all have different callings, with limited amounts of time. My only effort in that matter was to read the majority of Sitchin’s books and visit the Ashmolean museum (Oxford, UK) in 2019 to view the clay Tablet of Enki. I do not intend to further discuss or even defend Zachariah Sitchin’s work here. Instead, I invite you to read his books, should you feel called, and make your own judgement on the main subject and content of the Sumerian tablets, namely the earthly history of a very advanced extraterrestrial civilisation, the Annunaki.

Should you read some of Sitchin’s work and trust that he, to the best of his abilities, accurately translated the tablets, the possibility remains that the tales past on by the Sumerians were merely fictional. Yet are you willing to entertain the possibility that the tablets depict an accurate version of history and that an advanced civilization of Annunaki indeed populated Earth thousands of years ago? If so, how would that change your current reality? And if you perceive resistance towards acknowledging that this may have been part of our planetary past, or put more trust into critics of that theory, what type of internal/external expertise is your mind giving preference to and for what reason? Perhaps the disruptively faithful translations of texts from the Old Testament by Mauro Biglino (I’m referring to his book “Gods of the Bible”), that I will only very briefly mention here but would strongly recommend reading, would further open your mind to the possibility that our ancestral past is connected to the Annunaki, and how this may be related to the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, in modern times.

By now you may get my point. Imagine following a similar process every time you were confronted with disruptive information, or any type of information for that matter. How would that change your life? And perhaps more importantly, do you think that you are able to determine the true cost, for any aspect of your life, of deciding to either keep or discard the possibility presented to you at the time? From my perspective, the true cost of such decision is immeasurable, because of its truly life altering character. And this is precisely what the definition of modern scientific, empirical inquiry should be. We are not watching an apple fall from a tree anymore and ponder the existence of gravity. Instead, we are exposed to an insurmountable amount of data on a daily basis, mostly through the internet, and are invited to playfully explore it and use it to fine tune our intuitive skills, which we then use to create our unique framework of reality. There are as many opinions and points of view in today’s world as there are humans. Each has its own intrinsic validity, even if only due to its human origin. Out of all the information accessible to you, what is the substrate you are using to build your reality, and how conscious is that selection process for you? Are you guided by the path of least (cultural) resistance, or perhaps the path which eases the pain of existence for you, providing some relief from your search for meaning? Is any type of intuition involved?

If you are (still) reading this, it is likely that you are looking for something which seems to be missing in your life, or you are seeking answers or solutions for something that bothers or restricts you, pain you are experiencing. Carl Jung said that disease is an unsuccessful attempt at a cure. I would argue that suffering could be described as an unsuccessful attempt at knowing yourself and living your truth. Truth is what my writings are about; your truth in particular, which is unlikely to be found through conventional mental activity but may rather require you to venture past your comfort zone into new fields of awareness, akin to Einstein’s belief that “a problem cannot be solved on the same level of consciousness it was created”. My posts may challenge you to alter your perception of reality and trigger a permanent expansion of your consciousness.

I write all of this as an encouragement to think for yourself. During the process of truth seeking, which oftentimes includes change, you may frequently collide with your ego, particularly when it feels threatened. It is therefore important to stay attentive throughout the process, which will also enable you to recognise how others are controlled by their ego. With time, it will become easier to distinguish truth, or at the very least your truth, but be prepared to become somewhat alienated from friends or society in general. The path can be lonely. There are limitless variations on how to live a human life; none of them are wrong. Some people are just more curious about life and its meaning than others, and those are the brave souls who often embark on the long journey of self-discovery, to find peace and a chance to live a normal life. For all others, the process of self-discovery will occur, willingly or unwillingly, as they go through the process of physical death.

I cannot but compare life to a labyrinth, which we designed ourselves, with the set goal to find its exit by the end of our lifetime. Yet spending time in that labyrinth and collecting teachings and clues along the way, to help us find our way out, is a goal in itself. Scattered along the way, we may come across alluring, even addictive situations and places, tempting us to stay and forget all about our path (a bit like Percy Jackson’s Lotus Casino, for those who have seen the movie; apologies for such basic analogy). What awaits at the end, sometimes even before, is, simply put, home, which is not so much a place as it is a vibration of peace and completeness, experienced as bliss. Reaching that energetic destination while still physically alive is the highest reward of human life. Importantly, both the labyrinth and all you will ever need on your path are inside of you. Your external circumstances merely reflect them back at you. This book is a pointer towards yourself. Everything you need is inside of you.

Always we hope someone else has the answer, some other place will be better, some other time, it will all turn out. This is it. No one else has the answer, no other place will be better, and it has already turned out. At the center of your being, you have the answer: you know who you are and you know what you want. There is no need to run outside for better seeing, nor peer from a window. Rather abide at the center of your being: for the more you leave it, the less you learn. Search your heart and see the way to do is to be. Abide at the center of your being.

Lao Tzu

CHAPTER 2 – Everything is energy – merging science and spirituality

The universe is a single atom: the convergence of science and spirituality.

Dalai Lama XIV

Science and spirituality are for the most part regarded as mutually exclusive fields of human inquiry. It seems impossible, or at least not readily acceptable, to be a scientist and spiritual, whatever the definition of the latter. However, it is my opinion that science and spirituality go hand in hand, and being spiritual is a sign of great scientific knowledge and understanding. The pursuit of either seems to, at least initially, lead into opposite directions. But, similarly to moving away from the same point of a circle, both directions lead to the same spot on the opposite side (should you be willing to travel that far). Or as Werner Heisenberg, theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate, put it: “The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you”.

Some fields of science (medical, biological) are still far removed from spirituality, while others (quantum and theoretical physics) are significantly closer. It is most unfortunate that the medical sciences in particular are far from spirituality, as they would have most to gain from it. Instead, Western medical practice largely considers the human body as a machine which, when it breaks down, is most efficiently repaired using surgical or pharmacological interventions. Advanced physics comes comparably very close to spiritual concepts or lines of thought. Once again, I am stepping out of my area of expertise and am nowhere near being able to understand the subtleties of advanced physics. My tertiary education barely touched on quantum physics, and even then, I did not have the mathematical skills to understand it to any great length. Yet, it is quite apparent to me that the integration of established concepts of quantum physics into the perception of reality will be invariably difficult, regardless of anybody’s theoretical or practical background. Learning the basics of how your heart, kidney or immune system work will not significantly alter how you view reality, but pondering over quantum entanglement will, if you let it.

Scientific inquiry has become so specialised in recent decades and centuries, that artificial boundaries have formed over time. Tragically, subjective separation has kept complementary fields apart for far too long. The fact that immunology, my field of expertise, has recently developed bridges to the field of neurosciences is encouraging and hopefully heralds a new appreciation of scientific integration, a necessary step towards a more holistic approach to understand our physical bodies and physical reality more generally.

True integration requires the fundamental recognition that any type of scientific field investigating physical processes, including all medical and life sciences, ultimately abides by the laws described for the very fabric of reality, the quantum world. It is very easy to dismiss the laws of quantum physics when working with entire human bodies or even a few very specialised cells. How could experiments conducted with the smallest sub-atomic particles every apply to the plant or animal world? Much work remains to be done, and realistically, we may never be able to truly explain everything about life and consciousness.

It appears as if all sciences eventually overlap and coalescence into a multidimensional framework, each individual field of science contributing to reality and what we perceive as such. However, it is important to note that the quantum world does not define the ultimate boundary of that framework, because it borders itself the realm of spirituality. The idea that science invariably leads to a somewhat atheistic worldview is erratic. Atheistic arguments merely highlight a lack of depth in someone’s scientific and personal (both being inextricably intertwined) exploration. Although science and spirituality are inseparable, they have been artificially segregated by conservative education and societal pressures. One of life’s purposes is to reconnect them.

The fact that science (e.g. advanced physics) and spirituality may be closely related becomes apparent upon closer examination. Of note, the Bhagavad Gita, holy scripture of Hinduism, was referred to as “the most beautiful philosophical song existing in any known tongue” by Erwin Schroedinger, Nobel Laureate in physics (1933).

Our energetic reality

It is important to come to the realisation that the key characteristic of human life is energy, not matter. The ability to relate to other humans, empathy, is knowing how it feels to be them. Life is essentially an energetic exploration. The material world provides all the necessary scenes and scenarios, but our lives only ever make sense from an energetic perspective. It is through that energetic doorway that we connect to the fabric of reality, not through our physical qualities (even though matter itself consists of energy). To know more about the energetic nature of reality allows us to know more about ourselves.

While it is tempting to think that knowledge about the quantum field and emerging concepts of advanced physics have provided a novel framework to define and interpret reality, it is critical to note that such framework may have already existed thousands of years ago. Of particular relevance are the teachings and texts related to Hermeticism, derived from the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus, who would also be known as the Greek god Hermes, or the Egyptian god Thoth. Thoth being also known as Ningishzidda, son of Annunaki and Sumerian god Enki. Hermes is at the origin of what is referenced as the Hermetic teachings, the philosophy of Hermeticism, which include a series of writings.

The particular text related to Hermeticism that significantly impacted me and that I wish to briefly discuss in the context of this chapter is the Kybalion. It is not clear who authored the Kybalion – they are simply referenced as the three initiates – but that is of no particular importance, since the Kybalion likely represents a highly curated summary of ancient concepts and teachings. What makes the Kybalion a worthwhile reference, even if it may have deviated from the original principles it encapsulates, is that it addresses the concept of reality in a way which deeply resonated with my own perception of it.

The lips of wisdom are closed, except to the ears of understanding

The Kybalion

You can find ample video content on the Kybalion, and I would encourage you to access available online resources; perhaps most important would be for you to read the Kybalion for yourself, or download an audio version of it (there are very good versions available for free). The Kybalion is a fairly short book that presents seven principles underlying reality and everything in existence. I will briefly discuss the seven principles but would recommend diving more deeply in the material to determine how it resonates with your own understanding. Take what resonates with you and leave the rest.

1. The principle of mentalism.

This principle states that everything in existence is mind, and that matter is merely a manifestation of a universal mind. While you may be tempted to immediately dismiss the premise of that principle, I would encourage you to put it in the perspective of what is currently known about the nature of physical matter. Even if it may impossible to substantiate the principle of mentalism with any type of ‘data’, I believe that it is somewhat related to the double slit experiment (as further discussed later on), first conducted by Thomas Young in the early 1800s and which demonstrated the wave-particle duality of light. While the original double slit experiments were conducted with light (i.e. photons) and thus somewhat difficult to assimilate, except as a marginal, theoretical framework, a more recent version of that same experiment conducted with much larger macromolecules (Juffmann et al., 2012, Nature Nanotechnology, 7, 297-300; Fein et al., 2019, Nature Physics, 15, 1242-1245) is much harder to dismiss as irrelevant. In the context of the double slit experiment, it is well established that the observer influences the experiment, and I believe that the fundamental underlying principle is linked to mentalism.

The way the principle of mentalism resonates with me is that I recognise that what we perceive to be a solid reality is only an integration of sensory signals in our brain. While that sounds trivial and may not convince you of the fact that we are indeed living in a mind-made reality, consider how you perceive vivid dreams. While dreaming, I am fairly sure, unless you are trained in lucid dreaming, that you perceive the dream to be as real as your waking reality. In many ways, dreams are an enhanced form of reality, as you may have experienced having extra-sensorial abilities during some of yours, like perceiving the presence of someone very specific without being able to see or hear them. You just know that they are there. You may argue that dreaming indeed, and unarguably, is generated through brain waves which create an artificial yet not physical reality. Yet the difference in the result of brain waves in the dream vs material space is merely that in the material space, they have the effect of collapsing the quantum wave function (cf. double slit experiment) while in the dreaming state they have no such effect, although they are perceived by yourself as equally real. Where it becomes a bit more difficult is in the acknowledgement that our brain, itself made of matter, does not exist either, but is the results of a higher mind. We may delve deeper in those concepts later in the book.

Although the principle of mentalism could be summarized as “life is not happening to me, life is happening from me”, it is equally important, as reinforced in the Kybalion, not to “yield to the temptation which overcomes the half-wise and which causes them to be hypnotized by the apparent unreality of things, the consequence being that they wander about like dream-people dwelling in a world of dreams, ignoring the practical work and life of man, the end being that they are broken against the rocks and torn asunder by the elements, by reason of their folly.”

As succinctly put by John Hopkins Professor of Physics and Astronomy Richard Conn Henry: “The universe is immaterial – mental and spiritual. Live and enjoy.” (Nature, 2005, 436, 29).

2. The principle of correspondence.

You may have heard of the associated tenet: “As above so below, as below so above”. A more appropriate translation would perhaps be “the above is of the below and the below is of the above”, which better conveys their unity, instead separateness. To understand this second principle, it is important to note that the hermetic doctrines are based on the existence of several planes of existence, or planes of correspondence, each on a different energetic frequency. The main planes being the Great Physical, Great Mental and Great Spiritual realms planes, in increasing order of frequency.

This principle does not only present a complete framework for the nature of reality, with the description of the various planes of existence, but also points towards the interaction between different planes of existence. The Kybalion defines a plane as in-between a state, a condition and/or a dimension, taking the characteristics of an energetic state while still providing a contextual dimension, which flows seamlessly into the next principle (of vibration). Inherent to the existence of various planes is your ability to choose, at least to some extent, which plane you wish to reside at any moment. I also like to think that the dimension of time only pertains to lower planes of correspondence. Above a certain frequency threshold, time is experienced differently, or not at all.

The principle of vibration.

Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.

The Kybalion

This third principle is very much aligned with modern physics in that it states that everything in existence is in a state of vibration. As we know from quantum physics, this is indeed the case. Our perception of solid matter is only possible because of our very rudimentary senses. On an atomic and sub-atomic level, everything is (in) vibration, and mostly empty space. This principle is aligned with the previous one, as the planes of correspondence equate to different energetic frequencies of vibration. An important corollary is not only that everything is in constant change, but also that everything interacts with, and is connected to, everything else.

The principle of polarity.

This principle reminds me of a quote from Alan Watts: “black implies white, self implies other, life implies death; or shall I say death implies life”. This principle surmises that everything is on a scale, like for example the concept of heat. A cold and hot pan only differ by their vibrational frequency. The atoms of a hot pan vibrate at a much higher frequency than the ones of the same pan when it’s cold. Thereby, hot and cold are on a polar scale, the terms cold and hot being only comparative, not absolute, characteristics. Something can always be hotter or colder than something else. The same concept applies to emotions or feeling. Like and dislike of something can only be said relative to something else. These are merely mental labels that describe vibrational polarities.

The material value of this principle for life is twofold. First, similarly to the previous principle, polarity infers that particular states of being, thinking or feeling are not immutable but can be changed along their respective polar scales. Since everything in existence vibrates along a particular scale, everything can ultimately be shifted in a different direction, with significant implications for your physical and non physical life. Secondly, the experience of any aspect of physical life allows for an exploration of the associated scale/magnitude of the continuum. What we perceive as being negative experiences intrinsically contain energetic information of its opposite. Only darkness allows us to understand (and appreciate) light. The hate-love spectrum has to be experienced for two reasons: to understand and value love, and to ultimately choose love. Energetic mastery includes both the choice and transmutation of energetic states of being; the true essence of alchemy.

Reincarnations are opportunities for souls to experience as many energetic/vibrational increments as possible. In that idea, the wisdom of old souls is nothing else but the reflection of their energetic breadth, deep understanding of reality and empathy, accumulated over many lifetimes. Perhaps counterintuitively, old souls will spend a lot of time in lower energies, a path that serves to remind them of their true energetic identity; the darkness being invaluable in revealing their light. The gentlest souls have been through the deepest pain.

The principle of rhythm.

In addition to vibrating along scales of polarity, the principle of rhythm states that everything naturally and bidirectionally moves along its scale(s), like a pendulum, or like breathing, the exhale always following the inhale, and vice versa. As exemplified by the Persian adage “this too shall pass”, everything eventually changes, for better or for worse. Nothing is permanent, neither good nor bad things. The most fundamental rhythm being the one which created this universe and which will one day bring about its involution back into itself, its return to a singularity.

This principles applies to mood (swings), feelings or thoughts. However, in that context, the Kybalion discusses the important effect of neutralisation, which masters of Hermeticism, and others unknowingly, use to stabilise their emotional state. Neutralisation leverages the fact that rhythm only applies to lower planes of correspondence, while higher planes are immune to its effects. Thus, by placing their focus on their higher selves, which reside in higher planes of correspondence, and polarising it as the desired pole (i.e. positive), their physical, material selves escape to swing back towards the other pole (negative). Neutralisation is accessible to anyone reaching a sufficient degree of spiritual development and able to rise to a higher plane of consciousness. Being governed by your lower consciousness, your ego, invariably means that you have no control over the rhythmicity of your emotional state.

The principle of cause and effect.

This one is quite straight forward. Since everything is in vibration and moves according to natural rhythms, and paired with the law of physics that no energy can ever be destroyed or created from nothing, if follows that everything that every effect has a cause and vice versa. Everything can influence anything else. Where this principle gets more interesting is its associated law that nothing happens by chance. Chance being “but a name for law not recognised”. This principle is however clearly dissociated from determinism, or the absence of free will. Similarly to the previous principle of rhythm, cause and effect operates differently in high vs low frequency planes. The higher the frequency, the more free will is being exerted. Furthermore, the cause and the associated effect can be located on different planes, allowing a spiritually developed individual to create a cause on a higher plane and reap the effect on the physical plane – one of the mechanisms underlying manifestation.

The principle of gender.

This last principle states that everything in existence possesses both masculine and feminine traits and characteristics (cf. polarity; everything is on the spectrum). The building block of physical matter, the atom, itself represents that principle, as it is formed by a positively charged proton and negatively charged electrons. Similarly, every human possesses both masculine and feminine traits.

This principle can be applied to everything, including thoughts, emotions and everything else in the mental plane. Reminiscent of the duality found in the atomic structure, the mind is equally divided into conscious and unconscious, objective and subjective, voluntary and involuntary mind. Spiritual development usually starts with a profound exploration of your dual mental identity: the I which thinks and the underlying consciousness, the I which listens.

As briefly mentioned above, one of the critical concepts discussed in the Kybalion is the concept of alchemy. What really caught my attention is that alchemy is not described as what most people would define it as, i.e. the medieval occult and chemical philosophy and its highest application of transmuting any metal into gold. The Kybalion describes alchemy as the transmutation of energies. While this may appear abstract, mastery of this concept would truly change the world, or at the very least your reality. Being able to transmute your emotions and thoughts, becoming an alchemist, would radically change your life. Imagine having the capacity to transmute any negative feeling and emotion into a positive one. You could transmute any frustration or anger, thereby nullifying any power anybody would have over you, in any circumstance. This would be the ultimate mastery, indeed turning everything into gold. There is no doubt that life’s biggest limitations are located in the mind. Mastering the process of removing those limitations is the key to a joyful life on highest path. I believe this to be, at least in part, the underlying principle behind a lot of remarkable life-altering transformations; the transmutation of negative experiences into growth. If there is nothing dearly sought to be overcome or transmuted, it is unlikely that you would be willing to leave your comfort zone to develop the skills to do so.

When attempting energetic alchemy, you will realise that the biggest hindrance is yourself, and the inability, or rather unwillingness, to let go of the negative energy or thoughts that you carry. While most people experiencing negative experiences, internal and/or external, express the wish and willingness to change, negative energy is very difficult to let go of, because of the energetic investment and identification they represent. This will be further discussed in other sections.

Other noteworthy notions from the Kybalion include the pan-religious definition of spiritual development and a beautiful memento that all is all, reminiscent of Austrian physicist Erwin Schroedinger’s view that “the total number of minds in the universe is one. In fact, consciousness is a singularity phasing within all beings”.

And, in the degree that Man realizes the existence of the indwelling Spirit immanent within his being, so will he rise in the spiritual scale of life. This is what spiritual development means — the recognition, realization, and manifestation of the Spirit within us. Try to remember this last definition — that of spiritual development. It contains the Truth of True Religion.

The Kybalion

To conclude, the Kybalion provides, to me at least, a very elegant and accurate framework of reality. Some sections remain very cryptic and vague, and would have benefited from a more detailed description, but the conciseness of the book makes it very approachable. Its concepts or principles are simple yet very difficult to integrate in your perception of reality. A beautiful and wondrous life awaits whoever is able to absorb and implement the Hermetic principles.

Energy and mind

Considering that the entire material universe may be a mind-based manifestation, the relationship between the mind and energy or matter becomes a very interesting topic of reflection. The mind will be covered in-depth in the next chapter, the following section being dedicated to the specific relationship between energy and the mind.

There are numerous approaches to discuss energy in the context of the mind. I would like to start with a common thought experiment. In particular, the question of whether a tree falling in a forest makes a sound if no one is there to hear it? Answering that question with a somewhat obvious yes is premature. The challenge is that you would not be able to prove it without some kind of presence, even if only of a recording device. The question of whether the falling tree made a sound if no human consciousness was there to witness it is valid. And perhaps the more important underlying question is whether the tree exists in the first place if it is not somehow experienced, if no mind is there to collapse its quantum wave function into manifestation. In other words, does physical reality depend on the experience of it? Or is the consciousness inherent to the tree enough to experience itself?

Such thought experiment is clearly related to any variation of the double slit experiment, already mentioned before, which suggests that the mere observation of a physical phenomenon (e.g. the travelling of a photon through an impermeable sheet with two slits) changes (or perhaps creates?) the outcome (i.e. whether the photon travels as a wave while generating wave like interference patterns, or like a particle, which goes through a single slit). Is the tree thought experiment a valid extrapolation of the double slit experiment? Is consciousness necessary for the collapse of a wave function into a particle? While these questions may remain theoretical and unanswered, confronting the human mind with these questions is an important exercise, as it loosens its tight grip on reality, or what it perceives as being real. It also supports the development of a more informed reality, where it cognises that everything may not be what it seems from the point of view of its limited sense perception and brain function.

An important related question is, since everything in existence has consciousness, spanning rudimentary to god-like frequencies, is there a minimal amount, quality or frequency of consciousness necessary to influence physical reality? Or is the frequency of consciousness correlated with the degree of influence on physical reality; a rock having only very limited capacity to influence its energetic surroundings, humans shaping their reality to a significant yet limited extent, while non-physical beings being able to create reality from scratch?

Now what does it exactly mean if a given consciousness collapses the quantum wave and selects a particular outcome out of limitless potential? It does not necessarily mean that you have the choice to push all of reality into a particular direction; perhaps only your own. It may be that all potential outcomes from the quantum wave are simultaneously fulfilled and realised. Instead of influencing all of reality, we may choose to observe only a single one.

The paradoxical overlay of different realities is exemplified by ‘Schroedinger’s cat’ thought experiment, created by Erwin Schroedinger after a discussion with Albert Einstein (“Die gegenwaertige situation in their quantenmechanik”, 1935, Naturwissenschaften, 23, 807-812). To test the relevance of quantum possibilities for the macroscopic, observable world, Schroedinger hypothesised the existence of a device being able to determine the state of a quantum particle in a binary way. That device, depending of which particle state would be detected, would either trigger the release of toxic radioactivity into a box containing a cat, or safely contain it. The quantum state of the particle would therefore determine the cat’s fate. However, similarly to the state of the photon in the double slit experiment, the particle exists simultaneously in both states, creating a paradoxical outcome for the cat: the cat is both dead and alive, according to the superpositition of quantum possibilities. The paradox of quantum superposition, extrapolated to an infinite degree, yields the controversial theory of the multiverse, the infinite collection of parallel universes.

It is important not to get swept away by such disorienting thought experiments, and not misinterpret their implication for your life to be that you do not matter. When dealing with the superposition of potentially infinite possibilities, everything you do matters, even if the outcome is both known and unknown. Everything you do has cosmic significance, even if you cannot grasp its importance. This is beautifully epitomised in the movie Mr. Nobody: “Every path is the right path. Everything could have been anything else and it would have had just as much meaning”. So while you have free will, trust and know that your choice will be ultimately the correct one. While the feeling that life may be directed by the smallest of choices can be bewildering at times, keep in mind that everything happening in your life is either a lesson or a blessing. Everything is life is an energetic transaction with the universe.

The relationship between mind and energy may therefore be split according to the characteristic of the mind. Finite minds, like a rock or a human, have the ability to influence their reality according to their plane or frequency of existence. At the far end of the spectrum, only the infinite mind, what we may call God or the All (Kybalion) is able to hold all quantum realities in its consciousness. Thus, all minds have a relationship with energy, only differing in scale. “As above, so below”. The mystery remains regarding the origin of the universe/multiverse and how the infinite mind has created physical reality. What observation led to the creation of something when there was nothing to observe? I like to think that only the most intense feeling of love, an aching intensity, may have been the power behind creation, although this may only be a poor comparison for such divine birthing process.

Energy and soul

This section will be relatively brief, as I do not want to make any assumption or discuss with any type of depth what I am not in a position to fully understand. The soul is what would be defined as higher consciousness, the eternal equivalent of your reincarnated consciousness. The soul itself is an energetic entity, located in higher planes of correspondence, as described in the Kybalion. A corollary to the concepts of an eternal soul and physical (re-)incarnation is that our life force is rooted in our non-physical higher self, the soul. You are a soul with a body, not the other way around.

The soul can influence energy on different planes, not only on the plane of higher consciousness it is located in but also in lower planes, according to the Hermetic principle of correspondence. Throughout my life, I have been astonished at the energy that was at my disposal. It never made any logical sense. I am not referring to purely physical energy, related to human physiology, which I am fairly familiar with. I am rather talking about the energy which moves you throughout life, the internal drive which did not seem to have any end for me. At times, I caught myself wishing that I would not have that kind of strength, that I could just give up on some things. Having such thoughts enter your mind is quite surreal. The only rational explanation I have for it, is that I am the embodiment of a higher power, for which I cannot take any physical credit. I get tired, of course, like anyone else, but I feel like I am driven by something that is not of this world. I truly believe that my higher self, my soul, has decided to reincarnate, perhaps one last time, to fulfil a purpose on this earth. These writings may perhaps be the first true outward acknowledgment of that purpose, which I (my ego) took a very long time to accept.

Energy and body

The human body, like the mind and the soul, is an energetic entity. But even though the body is the most physical manifestation of our energetic selves, and therefore most amenable to scientific exploration, the ways the body emits and transmits energies, and is itself receptive to energetic interactions, is poorly understood.

What has so far been scientifically established is that the body’s existence and survival is dependent upon electric signals, throughout the nervous system and innervated tissues and organs. The body’s physiology also relies on chemical energy, ingested in form of food and made accessible, upon digestion and metabolic processing, through adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the body’s main energetic currency. Other types of energies, such as the human energy field or the electromagnetic energy created by the heart, are far less understood.

More speculatively, or esoterically, the human body, as related to ancient Asian, Hindu cultures, is the seat of several energy centres called chakras. Physical health, in that particular context, is believed to be based on the appropriate flow of energy throughout these energy centres; disease originating from inappropriate flow or blocks of energy and cure attainable through energetic release. While the validation and efficacy of such ancient beliefs and practices is hard to establish, it is important to keep an open mind. It would be wise not to discount what science is unable to understand or explain. A mere few hundred years ago, contemplating the existence of invisible communication (e.g. Bluetooth, WiFi, 5G) would have made you a heretic and may have gotten you burned at the stake; and it is fair to assume that humanity will undergo similar leaps in knowledge and technology in the future. All I discuss in this book should be considered in its entirety. Every belief influences everything else. If you are open to the possibility that quantum laws apply to the physical world, it becomes very difficult to exclude any of its potential corollaries, even in the absence of any evidence (in either direction). It is also very important to point out that traditional methods of establishing proof of therapeutic efficacy, such as through double-blind, randomized placebo controlled trials (RCT), are not appropriately designed to capture energetic healing modalities. There are two main reasons for that. Firstly, the placebo effect (further discussed later on) is not appropriately explored or characterized in RCTs (e.g. underlying mechanisms, psychological determinants), and largely considered a nuisance. Secondly, in RCTs the patients are considered as passive participants (the administered drug(s) doing all of the work). While this can also be the case in the context of energy work, the patient is typically more involved in the healing process.

I personally only explored the theoretical side of energy healing, mainly through online resources and workshops. I got exposed to the basic workings of various energy healing modalities, including Qi Gong, Reiki and so forth. Some modalities resonated with me more than others, and I believe this to be a very important internal compass when navigating such topics, or life in general. Let yourself be guided by your intuition. No one can live your life for you and no one has better judgement or understanding regarding where you should put your attention into. I think the deepest insight I gained throughout these fairly superficial studies is my own belief and motivation in teaching others how to heal themselves. Gifted energy healers with pure motives can transfer healing energies to you. However, the participation of the patient, which is difficult to determine even when apparently passive (i.e. not actively involved in the modality and just sits or lies in a relaxed position), should be encouraged. The set and setting is also important in energy work. Energy healing is typically performed in a beautiful space, sometimes with relaxing music; an ideal, yet rare, context for the patient to just focus on their body, a self-healing action in itself. I imagine with much anticipation a world where every human would have the basic knowledge and self-evaluation skills to manage their own health, only requiring professional medical attention in case of accidents or severe illness. This also includes heightened awareness of all toxic things we willingly or unwillingly consume or expose our bodies to.

As alluded to above, our self-healing ability, at the nexus of body, energy and mind, has been extensively documented in the medical literature as the placebo effect. Its existence and significance are undisputed, otherwise it would not be embedded within the golden standard of clinical trial design (RCT). Due to its widespread assessment, the placebo effect could arguably be the most captured (yet under-studied) biological response. Thus, the fact that the mind has the ability to influence human physiology is hardly contentious. If you are looking for more information regarding how to integrate the underlying neurobiology into your life, I would recommend reading the book “You are the Placebo” by Dr. Joe Dispenza, who collated a large number of relevant resources.

So how is energy linked to health and disease and in that context what is it that the mind rebalances to regain health? What creates disease in a naturally healthy human body? There are of course the intrinsically physical elements to health and disease, such as the consumption of healthy foods, in appropriate amounts, and the exposure to chemical substances which potently impact human biology, respectively. Such concepts are not the focus of this book, as there are plenty of resources to be explored on the subject. What I am more interested to explore are the less obvious yet powerful ways in which human biology can be influenced, for better or for worse.

Except for dreamless sleep, every moment of your life is framed in the context of thought and emotion. Both have an energetic signature capable of influencing human physiology. Emotion even more so than thought, as it manifests physically in, and is therefore more deeply linked to, the body. Thought and emotion are intrinsically connected and can mutually trigger each other. Ideally, as illustrated by the concepts of energetic healing, energy in the forms of thought or emotion can and should flow freely through the body and its energetic nodes. Yet more often than not, life, particularly in modern Western societies, leads to energy blockages. Practical examples include stress, frustration, resentment or jealousy towards coworkers, family members, friends, which generate energies that built up over time if not appropriately processed and cleared by the mind and emotional body.

When the energetic body or centres are blocked, perhaps when feelings and emotions have been internalised for too long, you may develop a particular type of chronic disease, depending on what type of emotions you have accumulated and where they are located anatomically. In that case, you may need assisted removal of that blockage, which leads to a cathartic release of blocked energy and, as demonstrated for breath-work in particular, directly modulates physiology and immunity (e.g. Kox et al., 2014, Proc Natl Acad Sci, 111 (20), 7379-7384). It is unfortunate that energy and energy healing are not really discussed, accepted or valued. Instead, social and professional life is typically characterised by personal restraint, homogenous behaviour, with the aim to fit in and not stick out.

There is a need for a more balanced approach to human health. One that limits the initiation and development of disease, instead of relying of sophisticated and costly therapies to fight disease that has already established itself. My field of expertise, immunology, offers an increasing number of examples. We have created miraculous advances in the field of cancer immunotherapies, from ‘checkpoint inhibitors’ (i.e. anti-PD-1, anti-CTLA-4) to CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T cells. But one is left wondering about the sustainability of such an approach, with rising cancer incidence and health care costs. The research and funding going towards deciphering the environmental triggers for cancer (while acknowledging genetic predispositions) is incomparably small compared to the hype and attention given to immunotherapies. More generally, society has to embrace a more balanced approach to life. Instead of putting the major emphasis on the intellect and productivity, society has to foster the recognition of emotional intelligence. We need to become human again and care for each other as a whole. Yet, like love, care for others requires the ability to care for oneself first. I feel that most people are not yet able to connect deeply with their emotions.

A life well lived, as famously said by French philosopher and writer Albert Camus, is “lived to the point of tears”. This quote refers to a state of being where the lived experience reaches a depth and intensity which crosses the threshold of rapture, a pleasant overwhelming of the emotional centre of the body. Even if our energetic nature has reclaimed a front seat within a select minority of people – the seekers, the ones sensing a growing disconnect between the fundamental nature of humans and where companies, financial incentives or even governments seem to drive society – a lot remains to be done to reach an appropriate level of energetic maturity and literacy on a population level.

The pursuit and hope to briefly reach or even permanently rest in a state of energetic balance is invariably alienating, since incompatible with the pleasure- and fast reward-centric habits of today’s culture. To experience what I write about throughout this book, to rediscover yourself, to reconnect with your energetic body, to take responsibility for your health, comes with a hefty price tag: the embrace of periodic solitude, restrain in digital connection and commitment to self-exploration. The recognition of your energetic nature is invariably attached to a journey of self healing and self discovery, as will be developed in the next chapters.

An energetic experience of the body leads to a permanently altered sense of self and a forthwith energetically based lifestyle and framework of reality. Our energetic nature cannot be understood or accepted on an intellectual basis. Once the energetic nature of ourselves and the fabric of reality is truly known, every aspect of life is looked at through a different lens, with more openness and wonder. In that context, the existence of synesthesia, the ability to perceive our senses (e.g. sound, colour, smell, ..) not as distinct and separate sensory inputs but rather as interwoven, partially merged, environmental and energetic inputs, makes perfect sense. So does (to me at least) the very controversial theory of water memory, initially touted by Jacques Benveniste and later on by Nobel laureate Luc Montagnier. I am not saying that water has memory. I am merely pointing out the possibility that it does. Even if supposedly debunked by some, I am left wondering, since the supramolecular basis of such phenomenon, should it exist, significantly surpasses our current scientific understanding, whether, akin to the double slit experiment and the general impact active participation has on reality, the reproduction of Benveniste’s and Montagnier’s experiments may require a rather magical element: the observer’s belief in its existence.

Your energy (and the associated choice)

As I will discuss in following chapters, a big part in understanding who you are is to define your energetic signature and restore your identification with it (and in that process deidentify from everything else). So what is your energy? Your energy is not your emotions, your mood, your character or any other physical character trait you might identify with. Your energy is what defines you on the deepest level. Like anything in existence, you exist on different energetic planes, as described earlier. You have a physical body but what you are is non-physical consciousness, which is eternal. Your non-physical self itself exists on different planes of non-physical existence. In some non-physical planes you still have distinct personal characteristics which distinguish you from other non-physical entities, but on the highest plane you merge into a singularity with everything in existence, what may be referred to as the All or God. That is where you exist as pure consciousness, pure potential, the fabric of reality itself. And to some extent, the play of consciousness your soul is engaged in consists of having the choice to vibrate at the frequency of your choosing. No energy is intrinsically good or bad, it just has a different frequency, each having its own experiential value. Yet ultimately, everything in existence, after sufficient time spent experiencing and experimenting with the entire energetic spectrum, will tend to reach towards higher frequencies; this seems to be the natural order of things, perhaps the fundamental principle behind the ascension process.

The highest vibration which is relevant in the context of physical life is the one of love. Love is a word which, in common language, has been given a restricted meaning (i.e. to love something or someone). Yet love is much more than that. It is an energetic state. The biggest misconception about love is that it only exists in the context of something else, like another person, a pet, an activity, or anything else. On the contrary, love is an energetic frequency you are born to embody and channel from inside. Although you may experience that frequency for the first time as it is being triggered by another person, your parents or your first love, it was and always will be there for you to embody irrespective of external circumstances, objects or people. When you love someone, that energetic state you are in is your energy. The depth of the love you are experiencing can teach you a lot about yourself. That depth is not at all related to the worth of the subject of that love, but is an exclusive characteristic of your being. It follows that heartbreak, even if very difficult to cognise or accept, is not the absence of that love. Love is intrinsic to you; you can never lose something that you are. Heartbreak is rather the uncomfortable state you are in when your designated outlet of that love, the person that you have given the honour to be the trigger and recipient of your love, is gone. It is an illusion to think that the absence of the trigger/recipient has somehow destroyed that love.

The most powerful skill you can ever develop is to channel energetic states at will. How would you feel if you could be in a state of love without any outward reason or influence? That ability, being in love with life and the world or perhaps just be love, is your natural birthright and is how you attract another person with that same ability. The result of such union is pure unconditional love, where both partners channel their own highest frequency, knowing that they are themselves responsible for being in that frequency.

I know that this concept is hard to grasp, because the mind is both the key and the hindrance to unlock it, as further discussed in the next chapter. Manifesting your highest timeline, where you embody your highest energetic frequencies, requires your active participation. It will not happen passively, or by following a set path, a set of instructions. And it will not be or feel safe for the mind. You will have to take the risk to actively choose whether to take the reins of your life or not. It requires a shift in thinking, being and acting. There is no need to worry or feel ashamed if you are not yet willing to take that jump. You will once you are truly ready, once the pain has become bigger than the fear of jumping.

The ability to choose your energetic state is not only transformational in and of itself, but is also a powerful tool to master any type of mental distress or anxiety. Indeed, and importantly, you can only really fully embody one frequency at a time, so if for some reason you are stuck in a lower frequency, there’s no point battling it. Instead, choose to vibrate at another one. That energy could be love, or perhaps joy, enthusiasm, which literally means to be inspired by a deity or in this context your higher self. Such frequencies are powerful allies against lower frequencies. As just mentioned, it is important not to fight lower frequencies. Resistance only ever fuels, instead of providing an energetic alternative to, the frequency you want to clear. I know that all of this sounds impossibly and irritatingly simple (not easy). It may initially require some practice and mental triggers to switch to another frequency (i.e. you may need to focus on something specific which triggers that particular higher frequency, or use tools such as meditation or music), but after a while you will be able to make such choices autonomously and it will become less likely for you to get lured into a lower frequency in the first place. The ability to transmute your own energy is, in its purest form, alchemy, as introduced earlier. The mastery of alchemy allows you to choose which energies flow through you, and can be further enhanced by using the energetic power behind a lower energy vibration to transmute it, similarly to using an opponents power against themselves in certain martial art practices.

Alchemy, or energetic choice, does not mean running away from, or blocking difficult emotions or energies. Alchemy is letting energies flow freely through you. It is no more difficult to have faith than to worry, it uses up the same amount of energy, just at different frequencies. Difficult energies will still be felt, and need to be acknowledged and purged, but their duration will shorten, until you reach a threshold where you have purged all the lower energies you were meant to experience in this lifetime and will not attract them to any significant extent anymore. Now, you need to understand that you will always have free will, meaning that once you master alchemy, you can still choose to channel negative energies, in which case you may have to explore the underlying motives (if this happens voluntarily) or triggers (if this happens involuntarily, in which case mastery has not yet been reached). Like love, every emotion or energy, even a negative one, originates from and within us. The work consists of understanding triggers, and removing the ones bringing forth negative energies. One of the reasons we chose to reincarnate is to further understand and master energies in the challenging context of physical life, a playground with dense energetic characteristics and constant sensory distractions. To feel and understand energy in such setting requires becoming still and innerly observant. Once you master alchemy, to whatever extent you are able to, you master everything else, since everything is energy. This is sort of my theoryofeverything, the main thing to pay attention to (including the associated mental aspects which I will cover in the next chapter). Everything else derives from that.

All spiritual practices I am aware of develop the ability to choose and remain in an energetic state of love, or at least gratitude. Eckart Tolle gives a good pointer, in that he states that if you are in a particularly challenging situation and not able to channel love (which would admittedly be quite difficult to do, even with an advanced understanding), you can at least choose acceptance. It doesn’t really matter what you replace the fear, anxiety or anger with, as long as it is of higher frequency. Over time, you will be able to aim higher and higher. Most people are not aware of their power to have an energetic choice, due to the intense suffering they are experiencing. Space and distance to that pain need to be created first in order to make use of your ability to choose differently.

CHAPTER 3 – The human mind and altered states of consciousness

The wild geese do not intend to cast their reflection. The water has no mind to receive their image.

Zenrin Kushu

Let’s talk about the mind, the aspect of yourself which can create the largest amount of pain, yet you cannot escape from, and therefore have to learn to understand. The central question of most spiritual teachings is arguably who am I? Addressing that question will invariably lead you down unfamiliar rabbit holes, as it requires you to consider all of the parts and layers you are made of. You are a trinity composed of your higher self (essentially your soul), your mind and your body (which could be further subdivided in physical and emotional body). Your identity in its highest energetic embodiement, your soul, is the closest to pure consciousness, essentially a fragment of divinity. As an incarnated soul, you have some characteristics which are derived from past lives and experiences, characteristics which evolved across a multitude of lifetimes and which should be considered to be immutable in the context of this book. Your lower energetic aspects, your mind and your body, are less stable and can undergo comparatively rapid shifts within a lifetime, if desired.

Each aspect of your being will come to light under particular circumstances. The fabric of your soul will typically shine through across longer periods of time, as you go through the various phases of your life. The make up of your mind and body become apparent comparably much faster, during daily mental or physical activities, particularly when they become challenging. While it is well established and amply documented that your body can be trained and reshaped according to particular needs or wants (i.e. sporting activities, physically demanding lines of work), the fact that the mind carries a similar potential for change, in actuality a much bigger one, is often overlooked or purposefully forgotten.

Physical change, even when necessary for health purposes, is already quite difficult for large parts of the population. Reshaping the mind is infinitely more difficult because, in contrast to physical exercise where the mind can provide motivation and the body is the object undergoing changes, mental reshaping involves the mind on both ends. The mind is both the subject and object, like an eye trying to look back at itself. The difficulty of objectively reflecting upon oneself, a rather complicated conflict of interest, is the main reason why mental work is typically outsourced to professionals like psychologists, psychotherapists and psychiatrists. Yet, since we exist on an energetic continuum, not necessarily confined to distinct energetic planes like our body, mind and higher self, it may very well be possible that a higher part of ourselves may be in a position to observe and troubleshoot a lower level counterpart.

Your mind is one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal and it is of critical importance to learn how to use it. But before being able to use it, it is necessary to appreciate some of its basic characteristics. The mind gets easily bored and distracted, particularly if regularly exposed to activities reducing its attention span using short term rewards, such as engaging with social media or gaming. Your mind is at the centre of your nervous system and integrates all physical inputs of the body, such as sight, sounds and touch. The mind is also highly suggestive, which can be used for both beneficial or detrimental purposes, and coordinates bodily reactions in an almost subconscious manner, as demonstrated by Pavlovian conditioning.

Then there are very individual traits of the mind, which are referred to as character or personality, as well as intellect and attention, or deficit thereof. While the entire field of psychology explores and describes the mind with high levels of academic accuracy, the mind is an intrinsically experiential rather than theoretical subject. The human mind does not exist on its own, in isolation, like its artificial counterpart (artificial intelligence, AI), but is embedded in the trinity of body-mind-spirit, with various feedback and feedforward loops and an inborn potential for the unexpected, the mystical. People can drastically change in the absence of outside influence or stressors, switch character or reinvent themselves from the ground up.

As alluded to in the introductory chapter, my experience with my own mind was fairly tormented, as early as I can remember. For most of my life, I perceived my mind as both a blessing and a curse. The mind is the window to our reality, it is the software we use to perceive reality and react or respond to it, nothing more, nothing less. Therefore, the mind is blamed, seen as problematic or dysfunctional if the perceived reality, or rather your response or adaptation to it, does not fit within the boundaries set by society. Dedicated institutions were created to deal with such issues. I never fit into those boundaries, yet kept that very much hidden. I sought those out who, like me, were experiencing out-of-bounds realities. My teenage years did see the advent of the internet, a fortunate development in my search for like-minded people. Instead of searching for my identity in typical teenager fashion, I looked for it in unconventional places. My most treasured human interactions at that time were with individuals I met in virtual places where ‘troubled minds’ gathered. I perceived these beautiful humans to be my only peers on this planet. They were on the spectrum, institutionalised, cast aways of society, with the unfortunate ability to think and feel too much, or differently, and inability or unwillingness to conform. So, instead of earning my rite of passage through years of teenage awkwardness and rebellious self-identification, I instead let myself be carried away by beautifully alienating emotions, drifting far away from the outside world and norms of society. Yet, unlike most of my peers of the time, something always kept me bound to the shore. I never lost myself, even if at times I wished I did. There was always a lifeline that pulled me through everything, while so many others got left behind. I can only express my deepest gratitude for whatever has allowed me to experience and almost drown in the inexplicable, yet not get lost in it.

My reality remained almost invisible from the outside. My reserved personality allowed me to devote years at a time exploring aspects of my reality without external influences. My only companions being the blissful torment of alienation but also a heightened sense of divinity and protection. Only after spending most of my life exploring the deepest crevasses of the human mind did I finally stumble upon its most important assignment and responsibility: to discern and make choices, energetic choices to be more specific (not your choice of meal at a restaurant). The fact that I made this discovery after decades of traveling through the most remote mental landscapes allowed me to determine just how fundamental and profound choices are. I also came to realise that virtually anything in your reality is a choice, your choice. Free will, your birth right as a human, is your ability to choose your energetic state every single moment, as discussed in the previous chapter. It follows that you can choose how you feel, something more often (if not exclusively) associated with outside circumstances or people. We think that our feelings are caused by something or someone; love being something we feel for someone, fear or hate being caused by something or someone outside of us. Yet it is merely our chosen reaction to an outside circumstance. While I agree that outward influences may promote a particular energetic state, the energies are solely ours and come willingly through us. The ‘outside’ being merely a reflection of the ‘inside’. The power of choice comes with great responsibility, as free will dictates that one can also choose to embody lower frequencies, of hate and fear.

The difficulty of a human life lies in finding your way back to yourself while being navigated ‘on the ground’ by a human mind, yet on a higher level being directed by your soul. Even if the return to yourself is guaranteed after death, it should ideally be achieved prior, but that again depends on what you have chosen to experience. Your life is an intricate play between your higher self and the circumstances it has chosen to overcome. The fact that you are reading these lines is a sign that you may be close. But distance is relative. For some the last part is a formality, for others not so much, as it requires the final acceptance, the faith, to fully let go of your past self and commit to your new (true) identity. You may choose to stay in limbo, but you thereby forfeit the real value and reward of full commitment. Remaining noncommittal will keep you in a wasteland, alienated from your past life, circumstances and relationships, as you will by then have realised the superficial nature of a 3D life, yet not allowing yourself to claim the highest manifestation of your life. From that perspective, faith becomes an act of choice, and act of the mind. Various spiritual sources, such as the Gospel of Mary Magdalene or Pleiadian channellings have long ago identified the source of salvation to be the mind. Salvation, or ascension, hence at least partly consists of a choice and commitment to vibrate at your highest energetic frequency. That choice will have to be renewed every moment, as long as the mind questions its own choice. True commitment is required, which may be hard at first. But once you have embodied higher frequencies for long enough, your life will magically fall into place, which will support the process and the realization that you are safe and protected within the universal laws; notwithstanding the odd ‘tests’, which I tend to ascribe to the sense of humour – an acquired taste – of higher guides or the universe.

As you start to open your mind to the fact that the mind is yours to shape, control and upgrade, a good starting point is to introduce gentle exposures to different modes of operation. This means strategically exposing your mind to somewhat uncomfortable things while being careful not to scare it off; a bit like how you would approach a child. In many ways your mind represents your wounded younger self, so take it by the hand and give it as much comfort as needed. Examples of playful exposures include anything related to the non-material, the esoteric, like transcendental meditation, psychic readings or tarot. Your mind needs to regain the energetic intelligence and fluency it most likely lost. It has to re-learn the energetic alphabet. You can choose from plenty of online resources, depending on what resonates with you.

While your mind is the tool that will allow you to exert your power of choice and will support you in claiming your space in the world, the direction of your life is best left to your intuition, your direct link to your higher self. Some people have a clear view of their life path, which they seem to be able to follow effortlessly, while for others the journey of life resembles an everlasting winding road, only progressively revealing itself after each turn. The latter will require a lot of strength, conviction, faith, and a fine tuning of the higher senses of discernment, intuition and resonance. The development of these senses requires a selective muting of the rational mind, as it easily overshadows intuition when overly active. Intuition is like a directional gauge, an extremely sensitive compass which is only perceptible if everything else is tuned down. It works on the principle of vibration and resonance. Your mind still needs to be open in that process, meaning that it needs to be switched on, but in a receptive or perceptive rather than thinking mode. Thoughts may arise; just observe them. You can access your intuition in meditation or in more active contemplation and esoteric practices. The realm of intuition is not rational and rather works on the principles of energies, which is why I would recommend regaining a sufficient level of energetic fluency. The entrainment within your mind of a structured approach to energies, as exemplified by the archetypal cards of traditional tarot, will allow your mind to perceive reality through a different lens. Instead of perceiving existence as an endless series of independent events, you may start seeing the finer energetic threads which strings them together. As tarot is strongly entangled in astrology, I also recommend to get familiar with the basics of astrology. While you may roll your eyes at the idea of astrology, I wish to stress that the importance of exposing your mind to astrology does not lie in blindly accepting the proposed concepts but rather to openly receive the information, to play with it and only keep what resonates within you. Also, please be aware that astrology is very far removed from reading your horoscope in the newspaper. I would recommend opening your mind to evolutionary astrology. Once you are a bit more familiar with it, or any type of astrology you are feeling drawn to, you may perhaps wish to have a reading of your birth chart. The insights could very well change the course of your life, or cement the changes you have already started to implement. Once more, keep what resonates and leave the rest.

Resonance is when something feels right, without knowing why it feels right. Don’t let the thinking mind get in the way of the process. Use your mind only to listen or read, but do not let it judge what it processes. If you resonate with something, you become one with it in a sense, as you and the concept meet each other one the same energetic level. Resonance with higher truths instantaneously brings you to that higher frequency and permanently expands your consciousness. It takes time and practice to upgrade your consciousness, as you are always the result of the dynamic tension between your higher mind and your rational, thinking mind. Both will always be active to some extent and your consciousness will always be the momentary result of their coalescence. There is not end-state to reach, yet you will arrive. Your life is a constant process of learning. I realised very young that I needed to dedicate myself to the understanding of that process, out of fear to go insane. And it is through that dedication and all the associated life experiences that I gained access to the knowing that there is nothing to achieve within the present moment, which set me free. This is illustrated by the fact that all advanced spiritual teachers have self-admittedly little to teach, if anything. Consciousness may be the only area of study where the more advanced you become, the less content or material has been accumulated. You start with the idea to learn everything about what and who you are, only to realise that what you were actually learning was to release your identification and attachments to everything you are not. The only thing left being the blissful presence of your higher self; a state of being nothing and everything at the same time. Going through that process was necessary for me to accept my reincarnation and re-engage with life.

The mind and the present moment

Eckart Tolle has discussed at length the power that lies in the present moment in the “Power of Now”. It is worthwhile stressing again that the mind does not particularly like being in the present moment. It much rather spends most of its time ruminating on past events and/or building anxiety for what the future holds. Given active control, the mind reenacts past events, what we did, what others did to us, how we reacted instead of should have reacted, how unlucky we were, how we were betrayed or treated unfairly. Alternatively, it obsesses over future events, in a constantly anxious state, imagining the worse outcomes based on past experiences. We literally visualise and manifest bad outcomes because we think the future is more likely to resemble our past rather than there being an equal opportunity to be incredibly positive. Of course, the energetic investment in a future resembling our past, through spending mindless (or rather mindful) time stuck in it, favours that outcome, thereby reinforcing our negative bias and creating a feedback loop which becomes very hard to interrupt.

The mind is very bad at perceiving the magic of its own existence and instead attempts to fill it with as many thoughts or actions as possible. Exploring its own existence seems frightening. However, once the mind is appropriately mastered, sitting in silence with no distraction becomes very easy. When you use the mind as the tool it is (of your higher self), rather then being identified with it and granting it the false idea of its own independence, then the present moment becomes your friend, the place you seek to dwell, instead of just sporadically passing by.

In this context, it is important to note that time actually does not exist. It is a necessary construct of the mind with-in the framework of physical life, and does not exist with-out it. The fact that Einstein proposed that gravity, a stark feature of physical reality, represents the bending of space-time is worth pondering over. The fabric of the universe seems to be distorted and may not be the perfect continuum you may think it is. I am far from being able to comprehend the underlying scientific postulates, but the fact that the distortion of time is a somewhat acceptable scientific theory warrants a slight change in our perception of reality.

Non physical beings or our higher selves are not bound by time like our physical, incarnated selves are. Experiences which bring us closer to non physical reality, such as near death experiences, are typically accompanied by a deep sense of relief as all time-dependent worries are dropped. Other altered states of consciousness, such as the ones induced by psychedelics, equally negate the sense of time, a characteristic which is likely to be a significant contributor to their therapeutic potency; in addition to the accumulating evidence indicating that psychedelic compounds influence our physical nervous systems. An experience which is perceived as being outside of time has a different quality to it, which has to be experienced. It carries a sense of truth which transcends the physical world. Such experience, which reportedly has the potential to equate to decades of psychotherapy, remains present for the rest of your life. Without claiming universal validity, there is no doubt that altered states of consciousness typically provide instantaneous access to knowledge that otherwise may take a very long time to gain through time-dependent ways.

As again stated by Eckart Tolle, the present moment is really the only thing that exists. This statement should not be merely intellectualised, it needs to be experienced and recognised. Its inherent truth needs to be felt and deeply integrated in your sense of reality, applied not only to your personal life but all there is. The complementary concept of quantum superposition suggests that there is an infinity of universes, the so-called multiverse, and that what we perceive as our reality is only one option out of an infinity of options available out of the quantum wave function. In short, everything is happening all at once, out of an infinity of possibilities. There is obviously no way our brain is capable to fully grasp that concept, but at the very least you should be capable of integrating enough of it to shift your perception of reality, if you desire to do so. An important corollary to the paradigm that the present moment is all there is, is that you can only ever exert power in the present moment. You cannot hold power over something that does not exist, i.e. the past or the future. The reason why the mind always strays, gets distracted, may be because it is well aware that you are all-powerful in the present moment, which triggers its ultimate fear (i.e. being all-powerful). If you think back to moments you felt powerful, in any sense of the word, they are likely to be moments when your mind was not actively thinking about the past or future. Whether you meditate on your breath, listen to your favourite music, at home or at a concert, or enter altered states of consciousness, you will recognise that these moments are the ones when you have true power, where you do not squander it in futile attempts to be anywhere else than right here, right now. Staying in the moment may feel like a little death of the mind, but it is truly the seat of power where you can be reborn again every single moment.

The mind and isolation

All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

Blaise Pascal

This quote from the famous French writer (from the book ‘Pensees’) nicely summarises the issue the mind has to be in isolation. Sitting quietly in a room alone may not sound difficult, but it is from the mind’s perspective, especially in a world filled with digital distractions. The benefit of spending time in isolation, forcing the mind to sit with itself, is exemplified by its central role in ancestral and indigenous coming-of-age rituals or spiritual initiations. With rare exceptions, it is hard in present days to be isolated for extended periods of time, and our minds are unlikely to seek out to be in such situation; being in isolation is just too uncomfortable. Even relatively short silence retreats are being seen are quite dramatic interventions in a world constantly vying for your attention and where the mind has become addicted to uninterrupted entertainment.

The difficulty of isolation is two-fold. The human brain and mind are accustomed to human interactions, including virtual, and has a very short attention span which thrives on instant gratification. In addition, even if the mind gets passed the initial trauma of being isolated, the second and likely biggest challenge is that it will be in the rare situation of being confronted with itself, without any opportunity to escape. Self-isolation, or rather the lack thereof, plays a big role in the scarcity of self-knowledge. Most humans do not know themselves to any significant extent, because they never learned to and would probably avoid it if they had the opportunity.

When you are spending time by yourself, life takes a different colour and speed. You return to yourself, which is a beautiful feeling once you finally have gotten to know yourself. It is where you are home. The difficulty lies in accessing that realisation, which is being obstructed by various aspects of modern human life, such as the belief that physical life is all there is and that it has to be constantly filled with content, the associated ‘fear of missing out’ and the need for external validation (insert all social media platforms). Spending time alone is also commonly associated with weakness and lack of social status, as your apparent value is wrongly connected to the people you are being seen with, even though the opposite is true (“A wise man can always be found alone. A weak man can always be found in a crowd.”)

Spending significant amounts of time by yourself supports the development of an intoxicating level of inner strength. You become somewhat untouchable, notwithstanding the detrimental aspects of hyper-independence, which include alienation from society and the lack of a ‘normal’ life.

The mind in relationships

Your perception of me is a reflection of you; my reaction to you is an awareness of me

Unknown

It is also important to discuss the mind in the context of interpersonal relationships, whatever their nature, intimate or other. With rare exceptions, the relationships we believe we have (like the entire entire reality we create) are largely formed by the mind. Unless someone would have full access to your mind, both relationship partners have an entirely subjective and biased view of the other person. They see them through the lens of their own minds, which may not necessarily (and in most cases does not) represent the other person. The intrinsic sabotage of unconscious relationships occurs in a bi-directional manner: misleading the partner by playing of a role which does not represent who we are (whether with bad intent or led by childhood and societal conditioning), and through the subjective perception of oneself by the partner. Both are unfair to the relationship and both are dependent on the mind. The perceived need to play a role is a reflection of internal fear, most commonly the fear of rejection. The building of a relationship obviously occurs in a stepwise manner, but at some stage, in the case of more intimate relationships, there needs to be space for being completely yourself. The inability to be yourself is not necessarily due to the partner. It can be rooted in a fear to be yourself around other people. You are essentially robbing the other person from getting to know you on a deeper level. There are circumstances where this is appropriate and perhaps even preferred, like in professional environments, but not in friendships or intimate relationships. The other side of the coin is the judgement of your partner based on your own mind. “People can only meet you as deeply as they have met themselves” (Matt Kahn). Taking that statement a step further, people are likely to drag you, or what you represent to them, to their level, whether that level is higher or lower than the one you are operating on. Your mind does the same, not necessarily on purpose, or with ill intent; your mind cannot but consider another person through its own lens. Your mind will interpret another person’s actions and words based on its own inner workings, which are themselves the product of your personal life experiences.

When you have on your mind someone that may has greater depth than yourself, or your mind, you may not have full understanding of their intentions or thought process. As I assume that the readers of this book will have met themselves at a significant depth, and may therefore only rarely meet or have a relationship with someone with higher consciousness (which does not constitute any type of judgement), the example I would like to present is your relationship with your higher consciousness or soul, or perhaps non-physical beings of higher consciousness which may influence your life or interact with you energetically. Such higher consciousness, or beings, may energetically interact with you in ways which do not make sense to you. You may feel abandoned in the physical world, left fending for yourself without any support. You may wish that someone in higher realms helps you getting out of difficult situations, only to remain there for extended periods of time and perhaps develop resentment towards energies which may or may not have the power to change your situation. However, when in physical form, we do not have the insight or viewpoint necessary to understand higher action, or rather ‘inaction’, and how it might be in our own interest. We usually only see the pain, which restricts our ability to see the greater picture.

Scenarios where you find yourself in situations with people who are significantly less advanced than you, spiritually and emotionally, are equally imbalanced. These may represent the most common human interactions you have. Now there are two distinct ways to perceive such interactions, with equally distinct challenges. First, be mindful of the trap of putting yourself on a spiritual pedestal, thinking you have more value than another person because of your spiritual development. Remember that human interactions are mostly mind-to-mind, which reflect very poorly the actual soul-to-soul interactions which are simultaneously taking place. Every human is on a lifelong journey, which itself is part of a long series of incarnations the soul needs for its development. Use your mind wisely in that circumstance. Be grateful that you have achieved such significant spiritual development, and have compassion for another soul, and its mind, struggling to make its way through physical life. The second way that your mind may perceive such situation is to attribute to the other person the same, perhaps even more, depth of consciousness that you possess. This situation poses equally significant challenges, because you misjudge the other person and, perhaps more importantly, you diminish your self-worth and give away your power. Such interaction equates to an artificial mirroring of your mind onto a self-made reflection of yourself (the other person) and creates terrible resonance. It is therefore advisable to create boundaries of perception, selectively ‘muting’ and unmuting people around you.

Interpersonal interactions are a very particular divine play of forms. If we assume that the universe was created out of a divine longing to experience itself through each of its fragments (i.e. you), then human interactions is one of the most heightened ways for the divine to look back at itself. Heightened from the viewpoint of the physical world. On the non physical planes divinity would be experienced to a much deeper extent, but on the lower frequency physical plane, with the additional twist of the human mind deeply anchored in rational thinking but also swayed by powerful emotions, the perception of the divinity in others is as colourful and nuanced as each of our individual minds. Thus, it is quite important to be rooted in your own divinity and higher consciousness when interacting with others. Your viewpoint is unique and cannot be replaced by any other divine fragment. It is therefore of the utmost importance not to loose your own consciousness in others. This is particularly difficult for empaths, who have the ability to reach deep into other people’s emotions and should therefore develop the skill to stay grounded within themselves and not absorb or get transported into another person’s emotional world. Developing that skill will enable them not to loose themselves or their power, and to have a positive influence on others.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

Carl Jung

Now let’s talk about interactions which may trigger a particularly strong response in you. Such reaction may very well be due to the phenomenon of projection (coined by Freud), a self defence mechanism which attributes to others, and we reject, what we hate about ourselves. The mind is very good at hiding what it dislikes about itself, while projecting it onto others and making them the object of the repulsion. For spiritually advanced individuals, the same concept may apply to something you may have worked on for big portions of your life and believe to have cleared, only to see it reemerge in another person. If the behavioural trait or characteristic triggers a strong response in yourself, this may be a hint that you have not fully healed that part of you. This is not the same as distancing yourself from people with particularly toxic traits, which you should indeed do.

I wish to close this section by simply mentioning the practice of relational presence, which I found particularly helpful and stimulating to explore my mind in human interactions and connections. I participated in numerous ‘speaking circles’ (founded by Lee Glickstein) a long time ago, and more recently experienced the multifaceted practice of ‘transformational connection’ or ‘circling’.

The mind and control

Another challenging aspect of the mind is its thirst for control. This characteristic is mainly driven by fear. The mind wants to control as much of its environment as possible to eliminate any potential threats. This pattern is self perpetuating, due to the fact that the potential threats are themselves created by the overactive mind, thereby creating a vicious reinforcing feedback loop that leads to constant anxiety.

As briefly discussed in the last chapter, the mind is itself composed of both masculine and feminine characteristics. The masculine aspect of the mind is focused on control, on doing, and tends to dominate the feminine side, which is more allowing and supports the process of letting go of control and outcome. A balanced mind, as reflected by focused dedication but detachment from any outcome, is key to joyful living.

The feminine side of the mind, very much underdeveloped and undervalued in today’s society, is difficult to accurately define or analyse because it is characterised by traits which we do not typically associate with mental activity. These traits would include somewhat obscure terms such as faith or trust. It may be debatable whether faith and trust are rational sentiments and may therefore not strictly be part of the mind. Then again, perhaps their origin is merely masked by the dominant masculine part of the mind.

Assuming, as discussed in the previous chapter, that ‘everything is mind’, the mind is intrinsically balanced, except when outer circumstances, such as the ones created by societal rules and establishments, favours the development of one aspect (masculine) over the other (feminine). Perhaps faith and trust are intrinsic to us, but we have suppressed these sentiments in the context of a largely fear-based society.

It follows that the solution to many mental problems may be more readily accessible if the mind could be rebalanced. Faith and trust are not only fantasies but have a physiological counterpart in chemical signalling molecules, neurotransmitters. Thus, rebalancing the mind’s duality also leads to chemical rebalancing, which is too often artificially attempted through pharmacological intervention.

How would you fare if I asked you to what level you feel safe in life, or to what extent you are able to fully dedicate yourself in any area of your life while accepting any outcome with love and grace?

A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing grows there.

John Assaraf

The controlling grip of the mind is also reflected in the fact that humans are creatures of habit, locked in the golden cage of their comfort zones. Habitual patterns are addictive to the mind for a reason: they create safety. When you are in your comfort zone, everything happens almost on autopilot. It is so safe that the mind even checks out sometimes. Have you ever had the experience to zone out on your way to work, even when in the driver’s seat? This pattern can run through all aspects of your life, which is the reason why there is something magical about creating a habit of introducing change in your life. Try a new coffee shop, another gym, another way to spend your lunch break. It is difficult yet strangely exhilarating to break habits. While I have broken many habits over the years (albeit not always willingly), I must admit that, as raised earlier, boring habits have also supported my somewhat disorienting mental and spiritual life. The main approach I have used to break habits in my life, which I do not particularly recommend, is to allow myself to live a very habitual life for several years, and then suddenly move into another life, in another country or continent. Every decade or so the disrupting tower card energy (cf tarot), or a softer wind of change(cf movie ‘Chocolat’), emerges in my life and propels me into the next phase of my life. I can usually sense when the moment moves closer, which coincides with me starting the process of letting go of everything, mentally then physically. Breaking habits, breaking into a new life, can be scary because of all the uncertainties that come with it, but that is when you feel most alive.

When control has only led to pain and suffering in your life, in whatever aspect, maybe it’s time to try trust and faith. Who knows, maybe it is the key to change your life for the better.

The mind and expectations

The mind, as the source for imagination, is very good at dreaming and visualising. It literally creates worlds, whether friendly or threatening, sometimes blurring the lines (should they exist) between imaginary fantasy and reality. As humans, expectations, more specifically expectations which are never realised, is our biggest source of pain.

Manifestation is significantly restricted, within the physical world, by physical constraints and time, in contrast to its free flow in higher realms. This creates tension and strain on the mind, and frustration can get the best of us while we wait for something to manifest. Thus, the conscious or unconscious expectations of the mind can become a significant burden during the process of manifestation if not appropriately acknowledged and addressed.

As already discussed, the mind has specific attributes which limit its usefulness for particular tasks. One of them being to determine what the best version of yourself looks like and how to get there. From a higher soul perspective, there are many ways to achieve the (exclusively energetic) goals you have set yourself within your current reincarnation. Your mind can only conceive of what your highest timeline could look like from its very restricted viewpoint, restricted by what it has seen and experienced of the physical world so far, and the associated outcome options will be equally limited, even if they appear splendid to the mind. The ability of the mind to conceptualise how your deepest aspirations could and will be achieved is very limited. Do not let your failed expectations fool you in believing that your highest timeline is eluding you. It may just manifest in unexpected ways. Divinity is often lost halfway between expectation and manifestation.

The link between mind and body

Through my own professional expertise, I have over recent years gained deeper appreciation of the intimate connection between the mind and biological processes presumed to operate rather independently of it, such as immune responses, which now appear to be amenable to conditioning. The term conditioning, or classical conditioning, was introduced in the 1890’s by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov studied the mechanism of salivation in dogs, and observed that salivation could be triggered by association, a so called conditioned stimulus. Salivation is typically induced by the sight or smell or food (the unconditioned stimulus), but when the appearance of food is purposefully connected to a conditioned stimulus, such as the ring of a bell, an object or command, the dogs will, after a brief period of learning and by association, respond to the conditioned stimulus even in absence of the unconditioned stimulus. In other words, the sound of the bell will trigger salivation even in the absence of food. Recent observations suggest that some of our bodily, immunological reactions, could be operating in similar fashion, i.e. being continuously triggered by environmental, unconditioned stimuli. While this remains to be proven, the mechanistic basis of this has been established in animals, where neuronal signalling occurring at the time of an immunological reaction (think inflammation) can subsequently reconstitute the inflammatory reaction in the absence of the original immunological threat (unconditioned stimulus) (Koren et al., 2021, Cell, 184(25):6211; Koren et al., 2022, Neuron, 110(21): 3425-3428). This mechanism is the likely explanation behind the astonishing allergic conditioning observed years before, but could also be potentially harnessed for beneficial effects. Regardless, the very concept that we are unknowingly creating associations between environmental triggers and physiological reactions (not necessarily restricted to the immune system) is captivating.

Beyond conditioning, representing associations between very specific stimuli and reactions (both specific to any given individual), there are wider mechanisms relevant for the mind-body association, and which are encapsulated under the common umbrella term placebo, as briefly discussed in the last chapter. I very much hope that the field of neuropsychoimmunology will further expand in the future, especially as related to clinical studies in humans, with the aim to explore how alterations of the mind and its perception of reality can lead to a healthier life.

The mind and manifestation

The flower doesn’t dream of the bee. It blossoms and the bee comes.

Mark Nepo

The mind possesses different qualities and characteristics on the different planes of existence. On the physical plane, the mind, like our body, is very dense, like anything else on that plane. As you move your mind through higher frequencies and planes, the mind (or rather its higher frequency equivalent) acquires wondrous capabilities. On higher frequency planes, the mind is not merely observing outer reality, but is actively entangled in it and co-creates it. Thoughts and reality become indistinguishable from each other, thought equating to creation, which is the reason why mental queries are instantaneously met with their answers, or rather the knowing that you knew the answer all along. Your mind increasingly merges with a universal mind. On these higher planes where more and more of reality is mind, you rediscover the capacity to create whatever comes to mind. Thought and creation coalesce, bestowing existence a playful quality and a natural sense of awe. In contrast, on the physical plane, the singularity of thought and reality is disrupted, meaning that you cannot instantaneously materialise your thoughts or desires. However, the disruption is not complete and the act of thinking, or visualisation, by the fact that it momentarily propels you into a higher frequency, aligns you with the physical manifestation of your thoughts.

Your personal experience with the act of manifestation can be difficult at times; mine certainly has been challenging. Throughout our lives, we may wish a whole lot of things which may never manifest in physical reality. Then doubt creeps in, further blocking your manifestations to come into your life. I found that the most accurate designation of the root cause is summarised in the principle that you attract what you are, not what you want. Thus, you may continuously attempt to manifest things that are not meant for you and are therefore not going to manifest (for your own good and protection) as long as you have not determined who you are (see next chapter). I appreciate the associated frustration all too well, but once a higher perspective is gained the pain will progressively disappear. You may try to complement your visualisation exercises with the disclaimer that they should only manifest if you are meant to receive them, for you highest good. Over time, you will develop the realisation that you indeed do not want anything that is not meant for you, that you have not wished for yourself before reincarnating. And when enough time has passed, you will look back at all of your past wishes which have not materialized and experience deep gratitude for that fact that they did not, because you will realize that they would have taken you off-course. Invariably, the question will arise why you should bother manifesting if you will only ever attract what is meant for you. The answer to that question is that, unfortunately, the pain associated with failed manifestations is once again the catalyst for growth and takes you further along your path to yourself. So, in a sense, pain and suffering are necessary. Once you realise that they are here to help you, you can reframe them as trustworthy companions.

After having spent some time failing to manifest your outward desires, you enter a different phase of manifesting, rooted in a deep yearning for your true path. As you enter that phase in your life where you become more aware of the frequencies you hold, manifesting will become more passive, as what you will seek will seek you back. The only thing left to do being, as Bashar puts it, to “act on your excitement, your passion”; all else will follow. The energetic attraction between what you are and what is meant for you will not require as much mental energy or focus anymore, if any. You will become a magnet for your true manifestations; the ones meant for you.

The discovery of your true identity will attract what you are physically missing to live a life of higher purpose, if that is your intention, and perhaps more importantly will give you renewed strength and patience to persevere on your journey. A state of attraction, of yearning, of creation, can feel uncomfortable, but falls outside of the simple categories of pain and pleasure. Nothing births out of comfort, there is a strong force behind any kind of manifestation.

The game of consciousness

After having spent a significant amount of time exploring my own mind and consciousness, I have become familiar with the universe’s playfulness and sense of humour, and believe that human life and consciousness is comparable to a game. A game that universal consciousness plays with and within itself. We are pawns in that game, but pawns who play of their own free will. The game is simultaneously played on all planes of correspondence, which makes it difficult to make sense of it. In addition, there are games within games; the larger game being a single cycle of universal expansion and contraction, the ‘outpouring’ and ‘indrawing’ as the Kybalion puts it, beginning and ending at the singularity of mind and consciousness. Within that game, every fragment of consciousness, the soul on higher levels and physical reincarnations thereof on lower planes, plays its own game of spiritual development, thereby contributing to the larger play.

The principle of correspondence, as above so below, illustrates that there is really only one game, but it is played on different scales. The game can almost be compared to the myth of the hero’s journey, where the hero is lost and enters a journey of self discovery, only that in this case the hero voluntarily loses their sense of self before entering the journey. The point of the game is to make the game increasingly more challenging (across lifetimes), to ultimately reach the point where it becomes impossible to get lost again, which is when consciousness has completely returned home to itself and merges with higher consciousness. This corresponds to the return to the singularity, on the lower level this represents the individual return to a higher consciousness, or ascension.

The reincarnation cycles of the individual soul is designed to cater for the very specific characteristics of that soul so that it may experience what it needs to fully realise its higher identity (keeping in mind that time does not exist and thus all reincarnations occur simultaneously). This requires countless experiences of gradual complexity. The physical dimension is the perfect playground in that context and the human experience therefore likely envied by non physical beings. As humans, we are provided with physical senses, which, combined with a mind displaying natural tendencies towards addictive behaviours, create the ultimate immersive experience. To be jolted out of that immersive experience typically requires pain. What else could stop you from seeking an indefinite state of physical pleasure and comfort?

When the inherent flexibility and playfulness of the mind is acknowledged, accepted and freed, life can become a wondrous play of mind. Stabilised (meditation) or altered (psychedelics) states of consciousness can be used to explore the shape and behaviour of the mind you were gifted (or rather gifted yourself). It is important to note that the game of consciousness is multidimensional, so it requires skill, dedication and patience to determine how to move the mind within the multidimensional space. You may have had glimpses where your consciousness randomly moved and may have temporarily found itself in a state of blissful balance, but then you lost again. You may have dismissed that experience, or forgotten about it, which is normal because your mind gets distracted and forgets. As the mind has difficulty moving by itself, it is important to expose it to as many and varied stimuli or challenges as possible. As mentioned earlier, esoteric subjects are particularly useful to explore, as they tend to be challenging to the mind and have a longstanding track record of expanding the human mind, notwithstanding their obvious unconventional and perhaps controversial character.

The game of consciousness is mastered when you can voluntarily stabilise your mind, particularly when challenged by external circumstances (i.e. your every day life). Your frequency or point of balance is an energetic place, a trans-dimensional bridge where the mind is aware of its higher dimensional source yet is able to operate in the physical world and supports the individual in living its highest expression. The tracing of that sweet spot is difficult, due to its multidimensional nature. Like the planes of correspondence (cf the Kybalion), it is as much an energy as it is a state or place. To me it is related to the energy of love; it is your own light, your own energy. It represents the absence of involuntary thought, outside of time yet in control of it.

Some people have had glimpses of what energetic freedom feels like, perhaps even without trying, after a spontaneous experience. Some people might not know where to begin to find such freedom; they might not even be aware of the fact that their consciousness is rigid. The analogy of the game may allow you to reduce the self sabotaging thoughts which are in the way of mental exploration. The mind is typically quite amenable and agreeable to playing games, more so that supporting activities which it may perceive as threatening to its own existence and dominance.

Your mind (and how to use it)

The intrinsic characteristics of any individual mind, which I believe we all have chosen before reincarnating, guides us towards the experiences our souls seek. Thus, the particular challenges your mind is creating are yours and yours only. While the field of psychology has made enormous advances in its ability to understand and help humans through psychological hardship, it is unable to fully understand or categorise any given individual. It will not be able to delineate what it takes for you to navigate through your mind. Like most individuals, you are likely to be able to sit quietly somewhere, look ‘normal’, be courteous, hold conversations, yet be simultaneously swamped by internal conversations. Why is it that we disapprove of, or look down upon, such behaviour when it is displayed out in the open, aloud, by the ‘mentally ill’, yet do not seem to think there is anything wrong with it as long as we keep it to ourselves?

As mentioned before, as soon as I developed thoughts, I felt the urge to take myself on a journey to travel and map my mind. Notwithstanding the lack of any comparative, I perceived my mind to be particularly difficult to navigate. I constantly had to surrender and let go in order to move forward, otherwise the entire system felt like it is coming to an abrupt halt. It was like trying to move through a very dense forest, where any rapid movement would be immediately countered by impenetrable resistance. That difficult journey almost made me avoid and reject life, and at times the only refuge were unhealthy and destructive tendencies. The is no doubt in my mind (no pun intended) that most evolved souls go through (i.e. willingly sign up for) a very hard first phase of their lives, due to a combination of (chosen) external circumstances and/or the intrinsic yet undefined feeling that they do not belong here; everything on earth just feels wrong. This makes them alienated from society from the very start and there is no other alternative than to begin the very hard journey back to themselves, with no guarantee to actually make it. The ones who make it will develop an unshakable strength, will wear their scars with pride and exude an independence and inner strength which, while still alienating, present unmistakable signs for those with eyes to see.

By now I have the broad contours of my mind mapped out, but completeness will never be achieved. The mind is never static and constantly evolves, and a significant part of it can only be known through its response to external factors or circumstances, such as human interaction. You may be on a similar journey of discovery, of your mind and your larger identity. If that is the case, you will be facing your own set of challenges, according to your internal and external circumstances. Going on that journey is critical to manifest the highest expression of yourself, because your mind has executive power over your current life. If you do not control it enough to advocate for you, it will make its own choices, on your behalf, while you stay in the background, mostly unconscious.

Whatever the mental or physical challenges you are facing, it is a challenge you are capable of overcoming. It is the key to your life and to your salvation, as mentioned earlier, through the recognition that the true self is the eternal, higher self.

He who controls others may be powerful, but he who mastered himself is mightier still.

Lao Tzu

I will present in the next chapters some basic elements of how to master your mind, but you will have to find out for yourself how to gain control of your particular mental makeup. Generally, there are two major steps in mastering your mind. The first and arguably the most difficult step is to deidentify from it. The second is to bring back, in a controlled fashion, selected and perhaps newly discovered aspects of your mind which bring value and joy to your life. Deidentification from your mind will allow you to put some space between you and the aspects of yourself which have detrimentally controlled your life so far. These could be addictions, toxic personality traits, self sabotaging thinking patterns. Once that first step is completed and you have regained awareness of your real identity (next chapter) you can start reclaiming yourself (chapter 5), which includes a more appropriate use of your mind.

What I would consider the most important power or function or your mind is its ability to make choices. As already alluded to in various parts of this book, you are an energetic being who can channel and anchor any energy you wish in this physical reality. The only thing you need to do in order to achieve this miraculous goal is to unwaveringly and unreservedly exert your power of choice. Let’s bring back the example I put forth in the section covering energy: the fact that you can embody the energy of love, independently of external individuals or factors. The only limitation to your ability to do that is yourself, by not choosing to do so. That is a fact that is more difficult to rationally understand than to energetically feel. The problem lies in the fact that your mind may not even allow you to entertain such inconceivable statement, even though it would attribute the biggest power imaginable to the mind. Why is that? Perhaps because the biggest fear of all is to be powerful beyond belief? The fact that love can be readily found inside of you, if you look for it, is stated in many self-help or spiritual resources, even though it may not always be worded in a way that allows the reader to fully capture the power embedded in the associated narratives. Notwithstanding the fact that most of us are different and, based on our mental make-up, require different types of pointers in order to ‘look’ in a particular direction, I always felt that the ability to encourage or trick the mind to look in a particular direction is of critical importance when seeking to help people. Because in the end that should be the goal; not to heal someone but rather give them the tools to help and heal themselves.

Admittedly, it is a very difficult task to make someone realise that they have all the power they will ever need to live a meaningful life. Life may not always be happy, but it can always be meaningful and an embodiment of your highest spiritual timeline and goals. A tremendous amount of peace and contentment comes from that, even if everything around you may be chaotic and difficult.

So, in order to get that concept across, it is important to highlight two major mental hurdles: the fact that, as stated, it is hard to accept the gift of power (or rather reclaim it), and secondly, the related issue of acknowledging that everything in your life (good and bad) happens according to your choice. I wish I could convey through these pages the feeling and knowing that the inner world is by far the biggest determinant for living a happy and peaceful life. But I fear that this is something you will have to work out for yourself. This concept becomes more challenging to navigate the more tragic the life circumstances that are being or have been encountered. There is no shortage of examples for tragic life experiences that would be perceived as insurmountable and would make my reflections appear trite pseudo-intellectual/spiritual discourse. The only thing I can attempt is to illuminate the long and hard way to the multidimensional vantage point I have journeyed to. The state of being I am referring to gives you room to breathe, creates space between what you perceive to be yourself and the physical world you have reincarnated into, space between you and all of the pain the world has wrapped around you. From that particular vantage point, or energetic state, ‘choice’ is always available. As epitomised by the catch phrase “energy flows where attention goes”, your mind controls your energetic investment in every single moment, by choice.

Choice gives you the power to respond instead of react. Choice, above all else, is to choose yourself. That choice is repeatedly made every moment, like a mantra. In the context of time, the mind may always slip back into old behavioural patterns, disregarding the choice you made just a moment ago. Therefore the energetic state of choice has to be fostered and supported, by choosing activities which do not throw you back into your old physical mind (e.g. gaming, social media apps, and so forth). Time is an artefact of physical life and does not exist in non-physical planes, which is why in those realms you can only be who you are, without the need to choose ‘you’ every moment and without the physical distractions that lure you away from yourself. As mentioned earlier, the fear of power and responsibility are the hurdles to overcome in order to exert the power of choice. Both are rooted in attachment to physical reality. Clearing both obstacles requires a deep exploration of the multidimensional nature of reality, as well as yourself, otherwise your mind will never be in a position to comprehend that choice is actually possible. Choice is the ability to hold on to your true multidimensional identity when a mentally traumatic event takes over your physical rational mind. Traumatic events of any nature can trigger mental feedback loops which lock you into victim mentality. I am not arguing that harmful physical events do not happen, that would be ridiculous. What I am saying is that your true identity, your true self, can never been harmed, except by yourself. Two main choices are available to you when a traumatic event has touched you. You can either try to solve the issue on the physical plane, by means of therapy and/or self help methodologies, or you can approach the problem from another plane, by choosing to dwell in your higher self identity, which will be able to take care and heal your physical self, whatever the nature of the mental wound. The latter option is very distinct from avoiding the problem or not acknowledging what may have happened. It rather confines the event in its rightful place, the physical plane, which will never be able to harm or even touch your higher self.

Choice will always dictate your energetic state, since the energetic state is what you ultimately choose. Your energetic state dictates attraction or repulsion of surrounding energies. Choices are not only momentarily critical, but are also important for physical manifestation. When you choose yourself, you automatically attract your energetic matches (people, locations, circumstances, …), which puts you on the priority lane to manifest your highest timeline, instead of getting stuck in karmic traffic jams. Everything happens according to your choice, whether consciously or not; might as well start to create your own reality.

It took me a very long time to realise that I gave my choice and power away for most of my life. But that realisation prompted me to take responsibility for my life, make the choice of only embodying selected energies, and eventually take my power back. You have the same opportunity. It will take time, perhaps even a long time. It is important to have patience with yourself and not beat yourself up if your newly affirmed choice disappears under the weight of life’s stresses and responsibilities. It takes time to develop the strength to have persistent choices and that strength correlates with your ability to stay in the present. Nothing takes away your choice and power faster than residing fearfully in the past or anxiously in the future.

Choice requires the deidentification from and removal of self limiting beliefs. As with the development of any spiritual skill, the removal of (self sabotaging) elements that may have been central to your sense of self does not mean that you will loose your individuality, even if that is how it may seem from your ego’s perspective. Instead, you will be able to more powerfully embody your individuality without being swayed aimlessly by external circumstances. You will not lose yourself but rather reclaim yourself. You will, however, regularly bump against beliefs and limitations that you have set for yourself. Everyone will have to clear a distinct set of challenges, according to what they chose to overcome in this lifetime. The release of fear, the past and the future, is embedded in the lesson of choice.

As stated earlier, the release of unwanted energy in exchange for joy or love is itself an act of choice. The choice of embodying a chosen energy like joy or love instantaneously displaces the old energy, as you can only ever embody and channel a single energetic frequency at a time. So if you struggle with any type of anxiety or fear, the solution may not be to treat or attack that particular energy, but to choose another one. Even if that may sound horribly simplistic, it works. You can literally choose which energy you are embodying. If you perceive this to be impossible, you may have a particular strong energetic attachment to your old energy.

All of this obviously implies that you have much more responsibility in the way you feel on a daily basis, which itself dictates what you are attracting into your life. Thus, simply put, you create your own life on a moment to moment basis. Instead of waiting for the right people or circumstances to appear in your life and support you in embodying particular energies, you become a fully independent creator of your reality and attract the people and circumstances that match your energetic frequency. And if you wonder why you would not choose a negative energy instead of a positive one, I would say that this is your own choice and free will. However, positive energies ultimately dominate over negative ones due to their unifying character. I like to think that this book will only attract readers aligned with my own energetic frequency, naturally excluding people with nefarious goals.

The nature of your choices will vary according to your spiritual evolution. Initially, choice may be restricted to regaining control over your life, by choosing not to engage in old behavioural patterns. After a while, you may be able to more specifically choose yourself, once you have defined what that means, and then, finally, you may be in the fortunate energetic state to be able to choose the future of your choosing through aligned action, which may include any energetic state and energy you wish to embody and sharing it with the world, fully seen.

To conclude, I wish to briefly address what not to use your mind for, which is equally important since inappropriate use of your mind leads to great pain. I have always felt that having a rational mind is a curse. I always perceived energetic, telepathic communication to make more sense and come naturally to me. And while I did not gift myself any types of paranormal abilities, I enjoy communicating energetically with my surroundings. The mind is a tool which we need to get familiar with, because it is restricted to physical life; some reincarnated souls require more time to get accustomed with the inner workings of the mind. At times we choose a particularly difficult mindset to work with, typically with a particular purpose ‘in mind’. From the soul’s perspective, every experience has value, the more challenging ones being particularly powerful for the soul’s evolution. If I followed a scientific, intellectual line of work it was partly because it seemed to be a respected pursuit in a world that I otherwise did not connect with, and partly to gain greater understand of the nature of reality and the mind. Over the years, decades, I learned to appreciate the limitations of the mind. While all of reality is mental, some mental activities are better left to the universal mind instead of your own.

When it comes to interpersonal relationships, do not allow your mind to attribute thoughts to other people. Your mind already excels at capturing your mind space. If you let it, it will readily create and attribute artificial thoughts to others, as discussed earlier. More generally, do not let the mind think that it is in charge. You can do that by tuning more into your higher self and practice shutting down your thoughts when they are not required. The mind naturally claims the ‘alpha dog’ position and wants to run your life. The issue is that more often than not, like an insecure dog unknowingly being put in a leadership position by its owner, the mind will overreact, out of fear. Deidentification is the necessary first step to allow the mind to go back to its rightful place, as a supporting act in the story of your life, instead of having to assume the lead role for which is it not suited. You are the underlying consciousness which observes the mind, and is able to respond appropriately to every situation presented to you. You are not the entity which reacts out of fear. Reidentify with your observing consciousness and reclaim your power. This will create a sense of control which will signal the mind that it does not have to intervene to protect you.

My mind kept me small throughout my life. Some people call it perfectionism. Do not allow your mind to disrespect, abuse, sabotage of you. Our mind can be our worst enemy if we let it. This is further amplified by the fact that once you get accustomed to having the mind judge your- or it-self, it will automatically attribute a judgmental mindset to other people in your life, so that you will constantly feel judged both internally and externally. Like me, you may be a person who puts a lot of effort into everything you are doing. In that context, it is particularly hard to accept any type of failure or subpar performance, which is by the way never the actual outcome but the outcome portrayed by the mind, due to its ignorance of the greater picture. That greater picture is a big as you can imagine when considering the evolution of souls in the greater evolution of the universe and universal consciousness. It is a wild understatement to say that the mind is unable to capture the true value of your life, every moment of it and everything in it. Everything you are supposed to experience and receive will come to you. Do not let the mind determine how they are supposed to appear. The beauty in being alive, in every moment, cannot be accurately determined or grasped by the mind. The appropriate assessment of how successful your life is is limited to your higher self.

The ultimate act of sabotage the mind will initiate is to plant the thought in your mind, as you may wish and start to implement some of things presented in this book, that you are going insane. Insanity is nothing else than the feeling or emotion that you observe when the mind is losing its control. While it may be an appropriate signal in the context of bona fide psychiatric diseases, it is rather an inappropriate last resort for a mind being put back in its place. While the quote from Greek philosopher Aristotle “There is no great genius without a touch of madness” has been used to illustrate the proclivity of extraordinary artists to have troubled mind or documented psychiatric disorders (e.g. Van Gogh, Beethoven), the fundamental truth in that quote is that to access the trans-dimensional knowledge that is your birthright, and the enhanced capabilities and energy that come with it, you may have to cross the line your mind has labelled ‘insanity’ (but each of our minds may have put that line somewhere else). The courage to do so is within you and can be perceived as a ‘calling’. If you do not have the courage yet, wait. You are either not supposed to cross that line in this lifetime, or you have not yet suffered enough in the hands of the mind (both nothing to be critical of).

Altered states of consciousness

In the previous sections, I have given my account of what I believe the inner workings of the mind are and what their implications for life are. Finding the way out of, or rather through, my mind has taken most of my life, and will most likely take most of yours if you decide to go on that journey. If you do, learn how to rest instead of giving up. Mastery of yourself, i.e. mastery of your mind, is the most difficult and valuable thing you can ever achieve in your life, and it will demand everything from you. It will cost you your life (your past life and identification with it) to succeed. The alienation and loneliness which may be part of your journey may push you to give up. If you do feel empty and ready to give up, rest, take care of yourself.

Your progress along the journey may be supported by altered states of consciousness. Such states can be achieved through breathwork, advanced meditation and yoga techniques or through the use of plant medicines and their respective psychedelic bioactives. Such states have various purposes and effects. Most importantly, they expand your overall consciousness (if you allow them); permanently if the experience is properly integrated. The intensity of the experience can also be chosen according to individual needs. Depending on the method and intensity, you may be challenged by specific aspects of the experience; some experiences allow the presence of a ‘silent’ mind, while others will demand its complete release (voluntary ego death). Mystical experiences should only be sought out occasionally, and only if past experiences have been fully integrated. A single transcendent experience may challenge every aspect of your present reality. The life changing part of such experience is tied to the voluntary integration work, after the experience. Due to their potentially traumatic (even if beneficial) nature, such deep experiences should only be sought in the context of an appropriate ‘set and setting’ and ideally in the presence of experienced and/or professional support, so not ‘recreationally’. Less intense altered states, can be used more regularly for the purpose of incremental internal work or relaxation. I found that the altered states of consciousness I have experienced have the common feature of dissolving the framework of time, which I found to be tremendously energising and rejuvenating.

Unfortunately, the account of mystical experiences are generally regarded as rather unscientific and have been demoted to the rank of the irrational by mainstream science, largely due to their experiential rather than quantifiable qualities. It is rare to read personal accounts from trained academics such as brain scientist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, discussing in the book ‘My Stroke of Insight’ her enlightening loss of rational left brain function, or the near death experience (NDE) of neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander (book “Proof of Heaven”). The furthest mainstream science goes to acknowledge any such experiences or any altered state of consciousness is to categorise them as neurochemical anomalies or hallucinations, such as the one which may be induced by the release of the powerful psychedelic substance dimethyltryptamine (DMT) during the physiological process of dying (DMT, dubbed the ‘spirit molecule’ by psychiatrist Rick Strassman, is also the main psychoactive substance in the plant medicine ayahuasca).

Realistically, within my lifetime no scientific method will be able to demonstrate that consciousness exists beyond physical life or can transcend the physical body while still alive. The question then becomes whether (inducible) altered states of consciousness are beneficial and should be explored or pursued. Can they bring value to your life? That would obviously depend on whether you have particular problems which proved to be resistant to past attemps to resolve them, either through self exploration or professional therapy. If you are happy with your life and do not perceive any interest in exploring altered states of consciousness, you are probably better off living your life like you have so far. There is really no need to fix something that is working. If you do however feel the calling to explore other dimensions, you may want to stay open to the possibility that the scientific proof of what you may experience is secondary to its perceived benefit. After all, if everything is mind, the mere fact that you have experienced it should constitute proof of its ‘reality’, at least for you. In the particular case of psychedelics, the regulatory approval required for more widespread use, outside of the context of clinical trials, is proving to be rather arduous, notwithstanding promising signs of efficacy against depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The deciding of factor of how to personally interpret altered states of consciousness and the associated reframing of reality/life/death may be a matter of informed choice. To make that choice, ask yourself that simple question: which interpretation makes you more happy? It may really be that simple. For arguments sake (mostly for your rational mind), let’s assume that we lose any type of consciousness at the time of our physical death. In that case that is really it and there will be no opportunity to ponder on your life’s choice anyway, so does it matter either way what you choose to believe? Now imagine that near death and other mystical experiences are accurate pointers towards what non-physical life may indeed feel like, should it exist, and determine the hidden cost for your life to accept or reject that possibility. Which choice would add peace, freedom and happiness to your life? There is no right and wrong answer. You have to answer that question for yourself. Sadhguru summarised this as the “choice to either live magically or logically”. While I love that statement, I would also argue that it creates unnecessary discordance between ‘magic’ and logic. First of all, the term magic is typically associated with something that is not ‘real’. Secondly, I believe that there is a very logical way, based on empirical evidence, to acknowledge that non-physical reality does exist.

Look at it this way, there is no way (none worth discussing here anyway) we can actually die and come back to make that decision. Even if you are one of the lucky/unlucky souls which have had a NDE, there is still no certainty that once you will die ‘for good’, it will feel and be the same. Although I have never heard accounts of people that have had a near death experience which did not make them rethink and redesign large parts of their life and reality, I acknowledge the fact those would be much more likely to have spoken publicly about it, so the ‘data’ on that point is likely to be biased. The only thing that we can really do is explore all the available material with an open mind, and then make a decision. The worst place to be is in-between the two available choices of ‘magic’ or ‘logic’. In that sense, ‘faith’ becomes a choice, a mind-based decision in the absence of physical evidence (but guided by non-physical evidence in the form of resonance and ‘knowing’).

Altered states on consciousness should not be perceived as the solution in itself. They represent temporary opportunities to look beyond the veil. Their real value lies in how you readjust the course of your life after the experience, how you recenter your mind within your newly expanded consciousness. You have the choice to integrate it into your reality or not. You have the choice to use it to completely change your life, or to put the experience in a box, label it and safely put it away. If integrated correctly, psychedelics will permanently alter your perception reality; the experience will never leave you, akin to the saying “A mind stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions” (Oliver Wendell Holmes). Importantly, once you experienced a particular vibration, energetic state, you can re-access it whenever you like, without the use of psychedelics in this case. The newly formed connection has to be fostered however. If you did return to your old patterns, the experience will be overridden over time. The connections in your brain have to be solidified; energy flows only to where your attention goes.

I wish to reemphasise that there are other options than psychedelics to explore inducible altered states of consciousness. To some extent, even dreaming can be characterised as an altered state of consciousness. Although I do not always recall my dreams, I do remember experiencing seemingly contradictory states where my rational mind has a brief hold on dream content which makes no rational sense. Non visual perception and knowledge of people being present, dreams with characters which have never entered my physical reality but seem very familiar in my dreams, and the list goes on. To my regret, such recollections quickly fade into nothingness, no matter how tightly I try to keep them alive mentally. For me, it is important to be able to reconcile all of my experiences, including the ones in altered states, within my overall, personal framework of reality. I have no intent to exclude perfectly valid observations, even if invisible to others, from my perception of reality. The only justification I will ever need is that it enriches my life, on emotional, intellectual and spiritual levels. I would not go as far as saying that everyone would benefit from such holistic integration of experiences across various planes of consciousness, and do not believe that everyone should experience psychedelics, or that everyone would benefit from them, but I believe that if you feel called to experience altered states of consciousness, with whatever means you choose, than it is likely that you will gain some benefit from it. I wish to stress, however, that altered states should never become a crutch, an escape mechanism to avoid the harsh but also beautiful physical world. If you are alive, you have purpose, even if may not have found it yet, and that purpose is securely anchored in the physical world. Altered states are only there to complement and enrich your physical life, not to substitute it.

CHAPTER 4 – Remember who you are

The desire to know your own soul will end all other desires.

Rumi

First off, there is nothing wrong with who and where you are at this very moment. The fact that you are reading these lines is a sign that you may be seeking something, that a part of you has awakened and is hungry for ‘more’, whatever that is. There might be something you have to figure out before you can move forward, but rest assured that you are exactly where you are meant to be, otherwise you wouldn’t be here. I assume that some of you will be exhausted at this point. Exhausted from a life that has lost meaning, exhausted from failed relationships, exhausted from being misunderstood, exhausted from not fitting in, simply, exhausted from life. Please, rest as often as you have to, but do not give up. I hope I can illuminate the path for you into a new and empowered life.

By now you should know a little more about energy and mind. While this may be a good starting point, the remembrance of who you are is a long, perhaps never ending, journey of self discovery. Don’t be discouraged, along the way you will receive bouts of energy, in mostly unexpected manner. That energy is yours already, but it has to be unlocked through energetic shifts and decisions that are yours to initiate. Before you make your next step on that journey, it is good to know and acknowledge that being on the journey is all that matters, even if it does not always provide much solace or comfort. Although the point is indeed to rediscover who you are, resist the temptation to embody the energetic state of wanting to reach a goal. The journey itself is the goal and the reward. As you learned from prior chapters, time itself is a mental construct and therefore does not exist. You are already everything you can be; the journey is merely being yourself. Self realization and self rediscovery is about shedding all that you are not. While this may take ‘time’ on the physical plane, sudden strikes of insights can happen at any ‘time’, instantaneously. Once you light the fire which will eventually burn everything that is not real about you, you initiate a process which cannot be stopped (unless you really want it to). Going through the process of self discovery is the most costly thing you will ever do in your life, as it will cost you your old self, your mind’s most precious possession.

You cannot swim for new horizons until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

William Faulkner

You may feel as if liberation from your current self is all you desire, so how could it be a costly thing to get rid of? The issue is that your current self, however ‘bad’ it feels, is your main identity. Thus, the process of de-identification from your current self represents an ego death, a mental death; the fact that you may want to get rid of an identity which is restricting and perhaps unhealthy does not make the process any easier. Chances are you have been through some very hard lessons and experiences in your lifetime. Such experiences leave very deep and powerful energetic scars on your mental fabric. There is no doubt that your experience will catalyse your spiritual development and you will, or already have, come to the realization that the pain you have endured had the purpose to catapult you out of a ‘regular’ life. Yet regardless how spiritually advanced you are, letting go of all of the complex layers of mental and emotional pain never comes easy. Your attachment to your scars runs very deep.

The de-identification with all the layers of hurt which you carry is a necessary first step towards what is referred to as healing. So remembrance of who you are, letting go of what you are not and healing are all part of the same, circular process. The question is, why is healing and letting go of hurt so hard? The reason is the intrinsic sense of identity it carries. From a neurophysiological perspective, it is the fact that we strengthened the neurological wiring around the pain and hurt so much that we mistake its default mode of operation as being an integral part of us, as being us. Letting go of that part demands to be felt, to be mourned; something that represents a significant part of your life is being shed. Healing requires a significant effort on our part to start the process of de-identification, as well as the commitment to rewiring our default responses to what triggers our wounded parts (e.g. people, situations, …). The deidentification process can be initiated and sustained in controlled, meditative environments, perhaps in isolation if you choose, or whatever environment feels most comfortable and allows you to direct your focus on your thoughts. The full rewiring of your brain will unfortunately require exposure to environments which trigger your wounds. This second part is how you test the progress you have made by yourself, and can be somewhat frustrating and discouraging. You may be able to completely change your sense of self and identity when you are by yourself, an enormous achievement in its own right, only to uncontrollably revert back to you old patterns when exposed to a person/situation which triggers an old wound. Yet, if you pay close attention, you may be able to separate your mental from your bodily reaction. The body always amplifies the smallest mental cues, so even if you are very close to breaking through to your new, real identity, your body may still be stuck in its old reactive patterns, which create an amplification loop with your mind. Do not let that deter you from your path or progress. It will take some time for your brain and body to fully disengage from their old default network reactions and strengthen new signalling pathways. This is the just reality of you being a physical entity. It is important to process each setback very quickly and return to a state of self encouragement and progress. Acknowledge the progress you have made, and that you are on the right path to your new life.

The last steps to your true identity may be the hardest ones, may be the ones which will constantly test your resolve, until your mind finally accepts that it is not an entity of its own but rather a temporary physical accessory to an eternal energetic entity, your higher self, which it is meant to serve and complement. I believe that we choose the traits of our mind before we reincarnate. Associated with that choice are unique challenges which have to be overcome to align the mind with your higher self. Life is a game of consciousness, as discussed earlier. The game consists of getting the mind to explore its own existence and realise that there is something else which is aware of its existence, and that that other thing (your higher consciousness) does not require the mind to exist. And finally, you come to the realisation that you, as your higher consciousness, are the one which switches from mind to higher consciousness identification, and that you do not need a mind to exist. You won at life when you, as your higher consciousness, can temporarily, and at will, slip into your mind and use it to perfectly serve your higher purpose, without identifying with it. When your consciousness is able to dance between various forms (mind vs thoughtless higher consciousness), without attachment, then you will also be able to easily release your human form of existence when the time comes.

A life truly lived burns away veils of illusion, burns away what is no longer relevant, gradually reveals our essence, until, at last, we are strong enough to stand in our naked truth.

Marion Woodman

If you are not your mind, you are, by extension, not any aspect of your mind. You are not your thoughts, you are not your nervous system, your bodily reactions and emotions, you are not your addictions. The fact that you are not your thoughts may be particularly difficult to cognise. Thoughts are a form of energy which you can temporarily host, be the physical vessel for, but they are not you. They are an energetic investment, something that your ego and mind attribute value and meaning to. Identification is the ultimate energetic investment and is therefore hard to relinquish. The mind is ill-equiped to grasp the existence of its higher counterpart, your higher self, and is incapable of appropriately assessing the value of it (since it is not linked to thought, action or any other physical attribute). Instead, it assesses everything within its realm (of thought) from its own set of ego-based values, which is why you can readily spend all of your life not realizing who you truly are. The solution lies in the understanding which tasks should be given to the mind, and which ones are outside of its scope. Once you come to the realisation that you are not your thoughts and that they have a very limited plane of validity, you create space, a buffer which you can leverage to detach yourself from thought-based identification. This allows you to gain immediate control of your life and an elevated sense of self worth. The detachment (even partial) from what you are not also allows you to explore where these aspects of your physical life originated (e.g. childhood wounding, …) and resolve and heal them. This process is much harder if you still identify with all aspects of your mind. Most if not all mind-based problems cannot be solved while still being identified with the problem or thoughts thereof (cf. Einstein “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them” … although I would argue that thinking may have to be largely abandoned).

So how do you stop identifying with thought, stop the energetic investment. From my perspective, there are two main options: you can either stop by choice or by exhaustion, typically a combination of both. The choice of de-identifying from thought requires a certain level of spiritual development, an initial step towards distancing yourself from the mind, a sudden insight that there is your mind and then there is a separate you observing it. If you are fully identified with the mind, it is impossible for it (you) to be both the object and subject of the de-identification (you, the mind, de-identifying from itself). The initial step, the initial insight, is typically triggered through exhaustion, a tiredness of having to go through the ongoing pain that comes with thought-identification. Notwithstanding, younger generations may have a qualitatively different level of consciousness entering the physical plane of existence and may therefore go through a different process as compared to older generations. For the latter, the lesson that thought-identification invariably leads to pain will show up time and time again until learned and assimilated. Unfortunately, no one can learn that (or any other) lesson from you. Successful de-identification from thought and the physical body is however not a given. Most humans are physically dying while still fully identified with their minds and physical bodies, without having ever caught a glimpse of who they are beyond that; or maybe they did but the thought was so foreign and frightening (to the mind and ego) that they rapidly reverted back to their old energetic state. In that case, the process of de-identification will occur entirely during and on the other side of physical death.

De-identification with thought is an ongoing process, as thought is an intrinsic part of human life. New life situations and associated thoughts will provide endless ways to de-identify and spiritually evolve. The depth of de-identification and thought-based experiences will be very specific to any given individual. The bravest souls will have signed up for very traumatic experiences to de-identify and grow from. The stronger the soul, the deeper and complete the de-identification will have to be. We are given (or give ourselves) what we are capable of overcoming, no more, but no less either. The most advanced souls have the longest way to travel and are typically confronted with very difficult challenges, blessings in disguise which will kick them out of any comfort zone they may want to create for themselves (“The universe will never give you peace in something you were never meant to settle in”). It is therefore common for old souls to be on very long journeys, and these people will develop and morph throughout their entire lives. This will to some extent lead to inverted life trajectories, front-loaded with tremendous amounts of challenges and pain, later turning into a youthful play with divinity and physical rejuvenation. Old souls will leave people and situations behind as they shed each layer of their skin, old patterns and selves. Remembering who you are will cost you your old life, time and time again.

The reward of such journey has no limit, because when you remember who and what you are, you realise that you are already everything you were seeking. From a space where nothing has to be achieved anymore, because there is nothing left to achieve, everything becomes potential and creativity can run free, if you let it. If you consider the principle of polarity in this context, the depth of suffering you have experienced may have always been a pointer towards the amount of love that is available to you, the love that you carry and emanate. You have chosen to experience this duality to choose once again to embody the frequency of love and compassion. Your soul may have chosen circumstances that were so uncomfortable and unavoidable that the only choice you had was to relentlessly search for the path to peace and love. As stated many times, you always have free will. Your choices will have reflected who you are. You had to have an experience so profoundly violent that it stays with you for the rest of your life. It had to rewire your perception in such fundamental ways that everything going forward is acknowledged and given its true value.

So who are you? You are a frequency. As a human, you may experience it more like an emotion or a feeling, but those are fundamentally frequencies. At the same time, you exist on several energetic planes, so your frequency will depend on which plane you mostly reside in. If you still identify with your mind, you mostly reside on the physical plane and your energy will closely mirror your inner world of thought, and may therefore be fairly erratic. Once you de-identify from thought, you will be able to tap into your higher frequencies, by choice, even if you are still anchored to the physical plane through your body (or from another perspective, you reincarnate to anchor your higher frequency to the earthly realm in order to participate in and support its larger energetic shifts). Once you leave your physical form (i.e. after you die), you will naturally reclaim your higher identity even if you were not able to choose and embody it during your human life. In those higher realms, stepwise ascension in frequency ends at the singularity with all there is, God if you will.

On any plane of existence, the higher your frequency, the more you can detach yourself from any type of individuality and the more connected you become to all there is, ultimately merging back into source. While ‘loosing’ individuality may be perceived as, and indeed represents, some kind of death, you will do so of your own (free) will, when you are ready. At first, you will undergo a long succession (simultaneous, outside of the reference point of time) of reincarnations into the physical world, as a human or any other life form. The physical world, and planet Earth in particular, offers souls a divine play of form with virtually endless types of experiences. While intoxicating at first, due to the wealth of growth it provides to the soul, the choice and urge to reincarnate decreases over ‘time’, once a sufficiently large number of lives, lessons and frequencies have been experienced. Rumi’s quote referenced earlier: “You have no need to travel anywhere – journey within yourself. Enter a mine of rubies and bathe in the splendour of your own light” is a good analogy to describe the aim and goal across planes of existence. Each plane being, at some stage, transcended. Regarding the physical plane, this may be achieved through the lived knowing that anything material (e.g. possessions, …) does not lead to happiness and only provides a false sense of security. The aimless pursuit of material wealth and the exploration of mortality are mutually exclusive. Material wealth is (at a deeper lever) often used as a distraction from the certainty of one’s death. Yet even such pursuits are extremely valuable from the soul’s perspective. There is no need to look down on any particular step in a soul’s journey; every step is equally valuable. Every soul has to independently evolve to the point where it can transcend the ego mind it chose to reincarnate into, while still alive. A soul having overcome the transcending challenges it set for itself will live the rest of its earthly life in a state of peaceful exctasy, ‘to the point of tears’, impervious to any physical circumstance.

The last reincarnations will be the most challenging ones, the only logical choice for an advanced soul. If human experiences are like a menu composed by the soul, final lifetimes resemble an elevator control panel after a child pressed all of its buttons. Personally, while I intend to cherish whatever time I have left in this incarnation, I am very much looking forward to return home and explore non physical energies and journeys. The challenges of an oversoul (as fictionally recounted in the ‘Oversoul Seven’ Trilogy by Jane Roberts, primarily known as channel for the entity known as Seth) feel quite appealing.

Each soul, including yours, is going through its own ascension process, and each step occurs in divine timing, orchestrated by yourself and your guides. Chances are, if you read this, you have probably chosen a fairly challenging life for yourself and are seeking to remember parts of what you have forgotten upon reincarnating. That process is very individual, and requires specific triggers for each person. Life is the source of beautifully poetic yet painful rapture, perfectly captured by “I will not go quietly into that good night; instead I will rage against the dying of the light” (poem by Dylan Thomas). While I understand the innate pull of staying in that state of rapture, because it makes us feel more alive, it is ultimately our downfall. Life is there to teach us how to go gently into that goodnight, through the recognition that the dying of the light is an illusion, an ego projection. Your light is eternal.

For the time being you are here, on Earth, living through the various experiences you have selected for yourself, this time around, learning how to feel and work through a particular set of energetic frequencies; the highest of which being what we refer to as love. As already discussed, the word or concept of love is associated with various physical things, most of them being conditional. Yet the frequency of love exists by itself and is unconditional. It is part of the divine, whatever that means to you. And that is what you fundamentally are, what the fabric of the universe is. Such statement may sound unscientific, and my rational mind certainly cringes at such statement, even though I know this to be true. The fundamental flaw within modern science is the false premise that it requires objective detachment. While this is possible at very basic levels of scientific exploration, any advanced search for knowledge requires active, subjective participation. Qualitatively different types of knowledge exist on different planes of existence. On the physical plane, knowledge is acquired by the lower mind through reading, studying or any other form of content absorption. On higher planes, existence and knowledge are essentially the same thing, which is why answers appear effortlessly in altered states of consciousness; the query and answer being inseparable from each other. Similarly, the search for your identity starts with mental activities, until it morphs into active energetic sensing and being, ultimately leading to the disappearance of the question of who you are.

The reason why you may have overlooked who you are for most of your life is that your mind was stuck in ‘content’. Who you are was there all a long, beneath the content exploration. What you have been feeling, what you were all of your life is the key. You only need to choose yourself, instead of letting your mind bind you to your physical experiences. Your only responsibility, once you remember who you are, what you are underneath all the noise of physical life, is to stay in that energy. And with that process comes the deep recognition that you are already anything you could dream of becoming. Let that sink in: you are already everything, and more, that you could ever dream of being.

The concept of you already are what you are seeking is admittedly a difficult one to cognise, and your mind will immediately try to reject is as a fallacy. After all, it has already invested so much in working on getting what it seeks (with the underlying dogma that it does not have it). If I would ask you to describe to me, in the finest detail, what it is you are seeking you would list a combination of material (money, possessions, ..) and/or emotional (love, happiness, …) attributes of your hypothetical dream life. However, if we took apart every single aspect of your dream life, only emotional/energetic aspects would be left, because the only reason we seek material possessions is for the feeling they give us (happiness, security, freedom). This is the reason why we are constantly looking for new material things to acquire, because we are getting bored of the old new things, and also the reason why when we try to manifest them, the universe will more likely provide us with the (longer lasting) non-material energetic equivalent such as joy and happiness. The question then becomes, how can you already have the energetic states you are seeking? The answer I would offer is that you cannot seek something you do not know. The state of happiness you are seeking is already familiar to you, otherwise you couldn’t possibly seek it and would never know when you have reached it, so intrinsically you are already attuned to anything you can imagine. But if everybody had to imagine what it would feel like to be completely happy, everyone would come up with slightly different visualisations of it. You would only be an energetic match to your very personal dream state and life; this is your energetic signature that only you can imagine and dream of, even if we all share the underlying tonality of love. You are mistaken if you think that everyone is able to mentally access the energetic frequencies you are generating. These are yours; this is you. I understand that there is a disconnect between dreaming it and living it, but the key to your dream life is to be be its energetic match so that it can come to you. The biggest hurdle to attracting your dream life is the lack of trust and understanding that you have to embody the frequency (being it on higher planes is not enough in that case) before things of similar frequency will be attracted to you on the physical plane. You can only manifest from a state of abundance, not from a state of lack. To paraphrase the quote from Mark Nepo referenced earlier, a flower doesn’t chase after bees, it just blooms and the bees come. Like I mentioned several times, it is your choice to embody whatever energy you want, including the one of your dream life. Thought and physical reality are deeply intertwined. When you truly think differently (emphasis on truly; you cannot fake this, the universe demands your commitment and authenticity), you will most certainly act differently. Those two things go hand in hand. Taking a single step in the direction of your dream life will immediately align you with it.

Embodying your energy and being who you are comes naturally to you, so what is it that prevents you from being yourself? All the things that you are not. All the past trauma, the anxiety of the future and everything in between. Being yourself means to be present and detached from thoughts of the past and future. This is easier said than done, admittedly, but still wonderful news, because it means that every moment is another opportunity to start from scratch and be yourself. Every moment contains a new eternity, a new timeline. But while you have the opportunity to change everything on a moment to moment basis, your external circumstances and environments have a similar opportunity to pull the wool over your eyes and plunge you back into overthinking the past and future. Thus, you need to be continuously determined to discriminate your energy from all other energetic influences which you are exposed. This also applies to your internal environment. Your thoughts, which are not your identity, are particularly cunning in that regard. They may never stop trying to claim you. This process of energetic discernment is never completed, but your abilities will strengthen over time. Remembering who your are is intrinsically your responsibility. No one will do it for you. You have to take responsibility for all the times you have let your thoughts exert their energetic power over you and dictate your life. Acknowledging that fact is the first step to stopping it from this moment on. Life is first and foremost an energetic game. Identifying and discerning energies, yours and the ones separate from you, including the ones your mind creates under your supervision.

As mentioned before, the price to pay for remembering who you are and reclaiming yourself is your old identity. It is the ultimate price not many people are capable or willing to pay. It takes a tremendous amount of pain to be willing to give your old life away, the pain not being the agent of change but the catalyser for a mental frameshift. This mental recalibration is a bona fide mental death; and even though not as dramatic or apparent to the external environment as a physical death (except for the changes it induces), the process is similarly difficult, perhaps even more so. Remembering who you are and claiming that new identity requires some form of insanity (from the perspective of the old self, but that doesn’t make it any less ‘real’), due to the voluntary dissolution of the ego structure. Your higher self chooses to become more of itself, someone else than the ‘ego’ you grew to become as the world put its various imprints on you. The ego will fight that process, since it does represent its death, which is why it takes a lot to be willing to pay that price. The identification with the old self must have brought so much pain and suffering, including to itself, that it is willingly letting go, for its own sake. Similar to the ‘violence it takes to be gentle’, the old identity must have unsuccessfully explored and stretched itself to great lengths before it finally acknowledges, to you as well as itself, that it would be best if it birthed into something new. Before it accepts to be reborn.

I had the benefit of never having the feeling of having a settled identity structure, which allowed me to reinvent myself without the additional burden of detachment from too many external factors. Yet my ego still revealed to be quite resistant and stubborn, until it finally asked and was shown how to die, and thereby reconnected with (my) source.

Just as the acorn existed within the oak even when the oak was a seedling; and as the oak existed within the earth, even before there were trees; and as the earth existed within the galaxy, even before there were planets, there has never been a time, dear One, when you did not exist within me, during which we dreamed all else into being.

The Universe (through Unknown)

CHAPTER 5 – Reclaim yourself

A book is meant to be read from beginning to end, but is best understood from end to beginning.

Mr. Church

By now you may have caught glimpses of who you truly are, but this is only the start; you also have to energetically claim that new identity. The next steps in your life will take time and energy, but you now know that (linear) time is an illusion, that there is nothing you actually have to achieve, and that energy will always be at your disposal as long as you love and take care of yourself. A large part of reclaiming yourself consists of finding practical and sustainable ways to remain in your higher identity and build a life around it, so that everything supports you in being you. This may include removing external factors which are not aligned with your new identity, such as environments, places and people. Remaining energetic, emotional wounds have to be healed and transmuted, alchemyzed into power that will further propel you forward.

Reclaiming your identity will require a complete devotion to your new life. Nothing will ever change unless it becomes your main focus, the most important thing in your life; unless it becomes more painful not to do it than to remain in your old comfort zone. Every thought and action need to reflect your new identity (at least at the beginning). You will feel like everything will test you, because everything around you has been designed (by yourself) to suit your old life and identity. You may feel like everything is working against (the new) you, and to some extent it is. Only the full, dedicated identification and embodiment of your new identity will allow you to change, redesign your external environment. Burn all of the bridges to your old identity, and embrace the related spiritual ‘cliches’: the pain of (re)birth/creation; it’s darkest before the dawn; this too shall pass; or the agonizing dissolution of the caterpillar before it turns into a butterfly.

You can build your new life exactly as you want (assuming it’s aligned with your new identity); you just need to be all in. Some things which are waiting for you in the ‘future’ need to be accessed through an energetic switch. The process should not be considered through the lens of man-made (i.e. linear) time, but through the lens of energy, ‘divine time’, so that the mind doesn’t get too frustrated with having to ‘wait’ and thereby fall into victim mentality.

And remember that reclaiming yourself and taking your power back is a matter of (higher-)self respect. Once you have understood who you are and give yourself the appropriate worth, you redirect the power and energy you once gave others to yourself. That is the moment you start to the journey back home.

I know you’re tired, but come, this is the way.

Rumi

Calm your nervous system and stay present

In order to sustainably embody your true identity, in the likely context of incessant assaults by your external environment, it is primordial to have a resilient nervous system. A large proportion of the general population is stuck in ‘fight or flight’ mode, reacting, oftentimes hastily and inappropriately, instead of responding to life. Such a state is completely incompatible with energetic discernment and an empowered life within the present moment. A strong and well regulated nervous system is also critical for homeostatic bodily functions and general health, thus beneficially and holistically impacting your life. There are plenty of methods and resources to regulate autonomic arousal, which expectedly significantly overlap with methods aimed at calming the mind, since the mind and the associated belief system is at the source of your emotions. I invite you to explore and find something that works for you. I personally always enjoyed putting the focus on my heart and heart rate and explore ways in which I could calm and slow it down, but you can also put the emphasis on the breath or other aspects of your physiology which resonate with you.

A significant part of living your highest embodiment is to live in the moment, to step out of (linear) time. Time is the glue which binds old energies to your body and mind. The present moment is where old energies and wounds are being released and transmuted. Time and mind go hand in hand, they are a construct of each other. Reclaiming your identity requires reclaiming your power to create your life from the present moment. Human life is invariably bound by time, but you have the power to use the mind and time for whatever purpose you choose, instead of being ruled by them. Once you de-identify from lower frequencies, you may realize that you are not rushing through life anymore, because time loses its importance. You are putting less emphasis on achieving anything (and oddly enough, everything still gets accomplished). The process of re-identifying with your higher self provides so much intrinsic value, energetic depth, that outwardly pursuits become somewhat less meaningful. That doesn’t mean that the outside world is of no importance; quite the contrary, physical life is what you came here to experience, but its true experience is through the portal of the present moment. When you stay in the now, you give the fullest attention and respect to the experience you are meant to have right now. Stepping out of time (or more precisely, as already emphasized, out of its perceived linearity) and being fully in the present moment is the doorway to love and its infinite physical manifestations, including you.

Anxiety and fear arise when your consciousness is largely or exclusively located within the mental plane. While the mental plane is where opportunities and possibilities arise within your physical life, the focus on the present moment enables you to straddle the physical and non-physical and initiate inspired action. Don’t be too hard on yourself, release any expectation of outcome and keep practicing.

Continuous de-identification and healing

Many aspects of your life adopt a continuous character, and these are embedded within your ‘reclaimed’ life; in other words nothing is ever truly completed, nor should it be. You may undergo countless cycles of de-identification and healing in your life; yet it is important to note that you are not turning in circles, you are rather on an upward spiral (until physical death provides the ultimate purge and healing from physical incarnation). De-identification should be followed by a thorough assessment of whether it (whatever ‘it’ is; thoughts, beliefs, people) will fit into your new life or needs to be left behind. But whatever the decision may be, it should always come from a place of love. Everything, every energy in this universe has purpose and, although its time in your life may have run its course, you should be filled with gratitude for what it gave you while it was present in your life. It contributed to the best of its ability to the temporary connection and your development. Be also grateful for the fact that you do not need it in your life anymore, a clear sign of evolution. It should be fairly obvious, from an intuitive perspective, what matches your energetic frequency and you wish to attract into your life. Just make sure that you do not reinvest your energy into identifying with the new things in your life, even if they match your energetic frequency. Remember that identification with anything else but yourself sooner or later leads to pain, even if there’s purpose in that too.

Presence and healing are two sides of the same coin. You cannot be fully in the present without having healed your wounds, which attach you to the past. Being fully present can only occur without attachment to the past. The practice of presence will accelerate the healing process (coming back to the principle that any problem is best solved after a shift of perspective). On the other side, healing in the absence of any type of spiritual mindset is certainly possible (albeit probably more difficult), and will lead to more presence, as a ‘byproduct’.

The is no rule regarding the context in which de-identification and healing should occur. Healing can occur temporarily or entirely in isolation, in which case you will ‘benefit’ from the absence of any distraction which would allow you to somewhat blunt the pain of facing your shadows and wounds. Everything will be unyieldingly in your face (or mind), forcing you into a virtually permanent state of introspection and self discovery. Having more of a social network is comparably softer, notwithstanding the potential traps and escapism associated with social interactions (in the particular context of a healing journey). The context in which healing occurs will yield slightly different results, yet always perfectly aligned with your highest path; the context itself (i.e. being alone or with external support) being intrinsically tied (in a time-independent manner) to the sought outcome.

It may also be important to mention that people frequently report going through healing they did not anticipate. We perhaps confuse, at times, having being formed, shaped by prior experiences, with holding on to that prior energy or emotion in ways which do not benefit our wellbeing and block our evolution. You may not be consciously identified that energy, but you are still holding onto it on some level. Healing involves becoming conscious of all the energetic weight which drags us down, followed by its release, an act of freeing ourselves. It also involves unconditional love and support of the prior version of you who felt obliged to carry that energy; become the person and love you would have needed at the time.

While healing is at its core a mental process, energies are physically held by the body. Bodywork, such as yoga, massages or other types of body-centric practices and services may therefore be extremely useful and complementary to the overall healing process. As usual, use your discernment and intuition to identify what works for you. A healed body, beyond the overall increased levels of energy and health, will also be more grounded and able to anchor your energetic signature to the physical world, facilitating its physical expression. Being grounded also counterbalances excess mental activity. The body, through its root (chakra), energetically anchors us to earth. You are in charge of that connection. Put your focus on it and you will feel the energetic and gravitational pull towards earth. In contrast, when you are too much in your mind (‘air’ energy), life may blow you around like a leaf in the wind. While I heavily discuss the mind, as it is the most powerful entry point to accessing your power, you are a trinity of mind, body and soul and life can only be mastered upon successful integration of the three. For a long period of time, the concept of ‘being grounded’ did not resonate with me. This was due to the fact that I neglected my connection to the physical reality (partly because I did not want to be here). While the ‘pointer’ of ‘being grounded’ still not fully resonate with me, I now understand the underlying truth. Reclaiming yourself requires you to actually wanting to be here and physically create and develop your highest timeline.

Resolution of fear

One of the biggest obstacle in the pursuit of your highest purpose is the mental construct of fear. Fear of change, fear of not succeeding, fear of what others may think, fear of your true self to be seen, fear that you hold more power than you may have ever thought possible (and the associated responsibility). The realisation that you may have the power to change the course of your life and perhaps even humanity is something most people would run away from. While in altered states of consciousness your path may be readily visible and achievable to you, its translation and expression into the physical world is something else entirely. The bridging of what lies beyond the veil and physical reality is a difficult task. Human upbringing involves being imprinted with countless limitations. We are being taught what is allowed, what is possible. Our playful souls become slowly crushed by a system which, akin to an ego construct, only seeks to sustain itself. It is incredibly difficult to remember how to visualise and dream a new life into existence as an adult, and even more so to create it. I would like to invite you to go past any limitation that you or others have set for yourself and dream as big as you can. Those dreams are imbued with your essence and frequency. Manifest them, or else fear will impose its dreams on you.

Manifestation and energetic embodiment

Manifestation is essentially energetic embodiment, with the caveat that physical reality is far from being as responsive as non-physical realms, which means that the energetic embodiment will have to be sustained, a rather frustrating aspect of incarnation. Lots of people are struggling with the concept that energetic embodiment leads to anything else than wishful thinking. Energetic embodiment has physical and non-physical attributes, both of which are inextricably intertwined. Energetic embodiment will attract energies which match yours. At the same time, true embodiment will lead to actions on the physical plane which will, together with newly attracted situations or people, result in a significantly altered life trajectory. While I do not particularly like the related saying “fake it ‘til you make it”, it fairly accurately describes what happens on the surface, i.e. you behaving like you already are who you aspire to be, have everything you seek. What I dislike is that ‘fake’ infers that you are not truly what you outwardly express. I acknowledge that you may miss some or perhaps all external indicators of your identity (e.g. social connections, partners, status, finances), yet you should not view yourself as ‘faking’ anything. You are being you, allowing and giving space to the universe to catch up on your newly chosen identity. Energetic embodiment will lead to new opportunities and external circumstances. The outer world is always a reflection of you inner world (‘as above, so below’). As you become the energetic match to your highest potential, the world around you has no choice but to change accordingly.

That being said, the process is not a pleasant one. It will involve trial and error, and may not be as smooth as you wish it would be; nothing on the physical plane ever is. Manifestation is painful. It requires the unconditional belief, as well as the (non-physical) ‘experience’ and all the emotions that go with it, of what is wished even though it is not physically here yet. For the human psyche, this is difficult and painful and therefore requires transcendence or at least an uncoupling from the rational mind. This is where the concept of linear time is a hindrance again, because you should avoid being in a state of waiting (which signals that something is ‘missing’), and where you may have to wander on the side of insanity and delusion (from the perspective of your mind, hence the necessity for some level of transcendence; nobody likes feeling ‘insane’). Because time does not exist and everything, including all of your past lives but more importantly all of your current life, is happening concurrently, you have to switch to a different mindset to enable the energy of the ‘now’ to attract and allow your manifestation, thrusting you into a different reality. Manifestations only come in when there is room in your consciousness, when you are present and you realize physical reality doesn’t really exist outside of your consciousness. If your mind gets in the way too much, give it an abstract, energetic task, such as meeting your future manifestation on a multidimensional, energetic level. The mind, even if largely rigid, always loves to play.

While you manifest your new life into being, be very careful in situations where your embodiment reflects your attempt to impress someone else. Any type of embodiment which is not rooted in self love and joy will not lead to successful manifestation. The gifts and powers of reality and only given to those of pure heart and intentions. We can all fall into the traps of the ego, especially when everything around us is changing and we adapt to new environments. Pay attention to every step and action.

Others have discussed numerous tool to support embodiment, manifestation or even protection. Alongside energetic embodiment, you can play with various techniques of visualization. You can create spheres or orbs, visualize yourself in it (as a form of energetic protection), or you can visualize something which helps you stay grounded or connected. If you have difficulty keeping your frequency high or imagining how beautiful your life could be, you can visualize yourself or your life as a landscape. Think about every single detail in it. How beautiful do you think you could make that landscape? You can visualize anything you want, as long as it resonates with you and helps you sustain your energetic embodiment. You are creating the rules within your reality.

Energetic embodiment, as already somewhat suggested by its name, requires a healthy, healed body. As already discussed, the body has generally been conditioned for many years by old ways of thinking, unhealthy life patterns and choices and may thus still respond accordingly. Be patient and stick to your new choices and the body will readapt over time. Energy centres (chakras) play a central role in the functioning of your energetic body. Sequential focus on their energetic qualities can support your overall embodiment.

External environment, relationships and boundaries

Your external environment, in both your private and professional life, is an important factor to consider on the quest to achieve sustained energetic embodiment.

To fully reclaim your identity and reshape your outer circumstances may include changing your job, moving geographically, and perhaps losing people who do not fit your new reality (for your and their sake). Associated with your identity you may find a reason why your soul chose to reincarnate and what your mission on earth may be, your life’s purpose. At present, you may have a job that pays the bills, but that may not be your real mission. You may be called to fully refocus your life (e.g. if your current occupation is not particularly fulfilling), or you may be looking at options to develop a second stream of income related to your newly identified purpose and aligned with your passion(s). Staying in your old profession while you transition into your new life is not an impediment. There is no need to make your transition unnecessarily stressful by removing your main source of income. Developing a life centered around your true purpose may take time. The de-identification from your current profession (again, assuming lack of fulfilment; you may already be working in a field which is aligned with your life’s purpose) has various advantages. Identification always leads to stress and pressure to perform. Detachment from, even if still engaged in, your profession has tremendous power, as it eliminates the grasp it has on you. You may feel immediate release, a sense of freedom you have never felt. Just be careful not to re-attach as things may unexpectedly start to flow due to your detachment; your employer may sense your newly found empowerment and could present you with a raise or promotion, which may make you rethink the pursuit of your higher purpose (a common test of your true commitment). Make that old reality something that is still there but does not significantly impact you; it will ultimately fall away when your true purpose will have fully developed into a sustainable activity which supports you spiritually as well as financially.

If you experience a lack of inspiration when it comes to the redesigning of your life, there might be a resistance to acting on your inspiration. A change of mindset will invariably make you act (differently). Any resistance to the ‘acting’ part limits your ability to progress on your path. Taking action is a critical aspect of your interaction with your external environment and ultimately the universe. So go to that invitation you are not keen on, take that new route to your destination, try that new coffee shop … do whatever your intuition tells you to do. This is your hero’s journey through the veil of apparent limitations. Everything you do has (cosmic) impact.

Importantly, do not forget to stay neutral; observe your environment from a neutral position. Even when you’re fully embodied, there is still a large amount of stochasticity in your external world. You will never be fully in control of your external environment. That is a big part of what we are here to experience: the experience itself! Always flow and do not hold onto anything, let go of everything at all times. Gripping too tight is a sign of distrust, and “what you own ends up owning you” (quote from the Bhagavad Gita).

Reclaiming yourself usually involves others, if you don’t live in complete isolation. On top of the internal game of consciousness, there is the external game of consciousness which consists of not letting others, or outer circumstances, alter the reality and identity you are creating for yourself. You need to stay in your power and, if anything, drag everyone and everything into your reality, instead of the opposite. This takes practice and requires the setting of boundaries, which is particularly difficult for empaths, who can sense and perceive so much more. Outside influences (people or anything else) are like Trojan horses. They have no power over you unless you let them in. Build your defenses and do not allow them have power over you. Be the vessel for your energy, exclusively. This is obviously easier to do with people you do not already know. Also, boundaries obviously go both ways, and although you can internally drag everyone into your reality, you cannot externally subject anyone to your beliefs. Always remember that, in a broader sense, ‘rejection’ may be the universe (re-)directing you.

Finally, your environment also includes less obvious factors, yet with potentially significant impact on your senses and thereby state of mind and energy. Just to mention a couple of examples which I personally find fascinating: the impact of architecture on the brain (i.e. ‘Neuroarchitecture’), with clear implications for the choice of colours and geometry in urban design as well as where you personally choose to live, and emerging psychoneuroimmunological effects of music (Fancourt et al., Brain Behav Immun 2014). Energetic embodiment is hard enough; choose wisely when it comes to environmental variables which are within your sphere of influence. Within the context of music, be particularly mindful of the potential attachments you may have to particular the music or artists which meant a lot to your old identity. You may not necessarily have to opt for different music as you become more aligned with your higher self, but I invite you to pay very close attention to what (any) music does to your energetic state. You might be surprised. Energetic resonance is a powerful steering mechanism, whether you choose to operate it consciously or unconsciously let it operate you. Energetic resonance and discernment offer tremendous leverage when it comes to sustained energetic embodiment.

CHAPTER 6 – Death and rebirth

Men flow into life, and ebb into death. Some are filled its life; some are empty with death; some hold fast to life and thereby perish, for life is an abstraction. Those who are filled with life need not fear tiger and rhinos in the worlds, nor wear armour and shields in battle; the rhinoceros finds no place in them for its horn, the tiger no place for its claw, the soldier no place for a weapon. For death finds no place in them.

Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching, verse 50)

Before I conclude this book with some final reflections, I believe that something would be amiss without a small section dedicated to the concept of reincarnation, a natural and necessary complement to any process of self-discovery and -development.

As alluded to in prior sections, proper scientific enquiry is deeply rooted in empirical, objective observation (and an open mind). In my opinion, in addition to all spiritual concepts and lines of thinking developed before, there is an overwhelming body of evidence pointing towards our existence beyond our physical life. While the existing evidence will never withstand traditional scientific scrutiny – how could it, if we cannot even appropriately characterise basic mental processes such as thought or dream? – it has become in my eyes fairly irrational to refute that life exists after death, or more generally that consciousness does not rely on, or originate from, a physical body. The evidence is not restricted to near death experiences (NDE), which are too often attributed to end of life hallucinations, but also include sobering memories of small children, who seem to carry with them dream-like remnants of their more recent, prenatal states of existence, as wonderfully collected in the book ‘Memories from Heaven’ (written by Wayne Dyer). It is difficult to attribute any type of ill-intent or calculated lies to these children. In scientific jargon, these stories constitute empirical observations, data points, which I personally have no reason to exclude from my perception of reality. I invite you to read this book (or explore any related freely available content) and observe how your rational mind and higher self may engage vividly with each other to determine how you will integrate, or disregard, the presented stories. Likewise, I could not recommend enough to listen to the more recent ‘Telepathy Tapes’ podcast (hosted by Ky Dickens), which presents the wondrous world and indefinable abilities of non-speaking autistic children.

The art of listening to each other and explore reality together has without a doubt suffered from rampant con-artistry. The increased connectedness we owe to the birth of the internet has also led to the manipulation of such great tool. It has become incredibly simple to connect across enormous physical distances, but monetary gain through disguise and deception have developed with equal ease. I wish to think that the character of too many children and adults coming forth with metaphysical experiences are beyond reproach, and that my higher understanding would not allow me to be fooled by every single account, but ultimately there is nothing that can be proven and it again comes down to your own open minded exploration of this topic and to your own choice what to integrate into your reality.

What I know to be true, due to the simple fact that it resonates deeply and unexplainably with me, is that our souls do reincarnate time and time again, and that each of our lifetimes has purpose, sometimes beyond what we can comprehend, beyond what may be perceived as a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ life. I also believe that one of the highest purposes of life is to realise our true soul identity before we once again let go of our temporary physical existence, and when that is finally achieved, reincarnation is no longer necessary, albeit always an available choice.

If you once again played with the idea that there is indeed some truth in the afterlife (which perhaps should be called the only life), this might be one of the most life changing decisions you could ever make. Nothing truly touches us like death. We first get a glimpse of how powerful of a hold death has on us when we have to let go of loved ones. Then comes the realisation of our own mortality. But imagine having a deep feeling, perhaps even the knowledge, that it doesn’t end here. That would truly change everything, wouldn’t it? Your reaction to other peoples’ passing would certainly be different, but more importantly, you would most likely live your life differently. Once acknowledged and integrated, the belief in afterlife, and by association reincarnation, starts a path of reflection aimed at finding out what your soul may have had in ‘mind’ when choosing the particular reincarnation you currently find yourself in. What is the true purpose, from your soul’s perspective, of your life, and does it align with your current life circumstances?

You may suddenly realise that the basic elements provided to you, which you chose, were optimised for your true purpose. Your parents, your gender, your larger family, your socioeconomic circumstances, your country of birth, political circumstances, the particular century you were born in, were all chosen by yourself because your soul knew that these would be ideal circumstances to achieve your purpose. This concept can be hard to swallow, particularly when it comes to any types of physical or mental disabilities, which is why it is critical to look at your life from your soul’s perspective. Spiritual development rarely if ever comes from comfort. Quite the opposite, the stronger the resistance you face in your life, the more you have to overcome, the biggest the reward for your soul.

This is the key to answer one of the biggest questions any person could ever ask: if there is a God or any type of divinity, how come it allows pain to exist, very bad things to happen? It is not trivial to answer this question with words, as the truth is to be understood energetically and emotionally. For that to happen, it is somewhat necessary to reach a certain level of consciousness, non-physical consciousness, to have had a glimpse of what it may feel to be alive energetically but without a body. From such perspective, it is obvious that the only goal worth reaching for, across numerous incarnations, is to reach higher and higher energetic frequencies (again, the highest being know to us as love). If you ever had a ‘bad’ experience in your life and were able to fully heal from it, you will realise that the reward is a deeper sense of love, an ability to love (anything) deeper. You expanded your reach towards higher frequencies. Typically, the more difficult and traumatic the life experience, if fully healed, the bigger the reward. You need to understand that the only thing you are able to take with you past death is the reward, all else, the bad life, the difficulties, will all be left behind. Once you understand that, it becomes somewhat more bearable or understandable why your soul may have ticked a few of the boxes in the ‘difficult section’ for your lifepath. The more advanced your soul is, in its overall evolutionary path, the more formidable challenges you may face in your life, because there is not much left for your soul to experience except for truly unique and extraordinary circumstances. You will be supported however, by souls which are linked to yours, which made the choice to help you throughout your life, to support you in achieving your goals. When you made your choice before reincarnating, these souls were present and witnessed you making your free choices. There may have been contracts of how to best support you, when to potentially intervene and when not to. You may have chosen to go into your next adventure and clearly stated that, as your soul, you wish to get minimal help. Again, the more advanced you become, the more risks you may take, because you are aware of the rewards which could reap. From this perspective, even a miserably failed life is only but a speed bump in the context of your soul’s development and progression. From a human mind perspective, being in a midst of a difficult life, which for the human mind is all there really is, is truly agonising. But coming back to the original question of how divinity, or souls who love you, could let bad things happen, it is out of the deepest respect for your soul’s choice to experience the particular life you chose. Imagine you tell your loved ones something like: “I know that it will be difficult and that I will want to give up many times throughout this upcoming life, but I ask you not to intervene.” What if you were the soul on the other side witnessing a fellow soul going through an ordeal, but with full understanding of the magical evolution this soul is going through and the glorious rewards which await. The love for that soul would mean that you would feel everything that incarnated soul would feel. You would experience all of the pain and sorrow, and would channel as much love as you could muster. Can you imagine a love like that? The energetic intensity and frequency of such events pave the way towards the ultimate source. They are a taste what every soul yearns for, to return to a state singularity, when divinity and all of its fragments are finally reunited.

When I look back at my own trajectory, a lot of things start to make sense, particularly the things which did not work out. While a lot of this book is dedicated to manifestation, creating a new identity and the life that goes with it, it is important to understand that you can only truly attract what you are, not what you want. At your core, you are like a magnet of a particular frequency. Although you may wish certain things, they might not be meant for you and you may repel them energetically. Think of it an in-built fail safe, which prevents you from going in the wrong direction. Do not think of it as having no free choice. You always have free choice. You can choose to pursue during your entire life something that was not your purpose. Nothing will stop you, but nothing will work out either. Energetically, things will only align once your choice is finally directing you towards your true purpose. I am truly grateful for everything that did not work out in my life, because it allowed me to finally find my true purpose, which I am now choosing. Understand that it is critical for you to be the origin of the choice. Spirit could just drag you through everything and put you down at your destination, but that would have limited value for your soul’s development. The experience of pursuing things that are not meant for you, learning how to let go, seeking your true purpose and finally finding peace in what is meant for you may be of value if you chose to support another soul in its journey, physically or non-physically.

A lifetime is like putting a piece of magic into an unknown environment, strip it from the knowledge of its identity, and observing what happens next. It will ultimately show its true, original nature, even if the conditions are so difficult that it withers. There is always free choice, without judgement. And whatever the outcome, your soul will have grown and evolved. This understanding is tremendously freeing. The death of your ego will open your eyes to your immortality.

To paraphrase Eckart Tolle once more, the world is not here to make us happy, but to make us conscious. It may take many lifetimes to ultimately wake up and become fully conscious. Once that happens, there is a possibility to break the cycle of reincarnation and remain in the non-physical planes of existence for more adventures.

CHAPTER 7 – Final reflections

If you’re going to try, go all the way, otherwise don’t even start. If you’re going to try, go all the way. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, jobs and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three of four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision, mockery, isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance; of how much you really want to do it. And you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than you could ever imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. Do it. Do it. Do it. All the way. All the way. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.

Charles Bukowski (“All the way”)

To conclude, a few short statement or affirmations, in no particular order, to take on your journey.

Live life to the points of tears. Only when a transcending experience passes through a human body is that state possible. The human physiology may be overwhelmed, in a state of experiential overload, but your soul marvels in peace.

Healed people heal people.

To distinguish truth, listen with your deeper understanding, not your mind.

According to string theory, the fabric of physical reality is made of an infinity of vibrational filaments. Akin to a spider’s web, your energetic state and choices will propagate throughout infinity. Take responsibility for the marvellous energetic instrument that you are.

Lose everyone and everything you need to lose in order not to lose yourself.

When you will have shed everything that you are not, you will be what you are supposed to be, an empty vessel that can be filled with the energies of your choosing.

Everything is mental, and so any limitation in life is mental. Do not focus on any mental limitation you may still have; it will fuel it into being. Instead, focus on the absence of limitations, on joy, enthusiasm and love. You manifest what you energetically fuel.

Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around.

‘Vanilla sky’ movie

Heal whatever you have to heal. Do it over and over again until nothing is left. The process of healing is not linear, as you heal one aspect, another unhealed aspect may suddenly appear. Transmute any negative aspect of yourself. Become the alchemist of your life.

Never accept anything less than you are worth, in all areas of your life. Respect and love yourself first, before anybody or anything else.

Start actively co-creating your life instead of merely reacting to the one that is being imposed on you. You are the creator and actor in your life.

Create but get rid of your urge to control. Release all outcomes.

Most things I discussed in the past chapters are energetic in nature and demand to be felt, not just merely mentally processed.

Although difficult o accept, most of the things happening in your life are happening according to your higher choice. Take control of that choice.

Celebrate your life! You belong here. Drop all your fears. Rewrite your life.

Nothing exists outside of you.

‘Significant insignificance’: realizing the insignificance of our human life in the greater context of the multiverse has intrinsic significance (i.e. cosmic significance). You matter more than you know.

Your focus should always be inward, never outward. Live from the heart, not the mind.

At its purest, consciousness is cosmic love.

If you are willing and strong enough, you can straddle physical and non-physical planes.

It is your choice to implement or discard anything you may have read in previous chapters. Choose wisely.

Let’s all walk each other home.

Ram Dass