Departing from the physical side of sustainability, here are excerpts from an eye-opening book. In design, the adage is: if you want to design a wall, look at the room; if you want to design a room, look at the building, etc. We need to create with regard to the context in which we’re working.
What’s the context for our lives?
The book has no link to religions; it’s a scientifically-derived picture of our context … which can provide guidelines that can add meaning to our lives. Here are some passages from this book, based on interviews conducted by a hypnotherapist while his patients were still “under.” Many verbatim question/answer segments are included.
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Journey of Souls
Michael Newton, Ph.D.
(P. 71) The assembly and transfer of souls really involves two phases. The staging area is not an encampment space. Spirits are brought in, collected, and then projected out to their proper final destinations. When I hear accounts of this particular junction, I visualize myself walking with large numbers of travelers through the central terminal of a metropolitan airport which has the capacity to fly us all out in any direction. One of my clients described the staging area as resembling “the hub of a great wagon wheel, where we are transported from the center along the spokes to our designated places.”
(P. 72) I am told the most outstanding characteristic of the spirit world is a continuous feeling of a powerful mental force directing everything in uncanny harmony. People say this is a place of pure thought.
(P. 107) The recognition of these spiritual teachers brings people into the company of a warm, loving creative power. Through our guides, we become more acutely aware of the continuity of life and our identity as a soul. Guides are figures of grace in our existence because they are part of the fulfillment of our destiny.
(P. 128) Since the complete truth is known by all group members about each other in a telepathic world, humor is indispensable. Some readers may find it hard to accept that souls do joke with each other about their failing, but humor is the basis upon which self-deception and hypocrisy are exposed.
(P. 145) Despite their high standards of morality and conduct, entities who have reached the intermediate levels of maturity are modest about their achievements. Naturally, each case is different, but I notice more composure with clients in this stage and above. I see trust rather than suspicion toward the motives of others on both a conscious and subconscious level. These people demonstrate a forward-looking attitude of faith and confidence for the future of humanity, which encourages those around them.
(P. 158) Doctor: Humans also have a great capacity for malevolence.
Client: That’s part of the passion. But it’s evolving too, and when humans experience trouble, they can be at their best and are quite noble.
(P. 169) We may recognize them (i.e. Advanced Souls) when they appear as public figures, such as a Mother Teresa; however, it is more usual for the advanced soul to go about their work in a quiet, unassuming manner. Without displaying self-indulgence, their fulfillment comes from improving the lives of other people. They focus less on institutional matters and more on enhancing individual human values.
(P. 179) Doctor: If character is the identity of a soul, where does desire come in?
The drive to excel is internal to each soul, but this too can fluctuate between lives.
Doctor: So where does a soul’s integrity fit into this?
The extension of desire. Integrity is the desire to be honest about Self and motives to such an extent that full awareness of the path to the source is possible.
Doctor: If all intelligent energy is the same, why are souls different in their character and integrity?
Because their experiences with physical life change them, and this is intentional. By that change, new ingredients are added to the collective intelligence of every soul.
Doctor: And this is what incarnation on Earth is all about?
Incarnation is an important tool, yes. Some souls are driven more than others to expand and achieve their potential, but all of us will do so in the end. Being in many physical bodies and different settings expands the nature of our real self.
Doctor: And this sort of self-actualization of the soul identity is the purpose of life on our world?
On any world.
Doctor: What single thing do you have the most problem with during communications with people on Earth?
Fear.
Doctor: Would you enlarge on that?
I have to be careful not to spoil my people by making life too easy for them, to let them work out most of their difficulties without jumping right in. They only suffer more if a watcher moves in too quickly before this is done.
(P. 190)Doctor:What do you think of the Earth school by comparison?
The Earth school is insecure, still. It is filled with resentment of many people over being led, and antagonism of the leaders toward each other. There is so much fear to overcome here. It is a world in conflict, because there is too much diversity among too many people. Other worlds have low populations with more harmony. Earth’s population has outpaced its mental development.
Doctor: Would you rather be training on another planet, then?
No, for all Earth’s quarreling and cruelty, there is passion and bravery here. I like working in crisis situations. To bring order out of disorder. We all know Earth is a difficult school.
(P. 198-9) Doctor: What is it like when you were first aware of your
identity as a soul after being pushed out to the rim of this halo?
To be is the same as watching the first flower of spring open, and the flower is you. And, as it opens more, you become aware of other flowers in a glorious field and there is unbounded joy.
Doctor: If this explosive, multi-colored energy source collapses in on itself, will all the flowers eventually die?
Nothing is collapsing; the source is endless. As souls, we will never die. We know that, somehow. As we coalesce, our increasing wisdom makes the source stronger.
Doctor: Is that the reason the source desires to perform this exercise?
Yes, to give life to us so we can arrive at a state of perfection.
Doctor: Why does a source, who is ostensibly perfect already, need to create further intelligence which is less than perfect?
To help the creator create. In this way, by self-transformation and rising to higher plateaus of fulfillment, we add to the building blocks of life.
Doctor: Were souls forced to break away from the source and come to places like Earth because of some sort of original sin or fall from grace in the spirit world?
That’s nonsense. We came to be magnified in the beautiful variety of creation.
Doctor: If the source needs to be made stronger, or more wise, by using this division of its divine energy to create lesser intelligence which it hopes will magnify – doesn’t this suggest it lacks full perfection itself?
The source creates for fulfillment of itself.
Doctor: That’s my point. How can that which is absolute become more absolute unless something is lacking?
That which we see to be our source is all we can know, and we think what the creator desires is to express itself through us by birthing.
Doctor: And do you think the source is actually made stronger by our existence as souls?
I see the creator’s perfection maintained and enriched by sharing the possibility of perfection with us, and this is the ultimate expression of itself.
Doctor: So the source starts out by deliberately creating imperfect souls and imperfect life forms for these souls and watches what happens in order to extend itself
Yes, and we have to have faith in this decision and trust the process of returning to the origin of life. One has to be starving to appreciate food, to be cold to understand the blessing of warmth, and to be children to see the value of the parent. The transformation gives us purpose.
(P. 204) For instance, some have told me Earth’s population will be greatly reduced by the end of the 22nd century, partially due to adverse soil and atmospheric changes. They also see people living in odd-looking domed buildings.
(P. 250) For many of us, our nearest and dearest soulmate is our spouse. Yet, as we have seen in previous cases, souls of consequence in our lives may also be other family members or a close friend. The amount of time they are with us on Earth can be long or short. What matters is the impact they have on us while here.
The lesson we must learn from human relationships is accepting people for who they are without expecting our happiness to be totally dependent upon anyone.
(P. 275-6) We are divine but imperfect beings who exist in two worlds, material and spiritual. It is our destiny to shuttle back and forth between these universes through space and time while we learn to master ourselves and acquire knowledge. We must trust in this process with patience and determination. Our essence is not fully knowable in most physical hosts, but Self is never lost because we always remain connected to both worlds.
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Many books have incredible content but are a pain to read, with long, compound sentences, long paragraphs, 75¢ words. This book is an easy read, with awareness-raising concepts that change how I see our world and universe … a context for defining a path that provides the greatest fulfillment in this lifetime. It’s a core for “sustainable living.”
