Our physical life and all the diverse challenges function as a magnificent educational system. The result is extremely effective, because on earth there is no escaping the individual results we experience from our own thoughts and deeds. Since we are immortal, the length of time our training may take is meaningless; eventually everyone graduates.
What is the purpose of physical existence?
The physical world provides a brilliantly conceived training environment for developing souls; its primary function is the evolution of consciousness through intense personal experience. We are a nonphysical species using temporary biological bodies as vehicles for our developing consciousness. Each soul creates their individualized educational curriculum by the choices they make and the resulting actions they take. The magnificent training system of life is self-sustaining and fully automatic; universal energy laws such as cause and effect mean you experience and learn from what you sow.
Why do we need to experience so many hardships in the physical world?
The essential qualities of an evolved soul are developed through extensive personal experiences. The physical world provides this intense educational environment for souls to learn through firsthand experience. When the qualities of an evolved soul (love, compassion, fearlessness, self-sacrifice, etc.) are acquired, the soul is then capable of coexisting within the highly thought-responsive dimensions beyond the astral dimension.
Training young souls within the physical and astral dimensions is a universal and highly effective process. When the training is complete, the fully tested and mature souls are then energetically prepared to enter and experience the instant-thought-responsive realities of the higher spiritual dimensions.
Is Earth the primary physical training for souls?
No. Our planet is but one of countless inhabited worlds used for the evolution of soul. Consciousness uses every imaginable energy body and life form to evolve itself. Once entered and assimilated into a given reality, most souls will return to the same energy system—such as Earth—during their training and education. Other souls incarnate in different planetary systems and use diverse biological bodies to evolve their individual states of consciousness.
The wide spectrum of consciousness inhabiting the universe requires multiple vehicles of expression and many of these are beyond our current comprehension. The use of temporary three-dimensional bodies is but one of the many tools employed by consciousness for its primary goal of spiritual evolution.
Enhance Your Experience: 21 Days of Personal Reflection and Transformation
We can begin our process of personal transformation by assigning a few minutes each day for the next three weeks to examine and expand our state of consciousness. This requires us to completely open our mind and embrace personal change. Create a journal and detail your thoughts for each day. Invest the time and do each of the exercises presented below.
- Day 1 - During our busy lives, few people ever stop to ask the important questions: What am I? Why am I here? What is the purpose for my life? Where am I going at death? What is heaven? Why do I believe what I do? What evidence supports my conclusions? Write your responses to each question in detail. Be specific and honest with yourself.
- Day 2 – Fully recognize that only your state of consciousness accompanies you at death. It is the only valuable and lasting asset in your entire life. Your physical possessions are nothing but a fleeting pile of dust. What objects and events are you attached to? Currently where do you focus most of your daily attention? What can you do today to heighten your awareness? Contemplate a potential change in your priorities.
- Day 3 – Once every hour throughout the day, objectively observe and record your thoughts and emotions. What is the dominant tone and content of your thoughts? When you notice self-defeating or negative thoughts, begin to edit them, and replace them with empowering thoughts.
- Day 4 – What lessons do you continue to repeat in your life? Our personal relationships are often a lightning rod for repetition. What needs to be recognized and healed inside of you to change the dynamic and move on? Notice what issues are recurring in your life—money, health, security, trust, commitment, etc. It is important to recognize and resolve all issues or they will continue to reappear throughout our lives and into our afterlife as well.
- Day 5 – What are you addicted to: coffee, cigarettes, food, sugar, drugs, money, alcohol, control, etc.? What is the unseen causal energy that this represents? Even minor addictions represent attachments to the physical body that can highly influence the vibration of our energy body now and in the afterlife. Nothing exists in a vacuum. The first step is your recognition of the repetitive issues and challenges in your life. What steps can you take today to address your issue and resolve it?
- Day 6 – Examine the contents of your home. Fully recognize that every article you possess was preceded by your thoughts before it appeared in your physical environment. As you observe your personal possessions realize the creative power in each of your individual thoughts. Become fully aware how your thoughts and actions have shaped your personal reality. Meditate on your creative potential and how it impacts your life. Determine what you need to change to enrich your reality. Focus on what you want to expand in your life. Recognize that where your thoughts flow, your reality grows.
- Day 7 – Our fears, both conscious and unconscious, create invisible energy walls around us that restrict our potential and our life. What personal fears can you identify and remove today? Start with the obvious—fear of heights, snakes, public speaking etc. For example, do you hold back good ideas at your workplace because you are afraid to express yourself? Do you turn down social invitations because the idea of a relationship scares you? What fears are restrictions to reaching your full potential? Make a list; even small fears count.
- Day 8 - Do you feel you were harmed by someone during your lifetime? Are there any long-standing family disputes or conflicts that you can resolve today? Can you actively reconcile with the people today? Forgive them all now. This is challenging but important, for we carry this energy with us into the afterlife.
- Day 9 – When you review your life, is there anyone you may have harmed by thought, word, or deed? Forgive yourself for any perceived damage you may have created during your life. If possible, ask the individual for forgiveness. Take the time you need to release the guilt you may hold concerning a past conflict. Allow yourself to be free from the past.
- Day 10 – Meditate on and journal your highest intention. Make it your primary goal and aspiration during this lifetime! You may consider this as your core affirmation. Examples are “Higher self now!” and “Spiritual essence now!” What are your primary spiritual goals for your life? For this year? For five years from today?
- Day 11 - Make a list of your relationships; what lessons are present in each? What have you learned from your parents, spouse, friends, lovers, and children? What have you learned from a specific interaction? What lessons are recurring in your life? Become aware so the repetition of recurring personal dramas and energies can cease.
- Day 12 - What brings you joy? What is your passion? How can you manifest more joy in your life today? What decisions and actions do you need to express your passion?
- Day 13 – Focus on living in the present moment for one full day. Catch your thoughts every time they slide to a past or future event and immediately refocus on the present. Embrace and appreciate the miracle of the present moment in your life. Fully recognize that the present is the only moment where you can actively alter, shape, and mold your life. Become aware that creation in your life occurs only in the present moment.
- Day 14 – What or who challenges you at your work place? What are your potential lessons? Become completely objective as though you were an impartial observer. What are you learning from your work experiences, business colleagues, and the resulting relationships?
- Day 15 – For one full day, become completely transparent to all the emotional and intellectual energies that swirl around you. No likes or dislikes, just accept everything in your life for what it is. Offer no resistance or judgements in thought or deed to the opinions and convictions of others; just be.
- Day 16 – Select a method of mediation or inner exploration that resonates with you and practice it for at least half an hour. Make it a daily habit.
- Day 17 – Is there anything in your life that separates you from enlightenment at this moment? Meditate on this and journal your responses.
- Day 18 – For one day, express gratitude for the joys in your daily life, whether small or significant. Express appreciation for all you have received and for the loved ones in your life.
- Day 19 – Imagine that each person you encounter throughout the day is a physical expression of God, and smile. Project light and unconditional love to every person you encounter for one full day. See if you feel the difference in your state of consciousness during the day.
- Day 20 – Select or create a powerful mantra or affirmation and repeat it several times an hour throughout the entire day. Make it as meaningful as possible. “Higher Self Now!” is an example.
- Day 21 – Create a detailed, written plan for your ideal transition at death. What is your planned preparation? What would be your final thoughts and intention?
Our state of consciousness is constantly changing, but we often do not recognize our personal growth. After your 21-day challenge, look at any personal shifts you have experienced. Can you identify what you have released from your mindset? What about any enhancements in your life? Evidence of our awakening can manifest in many ways. Often there are subtle adjustments that occur but remain unnoticed due to our busy lives. It can be extremely helpful to recognize the personal changes to consciousness in our daily life to reinforce our longer-term individual progress.
5-Minute Version: Select just one, either by choice or at random, whenever you need a boost or spark of inspiration. Begin your daily practice with the thought or activity described. When you have completed those that are important to you, start again or create your own challenge notes.
Many people appear to be stagnant, not learning or growing spiritually. What could they possibly be gaining from living in the physical world?
The transference from soul into matter is a miraculous achievement. The very act of extending our consciousness into physical form is difficult and an incredible act of courage.
Some people who seem to live an uneventful life may just be practicing as they hold their consciousness in a physical body. It is possible that this person is new to the physical. We cannot assume that they have no purpose in this reality simply because we are not aware of their path in this world.
Why do we need a physical training ground?
The physical reality training ground environment provides:
An effective method to separate the young developing souls from the spiritually evolved inhabitants and thought-responsive realities.
An efficient process to create individualization of consciousness.
An opportunity for each soul to create their own educational lessons by their individual choices and actions.
A dense, slowed-down, molecular environment where thought energy must be effectively focused to create and mold our reality.
A location where souls must effectively extend and maintain their conscious awareness throughout the entire multidimensional universe to operate a dense biological body. This is a mind-bending process and achievement.
An effective training environment for a nonphysical species to develop its multidimensional and creative abilities.
An extremely challenging educational system for the evolution of soul that is both brilliantly conceived and self-sustaining. We learn, grow, and evolve by becoming that we wish to know.
The brilliance of our educational system in the physical world is apparent; everyone eventually graduates and is reunited in the realities of the higher dimensions. The evolution of consciousness/soul is self-directed and completely individualized since each soul creates their own lessons by their own thoughts and actions.
Do all souls experience the physical world?
No. Our entrance (incarnation) into the physical dimension is always our choice. No one is forced into a physical body. We possess the free will to decide our personal path of evolution. Many souls consider the physical-reality training of Earth to be far too extreme, and choose to evolve in other dimensional-energy systems such as the astral.
Is the Earth a prison planet/reality?
No, it is not a prison. Earth is part of a carefully conceived multidimensional educational system that allows each soul to create their personal educational life experiences at their own pace and repeat their individual lessons until they are learned. In this magnificent educational system, all souls will eventually be prepared to coexist and prosper in the magnificent instant-thought-responsive realities of the higher dimensions.
To best describe what the Earth purpose is, I have provided an article from my book, The Secret of the Soul, written over 20 years ago and I still stand by it today.
“Just for a moment, imagine that you live in a magnificent ethereal world of indescribable beauty—a world consisting of subtle energies, where every thought you create instantly molds and shapes the immediate environment around you. Imagine a perfect world where your thoughts instantly create any reality you choose. Whatever your heart desires will suddenly manifest before you. It is a glorious land overflowing with living light, a land where death, disease, and limitations are non-existent. Imagine yourself in an ideal world where everyone is free to explore and develop their creative pursuits and experience their unlimited potential. Does this sound like heaven?
Just think what one immature or undisciplined being could and would do in this ideal thought-responsive world. Picture the chaos and destruction that a single primitive mind could create. One undisciplined mind would wreak complete havoc, destroying the perfection of the subtle environments and the privacy of all the inhabitants.
Now for a moment imagine what kind of educational environment would be the perfect training ground for this undisciplined mind. What kind of school would you create to educate this primitive state of consciousness? What kind of lessons would effectively train this disruptive mind to coexist in the thought-responsive heavenly dimensions?
Welcome to the slowed-down molecular training ground of consciousness. Welcome to the dense training ground of matter, where focused thoughts are required to create and prosper. Welcome to the ideal environment where the young and undisciplined mind can learn by trial and error without contaminating the pure realms of spirit. Welcome to your life.”
This is one of the primary spiritual lessons we are here to learn. The unaware and developing conscious beings remain in the dense outer dimensions of the universe until they learn to exercise complete responsibility for their thoughts and actions. Eventually they awaken to their true self and learn to escape from the dense gravity field consisting of matter, drama, and emotion. They recognize and break free from the illusions of form and begin to consciously pursue and experience their spiritual essence.
****
Our knowledge of the dense training grounds of soul explains why humanity and the physical world will always be immersed in conflicts and wars; the intense challenges and drama create perfect opportunities to experience personal growth. How would we effectively develop and internalize all the qualities of a spiritually evolved soul, such as courage, love, and self-sacrifice without first-hand experience?