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To Jerry from Don

Dec 16, 1993 10:41 PM
by Donald DeGracia


Jerry:

Nice to hear from you. Hope you have nice holidays and all!

A few relatively quick comments on your post:

First, thanks for the quick refresher on Globes/planes. It rang bells.

Second: <But for most folks, we are only conscious of the physical. >

I understand what you were saying here, that people are usually not
conscious on the astral, mental and buddhic. You are right, we do not
sense these planes in the same fashion that we sense the physical
plane. However, I would suggest that the vast majority of our waking
expereince is the result of our activity on the nonphysical planes.
Thus, when we feel emotion, we are actually expereincing the action of
our astral body as it *projects* through our physical body, and
likewise, when we think, we are expereincing the action of the mental
body as it projects through our physical body, and also, when we *act*
we are expereincing the action of our buddhic body as it projects
through our physical body. Thus, in these terms, our nonphysical
bodies play a major role in our so-called normal expereince. The vast
bulk of our day to day subjective reality consits of feeling emotions,
thinking and acting. These behaviors are not intrinsic to our physical
body, but are effects created in the physical body by our nonphysical
bodies. So, in short, the average person is probably much more
conscius of the astral and mental (and to a lesser degree, the buddhic)
planes than they are even the physical plane itself, seeing as how
people are so self-absorbed.

Of course, the altered states you spoke of, that allow us to percieve
the astral, mental, ect planes, *on their own terms* and not couched
in physical clothing is just as valid a viewpoint, and of course,
gives one a much more pristine look at the nature of these planes
unfettered by physicality.

<If you could shift your consciousness to your mental body, for
example, you would see yourself in your mental body (which would *feel*
like a physical body to you at the time)?

I would suggest care in descriptions such as this. I have moved in my
astral body many times, and there is no question that it is very
*real*. However, it does not feel like my physical body. As I told
Arvin, our nonphysical expereince is greater than our physical
expereince, so to attempt to describe our nonphysical expereinces in
physical terms limits our ability to understand the nature of
nonphysical expeirience. Of course, a beginer will attempt to describe
nonphysical experience in terms of familiar physical sensations and
such, and this is a necesary stage in conceptualizing ones nonphysical
nature. However, its a phase that one hopefully will outgrow quickly,
for the nonphysical experiences loose a lot of richness when
conceptulaized in physical terms.

I could give many examples of things I have seen out of body, and
sensations I have felt, that have no counterpart whatsoever in my
physical expereince.

<The point of it all is:  wherever your identity is, that is where you
are. By shifting your sense of identity to a deity (this is an old
magical technique called the assumption of a god-form which is still
used today in Tibetan Buddhism and endorsed by the Dali Lama) you can
raise your consciousness into the higher globes of our planetary chain.>

I agree with this thinking very much. I would only add that you can
identify with any you want, yet still maintain your unique indivduality.
Psyches can merge yet still remain the distinct (again, a phenomena
that has no real counterpart in our expereince).

Well, nuff for now.

Best to you!

Don

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