The Only Way Out, Is Through

In my years of conversations with Steven and in my often frustrated state, I would ask Steven, "Why are we here?" And he always answers, "To learn". And in deeper conversations he would explain that we as spiritual beings are here on Earth to experience life in a body. This information always set well with me except I didn't understand why we as spiritual beings would be so interested in living in a human body. Surely we have many more exciting prospects in the universe than a human body? So I was often left still wondering, "Why?"

Last night, while having an in-depth, spiritual conversation with my husband, I suddenly got the answer to my question.

It was one of those times when I feel that I somehow connected with my higher self and channeled information from that part of myself without really knowing I was doing it. It just flowed out of me in response to a conversation my husband and I were having about a calmness I had been feeling for quite some time now. I was trying to explain what this calmness was, yet I really didn't know myself.

I began telling my husband how I believe that we as spiritual beings saw the physical realm and were curious. We came closer to it, inspected it, observed it and our curiosity grew. We could not truly understand the physical universe, however, by merely observing it. We could gain great and vast amounts of knowledge about the physical world through observing it, however, so we were content to do so for many eons. I gave him the example of how there is a rock. We can watch the rock, note its color, its shape, texture and solidity. We can observe it sitting there through the seasons, weathering and cracking over time, eventually breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces until it is merely particles of sand that disappear into the earth. This observation will give us great insight into the processes of the physical world such as time, gravity, erosion, and other chemical processes that exist. But would we truly know what it was like to be the rock? Not without going into it, allowing ourselves to become that which is the rock. Only then can we experience what the rock experiences. Only then can we truly know.

Once we became the rock, we were the rock, and so had to endure what the rock endured over the thousands of rock years until the day when the rock was no more. We couldn't leave the rock whenever we wanted without destroying the experience and perhaps destroying the rock. The rock would get use to us being in it, its very physical composition would be altered by our entrance into it. If we were to leave prematurely, the rock would crumble into dust far too soon, thus altering the pure experience that we sought and leaving the rock as dust. Now, as you know, rocks don't really care one way or the other. They are merely physical objects that are destined to turn to dust one day and start their journey anew. However, as spiritual beings we would know. To leave the experience of being a rock too soon would limit our knowledge, but many of us chose to do so feeling powerful because in leaving prematurely we could alter the physical world. And oh what fun we had!

Eventually we grew bored of the rock, though. We moved to grass, trees, amoebas, rats, mice and on and on through physical biological organisms and non-biological things. We learned what would happen when we left prematurely and we also learned what would happen if we stayed. We grew powerful in our knowledge but we did not recognize one problem: The more engaged we became in this new game of living in the physical world, the more we lost ourselves, lost in the being of so much other than ourselves. We became so interested in being these higher biological beings, humans, that we forgot who we were, so enthralled in being that which we did not understand in order to better understand it.

Somewhere along the way, we found ourselves completely lost in the bodies we took. Life after life we continued to be bodies, our primary purpose - knowledge and understanding - lost in the habitual taking, living in, and being a physical body. We got so caught up in the experience of being a physical body (human) that we lost ourselves, yet there was something inside of us that screamed at us to remember and we could feel it in the recognition of a whisper, the excitement and anticipation we felt in anticipation of flying (which we obviously couldn't do), and when we felt so much bigger than our tiny bodies that we might explode.

And soon we became apathetic. Our original intent lost in the confusion of being a body, life after life, century after century, planet after planet. We began rejecting the very experiences we sought, finding them positive or negative, depending on our own experience. The more negative the experience to us, the more we rejected it, until we could no longer conceive of its existence. Eventually, we had so many of these inconceivable aspects of being in a body that we began missing huge parts of our experience, losing it along with the knowledge we had originally hoped to gain from first entering and becoming a body. This only intensified our apathy and led us into a dwindling spiral of despair. Ultimately we felt trapped, feel trapped. There is no way out except death we think. Death means freedom from this experience. This is a lie because death only brings about another birth and the cycle continues. Why? Because we have not finished the experience. Yet many of us would have been finished many, many lifetimes ago. Why are we still in a body? Because we have forgotten so many parts of our experience that we are left believing we have not yet fully experienced being human, being a body. So we continue, hoping to gain all we can from our experience yet not realizing that we may already have all there is to know. Our mission may be complete. But how can we know, if we are so forgetful as to not even know we aren't a body?

So we are caught in the experience. Yes we are here to learn as Steven says. We are here to experience being a physical body. This is all true, but the part that didn't seem right to me, the part that didn't add up was why we would continue for so long when we truly were done with the experience. I know I feel I am done with experiencing being a body. I know many others who also feel they are done. But now I understand why I feel that way yet am still in a body. I cannot be free of this body until I am completely aware of the whole process, from my very first life to my current life, for in order to be something, you must embrace every aspect of it - positive and negative - without fear, without horror, with love and complete admiration and respect. Only then, when you have truly embraced all that the experience of being that physical object or body has to offer, will you finally be free and separate again. Because, you know, to truly be something means you lose yourself in becoming that other thing and when you have finally done that completely you will come through the experience more whole in yourself than you were before.

The only way out, is through. 

We are in the middle of the experience of being human bodies. The only way out of this "trap" as many would call it, is to continue through to the end, not to stop and try to "die" in order to have a brief reprieve, but to continue with gusto, living life after life, embracing the good and the bad, appreciating the experience and remember all of it from the very beginning to the present and on to the end. When we do that, we will be free and we will be more than what we were when we started.

Some of you may think, "This is great! But it is too much! How can I even hope to remember all my lives, to embrace the good and the bad of those lives and experiences?"

It can be done. The memories are there. They are part of who we are. We have buried many so deep in our horror at what we became in the experience, though, that some digging will need to be done. But like one who digs in the dirt to find a bone but fears they will find a living monster, we conjure up much more horrible things in our minds than what is truly there, hidden deep within us. Once we find these hidden "monsters" within us, we will find they are a gift that when inspected and appreciated for what they are, become so beautiful that we cherish the existence of them and invite them to stay with us as part of our experience. When we have done this for all our "monsters" then we can truly be free.

So for those who have confronted a past life and have discovered hidden "monsters" and inspected them closely enough to find the gifts they have to offer, you have already taken a step toward freedom. Can it be done faster? Yes. It can be done in one human lifetime........