QUESTION: I would like you to talk to me about aging. Because I have the fact that there are a lot of things about aging that are assumed as illnesses, and that possibly just really are illegitimate too. I don't know if I'm making any sense. I just would like to know what to expect and how I should think about it.
RAJ: Well, first of all it's helpful to understand what the source of the concept of aging is. The source of the idea of aging is the idea that you were born, that you had a beginning a certain number of years ago in what you call this life experience. Growing, coming to full potential, reaching a peak and then beginning to age are all the result of the idea that you began at birth or at conception. That your existence is a manifestation of a physical event called birth and a physical body-that is, your identity, you see.
To overcome aging, or to become free of the so-called effects of aging-which ultimately means to become free of death-is to become free of the belief in birth, the belief that you had a beginning, and the belief that your body had a beginning apart from the reality of God's Creation in this thing that is called a physical Universe, you see, as though your body is temporary for your enjoyment and suffering in this lifetime on this Earth.
Now I've talked at some length about all of these things before, but it's absolutely essential for you to understand-all of you-that the idea of birth is a false interpretation of what I will call a point in your eternal existing. You were fully identified-meaning having that which identified you, a body-before you were born. From the moment God conceived of you, you have always had that which identifies you, which you call a body. Which means you have always been identified and you have always existed. And there is no alternative to that for you, for any of you.
You and that which identifies you are really one, they're really inseparable. You and that which identifies you are therefore at this instant eternal, whether you see it-yourself and your body-as growing, aging, potentially dying.
Again, it must be very clear and you must dare to let it be very clear in your mind that the ultimate of the reality of you is going on at this moment relative to you as you currently perceive yourself. It is not something to be achieved in the future. It's something to be allowed into your conscious awareness now, or at any moment that you decide to let it in. The ultimate of God is what is sitting right there.
Why do you see the effects of age? First of all because you think there was a beginning. And in the frame of reference you are in, which is a frame of reference of opposites, beginning means ending. They seem to be inseparable like heads and tails, top and bottom. It isn't true. It isn't what God is being right there, right now.
Now, you get a lot of feedback from your world-friends, parents-who seem to be inevitably going through an aging process, which really means a process of deterioration. You watch the commercials on the TV. And you watch the programs where your physicians are doing the best they can to explain this process of deterioration and try to ameliorate it through manipulation of one sort or another. And so you become further convinced that the most you can expect is to grow old gracefully-die gracefully. But die you must, because everyone has, except one or two or three or four. And of course, rather than that being the rule you think that's the exception and it doesn't apply to you.
Why do you think I share with you the things I share with you-all of you? So that you might be inspired out of these mindsets that you treat as though they are facts, as though they are absolutes. To inspire you to look in the mirror and not wonder "what can I expect as I age," but rather, "what more of the presence of what God is being right now, right here is available to me to see? What more of the presence of God can I see in the reflection in the mirror? What more of the undeniable perfection of my being is available for me to experience?" You see?
Tell me, how many of you do look in the mirror to see if there's a new gray hair, or a new fine line? And how many of you wish for a few fine lines or more so that you might get a little respect?
If I told you what to expect in terms of aging, then you would be wise to get up and leave and never come back to hear another word I would have to say.
When you look in the mirror, instead of being curious about how much older you're getting, I encourage you to say: "I forgive myself for not seeing the ultimate of what God is being right here in what is reflected in the mirror. And because it is my Birthright to be experiencing it, I desire to experience it. And I ask for help in seeing what is really here." And then just as when you are listening for guidance and you express a desire, then shut up and watch. Be attentive for the inspiration that will change your perception. When your perception changes because you've let yourself be infilled with the truer perception of what you are, everyone else will see your truer perception as well.
Is it reasonable to expect wrinkles to go away? Is it reasonable to expect sagging muscles to stop sagging? Is it reasonable to expect what you would call regeneration? ABSOLUTELY IT IS! And anything less means that you have simply succumbed to your beliefs about aging and the worlds beliefs about aging.
Slowly but surely everyone kills themselves. Everyone slowly commits suicide by withdrawing their interest in life, by squelching new ideas, by squelching-although I don't like this word, we're going to use it-by squelching new goals, because you say, "I don't really have enough time to achieve those goals," and so you begin backing out of being alive. That means you begin to go against the grain-the very essence of your being-because you are resisting being. And when you resist and create a block to the flow of the energy of life that is the substance of your being, you begin to see the effects of it.
When you attempt to squelch the power of the presence of God in you by saying, "I can't do that, maybe if I were younger I would attempt it, but I'm not young and I can't do it," when you attempt to sit on the power of the presence of God you're in a state of self-denial, you're in a state of lack of self-appreciation. And you know what you do? You use your body to defend yourself against the power of the presence of God that is what you are the presence of-and you hurt, here or there, or here, or in your joints, or somewhere else because you resist with your body. You resist everything with your body. It's the only thing you think you have that has enough presence to be a defense against whatever you feel a need to be defended against.
So you really need to become conscientious about this. You need to become conscientious about being open to the influx of the inspiration that regenerates, and let it in. You need to use the mute button on your TV. And you need to become devoted to the goal, the intent to see the presence of God in all of His/Her glory right there where you are more and more fully each day. And if you don't see it more and more fully each day you persist so that you remain in alignment with God's will. God did not set up Life as a process of life and death, life and death, life and death. But each one of you can squelch and commit suicide only to discover that you're not dead, and then again, squelch and suicide only to find out that you're not dead until it becomes really clear to you that doing anything other than making commitment to Life and not squelching at all is your function..
Now, when you finish your shower and you see the hair in the drain, don't say, "Ohhhhh, another hair gone." At least say, "Ah, room for another hair to grow," or "here's an opportunity I have to see the glory of God manifested right here where I am, and that would be such a wonderful thing. That would truly be such a wonderful thing, that I am going to unswervingly give my attention to that." It's got to become extremely clear to everyone that each one of you is aging yourself, each one of you is or will be incline to slowly put the breaks on. And it's the breaks you are putting on that are causing what you call aging.
If you listen to Deepak Chopra and others who are experiencing more clarity you will hear that your body is quite capable of regenerating itself indefinitely. Of course, then you will occasionally say that there is a built in mechanism that causes it to begin to deteriorate. But you know what? Either God is All or God isn't All. Either Life is the absolute, or it is not.
Now I have said that it is the intent of your body to identify the presence of your Individuality perfectly. That is it's God given reason for existing. And your Individuality is the presence of God. So your body's intent to identify you perfectly is your body's intent to identify the presence of God perfectly. THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE GLORIFYING GOD, not just a temporary package that your Soul is inhabiting for a short time.
By my saying this, I'm trying to inspire all of you to be curious in a fearless way about experiencing the truth about your body and the truth about you. You're worth the attention that it will take, the devotion that it will take. And you will have help from those of us who are Awake, who stand ready to support you in your greater embrace of the truth about you and the truth about that which identifies you.
And so when you let the inspiration in, because you're not blocking it with saying "no" to Life, and you're not blocking it because you're curious to see how much more of death has entered your experience, you will find that inspiration being magnified by those who stand ready to support your clearer experience of your physical perfection, of the perfection of that which identifies you.
Now I haven't spoken inspirationally just now. I've been speaking firmly so as to jolt you a little bit out of your fascination with the process of aging. As the saying goes, "what you appreciate, appreciates." That means that what you value grows. And you can always find out what you value by paying attention to what you're giving your attention to.
Do you have a "yes, but"?
QUESTION: No, I think this is wonderful. And it's very exciting. Thank you so much.
RAJ: You are welcome. Take advantage of mirrors.
QUESTION: Okay.
RAJ: Every time you look in a mirror let it be a reminder that what you're looking in the mirror to see is the glory of God. I really mean it! And then I invite all of you to do this for your brothers and sisters as well. When you look at them, don't say, "Oh well, she really doesn't look good today. She really ought to be home in bed. Oh boy, something must have happened at home last night, look at the way she's acting today (or he's acting)." You see? Care enough about those in your experience not to jump to limited conclusions about them, but rather to say, "wait a minute, what's sitting right there, that one driving the car next to me on the Freeway, that body is the glory of God." Let every encounter with your brother and sister be a reminder that it's your function to be seeing the glory of God there. And if you're not, it's not because they're not presenting it, but because you're not choosing to see it. You would rather have your opinion and your definition. And you're the one who suffers, because your definition keeps you from remembering to see God there.
Yes, it's going to keep you busy.
QUESTION: Yes, I think so. Thank you.
RAJ: But you know what? You were already busy repeating and repeating and repeating other habits of attitude. What if. ah ha. what if you can't experience love until you extend it to your brother? What if you can't experience the divine reality of yourself until you're willing to extend the acknowledgment of the divine reality of someone else? What if you can't really feel the love of God until you are willing to love the old so-and-so who just cut you off, or love your fellow worker who claims to be ill, who sees herself or himself as ill and puts that in the air, who has forgotten to be curious about the glory of God right where they are that is beyond their current perception of what's right there? What if your feeling well can't be wholly available to you until you are willing to desire for your brother and sister that they feel wholly well because you know that is their Birthright?
There's not really any "what if" about it. It's why the Course refers to your brother as your savior. Your brother or sister is your savior, why? Because your brother and sister keep you from being able to believe that you can be successfully who and what you are by yourself.
All of the illusory sense of existence arises out of a fundamental premise that all of you have adopted, which is that you are separate from everything else, fundamentally separate from God, being a little god yourselves, being able to be authorities on your own. Well, the only way to get out of the mesmeric frame of mind that involves your seeing yourself as alone is to have a brother or a sister who gives you the opportunity to be love. I've said it before, you can't love by yourself. You have to have an object of your affection. Without an object of your love there can't be a thing called love.
And so your brother and your sister are your means of coming out from under the results of the mad idea that you exist independently from everything, including God. Your means of coming back into your Sanity is your brother or sister who provides you with the opportunity to be the presence of love. And by being the presence of love, fulfilling your purpose for being, because that's what God established in you and as a result of fulfilling your purpose for being, something happens to you-you wake up. You are inspired with God's love. Because in order to love someone else and extend it you have to stand in receipt of it. And the receipt of it is a receipt from the Father. Do you see what I'm saying?
Do you understand what the statement in the Course means that says, "to have give all to all"?
QUESTION: I think so.
RAJ: God is the Movement of Being, the conscious Movement of Being. And the Movement of Being is extension-a gift! Fulfillment therefore, the experience of fulfillment of Being for every single one of you involves making the gift of love. You cannot be the source of love. So how can you give the gift of love? Well, you might say it's magic, because when you begin to care, when you really become less closed off-all of you-and you really begin to care for another, you make a gift. And when you make that gift you become infilled with the Love it takes to give.
I've used the illustration before of a garden hose with a sprayer nozzle on it. When you have an object of your affection it is like pulling the trigger on the nozzle. When you have an object of your affection there is some place for the stream of water to go. And you pull the trigger and what happens? The nozzle gets filled up with the water and the water gets extended. When you care about someone it's like pulling the trigger and the Love that God is moves through you. What happens then? Well, your brother is blessed. But something else has happened. The thing that's happened is that you have had the inspiring, uplifting transformational and regenerative experience of being the place where the presence of God is Moving into expression.
I will put it another way. When you dare to love your fellow man the only thing you can love your fellow man with is God's Love. And in your caring you open the door for God's Love and not only does your brother get loved, you do too. That's why your brother is your salvation.
So that's why I said, when you look at a co-worker or someone at the grocery store and you say, "god I haven't seen them for awhile, they're really beginning to look old." Well, is that the gift you want to make? Is that what you want to extend? Where'd you get that hose from? "Gee, she should take better care of herself." Judgment! You could say, "wow, that isn't the truth about her. Wow, the truth about her is that she is the direct expression of God. The truth is that her body is the glory of God. And I'm going to let my responses, my reactions arise out of that awareness of what the truth of her is rather than how she looks at the moment."
So what's happened? Your apparently aging associate has given you the opportunity to choose for the truth in your awareness, and in choosing that you prime yourself, like pulling the trigger for the further influx of the Father's point of view, which constitutes the love that heals not only your sister or your brother but you. You see.
Now I've gone on at some length. But I hope it's becoming clear to you that the way to over come age, the way to deal with age is to take every opportunity you have to look in the mirror and do something different from what you have been doing by acknowledging the truth about yourself, being curious about the truth about yourself, being curious about God's truth about you. As well as doing the same thing with your brothers and sisters-your fellow man. Because I'll tell ya, you can't just look in the mirror and become absolutely clear about yourself and still go around saying, "god, she looks awful doesn't she? I'm so glad I don't have to look that way anymore." You've got to bring your brother and sister along with you. This is an important point.
And you have something to contemplate now.
QUESTION: I certainly do. Thank you so much.
RAJ: You are welcome. We will take a break.
RAJ: I understand you had some reservations about asking the question you asked.
QUESTION: I don't know I just. I guess I always want to appear like I already know things and the truth is I don't. And I need help understanding. And I knew you could help me have a better way of looking at it.RAJ: So you had a need and you didn't want to look needy?QUESTION: Right!RAJ: Yes. Oh self-sufficiency. And of course, that's right at the top of the list of what you get when you start moving along your spiritual path, of course. And so if you have a need don't let anyone know that you're way back there on the path.QUESTION: That's right.RAJ: But if you don't express your need how can you give someone else the opportunity to love you? Now, I'm not talking about manufacturing needs to get attention, I'm talking about a real need, let's say an absence of an answer you want. That's a need. Of course, that means you've got to dare to be real and honest, honest in the sense of not expressing manufactured needs as a means of manipulating others. You understand?QUESTION: Yes.RAJ: And I'm not suggesting that you do manufacture needs.QUESTION: Okay.RAJ: What I do want to convey to everyone is that there is great value in genuinely expressing real needs that you have. You know what the first thing that happens is when you do that? It makes it easier for other people to be genuine and honest about their needs too. It allows other people to dare to be open because you're not going to uncover how far back they are, you see.
There were times when Paul decided to only talk to me when he didn't have problems, so as not to impose upon me. Not much growth or learning happened during those periods when he decided only to talk to me when he didn't have a problem, because when he didn't have a problem he didn't talk to me.
Now there's something else I want to share. When the fall or the separation from God occurred or seemed to occur and each one practiced a false sense of authority, of an ability to author things, it seemed as though each one who did it was able to see himself or herself as self-contained, self-complete, even though it was a miserable experience. And as each one became accustom to that experience he or she lost the experience of his or her universality and indeed a sense of self associated with the body and only with the body became that one's identity. And that one could say, "I can think for myself. I can decide what this means. I am a decider. I am a giver of definitions. I am this, I am that, I am the other thing." And the experience felt as though all of these conscious experiences were originating from the one identified now as this body and this mind that wasn't universal.
But I pointed out to all of you-and most all of you over the last two years-that no one ever succeeded in becoming autonomous, independent. And that what has happened is that one is channeling you might say, one is giving voice to, giving expression to one of two voices. And that voice is never the identity that you see yourself as separate, or that Paul sees himself as a separated individuality, one never loses his divine presence. And so each one is the Christ, each one, in spite of how you see yourselves still is the Son or Daughter of God, still is the Christ. And this divine one that you are is either giving expression to the voice for Truth, which is the Father's voice, or the voice for fear, which I have referred to as the ego, which is just a rehashing of all of the old tapes, all of the mindsets of this sense of identity that each one has created and acquired and built.
So no one has succeeded in standing in a place where he or she is only expressing himself of herself. You as a separated, aging lady do not have the capacity to originate anything, to be the source of a single thought, or a single act. You are either clearly giving expression to the Christ that you are or you are clearly giving expression to confused expressions. Do you see what I am saying?
Now, I said that the need was to love your fellow man because loving your fellow man is what will save you. And your fellow man being the object of your affection will be your savior. So who's going to love this fellow man? The aging lady sitting there? There ain't no such critter as an aging lady sitting there. There's only the Christ being clear or being confused-let's put it that way. So what's happening when you dare to care about your fellow man?
Well, if you as a separated entity have no capacity to love because this separated entity doesn't exist except in an imaginary way, then if love is going to occur how is it going to occur? Well, it's simple. Because there's only one thing sitting there-with a quizzical look on her face-and that is the presence of God, the Christ. In your sense of being a human who was born and who is a physical body that's going through processes in spite of that. no when you as a human find yourself caring it's not because you as a separated human entity have a capacity to care, but because the Christ that you are is emerging. Because the Christ that you are is the only thing that has the capacity to care.
But does the Christ that you are have a separate place from which to express love, or is the Christ that you are the unobstructed presence of God Himself/Herself? You see what I want to point out here is, which is the cap on this whole answer, is that when you in your sense of being a separated human physical organism that is born, grows, ages and dies experiences caring it's really the Christ of you remembering her function to a limited degree.
Now because you as a separated entity have no capacity to love, if love occurs it occurs because caring has come into play, and the caring is a prayer. If you don't have a personal capacity to love then if love is going to appear where you are it is because you have begun to care, which has been a prayer to God, which God answers. And it comes through you.
And you must have a brother, a sister, an object of your affection in order to call into play the Christ of you. And that's why your brother and your sister is your savior. But remember that the capacity to love isn't something that originates with the separated human entity that you think you are. And that's why when caring finally becomes an active part of your experience of being, even in your separated sense of yourself, that is why it constitutes a prayer and not a personal gift of your own that allows God to answer and fills you up with the experience of the fulfillment of your purpose for being while blessing the one you dared to care about.
Can all of you see that the privacy you seek is the way you deny your brother of the blessing of your prayer? "Well, I can't get involved with everyone!" Well, then keep on dying! Stay separate, you see, stay private, don't care because that is involvement. Keep blocking your function and keep dying. You see what I am saying?
But that's not my point. My point is for you to realize what's happening when you care, what's happening when you love is that prayer isn't just a string of words that you say. Prayer is caring. Caring is prayer. It's involving, it involves you in your heart you might say. You become involved. And when you become involved because you really care a blessing occurs-the prayer is answered and you are the answer. And when you're the answer and you experience the involving aspect of that as well, you won't ask "do I have to do this with everyone." And you won't think that it's too much to do it with everyone, the joy of it will be so significant that you will wonder what you were thinking of when you had justification for withholding it.
"Gee, I thought Jesus was my savior! I thought the Christ was my savior, and the slob over there doesn't look like the Christ to me, doesn't act like the Christ." And what does that mean? What that means is the Christ in you isn't alive at the moment registering in your awareness because caring hasn't occurred yet. That's what it means! And yet that one is the Christ, suffering from his ignorance of his Christhood. And because the suffering is illegitimate for him he invites by his misery, by his unwithheld expression of his need, your compassion. You see, it invites the response of caring rather than judgment. And so this miserable one is your salvation because it's an opportunity for you to care, to feel love, compassion, caring for him. And in your caring you come back into your function, your fulfillment of purpose for being. And that constitutes prayer, which God answers and you feel as it's extended.
I've said before that all of the Awakened Brotherhood experience a lack, because while all of you are enjoying the game of independence, the fantasy of independence, you're not available to us. And we're not available to you. And so the Brotherhood doesn't as a whole experience its wholeness consciously. Is the answer as far as we're concerned to sit around and grouse about all of you, how inconsiderate you are? No, it's opportunity for us to love, it's an opportunity for us to care. And it feels good, because we're on the beam. I don't mean give us a gold star because we're on the beam.
When you're on the beam you feel good. When you're on the beam you're experiencing harmony. When you're on the beam there's never an interruption of the flow of the Father's love, because you're not taking your finger off the trigger on the nozzle on the hose. And so the flow is never intermittent, it's never interrupted. But it's sort of like domino's. I love you. I love you all. I love everyone. But it's not enough for me to love you, you've got to pass it on. Because until you are loving your brother you won't wake up. You won't come into the fullness of the experience of what you divinely are.
This all ties together, because if you want to see your body visibly identifying the glory of God rather than age, then love your brother. Because that constitutes a joining, a union which undoes the effects of being separate, independent, autonomous, which is what aging and death is the result of, as well as birth. The way you get out of that cycle is by fulfilling your function, which is to be the place where love flows into expression, because that's what God is.
There's a lot of. well, mirrors are used a lot in New Age thinking. And so you go to work and someone is grumpy and you say, "Oh, they must be mirroring back me, to me. I didn't think I was grumpy, but I must be somewhere in me, I must be grumpy." Well, you want to know what? The one who's being grumpy and is not covering up his need is being the Christ to the best of his ability, which is giving you the opportunity to be the Christ to the best of your ability.
And so what is it that is being reflected back to you? The Christ. You see, if you're going to be confused in your metaphysical or New Age thinking you will take yourself as the human entity that you think you are and you will take the human entity that you think everyone else is and this is what will be mirrored back and forth. And you start and end with the same ignorance you began with. But your brother there who's suffering or your sister who's suffering is the Christ reflecting back to you your Christhood. It's a call for love. And the Love can only come from the Christ that you are. And so the Christ that you are has to be let out of the box-it's time to come out of the closet-and let yourself feel the love, feel the caring, feel the compassion, not for the poor human entity but for the Christ who has the right to experience his divinity. And then without thinking that you're being the source of the love recognize that the caring, the love that you're feeling is a prayer. And let God answer it in an involving way in your heart. Let it flow. And then you will begin to undo birth, growth, aging and death. It's high time to be through with it!
What if you can't pray for yourself? You just thought you asked a simple question today. What if you cannot be the authorizer, the author of a prayer for yourself-for yourself? What if the only one who can "author" a prayer for you is your brother? You can't be your own savior. You see?
Do you see how much you need each other? If you cannot succeed at being an independent entity then it means that your involvement with the whole Brotherhood, with every aspect of the infinite expression of God is the only choice for an experience of being that you have available to you. And that therefore privacy is nonsense. And that the answer to the problem of existence lies in the withdrawal of defenses and the employment of love so that the unity of the infinite expression of God can be experienced in its exquisite harmony. It's called Heaven.
But as I've said before, it's got to start here. It's got to start with the apparently separated human entity that you think you are, actually being the place where the experience of caring is felt. And it's got to be with each other. YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO A-L-L D-A-Y L-O-N-G!
Do you see that what I'm saying doesn't mean that you personally have to have or come up with the answer for your brother's need. What you have to do is care enough to let the love flow. The Father will answer the prayer.
Just watch the lines disappear.
Susan says that whenever there is a gathering and Paul is not claiming a separate mind of his own, that the lines leave his face. And then afterwards he turns back into a pumpkin. I will tell you the consistent experience of joy that comes from constant prayer, which is what Paul is engaged in this afternoon, the experience of it is peace and joy that is fulfillment itself. And the ongoing experience of this if Paul indeed would acquiesce to my suggestion that he do this constantly would result in the lines disappearing and staying gone, and for color to come back to his hair, and hair to come back to his head and a flat stomach, which he would dearly love. But he still enjoys a little time to think for himself.
QUESTION: Me too.
RAJ: But now you and he are not confused about what the answer is. And all of you are a little younger than when you arrived this afternoon, because the truth of what I've said and the love with which I've said it has touched the Christ in you. And it's a little more conscious. But tomorrow or on the way home in your car when you look in the rearview mirror begin to use a little self-discipline. And when you see your fellow man remember that here is your opportunity to stop getting older as well as waking up.
A Raj gathering at Yucaipa, CA - May 1996
QUESTION: What happens when a person is laying in a hospital bed and then they do tests and find the person is brain dead. And then they decide two or three days later to pull the plug. What I'm trying to ascertain and understand is when is the person actually physically out of their body and where there supposed to be, because I remember what my mother always said, "the dead know not."
And then just recently after they had the memorial for this dear brother of ours, Kirborkian got again acquitted for helping someone to die, and that was considered a suicide helped. And yet in one of your tapes I remember you said that we all commit suicide in one way or another. So, where are the one's who supposedly "actually do a suicide" or the one who is brain dead and they pull the plug on him? Is there any difference in between there? And where are they at then? Are they in the fourth-dimension? And I have had too many experiences since I've been a child that I truly believe that they come when they are needed here to talk to us or whatever, commune, so they're not dead. And they're there. And sometimes I see them as their physical body or I just sense them in their spiritual body. And so now I'm getting really confused and I'm saying, "SOS."RAJ: The manner of death is irrelevant, whether it is suicide, whether it is brain death, whether it is an automobile accident or a heart attack, a disease, the manner of death means nothing. And just to elaborate slightly, every death is a cop out. It's a point at which an individual gives up. It is not the giving up that constitutes the yielding to the Father's will. It's a giving up of the attempt to control one's life, still believing that having control is the primal need. And literally one arrives at a point where they can't maintain the control any longer, but they don't yield the control up to the Father. And so there apparently is a death. It is a death that they bring on themselves. It is a decision, believe it or not.
Now, everyone who passes on goes to the same place, as it were. It is a receiving place. And they are met with love. In fact, the movement to that receiving place is as it has often been described, one in which the experience is one of great love. And they are met with love and they are-for lack of better words-ministered unto, made comfortable. You could say that questions are answered. Those who have passed on prior to the individual who has passed on do gather to welcome. But the individual who has passed on is not required to meet with them. They can remain for awhile in the receiving place if they so wish. And they do not move on until there's a motivation within themselves to do so.
No, indeed, they have not moved into the fourth-dimension. Because the so called event of death was not a part of a process of Awakening. It was an ongoing dynamic of the assertion of the need to be in control of their lives, which they hadn't yet relinquished. And until they relinquish that the process of Awakening cannot occur. And so they find themselves exactly as they were before, except that whatever they thought it was that killed them they know didn't kill them. And so if they had been suffering from cancer, they realize that it did nothing to them and they are no longer subject to that belief or disease. So there is healing in that respect.
There is one other aspect, and that is that if during their life they have lost a limb or an organ or whatever, they find themselves physically whole. They still believe they have to eat. Believe it or not those who were addicted to alcohol may find themselves still addicted to alcohol. And even while they are in the receiving place they are not prohibited from indulging in their alcoholism.
You must begin to understand that no one else can force you no matter how Awake they are, no one else can force you to be well, because to not be well is your decision based upon beliefs that seem rational and reasonable to you that tell you that whatever your problem is is essential to your self-protection. And if one feels they need to be dulled by alcohol in order not to be overcome by the "realities of life," you can see that it is a decision they have made to maintain their sanity from their standpoint, even though it can't accomplish that. But each one's suffering is decided for by them, because they have arrived at a point in their reasoning where they believe that what they are doing is protecting them from something.
Indeed, when physicians arrive at the determination that brain death has occurred, the individuality that you have known has moved on. The body you see is the after image left in your eyes. That which identifies them to themselves is still with them. And you will never be without that which identifies you, without that which renders you visible and tangible as a conscious experience for everyone.
What you also have to understand is that when I speak of something that is tangible and visible I don't mean something that is material. And what you all further need to understand is that your scientist are clearer about the fact that there is nothing material about your body right now "physically speaking," because when they examine it with an electron microscope, they find out that there are not billiard balls of matter but just energy pattern-nothing substantial there at all. And the pattern, it will ultimately be found out is the pattern of the idea in God's Mind that constitutes God's self-expression.
So right now you don't have a material body. And as this fact begins to register, as this news filters down in practical terms from the scientists to the general public, people will begin to think of their body in a new way that will allow for healing to occur, that will allow for perfection to occur spontaneously, instantaneously because there is no requirement, no "physical" requirement for processes of matter to occur because there ain't no such thing there. It's energy pattern than can shift because it has no density to inhibit the shift.
Now you didn't ask about this, but I'm going to continue. As one identifies himself or herself with this body and experiences not the fact that all that is being experienced is the infinity of conscious individuality-that it's all me, it's all you because it's all God-as this all inclusive awareness of self was lost with a preoccupation with identifying with just this body as self, then in that separate sense there was a sense of tinniness and vulnerability and a call for defense. And so life itself has been one of self-preservation.
Now fear is what promotes acts of self-preservation. And so, in the attempt to make one's tiny definition of himself or herself more substantial and therefore having greater defense or invulnerability there has been a contraction that has occurred, and pattern that is what is really here, has become, you might say, packed and relatively immobilized. And so your experience of what is really flexible and fluid energy is not being experienced by you as what it really is and it seems to be subject to injury.
But nevertheless, even though you hold your body in this tight grasp for the sake of self-protection it hasn't become matter. It is still nothing but energy pattern. The pattern of which was and is held in its original divine intent by the Father, because the Father is from moment to moment establishing the pattern as that which identifies His intent in being You. Therefore, that which identifies you specifically, will forever be that which will identify you specifically.
In waking up, in remembering all that's here instead of just what you have chosen to see, you are going to discover that you are always at one and the same time specific and universal just as the Father is. But you will less and less identify with the specific and more and more embrace and embody consciously the infiniteness of you, the universality of you. The specific, meaning what you call the body, will not disappear but it will not fascinate you anymore. You will not choose to view anything from its standpoint anymore. And it will be your body but so will the petal of the rose, and so will the wall, and so will the tree and so will much more of the Kingdom of Heaven that isn't registering with you right now be recognized by you as part of your infinite being.
So, I want to make this clear for those who are students of the Course. The Course talks about the "happy dream" and the "real world," which is perfectly harmonious. And then it says that, "then even the real world will disappear." That is what it says. What it means is that it's like finding and having the experience of your body as the presence of energy pattern that isn't matter but is itself the idea God is expressing that identifies Himself/You. You will find it not manifesting the evidence or evidences of self-protection, not manifesting the density and therefore not manifesting or showing forth illness, or a capacity to die, deformity, but utter beautiful perfection.
Mind you, as I said, as this happens you will also be becoming aware of the infiniteness of you and your attention will shift from body identification, from identifying with the specificness of you and embracing the universality of you. When this shift occurs into the universality of you being the vantage point from which you experience All That Is, the body won't disappear but it won't be important to you anymore. It's in that sense that you could say your body will disappear because it will no longer be present in the function that you had been using as you are in this moment today.
The real world will disappear only in the sense that it will not be getting your attention as an object of your attention, but will be experienced simply as an aspect of the infinitude of you as consciousness or the Mind of God that is having the idea that is the pattern that can be recognized as Creation. The use to which you had put the world will disappear because you won't be using it to define yourself or to gather data for your self-protection and you, I'm going to say, will sail merrily on your way enjoying it all from the infinite view. And that is what the Course means about even the real world disappearing.
I've said this before, it's as though you get up in the morning and you're ready to get dressed and you go to your bureau drawer with all your pretty panties there, and you pick out one, a pair, and if you're a certain kind of individual you'll be sure to pick out a pair that you won't be embarrassed being found wearing if you are in an accident. (Laughter) I use that example because people can be concerned about what underwear they're going to put on in the same way that people are concerned with their body. Nevertheless you go through the process and you put them on, you finish getting ready for the day and you don't give a second thought to your underwear. You don't even know you have them on. They disappeared, you see, but they're there. They are just not a concern.
(A comment must have been made that I couldn't hear.)
Oh, no, they are of value or you wouldn't be wearing them. But they're simply not a focus of your attention. And so the world will not be a focus of your attention, being the state of mind which is able to observe and consciously embrace Creation with the intent of acknowledging what is real in it all, which is God not the form, so that you may glorify God always, which is the function of being, which is love, the form becomes secondary to the function.
Now you said where are they-those who have passed on? Well, they're in the same place you are still. I mean by that that they are still in a state of ignorance of who they Are. It doesn't have a location in the universe. But where you are doesn't have location in the universe either. And I'm not going to try to explain that, except I will say that you're not in anything, everything is in you. All of these conscious experiences of all different sorts are occurring within consciousness, and that is dimensionless and infinite.
How much of what God is being as consciousness. How much of what God is being as divine consciousness. All that God is being as divine consciousness isn't registering with you at the moment. But that's what this shift of attention out of one's reverie, out of one's preoccupation with her underwear, that's all that's needed is that shift of attention that will begin to allow you to see the more that is right here to see. And I will keep saying this over and over, all there is to see of Reality is here for you to see. And if you don't go home from this gathering remembering anything else, please remember that there is so much more of God's Reality to see right here than you can imagine, you will not be able to help but to find a little bit of curiosity surfacing from time to time. And I'll tell you something else, curiosity is what creates an opening in your current, firmly held definitions of everything and allows something new to register with you. That's all the more work there is to wake up, is daring to be a little bit curious right here.
Now, I've gone on and on. Did I answer your question?
QUESTION: Yes, you did, and I'm eternally grateful and blessings to you.
RAJ: You are welcome.
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