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Things worth knowing...

If you are on a Spiritual Path, if you have made a conscious choice to work on becoming more spiritual (or of realizing more of the pure spirit that you already are), then many of the ideas below may be very familiar to you. They are part of most metaphysical teachings. Like the Divine Law laid out on that page, they are part of the foundation for the postions taken on the various Issues pages.

Earth is a Soul School

We are all divine beings having a human experience. We (our souls) have chosen to embody as humans here on Planet Earth, a place where souls come in order to earn their Ascension (as Jesus did on Bethanny Hill and countless others have done as well, both before and after that marvelous event). That is the purpose of life here, to transcend the human and realize one's own divinity.

In the spiritual dimension, we are All One, we live in a world of Love, Harmony, Unity, and Peace. We have a different experience here. But, that's on purpose. There is a reason for the physical plane and our amnesia. In order to accomplish what we've come to do here, we have to pretend that we are not divine for a while, we have to forget who we are. The limitations we experience while here provide a safe context for our personal growth. They are like training wheels, keeping us from harming ourselves (or others) as we develop our skills and gain Self-confidence (being confident in our Divine Self).

The key is individuality, the sense of being separate and apart from (rather than a part of) God. It is only from that perspective that we can forge a God-Identity, a consciousness that can be both One and All-One at the same time. We are not here to bring heaven to Earth. If we were, we could have just stayed in heaven. We are here to develop and anchor our individual divinity in a material world, to integrate our human self with our Divine Oneness. By doing this, we contribute to, and participate in, the ongoing process of Self-Transcendence that is an expression of Divinity Itself.

Free Will

There are other planets in the universe where this process of soul evolution is taking place (and ones where it has been completed for all souls who are there). Each such planet has its own particular formulation of spiritual qualities. For some (like the Arcturians) it is discipline. For others humor, artistry, or something else entirely that we may not even have a name for. Earth is unique in that the element of Free Will has been set to its maximum possible value. We are, in that sense, an experiment being conducted by the spiritual hierarchy (a topic in its own right) to see if it is possible for souls to "graduate" (earn their Ascension) with that quality turned all the way up.

For this experiment to succeed, we have to learn to make right choices. That means that, in the context of our human experience, we have to have a real choice in the matter rather than being compelled to make the one that others think "right". "Choices" made by force, made under duress, do not foster or measure one's growth.

This is demonstrated by how we learn as children. You can not teach a child to share by forcing them to do so. It just creates resistance. But, if you allow them to try it by handing one of their toys to another child who then gives it back after a few seconds, they quickly learn how it feels to do so and are willing to increase both the time interval and the selection of things that they are willing to share.

Choice Creates Experience

The choices we make determine the experiences we have. It's a simple as that. Every choice you make is the correct one, because it reflects where we are at in the moment of making it. Sometimes the experience that follows provides unpleasant feedback to our human self. When it does, that can serve as a motivation for you to make a different choice the next time. But, the experience can also demonstrate to you that you are now in a place where you make choices that do indeed serve you. So, in that sense, every choice you make is a "test". Every choice gives you feedback. Just remember that choosing to do nothing is a choice as well.

Every experience we have while incarnate is the result of the plan our soul makes for us before we are born and the choices we make afterwards. This "Divine Plan", as some like to call it, can be likened to a web site. Every page has several links (choices) that will take you to a differnt page (experience). The page you're on is determined by the choices you have already made. The situation you find yourself in is the sum of all the experiences you have had as a result.

One of the most powerful things that you can do in life is to take responsibility for who you are and what you are experiencing. Doing that is not about placing the blame. It's about owning your situation so that you have power to change it. Yes, life may have thrown you some curves, but you (your soul) scripted them to give you what you needed to grow. You have what it takes to get through it all. Okay, you may have to die as part of the experience, but if you do, it's for a good cause (your spiritual growth) and you will be back soon enough. Yes, that's an extreme case, but it does provide a bit of perspective on what most of us are dealing with most of the time.

Your soul is immortal and invincible. It's perspective is very different than yours. Even something like getting murdered is all "in a day's work" if it serves a higher purlose. What happens here matters to a soul as much as what happens on set matters to an actor. The Bard was right, all the world's a stage...

Consequently...

What all this means is that forcing someone to make a choice that you think right does not serve that person at all. In addition to delaying their spiritual growth, it creates an energy imbalance, what some call "karma", for you to deal with. You can encourage someone, but you can't do more than that without actually harming both them and you.

A choice that is not made voluntarily does not accrue to the benefit of the one making it. As an example of that from the perspective of mainstream religion: You can not actually save a soul by holding a gun to their head until they say that they have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. That choice has to be made voluntarily or it doesn't do any good. The same applies to all other aspects of human experience. You can not nurture generosity by forcing a person to give (or by taking from them so that you can do so).

What you do as an individual can be noble. It can truly serve others. But, using the power that government has to force people to "do good" is counter-productive, at the soul level if not the human one as well. Remember that the soul of everyone you are trying to help has chosen to be in that situation and that they are all going to be okay ultimately. Don't get caught up in the human drama. As has been stated, some souls have chosen to experience hardships in their human experience to help other humans learn things like love and generosity. Forcing someone to do what a generous person would when that is not what they themselves would do, both denies them their growth and disrespects the sacrifice of the soul who chose to be a motivator in that regard.

If you feel moved to help, then by all means do so. Act on those sincere desires to help. Teach. Encourage. Do, both for your own sense of having made a difference and as an example for others. Organize. All of that is good. But do all of that with respect for the Path of all affected. You can not force people to be good. The Chief of the Council of Twelve on Sirius (the God Star) would not even think about violating someone's Free Will. She knows better. Do you?