(sequel to DELUSIONS—Pragmatic Realism)
PAST
Where We Were
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Theodore Roosevelt,
26th U.S, President (1858—1919)
As you’ve read in DELUSIONS, according to the still functioning Flat Earth Society the Earth was flat. Since I wrote it, I discovered that in November 2019:
"Brazil hosted a flat Earth conference... in Sao Paulo. In fact, this wasn’t even the first flat Earth conference to have taken place internationally, with last year’s gatherings in Birmingham, UK, Denver, Colorado and Edmonton, Alberta suggesting that flat Earthism is becoming quite the cultural phenomenon."
(From an article by Simon Chandler, a London-based journalist focusing on politics and technology).
You can read my comments about this group of ‘scientists’ in DELUSIONS. For now, I invite you on a more philosophical journey.
As you must have seen in DELUSIONS, some peoples' brains are flatter than others. If you hadn’t yet read “DELUSIONS—Pragmatic Realism” read it now. Please. Don't delay! It’s all there.
Moving even further back, in fact for countless years, probably countless millennia if not millions of years, we imagined that we live on Earth for no particular reason, other than to survive for as long as we could. This, after all, seems to be the principal preoccupation of other species, of other animals, who have not yet begun to create their own, artificial realities.
And then came mystics, prophets and even messiahs. They, until recently, have been the only ones, the only true scientists, who suggested that we are more than flesh and bones; that we can create realities which we can ‘persistently pretend’ to be real. They also suggested that life on Earth is not the only form of existence, but rather a transient stage of becoming, when-after we shall move, on ‘dying’ (vacating our illusory bodies), to a ‘higher’ reality.
A reality that manifests at a higher rate of vibrations. But this understanding came much later.
Those ideas were summarily exploited by men who created religions, for the sole purpose of controlling peoples’ minds. For what purpose they did so, we shall leave for now. While the religious leaders often tended to live in unprecedented luxury compared to those whose minds they controlled. On the other hand, they have been directly responsible for creating, installing, and protecting countless architectural, sculptural and painting treasures, which, to this day, we recognize as works of art, and that often serve as inspiration for wonderful compositions of music.
As you can see, there is a reason for everything.
And then came Albert Einstein and, with a single sentence upset the philosophical, religious and even practical apple cart. He proclaimed that:
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
So much for life on Earth.
Unless...
Unless the only purpose of life on Earth is to prepare if not create a state of consciousness in which we want to spend extended periods. Some Mahatmas1 claim that the stages between reincarnations in this ‘valley of tears’ can last, on average, 1500 years.
Hence, most of us having done relatively little, we don’t retire to “rest in peace” i.e.: to do nothing forever after. We don’t retire to exist eternally in a state abysmal boredom usually referred to as Heaven, but we take a protracted holiday in Devachan, a temporary abode which:
“...is regarded as the place where most souls go after death where desires are gratified, corresponding to the Christian belief in Heaven. However, Devachan is a temporary intermediate state of being before the soul's eventual rebirth into the physical world.”
(H.P. Blavatsky, The Theosophical Glossary. Theosophical Publishing Society, 1892, page 98)
Paul’s 2 Corinthians 12:2 comes to mind: “I know a man in Christ who was caught up to the third heaven...) As you can see, Blavatsky wasn’t just making things up.
Let us make sure that we do not confuse Devachan with the Christian version of Purgatory, which is far, far more unpleasant state of consciousness than Devachan. While Devachan can be a stint wherein we are rewarded for having created an existence of relative joy and pleasure, the Purgatory is said to be a purely punitive condition. According to Christian doctrine, we are not sent there as a reward, but a punishment. After all, all Christianity is built on the carrot and the stick philosophy with the absolutes of Heaven and Hell as unchangeable, irrevocable, permanents states of consciousness.
Alas, for the rest of us, we prefer to believe in Christ’s teaching, and not in the perverted version of it promulgated by the sacerdotal fraternities. After all, Christ said that “Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). We must assume that the Kingdom of God is as close to Heaven as we can get.
Nevertheless, H.P. Blavatsky, purporting the philosophy of theosophy, assures us that:
“Through Wisdom and Knowledge, one can reach Nirvana and be free from the cycle of birth and death, and even the "false bliss" of Devachan.
(H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine)
We wouldn’t be able to verify if the bliss of Davanchan is real unless we’ve been there. There are, however, a number of people throughout history who have strong recollections of previous lives.
On the other hand, we cannot confirm Blavatsky’s thesis as, to my knowledge, no one yet achieved “absolute Wisdom and Knowledge”, and since returned to Earth to bear witness that she was right.
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