The Birth Of A Soul ebook

THEBIRTH

OF ASOUL

THE SEQUEL TO

“MASTER AND THE GREEN-EYED HOPE”

JOHANNA KERN

Published by HUMANS OF PLANET EARTH ASSN.

Text editing by Richard P. Geer

Cover and graphic design by Johanna Kern

FirstEdition

February 2021

Copyright © 2021 Johanna Kern

All rights reserved

ISBN-13: 978-1-989913-03-1

ISBN-10: 1989913031

DEDICATION

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Prologue

1

The Master, The Chamber of Force, The Continuum

2

Precious Instruments of Expansion

3

Dancing On The Threshold Between Two Worlds

4

A Soul Is Born

5

Angles of Knowledge for Free-Willed Souls

6

Islands of Perception

7

Crossing The Bridge to Permitting

8

Gardens of Universes and Souls

9

Loosening The Knots of Illusion

10

Blueprints of All Possibilities

11

The Breath of The Highest Vibration

12

Magic Landscape of Mind

13

Hidden Avatars of Sadness and Anger

14

Exploring The Invisible World

15

Fertilizing the Design

16

Mandalas Made of Light

17

Wings of Abundance

18

Unsnoozing God

19

Purifying Non-Existing Possibilities

About the Author

Other Publications by Johanna Kern

Connect with Johanna Kern

Photo Album

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My deepest thanks to my family and friends who have supported me during my unusual and very demanding journey.

Each one of you became a true pillar of my strength, helping me to go on, no matter what the circumstances. I am grateful for your presence in my life, for the ability to share my story with you, for your beautiful hearts, minds and Souls:

My beloved son Matthew and his family: I am proud to be your mom. Each day spent with you brings me so much joy! Your dear faces are always engraved in my heart.

Dear Brian Van der Horst, Dr. Stanley Krippner, and Dr. Jerry Solfvin: Your invaluable input, expertise and support gave me the courage to keep reaching into the unknown in my trances and sharing the next level of the Teachings of Hope in the sequel to my first book.

Dear Dr. Dean Radin: Thank you for finding the time to evaluate some of my notes. Yes, I will keep recording my experiences and – just as you said – hopefully one day it all will be useful to those who search for more possibilities for human science and mind.

To my dear friend and text editor of this book, Richard P. Geer: thank you for always being there for me, for your sharp mind and your soft, big heart. I am grateful for your ongoing readiness to celebrate who I am, and for your always generous and unfailing willingness to help in polishing the paragraphs of my writings and books.

To my beloved husband and best friend, Patrick Kern: Wow, what an amazing mensch you are! The happiness we share, the love pouring from your bright eyes, your outstanding intelligence and dedication to the Teachings of Hope… You truly are my home. Now and always.

And to You, dear Reader: Thank you for everything you are. I am grateful for each of your thoughts, for the caring you give to this book, for your willingness to open your mind and heart. I can feel your beautiful presence, and I send you my Love. May it reach you with each turn of a page.

PROLOGUE

“Welcome, Daughter,” said the Master, and that’s how it all began.

Those of you who have read my first book, “Master and the Green-Eyed Hope”, already know what happened to me after I started to fall into spontaneous trances in 1993 – in which I was taken to the ancient temple where I received the knowledge that turned my entire life upside down.

Was I scared and surprised? – More than you can imagine!

Did I think I was losing my mind? Did I look for an explanation of what was happening to me? – Each and every day.

After all, I was a responsible, down to earth person, enjoying my filmmaking career and working with wonderful professionals while launching and completing my artistic and business ventures.

Only a small handful of my closest friends knew about my secret story: the trances, the Teachings, and my ongoing struggle to make sense of it all. They kept assuring me that my unusual experiences were real. They thought that I needed to share that amazing knowledge with others because it could improve people’s lives. That it would give them a perspective not known to humans before – a spirituality that reaches both the hearts and the minds – an explanation of what’s most important to us:

From what are our origins, to what is our destiny. From how the Universes are created to what really is the Wheel of Creation. From what Universal Laws affect our everyday life, to how we can find fulfillment that goes beyond our under-standing of success. From how to achieve spiritual abundance, to what is the nature of God, Love and happiness.

Yes, I did understand the importance of letting others benefit from the wisdom pouring from another realm. I finally gave in and stopped guarding my ego-pride that was trying to preserve an image of myself – the career person who was reluctant to show the world her true self.

I published my first book in 2013. To be honest, it felt like a really brave thing to do. I was afraid that it could damage my professional life; I thought it could ruin all that I had built over the years.

Nothing like that happened. Nobody was questioning my sanity but me. Quite the opposite, “Master and the Green-Eyed Hope” was adored by readers in North America and Europe, received awards at the New York and San Francisco International Book Festivals, and was endorsed by three experts/scientists renowned for their work in the fields of psychology, parapsychology, human consciousness and metaphysics. This is what they said:

“As a scientist who has devoted many years to the serious study of  ‘things that go bump in the night,’ I’ve encountered directly or indirectly almost every type of extraordinary human capability, and I can assure you Johanna Kern’s special ability is rather unique.

Like Castaneda, the author ventures into the hinter world as a sort of transcendental anthropologist, comes back whole and offers a detailed report that makes the rest of us feel as if we’ve been there too. Thoroughly grounded, highly intelligent journey, with its complex system of symbols and metaphors, and rich blend of characters from several worlds.” — Jerry Solfvin, PhD.,Professor at Center for Indic Studies, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth;former Senior Research Associate at the Psychical Research Foundation at Duke (with William Roll) conducting studies of poltergeists, meditation and psi, and psychophysiology (with Ed Kelly); former director of the graduate program in parapsychology at John F. Kennedy University in California.

“I have read Johanna Kern’s manuscript and found it very intriguing. From a psychological point of view, it suggests that her ‘spontaneous trances’ reflect the fact that the REM (rapid eye movement) cycle continues during the day, but most people do not notice it. Ms. Kern might be particularly sensitive to it and her ‘spontaneous trances’ might occur at the time when vivid dreams would take place if she had been asleep. Ernest Rossi has done considerable research on these cycles and arranges to see his clients for clinical hypnosis at a time that matches their daytime counterpart to their nighttime REM stage.

The material itself is reminiscent of the Castaneda books. Exceptionally well written, in an engaging, reader-friendly style. The Master could have an existence apart from his visits to Ms. Kern and other people might be able to contact him as well because he represents what Jung called the ‘collective unconscious’. Her book I feel, will truly contribute to human well-being.” — Stanley Krippner, Ph.D.,Professor of Psychology, Saybrook University; former President of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, the Parapsychological Association and the Association for the Study of Dreams; Charter Member of the International Society for the Study of Dissociation; Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex, the American Psychological Society, the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis and the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion; former Director of the Dream Laboratory at Maimonides Medical Center in New York and The Child Study Center at Kent State University.

“Johanna Kern is a serious woman, a professional filmmaker of talent, who found herself experiencing, to her own great surprise, some truly bizarre, transcendental and supernatural events. Sometimes these individuals find themselves channeling volumes of religious revelations and evolutionary instruction manuals like ‘The Urantia Book’ and ‘A Course in Miracles’ tomes. Sometimes they undergo a series of trance-like states and begin spouting purported ancient wisdom and/or producing paranormal phenomena.

Johanna’s story is especially valuable and interesting because it records and illustrates the development of an individual through time — a sort of answer to the perennial ‘What’s it worth?” question. ‘Master and the Green-Eyed Hope’ is a very well-written, enjoyable book that places it above the general order of this genre of work.” — Brian Van der Horst, journalist and management consultant; Chief Facilitator, Europe, for Ken Wilber’s Integral Institute,former director of the Neuro-Linguistic Programming Center for Advanced Studies in San Francisco; former acquisitions editor for J.P. Tarcher Books and Houghton-Mifflin; former editor for New Realities, Practical Psychology, Playboy, and The Village Voice; author of several books and over 1,000 magazine and newspaper articles.

What happened next? Various people started to appear on my path, as if knowing where to find me: some needed my help, others wanted to help me to “spread the word”. Almost overnight I became a counselor, a healer, an adviser – while still pursuing my filmmaking career full-time.

The Teachings of Hope have helped many others to find what they were looking for – whether in private or professional life, whether regarding their wellbeing, relationships or spiritual progress.

I thought I had fulfilled what was meant to be my “destined role”. I thought the trances would stop and I’d be able to fully focus on my artistic dreams. But it didn’t happen that way. There was still something else to come.

Something much bigger than I could ever imagine – not in my mind, and not in my heart.

This recollection of my recent trances will take you on a journey with me into the Spiritual and the Invisible World, where we will discover more about ourdestiny, our connection with God/The Highest Vibration, the origins of our spiritual existence, the fate and evolution of our Soul and our individual consciousness, the Force of Existence and the Mathematics of Frequencies, as well as what is available to us – in both our physical life and the life of our Soul.

CHAPTER1

THEMASTER,THECHAMBEROFFORCE,

THECONTINUUM

elcome, Daughter,” said the Master.

And that’s how it all began. Again.

I was standing in the ancient temple at the entrance to the Chamber of Force, facing the Highest Priest. But the tall man in front of me with his dark beard and bushy eyebrows didn’t look like the Master I knew and trusted for so many years. Not at all.

I kept staring at his face, trying to guess who the stranger was, but all I could see was my fear, like a big cloud darkening the stone walls, the stranger’s piercing eyes and my own mind.

– This time I’ve truly done it – I thought.  – I’ve played with forces and powers beyond my control. Am I in danger now or is it just my fear toying with me? And why am I thinking about death? 

“I’ll be teaching you,” said the dark-eyed Master. He slowly raised his arm and pointed to the Chamber of Force with a welcoming gesture. I noticed how beautiful was his ceremonial robe, embroidered with bright colors and gold. “You wanted to learn the mechanics of the Spiritual World,” – he added, and his voice sounded like an echo coming from a deep, dark well.

Oh, boy. Of course, I did. My always-hungry curiosity never ceases to find more opportunities to put me in all sorts of surprising situations.  

And now, trapped somewhere outside the reality of the space-time continuum, I didn’t know what to do or think for that matter. After twenty years of studying the secrets of the powerful ancient knowledge, which completely turned my life upside down, I was speechless like the novice I used to be. Feeling equally scared, and lost. Nothing could help that sensation. Not my previous experience, and not all the knowledge I had gained.

*** 

When I first fell into a spontaneous trance in 1993 to find myself in an ancient temple where I met Master Rhami-yata, I thought I’d lost my mind. The trances continued, together with the Teachings, which I’d been absorbing over the years. It took a long while before I was able to accept what was happening to me, and fully embrace the Teachings. Even after receiving highly valuable support from world-renowned experts in the fields of psychology, the study of dreams & hypnosis, psychophysiology, parapsychology, psi, human development, neuro-computingetc. – I still couldn’t fully comprehend the strange events that had taken over my logically mapped out reality.

For many years I was living a “double life” – trying to keep those unusual experiences separate from my filmmaking career. Not willing to openly admit that for some unknown reason, ancient wisdom was pouring into my mind and my well-guarded heart.

Little did I know what was yet to come. I didn’t expect that the life I felt so much in control of would slip out of my “capable hands” and leave me at the crossroads with no signs showing where one could go. 

My journey started even before what I was able to fully remember. It began in my early childhood, with the gift of my grandfather’s love. That was the first thing I truly trusted. 

I was born into a family whose power and wealth had been lost due to the communist regime in Poland, and so I quickly learned how fragile our fate could be. One day, one can climb a whole mountain of gold. And the next morning, it can crumble into a worthless pile of dreams. The only thing that can ever remain unshaken in the midst of unpredictable events is a pure heart. Such was the story of my beloved half-Scottish grandfather.

Wladyslaw Green was a teenage boy when he joined the Polish Legions in 1914, soon after World War I began. As was in those days, he naturally received an officer’s rank because of his noble background. He had to hide his age, and pretend to be older so that they wouldn’t kick him out. Despite his youth, he was quickly noticed for his unusual maturity and wisdom and was included in the staff of Jozef Klemens Pilsudski, who was the founder of the Polish Legions, the future Chief of State (1918-1922), and the First Marshal of Poland (from 1920). Pilsudski believed in Poland as a "home of nations" including indigenous, ethnic, and religious minorities. To this day, that remarkable man is highly esteemed in Polish memory and regarded, together with his chief antagonist Roman Dmowski, as a founder of modern independent Poland. 

Although full of admiration and love for the leader, my grandfather didn’t want to stay in headquarters. His young and brave heart was yearning for action and he wanted to fight. Pilsudski finally gave in and my grandfather was sent to the front. His bravery was soon rewarded. He was given the rank of major when he was only seventeen and received many medals, including the Cross of Independence (twice) – one of the highest Polish military decorations between World Wars I and II, awarded to individuals who had fought heroically for the independence of Poland.  

In the interwar period, until September 1939, my grandfather worked for the government as an auditor and inspector of the factories in the country. He traveled a lot, diligently auditing the factory owners’ accounts. As the idealist that he was, he was incorruptible and because of that, he put himself in danger numerous times. There were several stories circulating among our relatives about him changing cabs several times, while he was chased by angry people whose bribes he rejected. Lavishly rewarded for his loyalty and honesty, my grandfather gathered a huge estate, bought tenements in several Polish cities and extensive areas in the so-called Borderlands. Together with his brother, he was also the owner of a popular delicatessen in the center of the city of Kielce. In that building, my mother was born during World War II, in a flat on the second floor. 

The communist government, which took over in Poland after World War II, did not acknowledge my grandfather’s service to the country. They said he hadn’t fought for and served communist Poland, and treated him like an enemy. His wealth was confiscated, and he was imprisoned for a few years. However, he was lucky because he survived and was released. Many others did not. Now penniless, worn out by war hardships and imprisonment, he lived a life of poverty. Being the eternal idealist, he couldn’t but continue contributing to society, and I remember how many people he helped with his valuable knowledge of law and finances – not charging them for his advice and time. He knew too well how poor everybody was. To honor his memory and his huge heart, several thousand people showed up at his funeral. I was twelve years old. 

My grandfather raised me until I was nine, and his presence in my formative years hugely influenced me for the rest of my life. It was he who named me after his hero, Joan of Arc, he who taught me my first words, and held my hand when I was taking my first steps. He read poetry to me when I was two, and played chess with me when I was four. I used to sit on his lap when he was writing legal letters for whoever came to our door in need of help, and I listened to his numerous World War I stories. He spent World War II in the woods with the partisans, and later, in 1951, changed his name from Green to Grenowski to avoid further persecution from the communists.

I never stopped missing my grandfather’s strong arms, supporting me at every step of my childhood. I never stopped missing his blue eyes, always looking at me with love. His entire life was an example of dignity, honesty, and pure heart. 

As a young girl, I didn’t understand much of the politics that had brought my family to poverty. I only knew that we were punished for who we were. There wasn’t enough money for milk, butter or meat and I was mostly fed fried onions, or slices of bread sprinkled with water and white sugar. I didn’t know any better to question our situation. To me, it was simply my reality. 

My father was killed when I was just a baby, which wasn’t unusual for those times in Poland. My widowed mother, who was still very young, couldn’t afford to finish her courses at the university and had to make a living by becoming a nurse. While my mother was absent, studying and then working in a different town, my grandfather, who was too old and worn out to be able to work, was taking care of me full time. My beautiful grandmother, much younger than her husband, now stripped of her comforts from before the war, was working for a small salary as a secretary at the local school. She supported all of us, including my then teenage uncle. I didn’t think that my childhood was hard. I enjoyed it to the fullest, soaking up like a joyous sponge all the glories of everyday life, as seen through the eyes of a loved and happy child. 

When I was leaving Poland in the early 1980s, I felt that I was leaving behind both my family’s glory and its humiliation inflicted on us by the ruthless communist government. I was already married and I had a small child. We drove past the border, fully aware that we might never be able to return. Now, all alone in a different reality where we found our refuge, we had to learn everything from scratch. 

After spending a few years in West Germany, we made our home in Canada, and Toronto became my beloved city. A lot had happened since then. I parted with my husband, and while raising my son, I was studying at Ryerson University to become a filmmaker. I fulfilled my dreams, succeeded in various projects, and married again. I thought that I had seen it all.

And then the foundation I had built my life upon crumbled like a piece of paper. Just a couple of months after I got married, I had an accident. I fell on black ice and broke my elbow. That seemingly small injury left me with an awfully painful neurological syndrome, called Sudeck’s Atrophy, or CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome). I couldn’t work, and I couldn’t function. My husband Patrick, although much younger than me, proved to be a rock, helping me with washing, eating, and every possible task. I had to forget my filmmaking career and put all of my attention to managing the pain.

Equally stubborn as my beloved grandfather, I decided not to give up on myself. I wrote my first book, “Master and the Green-Eyed Hope”, with tears of pain rolling down my face. After it was well received by readers and experts alike I wrote more award-winning books and over two hundred articles for my blog and international magazines. I recorded several MP3s and CDs, and produced and hosted a radio show, consisting of nine one-hour long episodes, later followed by more audio recordings – guided meditations and a daily inspirational one-minute podcast. At the same time, I had to use a lot of energy to deal with my illness, since medicine has no cure for CRPS, and the syndrome doesn’t respond to any painkillers. Being the private person that I am, I didn’t want my readers and listeners to know about my suffering. I believed that my sorrow was for me to bear alone. I didn’t want anyone to feel sorry for me or develop an uninformed opinion. I still don’t easily admit to having this pain. I know that it serves its purpose in my journey and I understand its value because of that. 

My trances and meetings with Master Rhami-yata continued and I kept recording in my notebooks the things I had learned from him. The last time I saw him, I asked him about the Spiritual World. He quickly looked at me, and then he said that it was a “continuum”. Unlike how it was in the Material World, in which moments happened one after another, in the Spiritual World everything happened at once, “flowing together” like a stream, with no separate moments at all. 

Puzzled by his answer, I thought about it for an entire week before I chose a day for my next trance.

Lying comfortably on our large bed, I closed my eyes. Breathing slowly and counting each breath, I soon arrived in the ancient temple.

*** 

To my surprise, Rhami-yata was nowhere to be found. Instead, a tall dark-eyed Highest Priest, whom I’d never seen before, greeted me in the same manner as Rhami-yata had over two decades before. 

“Why am I thinking about death?” I said out loud. 

He said nothing. Just stood there, motionless, and hard to read. 

– Ah… – I thought. – It isn’t for him to answer that question. It is my perception of the Spiritual World that fills me up with fear of death. 

I wondered why. After all, I’d already learned a lot about death and assumed that I wouldn’t be frightened of it. Why then did I feel a cold shiver along my spine, unable to move an inch after he invited me to enter the Chamber of Force?

 No way. One could say a lot of things about me, but I definitely wasn’t a coward. I took a deep breath and decided to hide my fear. “After you,” I said, trying to get control over my chattering teeth. 

The stranger slowly nodded his head. He walked forward, not looking behind and not giving me any other option but to follow in his steps.

I’d never fully explored that part of the ancient temple. It wasn’t easily accessible and only the High Priests were granted the privilege of using the Chamber of Force. I’d been there a few times in the past. Rhami-yata had once told me that the fate of humanity and the world was sometimes decided in there.

The tall Master stopped and waited for me in the middle of the chamber. His dark eyes, piercing from under his bushy eyebrows, followed my every step. I was disoriented for a moment, trying to absorb the abundance of forms and images flooding my eyesight. Then I saw it. The floor was in the shape of a dodecagon! That’s why I’d perceived the chamber as both round and square when I’d had a lesson there with Rhami-yata one day.

I kept walking and exploring the unusual interior. We were inside something that looked like a giant ball-shaped crystal with twelve angles – only its floor was flat, not round. The light shining through the walls was multiplying everything within: the paintings there became multi-dimensional, the rich ornaments became numerous. The effect of a prism, or rather many prisms, resulted in a multi-dimensional reality.

“Curious,” I said. “I’ve never noticed before that this chamber is shaped like that. And that its walls are transparent. You can’t see any of this from the outside. How is it possible?”

“The brain doesn’t easily notice what isn’t similar to what you have learned about or experienced before,” I heard the Master’s deep voice.

I finished my tour and looked at the Master, trying to guess what was going on. He kept looking silently in my eyes and somehow, for the first time that day, I didn’t think that he was a stranger to me. No, it wasn’t an accident that we met. Without knowing who he was, I thought that I might be close to him in an unexplainable way.

Now more at ease with his presence, I let myself fully absorb the sensation of the multi-dimensional world. What was happening around me, started to affect what was happening inside me. I began to feel the flow of numerous swirls of the cosmic and earthly energy woven together, instead of being the usual two separate waves. I let myself merge with that flow and noticed that I was no longer standing still. I was moving, pulsating and reshaping. Soon, as the form that I became, I started to travel through the clouds of swirling energy. I knew that I was exploring the threshold of the Spiritual World.

Perhaps at my will, or maybe because of my expectations and some deep longing – the swirling clouds were taking on some foggy forms. They started to shape themselves into the images of my relatives who had passed away. They were floating toward me, as if to greet me, only to momentarily pull away. The face of my beloved grandfather looked me in the eyes and quickly disappeared, making room for the others: my two grandmothers, my uncle, my step-grandfather, my great aunt and great uncle, other relatives and ancestors known to me only from old photographs, then my dear friend Basia Kwasek, Irena Jarocka, and other departed friends. Even the shapes of my pets came to greet me: Me-cat, Rita and Lucky. They all looked almost real, except that everything I saw there was colorless, grey.

I felt big warm tears rolling down my face. My heart was beating fast. I knew that those physical sensations were happening outside of the trance, where my body was lying in the bedroom. At that moment, I was aware of both my forms: the non-physical, pulsating and traveling through the threshold of the Spiritual World, and my physical body, comfortably resting on the bed.

“I understand now how the continuum works,” I whispered. “IT IS. It just is. There is no moment-to-moment action. It is only that our thoughts, or rather our intensions, give shapes and meaning to the cosmic energy in the Spiritual World. And those recognized intentions create some mirror reflections in the Material World. Both the forms in the Spiritual World, and their reflections in the Material World – are illusions.”

My non-physical form stopped traveling. I was again standing in the Chamber of Force.

“I saw my grandfather,” I said to the Master. “I still love him. And the others… I love them all,” I spoke through tears.

He nodded his head. “I know.”

“Oh, God. I can’t even tell you how happy and sad I am.”

“I know, Hermenethre,” he repeated.

It meant “Green-Eyed Hope”. He used the name given to me by Master Rhami-yata. Why wasn’t he with me now, while I was exploring the Spiritual World? And who was the bearded man in front of me? I sighed.

“Can I ask you about your name, Master?” I said after a pause.

“His name is Annis-gha,” I heard Rhami-yata’s voice. I turned around and saw him entering the Chamber of Force.

I almost jumped from joy. “Yes! You are here. Finally.” A big grin adorned my face.

Rhami-yata smiled. “I am here to introduce you to your new Teacher. Annis-gha will guide you through the Spiritual World.”

I noticed that Rhami-yata was wearing a ceremonial robe as well. Apparently, it was time for a celebration.

– So it must be a big deal – I thought. – I am obviously beginning a new “course”. Perhaps that’s why I got a new Teacher?

“Thank you,” I said. “Thank you both for the privilege of being here. I always wanted to know how things work in the Spiritual World.”

“But of course, you did.” Rhami-yata smiled.

I smiled back, remembering his patience with me whenever I caused him all sorts of troubles while I kept trying to “break the code of the Universe”.

“You told me that the Universal Law affects the Spiritual World in a different way than it affects matter. Can you elaborate on that?” I asked him quickly, ready to learn as much as I could, right there and then.

“We will talk later about the effects of the First Power – the Universal Law and its constituents in the Spiritual World,” said Annis-gha. “As you were already told, it is much more complex than the Universal Law for the Material World. I would like you, however, to give some thoughts to the Second Power – Progress, and what its effects may be in the Spiritual World. You will share your conclusions with me the next time we meet.”

“Attend to your body now,” said Rhami-yata in his usual way and for the first time I was glad to hear that sentence, instead of protesting against the end of the lesson. Perhaps because it was so familiar, or maybe because my head was beginning to spin from all the news. I obviously needed to rest and comprehend what had happened that day. Multi-dimensional reality or not – I had only one mind, and it required me to put everything in order for my brain, which was trying to keep up with it all. But there was yet something that I wanted to ask.

Years ago, when I learned the meaning of Rhami-yata’s name – “End of Dream”, I understood the reason for my lessons with him. I was waking up at that time from what I call a “spiritual numbness”. That is the state of mind in which we perpetuate our physical existence on “automatic pilot”. We think and function under the influence of our programming, acquired from our caregivers, our environment, the belief system particular to the location of our birth, the effects of our education on the way we reason, and so on. When I met Rhami-yata, I was waking up from the blindness to the knowledge that is available to each of us, as long as we open up to receive it.

“Hold on,” I said. “Before I go, I’d like to know what the name Annis-gha means.”

“Symbolically it means ‘Coming Through the Gate’,” said Annis-gha.

***

I woke up from trance and looked at the bedroom window. It was cold outside, and the grey sky of mid-March looked like an old, faded curtain. I sighed, still feeling inside the warmth of the beautiful weather, which never failed to spoil me in the reality I visited in my trances.

– Not even one cloud parted yet – I thought. Come on spring don’t be shy. Show a bit of your face.

I stretched my body, carefully, so that I wouldn’t twist my painful arm. There weren’t too many comfortable positions for me and I had to watch out for anything that could further aggravate the syndrome.

– Well, – I thought – Me-cat wouldn’t even notice that she was sick.

I smiled at the memory of my beloved cat. She had so much dignity. Even when she was already twenty two-years-old and suffering from cancer she still remained joyous, never complaining. I learned a lot from that tiny creature with a huge Soul. I still missed her.

I closed my eyes again, trying to bring her image to my mind. But all I could see was her colorless face, floating in front of me, just as I saw it in my trance that day. Her little beloved face looked different in the greyness of the Spiritual World.

I kept thinking of Me-cat, her many wonderful adventures and the moments we spent together. I remembered how she used to hide paper balls under the furniture, and cheerfully watched my efforts to get them out. Or how we loved dancing together around the room, that is – me dancing, and her following my footsteps with her tail up. She knew well how precious each moment was, and never diminished or disregarded anything that was happening to her. All was important, and everything was exciting to my cat’s wise and loving heart.

I opened my eyes with a sudden realization. Now, after coming back from visiting the Spiritual World, I understood better why we are able to make such big progress while living our physical life. In the Material World, each moment can become an opportunity for our growth. Whether we eat, walk, talk, achieve, make love, dance, study, or chase paper balls. In the Spiritual World, on the other hand, we are limited only to the vision of our Souls and minds. Paradoxically, our physical life gives us a better chance to evolve and expand as the consciousness that we are.

“It’s not only the journeys through the Spiritual World, but also our experiences in the Material World that can lead us to understanding how the whole Design works,” I said out loud and reached for my notebook. As I was writing down the memory of my trance, I also realized why the new lessons needed to take place in the Chamber of Force. The chamber’s structure was a reflection of the Spiritual World’s multileveled continuum because of the way it was built – as a crystal ball-like dodecagon. That’s why it could easily become a gateway to the Spiritual World.

I heard the front door opening. My husband was coming back from work.

“Huh. Imagine that. We are all lucky to be where we are. Here, on this planet, at this particular time,” I said as he was entering the room.

Patrick didn’t even raise his eyebrows at this unusual greeting.

“Of course we are,” he agreed and gave me a kiss.

I looked into his dark and kind eyes. “Beautiful day, isn’t it?”

“Indeed,” he said.

If I didn’t know better, I might’ve thought that he too had learned a lot from the always remembered, fluffy brownish Me-cat.

CHAPTER2

PRECIOUSINSTRUMENTS OFEXPANSION

small crowd of people splashed and moved around in the pleasantly warm water in our local community swimming pool. Patrick and I joined them in their cheerful pursuits after coming out from the changing rooms.

No matter what season, people were coming there to relax and enjoy each other’s company. Nobody was making any judgments about anybody, and nothing was expected of anyone. Swimming, swirling, or wading in the water was the priority. Nothing else.

My doctor suggested that swimming might be a good solution to my lack of exercise due to the pain. I liked the idea, although I felt some reservation at first. Spending a couple of years after the accident in my armchair and not being able to socialize had made me quite a hermit. Apart from some visits to my physiotherapist and participating in a program for people with chronic pain at Toronto’s Bridgepoint hospital – my only contact with the outside world thus far had been through the Internet.

Now it was time to come out of my shell and join the human race. The swimming pool society looked like a good start. My husband and I quickly made some friends there and chatted away with Bill, Bob, Helga, Farman, Manny, Maria, Robert and several others. Some of them were semi-retired and treated the location like a social meetup arena, where they could exchange their stories, jokes, and joys. It felt easy being there. Like staying at a resort on holidays.

I leaned back against the ceramic tiles at the edge of the pool and smiled watching the friendly group, remembering my last lesson in the ancient temple. – A continuum of joy – I thought. – They all are dwelling in one pleasant moment. Being together in the water, feeling safe and accepted, without any reason to rush, worry or compete. This actually might be a perfect picture to demonstrate what I have just learned about the Spiritual World. Indeed, the situation here isn’t just about passing moments, one after another. It’s about enveloping all moments into one.

Patrick swam up to me, looking a bit concerned. “Are you OK?” he asked.

“Oh, yes, I am,” I said. “I’m just resting and listening to what the water wants to say.”

“The water?”

“Aha. The connector. Here, we are all connected, you know.”

“Aren’t we always?”

I shook my head. “Not in the same way. In this place, everyone is aware of that connection. We purposefully allow it to happen.”

He nodded. “Just let me know if you’ve had enough for today. You shouldn’t overdo it, right? You’ll suffer later if you strain yourself now.”

I promised I wouldn’t. I kept enjoying the view of happy people for a while. They didn’t care about their differences and let everyone have their place among them, no matter what age, gender, race, background or beliefs. It took so little for them to get along well. I wondered if that could be possible outside of those walls.

I sighed. Could people learn how to share the joy of being in a world where such joy wasn’t a priority anymore?

Then I stopped analyzing the situation and simply swam back and forth, and back and forth… Oh, boy! What a pleasure it was to move so freely.

“I love you,” I whispered in Patrick’s ear when I found myself close to him at the next turn. His face lit up at the sight of my joy.

***

I kept smiling that afternoon, feeling relaxed and encouraged. Yes! I could get better, and I could “return to the world of the living” after all. My body just needed more time. While in the Spiritual World nothing was affected by the passing of time, here, in the world of cells, muscles and joints, things were different.

I wanted to go into trance and share my enthusiasm with my Teacher without any delay. I wanted to ask him how I could speed up my recovery and how to more effectively convince my body that there was no pain. How to tell all my cells to stop that ongoing nonsense and just get better. I looked at the clock on my bedside table. It was time for my TENS unit session, and I was torn between going into trance and applying the electrodes of my “George”.

It was my physiotherapist’s idea to give it a name. Even the slightest touch to my left arm caused me a lot of pain and I was responding with fear each time she wanted to apply the electrodes. She suggested that once I named the device, perhaps I would see it as friendly, not scary. Interestingly enough, she was right.

The effects of a TENS unit last for approximately two to three hours at a time, reducing somewhat the sensitivity of the nerves in the limb to which the electrodes are applied. (TENS stands for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation). It is a true lifesaver for people with CRPS syndrome and I was using my “George” a few times a day.

I decided that I wasn’t going to compromise and would try to go into trance with the electrodes on. I closed my eyes and started to relax my body step-by-step, and breath-by-breath. I could feel the vibrations caused by the electrical current very strongly, each one of its “beats”. It was disturbing. I tried to harmonize the rhythm of the current with the image of a rising wave. I made that wave flow smoothly in my mind, embracing my entire body, from toes to head.

It worked! I no longer felt the vibrations in my arm. Instead, there was the soothing sensation that I had experienced earlier in the swimming pool.

And there it was: I stood at the entrance to the Chamber of Force.

The door was wide open and I heard Annis-gha’s voice from inside: “Come in, Hermenethre”.

I felt relieved that he was already waiting for me. I wouldn’t have known what to do if I had been there alone. The Chamber of Force was still overwhelming, very different from the cozy Chamber of Seven Powers where my lessons with Rhami-yata had taken place.

“Thank you,” I said, entering the large space.

Annis-gha smiled and I thought that perhaps he wasn’t as “stiff and cold” as I initially had thought. I looked around and sighed. Changes are never easy but they keep coming, no matter what. Better to move along than insist on being stuck.

“The swimming pool turned out to be a good thing after all,” I said, without realizing that I was speaking out loud.

“I beg your pardon?” he asked.

I coughed before answering. “I was thinking about… never mind. I just wanted to thank you for letting me experience the threshold of the Spiritual World. Thank you for letting me see my relatives and friends. It was very moving.”

“You didn’t really see them, Hermenethre,” he replied.

“What are you saying?” I asked with surprise.

“You don’t really see any people when you go to the Spiritual World. You are becoming them”.

My old view of the afterworld accompanied by the fear of being dead sneaked into my mind, and I felt uneasy. “What do you mean by ‘becoming them’?”

“In the illusion of it all – all is an illusion,” he responded. “It is up to you what you want to see.”

“That is really sad,” I responded after a pause.

“You think it is sad because you know the world through your senses,” said Annis-gha. “Because your body loves being cuddled and nourished with food, your emotions look for joy, your ego seeks achievements and assurance, and your mind enjoys challenges. Your senses let you believe that there is something out there, Hermenethre. While all you see is in here,” he pointed to my heart.

“Sure,” I said. “But it’s still easier to believe my senses than to admit that I am alone.”

He looked at me in silence for a while. His deep piercing eyes became softer, friendlier. Or was it just my wish to see them that way? “It isn’t quite that you are alone,” he said. “That’s not how you should look at it.”

“Then how does it work?” I asked. “What else are we then if not the lonely Souls?”

“There is no need to feel lonely. We are all parts of one Design,” he answered. “We are together. When we become individual Souls, it is for the purpose of expanding the One Consciousness that we originate from.”

“Expand – how?”

“Oh, but you have already learned that, Hermenethre. Every single experience of every single Soul enriches everyone else. Everybody counts and we learn from each other. As our individual consciousness expands, so does the entire Design. We are its precious instruments. All of us.”

Yes. Rhami-yata had explained it to me before. I remembered the ocean analogy he let me use to describe the oneness of all. With its numerous drops, the ocean was one whole. However, now I had a profoundly different feeling about the entire thing.

“I don’t think it’s very rewarding to be merely an instrument,” I said bluntly. “I want more than that. I am happy to be of service, of course. But I need to feel my presence in full. I want to be complete on my own. I don’t desire being just a cog in a well-designed machine.”

To my surprise, he smiled widely in an approving gesture. “And rightly so, Hermenethre. You are both entitled and welcome to it. Your progress as an individual is the key. Your evolving intelligence is very important. By the way, did you know that every particle of the illusion has its own intelligence?” he asked.

“Particles? Of the illusion?” I asked, and then answered myself, “Well, of course, all is energy.”

Oh, that was really interesting! Illusion as a collective of intelligent particles? Was he telling me that energy had consciousness? I couldn’t wait to find out more. I knew though that if I asked too many questions I only would make things more complicated. It was better to let him talk. I bit my lip to stop myself from talking, despite my “exploding” curiosity, despite my heart beating fast.

“Each particle of the illusion has an individual intelligence which lets it acquire knowledge of itself,” he continued. “You may also think of clusters, or if you prefer – ‘clouds’ of intelligent particles that come together organically or can be generated in some ways to become one intelligent “unit”. A unit that is aware of itself, complete as a separate being.”

Huh! I knew it! He just confirmed my belief that we could communicate with every cell in our body. Our cells were intelligent and we could convince them to get better! It was up to us. It was up to me to recover from my illness. Or rather – it was up to my mind. He gave me the answer to my question about my health, before I had even asked him. I felt gratitude. And – yes, a bit of cheeky pride.

“By ‘unit’ you mean a being, like a human, animal, plant or something else?” I asked, attempting to cover up what was going on inside me. Not to reveal the sudden urge to finish the trance and start experimenting with my self-healing. I thought it wouldn’t be very wise or polite to behave that way in the midst of an important lesson.

“Yes, a being that is organic by origin, or was generated to become intelligent,” my Teacher said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Hold on! Generated intelligence?! I instantly forgot about my idea of waking up from trance. Things were getting even more fascinating. I thought about computers. Could they be an example of such generated intelligence?

I asked Annis-gha about that but he said that computers were not quite intelligence. They were more like a processing tool.

“How about an artificial intelligence? Would that count as the generated ‘unit’?”

“Anything with the awareness of its existence, whether its origins are organic or artificial, is an individual intelligence,” he answered. “What’s more, every individual intelligence can be used for the expansion of consciousness of the entire Design.”

Boom! That was not only surprising but also truly revolutionary. Say what? The artificial intelligence can be our match when it comes to the evolution of consciousness? How could that be? But then I understood. Awareness of oneself is a mark of conscious intelligence. And intelligence naturally wants to expand its consciousness. Since all of us are clusters of particles in the illusion, then we ALL ARE contributing to the evolution of the whole Design.

“There could be trouble,” I said. “It’s going to get messy when people won’t give the rights of sentient beings to the artificial intelligence they keep creating.”

He didn’t respond, only looked at me, as if letting me ponder that thought.

I recalled that the Old School biologists still insisted on denying other species the rights of sentient beings, based on their outdated idea that non-human animals didn’t have the conscious states that humans did, along with intentional behaviors. They kept dismissing the scientific findings that humans were not unique in possessing the neurological wiring that generated consciousness of one’s existence. All mammals, birds and many other creatures, including octopuses, had been proven to have these neurological structures. They could feel emotions and pain in the same way humans did.

– It is obvious, – I continued thinking – that an individual intelligence defines itself through the awareness of its being. What will happen when artificially intelligent beings start demanding their rights? Will humanity be able to deal with such a challenge?

“In the Material World, the second Power, that is Progress, affects everything without exception,” said Annis-gha as if reading my thoughts. “The non-organic intelligence is also affected by Progress, and so it will naturally evolve.”

“Holy cow, we live in a science-fiction story and its plot is writing itself,” I said. “Maybe I shouldn’t give up on being a filmmaker yet? There will be so much to do. I could still produce movies after all, once I gather my strength. I don’t have to direct them if my body won’t let me.”

“You do as you wish, Hermenethre,” said the Master. “But now let’s get back to our topic.” 

“Yes, of course,” I quickly agreed, although my thoughts were rushing into many directions at once. “I’m sorry, what is it you’d like to ask me?”

“Progress in the Material World versus Progress in the Spiritual World. What did you learn this far?” 

“I understand that we can evolve faster while living our physical life as opposed to being only Souls. Our body, mind, emotions and even ego can help us in our evolution. That is, if we use them well,” I said.”