Jesus said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."
Ever puzzle at this biblical directive?
Toddlers, before age 2/3 yrs are beautiful innocent souls, honest spirits before the development of the self, the ego, as an entity apart, as an imaginary construct of I/Me. The tell is when the child first tells lies in protection of his evolving self image; his ego...
The child is given a name which separates himself from siblings and others. He is instructed to share with others. He is punished for malicious behaviors. He begins to hide his feelings. He doesn't understand the world into which he has been born. He becomes self centered, selfish and even greedy. He controls his outbursts to avoid retribution. He compares himself to others diminishing his own self esteem....He's lost!
Sequestered behind the brick wall of his ego, he feels alone against the world, being separated from the universe and his divine essence. He may become diabolically clever in adolescence or begin to climb Dante's mountain out of purgatorio toward a union with the divine paradisio. The problem is, few of us can see through the dark glass of ego, common thought or see ourselves as others might. Until he recognizes the root of his ego-driven nature, he will remain unhappy, unable to deal with life or remember his real self as indistinguishable from all else.
Though Dante embellishes his divine comedy involving 9 levels including the Seven Deadly Sins, he actually defines limbo and the ultimate correction of the soul out of "the fires of eternal torment; hell." Pride, greed, wrath/anger, lust, envy, gluttony and sloth are biblical symptoms of a perverse ego. Once one can recognize these traits objectively in himself, he can begin to dominate his "demonic" ego and rise toward godliness and paradiso.
Other Connections
An ego-bound soul is subject to real-time physical ailments! He is a fearful, defensive, angry creature, victim of ego and his unnatural desires. In neurological terms, he becomes locked in "autonomic hell", stuck in fight-flight sympathetic activation where healing does not occur. Parasympathetic/vagal chains reduce cortisol and adrenaline release, favor dopamine and endorphins where extreme parasympathetic stimulation via powerful states of love or heartfelt belief result in miraculous placebo healings. The neurotic and hypochondriac can not understand their mental and physical ailments arising from within their fearful egos.
In my assessment, covid hysteria via an unrelenting media campaign, claimed more lives than the viral insult itself by dumping the immune strength in those scared to death! Without this psych-attack, covid 19 would have been a largely inconvenient illness rather than a death sentence, purposely amplified by maltreatments and toxic mRNA vaxxxines.
And then we have balance/imbalance issues with the right and left hemispheres of the brain. The left brain is involved in numbers, words and details...whereas the right brain thinks in shapes, forms and big picture concepts. Being "in one's right mind" may refer to these facts. Some neuroscientists find that those who endure life-threatening pain, torture, extreme deprivation or accidental events or perform deep meditations form solid bridges between right and left hemispheres, attaining "god consciousness" in the process!
Salty Epiphany
In my early forties I traveled alone from Miami to Cat Island in the Bahamas. I'd been to other Bahama Islands on various fishing trips, but Cat was the most primitive and unpopulated of them all, where locals depended mostly on fishing and slash/burn farming for tomatoes, peppers, pineapples and corn from which they made grits and cornmeal. Where one could walk 50 miles of pink sand beaches and never see another footprint. In my short one week stay, I tried to learn everything I could about these simple folk living on an island paradise.
One day I decided to snorkel-dive a shallow bay on Cat's southern tip. I saw all the colorful corals, fish and crustaceans I was familiar with inhabiting their pristine gin-clear waters. I lingered at a huge coral head rising 6 feet from the bottom. There was a small tunnel under it with its entrance stacked with a variety of empty shells, a dead giveaway to its resident octopus. This underwater landmark also seemed to be a meeting place for larger fish to be cleaned of parasites by teams of cleaner wrasses. As I floated motionless, I too was cleaned! A half-dozen gentle wrasses surrounded me and plucked bubbles from my bare skin. Besides this being a most physically ticklish and pleasurable experience, I began having a spiritual awakening, a soul orgasm if you will. where my consciousness lit-up like a million stars. From then on, I knew I was not separated from nature or the universe. My ego melted in that present now. The separation between mind and body disappeared along with my being, being apart from the unconditional love of my underwater friends..
You Decide
Maybe Dante intended his "Divine Comedy" to begin after death with the spirit of Virgil, but I have seen those prideful remnants of ego "purged", overcome and corrections take place in the living here and now.
Fearlessness, humility and charity performed in honest reflection of egoic transgressions can bring one to higher states of consciousness and enlightenment.
Remember who you were before the first lies in defense of your newly developing ego? Remember that primal soul still within; now long buried beneath the invisible cloak of ego? "Remember Neverland, when you could fly-free, when you were the Pan, Peter!"
I'm no theologian, though I have read all the holy books cover to cover. I find a gulf between organized religions and purely spiritual teachings of the prophets. I see religions as a control arm of governments in an attempt to civilize the heathen through fear of death and sexual behaviors. This was actually a good thing and brought moral standards to their realms. But living in fear of eternal damnation wasn't the hand I played, always looking for greater truths,and since events after death could never be proven, I refused to take the word of millionaire preachers. I instead took the hint from scripture that the "kingdom of heaven is within and among friends," not somewhere in the sky, not after death, but a living hell suffered by those ego-bound individuals quaking in fear or lashing out in angry rage. Though not always easy, I try to live a life of unconditional love for all and everything....here and now!
Jesus claimed to be "Son of Man," and that "He and the Father are One." From those words, I can only deduce that all Men are, as he said, "Ye are Gods."
I have also seen that religions separate man from God through external worship/not introspection, meditation and earnest prayer, preempting man's free will and the unquestionable power of his strong intent.
Try It!
Anyone can learn to dominate the ego, reach higher states of consciousness and joy, and find heaven within themselves. What other purpose could our tribulations on Earth have other than learning and rising out of ignorance into sapient hominids,..to be one with the universe all over again?
Capt. Randall is an organic farmer, health researcher and author of "Forbidden Healing, The Curiously Simple Solution To Disease" Send mail ( forbiddenhealing@gmail.com). Also see Forbidden Healing substack archive.
I've always liked the idea of monopsychism.
Thanks for this. I’m struggling along the very path you describe here.