Here begins the first intuitive conversation of this book. As you begin to read this work, I would like to remind you that when I first wrote this, I had no idea whatsoever that it would form part of a book. I believed this was to be the first of a short series of articles that I would offer on an Internet forum that I frequented at the time.
From here on out, what you will be reading is a record of a conversation I had with my own Higher-Self.
Zingdad: I wish to speak to my own Higher-Self. To the being that has previously identified itself to me as Joy-Divine.
Joy-Divine: Hello. I am here with you, as always.
Z: Hello. I will want to discuss a number of issues with you and then record the conversation to share with others. I feel it is a good idea to first introduce you to my readers so that they might have a context from which to understand your words.
J-D: Yes, this is good. I am happy to do an introduction but I would suggest that we can hit more than one bird with this same stone, so to speak. We can have a chat that introduces me and, at the same time, opens the door to more conversations introducing a number of spiritual concepts.
Z: Okay, excellent! What sorts of spiritual concepts?
J-D: Well, for example: if I were to introduce myself to your readers by saying something as simple as, "I am Zingdad's Higher-Self," then we will immediately find ourselves having to take a detour to explain what a Higher-Self is so that we can be sure that we are all on the same page. But in order to explain this concept I am going to introduce other concepts and they too will be in need of clarification. And very soon, in simply trying to introduce myself, I will have opened a whole gamut of topics that will need to be addressed. A conversation like this might never end! Indeed it is so that the simple question, "Who are you?" is an invitation to a life-long association if the two of you are serious in your endeavour to explore the answer to that question. But, in answer to your question, a few points that will come up for discussion quite soon will include, "What is oneness?", “Can we prove oneness?”, “Why is there such confusion about spirituality on Earth?”, “What would it be like to live in a state of oneness?” and, eventually, "What is truth?"
Z: Sounds exciting!
J-D:... and potentially confusing if we don't handle this carefully. But, yes, it is exciting and you will still come to be quite surprised at how much beauty, truth and wisdom will come from this simple beginning.
But for now, what I am going to ask you to do is to make this a multi-part series of conversations. I will open today with a discussion which you may title, "What is the Higher-Self?" And then, in this discussion, we will come up with new topics for conversation which we shall address in follow-up sessions with either myself or some of the other members of our spirit family. Okay?
Z: Yes, of course! Well then, best I start the ball rolling and ask the question... ta da da dum... What, pray tell, is a Higher-Self?
J-D: I am so glad you asked (he smiles).
Firstly, let me say that, while the most commonly used term is "Higher-Self", I actually prefer "Inner-Self" or, in a certain context, "God-Self". How this all works can either be very, very simple to explain or terribly complex. The simplest explanation that I can offer is this:
"There is only ONE being experiencing the illusion of being many."
I like that statement so much that I am going to repeat it in a slightly different way:
"The ONE is engaged in an experience of Itself as being many."
This statement is true on many levels. If you really get that concept, then you get the essential thesis of what I would present as the spiritual cosmology of All That Is. This understanding serves you, irrespective of the size of the spiritual concept you are trying to understand. Let's start big... from the top and work down:
We are all one. But the ONE – which you may call God, or Source or The Creator or whatever term you like – has created for Itself some very powerful thoughts about Itself, such that there are many. To illustrate this, I shall use the example of an author who is writing a story. The author creates the characters of the story in his mind. As the characters gain greater and greater validity in the author's mind, they begin to take on distinct personalities. Often the author will find that it seems as if the characters have a mind of their own! They feel, to the author, as if they are autonomous beings and he is just chronicling their behaviour. Can you see how this could be for that author? That he can create many personae in his mind? And give them each their own nature and personality? And in the telling of their stories the characters seem to be quite oblivious to the fact that they only exist in the author's mind? That the world they live in, though large and complex, is also only in the story-teller's mind?
Z: Hmm, yes, the author analogy is a good one.
J-D: Now I tell you that it is not only authors who do this – who create characters in their minds. In point of fact, all sentient beings do this, to one degree or another. Everyone creates fictitious conversations and interactions in their own minds. Everyone has day-dreams and fantasies and imaginary discussions. And everyone dreams whilst sleeping. These, and similar processes, are all story-telling with character creation.
Can you see how each of you then, already have the beginnings of the experience of creating "another" inside your own minds?
Z: Yes, I can see that.
J-D: Now imagine that you have an infinity of time to perfect the art of powerfully imagining these characters. Imagine that you have infinite creative resources. That you are greater than the greatest creative genius who has ever walked the planet. Now possibly you might have the first glimmering of what this might be like; how the ONE can create within its mind, so to speak, various characters and personalities.
Z: So that is how we here on Earth come into being?
J-D: No, not quite. I am endeavouring to give you a simplified understanding of what might otherwise be an impossibly complex subject. And I am going to need to keep oversimplifying things for the sake of being able to express these ideas at all.
If you wish to understand how beings on Earth come to be here, then you should rather imagine a hierarchy of creator-beings. Imagine that the beings that appear in the mind of the ONE should create in their minds more beings. And they, in turn, do the same thing. And this creative recursion happens a few times before you get to the soul-fragments incarnated upon planet Earth.
You have heard that this world is deep in the densities of consciousness. Well, this is essentially the notion: each lower density requires an additional level of creation. You would have a "higher-self" on every one of the levels or densities above you; right the way "up" to the ONE. Which is why you call such beings "Higher-Self". But I tell you, it is not "up", it is "inside". A better understanding is that these levels are within you. You go inside your heart to find your "Inner-Self". And the further inwards you travel, the greater the version of your Inner-Self you will find.
Z: Right the way to God?
J-D: Yes. Have you not heard it said that God is inside each and every persons' heart? Or that the kingdom of heaven is within?
Z: Ah, yes.
So to sum up: there is the ONE, which is God. And God has created us all within Its mind. But indirectly. There is a structure and we are the creations of the creations of the creations...
J-D:... and so on, yes.
But do not suffer the impression that you are not therefore very powerful! All parts of the ONE are imbued with the essential nature of the ONE. It is said that you are made in God's image. Well, that doesn't mean that God has a body like yours. It means that you are made in God's image. The you that is still you when you are no longer in a human body. It means all spirit is God-like. All spirit is creative and self-creative.
Two concepts that you personally have been encouraged by me to understand are fractals and holograms. For a very good reason. I can strongly encourage everyone to at least read a little about these two phenomena. They provide a wonderful way to understand creation. A hologram is an object which provides a three-dimensional picture. If you break that hologram into numerous smaller pieces, then each of those pieces will once again contain the whole three dimensional image. And you are like this. Every being contains the whole.
And the thing with fractals to understand is that you can find a point that interests you and from there you can zoom deeper and deeper into the fractal. You will never get to the end of it. It is endlessly recursive in any direction you wish to travel. And you are like this too. If you look within yourself you can go on looking forever and ever. There is always more to discover in any direction you wish to search.
So I tell you this: it seems to you as if the universe lies outside of you. It does not. In fact it lies inside you. Each of you contains the whole and one can "zoom into" each of you infinitely. All parts are connected to all other parts.
Z: You're kidding, right, about the part about the whole universe being inside me?
J-D: No, I am being completely serious. It is a point that you shall come to understand as we proceed with these conversations. But we must shelve that for a moment so that we can finish this conversation.
Z: Ah. Okay. So we were talking about your being my Inner-Self and that there are levels of Inner-Self-ness.
J-D: Yes. Essentially all I am trying to impart to you is that, depending on how you look at it, there might be only one ultimate Inner-Self or an infinite number of levels of Inner-Selves.
Z: Wow. Er... the one ultimate Inner-Self would be...?
J-D: The Source of All That Is, of course. God. We are all ONE, as I have mentioned. So ultimately we are all joined by the fact that our ultimate greatest version of Self is God.
Z: That's a big thought. I struggle with it a bit.
J-D: That's fine. If you already knew this to be true beyond a shadow of a doubt then you would probably not have much use for the duality reality you now find yourself in. So it is natural that you might have some difficulty with this concept. But don't let this bother you. Until you gain perfect understanding you can simply understand that within the creation of the ONE are many great spirit beings. You can call them Demi-Gods or Arch-Angels if you like. These great beings are both aware of themselves as unique individuated consciousnesses and, at the same time, are absolutely aware of their oneness. They have also created within themselves (together or separately) lower levels of self. Each succeeding level is more separate and less one. At the furtherest extent of separation, in the level of consciousness known as duality, they have created within themselves all those incarnated upon planet Earth. They can therefore also be called your God-Selves.
Z: But how can someone be both one and separate?
J-D: I shall address this in one of the conversations about the oneness. I shall call it "the rainbow metaphor".
Z: Sounds colourful – I look forward to that. Okay then, back to this discussion. So there is a continuum, from a feeling of oneness at the top, right down to a feeling of separateness at the bottom?
J-D: Yes, exactly. And, at each and every level, the being is creating other characters and personae in its mind. All are always in a process of the co-creation of Self. As you get down to this reality you currently inhabit you get to a feeling of profound separateness such that you can actually totally forget both that you are one with all else and that you are a creator being. In fact, that is what your whole plane of reality was created for: to experience and explore absolute separateness.
Z: Okay. So then let me see if I understand this. You are saying that there is the oneness at the top, which is God. And then God creates the many and in the minds of the many are many more and so on and so on, all the way down to us here on Earth who are a great many and who have the freedom to believe that we are not ONE. We can believe that we are separate and individual. And we did this to ourselves on purpose so that we could discover something about ourselves and re-create ourselves. Right?
J-D: Good. Yes, that's the first half of the story. You now have a rough sketch of how the structure works from the top down. But until you see it the other way around, from the bottom up, you won't really get it. So let's tell that other half of the story.
The thing to understand is that each of you on planet Earth are playing out the roles you have chosen for yourselves. You play massive, long-running games that span many lifetimes so that you can experience yourself as an individual. As separate from each other. As "not-ONE". And that is what life on Earth is like. But every game must come to an end at some point. Eventually you will say to yourself, "I have pretty much seen everything I want to see in this game," and you will want to take your knowledge and go and play some other game. Perhaps you'll want to play a game with less constrictive rules next time, for example. Anyway, the point at which you decide you have seen what you want to see here is the point at which you usually choose to begin your ascension process. Even though I don't really like the term, “ascension”, I will use it, as it is by now in very common usage.
Z: Wait a minute. Sorry to interrupt. But why don't you like that term?
J-D: Ascension? For the same reason that I don't like "Higher-Self". The word "ascension" implies an upwards movement, but you don't go "up". You don't actually go anywhere at all. You heal, you re-integrate all aspects of yourself, you become more at one with yourself and then you begin to remember who you really are. Once you have done this, you are free to take your consciousness "inwards" to higher densities. And from there you can explore other time-lines or share in the creation of other realities or wherever else you like. You see, essentially what you are doing in the ascension process is pulling yourself inward towards yourself. You need to do this if you are going to remove yourself from this system of reality so that you can go and play in other realities.
Right now there are quite a number of people on planet Earth who are engaged with their ascension paths. They are finishing off with the game and its rules at this level of reality and they are preparing to become a greater version of themselves. You are doing this yourself and probably everyone reading this work is too. People not on an ascension path will resonate quite poorly with what is written here. They will probably feel that this is all nonsense. So I can state with some confidence that you and your readers are all busy "ascending".
Z: And what then? What happens when we have ascended?
J-D: It is not a single-step process, as your question implies. As you "ascend", so you awaken to greater and greater realizations of self. You begin to see through the illusions of this world that keep people trapped in the game. You begin to find true love and compassion for yourself and for all others. You begin to release the fear and pain that you have created inside yourself across your many lifetimes. You cease thinking of yourself as a victim to your experiences and then understand with greater and greater clarity that you are the creator of your own experiences. And as this becomes true for you, so your experiences will corroborate your beliefs. In short, you become a creator-being and cease being a lonely, lost victim.
Z: Ah. But what about the whole oneness thing?
J-D: Good question. You see, as long as your view of yourself resides primarily in your ego – this is the aspect of Self that sees itself as "separate" and as that which must do all the doing – then you are not co-creating with the rest of All That Is. You are not in alignment with the greatest forces in all creation. When you begin to create from your heart and in love, then you move towards oneness. Then All That Is co-creates with you. It is a profound difference. You, on your own, as opposed to you, in harmony with all of creation. In the latter state you will find your life awash with miracles and magic. In the former state you get the kind of reality espoused by Murphy's Law: you get to be a person on your own, slogging it out against all the odds and then indeed, anything that can go wrong usually will. So the choice is yours. You can remain attached to being separate and alone and keep playing the games of density or you can release this; you can decide to see all others as another aspect of self. You can choose oneness and love and then you will begin to "ascend".
Z: What is the ascension process like?
J-D: In short, it is a process in which you become ever more aware that you are the creator of your own reality and ever more proficient in the methods of reality creation. What that means is that each person will create their own path and their own experiences of it. Each will walk a unique path. So it will be impossible to describe in detail what everyone will choose. But we certainly can speak to some of the more general experiences and these understandings will unfold for you from many different perspectives throughout the conversations that follow. For now, all I really want you to understand is that you, and others around you, are now experiencing your own ascension. It is not incorrect to say that you are becoming your own Inner-Selves.
Z: Oh wow. I am sort of moving up a level.
J-D: Yes. There aren't really strictly defined "levels" like floors in a tall building but it is less complex if you think of it like that for now. As you contemplate this, can you see that it is so that God created your God-Self who, essentially, created your Inner-Self, who created you and your other incarnations? But, by living the life you are living, by making the choices you are making and holding the beliefs you are holding, you are re-creating yourself as you go. And when you re-create yourself, you re-create a part of your Inner-Self. You and your Inner-Self are engaged in a process of self creation. So it could be said that you are your Inner-Self engaged in the experience of your life. So, if you follow all this, can you see that your Inner-Self creates you and then you create your Inner-Self? That we are one great being in a constant process of self-creation?
Z: Okay, wow! That is awesome! But uhh... why does it mostly not feel like this? I mean, I think of you as being quite powerful and amazing and so on while I, by contrast, am often quite confused or in pain or filled with feelings of being lonely and lost.
J-D: It comes down to the fact that you didn't come to live on Earth only to immediately ascend. You came here to be here. To experience yourself as being a separate individual. So, in that state, you do often feel these lonely, lost and disempowered sensations. It is, unfortunately, a part of the turf, it seems. It is only when you are essentially done with the game that you begin to remember that you are actually a powerful creator being. Then, as you begin to remember this, so you begin to release some of the separateness and then you truly begin to create yourself as your Inner-Self.
Z: So, at every level we are ONE being creating our Self through the experience of many.
J-D: Yes! As above, so below. And as below, so above. So you co-create yourself. In so doing you co-create your Inner-Self. Who is, essentially, engaged in the process of co-creation of your God-Self. And the God-Selves are all essentially in the process of the co-creation of God. You see? Extend this far enough and you understand that we are all ONE. There ultimately is just one of us creating the many so as to experience Itself in a myriad new ways and to re-create Itself. The many create many more and so on and so on, without end, for all infinity. And the very smallest and youngest of the many creates itself and, in so doing, re-creates the all. Like a fractal that you can eternally zoom into or out of in all directions. Like a hologram of which the very smallest particle includes the whole image.
Z: That's so beautiful!
J-D: I'm glad you like it. It is my perspective and my truth. There are many other perspectives too. There will be perspectives that do not agree with mine at all but that are equally valid.
Z: Uh. Waitaminit. How can your truth and someone else's truth both be true and yet not agree?
J-D: Easily. All truths are true and no two truths are identical. But I can see how this might seem odd to you. In due course, when the time is right, I will ask you to speak to our soul-partner (and your Spirit-Guide), 8, on this subject. You can call that chat, "What is truth?" Ask him about it okay?
Z: Okay.
J-D: So now. If we can move along... I will say to you that I am your personal God-self. I hold within myself all the other versions of Self that you are, and will be. You are my creation and, as explained, I am yours. You are a part of a much, much greater Being and we together are intensely involved in the process of constant Self creation. From my perspective I will say that this is true for everyone on planet Earth.
Z: I am an incarnation of you?
J-D: Yes, if you wish to see it like that. Or you could also say that I am experiencing one of my creations of myself as you.
Z: And, besides me, how many other incarnations of Joy-Divine are there on planet Earth right now?
J-D: This is a far more complex question than you have intended it to be. I will have to deal with it by saying that, from the perspective that you are asking this question, there is only one human incarnation of Joy-Divine on planet Earth in this space/time nexus within which you exist. There is only you. It is not congruent with our soul-purpose to have a great many incarnations, as some of the other Bright Ones have had.
Z: Cool. But now you have totally blown my mind with all this and I don't know what else to ask.
J-D: (He laughs) That is good. I think we should anyway end this session now so that you can rest your poor blown mind. But you now already have the beginnings of a structure for where we are going to go from here. You can pick it up next time with me when we address the topic, "What is oneness?"
Z: Awesome. I just want to say, isn't it weird that actually this conversation is really just me talking to myself?
J-D: Yes. But if you understand it correctly, then the whole universe is just one small side-conversation that God is having with Itself. So... not so strange really.
Z: A small side conversation! Isn't the universe All That Is?
J-D: Hardly. I know it looks pretty big to you, but it is just a small part of one reality construct. There are an infinite number of other such constructs. And all the realities together make up just one way for God to express Itself. There are an infinite number of others.
Z: Wowzer. Now you really are blowing my mind. I can see that there is a lot still to talk about. Thank you so much for talking to me today. I feel such love and gratitude.
J-D: Good feelings those. I feel the same. But, as the song goes, "You ain't seen nothing yet!" We're still going to have lots of fun with this. We'll talk again soon.
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