Biological Evolution
Evolution is the story of the progression of Life in creation.
Biological Evolution dominates in the conventional scientific understanding of life expression on earth. Key elements of this theory include:
- Life starts with a common ancestor.
- Traits are inherited across generations, through reproduction with some variability.
- Environments vary and provide challenges.
- Random mutations in generations modify traits. Traits adapted to the environment are more like to survive and be passed onto future generations. There is natural selection or survival of the fittest. Natural selection provides an ordering principle.
- Progressive adaptation over time and across different environments leads to differentiation of life-forms and splitting of species.
- Genes & DNA provide a mechanism for inheritance of traits between generations.
This theory describes a linear progression for the development of life-forms on our planet. It is important to distinguish between life as consciousness and the forms that facilitate the expression of life in material reality.
Biology considers the evolution of life-forms emerging from early chemical processes that produced simple cellular structures. Over time these cells developed an ability to reproduce. They progressively coalesced to form more complex structures with heritable traits. These primitive life-forms propagated and interacted with their environments. Adaptation and natural selection caused diversification and splitting of species, to produce the range and complexity of diverse species and life-forms we presently experience on earth.
This theory provides a ‘bottom up’ view for the evolution of life. If we stand back to seek a ‘top down’ view from the perspective of consciousness, we get a significantly different picture.
Evolution arises across many Levels in Creation
Life in its pure essence is eternal. Free from limitations and being timeless, it exists in an eternal Now. It doesn’t need forms nor structures in order to exist. It uses forms, such as bodies, to project into separation in creation, to explore possibilities and to experience associated realities.
The process of projection into creation entails balanced flow and return. It is fundamentally cyclic. Within shorter horizons, time flow appears linear. But at larger scale and deeper levels approaching eternality it is cyclic. So the interaction between life and creation entails Life Cycles.
Life, in the sense of pure consciousness, doesn’t need to be created and conversely it isn’t destroyed. But the bodies and forms it uses for expression do need to be created. It is these bodies that are released to dissolution, decay, destruction and so on at the end of a life cycle. This releases the embodied Life, which continues its journey and ultimately cycles back to its origin in Source.
Human Life Cycle
The personal life cycle of a human provides a good illustration of the interaction between life / consciousness and a human body. It enshrines a lot of the processes and principles of evolution.
A human body starts out as a single fertilised cell. This cell reproduces additional generations of cells, which coalesce to form the structure of an embryo. Guided by information stored in the genetic DNA, this embryo continues growing and developing, to produce the specific organs, limbs and biochemistry needed for a human body. When the body reaches sufficient maturity, it is birthed from its host mother. It is starting to take on an independent existence.
Where in this process does a human embody consciousness? Where does it incarnate a functional personal identity capable of engaging life in physical reality? In this context it’s important to distinguish between the life-force inherent to organic matter and the consciousness associated with a functional identity. Much of the material and life-force for the embryo and developing foetus is provided by the mother, until the foetus is sufficiently mature to engage separate conscious connection.
Obviously, the process of incarnating life in a physical body is gradual. It is tempered by the maturing of the body and its capacity to hold consciousness. It is also tempered by adaptation of the incoming consciousness to local conditions. There are degrees of conscious integration measured by normal childhood development. Initial contact is made with the foetus at the time of ‘quickening’.
A newborn baby has very little engagement with the world and spends most of its time in sleep. Consciousness is around the body but is only dipping in periodically, to gain familiarity and nudge the process of maturing along. As a baby grows, matures and acclimatises to the world, incoming consciousness stabilises in the body. Sensory awareness develops. Physical functionality improves, as the baby gains control of limbs, learns to crawl and walk and in time to speak and interact with the world in a meaningful way.
The degree of conscious projection into the body grows, as the child matures. Full conscious integration isn’t achieved until adulthood and independence is reached after about 18 to 21+ years.
At the other end of the human life cycle, consciousness withdraws progressively from the body, as it ages and becomes less functional. There are varying degrees of loss of capacity, loss of strength, of endurance and memory, increasing absent mindedness and so on, There is increasing dependency.
Hence the need for pensions and other such support. At the end of this process, personal consciousness withdraws fully from the body and integrates back to where it came from.
At this stage the body has served its purpose. It is no longer animated nor sustained. It is allowed to return to the raw materials in the earth it came from. Death isn’t a failure. It is just the completion of a life cycle. It’s important to appreciate that it is only the physical body that dies. The personality, life-force and consciousness survive and return to where they came from.
Consciousness animates Life Cycles
Where does the personal consciousness that animates a human body and its life cycle come from? Ultimately, it comes from the integrated consciousness of the pure essence of all life in Source. There are many levels of projection between Source and the highly individuated personal consciousness. These correspond with the levels of projection within creation. Please refer to Dimensional Structure in Chapter 8, for more information on creation levels.
Personal consciousness comes most immediately from the next level up in creation, from what are generally referred to as the Soul worlds. This is also the realm of psyche, the ancient Greek word for Soul. This is a more refined level in creation than the physical reality we are normally familiar with. Consciousness is more integrated here. The interaction between Soul / Psyche and purely physical realms is dynamic and interactive. A lot of our higher faculties operate in the realm of Soul / psyche.
A Personal Identity associates with a Soul Family. This Soul Family integrates the consciousness, equivalent to twelve physical Persons. Personal Identity is effectively a child of the Soul Family. It could also be likened to scout ships emerging from a mother ship.
Within our Personal Identity we can have various Personas. These are aspects of ourselves that we present to the world in various situations. We can have our inner Child, our regulating inner Parent, our mature Adult self, our role at work, our golf self, our joker self and so on. The way these Personas are integrated in our Personal Identity or Self resembles the manner in which our family of Personal Identities are integrated in our Soul Family.
The Soul Worlds are still material, but the matter is more refined and ‘fluid’ here. Consciousness still needs bodies, to hold presence in these realms. Biological bodies are highly significant and precious in physical worlds. But bodies become less significant and more flexible, as consciousness progressively integrates and becomes more powerful up through the levels in creation. The Soul worlds are very real and tangible in their own terms. There is still a lot of separation, structures, difference, activity and so on there. Soul bodies need places to live and experience life in those realms.
Personal consciousness individuates from within its Soul Family, to project into the human body of a child, for a chosen Life Cycle. At the end of its Life Cycle, it withdraws from this body and ideally integrates fully back into its Soul Family. In between, it maintains a degree of connection with the Soul Family. For example, when personal consciousness withdraws from the physical body in sleep, it returns in some degree to its Soul Family for rejuvenation, integration and orientation. Hence the value of sleep.
Ideally there would be a degree of open connection between Personal and Soul consciousness. However, our physical bodies generally lack capacity and refinement to process the higher and more powerful energies and frequencies of the Soul realms. Also, we are suffering from various degrees of fragmentation of consciousness, due to events associated with various ‘Falls’ in our universe. These are discussed more in Chapter 12. So, a lot of what we remember in such as our dreams can be fragmented and may not make a lot of sense. But whatever Soul contact we experience in sleep is very valuable.
It is useful to distinguish between our Inner (subjective) and Outer (objective) experience of life within creation. This is illustrated in the attached Ancestry & Influences diagram. The outer world corresponds to what exists separately from us, in the world around us. We interact with this outer reality and perceive it through our senses. Inner reality corresponds to all associated with our sense of Self. This includes our Identity, intention, perception, awareness, cognition, processing of experience and above all, our Consciousness. Our relationship with Consciousness, at every level, mostly resides in our Inner reality.
Our experience of life within creation sits on the boundary between Inner and Outer realities. This boundary is subjective, dynamic and flexible. It varies with our station of consciousness. In physical reality, where separation is pervasive, we see a lot of the world outside us. Other people’s Inner reality sits in our Outer reality. As we integrate Soul consciousness within our Soul Family, the Inner reality of the siblings in our family, which was in our Outer reality, at the Personal level, now becomes part of our Inner reality.
As we integrate consciousness up through levels in creation, our Inner reality expands correspondingly, to embrace more of our Outer world. The boundary between Inner and Outer realities becomes progressively less significant. Ultimately, it is transcended at higher levels in creation towards Source, where All is One.
Soul in turn is a projection from a still higher Spirit level in creation. This Spirit level entails a higher degree of conscious integration. It is still material, but the matter is further refined, lighter and more free from boundaries and limitations than Soul. Bodies are still needed. But these are correspondingly lighter and more refined.
Soul Family holds connection to and relationship with the Spirit Family, from which it descended and to which it returns. Spirit Family embodies the consciousness equivalent to twelve Souls, which is also equivalent to 12 x 12 = 144 Personal Identities or Personalities. This is the degree of conscious integration and expansion at this level.
The same process is repeated at the next level up in creation. This fourth level up corresponds to the finest type of matter. It is highly energised matter, bordering on pure energy or light. It is denoted by the Fire element and corresponds with the fourth state of matter, we call plasma. There are various traditional names for this level, one of them being Mahara.
Spirit Family likewise holds connection to and relationship with the Mahara Family, from which it descended and to which it returns. This Mahara Family embodies the consciousness equivalent to twelve Spirits, which is also equivalent to 12 x 12 x 12 = 1,728 Personal Identities, and corresponding intermediate states of consciousness. Bodies at this level are correspondingly more refined, flexible and expanded, to accommodate this degree of conscious integration. But bodies at this level are also becoming progressively less significant.
At the next (fifth) level up in creation we move beyond matter altogether. We come into the realm of pure energy or light, known as the Primal Light fields. Here we use light bodies, to explore, interact with and experience these realms. Consciousness is correspondingly more free, expanded and integrated at this level.
The numbering may give the impression that consciousness is something with defined capacity that can be carved up and divided out. Pure consciousness is infinite and beyond finiteness, capacity and structure. It is the projections of consciousness into separation and bodies that are numerable, finite and progressively structured. Pure consciousness isn’t diminished in the process.
All of these levels experience time sequencing, coordination and time cycles. We are familiar with the life cycles of our personal embodiments in human bodies. Average life expectancy is typically in range 70 – 80 years, at present. The life cycle of a Soul, from its inception into the Soul realms to its return to Spirit, is much longer. It needs to cover the activity of its child Persons and the repeated lives or incarnations these need, to unwind the consequence of their physical lives.
The life cycle of Spirit is correspondingly longer, to encompass the activity of its Family of Souls and their descendent activity. Mahara and Light body life cycles are likewise longer. Beyond this level we are approaching Eternity, where time is transcended. Source has ‘all the time in the world’.
The Primal Light fields in turn emerge from a still higher (sixth) level in creation that is predominantly conscious. This is where the first stirrings or vibrations of consciousness arise and emerge to create successively the Light and various levels of the Matter fields. These are known as the Primal Sound fields (for example – “in the beginning was the word”).
The Primal Sound fields are pure consciousness beginning to differentiate and project into separation, structure and form. Consciousness doesn’t need light nor matter bodies at this level. Consciousness flows easily in interweaving streams. This level is beyond time cycles and is eternal. There is relatively little separation. Hence there is correspondingly less need for inter-communication. There is a high degree of knowing. All life descends from Source through this and intermediate lower levels. It ultimately returns through them, in some form.
The Primal Sound fields ultimately emerge from Source at the root of creation. Source effectively forms a seventh level, within which creation resides. It is the integrated pure essence of life and consciousness.
Identity – Who am I?
The nature of this framework raises the question of identity – Who am I? Where does my Self reside in all this? In physical embodiment our identity and sense of self revolve largely around our ego. Our physical consciousness or ego is generally suffering from significant degrees of fragmentation. It can feel itself isolated, with needs for survival, justification, support and reinforcement in a challenging and potentially hostile environment.
As we expand consciousness to come into a measure of Soul integration, we experience greater connection, security and belonging in creation. Our sense of self expands and integrates accordingly. Our personal consciousness is no longer so threatened by isolation. There is less need to cling to ego as an island of stability and selfhood. Our ego is valuable as a point of focus in physical embodiment. But we don’t need to burden it so much with dependence nor invest in it to reinforce or justify it.
As we further expand consciousness and integrate connection with family at progressively higher levels in creation, our sense of identity and self enlarges and strengthens. There is less reliance on ego. Ultimately, we come into direct connection with our origin in Source. The limited self expands into the infinite Self.
Then we are truly Home and at One with All. Connected to a state beyond time and location, we are at home everywhere, wherever our current focus lies. There is no need to go anywhere to access it. There is no separation. Then there are no needs for security, resources, occupations and so on.
Our sense of identity is intimately related to consciousness. As we expand our range of conscious connection, our sense of identity resides at our current point of conscious focus. There is greater flexibility and freedom to move this focus to meet current needs. It becomes possible, for example, to move into Soul focus for broader / deeper vision for larger group issues. Higher level focus can be of value in helping people heal complex situations, in accessing inspiration, creativity, information and so on.
But competent physical focus is needed a lot of the time in physical embodiment. We don’t need to be in a higher conscious state, for example, when doing the shopping, brushing our teeth, driving a car, flying a plane and so on. To do so would be absent minded and could be dangerous. The important thing is flexibility – to be able to bring to a situation what’s needed in the situation. It is like going up and down through the gears when driving a car.
DNA is Multi-Dimensional
We have stations of consciousness and identity at each level in creation. This consciousness needs bodies to explore and experience reality at each level in the Matter fields. We need information or recipes to structure these bodies, to meet our intent, expectations and needs at each level. At the physical level, the information to help structure our bodies, the set of genetic instructions, is coded in our physical DNA. We have corresponding ‘DNA’ for our higher dimensional bodies.
The aggregate of coding information for all our bodies is our integrated DNA imprint. Physical DNA uses molecular structures to regulate bodily development. Comparable structures are used at other levels. However, it is the genetic information behind these structures that is of interest, more than the mediating structures themselves.
DNA is particularly important in determining the specific characteristics of our physical bodies. There are additional epigenetic factors that regulate the function of DNA and can produce heritable changes, without altering the physical DNA. Epigenetics relate to factors that modify the function of DNA and produce heritable changes, without modifying the physical DNA sequence. These can be attributed to such causes as environmental factors. But they can also be attributed to conscious influence.
We derive our physical DNA most immediately from our parents. They in turn derive it from our grand-parents and so on, back through a family tree with many generations of ancestors. We inherit genetic traits from this ancestry.
Our Personal consciousness is projected in from a Soul Family, with its specific traits. This in turn derives from successive Families at each higher level in creation. So we also have a spiritual lineage or ancestry. This shapes our Personal consciousness or psyche. Our lives in physical embodiment are influenced by both lineages, physical and spiritual. This is illustrated in the Ancestry & Influences diagram further back in this chapter.
The influence of incoming conscious lineage is apparent in differences between siblings in a family. Siblings derive from the same physical genetic lines and very similar environments. Yet, there can be profound differences in gender, body type, physical characteristics, for example hair and eye colour, and particularly in personality traits between them. Even twins can have significant differences in personality and body features. Differences between the personal identities embodied and the impact on their bodies can be apparent, even from a young age.
The physical families and genetic lineages we embody into aren’t quite so accidental as they may appear. During a physical life, we propagate our own DNA. We can produce progeny that extends our family line and preserves genetic material for future generations. Also, after death our physical bodies are returned to the earth with their genetic material. The DNA imprint or coding information can be retained in the collective consciousness of the earth.
When we Incarnate into a physical family, we may be drawn back to a genetic line we are already familiar with. We may already have participated, as an earlier ancestor, in that line. Or another member of our Soul or Spirit Family may have done so. The new physical DNA won’t be exactly the same. But there may be enough familiar connection, to facilitate bonding and to get a head start with physical development. Also, it’s not uncommon for groups with prior connection, either physical or spiritual, to incarnate in close proximity. This can be to work together or to sort out issues.
Also, the environments and circumstances we come into aren’t entirely random either. Life explores free will subject to the Law of Consequence. We are free to create, but are responsible for the consequences. These consequences appear as challenges in life. They remain challenges until we resolve them.
Many of the challenges that life faces in evolution result from earlier causes we are familiar with. We are drawn back to those challenges, to face them. They can be familiar. We can have intelligence, at higher levels in our consciousness, of their nature and of what’s necessary to resolve them. This can facilitate adaptation. Life isn’t facing all challenges randomly nor blindly. There can be connection and intelligence behind evolutionary adaptation.
Civilisations have Life Cycles
This pattern of engagement between consciousness and physical bodies, in the Human Life Cycle, is representative of similar engagement in other contexts. Examples include the collective consciousness of groups, of races, of civilisations, of life on a planet and so on.
Consider the cycle of human life on the planet. This starts with a very small number of people living in relatively primitive physical conditions. These people are like cells developing and coalescing within the embryo in a human life cycle. As the numbers multiply, people develop similar to cells. They acquire more specific characteristics. They take on different roles and functions, like the organs developing in a human foetus.
Some people focus on child rearing and nurturing a home environment. Others go out foraging for food or hunting prey. Over time communities develop. There is greater specialisation of roles. Some focus on cultivating crops and tending animals and develop agriculture. Others focus on building places to live and develop construction skills. Some focus on clothing and develop associated skills.
Over time as communities grow larger, there is greater need for social organisation and structure. There is need for communal services such as water and food supplies and sharing, trade, communication, transport, protection, defence, tending the sick, sharing of skills and knowledge, education, justice, laws for the common good and so on. People become progressively more specialised accordingly.
The community acquires a life and identity of its own. It starts small. It becomes more sophisticated and functional, as it develops towards maturity. Post maturity, it moves into a period of decline and is replaced by an upcoming wave of new growth and development.
Within the larger cycle of human life on the planet, we have many shorter sub-cycles associated with different race lines, with different civilisations, cultures, various nations, tribes and so on. Each births, grows to maturity and declines, on its own time cycle. This resembles the sub cycles within a human life cycle. Individual cells within the body have a much shorter life than the overall human life. They last on average seven to ten years, before being replaced. But there is huge variation between some cell types that last a few days, while others survive the duration of the body.
Consciousness engages with Form in line with its Capacity for Experience
As with the human life cycle, there is conscious engagement with civilisation and other such collective life cycles. This likewise correlates with the phases of growth, maturity and decline within the cycle.
In the early stages of growth, where numbers are small and development is basic, there is little capacity for interaction or opportunity for exploration. Conscious engagement is limited accordingly. The life form is struggling to gain a foothold in the environment. As numbers and development increase, there is greater opportunity for conscious engagement. The greater presence of consciousness further accelerates species development towards maturity.
At a certain stage, consciousness will max out the potential value and opportunity provided by that particular life form and experience within it. Consciousness will begin to withdraw. This marks the ‘old age’ phase of the life cycle. What tends to happen is that the energy, vigour, life force and creativity associated with the active mature phase of that particular race or species gradually moves away, to avail of the fresh opportunities provided by a new race or environment.
We can see this happening with races down through the history of human life on the planet. Races evolve for a time, reach maturity and are eventually overtaken by other races. We can see this more clearly with civilisations. They go through well-defined rise, maturity and fall cycles. Likewise with empires and nations.
We have many levels of cycles within cycles within this process. We have the large scale cycle of human life on the planet. Within that we have sub-cycles associated with the environmental changes of geological eras, major events like ice-ages, major floods, land movements, subsidence and so on. Nested within these we have further sub-cycles arising for different races, nations, cultures, civilisations, empires and so on. We have still shorter sub-cycles associated with the lives of individual people populating the group cycle.
Within any of these collectives there will be a range of individuals at various stages of their personal development and engagement with physical embodiment. There will be consciousness associated with ‘young souls’ starting their cycles of life in physical bodies. There will be the consciousness of those who are already well familiar with the scene from many life cycles in the physical scene. These will be ones energising and leading the mature phase of the collective life cycle. There will also be those, who have done what they came into these domains to accomplish, and are moving on with their progression elsewhere.
There can be tension between souls at different levels of physical engagement and development. For example there can be differing perspectives between liberals / progressives and conservatives, between teenagers and adults and so on.
Evolution evolves out of Physical Reality
From a purely physical perspective the decline of such as a civilisation or culture may appear to be a failure. For example, it may be attributed to such as decadence or corruption. However, when we look at it from the perspective of consciousness, it is not necessarily a failure of life. The life itself, the zeitgeist, survives and moves on, as consciousness, in other realms. Similarly, the ending of a human life in death, isn’t a failure. It is the ending of a phase of life. The life itself moves on.
Physical reality isn’t a repository for Life. Life is only moving through these realms, as through a school or exploratory / learning experience. It’s not about setting up a permanent home here. Our more permanent home lies in realms of conscious integration and ultimately in Source. The physical world is a great place for experimenting and meeting the consequences of our activity. It provides wonderful opportunity for learning. This includes making mistakes and learning from fixing them.
Life associated with evolutionary success is liberated and progresses towards higher levels in creation. It doesn’t need to continue learning nor sorting out problems ‘down here’. It’s able to return to where it came from.
We have free will to explore creation, subject to responsibility for consequences. When we project Life into physical embodiment, we are responsible for both the progress we generate and for the issues and problems we cause. At the end of our physical life cycle, any such issues we leave behind remain here as a debt owed to Life. This is illustrated by the red lower loop in the attached Evolution – Devolution diagram.
We need to bring some of our life stream back into physical embodiment, to address and resolve these issues and debts. This is illustrated by the violet upper loop in the diagram. These cycles of repeated embodiments continue until we have cleared our debts and are free to move on toward re-integrating our consciousness, as indicated by the blue ascending arrow.
These processes relate not only to personal lives but also to the lives of collectives like nations, races, civilisations, cultures and so on.
We needn’t be too surprised that life in physical reality is neither perfect nor ideal, a lot of the time. It’s a work in progress. We wouldn’t expect to see hordes of healthy people in a hospital. Nor would we be too surprised to see a lot of defective appliances in a repair workshop. The repair work itself is progress.
However, civilisations and such life cycles can end in chaotic circumstances, such as wars, famines or disasters. There can be an element of devolution as well as evolution. Where issues devolve and fail to be resolved, we get a progressive fragmentation of consciousness and associated life forms. This fragmentation reduces the capacity of consciousness, to limit its damaging effects. This is illustrated by the brown downward arrow in the diagram.
Progressive fragmentation leads to an entropic de-structuring of forms. This breaks things down in smaller and simpler forms. This in turn releases consciousness associated with such forms for return to Source by the so called ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust’ route. However, this devolutionary unconscious return is less desirable than the process of conscious integration. But at least it is a return. The worst possibility would be for life / consciousness to be trapped permanently in separation in stuck forms. This fate is avoided by the progressive disintegration of the forms. Everything returns home eventually, one way or another.
Evolution is a Multi-Dimensional Process
Both main aspects of life on earth, physical and conscious, are important. The physical forms and bodies that are used to participate in and experience physical reality here, are obviously important. However, physical bodies alone are insufficient. For example, when life / consciousness departs a body, the body becomes powerless.
Consciousness provides the life force to animate physical bodies, the volition for activity and the awareness to experience sensory stimulation. This is what adds significance and value to physical life. Consciousness and physicality work together in physical life. But it is physicality that ultimately serves the purposes of consciousness, within the scheme of creation.
Conventional biological evolution is very much focused on the physical forms and processes that facilitate life. These are important. Tremendous work has been done in tracing the fossil record and its train of progression and diversification over time. However, this on its own is insufficient to explain the evolution of Life, in the larger scheme of things. It is missing the role of consciousness.
Life forms, including bodies, in a particular environment, like earth, will share characteristics attuned to that environment. So there will be some commonality in characteristics, in addition to the differences arising from diversification over time.
Consciousness coming into embodiment here will choose life forms appropriate to its needs. For example, the earlier more primitive body forms will not attract higher level consciousness. The more integrated consciousness will choose the more mature stages of physical development.
Take the question – ‘Did humans evolve from apes?’. The likely answer is yes and no. The physical bodies share certain characteristics, and a possible line of progression can be traced between them. But the consciousness of each can be radically different. The earlier body forms would attract degrees of animal consciousness, while the more developed later bodies would be more suitable for human consciousness. So, considerations of consciousness make a big difference in such issues.
In looking at such as the fossil record, we are projecting a linear and physical time progression back into the past. We’re also assuming that the quality of time remains the same throughout this progression.
However, with consciousness we are dealing with different levels in creation and with correspondingly different qualities of time. Time becomes more cyclic than linear. Life cycles become important. We have cycles within cycles of time and progressive integration of these cycles, towards an eternal present. It is in the nature of consciousness to cycle through creation.
This means that all forms of life, such as human life, the life of nations, races, cultures, civilisations and so on can cycle through many different expressions within creation. Each will go through its phases of birth, development, maturity and eventual withdrawal.
So in looking back through history we’re not dealing with a single line of life progression, with a well-defined starting point. There can be multiple cycles of development over vast periods of time, both within the period in view and back beyond it.
Also we tend to see a linear growth progressing towards our present stage of development. This places us at a current peak of civilisation, with all earlier stages at inferior levels. This isn’t what the relics of earlier periods tell us. Records, structures and construction projects from earlier civilisations reveal very impressive levels of development, intelligence and mastery.
Structures from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, ancient India and China, Meso- & South America and many other locations have survived thousands of years, to reveal high levels of civilisation, social organisation and cultural refinement. We would struggle to repeat their achievements. These reveal successive waves of civilisation, rising and falling in different locations and eras and with varied cultures. This is consistent with cyclic projections of collective consciousness into physical expression, cultivating a particular experience here and eventual withdrawal.
The picture of the past we presently have is very dependent on physical remains and records that have endured into our present. These do not provide a complete representation of former cultures, any more than the skeletal remains provide a complete representation of the life experience of a human being. The research that has been done on and the information gleaned from physical remains are truly remarkable.
But the higher more abstract elements of culture and the lived experience tend to withdraw into consciousness. Consciousness is just passing through physical reality. The more successfully it evolves, the less it tends to leave behind. Because it doesn’t need to come back. Successes move on.
How much of our present civilisation, culture and history will be physically present here in 10,000 years, in 100,000 years? Ultimately, evolution in Life and consciousness takes precedence over physical evolution.
Physical life can be likened to a school. We have lessons to learn, through classes geared to our stages of development. We are tested on our learning. If we pass our exams, we move onto the next stage of learning and development. If we fail, we have to repeat that cycle. When successful we leave the school as mature graduates and have more mastery and freedom in our lives. The school tends to fade into memory. However, certain people choose to remain in the school as teachers, to support the evolution of the students.
There are Many Forms of Life Expression
Life exists in many forms. Life exists at all levels in creation. All life derives from and exists within the pure essence of life in Source. Life is more alive and present at progressively higher levels in creation. There are life forms and evolutionary processes associated with each of these levels, soul, spirit and so on. Personal life in physical embodiment has relationship with these higher life forms. They birth our personal life cycles.
Our physical lives exist on a planet, in a solar system lying in the outer reaches of our Milky Way galaxy. This is illustrated in the attached diagram. The yellow circle indicates the extent of the portion of sky typically visible to the naked eye. There are an estimated 100 billion other stars in our Milky Way galaxy. Further, it is estimated that there are between 200 billion and 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe.
Sun in Milky Way Galaxy
It is inconceivable that earth is home to the only physical life forms in creation. This would be equivalent to saying that such a vast universe came into being to host life solely on, what is relatively speaking, a minute speck in an obscure location within the structure. It is as inconceivable as believing that the earth is the centre of the universe.
There is a high probability that we have neighbours living in other locations, likely within our galaxy, and most likely in many other locations throughout our universe.
We haven’t yet met such physical neighbours openly. There are issues with the sheer size of the galaxy and universe and the distances separating us. However, it would also appear that we may be evolving presently in quarantine here. This could be to protect us from outside interference. To allow us to grow towards maturity here, under our own terms and in our own natural time frames.
It is likely that we will meet our neighbours openly at some point. Encountering other life forms and their civilisations and cultures would be a hugely significant event. It would stretch our horizons enormously, challenging our current beliefs and structures, our place in the world and in life generally. It could be traumatic, if we are not prepared for it.
Consciousness is a reality that integrates life. It does so ‘vertically’ through the levels in creation. It also does so ‘horizontally’, as all lower realities are projected from higher levels in creation. These are ultimately derived from and progressively integrated within the unified field of consciousness or pure essence of all Life in Source.
We can meet our cosmic neighbours through physical contact. However, an easier and more immediate way is through higher dimensional levels. Here there is less separation and more open connection across the realms of creation. We share connection from all locations in physical reality, at sufficiently high levels in creation. There is a gradual and progressive opening to these higher levels. Part of the challenge is opening to a much broader perspective and vista within creation
So conscious integration and connection provides us with a framework for preparing to handle what could be the next major evolutionary leap in our collective development. Having a bigger vision of reality can give us the confidence to meet such challenges, in a more mature and empowered manner.