Ckangell

I think these questions are relevent and that their answers are knowable and I've come across several ideas that I find provacative. One is the image of Spirit as a Spark of the Divine. That is, Spirit is a creation (a gift or a birthing process) of Life. That Life (God) is the primal force of the Universe, that Life's nature is creative, and that the energy of creation is Love. So our Spirit is a expression of love by Life - and that being made in God's image and in Essense the same, it's also our nature to create or manifest as an expression of Love. Another idea is similar to the concept of AI (artificial intelligence) - that the Mind/Spirit is a consequence of a complex organism. In this idea Mind/Spirit is a type of awareness resulting from incredibly complex chemical and electrical systems. That this awareness is a form of energy that has the potential to be developed, refined, and evolved beyond the body. The first idea seems more poetic and beautiful and I enjoy it deeply on that level. The second idea is interesting in that it's an extension of the idea of evolution. But I think these questions are relevent beyond the level of intrigueing curiosites. I believe they are relevent to the realization of our full capacity as beings.

It seems that many people accept the idea that our true essense is spirit and as such we have many human incarnations. Often people feel that our Spirit has a sort of knowledge that is capable of predetermining the conditions of our incarnation. Perhaps. But if there is some awareness or aspect of ourselves that can exist beyond our physical bodies, why is it assumed that it existed prior to this life? Also many folks feel that "God" somehow exists beyond the realm of the relative universe (or universes) in a sort of absolute realm. As I understand this line of thought, it may be that all of the relative universe has come from God but it is still considered an illusion (presumably because of its temporal or changing nature) although it is an illusion necessary for our development as sentient beings. So our true destination then would be the realm of the absolute - the realm of the constant. Yet that would seem contrary to the nature of life. Are not movement and change inherent qualities of life? It's not that I doubt the possibility of an existence beyond the body - it seems as likely as not. But I don't understand assumptions of a prior existence or the need for absolutes or the desire to conceive differing realms.