Little did I know that the more Catholic I became the more I was at war with the rest of humanity. The more I was in the dark, the more my soul was imprisoned. As a Catholic, it has always been a matter of ‘us’ versus ‘them’. (Unfortunately, this is also true for most religions if not all). It is a strange feeling when one is not at peace with the rest of mankind. There is no true peace in the real sense of the word. It was not until 10 years later as a Catholic I found Self. Indeed it was a turning point for me. It was the moment I started to experience what is called freedom.

This thesis is not about condemning religions but rather to encourage those on the journey of self discovery, those struggling with the question of whether to take that next step of evolution. Look at it as you may, the only thing constant in life is evolution. Or change if you may. As earlier said, it was ten years later as a Catholic I discovered Self. Now most people seem to confuse the Self with the physical body. The Self is that awareness or consciousness which seems to take note of everything else. It should not be mistaken for the ego. Man who is God in a micro scale can also turn the tables around to experience God in a macro scale. (As Above So Below, As Below So Above). But it takes discipline and self control to climb the spiritual ladder. But before you begin to see this dissertation as a piece of crap, let’s forget about God for a while and start with man. Who or what is man?

The problem with that question is that it is polar. On the one hand, man can be seen as a finite entity but on the other hand when one realizes that man is also a human being, that is, someone in the process of ‘being’ or of ‘becoming’ something more or less, yes, more or less in the sense that the moment we refuse to take responsibility for our growth, the moment we become retarded, the moment we retrograde. But there is no standing still in the universe or Nature, either we are moving forward or going backward.  Hence, the reason for the mention of separating the sheep from the goat in the bible. The evolution of humanity is a collective responsibility. When there is lagging of this evolutionary process, Nature will assume responsibility and separate the more advanced from the less advanced and that is probably the reason for the chosen people of God in the bible. How the bible came about Israel being the chosen people of God is whole new game for the spiritual giants. But this thesis is not about biblical stories. Any student of history will easily see that this has always been the case but one need not bother about history, just looking at the present situation of humanity, one can easily deduce that there are people more advanced than others hence the call for all hands to be on deck for the evolution of humanity.  The one advantage of true knowledge is the absence of the fear of death. When one truly knows, by that I mean what most people call being ‘awake’, or being initiated into the mysteries, one sees the reality of life for what it is even if that picture may be blurring at first. Getting a clearer picture of life comes with time and also as one journeys into Self to discover her treasures. Life itself is the basic material from which energy is made of. It can be said that Life itself is a subtle form of energy. In other words, Life is the sub-atomic particle of energy exploring all areas of the universe. Science has told us that energy cannot be created neither can it be destroyed. Life which is the basic material of energy can neither be created nor destroyed. I leave it for the thinking students to ask if reincarnation is a fact of life if basically we cannot die in the real sense of the word. Some philosophical schools prefer to use ‘transit’ instead of death since death is conveying a wrong meaning. By transit, we mean that the life which has expressed itself through matter leaves that matter when the matter is of no use anymore. It does not mean the death of a life for life itself does not know death. Hence life is only separated from matter in order that matter may be recycled for the good of Nature.

Now, what can be said of this life which has left the body? Your guess is as good as mine. Various religions and philosophical schools have tried to answer that question but what can be gathered from all these schools of thought is that Life goes on. Even in hell. But there is no such thing as eternal hell, there is not even hell where fire burns. But since the soul is the seat of emotion it stands to reason that whatever debt we incur morally will be paid for if not in this life then probably in the next, how deep that pain will be in the soul of a man depends on the degree of the violation of Natural Law for whatever man sows man must reap. But before trying to analyse the nature of life on the other side of matter, let us try to analyse the nature of man.

What is the nature of man?

This question has caused much debate from the time man can reason intelligently till the present age. Some say that man is composed of body, soul and spirit, which can translate to conscious, sub-conscious and super-conscious identity of man, others tend to hold the view that man  has but the objective consciousness and the subjective consciousness, holding the view that the subconscious identity of man is similar to the god identity within us, capable of almost anything man can think of. Before going further, let’s see what Wikipedia says of the nature of man.

‘Human Nature is a bundle of fundamental human characteristics including ways of thinking, feeling and acting which humans tend to have naturally.’

What is interesting about this definition is that it breaks down the various attributes of man into three distinct vital aspects of man. It can be said that these three aspects of man corresponds to the body, soul and spirit. The common misconception about these various bodies apart from the physical body is that because the other two bodies are not visible they are not physical. We hold that these bodies are physical just as infrared light is a physical light but which is not perceptible by the physical eyes. Now occult science goes further to say that there are other subtle bodies of man derived from the fundamental human characteristics which all shed their unwanted bodies  after a span of time just as a snake sheds off its skin or just as the Spirit of man sheds off the body when no longer needed. All these bodies are shed off until we are one with the God within. In Buddhist terminology, that is equivalent to nirvana. How long it takes for the soul to reincarnate in a physical body in my opinion depends on the free will of man although there are various suggestions as regard that by the various philosophical schools ranging from a few years to a thousand before the soul reincarnates. I guess this must be left for everyone to find out personally.

According to Hermeticism, and even some branches of Paganism and other related schools of magic, humans are basically made up of fire, air, water, earth and ether or the life energy or pure Spirit. All these corresponds to will, intelligence, emotion, physical body and the life energy inherent in the cosmos. There are adepts and yogis who know how to manipulate these various forces to achieve the incredible. Indeed in Hermeticism and Yoga, the goal is not to worship a master or God out there but to be in union with the God or master within. When the student of these practices has gotten to that point whereby he becomes one with the infinite, he still has the freewill to be absorbed into God or retain his individuality. In magical sciences, the first task is to learn how to manage these various forces or elements  in Nature which also man is made of. Not until one embarks on the journey, one can never know how difficult is controlling the elements within us. Take the air principle which is equivalent to our thoughts; how many are there that can confidently say they are in full control of their thoughts, indeed they are few. Imagine a man who can’t control his thoughts vying for the president of a nation. Your guess is as good as mine regarding the chaos that will ensue for such a nation. For a simple exercise, sit and keep your mind blank for 5 minutes or to concentrate on a single thought for 5 minutes. Not until practiced one never knows how difficult that can be.  Breaking it down further, we find that the fire principle of nature corresponds to the will of man, the air principle corresponds to the intellect or thoughts of man, the water principle, corresponds to the emotions, the earth principle, corresponds to the physical aspects of man and the life energy corresponds to the life in man. Life becomes more interesting as man experiments with the various forces of Nature. But caution must be taken into account in order that one may not be led astray. Knowing this, and the science behind them, it is easy to manipulate these forces to achieve any natural phenomena seen in Nature. It is for this reason we don’t believe in miracles because any student of nature who is an adept can easily explain what our religionists call miracle. Taking it further, we know God is also bound by Law and hence he cannot go against Himself or else he won’t be God and the result will be chaos in the Universe. It is for this reason that the Universe will continue to exist regardless of what man may do. For man cannot temper with Divine Laws. Man can only manipulate man-made laws. Now the key to understanding how these elements operate is within Self. Philosophical schools is all about the studying of the self.

For the Self is the key of the Universe. Whatever man wishes to become or know lies within the Self  as the Self is but the Universe.  While religion and other spiritual schools of philosophy are good in of themselves, it serves no one good unless one is willing to put in the work. Perhaps, here is the right moment to chip in that there is no savior out there to save one in spite of one’s sins or for a better word, in spite of one’s ignorance.  For the truth is that the only thing man needs to be saved from is ignorance. It is due to ignorance that there is political, socio-cultural and even religious tyranny in the world. The savior in the person of Christ Jesus for those who are sympathetic to the Christian Faith has done his job by pointing the way just like others before him. But when we consider that for the most part, he taught in parables and only gave the true meaning of his parables to his disciples, one is prone to ask if that action is of love or indifference or if truth is meant to be an occult information. It is for this reason all the philosophers worthy of the name have always admonished, ‘Man Know Thyself’.

If the only thing man needs saving from is ignorance, what is the point of one coming in the name of a savior to set the captives free but only to confuse them more and leave them in bondage and fear? What are we to think of a savior whose teachings has left almost countless number of conflicting sects? But enough of the digress. Back to the question, who or what is man? Unfortunately, neither religion nor the government has satisfactorily answered that question. Truth is, truth is power and not until one empowers oneself, it is nobody’s responsibility to empower another. It is for this reason a growing number of people have zero faith in our institutions whether government, religious, education or the media for that matter. For whatever man sows, man must reap. Ignorance has nothing to do with it. God is not to blame if man is afflicted with the consequences of his actions. It is a universal law hence the golden rule from all ages, ‘love your neighbor as yourself’, don’t do to others what you don’t want done to you. If evolution is constant just what we will become is still shady. But the student of evolution may be forced to think of the next stage of evolution as that age of superman or a demi-god. Right now, it is no longer news what some people of this age are capable of. Through the knowledge of self, man is slowly realizing that what was once termed miracle is nothing more than the application of natural laws. In other words, walking on water, ascending or levitating, being in more than one place at a time, the ability to lift objects without physical contacts, hearing of thoughts, suspended animation (the ability to die and resurrect again) and of the so called ‘miracles’ in our holy books are but application of natural laws. In other words, it is a science one can learn and perfect. Being aware of these abilities, one is forced to think about the possibilities of that future being. The million dollar question is, is there a stop to evolution? who can say precisely the beginning and end of a circle?  For those who are conscious, that question does not need more than a second to be answered. But this dissertation is for those who are still sleeping. It is like a wake up call. At first glance, that question might seem complicated but after a little meditation, the veil will be torn apart so that one can see truly with the eyes of perception. Religion or specifically the Christian Religion has taught us that man was created by God. We were also told that  it was not until God breathed into man that man came into existence. What can we learn from this? Man didn’t come into existence until God breathed into his nostril. In my opinion, this was God transferring His consciousness into man. To look at it in another light, man has always been in existence even it was in the mind of God as thoughts. (Thoughts are actually things even though they might not be visible). But the gospel truth about man is that man is just as much a mystery as God. Damn, I was trying to forget about God for a while but it seems difficult to talk about man without talking about God. I like to see God as the totality of existence from anything that is physical to the utmost spiritual entity. Anything you can find in the universe is a reflection of God. We may not understand it just yet but eventually we will come around it for that is the only way I came to make peace with the universe. Now can we see where this is going? If God is the totality of the universe what is man?

Well, we might not be able to put a definition to that since man is in the process of becoming. So what this thesis can do is tell you what man is not and that is man is not a finite entity. Your imagination is as good as mine as regard what that means. to be continued….