When I was 13 years old I had a spontaneous Out-of-Body Experience. Visualize your soul or spirit as a helium filled balloon on a string tied to your wrist. For 3 days, from the moment I awoke this is what I experienced. My consciousness was tethered to my body as I observed myself do all the things I would normally do. I was totally aware of my interactions with others, my voice and speech, even watching myself as I slept. After the second day I began to wonder how long the experience would last. Then at the end of the third day I went to sleep and the next morning I woke up and realized that my consciousness had returned to my body. From that point forward I have lived with an awareness of this experience. This is what I learned while outside my body...

As I see it, our body is essentially an apartment that our consciousness, spirit or soul resides within during our time on earth. But we don't own our body. This amazing body is a gift from the stars, the universe, and beyond that the primal creation force... and one day our spirit will have to relinquish our residency and it will be returned to where it came from. However, the most beautiful aspect of our gift of human life that dwells within our physical self is the unique identity that is the soul or human spirit, and this does belong to us. It is ours for eternity to do what we choose to do with it. The issue is this: the human spirit is of the substance of star-dust and infinite.

In this human form the spirit is a conduit for either one of 2 universal forces: Creation or destruction. The Hubble Telescope has revealed in dramatic detail the birth and death of stars and entire galaxies. At work in the cosmos are the same forces that are at work in humankind. But unlike the universe we have the ability to choose the agency or force of either creation or destruction that we want to represent and manifest during our existence. But, like I say… "If we are not in control of our self, someone or something else will be." Choosing to harness self-control frees us from the forces of nature that will take-over, ruin and run our lives. In the event we are consumed by the forces of nature, we have only ourselves to hold accountable for failing to make the choice to gain perspective, take control, harness the power of the universe and thus bring into existence an infinite variety of exquisite forms of co-creativity with our cosmic partner. This is why choice holds such intense power for the individual.

Choice is unique to the human experience because choice is based on knowledge, experience and intuition which are all uniquely human attributes. Choice either liberates or constrains. Life itself is all about choosing a consciousness that channels either creation or destruction. No one can be a neutral player because to be alive is to be actively involved in all forms of choosing. Even choosing not to choose is a choice. Thus, each person must embrace their unique responsibility for control over the choices we either consciously or unconsciously make. This is why people have to eventually come to understand that we are not our body, but our body does truly reflect what we think and believe.

This reflection is what we have come to think of as being "me."  In the near-death experience or the OBE, those that are gifted to become separate from their body without experiencing permanent death or dislocation come back into the flesh with a quintessential and indelible knowing from first-hand experience that life is far more than who we think we are. This is why their thinking is so completely altered for the remainder of their human life. I do not claim to have seen or know what is waiting or where our spirit goes into the beyond. I only know that once freed from the confines of our body we do not cease to exist. Where we go, what becomes of us, remains to be discovered by each person. People just need to know that there is more to life than who we are...

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