For many of us, the inner demand for personal change often comes with either the death of a loved one, the loss of a career, or a serious illness, or even the desire to overcome some form of addiction. When we look inward we often see ourselves as selfish, self-involved, self-absorbed, with self-disgust and self-loathing, and treat ourselves with self-neglect. All these are negative traits that we inflict on ourselves. They will eventually destroy our self-esteem and sense of self-worth. Some personalities compensate by projecting their deficiencies onto those who offer friendship and love, finding the very same faults reflected back to them. This reassures them that this is the way to behave. Because this pattern of behaviour has become so deeply ingrained they expect others to respond in the same way.

When inner demand for change comes to the fore, events force us to look for a deeper meaning to our existence. We are forced to seek self-discipline with the help of a higher power. How and where can we access this power? Some turn to prayer, petitioning God to give them the strength and courage to overcome the lower self.

So the seeker tries to find a spiritual pathway. Finding one does not solve the problem unless what is learned is put into daily practice. Seeking answers sometime lead us into blind alleyways. We cannot accept that there is much personal hard work to do. This work involves taking personal responsibility for all our thoughts, words, deeds and actions. The seeker can drift from guru to guru constantly seeking a quick fix for their problems, never understanding that the answers can only be found within the depths of their own being.

A common misconception among searchers of ‘Truth’ is that those who speak with authority on spiritual matters have access to all knowledge. The reality is that they too are struggling to find their own way. We cannot adopt another's pathway as our own, but we can learn from their experiences if we hold their understanding up in the light of our own discernment.

Daily Attunement
The inner journey to discover your own spiritual self can be a scary process, especially for those who have never contemplated the possibility of an inner life. Often even the most religious person is astounded to hear that we are all of spirit and therefore are all part of God. Jesus told us the kingdom of heaven was within, pointing the way to finding all the answers we seek. So in order to find your own inner peace you need to begin your own inner attunement to your spiritual self. This is achieved in the quietness of oneself. Set aside time each day to go into your inner temple, your sacred space, where you can become one with the power of your spiritual self. Let yourself be embraced by the Divine and invite it to manifest in your life. Surrender to the serenity it has in abundance, and is ready to share with you.

First, it is important to realize that the attunement needed for Spirit contact is very different to any other method of meditation. Secondly, if your goal is to forge strong links, an appointment is made with Spirit at a regular time of your choosing. Your spirit guides will await your presence, so do not be late in keeping the appointed time. Using the same space in which to work is also useful, as energy will collect in your quiet, uninterrupted place.

Begin by drawing peaceful energy into your field of sensitivity. This will calm the aura that surrounds you. In our busy, hectic and sometimes stressful lives our energy field reflects the chaos we create. When you feel relaxed you can begin your inner journey. Visualize yourself before the doors of your inner sanctum. At your approach see the doors open in welcome. Several steps will take you up to the threshold, and as you step across it you will feel a raise in your consciousness. Until now you have been aware of your physical body and how it is clothed; now you will become aware of your spiritual self and the simple robe it wears.

Remind yourself you are stepping onto your own sacred ground, and experience the coolness of the pavement under your bare feet. You have come into the presence of the Divine Guest. That spark of divine light that every living thing holds. It is the light of the soul, the spark of God the Great Spirit that has accompanied your soul throughout its many experiences. It needs to be stirred into manifestation, to be acknowledged by our remembering that we are all of spirit.

As you move towards its light, a great power will embrace you in unconditional love. Without judgment it assures you all is well, for the Divine is in all things, and you will not be left comfortless. It knows of each soul's longing for a spiritual pathway, and it understands your struggle to overcome the dictates of your own personality. It has waited patiently for you to turn within yourself to where all answers can be found. This spark of Divinity has watched over you while you searched outwardly for meaning and purpose. You have now found your way within and invited the Divine Guest to manifest itself in your life. You have awakened your own spiritual self and found a safe haven.

With regular attunement in your inner temple you will meet with spirit teachers who eagerly await your spiritual awakening. They will take you further on your journey helping the Great Spirit manifest in your own life. Find the peace within yourself and watch as your life is enriched with new respect for yourself and every living thing that walks this earth plane.

One thing more, it is of the utmost importance to withdraw from your inner journey by reversing and retracing your steps. As you leave your inner temple, the focus of your awareness moves from your temple ‘self’ to that of your physical ‘self’, and the doors of your temple will be closed by unseen hands. It is unnecessary to practice this exercise for lengthy periods. Treat the journey with respect for you are discovering and getting to know the 'Self', spirit’s first requirement.

So what does the title mean? I want you to think about how all is not as it seems. So many people go about their daily lives totally unaware of their true nature, or the nature of our inner worlds. The best place to start understanding your inner nature is within yourself. How much do you really know about yourself?

It is very easy to grow up in society’s existing belief systems. It is easier to do what is expected of you and miss out on some very exciting lessons about yourself than it is to push the boundaries of your inner understanding.

So many of us live in towns and cities and have little or no contact with nature. We drive from our warm homes in a car to go to work, then return home, watch some television and then go to bed; year in year out. This is not how you discover your inner self. We have lost touch with our real selves.

Karmic Law

Before we took on physical form (the human body of flesh) we were etheric beings living in the inner worlds. There came a point when we incarnated upon the earth in dense physical matter. The reason for this was to learn. We can learn from joy, sadness and suffering. Some people seem to have such a hard time of being in a human body. Everything goes wrong for them, they suffer great hardships, broken hearts, loss of loved ones; the list is endless.

So why do people suffer so? Karmic law - you can call it cause and effect; you can say what comes around goes around. You follow any belief system, any religion or even not believe in anything at all! But that divine law exists! I cannot prove it too you, only add my voice to the multitude that believe in it, and try to explain it to you.

People do not realise that energy is real and does not go away. Negative thoughts produce negative energy. Let us try imagining that there are two tanks - one for good thoughts and one for negative thoughts or deeds. At the bottom is a balancing valve; not that that is how it is; it’s just to give you a metaphor to understand. There needs to be balance in the universe, so if you fill up one tank with too much negativity, you see karma forcing a balance with the other one - which many of us know as hardship, pain and suffering. But in that suffering opportunities help us grow and become strong on our soul’s path.

Not only is this pain the result of karma, but it brings many opportunities for true understanding in the heart. The pain of losing someone, or even a pet, is heart breaking; no words can really offer much comfort other than gentle understanding and support. If you have experienced this kind of loss, chances are that if a friend tells you of a similar loss, you will not say ‘so what’ and change the subject. At that moment you will know what it feels like, your sympathy will be real and maybe you will try comforting your friend. Now extend that to other parts of life: perhaps you have been made redundant and are unable to get a job for some time. Your friend tells you that the same thing has happened to them, you share with them, and you understand each other. We all need support from each other from time to time.

Many hard lessons in your life are lessons you need to learn this time around. They will have been chosen by you before you incarnated on earth. You will have decided on your soul’s progression. They are what you need to understand so that you do keep incarnating again and again. You need to look at your problems in all their complexities and ask yourself ‘what is it I need to learn’. Only when you have truly learnt the lesson in-hand will you have finished that particular lesson and that part of your karma will end. Some would ask is there any way to transmute karma? Yes there is, with love and acceptance.

Reincarnation

For me reincarnation is very real and not just a theory. We do not incarnate as fluffy bunnies in one life, then human the next, then as a dog! Once we incarnate onto human pathways our very purpose of life is progression, evolution, and spiritual growth; eating grass will teach you very little.

It is very common to incarnate into groups, or swap roles within the same family, again closely tied by karma and brotherhood.

Karma can seem to be a harsh ‘master’, unlike Christianity. There can be no instant forgiveness for transgressions of karmic law. You cannot recant on your death bed with karmic law and avoid paying for your misdeeds. For example someone can be a kind person who has led a good but hard life. Their life seems unfair? In a past life they have broken the universal law and have to repay that debt. I can hear you ask what about bad people that seem to get away with things. Karmic law is perfect and will balance their deeds, maybe not in this lifetime but the next.

With each incarnation you are given choices. You could pay a debt over some life times or take one hard life to clear it quickly. If you choose the harder path you will pay debts off sooner, in the process your soul will have leant some valuable but extremely hard lessons. None of us can say ‘yes, I like hardship or unhappiness’ but as humans in the physical world we have no concept or understanding of the bigger picture of the human soul.

All of us do not like to admit to ourselves that we are paying a very hard and bitter debt. People will say ‘this woman or man just came up to me for no reason and really upset me, Yet I did nothing!’ May be you did not, but can you say that in all of your lives you have never said unkind words or upset some one? Can you say 500 years ago that you did not hurt some one with harsh words? All negativity has karmic repercussions!

Etheric body

As well as your physical body you have an etheric body, sometimes called your energy or energetic body. This is the interface that your spirit uses to animate your body. Have you ever had partial or full paralysis? The chances are that your etheric body has become misaligned from your body. I have experienced this and have felt two sets of hands at the same time. While my etheric hands are out of alignment with my physical body I could not move my hands!

The etheric body is quite dense. Contained within your etheric body are your astral, mental and celestial bodies.

Each night your etheric body will project out of your physical body. Only your physical body, including your brain, needs to rest.. your spirit does not. A common description for this is astral projection or out of body experience.

Contained within this etheric body is a complete copy of your consciousness, all your memories, the entire ‘you’ as you know yourself. There are techniques that you can use to fully remember your projections; I will cover them in future articles.

To go to the astral plane your astral body projects out of your etheric body. As the astral body is far lighter more things are possible, including flying, so those dreams of flying are real! The astral planes consists of 7 planes and 7 sub-planes. You may ask why you have different bodies; to touch things in the physical world you need a physical body! The same applies if you are to touch and move things in the astral world you need an astral body.

Planes of existence

For simplicity, there are numerous planes of existence, I will mention only a few. The first is sometimes called the ‘Real Time Zone’. This place is an almost perfect copy of this world. It can be likened to a mirror; it has the same feeling of time as we do here. If you find yourself in this plane you can see people that are still alive and doing what they do normally. You can gain information and relay accurately events that happened on our day-to-day plane of existence. The ‘Real Time Zone’ is so close to the earth plane that there is only a slight dimensional shift. Enough of a shift for most people to not see it; this is where we find ghosts and similar spirits. So thin is the veil between our physical world and the ‘Real Time Zone’ that sensitive people can see or feel the ghosts that live there.

When we die, the connection with the physical world is broken. I have read in many spiritual teachings that you don’t need to die to visit these other planes of existence. From my own understanding, thought is everything. You will find in those worlds what you believe you will find. On the higher planes you can create with your thought, also the universal law of 'like attracts like' is true.

You will migrate on your death to the plane of existence and with people of like mind. If you firmly believe that there is no such thing as life after death your etheric body on death will go onto the lowest plane of spiritual existence as it has no where else to go! You trap yourself with your own rigid belief and become a ghost, trapped and unable to interact with the world you lived in. Not all cases of ghosts are due to believing there is no afterlife, as emotional attachments to places or people also play a part in them remaining on the lower levels.

Conclusion

It is important that you get on with your life on the earth, after all that is why you are here. But it is also good to know and understand and experience that our true nature is far more complicated that just a mere body.

All your six senses come from your etheric body as well as your physical body. In your etheric body you can see, hear, taste, smell and touch. The more spiritual, psychic or mediumistic you are the more you are aware of these senses on other planes as well as the physical one. The ‘Oh I have just felt like some one has walked over my grave’ is your etheric body sensing the presence of a discarnate person. It may be a family member, or a spiritual guide coming to see you. Do not be frightened by this, we get visited all the time.

We are far more than just a body; take some time to look at what you are and who you are. Self reflection and awareness are great things to have. I will finish with a thought-provoking tale of a Zen Master:

The Master was due to meet his student in a garden. When he arrived, the student was very pleased with himself as he had made the garden very beautiful and swept up all the leaves. “Look master! I have made the garden beautiful for you and swept all the leaves up”. The master replied, “there was no need to have done that, as the leaves are wonderment in themselves, find beauty and harmony that is already around you”.

So be aware of what is around you, find good in others, and be aware that your own happiness lies within you. Take time to look at the good in the world, take time out from your busy lives, and feel that glorious spirit within you. There is a saying that in nature you are closer to God, and I for one believe that, simplicity is the key. Go forward each day as a child excited by what the day may bring. Look within and reflect that light that shines in your heart. Think on this whatever happens in your life, things can and do change for the better.