Season of Shadows Blog

For the last few months, I’ve been writing quite heavily about ways for spiritually empowering ourselves. The majority of my recent entries have been aimed at exploring alternative ways for viewing our reality. When we can shift our perspective, we may find ourselves no longer bogged down in the quagmire of our old limiting points of view. It’s a lot like hiking up a mountaintop and leaving behind the smog and pollution which lies in the city below. We breathe better, feel better, and are able to see a new horizon, far beyond the one we perceived from our previous location.

There’s no question we can have a more exhilarating, rewarding life experience when we shift our outlook and attitude away from limiting concepts. But how might these same techniques also be beneficial to us once we move beyond this plane of existence?

If you’re a regular reader of the Season of Shadows Blog, you know I don’t believe in a heaven and hell in the strictest sense of those terms. And I definitely don’t believe anyone or thing sits around just waiting to reward or condemn us. Both heaven and hell are of our own making and they can just as easily be found in our physical lives as they can be after we make our death transition. Each one of us is completely in charge of our specific program. If we are capable of fully absorbing that knowledge, then we will have a much easier time than those that believe they have one shot to get it correct or else.

The or else is what leads to the feelings of guilt, embarrassment, shame, regret, lack, worry, fear, etc. We already know the types of effects these emotions have on our physical life experiences. They tighten us up, close us off, and shut us down; preventing us from recognizing our abilities. If these states of being limit our experiences in this physical life and we each are responsible for every bit of what’s coming to us, then what’s this say about possible occurrences after we pass on?

I believe those that spend the majority of their time in fear based states have great potential for encountering more fragmented and confusing experiences once they cross over. I’ve discussed the idea that we can reconnect to the full awareness of our greatness after we pass on, yet I also believe there are other options in front of us. We can still choose to limit our power in the afterlife just the same as we do in this physical world.

If we’ve already spent a lifetime in physical awareness deeming ourselves unworthy, then the transition beyond this environment may have more of the same in store for us, until we choose to see otherwise. I believe it’s these circumstances of shunning our greatness for the likes of fearful, limiting concepts that may be one explanation for the phenomena of ghosts.

The concept of ghosts and what they might be is a topic I’ve pursued quite often. I’ve presented a variety of ideas and possibilities for their presence in posts like How Conscious Are Ghosts? and Specters, Spirits & Time. However, one area I’ve never touched on is what a haunting might look like from their perspective. Today’s entry has been a long time coming. I really intended for it to be the second half to Trapped: Ghostly Destiny or Choice, but was so busy around last Halloween, I never got around to writing it.

Now, if we follow the evidence that some hauntings do seem to possess a form of consciousness, then perhaps ghosts are operating with a degree of lucidity. But if this is the case, I believe it’s so fragmented it bares little resemblance to our waking state of consciousness. It probably has more in common with our dream sequences than it does with the aspect of our awareness that functions on a daily basis within our reality.

I know my own dreams primarily hinge on a handful of themes (containing many varieties and plays on those themes) that have cycled throughout my lifetime. The way my dreams unfold around these themes depends upon my state of mind throughout the day and night, prior to falling asleep. I never really become lucid in my dreams for more than a few seconds and then I’m once again swallowed up by the unfolding sequences, forgetting my conscious abilities, as I trail off, losing myself in the dreamscape.

I believe ghosts may be having a similar experience. They continue to interact in a handful of themes that were taken from their most recent physical life. This is why it appears they want to hang around certain locations; not because they are hell bent on bothering people, but because they are reliving past experiences in their present moment. The way they behave in their “dream” sequences depends upon the emotions they primarily fed off of during their lives, combined with the way they felt when they crossed over.

I don’t believe they are even occupying the same spatial locations we are. They are connecting with our environment through their thoughts. In their current form they basically are nothing more than thought. It’s thought and emotion that makes up the soul.

We primarily exist in their “minds” and vice versa. Their dream like world easily coincides with our physical environment, even when we’re not aware of them. We can end up as a portion of their reality, but we are nothing more than players in their fractured, scattered sequences of thought. If they express hostility towards us, then it’s probably an emotional imprint from their personality in their previous life. Of course, there’s always the potential for misinterpreting their primary intentions, simply from our own fear of the unknown.

I believe ghosts may also have moments of lucid awareness during their experiences, just as we do during our dreams. These lucid moments may bring them to the realization that they have passed on, but then they forget their conscious powers and trail right back into the dreamy quality of their existence. The only way they can eventually pull themselves out of these cyclical murky experiences is to become fully lucid and retain the awareness of where they truly are. When I said they have to make a conscious decision to be capable of moving on, in my post Trapped: Ghostly Destiny or Choice, this was the decision I was talking about.

The problem with obtaining this lucidity is, once we’ve managed to convince ourselves of the illusion that we lack power and control over our experiences, we primarily retain that belief, both here and wherever else we shift our focus of attention. We typically act and react from the same old locations of disempowering emotions, instead of reaching the top of the mountain and finding that the horizon is only as limited as our perspective tells us.

A fascinating thing about saying ghosts are constantly being swallowed up by their circumstances is that they’re not the only ones. I used the theory of dreaming as an analogy for their experience because it seems to best describe what I believe they are going through. Yet, most of us among the “living”, even when awake, are operating in a murky experience. Our dreams are not the only place we refuse to become lucid.

There’s a theory in metaphysical and new age circles called “dying consciously.” It basically states we must consciously make the decision to move toward the infamous tunnel of light or we risk missing our opportunity to reconnect to our full source awareness. While I don’t agree with most of the implications surrounding the theory, I do believe there’s something to be said for the concepts evoked by the term.

However, I definitely don’t believe we have to rendezvous with a tunnel as our only means for reconnecting to our source awareness. But, if we don’t expand enough to begin living consciously while we’re physically focused, then we may carry our unconscious lack of awareness right into the afterlife with us.

Living consciously isn’t about repenting, being baptized, attending services, receiving the last rites, or any other dogmatic act that’s carried out to appease a supposed vengeful deity awaiting our arrival. It’s about exploring your true personal nature, reclaiming your power and becoming the architect of your entire experience, both here and when you make your transition into other aspects and focuses of consciousness.

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Related Posts

How Conscious Are Ghosts?
Specters, Spirits & Time
Trapped: Ghostly Destiny or Choice

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 16th, 2008 at 1:06 pm and is filed under Ghosts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.