#5 If Heaven is so great, why did we leave?

This question is dedicated to Gary Renard, who discussed this idea in his book The Disappearance of the Universe.

We answer this question with another question that includes the title of this blog: “If being a human is so great, why am I a duck?”

The answer is, you aren’t. And the answer to question #5 is, you didn’t leave Heaven.

Does the man in question #1 really leave the boat when he imagines the projection of the island?

Do you actually leave your theatre seat when you watch a movie?

What left the boat, and the theatre seat and Heaven is the focal point of your attention—in other words, your awareness. You sit in the theatre seat your awareness is focused on or “inside” the plot of the movie. The real you doesn’t go inside the movie and join the characters up on the screen—just your awareness.

Things can be happening all around you—a whole parade of ants crawling across the sticky floor—but you might not be aware of them. Lack of awareness doesn’t mean something isn’t happening, it simply means you’re not aware of it. Because you are unaware that a couple office mates are having an affair doesn’t mean it’s not happening, it just means you don’t know about it.

Does the real you leave the theatre when you watch a movie? No. Does your mind leave the theatre? No. Only part of your mind left; it’s split between the reality you share with the other movie-goers in the theatre and the movie on the screen. Your awareness is split.

A universe built on a faulty assumption

Part of your mind is still busy keeping you alive by operating all the systems in your body as you watch that movie. If someone behind you kicks your seat, you’ll be aware of it because your mind is still operating your sense of touch. 

The question, “If Heaven is so great, why did we leave?” contains a built-in, faulty assumption, as Gary Renard notes. It assumes we actually did leave. We didn’t. Only our awareness left. Not our spirit or true essence. And not all of our minds. Just as your true essence doesn’t leave the theatre when you’re watching a movie.

Understanding this distinction is critical to solving all kinds of spiritual mysteries. When I was growing up our priests kind of hinted around there was a rebellion in Heaven and all of Satan’s followers were tossed out—implying that we were among the fallen. Not true. The real us never left. Only our awareness.

A great many spiritual traditions teach our soul incarnates in a human body. Not true. Our soul, which I define as our absolute essence or spirit or Self—never left Heaven for a single moment. Does your soul incarnate into the movie when you watch it? It is simply your mind playing a trick and isolating your awareness to one human body—that’s what incarnation is. As we will see, the definition of life must include all the conditions of an absolute universe, or it simply is not true, and it is simply not life.

Don’t worry, you’re only somewhat dead, Mad Max might suggest

Are you alive here on earth? Not in an absolute sense. Note that Jesus says we must be born again. And, he also says, “Let the dead bury their own dead and follow me,” when an apostle asks him if he can delay coming withe Jesus in order to attend his father’s funeral. This statement implies both his dead father, and the “living” mourners are all dead. Why would we need to be born again if we weren’t dead?

We’ll explore a quote later from Einstein that suggests he knew anything inside a relative universe was not truly alive.

Really tough to find parking outside the infinite

Heaven is infinite, as we explored in question #4. How can you  leave the infinite? Where would you go, to infinity plus one? Yet just like the man imagining the island mirage over the seemingly infinite ocean, we are free to imagine our mind is split and part of it is dreaming a universe of space and time laid right on top of our actual reality.

So when you walk on your spiritual journey you’re not going anywhere. Just as the man “leaving” the imaginary island mirage is not going anywhere to get back to the ocean. Only his awareness is returning to his true reality.

Just as a man is free to live a life as a duck if he so chooses, we are free to imagine the “real us” is here in spacetime. But that choice to live the life of a duck won’t truly alter that man’s DNA, just as choosing to live a “life” in spacetime hasn’t altered our spirit one iota. 

As we explored in question #4, the real us—our true essence—is changeless. Absolutely cannot be altered. Sin can’t touch it. This universe can’t diminish it. In fact, nothing that happens in spacetime can alter, diminish, blemish, change or reduce the sacred idea that is us in the mind of God.

As we said God created the original and absolute context around who we really are—our changeless spirit, or soul, if you will. Having total knowledge of who we are He envisioned that we could use our mind to explore all kinds of universes—even some, like this one—that violate the laws of love. Yet He will not have us suffer for all eternity for our “mistakes.” So he keeps the real us safely changeless and perfect in Heaven.