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MESSAGE SEVENTEEN
ON HOW THE LONGEVITY OF HUMAN NATURAL LIFE ON EARTH IS DETERMINED
April 16, 1982 in Santa Barbara, California
The following messages have been received today from the Most High.
Just two notes today:
First, longevity of people’s natural life on Earth, from the standpoint
of spiritual principles, is not determined in terms of physical linear time
— in years, months, weeks, hours, minutes and seconds. The spiritual
world does not deal in such terms. Instead, it is determined by the degree
and extent of usefulness, productivity, constructiveness and creativity of
one’s life. So, when the Lord says to someone: “You will live long because
you help”, it does not necessarily mean a long physical life span in terms
of time categories. It means long life by content. One can live, for
example, 30 or 40 years in human Earth terms, yet, because of one’s very
productive and useful life, one, in actuality, may have lived a very long
life. On the other hand, some people may live over 90 years, but, because
they have mostly wasted those years on unimportant and superficial
matters, they, in fact, may have lived a very short life.
This is how longevity of one’s Earthly life should be determined. The
physical aspect of longevity may or may not coincide with the spiritual
one.
One has to remember constantly that, in actuality, there is no old age.
The aging process of the human physical body is the result of the
existence of the negative state and genetic manipulation by the
pseudo-creators. Before the negative state commenced on Earth, there
was no apparent aging of human tissue. Spirit and soul, of course, can
never age. They are constantly in their prime creative and productive age
to eternity. Thus, people of the pre-Fall period never measured the
length of their lives on Earth by natural time. Rather they determined
their life span by the degree to which one fulfilled one’s mission and by
the usefulness of one’s being and existence in the natural degree.
Second note: Mr. Paul Oesch of Santa Barbara, California, is correct
in his assumption that there was a time in the history of people of planet
Earth when no such books as the Bible were necessary. They did not
exist. This is true about the entire pre-Fall period. There are basically
two reasons why such books were unnecessary at that time. First, people
of the first period had a continuous, around the clock, direct access to all
dimensions, levels, degrees and steps of being and existence. They
directly communicated with the Most High and all members of the
spiritual world by all modes and tools of communication. They saw them,
they heard them, they interacted with them both in spirit, soul and body
and by all perceptive inputs and outputs appropriate to them. Whatever
questions they had or whatever knowledge they needed to acquire, they
asked for directly and they received directly. Under such conditions, it
would have been superfluous to have a Bible or such similar books.
Second, the entire human mind of those people was not, in any of its
parts, regions, levels or degrees, in any way in the mode of
unconsciousness. At that time, there were no unconscious processes in
existence. Everyone had a direct and conscious access to all levels of one’s
mind and, especially, to one’s Inner Mind where the Lord was and is
continuously present in everyone. After all, how does one communicate
with the Most High? Through, by and in one’s Inner Mind. To think that
there is any other valid way of communicating with the Lord is to think
non-spiritually, that is, to think from the Hells.
Since one was always consciously aware of these facts, and since one
has always turned toward one’s Inner Mind, and thus to the Lord, one
did not need any external means, such as the Bible, for example, for
communication with the Lord or the spiritual world and/or to maintain
conjunction with them. One, in actuality was in a constant conjunction of
spirit, soul and body, with all their respective dimensions, levels, degrees
and steps.
The necessity for the Bible and other similar books appeared when
the so-called Fall began. When people started to revert from and pervert
the order of creation and started to turn from “within” to “without”, it
was necessary to provide some external means that would keep
reminding them of the internal-spiritual, thus, keeping some bonds and
conjunction with the spiritual degree.
The problem starts when one begins to turn from within to without
and one starts to lose conscious awareness of the “within”. Then one
starts to lose conscious awareness of God, the spiritual world, the Inner
Mind and all spiritual issues. From such a loss, there is only a very short
step to the complete denial of their existence. The more one turns
outward, the more unconscious processes take over. So that, at one point
in human history, the human mind became almost blank and people
were born in complete ignorance. At the present time on Earth, over
ninety-five percent of the human mind is in an unconscious mode of
being and existence. This number is in an exact correspondence to
mankind’s spiritual state of affairs. That is how little spirituality
remains in people at the present time; yes less than five percent (to use
human statistical terms).
So, in order that such a situation would not result in the eternal
spiritual death of people on Earth, the Divine Providence of the Most
High provided an external means for keeping people in some form of
conjunction and contact with the Lord, their Inner Mind and the
Spiritual World. Mostly this is an indirect and unconscious access,
sufficient enough to supply and maintain the life support system in
anyone no matter how much the fact of life flow from spiritual to natural
is denied.
This external and indirect means of conjunction came in the form of
writings of so-called holy books such as, for example the Christian Bible.
These books or writings started at the beginning of the Fall.
It is important to remember that the so-called Fall did not occur
overnight as many people believe. The process of the Fall was gradual
and continued for several million years. From the moment of the first
step in the direction of the Fall to the moment of the fabrication of a cave
man, approximately 30 million years elapsed (in human terms on Earth).
(The subsequent history of mankind can be dated approximately four
million years.)
The first book, similar to the Bible (as to its function but not as to its
methodology of writing, etc.), appeared approximately 24 million years
ago. As a matter of fact, including the present Christian Bible and other
presently existing holy books on Earth, there have been in existence
eight groups of such books. Two or three of these are briefly mentioned in
the Old Testament and in Swedenborg’s writings. The existence of others
has not been known to anyone until now through this message. This is
the first mention of this fact. Except for presently existing holy books, all
traces of existence of previous holy books have been completely lost. No
record of their existence has been preserved with the exception of those
mentioned in the Old Testament and Swedenborg’s writings.
This situation was provided by Divine Providence so that those lost
books would not fall into the hands of “modern man” because they
contained too much open and accessible knowledge of such proportion
that it would have given people unimaginable powers which they might
have used for negative, destructive and non-spiritual purposes. In fact,
those books were lost in order to protect people from self-annihilation.
They might be recovered in the future if deemed appropriate and safe by
the Most High.
Again, one must remember that a complete turn-about and
perversion of the order of Creation did not occur overnight. It was a
gradual process. The first group of holy books, therefore, were
accommodated to the spiritual condition of people who were not yet
entirely corrupted by evils and falsities and, therefore, whose minds were
not put in the unconscious mode as exists with present people.
For that reason, the style of the writing of those books was not as
hidden and obscure as it is with presently existing holy books. Everyone
at the start of the Fall could at first glance see and discover all levels and
degrees of correspondences by and through which those books were
written and understand their meaning, significance and universal
application. Such an understanding gave them unusual powers of mind
and the knowledge of correspondences that hold the true secret of life.
(Later generations used this secret to fabricate a cave man.)
However, as people turned more and more toward externals, thus
becoming more external themselves, it was necessary to accommodate
the style of the writing of those books to the people’s spiritual condition
in order that they would not annihilate themselves by having access to
such tremendous powers. Therefore, each successive group of holy books
was written in such a manner that the internal and interior sense and
their correspondential meaning was less and less apparent, discernible,
understandable, and usable by people who, by that time, had lost most of
the conscious processes of their minds. When such a need for
modification of those books occurred it was provided by Divine
Providence from the Most High that they were lost, and a new set of
books were written accommodated to the current regressive spiritual
state of people.
In the process of the history of writing those books, less and less
spirituality in people remained and less and less understanding of the
internal and interior meaning of those books was perceived and accepted,
until the time came when all such meanings were completely lost for
many thousands of years and only their literal sense was taken into
consideration.
This situation lasted until the time of Swedenborg. Swedenborg
revived the truth regarding these books, pointing out that they had
manifold meanings and that they contained within themselves unusual
and indescribable secrets (arcanas, as he called them) which relate to
spiritual matters, God, the Spiritual World and Life.
The rediscovery of this knowledge by Swedenborg can be considered a
milestone, a turning point in mankind’s history. People still do not
realize the full impact and consequences this rediscovery will have on the
future destiny of mankind. This rediscovery stopped the process of
spiritual regression which mankind pursued until that time, and it
started a transitional period, a period of spiritual re-awakening which
precedes a period of resumption of true spiritual progression or the New
Spiritual Age.
The question then is — will the Bible and similar holy books be
necessary in the New Spiritual Age?
The answer to this question depends upon how long the negative
state will exist. As long as the negative state on Earth exists, ignorance
and the unconscious processes will exist. As long as they exist, the Bible
and similar books will not relinquish their spiritual usefulness which
they perform for such types of people.
One must remember that as long as the negative state exists it will
always try to attack and to wage fierce spiritual war with the positive
state. The means, procedures, outcomes and consequences of such
spiritual struggles and the ways to overcome them are recorded in the
internal and interior sense of the Bible (among many other things). In
this sense, the Bible can never lose its usefulness as long as such a
situation exists. Nothing can ever be fulfilled that is written in the Bible
as long as the negative state exists. In this respect, Swedenborg was
incorrect when he assumed that what was foretold in the Revelation of
St. John was fulfilled in his time (the 17th century). As a matter of fact, it
was fulfilled only in a limited sense on one level and in one small region
of the intermediate world that came to its end. However, all other
aspects and dimensions of that revelation had not been touched even
remotely at Swedenborg’s time. The reason for this necessary error was
discussed elsewhere.
Now, if and when the negative state is rejected by people on Earth
and the Hells are put off limits and are closed completely, then, of course,
all unconscious processes will be eliminated, direct access to one’s Inner
Mind and to the Spiritual World will be open; everyone will be able to
communicate with all levels, dimensions, spheres, degrees and steps, and
immediate knowledge of everything one needs in respect to all aspects of
one’s life will become available. Then and only then will the Bible and
similar holy books have fulfilled their usefulness and no longer be
necessary.
As long as the Hells exist (albeit off limits to people of Earth and
completely closed off), people in the Hells will continue to need such
books to maintain their life support systems by indirect, external means
of conjunction to spirituality and to give them a continuous opportunity
for change and recession from evils and falsities. When and if the Hells
cease to exist, all such books will become unnecessary.
One must remember that the necessity for having such books
signifies spiritual recession. They signify the low level of true
spirituality. They are external tools showing the way to the internals,
thus, to true spirituality. Once one accomplishes such a state of full
spirituality and returns to one’s internals, that is, to the Lord, one will
not need to rely on external inputs in order to be spiritual. Such books
will have, then, only historical and educational value.
This is the end of today’s messages.
Source: MESSAGE FROM WITHIN
