Body-centric or Etheric Personality-centric?

Words have meaning. Learning a new word means learning what it symbolizes in our society. For instance, when someone says “iPhone,” we immediately link the device with Apple Computers. When we learn a new word, we create a sort of mental map linking it with what we think is true. We make it a part of our mental map of reality.

For instance, when I hear “iPhone” I find that the word is linked to all sorts of meaning unrelated to cellphones. In my mind, I think it is true that Apple hides profit in Ireland that it has earned from US buyers. They seldom buy from US parts manufacturers, instead, they support a country that is betting the USA will fail. Apple has been known to abuse the authors and app makers who create content for them. When you say “iPhone” to me, you are evoking all of those subconscious thoughts.

Words have a most powerful ability to guide our thinking and mood in ways we may not be aware of. That is why I argue that people trying to understand their spiritual nature are defeating themselves when they use body-centric words.

Here, body-centric means the assumption about reality from the perspective that the physical is both real and the dominant aspect of reality. It means that we assume our mind is the product of our biological brain, as “I am my body.” This is Physicalism.

Here, etheric-personality-centric means the assumption about reality from the perspective that there is a greater reality of which the physical is an aspect. With this perspective, our actual self is native to the greater reality while our human is native to the physical. This is Dualism.

When a person realizes that they may not be their body, they begin to think in terms of a Dualist nature of their self. This realization often turns the person toward seeking greater understanding of self, reality and their relationship with reality. If so, the realization that their actual self may be different from their physical body becomes their first step as seekers.

A major part of such seeking is learning to habitually examine the implications of choices and thoughts. The implications of a choice with ethical implications are rather different for people who think they are their body, than for a people who accepts that they may exist after bodily death.

By deciding to change perspective, we begin a metamorphosis that lasts the rest of our life. Trying to find the personality-centric word to replace a body-centric one, and then learning to use it, helps to better align our worldview with the actual nature of reality.

Of course, it is useful to remember that the people around you are probably never going to move from “I am my body” to “I am an etheric personality having a human experience. Remember your audience and try to fit in. :-)

Here are a few terms I have found important:

— Not “death” but “transition.”
— Not “my human instincts” but “my human’s instincts.”
— Use Incarnate (Personality entangled with a human body) and Discarnate
(Etheric Personality not entangled with a human body).
— Two minds — the human’s body mind and the etheric personality’s mind.
— Pleasurable choices (guided by human instincts) versus meaningful choices(guided by discerning intellect).
— Healing intention for the body mind and not for the etheric personality
— All of us have psychic ability
— Contemplation rather than meditation
— Steering the mind with intention rather than habit