The Simple Solution, Part Two: Union

‘What is union and why should I want it?’ I hear you asking. I am referring to the union of spirit, mind and body. Hence this approach is called spiritmindbody unification (SMBU). But to comprehend the full significance of union, it is necessary to understand precisely what is meant by these terms.

It is obvious enough what is meant by the physical body. The soul is the mind in its widest possible sense, conscious and unconscious, and the body associated with this layer of being. The astral body is the form we use in certain dreams, and has the potential to travel beyond the flesh and explore the physical world, as well as the astral plane, an objective imaginal realm capable of exerting an influence on materiality, just as our external circumstances are shaped by the imagination and the unconscious. The soul can survive physical death, but it is not necessarily everlasting. The divine spirit, on the other hand, is immortal. It is associated with the inner energy body, especially the higher chakras. A quick, easy way to verify the existence of such an energy body is to ‘feel your hands’ for a minute or so.^[i] There is a spark of warmth, of aliveness inside the physical body that can be felt with such practices. Just as the astral body is associated with the mind, the spirit is synonymous with consciousness, the background awareness above and before mentation, that is a necessary prerequisite for any form to exist. Become aware of your thoughts as you read this sentence. Watch them. Who are you now? You are not ‘yourself’, the thinking ego, because you are watching that. If you are observing something, how can you be that thing? This awareness without form and thought is the spirit. The spirit is a part of you. You are the proof. What I mean by ‘union’, therefore, is the sacred marriage of spirit, soul and body, which protects and guides the soul by joining it to the eternal life force.

‘Seek and you shall find’ ought to be borne in mind throughout your journey through the interior.^[ii] To know the truth should be the first goal (in addition to maintaining the bare necessities of life), because in the absence of such knowledge, all other aims will likely be wrong or suboptimal. But the search for truth provokes resistance and constellates the related problem of overcoming obstacles to knowledge. This demands a certain amount of self-mastery, of willpower. The will to know the truth, then, is of crucial importance, as it begins a positive feedback loop. The more you will to know, the more you know; the more you know, the more you will. Be assured that, once you have embarked upon an earnest and determined search, spiritual discovery is merely a matter of time. You will receive the right clues in the right order for your particular temperament, emotional history and current level of development. This is because the earth is basically a school for self-knowledge. Your conscious participation in your own education streamlines the operation, results in better performance during ‘tests’ and increases the frequency and intensity of guiding synchronicities. School culminates in a final deadline for coursework and examinations, beyond which there are no more second chances, only a pass or a fail. And when deadlines are looming, some students turn to the Cliffs Notes.

I encourage you to find your own way to God, based on your own experiences and intuitions. No two paths are identical, and that is a good thing. But for those of you who want a structure, particularly a Christian structure, I have provided one below. The alchemists divided their magnum opus into seven stages, and I have followed their lead in that regard, though our methods and the precise ordering of the steps may differ.

Please bear in mind that working with the archetypes and repressed emotions are not strictly necessary for union. These exercises just make it easier by removing the impediments to the spirit. Even forgiveness may not be needed in the absence of significant grudges. Likewise, though a certain level of knowledge is instrumental, you do not need to understand everything 100% beforehand (faith can take up the slack). The only absolute prerequisite for union is a willingness to commit oneself heart and soul to God.

Before setting out on a spiritual journey, a word of caution is necessary. If you are expecting this path to lead you to material rewards, you will be disappointed. Much of what passes for ‘spirituality’ today is aimed at ‘manifesting’ desires for money, love, sex, promotions, new houses and the like. At its best, this is a naïve but well-intentioned misstep, at its worst it is dark magic.

This is not a book on how to win the game. It is a book for those who wish to get out of the game altogether – the only permanent victory there is. The path of self-initiation I am outlining here demands absolute self-honesty and the dedication of much of one’s life to truth, for its own sake, without expectation of material rewards. It requires a willingness to spend time alone and reflect, to cut oneself off from society (intellectually if not physically), and to stare unflinchingly into the abyss. These sacrifices are worth it in the end, because true self-knowledge is one of the purposes of life, and the reward is the very source of that life. In any case, one must be impelled to find the object of the search – which is ultimately one’s own spirit – by an inner necessity, a hunger for knowledge that outweighs all other desires. Without such a driving force, the difficulties encountered en route may result in the journey being abandoned for more immediate gratifications. It is a pursuit traditionally reserved for the few, not the many, since it runs counter to all of humanity’s natural instincts and, indeed, much of what it is to be human. If this does not sound like you, again, this section is probably not your cup of tea and you may be best advised to turn back now. I do not exclude anyone; I merely observe that some readers will be more interested in this book than others (which you could say about any book). The truth provokes resistance, because there is a large part of the psyche that simply does not want to hear it. As with any adventure, one must be truly committed and have some awareness of the risks entailed before setting out upon a spiritual odyssey. As the occultist Gurdjieff said, most people do not want real spiritual knowledge. He also observed that many of those who do, would prefer to acquire it the hard way.^[iii] That is fine by me. It may even be necessary. Each to their own.

Then there are those who think they want spiritual knowledge, or partly desire it, but flinch from the harsh light of truth. If I wanted to be popular and make lots of money, I would tell seekers what many of them want to hear: that enlightenment consists merely in vaguely defined ‘self-love’, romantic fulfilment, light yoga exercises and positive thinking about jonquils and daisies, that you can have all of your materialistic desires using magic without repercussions, and feel like a spiritually advanced saint while doing it. But these things are simply not true, and I am here to reveal the truth.

But how to reveal that truth? I have endeavoured to make this book as clear as possible, though even at this late hour, a certain degree of restraint is called for, as I do not want to deprive you altogether of the thrill of the search, the concentration required to ‘figure it out’ and the ‘immaculate conception’, which must ultimately take shape within your own mind.

Step One: Separation and Solitude

First of all, a degree of seclusion is necessary for the great work, as the alchemists, Hermeticists and Gnostics maintained. ‘Have no cares from dawn until night’ said the Gnostic Christ, and if you are fortunate enough to be in a position to do that, it will be advantageous.^[iv] It is very hard to engage simultaneously in external and internal struggles; history shows that those who wage two front wars often lose. The more you deal with people, the more you must forgive and be forgiven. Prayer or magic may be useful when it comes to ‘making space’ for learning: God is on your side in this regard. If circumstances do not permit you the requisite quietude, it could be a sign that you need more worldly experience before embarking on the reflective phase, i.e. that you are not yet ready for self-knowledge. This is especially likely to be the case for young people, who need a certain amount of life experience to work with in order to furnish sufficient material for self-study. Jung believed that individuation was a task for the second half of life and did not encourage under 35’s to pursue it. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. Hermes speaks of God as a ‘porter’ that closes the doors to the world, hermetically sealing the neophyte from worldly temptations and distractions until he has attained his goal.^[v] A chrysalis is necessary for the metamorphosis. But you do not have to cut off all contact with people, to live like a hermit, a nun or a monk. The separation need only be intellectual; the main thing is to not let your understanding be contaminated or obscured by external influences. For these reasons it is recommended that you avoid overconsumption of news and overuse of social media, especially during the introspective phase of the work. Seekers must be able to inwardly divorce themselves from ‘conventional wisdom’, because wisdom is not conventional. Although I understand that in some cases, certain family, social or business contacts must be maintained in order to keep the wolf from the door and fulfil essential obligations, these needn’t be too much of a stumbling block if they are regarded with the correct attitude. Just smile and remain silent when misguided opinions are aired, but do not let them lead you astray. Learn to trust your own intuition over and above the clamour of the outside world. Do not let the world convince you that what you have within you is not enough, that you must give your power away to someone else. And do not be alarmed if your increasing knowledge alienates you somewhat from others; this is a natural consequence of learning, and an inevitable part of the process.^[vi]The goal here is knowledge, not popularity. Like goes with like, after all. The spirit is to be found within, not without. The good shepherd pursues the lost sheep who stray from the flock.

Step Two: Know Thyself

It is useful to know yourself, as Socrates said. Indeed, self-knowledge is worth more than any other kind of knowledge. This starts with knowledge of the unconscious, including all of the significant unpleasant repressed memories, emotions, complexes, and the archetypes ­– whether these take the form of the planetary archetypes, or the Jungian archetypes (which to some extent overlap with the astrological ideas), the main thing is to become aware of, integrate and differentiate yourself from the major inner personalities, emotions and desires controlling the ego and your behaviour, so you are no longer ‘possessed’, and thereby gain a certain ‘freedom’ of thought and action in order to pursue unificatory work. The archetypes can be known via projections onto people, things, art and entertainment, as well as synchronicities, artistic expression, active imaginations, dream recall and analysis. The introduction to emotional work in Part 1 of this book may be helpful for purging the unconscious emotions of the shadow. The precise schema one uses to structure the excavation of the dark earth and find the light of the inner core is a matter of individual preference. This reflective work may be undertaken via journaling or talking with a trusted family member or friend; analytic therapy and active imagination exercises may also help. (Although Jung clarified that solo active imagination was primarily for those with a firm foundation of mental health and felt called to the task. If you are psychotic, have a mental disorder or are not psychologically healthy, active imagination is not recommended without the approval of your physician or psychiatrist.)

Indeed, for some people the Jungian technique of active imagination is one of the best ways to make the archetypes conscious on the way to individuation – the process of becoming ‘whole’ or ‘who you are’ as a unique individual.^[vii] As well as his patients, Jung used it on himself, when he wished to plumb the depths of the unconscious. He derived many of his ground-breaking insights and theories from this work, including the popular theory of psychological types. Think of it as directed daydreaming. The idea is to turn the mental filter off and let the affect or mood speak, let it paint the scene and set a fictional or allegorical scenario. Then you must react to the situation as you would like to in real life; the fantasy must be taken seriously for the exercise to work. Often these fantasies had an archaic or pagan background. As an example, Jung cites a male patient with depression^[viii]. In his fantasy, he envisioned his fiancé falling beneath the ice of a frozen lake, which Jung interpreted intra-psychically as a danger of losing the anima to the unconscious. Jung believed that if the man had taken the fantasy seriously and imagined himself running over to save his fiancé, he would have freed up energy (libido) from the unconscious and thus been able to relieve his depression. The technique enables one to talk to the archetypes, to synthesise and reconcile the conscious and subconscious minds in a way not possible in dreams, where the role of the unconscious is dominant. The main archetypes Jung encountered during his ‘confrontation with the unconscious’ were the shadow, the anima, the hero, the child, the wise old man and the Self.

Jung believed these archetypes should be integrated and differentiated. Integration means becoming aware of the archetype’s influence over one’s thoughts, affect and behaviour and choosing to incorporate the useful, assimilable elements into one’s conscious personality. Differentiation refers to the act of mentally distancing oneself from the archetype, especially its negative aspects, once its effects have become known. Jung recognised that the archetypes could ‘possess’ the ego, that is, dominate and drive it pathologically from the unconscious. Archetypal possession can be terminated merely by making the unconscious conscious and realising you are not yourself.

Jung defined the anima as the female part of a man’s personality, and the animus as the male part of a woman’s personality^[ix]. He believed these archetypes were often unconscious to varying degrees. When that is the case, they appear in dreams as opposite sex figures and are projected onto others. Attraction ensues. Indeed, we love and desire those with whom we have an unconscious similarity, even if they seem opposite to us in character. It is impossible to be obsessed with someone unless you have something in common with them that you are not aware of.^[x] It’s a bit like Narcissus gazing lovingly at his reflection in the pool. Realising the projection, then integrating and differentiating themselves from the anima/animus helped many of Jung’s patients improve their mental health.^[xi] He believed much domestic tension was caused by repression and projection of the anima and animus. The key to the riddle of the anima is to realise that she is herself possessed by the animus, her own inner opposite. Likewise, the animus is anima-possessed. Yes, that’s right, the archetypes have their own unconscious minds. When the archetypes are made conscious of their possession via active imagination, it ceases.^[xii] For more on this dynamic, see my novel Ego’s Odyssey.

Some of Jung’s most profound theories came from talking to figments of his imagination, such as his soul and Philemon, an old man with kingfisher wings. He claimed that Philemon had a depth of insight far surpassing the intelligence possessed by his ego. This was the wise old man archetype, and Jung leaned on him heavily to make sense of his dreams and visions and decode the mysteries of the anima. Indeed, he went so far as to call the wise old man, ‘the archetype of meaning’.^[xiii] This figure frequently appears as a god, a wizard or the father, and Jung equated him with the spirit, because of his formidable power and authority. He also outlined an equivalent wise old woman figure for women, in less detail – probably because, as a man of his era, he had less direct experience of this archetype.^[xiv]

The Self Archetype was Jung’s God archetype. God for Jung was an inner factor, projected outward in religion. The Self’s function was to control the other archetypes and guide the ego toward wholeness. It was ‘the totality of the psyche,’ to be met with in the union of opposites: ego and unconscious, male and female, good and evil, order and meaninglessness, spirit and matter^[xv]. It was therefore represented as a mandala, a circle or the centre. Jung observed that the repression of this God archetype and the ensuing loss of meaning was responsible for the general malaise and increasing mental illness in the west.

The pantheistic Jungian interpretation of God has great merit but can be somewhat confusing. In my experience, and in the Hermetic, alchemical, Platonic and Gnostic philosophies, Spirit (The Father) is above Mind and Mind is above Matter.^[xvi] Though all is ultimately one and shares a single source, Spirit and ego, as formless and form, general and individual, occupy different links in the chain of causation and different positions on the spectrum of all. The ancient Neoplatonic philosopher Plotinus understood the centre of the circle to be the divine One from which everything emanates centrifugally and to which it is possible to return.^[xvii] As such, it is not so much everything as the no-thing which pervades and ‘precedes’ everything, a reality indicated by the Big Bang theory.

This stage may not be strictly necessary as there is no direct reference to it in the Bible, but it certainly reduces the obstacles and distractions to knowledge and union by emptying out the unconscious and purifying the ego. In other words, there is gold beneath the mental garbage. The more garbage is cleaned out, the less impediments there are to finding that gold. Tuning out the deceiver and establishing a channel of communication with the higher self – whether you call this entity ‘personality number 2’, the wise old man or woman archetype, the Logos or a guardian angel – is vital for self-analysis and instructions on how to do this are peppered throughout the book, but are especially concentrated in the ‘deceiver and enlightener section.’ The ego’s capacity for knowledge, self-control and self-reflection is limited. It is necessary to obtain help, though insourcing is better than outsourcing in this regard. All I have learned is ultimately attributable to Christ and God.

Step Three: Forgiveness and Letting Go

Having become aware of your unconscious, your higher and lower selves, it is then helpful to let go of the unpleasant and disturbing emotional material that has been brought to light and forgive those who have ‘trespassed against’ you, as well as yourself.^[xviii] In other words, there is a difference between taking inventory of all the rubbish and actually putting it in the bin to be ‘let go’. This is important because it is easier to eucharistically drink the blood of Christ from a pure vessel – a Holy Grail – and the Holy Spirit will not make its home in an unclean soul. Christ said that those who forgive are more likely to be forgiven by God.^[xix] Since others are inseparable from the unconscious aspects of ourselves, if we do not forgive someone else, by extension we don’t forgive ourselves. Therefore, in order to truly forgive yourself and obtain God’s forgiveness, you must forgive others. Remember, ‘resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.’^[xx]

Step Four: The Teaching

It is also useful to understand what is meant by spirit, mind and body, the role of the ego and desire in generating suffering, how the fall occurred through perceived separation from God and how to return to Him via reunification with the spirit.

For Plotinus, God was comprised of three hypostases or principles, starting with the One. The One is totally ineffable and indescribable, beyond all human knowledge and comprehension. It had to be ‘beyond everything because it is the source of everything’^[xxi] and therefore not a ‘thing’ in the usual sense of the word. Plotinus did not see it as a ‘craftsman’ deliberately making the world, but as a being that emanated forms as an inherent part of its nature, just as the sun radiates light. Emanationism is the belief that everything is a spontaneous, unconscious outflow from a divine source and is thus made from that source. Plotinus’ ‘One’ is thus vaguely similar to the Buddhist anatman, Theosophy’s God, the Brahman of the Hindus and the formless ‘Being’ of Tolle, the ‘full emptiness’ underlying all forms. Summarising Plotinus, Gary Lachman wrote that, ‘To contemplate this One is the true happiness toward which man can aim; all else is a distraction’.^[xxii] And, I might add, it is the deceiver’s job to try and keep us distracted from the One.

There was much debate among the Platonists as to whether the highest principle was intelligent or whether that faculty belonged to a lower principle. Plotinus himself believed in the profound interconnectedness of all things. Attempts to differentiate the many facets of God are merely aids to the intellect. All aspects of the godhead and existence are one, but there are different positions on that single spectrum, with spirit occupying one end and matter the other. In Plotinian philosophy, the further removed an emanation is from source, the more ‘hardened’ it becomes.

With that important qualification in mind, Plotinus situated the Divine Intellect ‘below’ the one. This Intellectual Principle is the mind of God, a kind of ordering principle and cognitive aspect of the godhead, equivalent to Hermetic Nous.^[xxiii] Plotinus reasoned that the One cannot be the Creator aspect of God, because to create you must think, and to think of oneself presupposes a dyad, a twoness. He believed that a division was thus created between the first thought-form and the formless One. The Intellect of Plotinus faces the One, serving as a conduit through which the creative energy of the source flows into the world soul and finally, matter.^[xxiv] The Intellect may be seen in the symmetry of the snowflake or a dandelion bulb.

According to Plotinus, the world soul is an emanation of the One, and a creation of the Divine Intellect.^[xxv] I see the anima mundi as a kind of collective unconscious, a mental or astral realm situated between the formless One, and the physical world of rigid forms. It contains the pagan archetypes, as well as the individual souls of all humans and the Platonic forms from which physical objects are derived, all of which are connected and shaped through imagination.

The individual soul for Plotinus was comprised of three parts.^[xxvi] There is the animal soul, which connects us to the physical body. This soul arises because of incarnation. I see it as the shadow of Jung, Tolle’s ‘emotional pain body’, the id of Freud: a repository of wild feelings, sexual urges and traumatic memories.

Then there is the ‘reasoning discursive soul’, the ‘we’, which I equate to the ego, the ‘separate’ thinking mind that is the basis of most people’s identities.^[xxvii] This entity is intermediate between the animal soul and the higher soul.

The higher soul is closer to God. It is the seat of all those deep intuitions and hidden psychic faculties that are called ‘paranormal’. The Divine Intellect is not only a property of the macrocosm; like Hermetic ‘reason,’ it is buried within each individual soul. The soul for Plotinus was not ‘co-extensive’ with the ego, but was a continuum embracing the higher and lower selves and may thus be taken to mean the mind in its widest sense.^[xxviii] I share this definition.

Gary Lachman clarifies the nature of creation through an analogy with the writing process: the ‘empty’ consciousness from which the idea for the book emerges is the One or spirit, the initial idea or intuition itself is the Intellect, the plan of the book and its subsequent development occurs in the imagination or anima mundi of the writer, and the final printed form of the book is obviously matter. The reader thus shares the imaginal or astral plane with the writer as the printed words evoke images in his or her mind.^[xxix]

Now, I would add to this schema, that the deceiver appears because of the middle soul or ego, and functions as a barrier between it and the other ‘parts’ of the soul. Thankfully, this barrier is illusory, and can be obliterated by knowledge, a shift in perception, a refusal to believe in the deceiver’s false notions. In practice, the deceiver does a great deal more harm than the animal soul. Wild and stupid though the latter may be, once brought into the light of awareness, it becomes much less dangerous. It is not the ego per se, but the deceiver, the ego’s tendency to repress and regard itself as separate, that must be overcome. As the Swiss thinker Jean Gebser wrote, the task is not to become ‘ego less’, but ‘ego free’.^[xxx] The deceiver may not be banished altogether until physical death, as it is to some extent bound up with incarnation and separate existence, but you can certainly see through its trickery and get it under control long before that time. The deceiver passes into the service of various archetypes and emotions, whichever is the unconscious’ dominant aspect at any given moment, and the nature of its service is to conceal or repress them, which is a different way of expressing the traditional Christian belief that ‘the devil rules the panoply of demons’. The deceiver, as the separation principle, is the ultimate adversary, since conscious unity of all one’s disparate parts is the goal of the work. By contrast, the seeker’s greatest ally is Christ, the great unifier with the Father.

Indeed, for Plotinus mere gnosis or knowledge of God was insufficient; the seeker must unite with the One. The term he used for this was henosis. What Plotinus meant by henosis was more akin to Eckhart Tolle’s ‘inner body awareness’ meditation – a complete emptying of the mind – than the Christian ideas of Holy Communion and being filled with the Holy Spirit. ‘Our thought cannot grasp the One as long as any other image remains active in the soul. To this end, you must set free your soul from all outward things and turn wholly within yourself, with no more leaning to what lies outside, and lay your mind bare of ideal forms, as before of the objects of sense, and forget even yourself, and so come within sight of that One.’^[xxxi] Indeed, in his Life of Plotinus, Porphyry wrote that Plotinus attained henosis on four occasions. This indicates that the term henosis denotes a paradoxically ‘discrete’ and ‘temporary’ experience of infinity.^[xxxii] Plotinus taught that this oneness must be remembered, so that the image of the One is carried within the soul. The eucharistic rebirth discussed in this book, is a different bond, though the various types of union are important and share a great deal of symbolism.

Subsequently, Plotinus’ follower Iamblichus stressed service to the gods, theurgy and ‘divine possession’ as the keys to henosis. He sought oneness with God through magic and the agency of the pagan gods, as opposed to Plotinus’ more contemplative approach.^[xxxiii] This reminded me of the distinction the Hermetic author Giuliano Kremmerz drew between the passive way of the saint, and the more active way of the magician. Indeed, A Course in Miracles makes it plain that the miracle is effectively a shortcut, a way to fast forward through time and at-one more quickly than would otherwise be the case, by serving as a conduit for divine force to help others.

 Neoplatonism and Christianity overlap about as much as they conflict. Unlike emanationism, Creationism holds that the Creator is separate from His creation, which He consciously made out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo). There is however a way to reconcile the two approaches. Creatio ex nihilo is true in that the world was made out of nothing material, originating as it does from the universal spirit. The Father, the highest aspect of God, is both distinct from and within His creation. After all, God cannot be entirely separate from creation because of the Word’s incarnation. Any creation – whether child, artwork, music or sculpture – necessarily has something of its creator in it without being completely identical with that maker.

Another difference between Neoplatonist emanationism and Christianity, is that the Father has a will, which Christ is able to channel. Unlike Plotinus’ One, the Father is able to create, intervene and speak ‘by His Word’^[xxxiv]. Within the formlessness of the most high is contained all form – including a creative personality – and within all forms is the formlessness of God. This was expressed by Christ with the simple statement, ‘I am in the Father and the Father is in me.’ As John the Apostle put it, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ God is, as Justin Martyr explained, like a fire that lights other fires yet itself remains undiminished.^[xxxv] This is how Christ was able to speak with God in the Bible and how the order of the universe was maintained whilst the Word was incarnate.

Analogically, people are capable of thoughtless meditation and cogitation. And even though the mind be racked by storms, the stillness of the spirit does not disappear. It is merely obscured, existing as it does at a higher level of being than mere thoughts and feelings. Christ said the Father can be ‘seen’. And yet, He is also imageless. The doctrine of the continuum unites the opposites. As Mentor says in Ego’s Odyssey, ‘The devil is in the details, but God is in the paradox.’

I believe Plotinus’ Divine Intellect roughly corresponds to the Hermetic ‘reason’ that resides within the soul, as well as the eternal Logos that incarnated in and became forever bound with the individual soul of Jesus of Nazareth and is responsive to invocations made in His name, though Plotinus criticised Gnostic Christians and did not believe God would condescend to save humanity. In a limited sense, the Intellect is the Son of God, because as the first idea emerging from the basic state of undifferentiated awareness, it is one step ‘removed’ from the source. Seen in this light, Christ’s statement ‘I am the Son of God’^[xxxvi] contains several meanings. He is the Logos, the first form of the formless, the son in the sense that he was immaculately conceived, reborn in the spirit following his baptism, and then there is His possible past life as Adam, who was God’s firstborn. The Holy Spirit is the power by which God is able to influence and aid the Son.

Divine Intellect may also be understood as an analogue to Plato’s demiurge, the creator of the cosmos. Then there is the Gnostic interpretation, which positions the Logos above the craftsman. Indeed, some Gnostics saw the Satanic demiurge as the wayward younger brother of Christ.^[xxxvii] The Logos may thus be conceptualised as the upside of creation – the light that provides order, truth, meaning, wisdom and life via unification with God – and the devil as the matter-facing downside of form, who brings repression, discord, falsehood, darkness and death through separation from God. Christ and the devil pull the soul in opposite directions, yet at our present stage of evolution they are both necessary: one must pass through the darkness to enter the light.

Desire, as an emotion, depends on a mind, an ego, for its existence. To solve desire, it is necessary to differentiate between selfish desires, and selfless desires, to understand how the selfish desires generate suffering, through fear of failing to get what is wanted, resistance to success, short-lived satisfaction when the goal is obtained, and frustration, sadness and disappointment when it is absent. In other words, stress comes from not accepting what is. You cannot be angry, guilty, sad or ashamed without desirefear that things should be different from the way they are. Buddha identified this desire as the force that keeps us in samsara, the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. When you see through the trap of desire, the fires begin to go out. Gnosis and union further insulate you from the urges of the lower soul. The trick is not to be without any desire at all, which is impractical for physical beings, but to minimise and sublimate the lower desires. In practice, this means directing the vital energies toward a selfless higher purpose as dictated by the higher self, the Logos or Christ. But even this noble goal must be pursued in moderation, lest it lead to unnecessary suffering, as is the case with Sarno’s goodists, who spend their every waking minute thinking of others, only to be poleaxed by crippling back pain and are therefore of little use to anyone. You must ‘remove the beam from your own eye before removing the mote from your brother’s eye’, at least to some extent.^[xxxviii]

Reincarnation, or the transmigration of the soul, is an integral part of Hindu and Buddhist doctrine. Edgar Cayce held that it was originally a part of Christianity, too, but that the early church leaders excised or obscured references to it in the Bible. This is hinted at in the Book of John, when the disciples ask Christ what a blind man did to be born with his affliction?^[xxxix] The question reveals an implicit belief in reincarnation, because it assumes that people are capable of doing things before they are born. Then there are the verses, ‘Elijah is come already, and they knew him not…then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.’^[xl] Another quote from Matthew (11) has Jesus saying of John the Baptist, he is ‘Elijah who is to come,’ suggesting both a past and a future incarnation of John/Elijah.

The evidence for reincarnation is persuasive. Some of the stories I encountered are listed below.

An Australian woman who had never left her country of birth, through recalling memories of an alleged past life as a 19^th century male medical student, accurately described Edinburgh medical college. Her account tallied precisely with the college’s layout, except for one area. It turned out the college had long since been renovated and even this part of her description was accurate – for the Victorian era! Apparently, the only other person who knew about this older layout was the archivist – when he checked the archives! The documentary was recorded in the early 1980’s, well before the worldwide web^[xli].

Then there is the tale of Dorothy Eady, later known as Om Setty. She allegedly recalled a past life as an Egyptian priestess. In her past life, she had a doomed love affair with the Pharaoh Sety I and was executed for it; priestesses of the Temple of Isis took a vow of chastity and breaking that oath was punishable by death. Dorothy claimed that the late pharaoh appeared to her at night fully materialised, talked with her and even had sex with her. He was able to do this because of certain mysteries into which he had been initiated...^[xlii]

Dorothy moved to Egypt, changed her name to Om Setty and visited the excavation site of the Temple of Isis at Abydos. She told the archaeologist the location of a garden near the temple. The archaeologist dismissed her opinion, but she persisted. Finally, the archaeologist relented, and had his team dig where she wanted. They found the garden, exactly where she said it would be. Everyone was flabbergasted…except for Om Setty^[xliii].

There are numerous cases on record in which children told their parents about their past lives and where they used to live. Upon visiting the locations, almost everything was as the children described it, despite the fact they had never been there before (in their present incarnations). Some of these children met people who accepted them as their departed relatives.

Perhaps most intriguing of all is the case of a young American boy with a throat cyst^[xliv]. Though it was benign, the cyst was so large that his parents and doctor were deeply concerned. The boy talked about getting shot in the throat as a soldier in the First World War. As he said the words, his cyst shrank and disappeared.

These stories are very hard to explain without invoking the concept of a soul or spirit. For me at least, they prove the existence of an immaterial entity that survives bodily death. And why would these people be fundamentally different from a significant number – if not a majority – of us?

The 20^th century British novelist Dennis Wheatley was also a firm believer in reincarnation. He saw life on earth as a giant school, where we are sent to learn ‘lessons’, often hard ones, and punished for our transgressions in past lives as a means of paying off karma.^[xlv] Then we get ‘holidays’^[xlvi] in the heavenly afterlife with our loved ones before returning for another term at school, until eventually we live a last, saintly incarnation, dedicated to God and helping others, on a grand or modest scale, and achieve enlightenment, by becoming one with the lords of light – ascended masters capable of materializing anywhere at will, who abide in blissful meditation and respond to the prayerful needy. If anyone is curious about how to retrieve past life memories (without submitting to past life regression hypnotherapy), I got my first ‘leads’ through dreams. These fragments were fleshed out through automatic writing. This seemed a logical next step in my spiritual development, since I came to suspect that the wise old man figure, Jung’s ‘personality number two’,^[xlvii] had accumulated his wisdom through previous existences. He was more than a mere ‘archetype’ and closer to what the Greeks would call a daimon, a guardian angel or ‘higher self’ who presides over the full sweep of a soul’s destiny, and not only in the present lifetime. We have amnesia concerning our past lives because if we remembered them, we would repress the trauma and that would cause mental and physical damage. There was also a desire to forget the unpleasant memories. Ergo, only those who truly want to know, and have demonstrated that they can defeat repression as it pertains to their present existence, are ready to recollect what came before their birth. Reliving past lives is not essential for union, but it can shed light on patterns that have carried over into the current incarnation.

Other than a firm understanding of the Corpus Hermeticum, the four gospels of the canonical New Testament and the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas are the key, recommended initiatic texts to study during this phase of the work. Readers seeking more information on spirituality are also referred to The Spirit Solution: Lessons Learned From My Spiritual Journey, from which the spirituality section of this book is derived. But it is important not to get overly hung up on the complexities and finer points of esoteric cosmogonies. While the Hermetic via positiva is a legitimate and enriching spiritual pathway – the Corpus Hermeticum was an important milestone in my journey – it is not strictly necessary to achieve union with spirit. Christ, the Logos, existing beyond the sphere of the planets or archons, enables the true Christian to transcend their influence by incorporating Him into their innermost being. Priscillian wrote of Christ in connection with astrology: ‘Knowing the changes of the firmament and destroying the wheel of generation, he has overcome the day of our birth by the renewal of baptism.’^[xlviii] In other words, the second birthday transcends the first. Christian rebirth achieves the goal of the Hermeticist, which is freedom from the planetary archetypes via a transformation of the personality. Christ is a direct line to God, who can help humanity to bypass the seven; that was one of the reasons for his incarnation, ministry, Crucifixion and ascent.

Step Five: Active Service

It is possible to achieve union through passive surrender, without making an explicit commitment to serve God beforehand.^[xlix] Once united with Christ, your attitude to service may well change because, to paraphrase Saint Paul, ‘faith works.’ That is, it is in the nature of those saved by faith in the Lord to do good works, like the good tree that bears good fruit. Therefore, those who are more interested in the passive way can try skipping this step, but they are advised to return to it later. Here we come to the divine bargain, the request for union in order to help others and serve God. The selfless act is honoured above and below because it is a concrete way of demonstrating that you place the universal spirit above your particular body. As James the Just wrote, ‘Faith, if it has no works, is dead by itself.’^[l] If your circumstances do not permit you to serve or severely limit your capacity to do so – perhaps you are too sick – then you may offer to serve in exchange for more favourable conditions, as I did. Those who are ready to help will be helped by their Master.^[li]We each serve in our own way, according to our abilities; not everyone must undertake a grand ministry. To spread the Word, you must first receive it, and to receive the Word, it helps to be willing to spread it. The abilities conferred may then be put to good use, to heal, help and awaken others. Let us not forget that the prodigal son was welcomed by his father after he offered to serve the father. And Christ told us that the eager servant would be ready to welcome the master of the house and open the door to him when He arrives.^[lii] As A Course in Miracles states: miracles are more likely to be extended to those ‘who will make use of them’. If you are not an intellectual type and feel intimidated or put off by the complexity of some of the ideas in this book, know that the simple willingness to be of service was roughly as useful for me as comprehension of the teachings. If the divine bargain alone is not enough to achieve your goal, then it is necessary to take active, concrete, irrevocable steps to be of service.

The easiest way to serve God is to share useful information. By ‘useful’ I mean information that is conducive to healing and spiritual progress, especially if that information has helped you. The books referenced here would fit that bill, particularly the Gospel of John and Sarno’s work. Many people have hundreds of social media ‘friends’; the sharing of information conducive to awakening and healing is the best possible use of the internet. Indeed, it is the ulterior motive of the internet. Mental and material connectivity – via the web, printing press, international air travel, etc. – sets the stage for spiritual connection, even if this occurs on a relatively small scale.

If you are nervous, pushback can be minimized by preaching to the choir or the congregation (groups known to be interested and sympathetic) to start with. It may be better and is certainly more courageous to preach outside the church, but in practice the majority of such people are not interested – otherwise they would probably have joined the church – and even the choir has much to learn about scripture, so preaching to them is by no means futile, if it is done in the right way.

The effectiveness of your activities can be multiplied through prayer, and having altruistic prayers answered. To pray effectively, it is necessary first of all to ensure, so far as is possible at your present level of development, that your prayer aligns with divine will. It must not be selfish in motivation, but purely or primarily for the good of others. It must arise spontaneously from your inner depths, an overwhelming feeling of compassion. All the ego has to do is get out of the way and let the miracle occur, to give God permission to work his magic. For Christians, the intended outcome must also be asked for in Christ’s name, as it is the Logos, the divine ordering principle, that determines the precise form of the miracle. If it is what God wants, it will be realized with relative ease. If not, it will be harder, if not impossible to manifest.

You must have a clear concept of what you want, not failing to take into account unconscious desires, which in practice are at least nine tenths of the mental iceberg and usually outweigh conscious aims.

The leap of faith comes first; when faith has produced tangible results, then you may enter the province of knowledge, which is adjacent to the Kingdom of Heaven. The more knowledge you have, the easier it is to have faith. ‘To understand is to have faith, not to understand is to not have faith.’^[liii] Rebirth obviously adds extra force to prayer, as the Thomasine Christ alluded to, but manifestations can occur in its absence. After union there can be no doubt, because you know God exists and is good. You must also learn how to overcome resistance and the negative will, through awareness and persistence. As previously noted, the more you know the mind’s power, the more powerful your mind is. A proper understanding of the trinity is instrumental in this regard.

When you are successful in your operations, bear in mind Christ’s words of caution in Matthew 6:4. ‘When you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.’ Silence, secrecy and refusing to take credit for your works are necessary to receive a great reward, because when these conditions are fulfilled, they establish an affinity between you and the Father, who creates everything without expectation of reward, and does not brag about it. To come to know God, your actions must have a certain degree of resonance with His.

Due to the unpleasant resistance they sometimes provoke and the worldly engagements they usually entail, miracles may momentarily disturb the practitioner’s serenity. In practice they are used sparingly by some adepts. One then comes to understand the classical alchemist Zosimus’ counsel against magic.^[liv] The paradox of spiritual progress is that the greater your power, the less desire you have to use it.^[lv]

Step Six: Eucharist, Rebirth, and Henosis

The alchemical text Aurora consurgens distinguishes three kinds of baptism: ‘in water, in blood and in fire’. Christ Himself said that you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless you are born again in ‘water and spirit’, implying three major spiritual ‘events.’^[lvi] These correspond to the three kinds of union outlined in this book. Indeed, becoming one with the Lord ‘in spirit,’ is the goal of Christianity, as indicated by the Pauline epistles and the Parable of the Prodigal Son.^[lvii]

In the parable, a son squanders his inheritance, becomes destitute, returns home to his father and is welcomed with open arms. The esoteric meaning of this parable is all about the reunion of the formerly wayward mind (the prodigal son) and the spirit (the Father). Believing in separation from God caused the body and physical death. The return to God brings life.

The parable of the lost sheep being returned to the fold has the same meaning. Christ intercedes between His flock and God. By accepting Christ into your heart, you accept the Father, because Christ is indissolubly bound with the Father: ‘I and the Father are one.’^[lviii]

The Second Coming is the integration of the Christ archetype into the human mind. This is what is meant by, ‘whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood is in me and I in him’,^[lix] since Christ was obviously not referring to the consumption of normal physical flesh. When the ‘bread of life’ is assimilated, the soul is nourished. The Greek origin of the word ‘apocalypse’ means ‘to reveal’. The apocalyptic period, which we are currently living through, is by definition an era in which the truth is being revealed. The Second Coming is associated with the apocalypse, because it can only occur on a larger scale than before through revelations that are clear and public. The internet is, and will continue to be, a crucial platform for the dissemination of esoteric knowledge. Naturally, the deceiver seeks to forestall the awakening – and inadvertently pushes us towards it – by generating individual and collective turmoil.

The Gnostic Christ also underlined the importance of unification. ‘When two make peace in their one house, they will say to the mountain, move, and it will move.’^[lx] This means that when spirit and mind (the two) are unified in the body (the one house), the components are in their proper working order, and they will be able to do anything they will.

There are other precedents for the trinity and the union between mind or soul and spirit. Carl Jung identified the trinity as a symbol of the Self archetype, an innate and cross-culturally recurring feature of the human psyche.^[lxi] The pyramids themselves are testament to the deep antiquity of the trinity across the world (alongside the quaternity, which stands for the four elements, with the eternal quintessence as the golden capstone). The concept of the Akh, the union of personality and spirit or Ba and Ka, goes back to the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead and The Pyramid Texts, the oldest known extant work of literature. In Hinduism, nirvana is achieved when the seeker becomes one with Brahman (the ultimate immaterial reality or universal creative principle). Similar ideas can be found in Hermeticism, Gnosticism and other esoteric traditions. The coming together of spirit and body was represented symbolically by the alchemists as the sacred marriage of Sol and Luna, facilitated by the Holy Ghost ‘in the form of a dove’ and resulting in the birth of the filius philosophorum.^[lxii]

The Holy Spirit and the Living Christ are the unifiers that bind the mind to the spirit and thus save the soul. This union protects and guides the mind by connecting it with the eternal life force. In this way, the trinity is made one – instead of all aspects being present within the individual but misperceived and disconnected, as in the naive mode of ego consciousness. To eucharistically eat Christ and be filled with the Holy Spirit, you must be willing to receive them with faith in God. If the Holy Trinity does not come, then the soul must be purified first by a bolstering of faith and knowledge, letting go of unconscious emotions, forgiveness and/or a commitment to active service (i.e. return to steps 2, 3, 4 and 5).

Rebirth is sealed by the ascent, the rise ‘beyond yourself’ to the Ogdoad.^[lxiii] The apocryphal Gospel of Thomasalludes to this event: ‘When you discard your rags of shame and trample them underfoot like little children, then you will see the Son of the Living One, and you will not be afraid.’ Christ stressed the need to ‘see’ the Son in the Johannine gospel. Of such experiences, Saint Paul said, ‘I know a man in Christ who was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago – whether in the body, I don’t know, or out of the body, I don’t know; God knows…he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. On behalf of such a one, I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast.’^[lxiv]

Henosis, also known as the ‘inner body awareness’ meditation and the baptism by (metaphorical) fire, is another part of this phase and requires a similar preparation. Although the feeling of henosis is more transient than the aqua permanens, it provides gnosis of the One beyond form, the implications of which will be obvious and unforgettable. This is the truth that must be known directly, because when it is experienced first-hand, it is more convincing than any amount of scientific evidence.

If you truly wish to understand, focus your attention on the body, from head to toe. Flood each part with consciousness, until you can feel the whole body’s ‘energy field’, which may be visualised as a body of light.^[lxv] Once you have found the spark of vitality around the heart and diaphragm, you must fan its flames with your concentrated thoughtless attention and be willing to surrender yourself. Focusing on that wholesome feeling of inner aliveness and going ‘more deeply into it’ temporarily melts the ego in an indescribable state of blissful oneness.^[lxvi] The boundaries between the body and everything else completely dissolve. This is the famous ‘oceanic feeling’.^[lxvii] Eventually, the mind will return, and you will come back down to earth, so to speak. But the implications of what you have experienced will never leave you. The body is a truth detector indeed!

The alchemists represented these unificatory experiences through different terms and symbols – the conjunction of the opposites, sulphur (spirit) and salt (body), the philosopher’s stone, the ouroboros or serpent’s head (consciousness) eating its own tail (the unconscious body) – but they all refer to the same feeling.^[lxviii] Afterwards, it is impossible to fully believe you are the ego, because you have felt your inherent oneness.^[lxix] It is also harder to fear death, when you know that what lies beyond is good.

Step Seven: Adhere to The Middle Way

Once gnosis and the three types of union have been achieved, the essentials are understood, but there is still much for you to learn and do (although paradoxically, by this point there has been a recognition that ‘nothing needs to be done’, the foundation of all peace).^[lxx] It is generally advisable to continue with your mission, otherwise there is a risk of straying from the path, unless you have a very passive, serene, ‘mystical’ temperament. The tests are not over once you are unified. All sorts of annoying moths are drawn to a light shining in the darkness. After his enlightenment, Buddha was assailed by the ‘demon Mara’, who sought to make the ‘awakened one’ doubt that he was actually awake.^[lxxi] Because this demon was a mental factor like the deceiver (and may actually be synonymous with it), Buddha was able to defeat him by simply knowing that he was lying. Similarly, Mara’s daughters sought to tempt Buddha with sexual desire, to no avail.^[lxxii]Resist the temptation to fall back into doubts, fears and frivolous desires on the one hand, and the temptation to become a ‘goodist’ and deny yourself excessively on the other. This is one interpretation of what the Buddha meant by the ‘Middle Way’. Buddha said of this path: ‘there is a middle way between the extremes of indulgence and self-denial, free from sorrow and suffering. This is the way to peace and liberation in this very life.’ How to walk the Middle Way becomes increasingly apparent through experience. If you are ever in doubt about what to do, ask Christ or request a sign. Be guided by the Ancient Greek adage, ‘moderation is best’ until the day of graduation, when the school uniform shall be discarded once and for all. In the beginning was the Word. In the end will be the Word. But ‘where there’s a beginning there is no end.’^[lxxiii]

Author, mindbody coaching and spiritmindbody unification coaching website: https://www.robertensor.com/ Other books by the author:The Spirit Solution: Lessons Learned From My Spiritual JourneyThe Mind Solution: Healing TMS Pain with Doctor Sarno

Ego’s OdysseyEgo’s Iliad

Ego’s AscentThe Toll of TroyThe Son of ChristHitler’s DuchessThe Black Prince of VeniceThe Golden Tablets of Thoth Hermes: The Great Pyramid, The Deluge and The Gods of Atlantis

^[i] Tolle, Eckhart. 2010. The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. New World Library.

^[ii] Matthew 7:7.

^[iii] Ouspensky, P.D. 2017. In Search of The Miraculous. Toward Publishing.

^[iv] Jacobs, A 2016. The Gnostic Gospels. Watkins Publishing.

^[v] Hermes Trismegistus. John Everard (Trans.). 2021. Corpus Hermeticum: The Divine Pymander of Hermes Trismegistus.

^[vi] Of course, some people will not hinder your search. Their company is either harmless or actually conducive to spiritual success.

^[vii] Working backward from projections via journaling can also be used for ‘shadow work’, etc.

^[viii] Jung, C G HG Baynes Cary Baynes trans. 2014. Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. Martino Fine Books; illustrated edition.

^[ix] Jung, C G HG Baynes Cary Baynes trans. 2014. Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. Martino Fine Books; illustrated edition.

^[x] Ibid.

^[xi] Ibid.

^[xii] Jung knew that the anima had an animus and vice versa, and hinted at the animus as a controlling influence of the anima in his Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, but he did not emphasise this dynamic as an inherent feature of these archetypes, nor (to the best of my knowledge) did he suggest the same solution to ‘the riddle of the old man and the maiden’, as I call it.

^[xiii] Jung, C G HG Baynes Cary Baynes trans. 2014. Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. Martino Fine Books; illustrated edition.

^[xiv] Ibid.

^[xv] Ibid.

^[xvi] Bremner, Marlene Seven. 2021. Hermetic Philosophy and Creative Alchemy. Inner Traditions.

^[xvii] Plotinus. Dillon, John. MacKenna, Steven. 1991. Enneads: Abridged Edition. Penguin Classics.

^[xviii] Matthew 6.

^[xix] Matthew 6.

^[xx] Saint Augustine. A similar quote has been attributed to Buddha.

^[xxi] Lachmann, Gary. 2015. The Secret Teachers of the Western World. Penguin Publishing Group.

^[xxii] Ibid.

^[xxiii] Ibid.

^[xxiv] Plotinus. Dillon, John. MacKenna, Steven. 1991. Enneads: Abridged Edition. Penguin Classics.

^[xxv] Ibid.

^[xxvi] Ibid.

^[xxvii] Ibid.

^[xxviii] Plotinus. Dillon, John. MacKenna, Steven. 1991. Enneads: Abridged Edition. Penguin Classics.

^[xxix] Lachmann, Gary. 2015. The Secret Teachers of the Western World. Penguin Publishing Group.

^[xxx] Ibid.

^[xxxi] Plotinus. Dillon, John. MacKenna, Steven. 1991. Enneads: Abridged Edition. Penguin Classics.

^[xxxii] Ibid.

^[xxxiii] Lachmann, Gary. 2015. The Secret Teachers of the Western World. Penguin Publishing Group.

^[xxxiv] Theophilus of Antioch. To Autolycus.

^[xxxv] Justin Martyr. Dialogue with Trypho.

^[xxxvi] John 10.

^[xxxvii] Jung, Carl. 1991. Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self. Routledge Classics. 1^st edition.

^[xxxviii] Matthew 7:5.

^[xxxix] John 9.

^[xl] Matthew 17.

^[xli] Reincarnation: A Documentary. 1981.

^[xlii] Hanny el Zeini. Catherine Dees. 2006. Om Setty’s Egypt: A story of Ancient Mysteries, Secret Lives, and the Lost History of the Pharaohs. St Lynne’s Press.

^[xliii] Om Setty and Her Egypt. 1981. BBC TV.

^[xliv] Supernatural Science. 1999. ‘Previous Lives’ episode. BBC. True Stories of Reincarnation: A 4-year-old WW1 soldier. 2015. www.mammammia.com.au

^[xlv] Wheatley, Dennis. 2013 The Haunting of Toby Jugg. Bloomsbury Reader. 1^st edition.

^[xlvi] Ibid.

^[xlvii] Jung CG Jaffe A 2019. Memories, Dreams, Reflections: An Autobiography. William Collins.

^[xlviii] Jung, Carl. 1991. Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self. Routledge Classics. 1^st edition.

^[xlix] I recommend and focus on the active way to union in this book because of my personal experiences and the wider social benefits of evangelism, best articulated by Jesus in Matthew 9: ‘The harvest is great, but the workers are few.’

^[l] James 2.

^[li] Luke 12.

^[lii] Luke 12.

^[liii] G.R.S Mead trans. Hermes Trismegistus. 2013. Corpus Hermeticum. Createspace.

^[liv] Bremner, Marlene Seven. 2021. Hermetic Philosophy and Creative Alchemy. Inner Traditions.

^[lv] Plato thought that philosophers would make the best rulers because they do not covet power. But in practice, the philosophers’ disinterest in power means that they do not pursue high office, which tends to be occupied by those of lesser character instead. Source: Plato, Melissa Lane, H.D.P Lee, Desmond Lee (trans.). 2007. The Republic. Penguin Classics.

^[lvi] John 3:5.

^[lvii] 1 Corinthians 6:17.

^[lviii] John 10:30.

^[lix] John 6: 56. This is also the esoteric meaning of Holy Communion.

^[lx] Jacobs, A 2016. The Gnostic Gospels. Watkins Publishing.

^[lxi] Jung, CG 2014. Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Routledge; 2^nd edition.

^[lxii] Bremner, Marlene Seven. 2021. Hermetic Philosophy and Creative Alchemy. Inner Traditions.

^[lxiii] Plotinus. Dillon, John. MacKenna, Steven. 1991. Enneads: Abridged Edition. Penguin Classics.

^[lxiv] 2 Corinthians 12.

^[lxv] Tolle, Eckhart. 2010. The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. New World Library.

^[lxvi] Tolle, Eckhart. 2010. The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. New World Library.

^[lxvii] Freud, S. Civilisation and its Discontents.

^[lxviii] Bremner, Marlene Seven. 2021. Hermetic Philosophy and Creative Alchemy. Inner Traditions.

^[lxix] Ibid.

^[lxx] Hawkins, Dr Daniel. 2014. Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender. Hay House Inc; First Edition.

^[lxxi] Bhikku Ñānamoli. 2020. The Life of the Buddha, According to the Pali Canon. Pariyatti.

^[lxxii] Ibid.

^[lxxiii] Jacobs, A 2016. The Gnostic Gospels. Watkins Publishing.