As I have progressed through this life, especially in recent years, I have made some observations.
There's a lot to be said for experience, and although my experience may differ from yours, I can say with some certainty that you may have made some of these observations as well.
My father used to tell me that "times change, but people don't". What he meant by that was that even though technology advances, and our political and social environment changes, our core emotions and reactions to things really don't change all that much. That small "quote" has stayed with me since I was a child, and I have observed in my travels that he was indeed correct. No matter what is going on in the world, people still have the same emotions and reactions to things as they did 20, 30, or even 100 years ago. Show them something new, something that surprises them, angers them, or makes them think, and they will inevitably react in the same manner even as they did long ago. Pass a law that squelches their freedom, and they will cry out for change. Tell them that they can't do something, that it's impossible, and someone will find a way to make it possible. The list goes on and on.
The thing I've noticed most of all is that people, in general, are resistant to change. They are resistant to new information that challenges everything they have ever "known" about life. That's why we have so much going on in the world right now about gay rights and belief in things that are outside of what is taught to us as children. "The world is like THIS, and that's just how it is, and nothing else exists." That seems to be what we are taught. People then make that "knowledge" a part of themselves, and when someone comes along and challenges that, people become angry and defensive, instead of embracing the new idea, even if only to agree that it is possible.
I believe it is dangerous for us as humans to take what we are taught, or even what we learn on our own, and make it so much of a part of ourselves that we are unable to see that there is so much more out there that we can't see. It makes us rigid, almost like we are building walls around ourselves, and it keeps us from seeing that there may be a lot more to this existence than we could possibly imagine. We've already seen that there are many other things on this planet alone, whole ecosystems, that until recently, were undiscovered, and still defy explanation.
What if there was a whole world, that all of us are connected to, that no one ever told us about? It's commonly known as the "Other Side", but I like to think of it as the real world. Sure, this planet is real, and so are we as humans, but the other side is just as real, and it's where we live when we are not human, in physical bodies. I was brought up to think that there was a heaven and hell, and that to get to heaven, there were certain criteria that had to be met, or you would end up in hell when you died. I was also told that I was born physical first, but that I had a soul, and that when I died I would become a spiritual being. But what if it's the other way around? What if I (and all of you as well) were first a spirit, and then decided to BECOME human, for the experience, and to learn things?
I cannot stress enough that opening one's mind to that very possibility is, in my opinion, the very key to our existence. Once you scrape away all the "physical" education, and get down to the very core of yourself, you begin to realize that this indeed is the way to true happiness. The minute you begin to think about the possibilities of existence itself, and start to wonder "What's truly out there?", you leave your mind open to all the possibilities that this universe has to offer. My one hope, for the entire human race, is that one day we will all get to the point where we can embrace both our physical lives, and what it has to teach us, but also our spiritual lives, and combine them into the existence that I believe they were truly meant to be.
