Another Choice

This necessity has been treated differently by the more influent religions and philosophies, as per their respective interests or according to the concerned collective temperaments.

May it be the injunction to behave well so as to deserve access to a world of perfection invisible in our present lives but promised thereafter, or may it be the more austere and extreme admonishment that the impersonal, eternal and infinite Self alone exists and this apparent manifestation which we apprehend through our bodily senses is entirely and fundamentally illusory, a snare or, at the most, a school of awakening – the thesis of the illusion of this world and its reality has played and continues to play a large role in this shared human space.

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Nevertheless other currents of understanding and other approaches have also become defined over time as to the very nature of the illusion which must be identified and dissolved.

The approach of the occultists and the initiates is founded on the repeated and reproducible explorations of subtle domains, with the help of subtle organs of perception which can be awakened and methodically developed, realities which are in some ways parallel to the physical reality, with which it is possible to discern verifiable material correspondences, no longer through one’s senses but through attentive and intelligent observation.

If many of these researchers have been content with mere exploitation of these parallel sources so as to enhance or augment their personal capacities, many others have concerned themselves with attaining a higher, deeper and wider knowledge. Through a discipline as scientific as that of an astronomer, they have confirmed the existence of these other realities which, even though they do not have the fixity or the density of physical matter, yet have their own permanence and dynamics and are governed by their own laws, independent of this physical world of which we share the existence.

Consequently, they may state with certainty that the existence of consciousness does not depend exclusively on that of our physical body.

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