What is religion? Religion is a human experience. It distinguishes us humans from other life forms. Religion is a human function, a way in which humans cope with life on earth.   In my vision there is more to it:  religion (the way in which we seek God) is the way humans handle their longing for God. God – our longing to unite with him – draws us toward the absolute. We have no ground in being without God (divine ground). Religion is thè human function.   The perennial philosophy states that it is the nature of humankind and reality that we are expressions of the divine (the non-dual) and that our purpose in life is to become conscious of its wholeness and thus re-unite with it. Evolution =  becoming conscious Driving force =  our longing to re-unite with God, the absolute Religion = the way we handle this drive to evolve in our daily lives   I believe with many others that we already are united with God (we were never separate). It is just our reality  that we are separate. (Monistic interpretation.) The reality I feel is always and per definition a result of my subjective consciousness. Absolute reality requires objective consciousness and thus can only be non-dual; that makes separation an illusion.   Why religion? James talks about a universal feeling of uneasiness, a sense that there is  something “wrong” about us as we naturally stand.  As I have the same experience myself I want to look closer at this phenomenon.   For me this uneasiness implies two things: we have the ability to be aware from a meta-level: that means a split between what we experience as being self (the human being experiencing this life) and the observer beyond, the witness (the higher self, the Self). The beyond self is in my opinion the transpersonal self – still attached to me in its lower levels, personal in that sense, but beyond me.   As a student of Psychosynthesis and Roberto Assagioli I feel myself drawn to the model of self and Self (or higher Self). In an essay I wrote last year I designed the following model to explain how I would like to work with clients in a therapeutical context.  I will give a short explanation of this concept because it forms the basis of my beliefs. For me it links my transpersonal experience to God, to religion. The self (or  I) is our point of self-consciousness where we are aware of the continuous stream of perceptions (what we can pick up with our five senses), feelings, thoughts and impulses we can observe, analyze and judge.  You could see it as the screen on which we roject our reality (the heads in the drawing).   The Self (our Soul) is our permanent center - the field behind the screen – as the sea, not touched by the stream (the little suns). The self is in this model a three-dimensional hologram of the Self as the Self is a multi-dimensional hologram of the universal/cosmic consciousness which we could call the Divine (the big sun).   In my vision I (self) can be aware of Self. Self is the observer beyond, the witness who has the meta-view. This Self is still  a personal Self – our Soul. When we meditate, pray, or are silent for a moment we are “aware” – we connect with this Self; we are open to more “dimensions” of reality. We can step out of our day-to-day situation and see our reality from a different perspective.              2.   to feel “wrong” we have to know on one level or the other what is “right”. This is important, because this means that the higher self "knows” on a different level what we don’t know on this.   In my vision the Self is able to connect with the Divine in the same way: in opening up to more dimensions Self reaches levels where personal values (Ego) are no longer. On the absolute level, the divine level,  there is union between  self-Self and Divine. The feeling of separation (the uneasiness) vanishes – we are what we are. The “knowing” stems from the openings in our consciousness; first on the level of self-Self (the red lines), ultimately in connection with the Divine.   This model is of course simplified into three “levels”. I believe there are innumerable levels on our way to the absolute. The great chain of being.   The uneasiness I feel gives me the experience of my transpersonal Self ànd the promise of an ultimate “rightness”. This promise of a right place, even when I am not consciously aware of it, lingers in me. This gives me the experience that God is in me –and that I am indeed an expression of God. Because our wholeness (God, the Sun) is much more than what we normally experience (the heads) we are drawn towards it (like towards a magnet).  We want to go home, to be what we really are. We are not so much “wrong” or “separate”, we just cannot perceive, even hold, all our dimensions.   Religion then becomes our way to make the connection with the Divine, to become conscious of our wholeness. (James’s universal solution: making the proper connection with the higher powers).   The first two beliefs (characteristics of the religious life) James mentions are: the visible world is part of a more spiritual universe from which it draws its chief significance and the union or harmonious relation with that higher universe is our true end.   In the model I use our world is a three dimensional projection of the multi- and ultimately omni-dimensional universe. It not only draws its significance from it – it originates in it. In that sense the union (or harmonious relation) with the more “spiritual” universe is not our true end, but our true character. If we call (our search for) this relation/union with the Divine “Religion”, then yes, religion is our human function.  Being human, to live a life,  is a process. We evolve to find God; until we do, we will not know who we are.   “Who am I?” becomes my central question – to become more-me my central goal.   The uneasiness I feel stems from my un-ability to grasp more of me – the being limited to being less than my whole. It frustrates me and keeps me moving. Evolution is becoming more and more conscious of our real nature. I never thought of this drive as being “religious” but after reading the assignments for this session I believe it is and it amazes me that I never looked at it that way.   Our “problem” as humans is that we sense this truth (our wholeness in the Divine) and we feel homesick, a longing we cannot turn away from. We sense there is more, more-us than we are.  So the uneasiness William James describes is a truly human feeling which causes us to search for ways to cope with the enormous gap between what we experience as reality and what we intuit it to be. This is why religion – why humans need religion, a way to handle this gap. Religion is the human answer to the universal feeling of uneasiness.   How does religion work? Our level of consciousness determines how we relate to God, our religion.   Our level of consciousness affects our perception and therefore the nature of our reality. Because our perception is always subjective – it is I who perceives - our level of consciousness also affects how we perceive ourselves.   Deepak Chopra just published his book “How to know God”. He goes one step further; he claims that our level of consciousness affects how we perceive God. He describes human evolution in seven steps and allocates an appropriate perception/concept of God to each step.   I want to add: as humans are an expression of God; God seems an expression of human consciousness at each level. For me this is “evidence” that we are talking about consciousness when we are talking about God. The level/dimension of human consciousness determines what we experience as being; as our reality. As we evolve as humans we have opened up to higher dimensions of perception. Ken Wilber describes this beautifully in his books, notably in “No boundary”.   I think that Chopra has a point too; humans (on each level) seem to have looked for a God they could still understand – close enough to their own image to be a personal God (they can still grasp the concept of God) and distant enough to be a real God – omnipotent in their eyes. In that sense they came up with concepts of God (and religions) that were of use to the people at that level.   And yet, humans have always been drawn to the absolute level – they have in some way been conscious of this ultimate level. All these God concepts Chopra describes are human ways to describe something they cannot describe. As they themselves are limited to their concepts it is quite logical that their God-concept is as limited as they are at that level. That doesn’t mean that they did not intuit that a concept of God could never be the real thing.   I think we are at a stage now that we can grasp the concept of being one with God.  I would like to examine the way I relate to God (my religion) and where “the transpersonal” fits in for me. How do I methodically cultivate my mystical consciousness (James): How do I find answers to the question “Who am I?” and how can I become more-me? How do I try to connect with my concept of God: how does my little head reach out for my sun and the big Sun beyond…..   “The call is to confront reality, to master the self; it calls the soul to the highest adventure it can undertake” (Huston Smith).                   Faith seems to be an answer We are pulled towards our destiny: the inner knowledge and my faith in this process help me to go with it.   I wrote an essay on my personal development of consciousness in my last course. I realize that I am indeed shedding boundaries and growing towards being more-me. In retrospect all the situations where I could surrender to just being me (letting go of limiting self-images/boundaries) gave an important shift in my perspective. The turning point for me seems to be to have the courage to simply be myself – indifferent to outcome or what others might think.   I find myself making choices more consciously – deciding on every turn what feels right for me – what is my way of doing this, what is closest to what I am. By tuning into what is happening to/with me, by going with the flow of my inner knowledge, I will reach my destination.   To be able to surrender/be courageous enough to follow that flow I need faith in the process, faith in me and others and if I take the religious point of view: faith in God.   How I keep my faith alive? I live my life and try to experience consciously. I discovered that in living more consciously I pick up more and more signals that this process we call life is indeed part of the big scheme of human evolution towards higher levels of consciousness, towards what we call Divine. Nowadays this realization seems to be part of my system, part of who I am. Even when I feel utterly lost trying to describe it, I feel very centred in my faith; it gives me the connection with my roots ànd with my destiny – which are of course the same – the divine ground (perennial philosophy).   Awareness/being open is a key… “The only thing that is unqualifiedly good is extended vision, the enlargement of one’s understanding of the ultimate nature of things”, says Huston Smith. I experienced that in following what attracts my awareness I find lessons I need to learn. Actions followed by rewards are repeated, so at this point in my life being conscious, being aware is very important to me.   “Our deepest destiny, our deepest reality, our deepest truth is God”. When James articulates it like this it seems a little step to come to the understanding that God is not an external identity. Being aware contains a paradox for me. As the world outside – my reality - is my subjective perception (me) there is really no difference between outside and inside; between my reality and me. Being aware becomes a different exercise. Whereas I used to focus on what was happening “out there”, I realize now that in fact all is equally and essentially happening “in here”. Consciousness becomes very holistic.   I experience a shift in my perception causes shifts in what I considered out of my control. My  perception of the world changes – that is undoubtedly true, but I experience that when I transform the whole field changes. It feels like a “resonance” effect – my changed vibration somehow influences the vibrations of the people/world around me. It is like my little sun is shining on other selfs too… (I wrote about this in 501-LMIV and it intrigues me – something to work on?).   James formulates the third belief (following the two on page 2.):  “Prayer or inner communion with the spirit of God is a process wherein spiritual energy produces effects within the phenomenal world”. He even says: God is real because he produces real effects. Are we not talking about the same thing? Is not my becoming more conscious also “communion” with God – producing effects in my reality? Did I raise my centre of personal energy – do higher energies filter in?   I can’t be aware that I am not aware of something (more dimensions of me), and that makes it so difficult for me to grow/evolve if I stay attached to my concepts, my knowledge (of who I am = of my reality).  I can only be aware of more of me if I am willing to be open to more. This way to consciousness – to know who we really are - is to let go of knowing who we are and to  become open to the experience of who we are. I believe we live here for that purpose. (We actually recreate ourselves every moment. Who am I  is determined by the choices I make now – also a big theme in Neale Walsche’s “Friendship with God”.)   What was said about Holons fits into this perspective: from one Holon we can perceive our reality in a certain – fixed – way. We have to be willing to let go of this fixed way to be able to step up to the next Holon. In a way we have to surrender to a state of no-self to arrive at a new level of self again. I actually experienced this in life-changing moments: my image of who I am reaches a limit (it no longer fits) – I am willing to give up my “certainties”, give up my reality – to leap to the next level. There my old reality can be integrated in the new.   Resistances are signals…. Becoming more conscious is for me becoming more-of-me. All three writers mention how religious life adds value, empowers and increases happiness. I experience this to be true. Limiting myself to being less than I am is what is frustrating (again the uneasiness, in many instances suffering). If I limit myself, I limit my worth to others, to the world around me.   Gestalt speaks of unfinished Gestalts. Our Gestalt is not finished, hence our searching, hence our longing, hence our religion. We all feel resistances to let go of the boundaries that separate us from what we really are. I believe we live our lives to experience who we are. In making choices we differentiate from who we are not. Making the “right” choices then becomes making the choices that are as close to “who we are” as we can get. I feel resistance when I am confronted with something that does not fit who I am. So if I want to become more-me my resistances become my allies. For me, at this stage, I try to be aware of my resistances. They have become my signals. I take resistances very serious nowadays. Where I used to ignore or overrule them almost automatically, I am very cautious now to “feel” what the message is behind my reluctance to do something.   Awareness (taking the meta-position – connecting with Self) is a key to making choices, which is a key to becoming more-me. Awareness to me is already touching the transpersonal bands Wilber describes.   Meditation, prayer, writing…… My attitudes towards religion, my religion as described thus far are in day-to-day life, in contact with the world around me. I need this connection to others to grow in this stage. In meeting others I meet myself, and I learn on my way.   Ànd I need my time alone in connection with myself, my Self and my God. I discovered that for me meditation (prayer is the same thing in my reality) can be a flight from here and now, from living. In meditation I can escape my busy life and be somewhere else where I feel very peaceful and wise.   My challenge now is to “use” my practice as a point of peace, and contemplation – a place where I can find my centre (again) and regain my balance. And I see meditation as an exercise in awareness. There I take my time to really observe and feel what I am, with discernment, detaching from my self’s emotions and feelings. In terms of my model I connect with my Self/God (open up to be receptive to my Self/God). A transpersonal, religious connection. I sense there is no difference for me between those two.   In this connection I can sometimes transcend my normal reality with its concepts and images (ineffable as James mentions as one of the characteristic of the religious experience). Karen Armstrong claims the experience of transcending the mundane world is a characteristic of the human mind. And I have the distinct feeling of being able to tap into another source of knowledge, wisdom (noetic quality; another characteristic). Again a feeling of connection with a dimension beyond my self – transpersonal.   I have a very busy household; I have trouble finding the peace to really practice. My solution is “to tune in”  whenever I remember to do so. As I consciously trained myself to be more aware (awareness-exercises are part of my Gestalttherapy training) I feel almost “double” nowadays; my head is mirrored by its sun and I try to listen to its feedback. It is hard for me to remember how it was “before”, but I am quite sure my “inner life” has taken a different role in my life – it has become a major key to growth.   Writing seems sometimes inspirational – inspired by something beyond me – a transpersonal experience. The way I am sometimes touched by what I write tells me that writing is also a transpersonal medium for me. I feel blessed with that.