Also by the Author
A Practical Guide to Meditation and Prayer
A Practical Guide to Prosperous Living
The Whisper of Pialigos
Native Soul
First Edition 2011
Copyright © 2011 by J Douglas Bottorff. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from Unity Books except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles and reviews or in the newsletters and lesson plans of licensed Unity teachers and ministers. For information, write to Unity Books, 1901 NW Blue Parkway, Unity Village, MO 64065-0001.
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Bible quotations are from the New Revised Standard version unless otherwise noted.
Cover design: Doug Brown
Interior design: The Covington Group, Kansas City, Missouri
Library of Congress Control Number: 2010943072
ISBN: 978-0-87159-788-5
Canada BN 13252 0933 RT
Special thanks to Anita Feuker, who reviewed this manuscript in its early stages and offered many helpful suggestions for greater clarity and simplicity.
Introduction
1 Fulfillment Is Closer Than You Think
2 The Personality Factor
3 From Reactionary to Creator
4 Your Creative Imagination
5 The Manifestation Process
6 The Power of Letting Go
7 The Role of Choice
8 An Evolution of Values
9 Separating Events From Experience
10 The Vision Dynamic
Works Cited
About the Author
I have written this book specifically for the advanced student, though not in the sense the term advanced is usually employed. For me, the advanced student is one who has reached the realization that getting what you want from life involves waking up to what you are as a spiritual being. There are many who see their spiritual awakening as the means of acquiring things and conditions that will make them something more than they are now. In this book, I treat the spiritual awakening not as a means to an end but as an end in itself. Achieving this end, which is now and has always been within the reach of all, is the true starting place for getting what you want from life.
More than three decades’ work as a minister has given me the opportunity to observe many people operating within a wide range of spiritual understanding. I think it is fair to say that when most start their studies of spiritual principles, their intention is to get more out of life. They feel that something is missing, that their previous attempts to fill the gaps haven’t worked, and that the spiritual approach offers the surest way to get back on track in making their life a more fulfilling endeavor. And so it does.
I have also observed that many who have been on the spiritual path for years often express levels of frustration similar to those levels that originally prompted their search. They have obtained many new ideas, but they feel no closer to the satisfaction they crave. I suggest that this happens because they have adopted two commonly held erroneous beliefs. The first is that their current dissatisfaction is attributable to their limited understanding of God, that eventually they will gain enough understanding to give them the satisfaction they seek. The second belief is that in their present state they are spiritually incomplete, that they need to develop spiritually before they can reach a satisfying level of experience. Both assumptions are false.
If you are among these individuals, you now possess of all the knowledge you need to have a firsthand, personal relationship with your Creator/Sustainer. Furthermore, you are as complete now at your spiritual core as you will ever be. No natural barriers exist between your current self-perception and your completed soul. The only chasm that stands between where you are and where you want to be is a perceptual error. As long as you hold this perception of distance and separation from your spiritual home, you will continue to wander in a far and foreign country. The moment you drop this perception, you return to the warm reception of your spiritual home. Embracing the simple truth that you already have what you seek spiritually will revolutionize your approach to getting what you want from your spiritual quest and, in the broadest and most fulfilling sense, getting what you want from life.
Nearly all self-help literature is geared toward achieving the ideal person you dream of becoming. This book, taking the spiritual point of view, challenges such a notion and, more important, urges you to examine closely your beliefs about your own spiritual awakening. The ideas set forth here will help you open your mind to your native soul, that eternal dimension of you that is firmly established in the field of limitless energy we call God, the Creative Life Force. The traditional view of the soul is that it is in a state of evolving to a higher level. In this book, I counter that assumption with the recurrent theme: God will not and cannot give you any more than you already have. Your native soul is now complete and nothing is keeping you from experiencing your completeness.
The practice of meditation—periods of deliberate spiritual receptivity—is the narrow gate (Mt. 7:13-14) by which you enter the domain of your native soul. If you are meditating yet failing to experience your spiritual essence, you are not meditating, you are thinking. Meditation is the act of opening your intuitive portal, a faculty that enables you to experience the spiritual domain, to the living presence of your completed soul. Becoming successful at meditation does not require years of training, for there is actually very little to learn. Meditation is a receptive state that opens your awareness to the perpetual radiation of your soul. You already know how to receive spiritual light, and you have been doing so all along, though perhaps unconsciously. You invite the perpetual light of your soul into your field of awareness by assuming this simple attitude:
My completed soul is now radiating light.
I am conscious of this light.
When I mention meditation in this book, I am referring to a practice of internal reflection. You will want to spend quality time away from all distractions and enter a spiritually receptive state. This practice is your primary resource for tapping your inner power. However, you will also gain much by getting in the habit of experiencing the light of your soul while driving your car, shopping, conversing with people or taking a solitary walk. Bring this awareness into every aspect of your life. Given even a small chance, the light of your native soul will break forth, first as a small and seemingly insignificant thrill of energy. Return often to this experience and this tiny thrill becomes the steadfast beacon that will guide your every thought. You do not want to spend a mere percentage of your time in meditation; you want to spend all your time experiencing your life from your spiritual depths.
Do not think of meditation as a difficult practice you must adopt. Think of it instead as the birthing process for an entirely new vision. Emma Curtis Hopkins pointed out that “it is primarily what we most see [our inner vision], and not what we most think, that constitutes our presence, power and history” (2). Many people attempt to change their lives by changing their thinking. Your thinking follows your vision. The practice of meditation raises your vision and your thinking naturally conforms. All your executive faculties—faith, imagination, judgment, will and elimination—fall in line with the radiance of your soul. Take to heart the reminder Jesus gave to his listeners: “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God’” (Jn. 6:45).
This book is a presentation of ideas that are based on my experience and understanding of the spiritual awakening. It is my prayer that these ideas touch you in ways that make a significant difference in the way in which you perceive yourself, and that this shift in perception is enough to set you on a true and genuine path toward getting what you want from life.
Imagine for a moment that today is your day to die.
You’re walking down the sidewalk and notice a 75 percent off sign at Macy’s across the street. Excited, you dash forward, forgetting an important lesson your mother tried to teach you: look both ways before crossing. There is a big thump, but focused on the giant red and yellow SALE SALE SALE banner ahead, you give it no thought. But then something strange happens. You are no longer running across the street, you are hovering above it! You look down and see a body crumpled in front of a car, and you are surprised that it is your body! You are confused: it looks quite lifeless, but you feel very much alive. People start to gather and one man kneels next to your body and feels for a pulse. He announces that he thinks you are dead and a gasp ripples through the growing audience. You laugh to yourself and begin explaining that you are not dead, that you are quite well. The crowd pays no attention to you.
To add to your frustration, you begin to hear an unpleasant buzz and then you are traveling at great speed through a tunnel. You emerge into an atmosphere of light more beautiful than any you have ever seen. By now you are growing accustomed to the fact that you are not in your physical body. You quickly adapt to your new environment and to the fact that you are now completely unencumbered by time and space. You have a body, not of flesh and bone but energy, which you can move at the incredible speed of thought. Your senses of vision and hearing are absolutely acute. Your mind is crisp and fluent with universal wisdom. All the so-called knowledge that you have accumulated through your entire life pales in significance to this universal wisdom that is so seamlessly and effortlessly integrated into your very essence. For the first time in your life you have no questions. You are a knower of the Real, so completely immersed in unconditional love that you feel overwhelming love for everyone and everything. You can’t help yourself. Your former efforts to love seem completely inadequate in comparison to this majestic atmosphere of love that completely permeates your being.
At this point you realize you are in the presence of a Being of Light so beautiful, so loving that you can only feel awe. This Being begins showing you a three-dimensional screening of every detail of every event in your life. You see all the wonderful things you did and all the not-so-wonderful things too. The Being sees all too, but remains completely loving, supportive and nonjudgmental. When the review is over, the Being asks if you are happy with what you have seen or do you think you could do better? You know you can do better because you have gained such a wonderful perspective of the boundless nature of your essence, your spiritual identity. You want only to remain in the light, yet something of your life in the physical body—the image of a spouse or other family members who would benefit from your continued influence—beckons. In the next instant, you are aware that you are in an ambulance being rushed to the hospital. Your stirring startles the paramedic, who clearly thought you were dead.
According to those who have had a near-death experience, these are just a few of the conditions that you and I, free from our physical bodies, may experience. Such reports are not only fascinating, they also challenge many of our commonly held religious and scientific beliefs about who and what we are and what possible meaning life on this planet might have. We can become so enamored with visions of a spectacular afterlife that we may fail to see how research into the near-death experience applies to life in the here-and-now. The connection is so simple that it is not immediately apparent. The profound reality revealed by these experiences is the invincibility of the person who has supposedly died. The inescapable implication is that this condition exists now, that every individual inhabiting a physical body is ultimately indestructible.
Regardless of specifics, getting what you want from life involves obtaining fulfillment in all your endeavors. This is true whether you seek the acquisition of more money, connecting with the right partner, moving into a new career, planning a family vacation or deepening your spiritual awareness. It is worth noting that nearly all people who momentarily step out of their bodies report a level of satisfaction and fulfillment so complete that they, like the world’s great spiritual teachers, are forced to speak in similes, metaphors and even parables in an effort to explain the depth of their satisfaction. There are simply no words in our present vocabulary to adequately address the level of satisfaction they attempt to describe.
From these accounts emerge two critical pieces of information. First, the ability to experience this indescribable level of satisfaction not only exists in you right now, it is also your very essence. In this book, I refer to this essence as your native soul. Christian-based New Thought literature designates this core identity as the Christ, relating to Jesus and his discovery and expression of his own God-potential. The challenge of using this ancient term lies in the preconditioning and the misconceptions most of us carry about Jesus. We have made him into a larger-than-life personality, placing him at a level of spiritual development that is essentially unattainable. In contrast to this image, Jesus himself indicated that “the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these” (Jn. 14:12).
To get the most from the teachings of Jesus, I assume he was speaking of accomplishments that are presently within my reach. The “me” he refers to is not him personally, but his spiritual core, his native soul. It is the same inner spiritual dimension that, as near-death research suggests, is fully developed, present and native to everyone, even those living the most average of lives. Jesus is saying that when you come to know and believe in your native soul, you can do the type of things he does and more. As one who is interested in a spiritual approach to getting what I truly want from life, I pay attention to this statement. Jesus becomes a relevant instructor, one who actually assists me in becoming conscious of my essential core, my native soul, the source of the genuine level of satisfaction that I seek.
The second critical piece of information that we can draw from these near-death accounts is this: It is clear from their sincere expressions of absolute joy that material things are not needed to produce the deep fulfillment and gratification for which you yearn. The sincere joy reported by near-death survivors completely contradicts the commonly held belief that accomplishments and material acquisitions are a primary source of fulfillment. They suddenly find themselves in a state of having absolutely nothing, not even a body, and yet they report touching something so meaningful, so gratifying that they cannot adequately put it in words.
This does not mean that you are to discontinue or discount material pursuits and interests. The spiritual awakening enables you to see that the material level is but the surface aspect of a single continuum whose source begins in the invisible and whose expression is the visible. You gain the understanding that the material realm is intended to clothe you with symbols reflecting the joy, health, freedom, peace and abundance that naturally arise from within your spiritual depths.
You might think you have to study and meditate for years before attaining this level of understanding. Many near-death experiencers, however, say they learn more about themselves in the minutes they are out of the body than they have learned in all the years of living their earthly lives. Virtually all proclaim their near-death experience (which might aptly be renamed a near-life experience) as the most profoundly satisfying and educational event of their lives. In the blink of an eye, this experience jolts them into the awareness that they are a soul with a body, not a body that houses some vague and mysterious concept that has been dubbed a soul. As one woman reported:
I was more conscious of my mind at the time than of that physical body. The mind was the most important part, instead of the shape of the body. And before, all my life, it had been exactly reversed. The body was my main interest and what was going on in my mind, well, it was just going on, and that’s all. But after this happened, my mind was the main point of attraction, and the body was second—it was only something to encase my mind. I didn’t care if I had a body or not. It didn’t matter because for all I cared my mind was what was important. (Moody 91)
It’s important to note that the near-death experiencer did not suddenly acquire a new set of faculties or mental capabilities. The experience has the effect of peeling back, in a matter of moments, the varnish of a lifetime’s false and misdirected beliefs. Beneath this veneer the native soul is absolutely complete, whole and immortal. These people describe communication by pure thought, faculties of sight and hearing that are pristine and superbly acute, and a mind that is sharp, able to retain and utilize staggering amounts of knowledge. They speak of pain-free bodies that are vitally charged and mobile as a bolt of lightning. They experience nothing resembling death or negation and realize that their souls are not dependent on or restricted to the physical body. Often they report awakening with a deep sense of purpose and connection within a much larger, universal context.
Perhaps the most amazing revelation is that their souls have not been harmed or diminished by their worst sins, their darkest moments of ignorance, or their most negative and self-destructive thinking. Yes, some report remorse for having lived meaningless, self-indulgent lives, and they express sadness for any harm they might have inflicted on others. They feel that had they known of this interior dimension they would not have made choices that were harmful to themselves and others. Even so, their negative actions did nothing to mar the shimmering jewel of their soul—a stark contrast to commonly held religious beliefs.
These reports challenge established religious ideas. They also directly oppose the operational model of medical science that treats the individual as a product of electrical and chemical processes of the brain. According to this brain-based model, the death of the brain makes any further experience impossible. There are those within the scientific community, however, who do not agree.
The late Dr. Ian Stevenson, a pioneering researcher into cases of children who claim past life memories, went so far as to coin a term—psychophore (Greek: “soul bearing”)—to name the possible mechanism that keeps the bodiless soul intact. We can draw an analogy to this mechanism from the field of information technology. I am writing this book on a laptop computer. The text is stored electronically on a hard drive. When I send it to my publisher, they will convert the electronic text into the material form of a book. It is now possible to email this entire manuscript. Because my computer transmits information without the use of physical wiring, there are moments when the text becomes a disembodied package of energy that flies through the air, passing through normal material barriers such as walls as easily as if they do not exist. You can throw a physical book through the air, but it will not pass through walls. Nor can you throw it very far. In the book’s disembodied form, physical obstacles become irrelevant, and yet even when it is sent around the world, not a single word is lost in the transmission.
In this book I accept as a given, as do virtually all the world’s religions, the soul’s ability to exist apart from the body. Though the body provides a physical medium through which the effects of the soul are seen and expressed (as a book is expressed in paper or on a screen), the soul’s ability to remain intact, like an electronic manuscript, is not dependent on the physical medium of brain and body. The soul is, of course, much more complex than the electronic package that constitutes a manuscript, but the illustration is relevant as a model.
Some on the spiritual path make the mistake of thinking that the soul is frail, that major repairs need to be made before they can even begin thinking about getting what they want from life. It is the perception of the soul rather than the soul itself that is in need of repair. In his parable of the stronger man, Jesus illustrated that the soul endures as the strongest aspect of our being:
When a strong man, fully armed, guards his castle, his property is safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted, and divides his plunder. (Lk. 11:21-22)
Because this parable is cast in a rather violent tone, it is easy to miss its significance. The strong man is your senses-based identity. The one stronger is your native soul. Many make the mistake of thinking that, because it is so overpowering, the force behind random mental chatter is the strongest. The strongest, however, is that which is left standing when everything else, including your body, falls away. No matter how far you have wandered from your immortal essence, or how deeply engrossed you have become in pointless mental chatter, you have in no way marred or diminished your soul’s strength and wholeness.
To get what you want from life you must start with this picture of completeness and dare to embrace it with the understanding of what you are right now. When Jesus instructed his followers to pray as if they had already received what they asked for (Mk. 11:24), he was pointing to this important insight. Material things are but symbols of spiritual realities. What you seek from material things is the experience of a deeper reality. You want love, so you seek a loving relationship. You want power, so you seek a position of power. You want more life, so you book a vacation. You want to increase your intelligence, so you sign up for some classes. While there may be plenty of things standing between you and the material good you have named, there is nothing standing between you and the reality you wish to experience. Allowing yourself to go within and experience the eternally accessible essence of what you seek, you draw to yourself the people and conditions reflective of this deeper reality. This is the principle taught by Jesus of seeking first the kingdom of God, and these things (the material counterpart) will be given as well (Mt. 6:33).
You cannot align with this principle if you believe you will receive the good you seek someday. Have you pored over ancient scripture, devoured all the latest spiritual best-sellers, trotted from teacher to ashram to temple to church? Have you turned over rocks in every corner of the material realm with the hope of finding the spiritual reality you desire? If so, you have fallen into a trap that snares many on the spiritual path. Getting what you want out of life begins with affirming that you are already in possession of what you seek.
In another example, suppose you feel the need for spiritual guidance. Asking for guidance reflects the belief that guidance will commence as soon as you affirm it enough or evolve to a higher state of consciousness. Instead, embrace the truth that you are now being guided. You have never once been without guidance. Asking for guidance is, as H. Emilie Cady suggested, like affirming that the sun shines: “The sun shines because it is a law of its being to shine, and it cannot help it” (43). Regardless of how positive or negative you are, the sun will shine. Accept guidance with the same faith and understanding you have toward the dawning of a new day, and you will begin immediately to see evidence of what you seek.
Does the process of opening your mind to a self-sustaining state of being sound a little uncertain? Think of a time when you cowered in the face of a crisis. You felt powerless. At some point, however, you said, “Enough! I have trembled in fear thus far, but I will tremble no longer.” In that decisive moment, you remembered you were not given a spirit of fear but an invincible spirit of strength and courage, and that spirit suddenly broke forth like a hot beam of sunlight after days spent shivering beneath the cold clouds of fear. Even in the darkest moments the sun never left. Its power remained constant, undiminished.
This spiritual power has always been and will always be with you. It cannot be diminished by even the darkest clouds of ignorance that have kept you in the cold. In an instant the golden ray of spiritual power can burst through and change everything. The thing that had you shrinking in fear suddenly scurries away at the commands you issue from your newly reclaimed strength.
Spiritual power is not a force that enables you to overthrow negative conditions. Spiritual power gives you the insight needed to transcend negative appearances. It manifests through you as mental, emotional and physical strength. A perception of weakness is created when you are misaligned with your spiritual center. You see the negative condition as a force you have to overcome, so you ask God for more power. Because power is one of the fundamental attributes of your native soul, you need not ask for more. You need only remember that you have all the power required to rise above your fear of appearances.
An affirmation of power is the action of aligning your thought with that aspect of yourself already grounded in omnipotence. This alignment changes the way you see and interpret the negative condition, influences the way you interact with the condition, and ultimately changes the condition itself. Your objective is to shift your thinking to your unrestricted core, that inner point of power that is not subject to conditions. Success in working out every problem begins when you consciously connect with such aspects of your wholeness.
There is a very different mindset between looking for something you own but have misplaced and looking for something you are not sure you have. Imagine you are using a pencil to write a note and your cell phone rings. You answer the call, talk a few minutes and then hang up. When you resume your writing task you cannot find your pencil. You know you had it and your partially finished note is proof. Determined to find it, you know it has to be somewhere near. A search is begun. Under the papers? No. On the floor? No. Under the printer? No. In the wastebasket? No. Top drawer? No. It was here two minutes ago! Shirt pocket? No. Then, running your hands through your hair in frustration, you find the pencil behind your ear.
If, on the other hand, you decide to write a note and start looking through drawers for a pencil you’re not sure is there, you will not give your search the same attention. Top drawer. No pencil drawer. No. You quickly conclude there isn’t a pencil here, sigh and give up.