God exists!

And God is Great.

The Divine Source is not merely an impersonal Force, or Energy, or Consciousness.

The Divine Source is a Person.

And that Divine Person is infinitely, eternally Happy. The Divine Person is our True Self, the Source of our being and our consciousness.

God is not separate.

God is not apart.

God is right here!

As many religious traditions assert, God is everywhere, pervading the entire universe.

God pervades every thing and every being.

God is pervading you right now.

This fact is the basis for a secret, perfect Way, that involves no search whatsoever for either God or Happiness. Since the infinitely and eternally Happy God is already right here, pervading our very body and mind, the perfect Way is to locate God’s State of infinite Happiness directly — right where we are — and, in every moment, choose to feel the unlimited Happiness of the Divine State instead of our limited, mortal state, full of reactive emotions and all manner of suffering.

This Way of Divine Communion is perfect because it provides access to infinite, eternal Happiness, and it is based on locating God (and God’s Happiness) directly — right here and right now — rather than searching for (or ascending to) God elsewhere (e.g., in "heaven", or some higher dimension) or elsewhen (e.g., after death), or pursuing (a trickle of) happiness indirectly through improving circumstances, trying to "become happy", rather than directly locating God's State and directly being happy by immersing oneself in that Great Ocean of Unconditional Happiness. It is a Communion with the Real, Present, Living God from the start, that only deepens over time. Ultimately, Communion with the Divine matures into Realization of the Divine, as one forgets, purifies, and outgrows the limited, mortal body and identification with it, and one fully adapts to being infinite, formless, unlimitedly Happy Being with no self and no memories, prior to space and time.

This Way of Divine Communion is secret, not because it is being withheld, but because it is a new Way, and only a very few are aware of it at the present time. This Way is also secret because only a relative few currently possess the spiritual knowledge that enables them to understand how a Way of Perfect, Unlimited, Unconditional, Eternal Happiness is even possible, and why it only became possible recently. Our usual experience of happiness from day to day is extremely limited; and we mistakenly presume our happiness is dependent on arranging the right circumstances to "become happy". But in fact, the Way of Divine Communion is the Way of instant, unconditional, unlimited Happiness! The Way can be engaged in any moment, and we can be completely Happy in any moment, regardless of circumstance. . . even at death and after death. We simply need to locate the Divine Person (Who is pervading us right now), and immerse ourselves in the Divine State.

This book is a personal introduction to the Way of Adidam[10] — that secret, perfect Way of Real God and Unlimited Happiness.

The Divine Person pervades all of us right now. The dimension of God — the Divine Domain — pervades all of us right now. But it is also unfortunately true that the Divine Domain is at an incredibly greater frequency than this material dimension. The frequency of God is incredibly greater than the frequency of human beings. Even though God is right here, and even though God has always been right here, that immense “frequency gap” has rendered God effectively “invisible” to human awareness, in somewhat the same way ultraviolet light and infrared light are right here, but are invisible to our eyes, because our eyes can only see frequencies of light in the visible part of the spectrum. That invisibility has led religions to emphasize belief in God, rather than experience of God. And that invisibility has led many others to reach incorrect conclusions like "God doesn't exist", or "God is dead", or "God doesn’t care about us", or "the Source is an impersonal Force or Energy or Consciousness".

We have developed technologies that allow us to "see" formerly invisible frequencies of light, like infrared and ultraviolet. But locating God cannot be accomplished by developing an external technology. Locating God requires an incredibly profound transformation of our own "body-mind" vessel, that raises its frequency to the God level. And that is not possible, with the means for transformation that we have available. You can’t get There from here! The required transformation must bridge an evolutionary chasm something like the distance between the amoeba and man.

Even so, our hearts have always longed for God. That longing is built into our very hearts — the impulse for God-Realization and unlimited, eternal Happiness — because, even though we may not be aware of God, we also are never separate from God (whether we know it or not).

And so, based on that impulse, great spiritual explorers in past millennia developed alternatives. They discovered that, even though Complete God was inaccessible, one could locate an aspect of God. One could locate God as Light through a great and arduous path of inward ascension through higher dimensions above the head. And one could locate God as Consciousness through another great and arduous inward path of falling into the heart.

Jesus realized and revealed God as Light (“I am the Light of the world”). The great Realizers of Advaita Vedanta, as well as Gautama Buddha, realized and revealed God as Consciousness (in Advaita Vedanta, It is called the Self; in Buddhism, it is described as the “Nirvanic” Condition that frees one from life as suffering). The greatest accomplishments of the religious and spiritual traditions have been the teachings and spiritual ways they provided for Realizing God partially, either as Light or as Consciousness. I'm not referring to the religious belief systems and social organizations that suggest getting to “heaven” is simply a matter of being a believer, being a good person, and going to church, synagogue, or mosque now and then. No, I'm referring to the great, arduous spiritual paths known and pursued by the relatively rare, spiritual few: those saints, yogis, and sages who consciously spend much of their human lives in a greater-than-material dimension, and so are able to stably reside in that dimension after they die because they have gone through the necessary adaptation process during their human lifetime. Most of us, when we die, have not gone through such an adaptation process while alive, and consequently, we go through a chaotic "between lifetimes" process before being drawn right back here again, where our “center of gravity” currently is, to reincarnate with a new physical body.

To be able to commune with God as Light through a process of ascension is truly wonderful, compared to an ordinary human life! All of us experience that Communion with God as Light for just a moment after we die, as is reported in countless near-death experiences[7] — and not a single person ever wants to leave that Communion with God! But the great majority of us do fall out of that Communion nonetheless, because we have not developed (during our lifetime) the facility required for remaining in that Communion. However, those who have gone through an ascension process of spiritual growth are able to maintain that Communion with God as Light, because they have been practicing that Communion during their human lifetime. For this reason, many higher spiritual beings are currently providing help for assisting human beings to go through such an ascension process (both for personal growth and to keep the world from destroying itself).

Great as ascension is, our fullest potential is much greater. God is not just Light. God is not just Consciousness. Real God is Conscious Light! The Light of God is the Radiance of the Consciousness of God. The entire universe, in all its dimensions, is made out of the Light of God. And the entire universe arises out of the Consciousness of God like a dream arising in the consciousness of a dreamer. And it is possible for us to Awaken completely from this dream of limited existence.

It is not possible for a character in the dream (like you and I) to leave the dream and locate God by entering the Waking State (the Divine Domain), any more than a character in a dream we had last night could leave the dream and be sitting on our bed when we wake up! But it is possible for God to appear here, as a character in the dream: a Divine Incarnation, appearing in human form. (Indeed, all of us are the Divine appearing here in human form too — but, unlike a Divine Incarnation, we are not conscious of Who we really are, and so each of us profoundly suffers the illusion that we are a limited, mortal being.) The appearance of a Divine Incarnation is the one and only way the otherwise insurmountable “frequency gap” between limited beings and God can be bridged: through the creation of a God-man. We can’t raise our frequency to the God level or leave the dream (as our "dream character" selves), but God can appear in the dream in human form and, through that appearance in human form, we finally can become aware of God and enter into direct relationship with God, enabling Divine Communion, and ultimately, God-Realization — the Awakening from the dream as our True Self.[5]

The direct relationship with God (in human form) enables us to commune with God, immersing ourselves in God's infinitely, eternally Happy State. God has always pervaded us — God has always been right here — but without having God appear in human form, we have had no way of bridging the immense frequency gap between man and God, no way of locating the always present God and accessing God's State.

The direct relationship with God — fully here as Conscious Light in human form — is what then also allows God to Wake us Up altogether from the dream of conditional existence (and all its limitation and suffering), to Realize our True Divine Self. It is not possible for us on our own to transform our body-minds to the immense degree necessary to Wake Up. And it is not possible for only an aspect of God (God as Light, or God as Consciousness) to Wake us Up. But by being in direct relationship with the entirety of Real God — God as Conscious Light through a Divine Incarnation — we can allow God to do the work of transformation required to Wake us Up. And God as Conscious Light is fully able to do so, working first primarily with the "Light" aspect of us, and then with the "Consciousness" aspect.

I have mentioned how this Way of Divine Communion is new. The reason why is that it has required thousands of years of extraordinary Spiritual work by many great Spiritual Realizers to make a complete incarnation of the Divine possible here, and consequently a complete Divine Incarnation has only recently appeared.

Common religious notions of God often portray God as "all-powerful", based on the presumption that God is the Creator of the universe and the One Who is in charge of the universe right now. Such an all-powerful God, we might presume, could just snap a pair of Divine fingers and create a Divine Incarnation!

But just a simple look around should be sufficient for us to realize that there is no all-powerful, all-loving God running the show — no such all-loving God could possibly allow the degree of suffering that we see in the world! That evidence, however, does not imply that there is no God. It simply implies that Real God — the God that actually exists — does not have all the characteristics we often mistakenly attribute to God, like omnipotence.[6]

God does indeed exist! And God is indeed all-loving! But God is not the Creator. God is not the One "in Charge" of the universe. God is the Consciousness in which the entire universe is arising. God is the Source of our being and the One Who is living us right now. But God is not all-powerful. God cannot bring a Divine Incarnation into existence in an instant. In fact, God needs help from the conditional universe to manifest a Divine Incarnation. A complete Incarnation of God requires an extraordinary event to take place in the conditional universe.

These days it is common to hear communications from all manner of greater-than-material beings — from spirit guides to ETs to angels — telling anyone who would like to connect with them how that person must "raise their frequency" (through extensive, purifying life changes) in order to have a stable relationship with them, because of the frequency gap that otherwise exists between a lower being and a higher being.

That is true enough. And that frequency gap becomes immense when we are talking about God, and the changes required for conditional beings to “raise their frequency” to match and resonate with the God level of frequency. Those changes are evolutionary in scale, like the difference between the amoeba and man. So it simply is not possible for any of us to “raise our frequency” to the God level, on our own.

However, given thousands of years, countless reincarnations, and the collective, Spiritual efforts of the greatest Spiritual Masters, it finally became possible to create a single, unique "body-mind" vehicle with sufficiently high frequency that it was capable of reaching to, and coinciding with, the Divine Domain Itself, allowing the Divine Person to “cross over” or "descend" into the conditional universe and incarnate through that vehicle.[1]

The very instant that unique "body-mind" vehicle was made available to the Divine, the Divine was moved to incarnate in the conditional universe through that vehicle, out of love for all beings, and in answer to the prayers of all beings that had been made for thousands of years. That Divine Incarnation was born in a hospital on Long Island, on November 3, 1939, with the "every man" name of "Franklin Jones".[8] He is now known as Avatar Adi Da Samraj, or simply, Adi Da.

Adi Da
(Click image to enlarge)

Because devotees of Adi Da like myself recognize Adi Da to be the Divine Person (through direct Spiritual Revelation, not mere belief), the language we use to refer to Adi Da reflects that recognition. So I will refer to Adi Da using a capital "H": "Him", "He", "His", etc. Just so, in Adi Da's printed Teaching (for example, in the above quotes), when referring to Himself, He capitalizes the "M" in "Me", "Myself", "My", etc. This is not intended as a matter of belief, but as a Spiritual Communication that must be confirmed by the reader through Spiritual Revelation.

I didn't have any expectations when I first saw Him. But as Avatar Adi Da walked toward His seat, I looked at Him and felt He was only Love, walking around in a human body. I began to weep and weep, because I was literally seeing the Vision of God. And I was overwhelmed with gratitude.  

Raewyn Bowmar

I felt Beloved Adi Da's Spiritual Transmission thick in the room. I saw Him as the center of a field of visible, Love-Blissful, Conscious, breathable Light. He was simply Divine Love-Bliss. There was no longer a sense of being a separate self — just the profound peace of realizing there is nothing to seek, nowhere to go, nothing to attain. This was Reality Itself, and it was not separate from "me". I had no sense of my usual persona or contracted self. It was sort of like waiting all your life for a package to arrive, and then when it comes you aren't there — but you are so happy that you don't mind at all!  

Michael Shaw

The Appearance of the Divine Person in this dream of conditional existence in the human form of Adi Da is an extraordinary event in human history! And it opens up an extraordinary possibility and destiny for all of us. It creates a "hole in the universe" that allows all of us to finally be fully, directly aware of the Divine and the Waking State, right here and right now. And it enables the possibility for that Divine Person to Awaken us from the dream (as our True Self), and be entirely set free forever from the mortal limitations and suffering of the dream:

At heart, all of us long for the Waking State, even though most of us are not consciously aware It exists. Absolutely every single one of us can confess to wishing we could be infinitely happy forever — and the reason our heart has such a longing — one we are trained by society to believe is “unreasonable” — is because we can be infinitely happy forever!

When we initially Awaken, we may still be asssociated with our body-mind and continue to appear in the world — but we are no longer identified with the body-mind, and therefore no longer "bound" by the dream. We recognize it to be completely unnecessary, a modification of our own Consciousness, and nothing in the dream can threaten our Awakened State of Perfect, Eternal Happiness. Eventually, that State becomes so Brightly Radiant that the entire universe is Outshined, and we are completely "translated" into the Divine Domain.

That Waking Up is now possible does not mean the process of Waking Up is easy. Indeed, every bit of our programming and patterning — biological, cultural, psychic, spiritual, etc. — is adapted to survival and fulfillment in conditional existence, and consequently every bit of our programming works against our Waking Up. The direct awareness of Real God is something that has only just become possible, so nothing in us is adapted to the Divine and Its Infinite Happiness!

Very fortunately for us, the Divine functions as "Guru" (aka "Spiritual Master") and does most of the work in Awakening us. As Adi Da puts it: "The Divine does the Yoga":

The devotional relationship between devotee and Guru is what enables the Divine to do the transformative work required on an ongoing, moment-to-moment basis. And that relationship is based on the devotee recognizing Adi Da as the Divine, moment to moment. That heart-recognition allows the Divine to enter the body-mind of the devotee so the transformative work can be done:

So the devotional relationship between devotee and the Divine (through the human Guru) is absolutely necessary for enabling the Waking Up process to work. But the devotional response is also completely natural. To recognize Adi Da as the Divine is to be immersed in the Divine State, which is pure Happiness, and incredibly attractive. And the more deeply one is immersed in that Divine State (which is what happens as the devotional relationship matures), the more attractive that State becomes. Attraction to the Guru's Divine State of Perfect Happiness is the basis for the devotional relationship.

Adi Da communicates the "division of labor" between devotee and Guru in the Waking Up Process, using the beautiful metaphor of "grasping the tail of the Horse" and letting the Horse take us to "God Knows Where":

Adi Da emphasizes the evolutionary scale (similar to the evolutionary distance "from the amoeba in the primal mud of the Earth to a human being") of the Transformational Work of Waking Up — how it is not possible for one to do the work oneself (even if one knew where one was going and what was needed) because one doesn't have the required capabilities. But the Divine does have the Means, and it is the collaboration between devotee and God in the devotional relationship with Adi Da that Awakens the devotee:

Adi Da's human lifetime ended on November 29, 2008. But He — the Divine Person — remains eternally present, and now we have the means to locate Him and enter into relationship with Him. The Work He accomplished during His human lifetime was enough to establish the Way of Adidam — the Way of Communing with the Divine and Awakening from conditional existence — for all time. The continuing availability of His human form through photographs, videos, recordings, etc. serves the same function His human form did while alive, enabling all of us to connect with the Divine whenever we choose:

Even with God made present through the human form of Adi Da, the "Waking Up" process is immensely difficult. It is the most creative process possible! We are relieved of having to do all the transformational work ourselves — God is doing most of the work. All we have to do is cooperate with the process ("Grasp the tail of the Horse") and the Divine does the actual process ("the Horse takes you"). Even so, what is left for us to do — the part only we can do — is not easy. We are not relieved of having to stay in relationship with God moment to moment (which is what enables God to do the transformation), and we are not relieved of having to allow and endure the transformation process, which grates against all our programming as a merely mortal entity adapted and addicted to all manner of conventional satisfactions and driven by all manner of life habits oriented around fear and survival in a limited form.

So Waking Up is immensely difficult — but with the Divine Incarnation of Adi Da, it is now possible. And even beginning practitioners — for however long they remain beginners (before growing further) — can delight in the unlimited Happiness of Divine Communion. And it is the unlimited Happiness of Divine Communion that makes the ongoing process of Waking Up (beyond the beginner's practice) possible and tolerable.

All of us exist forever! And all our most important decisions should be made with that fact of unending existence informing our decisions, rather than our always acting as though we only live for this one lifetime, and trying to "live it up" with what time we have left in the current lifetime. Most of us will reincarnate here, again and again, for a very long time on this "wheel of birth and death".[3] In the end, Waking Up and Realizing God is everyone's ultimate destiny. Sooner or later, absolutely everyone will Wake Up from the dream of conditional existence, because the entire universe will eventually dissolve in the Light of God. Through the practice of Divine Communion in the Way of Adidam, you can choose to begin that process of Waking Up now, and begin enjoying the unlimited Happiness of the Divine (in place of our usual mortal suffering and limited pleasure) immediately. Or you can choose to do so later, in some future lifetime. You can even wait for the universe to dissolve in the Light of God! But be aware that that may take billions of years, and untold numbers of lifetimes and deaths (and everything that happens between lifetimes) for you in the meantime, in which you suffer existence, rather than enjoy It as Perfect Happiness. . .

As someone reading this book, it is very likely that you are a spiritual seeker, someone interested in spirituality and what it has to offer. If I were to lay out a map of what is possible in the realm of spirituality, what I have been describing so far is the very greatest possibility: the opportunity to be in direct, tangible Communion with God on an ongoing basis; and, ultimately, the opportunity for God-Realization, allowing one’s direct relationship and Communion with God to Awaken one completely from this dream of conditional, limited, mortal existence, as Infinite Consciousness, in a state of Infinite, Eternal Happiness. That is the ultimate destiny for all of us, and there is nothing greater!

But most spiritual seekers find their way into spirituality in a rather arbitrary fashion, without anything like a map of spiritual possibilities guiding them. So let me offer you just such a map, so you can see how the opportunity I've been describing compares with the other available spiritual options out there:

Click diagram to enlarge

I've grouped the spiritual possibilities into several categories, and organized those categories into a pyramid. In distinguishing these categories, I'm drawing upon the "seven stages of life" framework created by Adi Da.

• Spiritual Materialism. At the bottom of the pyramid is the least profound option (the lower part of the red area), which is also the most popular: spiritual materialism. Spiritual seekers in this category make use of spiritual means, but primarily to better achieve the usual material ends (better relationships, more money, fame, improved health, greater peace of mind, etc.). This category is associated with the first three stages of life (in Adi Da's "seven stages" framework). I'm estimating that 95% of all spiritual seekers end up in this category.
  
  
• Greater-Than-Material Dimensions. In the middle of the pyramid is a more profound option (the blue area): interaction with or realization of greater-than-material dimensions. This category is associated with the fourth, fifth, and sixth stages of life, in Adi Da's "seven stages of life" framework. Spiritual seekers in this category have some genuine, stable connection with and awareness of a greater-than-material dimension, whereas those in the "spiritual materialism" category do not. I'm estimating that about 5% of all spiritual seekers end up in this category and the one I'm about to describe (3D-5D Ascension).
  
  
• The Fourth Stage of Life — Case Study: 3D-5D Ascension. The greatest possibility in the "Greater-Than-Material Dimensions" category is to be able to "visit" while alive — and, after death, permanently shift into — one of those greater-than-material dimensions. (This corresponds to religious ideas like "going to heaven" after one dies.) However, such a shift has always required an exceptionally difficult growth process, and only a relative few in every generation (the great saints, yogis, etc.) have been able to accomplish it. For this reason, beings from the greater-than-material dimensions have made an easier spiritual possibility available: 3D-5D Ascension. (This is the lower part of the blue area in the above Pyramid diagram.) It doesn't result in an actual shift to a greater-than-material dimension, but it is an "ascension" process that enables participants to raise their frequency and experience some of the benefits of the greater-than-material dimensions — such as "unity consciousness" — even while still having one's "center of gravity" in the physical dimension. It is a kind of "Heaven on earth" possibility, and if enough people participate, it will split off a new timeline, a "New Earth" for those who are participating, that is at a higher frequency than the "old earth". Because a lot of spiritual seekers (including many readers of this book) are aware of (and many are participating in) this "3D-5D ascension" process, I will take a special, close look at this spiritual possibility and its relation to the offering of Adidam. "3D - 5D Ascension" is an example of what Adi Da describes as the transition from the third stage of life to the fourth stage of life: the beginning of the spiritualization of the body-mind.
  
  
• God-Realization / Awakening from the Dream. At the top of the pyramid is the most profound option (colored white in the Pyramid diagram): God-Realization and Awakening from the dream of limited existence altogether. This category is associated with the seventh stage of life. At the current time, a few thousand people — about .0001% of all spiritual seekers — are associated with this option: those associated with Adi Da and the Way of Adidam. I have already written a bit about the actual, direct Revelation of Real God (and Divine Communion and God-Realization) made possible in the offering of Adidam. But in just a bit, because everyone uses the word "God", I'll highlight the differences between the actual Revelation of Real God; the "God" of religious believers; and the "Source" that is so frequently alluded to (but not frequently related to) in many contemporary spiritual teachings.

Spiritual Materialism. Most of us are not deep philosophers. Our philosophy of life is fundamentally not based on reading philosophy books. Our philosophy largely rests on what our senses tell us. And when we use our senses to "look around us" and "see" what reality is, our senses tell us that we are in a material universe. Our ordinary five senses are not aware of any greater-than-material dimensions (e.g., spiritual dimensions) or greater-than-material beings (e.g., from fairies to spirit guides, angels, or God). We have immense faith in our senses, and we greatly rely on them and trust in them for virtually everything important throughout our day. And so that great trust in and reliance on our senses steer us toward being materialists.

The reason we aren't all just automatically "100% materialist" on the basis of our senses is because of four "holes" in the materialistic viewpoint:

1. There have always lived among us human beings whose experiential awareness of reality extend beyond the five material senses. (They have additional "greater-than-material" senses, associated with their greater-than-material bodies — etheric, astral, and causal.) These include shamans, prophets, psychics, and spiritual realizers. They report all kinds of details about greater-than-material dimensions and beings. And more than that: they also sometimes perform actions that lend credibility to their reports: they make prophesies that come true; they perform miracles that seem to override the laws of a purely materialistic universe: healing the sick; reading people's minds and hearts; communicating with spirits; influencing the weather; etc. Not surprisingly, in traditional societies, such exceptional human beings were valued for their greater awareness of reality (like sighted men among a village of blind people), and given leadership roles (like being the shaman in a traditional village), since, with their greater awareness, they could better steer their people in a direction that takes into account (and brings everyone into right alignment with) the greater reality (just as a sighted leader can keep a group of blind followers from accidentally falling off a cliff). Such people amplify the senses for everybody else in much the same way that scientific tools like the telescope, microscope, infrared light detectors, etc. have made us aware of far more than just what our senses are capable of revealing.
   
   
2. Virtually all of us have a greater-than-material experience every now and then. It may be very infrequent, but it happens to everyone. As Adi Da puts it (in His book, The Dreaded Gom-Boo): "Everyone receives the Shock of God — everyone. There is no living being, from the mosquito to the human being, who does not receive the Shock of Divine Intervention." That greater-than-material "shock" forces at least a momentary pause in an otherwise materialistic life and materialistic view of reality.
   
   
3. There are fundamental questions about the nature of reality that the materialistic viewpoint does not provide sufficient answers for, including: Why does anything exist? Do we have a non-material part of us that survives the death of the physical body? How can we account for consciousness? Science is aware of all these questions, and considerable research has been devoted to answering these questions within the materialistic framework, but with no luck, to date. For example, in considering the questions, "Why does anything exist? How could something come from nothing?", physicists have come up with a notion of "quantum flux", that could explain how physical particles can "manifest" out of the vacuum of space. But as it turns out, the vacuum they describe is not "nothing". It's full of energy, and "quantum flux" is a process that randomly converts some of that energy into matter. But "quantum flux" does not account for why there is anything at all, including energy, "quantum flux", and the very laws of physics!
   
   
4. We know through science that our senses have drawn many incorrect conclusions about the nature of reality, so the "conclusion" (on the basis of the senses) that reality is only material could also be incorrect. Examples of such errors made by the senses include the sun going around the earth. That certainly is what our senses alone suggest! Even phrases we still commonly use, like "the sun rises in the east and sets in the west" are residues of the more ancient view that the sun is circling the earth. It took some very nonintuitive scientific observations (e.g., Galileo studying the phases of the planet Venus with a new invention — the telescope — in 1610) to actually prove that the earth went around the sun, and most of us simply believe the earth goes around the sun because of our trust in science (over and against our senses) — not because we ourselves are familiar with the reasoning and scientific evidence behind it.[9]

On the basis of their material senses, all people — and that includes all "spiritual seekers" — have a great investment in materialism and materialistic fulfillment. How much significance you give to the four above “holes” in materialism and how you respond to them determines where you will land in the pyramid of spiritual options. (If you ignore or dismiss them all, you are choosing the route of the staunch materialist, and you don't enter the spiritual pyramid at all.)

The great majority of people end up being largely dominated by their materialistic impulses, in spite of the questions raised by the four "holes". Some of those materialists do acknowledge the reality and credibility of people who report of greater-than-material dimensions (hole #2 above), and the reality of some of the spiritual resources they describe. But their philosophy remains materialistic and so their life is purposed toward materialistic fulfillment. These are the spiritual materialists. Their relationship to any and all things spiritual that they come in contact with is as a spiritual consumer: how can I use this or that spiritual law, technique, or resource (including God) to better fulfill myself materially? They may be aware of other people who have a greater-than-material awareness of other dimensions, but they themselves have no impulse to expand their own awareness (except to the minimal extent required to make use of the spiritual resources for their material ends). They are only interested in taking whatever spiritual tools the "spiritually aware" guys have to offer, and using them to better fulfill themselves materially.

Spiritual materialism is ancient. As long as there have been people, there have been spiritual materialists. These are the folks in the Old Testament who prayed to God for material help: more money, fame, health, life, love, peace, and happiness; strength and comfort during difficult times; well-being and safety for themselves and loved ones; on and on. Those prayers rarely included a prayer for a greater awareness of God and a deeper relationship with God. As spiritual materialists get older, and approach the end of their material lives, they often do begin to pray that they will "go to heaven" after they die — but with little awareness of the degree to which they would have to transform their lives to actually make that happen

I remember first grasping the idea of spiritual materialism in 1989. I had just become a devotee of Adi Da. I was reading a book that was hugely popular at the time: Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I had read somewhere that Covey's seventh habit was about spirituality, and so I was eager to read that chapter. I knew he was active in his Christian church, and so I was anticipating that the final habit might be one that put all the earlier ones in perspective: in the end, we're all going to die; we have a higher destiny, so don't get so preoccupied with material matters that you forget your higher destiny. In other words, I was expecting Covey’s seventh habit to be something along the lines of Jesus's message: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

But instead, I was surprised to find something completely different! Covey's seventh habit was: "Sharpen the saw." And the basic idea was to use spiritual resources to rest and rejuvenate, so you can then return to continued, effective functioning. It was basically subordinating spirituality to whatever ends you have in mind — and his seven habits framework has mainly been applied to material ends. So in practice, his seventh habit was generally subordinating spirituality to materialism. And that was the first time it occurred to me that "spiritual materialism" — the use of spiritual resources for material ends — was a significant concept, representing many people’s relationship to spirituality.

Everyone has material needs — and that includes spiritual seekers and spiritual realizers. So there's nothing wrong with using spiritual laws and resources like the ones we have just mentioned to improve one's material circumstances. For example, I spend an entire Part of this book (Adventures With the Devotional Prayer of Changes) telling how I access and use the Power of the Divine to perform miracles like curing my prostate cancer; healing ailing computers; "vanishing" a huge, nearly $90,000 debt to the IRS; and getting a song I wrote to appear at the top of Taylor Swift's personal YouTube page in front of her and her millions of followers.

Using spiritual resources for material ends does not make one a spiritual materialist. What makes one a spiritual materialist is that one is only using spiritual resources for material ends. For example, what distinguishes me from spiritual materialists is that I am doing far more with the spiritual resources available to me than just improving my material circumstance. I am engaged in a practice of Divine Communion, whose ultimate fruit is God-Realization, the complete, permanent Awakening from this dream that is so full of limitation, suffering, and death. In contrast, spiritual materialists are largely or entirely invested in material existence, and their use of spirituality (as “spiritual consumers”) tends to reinforce their commitment to material existence.

Adi Da has a wonderful way of describing spiritual materialists: "It's like using a Saligram to crack nuts!" A Saligram is a sacred Hindu object, so to use it for a mundane task like cracking nuts is a kind of sacrilege. But it's not sacrilegious in some merely social sense. it's sacrilegious in a much more profound sense: the existence of the spiritual points to so much more than the material! All the great spiritual realizers tell us of greater-than-material dimensions far more beautiful, peaceful, and loving than our material dimension, that we are capable of "realizing" in the sense of our being able to stably reside in those heavenly dimensions rather than this one. But instead of exploring that altogether greater potential destiny, the spiritual materialist says, "no, not interested", and asks how these higher dimensions — their power, their laws, etc. — can be used "down here" to crack nuts better.

That's why spiritual resources like "The Law of Attraction" are so appealing to spiritual materialists: they offer the possibility of greater control over the material domain, so we can better fulfill our material needs and wants. They are a 21st century version of praying to God for a better wordly life. There's a whole panoply of spiritual resources that are genuinely effective (including the Law of Attraction), and that can be used to improve one's material circumstances. Here are just some:

• the Law of Attraction and variants of it like "The Secret" are special cases of a more general principle Adi Da likes to state as: "You become what you meditate on". The Law of Attraction directs one's thoughts and energy toward what one wants, in order to manifest what one wants. (We will be introducing and exploring a more powerful, Divine version of this principle called "the Devotional Prayer of Changes" in Part II of this book.)
• meditation, mindfulness, and breathwork for stress reduction, calming the nervous system, and inducing deep relaxation.
• yoga for integrating physical exercise with spiritual and mental wellness.
• sound baths (using singing bowls, gongs, chimes, etc.) for circulating energy and harmonizing the body and mind.
• use of crystals for healing, energy balancing, and intention-setting.
• Reiki, Chi Gong, and bioenergetics for freeing up and channeling life force energy and for healing.
• ancestral healing for healing intergenerational trauma and changing negative patterns inherited from one's family line.
• astrology, tarot, oracle cards, I Ching, Kabbalah, and listening to channelers (or learning how to channel greater-than-material entities oneself) to gain guidance and self-awareness.
• development of psychic (extrasensory perception) abilities like clairvoyance, telekinesis, etc.
• Jungian shadow work for exploring and integrating the repressed, unconscious parts of oneself.
• journaling (diaries) and other self-reflective practices for developing one's intuition and inner wisdom.
• connecting with nature in various ways (hiking or going for walks, forest bathing, grounding/earthing, etc.) to feel a connection to "something bigger than myself".
• similarly, engaging in social or community service or acts of kindness to others, again to connect to "something bigger than myself".
• choosing a diet that is less toxifying and more conducive to health, balance, energy circulation, and longevity.
• participating in spiritual communities, either in a short-term manner (events, festivals, gatherings) or a longer term manner (living with other community members, participating in online communities).
• "following your bliss", whether in the Joseph Campbell/Jungian manner or the "Bashar formula" for organizing your life around inspired action.

Interestingly, all of these resources can be of use to a practitioner of the Way of Adidam, because Divine Communion can be served and enhanced by bringing the physical and etheric bodies into greater balance and equanimity. (For example, one of the developmental goals in the third stage of life is integration, and Jungian shadow work can greatly assist that process.) In contrast, the spiritual materialist uses these resources solely for the benefit of the physical (and etheric) bodies, and so whatever virtue these resources provide largely comes to an end when the physical body dies (and the etheric body dies shortly after). One large exception: even if a spiritual materialist is not using these resources to increase their spiritual maturity very much, to the extent that these resources help increase their human maturity, they are serving spiritual growth in the long term, because stable spiritual growth rests on a foundation of full human maturity.

Greater-Than-Material Dimensions. The Pyramid of Spiritual Options displays profoundly different potential destinies, associated with different dimensions. The least destiny is to simply reincarnate here again in the material dimension. That is the destiny of the spiritual materialist (shown in the red layer, at the bottom of the pyramid), because their limited interaction with spiritual forces, laws, and resources tends to not be anywhere near enough to shift their "center of gravity" to a higher dimension.

Click diagram to enlarge

The blue layer of the Pyramid of Spiritual Options represents those spiritual seekers who:

• are aware that there are greater-than-material dimensions
• have some real experience of greater-than-material dimensions
• may be associated with some kind of process that has the potential to shift their destiny to a greater-than-material dimension
• have some impulse to do so

I've estimated the percentage of spiritual seekers in this layer of the triangle (combined with those in the upper part of the red area — which we’ll talk about next) as about roughly 5% (compared with the 95% who are spiritual materialists).

Why would you be interested in shifting your "residence" to one of these greater-than-material dimensions, rather than just being reincarnated here in the material dimension (again and again)? It's because those spiritual dimensions are far more benign, far more full of light and love, lives are longer, superior to life in the material dimension in so many ways! These dimensions are mental or psychic realms in which, just by thinking of something, it becomes real! These dimensions are the source for our notion of "heaven" — they are indeed heavenly realms.

"Going to heaven when we die" is one of the great goals of most religions. Unfortunately the "church level" message of what is required for that to happen is woefully inadequate. It is suggested that, to "go to heaven", all one needs to do is be a "good person", go to church/mosque/synagogue/etc. regularly, and be a believer, and God will take care of the rest. But when we actually examine the lives of people who likely did "get into heaven" — like the Christian saints — we see a very different story. Their lives reflected what Adi Da said in the above quote: "while alive, you begin to exist in another condition, in another 'place'. Then at death, and also while alive, you may go there, and not come back here." Only those who actually have progressed to the point of spiritual maturity where, while still alive, they are already able to reside in a "heavenly dimension", will be able to stably reside in that same dimension after death, rather than being recycled back here. That — accompanied by rigorous disciplines that serve that — is what provides the necessary adaptation process. And that is the yardstick by which to measure your spiritual maturity and "after death" destiny: are you currently, regularly "existing in" a greater-than-material dimension?

So even as someone’s funeral is proceeding, and the pastor is saying how "Johnny is looking down on us from heaven", in fact, what is more likely happening is that, because Johnny spent no time while alive adapting to the higher dimension he now finds himself in, he is very likely going through a very chaotic, confusing process (in the "bardos", as the Tibetan Buddhists call them) driven by his own mind, that will eventually dump him out in the material dimension down here again through reincarnation, because the material dimension is where his "center of gravity" is. Much of the chaos of that inter-life transition comes from the fact that, as mentioned earlier, the higher dimension is a "mind realm" in which what you think becomes real. That's a truly wonderful feature for someone whose mind has been disciplined to only think of things they want! It's not such a wonderful experience for an undisciplined mind that is alternately generating heavenly and nightmarish thoughts (and consequently realities) at random.

The spiritual growth required to stably reside in a higher dimension is not easy to acquire! Even being able to stably reside in the etheric dimension (the energy dimension "just above" the material dimension) after death requires a great ordeal of practice (or "Yoga", as Adi Da refers to it in the following quote):

Stably residing in a greater-than-material dimension requires much more than learning the mechanics of psychic, inter-dimensional travel (whether it is externalized as "astral projection" or internalized as kundalini energy and spinal ascent). It requires a profound "identity shift". One must consciously inhabit the "body" (etheric body, astral body, etc.) associated with that greater-than-material dimension; adapt to and learn how to use that body; transcend one's identification with (and attachment to) the physical body (and all the habits — in the areas of money, food, and sex — that keep reinforcing our attachment to the physical body); etc.

I've mentioned estimating the number of spiritual seekers who are in the blue layer of the triangle (combined with the upper red layer) at 5%. Recall that these are folks who are aware that there are greater-than-material dimensions; have some real experience of greater-than-material dimensions; may be associated with some kind of process that has the potential to shift their destiny to a greater-than-material dimension; and have some impulse to do so. However, the number of people in this layer who are actually regularly "existing" in a greater-than-material dimension while alive is much less than 5%.

Here are some of the available spiritual resources associated with awareness, experience, and realization of greater-than-material dimensions:

• Monroe technique for initiating out of body experiences
• Kundalini schools
• Self-Realization traditions
• Buddhist nirvanic traditions
• Sufi traditions
• Advaita Vedanta traditions

In addition to these resources, Adi Da has written three masterpieces that provide a comprehensive and profound conceptual framework for understanding greater-than-material dimensions and growth beyond the material dimensions:

• The Pneumaton — Everything there is to know about "God as Light" and all the various ascension traditions, including mystical ascent in Christian traditions and kundalini activation in Hindu traditions.
• The Gnosticon — Everything there is to know about "God as Consciousness" and all the various traditions for Realizing Consciousness, including Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta.
• The Aletheon — Everything there is to know about "God as Conscious Light", which is what the Way of Adidam is all about.

The Fourth Stage of Life — Case Study: 3D - 5D Ascension. Even while still maturing in the first three stages of life, many people devote themselves to religious practices, submitting to an ordered life of discipline and devotion. This is the beginning of establishing the disposition of the fourth stage of life, but it is only the beginning. The real leap involved in transitioning to the fourth stage of life is one that very few ever make. It is the transition we associate with saints: nothing less the breakthrough to a Spiritually-illumined life of Divine Contemplation and selfless service. How does such a life become possible? Only on the basis of a heart-awakening to the Divine that is so profound that the common human goals — to be fulfilled through bodily and mental pleasures — lose their force.

The 3d - 5D transition that is being espoused and supported by so many higher spiritual beings these days is an example of the transition from the first three stages of life to the fourth stage of life, in Adi Da's "seven stages of life" framework. It is a fundamental shift from ego-centered, survival-oriented existence to a life centered on love, service, and spiritual connection. And like all such transitions, it requires a spiritual awakening of the heart.[11] Adi Da's description of the fourth stage of life ("Spiritualization") closely parallels descriptions of the 5D state of being ("heart-centered Consciousness"), while Adi Da's first three stages of "lower functional adaptation" (physical, emotional, mental) correspond to the 3D reality of separation, survival, and intellectual limitation. The following table fleshes out this correspondence:

The Problem of the 3D/3rd Stage (The Ego-Bound State): In 3D ascension, this is characterized by a strong identification with the physical body and material survival. Adi Da describes this as the first three stages (1. Physical, 2. Emotional/Sexual, 3. Mental) where the ego-personality is developed and coordinated for survival, often accompanied by chronic negativity and separation.

The Transition (The Wake-Up Call): 3D-to-5D involves the unsettling of ego-driven patterns (shadow work) to allow for a higher vibration. Adi Da calls this transition a "profound" and "critical" point requiring the breakdown of egoic, separate-self survival, replacing it with the impulse to "surrender" in devotional love.

The New State (5D / 4th Stage): 5D is described as heart-centered love, unity, and living in the present. Similarly, Adi Da's 4th stage involves the "opening of the heart" in love, moving beyond just intellectual understanding to a "love-communion" with the Divine.

The limitations of the Fourth Stage of life (and 5D Realization) and the Seventh Stage Way of Adidam. A crucial, shared caution is that both 5D consciousness and the 4th stage of life are transitional, not final. Some interpretations see 5D as simply a high-vibration, "feeling good" state rather than a final realization. Adi Da views the 4th (and 5th) stage as "advanced" but not ultimate, as they still involve a feeling of the Divine as a "great Other" (a subtle form of duality/separation). The true realization of oneness is only Realized in the seventh stage of life.

The 3D/5D model and the fourth stage "ascending" from the density of 3D, while Adi Da focuses on infusing the Divine Current into the already existing psycho-physical body.

One of the skills spiritual seekers participating in the 3D-5D Ascension most aspire to is timeline-switching: the ability to envision and shift to an alternative timeline with a more desirable set of circumstances, history, etc.[1] It is interesting to contrast this with the inter-dimensional shifting that Adidam practitioners of Divine Communion engage in, eventually, moment-to-moment. The entire body is shifted into the Divine Domain — the State of Divine Happiness that is completely free of any limitations whatsoever. Ultimately, this becomes one's permanent Realization in the fruition of practice. So you have switching to a better dream vs. awakening from the dream altogether.

Communion With Real God vs. "God" in Religion vs. "Source" in Spirituality

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