I am playing my 2002 tape for the 50th time, and there is one issue still puzzling me.
It was mentioned on the tape that my family and my sister's partner are getting a "place" ready for her. She is still in the nursing home feeling quite fatigued. If heaven isn't a place, but rather, a state of consciousness, where will this place be? What is heaven? Will there ever a place where we can just "be"?
Thank you, Louise!
-Sue in Seattle-
This is a variation of an often-asked question that relates to a common theme. You'll see a reference in my reply to Bobbi, which has to do with our limitations in trying to comprehend our truly multi-sensory, multi-dimensional and timeless nature. We are only able to perceive—then interpret—through the filter of our physically-oriented selves in a three-dimensional, physical world.
The fairly new concept, "The Other Side," is a good and enlightening one. It is alerting people to the illusion of death, and is most certainly expanding awareness to include the continuum of life; to the everlasting existence of the soul.
At the same time, folks are inclined to perceive it as a place! I see that you, yourself, acknowledge that "heaven" (The Other Side) is indeed, a state of consciousness, but then ask, "Where will this 'place' (locality-oriented) be?" Then, "Will there ever be..." (time-oriented). Do you see how difficult it is for us to get away from such references? Such perceptions?
As we continue to expand as multi-sensory beings, so will our capacity to embrace new interpretations of our Universe—as well as of our own existence— in ways that would have really "rattled our cages" in the past.
For one, we will not perceive "The Other Side"—heaven, if you will—as a place, nor "death" (life "on The Other Side") as an existence that is so separate from our own. We will accept the whole process as a seamless transformation from a physcial to a non-physical existence through which we experience a shift that expands our perceptions beyond the limitations of linearly perceived time and space. We will accept that we perceive through a continuum of consciousness and travel to where our thoughts go.
For example, if right now you were sitting in an audience, listening to me speak, your thoughts wander, especially if I happened to talk beyond the time for a necessary break—an occasional occurrence!
You remember that you forgot to pick up the cleaning after work, before you came to the lecture. Your thoughts drift towards an image of the outfit you bought to wear for a special occasion over the upcoming weekend. You are entertaining those various thoughts—going to all those "places"—while continuing to listen to me. In those moments, you went to where your thoughts traveled, in three different directions. It is no different from loved ones on "The Other Side," except that they are not limited by the perceptions that we hold and continually reference—of time and space (place).
BTW, I'm amused at how we refer to those existing in the non-physical, as "they," as if those souls are an odd, peculiar species. We are "they" when we astral project in our sleep—often visiting with "them"—and when have multi-dimensional experiences, even while our physical selves are focused on an experience "here," in the body.