QA192 QUESTION: Some time ago, in another lecture, you told us that when there was a very wide split in the consciousness of a person, then this would manifest in a large crisis, an acute crisis. I’ve found this to be true in my life, and I would like to explore further the meaning of this split in the consciousness. What kind of prior life manifestations must one have had to have brought about this sort of wide disparateness in consciousness?
ANSWER: It is not just one specific prior life manifestation in the sense that something has been committed and is now being punished. It is a state of consciousness of two basic states of development. When the entity lives out of the body – is not being incarnated in matter – one basic state, let us say the less-developed state, may remain latent for a period of time, and the entity then expresses his life circumstances and environment in a sphere of being which is compatible to the higher developed state of consciousness – and the negative or the undeveloped stage remains latent.
Then at other periods in an existence that is not in matter, it is the other way around. And let us say even if by a far larger degree the developed side may be far more strongly represented than the undeveloped side, the dark or shadow side still this remains latent and the negative, destructive side is manifest and the entity lives in an environment which is compatible to this negative side, in varying degrees.
He lives in such a world and is unaware of his developed latencies. He therefore has a tremendous amount of difficulty in an environment that is totally compatible with this undeveloped, now-manifest state.
Now, life on earth in matter is taken on as a speedier way of combining the two. This must be and always is the origin and the cause of such a crisis as you described. The crisis is when these two sides are being tried to be reconciled, and this cannot be done at first without crisis. Because life in a body on this sphere, where everything manifests in matter – in hardened, rigidified life-stuff – can alternate and you can truly become aware much easier of both states.
The ego – the will – has the power to determine which side to identify with, to observe and to listen to, and that affords the entity a much speedier way of development. In your particular case, you have taken on this task to bring these two sides together, to bring the negative latency to the fore and the positive latency to the fore.
Both were dark, and it is now a question of reconciliation, of unifying, of finding your way in the maze where many of the messages that come to you from your deep innermost self are confusing. You do not know where they belong; something that appears negative and is negative and is an expression of the negative, shadowy, destructive side may, at the same time, also be an expression of the highest in you. You have undertaken this task to raise your level of consciousness. This is what I can say.
QUESTION: Would you say then that part of the meaning could be to find the unity in the duality?
ANSWER: Yes.
QUESTION: That I find the unity in the expression of both negative and positive in one act.
ANSWER: Yes. Yes. To give you just some examples, how can you find true independence and self-determination without becoming separate and rigid? How can you become yielding, self-surrendering without becoming dependent and clutching? How can you become loving without losing your integrity? How can you sustain your independent spirit without becoming alienated from others and without letting contentiousness and superiority block out the love capacity? These are basically the struggles that you are searching with and battling with.
If the pendulum seems to swing back and forth from one extreme and then ruling out the negative side of it – which you have made very substantial progress on in these last few months – this is really the most important thing an entity can do. Nothing can be as important, for nothing can be as furthering to love and union on the greatest possible scale.
