We are complex beings…

… infinitely more complex than the physical Universe around us.

While no model can ever adequately represent the multifarious levels of our consciousness, nevertheless for our purposes it is helpful to envision ourselves as comprising five essential levels of being. Each level has its own distinct modes of consciousness, its own qualities, capacities and sometimes defining limitations. Of course we are one Being, and every level is intricately and intimately intertwined with each other level in myriad ways, some obvious and most mysterious.

The most apparent level of our being, the first we can consciously grasp and identify with, is that which embodies us here on earth, our physical form. Of all the levels of our being, our body is the only one most of us can actually see, point to and touch.

Our physical body is composed of physical matter and for the most part, obeys known laws of physics. We can draw a line around it, enclose it, we can weigh it and measure it. Being composed of physical matter, our bodies are conceived, born, grow, age, die and return to the physical elements from which they were formed.

Medical science and anatomy have given us a fair understanding of how the body works. Through general sciences we can observe how our bodies operate in and interact with our broader physical universe, which for the purposes of this model, serves as an extension or projection of our physical consciousness.

Our bodies are astonishingly intricate and marvellous instruments, yet in and of themselves they are essentially useless, inert matter. For the body to be able to act in the world, it needs the presence of the second level of our being, the Vital.

(…continued…)