We understand that our physical bodies, and everything we experience physically, are fragmented expressions of the same core level of existence. But how can we know or prove that? Scientific proof for this statement is hard to come by. The closest science that deals with these topics is Quantum Mechanics, but I intend to keep this book as accessible as possible. So, the best approach is to lend credibility from other mystics who have dedicated their lives to these matters. ### Modern Mystics There are countless masters and gurus from the ancient Orient known to have experienced this core of our existence. However, there aren't many modern-day mystics we can refer to. And if there are, it’s unlikely you would find them through modern media. However, through my recent interest in Ashtanga Yoga, I've come across one modern-day mystic who is still among us and shares his experiences in podcasts and books: Gregor Maehle. Gregor Maehle is a German Ashtanga Yoga practitioner who has had mystical experiences since he was a child. Through his practice and study of Ashtanga Yoga, he has developed an understanding and ability to reach self-induced mystical states. In his book, _Yoga Meditation_, he gives a great description of one of his mystical experiences. ### Gregor Maehle's Mystical Experience "I suddenly seemed to have the ability to see into deep space, and an unlimited number of solar systems, galaxies, and universes were revealed to my eye. I saw worlds being created, flourishing, and then decaying. I saw in all these worlds an immeasurable number of species developing, striving, and evolving. Then I saw, suspended in the center of this vista, a humongous, boundless Being. This Being appeared to have an infinity of arms with which it simultaneously maintained, carried, developed, created, and reabsorbed an imponderable number of worlds, galaxies, and universes. This Being was of fathomless knowledge, intelligence, beauty, love, freedom, truth, and power. Through an infinity of languages, it emitted its knowledge simultaneously to all celestial species, races, and cultures of beings that lived in all worlds. And it seemed as if all these trillions of discourses that went on simultaneously then merged into the one sound, OM. As this sound was emitted, it gave birth to suns, planets, and solar systems, and placed them in their orbits. It made electrons circle around their atomic nuclei, gave rise to the laws of physics, and produced DNA, including the human one." When I read this description of his experience, I was awe-struck. It was such a well-formulated attempt at describing something I had experienced myself during a psychedelic trip. I was extra impressed because I know how hard it is to put these things into words, as our words and sounds are too limiting to express everything that goes on in such moments. Below is a part of my journal where I covered that experience. ### My Mystical Experience "I had just experienced a wonderful orange light over the mountaintops from the sunrise. While lying down and watching the mountain rocks, I started noticing that it didn't matter anymore if I opened or closed my eyes; I was seeing the same thing—fractal patterns in everything. The rock formations, trees, branches, water crystals. I noticed my body pulsing in the same way as during deep meditations or healing sessions. It made me realize what this energy is that would flow through me in such moments: Sexual energy. The same thing as life force energy, chi, prana, etc. There exists no difference; all experiences of bliss are caused by the same thing. Once I started connecting these geometrical fractal codes with this experience of life force energy gushing through my body, I started understanding that these are the visual (physical) and emotional expressions of exactly the same thing: Source. Everything physical, including our body, is made out of these fractal expressions able to work together as systems. Once this sank in, I started to zoom out, experiencing an out-of-body experience inside this fractal cosmos of my mind. I started to see how zooming out from this fractal vortex resulted in connecting everything. Emotionally understanding what "we're all one" really means. But I kept maintaining my sense of self, just feeling like I was that spiraling vortex, both in and out! Out into Gaia, the Milky Way, and the entire Cosmos. And in, into the smallest protons being small black holes and universes on themselves again. It is me who has created all this, who is everything, and how my body is just a physical fractal expression that is inhabited by my life-force energy that flows through everything, and how this intelligently designed system of collaborating fractals, my body, can create its consciousness/reality." This is the exact way I wrote it down after an amazing experience in Samothraki, Greece. I’m amazed by how similarly Gregor explains the same concepts, even though I read about his experience two years after my own. ### The Five Layers Model It is through another book by Gregor Maehle, _How To Find Your Divine Purpose_, that I stumbled upon the Panchakoshamodel (five layers model). This model corresponds brilliantly with the onion metaphor I've used before and is very handy to explain things simply. You can see it here. ![[The Five Layers Model.png]] The different layers represent the different sheaths, or bodies, of our entire being. #### The Physical Body The outer layer represents the physical body, the most familiar aspect of our being. It is the ‘regular’ gross expression of our body that we can see, touch, and feel. #### The Energy Body Most people who have heard about "out-of-body experiences" are also familiar with the energetic, or astral, body. Life force is the vital energy that flows through and enlivens all our physical systems. The breath is the most physical expression of this energy. Working with the breath balances the flow of the life force to all the physical systems. Our energetic body is made up of energetic channels and centers that we'll explore deeper in the chapter [[How Meditation Can Expand Our Consciousness]]. #### The Mental Body The third layer represents the mental body with the matching mental sheath. This layer of our being is expressed as thoughts, emotions, and feelings. These are the mental faculties with which we absorb, process, and interpret input from our environment, registered through the senses of the physical body. This body should be seen as the supervisor in a factory but often mistakenly takes on the role of manager. Gregor presents a helpful way to think about these bodies in his book, which he learned from studying the ancient Indian scriptures, like the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali. ### The States of Our Whole Body These scriptures explain that you should think of these bodies as the different states water can be in: - Like ice in its most solid and physical state. - Like liquid in its energetic state. - Like gas in its mental state. With every deeper layer, the substance becomes increasingly more energetic, creating more space between the figurative molecules and losing more of its physical form. Following the onion metaphor, all things grow out of our mental body into the other bodies. The thoughts, emotions, and feelings turn into denser energies, and the energies turn into mass. Our physical bodies form a highly crystallized state of our thoughts, emotions, and feelings. This makes it crucial to learn how to control your mental faculties. Everything else manifests out of it! ### Understanding the Power of Our Mind By reasoning from the core to the outer layer, it becomes easy to see how we are created from the Source. Our mind controls our energies and physique. We rule our body; our body doesn’t rule us. Truly understanding this notion gives you full control over your physical reality and experience. Through our thoughts and internal visioning, we’re able to access the deep knowledge sheath, or the wisdom body. #### The Wisdom Body This body represents the fourth layer of the Panchakoshamodel. This sheath is completely formless and just a sea of information. It represents the higher mind, the faculty of wisdom, which lies underneath the processing, thinking, and reactive mind. This is the level of our being that has the higher wisdom to guide us through life and lead us to higher levels of truth and integration. It allows us to experience deeper insight into ourselves and the world around us. This is the medium through which the Source makes contact with its bodies. #### The Bliss Body The inner core, the ecstasy sheath, is simply pure bliss and unity. Not bliss in the sense of emotions such as happiness or pleasure, but an expanded, unbounded experience of reality. Experiencing the bliss body is an experience of the deepest level of our being, an unbounded, blissful state of peace, joy, and love. The Source that connects everything. ### Making Ourselves Whole Again We should work on healing all aspects of our entire being to make ourselves whole again. In Yoga, healing your thoughts is done through developing a proper meditation practice. Working with your emotions is done through breathwork, also called Pranayama practice. And working on your physical body with yoga postures, or Asana practice. A common misconception is that practicing Yoga is solely done through the Asanas, but Pranayama and Meditation should be developed in unison just as much. That is, of course, if you intend to clean up your connection with Source. You could imagine a channel through the different layers in the model to reach the well or the source. One should keep that channel unclogged for a clear connection. Unclogging the channel can be likened to healing the different bodies or making ourselves whole again. Once you've healed the physical, energy, and mental bodies, you're able to maintain the clearest communication with the Source, opening up the floodgates to let itself express through you. ### Our Deeper Purpose The unique way that Source is supposed to express itself through you is what can be understood as one's deeper purpose. I hesitated to use "divine" as a prefix for purpose, the same way Gregor Maehle refers to it, but I thought it might be too triggering for atheists. The divine purpose can also be understood as a higher calling. However, "calling" could imply that a physical, almighty, god-like deity is calling you. Besides, I think it would be most helpful to stay in line with the onion metaphor, going deeper to the core, layer by layer, inside yourself. So let's remove all potential triggers and make this book more congruent by calling it a "deeper purpose." Everyone's deeper purpose consists of two parts: a general part and a specific part. #### Our Deeper Purpose in General The general theme is easy to determine based on what’s covered in the previous chapters. Seeing that everything (humans, animals, plants, microbes, rivers, mountains, forests, oceans, etc.) is a fractal expression of the Source, it’s easy to understand that it is all in service to each other, continually progressing in expression or evolution, like cogs grappling with each other to keep the machine going. Since humans are the most intelligent and advanced life forms, we become the agents of this evolution and will fulfill this duty most effectively in peace and harmony with all the other fractal expressions. **So that's our general deeper purpose: being an agent of spiritual evolution, peace, and harmony on this planet.** But since every fractal expression is also inherently unique, we each have our own way of contributing to this symphony of life. #### Everybody's Unique Contribution This comes down to the specific part of your deeper purpose. Everyone has a unique set of skills and interests through which they can express themselves and contribute to the creative nature of evolution. You just need to identify these skills and interests. That's how simple it is. **Your deeper purpose is being an agent of spiritual evolution, peace, and harmony through your unique skills and interests.** As simple as it may sound, it amounts to no less than a spiritual revolution to get everybody on board with this. Because the generic part is what the world is most divided on through the plethora of religions with their own stories and belief systems around the source of creation. It's humanity's collective deeper purpose to see past those apparent differences, help each other see how everything is connected, and live in love and harmony with each other and everything. ### The World's Religions But are all these religions actually that different from each other? In the _Sourcebook of the World's Religions_ by Joel Beversluis, a very concise list of eight points of similarities is presented, found in the dialogue between a group of spiritual teachers from a variety of world religions: Buddhist, Tibetan Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Islamic, Native American, Russian Orthodox, Protestant, and Roman Catholic. I will quote the eight points exactly as presented in the book. Instead of "Source," the book uses "Ultimate Reality." Instead of "fractal expression," they use "human condition." Mentally replace these words, and you won't be able to deny the similarities with everything mentioned so far. 1. The world religions bear witness to the experience of Ultimate Reality, to which they give various names: Brahman, Allah, Absolute, God, Great Spirit. 2. Ultimate Reality cannot be limited by any name or concept. 3. Ultimate Reality is the ground of infinite potentiality and actualization. 4. Faith is opening, accepting, and responding to Ultimate Reality. Faith in this sense precedes every belief system. 5. The potential for human wholeness-- or in other frames of reference, enlightenment, salvation, transformation, blessedness, nirvana-- is present in every human being. 6. Ultimate Reality may be experienced not only through religious practices but also through nature, art, human relationships, and service to others. 7. As long as the human condition is experienced as separate from Ultimate Reality, it is subject to ignorance and illusion, weakness, and suffering. 8. Disciplined practice is essential to the spiritual life; yet spiritual attainment is not the result of the experience of one's own efforts but the result of the experience of oneness with Ultimate Reality. Pretty striking, huh? It was through a beautiful synchronicity that I stumbled on this list at exactly the moment I needed it for writing this book. More on synchronicities in the chapter [[How Synchronicities Work]]. The eighth point is also exactly where I wanted to pick things back up. It states that disciplined practice is essential for spiritual attainment. In other words, one needs to develop a disciplined practice to reach a level of consciousness that makes you see the generic part of everybody's deeper purpose—a practice of healing, a practice of regaining wholeness. This healing has to happen in the three different bodies we discussed, with the most important being meditation, which works with the mental sheath. As discussed, through your mental body, you can indirectly transform your emotional and physical bodies, as they grow out of each other, starting from the core, like an onion. Later on, we will delve deeper into that higher-level consciousness required before you can start working towards your deeper purpose. For now, let's explore a few more basic concepts about the nature of our reality.