The following is a brief synopsis of my understanding of reality based upon the higher knowledge I have researched in Near Death Experiences (NDE's) and their application toward my understanding of science, religion, metaphysics, and philosophy.

How we began: In the beginning, there was nothing but one universal, collective consciousness, which people refer to as Spirit or God. Within this one Collective Consciousness are infinite points of consciousness. All things that ever existed in the past, and all things existing now in the present, and all things which will ever exist in the future, currently exist in an eternal spirit form as one of these infinite points of consciousness within the Collective Consciousness. Our spirit is a fractal of God. This means our spirit is both a part of the Whole and the Whole itself. Like a drop of water from the ocean, we are part of the ocean. Like a drop of water from the ocean, the very essence of the ocean is contained within us.

The origin of species and dawn of humanity: Then at some moment outside of time came the desire for individuality and self-expression. This led to the creation of the cosmos and souls. The vehicle for our spirit is our soul. In the same way, the vehicle for our soul is our physical body. Our spirit is the eternal part of God. Our soul is a temporary vehicle for our spirit to experience individuality of existence between the physical realm and the spirit realm. The human body evolved from ape-men millions of years ago and it will continue to evolve until it is able do those things which fully evolved people from our past, such as Jesus and Buddha, have achieved. At some point millions of years ago, souls descended upon these ape-men and began influencing them to come down out of the trees and eventually form societies. Then souls began inhabiting the bodies of these ape-men. Thus the dawn of humanity arose on this planet.

Humans were created in the image of God: Humans are three-dimensional beings: body, soul, spirit. The divine nature is as a manifestation of life, light, and love. The Bible mentions a trinity of personalities: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The Bible also mentions a trinity of human-divine unity: Body of Christ, Mind of Christ, and Spirit of Christ. Science and metaphysics describe human awareness in terms of consciousness (mind), subconsciousness (soul), and collective unconsciousness or superconsciousness (spirit).

What happens when we die: After death, our soul body leaves our physical body. The physical body decays and is lost forever. As a soul, we can then experience in various soul realms as we did every night on earth in our dreams. While in the soul realms, our soul body is the vehicle for our spirit. Our soul mind functions as our conscious awareness and our spirit mind plays the role of the subconscious mind. Ultimately, we will want to leave the soul realms and enter into the higher spirit realms. When that choice is made and the soul actually enters into the light, the soul merges fully with the light, and the soul body is shed much like the physical body was shed at death. The memories of the soul remain forever in the mind and the individual is now once again a pure spirit in the spirit realms. As a pure spirit, we exist once again in pure thought form in the mind of the one enormous and fantastic dream called God.

Humanity is evolving in mind, body, and soul: As human beings, we have been evolving on a biological level for millions of years. Between Earth lives, we spend eternities in spirit form in various spirit realms. We also return to these spirit realms every night during our dreams. The reason we choose to come to Earth for another relatively brief human experience is because we are also evolving at the soul level. Through the cycle of birth, death, life in the spirit realms, and rebirth into flesh, we are learning valuable lessons that only Earth lives can give. The goal for every human being is to evolve into perfection in a manner similar to that attained by Jesus, Buddha, and other great spiritual leaders. Ultimately, the day will come when the world will be filled with perfected human beings. It will be a time when humans will be able to live as long as they want and perform feats which today we would call miraculous - like walking on water. In such a state of perfected evolution, humans will have become liberated from this evolutionary cycle and will no longer be subjected to reincarnation. As taught in the mystical forms of the great world religions, liberation is attained by becoming one with all things and all people (i.e., God) through the practice of unconditional love. This spiritual state of one-ness occurs when a person awakens their higher spirit-self and brings it into their conscious awareness. In Christianity, this liberation is referred to as spiritual resurrection or spiritual rebirth or being born again. In Buddhism, the state of liberation is known as Nirvana. In Hinduism, it is known as Moksha. In Gnosticism, this liberation occurs through attaining gnosis. All these concepts describe the same thing. It is the liberation of the spirit from the flesh. It is also the symbolism behind the crucifixion of Jesus.

Practicing love for one another is the way to heaven on Earth and heaven within: Jesus taught people that the way to attain liberation is through the practice of unconditional love. Love brings about a one-ness between people and is necessary to attaining the higher dimensions of consciousness. Practicing unconditional love leads to the manifestation of the spirit within us and in our lives and brings our spirit into conscious awareness. It is an awakening of unconditional love within us and is the manifestation of our holy spirit within us. However, it is not enough to merely believe in love, nor is it enough to merely know about love. To be spiritual beings living in a physical world, we must live love, manifest love, and become the embodiment of love. We do not get there by focusing only on the love and sacrifice of Christ nor through worshiping him.

The Christian life involves taking up our own cross and following in Jesus' footsteps by practicing unconditional love: We can practice unconditional love by crucifying our self-centeredness through self-sacrifice and self-denial for the sake of serving others. Crucifying the flesh also means to put to death the desires of the lower self - the animalistic desires - to allow our higher self, our spirit, to come through.