The existential program - our path of evolution

This is an edited extract from the final chapter of my book Multidimensional Evolution: Personal Explorations of Consciousness

One way of looking at the evolution of consciousness is that it moves ahead in units we call “lifetimes”. Each of our physical lives is a new chapter in the journey, and with each physical lifetime, we start with a new game plan and a new set of targets and goals to achieve. In conscientiology, we call this game plan our “existential program”. This existential program is what we designed during our intermissive period prior to this current life, when our awareness was greater and we had a clearer perspective of where we came from and what we wanted to accomplish in the next physical life. We all have an existential program that is tailor-made to our circumstances, needs and abilities, and whatever your existential program may be, it is perfectly achievable by you.

The important thing to remember is that our existential programs are highly personal. What is right for one person may not be right for the next. We really need to go into ourselves and find our own answers for what is right for each of us. But there are some key principles that generally apply. Our existential program will involve overcoming or transforming at least some of our weak traits. These are aspects of ourselves that we have neglected in our evolutionary journeys so far and that we now need to address. In my case, this includes being closely and intimately involved with other people, such as my family. In most of my retrocognitions (memories of past lives), I saw myself as somewhat detached from others: aloof, distant, self-absorbed, sometimes downright cruel. In this lifetime, it has taken ongoing work both by me and my partner to maintain my emotional and mental presence within the relationship and my family life. That is my story. The things you will need to address will be different.

Another aspect of our existential programs, to one degree or another, is making a difference in the lives of others. Again, how this looks in practice will be highly individual. Just consider the contributions of the three main teachers I discuss in this book. For Waldo, helping others has meant creating landmark publications and innovative methodologies that have given rise to new ways of understanding and conceptualizing consciousness, and then establishing organizations through which to make this understanding available around the world. Leia and Pak Suyono have made less obvious of an external impact, but all three have provided direct assistance through words and energies both within and outside the body to countless numbers of people. Then there are people like Mandela and Ghandi, whose actions changed the course of nations, or like Rosa Parks, whose refusal to move to the back of the bus heralded the end of racial segregation in the USA. But actions do not have to be on that scale. For one person, raising children in a loving and supportive family home may be the main focus; for another, it might be bringing neighbors together in communal action or working with disadvantaged youth, the elderly, indigenous peoples or some other group of people in need of support. The scale and nature of our work is highly personal, but some form of reaching out beyond our individual egos to support other evolving consciousnesses will be an aspect of our existential program. Again, for some running a soup kitchen for homeless people might be part of their existential program, while for others that would be a deviation from their program, because really their task was the creation of high-level policies or systems aimed at addressing the more fundamental causes of homelessness. Only you and your helpers can know what is right for you and what is an accommodation or even a downright deviation.

Our existential programs are unlikely to involve Hollywood-style heroics, but they will involve a kind of internal heroism, of confronting ourselves and standing up for things we believe are important, even if they challenge general community standards or social expectations. There is really nothing more important in our physical lives than completing our existential program. It is the whole point of why we are here. When we eventually deactivate our current bodies, we alone will be measuring our own success. There will be no external judgment. We will judge ourselves, and we will naturally respond by either feeling very content with our achievements or by being deeply frustrated and unhappy at a job poorly done.

It is not hard to relate this to our everyday experiences. Think of how you feel when you are aware of things that you need to do but so far have left undone. What might start with a subtle sense of gnawing dissatisfaction can easily grow into negative self-talk and a sense of frustration. Contrast this with how you feel after you have completed something. In my experience, there is an inner sense of satisfaction, and if it was something really important, even passing euphoria. Now multiply those feelings a hundredfold. If we complete our life task we are utterly euphoric, on a profound inner level. If we don’t, we become depressed, melancholy, and regretful. Those states of mind will then accompany us beyond this current life, and will not only influence our subsequent experience of the extraphysical dimension but can also impact on our next physical existence. And self-mimicry applies even here! All the choices and habits that led us to not complete our existential program in one lifetime are just as likely to catch up with us again, as are the choices and habits that helped us to complete our program.

If a physical lifetime is a unit in the evolution of consciousness, a day is a unit in the execution of our existential program. The only time to adjust our course and make sure that we are on track is now, the most fundamental evolutionary moment of all. Right now is the time to work with energy, to learn something new, to deepen our understanding through research and writing, to make sure we address something we have left undone, to confront an inner weakness or make a difference in the life of another. If we do all we can every day, we can be sure to leave this life with a smile on our face.