At a point in its development, the infant becomes a child. If the first period of life has gone well, and the infant has fully experienced its union with its mother, it can now internalize that love and reach out into the world with confidence. So, as we feel the bliss of union in our infancy as Universal Humans, the maturation process accelerates. A new identity emerges, born out of the fusion of the Beloved and the local self. The young Universal Human emerges.
We enter our Childhood, not as the Essential Self alone, but as the Essential Self expressing through its local self. We are becoming a self-governing, sovereign person in the world, albeit still a limited and protected world. In Childhood we come together as our integrated selves, learning as co-creators to socialize, follow the authority of the inner teacher, educate our local selves, and play at co-creating with one another.
The Story…
I continued to spend time in the Inner Sanctuary, experiencing the bliss of union as dominion of the Beloved took hold. I was already familiar with the Beloved; she has been my companion all my life. Behind the curtain of my consciousness, she had been sending signals. Now, the curtains were parting to reveal this familiar presence as my Essential Self, visible and recognized at last. I was flooded with gratitude and joy.
The inner being that I so loved, that had lifted me beyond my ordinary consciousness and brought me to the point of Emergence, is me. I had to get used to this identity.
I am aware of the specific moment in time when the phase change from Infancy to Childhood occurred for me. It was an instant of profound self-recognition of what had always been so, but only now was I able to realize it. It required a conscious effort on my part to shift the “I” of identity—where I reside in my internal state of being—from the one who was asking to the one who knows.
In the Inner Sanctuary, I had already been practicing remembering the presence of the Beloved, but now I placed the “I” of identity in that Beloved presence. This I did as a conscious act of will and attention. As I made the inner shift of identity, I could feel the vibrations within me change. Warmth and joy flooded my being. I found I could exert choice as to my “inner weather.” I could dispel the clouds and bring in the sunlight with a flick of attention upon the Beloved as myself.
To anchor the shift, I spoke out loud and then wrote down a set of declarative statements, including “I am the Guide who's been guiding. I am the voice I've been hearing. I am the Beloved that I have loved. I am the Universal Human I've been preparing to birth. As that, I am here, present now, in every cell of my being.”
I recorded these words in my journal and spoke them out loud as part of my practice. Then I felt the words become flesh as they incarnated and filled me with their radiance. I consumed the words. They were alive in me.
As this process continued, I realized that, as the Beloved, I had been hovering, suspended in space, because I didn't want to come into the flesh the whole way. I was afraid of losing my vision, of being trapped in materiality. I had signaled to my local selves to do more than they could possibly do. I remained aloof and put all the responsibility on them for carrying out my signals, which they could only intuit. I sent my motivational signals and guidance, then I disappeared.
Now, the reverse was happening. As I placed my “I” of identity in the Beloved and raised my local selves up unto me, my local selves disappeared and reappeared as aspects of the Essential Self. After my identity had gone through the phase shift, I was willing to take responsibility as the Beloved for full incarnation in all aspects of my being.
The affirmations I had created as positive declarations, both written and spoken, were now taking hold. I experienced an expanded sense of inner knowing. “I,” Essential Self, know everything “we,” the family of local selves, need to know. I had already found that when I asked, a wise response always came. Now I realize that I am the wise one who had been responding!
A tremendous sense of inner self-confidence arose as I realized that this informed and informing self is always omnipresent and omniscient as far as my own requirements are concerned. There is nothing that I have ever asked the Beloved for which she did not have a wise response. Now that I have recognized myself as the Beloved, I realize that I have the wisdom and can assist others in the world.
This inner wisdom is always transmitting, and I am potentially always that transmitter. I am not an isolated I, but an I that is integrated upward with Source, outward connected with the Essence of others, and onward with the evolutionary impulse of creation toward higher consciousness and greater freedom. But it requires a poised mind, deep centering, and precise focus to stabilize the new comprehensive identity.
My practice over the years of recording the inner voice and following its commands now took a new turn. What began to express was a new, integrated “I”—the Universal Human.
In my journal I began to address my local selves as I practiced holding my “I” of identity as my Essential Self. My practice is to consciously shift from listening and being guided by the inner voice to speaking as that voice. In this way, I learn to act with my ego in service to my Essential Self.
As I write, the very shift of attention sends a vibration of joy through my nervous system. I feel stabilized, grounded through my hand and my pen and the ink as the words flow spontaneously onto paper. I am now writing the words into my flesh and blood rather than simply onto the paper to be later followed by a separated and dutiful local self. I maintain my identity as guide through writing to the local self, the guided. The journal writing changed and became an intuitive affirmation of what is potential. By intending it, we “tend” to manifest it.
Dear Local Self,
I am now the Universal Human who is already here, full, complete, gently instructing the local self. Local Self! I want you to fully know that the being writing this is me, the me you were told to become. I am not writing this as a Christ voice. I am writing this as Barbara, a young Universal Human who is in the same domain as those higher voices you thought were writing through you before. I am, by my full intention and attention, that self in this form writing this now.
Local self, I ask you to release, let go, dissolve, fulfill yourself in me as me. The way I can best assist you is by clearly writing to you as “Me” with my relationship with higher being secured—l am in touch with higher domains of reality from which I draw and, through that, with the Designing Intelligence, and through the Ground of Being, Void, Field of All Possibilities, Pure Awareness, the Godhead.
“I” am the Universal Human. “You” are the still-maturing local self, asking, seeking, fearing, excited, and sad.
I am present now in this writing. I am the one writing. The way we move toward our reward—our integration as a unified being—is for me to hold the field consciously while you, local self, ask me questions. My goal with you, local self, is your full acceptance and fulfillment of your mission through your ecstatic union with me and our unified communion and communication in the world as that.
You are to spend longer times protected from the old thought patterns of the local self until you can stabilize more permanently. The alchemical process is arrested, stopped, whenever an extraneous thought gets your attention. When the thought captures your attention, you collapse and feel the sinking of the Beloved field. It is the collapse of the wave—the nonlocal field you are in—to the particle, the one specific thought that holds you at the moment. Yet you are a co-creator; you are to be supremely active once again in the world. This is your initiation.
The key now is to use profound affirmations continually all day: I am the Universal Human at one with all that is.
At this point in my process, I continued to write in my journal as the Beloved, recording my affirmations and declarations, and returning as often as possible to the Inner Sanctuary to visit the Rose Chamber and experience the bliss of union. But even though I had experienced a profound shift of identity in my Emergence Process, I still found it easy to forget who I am as Essence. The retraining of my nervous system must overcome more than fifty thousand years of programming in the early phase of self-conscious Homo sapiens, so I am patient and humble.
When I forget who I am, or feel discouraged, it helps me to recall the whole story of creation. I remind myself that this is not a neutral universe but one with a direction toward higher consciousness and greater freedom through more synergistic order—a 13.7-billion-year trend. I “surf the evolutionary spiral” in my imagination. I feel its irresistible tendency to overcome every obstacle to more life. I am tapping into the “grace,” which is that added energy beyond human will that comes from the process of creation itself, from God.
The same force that brought us from subatomic particles to the present is the grace at work to evolve us now. The grace I feel is that overwhelming tide of creativity forever forming the universe in all its dimensions.
The Guidance…
A profound phase shift ushers in this first step in our Childhood as Universal Humans. In Infancy, our local self surrendered to the Essential Self and invited it to take dominion, but we had not yet emerged as the new integrated identity. Now we have crossed over from identifying with the local self and formed a new identity with our Essential Self fully integrated with our local self.
The shift of identity from ego to Essence at this stage of development marks the recognition of who we really are, the moment of self-revelation. The veil of separation between ego and Essence is rent asunder. We are the Essential Self, the Beloved we have worshipped—and experienced—from afar. We are fusing the transforming ego and incarnating Essence as an integrated, whole Universal Human. Almaas describes this shift beautifully in Essence:
The shift of identity from personality to essence is nothing but the realization of the true self, the high self of essence. Practical action becomes the action of true being. There is efficiency, economy, simplicity, directness. One fully lives in the world but is constantly connected to the Beyond, the Supreme Reality.
This integration of all aspects of essence into a new and personal synthesis is the pearl beyond price. When the pearl is first born, it is usually not complete; it is the essential child. It is born as a personal kernel. Then it integrates all of the aspects of essence into its very substance…. There is balance, completeness, harmony, fullness, contentment.
All inner compulsion will be gone, for the person is realized, and the realization is based on fullness, richness, and value as a mature being…. The station of the pearl beyond price is so significant because it is not a matter of a state of consciousness or being; it is rather the condition of the actualization of one's realization in one's life.
Life becomes a process of creative discovery…. The ego does not need to work any more. The creative process happens on its own.
When we go through the shift of identity, our relationship to God changes from child to joint heir, from passive recipient to active participant, from creature to co-creator. We become able to respond to the deeper patterns of creation through the integration of the human and divine within ourselves.
That inner union provides receptivity to the larger design, and our desire to create provides the motivation. We recognize ourselves and others as newly born Universal Humans. This is, I believe, the next stage of human evolution. This is the human being that has been heralded and foreshadowed for eons by the great teachers that came before us to pave the way.
With the shift of identity, we move from witness consciousness to causal consciousness. As the witness, we place our “I” of identity in the perspective of observer: “I” am not my body; “I” am not my mind; “I” am not my emotions. I am simply witnessing the ever-changing phenomenal world.
Once we have shifted our identity from ego to Essence, we are no longer a witness of the phenomenal world but a co-creator of the phenomenal world. In this new perspective, we actually experience that our larger “mind” or consciousness is causing our own experience of reality. The feeling of personal freedom shifts from a sense of individual, separated will to one of surrender into a larger design that feels as if it is our own.
In my vision of our potential future, creation is triumphant in its magnificent struggle to evolve from cosmic dust to cosmic consciousness. In a deep sense, this could be a homecoming for God and humans together.
Our evolution has been an awesome journey of almost fourteen billion years. Every entity that ever moved or swam or crawled or flew, every being that lived to reproduce itself, all the vast numbers of species now extinct and presently living, who invented the amazing capability that we have inherited as our eyes, our ears, our organs, our very atoms, molecules, and cells—all those preceding us are represented in our Emergence now. We bow down in awe and gratitude for the past. Without all that came before us, none of us would be awakening now!
The process of shifting our identity certainly requires no less from us than the training an athlete must go through for the Olympics. It requires total commitment, daily practice, coaching from others, self-observation, intentionality, and grace.
Shift Your “I” of Identity to the Beloved
When you check within yourself, ask, “Where does the ‘I' reside?” Does it reside in the local self that receives a higher voice, or does it reside in the higher voice that communicates to the local selves? If you are residing in the local personality self, when you feel ready, deliberately shift your attention into the Beloved. Practice placing the “I” of your identity—the locus of your deepest sense of where the “I” resides as the Beloved. Recognize the feedback signals of joy, peace, love, and freedom as signs that you have made the inner shift. See how long you can hold these feelings until they become not a fleeting moment of grace but a state of being, even a “station,” as Almaas calls it. Recognize these qualities as the Essence of yourself rather than a passing feeling.
Affirmations
Create your own affirmations, use them in your meditative time in the Inner Sanctuary, and repeat them throughout the day. Whenever your thoughts veer downward toward an old problem, worrying a wound aimlessly, consciously shift your attention to the affirmation. Let the affirmations become your mantras and experience incarnating these qualities in your being. Feel your Essential Self incarnating and integrating with your local self. For example:
I am love.
I am wisdom.
I am faith.
I am courage.
I am power.
I am patience.
I am surrender.
I am the Beloved.
Maintain the Self-Remembering Presence
Get used to the “is-ness” of yourself as the Beloved. Place your attention in that Essential Self, resting there in calmness as you go through your day. Sometimes it feels to me like an inner smile radiating out, warming myself, and all who pass by. It is the kind of smile you see on the face of the Dalai Lama, who is at peace despite the challenging circumstances he faces. He practices “initiatory love.” His is not the kind of love you give when someone loves you, but the love you initiate from your own Essence unconditionally, because that is who you are as a Universal Human.
Speak Out Loud as the Beloved
To get started, it is very helpful to record your own inner voice, the “Voice of the Beloved.” Practice writing in your journal as the Beloved, then reading what you write into a recorder. Place classical or baroque music behind it, like Pachelbel's “Canon in D.” This tempo facilitates superlearning and memory.
Turn on your own recorded inner voice as you are going to sleep. When the voice of the Beloved speaks out loud in the household of selves, the cells awaken to their next phase of life. This is the signal they need to begin their cycle of regeneration and full expression of latent capacities.
Our cells are like seeds in spring, awaiting the warmth of the sun and the moisture of the rain. That sun and rain pour forth from the voice of the Beloved. Let it be heard in the land of your selves. The alchemical process of metamorphosis is accelerated through the vibration of the voice of the Beloved. Behold! We are experiencing a mystery, and we are being changed now.
Speak as Your Essential Self with Others
Speak as the Beloved, through inner dialogue or through conversation with others. This is a new form of conversation for emerging Universal Humans. The voice of the Beloved needs now to be spoken with one another. This creates a magnetic field of resonance between the two or more. The voice tone of each person stimulates the inner knowing of the others. Thoughts come forth that are deeper than the intellectual, analytical kind. They are thoughts resonant with direct knowing. They are like poetry and scripture coming from within us.
If at all possible, record these conversations and listen to them again and again. The combination of journaling, focused attention, inner-voice dialogues, and speaking out loud as the Beloved helps to secure the state of grace.
Meditation
You have come a long distance in your Emergence Process, and it may be helpful to recapture the entire process through a meditation that touches all previous steps. The following is one you may want to record and play back for meditation, if you find it useful:
I enter the Inner Sanctuary that resides forever in my being. I am at peace, I am at rest, I am fully protected and safe. In this sacred space, I place my attention on the Beloved that I am, dwelling in that brilliance and beauty of the presence of the Beloved, experiencing the qualities that I most particularly choose to express today.
I remember my invitation to the Beloved to take full dominion within the household of the separated selves. I remember the experience of that incarnation as the Beloved entering in at my invitation, infusing every fiber of my being with its divine radiance. I experience the Bliss of Union of the Human and the Divine.
I enter this field now, allowing the radiance to penetrate every cell and molecule of my being, as I feel myself disappear in the radiant field, losing all my boundaries of separation. I release my egoic separate identity, becoming one with the Beloved. In that oneness, I am one with all. I am infused with this bliss of union. My cells remember the pattern of their own regeneration and life ever more abundant.
I remain in the Inner Sanctuary for as long as my heart desires. When I am ready, I reappear, no longer a separated self. I am the eyes and ears and hands and feet of the Beloved. I am a Universal Human. I have come home now.
Journal
What does it feel like to make the shift from Infancy to Childhood, to form a new identity with your Essential Self fully integrated with your local self? As best you can, write as this new identity. Allow the voice to write as itself. Do not edit or think.
Describe what it feels like to shift the “I” of identity from the one who is asking to the one who knows. Note any changes in your vibrational field, your felt sense and inner experience of yourself. What are the feedback signals, perhaps feelings of joy, peace, love and a new sense of freedom, as you are making this inner shift?
As you write, experience how “the word becomes flesh.” What is your experience of being the eyes, ears, hands and feet of the Beloved? You are not channeling a higher entity. You are the higher entity yourself.
Write your own set of declarative statements. Here are some of the ones that came through me. “I am the Guide who's been guiding. I am the voice I've been hearing. I am the Beloved that I have loved. I am the Universal Human I've been preparing to birth. As that I am here, present now, in every cell of my being.” Write in your journal as the voice of this new identity as a young Universal Human.
Create and write your own affirmations. Let them become your mantras. Speak out loud as the voice of your Essential Self.
How are you giving expression to this new integrated identity in your life? In what new ways are you emerging? In what ways are you more receptive to the deeper patterns of creation?
Make a special section of your journal or use quotation marks to highlight the voice of the Beloved. Experiment with recording and sharing these written insights with others. They are your “inner scripture.”