The development of man

We don´t come from nowhere. We existed in other forms long before we transitioned into the human kingdom. Unfortunately, we don´t have time to learn very much during a single life (life is short). So we have to live over and over again in a long series of incarnations in order to incorporate all knowledge and all consciousness development we need in this existence. Only then can we proceed to the next.

At every new life we start again from zero, without remembering our earlier experiencies. But our old knowledge from previous lives lies dormant within us as a deep feeling, a latent experience, guiding us forward. Some time at maybe 20 - 30 years of age we have once again reached our old level of knowledge from previous incarnations, and are able to continue our learning process.

We are not all at the same level of development. Some of us have completed more incarnations and thus travelled further on the path, while others are younger and less experienced souls. For this reason humankind is divided into several developmental stages; marking how far we have reached. This in turn affects what we seek and prefer to pursue in this life.

For a long number of lives we must simply learn to be civilized enough to function together in a society. It´s not until after this period that "higher" values such as art and culture can be meaningful for us. It´s also at this stage—the so-called cultural stage—that we really can start feeling there is another reality behind the ordinary physical. We might start getting different types of inner experiences such as “clairvoyance” etc. We also start to fully understand that we all belong together; that everything forms a unity. 

At this stage we develop the higher emotional part of us (also called the higher astral). "Lower" feelings like envy, hate, egoism and so on are gradually replaced by "higher" ones like devotion, altruism, humility and so on. We could even become "mystics," totally absorbed by our astral/emotional experiences.

We must pass this stage before we can start developing the higher mental thinking. Of course we have had a mental thinking even earlier, been able to accomplish excellent study results and so on, but the mental has been controlled by the emotional to a large extent. Sometimes we "let the emotions obfuscate our judgment."

As we are developing our inner qualities, our different bodies (physical-, emotional- and mental) also develop. Basically you can say that "heavier" (lower) matter is being replaced by "lighter" (higher) matter. As we receive this lighter matter in our bodies, the energy flow through them increases, providing us increased awareness.

Seen from an individual point of view, with all the common problems we have to deal with, it can be difficult to see that everything actually is part of a plan. We can change our future with the decisions we make, but seen from a higher perspective, development moves on. The Hierarchy supervises the process and makes sure humankind gets the impulses needed so that our development follows its course.

Many people ask why there must be so much suffering on Earth, if there is a plan for everything. "Why doesn´t God take away our suffering?" people sometimes ask.

But then we have to consider that suffering is something we humans have created ourselves, with our free will—one of the laws of life on our path of development. A large part of our learning process comes from suffering and setbacks. It would be presumptuous of us to expect a God to intervene and change our basic conditions for learning, or take away our karma. Only we ourselves can change that. However, there is a Hierarchy of higher beings following and supporting us and making sure the law is followed as viewed from a higher perspective. The conception of God is something far beyond our ability to understand.

One of the major steps that needs to be taken on our developmental path is learning to see through the emotional (astral) illusions. So many people get connected to an astral level, receive a couple of "messages" and from this they create their own speculation of how the different worlds function. In this way we have seen one conception of the world replace the other.

Not until we realize the illusoriness of this can we start approaching the higher mental levels and seriously also start moving towards causal consciousness. One way of avoiding the astral labyrinth is by studying esoterics. The clear mental model presented is a good help for avoiding the worst traps. Here we also learn how treacherous the astral world really is.

There are people who strongly argue that "the emotion" or “emotionality” is the only important factor. This is more mystical; the mental thinking is dry and "unmystical."

Of course we should support the good emotions within and aim to ennoble our emotionality (not kill it off), but we need to strive towards higher mental clarity at the same time. The mental is higher than the astral (emotional) and that´s where we are heading toward. If we have, just once, seen the vast difference between a mental medium and an astral one, there is no discussion anymore as to the superiority of the mental forms in the mental world. But unfortunately, there are very few mental mediums and these generally also live reserved lives, so few people have ever met one.

Edited by Peter Astarci