ON SELF: The Levels

I want to continue with the discussion on our self and the representation I use for it. Below I have shown the model [PEMS] we used previously and a new way of portraying it as overlapping levels that get larger from the physical to the human spirit. This enlarging aspect shows the “real-ness” of the levels. We somewhat haughtily think of our physical-ness being what is real and meaningful in our lives. We then tend to think that the real-ness diminishes as we move to our emotions on to our mental makeup with our spiritual level being the least real. However, I have found that thinking exactly the opposite makes more sense and creates a more rational way of looking at life. Both models are the same PEMS and represent the same thing; it just seems to be a better way of looking at it if we break the model into more parts.

The body is our PEMS. The Holy Spirit is ex-body, God incarnate, who invades our spirit as we permit it to, becoming our guidance throughout life as a personal part of our being. Our PEMS is human, living; the Spirit is not human, not living. When God has become a part of our spirit [s], we then become a part of the universal Soul (God). The Soul is made up of all beings living or dead, and we have virtually no idea what it is or what it is like. God has revealed almost nothing about it, although inquestioning the spiritual realm is a popular subject. And, John’s Revelation writing is particularly intriguing. Much of modern end times writing is highly speculative, novelistic inquestioning, but for some persons this type of inquestioning is their “thing.” And, it is spiritual thinking, so who am I to question God’s call on another’s fellowship with Him.

In the previous paragraph I used the word “who” in referencing God and even hypothesized an afterlife. I do strongly believe in “life” after earthly death, but for me it is an act of futility to study eschatological “events,” afterlife God actions, through earthly, secular eyes. We humans are finite, and when we need to refer to God, we use what we have and know—human characteristics. A major one is the use of anthropomorphizing God. We do it in many ways; even my use of “Him” tends to make us think person. I personally prefer to think that I am making God personal to me rather than personalizing Him. However, I realize that it is a matter of semantics. I do think that it is doing most of us a disservice to use such terms as “trinity” and “three-in-one” to help us understand God's personal ness. It may have been a help to early Christians, but today it often creates an irrational concept that most of us cannot reconcile into our belief system. God is God; He can use any “form” He wants at any time He wants. I believe that at times, that form might even be human, even today; however, limiting Him to human-like characteristics could limit Him in our own minds, and that is a major problem in trying to learn as much about His truth as we can. God has no limit(s). Nevertheless, I’m sure there must be some persons for whom it helps their belief fundamentals to think in this manner.  If so, so be it.

Let’s look in more detail at the levels:

[p] The actual physical part of the body is ex-living. It is what we study in biology and chemistry as the concoction of atoms and molecules that together make up our anatomy. These atoms and molecules are individually non-living, but when these molecules are combined, there is a magical change that takes place, and chemistry gives this magic the name of organic. Isn’t it remarkable that chemists refer to two “different” kinds of matter—inorganic molecules (non-living) and organic molecules (living). Of course, there is only one kind of matter, and we see it laid out in the Periodic Table showing the atomic mass of the elements. God used a recurring, serial organization to make up all matter, living and non-living. Early chemists made up the two classes of study, and I can’t help but think it was developed by a chemist inquestioning the concept. The whole idea sounds like a delicious study for an inquestion research study. Can you imagine what kind of wonderful message learning could be done if jealous religionists would turn scientists loose to inquestion along with their physical research, rather than sectioning them off into a world they have had to create on their own.

[pe] The interaction of the physical and emotional is the part of the body where hormones and other chemicals produced in the me affect the physical body p. Here is where the actions, the results, of our emotions are exhibited—anger, depression, fear, sorrow, physical love, happiness, pleasure, satisfaction, pain, etc. The pe is also the level where our organs and nervous system operate—sight, hearing, touch, taste, movement, etc. It is the main part of our body checked and changed by the medical world. When drugs are taken, their actions change the makeup of our pe. We consider our pe to be an immensely important part of our self.

[em] The emotional/mental is the level where hormones are produced from feedback from the pe and signals from the ms. These interactions occur in the medulla oblongata and the pituitary/hippocampus areas of the brain. Please understand that all parts of the brain and the chemicals themselves are physical in nature; however, the production of the messages, the messages themselves, are of a higher nature than the physical makeup of the body. The emotions listed under pe are controlled here. Such actions as happiness or depression, as examples, can be produced without any help from the spirit as happiness is a physical phenomenon. Signals from the physical sent to the mental generate a feeling of happiness which is completely separated from the spirit.

[ms] The mental/spirit is the part of the body where the spirit interacts with the mental makeup of self. It is where you recognize your self as a person. It is your consciousness and your conscience. It is where your spirit works with the body. It is where you choose between right and wrong. The spirit is always sending “right” signals, and your physical is always sending worldly signals. They meet in the ms which then sends signals, chemical and nervous, to the body to react in some way. If you permit your spirit to have input, you gain satisfaction in your life and do the “right” things. If you block your spirit, the source of inbred good in a self, you then depend on worldly signals for your ms considerations and ponderings. This leads to bad things. All inquestioning occurs in the ms. Joy, the joy that Paul talks about in his writings, comes from allowing the spirit into your ms, using that “information” in your life, and thus doing the “right” things thus sending “right” signals back to the ms.

[s] This is the body's spirit, a diminutive mirroring of His Spirit and uses that as a way of communication. We all "know" things we never experienced or learned; that is our spirit. We all have longings that are "felt" deep within us; that is our spirit. We all have a conscience that makes us "understand" what is right and wrong; that is our spirit. We all have an innate yearning to praise; that is our spirit. That praise is often showered on other humans and animals. It is sometimes given to inanimate objects like mountains and the ocean and sunsets.

[Spirit] Spirit is the personal nature of God’s interacting with individuals. This interaction is called by Christians “being a Christian” and “being born again” and “being saved” and “having a personal relationship with God” and “following Jesus” and “being one in the spirit.” Joy results from our spirit interaction with the Spirit, which infiltrates through the spirit into the mental creating satisfaction which then can, but not always, infiltrate our emotions creating actions that were influenced by the Spirit.