Why Are We Here?

What follows is a short extract from my book "Please God Why?"

If, as I am convinced, there is purpose behind everything, there are very good reasons for us being here on earth. We are eternal spirit beings and yet we spend what many of us consider, an unconscionable time in an environment that makes it difficult or almost impossible for us to give free expression to that spirit being. It is almost like a land mammal moving away from the land and spending many years living in the water, where many of his physical faculties will be useless or at the least, unhelpful. Let us stay with that analogy for a moment. What do you suppose would happen to the mammal? It would adapt, yes? Even though its legs could not be used for walking, it wouldn’t be long before he became an excellent swimmer using them. Although he would still need to breathe air, he would probably be able to remain totally submerged for longer and longer periods as time went by.

Is that not what happens to us? The difference of course is that we have a body perfectly designed to function on this planet, to breathe its air and cope with its gravity. Our mammal, because he still has a body designed to work best out of water, is constantly reminded thereby of his non-aquatic origins. We, on the other hand, have no memory of the time we operated as spirit beings in a spirit environment. Furthermore, the ego is always persuading us that spirit doesn’t exist, that material things are everything that matters. So our analogy breaks down at this point. However, our spirit is very much a part of our earthly body and it definitely adapts to the constrictions of earth life in our early years. So the analogy holds good for adaptability. Remember Wordsworth’s “homely nurse doing all she can to make us forget that imperial palace whence we came”?

Why do we need to adapt? Surely if the spirit is so powerful and the spiritual world such a great place to live, why leave it behind and incarcerate ourselves in what is by comparison, a hostile environment? Robert Frost in The Trial by Existence says it is “for some good discerned.” What good? One important element is that on earth, although social mores and language tend to separate us, we nevertheless all share the same planet - good, bad and indifferent people. In the spiritual world, we are given to understand, it is the brightness of the light we project that determines our dwelling place. We must therefore live with those of similar mental and spiritual achievement, unless we choose to visit realms where the light is dimmer. Could it be we come here to experience what our reactions are when we have to live amongst all manner and types of people?

More important I believe is the fact that our inner, spiritual selves have to fight, here on earth, for recognition. Material values are uppermost in people’s minds and finding ways to register the needs and abilities of the spirit, takes much effort and ingenuity. I am not speaking here of psychic and mediumistic gifts only, but much more of the higher human attributes of love, kindness, sympathy and self-abnegation. In making that effort and using our ingenuity we are exercising our spiritual faculties and they are strengthened, in the same way that the physical body is strengthened by exercise. Also, because human beings on earth are such a mixture of character types, there is ample opportunity for those who choose, to help those less fortunate than themselves.