I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of [God] who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Romans 8:18-21
When I was a young man, I spent two years meeting with a talented psychologist, during which my life changed for the better. When I decided to study psychology academically, my main question was, What made my therapy so transformative? I wanted to know the mechanism that made such a difference.
Several years ago, when I was just beginning to study the inner workings of the soul, a mother asked me to pray for her daughter. The young girl had recently begun experiencing hallucinations and involuntary motor movements. She avoided affection, had become riddled with anxiety, and—as if that were not enough—was also suffering from the symptoms of the flu. I agreed to do what I could, though I was not very optimistic.
Beholding the girl before my heart, I could see that her soul was completely covered with shadows. Moved with pity, I prayed that God would breathe Light through me. As I did so, I saw each of the shadows become surrounded by Light and suddenly disappear. Her soul was then laid bare before me, and I could see the damage the darkness had done. I prayed again that God would breathe Love through me and wrap her wounded soul with the brilliant whiteness of God. I held her in Love for a long time, hoping this would be enough.
Her mother wrote me a few days later: “A couple of hours after seeing you, she was like her old self again, which I hadn’t seen [for four months]. Even the cold symptoms she had went away.” When I communicated with the girl’s mother again, several months later, it was clear that the severe psychological symptoms were gone, and the girl was well once again.
I was dumbfounded. It seemed as though my prayers, which occurred on a purely spiritual level, had produced a profound physical and psychological effect on the girl. As I reflected on this remarkable outcome, my main question was: What made my prayers so transformative? Once again, I wanted to know the mechanism that made such a difference.
Physical and Spiritual
[Jesus] spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man’s eyes with the clay, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Silo′am” (which means Sent). So [the blind man] went and washed and came back seeing.1
Prior to the period of the Renaissance, men and women knew that the physical world was inextricably interwoven with the spiritual world. One’s works of faith were believed to have a significant impact on the physical world, as many stories of heroes and saints affirm. Approximately five hundred years ago, though, this foundational knowledge began to erode. People started searching for insights through the five physical senses alone and set aside the spiritual world as fundamentally separate and uninvolved.
If we accept the conclusion that the physical world is disconnected from the spiritual, we will also believe that physical reality can be accurately observed and comprehended without any acknowledgement of the spiritual at all. Through such a lens, we will view our vast universe as something like a very complex mechanical clock, operating independently of the spiritual forces that originally wound the gears. And if we follow these ideas to their logical conclusion, belief in a distant and separate spiritual world will eventually lead us to atheism—which would result in our denial of the very existence of the spiritual.
Over the past several centuries, many thoughtful men and women have concluded that if the physical world is able to function independently from the spiritual world, and if knowledge of the physical is not dependent upon knowledge of the spiritual, then the spiritual is nothing more than a psychological fabrication. They claim that the old ideas of spiritual forces or beings were simply superstitions of a primitive and unenlightened past.
I have seen firsthand, however, that the claim of a disconnected or absent spiritual world is false. The formation of the physical universe was preceded by the creation of Heaven, which God placed in a very real and influential spiritual presence: the Deep. Within the sphere of Heaven, God breathed the “breath of life,”2 forming Earth and its many inhabitants. By observing the great work of creation, I have seen with the eyes of my soul that physical substance is not mere matter: it is a unique revelation of God’s Word. Without the Word, that which we experience as physical would not exist.
The miracles of Jesus clearly reveal the fact that the physical and spiritual are fundamentally intertwined. Throughout his ministry, the physical world was immediately responsive to his spiritual presence. How was he able to turn water into wine, multiply loaves of bread, and cause a fig tree to instantly wither? How could he calm a raging storm and walk upon the surface of a lake? And how could he cause the blind to see, the lame to walk, and the dead to rise again? None of these actions corresponds to the so-called “laws” that govern our physical world. Yet, according to the Gospel writers, these are all historic events. If Jesus actually accomplished such miracles, then the only explanation for how they could have occurred is that Jesus had the ability to alter physical matter. As the incarnation of the Word, the physical world responded to him.
According to Jesus, we all have the same capability.
For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “move hence to yonder place,” and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.3
Many Christians interpret that passage as figurative, which seems to be a reasonable conclusion. However, if we consider the miracles of Jesus to be historic events, then is it unbelievable that a man can move a physical mountain or uproot a tree and throw it into the sea? I believe that Jesus said the above in order to offer his followers insight into the malleable nature of the physical world and its profound responsiveness to those who possess God within them.
Body and Soul
My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to him who finds them, and healing to all his flesh. Keep your heart with all vigilance; for from it flow the springs of life.4
In our world, the human soul contains the only doorway that connects the spiritual with the physical. Our soul’s first point of contact with the physical world is within our flesh and blood. Using my own body as a laboratory,5 I discovered that the soul, with its three distinct aspects, is physically located within the heart and lungs.
According to my investigations, the luminous mist has its seat in the lungs. I saw that the moment I consciously chose a particular thought, something that appeared to be an electrical or energetic impulse fired in my lungs. The impulse instantly traveled throughout the rest of my body, presumably moving along my nervous system.
The nervous system weaves together all parts of the body with intricate threads. Once nerve impulses are generated and sent along these threads, they arrive almost instantly at various destinations throughout the body in order to stimulate the intended effect. For instance, the sight of an approaching friend can simultaneously generate a feeling of warmth, memories of past interactions, and a smile on the face. All this occurs within a second or less because of the rapid movement of impulses throughout the nervous system. By utilizing the nervous system, the soul is able to impact every physical and psychological action without delay.
Reflecting on how the freedom created through sustained focus and conscious effort is birthed in our physical lungs, I found new significance in my own breath. Breathing is an instinctual act that occurs constantly without our awareness. And yet, through focus and effort, it is possible to regulate the rate, rhythm, and depth of our breathing. That which is automatic can be intentionally guided if one chooses to do so. This is exactly what the first aspect of the soul offers us: if we are willing, we are free to guide everything we do.
The other two aspects of the soul take root in the left side of the heart. In my investigations, the moment I laid aside selfish preoccupation and reached out toward another with love, I saw the same impulses appear in my heart’s left ventricle. These impulses would instantly course through what I assumed to be my nervous system before arriving at different locations in my body. Thus, I concluded that the soul’s decision to repent and love originates in the left ventricle and is then communicated by the nervous system to the rest of the body, where it is translated into physical and psychological action.
While examining these soul-body interactions more closely, I discovered that the impulses generated by my soul appeared to circle my heart before moving elsewhere in the body. As the activation occurred in and around my heart, I suddenly saw the seeds of God’s Word appear within the right side of my heart. They quickly migrated through my lungs and the left side of my heart before moving rapidly throughout the rest of my body. While watching this wondrous phenomenon, I understood that the fruit of the Tree of Life was located within the right ventricle of the heart. Riding along the river of blood, the Word exited the right ventricle, flowed through the three aspects of my soul (in the lungs and left ventricle), and then made its way out to every part of my flesh.
The basic physiology of circulation is as follows. Blood moves in a cyclical pattern within our bodies. After entering the right atrium of the heart, the blood halts momentarily before spiraling into the right ventricle, forming a vortex as it goes into the right ventricle. Next, the blood travels from the heart into the lungs (more specifically, into the pulmonary capillaries). Leaving the lungs, the blood enters the left atrium of the heart, where, once again, it pauses momentarily before being drawn into the left ventricle. The movement of the blood into the left ventricle results in another spiraling vortex. Finally, the blood exits the heart and flows to all parts of the body before returning to the right atrium to repeat the cycle.
From a physiological perspective, one role of blood is to carry nourishment throughout the body. Upon leaving the left side of the heart, the blood accomplishes this purpose by moving through miles and miles of arteries, capillaries, and veins before returning again to the right side of the heart. Many scientists believe that blood makes a complete circuit in less than a minute. During this rapid dash, the blood delivers its valuables to every cell in the human body.
From a spiritual perspective, the role of blood is to weave God into our bodies and souls. God’s seeds enter the blood from the resplendent pearl in the right ventricle. After leaving the right ventricle, the blood moves through the lungs and left ventricle, where some of these seeds are released during the spiraling movement of the blood. Life is released into the lungs, which is the seat of the luminous mist; Light and Love are released into the left ventricle, which is the seat of the golden and glistening white lights. After the blood exits the heart, the remaining seeds of God’s Word flow with it into the rest of the body. Just as our blood brings physical nourishment to our cells, so too does our blood carry the seeds from the sacred fruit to every single cell.
The conventional narrative views the cell as a type of factory in which the DNA, housed within the nucleus, acts as a boss who holds the blueprint (that is, the genetic code) for how the cell is to function. The DNA communicates with the RNA, which then takes the message into the cytoplasm (the intercellular gel-like water surrounding the nucleus). There, the message is read by the “ribosomes,” which function as the production floor for the generation of proteins. Proteins are the workforce, executing their orders from the DNA to fulfill the purpose of that cell.
Although that perspective is widely accepted as true, several biologists now assert that the narrative of a mechanical cell ruled by the DNA is incorrect. A new model proposes that the work of the cell begins with the cytoplasm, which receives and holds “information” coming to the cell through both internal sources (such as the blood) and external sources (such as interactions with the outside world). The structure and quality of the cell’s water change as new information is received. Thus the cytoplasm becomes an imprinted memory of the information provided to it and thereby instructs the other parts of the cell to act in accordance.
In the new model of cell function, the DNA responds to the cytoplasm and not the other way around. The DNA shapes itself according to the information contained in the surrounding water. In a process called “epigenetics,” the DNA unfolds, expressing the genetic sequence that matches the structure and quality of the cytoplasm. This new explanation presents a radically different perspective on cell biology: incoming information shapes the cytoplasm, which then shapes the DNA, which then shapes the cell as a whole, which then shapes the tissues, organs, and entire physical body. The most critical factor, therefore, is not fixed DNA (over which we have no control), but rather the information given to the cell (over which we have much control).
This “new biology” of the cell aligns with what I have observed spiritually. During my investigations, I saw the seeds of the Word enter the cells in my body, after which the cells underwent a transformation: they became illuminated with a radiance that matched the spiritual appearance of the seed itself. The radiance began on the outer edge and moved inward (presumably toward the nucleus); and then the center of my cell (presumably the DNA) released a burst of spiritual light. Afterward, my entire cell emitted a spiritual glow that it did not have prior to its interaction with the Word. My cell shone like God.
To summarize, I have concluded that the dance between faith and grace is both spiritual and physical. According to my observations, the soul is physically located in the lungs and left ventricle of the heart. When any of the three soul aspects are exercised, a series of impulses is generated and sent throughout the body, resulting in the work of faith being expressed as a thought, word, or deed. The impulses first go in and around the physical heart. In response to the physical activation of faith, grace occurs: the seeds of the Word suddenly appear within the right ventricle of the heart and attach themselves to the blood contained therein. Now enriched with the Word, the blood moves through the lungs and left ventricle, strengthening the soul for future works of faith, and then travels throughout the body. Each seed of the Word becomes deposited inside a particular cell, thus initiating a transformation of the cell from the outside in. In the end, not only does the act of faith empower the soul to be created anew in God, but—through the incarnation of the Word—the physical body is transformed as well.
Here, then, is the mechanism of a miracle: through faith, that which is spiritual becomes woven into that which is physical, and the Word of God abounds within our flesh.
Love is All
On the first day of the week, at early dawn, [the women] went to the tomb, taking the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb; but when they went in, they did not find the body.6
With the eyes of my soul, I saw Jesus hanging on the cross, his chin against his chest, his body limp. I saw his blood pour out of his flesh and soak into the soil. I saw the triumphant procession of Love march into Earth and vanquish the darkness of that region. I saw Love expand outwards, illuminating the land below our feet with an all-encompassing whiteness. And I saw this same Love—brilliant and white—enter again into the body of Jesus that had been lying lifeless in a cave.
Looking into that dark tomb, I watched Jesus gasp for air as Love filled his body. He rose to his feet. All I could see was a blinding whiteness coming from his resurrected body. Unable to hold back the expansive white light, the stone gave way from the opening of the tomb, and Love burst forth.
I watched the miracle of Easter morning like a passive spectator until, suddenly, the resurrected Jesus turned toward me. As the figure of blinding light approached me, I held my breath, not daring to move. Then he did what I least expected: he stretched out his arms of light and embraced me.
As he held me in that sanctuary of Love, I breathed out and lay my forehead upon his shoulder. I felt Love enter my flesh, as water fills an empty cup. When he loosened his embrace and stepped back, he kept his hands upon my shoulders and stared into my eyes. I did not hear him speak, but he said to me: Love is all that matters. Love is all that is needed.
Completion and Resurrection
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.7
The Sunday evening after Jesus’s death, his disciples were gathered in a closed room when Jesus suddenly appeared among them. The company was terrified, thinking that they saw a “spirit” or ghost.
And [Jesus] said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do questionings rise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And while [the disciples] still disbelieved for joy, and wondered, [Jesus] said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.8
The resurrected Jesus still had “flesh and bones,” the ability to consume physical food, and the wounds from his recent crucifixion. His body had the appearance of the same physical body that was slain only days before. And yet, Jesus’s resurrected body was different from physical matter as we experience it.
When the first man received Life in the Garden of Eden, he was given a foundation upon which he needed to build. His physical body was incomplete, and it was only by eating freely of the fruit of the Tree of Life—by weaving Light and Love into his foundation of Life—that his body would be made complete, and he would live forever. However, he never finished the work, and his physical body perished. After that time, men and women were born with incomplete physical bodies that were increasingly burdened by the shadows of the previous generations. The longing to be made complete remained, but the hope of accomplishing this task grew dimmer.
Jesus’s physical body began as a miracle. Within the womb of a young virgin, God breathed Life and for the second time made a man with an immaculate physical foundation. At his baptism, God transformed Jesus’s untarnished Life into Light for the cleansing of all Creation. During the transfiguration, God perfected Jesus’s body with Love. Then, in order for Jesus to fully accomplish the work God had given him to do, he had to love us “to the end.”9 Upon the cross, Jesus performed the greatest act of love the world has ever known: for the sake of all Creation, he gave his body. When that happened, the Life within his physical body became complete—just as God intended for all mankind since the beginning.
According to Jesus, Life that is made complete by the fulness of God’s Word is “eternal life.” He once said, “This is eternal life, that they know thee, the only true God.”10 The resurrected Jesus knew God, meaning that every seed of Life in his body and soul was permanently woven with the perfection of Light and Love. His physical body was elevated to a state of completion and thereby made eternal through oneness with the everlasting Father.
Jesus not only revealed eternal Life to us, he made eternal Life possible for us as well. Because of his blood, we have returned to the Garden of Eden where the Tree of Life is now rooted within each of our chests. By works of faith, we eat freely of the Tree’s sacred fruit, and the Word of God flows within us. As the Word abounds in our flesh through faith, a miracle unfolds: Light becomes woven into Life, and Love becomes woven into Light, thereby empowering us to be born of God. If we remain faithful, our physical bodies will be “filled with all the fulness of God”11 and will shine like the resurrected body of Jesus.
Salvation is the process of our completion, whereby the Life within our bodies and souls is becoming eternal through God abiding within us.
The Salvation of Earth and Heaven
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.12
When Jesus willingly laid down his perfected Life for the sake of everything within the sphere of Heaven, he became a complete man, just as God intended for every man and woman who has ever walked on Earth. I have seen souls that come close to the brilliance and size of the resurrected Jesus, but none is exactly the same. The miraculous progression of Jesus’s life sets him apart from all others. Through Divine intervention at his conception, baptism, and transfiguration, Jesus became God’s “only”13 complete Son.
The main difference between Jesus and us is that though we may achieve perfection in Love, the Life within us will not be made eternal until “the fulness of time,” when “things in heaven and things on Earth” are united in God.14 Unlike Jesus, we will not be complete until all Creation is complete with us.
God intervened in the life of Jesus so that “the world might be saved through him”15—meaning that, through the access to God that Jesus made possible, those who are willing can facilitate the completion of Creation. Salvation is not for mankind alone. Salvation is for the whole world.
Creation is still fundamentally incomplete. Everything in the physical world was created as an expression of Life. By design, everything needs to grow toward completion. As the image of God on Earth, this is our work to fulfill. The doorway connecting the spiritual and the physical, the Creator and the Creation, lies within our chests. Through faithful labor, we keep and cultivate the Garden, gradually saving everything on Earth by sowing the seeds of God’s Word. In this way, we build the “new Earth.” With Light and Love flowing through us, the Life of Earth will one day be made eternal, “having the glory of God.”16
Furthermore, the “new Heaven” is ours to build as well. God placed Heaven within the monstrous waters, knowing full well that the Deep would relentlessly seek to swallow the sphere and all it contained. God is no fool. This precarious placement was full of purpose. On the day that Earth is complete, transfigured like the resurrected body of Jesus, the sphere of Heaven will shine with the sparkling whiteness of God. As the morning sun scatters the shadows of night, Love will strike the Deep and “the sea will be no more.” Heaven will be born again and everything—truly everything—will become unbounded Love. On that day of all days, when the first Heaven and first Earth pass away, Love will reign. Such is the full theological meaning of “salvation.” In the beginning, God spoke the Word so that, in the end, all there will be is the Word.
We have been given the power to become sons and daughters of God, conquering the Deep forever and expanding the glory of our Creator beyond the limits of comprehension. That is why we are here. Therefore, as the kings and queens of God’s Creation, let us breathe in freedom with our lungs, open wide the doorway in our hearts, and cast forth Light and Love without ceasing. For if we are faithful to the end, the work of Creation will be fulfilled and all things will be born anew after the likeness of God.
John 9:6–7
Genesis 2:7
Matthew 17:20
Proverbs 4:20–23
I want to be abundantly clear that I used spiritual perception to analyze how the activities of my soul impacted my body. One of the consequences of using spiritual perception as my only tool for investigation is that my observations lack the tangible and verifiable data one expects to find in the material sciences. For instance, I did not use blood samples, microscopes, or any type of laboratory equipment to confirm my observations. I do not believe this limitation invalidates my results. Rather, I offer my preliminary findings so that more extensive testing can be conducted in the future.
Luke 24:1–3
John 3:16–17
Luke 24:38–43
John 13:1
John 17:3
Ephesians 3:19
Revelation 21:1
John 3:16
Ephesians 1:9–10
John 3:17
Revelation 21:11
Beautiful, revealing, enlightening article. Thank you, Josh.