By Michael Sharp | michaelsharp.org

"RoboRen" From: worth1000.com

Today I want to talk a little bit about the nature of your physical body and through this, I want to encourage you to stop identifying with your body as if it was your identity and start seeing it for what it really is. You see, as many spiritually inclined writers have pointed out over the millennia, your physical body is not your identity. Your physical body is not who you are. You are not a collection of cells and neurons and fluids haphazardly put together in a freakish accident of nature.

You are much more than this.

You are immortal consciousness and your body is merely a physical vehicle for your immortal consciousness. Your body is like the car that you get into in the morning to go to work. It is a fine machine, to be sure, and it is finely crafted and highly capable, but it is a machine nonetheless. Just like the car you get into to drive to work, that body of your's (which you also "get into" in the mornings when you wake up) normally cannot do anything or go anywhere without the presence of your higher consciousness.

Now, I won't argue the truth of falsity of these statements with you. There are lots of people out there working on connecting your body with the spiritual realms and I don't want to duplicate their sound and convincing arguments here. If you need to be convinced, if you want evidence, or if you're just looking for an argument, I keep a reading list of books that provide solid evidence for the existence of higher realities. If you don't believe me, go there. [http://www.michaelsharp.org/?ot=2&art=books] However, if you are finally convinced of the existence of a consciousness that is separate and independent of your body, then please, read on.

So, where were we?

Oh yes.

You're body is a mere vehicle for higher consciousness and although it is finely tuned and highly capable, it is nothing more than a vehicle. You don't end when it ends and you can replace it when and where you want.

Now the problem I want to talk about today is the fact that most of us tend to identify with our bodies. That is, we see ourselves as our vehicle. We think that we are our physical body. We associate our thinking with our brain and believe our mind provides our identity. We believe, in short, that we are the flesh.

I know this is bringing no earth shattering revelation to you. It's quite hard to describe this in a dramatic enough way because even when we read the words "I identify with my body", we often don't understand their full impact. We don't see past the words. We don't place our self in the perspective of Spirit. We simply read the words and, because we are already identified with the body, unconsciously and uncritically connect with the statement. Yes, I am my body. I am a nationality, a gender, a color, an age, in a category of existence and that's who I am. Period.

It's much like if you were a fish trying to imagine what it would be like on dry land. For the fish, there's no reference point and no recent experience and so the phrase, "you should try dry land", or any other descriptive phrase designed to bring the fish in touch with the other reality, is totally meaningless. It has no experiential impact.

So, what's the big deal? What's the problem with identifying heart and soul with your body? Well, the problem is simply this. As long as you identity with your body, you identity with a profound set of limitations that have been imposed on you by the social and cultural conditioning that you go through. It is not that difficult to get your head around this. Basically, all this means is that we assume the characteristics of our physical vehicle. If our body is black, we assume the characteristics of blackness as defined by our culture. If our body is female, we assume the characteristics of femaleness as defined by our culture. If our body is old, we assume the characteristics of oldness as defined by our culture. This is an extremely limiting exercise. When we identity with our body and the definitions of it, we put ourselves in narrowly defined boxes that severely limit possibility.

Again, this may not seem strange to you because you identity with your body as if it's the only thing available to you. But to an outside observer that isn't attached to the physical body like you are, believe me, it is quite strange. You can perhaps get an idea of how strange it is by imagining for a moment that you have identified with your car so strongly that you actually think you are the car. One day you simply got up, got in your car, and in a fit of mental madness "became the vehicle". Now, you're stuck. You don't get out of it and all interaction with the universe is through the capabilities and within the boundaries of the physical vehicle.

What would that look like to a person (consciousness) watching from the outside?

Well, the person watching from the outside could still see you and talk to you, but the potentials of your existence would be severely circumscribed. You'd live a limited and two-dimensional existence. As a car, you wouldn't be able to go into houses, you wouldn't be able to climb mountains, you wouldn't be able to play music (in fact you couldn't even listen to music because you wouldn't have ears), etc. Your existence and your potential would be defined by the limits of your vehicle. Sure, there would be some things that would be fun. You could drive fast and take sharp corners. But, by and large, you'd experience a limited form of existence. To somebody standing outside the vehicle and not sharing in your quaint delusion, it would look pretty strange and ultimately be self-defeating.

It is exactly the same way with your physical body. Your physical body is a mere vehicle and although it provides a great service in terms of its ability to drive you around this physical world, really, when compared with the potential of your consciousness and the reality that it inhabits, it's very limited and two dimensional.

The truth is, your body is really only a shadow of your true potential. You are capable of so much more than the possibilities provided by your body.

So, what is your true potential? What are you capable of, really?

Good questions and I can't answer in any detail here. Not because I don't want to answer but because the truth is so far beyond what you have been told that there's just no room to discuss it in a short little article like this. Really, it would take at least three or four books to set the record straight and open up the deeper reality for you.

But don't get me wrong here.

Setting the record straight is not that hard. It doesn't require "deep" esoteric thought and it doesn't require intense sacrifice of superhuman effort. You don't have to be /graced /by God or endowed by nature. You just have to take your consciousness outside of the vehicle for a bit in order to get a wider perspective. It's not hard and anybody can do it.

I actually provide a lot of guidance on taking a wider perspective in the books I write. I think if you are interested in what I'm talking about here, you'll find the free /Book of Light /[http://bookoflight.michaelsharp.org] and the /Dossier of the Ascension /most useful. But you don't have to go there. If you are interested just stay tuned. I'll talk more about the nature of your body, the potential of your spirit, and what you can do to realize your full bodily potential in the weeks ahead.

Stick around. If you are willing and if you have an open mind, it will be an empowering ride. I promise you.

For now, just stop pretending like you're "only" your physical body and start opening to the wider spiritual realities which are your heritage and birthright. Say to yourself "I want to know more" and, like magic, the information and insight will start to come to you. At this point you may not understand why it works, but you'll definitely see the reality and the magic of all. Let that whet your appetite. Let that encourage you to step out of the car and take a look at the broader reality which you have access to.

There's nothing to fear and the only thing you have to lose are your limitations and chains.

Till next time,

Dr. Michael Sharp

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Article from: http://www.michaelsharp.org/articles/thebody.html