Remembering Who We Are

Where did I come from? And the answer to that is: I did not come from anywhere, because I was always here. The body comes and goes, but "I" am always here. Where I come from is a place that has no beginning in time and no ending. Where I go is the same place. As we have seen, there are no particular locations in space or time. In a non-local universe, there is nowhere to go!

And what happens to me when I die? The answer: Nothing happens, because I do not die. Pure consciousness cannot be destroyed; it can only be expressed. Knowing this frees us from the fear of death because nothing in the universe is ever lost; it is only transformed. If you and I are speaking on the phone, and somebody cuts off the phone lines, what happens to us? Where do we go? Nothing happens to us, and we don't go anywhere. So, too, when physical death occurs, nothing happens to us. Certain lines of communication that use a certain nervous system have temporarily been disrupted. But we are still here. The soul doesn't go anywhere; it's the body that dissolves and returns to the earth.

Then where is the soul? One of the biggest misconceptions is that the soul resides in the body. People may say, "This person died, and the soul has left," but it's not true. The soul is not inside the body. The soul projects itself as the body and the mind. It finds a location in space-time, and broadcasts or telecasts itself through the body. But just as the characteristics in a movie are not inside my television set when I'm watching it, and Beethoven is not inside my radio when I'm listening to it, my soul is not inside by body. My soul is merely localizing or expressing itself through my body.

Adapted from Power, Freedom, and Grace
by Deepak Chopra (Amber Allen, 2006)