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As we continue our journey, the next layer to emerge is Layer 9; "personal us."
What is in Layer 9?
Before telling you, the first thing to know about Layer 9 is that it is the first empirical layer to appear. By this, I mean, it is the first of the obviously literal layers to appear.
Why even note this?
Because people ordinarily live as if we begin our lives from the moment of birth, not from the moment of conception.
Physically, we certainly do begin our lives from the moment of conception. More over, scientists have proven that unborn babies do respond in meaningful ways to the outside world.
Equally important, we also exist spiritually from the moment of conception as well, although admittedly, this is not scientifically provable to most people.
Even so, the Layers of Aloneness, as a theory of personality, makes a good case for our both physically and the non physically existing from the moment of conception. How?
In order to see this, we need consider what this layer contains.
What does Layer 9 contain?
All experiences in which we imagine we are "happily-ever-aftering." All experiences in which we imagine we have a "soul mate." And all experiences in which we finally find "nirvana," "Avalon," or "the Garden of Eden."
More specifically, Layer 9 contains all those parts of our personalities in which we feel personally connected to another being. Certainly, these experiences include all "falling in love" with other people experiences. But they also include any and all experiences in which we anthropomorphically connect to non human beings, in events such as when we connect to the "angry side of nature" or to the "wisdom of the ages."
Why do we humans give these non human beings human characteristics?
Because by doing so, we can spiritually and psychologically connect to the non human parts of our world.
We can even have entire relationships with these "beings" including having conversations in which we hear wisdom and ask for guidance."
Are these relationships real?
Yes, in the most important and literal sense of relationship, they are very real. Yet in another literal sense, they are not real.
How can they be both real and not real?
Because we often define things based entirely on their physical characteristics. Here, "real" means it "physically" exists. Even here, though, notice the word we use to refer to these parts of things; "characteristics."
My point?
The root of the word "characteristics" is the word "character," meaning, a being's personality.
So are we being too self centered when we imagine non human things in our own "likeness and image."
No, not at all. We are simply living out part of what is programmed into all human beings. We are all programmed to want to connect to everything in our world, specifically, in the same way in which we before we were born and throughout our pregnancy. We connected to everything and to everyone. We felt at one with all there is.
How can I know this?
Imagine what it felt like to be living as "two beings that are one being." By this I mean, imagine what it was like to be with your mother and never alone, always sharing every experience from sleep and food to anger and tiredness. Not for one moment, did you have to face the world by yourself. Not for one moment did you have to endure the pain of aloneness or need or ignorance or prejudice or self doubt. Why? Because nothing you experienced did you experience alone.
Imagine this state? Imagine you always have someone to be with you, not just physically with you but also intimately and personally with you?
This is Layer 9.
This is the human experience of feeling connected to another being, the state of "personal us."
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