Simply Spirit

Copyright © 2019 Andrew van der Peet.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-9822-1918-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9822-1919-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9822-1920-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018915179

Balboa Press rev. date: 01/07/2019

Contents

Foreword

Special Thanks

Introduction

Chapter 1 Consciousness

Chapter 2 Inspiring Truth

Chapter 3 Evolution Of Body, Mind And Soul

Chapter 4 Separateness

Chapter 5 Ego And Its Companions

Chapter 6 Creating Happiness

Chapter 7 Healthy Mind, Body And Spirit

Chapter 8 Distractions

Chapter 9 Honour & Integrity

Chapter 10 Free Will

Chapter 11 Awareness Of You

Chapter 12 Allowing

Chapter 13 Humble Kindness

Chapter 14 Expectations & Obligations

Chapter 15 Forgiveness

Chapter 16 Grace

Chapter 17 Manifesting

Chapter 18 Spiritual Giving

Chapter 19 Deep Contemplation

Chapter 20 Destiny

Chapter 21 Q’s & A’s

About the Author

Foreword

Throughout this book I use the term ‘God’ to refer to the Divine creator of all life or the highest level of power there is, just because it is such a familiar label used in society, but I understand and respect that there are many other names used depending on a person’s own belief systems. I personally believe that no matter what name or label you use to describe the highest, most enlightened being or power (whether it be: the Divine, Source, Universal Intelligence, God, Buddha, or Allah), that it is all one and the same power, simply understood in different ways by different cultures. The views and opinions expressed in this book are based on my own personal understanding of life and I would like to emphasize that I believe everyone understands their own unique portion of the entire truth of all creation that ultimately leads us to oneness with it.

During the early years of my spiritual journey I used to ask the god of my understanding questions during moments of quiet contemplation, and then write down the answers that came to me. I had the idea that maybe one day I would write a book about my views and experiences on spiritualism and include these in it, and so you will find these questions with my answers at the end of the last chapter. It has taken me six years to put my notes and journals together and finish off this book, and now that I have finally aligned my intentions with my higher purpose it feels appropriate to share this now.

Although the grammar, punctuation, organization of content, etc. in this book is far from professional, my desire is to offer, in my own humble wording, my opinions and understandings of things from a spiritual perspective. Words and writings can be interpreted in so many ways but I hope that this book offers something meaningful and helpful, however great or small, to as many people as possible on their spiritual journey.

Special Thanks

I would like to take this opportunity to thank and give my immense gratitude and appreciation to my teachers and friends from the Divine Light Spiritual Foundation; especially Reverend Alva Folkes, Reverend Truly Dubourdieu, Linda Anderson (who is now in spirit), Bonnie Galka, Reverend Allyson Peacock, and Sharon Henry for all their efforts, teachings, and assistance which has helped me grow and achieve much wisdom and tremendous happiness in life. Their generosity, patience, and openness continue to be an inspiration for me. May many blessings come to them!

Introduction

The reason I decided to write this book is to release and express what has been inside me and also to share some spiritual understandings with anyone who is looking for some answers or direction in order to discover their own truth in their own way. If just one person finds that only one sentence in this entire book helps them in some way, then I feel that the effort has been worth it. I have sincerely enjoyed compiling the scattered notes I have written over the last few years to create this book in order to share not only with my spiritual family, but hopefully many more of you out there who may resonate with some of these words.

My conscious journey with spiritualism began at the age of 35 when I was feeling very dissatisfied, lost and frustrated with my life. I felt that there was so much more to life and that I should be doing something very different but couldn’t for the life of me figure out what that was. I was raised Catholic and never really questioned or challenged that belief system, and didn’t realize what a narrow perspective I had on life. To me things were mostly black or white, and something either ‘was’ or it ‘was not’, leaving little possibility for grey areas. I figured that my religion was a well-meaning one that had good intentions for its followers, and that giving up an hour or so of my time once a week to listen to the priests sermon wasn’t asking very much of me. After all, priests seemed to have sacrificed a lot themselves in order to be priests, such as not having a spouse and children and more freedom to pursue personal interests.

Even though I didn’t always resonate with every sermon I heard in church I felt that I was at least making a consistent effort to be a better person, along with the others who regularly attended church service. I felt that since I was prone to boredom, selfishness, and judging, it would be in my best interest to go to church once a week to hear motivating reminders of how to live a good life. But eventually that wasn’t enough. It was more a case of unconscious discipline, and it wasn’t emanating from the right place. My heart had not yet learned to open and speak up.

Eventually I found myself soul-searching in places that I felt were only for people that society regarded as ‘strange’ or didn’t care very much for. I had watched a tv show about mediumship and spiritualism a couple of times and one night as I was watching, the guest on the show happened to be a deep trance (physical channel) medium. I was very intrigued and called in to the show as they were offering messages from Spirit to anyone interested. I was given a brief reading by this medium which turned out to be very accurate (3 years later as predicted). This was my first real brush with mediumship. From there I found my way to an open circle meditation group hosted by a spiritual foundation, and soon after I attended their divine gathering, and continued attending every week from that moment on.

After finally learning to successfully meditate (I won’t say exactly how long but I took long enough), I spent the next three years taking spiritual development classes offered by this foundation and, after that, started learning to teach classes and facilitate meditation groups. I continue to teach to this day with much enthusiasm and gratitude and I feel that I live a much more meaningful life than I ever have before!

1.

Consciousness

The universe is like a hologram consisting of many dimensions or levels of consciousness. Depending on how many levels we ‘visit’ or know about determines how much awareness we hold within ourselves. When we travel through time what we are actually doing is accessing more levels of consciousness, or becoming aware of more that already is. Everything is now, in the moment. All of our past memories are part of our existing level of consciousness and our ‘future’ is simply another level of consciousness that we have yet to reach. Our physical world is made out to be a linear path with a starting date (birth) and an end date (death), but this is just an illusion. Our physical life (we have many on the earth plane) is actually just a tiny portion of our awareness and there is so much more beyond the physical that we have yet to realize. Our higher consciousness has unlimited potential and will never cease expanding its awareness.

Our true needs will be met at the appropriate moments. We have free will to choose which routes to take along our life’s lessons and experiences but our progress and evolving is determined by how selfless we are in our decisions as well as our reasons for choosing and doing certain things. There are some things in our lives that we can change or avoid and some not, but we can positively influence the level of severity of unpleasant experiences just by asking and giving thanks for it in advance. How we handle difficulties has a huge influence on how much or how little suffering we endure. By listening and paying more attention to our inner guidance we can avoid repeating unnecessary patterns and learn our lessons sooner and with less difficulty. When faced with more than one option we can also choose to go with the most challenging one, if it feels right in our heart or gut, and therefore learn and grow more than we would have if we had chosen an easier way. You must be quick to act on that inner voice or gut instinct though or the ego will try to override it by using fear to keep you from moving forward. Ego is very cunning and very defensive so you need to act fast when your soul is offering you guidance. Do what you feel is appropriate and learn from your own decisions and experiences. Learning from your mistakes is good for you because that is how you evolve, but in reality there are no real mistakes. Rather, they are opportunities to grow - it’s just that they’re not so easy to recognize as such. Our growth in life involves experiences anywhere within the range of most positive to most negative. This is what each of us chose for our soul’s purpose and so we must face them in order to move forward. We may be able to avoid certain people or situations, or take the easier path when faced with a difficult situation, but all of us will at some point have to learn and experience the lessons life has for us. Avoiding them won’t make them go away and whenever we avoid or don’t learn a particular lesson, it will keep coming back and each time it will be more challenging than before. Facing your challenges makes you stronger and helps you evolve which is what we are all here for. We will all raise our consciousness to the God source (or highest power) of all creation no matter how long it takes. No one will ever fail in this because we