The concept of eternal life and a desire to halt aging has been the central focus of many a soul. From the earliest of times, man and demi-god alike have sought after the elusive secret to eternal life.  What better place to begin our quest than the book containing the “Good News” sent from God to man; the bible.

Bible, New Testament – The gospel according to Paul or so they say.

Romans 4:17 (NIV)
¹⁷ As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed–the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.

We seem to desire what lasts forever, not the temporary existence we see within the domain of our physical and mortal human kind.  Of these, we’ve seen them come and go before us.

With only our eyes to reveal what is truth, we long to live forever in these bodies of ours. Without considering or ever thinking that we are already eternal souls, beings possessing the experiences of eternal beings, we abhor the death of the body that is seen.

In ignorance of an eternal soul, we are compelled to search for a better state of being.  We are driven by unquenchable desire for the ultimate prize of which in its sight all other achievements, no matter how great, mean nothing without. For, if we can not endure to enjoy what ever is achieved within, it is the same as all was lost to begin. What is our purpose, if not for our achievements to endure along with our being?

2 Corinthians 4:18 (KJV)
¹⁸ While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Some would say: in our hopelessness, we projected our desires of the unknown and formed our gods in the image of the known and made them unseen. In the image of ourselves, formed we them and we gave them possession of that which seemed to elude us the most.

With gods that can bestow the prize, and give us direction, we have a high calling and an obtainable goal worthy of pursuit. We have purpose for working, for achieving, for being.

The Gods Give Purpose – Epic of Gilgamesh

In what many consider the oldest known poetry, The Epic of Gilgamesh is a poem written on stone tablets sometime around 2700 B.C. in Mesopotamia.

Gilgamesh goes in search of immortality because he suddenly becomes aware of his own mortality after the death of his friend, Enkidu.

“BITTERLY Gilgamesh wept for his friend Enkidu; he wandered over the wilderness as a hunter, he roamed over the plains; in his bitterness he cried, ‘How can I rest, how can I be at peace? Despair is in my heart. What my brother is now, that shall I be when I am dead. Because I am afraid of death I will go as best I can to find Utnapishtim whom they call the Faraway, for he has entered the assembly of the gods.’ So Gilgamesh travelled over the wilderness, he wandered over the grasslands, a long journey, in search of Utnapishtim, whom the gods took after the deluge; and they set him to live in the land of Dilmun, in the garden of the sun; and to him alone of men they gave everlasting life.”

Yet, the gods of Gilgamesh were NOT gods made of stone nor were they made by the hand of man. The gods of Gilgamesh were not made of the fertile imagination of one longing for the unobtainable. The gods of Gilgamesh were real, they were alive. They enjoyed physical life and had an appearance of mortality. The gods were not imaginary. See: The 12th Planet;  Zecharia Sitchin

Gilgamesh was a son, a son who’s mother Nimah was one of the very gods he would pursue and seek for advice. His story tells of how he sought their guidance and direction to the path of the grand prize and high calling of immortality. Yet in the story, Gilgamesh is never told of his immortal soul, that he will assuredly live again. Rather Gilgamesh is manipulated to perform a feat and prove himself worthy. He is given a task, that if he succeeds, he will obtain a plant that will restore his youth. Unfortunately, the plant is eaten by a snake before Gilgamesh can enjoy it.

Gilgamesh, I shall reveal a secret thing, it is a mystery of the gods that I am telling you. There is a plant that grows under the water, it has a prickle like a thorn, like a rose; it will wound your hands, but if you succeed in taking it, then your hands will hold that which restores his lost youth to a man: When Gilgamesh heard this he opened the sluices so that a sweet water current might carry him out to the deepest channel; he tied heavy stones to his feet and they dragged him down to the water-bed. There he saw the plant growing;; although it pricked him he took it in his hands; then he cut the heavy stones from his feet, and the sea carried him and threw him on to the shore. Gilgamesh said to Urshanabi the ferryman, `Come here, and see this marvellous plant. By its virtue a man may win back all his former strength. I will take it to Uruk of the strong walls; there I will give it to the old men to eat. Its name shall be “The Old Men Are Young Again“; and at last I shall eat it myself and have back all my lost youth.’

These gods were not imaginary. They knew how to assign a quest, a task and to give direction and a calling to it. They knew they could solve the dilemma of Gilgamesh and provide him a sense of purpose, but instead they gave him work, toil and task at which he must strain. But, he now had a goal and a purpose for being; he would rise up to meet the “high callings” of god.

We like Gilgamesh already have eternal life. But instead, for the purpose that so-called ‘gods’ can have cheap labor, we are NOT told of what we already possess. Rather we are denied eternal life unless they, those calling themselves gods, first have their tithes or taxes, palaces, temples and kingdoms or goddoms.

The story of Gilgamesh, is a story of betrayal, of exploitation, of slavery. Man was created in the image of the gods, but not for the benefit of mankind. In actuality, Mankind was created in the image of humankind calling themselves gods that mankind might work and serve the humankind masters.

 

Religion

As the new humankind masters found ever so new desires to pursue, hoards of mankind would find themselves recruited to join the legions assigned to each new task. As the tasks multiplied and varied, so a new legion would be given a new task and formerly tasked legions would be re-tasked once their usefulness was wanted elsewhere.

The hoards had a purpose: to seek a sake that was not to be forsaken. Mankind was not without a cause. Life was good, or so it seemed. But man changed and also the gods.

The number of dedicated legions multiplied through out the land. New pursuits and crusades would be commissioned, leaders appointed and dispensed. With each would come a new dispensation while the humankind masters conceived ever new sakes for even more religions.

Yes, the hoards of mankind found themselves tasked and re-tasked into new legions and religions of old. Today few new legions are necessary as there are religions a plenty.

The Ageless Body

Today, I too find myself seeking the path to immortality or at least to the obtaining of a body that does not age or exhibit the forms of weakness and the debilitated state we observe in our aged ones as we see them age in our sight.

Possibly I am again in pursue of the elusive plant that once eaten may restore youth to our bodies that the Old Men Are Young Again.

Age Symbols – Form following a Pattern

Could it be there is nothing more required of us than to recognize time is a persistent illusion, that our eternal soul forms our body as a symbol given a form that progressively changes? That our form changes in order to provide the soul with a form of various life perspectives called ages?

I believe it is.  Aging is NOT the deterioration of the body breaking down and wearing out. The ages of the human species and mankind are a progression of adventures in consciousness following a long established routine of observations known for their ability to provide a fulness of value fulfilling enhancement to the soul.

Hear again Seth as he touches upon this subject almost as a given within the greater context of dreams and the use of physical symbols within them.

Within your own personality all facets of your consciousness converge, whether or not you are aware of it.
Consciousness can be turned in many directions, obviously, both inward and outward. You are aware of fluctuations in your normal consciousness, and closer attention would make some of this quite clear. You expand or narrow the scope of your attention constantly. You may focus upon one object almost to the exclusion of everything else at times, …

To some extent, all of these are small examples of the mobility of your consciousness, and the ease with which it can be used. In a strange manner, symbols can be regarded as samples of the way you perceive its various levels of consciousness. Their changing guises can be used as signposts.

All symbols are an attempt to express feelings, feelings that can never be expressed adequately through language. Symbols represent the infinite variations of feelings, and in various stages of consciousness these will appear in different terms, but they will always accompany you.  Seth Speaks Ch 18 Book Pg 255

He is still dealing with physically oriented symbols, …
The physical body all the while is greatly benefitted, because the beneficial feelings automatically renew and replenish its recuperative abilities. These symbols are the changing scenes characteristic of consciousness at various stages. The experiences are to be considered as creations; creative acts all native to consciousness at various stages.

Physical objects are the most obvious of your symbols, and precisely for that reason you do not realize that they are symbols at all.
At different levels, consciousness works with different kinds of symbols. Symbols are a method of expressing inner reality. Working in one direction the soul, using its consciousness, expresses inner reality through as many symbols as possible, through living, changing symbolism. Each symbol itself then is to its own extent conscious, individual, and aware.
In so doing, the soul continually creates new varieties of inner reality to be explored. Working in the opposite direction, so to speak, the soul divests itself of all symbols, all representations, and using its consciousness in a different way learns to probe its own direct experience. Without symbols to come between it and experience, it perfects itself in a kind of value fulfillment that you presently cannot understand except symbolically.  Ibid Ch 18, PDF Pg147

Some such symbols stay with you for life. Some in periods of great change may also alter their character, bringing forth a certain feeling of disorientation as these unconsciously familiar symbols undergo transformation. The same sort of thing applies to your physical living. Ibid Ch 18, PDF Pg148

These symbols will change, therefore, in various stages of consciousness. Again, the logical sequence is not present, but the intuitive creation will change the symbols much in the way that an artist might change his colors.

All symbols stand for inner realities, therefore, and when you juggle symbols, you are juggling inner realities.

To some extent this transmutation of symbol can be observed in various stages of waking consciousness also.

Now even as you go about your day, your consciousness fluctuates, and you can catch yourself “symbolizing” in these different ways if you get in the habit of observing but not interpreting the state of your mind. Each physical event that has happened to you is filed away within your psyche as a definite group of symbols. These do not represent the experience, they contain the experience. These represent your personal symbol bank as far as your present life is concerned.Ibid Ch 18, PDF Pg149

There is a great unity between your daytime symbols and your dreaming ones. In a miraculous shorthand, many symbols carry the burden of far more than one experience, of course, and one symbol will therefore evoke not only one given
experience, but similar ones. Personal association, therefore, is highly involved with your personal bank of symbols, and it operates in the dream states precisely as In waking life – but with greater freedom, and drawing from the future, in your terms, as well as from the past.

Therefore, you have greater use of symbolism in the dream state, for you are aware of past and future symbols.  Ibid Pdf Pg150-151

If so, do I want to really want to deny myself the advantages of the many different perspectives brought about by the transmutation of symbols called age?

Can I truly be happy and enjoy each changing moment, knowing that behind the appearance of each new age is a change in form, a change in form that brings another perspective and dimension from which to enjoy our being in yet another value fulfilling way?  I think we can! I am decided. I will greet it with anticipation and the expectation of enjoyment!

We need only believe it to realize it. – Michael  (and the soul behind the curtain)

 

Additional Study:

Seth-SS-Ch18 – Various Stages of Consciousness, Symbolism, and Multiple Focus

 

Follow-up Posting 

There is more to study.  For while a change in form is destined, it is not our fate to suffer a sickly body, a form inadequately constructed. When we impede the energy intended for desirable constructions, we get a construction impeded and warped into something undesired. We experience a body ill formed, misaligned and discordant with the our originally form intended.

While at first we might think we would want a form protected from the accidental introduction of unintended impediments, our use of impediment is how we change the direction of energy flow. We constructively use impediments to redirect or change what we are experiencing into the new creative directions of deliberate creation.

Yet, it is obvious we are but babes when it comes to deliberate creation. As constructors of our own reality, we are barely coming to realize the power beholden to us let alone adept at manipulating it. We make many mistakes. We’ve made many mistakes in the past.

But mistakes are not bad, they are examples of the change process and opportunities for improvement; opportunities to recognize how we’ve affected what we have and opportunities to recognize how to better guide our actions to more successfully create deliberately and intentionally.

Even if we have gone amiss in previous physical form constructions (and now have a sickly body), we can change our experience. We can change the actions of our past!

It appears we may be able to return to those former times, remove our impediments and perform our constructions correctly. We thereby affect our present and future experiences. We can return to the forms of previous ages and right the wrongs that release the energy intended for a creation of form known and expected to be most fulfilling. Or when we are more adept at deliberate creation, if we want to be more highly creative, we can impede and redirect the energy and vitality of our soul toward a desired change of standard form and into a form not previously experienced, but desired.

I want to do more research on the subject of human species physical form, how it originates and evolves from the cumulative past lives of those that share our physical reality, how and to what degree we are bound by the symbolic forms established in the past and how we can work with and within those forms to create or repair the forms our physical bodies find themselves in today.

I believe there is a little bit more to evolving change than just believing. Don’t get me wrong, Certainly all reality is according to belief.  But not everything is easily believed, or expected. The more probable, the more conforming to the forms of our ancestors and species , the more that can be expected and believed. Belief is paramount, but probable is the key to being believable to our conscious intellect and ego.

Seth said, we can’t make bodies taller necessarily or re-grow limbs that were not there at birth.

But more, Forms evolved according to the patterns the human species of days past deemed most fulfilling. All evolutionary variations within the domain of expectation and probable have been tried and distilled into the forms we now see.  Of course the human form includes all the variations of form we call ages.

With forms, when it comes to what is probable, expectable and believable, I think any changes I can make in my belief will NOT be major changes to form but must begin with little steps before considering any taking of giant and less probable variations to my experience.

So, I am not thinking it probable that I can just decide to directly believe I have a more desirable form than the one I presently have. Nor do I think it probable I can believe in the cessation of aging. I do however take encouragement from Seth when he says it is more probable I can switch an earlier age when an infirmity was first forming (like loss of hearing that started 10 years ago) with another more preferred state that was just or more probable at the time hearing loss developed (10 years ago).

I consider that a much smaller step in comparison, however it will still be quite a feat to change the present and future by changing the past to the more preferred probable past.

I am encouraged. That’s the belief development goal I am working on for now. It may be a baby step, but it is one in the right direction.

Material references

You can change your past to change your present and your future

You can theoretically alter your own past as you have known it, for time is no more something divorced from you than probabilities are.
The past existed in multitudinous ways. You only experienced one probable past. By changing this past in your mind, now, in your present, you can change not only its nature but its effect, and not only upon yourself but upon others.
Pretend a particular event happened that greatly disturbed you. In your mind imagine it not simply wiped out, but replaced by another event of more beneficial nature. Now this must be done with great vividness and emotional validity, and many times. It is not a self-deception. The event that you choose will automatically be a probable event, which did in fact happen, though it is not the event you chose to perceive in your given probable past.

Remember, however, that in a most legitimate way many events that are not physically perceived or experienced are as valid as those that are, and are as real within your own invisible psychological environment.
There are in your terms, then, unlimited probable future events for which you are now setting groundworks. The nature of the thoughts and feelings you originate and those that you habitually or characteristically receive set a pattern, so you will choose from those probable futures those events that will physically become your experience. Seth Speaks Ch 15, Pdf Pg 131

Where your vision fails, you think reality ceases, so again you must train yourselves to look between events, between objects, within yourself when you do not seem to be doing anything. Watch out for events that appear to make no sense, for they are often clues to larger invisible events.  …

In terms of probabilities, therefore, you choose certain acts, unconsciously transform these into physical events or objects, and then perceive them. But those unchosen events also go out from you and are projected into these other forms. Now the behavior of atoms and molecules is involved here, for again these are only present within your universe during certain stages.

Now the same sort of behavior occurs on a deep, basic, secret, and unexplored psychological level. The physically oriented consciousness, responding to one phase of the atom’s activity, comes alive and awake to its particular existence, but in between are other fluctuations in which consciousness is focused upon entirely different systems of reality; each of these coming awake and responding, and each one having no sense of absence, and memory only of those particular fluctuations to which they respond.
These fluctuations are actually simultaneous. It would seem to you as if there would be gaps between the fluctuations, and the description I have used is the best one for our purposes; but the probable systems all exist simultaneously, and basically, following this discussion, the atom is in all these other systems at one time. 
Seth Speaks Ch 15, Pdf Pg 133

Remember Symbols and forms from above: 

There is a great unity between your daytime symbols and your dreaming ones. In a miraculous shorthand, many symbols carry the burden of far more than one experience, of course, and one symbol will therefore evoke not only one given
experience, but similar ones. Personal association, therefore, is highly involved with your personal bank of symbols, and it operates in the dream states precisely as In waking life – but with greater freedom, and drawing from the future, in your terms, as well as from the past.

Therefore, you have greater use of symbolism in the dream state, for you are aware of past and future symbols.  Ibid Pdf Pg150-151

Now add:

Resume dictation. When I referred to your personal bank of symbols, I meant to specify that this bank was yours from the day of your birth and before. It contained the symbols of your past existences in your terms (and in your terms, you add to it in this life). This bank of symbols must be activated, however. For example, you have visual images when you are born, internal visual images, symbols that are activated the moment you open your eyes for the first time. These serve you as learning mechanisms.

The symbols can come together or fly apart, can be perceived separately or as a unity. As each event has its own symbol for you, so you have your characteristic way of combining these. These symbols can be translated and perceived in many terms; as a series of notes for example, as a combination of senses, as a series of images. At various stages of consciousness you will perceive the symbols in different terms. The multidimensional symbol in its entirety, then, has a reality in other states of consciousness, but also at other levels of reality entirely. Ibid Pdf Pg152

You have your own characteristic way of combining the symbols of our choices of the direction of consciousness we give attention and call the ages of our lives. If we change the direction of our attention, we are conscious of different aspects and the symbols we form to represent them change. The reality we experienced as one form sickly in our past can be reset to consciousness of a form we would prefer to be in its place.

In this manner of speaking, your thoughts then follow laws. Their behavior follows laws, and their activities, that you do not understand, though you call your thoughts your own. They are then manipulated, independently of you, by other kinds of consciousness as ever-changing natural phenomena. The native consciousness within such systems is not aware of the origin of this phenomena, nor of your own reality. They take the evidence that appears to their senses as reality, as most of you do. It would not occur to them that this phenomenon originated outside of their own system. …
I am not saying that, nor implying it in the case just mentioned. In your system you have a direct hand in the formation of physical reality. Your natural given data is the result of individual, mass, and collective thoughts, feelings, and emotions, materialized. …
these individuals recognize more clearly the connection between creative images and given sense data. They purposely alter and change their given sense data, and experiment with it.

All of this involves a working with symbols in a most intimate manner. At certain levels of your personality you are aware of all the different ways in which symbols are used, not only in your system but in others.  Ibid Pdf Pg152

Fear taken into the various stages of consciousness acts as a distorting lens, hiding the natural dimensions of all symbols, acting as a barrier and as an impediment to free flow. Symbols of an explosive nature serve as releasing agents, setting loose that which has been encased.

Pauses then occur. To put it as simply as possible, there is an almost inconceivable moment in which a no-reality occurs, in which a symbol is caught between motion and no motion, a time of uncertainty.  …
Such blank spots can be seeded with new symbols, and are often used as channels through which new creative ideas and inventions are inserted. …
Now some symbols also wait in such a passive manner to be activated.
They represent future experience, in your terms, that presently lies latent. These blank spots of inertia, therefore, are creative to some extent, in that these other symbols may swim into view within them.  Ibid Pdf Pg153-154