All of us who have felt an attraction to the spiritual life and responded to that attraction have actually responded to another subtle dynamic at work in our universe—the call of consciousness. This is because the divine consciousness that we call God created the universe out of the substance of consciousness, and this substance has also been planted within the heart of every human being. Moreover, our human endowment of consciousness is not separate from the divine and never could be. It is linked through the oneness of created energy.
As many of us have discovered, spiritual consciousness, though an impersonal life force, has certain properties and characteristics. And this holds true for the universal divine consciousness, as well as for our human endowment. One of these properties is that of a sort of vibration that reaches out to connect with other manifestations of consciousness within its orbit. This property is almost like that of a magnet in the natural world, which is, of course, a scientific attraction. That is why we are drawn to the divine. And as it turns out, the divine is also drawn to us. It is consciousness reaching out for other manifestations of consciousness to be connected to.
As human beings living busy lives in this materialistic world, very few of us were aware of this dynamic. We knew little about consciousness and probably nothing about its properties. But then something changed for us. We were mystically introduced to the phenomenon of spiritual life and began to feel a powerful attraction to it. At first, we probably saw this attraction as being a human one, because that is how we saw everything. In other words, we might have felt attracted to the trappings of spiritual practice, the people who pursue it, the benefits it promised, etc. Those were all human aspects to our attraction. What we did not understand was that there was also this property of consciousness at work. On a totally spiritual, unseen plane consciousness was calling to consciousness. And without knowing it, by feeling that attraction and responding to it we just happened to answer that call. In the Bible’s book of Psalms this phenomenon is poetically described thusly: “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.” (Psalms 42:7). And this is a very apt description because nothing in our universe is as deep as consciousness.
Consciousness is perpetually exerting this energy. Thus the call of consciousness never stops. It has no beginning and no end. This aspect of its character is based on scientific principles, just like a magnet. But human beings, while endowed inwardly with consciousness, also have the capability of discernment. This means that we can choose whether or not to recognize our own endowment of consciousness and allow ourselves to feel an attraction to the pull of the divine consciousness. And, of course, most people choose to ignore consciousness and its various properties and manifestations altogether. Instead they focus their discerning mind on worldly, materialistic realities. In this way they distract themselves from being able to perceive something as subtle as spiritual consciousness. But then something called karma enters the picture, and this force of destiny tends to overrule our own conditioned inclination toward distraction. For those of us whose karma dictates that we be mystically introduced or reintroduced to the spiritual life, the attraction is born and the journey begins. It overrides our discernment, and we respond. Deep calls to deep and crashes upon us like the waves of the ocean.
So consciousness calls to consciousness, and it is up to us to hear and heed that call. That is why one of the typical first steps on the spiritual journey is to view God as a personal separate being—one whose nature is proactive, individualized, and purposeful. The reason we do this is twofold. First, we have not yet learned about the true properties of consciousness. And second, because of our engrained human orientation it is difficult for us to conceive of an impersonal scientific life force displaying purposeful, proactive properties. In other words, if divine consciousness is exerting a call and we hear that call in the privacy of our own heart, that call must be personal. Hence we ascribe to the universal consciousness a personal name (such as God, Buddha, Christ, etc.) and build a world religion based on that name and whatever personal attributes we can attach to it.
But eventually we come to see that not only is this personal element misleading; it is also superfluous. It has no real purpose, other than the acting out of our human need to see things that way. And it has no power. When our emotional needs enter into the picture, the call is actually watered down and rendered superficial. Its depth and profundity become lost. On one level we have answered the call and are responding to it, but this response is often borrowed and contrived. That is why our prayers go unanswered and our lives unchanged. But when we answer the call and respond to it in truth we immediately tap into a powerful current of life—one that changes us and meets our every need. This is because consciousness is not only proactive in its connective vibration; it is also powerful as a healing-supplying force for human beings. And it is for this reason that a spiritual practice that has begun and been guided by a true answering of the call can and will change our lives much for the better.
The Bible describes several instances of regular people like you and me hearing
and answering the universal call. And though most of these instances are portrayed in a personal format, the power inherent in them testifies to the fact that something real was coming through. In other words, those who were called received power from responding to the call and went on to become prophets or ministers or to fulfill other important historical roles. So we read of a man like Abraham being called out of a normal worldly involvement, set apart, instructed, and given an altogether new and different purpose in life. First, he heard the call in the form of speech instructing him about what to do. Then he responded with faith. This is where the power came in. For, faith is a spiritual dynamic. It is an attribute of consciousness. So even though it is doubtful that Abraham viewed his call as a scientific outworking of consciousness, by exercising faith he brought forth the power from that outworking nonetheless.
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The prophet Samuel heard the call of deep to deep while still a young child. Lying in his bed one night, he heard a voice call his name. But this was obviously a karmic outworking that he knew nothing about. So he simply assumed that the voice belonged to his mentor Eli who was lying down in a nearby room. Getting out of his bed, he went into Eli’s room and asked him if he had called him. But Eli told him no, and Samuel returned to his own bed. Then the voice came again and again yet a third time. Finally Eli realized what was happening and instructed Samuel in how to respond. And sure enough, from that day forward the Word of God came regularly to Samuel, and he became a great prophet of Israel.
Both of these Biblical callings appear to be personal and purposeful on the part of God (consciousness). It seems as though a personal God were exerting His sovereign will to call a specific individual to an appointed task. But when we understand the true properties of consciousness and the scientific impersonal nature of the universal call, we see that something else was at work. Both of these biblical characters responded because it was their karma to do so. Through their own spiritual evolution and experiences in both their present and past lives they had been prepared to hear and receive the universal call. And the seemingly specific purposes they were called to were simply their individual destinies coming into realization. In other words, they each heard the call instruct them in a unique way because their destinies decreed as much. Thus we see that the call is always the same but that the unique karmic destinies of men cause it to appear multifarious.
Like Samuel and Abraham, all of us who have answered the call of deep to deep have had a unique experience. We have all heard the call in an individualized way and received specially tailored instruction and guidance about how to respond and to what purpose we were being called. This is because we all have a unique karmic destiny. But because the nature of consciousness is impersonal and unchanging, all of our stories also have a similar quality. The call is the same because it is impersonal consciousness doing the calling. But our interpretation of that call is unique because we are unique. As in the Bible, some of us hear a voice; others feel only an attraction; some receive the call in a dream, and others get hit over the head with it through circumstantial upheaval.
The Bible calls those who received the call prophets. But in our world that title is not often applied. In our world we have spiritual aspirants, students, and practitioners. But in truth, this is not much different than being a prophet. For what is a prophet? It is simply a human being that has opened up the channels of his or her spiritual perception and endeavored to keep those channels open and flowing. We all have this ability. And if it is our karmic destiny to hear the call and respond, we will each receive a unique impartation or message from the divine Spirit. Thus we will become prophets in our own right.
The divine consciousness is not secretive; nor is it a respecter of persons. The divine will is multifaceted but one. It is like a diamond with many sides. When we answer and respond to the universal call we will all have a similar path ahead of us, in that we will instinctively seek to bring our lives into conformity with the divine will. How we bring this conformity to pass will, however, be unique, on account of our unique destinies.
All manifestations of consciousness are divine and seek to be attuned to the one will. There is nothing mysterious about this. Human beings may be unaware and distracted, but that in no way impedes the movement or will of universal consciousness. The human psyche may be overrun by and become enslaved to many base human impulses, but consciousness is never chained. It is forever free. That is why answering the call of deep to deep can be such a powerful liberating experience for us. For by conforming ourselves to the nature and will of consciousness we invite that power to take the reins of our lives and transform us into its image.
The New Age is simply the age when consciousness will finally be recognized by human beings as the power that it is and our world brought into conformity with the divine will. It will be a time wherein all the inhabitants of the earth have heard and responded to the universal call of deep to deep. This outworking is inevitable for us because it is the ultimate outworking of our own created evolutionary instincts. In this way we are destined to become an entire race of prophets, with every man, woman and child attuned to the divine will. The dark night of our strictly human orientation to life is far spent. The dawning of the New Age is upon us.