This bit about the "fall" reminded me of of Session 22 October 1994, which was one where "Frank" was trance channeling:
Thanks for collecting these quotations, candasiri. They brought to mind stuff from Ashworth's take on Paul's interpretation of the fall. In the first question, Laura asks why humans are "entrapped in physical matter" and the Cs respond that it was a group decision "to experience physical sensations" and "pleasure for the self." This is in line with Paul's view that as a result of the fall we are in a sort of prison or slavery - a state of 'deadness' or entropy, the result of which is death - which is intimately associated with our identification with these mortal bodies. In his words, we are "condemned" to "death".
But there is also a perceptual dimension to physicality, which the Cs point out: "You limit when you perceive on 3rd level only and think that your perception is all there is." For Paul, identification with the mortal body results not only in isolation (you have your body, I have mine - and God doesn't exist), but also an "infirmness" of purpose and a corruptible awareness and mentality. Just as we become identified with a corruptible body, our minds become corrupted. After the fall, humanity became unable to perceive the "invisible things" of God. We lost the ability to see the unseen, i.e. higher realities, and the truth about our current reality.
Paul's various "sin lists" always include both physical (e.g. sexual) and social sins. They all have to do with selfishness. "Death" corrupts all our actions, creating enmity, strife, division. This is the result of becoming enmeshed and identified in these bodies. Seeking sensation and pleasure, we lose the perception of others as important. We become the most important thing, and we treat others accordingly: as
unimportant in comparison to us, and as objects for our own use. Over the years, we've called this "feeding". According to the Cs, "When you no longer crave physicality, you no longer need to 'eat.'" When you are no longer identified with the flesh, you can become identified with the spirit, which is a completely different mode of being. But this requires a transformation: a radical new understanding of your current state. E.g., you are sinful, you are asleep.
Q: (L) So, in other words, we should be able to perceive on 1st and 2nd as well as 3rd while working on 4th level understanding?
A: No. Work on 4th, 5th and 6th.
I.e. the "invisible things", the things of spirit.
Q: (V) Are there others at higher densities working with you as you are working with us?
A: No, we all reach 7th level together.
According to Paul, the final transformation is universal. "We are all being transformed." While that could apply to the transition to 4D for Paul, it also makes sense here.
Referring back what I mentioned about angels earlier in the thread, ethereal beings experience only a "very gradual change in evolution" that is cyclical, whereas we adventurers get "an increase in relative energy which speeds up the learning process of the soul and all of its one dimensional and two dimensional interactive partners." This is the "hard way", but it has its benefits:
Q: (L) Are the souls of individual humans the parts of a larger soul?
A: Yes. Close. The One. All who have fallen must learn "the hard way."
Learning the hard way = gaining knowledge of good and evil under the 'childminder' of the law. Ashworth writes:
Humankind aligned with what God requires with no choice in the matter is not free. Humankind aligned with what God requires, knowing the serious consequences of action, any action, knowing the reality of good and evil, is in a position of freedom. This is the adulthood of humankind ... And it is also the life of faith. Faith as listening to words from God, entering a place of communication with the divine.
The 'restoration' to those higher levels of reality involves learning stuff in the process that wouldn't otherwise have been learned. As the Cs say, there are positives and negatives to such a fall.
Q: (L) Are you saying that the act of wanting to experience physical reality is the act of falling?
A: You are members of a fragmented soul unit.
Putting together the pieces of that fragmented soul unit creates the "body of Christ" - in which all share the same mind.
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around "short wave" and "long wave" cycles. If humans are currently living out a short wave cycle in duality and physicality in 3D, does that mean that those souls in the non-corporeal densities such as 5th and 6th are in "long wave cycles?" Or do long and short wave cycles exist side by side so to speak?
It's confusing to me too, because first they say "the long wave cycle experience" consists of "completely what you would call ethereal or spiritual existence" (i.e. 5D-7D), and the short wave is "what you call physical existence". But then they say that 1D and 2D would experience a long-wave cycle if it weren't for us darn humans. Perhaps what that means is just that 1D and 2D are very slow in their evolution of consciousness in physical form, and the short-wave cycle only applies to 3D (and 4D perhaps?). But the addition of humans speeds up the process. (Again, the whole cosmos is transforming.)
Does that mean there was a decision made on 7th to switch to a short wave cycle? Still confused after years. Please enlighten/help?
Well, Paul would probably say yes! ;) I don't see how it would be any other way, though. The universe is such that short-wave, physical learning is possible. It is the means by which knowledge of good and evil is acquired - the school of hard knocks. An ethereal-only universe wouldn't be much to write home about!