We are a part of something much bigger than ourselves. Curiosity brings us to the door. Our deeper selves hold the key to stepping through and discovering what has always been there. We are the embodiment of everything that came before, connecting the known and unknown to an infinite consciousness, a larger field that shapes our lives, where wonders arise.

The mid-14th century Renaissance marked the onset of cultural and artistic renewal, driven by a shift from religiously focused medieval thought to humanism. An emphasis on individual potential and a revival of classical learning led to the study of liberal arts, arithmetic, music, and astronomy. Societies around the world entered a new era of intellectual curiosity, artistic realism, and global connection.

In the late 17th century, the Age of Enlightenment marked the onset of a shift from a civilization dominated by monarchies, the aristocracy, and the Catholic Church to one that emphasized reason, science, and individual rights. An intellectual movement emerged, promoting secular thought and challenging traditional doctrines by advocating for societies founded on logic and empirical evidence, leading to new ideas about government and freedom. The Industrial Revolution, the growth of financial capitalism, the founding of representative democracy, and the formation of nation-states have shaped the modern world we live in.

Today, we are entering a new era of global scientific and technological progress. A major realignment of organizing principles is underway: the dismantling of an old system while the next is being built. Artificial intelligence will transform these systems and impact many aspects of our world, including war and peace. Does humanity have the maturity to wield this power? We must have wisdom for our future or risk the continued fragmentation of society. The imperfections that characterize human existence require empathy and the pursuit of shared rather than divisive principles. Unifying strategies are the way forward.

Only Being explores the future of discovery through a deeper connection to ourselves. We stand at an exciting juncture in our evolution. Our sciences have gained far-reaching insights into quantum worlds behind the physical world, illuminating an infinite theater of reality in which we are players. Instinct beckons us to reach beyond what is seen or touched to find clarity in who we are and where we come from, revealing spirit and nobility within us. The key is our collective understanding of what I’ve come to think of as the larger field, which represents nonphysical dimensions of consciousness.

This innovation underpins our access to intelligent sources of information, helping us build systems for advancing our world. Among our discoveries will be the nature of human energetics, which will transform our understanding of physiology and psychology, as well as the retrieval of ancient healing and artistic technical knowledge, including cosmology and quantum mechanics. Once we cross this threshold, we will not turn back. The next phase of human evolution is linking with the larger field at play. This book investigates the timeless intelligence of our deeper selves and our potential to access the larger field, offering greater intuition, creativity, and emotional healing.

Seeing Beyond Ourselves

In my early 20s, a friend invited me to try a yoga class. I had heard yoga was a form of moving meditation, and I was curious to try it. The hour-and-a-half workout was hard and invigorating, but my expectations changed when the teacher instructed the class to lie down for a final resting posture called a corpse pose. I lay flat on my back with legs and arms apart, palms facing up, eyes closed, when I experienced a spontaneous out-of-body event. Suddenly, I found myself moving through a light-filled landscape in an endless realm. My name and identity were no longer a part of me, and I felt deeply peaceful. I might have remained there when I heard laughter. I opened my eyes and found myself in yet another world. I turned my head and saw people. One of them, a woman, was smiling. She asked, “Are you back?” I couldn’t recall her or the others in the room. But a powerful clarity remained. I was aware of my existence, without beginning or end, as if that part of me always was and would always be.

Memories of my life gradually returned. The smiling woman was my friend; the other people, the teacher, and yoga class filled my senses. It was all making sense. I had woken from the relaxation of the yoga pose. In those moments, I felt a profound awareness that I existed beyond my body and touched the infinite within me. Opening my eyes was like meeting myself for the first time. This moment of discovery revealed my deeper self, my essence.

Each of us has an essence that bridges us to other worlds, which we experience in flashes of insight and intuition. We may not all experience out-of-body events, but we can cultivate connection in small ways. Every person has two selves. The physical self we know—our identity, personality, ego, and body. This self tells our life story. We also have a quiet spiritual self, our essence. This self shows us who we are. When our two selves meet, we experience a connection to our spiritual nature. Contact with our deeper self offers us moments of enlightenment. Some take walks, stand in a sunset, paint, read a book, or listen to music to touch the infinite within them. We think of this as connecting with our soul or spirit for strength and peace. The practice of only being tunes us into our deeper selves, our essence, for the benefit of expanded perception beyond our five senses. That’s a huge advantage. Connection is ou greatest achievement and our greatest gift.

Understanding And Acceptance

As a child in the 1940s, my mother and her father sewed fabric onto the wings of his kit airplane. They went flying, and she searched the clouds for angels. The little girl with large curious eyes explored the world around her to understand life’s meaning. When she was unsure about finding angels, her father suggested she look inside herself. In her early 30s, she was inconsolable when he died of a sudden illness. She feared their connection was gone forever. For six months, she woke up with tears and went to bed heartbroken. One morning, she heard her father’s voice call her name. She lifted her head from her pillow and saw him standing at the foot of her bed. He told her he was happy and wanted her to be happy. He asked her to let him go. A powerful feeling of calm came over her. She knew her father was not far away, and their bond was alive and well. She had discovered existing connections to worlds beyond and transformed her grief.

Before my mother passed away decades later, I shared these thoughts with her. She replied, “You have the story right—I’m not sure about worlds beyond.” While she acknowledged the wonders and mysteries of life, she also believed in proof and validation. What she accepted or rejected about reality had little bearing on the unconscious forces that formed her outlook. When she heard her father’s voice, she listened. Yet, she was determined to resolve her grief without understanding the process that got her there. Unconsciously, she tuned in to her timeless, intelligent self, her essence, and reframed her experience with the deep inner knowing of connection. Her essence instilled in her the empathy, compassion, and love she had lost sight of. She was able to accept the loss of her father as she once knew him and move forward.

I’ve met many people who have shared stories of transcending boundaries and experiencing otherworldly events they could not place in the context of their physical lives. Some had life-changing events. Others recalled lucid dreams or moments of vivid intuition. Each glimpsed spiritual realms and discovered clues to their larger role in existence. They lived in different corners of the Earth, yet they shared a common ground of understanding. Their lives were transformed through connection. The discovery expanded their outlook, giving them independence and freedom. The bridge to worlds beyond us is always there, although it can be forgotten. Many of humanity’s challenges can be understood by unifying with the spiritual worlds all people have in common. Our separation from these worlds has led us to a fragmentary mindset, disrupting our connection to wholeness. The beliefs we adopt can set limits on what is perceived and experienced, yet our spirit is boundless.

Our life journey can be fraught with obstacles. We can struggle to feel safe in a world of uncertainty. We can feel disconnected from life and unmoored from ourselves. Fear and anger can interfere with our insight, intuition, and creativity and can diminish our capacity for empathy, compassion, and love. Our essence is what we need for courage and strength. In my youth, I experienced the fragmenting effects of a diminished connection to my essence. Building a connection has shown me that all people have this potential. For 30 years, I have been an explorer of this endeavor and have discovered that the most significant connection begins with ourselves.

Imagine if we humans were observed by a race of beings from a distant planet. They might see us as a source of inspiration with an immense creative drive, a boundless sense of adventure, and extensive spiritual resources. They might also see a separation from the knowledge of who and what we are. Many of us behave as if we are alone, adrift on a raft in a vast, empty ocean.

Children naturally tune in to their essence. Their vibrant inner lives reflect the worlds from which they come. The instinct to sustain these links supports mental and psychological well-being. Their closeness to spiritual worlds imbues them with an awareness unhindered by societal conformity. Just as the physical world inspires imagination, the instinct to explore beyond ourselves is a powerful motivating force, producing profound inventions. Painting, music, and dance are a few expressions that connect us with our essence. Access is not just reserved for artists. Parents play with their children and experience connection. Some people journal, read, or walk to quiet their minds and connect. Others practice meditation. A nap can unhook us from the external world. Taking the path to other worlds is what people do in day-to-day life to experience wholeness—where peacefulness restores the psyche and sharpens instincts. Reaching beyond ourselves is as natural as picking up an object to study its details or opening a book to benefit from its knowledge. The action needed to go from here to there is yielding to our timeless, intelligent self—our essence. As I write these pages, gaze at a sunset, laugh with my partner, or empathize with another human being, I am tuning in to my essence. We move beyond ourselves in countless ways to experience connection, enabling brighter realms to enter our lives. The journey beckons us to explore what more there is to reality and shine in the wonders of our existence.

In this book, beliefs are inconsequential to a shared understanding among people. For example, knowing or feeling that loved ones who have passed away are near us. Knowing or feeling there is more to reality than meets the eye. Knowing or feeling we possess boundless creativity. Knowing or feeling we are energetic beings. In Only Being, I explore the intersection of physical and nonphysical worlds, to which we are consciously or unconsciously connected. I describe spiritual worlds as the worlds we come from before life, where we reside when not in physicality, and to which we will return someday. I use terms like “nonphysical” or “larger field” to describe the entirety of spiritual worlds—what are essentially limitless environments within infinite worlds to which everything known and unknown happens. I use the term “higher self ” to describe what is infinitely more massive than a human being’s essence. Our essence is a temporary energetic extension of our higher self, and our essence’s presence in the physical world is us—a human, who will one day return home to our higher self. We have interrelated relationships within our energetic family in nonphysical environments. Our higher self is a part of that family. All this terminology can be interpreted in the realm of belief. The purpose helps illustrate the concepts I explore throughout these pages. I ask my readers to suspend their beliefs and keep an open mind as I introduce stories about our connection to the larger reality at play.

Only Being was written with the guidance of my higher self to bring awareness of a higher self each of us has in common. My stories and essays explore what separates people from their essence—and crucially, what unifies them. The book offers techniques for tuning in to our timeless, intelligent self—our essence—where insight, intuition, and creativity flow.

Published in Best Holistic Life Magazine, 2025.