There is a void in all of us; a feeling of emptiness that permeates our life and it only grows stronger with time. It’s that feeling that something is missing in our experience, something that will make us feel whole and complete; something on the outside that will give us meaning and finally bring us the happiness we’ve been seeking. And so, we search for it in people, places, jobs, food, sex, drugs, parties, and entertainment… yet the void never seems to get filled by anything. Instead, it feels like a black hole – the more we feed it, the bigger it gets.
We look to the external world to fill the void and feel even emptier than before when the world inevitably fails to do so. We get ourselves into addiction loops and desperately cling to the things that make us feel anything at all, then we suffer immensely when we lose them. We don’t realise that trying to find happiness in the surface pleasures of the outside world will have us constantly drinking yet dying of thirst; that sooner or later, this kind of seeking will leave us in hell.
Every time you open your phone, because you crave stimulation and instant gratification, you are in hell. Every time you light a cigarette or have a drink to numb your feelings, you are in hell. Every time you feel that inner void calling from within, and you run to the fridge to try to stuff it with food, you are in hell. Every time you go to your partner in the hopes that they will make you feel loved and worthy, you have abandoned yourself – and you are in hell. These statements might seem harsh or exaggerated to many people, because hell has become their default state, their comfort zone, and to them it doesn’t seem like a big deal; not yet, at least.
But in truth, every time you look to the world to validate you or make you feel better, you are in hell – you have outsourced your power as a creator, and you are depending on an unreliable and ever-changing external environment to tell you who to be and how to feel. This only leaves you more disempowered and hollower than before, because the external environment is only a mirror of your inner state (Read: Mastering The Mirror of Reality), so it doesn’t have the capacity to fulfil you – only you have that capacity.
You are the source of everything in your outer reality, so every time you go seeking love, happiness, connection, or meaning on the outside, you are subconsciously in a vibration that says, “I don’t have love. I don’t have happiness. I don’t have connection. I don’t have meaning.” And your environment will reflect that back to you every time. No amount of validation from the external world will ever be enough; no amount of money, status, fame, recognition, or admiration from others will ever fill the void.
Occasionally, we meet someone or come across something that sparks that feeling of wholeness and joy or passion within us, and it makes the void disappear for a while. We think that this person or situation is the source of the newfound happiness within us, and so we attach to it and desperately try to control it. This is how addiction is created. Inevitably, it eventually disappoints us and brings us pain when the person or thing starts to act in ways that no longer spark those positive feelings from before. Once again, we have outsourced our power to something external, and the result is emptiness, disempowerment, and suffering.
The truth is, that person or thing was never the source of the fulfilment in the first place –they just had the key that unlocked the feeling within us. The feeling came from ourselves, from within; it just took the right mirror in the external world to make us realise we have the ability to feel that way. We could feel that way all the time if we choose to, regardless of what’s going on in the outside world. In fact, that’s our most natural state – that’s why it feels so good.
But if it really is our natural state, then why is it so hard to always feel that way? To begin with, because we are not in touch with our true nature. When we incarnate in this realm, we forget who we are; we forget that we are pure consciousness, that we are All There Is, that we are infinitely powerful beings who create their reality. This is the way that this three-dimensional plane works: we come here to forget everything, so that we can rediscover ourselves all over again.
However, our true nature is so boundless and so powerful that Consciousness had to create layers upon layers (or veils) of illusion to make us forget who we are. These layers of illusion are everything that is in contradiction to our infinite nature; everything that acts as a limitation; and they permeate the whole of our physical reality, from the material aspect, like the limitation of having a body, to the abstract dimension of thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. This makes reality itself an illusion, a dream that’s designed to feel exceptionally real. The only real thing in existence, though, is Consciousness itself.
So, to make us completely forget who we are, Consciousness created the illusion of separation, of death, of fear, of powerlessness. It created the illusion of so many limitations, which have led us to adopt all kinds of false beliefs. All these false beliefs pile up to create the ego, or the false self.
The false self is every layer of our personality, every belief that makes us feel limited or powerless in some way. It’s the belief that we’re unworthy, incapable, or unlovable; that we must earn our right to merely exist on this planet. It’s the belief that we are all alone in the world. It’s the belief that others are separate from us; that they are the enemy. It’s the belief that all there is in existence is the material world. The belief that we cease to exist after physical death. The belief that life is scary and we are unsafe; that we should fear the world and fight for our survival.
To get to our true self, first we must become conscious of these false beliefs. This is easy once we start paying attention, because they all have one thing in common that lets us know for sure if the belief is based on illusion: all false beliefs make us feel negative emotion. This is because our emotions serve as our guidance system in this physical reality – they tell us how close or how far away we are from our true core frequency; from our real self.
Negative emotions signal that there is a belief behind the emotion that’s based on illusion, a belief that’s in discord with our truest essence. They are intense because they are meant to get our attention; to make us notice that something in our internal world is off. Conversely, positive feelings show us that we are in a vibrational state that’s close to the truth of who we are.
This is precious in guiding us towards reality (ourselves) and away from illusion (the ego). Our emotions are not something to be feared, ignored, or suppressed; they are key in letting us know if we are on the right path. Every negative emotion is a signal that we have strayed from our truth, and we need to course-correct.
Negative emotion tells us we are operating from a false belief, and false beliefs are what creates the void. The only way for the void to disappear is if we comprehend that it’s based on illusion; that it was never real in the first place. Every feeling of lack, of something missing, is illusory. Because you are All There Is. There is nothing outside of you and never has been, because you are everything.
Lack makes no sense from this higher perspective, yet from our three-dimensional one, physical reality is very convincing in making us believe that we are always missing something. There is something addictive about this reality that makes us crave more and more of the things which are contained in it. We are always desiring something, always searching for the next thing, not realising that we have everything we could ever want or need right here and now, within ourselves. This constant striving for more is the dysfunction of the ego.
We can only feel fulfilled and at peace when we know that our true nature is infinite. To get to know our true nature, though, we need to shed all those layers of illusion, all those beliefs that don’t represent our deepest essence, and we can do so by following the compass of our emotions.
Every time we encounter a situation that makes us feel negative emotion, we must become aware of the emotion first, and then ask ourselves: What belief do I hold about this situation that’s not in harmony with the deeper truth of who I am? The more we observe our feelings, the more we can discover and release all the false beliefs that keep us from embodying our true self.
Every time you feel like you need to get something from the external environment to feel better, to feel more loved or connected, ask yourself: Why do I believe that I need this to feel happy? If I truly knew that I am whole and complete, that I am infinitely powerful, and I can achieve any state I want to be in from within, would I be looking to the external world to fulfil me? Or would I just get in touch with my true self and shift my state of consciousness to something I prefer because I am the Source of everything, I am Consciousness itself, I am the only thing that’s real, and everything else is an illusion I’m just dreaming up?
Once you start comprehending this higher perspective, you realise that Heaven and Hell are just states of consciousness, and we all have the power to choose the realm we want to be in. The Hell state of consciousness makes you look to the outside world for love, validation, connection, acceptance, recognition, and satisfaction. In this state, the world is not enough. In this state, the void reigns and addiction is the law. This is what Hell truly is – it’s not a fiery pit; it’s a party that never ends. It’s the realm of the ego.
The Heaven state of consciousness is when you know that you are the source of everything you could ever want, and that external reality is just the byproduct of your internal state. It’s the knowing that you are the one creating everything, even if you don’t always understand or see how. It’s the knowing that Heaven is contained within you, and so is Hell. That’s what Jesus meant when he told the Pharisees, “…the kingdom of God is within you.” The kingdom of God will not be observed in the external world, because it’s immaterial. Searching for it outside of ourselves is futile.
Once this is profoundly comprehended, you can deliberately reach for that Heaven state of consciousness. You can put yourself in a state in which you no longer need anything. The state in which you are no longer reliant on external people or situations to make you feel a certain way, because you have realised you have the power to feel however you want to feel. Clinging and attachment do not exist in this state, because you know you are everything, and that everything is you. There is nothing to acquire, nothing to achieve, and no void to fill.
It’s the state in which you stop trying to get from the world, and you start asking yourself, “What can I give? Since I am so infinitely abundant and powerful, how can I contribute to this reality to make it even more pleasing for myself and for others? What would I do just for the pleasure of it? What would I do just because it puts me in a flow state when I do it? What would I do, even if no one was watching?”
Instead of trying to fill a void, you realise that you are abundance itself, and now you only want to give to the external world from a place of utter fulfilment and wholeness. This is our true nature. We all have that fountain within us that only replenishes the more we let it flow. We all have those things that light us up and make us forget about time; things that make life meaningful. When we connect to those things that give us passion, we calibrate to our true core frequency, and we become who we are meant to be. We cease to be a black hole that can’t be filled only by realising our true nature as an infinite Source.