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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is a work of great significance., February 6, 1999
"The Division of Consciousness" by Peter Novak is based on a simple realization. It is really quite amazing when you realize that the secret of the afterlife is staring us right in the face and we don't realize it. That the supposed conflict between reincarnation and the "heaven and hell" model, cyclical re-occurrence and lineal history (i.e. history that ends in Judgement) can be resolved simply, yet it is an answer that is so easily overlooked.Novak's understanding of the afterlife is based on a simple psychological model of man. If we consider the nature of man and for a moment take a more psychological than esoteric view, we can clearly see that the psyche is made up of two characteristics, the conscious and unconscious mind. We may even surmise that at some time man existed in a state of full awareness but that due to some error, conflict or change, this awareness was lost or diminished and a divided consciousness resulted. This divided consciousness is comprised of the conscious mind and a sub or unconscious region where memories, emotions, desires and drives exist. Traditional psychology tells us that while we are motivated by the unconscious we have little awareness of its depth or intensity. In the Gnostic model we can suggest that the full awareness that once existed was more than its constituent parts and that it was a state of pure will. A state of undivided light and mindfulness. However, after the fall into matter, this state of will was diminished and a division developed between the two characteristics of the personality. As time progressed, this division increased so that there is now an immense gulf between the conscious and unconscious minds. There are many models we can use to explain the development of this divided consciousness. However, regardless of how it occurred, it is clear that modern man works with a psyche comprised of two separate compartments. The gulf between which is immense. For Novak, this gulf while important in life, only takes on its greatest significance after death. Imagine for a moment, what would occur if at death these two segments of the psyche continued to exist separately. Consider the resulting division of consciousness. Let us take the unconscious first. Separated from any critical facility, any outward awareness, it would turn on itself and become absorbed in its memories. Depending on its experience, these memories could be pleasurable or painful. As time progresses, these memories will become its only reality, it literally will create its own heaven or hell. This separate unconscious self will wander the astral realms of its own creation, external reality will be molded and conditioned by its perceptions which are clearly embodied in its experiences. The conscious self, on the other hand, will have no memory. As time progresses, it will loose whatever records it has of its present incarnation and as it wanders the astral worlds will be inevitably be drawn back to matter. Since its perception is primarily though a physical vehicle, it will feel compelled to again incarnate. The longer it wanders, the more it loses its perceptions and awareness, and in the end it can do little but take possession of a body and begin to grow and develop once again. As can be readily ascertained, if we apply this divided consciousness to the afterlife experience a truly momentous understanding results. Reincarnation and the heaven/hell model are both true. There is both a "underworld" or spiritual plane and a return to earth. There is soul-sleep in the sense of the self-absorbed unconscious memory and a lack of awareness with the conscious self. So many traditions are reconciled. The conscious self is not aware, on the whole, of the unconscious "shells" and hence has no memory of past lives. As it re-incarnates it brings with it some associational links with these unconscious "selves", but has little or no awareness of them. Accordingly, each life it re-develops a further unconscious, creating another unconscious self. Hence, as Gurdjieff argued, man is a multitude, not a singularity. There are thousands of selves, self absorbed and waiting to be realized. Each of these selves while existing in a dimension of its own making, is also however potentially linked to facets of the unconscious mind which has evolved in any incarnation. The conscious self has the pattern to re-create the unconscious and has some record of the unconscious "nodes" which exist as part of itself, but these records are automatic and it is not aware of why they exist. It cannot be aware of them since it does not have its own memory, each life it creates an unconscious region which stores the memories and these it loses, for all intents and purposes, at the conclusion of any incarnation. The image of the soul heading into the light is the moment when the two selves are separated and go in different directions. One into its own memory-caused virtual reality, the other back towards matter. This division of the afterlife explains many of the descriptions that arise of wandering ghosts, channeling, spirit guides and the like. While there is no liberation in the afterlife, there is no real awareness either. Spirits can communicate from their own "virtual world" giving their view of what is occurring. Each will reflect only its own memories and history. Transcendence cannot be discovered in this world or the next, it comes from the source of light and it alone. This interpretation of the afterlife is pregnant with meaning. Novak offers us a journey through the world of the Bible, myths and legend, re-interpreting them in the light of this new discovery. The traditions of the underworld, heaven, hell and reincarnation all come alive and mean so much more. Swedenborg's descriptions of heaven and hell as realities we create from within ourselves becomes surprising poignant as does the gloomy afterlife of the Sumerians and Israelites. Without union and awareness, the unconscious selves wander in self absorbed darkness. The otherworld is not some place of divine joy and abandonment nor of diabolic torture and pain, it is a dimension which is solely created from the memories of its creator and hence the origins of all experiences within it are from the soul at its source. The Egyptian initiatory system which demanded a reconstitution of the self so that it could escape the coils of the planets and return to the Treasury of light takes on a new relevance. The experience of simulated death and rebirth involves the process of re-uniting the divided mind and achieving cosmic union and is hence central to all the mystery traditions. In the life and death of Jesus we can see this illustrated, his descent into the underworld and freeing of the dead can be understood as the liberating of the unconscious selves. His resurrection and ascension could also be interpreted as the state of full integration and awareness with the resulting transformation from fallen to light substance. Again Novak offers us a particularly comprehensive re-interpretation of the Life of Jesus showing both its significance as a core event within the division of consciousness and its value as a type for man's re-awakening of the Self. The Final Judgement and the End of the world also can take on new significance. There is a great urgency within this vision of the divided mind. Since the origins of this dual consciousness are in the fall, man is on a downward trek and there must be a climactic conclusion to the process. As man heads into the Kali Yuga, the barrier between the astral world and the physical dimension fade away and man is forced to deal with the thousands of "selves" which make up the monstrosity which is his unconscious. As these selves begin to dawn all sorts of mental disturbances occur, mankind begins to go mad, both individually and collectively. This is the re-awakening of the dead, not as flesh and bones but within our own psyches. The process of spiritual development is hence to awaken a superhuman sense of will, the true Self that existed beyond that conscious and unconscious, and through this heightened awareness, process the thousands of selves and achieve a true inner union, a complete state of awareness. As the dark age comes to a climax, there is little choice in regards to this process, mankind must either achieve rectification of his consciousness or have it destroyed in a dark night of madness, memory and suffering. The return of Christ is in one sense the awakening of the superhuman Self within, and the banishing of the hordes is the purification and processing of the unconscious selves. While certainly these images have other more prophetic meanings, their application to the divided mind cannot be ignored. Novak's explanation of the Prophetic scriptures is quite profound and comprehensive. His re-evaluation of the symbols of revelation does not take away their historic and prophetic meaning, but adds a psychological depth which resonates beyond the superficial interpretations of Biblical scholars. This a work of great significance. It ta
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The most important book in its field since Gnostic Gospels., February 6, 1999
By A Customer
Back in 1985, I did a final project in college required for graduation on the Gnostic period of early Christianity. These "Gnostics" as we call them today had one thing in common; though they consisted of many different unorganized sects and groups, all of them subscribed to a version of Christianity different from what we take for granted today. Back then the mystery of who and what Jesus Christ was was greatly subject to interpretation, and many documents of his life and work were written that did not appear in the Bible. St Paul, who founded Christianity as we know it toady, was interested in making Christianity appeal to the Greeks and Romans; it is this version that we know as Christianity today. There were others, however, including some of Jesus' apostles, took a view that was somewhat more complex, suggesting that there were some important theological points that St Paul was overlooking.I missed most of these points myself in my final project; I had in the back of my mind that there was something more that I was missing due to my lack of attention and time(I wanted to graduate that year). When I read through Peter Novak's "The Division Of Consciousness", I finally found that missing piece. I wanted to go back and rewrite my project after the fact, but Novak has already said it better than I could have. Novak's book deals with an ingenious concept he calls division theory, which postulates that the spirit and soul, which we often consider to be the same thing, are actually two different entities that usually split after the change called death. To coin a phrase from Carl Jung (who is quoted liberally by Novak), the spirit is the conscious mind, while the soul is the unconscious mind. The concept also addresses reincarnation; the spirit reincarnates, while the soul is frozen in whatever emotional state it tended towards in earthly life. The inference is that Adolf Hitler's soul is in Hell, while Mother Theresa's soul is in heaven. My very natural question on this concept being introduced was "Well, how do we reintegrate the soul and the spirit?" This, according to Novak, is where Jesus Christ came in. In Novak's estimation, Christ appears to have been the first earthly being to successfully integrate the soul and spirit; it could be said he was sent here by God to show us how it is done. "That which I have done, ye can do also." As far as I as a sometime comparative religion student and researcher on the subject am concerned, there were probably others, but it does explain why some religions emphasize reincarnation (Hinduism)and others emphasize the continuance of the soul only (modern Christianity). The research of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and others into afterlife experiences suggests that some have conscious memories of certain things happening (spirit), while others have intense feelings of either great bliss or pain (soul). The book is very well-researched and written; it's clearly a labor of love on the part of the author. Some of the conclusions drawn may make casual Christians uncomfortable, but serious Christian scholars would either feel vindicated, be intrigued, or both. This is a book to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. The one thing that makes me uncomfortable personally is the emphasis on Jesus Christ's Second Coming in the last few chapters of the book, that would appeal greatly to any fundamentalist Christian who's fascinated with the Book Of Revelation. There's material that could be very easily misinterpreted with unfortunate results if not read very carefully. Chapters 9 and 10 were the most difficult parts of the book; they deal with what will happen to the divided souls and spirits of individuals in the event of The Second Coming. I will only say that it is more gruesome than the worst Christian apocalyptic warnings. "The Division Of Consciousness" caused me to examine my own religion; it occurs to me that there is room in my religion for this concept. It appears to have been articulating it in its own way, I just may not have noticed before. It shows that there is room for improvement in all religions, that they all are missing the point in different ways. The caste system in India, for example, could be considered a result of their own misunderstanding of division theory, just as Christianity has over time excised all but a few references to reincarnation in the Bible. "This is the one...there has not risen anyone greater than John The Baptist...And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. He who has ears, let him hear." Matthew 11:11-15. There are many more in the Gnostic Gospels, especially the Gospel of Thomas (the apostle best known as 'doubting Thomas,' who would only believe Jesus had returned if he saw with his own eyes. When he did, however, he said "My Lord and my God!"). "The Division Of Consciousness" is very readable for any casual student of religion at the college level. I would have welcomed studying it in my college classes in the early '80's. It is, quite frankly, the most important book in its field since Elaine Pagel's The Gnostic Gospels in 1978, and takes Pagel's merely scholarly conclusions light years further. Division theory is such an ingenious concept I'm amazed nobody had been able to think of it in this way before. There are religions that have concepts of levels of spiritual experience that touch on the concept in some way; in my religion, for example, it's explained in terms of the subtle bodies (Astral, Causal, Mental (conscious mind), Etheric (unconscious mind)), that the Pure Soul goes through and eventually drops in its progression back to God. That, however, is another book entirely, but the connection between Novak's theory and theories of the Self postulated by Freud and Jung are significantly similar (conscious=Spirit, unconscious=Soul, subconscious=the overlapping point that occurs between the two in a living human being).
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fresh, impressive, & thought-provoking. Makes perfect sense., May 2, 1999
By A Customer
I started reading Novak's "The Division of Consciousness" and couldn't put it down until I finished it. Having read a great multitude of books on the afterlife and metaphysical thought, I have to say that this book ranks up there with the best that I have read. This material is fresh, thought provoking and you will not be satisfied in just reading it only once. I am very impressed with this theory. I am glad that he relies on the Gnostic writings because I feel they are more authoritative that our modern Bible which has been tampered with through the ages. Also, Edgar Cayce in his psychic readings, while knowing absolutely nothing about Gnosticism in his waking state, has confirm that Gnosticism is the highest form of Christianity. Much of what Novak writes agrees with Cayce's revelations. Cayce talked about the body (conscious mind), mind (subconscious mind) and spirit (superconscious mind). According to Cayce, at death the conscious mind is shed and the subconscious mind becomes the conscious mind. At the higher dimensions of the spirit world, this conscious mind is shed and the superconscious mind becomes the conscious mind. As far as I know, Cayce did not reveal what happens to the subconscious mind (the astral body according to some metaphysical sources) after it is shed. This DivisionTheory makes perfect sense to me. So much of what Novak has written agrees with everything I know concerning metaphysics, while adding much new information that ties everything together perfectly. Before I heard of Division Theory, I have come across many characteristics of the afterlife that would affirm Division Theory to be true. For example, I have read that the personality we currently project is but one facet of our entire soul, like a multi-faceted "diamond" to use an analogy. The personalities of our many past lives, taken all together, is the true representation of our soul, who we really are, what is written on our "Akashic record" or also known as "the Book of Life", our total experience as individuals separate in personality from the Whole, of God. Accordingly, our complete experience in individuality and our complete personality is so immense, we can only project a small portion or aspect of our complete personality at a time. In other words, the personality we project here in the physical is only one facet of our entire soul personality that we desire to develop and perhaps change for the better. Before a person incarnates into this physical world, it is said that they have a vast array of destinies, lessons, and people for which to choose to incarnate. Because of the immenseness and multi-facetedness of our soul, we can only choose that destiny, lesson, incarnation that will better help us develop a particular facet of our soul. Once in the flesh, that aspect of our personality we choose to develop can be better expressed by the incarnation we choose. A good analogy would be that our present personality is but a drop in a bucket of water representing our soul. After reading Novak's book, it is very difficult to deny the fact of our multiple personalities and the multifaceted soul we have that exists only in the higher realms of consciousness. This is my take on the situation in light of Peter Novak's wonderful revelations. His book definitely ranks up there with one of the best. Wonderful and enlightening reading.
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