Published: Monday 15th of June 2026
Being Us
The inner self, (or what people have sometimes misleadingly referred to as the astral body), is a vital part of the real us, though not known or understood by the vast majority. This part of the self came into being long ago, taking up life to begin with in planes of existence above the earth level. Eventually it became necessary to obtain an additional body of gross matter at least once, in order to prove our worth through the highs and lows of an earth life.
Many and varied are the challenges we come up against in this world, from which lessons are cast. If these lessons are not learned fully we will almost certainly ask to be reborn perhaps a number of times until we succeed, a process called reincarnation. Having said that, the earth is only ever our temporary home, and in the longer term we are not separated from people with whom we are closely linked in friendship and love.
You may have heard someone say, "I didn't ask to be born," totally unaware of having made that exact request prior to being reincarnated into the earth. There are in fact a great many individuals from planes above the earth who have asked to reincarnate in order to continue or complete their education – most probably you and I included.
In places below the level of earth the conditions of living are far harder than here. That is why any opportunity to reincarnate is welcomed. Unfortunately, coming from lower regions usually means being under the auspices of lower masters, with an obligation to break down anything that is good. Such a one may not consciously know their background story but will nevertheless be attracted towards a disruptive role. Individuals who go against what they have been told to do can, if learning to love, free themselves from their past, though they might be forced to endure sickness and pain to do so.
When we reincarnate, the deeper self knows what we have still to learn in order to make this our final sojourn in the earth plane. The brain is oblivious to this, although there are people who have a calling, knowing from a young age what they want to do in life. Those who have no idea what they are going to do are not at a disadvantage, because during sleep the inner self can make arrangements on our behalf. In both cases it is only a starting point, for if we expect other people to change without ever seeing the need to change ourselves, we will have learned nothing.
Let me quote what Gladys Franklin said in one of the Scene Today lessons*: "Very few seek to look for the real truth. Even if it is found, the brain can interfere and turn it into an avenue that it wishes to follow for itself. And when this happens all things go awry; one comes up against conditions that could teach, because this earth is a school.
"Everyone is here because there is something they have to learn, something that can, at last, bring peace and prosperity to them if they learn it. But many do not wish to learn. They think they have it in their pocket already. Thinking they do not need to go in for any tuition that life itself might persuade them into accepting, they will turn it down."
This explains a great deal about why we so easily fall short of fulfilling our purpose in this life. The brain is open to countless influences, seen and unseen. We get an idea in our head and invariably believe we are right to follow it out, perhaps altering the course we would otherwise have taken. But where do nearly all of our ideas come from? They do not originate in our brain, being drawn in the very first place from the inner ethers, the aura about the earth. This mishmash of tainted colour vibration is chock-full of negative emotions from thousands of years of human history.
To reach a higher level of thought, the outer ethers, requires us to quieten our thinking and to encourage a peaceful state of mind. This is particularly difficult, because all the convoluted ideas, thoughts and feelings we have had from the moment we were born, once being acted upon or reacted to, drop into the subconscious mind. You might say, surely the subconscious is not a factor for me. Maybe for those who are deeply troubled, but not me. And that is the problem. We are not aware of the part the subconscious mind plays in our life, and how if it is cluttered with wants and desires it can play us falsely and quickly take us off at a tangent.
What is not generally known is that the subconscious mind and the aura are one and the same; being seen as a field of colour vibration emanating from the self. Happy and constructive feelings show as brighter shades, such as the ruby red of patience; depressive or selfish feelings are dull, dingy, altogether much darker colours, such as the brown of depression and selfishness.
I remember an example of the latter when first travelling to Canada on behalf of The Fellowship of Truth, the organisation founded by Gladys Franklin from which Studies on Life was formed. A large group of people had started on our spiritual development course, and I had gone to encourage them. One of their leaders was a woman I had been introduced to before in England, and I assumed she would be a strong advocate for the Fellowship. When meeting her again, however, I was taken aback to see, with my eyes open, that she had an unmistakeable and unpleasant brown aura. I knew that far from being in harmony with our teachings she was plotting to discredit our founder, and to take over the Canadian group herself – convinced she was right to do so! Having seen what I did enabled me to take steps to prevent that from happening.
Part of our purpose in the earth is to gradually get rid of all the clutter, all the dross, that has built up in our subconscious. This is not as difficult as it sounds. By asking sincerely before going to sleep if we can learn, we will gain help from our own inner self – a powerful ally to have.
That is not to say we will never make mistakes. It is often through making mistakes and having to rectify them that we can gradually alter our behaviour so as not to cause hurt either deliberately or inadvertently. Paying attention to how we react to what is said or done by others gives us an insight into where we might improve. It allows us to work on ourselves to become kinder, more patient, more tolerant – all the attributes that help to clarify the subconscious mind so that we become our natural self, spiritually awake and inwardly strong.
If we go any way towards this then our days will be happy and our life will not be wasted.
*For details about the Scene Today lessons, click here: https://www.studiesonlife.com/Call/CallLessons.php
Author: Colin