Copyright 2001, Colin C. Tipping

Assumption:
Contrary to most Western religious
thought, we are not human beings having an oc-
casional spiritual experience. Rather we are spiri-
tual beings having a human experience.
This is not just a play on words. It represents a funda-
mental shift in our thinking about who we are and our
relationship with God. Instead of thinking of ourselves
as fallen and separated from God, it suggests that we
are still very much connected to the All That Is and that
life in a physical body is just a temporary interlude taken
for the purpose of learning and balancing energy. It
also suggests that God lives within each of us rather
than 
up there
, highlighting our dual 
man/spirit
nature.
Pulitzer Prize winner, Ernst Becker, explained this viv-
idly by saying, “Man is a God who shits.” [
*Becker. E. 
“The
Denial of Death”
MacMillan Free Press, 1973,]
Phenomenal power exists in the idea that we are spiri-
tual beings having a human experience. It represents
a direct threat to the Ego, which consists of a cluster of
beliefs that convince us we have separated from God
and are subject to His wrath for committing that origi-
nal sin of separation. If we, indeed, are not separate at
all but totally connected, the Ego ceases to exist.
Assumption:
 We have physical bodies that die,
but we are immortal.
For centuries philosophers have debated the makeup
of the “soul.” This discussion predates even Plato and
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Socrates, both of whom had much to say about the soul
but remained very much at odds on the subject. Today,
the debate continues with little agreement on what con-
stitutes the soul.
For the purposes of this discussion, however, the soul
is defined as that part of us that is pure consciousness
connected to the greater ocean of consciousness that
forms the All That Is. Yet, for the purposes of our incar-
nation, the soul takes on an individual characteristic
that can be likened to a single droplet of that same
ocean or a little bit of
God Stuff.
Since we are a part of
the ocean of The All That Is, we have always existed as
a soul. The soul has no beginning and no end, exists
outside of both time and space, and is immortal. Dur-
ing our incarnation, the soul keeps us connected to the
World of Divine Truth and the All That Is and is respon-
sible for our spiritual evolution.
Once the soul incarnates, it becomes attached to both
a body and a personality, which together represent a
persona
or identity. This we create for ourselves based
on our own self-concept, which we present to the world
at large. Thus, our soul becomes subject to the stresses
of human existence and can even become sick. A great
many of the sicknesses of today, such as cancer, be-
gin as a deep sickness of the soul. Shamans speak
of the soul becoming fractured and splintered, parts of
it actually being left behind and lost in past events, es-
pecially traumas. A great deal of a shaman’s healing
work revolves around the idea of soul retrieval.
Whether a soul incarnates just once or does so over
and over again has been an issue of contention through
the ages, and many churches and religions will not con-
sider this idea even today. Yet, Eastern religions have
always included reincarnation among their spiritual
beliefs. I do not regard reincarnation as central to Radi-
cal Forgiveness and it is of no consequence whether
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one believes it or not. It has no effect on the efficacy of
Radical Forgiveness and is simply a matter of personal
choice.