Because we, in ignorance, tend to separate the Creator from the created, we make the mistake of saying God created the universe. Actually, that is no so - at least in the sense that a sculptor creates a statue. God BECAME the universe, without in any way losing its essential nature.

That which we call 'God' is more than mere physical forms, and the universe reflects only a part of the God-consciousness. That which we know as the universe is a manifested though-form, a cosmic illusion known in the East as 'maya', but it is the creative illusion of God and must be taken very seriously. It cannot be dismissed simply as a sort of magician's trick or hallucination.

It is true that the physical realm is illusory, but so are the psychic realms. A fact which is not understood by many who belong to spiritualist organisations. Just as we join clubs, societies and other groups according to our beliefs and interests here in the physical, so is it in the psychic realms. Just as there are games people play, so are there games spirits play. Many non-physical personalities are just as confused and ignorant as their physically manifested counterparts.

When the focus of our soul-consciousness withdraws from the physical at the moment of bliss and ecstasy called 'death', we do not become enlightened. Indeed, we continue to carry with us our usual beliefs and prejudices. In the psychic, or spirit realms, that which the Buddhist call the Bardo state, we continue to create our own realities. There is a psychic validity to these 'realities' but they are illusory nevertheless.

"More and more the universe begins to look like one great thought" ... Sir James Jeans, physicist.

All the separate roles we play in the illusory realms are like waves upon the great ocean. Our sense of separation makes us identify only with the waves and we take on false egos. "Hey, look at me!" we cry as waves. "See how big I am." - or small, fast and seemingly independent from the ocean.

The wave is in the great ocean and the great ocean is the wave. When the wave exhausts itself it becomes part of the great ocean, but in truth it never left it. The separate reality of the wave's existence is purely illusory. Anything we think we are, as separate and distinct from God, is purely illusory. We are in God, and in God is in us.

No matter how caught up we become in the illusion of the physical roles we play, we are never, nor can we ever be, separate from God. When the waves finally die on the rocks and beaches of some distant shore, do they not return home to their source? We do not less.