When you try to be, or do a thing, what you are saying to the universe is that “I am not there yet,” and it is this thought that keeps you from experiencing what you desire. By the law of attraction you can never be what you are trying to be.

It is the very same with the true nature of who you are. You are nothing experiencing “being” something. You already are what you think you are and your existence is a demonstration of the thought process which created you.

In the physical life you choose the different rolls or scripts you are playing. Trying to be spiritual is simply another script or play. You are spirit trying to find its way back to spirit. You are trying to define yourself by creating an illusional experience of one possibility of your existence.

From the second you awake into consciousness you recreate yourself in physical experience. While you were asleep you did not know yourself. When you awoke you started to put it all back together. I am awake, I am male, a spouse, father, employee that needs to stop thinking and get ready for work. Throughout the whole day you reaffirm your place in time and space and when you go to sleep again tonight you will have forgotten who you are. Everything you do, all day long, says this is me-this is who I am.

This is a false existence, an illusion and your ego requires this constant affirmation that it exists-it does not! The real you, the truth about who and what you are is what you were before you started thinking-before your mind gets involved.

To “be” you have to start from somewhere or nowhere. To be what you believe yourself to be right now-you started as nothing. So nothing is your true nature and everything else is made up. You cannot be nothing because nothing is not a state of being. However, from the knowledge of your true nature you can fully appreciate the illusion of what you now believe yourself to be.

From this understanding you will know nothing is all you will ever be and nothing is really all there is. You will also begin to understand that everything is nothing and nothing can not be created or destroyed. You will always exist in one form or the other.

The true magnificence and miracle of what you are is appreciated from this understanding. You will also understand that there is nothing you cannot be. You are everything. You are the creator and the created. You are the ego, tree, rock, sky, your friend, your enemy-you are all things which you experience. You are not one with the tree or sea, you are them. It is only within the illusion of your own consciousness you believe otherwise.

The reason you cannot find the creator, your god, the source, is because it is you. And you can never experience being these things while you are looking for them. You can never experience what you truly are, while you are “being” something.

This does not mean you should turn away from the illusion. “Being” is the whole purpose for being here. There simply is “nothing” you have to be, do, or say to know who you truly are. The physical life was created for purpose-your purpose. The knowledge or truth about who you really are gives greater meaning to your purpose and what you chose to experience before you started “being” it.

You come from nothing and you will go back to nothing, and in between you are nothing trying to experience being something. You are all there is and nothing. You are the expression of nothing. You do not go anywhere or be anything-you are all there is. “We” are not all one because there is no “we”-there is only the one.

When you know your true magnificence-you will experience being magnificent-you will know your awesome power and the true state of who you really are.

The true nature of who you really are is nothing at all. In the experience of being something, you move away from this state of nothingness.

It is not possible to experience being nothing for that realization is a state of being. In the world of the absolute or nothingness there is no being. Consciousness, is nothingness being something-”I am” this or that. Consciousness is a place in time, a focus of the nothing state wishing to experience something. As an individual of this nothingness you choose amongst all the possibilities of being. Your focus in the physical life moves from one experience to another and you can only experience one thing at a time. For example, you may be male, a father, employee, husband, lover and any number of things-but when the focus of you attention is on being a father-in that moment you experience nothing else. But that does not mean all the others things are not valid or do not exist-they do.

All things exist simultaneously in the same time and space-it is only your focus shifting back and forth from one to another that creates the illusion. From the state of nothing to the experience of being, is called consciousness. During any particular time of the day you move back and forth from one state to another. During the time of sleep the mind is active in another realm of experience or being-called dreaming.

Consciously you are running a script or playing a roll. You can never experience being nothing, because your mind believes it is something, so it is in the times of no-time that you are in your true state and no-time cannot be measured by the conscious mind.

It is within the experience of this satsang one can truly appreciate the experience of physical life as an altered state. Because we all come from nothing, we are therefore all connected to it and are really one consciousness experiencing individuality. In this awareness of “one mind,” there are no victims as all individuals cooperate to create a single circumstance or experience.

Even though one can never experience consciously the state of being nothing-when one imagines it, it is easy to see the wonder of being conscious and experiencing physical reality. In human terms it makes the experience easier, because all experiences are choices-realized.

In the state of nothingness, there are no choices because of course there is nothing to choose. It is only when one contemplates choices in the state of consciousness we can appreciate how miraculous it is. It is easy to see why consciousness itself is an addiction.

A new born knows itself as nothing and as it grows it is in constant wonder of its environment. Then as it becomes older and starts to forget what it is, it learns to become something. From its crib it can look at the window and imagine itself as the dog, the bird, the tree. Then gravity sets in and it learns what its parent’s images of it are.

The paradox is you are really nothing and everything at the same time-you choose what you wish to experience at some level of your consciousness. Because you are making it all up-there are no limits as to what you may experience. Your life goes on past consciousness and you will choose again. Know all the people you bring into your life in any moment, are different aspects of yourself-there to help you experience what you desire. You are nothing, experiencing something, from more than one perspective, separated, but not separate. In your state of being-be what you desire.

Being spiritual, enlightened and becoming aware have no relevance in the state of nothingness. They are simply scripts you are following during your conscious state. For instance-you are now playing the roll of an individual learning to become spiritual and it is what you are experiencing. You cannot be spiritual while you are learning to be so. Spirituality is a state of being. But, to your true state this program that is running has no meaning. In fact, what all these things do is push yourself away from your true state of nothingness. Being spiritual is not being nothing. All your belief systems about what happens when you leave the physical experience are meaningless and you are missing out on the true experience of physical life. You came to this world to experience being physical, and during your sojourn here you contemplate being nothing again.

It would be the same thing as having an evening out on the town. You have a really nice meal, attend a movie and during this outing you are thinking about work and planning things which have to be done at home-you missed the whole point of the evening out!

Thinking about the afterlife does not change your experience once you get there-in nothingness, there is no experience. The only physical benefit to this understanding is a realization of how exciting, compelling and intoxicating this life is.

Coming from a realm of nothing to physical experiences can be overwhelming for many. Some choose to return early while others can’t get enough. Some just dip their toes into the pool of life a few times while others plunge in.

Many of us practice spirituality, moving to enlightenment or raising ourselves up from physical life in order to avoid it. We want to be near but not involved-observers of life’s circumstances but not participants. For some it’s just business-the idea sells well. Spiritual awareness is just an appreciation of what you are already doing very well.

You are nothing experiencing something and that something is whatever you choose and it only has meaning to you. You come from a realm of no-choice to one of everything is a choice. You present life and its circumstances are testimony as to how you perceive it and the choices you have made. You are not a victim-you are a series of good and poor choices.

If you dream about nothing, you will get it. Whatever you constantly imagine-you will experience. This power you possess is absolute!

The hope for an afterlife cannot be realized until you become aware you will create it. You are creating it now, you are experiencing it now, and you will continue until you no longer wish to. And you will come back and do it again and again. You are both the creator and the created.

From the realm of nothing comes everything and everything is the only thing you can experience.

The title of this article has produced a provocative debate by many who have wondered about these ten plagues that did occur at one time in the land of Egypt. What was the real cause of these events in the land of Egypt? Were they just natural evil happenings that were greatly exaggerated or were they actually the miraculous hand of Almighty God pouring out judgment upon a evil land? I am thankful for the privilege and opportunity to address this issue of what were these ten plagues that Egypt had experienced.

Let me start off by saying, that the definition of the word plague is the following: “A disastrous evil or affliction; Calamity; A sudden unwelcome outbreak.” Furthermore, the Hebrew words that are used for the name “plagues” is referred to all the “wonders” God did against Pharaoh in the land of Egypt. So it does appear that in the beginning in the event in Exodus puts ahead the wondrous character of these dealings of The Lord with Pharaoh.

Now in the natural phenomena, all of the “wonders” depicted anywhere in the Bible as done by the Lord Himself are intimately connected with a natural phenomena, and is necessarily so. The reason for this is, people have no other way of understanding external happenings than through those senses which only deal with a natural phenomena. Therefore, all such theophanies and miraculous events are embodied in natural happenings. However, in all these natural occurrences, the miraculous working of God was as clearly visible as the natural phenomena. Therefore, it is to be expected that the “wonders”of God in the land of Egypt should also be connected with natural happenings as well as manifested miraculous elements.

The Biblical plagues referred to as the ten wonders rendered upon the land of Egypt are collectively referred to as “judgements”. The Bible is very clear in revealing that these ten plagues are the direct cause or reason of God’s intervention in human affairs or live styles by divine decree. The moral response of the Lord’s justice against the lawless sin of Pharaoh and his court, the just reward for his harden heart against the Lord and the things of the Kingdom of God, were the reason for these plagues.

But, what was the real purpose of these ten plagues in the land of Egypt? The most known of the plagues in the Bible are those connected with the children of Israel’s release from Egypt. Since each of the first nine plagues of the Exodus is a affliction that is known to have happened naturally in the land of Egypt in ancient days, Egypt was primarily the target and the chosen people of God was not included. However, with all the suffering that Pharaoh and Egypt had endured , the people of God were still not given permission to leave. The last and final plague was the final blow needed to convince Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. This tenth plague took the firstborn of every Egyptian household, while not one Israelite suffered this plague.

Scholars mostly agree that the first nine plagues were ordinary, natural events that happened in Egypt. They were remarkable only in their intensity and in the timing of when they occurred. But, we must realize, this does not indicate they were solely natural phenomena. They were miraculous in that God used natural forces to obtain His goal. A sovereign God can use whatever ways He chooses to bring about a miracle. It needs to be understood about the method the Lord may use: The method doesn’t diminish the miraculous nature of the occurrence. Now, the tenth plague, which was the death of the firstborn in Egypt, was no doubt supernatural. There is no known natural phenomena closely related to this highly selective plague.

The question being considered is whether the ten plagues in Egypt were natural or supernatural. Modern distinctions between the natural or the supernatural were never thought of or considered by the Israelites. They knew whatever happened, God did it, because God was in immediate control of everything. For the inspired author, the plagues were nothing more nor less than God’s judgment upon Egypt, and His saving actions for Israel. Most interpreters have said that the plagues represent events of nature that might ordinarily of happened in Egypt. But, the writer of Exodus saw them as the result of a purposive, divine will of God. Before I go any further, I must say, that the plagues were also a direct act of judgment against all of the gods of Egypt.

There is a question being asked, “Did the plagues happen?” Many known scientists and secular thinkers believe the plagues are nothing more but mythical, allegorical, or inspired by different stories of natural disasters. However, there are those who have speculated on the possible “natural” inspirations behind the stories about the plagues of Egypt. Several science authors and even Bible researchers have indicated that the plagues were passed down events of natural disasters, and could not be supernatural miracles. Natural explanations have been given for the cause of most of the phenomena, that occurred in the land of Egypt. As for an example, the very first plague was blood which could have really been the result of hot red ash resulting from a volcanic eruption. Their interpretation of what could of caused the other plagues is not even worth mentioning, because it is as ridiculous as their explanation of the first plague. Yet, the last plague in Egypt, the death of the firstborn, doesn’t have a interpretation stemming from natural causes. However, there was a hypothesis given that this phenomenon could of happened due to some sort of food poisoning.

So, what is my personal opinion about this subject. When it comes to the ten plagues of Egypt, it doesn’t matter if it was a natural or supernatural phenomena, or if it is explainable or unexplainable. The bottom line is, it was still God pouring out His judgment upon the gods of Egypt and Pharaoh. The Bible says in Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” With the earth belonging to the Lord, God can use the elements of this old world to perform His judgments or do whatever He wants or wills.

The Bible gives many examples of natural disasters the Lord used for His way of bringing forth His judgments to mankind, such as for example, earthquakes (Num. 16:29-33; Isaiah 24:18-21), and of course the Flood in Genesis. So, in answer to the question, “Were the plagues of Egypt exaggerations of natural evils or were they miraculous events?”

Since God made Heaven and earth (Psalm 115:15). it means He owns it all, and everything in it. Therefore, the ten plagues, judgments in Egypt, were all miraculous events, by the mighty hand of God!

The Garden of Eden was the place where Adam and Eve lived before their sin, which seems to have been the early name for a large land area, including Mesopotamia and also possibly the entire Fertile Crescent. The garden God planted was in the eastern part of this area (Gen. 2:8). The two most likely locations lie in the mountains of Armenia and at the head of the Persian Gulf. However, it needs to be understood, that no theory or belief of where the garden is actually located is without problems.

What are some of these theories or beliefs of a possible location of the Garden of Eden? One opinion is that the Garden of Eden in which the Bible locates the spot where the temptation and the fall took place was somewhere in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, apparently in the eastern most third of the Fertile Crescent. Other scholars have placed the location of Eden just north of Babylon where the Euphrates and Tigris closely approach each other. Furthermore, there are those with the belief that Eden was near ancient Eridu, on the Persian Gulf. However, such locations are at this time impossible to prove or identify.

Other suggestions as to the possible place of where the Garden of Eden actually was include not only Babylonia (in Mesopotamia), Armenia (north of Mesopotamia), but also, an island in the Indian Ocean. The Bible in Genesis 2:10 states that four “riverheads” divided from the river that flowed out of the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:10-14), which supports a place somewhere in Mesopotamia. There are those who believe that Pishon and Gihon two of the four rivers said to “flow out of Eden to water the garden” (Gen.2:10-14), are presently the rivers Indus and the Nile. So, what is being suggested is that Eden included the whole of the Fertile Crescent from India to Egypt.

Now, the location of the Garden of Eden is in part to be determined from the description already given in the Bible. As for an example, the Garden of Eden is said to be “eastward, in Eden” found in Genesis 2:8; where the vegetation was very luxurious (2:9) and the fig tree indigenous (3:7), and it was watered by irrigation. The garden was a place of all kinds of animals that were created by God, including cattle, beasts of the field and birds. (Gen. 2:19-20). Also, the climate was such that clothing was not needed to keep warm. It is of no surprise, that the plural of the word means “delights,” and that Eden has been thought to mean the land of delights, and that the word became a synonym for Paradise. Therefore, the location of the Garden of Eden can be determined from the actual description already given in the Bible.

Eden must be where there is a climate adapted to the production of fruit trees and of animals capable of domestication, and in general to the existence of man in his primitive condition. In particular, its location is supposed to be determined by the statements about the rivers running through it and surrounding it. Columbus as he passed the mouth of the Orinoco believed that its waters came down from the Garden of Eden. It is fair to believe, that Columbus thought that he was at the east coast of Asia. The traditions of the Garden of Eden’s location to be somewhere in Central Asia have been believed by many. Naturalists have, along with Quatrefages, believe that the portion of Central Asia stretching east from Pamir, often thought of as the top of the world, and from which flow four great rivers, the Indus, the Tarim, the Sur Daria (Jaxartes), and the Amu Daria (Oxus), is actually the original cradle of mankind. This conclusion has been arrived at from the fact that at the present time the three fundamental types of the races of the world are located around this particular area.

A man named Dr. William F. Warren has with prodigious studying tried to prove that the original Eden was actually at the North Pole. This theory is supported by the fact that in preglacial times a warm climate surrounded the North Pole in all the lands which have been explored. But as the latest discoveries have shown that there is no land or area within several hundred miles of the North Pole, this theory of Dr. Warren, if it is to even be considered as possibly true, will have to be modified so as to place Eden at a considerable distance from the actual pole.

The question has been asked amongst Bible scholars, has the Garden of Eden been located at last? Different individuals and late classical writers believed that the Garden of Eden could possibly be located in Mongolia, India, or Ethiopia. They based their theories upon the known antiquity of those areas, and on the idea that the mysterious Pison and Gihon were to be connected with those other two great rivers of the ancient world, which is the Nile and the Ganges rivers. Another popular area for the Garden of Eden had been in Turkey, because both the Tigris and the Euphrates rise in the mountains there, and because Mount Ararat is the place of where Noah’s Ark came to rest at this location. In the past hundred years, since the discovery of ancient civilization in modern Iraq, scholars have leaned toward the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, and to the sites of southern Sumer, which is about 150 miles north of the present head of the Persian Gulf, in particular.

So, in conclusion, this has been a very interesting topic to research, in which I found various opinions on this subject, as to where was the Garden of Eden really located. However, the exact location of where the garden was placed by God, in my opinion has not been found, and never will be. However, looking to the Word of God, based on the description in Genesis 2:10-14, we can have a good idea of the possible location of the Garden of Eden. “And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.” And the fourth head or river is the great Euphrates which flows from East Central Turkey through Syria and Iraq, joining the Tigris to form the Shatt al Arab. Therefore, I conclude that the Garden of Eden must of been somewhere in the Middle East, perhaps surrounded by such countries as Turkey, Iraq, and Iran or somewhere in the Persian Gulf region.

Manna was the name given by the Israelites to the miraculous food given to them while in their wanderings in the desert. The Israelites existed or lived because of this gift from God called manna for forty years. However, it suddenly stopped when they first got the new grain from the land of Canaan. Manna was always thought of as a miraculous gift from God and not as a product of nature.

While there have been many attempts to try and explain this manna as a natural phenomena, ancient Hebrew scholars knew it was of a supernatural origin gift from God. It needs to be understood, that there is no known substance that meets the description of this food called manna. Also, the Bible makes it very clear that manna came as a temporary provision for the chosen people of Israel.

The poet Asaph called manna “corn from heaven” (Ps. 78:24). This manna was also called bread from heaven (Ps. 105:40). Hebrew writers called it “angel’s bread”. Also, manna looked like coriander seed and had a taste like honey (Ex. 16:31). Furthermore, the word “manna” actually means “what is it?” Because this is the question the Israelites asked when they first saw this manna. The people had never seen anything like this before (Ex. 16:15). But, this manna. which was the food that God miraculously gave to the Israelites in the wilderness during their Exodus from the land of Egypt, apparently could be baked, boiled, ground, beaten, cooked in pans, and even made into cakes (Ex. 16:23; Num. 11:8).

Moses even commanded Aaron to put a pot of manna in the Ark Of The Covenant, so that future generations might see the “bread of heaven” on which their ancestors had eaten (Ex.16:32-34). Also, manna was a visible sign to the Hebrews of God’s providential care for His chosen people. This miracle called manna began to appear one month after they left the land of Egypt, and was given every day, with enough given on the sixth day to last over the Sabbath. God provided the Israelites with this miracle called manna for forty years while in the wilderness, until they crossed the Jordan. Then the manna stopped as quick as it began (Num. 11:6-9; Joshua 5:12).

Several attempts have been made to identify manna with natural products of the Sinai region, such as the sugar-rich secretions of different insects. But the Bible makes it very clear that manna happened because of a miraculous occurrence from God. None of the natural candidates completely fits what the Bible says.

However, those who find it hard to believe in the miraculous provision of manna given by God refer to the Apoc, where in the book of Baruch it says: “Prepare a cereal offering and offer them upon the altar of the Lord our God.” Because this instruction was given long after the daily supply of manna had stopped, it therefore points to some substance that could be purchased. This is by some believed to be a gum-resin, which discharged from trees such as the Alhagi maurorum, called the Prickly Alhagi. This sometimes is referred to as the Sinai manna.

But it needs to to said, that no substance is known which in any degree satisfies all the requirements of what the Bible says about manna. There have been several travelers to the wilderness who have reported finding some natural phenomena in an attempt to disprove the miraculous manna sent from God. In the Peninsula of Sinai, on the route of the Israelites, there is a species of what is called tamarisk, which is known to discharge a sweet, honey-like substance where its bark is pierced by an insect which its name is Gossyparia mannifera. It collects on the twigs and then falls to the ground.

The Arabs who gather it to sell to pilgrims call it mann-es-sama, which means “heavenly manna”. It is white at first but then turns to yellow. In the early morning this manna is of the consistency of wax, but when the sun is hot it goes away. A second suggestion is to connect manna with a lichen-Lecanora esculenta, which grows in the Arabian and other deserts upon the limestone. The older masses become detached and are rolled about by the wind. Then when it rains, they are gathered together in large piles. This lichen has been used by the Arabs when they need to make bread. This is what they want us to believe about the origin of manna, that God had nothing to do with it!

I do believe that the manna which was food for the children of Israel while they were in the Wilderness for forty years, was a miraculous gift from God. The Lord is faithful and demonstrated His faithfulness by providing the Israelites with the food that they needed. The primary reason for this belief is found in the Word-Of-God of what the Lord said unto Moses about providing food for the Israelites (Ex. 16:15).

It doesn’t matter if the manna was provided through natural means on the earth, it would of still been God giving, providing a miraculous gift to His chosen people. So, when it comes to the question of where did the manna come from, it wouldn’t matter if the answer was from natural or supernatural causes. Either explanation would still point to God providing a miraculous gift: called manna!