I often ask my clients toward the end of a session: “Is there anything in the universe that can harm you? The answer is always an immediate, definite and emphatic response, “no!” That’s a strange answer to anyone. The world is full of things that can harm us. But in that moment, they are responding from a timeless aspect of themselves that lacks nothing and has no fears, a soul dimension.

We are multi-dimensional beings. Of course we are separate individuals, who can deny that? But that’s only one relative level of truth. Another part of us is the energy, light and consciousness that animates the body. You could call that a “more real” aspect of ourselves because it’s eternal and doesn’t rot like the body. You can’t harm a soul with a knife because it’s pure energy. Probably the best evidence that we are soul beings using a body is in the fast growing cases of children remembering accurate past life information, or subjects who have done a past life regression and later verify the details obtained from it. Certain cases are solid.

But even the fact that we are different souls using a body is a relative level of truth. A ‘higher’ truth is that all souls come from the same one creator energy source, so there is oneness under the surface. We are like unique, individual waves that forgot we are also the ocean. But this forgetfulness is part of the design, and seeing through it is to awaken from any suffering that is inherent to the dream. Thich Nhat Hanh says,“We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.”

This highest dimension of ourselves can be glimpsed at any moment. In fact, it’s only available here and now. When you are fully present with a flower, a latte, a person, the wind, a cat or the smell of dead leaves, in that moment you are not in the world of the mind which subtly pulls you into the future or past. Instead, you become pure presence and awareness…effortless and changeless…limitless and indefinable.

Though life experiences come and go, there is something that is unchanging – that which can be aware of any passing thoughts, moods or experiences. It’s that same sense of “me” that exists at age 5, 25, or 85. This awareness even transcends the body according to cases of near death experiences.

So who are we? It depends on which dimension of ourselves we choose to identify with. Identifying with our higher dimensions brings a natural by-product of more compassion, empathy and love. Judgment falls away because we don’t identify others with their opinions, moods or actions, but see these as a product of their ongoing programming and conditioning. At a higher level, they are what we are — changeless awareness that transcends the stories of who we are.