John 14:17, “you shall know him, because he will dwell with you, and be in you.” When we add all of this to the conclusion that God is within, then we are beginning to be able to make sense out of Luke 17:20-21,

            Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, not will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There is it,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.

   Also in the Old Testament we find that you are God. On Mount Sanai when Moses asks about God’s name or who he is, “God said to Moses: I AM WHO AM.” And in the footnote of verse 14 in the 1609 Douay Version of the Old Testament, we are told:

            I am who am. That is, I am being itself, eternal, self-existent, independent, infinite; without beginning, end, or change; and the source of all other beings.

   If we put this together with the Holy Spirit and conclude that the spirit within us is in fact our soul or pure consciousness then things start to make sense.

   Greek for “spirit” is breath as in life, or the sign of life, and it is explained as “the life or spirit of man which survives after death.” This connection is interesting when we know that in 4:24 John tells us that “God is spirit,” which fits with what Moses was told that God is being itself – the source of life.

   This fits with my research of people who die and have Near Death Experiences, where I also found that 80 percent agreed with the statement: “God is within; we are God.” Relating to Christianity again, we could say that if Jesus is the son of God then we are all sons and daughters of God. While Jesus unquestionably was a truly great inspirational figure, if he was God then we are all God.

   Here the statement “we are God” is not meant as we humans are perfect as God, or as great as Jesus, but it is meant to focus on that if God is in everything then God is also a part of us – God is within. The important factor about this insight was as we saw in the beginning of this chapter that locating God within our neighbor makes us understand the Golden Rule at a deeper level.

   However, the conclusion that God is within and that “we are God” also take us into a very interesting part of what I found in my Near Death research study. To the question: “Was the core or essence of your experience part of your identity; your true nature?” I found that 73 percent said yes.

   Russ reveals that, “It seemed that I was the light because I felt what was happening to the light entity…I was the light. I knew that because I felt what it was obviously feeling.” Also Michael tells us this in another manner where he explains that, “the Oneness was a very simple knowing that I belonged. It was just the knowledge that I was truly an aspect or facet of God, the Light, and all that is.”

   Now, if God is within us and the Light is our true identity, then it would be very interesting to know exactly what this identity is within us. In my study, I got a clear hint of where to find our true identity through the statement: “Consciousness was at the center of my experience” where 86 percent agreed.

   Of course, consciousness is how we perceive so this would be the logical answer, however, I also asked about the following statement: “The true nature of reality is pure consciousness.” Here I found that 92 percent said that they agreed with the statement. 

   With also 92 percent saying that “what I experienced was non-physical” and 93 percent saying that “God is a form of energy,” there is not far to concluding that God is part of our consciousness or the energy that makes up our awareness.