The Division of Consciousness: The Secret Afterlife of the Human Psyche: The Secret Afterlife of the Human Psyche

by Peter Novak

Book Overview

Drawing on mythology, psychology, religion and science, as well as past-life regression and near-death experiences, Peter Novak explores the nuances of what really happens to the soul after death. Eastern and Western philosophies have disagreed on this point for centuries. After ten years of intensive investigation, his conclusions are a ground-breaking blend of east and west, explaining how this division may have arisen and how it is likely...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1571740538
• ISBN13: 9781571740533
• Release Date: May 1997
• Publisher: Hampton Roads Publishing Company
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The Division of Consciousness

People who have had near death experiences report seeing their friends and relatives waiting for them. People who undergo past life regression discover that they lived many other lifetimes, in a variety of bodies. Both kinds of experience appear equally valid. How can we change bodies with each lifetime, yet appear to those who love us in the same body in which they last saw us? Peter Novak attempts to answer this question in his book, The Division of Consciousness: The Secret Afterlife of the Human Psyche. Novak spent ten years studying psychology, theology, thanatology, comparative religion, biblical archaeology, past-life regressions, and near death experiences before formulating his theories. He says that "we still don't understand death or agree about it at all. Our sciences don't agree, our religions don't agree, our ideas don't even agree." Novak says that we are composed of three parts: body, mind, and soul. Only the body "dies" at death: the mind and soul continue. He refers to the mind as "conscious" and the soul as "unconscious," and believes the conscious and unconscious split from each other after death. He has named this "Division Theory." Division Theory, he says, reconciles the "East's doctrine of reincarnation and the West's doctrine of heaven and hell." He analyzes various theologies and philosophies, showing how Division Theory reconciles traditional differences. His assertions are carefully documented and supported. Readers may or may not agree with Novak's Division Theory. As Novak says, "something profound changed" when he began his research. "A door opened; a new perspective dawned; an alternate possibility presented itself." Considering the theories presented in The Division of Consciousness will enable readers to open their own doors to what happens in the afterlife.

Fresh, impressive, & thought-provoking. Makes perfect sense.

I started reading Novak's "The Division of Consciousness" and couldn't put it down until I finished it. Having read a great multitude of books on the afterlife and metaphysical thought, I have to say that this book ranks up there with the best that I have read. This material is fresh, thought provoking and you will not be satisfied in just reading it only once. I am very impressed with this theory. I am glad that he relies on the Gnostic writings because I feel they are more authoritative that our modern Bible which has been tampered with through the ages. Also, Edgar Cayce in his psychic readings, while knowing absolutely nothing about Gnosticism in his waking state, has confirm that Gnosticism is the highest form of Christianity. Much of what Novak writes agrees with Cayce's revelations. Cayce talked about the body (conscious mind), mind (subconscious mind) and spirit (superconscious mind). According to Cayce, at death the conscious mind is shed and the subconscious mind becomes the conscious mind. At the higher dimensions of the spirit world, this conscious mind is shed and the superconscious mind becomes the conscious mind. As far as I know, Cayce did not reveal what happens to the subconscious mind (the astral body according to some metaphysical sources) after it is shed. This DivisionTheory makes perfect sense to me. So much of what Novak has written agrees with everything I know concerning metaphysics, while adding much new information that ties everything together perfectly. Before I heard of Division Theory, I have come across many characteristics of the afterlife that would affirm Division Theory to be true. For example, I have read that the personality we currently project is but one facet of our entire soul, like a multi-faceted "diamond" to use an analogy. The personalities of our many past lives, taken all together, is the true representation of our soul, who we really are, what is written on our "Akashic record" or also known as "the Book of Life", our total experience as individuals separate in personality from the Whole, of God.Accordingly, our complete experience in individuality and our complete personality is so immense, we can only project a small portion or aspect of our complete personality at a time. In other words, the personality we project here in the physical is only one facet of our entire soul personality that we desire to develop and perhaps change for the better.Before a person incarnates into this physical world, it is said that they have a vast array of destinies, lessons, and people for which to choose to incarnate. Because of the immenseness and multi-facetedness of our soul, we can only choose that destiny, lesson, incarnation that will better help us develop a particular facet of our soul. Once in the flesh, that aspect of our personality we choose to develop can be better expressed by the incarnation we choose. A good analogy would be that our present perso

The most important book in its field since Gnostic Gospels.

Back in 1985, I did a final project in college required for graduation on the Gnostic period of early Christianity. These "Gnostics" as we call them today had one thing in common; though they consisted of many different unorganized sects and groups, all of them subscribed to a version of Christianity different from what we take for granted today. Back then the mystery of who and what Jesus Christ was was greatly subject to interpretation, and many documents of his life and work were written that did not appear in the Bible. St Paul, who founded Christianity as we know it toady, was interested in making Christianity appeal to the Greeks and Romans; it is this version that we know as Christianity today. There were others, however, including some of Jesus' apostles, took a view that was somewhat more complex, suggesting that there were some important theological points that St Paul was overlooking.I missed most of these points myself in my final project; I had in the back of my mind that there was something more that I was missing due to my lack of attention and time(I wanted to graduate that year). When I read through Peter Novak's "The Division Of Consciousness", I finally found that missing piece. I wanted to go back and rewrite my project after the fact, but Novak has already said it better than I could have. Novak's book deals with an ingenious concept he calls division theory, which postulates that the spirit and soul, which we often consider to be the same thing, are actually two different entities that usually split after the change called death. To coin a phrase from Carl Jung (who is quoted liberally by Novak), the spirit is the conscious mind, while the soul is the unconscious mind. The concept also addresses reincarnation; the spirit reincarnates, while the soul is frozen in whatever emotional state it tended towards in earthly life. The inference is that Adolf Hitler's soul is in Hell, while Mother Theresa's soul is in heaven. My very natural question on this concept being introduced was "Well, how do we reintegrate the soul and the spirit?" This, according to Novak, is where Jesus Christ came in. In Novak's estimation, Christ appears to have been the first earthly being to successfully integrate the soul and spirit; it could be said he was sent here by God to show us how it is done. "That which I have done, ye can do also." As far as I as a sometime comparative religion student and researcher on the subject am concerned, there were probably others, but it does explain why some religions emphasize reincarnation (Hinduism)and others emphasize the continuance of the soul only (modern Christianity). The research of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and others into afterlife experiences suggests that some have conscious memories of certain things happening (spirit), while others have intense feelings of either great bliss or pain (soul).The book is very well-researched and written; it's clearly a labor of love on

This is a work of great significance.

"The Division of Consciousness" by Peter Novak is based on a simple realization. It is really quite amazing when you realize that the secret of the afterlife is staring us right in the face and we don't realize it. That the supposed conflict between reincarnation and the "heaven and hell" model, cyclical re-occurrence and lineal history (i.e. history that ends in Judgement) can be resolved simply, yet it is an answer that is so easily overlooked.Novak's understanding of the afterlife is based on a simple psychological model of man. If we consider the nature of man and for a moment take a more psychological than esoteric view, we can clearly see that the psyche is made up of two characteristics, the conscious and unconscious mind. We may even surmise that at some time man existed in a state of full awareness but that due to some error, conflict or change, this awareness was lost or diminished and a divided consciousness resulted. This divided consciousness is comprised of the conscious mind and a sub or unconscious region where memories, emotions, desires and drives exist. Traditional psychology tells us that while we are motivated by the unconscious we have little awareness of its depth or intensity. In the Gnostic model we can suggest that the full awareness that once existed was more than its constituent parts and that it was a state of pure will. A state of undivided light and mindfulness. However, after the fall into matter, this state of will was diminished and a division developed between the two characteristics of the personality. As time progressed, this division increased so that there is now an immense gulf between the conscious and unconscious minds. There are many models we can use to explain the development of this divided consciousness. However, regardless of how it occurred, it is clear that modern man works with a psyche comprised of two separate compartments. The gulf between which is immense. For Novak, this gulf while important in life, only takes on its greatest significance after death. Imagine for a moment, what would occur if at death these two segments of the psyche continued to exist separately. Consider the resulting division of consciousness. Let us take the unconscious first. Separated from any critical facility, any outward awareness, it would turn on itself and become absorbed in its memories. Depending on its experience, these memories could be pleasurable or painful. As time progresses, these memories will become its only reality, it literally will create its own heaven or hell. This separate unconscious self will wander the astral realms of its own creation, external reality will be molded and conditioned by its perceptions which are clearly embodied in its experiences.The conscious self, on the other hand, will have no memory. As time progresses, it will loose whatever records it has of its present incarnation and as it wanders the astral worlds will be inevitably be drawn

Brilliant, original, profoundly disturbing

Perhaps the most original speculation on the nature of the human spirit in 50 years. Drawing on religious archetypes and passages in various ancient scriptures, Peter suggests that at death, the human spirit divides into two portions: Memories of the recent life, which continue to re-live themselves to eternity; and the spirit, which, lacking memories, seeks a new body to provide identity. The goal of existence is to integrate all our various sets of memories into one final, spiritual individual--and the process by which Peter suggests this might happens is almost too terrifying to contemplate.My sole gripe is that Peter reads things into certain Biblical passages that are a real stretch, but fortunately, the premise is not wholly dependent on Biblical references, which are profoundly poetic and ambiguous in any event.Easily the most thoughtful speculation on the future of the human soul that I have ever read.