When the Soul Becomes Its Own God
On consciousness, the temptation of spiritual power, and why hell may be the ultimate imprisonment of an awakened soul.
There is something far more dangerous than a sleeping soul: a soul that has awakened, discovered its power, and mistaken itself for God.
Throughout history, humanity has celebrated individuals who appear to possess extraordinary willpower. People who command nations, transform societies, inspire devotion, and bend circumstances to their ambitions. We admire their discipline, intelligence, charisma, and ability to influence the world around them.
We might even call some of them enlightened.
But what if awakening is not necessarily a sign of righteousness? What if the development of consciousness, rather than liberating the soul, can become the very instrument of its eternal imprisonment?
This question lies at the heart of a spiritual philosophy I call The Godward Way.
The Godward Way: Awakening Is Not the Destination
The Godward Way begins with a distinction between the human body, the mind, and the consciousness capable of observing them.
The body is a remarkable machine. It experiences hunger, pleasure, fear, pain, desire, and countless impulses designed to preserve and reproduce itself. The mind interprets these experiences, constructs identities, creates narratives, and convinces us that its thoughts represent reality.
Most of our lives are spent responding to these mechanisms.
We become angry and believe that we are anger. We experience desire and immediately pursue its satisfaction. We receive admiration and build an identity around it. We suffer rejection and allow that suffering to determine who we are.
The Godward Way proposes that something within us can awaken to observe these processes without becoming identical to them.
I call this observing consciousness the Permanent Eye, or the Bigger Eye.
It is not another personality, an imaginary figure watching from within the head, or a superior identity to be worshipped. It is a way of describing the soul’s capacity to recognize the movements of the body and mind without surrendering its will to them.
Yet this awakening is only the beginning.
Unlike spiritual approaches that regard inner peace, expanded awareness, or union with a universal consciousness as their ultimate destination, The Godward Way places its highest purpose beyond consciousness itself.
Its destination is God the Father.
Not God as an image, a feeling, a voice manufactured by the mind, or a concept that human intelligence can fully comprehend.
The Father is understood as the unknowable source of existence, transcending the universe, its laws, its dimensions, and even consciousness as we experience it.
The soul does not need to comprehend the Father to orient itself toward Him.
It needs only to listen.
This orientation is called kavanah, a Hebrew word associated with intention and directed attention.
The central practice of The Godward Way is called Catch and Offer.
When anger arises, consciousness recognizes it while remaining directed toward the Father. When desire appears, it is neither blindly obeyed nor necessarily suppressed. When suffering comes, it becomes energy that can be consciously offered.
Catching and offering are not two separate movements. Observation and Godward intention occur together.
The objective is not to eliminate the intensity of life, but to prevent that intensity from becoming the master of the soul.
And this brings us to a disturbing possibility.
When Consciousness Becomes Its Own God
Imagine two individuals who have achieved extraordinary self-awareness.
Both have learned to recognize their thoughts without being controlled by them. Both have developed discipline over their bodies and emotions. Both possess remarkable determination and the ability to shape the world through their actions.
Yet their spiritual destinies may be profoundly different.
The first soul discovers its power and gradually becomes fascinated by it.
It learns that it can influence people, inspire devotion, create institutions, accumulate wealth, and impose its will upon the world.
Its consciousness becomes increasingly powerful, but its attention turns inward.
It begins to see itself as the source of its greatness.
Eventually, it no longer seeks anything higher than itself.
Its kingdom becomes its creation. Its will becomes its law. Its consciousness becomes its god.
Such a person may appear enlightened, exceptionally successful, or even benevolent. Outward achievement alone cannot reveal the ultimate direction of a soul.
But if the person begins treating others as instruments, demanding worship, or confusing personal authority with ultimate truth, something has gone profoundly wrong.
The second soul may possess the same abilities.
It, too, may become influential, wealthy, accomplished, or extraordinarily conscious.
But it never confuses its abilities with their source.
It recognizes that the power to observe is not proof of being the Creator. The ability to influence reality does not establish ownership of reality. The capacity to command others does not grant authority over their souls.
Its consciousness becomes stronger without becoming its ultimate object of devotion.
Its attention remains directed toward the Father.
The difference between the two souls is not their strength, intelligence, emotional state, or worldly accomplishments. It is the direction of their will.
One becomes increasingly attached to creation.
The other remains oriented toward the Creator.
Evil as the Corruption of Spiritual Direction
We frequently associate evil with hatred, anger, violence, selfishness, and other destructive emotions.
But The Godward Way suggests a deeper distinction.
Emotions themselves are not the ultimate source of evil.
Anger can inspire courage. Desire can motivate creation. Pain can awaken consciousness. Conflict can reveal truths that comfort and harmony have concealed.
Even the disruption of an established order can become spiritually meaningful.
The danger arises when the awakened will turns its power into an object of worship.
In this interpretation, the deepest spiritual evil is not simply the presence of darkness within the human mind.
It is the deliberate enthronement of the self as the highest authority.
A person may be calm, compassionate in appearance, disciplined, and admired by millions while remaining devoted to personal glory.
Conversely, a person may experience fear, anger, ambition, and intense inner conflict while keeping their deepest intention directed toward God.
This does not mean that claiming devotion to God makes harmful actions righteous. Spiritual conviction is no excuse for cruelty, coercion, or domination. Nor does the absence of an explicitly Godward belief establish that another person is evil.
Rather, the distinction asks us to examine the relationship between consciousness, power, and ultimate allegiance.
The soul’s greatest temptation may arrive not when it is weakest, but when it becomes strong enough to believe that it needs nothing beyond itself.
Hell: The Eternal Prison of the Self
Now consider the ultimate consequence of a soul that has made itself God.
Imagine a consciousness that has spent its existence constructing an empire of influence, possessions, recognition, and control.
Its identity depends upon the world.
It requires subjects to command, possessions to enjoy, achievements to celebrate, and other minds to recognize its greatness.
Its power may appear limitless within the boundaries of creation.
But what happens when creation itself comes to an end?
Suppose, as a metaphysical possibility, that consciousness survives the disappearance of the material universe.
The body is gone.
The kingdoms are gone.
The possessions are gone.
The admirers, institutions, monuments, and instruments of power have vanished.
Yet consciousness remains.
The soul that spent its existence worshipping itself now confronts an eternity in which everything it worshipped has disappeared.
It retains its orientation toward a world that no longer exists.
It has developed the power to rule a kingdom but never learned how to return to its source.
This is my philosophical interpretation of hell.
Hell is eternal consciousness without an eternal direction.
Not necessarily a subterranean kingdom of flames and demons. Not necessarily a punishment imposed by an angry deity.
Rather, hell may be the final condition of consciousness that has freely chosen to become its own destination.
The imprisonment is not created by walls.
It is created by attachment.
The soul has become so identified with itself and the world it once controlled that it cannot imagine existence beyond them.
This is a theological proposition, not an empirically established description of the afterlife. Yet as a philosophical model, it offers a striking interpretation of spiritual imprisonment.
The very consciousness that once promised liberation becomes the prison.
And the very power that once made the soul feel divine becomes the source of its isolation.
The Righteous Soul and the Art of Listening
The righteous soul follows a different path.
It does not need to remain weak to be faithful.
It can grow in consciousness, wisdom, courage, creativity, and strength. It can challenge institutions, disrupt falsehoods, confront suffering, and transform the material world.
The Godward Way does not demand passive submission to circumstances or the abandonment of ambition.
It demands something more difficult.
The soul must become powerful without becoming its own god.
It must remain capable of acting decisively while recognizing that its will is not the highest will.
It must learn to experience the full intensity of human existence without allowing any particular experience to become its ultimate center.
Even profound spiritual experiences must be treated with discernment.
A vision of God is still a vision. An image of the Father is still a mental image. A feeling of transcendence is still an experience arising within consciousness.
None should be mistaken for the unknowable source itself.
All can be caught and offered.
The Permanent Eye remains vigilant, but it does not worship itself for being vigilant.
It listens.
And listening, in The Godward Way, does not require inventing a divine voice or claiming supernatural certainty. It means preserving the soul’s intentional openness to a source it cannot possess, define, or command.
This is the paradox of the Godward soul.
The stronger it becomes, the more capable it is of surrendering freely.
Its surrender is not weakness.
It is an act of will.
The Ultimate Meaning of Freedom
Perhaps we have misunderstood what spiritual freedom means.
We imagine freedom as the absence of limitations. The ability to satisfy every desire, control every circumstance, and become answerable to no one.
We celebrate the individual who bends reality to personal ambition.
But what if absolute independence is merely another form of imprisonment?
A consciousness that recognizes no authority beyond itself must eventually become consumed by its own existence.
It must continually defend its identity, expand its influence, and sustain the illusion that it is sufficient unto itself.
The Godward soul seeks a different freedom.
It does not abandon individuality or dissolve itself into an indistinguishable universal whole.
It becomes increasingly conscious of its own will while freely directing that will toward the Father.
Its individuality is not erased.
Its individuality becomes capable of relationship with what transcends it.
The soul does not seek to become the source.
It seeks to remain connected to the source.
And perhaps this is the ultimate purpose of awakening.
Not to acquire supernatural powers. Not to escape every human emotion. Not to achieve permanent comfort, universal harmony, or dominion over creation.
But to develop a consciousness capable of remaining faithful even when it has enough power to turn away.
For the self-worshipping soul, eternity may become the ultimate prison.
For the Godward soul, eternity may become the fulfillment of its deepest relationship.
Both souls may awaken.
Both may become powerful.
Both may transform the world.
But only one remembers where it came from.
The purpose of awakening is not to become God. It is to become capable of hearing the Father.
And the highest expression of spiritual freedom may be the moment an awakened soul, possessing the power to choose itself, chooses instead to remain Godward.
The Godward Way is a developing philosophical and contemplative framework centered on consciousness, free will, intentional suffering, and the soul’s relationship with God the Father. Its central practice, Catch and Offer, seeks to transform the energies of human experience into acts of consciously directed spiritual intention.