As a soul, you exist in a multidimensional reality. String theories currently predict that there are at least 10 dimensions of this reality, and maybe as many as 26. Most dimensions are veiled from you while you have a physical body.

Your physical body only exists in three dimensions of space (height x width x length), and one of time. These dimensions contain planet Earth and what we call the "universe”. We generally refer to these as the “physical” or “material" dimensions or world. These physical dimensions are also referred to as the “natural” world.

The dimensions which are veiled from you are generally referred to as the “spiritual” dimensions or “realms”. They are also referred to as the "supernatural" world. They exist beyond the natural world, or physical dimensions. They are not subject to the physical laws (physics) of the natural world.

The totality of dimensions is often referred to as the “multiverse”.

The physical dimensions are a limited and temporary home.

When a soul is living in the physical world within a body, it is said to be experiencing an "incarnation".

When our physical body dies, we leave it and return to the spiritual dimensions.

The spiritual dimensions are our true or real home. We exist there as non-physical entities.

We are not alone in God’s creation. The physical universe is teeming with life, as are all dimensions in the multiverse. The multiverse can be thought of as the totality of God's creation.

Why are we temporarily living in the physical world?

The physical world is a learning environment.

Life in the physical world is more difficult than in the spiritual dimensions, so incarnating here enables us to test and accelerate our evolution as souls by learning to use our freewill to grow spiritually through love.

Our physical bodies require respect and nurturing. They challenge us in ways that are not possible in the spiritual dimensions, where we do not have to work at caring for physical bodies.

In the physical world, the temptations to do wrong are abundantly available, so it is easy to make mistakes and learn from them. It is our reaction to difficulties and temptations that develop our character when we choose the loving path.

In the physical world, we are continually exposed to a wide range of loving and unloving souls. This presents us with numerous opportunities to learn and practice unconditional love.

The calm, peace and beauty of the spiritual dimensions mean that the opportunities to test ourselves and choose the loving path while under stress are not generally available. In these dimensions is not hard to do the right thing, because there is much less temptation, as well as more awareness of the consequences of our actions.

The physical dimensions contain a mechanism to learn right from wrong, and teachers to show us how to evolve spiritually:

• The mechanism is called "karma".
• The teachers are evolved souls who agreed to have a physical incarnation in order to teach us. The greatest teachers include Jesus, The Buddha and Mohammed. In recent times the list would also include Martin Luther King, Gandhi, The Dali Lama and Mother Theresa.

The ideal place to grow spiritually is on earth because of the influence of a physical body. The opportunity for the full range of love (child's love, marital love, and parental love) is ideally available while one is on earth. Love which has been misused or misdirected is also best corrected in the physical. On earth, there is the full range of physical and spiritual senses with which to act and communicate.

Nora Spurgin

An important purpose for mortality is to help us learn to recognize and to choose the positive even though the negative more fully surrounds us. We make this choice consciously or unconsciously in every moment of the day, and these millions of tiny choices create the foundation of our identity. We are what we think. We are what we say, what we do, what we fill our lives with. Ultimately, every being creates himself by these countless, crucial choices.

Betty Eadie

One of the reasons for the physical realm is to test our spiritual ideals to see if they are real. If a soul has a spiritual ideal and desires to know if it actually possesses that ideal, the soul can come to earth to be tested after applying this ideal in a physical life. The earth is a good school for overcoming certain weaknesses in ways that only a body of flesh can. We apply ourselves here on earth to see if those weaknesses are truly overcome. Here we can learn for sure whether we have really changed. Only by becoming subject to the physical influences of the flesh and the laws of this physical realm can a soul know for certain if they really possess that spiritual ideal.

Edgar Cayce

There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

I think we're intrinsically spiritual. We're spiritual beings in a physical universe and we are here to make a spiritual contribution.

Mark Victor Hansen

This world is only a temporary place for our schooling. Our true permanent home is the spiritual universe.

Betty Eadie

If we were all perfected beings, we wouldn't be here in the physical world.

George Harrison

The physical world we live in is just the beginning.

Doug Dillon

Your body is not who you are. It is your vehicle on the earth, allowing you, a spiritual being, to function in a physical world.

Dr. Moses Simuyemba

Ordinary life, our earthly existence, is often dull. Romance is exciting. Our moments of romance are those when a little bit of heaven seems, thank God, to impinge, to intrude upon our daily lives. I learn for such moments. It is because I yearn for them so much that I generally feel this earth is not my home. The yearning is particularly intense when I am bored for any length of time. I want to go home. Heaven is the home of God. For years I have known that my only real romance is with God. I want to be with God. I want to be in his or her arms where I belong, and I hope I shall be when I die. But I am not ready to go home yet, and God does not come to me often. Certainly never on demand. She has Her own schedule. Her timing is not my timing, and I must content myself with that. I am not so good at being content, however, that I do not look forward to substitutes, even if they be but shadows of the real thing...

M. Scott Peck