Now there's a question!
To me it's an ambiguous statement that can mean many things and undoubtedly does to many individuals.
This ambiguity serves the CofS VERY well for promotional purposes.
It could mean;
Cause over all 8 Dynamics and hence, your own life as it is being lived by you.
Cause over life as in other life-forms, the livingness that inhabits various body-forms and are separate spiritual beings.
Cause as all Life; the One-ness, the All, the Universal Self etc etc.
I'm sure that, were we to survey it, we'd find many different understandings of what it means.
Here's my take on it; Absolutes are probably unobtainable in the Physical Universe.
Am I Cause Over Life? Most of the time, particularly when I remember to be.
Do I wish to be disabused of this notion? Nope!
Given who and what you are (including who and what you were before scn) I can totally accept what you have said here. However, I don't know that many others
would be or
are in your boat (especially when it comes to those who have been doing OT VII of late).
You said that if we surveyed the meaning of "cause over life", we'd have many different understandings of what it meant - we sure would!
Rightly or wrongly, my concept of that meant:
- having the power to control one's postulates (both negative and positive)
- being able to influence/help others no matter where they sat
- never being adversely affected or stopped or hindered by case
- having the ability to blast through any and all barriers no matter how big
- having a bounce back factor despite the magnitude of whatever adversity
- being totally pan-determined with total rationality and sanity, despite whatever came one's way
- being totally free of anything and everything that had the power to aberrate
- a high level of humility, humanity, understanding, compassion, care and all the virtues - across the dynamics
Of course this was pie in the sky and quite silly, but that's what I envisioned being an OT VII completion would mean. Besides having hope that this is what it would be, I think it was represented to me that way.
I got more than I ever hoped to gain out of my first year of training, purif, objectives, HRD etc - I had the concept that the OT levels (being way up there and bigger and better), would have to absolutely blow my socks off, at the very least. If I could gain so much from the lower level stuff, and I was only at the beginning, then my God - what on earth was in store? (I've always been a dreamer
).
I've never negated my wins and gains from my involvement and experiences in scn, and I am very thankful for them - but I am annoyed at the PR scam that I discovered the OT levels to be - in my mind, largely a PR caper that flew, because of gains for the taking at the lower levels. In saying that though, I'm not denying gains available and made on OT levels, in years gone past.