Levels of consciousness

In Miracles, CS Lewis wrote that some people, naturalists for example, believe in “a one floor reality” (251). These people are convinced that “this present Nature is all that there is.” Another group of people, varying kinds of religious believers, embrace “Nature” as the “ground floor” but then conclude that there is “one other floor and one only,” an eternal and timeless place of heavenly mystery and bliss.

Lewis then continues on to pose the idea that there are really many floors, “different Natures, different levels of being, distinct but not always discontinuous” (254). One of these floors could, according to Lewis, explain what happened after Jesus’ resurrection. It was a time when “Christ withdrew from one of these [levels] to another.” The Son of God was not “confined to any place at all,” wrote Lewis, because it is “in Him that all places exist” (254).

This could also explain what Jesus meant when he said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad” (NIV John 8:56).