The living body operates as an intense focus point

[inavalan]

"While inhabited by the usual human consciousness, the living body operates as an intense focus point. The conglomeration of consciousnesses within it on all levels focuses its own network of communication. This private network is connected to all others like it. There are levels of interaction then simply between all bodies, electromagnetically and biologically. The network is more far-reaching than that, however. Not only can all cells respond to each other, but their mass activity triggers even higher centers of consciousness to respond to a given set of world conditions, rather than to other quite-as-legitimate world conditions that do not fit the accepted pattern. Probabilities to some extent, then, are determined along cellular lines. This should be obvious."
—UR1 Section 1: Session 685 February 25, 1974

[inavalan]

""While I admit that many people will not agree with me, I know from experience that most individuals do not choose one 'happy' life after another, always ensconced in a capable body, endowed by nature or heritage with all of the gifts most people seem to think they desire.

"Each person seeks value fulfillment, and that means that they choose various lives in such a fashion that all of their abilities and capacities can be best developed, and in such a way that their world is also enriched. Some people will choose 'defective' bodies purposely in order to focus more intensely in other areas. They want a different kind of focus.... Such a choice demands an intensification. It is made on the part of the individual and on the parts of the parents as well....""

—DEaVF2 Chapter 9: Session 931, July 15, 1981

[inavalan]

"Now bodies are not at such a high premium. They are not as valuable as you may suppose. There are simply not that many personalities anxious for physical existence. You put a very high premium upon your physical life. In many cases, however, those who have left it are glad to leave it behind. They are not all that anxious to get back in."
—ECS2 ESP Class Session, October 6, 1970

[inavalan]

"There is a point I want to make, however. Now in my book, my own book, there are two chapters in particular. One is called "Death Conditions in Life"' and in it I make several points that will somewhat answer your questions. First of all, when you sleep, in your terms, you are as dead as you will ever be. You are operating in out-of-body conditions. You are experiencing other dimensions of reality. You are quite as busy as you are in your daily life but because you do not remember in the morning, it seems to you that you are largely unconscious. In this state, therefore, you are learning. You have every opportunity to study, to look upon your past lives, in your terms, and benefit from them.

All of our regular students attend classes, whether you know it or not. I get you here once a week, as a rule, but I also get you in other dimensions of reality. You all have tasks to perform. Some of you do help persons who have immediately left this system to acclimate to the new conditions. You are smarter when you are asleep than when you are awake. You are learning as much then, therefore, as you do between lives. That is a point that I wanted to make. In your waking existence you are simply focused upon physical reality. When the body sleeps you are no longer focused within it, instead you embark upon other adventures and, in your terms, you advance your own education."

—ECS2 ESP Class Session, October 6, 1970