God Beyond Religion: An Audible Blog: Introduction

While I have been blogging for ten years with two different blogs, I am going to change the format a little going forward. I will continue to write blog posts as I believe that writing is my most effective means of communication. Some people speak better than they write, but others write better than they speak, and I certainly fall into the latter. I also realize that people enjoy the ability to get their information audibly these days so I am going to produce audio files of all the blog posts going forward, and I will also make previous posts audible going back to the posts on this blog that I began in 2020. Since there is a ten year hiatus from blogging on this blog I will not include the posts from 2009 backward. The reason is that I have grown spiritually since then, and the posts 2020 forward, more closely reflect what I am seeing these days.

The title, God Beyond Religion is self explanatory. I no longer consider myself religious but have an insatiable drive for the spiritual, metaphysical, and esoteric world. I am convinced beyond doubt that the material world we occupy is at its base a construction of consciousness. As the old hermetic principle is stated, "the All is mind; the universe is mental" so I believe at my core. Recent scientific beliefs back this up. Most notably, Dr. Donald Hoffman and his book "A Case Against Reality comes to the forefront of my mind. I was actually sold on the idea long before that with the investigations of Aldous Huxley and others. One other influence was Frijof Capra and his book "The Tao of Physics" which was popular in the 1970's.

At this point in my life I have settled on the idea of eclectic spirituality. I believe that over the centuries, The Source has given revelation to many different mystics from many different civilizations. I have grown to reject the idea that any one religion has the exclusive truth, and have adopted the idea that all of them have some spiritual truth. I am convinced that inclusive acceptance of people's spiritual journeys is the key to developing a society that is spiritually evolved, loving, accepting, and will be helpful in propelling humanity to a new rung on the spiral of social, cultural, intellectual, and spiritual advancement. 

While I am not certain that there will be a universally utopian society any time soon, or whether there ever will be, I am confident that humanity is on an upward spiral. While it is obvious that we are on that upward spiral technologically, it is my abiding belief that it is not simply limited to technology. I believe that we are also moving upward in kindness, tolerance, and acceptance. 

My spiritual path began as a Jesus follower and though I left that path for many years I have circled back. You can read or hear about that journey in a blog post entitled "Your Lifepath is a Choice: Leaving the Dance with the One You Came With." In saying that I circled back, I must say that I circled back as a person sold on eclectic spirituality and not as a Christian. While I still have a deep and abiding relationship with Jesus I do not identify as a Christian.

This blog is the place where the Christ follower can embrace the law of attraction, the ancient hermetic teaching, the Tao Te Ching, Buddhism, and all sorts of metaphysical practice. It is my hope that you will join me on this journey and I likewise intend to provide content that will be beneficial, uplifting, and educationally rewarding.

God Beyond Religion: The Christ has been poured on all flesh

Joel 2:28-29  "Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.  (29)  Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit."

John 1:10-11  "He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.  (11)  He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him."

We will address these two scripture passages directly and show how they are congruent with the idea of God beyond religion, but first some foundational information. The term, "The Christ," is an interesting term indeed. What does it mean? Well, naturally one would think the Messiah, but is that really what it means? Yes and no. The word Messiah comes from the Hebrew language, and it is machiyach, it is the word Messiah, and it means to rub with oil, to anoint as a special person usually as a ruler or king. The anointing of oil is symbolic of authority that is passed on ceremoniously. 

Moving forward to the Greek scripture, the so called New Testament, I say so called because I think it is a misnomer to call the entire Greek Scripture the New Testament as the fact is that much of it is actually the Old Testament, and testament is really a misnomer because it has the specific meaning of covenant. So when the word testament is used in the scripture it really means specifically covenant. Testament being similar to testimony causes one to wrongly believe that it is referring to a new and old story. The proof of this is seen in what the Mormon's have made of scripture. The Mormon scripture includes the Old and New Testaments of the bible but it also has the Book of Mormon, which it labels as 'another' testament of Jesus Christ. There, Joseph Smith, is not speaking of another covenant, but of another or additional telling of the biblical narrative. He no doubt came to that conclusion by accepting the connotative definition of testament that was widely accepted in his day, and quite frankly continues on today.

So the New Covenant has meaning within Judaism. The concept of the New Covenant is found implicitly in many of the prophetic writings of the major and minor prophets, but it is specifically named by the prophet Jeremiah. He actually prophesies the coming of a New Covenant for Israel. Christianity has found a way in which the New Covenant is expanded beyond just the Jewish people and has included all people that accept Christianity. On the other hand, the New Covenant did not turn out according to the Jewish expectation and the Jews rejected the opportunity. They rejected the Christ, or in other words, they rejected the offered anointing. They actually rejected what Joel had prophesied. Pouring out the Spirit on ALL FLESH, not just Jews, and certainly not just Christians, was rejected out of hand as being a possibility. They were not ready and willing to have a new spiritual awakening. Jesus described them perfectly when he said that people tasting new wine usually say, no thanks, the old wine is better, or it is sufficient.

Let me address what I discern was really going on. The advent of Jesus did bring about the New Covenant, but it was not a covenant with strictly Jews or Christians. It was a covenant with humanity in general and it was meant to develop the NEW HUMANITY! Jesus mission was to demonstrate what the pouring out of the spirit would accomplish. In this, he was in fact the universal first born of the new humanity. He realized in a way that had not been realized before that he was divinity residing in humanity. Humanity had progressed to the point that it was ready to receive, a universal anointing. Unfortunately, once again the message was coopted by an orthodoxy that wanted to remain in control and be able to establish a hierarchy.

This was largely accomplished by blending Old Covenant Judaism with New Covenant Christianity and creating another religion, claiming to be the one true religion. When in fact, religion was always antithetical to the relationship that the source wanted for all of humanity. The New Covenant that God was trying to established was based on the fact that "the Christ" spirit would be poured out on all flesh. This becomes obvious when one looks at the passage above from John's gospel. Verse ten refers to a time before verse 14. Let me repeat for effect, like I did when I was preaching. Verse 10 refers to a time before verse 14. The Logos was in the world before the Logos was incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth. The Logos came to his own, but most of his own did not receive him. What is the Logos? It is the word of God or in other words, God consciousness. God consciousness was in the world before verse 14. I believe it was in the world from the beginning. 

Who were the ones that was the Word/Logos own that did not receive him? Most of humanity. Humanity was his own because they were conscious agents. Being a conscious agent is what it means to be created in the image of the source. However, following John verse 11, is the explanation that some did receive the Logos. Who were the ones that received the Logos? It was the mystics, seers, prophets, and ascended masters over history. It was Hermes Trismegistus. It was Heraclitus. It was Lao Tzu. It was Gautama Buddha. It was Abraham. It was the prophets of Israel. I could go on but you see the point. Yet, each of those mentioned were humans. They received direct revelation from the source, but they also included information from their cultural experience. We are all capable of discerning which is mystical revelation and which is cultural because the spirit was poured out on all flesh. 

We have begun a new millennium and it is the age of the spirit being poured out on all flesh. It is the age of "the Christ." That simply means that we are all capable of tapping into the Christ, the anointing. We are all the word made flesh. We all have a direct line to source. However, we should build on the foundation that already exists. No, I am not speaking of Christianity. I am actually speaking of what I called eclectic spirituality in another post. I want to build toward that understanding so that we can take our discernment from the reality that the spirit has indeed been poured out on all humanity, recognize those mystical revelatory gems that form the foundation of spiritual reality. I include in that the hermetic teaching, the writings of Heraclitus and the Stoics, Lao Tzu, Gatauma Buddha, and many others including Joel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and of course Jesus as foundational to the progression we are making in this new millennium. I will provide a list of examples of that foundation but it is not exhaustive. It is some of the foundation to show what I am seeing. They are in bullet form because I do not want to show a hierarchy of importance as they all are important.

Examples of the foundational truth list for the new millennium for the purpose of eclectic spirituality:

• God is love
• The All is Mind, the universe is mental
• As above so below, and as below so above, the law of correspondence
• The Tao is the mother of all that is
• As Christ was in the world so are we
• We will accomplish greater works
• Love is patient, kind, it does not keep a record of wrongs, it is not proud
• The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness, meekness, goodness, temperance
• We have the mind of Christ
• The universe is constantly vibrating 

God Beyond Religion: Conscious Agents Interfacing Through the Material World

Let's begin with the Hermetic teaching of the ancient Egyptians. Hermes Trismegistis a master from ancient Egypt laid down seven principles. The first one of the seven is, "The All is mind; the universe is mental." The Greeks made him one of the god's of the pantheon, but it seems he was more potent as an Egyptian mystic. So let's add Aldous Huxley to the mix with his view of "Mind at Large" and Carl Jung and his concept of the collective unconscious. Further let's add the scientific work of Dr. Donald Hoffman, and Dr. Bernardo Kastrup. Even further, let's add the experiments in quantum mechanics that has shown the universe is conscious at its most basic building blocks known to humanity thus far. With all of these considerations, in my view, the case becomes overwhelming with a preponderance of evidence that the material world is indeed a mental construct, and we are participating conscious agents using the material world as an interface.

Again, maintaining some of my Christian roots, and believing that all religious tradition contains mystical revelation from the creative source I will include this passage from John's first letter. 1Jn 3:2  "Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is." So what is John referring too in this passage? First, he is referring to the Logos indwelling Jesus, and Jesus providing the awareness that the Logos indwells all of us. Who is it that will ultimately be revealed? I believe that it is who and what the Logos really is. This verse in my view is a direct reference to the fact that all humanity is participating in the divine nature. When one realizes that the Logos is God-Consciousness, it brings this concept in line with the first hermetic principle. The universe is truly mental and mentally created. 

Returning for a minute to Dr. Donald Hoffman. He and his research team believes that the material world that we experience is an interface for individual conscious agents to interact similar to a video game, computer or virtual reality. And while I logically and intuitively believe he and his team are right, I am also confronted with the realization that I am locked into this material plane of existence. The material world I experience is truly solid. I cannot put my hand through my desk and I cannot walk through walls. It is important to acknowledge that the world that Hoffman describes and sees is in my view the spiritual aspect of our world. I see a direct correlation between conscious agents interfacing with one another and what mystics call the spiritual realm or plane.

While I believe that our thoughts individually can greatly impact our material world, I also realize that the material construct is communal, that is, the product of the many conscious agents. It is this idea that makes me realize the importance of corporately generated thought entities and forms. To really make the significant changes that will improve the world we live in for all people, it will take group thought forms to produce it. It will take an awareness of how ubiquitous thought entities are, how they operate and, how they take on a life of their own, to come back to consciousness and perpetuate real transformational change.

It starts individually, but will only truly be successful if it is accepted by many individual conscious agents willing to agree in thought. This is a place where those evangelical groups that engage in corporate prayer for a common goal have impactful influence. It is not limited to evangelical prayer groups however, and in my view, much of what they focus on is not really addressing the pressing problems we face as a society today. In large part, they are not focused on social justice or ending racism. They are not focused on ending widespread poverty, injustice or inequality.

This is an area where people could form groups that are committed to changing the current thought forms, and creating new ones that are geared toward improving these areas. It does not have to be prayer per se, it can be focusing attention and thoughts to improving this area. While it must begin individually with each of us, it cannot remain siloed. It needs people to join together in agreement of thought and intention to bring about a change that will also take on a life of its own and further act to influence other conscious agents. This I believe is a way to bring God and spirituality beyond religion.