God Beyond Religion: Progressive Awakening; Two Mystical Contributions from the Jesus Narrative

One of my friends on Facebook posted that he realized that he was arrogant when he was an evangelical pastor and that it was a waste of precious time. The arrogance came into play as he thought that God had given him a message every week and that it was important for the people to come and hear it every week. He went on to say that he was delivered from that. This caused a light bulb moment for me because I can recall doing the same thing.  I too thought that God was giving me a weekly sermon that was spiritually important for those who I was teaching and preaching too. What I realized with this is that we all, humanity, are going through, and are at different stages of an awakening to deeper consciousness and deeper reality. It could be that this is because of the dawning of a new age, literally. The age of information, the age of Aquarius. I must admit that the presupposition that informs this idea for me is panpsychism. It is best described by the idea that was stated in the Kybalion, “the All is Mind, the universe is mental.” As the days go by, I become more and more convinced of this view of reality.

So, to differentiate me from my online friend, I’m not sure that it was a waste of time. Rather it was a transition from one reality to a deeper reality. I must take into consideration that I likely chose my life path, which means that I chose to be born into a fundamentalist Christian family in 1946 for a specific reason, and for a specific expansion of consciousness having a material and corporeal experience of learning. I should perhaps relate the nuance of the family I was born into. My mother, and my older sisters were fundamentalist Baptists all the way, however, my father was raised catholic but did not really attend any church regularly, and a childhood memory I have had all these years, is when my mother would go off on a tangent like, the Roman Catholics weren’t really saved, my dad would say. “Iva, I think you’ll be surprised when you get to heaven who’s there. I guess that I sensed that he did not take the fear of hell all that seriously, and that likely rubbed off on me.  You can find a more in-depth explanation of my interesting transition from fundamentalist to agnostic, to mystic, back to evangelical, and finally back to an eclectic and syncretistic spiritual mystic that is probably more accurately a panpsychist. I will post a link to it at the bottom of this article.

So, why wasn’t my foray into evangelicalism a waste of time? That is the question that is the main point of this post. While I understand that orthodox Christianity and especially evangelical orthodoxy is very toxic, there is a fairly important mystical message within the Jesus Narrative. It has nothing to do with sin and salvation, and for those who have suffered spiritual abuse, and spiritual trauma by this concept, they are unlikely to be comforted by this realization, at least for a long period of healing, but I will state it none the less.

If one sees some type of spirituality as important, then this realization is best found in a part of the Jesus story. Whether one believes that Jesus was an actual historical person or not, (I believe he was), this message or realization is important either way. I will readily admit that myth is an important part of all religions and spiritual traditions. Some are beneficial and some are not, but myth has proven to be important throughout millennia in the upward spiral of humanity. So, without further ado let me get to the two concepts. They are what has been called the KENOSIS, and the resurrection.

I do not want to minimize the good teaching about ethics and love found in the sermon on the mount or various other parts of the New and Old Testaments, but the two elements that are missing, at least explicitly in other spiritual traditions is the KENOSIS and the RESURRECTION. I base this on the idea that panpsychism is correct, and therefore, it is most likely that an eclectic, syncretistic spirituality is the best way to proceed. This requires that one uses intuition, the presence of spirit within, to discern what is beneficial from a wide variety of spiritual and religious traditions.

Let’s first examine the concept of KENOSIS. This is an idea that Paul mentions in his epistle to the Philippians. I will quote it from the NRSV. Php 2:5-8  “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,  (6)  who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,  (7)  but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form,  (8)  he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.” Orthodoxy has limited this to Jesus, but that does not acknowledge what the verse actually says. Paul emphatically states, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”  To literally take Paul at his word would require that we have the same view about our deity as Jesus did. Let that sink in. According to Paul in this passage, we as humans, should think the same way about ourselves as Jesus thought about himself. What did he think? He thought that he was the incarnation of the Logos, the conscious, creative word of God. He thought that he was the son of God, and that God was his father. This means that he thought that he was the offspring of the creative energy source.

He also thought that he was the anointing (Christ) of the Logos, and so if we have the same mind, then we would think that we as well are the anointing (Christ) of the Logos. You may ask was Jesus unique in this regard? I would say that his uniqueness is in the fact that he was the firstborn of a new humanity. He was the first one to recognize that we are the anointing of the Logos. The writer of John’s first epistle expressed it this way, “as Christ is in the world, so are we!” It seems very clear that Paul’s meaning was a lot more profound than orthodoxy had expressed. In fact, in a lot of ways, orthodoxy has been a real detriment to the mystical understanding that the Jesus Narrative provides to all. I am advocating for using the mystical messages of Christianity to benefit people who are far more eclectic in their spirituality. These two understandings of Jesus are a benefit for everyone. You don’t have to embrace Jesus as the savior from sin to realize that woven within the message is Jesus the mystical master that can improve ones understanding of spiritual awakening.

Now let me bring this concept’s implications to the one who accepts eclectic spirituality as a valid path. I mean, the one who draws from a variety of spiritual traditions to inform their view of reality, and most especially their place in spirituality. Many of the reincarnation beliefs teach that we forget our past experiences upon arrival into the earth plane at birth. That is a perfect description of Kenosis. In these traditions it is the goal to remember past experience and knowledge little by little with expansion in mind. Kenosis in the Greek is an emptying. Emptying and forgetting are the same thing when it comes to past knowledge and experience. Further, if as some cognitive scientists believe, we are conscious agents, or as Dr. Bernardo Kastrup believes we are dissociative personalities of the one universal conscious, while we are equal with creative consciousness, we empty that knowledge. The Jesus story provides an explanation of how we forget former lives and former information when we incarnate. It is via KENOSIS.

Now let's look at the resurrection. It also is an important part from the Jesus narrative. The only way that we can be sure that we are eternal is if we are resurrected. That is exactly what is claimed that Jesus did or had done to him. There are no other religions the claim to have the resurrection phenomenon. This is yet another place where parts of the Jesus narrative can inform all religions and it isn't necessary to accept the orthodox position of sin and salvation. Rather, one who is accepting of eclectic and syncretistic spirituality can glean truths from various traditions and amalgamate them in the one view of spirituality. So for instance, 1 can include kenosis and the resurrection with reincarnation and form a better picture of spiritual reality.

It's possible that when Jesus spoke of being born again he was referencing reincarnation. He was speaking in spiritual terms. Therefore, being born again, could allow one to realize that they will have the opportunity to experience many lives on the earth plane and forget the past lives only to rediscover the important truths that carry over into the growth of the individual spiritually. This adds additional experiential information and knowledge to the whole and is likely the reason for our incarnating in the first place. This idea allows Jesus to actually be revealing additional truth to what was already present in other spiritual traditions. This could be true even of Judaism if one realizes that the Kabbalah accepts many of the characteristics eastern spiritual traditions.

While it is absolutely not necessary that one embraces the Jesus narrative or for that matter studies it at all it is still true that understanding kenosis and resurrection are important concepts in eclectic and syncretistic spirituality. It seems a shame to me that orthodoxy and Christianity in general has developed a dogma so toxic as to make it impossible for those who have been traumatized by it to adopt certain revelations into their spiritual view.

Here is the link I promised to my story:

 

God Beyond Religion: A Spiritual Download

It was either 1974 or 1975. It was a warm Michigan summer evening. The windows in my pickup were down because in Michigan there is little need for air conditioning in vehicles. I was driving on highway U.S. 127 coming from Mid-Michigan Community College where I had finished teaching a painting and drawing class. It was close to sunset. There is a fairly long hill by Michigan standards coming south from the campus. It begins in a pine forest and ends at fields of new mown hay. As I got close to the bottom of the grade, the trees gave way to two fairly large fields on either side, both left and right. There it was. The moon was rising about fifteen degrees above the horizon to my left, and the sun was setting about fifteen degrees above the horizon to my right.

Instantaneously I could feel a tremendous amount of energy passing through my head, and I began to chant. It was as if I had the awareness of everything all at once as I chanted on. I was truly one with universal consciousness. It was as though I knew everything known, and it was there all at once. This went on for about twenty minutes of a thirty-minute drive to my home in Rosebush Michigan. During the twenty minutes I did not recall driving and my avatar was on automatic pilot. My I-AM was engaged in a knowledge download. The chant was melodious. I was singing rather than simply speaking. I know that I was fully engulfed in an amazing peace that really defies explanation. The only thing I remember from the experience was the last line of the chant and I said, “and to the lion, killing isn’t wrong.” That’s where it ended. The thing that I remember most during this experience; I was filled with an amazing peace, but I can absolutely not remember any of the chant except the last line.

I do believe however, that in that dump of spiritual info, I received all of the words of knowledge and all of the spiritual insight that I have given over the years. I have a strong intuition and there are times when I know things about people that I really have no way of knowing, and when I have the courage to share it… it always proves to be right on and just what the individual needed to hear at the time. Since that time I have been driven to understand the nature of reality and the purpose to which this material world exists.

I believe as Nikola Tesla did that, we are receivers from the mind at large. I think I prefer that term “mind at large: though little known and only by those who have read Aldous Huxley’s “The Doors of Perception.” It is interesting to me how synchronicity works because a couple of years before that experience, while taking a graduate painting course at Central Michigan University, my instructor assigned us to read that book as part of painting class. At roughly the same time I was introduced to Fritjof Capra’s “The Tao of Physics” and another friend suggested I read Carlos Castaneda’s novels. I began with “A Separate Reality,” moved on with “Journey to Ixtlan” and kept on from there. I also began to have people with clairvoyant abilities come into my life. I understood that the world that I was in was definitely shaped by consciousness or what one could call spirit. It was easy for me to accept the reality that somehow spirit, or consciousness was underlying reality.

While I had never heard the word panpsychism nor was familiar with any of the philosophers that held that view of reality, it was definitely my view even if I did not know the term. It would be many years before I would come to study Hermetics or read the Tao, but the foundation was laid in this experience. It was also in this time period, later that winter, that I would experience other phenomena on that drive. I began to see bright lights in the sky above my home as I was driving. This would be during this thirty-minute drive. It was like they were parked right over my house. I would see them in the direction of where I lived and as I got closer and closer to home it was obvious that they were there, in the sky. I remember one evening in particular. I saw the light there, and when I got home, my wife’s aunt was babysitting our children. I ran in the house to have her come out and look at it. When she came out, I swear it turned into a plane with a blinking light and moved on. She must have thought I was crazy. I swear, before I went in the house it was just a bright light, white in color and hovering up in the sky and it actually blew my mind that it turned into an ordinary plane.

I remember another evening in the cold Michigan winter. It was a crisp evening with a full moon shining down on the shivering cold. I looked up at it and I had a sense come over me that I was not from here. I was in reality from somewhere out there. It was an overpowering awareness and then it passed. So yes, most definitely I am a believer in paranormal anomalies. For good reason. I am an experiencer of many paranormal circumstances over the years. So numerous that it would take a book to retell them all. Do I realize that we need to stay grounded and accomplish things in the material world for our benefit? Yes, of course. But, I likewise realize that there is much more to reality than simply meets the eye, and I believe that consciousness is on an upward spiral trajectory with a purpose of enlightenment as one goal.

God Beyond Religion: Ufology and Paranormal Activity It’s All Connected

I recently watched the Netflix Series “Manifest.” The phrase “it’s all connected” was used over and over in the show. It was a drama about the divine consciousness and while it exaggerated the action and suspense to make it appealing to a large audience, it covered basic principles that would be important in a panpsychist view of reality. I have written previous posts about the fact that it is all one thing. If you haven’t read any of my previous posts, you may be asking what’s all one thing? The answer is ufo’s/uap’s, portals, interdimensional phenomena, cryptids, poltergeists, etc. 

There is a controversy on UFO Twitter with respect to the veracity of Lue Elizondo, Christopher Mellon, Sean Cahill, Dr. Garry Nolan, Ross Coulthart, George Knapp, Dr. Travis Taylor, Dr. Eric Davis, Jeremy Corbell, et.al. When I look at it with historical retrospect, I see that the critics are very likely wrong. The reason?  they do not take an overall historical look at the phenomenon. I am including in the critics Steven Greenstreet, Mick West, John Greenwald, and most recently Lu Angeles. So what are they missing? They overlook years of a preponderance of evidence that begins with the Air Force acknowledgment of a crash in Roswell New Mexico in 1947 with a questionable at best quick retraction. That alone should be all the evidence anyone needs but fortunately, that was but one event of a plethora of events, and the recent advocates are just a few of the historical many that believed the phenomena was real.

 

I am old enough to have been in my late twenty’s early thirties in the 1970’s. I was privileged to attend a lecture by J. Allen Hynek at Central Michigan at that time. His presentation was very convincing. He told of many encounters and was convinced that the subjects of his many year’s investigation were telling the truth. I am sure that the ilk of Greenstreet and West would find a way to show Hynek as a misguided believer, but that is the only thing they can do. They just sling mud! In large part they do that by believing the DOD and that in itself is a joke and should show what they are.

 

Here is an excerpt from and Article that J. Allen Hynek wrote for the Journal of the Optical Society of America in April 1953. It is entitled “Unusual Ariel Phenomenon” and it is in vol 43. Here is the quote:

 

“Radar observations as well as visual observations are involved in this problem. Early last month shortly before dawn colored lights were observed in the sky southeast of the radar station. At the same time and the same azimuth, unidentified targets appeared on the scope. Only a very slight temperature inversion was present, 1° at 25,000 feet. No more than two lights appeared at one time. They were observed to be moving in a rather erratic pattern and changing colors occasionally. The last thirty minutes of observation revealed the lights remaining yellow prior to that they were red, green, and blue. They moved in no apparent formation but mostly appeared in one area and disappeared in another, when either the light went out or the objects dived behind clouds. They were starlike objects and appeared to develop long, white vapor trails, when they dived. They were motionless at times and moved rapidly at other times. This corresponded to similar movements observed on the radar scope.”

 

The article itself is an interesting read and can be found at ufo - UFOs at close sight: J. Allen Hynek paper in the Journal of the Optical Society of America, 1953 (patrickgross.org). When you add this to the multiple testimonies of military and law enforcement individuals, and the documentary films by James Fox such as “Moment of Contact” and “The Phenomenon” the preponderance of the evidence is overwhelming. For anyone to believe the government over Lue Elizondo, Christopher Mellon, Sean Cahill, Garry Nolan et. al. defies logic and demonstrates that those skeptics have ulterior motives. When you add to that the high strangeness of the Uintah Basin via the show “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch” it simply adds another layer to the preponderance!

God Beyond Religion: A Christ, Taoist, Idealist, Panpsychist Ontology

The lyrics of John Lennon’s “Imagine” is something to consider and even move toward. A siblinghood of humanity that is inclusive and not exclusive. This could be achieved without sacrificing various kinds of spirituality as long as the exclusive nature of them is eliminated. Whether it is religion, philosophy, or national division and divisiveness it is unnecessary with the simple addition of tolerance. Tolerance and acceptance should be at the heart of any ontology. Beating swords into plowshares is a noble goal. It is in this vane that I would suggest the above title. It is not designed to start another divisive religion, but rather to provide a way in which people can honor their traditions, by embracing the best and eliminating the worst of belief systems. Letting go of terms like dogma, orthodox, and heterodox, and further letting go of the ideas that exist behind the terms is the first necessary step.

Still, there is nothing wrong with holding onto spiritual explanations of the nature of reality. For example, the Christ concept is a reasonable one when considering that it is the Christ of the Logos, or in other words, the anointing of creative consciousness. Christ as Richard Rohr has so eloquently stated is not Jesus of Nazareth’s last name. It is important to realize what the terms meant within their original language and too their original audience. Christos was an anointing, a rubbing on of an ointment as done for anointing kings. Logos was a word but in the Greek philosophical sense it was creative consciousness. So, the universal or cosmic Christ is a description of the anointing or the presence of the Logos. Jesus taught that it was the natural state of humanity. While he acknowledged his Christ, he also saw it as being for everyone. He did not think it was unique to him but available to all. This is one of the main themes of John’s gospel.

A concept that fits well with the Christ of the Logos is the Tao. Simply stated, the Tao, pronounced Dao is the creative conscious source of the universe and is similar in nature to the Hermetic concept of “the-all.” It should be noted here that most all civilizations had in one way or another the concept of the universal creative source. Many of the indigenous tribes, especially of the Americas called it the great spirit. While it is easy in retrospect to romanticize the concept of the great spirit. The indigenous tribes certainly had their share of wars, violence, and inhumane practices it is interesting that the concept was essentially similar to the concept of pneuma or qi (chi.) The life force and breath have been ubiquitous in cultures over millennia in describing the prime source of life and energy.

For an ontology to be plausible it needs to have consistency in agreement across multiple areas. It must at the very least take account for previous spiritual traditions and recognize the truth that is embedded with all of them to one degree or the other. It must also take into consideration scientific thought, theories, and established data. However, it is important to be able to recognize that science too has dogma, and dogmatic factions that make it difficult for the non-scientist to easily filter out the dogmatic from the exploratory and theoretical. When one recognizes that within the scientific community, especially within quantum and astro-physics, that there is a wide variety of disagreement. Likewise, when it comes to the nature of consciousness there is equally a wide range of theories. While there is currently an effort to advance those aspects of science, consciousness itself is a difficult topic to study with mathematical precision. Some are trying, especially Dr. Donald Hoffman, but it is in the infancy stage, and most are locked into the dogma of physicalism and believe that consciousness is an evolutionary product of the brain. However, in so doing they simply bypass the hard problem of consciousness.

This in my view devalues the purview of logic and epistemology. There are things that can be knowable that are not mathematically provable or modeled. It is especially in this area that panpsychist idealism offers a more plausible explanation of reality than the materialist, physicalist explanation that stops short of explaining the why of existence. In a nutshell, the Panpsychism Idealist view sees consciousness as the foundational basis for reality. It is not completely out of the question given the nature of the quantum field of waves that collapse into particles based on observation.

Further, it explains the many paranormal and supernatural occurrences that are common over millennia that have been reported ubiquitously across cultures, eras, and among a plethora of reliable people. If you name the anomaly, Panpsychist Idealism explains it.

God Beyond Religion: Does Spiral Dynamics point toward a benevolent creator of the universe? Spiral Dynamics and Theodicy

Spiral Dynamics and Theodicy

There was a song written in 1995 that asked this question. “What if god was one of us?” It went on to ask, “a slob like one of us, a stranger on a bus?” There is a way in which that song rings far more true than at first hearing. In fact, it is plausible that it could indeed be true. Let’s assume that the creator of the universe is collective consciousness. That the reason for calling it collective is it is made up of individual conscious agents in a collective that are jointly and severally divine. I will show later on in this article that this idea is indeed the most likely of all possible scenarios. Further, I will show that heretofore all of the mystics that religions were built upon were simply misunderstood, and that their message was coopted. It is my view that the orthodox Christian view of the creator is the least likely scenario with respect to reasonable plausibility. That view makes theodicy impossible.

Here is the description of the model of deity that I believe to be the most plausible and reasonable of all possibilities and likewise, I will explain why the scenario, of not having a conscious creative source, is probably the worst of all possibilities. Eternal consciousness exists and has always existed and is dark energy that produces dark matter. This is the first and only miracle needed. The materialist view also needs a first and only miracle and that is the existence of hydrogen atoms. So, in this both theories begin with a miracle or at least an unknowable circumstance. Dark energy contemplates all the dimensions and dark matter is continuously expanding and sustaining material creation. It is by conscious energy that the waves of potentiality are collapsed into particles. We then, jointly (the collective) and severally (individual conscious agents) collapse the waves of potentiality into the particulate matter of the corporeal world.

We create these modalities of existence to expand consciousness. Further, we are divine and eternal being a part of the collective. This eliminates completely the concept of an all wise and potent creator apart from us and creates us as divine agents experiencing the expansion of consciousness. All of the various religions have created metaphors to explain the collective. The metaphors are father and mother, and the individual conscious agents are the offspring or the children. It is in this realm that free will exists. It is likewise in this realm that eternity exists and therefore, being eternal, no actual lasting harm can come to any. While suffering is real in some realms of existence it is not eternal and all experience it. Likewise, what one could call fortunate, pleasurable, and beneficial, though not eternal is experienced equally by all from time to time as expanding consciousness dictates. This is not meant to minimize the suffering or the contentment, but rather places each in perspective of the eternal purpose of expanding consciousness. It makes conscious agents masters of their own fate with free will. This alone provides complete theodicy.

So where does spiral dynamics enter the picture? It is evident in the upward spiral of humanity over the millennia.  Individually and collectively, we are creating a better, more loving, more equitable world. Further, consciousness is expanding toward a more widespread and eventually enlightened reality. Examples are everywhere. Medicine and quality of life is expanding, equity of opportunity is expanding. Statistics bear this out. The amount of people living in extreme poverty has dropped from 2 billion in 1981 to 1.2 billion in 2011 according to the World Bank Poverty: the past, present and future | World Economic Forum (weforum.org). We have progressed from the archaic, through the tribal, the authoritarian, ethno-nationalistic, democratic, and are heading toward the democratic social stage. I realize that there are remnants of many of the stages still present or coinciding with the highest achievement, but that is the way spiral dynamics works. In addition to this, there are more and more people headed to the tier two aspects of spiral dynamics, with the ultimate being enlightenment.

Here is an image that shows the stages of spiral dynamics.

So then, of the three explanations of reality, the emperor god, atheism, or panpsychism, the latter is by far the best choice, and it completely eliminates theodicy. One can equate monotheism with the emperor god and of course atheistic physicalism speaks for itself, there is no god and no purpose just accidental evolution, and with the panpsychism explained in this article there is a purpose and a reasonable explanation of good and evil, and more specifically the existence of evil. Both moral evil and natural evil (earthquakes, disease etc.) are a natural result of the material corporeal experiment but conscious agents being eternally divine experience an "evening out" of suffering and comfort.

The reason that the panpsychist view is superior is that it ultimately produces hope and a reason to love. While the emperor god view promotes trauma, guilt, and shame, the atheistic physicalistic view is ok for those who are encountering even a modicum of comfort but, it is devastating to those who were born into poverty and harshness. In those cases, atheism can lead naturally to one becoming a murderous outlaw. It increases crimes against people and property. Without eternal hope and understanding, deep suffering can produce a complete disregard for life.

Let’s examine the three positions in terms of what they provide most individuals that have ever lived. The emperor god cannot be absolved of creating suffering no matter how one looks at it. It is a view that makes the divine creator arbitrary and capricious and no, giving human’s free will and choice does not eliminate culpability. So many people have been born into poverty and suffering, or just vary hard living conditions that overall life was not that great a gift. They would have been better off not existing.

The same thing rings true for the atheistic view. If there is no purpose and life evolved for no reason, then this view is the most toxic of all. It leaves everything in life to chance. If one was born into wealth and comfort, great but if not, they simply lose. Further, when you consider the numbers of people who were born prior to the last two centuries it was really an unfair plight to have been born.

Finally, the panpsychist view, that all is consciousness and is created by consciousness is a view that offers eternal equilibrium and justice. If we are in fact all divine and individual conscious agents that participate in developing the material corporeal experience, and also have a multitude of other dimensions, worlds, circumstances that cannot even be imagined, we then have a narrative that will allow all to feel that over time and development all will experience the expansion of consciousness by participating in each creative experiment available to conscious agents that is ever expanding in an upward spiral. Further having each dimensional experience adding to the whole in the same way that humanity has developed as viewed by spiral dynamics and seeing that the potential for growth is well beyond imagination. In my view this is the best possible scenario, and it resonates well with me.

It is my belief that all of the mystics and masters of the past were actually trying to communicate this idea but were misunderstood. Sometimes it was from real misunderstanding and in some cases, it was purposefully misrepresented to favor those who were passing on and writing down the message. Those who wrote their own like Lao Tzu and Rumi had a clearer more pure message, and of course, Jesus who had all of his teachings passed on by second hand and third hand messengers was likely the least clear. However, with our intuition and the divine spirit that indwells each and every one of us, even there the real message can be discerned.

God Beyond Religion: Kenosis misunderstood and a Fresh Look

Php 2:5-8  “Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,  (6)  who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.  (7)  Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man,  (8)  he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross.” ~CSB Version

If you can remove all of the toxic connotation that tends to pop up from toxic evangelical dogma and look at what Paul realized in this particular passage of his writing. He is saying this. YOU have the same mind that Jesus did. Realize, that in coming to this earth plane you emptied yourself of your divinity, that is you have forgotten it for a time, you have lost track of your true identity. When you begin to gain it back by mystical revelation, don’t exploit it with hubris, love and serve your fellow human, not at the expense of yourself necessarily, but do not use it for prides sake.

So, what would that mean for us? First off it could mean that the story of the fall in Genesis chapter’s two and three is an inept metaphor for the condition here in material reality that provides fertile ground for death and pathological behavior. The so-called fall could as easily and in my view more correctly be explained as the kenosis or emptying oneself of one’s divinity. The garden analogy could be a metaphor for our oneness in the ALL or the creative source. We as a unified part of the whole is the state where non-duality is experienced. Paul’s mention of the cross is in the general scheme of things beside the point. Jesus, in emptying himself of his divine status and incarnating in the earthly plane demanded that he experience death. Whether at age 33 on a Roman Cross, or at age 70 as the result of natural atrophy, death was inevitable, and I for one am glad because eternity in this plane would be taxing, tiring, and ultimately exasperating.

However, stints within material reality can be challenging and rewarding and can increase our body of knowledge. The only way it could be challenging is if we emptied ourselves of our divine knowing. If we limited our view of the eternal, put a big question mark at the end of what’s next, and allow our challenges and life plan experiences to move us toward our recovery of divinity. It appears from spiral dynamics, and the evolution of culture types that it is a slow but ongoing process. The first challenges are to overcome the natural consequences of material reality such as predators, poisonous plants, earthquakes, violent weather, feeding ourselves, finding shelter etc. As we develop technology to accomplish these basic survival tasks, we make room for contemplating deeper questions.

It must be noted that during each of these advancing spiral stages we are sent mystics from the creative source to awaken our knowledge of who we are. Most of the time, this effort is stagnated by making a religion out of the mystics’ revelation.  And yet, over time we are able to remember more and more of who we are. Thus, the mystical revelation leads to greater and greater awareness of who and what we are. Eventually we grow weary of exploring challenges and we simply rest only to find a new challenge that will ignite our quest for self-knowledge.

This makes sense from the mystical revelation we have already received. The concept of as below so above and as above so below, stated differently on earth as it is in heaven, leads us to accept the fact that cycles are natural occurrences both in the natural material world and in the spiritual world of ultimate creative consciousness.

God Beyond Religion: Musings of a conscious universe, “it’s all one thing Part 2”

Panpsychism makes it all one thing:

If the universe is a creation of consciousness. If the main energy source of the world around us is consciousness. If indeed consciousness creates reality, then all phenomena stem from one thing. And to state the obvious, that one thing is consciousness. This would include normal phenomena, and also paranormal phenomena, or anomalous phenomena. Over the centuries, there have been a multitude of stories about anomalous phenomena. So, what are the various forms of these anomalies? Well, there is the UFO/UAP phenomenon. There is the spirit/ghost/poltergeist phenomenon. There is the cryptid phenomenon. There is the power spot or power vortex phenomenon. There is the interdimensional portal phenomenon. There is the psychic, clairvoyant, medium, telepathic phenomenon. I do not claim this list is exhaustive as I have probably missed many paranormal phenomena, but I simply want to point out that it is widespread. It is widespread over the planet, and from stories of the past it is widespread over time. In fact, from petroglyphs and hieroglyphs it goes back thousands of years, and conservatively, fifty centuries, and quite likely one hundred centuries. What is the old adage? Where there is smoke there is fire, and the smoke of these ubiquitous stories, point to a fire of plausibility. I like the term, preponderance of evidence. In this regard, the preponderance is overwhelmingly evident.

All of these anomalous phenomena have been met with skepticism over the ages, and I would say that over the last one hundred plus years, they have been ridiculed. And yet, over this same time frame, religions with likewise wild claims, have been accepted without question.  Who are the main ridiculers? Dogmatic Christian groups and dogmatic materialist, physicalist scientist. The obvious reason is that they interfere with the dogma and bring it into question. Yes indeed, I am linking materialist, physicalist scientists with dogmatic religion. There is a level of hubris in both groups that is unmatched. Likewise, they both have a vested interest in downplaying and debunking these phenomena.

On the other hand, the mental universe has been a continuous story across cultures for millennia. While I mostly understand it from the perspective of hermeticism and Taoism it is prevalent in other spiritual traditions including animism. So back to the concept of preponderance of the evidence. There is a preponderance of views about mental alchemy. The Logos, which is the conscious word of the creator has been widely reported for thousands of years beginning with Pythagoras and the Greeks who claimed that it originated in ancient Egypt. Circle all the way to 2022 and you have many scientists that hold a view called panpsychism. Of course, I have often mentioned Dr. Donald Hoffman and Dr. Rupert Sheldrake as two scientists that believe that reality is first and foremost mentation. Hoffman is a cognitive scientist and Sheldrake is a biologist that has developed a theory describing morphic fields of resonance in animals and humans.

But now breaking it down into the categories. There are Multiple reports annually about flying saucers. There are thousands per year in the USA. In fact, in 2020 there were 7200 reports in the USA alone. Many of these reports are from the military and military pilots who have seen and captured them on cameral. Added to this, there is radar evidence to back them up. Not only do they fly at unheard of speeds and maneuver in ways that impossible to our current technology, but they can zip into the water and emerge. In fact, the evidence is beginning to show that some of them at least may have a base of operations in the oceans. It is a phenomenon that affects the navy more than the air force.

So, what is the implication of these craft? What is the implication of the presence of other worldly or extraterrestrial beings observing us? I say other worldly because they may be extra-dimensional or they could be from another planet, star system within the galaxy. The fact remains that if the universe is mentation, then it is possible for worm holes and portals to be accomplished by mental manipulation, a skill that we have not yet understood or developed. If from another dimension it could be that they have constructed UFO’s, UAP’s, and USO’s that help maneuver in this three-dimensional world. One thing for sure is that it expands greatly the concept of the creative source of the universe and eliminates a god in the box that religion has created. It also establishes the fact that what was once ridiculed and considered mass hysteria is now admitted existing by governments around the world. It is not a quantum leap to believe that all paranormal activity that is widely reported across cultures and time has validity as well.

But what about spiritual dimensions? Could they simply be dimensions within the universe that we as yet do not understand? That is more than likely the case. However, if the universe is an organic and atomic computer creation, and if it is sentient then it is possible that what we have come to call the spiritual world or spiritual dimension is all there is. At this time, I lean in that direction. There is one thing that is undeniable. What we call paranormal activity is reported extensively over all locations and time eras. It crosses cultures and centuries and by the sheer preponderance of the reporting it should be taken seriously. Especially when the reports are so similar.

There is a growing number of panpsychists that offer the possibility that it is all one thing. Many of them are well respected and published scientists and philosophers. While not all of them are comfortable calling consciousness spiritual, the fact is that it operates as essentially the same thing. Most metaphysicians look at spirituality being another name for panpsychism. It is definitely in this realm that all of the above-mentioned paranormal phenomena can fit nicely together as one thing, and that is likely why you have such wide reporting of a variety of phenomena at places like Skinwalker Ranch in the Uintah Basin, and Mount Shasta in Northern California. Up until the time that I began to understand panpsychism I had a hard time accepting that cryptids, and portals and other spiritual anomalies accompanied UFO/UAP activity. Panpsychism offers a unifying medium for all of them. Certainly, panpsychism offers a plausible answer to the problem of inter-stellar distances, explains how it is possible for extraterrestrials to hide in plain sight. It also explains portals in the sky and on the earth.

 

God Beyond Religion: Mystical Revelation and the Ongoing Illumination Toward Spiritual Enlightenment

Proposition: It is my belief that there is mystical revelation from source in all of the sacred writings over the millennia. Finding and refining it is the process of illumination and has been done over the centuries and is still taking place today. It can be likened to spiritual spiral dynamics and needs to be an ever-ongoing process.

Let’s face it, orthodox Christianity did no real favors with canonization of certain scripture. Mystic revelation from source should be ongoing as people develop culturally, socially and spiritually. It should be obvious that at least some of those writing down the narrative about Jesus did not believe they were codifying anything but acting as a reporter. This is obvious from Luke’s writings and also from whoever wrote the Johannine epistles. Here are three examples:

Luke 1:1-3  “Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us,  (2)  just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word,  (3)  I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,”

Act 1:1-3  “In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning  (2)  until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.  (3)  After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.”

1Jn 1:1-4  “We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—  (2)  this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us—  (3)  we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.  (4)  We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.”

It seems rather clear to me from the above passages that they were not trying to codify but rather report an important phenomenon that they had witnessed, and that it was meant for them within the context of their culture and time. In other words, it was for their contemporary audience, based on their cultural norms. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that what they wrote included mystical revelation from the creative source but also contained the input that they naturally inherited from their culture, beliefs, and customs. It is likewise reasonable to assume that those cultural and customary aspects were not meant to be codified into perpetuity. At the same time it is also reasonable to conclude that some of what they wrote as witnesses reflected enlightened revelation they received from a messenger whose mission was to further illuminate and correct what they had erroneously or mistakenly believed from past revelation.

Therefore, it seems incumbent on those who follow these traditions to apply the same kind of reporting and illumination into the application of these mystical gems using spiritual discernment and mysticism. In fact, it is an edict in the Johannine gospel. John 16:12-13  "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  (13)  When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” There is absolutely nothing in the above writing from John’s gospel that states that shortly after the spirit comes it will then reveal a set of principles and beliefs that can be codified as the final message from source. In fact, that idea is preposterous. If one looks at the evolution of culture and enlightened awareness that is set forth in spiral dynamics it demands that this edict from John’s gospel be ongoing, and that the actual canon can never be codified and sealed. However, neither does it mean that it cannot be helpful in the effort to provide greater and greater illumination with all of the spiritual and scientific discoveries that regularly change our view of reality.

It is in this view that proposition above is stated. Wouldn’t it be interesting to have a group of modern Christ followers take the edict of John 16:12-13. This could be accomplished by using an understanding of the first century history and culture coupled with spiritual illumination and discernment to put together those aspects of the scripture that are indeed mystical revelation from source and what is actually a product of the culture that created them.

One thing is certain, the concept that the entire canon was codified for perpetuity two thousand years ago in a culture that was far less humane than our current culture. I know, many may try to point out the evil that seems rampant in our culture today, but two things must be considered. First, most people are kind, and spiral dynamics has shown that there is an upward spiral of enlightenment that has increased the humaneness of humanity. Secondly, the media and news outlets emphasize the apparent evil so that it holds a higher place in our awareness, and it is likely that the incidence of what we call evil is less in relation to overall population than it was in times past.

This would enable Christ followers, who believe there is a command to create a better, more peaceful, and more loving humanity use the best parts of their tradition to facilitate this growth and build a bridge that is syncretistic and eclectic that could show the similarity of the mystical message across cultures and religions. Further, it could create and environment that would build tolerance of all people of all religions and likewise include those who are completely non-religious.

 

God Beyond Religion: It’s all one thing!

If we live in a mental universe; If the first axiom of the Kybalion is correct; If the All is mind and the universe is mental, then the corporeal and material world arises from consciousness and conscious activity. I am finding this increasingly interesting in view of the fact that it seems that paranormal activity, UFO’s/UAP’s, portals, and cryptids all seem to be connected. Further, often when you have one, you also have another and sometimes all of them. In the last post I mentioned the TV series on the History Channel, The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch. Certainly, in that area, in and about the ranch all of the forementioned phenomena are reported and observed.

It is also interesting that petroglyphs and hieroglyphs, many which are thousands of years old contain images that resemble space travelers and portals. There are petroglyphs in Utah, near the ranch in the Uintah Basin that are thousands of years old. If we simply trace the concept back to Egypt, it goes at least 5,000 years in the past and quite likely is much older than that. Add to this the recent archeological find of Gobleki Tepe, and it dates to 11,000 years ago. Of course, Plato wrote about Atlantis, an ancient civilization that was destroyed by water.

The point to all of this is simply that the concept of the universe being mentation is thousands of years old. While it cannot be proven, it is not wild speculation that people from an advanced civilization interacted with the ancient Egyptians and many of the Mezo-American civilizations. Imagine if you will that those of ancient Egypt were visited by advanced people from the sky. Further, imagine that they also experienced cryptids emerging from portals on the earth. This is a very plausible speculation about how various ubiquitous myths came about, and how they were similar across time, regions, and cultures. The myths are very similar even when the cultures did not have contact with one another.

There are two regularly recurring myths that span thousands of years and thousands of miles. One has to do with the concept of father in the sky, and the other is the demons and the underworld. So, what if they originated from people having experiences with UAP’s and cryptids? The myths of father in the sky could have originated from UFO’s/UAP’s, and the myths of the underworld and demons could have originated with portals and cryptids. It is important to note that while the concept of heaven has been given a spiritual connotation through the various myths, the Greek word describing the heavens was simply Ouranos meaning the sky. Many indigenous people thought of father sky and mother earth, and that the “great spirit” inhabited both.

I am including below a quote from the Kybalion. As I have stated many times before the Kybalion was written in 1908, likely by Wm. Walker Atkinson. I refer to it often because it is a no nonsense stating of the Corpus Hermetica, or in other words, the hermetic material that dates back at least to ancient Egypt 3,000 years BCE. I use this quote as many believe that the archaeological data suggests that the ancients had tutors from an advanced civilization. The quote comes from the beginning of chapter three in the Kybalion which covers the idea of mental transmutation.

Mental transmutation is the craft of the alchemist. This passage is meant to suggest that those who instructed the ancient Egyptians were very sophisticated in the sciences.

Chapter 3.

Mental Transmutation. "Mind (as well as metals and elements) may be transmuted, from state to state; degree to degree; condition to condition; pole to pole; vibration to vibration. True Hermetic Transmutation is a Mental Art." — The Kybalion.

“As we have stated, the Hermetists were the original alchemists, astrologers, and psychologists, Hermes having been the founder of these schools of thought. From astrology has grown modern astronomy; from alchemy has grown modern chemistry; from the mystic psychology has grown the modern psychology of the schools. But it must not be supposed that the ancients were ignorant of that which the modern schools suppose to be their exclusive and special property.”

“The records engraved on the stones of Ancient Egypt show conclusively that the ancients had a full comprehensive knowledge of astronomy, the very building of the Pyramids showing the connection between their design and the study of astronomical science. Nor were they ignorant of Chemistry, for the fragments of the ancient writings show that they were acquainted with the chemical properties of things; in fact, the ancient theories regarding physics are being slowly verified by the latest discoveries of modern science, notably those relating to the constitution of matter. Nor must it be supposed that they were ignorant of the so-called modern discoveries in psychology — on the contrary, the Egyptians were especially skilled in the science of Psychology, particularly in the branches that the modern schools ignore, but which, nevertheless, are being uncovered under the name of "psychic science" which is perplexing the psychologists of to-day, and making them reluctantly admit that "there may be something in it after all."

~ The Three Initiates. The Kybalion: A Study of The Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece (Illustrated) (p. 13). The Kybalion Resource Page. Kindle Edition.

I want to emphasize the sentence above that is emboldened and underlined. But it must not be supposed that the ancients were ignorant of that which the modern schools suppose to be their exclusive and special property.” This definitely suggests that the ancients were knowledgeable and skilled in the sciences we have today, and quite likely much more advanced. The bottom line is that This explains why the various paranormal anomalies that are found here on the planet are often accompanied by a variety of phenomena that at first glance do not seem related but actually are because they are all a product of transmutation of a material universe that is mentally generated. Likewise, it accounts for many of the spiritualized myths that form the various religions.

  

God Beyond Religion: Skinwalker Ranch, Occam’s Razor, UFO’S and Mentalism

 There is a fascinating show on the History Channel called “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch.” I know, the History Channel has a dubious reputation, but this series is on the up and up based on the people featured in the show. Skinwalker Ranch is a ranch in the Uintah Basin of Northern Utah that has an infamous history surrounding UFO’s and a variety of other paranormal activities. It would take several posts to explain all that has gone on with the ranch but to list the phenomena, there is UFO/UAP activity, potential portals, poltergeist activity and cryptid activity. This has been documented over the century by many including the federal government. There have been mysterious cattle mutilations as well.

There have been three seasons produced already, and I believe they are working on season four and if you want to binge on a series, this one has my highest recommendation. It should also be noted that the U.S. Defense Department recently organized the Unidentified Arial Phenomenon Task Force (UAPTF.) It was disclosed on various YouTube channels, that the physicist on the show, Dr. Travis Taylor is also chief scientist for UAPTF. I mention this because I want to explain that not all the people on the show are fellow travelers with what is called woo woo. And, I want to also explain that those who are on this show have all experienced what one would call woo woo while working on the experiments on the ranch.

The most recent owner of the ranch is in my view above reproach with his integrity and honesty. He has devoted his time, energy, and most telling his money to try and explore, explain and understand the anomalies that have plagued and accompanied the ranch for at least the last eighty years. They do scientific experiments and scientific inquiry to try to ascertain the anomalies. This brings me to my purpose and interest in telling, about the show, the ranch, and the work being done there.

They are trying to solve the mystery of the ranch through scientific endeavor, and while they are uncovering a great deal of data, the ranch seems to be an illusive entity. Yes, you read me right. The ranch behaves like a cognizant entity. Perhaps more accurately, it behaves like a pre-cognitive sentient entity. So where does Occam’s Razor fit into the picture? In this case, not from a materialist, physicalist point of view but from a mentalist perspective. As I have documented over and over in this blog, there is a rich history that spans at least 5,000 years beginning with Hermetic teaching that explains that the creative force of the universe is conscious energy. This was passed on in western civilization through the Greeks and recently revisited in what has been called the “new age” movement.

So, for Occam’s Razor, here are my thoughts. Occam’s Razor states that the simplest explanation of a situation is probably the correct one. how does this correlate with the Skinwalker Ranch show? The varied phenomena that present on the ranch can be examined by measuring various types of electromagnetic radiation and studying the concept of inter and intra dimensional portals, unidentified ariel phenomenon, and cryptids. However, if as is stated in the Kybalion, The All is Mind, the Universe is Mental, that is the place to begin the investigation. Bringing in a genuine psychic, such as a clairvoyant, clairsentient, or claircognizant would be a great place to begin study.

It would require one who is grounded in the understanding that the creative source of the universe is love and peace, and that peace is the highest vibration prior to enlightenment. If such a person went to the ranch with a reverent regard for the forces at play and was grounded in love, light and peace at its highest vibrational state, then one could examine all that is at play there and perhaps discover the most beneficial path for exploring and explaining all the anomalies. That one would need to be cautioned of the fact that originally, the ranch was the source of a conflict between indigenous tribes and a curse put in place by one of the parties. Perhaps it could be liberated from its malevolent past and become a jumping off place for additional scientific and metaphysical study.

God Beyond Religion: The Cognitive Self and the Ethereal Self; the key to mental alchemy

I once thought that we were tripart beings, or in other words, mini trinities, but I am having to relinquish the idea in favor of dualities. We have a higher self, and a lower self. We have a cognitive self and an ethereal self. Even in Christianity, you have Jesus the word incarnate, and the Father. In the Hermetica you have Atum/ALL and the word, Atum’s son. In John’s gospel Jesus says the following:

John 17:20-23  "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word,  (21)  that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  (22)  The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one,  (23)  I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

Ok, for a minute set aside religious connotation and look at what is being said. Ignore the patriarchal idea for a minute and realize that the Father represents one half of the two-part divinity. In this passage, Jesus the son, the incarnate word is the lower self, and the Father is the higher self. The salient idea presented in the passage is the amalgamation or marriage of the two into one. It could best be described as unified duality. By extension, Jesus is also stating that this amalgamation should be the goal of all humanity.

I have stated before that I see Jesus as an ultimate mental alchemist. All of the miracles are an example of mental alchemy. In John’s gospel, the first miracle is changing water into wine. That is not just mental alchemy it is physical alchemy as well. How was he able to accomplish that? He had joined the cognitive self with the ethereal self to create a unified duo. It is the unified duo that finds nothing impossible. He had amalgamated his higher-self with his lower-self. Please understand that you do not have to take all of the things credited to Jesus and accept them as fact to understand what I am proposing here. Set aside if you will, the cultural aspects and the belief system of the people that Jesus came to, and observed the miracles claimed and see that they all fall into the category of mental alchemy. Again, I want to emphasize for clarity that this was possible because of the amalgamation or marriage of the higher self and the lower self.

Now let’s examine what Jesus went on to teach.

John 14:12  “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.”

Believes in what? Believes that he has amalgamated his higher self and his lower self. He is aware that he is the incarnation of the Logos or the word of the Father. He is conscious of his unified duality and has allowed that knowledge to unite the two into one. That is the goal for each of us. He stated that we would do greater works. How would that happen? It would happen when we make the two one by amalgamating the higher-self and the lower self, the cognitive self and the ethereal self. This is indeed the key to mental alchemy.

 

God Beyond Religion: Mystics, Mysticism, and Revelation

One of the ways we know about the creative source of the universe is through mystical revelation. Those who receive mystical revelation are mystics. Let’s look into the world of mystics and mysticism. When I was in evangelical orthodoxy, teaching seminary and preaching, most if not all of my colleagues believed that there was a difference between revelation and illumination. Their point was that only those who wrote the works in the accepted canon of scripture were able to have their writings be classified as revelation. Any insight received by a person after the time of the writing of the canon was simply illumination of the previous revelation. To this I merely call BS! First of all, if one thinks about it for more that a few minutes not guided by dogma that they are afraid to veer off from, it makes no sense that God would give final revelation to men in the Roman Iron Age that would be the final word for the rest of the time the planet exists. That makes a lot of assumptions that are not plausible. It assumes that humanity will not advance, and that spirituality will not evolve. It assumes that a small country with an insignificant population would have an even smaller segment be the arbiter of all truth for all time.

The truth is that mysticism and mystical revelation have been ongoing since the dawn of humanity. Indigenous shamanic tribes of people from all over the globe had very advanced spiritual understanding. Especially in regard to the nature of reality, and the spiritual purpose for existence. So, let’s return to the electromagnetic fields that are at the foundation of our material and corporeal world. Using the example of microwaves, and radio waves we can extrapolate that the brain waves are connected with the waves from the unified field of consciousness; in what Rupert Sheldrake has identified as the fields of morphic resonance and is the plausible source of all mystic revelation. Further, every human is capable of tapping this source of revelation. It is where all intuition comes from. Likewise, it is the source of all of the mystics over the millennia as well as the source of the creativity. In ancient Greece, they called it the muses. It is also the source of all artistic inspiration. Most importantly it is nothing to fear, and it is NOT demonic or evil. It is a natural phenomenon in reality.

It is also the source of spiritual awakening. It appears that there is a rapid growth in spiritual awakening at this time, and it is quite probably linked to our entering the Age of Aquarius. There is a prediction that the planet is transitioning into a new stage of spiritual density. This transition will result in the vibrations of everything on the planet being raised to a higher level on the spiritual plane. The Kybalion mentions three planes of existence. The material plane, the mental plane, and the spiritual plane. The change that is taking place will eventually affect all three planes. It will begin with the spiritual plane and move into the mental plane and will ultimately change the material plane as well. It will end up making mental alchemy easier. This will aid those who are practicing the law of attraction.

One important aspect of this trend is that it will initiate eclectic and syncretistic spirituality. More and more people will be able to discern the mystical revelation found in all of the world religions and religion itself and ritual will diminish. Dogma will give way to open minded acceptance and wider tolerance of individuals that have differing views of spirituality. There is a move toward truly being spiritual and not religious. Dogmatic religions are toxic and abusive, and they will diminish until they completely vanish.

God Beyond Religion: Reverse Engineering Spirituality “The Kybalion”

“ II THE PRINCIPLE OF CORRESPONDENCE: This Principle embodies the truth that there is always a Correspondence between the laws and phenomena of the various planes of Being and Life. The old Hermetic axiom ran in these words: “As above, so below; as below, so above.” And the grasping of this Principle gives one the means of solving many a dark paradox, and hidden secrets of Nature” The Kybalion, by Three Initiates page 17 Yogi Publication Society, 1908

The only thing one can really know is what one experiences. And now, in several scientific disciplines it is being discovered and understood that what we experience is really not reality. At least not in its fullness and underlying foundations. However, there is a way of knowing, that is in my view really reliable, and it is intuition. A common phrase would be “trust your gut!” Here is an exercise that one can do. Sit down, quiet your mind and ask yourself this question. What am I 98% sure of if anything? I am assuming that no one is actually 100% sure of anything. Then, take a piece of paper and make a list of the things that you are 98% certain of. Continue on by asking what you are 90% sure of, then 80%, and 70% on down. The test again should be, how does it resonate with my intuition?

I mention the above because, in full transparency, even when I was a pastor and preaching the evangelical gospel there were many things that did not resonate with my intuition. For example, the concept of hell and eternal torture got no more than 10% certainty ever. I actually believe that one has to be somewhat intellectually dishonest to embrace evangelical doctrine at all. The test is for the individual in the privacy of their bathroom, bedroom, or closet mirror.

On the other hand, the principles in the Kybalion have a very high resonance, and I have a certainty of 90% that they are correct. Yes, I can say this while all alone looking at my countenance in the mirror. I think that principle 2, the principle of correspondence is a very important axiom and that it alone can go a long way toward helping us reverse engineer the creative spiritual source. This is especially true of the second clause. It reads as below so above. The statement is that as above so below, meaning that the creative source created the material, corporeal world to match the source world. It does not mean that above is corporeal and material as well. Science sees it as a field of potentiality at the behest of conscious agents. That also resonates with me, but the second part of the principle, as below so above gives us a great place to begin our reverse engineering of the spiritual world. Since I do not believe that it is corporeal or material, then it follows that it is spiritual. This lines up nicely with the many sources over millennia that have suggested that the creative source is the Logos or Logoi. The concept goes back over 5,000 years to Egypt and Thoht. The Greeks called him Hermes. It was brought to Greece by Pythagoras and many different Greek Philosophers wrote about the Logos.

Back to the Kybalion and as below so above. By means of extrapolation one can begin to understand the spiritual world, the world of creative consciousness. This extrapolation enlists the principle as below so above. Everywhere we look there are cycles. There is the water cycle, the cycle of the seasons, the cycle of the rotation of the planets and so on. It is therefore reasonable to assume that there are cycles in the spiritual realm as well. One such cycle would be conscious agents reincarnating into corporeal material reality. However, there are many things in material reality, in the human condition that can be used to reverse engineer the spiritual world of creative consciousness. I will explore many over time, but beyond cycles in this one, I want to imagine what might be the purpose of existence based on this principle.

Imagine that at the creative conscious level there is complete knowledge. Further, there is eternal existence without beginning nor end. Imagine if you will what would be the result of not having challenges on earth. It would be boredom. This is why it is important for a person who retires to have something meaningful to occupy their time. Those who don’t go stir crazy or end up going back to work just to keep busy. So, I think it is safe to extrapolate that one of the reasons for corporeal and material existence is to alleviate boredom. I am not suggesting that it is the only reason but definitely makes sense that it is one very good reason. Keep in mind that we want to have rest and vacations as well. Perhaps we reincarnate until we are exhausted, and then take a rest break, a sabbatical until boredom once again settles in and we then look for a fresh challenge.

God Beyond Religion: An Egalitarian Gnosticism

The case against Christian orthodoxy is really solid when viewed with an open mind. The practices of the orthodox movement in general are shady when it comes to deciding what is orthodoxy and what is heterodoxy. The facts are undisputable. There was a rich variety of Christianity’s in the second through third centuries. Further, one can surmise that there was a rich variety of literature produced in the second and third centuries. It is very probable based on the Nag Hammadi find that there was much more literature that did not meet orthodox standards that was destroyed and will possibly never be seen. Let’s face the fact. It was serendipitous that we found what we found in the nineteen-forties.

Please do not jump to the conclusion that I think everything orthodox was wrong and evil and everything Gnostic and heterodox was right and good. That is not my view at all. You could say that I was born an egalitarian. From my earliest recollections I was always deeply concerned with what was fair and right for all. I still am. Its probably the reason that I see the error in the extreme polarization of our country these days. It almost seems like a plot of a bad movie but that is another topic for another time. Suffice it to say that egalitarianism in important to me.

While orthodoxy was not egalitarian neither was Gnosticism and the other heterodox views. I guess this makes me one following the left-handed spiritual path because for all of my years I have been a rebel. In a variety of ways, I hate conformity. My main criticism of Gnosticism is that it is exclusive. That is also my critique of Christianity, especially evangelical orthodoxy. I would argue that it is exclusivity that has alienated so many from Christianity. It creates an us verses them atmosphere. It creates a saint verses sinner when the truth is we are all a little of both. It reminds me of the Eagle’s lyrics “I’ve been searching for the daughter of the devil himself, I’ve been searching for an angel in white, I’ve been waiting for a woman who’s a little of both, I can feel her but she’s nowhere in sight” ~(One of These Nights) I think that these lyrics could be a metaphor for what most seek.

This is why I see the Gnosticism in some of John and some of Paul (not the Beatles.) Both writers have an egalitarian Gnosticism. In fact, universal reconciliation is an egalitarian doctrine, and it is present in both the writings of John and Paul. I know, they also sound exclusive at times, but that simply means they need to be discerned, and in my view that is exactly where gnosis comes into play. We are first and foremost conscious beings. If in fact we were created in the image of God, then that is consciousness. The Logos is consciousness. I believe it is fair to equate consciousness and spirit. In fact, we are tripart beings. We are body, spirit, and soul. The body is our flesh, our corporeal, material existence. The spirit is universal consciousness and our link to it. The soul is our individual psyche or our individual consciousness.

That was the egalitarian message of Jesus according to both John and Paul. We are the Logos in earthen vessels. This was the essential spiritual (universal consciousness) message that Jesus brought to humanity. YOU, I, and the FATHER are one. We are ALL wrapped up in each other because we all proceed from consciousness. That is egalitarian Gnosticism in a nutshell. That is the truth whether comprehended or not. All of us are moving in an upward spiral toward that ever unfolding and expanding realization. The way to grasp it with ever increasing degrees is to use our most important asset. It is our spiritual intuition. It is the amalgamating of the spirit and the psyche. Trust your gut! Both the orthodox scripture and the gnostic gospels contain spiritual revelation from source. You are capable of deciding which!

God Beyond Religion: Cell Phones, Radios, and Consciousness

What do cell phones and radios have to do with consciousness? Well perhaps nothing, but I sense that there is a comparison there. Let’s begin with the Hermetic principal as above so below and as below so above. Nikola Tesla was an eccentric genius and among many things, he researched electromagnetic energy. He had predicted that electricity could be transported freely through the air. Of course, Edison won out and created an electric grid of wires that ended up costing humanity money but that is another story and off the point.

While Tesla never achieved the success he desired, his work has continued with others and has ended up producing a plethora of wireless inventions, gadgets, and uses. Another pioneer in wireless technology was Guglielmo Marconi. He is credited with the invention of the radio a similar use for a different type of electromagnetic energy called radio waves. Whether radio waves or microwaves our communications will never be the same.

This brings me to my point about consciousness. Where does human creativity come from? The ancients used to credit the muses as being the sources for creative people such as writers, poets, musicians, and artists. I listened to a YouTube video of Michael Jackson in court when he was sued concerning his song “Dangerous.” I would recommend you listen to it, at least mid-way through where he demonstrates how he wrote songs. He stated that it came into his head, and he would begin with beat-boxing the bass part. Next would come the overall chords of the music with the same method of beatboxing. Next would come the melody and lyrics. He would record each part and then he would go into the studio and show the musicians what each part would sound like.

I myself, though not the genius that many are, have creative and new ideas just pop into my head. Much of my blog writing is inspired by these thoughts that seem to appear out of nowhere. This leads me to believe that our brains are in fact a type of transceiver. We receive and transmit ideas via this sort of electromagnetic waves. The brain and brain activity is the result of oscillating waves of electronic impulses called brain waves. Is that what links us to universal consciousness?

Science now understands that at the basic level of reality are fields of energy. Of course, quantum mechanics suggests that there is a unified field. Rupert Sheldrake has theorized that there are morphic fields of resonance. Several other biologists have done experimental studies with these fields and have found evidence that they exist, and that various species communicate through them. Carl Jung the Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst that pioneered psycho analysis theorized that there is a collective unconscious that people communicate with, get ideas from and transmit ideas too. There is also a phenomenon in science called multiples. These are cases where more than one person, not linked by locality or in any other way came up with the same theory or equation at roughly the same time. By the same token, roughly around 500 BCE give or take a hundred years or so, Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching, the Greeks were writing about the Logos, and the Buddha was developing his teaching.

As I have studied these fields, I am becoming more and more aware of the reality of them. To me, they seem like an ocean and flowing freely within this ocean of electronic energy are all of these various fields. I suspect that both, the microwave and radio wave energy that is used by the materialistic world is hovering, swimming, floating in this ocean, but also simultaneously are the morphic fields of resonance that include human and animal consciousness, and if I may speculate plant consciousness and that the indigenous description of the great spirit and mother earth, the sky, the rivers, the mountains, the rocks, humanity and all flora and fauna share this same cosmic soup of potentiality. One could apply the prefix morpho to all of them because morpho means taking form. This is the way in which we participate in creating reality.

God Beyond Religion: Dark Matter and Dark Energy

Consider a panpsychism view of reality. That view suggests that at the source of the universe is consciousness. So far as we know consciousness is invisible. Both the Hermetica and the Bible speak about creation coming from darkness. “Darkness was upon the face of the deep,” and “hovering over the dark waters of potentiality.” Panpsychism believes that within consciousness lies all potentiality. Quantum mechanics speaks of potentiality instead of materiality. Lao Tzu said that the ineffable Tao was the mother of all spirit and matter. Again, the spirit is likened to the wind or the breath because it is invisible. Therefore since there is an ubiquitous idea that consciousness or mind is the creative source of the universe in ancient writings and philosophies, I think it is safe to assume that the bible and the hermetica are both referring metaphorically to dark matter and dark energy.

Here is a quote from an article about the effort to find out more about dark matter...

 "One part of the mystery is dark matter, which has by far most of the mass in the cosmos. Astronomers know it's there because when they measure the stars and other regular matter in galaxies, they find that there is not nearly enough gravity to hold these clusters together. If nothing else was out there, galaxies would be “quickly flying apart,” Manalaysay said.

“It is essentially impossible to understand our observation of history, of the evolutionary cosmos without dark matter,” Manalaysay said.

 Lippincott, a University of California, Santa Barbara, physicist, said “we would not be here without dark matter.” ~ Here is a link to the article Huge underground search for mysterious dark matter begins (msn.com)

 Look at this quote from the Hermetica.....

"Bless me with Knowledge of Atum,' I begged. Suddenly everything changed before me. Reality was opened out in a moment. I saw the boundless view. All became dissolved in Light — united within one joyous Love. Yet the Light cast a shadow, grim and terrible, which, passing downwards, became like restless water, chaotically tossing forth spume like smoke. And I heard an unspeakable lament — an inarticulate cry of separation. The Light then uttered a Word, which calmed the chaotic waters. My Guide asked: 'Do you understand the secrets of this vision? I am that Light — the Mind of God, which exists before the chaotic dark waters of potentiality. My calming Word is the Son of God — the idea of beautiful order; the harmony of all things with all things. Primal Mind is parent of the Word, just as, in your own experience, your human mind gives birth to speech.”

Freke, Tim. The Hermetica: The Lost Wisdom of the Pharaohs (pp. 32-33). Tim Freke Publications. Kindle Edition.

Also, look at this quote from the New Testament: Heb 11:3  “ faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.”

COULD THE METAPHOR OF HERMES "THE DARK CHAOTIC WATERS OF POTENTIALITY BE "DARK MATTER"?

I personally find that the preponderance of evidence shows that mystical revelation from source has suggested for millennia that consciousness is the creative agent. This would be true of the Greek Logos, and the Chinese Tao as well. The descriptors of dark and invisible fit nicely into this theory.

 

God Beyond Religion: Looking at the Arcane Formulas; Egohood

Egohood

Everywhere you turn these days you can find people who suggest that in solving our most perplexing and disabling problems that the answer is to let go of ego and become one with all. Further that we should deny ourselves and work toward the good of a whole and become one with it. Many spiritual paths suggest that the ego is essentially bad, that is our enemy and needs to be brought under control by denying it.

However, in reading the “Arcane Formulas” by William Walker Atkinson one finds a different view of the ego. The Arcane Formulas is a small written work by Atkinson that gives practical steps and exercises to enable one to do mental alchemy and spiritual feats. First among the steps is the developing of what he calls egohood. For Atkinson, egohood is a goal to be reached and not everyone reaches it. One is not born with egohood. Rather it develops or is developed by awakening. For many esoteric teachings initiates are awakened to an egoless state, but for Atkinson, initiates are awakened to egohood.

With Atkinson, egohood is synonymous with the awareness of the I-AM within the individual. This is differentiated from the me or self. Here is an excerpt from the Arcane Formulas that explains that concept. “Just as one is bound by the illusion of the corporeal nature of the “I,” so is it further bound—and even more closely bound—by the illusion of the personal nature of the Ego. The Ego is not only more, and greater, than the physical body it uses—but it is also more, and greater, than that part of the mind, consisting of a series of inherited or acquired impressions which constitutes the “Me.” There is a great difference between the “Me and the I.” The “Me” is the individual as he thinks he is—a bundle of prejudices, tastes, ties, etc. The “I” is the Individual as he is in reality—free from mental ties of all Lesson IV. Establishing the Ego III. 21 kinds. The “Me” is the character being played by the Ego—the “John Smith” part of him. The “I” is the real player of the part. It is often very difficult for one to disentangle and free himself from the overwhelming force of Personality, so completely is the average person self-hypnotized and race-hypnotized with the “John Smith” idea. The Arcane Teachers have several Formulas for unloosening the bonds of Personality. Let us consider them” ~ The Arcane Formulas, William Walker Atkinson, Timeless Wisdom Collection, 2016, page 14

In this quote, found in the third chapter of this booklet entitled Egohood III, Atkinson points out the difference between the I (I-AM) and the me. He sees the me as a part in a play that the I-AM is acting in. The I-AM or egohood is directly tied to the Will. And as one moves on in the Arcane Formulas it is evident that the Will is the I-AM within the cosmic I-AM, or the cosmic will. This is the source of being able to manipulate and manifest from the infinite potentiality.

Atkinson claims, and I am not certain that I agree or that it resonates with me, but nevertheless, the claim is that no all people have the potential to develop egohood, the I-AM, the will within the cosmic will. That does not resonate with me like the concept of egohood and the I-AM does. I think it is because I see each of us as individual conscious agents on a journey of incarnations that has us at different stages in the growth spiral, and while I have no problem with accepting that some people within a specific incarnation may not be able to achieve egohood, I think that eventually they will. I see our spiritual journey as an upward spiral that may from time to time take downward movement but is ultimately on an upward trajectory. Do not despair about being locked into a cycle of karma. While there is not time to discuss this in this particular article, I believe that we are each in control and there can be rest from the cycle when necessary, and a return when rest has refreshed our spirit.

God Beyond Religion: The Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace

 Eph 4:2-3  “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,  (3)  making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

There is a difference between the spirit of unity and the unity of the spirit. What could Paul have meant by verse three? I hate to use too much of the passage because evangelical and orthodox Christianity has added so much connotative dogma that at times I wonder if it is even possible to extract mystical and metaphysical revelation from within the pages of the New Testament.

For me the idea that stands out in this passage from the letter to the Ephesians is that Paul is insisting that there is but one spirit. In my journey toward eclectic and syncretistic spirituality I have above all else come to the realization that there is but one creative source. For me it is consciousness, and I believe that spirit is a descriptive term to describe the indescribable. I see the concept of the logos and spirit as essentially the same, and I see the Christ or the anointing as a metaphor for the way that humanity is imbued with spirit via universal consciousness. Our consciousness is the way in which we participate in the divine nature, universal consciousness.

We do not have to see the spirit in the same way to experience the unity of the spirit. We simply need to accept the fact that we are spiritual beings which as a description of conscious agents. There is no need for a spirit of unity because the fact is that we are all unified in universal consciousness.  A spirit of unity is simply people striving to achieve what is already a reality. When we are motivated by a spirit of unity, we are actually admitting that we are different, and we are other. That simply is not the reality. That is an illusion.

The fact that we are individual conscious agents is not an illusion. That is not what is meant by the above paragraph. I am not suggesting that we should try to eliminate our ego and by ego I mean as William Walker Atkinson meant it in his “Arcane Formulas,” and “Arcane Teaching.” Those are two works that are in the public domain and can be found in PDF form downloadable on the internet. They also can be purchased in paperback and kindle forms from Amazon.

What Atkinson described as egohood is the total awareness of the individual I-AM in each of us. That is our connection to the unified field of universal consciousness, and in my view, a description of the unified field of quantum theory, the field of morphic resonance as defined by Rupert Sheldrake, and any other known or unknown field underlying reality. This egohood or I-AM-ness is a very important part of or individual experience in material reality. It does not negate the connection and oneness that exists through the universal consciousness. It actually adds to the sum of the whole.

Therefore, the bond of peace exists in the fact that there is unity in the spirit. Of course, no one can be sure exactly what Paul meant in the above passage, but it resonates with me that the actual mystical message was that there is simply unity in the spirit. If we would be at peace with that then we could peacefully coexist with each other without judgment. This could end all proselytization. It is actually proselytization that causes all the division and strife. The only unity we need is the unified field of consciousness and our common corporeal reality. There is a big difference between proselytization and simply offering ideas in the marketplace of thought. In the marketplace of thought one can simply explore ideas they run across and then when appropriate, incorporate them when they resonate.

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