The Conscious Cosmos: Skinwalker Ranch, My Analysis Part One

Consciousness does not arise from physics. Physics arises from consciousness.

I am not a scientist, so this is not a scientific analysis. I am more of a philosopher and am deeply interested in the nature of reality. This analysis is more philosophical, psychological, and sociological than scientific, especially if you do not view the former three hard sciences. I hold to some kind of idealistic panpsychist view of reality. It is in this that my interest in Skinwalker Ranch and the docuseries arises. Skinwalker Ranch is a veritable laboratory for consciousness.

Sometimes the obvious is obscured. Historically we have had at the most two-hundred and fifty years of materialist physicalist science. On the other hand, we have had thousands of years of philosophy with humanity trying to answer the basic questions of the nature of reality. Too many people have lost sight of that history and have smugly settled for the more recent history of science. That has been to the peril of advancement in my view. Not to technological advancement. But, it has to philosophical advancement in understanding the nature of reality. Every physicalist theory has always been replaced as incomplete and just a portion of the larger story. From Copernicus to Galileo to Newton to Einstein, to all of the many physicists the understanding of the nature of reality has evolved and each theory has been replaced by the next generation. Those theories were good so far as they went but were simply incomplete. It is time for physicalists to exchange their hubris for humility!

So, this brings me to Skinwalker ranch and the Uintah Basin. There is a remarkable history of personal anecdotal stories about the anomalous and paranormal activities of that area. One of the areas that sociology takes into consideration is people’s stories and experiences. They are very important. Testimony has been revered for centuries in the legal area. We have given people the death penalty and locked people up for life based on testimony. The fact is that the more similar testimonies that exist, the more reliable they are. It should be noted that experiences and observations are a product of consciousness. It mystifies me as to why people are so incredulous for people’s stories about the anomalous and the paranormal. Especially when these stories of experience have been told over thousands of years by a multitude of experiencers.

The overview of the Skinwalker Ranch and its surrounding area shows that a multitude of people have experienced all kinds of anomalous phenomena. It ranges from orbs, to lights, to unusual entities, to unusual energies, to poltergeist activity, and it seems to me like a playground for consciousness. It seems obvious to me that it is consciousness that causes all of the phenomena and that it is for some reason messing with perception. Therefore, investigation and documentation is very important. That is what the docuseries is doing. In addition, the investigation team is openly offering themselves to public scrutiny by their many appearances on YouTube, and at conferences. The Insider’s Website is also giving unprecedented access to the ranch and its environs.

No, I am not a blind believer in anything. However, I do believe people until it is proved otherwise. One can intuitively judge people and their stories and their motives. At least I can, and I think many others can as well, and truth be told, all can if they would but trust and develop their gut awareness’s. I believe the current Skinwalker Ranch team and their stories. I believe the stories told in the book Skinwalkers at the Pentagon. I believe the stories related in the Ryan Skinner and Cheryl Carter books. I believe the stories that were collected by Junior Hicks and recorded in the book “The Utah UFO Display. There are way too many of them and they have too much in common to be all fictitious.  When you add to this all of the stories reported to MUFON and again look at the similarities the picture is overwhelming.

If consciousness is foundational and it appears that it may be; If as the latest Nobel Prize winners in physics proved that the universe is not locally real is true; Then consciousness is likely foundational and since that has been the predominant theory for thousands of years until the last two hundred years, a lot more credence should be given to exploring the experiences of the anomalies, recording them to build a database that can be analyzed by AI and begin to find predominant patterns that exist across the globe and across time.

Because of that I applaud Brandon Fugal and the History Channel for giving Skinwalker Ranch and the Uintah Basin a platform for a large audience to see.

Part 5: Basement Office Rebuttal, Skinwalker Ranch – Judgment Day

Greenstreet’s final hit piece on Skinwalker Ranch was entitled Judgment Day.  In it he was hyper critical of the docuseries and Brandon Fugal. I am presenting an alternative judgment about the docuseries and the scientific investigation taking place in the Uintah Basin in Northeastern Utah. Greenstreet caps it off with his camping over night at Homestead 2 on the ranch. However, he uses this to inject some of his most vitriolic criticism of the Brandon Fugal stewardship. But also, he unwittingly bolsters the current narrative of the ranch and I’ll get into that a little later. Like the other three episodes on the Fugal years, he was critical of the Mormons.

He shows his experience at homestead 2 but most of the time is spent with inserts suggesting that the narrative from the docuseries is fabricated or at the very least greatly embellished. The thing I find perplexing is that Brandon Fugal and the team are very sincere in their entire exchange with Greenstreet and it is a stretch for him to suggest that they are untruthful. He goes on to ask them about the more sensational things mentioned in the book “Skinwalkers at the Pentagon. He is fixated on the dino-beaver story and gets them to say they have not seen anything like that. What he does not take into consideration is that some of the experiences that accompany the ranch for some people are likely generated in consciousness. This would be very plausible if consciousness is foundational to reality and it is certainly a theory that is gaining strength.

However, there are ample examples of things happening at the ranch that are anomalous. For example, when he entered homestead two there were several loud thumps against the wall. It was not just a one time thing. There were indeed several loud thumps. They are not that different from what Dr. Travis Taylor reports about what happens to him at night in his trailer. He often hears thumps and banging on the outside walls. Greenstreet offered no plausible reason for the knocking, and if he could have, he certainly would have. That is obvious from him chasing down a bat to explain what flew in front of him in the dark. However, in the case of the thumps he came up with no answers.

Now, when he walked to the fence line of the property, based on what he had heard from a security officer from the Bigelow era, he had some additional experiences that by his admission were anomalous. When he arrived at the fence line bordering Ute property, he felt fear. He then, through what could only be called mystical means, felt the necessity to speak words assuring that he meant no harm and had now ill will, and as he spoke them it was as if they came into his mind with specific instructions. He said very slowly as if it was coming to him on the fly, “I harbor no ill will (pause) and intentions. The way he said it showed that he was receiving instructions as he thought. This was indicative of someone or something affecting his consciousness at the moment. But there was more. At that precise time his lightning detector which warns of electric energy spikes went off. Coincidence? From watching three seasons of the docuseries, I do not think so. Then, at the same moment his eyes and face began to burn. They swelled up. Why? He claims that is was an allergic reaction, but that makes no sense. The reason is that he was at that fence line earlier with Brandon and had no allergic reaction. He then went on to explain that when he left the ranch, he bought allergy medication, and it went away. But it could also have gone away because he left the ranch. So, Greenstreet actually experienced some of the high strangeness that he tries to debunk.

Another area where he corroborated Brandon Fugal was centered around Brandon being summoned to Washington D.C. to testify before governmental officials. Brandon had photos of the meeting and there were definitely people there from the Department of Defense. Greenstreet tried to get information about the meeting and instead got the run around. He finally received an answer that he thought was implausible and silly. They stated that he was requested there to provide his plans for Skinwalker Ranch. This is one place I have to agree with Greenstreet, the answer makes no sense.

So, it is my judgment that Greenstreet did a hit piece on Brandon and the ranch. It should not surprise me because he has been doing that all along. He stated that his source in the Pentagon told him that there were those there believe in UFO’s and search for them on the taxpayers `dime. Lue Elizondo has stated repeatedly that there are those in the Pentagon who do not want to acknowledge UFO’s for religious reasons. Having been a theologian at one time and affiliated with evangelical Christianity, frankly I believe Lue. It seems that there is an interest with the Department of Defense and the military in the ranch. There have been several documented cases of black ops planes and helicopters nosing around. Is Dr. Taylor right? Does Greenstreet have a nefarious motive associated with shadow entities? By shadow entities I mean black operations and not shadow people. It is possible. Quite frankly it is as likely as the conspiracy theory that Greenstreet has spun about the Brandon Fugal era.

You can find Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3  Part  4 here.

 

Part 4: Basement Office Rebuttal, Skinwalker Ranch – Signs and Wonders

It is in his next to last video, “Signs and Wonders” where Steven Greenstreet was the most guilty of the sin of omission. I use the term because he wanted to use a religious metaphor in all of his videos about current day Skinwalker Ranch, the docuseries, and the Brandon Fugal Stewardship of the ranch. I really like Brandon’s use of the word stewardship to describe his relationship to the ranch as sole owner. The fact is that we should all think of ourselves as stewards with everything we own and really all of our relationships with family, friends, spouses, pets and everything on the planet living or not. We are most definitely stewards of the material corporeal world, and being aware of that would go a long way toward improving how we act and treat our planet and its occupants.

Back to Greenstreet. I already mentioned in the introductory post that he misrepresented the way the team spoke about the foyer of the ranch house. James Lacatski saw what he saw in the kitchen from the foyer and so the team changed nothing with their anecdotes about visitors to the ranch house. This is especially true considering that consciousness is foundational to reality and there are many known power spots across the planet where many people, and I mean thousands, experience paranormal activity. A famous one that comes to mind is near Sedona Arizona. It is very plausible to believe that the foyer is one such power spot. I think it is funny because in one of his ads running up to the series, he had a photo of himself sitting in the foyer contemplating tubular bells as he said. This demonstrates that he knew that Lacatski was in the foyer when he saw them. Greenstreet certainly omitted that when he proceeded with his butcher piece.

I completely assumed that he would address things that were shown in the three seasons of the docuseries and ask questions about that but, he did not. He only showed glimpses of the medical issues and through inuendo dismissed them as either false or not caused by the ranch. He had ample opportunity to ask them about the metal found in the mesa, or the multiple UAP’s that were spotted in places and at times where they could not be Starlink satellites. He never referenced Dr. Travis Taylor’s radiation poisoning. It was almost as if he had not watched the docuseries. Throughout all of his videos connected with the visit to the ranch he continually made religious references and was overtly suggesting that the all of the team were gullible believers in UFO’s and the paranormal and he used their religious affiliation as proof that they had a different motive for the ranch investigation.

It was like he bought all of the physicalist scientific arguments against the exploration and investigation without really understanding them. Rather, he seemed to simply accept as fact all of physicalist scientific dogma oblivious to the fact that it is coming under heated scrutiny these days. He was definitely an experiencer but a non-believing skeptical experiencer denying his sighting of a UAP in Utah years before. Interestingly, he does a cameo appearance at the end of the film “A Tear in the Sky” and is supportive of it. The fact is that the film, while very good in my estimation, actually is very similar to the docuseries he is hell bent on debunking.

As I see it, Brandon Fugal, the Skinwalker Ranch team of investigators, and their docuseries is on the frontier of scientific investigation. While I do not doubt the experiences of the NIDS team and the BASS AAWSAP program, the current investigation has purposefully avoided some of the more exotic claims. Likely those claims are real experiences of a consciousness induced nature. As some form of the panpsychist view is gaining more credibility and respectability, the current investigation has more and more importance. Documenting the anomalies, energy spikes, apparitions, and UAP sightings is important. It is like the key and the kite which led to a giant leap forward for humanity technologically. Let the doubters, the debunkers, the physicalist dogmatist keep on. To insinuate there is not a scientific investigation going on at Skinwalker Ranch requires a hidden agenda.

You can find Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 here.

Part 3: Basement Office Rebuttal, Skinwalker Ranch – Angels and Demons

 When I grew up in the 1950’s and 60’s, spinning a yarn was a metaphor for concocting a fictional story. It was a pejorative politely describing a liar. In watching The Basement Office Video by Steven Greenstreet, entitled Angels and Demons it became clear to me that he was spinning a yarn. It was not entirely fictional, but it was a definite spin of facts that he took advantage of. I believe it is instructive to look at the possible motives of this yarn. Greenstreet was raised Mormon in Utah. He went on a mission in his late teen’s early twenties as so many Mormon young men and women do. In fact, if one is a Mormon male child, it is expected that one goes on a mission. Obviously, somewhere along the line, Greenstreet rejected his faith and certainly that is not a problem and is understandable however, to have been programmed at an early age by LDS doctrine would leave a subconscious mark on anyone. Therefore, if one no longer accepts their prior teaching and faith one can have an adverse reaction to anything that is not tangible, measurable, and repeatable. Anything that seems like it could be spiritual or supernatural can and often does cause a discomfort that necessitates eliminating it altogether. I believe this to be the case for Greenstreet, and a motivation for discounting and dismissing the possibility of any truth about Skinwalker Ranch.

To add to this, the Mormon Religion has another text translated by Joseph Smith called the Book of Abraham, which is in The Pearl of Great Price, and in that is mentioned a distant star called Kolob. It was supposedly from an Egyptian Papyrus that Joseph Smith acquired. Therefore, any extra-terrestrial or interdimensional being could cause a chink in the materialist armor of an individual that had previously been indoctrinated with a specific religious dogma. The fact is however that is not a necessary conclusion even if it is a common one. If consciousness is foundational to our universe, then an experience with pure consciousness, that has been deemed mystical because of lack of understanding could provide for the individual a mixture of truth and personal input. It is very possible that what Joseph Smith received mystically was just for him and perhaps Oliver Cowdery. All too often, humanity has taken the mystical revelation that individuals received and turned it into a dogmatic religion. Hopefully we will progress past that. However, this gives a plausible alternative to Greenstreet’s yarn.

Now moving to Brandon Fugal, a person with a very similar religious background, but a person who is optimistic and open to exploring the mystical realm. In fact, I would call him a mystic and a visionary. It appears, that he has kept an open mind to the unlimited possibilities that this universe offers without becoming cynical. He obviously has a sense of adventure and a longing for the mysterious. Being open to this, the conscious universe answers his call and provides him with the experience that allows him to say that he is not a believer he is an experiencer. I find it interesting that in the fifties, Abraham Maslow wrote a book entitled Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences. The premise of the book was that there are individuals who have peak mystical experiences and there are those who simply vicariously take those experiences and turn them into a religion. We can see evidence of this throughout history. It is even visible in indigenous cultures with the veneration of Shaman.

In this way, I view Brandon Fugal as a modern-day mystic. A mystic of the technological age. So with this backdrop look at the history of the Uintah Basin. It seems to be a virtual playground for all aspects of creative consciousness. If one reads the many books that have documented the strange happenings of the Uintah Basin as well as specifically Skinwalker Ranch one finds that there is a plethora of experiencers. A large portion of MUFON’s case files concern this area of Utah. This is precisely why the physicalist, materialist dogma that is wide spread within the scientific community is so limiting to the pursuit of knowledge about phenomena that has been reported across the globe for at least a hundred years, and has been reported by ancient civilizations in petroglyphs, hieroglyphics, and a variety of codex.

Will scientific discovery be able to understand and explain consciousness and the spiritual mystical universe? I don’t know that answer, but we should all take our hats of to Mr. Fugal for making the effort. The Skinwalker Ranch project under his direction is not a waste of time and money. It is a gift to humanity!

 If you have not read Part 1 or Part 2 here are links.

Part 2: Basement Office Rebuttal, Skinwalker Ranch – Sins of Omission

Steven Greenstreet just completed a six-part series over an eleven-month period on the recent history of Skinwalker Ranch. In my view it was a hit piece. This is in large part because he omitted a major portion of the information. I am fairly new to ufology. I have been interested in spirituality and consciousness for many years but did not include the UFO/UAP phenomena in my study and research. It was only after watching the docuseries “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch” on the History Channel that I made a connection between consciousness and paranormal activity with regard to the UAP phenomenon. That came about in large part because of the combination of apparent nuts and bolts UFO’s and paranormal spiritual activity. I believe it was that final piece of information that convinced me that it truly is all one thing, and the foundation of the one thing, is consciousness. Luckily for me, foundational consciousness is steadily gaining respect in the scientific community.

Not only did he omit a ton of information about the Fugal years, but he also omitted a lot of information about the AAWSAP years as well. I base this on reading the book “Skinwalkers at the Pentagon.” This post will be an overview of the omissions and in subsequent blog posts I will do a deeper dive into the specifics. His main point in his video “Skinwalker Ranch Dino-Beavers,” was that it was all fiction. He cited all of the paranormal stories and investigation and did not mention the UFO/UAP investigation including the investigation into the Tic-Tac event. AAWSAP did several investigations that were generated from Mufon. While one could say that the stories are merely anecdotal, it should be pointed out that there are thousands upon thousands of anecdotal stories with very similar descriptions. The stigma against these stories comes from an repressive dogma position from physicalist scientists. With the ever emerging theories that the foundation of reality is consciousness, with respected physicists proclaiming that space-time is dead the ubiquitous occurrences of these anecdotes should be given far more credence and a lot more investigation. This was dare I say the main focus and emphasis of AAWSAP. Further, with the military budget of the USA, it is ludicrous and asinine to get excited over a two-year expenditure of a mere $22,000,000.00.

The level with which he ridiculed the intelligence analysts showed that he had some kind of an axe to grind. It is safe to conclude that he accused them of lying. His suggestion that the hitchhiker effect should have been reported to the CDC ludicrously borders on malicious sarcasm. This by the way is something that he brought up with Brandon Fugal as well and Brandon’s look showed that he knew that the question was a ridiculous one. He also through inuendo suggested that there were no real medical consequences from being on the ranch.

Now for the omissions of the Fugal years. My question is will this post become too long? The omissions from the docuseries are legion. For brevity I will list them in bullet form and then in subsequent posts will examine them more closely.

Greenstreet Omitted:

• The UAPX visit and their testimony. He also omitted the physical distress of Jason Turner and how the faraday cage solved the problem. All three of the UAPX team witnessed a uap.
• The astronomers who visited from Salt Lake City whose telescopes had data removed from a closed system, not once but several times and who witnessed a UAP during their visit.
• The rabbi that performed a ceremony designed to open portals and the subsequent temperature vortex that was repeated with the same result from play a recording of the ceremony.
• The laser that was bent and split
• The nature of the metal recovered from a dig into the mesa
• The many mysterious ailments and medical conditions that happened to various cast members including Tom Winterton, Travis Taylor, and Tom Lewis

I could go on but the post is getting long and there will be an opportunity for a deep dive into these and more in following blog posts. Again, let me reiterate, he was a practicing Mormon at one time that left the church. I cannot help but believe that this plays a large part in his skepticism against the whole thing. After all, by admission he is a UAP/UFO experiencer.

If you have not read Part 1 just use this link.

Part 1: Rebutting the Basement Office Hit Piece’s on Skinwalker Ranch

 

Introduction:

This will begin a series of posts that will offer an alternative plausible explanation of the things that Steven Greenstreet has been critical of in his “Basement Office” series on the New York Post’s YouTube channel. The series in question has been presented over the last eleven months. It began with the Bigelow years, James Lacatski, and Jay Stratton and moves through the Fugal years with the docuseries “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch” on the History Channel.

It is my view that Greenstreet borders Yellow Journalism in his six-part series. He mis-represents the facts by eliminating some and emphasizing others to present his point of view. His YouTube videos are a hit piece on the UFO/UAP phenomenon, Skinwalker Ranch and to a degree Mormonism. According to him he was raised Mormon and even went on a mission as a young man. While he obviously left that religion it appears that he may have an axe to grind with it and has chosen to do so with Skinwalker Ranch.

It is my intent over several blog posts to take a deeper dive into each one of his videos and point out what I see to be blatant and glaring misrepresentations. It is not that he prevaricates, but rather just chooses to select facts that bolster his narrative and eliminate many that do not. It is his omissions that I will focus on in this series.

It appears that his narrative is informed by a physicalist materialist view of science. This of course has been the standard since the beginning of the Age of Reason, or the Enlightenment, but is rapidly losing ground in the face of cognitive scientists like Dr. Donald Hoffman, cutting edge physicists in the field of quantum mechanics like Sir Roger Penrose, Max Tegmark and others and last but not least, philosophers like Bernardo Kastrup who have some form of a panpsychist view of reality. Many are speaking out against the dogma of science claiming that younger scientists are discouraged from exploring other theories because it can lead to career suicide. The pendulum is swinging back toward a far more platonic view of reality, and it is causing consciousness to have a foundational place in the nature of reality.

When one looks at the phenomenon associated with Skinwalker Ranch that goes back historically at least eighty years in modern times and has a history that goes back at least a thousand years with the stories, petroglyphs, and superstitions of the Native American people that surround the property. There is a narrative there that cannot possibly be all fiction. Even beginning with the documentation of Junior Hicks one finds a plethora of anecdotal information that points to what is called a high strangeness for the Ranch and the surrounding area. For a further background on my view, you can view my post entitled It is all one thing.

Since I want to be brief as possible in each of the posts without neglecting salient factual alternatives, I will cite one incident in this post. I use this because this explanation got me blocked on Greenstreet’s twitter account. It was either this or my pun on his mission but, either way it is obvious that he does not deal well with cogent alternative theories to his.

The incident involves his next to the most recent video that was entitled Signs and Wonders. In that he interviewed the team in the ranch house that is occupied by Kandus Linde and Tom Lewis. The discussion is centered around what James Lacatski saw in the kitchen from the book “Skinwalkers at the Pentagon.” I will insert an image that I showed in response to Greenstreet on his twitter feed that subsequently got me blocked. The images will be at the bottom of this post.

Greenstreet insinuated that the current SWR team had changed the story from the kitchen to the foyer and that is far from the truth. Lacatski was definitely in the foyer when he saw the phenomenon in the kitchen which would definitely place the source of the perception distortion in the foyer. It also reinforces a panpsychist view as there were others with Lacatski that did not see it. This is a ubiquitous occurrence over the multitude of stories that involve the ranch.

As stated above, this is but one instance of many where Greenstreet either omitted information or erroneously presented a false narrative. I look forward to continuing this series. Stay Tuned!

The images below show that I was blocked by him on twitter and the above image shows what I posted on twitter that challenged his narrative.

God Beyond Religion: The Real Purpose and Meaning of the Resurrection

 “Nothing redeems us from this world but we are of the All, and we are saved. We have been saved from start to finish. Let us think about it in this way; let us accept it in this way”. ~Meyer, Marvin W.; Robinson, James M.. The Nag Hammadi Scriptures (p. 54). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

It is past time that we take back and regain the terms and concepts that orthodoxy, fundamentalism, and evangelicalism stole from the mission and message of Jesus. It is time to recognize that oh so fearful word, heretic is just a word used by people to gain control over other people. There are so many terms that orthodoxy repurposed for control that overturning it will be a big job.

One such term that I will address today is resurrection. It is only fitting to do so on resurrection Sunday! Another that has to be included is “the fall.” So, before I deal with the resurrection, I will briefly deal with the fall. What really was the fall? It was a fall into forgetfulness. That was the central message of the Gospel of Truth. What was forgotten? The fact that we are pre-existing divine souls. It is similar to the emptying that Paul wrote about in his letter to the Philippians. Upon incarnating into material reality, we empty our knowledge, in other words forget that we are indeed an aspect of the divine Logos, or the divine mind. That is our spiritual nature. Thus, being redeemed from the fall simply means that we are able to regain the knowledge of who we really are. This was the message and mission of Jesus of Nazareth. He chose to do this before the foundation of material reality.

How then does the resurrection redeem us from the fall? If we take the message of Jesus that was spoken while he was living and couple that with the resurrection, we have a solid proof that we are indeed partakers of the divine nature, and that we can remember and exploit that knowledge. It is the catalyst for love within us. Jesus’s message was that we are the offspring of a loving parent. He went on to teach that we are incarnations of the divine mind, or divine Logos. Paul said, let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. What mind was that? It was the mind that believed that God was a loving parent, (in deity there is both the masculine and feminine aspect.) It was a mind that believed our purpose here on earth was to develop love for one another. It was a mind that knew he was eternal and eternally the offspring of God.

The proof of this message was substantiated in the resurrection from the dead. It was the proof that individual souls are indeed eternal. Let’s face it. Jesus’s sacrifice happened when he incarnated. At that point he was going to die at some point. To die at the hands of the Roman occupation, at such an early age, was a way to stamp an exclamation point on his sacrifice. God did not sacrifice his son. The sun sacrificed himself as a proof of our divinity. Think about it, God did not need a blood sacrifice to forgive humanity for being the way it was created. It is archaic to think that animal sacrifice was necessary to appease the wrath of a God who is defined as love; defined as agape love; a love that keeps no record of wrongs.

I do not believe all of Valentinian Gnosticism. But the above quote from the Nag Hammadi scriptures is from the “Treatise on Resurrection” and that’s why I share it. The truth is we are all saved! The truth is we are all eternal! The truth is that we are all divine!

God Beyond Religion: A Panpsychist Panentheistic View of Reality

 

The above diagram is an effort to provide a visual graphic of my view of the nature of reality. The foundation of the diagram is Cosmic Consciousness or Creative Consciousness that I see as primal in the creation of the corporeal material world. I have taken cues from the Kybalion and the seven Hermetic Principles. You can see in the diagram a cyclic construct that keeps individual conscious agents, more commonly known as souls, cycling in and out of material and corporeal reality at the will of the individual. The only place in my view that free will can exist is with the overall cosmic consciousness which is eternal and with the individual aspect of that consciousness which we call souls, which are likewise eternal. It is in the eternal nature of souls that free will exists.

I base the cyclic nature of reality on the principle of correspondence. the second principle of the Kybalion. It states as above so below and as below so above. The idea is that both the material realm and the spiritual realm are similar in nature. Therefore, one can extrapolate from the material realm which is visible the nature of the unseen spiritual realm. We see cycles everywhere in the material world and by the principle of correspondence we can know that the spiritual realm is cyclic as well.

It is the cyclic nature of reality that has me convinced that reincarnation is a reality. I view it in a nuanced way that is different than most of the traditional views of reincarnation. It is the incarnation process that allows us to exercise our free will. While this may anger some people who have experienced trauma, I am of the belief that we choose our life paths and to a great degree what experiences we will have. If we all exist in the eternal now, and if matter cannot be destroyed only changed, then a life span has much less effect on our eternal soul than it would seem while in the midst of incarnation.

When I say I view it differently and nuanced I mean that I do not see it as souls being trapped in a karmic cycle that they must advance in to move off the treadmill. The little that I know about Buddhism and Hinduism assumes that souls are locked into the cycle from some outside superior force. That karma is similar to a punishment reward system that gives an alternate dynamic of the orthodox Christian view of heaven and hell. What resonates for me is that each of us individual souls are autonomous. We ultimately decide what we participate in and consequently what we learn. What we learn is added to the experiential knowledge of Cosmic Consciousness. I do not think that we have to learn lessons over and over. I like the system of spiral dynamics to explain the progression of the soul, the soul’s journey, and the soul’s purpose.

This leads to the concept that we are not trying to move back to oneness. We can do that at will and we do that similar to resting or sleeping. This means that for me the material corporeal world is not evil and not the construction of an evil demiurge. This is the place that I part ways with Christian Gnosticism. I do not think that Yahweh is an evil creator. I think that Yahweh is the construction of a people that saw evil in the world and tried to explain it in human terms. I do not believe that the creator ordered genocide. I do not believe that the creator destroyed the world by a flood because the creation was too evil. I think things like that are merely experiences of Cosmic Consciousness and an innate consequence of geometrical form. Beyond that I will not try to explain as it is perhaps incomprehensible. So, the whole journey back to oneness and the source does not fit into my paradigm.

Another aspect of our reality that is plausible is the reverse of as below so above. That of course is as above so below. If indeed consciousness is foundational, then matter and the corporeal world is very similar to a dream. Is it only our dream or is it a corporate dream. I tend to think it is the latter. I conclude that from the as below so above aspect of correspondence. We see within societal structure governing and planning committees. It is reasonable to me then that the material realm is a construct of what would be similar to a committee. This communal spiritual aspect could be called a dream and locks us into the duration of our incarnation. It is more solid than the dreams we individually dream but made essentially from the same stuff, mind. In this case however, it is from the cosmic mind, the universal mind, or the mind at large. This fits in with the first principle of the Kybalion, “The All is Mind, the Universe is Mental.” So, there is a very plausible way to see material reality as God’s dream.

It does seem natural to me that at some point in our evolution on the incarnation path, we will be able to use our individual minds for the purpose of mental alchemy. There is a way in which we are all capable of changing circumstances by a mental process. This falls back to the principle of correspondence. As above so below. Since Cosmic Consciousness creates reality as we know it, then being a conscious agent, having within us the divine nature of the Logos or consciousness of God, it follows that we too can create reality and change reality with our mind and thought process.

After seventy-six years of living, I have settled on a metaphysical and esoteric view of reality that includes panpsychism and panentheism. My spirituality is syncretistic with an emphasis on the teachings of Jesus and the Tao Te Ching. I think that Buddhism and Hinduism have value as well. However, all religions are merely symbolic metaphorical views of reality. While I find physicalist materialistic science wanting, I am happy to rely on all it has established short of its explanation of creation being accidental. For me, the idea that consciousness is the fundamental reality resonates and it is being more widely accepted by some philosophers and scientists. In other words, I see consciousness as the creative source and would be happy to call it Cosmic Consciousness. I also see Christ Consciousness, Mind at Large, Universal Consciousness as synonyms for Cosmic Consciousness.

It is easy for me to see mathematics as the prime foundational knowledge. It is from mathematics that all other aspects of reality emerge.  Dimensions come from geometry, so I see sacred geometry as an important aspect of reality and the catalyst of form. I view Cosmic Consciousness as ethereal. I believe it to be synonymous with spirit. I am beginning to see spirit as a quality of universal or cosmic consciousness and its connection to matter or corporeal reality is the soul. I define soul as similar to psyche or the Greek word Psuche. This is the spirit of a human or an animal. I contrast that with the Greek word Pneuma and the Hebrew word Rauch. They both are wind and are the metaphor for Cosmic Consciousness or Creative Source/spirit.

I have adopted an eclectic or syncretistic spirituality. I draw from mystical revelations in all religious traditions. I am most familiar with Christianity, both orthodoxy and gnostic expressions. I would say that next I am familiar with Hermetic philosophy. Third but certainly not lesser, is the Tao Te Ching. I am somewhat familiar with Buddhism and Hinduism. The foundation of my spirituality is Christian Mysticism, Gnosticism, combined with Hermeticism and Neoplatonic philosophy. I am also informed by Jungian Psychology, certain aspects of cognitive science and new ideas in quantum physics.

A significant influence for me is the Kybalion and other writings by William Walker-Atkinson. I have studied the Corpus Hermeticum from three different sources and translations. I frequently read the Tao Te Ching and have looked into Greek philosophy that I believe to be influenced by Egyptian mystery religions. While I have not looked into the Kabballah, I am at least familiar to the extent that it reinforces the esoteric teaching of Hermeticism.

I will end this here for now with a quote from the Kybalion. “The ALL is mind, the universe is mental.”

God Beyond Religion: What is the Proper Use of the Bible?

So many people have been traumatized by evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity. This is in large part due to the weaponizing of the bible. So here are the questions. Is there a place for the bible in spirituality? Is there a way to view the bible that does not create trauma and actually informs our spiritual journey? What was Jesus real message and did Orthodoxy coopt it? How did the bible finally get to the place that evangelical and fundamentalist are able to use it as a weapon?

Let’s begin with the last question and address the elephant in the room. The bible is not the word of God. Let me repeat this. The bible is not the word of God. I make this statement by the teaching of the bible itself. According to the bible in the Old Testament, the Torah is the word of God, and in the New Testament the gospel or Jesus is the word of God. Evangelicals will kick, spit and yell claiming this is not so but no matter it is the truth, even by biblical standards. I will not relitigate this as I have written so much in the past about it.

Now for the question, “How did the bible finally get to the place that evangelical, and fundamentalist are able to use it as a weapon?” It became final with the reformation and the doctrine of sola scriptura. The reformers were trying to eliminate the magisterium of the pope and claimed sola scriptura which means scripture alone. However in the early states of the Reformation it was not scripture alone for all faith and practice but scripture alone for the method of salvation. Over time, it was solidified into scripture alone for all faith and practice and ultimately the doctrine of inerrancy and infallibility came into being. That was the final death knell that weaponized the scripture and turned it into the written word of God. Still, it is a gross and damaging error!

The reason is that the bible is an anthology of myths, cultural input, and mystical revelation. Anyone willing to use common sense would realize that the creative source of the universe would not codify eternally a set of unchangeable rules in the iron age. Especially with a society that believed in animal blood sacrifice to appease God. Further, if one is being honest, they would admit that every time the word of god is mentioned in the New Testament, the authors always meant gospel and not scripture. So, there is absolutely no plausible reason for the weaponizing of the bible. Further, those who would say that the bible is the “whole counsel of God” do not even understand that the verse meant the whole purpose of God and not counsel as in a document or teaching. Literalism always leads to ignorance when interpreting writing. Those who teach inerrancy and infallibility, no matter how educated, are influenced by rigid dogma.

The question (“is there a place for the bible in spirituality?”) has an affirmative answer if one looks at the literature for what it is. As stated above it is an anthology of myths, cultural input, and mystical revelation. So, in that vane it has a place in spirituality. Of course, it is necessary to use intuitive discernment to find its value. It may be instructive to provide a bulleted list of the possible benefits of the mystical revelation within the bible.

·         The notion that God is love.

·         The definition of love.

·         The definition of the fruit of the spirit.

·         That the Logos indwells all of humanity

·         Consciousness is the creative source of the universe.

·         With a proper understanding of the garden myth and Adam and Eve, a figurative explanation of human pathology and the source of evil.

The first five are self-explanatory but the sixth one needs some further explanation. So what is the benefit of the garden myth in Genesis? It explains that mortality coupled with the survival instinct (necessary for human and animal survival) combine to explain greed and therefore, explain all of the evil present in the material world we live in.

However, the remedy for that is not a sacrifice to God of a human prototype. It is the knowledge that we are divine and that the creative source is a loving parent. This is what makes the “Gospel of Truth” important in explaining the mission and teaching of Jesus and just exactly how one could look at him as a savior. It is indeed too bad that so much of Gnostic writing was destroyed. Not that Gnostic writing was literal truth, but that it contained mystical revelation that helps explain reality and our place in the material world. It also shows the problem with literal translation and meaning for any religious texts.

The answer to the question (“What was Jesus real message?”) can only be properly understood with the entire writings of the second and third centuries CE. This would include parts of the New Testament, the Gnostic texts, the Corpus Hermeticum, and Neo-Platonic texts. The best answer I have found is that it was to correct the forgetfulness that souls adopt upon incarnating into material reality. This is the main idea stated in the Gospel of Truth. It resonates deeply with me.

To answer the question (Is there a way to view the bible that does not create trauma and actually informs our spiritual journey?) is somewhat complex. First it would have to be void of any of the dogmatic voices that play in the head of one who was brainwashed with fundamental and literal teaching. If this cannot be accomplished there is little chance that it can inform the spiritual journey of such a one.

If one can really understand and believe what the bible is, an anthology of myth, cultural input and mystical revelation, then one can gain spiritual knowledge from it. This requires discernment and intuition but I think there is a benefit from the bible. So far as I know it is the only sacred text that states God is love. Further, it is the only text that gives the definition of love and the fruit of the spirit. Especially in the Gospel of John, but in other places as well it explains that we are divine. This message is very beneficial.

How then can one discern what is mystical revelation from the creative source? Here are the criteria I use. Does it promote love as defined by Paul? Will it produce the fruit of the Spirit? Does it inform us of our familial connection to God? Does it show God as a parent? In fact, you can apply this to all mystical writings. It is true of the Corpus Hermeticum. It is true of the Tao.