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.