CREATIVITY - PART 2

So why doesn’t it always happen? I’m sure there were times when you had the idea, you felt the emotion, and still it didn’t happen. What was wrong? Why didn’t it work as a formula?

There are a lot of possible reasons. Maybe the idea was unclear. Did you ever have an idea that was fuzzy, like it was something you thought you wanted but you hadn’t ever really thought about what you would do if you had one? Would you like to own a yacht? Could you afford the repairs on a yacht? The docking fees? Would you really take time out to sail it? Would you go broke buying gas for a Rolls-Royce? Would you really want to do the housework on a twenty-room home, or pay the maid? Are you ready to become an employer, and handle payrolls and deductions and workman’s compensation?

Many an idea is not ready to form into anything, and so it doesn’t. What happens is your subconscious is smarter that your conscious self – it knows when there isn’t a full-grown idea.

The emotion is another issue. There are really only two basic types of emotions; fear and desire. They cancel each other out. If you have conscious desire but unconscious fear, guess what happens? Nothing happens. If the fear outweighs the desire, you could even move away from your goal.

Until you identify the source of your blockage and deal with it, things may not go your way. Wise people will end up doing prayer treatments for each small roadblock, rather than just one BIG treatment for their great goal in life.

Remember what a prayer treatment is. It is the idea positively stated plus the corresponding emotion. What you are doing is psychologically treating your own mind to enhance belief – to build your faith, in other words.

Religious Science is so named because this is a scientifically sound process. It is a ‘soft’ science in the same way that psychology is a soft science. The results are provable when applied in a statistical manner, but that does not mean it will definitely work for you in a single instance – that would make ours a formula religion, and it isn’t.

When you treat to enhance your belief, to build your faith in what you desire, eventually it will tip some inner scales to provide you with a certainty. Many individual circumstances will combine to allow this to happen. Because prayer is statistically sound, you will build up the odds in you favour. You treat to enhance your belief until it becomes true faith.

When you achieve faith, the emotions that you should look for is joy and gratitude. These are the signs of a completed prayer. But in the gospel of James 2:17, he says “faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.” We have a different saying for this; “Treat (pray), and then move your feet.” The proof of your faith, finally, is in your willingness to take action. You treat to enhance your belief until it turns to faith. Faith is described in the Bible as “The substance of things unseen.” You are giving substance to those things that you have dreamt of.

CREATIVITY - PART 1

At the core of New Thought teaching, there is the idea that we continuously create our own experience from within; that deep in the innermost reaches of our subconscious mind, we carry the programming that dictates where we are and when, and how we respond to the challenges that fall our way.

Our experience is not the same as EVENTS which happen to us. Our experience is made up of our REACTIONS to events, and these flow from the judgments we make about those events. This is what it means when we speak of 'programming' of our responses.

If we can operate consciously, and choose our responses, we can control these reactions, and in doing so, move away from reactions based on unconscious judgment.

This, on the surface, appears to be a simple principle. What is not so simple is the everyday doing of it. If it were so easy, we would all be rich as kings; the driveways would be filled with Cadillacs and Lincolns, and our New Thought churches would have lineups of people waiting to get in the door. The world would all be wondering how we do it, and of course some would be calling it evil.

Well, since that is not quite the case, something must be trickier than it seems. Dr. Bill Talliaferro, once the Fort Lauderdale pastor, used to say that ours is not a formula religion. A formula religion would be one that has a formula that you follow, and everything is supposed to work for you. It would start with “All you have to do is……” and then comes the formula. It could be to get down and pray, to say the rosary, to say affimations, or to follow the steps of prayer treatment as we call our science of affirmative prayer.

Take Religious Science, for example. How can we call it a science, if there are no formulas that can be applied? Aren’t we saying that there is a process that always works? If we’re not teaching that, then what are we teaching? What is the Science of Mind about, if not the repeatability and predictability of an outcome?

First of all, neither the Science of Mind text or the Bible it is based on say that it shall be done unto you as you THINK. What it says is that it is done unto you as you BELIEVE. The problem is that you can usually tell what you’re thinking; you can’t always tell what you believe. Your belief is not on the surface of your mind; it grows out of your total mentality, both the conscious part and the unconscious or subconscious part. The unconscious is called that because it is hidden from your conscious thinking. You don’t know what’s in it - that's why they call it the unconscious! Nearly all the power of your mind is in that unconscious part.

Here’s an example. Have you ever been driving along the highway on a long trip, and after about thirty or forty minutes you just realized that you hadn’t thought about the road or seen it in all that time? You were thinking about something else. You subconscious mind took over and handled the car, dodged the traffic, just ran your life, while your conscious mind was re-living that argument with the boss or planning that vacation trip to Mexico.

The subconscious also kept your lungs breathing, your heart beating, your temperature stable, and your body upright in the seat. Can you imagine doing all those things while driving your car too, if you had to think about it all consciously? The conscious mind is not up to tasks of that complexity – it hasn’t the processing power. It’s all in the subconscious.

Your subconscious thoughts also tend to hold your beliefs, and your faith. They can be programmed from the conscious level, but only over a period of time, and only by real effort. So as you believe, your whole life is done unto you, little by little.

The subconscious, or unconscious, forms the soul of your being, linked intimately to the mechanisms of your body, and linking you also to all the physical world. You have programmed it; but whatever you have not programmed is instinctive.

The Science of Mind is about programming that subconscious by starting with the conscious mind. We are taught that this programming requires two components. First, there must be an idea; a thought. It must be clear and it must be positively stated. Then there must be an emotion which accompanies that thought, and the power of that emotion drives the idea into the unconscious and anchors it there.

Emotion changes the chemistry of the body; it sets up chemical pathways in the brain, locking things into our memory. Ernest Holmes taught that the two-fold forces of idea and emotion is the key to realizing our desires.


More to come....

CREATIVITY SERIES - INTRODUCTION

While working as a Technology Planner and a Strategic Planner, I made a study of how creativity operates in the corporate environment. I absorbed 2 corporate courses on creative problem-solving, I attended a course on the IDEALS system, which is a method for innovation in business; and I was privileged to attend a seminar on lateral thinking by Dr. Edward De Bono. In addition, we used a variety of strategies for idea generation on a weekly basis.

After 16 years of training and practice, I found I had a large folder full of course material, articles, and notes, which I used to create my book, MAXI-MIND, available from www.lulu.com.

When I began to train for ministry, my second career (or is it my fourth or fifth?) I became a student of the Science of Mind, and I found there not only confirmation of all that I had learned about creativity and the mind, but some additional ideas which took creative thinking to the Spiritual level.

This next series of 23 blog entries is taken from 5 talks I have given on Creativity over the past 15 years. I hope you will find a wealth of ideas to ponder, as we fill the next month with thoughts about human creativity.

Creativity is the human activity which most represents God - that Power and Intelligence which we define as the Creator of all.

Gandhi said "You must BECOME the thing you want to see" To do this, we adopt the action of God, which creates out of Its own substance, becoming the things It makes.

FINDING OUR PURPOSE - PART 8 - Final Part

Fortunately, we are in a position to proceed consciously in building a future globalized world that marginalizes no one. Will we do it?

There are populations in the world today that feel culturally threatened. They feel that their very identity is being eroded by mechanisms of cultural imperialism. The purpose of those who perpetrate these things is simple – to make money – to amass wealth through export of culture regarded as a commodity. Presumably this has its roots in the need for economic security. And yet the exports occur from some of the wealthiest parts of the world to some of the poorest.

This is contrary to the pre-globalization model, where in former times the poor, perhaps with time on their hands, generated culture that the wealthy patronized! In that earlier model, the cultural exchange took place entirely within a geographic region, and although the trade was between classes, the base culture was the same.

In the globalized model, the export of culture, electronically, tears at the social fabric of foreign lands, since their economies cannot afford the things they are being shown, and the trappings of a foreign culture are overlaid upon a complex matrix of lifestyle, taboo, religion, and social behavior. The result is breakdown of families, of nations, and the rise of terrorism – all because a seemingly logical purpose – make money – is extended into a situation without thinking or caring about the implications.

When purpose is drawn from the ego aspects of the self, it tends not to be harmonious. When purpose is to build, to grow, to expand, this is part of the inner Life that drives human desire. When this desire is simply for profit, or when desire is uncaring of consequences, then our purpose has been overtaken by the demands of our ego, which speaks to us of need, of lack, of fear. How often these motivations go unrecognized by us! We are not educated, for the most part, to sort out our inner reasoning. We proceed unaware, and bait the snare in which we ourselves will be caught.

Our fundamental purpose is to function as the viewpoint from which Spirit looks out upon Itself, in all Its many forms. We do this by having an active interest in the world around us; we do it by embracing the world, not hiding from it. We do it by succeeding, not by failing. We do it by drawing through our conscious awareness all of the good that we can imagine Spirit to consist of, and letting it guide our life. The rewards are many: they are peace, joy, and harmony, to name but few.

Building an enlightened awareness, and using that to align our individual and collective purpose, will be the key to developing a world filled with variety, prosperity, and security for all.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

OUR CURRENT BLOG SERIES WILL CONCLUDE AFTER CHRISTMAS.

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

BLESSINGS FOR A GREAT 2008!

REVDARRELLG

FINDING OUR PURPOSE - PART 7 - PITFALLS

"INSIGHTS" - A GREAT READ FOR THE NEW YEAR!

What then, is to be our collective purpose? We have seen that the desire of our Universal Source is for unity in multiplicity, to return to that sense of Oneness, but retain diversity in viewpoint. Just as we live best when we align our individual purpose with the source of Life within us, why should we be surprised if collectively we create the most harmonious world by doing the same?

Both individually and collectively, to live in harmony and peace with not only others but with our surroundings, allowing for countless creative ways of doing things, would seem most in alignment with the natural order.

Nature adores feedback, and whether quickly or slowly, it always comes. Stresses in nature are always equalized in the end. A surplus of rabbits leads to growth in the predator population, and soon there will be more wolves. Too many wolves, and they will fall prey to starvation, disease, or hunting by people. We tend to see this as successive imbalance, but Nature operates on a different time scale than we do. We tend to see ourselves as outside of the process, but we are a part of it.

If we cannot align our purpose with harmony, sustainability, and peaceful co-existence, we will be decimated, by whatever means. We will see it as human failure, but it will just be Nature, doing what she does best. We are not exempt from the cycle, any more than the rabbit. The only difference is that we ought to know better. We have the capability to choose, which the rabbit and the wolf do not.

If we decline to choose, and follow our basic desires unconsciously, we will be subject to the random effects of the natural world, and Nature will follow her course, taking us up to and including extinction. Many species before us have gone that route – we should not think we are better, only potentially more able to escape from the bonds of probability. In this, Einstein was partly wrong – God does indeed play dice with the world, to the extent that randomness applies where conscious purpose is absent. We have been unconscious in our living for far too long.

We are only subject to the probabilistic nature of the physical world if we choose to proceed unconsciously, to follow personal desires into an unsustainable realm of collective desire. If we fail to plan for the big picture, we will erode our chance to create a grander and more vibrant world. It is said that Nature abhors a vacuum. We create a vacuum of sorts through unconscious thought and action. Nature responds to us, and fills the world with the garbage and ugliness created by our thoughtlessness.

FINDING OUR PURPOSE - PART 6

Beyond individual purpose, we also form collective purpose, which arises out of the gestalt formed by our collective consciousness. Could we but see the outcome of combining our various individual trains of thought, we might see how individual desires, seemingly good, can generate a public will which pollutes, enslaves, or lays waste vast parts of the world. Individual desires are not a sufficient basis for harnessing the juggernaut of human organization, whether governmental or corporate, in a common cause whose outcome cannot always be predicted at the larger scale of endeavor.

Our desire for a good life, individually, translates very well into the scale of a family. We wish comfort, security, and abundance for our loved ones. We want to be well fed, clothed, housed and entertained. This is all well and good, and appears to be a valid purpose. But multiplied to a continental scale it has proven harmful to the environment, and attempts to translate it to world scale have been frightening. To imagine the multitudes of China or India driving several cars per family, on concrete or asphalt freeways, is to imagine both pollution and possible starvation on a massive scale.

Our individual desires must be re-translated if globalization is to bring us to a world of common prosperity. Not to do so implies a new imperialism, by which disparity becomes institutionalized on a global scale. History has shown that this could not obtain in the past, when global linkages were much slower and looser than today.

When ships took weeks between continents, and television and internet were not even dreamt of, great disparity could potentially exist without triggering great levels of resentment among the masses of people. Today, all people, virtually everywhere, are able to see what may be missing from their lifestyle. Today’s masses know how the other half lives, and cultural differences aside, they want similar levels of fulfillment.

FINDING OUR PURPOSE - PART 5

The age of the Universe is our age too. This is perhaps what is meant by Jesus saying, “Before Abraham was born, I am.” [John 8.58] This shows recognition that we represent a Life beyond our life, a Life inherent in the Cosmos, that expresses Its purpose through us. Jesus was clearly fully aware of his oneness with Universal Being, hence the “I am,” the very declaration that was made to Moses at the burning bush.

Our purpose comes by us and through us, but not from us. It comes from the desire, conscious or otherwise, of Life Itself to express in individual form, to gain a point of view from which to regard Itself, a different way of Being.

The Universal Wholeness of being is unbounded by time or space, and is unconscious, because as Wholeness, there is nothing outside the Self to be conscious of. Conscious Being is formed out of the Universal Wholeness by the act of separation into Self and Other, so that Self may be regarded in relation to the Other. All conscious thought is based on relationship in time and space, while unconscious thought is aware of neither. There are no distinctions in unconscious thought, no judgments, and no choices. There are no desires, only tendencies, which become desire only when realized in the conscious self. It is the desire of an infant to be an adult, the desire of a seed to become a tree, innate in the nature of the Thing Itself.

We feel the inner impulse, the tendencies of the Life within us, and we formulate these into desires. We give rise to our desires and we choose the avenue of their fulfillment. All tendencies are good; but depending upon the way in which we translate them, they may give rise to evil acts, as judged by the outcomes thereof. "It is by their fruits ye shall know them."

FINDING OUR PURPOSE - PART 4

In the world that is emerging today, our purpose cannot be to conquer. This is the paradigm of the Imperial age, and we see what it has brought to those former imperial nations. The price of empire is high. Neither can our purpose be to dominate culturally – we are beginning to see the resentment and frustration caused by ancient cultures being overwhelmed by commercial ‘pop’ culture.

The world needs a paradigm, complete with symbols, which is open, accepting, loving, kind, and which signifies helping without forcing change. The Unity of the Universal Consciousness calls us to unity as well, but in diversity. The Universe did not bring forth just one kind of tree, or flower, insect or animal. Its nature is to bring forth a myriad, randomly chosen, wild array of life. Creativity is not order; although it relies upon order for a part of its realization. Creativity is profusion. So are the nations and cultures of the world, and the world is enriched by their variety.

If our purpose, as humankind, is to represent the inner Life that unfolded us outward from the seed of the Universe, then we too must adopt the qualities of that Universal Creator. We too must accommodate endless variety and revel in it. We must accept the life of humanity in all its forms, support it, glory in it, and encourage it to expand in consciousness as we learn to do.

Our individual purpose is to rise above our circumstances, to be more than we are, not always outwardly, but inside, where our life truly lies. We need to find out why we are here, and what we are here to do, and that is for us alone to decipher. That task lies between us and our Inner Spirit, that part of the Universal that lives in us. We are well advised to ask, and wait upon the answer – it will be forthcoming. We are each individual points of view, from which that Universal Mind may view and contemplate Itself and Its creation. When we learn to look out of our own eyes and see nothing but the Divine in action, we shall have reached the height of our purpose.

We will be met more than halfway, since the Universal Purpose also is seeking to know Itself through us, so that what I seek is also seeking me.

FINDING OUR PURPOSE - PART 3

GET MY BOOK "INSIGHTS" FOR THE NEW YEAR!
When we consider that awesome Universal Power, we might then ask, “What is Its purpose?” Could we understand that answer, we would not be human – we would be Universal in consciousness, and we would be those gods that we imagined millennia ago. The purpose of God, if we may use that outmoded appellation, will surely remain beyond us. The word conjures thoughts ranging from animal statues to dead ancestors, from the pantheons of old to the white-haired old man in robes, complete with book of judgment. We need a metaphor that expands our consciousness beyond the limited concepts of the previous millennium.

Our image of Divinity inherently defines for us Its purpose in terms that match the limitations of our thought. We are given the power to imagine – part of the action of Divinity within us. We can ponder, and dream, and we can adopt for ourselves a purpose for the God of our imagining. Is this not all we are capable of? Each culture, each generation, each civilization, decides what simplified, feeble, miniscule image it will assume for the infinite and the unknowable. This image then becomes the rallying symbol for that segment of the human race, in that place, at that time.

In ancient Israel, as we read in the Old Testament, God was, among other things, jealous, angry, judgmental, and punitive. These are qualities that most people today do not tolerate in their fellow humans. Many people today would not feel that an entity displaying such petty emotions was worthy of worship. The Greek and Roman gods were portrayed as devious, jealous, scheming creatures. Again, these might not be found worthy of respect by many today. As we grow, our limited concept of the Divine grows with us, while the object of our conceiving remains, as It always has been, all encompassing, infinite.

In this twenty-first century, surely we can contemplate the infinite and imagine a symbol better than that of eons gone by? Surely we can bring forth a symbol of the Universal Being that will truly inspire higher human behavior?

Human purpose is driven by our concept of the Divine, whether we refer to it in that manner or not. We each have some ideal image, which to us represents that to which we aspire. It would be sad if we only aspired to be jealous, ruthless, or even autocratic. It would be doubly sad if we were to be devious and conniving. These are some of the ancient models, though in fairness there was also courage and love, though often of the most material kind.

We have the example of Jesus’ teaching, which attempts to change the basis for the Divine image from the old paradigm to something more compassionate. Often misinterpreted and ignored, these basic teachings are the beginnings of a model for greater peace, understanding, and co-operation. There will be other, newer teachings, and we must learn to heed them, and not forever look back across the millennia for our guidance. God is not dead, or we would not be here. Inspiration is not confined to centuries gone by, and yet one would think so from the messages we hear, rallying us to secondhand inspiration from ancient books. God is in the world, and beyond it, and yes, in books too, but also in all other things. You will not find the Universal Presence in any Scripture, any more than you can pick apples from a recipe for apple pie; the map, as they say, is not the territory.

It is time that we went from our former level of understanding to a meta-level, which looks not at our symbology, but instead looks at the mechanism whereby our symbols direct our psychology. Our models of the Universal feed our thinking process, such that these models become for us the tools by which we draw forth our daily experience. We invoke our symbols to set our attitude; they translate into our paradigm for living.

FINDING OUR PURPOSE - PART 2

So we each represent a unique point of view. What do we do with this understanding? What can we do with it?

We can glorify our existence and that of our Creator by expanding our individual awareness as far as possible in the direction of the Universal Awareness. We can reach deeply inside our own psyche and seize upon those qualities that are noble, those elements of character that are pure, those thoughts, ideas, and feelings that we just know are humankind’s best. We know what we should be thinking and doing, even when we avoid it, even when we don’t do it, yes, even when we hide it deeply from ourselves.

To paraphrase the Swami Satchidananda, even the vilest criminal has the same basic desires as you and me; he wants peace, he wants freedom from want and fear, he wants love and joy. He just thinks, in error, that his criminal actions will obtain those things. He knows no other way. Under the skin, we humans are the same in our inner desires; it is the outer fulfillment that we disagree upon, and that may lead us far astray.

Our purpose comes from far beyond ourselves, and yet it lies within us. We are not creatures crafted from without, but we are unfolded from within. The fertilized egg that we once were multiplied outward as it was programmed to do, and we have the urges and desires that were placed in us by the intelligence through which we evolved. The very word desire is derived from ‘De Sire’, or ‘Of the Father’, in French.

We are seemingly isolated, individual tiny minds, but yet we have come from the same point of origin. We are indeed the children of the Big Bang; we are physical creatures whose very stuff was forged in the heart of a Supernova, in which the higher elements are born. Imagine for a moment the awesome path of our evolution – not starting as a squiggle of protoplasm in a steaming, sulphurous puddle, but pressed by a million times the earth’s gravity into the fierce fusion of elements.

Life comes only from life, in our experience. It was once thought that flies were born from garbage heaps, but science has cured much of our myopia. We now know that flies come from eggs come from flies, and so on, but not ad infinitum. There were not always flies. If our observation is true, and life always comes from life, then the birth of life is not in the earth, but in that invisible Power that engineered the Big Bang itself, and if so, then the Universe is alive, and Universal Mind is our ultimate parent.

We are children of the Big Bang, through a chain of causality that goes back nearly twenty billions of our years!

FINDING OUR PURPOSE - PART 1

MY BOOK "INSIGHTS" - A GREAT CHRISTMAS GIFT!

We sense, with some inherent knowing, that we are creatures of purpose, not mere drifting organisms, but imbued with some kind of innate mission. We have invented, through the long course of history, entire pantheons of gods, goddesses, and mythic figures to help us explain to ourselves how we came to be here, and just what we are to be doing.

These symbols of our destiny are the feeble attempt, by a bewildered humanity, to characterize and make real the most abstract of concepts: that there is in back of us, of all things, a Power, an Energy, a Consciousness, a Mind which, consciously or otherwise, injects purpose into the universe.

How can we know this Power exists? We know because we are here. After all, the odds are overwhelmingly against it. We believe there must be intelligence in the universe, because we believe ourselves to be intelligent. We think and so, as Descartes said, we exist.

The question then becomes, “Am I, (are we?), the sole intelligence, or am I an offshoot of a greater Mind, a Universal Mind whose purpose it is to appear as me? Am I alone with my thoughts?”

If I exist, and I must believe I do, then is your existence also real, or is it a figment of my consciousness? You, looking back at me, can think the very same thing. What we are is two points of view, and this role is fundamental to existence. Our individuality is characterized by our point of view, which defines us as unique and distinct beings. While there is certainly more to us than just our individuality, this is where we begin our self-awareness.

Let us contemplate that singular Power, that Universal Entity existing outside of time or space. It is the Allness, embracing all existence while not circumscribed by it. We are thinkers; It is Thought. We are conscious; It is Consciousness. It is the law in back of our mechanism, the Mind in which our mentality operates. At the level of Its universality, It has everything except a point of view. From the Allness of Being cannot come a particular outlook - from the Universal level of thought cannot come a sense of individuality, except through a process of mental fragmentation. This is what the Book of Genesis calls “the waters divided from the waters.” The “firmament” is our material world.

Our prime purpose, our raison d’etre, is our very individuality. Our first job is to be ourselves. Our perspective, our point of view, is our gift to that Something, that Power which is the very foundation of our being. We each exist for the purpose of bringing yet another point of individuality to the whole.

So now we are here- each with our unique point of view - what next?

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO YOU - PART 6 - Final

In my book MAXI-MIND, I mentioned the cow pasture that I crossed every school day on the way to the bus. It had droppings everywhere, old and new, and the biggest daisies by far grew in the more mature clumps of manure. Now there's a choice; do we focus on the manure, or on the daisies? Which we choose will determine what we find when we examine the world around us. Both are there - but one choice is clearly a happier one.

You see, the world is the world. It is what it is. But YOUR WORLD, the world around you, is a collection of things that you have either attracted or tolerated. Most of it is never noticed by you at all - it is just too complex. So the things you notice are the things that your ATTITUDE interacts with.

There's a great word - ATTITUDE. To a pilot, the attitude of a plane is the angle it makes with the ground - with the horizon. Tilt the plane, and you change the attitude.

Well, your attitude is the angle of your awareness to the ground of external reality, and to the ground of your inner being. Tilt one way, and life sucks, and so do you. Tilt the other way, and life is great, and so are you. The ground, both inside and outside, doesn't change - but you do - from daisies to dung. Each one is a potential symbol of your inner attitude.

There are always more daisies than you can possibly notice. So you can tilt away, more and more, and there are always more to be revealed. The world around you has no practical limits.

Attitude leads to choices –- choices are thoughts – thought are things.
Things are the feedback that tell you how your choices are working.

So if you keep on thinking what you’ve been thinking – you’ll keep on getting more of what you’ve already got. And if that’s OK, great – but if it’s not, then CHANGE YOUR THINKING AND CHANGE YOUR LIFE!

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO YOU - PART 5

Here's something you can try - to evaluate your life and pick some targets. Remember, was it Socrates who said "The unexamined life is not worth living."? I don't know if I would go that far, but examining your life is one way to shift from unconscious living to conscious choice.

When you get some free time, take a sheet of paper, and tally up the world around you - your home, job, your health, your finances, family and friends, anything that is important to you. Rate each one on a scale of one to five, or one to ten, whatever you wish. Making a wheel or circle will help you see if your life is balanced or lopsided.

You will find that some aspects of your world are pretty much to your satisfaction. Others may not be. Can you accept that your thinking, your choices, are responsible - that is, able to respond to what you find?

The great psychoanalyst Karl Jung, colleague of Sigmund Freud, who recorded over 20 thousand patient cases in his Swiss clinic, wrote a book called Man and His Symbols. Yes, I know, it should have been called Woman and Her Symbols, but it's too late for that.

Jung showed that our unconscious mind uses symbols in our dreams to communicate vital truths about our own thinking. He also showed that those things we notice in the world around us are noticed because our unconscious is continually pointing them out to us. What we notice in the world around us symbolizes our innermost thinking. So what you experience in life is the direct result of what your dominant thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes are.

Remember, the more you think of what you've been thinking, the more you're going to get of what you've already got!

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO YOU - PART 4

Now that we have identified that unconscious thinking can randomize our lives and lead us away from the things we might consciously have chosen, how can we move our thinking toward a focus on the things we want from life?

The philosophy we teach in Religious Science churches, called the Science of Mind®, is about moving from unconscious to conscious thinking. We teach how to program our unconscious mind by using conscious processes, so that from now on our unconscious will not randomly wander, but will move in the direction that we have consciously determined.

We do this by using techniques that are modelled for us in the Bible, but also in other great philosophies down through the ages. We accept wisdom wherever it can be found, and we judge it by its effectiveness, not by its source.

Our founder Ernest Holmes taught us that Thoughts are Things - that our dominant thinking controls our unconscious mind, and through our innate connection to all of Spirit, arranges and rearranges both us and the world around us to create the experience that we believe to be ours.

It is done unto us as we believe. This is exactly what Jesus taught people.

So, to change what you experience in life, you must change what you believe. There is no other way for change to be lasting. Many people think that beliefs are just something you can't help - like being born with big ears, or something. Not so. Your network of belief systems is a complex web of interlocking ideas which began when you were born, as soon as you began to learn from your parents. It was expanded by your schooling, your playground experiences, your workplace environment. It is a vast construction of thought. Some of it works for you and some of it doesn't.

When we talk about having FAITH, it means developing reliance upon a Power that is greater than you, yet exists within you, as it exists everywhere. Nothing can be apart from it. This is a Power for good that wants to be expressed in everything. Therefore It waits for a clear thought of intention, an expression of mental certainty, then It pours Its energy forth to create an experience that matches the thought. Such a clear, certain thought represent pure faith. When you express your faith, there is a response.

ThE WORLD ACCORDING TO YOU - PART 3

Now let's look at your life. What kind of feedback is it giving you?

The world around you every day IS the feedback that tells you if your choices are working. If you love your home, your job, your marriage, your friends, then you have chosen all things well with respect to these things. If any of these is troublesome or unpleasant, then you can examine your choices and make new ones - different ones.

The attitude we have is the tool that focuses our attention into the world around us. If we only see the wrong, the bad or the ugly, then we are tuned to the wrong station. You can tune yourself to good just by changing focus, by adjusting your attitude.

Ah, but there's a problem. In most of these areas, you weren't aware of making any choices. You just somehow got where you are, wherever that is, without being conscious of the decisions you made. In fact, often it may be the decisions you didn't make that caused the things that bother you now.

Our unconscious choices are far more numerous and more problematic than our conscious ones. Unconscious choices lead to drift, to unguided movement, and often to undesired effects.

Unconscious thinking is prone to all kinds of spurious programming that we learned as children. If is full of things that we heard as toddlers, when we lacked the discrimination to judge each thing rightly, or righteously, as the Bible tells us.

Unconscious thinking is also filled with things that come not from clear-headed thought, but from emotion - from fears and hurts and misguided desires that we have not examined or cleared from our minds.

Remember what a radio sounds like when it's tuned off the station? It's full of hiss crackle and whistling noise. Imagine your life like that. That's what you get when you are reacting daily to bad news, noticing everything that's wrong, as if nothing was right.

Learning to do conscious programming of your mind is the most important thing you can do. As you begin the process of conscious re-programming, it will eventually over-write all that mistuning that you unconsciously do.

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO YOU - PART 2

CHECK OUT MY BOOK "INSIGHTS"
As an electrical engineer, I have a clear understanding of feedback.

Feedback is what makes radios work - it makes audio systems work, it controls power stations, backup power systems, and all sorts of clever devices.

Feedback also keeps businesses from going bankrupt, it keeps the national, provincial, and the city economy from running amok, and it keeps you from stepping into open manholes.

Back in the last century, a management consultant named George Odiorne told this story.

Imagine if you went bowling, and you found that someone had hung a huge curtain across the middle of all the lanes, so you couldn't see the pins. You could throw the ball, and you could barely hear something, but you couldn't see the pins go down - you couldn't tell which ones had fallen.

You wouldn't know where to throw the next ball - but worse than that - how much fun would bowling be? You would throw ball after ball, but you would have no score, and the effect of your aim would be totally missing.

Seeing how the pins fall is the feedback that tells us how effectively we are throwing the ball. Without feedback, there is no game at all.

In a business, you get all sorts of feedback. The customers give feedback on how good the product or service is; the accountant gives feedback on how much money the business is making, and so forth. Without it, the business could go under; but even if it is succeeding, how would you know?

Would you recognize feedback if you experienced it? If not, how could you adapt to enjoy a better life?

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO YOU - PART 1

CHECK OUT MY BOOK "INSIGHTS"
What's your life like? Is it pleasant - or is it difficult, full of hardship?

When you look at the world around you, on a daily basis, what do you see? And what does it mean to you?

The world you live in, including your home, your job, the people you live with, the belongings and possessions, the clothing, the food, furniture, dishes, pots pans, right up to the kitchen sink, is all a part of who you are. In fact, it all is the results of hundreds, maybe thousands of choices you have made, actions you have taken.

And, since your choices are the results of your thinking, your care or your carelessness, then the world around you is the reflection of your thoughts.

If you want to know what you have been thinking, consciously or unconsciously, just look around you. What does your life look like?

For some of us, this may be a tough pill to swallow. If you don't like your life, or anything in it, your own choices are the cause.

This is NOT saying that you are to 'blame' for anything. But you are 'responsible' - that is, response-able; able to respond to whatever is in your life.

We are always inclined to want to blame something or somebody- but you can't blame your husband- you married him! You said "Yes, I do." You men can't blame your wives- you chose them- you said "Yes". You are living the results of your choices.

Blaming is a false and useless idea. If you are inclined to feel badly about anything in your life, blaming is a great way to feel worse. It is also the very best way to duck responsibility. If it's not you, if it's someone else, then you don't have to do anything, and you just can't help the mess you're in, because you had no part in it. Like Doctor Phil says, "You can't change what you won't acknowledge."

If you argue for your limitations, you get to keep them!

You always have choices. If you are in poor health, you can argue all the reasons why that can't be helped - or you can argue all the reasons why you deserve to be strong, and vibrantly healthy. It's your choice.

If you have issues with poverty, or health, or your job, you can blame all sorts of circumstances or people - you can make a laundry list of things to blame it on - or you can list the reasons why you should claim your share of the world's wealth, or why your body should be healthy and whole, or what opportunities there are for you. You can declare that you deserve just as much as anyone else. The choice is up to you.

Being of Service - Part 7 - series end

IT'S A SMALL WORLD - BUT OUR OWN INDIFFERENCE MAKES IT SEEM BIGGER

This theory of only six degrees of separation between any two people is reported in the prestigious journal Nature, as follows:

'NATURE' ARTICLE
An e-mail experiment has confirmed the famous 'six degrees of separation' of human social networks, but revealed that individuals don't necessarily benefit from their connectedness.

The ease with which two people can hook up depends also on their perceptions of social structures and their motivation to get connected, say Duncan Watts of Columbia University, New York and his colleagues.

Of more than 24,000 chains started, only 384 found their target. Successful chains were, on average, about four steps long, although this number was biased by the greater likelihood of shorter chains being completed. A typical chain length was indeed between five and seven, consistent with …..earlier findings.

But most e-mails did not reach their targets. This, it seems, is mainly because of lack of interest from participants, rather than because of their inability to think of an appropriate person to pass the message to.

The recent study involving e-mail, in which I took part, confirmed the earlier 1967 research up to point - but failed not because the six degrees theory is invalid, but due to apathy on the part of the participants. Most just didn't bother to pass their e-mail on like the experiment called for. By the way, I did.

Here's a good lesson for us. Our influence on the world may be stillborn not because we lack the ability, but because we lack the vision, or the motivation.

If you should be given, by the grace of God, even so much as a tiny morsel of sacred Truth; I beg you don't let it die shriveled and emaciated because you didn't think yourself worthy enough, or capable enough, or important enough, to pass it on into the world around you.

We MUST change the world if it is to survive the present disparity. Do we really want a world where people's lives are so devoid of hope that they willingly blow themselves up? Do we want to continue a world where people's greatest hope is reserved for after they die? Remember this is the case even in North America - where the prospect of Heaven after death is superior to any other kind of personal dream that people can imagine!

Please - change the world, even just a little, toward the kind of positive and empowered thinking that we try to teach here. Give the world, your world, a better idea.

Be of service. Yes, you can.

Being of Service - Part 6

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Finally, You can help the Universe.

Not physically, because it's too big. But mentally, you help to form the 'thought atmosphere' that makes up the intelligence of the cosmos. Look in the mirror. Are you intelligent? Is there will, creativity, motivation, understanding to be found there?

How much of that can be found on the moon? On Mars? In the sun? There is more awareness between your ears than in any part of the solar system beyond this earth, so far as we know. Someone, please prove me wrong!

Whether there is life and intelligence elsewhere or not, we live in this world within a thought atmosphere of our own making. Our thought atmosphere is like the air we breathe, except it is made up of opinions, attitudes, judgments, emotions, ranging from love to fear, happiness to hurt. This is what Ernest Holmes called the Race Mind - that is, the Mind of the entire human race.

Did you ever sit in a group of leftist liberals and voice a conservative opinion? Was the atmosphere welcoming to your comment? I'm sure that people of opposite polarity felt the same cool reception from time to time. Every place has an atmosphere, and it changes but slowly. But change it does, over time.

Jesus was a mighty agent of change. You too can be an agent for change, and you don't need to give up your life for it, like Jesus did. You too can wield the truth like a mighty weapon, cutting through false judgment and prejudice. You can slice open the bloated bladders of greed, fear and ignorance, and bring healing to your vicinity.

Do this, and you will have an impact that is more than local. You will change the thought atmosphere of the very universe, perhaps only by one iota - but it will be changed. The people whose lives are changed by you will go on to influence others, in an ever-widening circle.

It is said that any two people in the world know someone who knows someone who knows someone that they have in common, never more than about six people removed. The world, even with its billions, is a smaller place than we think it is.

Being of Service - Part 5

Fourthly, you can help the World.

The world seems like such a BIG place. It's hard to think that you can make a difference in it. But it only calls on you to pick a spot and start digging. No matter how big the hole, the first shovel full has to start somewhere.

What could you do, to make the world a better place? There are two main kinds of helping that you can do. One is hard and takes long-term commitment. The other is easier, and you can start right now, in this moment. The first is physical, having to do with material and resources. The second is entirely in the world of the mind, and costs only your attention and effort.

What could you do in material terms? There are so many issues, and possibilities. Think globally, but act locally, right where you are. Pick up litter, don’t' pollute. Tread lightly on the earth. Beautify your corner of the planet. Be nice to wild animals. Protect the trees - the lungs of the earth. Be part of neighborhood watch - take care of the children in your area.

In the world of ideas, the mental world, you can work to enlighten people the world over about major issues of the day.

How about world peace? On Thursday night we held a peace prayer service in the park. Nearly 30 people came. We joined with people of other faiths and backgrounds in building a consciousness of unity and family.

There are many issues to be worked on. There are types of abuse that can be ended by education. There are practices that need to be stopped. Tell people about them. We need to protect our environment - tell people how. Start a web site, begin a blog, print a newsletter, join a group. Be part of the wider world, in your consciousness.

Being of Service - Part 4

Thirdly, you can help your community.

Everyone lives in a community. To grow and be strong, and be of help, the community needs your help. This work has no limits. There is no end to the events, the workshops, sports activities charities, or social interactions your community could provide, if only there was someone to organize, host, and prepare each one. The community will be a pleasant place to live to the extent that everyone steps up and helps.

Your own neighborhood, your block, your subdivision has opportunities for you to be a coach, an organizer, or just a good neighbor. Pick up some litter when no one is looking. Help the kid who fell off his bike. Small things will contribute to your feeling of empowerment - it gives a feeling of power to be a helper.

You can play in a sandbox of any size. The City of Saskatoon is a bigger community. Saskatchewan, bigger still. Canada is big, but for many people, their sense of community will stretch that far. Just make sure that you are doing it from a desire to serve and not a desire to control. One path leads to enlightenment, the other to unhappiness and anxiety.

I know of people who have given all their energy running for high office, and when they were elected, they had no idea what to do. They wanted the office badly, but they didn't know why. They wanted the feeling of control that it gave, but they didn't have that broader vision that allowed them to be of genuine service. One term in office and they were left bitter, unpopular, and disappointed.

Do you feel the need for power, or do you have a vision of service? It's hard to contemplate sometimes, but for your own long-term peace of mind, you must have a concept of your role in serving. You will derive much of your personal satisfaction from it.

Being of Service - Part 3

Secondly, we can serve others.

When you are serving yourself, you will find that there are many others around you who have moved on from a self-serving mode of living, to helping others around them. They want to help you, because it is their joy to do so. It makes them feel good - it makes them feel empowered to help you. So you can start right in, helping others, by asking them to help you. Isn't that neat?

One of the biggest difficulties many people have is letting others help them. This is the human ego wanting to feel independent rather than admit we are interdependent. When you refuse to let others help you, you are denying them the chance to feel good about themselves.

You can relax your ego and be helped without feeling guilty or less worthy. Your turn will come, and you can serve yourself by letting yourself feel good about helping someone else. So the first way to serve others is to allow them to build their strength through service. To do that, you have to allow help to flow to you.

Of course, there is a more traditional way we can serve others. More about that another day.

Being of Service - Part 2

First of all, we must serve ourselves.

You may think that sounds selfish. It isn't. In his book "The Seven Habits", Steven Covey says, "before you cut the tree, sharpen your saw". That means that before you are any use to other people, to the world, or to the Universe, you must look to your own strength, your own health, your intellect, your emotional health, your relationships, your hopes, your dreams, your ideas, your finances, your home, your family, your happiness. Sharpening your saw means learning to use your God-given talents to the maximum. It means study, it means practice, and it means forethought. It means seeking advice. Improving yourself is a process that never ends.

The need for self-improvement is not because you are inadequate in any way. No one knows everything, and we all have gaps in our learning and our understanding. Learning is something that should be part of every life.

Some one said to me, "When you think you KNOW, then growth becomes impossible. Humility just means remaining open and teachable. When you are teachable, new knowledge can reach you and take root easily.

When you prepare yourself thoroughly, your life will flow easier than you could imagine. When you are strong, healthy, calm, relaxed, enthused, and clear in direction, what an incredible power you will represent. Spirit will flow to you and through you to move the mountains in your life, and you will both inspire and assist those around you.

By now it is a cliché that the airline safety cards tell the adults to put their oxygen mask on first, before helping any children with theirs. You cannot be of maximum help in a weakened state, so before you think of serving others, take some time to serve yourself first.

Being of Service - Part 1

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We are creatures who need to serve. No one wants to feel that they are useless. Without a purpose, we do not thrive, and our purpose, whatever that is, is in part our way to be of service.

When it comes to being of service, we are Beings of Service.

What kind of service are we talking about?

If you're like me, you often just want to be left alone; maybe you don't want to volunteer for anything. But I'll bet there is something that you care about - something that you give your energy to. Whatever that is, that is your path of service. Follow that path, and you will find satisfaction. Fail to follow it, and you will forever feel that some part of your life is missing.

Who do we serve? Not all of us are driven by the urge to serve our fellow man - often we just want to go our own way, do our own thing. If we stay in that mode, we shrivel and shrink inside, because we need a vision bigger than ourselves to fill us with enthusiasm, to give us motivation. The Spirit in us is stirred to follow our grandest dreams, our biggest ideas. Unless our thoughts are big enough to stir our emotions, they do not stir the Spirit within.

If you don't feel the urge to follow a purpose, maybe your ideas are too small to turn you on!

Principles - what are they, and why should I care?

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Principles are Universal.

They apply equally in every part of time and space, and they apply equally to all circemstances.

Electricity, magnetism, gravity, quantum mechanics, the laws of motion, and the laws of mind; all these apply to any of us and to all of us, no matter where we are or when.

But perhaps you have noticed that the outcomes are not always the same. Some of us are shocked by electricity, some are crushed by gravity, and some use their mind for great wealth and power, while others allow their mind to drag them down into despair and depression.

How can this be, if principle works alike for everybody?
Why don’t we all experience the same thing, if that is the case?

The reason is that even though principles are universal, their effects are infinitely varied, according to the circumstances the principle is applied to.

The law of gravity is the same everywhere; but gravity on the moon is one fifth of that on the earth, because the mass of the earth is five times greater. Gravity has a force related to the mass of the objects – that’s why I weigh more than most of you do! Gravity works the same, but our relationship is different on the moon or Mars, sitting on a chair or jumping out a window.

The relationship we have to a principle is what determines its effects on us.

We use the principles of the universe by changing the relationship we have to them. We have a different relationship to electricity than Moses did, or Caesar, and as a result, electricity works differently for us.

Principles are an aspect of the Divine.

Principles are the way the intelligence of the universe works. They are the way God works, and they cannot be changed by begging, or bargaining, or by tears, or by fasting, or meditating.

The laws of mind, which are the counterpart to the laws of Physics, are the same – they work for anyone, and they work the same for everyone.

We can do two things to change our experience of life:
1) We can change the relationship we have to the law, so that the law does the right things for us, or
2) We can discover new laws, or new ways to relate to to the law, so that laws that we never dreamed of can be harnessed for our good.

Our relationship to the law is determined by our attitude. In an airplane, the ‘attitude’ is the relationship of the plane to the ground, the angle with respect to the horizon. God is the grounding of our very being, and our atrtitude to the ground of our existence is the most important thing.

The horizon is the limit to our vision, the edge of the world we know. What limits have you set on your world? What is your attitude to the world beyond your horizon? If we want to move beyond our immediate horizon, we have to trust that something good lies beyond.

Jesus said “Love God with all your heart and mind and soul” If God is the Law, we must love the Law, which is to know and trust that It is working for our good, all the time. That’s the proper attitude!

Healing with the Science of Mind

Dr. Ernest Holmes developed the Science of Mind® in the 1920s after taking a keen interest in some of the faith healers that travelled through New England in the previous decades. He was convinced that there was a principle at work, a Spiritual law which, if discovered, could be used by all who took the time to learn. He was not of the opinion that some people have abilities that others do not, except in degree, just like one may have a natural gift for the piano, but anyone can learn to play to some degree.

Dr. Holmes textbook is now past its 50th printing of the Second Edition, and thousands have learned Holmes' method, to whatever degree their level of interest took them.

To many the idea of scientific prayer is quite foreign. However, it has proven itself to many as a healing method which opens up the body and mind to its own inner Spiritual healing resources.

The body (or the mind) always heals itself. No medical, psychological, or other practitioner can force healing upon a client. All interventions can but open a way for the natural healing processes of the body to re-assert themselves. Healing prayer is no different.

Religious Science, the organization which teaches the Science of Mind, begins with the understanding that God or Spirit is the inner essence or reality of all living things; indeed of all things. There is a spiritual pattern, or universal idea, behind each form, which has drawn together the energy needed to make that form appear in the material world that we know.

This spiritual pattern contains no error. However, as we know, our bodies are not perfect. Therefore they are only approximate in adhering to their spiritual pattern. Returning to this perfection is a natural and continual tendency for us; blocked only by our thoughts and actions during the daily living of life. The greater the blocks we have, the further we drift from perfect health or wholeness.

Scientific prayer, known also as Spiritual Mind Treatment, creates a focus and a concentration on the reality of our perfect nature; and mentally casts aside the errors in thought which have caused us to drift away from our inner Truth. It begins by assuming that the innate activity of Spirit is to realize perfection, and therefore by removing blocks to this we may be healed. Call these blocks sins, if you wish; although they are approached without judgment, shame, or blame – much as one would approach a sliver in a hand or foot.

Spiritual Mind Treatment may seem to some like a vague or trivial process, but it is quite specific in its application, and has been shown to produce quite tangible results. It works by establishing positive faith, or belief, which brings about acceptance of Good.

Compiled by Dr. Ernest Holmes in the 1920s, the Science of Mind is primarily based on Biblical teachings; but it pays respect to other spiritual traditions, recognizing that wisdom has come to humanity by many routes and in many ways. It ignores much of the cultural and historical content of scriptures, concentrating instead on the specific truths which are being illustrated therein. It provides a method of prayer which is based on faith in the goodness and approachability of God.

The Science of Mind draws upon work done throughout the 1800s and 1900s, in addition to the Old and New Testament. It leans heavily upon the work of Thomas Troward, British judge and lecturer on ‘Mental Science’, and on Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great Unitarian pastor, professor and essayist. It also draws upon some of the modern faith healing traditions, including Christian Science. In the words of Holmes, it correlates "the laws of science, the opinions of philosophy, and the revelations of religion applied to the needs and the aspirations of humankind."

Religious Science Practitioners receive over three years of class training; followed by one year of internship, during which they must obtain several testimonials as to the efficacy of their prayer work. They are licensed by Religious Science International, on recommendation of their local minister. To contact a practitioner in Saskatoon, call the Centre for Positive Living at 306-975-2022. To find one elsewhere in North America or around the world, the Religious Science International web site is at http://www.rsintl.org/

Conclusion of series on Creation and Evolution

Well I have finally run out of steam on the subject of Creation and Evolution - for now.
Like I did with the series on "Quantum Living", I will collect all the 14 blogs into a single booklet that will available on www.lulu.com. It will be downloadable for the very low price of $3.00 or you will be able to order it as a printed booklet.

My bookstore page is:
http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=1223463

Check out my other books!

One in particular, "Turn the World on Its Head" is designed to be a great companion to the Science of Mind 100 series.

Here's what people have said about it:

"A great, concise teaching tool that is a beautiful companion piece for any Science of Mind class." .... Rev. David Ault

".... parallels the great classic by Wallace Wattles....I have to say it is truly outstanding..." Rev. Dr. Larry James Stevens

"We have to get it into the curriculum." Rev. Lorraine Trout

Creation and Evolution - Part 14 - The Word

At the beginning of the Gospel of John, the bible says "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

As a communications engineer, this speaks volumes to me. The WORD means information, meaning, intelligence and structure, such as flows from the process of thought. This means that God is pure thought energy, or conciousness. God not only IS consciousness, but ALL consciousness resides with God.

In other words, pure thought provides the structure and the impetus to form and fill the universe, and the thought energy acts within the substance of the Creator to cause energy to flow and fill the structures of creation.

"The word was with God" means that these thoughts flowed within the body of God as the Creator.

"The word was God" means that God's own self-awareness flows from this consciousness, from these thoughts, as well. Our Universe is nothing less than what God thinks It is!

When Moses asked "who are you", the answer was "I am that am". In other words, "I am that which is..." When all things are encompassed within one's being, one cannot relate to who or to what. One just is - everything.

This feeling of cosmic ONEness or complete lack of separateness is our key, our sign that we have touched our own awareness of the Creator in us. For we are of God. We can be nothing other.

Our human ego has been designed to give us a sense of separateness or individuality, to enable us to operate independently, and exercise that freedom of will which is the gift of our creation.

Realize that this separate identity is our personal illusion. Your separate self is like the fake storefronts in the old western movies, a facade, a temporary thought construction. Aside from that facade, we are made in the image and likeness of our creator - that is, with the full creative ability to form and manipulate our so-called 'reality'.

Why? Why us? Why this illusion of separateness in a world that appears solid, but which we know (thanks to Einstein) is fashioned from the energy of pure light. Why would the Creator have done such a thing?

I think the answer lies in the nature of Unity versus diversity, of togetherness versus separateness. Unity cannot be divided against itself. So long as God remained ONE, there would have been only one sequence of thoughts, one point of view, one line of experience, fulfillment, and creativity. By contrast, there are billions of us, all facing separate challenges from separate points of view. We bring richness and depth to the experience of God as we struggle to fulfill our purpose.

Only our apart-ness enables us to have different experiences from one another; to develop different creative ideas and patterns of thinking. Only the forming this illusion of separate consciousness could the richness of diversity be combined in Unity once again!

This notion of a diversified creator who is, at once, all things, does challenge our usual concept of the infallible God. From our limited point of view, for God to be always right, never wrong, would mean that God would have to have only ONE point of view - the right one. Of course we think we know which one that is!

I believe that notion puts human limits on God. I believe God to have a billion or more points of view. And yes, they are always right, because right just isn't what we thought it was. God is not limited to one thing. God is the sum total of all possibilities.

Right thinking, right action, for each of us, is what we find when we have sought and found ONE-ness with our inner reality, our true self, the Creator at the heart of each of us. For each one of us that rightness, that truth, is different - having its own unique form and expression. When we look at the world from the perspective of that inner Truth, we will judge it righteously, rather than by appearances (John 7:24).

The miracle of this creation is that by allowing our uniqueness to blossom and express itself fully, we are adding our share within that glorious unity that is God.

Creation and Evolution - Part 13 - Involution and Evolution

INVOLUTION AND EVOLUTION

Thomas Troward and Ernest Holmes made it clear in their writings that there are two fundamental processes going on when the Creative Principle is at work. First there is the process of THE WORD, or a clearly expressed thought, which impresses upon the undifferentiated substance of the Divine to create a FORM. Plato intuited that for every thing in the world there is an invisible idea, or form, which represents the ideal of that object. As a crude example, a machinist can only approximately turn a perfect circle, but we can certainly imagine a perfect circle - so it exists as an idea in Divine Mind.

The process of expressing an clear idea in thought is called INVOLUTION, from the root word 'to invoke', and the Divine Matrix (sort of like in the movie!) responds to begin to bring about that idea, but must follow the laws of Mind and Matter to do so. The process of bringing about the physical result from the original idea is what we call EVOLUTION.

These two, involution and evolution, are not really separate - they are two sides of the same coin. The idea, if clear and unequivocal, produces a response from Spirit which, if it proceeds to its logical conclusion, results in a physical object, appearance, or experience.

Thought creates invisible forms, and a clear thought expressed with genuine conviction provides a form that stirs the substance of the cosmos, beginning a process which commands the physical appearance of that form.

Once understood, it can be seen that creation IS evolution, evolution IS creation, but working itself out through the laws of the universe, which include the laws of physics, chemistry, biology and so forth.

Creation is a action in the mental realm, and as such is not subject to science. Science cannot measure an artists vision, or a poet's dream, thought they may be able to measure some of the physical effects, such as brain waves - these are but the evidence of thought, not thought itself, just as a tire track is not a Chevrolet.

Creation, or involution, takes no particular time - it can be a flash of inspiration, or a carefully thought-out plan. Perhaps the Earth could be thought of in six days, whether those are 'days' of the galaxy wheeling about or of the earth around the sun. That does not matter to Science, because Science is designed to study not the causes in the mental realm, but the EFFECTS in the physical realm. Those effects take the form of evolution. Science is designed to tell us how things come to be - but only in the physical sense.

To hold a controversy that places creation and evolution as opposites reveals a consciousness of duality, which is present in the world of effects. Our material world is a world of effects, which are illusory. We know scientifically that visible matter is not solid as it appears and energies are mainly invisible. The world of effects is the world of duality, of dichotomies, or polarities. Whenever one sees such duality, it is a sign that the Truth (capital T) is some higher concept which brings the dual sides into Oncness - because Oneness is the Truth of All That Is.

Whenever a dispute arises which has some sort of duality at its core, the correct understanding is at some higher level of understanding. From a higher perspective, we know that all is One, and that all must be in perfect synchrony. Knowing this, we would not argue in an either-or sort of fashion. We would know that there are two points of view, and that both viewpoints are looking at the same reality, each from their own perspective. We are back to the old Hindu tale of the blind men and the elephant, where each could feel only a part of the beast.
All things are created through the dual processes of Involution and Evolution. There is the invisible process in thought, and the visible process in physical unfoldment. This is why it is said, "As above, so below" in the Hermetic tradition, and in the Biblical tradition, "On Earth as it is in Heaven."

Creation and Evolution - Part 12 - What is God?

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Who or What is God?

There has been some sort of concept of a Creator-God in nearly all societies. Often casual observers of foreign cultures are easily mistaken by what they witness, and may fail to properly grasp the God-concept at work in an unfamiliar society.

Ancient cultures placed objects or found objects to serve as physical representations of the Divine. More recent cultures profess to hold a more abstract concept, but then go on to use an object, place, person, or thing which they will regard as somehow more holy than its material surroundings. We may smugly think ourselves better than those who erect statues of different forms; of elephants, multi-armed icons, animals, or simply human figures…..but then we may go on to use crystals, candles, crosses, stones, ancient ruins, or modern sanctuaries, investing them with our notion of mystic energy. This is not wrong – it is merely unnecessary. To put it in perspective, a teacher of mine asked her class to imagine a modern-day equivalent version of Christian worship – with an electric chair mounted on the wall of a sanctuary! Might we have done that, if Jesus had lived in a more recent era, or if technology had been developed earlier?

There appears to be a human need to bring God down to our level, by somehow squeezing the Infinite into a space that we can grasp. This is, I feel, a philosophical cop-out. The awe that we ought to feel when contemplating the Infinite, by straining to grasp the Ungraspable, by trying to realize the immensity of what we are communing with, is diminished by substitution of something vastly smaller, whether inanimate or human.

So what is God, that we should be mindful of It?

We structure our perceptions by the process of defining and naming things; and we can do no different with God, because that is how our minds operate. We have defined God as the Creator of All. Whether we know it or not, we started in the very first line of Genesis, “In the beginning, God…..”

Now we have gained some physical understanding of this, too. Science now knows that our universe unfolded from some sort of multidimensional space-time field of potential and possibility, in an event which is popularly called “The Big Bang”. The Creator, or Creative Force, is presumably the impetus behind this. We have in fact defined it so. God, for us, can never be more than we can comprehend.

So God is what we know as the First Cause in the chain of cause and effect which we now observe and measure and figure out. Human knowledge is the sum total of all the causes and effects which we have figured out so far.

As First Cause, we are saying that this Thing we call God, (what Ernest Holmes called The Thing Itself) provided the impetus, the will, the intelligence, to initiate the processes of creation. This impetus is the force for change, and it is a property of Mind. This is why we say that God is Mind in action. Creation is not a physical action; it is an act of Mind, of ideation, of imagination.

As First Cause, we can deduce more about the nature of God. We can ask, “If God made the universe, what did God make it out of?” Because if there was anything here before, then we could ask “Who made that?” and then we would have to have a First Cause before the First Cause, which gets really silly. God therefore also includes the substance of creation – the stuff that all things are made of. For if there was 'stuff' before God, then Who or What made the stuff? We would have to have a God before God, and we go down a nonsense road with that.

So since we know from Einstein that matter is energy, God is both the Energy of the Universe, and the Intelligence that shapes or forms that Energy, and thus God creates the material universe out of Itself!

This means that all of the physical universe is comprised of energy and intelligence, and indeed we can demostrate this to varying degrees. Intelligence is that which creates form, form being that which is distinguishable from randomness or chaos. Whenever we encounter energy bound into form, we are able to recognize and distinguish it, categorize it, name it, observe it, study it.

There is an old saying that if we found a watch lying in the vastness of the desert, even knowing nothing about watches, the complexity alone would signal to us that intelligence had created this thing. We are only beginning to appreciate the quantum complexity in even the simplest rock. The old poetic phrase “See the universe in a grain of sand” is prophetically true. Wasn't it Blake who wrote it?

So far, our picture of God is not one we can easily relate to. That is the reason why the peoples of the world build those statues, those symbols and icons. We need something to relate to. We will find that that Thing is not hung on a wall or in a niche; it is within ourselves.

If we can simply accept that there is, at the center of all, an ungraspable power; not a being, but the essence of Being Itself, then we can set aside the need for physical or visual crutches, and begin to work out the truth for ourselves.

Why would I say not a being? Because a being has a form, a beginning and an end, and a being is something partial. A being leaves room for other beings – we should know, because we are beings. To regard God as a being is to whittle the infinite down to manageable size. What is left after that process is not God, but merely an aspect, a form, a partiality.

God as a being is exactly what the Greek and Hindu and other statue-makers were trying to portray. But since each is only a partial representation of the Divine, then we need an infinite number of them to fully portray the Allness of God. This is where we begin to understand the reasons for polytheistic cultures. What is being portrayed are various aspects of Deity- the activities of Godly power.

We have also created these forms within the umbrella of our so-called monotheism, without fully realizing it. We too have our many forms, but we see them as many aspects of Jesus. We have the teaching Jesus, the righteously angry Jesus, the healing Jesus, and the suffering Jesus. Then we have Mary, the mother figure, and all the vast army of saints. Each form we say is representative of God in action, and so it is; but so are Vishnu, Krishna, and Ganesh. So are Mercury, Hera, Athena, and Zeus. So are Thor, and Loki, and Freya. Many of these figures were real people once, who were regarded as heroes, and long after their death came to be regarded as Gods. Sound familiar?

A particular being cannot fully portray an infinite. Any of our God-figures can only partly reflect to us one or a few of the aspects of the Divine. To begin to approach a correct view, we must reach the conclusion that God is the very Essence of Being; that Beingness which is common to all beings, that spark which enables all to live. God is the Thing which enables Life, which permits Intelligence, which supports the movement of Power. God is the Matrix for all creation. The Creator provides the Law, or IS the Law by which the essence of Being itself can be manifested. Each being carries the stamp of the Creator, without which Being could not be.

Being is not enough, since it encompasses inanimate things, which also can be, as well as the animate. There is more than being to us; there is life. Life is the spark that provides not only awareness, but the urge to extend, to multiply, to grow. We have in us not merely an urge to be, but to become. Thus we have in us the urge of the Creator to further create. This is life.

But there is also more than merely life; life itself is a manifestation of intelligence within matter. It starts as simple pattern, as in a rock. It expands to programming, as in simple life which can reproduce itself, and it proceeds up the ladder of intelligence to Self-Awareness, and beyond that to Wisdom and Enlightenment, the ability to see beyond self to the oneness of the underlying reality.

We can see, then, that there are different degrees of livingness within life. Life is like a light, either on or off - it is either there or it isn't. But our life is different is character and quality from that of a virus or a bacterium. We can do more with our life than they can, and some have called this scale of quality livingness. It is related, it seems, to complexity, as more complex creatures have clearly more scope for livingness. It is related to evolution, as those beings with greater livingness seem to have evolved from those who have less.

This march of evolution could be interpreted as evidence of Spirit creating more and more scope for Itself to act in the physical realm. We like to think that we are the end point of evolution, but are we? More likely we are somewhere in the middle, as God is in the process of unfolding It's mightiness from the invisible into the visible. Jesus can be seen as a prototype of some future man, while we strive and struggle to approach his level of embodiment of God's nature. It that the end, or is that just the best that can be achieved with the human species? What is to come after us? Only time will tell.

Creation and Evolution - Part 11 - Mind and Life

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MIND AND LIFE

The existence of form is the evidence of intelligence, or mind, in its most rudimentary appearance. At some higher level of pattern complexity, matter has gained the intelligence sufficient to replicate itself. This level of order separates nonlife from life; one being order as opposed to chaos, the other being a level of order which is able to expand the amount of order relative to the amount of chaos.

Life creates an increasing higher order, using lower forms of material order. The lowest forms of life show a level of awareness; being able to seek food, seek one another, seek light, and follow chemical signals. This is unconscious awareness.

At the highest forms of life, self-awareness emerges, superimposed on all the other lower layers of Intelligence. Self-awareness is the faculty of examining the nature of all these layers, and the sense of identity. It is the emergence of a point of view.

Our self-awareness is layered on top of all the other levels of Mind. In summary, these are:

1) Material form or recurrent permanence - the Matter Principle
2) Growth and replication of form - the Life Principle
3) Unconscious impulse - the Interactive Principle
4) Conscious awareness - the Self Principle
5) Expanded awareness - the Unity Principle

The latter step, which we might call Superconscious awareness, or the Enlightenment Principle, is one in which the Self - awareness gives way to a broadened awareness of the Unity of things, without losing entirely the concept of viewpoint. This is reported by many people but the use of language seems to be a limiting factor in describing the experience. It seems best described in poetic terms. This has been the experience of enough people that it deserves attention.

Why poetic terms? Because unconscious or superconscious understanding is only made aware to the conscious mind through symbolism and imagery. This cannot be placed adequately into language, which is linear and logical in construction. Poetry is the only use of language which may come close to describing the impressions of the unconscious.

This may be uniquely a problem of alphabetic languages. Pictographic languages are probably closer to being able to express unconscious perception. Thus, the users of languages such as Chinese, or ancient Egyptian, may have an edge in achieving this kind of expanded awareness and understanding.

Creation and Evolution - Part 10 - Intelligence

INTELLIGENCE (MIND)

We are so hyper-involved in our physicality and in materialism that we think of evolution as a physical process, where the physically simple forms migrate through random processes toward forms that are more complex. I believe this to be a limited view. If we are simply physical, then there continues to be no explanation for our self-awareness, the I AM that is us.

The story of evolution is also the story of forms which have evolved as vehicles for Intelligence, or Mind.

The history of the Universe is the history of the evolution of intelligence from recurrent order (like the rock) toward expanding order, awareness, and finally to self-awareness and self-directed evolution.

The physical history of the Big Bang that we normally think of is the EFFECT of this evolution of mind. Does Mind exist independently, outside of the Universe? Who knows? Is God in the Universe or outside it? That is the next BIG question. Let's address it.

The argument for a God outside the Universe is a tricky one, because normally we define the Universe as being the sum total of everything. If everything is in it, how can anything be outside it? Of course we cannot just step out of the universe to have a look. Science has estimated what may have occurred just AFTER the big bang, but is simply not able to get a grasp on anything which may have come before.

For now, we will side-step the question of whether there is such a thing as before or after. If time is a feature of the created physical universe, then we don't have to worry about it in the 'before'.

Quantum mechanics may have the answer for this as well, because it implies that energy is inherent in the very fabric of space itself, and the matter we observe is merely a protrusion of energy patterns into three dimensional space of a multi-dimensional reality. That's like saying there's more to the world than we can see and touch. We are seeing only a piece of what is there. Just as we can't see electric fields; we can't see magnetic fields; we can't see most wavelengths of radiation. Much of what is there, we cannot see. But the stuff we can't see makes up the Universe as well.

We know that the Universe contains intelligence, assuming we consider ourselves intelligent. We also can see, or think we can, that other lifeforms contain greater or lesser degrees of intelligence. What we have not quite figured out is where to draw the line. The answer, I think, is that there is no line. There is a continuous scale of intelligence from the simplest inert matter, through complex molecules, viruses, unicellular life, plants, animals, through man, assuming that man is indeed where it stops.



Software people understand that intelligence is programming. The physical Universe is energy, formed into patterns. The patterns themselves, as in the structure of the atom, are a program for the recurrent re-creation of the atom thousands of times each second, according to the quantum mechanical laws of physics. Inert matter is the energy of the Universe locked into definite form. Those forms follow some rules (programming rules?) which dictate the layout of atomic orbits and quantum energy levels.

Material forms are patterns superimposed upon the basic energy 'stuff' of the Universe; what we might loosely call the fabric of space. Most of the patterns are recurrent; if they were not, matter would fade and disappear with time. A few are temporary, as with certain particles which are created in nuclear research devices under extreme conditions.

Could it be that the programmer is one with its programming? Are the forms which make up our world just the substance of the intelligence that created them?

Creation and Evolution - Part 9 - An Alternative

AN ALTERNATIVE WAY TO THINK

Modern mathematical theory has pointed a way out, which points the way to a new philosophy. The evolution of Chaos Theory in the latter part of the 20th Century resulted in some interesting insights. One of these is the finding that randomness cannot seem to manage to persist for very long. There appears to be a mechanism built in to the universe which produces a form of order out of chaos, with only the slightest perturbation being required.

Hence the 1970s song by The Moody Blues about “Butterfly Sneezes” creating major change. It has been said that a butterfly flapping its wings may stir the air to create a tornado at some later place and time. Such examples are both fanciful and illustrative. It is questionable whether butterflies play a major role in the weather, but it is predicted by chaos theory that there can be no perfectly random motion of particles without eventual perturbation, clumping of molecules, followed by formation of patterns which display order.

The implication of this is profound. It means that order is the natural state of the universe, and that randomness, or chaos, cannot persist for more than a short period of time.

This is remarkably close to some of the theories of creation by emanation. There is an innate tendency for organization, built into the very fabric of the universe, such that creation at the most basic level must take place. So we could take emanation as our model, but only at the most elementary and basic levels at which creation takes place.

Given that creation must occur, we can safely assume that we inhabit a world in which the intelligence for pattern formation, which is the essence of creation, is an essential part. The world contains its own innate rules which overcome randomness with organization, given enough time. The amount of time is likely pseudo-random, that is, a certain level of organization has a certain probability of taking place within a certain time frame, as set by the unique properties of space and material at the starting point.

Intelligence is either a fundamental property of a thing (such as ourselves, assuming we take ourselves to be intelligent), or else we say that intelligence is built into a thing. This description is a new one since the computer era, but we say that intelligence is built into our appliances, into our desktop computers, and so forth. It is our way of saying that it is programmed to behave a certain way. Intelligence has not been known to grow by itself, in our experience; it is obtained either from the environment, or by deliberate input, or else it was innate, like the oak tree’s fundamental character was contained in the acorn.

If we find Intelligence in the world around us, or in ourselves, we could say that, from our experience, this Intelligence was placed in the world, or in us, by a combination of means; but all the Intelligence we find was present from the start. It found its way to us by a combination of means, by genetic programming and by learning, but either way, It was present in one form or another.

The intelligence that resides in our individuality has the quality of being consciously held. We can call it up at will, wield it in whatever way we choose. This differs greatly from the intelligence of most of the world. We can choose to be a farmer, a fireman, or a writer. A tree can only choose to be a tree; but we can choose to make it a china cabinet. I doubt we would be prepared to say that the tree chose to become a china cabinet by utilizing us to do the work! The tree is not conscious; it reacts to things – it does not act.

So we can choose to view the Intelligence as being innate in the world, in an unconscious way; but being conscious in us. We are individualized points of Universal Consciousness, through which the Universal Intelligence may be directed for desired ends.

We can choose now to take this responsibility and run with it, or put our heads back into the sand.

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