Do you believe in a Divine Creator?
Or, do you perhaps recognise and pay deference to multiple Gods? If your answer is 'No' to both questions, then have you really thought it out, and bothered to consider the evidence? In a recent survey conducted by a popular Australian magazine, which attracted thousands of replies, 83% admitted that they believe in God.
Let's have a look at the Negative case first.
The usual reason given when denying any kind of God or Superior Intelligence governing all life on Earth and in the Universe, is that if God exists why is there so much suffering and injustice here in our World.
Suffering.
Now there is no getting away from the fact that this is a hard one to answer. Those who have very firm beliefs tend to edge their way out of it by answering that God has reasons, which we may not understand. This reply really isn't good enough. If we want to advance ourselves spiritually we must face it, and try to accept the most plausible explanation offered, or at least understand the reasoning. In doing so, we may discover some other enlightenment. The important thing is that in thinking about it; in trying to understand why such conditions exist in almost every corner of the World, we are not just brushing it under the carpet. We are opening our minds, and we are showing our inner selves that we do have compassion and care.
Spiritualists, whatever their religious beliefs, do have an answer. I find it the most plausible, and the idea that there is compensation and retribution for all good and all evil deeds done on Earth shouldn't be dismissed.
Now before judging all of the implications that this entails, we must look at it objectively. It does not in anyway mean that an innocent child famished and diseased in some poverty stricken country is being punished for some transgression committed in a past life. If we are going to understand why it is happening, then we need to know more about this World and the Next.
This World.
For some, lucky enough to have been gifted with a good station in life and good health, the World may seem to be Heaven itself. For those born into abject poverty, encountering the constant perils of sickness and disease, it would appear to be Hell. In between there is a zone in which the fortunate can improve upon or sink to a lower level. Yet how often do you hear the rich and wealthy claiming that they are entirely happy with life? There are lessons to be learned no matter how fortunate one's place may be, in society.
The Next.
As for 'The Other Side', we have to rely on reports from those who have had a brief glimpse in a 'Near Death Experience', or from messages received through mediums or channelling. If one cannot accept the truth of such revelations then you might as well stop here. There is nothing wrong with this attitude at all. Our main purpose is to get on with life and meet the challenges as best we can. We are not meant to dwell on what lies ahead or in the past. The goal of the inquisitive mind should be to prepare oneself spiritually which will hopefully enable a quicker journey to a higher level.
Much of what knowledge I have, has come to me through extensive reading and study. Still more has come through intuitively. Additionally I have picked up many little snippets from TV shows where a well known medium gives readings to a wide audience. Quite often something is explained, and another piece of the puzzle falls into place. When it clicks, there is no mistaking it, for there is that feeling of elation extending from a mild "Of Course", to a very big cry of "Eureka".
An event that is given top billing in most televised 'readings' is the date of passing. In one show, the audience was asked, "What is the most important event in your life?" It is of course your birthday. For those who have crossed over, that date seems to be just as important. I doubt whether there is any great celestial calendar, even if time exists, so the earthly date is used to mark that big moment. When I took this on board, much more became clear.
With very few exceptions, everyone who has had a glimpse of 'Beyond', has reported that it is so wonderful, and so full of love that they do not want to return to their life on Earth. Messages and thoughts from those who have made the journey tell us the same story, and add that it was an overwhelming relief to be back in the Spiritual World. There is no suffering there, no disease, and everyone is whole again, even though they might have lost a limb, or suffered from some brain debilitating affliction. It must be just like wakening after experiencing a very bad nightmare.
No wonder such importance is placed on the event.
Life is a School Term.
Even those of little faith admit to learning lessons as they go through life. So, just maybe, this is the reason for being here. Could it be that suffering plays a big part in the ordeal of living? The Spiritualist view is that it may be retribution for past deeds, but it isn't something that is thrust upon one like some punishment. It is our choice to come into this World. There may be all kinds of reasons why we have built up a charge of negativity, and it doesn't have to be because of any wrong doings. Everything in the Universe is created as energy and quite naturally there are two sides to everything, as in matter and anti-matter. There has to be both good and evil to hold everything in balance. We may gather up small deposits from the negative side, in the same way that a falling raindrop collects minute particles and nutrients on its way down.
If we regard the nucleus of God as being in the highest level of positive purity, then we cannot and wouldn't expect to advance that far without shedding every atom of negativity. It would be like trying to force the opposite poles of a magnet into permanent contact, with a cataclysmic and catastrophic result.
Taking on a life of suffering and misery may be a fast road to unloading that dangerous baggage, and one which might just cut out a series of easier lifetimes. The simplest method of producing pure water is to distil it. Each droplet of moisture has to go through a boiling cauldron and evaporate to leave behind all the impurities. Producing pure Spirit is no different whether it be of the alcoholic kind or a soul in need of cleansing.
If living a good life is a fundamental part of spiritual advancement, then how can we explain young lives cut short before they have hardly started? Two possibilities come to mind, and both have been given in readings. When a soul needs to experience the loss of an infant, another will volunteer to go through the trauma of a growing life in the womb followed by a quick exit before or after birth. It is done out of a great love between the participants. Otherwise a brief life is all that it takes to remove tiny traces of negativity. Think of the time it takes to defragment your computer's hard disk when it hasn't been done for quite a while. Running the Disc Defragmenter regularly and frequently removes all the empty cells that litter the hard disc after files have been deleted. Keeping all files as close as possible to the start of the disc ensure that all your programmes run as fast as possible.
Thus, there is more to life than meets the eye. We cannot hope to understand every reason, and we may come to the wrong conclusions. The important criterion is to keep an open mind, and exercise it by meditating upon all the possibilities. We must not rely on, or take as gospel anyone else's belief. Often there are many possible answers to a question, and more than one can be valid.
The Semblance of God
It may seem that I have wandered from God into theories of the meaning of life and the soul. But are we so very different from our Creator? The Gnostic Christians held the view that God is within ourselves, and the first tenet of the Ancient Greeks was 'Know Thyself'.
The image that has been portrayed through the ages by religious artists is one of an elderly benevolent bearded man. This is hardly likely to be a true likeness.
Actually the Bible presents an idea of God which couldn't be more different. In Exodus 33:20-23 Moses is told that neither he nor anyone may look at the face of God and live. In some translations his glory is depicted as a dazzling light. Bearing in mind that many scholars believe Moses to have been none other than the Pharaoh Akhenaten, whose grandfather was Yu-Sef or Joseph, son of Jacob, then it follows that he is describing Aten, the Sun Disc, whom he worshipped. He would have been instructed in a monotheistic belief, by his mother, Queen Tiye, who in turn would have learned from her father, Joseph.
The Egyptians were so accustomed to Idols of their Gods in their Temples, it is not surprising that Akhenaten looked for some symbol to represent his unseen One God. It may have been essential, in order to 'sell' the idea of one God to an Idol loving people. How else could he have represented a Super Force that was responsible for all life on Earth? He chose the Sun as a symbol, which he portrayed with rays bearing at their ends, the Akh, or the sign of Life. Aten was the Ancient Egyptian word for 'Adonis', meaning Lord, or God.
Now we are getting close, for the energy that the Sun emits, does sustain life on our tiny planet. It is an energy that permeates everywhere, and neutrons for instance, can penetrate and pass right through our planet. So representing God in this way, does make more sense than showing our Creator as a stately bearded old gentleman. Genesis tells us that God made human beings in his image. We are. We are bundles of energy, as are all living creatures. The idea that it is the other way round, and that God has some human form is an expression of man's bloated ego.
The Hand of God
Just because we have hands to feel, touch and work with, doesn't mean that all energy forces require such sensory appendages. In our World it is more useful to gather information about our surroundings, through our five physical senses, and it is second nature for our control centre, the brain, to send instructions through nerves to various organs, to activate them and do our bidding. The body then, is simply an organic robot which is controlled by our minds, who look upon the brain as a computer control centre.
Telekinesis demonstrates that even the human brain is sometimes capable of moving objects without having to use our hands. For an entity as great as God, it would be no problem at all to wield matter and energy through this kind of will power.
The Nature of God
Who can tell what God is really like? We can only ponder endlessly over this mystery. I can only offer one suggestion, which the reader may care to examine. It has been the main past-time of the human race, since it's first specimens were able to apply their mind beyond their everyday needs.
If we really are in some way like God, then let us try and imagine how we may fit into the great plan of things.
The immense field of energy encompassing the Universe and beyond, which I perceive to be God, can be likened unto the great body of water that clothes the surface of the Earth. Now, think of ourselves as mere specks of that energy, or tiny molecules of water. We then, are drawn from the main body similar to water evaporating from the Sea, to form clouds in the Heavens. There the droplets are so small, and like spirits we cannot be seen individually. When the time is right we condense into raindrops and, and fall to earth. Some of us go with the main flow, and quickly run into the conventional stream, into rivers or congregations, and flow back to the Sea, and our real home. Some soak into fertile earth, to help others - plants - survive, before they too evaporate to follow the cycle. Some fall on arid ground, where there is little hope of finding a 'vehicle' to develop in, and soon these droplets evaporate again for a second chance.
The Analogy of this cycle, is that each tiny droplet of moisture is an individual spirit, separated for a while to purify itself. As a raindrop it has body enough to be seen as an individual, and be cleansed through love and learning. When ready it disperses, and can no longer be seen as a body, at which time it returns to its energy source.
A year or two after this idea first came to me, I read Maurice Cotterell's book, "The Tutankhamun Prophecies", and found that he was also using the rainfall cycle to illustrate how the soul may progress. However he does explain two more theories about creation and the purpose of life, and illustrates how God may benefit and grow through our existence and spiritual advancement.
So, I see God as an unseen, but immense body of energy, from which some part exploded into matter with the 'Big Bang', to create Time, and the Universe within which life forms evolved.
The eminent Scientist, Steven Hawking wrote that if we can ever find a complete theory which would explain why and how the Universe was created, "then we would know the mind of God."
The Mind of God
Following on from the penultimate paragraph, the centre of God's thought processes may be either within the Universe, or somewhere without. If a part of our visible Universe, then we are minute cells, something like neurones, inside that home of supra-intelligence. The Earth itself may be the Neurone, and the sum total of all living minds residing on and in it, would then compose in some way the microchip network which it resembles.
A human brain itself is an amazing structure. Its cortex has 50 billion neurones - nerve cells. One cubic inch of the brain contains 100 million nerve cells. These are connected by 10,000 miles of fibres. If all nerve cells and fibres were stretched end to end, they would reach to the Moon and back. Each neurone produces its own chemical and distributes it. An area the size of a grain of sand contains a myriad of networks, more complicated than any microchip. A Synapse is a neural transmitter which sends from its axon to the dendrites of another cell. There are at least two dozen types of neural transmitters, so far discovered. Finding the correct receiver is like trying to locate a pinch of salt dissolved in a Swimming Pool.
Multiply this miracle of organic engineering by the total population of living creatures on Earth, then again by the number of astral bodies which comprise our Universe, then at least once more, by the number of parallel universes, and we can just get some idea of the enormity of God's Mind.
The Language and Music of God
We know from the manner in which mediums receive messages from those who have crossed over to the other side, that language as we know it isn't anything like the 'lingua franca' of Heaven. For a start there is no barrier in communication between people who have passed, wherever they may have lived on Earth.
We also know that thought is the main avenue of communication. It is though, so strong on the other side, that complete environments are projected around spirit energy, both of which appear as real and solid as any object or living being that we can see and touch. Our world and universe then, may only be a projection of God's thought.
The messages received through a psychic rarely arrive in the form of the spoken word, or as telepathic sentences. When they do, they are usually disjointed or perhaps the main consonants within a name or noun. More often than not a symbol or image is projected into the medium's mind. Clearly then the 'language' of Heaven, consists of pictures, symbols, feelings and other sensations, scents, music and harmonics, colours, and art. Our own animal life can also communicate with others of their own species through thinking images.
Those that have had a 'Near Death Experience, almost always tell us that they were met with an intense feeling of Love, followed by great relief in being free of the confines of a physical body. It seems then that when it comes to virtues, that of love is well in front.
Spirits have from time to time mentioned that their ambience is of a higher vibrational energy than ours, and mediums usually need to raise their level through prayer and meditation before they can receive thoughts and images from the other side. Though those who have crossed, it seems, can always understand our thoughts and words. Very often during a reading, a spirit will thank the living for their prayers, and ask them to continue to pray, as it helps them. I don't think the prayer for a loved one is received by an almighty judge, as a character reference. It is more likely that it raises the positive charge in spirit energy, thus making them stronger.
Recently, John Edward in his show, "Crossing Over", remarked that in his first few years as a medium, he would see musical notes floating up and around the image of a spirit. He had taken these symbols to mean that that person had been a musician or had had something to do with the musical world. In time he learned that they were indicating that prayers had been offered on their behalf. This is perhaps comprehensible, when one considers the 'super string' theory promoted by some scientists.
When physicists started delving into the study of sub-atomic material, they thought that it consisted of minute invisible and shapeless particles. But there were problems with this idea, and it became obvious that there were other under-lying factors. The 'super-string' theory appeared to be the answer. This opinion has it that the particles are really infinitesimal invisible loops of string which vibrate much as those on a stringed instrument do when producing musical notes.
If a guitar string is tuned in perfect harmony with that of another guitar, it can cause the second string to vibrate and emit the same frequency, even if it is in an adjacent room. This might even be the manner in which spirit thoughts are picked up by a medium. The sheer concentration of someone saying their prayers may be enough to make the contact with a spirit, matching and raising their energy upon receipt of the tuned vibration.
During a televised programme, Burt Ovrut of the University of Pennsylvania put it this way, "Nature is made of all the little notes, the musical notes, that are played on these super-strings. To which, Michio Kaku of the City University of New York added, "All of a sudden we realised the Universe is a symphony and the laws of physics are harmonies of a super-string".
God's Complexity
Unfortunately for the Scientists, the Super-String theory broke down when they tried to link it in to that most important moment in Time, "The Big Bang", the actual microsecond when the Universe was created. All their mathematical calculations failed at this crucial point. There had to be something else.
After many years of research, they found an amazing answer which brought everything together. There has to be an 11th Dimension, and with this in mind, they found that there is not simply the one Universe that we know and live within, but an infinite number of parallel universes. All matter appears to be interconnected in some elaborate structure, like a pulsating membrane, and every particle is in some way connected with all others. These bubble like membranes are never motionless but continually rippling as do waves disturbing the surface of an Ocean.
Studies in quantum physics had already found that twin photons maintain contact irrespective of the distance between them. If one photon is disturbed, the other will react in exactly the same manner as the first. The action is instantaneous, and there is no delay in time as has been observed in telepathic experiments between subjects on the Moon and the Earth.
God then is much more wondrous than we can ever visualise in our feeble minds.
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Created on ... November 04, 2002