"I of my own knowledge…"

Illusions of time, illusions of space

Separation in space produces the illusion – or perhaps it would be better to say the condition – of separation, of individuality, of non-belonging, of difference, in a way that would not be possible otherwise. The guys upstairs once said that there is separation non-physically in a way but not as it is in the physical world. They suggested, as a rough analogy, that we think how our world would be if we were all continuously and unpredictably teleporting though both time and space. Nothing would seem as solid as definite or as sequential to you as everything does now. (It is only an analogy but not so bad a one.)

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John Anthony West derides what he calls the Church of Progress. Me too. I am really tired of people pretending they are profound when in fact they are merely sheep following trends. The trend of the past tiresome century, and this one to date, is to regard religion as superstition, as if  blind faith in “progress” or in “science” were anything but superstition.

A friend’s comments since I posted this reminds me that I should make clear that of course I did not mean that everyone who rejects religion does so only because it is fashionable to do so – merely that it is the fashion to do so, and the sheep do go that way. As to creeds, I believe it was Jung who said that the gods never reinhabit the temples they once abandon. Similarly, the old formulaic Christianity (and Judaism, and Islam, and Buddhism, and Hinduism, I would argue) is not something we can or should go back to; however, it (whichever one we were raised in) is likely part of what we step off from.  

This piece, via my brother who called it to my attention a while ago, from The New York Times http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/god-talk/?emc=eta1 .

God Talk

 Stanley Fish

In the opening sentence of the last chapter of his new book, “Reason, Faith and Revolution,” the British critic Terry Eagleton asks, “Why are the most unlikely people, including myself, suddenly talking about God?” His answer, elaborated in prose that is alternately witty, scabrous and angry, is that the other candidates for guidance – science, reason, liberalism, capitalism – just don’t deliver what is ultimately needed. “What other symbolic form,” he queries, “has managed to forge such direct links between the most universal and absolute of truths and the everyday practices of countless millions of men and women?”

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My friend Jim Price forwards this interesting information, which he received in a series of dreams.  It seems to be about alchemy, but as will be seen it is about awareness.

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The narrator, Angelo Chiari, is a news reporter in his fifties, comes to a Monroe-like program as a skeptic. In the course of the week, a lot of things open up for him – or perhaps we should say, he opens up to things, as various experiences present opportunities. As for instance on Tuesday night, when Angelo is confronted with the onset of an asthma attack, without his accustomed way to hold it at bay. This is from Chapter Four.

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Connecting to other parts of ourselves

Back when I was still new to all this I discovered John Cotton, a “past life” of mine living in Virginia in the 1700s. Eventually I “retrieved” him, which it seems to me amounts to my having lifted myself by my own bootstraps. I was told later that I was gradually assembling the whole party of those known to me, drawing them closer to my everyday mind, which would pay off for me – as it would for anybody who did it – by increasing my range. After I got a handle on those closest to me in temperament, disposition, the era and geography, I could use them to help me move farther afield.

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The points of view I retrieve from talking to the other side are sometimes surprising. Yesterday I merely asked my friend Joseph Smallwood what he thought of Allan Nevins’ The Ordeal Of The Union that I am reading, and got another point of view about what really happens when any of us read and think, no matter how alone we may be when we do so.

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As I look through emails from my friend Robert Clarke, who passed over to the other side last month, I find this, which should be of interest. Perhaps it gives a glimpse of the depth of meaning hidden in symbolism of dreams and mythology.

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Although it may seem like I forget it from one month to the next, this website and blog are here not merely to air my opinions about things that (I think!) I know something about. They are also  supposed to lead people to the books in which I have put what I know, as best I can.

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