Doctor vs Hagerty´s Fingerprints of God and Philosophers

W cheung amazon I regret buying the book (B B Hagerty´s Fingerprints of God). It starts out pretty promising. The author sets out the plan of visiting people who have "spiritual experiences" (e.g. mystics, near-death experiencers, etc.) and interviewing various scientists. Ostensibly she is being objective, attempting to see whether there is any "evidence" that prayers work, that "near-death experience" proves that we have a soul, etc. It was initially quite harmless, but she keeps screening out data that she does not like. I am a medical specialist and I am also a Christian who also believes in prayers. However, there is just no scientific data to "prove" that prayers work. The author just refuses to give up in spite of being given the results of the experiments on prayers (pg 55-61). There are also obvious factual errors as well. E.g. pain from shingles is NOT due to viral replication (pg 113). This may seem trivial, but this error leads her to suspect some religious/spiritual healing works on a physical level (pg 106-113). Towards the end of the book (from pg 246), it just becomes too painful to read. She brings up "quantum entanglement", "non-local mind", even "dark matter" to explain how prayers and premonition work. This demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of basic knowledge in physics. While it is always good to have an open mind, misuse of science and disregard of disagreeable data are not the way to find out the truth, they just obstruct the path to enlightenment.

*** Just to address the prejudicial, extremist, and unquestioning nature of your comment. Being a professional scientist isn´t always an advantage if you don´t understand your own limitations, especially if you are a "doctrinal" Christian. In terms of "proving" prayer, I believe from the selection I have access to, she cites a number of experiments that do demonstrate some phenomena, in addition to referring to the negative study findings. You don´t seem to understand that Science itself never represents any Absolute Truth, but paradigm models. It is one FORM of Philosophy. Human-related studies are fraught with the issues that were observed since DesCartes was questioned by Pascal and applied Cartesian Rationalism by G Vico. After that terms like anti-positivism met logical positivism, and more. Thomas Kuhn´s paradigms and their shifts honors those efforts in effect. Here, you DENY her citations without qualification, in fact disqualifying your comment as unscholarly and ideological. No doctor is immune to second opinions, and this is not your job here, where your limitations are as human and on display as anyone else. You thus seem to confuse your medical qualifications with your scholarly ability and human identity. Sorry, my friend, my Harvard degree in Bio Anthro, masters in IR-Sustainable Dev in NYC, etc mean I`m another kind of reputable scholar capable and alert to the philosophical and psychological issues, and more. As such, to complete, that Benson et al study, frames its conclusions unwisely and with untenable overstatement as it ignores the longstanding complexity challenge of reducing human psychosocial and cultural context to lab conditions. Besides the studies Hagerty does cite that you ignore, there are medically associated testimonies of prayer-related healing that capture very well those complexities. "Spontaneous remissions" is a term that reflects a medical conceptual barrier to adequate evaluation. Marlene Klepees´ vision-prayer-church/prayer sequence that was sandwiched by and independently experienced of her time at the Mayo Clinic, online, would be a powerful challenge to medical models if they could handle it. Scientists and doctors in Psychosomatic Medicine are taking up their roles at various levels. Bill Owen´s testimony of liver failure and recovery after prayer at an Orlando, FL hospital is told in the It´s a Miracle ep The Healing Ritual online. Among others, there is C Crandall MD´s testimony of resurrecting Jeff Arkin after 40+ min in an ER also online. These "anecdotes" are not invalid. They are PHENOMENA that real science grapples with. DENIAL of possibility isn´t science, it is the misuse of science as ideological Scientism. As for Physics, it seems you can´t seem to disentangle your psychological overidentification of Science as Inviolable, Non-transferable Truth instead of a form of Philosophy that has supplemented Moral Philosophy to create the modern disciplines in the Social Sciences and Humanities, with critical problems in economics and elsewhere. As in Ecological and Social Economics, it is the academic grounding and "soil" of Philosophy that has allowed the limitations of mechanistic Physics to be overcome. Hagerty´s attempts deserve being contextualized more broadly with Physicist-Philosophers like Fritjof Capra´s work and David Bohm´s so that her philosophical efforts can be flexibly and knowledgably be evaluated on their merits. Capra´s work in General Systems Theory and emergence and Bohm´s ideas like the Implicate order are far more intriguing and conducive to adequate appreciation of Hagerty´s efforts. It is your own unacknowledged psychological and mechanistic attitudes that you twist into intolerance and mistaken judgment.

Some Say, "Religion Is Elusive"

R S Ron I think this is inadequate, being parochial because too much influenced by the three Abrahamic theistic "religions" (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) & their notion that religion is about beliefs, doctrines, creeds, commandments, scriptures, rituals & the like. Religion-in-general is elusive & very difficult to define or characterize, as the cultural anthropologists warn us, & to distinguish from magic, superstition, mythology, folklore, etc. Some anthropologists have claimed to find tribes with no religion, but others dispute this, saying it is the result of a too-narrow view of what religion is. 🤔

Religion as a human behavior accounts for various characteristic elements in the conduct of atheists. Mircae Eliade focused on the "Sacred" and "Profane," for example, which are terms especially modern ideological atheists themselves hardly might recognize or apply to themselves, which reveals a few things including the value of the Social Sciences and Humanities. Drawing on my own background based in Bio Anthro, Psych, Int Rel, et al, the career work of a Harvard ed Anthro-ist named Eliot Chapple provides a powerful behavioral-interactional foundation that has simply been widely ignored and unaccounted for because of social theory presumption. An adequate account requires that bridge to the Biology of Symbolic Behavior. In its psychological angle, God is understood relationally with reference to the Universe, so that modern atheists are normally materialists. Process Theology has begun to address some features of Christianity using Whitehead´s points, and George Fox of the Quakers made some interesting developments that appear to be a form of spiritual modernization. Christian monasticism also takes an interesting role. All that is enriched in a framework that includes work on Comparative spiritual practice and systems like Buddhism, Therapeutic Psych, Transpersonal Psych, New Thought Christianity, and the Anthro of Shamanism.

Religion the Social Construct

RagBlast2F You can't refute religion. It's a social construct, and not a proposition. You can however refute claims made by religion. me Good phrase, "social construct." Except that term represents how seligion is a a universal human behavior based on relating to a facet of the Universe, usually through prayer and meditation, at least, among other components. Atheist-type arrangements are usually subcultures of presumed materialists. They would be limited in their use of shamanic Transpersonal psychosomatic rituals, presumably. Modern psychotherapy has consistently generated Transpersonal orientations like post-Reichians like Perrakos´Core Energetics and the post-Rogerian Rosenberg´s NVC. Science for its part has emerged as a form of Christian modern Philosophy conducted at post-Monastic School Universities that led to the modern versions, and so is a Christian subcultural form of Empirical Philosophy and practice. Wherever Religion oversteps its bounds, it can be refuted. The same goes for Science. It is the Christian-derived modern forms of Philosophy that guide the logical reasoning, and its different epistemological forms, to make sense of it all, it should be pointed out.

That "Fictional" Bible and "Evolved" Morality- Not Quite

​ Sce Sci me- gp Actually most Ancient Historians know the Bible is historized Fiction based on Forgery and emulation Mythology! Evolution can explain Morality!! *** @Sce Sci ytube Yeah, you mean all those historian scholars linked to modern University culture that descends from Christian monastic schools, secularized as a conflict-resolution strategy following the Protestant Reformation and anti-authoritarian Christian Enlightment, that operates according to that historic model and the non-Greek historic Christian scientific principles that "God says what is possible, not Aristotle"? BTW, I think you mean to say "Historians of the Ancient World," or more typically, "Biblical Scholars." The problem with "knowledge" is that you have to know that you´re actually doing some form of Philosophy, and engaging in interpretation based on assumptions, and stand in relation to alternative schools of thought and classification systems themselves. Anybody thinking that the Bible is mere "Fiction" and your other assertions is anachronistic and an extremist reductionist who should move to China and work in a village or factory to have a little anthropology and epistemology smack them in their artificially flavored video game and Hollywood faces. A little threat of state-sanctioned organ harvesting should open your Sci-Tech razzle dazzled eyes to a few basic aspects of the strengths of the Judeo-Christian West and its own kinds of limitations. Those "Fictional words" of FD Roosevelt about the importance of religion and his clarity of thought and action led him to exceptional preparedness over the Isolationists´ objections, theist or not, because of FDR´s integrity in relation to a Judeo-Christian Higher Power rather than hypocritical political posturing. FDR is one of many examples, including the end of slavery as a pioneering act of Social Movements ignited by the Quaker- Friends. The Q-F´s have a post-monastic highly spiritual practice of a kind that is being studied even scientifically already. Thus, not only is the Philosophy of Religion one of Religion´s established forms of Philosophy, it is already being supplemented by Science. As for Evolution and Morality, hands up, you´re surrounded. Since you try to claim Evolution as an Absolute and Supreme Truth, we have to ask what Truth is. As a form of modern Philosophy, Evolutionary thought has emerged from the human phenomenon of cultural development and its own psychosocial, sub-evolutionary complexity dynamics that led to modernized, complex Christianity in the first place. Thus, co-existing philosophical Levels of Explanation mean Evolution tries to explain Morality, which is a human religious behavior and area that is being studied, not directed by evolutionary biological philosophers. Morality is its own phenomenon that reductionist extremists confuse in their zeal for evolutionary thought. Sorry. I suggest studying some Anthropology and Sociology to prepare you for the reality checks ahead, including the evolutionary theory of symbolic behavior and shamanism. ***

Sce Sci GrePe-me https://youtu.be/L0-tFahPVIU https://youtu.be/tRrq3s3P3Pw https://youtu.be/pDfYA21lDic https://youtu.be/bQmMFQzrEsc https://youtu.be/-lggQfd-kZQ https://youtu.be/7xVBldyy_Oo https://youtu.be/uLcK3Up8z7c https://youtu.be/-5dyJNMTD6A https://youtu.be/-5dyJNMTD6A What Genesis Got Wrong: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL32CC279BF7082A24 Top Ten (Failed) Proofs for God's Existence: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL24169BF14A977E08 Top 10 (Failed) Proofs the Bible is True: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw-sbZFAk8EHxfA7oq-N5bD8AXw6FS5qC https://youtu.be/Gpw-TSd36l8 ***

Gr P @Scep Sci Letting links do your talking and thinking? Not good. I looked at BS, ah, Bible Skeptic´s God´s Ex pf 1. First of all, I´m a modernist and empirical theist Christian, and would orient any doctrinal Christian about Christian spiritual and philosophical modernization. As for Bib Ske, I see that it tries to pull the Atheist chameleon maneuver, "Nobody here but us science fans. There is no God." Science (i.e. scientific philosophy) investigates natural phenomenon and doesn´t normally revert to non-mechanistic hypotheses. In certain subdiscipline studies of human behavioral phenomena, that has changed, in brain scans and psychosomatic medical studies, for example. If the doctrinal Christians don´t know they are doing Metaphysical Philosophy and mixing it up with Science, atheist materialists do the reverse. In science, you just say, "We don´t normally work with the God hypothesis. We´re mechanistic in Physics" not, "There is no God." That´s all because Science is actually a form of Philosophy, and if God is the eternal unobservable source of Higg´s fields and particles, he´s got some multidimensional vision, multipolar eyesight equivalent to have spawned spirritual-religious phenomena from Shamanism across the spectrum until the Abrahamic religions and Jesus´ legacy in Western Civilization. That is the interdisciplinary Philosophy of Religion. You can´t escape your psychological and philosophical behavior and the relevance of the question, "What is the meaning of atheists denying the qualitative Christian theistic reference points, balance of components, and visionary experiences that underlie the justifications of the freedom of thought in a unprecedentedly complex Christian and theist-derived and permeated Civilization?

Coronavirus, Psychosomatics, and UU Materialists

Me- This is a good time for some fuller dissemination of Psychosomatic Medicine. Here´s part of a series taken from Barbara Bradley Hagerty´s book, in which she interviews Gail Ironson MD PhD on her findings that belief in and practice around a benevolent God correlates with a 4.5 more vigorous immune response to viral load in HIV. She also interviewed one subject, Sheri Kaplan who id´d as raised Jewish but now unaffiliated and spiritual, has never used medication. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104351710 ***

Car Bal This is on a par of NPR running an interview with a prominent anti-vaxxer about a week and a half ago; wrong at any time, but during this pandemic it's especially harmful. ***

M R Mo @ Clyn Balda Gossipy referring to "anti-vaxxers," whatever their actual position, and your presumptuous, simplistic, and confusedly glib smear talk about NPR as wrong and harmful based on unjustified, and untenable, insinuation is a polarized, and apparently ideological, stereotype that is ad hominem, not substantive nor even conversational. Your superficial talk lacks logical clarity and uses philosophical fallacy to divert from honest talk, argument, and integrity. The issue is the value of a benevolent God in belief and practice and a medical finding about immune system vigor in the case of a viral illness by a medical doctor, her collaborators, and as part of the growing and established professional discipline of Complementary and Integrative, aka Psychosomatic, Medicine (CIM-PS). Not only is there no vaccine yet for COVID-19, none is anticipated until 2021 because it takes research and development time, effort, and expense. Even with vaccines, in general vaccines themselves are not without risk and limitations, which is why smallpox vaccine is no longer a standard. As in antibiotics, combined therapy is the most advantageous strategy in general, so that speaking against Psychosomatic Medicine results that demonstrate anti-viral and immune system vigor is indeed harmful. In fact, you are a repeat offender with your offensive manner and superficial standards, and deserve a warning. ***

JM Tw your post strikes against our 5th source of wisdom, the humanist teachings that advise us to respect the findings of science. But it's not like we've got an orthodoxy or we're going to kick you out over it. ***

Me As mistakes go, your comment reveals a form of ideological bias verging on worse. If such blatantly disrespectful and errant bias is flaunted, you should be grateful you won´t get kicked out. Your reasoning is incorrect, and rather absurdly reflects a view using the sources and principles without understanding their meaning. As in the case of JCH´s citation, "findings of science" is actually misleading, since science makes efforts to understand, and even more precisely, science makes philosophical efforts to understand observable phenomena using empirical methodology. Philosopher of Science Thomas Kuhn is pretty well-known for identifying the philosophical and psychosocial basis of scientific paradigms and their shifts, as in Newtonian mechanics working in relation to Einstein´s relativity and Schrodinger et al´s Quantum mechanics. In this case, G. Ironson and collaborators´ work is the main subject here in which they study psychosomatic phenomena in terms of psychologically-based, Transpersonally-oriented religious variables. Certainly, Pasteur, Einstein, Freud, and Salk are more famous names. Psychosomatics, "mind-body dynamics," is an extension of brain-body processes based, from the biological basis, on homeostasis and pretty famous work on stress. Hans Selye wrote a 1950s book, Stress for Life, about his identifying the three stages of stress: shock, response, and recovery/exhaustion. That´s not so strange sounding knowledge nowadays, but Selye is no household name. Another researcher, G Solomon in the 1960s, observed that highly stressed, severely mentally ill patients had lower immune response to vaccination. He innovated the term "psychoimmunity." In the 1970s, researchers like R Ader and N Cohen, D Felten, H Besedovsky et al made various advances until in 1985, Candace Pert et al at NIH at Georgetown U discovered key neuropeptide receptors in the cell walls of the immune system. Scientists started using the term "Psychoneuroimmunology." However, scientific efforts to understand don´t just happen under the microscope. If stress is the negative side of psychosomatics, the positive side was already observed in the placebo effect by H Beecher MD in his 1955 paper "The Powerful Placebo." OC Simonton MD and his wife associate psychotherapist Stephanie Matthews developed visualization and support group techniques to help cancer patients with their clinic in 1971 and book by 1978. Harvard´s Herb Benson MD then studied Transcendental Meditation practitioners and found that chanting meditation stimulates healthful relaxation, and he called it the opposite of stress in his 1972 book The Relaxation Response. Coming back to this case and Ironson MD´s study, they now use a psychocultural variable, "religious belief and practice," conduct a procedure, and get results. They then interpret those results and draw conclusions. For you to fail to recognize that as science, you are make an egregious mistake. For you to leap to the comment, "we won´t kick you out over it" is hardly the issue. You at least tried to reason, despite your telling mistake because a scientist found benefits in religious attitudes and practice, you were unwilling or unable to recognize it as science. ***

J M Tw We don't have to think alike to love alike ***

Mark R M J M Twe If people misunderstand basic things and make disrespectful, gossipy, and even accusatory comments based on those misunderstandings, and others associate attempting to reinforce some or all of key aspects of that misunderstanding, the love is in the appropriate combination of attention to non- or anti-intellectual and obnoxiously presumptuous conduct and mistaken notions. That love, moreover, cannot merely be assumed, but in its relative clarity and exercise, it very much reveals that UUism´s full spectrum of Principles and Sources are sophisticated and not separable from the educational University culture that Christians developed in much ignored and actually fairly obscured historical and varying principled basis of modernization. It is similar to UUism´s own origins, except that the University and its standard in society-at-large demands some exercise of scholarship. Bureaucratic tolerance without demanding intellectual rigor and avoiding anti- and non-intellectual and obnoxiously presumptuous gossipy bias and intolerance is certainly the bottom of the barrel of love. Love benefits vigorously from quality and modeling, and while Freud, Jung, Adler began a key field that contributes richly to understanding that four-letter word, its origins and levels of continuity in the Judeo-Christian tradition are ignored at a great loss. It´s not just the fundamentalist Christians who have been overwhelmingly manipulated and misled, but those who become anti-intellectual and obnoxiously presumptuous in superficial and gossipy bias twisted to the extreme even of misguided accusation, and their unreflective supporters who unquestioningly perpetuate such distortions. ***

Jn M Twt Thanks, Jn & Clyn. Obviously, opinions vary a lot, so let's humbly respect science.

*** M R M Jn M Twt Genuine humility requires integrity, and respecting science requires nothing less, and any opinion worth its salt needs its own empirical and philosophical exercise to differentiate it from Jay Leno´s erstwhile Quiz Fails. Thinking that science requires anti-theist prejudice and that that is not unscientific, or even that successful demonstrations of theistic health benefits threatens the relevance of mechanistic science, is simply unfounded and a blurring of key distinctions. Besides N Krause of U MI´s statement at Harvard about 3,000 studies finding positive benefits of religion on health, Duke U´s H Koenig MD has reviewed massive amounts of literature and concluded, "A large volume of research shows that people who are more R/S (religious/spiritual) have better mental health and adapt more quickly to health problems compared to those who are less R/S." It comes down to respecting the truth, and yourself. UUism hardly suffers in that case, and in fact its full scope of Principles and Sources gets the vindication that has been denied it. As for gratitude, thankfully UU theists clearly have an opportunity to make clear that Uuism is not the American Humanist Association. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3671693/

The "Dark Ages" and Human Kindness

​ Aloys Fl @G P-me well, let’s not forget Christianity brought us the Dark Ages, and if it wasn’t for Muslims preserving pagan knowledge we probably still wouldn’t know what zero is. And I’m not saying that she is a relative. I’m saying that we inherit most of our impulses to be kind from prehistoric social situations. That’s my whole point. Do you think Buddhists aren’t nice to old ladies? :) Or consider the Confucian reverence for elders. The old lady on the bus is a stupid example. Proves the reverse.

@Aloys Fl youtube Your reference to the Dark Ages is untenable, since it is based on anachronistic, preconceived, and normally prejudicial assumptions. It was more like A Great System Reboot building the foundations of a non-Roman Christian society . The Muslims played their part, having used Christians to translate the classics in the first place, and having delivered up at Toledo because the Christians stopped their military conquests and Reconqista´d Spain because of Muslim collapse, along with their being devastated by the Mongols due to the centralized state of Muslim political power and disconnect of the religion from scholarship. Yes, Christian-derived Scientific Philosophy allows us to illuminate the nature of our impulses since Judeo-Christianity, now globalized, gave us sufficient theistic orientation to validate those "kind impulses." Those "kind impulses" were a wee bit smothered in ancient Greece, e.g. by Alexander the Great´s mom when she goaded dad and hubby King Philip´s ex-homosex lover to assassinate him, and on into Rome when Caesar was kindly assassinated by a band of Senators, Emperor Commodus later kindly renamed Rome after himself, slayed the physically disabled, and after numerous kind plots to assassinate him was kindly assassinated by conspirators kindly inciting his mistress and training partner who kindly strangled him in his bath. Emperor Decius kindly had Christians executed, and so with all that "kindness" also in Asia, it´s good to value Buddhism, yoga, Taoism, Confucianism, and so on. However, Buddhists weren´t nice to old ladies on buses before University-based Karl Benz or without facing Japanese Imperial militarism defeated by FDR´s US. And then there was the Buddhist need to flee Tibet from China. Don´t confuse commonalities with very distinct psychosocial, cultural, and religious systems and which one underlies globalization and the UN with its Human Rights. Commonalities reflect psychosocial biological potential, and important points of intersection. Those Eastern practices are desperately needed in unsustainable, widely hypocritical Christianity to intensify and spread the neglected spiritual integrity teachings of the founder, the Supershamanic Savior, Jesus in globalized Western Culture that "kindly" used secularism to hide any cultural reference to him as the right wing has hijacked his image by manipulating antiquated doctrines. US profiteering Corporate executives kindly refuse to go sustainably, or promote living wages, economic democracy, and human rights, but that would mean respecting Jesus´ "cruel" teachings for a loving God to "love thy neighbor as thyself" instead of funding the kind-to-fetuses and executives Religious Right. I´m an interfaith Christian, see, like the ex-communicated Matthew Fox and Alan Watts, based on Unitarian Universalism. Again, by not acknowledging your own context accurately, you are failing to recognize the human need for standards, and that the UN Universal Dec of Human Rights doesn´t come from Buddhist or Confucian leadership. FD and Eleanor Roosevelt weren´t like Alan Watts or George Harrison, but they were modernizing. *** Aloys Fleischmann 55 minutes ago Green Peacemst It’s kind of hard to keep up with what you’re saying, but my point is that Christianity had a nasty habit of burning any book that wasn’t explicitly Christian and suppressing any science that conflicted with scripture. And, as I’m sure you’re aware, the “Judeo” part of Judeo-Christian is a relatively recent addition to North American cultural chauvinism. Until about 70 years ago the idea that Jews had anything to do with Christian thought was repulsive to the masses—they much preferred to be seen as the inheritors of Greek philosophy. The Judeo part started getting added in the 30s as a reaction to fascism, then as a means of unifying the non-Islamic Abrahamic religions against communism and... Islam. Green P ​@Aloys Fl Kindness needs definition and standards to avoid the trends to unkindness. Jesus´ life, mission, and message for God´s love have set an unprecedented ball rolling that has at least resulted, through hacking, slashing, excess, dissidence, and discernment, in University-based society, the UN, and globalization. Meanwhile, Communism was largely a distraction, while Islam is also in the corporate imperialist US, except for valiant Israel, with Marx´s insights all contaminated. Denmark, Germany, and Social Europe have illuminated social business models and social market democracy, although a bit artificially and needily divorced from spiritual philosophy. Historically, sure, burning books and executing heretics, and persecuting the Jews has taken place in institutionalization, but that´s the unkindness that has been afflicting humans. That´s the unkindness that undid the ancient Greeks, the pagan imperial Romans even into their Imperial Roman Christianity. Christian sociopolitical unkindness, however, has had a "kindness monkey" on its back, the Christian monastic system that descended from St. Anthony of the Desert and has another branch in E Orthodoxy. Sure, Jesus for God´s love didn´t claim to automatically abolish human inclinations to unkindness, just like he didn´t invent kindness. People have had to choose, learn, and clearly err. Jesus´ life, mission, and message are a Big Bullseye message from God, a Neon Sign On The Long and Winding Road With God´s Certification, that underlies the complexity of the rise of Christian society in the West. The History of Christianity and Science is not reducible to Galileo, and emerges before Aquinas, and steers clear onto other bumpy roads, but less so, after Luther and Henry VIII. Scholar Huston Smith´s work is helpful, as is Stan Jaki´s. As for the " Judeo-" thing, I´ve been reading some K Armstrong, but also noted a Rabbi linked to the Unitarians after 1850 at some point. It all follows Jefferson´s landmark Freedom of Religion (not just "denominations"). Well, is Judaism without its prejudices? Jesus went beyond previous Jewish teachings, and Peter and Paul made the explicit move to the Gentiles. It´s monastic-derived Universities that fueled the (Judeo-) Christian-based Enlightenment, that fueled Jefferson, that fueled the Jewish Haskalah with Moses Mendelssohn and crossover breakthrough scholar-innovators Marx(?), Durkheim, Freud, Einstein as Herzl and Jewish nationalism emerged. *** ​ @Aloys Fleischmann Kindness needs definition and standards to avoid the trends to unkindness. Jesus´ life, mission, and message have set an unprecedented ball rolling that resulted in University-based society, the UN, and globalization. Meanwhile, Communism was largely a distraction, while Islam is also in the corporate imperialist US, except for valiant Israel, with Marx´s insights all contaminated. Denmark, Germany, and Social Europe have illuminated social business models and social market democracy, although a bit artificially and needily divorced from spiritual philosophy. Historically, sure, burning books and executing heretics, and persecuting the Jews has taken place in institutionalization, but that´s the unkindness that has been afflicting humans. That´s the unkindness that undid the ancient Greeks, the pagan imperial Romans even into their Imperial Roman Christianity. Christian sociopolitical unkindness, however, has had a "kindness monkey" on its back, the Christian monastic system that descended from St. Anthony of the Desert and has another branch in E Orthodoxy. Sure, Jesus for God´s love didn´t claim to automatically abolish human inclinations to unkindness, just like he didn´t invent kindness. People have had to choose, learn, and clearly err. Jesus´ life, mission, and message are a message from God that underlies the complexity of the rise of Christian society in the West. The History of Christianity and Science is not reducible to Galileo, and emerges before Aquinas, and steers clear onto other bumpy roads, but less so, after Luther and Henry VIII. Scholar Huston Smith´s work is helpful, as is Stan Jaki´s. As for the " Judeo-" thing, I´ve been reading some K Armstrong, but also noted a Rabbi linked to the Unitarians after 1850 at some point. It all follows Jefferson´s landmark Freedom of Religion (not just "denominations"). Well, is Judaism without its prejudices? Jesus went beyond previous Jewish teachings, and Peter and Paul made the explicit move to the Gentiles. It´s monastic-derived Universities that fueled the (Judeo-) Christian-based Enlightenment, that fueled Jefferson, that fueled the Jewish Haskalah with Moses Mendelssohn and crossover breakthrough scholar-innovators Marx(?), Durkheim, Freud, Einstein as Herzl and Jewish nationalism emerged. Ah, Spinoza, too! Yeah, Greekness is what Christopher Hitchens (of Jewish descent) goes for. And it is an impressive tradition. But it was the (Judeo-) Christian scholars at Christian Universities who started taking the Greek work et al and submitting it to Judeo-Christian thinking with Creator omnipotence in academic community Getting clear about the OT can been transformed, but secularism, Science, and right wing distortion of Jesus and Christianity requires high integrity action and scholarship. Jefferson, FD and Eleanor Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, and Barack Obama, and the UN UDHR are all good reference markers, as are Noam Chomsky and Michael Lerner. *** Aloys Fl Green P-me thanks for your thoughts. You are obviously well-read. Allow me to part with a simple observation: the problem with Christianity is that it confuses correlation with cause, and, a linked difficulty, admits to only one cause. *** ​ @Aloys Fl A pleasure trading thoughts with. A passionate guy like you deserves attention. Just remember, if you´re going to try to claim an asserted cause is merely correlation, you´ve got to demonstrate competent, necessary, and sufficient evaluation and substantiation in an attempt to justify it. Otherwise any claim you make is not well made Christianity also doesn´t underlie University-based education for nothing. It is the most complex Historical Sociological and interdisciplinary phenomenon ever, and unless you get all the issues straight, as likely as not, you´re mixing things up. If you were alleging that a simplistic Fundamentalist Christian were neglecting to refer to eclectic processes, I might agree with you on the "one cause" as problem. However, I think you´re actually failing to identify the factor that makes the correlation between Jesus´ commandments and UN Human Rights coherent and not say, Greek, biological, Chinese, Shamanistic, or Jewish in a non-Christian sense.

God and Jesus, Did God "Come Down"?

N H @ Av Prog Chr God has not come down from heaven. OUT FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN.. The anointed man, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son, proved a worthy vessel for God, as His Spirit, to indwell from the Jordan and do His works through him. Compare Mt 12.28 with Lk 11.20 you will see that the SPIRIT of God is as the FINGER OF GOD. Acts 5 1-5 also confirms this. It´s a good point you make in quoting Jesus´ Lord´s Prayer that makes explicit God as parent, and implies Jesus as "Son," and that endows all followers in the same sense, albeit derivative of Jesus´ pioneering, comprehensive, and contextualized life, mission, and message as the initiator and demonstrator of a new level of sacred conduct in relation to God through Jesus. Followers as "Children of God" preserves that distinction of descent. Since "Christians" can assume hypocritical and treacherous, apostatic appearances misusing Jesus´ name, Jesus only initiated a potential, he potentiated salvation, it might be said. High integrity monks and other spiritual activists thus are a revelatory phenomena in the Historical Sociology of Christ´s legacy. Your phraseology after that, however, already seems to blur the distinction you are trying to make. When you say, "a worthy vessel for God, as His Spirit," I might suggest the component of relationship by illuminating "as His Spirit" as follows, "a worthy vessel for God, (expressing God´s nature and Spirit by his (Jesus´) intimate choice in having prepared and delivered himself in all necessary and sufficient ways)."

Corona Virus and God, the Universe

The Universe "God" works in mysterious ways. The Corona virus is just what we need to unite us in a common cause and make us stop what we are doing to protect ourselves and each other.

Well, since Abraham´s vision, Moses´ burning bush, Ezekiel´s awesome action figure vision, and Jesus´ "Our (Parent-Father-Mother) who art in Heaven," the Native Wakan Tanka (Great Sacredness), the Tao, the dharmakaya, Brahma, and so on, are a facet of the Universe identified as the Creator and Source, the phenomenological Universe and its lawful and emergent levels are distinct if we are meticulous in our thinking and reflecting. So, coronavirus fits the materialistic conditions that have been prevailing, and perceiving social networking, policymaking, and response reveals more how materialstic individualism, a form of ideological Scientism, prevails. Like UUism´s fairly underutilized Source 1, however, who knows that Harvard Medical School has a collection of dedicated-tangential spirituality projects because of its perceived desirability and measurable features, even though merely baby steps and perhaps widely unpopular in scientific circles? Meanwhile, anybody up for pushing the envelope to register the yoga practitioners living to close to 100 plus? Or that Herb Benson MD wrote his book The Relaxation Response in 1972 after studying TM practitioners, and OC Simonton MD and his then wife and colleague, psychologist Stephanie Matthews, opened the mind-body Simonton Cancer Clinic in 1971 based on visualizations and support groups? And part-Cherokee Lewis Mehl Medrona MD, PhD´s books like Coyote Healing? From there, "coming out of the closet" can lead to Louise Hay, Joseph Murphy, and back to 1875 when Mary Baker Eddy published her book for Christian Science based on her healing insights. Sure, listen to the CDC, wear your face masks, and quarantine. Now, though, you have heard from a little bird from Ezekiel 1-3. I hope people don´t say they never heard from a little bird. That´s in God´s hands. It´s certainly a default mechanism of life´s ecosystemic "bag of tricks" that acts like an electric hand shock-buzzer. The study of a religious tradition, especially Science´s own milieu of Judeo-Christianity, indicates important things of a spiritual and theological nature. First of all, that globalization and the Western superstructure culture that has now set the standard is secularized derivations and their deviations of Christianity´s multidisciplinary systematizing the uptake of ancient Greece, Islam and eclectics. That´s Historical Sociology, and additional interdisciplinarity. The modernized Philosophy of Religion includes the logical arguments that build off Aristotle´s metaphysics, the First Cause, as Aquinas did, and then DesCartes. That is in Jesus´ transformative legacy, that operates around his life, mission, and message to seek the Kingdom of Heaven, that God is a loving parent, and that by "taking the plank out of our own eye," we can love our neighbor as ourselves," which JC amplified in revolutionary fashion from a Mosaic teaching in Leviticus. Jewish tradition long separated the Divine Creator Entity and providential Source from the Created Universe that makes the lawful mechanicism of physical processes distinct from living processes, and then human psychosocial and culture ones, all through emergent properties. Spirituality and religion involving forms of prayer and meditation underlie Shamanism and the facultative practices that Jesus identified in a new way based on prayer and a concept faculty of the Kingdom of Heaven, inner, outer, and otherwise. All that was built out of a supershamanic foundational tradition and many unsolicited coherent prophetic visions that also have persisted after Jesus.

Roger Walsh MD, PhD: New Worlds of Shamanism

New Worlds of Shamanism “As if on cue, just when I am beginning to think that shamanism is the ground from which all religions spring, along comes this book. I cannot imagine a book that would be more helpful to me in thinking through this important subject.” —Huston Smith, author of The World’s Religions New Worlds* of Shamanism An essay-review of Dr. Roger Walsh’s “The World of Shamanism” by Carl Llewellyn Weschcke in Llewellyn Journal After decades of being demonized by clergy, diagnosed by psychiatrist, and dismissed by academics, shamanism is thriving. So, what is fueling the West’s new fascination with shamanism? You’ll find the answer and more in this objective exploration of shamanism and its place in contemporary life. Dr. Roger Walsh leaves no stone unturned as he examines shamanistic traditions throughout history, and how they intersect with modern psychology and metaphysical studies. Are shamans enlightened or psychotic? Decide for yourself as Dr. Walsh unveils the life and mind of this revered figure. Delve into shamanic practices-healing, altered states of consciousness, journeying, channeling, vision quests-and discover if, how, and why they actually work. This cross-cultural, all-encompassing perspective will help you understand shamanism-its impact throughout history and its significance today. *’New Worlds’ is a way of looking at things that places the reader/user at the center of understanding and application of the subjects we study while incorporating the perspective of contemporary science, language, and world-view to make a difference in the life we live. The New Worlds perspective is both practical and transformative in contrast to the merely academic or ‘popular.’ The New Worlds attitude is forward looking just like the New Worlds of the Americas – the whole of the Western Hemisphere – where people came from the Old World to make new discoveries, to be free of old prejudices and limitations, and to make a truly new world for humankind. Shamanism, for example, is generally perceived as a subject for academic study and research, and the shaman is seen as a ‘professional’ working the mysteries on behalf of clients who do not actively participate. That’s an ‘old world’ approach. The ‘New Worlds’ approach involves people who want to actively participate on their own behalf, and many of these prefer to work solitary – investigating the work and worlds of the Shaman on their own and for themselves. Now, having given definition to the New Worlds ‘attitude’ towards a subject, we need to give definition to the subject of our immediate study: Shamanism. In this new book, The World of Shamanism, author Walsh points out the important elements of shamanic practice. In doing so he quotes Mircea Eliade who wrote, “A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: Shamanism = technique of ecstasy,”¹ and then explores the Random House Dictionary definition of ecstasy as ”being taken or moved out of one’s normal state and entering a state of intensified or heightened feeling” (14). Dr. Walsh concludes: 1. The shaman can voluntarily enter altered states of consciousness. 2. In these states, he may experience journeys to other worlds. 3. These journeys are used to acquire knowledge or power and to take helpful actions on behalf of others. In addition, following Michael Harner2, he notes two further elements: 4. The shaman contacts an ordinarily hidden reality. 5. The shaman has one or more “spirits” in his service. “The World of Shamanism is unquestionably the most rounded compact introduction to shamanism, particularly the inner world of shamans, available today. A door-opening book for students of consciousness and spirituality.” –Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D., M.Litt. Author of The Yoga Tradition As he points out, these elements focus on practices and experiences rather than beliefs and dogma, and – in such context – shamanism is not a religion but a spiritual and healing discipline involving altered states of consciousness. Whether we call shamanism a religion, a magical practice, a tradition, or a discipline, it is the oldest religious-magical-healing practice known. Cave paintings dating back 20 thousand and more years show the shaman at work. Our interpretation of the “evidence” varies considerable by the person making the study. The non-shaman may see the evidence of worship, whereas a magician may see evidence of magic, and a healer may see evidence of a mind-body cure. Another non-shaman focuses on the hallucinogenic use of drugs and perceives the shaman’s ‘other worlds’ as hallucinations. (This was sometimes called “tripping” but it’s a far cry from journeying!) Yet another non-shaman notes the common signs of ancient shamanism all over the world as evidence for visitors ‘from the sky’ – aliens from other planetary civilizations, proof of ‘ancient astronauts and UFOs, or visits from deity. Questions And, what are we to make of these ‘other worlds?’ Are they actual ‘dimensions of space or time,’ or mental constructs, or ‘archetypal-like’ places in the Collective Unconscious?” Are the shaman’s journeys like the ‘path workings’ of the Kabbalist traveling the Tree of Life, or psychic ‘distant viewing’ of other planetary civilizations, or views of ‘alternate dimensions’ accessed through the shaman’s alternate states of consciousness? It is important to note that there is not one, but multiple states of consciousness, each leading to different but specific experiences. And, while the shaman speaks of three worlds, are there possible ‘worlds within worlds?’ And, what are we to make of these ‘spirits’ that accompany the shaman? Are they the same as or different from ‘guardian angels, ‘spirit guides, archetypes, gods, fairies, ghosts, elementals, or any other apparently non-physical beings found in other traditions? Dr. Walsh addresses the common belief that such widespread occurrences of shamanic evidence can be accounted by migration as “unlikely” when the “shamanic practices remain so remarkably stable in so many cultures, while language and social practices changed so drastically. Migration alone can hardly account for shamanism’s far-flung distribution.” (page 17) The early shaman appears as a ‘jack of all trades’ – healer, magician, counselor, visionary, community leader – in pre-agricultural nomadic societies. However, once agriculture stabilizes the societal unit into specific geographic locations and the community becomes stratified into classes, the role of the shaman is fragmented among ‘specialists’ – healers, sorcerers, priests, etc. With such specialization, the priest leads social rituals and makes prayers on behalf of their community. “Yet unlike their shamanic ancestors, they usually have little direct experience of altered states.” (19) And “none of the shaman’s successors focus on journeying.” (19) One of our key elements of shamanic practice is lost, and the “vision” is frozen in time and dimension. To quote Nietzsche: “God is dead!” Social stratification seems to lead to organized social functions that suppress the shaman’s role and replace it with institutional expression and legalism. Direct experience of the ‘unknown’ is replaced by myth and then history leading to structured theological teachings of the ‘approved religion’ and suppression of shamanic practices that might offer contrasting visions and new information about the non-material worlds. Dr. Walsh notes that today we have an unprecedented richness of resources relating to the world’s religious and spiritual traditions available to a wide public with the freedom to explore and practice those of interest regardless of the dominant religion. At the same time, It becomes apparent that each tradition requires a disciplined approach to its development. Here we find the contradiction of the notion that the mere imbibing of a ‘sacred’ drug will result in enlightenment. Rather, every tradition has its own curriculum of practices, and their experiences indicate not a single common end vision but that different states of consciousness lead to different worlds, and that each tradition further involves a curriculum of ‘virtues’ to balance visionary experiences with psychological maturity. The real goal of all spiritual disciplines is that of “the knowledge and conversation” with the authentic Self (big S), one’s Holy Guardian Angel. Not all journeys end there but are mostly steps along the way. Shamanic practices may themselves be more authentic and may rip through the conventions of organized religion, but each may lead only to a partial vision or a tiny victory on the complete journey to wholeness. The Kabbalists note there are many paths on the Tree of Life, and each must be traversed. Essential Practices Still, these spiritual visions are only part of the whole trip. Dr. Walsh points to seven essential practices (28): 1. Living Ethically so that healthy qualities become instinctive.. 2. Transforming Emotions, reducing negative and cultivating positive emotions to develop equanimity. 3. Redirecting Motivation to reduce craving and change desire to self-transcendence. 4. Training Attention to avoid distraction. 5. Refining Awareness to see only that which is real. 6. Cultivating Wisdom, and thus transforming knowledge to the ultimate meaning of life. 7. Serving Others to make the world a better place. It is these seven principles that “constitute a ‘technology of transcendence’ for awakening our potentials and living life to the fullest.” (35) Awakening Whether called Nirvana, Self-transcendence, Knowledge and Conversation with one’s Holy Guardian Angel, Enlightenment, Ascension, or Satori, its accomplishment starts with Awakening. It is the journey of the Fool who becomes the Hero. Awakened, we step out of the sleep of the ordinary with its pre-occupation with money, sex and power, the trance induced by entertainment and sensory satiation, the mind blinded by packaged answers of church and state. The fully awakened person seeks his own answers using previously latent mental and psychic abilities to gain knowledge and perceive other worlds. Fully awakened and made whole through re-birth in a higher spiritual body freed of the karma and personal garbage of past lives, the truly enlightened person turns to awaken others to their true mission in life: Transcendence. Many are the ways, but single the goal. “The World of Shamanism is unique in bringing together the full range of anthropological, psychological, and psychiatric literature on this vital subject. It does so with admirable scholarship yet still manages to be sensitive and clear.” —Christie W. Kiefer, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of California at San Francisco Inner Journeys It requires an inner journey of consciousness exploration to become all that a person can become. It involves work with dreams, visions, and spirits in order to map and understand the inner worlds and know their flora and fauna – the beings who can be called to help and defend that future hero on his journey. It’s a journey that culminates with the experience of Inner Light enabling the hero to see the inter-connectedness of all with the one, to perceive hidden cause and effect, and to describe the Vision as a map for others to follow. The World of Shamanism describes the modern world’s encounter with the shaman who once was seen variously as ‘devil,’ ‘madman,’ or ‘saint’ – even as divine incarnation. The shaman today is seen as a once less-than-whole ordinary person who has become whole by being ‘born again,’ as a “sick man who has been cured, who has succeeded in curing himself.”1 As a result, “shamans are often the most functional members of their community, and according to Eliade, ‘show proof of a more than normal nervous constitution.’1 They can display remarkable energy and stamina, unusual levels of concentration, high intelligence, leadership skills, and a grasp of complex myths and rituals.” (107) We are not intended to remain ‘ordinary.’ “The mind is designed to grow, and the drive powering that growth has been variously described. . . . The result is a dynamic tension between these forces of growth and the seductiveness of stagnation, between the pull of transcendence and the inertia of the familiar. . . . ‘Spiritual work is the attempt to liberate this dynamic energy, which must break free of its suffocation in old forms.’”3(109) Dr. Walsh concludes that many of the shaman’s healing techniques are similar to contemporary physical and mental medical therapies, and we gain by understanding them side-by-side. We gain as we study the shaman’s other world views and see them increasingly in relation to new views of modern science and psychology. “The World of Shamanism is eminently useful and inspiring. A brilliant integrative work that pushes the frontiers of consciousness in insightful, practical, and powerful ways.” —Angeles Arrien, Ph.D. Cultural Anthropologist and author of The Four-Fold Way and The Second Half of Life Other Worlds The shamanic cosmos comprises an upper, a middle, and a lower world that are interconnected. The shaman is able to journey between these worlds, and to bring about interaction between them through his powers. Walsh says that Westerners tend to regard the shaman’s Other Words as ‘mental constructions,’ while the shaman regards them as ‘independently existing realities’ accessible by the mind. For others the shaman’s worlds are mythic, but for the shaman they are directly experienced. Through these experiences, the shaman maps the alternate realities and then uses these ‘road maps’ to acquire information and power. While the established cosmology may be expected to condition some of the shamanic experiences, it is still the role of direct experience to transcend myth to reshape it with new roadmaps and new perceptions of realities. The Nature of Spirits In order to communicate with and to control spirits, the shaman must first learn to “see” them, and it is this that forms the foundation of the shaman’s training. Much of this training involves finding patterns in visual imagery, whether that seen during altered states or those seen in the shadows and phenomenon of the natural world. But are spirits ‘objectively real but only seen subjectively’ or are they subjective fantasies that assume an objective importance? Walsh quotes Paracelsus: “everyone may educate and regulate his imagination so as to come thereby into contacts with spirits, and be taught by them.”4 (133) Once the shaman learns to see spirits, he must learn to develop a “permanent visionary capacity in which the spirits can be summoned and seen or felt at will. . . . This is the ‘challenge of stabilization,’ a challenge the faces spiritual practitioners of all traditions. The task – for shamans, yogis, and contemplatives alike – is to stabilize temporary gifts into permanent abilities, altered states into altered traits, and epiphanies into personality, or as Huston Smith so eloquently put it, to transform ‘flashes of illumination into abiding light.’”5(133) Accelerated Evolution Whether as ‘power animals,’ or ‘spirit guides,’ spirits help the shaman through: 1. Teaching. 2. Assisting with journeys. 3. Providing strengths and abilities. 4. Possession, as in mediumship. Spirits may travel with the shaman on ecstatic journeys, may defend the shaman, or allow the shaman to merge with them and partake of their powers and abilities. Such spirits and allies are found in nearly all traditions (including, perhaps, the saints of Catholicism), but for some they are “real” and for others “mental creations.” For the Tibetan yogi, they are “a projection of one’s own as yet unrecognized transpersonal potentials, which the visualization will allow the yogi to recognize and claim. The impact of these visualizations is suggested by the fact that Tibetans regard Deity yoga as one of their most powerful practices. In one of the world’s most dramatic claims for effectiveness, they claim that Deity yoga allows practitioners to become a Buddha in a single lifetime, rather than in the ‘three countless eons’ it would otherwise take.”6(135) Whatever a ‘spirit’ is, “it is an interaction with what is felt to be an intelligent, nonmaterial entity separate from the ego or self. In the shaman’s case, the entity may provide information or power that the shaman believes she cannot access alone.” (143) They may seen outside or sensed inside. Encounters with spirits may be troublesome or beneficial. As beneficial, they may be experienced as transcendent beings, or they may be ‘inner teachers’ transcending the ego accessible with inner dialogue. The Shamanic Journey In a trance, the shaman believes his soul leaves the body to roam the other worlds. It is thus that the shaman acquires a power animal, gains a spirit guide, encounters teachers and deities, and perceives the flora and fauna of other worlds as realities. These astral journeys also may access our familiar material world, including visions of past and future. “The ability to journey therefore gives the shaman a measure of power over the mysterious forces and spirits that rule the lives of ordinary mortals.” (156) And it is these encounters that may have been the source of the great religious traditions. While most journeys are to external other worlds, those of Taoism in particular are within the body as micro-cosmos wherein the shaman may encounter gods and goddesses residing both within the body and in the starry heavens. For the Taoist shaman of the Highest Clarity Tradition, the body becomes a ‘sacred meditation chamber’ through which the practitioner travels to absorb “the essences of the stars and guides them to remain in certain parts of the body.” (161) “Adepts visualize the pure energy of the sun or the moon, then imagine a goddess in its midst. The goddess grows stronger and move vivid with prolonged practice until she is present in the flesh. Pressing her mouth to his, she dispenses celestial vapors to increase the adept’s vitality. After a long courtship and regular visualizations, she will even lie with him.” 7 (162) Unbroken Awareness Over the centuries, shamanic techniques become increasingly subtle, internal, and focused on mental training and control. The original reliance on entrainment (trance) by powerful external stimulation (dancing, drumming, etc.) is replaced by inner mental processes (visualization, meditation). (163) A further refinement occurs when the practitioner enters a ‘fourth state of consciousness’ of continuous, unbroken awareness twenty-four hours a day. 8 “According to contemplative traditions of both East and West, our usual waking state is distorted, constricted, and deluded, so that we live in . . . illusion . . . a collective psychosis.” (268) Simply stated, we need to truly wake up and look to the far horizons beyond consumption-driven satiety. Real, and UnReal The Westerner is conditioned to perceive the “Other Worlds” of mystic and shaman as “unreal,” while the shaman believes the journey to be real, objective, and independent of the shaman’s mind. Even though it is an inner journey, it is real and the Other Worlds are “repeatable” – consistent from one vision to the next. “Specific spiritual practices evoke specific experiences, and these experiences can be insightful, valuable, healing, and even liberating.” (175) Nevertheless, the “reality of one world” is not necessarily the same reality of another world. Driving in England is different than in America, and if you drive on the right side of the road in England you will be in trouble because there right is wrong and left is right. The rules may be different, yet knowledge is transferable. But like visions seen in dreams, they may require translation, and symbolism may be the means to do so. In turn, symbols in rituals “penetrate into the mind-body system and elicit powerful psychological responses. These in turn can cause a cascade of corresponding biological responses throughout the body.” (209) “This spiritual element, so often overlooked in contemporary medicine, is central to shamanism and probably crucial to thoroughgoing healing.” (210) “Shamanism continues to offer today what it has offered for hundreds of thousands of yesterdays, a relatively rapid means, and for the most part of human history perhaps the only means, of controlled transcendence. As such, shamans can be considered the founders of the ‘great tradition’: the sum total of humankind’s religious-spiritual wisdom.” (261) That which is “real” is comprehensive – the ‘big picture’ – in contrast to the limited awareness of ordinary life. We have the capacity to be extraordinary, and we have the ability of individual motivation to become so. We may be driven to do so by the crisis brought about by the many challenges we face today – environmental, political, and the immanent danger of religious war. Planetary Crisis In the modern renaissance of interest in shamanism, indeed of spirituality in general and paganism too, “there is also a desire to honor the earth and respond to the alienation from nature that is so much a part of modern life and that is producing ‘nature-deficit disorder’ in both individuals and ecological disaster for our planet.” (266) We have covered the earth so deeply in concrete that we have difficulty re-connecting with our natural roots and have to make conscious efforts to do so. But it requires much more than going camping for a weekend, or planting a few flowers in a pot, or eating organic. The effort must involve mind and spirit as well as body. Believing in a declaration of global warming is minimal compared to living in spiritual awareness of our interconnection with all life and all consciousness, in all worlds. Can the human mind comprehend so much? The shaman demonstrates that it can – but it takes effort and discipline, and a guiding belief in human purpose and destiny. “What is remarkable about this era is not only the awesome scope and urgency of our problems. It is that for the first time in millions of years of evolution, all of our major threats are caused by humans. Problems such as overpopulation, pollution, poverty, and nuclear weapons stem directly from our own behavior. The state of the world, in other words, reflects the state of our minds. The conflicts outside us reflect the conflicts inside us, and the insanity without mirrors the insanity within.” (270) “The challenge is to optimize our individual and collective maturation. How best to do so is no longer an academic question but an evolutionary imperative. We are in a race between consciousness and catastrophe, the outcome remains unsure, and we are all called to contribute. How spiritual practices in general, and shamanic practices and studies in particular, can best contributed is a crucial question of our time.” (271) “The more we explore shamanism, the more it points to unrecognized potentials of the human body, mind, and spirit. For untold thousands of years the world of shamanism has helped, healed, and taught humankind, and it has still more to offer us.” (271) It is not that we all should take up traditional shamanic practices, but rather that we need to understand what those practices are intended to do – to open and extend our awareness to comprehend the greater universe that is our true home: the Body of God. All quotations, unless otherwise credited, are from Walsh, R. (2007), The World of Shamanism: New views of an ancient tradition, Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications. All credited quotations are extracted from Dr. Walsh’s book with page numbers given in parentheses.. ¹Eliade, M. (1964), Shamanism: Archaic techniques of ecstasy (W.Trask, trans.), Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 2Harner, M. (1982), The Way of the Shaman: A guide to power and healing, New York, NY: Bantam Books. 3Perry, J. (1986). Spiritual emergence and renewal. ReVision, 8 (2), 33-40. 4Noll, R. (1987). The presence of spirits in magic and madness. In S. Nicholson (ed.), Shamanism (pp47-61). Wheaton, IL: Quest. 5Smith, H. (1976). Forgotten truth: The primordial tradition. New York: Harper & Row. 6Hopkins, J. (1984). The tantric distinction: An introduction to Tibetan Buddhism. London: Wisdom. 7Kohn, L. (Ed.) (1993). The Taoist experience: An anthology. New York: SUNY Press. 8Walsh, R. & Vaughan, E. (eds.). (1993). Paths beyond ego: The transpersonal vision. New York: Tarcher/Putnam. The World of Shamanism, by Roger Walsh, MD, Ph.D., 336 pages, 7 ½ x 9 1/8, US $ 18.95. Published by Llewellyn Publications, 2142 Wooddale Drive, Woodbury, MN 55125, www.llewellyn.com. https://drrogerwalsh.com/books/the-world-of-shamanism/new-worlds-of-shamanism/

The Neuroscience of Spiritual Intelligence

The Neuroscience of Spiritual Intelligence Richard Griffiths Three Dimensions of Intelligence Three Dimensions of Intelligence Three Modes of Brain Processing Neurological studies have established that the brain has three distinct processing modes, called serial, parallel and synchronous. Serial processing is associated with IQ functions in the left brain. Parallel processing is associated with EQ functions in the right brain. And synchronous processing is associated with SQ functions in the whole brain [1]. Neural Basis for Spiritual Intelligence Oscillations at 40Hz propagate across the whole brain synchronously, and are associated with conscious attention and the state of presence. By linking part-brain functions from both hemispheres into the integrated field of the whole brain, 40Hz synchronous oscillations connect mind, self and world into a meaningful whole. Consequently 40Hz oscillations constitute the neural basis for SQ. SQ Brain Circuitry Recent findings in neuroscience confirm that spiritual intelligence is hard-wired in the human brain. But SQ brain circuitry remains largely dormant and undeveloped unless the SQ neural network is actually used. Random moments of spiritual intelligence occur spontaneously, but not very often. Therefore it’s important to know how to activate SQ intentionally, thus converting spiritual intelligence from a random fleeting experience, into your most valuable personal resource (see the video below). Neuroscience confirms that spiritual intelligence is hard-wired in the human brain. Qualities of Spiritual Intelligence The qualities of spiritual intelligence are the native qualities of consciousness itself, which are experienced at the subject-pole of attention in moments of presence in the form of wisdom, compassion, integrity, joy, love, creativity, and peace. By identifying with consciousness itself, instead of identifying with states of body and mind, we activate spiritual intelligence and thus experience its qualities. This shift in identification corresponds to the shift from ego to soul. See the diagram below of the twin poles of attention. Spiritual intelligence is therefore the intelligence of the soul. Brain Plasticity Studies on brain plasticity have established that neural pathways are highly malleable [2]. New neural pathways grow quickly in the human brain, and are strengthened by sustained and repeated use. For example, taxi drivers have an enlarged part of the brain that deals with direction-finding. And violin players have an enlarged brain area that deals with the left hand, but not with the right hand, which reflects the extra dexterity required to control the left hand on the strings, in comparison to to the right hand holding the bow [3]. Likewise, frequent use of the SQ neural network evolves a brain optimised for spiritual intelligence. This translates into an ability to sustain spiritual intelligence in association with any circumstances at the object-pole. Ultimately continued practice results in a 3Q brain (IQ+EQ+SQ=3Q), by means of neuroplasticity. A 3Q brain is structurally and permanently polarised to the subject-pole. With a 3Q brain you simply abide effortlessly as consciousness itself, and your spiritual intelligence is therefore active, without needing to use a practice. Consciousness is Not a Product of the Brain Recent studies in post-materialist science confirm that consciousness is not a product of the brain, contrary to the materialist point of view that still prevails in mainstream neuroscience. These studies, as summarised below, provide conclusive evidence that consciousness continues in the absence of brain activity. Some of these studies are based on the experience of patients in surgery. In some cases, after recovering from an operation, patient’s were able to give accurate reports of events that occurred in the operating theatre during the time that their brains were not functioning. Evidently consciousness does not depend on the brain. The brain is therefore the receiver of consciousness, not the source of consciousness. These studies represent scientific evidence for the existence of the soul. The 3Q Brain The 3Q brain (IQ+EQ+SQ=3Q) is optimised neurologically for spiritual intelligence. The default setting of attention in the 3Q brain is at the subject-pole of attention, not at the object-pole of attention [4]. The 3Q brain therefore replaces the ego with the soul, both as the seat of personal identity, and as the governor of IQ and EQ. The 3Q brain uses IQ and EQ not to pursue the goals of the ego, but to express the qualities of the soul, which are experienced at the subject-pole of attention in moments of presence, in the form of wisdom, compassion, integrity, joy, love, creativity, and peace. Neuro-psychology of the Soul Neuroscience has identified the particular type of brain processing associated with spiritual intelligence, as detailed above. The SQ paradigm combines this neuroscientific evidence with findings from psycho-analysis, and with the evidence from cognitive and transpersonal psychology [5]. The resulting inter-disciplinary synthesis reveals that spiritual intelligence is associated with a particular sense of self, distinct from the ego, with a specific neurological signature, that shares the qualities and capabilities ascribed to the soul by religious traditions. The SQ paradigm therefore represents the neuro-psychology of the soul. The 3Q brain represents the incarnation of the soul. Realisation of the Soul According to traditional religious beliefs, soul realisation is a supernatural experience. But the SQ paradigm identifies the realisation of the soul not as a supernatural experience but as a psycho-physical process by means of which the brain is optimised neurologically for spiritual intelligence. SQ brain circuitry is developed by transit through the SQ Portal as a means of experiencing spiritual intelligence. Frequent and sustained activation of spiritual intelligence eventually shifts the default setting of attention from the object-pole to the subject-pole of attention on a permanent basis, as a result of the neuro-plasticity of the brain. By identifying with consciousness itself, instead of identifying with states of body and mind, this shift in polarity replaces the ego with the soul, not only as the governor of IQ and EQ, but also as the conscious seat of personal identity. By virtue of continuous uninterrupted access to spiritual intelligence, the 3Q brain therefore represents the realisation of the soul. Related: The Location of the Soul Human Evolution Human evolution proceeds at multiple levels, from modifying the shape of the body, to evolving the brain to a more advanced level of functioning. SQ represents the next level of functioning beyond IQ and EQ. Thus human evolution is proceeding in the direction of developing the high performance 3Q brain. The emergence of spiritual intelligence into mainstream consciousness therefore signals the beginning of a new stage in human evolution governed by a higher dimension of intelligence. The Emergence of Spiritual Intelligence By sharing spiritual intelligence you are contributing to the evolution of mainstream consciousness. The resulting transformation, both individual and collective, is necessary to meet the challenges and opportunities of the third millennium. Spiritual intelligence therefore represents a synthesis whose time has come. Twin Poles of Attention Twin Poles of Attention Whole Brain Training As a powerful combination of three principal dimensions of intelligence, 3Q represents IQ and EQ in association with SQ. Studies in neuroscience confirm that spiritual intelligence is correlated with hemispheric synchronisation and whole brain activation [6]. Consequently, coaching in 3Q trains the whole brain. The resulting whole-brain coherence optimises brain function, and results in greater fulfilment, increased creativity, sharpened intuition, more empathy and compassion, and improved performance on a wide variety of work skills and life skills. 3Q Essentials Online Course When you activate a higher dimension of intelligence, you gain access to the qualities and capabilities of your higher self. You can use the method taught in this course to shift from ego to soul, and activate your spiritual intelligence. This releases your intuition and creativity, and results in a deeper sense of meaning and purpose, which ultimately transforms your entire personality. For more information about the 3Q Essentials online course click here 3Q intelligence Sources The SQ paradigm is based on a synthesis of findings from related fields of scientific research, including cognitive psychology, psychoanalysis, transpersonal psychology, and neuroscience, as summarised in The Psychology of Spiritual Intelligence. https://sqi.co/the-neuroscience-of-spiritual-intelligence/

Process Theology Order vs Ex-Nihilo

David Ray Griffin´s identifying Process Theology as a school that goes with "Order out of Chaos" and anti-ex nihilo based on Quantum Physics strikes me off-hand as Scientism. Science-friendly attitudes still need to remain clear that Science´s revealed truths are firmly philosophical in nature, no matter how fancy the instrumentation. Thus, "I am that I am" to Moses illuminates God and differentiates God from the physical Universe. Getting stickler with the issues seems ripe for some fun. WL Craig´s Kalam Cosmological argument not least of all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMXdslMn2x0&t=149s

No Ideas About Emergent Properties?

Sally Morem 2 years ago In order for us to get anywhere reasonably close to the truth of how apparently non-physical minds can arise out of physical processes, our neuroscientists will have to do a lot more work on those levels of brain processes that lie between the physical process of neuronal firing and the psychological. We aren't anywhere close to even asking the right questions on this. But to assume because of our lack of knowledge that minds simply couldn't emerge out of physical processes by themselves is simply to make yet another God of the gaps argument. One that may be disproven in the future like so many others were in the past. *** Green Peacemst Green Peacemst 9 minutes ago (edited) We certainly can ask important questions, and make note of relevant phenomena. It is, however, fundamental to reclaim this discussion for knowledge and back from the materialistic clutches of Science by identifying Scientism´s monopolistic fallacies and Science´s actual identity as a form of Empirical Philosophy. The sociocultural foundations of modern Empirical Scientific Philosophy, moreover are not merely ancient Greek, but essentially modernizing University-based Christian, meaning clearly but complexly in Jesus´ legacy and his own place expanding from Hebrew prophetic culture. The Lord´s Prayer, for example, has psychosocially potentiated us for things like explicitly loving our neighbor as ourselves and seeking forgiveness and not the ambitions of the Roman imperial Senate. I´ll gladly present the extended philosophical implications that I´m working out from unreconciled scholarship, although Stan Jaki´s Cognitive Historical work, Fritjof Capra´s General Systems Theory work, and emergent properties are much of the substance.

Absolutely Relativist Morality?

One of the more popular ideas promoted by theism is that without god atheists can have no sense of morality and by promoting that some actions are moral while others are immoral we are somehow, in essence, pointing towards a higher power. Bam, atheism is defeated and god reigns supreme… Not so fast though because this argument is actually just plain awful. First and foremost is that it once again confuses what the word atheist means, which is “a lack of belief in a god or gods.” Anything else falls outside the domain of atheism. So an atheist can be logical or illogical, they can be incredibly smart or incredibly dumb. As I often say, just because you answer the easiest question on the quiz, it doesn’t mean you are a straight A student. Now the theist will claim that we are promoting some standard to atheism that theism doesn’t also enjoy but this is not the case. A theist can be a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, or any other number of religions. Theism simply means that they have a belief in a god or gods. Anything else falls into another category. So if you are a Christian, you are a theist and you follow the Christian faith. A Muslim is a theist that follows the Islamic faith. The word theist does not in any way connote anything outside of the simple fact that they believe in some form of god. Secondly, this argument starts with the premise that morals must come from a higher authority and that this higher authority must in the end be god. Affirming the Consequent is a logical fallacy that can be explained in the following example. When I am drunk I make bad decisions. Yesterday I made a bad decision. Therefore yesterday I must have been drunk. Or in regards to the current blog… Morals come from a higher power. A god is an example of a higher power. Therefore morals must come from god. The reason this is a fallacy is because it attempts to prove its stance by working the premises to fit the stance. It is doing nothing more than injecting ones own beliefs into their argument and rejecting any argument that goes against that persons beliefs. This argument is used because it is convenient and because it sounds good if you don’t think too much about it. Lastly, many theists like to look at the world in black and white and appeal to the idea of absolute morality. In other words that some things are accepted as moral and immoral by the entirety of the human race and so they must come from some source outside of the human race. This attempts to separate humanity from morality and act as if it is a separate entity unto itself. Without the higher power we could never understand morality and so we would all live in a world of absolute chaos. We can all agree that morals exist, I’d like to believe that I am a fairly moral person. I don’t murder, I don’t rape, I don’t steal, and as best as I can I try not to do anything that would cause harm to another person. The difference being that most atheists, not all mind you but most, come from the perspective of relative morality. What this means is that our morals change over time as we progress or regress as a species. I believe that our morals evolved in such a way to promote the success of the species and allow us to use the least amount of energy possible. If you don’t have to worry about your neighbor trying to murder you, you can stop worrying about murdering your neighbor and get down to more of that sweet sweet procreative bedroom booty.Absolutely relativist morality? *** Moral relativism and atheism. If your musings were categorized appropriately as your points of inquiry, and those which right now leave you reveling in moral relativism and atheism, then that would represent a high integrity. Since you can´t resist the absolutist impulsivity of asserting these apparent conditions as absolute truth, well, you lose the full benefit that comes with hedging and qualifying with conditionals of humble self-awareness. You are, it appears, intoxicated with the freedom from the narrow blinders of antiquated denominations. My upbringing involved a secular humanist atheist dad who disavowed Catholicism for modern education. He had a sweet book on Comparative Religion by scholar Huston Smith, and a full library including Carl Jung´s work. By 10th grade, I felt hungry for a non-objectified relational paradigm to the Entity that Created the Forces of the Universe, and assumed Smith´s description of the Chinese Tao, along with a burgeoning interest in Therapeutic Psychology, eventually getting my bachelor´s in Bio Anthro. In a nutshell, my continuing professional and personal experience and development through Social Services, Financial Services, eco- and social justice activism, and holistic workshops included plenty of Buddhism and martial arts up to my mid-life masters in Intl Relations and Sustainability. Unitarian Universalism had given me the term “spiritual path” back in 10th grade already when I followed my nose, and I used it as a touchstone perspective. I began engaging with Christianity conscientiously when I found Christian Science Reading Rooms and their pragmatic beneficent providential kind of theistic approach. As for the absolutism of relativism, I suggest you expand your frames of reference before setting yourself in stone. I went to Africa for a year, studied a few martial arts, even as I tried to help mostly Afro-Americans. If you don´t have the desire to spend a year teaching in China, ask yourself why, and why not? What is the meaning of the term “globalization”? “Sustainability”? Where do Universities come from? What is the meaning of the integrity Jesus taught in relation to church doctrines, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the founding of the UN by FDR´s vision? Your perception of “relativism” is distinctly framed in what is in fact an absolute value system that has not been sustained by any system but that of Christ´s Western legacy. Sorting it out takes a sociological lens, for starters, but Bio Anthro helps stay clear about the interdisciplinarity. Good luck, and count your blessings like Jesus in a Shao Lin closet with an eye towards Divine Love.