An African Einstein

Recently, I watched either an HBO documentary, or a Showtime documentary ( I don't remember which.) that impacted me in a way that I haven't been impacted in a while.

The documentary talked about an organization, TED, (Technology, Entertainment, Design) which, through their conferences, arranges a meeting of the minds.

The organization, once a year, brings together ideas (projects) seeking funding and allows a limited time for approved guests to present their best shot at discussing a proposed project before TED Conference members--a select group of philanthropists and others from a variety of disciplines, occupations, and professions.

TED describes its conferences this way:

"The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes)."

I'm sure you have heard the definition of "luck." It's when opportunity meets preparation.

Well, TED does something similar: it brings preparation to opportunity.

It brings ideas (projects) [preparation] to those with the money to implement them [opportunity].

TED describes the process it uses to determine which projects to fund in a given year: The TED Prize. "[It] is designed to leverage the TED Community's exceptional array of talent and resources. It is awarded annually to three exceptional individuals who each receive $100,000 and, much more important, the granting of "One Wish to Change the World."

This fortuitous meeting has brought several projects to light for the benefit of humanity. You may be surprised to learn that I have a healthy respect for the sciences, although I am almost exclusively involved with metaphysical matters rather than scientific ones.

Having a keen interest in many of the projects sponsored by TED, I'm especially interested in those focused on Africa. The Video presented here about the AIMS project African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), although a rather long presentation, presents a discussion worthy of its length and your patience. The presenter is Neil Turok: 2008 TED Prize wish: An African Einstein.

Don't be surprised if the African Einstein is not a he but a she. Many of AIMS students are young women from all over Africa.

AIMS describes its goals this way:

"Africa's greatest resource is its people. There can be no more effective investment in Africa's future than in education, empowering talented young people to contribute to their countries' development.

"Mathematics underpins most of modern life - information and communication technology, genetics, medicine, finance, demographics and planning. Without mathematical training Africans will be unable to access the full power of new technologies to solve their countries' problems."

Please join me in spreading the word about TED and AIMS. No voice is too weak to speak loudly. It only takes hundreds, thousands, and millions of voices all speaking at the same time, all saying the same thing.

Someday We'll Have To Worry About This

Occasionally during meditation, I receive information about the planet, our collective future, or the future of someone I know.

Recently, while I was praying (as indicated in the previous blog entry) for the world and humankind, I was shown what looked to be a massive glacier. I could see large chunks of ice breaking from it. My inner guide warned:

Someday you'll have to worry about this.

I suspect that something cataclysmic is on the way. We can determine, however, just how bad it will be. But we'll have to pray, and pray often, to avoid this bleak future.

I don't mean to be an alarmist, but even the most optimistic among us must admit that we're in for some unprecedented climate changes.

I'm not sure if anyone knows what the full impact of global warming will be on the planet. Yet, I don't think that my inner guide would have said what it did without good cause.

Whether we can reverse the damage of global warming, only time will tell. Many of us will be doing our part to minimize what might ensue, but in this, as in most things on this scale, numbers do count; they count, because of the world-wide implications of the event.

"Feed My Family"

When I wrote this e-mail to address the quote below, I had no idea at the time that I would revise it as a blog entry.

After writing it, I realized that perhaps others might find my interpretation of the Lord's Prayer at least mildly interesting.

I've always been solution oriented, not willing to recount humanity's problems without extending a solution or solutions.

This response to a blog writer represents my effort to offer both solace and a solution to her lamentation. Her outcry on behalf of another who had been sexually abused, had touched me deeply.

Yet, we're not helpless. We can make a difference in a world that seems hell-bent on destroying itself, and everyone in the process.

My solution comes at the end of the entry. Regardless of your religious affiliation, I plead with anyone who reads this to join me and millions of others as we seek to bring heaven to earth.

You wrote:
"I've tried to be angry with God, but I can't this time.
I can't ask why because I really don't care why."

Your lamentation touched me. It's the lamentation that I hear from time to time when this world has become too much for some. I'm always amazed how I stumble upon certain blogs: one blog leading to another and you can't just read one.

I woke up this morning (April 26, 2008) after only a few hours of sleep. I wasn't going to respond to your blog entry, but the pain evidenced in it haunted me. The haunting only stopped after I spent several hours composing in my mind the following response.

[I will try to keep my response brief. Brevity, however, will water down the response, but I don't wish to tax your patience. I seriously thought about e-mailing it, but decided against that, hoping that others might find my comments of interest.]

I've changed my mind: I'm e-mailing instead.

I dislike densely written posts, blog entries, or e-mails, and will use space liberally to break down my thoughts, which will further lengthen my reply.

I have in this e-mail used several Bible references, and have proffered my own interpretation of those scriptural passages. Do I believe that my interpretations are final? No, I don't. I find that biblical verses--including the ones that I have used here--lend themselves to many interpretations.

Like yours, my heart aches, too, because of the horror that humankind inflicts upon itself: the brutality of which spawns all sorts of human woe.

And I, too, am discouraged from time to time, but then I realize that If I don't persevere things will remain the same--and that's not something I can live with.

I pray that you will see the empathy and the compassion with which I write this response, so that nothing I say here will be dismissed because it may be perceived as callous.

In addition, please accept nothing that I write here as definitive. It's not. My response is just another take on the issue, not the only one.

To prepare you for what is to follow, I needed first to establish the groundwork .

You wrote:

O God my heart is troubled, it's broken. Come quickly! Rescue me.

Here's what I've learned over the years, and it really shouldn't come as a shock to even the most casual observer:

God is not in the world.

Well, that's not exactly true. He's in the world and He's not in the world. If that sounds like a paradox, it's because it is. Much about God is paradoxical. Now let me try to back up that statement.

Jesus taught his disciples a prayer which we have since called The Lord's Prayer. Almost every Christian child can recite this brief prayer, and it's often read from the pulpit, and sang in song. The Lord's Prayer says a lot about how things are. Jesus prayed:

Our Father which art in heaven...

It's interesting that he didn't say heaven and earth. God's abode, we're told, is in heaven. And Jesus says something else interesting:

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

Jesus petitions for the coming of God's Kingdom, and that God's will finds acceptance as in heaven so in earth. Jesus asks for the Kingdom to come because he was fully aware that it wasn't here. If it were, why ask?

So, the question becomes: How does God's will get done, and how does God's Kingdom come?

That's easy: it gets done through us. And the Kingdom? It comes within us. Now let me back that up:

Jesus declared:

20 ¶ And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

For God's Kingdom to come on earth, we have to bring it here. For God's will to be done on earth, we have to submit to it.

God is not in the enforcement business. Because He has given us free will, He will never use His will to circumvent ours. Hence human atrocities. But that's only part of the story.

To get a better understanding, we need to go back to the very beginning, Genesis. We need to see how it all got started.

24 ¶ And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
26 ¶ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

And why is Genesis so important? Because it establishes the nature of man. I was told some years ago--from a source within--that those things that were created on a certain day of creation possess similar characteristics.

Man we are told was created on the sixth day. On that same day many things were created: "cattle, and creeping things and [most notably] the beast of the earth...."

So we're told, then, that man possesses the characteristics of the beast, and yet another characteristic: "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him...."

As a result man carries the mark of the beast and has the image of God--a dual nature that is at war continuously. Paul was aware of this duality, and spoke of it often:

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Here's my take on that infamous 666 number:

18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
Revelation 13:16-18

As man (generic for woman as well) yields to the beast within, the three aspects of his existence (body, mind, and soul) take on that characteristic as well. Hence, the three sixes.

When man yields to the seventh day--his spiritual, divine nature--rather than his carnal nature, his body, mind, and soul reflect that divinity, the Kingdom of God. Hence, the three sevens (777). This is his divine number. The one which represents complete and total dominion over the beast.

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Jesus represents the Sabbath, the seventh day, this completion and dominion. He represents this day of rest, a holy day, a blessed day.

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.]
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

And in another place he said:

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

To find the rest of the Sabbath we must be willing to leave the beast behind and began the arduous trek back home as repentant prodigal sons and daughters. For that is indeed the purpose of the Sabbath, that man might use it to find a peace and a rest:

And he [Jesus] said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath....

God sent Jesus to remind us of the seventh day (Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.), to remind us of our noble and holy nature, to show us what we could become if we adhere to the Son (the image and likeness of God) and slay the beast within:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Speaking of the importance of a singularity of purpose and the criticality of choosing who to serve, Jesus said:

22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

We can choose, then, to represent the Kingdom of God, or the kingdom of the devil, to allow God to father us, or the devil, to express the will of God, or the will of the devil, to think Godly thoughts, or devilish thoughts, to value carnal thoughts or spiritual thoughts, to prefer an evil eye or the single eye of truth.

Having a choice, because we have the potentiality, is the result of our earthly origin, an origin that provides us with both a spiritual and a fleshly body. One is real, the other is a lie about us.

We came into this world of flesh and took upon ourselves this dual nature for a purpose. A discussion of that purpose is beyond the scope of this e-mail. God can make no mistakes: if man finds himself beleaguered by a world created by his physical senses, it is not by happenstance. Otherwise, it would take God out of the equation, and leave matters to chance, and the vicissitudes of life. Something that God, as creator, would never do.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil...

Now this statement has always puzzled some biblical scholars, as it supports the notion that God leads us into temptation--a notion that is hard to reconcile with God's divine nature. In the original it reads: deliver us from the evil one, or the one evil. And what kind of "temptation" could God lead us into?

God is the I Am presence within each of us. It would take another e-mail to explain the whole of that. I Am [the name of God] (our awareness [our consciousness of being] ) can lead us into the temptation of believing that we're both the beast and the divine, and lure us into eating (embracing in thought) the mixed fruit, the fruit from "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" as though they're both desirable and good to eat.

11 Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.

We're told to seek peace and rest and eschew the beast (the evil potential within us). Jesus, as the rest, became the antithesis of all that the beast represents, as the beast nature and the divine nature gave rise to man's two emotions: love and fear.

Love has long been considered the personification of God within us, and fear the personification of the devil. As Jesus represents the divine within us (love), the devil has come to represent the fear, the "prince of this world."

31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

And again we're told:

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil:

He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

So how is it that the Son of God destroys the works of the devil? He does so by becoming the antithesis of all that the devil represents. He does this by presenting himself as the true creation of God:

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

I am (God's name)

the way (as opposed to the wide gate and the broad way, not abiding in the truth, and not having truth in him)
the truth (as opposed to the liar and the lie)
the life (as opposed to death [the wages of sin is death].

Of some listening to his sermons, he had this to say, reflecting on the origin of their thoughts and words--thoughts and words that did not correspond to the truth he represented:

Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

So what is our true nature?

Hallowed be thy name.

It is a holy nature as implied in the "hallowed," but it's more than that. A common etymology says this of holy:

The distinction of the word holy appeared around the 13th Century with the Old English word hālig derived from hāl meaning health, happiness and wholeness. As “wholeness”, holiness may be taken to indicate a state of religious completeness or perfection.

Dropping the word religious we get "a state of completeness or perfection," which explains this next biblical statement:

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

"Shall not" to me is like saying it's impossible to do so, as in: Thy shall not swim across the Pacific Ocean.

in vain

To no avail, useless, as in All our work was in vain. [c. 1300] Also see take someone's name in vain.

It's stated that we can't take God's name (I Am) in vain; also, it's not a good idea to do so. Therefore whatever we attach to God's name is never taken in vain (never a useless statement and to no avail.)

So God's name is Whole (Holy), and that is our name as well. We say almost ceaselessly, I Am, and what we put after it determines our state or condition:

I Am sick, well, happy, sad, disturbed, peaceful, and so on.

Why is this so? We exist in a state of perfection and completeness--our true nature--one which it behoove us to consciously get back to with all haste and, because of that, our I AM statements if persisted in have consequences and are perfectly and completely expressed--if not immediately, then by and by.

And what does all this have to do with my response to your lamentation? Plenty. We're getting closer to my reason for writing such a long e-mail. Without the explanation that has gone before, the "full corn in the ear," would not have been possible, as it required "first the blade."

26 ¶ And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;
27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.
28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.

The Lord's Prayer offers more than meets the eye. It gives us the solution to our earthly dilemma--our dual nature. That duality presents a nature that leads to death and one that leads to Life, one that dwells in the Truth, and one that fathers the lie, and is a liar to boot, one that establishes a Way, and one that puts us on the broad way.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Here's the solution in seven words. A simple statement, often believed to mean one's earthly provisions. In a sense that's correct, but in a vaster more valuable sense than that of worldly provisions.

On occasion I ask God, upon rising in the morning, what He would like for me to do for Him on that particular day. His reply on one of those days was:

Feed my Family.

Three words. That's all. But the implications of those three words are enormous. I realized then how important each of us are in the scheme of things. I realized further what we all could do to benefit the self and the whole of humanity. God answers prayers in many ways. Sometimes He does so through us.

Here's how I saw it: as God feeds us, we in turn feed others. And what is this God food, this spiritual aliment, this manna from the heavens: LOVE.

19 And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.
20 And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.

We're told that God is Love. As Love, what more could we ever need from Him to meet and fulfill our daily needs? If "sufficient unto the day is the evil there of," then sufficient unto the day is the Love thereof, as "there is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."

Love is the way to conquer the nature of the beast, as well as that personification of the devil, fear.

And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

As God giveth to us, we in turn give to others. This wondrous feast that is always present on the table of Love is the horn of plenty that never depletes itself. Love is the cornucopia that would feed the world were the world willing to partake. And where it's not willing, or unaware of Love's existence, it becomes not a duty, so much as a privilege, for us to give from that storehouse of Love the spiritual loaves and fishes that, when broken to share, will feed the hearts of those bereft of God's omnipresent abundance.

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.

And farther down we get this clarification:

14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Love and forgiveness. As we condemn we forfeit Love, and God's forgiveness.

Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven...

Forgiveness is an essential part of a life of love. It is indispensable if we wish to progress spiritually, and to bring the Kingdom of God on earth. Jesus knew this, and we see the depth of His love at a time when many of us might have condemned: the occasion of his death. His response to those who crucified him:

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

As we love God and embrace our neighbor in that love, something wonderful begins to happen: we bring heaven to earth.

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these

I began this response with a statement early on:

God is not in the world.

Yet, Jesus, with the finger of God (Love) was able to bring the Kingdom of God to bear upon many situations even to that of evicting the strong man of our dual nature:

20 But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.
21 When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace:
22 But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.
23 He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.

With the strong man evicted, we too may bring the "finger of God" to bear upon many situations. This finger may be used to heal the sick, cast out demons, cleanse the lepers, as well as raise the dead.

But that is on the individual level. What is desirous today is to bring this Kingdom to all men and women. And this is done through the process of forgiveness (not holding anyone in bondage to our thoughts) and by broadcasting Love to all--hourly, daily.

Many in this world have devoted themselves to this task: the bringing of God's Kingdom to all of humankind. We do it on a personal level by healing all sorts of human maladies with the "finger of God", and on the universal level by reaching out daily with thoughts of love, truth, and peace to embrace all people in the omnipresent Love of God.

I invite you to join us. If enough of us do this, we will reach critical mass, a tipping point that will usher in a new age, an age that has been called The Age of God. Not all in this world are required to be reached before this happens--just enough to start the chain reaction. Once it begins, the consciousness of all will be embraced within God's Kingdom. And the all too frequent atrocities that now plague humankind will be a thing of the past.

As we send forth God's Love to the world, we feed all, we feed God's Family. And as we do so, they will be fed, and as they're fed, they'll have the spiritual power to take upon themselves the verisimilitude of the divine, no longer victims to a false nature, nor oppressed by the Kingdom of a Liar, but exist as the children of God, living in the Kingdom of God, now and forever more.

And they will listen to angel voices declaring continuously before the high throne of our God:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

I bow to the Kingdom of God within you,


The First Domino

You Are The Life Force Of The Universe

Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist, suffered a stroke several years ago. The experience changed her life and compelled her to view herself and the world in a totally new way. Near the end of her YouTube video presentation, her words take on a decided metaphysical tone, indicating a willingness to depart radically from an orthodox view of reality.

The video details that experience with pathos and occasional humor. Ms Taylor stops just short of saying that "we're not our bodies," one of the themes of my previous blog entry on health and healing.

As a scientist, she skirts the issue, but I'm convinced that, if pressed, she would, in all likelihood, suggest that it's a possibility, and worthy of scientific exploration. Instead, she explores the differences between the brain's right and left hemispheres, suggesting that the creative, non-linear right hemisphere may be the answer to humanity's preoccupation with the emotions and attitudes that reside in the left hemisphere.

It's her contention that nirvana is just a hemisphere away.

If I might analogize here with a less than accurate comparison, the brain may be liken to a radio. It works fine as long as it's within range of radio signals, and is not busted.

It doesn't work so well the farther away it is from the source of a signal, or if it's on the fritz. The brain, like a radio, works well as long as nothing is interfering with its reception, and its not broken.

In other words, the human body, including the brain, allows the vital body to operate in a physical environment much the same way a deep-sea diving suit allows a diver to operate within the ocean's depths.

God forbid something should happen to the suit--the person that it surrounds might find him or herself struggling to survive intact.

How To Heal Yourself

The Truth About Your Body

(Bear with me, some of what I'm going to say here is going to contradict what your mind and your senses are telling you is real and true.)

CwG (Conversations with God) tells us that "we're not our bodies." For some, that statement is a verifiable truth. For others, pure fantasy.

Let me began by telling you something shocking. We're not only not our bodies, but our bodies aren't even alive!

Our bodies are being kept alive.

Let me give you an analogy. I've seen hospital patients kept alive by being connected to a variety of medical instruments (a life-support system): instruments to breathe for them, instruments to feed them, and instruments to monitor what the instruments are doing.

Science knows so little about how the body is kept alive that it posits that it is alive. I tell you from personal knowledge that that is just not so.

Further, the body that you call your own is not even sentient. That, too, is an illusion. If you rub your hands together or touch any other part of your body, I'll tell you, categorically, that that wasn't your physical body that you touched. You did touch a body, however, but it wasn't physical.

Your body is being kept alive by another body. Some mystics call it the "astral" body. If you were to see it, it would look a lot like the body that you now inhabit. Even "inhabit" is not an accurate description.

Your astral body surrounds the physical body rather than resides within it. Because of a magnetic attraction, the astral body stays in alignment with the physical one. Without this attraction, we'd drift off into our native, non-physical environment, which is where we reside in the always. I suspect that at night in our dream state we become unmoored from the physical body, drift away from it, and embark on many journeys that we have little awareness of when we're awake again.

Although it seems that we're interacting with a physical world, it is, in actuality, a non-physical one, material appearances, notwithstanding. What we have, then, is a great deception, one that our physical senses are in collusion with.

The umbilical cord that connected you to your mother is replicated at the
astral level. We see remnants of it in the coccyx, also know as the tailbone. The tailbone represents a function of the astral body showing up in the physical, but occurring at the astral level. A cord, not unlike the umbilical cord (silver in color, about the size of an average man's wrist), connects the astral body to the physical.

There's only one Biblical reference to the cord, and that is in Ecclesiastes:

Book Ecclesiastes, Chapter 12, Verse 6

5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:
6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Death only occurs when the cord is loosed, and that is when the vital body is no longer able to sustain the physical body, usually because the physical has suffered irreparable damage, or has been abandoned by the soul.

The "golden bowl" is the soul that encompasses the physical (It's seen as an aura, and breaks away from the physical once a decision is made to move on to the non-physical realm); the "pitcher" at the fountain represents the flow of intelligence from the bowl to the physical; the "wheel" represents the process that carries the flow of life-giving energy from the source (cistern) to the body.

The italicized statement above further corroborates the existence of man in both a physical (dust) and a spiritual state, suggesting that only the spiritual is man's primary and ultimate state, and that the "dust" returns to a state that existed before the advent of the spiritual.

Jesus states it this way:

62 What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?
63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

All things proceed from the spiritual (our native state). Two of those things are intelligence and life, both of which allow thought (words, spoken and unspoken, as well as mental images) to exist.

What I'm going to tell you now, neither science nor mystics know. In all my readings not one has revealed what I'm going to tell you here.

The silver cord extends from the back of the astral body. From the shoulder and neck, large and small cords of varying sizes (some the size of your pinkie, and others the size of the thumb and other digits) fan out like fingers and bundles at the base of the astral back as a cable does when it consists of many strands or cords. These cords hold fast to the astral body with a steel-like grip. They can't be moved even with the greatest of effort.

This bundled cord attaches to the physical body at various, but vital areas. It's been seen attached to the heart, the back of the head, and at the third eye located between the eyes.

Now, here is what you need to know. Along this cord, the vital or astral body sends the energy and intelligence that keep the physical body alive, keep it functioning properly, regulating it, and setting in motion all the chemical actions and reactions that are necessary to make the body run smoothly, and operate effectively within the physical realm. It serves the same function as the medical instruments hospitals use to keep the physical body alive, but it does so in a more sophisticated, and extraordinary manner.

One of the most successful healing organizations on the planet realizes the role of the body (it's temporal nature, allowing us to operate in a physical realm), and subscribes to the following statement as the indispensable plank in it's healing method (which elevates the spiritual over the material, and substantiates my own experiences). It is called the "scientific statement of being," and represents, in brief, the organization's position on the science of healing:

9 There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor sub-
stance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite
manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal
12 Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and
eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is
God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore
15 man is not material; he is spiritual. [1]

I will say more about this organization later, but not for the purpose of proselytizing. I have no interest in convincing you to take up any belief system, religious or otherwise, as I am, myself, non-religious, with no vested interest in any religion, although I recognize the right of religions to exist. The several religions exist because each of us exists at certain belief levels, and gravitates towards those beliefs with which we agree, or that support our present understanding. They represent our efforts to understand God and our relationship to Him.

I'm including this religion because of its unparalleled success at healing the physical body, and the physical mind, and one whose writings you might like to study if healing is a goal that you'd like to pursue.

What does all of this have to do with health and healing?

I wanted to first establish that mind is not in body and neither is life. Even if you disagree with my premise, this thought construct will now be a part your mental environ and, hopefully, on an unconscious level, will strengthen your resolve to heal and accept healing as an ever-present possibility.

This collaboration of our senses with our mind humanizes it (that is, physicalizes mind and thoughts rather than spiritualizes them), thereby setting up a construct that we have come to know as the Devil, also known as Satan, also known as the serpent, also known as the red dragon. In Revelations we're told:

7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Book Revelation, Chapter 12, Verse 3 [color and italics mine]

We're told that this personification of evil is the great deceiver. Jesus called him a liar, and a murderer. What is the nature of the lie: one -- that we're not the sons and daughters of God (spiritual and perfect); two -- re: eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, "Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."

By eating the fruit of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" we do die to the knowledge and the awareness that we're divine beings created in the image and likeness of God (that we're one, single, solitary, and the Same). Once we eat, we do not become gods (as self-sufficient beings), but, on the contrary, we become mortals with physical bodies (created of flesh and bone), now fully aware of the world of relativity and duality (a world, I might add, that is not real).

Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one...

Isn't it interesting that the Devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness with almost one single purpose in mind--to compel Him to renounce his understanding that he was, indeed, the Son of God.

And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down...
Further, it's also interesting how many times in the Bible forty days, and forty days and nights are used.

At the point of death, you will experience no separation from the body. Since you were never a part of it in the first place, not only will you not miss it, you will think that you're still within your physical body, but for a difference in surroundings and the sudden appearance of new powers and abilities.

HOW TO HEAL YOURSELF

The best healing is to prevent yourself from getting sick in the first place. This is what this section will dwell on.

Conversations with God has several things to say about health and staying well.

Illness and disease are opposites of health and wellness, and are made manifest in your reality at your behest. You cannot be ill without at some level causing yourself to be, and you can be well again in a moment by simply deciding to be. (CwG I p. 32)

It is very difficult to reverse the effects of negative thinking once they have taken physical form. Not impossible--but very difficult. It takes an act of extreme faith. It requires an extraordinary belief in the positive force of the universe--whether you call that God, Goddess, the Unmoved Mover, Prime Force, First Cause, or whatever.

Healers have just such faith. It is a faith that crosses over into Absolute Knowing. They know that you are meant to be whole, complete, and perfect in this moment. This knowing is also a thought--and a very powerful one. It has the power to move mountains--to say nothing of molecules in your body. That is why healers can heal, often even at a distance. (CwG I p.189) The italic is mine.

All illness is created first in the mind. (CwG I p.188)

It would be instructive to read how negative thinking, including worry, hatred, fear and negative thoughts, conspire to militate against good health. For those that may be interested, the discussion begins on page 187 of CwG.

Just the elimination of these negatives would work wonders to keep you well.

Spiritual understanding trumps faith and aids "Absolute Knowing." Once spiritual understanding crystallizes into absolute knowing, which is a by-product of this deep, unshakable understanding, then you're a healer.

Standing Firm:

At the first sign of a cold, the flu, a headache, or pain in any part of the body, or any other physical irregularity, bring all your mental forces to bear against these intruders. As you know, these ailments can be exceedingly aggressive in overtaking your good health. Yet, you should fight back, if you choose not to be ill, as aggressively as these interlopers fight to invade your mind and your body.

Keep in mind, we're more used to losing these battles with colds and flu than in winning them. Our mind knows this and will adamantly assert that knowledge .

What I'm recommending is not "mind over matter." Matter, as you now know, is merely a physical construct that allows us to interact in this realm of relativity, not only with each other, but with the physical world in general. Therefore, what we have here is mind over mind. At each step it is our mind that is the agent both at the creation level and the healing level.

Read again this previous passage again from CwG: "You cannot be ill without at some level causing yourself to be, and you can be well again in a moment by simply deciding to be."
What you're doing, then, is getting ahead of the dis-ease. You're stopping it in its tracks before it has a chance to manifest itself fully. If you don't fight at this point, you increase your liability to the disease.

Jesus expressed it this way, as the way to defeat the onset of disease:

25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
26 Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. Book Matthew, Chapter 5, Verse 25

In this case, you're the adversary, the judge, and the officer, and you determine your prison stay.

To keep from paying the "uttermost farthing," it's imperative that you build up your mental defense against any symptom of disease that may be expressing itself.

Jesus explained the nature of the "adversary," (all appearances of evil, as well as dis-ease) thusly:

44Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. Book John, Chapter 8, Verse 44

Now, knowing that the adversary, aka the devil, is a liar, and has no truth in him, and has fathered the lie (that is, originated it), it would behoove you (us) to agree with our adversary, rather than disagree.

Agree that the adversary is a liar, and is telling an untruth about you. Note that the lie begins with us, and we're the ones that must defend against it, or let it run its course, or use materia medica (one belief) to cast out another.

If you plan to be the victor, you can't go about this half-heartedly. Each time you're able to defeat the enemy by resisting him (here's the good news), his power diminishes. You won't have to fight so hard next time, or, because of your good health, you won't have to fight at all .

The healing organization that I mentioned before expresses this healing secret this way:

Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously. When the condition is present which you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise, heredity, contagion, or accident, then perform your office as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears. Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors; then the body cannot suffer from them. The issues of pain or pleasure must come through mind, and like a watchman forsaking his post, we admit the intruding belief, forgetting that through divine help we can forbid this entrance.[2]

Decide vigorously that you're not going to be sick. Take a firm stance. Don't even allow the possibility of becoming ill to enter your mind.

There's a book that expresses it perfectly:

You often use the phrase, "I have made up my mind." This has a great deal of meaning, if you pause to consider it, for in that very process you begin to bring into manifestation the desire of the mind. Thus you say "I see a wrong condition in my mind, my mentality, my circumstances; I will make up my mind, this shall not be." You mentally set in motion the forces of the universe, seen and unseen, to accomplish your will." Christ in You (p.178, Italics is mine)

It's been almost two decades since I've had a cold or the flu. It's not that these viruses aren't trying to catch me, it's just that I refuse to be caught.

We hear the saying, "I caught a cold!" No truer words. It's is you (we) that do the catching. With that in mind, we can undo the catching by just deciding (making up our minds) to not be sick.

Try it the next time when the symptoms of these ailments rear their ugly heads. Clobber them with your decision not to be sick.

But act quickly, and often, until the symptoms subside and then disappear. What I've said here puts the "immune system" in a total new light. If you wish immunity, "know that you are meant to be whole, complete, and perfect in this moment," and accept no other possibility.

Realization:

Here's another powerful tool to create health and other favorable conditions and, like the tool of "standing firm", it's meant to be used immediately at the first sign of dis-ease or discord of any sort. Here's where affirmation and visualization can be used together to create the desired condition. Conjoining them is not absolutely necessary, but is done to hasten the desired outcome--improved conditions, or a perfect expression in the place of an imperfect one.

Here's how the healing organization suggests it should be done:

Mentally insist that harmony is the fact, and that sickness is a temporal dream. Realize the presence of health and the fact of harmonious being, until the body corresponds with the normal conditions of health and harmony. [3]

Let me give you an example of how I used these tools (affirmation, realization, and visualization) to stem a rather aggressive attack of a cold or the flu.

Many years ago, I was in a business meeting when the symptoms of a respiratory illness became alarmingly threatening. Immediately, I went to the nearest public restroom to begin a regimen that made use of these three aforementioned tools.

Visualization:

Being on a warm beach, with the sun shining out of a clear blue sky, the sea water lapping against my feet, conjures up my ideal of what health is. It is there (at the beach) where I have felt my most alive, healthy and invigorated.

Affirmation & Realization:

I took myself to that beach in my mind's eye, while all the time repeating to myself how healthy I felt, all for the purpose of realizing (deeply feeling the health in my body). The goal was the realization of health, the actual feeling of being healthy. I have emphasized the "feeling" part of this because that is the most important thing to achieve, the other things, visualization, affirmations, and realization being merely avenues to take you there.

After a few minutes, all the symptoms had disappeared, and my "body corresponds[ed] with the normal conditions of health and harmony."

I returned to the meeting totally free of the symptoms. They didn't return.

Let me repeat: affirmation, realization, and visualization have their place, but are useless unless they're used to create a feeling. The feeling may be almost anything, from wealth to health, to success, to greater intelligence, to problem solving, you name it.

Get the feeling of being successful, of being healthier, of being wealthier, of being smarter, of being creative, of being enlightened for that matter.

To the degree that you feel it (and abide in that feeling), to that degree will it be your manifested reality. Feeling creates a consciousness of the thing desired. It can also create the thing that you dread. Job is the perfect example of the power of creative feeling run amok:

25 For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me. Book Job, Chapter 3:25 (Italics are mine)
It is in this consciousness where the idea/thought incubates and ultimately manifests itself as your reality.

An author/mystic that has written extensively about the power of "feeling" is Neville. Yes, he's simply known as Neville. In his book Resurrection, a collection of his writings, he asserts this about the power of feeling:

You should awaken within you the feeling that you are and have that which heretofore you desired to be and possess.
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The feeling of the wish fulfilled, if assumed and sustained, must objectify the state that would have created it.
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If a physical fact can produce a psychological state, a psychological state can produce a physical fact. If the effect (a) can be produced by the cause (b), then inversely, the effect (b) can be produced by the cause (a). Resurrection p.5-6

There are other tools, but these two (standing firm, and realization) have the power, if used quickly, to restore you to health, once dis-ease has struck.

I would suggest, in addition, that you not wait until disease strikes before using the tool of realization. Use it often--once a day if possible. Concerned about your finances--spend time each day realizing the presence of wealth to achieve the consciousness thereof.

This goes also for any other condition you wish to manifest. First, acquire the consciousness of the thing desired, using the power of feeling. The manifestation will take care of itself.

If you would like to learn the art and the science of healing, I would highly recommend the organization that I have referenced throughout these writings.

The church emphasizes a "practical Christianity." It embodies all that those words imply. If you care to explore what it has to offer go to it's Web site: Spirituality.com, established by the Christian Science Publishing Society.

The church also publishes a world-class newspaper that has a worldwide readership, a solid reputation, and universal acclaim for its journalistic excellence. You may find it here: The Christian Science Monitor CSMonitor.com.

I know of no church that has had the success rate of this church/organization in the healing arts, and the maintenance of health. If you think that practicing the healing art is something that you'd like to do, then their textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, and their attendant publications, the Sentinel, and The Christian Science Journal, will give you the requisite grounding for doing so.

I would say that their healing success rate is better than that of the medical establishment. Do they always succeed? No. But I would say that they don't fail as often as medical science does. I would say that their healing system compares favorably, and I would even go so far as to say that it's probably more successful at healing people and doing no harm than medical science.

Thousands of otherwise sick individuals have been healed simply by reading their flagship book alone, Science and Health with Keys to the Scriptures. In a section included in the back of most editions, entitled Fruitage, you may find a number of such cures.

No disease has failed to yield to their method, although, in some individual cases, as in the medical profession, patients have been lost. Diseases such as cancer, and even the AIDS virus, in some instances, have succumbed to their therapeutic method.

Am I suggesting that you consider membership in their church? The answer is, No. As I have stated before, I don't proselytize. I don't insist that anyone do anything. I'm a provider of information, and allow others to make up their own mind about the validity, soundness, and wisdom of what I have to say, or have said.

Quotes--[1,2,3]--are from: Science and Health with Key to the Scripture, by Mary Baker Edddy. The quotes are used without authorization of the copyright owners, but, I feel, fall within the guidelines of Section 107 of the US Copyright Law, and constitute Fair Use, as they are used to advance social, and cultural issues, and understanding.

HOW TO KEEP YOURSELF WELL

You would think that a discussion on how to keep yourself well would be a complex one. Actually, it's a simple one, because nothing is simpler than staying well. I say it's simple; I didn't say that it's easy.

It's easy only to the degree that you follow the simplest of precepts.

Let me share with you a healing I experienced some years ago. On that occasion, I was reading, for the first time, Conversations with God. The healing was not the first I had experienced using prayer and my understanding of God, my relationship to Him, and the nature of disease.

I had been in an automobile accident, and, as a result, experienced severe pain alone the left side of my body, from my neck down my left arm. The pain endured throughout the day, and interfered with my sleep, as I would often wake up in pain during the night, and found it difficult to find a position in which to sleep.

While reading CwG (Conversations with God), I asked God why I wasn't able to heal my condition. I knew what I needed to do to affect a healing, but I wasn't getting very far.

We must have dialoged for a while before I realized that I was talking to Him. What is to follow is what I remember of the discussion to the best of ability.

God asked me: "Do you know what the secret place of the Most High is?" I realized that the "secret place" was a term used in one of the passages from the Bible that had long resonated with me, and was one of my favorites, Psalm 91.

I told Him that I didn't. He said, "It is love."

I said something to the effect, "It doesn't say so in the passage."

He said, "Read it again." I retrieved my Bible thinking, I don't remember any such passage, God has to be wrong here. I found the Psalm that had been referenced, and read the following:

Psalm 91
1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
3 Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night ; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the
wicked.
9 Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
14 Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in
trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
16 With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my
salvation.

Foolish me. Of course it was there! When I read that line, to set my love upon God, I immediately reached out to Him with love, and as I did so, the pain, that had been my constant companion for over a month, disappeared. And, for the first time that night, I slept without pain, and without interruption to my sleep.

You can't imagine the intensity of my joy. I still rejoice for the freedom I found after reading the Psalm.

Here is what the "secret place" will protect you from:

the snare of the fowler
the noisome pestilence
the terror by night
the arrow that flieth by day
the pestilence that walketh in darkness
the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

Here are some of its assurances:

no evil befall thee
neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder
the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.

All of this and more shall be yours just by doing this one simple thing: set your love upon God; dwell in the "secret place."

Jesus cites the law of protection this way, as he answers a lawyer who is seeking to tempt him with the question:

36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Book
Matthew, Chapter 22, Verse 36-40)

As an additional bonus, you get the following:

He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
16 With long life will I satisfy him, and shew
him my salvation. (Italics is mine)

Your prayers, then, stand a greater chance of being manifested, if you have love towards God and your neighbor, than if your heart is bereft of love.

Obviously, dwelling in love is the key. And this is where the going gets tough. We'd rather indulge many other states of mind (worry, hatred, fear) than dwell in a state of love. Of course it doesn't have to be a big hatred, it can be a little one, such as prejudice, dislike, contempt.

It doesn't have to be a big fear, it can be a little one, such as concerns about failing, getting sick, having an accident, or not making the grade in some other way.

With a mind always on love, expressing it, thinking it, meditating it, practicing it, you don't have to worry about the "deadly" three negative states of mind.

IN SUMMATION

Now you have it. You may build on the foundation I've set here if you choose. But none of this will bear fruit without effort. The more the effort the greater the fruit.

You will find, as I have found, that not everyone wishes to be awaken. Some are comfortable in the Matrix. The movie speaks some truths about the physical, visual, deception that we're generating and are accepting as real. Sprit is operating around a physical overlay. The overlay is not real, and would cease to be without Spirit.

Some have had the courage to look behind the Matrix, behind the scaffolding of material existence.

Although it appears that our world is physical, we live within a mental universe. And we profoundly impact that world with our thoughts and beliefs, on both the individual and universal level.

Everything in this world has conditioned us to accept ourselves as physical, to believe the lie. It's the greatest of illusions. We've had a lifetime of conditioning that affirms our identity as being physical and material. Yet, if we've never been physical, then we're spiritual beings. As spiritual beings, we can't be imperfect, not even as (so it seems) beings in physical bodies.

If you would be a consistent healer, this must be the premise you accept as your truth.

The more we dwell within the absolute, the more the world of relativity will reveal what it truly is: an illusion. When we dwell in love, we dwell in God, the Absolute.