Our world is full of wonder and beauty, so why is humanity living in fear? Why are we out of step with the dance of Creation? Why do we live with terrorism and environmental destruction? Why can we find so little inner peace?
We find our selves in a time when we are just beginning to understand ourselves and are on the verge of destroying all life. It is a paradox beyond our normal way of understanding. The time has come for a new perspective, to become as children again and rediscover who we are.
The outcome of the next few decades may very well decide the fate of life on Earth. This is an opportunity to reassess our actions and beliefs, to exercise our responsibility and to empower ourselves for the flight back to reality and freedom.
This book is only my opinion. I claim no handle on the Truth. The old views, long held to be sacred, no longer serve us and have brought us to this place in our story. The time has come to write a new chapter that is more life-affirming - more in keeping with our true nature. We can no longer let others write it for us!
Introduction
“Among all my patients ... over thirty five ... there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say that every one of them fell ill because he lost (it)...and none of them has really been healed who did not regain his religious outlook. This of course has nothing whatever to do with a particular creed or membership of a church “ Carl Jung
Like many I had come through one of those all-too-frequent life crises which lead to intense self examination. My little world had fallen apart and I lost my faith in all I had learned about life. Thirty years of studying the human condition in relation to Nature and its Creator and I was down for the count. I knew all this stuff but I was so caught up in my little melodrama that I found no solace in it.
Then one day, as I reached the ‘bottom’, I had an idea. If I could write down all I had learned, the exercise would force me to focus on what I knew to be true instead of my emotional turmoil. In an attempt to piece myself back together I triumphed over my loss of faith.
Truth had always been staring me in the face but I had usually been too busy indulging in diversion, self pity and all sorts of useless, counter productive thoughts and deeds to notice. I had all the knowledge to prevent the depression I had fallen into and still I had trouble getting out of it. Writing was such great therapy for me I decided to expand on it so others might possibly benefit from the experience.
For the reader to better understand the information presented it may be of benefit to have a short account of my early life. These events helped shaped my early thought patterns and prompted the research which lead to the information and conclusions contained herein.
I began my education in the English Catholic school system in Quebec in the early 50’s. From the beginning I was bewildered by my experience. What I was told - how to behave, what to believe and how I was treated - caused me great anxiety. I was told that God was love but if I did not obey, to the letter, the dictates of the nuns, priests, parents and teachers, I would incur the wrath of God - which I did. Later I learned that this wrath, as dispensed by these guardians of the holy word, was classified as sadism and child abuse by psychologists.
One day in grade 8 I met a girl who was crying by the side of the road. I inquired as to the cause of her sadness. When she looked up at me I saw terror in her eyes. She had just encountered a group of Catholic students who had tormented her by telling her she was going to fry in hell for all eternity because she was a Protestant. I was horrified. Although I was very familiar with this piece of Catholic propaganda, I had not seen first hand the kind of destruction it could wreak on the innocent. There had always been doubt in my mind as to the church’s claim to its authority as a representative of God. If this kind of vicious prejudice was the result of their teachings and God had sanctioned these teachings then I had no further desire to be associated with either one of them. In that moment I felt a snap, a breaking of the bonds which the church had on me.
In my view, the pain of this girl was but a microcosm of all the suffering the Church had inflicted on humanity for the last two thousand years. I saw it so clearly in that instant. I see it every time I hear some self-righteous person - whatever dogma they claim to adhere to - saying that their way is the only way. It is the same sick egomania which brought us the crusades, the inquisition and the slaughter of millions of aboriginal peoples the world over. This single incident of the crying girl jelled my rejection not only of the church but of organized religion in general.
The fear which was instilled in me and the hypocrisy I witnessed turned me against God. By the time I was twenty I would brag to anybody who mentioned God that if he were to come down, stand in front of me, announce who he was and demand my subjugation, I would kick him in the balls. It’s a good thing he never took me up on the offer.
Yet like many I began to feel an emptiness which no amount of money or partying could alleviate. Without some spiritual nourishment, without some hope that all was not just total chaos, existence seemed quite pointless.
Are we just some cosmic joke? Is there a reason for life? Who or what caused all this to come into being? Are we alone or is some higher being watching over us? Is life just suffering, taxes and death? Is there life after death? Is there life after birth? Is there a god and is it so insecure that we have to bow down and kiss its feet every day? Are priests and ministers really interested in our salvation or just the size of our contributions?
As all these questions surfaced in my mind I found the answers just presented themselves. Books, people and events came forward in my life with what I was seeking. Interestingly, there was a logical sequence to the presentation, with each new piece to the puzzle following and elaborating on the previous information. What I read, heard and experienced fueled my curiosity and set my mind reeling with the possibilities. The more I learned the more wonder I began to see around me. Reality was turning out to be far more exiting than I could have imagined.
My hunger for knowledge propelled me into seemingly vastly varying arenas. I read books on a multitude of subjects and philosophies. I sought out people who professed knowledge of a variety of beliefs, many of whom appeared to have opposing views.
I discovered that in order to assimilate the information and experiences I was receiving I needed to articulate them. I found the exercise of relating the information to someone with an
opposing view far more useful than discussing it with someone with whom I agreed. The mental stimulation was far more invigorating and challenging.
I spent thousands of hours with Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Bahai’s, Emissaries of Divine Light, Born-again Christians, Psychics, Rosicrucians, Edgar Cayce-ites, Native spiritual elders, ministers, priests and laymen. I attended churches, meeting halls, ceremonies, group meditations, healings and prayer gatherings. From the beginning I had no intention of joining any group or embracing any particular set of beliefs.
It occurred to me early on in my quest that the truth must be present, at least in part, in all the teachings. A wise man once told me, “The Bible is a gold mine. First we have to get rid of the overburden to get to the gems.” I have since found that this applies to anything you read, hear or see. Wisdom is learning how to recognize the truth when and where we find it. However, knowing the truth is useless unless we incorporate it into our lives. If we do not become our truth we have wasted our time.
What I have come to understand is that there is only one truth and it is our own. Each of us has had unique experiences in life. We see life through the warp and woof of those experiences. Each one of us, then, has a unique perspective from which we observe life in all its various aspects. From this perspective we see the shades and hues of our reality slightly different than the next person. These slight differences colour our life and give us our unique slant on the truth. The truth, like reality, is a very personal experience.
The next person may have a slight or greater difference of opinion from ours. To them our truth is only an opinion and their truth is just an opinion to us. This makes argument a waste of time and energy. Discussion, however, is useful in helping us come to a greater understanding of our truth by exposing it to scrutiny.
Discussion will help us, if we keep an open mind, to see the wonder in another’s perspective. If we indulge them the courtesy of our attention then, instead of arguing, they may indulge us the courtesy of theirs.
If we expect to have the right and freedom to our opinions and perspective on life then it only stands to reason we accept the next person’s right to theirs. Thus, the truth, though universal, is also relative to the beholder.
I was told that everyone is at the right place and time in their spiritual evolution. I asked people how they came to accept the particular set of teachings they embraced and always received a similar response. They had all gone through the same process of doubt, questioning and requesting guidance which I had, more or less, but we had all arrived at seemingly different conclusions.
So I spent a lot of time with these people learning about their beliefs. I began to see a pattern emerging. Each group has its own distinct vocabulary, key words used in patterns different from common usage. They attach meanings and imagery to these words which are recognizable within the group, while being lost on an outsider... a kind of secret code.
This first became apparent during my discussions with the Emissaries of Divine Light whose vocabulary I found quite distinctive. I had to spend a lot of time with them before they accepted my sincerity and allow me to ‘see’ beyond their symbols to their root assumptions.
This lead me to see other groups in a similar light. Each group was using words to create images much the same way they use visual symbols. Once I was able to understand the meanings they attached to them I began to see that basically they were all saying the same things.
Of course each group differs on a lot of issues but there is a common ground upon which they all stand. Furthermore, it is my contention that this common ground is probably the only one of any real value. Petty differences are what keep them separate, promoting prejudice and misunderstanding.
In the beginning, I was seeking a means of communicating with these groups, in their terms, so I could get them to understand my ideas. I was under the delusion I had discovered a perspective which was superior to what I perceived as their rather narrow point of view. I discovered that nobody’s truth is more righteous than any other.
At first learning these various languages was like learning French or Spanish. I had to keep translating back and forth in my head. After a few years I was able to speak fluently in many of these religious and spiritual languages. I began to postulate the hypothesis that if everyone would stop focusing on their differences and look at the common denominators in their belief structures, we would all get along a lot better.
The way I have come to see the various religious, spiritual and philosophical belief systems can be illustrated by a simple image. Imagine a sphere, the surface of which is covered in small circles equidistant from each other and connected by lines. Each circle represents one of the philosophies and is equal in size and importance. The lines represent their interconnectedness (their common source). Under the surface of each circle is an arrow pointing to the centre of the sphere. It is to this centre each is trying to lead us. It is the place I have tried to reach through my experiences in life and by the exercise of writing this book.
I have tried to reach this common ground where we all may meet, beyond the restrictions of our personal and religious dogmas - dogmas which, I believe, detract from the original intent of the teachings. I have tried to show that all come from the same source and are intended to return us to a state of grace with this source.
Our technology has brought us to the realization that we live in a global community. Our survival, as a species, depends on breaking away from beliefs which separate and divide us as brothers and sisters of this community.
During this period of spiritual journeying, I also studied extensively in the areas of psychology, metaphysics and parapsychology. From all of this mental masturbation, I have come to see that all aspects of our being - mind, body, heart and spirit - are inseparable. Life, in all its myriad of forms and aspects, is sacred. There is no difference between attending a spiritual gathering, eating, sleeping, making love, or a good bowel movement. If we understand that all life is from and of the Creative Force, then all we do and witness is an affirmation of that Creative Force in all life.
“In the end times all will be revealed”. This doesn’t necessarily mean we are coming to the end of our time on Earth. It may mean we are coming to a point in our evolution when the concept of time may become irrelevant. As we awaken to our true spiritual nature there may no longer be a need for religious or spiritual leaders. When we reconnect to our Source we may finally accept our responsibility for co-creating life on earth.
And so it begins.
Excerpt
A philosophical look at life from the perspective that perhaps we were not told the truth. We live in times of great danger and magnificent possibilities. It may be time to change our view of life in order to survive what we have created of it.
A way to use your mind for silent communication. Speaking about the methods in the book I have used since a young age.
21st Century learning. I also have a GoFundMe page to ask for funds so I can research with other people and add their experiences
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