by decisive » Sun Jul 23, 2006 1:25 am
Thrival,
I understand exactly how you feel, but don’t worry my friend, for indeed it’s true, WE ARE ALL CONNECTED, and we must have faith in the goodness of mankind. If you want to feel this wholeness in spirit, go read first part of the Declaration of Independence.
I am being dead SERIOUS here! I bet must people reading this haven’t read it since elementary school, but it will MOVE you I promise. We are much larger a FORCE if realized than “the powers that be” would have us believe. And we are all intrinsically and collectively much STRONGER when we all realize that we are a “wholeness undivided”. The problem is that we have been deceived into believing in a fragmented world view and must STOP now.
I was raised as a southern Baptist, but I realized early on that our spiritual existence is actually much broader in scope than the orthodox Christian reality allows. I was much more interested in connecting with this source of spirituality by going on a nature hike with friends, picking up arrowheads with my grandfather on his farm, going fishing, or going surfing. But even then I was always seeking more knowledge in an effort to understand the purpose of our existence.
Then I found the writings of Joseph Campbell, who was perhaps the world’s greatest authority on the mythology of world religions. It all becomes very clear in his writings that all the world’s religion’s share common mythologies and there is a “wholeness” that goes beyond all the borders of religious and SCIENTIFIC dogma in our respect cultures.
Then, if you read the works of Rupert Sheldrake “The Rebirth of Nature” and David Bohm’s “Science, Order and Creativity” you will begin to understand very clearly how our current "concenscious trance" has come into existence by learning how organized religion and orthodox science have ALWAYS been intertwined in such a way to keep true meaning and knowledge out of the hands of the masses.
These works are not some hooky “New Age” or “Scientology” bullsh*t, but rather two very mainstream scientists who have broken free of the “Matrix” so to speak and have given us an alternate perception of reality which allows each and everyone us to experience GOD directly. Carl Sagan was also a very spiritual person though most did not know that until after his death.
[BTW, go see movie “V for Vendetta” written by the same brothers who wrote the Matrix. Symbolism of undivided wholeness is very much conveyed in that film, without the need of an old gray haired man sitting in heaven making authoritative decisions for the “Good” of us or making us promises that the afterlife is better than our lives here on mother Earth.]
Also, I would argue that there is one science fiction series which does emphasize spirituality and the good of man and that is Star Wars and this was no accident. George Lukas was obsessed with the writings of Campbell and so he filled these movies with all the core archetypes and mythologies of man. Ironically, the last film, very effectively reminded us of our current state of affairs here in our country where we are losing our fundamental rights on a daily basis.
Why are people in science so spooked by the concept of “spirit?” The word in most cultures (eg Hebrew and American Indian) used to describe spirit, use the meaning of wind. What is wind? Mysterious flowing movement that is intrinsically invisible to us except in its action on material objects (eg wind blowing the leaves and branches of a tree). That’s it…it is simple acknowledgement that there are unseen forces which are there for us to explore and learn more about. Much, much, more!!! Science is not dead, its only in hibernation…
Our existence and our experience are so pervasively infused with spirituality that we are simply blind to it. The easiest analogy of thinking about relationship between spirit and matter and how they represent undivided wholeness (or each side of the same coin) is to consider the meaning of a song. What is a song? Ask a Physicist? Can s/he explaining it to you?
A song is a waveform or thought-form that can be stored in any number of different material media such as CD, a Record, a Tape, a Hard drive, a MP3 file, etc. Yet, ultimately it remains IREDUCABLY a song. Nothing about the particular material aspects of an atom in a CD or record will give you any information or knowledge regarding the origin or purpose of a song. We are all uniquely and individually just like a song.
Science, Spirituality, and the Present World Crisis
DAVID BOHM
Many thousands of years ago, our culture was not broken into fragments as it is now. At that time, science and spirituality were no separated. Since then, they have grown far apart. In my view, it is important to bring them together.
I will begin by discussing science. Science is basically an abstract sort of knowledge, systematically and rationally organized, aimed at grasping what is general and what is necessary. Newton's laws provide one of the ideal forms of such knowledge. Science is also a collective activity and through it people work together to build up a common body of experimentally tested knowledge over time. Science would not mean much without this activity.
However, science has in it certain features, such as wonder and curiosity that go beyond knowledge. And it has an additional feature that is crucial. Science, when done properly, acknowledges a fact whether we like it or not that is, whether it agrees with our deeply held beliefs or not. This openness to acknowledging facts is seldom the case more generally. For example, one would not get very far that way in politics, or in most religious organizations.
Such an insistence on a certain kind of honesty is the key point of what I call the scientific spirit. This is the principle that infuses scientific activity. Thus, the very way science has developed has implicitly considerable spiritual significance. It would indeed be extraordinary if this spirit could prevail in the whole of life. I think it would remove a considerable part of our problems.
This brings us to the question of spirituality. What is spirit? The word is derived from a Latin word meaning "breath" or "wind" (like respiration or inspiration). It is suggested by the trees moving with the invisible force of the wind. We may thus think of spirit as an invisible force -- a life-giving essence that moves us deeply, or as a source that moves everything from within.
Spirit is, therefore, not manifest. The word manifest means literally in Latin "what can be held in the hand." You cannot hold spirit in the hand. It is subtle, which is really the opposite of manifest. According to my dictionary, the word subtle means "highly refined, delicate, elusive, indefinable." The Latin root of the word is subtexlis, meaning finely woven. We can picture finer and finer nets to grasp reality, but ultimately spirit is so subtle that it passes through all of them. Although unseen and ungraspable, it is of key importance.
One important point that we connect with spirit is meaning. According to my dictionary, the word meaning has three definitions: significance, value, and purpose. Significance is simply like a sign that points to something. Value has the same root as valor and valiant and means strong. We sense the value of something by being strongly moved. We could further say that if something is very significant, we, sense its value and that generates a strong purpose.
These three are key features of life. Life would have little value if it lacked meaning, for then it would lack significance, and we would generate little energy or purpose. Therefore, spirit, although its meaning may be very subtle or ungraspable, seems to have a tremendous effect. We could, indeed, say that without significance, value, and purpose, life would have little point. A sense of pointlessness or meaninglessness in our society may be at the root of much of its current malaise.
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Sheldrake’s, “The Rebirth of Nature” is a simply written, quite readable historical overview of human philosophical conceptions of, and ways of interacting with, the earth. Sheldrake sees humanity as having "progressed" from an early and long-lasting stage where animistic beliefs prevailed, through three centuries of a Cartesian mechanistic view of the earth (Descartes "doctrine that plants and animals were machines furthered his explicit aim of making men 'lords and possessors of nature,'" [p. 52], and Francis Bacon's invitation to a "scientific priesthood" to make decisions regarding how the earth should be treated), through late-20th century attempts to reestablish a newly conceived animism, of sorts.
"The ability to perceive or think differently is more important than the knowledge gained"
David Bohm