Hi RevKing: Welcome back!

There is a new scientific/spiritual discipline called "Evolutionary Theology." One of its main proponents is the author/lecturer John F. Haught, who wrote the book "A God-Shaped Hole at the Heart of Our Being." I only read excerpts from the book, but it sounds intriguing.

An interview with John F.Haught by enlightenNext Magazine can be read and downloaded at http://www.enlightennext.org

The sacred and the secular are seperate out of necessity.

I will never call the secular sacred or vice-versa. I will never call evil good or good evil. I am vigilant about that.

There is the dark field of emotion and the dark field of intelligence (about either we know nei nothing). What connects them? Light awareness (Ein Stein ion th'ought) is one mode of processing myths and mysteries ... but man would sooner deny that as delusian as he searches out a way to be better than his peers ... making them into peons. Isn't that what separates heaven from hell the mean medium we call hue-m'n IDe'?

There is the shadow on the foundation of visible creation and then there are spatial lights ... a Mir metaphor, a silent pseudonym of the  pas in mind? An overworld and an underwhorl'd where an isolated bean should be prudent about where they fall after the leap. Is this side of intellect taught, or coven ante'd in the beginning as m'n is shem'd with gravid stuff ... working with the land instead of trying to overrun the dirt? Someone has to think although the authorities hate common thought so purely they forgot to remember thinking themselves (shaqan in ancient Heh'bin). One truly must learn a bit of the tongues of all peoples ... it is a dirty Job ... covered with sores scabs and all sorts of corruptions but the lusts of man to change things the way the mean wants ID!

In accademia they call IT lingost, or liguistics but they don't process it seriously ether! Don'T is still "cross" inna deep hole in old tongues ... difficult place for light to penetrate unless there's a carrier. Did Roosevelt say something about carrying a big stick that was misinterpreted by those wishing to get the jump on making whor of everthing? As a result everything is all screwed up in tense ... tensore in relative terms ... about to crack!

It is SO refreshing to hear someone of the older generation say something like that (don't take that offensively, it's just that I'm used to my grandparents and even my parents tsk-tsking about anything outside the box.)

THANK YOU for that post!

BTW, it seems to me that in, our out of, the box-thinking is not a matter of age. As a teenager  and a university student I found  many  fellow teenagers were in-the-boxers while many seniors were not.

Knight in training: Please tell us, and let's dialogue about, what you mean when you say that you are vigilant about keeping the sacred and the secular separate?

Buddhism and Quantum Physics

The concepts of reality in Buddhism surprisingly parallel quantum
physics. Perhaps this is why the great inventor, Nicola Tesla, a Christian, once said: "We need a religion which combines Christianity and Buddhism." I agree.

 ====================
Christian Thomas Kohl writes:

Freiburg, Germany, July 21 — What is reality? The mindsets of the modern world provide four answers to that question and oscillate between these
answers:

1. The traditional Jewish, Islamic and Christian religions speak about a
creator that holds the world together. He represents the fundamental
reality. If He were separated only for one moment from the world, the
world would disappear immediately. The world can only exist because He
is maintaining and guarding it. This mindset is so fundamental that even
many modern scientists cannot deviate from it. The laws of nature and elementary particles now supersede the role of the creator.

 
2. René Descartes takes into consideration a second mindset, where the
subject or the subjective model of thought is fundamental. Everything
else is nothing but derived from it.

3. According to a third holistic mindset, the fundamental reality should
consist of both, subject and object. Everything should be one.
Everything should be connected with everything.

 
4. A fourth and very modern mindset neglects reality. We could call it
instrumentalism. According to this way of thinking, our concepts do not
reflect a single reality in any one way. Our concepts have nothing to do
with reality, only with information.

Buddhism refuses these four concepts of reality. Therefore, it was
confronted with the reproach of nihilism. If you don’t believe in a
creator, nor in the laws of nature, nor in a permanent object, nor in an
absolute subject, nor in both, nor in any of it, in what do you believe
then? What remains that you can consider a fundamental reality? The
answer is simple; it is so simple that we barely consider it being a
philosophical statement: things depend upon other things. For instance,
a thing is dependent upon its cause. There is no effect without a cause
and no cause without an effect. There is no fire without fuel, no action
without an actor and vice versa. Things are dependent upon other things;
they are not identical with each other, nor do they break up into
objective and subjective parts.

This Buddhist concept of reality is often met with disapproval and
considered incomprehensible. But there are modern modes of thought with
points of contact. For instance, there is a discussion in quantum
physics about fundamental reality. What is fundamental in quantum
physics: particles, waves, field of force, law of nature, mindsets or
information? Quantum physics came to a result that is expressed by the
key words of complementarity, interaction and entanglement.

According to these concepts there are no independent quantum objects,
just complementary ones; they are at the same time waves and particles.
Quantum objects interact with others, and they are entangled even when
they are separated at a far distance. Without being observed
philosophically, quantum physics has created a physical concept of
reality. According to that concept, the fundamental reality is an
interaction of systems that interact with other systems and with their
own components.

This physical concept of reality does not agree with the four approaches
mentioned before. If the fundamental reality consists of dependent
systems, then its basics can be neither independent and objective laws
of nature nor independent subjective models of thought. The fundamental reality cannot be a mystic entity nor can it consist of information
only.
=============================================

http://www.upiasia.com/Blogosphere/Christian/20090720/buddhism_and_quantum_physics/

(This is a short version of a more in-depth article at
http://ctkohl.googlepages.com/ )

Metaphysical Data ... emotional intellect ... as Data in the story of Deep Space Nein? Dan Goleman may argue with the devils advocate on that case!

Are the emotions nothing in a pathological thinking mind that has no care? There are no sects for that pair ... divided they're deadly ... secularism is only a concept in the mysticism of the cosmological infnite emotional state ... common sense!

Is there anything more common that emotion in the like of mankind ... but we got the whole thing up-side-down ... why we are a Mir mote in space! Giggles to the powers above ... demons to some aspects of the mortal ... many do not care for deep perspectives ... into the pits again dear m'n ... you must work at IT ... sojourner of theo ... th'ought? Webster says the fallout, children of secondary Gods are d'm'ns ... by accepted definition! Is that a hoot in the dark ... fey word afloat? IT'll change!

A SCIENCE OF THE SPIRIT--Is it possible?

==================================

Pneumatology. Although I did not know it at the time, I began studying pneumatology when I was 17. In preparation for my chosen career. As early as nine it came to me that I would like to be a minister. At twelve (1942) I actually told this to my minister at the time--The Rev. Reginald Rowsell--that I hoped to qualify for and become a minister of the United Church of Canada. He was a graduate of  Mount Allison University, Sackville, NB, associated with the UC  http://www.mta.ca  His seminary was Pine Hill Divinity Hall--now part of the Atlantic School of Theology, Halifax, NS.

http://www.astheology.ns.ca/faculty/

http://www.profilecanada.com/companydetail.cfm?company=2323976_Atlantic_School_Of_Theology_Halifax_NS

The Rev. Rowsell was not just our minister, he was our Scout leader and he greatly influenced all of us Scout members.

I finished high school at 16 (1946). To get some of the money needed to go to university I went to work at a grocery store and, later, with  DOSCO--the mining company, which virtually owned the island and employed over 2000 miners. Bell Island  http://www.bellisland.net was the home of about 10,000 people--about 50% Roman Catholics. The rest were United Church, Anglicans, Salvation Army and Pentecostal. Each denomination had its own school.

The following year (1947) I was accepted as a candidate for the ministry at  Gower Street UC, in St. John's. Early in September, I boarded an iron ore carrier and two days later I was in North Sydney. From there I took the train to Sackville. A few hours later I was at MTA where I studied for four years. Compared to a mining community I felt I was in heaven. And the amount and quality of the food was out of this world.

I remember the first day I sat down, at the Library, with my faculty adviser, The Rev. Arthur Ebbutt--a very pleasant person. After the usual pleasantries he asked: " During the first year you will be required to take certain basic courses--French, a science, basic maths, two languages--French, and, perhaps, Greek, Hebrew, Church History, Latin--And what would like to take as your major and minor courses?

I had no idea what he was talking about. When he explained, I asked him to make some suggestions. Then I noticed that one the list he showed me was 'psychology'. I only had a vague idea what it was about. When he said: "It means the study of the mind...." I said, "That sounds very interesting to me." So without having much of an idea in my mind, soul, spirit as to what all was involved, I said, "Okay,  I'll take it" 

"It comes under the philosophy department..." he said. "Dr. Charlie Baxter--he's took his PhD at the University of Toronto--is a fine teacher. You will like him."

Without a further ado, I chose to major in philosophy/psychology--the study of the mind--and I have never regretted it.

By the way, at that age I thought of the mind, the soul and spirit as being one and the same. Only much later--after I read THE GREAT CODE--The Bible and Literature, by the late Northrop Frye (University of Toronto 1989)--did I become aware that: "All languages relative to the Bible distinguish between soul and spirit: Hebrew has nephesh and ruach, Greek has psyche and pneuma, Latin, anima and spiritus; and there are similar distinctions in modern languages." (P.20) Interestingly, Northrop Frye was a ordained UC minister.

THE REBIRTH OF PNEUMATOLOGY

=============================

I was ordained in 1953. After a year in the field, I got a scholarship which enabled me to spend two year at Boston University studying a favourite theme I had in mind: The History of Ideas. Back in the field, and based on the teachings and healing miracles of Jesus I preached on the role of the church as an agency of holistic health. In an area where there were no psychaitrists in private practice, numerous people began to consult me and ask for for help in coping with the stresses of life. Later--in the 1960's in Montreal and Toronto--I wondered if I could come up with a word which I could use specifically to mean 'the study of the spirit'.

By now I had more than a passing interest in the holistic approach to health and what keeps us healthy in body, mind and spirit. Knowing that the Greek for spirit is 'pneuma', I concocted what I thought was a new word 'pneumatology'. I coined it to mean: the study of the spirit.

By the way, my more than passing interest was for two reasons: First, I was very curious about the role psychology, religion and healing--the title of a book I had read and was re-reading with great interest--play in the healing of body, mind and spirit. I had already used information, from the book-- Psychology, Religion and Healing, by the minister/psychologist, Leslie D. Weatherhead--in series of sermons and lectures I had given and was preparing to give again. Interestingly, Weatherhead writes about the power of suggestion, the use of hypnosis and the role of religion and faith.

Second, at that time my seven-year old daughter was dreadfully ill, for the fifth time that winter, with a life-threatening lung condition which bamboozled even the specialists at Sick Children's Hospital. It refused to respond to antibiotics, which I later discovered were a danger to her kidneys. It was at this point that I began to put things together. The thought came to me: Would pneumatherapy be of help to my daughter?

Because of my reading of Weatherhead, even as a student of psychology I was interested in hypnosis. I already knew how to do the "trick"; but with the help of a wise mentor perhaps I could learn how to apply this kind of therapy, which I feel originates in the human spirit, to my daughter's case. Over the next while I found such a mentor, learned from him, with the encouragement of my family physician, I applied it to my daughter's case and she began to get well within hours of the first application. Today, she is in her mid fifties and a successful artist who lives with her artist husband. They lived in a floating home and gardens not far from Tofino, BC. It covers about one-half acre of water. The family just spent ten days visiting there.

Interestingly, in the 1960's, in Ontario, there was a law (Bill #27) against anyone other than a medical doctor using hypnosis. When the word got out that a minister was teaching and recommending that clergy be trained to use what sounded like hypnosis the story made the front page of a major national paper and other media.

Taking care not to make the false claim that I had coined this "new" word, I checked it out in the excellent two-volume World Book Dictionary my wife--planning to go back to teaching--had just bought. WBD also gives the Greek, Latin and other derivatives. There I discovered the two words: 'pneuma' and 'pneumatology'--both having to do with the nature of, and study of, the Holy Spirit and the human spirit. Interestingly, WBD also points out that it is an archaic term for psychology. I was amazed and delighted! I later discovered that the word is also used in some early European philosophies and theological writings. I now had the information I needed to get beyond the hocus pocus associated with hypnosis.

Meanwhile, I did coin a new word, 'pneumatherapy'--healing the mind and body under the direction of the spirit. The human spirit, with the help of others as needed, is its own best therapist. The trick of hypnosis is this: Nobody does it to you and puts you in a trance; you do it to yourself.

PNEUMATHERAPHY AND AND OUR CAREER

Looking back, I now know that my pneuma guided me to find my career. It helped me study and become qualified for my career, it has guided and helped me all through my career, and along the way it helped me help others do the same thing.

Armed with this information I set out show that going in and our the trance state is natural to every normal human being. Children do it all the time. Eventually, Bill #27 was scrapped and sweeping improvements were made to the whole field of psychotherapy.

Since then, many others, not just medical doctors, have proved the same to be true. For example, Nancy Hunter. See reference below.

http://www.innovativepsychotherapy.com/

===========

http://www.search.domainnotfound.ca/bellcanada/ws/results/dns/Hypnosis/1/4011/RightNav/Relevance/iq=true/_iceUrlFlag=7?_IceUrl=true

======================

http://www.ont-hypnosis-centre.com/ohc/theclinic/therapists.html

=============================================

Hypnosis and the law

http://www.cjb.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/35/10/1277

=================================

What Dr. Ben Tal Ben-Shahar of Harvard calls POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY IS SIMILAR TO if not the same as PNEUMATOLOGY--an idea from the 16th Century whose time has come, again.

=================

CHECK OUT:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5295168

At Harvard University this semester, students are flocking to a new class that might give them some insight into the secret to happiness. Psychology 1504, or "Positive Psychology," has become the most popular course on campus.

Twice a week, some 900 students attend Tal Ben-Shahar's class on what he calls "how to get happy." He achieved personal happiness by taking himself off the tenure track -- because not having to publish makes him happy. His class offers research from the relatively new field of positive psychology, which focuses on what makes people happy, rather than just their pathologies.

==================

Six Tips for Happiness

The word hypnosis is a wonderful expression of the winds of myth ... of Eire (ancient word for Ireland) a kin to the Aaron Isles and a grand connection to the Hebrew tradition of getting away from the business of life and enjoying the ribbing endowed from the powers above in a giggle. Like you stated, do we take the emotions too seriously ... without a thought about the reason why? Then many authorities will impose fear on the population by use of brutality (grand Machiavellian philosophy eh: separate the emotions from thought with fear and you control the exterior mind to your self). If one raises above the waters of thought in a mystic imagination ... is that escape to another dimension? Is the mind like this ... multi-facetted with many faces of darkness (Faces of Eve) and mystery? Should we take interest in the loan of this space on a temporal manna of speaking? To me there is no doubt but many have no interest at all outside of self ... until the self is blown away by the winds of time and the naked prince is exposed ... what then meil oven?

In ancient myth there was a healer in Egypt by the name of Am'n (Ammon in some spellings, that has significant Hebrew implications). I read not long ago in the New Yorker, I believe, that if we knew more about this mystical character whose history was burnt with the library at Alexandria ... we would be saying an Amon oath at the successful training of a healer instead of the Roman doctoring of the health for simple wealth of the physician himself. Consider the word hippocratic in the context of hypocracy ... odd word of choice eh? Then did Da Vinchi have issues with the Borge and the Medicis that sent him running to the Gaelic woods of Arbois (trees in franc tongues)? Can one make a connection of the poison of Lucretia Borge with the bleeding healers of Roman tradition? .... A'M'n!

PS giving (like an alms): Mons is a swelling, or a budding out, like an Eris/Heiress, a buddy to some and a curse to others as wanting to share their space as a pal in the containment of the spirit (pal-e'stein in old Hebrew). Is such a budding like the expansion of the non-existent mind as's (as is in mete a'fore) ... that many deny and thus can't find reason when needed to calm the emotions. Is life an odd thing to amuse the angels and d'mons ... the isotropic stretch on the matter of God .... increasing anti matter that man can not contain or control ... like holding his water on a long Piscine trip ... elle ova sojourn eh to learn to share fecund matter with the rest of creation. Its all related whether an isolated being denys it or not!

IDe-ali-stick-lie ... beyond the comprehension of an isle of Mann ... isolated in the dirt. He must get beyond himself to see ... out of bo de' incident in opposite space? IT's enough for a snurf or a giggle from Jeannei H'arts cartoon population ... BC ... before the light was the dark mystery of the pool where Wii were contrived in a game of trying to fit two Ba'aLem into an inverted Jar ... green sleeves ... dampened cave ... of flat water ... Plat-eau? Hard spot with an edge! Toby looked into with the help of wee light as shining in the metaphor of bo's-huol. Hide IT ... only natural to beings afraid of Love under a Rome Roues ... a bit of a rub, or ribbing in other terms a ruse, or rush that'll take the breath away and Oenon understands it as mate to Par's! Did you know Paris mates name was Oenon in myth? Does it mean anything in the greater X-Pan's? Now is a flat matrix of the mind a devilish containment, when ID can mutiply to no ends? No limitations ... like infinite as in a God of all encompassing compassion? Weird in this place!

In dire need of escape from Roman Roues ... could a'm'n use a counterpoint lie as a story for soothing the mind about arrest? Consider the tale of Two Cities ... joining of as is' in old Heb as satire. Does this explain the story-telling tradition of a healthy (sante') sole Lad beginning the journey in mid annihilation of primal thoughts?

A friend just wrote me about praying  for a cure for cancer. Here is how I responded:

Ron:

Hypnotherapy--what I call pneumatherapy--is a form of prayer that works for a lot of people. I use it all the time--on myself and others.

Along with enzymes, good food, exercise and the like, it worked on my colon problem 5 years ago (BTW my recent  colonoscopy was clear); and I am now using it on my prostate (PSA numbers are staying low).

WHY I USE THE WORD PNEUMA ==========================

BTW, in the Greek New Testament, Jesus tell the Samaritan woman (John 4) that God is Spirit. The Greek word for Spirit is Pneuma--which literally means air, wind or breath.

With this is mind check out what is going on in, http://www.scienceagogo.com  a science forum to which I belong. I just got this response:

Hey Revlgking,

Very excited to read your post. I am hearing for the first time that hypnosis technique helps to manage asthma. I am an asthma patient and I have been on several medicines to bring my asthma in control. But great to hear that both your daughter and grand daughter are doing well now after the application of hypnosis.
Can you explain more about this?

=========================

For my response, check out:

http://www.scienceagogo.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=316...

Let me know if you are able to get it.

Lindsay

Pneumatherapy, like regular praying, is so simple that it can be taught and practiced over the phone.

When I was preaching I used this method in my regular prayers every Sunday. And, of course, when I visited the sick.

Keep in mind that the Psalmist did not pray: "O Lord, be my shepherd ..." He made made the affirmation, the positive suggestion: "The Lord IS my shepherd ..."

Several times I surveyed the church board and my congregation on this approach to "praying". They fjully backed this affirmative approach. No one voted to go back to the old way: petitioning a presumably reluctant god.

 HISTORY OF HYPNOSIS

Because of his interest in science, he coined the word--based on 'hypnos', the Greek for sleep, to get it away from its association with superstition and magic.

I have been a student of hypnosis since the late 1940's when I did some undergraduate studies in psychology.

Because I believe the ability to use and benefit from the trance state is rooted in who we are, spiritually (pneumatologically), I prefer to call what I do 'pneumatherapy'.

The following is good information about what it is, and is not.

http://www.danielolson.com/hypnosis/hypnosis_history.html

===========00000000==========

 The above is all part of the kind of knowledge we need to know. Speaking of which, take a look at the following:

A History of Knowledge

Piero Scaruffi

Editor of www.scaruffi.com

Author of "Thinking About Thought" (2003)

Lecturer (View the slides)

Here is a taste:

TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.

When the earliest civilizations appeared (in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India and China), they were largely constrained by their natural environment and by the climate. Religion, Science and Art were largely determined by extra-human factors, such as seasons and floods. Over the course of many centuries, humans have managed to change the equation in their favor, reducing the impact of natural events on their civilization and increasing the impact of their civilization on nature (for better and for worse). How this happened to be is pretty much the history of knowledge. Knowledge has been, first and foremost, a tool to become the "subject" of change, as opposed to being the "object" of change.

One could claim that the most important inventions date from prehistory, and that "history" has been nothing more than an application of those inventions. Here is a quick rundown (in parentheses the earliest specimen we found so far and the place where it was found): tools (2 million years ago, Africa), fire (1.9 million years ago, Africa), buildings (500,000 BC, Japan), burial (70,000 BC, Germany), art (28,000 BC), Farming (14,000 BC, Mesopotamia), animal domestication (12,000 BC), boat (8,000 BC, Holland), weapons (8,000 BC), pottery (7,900 BC, China), weaving (6,500 BC, Palestine), money (sometime before the invention of writing, Mesopotamia), musical instruments (5,000 BC, Mesopotamia), metal (4,500 BC, Egypt), wheel (3,500 BC, Mesopotamia), writing (3,300 BC, Mesopotamia), glass (3,000 BC, Phoenicia), sundial (3,000 BC, Egypt).

Once the infrastructure was in place, knowledge increased rapidly on all fronts: agriculture, architecture (from the ziggurat of the Sumerians to the pyramids of the Egyptians to the temples of the Greeks), bureaucracy (from the city-states of the Sumerians to the kingdom of Egypt, from the empire of Persia to the economic empire of Athens), politics (from the theocracies of Mesopotamia and Egypt to the democracy of Athens), religion (from the anthropomorphic deities of Mesopotamia to the complex metaphysics of Egypt, from the tolerant pantheon of the Greeks to the one God of the Persians and the Jews), writing (from the "Gilgamesh" in Mesopotamia to the "Adventures of Sinuhe" in Egypt to the "Bible" of the Jews to Homer's epics in Greece), economics (from the agricultural societies of Mesopotamia and Egypt to the trade-based societies of Phoenicia and Athens), transportation (from to the horse-driven chariots of Mesopotamia to the Greek trireme), art (from the funerary painting of the Egyptians to the realistic sculptures of the Greeks), etc.

For a while, Religion acted as, basically, a compendium of knowledge (about life, society and the universe). In India, the Vedas and the Upanishads painted a cyclical picture of the universe. Right and wrong actions increase the positive and negative potential energy ("apurva") associated with each person. Apurva is eventually released (in this or the next life) and causes good or evil to the person. Basically, misfortune is caused by prior wrongful deeds. It is not only deserved but even required. Life is a loop from the individual back to the individual. This was cosmic justice totally independent of the gods. Wisdom is the realization that everything is suffering, but the realization of suffering does not lead to pessimism: it leads to salvation. Salvation does not require any change in the world. It requires a realization that everything is part of an absolute, or Brahman. Salvation comes from the union of the individual soul ("atman") with the universal soul ("brahman"). "Maya", the plurality of the world is an illusion of the senses. Salvation comes from "moksha": liberation from maya and experience of Brahman. By experiencing the divine within the self, one reaches pure knowledge and becomes one with the eternal, infinite, and conscious being. Nothing has changed in the world: it is the individual's state of mind that has changed. Self-knowledge is knowledge of the absolute.

 The above is all part of the kind of knowledge we need to know. Speaking of which, take a look at the following:

A History of Knowledge

Piero Scaruffi

Editor of www.scaruffi.com

Author of "Thinking About Thought" (2003)

Lecturer (View the slides)

Here is a taste:

TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.

When the earliest civilizations appeared (in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India and China), they were largely constrained by their natural environment and by the climate. Religion, Science and Art were largely determined by extra-human factors, such as seasons and floods. Over the course of many centuries, humans have managed to change the equation in their favor, reducing the impact of natural events on their civilization and increasing the impact of their civilization on nature (for better and for worse). How this happened to be is pretty much the history of knowledge. Knowledge has been, first and foremost, a tool to become the "subject" of change, as opposed to being the "object" of change.

One could claim that the most important inventions date from prehistory, and that "history" has been nothing more than an application of those inventions. Here is a quick rundown (in parentheses the earliest specimen we found so far and the place where it was found): tools (2 million years ago, Africa), fire (1.9 million years ago, Africa), buildings (500,000 BC, Japan), burial (70,000 BC, Germany), art (28,000 BC), Farming (14,000 BC, Mesopotamia), animal domestication (12,000 BC), boat (8,000 BC, Holland), weapons (8,000 BC), pottery (7,900 BC, China), weaving (6,500 BC, Palestine), money (sometime before the invention of writing, Mesopotamia), musical instruments (5,000 BC, Mesopotamia), metal (4,500 BC, Egypt), wheel (3,500 BC, Mesopotamia), writing (3,300 BC, Mesopotamia), glass (3,000 BC, Phoenicia), sundial (3,000 BC, Egypt).

Once the infrastructure was in place, knowledge increased rapidly on all fronts: agriculture, architecture (from the ziggurat of the Sumerians to the pyramids of the Egyptians to the temples of the Greeks), bureaucracy (from the city-states of the Sumerians to the kingdom of Egypt, from the empire of Persia to the economic empire of Athens), politics (from the theocracies of Mesopotamia and Egypt to the democracy of Athens), religion (from the anthropomorphic deities of Mesopotamia to the complex metaphysics of Egypt, from the tolerant pantheon of the Greeks to the one God of the Persians and the Jews), writing (from the "Gilgamesh" in Mesopotamia to the "Adventures of Sinuhe" in Egypt to the "Bible" of the Jews to Homer's epics in Greece), economics (from the agricultural societies of Mesopotamia and Egypt to the trade-based societies of Phoenicia and Athens), transportation (from to the horse-driven chariots of Mesopotamia to the Greek trireme), art (from the funerary painting of the Egyptians to the realistic sculptures of the Greeks), etc.

For a while, Religion acted as, basically, a compendium of knowledge (about life, society and the universe). In India, the Vedas and the Upanishads painted a cyclical picture of the universe. Right and wrong actions increase the positive and negative potential energy ("apurva") associated with each person. Apurva is eventually released (in this or the next life) and causes good or evil to the person. Basically, misfortune is caused by prior wrongful deeds. It is not only deserved but even required. Life is a loop from the individual back to the individual. This was cosmic justice totally independent of the gods. Wisdom is the realization that everything is suffering, but the realization of suffering does not lead to pessimism: it leads to salvation. Salvation does not require any change in the world. It requires a realization that everything is part of an absolute, or Brahman. Salvation comes from the union of the individual soul ("atman") with the universal soul ("brahman"). "Maya", the plurality of the world is an illusion of the senses. Salvation comes from "moksha": liberation from maya and experience of Brahman. By experiencing the divine within the self, one reaches pure knowledge and becomes one with the eternal, infinite, and conscious being.

Nothing has changed in the world: it is the individual's state of mind that has changed. Self-knowledge is knowledge of the absolute.

================000000================

In my opinion, pneumatology is the same as saying "the study of the self, or the pneuma."  When Jesus said to the Samaritan woman (John 4): "God is Spirit (Pneuma)...", he was saying: "God is Self ..." He also said, "I and the Father (Pneuma) are one..." In John 10:34 when he says, "you are gods", he frankly implies, we are all one with G0D. In John 17:20-24 he make the same point, we are all at one with G0D. Note my use of the zero, instead of an O.

The great mystery is: Out of the no-thing, or 0, comes all that is; all goodness, order and desirable design--the beautiful, good and true, which are still in the process of being completed. And we, if we so choose, as part of the process, have a very important role to play. How willing are you to be involved?

A'M'N!

Then what do you think of the word hyper-Bo-la as a bit of whetted chaos? The water being one of the oldest symbols of the media of the mind!

"Knowledge will set you free!" Is knowledge like light in the dark shadow of creation? That's Us eh in the eye of Christ which is light in other tongues ... Krish-na! (reflective fold of fiery salt) in some expressions ... wisdom in others which we are short on as the Romans burnt all the books on metaphysics 2000 years ago. Is this pure mind control by denial of wisdom? Be careful man he's dangerous ... he thinks ... the study of thinking philosophy ... hated by the institutionalized, fixed and unmoving! ID's a Mann!

This is interesting. From

THE HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE

One could claim that the most important inventions date from prehistory, and that "history" has been nothing more than an application of those inventions.

Here is a quick rundown (in parentheses the earliest specimen we found so far and the place where it was found):

tools (2 million years ago, Africa),

fire (1.9 million years ago, Africa),

buildings (500,000 BC, Japan),

burial (70,000 BC, Germany),

art (28,000 BC),

Farming (14,000 BC, Mesopotamia),

animal domestication (12,000 BC),

boat (8,000 BC, Holland),

weapons (8,000 BC),

pottery (7,900 BC, China),

weaving (6,500 BC, Palestine),

money (sometime before the invention of writing, Mesopotamia), musical instruments (5,000 BC, Mesopotamia),

metal (4,500 BC, Egypt),

wheel (3,500 BC, Mesopotamia),

writing (3,300 BC, Mesopotamia),

glass (3,000 BC, Phoenicia), sundial (3,000 BC, Egypt).

Hi RevKing:

Thanks for this most enlightening thread!

Philosophical/spiritual/mystical insights and their application were just as important as practical inventions, or more so:

God as the self-generative universe (500 BC - 0 AD, India, China, Middle East)

The cosmos as one interactive energy field (2,000 AD, everywhere)

Interesting what you wrote about the importance of trance states. I always was able to slip into them easily, even as a child. My parents called it "daydreaming," but now I know it was more like self-hypnosis.

I think the various means (there are many!) to induce trance states should be explored and practiced by the Church. There is a saying, "A picture is more than a thousand words." I would say that a mystical flash can also be worth more than a thousand words.

Better one flash of it within the tavern caught,

Than in the temple lost outright.

-Omar Khayyam

Have you ever heard about the PNEUMATOLOGY program which began in a Scarborough UC  in 1964? I moved to Willowdale UC, Toronto north in 1966. Allen Spraggett, then religion editor of the Toronto Star, did several stories on the development of this program, which focussed on understanding meditation  and the trance phenomenon (Acts 10:10, 11:05 and Actst 22:17). The old Telegram also covered the story.

==============

Based on the Greek word  for spirit, 'pneuma' (literally meaning air, wind and breath), and the word 'logos' (meaning the word about, or study of) back in 1964/65, as I recall, I coined what I thought was a new word, 'pneumatology'.  At the time, I was in my last year as the minister at Iondale Heights United in Scarborough, ON. Based on post grad studies I had done at Boston University in 1954-1955, I was very interested in doing a special series of sermons, which also became a series of lectures, based on two books:

First, PSYCHOLOGY, RELIGION AND HEALING, by the psychologist/minister, the Rev. Leslie D. Weatherhead.

Second, PRAYER CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE, by the spiritually minded Dr. William Parker, with Elaine St. John's.

JESUS AND THE HEALING MINISTRY

I was looking for a way to arouse people's curiosity about a series of sermon/lectures, including demonstrations, that I was planning to give on the healing ministry of Jesus and the healing miracles he did on body, mind and spirit of those who came to him.

Later, I discovered the "new" word was already in the large World Book Dictionary I had just obtained. Besides the theological definition, WBD points out that it is also an archaic term for psychology. It was exactly the word I needed.

By the way, approved by the church board and sponsored by our newly-formed Family Life Foundation  www.flfcanada.com   the pneumatology lecture series and demonstrations were very successful, from the start. 

And this program, with the help of media coverage,  reached out to the whole community, not just to the local church members. I gave some talks on the CBC and CFRB. In addition, over the years it was given at a number of places, including churches in Canada, and also in the USA and England. This happened several times a year from 1964 to 1994, the year I retired. People of all ages, including children, also came for help, individually, and in small groups.

THE SPIN-OFF MID-WEEK MEDITATION SERVICE PLUS LECTURES ON SPIRITUAL HEALING, ATTRACTED MUCH MEDIA ATTENTION. TOM HARPUR DID A MAJOR ARTICLE IN THE STAR. SO DID THE GLOBE AND MAIL AND THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR

FAMILY LIFE FOUNDATION

In 1974  the Family Life Foundation--dedicated to promoting holistic healing, including physical, mental, economic and spiritual health--became a registered charity. On the board were lay leaders and professionals, including medical doctors, as consultants, and others in the healing arts.

DIET AND MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL HEALTH

One board member was a diaconal minister, Vickers Head. He had been helped deal with his personal problem with hypoglycemia--a pre-diabetic condition not widely know about at the time. He got the help as a result of his coming to the lecture series. This inspired him to take special training in nutrition.  Following this agreed to help me by giving the lectures on nutrition.  From personal experience he spoke with authority. This enabled me to concentrate on psychology and pneumatology.

Another elder was, Chris Slaghter--seven years my senior. He was also part of the FLF.  Because we got to know that Chris had a personal interest in spiritual healing and had taken the pneumatology course,  the board asked him if he would take on developing a meditation and healing program as part of a lay ministry.  It was suggested that we needed a weekly healing and medidation service. He graciously, and enthusiastically, agreed to take this on.

An excellent lecturer, in addition to the above, there were also extra lectures and training sessions by Chris, me and others, for people--many of them youthful--who were selected to help with the spiritual healing program, which went on

MONDAYS, WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAYS

Interestingly, as an experiment, we decided to do the services on Mondays--7:30 to 9:00. Following the service, there was a time of fellowship with refreshments--open to the whole community, not just to those who came for meditation.

To everyone's amazement, this was a smashing success. It attracted people, including non Christians, agnostics and atheists, of all ages and races, from many parts of the greater Toronto area. Often, the number who came to this Monday service equalled, or ever surpassed, the number who came to the regular Sunday service.

Over the years--BTW, the services went on beyond my retirement in 1994--the Christmas Monday evening services, with special music and refresments, were usually packed. Meanwhile, with the helped of the nutrition lectures by Vickers, kept on with the pneumatology series of lectures and demonstrations as long as there was a demand.

THE COST OF PNEUMATOLOGY

What about stewardship? How much did this program cost? Except for time, which was joyfully given by all involved,  there was no cost. Stewardship income actually went up as extra offerings came in. In addition new and active members, who were willing to be of service, were added to the role. Some even agreed to act on the church board. Chris, who headed up the meditation program  represented the healing and meditation program on the board.

Yes there was criticism, even hostility, and letters were written accusing those involved of dabbling in non Christian and "occult" practices. But that is another story.

Ah, the chaos of the fore winds of the infinite dez Ires!

Do real humans get confused over the four sectors of the circle that come out as feeling, thinking, intuition and sensation (Freudian/Jungian traditions)? Read the account of Numbers 2 and the four major tribes of Israel ... perhaps the fore hors man of the Appo-ca-lips'! As Love ID blows in all directions (extra dimensions?).

Now the car teasing co-ordinates suggest six points ... like fear, anger, curiosity, joy, observation and decision (judgement). The midpoint is the seventh at the centre (Bathsheba, or men-orah in Heb ... the perfect seven). Is this like the Hebrew sign of "L'm" the heart of God, a fire at dead centre? It is said there is nothing new under thy's UN ... man  just hasn't found IT, or forgotten out of his urge to deny things that are a pain in the "ars," an airy word in St Augustine's tradition ... drying fabric of the mind? Does man think in flat out roues ... decrees, or degrees of Law? There is little movement, thus the term institutional ... fixated, although the mind tends to wander when compressed by light so that It can get out of the hardshell. It extracts itself best when deprived of distractions in sleep, dai dreaming ... or compressed by the Black Velvet Band of Love. Isn't that a stinker of metaphor for a ribbing? Such supports the primal vessel ... Knight Winds, cool irony in the headless hors m'n? Can a man deny basic needs and not have it reflect on his constitution? IDes a Mir th' ought, like nothing, what the Roman tradition tried to do while replacing Love with hate ... san in Hebrew ... outside myth in primal Eris sing. Id'll be the death of this generation! The continum requires balance of emotion with intelligence ... past wisdom ... you never see ID until ...

See the Blog on Swell'd'ead ...

BTW, the following rather long quote is interesting. This is why I quote it.

It is about:

Western Concepts of God

Western concepts of God have ranged from the detached transcendent demiurge of Aristotle to the pantheism of Spinoza.

Nevertheless, much of western thought about God has fallen within some broad form of theism. Theism is the view that God is unlimited with regard to knowledge (omniscience), power (omnipotence), extension (omnipresence), and moral perfection; and is the creator and sustainer of the universe. Though regarded as sexless, God has traditionally been referred to by the masculine pronoun.

Concepts of God in philosophy are entwined with concepts of God in religion. This is most obvious in figures like Augustine and Aquinas, who sought to bring more rigor and consistency to concepts found in religion. Others, like Leibniz and Hegel, interacted constructively and deeply with religious concepts. Even those like Hume and Nietzsche, who criticized the concept of God, dealt with religious concepts. While Western philosophy has interfaced most obviously with Christianity, Judaism and Islam have had some influence.

The orthodox forms of all three religions have embraced theism, though each religion has also yielded a wide array of other views. Philosophy has shown a similar variety. For example, with regard to the initiating cause of the world, Plato and Aristotle held God to be the crafter of uncreated matter. Plotinus regarded matter as emanating from God. Spinoza, departing from his judaistic roots, held God to be identical with the universe, while Hegel came to a similar view by reinterpreting Christianity.

Issues related to Western concepts of God include the nature of divine attributes and how they can be known, if or how that knowledge can be communicated, the relation between such knowledge and logic, the nature of divine causality, and the relation between the divine and the human will.

Table of Contents

1. Sources of Western Concepts of God
2. Historical Overview
a. Greeks
b. Early Christian Thought
c. Medieval Thought
d. Renaissance Thought
e. Enlightenment
f. Modern Period
3. Divine Attributes
a. Incorporeality
b. Simplicity
c. Unity
d. Eternity
e. Immutability
f. Omnipotence
g. Omniscience
h. Impassibility
i. Goodness
4. References and Further Reading

1. Sources of Western Concepts of God

Sources of western concepts of the divine have been threefold:

1. experience,

2. revelation, and

3. reason.

Reported experiences of God are remarkably varied and have produced equally varied concepts of the divine being. Experiences can be occasioned by something external and universally available, such as the starry sky, or by something external and private, such as a burning bush. Experiences can be internal and effable, such as a vision, or internal and ineffable, as is claimed by some mystics.

Revelation can be linked to religious experience or a type of it, both for the person originally receiving it and the one merely accepting it as authoritative. Those who accept its authority typically regard it as a source of concepts of the divine that are more detailed and more accurate than could be obtained by other means.

Increasingly, the modern focus has been on the complexities of the process of interpretation (philosophical hermeneutics) and the extent to which it is necessarily subjective.

Revelation can be intentionally unconnected to reason such that it is accepted on bare faith (fideism; cf. Kierkegaard), or at the other extreme, can be grounded in reason in that it is accepted because and only insofar as it is reasonable (cf., Locke). Reason has been taken as ancillary to religious experience and revelation, or on other accounts, as independent and the sole reliable source of concepts of God.

Each of the three sources of concepts of God has had those who regard it as the sole reliable basis of our idea of the divine. By contrast, others have regarded two or three of the sources as interdependent and mutually reinforcing. Regardless of these differing approaches, theism broadly construed has been a dominant theme for much of the history of Western thought.

2. Historical Overview

And, if you want to read more, go to the site, below. It goes on from where I left off.

http://www.iep.utm.edu/god-west/#H3

Sounds interesting!

Hi RevKing:

Evolutionary Theology means, quite simply, that God as the unitive cosmic whole is continuously evolving, and that the godly beings self-named Homo sapiens sapiens, who are implicated in that process, have now attained the awareness of who and what they ultimately are, and are taking an active and creative part in the process, as parts of God co-creating the godly process of evolution from within.

In other words, we, the evolved, in full awarenss of our godliness, have transcended being only the evolved, and have become the evolver as well as the evolved. To us humans, evolution is now a divine creative process in which we play an active and creative part.

Alfred North Whitehead--a process philosopher and theologian--was on the same track.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/process-philosophy/

Process Philosophy

The philosophy of process is a venture in metaphysics, the general theory of reality. Its concern is with what exists in the world and with the terms of reference in which this reality is to be understood and explained. The task of metaphysics is, after all, to provide a cogent and plausible account of the nature of reality at the broadest, most synoptic and comprehensive level. And it is to this mission of enabling us to characterize, describe, clarify and explain the most general features of the real that process philosophy addresses itself in its own characteristic way. The guiding idea of its approach is that natural existence consists in and is best understood in terms of processes rather than things — of modes of change rather than fixed stabilities. For processists, change of every sort — physical, organic, psychological — is the pervasive and predominant feature of the real....

PNEUMATOLOGY--a favourite topic of mine, since 1964, is also included as part of the process. Interestingly, the following was just sent to me. It comes from Norway:                                      

http://www.hypnosiseire.com/doc_9.htm

Here is a glossary of process theology and a brief bio of Whitehead, at the end of the thread:

https://www.ctr4process.org/relationality/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=45&start=3...

This is not an active forum, but it does contain a lot of good information about the process movement:

Here are my posts: https://www.ctr4process.org/relationality/search.php?search_id=egosearch

Rev. King,

I liked your reference to nephesh and ruah as Hebrew words involving soul and spirit as quick winds (sometimes rough crossing). Do the winds of God come into our minds as passing elements of intangible nature in a world that worships only tangible things? Does this resemble the nature of thoughts or emotions ... temporal lights ... meison in some tongues?

How does one work with that hollow space inside the body when we grow up in a world that denies such a horizon event? I like the biblical redition of mankind's reaction to such intangible things in Exodus 20:19 ... and man demanded that God be placed out of touch with man (for fear of what it would cost man?) and God ascented to man's demand. It sounds sort of ephemeral in nature like a person determined to serve every last whim of the powerful side. Then what is the cost of maintaining an empty shuol? Perhaps the Lam should be fed! Is an empty life real hell to a great number of people who are denied ther fair share by powerful beings that think they should have it all? Would such greed know what to do with such possession? Perhaps this is the logic behind: "And what does man profit to gain the whole world and lose his soul?" Does authority corrupt the soul ... absolute authority doing it in completely? The devilish side of the infinite must giggle ... do we see ID going ... in the winds of time?

Was St Augustine one great master of satire ... irony, regarding the possession of love rather than the giving of such. Then an augustine wind is a drying wind taking up one-half of that glass of water (medium of mind) that was once considered a match for a burning flame, Ba'aL antes of the sole entity? "Give me a cool cup of water!"

"All day I pace the barren waste ..."

Is it a lesson about the duality of the sun and mah Mere? Then a mummer is something else in the imagination of a new found realm!

Hi WaterBuoy:

I like the Hebrew word "ruach" for "spirit," it reminds me of the German word "rauch" for "smoke."

In reminds me even more profoundly of the Pipe Ceremony of our indigenous people.

The Sacred Pipe is stored bowl and stem apart. The two symbolize the universal opposites, which are joined for the Pipe Ceremony. When the Sacred Pipe is lit, the smoke is the Great Spirit that unites the universal opposites, and also unites the smoker with the Great Spirt.

Ah,

The hazing of the winds of God ... like Ahaziah who follows Ahab and God makes an offer in Isaiah 7:11 that Ahaziah denies.

Isn't that just like the shadow cast by M'n? Imagine trying the patience of the isolated and the emotions too! Thats dangerous thin ice to tread upon ... the spirit of water ... Isis ... ma Mere! Moby Dick addresses this, searching for the white Wahl ... Dan^ish humour if you can catch the devilish seders. ID's a feast of delight that you never see until IT's going! The Romans referred to this as ars ... roaring sounds diminishing in the dark as they catch the drift! If one does not recognise the whole soul ... will the mind recognize M'N? Cos moe logical extent of reason d'etre! (Rae's UN able metaphor, or pseudo-nymph) ID's a going concern for many as we dissolve into pure thought ... that's Ego for many who don't like us to think about them and the lessons they've divulged in their Urs/Ayres ... whatever errors they've denied!

St Augustine satire ... hot winds like bright ^ish Euhemerist over Greek Eumerus ... one's warmer than the other version of euphemism! It is devilish ... Miz .. understanding of a simple word! M'N doesn't like truth ... thus the metaphor in its many forms yet unfreed from th' inking w'ell. Omega-elle?

Just today, I wrote the following to a friend of mine at www.redefinegod.com

psychologist Dr. Stanley Krppner in Ca.

===========================

Stanley, this thought just came to me today: G0D and GOD.

Take note of the zero, 0, in the first acronym. Or, to be more specific, instead of 0, I could use, Ø--the null. IMO, G0D/GOD is in the microcosm--the smallest things--and in the macrocosm--the largest things.

G0D in the microcosm
=================
In the first acronym I have in mind G0D as the no-thing from which all things come--creatio ex nihilo, the creation out of nothing, as understood by theist theologians.

GOD in the macrocosm
==================
In the second acronym, GOD, I use the O to indicate the the totality, the wholeness, of being, towards which all things, with our creative help, are processing. Check out the work of the philosopher and mathematician, Alfred North Whitehead:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/whitehead/

BTW, have you heard of what Seth Lloyd, at MIT is doing? His latest book is about PROGRAMMING THE COSMOS.
http://www.randomhouse.com/kvpa/lloyd/

It looks as if--that is, if we are wise enough to grasp the concept--we are partners with G0D/GOD in the process of creation.

Is your null point a greek "Phi" or "Psi" ... with both sides of the hemisphere (demiurge) open, or closed ... an isolated state like am'n? That is phonetix ... a crae in the dark for assistance in translating signs to vocalizations ... har moen Ai! ID is a kin to the Hebrew sin, or shin ... bones we stand upon. Bo neigh La dais shaping our travels leading to Isaiah's veil of bones ... the mete of thy's Torae.

Do we understand what we repeat blindly? Very little as Shakespeare stated: "IT's what's in the word ... everything!" If you can read into ID ... a creation of emotions! We don't even listen carefully to what's made available ... m'n in de nail ... a black point in space ... in Hebrew Onyx, O'Nicks, O'Din in mei mind that I would like to stile away for a piece of thyme! Ar' rest? But UN must maintain the spark, or lose the Pyre .. Priapus in Roman tradition a thorn in the side called th'ought ... disturbing to the none sense called pure emotional displacement!

For Arminius (sum word ple' on ruagh, rough, roue ache winds):

A disturbance of inner space ... like a dust devil?

Now what is the royal ache, a small itche? From a file called ... Smoke and Mirs Pit eh Mete Aphore ...