RevLindsayKing's picture

RevLindsayKing

image

PNEUMATOLOGY. It simply means the study of who we are--spiritual beings.

PNEUMATOLOGY--A NEW SCIENCE FOR THIS NEW CENTURY

Pneumatology. It is not a science yet, but it is the mother of psychology--the study of the psyche (the Greek for animal-like mind)--which, for centuries was considered a branch of philosophy. This was true in 1947 when I decided to focus on, or major in, psychology. Dr. Clayton Baxter--the professor who took me under his wing ( became a respected friend), was a PhD from the Unversity of Toronto--was head if the Department of Philosophy.

 

The Greek for body is soma. Hence we get the words, somatology (the study of physical nature) and, therefore, psychosomatic. The next step is to introduce the term, pneuma-psychosomatic--the affect, for good or ill, of the spirit on the mind and then on the body. There are times when some people, for whatever perverse or childish reasons--maybe just to get some attention--choose not to be well. I call such illnesses pneuma-psychosomatic ones.

This is not a new idea. Long before the modern era, ancients philosophers and prophets, from the near and far East--Hindus, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Hebrews and Christians--taught and spoke about the need for human being to wake up and become enlightened and truly human beings.

For a Christian perspective, see Paul's comment in  1.Thessalonians 5:23: "I want you to be whole in body, mind and spirit".

[More to come on this]

By the way, after Dr. Coe, the late great Dr. Carl Jung--despite what his mentor, Dr. Sigmund Freud, said about religion being the "universal neurosis"--also called for the development of a "psychology of the spirit". And this leads me to point out that before psychology was called psychology, it was called pneumatology--the study of the spirit. For details, do a google search.

 

It is time pneumatology became a serious science--see World Book Dictionary.

 

less than its child, psychology.

 

Coberst, a fellow poster  in another forum asked me the following questions:

 

1. Can we learn to be critically self-conscious?

 

2. What do you think about self-actualization?

 

I responded:

 

1. Not only do I believe we can, I believe that we must--unless we want to condemn ourselves to being less than human.

2. ABOUT SELF-ACTUALIZATION
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_actualization

In my opinion, unless we are content to see ourselves to be nothing more that grasping animal-like creatures dominated by base instincts (the Freudian view), or as machine-like beings responding mechanistically to the physical environment (the view of behaviourism), we had better develop a new image of who we really are--spiritual beings who take great joy in finding meaning and purpose in life by the practice of faith, hope and love (agape)--of self, family and community (James, Jung, Rogers, Maslow, Victor Frankl, M. Scott Peck.)

The scientific study of what it means for human beings, from the cradle to the grave, to be spiritual--if we are to save ourselves and our globe from destruction--needs to me, and must be, made a priority.

I make no claim that I am the first to propose that we do a scientific study of what it means to be a conscious, self-actualized, or fully spiritual, and humane being.

In my library, I have a book published in 1900: The Spiritual Life--studies in the science of religion, by George Albert Coe, PhD.

At the time, Dr. Coe was a well-known and respected professor of what was called Moral and Intellectual Philosophy at Northwestern University, in Evanston, Ill., near Chicago. I found the book in a used-book store in Boston. At the time, I was doing some post-graduate studies at Boston University on the "History of beliefs and ideas".

In his preface, Dr. Coe writes: "The studies here presented have been undertaken in response to a conviction that, in the interest of both science and religion, a new intellectual attitude is necessary with respect to the facts of the spiritual life."

He goes on to say: "The religious processes taking place within us and around us must be observed with all the precision that modern psychological methods and tools render possible."

To this he adds this interesting observation: "For, whatever else religion may or may not be, it is at least a mass of ascertainable states of consciousness; ... in the absence of information to the contrary we must presume that such states can be analysed and described ..."

Acknowledging what was then known about the mind (often confused with the brain) and the body (biology) he adds: "Until this work is done there will remain an important gap in the scientific knowledge of man." With this in mind he went on to call for the development of a, "satisfactory science of religion".

Without some understanding as to what makes us tick, spiritually as well as mentally and physically, we will never make sense as to why some people are motivated to behave as saints--willing, at great personal cost, to do great good in the service of others--while others, such as terrorists, are willing even to kill themselves in the act of killing others. How come religion is so toxic for some people and a tonic for others?

 

Share this

Comments

Arminius's picture

Arminius

image

Hi RevKing:

 

I have read Actualizations by Abraham Maslow, and agree with him that we need to fulfill our basic needs first and then move on to fulfilling our meta or spiritual needs.

 

Unfortunately, most of us never graduate on to fulfilling our meta needs. Instead, we overfulfill our basic needs and destroy ourselves in the process.

 

The Native Medicine Man, Red Cloud, said that physical pollution is the result of spiritual pollution, and that we need to cleanse our minds of spiritual pollution before we can get rid of environmental pollution. What he meant to say, of course, is that we neeed to move on to fulfilling our spiritual needs as soon as our basic biological needs are fulfilled.

 

All My Relations,

 

Arminius

 

WaterBuoy's picture

WaterBuoy

image

How, I wonder, did many authorities get the idea that common m'n (isolated) kind ... should not think? That is a hard shell to crack when leaders from different venues all over creation have made that statement to me. I could have served their teaching ... stepping inside their aura of teaching, but I became a renegade ... I doubt everything and question all ... some objects of foci respond quite crudely and others with accrued sense ... Astar in the dark ... Jinn's tone on a black velvet band ... a ring about us? There is meaning to all things, infinite as God. Are you as interested in what you can return as what you can get? Religion often opens up the field of getting for justification ... I am better than thou! Ain't that a crock without a thought of the impression made on the wit'hin ... the heart of that peculiar sole?

 

One new England associate told me thet he hates culture and is studying for PHD in business and Advertising ... his work during his career. Is this pure satire in the infinite sense that he is initiating another school of greed? This is got to be pure 'elle with some hope of reviving it in another form ... a fine spirit on the other side!

 

I'll chose Sophie the sense of balance, justice in all fields of philosophy, quest into the way we think, or don't as devil's advocate ... an initiator  ... pure blind Love? Worth a giggle in the dark Ness eh ... bump in the knight?

RevLindsayKing's picture

RevLindsayKing

image

AN ENLIGHTENING TWO HOURS AT A PAIN CLINIC--Experiencing and dealing with Physical, Mental and Spiritual pain
======================================
Yesterday, June 20, 2009--as our earth approached the summer solstice north of the equator--was, for me, a memorable one.

It began as a night filled with a deep, dark water-filled-overcast sky, which was punctuated with heavy showers--the result of a wide-spread thunder and lightening storm in the Toronto area. In the afternoon, I was expected to officiate at an open-air marriage ceremony at a golf club. Jean and I were invited to the reception following.

 

A PAINFUL EXPERIENCE

The night before, my wife and I went to bed with the hope that things would clear up by noon the next day. In addition, we both hoped that the niggling pain in her foot, for which she was being treated with electronic stimulation, would subside enough so that she could enjoy the ceremony and the dinner following, especially the dancing. Jean loves to dance.

Morning came. More rain, accompanied by more pain. To add to the pain, it seemed that even the elements were conspiring to create problems. In addition to this, Jean told me that she was in terrible physical pain, which was now located, not in her foot, but in her lower back and left leg. She told me that it was so excruciating she could hardly move her leg.

What to do!

I asked myself: WOULD I BE FORCED TO HAVE SOMEONE ELSE DO THE WEDDING?
========================================================
At that point it looked to me like I was destined to officiate at the rained-on-and-late-afternoon wedding all by myself. Yes, I was free from physical pain, but I began to feel lots of mental and spiritual pain--pain originating in the psyche and pneuma. We argued with one another as to the best way to handle the situation.

I told her that what really bothered me was what I felt was her passive-dependent attitude towards authority figures--doctors and the like. In my opinion, we give too much deference to so-called experts--for example, doctors, lawyers, preachers, bankers and the like--can get us into all kinds of problems, especially if we are afraid to ask questions.

Me?

Not having met or spoken to her doctor, I said: I want to speak, personally, to Dr. Cheng, who operates a pain clinic, and find out what he and his clinic has to offer.

POSITIVE ACTION WAS REWARDED
==============================
After much personal wrangling, back and forth, we decided to make an appointment, as soon as possible, with Dr. Cheng. We phoned and, to my surprise with Jean on the line, I got through to his nurse right away. It was agreed that we could see him at 10:30.

At the consultation again I was pleasantly surprised. He told us that, while his approach to pain is based on the medical model--a somatic approach--he was not adverse to involving the mind (psyche) and the spirit (pneuma).

"Now and then" he said, "for interested patients, I give classes in tai chi--a kind of physical meditation which involves the mind and th spirit."

Then I told him about the classes in pneumatology (study of the spirit), which I gave all the years of my ministry. I said, "I did not just speak about the spirit; I included the mind and the body and I worked openly with doctors and other members of the healing arts." This conversation with Dr. Cheng was most positive one.

At this point, he greed to do acupuncture, plus using an electronic machine, on my wife. He also agreed to have me present and he allowed me chat with him and my wife as he did so. Touching the area of the spine and getting feedback from my wife he found the points where he chose to place the needles. A very efficient nurse assisted with the equipment. I explained to the doctor what I was going to do and got his permission as he went on to tend to other patients.

I BEGAN TO APPLY PNEUMATHERAPY
================================
To Jean I said: "you are already familiar with my use of the colours RED, YELLOW & BLUE.

"Now, do some deep breathing as you visualize RED ... (I gave her time to do so...)

"Now: Think of your heart and lungs, which are directly connected via the nervous system to the veins and arteries, and, in fact, to every cell of your body. They are working together, as you breathe, feeding and healing your whole circulatory system. This process is purifying the venous blood and creating lots of rich, red and warm arterial blood cells which are flowing to all the cells and nerves, calming them and healing them."

I then instructed Jean to do some deep breathing in her own time and let me know when she had finished...

USING THE COLOUR YELLOW, I followed the same process of having Jean do some deep breathing; but this time I said: "Think of your brain and nervous system, which extends to every cell--billions of them--in the whole body. Now do some deep breathing, focusing on the brain and the nervous systems--the central and voluntary system, by which we can consciously control all our voluntary movements. The autonomic or involuntary system--reacts to the way we feel or imagine things to be. You cannot directly control the beat of your heart, but it will beat faster if you see something frightening. The fear can be real, or imagined. You can control your breathing, but it too can be influenced by how you feel, emotionally.

"USING THE COLOUR BLUE, once again using the same process, as above, I told Jean:

"Pay attention to your breathing, but this time think of the spirit-like aura which extends beyond the body. It mediates who you are and how you relate to your family, your friends and community, including strangers.

"Now do some deep breathing focusing on the aura, which vibrates with colour-like vibrations not visible to the naked eye... Let me know when you are finished..."

The overall process, involving periods of silence, took about 25 minutes. When she finished her breathing, I called the nurse. Gently, she removed the needles and turned off the electronic device and told my wife to dress herself.

For the first time that day, Jean moved with relative ease. She was even able to stand, for some time, in line in another building where an X-ray was done. I wanted to know if there was much degeneration in her spine. Dr. Cheng agreed that it would help to check the structure of her lower spine where she had felt the worse pain.

We then went back to the house and she took the time to have lunch and rest. By four o'clock when we went to the wedding, all the pain had gone. This, thank G0D, held true for the rest of the evening.

About the weather: By the time the wedding was over--during which there was a heavy shower--things had calmed down. Because of this, people were able to have a drink and stroll the beautiful area next to the Club House while the couple had their photos taken.

Then the bride and groom, and well over 120 guests, sat down to an excellent dinner, followed by dancing.

It was a very pleasant evening.

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

RevLindsayKing's picture

RevLindsayKing

image

Arminius and all:

Check out the bio of George Albert Coe. Google search on his name.

http://www2.talbot.edu/ce20/educators/view.cfm?n=george_coe

WaterBuoy's picture

WaterBuoy

image

Psychology of Religion?

 

Isn't that an oxymoron in a relgious realm that believes thinking is dangerous? The soul and psyche as mindful ... being discounted or otherwise eliminated as Christ on the cross. The quenching of all such fires that might enlighten the Shadows and what is hidden in the bottom lands of institutions! That's subliminal eh ...

 

Scientific Reason ... a metaphor of observable logic, that goes contrary to the wiles of mortals! The wiles of mortal are to move on or fix themselves in something they believe in non-movable ... thus excluding emote'n ... that spark in the eye as a beam? Original tendencies, are emotional dispose of the thought gathered in the meantime ... a sort of medium discounted by mortals. There fore the medium is exterminated as psyche ... lives somewhere else ... out-there?

 

LeVite: enlightening the dark hole, or void in the mortal medium, that which the Gods are bent on disposing as crap! Sort of like David onserving Saul having a dump in a hole in the ground ... Plateo's Cave Theory on the high and mighty are mostly chi-ite too? It is fertile for the moving-on theology thus producing haggii-Dais (deis) establishments. These are sometime sharp as humus, or bland as hagis! Some spectre eh?

 

Hypenosis; hype-Noös-is ... like to do with that over the nous, or that intelligence that surrounds and encloses the mortal pas-Ur Bi, as a loupe of logic?

 

This is very un-church like logic when compared to the devilish script that says don't go near that tree in a sense of reciprocal awareness that turns emotions on end! Can the institutionalized really take this as superficial gospel as aopposed to the deeper understanding like the bottom end of a column ... corinth? Is there base ness here and a deeper portion to the sects? Be above board now as a proper carpenter ...

 

Lack of nuture suggests the elimination of teaching (pedagoge; and biblical fear of goge and ma'goge) and just pure regurgitation, a flow of old intelligence that is not fully processed in theology, or Ðeology as the Latin would express it ... is there anything to this chi-ite?

 

Wiles, or intellect; 2 different spirits that the average medium can't see for they don't know whether they are coming, or going or just wobbling! This is possibly because they are taught to hate the "self" an indeterminate as God and thus they may be equivalent and not equal ... like m'n and wodin; a firm bo'esh! (that's something entirely different in Hebrew).

 

Mystical psyche? Is that just peak into the outside realm beyond all the Clouded Atlas? The order presented to us as alternate chaos!

 

Mind of Christ (Light) as Le Vite a quick energy that can enter the collective body though many pores as heat and draw water ... thro' the eye it may draw responses from the deep that may be akin to lost or Luce' thoughts ...

 

But then as someone not supposed to think ... what would I know?

 

Was a good article on Coe X'is Dan's tho' ... something the institutionalized would find hard to look into! Thanks Rev. King it tickled my neurons like buterflies pas'n thro' that strange Hoe's! You know how many was to express Hoes, as those addicted to psyche might call horse as an opiate'd sort would name heroin ... thus Christ was known as Ju'Hu in one tongue that was a horseman or yeoman (Centaur) or just a page for supporting script ... the possibilities are almost endless and amuse heir "powers";  Oz ... that is close to Judè (Judah?). Flows like moel as is in the fixed type ... no capacity for the alien satyr, where truth is buried as myth ... because God's spin off didn't wish to know, leaving an option open as an alternate to gods ... Dais M'ns? Dark plasma ... bloody well unseen de viles!

 

Does the bible speak of the unseen or is that mental conflict? That's Çhue Ka'n ... a way to express things to avoid awareness ...