Into The Rabbit Hole

Ever wonder why it is that as a medically and scientifically advanced people, we know generally everything there is to know about all of the organs in the body besides the brain?

Why is it that we know about heart transplants, blood transfusions, pancreatic function, pulmonary disease, etc., yet we struggle to know how the brain works?  I think it is less of a scientific question and more of a religion answer.

Primarily, I think that much of how far we’ve come as a scientific community was significantly driven and funded (and allowed) by the people in charge– and up until the last few centuries, the people in charge have also been the people who lead us not into temptation.

I’m not faulting the individual followers of any particular religion- so don’t think I’m going down that path.  I am, however, comparing it to the teaching of evolution versus creationism in schools.  I’m talking about the freedom of stem cell research that could possibly cure a majority of our ailments.  I’m talking about the stigma of mental illness– you know, the ones where it’s better to institutionalize people because we don’t know what’s “wrong” with them instead of forcefully studying how the brain functions so that mental and cognitive wellness could one day be right up there in line with the treatments one would use to treat diabetes or high blood pressure.  For a long time, the church as a body was fearful of the mind.  After all, one cannot rightfully explain the inner workings of one’s head without discrediting God and “HIS” ability to judge right from wrong for all of man kind.

You figure out how it is that a person emulates cognitive thought, and then realize you’ve discredited the soul.  You figure out why it is that someone could be homosexual (couldn’t have ANYTHING to do with his or her brain functioning, could it?), and you eliminate the ability to call it a sin.  You assess the design of someone with an extra Y chromosome and see how the genetic anomaly affects the hormones produced in their brain and can then see how it is that an extra Y could make someone more aggressive and less emotional.  You figure out what it is that drives people into devious acts– and they can no longer be held accountable in heaven for their behavior.

*end facetiousness*

I don’t think that the study of how our brains function is really something that entirely overlaps with spirituality, but I certainly believe you can observe, physiologically, how it functions during a religious experience, and wah-lah!  I think we’ve got a solid explanation and a lot of people who are normally preaching to the masses running for the hills because they can no longer say, “We don’t do these things because God condemns them!”

You lose control of the people when you discover that we’re not only all one in the same but concurrently VASTLY different from each other.

“This life is both beautiful and tragic.”  - Janna

It IS.  And somehow, in some way, I believe we chose this experience, knowing ultimately that we would experience the highs and lows– the joys and tears, and in one path or another, and we decided we would do this… for the experience.

I don’t know that we were ever angels sitting up somewhere in heaven, picking the exact life we would have… but I do think we collectively knew that it would be like this, at least in the sense of recognizing our emotional ties to the things that pull on them.

There is so much to experience.  The beauty of life, the tragedy of death… the coming to terms of the necessity of both…  the balance that is pertinent for generations to continue having the opportunity to experience these things.

As a collective whole, humanity has come to a turning point… to an unrecognizable fork in the road where we can no longer continue on the beaten path as we always have.  We are waking up and realizing that we have ethical obligations– responsibilities to ourselves and our experience and to our future generations who may also want to experience this.  We are learning from our mistakes and our past lifetimes– we are recognizing our life lessons and coming to terms with our mortality.  We are realizing that this lifetime isn’t always so much about US and our short lifespan here (each time) and more about the WHOLE collaborative experience that all spirits may potentially embrace.

And what if there ARE no potential spirits?  What if this all is a fluke?  An accident of nature, and after this there is nothing?

It doesn’t matter.

We are facing major ethical dilemmas as we continue to evolve.  We become more scientifically advanced and have begun breaking the natural chain of events that life on earth for eternity has needed in order to perpetuate.  In understanding the physical properties of nature, our sciences have prevented death and simultaneously cause death.  Death, the omnipotent, inescapable, undeniable god whom we all fear and likely respect.

Is it all hopeless?  Is it a lost cause, a pariayan ideal that our humanity was supposed to last forever?

I don’t think so.  We have to make the best of what we’ve got.  We’ve got to take the hand we’ve been dealt and play it, even if we feel like there are no other options than to fold.

This life is both beautiful and tragic.  And somehow, we’ve chosen to experience the heights of beauty knowing full well that the depths of tragedy are not negotiable.

Throughout history there have been many teachers who believed in a one great consciousness. People have believed that their souls are part of one great spiritual energy. Many have called this energy God.

Christ and Buddha are two of the common teachers who taught this. Throughout the existence of human kind, there has always been a spirituality, a worship, a humbleness, and love.

Many metaphysical teachings state that there is a possibility to connect with the one great mind. This is how people have explained clairvoyance and the great wise teachers. This is an explanation of prophecy.

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I keep discovering new things I know nothing about.

The more I realize that I don’t know, the more I want to know everything there is to know.

Surely it would be impossible to learn all knowledge in one lifetime.  In fact, that’s my greatest hindrance:  there is only so much “time” I have left in this life.  I don’t know the amount of time, but I recognize that there is a limitation.

If my purpose is to learn as much as I can, then perhaps this purpose gives support to the idea that maybe we’re here in one lifetime more than once.  It’s not evidence, but it would make sense.

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Do you ever notice time flying by so quickly– things happening so rapidly– that you hardly have time to catch your breath? I like times like those because I know I’m being active and productive. Still, sometimes I have to just sit down and write in order to compile everything that I think and feel about all that has happened.

Where do I begin?

Jesus.

Okay, let’s start with Jesus. I had a realization this weekend.

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I suppose that there is one of two possible causes for humans to have created spirituality in the realm of evolution.   The first possibility is that we need it in order to cope with our own mortality, feeling less anxious about death because we know something “Better” will come after we pass on from our physical bodies.

The second possibility is that we somehow remember– not necessarily cognitively– that there is something more.  Perhaps our cells remember– though organically that wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense because our cells are what die.  The scientist in me struggles to make sense of it all- to understand how a majority of perfectly reasonable (okay that’s relative) people believe in SOMETHING.  It comes back to one of the laws of thermodynamics: Energy cannot be created nor destroyed.  So, in the scheme of all that exists, we are energy.  Every single cell in our body uses something carbon based as a “food” to make energy.  Every carbon based cell we consume once used something else to make energy to grow.  Animals consume other animals and plants. Plants use sunlight to make energy.  The sun expels energy from the dramatic process of nuclear fusion, which is a result of the cataclysmic nature of the creation of our universe– a creation that natural physicists insist followed the law in that the energy was already there– it just changed form somehow…  When we die, our bodies decompose into basic carbon that is reabsorbed into the ground.  Or, the process can be accelerated by cremation– either way, our cells are always carbon based, and eventually those carbons return to the earth to be used as nutrients for more plant life, which again is eventually consumed by another animal– us or otherwise.  I suppose another possibility to allow our cells to remember is that we are all the result of something living.  Every single one of us was created by two cells from two other living beings.  Perhaps that “memory” is passed down to us from the point of conception… I’m doubtful, but somehow there could be a connection.  Read the rest of this entry »

I think that a lot of success has to do with your faith in yourself or your cause. 

Faith is the unconditional confidence that you’re on the right path.  Pure faith like that is difficult to come by, and those religious leaders who dedicate their lives to leading other people in their own faiths have perhaps the most challenging job of all.  People who guide other people’s faiths must undoubtedly realize the magnamity of their responsibility for not misleading or misguiding their people.  Perhaps it is this sort of power that corrupts certain spiritual leaders; it is this sort of control that can lead otherwise good people into the depths of deception and lies.  That’s not what this blog is about, but it is that very pure, blind faith that is exactly what we must rely upon to become successful.

Pure faith in our cause. 

Once, there was a skeezy life insurance salesman, Bill J.  He ran the life insurance agency I once worked for.  His philosophy was to get the individual sales agents pumped up enough to bust their asses for him, selling life insurance to union workers and creating more sales agents who would take over once the previous generation had burned out.  Bill would preach from his silver-lined pulpit, or his beautifully polished cherry wood desk.  He would drive expensive cars, and throw parties at his million dollar home.  He would preach to us that we, too, could have ANYTHING we wanted.  Anything at all was achievable and within our grasp, but we just had to remember one thing: never, ever, ever act out of fear.  The most successful agents were ones who had the most charisma, and who could mimic the expression of pure faith– faith in the need for life insurance, on to the new agents and clients.   The most successful agents were the ones who could instill the fear of death in the clients well enough to suppose they NEED life insurance, dishing out the very things that we were specifically taught that we ought not do.   He was teaching us to be one thing, never acting out of fear, and then to say another, instilling fear within the hearts of the people giving you their money.  That’s what charisma is, ultimately, after all, don’t you think?

Fortunately, there was one thing I took from my experience under the guidance of this man, and that was to not act out of fear.  What is this fear?  And what is the opposite of it?  To not act out of fear is to act out of faith.  It is the faith that you know the right path.  Faith that you will act and it will be okay as it is, and if it’s not, you can figure out what you did wrong and in the future fix it.  I learned that when you do not act out of fear, you have nothing to worry about.  You make more level-headed decisions, and you deny anything the opportunity to throw doubt into your mind regarding you capability of working through the situation reasonably and confidently.

Sometimes I catch myself behaving out of fear.  One of my most common fearful behaviors is settling on the roommates I choose to share my life with.  What a completely inappropriate area to settle!  These are the people I live with for Pete’s sake! Sometimes I make poor decisions when I act out of fear.  Perhaps I’m not the only person who does this??

To be successful, one must have blind faith that what you do is going to be okay, no matter what.  To be confident in your abilities is to take appropriate risks and to not be knocked down from a poor decision that was made out of fear.  To be confident in your steps forward is a beautiful thing.  Have faith in your SELF.  You cannot succeed without this.

I think the whole point I’m getting at here, is that faith is a powerful experience.  You can essentially convince anyone of anything if they have faith that what you’re telling them is true.  If you have faith in yourself, in your own abilities, you can convince yourself of anything.  And when you truly believe that you can have anything you want, you will accomplish it, because there is nothing in your way to prevent you from doing so. 

Writing, for me, is sometimes very similar to me talking just to hear myself talk. It gets lonely in my office all day long… and lonely in my home all night long.  I crave the attention that my friends and loved ones give to me.  So for me, writing, and then seeing you all read my blogs, is essentially feeding my pathological relationship with you…It’s like my diary.  Only not really.  I don’t divulge my most deep dark secrets; I DO tell you how I see it, and I DO use artistic authority to manipulate these words in a way that I feel you’ll be driven to continue to read…It’s all poppycock.  I could make up anything as I go along, and you might read it and believe it.  I could tell you stories, lies, and more, and you might think you’re getting to know me better. For instance, I can come out of the closet to you.  I can tell you that I’m definitely into women, and that I simply cannot get enough pussy to satiate my cravings.  Or I can tell you that I’m pregnant, and I’m not sure whose baby it is, but that I’ve narrowed it down to three lucky men. I could tell you that I’ve quit my job, and only pretend to go to work every day, and I sit online all day long praying I can find something that will come close to paying my bills. I could tell you that I’m really a man, but nevermind, you already know THAT’s not true. The thing is that you never can tell.  You never can tell when I tell you the truth, and you never can tell when anything I say or promote is real.  For that, you must believe.  Most of you know me very well, and most of you are quite comfortable with being able to tell when I’m being serious or when I’m making something up.  For those of you who are uncertain or have any question in your mind, perhaps this one blog will remind you to question it all. And to then find faith. See, that’s what faith is, really.  Read the rest of this entry »

I had a strange dream this morning.

I was at church, in the front row. There was no pulpit and no altar. Instead, there was a man in front: the pastor, wearing his garb, and he was handing out communion…

It’s been years since I’ve taken communion, and I doubt I’d take it unless I was doing it to appease someone’s heart, specifically my family’s hearts. However, I’m pretty sure that I would know what to do– you just go line up along the front of the altar, kneel, the pastor will bless you, you cup your hand, receive the unleavened cracker (Christ’s body) and then pick out which shot glass of blessed wine that you are to believe is Christ’s blood and then drink.

While taking these, you ask for forgiveness and become one with God or whatnot.

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