ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
Mood:  special
Topic: Mental Aspects

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
by Lewis Carroll
THE MILLENNIUM FULCRUM EDITION 2.7a
(C)1991 Duncan Research

Chapter I
Down the Rabbit Hole

Link Back to the Alice in Wonderland Directory

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, `and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice `without pictures or conversation?'

So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, `Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!' (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT- POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before see a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.

In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.

The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.

Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed; it was labelled `ORANGE MARMALADE', but to her great disappointment it way empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear of killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.

`Well!' thought Alice to herself, `after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!' (Which was very likely true.)

Down, down, down. Would the fall NEVER come to an end! `I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?' she said aloud. `I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think--' (for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a VERY good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) `--yes, that's about the right distance--but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I've got to?' (Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.)

Presently she began again. `I wonder if I shall fall right THROUGH the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think--' (she was rather glad there WAS no one listening, this time, as it didn't sound at all the right word) `--but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand or Australia?' (and she tried to curtsey as she spoke--fancy CURTSEYING as you're falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) `And what an ignorant little girl she'll think me for asking! No, it'll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.'

Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking again. Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I should think!' (Dinah was the cat.) `I hope they'll remember her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There are no mice in the air, I'm afraid, but you might catch a bat, and that's very like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?' And here Alice began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, `Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?' and sometimes, `Do bats eat cats?' for, you see, as she couldn't answer either question, it didn't much matter which way she put it. She felt that she was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with Dinah, and saying to her very earnestly, `Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat?' when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.

Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a moment: she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her was another long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost: away went Alice like the wind, and was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner, `Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!' She was close behind it when she turned to corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen: she found herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from the roof.

There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked; and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again.

Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of solid glass; there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key, and Alice's first thought was that it might belong to one of the doors of the hall; but, alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was too small, but at any rate it would not open any of them. However, on the second time round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high: she tried the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted!

Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but she could not even get her head though the doorway; `and even if my head would go through,' thought poor Alice, `it would be of very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only know how to begin.' For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.

There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so she went back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on it, or at any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like telescopes: this time she found a little bottle on it, (`which certainly was not here before,' said Alice,) and round the neck of the bottle was a paper label, with the words `DRINK ME' beautifully printed on it in large letters.

It was all very well to say `Drink me,' but the wise little Alice was not going to do THAT in a hurry. `No, I'll look first,' she said, `and see whether it's marked "poison" or not'; for she had read several nice little histories about children who had got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts and other unpleasant things, all because they WOULD not remember the simple rules their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-hot poker will burn you if your hold it too long; and that if you cut your finger VERY deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked `poison,' it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.

However, this bottle was NOT marked `poison,' so Alice ventured to taste it, and finding it very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast,) she very soon finished it off.

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`What a curious feeling!' said Alice; `I must be shutting up like a telescope.'
And so it was indeed: she was now only ten inches high, and her face brightened up at the thought that she was now the right size for going though the little door into that lovely garden. First, however, she waited for a few minutes to see if she was going to shrink any further: she felt a little nervous about this; `for it might end, you know,' said Alice to herself, `in my going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder what I should be like then?' And she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle is like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember ever having seen such a thing.

After a while, finding that nothing more happened, she decided on going into the garden at once; but, alas for poor Alice! when she got to the door, she found he had forgotten the little golden key, and when she went back to the table for it, she found she could not possibly reach it: she could see it quite plainly through the glass, and she tried her best to climb up one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery; and when she had tired herself out with trying, the poor little thing sat down and cried.

`Come, there's no use in crying like that!' said Alice to herself, rather sharply; `I advise you to leave off this minute!' She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into her eyes; and once she remembered trying to box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself, for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people. `But it's no use now,' thought poor Alice, `to pretend to be two people! Why, there's hardly enough of me left to make ONE respectable person!'

Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table: she opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on which the words `EAT ME' were beautifully marked in currants. `Well, I'll eat it,' said Alice, `and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door; so either way I'll get into the garden, and I don't care which happens!'

She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself, `Which way? Which way?', holding her hand on the top of her head to feel which way it was growing, and she was quite surprised to find that she remained the same size: to be sure, this generally happens when one eats cake, but Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way.

So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake.

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Link to Chapter II: The Pool of Tears

 

Mysticism Defined by W.T. Stace
Topic: Spiritual Aspects




Walter Terence Stace is the most frequently quoted expert when defining mysticism. An English-born philosopher, teaching at Princeton (1932-55) Stace wrote on mysticism after his retirement in 1955. His most famous work on this subject, Mysticism and Philosophy (1960), was book of schloarship with less emphasis on the mystical experience than one might assume from the title. Fortunately, in the same year, Stace published a book for general audiences, The Teachings of the Mystics. This publication included Stace's thoughts on mystical experience, a few examples of that experience, and a wide ranging collection of writings on mystical philosophy gathered from the world's literature.

Below are highlights from his introductory chapter in The Teachings of the Mystics. This introduction clearly shows that Stace was a "purist" in that he did not honor beginning or intermediate states people experience along the path to full mystical experience. Visions, voices, insights, or powerful dreams are not mystical experience as he defines it. Only a "nonsensuous and nonintellectual" union fits his definition.

A Mystic is a Mystic

"By the word "mystic" I shall always mean a person who himself has had mystical experience. Often the word is used in a much wider and looser way. Anyone who is sympathetic to mysticism is apt to be labeled a mystic. But I shall use the word always in a stricter sense. However sympathetic toward mysticism a man may be, however deeply interested, involved, enthusiastic, or learned in the subject, he will not be called a mystic unless he has, or has had, mystical experience. (p.9)"

Some things which mysticism is not

"The word mysticism" is popularly used in a variety of loose and inaccurate ways. Sometimes anything is called "mystical" which is misty, foggy, vague, or sloppy. It is absurd that "mysticism" should be associated with what is "misty" because of the similar sound of the words. And there is nothing misty, foggy, vague, or sloppy about mysticism.

A second absurd association is to suppose that mysticism is sort of mystery-mongering. There is, of course, an etymological connection between "mysticism" and "mystery." But mysticism is not any sort of hocus-pocus such as we commonly associate with claims to be the elucidation of sensational mysteries. Mysticism is not the same as what is commonly called the "occult"...Nor doe it include what are commonly called parapsychological phenomena such as telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance, precognition. These are not mystical phenomena. It is perhaps true that mystics may sometimes claim to possess such special powers, but even when they do so they are well aware that such powers are not part of, and are to be clearly distinguished from, their mystical experience. (pp.10-11)

Finally, it is most important to realize that visions and voices are not mystical phenomena, though here again it seems to be the case that the sort of persons who are mystics may often be the sort of persons who see visions and hear voices...And there are, one must add, good reasons for this. What mystics say is that a genuine mystical experience is nonsensuous. It is formless, shapeless, colorless, odorless, soundless. But a vision is a piece of visual imagery having color and shape. A voice is an auditory image. Visions and voices are sensuous experiences. (pp. 10-12)"

The Central Characteristic

"The most important, the central characteristic in which all fully developed mystical experiences agree, and which in the last analysis is definitive of them and serves to mark them off from other kinds of experiences, is that they involve the apprehension of an ultimate nonsensuous unity in all things, a oneness or a One to which neither the senses nor the reason can penetrate. In other words, it entirely transcends our sensory-intellectual consciousness.

It should be carefully noted that only fully developed mystical experiences are necessarily apprehensive of the One. Many experiences have been recorded which lack this central feature but yet possess other mystical characteristics. These are borderline cases, which may be said to shade off from the central core of cases. They have to the central core the relation which some philosophers like to call "family resemblance. (pp.14-15)"

Two Types of Mystical Experience

"One may be called extrovertive mystical experience, the other introvertive mystical experience. Both are apprehensions of the One, but they reach it in different ways. The extrovertive way looks outward and through the physical senses into the external world and finds the One there. The introvertive way turns inward, introspectively, and finds the One at the bottoom of the self, at the bottom of human personality. The latter far outweighs the former in importance both in the history of mysticism and in the history of human thought generally. The introvertive way is the major strand in the history of mysticism, the extrovertive way a minor strand.

The extrovertive mystic with his physical senses continues to perceive the same world of trees and hills and tables and chairs as the rest of us. But he sees these objects transfigured in such manner that the Unity shines through them. Because it includes ordinary sense perceptions, it only partially realizes the description...(that is, an experience of complete unity)...It is suggested that the extrovertive type of experience is a kind of halfway house to the introvertive. For the introvertive experience is wholly nonsensuous and nonintellectual. But the extrovertive experience is sensory-intellectual in so far as it still perceives physical objects but is nonsensuous and nonintellectual in so far as it perceives them as "all one."

Introvertive mysticism..."Now it happens to be the case that this total suppression of the whole empirical content of consciousness is precisely what the introvertive mystic claims to achieve. And he claims that what happens is not that all consciousness disappears but that only the ordinary sensory-intellectual consciousnessness disappears and is replaced by an entirely new kind of consciousness, the mystical consciousness." (pp. 15-18)

"Of the introvertive mystical consciousness the Mandukya (Upanishad) says that it is "beyond the senses, beyond the understanding, beyond all expression...It is the pure unitary consciousness, wherein awareness of the world and of multiplicity is completely obliterated. It is ineffable peace. It is the Supreme Good. It is One without a second. It is the Self.""..."Not only in Christianity and Hinduism but everywhere else we find that the essence of this experience is that it is an undifferentiated unity, though each culture and each religion interprets this undifferentiated unity in terms of its own creeds and dogmas." (p.20-21)

Stace, Walter T. The Teachings of the Mystics, (New York:The New American Library, 1960).

Mystical Experience Registry

Will Power






We all are blessed with free will; yet this does not grant us happiness unless we also have faith in God.

The debate between faith and reason is in many ways the decisive battleground in the debate between theism and atheism. This is because most defenses of theism appeal to the inadequacy of reason. Typically these defenses will take the form of claiming that there are appropriate spheres for reason, and appropriate spheres for faith, and that belief in God comes from recognizing the appropriate role for faith and the associated "limitation" of reason. Some theists argue that one can believe in God using both faith and reason. Once again, we should define our terms.[1]

Faith means that one considers a certain claim (e.g., "God exists") to be actual knowledge, absolutely certain knowledge. This claim to certainty is held in the absence of adequate evidence, or in direct contradiction to the evidence. Evidence is considered relevant only in so far as it supports the proposition; and irrelevant or inadequate to the extent that it does not support the proposition.

"Faith" has multiple usages, and often in debates the meaning shifts. For example, a theist might state that an atheist has "faith" too. For example, the atheist has "faith" that the sun will come up tomorrow or that the airplane one is about to get into won't go down in flames. Clearly, this is not the same sense of the word that theists use when they say that they have "faith" that God exists. For example, one can be virtually certain that the sun will come up tomorrow, and this comes from evidence analogous to a repeatable experiment: everyday the sun has come up. Of course, it is not certain; an unanticipated event like the sun exploding could force us to revisit our expectations. The airplane example is yet another case of reasonable expectations based on historical evidence, and the (fortunately rare) exceptions are clear reasons why we can never be absolutely certain when boarding a plane. The theist, however, is absolutely certain that God exists, absolutely certain that no future evidence will appear that would change his or her mind.

"Reason" means the application of logical principles to the available evidence. While the principles of reason / logic are certain, the conclusions one obtains from them are only as certain as the underlying assumptions, which is why science is rarely, if ever, absolutely certain (though in many cases, its theories are certain to a very high degree of probability). In fact, scientific theories are rarely "deduced," but are, instead, "inferred"; that is, they are based on inductive logic, or generalizing from specific examples. The "inferred" theory, if it is any good, will make independently testable predictions, and will explain a range of phenomena that had seemed unrelated before. When multiple, independent tests corroborate a theory, it can, just from a statistical standpoint, become virtually certain. [2]

The critical point here is that while almost nothing is certain, everything is not equally uncertain. Our theories can be ranked by the evidence supporting them, and our degree of "belief" should be similarly ranked; that is, we "believe" in proportion to the evidence--all the way from "completely unsubstantiated" to "some possibility" to "virtually certain." Compare, for example, the theory that leprechauns really do exist with the Germ Theory of Disease. Neither one is certain, but one is far closer to being certain than the other.

I stated that the principles of logic are "certain." This touches on a particularly important part of the faith vs. reason debate. Often, the advocate of faith will say, "But you can't prove the truth of logic, so you must have "faith" in it--just as I have faith in God." This critique of reason brings to mind the story of the child who keeps asking "why?" to every answer offered by the parent. Of course, this infinite regress of cause and effect cannot go on forever. To understand when to stop asking "why?" is to understand a begin to understand the nature of concepts. Concepts do not exist in a vacuum. With one class of exceptions, concepts derive their meaning from some immediately ancestral set of concepts and can retain their meaning only within that context. You hit "bedrock" when you reach the so-called axiomatic concepts, which are irreducible, primary facts of reality -- our "percepts." These percepts form the foundation upon which we build our concepts. How do you know when you've finally hit these primary facts of reality in the long string of why's? You know -- and this is critically important -- when there is no way to deny them, or even to question them, without presupposing that they are, in fact, true. To deny them or to even question whether they are true is to literally utter a contradiction.

This "bedrock" test is very specific. Let's illustrate it with an example. Suppose I say, "Logic is an arbitrary human invention and could be wrong." Well, if it is wrong, then the Law of Contradiction (a thing cannot be itself and its negation at the same time and in the same respect) and the related Law of Identity (a thing is itself) are wrong; but then that means the very words that make up my original claim, such as, "Logic is arbitrary" could mean "Logic is not arbitrary" or it could mean both at the same time and in the same respect. In fact, it could mean "I like chunky peanut butter." If all that sounds crazy and unintelligible, that is because it is, as are all utterances when the truth of logical principles cannot be assumed . The point here is that without the assumed truth of logic, language itself becomes impossible. So the contradiction is this: For my original statement to have any meaning at all, logic has to be true, but the content of my original statement questions that truth: a self-contradiction. Logic, then, is not accepted on "faith" but as a necessary, self-evident truth, something that is required to speak or think at all. The same can be shown for the concepts of existence, consciousness, and the reliability of our senses. Again, there is no way to talk about any of these things being possibly untrue without first requiring them (implicitly) to be necessarily true.

In life one is exposed to claim after claim (Aliens, Heaven's Gate, Pyramid Power, ESP, etc). What criteria do we apply in separating claims that correspond better with reality from others that do not? To use an earlier example, how do we decide that the Leprechaun theory should not be taken just as seriously as the Germ Theory of Disease? The answer is that we know by applying the standard of reason. If faith were a viable alternative to reason, then what are its rules? How do we know when to apply it? How do we know when someone has misapplied it? How can we tell the difference between the effects of faith and the effects of inadvertent, though well-meaning, self-delusion? Indeed, how can we test its validity?

Let's illustrate this problem. A member of Christian sect X believes that all other sects are damned, and she says that she knows this through faith. The person she is talking to is a member of sect Y that believes only sect Y is one true faith, and that all others are damned, including members of sect X--and, of course, she knows this through faith. Clearly they both cannot be right. The member of sect Y asks the member of sect X how she knows that she is not really just hearing the deceitful voice of Satan leading her down a false path. To that our sect X member confidently replies, "I know that through faith as well." Not surprisingly, these are the same answers given by the member of sect Y to exactly the same questions regarding her confidence in the truth of sect Y. There is no independently validated method to resolve this. If reason is not the standard, then there literally is no standard, and people who abandon it have simply written themselves a blank check to believe whatever they choose. Cloaking this irrationalism with comfortable terms like "faith" does not make it any less irratioal. As John A. T. Robinson once put it: "The only alternatives to thinking with reason are thinking unreasonably and not thinking." [3]

http://www.freethoughtdebater.com/reasonvfaith.htm

To further make more clear the study of faith and reason, we need to recall what Acquinas and Scotus taught.

Faith and Reason

We also need to recall what Locke taught about prior knowledge.

Faith is a special case (iv 16.14). At one point Locke defines it in terms of revelation from God.(5) Faith is "a settled and sure principle of assent and assurance, and leaves no manner of room for doubt or hesitation." But there is an irony in this apparently quite positive definition of faith. You can have such faith only if your assent is a response to testimony received from God himself, i.e., through revelation. God himself does not lie. For, in Locke's view, it is a self-evident truth that God, if He exists, is good (p. 667.25-26). And Locke believes that we can prove that God does exist (see iv 10).

The big question for Locke is this: how do we know that a testimony, which claims to be from God, is in fact from God? "Our assent can rationally be no higher than the evidence of its being a revelation, and that this is the meaning of the expressions it is delivered in" (iv 16.14). In other words, we have a duty to check the credentials of someone who or something which claims to bring a revelation from God and to ask how sure we are that we have the right interpretation of it.

Locke next defines reason and distinguishes it from faith: Reason, he says, is

the discovery of the certainty or probability of such propositions or truths which the mind arrives at by deductions [inferences] made from such ideas which it has got by use of its natural faculties, viz. by sensation and reflection (iv 18.2).
Thus reason is concerned with the three degrees of knowledge discussed earlier and the most probable kinds of judgments. In contrast to reason, faith is said to be assent to a proposition not on the basis of reason but on the authority of the proposer as coming from God in some extraordinary way. Such extraordinary communication is called revelation.

Revelation is of two types. Original revelation is "that first impression, which is made immediately by God, on the mind of any man." Traditional revelation is "those impressions delivered over to others in words and the ordinary ways of conveying our conceptions one to another" (iv 18.3). A prophet might hear God directly by original revelation but when he writes it down or tells another person, that's derivative, or traditional, revelation.

Derivative revelation is handicapped in a number of ways: The farther removed from its original source, the greater the danger that it has been corrupted in transmission. The more unfamiliar the language in which it is originally expressed, the greater the likelihood that it will be misinterpreted. Moreover, traditional revelation cannot communicate to us any simple idea which we have not already received through the senses. (Thus, if I have never experienced the color red or the taste salty, this idea cannot be revealed to me by traditional revelation; though it could by original revelation.) Nor can traditional revelation give us any new complex idea whose understanding relies upon simple ideas for which we lack experience (iv 18.3).

Now, some truths might be conveyed by revelation that could also be discovered by reason. If God so chose, He could directly reveal mathematical truths to us and these could then be conveyed from person to person by means of language. Yet we can never be as certain about truths received in this way as we could if we reasoned them out ourselves and had strict deductive proof for them. When we have such proof, we have no need for revelation.

Reason gives us more certainty than faith, Locke holds, and it should be given more weight than revelation when the self-evident claims of reason clash with statements that supposedly come from revelation. Locke thinks it is a psychological fact that "faith can never convince us of anything that contradicts our knowledge" (p. 692).

What things may be accepted on faith?

(i) Things about which reason is incompetent to decide ("things above reason") such as whether the dead shall be resurrected (iv 18.7);

(ii) Some things contrary to the probable conjectures of reason (iv 18.8).

http://www.sullivan-county.com/id2/locke_reason.htm

There are many ways we can learn how faith and reason promotes will power. The popular leaders can also provide us with knowledge to build greater will power.


INNER VISION
WILL POWER - HEAVENLY GIFT, EARTHLY TEST
by John Van Auken


Will, free will, is God's gift to us. In Deuteronomy 30 God states the Earthly situation for us: "I set before thee this day, life and death, blessing and curse, choose thou." It also says: "I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments...." Here is the solution to the dilemma of the two wills, ours and God's: God has set the correct way through his commandments, and we are to use our wills to obey them and love God. Today individual freedom and independent decision-making are the ideals. Obeying is not held in high regard. It's the American way. Yet, even the freedom and independence of the American way calls for lawfulness, moral appropriateness, and consideration for others; in other words, free will within the context of cooperation, decency, and order.

According to the Cayce readings, the Book of Job was written by the high priest Melchizedek, the King of Salem (King of Peace, predecessor to the Prince of Peace), as a guide to all incarnate souls concerning Earth life. The Book of Job presents Earth as a realm of testing, of meeting oneself (soul self) and one's karma, to see if we curse God, as Satan said we would, or seek out God's companionship to better understand why life is the way it is. In the end, Job did not curse God but sought Him out. The two grew to know each other, and all that Job had lost in the test was restored to him, a hundredfold.

This life is a test of our will. Set before us are all manner of opportunities and challenges. We are to choose the best course according to our heart's desire. And that is exactly why the test exists: to determine the true motivation of our hearts. Are we self-centered, self-gratifying, self-glorifying, or cooperative parts of the Whole, God, and all of the creation? Through our choices we reveal our hearts.

Now some appear to be living without making choices. They just roll with the circumstances of life. Whatever comes along, takes them along, with little thought as to the consequences. It is important to set an ideal, a standard by which we guide our decision making. Among the many directives given by Edgar Cayce's attunement to the Universal Consciousness, setting an ideal was number one. Allowing life to carry us in whatever direction it is flowing is not the way of a child of God, whose destiny is to be one with God as a co-creator and companion.

Even with an ideal, the choices are rarely as clear as good or evil. They are often ambiguous. Here the guiding principle for making a choice is love. Whichever choice brings more love to others and to our hearts is most likely the better choice. The greatest commandment, greater than all the laws and prophets, is to love God with all our being and others as ourselves.

Of course, there are laws and realities that can make the loving choice difficult or even impossible. For example, if Jesus so loved us, why did he go away? Wouldn't the more loving choice have been to follow Judas' way, to overthrow Rome, liberate Jerusalem, and raise all of us into paradise? From outward appearances it seemed so, but from inner truth it was not. As Jesus explained to Peter when he said those hard words, "Get thee behind me Satan," we often become stumbling blocks to ourselves and others, because we want to do things the way they appear best to man from a physical, material perspective. But we must learn to see life's decisions from a godly, spiritual perspective -- the way God sees them. This requires more than book knowledge, more than good intentions. It requires a conscious sense of God's guidance in our lives.

Despite the difficulties, getting in touch with God is key to realizing our full potential and purpose for existence. In order to be a companion, we have to have a relationship. To have a relationship, we have to have communication. Is communication with God the same as communication with others? Is God individual or universal? Is God finite or infinite? Obviously, communicating with a universal, infinite consciousness is not the same as communicating with an individual, finite one. This is evidenced by the way Edgar Cayce got his information. He subdued his individual, finite self and attuned himself to the universal, infinite consciousness, the mind of God. Through his efforts we've learned that we can all do this, and we all should do it. God still speaks to those who will listen. It is not a thing of the ancient past and the Old Testament.

Yet, many crimes have been committed in the name of God's guidance. This is why the laws and commandments were laid out for us, to give us a reference point from which to measure guidance. The ten commandments and the "love God and one another" precepts are the best touchstones by which to measure guidance. Jesus told us to judge by the fruits; evil fruits do not come from good sources. If the actions and thoughts resulting from our inner guidance make us better people, then it is of God and fits well with the commandments and laws.

Jesus left because that was best for all of us. As he said, "I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am there you may be also. But I will not leave you comfort-less. I will send the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, and he shall guide you in all things." How many of us seek this Spirit of Truth and its comfort and guidance? And of those who have sought it, how many have returned to continue to develop the relationship and to improve the communication?

It's a matter of will; choosing to do so. In the midst of all of life's activities and options, it takes will power to budget time each day to attune oneself to the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter, the Guide within -- God, our spiritual parent, who loves us and seeks our companionship. What is it that keeps us from seeking God's companionship in our lives? Self. Self's constant interest in its own things, its own ideas, its own desires. The only power capable of changing this is self's will. Using self's will to subdue self's will in order to attune to God's will is the great way to heavenly consciousness and eternal life.

Set before us is a whole day of our own activities or a budgeted time in which we use our will to attune ourselves to God's spirit and will. Choose. The curse God spoke of in Deuteronomy is life with only self's perspective. The blessing is life in cooperation with God's guidance, love, and companionship. As Elihu said to Job, "God speaks to us." Are we making time to hear? Dreams and deep meditation are two channels for hearing God.

http://edgarcayce.org/ps2/innervision_will_power_J_Van_Auken.html

How To Know God: The Soul's Journey Into The Mystery of Mysteries by Deepak Chopra M.D.

From Chapter One: A Real and Useful God

God has managed the amazing feat of being worshiped and invisible at the same time. Millions of people would describe him as a white-bearded father figure sitting on a throne in the sky, but none could claim to be an eyewitness. Although it doesn't seem possible to offer a single fact about the Almighty that would hold up in a court of law, somehow the vast majority of people believe in God -- as many as 96 percent, according to some polls. This reveals a huge gap between belief and what we call everyday reality. We need to heal this gap.

What would the facts be like if we had them? They would be as follows. Everything that we experience as material reality is born in an invisible realm beyond space and time, a realm revealed by science to consist of energy and information. This invisible source of all that exists is not an empty void but the womb of creation itself. Something creates and organizes this energy. It turns the chaos of quantum soup into stars, galaxies, rain forests, human beings, and our own thoughts, emotions, memories, and desires. In the pages that lie ahead we will see that it is not only possible to know this source of existence on an abstract level but to become intimate and at one with it. When this happens, our horizons open to new realities. We will have the experience of God.

After centuries of knowing God through faith, we are now ready to understand divine intelligence directly. In many ways this new knowledge reinforces what spiritual traditions have already promised. God is invisible and yet performs all miracles. He is the source of every impulse of love. Beauty and truth are both children of this God. In the absence of knowing the infinite source of energy and creativity, life's miseries come into being. Getting close to God through a true knowing heals the fear of death, confirms the existence of the soul, and gives ultimate meaning to life.

Our whole notion of reality has actually been topsy-turvy. Instead of God being a vast, imaginary projection, he turns out to be the only thing that is real, and the whole universe, despite its immensity and solidity, is a projection of God's nature. Those astonishing events we call miracles give us clues to the workings of this ineffable intelligence. Consider the following story:

In 1924 an old French villager is walking home. With one eye lost in the Great War and the other severely damaged by mustard gas in the trenches, he can barely see. The setting sun is bright, so the old man is completely unaware of the two youths on bicycles who have wheeled around the corner and are barreling down on him.

At the moment of impact an angel appears. He takes the lead bicycle by its two wheels, lifts it a few feet in the air, and sets it down safely on the grass beside the road. The second bicycle stops short, and the youths become tremendously excited. "There are two! There are two!" one of them shouts, meaning that instead of just the old man alone, two figures are standing in the road. The entire village becomes very worked up, claiming afterward that the youths were drunk or else have made up this fantastic tale. As for the old man, when he is asked about it, he says he doesn't understand the question.

Could we ever come to an answer ourselves? As it happens, the old man was a priest, Pere Jean Lamy, and the appearance of the angel has come down to us through his own testimony before his death. Lamy, who was saintly and beloved, seems to be credited with many instances where God sent angels or other forms of divine aid. Although reluctant to talk about them, his attitude was matter-of-fact and modest. Because of Lamy's religious vocation, it is easy to dismiss this incident as a story for the devout. Skeptics would not be moved.

Yet I am fascinated simply by whether it could have happened, whether we can open the door and allow helpful angels into our reality, along with miracles, visions, prophecy, and ultimately that great outsider, God himself.

We all know that a person can learn about life without religion. If I took a hundred newborn babies and filmed every moment of their lives from beginning to end, it wouldn't be possible to predict that the believers in God will turn out to be happier, wiser, or more successful than the nonbelievers. Yet the video camera cannot record what is happening below the surface. Someone who has experienced God may be looking on the entire world with wonder and joy. Is this experience real? Is it useful to our lives or just a subjective event, full of meaning to the person having it but otherwise no more practical than a dream?

One bald fact stands at the beginning of any search for God. He leaves no footprints in the material world. From the very beginning of religion in the West, it was obvious that God had some kind of presence, known in Hebrew as Shekhinah. Sometimes this word is simply translated as "light" or radiance. Shekhinah formed the halos around angels and the luminous joy in the face of a saint. It was feminine, even though God, as interpreted in the Judeo-Christian tradition, is masculine. The significant fact about Shekhinah was not its gender, however. Since God is infinite, calling the deity He or She is just a human convention. Much more important was the notion that if God has a presence, that means he can be experienced. He can be known. This is a huge point, because in every other way God is understood to be invisible and untouchable. And unless some small part of God touches the material world, he will remain inaccessible forever.

http://www.bookbrowse.com/index.cfm?page=title&titleID=296&view=excerpt

The Story of Mary the Mother of God
Her name was Mary, a form of the name Miriam, the famous sister of Moses. The name was common among Jewish women in those days.

A well-known tradition says she was born in Jerusalem, the daughter of Joachim and Ann. Other early sources say Mary was born in Nazareth. There is even an ancient record that points to Sepphoris, a town a few miles from Nazareth, as her birthplace.

Wherever she was born, Mary's life most likely unfolded in the staunch Jewish settlement of Nazareth in the hills of Galilee, not far from the important caravan routes linking Egypt and Mesopotamia.

The Jews there were a strong, robust people. The hill climate was dry and healthful. And though the land often lacked water and no one knew from one year to the next if enough rain would fall or if invading locusts or field mice would spoil the crops -- still, facing uncertainty only made the people of Galilee more hard-working and close-knit. Struggling for a living deepened their religious spirit. They learned you must depend on God always.


Her Daily Life
Mary was a woman of rural Galilee. She lived as they did, in a small family house of stone and mud-brick. She worked like any young girl, grinding wheat and barley into flour, preparing dishes of beans, vegetables, eggs, fruits, nuts, and occasional chunks of mutton. Wool had to be made into clothing. Bread had to be baked. A few chickens and a donkey had to be fed. And in the village, small as it was, there were always little children to care for.

Almost daily she carried a large jar of water from the town well for washing and cooking (the well still supplies modern Nazareth today and is called "Mary's Well"). Early on, the Jews found that cleanliness prevented disease, so frequent washing -- an important chore of women -- became part of their religious practice. The well also was a favorite spot where women talked and traded bits of everyday news.

Just as for the other women of Nazareth, the seasons and times of harvest determined what Mary had to do. With the first downpour of rain in October, the vital wheat crop was sown on the mountain fields, to be gathered -- if all went well -- in May. Small dark olives, knocked from dull green trees in September, had to be pressed into oil for lamps and food. In May or June, early figs were picked; in July, the softer juicy fruit. Grapes and pomegranates ripened in September and October. God blessed the hills of Galilee with his bounty, but it could never be taken for granted. The unpredictable land could just as well give nothing to those working it.

From the people of Nazareth Mary learned about life. Few strangers visited the town. It had little wealth, culture or learning. But just as a tiny drop of water contains a wealth of living organisms, so the small town of Nazareth had a rich life of its own. Children were born, young people married, someone died and was buried. Mary felt these joys and sorrows. A sheep was lost, a family quarreled, a son left home. From such small things, life's deepest lessons could be learned.


Her Rich Faith
The people of Nazareth had a strong Jewish faith. As God's chosen people, descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Jews believed this land was theirs, given to their ancestors whom Moses led out of Egypt. They knew by heart the deeds of kings like David and Solomon and the words of prophets like Isaiah and Elijah. Even though the Romans, with Herod's family as their puppets, now occupied Palestine, the Jews of Galilee believed God would someday send a Messiah who would free Israel from her enemies.

They lived in a war-torn land. For centuries before the Roman occupation, conquering armies of Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians and Greeks fought over Palestine. Despite their wars, revolts and riots, the Jews remained a subject people -- taxed, bullied and despised by succeeding rulers. Like their compatriots, the Jews of Nazareth were never far from the dangers of political violence. During the Jewish uprisings in Galilee around 6 A.D. -- when Jesus was a child -- Roman legions captured the city of Sepphoris, sold all its inhabitants into slavery and burned the city to the ground.

For some Jews, foreign domination only fanned the fires of revolution more brightly in their hearts. Others, like the Pharisees, became more strictly conservative and exclusive in their religious practices. Still others, like Mary and many ordinary people of the land, became more and more aware that they were powerless themselves, but God, the all powerful, could raise up the lowly. Their faith was of the deepest kind:


"The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
Blessed be the Lord.
The Lord our God, the Lord alone!
Therefore you shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart, and with all your soul
and with all your strength." (Deut. 6:4-5)
Mary's faith was strong. Yet, in fervently religious Nazareth with its high moral standards, she hardly stood out at all, even in the eyes of those who knew her best. Besides, as a woman living in a society where men counted most, she would be little noticed except as a mother and a wife.

When she was 15 or so, Mary's parents made plans for her to be married, as was customary in those days. They chose Joseph of Nazareth, a carpenter, for her husband. The engagement took place and Mary returned home to wait about a year before she would go to live with her husband as his wife. But then, something happened:


The Annunciation

"The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. He went in and said to her, 'Rejoice, so highly favored! The Lord is with you.'
"She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, 'Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God's favor. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a Son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob forever and his reign will have no end.'

"Mary said to the angel, 'How can this come about, since I am a virgin?'

"'The Holy Spirit will come upon you,' the angel answered, 'and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God.'

"'I am the handmaid of the Lord,' said Mary. 'Let what you have said be done to me.'

"And the angel left her." (Luke 1:26-38)

The Gospels, compiled years after these events at Nazareth, tell the story of Jesus and recall Mary only incidentally. True, St. Luke's account sees Mary favored by God, the Lord's handmaid, a model believer. His story describes her fear and perplexity, her faith and acceptance during the angel's visit. But still, we are left to ourselves to imagine Mary's life and her experience when the angel left her.

The angel's message struck like lightning, changing everthing for her. Immense joy filled the young girl's soul when she conceived the child by the power of the Holy Spirit. But when the angel left, Mary was alone.


Living With Mystery
Nazareth certainly was unaware of the angel's visit. That day and the days afterward, men tended the fields, the aroma of fresh bread filled the village air, women talked around the well. The Word of God was made flesh, but the people of Nazareth saw nothing changed. In their eyes, Mary was still a young girl of 16, espoused to Joseph the carpenter.

Once the angel left, Mary faced some troubling questions with only faith to guide her. What about her marriage to Joseph? Since she was bearing a child that was not his, Mary had to face the anguishing prospect of divorce and the shame it could bring down upon her in a small town that frowned on an unfaithful wife. Even though he had a high regard for her, how could she explain to Joseph the mysterious act of God and an angel no one else saw?

The threat was removed when the angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and said: "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a Son and you must name him Jesus."

When Joseph woke, he took Mary as his wife to his home. Together they would do what God would have them do.


Mary Visits Her Cousin
Three months after the angel's annunciation, Mary visited her relative Elizabeth, the elderly wife of Zachary who served as a priest in the temple at Jerusalem. Mary had been told that this couple advanced in age was to have a child, too, "for nothing is impossible with God."


"Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into Zachary's house and greeted Elizabeth.
"Now when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said,

'Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honored with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leaped for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.'" (Luke 1:39-45)

Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then went back home. Finally, six months later, her own Son was born.

For the rest of the story see:
http://www.cptryon.org/compassion/mary/mother.html
for pictures, maps, woodcuts and paintings.

Being and Essense and Body and Mind

Considering the human being's essences, man looks at what he knows through experience, knowledge and what he is born with inside his body. Although being and essences does not require a body according to what God has revealed to man, few have experienced the after life long enough to tell us much about all that the eternal life entails to be a great body of knowledge from which we can draw upon to explain the mysteries of the mind body connection that philosophers have written about from the beginning of recorded history.

In order for man to best enjoy all the good things that our Lord has provided for us, human beings have sought a way to pass on their wisdom to others, so that they may learn more about God's wonderful creation and his plan for our salvation. We know that human beings were created in the image of God and that we have a body and mind that cannot be separated in physical reality and that the soul is that which gives life to the body. The mind is an aspect of our spiritual essence that lives forever and is also called our immortal soul. Therefore our Lord taught us that we should love God with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul and all our strength. We should also love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

It is possible for everyone to obtain the reward of heaven. The knowledge of God's gifts to us is without limit. His grace endures forever and everyone can receive it. When we receive God's love, we are transformed through it. God loves everyone and yet not all are worthy of salvation that is why our Lord came to earth to save us from our sins. Human beings have the gift of free will. Everyone can love God and do his will or reject his love. Those who love God will receive sufficient grace to be able to obtain the reward of eternal life with him in heaven.

It seems that everyone wants to be happy and to enjoy living the good life, yet the only way anyone is going to obtain it is by first knowing what is good and what is evil. God has taught us what is right and what is wrong and all we have to do is to love God to enjoy the good life and receive heaven.

From the beginning, human beings have gone off in different directions to find a better place to live. They have learned how to tell their families where they wanted to live and what they wanted to do during their life.

From the desires to enjoy happiness, man has created society, community and cultures that have developed various laws, educational systems, politics, philosophies, economics, social, scientific and technological aspects of the good life. There are many other outgrowths of the human aspects of the body, mind and soul that we have learned about through education and personal experience. These are the extensions of the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of human life on earth.

In order to have a healthy body we need to ask ourselves "What do I need to do to be healthy?"

Health is concerned with the total human being and a person's environment. That is why we have all those aspects of the human experience to help us become healthy, holy and wise!

You Were Made In The Image Of God
God tells us that he made human beings in his image. We have potentially unlimited aspects like a holographic image. Our body is also a mind, a soul, a spirit, and a child of God.

We all have a personality, an ego, goals, motivations, passions, likes and dislikes. Yet the thing that most makes us like unto God is our goodness.

These are our strengths that are called virtues because they help us be more like our Lord who prayed that we all be one with him and God our Father.

He became man, lived, died for our sins and rose from the dead to show the world that he is God. He sent the Holy Spirit to guide us to eternal life with him, and to bless us with his gifts to transform the world to a place of joy, peace, love and goodness.

The Bible tells us how much God loves us and how to enjoy the good life. The church continues the work of our Lord to bring all people to him.

Through the virtue of knowledge we obtain understanding and through understanding wisdom. With wisdom we can be prudent, and through prudence we can have counsel, justice, fortitude and reverence.
Four virtues play a pivotal role and accordingly are called "cardinal"; all the others are grouped around them. They are: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.

The three theological virtues are: faith, hope and charity. The human virtues are rooted in the theological virtues, which adapt man's faculties for participation in the divine nature: for the theological virtues relate directly to God. They dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity.

Human virtues are firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct according to reason and faith. They make possible ease, self-mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life. The virtuous man is he who freely practices the good.

The theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity inform and give life to the moral virtues. Thus charity leads us to render to God what we as creatures owe him in all justice. The virtue of religion disposes us to have this attitude.

1841 There are three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity. They inform all the moral virtues and give life to them.
1842 By faith, we believe in God and believe all that he has revealed to us and that Holy Church proposes for our belief.
1843 By hope we desire, and with steadfast trust await from God, eternal life and the graces to merit it.

1844 By charity, we love God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves for love of God. Charity, the form of all the virtues, "binds everything together in perfect harmony" (Col 3:14).
1845 The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon Christians are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.

Human virtues acquired by education, by deliberate acts and by a perseverance ever-renewed in repeated efforts are purified and elevated by divine grace. With God's help, they forge character and give facility in the practice of the good. The virtuous man is happy to practice them.

It is not easy for man, wounded by sin, to maintain moral balance. Christ's gift of salvation offers us the grace necessary to persevere in the pursuit of the virtues. Everyone should always ask for this grace of light and strength, frequent the sacraments, cooperate with the Holy Spirit, and follow his calls to love what is good and shun evil.

The theological virtues are the foundation of Christian moral activity; they animate it and give it its special character. They inform and give life to all the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life. They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being.

The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: "charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity."

Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us. But grace also includes the gifts that the Spirit grants us to associate us with his work, to enable us to collaborate in the salvation of others and in the growth of the Body of Christ, the Church. There are sacramental graces, gifts proper to the different sacraments. There are furthermore special graces, also called charisms after the Greek term used by St. Paul and meaning "favor," "gratuitous gift," "benefit." Whatever their character - sometimes it is extraordinary, such as the gift of miracles or of tongues - charisms are oriented toward sanctifying grace and are intended for the common good of the Church. They are at the service of charity which builds up the Church.

Among the special graces ought to be mentioned the graces of state that accompany the exercise of the responsibilities of the Christian life and of the ministries within the Church:

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, in liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.55

2005 Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes our experience and cannot be known except by faith. We cannot therefore rely on our feelings or our works to conclude that we are justified and saved.56 However, according to the Lord's words "Thus you will know them by their fruits"57 - reflection on God's blessings in our life and in the lives of the saints offers us a guarantee that grace is at work in us and spurs us on to an ever greater faith and an attitude of trustful poverty.

A pleasing illustration of this attitude is found in the reply of St. Joan of Arc to a question posed as a trap by her ecclesiastical judges: "Asked if she knew that she was in God's grace, she replied: 'If I am not, may it please God to put me in it; if I am, may it please God to keep me there.'"58

All Of Creation Is Moving Light
Introduction to Sacred Geometry

Sacred Geometry is the blueprint of Creation and the genesis of all form. It is an ancient science that explores and explains the energy patterns that create and unify all things and reveals the precise way that the energy of Creation organizes itself. On every scale, every natural pattern of growth or movement conforms inevitably to one or more geometric shapes.

As you enter the world of Sacred Geometry you begin to see as never before the wonderfully patterned beauty of Creation. The molecules of our DNA, the cornea of our eye, snow flakes, pine cones, flower petals, diamond crystals, the branching of trees, a nautilus shell, the star we spin around, the galaxy we spiral within, the air we breathe, and all life forms as we know them emerge out of timeless geometric codes. Viewing and contemplating these codes allow us to gaze directly at the lines on the face of deep wisdom and offers up a glimpse into the inner workings of the Universal Mind and the Universe itself.

The ancients believed that the experience of Sacred Geometry was essential to the education of the soul. They knew that these patterns and codes were symbolic of our own inner realm and the subtle structure of awareness. To them the "sacred" had particular significance involving consciousness and the profound mystery of awareness ..... the ultimate sacred wonder. Sacred Geometry takes on another whole level of significance when grounded in the experience of self-awareness.

The gift of lightSource is that it actually allows you to experience that essential self within the designs of pure Source energy. As the blueprints literally come to life before your eyes, you are propelled into ecstatic play with the very the heart of Creation.

The Platonic Solids

As far back as Greek Mystery schools 2500 years ago, we as a species were taught that there are five perfect 3-dimensional forms -The tetrahedron, hexahedron, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron. Collectively these are known as The Platonic Solids -- and are the foundation of everything in the physical world. Modern scholars ridiculed this idea until the 1980's, when Professor Robert Moon at the University of Chicago demonstrated that the entire Periodic Table of Elements -- literally everything in the physical world -- is based on these same five forms! In fact, throughout modern Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, the sacred geometric patterns of creation are being rediscovered, but often without the greater context of spiritual understanding which protects against their misuse. One of our intentions with lightSource, is to provide a bridge to an intuitive spiritual understanding that is in alignment with the appropriate use of this knowledge.

The Elements of lightSource

Geometric shapes actually represent the manifest stages of 'becoming'. To see and work with unity and wholeness in geometry can help abolish our false notion of separateness from nature and from each other. Through Sacred Geometry we can discover the inherent proportion, balance and harmony that exists in any situation, all manifest reality and even the circumstances of our day-to-day life.

It was Marcel Proust who said, " The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes." To that end, lightSource Vol.1 visually offers up thirteen of the world's most auspicious and elementally powerful geometric designs brought to life through technological artistry and revealing the inherent magic and order at play in the universe.

The Energy in Action

Leonardo Fibonacci was an Italian mathematician who introduced to Europe and popularized the Hindu-Arabic number system (also called the decimal system). He contributed greatly to number theory, and during his life published many important texts. He is also known for the Fibonacci Series, a numerical series found frequently in the natural world.

The Fibonacci sequence is generated by adding the previous two numbers in the list together to form the next and so on and so on.(1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55...). Divide any number in the Fibonacci sequence by the one before it, for example 55/34, or 21/13, and the answer is always close to 1.61803. This is known as the Golden Ratio.

One of the most profound and significant activities encompassed within sacred geometry and lightSource is the 'Golden Mean Spiral', derived by using the 'Golden Ratio'.

The Golden Mean was used in the design of sacred buildings in ancient architecture to produce spiritual energy that facilitated connectivity with spiritual realms through prayer.Our reality is very structured, and indeed Life is even more structured.

This is reflected though Nature in the form of geometry. Geometry is the very basis of our reality, and hence we live in a coherent world governed by unseen laws. These are always manifested in our world. The Golden Mean governs the proportion of our world and it can be found even in the most seemingly proportion-less (active) living forms.

Clear examples of Sacred Geometry (and Golden Mean geometry) in Nature and matter:

All types of crystals, natural and cultured.

The hexagonal geometry of snowflakes.

Creatures exhibiting logarithmic spiral patterns: e.g. snails and various shell fish.

Birds and flying insects, exhibiting clear Golden Mean proportions in bodies & wings.

The way in which lightning forms branches.

The way in which rivers branch.

The geometric molecular and atomic patterns that all solid metals exhibit.

The way in which a tree spans out so that all its branches receive sunlight

Another, perhaps less obvious but most significant example of this special ratio can be found in Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) - the foundation and guiding mechanism of all living organisms.

The understanding of geometry as an underlying part of our existence is nothing new, and in fact the Golden Mean and other forms of geometry can be seen imbedded in many of the ancient monuments that still exist today. The Great Pyramid (the oldest of these structures) at Giza is a good example of this. The height of this pyramid is in Phi ratio (e.g. the Golden Mean Ratio) to its base. In fact, the geometry in this particular structure is far more accurate than that found in any of today's modern buildings.

This explains why popular among spiritually significant shapes are pyramids and hemispheres (e.g. the domes, that are the basis of religious buildings, be it a mosque, a church or a synagogue). These particular shapes are energy emitters; they are shapes that produce a type of penetrating carrier wave which Chaumery and De Belizal named negative green (which acts as carrier-like radio waves that carry sound information). The vibrational quality of the Golden Mean gives it very strong communication properties, which facilitate resonance with higher realms in prayer.

We live in the 3rd dimension, or the 'Plane of Manifestation'. The Golden Mean is an intra-dimensional doorway though which matter emerges into manifest 3-D reality. For example, when a star is born it follows specific number sequences or universal rules, the same rules of life in the expansion process. Then we see the light!



Thus the Golden Mean is the "fingerprint" of creation. When we re-create this moving and always expanding sequence, we have in effect - 'the exact movement of creation in the expansion process'. When lightSource is playing, one is encountering and literally being bathed in this 'Golden Ratio' creation activity...undeniably one of the most harmonious, balancing experiences one can interact with.

The Magic of Geometry

Bio-Geometry is a science that deals with the effect of geometrical shapes on life functions and the design of shapes that interact with earth's energy fields, to produce special pre-calculated effects on biological systems.

It was developed by Dr lbraham F. Karim D.Sc. in Cairo, Egypt, who has been conducting research in these disciplines since 1968. The tools necessary for the measurement of the energy of geometrical shapes are based on the science of Microvibrational Physics, or Physical Radiesthesia, as it was named by the French radiesthesists, Chaumery and De Belizal around the years 1930-1940, (and later developed by Dr. Karim).

Research in Bio-Geometry was, and still is, mainly dedicated to the development of a new form of architecture that would enhance the human biological system and give a new meaning to the concept of Home.

To upgrade the energy quality of existing homes so as to cancel the potentially harmful effects of unchecked energy fields due to the architectural design, furniture layout, electrical wiring and modem appliances, specially designed decorative elements are strategically placed to neutralize negative energy and add a positive quality to it.

Bio-Geometrical shapes, when designed or engraved on jewelry, have shown positive effects on the body's energy field, and reduce the potential health hazards caused by cellular phones, computers and other modern appliances.

In many ways the science and metaphysical discipline of Bio-Geometry provides one of the underpinnings to support what many know today as Feng Shui.


Higher Harmonics Within The Golden Mean: The Magic of Geometry and Color
Particular shapes are energy emitters; they are shapes that produce a type of penetrating carrier wave which Chaumery and De Belizal named 'negative green', which acts as carrier-like radio waves that carry sound information. The vibrational quality of the negative green gives it very strong communication properties, which facilitate resonance with higher realms in prayer. This explains why popular among spiritually significant shapes are pyramids and hemispheres (e.g. the domes, that are the basis of religious buildings, be it a mosque, a church or a synagogue).

A revival of the ancient design criteria, or canons, in moderm architecture was attempted by the Swiss pioneer of the modem architecture Le Corbusier, with his "modular" system which comprised two scales of dimensions based on the Golden Ratio. The Russian researcher, Scariatin, who wrote under the pseudonym of Enel and published his first books on radiesthesia in Egypt in the forties, was the first to discover that one aspect of the negative green vibrational quality was an integral part of spiritual energy fields and increased with the spiritual evolution of the person.

Inspired by Scariatin's work, Dr. lbraham F. Karim has done extensive research and found that Bio-Geometrical shapes have three primary vibrational qualities: (1) negative green, (2) a higher harmonic of ultra-violet, and (3) a higher harmonic of gold. Only shapes which produce energy fields with all three components are Bio-Geometrical.

lightSource produces and emits all three components: negative green, a higher harmonic of ultra-violet, and a higher harmonic of gold.

http://www.spiraloflight.com/ls_sacred.html

TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE (TCM): Cancer Treatment
As Chinese medicine becomes more available as a system accessible to the general public, more and more people suffering with cancer are coming to utilize the rejuvenating effects of the Chinese herbal, acumoxa, dietary and qigong therapies to prolong life and aid in their recovery from this powerful illness. Although Chinese medicine has evolved primary treatments for the treatment of cancer, in this country there are still legal problems with this approach, and most western cancer patients at this time will choose to combine biomedical treatment with alternative therapies.

Although a limited number of successes have been recorded with biomedical treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, time and research have shown limitations to success, and the search for better treatments and cures continues. Many forms of cancer, although proven to be unresponsive to chemotherapy, continue to be treated by this method.

Often chemotherapy, surgery and radiation will cause damage to healthy as well as to diseased tissues, and weaken the immune system. This is where Chinese medicine can be very helpful.

The concept of "side effects" is not recognized as such in Chinese medicine. The toxic effects of certain medicines is recognized according to degree, and if it is necessary to use a 'toxic' substance medicinally, it will be prepared in a special manner or combined with other medicines to reduce or eliminate toxicity if possible. For example, fu zi/rx. aconiti is considered toxic, but it has a very strong medicinal power to mobilize and rescue yang qi to the spleen and kidney. It is usually combined in Chinese herbal prescriptions with sheng jiang/rx. zingiberis and gan cao/rx. glycyrhhizae to neutralize the toxic effect. Sometimes the principle of du yao gong xie/use toxin to attack pathogenic evil is used clinically; we can look at the modern use of chemotherapy according to this principle, if not in the degree of its clinical application in biomedicine. In Chinese medicine, it is considered unthinkable to damage the host or the zheng qi/correct qi in any clinical intervention.

Chinese herbal medicine treats the use of most chemotherapeutic agents and radiation as "heat toxins" that damage the yin and qi. However, such chemotherapy drugs as cisplatin lower sperm counts (weaken jing/essence), cause stomatitis (heart fire), diarrhea (damage to spleen qi), hearing loss, and leukopenia. In Chinese medical analysis, cisplatin will kill fast-growing cells, such as mucosa and intestinal lining as well as cancer cells, weaken kidney jing and yang, weaken spleen yang, aggravate heart fire all at the same time .

This shows the extreme effects of toxic substances on the body, which can cause damage to yin, yang, qi and blood, and cause extreme hot and cold reactions concurrently. In Chinese cancer hospitals, the use of chemotherapy and radiation are often combined with the use of herbal medicine to protect the body/mind from damage as much as possible. Dosages of chemotherapeutic drugs also tends to be lower than in western countries. In my opinion, it makes clinical sense to use the least toxic dose possible of anti- cancer drugs, radiation or surgery given concurrently with herbal prescriptions to protect the body and zheng qi/correct qi from damage. This may help relieve discomfort and suffering to the patient, and also minimize the suppression of immune function. This is a realistic expectation, considering the more lengthy goal of using Chinese herbs, diet, qigong and acumoxatherapy more extensively in cancer therapy in the west..

Presently, a practitioner of Chinese medicine may be asked to do the job of a "mop-up crew", cleaning up the side-effects of excessive drug treatment. In filling this demand, however, we can do much good. At the same time, this effort should not compromise us in seeing the shortcomings of this type of therapy.

In Chinese medicine, the optimum functioning of spleen/stomach qi is considered critical to life. According to the classics, when spleen/stomach qi is damaged or in decline, a patient's life and health are in danger. Chemotherapy drugs often will damage the lining of the stomach and intestines, leading to symptoms of nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, and a burning sensation. The toxins produced by cancer cells will often weaken the spleen/stomach qi as well. Chinese adjunctive cancer therapy includes supporting the spleen/stomach qi and its function of digestion and assimilation. Formulas such as shen ling bai zhu tang/ Ginseng, Poria and Atractylodes Decoction and liu jun zi tang/Six Gentlemen Decoction are ideal for this purpose, containing herbs to strengthen the spleen/stomach such as Ren Shen/Ginseng and Bai Zhu/Atractylodes, as well as herbs to clear phlegm and damp such as Ban Xia/Pinellia and Chen Pi/Citrus Peel. These formulas could be either supplemented or replaced by Yin tonics in cases of extreme heat and/or dryness of the Stomach, which would be aggravated by this formula if used alone. However, many types of cancer show accumulation of phlegm and damp, and Six Gentlemen Decoction will be efficacious in these cases.

Supplementing the yin is also very important for many patients receiving conventional cancer treatment. the fire and toxin created by both radiation and most chemotherapeutic drugs, wastes the yin, leading to dry mouth, thirst, mouth sores, constipation and scanty, dark urination. The pulse may be rapid and thready, the tongue red, dry and cracked. The shen may also be disturbed by the heat buildup in the chest. Aggressive treatment over time can often disturb the kidney and heart/shao yin aspect, leading to insomnia, restlessness, disorientation, sterility, lower back pain, and palpatation. Formulas such as liu wei di huang wan/Rehmannia Six Flavor Pill, tian wang bu xin dan/Celestial Emperor's Heart Supplementing Pill, and zhi bai di huang wan/Anemerrhena, Phellodendron and Rehmannia Six Flavor Pill are very useful in these cases. When there are signs of lung and stomach yin vacuity, including stomach pain and burning, dry mouth, dry cough, dry skin, a peeled red tongue with scanty yellow coat, and a thin, thready, rapid pulse, sha shen mai dong yin/Glehnia and Ophiopogonis Cool Decoction is a choice formula.

Finally, yi guan jian/Linking Decoction is very useful for liver and kidney yin vacuity with liver qi depression, a common pattern encountered with cancer patients.

It is important to support the zheng qi/correct qi to defend the body against the various forms of cancer, which can only thrive in a disordered body and mind. The weakening of zheng qi/correct qi by stress, environmental toxins, dietary and lifestyle indiscretions can take its toll, allowing cancer to proliferate, and even pass on a constitutional predisposition to the disease. The medicinal mushrooms are all very effective for strenghtening and repairing body/mind intelligence and immune function. Both xiang gu/lentinus (shitake) and ling zhi/ganorderma (reishi) mushrooms have been shown to have strong anti-tumor effects in recent studies, and are powerful strengthening agents to the zheng qi . In the Shen Nung P'en Tsao/Divine Husbandman's Materia Medica, ling zhi is considered to be a "superior" herb, with strong supplementing properties to all of the yin viscera. In recent Chinese studies, it was also shown to be valuable in reducing the damaging effects to blood and yin from chemotherapy. Cordyceps/dong chong xia cao is another medicinal fungi from the Chinese pharmacoepia used to aid in recovery from a severe illness, and especially strengthens immune function.

Huang qi/astragalus is one of Chinese medicine's supreme qi supplementers, and has been shown to be the most effective herb to restore damaged immune systems. It is presently used routinely in oncology departments of Chinese hospitals. In a joint study between a Texas pharmaceutical company and a hospital in Beijing, it was found that astragalus was most effective when combined with nu zhen zi/ligustrum, another yin supplementing herb for the liver and kidney, which has been shown in modern studies to have a strong immune strengthening effect. Astragalus is a major component with ren shen/ginseng (also shown to have anti-tumor and immune- enhancement effects) in bu zhong yi qi tang/Supplement the Middle and Augment the Qi Decoction, a major yang and qi supplementing formula.

Many of the chemotherapy anti-cancer agents were discovered in the plant world. Today, massive searches and clinical trials are sponsored in the rain forests and wilderness regions around the world for new cancer cures. At the present time, clinical trials and research are being sponsored by pharmaceutical companies on Chinese herbs that have anti-cancer properties. Vincristine and vinblastine, taken from madadasgar periwinkle, were discovered by the Lilly drug company during clinical trials done on so-called "folk treatments" used in different cultures for cancer treatment. However, it may be that the vast herbal pharmacopia may be best utilized in the traditional method of polypharmacy, where many ingredients are combined to reduce and eliminate side effects while balancing all the systems of the body.

To conclude, Chinese herbal medicine is the therapy of choice in treating the side-effects of Western oncological treatments, and is proven in its effectiveness. However, we should not ignore the tremendous potential of Chinese medicine in the treatment of cancer as a major therapy in its own right.

http://www.china-rmb.com/china-english/tcm/TCM-summary.htm

HOW TO LIVE THE GOOD LIFE

HOW TO LIVE THE GOOD LIFE
Every day and in every way become better, better and better. Learn to love life and everything that God created so that you see everything becoming fulfilled. It is only by being a child of God that you will become fulfilled.

Life is about knowing what to do and then doing it. The Bible is the best written source for you to know every day the Priest starts the 6 AM prayers by saying "You can not love God and Mthe truth and be set free of human errors. You will not find happiness if you seek fame or fortune, or gold or glory.

In Saint Andrew's Seminary ammon. Either you will love one and despise the other, or you will take one to your heart and neglect the other!"

The heart of prayer is to be yourself when you talk to God. You do not have to say anything when you pray. Just center yourself and give praise to God for being alive. You do not have to do anything when you pray. You are human beings not human doers.

If you think you really know something, you are wrong because knowledge is incomplete. The greatest minds once thought that their knowledge was complete, but they thought that the world was flat, and that the earth was the center of the world.

Even Einstein thought that he could figure out the mind of God; but then he said that his greatest discovery had been his greatest blunder, however even this is being revived with the understanding of dark matter and dark energy.

Many say that Socrates was the wisest man because he knew that he did not know anything. The Greeks taught that the most important thing to know is to know yourself, but not many of them knew of the Jewish religion early in their civilization.

Today most of the world has heard of school and yet still most do not have an education. The goal of education is to teach an individual how to learn how to learn. Yet we all know that we need to know the right things to know to be truly successful human beings.

There have been many groups that thought they knew what was best for us to know. No matter what they where called, all of them fail if the student does not learn about the true way of life. Teaching, books, media, and culture all have a place in our learning. However, no one can tell another that this is what you need to know to be perfect, fulfilled, self realized, or successful.

The Buddhist answer to the question, "What should you do, if you meet a perfect teacher? You should kill him." is too harsh for some to imagine, yet our Lord sent us the Holy Spirit to guide us to eternal life.

The key is to always seek goodness; and all those good things that our Lord has done will become ours besides all the good things that the world has to offer, for that is what God has promised to us all, who listen to his word and seek the Holy Spirit to guide us to eternal life!