Here I am going to paraphrase or quote some statements from THE UNOBSTRUCTED UNIVERSE which interested me. I particularly want to pass on the passage about prayer because prayer has been discussed in my Weblog and will be discussed more in the future. I described the book in my previous post. Betty is the deceased wife of the author, purportedly speaking through a medium.
The obstructed universe compared to the unobstructed universe is like a black and white photograph compared to a color photograph of the same scene.
“The only reason,” Betty said, “that you cannot exist and operate in the ENTIRE universe, as I do – for I operate in your universe as well as in mine – is because you are not able to step up your frequency.”
Consciousness is the only reality. “Consciousness, in degrees, is the one and only reality.”
All things have consciousness in some degree. Each degree has its frequency.
The whole of consciousness, the fundamental reality, is in evolution. The principle of evolution operates throughout the universe.
“As for me [Betty said] when I shall go on into my next life [she is already in an afterlife] I do not know. They tell me it will be something comparable, but not quite as I know it here. I know there are future manifestations of consciousness, but I do not know their characteristics. . . . There is an ultimate or supreme degree of consciousness.”
“All consciousness is limited by its degree until it evolves into the supreme.”
The following is a shortened dialogue about prayer:
Darby said: “I am wondering about the wisdom of using the work ‘prayer’. It has such various connotations in people’s minds.”
“I think most people understand, dimly at least, what prayer really is,” said Betty. “I don’t think the exact meaning of the word is discarded.”
“To most it means that you are trying to influence a power beyond you in your own behalf,” pursued Darby. “It is directed to a god with magic power to answer it. That is not the conception we have. We need some different devotional word to indicate contact with unobstructed consciousness, do we not?”
“The majority of people cannot aspire to such contact,” pointed out Betty. “Their degree is not yet high enough. The formulation of a need into a thought, a petition, with the sure submerging of self, that comes with prayer to what is higher and greater than self, is a beneficent operation to the individual, and is a definite projection into the unobstructed universe.”
Anne (like Betty, an inhabitant of the unobstructed universe) said: “The world has got along very well on a belief in prayer, for the voicing of a desire or an emotion makes it concrete. It clears it in your own mind, if nothing else. And maybe when you have formulated it, you find you do not want it; or if you do.” [Just like my – Fleming’s – idea that flipping a coin has value because if you feel pleased or disappointed at the outcome you know what you want to happen.]
Betty’s husband now asks her a question and gets an answer that, in its final part, puzzles me but which may be more meaningful to others:
“Well, now,” said I to Betty, “you have always been beyond the anthropomorphic idea, yet you were always fond of repeating the Lord’s Prayer. What did you have in your mind? To whom did you address it?”
“To consciousness,” replied Betty.
“Did you think of consciousness with personality, warmth – such warmth as comes with personality?”
“As though I were drowning in a great sea, and there was a shipful of people, any or all of whom could help me,” replied Betty promptly.
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I think it's time you write about the string theory. It has much to do with the continuation of life, the process, and yielding a purpose.
ReplyDeleteMeeting lots of people like Betty, when I was tagging along with my mother to Spiritualist churches as a child, I have often thought that they get a kick about being higher beings than the ordinary population, and that this somehow invalidates their witness. That's a bit illogical, I now realise.
ReplyDeleteWhat reason is there to believe that a creature who is finite ever should become infinite? What is wrong with being finite in any case? It is only through restrictions and limitations that definitions are possible. Beauty only exists because of boundaries. Light can be perceived and appreciated only because of shadow.
ReplyDeleteEmotion is a finite experience. Emotions only exist because of boundaries, those characteristics that define and restrict them. Moreover, some of our greatest experiences would be unendurable if they were to be of infinite duration. Take Ecstacy for example. It is an experience that is extremely intense, and desirable only because it has a beginning and an end. Were it to endure, it would no longer be desirable in the least. It would be like a deadly electrical shock that would go on and on without any hope of relief.
I distrust any human being who claims to be in possession of knowledge or visions of places or spheres of existence which by their very nature are beyond human control. People become obsessed with the 'afterlife' often because they fear Death. They attempt to pin down a picture or contact point with the hereafter in order to mitigate natural human insecurity when faced with the unknown. I do not think that we are incapable of glimpsing the worlds that lie beyond our experience but I do believe that we are incapable to penetrating the Universal and the Infinite. We certainly should not presume to act as self-appointed ambassadors to the Hereafter for other people.
Personally, like some others who have declared as much throughout the ages, I would like to think of Death as a Great Adventure. As in life, things could be much worse, but things could be much better as well. If there is a God who determines which of the two it shall be, I can't imagine that He/She/It would be persuaded in one direction or another by our adherence to petty rules and regulations or our affiliation with specific religious clubs or organisations defined by other humans.
I am inclined to believe that we live again and again, not so much in order to gain a higher status, but like children who choose to revisit a favourite playground or buy another ticket for a favourite ride at an amusement park. How many people, if given a choice, would choose not to try it all again? We are gamblers at heart as well and many of us are dilettantes. We lack the knowledge of our former lives for the most part because that would 'spoil the game'. Perhaps the ultimate wisdom comes when we finally choose to lay our souls to rest for eternity. Who knows???
As for Prayer, well, I believe it should be whatever a person wishes it to be. It can be a timeless ritual that opens the door to another consciousness, an ancient ritual that unites a person with his/her ancestors, a spellcasting, a solitary or communal act of meditation, a love song to the ultimate Beloved, an expression of gratitude or even a plea, whether to self, human, intercessor or God. Above all, it is a means of expression of our humanity.
What is wrong with being Human? In many traditional myths and tales, the Gods actually envy humans their status as limited beings whose duties and responsibilities have a clearly defined beginning and end. Gods are judged against an impossible standard. Humans always can aspire to be more like the gods, but they aren't expected to achieve that and that gives us a certain freedom denied to superior beings.
I agree with what you've written Freya.
ReplyDeleteDear Zoey, I wish I were qualified to write about string theory . . . which I think has now developed into "M Theory". I may take the plunge, but in general there is nothing more embarrassing than a writer on "spiritual" subjects who starts pontificating about quantum physics and such.
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