The new thoughtful generation

By William T. Hathaway

Philosophy hasn’t been a popular topic in recent years, but that seems to be changing. Many young people now are interested in exploring the fundamental questions of life. The majority were born between 1995 and 2008, the years when the planet Pluto was transiting the sign Sagittarius. Pluto is the astrological generation marker and represents transformation. Its passage through the zodiac indicates humanity’s gradual, progressive transformation to higher stages. Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, representing expansion, benevolence, spirituality, philosophy. Many people born with this combination, now between 15 and 28, are interested in these issues.

This is demonstrated in their environmental and gender activism and in the popularity of a series of video discussions between neuroscientist and philosopher Dr. Tony Nader and other experts in these areas. Nader is the author of One Unbounded Ocean of Consciousness, which integrates Advaita Vedanta (the ancient philosophy of unity, nonduality) with contemporary quantum physics. (more…)

One Unbounded Ocean of Consciousness

By Dr. Tony Nader
Reviewed by William T. Hathaway

In his new book, One Unbounded Ocean of Consciousness, Dr. Tony Nader has attempted something very difficult and achieved it very well. He overcomes the conceptual gap separating matter from mind, science from spirituality, the human from the divine and takes us beneath these superficial dualities into a fundamental synthesis establishing the wholeness of life. He conveys the unity underlying all diversity, and he deftly and convincingly resolves the apparent contradiction between free will and determinism. Nader writes in a clear, step-by-step manner that makes this knowledge understandable and shows how it can benefit us as individuals. (more…)

"Consciousness and the Quantum: The Next Paradigm"

Reviewed by William T. Hathaway

At last a book that not only makes quantum physics understandable for general readers but shows how it has practical value for us. Author Dr. Robert M. Oates Jr. presents this abstract, theoretical topic in a step-by-step manner that makes it comprehensible. He explains the discoveries that are revolutionizing the way we see the world, and he captures the drama and conflicts involved in overthrowing the old scientific worldview and building the new. In conclusion he presents the benefits this knowledge can have for our individual lives. (more…)

The Supreme Awakening

Reviewed by William T. Hathaway

The Supreme Awakening: Experiences of Enlightenment Throughout Time -- And How You Can Cultivate Them is the ultimate guide to higher states of consciousness. This latest book from Craig Pearson presents inspiring experiences from mystics and saints, then shows us how we ourselves can live these states permanently in enlightenment.

A sampling from the anthology: (more…)

What Can I Know? What Should I Believe?

The Significance of Faith

Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed. Jesus (John 20:29)

In this quote Jesus expresses the importance of faith - belief in that which has not / cannot be "proven". In actuality, much of what we think we know relies in varying degrees upon faith.

The Limits of Certainty

Descartes remarked in the 17th century: I think therefore I am. This effectively defined the bounds of certainty, since all else beyond one's own existence could be illusion.

Scientific quantum theory in the 20th century discovered the inherent randomness at the most fundamental level of the material universe. Heisenberg's "uncertainty principle" set a limit in principle on what it is physically possible to know.

It seems overwhelmingly likely that the true nature of reality is very different to that which is perceived through the physical senses.

Consciousness and Reality

I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness. Max Planck, Nobel Prize winner, originator of quantum theory.

The consequence of key concepts from quantum physics (observer effect, collapse of the wave function) suggest that consciousness (yours, others', God's?) doesn't just passively receive information about the universe but may play an active role in shaping/creating reality (eg see The Self-Aware Universe by theoretical physicist Dr. Amit Goswami).

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To Travel Far – the Out of the Body Experience

By Darryl E Berry Jr, 2015

Do you remember going to sleep or waking from sleep and being unable to move as if paralyzed? This is commonly experienced at the start or end of an out-of-body experience (OBE or OOBE). Do you remember having dreams of flying or dreams of falling, accompanied by very real sensations of weightlessness or falling? You were likely unconsciously floating into the nonphysical while dreaming of flying, and then experiencing a rapid reintegration with the physical body similarly masked by dream imagery. Do you remember experiencing vibrations, loud engine-like sounds, gunshot-like bangs, or metallic-like clicks inside your head when going to sleep or upon awakening? These are also common occurrences during the initiation or conclusion of an OBE. (more…)

Hacking Consciousness

The Stanford University Video Series

Reviewed by William T. Hathaway

This new Stanford video series investigates consciousness as the source of not only the human mind but also of all energy and matter. Consciousness is seen as the essence of the universe, a unified field which gives rise to and pervades all manifest phenomena. Five scientists from different disciplines describe how we can contact this field and use it to improve our lives. The series, designed by Michael Heinrich, is now available free on YouTube.

The intellectual background of the series is a fascinating conflict affecting all of us that is now going on in science and philosophy, centering on the question, What is the basis of the universe? In the 19th century advances in physics, chemistry, and biology led to an empiricist understanding of nature, and Enlightenment philosophy replaced superstition and myth. Leading thinkers in all these disciplines agreed that the universe is just matter in motion governed by natural laws which are open to human understanding. Reality is fundamentally material. Humans and other animals interact with an objective, external world through sensory input mediated by our consciousness, which is a neuro-chemical phenomenon of our brain cells. Thoughts are just reflections of the material world in the brain. (more…)

Visit to the Brahmasthan

By William T. Hathaway

I recently visited the ashram that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi built at the central point of India, the Brahmasthan. Two thousand Vedic pandits live there, meditating and performing ceremonies.

I've been doing Transcendental Meditation for many years and have had wonderful results in my active life -- clearer thinking, less stress, more energy -- but I've had very few experiences while meditating. A couple of times a year I might have a moment when the thoughts thin out enough for me to sense there is a field of silence underlying them. Very rarely I've glimpsed a bit of glow coming from that underlying field. I treasure these few moments.

In my first program in the yogic flying hall I felt deep silence as soon as I started meditating. And it didn't go away as it always had before. It lasted, and it glowed. When I started the sutras, I gradually became aware that the silence had an energy to it, an inner dynamism. As I went on, joy began radiating from it like sunlight. (more…)

Wellsprings: A Fable of Consciousness

Selections from the Novel by William T. Hathaway

Cosmic Egg Books 2013

2026. The earth's ecosystem has broken down under human abuse. Water supplies are shrinking. Rain is rare, and North America is gripped in the Great Drought with crops withering and forests dying. In the midst of environmental and social collapse, an old woman and a young man set out to heal nature and reactivate the cycle of flow by using techniques of higher consciousness. But the corporations that control the remaining water lash out to stop them.

In the novel water is analogous to consciousness. People are out of contact with their own inner wellsprings of consciousness, so their lives are withering. And their ignorant actions have driven the earth's water deep underground, so nature is withering. Human life and the earth's life are trapped in suffering. The story shows the two main characters evolving their consciousness to a level where they can sense the water and restore its natural flow for humanity and the earth. A blend of adventure, ecology, and mystic wisdom, WELLSPRINGS: A Fable of Consciousness is a frightening but hopeful look into a future that is looming closer every day.

It's also a love story, which is of course also good for our consciousness.

The book begins with the narrator, Bob, getting ready to leave his hometown in California after graduating from high school: (more…)

Consciousness Shifts for the Divine New Order

by Niánn Emerson Chase

Recently I listened to a well-known politician advocate for healthcare reform on a television program where he was discussing his work in pushing legislation that would require health insurance companies to treat mental illness as a legitimate treatable disease so that people who suffer from various psychological dysfunctions and disorders can be covered for treatment. His contention is that most mental problems are due to physiological causes in the brain (which then delineates the condition “medical”) and that if the brain is treated through various drugs and other medical treatments, the patient can get better.

Though I agree that health insurance companies should view mental illnesses as legitimate medical conditions that need to be treated, we need to go even further in how we, as a total society, perceive illness and the treatment of it. When we citizens of a culture can change our mindsets about causes of disease and healing, then the systems within our society will change to fit that consciousness. Thus the economic, political, medical, educational, and other institutions of mainstream culture will cooperate with the expanded consciousness of the population to create more effective and efficient healthcare systems that provide for all of its citizens regardless of financial or social status. (more…)