new age spirituality

Author: abracad

  • Freakin’ with nature – embryo research

    The Human Tissue and Embryos Bill, currently on it way to becoming English law, could pose a serious threat to the concept of sanctity of life. Among other things it allows babies to be created that have the right characteristics to serve as donors in order to aid sick siblings. It may also permit the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos. All in the name of “research”.

    Of course anyone who has seen a loved one endure pain and suffering would welcome any efforts to cure disease or alleviate its effects. But is there some limit that should apply to such research?

    Scientists naturally wish to push the frontiers of knowledge ever further. But scientists do not always consider the moral implications of their work, eg it was scientists that created nuclear weapons.

    From a Spiritual perspective it could be argued that anything we do is part of God’s will, else we wouldn’t be able to do it. We possess free will, and if we have developed sufficient knowledge and skill to pursue a particular pathway then who can say such pathway is “wrong”?

    But in possessing free will we also possess the capacity for error. And some errors are less reversible and more catastrophic than others.

    Alongside our free will we are also blessed with a sense of morality, the ability to consider the potential benefits and costs, opportunities and risks, of a proposed action.

    We must engage this moral capacity carefully lest we embark upon a slippery slope towards a Hitleresque future where only the physically and mentally perfect have the right to live. And who would decide what was perfect. Would they be the blue-eyed Aryan blonds, or would they have some other characteristic?

    Stephen Hawking and Helen Keller would have been denied the right to life to name but two. And anyone who has cared for the disabled will know how much they can still enjoy life and give pleasure to those around them. What right has one living being to deny the existence of another?

    A further nightmarish scenario is where a “lower” form of being is bred to carry out the drudgery of manual labor leaving the “superior” master race to enjoy a life of luxury.

    Too many countries already de-value life with their overly liberal attitude to abortion in which countless viable babies are legally and routinely slaughtered.

    The bottom line must be the absolute recognition of the rights of the potential life forms being proposed for experiment.

  • The Wisdom of Einstein

    The thoughts of one of the greatest scientists of all time on a wide range of topics display a wisdom way beyond the equations of matter and energy. Enjoy and learn…

    Knowledge:
    The Search for the truth and Knowledge is one of the finest attributes of a man, though often it is most loudly voiced by those who strive for it the least.

    Authority:
    To punish me for my contempt of authority, fate has made me an authority myself.

    Truth:
    It is difficult to say what truth is, but sometimes it is easy to recognize a falsehood.

    Cooperation:
    A hundred times a day I remind myself that my inner and outer lives are based on the labors of other people, living and dead and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.

    Wisdom:
    Wisdom is not a product of schooling, but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.

    Greatness:
    There is only one road to human greatness: through the school of hard knocks.

    Happiness:
    A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.

    Fame:
    With fame I become more and more stupid, which of course is a very common phenomenon.

    Life:
    Life is sacred, that is to say, it is the supreme value, to which all other values are subordinate.

    Ageing:
    I have reached an age when, if someone tells me to wear socks, I don’t have to.

    Praise:
    The only way to escape the personal corruption of praise is to go on working.

    Problems:
    Fear or stupidity has always been the basis of most human actions.

    Relativity:
    An hour sitting with a pretty girl on a park bench passes like a minute, but a minute sitting on a hot stove seems like an hour.

    Goals:
    One should not pursue goals that are easily achieved. One must develop an instinct for what one can barely achieve through one’s greatest efforts.

    Racism:
    The only remedies against race and prejudice are enlightenment and education. This is a slow and painstaking process.

    Solitude:
    I lived in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.

    Value:
    Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.

    Imagination:
    When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come close to the conclusion that the gift of imagination has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing absolute knowledge.

  • Can We Really Travel in Time?

    Time is simple enough to understand, isn’t it. It moves forward at constant rate. What’s gone is gone and can’t be changed. What’s to come hasn’t happened and can’t be known for certain until it does. And that’s it… Or is it…

    On July 28th 2007 the Daily Mail carried a fascinating piece entitled “The real life Doctor Who who believes he can build a time machine”.

    It tells the story of Ronald Mallett, an American physicist, who believes he really can use the laws of physics to turn back time.

    Mallett is driven by memories of his father, who passed away prematurely as a result of his unhealthy lifestyle. He hopes to someday be able to travel back to his childhood to be able to warn his father to drink less, smoke les and exercise more in order to prolong his life.

    Inspired by the science fiction of HG Wells and the work of Einstein, Mallett has already lived a remarkable life. Overcoming a deep sense of grief at his father’s passing, and the racism of the deep south, he became one of a small band of black men to earn a doctorate in physics in the USA and remains the country’s only black physics professor.

    Remarkably the laws of physics do not appear to prevent time travel, and physicist Frank Tipler proposed a mechanism involving a superdense spinning cylinder in 1974. Unfortunately, current technology is unable to build such a cylinder.

    Mallett’s approach is more practical and involves a circulating beam of light. He believes a prototype can be constructed for less than the price of an English house! The only limitation of Mallett’s machine is that it would only be able to transport one back to the point at which the machine was started.

    Of course Mallett’s work raises all kinds of philosophical and Spiritual questions.

    What if we were to go back and change the past in such a way that the present we are experiencing could no longer exist. In the extreme case we could kill our own parents before we were born… Or are we really into the sci-fi world of parallel universes?

    And if time travel were really possible how come no one from the future has been to visit us?

    Spiritual teachers frequently tell us that time is not as we perceive it and that in the world of Spirit time has no meaning. Could the possibility of time travel give an insight into the 4th dimension’s true nature?

    Find out more about Mallett’s work in Time Traveler: A Scientist’s Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality by Ronald L. Mallett and Bruce Henderson.

  • What is the Purpose of Life?

    At some point or other we all contemplate the purpose of life. To a degree our very existence is a search for life’s meaning.

    Life is not about acquiring money, assets, status, power… It’s not about the house we own, the car we drive, the position we hold. That’s not to say these things don’t matter, they do – to a degree. But in time, as our body ceases to function as it inevitably will, these things fade into nothingness.

    No it is not such things that form the purpose of life. Ultimately, all that we carry to the next stage of our existence is the experience we gain.

    In the immortal words of Shakespeare, “All the world’s a stage,
    And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts…”

    Just as the actors of stage or screen are not the characters they assume so we are not the roles we play for this short lifetime.

    Our earthly (particularly western) measures of success are flawed. In truth the vagrant is no less successful than the city gent, possibly more so, though their paths are very different. For whom shall take the greatest experience beyond the grave?

    The moral – stop chasing things that don’t really matter and start seeking the experience you were born to receive.

  • The Paradox of (In)Significance

    Everything I do is significant, even very thought that flows through my mind. Like a pebble thrown into the ocean it changes forever what would otherwise have been.

    And everything that I experience “good”, “bad” or indifferent is significant. Each experience changes forever what I otherwise would have been.

    And yet I am utterly insignificant. My lifespan, and my potential impact upon the universe are infinitesimal compared to the backdrop of all reality.

    How do I come to terms with this paradox? I gratefully acknowledge that I have been granted the gift of free will, the opportunity to plot (partially, anyway) my own destiny.

    I am careful to do my best each and every day. But not necessarily to change the world. For though I will inevitably leave my mark it will be small. But the experiences I gain through my earthly existence will contribute to my eternal growth.

  • Are Orbs of Light Manifestations of Spirit?

    Yesterday the English Daily Mail continued to enhance its reputation as one of the more open-minded newspapers by publishing “Is this the proof that spirits DO exist?” an article on the mysterious orbs of light that have been appearing inexplicably on increasing numbers of photographs.

    The phenomena has been investigated by NASA scientist Klaus Heinemann, PhD after he noticed the phenomena on a number of his wife’s pictures. At first Heinemann applied his considerable scientific knowledge in an attempt to find a physical explanation. However after failing to do so he began to consider non-material causes.

    Heinemann presented his theories at the ORBS: What Is Going On? Prophets Conference, Sedona, AZ, May 2007, stating “The implications of a realization that we are ‘surrounded by a cloud of witnesses’ are enormous – and, I might add, incredibly hopeful at large.”

    Spiritual mediums have long held that rather than being in a distinct place/time the Spirit world is actually all around us, only vibrating at a higher rate than physical matter. Communication takes place when a medium is able to raise their vibrations and Spirit lowers theirs. Natural “sensitives” are those with naturally higher vibrations.

    Might it be that Spirit have found a way to lower their vibrations to the extent they are able to affect modern gadgetry, or that they particularly feel the need to remind us of their presence in these troubled times for the world?

    Heinemann has co-authored a book on orbs with Miceal Ledwith (a former theology professor who was President of National University of Ireland Maynooth College at the  for ten years). The Orb Project will be published in November 2007.

  • A Tour of Heaven

    A man passed away and went to heaven. He was met by the gatekeeper who granted him admission and offered to show him around.

    It was a beautiful place. The grass was greener and the flowers more vivid than anything he’d ever imagined. The houses and other buildings were magnificent. Just as he thought he’d never be able to afford one the gatekeeper explained he could have any house he dreamed of in any location. All he had to do was imagine it and it would be built to his precise specification.

    Just then they came across a huge wooden stockade and the gatekeeper bade him to be silent. Once they had passed it the guided tour continued.

    This time it was explained that he could eat or drink anything he chose, all free of charge, again just by thinking about it. To demonstrate the gatekeeper manifested an apple tree, and plucking two apples offered one to the new arrival. It was the sweetest, most succulent fruit he’d ever tasted.

    But just as he was finishing it they again came across a huge wooden stockade and he was ordered to remain silent. The tour again continued once they had passed the vast structure.

    The guide now showed the man the great halls of learning where, when he was ready, he could prepare to take the next step along his evolutionary path.

    Before long they came to yet another stockade and again he was instructed to keep quiet.

    After they had passed it the man could contain his curiosity no longer and asked what the stockades were for.

    The guide explained that the first one was for the Christians, the second for the Jews, and the third for the Moslems.

    But why did they have to be silent when passing by?

    The guide smiled. It was because each group believed they were the only ones in heaven.

  • Everyone is Special

    We seem to be living through a culture of celebrity. We are surrounded by celebrity magazines, TV shows etc. Many people are obsessed with looking, and being, just like their celebrity heroes.

    In the 60’s Andy Warhol said “In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes.” Judging from some of bit-part soap actors and one-hit pop singers now deemed “celebrities”, the future is now. But is it healthy?

    Most of us have heroes – actors, sportspeople, people who seem to accomplish more than we ever could. We naturally look up to these people as role models, try to emulate them – as best we can.

    Heroes serve as guides, showing us what is possible if we choose to live constructively. And that is good.

    But like all things, heroes – or rather our attitude towards them – needs to be kept in perspective. Every single living entity is special, be they president, superstar, the guy in drugstore or the tramp at the corner of the street. We have all chosen to be born with a specific purpose. And that includes ourselves.

    For all their achievements, our heroes too are human, with human imperfections.

    By all means have and admire your heroes. Learn from and be inspired by them. But have no lesser respect for any other human being, for when the flesh is stripped away as one day it surely shall, what will remain of all – including you – is an eternal Spirit. And that is very special indeed.

  • There is no death

    The death of the physical body is life’s only certainty, so why do we fear this inevitability?

    Is it because the ultimate unknown jars with our innate desire for certainty? Or perhaps because we have been scared by religious teachings of hell and eternal suffering? Or do we merely dread the possibility of our own annihilation and the complete futility of our lives that such a prospect implies.

    Whatever the reason, it is fear that is futile.

    Our new article Why do we fear death? discusses the origins of and advises on how it may be overcome.

    Rational science teaches that we are mere automata, chance freaks of nature that just happened to be thrown together by the winds of fate. Rational science is without peer within the physical domain. And yet beyond this realm is utterly impotent. Science cannot even begin to address questions of the Spirit.

    There are countless reasons for optimism that our inner essence survives physical death. Numerous individual accounts of contact with departed loved ones, a mass of evidence from clairvoyant mediumship, near death experiences, reincarnation…

  • God under attack

    The recently published God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens is the latest in a long series of attacks on the concept of God.

    One of its more prominent predecessors is The God Delusion by acclaimed Oxford biologist Richard Dawkins, backed up by a national television series in the UK.

    In the days before mass education it was easy to use the pulpit image of a judgemental God to keep the ignorant masses under control. Be god, work hard and there’s a place in heaven waiting, but step over the line and it’s eternal damnation.

    These days such ideas are rightly condemned as superstitious nonsense. What loving father could possibly watch his children suffer as so many do on earth, especially when much of that suffering is inflicted by the hands of his other children, and even more especially when much of this is done in the name of “God” (witness the “war on terror” aka Christendom vs Islam!). That’s not a God many would want to be associated with.

    Science has given us cars and planes, microwaves and refrigerators, TVs and stereos, cell phones and the Internet… It’s cured many of the ailments that once killed us. Who needs the white-bearded old man on a cloud any more, especially when he doesn’t seem to lift a finger to solve our problems.

    Science is indeed king. But… only within its own domain the 4-dimensional world of space-time composed of matter and energy. Here it reigns supreme. Trouble is there’s more to reality than this. It can’t explain our Spiritual dimension, the myriad accounts of anomalous phenomena experienced throughout history and now being confirmed in the scientist’s laboratories. It can’t explain why we’ve long felt the need to follow religions/superstitions (depending on your point of view) or to express our most abstract thoughts through art, literature and music.

    Even science recognizes its own limitations. In studying the origind of the universe the equations break down at a certain point in what’s known as singularities. The single most successful theory of quantum mechanics is based on an inherent randomness (or indeterminacy).

    No, God isn’t always good (whatever good may mean), because in incarnating we are possessed of free will. If God were to intervene every time we had trouble we’d sure have an easy ride, but we would learn nothing, and would be no more than automata acting out a script. In short our earthly existence would be pointless.

    One answer to Dawkins and Hitchens is offered by Dawkins’ fellow Oxford professor and scientific theologian, Alister McGrath in The Dawkins Delusion.

    If you read Dawkins, Hitchens or both, in the interest of balance you owe it to yourself to read McGrath.