new age spirituality

Category: spirituality

  • Drawing close to Spirit

    New Age Spirituality is a reaction against the materialism of modern society. You graduate college, get a career, accumulate wealth, get a big house, fast car… And that’s what it’s all about. Or is it?

    These things can bring satisfaction, but the trouble with material wealth is you can never have enough of it. The more you get, the more you want. And the more you worry about losing what you have.

    I’m not saying wealth isn’t important. To a degree. But once you’ve met the basics of food and shelter its importance rapidly diminishes. That’s why so many feel disillusioned and seek answers in the far from new movement of the new age.

    Spirituality is about rediscovering what we really are. In truth we are all Spiritual beings, temporarily occupying a physical body. We are on a journey. The journey into flesh is one of discovery, experience and growth.

    The realization that materialism is NOT our main purpose is the understanding of a major lesson. It is also the recognition of, and desire to reconnect with, our true Spiritual nature.

    When we are born into this world we forget that we are essentially Spirit. This amnesia is intentional, for if we knew this from the beginning we would find it hard/impossible to focus on our journey upon the earth plane. Part of our purpose is to rediscover the Spirit within.

    Modern life is a busy and complex experience with seemingly endless stimuli all vying for our finite attention. Family, work, community… the demands are endless, though each brings its own satisfaction and rewards. But in the face of endless demands how can we connect with our Spiritual self and the realm of Spirit beyond?

    It is easy. Spirit isn’t someplace else, but all around. All that needs to happen is i) we need to become a little more open to its reality, and ii) Spirit needs to respond to our openness by making itself felt by us. Though it’s easy it does require an effort of will. Our will power, or ability to assert our unique preferences is one of the clues of our Spirituality. Automata have no will!

    We need to set aside some “me” time. That is time when we consciously disconnect from the demands of our physical existence. Disconnect the phone. Send the family off to a movie. Hang a “do not disturb” notice on the door. This time is for you, and you alone.

    Nature is a great healer and wonderful for bringing us closer to Spirit. If you’re lucky enough to live near the sea or countryside, take a walk. Even in the city, you’re probably close to a park or other green space.

    Art is a doorway to the world of Spirit. Get some art books from the library and observe them closely. Listen to some music, maybe classical or new age, but whatever takes your fancy is fine.

    Exercise your will. Change your routine. We are creatures of habit, because we are basically lazy and habit is easy. Try a different newspaper, a different route to work. Read a different kind of book. Whatever, just so long as it forces your mind off auto-pilot.

    Learn to relax. Modern life is extremely demanding upon our mental resources. You must be able to switch off the constant noise and put it to one side.

    If you’re lucky you may get a physical apparition of someone in Spirit, or  clairaudience, the hearing of Spirit voices. Be open to the ways in which Spirit manifests, eg dreams and coincidences. Perhaps you’ll just get an awareness or feeling that you’re part of something much bigger.

    And if at first you don’t succeed, try , try again. Our Spiritual awareness is purposely erased before we are born and it can be very hard to regain. You can draw some comfort at least from the fact you suspect its existence and you are trying to consciously re-connect.

  • Have You Been Here Before?

    The concept of reincarnaton is an ancient one, dating back long before the time of Christ.

    Basically, reincarnation is the view that living entities consist of two parts, a physical body, and a non-physical “soul”. The body functions for a finite time, during which it is closely allied to the soul, but when it ceases to function (ie physical death) the soul is released to some day be born again in a new body.

    Belief in reincarnation is most common within Eastern religions such as Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism.

    Reinarnation is currently rejected by much of Christianity. One can only surmise this is because it is perceived as a threat to the power of the Church. The Bible is certainly in accord with the idea, eg “And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. ‘Who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?’” (John 9:1-2)

    Many people at some time in their lives experience a sense of deja vu, ie of having been somewhere before that they’re actually visiting for the first time.

    There have been some remarkable accounts of reincarnation providing a substantial body of evidence for the truth of the phenomenon, eg see Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation by Ian Stevenson for some of the very best.

    Past-life regression is a hypntic technique that is said to help people remember previous lives. EG see Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian L. Weiss , Living Your Past Lives: The Psychology of Past-Life Regression by Karl Schlotterbeck.

    So, is reicarnation real? I believe it is, but not for everyone.

    Spiritually we are all part of a single unity which, for want of a better name, might be called “God”. We individuate, or break of from the one-ness in order to experience and interact with other (parts of God). One of the arenas in which we gain that experience is the physical universe, and within that, planet Earth.

    Some parts of God never choose to incarnate here – it’s to tough a choice. For others, once is enough. But some do choose to return – sometimes many times over – in order to complete unfinished lessons, undertake new learning, or to assist others along their journey.

    We each belong to a “soul group”, a part of God that individuated, and then indivduated furthe into the members of a soul group. Often sould group members choose to incarnate together, and to interact while here, each playing a different role to facilitate the learning process. That part is not always a “positive” one in earthly terms. Our fellow soul group members may turn out to be the school bully who gives us a horrible time, but only afterwards may we realize how much we learned from the difficulties experienced.

    Reincarnation may explain some aspects of our lives such as recurring themes which for all our efforts we seem unable to escape. In our instinctive (unrationalized) thoughts and feelings and in our dreams we may find clues to our previous lives, and perhaps our true purpose in being here.

  • Evidence for the paranormal

    The evidence for the paranormal falls into three categories:
    * spontaneous experience
    * laboratory experiment results
    * rational logic

    Let’s examine each in turn.

    Spontaneous experience

    Countless people claim to have experienced unexplainable phenomena throughout history. Even today there is no shortage of those with tales of the supernatural to tell. As an experiment simple raise the topic with any group of friends, family or co-workers and it’s highly likely at least one will have experienced something remarkable. (more…)

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Mistakes are Good

    You’re imperfect. I’m imperfect. We’re all imperfect. We are born in this world to learn, and if we were perfect we’d have no reason to be here. We all make mistakes. And all too often we beat ourselves up about it. We fret about what our mistakes have cost us, and how much damage we’ve done…..

    Instead we should be happy to make mistakes. We should be happy that firstly they show we are very special beings because we actually have the power (free will) to do things. We should be happy because every mistake is a chance to learn, and that’s what it’s all about. And we should be happy because mistakes at least show we are doing things rather than just idly vegetating.

    I’m not saying we should become reckless and deliberately make mistakes or not try to get things right. But we should acknowledge that making the most of the precious gift of life means doing, and doing means we’ll sometimes/often get it wrong.

    Mistakes don’t matter. Earthly achievements don’t matter. The only thing that matters is the experience we acquire.