“We are witnessing an enormous shift of collective consciousness throughout the world. We are at the precipice of great transformation within our culture and government.”
~Zachary Quinto~
Wilhelm Reich
With that clear segue in mind (with which I agree completely) I offer you a thought that I got from Wilhelm Reich in his 1951 passionate work, The Murder of Christ: we have been struggling to get out of a gigantic trap for several thousand years – a trap, the nature of which we really don’t understand and we struggle mightily to escape, not knowing that we have been promised these lives since forever.
I would like to bring Dr. Reich forward to today and let him see how deep the struggle to get out of that trap has become. We have two epidemics running side-by-side that suggest to me the depth and severity of that struggle: the addiction to opiates, and the incidence of suicide affecting all ages. For me, there is a common thread here that can be summarized in one word – despair. That simple word also warns us of an epidemic of suffering that affects the entire world.
Our Suffering
Stop a minute and give yourself permission to open your peaceful heart and let it look for an instant at the breadth and depth of our human suffering… we find it in virtually every society in the world. In the thousands of languages throughout the world the cry is the same: “Help me; I am trapped, and the harder I try to get out of the trap the stronger it becomes!” Who/what do we cry out to with this lonely plea? Please take a peaceful breath and use it to release enough suffering that you can begin to feel peace. Keep that peace while I tell you to whom we submit our plea – God! Yes, that one word that we struggle so hard with in the Western “Christian” world – God!
That name for the Nameless comes from the German, “Gott”. Before you go any further take a moment to consider how many names we have for the Nameless. Is it really not a universal concept for all human beings that there might even be one Source of everything? In my work with people, I often hear the claim to be an “Atheist”. My response to hearing this is to ask the other to tell me about the “God” he or she does not believe in. You see, this is our dilemma – our trap – does this universe have the meaning it would have if it came from a single unimaginable “Source”; or is it nothing other than a random interaction of atoms?
Our Expanding Universe
The concept of “atom” goes back to the ancient Greeks, to whom it was essentially a philosophy. We didn’t find atoms or evidence for them until the early 1800s. We did not begin to grasp the idea that our Universe expands at incredible speed until the end of that century. Albert Einstein found that the universe was expanding when he worked out his general theory of relativity. However, he did not believe it and so he changed a numerical “constant” to make the universe fixed… unchanging. Edwin Hubble challenged him with solid evidence for the expansion, forcing him to admit that he had just been caught in the greatest “blunder” of his life!
It was only a matter of time before we developed instruments to find out just how fast we were expanding. Once we had that, we were able to run the clock backwards to when the expansion began! The result? 13.72 billion years ago! It is known as the “Big Bang” and there is no sign of it stopping. It started as a point of light, and it still is that “point of light”!
Consciousness and matter
In the early years of the last century we became aware of consciousness as a property to be found in all matter: subatomic particles communicate with each other as if time and space do not exist! So, is consciousness a property of matter or is matter a property of consciousness? For me, the great and beautiful Mystery is that it is both!
Conclusion: matter is finite; consciousness is immeasurable; and both are fundamental properties of everything since time began!
Problem: what gave rise to consciousness and matter in the first place?
Answer: the nameless Source that has so many names throughout the world was but a point of light 13.72 billion years ago – and it is still a point of light! We cannot get outside of it to measure its dimensions. They are determined by its internal relationships, all of which are constantly unfolding to create everything from atoms to galaxies.
Getting out of the trap
As people like Nancy Danison and Peter Panagore have found out by dying and going beyond their death to the Source, there is but one Source of everything, and everything is the product of Its imagination! Danison and the Irish poet, John O’Donohue, both call that imagination “Divine”…and I am of an identical mind.
I will leave you now with the idea – indeed, the knowledge – that we are the product of a single “Divine Imagination”. It created us and our world to help It in Its evolution. Everything in this world, and the world itself, the solar system, and our galaxy all have meaning value and purpose. So I can say, with the support of a sizable group of wonderful human beings, “We have found our way out of the trap.”
I would like you to take with you these thoughts: the crucifixion of the Nazarene opened the trap wide because of a mistaken belief that human beings are “sinful” – morally corrupt – by nature. “Sin” is a Hebrew archery expression meaning “to miss the mark”, and the not – so – saintly philosopher, Augustine of Hippo, slammed the door shut on the trap by his insistence that we humans are inherently flawed.
Going Home
We know, today, that we are not as Augustine, the Manichaean skeptic, thought… “flawed”. We are the product of the One Flawless Imagination. Take that to heart, mind, and body, and look right in front of you for the way out of the trap. I choose to call it: “Going home.” Thank you.
