We have a strictly mechanistic view of the universe.
This leads to many problems.
If something cannot be explained in terms of tangible matter, chemicals and protons and so on, then, to most people, it can’t exist. It’s “woo.” Nonsense. Poppycock. This is just a bias. In fact it’s an old bias that can’t even be considered scientific anymore. This mechanistic view of the cosmos was developed in the 1800s when science was in a much different place. Since then, we’ve discovered all kinds of nonphysical things. Fields for example. Electric fields. Magnetic fields. Gravitational fields. It must be emphasized how occult and weird the idea of “fields” where when first introduced. I believe Faraday was the first to do so, could be wrong there. In any case when scientists first started seriously talking about “fields” as real things, it was scandalous and took no small amount of effort in convincing people to believe it. After all, you can’t see a field. You can’t touch one. They are, very literally, intangible. They are neither matter nor energy (energy also being intangible), so… what were they? People didn’t know. They still sort of don’t.
Nonetheless, proof positive of the existence of nonphysical, intangible things like fields (or energy, or time, or space) has not done much to overcome the bias against their existence. Our worldview hasn’t caught up with our science. We still, philosophically, conceive of the cosmos as something like a clock, wound up at the big bang and now slowly running down. All the the exotic discoveries of physics in the past hundred years are given, at best, lip service. At worst they are ignored completely. The double slit experiment, for example, which shows that reality reacts to whether or not a consciousness is observing it should be a big red flag that the mechanistic view of the world is not true.
Yet, it isn’t.
Not sure why.
Maybe because we feel in some sense that we have “escaped” that ancient world of gods and angels and demons and so on and we’re reluctant to open any doors which might lead us back.
And yet, what’s real will always win out in the end.
You can only deny reality so long.
And here’s something real: Your consciousness is nonphysical.
It just is. Argue with me all you like about it but you can’t win. Go ahead, point to your consciousness. Take someone else’s consciousness and put it in my hand. Can you put it in a beaker to measure its volume? How much does a consciousness weigh?
And yet… they’re real.
The insane ramblings of pseudo-philosophers like Daniel Dennett aside, most of us are fairly convinced that we actually are self aware. A man like Daniel comparing consciousness to just a robot running a software program is saying more about the sorry state of his own inner life than he is anything about the nature of reality. He is simply biased against the existence of nonphysical things. Again, this is weird. Nonphysical things are all around us. Radio waves for example. Cell phone signals. Can you touch them? Can you see them? No. Without a specific apparatus with which they interact you would never even know that they exist, despite them existing since the beginning of time, produced by stars and so on.
So too your brain.
Your brain does not generate consciousness. It receives it.
In just the same way that a radio does not generate the sound or speech coming through it, but nonetheless presents it, your brain is the antenna for your conscious self. For your soul. Each soul may be considered vaguely analogous to a certain wavelength or frequency, and each brain attuned to pick-up and thereby incarnate that frequency. People with very similar brains, identical twins for example, may experience some cross talk between their consciousnesses. Indeed, this seems to happen, as cases and stories of identical twins “feeling” or “sensing” what the other is experiencing are well known. If an antenna, a brain, is damaged in some way, say traumatic brain injury or alzheimer's, then you get static. The consciousness does not come through so well. Sometimes, in periods of severe oxygen deprivation or heavy drug overdose, the consciousness can separate completely from the body and we call this an out of body or near death experience. The radio metaphor of the brain and consciousness makes sense of all the reported phenomena that people experience that the strictly materialistic view has to hand wave away and declare does not happen. I stress of course that the radio metaphor is also probably a gross underestimating of the complexity of consciousness, but it is certainly better than thinking of the brain as a machine that makes consciousness locally.
This is how spirits can affect you. Just as a radio might encounter “bleed through” of one signal onto another station, another consciousness is sometimes capable of bleeding through onto the receiver that is your brain. Usually this is very slight, and we sense only foreign ideas or feelings that we know not from where they come. Other times though, it can be very extreme, for example, in the case of multiple personality disorder, a brain can become tuned almost entirely to another consciousness, a spirit. We used to refer to such cases as “possession” until we decided that such couldn’t happen because there was no visible material cause for it. The more “detuned” you are from your true self, the more likely you are to be affected by stray spirits seeking a host. Preventing this, of course, is the purpose of prayer.
Prayer is realignment. Calibration. In some profound sense that’s really all it is, even if on another level it is more. You are, in prayer, reconnecting with “Source”. With God. With what is good and true and beautiful. You are refocusing your antenna in an exactly analogous manner to the way you might refocus a satellite dish. This keeps you on the proper frequency, focused on what matters, focused on what is real.
In prayer, you connect to God and remember that Love is the answer, whatever the problem. You remember that greed and pride and wrath are bad, and the fact that you feel them means you are out of tune. If you prefer another metaphor, you are a tuning fork, and prayer is an attempt to resonate once more with the deepest frequency of existence. This, by the way, is why the Hindus chant “Om.” They are trying to resonate with the Atman. In the old testament in fact many of the prophets would pray in a very specific posture, each arm outstretched above their heads to heaven. They were, of course, assuming the pose of an antenna. Usually up on a holy mountain somewhere, for better reception.
Christ was the pure human embodiment of the frequency of God. Of God consciousness. That is why we follow him. Because we can also do that. You can also do that. By frequently attuning yourself to God you can become someone almost on that same level. Christ himself said so. “Those that come after me shall do even greater things than I.”
You are not limited to your physical body. A part of you will absolutely survive physical death. Smashing the radio doesn’t smash the frequency. There is more than this life. Much more. You don’t need to be afraid.
Note from the Author:
Hello! Thank you for being here. I’m experimenting with new ways to show my appreciation for paid subscribers! With this in mind, this coming Friday I’m going to have a Q&A post that only paid subscriptions can comment on. I promise I will answer all your comments on that post (you know, within reason, I don’t promise they will be immediate responses) and afterwards I will repost our discussions as a separate article so that everybody can benefit from the insight and wisdom of the community. Many of my readers are very intelligent and I think we will all benefit from this. Thank you all again, so very much.
Ive been thinking a lot about the soul lately. In ancient times it was thought of as life. Your life or consciousness or soul is recieved from your ancestors and you share it with them and with all humanity. In the ritual of baptism you offer your life/soul/consciousness to Christ who in turn hides your soul in his and transfigures your soul into his likeness. Your life is hidden in Christ in whom you live and move and have your existence. You love your neighbor as your self because your neighbors life is your life. This is why we must love even our enemies because when we do we love Jesus himself.
Wonderful writing,great message.Thanks!