“The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
During the birth of my youngest child I had an out-of-body experience. She was breech, the labor had ceased and the doctor was struggling to deliver her. I suddenly found myself in the corner ceiling of the room, watching. “Mother!” my doctor said sharply and I was instantly back in my body. While I watched from above I was filled with an incredible joy. In those few moments I knew the answer to everything. I had complete understanding which no words could express.
“You are a soul with a body, not a body with a soul”
Francisco Coll
Your body is made up of the things of earth right now, but the real you, the soul, is part of the Universe, the All, or as described by religion, God (symbolized by the solar system on the chart). Whatever you call it, you can learn to consciously tap into it and use the wisdom to enrich your daily life. The moment a person finishes their job here on earth, or when a person becomes so confused that they destroy their body, the connection between the soul and the physical body is severed. When you pass on, your body remains here and goes back to dust because it is composed of the things of planet earth. Your soul, the real you, will leave the earth because the law of gravity cannot keep it here anymore. The soul or intelligent vibration no longer has a physical body to serve as an anchor, so it moves out and returns to the universe or the All. The person of science calls it the universe or the cosmos, while the religious person calls it God. No matter what you call it, you are one with it. There is no separation. The only separation we have is the one we think we have. Once you understand that your physical body cannot exist without oxygen, the rays of the sun, the vegetation, or the pressures of the universe, you’ll realize you are the total component of all things. Religion says you are the expression of God, and science says you are the total component of the universe. The Inner Peace Movement, Dr. Francisco Coll
I didn’t realize for a while I had opened the strange door in the back of my mind. Since the few moments were so brief I suspected my imagination had played a trick on me. Later I made friends with a woman who belonged to an occult book club. She loaned me books in one of which I read about out of body experiences. Also learning of other paranormal experiences that seemed familiar. The door in the back of my mind began to open wider.
One night the friend visited and we discussed contents of the books. I was surprised one was written by Arthur Conan Doyle; he was a spiritualist as well as the creator of Sherlock Holmes! Shortly after my friend returned to her own apartment I felt a cold draft surround me. Then I began to feel as if some foreign entity was trying to get into me through my eyes. I kept them lowered, ducked my head and slowly slid along the wall to the phone to call my friend. She returned. “Why is it so cold?” she asked. “Did you have the patio door open?”
“No,” I said. She came through the door into the hallway which was toasty warm; no outside door had been opened. Still keeping my head bent I told her about the fear that had come over me, of something trying to reach me through my eyes. “Get your Bible,” she said. I did.
She turned to the 23rd Psalm and began to read aloud.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Although I came from a Christian home and had memorized this Psalm in Sunday school I hadn’t realized it was used to ward off evil. Later I learned there are other such verses in the Bible. Thankful for the protection of the Lord’s Prayer, I admitted I was not quite ready to finish opening the door in the back of my mind. Not yet. But some day I would be.
To be continued
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THUNDER ON THE MOUNTAINS
If you wonder how the modern world evolved to the point where we’re allowing the beautiful mountans of Appalachia to be blown off and discarded like trash in order to more profitably and easily extract the coal—-perhaps this long quote from Richard Tarnas’s book COSMOS will provide you with the answer.
RICHARD TARNAS:
“…the course of history brought about a deep schism between humankind and nature, and desacralization of the world. This development coincided with an increasingly destructive exploitation of nature, the devastation of traditional indigenous cultures, a loss of faith in spiritual realities and an increasingly unhappy state of the human soul, which experienced itself as ever more isolated, shallow and unfulfilled.
In this perspective, both humanity and nature are seen as having suffered grievously under a long, exploitative, dualistic vision of the world, with the worst consequences being produced by the oppressive hegemony of modern industrial societies empowered by Western science and technology.
The nadir of this fall is the present time of planetary turmoil, ecological crisis and spiritual distress, which are seen as the direct consequences of human hubris, embodied above all in the spirit and structure of the modern Western mind and ego.
This second historical perspective reveals a progressive impoverishment of human life and the human spirit, a fragmentation of original unities and ruinous destruction of the sacred community of being.
Something like these two interpretation of history here described in starkly contrasting terms for the sake of easy recognition, can be seen to inform many of the more specific issues of our age. They represent two basic antithetical myths of historical self-understanding: the myth of Progress and what in its earlier incarnation was called the myth of the Fall. These two historical paradigms appear today in many variations, combinations and compromise formations.
They underlie and influence discussions of the environmental crisis, globalization, multiculturalism, fundamentalism, feminism and patriarchy, evolution and history.
One might say these opposing myths constitute the underlying argument of our time: whither humanity? Upward or downward? How are we to view Western civilization, the Western intellectual tradition, its canon of great works? How are we to view modern science, modern rationality, modernity itself?”
Filed under: Appalachia, current affairs, history, Integrity, Kentucky, Religion, social commentary, Spirituality, Uncategorized | Leave a comment »