SPACE, SCIENCE, MIND & SPIRIT

Having just experienced a presentation at Cape Town Planetarium, I feel fascinated but also frustrated.  I am fascinated by the technology and the incredible pictures of our neighbouring planets and even more so by the Hubble telescope photographs of distant stars and nebulae.  However, the presentation seemed hollow and something vitally important was missing.  What could that be?

My frustration is, I suppose, partly due to my knowledge of the spiritual dimension we each possess.  The presentation, though full of interesting facts and suppositions was equally full of “we don’t knows” and out and out guesswork masquerading as scientific expertise, even allowing for the obvious influence of Hollywood.  It was hollow because it was so superficial.  Whilst I can just about forgive physicists for being so materialistic because they are dealing purely with matter, I find it impossible to excuse astronomers and astrophysicists.  Surely what they see should produce a greater sense of awe than they evince.

To my simple mind, the vast distances and dimensions involved call for a recognition that only by conceiving a methodology that goes beyond the brain, and the physical reaction to what we experience and see, can sense be made of the universe as revealed by space probes and telescopes.  It is impossible to imagine all this being the result of blind chance or “only give us time to develop more sophisticated instruments and vehicles and all will be revealed.”  I lost count of the number of times the commentator spoke of our children and our children’s children being able to do what we find impossible.  Whilst this is undoubtedly true and even recognising the need to simplify astronomy to meet the audiences’ ability to understand, I found the approach condescending.

In the majesty of the heavens lie all the verities of human life:  Its grandeur, its boundlessness, its endless variety, its complexity and yet also its simplicity.  When reduced to its basics, the universe and all its millions of worlds and suns is the result of few, but incredible, natural laws.  Laws that for their comprehension demand the overwhelming and overriding presence of mind:  Mind through which the spirit shapes, not just the physical worlds and all that is in them but also those unseen spiritual worlds. (Unseen by our physical eyes at least):  Worlds that cast the shadow that humanity imagines as reality:  Mind that is the essence of the true, inner self and that Great Spirit we know to be God.

What we imagine as reality is but the shadow.  The shadow cast by the spiritual world that is our true home and to which we all must return.  All physical manifestation originates as a spiritual manifestation.  Every physical world is a duplicate of a spiritual original.  A truth that one day Particle Physicists will discover.  We need to recognise that the immortal, invisible portion of human beings, the part that gives us life and consciousness, the part that we share with God, is both mind and spirit.

If only scientists would abandon their obsession that everything can be measured by using either physical instruments or purely physical observations and that the mind is part of the physical brain.  Abandon this way of thinking and our understanding of all things would grow by leaps and bounds.  It would grow because in abandoning their prejudices, scientists would open their minds.  Open them to the influence of those in the spiritual world who understand so much more about everything than even the most knowledgeable amongst us.  Once the mind is accorded its true importance, it can be studied intensively and its power recognised.  We could learn how to harness that power in the way earlier civilisations did and those in the spiritual world do every day.  The power of the mind, properly focussed, can literally move mountains.  Equally, it can devise ways, using its power, to explore the physical universe without the need for rockets and space ships.  As with any power however, the greatest caution must be exercised to ensure access to it is universally available.

Many of the mysteries of the universe, which have puzzled humanity for ages, could be demystified.  If only we all accepted and sought to understand more fully that life, animate and inanimate, is more about mind and spirit than it is about its physical envelope.  It demands a sea change in human perception but unless this is achieved, humanity will continue to wallow in fear and stagger from one materialistic disaster to another.  This world of conflict need not be so.  Given a real understanding of our spiritual dimension, conflict can be seen in its true perspective; i.e. the means whereby the individual spirit learns to develop character and realise its true potential.  Once this is accepted, humanity will no longer see conflict in terms of “us and them”.  Fear and hatred would be replaced by understanding and love.

What an opportunity this presents to us, though we would need to take care the study of mind is used to bring greater freedom to all and not a means for a few to enslave the rest.  Must we destroy much of what we have achieved in making physical life more tolerable before we turn away from materialism and embrace a philosophy that more closely reflects the totality of human existence?  All the competing religious philosophies can be reconciled and peace prevail everywhere, if we would only accept mind as a spiritual faculty and use it as it should be used.  There would be so much to learn and so many wonders to be seen and experienced we wouldn’t have time for petty feuds and religious bigotry.

CHANCE?

 

Last Sunday, my wife and I were walking in the foothills of the mountains on the edge of the village where we live.  It was a glorious, sunny morning and we were really enjoying our walk.  At one point we stopped to rest, sitting on a large rock beside the trail, when a couple of other walkers came down the mountain towards where we were sitting.  We began talking to them and found that they were visiting the village for a few days from the distant city where they lived.  They were experienced hikers and were planning to spend two or three days climbing locally.

We chatted together for about thirty minutes and then they continued on their way.  We followed a short time later as we had decided to return home.  We noticed, after a while, that the other couple had branched off onto a trail leading higher up the mountain.  “They’re courageous” said my wife and I mumbled something like, “Maybe foolhardy!”  We continued our journey home thinking what a pleasant couple they were and thought no more about it until the following evening when an acquaintance mentioned that two hikers were missing in the mountains and a search was underway.  The man had been found but the woman was still missing.  From the description, we realised it must be the very couple we spoke to in the mountains the day before!

We were very concerned and prayed she would be discovered unharmed and that her husband was not injured.  Next morning, we were walking in the village when the husband drove past us.  We stopped him and asked if he was alright and had his wife been found?  It seems they realised it was late, the wife was tired and they couldn’t find their way down the mountain in the dark.  He asked his wife to wait and he would go for help. On his way down he had fallen, lost consciousness for a while and when he became aware again, he could no longer raise her on her mobile phone.  He called the emergency services and was eventually found late that night.  Someone stayed with him until dawn as it was too dangerous to bring him down in the dark from the ledge where he was. 

The searchers were still trying to find his wife, he said.  We expressed our concern, gave him our telephone number and said if he felt he needed company, he should not hesitate to visit us at home.  We first met him on Sunday morning and this was Tuesday.  That evening we heard from a friend that a body had been discovered in the mountains and of course we feared the worst.  Our fears were confirmed when, next morning, we received a text message from the husband saying his wife had fallen to her death.  We were shocked but repeated our offer for him to come to see us at home.  He eventually came to see us later in the day and he told us the rescue service was bringing his wife’s body down from the mountain around the time we were speaking.  Fortunately, some family members had driven to the village to be with him and they had agreed to identify the body; something he had been dreading he would have to do. 

We tried our best to comfort him and explained about our conviction that life was eternal and that we felt sure his wife would try her best to let him know she was still near him.  My wife explained about experiences she had when her brother, whom she loved dearly, had passed at an early age.  These concerned his name and his nickname appearing on a lorry that drove past her and the inexplicable playing of his favourite song on the radio in a restaurant.  It was played very loud and the waitress later apologised for the loudness as she hadn’t realised anyone else was present.  When my wife explained this he mentioned that, for no apparent reason, a wind chime at the hotel where he was staying rang as he was passing it.  This happened on two separate occasions since the accident and there seemed no reason why the chime should do so at those times.   He spent perhaps two hours with us, telling us about his life and going over what had happened in the mountains and then left, promising to call again next day.  He did call at our house the following morning but unfortunately we missed him.

He sent us a text message saying he had now left the village, thanked us for helping him and explained he had had further unusual things happen that convinced him his wife was close.  He said without our talk with him, he would have failed to see the significance of these.  Apparently, as he was driving away from the village having failed to see us, he switched on the car radio.  He heard just static, so pressed the search button and a station was found that immediately began to play a series of songs that were all about girls with the same name as his wife!  Even more surprising, after these songs had finished, the station played his wife’s favourite song!!

Was it chance that of all the people in our village, where they were total strangers, the couple should meet my wife and I before the accident?  Was it also coincidence that he should drive past us in the street while the search for his wife was taking place?  Was it chance that the radio should play those songs and the wind chime should ring just as he passed it, on not one but two occasions?  Was it also chance that we missed him when he called at our home which meant he was in his car able to hear the particular songs played by the radio station the search button had found?

God and the Spirit World do work in wonderful ways to help us in our moments of sadness and despair.  Tragedies unfortunately happen but it is my belief that what is about to happen is known in the spirit world and steps are taken by those there who love us, to help us cope with the consequences of the tragedy.  Our experience last week shows this in operation.