The Imprisoned Splendour

When you are sitting quietly in your garden or somewhere in the countryside, do you sometimes feel as though you are only partly there? As though most of you is somewhere else though you are physically aware you have not moved?.

In an age where all too often one is ridiculed if you do not accept a materialist view of the world, such feelings can be unsettling. Yet, they are perfectly natural.  It is thosewho cannot see or feel beyond what they are convinced is physical reality who are being ridiculous.  The  advent of The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin and the rise of physics as the most influential scientific discipline, created a crossroads for humanity.  A crossroads where many have taken the wrong turning due to a misunderstanding.  A misunderstanding which failed to see that the new discoveries were not absolute truth that invalidated all we had accepted as truth before that time.

New discoveries about the world in which we live and our own physical make-up should never become the source of dogma and yet they have.  Many think that dogmatic thinking is the sole preserve of religion but such a view is mistaken. Scientific and medical dogma are no less injurious to human understanding of life  than is the dogma of any church or religious philosophy. Once an idea becomes enshrined as dogma it precludes rational thought. It pre-determines the direction of future research and until a new, original thinker appears, progress is arrested. Whether one examines the history of religion or that of almost any scientific discipline, this is quite clear.

In the Christian religion, one narrow view held sway for centuries in until the revolutionary thinking of Luther and other non-conformists such as Calvin, Knox and Wesley, forced new ideas upon the Christian community.  In their turn unfortunately, the teachings of many such original thinkers were also

 dogmatised.  They did not result in the free thinking expected when launching their ideas. 

This was no less true in science, where initially the church decided what was acceptable.  Then came Galileo with his telescope and Newton and his apple. Newtonian physics reigned supreme and restricted scientific thinking for years before the arrival of Albert Einstein, who had not been trained as a scientist in the traditional way. Einstein’s disciples started a new dogma despite his own history as a free thinker, which along with the materialistic views of scientists generally, is still exerting a restricting influence. Were that not the case I believe particle physicists would by now have accepted the evidence for non-physical dimensions.

It is not just the translation of revolutionary ideas into dogma but the intellectual arrogance of science and religion that has bedeviled human progress. Look at the pronouncements of paleontologists.  The arrogance displayed in their pronouncements about the beginnings of human life on Earth are breathtaking.  At least they do accept new discoveries changing their previous dogmatic convictions.  Similarly Astronomy has in the past been far too dogmatic and arrogant in its claims. Now the advent of telescopes in space is changing their understanding. 

 

What has all this to do with sitting alone and feeling only partly present?  Spiritualists almost alone it seems to me, take a much more holistic view of life, it’s purpose and the growth in human understanding.  We accept generally, that all life is driven by spirit and that the material, whether it be human bodies or the millions of worlds and suns in the universe, is merely a phase of spirit life. We

 accept that the entire physical universe and all its component parts are but reflections of the spiritual universe. The reality is the world of the spirit, the physical world is but a dream if you like. Above all we know that though more gross, the physical world is still part of the spirit world

When we feel disconnected in the way I described, it means we are for a little while, given the privilege of knowing true reality and not just the dream.  Our true self, our spirit, is experiencing its natural environment, perhaps for the only time during our physical life existence.  It is a glimpse of heaven. To my knowledge, such experiences involve us totally.  It is not just a matter of seeing or hearing but all our senses become part of the experience. It is truly transcendental. Robert Browning knew about such things.  He wrote:-

Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise

From outward things, whate’er you may believe.

There is an inmost centre in us all,

Where truth abides in fullness; and around,

Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,

This perfect, clear perception – which is truth.

A baffling and perverting carnal mesh

Binds it, and makes all error: and to know,

Rather consists in opening out a way

Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,

Than in effecting entry for a light

Supposed to be without.

Various people have experienced these transcendental moments. Here is one such from a book called The Psychic Sense, published in 1943:-

“I was sitting on the seashore, half-listening to a friend arguing violently about a matter which merely bored me. Unconsciously to myself, I looked at a film of sand I had picked up on my hand, when I  suddenly saw the exquisite beauty of every little grain of it: instead of being dull, I saw that each particle was made up on a perfect geometric pattern, with sharp angles, from each of which a brilliant shaft of light was reflected, while each tiny Chrystal shone like a rainbow.  The rays crossed and re-crossed, making exquisite patterns, of such beauty that they left me breathless. 

I was used, at odd intervals, to seeing the invisible counterpart of minute objects, but this was quite unexpected and fascinating.  Then suddenly, my consciousness was lighted up from within and I saw in a vivid way how the whole universe was made up of particles of material which, no matter how dull and lifeless they might seem at first sight, were nevertheless filled with this intense and vital beauty.

For a second or two, the whole world appeared as a blaze of glory.  When it died down, it left me something I have never forgotten and which constantly reminds me of the beauty locked up in every minute speck of material around me.”

If grains of sand can look like that, just imagine what our bodies look like. It is said “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Our main problem is our physical eyes can only see a small and insignificant part of the beauty of the Earth.  Early man used his inner awareness to stay safe in his violent world but we have largely eschewed exercising ours. It is tragic really, for you can get a glimpse above of what we have sacrificed.  Having fallen for the blandishments of science and technology, in the form of greater ease and convenience,  we have divorced ourselves from reality. 

Spiritualism came into existence at the behest of the spirit world in order that we can learn once again how to release that imprisoned splendour, understood by Robert Browning.

Lionel Owen 2022