History for Life is but a Dream...
changed:
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I wrote this letter to the Monthly Aspectarian some time ago. (October 2002)
I don't believe that Guy ever published it, for some reason...
Anyway, I think it's worth sharing, so here ya go.
p
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See Footnotes (in parentheses) for references and links
Guy Spiro
Publisher
The Monthly Aspectarian
Hi, Guy!
And congrats on the latest issue of The Monthly Aspectarian, (http://www.lightworks.com) and in particular the interview with John Hagelin (<a href="#0">0</a>). I thoroughly agree with your Contents page note that this is "...one of the most extraordinarily meaningful messages to grace these pages."
I'm glad to finally see we're getting to the root of the issue here. For many years now I've answered people's question about religion, or spiritual beliefs, by explaining that my religion is 'quantum physics', as it's the only one that reliably repeats its miracles, and is no respecter of persons or opinions...
I'm also a firm believer in the power of Eros, which is the human-scale dynamic mutually complementary manifestation of reactions to the quantum flux in the cosmos. As Newton explained, every action has its equal and 'opposite' reaction. 'Opposite' was his word, if not in English, but perhaps today we can better appreciate it by saying 'complementary'. Opposite really means the same thing, but now has the connotation of 'at war'. Really it is the relationship of positive and negative space in design, one can't draw only a positive shape. The 'negative' is that which defines and creates the limit of the 'positive'.
Along with these realizations must come the understanding that we are, as my friend [Jerome McGeorge] says, "...not human beings on a spiritual journey, but spirit beings on a human journey." Dr. Hagelin's assertions about the power of multiple meditators are indeed powerfully resonant with my own observations... However, as it is said, don't ask 'G-D' to do what you can take care of yourself.
While internal convergence is absolutely necessary for the required global magickal transformation, I would strongly assert that New Agers of all ages better get ready to go to the streets to stop that "War on Everything" that the White Witch is brewing in her frozen cauldron. (Readers of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" by CS Lewis will recall the Witch who created an endless winter in Narnia, eventually broken only by selfless sacrifice of the great Leo, Aslan) An endless winter is a good image for the current success of the materialistic religions: in particular the monotheist variety which attempt to remove the spirit from the physical, and place it in a protected, high-security, military hierarchical zone far above the reach of the hoi polloi.
These religions abuse that part of the brain which I believe is predisposed to the 'prayer principle'. The Prayer Principle is the natural reaction to the sub-conscious observation of the species that focused meditative energies DO have real world effects. The brain is an energy transceiver, and clearly resonates with brains attuned to similar frequencies.(<a href="#1">1</a>) These resonant transceivers then can mold the creative and causal processes through which events and objects come into being. It's not much different than any creative process, whether designing a building or preventing a war...
For instance, while I don't 'believe' in a anthropomorphic 'Goddess', I regularly address petitions to Her in my heart and mind. I acknowledge rationally the non-existence of any such 'Her', but my brain has a circuit designed to allow me to calm myself, to align my vibration with others of similar intent, and to become more open to non-rational insights, by addressing my love and reason to "Her". Why not use such a tool! It works, no?
Instead of debating about the existence-or-not of one or more 'gods', our mission, if we choose to accept it, is to raise the vibration of the physical plane, in effect de-"material"-izing it, so that it's easier for all sentient beings to perceive the dream nature of our common experience. As Dr. Hagelin says, the ancients were far more aware of these things. I'd also note the important work of the late Terence McKenna (<a href="#2">2</a>), who argued very persuasively that archaic cultures were in fact in possession of an internal knowledge based on deep and regular psychedelic experience involving plant-based psychedelics, including the psilocybin mushroom, which, he argues, was the Soma of the Vedas. (His refutation of R. Gordon Wasson's argument for Amanita Muscaria is quite thorough.)
While, (ahem...) nobody but McKenna (<a href="#3">3</a>) would argue in today's puritanical environment that a bit more ritual use of natural psychedelics might not only be a legitimate spiritual path, but may also have been ultimately at the root of many of our higher cognitive abilities, including symbolic thought and language, one may well note that the molecules in certain plants and fungi are so remarkably similar to our own neuro-transmitters (such as serotonin) that it's hard not to see that some functional relationship is intended.
If we accept for a moment the widely held archaic notion that this world is the dream and that, in fact, our dream world is a step closer to our true nature, it's not hard to accept that certain practices, which focus our awareness into the nature of awareness, which is the perception of patterns of meaning, are essential to the proper development of a conscious planet.
"Life is but a dream." Rather than 'ancient civilizations' passing 'technologies' down to us, I would say that we, ourselves, in our conscious, timeless beings, are passing notes from the mythosphere. Myth, music, fairy tale, nursery rhymes and art are the expressions of ancient human urges. Rather than being seen as failed science, we will begin to see creation myths and all of those timeless tales which are held in the collective 'subconscious' as creatively coded messages from our own timeless fairy sparks to our day-to-day selves, caught, for better or worse, in the day-to-day processes of an organism in the time vortex.
In the meantime, the great work is ongoing. I believe that without the work of persons of great goodwill over thousands of years, things would be far worse than they are today. However, Gaia is in great danger. She can NOT protect herself. We must not fall for such wishful thinking. We must engage in the great work of her Healing, and of our own, and remember that the legitimate definition of "Faith" is to proceed with the work in the knowledge that it is of deep importance, regardless of whether we receive recognition, nor, indeed, whether we live to see the results of our efforts.
Finally, I hope you will encourage your readers to vote responsibly in November.
Voting is practical magic. Vote for Democrats purely for this practical reason: to keep the current (p)resident and his warmonger industrialist oily-garchy from utterly destroying the rest of our constitutional democracy along with the planet Herself. With a rubber-stamp Republican congress and pre-packed Supremes, the current occupant of the White House will be granted carte blanche to usurp the rest of the Rights and Powers that should belong to We the People, and effectively undo the sacrifices of the uprising of 1776 by returning We the People to the status of subservient Subjects of the One Nation Global Security State Under 'God'.
Thanks for your good light works!
Ciao--
Peter Fraterdeus
Galena, Illinois
<a name="0">0</a>) http://lightworks.com/MonthlyAspectarian/2002/September/conversation.htm
<a name="1">1</a>) See "Music, The Brain and Ecstasy" by Robert Jourdain
(The book has nothing to do with the drug, but with the state of being, described as 'that state which one desires to repeat as soon as possible')
A Review is at http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Abstracts/Zatorre_on_Jourdain_97.html
<a name="2">2</a>) See "Food of the Gods", "The Archaic Revival", etc. also, your interview with Terence / http://www.lightworks.com/MonthlyAspectarian/1996/September/12-0996.html
<a name="3">3</a>) Of course, this is not really true. There are plenty of advocates for responsible engagement with the ancient plant teachers...
