Post by Thorngrub on Aug 10, 2004 10:52:56 GMT -5
I personally perceive no definite confirmations of the existence of God, per se, in so-called "quantum weirdness", or in the subatomic-physics insight that all matter is also energy, that all things are energy or space, and all things are interconnected in a sea of flux. It's possible, judging from science alone, that this sea of flux could have given rise to isolate intelligences, in its biological complications of itself -- e.g., human beings -- without giving rise to a divine, all encompassing intelligence.
There are some indications that innate in matter may be the tendency to evolve into life. That is, the foundations of matter are so-constructed as to make life more probable, over time, than non-life. To some people this is enough proof of a Divine Designer -- the Cosmic Calvin Klein. They reason that this pregnancy of sheer tendency must have been inserted or devised by some intelligence, by a Creator; or at least it implies that the Universe itself has willed life into being and thus the universe itself is "God".
As far as I can see (not very far), this too is a simple leap of faith. If the universe can have other inherent physical laws leading to other probable outcomes, like the development of star systems, it can have an inherent tendency to life without it having to have been "willed" by something. The life-tendency is suggestive, but not definitive.
Recent studies purporting to provide "scientific" evidence that prayer has measurable, objective results in the material world can be explained away as synchronicity, wishful-thinking in the interpretation of statistics, or "the power of suggestion".
When a mystic hears that scientific reasoning can find no clear-cut evidence of God, she chimes in: but there are other kinds of reason to apply, and other kinds of perception, and these are more than hallucination. Or are they? Not long ago, scientists using Magnetic Resonance Imaging claimed to have discovered an area in the brain associated with both an epileptic's hallucinations -- and with visionary experiences of God: a kind of theological G-spot. The same area of the brain was activated in various people tested during deep spiritual contemplation. The researchers imply that the visionary perception of God is a sort of neurological hallucination, probably wired into us as a sort of socioibiological device for socialization and for a comforting feeling of meaningfulness; something which keeps the hairless ape in question from generally freaking out.
But scientifically observed phenomena are interpreted - like Biblical texts - according to the philosophy of the interpreter. A bishop in England, informed of the "God Spot" discovery, said that it was not at all surprising that God would have wired in a physical receiver for his messages. If we're created by God, in some sense, why wouldn't God create our brains with the ability to perceive divine nature, under certain conditions? And could this God Spot be the legendary Third Eye?
Like so much else in the theological realm, the facts can be handily read either way: the God Spot could be planted in us by a Creator, or could be purely neurological: an evolutionary quirk. I fail to see certainty in either conclusion.
If God -- at least so far -- cannot be confirmed through Science or philosophy's Pure Reason, is there another reliable method of confirming God's presence?
My opinion is -- yes. How do we ascertain what is real, any time? We utilize the senses, and the "theatre" in the brain, the sensorium, wherein input is organized into the sensed "drama" of daily life. In the more modern metaphor, we accept as "reality" a sort of holographic matrix of perceptions, the 3-D "cyberspace" of our own neurological software. Our conclusions about reality are filtered through these tools. We have learned to observe and manipulate the physical world, through these and other tools, and to subject it to experiments - -using the scientific method - to verify our hypotheses about it.
These same tools can be applied to the interior search, the visionary search, for contact with the divine. The same scientific principles of critical-mindedness and verification -- as G. I. Gurdjieff pointed out -- can be applied to the search. SETI is a scientific effort to systematically listen to radio signals from the stars for messages generated by extraterrestrials; it's also possible to mount a sort of interior SETI, to listen for messages generated by God.
There are tried and true methods for verifying, to your personal satisfaction, the presence of God. It is, I believe, possible to achieve an intelligent confidence of divine presence that excludes the possibility that you are "simply hallucinating," or engaging in a psychological phenomenon like wish fulfillment. But unlike experiments confirming the verities of physics, experiments confirming the verity of inner contact with the divine reality cannot be demonstrated in the external world by one person for the benefit of another, in a laboratory setting - -not so far as I know.
I have come to believe that there really are "supernatural" phenomena genuinely associated with spiritual seeking: some gurus really can transmit shakti energy, waves of "good feeling" that wash over followers; diligent seekers may well one day discover they themselves have become telepathic, to some degree. There may be other manifestations. Wise teachers invariably counsel against dwelling on these phenomena, or even encouraging them. Corrupt gurus abound; cult leaders like the late "Osho" achieve some "powers" and a limited level of spiritual insight, and use these minor-league achievements to enslave the foolish and to feed their own rapacious egos; such teachers become frozen on the path, and then begin a tumble very like the legendary fall of Lucifer.
Phenomena like shakti transmission and yogic telepathy are presumed to be the by-products of unknown physical laws. They, in themselves, do not constitute proof that there is a God. They only prove that there is a phenomenon which you have been told is associated with God. It could be a purely physical a phenomenon -- but then, so could God.
Spiritual seekers who've passed out of the "spiritual supermarket", who've put New Age superficialities and the toys of quasi-meditation behind them, eventually find, more or less, the same serious, corresponding method in whatever tradition they work within. Vedanta, Buddhism, Christian Mysticism, Sufism, basic Taoism, the Fourth Way -- whatever authentic methodology in which one works -- one finds an emphasis on: mindfulness; on an inner contemplation polished by humility, and an attitude of non-judgmentalism; on reasonable self control; on unification of the psychological self; on cultivation of objective compassion; on careful efforts to awaken from the selfish "sleep" of day-to-day life; on calm self-observation; on a refined "listening" for Higher input; on an exquisitely honed receptivity; on "being here now"; on a particular kind of detachment. (There are additional methods, of course). Longtime seekers consistently report a Higher Mind that comes into play; an awakened, "unconventional" mind that perceives with the aid of a Self that is more than the individual self, and yet is, paradoxically, the only real "individuality". This higher mind has a capacity to incorporate paradox, since the "truth" involves the apparent contradictions of a fuller dimensionality.
An adjunct to these methodologies is what the Sufis call "discrimination", the capacity to discern the difference between one's fantasy of the divine, and the divine actuality. It's easy to be diverted into the realms of the imagination. How do you know when this digression has happened to someone? "By their fruits you shall know them."
The direct experience of divine reality comes only after one has eliminated false teachers, false paths, and pursued one of the authentic paths. Following the path is long, hard work, for most people - though there seem to be instances of profound spiritual insight given spontaneously as a kind of grace.
There are some indications that innate in matter may be the tendency to evolve into life. That is, the foundations of matter are so-constructed as to make life more probable, over time, than non-life. To some people this is enough proof of a Divine Designer -- the Cosmic Calvin Klein. They reason that this pregnancy of sheer tendency must have been inserted or devised by some intelligence, by a Creator; or at least it implies that the Universe itself has willed life into being and thus the universe itself is "God".
As far as I can see (not very far), this too is a simple leap of faith. If the universe can have other inherent physical laws leading to other probable outcomes, like the development of star systems, it can have an inherent tendency to life without it having to have been "willed" by something. The life-tendency is suggestive, but not definitive.
Recent studies purporting to provide "scientific" evidence that prayer has measurable, objective results in the material world can be explained away as synchronicity, wishful-thinking in the interpretation of statistics, or "the power of suggestion".
When a mystic hears that scientific reasoning can find no clear-cut evidence of God, she chimes in: but there are other kinds of reason to apply, and other kinds of perception, and these are more than hallucination. Or are they? Not long ago, scientists using Magnetic Resonance Imaging claimed to have discovered an area in the brain associated with both an epileptic's hallucinations -- and with visionary experiences of God: a kind of theological G-spot. The same area of the brain was activated in various people tested during deep spiritual contemplation. The researchers imply that the visionary perception of God is a sort of neurological hallucination, probably wired into us as a sort of socioibiological device for socialization and for a comforting feeling of meaningfulness; something which keeps the hairless ape in question from generally freaking out.
But scientifically observed phenomena are interpreted - like Biblical texts - according to the philosophy of the interpreter. A bishop in England, informed of the "God Spot" discovery, said that it was not at all surprising that God would have wired in a physical receiver for his messages. If we're created by God, in some sense, why wouldn't God create our brains with the ability to perceive divine nature, under certain conditions? And could this God Spot be the legendary Third Eye?
Like so much else in the theological realm, the facts can be handily read either way: the God Spot could be planted in us by a Creator, or could be purely neurological: an evolutionary quirk. I fail to see certainty in either conclusion.
If God -- at least so far -- cannot be confirmed through Science or philosophy's Pure Reason, is there another reliable method of confirming God's presence?
My opinion is -- yes. How do we ascertain what is real, any time? We utilize the senses, and the "theatre" in the brain, the sensorium, wherein input is organized into the sensed "drama" of daily life. In the more modern metaphor, we accept as "reality" a sort of holographic matrix of perceptions, the 3-D "cyberspace" of our own neurological software. Our conclusions about reality are filtered through these tools. We have learned to observe and manipulate the physical world, through these and other tools, and to subject it to experiments - -using the scientific method - to verify our hypotheses about it.
These same tools can be applied to the interior search, the visionary search, for contact with the divine. The same scientific principles of critical-mindedness and verification -- as G. I. Gurdjieff pointed out -- can be applied to the search. SETI is a scientific effort to systematically listen to radio signals from the stars for messages generated by extraterrestrials; it's also possible to mount a sort of interior SETI, to listen for messages generated by God.
There are tried and true methods for verifying, to your personal satisfaction, the presence of God. It is, I believe, possible to achieve an intelligent confidence of divine presence that excludes the possibility that you are "simply hallucinating," or engaging in a psychological phenomenon like wish fulfillment. But unlike experiments confirming the verities of physics, experiments confirming the verity of inner contact with the divine reality cannot be demonstrated in the external world by one person for the benefit of another, in a laboratory setting - -not so far as I know.
I have come to believe that there really are "supernatural" phenomena genuinely associated with spiritual seeking: some gurus really can transmit shakti energy, waves of "good feeling" that wash over followers; diligent seekers may well one day discover they themselves have become telepathic, to some degree. There may be other manifestations. Wise teachers invariably counsel against dwelling on these phenomena, or even encouraging them. Corrupt gurus abound; cult leaders like the late "Osho" achieve some "powers" and a limited level of spiritual insight, and use these minor-league achievements to enslave the foolish and to feed their own rapacious egos; such teachers become frozen on the path, and then begin a tumble very like the legendary fall of Lucifer.
Phenomena like shakti transmission and yogic telepathy are presumed to be the by-products of unknown physical laws. They, in themselves, do not constitute proof that there is a God. They only prove that there is a phenomenon which you have been told is associated with God. It could be a purely physical a phenomenon -- but then, so could God.
Spiritual seekers who've passed out of the "spiritual supermarket", who've put New Age superficialities and the toys of quasi-meditation behind them, eventually find, more or less, the same serious, corresponding method in whatever tradition they work within. Vedanta, Buddhism, Christian Mysticism, Sufism, basic Taoism, the Fourth Way -- whatever authentic methodology in which one works -- one finds an emphasis on: mindfulness; on an inner contemplation polished by humility, and an attitude of non-judgmentalism; on reasonable self control; on unification of the psychological self; on cultivation of objective compassion; on careful efforts to awaken from the selfish "sleep" of day-to-day life; on calm self-observation; on a refined "listening" for Higher input; on an exquisitely honed receptivity; on "being here now"; on a particular kind of detachment. (There are additional methods, of course). Longtime seekers consistently report a Higher Mind that comes into play; an awakened, "unconventional" mind that perceives with the aid of a Self that is more than the individual self, and yet is, paradoxically, the only real "individuality". This higher mind has a capacity to incorporate paradox, since the "truth" involves the apparent contradictions of a fuller dimensionality.
An adjunct to these methodologies is what the Sufis call "discrimination", the capacity to discern the difference between one's fantasy of the divine, and the divine actuality. It's easy to be diverted into the realms of the imagination. How do you know when this digression has happened to someone? "By their fruits you shall know them."
The direct experience of divine reality comes only after one has eliminated false teachers, false paths, and pursued one of the authentic paths. Following the path is long, hard work, for most people - though there seem to be instances of profound spiritual insight given spontaneously as a kind of grace.
