Going Within (10 page)

No one is alone in this search. People may not talk about it much, but nearly everyone is asking the same question: How do I make the connection with my purpose? Connection is the key—with the Higher Self, with the Earth, with the universal source—with superconsciousness.

6

The New Age and Rational Thought

It is as vital to be physical as it is to be spiritual

T
o find God within oneself it would seem necessary at least to acknowledge his existence. The knotty question of whether God exists, and if so, where, points up a basic difference between Eastern and Western systems of consciousness. The Eastern search for God is directed within the individual; the Western search, without. The Eastern sage believes God is within and integral to human existence. The consciousness of Western religion says God is separate from man, superior to him, and that the deity’s existence must be accepted on faith.

But now we have an astounding and marvelous thing happening. Science, which traditionally has had to maintain a position of “no proof, hence no God” (and no one is more hidebound than your average scientist), now finds itself in the rather delicate condition of having to admit that, yes, there
is
some
thing, neither energy nor matter, but something whose existence we have proved but which we cannot really measure, or weigh, or see. Because if we try to observe it, it changes. If we even think about it, it changes! And this non-energy, non-matter, non-solid something is the stuff of which the universe is made. What a dilemma! Because nobody has yet figured out how this chameleon “something” has the knowledge to make itself into a planet or a poodle.

The Eastern system of thought tends toward going within for the answer. It is right-brained: intuitive, open, capable of holding contradictory concepts without confusion. The traditional Western system of thinking is more left-brained: linear, logical, and rational.

New Age thinking is an attempt to balance the two by pressing past the linear thinking of the rational to include the depth and dimension of the intuitive. I have found that meditation and the solitude of going within opens up my internal universe, whereupon my previous concepts of time, of life and death, of God himself seem quite limited. It is a liberating and adventurous experience.

Similarly, from the scientific books I have been reading, I’ve learned that the field of subatomic quantum physics has opened up a whole new world for modern scientists to explore. Michael Talbot’s masterly work
Beyond the Quantum
is a particularly clear and fascinating presentation of complex theories and experiments of several New Age scientists. Some of
their conclusions have given rise to speculation about the “realness” of reality and highly controversial views (in scientific circles at least) on what can only be described as mysticism. Science and spirituality seem to be converging. Alain Aspect, for instance, in his 1982 experiment, proved that at least one of two conclusions had to be true—either reality as we define it does not exist, i.e., we create reality to be what we think it is,
or
communication with the past
and with our future
does exist.

Rupert Sheldrake, a biochemist, has postulated a superimposed
field
(web of information) which he calls a “morphogenetic field”, or M-field, to account for the conveyance of information within like species. He calls this informational movement “morphic resonance.” On an experimental basis his theory gains support from a thirty-four-year study by William McDougall in which rats from totally different, widely separated genetic lines, nevertheless learned the new useful habits that only one group was working with—except that “learn” is slightly misleading as this information appears to have become universally available once a certain number of rats had acquired it. In other words, the information had entered the rat M-field.

Again, there is the famous “hundredth monkey effect”—not really a controlled experiment, but an observed event that occurred in the 1950’s on the island of Koshima. Researchers performing various studies of the local population of monkeys dumped
sweet potatoes on the beach. This particular species of monkey had never encountered sweet potatoes before, and while they liked the vegetable they clearly did not like its sandy coating. Then one monkey genzius discovered she could clean the potatoes by washing them in the sea. First a few other monkeys, observing this, did the same, later followed by several more busy potato washers. Then quite suddenly, all at once, the entire troop took to washing their potatoes. At this point, other researchers,
on islands far removed from the original
, reported that all
their
monkeys started to
utilize the same washing technique!

The conclusion is that information acquired by a certain number of any given species acts like a flashpoint—from that point forward the species as a whole is equipped with that information. The new knowledge has entered their M-field via morphic resonance. Moreover, since the species can be widely separated geographically but all its descendants everywhere will also be born with that information, when Sheldrake talks about an M-field he is talking about a subatomic informational web that operates across both space and time. In addition, the M-field may well be connected to the subatomic particle behavior that always expresses itself as a movement toward
wholeness
, a movement that is true for all forms and species, including crystals…. And, in further addition, the M-field may account for the ability of undifferentiated cells to decide which ones will grow into a hand, or a head, or whatever; or,
when a group of generalized cells is divided in half, to create twins—that is, two
wholes.

And as recently as 1984, Nobel Prize-winning neurophysiologist Sir John Eccles announced the discovery of what he believes to be biochemical evidence supporting the existence of the human soul.

Perhaps I should take back my remark about “hidebound scientists.” …

Many, many men and women in the worlds of science are now opening their minds to new ways of thinking. In the past ten years, extraordinary experimentation has shattered long-held beliefs and opened up whole new areas for exploration and speculation. Science still shies away from words like
God
and
soul
(despite Sir John), using more comfortable phraseology such as
information
, or even
universal information bank
(scientists do not, of course, acknowledge any coincidence between this concept and the system of information known as “Akashic Records” in the East). What is happening, in fact, is that Eastern mysticism, which intuitively accepts so much, and Western pragmatism, which insists on scientifically proving so much, are coming together. In my opinion, this New Age is the time when the intuitive beliefs of the East and the scientific thinking of the West could meet and join—the twain wed at last. For me, both are necessary, and both are desirable.

With this understanding I can more easily appreciate how people (including myself) can remember past existences and “clairvoyantly” see future times.

I found in my travels that such experiences are well accepted in the East, while here at home in the West these ideas still disturb our linear concepts of rationality. But rationality itself is a tenuous concept. We “stack” information to conform to our reality—that is, we see what we want to see, influenced by what we already know. The question of reality then becomes a question of perception, conditioning, and beliefs.

How to sort out the multilayered levels of belief and perception is what is motivating new approaches to truth in science.

Basic to New Age subatomic discoveries is the concept that in the subatomic world—the stuff of the universe—everything, every last thing, is linked. The universe is a gigantic, multidimensional web of influences, or information, light particles, energy patterns, and electromagnetic “fields of reality.” Everything it is, everything we are, everything we do, is linked to everything else. There is no separateness.

This understanding brings us to the most controversial concept of the New Age philosophy: the belief that God lies within, and therefore we are each part of God. Since there is no separateness, we are each Godlike, and God is in each of us. We experience God and God experiences through us. We are literally made up of God energy, therefore we can create whatever we want in life because we are each co-creating with the energy of God—the energy that makes the universe itself.

Science itself is attempting to establish, in the exploration of subatomic-particle behavior, whether mankind is creating its own reality with the God Source energy, or with some form of universal energy of “information.” Life itself is a creation from this energy. What is it, then? If the pattern of that energy has order, and balance, and grace (which science claims it does), if it has meaning in terms of all life, what is to distinguish it from what the New Age calls God?

In my reading on the relationship between mysticism and quantum physics I was fascinated to learn that each organ of the human body has a harmonious energy pattern that science can now identify. The organs are matter within an electromagnetic energy field, which William Burr described as “the blueprint for life.” In the spatial relationship between the molecules in that energy field, the molecules are, relatively speaking, farther apart than the planets in our perceived universe are to each other. The universe within, then, is more vast than the universe without! Furthermore, according to science the solidity of matter is actually an illusion. The grand illusion, as a matter of fact, is that our physical world is solid. It is not. It is a molecular structure of subatomic particles that
appears
to be solid. Is this science or is this mysticism?

Science says there are three basic components to the event of an experience: time, space, and matter. When there is a consensus that each of those component
parts exists, we have what we term reality. So it only takes an agreement of perception for anything to exist as real. According to science, the physical dimension becomes real only through the consciousness of our intentions. Reality is then actually an intention that becomes an illusion of consciousness.

The molecules that create the illusion of physical reality are organized by electromagnetic fields of energy. If through our “intentional consciousness” we alter the frequency of those electromagnetic fields, we “defy” (or alter) reality. Examples of that are feats by yogis who stop their heartbeats by will (i.e., intention of consciousness), fire-walking, levitation (reversing the polarities of the body relating to gravity), and so on.

So each of us is a living, walking electrical field of energy. Our field of energy organizes the molecular structure that we
perceive
, both within and without, as physical reality.

One of the most extraordinary and beautiful truths about subatomic worlds is that they tend to “move” toward order. Each of us is an amalgamation of frequencies that
needs
to be harmonious and compatible, whose natural order is to move toward harmony. This harmony, this order, is impeded and distorted by feelings of fear, anger, hatred, et cetera. Here, right here, is the interface between who we think we are and the subatomic world from which we have created ourselves.

Conscious awareness of these dynamics within can
help to bring our frequencies into balance. When that occurs, “reality” itself goes beyond our customary comprehension of it—the form of reality takes on a dimension we do not normally perceive.

Highly self-realized and disciplined people with total self-awareness can create antibodies that cure disease. Of course, that is a contradiction in itself because totally self-realized people rarely become diseased. They are in total “easement” within themselves. They will be more, or less, dis-eased depending on the degree of their spiritual awareness. Disease in the body, as I have learned from experience, begins first with a blockage of energy in the spirit. For me,
all
of my physical problems begin in my
consciousness.
And when I stop to meditate, when I go within and literally “ask” my Higher Self why I am manifesting a particular physical problem, I usually get an answer and always it relates to some fear, rejection, or feeling of “nonworthiness.” I try to reconnect with spiritual harmony and God. If I’m successful, I get well, this particular aspect of New Age thinking—self-healing—is a highly developed stage, obviously a long way down the road to full self-awareness.

It requires patience and a full confrontation of one’s own consciousness, which can sometimes be extremely painful, because it involves the most difficult of all human feelings: self-forgiveness. I have found that I first have to
admit
that I am afraid, or angry, or rejected, or feeling undeserving.
Then
I can
forgive myself for allowing myself such disharmony. When I forgive myself, healing begins.