“God is Love”/Quantum Mechanics/The psychic = All That Is
Posted on 07 October 2015, 10:43
Many of those with deep interest in the psychic, would like church people to take some of psychic research into their understanding of Christianity. They would like to point out that what we learn from such studies serves to confirm and throw light on Christian beliefs, such as afterlife, angels, and prayer. They would like to point out that some of these beliefs, together with psychic research and open-minded quantum physics, combine to describe All That Is from three points of view. I personally also suggest that what we call psychic research, or consciousness studies, much enlarges our thoughts about love.
One form of basic Christian belief is that God is in all, through all that is, and above all. God and God’s creation are one and undivided.
In the Old Testament we find the Jewish creed: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:4)
In the New Testament we find Jesus quoting these words and adding the words, “and with all your mind.” He further adds, “‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Luke 10:27)”
He includes in this oneness, the love of anyone whom we encounter in our lives. He goes on to say about love of God and neighbour, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” The whole of what we call the Old Testament can be studied for the light that it may, or may not, shine on these two commandments.
In the letter to the Ephesians we read of “one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
We read at Acts 17:28 “For in him (God) we live and move and have our being.”
The Gospel of John sees God in a similar way. St Paul perhaps is not consistent, but most of the time he seems to identify the risen Christ with God, and that we are all one in that Christ, or God.
In 1 John 4:9 we read, “The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” There is much wonderful writing about love in the Bible, in which 1 Corinthians 13 stands out: The first verse reads, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity (love), I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal…”
Probably no Christian of any imaginable church, would disagree with any of the above. God is all of this. God is One, God is Love, God is All in All.
The problem with all this, is that many Christians believe every word of the Bible, where there are also very different pictures of God, who is sometime depicted as a physical man walking the Earth, or an angry old man in the skies, ready to punish the sinner. Believing every picture of God that is found in the Bible leaves so very many people confused. It is one of the basic reasons why Christianity is divided into tens of thousands of disagreeing sects.
In spite of all their differences, Christians will not disagree with the passages that I have been quoting. They will agree that God is love, and in him we live and move and have our being, that God is in all, through all, and above all. As no Christians will disagree, I feel safe to present this unconfused picture as Christian. As for the contradictory beliefs also held by so many Christians, I can only acknowledge their existence, and say that they have no place in the discussion that follows.
Open-minded quantum physicists say that both physical reality and spiritual reality are mind stuff, with everything potentially connected with every thing else. Mind, sometimes conscious, is universal, creative of new realities, and is one. Mind too is in all, through all, and above all. It also creates. They see the physical realm as Mind in one form, the psychic realm as Mind in another form. The psychic realm has a role in creating the physical world, and all that goes on in it. Such physicists appear to be describing in the language of physics the same reality that we have been describing in the language of the Bible, and in the language of human relationships of all kinds.
Genesis begins with, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”
The Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”
Non-Materialist quantum physicists say that All-That-Is can be understand as undivided Mind in various forms; and that Mind creates. Mind is one and undivided and creates all that is, God, or “The Word” in John 1:1 is undivided and creates All That Is. God can be seen as creative Mind.
However, it seems inadequate to describe “God” as “Universal Mind” a kind of mind that involves objective ratiocination, a left-brain kind of mind. And truly, even though humanity and the rest of creation in some senses participate in that Mind, and give expression to that Mind, so much of that Mind must be beyond our comprehension. “God” is also called “Love”. Love and other emotions are the emotive force that set creativity into action.
I discussed creativity in my last blog, where I remarked that it is hard to accept the theory of creationists where a separated God steps into the physical world and creates a new life form. I also said that it was also hard to accept the theory of materialist evolutionists that new species come into existence through random genetic modifications. Random genetic modifications are usually harmful
It is tempting at this point to explore the creativity of Mind at length, to explore what the biologist Rupert Sheldrake has to say, for instance, about the mental interaction between migratory birds and a supposed other-dimensional memory field, when fledglings travel thousands of kilometers to specific locations. It explores creative interation between dimensions.
For the physicist, if the term “God” is used then we can say the word refers to “The universal mind in which we participate” . That is a suggested scientific description. But that is an inadequate picture for us living human beings, with our various emotions, motivating all that we do. When we meditate, contemplate the many-sided vastness of all that is, we experience awe, we feel lifted out of ourselves, and as we push back the boundaries that constrain our consciousness, we are filled with wonder, and express this in music, and song, prayer and in hearts reaching out to others.
On the internet I found these definitions of the word, “love:” but none of these quite adequately describes what may be involved in the love of God, of a reality that far surpasses our understanding. I like the following quotation from Ephesians 3:17-19 : “so that Christ [the universal spirit of God] may dwell in your hearts through faith.
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
I could end on that note. But where does the psychic come in? Why should we trouble ourselves with psychical research, the paranormal, and what we hear from mediums?
It is because for all of us without exception our picture of God is too small, too parochial, too much confined to conventional terminology. Unless we have an exceptional spiritual awareness, we often derive our pictures of God from the Sunday School of old, t hrough the formularies and worship of our particular sect. Our conscious awareness of Spirit is second hand, based on the teachings of our particular community, absorbed from the crowd. Is there even a spiritual dimension in the first place? Are phenomena such as ESP, PK, clairvoyance real? Is there an afterlife? What is it like? Is there a heaven and a hell? Can we experience spiritual guidance from guardian angels? Do we go directly into the next life, or do we all await a general resurrection? If we go to the Bible for answers, they are often contradictory. Can we gain reliable information through spirits speaking through mediums?
Unless we truly ask such questions, and patiently investigate the various answers that we may find, we will never know. Failure to do all these things I believe is responsible for the decline of the churches, and a common unthinking skepticism that blights so much of modern life.
I was recently interviewed by Kardec Radio about the Church of England’s attitude to information gained through mediums. (The answer is the there is no general consensus about the matter. Some believe that it is real and often helpful, some do not.) I am interested to discover that the Spiritist followers of Allan Kardec belong to societies rather than churches for the wish to avoid dogma, but rather they focus on what can be learned of the world of spirit in the present time, hoping to base their relationships to spirit, on reality rather than on tradition. If you would like to hear the interview on October 10 you can listen here.
Michael Cocks edits the journal, The Ground of Faith.
Afterlife Teaching From Stephen the Martyr by Michael Cocks is published by White Crow Books and available from Amazon and other bookstores.
His latest book, Into the Wider Dream: Synchronicity in the Witness Box is published by White Crow Books.
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