Along the way, Susan mentioned a Dr. Oz episode from last year that featured Theresa Caputo (the Long Island Medium) and Dr. Daniel Amen, a psychiatrist who is either loved or hated for the brain-scan database he has built using SPECT technology (single photon emission computed tomography).* Apparently, Dr. Amen had shown the SPECT scan of an unnamed Canadian channeller as part of his discussion on psychic ability. Susan thought I might be the channeller whose brain scan was featured. (This was a logical assumption, since it was Dr. Amen's clinic who included me in their Normal Brain Study in 2004, rather than in one of their anomalous groups, despite the fact that I'd told the clinic at the very beginning of the intake process about my channelling.)
Anyway, this TV episode was news to me. I don't usually watch Dr. Oz, so I was taken by surprise.
As soon as I got off the phone with Susan, I googled the show. Yup, there it was -- a Dr. Oz show where Dr. Amen was collecting data from Theresa Caputo's brain during a live TV demonstration of mediumship. (On the show, he wasn't using SPECT technology, which requires a massive scanning machine, but was instead measuring Theresa's brainwave frequencies.)
Hoo boy.
The good news is that Dr. Amen was not using my brain scans on the Dr. Oz show. The bad news is that Dr. Oz and Dr. Amen, despite their good intentions, are really not helping.
I love the fact that these doctors, along with Dr. Eben Alexander and others, are open to the idea that we live in a non-Materialist quantum universe. I love the questions they're asking. I'm grateful for their input and ideas. I'm grateful to Dr. Amen's group for taking a chance on my brain and showing me what my brain looks like while I'm thinking "normal thoughts" and while I'm thinking "mystical thoughts."
But gosh, guys, I wish you'd all slow down a bit!
I know people are eager and interested in the topic of "extranormal communications" (if I may use that umbrella term for experiences of connection with the Divine), but this is a vast and basically unexplored area of scientific research, so let's not jump the gun. Let's proceed slowly, carefully, and ethically as we try to put scientific labels on the mystical experiences that people have been having for thousands of years.
The thing that fills me with exasperation -- that makes me want to pull my hair out -- is the way solid researchers seem to use different rules as soon as they start to study mysticism. (And neuroscientists aren't the only ones doing this; theologians are doing it, too.)
Please stop doing this, guys. Please stop putting mystics and mysticism on a pedestal. Please stop assuming you should apply a different set of rules to the study of mysticism because you think mysticism is somehow different from "normal life."
It's not.
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| Many of history's self-proclaimed mystics have actually been dangerously self-deluded narcissists and psychopaths who want to ruin your relationship with God so they can have the satisfaction of watching you grovel as you beg them for help. This doesn't mean there haven't been genuine mystics along the way. It just means there has to be methodical scientific and historical research to sort the chaff from the wheat. This photo shows a Royal Ontario Museum reconstruction of the Athena Parthenos, who was said to have sprung fully grown from the head of her father Zeus. Doesn't she look nice up there on her pedestal where everybody can worship her? Photo credit JAT 2017. |
Almost no one realizes there are multiple types of mysticism. You cannot lump the brain scans of all self-proclaimed mystics into one single category.
Before you can understand what the brain scans are saying, you first need to know which "language" the mystic is speaking. Is it apophatic? Anagogic? A mix of the two? Or is it cataphatic, with its numerous variants? Is there a history of major mental illness (because that skews the picture as well)? Is there a history of psychotropic drug use? Is there a history of head injury (including concussion)? Is there a history of religious indoctrination in any mainstream or popular religion? Does the mystic dream, and if so, what are the characteristics of these dreams? Does the mystic regularly fast or follow other ascetic practices? Most importantly, is the mystical experience voluntary? If it's not voluntary, there's something seriously wrong inside the brain and this should be investigated.
And that's just the start of my list . . .
The mystical experience is a wonderful doorway into the world of consciousness research because everything inside a mystic's head is somewhat intensified and therefore easier to see in both psychological testing and in neuroscanning. The brain of a brain-healthy mystic is a researcher's dream. But first you have to ask the right questions!
*Addendum August 11, 2023: the hyperlink that used to lead to the 2013 Dr. Oz video no longer works. A recent search turned up two recent back-to-back videos featuring Dr. Amen and Theresa Caputo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WewBXmJl2Lk and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8qj0EPLwnQ.
For Further Reflection:
If you were to ask me to describe the single most important thing I've learned about the universe during thousands of hours of conscious mystical communication with God and my angels, I'd have to say, hands-down, it's the truth that God isn't One -- God is Two. God is both God the Mother and God the Father, who together shape the universe and guide the growth of all their angelic children.
If you were to ask me for the single most important piece of advice I can give you to help you move forward on your spiritual path, it would be this: open both your heart and your mind to the reality that God is two vast beings, not one.
Accepting this reality will be a tremendous struggle for anyone raised in a monotheistic religious tradition (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, the Baha'i Faith, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, and certain indigenous religions, to name some of the larger monotheistic theologies). All these religions are built on the doctrinal roots of a single God who may or may not be male, but is probably immutable and is definitely timeless, omnipresent, and supreme -- according to the doctrines.
The practical problem with all theories of a single God lies in the nitty gritty of Divine Love. Love is, by its very definition, a force, a field, an energy, a truth that connects two different hearts to each other and forms a bridge -- a relationship -- between them.
If there's no second person to build a bridge to, there's no Divine Love. There may be plenty of words, plenty of laws, and plenty of knowledge, but if there's no second Heart, there's no relationship and therefore no Divine Love.
Some writers, including Gnostic and New Thought teachers, have noticed this problem and have tried to get around it by positing a fracturing or splintering of God's Oneness into many little bits of light that fall into 3D places like human bodies and become trapped here until the secret knowledge of escape or ascension or enlightenment is reclaimed. These theories sound good at the beginning, but when you examine them carefully, their many internal inconsistencies always lead to more and more complicated "explanations" for why things are the way they are.
There's no need for mental gymnastics when you embrace the idea that God is really two. In this belief system, God the Mother and God the Father are the two Hearts which form the universal model for balance-seeking, boundary-respecting, talent-sharing Divine Love. After that, the concept of male and female energies (different from each other but mutually interdependent) makes 100% sense. Traits such as empathy, forgiveness, altruism, healing, generosity, conscience, and self-sacrifice make 100% sense (because all of them depend on relationship bridges). The causes of human suffering (such as narcissism, psychopathy, and status addiction) stand out for the ways in which they try to smother and suppress the relationship bridges of Divine Love. The good parts of major world religions (the parts that promote healthy relationships) can then be sorted and separated from the destructive parts.
Suddenly, where once you thought you were a lost, unworthy soul (or a trapped spark of God), you now have permission to accept that you're a beloved child of Divine Parents.
Just as we, as human children, have relationships with our human parents, angelic children have relationships with our Divine Parents. Divine Love is all about nurturing and expanding those wondrous relationships. It's a powerful force, this knowing your own Heart as well as the Hearts of those in your sacred, eternal, Divine Family.
Few religious teachers in the history of human civilization have had the courage to understand God in this radically egalitarian way.
Jesus son of Joseph was one of them.
