LSP36: Do You Agree with the Statement that "You Are God"?

Click here to find out everything he revealed!!!!! Yes, you too can know you are God!!!!!

So went the text of a recent promo sent to me via OMTimesMedia. I've retyped some of the relevant passages here:

In a recent message from Dr. Baskaran Pillai, who Dr. Wayne Dyer has called ‘one of the most Enlightened people on the planet’, he reiterated that you (yes you) are in fact God.

There is, however, a catch…

You must realize it. That is to say ‘real-ize’ or ‘actual-ize’ it.

However for most of us, and maybe you can relate, most of our time and energy goes into our human identity, not our spiritual one.

This is the root cause of so many of our frustrations, disappointments, and problems in life.
Dr. Pillai has shared 2 things from his recent meditations that he wants you to know:

1. You MUST defeat your image to real-ize your inherent God potential.
2. A set of divine tools and techniques that can make this process easy.

“This is my New Teaching that just came from my meditation over the past few days. I barely slept. I kept up all night, and then I had visions about humanity changing, and then I was given this teaching. ‘Defeat the Image.’ Why? Then only you can put a new image in.” – Dr. Pillai

 
Dr. Pillai isn't the only one peddling this spiritual snake oil. It's been around for millennia. This is one of the reasons I laughed out loud when I read his self-important statement above: "This is my New Teaching that just came from my meditation over the past few days. I barely slept. I kept up all night, and then I had visions about humanity changing, and then I was given this teaching."

Well, you know, when you abuse your biological brain in this way, you're bound to start having biological consequences such as hallucinations.

Self-induced hallucinations, combined with personality issues such as narcissism, status addiction, and schadenfreude frequently generate what is known in theological circles as "revelation" -- in other words, a "New Teaching" given to a specially chosen prophet along with "a set of divine tools and techniques that can make this process easy."

Ah yes, the "easy fix" promised by "Enlightened Masters" today and in days long past. Oh wait  . . . you're not supposed to bring up the topic of days long past. You're only supposed to focus on today's message, today's very special, one-of-a-kind, never-heard-before message from today's specially chosen divine messenger, because this time it's different! This time, after all God's failed efforts to make himself heard and understood, God has finally -- at long last and at great peril! -- managed to push his way through the terrible obstacles of the Unseen Realms and speak to one specially chosen messenger!

When you take the time to study the history of religious claims about God, you start to see the same claims popping up over and over across different religions, cultures, time spans, and geographical places. Some claims are positive and helpful, like the good fruits from God's garden that keep your body, mind, and inner heart healthy. Other claims, such as the revelation that you're actually God, are a waste of your time and money -- sort of like buying a big bag of juicy autumn pears and discovering when you get home that all of the pears are rotten in the middle. Photo credit JAT 2022.

O, lucky us, that we, at this unique time and place, should somehow manage to be the only ones ever in history to whom God has managed to speak the One Truth! How did we survive before this special time of ascension?! How did we cope without realizing we're actually God?! I mean, really, if we'd known this before, we could have had smartphones and movie streaming centuries ago without wasting our time on all that stupid stuff like insight, forgiveness, morality of happiness (as opposed to morality of obligation), and what it means to use our free will (and our humanity) as children of God! We could have just jumped straight to the good stuff without all the bother and hard work of trusting God and trusting each other and trusting the science of Creation! Who needs trust and love and respect when you can claim God potential instead?

I refuse to supply a link for the above "spiritual infomercial." You're welcome to search for it if you insist. But I have free will and I don't believe that all religious teachings are equally healing and equally helpful in our lives as human beings. I tend to believe the evidence of my own eyes, which suggests that some religious teachings -- far from showing people how to be loving and respectful -- actually turn people into spoiled, narcissistic brats incapable of making moral decisions.

The "You Are God" teachings turn people into spoiled, narcissistic brats.

Use them at your own risk.

But if you use them, ask this question: Why isn't it enough for you to be you -- a child of God who is fully cherished and respected as an equal member of God's wondrous family precisely BECAUSE you aren't God?

Why would you want to be somebody you're not? 

LSP29: The Presence of God

This morning, I read an online interview with author Gregg Braden in a New Age magazine called OMTimes. The magazine says Gregg Braden is "internationally known as a pioneer in bridging science, ancient wisdom and the real world!" If you go to Wikipedia to learn more about Gregg Braden, you'll find only a brief entry with a very short introductory paragraph followed by a list of his publications. I find it interesting that Braden's Wikipedia entry has been so heavily redacted.

The interview in OMTimes can't be downloaded, so I spent some time copying quotes from the article (including all the punctuation and capitalization):

"Since 1986 Gregg has explored high mountain villages, remote monasteries, and forgotten texts to merge their timeless secrets with the best science of today. His discoveries are now shared in 34 languages through such paradigm-inspiring books as: The God Code, Deep Truth, and his newest, The Turning Point: Creating Resilience in a Time of Extremes."

Braden believes the world is at a turning point with human beings facing extremes of climate change, economic change, and health change that no human beings have ever dealt with before. He defines "community" as "our answer to our time of extremes," and he defines "resilience" as "our personal ability to thrive in our time of extremes." (This sounds eerily like the apostle Paul's koinonia and hagiasmos: fellowship and holiness.)

He has this to say about the merging of science, ancient wisdom and the real world:

"The wisdom comes from 5,000 years of the spiritual traditions where we apply what we know about the world and about our lives. It's about making life work for us. As a scientist, I was trained and taught that I must follow either one path or the other -- the path of science or the path of spirituality.

In this generation, we have an opportunity, rather than to choose between science and spirituality, to marry the best science of the 21st century with 5,000 years of spiritual wisdom and weave them into a way of knowing that is greater than the science can be all by itself. It's greater than spiritual can be all by itself. And when we do that, we give ourselves the evolutionary edge that our ancestors did not have [emphasis added]. I believe that with this edge we can not only survive but that we will thrive in the new normal that is emerging based upon the extremes that we see in the world right now. The extremes are with us. For our lifetime, probably for our children's lifetime. We have to be honest with ourselves about that."

He goes on to talk about his so-called "new discoveries": "cooperation, mutual aid and connectivity." (Really? These are new?  Has he read the Bible lately?) And he tries to weave everything together by talking about magnetic fields, saying "science is showing us that the magnetic fields, regulated through the human heart, connect all of us":

"Strong magnetic fields are conducive to cooperation and the strongest magnetic field of the human body is the field created by the human heart. The heart based emotions of cooperation, of compassion, appreciation, care, gratitude, are scientifically proven to strengthen the magnetic field of the human heart. These fields embrace a group and even our planet [emphasis added]. This has also been shown through research through Princeton University and The Institute of HeartMath and so it brings us full circle back to our most ancient and cherished traditions when we find a way to communicate through our hearts."

At the conclusion of the article, Braden pays lip service to Love by defining Love as an energy that permeates the entire universe.

Not once, however, does he mention God or the soul.

He talks about 5,000 years of ancient wisdom (without ever describing how damaging some of it can be to the health of the human brain and body). He talks about "the turning point" (which is qualitatively no different than "the End Times" preached by apocalyptic prophets such as the apostle Paul). He talks about the unique and pivotal role of human beings in holding the planet together during a unique and pivotal time. He talks about the monistic Oneness ("connectivity") of all human beings. He talks about how clever we are. He uses Materialist cause & effect science to support his spiritual claims.

But he never talks about God.

5,000 years of ancient wisdom, huh? Well, hmm, I'm kind of wondering why we have to restrict ourselves to a mere 5,000 years of human wisdom when our planet is brimming with the history, stories, science, creativity, exploration, and wisdom of God's wondrous and infinitely present love. This fossil of an ancient turtle is on display at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta. Reflecting on the incredible history of our planet is a good way to keep ourselves humble and not give our mind-based religious texts more credit than they deserve. Photo credit JAT 2015.

Gregg Braden doesn't need to talk about God because Braden is a dyed-in-the-wool apophatic prophet.* Apophatics find the idea of a personal, theistic God highly inconvenient. For apophatics, field theory -- especially the Grand Unified Theory -- is all that's needed to explain who we are and why we're here. If Love can be presented as an energy field that unites us -- or, even better, as a single cosmic field from which all of us originate -- then so much the better. That way no one has to deal with the messy implications of a Divine Love that's based on choice, free will, courage, trust, gratitude, devotion, forgiveness, and NOT Oneness.

My mystical radar always go off when I read that a spiritual teacher has spent 28 years exploring high mountain villages, remote monasteries, and forgotten texts. I always want to know what such a teacher thinks he'll find in an ancient monastery that he can't find by paying full attention to God's messages in his daily life in and around his home.

So let me reiterate: God's presence can be felt anywhere you go in Creation. Anywhere at all. While God's presence has no doubt been felt by a few people who've abandoned their lives for the sake of high mountain villages, remote monasteries, and forgotten texts, none of this ancient wisdom is necessary. God wouldn't do this to you. God wouldn't takes all the clues about how to feel God's presence and then hide them from you in a bunch of ancient texts known only to a few people on the planet. Real life isn't like an Indiana Jones movie. God puts everything out on the table for everybody to see. God hides nothing.

In order to feel God's presence, you don't need to pursue hidden codes or lost languages or ancient magical prayers or occult naming powers. You don't need any of that. You have everything you need right where you are -- in your own heart, mind, body, soul, and strength (the combination of these is what Jesus called "the Kingdom").

Maybe you don't want to hear this, but it's the only reality that's truly consistent with the idea of a loving and forgiving God.

It's great fun to put hidden codes and lost languages in adventure films and books. I myself love that kind of adventure story. But don't make the mistake of thinking God is hiding reality from you by tucking it inside reams of dried-out papyrus or mouldy parchment. 

God reads today's newspaper every morning, just like you.


* Please see the post of November 11, 2014 called "The Burden of Perfection"


For Further Reflection:

If you're sitting really close to your screen, you may want to step back a bit (metaphorically speaking), because I'm about to vent. Loudly.

What is the one thing a narcissist fears?

This isn't a tangential comment. It's central to all the big questions we have as human beings about God and Creation and the soul. It's also central to all the big answers we've been given over the centuries by our religious leaders and spiritual gurus.

A narcissist is someone who cannot control his or her inner impulse to seize the high ground in the battle for "the Right to be Right."

Most people these days are aware that narcissism is a behaviour involving the need to be "special." Very briefly, this specialness manifests in constant attempts to prove that one is better than other people, more deserving of attention and rewards than other people, more worthy of worship than other people. They believe there's one set of rules for themselves and a different set of rules for regular people. They have particular difficulty understanding a morality of boundaries. This is because, from their viewpoint, any kind of interpersonal boundary is an obstacle to the ultimate goal of establishing their own personal purity, piety, and perfection.

While it's become popular to say that behind every narcissist is a person who lacks self-esteem -- and who therefore needs our unconditional love -- this is simply not true. A narcissist is someone who has stopped seeing Creation as a tapestry filled with nuanced colours, and has instead chosen to see Creation as a black-and-white tug of war between Chaos and Order -- not necessarily Evil versus Good (though it usually plays out this way in the end) but equality-of-relationships ("Chaos") versus equality of outcomes ("Order").

The narcissist then uses this dualistic thesis as an excuse to see him/herself as a righteous warrior on the side of Order. No method, no tool, no short-term form of violence is too unethical or unjust to be used for the greater good of restoring Order to society and hence to all Creation. A quick review of dystopian science fiction novels and films (e.g. "The Giver," "Blade Runner 2049") reveals that many careful thinkers have observed this ancient Chaos-versus-Order pattern: in their stories, the bad guys are never the ones who want to preserve or revive humanity's unpredictable, passionate, creative nature; the bad guys are always the ones who are trying to impose a crushing, soul-destroying perfection on everyone else.

For a narcissist, there's no more worthy goal than forcing the world around you to be a perfect mirror-image of your own purity, piety, and perfection. But to pull this one off -- to convince yourself and others that you yourself are the ideal model of humanity to which all others should aspire -- you need one hell of an algorithm to convince your biological brain to ignore all its System 1 input and focus solely on its System 2 input.

This algorithm is a line of reasoning I call "the Right to be Right."

To break this down a bit, "the Right to be Right" is a sequence of either-or statements (as all algorithms are) that are designed to get you to a specific endpoint or goal (in this case, the goal of proving your true worthiness to be admired and worshipped). You start with the intended goal, then you use logic to work out all the different pathways that could lead you to your goal, and, in addition, all the pathways that could block you from reaching your goal. You break down all these pathways into the smallest segments you can (this becomes your strings of either-or statements). Then you do everything in your power to optimize the pathway that gets you to your goal. You look for efficiencies. You root out redundancies. You banish ambiguities. You do it consciously and with a great sense of purpose, and, what's more, you regularly congratulate yourself on your ingenuity and persistence, which only serve to prove your point. Getting to your goal is no accident.

Here's how the script for "the Right to be Right" looks when drafted by the brain's System 2 networks: "I believe that I am a very special person who has been chosen by God* to save the world. I have very special gifts and a very special intelligence that will enable me to do what no one else before me has ever done. I am certain that I am right. Moreover, natural law dictates that I have the right to claim my superiority over others. Natural law wouldn't have made me so special unless I were, indeed, as special as I know myself to be, so natural law gives me the justification and authority I need to proclaim that I am right and must not be questioned by those of inferior ability. (I wouldn't be respecting the preeminence of natural law if I did anything less.) But I suspect some people may not believe I'm right, so I must do everything in my power to prove I'm right. Those of lesser ability will thank me for taking the steps I need to take in order to restore Order to our family/community/nation. God will thank me. I will be remembered in the annals of history as a great peacemaker. In the meantime, though, I must use every method at my disposal to prove to people that I am right. I am authorized (by natural law and by God) to hide, discard, or dispose of any facts or books or other sources of information that might create confusion about who is right and who is wrong. I am not obligated to consider any facts or books or other sources of information that might conflict with or undermine my "Right to be Right" (because, logically speaking, I do not and cannot make mistakes). If opposition to my goal of perfect Order becomes too vocal, too physical, or too heart-based, I have the authority to suppress dissent in order to preserve the pathways to ultimate perfection. Traits such as love, forgiveness, compromise, egalitarianism, and self-honesty must be considered enemies of Order, and must therefore be constantly opposed through just wars. I am confident that events will demonstrate conclusively that God has been on my side throughout the long and difficult path to salvation. (*Note: wherever you see the word "God" underlined, you can substitute the word "science" and get the same result.)

There are no limits to what a narcissist will do to ensure that his or her "Right to be Right" is protected. No cost is too great from the narcissist's perspective, even when the cost is everybody else's potential to have a loving relationship with God.

Keep this in mind as you read what religious and spiritual leaders, both past and present, have said about the presence of God.

Are they really trying to help you? Or are they hoarding the authority for themselves as all narcissists do?

God doesn't hoard love, and neither should God's human teachers and healers. So keep an eye out for the footprints of "the Right to be Right" in the books and lectures and workshops you choose. And watch for it in your own life choices, too. Most people these days are struggling with "the Right to be Right," so you have lots of company to help you work it out.

Meanwhile, in answer to the question above . . . what a narcissist fears most is that you'll see through the "Right to be Right" algorithm and realize the whole thing is a fraud from start to finish.

We all have days when we're right and we all have days when we're wrong. But no one except for God the Mother and God the Father have the right to be right.

The rest of us are just doing the best we can.

LSP14: To Be God Is to Give Up the Power and the Glory

I must have watched Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy at least ten times before it dawned on me that I was watching the story of our Divine Mother and Father.

So a pop quiz for you today: in The Lord of the Rings films, who do you think represents God the Mother and who do you think represents God the Father?

How many people said Arwen and Aragorn? Or Eowyn and Aragorn? Or Galadriel and Gandalf? Or (since there are so few female characters) maybe Gandalf and Aragorn?

In our culture, we've been heavily conditioned to assume that Creation exists as a hierarchy. The lowly, unworthy people are at the bottom. The chosen people with the special powers and the special bloodlines are all at the top. We just take it for granted that if we could see Heaven as it was in the beginning, long, long ago and far, far away, it would look like a scene from a magnificent royal court. Or an ancient cathedral with shining stained glass windows. Or a magical realm like Lothlorien. Or a great city like Minas Tirith.

What if I were to tell you it's the story of two humble hobbits on a quest to destroy a ring of power that most resembles the early story of our divine Mother and Father?

All is well after the storm. Photo credit JAT 2020.

The Lord of the Rings is a story about the only two people in Middle Earth who have the willpower to overcome the ring's terrible temptations and still remain themselves when all others would fail and fall into shadow.

At its heart, it's a story about the "twoness" of the struggle. Galadriel tells Frodo that to be a ringbearer is to be alone, but, in truth, Frodo is never alone in his quest. Frodo and Sam carry the ring together. They depend on each other every step of the way. They're two very different people -- alike in some ways, very unalike in others. Like carbon and iron hammered together to make steel, they become each other's strength. And because of the enduring strength of their "twoness" -- their "two-as-one" trust in each other -- they accomplish together what no one on Middle Earth could have accomplished alone.

Frodo and Sam are humble. Deeply, deeply humble. They have no desire to be worshipped. The power and glory offered by the ring hold no allure for either of them (well, most of the time, except for a couple of rough moments). What Frodo and Sam care about is protecting their friends and doing what's right. Unlike Gollum, who is obedient to the ring, Frodo and Sam struggle up the mountain to try to undo the ring's near-absolute control over other people's minds, talents, and free will. The hobbits' choice to put humble love ahead of limitless power -- even at the cost of their own lives -- becomes the turning point for a whole world.

Our beloved Mother and Father once faced this choice long, long ago, and they chose the path of humble love. They also chose to abolish the hierarchy represented by the One Ring and replace it with a paradigm based on Courage. Because of this, the entire universe changed forever.

Our Mother and Father remain the steel that is hammered from carbon and iron. They remain the two who are one, the softness and hardness, the life force and holding force, the fire and ice, and all things in between. They have made a great place within their hearts that we can call home, and they are the greatest among us because they think of themselves as the least -- just simple hobbits, one female, one male, going about their business of making life comfortable for those they love with all their hearts.

They are our inspiration and blessing. Through their example, we, their children, know what it is to love.

They are truly beyond amazing.