LSP22: Problems with Eternea.Org

Yesterday I visited the website (www.eternea.org) listed in the back of Eben Alexander's book Proof of Heaven and was again disappointed. It wasn't the first time. I signed up to be an Eternea member on February 2, 2013 so I could read forum posts on the message boards and also reply to them. Alas, there's no longer any point in signing up to be a "regular Joe Public" member of Eternea. Such members don't seem welcome.

 

At some point over the past few years (I'm not sure exactly when), the Eternea.org website was totally revamped. The original message board I complain about here was removed. In addition, the original Seven Statements were expanded to include Fifteen Elaborations (because apparently seven statements weren't enough). Eternea is now a non-profit group, and part of its mission statement says, "Eternea endorses a scientific approach to the study of spiritually transformative experiences and survival of consciousness after bodily death, as well as the relationship between consciousness and physical matter with special emphasis on torsion physics." Eternea appears to be trying to build yet another of humanity's failed Gnostic bridges to "Source," but it's not a bridge I recognize or recommend. As always, I suggest you learn to trust your own instincts about such teachings. Photo credit JAT 2021.

From the beginning, the Eternea forums were difficult to use because they were so heavily moderated. You'd post a comment, then wait for several days to see whether or not the moderator would approve it. Meanwhile, your comment wouldn't be visible to anyone but yourself. This made it difficult to carry on a dialogue or conversation with other members.

For months now, it's been rare to see a new comment appear on any of the Eternea forum threads. I tried starting a new thread on the Religion, Spirituality and Beliefs forum on April 13, 2014. As far as I can tell, it was never approved. (At least, I think it was never approved -- the way the message board is designed makes it awkward and confusing to figure out which of your own posts have been approved.)

So what's going on here? Why are there so few new comments? I doubt it's from a lack of interest among regular people. I think regular people want to talk about their unusual spiritual experiences. I think regular people want to share their stories with other people (without fearing their personal stories will be co-opted for Eben Alexander's next book projects). I think people want a safe place where they can talk about God and the soul and the afterlife without being laughed at, rejected, or treated as mentally defective.

Unfortunately, the Eternea site is not that safe place.

Dr. Alexander has a new book coming out in October 2014. It's called The Map of Heaven, and although I can't tell you anything about it (because it hasn't been released yet), it seems that in this book Dr. Alexander "shares some of the stories that . . . people have told him."

Well, I'm curious about that. I'm curious about the fact that when you go to Dr. Alexander's own website (www.ebenalexander.com) and click on "Stories of the Eternal: Share Your Story," you don't get to read stories left by other readers. You get to read this disclaimer:

"You understand that by submitting this letter/story it may be used on the website and in other media projects including books related to Dr. Alexander's work without restriction.  However, your email address will not appear.  Select 'No' if this is a private message."

For the record, I submitted a personal letter to Dr. Alexander via his lifebeyonddeath.net website on October 24, 2012. I sent him one personal snail-mail letter (addressed to Eternea's Deerfield Beach, Florida address) on November 14, 2012. I also submitted a "spiritually transformative experience report" to Eternea on November 6, 2012. In all these communications, I indicated that I'm a practising mystic who has a continuing and voluntary experience of connection with God in what Dr. Alexander calls "the Core." I expressed my willingness to share more about my ongoing experiences as part of the wider project of investigating consciousness and the soul. I've never heard back from anyone affiliated with Dr. Alexander or Eternea.

Fortunately, I keep records of all my communications, so I know exactly what I said to Dr. Alexander and Eternea. I told him I have scientific insights into the voluntary mystical state that allows one to connect with God and Divine Love on an ongoing basis. Yet, because I've had no reply, I've sadly come to the conclusion that the information I can offer isn't of interest to him or his team of researchers.

My personal story doesn't line up perfectly with Dr. Alexander's conclusions. In fact, I disagree with him on a number of major points he's raised. However, this kind of disagreement doesn't usually stop researchers from engaging in debate and ethical criticism. In fact, it's this kind of disagreement that usually leads to greater insights and stronger research.

Eben, you'll have to decide for yourself about the path you're following. Please take the time to recall that Divine Love doesn't insist you always be right. Instead, Divine Love calls upon you to be honest about your human limitations and to find the courage to admit it when you discover you've made a mistake. There's no shame in making mistakes. But there's lots of suffering in the attempt to cover them up.

Blessings,
Jen

The Eternea oganization seems to have fallen into the tragic cycle of planting a crop of hope and then failing to nurture it appropriately. Come on, people. Smarten up! There's no way in hell you're ever going to have all the answers, so stop pretending you're the only gateway to God's truth. We've all been through the perils of over-zealous gatekeeping many times over. It doesn't work! Swallow your pride, forgive yourselves, and move on. 

 

For Further Reflection:

I think it's very helpful for those on a spiritual journey to read widely about the transformative experiences of others. Sometimes we're encouraged by spiritual leaders to stop reading from "mundane" sources; that is, books and articles not specifically focused on spirituality and the Divine. We're led to believe we've risen above these mundane sources. But if every person on the planet is a child of God (whether he or she knows it), there's always the potential for people to contribute in meaningful ways to the growth of healing and Peace, with or without their direct knowledge of God.

Every tale of courage and loving commitment is important, because inspiring stories resonate with our souls and remind us who we can really be. We all learn a lot from each other's struggles. Just knowing that one other person has navigated the same difficult situation you're facing and has come out okay is a source of encouragement. Sharing and learning from our painful experiences brings us face to face with our own Hearts. In doing so, we begin to be able to see the face of God.

It's all in the pain, you see. You've been told by every major religion that pain is a sign of unworthiness, inferiority, karmic recycling, Divine punishment, and the like. The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, for instance, begin with the statement that life is dukkha (suffering). Pain is considered the opposite of salvation and enlightenment and pure Divine Love. Pain is the thing religion is supposed to rescue you from.

Absolutely nobody tells you that God the Mother and God the Father know more about pain than any of the rest of us will ever know.

One of the hardest things for angels to understand is the pain caused by Oneness. As angels, we belong to a vast Divine Family where we share a common morality (a morality of boundaries) and a common sense of devotion to each other (Divine Love), but in other respects we're very different from each other. The roots of our Mother and Father's loving relationship have grown a garden in Creation where untold diversity is possible. If you think the breathtaking variation of evolutionary life on Planet Earth blows your mind, you should see the indescribable breadth of colours and shapes and sizes and talents of the angels in God's universe!

Because God's universe is radically egalitarian -- because each unique soul is equally loved -- angels are all on different learning paths. We're not required to learn the same things in the same way at the same time. At some points in our growth, we'll need to receive more help than we give, and at other points, we'll give more help than we receive. It's organic. It's a blend of order and chaos. It's changeable. And sometimes it even hurts. But there's no obstacle and no pain that can't be transformed into something infinitely mysterious and beautiful by the courage of Divine Love. The Heart is the place deep within the self where this transformation takes place.

Angels live and breathe this kind of heart-based learning. So when Mother Father God try to explain to us that long, long ago and far, far away the universe was structured according to the mind-based principles of Oneness, we can't understand a word they're saying.

So some of us come here to Planet Earth to check it out.

It's important to note that Oneness and belonging aren't the same thing. As psychologist Abraham Maslow noted, one of the core human needs is a sense of love and belonging. We all need it. And when we don't get it -- when we don't have the sense of being warmly and sincerely accepted within our group despite our quirks and lack of perfection -- we feel disheartened, discouraged, and depressed. If we're using our Hearts (rather than just our Minds), we feel similarly depressed when painful things happen to our friends and family. Because we love, we share in the pain of those we cherish. Because we love, the journey toward healing, repair, and Peace is communal -- and sometimes painful. This is what Empathy means.

As the early seventeenth century English poet John Donne wrote, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.”

Oneness isn't a state of belonging. It's a state of control -- control over pain. It's an attempt to use pure logic, law, and knowledge to transcend all sources of pain and replace them with happiness.

It sounds absolutely wonderful at first, doesn't it? And because it sounds like the perfect pathway to Peace, millions and millions of people have tried to make Oneness work.

Here's why it doesn't work. It doesn't work because Oneness focuses on equality of outcomes instead of equality of relationships. The final goal -- "everyone is now happy" -- is considered far more important than any of the methods used to get to the goal. So relationships are discarded as those who are faster, smarter, and stronger take over the process to speed it up for everyone else. Those who are faster, smarter, and stronger consider themselves saviours, not tyrants. But before long, they start to believe that those who are slower, less smart, and weaker are inferior and farther down the ladder of perfection. Hierarchies develop. Then, before you can say Kim Jong-un, you have a despotic leader at the very top of the hierarchy who believes he's been divinely chosen to bring happiness to all his citizens by forcing every single one of them to believe what he believes, to learn things in the way he learns things, and to be happy in the way he defines happiness.

One of the great gifts of democracy (when it's done halfway right) is that individual citizens have the right to choose how they will handle pain and how they will approach happiness. This is a blessing that few of us recognize or appreciate. But without it, we become nothing more than the numbered drones in any of the dystopian science fiction novels and films that capture the terror of Oneness so well.

God thinks your story and your journey are uniquely important, and you should, too.

So be part of your community. But always remember to be your own self, too.

Don't let anyone else steal your right to heal your pain in the way that works best for you. Just don't steal anyone else's right while you're at it.

LSP20: A New Spin on the Old Seven Deadlies

We've all heard about the seven deadly sins. In the Christian tradition, pride, envy, anger, lust, greed, sloth, and gluttony are the usual contenders for the crown of worst human traits ever. Even if you don't agree with the Church's teachings on why we're sinful, it's pretty hard to argue with the fact that human beings do awful, awful things to themselves, each other, and the planet because of pride, anger, and the rest.

When people behave badly, they often look to religion to explain their behaviour and give them tools to change their behaviour in the future. Sometimes people want to change because they're afraid their souls will end up in hell. Other times people want to change because they're tired of not being able to like themselves or trust themselves. Either way, they're up against the dreaded topic of ethics and morality.

Can you actually be happy or feel your connection with God if you don't try your best to be ethical or moral?

A lot of people have simply given up on the idea of trying to be ethical and trying to live a moral life. They pretend on the surface to care about ethics, and they're quick to express their shock and outrage on Twitter, but when they're asked in their own lives to make moral choices, they don't have the tools to actually do it. What's worse, they don't know why they don't have the tools.

It's almost impossible to tackle a major psychological and spiritual issue if you don't understand at a logical, rational, scientific level why you're doing what you're doing. You need a solid explanation to stand on, so to speak, a solid explanation to help ground you and keep you sane as you struggle to change and make new choices.

As we know, the Church's explanation for why you're being proud, envious, angry, lustful, greedy, slothful, and gluttonous is Sin with a capital "S." Various Eastern and New Age teachings have trumped Christianity's Sin by claiming that all your unloving behaviour is an illusion anyway, an illusion you can escape through your own hard work and discipline.

I offer an entirely different explanation. I suggest (because it's what I've been taught through my mystical connection with God the Mother, God the Father, and other angels in the Core) that almost all human beings are wrestling with the challenges of status addiction. It's status addiction -- not Sin, not karma, and not evil forces -- that's wrecking your life.

Status addiction tricks your brain into thinking you look like this . . .

What is pride? Pride is what you "feel" when the addicted parts of your brain sense your hoard of status points is being threatened.

What is envy? Envy is what you "feel" when the addicted parts of your brain suspect your neighbour has acquired some status points you "rightfully" deserve.

. . . when really, from the point of view of God, your angels, and your own soul, your status-addicted brain looks more like this. Status addiction saps the creativity, intuition, and sense of meaning and purpose from your life. If you want to get closer to God, you need to be honest with yourself about what status addiction is doing to your brain.

What is anger? Anger is what you "feel" when the addicted parts of your brain suspect your neighbour has tried to steal status points from you.

What is lust? Lust is what you "feel" when the addicted parts of your brain justify your plan to invade somebody else's personal boundaries to steal some of their status points.

What is greed? Greed is the addictive high you feel at the very thought of acquiring some new status points.

What is sloth? Sloth is the state of denial about your addiction disorder.

What is gluttony? Gluttony is a secondary addiction disorder (a co-morbid disorder) that easily arises in the brain of a person who's already experiencing another addiction disorder (in this case, the addiction to status).

That's status addiction in a nutshell.

Now here's the big question.

How many people do you know who have managed all on their own, without any help from anyone else, to personally recognize, confront, cope with, and completely heal their own major addiction disorders (e.g. addiction to opioids, pornography, perfectionism)?

I'm guessing not many.

It takes a community to build a culture based on status addiction, and it's going to take a community to confront and heal the catastrophic problems caused by this addiction.

The first step in healing any addiction is self honesty. The second is recognizing a higher power that can give you strength.

God, please help us with this great task!

Amen.


For Further Reflection:

You may have noticed as you read this post that when the seven deadly sins are defined as "shades" or "colours" of status addiction, it's easier to see how these behaviours violate the morality of boundaries, the morality that guides all loving actions in God's universe.

Almost everyone has been in the position of feeling what it's like to have your personal boundaries invaded.

Invasion of personal space can take many forms, from the innocuous (a neighbour who stands an inch or two too close to you) to the violent (a trusted professional who sexually assaults your children). Occasionally, invasions of personal space involve tangible weapons (e.g. knives, guns, or fists) that leave marks on your physical body, marks that other people can see and sympathize with. More often than not, though, the chosen weapons are things that can't be seen with the human eye: cruel remarks that cut you down and make you feel bad about yourself; intentional manipulation that tricks you into lowering your defences so your reputation or money can be stolen from you; denial and deceit that steal your voice; physical intimidation that threatens to steal your livelihood if you refuse to submit to sexual advances; aggressive demands that you obey, even worship, your abusers lest you be ejected from your family or community and left to fend for yourself.

All invasions, however, share a common thread: a sense that someone has stolen a piece of your personal safety.

As with other forms of injury, small cuts and bruises to your sense of personal safety can, and should be, healed in short order. But major assaults, such as attempted murder, rape, or spiritual violations, leave large holes that take years to heal and always leave scars no matter how loving and forgiving you are. Coping with such major injuries can become a full-time job, making it difficult for you to apply your time, energy, and talents to anything but survival.

If it were true, as so many spiritual leaders are currently claiming, that the path to spiritual enlightenment is eradication of boundaries and transcendence of the self, then we would expect to see great benefits accrue to all cultures that oppose boundaries and endorse Oneness. We would expect to see less suffering, greater prosperity, more happiness, and more cultural creativity in dictator-driven Communist societies; totalitarian and fascist regimes; fundamentalist sects; and certain Buddhist and New Age communities -- places that have given us the chance to observe the long term effects of practising Oneness.

We do not, in fact, see such benefits. Instead, we see the opposite.

Cultures and religions that embrace a morality of personal boundaries have done a particularly good job of reducing suffering and maintaining happiness while at the same time offering opportunities for individuation, creative self expression, mutual self respect, and the quest for Meaning.

In order for you to build and maintain your relationship with Mother Father God, you need to begin to examine the ways in which status addiction is punching holes through your personal sense of safety. You're not just looking for situations where other people are trying to steal from you; you're looking for the ways in which your own habits, ideologies, and unchallenged beliefs are deceiving you into stealing from yourself.

This is what all forms of addiction boil down to: allowing some parts of your brain (especially your reward and pleasure pathways) to steal from other parts of your human self (such as your soul-related Meaning networks).

At the start of every spiritual journey, there's a person who doesn't know how to get rid of his or her multifaceted expressions of pride, envy, anger, lust, greed, sloth, and gluttony. But each step towards Humbleness, Divine Love, and Divine Forgiveness will help you gradually shed the burden of status addiction's smelly, toxic, thorn-covered leaves.

The leaves that grow in their place are Peace.

LSP19: Learning How to Breathe: Finding Freedom of Spirit in a World That Tries to Crush You

Dr. Alexander and I grew up at roughly the same time.  He was born in late 1953, and I was born in mid-1958. So we've been exposed to a lot of the same influences over the years. We both grew up in that short breath of time between the end of one era (the world that died with WWII) and the start of a new era (the world that began with widespread computers networks).Yet, for all the similarities between Dr. Alexander and myself in those early years -- the books, the films, the TV shows, and the unforgettable music -- there were many differences. Each of us belonged to a particular time and place and culture, and each of us still carries the lessons of time and place and culture within us. Those lessons shaped us. To this day, the experiences of our youth affect how we claim -- and proclaim -- our spiritual life today.

How does culture shape our spiritual journey? Is there such a thing as a universal culture of Oneness that transcends all earthly differences? Do all people who connect deeply with God inevitably end up in the same place? Do we become carbon copies of each other and God?

Last time, I talked about some of the problems posed by Gnosticism. I know I've complained about Gnosticism before (sorry about that), but I keep coming back to it because it's had such a powerful influence on our spiritual lives -- not just now, but in centuries long past. I keep thinking . . . why?  Why do Gnostic ideas keep rearing their dopey heads? And why do people keep listening to them?

I've boiled it down to one painful answer. I think Gnosticism becomes very attractive to people who've noticed they can no longer breathe.

I mean this in a spiritual and emotional sense rather than a physical sense. 

In Johnson's Canyon, Alberta, you'd think the steep rock walls towering on both sides of the river would make you feel claustrophobic, but instead there's a sense that you've stepped into a unique pocket of beauty where God is telling a story that's different from the narratives of the surrounding mountain terrain. I think part of what makes Johnson's Canyon so popular and so appealing is its ability to surprise us. Our souls long to be delighted and surprised by unexpected turnings on the path of life. Unfortunately for us in today's society, the brain's System 2 circuits despise unexpected . . . well . . . unexpected anything. System 2's need to maintain intense perfectionistic control over all aspects of life is one of the hallmarks of status addiction in the brain.

Breath, as a metaphor for life in all its complexity, has been linked by innumerable authors to the elusive concept of "spirit." The Book of Genesis is crystal clear on the connection. (Ruah in Hebrew means divine wind, natural spirit of man, and breath.) But you don't have to believe in the Bible to feel the link between breath and freedom of life, freedom of spirit. When you live in a culture that gives you the freedom to be yourself, you feel alive and free and full of purpose. When you live in a culture that forbids you to be yourself, you feel suffocated and frustrated and low in spirit.

It's bad enough living in a culture that forbids you to be yourself. When you live in a culture governed by status addiction, it's even worse. You feel choked to death by all the rules and expectations and lies. You feel trapped, unable to feel your core self drawing the breath of life and love and spirit. You long to escape just so you can remember what it feels like to be at peace in your own skin.

Gnosticism appears to offer you that escape. Gnosticism starts by affirming your impression that you feel miserable as hell (which you do). Then it says you have a small spark of God inside you that's desperate to return to its Source (which sounds kind of right because you can feel your inner longing to breathe). Then it tells you there's a "good" place (somewhere off in Creation where Source exists) and an "evil" place (which may look a lot like your local neighbourhood gang headquarters). Last, it promises that if you possess the secret knowledge given by the prophesied saviour figure, you can escape all the evil and return to the good place, where everybody blends together in a blissful state of "oneness." 

You know what's missing from this pretty little Gnostic picture? Self honesty.

Gnosticism is designed to shift your focus and attention away from the bad decisions you and your neighbours are making right here and right now. Gnosticism gives you a way to make excuses for the humongous problems created by status addiction.

Once you fully accept the harm created in our society by status addiction, there's no need whatsoever to claim that God scattered small bits of evil throughout the universe. It's status addiction that crushes the heart out of people and takes away their chance to breathe. It's status addiction writ large across communities in the form of "noble cultural traditions" that ruins lives.

As it happens, I didn't grow up in a culture steeped in status addiction. Sure, there were currents of status anxiety here and there, and some of them were pretty ugly. But by and large, the Canada I grew up in was relatively egalitarian compared to most other nations at the time. I'm not saying Canada was problem-free. I'm saying I learned at a fairly early age how to breathe.

And I didn't need Gnosticism to do it.

What I've learned on the Spiral Path is that when you strip away the claustrophobic demands and expectations of status addiction, you get an incredible sense of expansion in your life. You get this feeling of being able to breathe from deep inside your gut. Suddenly you can enjoy the best things in your culture -- the books, the films, the TV shows, the music -- without being afraid for your soul's salvation. You gradually learn how to sort out what your soul likes and what your soul doesn't like. You stick with what you like, and you respect your neighbour's right to like something else. We don't all have to be the same.

Did you see this week's story about Sister Cristina Scuccia, Italy's "Singing Nun," who won Italy's version of The Voice by really rockin' it from her heart and soul?

There's a person who knows how to breathe.


For Further Reflection:

You know that feeling of constantly needing to check your smartphone and desperately hoping for likes on your most recent post? That compulsion about spending time on your social media pages, a compulsion that won't go away no matter how much you tell yourself to ignore it? That rationalization telling you it's okay to text while you're driving and ignore your children while you're checking for likes one last time?

That's status addiction.

Bearing in mind how many people have this feeling every day, would it be fair to say that countless millions of people have a problem with addiction and don't even realize it?

Yes, it would be a fair and honest thing to say.

The problem with any kind of addiction, whether it's status addiction or an addiction to sex or substances, is the way it messes with our brain networks and prevents us from being our best selves. This isn't news, of course, to anyone who's discovered the power of denial and deceit to disguise addiction. Denial and deceit give our brains the momentum needed to suppress the soul's morality of boundaries and choose the brain's morality of Oneness instead. It's the morality of Oneness, with its focus on blurred boundaries, communalism, and rights without responsibilities, that allows us to rationalize the crimes we commit during the throes of our cravings.

It may not seem reasonable to you that God allows your biological brain to wander off on technological tangents and succumb to the evils of denial and deceit, but this is the only way God can offer you the chance to experience redemption without in any way harming your eternal soul.

Jesus was among a rare group of religious thinkers for whom the path of redemption was the only way to reestablish a relationship with God. In practical terms, the path of redemption means being honest enough to see the perils of a morality of Oneness and being courageous enough to set aside Oneness for a morality of boundaries. This is what he wrote in the Letter of James (parts of which I'm certain were written by Jesus himself in his own highly literate hand):

"But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves [at the face of their birth] and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act -- they will be blessed in their doing" (James 1: 22-25).

On your own spiritual journey, you need to be able to look in the mirror and recognize yourself. You need to be able to remember who you are at all times so you're not vulnerable to the lies that other people are trying to tell you.

The freedom to be yourself and to breathe in the wonder of your own uniqueness as a child of God will help you find the daily blessings you so long for in your life.

LSP6: Why God?

Why God? Why a personal God instead of a transcendent cloud of Oneness from which all of us come and to which all of us return? 

Quite simply, knowing God makes you a better person.

We human beings are funny creatures. When we sit down long enough to notice what we're really thinking and feeling, all sorts of strange emotions bubble up inside us. We want more than anything to feel we belong and to feel we have a purpose in life. We want to feel safe--emotionally and physically safe--and when we're not, we feel frightened and anxious. We long to be surrounded by beauty and peace and kindness and honesty, and when we're forced to deal with selfishness and betrayal and corruption, we're devastated.We want to know others and we want to be known--really, really known and accepted for who we are deep inside. We desperately crave love and trust. We desperately need other people.

Is it wrong for us to feel this way? Are we to blame for our own suffering because we're too attached to certain people and ideals and creature comforts? Are we suffering because of the weight of our emotions and attachments? Or is it possible we're suffering because we haven't been paying enough attention to what we really want and need?

God's love is Beauty. Don't reject it. Rejoice in it! Photo credit JAT 2018.

For a long time now, human beings in all places and in all religious traditions have been trying to answer the problem of suffering by following one of two major paths. (Yes, more paths!) The first major path is the path of spiritual ascent that leads to holiness and perfection (in technical terms, "anagogism"). The second major path is the path of self-dissolution and blurring of boundaries for the purpose of rejoining the cloud of Oneness (called "apophasis"). Both of these paths are paths of abandonment--abandonment of yourself and abandonment of God. Neither path (not even when they're combined, as they often are, in a one-two punch) will help you become a better person--the person you want to be deep in your Heart.

What helps you become a better person is your faith and trust in the "rightness" of needing powerful emotions such as love and safety and deep acceptance in all your relationships. Families (and communities) that embrace the "rightness" of love and safety and deep acceptance are families that are healthy and happy (within the limits of our temporary human lives). Families that focus on achieving holiness and perfection (anagogism), or on beating all emotional needs out of you because emotions aren't "logical" (apophasis) are . . . well, I think you know where I'm going with this.

Knowing God the Mother and God the Father as the people they are means you have a constant source of inspiration in your life for how to be the person you want to be. A person who is patient. And kind. And grounded. And forgiving. And full of empathy for all life (not just caring about the people you know). And courageous. And balanced. And willing to do the right thing. In short, you become once again a person who's in full relationship with all of life, including all the reaches of Creation you'll never see for yourself with your own human eyes.

It all boils down to relationships. Everything that really matters in our lives depends on relationships.  We're hardwired this way. We want and need Divine Love because Divine Love is the ultimate expression of two or more consciousnesses building a relationship of beauty and truth and learning together.

There's no force I've encountered that's anything like the feeling of unconditional love flooding into your heart and mind and bones and gut. This love--which begins within the Hearts of God the Mother and God the Father and within the infinite love they share for each other--this love . . . it's gravity. It's sanity. It's safety. It's trust. It's truth--but not one single truth. It's the truth of everything. It's the truth of you and the truth of me and the truth of all of us. Countless truths, all equally valid, all founded in the reality that we are not One Truth but instead are One Big Family.

All that we most cherish, all that we view as the best expression of ourselves and our communities, depends on our having the courage to love and trust. Forgiveness and transformation and emotional healing all depend on the love and the trust. Once you allow your own heart to be open to these wondrous emotions, you won't be able to stop yourself from letting the rest of it pour in, too.

You won't be able to stop yourself from feeling the gravity of God's love.


For Further Reflection:

Have you ever paid attention to how you feel--how you really feel--when you're treated by your human family if you're just a robot who performs needed tasks? Or a person who's valued for the status you can bring to your family but not for the unique emotions that make you you? Or an invisible slave who's only important in so far as you worship and obey your hierarchical leaders? Do you enjoy being treated in these ways? Do you like being told repeatedly you're unworthy of love? Or does it feel wrong to you in every way?

Being loved by your family is a deep, rich, ongoing set of observations and conversations and memories between people who aren't carbon copies of each other yet who value each other despite their differences. This applies as much to your relationship with God as to your human family.

To seek the path of holiness and perfection is to make the claim that God is only willing to love those who meet a strict and narrow standard of what it means to be beautiful in God's eyes. Such a claim has nothing to do with the way God loves you.

To seek the path of Oneness, where all beings are said to merge into a single Intelligence or Source, is to make the claim that God isn't capable of seeing you and loving you as a unique individual. Furthermore, claims for apophatic Oneness implicitly suggest that you're somehow already a spark of God -- not a child of God, but an actual piece of God's core essence. Have you given any thought to the narcissism involved in such a claim? Have you thought about how it feels from God's perspective when you work your ass off on spiritual practices that claim to give you a godhood that was never yours to begin with?

The human Mind is easily tricked into assuming that God only sees beauty in things that are perfectly perfect.

Fortunately, the Heart that's able to love the imperfectly perfect is a Heart that knows God.

A God who loves you despite the fact that you're very normal and very human and very not God is so much easier to trust.