Re-writing your scripts

Here is the link to my latest article in the Anais de vida magazine http://issuu.com/aneisdevida/docs/august_2016/64

Working with imagery and visions

This is the link to my latest published article on visions

https://issuu.com/aneisdevida/docs/july_2016/71

Meditation for wisdom

Readers are invited to view my latest article on meditating for wisdom on the following link;

http://issuu.com/aneisdevida/docs/june_2016/69

A psychological perspective on religion and spirituality

A psychological perspective on religion and spirituality

Recently I saw an internet posting that compared perceived tenets of religion with those of spirituality. According to the table provided, religion views and treats people as weak, fallen and sinful, whereas in terms of spirituality they are seen as magical, unlimited and powerful. The arguments presented are certainly reasonable and persuasive, and I would agree with most of them. However, the author of this posting missed out one important factor, that of the stages of human development.

In one of my earlier books Multi-Dimensional Thinking (2003), I compared human moral and spiritual development to the process of growth as seen in some insects, beginning with a larval stage, during which they eat voraciously and are quite destructive, and ending with a later stage when the insect matures within a chrysalis and a more perfect form emerges.

This analogy suggests that, during the early stages of our own social development, we can be quite egocentric and self-destructive, as well as being inclined to hurt others, only interested in selfishly meeting our own basic needs. In other words, a period of inner growth is required for a human being to learn to master the fundamental basic urges which relate to bodily processes, to move through the entanglements of the mind and emerge as a more spiritual being. This process can take many decades and alas, in some cases, is never completed. 

To return to the issue of the validity of religion, I would suggest that, during the phase of early moral and spiritual development, we all require some external locus of control, a framework which imposes ideas, values and behaviour on those of us who have not come to a full understanding of the nature of reality and our true, authentic selves. This could be said to be the purpose of religion, to provide a prescriptive framework of beliefs and rules meant to introduce us to the most basic principles of spirituality. It is therefore, true that religion points out our inherent weaknesses (which do exist at this early stage), and demands conformity to the authority of a religious organisation. 

However, that is only the beginning of human moral and spiritual development. As a person matures intellectually and morally, a new consciousness and understanding should arise, one which can be explained in terms of emergence, a relatively recent concept used by psychologists to explain a process during which the interaction between inner systems leads to the appearance a new and totally different state able to manifest a potential that did not exist previously. In other words, the interaction between human self-reflection, value systems and lessons learnt through experience should eventually combine to bring about a new realisation of self, that which is termed in psychology the higher or authentic self.

Once in this new state of self-realisation, we are able to overcome, or at least manage, our basic instincts, urges and needs associated with the body, free ourselves from the entanglements of the mind by attaining a new understanding of our purpose and place in the world, and be able to fully acknowledge our true selves and unlimited potential. This new state of being is associated with an internal locus of control, in which our conscience alone is sufficient to align us with the highest spiritual principles and regulate our behaviour. In other words, this new state of self-realisation empowers us to stand on our own two feet without the direction of any religious institution. This ‘emergence’ of the authentic self is that which can be associated with spirituality and represents those attributes of man described by the author of the article as ‘magical, unlimited and powerful.’

To summarise, organised worship and religion should not be rejected outright, as they still play an important role in the formative stages of the moral and spiritual development of the human being, but become less important following the emergence of self-realisation, at which time the individual moves into a one-to-one relationship with a personal concept of Being, the universe or a Higher Reality.

In practice, a problem only arises in the situation in which the individual feels or knows that religion is no longer meeting his or her spiritual and developmental needs, but chooses to remain within this framework out of fear or convention.

Jimmy Henderson is a developmental specialist and metaphysician and the published author of a number of books on the power of the mind.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=jimmy+henderson

The Shadow Realms of the Mind

My latest article in Anais de Vida magazine

Shadow Realms of the Mind

Explaining telepathy

Readers are invited to view my latest article on telepathy on page 66 

https://issuu.com/aneisdevida/docs/april_2016

Conversations on the reality and nature of God.

                   

   Conversations on the reality and nature of God.

For anyone who believes in a higher form of life, having some concept of God is useful and, indeed, necessary, as this concept acts as a focus for introspective thought, meditation and prayer and forms the foundation for further development and spiritual understanding.

Throughout history, there have been a number of different ideas on God, and each appears related to the culture and level of understanding of the people at the particular time. Even today, some are quite happy to accept a simple picture of God as a loving father, which is usually the case in a paternalistic culture in which members have strong feelings on the importance of family relationships. Yet, others who are more scientifically minded may well identify God with a formless, benevolent, pervasive energy acting as a first cause for natural phenomena.

If this link between historical milieu, culture, level of understanding, and concepts of God is understood, it is clear that we cannot really judge any one as any less acceptable than the other. Each concept of God may, in its own way, be seen as useful and important for the group by which it is accepted and can bring them the power of belief which can actually assist in religious and mystical experiences. Having a belief in God, one is able to categorise inner experiences within a workable framework and more able to accept and interpret them than one who has no such belief. In other words, in having a basic formulation of the existence, reality and nature of God, our minds are primed, predisposed and more receptive to higher spiritual knowledge.

The actual conceptualisation itself is not that important, as long as it fits our current level of understanding. The problem emerges when we cling to a rigid and unchanging idea of God due to indifference or a fear of change, even though we know it no longer meets our need for growth or greater spiritual experience.

Reasoning is the method we use to make sense of our experiences in life as they occur.  In this regard, personal experience would be a good criterion of truth, and a rational approach to spirituality would begin with an acceptance of the possible existence of another (higher) reality and a simple commitment to seeking a deeper understanding of this reality. With a reasonable degree of clarity and an open mind, we should at least be able to arrive at the position where we are willing to consider the possibility that a higher level of being and reality exists.

However, the reasoning process applied in coming to an understanding of God should be deductive rather than inductive. For instance, if we decide to construct our concept of God from the ground up using different ideas borrowed from religious scriptures or other (dogmatic) sources, there is a danger that we may end up with a fragmented framework which is like a jigsaw puzzle. This can be incomplete, containing unanswered questions, or have sectors that simply don’t ‘fit’, being full of contradictions. As a result, our understanding of God may remain poor, narrow and bigoted. This problem can already be seen in the exclusiveness of many formal religions or sects, which simply refuse to acknowledge the possibility that ‘their’ God is available to others of different cultures and times and able to include them in some way or other in a greater plan of unfoldment. Wars, inter‑racial hatred and religious intolerance are often the result of spiritual near‑sightedness, or of such deficient concepts of divine mercy.

A useful initial deductive framework could be derived from the mysteries of Nature and the visible universe. For example, if we take the time to observe Nature, we may notice a number of phenomena which cannot possibly be linked to anything else other than an underlying active and guiding force. Natural laws, cycles, regularity and intelligent design all point to events being more than mere coincidence. Second, if we relate visible aspects of Nature as well as our own selves, such as beauty (perfection), intelligence (consciousness), strength (power), love and cooperation (benevolence), balance (harmony), and growth (expansion) to principles within a higher source, we have the beginnings of a workable general concept of God. Using this framework, we can begin the deeper exploration of the reality and nature of God.

As a cognitive scientist, I have personally found the idea of a ‘universal mind’ particularly useful in understanding existence and reality, in that aspects of a higher source can be seen reflected within our own minds. For example, our ability to form three-dimensional mental images can be related to an act of creation taking place in a universal mind, and we ourselves, could be seen as archetypal expressions of this one universal mind.

Jimmy Henderson is a cognitive scientist, but also a metaphysician with a holistic view of life and reality. This article is based on his book ‘In Search of The Oracle’ available online through his website www.jimmyhendersonbooks.com.