The Potential Power of the Purified Mind by Michael Goodspeed and Michael Armstrong

Most spiritual aspirants have some familiarity with the concept of acceptance. The word permeates much of the spiritual literature as a corollary to the themes of "surrender" and "forgiveness." The popular prayer/adage "I must accept what I cannot change and change what I cannot accept" seems a noble and reasonable policy in this tumultuous and/or indifferent Universe. Bad things happen to good people and we accept it because, we tell ourselves, it's all part of God's great plan, it's "for our own good," and in any event, we don't have any other choice.
Acceptance is surely a valid mental exercise insofar as it helps one experience life in a manner that is more lighthearted and friendly. We can't change other people, we can't undo the past, and we can't predict every trial and travail looming over the horizon. But what if man's tacit "acceptance" of his general helplessness and victim hood in a dangerous, troubled world is itself a major barrier to doing something about it?
From the day we are born, we are taught to accept the unacceptable as a matter of course. We all learn quickly that illness, disease, injuries, pain, trauma, aging, loss, and finally death are a fair price to pay for the privilege of "living." And neither scientific, nor most religious or spiritual literature ever contradicts these expectations. Mainstream biology and medicine tell us that we are mechanistic organisms born by chance and destined to die in a hostile, disconnected universe.
And both institutional religions and most spiritual philosophies treat "spirituality" as a mere anesthetic to the unavoidable human outcomes of suffering and death. If you view suffering and dying as a problem, you are supposed to be comforted by the promise of an afterlife in which one will be free from the endless heartaches and sorrows endemic to an earthly existence. Indeed, many religious and "spiritual" thought systems glorify suffering as a purifying force and/or badge of honor that will only increase the rewards one reaps in the eternal hereafter.
So where can one turn if one is unable or unwilling to "accept" these seemingly immutable premises that define and limit the human condition? Improbable as it may seem, it can be said that NONE of the institutions, either secular or religious, that exist mainly to relieve human suffering have ever proposed how man may be uplifted from his damaged, limited state to one of true empowerment. Although the word empower is used casually in political discourse, most often to describe the government's dispensation of "civil rights" to certain individuals, to be truly empowered means literally to have absolute authority over one's own destiny. It is commonly accepted that such a thing is not plausible, possible, nor even desirable for mere human beings. In fact, both religious and governmental authorities relentlessly command us to acquiesce personal authority in favor of submission to some "higher power," be it earthly or "divine," for our own best interests. And since our helplessness seems confirmed in every facet of human experience, this call to submit goes largely unchallenged.
In a highly religious world, those who aren't satisfied with their personal reality or the reality of the world frequently turn to God for an answer. People pray for everything from personal health to the safety of loved ones to financial prosperity to world peace. But in a world dominated by warfare, poverty, disease, and every conceivable form of injustice, it seems that these "prayers" are rarely if ever answered. The only logical conclusion one can come to is either A) prayers are never answered because no creator nor agency exists to hear them; or B) the practice of prayer by most human beings is misguided, because they are working with incorrect concepts of "God."
So far—in the history of the world—the world’s religions have neither been able to inspire their god to do anything substantive about the “human condition”, nor have they done much of any significance themselves -- except to offer “coping” mechanisms! The “positive” coping mechanisms offered in the English speaking western world consist of 4 or 5 things: Temporary mystical experience, quasi-fellowship, quasi-miracles, prayer and meditation, some time oriented structure to their lives, and finally promises and hope. One is reminded of the popular axiom, “Hope makes a good breakfast but a lousy dinner”.
Down through the ages into our time, religions have also promulgated every unflattering and insulting concept of god in the spectrum of the highest human value system. Right along side of being merciful, loving and gracious, God has been portrayed as inconsistent, mean, petty, vengeful, violent, vicious, unforgiving, dominating, demanding, unreasonable, alien (“who can know they ways” and “thy ways are past understanding), and cruel (he will be burning humans for ever and ever in some literal fiery hell). Books have been written to show that this is even an unwarranted interpretation of New Testament passages. The God of religion has in fact come to represent everything that could be characterized as anti-God. So pervasive are these imageries of God that, throughout much of the world, the phrase "Holy Warrior" goes unrecognized as an oxymoron. Countless millions of devotees have been willing to burn themselves and others at the stake in concordance with what they view as directives from God. Due to this overt and seemingly endless lunacy, more human beings today than ever before are skeptical of religion. ("Religion has made atheists of many honest men" – David R. Hawkins).
Yet many choose not to abandon their inner call to spirit, seeking instead a spiritual thought system that is more benevolent and constructive to life. In the United States, countless bestsellers have been written on spirituality, with authors such as Eckhart Tolle, Marianne Williams, and Deepak Chopra, et al. preaching a message of forgiveness, "acceptance," and unconditional love. Whereas much religion instructs the faithful to bow to an angry God, most proponents of what might be called "the new age" teach that the Universe is friendly—if friendliness is consonant with being born into an insane, troubled, dangerous world under a sentence of death--, and that happiness is achieved by simply existing in the present moment and “surrendering” to what is. In this thought system, the problems of the world and one's life are illusory – they exist only in our minds due to limited and/or false perception. Undeniably, this approach seems to be a brighter, better alternative to the darker and grimmer aspects of religion and religious concepts of god, and may be helpful to those who seek greater equanimity and inner peace. But the questions must be asked: Have these new approaches gone far enough? Are they correct (consonant with reality) enough? Can they succeed at truly resolving the human condition, and provide every human being with what they really want and need?
From our perspective, the teachings of Jesus, when correctly interpreted and free from the selective coloring of religious dogmatists, provide a clear instructive path to a state of empowerment, i.e. a condition where human beings can change current “reality" for the benefit of all. Even physical death can be transcended for truly empowered individuals – on this point Jesus was particularly explicit. For those who seek a concept of God that is both benevolently healing, consistently loving and sane, any other point of view can only be described at best as inadequate, at worst as destructive.
But in our purportedly "Christian" nation, the fundamental tenets of Jesus' teachings are barely discussed and almost never believed, even by the most devoutly Christian "faithful." In fact, one can argue that institutional Christian doctrine “reads right around the best parts” and has over centuries come to preach the precise OPPOSITE of Jesus' intended message to humanity. In the Gospel of John, we are told that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life." But within traditional Christian denominations, physical death is not viewed as something that lowly human beings can entirely bypass because there is always a hiatus. The "everlasting life" promised by Jesus--the destiny of righteous "souls" that have been judged favorably by God—is only delivered after death.
The Father for whom Jesus spoke, however, bore no resemblance to the capricious, schizophrenic entity of the Old Testament and other sacred writings. Jesus could not have been more clear that the Father was not in the business of dispensing judgement and wrath upon his own creation, nor was it God's will for human beings to suffer and die: "…as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he will….For neither does the Father judge any man, but he has given all judgment unto the Son…Truly, truly, I say unto you, He that hears my message, and believes him that sent me, has eternal life, and comes not into judgment, but has passed out of death into life…."
A large part of healing may have to start with spiritual sanity, conceptual clarity and correctness. It might be stated that Jesus' primary intention was to change man's concept of God as being both separate from, and superior to, His creation. To the disciple Phillip when challenged to “show us the father”, Jesus replied—no doubt with frustration--, “If you have understood me, you have understood the father.” In the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, Jesus states, "The Kingship of Heaven is within you and without you, and any man who knows himself shall find it." This instruction and others by Jesus seem quite explicit – Heaven is not a "place" that man's "soul" travels to after death, nor is it a realm to which only a few are granted entrance after a favorable judgment. The Kingship of Heaven can be accessed IMMINENTLY, and all anyone need do to find it is "know himself."
The teachings of Jesus also seem congruent with the revolutionary idea of a "holographic universe." A hologram is a single entity that is made of many individual units, and within each unit is the essence of the whole. In this analogy, where Jesus states that he can accomplish nothing in the absence of the Father, we might interpret this to mean that God Himself represents the totality of unfallen human consciousness. When Jesus performed miracles, he insisted it was not him doing it, but the Father, yet Jesus told his disciples, "Greater things than these will you do." The message is clearly that God is NOT separate from human beings – in a state of perfect unity and fellowship, all the power in the universe is available to man, and in this condition of empowerment, nothing that the mind can imagine is impossible.
The evidentiary support for these seemingly "unusual" or "extraordinary" concepts exists for anyone with the inclination and discernment to see. The feats of the psychic mind have been anecdotally demonstrated for centuries, and in recent decades, experimentally. Even a cursory examination of the evidence reveals beyond a reasonable doubt that we live in a collective consciousness, damaged and fragmented but still undeniably active. In everyday life, human beings have regular psychic experiences ranging from the profound to the seemingly mundane. Since death is the most psychically traumatizing of all experiences, it's not surprising that many of the most intense psychic intuitions explicitly forewarn of one's own expiration. In fact, many people have been able to accurately predict the precise moment of their deaths, often years in advance.
One of the more jarring demonstrations of this phenomenon was given by NBA star Pistol Pete Maravich who said in a 1974 interview, "I don't want to play 10 years in the NBA and die of a heart attack at age 40." Maravich played pro ball for exactly 10 years and died of a heart attack at age 40 in 1988. In the article "When Death is Prophesied," over a dozen historical accounts were presented of similar fulfilled prophecies among everyday people. (Full story: http://www.rense.com/general58/death.htm)
And the psychic abilities of animals have been demonstrated perhaps even more forcefully than those of humans. No narrow, materialistic view of reality can explain the countless reports of lost animals that traversed hundreds or even thousands of miles to return home to their families, guided only by intuition. Consider this 1971 report of a cat whose 1,600 mile journey finally led her -- bruised paws and all -- to her owners' doorstep:
News Journal, Sunday July 25, 1971, Mansfield, OhioFrom The Family WeeklyThe Love Cats Feel For People...The Journeys Their Love InspiresBy Felica AmesWhat built-in cat radar led Clementine through endless miles of unknown country to the one house and one family in the world she was looking for?How long would it take to walk from Dunkirk, N. Y., to Denver, Col.? A cat named Clementine could tell you. It took her four paw-bruising months to make that 1,600-mile trek. But then, Clementine didn't know the way.When Mr. and Mrs. Robert Lundmark moved from Dunkirk to Denver, they left their pet black cat with neighbors because Clementine was in the family way. Once the litter was weaned, however, Clementine abandoned her brood and hit the road. Four months later an exhausted female cat appeared on the Lundmark's doorstep. There was no doubt it was Clementine, for this amazing animal was unique in another way. She had seven toes on each front paw, two white spots on her stomach and a scar on her left shoulder.
Full story may be read here
Innumerable such accounts are also supported by the research of Dr. Rupert Sheldrake, who has demonstrated the psychic connections between humans and their pets in his book, "Dogs That Know When Their Owners are Coming Home and Other Unexplained Powers of Animals" (see http://www.sheldrake.org).
Many people may accept the existence of psychic phenomena, but the full implications of these abilities have seemingly yet to register. Not only is consciousness not locally limited to the brain, not only is it capable of instantaneous communication with every other mind, it is capable of affecting physical reality in ways we can barely imagine. Consider the research of quantum physicist John Hagelin, Ph.D., who co-authored a study in Washington D.C., which showed a direct correlation between a group's practice of transcendental meditation, and a reduction of crime in their area. (For an overview of this study, see www.istpp.org/crime_prevention).
We must also consider the tangible physical affects that our minds have on our own bodies – such affects are far from merely "theoretical" or "anecdotal." For instance, it is well-documented that hypnotic suggestion alone can lead directly to the formation of visible burn-blisters on human flesh. (See Handbook of Hypnotic Suggestions and Metaphors,
That a human being can mentally burn his own flesh should surprise no one. According to at least one controlled study in the 1960's, the human body produces "electromagnetic radiation phenomena" when consciousness is "in a state of intensed [sic] psychosensory excitation." (See More US Government Psychic Warfare)
At a more profound level, cellular biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton argues in his book "The Biology of Belief" that "our beliefs, true or false, positive or negative, affect genetic activity and actually alter our genetic code." Rather than viewing man as a helpless victim of his inherited genetic structure, Lipton has demonstrated that "genes do not in fact control our behavior, instead, genes are turned on and off by influences outside the cell." At a public presentation in Phoenix, AZ, Dr. Lipton and author Gregg Braden presented a "rare video" of "a baseball-sized tumor" visible on a sonogram shrinking and disappearing as practitioners of a form of Qigong chanted a simple phrase.
Or consider the experience of Michael Crichton while at Harvard U. After a year spent in the coronary wing of the Harvard Medical Center, he began asking the patients why they had their heart attack. Expecting the answer to be along the lines of too much smoking, drinking or bad diet, he was shocked that virtually all of the answers were couched in personal avoidance terms -- one man suggested that he had a heart attack because his wife resented his promotion at work. Another husband said that his wife was going to leave him. These answers indicate that their minds or mindsets had triggered the attacks. In fact, Crichton himself concluded, "We cause our diseases. We are directly responsible for any illness that happens to us."
The smattering of anecdotes listed above is only a bare bone glimpse of the burgeoning and increasingly mainstream fields of psychic, mind/body, and mind over matter research. And of course, not everyone is happy with this development. Self-styled "skeptics" of the so-called paranormal and/or religious/spiritual beliefs insist that it is DANGEROUS for human beings to entertain abilities and phenomena that official science does not yet recognize as real. They can point to endless charlatans and/or self-deceived individuals – psychic mediums, spoon-benders, dowsers, etc. – who make paranormal claims unsupported by facts as proof that the public must be disabused of belief in the “supernatural” for their own good. And "skeptics" can point to "Christian scientists" and other religious devotees who endanger their own lives and the lives of their children by relying on "prayer" (or their interpretation of prayer) as an antidote to sickness and disease. But any person with a genuinely skeptical approach must also consider the dangers of NOT exploring the mind frontier, and all its awesome untapped potentials. Consider the following warning from Colonel Dolan M. McKelvy in the 1988 USAF-funded scientific study, "Psychic Warfare: Exploring the Mind Frontier." In no uncertain terms does the author espouse the need for human beings to recognize the REALITY of the psychic mind’s powers and all its potential uses, both helpful and destructive:
"Man's greatest potential remains a prisoner of man. Vast untapped mental capabilities create an entirely new battlefield dimension which, if ignored, pose a threat to self and country more serious than nuclear weapons. This threat starts from within. Our fears and cynical attitudes towards psychic capabilities make us our own worst enemies…. Exploring the mind frontier is essential and the key to successful exploration is a greater psychic awareness. The mind is rich in unfathomed resources ripe for exploration, a limitless source of treasures for advancing all mankind, and a serious threat to those who ignore its potential. We must overcome our psychic inhibitions, stop denying the existence of paranormal events, and start trying instead to understand the nature of these phenomena….Report
When Jesus implored mankind toward unity and lovingness, he was speaking not only for unity among all human beings, but an INTERNAL unity for each individual. "The Kingship of Heaven is within you and without you, and any man who knows himself shall find it." For centuries, religious dogmatists have persuaded man that he is separate from and inferior to the Father, intrinsically flawed, judged as guilty and sentenced to die. The "enlightenment" of science -- the purported best alternative to murderous dogma -- has failed at resolving man's ultimate helplessness. In order to reach our true psychic, spiritual, human potential, we must have the courage to challenge our own belief systems, to abandon those beliefs that debase man's worth, and to embrace only those that support "the sustenance and enhancement of life." The real "good news" conveyed by Jesus is that we need NOT accept all the tragedies, heartaches, and deprivations that have defined human experience, that we are entitled to receive what every human being wants, the "'IFISEEUS' package of Imminent Fulfillment, Immortality, Safety, Equality, Empowerment, Unity, and Society." Bertrand Russell said, "Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones." According to Jesus, to be satisfied with bad beliefs is to condemn oneself – and all of mankind -- to an existence typified by suffering and ending in death. But Jesus also stated that a way out exists, that "My yoke is pleasant and my burden light." Very few of us have acquired the correct beliefs--if we had the world we live in would be transformed forever. But we can all begin to believe that the truth is friendly and, when properly understood, will never betray us or leave us wanting for anything. Was this the choice Jesus offered mankind during his time on Earth? Roughly 2,000 years later, does all the Universe still wait for us to finally choose correctly?
For more complete background on the statements of Jesus concerning life see Life Verses
Michael Goodspeed is a freelance journalist who lives in Portland, Oregon. His e-book "Is the Universe Electric?' is available from Mikamar Publishing (http://www.mikamar.biz/thunderbolts-product.htm)