Spirituality/ Secularity — the Nature of Oneness
It is by way of "religious" consciousness (spirituality) that the cultural disconnect from ecological necessity might be healed. The “science” of religion reads on Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity, E=mc². E is energetic consciousness; mc² is matter, the substance of energy, materiality, secularity.
“Religious” relativity is “eucharistic” consciousness, the theology of sacred remembrance (Sacrament) and the science of energy/ matter relationships. From the reality of essential relationships we might derive an equation of sorts, the “eucharistic equation of oneness”:
E = e(3) [e(1) x e(2)]; E is Eucharist; substance self-donation-transformation
e(1) is environment;
e(2) is ecology; and
e(3) is economy
Environment is the economically balanced ecology of web-life interdependency; Eucharist is the economy of web-life, self-donation, transformation; environment is the sustainable means/ end of economic balance and authentic exchange. I invite any and all mathematical minds to improve on this less than perfect calculus I propose here.
No economy is workable/ sustainable except it accounts for the coefficients of intentional conservancy, and except these coefficients are in place in human reckoning and interaction with web-life. The absence of these coefficients destines ecologies and humankind to precipitous dead ends; the absence of these coefficients accounts for the present wasting of life, environment and ecology, associated with the fraudulent economics of corporate consumerism that ignores the essential coefficients of sustainability.
Vatican II speaks in religious terms that support the rationality proposed here:
“(14)… body and soul, man is one. Through his bodily composition he gathers to himself the elements of the material world… man is not allowed to despise his bodily life… the very dignity of man postulates that man glorify God in his body… man…is more than a speck of nature… by his interior qualities he outstrips the whole sum of mere things…when man recognizes in himself a spiritual and immortal soul
“(15) Man judges rightly that by his intellect…he shares in the light of the divine mind… his intelligence is not confined to observable data alone. It can with genuine certitude attain to reality itself as knowable… The intellectual nature of the human person is perfected by wisdom and needs to be. For wisdom gently attracts the mind of man to a quest and love for what is true and good. Steeped in wisdom, man passes through visible realities to those which are unseen… [f]or the future of the world stands in peril unless wiser men are forthcoming. It should also be pointed out that many nations, poorer in economic goods, are quite rich in wisdom and can offer noteworthy advantages to others.
“(16)…the voice of conscience can when necessary speak to his heart more specifically, do this, shun that. For man has in his heart a law written by God. To obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged… In fidelity to conscience, Christians are joined with the rest of men in search for truth… the more that a correct conscience holds sway, the more [persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and strive to be guided by objective norms of morality.
“(17) Only in freedom can man direct himself toward goodness… authentic freedom is an exceptional sign of the divine image in man. For God has willed that man be left ‘in the hand of his own counsel’ so that he can seek his Creator spontaneously, and come freely to [and] blissful perfection through loyalty to Him. Hence man’s dignity demands that he act according to a knowing and free choice… Man achieves such dignity when…he pursues his goal in a spontaneous choice of what is good, and procures for himself, through effective and skillful action, apt means to that end.”
[Joseph Gremillion, “The Gospel of Peace and Justice”, Gaudium et Spes”, Copyright © 1976, pp 244-256, Orbis Books, Maryknoll N.Y. 10545]
Sylvester it might be even
Sylvester it might be even more convoluted and mysterious than scientists are willing to go at this point. It may be that our conciousness is being influenced by demensions outside this material demension, and that some parts of our brains are capable of recieving this other information. This also implies that there is something about us that also intersects with other demensions of reality. We often talk about supernatural events entering our reality, but we might find the reality is a two way street.
One of the most important things I have had to understand about the human brain is that it is a reciever and translator of information wave lengths. The visual and auditory spectrums are most familiar because by translating these information streams we are able to see and hear.
Specific groupings of neurons within the brain act as the reciever/translator centers. It may be that we have other groups of neurons which recieve and translate other forms of information on wave lengths that have not been identified to this point. This may explain sudden leaps in understanding, and other creative endeavors. This information only surfaces when it's needed or useful.
Of course the other aspect to this is we are not just recievers we are also senders. The use of focused intent in the OCD patients mentioned in Heffner's article is an example of our sending capacities ability to influence the reconstruction of neural pathways, and hence behavior. Or to put it differently, an example of conciousness literally changing matter.
In any event, as more information comes from neurophysiology and quantum biomechanics, we may find ourselves totally shocked at what it truly means to be human, and why it's so necessary to understand what Christ really means when He says He is the way, the Truth and the Light. A life such as the He led seems to be the key to entrance into the "cosmic womb of creative gestation, and the evolving design of intelligence." And then there is the whole issue of collective conciousness.
I would like to add a more
I would like to add a more prosaic example of how our senses are not the limit of our mind's abilities. Perhaps you have heard of blind sight, in which the eye conveys information to parts of the brain even when the part of the eye that transmits information to that part of the brain that recognizes sight is not functioning. This information becomes part of what the afflicted subject "knows" even though he or she is not conscious of how he or she has come to know it.
Who is to say what the nature of information attained this way is? Perhaps there is real stuff in our midst that comes to us by way of "senses" of which we have no conscious awareness and other real stuff that we miss despite its being there. Perhaps some of us, more than others, are more capable of becoming aware of this stuff despite our lack of conscious awareness of how we come to know it. Perhaps, this ability sets us apart from those who can only postulate a materialist view of the brain and consciousness.
How timely. Rich Heffern’s
How timely. Rich Heffern’s “Mystery of the Mind” (NCR February 8, 2008) speaks to “science’s deepest mysteries” and the reveal of the cosmic bridge, the “angelic” passageway common to human and cosmic consciousness, what is the holistic consciousness joining science and religion.
Baffling science is the vast and predominating realm of “dark energy/ matter” (check google/wiki) that escapes the calculus of science. Dark energy/ matter is everywhere, the amniotic supposition of all relativity, creativity. The best evidence is that it is the “pure” realm of “qualification potential” that substantiates all matter and characterizes all “soul”.
Do we rightly understand this realm as the universal place of “psychic precondition”, of the harmonic potential that is the source of all electromagnetism in which the transfer of wave energy to particle happens? The “graviton” is the least particle which is postulated to be a closed superstring loop, derived from the harmonic wave realm of superstrings.
Is this the realm of atomic/ subatomic regeneration that sustains all body substance and soul consciousness? Might we suppose that this “cosmic conscious” realm is the universal source of consciousness, the “psychic precondition” of substance quantification and conscious qualification, the place of perpetual, creative renewal, the realm of psychic inspiration accessible to us always in every least element of our bodies? I would suggest that this is the deep well of amniotic supposition, the cosmic womb of creative gestation, the evolving design of intelligence.