RE: [Futurework] new book

[Karen Watters Cole]

Wonderful comments, all.  It seems that understanding requires more than linear thinking, and that’s when faith helps us leap over the unproven to make the hidden connections.  - KWC   Arthur wrote:  when uncertainty becomes unbearable, faith provides solace. Ed wrote: Selma, I think you've put the matter very well.  It reminds me of Thomas Merton's concept that, to understand God, we must depend on both reason and and faith.  In understanding who and what we are, we must let rational thought take us as far as we can possibly go with it.  With each passing day or year, or with each scientific breakthrough, we will know a little more, but we will then increasingly recognize that what we cannot know is much larger, perhaps infinitely larger since there may be no boundaries, than what we can know.  That is where reason ends and faith must take over. Selma wrote: Hi Natalia, I am familiar with The Course in Miracles; I have the book and its companion and did a little work with it some years ago; as you say, there are many paths to the same end. I am not comfortable however, with the idea that there is no objective reality, although I doubt that my idea of objective reality is exactly like that of those who believe that's all there is. I do think science is a very useful tool and regardless of whether one believes that it has done us more harm or more good over the long run, the reality for us, today, is that the goals of A Course in Miracles or Bhuddism or any other belief system that is based in love and forgiveness is likely to become more believable for more people if it can be shown that that belief system has a basis in scientific evidence. The fact that the effects of the mind can be seen on a screen as changes in the brain will convince a lot of people that otherwise are able to dismiss the notion out of hand. The Dalai Lama and others have also been working very closely with neuroscientists in this regard and more and more books are appearing with this theme. Likewise, physicists (as in the case of Schwartz and Begley's work, Bohm, Peat and others) are explicating similar ideas. I think the danger with A Course in Miracles or other paths that depend solely on the power of the mind or belief is that it ignores the physical and psychological and sociological limitations that exist in reality and can really hurt people who believe it can attain its goals with this one method. I think the power of the mind is much greater than most people believe but I also think one must be very clear that there are limitations; only an awareness of those limitations will make it possible to overcome them. Selma Natalia wrote: Hi Selma, If you think that work exciting, try "A Course In Miracles", copywritten 1975, by Foundation For Inner Peace. This work constitutes the most enlightening and meaningful ideas on mind vs. brain you'll ever encounter, and you won't need scientific evidence to convince you of its perspective because truth resounds as self-evident once it is felt deep down. The Course maintains from the outset that mind is totally in control of brain, and not the reverse--as so many want to see it. Not only is one drawn to the beautiful presentation of ideas, which can be likened to Shakespeare for both richness and because so much of it is in iambic pentameter, but the answers to the most important questions we have in life are, for many like myself, satisfactorily answered. Why we are here, what is important, what is real and what is not. If I may, I'd like to quote from the preface: (Please read on-I know this is going to be offensive to some, and the masculine use of the word God is not anything but convenience for agreement of pronouns)                                                   "Nothing real can be threatened.                                                    Nothing unreal exists.                                                    Herein lies the peace of God.                       "This is how A Course In Miracles  begins.  It makes a fundamental                     distinction between  the  real and  the unreal:   between knowledge                     and  perception.  Knowledge is truth,  under one law,  the law of love                     or God.  Truth is unalterable,  eternal  and unambiguous.    It can                     be unrecognized,  but it cannot be changed.     It  applies  to every-                     thing  that  God  created,   and  only  what He created is real.   It is                     beyond learning because it is beyond  time  and  process.   It has no                     opposite;  no beginning and no end.   It merely is.                         "The world of perception,  on the other  hand,   is the  world of                      time,  of change,  of beginnings  and  endings. It is based on inter-                      pretation,  not on facts.  It is the world of birth and death,   founded                      on the belief in scarcity,  loss,  separation and  death.  It is learned                      rather than given, selective in its perceptual emphases,  unstable                      in its functioning, and inaccurate in its interpretations.                          "From knowledge  and perception  respectively,   two   distinct                      thought systems arise which are opposite in every respect.  In the                      realm of knowledge no  thoughts  exist apart from God,   because                      God  and His  Creation  share one  Will.  The world of perception,                      however,  is made by the belief in opposites and separate wills,  in                      perpetual  conflict with  each other  and  with God.  What percep-                      tion sees  and  hears  appears to be real  because it  permits into                      awareness  only what conforms  to  the wishes of  the  perceiver.                      This leads to a world  of  illusions, a world which  needs  constant                      defense precisely because it is not real.                          "When you have been caught in the world of perception you are                      caught in  a  dream.   You  cannot escape  without help,  because                      everything your senses show merely witnesses to  the  reality of                      the dream..." I hope that those God words didn't offend the scientifically minded as much as they once offended me, and I hope that the "offensive" words were substituted with Creation, Source, Goddess, or whatever name you'd care to give to the oneness that is Life. This is not a book on a new religion, it is not religious, yet is intensely spiritual and metaphysical, and the best psychologist a person could have. It may have been written by another so-called prophet, but was actually delivered to a Professor Helen Schucman of Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City, and she was anything but spiritual. Whether it was related to her by a divine source, or whether it is the work of another savant with schizophrenia is irrelevant. What is significant to this little note is the content, which I see partially being pursued today in science, medicine, quantum physics, etc. To cite the example of positive behavioural reinforcement on an individual's neural pathways, with  the actual effect of physically changing the old pathways that took challenged people down roads of tortured thought. Well, I've worked for many years with people with mental illness. Change how someone sees things, not behavior so much, but get them to recognize a universal truth. I know that if most had not been thinking or forced to think along the pathways of fear and defensiveness when growing up, their propensity for mental illness would not have had such a jump-start, and these very pathways could have developed physically differently. Perhaps 85% or more patients suffered extreme physical, emotional or sexual abuse in their first homes. Those with whom I had contact were almost at the 100% figure for abuse.  The New York Times recent papers on origins of the universe, big bang theory, accelerated expansion of same, all seem to be drawing conclusions you can find in the Course, such as we are the creators of the physical universe, by virtue of Free Will. We are free to experiment with all forms of illusion. We are dreaming the universe collectively, and at night each one of the fragmented parts of the collective soul that participates in the dream, dreams their very own dreams which only they will experience, yet believe to be true because of the source of their creation. Tell yourself to be afraid, and you will be. Tell yourself the  nightmare is unreal, and the dream changes usually to happier events. Whatever you wish or feel will occur. On a larger scale, collectively as the one creation of a Creator, in the realm or mindspace in which we never actually could leave the source, both God and Heaven are unaware of anything being prayed for in a realm that does not really exist. Prayer is for guidance, but mostly a song to your fellow-human to wake up to Heaven that is possible now. One has but to change one's mind. Forgiveness is the key--and that is what the miracle is. It is the closest thing to real love -- which scientists will eventually learn is the only real force that exists -- we will experience on Earth. Check it out! No books but one, a course in how to unlearn what you were taught badly, no gurus, leaders, no sacred places or things to buy to help you in your journey. This path is not for everyone, it remains one of many.