From the newly discovered Higgs particle of the subatomic world to the emerging role of the vast quantities of unseen matter and energy of outer space to our earthly relationships and the age-old questions about who we are and where we go when we die, The Numinous Factor shows how both science and everyday life in the twenty-first century can be experienced better by seeing spirituality as the basis of everything. Through application of its ten non-religious principles of mind expansion, you will: Understand better the latest discoveries of science Discover more of your own complex identity Increase beyond limitation your awareness and ability to comprehend Relate better to everyone and everything in the world around you through spiritual unity Calm your mind by seeing your basic essence as being one with the spirituality of the Universe Realize why seemingly negative things happen See new dimensions of your existence after this earthly life Sense the great peace and happiness of a higher spiritual consciousness "The Numinous Factor is the missing link between physical reality and spiritual reality. It opens up the heart and reveals new dimensions of our expanding Mind" -Geofrey Grant Layng, minister and public speaker
The Numinous Factor
The Spiritual Basis of Science and of LifeBy John L. WalkerBalboa Press
Copyright © 2012 John L. Walker, PhD
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4525-5767-0Contents
Preface.................................................................ixChapter One The Need and the Mode......................................1Chapter Two The Factor and Limitlessness...............................15Chapter Three Unity and Continuity.....................................31Chapter Four Intuition and Energy......................................43Chapter Five Seeing Spirituality in the Principles.....................55Chapter Six The Factor and the Quantum.................................65Chapter Seven Photons and Fields.......................................77Chapter Eight Other Universes..........................................85Chapter Nine The Factor and the Cosmos.................................99Chapter Ten Formations and Cycles......................................109Chapter Eleven Earthly Applications of the Factor......................119
Chapter One
The Need and the Mode
The Problem
With all of the marvelous advances in knowledge of the Universe being made these days, it could be thought that scientists have finally figured out the essential nature of its functions and how it came into being, and that there is, then, no need for consideration of the role of a Divine Creator in all of it. After all, scientists have studied the Big Bang theory, have looked at the expanding universe, have analyzed black holes, have figured out the formation of carbon and other elements needed for life as we know it, and have learned much of how atomic theory works in outer space. They also have come to understand much about the quantum or subatomic world, such as what makes up atoms, what the energy fields are that seem to give rise to everything that exists, and what seems to be the fundamental basis of everything that we can observe and even what we cannot observe. They think that they are getting close to the Theory of Everything that will explain the totality of Creation. It even seems possible that, across the Universe, all energies can balance each other out, leaving no restrictions on the continuity of all of the above phenomena, which might suggest that entities could actually spring into being spontaneously without any need for a spiritual Creator. This seems to solve the whole story of Creativity and to end all the religious speculation.
Yet, there still seem to be a few questions that science has not been able to answer so far:
Where did energy and matter come from in the first place? How and why did this Universe, with its enormous complexity, organization, and delicate balances of enormous forces, get assembled into this form? How did the forces that govern it come into being? What is gravity? What is life? What instigates universes to form? What is outside the Universe? And, more importantly for us personally: Who are we? Why are we here? Where are we going?
We can never get to the bottom of Creation rationally. There is always more to know. The fact is that there are parts of the physical sciences that cannot be seen rationally because that is the way they seem to be set up in relation to us. At the same time, we have yet to understand the Creation through religion since religions throughout human history have come up with a great variety of supposed explanations, usually based on limited knowledge and restricted views of the Supreme Deity.
Viewpoints of the Creation seem to fall into two general categories. In one, the Universe is seen as a strictly physical entity and its origins and operations can be understood rationally without any need for Deity. In the other, the Universe is seen as having been brought into existence by a Creator Who put the breath of life into it, and then either controls it still or has left it to run on its own. Both views, however, indicate that the physical Universe operates as a separate entity, whether created by Deity or not.
Actually, there is another possibility.
Maybe there is a Creative Power that really is the energy, is the gravity, is the rock, and is the fusion process in the stars. Maybe there is no separation between the Creator and the Created, between Spiritual and Physical. Maybe everything that we see or measure physically and everything that we might sense or feel spiritually is really One, a Unity. If this is so, then Spirituality, a human term referring to an awareness of the Presence of the Divine, cannot be left out of scientific reasoning. At the same time, science can enhance an understanding of the concrete aspects of the spiritual. The combination of science and spirituality might give a more complete view, similar to how using two eyes gives a perspective that using one eye does not. It would also be reassuring to realize that Deity is not off somewhere doing something else after abandoning us here, but rather exists in, through, and as everything in the Universe, including us, so that there is no separation between man and spirit, a concept that could end the great angst that grips much of the religious world as it tries to find a way to live on after bodily death. It would seem that such a realization could bring us great peace and fulfillment, both in this life and in the next.
This book shows a way to achieve this realization of Divinity as the Essence, the Source, and the Totality of all that is, a viewpoint that leads us to a more complete understanding both of the physical and of the spiritual. The aim here is to present a method that can let us understand better the things around us-our physical world, the vastness of outer space, the tiny world of the atom, the existence of intelligent human beings here and possibly elsewhere, our unexpected and complex added dimensions-by seeing spirituality as the oneness of everything.
Spirituality
Let us see how that can be. We start by remembering that the word "spiritual" (with its roots in "wind" or "breath") refers to the active Divine essence that gives life and animation to physical things. It is generally thought of as being separate from the objects it animates, but for our purposes, we can ponder how spirituality might rather be seen as the totality of the objects. Possibly we can begin to realize that everything is completely spiritual, not just consisting of separate entities that are animated by a special breath. Spiritual and physical, we might decide, along with any other aspects, form a Oneness, a Unity. This book will suggest several steps that the reader might follow to increase awareness of the Presence of Spirituality in everything seen or known, and extending to things not yet seen or known. You may wish to select other such steps, because those listed here constitute just one way of opening the awareness. We will call the steps listed here "The Numinous Factor," since the word "numinous" is not a religious name for Deity, but rather refers to an awareness of the spirituality inherent in everything. We will examine the full meaning of the word "numinous" later on.
Once we have pondered the principles of The Numinous Factor, we will take them first into the subatomic world, where we will see the wild and wonderful ways it carries on its role in life as the basis of everything around us, and then travel out through the cosmos, those vast reaches of outer space, where we will see in more dimensions than we thought we even possessed how all of it developed and why it is the way it is. After that, and actually throughout the discussion, we will develop a different view of the social world in which we now live and of ourselves, seeing a little more of whom we are and what we can become. We might then achieve a greater perspective, a more complete picture of Life Itself, than we have had so far, and thereby achieve peace, fulfillment, and joy as we realize that we are inseparable parts of the Divine Totality.
Awareness of all of this can be achieved through simple explanations along with thoughts for us to ponder, all enhanced by methods that will allow a free flow of intuition that can let enlightenment to blossom within us. There will be no math, no equations, and no complicated concepts. These are means that scientists use to create orderly, balanced, and complete representations of what they are learning. They use scientific methods with what they hope is complete objectivity, employing exact measurements, elimination of variables, logical deduction, and synthesis of accurate conclusions, all of which need to be done in ways that can be duplicated by others. In this book, however, we will be balancing spirituality and science using subjectivity, intuition, insight, and individual conclusions. All these might not be the same for others even if they use our exact methods because spirituality is an individual thing that generally cannot be proven while it is also a unity that sees all things as individual facets of the whole. We will look at why this must be so later on. For now, let us just say that the final awareness will be the same for everyone eventually, but the methods to achieve it will be individualized and subjective.
Actually, this blending of the subjective and objective is what science is all about anyway. For example, as we will see in our look at quantum physics, various observers of quantum phenomena can arrive at different conclusions, all of which are valid, and all of which are part of the system. There is a subjectivity built into our most fundamental area of physics. Even our system of mathematics itself, seemingly solid, dependable, and unchanging, is based on certain axioms that were chosen long ago, and mathematicians have found that alternative systems based on other axioms will work just as well. So everything in science is just a little bit subjective as well as objective in the first place, and our look at it will just try to illuminate it all a little better.
To begin our study of the Numinous, the spirituality in everything, we need to develop an approach that will put us into the proper subjective mode just as the scientific method does for the objective mode. This can be one of the most exciting parts of this journey. Imagine a way of living and seeing life that will raise us above petty earthly viewpoints and squabbles to a higher consciousness wherein all is beauty and peace! And we can start developing it today, right now! To do so, we will enlist a guide whose name forms an acronym that will make the steps of our development easy to remember: EMILY.
EMILY
The letters of EMILY stand for five principles that we can begin to use right now, not only to further our awareness of the Numinous, but to bring greater warmth and comfort to our present lives. The more we practice them, the more we will find ourselves released from the earthly dependencies, uncertainties, and fears that beset us daily. Even when practiced in simple ways, the principles can raise us to a new consciousness that will help us stand firm in spirituality while the rigors of the world buffet us. And the name of our guide, EMILY, will remind us constantly of these principles, which are: Enlightenment, Meditation, Intention, LOVE, and Yielding.
Before we look more closely at these principles, let us see a rationale for using such a guide. We may have seen a demonstration on communication wherein a speaker goes into the audience to show everyone a picture up close. He stands in the middle of the group and holds up a poster with the picture on both sides so all can see it clearly. He then goes back up front and puts up a large version on an easel and asks people to tell what they see. Some of the people start to comment that it is a picture of an ugly witch, where others contend that it is a beautiful girl. The discussion can get quite heated, with people even going up front to point out the features of what they discern, but it is to no avail as the others do not budge from what they think that they discern. Gradually, it dawns on everyone that the people in front are seeing one thing, and the people in the back another, with a distinct dividing line between the two views. What the speaker did, of course, was to show two different pictures, one clearly of a young girl to the front of the audience, the other clearly of a witch to the back half, with the picture he put up front being a clever blending of the two. The point was that people could only see one image in the composite, namely the first one presented to them, despite the arguments given by the other group. We human beings tend to see what we have been programmed to see, so a change of mode will free us to experience higher vibrations and, thus, a heightened sense of the Numinous.
So for the study in this book, we need to let go of the normal human viewpoints that we now accept without question, and adopt different ones to get us into a new realm of visualization. In essence, we need to see all possible views of the composite picture. It is not always easy to make this change. The study of foreign languages, for instance, shows us that there are different ways to express the same thoughts equally well. In English, we may say: "I like it." In Spanish, the wording would be: "It pleases me." Which is correct? Each just has a distinct flavor. The English version puts me as the center of attention in the sentence; the Spanish puts the object in the center. English-speaking students, however, often have a very hard time seeing and using the different meaning and word order of the Spanish sentence even after years of study. In like manner, it might be difficult for some readers of this book to move into the subjective mode of understanding the Universe, but just as we do not have to give up our core language in order to see and maybe even appreciate and learn from another way of expressing something, we do not have to give up our core beliefs to use the Numinous Factor.
Instead, we can follow the steps shown to us by EMILY to see our world and the heavens from a new perspective. Probably each of us will do this in a slightly different way since we are all individuals. But it can be done. We remember that spirituality is a daily decision anyway. No one forces us to be spiritual rather than worldly in our daily outlook. So what we will do here is look at some possibilities, and then our personal decision-making processes can take us to something new. Our viewpoint is our viewpoint and that is how things are. We will just see how to use a new way of looking to develop a different perspective.
Seeds grow best in fertile ground and with proper care. Just as a candle flame cannot exist in an atmosphere devoid of the elements that support it, so a view of spirituality as the basis of the Universe does not exist in an atmosphere devoid of nutrients for it. So we need to establish a mode or a system of preparation before we jump into our study, much like how running a good race depends on steps taken beforehand, such as proper training, the building of endurance, good diet, correct stretching, and good mental conditioning. In the same vein, since schooling and preparation are needed to understand scientific concepts, such as learning the scientific method itself and acquiring basic background information through study and problem solving, there are certain steps that we can take to prepare ourselves for seeing Spirituality as the basis of everything, such as understanding the method itself and acquiring basic background information. The difference is that our spiritual enlightenment will depend on opening ourselves to the information and inspirations already operating in our inner spiritual selves. Our guide, EMILY, will remind us constantly of the five steps or procedures that we can use to uncover this. EMILY, then, will represent: Enlightenment, Meditation, Intention, LOVE, and Yielding. Let us look all of these in a little detail.
Enlightenment
Enlightenment, the first step, establishes our goal and keeps it steadily before us. We can remember the story of the farmer teaching his son to plow. When the boy complained that he could not get the straight rows his dad did, the farmer explained that the boy had to fix his eye on something distant and keep going steadily toward it. However, the boy's rows the next day were more crooked than before. The farmer asked if the boy had followed his advice, and the boy replied that he had, but the cow kept moving. We might do well to fix ourselves on one goal that will not change and keep going steadily toward it.
So what is the goal here? The word "enlightenment" refers to having a light go on that allows us to see clearly. In its capitalized form, it often refers here on earth to an age in which mankind saw new ways of thinking philosophically and of governing. But the symbolism of the word can go much farther. It can denote the state of being aware of the Spirituality that exists and is the totality of everyone and everything. It can refer to feelings of unity and oneness for all the aspects of the Universe and beyond. It might include recognizing that everyone and everything in the Universe is whole, complete, and perfect, regardless of seemingly different paths and states of being, since everything in the Universe is part of one complete Spiritual Whole. Enlightenment, then, is a vision of great peace because there is nothing to agitate or cause fear or anger or jealousy in this spiritual Oneness. It is realizing happiness in aspects of existence beyond the materialism of this world. It is the comprehension of Truth beyond what is rationally evident. It is being aware that our pathways definitely lead to a fruition of Oneness with the Divine, which puts everything else, including the material world, into perspective and makes us more calm, loving, and accepting. It is therefore all joy, for we see ourselves as part of the Presence, and nothing more can be wanted or needed as we recognize ourselves as part of the great Oneness in eternal peace and contentment.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Numinous Factorby John L. Walker Copyright © 2012 by John L. Walker, PhD. Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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