CHAPTER 1
Introduction
In 1994, a movie featuring Tom Hanks and Sally Fields with the title "Forrest Gump" was released and became an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and People's Choice winner. It was also selected in 2011, by the Library of Congress for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry.
It was a heart-warming, inspirational success. It featured Forrest as a mentally challenged, kind-hearted, good-natured, and athletically gifted person. Forrest had a very endearing character.
One has to see the movie to appreciate its emotional and inspirational impact; however, there is a scene regarding Jesus that is memorable. Forrest was on active duty in Viet Nam and had saved the life of his Lieutenant during an attack. Following his release and life in the U.S., the Lieutenant, who had lost both legs was in the midst of a depression, and had fallen into the drug and alcohol culture.
During a meeting with Forrest following his rehabilitation from his drug and alcohol addiction, Forrest was having some down days about his childhood sweetheart. In an effort to help Forrest the Lieutenant asked Forrest, "Have you found Jesus?" Forrest in his innocence and characteristically literal understandings of communication answered, "I didn't know he was lost."
What can we take from that exchange? There is not only the humor of Forrest's response which was not a humorous response to Forrest. We can also begin to see some truth in Forrest's response. For many people Jesus is lost and many (even professing Christians) don't know where to find him.
Dr. Marcus Borg is a New Testament and Biblical scholar and theologian. He is one of the most widely known and influential voices in what you might call Progressive Christianity. Although now deceased, he was a fellow in the Jesus Seminar, and he was also a major figure in the field of scholarship that addressed the issue of the historical Jesus. He served on the faculties of several universities retiring from Oregon State University in 2007. He was featured in programs on ABC, PBS, National Geographic, NPR, and The Today Show. He authored or contributed to the publication of 28 books.
Dr. Borg's wife was an Episcopal priest and pastor of an Episcopal Parish. She once stated that Marcus spent most of his life looking for Jesus. You might be right in concluding that he spent his entire life seeking to FIND JESUS.
Is there a deeper issue that lies beneath the quest to "Find Jesus?" When people are looking for Jesus or if they think they have "found Jesus" what is that all about? It would appear that they were engaged in an effort to find for themselves; answers to life's questions, and/or a state of peacefulness, security, and the reduction, or total removal of the experience of fear. Their search was a psycho-spiritual journey to find answers for the issues that face and are crucial to everyone. They were seeking to address the basic issues of the following:
MEANING
MYSTERY
MORTALITY
Those most important questions that lurk in our minds are questions like: Who am I?
From where did I come?
Why am I here?
Where am I going?
In our journey there are propositions that we need to consider:
• All that is visible (all that exists) comes from that which is invisible.
• The Mind and Consciousness are not in the brain.
• Life and the body are not the same.
• We exist within time and space and we also exist beyond time and space.
• We are a non-local reality.
We all have unanswered questions such as:
• What is the source of life?
• Where does life go when it leaves the body?
• How can vision, hearing, memory, experiencing and thinking occur when the brain is dead?
• What is reality?
• How can people communicate when they are in different places and have no tangible equipment to use to communicate?
• How can we know about things before they happen?
• Are we connected to and able to communicate with those who have passed on?
• How can we account for Near Death and Past Life experiences?
• Are there other dimensions of life and reality?
Anytime that new truth or new information come into our lives we find it necessary to change our paradigms about the nature of the reality in which we find ourselves. This need to change usually creates a natural resistance. New information is bombarding us daily in our digital age. Even the fields of physics, biology, and archeology are challenging our old ways of thinking and understanding the nature of the world in which we live.
This book is an effort to update our understanding of a remarkable spiritual messenger from the realm of that Conscious and Intelligent Mind, the matrix of all matter of which Dr. Max Planck speaks. You will know more of Dr. Planck as we continue. You will find this exhaustive review to be a pleasant, complete, and inspiring journey into the true nature of the message sent by a psycho-spiritual messenger from another realm of reality. (We call him by the name of Jesus.)
It is my opinion that Jesus of Nazareth, 2,000 years ago, understood human behavior at his time in the world much as we see behavior through the eyes of professional Psychology today. He was aware of the levels of human need and distress. He understood what motivates and heals people. He knew the power of love and forgiveness. He sought to remove anxiety, fear, suffering, and negative rehearsals in people's lives.
One of the major issues of our time in the field of the cultural religion of the United States (Christianity, in all of its many forms) is that the original (historical and verifiable) esoteric message of Jesus has not been incorporated into Jesus message as given to us by the Church in the form of that religion. The true message of Jesus comes to us from a blending of the many sources that are noted below.
What we can conclude about Jesus today is that his spiritual path and message fits with what we now know and have learned about in the field of physics, and about the invisible forces that compose what we call reality and the universe. It also tells us that the information available to Jesus seemed to come from another realm, yet it appeared to be basic to who he was, as a person.
Dr. Carl Jung, the Swiss Psychologist and Psychiatrist had what he called a double mission in life. He maintained that:
1. He sought to help people to realize that they have a Soul. He was convinced that the essence of who we are is more than that of a brain and a body. He wanted people to know that their most basic reality and essence was that of Spirit.
2. His second mission in life was that of serving as something of a mediator between the world of Form and Matter and the world of Spirit. He considered the world of Spirit as the Source from which all that exists comes. His statement is a confirmation of the basic reality that all that we see that is visible comes from that which is invisible.
Taking in our more recent findings in Quantum Physics and following up on Classic Physics, that Energy and Matter are interchangeable, makes it difficult to challenge Jung. All that is visible does indeed come from that which is invisible.
Dr. Albert Einstein, a Classical Physicist, provided us with his Theory of Relativity, a description of reality in a formula. He labeled it E=mc2. What it simply means is that matter and energy are the same thing. Matter is something that you can see and touch, and seems very real to our senses. To Einstein, energy is just as real as matter, and is basic to the creation of matter. Things that are visible have come from the realm of the invisible. This is the message of a remarkable messenger from the realm of that Conscious and Intelligent Mind, the matrix of all matter of which Dr. Max Planck speaks. You will find this exhaustive review of Jesus to be a pleasant, complete, and inspiring journey into the true nature of the message sent by a messenger from another realm of reality. (The man we call Jesus.)
Einstein's Theory of Relativity affirms the presence of invisible forces (nonlocal forces, not necessarily in the here and now) that exist in the universe and rest behind the creation of all that exists. Matter and energy are different forms of the same thing. Each can become the other. Einstein's Theory explained a great deal for us about the nature of the universe.
Material minded scientists maintain that only that which is visible is real. Not according to Classical and Quantum Physicists. As ground breaking as Einstein's discoveries were, Einstein was not satisfied with his discoveries. He still had unanswered questions. Dr. Max Planck, the grandfather of Quantum Physics and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918, made some additional remarkable discoveries that seemed to puzzle Einstein.
What Dr. Planck discovered was that reality at its most basic level (the Quantum level) is the matrix (Source) of all that exists. It is a universal field of energy that connects everything. Without wanting to, Planck entered into a field of evidence that appeared to be more theological and spiritual than strictly scientific. You will see in the quote of Planck's that follows that in describing a universal field of energy that connects everything, that Planck attributes the existence of everything to a Source that he calls a "Conscious and Intelligent Mind," the matrix or womb of all matter, and of everything that exists. This is just another way of saying that everything that is visible (EVERYTHING) comes from that which is invisible.
"As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clearheaded science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about the atoms this much: THERE IS NO MATTER AS SUCH! All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particles of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together ... We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. The Mind is the matrix of all matter." Dr. Max Planck
What Dr. Planck has given us in Quantum Physics is something of a New Physics. It is what we may call the New Physics, Modern Physics, or New Science. It is the progression or evolution of Classical Physics. It is a Physics that explains the nature and behavior of matter and energy on the atomic and subatomic level. One could ask, "What is a Quantum?" Well, a quantum is a very discrete quantity of energy. It comes from the Latin meaning "how much." It is the smallest amount of energy that exists, the world of the ultra small.
Quantum Physics not only tells how it is that everything is connected at the level of energy. It also tells us that everything in the universe is interchangeable. It has both a particle and a wave nature. These findings are indeed an evolution beyond the realm of Classical Physics and they actually caused a bit of confusion for even Dr. Einstein. Einstein called the discoveries of Quantum Physics "Spooky Action at a Distance."
So what is "Spooky Action at a Distance?" It is the phrase that Einstein coined when he described the emergence of the findings in Quantum Physics. He was referring to happenings or events that were "nonlocal." These nonlocal happenings and events were within time and space and yet they were also beyond time and space. One of these happenings or events is the incursion into the science and the scientific study of a spiritual phenomenon that science doesn't want to touch. We call an invisible force that affects the tides of the ocean and the menstrual cycles of women by the name of "gravity." We also appear to have another invisible force that Einstein calls "Spooky Action at a Distance." That "Spooky Action" has been clearly researched and has demonstrated evidence that it affects life, growth, and healing. This invisible "Spooky Action" in spiritual circles is called Prayer. You will be surprised and perhaps even amazed at the impact of this invisible energy (Power of the Mind and Spirit of Love) called "Spooky Action at a Distance." There is unimaginable power in this "Spooky Action."
To further help in understanding "Spooky Action" we need to see that it involves things or people and circumstances that don't touch. These are people and objects that are separated in distance but become or are entangled in some fashion. "Spooky Action" is a concept that an object or a person (a thought, a feeling, a prayer, or an emotion) can be moved, changed, or otherwise affected or impacted without physically being touched by another object or person. This assumes that there is the presence of a field that mediates interaction between the objects or persons involved. It says, as Planck says, that we are all connected at the level of energy or Spirit. "Spooky Action" speaks of the concept of Entanglement. Entanglement is present when 2 particles (or people) are so deeply linked that they mysteriously share the same existence.
It is fascinating to realize that the father of Quantum Physics, Dr. Max Planck, called the source of all that exists A CONSCIOUS AND INTELLIGENT MIND. In the field of spiritual thought and insight one could substitute the DIVINE PRESENCE, SOURCE, or even the word GOD. It is also interesting that Dr. Planck called the Mind, the matrix or source of all matter. It is another way of saying that everything that is visible comes from the realm of the invisible.
A CONSCIOUS AND INTELLIGENT MIND
THIS MIND IS THE MATRIX OF ALL MATTER
One could certainly make the case that Dr. Max Planck has become something of a theologian, a spiritualist, or a scientist who discovered a Source of all that exists that is sometimes referred to in our vernacular as God. Religion often takes advantage of discoveries to promote its own version of reality. It even is known to distort and misrepresent findings in the world of matter and science. But beyond religion how can we ignore what it is that Quantum Physics is telling us? Quantum Physics has little to do with religion, and everything to do with our vision and view of reality, the nature of the universe, human life, and the nature of who we are, including now what is known as spirituality.
People adopt many philosophies and theories about the nature of the universe and who we are but the findings of Quantum Physics tells us that Energy and a Conscious and Intelligent Mind are realities with which we must contend.
What name will you give to that Power, Force, or Source that allows:
• Your mind to think
• Your body to heal
• Your mouth to speak
• Your eyes to see
• Your very life to exist
• Your heart to beat
• Your lungs to breathe
How insane to deny the existence of some Force or Source for which all of the above and more are made possible. How ridiculous to make use of the very essence of your consiousness to deny that you exist in this time and space by virtue of some mysterious force that you cannot identify.
Enter a famous and historic figure who we call a highly evolved Spirit (an Avatar) who was given the name – Jesus. He spoke of and demonstrated many of the dynamics of the Universe spoken of by Jung, Einstein, and Planck. In fact if you were to research and review what Jesus said and did beyond what we find in the traditional, evangelical, or fundamentalist form of Christianity (and even in some instances opposed to what they claim) you would find a universally informed spirituality.
You might ask, "Who is this person? Why should I care? Was he a real person or was he the creation of some religion? Why should I waste my time looking for or listening to what people have to say about him? If I were to look for him where would I look? And if I did find him what would he be like or say? How would I ever know if what I found or heard would be true? What could he teach or tell me that I don't already know?"
All of those are good questions and they deserve solid answers. Suppose you were to review what we already know from Classical and Quantum Physics, neuroscience, brain research, astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell's noetic research, psychic and para-psychological phenomena, Energy Healers, Eastern mystics and avatars, Psychology and Spiritual research, New Science, transformational human and spiritual experiences, and New Biology, Biblical and Archeological research. If you were up to date on all of the above you would find yourself able to find a Jesus who would affirm the following for you:
• Whatever is fear or guilt-based, negative, judgmental, exclusive, cold, destructive, or unloving is not a part of who you are. Fear only comes from not knowing all of the below to be true.
• You are not just your brain and body.
• You are a mighty and powerful spiritual being.
• There is no death.
• The material world you see and in which you live is not the real world.
• You were here before. You existed before coming into this physical birth.
• What matters most in life is; Love, Compassion, Caring, Gratitude, Forgiveness, and Justice.
• You have and you are a Soul.
• There is an unseen dimension of reality in which we live.
