New Search for Ultimate Reality
11/27/06 To Rev. Dr. Elaine McCoy and people participating at the New Search table:
We can’t do it all
As I already said, for logistical reasons I cannot guarantee that I can respond to each individual. New Search is a time-limited project with a distinct purpose. One person wants more; one person wants less. There is no such thing as a person (anyone of us) pleasing all of the people all of the time. But I’ll do the best I can.
New Search goal
You asked, Dr McCoy, “to what end this conversation exists.” I say this with respect, I have told you already at least twice. This Café Table is titled a New Search for Ultimate Reality. Its goal is to give a brief overview of developments that have relevance for us in the early 21st century particularly in seeking solutions for pressing people and planet problems.
Read the resources
This is a purely gratuitous project. Notice that I say, “brief overview of developments.” My purpose is to give references and comment briefly. It is a type of lay education produced by a layperson. However, my sources of information are from scholarly resources and other expert educational assets. If we as a group concentrate on the resources that I offer, I believe that this table will function better. So far, we are very diffuse in our comments. We have to focus more on the issues that are intended and to do this we need to read the resources. They are our guides. I have had the opportunity to have access to a wide variety of reading material, books, journals, internet information, etc. which serves as the basis for New Search. NCRcafe has given me permission to facilitate this table. For security reasons none of us has to reveal who he/she is or what our background is in a public arena such as this. But we can reveal something about ourselves if we want. I am a laywoman, have an advanced degree, have a long-standing interest in specific people and planet issues, and have made my own contribution to this area over many years.
Cohesiveness for effectiveness
If it is difficult for you to buy or borrow the references, then you will need to rely on those of us who have the references. We will attempt to give a brief overview with limited discussion. That’s about the best one can do with this type of format. But, if we read and think on our own, we can then draw our own conclusions as people interested in church and societal issues. I say with a humble spirit that the laity, especially the Catholic laity, has an enormous need for this sort of education. The only way this table is going to fulfill its purpose i.e. be successful, is for us to stay focused on the references. Otherwise it is simply one more chat room. You can continue to make your points that may or may not be relevant to the moment at hand. But readers will recognize that New Search is not a cohesive table unless we stay to the point. Is this what you want? The more cohesive, the more effective we will be. Thank you.
May the Origin of Our Being sustain us until we visit again in about two and a half weeks with Discussion Number Three.
1. "You asked, Dr.McCoy,"to
1. "You asked, Dr.McCoy,"to what end this conversation exists". I say this with respect, I have told you already at least twice."
I wonder if Dr.McCoy feels chastised as I do, for I had/have the same question. If reasonably intelligent people continue to ask a question one feels has already been answered, it really does behoove them to reflect on the answer(s) as well as the questioners'.
2. "Its goal is to give a brief overview of developments that have relevance for us in the early 21st century....Read the resources....If we as a group concentrate on the resources that I offer, I believe that this table will function better... we have to focus more on the issues that are intended and to do this we need to read the resources. They are our guides."
There is a considerable focus on control, personal direction and presumption which does not fully answer as to purpose or agenda (as well as obvious personal attribution of expertise and generosity for its undertaking). "Search" seems to have the connotation of undisclosed "being led", not of "quest".
3. "I say with humble spirit that the laity, especially the Catholic laity, has an enormous need for this sort of education."
What a curious statement: What sort of presumption would warrant such self deprecation? "...this sort of education", do you mean the subject or the pedagogy?. I would like to stay with this thread. It initially awoke in me an energy and curiosity that, as I referred to rather flippently in a spontaneous post, kept me awake. It goaded me to do some research to verify my almost fossilized memory and expand into other areas. However, I could go to the vatican website to be told what to read, and how to discipline my thought process.
If reality is relationship,
If reality is relationship, and relationship is reality, then "ultimate" is the "last" relationship. Deep particle-physics tells us that all substance, all material is a coherency of changeable relationships. The final fulfillment of relationships would seem to be the "ultimate" reality!? For us individually, death is a step into transcendent relationship, that is, the step by which we pass on to others the sum total of transcendent accomplishment. This is one way in which we live on. It is a value of superior worth and purpose. So it would seem that perhaps the most important personal issue of life is what kind of "ultimate reality" do I want to contribute to life's continuum? Can we know experientially what isn't materially qualified, other than through the experience of transcendency?
"Can we know experientially
"Can we know experientially what isn't materially qualified, other than through the experience of transcendency?"
Yes we can. I have worked with a group of shamans who have traveled back in time and changed the present for a dozen very sick people. I have traveled within this time and watched events unfold in real time only to have them verified on CNN. Death isn't the only doorway in which we can experience the quantum totality of our human potential. This thread could be very interesting indeed if we are given the latitude to discuss our personal experiences of the Ultimate Reality and how it operates.
The search for spiritual transcendence has been life long for me, and I know we are more than the sum of our sense perceptual material reality. So did Jesus. The Transfiguration was as much a quantum statement as His Resurrection. There is no question we can do as He did. Maybe He actually meant we were, on some level, His equals in our shared humanity by telling us we could do as He did. He did not pray My Father, he prayed Our Father. He called us His brothers and sisters. He did not separate Himself from our humanity. He was separate only in His understanding of our shared humanity, which He gave His all for us to share with Him. Maybe the search for the Ultimate Reality needs to begin with a much deeper understanding of the human potential. One which recognizes we are cocreators and not dependent victims.
To pick up on your thread,
To pick up on your thread, Colcoch, and I thank you for it, the identification of “divine instance” in cosmic (universal) energy can, I believe, be helpful in grasping ultimate (end/beginning means, alpha/omega) reality.
Jesuit priest paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin expanded on the metaphysics of universal energy, in which he self-identified with Jesus Christ. The quotation below is from Ursula King’s book “Pierre Teilhard de Chardin”, 1999, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY, pp 85-95, and excerpted more fully in my “Primary Scripture”, 2001, pp 87-89, with permission of the publisher; also, pp 91-94 are about “Chardin’s Transfiguration (in his own words)”. [www.authorhouse.com]
“Of the Cosmic Christ we may say both that he is and that he is still growing… (88). He is the Alpha and Omega, the principle and the end, the foundation stone and the keystone… Some Catholics are disconcerted when it is pointed out to them either that the laws of providence may be reduced to determinism and chance or that under our most spiritual powers there lie hidden most complex material structures, or that the Christian religion has roots in a natural religious development of human consciousness... Such Catholics either deny the facts or are afraid to face them. This is a huge mistake…I am convinced that there is no more substantial nourishment for the religious life than contact with scientific realities, if they are properly understood.
“It is useless, in consequence, and it is unfair to oppose science and Christ, or to separate them as two domains alien to one another. By itself, science cannot discover Christ, but Christ satisfies the yearnings that are born in our hearts in the school of science.(92).
“Let us…give the name of Omega to the upper cosmic goal disclosed by creative union. All that I shall have to say about it may be reduced to three points: A) The revealed Christ is identical with Omega; B) inasmuch as he is Omega…he is seen to be attainable and inevitably present in all things; C) And finally, it was in order that he might become Omega that it was necessary for him, through the travail of his incarnation, to conquer and animate the universe…In order to demonstrate the truth of this fundamental proposition, I need only refer to the long series of Johannine—and still more Pauline—texts in which the supremacy of Christ over the universe is so magnificently expressed. (95). …for the Christian the whole world becomes divine in its entirety(90-91).
“We must say of every man that he continues in himself, besides a body and soul a certain physicality that relates in him in his entirety to the universe in which he reaches fulfillment. This is because, strictly speaking, there is in the universe only one single individuality (one single monad), that of the whole conceived in its organized plurality. The unity of measure of the world is the world itself… We have become accustomed to consider persons (monads) as the natural, complete, units into which the world can be broken down. When we speak of “a soul” we believe that we are thinking of an independent reality, coterminous with itself, separable in its identity from other souls and even from the universe. This pluralist concept may well be most inaccurate.(87).
[For a deeper inclusive sense of the hope potential in cosmic consciousness see: David Toolan, SJ, (former Associate Editor of AMERICA), AT HOME IN THE COSMOS, 2001, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY, Chapter Nine, “A Physics of Promise” pg 156ff. David dedicated this book to his fellow Jesuit.] "We are more than the sum of our sense perceptual material reality."
Thanks for quoting one of my
Thanks for quoting one of my heroe's. Fr. Teilhard layed incredible groundwork for a whole new theological understanding. And yet it's far more than theology. It's also a breakthrough understanding of relationship.
There IS great hope in cosmic conciousness. My understanding of my potential to effect meaningful change in this reality has exploded. We are not totally at the mercy of uncontrollable forces. We CAN effect those forces. All it takes is a 'critical mass' of like minded individuals concentrating on one prayer, hope, wish, and change happens. And the best part is it doesn't take people in total agreement, it just takes agreement on the one hope, wish, or prayer. I'll have more later, I have to look somethings up.
Teilhard recommends also
Teilhard recommends also human action as the revelation and 'being-in' ("putting on Christ" in Paul's words) the Divine Milieu. This manifestation of 'divine instance' is both very immediate and very intimate. It is the presence of Christ's Incarnation and our own communion within that. It requires, on our part, intentional action.
Teilhard says,
"Each one of our works, by its more or less remote or direct effect upon the spiritual world, helps to make perfect Christ in his mystical totality. That is the fullest possible answer to the question: How can we, following the call of St. Paul, see God in the active half of our lives? In fact, through the unceasing operation of the Incarnation, the divine so thoroughly permeates all our creaturely energies that, in order to meet it and lay hold on it, we could not find a more fitting setting than that of our action." (THE DIVINE MILIEU, Harper 1965: 62)
Thank you for reminding us of this noble person, Mr. Steffen.
A more contemporary Roman Catholic theologian, Denis Edwards, speaks beautifully and compellingly of a theology of the Creator Spirit in his 2004 book, BREATH of LIFE (Maryknoll). I find Edwards' theology ,in general, to be one of the most accessible and well-crafted expression of how science & Jesus work together.
The Rev. Dr. E. McCoy
Ephesians (5:15-16)
"Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. "
The PSYCHIC PRECONDITION of
The PSYCHIC PRECONDITION of Cosmic Evolution
For five decades I’ve been struggling to develop an understanding (theory) of “ultimate reality” in a way compatible with Catholic Faith Tradition and cosmic evolution. In mutual exchange of principled compatibility, humankind supposes divinity as divinity supposes humankind. The reconciliation of the divine/human is necessarily ongoing and changing as are human experience and awareness; my insight, as of now, is offered below.
I have a sense that constellations of “Psychic Precondition” exist in infinite realms of consciousness, what I call “divine instance”. The mathematics of superstring theory allow for multiple universes, what are openly psychic realms, perhaps wholly immaterial in character. What this suggests is that there are ordered constellations of interactive harmonic energy, qualified psychically but not necessarily physically.
The constellations of harmonic energy are a precondition and expansive basis of cosmic consciousness (light energy) that substantiates the universe and qualifies the psychology of physical constructs and the energetic relationships within and between them. The various hierarchies of psychic consciousness function in multiple realms of rationality and may be accessed by intentional focus, whether within or outside physical constructs.
The harmonic complexes (of superstrings) have a stability that is beyond decomposition, as we understand it from and in the unstable and changing states of matter. There is in these harmonic realms no entropic degrading as we know it. Human “soul”, Earth-soul and the intentionality of consciousness are commonly stabilized and secured in faith awareness, the resonance of preconditioned harmonics, accessible for attenuation.
The psychic connection of the living and the “dead” is a universal phenomenon of consciousness. We, who have experienced the passing of an especially loved one, experience a new closeness and “communion” of spiritual awareness that was not previously possible before the passing of the loved one.
The psychic connection between the living and the “non-living” is a long celebrated religious phenomenon, identified in Christian experience as the “Communion of saints”. The holiness of the cosmic order characterizes the holiness of the living person and the religious constant of sustained intentional faith life.
[The Second Enlightenment Trilogy is about (my) faith/science reconciliation, q.v. at www.secondenlightenment.org]
"The constellations of
"The constellations of harmonic energy are a precondition and expansive basis of cosmic consciousness (light energy) that substantiates the universe and qualifies the psychology of physical constructs and the energetic relationships within and between them. The various hierarchies of psychic consciousness function in multiple realms of rationality and may be accessed by intentional focus, whether within or outside physical constructs."
Mr. Steffen this is right on target. The potential implied in this is most definitely earth changing. Below I've posted a link to an experiment run in Washington DC in 1993. It demonstrates what can happen when a critical mass of people achieve the intentional focus needed to access the benevolent organizing principle of three demensional reality. It's exciting to think of the possibilities inherent in training oneself to play and create in these other vibrational demensions. Good things happen.
http://www.alltm.org/pages/crime-arrested.html
Incredible writing and
Incredible writing and poetry, Mr. Steffen! Why does it not surprise me, having read your other writing? I bookmarked your page so I can come back for more, and printed out one (I hope you do not mind.) You certainly do possess "the vision" and the language to express it so beautifully! The artwork for your site is also lovely.
In 1959 or 1960 I started reading Teillard when TIME did a review of his Phenomenon of Man. Now on my bookshelf are old copies of Letters from a Traveler and The Divine Milieu (the grey book got lost somewhere along many moves.) I am so happy to be among people who "know" and appreciate that wonderful man, who suffered so much and so long for his amazing conceptions of what it was to be a spiritual, and yet a marvelously physical, being.
Please! I am honored by your
Please! I am honored by your use of my materials. If it isn't used to good purpose it has no purpose.
Thank you for your kind
Thank you for your kind words. Yes, Teilhard is amazing! An illuminary for the present and future! What surprizes me is how little he is appreciated even among his fellow Jesuits. I understand their conflict, namely, their oath to the pope and Teilhard's prescient valuation of evolution. They haven't yet reconciled the challenge Teilhard is to Vatican I ecclesiology. Change takes time.
As I read your commentary
As I read your commentary Mr. Steffen, I recall more and more the writings of Process Theologians of yore. Are you, perchance, an aficiando of Process Theology? (Or even, perhaps, a philosphic Whiteheadian?)
The Rev. Dr. E. McCoy
Ephesians (5:15-16)
"Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. "
Dr. McCoy, you give me so
Dr. McCoy, you give me so much more professional credit than I deserve, much less than I claim. If I am a "process theologian" it is not from professional grounding or intentional focus on being such but from my struggle to get in contact with my own intuitional promptings, certainly qualified by my upbringing and education. I have not read Whitehead. Thank you for the kind words. Your contributions are always uplifting!
Rottsch: You ask, to what
Rottsch:
You ask, to what end this conversation exists. And then you proceed to lecture Dr. McCoy. Dr. McCoy has already proven herself to be quite an erudite woman. Therefore, if she's asking the question more than once, it's because the answers have been inadequate.
I must say that, from reading your introduction to this particular chat room, I have no idea at all what the subject is. I have some idea from reading the posts, but your introduction just didn't help. Perhaps you want to rethink it.
Kate