Dave's Blog

6:33 PM 8/30/2004 

Yesterday Margaret and I decided we would entertain ourselves by 
seeing a movie.  As we sought something interesting to watch, we 
noticed that all the movies seemed to be about killing.  We 
didn't want to see that, so we recalled that two ministers at the 
East Bay Church of Religious Science had recommended we find and 
watch What the Bleep.  It turned out to be showing at Loews' 
Metreon, a theater we enjoy.  At the theater lobby we noticed a 
very low turnout -- either the public was not buying killing as 
their visual fare, or the school year that started last week took 
its toll.  Whichever reason, once we got inside the room showing 
What the Bleep we found a fairly good attendance for a 3:00 PM 
screening.  

The film was an upbeat collage of interviews mixed with computer 
simulations, and a fanciful dramatization to illustrate the 
principles that were being discussed.  Although Margaret 
recognized the neurobiologist, the expertise of the scientists 
and metaphysicians was left as a footnote at the end of the film.  
This allowed us to listen without academic awe to the ideas that 
were presented, and to allow us to recognize or reject them on 
their own merits.  The topic was generally New Age thought, and 
the scientific support that has been found in quantum mechanics 
and medicine.  Extensions of the support to more general 
metaphysical ideas were tenuous, but presented anyway.  

The film was about our personal choice, about how our inner world 
creates our outer world, about a physical mechanism for reality 
being what you expect; that "it is done unto you as you believe" 
is a consequence of quantum physics, cellular biology, and The Way 
Things Are.  My ego asked me to look for references to L. Ron 
Hubbard, but I thanked it for sharing and held an open mind 
through the film.  Nearly all of the presented concepts were 
familiar to me through the classes I had taken in Science of 
Mind, a discipline promoted by Ernest Holmes in the early 20th 
century, not coincidentally the discipline promoted by the two 
ministers who had suggested we watch this film.  

Besides trumpeting choice and self-determination, the film also 
expressed a celebration of Life and hope.  I could see, through 
the web site biographies of the filmmakers, how this philosophy 
evolved in their lives, and I could see the parallel in how it 
has evolved in my life.  The web site is full of testimonials of 
how the film has changed viewers' lives, and I also know that my 
discovery of New Thought changed my life.  That which I always 
knew to be true, but believed no one else shared with me, has 
emerged as the mainstream Truth in the society which now 
surrounds me.  

It is very encouraging, very empowering, very demanding of 
responsibility for me to accept and believe that my inner world 
creates my outer world.  As a conscious co-creator with God, I 
am responsible for my world, all that I see, all that I sense, 
all that I perceive to be real.  One of the details in the film 
was that our brains process millions of bits of information 
constantly, while our consciousness only perceives hundreds of 
thousands of bits.  What actually impinges on our consciousness 
is a product of what it expects to perceive.  So perhaps the 
low turnout at the Loews' Metreon lobby was a result of the 
general population deciding that killing was not its preferred 
form of entertainment.  

In my own life, as I create a new reality, I have become more 
conscious of selecting only the information that supports me.  
I have noticed that the motto used over and over again in the 
classroom, "the trend is your friend," has several 
interpretations.  They are compatible, but lead to different 
conclusions, especially when the information selected to support 
them differs.  Let's look at two stock price charts:  

         

The first chart is the Standard & Poor 500 index.  The second is 
the Norfolk Southern Corporation.  Same time period.  Now if I 
look at the index, my impression is that the market is flat or 
even a little bit down.  If I look at the railroad company, my 
impression is that business is up.  If I choose to look at the 
general market as the trend, then it is prudent to withdraw from 
stocks and hide out in the money market until the trend starts up 
again.  If I choose to look at the railroad, I see that I need to 
be in stock, because this is a great time to make money!  Both 
charts speak their truth at the same time.  Which trend is my 
friend?  

The film presents an interesting idea in the realm of the power 
of positive thinking.  After we understand that we can choose a 
new reality by choosing new beliefs, which we create by changing 
our thought patterns, we may find ourselves with "a thin veneer 
of positive thoughts covering a large mass of negative thoughts."  
Perhaps this is because it can take some time to lay down new 
tracks in our brains, just as it takes time to lay down new 
tracks for the railroads.  CalTrain has an express that can take 
me from San Francisco to San Jose in 59 minutes, a speed unheard 
of before this year.  But it took over a year to lay in the 
tracks and switches to allow the Baby Bullet to make the trip, 
moving no faster physically than other trains following the same 
route.  I can see that practicing optimism is not just a way of 
ignoring the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," but of 
actually changing fortune from outrageous to benevolent.  For if 
it was hard to switch from the pessimism track to the optimism 
track with my old neuronal pathways, it is just as hard to switch 
from the optimism track to the pessimism track with my new 
neuronal pathways.  No wonder the Dalai Lama is always laughing!  
It is easier for me to choose to see What the Bleep than it is 
for me to choose to watch murder and vandalism.  I find happy, 
uplifting thoughts to be the most entertaining.  

It is reassuring to my faith in the growth of the Universe to see 
a film like this in a mainstream theater.  Bravo! to William 
Arntz, Betsy Chasse, and Mark Vicente for making this art, and 
Bravo! to Loews Theatres for distributing it!  


8/24/04 

It's interesting how circumstances can cause our perspectives to 
shift.  The Olympics gave me two examples over the last week.  

The first case was in swimming, where Michael Phelps was 
disqualified for an illegal turn.  After deliberation, the judges 
determined that the invoked rule was obsolete; Phelps watched his 
position change from DQ to Gold Medal.  

The second case was in gymnastics.  In early play Paul Hamm blew 
a maneuver and flew into the judges' table.  Paul kept his focus, 
left the mistake behind, and determined to finish with his best 
possible performance.  That was enough to outperform everyone 
else, giving him a Gold Medal.  

Sports is an inspiration to me.  These cases reminded me that 
circumstances can appear to be grave, embarrassing, or even 
overwhelming, but if I keep my objective in mind and keep running 
through the breakers until I reach dry land, I can achieve the 
unbelievable.  Here I have two stories that were published for 
my benefit, so I could have the lesson through the power of 
instant media.  I am glad that my belief in achieving the 
unlikely or even what may appear to be impossible is merely a 
blink away from miraculously succeeding.  


Friday, August 06, 2004 6:30:18 PM 

On this day, 59 years ago, a weapon of mass destruction was used 
on a civilian population.  An atomic bomb was dropped on an 
industrial city, killing some 75,000 people.  Who was the 
gang of criminals who committed this heinous act of terrorism?  

The United States of America.  

As quickly as the United States could manufacture these 
ridiculously powerful weapons it put them to use.  Hiroshima was 
bombed on August 6, 1945.  Nagasaki was bombed on August 9, 1945.  
A third city would have been bombed, but the weapon exploded 
accidentally in Port Chicago, California.  When you play with 
fire sometimes you get burned.  

Only one nation on Earth has actually used nuclear weapons.  
Many possess them, including Britain, France, Germany, Russia, 
Ukraine, Israel, South Africa, Pakistan, India, China, Korea, 
Japan, and of course the United States of America.  The 
technology is within the grasp of a Ph.D. physics student using 
publicly available information, and when armed forces start 
lobbing them again we may be surprised at how many different 
corners they will come from.  Pandora's box is open.  The cat is 
out of the bag.  

Justifications for the use of the atomic bomb always revert to 
military terms, with the implicit assumption that war itself is 
justified.  War is nothing more than the insitutionalized conduct 
of vandalism and murder.  Any justification of war is at its base 
a statement that vandalism and murder can be justified.  

Bush, Rumsfeld, and Powell tried to deny that the current war in 
the Middle East is a Crusade.  They were historically naïve.  
This week we saw the bombing of Christian churches throughout 
Iraq, with the justification being a program of vengeance for 
acts committed in 1212, 1683, and 1917.  1212 was 800 years ago, 
gentlemen!  Wake up and smell the coffee!  You have been sucked 
into a conflict that is bigger and older than you can imagine, 
and that is based on an equally old value system: an eye for an 
eye and a tooth for a tooth.  

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. That way everybody ends up blind and toothless."

-- Tevye, Fiddler on the Roof, by Bock, Harnick and Stein

Last Sunday was International Forgiveness Day.  Should it be 
called a coincidence that the first Sunday in August is 
International Forgiveness Day, when both uses of atomic bombs 
were in this month?  The founders of that day may not have 
consciously recognized it, but there are no accidents in God. 

I find it interesting that although a granted majority of 
Americans claim to believe in Jesus Christ, they do not act as if 
they really believe Jesus Christ.  The distinction here is that 
some talk as though Christ were a god in himself, and that all 
kinds of magical activity will occur simply on the invocation of 
His Name.  On the other hand, Christ spoke some very explicit and 
unmistakable instructions that these Christians choose to 
conveniently ignore:  

You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."
But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.
If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.
And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.
Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.
You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy."
But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?
Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

-- Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:38-48 (NKJVV)

This was in the Sermon on the Mount, the core teaching of Jesus.  
It is required reading for every Christian, covered in catechism 
and confirmation classes throughout the world.  It has been laid 
before all Christians for the past 2,000 years.  New Thought 
students and Fundamentalists alike read this passage.  Where 
then, Christians, is its practice?  

Jesus Christ practiced it, and great mystics throughout time have 
practiced it.  This is not a future instruction, but the wisdom 
of the ages coming to us from the beginning of time.  How quickly 
it becomes mainstream practice is entirely an organic process of 
the unfolding Universe.  

If you have ever owned puppies or kittens you probably noticed 
that they had a tendency to fight each other as they were growing 
up.  After they became adults they were generally well-behaved, 
unless their own security was threatened.  Then the childhood 
training kicked in, and when security was restored their good 
behavior returned.  

The Universe seems to be acting like that, although there is 
nothing outside of it to threaten its security.  The illusion of 
the separation of its parts is what spurs various persons, groups, 
and nations to misbehave.  In due time harmony will emerge, as 
all people recognize that the general welfare is a pillar of 
their own welfare.  

Scientists keep changing the age of the physical universe.  When 
I was a child the generally accepted figure was 5 billion years; 
recent estimates come in at around 18 billion years.  Projections 
of the future "heat death" of the physical universe go out about 
that far as well.  This places us in the center of physical time, 
a finding that does not surprise me, as scientists of all ages 
have been constantly tempted to place themselves in the center of 
the known universe.  

That which we call Man has existed on the Earth for an estimated 
400,000 years.  In that time Man has eliminated many perceived 
dangers, including dragons, the European lion, the California 
grizzly bear, Neanderthals, and other men.  Vengeance and 
violence were part of the process, but there is no need to arm 
against the California grizzly bear today; it no longer exists.  
Written history is a little over 6,000 years old, and in that 
time the "eye for an eye" Arean philosophy has gradually but 
surely yielded to the "turn the other cheek" Piscean philosophy.  
As we look around we can find the value systems of all past 
cultures at work in our own, but in different proportions than we 
saw in the past.  

The Universe is growing, becoming more self-aware with passing 
time, and it is natural for it to behave or misbehave as a child 
occasionally.  The parts and the whole are one, just as our blood 
and bones and muscles are one with us.  The parts are not 
separable from the whole, and it is the whole Universe that is 
growing and learning to "act its age."  

In the meanwhile, those who recognize that war is a crime can 
keep watch, like they keep watch over their puppies and kittens, 
and know that in due time peace will prevail over all the 
Universe as surely as it prevails in their own hearts and 
households.  


Sunday, August 01, 2004 11:06:27 AM 

Today is Lugnasadh, the commemoration of Lug, known to modern 
Christians as Lammas.  In America it is perhaps the least 
remembered member of the Celtic festival cycle.  Lug was  a sun 
god, a god of war.  At this festival he would die, and his son 
would be installed as the new god-king.  Lug seems to have been 
associated with both Bran the father and Bel the son.  So, we 
had a dying, rising god in the guise of two personalities, the 
succession of the prince to the king, and perhaps the origin of 
the British toast, "The King is dead, long live the King."  A 
mourning feast and wake was held for the old, dead king, and an 
empty coffin carried across the Yorkshire moors.  

The female side of life was also part of Lugnasadh.  This was a 
time when the druidesses held their own initiations to womanhood 
and to the mysteries.  Two godesses were celebrated:  Tailte, 
Lug's foster mother, and Carman, an Irish exiled mother and 
sorceress.  

There were games in Ireland at this time, and also the famous 
Tailtean marriage for "a year and a day," which could be dissolved 
if the couple returned to the following year's Lugnasadh games 
and performed the appropriate annulment ceremony.  Trial marriage 
is by no means a modern concept.  

The cycle of festivals includes Imbolc or Groundhog Day, Beltaine 
or May Day, Lugnasadh or Lammas, and Samhain or Halloween.  
These fall roughly midway between the celestial events of  
the solstices and equinoxes.  Thus the British Celts had a 
festival of some kind about every six weeks.  Lugnasadh was the 
longest, actually celebrated from the middle of July to the 
middle of August; our current observation is a calendar date 
around the midpoint of the festival.  

	(The Celtic Druid's Year, by John King.  London: 
	Blandford, 1995.)  

Americans may believe that all of this pre-Christian lore is just 
a note from archaeology or history, but if they visit the United 
Kingdom or Ireland they will find that this Celtic culture and 
its observations are very much alive today.  Quietly, sometimes 
secretly, but sometimes in the open.  A reading of the front 
door of Bath Abbey reveals that the Church of England is very 
much aware of its unique Celtic cultural foundation, and this 
may be more at the heart of its origin than King Henry VIII's 
desire to divorce.  Rome and Britain are not the same, and they 
never were.  

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