Note: I hope you enjoy this post from over four years ago. It feels like a good time to revisit these ideas.
To paraphrase Terence McKenna,
“Our world is in crisis because of the absence of consciousness. We need to explore new ideas of who we are.”
I know for a fact that in the middle of my life I was in crisis for the same reason. As without, so within. What might a new idea of who we are look like? And, what difference could a new idea make to our world crisis? Despite my rudimentary understanding of quantum physics, I’d like to use it to try to answer answer these questions.
I’ve never forgotten my high school psychology teacher’s casual remark one day that we only use about a tenth of our brain’s potential. This remark triggered my latent philosopher and I started asking the big questions about life: “What potential lies dormant in me?” “How can I develop it?” “What is the force we call God?” “Does God have anything to do with my psyche?”
At 17 I fell in love with Christianity. At 27 a numinous spiritual vision dropped me to my knees. At 37 a kundalini awakening dropped me into free fall. At 47 I landed on solid ground via the parachute of Jungian psychology. New worlds of exciting ideas opened to me via my Jungian studies. They pointed me toward dreams, mythology, meditation, world religions, symbolism, alchemy, synchronicity, brain lateralization, and quantum physics.
It was clear to me that all these subjects were related to each other, and the unifying factor seemed to be human consciousness. At the suggestion of my dear friend, Jungian therapist Ann Kennedy, I read The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe, by journalist and author Lynne McTaggart. The Field synthesizes some of the latest scientific discoveries related to consciousness. Together they present some mind-blowing findings about who we are and how we can help heal the world.
Finding #1: Each of us has a field of influence on the world and vice versa.
Finding #2: Everything is in connection and balance with the rest of the cosmos via an exchange of energy.
Finding #3: We are beings of light. Our biological processes are driven by photons of light in every molecule of our bodies. The photons are emitted from each molecule to every other molecule in electromagnetic waves via the water in our cells. The water retains, transmits and amplifies information and energy.
Finding #4: Consciousness is a global phenomenon that occurs everywhere in the body, and not simply in our brains. “Consciousness, at its most basic…[is] coherent [unified and ordered] light.” McTaggart, p. 94.
Finding #5: There is an ocean of microscopic vibrations in the space between things. The universe is a heaving sea of energy exchange, with a basic substructure, or field called the Zero Point Field, containing all possible versions of all possible forms of matter. This means that nature is
“…not blind and mechanistic, but open-ended, intelligent and purposeful, making use of a cohesive learning feedback process of information being fed back and forth between organisms and their environment. Its unifying mechanism…[is] not a fortunate mistake but information which…[has] been encoded and transmitted everywhere at once.” McTaggart, pp. 94-5.
“The fact that the human body was exchanging information with a mutable field of quantum fluctuation suggested something profound about the world. It hinted at human capabilities for knowledge and communication far deeper and more extended than we presently understand. It also blurred the boundary lines of our individuality—our very sense of separateness. If living things boil down to charged particles interacting with a field and sending out and receiving quantum information, where did we end and the rest of the world begin? Where was consciousness—encased inside our bodies or out there in The Field? Indeed, there was no more ‘out there’ if we and the rest of the world were so intrinsically connected.” McTaggart, p. 96.
Finding #6: When we wish for something or intend something, an act which requires a great deal of unity of thought, we have an ability to extend our own coherent thought out into our environment. This represents an almost unimaginable amount of power to create, organize and heal.
I found this very exciting. So this is what a new idea of ourselves looks like. Next time I’ll share more findings. Meanwhile, I invite your responses to this second question I asked at the beginning: If enough of us become coherent in this new idea of who we really are, what difference could it make to our world crisis?
May the Force be with you.
Image Credits: Google Images
Jean Raffa’s The Bridge to Wholeness and Dream Theatres of the Soul are at Amazon. E-book versions are also at Kobo, Barnes And Noble and Smashwords. Healing the Sacred Divide can be found at Amazon and Larson Publications.com. Watch for her new book, The Soul’s Twins, forthcoming from Schiffer Red Feather Mind Body Spirit on Nov. 17, 2020. For more information, subscribe to her newsletter at www.jeanbenedictraffa.com.
16 Responses
For me, this brings to mind three things: the analytics of Fibonacci, the works of Mother Teresa, and the connection, sensitivity, and passion of universal mind and heart.
Thanks for writing, Trish. There’s much food for thought in connecting these ideas to the things you mention. Wishing you a thoughtful and colorful and comfortable Autumn! Love, Jeanie
Thank you so much as always dear Jean, to let me enjoy your great teaching. I wonder how I had missed it.
and congrats on your new book, I will look forward to catching one. Take care and stay safe. 💖🙏💕
Thank you so much, Aladin for your always kind posts. I’m glad to know you enjoyed this one as well as the others. It’s a bit of a departure from my usual, but to me, totally connected. I do hope you catch my new book! I think you’ll like it. 🙂 Be safe, Jeanie
Thanks Jeanie, lovely post, I resonate deeply. Makes me think of Newton’s 2nd or 3rd law that states that for each and every action there is an opposite reaction. And, energy is never lost, it can be changed from one thing into another, but it is never lost. But to answer your question – if we all became more conscious and cohered with the idea that we are much more than the visible sum parts, we could no doubt find ourselves in a transformed world. We might take heed of ‘harm no one or thing’; or ‘love thy neighbour as thyself’ if we understood that harm to another or thing basically means harm to one’s self as well … but do we have the necessary self-love to be aware of this? All your points in your post point to what is possible … and it is exciting. I look forward to future posts … 🙂
Yes, the findings of Newton, Copernicus, and many other scientific geniuses in recent centuries, including Einstein and Bohm, all point to correlations and cooperation between the universe of physical matter and the invisible universe of Love, Psyche, and Soul. At the same time, Shamans and Wise Women and Sages and Spirit persons came to the same conclusion from the other side: the invisible universe of myth, symbol, metaphor, intuition and meaning.
I find that so exciting and affirming. It makes total sense to me, although I realize it doesn’t for more left-brained, rational types. And that’s fine, of course. There’s obviously room for both in this world. In fact, we have to have both sides. The universe would’t be here if it weren’t for the ongoing interaction between polar opposites. Humanity has always known that. They just didn’t realize that their own inner worlds were the correlating polar opposites that we had to integrate within ourselves and the outer world.
I agree that the would could be transformed with that knowledge. But as you say, the problem is that people have to love themselves before they acquire the insight or motivation to love others. And that usually requires an experience of great suffering and humbling of the ego. Even then, most of us would still rather blame someone else than look within. As worldly events and crises repeatedly demonstrate the necessity for change, the unawakened ego will always prefer to build walls than bridges. We are our own worst enemies.
My bet is on the individuals who are doing the work. It is they who will become the critical mass that will cause outer change. Love, Jeanie
Great wisdom for the times, to be sure Jeanie! Have you seen Infinite Potential? It’s a movie of Bohm on You Tube, which I believe it’s free until the 30th.
I think if we understood who we are, as suggested, we would interact in a vastly different manner. When we understand that whatever we do, think, or feel ripples out through the fabric of the cosmos, and all, including ourselves are impacted, then we’d have to be more responsible for our actions, say with regard to climate change, or consumerism, etc. There seems to be a lack of awareness, which may stem from a sense of overwhelm, about what’s happening and how we aren’t powerless in our ability to contribute to the resolution of our current crises. It’s suggested there was a shift in consciousness that accompanied the idea that the Earth wasn’t the center, but the sun, and now if appears as if it may be a black hole. I wonder what kind of transformation that will engender?
I’m curious about the ways in which you feel these ideas have impacted your life? I have found it challenging to integrate these concepts in a practical sense and let them actually change what I believe and how I live. Of course, some of them are easier than others…
Thank you, Pamela. No way! A movie about David Bohm on YouTube? He’s my hero in the realm of physics. Wow. Thank you. I’ll check it out tonight!!
As for how these ideas have impacted my life, I have to say that while they intrigued me in my youth, they made no difference to my life. Even after my numinous experiences, nothing seemed different about my in my outer life, although there were many subtle changes in my attitudes and ways of thinking about myself and the world. I see it as sort of like cooking a soup on a slow simmer and adding different spices and other ingredients until the soup is ready.
It took me thirty years of a slow simmer in my unconscious before I was ready to make a practical choice to look within with Jungian psychology. Soon after that I began dreamwork, then changed my job and career to write. Those changes in my outer life made me more compassionate toward myself and others. They also gave me more courage to be true to myself in other little ways by making original choices that were right for me, taking care all along not to cause undue pain to anyone else. It’s been a slow awakening, but now I see that I’m very different in real, practical ways from the person I was at the beginning.
So, practical impact:
1. These days I notice uncomfortable, negative thoughts and emotions arising in me and reflect on them instead of responding out of instinct or habit. If they’re negative, I’m aware that they will be transmitted in my words and actions and physical body, and from there influence the world around me. So, with full awareness of them, and not wanting to bring more negativity into the world, I cut them off before they have a chance to spread But I don’t ignore them. I look at them and talk with them (in my mind), searching for a way to diffuse them so they don’t simmer in my unconscious. Sometimes I meditate, sometimes I just remove myself from being with others until I can come back to my center. This has made a huge difference in my relationships.
2. I have seen the power of a passionate intention, and experienced the positive results of it over and over. Knowing the reality of this power has emboldened me to act on my own behalf, something I never did until I was almost fifty. Instead of being passive, waiting for the “universe” or god, or whatever to help me, I now ask for what I want and need from whatever this power is. I pursue goals with far more confidence than I ever did before. I avoid speaking about this but I have a very strong trust and “knowing” that I am, in turn, known and loved by something far vaster than my tiny brief life.This knowing has resulted in the four books I’ve written and has grown with each step I’ve taken to follow my passions, and with it, enormous gratitude. Before I started this book I did a private ritual to state my intention to whatever this vast and profoundly powerful One is. I honored it with music and symbols a light, etc. and respectfully asked for help. This book was the hardest one I’ve ever written, but I asked for the help I needed and I received it, and now it’s finished and will be released in November.
3. For years I’ve experienced numerous synchronicities, sometimes many times a day. These always awaken me to my inner world and cause me to examine it. Invariable it happens at a time when I’m in my creative zone, or center, doing exactly what I love to do, listening hard to my body and intuitions, taking the next step I need to take. These synchronicities also remind me that I’m known and loved. I feel connected to the “universe” (or One Mind) and believe that I am.This both emboldens me to keep moving in positive directions, and calms my frustrations and annoyances that would take me in negative directions faster than any kind of ego tricks, like counting to ten, ever had the power to do. I just don’t want to do any harm to anyone or anything any more. To me this is just about the greatest practical impact I could ever have on the world.
There are other examples, but this is already way too long. I think the most important point I can make is that reading about these principles didn’t change me. Rather, it was the accumulation of life experiences and intentions to do no harm that eventually let me to understand them and see how they operate in my daily life. I would say that I intuited these things long before I read about them. Reading about them in this book and others only affirmed what I already knew and had discovered for myself.
My point is that I know I can’t change anyone simply by sharing these theories. Just like I can’t change anyone by writing about Jungian psychology, People have to want to change themselves and I try to write for those who do, to give them suggestions about the kind of inner work they can do. I’ve done this in all my books. All I can do is sow the seeds of ideas, and share the practical results of what I’ve learned. I have no control over whether they’ll take root in fertile ground or not. I hope they do, and take comfort in hearing when they do, but I’d do this even if no one ever told me I’ve been of help.
Thank you for writing. Much love, Jeanie
Thanks Jeanie for responding so authentically. I love what you say about how the feeling of being connected to the universe has impacted your life. Especially, “These synchronicities also remind me that I’m known and loved. I feel connected to the “universe” (or One Mind) and believe that I am.” How lovely! I never thought of it that way and will reflect on this.
I was always surprised when those spiritual experiences would happen and I wasn’t magically transformed like Eckhart Tolle, but like how you put it, as a slow simmering soup that was a transformation over a longer period of time.
Thanks again for sharing!
Love
Pamela
You’re very welcome, Pamela. Thank you for priming the pump with your insightful question.
Yes, I thought after my first experience that I had arrived! Now I smile at my naivety. I was very spiritually oriented but totally unaware of my true self. I believe spiritual maturity can’t happen without psychological maturity. I think they travel together. They need each other. In my case, nothing much really changed on the outside until I committed myself to studying Jungian psychology and my dreams. That’s when the real changes began. So maybe the magical, instant transformations only happen to people who already have half of the equation figured out. Just a theory. 🙂 Much love, Jeanie
Thank you Jeanie for sharing this fascinating article and your generous replies to comments. I look forward to reading more in this series. The bearing your psychology teacher’s remark had on you got me thinking … I wonder if the same could be said for the human heart, in that we only use ten percent of its potential too?! And so I ask myself similar questions … “What potential lies dormant within?” “How can I develop it?” “What is the force we call love?” “Does love have anything to do with my psyche?” And the world as I knew it changed within seconds …
And so, in answering your question, much like Susan and Pamela, I wholeheartedly agree, the world does transform when new ideas take hold. How? I’m beginning to realise that it’s by asking the right questions. I think the Jungian analyst James Hollis affirms something similar in his books, anyhow, those big philosophical questions seem to work wonders for me. I haven’t read the book you mention yet will add it to my wishlist and have a look later. I’m not sure I’ve even read a book on quantum physics before or maybe I have and know it by a different name … energy works.
As always there is much to say and little time before my work day begins but I’ve just realised that in writing this reply my own new idea of who I am is currently taking the shape and form of my second poetry collection … for a transformation has taken place between my first and second books, much like your own writing process I imagine Jeanie, and the difference it makes to my life is incredible as it literally takes me, per aspera ad astra, through hardships to the stars. Love and light, Deborah.
Wow. That’s brilliant, Deborah. I think you’re absolutely right. Those are wonderful questions. I think I’ve asked them of myself at various times over the years, but never with this degree of focused clarity and intention, and never all together the way you’ve done here, or the way I asked those questions about my psyche so long ago.
And I love it that you see that a transformation has taken place between your two books. That is indeed what I noticed over the years with each book. Overall, I’d say that writing my books has been both a psychologically and a spiritually transforming practice for me. The same is true of my blog.
It never occurred to me that writing could be a spiritual practice until I started it in 1990. I remember how I feared writing about my spiritual truths in the early days, expecting criticism and judgment from readers. But every time I overcame my fear and wrote what I really thought and believed, I got nothing but encouragement. That’s gave me more courage to continue, which, of course, strengthened both my ego and my trust in the Self within me that was urging me to grow. That’s just one example of how writing changed me. Maybe anything we put our whole hearts into and persist with no matter what can be a spiritual practice.
Through hardships to the stars, through life to love, Jeanie
In response to your question … Even at a young age I asked myself what would happen if every individual on earth were enlightened? I had the hunch that our physical existence would have lost its purpose. Then, five decades ago, I came upon these words of Jung, from his last essay, published in ‘Man and his Symbols.’
… ‘Life is a battleground. It always has been, and always will be; and if it were not so, existence would come to an end.’
This theme develops in the sequel to Course of Mirrors, yet to be published, and a third book, in progress, where time has come to a near standstill because of the lack of conflict.
Yet we don’t know what was before the dawn of creation, and what lies beyond. Meaning arises from the imagination, and what we intuit from symbols that formed deep in the unconscious a long, long time ago, and which we only learned to reflect upon during the last few centuries.
Jung wrote in the same essay … ‘ We have obviously been so busy with the question of what we think that we entirely forgot to ask what the unconscious psyche thinks about us.’ That, for some reason, still makes me giggle
To have asked yourself such a question about enlightenment at such a young age seems unusual to me, as does your hunch that physical life would have no purpose if everyone were already enlightened. Perhaps we are each born with our own questions. Maybe they’re in our genes, remnants of what our ancestors struggled with; or maybe our souls have been struggling with them for eons…..
Jung’s ability to express hunches I’d never been able to put into words was powerfully transforming for me as well. I’m still excavating new insights from his emphasis on the reality of living symbols, the power of the imagination, and the necessity for finding meaning. It seems we both found a kindred spirit in him.
How interesting that you and Deborah both zeroed in on the same underlying theme as you reflected on this post: Her, “Through hardship to the stars,” and your “Life is a battleground…” Both point to the same reality: that humanity is evolving into consciousness and our purpose on earth is to further this process. I do believe this is true. We seem to have learned a great deal about our instincts for nurturance, activity, sex, and creativity. Perhaps the instinct for reflection is our last frontier, although the others are far from fully developed. I’m not worried that human existence is going to come to an end any time soon. 🙂
What does the unconscious psyche think about us? Now there’s a question to ponder.
By the way, my copy of Course of Mirrors arrived two days ago. I’m only on Chapter 5 but I’m liking your style. It remind me of Ursula le Guin and Madelyn L’Engle. I’ve always loved modern fantasy.
Have a beautiful autumn,
Jeanie
Yes, we have our hunches, probably many people do, but discount them, since in our culture’s prevalent mindset hunches simply don’t count, have no value.
Gosh, I’m so pleased’ Course of Mirrors’ landed in your hands, and you like the reading. I must safe up for your book, next month I should make it, Being hardback, and with postage from the US included, makes it dear.
I think you’re right about many people having hunches they pay no heed to. I certainly did. It took me years to listen as carefully to my inner voices as I did to the outer. In fact, I’m still learning.
Thank you for going to the trouble to save up to purchase my book. If you’ll send me your mailing address by email, I’ll send you a signed bookplate to affix to the inside cover when your book arrives. Yes, hardback books are dear at many levels. I hope you’ll derive pleasure from mine. I’m honored that it will be added to your library.