Last week I wrote a basic description of the work of two Psychiatrists from the University of Virginia: Dr. Ian Stevenson, and Dr. James Tucker.

Dr. Stevenson, who died in 2007, was the Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia for ten years and held other high profile posts as well.

Dr. James Tucker, who is an associate professor at the University of Virginia, and a Board Certified Psychiatrist, is carrying on the work of Dr. Ian Stevenson who began, in the early 1960’s, to interview children between the ages of 2-5 who had very detailed memories of having lived a past life. Many of these memories are specific enough that they could be checked out. These two researchers claim that many of the details claim to have been remembered by these very young children have been confirmed by their investigations. After exhaustive study, they conclude that neither the children nor their families could have fabricated these details as part of some misguided hoax. While they are not setting forth complete or testable explanations as to how these memories could have been transferred from one life to the next, they are convinced the stories are not fraudulent.

For a very good example of one such case study please see this NPR interview from January 5th 2014.

http://www.npr.org/2014/01/05/259886077/searching-for-science-behind-reincarnation

As y9ou can imagine, there are critics of this research. Two such critics are  Paul Edwards and C.T.K Chari. I assume there are others. If you know of any other credible critics please let me know who they are.

But as yet I have not seen anything in these critiques that effectively invalidates the substantial number of case studies that Dr. Stevenson compiled and which Dr. Tucker continues to add to.

In fact if you view this video of Dr. Tucker you will see how careful he seems to be to approach this research project with an appropriate level of skepticism. You will also see how intelligently and calmly he addresses all of the typical objections that have been raised about this research.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88s6HHkbh84

While I remain to be convinced that this research is valid and that these case studies are not elaborate hoaxes, I am encouraged by the high grade of dispassionate and rigorous scientific study and the fact this research is conducted by two professionals with impressive credentials who are doing this research while affiliated with a well-regarded University.

It is one thing for spiritual people to talk about reincarnation, or miracle healings, or other “Para-normal” phenomenon.

It is quite another to see if the tools of science and experimentation applied by professional scientists can confirm, through rigourous study of the highest standards, empirical data that significantly shakes up the modern scientific, materialist paradigm. It is the application of the scientific method as a means to study legitimate spiritual theories that has the best chance of correcting the foundation errors of both science as well as the ridiculous phantasmagoria of many “far-out” spiritual teachings.

Will the data of this modern study of reincarnation be confirmed as authentic, or will it turn out the families of these children helped them fabricate these stories as a way to get attention for them and their child?

If it is confirmed, what will that mean for the modern fields of physics, psychology, neuro-science, and the basic structure of the cosmos?

Dr. Tucker, please continue to be as thorough and careful as you seem to be. I assume you realize the importance of the dynamite you are working with. With your work, and Dr. Stevenson’s work as prologue, you may well have the first data that punches a major hole in the materialist, scientific model of modern times.

This would be as truly earth-shaking as were the breakthroughs of Copernicus, Newton, Darwin, and Einstein.

Now as to what conclusions are to be drawn from this data if it is confirmed, that is a good segue for another time.

For a more detailed list of the case studied please see “Life Before Life” by Dr. James Tucker with a forward by Dr. Ian Stevenson.

Will Raymond Author of “the Simple Path of Holiness” and host of MeditationPractice.com.

will  at  meditationpractice   .com   (email spelled in this way to limit spam) 774-232-0884

As a general rule I am always seeking themes to write about that will be of interest to those who believe in God, those who do not, and those who are not sure what to believe.

The question of whether reincarnation is true or just an allegory is one of those topics.

Dr. Ian Stevenson was a doctor and a Psychiatrist. In the 1960’s, as a professor at the University of Virginia, he began scientific research into whether reincarnation is true or false. For decades he interviewed children in many countries under the age of 6 who had memories, very specific memories that no one in their family could explain.

He focused on children of this age as he felt it was less likely they could make up some big lie. Some of the detailed memories of some children were confirmed to be accurate descriptions of deceased people’s lives the children had no knowledge of. For more information and examples please review this article from the University of Virginia.

www.uvamagazine.org/articles/the_science_of_reincarnation

Jim Tucker is an associate professor of psychiatry at University of Virginia and was an assistant to Dr. Stevenson. He is also a Psychiatrist and an MD. He is carrying on the work of Dr. Stevenson and continues to collect stories and data such as the one described in the above link about Ryan Hammons of California. If such stories are true, and that remains to be confirmed, these stories are very, very intriguing.

My general point is this, and I have been saying this for a very long time.

If reincarnation, or something like it, is true then it is a process of the natural realm that can be studied like any other natural phenomenon. If reincarnation is true, then there has to be a process where the memories and karma of one life transfer to a baby’s mind.

What I find to be valuable about Dr. Stevenson and Dr. Tucker’s work is that they seem to study the subject in a methodical manner and this work has been ongoing for over 5 decades.

What I find to be of great interest is that some of the data they uncover cannot be explained in the context of the standard models of biology, physics, or neuroscience.

The detailed memories of people’s lives who lived before the time the children were born constitute empirical data. Careful scrutiny of this data by reputable 3rd parties would help confirm they are not simply “made-up” stories and there is no other more traditional explanation how these children could have such memories.

If it turns out that some very young children are remembering details from the lives of deceased persons, which they could not possibly have learned any other way, and which were not fabricated by them or their relatives, this raises valuable questions.

Personally I feel the description of Dr. Tucker’s hypothesis on how memories could be transferred from one life to another, was poorly presented. His comments on consciousness and Quantum mechanics are vague and poorly documented at least in the article cited above. I am not saying his speculations are not worth looking into, I am just saying it is a major weakness of his article that they are as sketchy as they are. Regrettably there is a great deal of specious speculation on the relationship between consciousness and Quantum Mechanics that tends to discredit what is otherwise an important new field of study.

But the general tendency to study how these children could have the memories they have is, I feel, a very worthwhile field of study.

Perhaps they will discover reincarnation is a true description of human life, karma, and destiny. Perhaps no evidence will ever be found to support the idea that reincarnation is a true teaching.

What I feel is more likely is that some other explanation will emerge that will explain how memories can be transferred other than reincarnation. But that is pure guesswork on my part.

Why is this important?

If reincarnation is true, it is important to know that it is true. If reincarnation is true, many theories of psychology and brain-science would need to be revised substantially. Discovering reincarnation is true would mean an earthquake shift in these sciences.

If reincarnation is not true, then the religions of Buddhism, Hinduism, the New Age and others would need to be revised dramatically. Discovering reincarnation is not true would mean an earthquake shift in these religions.

In either case, the world view of hundreds of millions of people would change.

In either case hundreds of millions of people would be closer to knowing the truth about about human nature and what happens after death.

Would not this be helpful?

More next week.

Please let me know what you think. All constructive comments will be posted.

Will Raymond  Author of “The Simple Path of Holiness” and host of MeditationPractice.com

will@meditationpractice.com  774-232-0884

Yes there are Atheist Fundamentalists just as there are Christian Fundamentalists.

What is unfortunate is that Fundamentalists in both the Atheist and Christian camp tend to create a caricature of their opponents.

Fundamental Atheists tend to act as though the warped views of Fundamentalist Christians represent the entire spectrum of Christian thought. Fundamentalist and reactionary Christians tend to claim that Atheists are only out to “destroy the church” and aggressively promote the “God is Dead” scenario.

But when you look closely at both the Fundamentalist Atheist and the Fundamentalist Christian you can see they are both very similar creatures. They are both sure they are right. Many are arrogant and aggressive in their arrogance about why they are right and the people on the other side are deluded wrong-headed fools.

What I feel is more helpful is to simply try to understand what if anything they can see is true of the beliefs of those in opposing camps.

For example: Atheist Scientists have developed over the past few centuries the scientific method of testing ideas in experiments where the results can be clearly measured and repeated over and over again. This is a terrific contribution. The discipline of developing rigorous experiments and documentation has helped get us out of the quagmire of so much of religious debate. Instead of people arguing for centuries about beliefs that cannot be tested in any objective way, scientists can say, “No Joe’s idea is right and Dave’s idea is wrong because the experiments support Joe’s conclusions, not Dave’s.”

The advances in science as a result of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Darwin, Madame Curie, Einstein, Heisenberg, and Watson and Crick have been absolutely remarkable.

On the other hand Christians and sincere followers of other religions have made equally remarkable contributions. It is just that the contributions believers have made tend to only be verifiable in personal, subjective experience or in the artistic and architectural splendors inspired by these subjective experiences. But this too is powerful evidence. It is just evidence of a different kind.

Look at Notre Dame Cathedral or any of the other magnificent examples of Medieval Cathedrals. Listen to the sacred music of Byrd and Tallis, Palestrina, or Bach. Read the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila and St. Therese of Liseaux. While many of the beliefs of these two women may be incorrect, or even highly dysfunctional, take the time to follow the pathways of their interior experience to see what is true about their views. Regrettably, there are significant challenges that would make it difficult for Atheists to follow these pathways. They would need to suspend some of their core beliefs and that they understandably would be most reluctant to do.

But if they were willing they would find out why a religion founded on the life and death of an obscure carpenter and his mother, an uneducated Jewish maiden, inspired such creations such as Notre Dame or Bach’s Mass in B Minor or the gorgeous, haunting beauty of English Renaissance polyphony. Here is what they would need to be willing to do:

Surrender completely the force of ego and self. In short find the inner softness and delicate beauty that arises from a carefully cultivated and sincere humility.

Find out what if feels like to dwell in unconditional trust that divine love is fully present even when there is absolutely no evidence to support this view.

Find out what it feels like to dwell in unconditional faith and trust that divine love is the living radiant center of your being even if there is no clear way to understand the relationship between the living presence of God and the violence of life on earth.

Find out what it feels like to suspend all ordinary benchmarks as to whether you are “getting something” for your tremendous risks and sacrifices. Let it be supremely unimportant whether you are gifted with visions, or trudge along in a dark uncertainty and gloom. Let it be supremely unimportant whether things turn out well or disastrously, although make the best efforts you can to see if things can turn out for the best.

These explorations of radical faith are another form of experimentation. They are brought to life by the act of confessing and repenting any major or minor mean-spirited thoughts or deeds. They are brought to life by a willingness to struggle through all anger and to learn the skills of unconditional love offered to all beings in all realms.

Atheists are generally correct that many beliefs of Christianity and other religions are erroneous. What they miss is that some of the beliefs and practices of spiritual people generate a very, very special kind of evidence of irreplaceale truths that elude the boxy approaches of modern rationalism.

 What most Christians tend to miss is the value of the intellectual rigor and discipline and careful thought of modern scientists. Most Atheists tend to miss the powerful intuitive experience and knowledge generated by the seemingly irrational beliefs and practices of profound faith.

One wonders what will be found when people of these very different ways of life and thinking learn to study the foundation truths and practices the other has to offer.

Please let me know what you think. All constructive comments will be posted.

Will Raymond  Author of “The Simple Path of Holiness” and Host of MeditationPractice.com

will@meditationpractice.com   774-232-0884

Over the past few weeks I have been writing about different perspectives on Catholic and Atheist beliefs. The point has not been to try to prove that the fundamental conclusions of one group or another are correct. Rather the goal has been to encourage both groups to think carefully about the shaky or unexplored assumptions of their own world view.

In this post I want to show how Atheists and Catholics can collaborate effectively, even if it takes a couple of years to do so after first speaking about something they disagree on.

Father Georges Lemaitre was both a Jesuit priest and a trained scientist. He lived in Belgium. While there were others who developed the rudiments of the “Big Bang” theory, he independently developed rigorous mathematical expressions that supported his hypothesis. That hypothesis was that the universe is expanding and started a very long time ago while compressed into a space smaller than a volley ball. For this he is called the father of the “Big Bang.”

He brought his work to the attention of Albert Einstein in 1927. Einstein admired the math but felt the conclusions were preposterous. But over a period of 2 years Einstein came around and admitted in a very public way that Father Lemaitre’s work was brilliant and that he (Einstein) was wrong. Einstein had believed the universe was static and neither expanding or contracting. Father Lemaitre’s work, as confirmed by Edwin Hubble in 1929, showed that Einstein and others were wrong. The universe is not static. It definitely appears to be expanding and doing so at a fantastically rapid speed.

If one reads some of Einstein’s quotes, it sounds like he does believe in God. But when asked directly he said that he did not believe in a conception of God that takes personal interest in human life. Essentially he was a scientist and an atheist.

Father Lemaitre was a scientist and a Catholic Priest who believed God does exist.

Father Lemaitre’s work does not prove that God exists. But it proves that someone who believes in God can develop valid science and interact with Atheist scientists on a scientific basis.

Albert Einstein demonstrated that he could admit that one of his most important core assumptions was mistaken even though it took him 2 years to do so.

If only more Catholic Priests, lay people and Popes could do the same. Sadly most Christians are obstinately stuck on core beliefs such as Original Sin even though this particular belief has been proven by evolutionary biologists to be a mistaken idea. Sadly, Original Sin is not the only doctrine that Catholics will need to disavow.

At any rate this story shows that much fruitful collaboration can exist between those who believe and those who do not.

For people in either camp, the way forward is the same. A rigorous review of the core assumption and doctrines of their world view with the goal being to really see which assumptions are valid and which really are not.

My sense is that as people of both groups do this work there will be a synthesis that emerges. In the new synthesis, much of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu doctrines will be seen to be wrong.

But the core assumption of Atheists that there is no such thing as God will also be proven wrong. It will be proven wrong because it will be confirmed by scientists and believers that there is a life that unifies all life and that the nature of that universal life or energy is sublime and fully accessible to each person.

In fact when you think about it couldn’t God be what Einstein was looking for in his search for a Unified Field Theory??  And when Scientists talk about String Theory why do they never seem to ask, “Who made the strings?”

Will Raymond  Author of “The Simple Path of Holiness” Host of MeditationPractice.com.

will@meditationpractice.com     774-232-0884

As noted in the two previous blogs in this series, none of these comments are intended to suggest that Atheist views or Christian views are correct on key issues.

Rather the goal is to offer foundation questions and to highlight deep personal experiences of people in either group that led them to the beliefs they have. The hope is that this will stimulate and encourage serious study and reflection on the part of Christians, Atheists, and those of any other belief system who are committed to following the search for truth no matter where it leads.

All that I am sure of is that some of the ancient and post-modern beliefs are true. And some of the ancient and post-modern beliefs are serious errors that need to be uprooted and set aside.

As to which is which, that is what will be shaken out over the next few decades and generations. My hope is that you will find this great endeavor worthy of your best and most honest efforts.

If you have a moment, please read the previous two posts in this series as background.

Here is another primal challenge presented by Evolution to traditional Christian beliefs:

There was no Garden of Eden. There was no fall and no original sin of Adam and Eve. Humans emerged from apes and have known the joys and struggles, the peaceful days and violent clashes of life from the beginning to the present.

If there is no original sin, there is no special role for the “saving grace of Jesus.” There also is no need for the special mission of the various Christian churches to dissolve the bondage and death of original sin. At the very least the role of Jesus and priests and churches and monasteries change considerably.

In short a great deal of the foundation of Catholic, Protestant, Greek and Russian Orthodox views on salvific history collapses. For those new to theology the term salvific history is the story of how man fell into sin and death through original sin and how the life and death of Jesus was essential to repair the damage caused by original sin.

Certainly most conservative Christians will continue to read their readings and conduct their sacraments as though original sin is still the explanation of why there is so much suffering and violence in the world. What they do not dare to admit to themselves is how much their church services will change and how much their tradition will continue to decline as the truths of Evolution and the criticisms of Atheists are accepted by wider sectors of the world’s population. Progressive Christians such as those in the United Church of Christ and the liberal Episcopalians and Catholics are stuck between two worlds. Their church services follow the ancient ways and their focus on Jesus follows ancient practice. But in their hearts many members no longer believe in original sin or that only Jesus can save them or that all other religions are less than true faiths. These churches will also wither away.

On the other hand, what Atheists miss is this: science has no credible explanation at all for the elemental questions of how the universe, or the multi-verse, was created or how it is sustained.

Inflationary cosmology is based in math that has not been verified with empirical data.

Physicists bend themselves, and their math, into contortions trying to explain how a ball of matter smaller than a baseball could possibly expand into 100 billion galaxies each with approximately 100 billion stars.

The proponents of String Theory who say there are 10 or 11 or more dimensions admit they have no evidence of these dimensions or what the shape or nature of these dimensions may be.

Only a few scientists speculate that God is the power that gives birth to universes. Only a few dare speculate that it is the will of God, or some likeness of universal mind or consciousness, that is the power that causes them to expand over billions of years and hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of light years.

Only a few dare speculate on the nature of life not just on other planets like ours, but in the countless other universes and dimensions that seem to abound throughout the rooms and landscapes of existence. What will be found when more freely speculate and explore along these lines?

What do you believe is the true nature of existence?

What truths speak most deeply to you in the center of your heart as to whether God exists or whether the universe is just a large lifeless thing governed by interesting equations?

Please let me know what you find in your search. All constructive comments will be posted.

Peace

Will Raymond Author of “The Simple Path of Holiness” host of MeditationPractice.com

will@meditationpractice.com      774-232-0884

As noted in previous blogs, none of these comments are intended to suggest that Atheist views are correct or that Christian views are correct on key issues.

I strongly believe people need to find those beliefs that are most meaningful to them and to cultivate a deeper understanding of those views with as much sincerity, integrity, love, and creativity as possible.

For Christians and Atheists to debate one another as though one side is correct and the other is mistaken somehow misses the point. The flaws in the foundation arguments of both sides are serious enough that it is unlikely either side will ever prove to be more than partially right.

Instead of debating, what I feel will be helpful is an attempt to fully understand not only the concepts the other side has, but to understand the deeply rooted life experiences that led a person to the beliefs they feel are true.

Towards this end, please let me offer these thoughts.

Traditional Christian teachings state that God is love and that creation is the result of God’s outpouring of love. In short God created Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. Everything was great until Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command to not eat the apple.

Christianity teaches the violence, suffering, illness, and death all mortals experience were set in motion because humans disobeyed God’s law as revealed first in the Old Testament and then in the New Testament.

Evolution shows this is not the case.

Species war with one another often to the death. Also members of many species wage battles within the species often to the death.

Furthermore, the members of many species can only live if they hunt and successfully kill the members of other species which they then eat.

Disease occurs because our ultra-complex bodies are prone to bacterial or viral attack or we suffer from random accidents or natural disasters etc.

In short the violence and suffering in the animal and insect kingdoms are simply part of nature. They are as much a part of creation as beautiful sunsets. So if God created nature then…..God created the “kill-or-be-killed”, “eat-or-be eaten” violent conflicts of nature.

If a baby is born with birth defects and dies after a few painful moments, days, or years this is not because of human failings. A problem or mutation in the genetic sequence caused the baby to be so badly deformed it could not survive even with heroic efforts of many highly trained and dedicated professionals.

If someone  later in life develops a mental illness such as paranoid schizophrenia or crippling bi-polar swings, this is not because Adam and Eve ate the apple. It is because a mutation in the genetic sequence caused the brain to badly malfunction in a way that causes terrible suffering.

Still Christians say “God created human life as an act of perfect love.” Many Christians who at least accept evolution say that, “God created evolution.” But evolution shows that many members of many species are simply born to weak to compete in the struggle for life and they struggle, suffer, and die.  Where is the love that creates suffering infants who die days after death shattering the dreams of parents?

Yet still even liberal believers continue to sing “Morning has broken like the first morning…”

Still highly educated Catholic intellectuals wax poetic about “Creation being loved into existence.”

Go and see babies dying in the Natal ICU.

Listen to the tormented fears of the seriously mentally ill.

Watch as tigers kill young gazelles and rip the flesh off their bones so that their tiger cubs can have something to eat.

Tell me how you can reconcile these clear unmistakable phenomena with the notion that God is love and God created life on earth out of an act of supreme love.

But what Atheists miss are the moments when, as experienced by at least some believers, a person feels the movement of divine life and grace transforming their interior experience and changing their life in meaningful ways.

What Atheists miss is the sublime creativity that arises from a life time of receiving sacraments with an open and loving heart and mind. Calling such experiences merely the firing of neurons in odd ways is the kind of comment made by someone who has never had these kinds of experience.

Still, how can Jews, Christians, and Muslims possibly respond to the core challenge represented by the evolutionary biologist’s objective look at the reality of life in the animal, plant, insect, viral, and bacterial kingdom?

If God does exist, it seems we need to search for deeper understanding of the relationship between divine life and raw, violent, often terrifying suffering of creatures.

Please feel free to weigh in. All constructive comments will be posted.

Will Raymond Author of “The Simple Path of Holiness” an host of MeditationPractice.com

will@meditationpractice.com   774-232-0884

Nothing in this blog is intended to say that Atheists core beliefs are correct, or that Christians or others who believe in God are correct. The decisions about what a person believes is the truth of this life are ones that each person needs to work out in the context of what they most sincerely believe is true.

The goal of posts like this is to improve the quality of the careful thought and the tone of dialogue by people of both perspectives about what is the truth of this universe, or as many physicists now say, the multi-verse.

With this in mind I offer the following report by Atheist scientist Victor Stenger in his book “God The Failed Hypothesis” (pages 99-100.) Among many other points Stenger cites for his belief that God does not exist he highlights the results of a study funded by the John Templeton Foundation. One of the investigators was a Catholic priest, Father Dean Marek, who led the portion of the project at Mayo Clinic. Between the John Templeton Foundations funding and the participation of committed believers such as Father Marek, and others, it is clear there was no anti-Christian or anti-God bias in this landmark study.

The study lasted for almost ten years. Here are the results. The heart patients who were prayed for not only had no better results in their recovery as compared with those who were not prayed for, their results were actually a little worse.

This is a devastating critique of one of the foundations of Catholic practice, which is that we are often asked to pray to God for the recovery of people who are sick and that such prayers are effective.

Sadly the study showed that such prayers had no visible effect. Hard core Christians will say the study was flawed or the study missed the point. But what can they say? That God needs a study to be perfect, or the people in it to pray perfectly, in order to respond and heal the sick?

Maybe someday a different study conducted under equally meticulous protocols will show that intercessory prayer really does work and that God responds to such prayers to heal people. Of course one might add, what does God do for those who have no one to pray for them? Does God decide they should just remain sick?

Like I said, maybe someday some creative believers will find a way to show that intercessory prayer does work. But for now it would be well for Catholics and Protestants and other believers to carefully reflect on the results of this study to see what it means for them.

I believe there are cases where prayer, or some other application of deep faith, can create conditions where the healing of the sick has no scientific explanation. But this is just a belief of mine. I personally do not have any real evidence of situations of this kind where there was the kind of rigorous review needed to rule out any identifiable causes that may have led to sudden “miraculous cures.” The Catholic Church certainly goes to great lengths before they declare a miracle to be authentic. But are there really outside scientists who confirm their conclusions? In many cases,  probably not. But there may be some worthy of sustained study.

One field of research for believers would be to make absolutely objective studies of unexplained healings. It is entirely possible there are such unexplained healings, indeed the Catholic Church unequivocally attests such phenoemena occur. If such unexplained healings do occur, this would constitute empirical evidence that directly contradicts the standard models of natural law that doctors and other scientists tend to go by.

Yes the detailed critiques by responsible Atheists are formidable. And these critiques will reshape over time the way believers relate to God and truth.

But it is entirely possible that the core truth of believers about there being a benevolent aspect to the universe is true. It is entirely possible there is a “Holy Spirit” that is a form of life that gives people the strength and the ability to draw ever nearer to God. The mystery is that this very real feeling of ‘drawing ever closer” can happen whether we get the healing we want or whether our sickness gets worse and we, or someone we love, dies a long painful death. Who can blame Atheists for thinking this is a delusion? Who can blame believers fwho have such experiences rom being convinced and from witnessing that this “drawing ever closer”, even in the midst of terrible suffering, is very, very real.

One suggestion is that believers get serious about finding ways to deliver the kinds of tangible evidence that will lead even the most skeptical scientist and atheist to admit they have no explanation about how such things could be possible.

After all, Jesus healed people regularly. Why can’t most Catholic Priests or Protestant Ministers do the same? Are all those stories in the Bible just stories? Or is it that the faith of most Priests and Ministers is just that weak?

Just a few thoughts.

Tell me what you think. All constructive comments will be posted.

Peace,

Will Raymond Author of The Simple Path of Holiness host of MeditationPractice.com

will@meditationpractice.com  774-232-0884

based views can heal

Many of the accounts in the mainstream media about Robin William’s suicide cite the long term struggles he had with addiction and significant bouts of depression. It is not clear if a stay in a rehab in July was drug related or perhaps a cover for another attempt to deal with depression.

In addition to these impacts, the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease was cited as another burden added to his already weakened state of mind. Not only is the diagnosis a discouraging one, but another symptom of Parkinson’s can be a worsening of depressive moods.

Sadly, several people who saw him in the few days before he took his life said he seemed relaxed and happy. One doctor quoted in People’s magazine said the phenomena of a person seeming to be stable just before suicide is not that unusual.

For many people, the more trouble they are in personally, the less likely they are to reach out to talk to someone to let them know how much trouble they are in. Part of this dynamic is the widely held stigma about depression and mental illness. People suffering from serious depression and suicidal thoughts do not want to be tagged with the label of being “mentally ill.” Others are concerned they will be seen as being “damaged goods” and that such a tag will interfere with their career, or the way their friends see them, if it gets out they are suffering from a mental health condition. Unfortunately, they are probably right about this and therein lies the bind.

All I can say is this.

As someone who has suffered from depression and thoughts of suicide for significant portions of my adult life there is another general problem. The help that is needed often does not exist.

It is one thing to say to someone to reach out to other people if you are in danger. But for many people they cannot find the help they need. There simply are not enough trained counselors or doctors or spiritual teachers who know how to help someone with a chronic problem. Also the medication that works for some people does not work for many others. The recovery programs where many find a good support group are, for some people, just another place where they don’t fit in no matter how hard they try.

Add to this the diagnosis of a major illness such as Parkinsons and I can imagine that the walls just seemed to be closing in on Robin Williams.

After all how much pain is a man or woman supposed to be able to endure before they break?

Certainly, I have no way of knowing if Robin Williams was given good counselling advice that he chose to ignore. This is very possible. Someone as successful and affluent as he was might have had pretty strong walls in place preventing any real help from getting in. In fact the core of problems for many people is an inner rigidity the blocks any real progress. Despite the comedic personna, it is possible this was the case with Robin Williams but only those who treated him could really know if this was or was not the case.

But it is also possible that just as some physical illnesses do not respond to any known treatment, it is also true that many mental health conditions and cases of addiction do not respond to the known available treatments either. Something else is needed.

So much of my work with “The Simple Path of Holiness” has been to explore treatment options for people that other treatments, or forms of spirituality, simply do not work.

My hope with the book and my meditation workshops is to continue to explore new modes of treatment for people who have slipped through the cracks of medical and psychological treatment centers.

May those of us who have found ways to survive that which killed other good people continue the search for ever more creative ways to diminish extreme suffering.

This is a good vocation. This is a true vocation. This is a simple vocation.

Please let me know if it is one you share. I would be most grateful for a few energetic co-workers.

Also, if you have an interest in meditation and related studies and are struggling with addiction or mental health issues, please feel free to make contact before you take any self-destructive steps. While the program I have developed calls for more work than many are willing to do, it is a very interesting way to help people find a way to triumph over very painful conditions and to learn how to help others do the same.

Peace,

Will Raymond

Author of “The Simple Path of Holiness” and host of MeditationPractice.com.

will@meditationpractice.com  774-232-0884.

I do not write this to come up with some indirect way to cleverly get atheists to realize the errors of their ways and become Catholics. Nor do I wish in any way to encourage atheists to continue in their quest to try to “prove” that anyone with a sincere faith in Christ is a deluded fool or worse, a covertly manipulative power-hungry freak.

What I feel will be helpful is to continue to help people explore the full dimensions of their beliefs, whatever beliefs they sincerely feel called to embrace or at least explore.

Is there a way to help atheists deepen their convictions and experiences of their creed?

Is there a way to help sincere Christians further explore the dimensions of their beliefs, intuitions, sacraments, and faith and to find greater fulfillment in their efforts.

I also feel it will be helpful for sincere atheists and believers to simply listen to one another’s stories as to why they believe as they do. This simple act of hearing one another’s stories will help people of both camps better understand each other’s views and to better empathize with each other’s deeply felt convictions and experiences.

For example, the raw violence of the animal kingdom where the only way most animals can live is to kill and devour other living beings seems very clear proof to scientifically-minded atheists that the idea of a loving God creating the earth is a badly misguided one. Indeed most Christians I know are simply unwilling to be honest about how serious a challenge to their core beliefs is represented by the violent struggles of animals, insects, and many humans to simply survive.

Instead they persevere in saying their vision of God is proved by the beauty of nature. Too bad they miss the hundreds of millions of life and death struggles which occur every day in the eat-or-be-eaten fields of the animal and insect kingdoms.

On the other hand, many Catholics who have a deep and sincere faith in God and Christ come to know experiences of profound mystery, beauty, and peace as a result of their surrender to God. Despite the difficulty of coming up with scientific ways to measure or explain such experiences, many believers have a hard time understanding why atheists snicker and sneer at such empirical phenomena.

After all many of the world’s greatest art was created by people such as DaVinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Byrd, Tallis, Palestrina, Bach, Handel and countless others who were inspired by Christian tradition. Is it so difficult for atheists to concede that the sources of this inspiration are somehow welling up from profound and very real watersheds of one form or another even if it is hard to explain what those watersheds may be? The same is true for the profound and evocative impressions conveyed by the best of Buddhist sculpture and paintings and the art of many non-Christian traditions such as the art work of Islamic mosques, or Navajo folk stories.

If you study the Catholic and Greek Orthodox mystics and the Jhana masters of Vipassana Buddhism you will find there is real common ground. As Vipassana Buddhists are committed atheists, the common end-points of mystics of both traditions are particularly relevant to serious dialogue between believers and modern scientifically minded atheists.

Clear the heart of anger, fear, excessive desire, vanity, doubt in your beliefs, and delusion. Be patient with such efforts. They are harder than most teachers usually imply. But persevere with the same diligence it takes to finish a PhD or launch a tech-start up. See what you find.

Perfect the art of offering love and compassion to all beings in all realms seen or unseen.

Clear the mind of all words, perceptions, doctrines, judgments and attempts to describe reality. Experience existence as pure and elemental existence.

See the depths of peace and lucidity arise from such efforts whether you are a God centered monk or nun or a devout atheist.

The deep states of boundless compassion and perfect peace that arise, often only after protracted efforts, are the common ground where people of all beliefs and faiths and ways of life can meet in respectful silence, stillness, and emptiness.

After returning to “everyday mind” and “everyday communication” you will find that any dialogues you enter into will proceed along far more creative means and efforts.

It will be possible to see that the labels of “believer” and “atheist”  both miss the point, in some ways, as do any angry and judgmental words lobbed over the barricades toward those deemed to be “the foolish ones.”

Peace,

Will Raymond

Author of “The Simple Path of Holiness” and host of MeditationPractice.com

will@meditationpractice.com   774-232-0884

There is another interesting popular book on 20th century physics called “How Hippies Saved Physics,” by David Kaiser of MIT.

One of the stories he highlights is the work of James Bell who developed Bell’s Theorem in the early 1960’s. Bell’s Theorem highlights the strange phenomena now referred to as Quantum Entanglement. In Quantum entanglement particles such as electrons and photons that were once linked in a common source preserve a mysterious link after they are discharged in separate directions. As soon as you measure the “spin” of one particle, the 2nd particle instantaneously adopts the opposite “spin,” without there being any clear sense as to how this could be possible. Incidentally, James Bell was not one of the “hippies” cited in Kaiser’s book. He just influenced those cited in the book.

The point of this post is not to try to comment in more detail about this highly specialized aspect of Quantum Mechanics.

The point is to tell the story of James Bell’s main paper after he published it in 1964. For 4-5 years there was no notice of it one way or the other. After that a trickle of articles referring to Bell’s theorem began to appear. But it was more than a dozen years afterwards before actual experimentation began to be done to test if the theory was sound.

Currently Bell’s theorem is one of the most discussed theories in particle physics with over 3000 published articles citing his work.

My reason for making this note is to encourage both myself and others who are creative researchers in the field of spirituality and science.

The foundations of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam have been rocked repeatedly by Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Hubble, and Watson and Crick. The cracks in the foundations of these Mediterranean religions will continue to widen by discoveries we cannot yet imagine.

What is not as well known is that the foundations of physics will also be busted apart by new and surprising earthquake discoveries. As physics is the foundation of all the other sciences, they too will experience their own subsequent upheavals.

The universe is not some lifeless dead brick. The universe is not some mechanical device set in motion by some absentee watch maker. The universe is not some void. The universe is not a big heap of interesting equations that is devoid of any real life or consciousness, however limited the words life or consciousness may be.

The universe, or multi-verse if the string theorists are correct, is a vast life-form populated by a wide spectrum of beings and life forms that we can only dimly perceive or imagine at present. The fact that the universe is alive and conscious, however limited the word “conscious” may prove to be, will both reshape the foundations of science and at the same time confIrm certain core assumptions of most spiritual belief systems.

Yes there are revolutions coming in both science and religion, in spite of the mediocrity suffocating huge portions of organized religion, the scientific communities and modern cultures.

But those who wish to be revolutionaries will need to be patient.

As James Bell discovered, it may take a while before anyone notices that you have patiently been studying the huge cracks in the foundations of religion and science.

It may take a while before anyone notices you have at least important clues about how to build the foundations of the future.

I say this both to help me with my own discouragement over the lack of notice of my book “The Simple Path of Holiness,” but also for others who labor in complete or partial obscurity nevertheless sure they have found an important stone, or two, for the new foundation.

Let each of us who labor outside the official clubs and paradigms benefit from an awareness of how long it took Bell’s theorem to be widely studied as one more example of the need to be patient.

Are you working with integrity on fundamental questions?

Have you found something important?

If so, let me know what you have found.

Peace,

Will Raymond  Author of “The Simple Path of Holiness” Host of MeditationPractice.com

will@meditationpractice.com 774-232-0884