Ghosts

There are several levels of ghostliness if you will. The shallowest level is merely a shadow of a tragic event, imposed upon space-time. Such a ghost is a loop, running over and over, like the apparitions you hear about of a woman falling downstairs. There is no intelligence to that kind of ghost, same as there's no intelligence in one's shadow.

At deeper levels, some ghosts really are the spirits of people who don't understand their own condition—they may not understand they have died, or may have refused to "go to the light" for whatever reason; may even have insisted on staying for revenge or devotion or babysitting or whatever. These entities do have intelligence, but are confused; and we can help them if we will.

Auras

We watched the new movie, The Celestine Prophecy, yesterday. By "we" I mean Michael and I, my ex-wife Mary, daughter Karen, friends Barbara and Peter, and Michael's sister Surya. The movie is still in limited release, so we had to see it in Tempe; and afterwards we gathered at Islands, an adjacent restaurant, to have dinner and discuss the movie.

Good Mourning

Whenever I mentioned to anyone that Fiedler was deceased, they would be surprised. Apparently, I was the only person who'd actually heard his obituary. But given that I was in my early twenties and my friends were the same age and also pest control technicians, this wasn't too surprising.

Superman Returns

In a way, the fact that Superman's story is universal shows that, subconsciously, we are all already aware of this Truth: Divinity is our core; our physical selves merely illusions. As the saying goes, "We are not humans having a spiritual experience. We are spirit having a human experience." Cast down to Earth from paradise, we now live humdrum, Clark Kent lives that we strip off only occasionally for a rare, superhuman feat we then pretend never happened.

Mental Telegraphy

A few days ago I said: "It must be that Frank Millet doesn't know we are in Germany, or he would have written long before this. I have been on the point of dropping him a line at least a dozen times during the past six weeks, but I always decided to wait a day or two longer, and see if we shouldn't hear from him. But now I will write." And so I did. I directed the letter to Paris, and thought, "Now we shall hear from him before this letter is fifty miles from Heidelberg—it always happens so."

Automatic

Automatic writing gets interesting when the writing claims to come from some source other than the wielder of the pen. There is a long history of this. Over 125 years ago, a Boston dentist named John Newbrough found himself automatically writing "new revelations from God" on the newly-invented typewriter. Oahspe: A Kosmon Bible in the Words of Jehovih and his Angel Embassadors was published in 1882 and contains information remarkably consistent with today's New Age beliefs. In fact, whenever entities claiming to be "God" communicate via automatic writing, their teachings are amazingly consistent, especially considering the differing core beliefs of the persons holding the pen—William Moses, for example, was a respected priest and teacher who experimented with automatic writing. His beliefs were orthodox Christian, but the messages from his automatic writing took a more open, undogmatic view. And Edgar Cayce was a Christian fundamentalist who, when in trance, spoke of reincarnation and other beliefs that the waking Cayce wouldn't have been able to pronounce, much less promote.

Lunch with Sue and Maurean

However, when we arrived, Maurean was upset. Now, you'd have to know Maurean to understand that this utterly kind, capable, and powerful woman is never upset. She has a calming influence that could bring peace to the Middle East if only it could be bottled. So it was quite unusual to see that something had her frazzled.

Spiritual Experiences

The Four Big Lies of Religion are mostly easy to discount, if you can get someone to apply logic to the problem at all—which, admittedly, can be difficult. For example, God is defined by nearly all religions as being "all-good" (omni-benevolent), that is, as having our best interests at heart. For such an entity to have invented a Hell in which to punish—eternally—all transgressors with no hope of reprieve is preposterous in the extreme. Our supposed "disconnection" with God is generally blamed on "original sin" and the idea that humans are, in some way, inherently flawed. Yet that would mean that God, who is also supposed to be All-Knowing (omniscient) and therefore a "Master Builder", was instead a rather clumsy creator. The idea doesn't make any sense. Neither of these ideas makes any sense, as any children's Sunday School teacher can tell you; every bright eight-year-old immediately sees through these lies and says so. The real purpose of Sunday School is, therefore, not to teach but to indoctrinate. The successful Sunday School graduate cannot think for him or herself; however he or she will be good at parroting memorized platitudes.

The Twelve Biggest Lies

The entirety of human misery is built on a bed of twelve lies. These lies are disseminated so subtly that often they aren't even stated outright. Nevertheless, they so permeate our culture that they are almost universally believed by people who have never even given them a second thought.

Does This Photon Belt Make Me Look Fat?

I'm the kind of person strangers feel they can tell anything to. I base this on my experience: almost every time I enter a Wal-Mart, Target, or grocery store, some other customer will approach so they can keep me apprised of their drug problem, affair, kidney disease or crisis of faith. Other people get asked to buy Girl Scout cookies. I get told by a middle-aged man that there's an injunction against his approaching within 100 feet of Girl Scouts.

New Paradigms for the New Age

A "paradigm" (pronounced para dime) is a framework within which one interprets everything he or she experiences. Since that's the way our brains work, paradigms have been in use long before we came up with the word. Yet it's only been since the 1960s that we humans have understood this. In recognizing that paradigms exist, it becomes possible to experience things in new ways, that is, through new paradigms, which can be intentionally formulated and considered. This is an amazing new concept and one without which the New Age wouldn't even be possible.

Are We There Yet?

There is a certain percentage of humanity that is aware that things are shifting. "The Times, They Are A-Changin'" as Bob Dylan once put it. We are aware that humanity is on a journey to a new era, moving faster in this direction than ever before. And some of us, sometimes, find ourselves anxiously awaiting our arrival in this Brave New World. We want to see all people treat each other fairly, honestly, and with respect. We want to see hunger and disease abolished. We want to see the Chicago Cubs win the World Series. But when is it going to happen? We're tired of waiting! We want it now!

Sweet Charity

However, unconditional love, by definition, must not be limited to any specific condition, which means that it must not be limited to any particular person or group. Any adherent to the Bible, or anyone seeking enlightenment, must love all unconditionally: Christian and Muslim, gay and straight, male and female and transgendered and asexual, Republican and Democrat, rock star and pastor, G W Bush as well as Mother Theresa.

The Parable of the Minister and the Flood

A devout minister's home was threatened by a weakened dam. The sheriff came by and banged on the door. "Reverend," the sheriff warned, "Your house is in the path of the flood. We're evacuating everyone in town. You've got to leave now!"

The minister refused. "God will save me," he said, and nothing the sheriff could say would change his mind.

The Electromagnetics of Love

What if there were a scientific basis for the concept of "soul mates"? What if there were a measurable, repeatable, mechanism for determining true love—or the potential for true love, at least? Something more reliable (and easier) than those compatibility tests websites like Chemistry.com like to make you take? Something that could be done with, say, a few electrodes and some graphs?

Good versus Evil

Something horrible happened today…as is true most days. Bombs disrupted the Boston Marathon, an activity of innocents if ever there was one. As of this writing, three people have been reported dead. When news of this sort is broadcast, many people find themselves depressed…especially Lightworkers who had kind of hoped that all evil would have magically disappeared at midnight, December 21, 2012.

Quantum Expectations

Constantly leaking into our Universe are infinitesimal elementary particles that have no form other than what we impose on them by our expectations. And yet these particles make up everything…all matter, all energy, everything we perceive and everything we cannot perceive. And what they make up, is what we expect them to make up! If the early Greek philosophers hadn't figured out the atom, and instead came up with an entirely different notion as to how matter is formed, we might have a completely different view of the Universe right now…and we would still be correct, because the Universe would be different.

Pain

As most of you know, about three years ago I contracted necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating bacteria) that nearly killed me and left me with a badly scarred leg that still causes me some pain.

About the Authors

Paul S Cilwa is the best-selling author of Windows Programming with Custom Controls, as well as three other books on personal computer programming. He spent more than a decade as a programmer before turning to teaching programming to corporate programmers trapped in the downsizing wars. He was a contributing editor to the late, great Windows Tech Journal and its sister newsletter Component Builder. In his spare time he backpacks, hikes, and rafts the whitewater of the Grand Canyon.

Inspirational Quotes

Perhaps you will find needed encouragement by these inspirational quotes. Here I've gathered a few favorites you may find uplifting, with motivating words that you may reflect on and share with others. These inspiring quotations reflect the thinking of the best of successful and influential authors, business people, leaders, speakers, and others from all walks of life.

Life On A Table Top

Religions, the New Age movement, and any group of stoned college students gathered around a late-night bonfire have this in common: Whether they know it or not, they are pondering metaphysics, that is, the branch of philosophy investigating principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. In the case of religion, this investigation is centered around an attempt to understand God, who presumably created the principles of reality, which places God beyond physics, which is what "metaphysics" literally means (or, "a physics that contains physics"). The New Age movement is more focused on how the principles of reality can be understood and exploited to achieve greater happiness and fulfillment. And the college students, in addition to wondering whether stars are like protons and planets like electrons and, therefore, our Solar System could be, like, a really big atom and therefore part of, you know, something much bigger, are in search of an even better buzz.