How Global Consciousness is Coherently Speaking To Us

Unfortunately, I'm often a little unconscious, and mildly incoherent – which is no laughing matter, because of all the things I want to experience in my life, consciousness and coherence rank pretty high up there. I prize my moments experiencing consciousness – that feeling of being awake and aware – and recognizing coherence, which in this case doesn't only mean occasionally making sense but refers to a fancier, more scientific way of talking about the profound connection of everything to everything.

Another unfortunate fact is that unconsciousness and incoherence is more or less a default condition for a lot of humanity these days (just look around) – but it needn't be, because true Consciousness (capitalized to emphasize Divinity) is constantly arising, and constantly speaking to us through the forms of coherence we witness around us.

At those times when I can really feel it, when I'm aware and accepting and full of purposeful direction, I feel completely connected – as though I'm being guided by an unseen hand. I understand this as a (momentary) state of my expanded consciousness, when a field of intuitive intelligence is informing my life. Consciousness is speaking to me in a direct, coherent way. It's speaking to me through the coherence that connects all of our existence.

Consciousness is a field that we engage in through the forms we take. Coherence is the connection of every part of those forms to one another through what the Buddhists call emptiness, the Hindu call brahman, and what science nowadays defines as the quantum field.

I happen to be a multiple near-death survivor, and I can tell you that in each of the three occasions while I was “out,” I wasn't really out – I was in deeper. I was still engaged by Consciousness at a very profound level – a level that I recognize is speaking to all of us everyday and in every way through the simple realization of everything being inexorably connected to everything else.

This is the experience of coherence, the fact that every part of me – of my body and mind – from the smallest cell up to my biggest brainstorm are clearly interconnected in a profoundly dynamic way. A flu virus (or a misplaced word) can ruin my entire week, and may simultaneously do the same to millions of other people – as is true for a laugh from a funny Youtube, or the effects of an explosion on the surface of the sun. Every part of me acts inexplicably in concert with every other part of me, as every part of the world (and universe) acts in a dynamic balance, or imbalance, with every other part of the world.

And so it is with the natural interactions we see everywhere – from the clearest examples in Nature of one species dynamically cooperating with another, to the most mysterious and extreme unlikelihood that all the “disconnected” forces alive in the Universe could come together from the vastness of space and somehow create this life on this planet. Stand back and look at our Earth and it's very easy to see that we are part of a coherent whole – a singular expression of an incomprehensible Universal Consciousness. At arms length, our world looks like the same thing (and our arms aren't very long...).

 "I am the true Self in the heart of every creature...the beginning, middle, and end of their existence."

                                    The Bhagavad Gita  10.20

Beneath everything lies that unifying intuitive understanding of our truest relationship to the Earth and all the life upon it – an ever-evolving expression of a conscious Universe, being eternally expressed. Quantum coherence and emergent self-organization aren't confined to waves or planets or particles, or only to anthills or flocks of birds either. All the life on Earth is chemically, psychically, and genetically connected at a profound level, at the same level as every other form of life – at the level of survival.

It comes as no shock, does it – that we share enough Consciousness for all of us to know that truth? Our being 'entangled' in non-ordinary ways, sharing a 'non-local' source is obvious in our present contracting reality, and blossoming into global Consciousness through our simultaneous personal realizations.

That's the reason why we can have so much hope – because we can always have faith in the fact that our forms are constantly rediscovering and rearranging "the Self" into a timeless, working whole – even in the face (or in the midst) of our impending catastrophes. Bringing the promise of that faith into reality requires that we follow those natural, intuitive impulses of our own groups, and our own hearts.

The humane acceptance of mass global migrations; racial and sexual equality movements; the impulse to maintain net neutrality; personal participation in clean, free power; a responsible awareness of our changing climate and its effects; respect for our clean water sources; ecological awareness across the generations; a real awareness of global hunger and epidemic disease – all of these are examples of this movement, which is finding its identity in a modern mythology that reconnects us to Mother Earth. A recognition of humanity's spiritual evolution, grounded in altruism, activism, and personal responsibility is bringing us into step with our emergent Global Consciousness, and showing us our true direction. We mustn’t deny it.

"There is a community of the spirit. Join it, and feel the delight of [flying in the noisy flock, and] being the noise...Close both eyes to see with the other eye...Open your hands, if you want to be held...Sit down in this circle."

                      Rumi

It’s a humble path that leads us towards the shift we all know we must take (those without humility are the cause of our catastrophes). It’s actually an involuntary course we are already taking towards our survival and spiritual evolution. Recognizing it within oneself, and allowing ourselves to join the horizontal hierarchy that this undeniable impulse organizes itself within will guide our best actions.

It's gonna shake things up, alright (whether we want it to or not). It's nothing short of the conscious deconstruction of our systems of exploitative materialism, and the recognition of all the coherent life of the planet as Sacred. This is not just an evolution we’re talking about, but a revolution of humanity – a conscious movement away from the unnecessary waste and destruction we express now, towards the higher order directed by Nature and Consciousness. 

And this is not my idea…it's our idea.

"To the knowing, all of life is a movement towards perfection; so what need have they for the excessive, the extravagant, or the extreme?"

Tao te Ching, 29

Read about concepts like these and much more in: How to Get to Heaven (Without Really Dying), Wisdom From a Near-Death Survivor  from Llewellyn Worldwide available direct on this page, or online. The first book: How to Survive Life (and Death), A Guide To Happiness In This World and Beyond is available the same ways – but ask for it at your local bookstore!

The Spiritual Lives of Beavers and the Purpose of Life

   
     We walk around in a bit of a stupor at certain times in our lives, with a head full of crazy questions, like: who am I, really? And what am I doing with my life? We should know those answers naturally, shouldn't we? But things are always changing (including us), and life can be very demanding, and it might all become a little confusing now and then. At those times it's good to recognize that the answers we should know naturally may actually be living in plain sight, in our very nature, in our very form. Perhaps we should look to natural forms to get a handle on our elusive sense of the purpose of Life.

     As I see it, Life is three things: a matter of expression – expressing your true self, that is; an evolution – that is, growing toward some kind of connected self-realization; and naturally (and most importantly) finding, feeling, and living in Love. So let's take a look at a very natural example of all those things; let's look at beavers.

     But why, you may ask, would we seek such advice from a beaver? I mean we all know that they’re fuzzy, have paddle-tails and build dams and all, but what does that have to do with expression, evolution, and Love? Let’s look at the natural forms of beavers and how as simple, purposeful expressions of what I like to call Divine Consciousness, they present living evidence of the Love in everything, and a lovely lesson we can learn for ourselves.

     Beavers have dense oily fur that keeps them warm on the inside no matter what. They have flaps in their ears and noses that block out water when they submerge, clear inner eyelids that serve as goggles, and even a set of inner lips that seal their mouths off when they carry cut greenery in their teeth underwater. Their teeth are self-sharpening, so they never, ever get dull their entire lives. They can chew through practically anything from the coarsest bramble to large tree trunks, and cut and arrange wood with precise dexterity and intelligence in such a way as to build dams and lodges of unequaled design efficiency for their uses. 
     Their homes are multi-roomed, vented at the ceiling, and have multiple entries – one conveniently leading directly to their storehouse of cut greenery, naturally refrigerated underwater to retain freshness. Their tails not only propel them above or beneath the water with great speed and grace, but also serve to pack mud as a building material, or to slap the water loudly as a warning to their loved ones.

     In terms of their impact on the environment and the creation of their habitats, the beaver's expression of intuitive engineering skills is second only to humans – except that beavers don’t harm the natural world in realizing them. 

     So who is smarter than who? Who has real direction and purpose? Whose form provides an unencumbered connection to the Divine, and brings balanced and beneficial contributions to our shared planet? And what might all of this have to do with Love, as opposed to being a simple accounting of natural selection? How, exactly does Love come into play for our beavers?

     It’s because Love – as survival of the most cooperatively adaptable – actually is natural selection. That’s true authentic purpose, “survival of the fittest,” in its most loving, heavenly sense. The beavers form facilitates expression, evolution, and, yes, Love – like our form does as well (or almost as well).

     Did you know that beavers mate for life (something a few of us have trouble with)? They give birth to numerous young, spread out over time, and they all live together sharing their food and warmth and companionship – at least until the kids can make it on their own (no surprise, it can be difficult to get young beavers to finally leave home too).

     Their homes not only serve to shelter and protect their families, but create ecosystems that dozens of other species thrive in, and contribute to the health of the greater, holistic environment. It’s a kind of natural stewardship of the Earth that demonstrates a purer purpose, and the metaphor of “The Garden” – where plants and animals contribute to the planet just by being, not by being able to think about it too much. Beavers don’t cut down trees to spite anybody, only people living in ignorance of their natural Divine Unity do that.

     The First Nation Americans recognized the merging of these purposeful forms of nature and Love. They called beavers the “little people.” They saw Love in the building of their homes and their families. They witnessed, with wonder and res-pect, how Love created their perfect purpose, which was simply, perfectly, to be beavers.

     The indigenous peoples of all countries around the world have never had any problem with the presence of Love in all of their surroundings – as the body of Mother Earth, as the land they love (which no one ‘owns,’ and which bears the bones of their ancestors); the air they breathe (the same air as their forefathers breathed); the water which cycles through themselves and this layer of Life on Mother Earth; and as the Sun which brings energy to the cycles of Life. They saw their purpose clearly was to be natural human beings – part of something infinitely larger than the rigid concepts of what our material lives “are supposed to be,” and more as a channelers of greater energies – more what we are meant to be.

        “The heart is a sanctuary at the center of which there is a little space, wherein the Great Spirit dwells, and this is the eye…by which He sees all things, and through which we see Him.”

                                     Black Elk

     It’s with this perspective of shared Divine Consciousness and the presence that allows us to find Love in every eternal moment, that we can receive the gift of our purpose – the expression of our innate intelligence, our potential for rea-soned and responsible stewardship of the world – and its other, very important occupants. Getting there does require effort, even if it’s just by living by those principles that we know will liberate our spirits and contribute to the welfare of all Life.

     It’s not supposed to be easy being a human being. This is where we learn some of our very hardest lessons, but the beavers show us there are easier ways to cut through the obstructions created in our inner lives – the destructive beliefs that tie us to the illusion of separateness and struggle, and remove us from the direction and purpose of our natural forms. They direct us toward an unimaginably rich and magical world where our purpose is to protect the forms of life who aren't subject to the ravages of self-centered thought. A world of expression, evolution, and Love.

     Beavers show us how to live in a world we might call Heaven. 

The latest book: How to Get to Heaven (Without Really Dying), Wisdom From a Near-Death Survivor from Llewellyn Worldwide can be ordered direct on this page or online; and the first book: How to Survive Life (and Death), A Guide To Happiness In This World and Beyond is available the same ways – but ask for them it at your local bookstore!

Riding The Big Blue Avatar

You don't see many blue people around. Or on the other hand, maybe you see a lot of them. The blue people (who actually are blue) mostly live in one of our imaginary worlds, like the cat people in the movie Avatar. Or the shapely, shape-shifting mu-tant in the X-Men movies. The Blue Man Group, or Smurfs!
 All the other blue people we see, the ones who just feel blue, usually feel that way because their minds have been cast into some sort of sadness. Such is Life.  

There is another well-known blue man, probably the original, and that's the Hindu deity Krishna – an incarnation of the spiritual preserver and sustainer of our Universe, Vishnu. He is God as an avatara (the origin of the movie's title) in human, albeit blue human form. In the amazing Hindu scripture The Bhagavad Gita, Krishna appears on Earth as the chariot driver of a confused warrior, and takes the opportunity to instruct the poor fellow about how to best occupy his human form in this life. He simply teaches him all about life. It's like having God as your cab driver in New York City.

Body

Sporting a beautiful blue body is obviously unusual, which is no doubt why Krishna picked it. It's quite likely that you'll pay very close attention to everything that comes out of a beautiful blue persons mouth. The first, and most obvious point it makes is that our bodies are simply vehicles that can be colored differently, like cars. And Krishna is very clear when he talks about our relationship to our bodies:

"The body is mortal, but he who dwells in the body is immortal and immeasurable."   Bhagavad Gita 2:18

"As a man abandons worn-out clothes and acquires new ones, so when the body is worn out a new one is acquired by the Self, who lives within.

The Self cannot be pierced by weapons or burned by fire...cannot be made wet or dry. It is everlasting and infinite, standing on the motionless foundation of eternity."  

BG 2:23-25

So we are really just the rider, and as we occupy these different bodies, we begin to learn the things we can only learn by living in this particular human form. I like to think of it like this: when I see a middle-aged asian guy, for example, I try to think to myself, "There's one of us – in that form." When I see a freckled, red-headed teenage girl, I think, "There's one of us – in that form." And when I see myself in the mirror, I think, "There's one of us (that happens to be me) – in that form." Sometimes, that's what makes me a little blue. Sometimes it's an easy ride, sometimes not.

Listen up, because here's what's so important about all this. It means that we are a race of energy beings assigned to living in these human bodies, surrounded by a world of changing forms. We are truly one race, with or without the bodies – that's why human racial distinctions are so antithetical to our truest natures, but are also so necessary for pointing out our shared underlying reality.

It sounds a lot like science fiction, doesn't it? Well, that's one of the big problems with our limited human perception. We tend to want to think of it in terms of science fiction, because that's the funny, "self-protective" twist our body/minds use to label the spiritual facts of our unusual existence. Within our truest self – our shared being – of course we know it's true. Even "skeptics" know it. If any one of us has realized this, there's a very good chance that everyone may realize it too.

I know because I'm a person who's had multiple near-death exper-iences that eliminated whatever choice I had. It usually takes something to help you get it, just listening to an imaginary blue guy may not be enough. You can gain some real understanding through deep meditations, or by taking the testimony of certain teachers to heart. You may also tell it's true by the simple fact that your inner spirit – your inner experience of life– never changes all that much, while if you're anything like me, your body keeps changing whether you want it to or not.

Mind

If our spirit is animating our changing body, then what, exactly, is our mind? Generally, I think it's what I think with, but body-wise it's really my brain that's doing that. My thinking organ. My mind seems to live in three different ways: The part where I learn and apply knowledge – my "rational intellect." Observing, comparing, labeling, analyzing, planning…all that. Then there's a reactive much less rational part, which is unfortunately often fearful and opinionated. That's the part we usually call ego – our kind of fussy (sometimes neurotic) interface with Life. Hindu yogis call these aspects of mind "chitta." They function in the realm of the seen and known.

But then there's that third way my mind works – as all the things I know but have never had to learn. Everything I just know. That's a deeper kind of shared, instinctual mind – an intelligence that doesn't change, and accepts life in what ever form it takes,  without labeling or judging. This part of my mind just is. I don't make it up or change it, I access it. Yogis call this "purusha." Where the mind functions in the psychic realm of the spirit. What's largely unseen, but very deeply known and felt. 

This more shared, less individual form of intelligence can be difficult to recognize because it's so natural, so unconscious. How do I even know how to walk and talk? Or when I'm going to laugh? Or what is really to be feared (and what will probably be okay)? We all share all that rather critical information, that "common sense," without really having to think about. It doesn't matter whether we're yellow, or red, or blue.

 Now notice the similarity, even the simultaneity of our shared mind and all it's little parts, like say, the next time you're standing in a slow-moving line at a bank or in a store. If you could hear the thoughts of each person in line, it would sound like a chorus of complaints in unison. First the rational intellect: If they opened another window, they could take care of all of us in a much more efficient manner. Then, there's the ego: Doesn't anyone here know what the hell they're doing? I can't wait in this line all day!  Then there's our shared mind, our "common sense:" I'm either going to do this now, or some other time, and now is the only time things actually happen.

While the first two "personal" forms of mind lead us to believe we are in control, the third, shared form, is evidence of a much deeper reality where, as Joseph Campbell put it: "We don't live life, life lives us." 

Then there's this too – we are subject to the ways of the world, which, like each of us, is comprised of all its parts, demanding, contributing, reflecting. It's another even greater body/mind in which we all share – the mind and body of our planet and it's inherent cumulative intelligence. Its life. You may have heard it called "Gaia."

Astrologers recognize this form of the spiritual occupation of the planets, and the greater life of the cosmos. By spiritual fact – not by science fiction – we are a part of that greater shared intelligence, expressed by what we, as riders, demand from, and contribute to, the body and mind of the living Earth. Sometimes it's an easy ride. Sometimes not. We learn what we can only learn by riding on our planet – and it doesn't matter if our planet is yellow, like Venus; or red, like Mars. Or, like the body/mind of our Earth, if it's blue too.

"In this world there are two orders of being: the perishable, separate creature and the changeless spirit. But beyond these there is another, the supreme Self, the eternal Lord, who enters into the entire cosmos and supports it from within."

The Bhagavad Gita, 15:16,17

Read about concepts like these and much more in: How to Get to Heaven (Without Really Dying), Wisdom From a Near-Death Survivor  from Llewellyn Worldwide available direct on this page, or online. The first book: How to Survive Life (and Death), A Guide To Happiness In This World and Beyond is available the same ways – but ask for it at your local bookstore!

On "Proof of Heaven," and the Skeptics' Hell

There's been quite a hub-bub of late around the release and promotion of Dr. Eben Alexander's excellent new book Proof of Heaven, in which he recounts his own Near Death Experience, and ventures to defend the existence of life after death – even scientifically – supported by his own impressive credentials as a Harvard-educated neurosurgeon. It's much less surprising that a man of science may personally discover our underlying spiritual reality in a transpersonal experience, than that he'd immediately attract a swarm of agnostic skeptics when he speaks out about his discovery.

Notable among the skeptics is Sam Harris; philosopher, neuroscientist and renowned man of reason. His arguments disputing the authenticity of Dr. Alexander's afterlife experience are intellectually cogent and compelling, but undermined somewhat by a mildly pejorative tone – a tone that may suggest his own personal conflicts.

There simply seems to be two distinct kinds of people when it comes to issues of transcendent or "extra-dimensional" awareness – those who have had profoundly transformative spiritual experiences, and those who haven't.
  

For those who have, like Dr. Alexander, there's no longer any need for argument; it's made redundant by the expanded awareness of an intuitive, universal intelligence beyond the limitations of their own thought, beyond their own personal powers of "reason." Those who have not had such a transformative experience simply lack the essential evidence necessary to credibly comment on the authenticity of such realizations by others. They are subject to the limitations of linear, serial (left brain) thinking, and it's tangential, unidimensional conclusions. The "God Part" of their brain hasn't been fully activated, you might say, and so (scientifically) all spiritual experience remains anecdotal.

Denial is the acceptance of ignorance as truth, through force of will, and that force usually issues from two rather self-centered mis-apprehensions in the case of NDE skeptics, one being the old Descartes before des horse, that "I think, therefore I am" assertion that the rational thought process is the medium of all profound truth, and that in it's absence there is only delusional imagination and self-serving ignorance of a sort determined by the mechanical nature of the brain.

That very aspect of human thought betrays it's own presumption, though. It's in the nature of the egoic intellect to reject what  it has had no experience of – as well as to often reject even what it has experienced, if it fails to conveniently fit it's egocentric story of self. The reasoning in such cases is not really based on what's empirical or not, but on underlying issues, and obstacles, of a psychic nature. Like all of us, I'm sure some of the worst decisions Mr. Harris has ever made were very well thought out, while some of the most elegantly effective issued from a source completely outside (even opposite to) the limitations of his dogma and intellect. Keep this in mind: Thought requires consciousness, but consciousness does not require thought. I am, therefore I think is really closer to the underlying truth.

The idea that we can only rely on what investigative science can prove is as archaic as a flat earth, as all major scientific conclusions have only been reliable in that they reliably change, being solely determinable by our capabilities for observation as of today. That's (arguably) where the greatest weakness is in Dr. Alexander's rationale – in his effort to substantiate his experiences in a smaller context that's not equipped to support them. Stringent scientific observations and theoretical analysis of quantum physics indicates relationships between consciousness, matter, and dimensionality that are at odds with concepts of non-faith-based empiricism. Nevertheless, your smartphone and microwave still work pretty well.  Which leads to the second misapprehension:

The presumption that the brain is [not-so] simply an electro-chemical cellular conglomeration whose various states of activity indicate it's capacity for intelligence on different levels – the generator, not the receiver, of consciousness. The observation and benchmarking of where those points of activation are, and what therefore becomes possible within those boundaries of "life" and "death" have to be questioned at least as much as the mass testimony of thousands of NDE survivors through the ages, perhaps justifiably moreso. 

For example, Mr. Harris questions whether or not NDE survivors brains (specifically Dr. Alexander's) are actually dead – entirely devoid of any activity whatsoever – which is a good question all right, but can he demonstrate when that NDE "magical imagination" might begin in subjects who do not survive; and how long it continues in the absence of brain activity? Where exactly is the tipping point of death – especially when it's not entirely known exactly what the brain (or mind) does, and can do? Where is the range of the control group? Can he reliably postulate the moment that an authentic experience of death occurs or doesn't, without resorting to traditional standards of "when they're really dead"? And most importantly here, can the objective observation of a possibly biased observer completely invalidate another individuals personal experience of a different state of being? As has become the establishment norm, 'scientific reason' refutes spiritual experience without any actual evidence whatsoever to support its claims.  

This establishment 'scientific' presumption also describes con-sciousness as being the product of billions of individual cerebral generators, rather than the (scientifically) more likely definition of it as a shared transpersonal field of energetic, evolutionary intelligence; related to the observable quantum or "zero-point" fields. 

There are children who begin writing music at age two, and go on to compose symphonies by five or six. Do their little brains just "snap-to" extra quick, and process all that information at a phenomenal speed, or do they tap into a profound, existing intelligence that informs, enlivens, and animates the consciousness we are unavoidably all a part of? 

Documented beyond apocyrphy are cases of people who have such remarkably specialized intelligence that they undergo study to determine the neurological nature or source of it, only to discover that their brain physiology indicates that they should be absolutely incapable of such intelligence; or of much intelligence at all, for that matter (literally). Then there are people who have perfectly fine brains, but their egoic self-definitions insist that they are intellectually superior in a way that entitles them to judge all varieties of mysterious, "non-intellectual" experiences. These are often the same people that overlook evidence of transpersonal communication, but are still willing to accept quantum uncertainty and entanglement...And then there are questions of animal consciousness – don't get me started.

All of it is clearly a mystery, and so why shouldn't it require experience of a mysterious, mystical nature to better understand the underlying truth of it? After all, I might remind the skeptics that everything we think and know is the result of this little layer of consciousness wrapped around a little planet, floating though limitless outer space.  The original ground of that unimaginably "magical" context needs to inform all of our subsequent intellectual tolerance for what and what is not possible. In fact, it seems far more reliable to assume that Love and Magic are the mediums for this adventure of life than coincidence, reason and intellectual rigor.

In the blog refuting Dr. Alexander's experience, Mr. Harris seems to concede to the necessity for such a mystical experience in order to support his dogmatic criticisms.  He tells a story about a psychically revealing dream he had, before he went to Nepal. I am interested by his approach to conscious realization here. My personal transformational experience came about as a result of years of meditation and study, following my having survived three NDEs. I have no doubt that, given the spiritual depth of the land and its people, a trip to Nepal may inspire significant transpersonal realization. In fact, I think I would have much rather gone to Nepal myself than where I had to go, believe me.  

Equating one particular type of alternate consciousness to another to support an argument seems a bit non-scientific for a man of reason, but using some reason may help describe the difference that I, Dr. Alexander, and millions of other human have realized in our "extra-life" experiences from what Mr. Harris (or any of us) get from dreams. In dreams, I'd suggest our psyches create an entire imaginary world featuring our selves at the center, and so I believe them to be the product of a constrained personal subconsciousness. The suggestion that Mr. Harris was not the center of his dream was his near-transformational moment – a moment of brief realization of the larger consciousness enjoined in NDEs.

My near death experience realizations were of that also, times ten – that I am a part of a larger unified consciousness and intelligence that exists outside (or within... or without...or throughout) my fragile, expendable human body. I had no body, per se. I did not sense the passage of time, or even think sequentially, but instead simply coexisted with knowledge and being. I experienced profound and continuing Love as the medium of continuing Life. Mr. Harris would insist, I'm sure, that I was not dead, and I'd agree completely.  

Mr. Harris, for one reason or another, is compelled to define the transformative experiences of others. Dr. Alexander is spontaneously, intuitively, compelled to share an essential truth that he was surprised to discover for himself, precipitated by one major, transformative spiritual experience in his life – his "death," and subsequent travel into the "afterlife" potential of consciousness. By the expression of their needs you can recognize the degree to which they experience these different levels of consciousness.  Either contained by the harsh demands of their own intellect, or alive in a kind of heaven, guided and inspired by the intelligence of that larger mind, and liberated by the grace of their spiritual source.

How to Get to Heaven (Without Really Dying) is due out early 2018, from Llewellyn Worldwide, is available now! with How to Survive Life (and Death), A Guide To Happiness In This World and Beyond, both are based on lessons (learned the hard way) by a three time near death survivor, and are available everywhere – but ask for them at your local bookstore! 

The Selectivity of Religious Myth and the Resurrection of the Easter Bunny

At the time of the earliest stirrings of the philosophy that was to become Christianity there were numerous centers of nascent world religion, from the Gandhara region of India thru Asia Minor, Persia, and Greece, to Alexandria and Jerusalem – and other spots within and beyond the Roman Empire and the rest of the known, civilized world. To literate religious academics of the early Christian era, all of this knowledge was available. Christianity, like all religions, was not born in a vacuum.

You'll notice in the retellings of the Passion Play that Christians celebrate each Spring, as well as throughout the New Testament, there are plenty of references to the Pharisee sect of Hebraism, the proletariat and middle-class Jews of the time. The Sadducees, the bourgeois, aristocratic sect get very little airtime comparatively – despite making up most of the temple priesthood. Edited out of the story completely are the Essenes, which were not actually a single sect but instead a collection of differing gnostic beliefs grouped together generically.

Beyond their numbers, which were significant throughout the middle east at the time, the Essenes were the original Christians, eschewing sacrifice and materiality, living simple lives based in practices of healing and service. They were dedicated to cleanliness, to communal, all-inclusive dining, to the practices of foot washing, vegetarianism, and holistic herbal healing. Their "inns" and white robes were the inspiration for our present-day hostels and hospitals, and doctors' white coats. It's likely that the Jesus of mainstream Christianity was drawn from this model. 

Most sects labeled "Essene" fully embraced a more personal, inward, mystical path to the realization of a divine simplicity, and so were the foundation of the esoteric forms of Gnosticism and Kabbalistic practice. In some groups, Buddhism was very influential, and in fact "Theraputae" Essenism was likely one in the same as the Buddhist community located near Lake mareotis, outside of Alexandria (from Theraputta, sanskrit meaning "from the old ones"). Buddhism was alive throughout the region for hundreds of years prior to Christian mythology, and it's very important to note that the Buddha sat in the wilderness alone and was tempted by the devil, walked on water, fed the multitudes from a single basket, and drank at the well of an outsider (and more) 500 years before the Christ story came about.

It's very likely that the teacher Yeshua, whose philosophy – resurrected in the  discovery of very early pre-canonical scripture like The Gospel of Thomas – serves as the basis for the teachings of the Jesus of the canonical, Roman gospels.

The selectivity of Christian myth runs roughshod over much of what is actually known – as is the case with most inventions of organized religion. This is not limited only to religion, the same is true for organized historical dogma, organized cultural dogma, and organized social dogma. In a contemporary American context, for example, we have the assertion that Ronald Reagan brought down the Soviet Union, or that John Kennedy was killed by a lone assassin; both nascent myths that aren't based in fact, but still canonized as historical truth by many. 

Likewise, American frontier identity was actually rooted in the genocide of the indigenous Americans, whose culture was, so to speak, crucified by "Rome." The positivity and popularity of much of contemporary American culture is based on the transcendent adaptations of African people held in slavery for hundreds of years. The implications of these truths are truly biblical, but not in the self-enhancing way traditional white male American historians would have us remember it.

So the suggestion that the Christian Passion Play is mythic, and was created in the centuries following the decline of Rome to serve political purposes by commandeering an authentically mystical path actually makes much more sense than the assumption of the canonical gospels as historical fact. The first big tip-off is the fact that the eventual authors of those gospels weren't actually named Mark, Matthew, Luke, or John – those were pseudonyms of journeymen writers of their day. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, chances are you better duck.

More recently there are the examples of Mormonism, whose co-creator Joseph Smith is a proven plagiarist, philanderer, arsonist, and possibly worse – but not at all proven to be a prophetic witness to an early ancient American Judaic civilization; Scientology, whose inventor was unquestionably a hard-drinking, womanizing, egomaniacal science fiction writer – but highly questionable as an enlightened channel of godlike alien entities; and, going back a little further, Islam, the transcendent, mystical heart of which is regularly betrayed by random acts of violence. 

Sadly for true believers, the historical references to the actual existence of the Jesus of the canons is still limited to the scant testimonies of Pliny, Tacitus, and Flavius Josephus, whose less-than-second-hand accounts came well after the fact, and were subject to powerful political and cultural influence, and countless subsequent rewritings. The most compelling testimony of Josephus has been known to be a forgery for a long time now, while Judeo-Roman historians contemporary to the times, like Philo, never mention the man or events, despite having every reason to. Josephus, in all his authenticated accounts in fact, mentions at least twenty different people named Jesus.

Then what should we really be resurrecting today? If the religious establishment now neatly sequesters the whole of the ancient Essene world into the austere walls of the community at Qumran, and the timeless teachings of philosophers like Gautama and Yeshua are respectively redefined as platitudes and tragic morality plays, rather than as the radically effective calls to action they truly are, then clearly what requires resurrecting is the spirit of divinely shared consciousness that Aldous Huxley called the "Perennial Philosophy." 

"The All came forth from me and the All came into me. Split the wood, and I am there. Turn over the stone, and there you will find me."

The Gospel of Thomas, Logion 77  

It's forgivable human nature to transmute certain realities into conveniently avoidable practices, or for people suffering from the fearful manifestations of low self worth, greed, and delusional self-centeredness to act out in our shrinking world, but what we really need is to rebirth the elemental compassionate unity, the eternal springtime of human spiritual evolution alive in each Easter every day, if possible. That is the message continuously carried by the spirit of Yeshua (not to mention the Buddha, Krishna, Gandhi, et al).

We can all "sit in the wilderness" – take the inward path to realization of our shared being; "walk on water" – rise above and make foundational our psychic afflictions;  "feed the multitudes" – know that we have plenty with what we always have;  and "share water from the well" – understand the eternal that unifies us, regardless of our outward labels. The Jesus of the Christian Easter is purely a symbol for the real power for tranformation each of us carries within – all the time, not just in the Spring.

"Whoever seeks will find; whoever knocks from inside, it will open to them."

"When you bring forth that within you, then that will save you."

"What you are waiting for has already come, but you do not see it."

"Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me and I will become them and what was hidden from them will be revealed."

The Gospel of Thomas, 94, 70, 51, 108

Since I believe that we all only die to this world, and so resurrection is a simple, personal realization that we will all get to experience, is it possible that the spirit of the Easter Bunny could actually be a better shepherd? The brand we want to revive each Spring? Could that be a better metaphor than the image of a good man suffering – the gentle lapine, the playful, prolific, vegan creature of the woods and meadows? Could a bunny be smart and wise enough to easily share that level of consciousness? For the answer to these, and possibly other questions, I invite you to watch this video:

 http://www.dogwork.com/buhr9

Happy Easter 

Cheers & Blessings!