Proverbs truly is a book of wisdom. Many of its verses can seem a little archaic at times, but the reality is that they contain individual gems of truth that often go deeper than even what today’s science reveals. Consider the popular verse below:
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue…” (Proverbs 18:21).
At first glance, this seems to be saying that the words that we speak have the ability to kill someone or give them life. But what exactly does this mean? Can the words we speak actually cause illnesses in people, which may even lead to death? Do our words have the ability to stimulate someone’s immune system to heal? If so, how?
We’ve all heard the old adage, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Doctors who only study the physical body might agree with the above statement, but those who have crossed over into the world of energy medicine know better. We all have invisible energy bodies that affect our physical bodies because these energy systems, which extend beyond the physical body, are responsible for our vitality and health.
I was recently given a book by a blog reader called Anatomy of Spirit by Caroline Myss, Ph.D. Although Myss doesn’t address the scripture I have quoted from Proverbs, her work gives us the answer to how words might scientifically kill someone or give them life. I quote a portion of her work below:
“Your physical body is surrounded by an energy field that extends as far out as your outstretched arms and the full length of your body. It is both an information center and a highly sensitive perceptual system. We are constantly “in communication” with everything around us through this system, which is a king of conscious electricity that transmits and receives messages to and from other people’s bodies.”
I find it interesting that Myss calls these energy systems “conscious electricity” that communicates with the environment. Myss goes on to state that “It surrounds us and carries with us the emotional energy created by our internal and external experiences… This emotional force influences the physical tissue within our bodies.”
So how do the actual words and experiences of physical life affect these conscious electricity centers?
Myss continues, “Positive and negative energy experiences register a memory in the cell tissue as well as in the energy field. As neurobiologist Dr. Candace Pert has proven, neuropeptides—the chemicals triggered by emotions—are thoughts converted to matter. Our emotions reside physically in our bodies and interact with our cells and tissues. In fact, Dr. Pert can no longer separate the mind from the body, she says, because the same kinds of cells that manufacture and receive emotional chemistry in the brains are present throughout the body.”
Thus, it isn’t so hard to see how the power of life and death really are in the tongue. What we think and say to others (and even ourselves!) can have a profound effect upon people’s health. And if what Myss says is true, the things that are said to others years before can register a conscious energy imprints in people that permeates the energetic body for decades. We are all familiar with the parent, teacher, or even religious leader who has said something that may deposit fear and anger deep within our psyche that has disastrous impacts later on. The moment we relive that same sort of experience, the more damage it does to our physical and other bodies. Of course the same goes for the positive things that our parents, teachers, and religious leaders have told us, which literally give life!
The information provided by Myss adds new depth to the scripture by Solomon which states,
“…for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…” (Psalms 139:14).
The energy systems which Myss speaks of are actually the etheric, emotional, and mental bodies which allows consciousness to act within the physical body. Without them, the physical shell would be unable to think and feel. Our words don’t seem to affect these energy systems on the outside, but they do carry tremendous power because they eventually have physical manifestations.
Thus, the real power of the tongue is that it has the ability to bring potential good or bad into being, even in the form of physical manifestations within the body of man. In a sense, we all have the ability to be walking and talking energy healers by the very things we choose to say to others. That is a tremendous amount of power!
James stated:
“But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith we bless God, even the Father; and therewith we curse men, which are made after the similitude of God” (James 3:8-9).
Notice how James states that we are made after the similitude of God. What is God? God is a symbol for BEING, which is ultimately the only true reality beyond the transitory and illusory expression of the external universe and soul. But it is through our physical, emotional, and mental energy systems and bodies that we play the game of life (the illusion) and eventually grow to discover the ultimate reality of oneness with BEING. When we learn to control the tongue, we have made it one step closer to realizing this ultimate reality.
Therefore we should always watch and guard what we say.
For me, marriage has been the best teacher of the true power of the tongue. The things I have said to my wife, especially when I was young and pretty rigid in my belief systems, have taught me how much damage the tongue can have to a person’s growth and development. I have said things to my wife that I didn’t even realize were hurtful, only to find out the damage that had been done later. Thankfully these things can be healed and turned into learning experiences.
In my next blog post we will look at another teaching of Dr. Myss. We will discuss why she believes the seven sacraments of the church relates to the seven chakras (conscious energy portals) between our physical and energetic bodies.
Blessings!
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue…” (Proverbs 18:21).
Even after three years being with the Master, Peter still wanted to cut a man in half with a sword, and probably would have, except the man quickly ducked. I also believe that he alone was responsible for taking the lives of Ananias and Sapphira. When Peter pronounced words of death unto them…and they died. I believe he murdered them for lying about some money. Yet he, himself denied and lied (3 times) about knowing Jesus which was much worse. What a hypocrite.
Our words can be very powerful instruments. Quite frankly, Peter the apostle…doesn’t shine very brightly in my book.
Hi Allen!
Yes, I can certainly agree that Peter, whom the Master loved so very much, was quite the conundrum and I myself was disturbed by his actions and searched for a better understanding.
Keeping in mind that God knew the hearts and souls of the men His Son chose is premier in looking further down the rabbit hole…
Peter, a man man’s, a fisherman, lived and survived “in the world”, prior to his glorious meeting with Jesus, which whom he chose first, Simon/Peter. Lots of work there for the Master!
but, that quite simply is the point, God did not make this journey a simple and joyous ride for the 12 or our Beloved Christ. This journey for them would not be a merry-go-round, it was to be a world changing of evolving humankind!
In Matthew 26:35 “Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples”.
Thinking, if I personally were there and thinking ahead as a chosen one, I may have responded the same way, otherwise I would not have been able to spread the word of the Master. And Peter being Peter was the strongest leader amongst the 12, without the first, all would have crumbled and all here on this forum would not be who we are.
How many times have you and I come into contact with hypocrites? Aha, yet we see, and do we see because of Peter? Hypocrisy has its place amongst us, as it continues to help us and others “see and hear” with the heart of enlightenment.
I truly hope my words will help you delve further into your feelings about Peter…as I also struggled with understanding Peter and am sharing with you some of my own thoughts about it.
I the end he chose the worst of all death’s and was nailed to a cross upside down, how much did he love the Master? He said “Jesus, if I have not completed my mission you chose me for, let this final act be my sacrifice of my unending love for you and humankind” (my words on what his last prayer may have been).
Be Blessed,
Sparks
Thanks Sparks,
After I wrote that…I went down to tend to the wood stove…and somebody, very clearly spoke to me.
“How would you like to have your dirty laundry, written down and put in a book, for millions and millions of people to read for thousands of years?”
Gulp….NO!
“I am Sorry, Peter – I am no different than you”
We all have our dirty ugly things that need to be forgiven.
It’s amazing, how in just a moment of time…when done under proper directive correction…one’s perspective can change to an opposite thinking so quickly.
Thanks for letting me vent, so that I now see more clearly and have been wrong… and I accept this change.
Allen,
Actually, have a chuckle on God’s sense of humor…While you were tending the fire, it’s laundry day for me, and I responded to your post between washing and drying!
We were spiritually multi-tasking!!
Be Well,
Sparks
Lol…Your conversations made my day!
Allen,
Your sentiments are not unwarranted. That is why I think we have to look more into the symbolic meaning of scripture.
Hi Allen.
Very interesting comment. One of the things we learn delving a little more deeply into the scriptures is that Jesus starts out his New Testament ministry as Adam (remember, Christ is the second — or resurrected — Adam). You have to have an understanding of Bible symbolism in order to understand much of what was happening in the beginning. The definition of “beasts of the field” is “men whose teeth are spears, and whose tongues are sharp swords” (Ps. 57:4). Three things I want to show you here.
1. When Jesus was calling his disciples and naming them, this was Adam giving “names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field” (Gen. 2:20).
2. Peter was one of those “beasts of the field” (a “serpent”). This can be seen in Matt. 16:21-23, Jesus tells his disciples that he must die. Peter took him and rebuked him, saying “Lord, this shall not happen to you” (Genesis 3:4 — “you shall not surely die”). Jesus replied, “get thee behind me, Satan.” This is not a reiteration of Genesis 3. This IS Genesis 3. Peter is the Satan of Genesis 3 – “You will NOT surely die.” (NOTE: This shows that Adam’s (Jesus’) death was NOT a fall or some error. “It is appointed unto ALL men once to die ….”) (NOTE2: Hidden in this message is understanding of from where Cain gets his wife.)
3. The sword is a Biblical metaphor for the tongue. Thus, when Peter cuts of Malchus’ EAR with his SWORD, he was using his tongue to cut off Malchus’ ability to hear Jesus. Of course, Jesus rapidly heals Malchus’ ear, even as his human fate was being sealed. There were many things that Peter didn’t understand about Jesus. This is also our situation. The disciples are merely those who stick with Jesus through thick and thin. When Peter fails in this through human frailty, he is restored. How powerful the mercy of God!!! UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. Any reason why we shouldn’t be “disciples of Christ?”
“They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Mark 2:7)
Blessings.
Hi Paul,
This is an interesting comment that I can follow for the most part, but I cannot for the life of me discover a clue where Cain got his wife from. It is probably staring me in the face, but I still do not see it as my way of reasoning is different.
You give different meanings to words than I do and I see that as mathematical formula. It depends on the meaning you give to a certain unknown what the outcome of the sum is and in this way one and the same text may have different explanations which are all correct. I love that. There are so many levels in the Bible that I feel I hardly scratch the surface, so I love seeing your contributions as well.
Love,
Anny
Hi Anny.
That is a good point about mathematical symbols. I am currently reading Korzybski on language and abstract thinking.
He sees our human creative imagination as our true divinity. It is what separates us from the animals from which we evolved. We have an imaginative ability to move forward and backward in time which allows us to bring the past and the future into our here and now problem solving. Abstract thinking makes sense to us in a way that my dog will never comprehend.
Within this paradigm, Genesis can be seen as a colloquium of ideas about how to organise our creative ideas. “In the beginning was the word” means that it all begins with an idea. The six days of creation indicates that each new creation or days production is actually the platform or prerequisite for the next days creativity. We can see far more complex cause and effect relationships than our animals can.
An early question, I feel, is to ask if God is not eternally a product of our imagination; albeit an idea that needs to evolve with our growing human consciousness. As we depart from the Garden of Eden, are we not simply taking on personal responsibility for the risks inherent in our attempts to improve the situation.
Prior to the Enlightenment, I don’t think we understood enough about the nature of the Universe to contemplate this point. When a mighty wind comes from who knows where, is it not natural to invent an interventionist supernatural God to defend us from these massive force of nature.
But the Enlightenment, has changed things. Our trip to the Moon, made a mighty dent in the notion that an all powerful external God lived on the Moon. And our new knowledge of natural processes like Genetics, is starting to give us unfamiliar powers that we used to assign to a supernatural God.
Korzybski, is arguing that it is infantile to try to turn away from the creative power that this new knowledge gives us and that rather we need to focus our new human responsibilities.
We need to accept the power we now command and rapidly enhance our skills in ethics and moral judgement. This is obviously a huge risk that if we get wrong may well result in our planet being blown to bits. But like the sorcerer’s apprentice can we ever turn back now that the genie is out of the bottle?
We also need to accept that the old divinity is dead. Praying to an interventionist God and then passively waiting for the miracle to appear is now clearly futile.
The implicit power that used to reside with the God of our forefathers has now shifted to reside within our creative imaginations. I am reminded of the statement; “Only I can fulfill my true potential….and it is an awesome responsibility.”
But accept it we must. It is now our divine responsibility to complete the circle and to mend the broken arc of our ignorance in the face of the mystery, which will remain, however knowledgeable we may become..
Finally, Korzybski warns that our thinking must be rigorous and of a quality consistent with the mathematics and scientific empiricism that has got us this far. A lot of what is being peddled as spiritual truth is little better than the mythical God with a long white beard that it is trying to replace.
Most of us need a crash course in the rigorous regimes of maths and science, which most of us currently have in the too hard basket. The alternative approaches of labeling things as ancient wisdom, special knowledge or divinely inspired will never stand the searchlight of empirical investigation.
If you can’t submit your favourite theory to the harsh criticism of a true skeptic, you are probably wasting your time and your money. (Said by someone who has cancer and who is being bombarded with far too many hollow promises from a rapacious alternative medical fraternity.)
As Anny says, we can and must “see that as mathematical formula.” If we do burrough into these intellectually challenging areas, we will find a far more beautiful Universe than even we humans can currently imagine.
Brian:
What an incredible post!!! I wish I could be as eloquent as you were in explaining this. Incredibly salient points that most will probably never have even a remote interest in considering. Nevertheless, a breakdown of Bible codes reveal most of what you express in this comment. The Bible is a book of allegory, and its overall theme declares that God is a POWER that dwells within each and every one of us. We cannot understanding this simply reading it, for “the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.”
I really, REALLY, appreciate this post. Thanks — a million times.
Hello Brian,
Thank you for your long and brilliant comment. I agree with most of it, though not necessarily everything.
You ask if God is not a product of our imagination. I definitely do not think so. I believe that we are a product of God’s imagination. However, when it comes to all the outrageous ideas man has developed about God through time, they most definitely are a product of our imagination, called forth I think by people who wanted power over other people and other people who wanted to abdicate their responsibility, though probably not consciously. We certainly need to take the responsibility for our lives on us ourselves, and also for what goes on in the world.
I am all for thinking outside the box and considering every possibility. That is why I love to try and find other possibilities to translate biblical texts, always in a way that leads to love though. I always look at the Hebrew text and think, what if it would mean something else, what could it be? Because I noticed that new translations often just seem to take the meaning of the older one and modernize it.
Sometimes I have three different translations, also in different languages, next to each other and they may come up with totally different meanings of a certain text. I love to find out for myself then what I think that these texts really mean. I have always had a healthy disrespect for authorities in these fields.
I also love it when so-called spelling mistakes turn up in the Hebrew text because they always mean something special (which none of the Christian translations take into account) and I especially love it when I already expected it because it had to be if I were to be right in my interpretation of the text. For instance, the Hebrew word for subtil and naked is the same, ‘arum’, which contains the element ‘er’ awake. When Adam and Eve have entered the process of the deep sleep, the illusion, the ‘tardema’ it says they discovered they were naked. That would not fit if the word naked still contained that element of ‘er’, awake, but it did not. Suddenly another letter had been introduced between the two characters that made up that word.
I do not know if a crash course in mathematics and science would be of any use to me. That is beta stuff and I am the alpha type, languages. You need your brain just as much in order to manage languages as the exact sciences I think. And I love it when something related to math and science from inside me, because then it means something to me, but if it would be just knowledge coming from outside, it never would. Two of my sons did study that but they are not too good at languages and they could make me really desperate when I tried to help them to comprehend grammar which they just could not grasp. Each to his own I say, as long as you remain open minded.
I wish you all the best. I hope your cancer is still in remission and remains that way. I do believe in the power of the mind in order to cure ourselves.
Anny
You are on the right path looking and studying the ancient language of the Bible, Hebrew, Latin and Greek, we all have to acknowledge it was all written by Hebrews, so it is good to dig into the culture as well. If you notice every letter of the Hebrew language is a pictorial/symbol (interesting enough huh) yet same as their numbers have meanings/symbols as well.. Good luck on your journey in this area, the rabbit hole goes deep on this and it is a whole new different world, when you study the Hebrew and the symbols of each letter, to come to understand the bible, has a lot of metaphors and symbols.
Thank you, Darsey, for your comment. It is good that these important blogs are available to everyone so we can share our knowledge.
I hope to see more or your contributions since you obviously know what you are talking about concerning these subjects.
Thanks Anny.
Yes, linguistic grammer is indeed extremely rigorous, although seemingly more tolerant of bastardisation (think SMS texting, in which the grammer is extinguished but the meaning still seems to survive?)
I was always taught that grammer is the algebra of language. Put a comma in the wrong place and you are pretty much trying to say that 2+2=5. Without grammer, a blind Venetian is the same as a venetian blind.
And of course as a form of symbolic cypher, language can be amazingly efficient. In English, 26 letters combined into a few thousand words plus a few grammatical rules allows us to share a virtual infinity of ideas and subjective experiences.
Unfortunately, the coding/decoding algorithms in language are yet to become as precise as in mathematics. As you say, Pharoah, as an abstract symbol, can easily mean one thing to you and something completely different to me, your listener.
When we forget this and assume that because we speak a shared language, we ipso-facto know precisely what the other person means, all sorts of angst can emerge; but you said….nah, I didn’t mean that…etc)
When I was at school in the 60’s, I was given a healthy dose of both algebra and hard-core grammer. Sadly, my son’s education in the 90’s did not really include any of this.
As problem solvers, I fear the human race may be the poorer for this loss of rigor in our thinking.
If I may share one final prejudice; without rigorous thinking snake oil will abound.
God’s Blessings upon you.
Very fascinating discussion. And Brian, you are correct when you state that our current generation is at a disadvantage for not being immersed in upper level mathematics (and logic I might add). I took some logic classes in college and loved them, but math has always been a difficult subject for me. For some reason I am great with the larger picture, but detailed problems with many steps get the best of me! I had trouble with Trig in highschool. Of course I didn’t apply myself and was more interested in skipping school to surf than math, but part of the reason was that I didn’t understand it well enough to immerse myself in it. It’s a different story now, but perhaps too late.
Hi Anny.
I would LOVE to understand your mathematical formula. With all that I believe I have come to understand about the scriptures, I must confess to complete ignorance with regard to how to interpret numbers. I believe the book of Numbers contains some great insights, but I have not yet learned how to decode it. I am working on it.
With regard to Cain, I’ll show you what I see (the abbreviated version :-)) , and then you can show me what you see. I will say, though, that it is impossible to see this from a literal perspective (which is why after many millennia we are STILL asking the question).
The “beasts of the field” in scripture represent men “whose teeth are spears, and whose tongues are sharp swords” (Psalms 57:4). Of course, a lion is a “beast of the field,” as is a “serpent.” As this allegorical story goes, these beasts were created when the earth (the earth is a metaphor for US — WE are the earth – the ground, or land) was created. “All flesh is grass” (Is. 40:6; 1 Pet. 1:24). This is more of the scriptures interpreting themselves here.
Adam indeed was the “son of God,” but as the grass represents all flesh, he wasn’t the only man created. He was the son of God, and as the trees of the garden represent man (Deut. 20:19; Mark 18:24; John 15:1-6), it seems clear to me that there is a distinction between the “son of God,” and the “sons of men.”
Thus, the way I see it, Cain (who sins, and thus is expelled from the garden) takes his wife from amongst the “daughters of men,” the “trees of the field” (Deut. 20:19). Gen. 6 addresses the “sons of God taking wives from among the “sons of men” and is why the earth is destroyed (becomes waste and empty).
I’m sure this very short narrative does absolutely no justice to this subject. Perhaps I will write a future article/video on the subject. From my perspective, what I see here I think would be of interest to many people. Of course, there are many people would also think I’ve lost my ever living mind, but that is the nature of discussions of these types.
Much thanks for your comment, Anny. I’m sure Josh didn’t intend the comment section of this blog to be a forum for initiating off-topic discussions of this type, and I should apologize for inviting a brand new off-topic discussion within my comment on this article. With Josh’s permission, I will share with all of you my Gmail address so that our readers may email me.
Hi Paul,
Do not look for too much in my mentioning a mathematical formula. I am not good at math at all, but since I have discovered patterns in the biblical stories I also found that I could summarize a pattern in something that reminded me of a mathematical formula. I am working on an article right now in which I hope to show an example of that. And this made me appreciate the principle of mathematics for the first time. When you can capture something in a formula, you are on to something. And that was something that never dawned on me before.
In the case of this comment it is very simple indeed. When you take a + b = c, then it depends on the values you attribute to a and b respectively what c will be. If you attribute other values to a and b then the outcome will probably be different also, but that does not mean that one of the sums is wrong. It is as simple as that.
So if you say the beasts of the field is the meaning of the serpent and I say it is the ego and emotions that slowly turn into Pharaoh near the deepest point of descent, after which the downward force drowns and the serpent lies as the sleeping kundalini, waiting to be anointed to become the messiah (both serpent and messiah having the same numerical value) and the rising kundalini afterwards, then that does not mean that either you or I are wrong. Only, when we attribute a different meaning to a word and follow that word through the bible, then probably the story arising from that will be different too. There are many layers of esoteric interpretation and they add each something to the meaning of the other layers.
That really is all there is to it, as far as I am concerned. I have a bad memory, which forced me to forget about details and go for the essence of things. I started to use my brain differently. So when I read books about a certain subject, e.g. Kabbala or quantum physics, then that interests me enormously and although I understand maybe one word in ten and remember even less, I still manage to understand the meaning behind it and that just goes into my pool of data as it were. But do not ask me how I come by it. And when I strongly focus on an article or a comment, I mostly get into a meditative state in which I feel a different energy in and around me and where I seem to have access to other knowledge, intuitive knowledge, as well, sometimes triggered by something I read.
It is great to see how you explain things as sometimes it is difficult for me to follow and I really have to think about it before I get it. This also reminds me that other people must have the same experience when they read my articles or comment and I must try to explain things as clearly as possible.
Thank you for your contributions!
Anny
So if you say the beasts of the field is the meaning of the serpent ….
Anny, I really appreciate your comment, as well as number work you are doing, which, from your comment, I can see has GREAT value. One of the things I have definitely come to appreciate, as you so eloquently state, are the many ways that we can interpret scripture. It has taken me off of my holier-than-thou horse and helped me to listen more and talk less — a fundamental emphasis of scripture.
I’m not saying that “beasts of the field is the meaning of the serpent.” What I am saying is that a serpent is a “beast of the field” (as is a lion). It’s kind of like saying that not all Americans are New Yorkers, but all New Yorkers are Americans.
With that said, I am fascinated by the numerical patterns that you address. I believe the Spirit is in the midst of answering this question that I have had for years. I can’t wait for your upcoming article that addresses it.
Thanks a ton, Anny.
Hi Joshua,
I was happy to see you quoting from Caroline Myss. She is a profound spiritual teacher! Anything you can get your hands on by her is more than worth it!!
~Dayna
Dayna,
Thanks. I definitely think bringing some more of her knowledge to my blog readers is worth it! Take care.
Hi Josh,
Thank you for reminding me to re-engage Proverbs scripture! I have always gone to Psalms for its soothing, healing benefits and was urged to incorporate Proverbs with it.
Also, your very eloquent inference was like a spiritual dance with the author Myss!! I am sure she would be delighted and humbled with your harmonious weave.
The heart and understanding will help create a new blanket, one that covers us all in a new Spirit!
Thank you for your work,
Sparks
And thank you again Sparks for the copy of the Book. I might not have ever come across it unless you had sent a copy!
Hi Joshua,
I’ve read and listened to much of Caroline Myss’ work and was excited to see your article relating her ideas to scripture. She does, as you probably already know based on the topic of your next article, a wonderful job of not only relating the seven chakras to the seven sacraments, but also to the tree of life, in her “Energy Anatomy” lecture series.
Thanks, in general, for the multitude of well-thought out, enlightening articles about scripture.
Becky
Becky,
Thanks for commenting. I look forward to doing the next article based on some of her work!
Hi Josh,
This is a very interesting post I fully agree with. However, it does not stop at the tongue. Even what we think has a trememdous influence on ourselves and others. We can literally heal or kill our body by the way we think and we can deplete or strengthen other people’s energy by the way we think when we are around them or communicate with them in any way.
Anny
I have had a very interesting year during which I have been exposed to a variety of belief paradigms.
In February, I was diagnosed with an acute form of leukemia.
Paradigm 1 was the medical scientific community. My Oncologist never once got within 6 feet of my physical body. His “patient” was a two page set of blood test results from which he would recommend various biochemical injections. Some of these chemicals required the nursing staff to be suited up like those guys who are dealing with the nuclear spill in Japan. The staff used a highly specialised technical vocabulary, which they asserted would be way beyond the ken of a lay patient. As a reasonable generalisation I was there to follow their instructions to the letter.
Paradigm 2 was Norman Cousin’s “Anatomy of an Illness, which I had read years ago. His advice was that I must manage my own recovery, by asking lots of questions and generally ensuring that theory matched practice within a huge, stressed-out healthcare system. Some medical staff were encouraging, others were antagonist and very astute at escaping my attempts to engage them in conversation. Some helped me by adding some humor. eg Lawyers think they have a hotline to God; but Doctors know that they are God.
Paradigm 3 were the religious, applying remedies of good conversation and prayer to an interventionist God. Rightly or wrongly I was not in the mood for their simplistic assertions and I argued back; although I have always found the Book of Job to be a helpful poem about the futility of arguing with God. In the end, I think I am happy to accept the mystery of it all; and the scientist in me hates any attempted explanations, that according to the empirical evidence simply ain’t true. But I must say that they were very nice people with the best of intentions, and maybe they are well on the way to their dream of a heaven on earth; “Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me.”
Paradigm 4 was of my own creation. I immediately saw the role of stress in this unfolding drama and I became very interested in the Mind-Body connection, which I am still not sure about. I certainly see a lot of operators making a lot of money, peddling mere speculation as unambiguous facts. The biochemistry of hormones and the immune system seems to be complicated and mysterious, even beyond other complex systems like the weather and the economy.
However, I did come to a recognition that my cancer may have been an unconscious response to the stress and depression I was experiencing just before I was diagnosed. My physician was outraged at such a thought and clearly wanted to stamp out any ideas that this thing was my fault. What about personal resonsibility?
Anyway I awoke one night and realised that death had its attractions, but simultaneously I felt the love and effort of all these different people with their different paradigms, whose shared intention was to help me recover.
I decided to live; to work with them as best I could.
Whatever the causes, I am now in full remission. The spoilsport doctors remind me that cancers like mine do relapse more often than not. That day, that problem; and it may ver happen.
But way beyond that, I am grateful for an existential experience, which I hope has made me a bit wiser; wise enough to admit that I still don’t really know.
Thanks for a great website, where these topics can be contemplated.
Thank you Brian for sharing this personal journey with “our family” here, and I realize now more than ever just how intensely spiritually connected we all are.
I really never have joined or commented on blogs and such but when I was lead to Josh’s blog and read my brains out, I knew I would remain here fro my spiritual enlightening, many of the pieces I was missing in my souls journey were found here in Josh’s words.
Words which I immediately was drawn too!, for me they were heartfelt, authentic and extremely Spirit driven, they helped me during some very difficult times.
Such as yours and the reason I am responding to your post…
Today, I thought about you and what you were going through at precisely the same time line (February), I was diagnosed with a AAA, (abdominal aortic aneurysm), and as a result found “acceptance” to be my major pitfall.
Now, what would I do with my life, the dynamic go-getter was stopped in her tracks…and the White Dove Release that I had started up, as something for my mother, whom I care for, to do together, she is 86. I fell in love with the Doves and the happiness I was giving to others in their marriages and also in times of loss, which a Trinity release with a Spirit Dove was provided for the final goodbye, the Doves had a way of making a sad time a beautiful time and families left feeling a sense of joy rather than sadness.
With the Bride and Groom the final act of releasing them represented beginning their new journey together.
The Doves always returned to home loft because I focused on giving them the training they needed to return safely home and outsmart the hawks! and sadly, I had to give it all up, along with any hopes of working at something I loved again. Going through the same paradigms as yourself, I needed to go to what I referred to as “Crazy sessions”, which I realized that most of those I was in class with were so much worse off than myself and wound up counseling along with the psychiatrist’s, slipping in some Scripture when the time was appropriate and right. After I graduated many of them thanked me and said my comments had really helped them! That alone helped me accept my illness and what was to come next, something now on the liver (am still awaiting the final on that), I have so much pain and the Dr’s are so afraid to prescribe pain meds ( even though they have the tests, etc., that would substantiate why I am having pain), that I have just given up all of it to God.
Your mind/body connection is definitely on target, as like yourself I was under a tremendous amount of stress after losing my father and only sister within a brief period of time, then keeping my mother on board by getting her the proper care before she went insane on me.
All emotional connections with my immediate family and my ancestors surfaced, filtering the darkness and helping them, I believe to ascend. Which I believe we are doing all the time to one degree or another. Am thinking of “Jacobs Ladder” today as I was contemplating your post and my similar journey, can it possibly be an exchange of light energy? As we journey up the ladder are we helping to remove the negative from those incoming souls?
Giving and forgiving, including especially ourselves!
Like yourself I also am grateful for being here now, which when I am able to see the whole picture, it all seems so” right”. The right time, the right place, with the right people and all is well! The journey has and continues to be magical & mysterious, one continuous love song!
Sorry guys, I have lately become a hopeless romantic, romancing the stone/Earth.
Watching one leaf dancing its way to kiss the ground somehow brings a lightness to my being.
As our Beloved and Humble St. Francis of Assisi states in his most beautiful prayer “For it is in dying, that we are born to eternal life”. if you have not read that prayer, please do, it continues to be my most loved prayer and you will be comforted by it, I see it as a prayer for all faiths and humanity itself.
Brian, I will keep you in my prayers, that you continue to heal, as you most definitely are or it would not have gone into remission. Remember you are not alone, I also am in this with you, we have become employed by the health system and not even minimum wage!! LOL
Take Care, my friend,
Sparks
PS…Josh, thanks with all my heart for what you have brought forth here…
Thanks Sparks.
I love your laconic humour: “we have become employed by the health system and not even minimum wage!! LOL” You are absolutely spot on, aren’t you?
I think one of your other statements really sums up the experience for me: ” The journey has and continues to be magical & mysterious, one continuous love song!
I received my diagnosis in a rural hospital at midnight (my doctor doesn’t seem to ever sleep.) and I was told that the Flying Doctor (Australian Medi-vac) would fly me to Brisbane in the morning as I had absolutely no immunity. I wrote to a friend that night, mainly to clarify my thoughts and feelings and I remember describing my impending treatment as a Magical Mystery Tour (ref Beatles). And that flight was really magical. The Pilot and the Nurse spent the whole trip telling me stories about flying all around Inland Australia treating drovers with snake bite, etc. All very romantic, flying in this tiny little plane that does so much for those in peril in the Outback.
And I think you are absolutely right. Our only real choice is to deal with it. And yes it certainly brings out any latent poetry within the soul.
And I have found the challenge to look death squarely in the eye, has brought out a hidden hero within. Even more so when I meet and listen to the personal stories fellow travellers like yourself.
Thankyou for sharing your insights.
Fly on, Brave Spirit!
Brian,
Thank you so much for sharing your personal story. I know it has spoken to me. You have such an open mind. This is a wonderful step to the healing process, no matter what the physical symptoms seem to tell you.
I am not a doctor, nor will I pretend to have the answers to keep your former condition in remission, but I hope you will take it upon yourself to read Caroline Myss’s work if you haven’t read it. Perhaps it will help you discover more about yourself. I will be happy to buy a copy for you and have it sent to your address if you need me to. Just let me know. Blessings my friend. I will be thinking of you in the future.
Brian, this is so deep. I am very appreciative of your sharing this amazing story. I see it as a story of spirit triumphing over matter. The incredible power that lies latent in most of us (what the scriptures call “Christ”) generally requires adversities in order to release it. Whatever God is, he is with us in our burning fiery furnaces, and that is nowhere more evident than in your personal story. I see this as one of the greatest reasons why adversities are our most powerful allies, contrary to popular opinion and belief. They are simply opportunities to awaken this latent power within our souls. This powerful story of yours is a mammoth expression of that. This is faith at its finest, regardless of cognition.
Thanks for this. I wish I had read it sooner.
Thanks Paul.
Yes, one of my old science teachers used to say that good science creates far more new questions than are being answered by the current investigation. It is a geometric progression of the more we know, the more we realise that we don’t know.
As for the Christ, yes, for me it is a form of consciousness or a paradigm centred upon the unity of the Universe. So, my belief is that Jesus was a human being who practised the Christos (of largely Greek origin) in much the same way as my Oncologist practises medicine. Christos is a way of seeing the world and operating within it.
And although as a separate being within the Universe, I may need the idea of a seperate God to assist me in my existential struggle, I doubt that the Universe as a Oneness needs a separate being to run things. The more we discover the natural principles which underpin and operate throughout the Universe, the more we see a system capable of organising and evolving itself.
A good description of an infinite Universe is a sphere whose centre is everywhere and whose edge is nowhere. In other words there is no room for a separate God. God can be viewed as existing within the infinite sphere as its organising principles ( the set of natural laws which the Christ consciousness is progressively comprehending.)
A good metaphor for our individual existence is that we are like a seperate wave within a divine ocean. We may be seperate but you cannot remove a wave from the ocean; when you consider what a wave really is, it makes no sense.
This creates a difficult paradox. As Jesus said, our divinity is within us, but neither God nor the divinity within us amounts to a separate interventionist being. So, our divine power is also not capable of separate supernatural expression. Any power we may muster as a seperate being is based upon the natural laws of the Universe of which we are a part. We may be divine, but we are still part of the Universe and subject to its natural laws. Beware the mystic who claims to have powers separate from those that already exist within you.
If supernatural has any meaning at all, it describes the natural principles of the Universe which we are yet to discover; the eternal mystery. And all so-called supernatural powers, such as those proposed by the divine mystics, must ultimately base their credibility upon the underlying natural laws of the Universe.
There are no special cases. The Universe is One logically integrated system. Our divinity as such is rooted in our evolving understanding of that system.
The Church does itself no good, when it appears to oppose this process of scientific discovery as when the Catholic Church forbade the use of telescopes and microscopes and the beginning of the Enlightenment.
And I suspect that is why Jesus remained apart from the messanaic religious structures of his day, prefering to explore the divinity within as his source of healing and redemption.
How the declining Roman Empire co-opted the memory of Jesus, some 300 years later under Emporer Constantine, and kicked the whole mystical church idea off again is another story.
Blessings.
Hi Sparks and Brian,
Thank you, both of you, for sharing your experiences with us so freely. I certainly resonated with them both as it is all about taking responsibility for what you have created. And I have created a lot too and of course blamed others for it to begin with. That was the beginning of a long, long process, with lots of health problems and close encounters with death as well, as last year I was diagnosed to suffer from an infection that did not respond to any antibiotic at all, nor to a combination of them. I had seen that happen with my mother, who died of such a condition 11 years ago today, at the age of 86, so I knew it could be a matter of only a few weeks, if that. However, in the end it proved to be something else completely, which did respond to another form of treatment which at least keeps it more or less under control.
All in all I have been suffering from quite a lot of different complaints, ranging from burn out and depression to all sorts of physical handicaps and pains which pretty much keep me at home most of the time.
When I look back on the last twenty years or so, I see now that I have grown from complaining and blaming others, to taking responsibility for everything. There is nobody to blame for any of it but me and not even me, because in the last few years I have started to see how much I have learned and how much I have gained, where before I only saw what I missed out on.
When looking back now, I would not have it any other way. What I saw as problems were in effect gifts that just recently I have started to appreciate enormously. I would never have grown so much spiritually if I had had that career that I had really planned after our return from Israel. I would have got stuck in the dream world, for sure. So I am so grateful that happened what happened and that I got access to so much spiritual knowledge because of it.
I may or may not recover from all my physical complaints, it is okay either way.
And Sparks, you asked me a question on how you could learn more from Hebrew numerology and I answered your question. Knowing what I know now about you, I would say you do not need it at all, as you already know what it is all about! Things like numerology, or astrology, or whatever are only triggers for your memory after all and to me it appears that you have remembered already long ago.
Anny
Anny & Brian,
As I read your reply’s tears are streaming down, tears of love of your understanding…
I am communicating with Angels!
Thank you, my special comrades!
PS for Brian: I have been listening to Gary Moore, Van Morrison, Andrea Bocelli, all very healing, and recommend them for you as well
I have always wanted to visit Australia just to see and hold a Koala Bear in person!! and also, on the list was the Israel and the Holy Land, Anny, you are so blessed to have experienced all that you have!
Let’s continue to be traveling companions and enjoy all the beauty within each of ourselves…
For the universe has commanded that we do so
Love and Light,
Sparks
Hi Sparks,
Thanks for your loving answer.
Angels are messengers, you know! Both in Greek and in Hebrew. So, let us spread the message of Love and Light, just by being who we really are!
Love,
Anny
Really blessed by this write up. Caroline myss is a profound teacher of spirituality. I have her books on my Kindle
Thanks Tony. She truly has produced some spiritual gems.
Hello Brian,
Thank you for your reply of January 8th. I totally agree with you and what you wrote suddenly gave me a new insight again! The way you describe mathematics as opposed to language. They are male and female. Mathematics is male, mind/spirit, essence and Language is female, creativity and possibilities of expression, art. You need a careful balance of both in order to achieve all that life has to offer.
If we want to put all the emphasis on either one of them, we will get a society that is out of balance. But I think it is very important to find a new way of teaching things. If things are taught in a way that puts a child off, the only result will be that he hates it and does not want to have anything to do with it anymore. It happened to me in the early sixties. When I was in primary school, I was equally good in arithmetic, languages and other subjects, but when in grammar school we got a math teacher who had been a concentration camp victim and who was full of frustration and anger and despized women and girls, and showed it on every occasion, my notes for math tumbled from 9 to 2 or 3 on a scale of 1 to 10. He literally destroyed my ability to understand anything and my self confidence along with it. And of course I did not want to have anything to do with it or with anything related to it after that.
Only now, now I have rediscovered it from inside so to speak, do I see the beauty and meaning of math again. I think we have to be very careful how we teach things to children.
Blessings to you too, Brian
Anny
Hi Paul,
Thank you for your reply of January 8th.
Of course you are right that a beast of the field is not the meaning of the word serpent. I am sorry I put it like that but I was not really thinking of content but searching for another term to describe the serpent than I had used, so I used the connection you gave between the two without thinking at all of what that connection was. At that moment I was just looking for an example I could use and the focus of my attention was on something else. And then you do not see that what you write is wrong. And I do not know if you have read my article about consciousness, but there I give another example of what I am capable of overlooking when my attention, or expectation, is elsewhere!
The article I am working on right now will not be the next one by my hand that Joshua will publish, as there was still one in storage that also addressed the subject of the ‘nachasj’ and that will be published first. So do not start looking in that article for something that is not there.
Anny
Absolutely no problem at all, Anny. I was just concerned that perhaps I conveyed the wrong message in my comment and just wanted to clarify. Thanks for your reply.
I just finished watching this video, it appears that several researchers have found that the language you speak can help to determine how you will make decisions that affect your future. According the the video there are two types of languages, Futured and Futureless. In a Futured language, English for instance, there is a future and a present tense for various verbs. This causes the mind to view the future and the present as having different values. In a Futureless language, Finnish for instance, the future and present tense of verbs are the same, causing the mind to view them as equally valuable. I mention all of this because it seems that once again, modern age science is catching up to ancient spiritual knowledge.
http://matadornetwork.com/life/english-save-money-embed/
Hi Justin,
Very interesting find! Thank you for sharing…
After reading and watching the video, some questions surfaced concerning the tonal vibrations of the Futured language, so then we are possibly sending out more of the same energy through our Futured language?
Love and Light,
Sparks
“It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.” Jedi masters Kenobi and Yoda.
I find it fascinating how some of today’s artists such as George Lucas are transmitting this message to the global community arising in our dear Earth!