Recently I have taken the religious counsel to heart and begun praying for our country and the world. It is not a formal prayer, exact words changing with the day, and this morning I simply said, “I pray that you (God) will save the world.” I was not expecting a response – we are usually left to faith alone – but this time was surprised by a voice that was either from my unconscious or from the Beyond: “Save this world? Why would I save THIS world?” To make sure that I did not misinterpret those words, the specific understanding of that statement came to me immediately afterwards: “You do not want to save the version of the world you are currently subject to. Rather, you want to save humanity by praying for a different, better shared vision of your collective reality.” Yes, of course that is right. We need a different version of reality, and we need it ‘real quick.’ And so I pray.
This brings to mind an eventful movie that recently aired on Netflix, “Leave the World Behind.” It quickly became the number one movie in 89 countries, and in the last few weeks was intensely reviewed by both the left and the right. That all seems to have passed now, as such things do nowadays, but it was an excellent look at the darker emotional side of our nation that I believe is lurking just below the surface: that is, that we fear that a great collapse is coming and coming soon. In the movie, race and gender issues were brought in, but they were not pivotal; rather, they only underscored the creeping fear that many of us probably have that the nation and the world cannot go on in its present form. We cannot help but think that the rejection of centuries and millennia of customs and norms, combined with startling advancements in AI and weapons and biological technology, are simply going to transform the entire globe into something monstrous that no one really wants, but that no one can stop.
That latter bit is well-stated in the movie. One of the characters, an elegant and well-connected black man, speaks at one point to a somewhat smitten white married woman. He tells her he knows a very wealthy and powerful man of the Bill Gates variety who he often joked with about him being a member of the secret cartel that controls the world. His last meeting with him happened a few days before his talk with the white woman, just before the US infrastructure started falling apart. This elite man warned him with a very serious voice that he must do things to take care of himself and his family, IMMEDIATELY. He continued to say that no one man or group was in control of the world, but rather that great things happened in the world despite or apart from the influences of both man and mouse. The world, according to him, is out of our hands – and soon about to plunge into chaos whether we like it or not.
The plot does belie this somewhat. There is a force in the movie that is shutting down the internet and causing chaos in the US that is coordinated by some specific country or consortium of countries. Part of that chaos is caused by disinformation specifically planned to divide our nation and cause ourselves to help destroy the country. In our reality outside the movie, disinformation is, in fact, being spread by many sources both domestic and foreign, and certain countries do have plans to further weaken and subvert our nation. Still, in the end no one is truly in charge. Although the movie with its entirely secular perspective (at one point, a prepper-type jerk waves a dismissive hand at prayer. That is the only illusion to faith or God in the movie) presses that point, I don’t believe the writers understood just how deeply true that is. It appears to me that they want to take the blame off of certain countries and influencers and put it on us, the people, making the movie itself a propaganda piece. However, if they believed in any of the great religions or in many of the small, they would understand that our own self-sovereignty is the biggest illusion of all. The world, from climate to politics to the stew of emotions boiling throughout the world, is far too complex for any of us to understand. And yet, it does have order. If pressed, even the writers of the movie would have to admit this. In fact, it is expressed in the very dialogue and plot.
Yes, this truth is acknowledged through their own plot, for this great, spreading internalized fear is based on something primal, something beyond willful thought. It is as structured and puzzling as the directional capabilities of migrating birds and just as immutable. And it is telling us that, beyond any particular point or action or law, we are truly on the edge of some great cataclysm. Worse: it is telling us that, for the most part, we are powerless to stop it.
But the movie is ignorant of the connection we all have to something that is the very cause of the herd mind. It is ‘God mind,’ or if you prefer, cosmic mind. Staying in context with the movie, we can say that this God mind has two major characteristics. The first is that it is embedded in each and every one of us. This is how we understand the “volkgeist” of our community, of our country, and of our species. God knows what’s really happening, and his essence is planted in us all. Just like the migrating animals, we are receiving a call that has not been made by one or even many of our own. And now it is speaking with the voice of doom.
It can be changed, however, by the second aspect of ‘God mind.’ In this, God responds to our thoughts and our prayers or lack of them by ordering our history. There is a plan behind this ordering, and that is to bring humanity back into harmony with this cosmic mind. Thus, if we are going away en masse from God mind, certain things are brought to happen to stop us from this course. It could be the destruction of a certain country and its enslavement. So it is that we read in the Bible of the Babylonian captivity which was caused by the rejection of the Mosaic (Jewish law) faith. After years or even centuries, such disasters are meant to steer influential populations back to God mind. However, if the warnings that God has planted within us cause us to steer back to faith or God mind through prayer (discourse with God), and if it causes us to attempt heartfelt rejection of egoistic impulses, then the upcoming catastrophe can be avoided. The future, then, is not immutable. It can be changed by laying ourselves before the mercy of God.
Such it is that the Bible tells us, and such it is that the Virgin of Medjugorje warns us today. “Pray” says the latter, and fast, and reject selfish impulses before it is too late, because otherwise destruction is just around the corner.
In the movie there is only doom. There is no purely human force that can hold back the evil (of racism, sexism, greed, egotism) that will ruin us all, and believe me, every musical note and conversation in the movie is about or becomes about ruin. Here, the movie has it right. However, we do know that there is a way to avoid this seemingly inevitable tragedy: we must go beyond the material plans and conspiracies and plots into the spiritual, beyond even instinct and physical law; we must go within the self so that we may transcend the self and hear the prompting of God or cosmic mind. It is here where miracles lie. If you don’t believe that spiritual power exists, then we are indeed doomed, as the movie tells us. But they have it wrong. Keep the faith, for miracles do exist.
Recently I have taken the religious counsel to heart and begun praying for our country and the world. It is not a formal prayer, exact words changing with the day, and this morning I simply said, “I pray that you (God) will save the world.” I was not expecting a response – we are usually left to faith alone – but this time was surprised by a voice that was either from my unconscious or from the Beyond: “Save this world? Why would I save THIS world?” To make sure that I did not misinterpret those words, the specific understanding of that statement came to me immediately afterwards: “You do not want to save the version of the world you are currently subject to. Rather, you want to save humanity by praying for a different, better shared vision of your collective reality.” Yes, of course that is right. We need a different version of reality, and we need it ‘real quick.’ And so I pray.
This brings to mind an eventful movie that recently aired on Netflix, “Leave the World Behind.” It quickly became the number one movie in 89 countries, and in the last few weeks was intensely reviewed by both the left and the right. That all seems to have passed now, as such things do nowadays, but it was an excellent look at the darker emotional side of our nation that I believe is lurking just below the surface: that is, that we fear that a great collapse is coming and coming soon. In the movie, race and gender issues were brought in, but they were not pivotal; rather, they only underscored the creeping fear that many of us probably have that the nation and the world cannot go on in its present form. We cannot help but think that the rejection of centuries and millennia of customs and norms, combined with startling advancements in AI and weapons and biological technology, are simply going to transform the entire globe into something monstrous that no one really wants, but that no one can stop.
That latter bit is well-stated in the movie. One of the characters, an elegant and well-connected black man, speaks at one point to a somewhat smitten white married woman. He tells her he knows a very wealthy and powerful man of the Bill Gates variety who he often joked with about him being a member of the secret cartel that controls the world. His last meeting with him happened a few days before his talk with the white woman, just before the US infrastructure started falling apart. This elite man warned him with a very serious voice that he must do things to take care of himself and his family, IMMEDIATELY. He continued to say that no one man or group was in control of the world, but rather that great things happened in the world despite or apart from the influences of both man and mouse. The world, according to him, is out of our hands – and soon about to plunge into chaos whether we like it or not.
The plot does belie this somewhat. There is a force in the movie that is shutting down the internet and causing chaos in the US that is coordinated by some specific country or consortium of countries. Part of that chaos is caused by disinformation specifically planned to divide our nation and cause ourselves to help destroy the country. In our reality outside the movie, disinformation is, in fact, being spread by many sources both domestic and foreign, and certain countries do have plans to further weaken and subvert our nation. Still, in the end no one is truly in charge. Although the movie with its entirely secular perspective (at one point, a prepper-type jerk waves a dismissive hand at prayer. That is the only illusion to faith or God in the movie) presses that point, I don’t believe the writers understood just how deeply true that is. It appears to me that they want to take the blame off of certain countries and influencers and put it on us, the people, making the movie itself a propaganda piece. However, if they believed in any of the great religions or in many of the small, they would understand that our own self-sovereignty is the biggest illusion of all. The world, from climate to politics to the stew of emotions boiling throughout the world, is far too complex for any of us to understand. And yet, it does have order. If pressed, even the writers of the movie would have to admit this. In fact, it is expressed in the very dialogue and plot.
Yes, this truth is acknowledged through their own plot, for this great, spreading internalized fear is based on something primal, something beyond willful thought. It is as structured and puzzling as the directional capabilities of migrating birds and just as immutable. And it is telling us that, beyond any particular point or action or law, we are truly on the edge of some great cataclysm. Worse: it is telling us that, for the most part, we are powerless to stop it.
But the movie is ignorant of the connection we all have to something that is the very cause of the herd mind. It is ‘God mind,’ or if you prefer, cosmic mind. Staying in context with the movie, we can say that this God mind has two major characteristics. The first is that it is embedded in each and every one of us. This is how we understand the “volkgeist” of our community, of our country, and of our species. God knows what’s really happening, and his essence is planted in us all. Just like the migrating animals, we are receiving a call that has not been made by one or even many of our own. And now it is speaking with the voice of doom.
It can be changed, however, by the second aspect of ‘God mind.’ In this, God responds to our thoughts and our prayers or lack of them by ordering our history. There is a plan behind this ordering, and that is to bring humanity back into harmony with this cosmic mind. Thus, if we are going away en masse from God mind, certain things are brought to happen to stop us from this course. It could be the destruction of a certain country and its enslavement. So it is that we read in the Bible of the Babylonian captivity which was caused by the rejection of the Mosaic (Jewish law) faith. After years or even centuries, such disasters are meant to steer influential populations back to God mind. However, if the warnings that God has planted within us cause us to steer back to faith or God mind through prayer (discourse with God), and if it causes us to attempt heartfelt rejection of egoistic impulses, then the upcoming catastrophe can be avoided. The future, then, is not immutable. It can be changed by laying ourselves before the mercy of God.
Such it is that the Bible tells us, and such it is that the Virgin of Medjugorje warns us today. “Pray” says the latter, and fast, and reject selfish impulses before it is too late, because otherwise destruction is just around the corner.
In the movie there is only doom. There is no purely human force that can hold back the evil (of racism, sexism, greed, egotism) that will ruin us all, and believe me, every musical note and conversation in the movie is about or becomes about ruin. Here, the movie has it right. However, we do know that there is a way to avoid this seemingly inevitable tragedy: we must go beyond the material plans and conspiracies and plots into the spiritual, beyond even instinct and physical law; we must go within the self so that we may transcend the self and hear the prompting of God or cosmic mind. It is here where miracles lie. If you don’t believe that spiritual power exists, then we are indeed doomed, as the movie tells us. But they have it wrong. Keep the faith, for miracles do exist.
RSS Feed