29.0 Our World – Materialism in General Page 1 of 14

29:0 Our World – Materialism in General

Over the last 100 years a major change has occurred in Society; particularly starting in the second half of the 20 th Century when Christian originated morality and values in Western society gave way to one founded upon materialism. This depressing development of civilisation was recognised by the Russian author and historian Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, who, in an address given at Harvard University on 8th June 1978 said: 1

When the modern Western states were being formed it was proclaimed as a principle that governments are meant to serve man and that man lives in order to be free and pursue happiness. ... In the process, however, one psychological detail has been overlooked: the constant desire to have still more things and a still better life and the struggle to this end imprints many Western faces with worry and even depression, though it is customary to carefully conceal such feelings. This active and tense competition comes to dominate all human thought and does not in the least open a way to free spiritual development.

On a similar topic, Francis August Schaeffer, an American Evangelical Christian theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor, speaking about this downward trend in society, particularly in the USA, offered the thought that: 2

Gradually, that which had become the basic thought form of modern people became the almost totally accepted viewpoint, an almost monolithic consensus. And as it came to the majority of people through art, music, drama, theology, and the mass media, values died. As the more Christian-dominated consensus weakened, the majority of people adopted two impoverished values: personal peace and affluence. Personal peace means just to be let alone, not to be troubled by the troubles of other people, whether across the world or across the city - to live one's life with minimal possibilities of being personally disturbed. Personal peace means wanting to have my personal life pattern undisturbed in my lifetime, regardless of what the result will be in the lifetimes of my children and grandchildren. Affluence means an overwhelming and increasing prosperity - a life made up of things, things, and more things - a success judged by an ever higher level of material abundance."

All this change is primarily a response to commercialism spurred by scientific progress. Advancements in science have allowed engineers and technologists to develop so many aids to living that our lives have been totally changed. In discussing Religion and Science, the philosopher Bertrand Russell also stated that: 3

Science is the attempt to discover, by means of observation, and reasoning based upon it, first, particular facts about the world, and then laws connecting facts with one another and (in fortunate cases) making it possible to predict future occurrences. Connected with this theoretical aspect of science there is scientific technique, which utilises scientific knowledge to produce comforts and luxuries that were impossible, or at least much more expensive in a pre-scientific era. It is this latter aspect that gives such great importance to science even for those who are not scientists.

The consequence is that, as Solzhenitsyn noted: 4

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:57:37 29.0 Our World – Materialism in General Page 2 of 14

The majority of people have been granted well-being to an extent their fathers and grandfathers could not even dream about.

Could my father, born in 1898, have imagined the current use of mobile communication devices 120 years later? Lives of most people have changed out of all recognition. The Rabbi and social commentator Jonathan Sacks explained that: 5

More and more of our encounters are disembodied. We communicate increasingly by phone and email, less by personal presence. The result is a loss of human contact and all that implies. Virtual communities are no substitute for the real thing. John Gray spells out the danger: 'The mirage of virtual community serves to reconcile us to the growing dereliction of the social institutions and public places in which ... unprogrammed encounters occur. If cities are desolated and schools stalked by fear, if we shrink from strangers and children as threats to our safety, a retreat into the empty freedom of cyberspace may seem like a liberation. Yet living much of our lives in this space means giving up part of what makes us human [extract from John Gray, Endgames, Blackwell, 1997, Pg120]

This is symptomatic of an age where technology is driving our lives as opposed being available to support our balanced material and spiritual objectives. This is only one element of humanity’s desire for tools which make the material life easier or more exciting. Our material affluence has engendered an overwhelming urge for things, and more things which goes far, far beyond what we actually need to live our lives. Fifty years ago, the average house was probably half the current size, holidays abroad were for the rich and privileged, no one had heard of the personal computer, space exploration was still in the realms of science fiction, television was in its infancy, and the age when most adult members of a family had even one motor car was yet to emerge.

I was born into this rapidly developing world precisely 9 months after the formal cessation of World War II; a ‘boomer baby’ when my parental joy abounded. The years that followed saw the exponential rise in consumerism – a belief that the more that people buy the better it is for the country. What is really meant is that company financiers and owners become richer the more profit a company makes; a consequence of people buying more of their goods or services. The whole of the commerce is driven by this single imperative. Where will this stop; how can we bridle this initiative? Commercialism is rapacious and is condoned and supported by those in political, financial and industrial power. I recognise that we are currently in the throes of a modern phenomenon, but many of the elements have existed for many hundreds of years. In the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart ’, Philotheus of Sinai is reported to have written more than 1000 years ago that it is said in the Epistle to the Ephesians: 6

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

From this Russian mystic’s perspective to one of the USA’s most respected philosophers and essayists, Ralph Waldo Emerson, who remarked that: 7

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:57:37 29.0 Our World – Materialism in General Page 3 of 14

...it happens often that the well-bred and refined, the inhabitants of cities, dwelling amidst colleges, churches, and scientific museums, lectures, poets, libraries, newspapers, and other aids supposed intellectual are more vicious and malignant than the rude country people, and need to have their corrupt voting and violence corrected by the cleaner and wiser suffrages of poor farmers.

...and even before all this, the 4 th century environment was not a lot different. John Chrysostom, once the Patriarch of Constantinople and eventually a hermit, observed that: 8

I look at the city in which I live, and see only turmoil. I see men cheating one another, so that those who are most devious grow rich at the expense of those who are most honest. I see men being unfaithful to their wives, consorting with prostitutes rather than sleeping in their marriage bed. I see men planning all sorts of schemes to gain power, doing down all who oppose them. I see empty churches, because people know that the teaching goes against all they want to achieve. I see the clergy and bishops devoting their attention only to the material assets of the churches, while ignoring the sick and the dying, the poor and the needy. I can hear no voices crying out against all this. What hope can we find in such a black and terrifying picture...?

Born 1640 years later, the British Labour politician Ed Balls gave us a much more recent perspective in his autobiography ‘Speaking Out’. He argued in the book’s preface that, even over the 21 years that he was in politics, it became more and more challenging because: 9

We live in an era where trust in mainstream political leaders and parties has slumped to an all-time low. Outsiders to the extremes of right and left have been making the political running. And politics is more short-termist, more populist, more unstable, more risky than at any time in my life...

Being much more forthright about the situation in the mid-20 th century, Dr. Peter Marshall, a Scottish-American preacher, wrote: 10

The problem of lying - which is called propaganda ... The problem of selfishness - which is called nationalism or self-interest ... The problem of greed - which is often called profit or good business ... The problem of licence disguised as liberty ... The problem of lust masquerading as love ... The challenge of materialism - the hook that is baited with security ... These are the problems that confront us now.

Of all these traits, the one which most people accept as being uppermost is greed, disguised in many different ways. Certainly in most avenues of life self-interest seems to bubble to the surface and is the basis of many commercial and political decisions. According to the Welsh geneticist Steve Jones, the 18 th century Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith, in the same year as the creation of the American Declaration of Independence, published his book ‘The Wealth of Nations’ in which he observed that: 11

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard for their own interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self love. ... Every individual ... intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible band to promote

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:57:37 29.0 Our World – Materialism in General Page 4 of 14

an end which was no part of his intention. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.

Making a more generalist statement, the English author, opera singer and medium Betty Shine also understood that the real enemy of humanity and our beautiful planet is greed. She made the point that: 12

...there are people in top professions - scientists, manufacturers, drug companies and politicians to name but a few - who ignore the whole ecological disaster for the sake (as the Americans would say) of big bucks.

The consequence of this is borne by the likes of us who have no direct influence on the decisions that they make. In the book ‘Beyond Belief?’ the authors Peter Meadows, Joseph Steinberg, and Donna Vann, accepted that: 13

Much of what causes us pain in this life is the result of human selfishness and greed.

So, this and many of similar traits have been around probably since pre-history. The one thing that is so evident at the present time is not the type of materialism but the extent of it and the continuing drive by those controlling our lives to continually extend it. It, too, has seeped into our own psyche; we have become agents of a world focused on material things and their acquisition. Power (over others) and money accumulation seem to be the driving forces in most people’s lives. These two aspects, power and money, ought to be used by us to bring us closer to our life’s spiritual objects but, most times, they are used as ends in themselves as Simone Weil understood: 14

All things that we take for ends are means. That is an obvious truth. Money is the means of buying, power is the means of commanding. It is more or less the same for all the things that we call good.

The importance of money in people’s lives was the theme of advice given by a communicating spirit through the mediumship of Beatrice Russell: 15

Money in these days has lost that meaning, for man piles up enormous sums for the sake of the money itself, and it is regarded as almost a god. People who possess money are looked up to, and it is not thought necessary for them to possess attributes of merit. This is an evil thing in a civilisation, and man has to return to a money system of simplicity throughout the whole world.

...or, taking a leaf out of the American astrophysicist Carl Sagan’s book: 16

I hope no one will consider me unduly cynical if I assert that a good first-order model of how commercial and public television programming work is simply this: Money is everything.

And the most striking comment on money that I have found was in Webb’s ‘The Age of Bede’: 17

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:57:37 29.0 Our World – Materialism in General Page 5 of 14

...for money will blind even the wisest.

...and it has been blinding more and more people as each century progresses. Because we live in a world where money is used as an equitable exchange mechanism, it will always be needed in some form or other. Providing that this is a means and not an end, it should be welcomed.

However, when it is sought for its own sake, then the world becomes a poorer place. The Russian philosopher and author Nicolas Berdyaev saw, in his own country, how far removed from the bartering necessity the use of money has become: 18

Money is an impersonal force, anonymous, inhuman and the furthest removed from the basic realities of life.

We can look at the lives of many influential people from politics (Mohandas Gandhi) and from industry (Bill Gates) and understand that Rabbi Jonathan Sacks was right in stating that: 19

...with wealth came responsibility.

And with another twist to the machinations of committed materialists, there is a tendency for those ‘climbing the ladder’ to have little respect for those who they encounter on their upward material progress. According to the London parish priest Terry Tastard, Thomas Merton commented that: 20

...men are valued not for what they are but for what they do or what they have - for their usefulness.

All of this can change. All it needs is our concerted effort in making sure that everyone appreciates that our life on earth is an infinitesimal period compared to the rest of our eternal life. The ancient spirit teacher Abu advised that: 21

...the eyes too closely held upon the earth-plane and upon human beings wandering upon its surface do tend to give perhaps a little undue importance to this particular and not very important phase of the existence of your spirits...

And another spirit, known as Lady Nona, whose objective in communicating with Earth was to: 22

...take away from men's minds the false ideas put into them by Materialism: to get through the truths concerning immortality, and the fact that personality may persist through all time.

Immortality is appreciated once we can recognise that death is just a doorway to continuing our life in the Spirit World. This was touched upon by Melvin Morse, an expert on Near- Death Experiences in the foreword to Betty Jean Eadie’s book about her own NDE: 23

Unfortunately, our society has not yet accepted the scientific advances in understanding the dying process which have occurred in the past two decades. We desperately need to re-educate ourselves that we are spiritual beings as well as

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:57:37 29.0 Our World – Materialism in General Page 6 of 14

biological machines. So many of our society’s problems, including the crisis in health care, death with dignity, the cult of greed which has bankrupted our economy, the national shame of homeless women and children, all stem from a lack of understanding that we are spiritual beings who are mutually dependent upon each other .

Significant personal and collective change is necessary in our lives to supplant materialism with spirituality. Perhaps recognition that our relative time on earth is so short then we may be stimulated to follow the thoughts of the 16 th century Spanish Carmelite friar, priest, and mystic St John of the Cross, who, , according to Kathleen Pond, in his 62 nd spiritual maxim wrote: 24

Do not rejoice in temporal prosperity, for it is not certain that it will bring you eternal life.

The point being that what we take with us into the Afterlife cannot be material things as the English anchorite Julian of Norwich noted that here, in the physical world, we look for: 25

...satisfaction in things which are so trivial...

And St Cuthbert, according to the Venerable Bede, compared this transience of our physical life to a sudden squall at sea: 26

All the ways of this world are as fickle and unstable as a sudden storm at sea.

Hence we ought not to place any great value upon them. Certainly we ought to satisfy the first two levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs which are physiological: 27

Air, water, and food are metabolic requirements for survival in all animals, including humans. Clothing and shelter provide necessary protection from the elements. While maintaining an adequate birth rate shapes the intensity of the human sexual instinct, sexual competition may also shape said instinct.

...and our Safety and Security needs which include:

Personal Security Financial security Health and well-being, and A safety net against accidents / illness

Once these have been met then the other levels of Love and Belonging, Esteem, and Self- actualisation may be considered to be the icing on the cake. We can survive well within this scenario although life may still be very challenging particularly if our central focus is materialistic and acquisitive. Where one or more of these ‘Maslow’ elements is missing, then stress may ensue particularly when pressure to materially succeed is overwhelming. Sogyal Rinpoche, a Tibetan Dzogchen lama of the Nyingma tradition, recalls that: 28

According to some authorities, up to 13 percent of people in the United States suffer from some kind of mental disorder. What does that say about the way we live?

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:57:37 29.0 Our World – Materialism in General Page 7 of 14

And there are, so the evangelist Billy Graham informs us, people: 29

...with everything that money can buy who are tormented, confused, bewildered, and miserable!

It is not only money but the complete ethos of humanity which has followed a destructive route. As the American author Neale Donald Walsch explained: 30

The human race has not progressed very far in the past two thousand years in terms of its spiritual evolution. We’ve heard teacher after teacher, master after master, lesson after lesson, and we’re still exhibiting the same behaviours that have produced misery for our species since the beginning of time.

Nevertheless, this can be through diverting our energy towards spiritual goals and away from objectives based solely on material considerations. We have to learn that because our time on earth is about learning lessons, then, in material terms we may gain very little. The Belgian academic Emile Cammaerts recognised that: 31

There is no promise of reward or success in this world...

...it may come, but it is not guaranteed. Emerging from all this, is the recognition that material things are transient; they have no lasting substance. Omar Khayyám, the Persian polymath born in the 11 th century, gave this a poetic treatment: 32

The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon Turns Ashes - or it prospers; and anon, Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty Face Lighting a little Hour or two - is gone.

Walter Hilton, the 14 th century English Augustinian mystic, confirmed this with the statement that he who follows the spiritual route in life: 33

...sees clearly that all these earthly things on which men of the world set so high a price and, which they love with such pleasure, will pass away and turn to nothingness - both the thing in itself and a man's love for it.

The important things in life are those which we carry forward into our next life – the earthly and transient are insignificant but loom large if looked at materially. The London optician and mystic Henry Thomas Hamblin suggested that: 34

No observer of life can fail to have noticed how fleeting and unreliable are such things as riches, fame, popularity, possessions, material supply. One day we may possess a good business - the next we may have none. One day we may be in a lucrative position - the next we may be seeking a job. One day we may receive fat dividends from investments - the next we may find that they have all passed away. There is nothing substantial, certain, or real, about the so-called good things of life. If we depend on them, then, only too often they slip through our fingers like sand. Some such experience as this is sometimes necessary, in order to make us think of, and appreciate, that which is eternal and enduring, and which nothing can shake or move. When our life is shaken up, and earthly props are taken away, we begin a

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:57:37 29.0 Our World – Materialism in General Page 8 of 14

search for that which is real, secure, enduring, and which can never fail us. We start our quest for Reality.

In this search we will encounter the need to strike an appropriate balance and trying to eliminate any conflict between having a materialistic and a spiritual outlook. To Thomas Merton, it appeared to be an even greater problem, as he believed that because of the non- spiritual tendency: 35

Most of the world is either asleep or dead. The religious people are, for the most part, asleep. The irreligious are dead.

It is even more extreme than this. In today’s material rat-race those managing countries and large organisations individually and collectively plot to prevent any activity which promotes equality. Ed Balls recalls the famous argument by Adam Smith who believed that: 36

It was the founder of modern economics, Adam Smith, who famously argued that whenever groups of businesses get together, the chances are that they will be plotting to prevent markets operating, to undermine competition and fix prices. That has been the reality for centuries.

Thus spurious trade agreements between countries and industrial cartels give credence to Ed’s statement. Examining this a little more, Emile Cammaerts believed that the march of materialism was, and continues to be, because we have forgotten our spiritual roots: 37

...most of the mistakes made by human society during the last four hundred years and the disastrous consequences which these mistakes have brought about, are due to the fact that man, instead of God, was placed in the centre of the universe.

The American Christian author David Gregory used a fictional meeting over dinner between the character Nick Cominsky and Jesus to convey a similar understanding. During the conversation, out of the mouth of the Prophet came: 38

Humanity’s separation from God is much more profound than people realise. Just look around. The selfishness, bitterness, hatred, prejudice, exploitation, abuse, wars – all these result from humanity’s rebellion against God. Do you think God designed people to operate this way?

Of course not! It is how humanity has drifted away from the spiritual to the material that has created this apocalyptic situation. About 100 years ago this was evidenced by the Archdeacon of Westminster Basil Wilberforce when he wrote: 39

We live in a hurrying age; the high pressure of the claims of daily duty render close mental concentration upon spiritual things very difficult; earths many voices silence these soul whispers which are so interior and so profound, and our mind habitually function from the plane of the material; consequently, we live in the outward, and suffer the penalty of bewilderment, anxiety, and doubt.

With a similar thread, the authors Steve Chalke and Simon Johnston in a chapter entitles ‘How the West Was Lost: The Retreat of the Church’ quoted Alexander Solzhenitsyn who

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:57:37 29.0 Our World – Materialism in General Page 9 of 14 believed that: 40

The great crisis of humanity today is that it has lost its sense of the invisible. We have become experts in the visible. Particularly in the West. If I were called upon to identify briefly the principal trait of the entire twentieth century, I would be unable to find anything more precise and pithy than to repeat again and again, 'Men have forgotten God.' the failings of a human consciousness deprived of its divine dimensions have been a determining factor in all the major crimes of this century.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, this Nobel laureate, Orthodox Christian author, and Russian dissident, in his "Godlessness: the First Step to the Gulag" address, given when he received the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion on May of 1983, explained how the Russian revolution and the communist takeover were facilitated by an atheistic mentality and a long process of secularisation which alienated the people from God and traditional Christian morality and beliefs. He rightly concluded: 'Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.' I, however, would prefer to stress that humanity has misunderstood the working of the Natural Laws and therefore distorted Man’s life objectives.

David Lawrence Edwards, an Anglican priest and one-time Dean of Norwich provided a specific example using the parent/child relationship: 41

...middle-aged parents are criticised by teenage rebels not for indulging in escapism but for not being religious enough - if we take 'religion' in a very broad sense to mean the protest of the spirit against materialism.

Allied to this we have to be very careful not to place the onus for all of Man’s difficulties at the door of our God. The South African born mystic Martin Israel recognised that Most people: 42

...tend to blame God for not intervening to arrest the tragedies of the world, but these are largely of our own creation.

Perhaps then, if this was reversed and everyone’s spiritual focus was always our first consideration, then perhaps the progress of science and technology would be harnessed for the good of mankind. This possibility was touched upon by Nicolas Berdyaev: 43

...mechanised civilisation is in itself a depersonalising and anti-human force, in spite of the fact that it can act as an instrument for the emancipation of man (on condition of course that it is subordinated to the spirit).

But this has not been the case; there does not seem to be a spiritual, or ethical or moral element to most political and commercial and financial decisions. This sad situation was recognised by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his stimulating and expressive book ‘The Dignity of Difference’: 44

Our technological powers grow daily, while our moral convictions become ever more hesitant and confused.

This philosopher and scholar of Judaism also referred to the book ‘'On Globalisation' [2002 pg 14] by the Hungarian-American business magnate George Soros who admitted that: 45

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:57:37 29.0 Our World – Materialism in General Page 10 of 14

International trade and global financial markets are very good at generating wealth, but they cannot take care of other social needs, such as preservation of peace, alleviation of poverty, protection of the environment, labour conditions, or human rights...

Bearing this in mind, and at a personal level, we ought to temper our pursuit of wealth so that we have what we believe to be sufficient for us and then use our surplus for others. In addition, we all have particular talents and abilities and we ought to make sure that we see through the ‘smoke and mirrors’ of a materialistic lifestyle and offer what we have in excess for the benefit of our fellow man. You, who are looking to further explore your spirituality, ought to take heed of White Eagle’s comments: 46

Do not be beguiled by the attractions of materialism ... Have courage, for many depend on you, your thoughts, your attitude; they are looking to you and unconsciously recognize in you a Light. They know that you have something which is helpful and good. Keep the Light shining in your heart and mind...

Back in 13 th century Persia, the poet and mystic Jalal-ud-Din Rumi had, according to Idries Shah, a similar view of the deceptions created within our physical world: 47

The hidden world has its clouds and rain, but of a different kind. Its sky and sunshine are of a different kind. This is made apparent only to the refined ones - those not deceived by the seeming completeness of the ordinary world.

We can clear our own life of the attraction of a material mind-set if we have the right attitude. For example, if we start to consider money as a means to acquire what we need in life, then it will not become an end in itself and we will not continue to accrue money for its own sake. Alan Cumming shared this view with us in his book ‘Not My Father's Son’: 48

So I have grown up wanting to feel secure when it comes to money, but doing so by treating it as something to be enjoyed, shared and not given power.

This attitude has been suggested for the last couple of thousand years and more. In the Book of Psalms, as noted by St John of the Cross, it is written that: 49

'If riches abound, set not your heart on them.' [Psalm LXII, 10] 'Let us have no envy when our neighbour becomes rich, for it will profit him nothing in the life to come;' [Psalm XLIX, 16 -17]

This is not easy; it takes a long time to wean ourselves away from the material. The 14 th century English mystic and author Richard Rolle understood this: 50

It is extremely difficult to have riches and not to love them, and it is no less difficult to hold a profitable job or position and not to want more.

The test for what your heart holds dear is to consider how you feel when deprived of it. This type of introspection St Augustine attempted and revealed: 51

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:57:37 29.0 Our World – Materialism in General Page 11 of 14

Wretched I was; and wretched is every soul bound by the friendship of perishable things; he is torn asunder when he loses them...

However, if we can put the material aspect of the world towards the back and bring forward the spiritual then our perspective would be totally different. Perhaps we would recognise, like the Orientalist Max Müller: 52

How meaningless and vain everything seems on earth...

In the ancient Rosicrucian book ‘Unto Thee I Grant’ it is explained that it is not what we possess that is important but our attitude to it: 53

Envy not these their senses, because quicker than thine own; learn that the advantage lieth not in possessing good things, but in the knowing the use of them.

This applies to money as well as our skills and abilities. The co-creator of the 20 th century technology giant Microsoft, Bill Gates, has a personal wealth (in 2016) approaching US$100 billion. Some of this money is being used to great effect in the world. One of the objectives of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is to eradicate polio and to fight other infectious diseases. All this is because Bill had the foresight and tenacity to use his skills to develop a system that has worldwide applicability. Most of us will never achieve that level of charity which Bill has made possible for his family. Nevertheless we can, as a cog in the cosmic wheel, do whatever we can to help those around us – if we only help one person we will have achieved so much.

We can break out of this emphasis on material things within our own lives; each of us ought to try it. A simple starting point to consider what we need as opposed to what we are told we ‘must have’ by society and commercial interests. In monastic environments, this is part of the expected life as ‘The Rule of Saint Benedict’ indicates: 54

For it is sufficient for a monk to have two tunics and two cowls, to allow for wear at night and for washing: more than that is superfluous...

I would not go quite so far as that, but you can see what is meant. Don’t purchase items unless you need them and use what you have until they become more or less unfit for purpose and any excess get rid of in the most caring way. This is not a suggestion to be ultra-austere but to think about what is important in life. How many of your clothes wear out before they are replaced?

Putting this into a commercial and financial context, it is extremely important to consider what you are doing in the context of the work that you do. The lives of most of us are controlled not by what we do but by what politicians and industry does. In most situations we are totally unaware of the implications of decisions made which invariably affect us in some way, as noted by Cecil Rose in his book ‘When Man Listens’: 55

Mysterious movements of world trade or finance beyond his understanding could turn his prosperity into unemployment and want without his being able to lift a finger to prevent it.

...the world is certainly no different now than in the days of Teresa of Avila: 56

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:57:37 29.0 Our World – Materialism in General Page 12 of 14

...the topsy-turviness of the world is terrible.

In order to expand and impress investors, companies move forward at a rate which many people cannot keep up with. The march of industrialisation and technical innovations which touch everyone’s life are happening at so great a rate that no-one appreciates where a particular technology will end up. The rise of the personal computing and communication tools is one such example. Nicolas Berdyaev realised this as a problem back in the mid-20 th century: 57

The machine is a creation of the human spirit, but the latter has not known how to master its own creation and has become enslaved by it. Man is inwardly unadapted to the conditions of life which he himself has created.

And, of course, there is a real price to pay for increased technological advancement. Take this example given by Harry Wilmer: 58

Psychiatrists led the cry for 'Deinstitutionalisation' to close down the state hospitals and start community mental health services. State hospitals shrunk, were ignored, and starved for money. Underpaid, demoralised doctors and technicians reverted to their custodial mentality. Too-lengthy hospitalisation was replaced by too-brief, creating the revolving door phenomenon. Patients took their long-term care in repeated, short, small doses. Human continuity and responsibility atrophied. The idealistic, extremely expensive, community-based Mental Health - Mental Retardation program (MHMR) gradually deteriorated and today is a shadow of what it was meant to be. The inspiration for change to a balanced, humane, and psychopharmacological care was sacrificed on the altar of technology. The thinking was about expediency, and statistical and economic factors. The humanities became the sacrificial goat on the altar.

From a financial perspective too, those with financial muscle who use their money to make more money through investment in companies expect a significant return on their investment. This has led to a situation where companies believe that their profits must increase year on year. Karen Armstrong, a British author and expert on comparative religion, recognised that the start of this process was about 1700 A.D. when science gave the elite of America and Europe: 59

...greater control over nature than had ever been achieved before; people were living longer and felt more confident about the future. Already some Europeans had begun to insure their lives. The rich were now prepared to reinvest capital systematically on the basis of continuing innovation and in the firm expectation that trade would continue to improve.

We seem to have created an environment within the global market which, by its very nature, is exceptionally materialistic. There seems to be little we, as individuals, can do about it other than within our own life to move away from the material towards the spiritual. And the more interconnected the world becomes, so Justin Welby, the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury, tells us: 60

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:57:37 29.0 Our World – Materialism in General Page 13 of 14

...the more power is held over individuals and nations by economics, by money and flows of finance. ... At a national and international level, every crisis seems to end in talk about economics - not economics as a tool in the service of human flourishing, but as an end in itself. It seems that in many eyes, and often in mine, personal finances that are in good shape, or a national or global economy doing well, are not merely a means to improve people's lives, but are seen as the goal in pursuit of a good life.

We can personally change this and in our own small way we can help to change the world. We can hope, also, that companies start to realise the importance of all the people involved with them and place more credence on people rather than just material gain.

It is just a matter of changing emphasis – for us all.

1 Extract from 'A World Split Apart'. A Commencement Address Delivered At Harvard University, June 8, 1978 by Alexander I. Solzhenitsyn 2 Francis August Schaeffer speaking about "How Should We Then Live" (1976). 3 Bertrand Russell, Religion and Science, Oxford University Press, 1960. Chapter I: Grounds of Conflict, (Pg 8) 4 Extract from 'A World Split Apart' - Commencement Address Delivered At Harvard University, June 8, 1978 by Alexander I. Solzhenitsyn 5 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 8 - Co-operation: Civil Society and its Institutions, (Pg 156) 6 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part Two: Philotheus of Sinai - Forty Texts on Sobriety – 31, (Pg 336) 7 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natural History of Intellect, Solar Press, 1995. II. Celebration of Intellect, (Pg 122) 8 John Chrysostom - The Golden Voice of Protest, Arthur James, 1996. (Pg 82) 9 Ed Balls, Speaking Out, Hutchinson, 2016. Preface, (Pg xv) 10 Peter Marshall, Mr Jones, Meet The Master, Peter Davies, 1955. Research Unlimited, (Pg 74 / 75) 11 Steve Jones, In The Blood: God, Genes and Destiny, Harper Collins, 1996. Chapter II: Sex and Taxes, (Pg 122 / 123) 12 Betty Shine, The Infinite Mind, Harper Collins, 2000. Chapter 30: The Planet in Peril, (Pg 197 / 198) 13 Peter Meadows, Joseph Steinberg and Donna Vann, Beyond Belief?, Word Publishing, 1999. Chapter 10: What a Pain, (Pg 109) 14 Simone Weil, Waiting on God, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Essays: Forms of the Implicit Love of God, (Pg 104) 15 Beatrice Russell, Fragments of Truth from the Unseen. Unknown Publisher, 1951. False Values, (Pg 34) 16 Carl Edward Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997. Chapter 22 : Significance Junkies, (Pg 369) 17 J F Webb, The Age of Bede, Penguin Books, 1988. Eddius Stephanus: Life of Wilfrid - Chapter 24, (Pg 130) 18 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. The Two Moralities: I, (Pg 31) 19 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 5 - Contribution: The Moral Case for the Market Economy, (Pg 99) 20 Terry Tastard, The Spark in the Soul, Darton Longman and Todd, 1989. Chapter 5 - Thomas Merton and God Our Identity. 21 W. F. Rickard, Abu Talks, Regency Press, 1992. Chapter 7 - Mind: Human and Transcendental, (Pg 43) 22 A. J. Howard Hulme and Frederic H. Wood, Ancient Egypt Speaks, Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter X - Why Ancient Egypt Spoke, (Pg 147)

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:57:37 29.0 Our World – Materialism in General Page 14 of 14

23 Betty J Eadie, Embraced by the Light, Thorsons, 1995. Foreword [by Melvin Morse], (Pg vii / ix) 24 Kathleen Pond(ed), The Spirit of the Spanish Mystics, Burns & Oates,1958. St John of the Cross - Spiritual Maxims - a Selection, (Pg 131) 25 Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, Penguin Books, 1998. The Long Text – 5, (Pg 47) 26 J F Webb, The Age of Bede, Penguin Books, 1988. Bede: Life of Cuthbert - Chapter 8, (Pg 53) 27 Downloaded on 26 th June 2016 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs 28 Sogyal Rinpoche, Meditation, Rider & Co, 1994. The Heart of Meditation, (Pg 12) 29 Billy Graham, The Secret of Happiness, Educational Book Exhibits, 1974. Chapter II: Happiness through Poverty, (Pg 7) 30 Neale Donald Walsch, Friendship with God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1999. One, (Pg 13) 31 Emile Cammaerts, The Flower of Grass, The Cresset Press, 1944. Chapter v - Liberalism and Christianity, (Pg 109) 32 The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám, The Folio Society, 1997. Stanza 14 33 Walter Hilton, The Stairway of Perfection, Image Books, 1979. Book Two: Chapter Thirty-Nine, (Pg 307) 34 Henry Thomas Hamblin, Divine Adjustment, The Science of Thought Press, 1998. Chapter Nine: Laying up Treasure, (Pg 111 / 112) 35 Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, Burns & Oates, 1997. 3. Conscience, Freedom, and Prayer, (Pg 37) 36 Ed Balls, Speaking Out, Hutchinson, 2016. Part Two: Learning that Works: Chapter 8 Markets, (Pg 110) 37 Emile Cammaerts, The Flower of Grass, The Cresset Press, 1944. Introduction, (Pg 7 / 8) 38 David Gregory, Dinner with a Perfect Stranger, Waterbrook Press, 2005. 5: The Salad, (Pg 47) 39 Ven. Basil Wilberforce, D.D, The Secret of the Quiet Mind, Elliot Stock, 1916. The Secret of the Quiet Mind, (Pg 105) 40 Steve Chalke and Simon Johnston, Faithworks: Intimacy and Involvement, Kingsway Publications, 2003. 4. How the West Was Lost: The Retreat of the Church, (Pg 64) 41 David L Edwards, Religion and Change, Hodder & Stoughton, 1974. Part One: Chapter 2 - The Social Impact of the Secular Century - The Social Reality of American Religion, (Pg 102) 42 Martin Israel, The Pain That Heals, Hodder & Stoughton, 1981. Chapter 16: Healing Prayer, (Pg 186) 43 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. Personality and Community in Russian Thought: VI, (Pg 69) 44 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 2 - Globalisation and its Discontents, (Pg 26) 45 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 6 - Compassion: The idea of Tzedakah, (Pg 122) 46 White Eagle, The Quiet Mind, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1984. The Master Soul is Constant: .. is a Tower of Strength and Light: Men Look to You, (Pg 71) 47 Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi, Penguin Books, 1975. Part Two: Classical Authors. 8: Jalaludin Rumi, (Pg 112) 48 Alan Cumming, Not My Father's Son, Canongate, 2015. Thursday 1st July 2010, (Pg 254) 49 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book III. Chapter XVIII, (Pg 263) 50 Richard Rolle, The Fire of Love, Penguin Books, 1972. Chapter 10, (Pg 75) 51 The Confessions of S. Augustine, Seeley & Co, 1909. Book the Fourth, (VI) 52 Max Müller, Thoughts on Life and Religion, Archibald Constable and Company, 1905. Life, (Pg 108) 53 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book Eight: Man Considered in the General. Chapter III- The Soul of Man, its Origin, and Affections, (Pg 46) 54 The Rule of Saint Benedict (Translated by Abbot Parry OSB), Gracewing, 1997. Chapter LV The Clothing and Footwear of the Brethren, (Pg 86) 55 Cecil Rose, When Man Listens, Blandford Press, 1956. Chapter Five: Revolution, (Pg 61) 56 Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection, Sheed & Ward, 1984. Chapter XXXVI, (Pg 155) 57 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. Social Revolution and Spiritual Awakening, (Pg 44) 58 Harry Wilmer, Quest for Silence, Diamon, 2000. 5 War - Home of the Brave, (Pg 109 / 110) 59 Karen Armstrong, The Case For God, Vintage Books, 2010. Part Two: The Modern God - 9 Enlightenment, (Pg 204) 60 Justin Welby, Dethroning Mammon, Bloomsbury, 2016. Introduction, (Pg 1 / 2)

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:57:37 29.1 Our World – Materialism and Happiness Page 1 of 6

29:1 Our World – Materialism and Happiness

One of the basic instincts of all creatures is survival which, so research tells us, engenders a negative attitude to life – it compels us to assume the worst in any situation and thereby making sure that our survival is not compromised. Taking this as a basic thread through our existence, it is not surprising that a happy, positive attitude is hard to find. Perhaps that is why, in ‘The Gospel of Thomas’ is written: 1

miserable is the man attached to the flesh

Although this is part of our fundamental character everyone tries to pursue a happy state of mind. There seem to be two fundamental approaches which are used; firstly to become more spiritual, and secondly to use our resources in an attempt to ‘buy’ happiness. The choice is not often recognised and a completely material path is often chosen. Of this in the Rosicrucian book ‘Unto Thee I Grant’ this advice is given: 2

Thou fool, is not virtue worth more than riches? Is not guilt more base than poverty? Enough for his necessities is in the power of every man; be content with it, and thine happiness shall smile at the sorrow of him who heapeth up more. Nature hath hid gold beneath the earth, as unworthy to be seen; silver hath she placed where thou tramplest it under thy feet. Meaneth she not by this to inform thee that gold is not worthy thy regard, and that silver is beneath thy notice?

Many years before this was written the Algerian Berber philosopher and theologian St Augustine recognised that: 3

Earthly riches can neither bless us nor our children with happiness...

My grandfather, Richard Jones born in 1868 in a small lead-mining village of Halkin in Flintshire, North Wales trained as a shoemaker following in his father’s footsteps. Trade was not good and so in the mid 1880’s he moved to Stoke-on-Trent in England to become a coal miner. Times were hard; work dominated his family’s life. By the time my father, William Allen Jones was born in 1898 there were signs that conditions in general were slowly starting to improve and from the time that I was born in 1946 standards of living rose sharply. From this brief history you can see how much I agree with Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s comment that: 4

The majority of people have been granted well-being to an extent their fathers and grandfathers could not even dream about.

Whilst times were difficult, these ancestors of mine were relatively contented with life and appeared to be more at ease with themselves than most people are today. Perhaps there is an inverse relation between happiness and materialism – the more material, the less happy. Taking this even further, maybe a discontented society fosters an increasing materialistic lifestyle, as The Rev. C. Drayton Thomas’s father in the Spirit World mentioned to his son that: 5

The uncertainty and joylessness of it all have made people material and selfish...

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:12:22 29.1 Our World – Materialism and Happiness Page 2 of 6

...because there is a belief that, through the agency of money, happiness can be purchased. This is not so; temporary pleasure maybe thus acquired, but happiness can never be. Again, seeking the advice from the Spirit World, in a trance séance, the spirit known as Mrs Lackmund revealed to us that: 6

They think they will be happy when they have plenty of money to get things, things to eat, and things to drink, and live a life of injury to the body. These are the things most thought of at present.

A hedonistic life is no way to gain happiness. In fact some religious texts, such as ‘The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali’ imply that man can never realise true enjoyment: 7

It is a worldly search after enjoyments, and there is no enjoyment in this life; all search for enjoyment is vain; that is the old, old lesson which man finds so hard to learn. When he does learn it, he gets out of the universe and becomes free.

Perhaps these texts, written before 400 A.D. were seen by St Augustine and which may have provided a stimulus for him to write: 8

It is a great question whether a man can be both mortal and happy.

...and a spirit speaking through the mediumship of Beatrice Russell informed us that: 9

Gradually the physical is known for what it is - a plane without fulfilment.

I think that these statements are perhaps over-exaggerated. What I do accept is that taking a materialistic approach will not bring peace and happiness. We are bombarded with people and advertisements telling us that happiness is ours provided we subscribe to this or that product or service. Abbot Christopher Jamison, in his excellent book ‘Finding Happiness’ viewed this aspect of living with disdain: 10

In particular, the consumer culture tries to persuade us that more things mean more happiness: the marketing upon which consumer culture is based is always about more, never about less.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his book ‘The Dignity of Difference’ puts the whole field of consumerism in perspective: 11

The very happiness we were promised by buying these designer jeans, that watch or this car, is what the next product assures us we do not yet have until we have bought something else. A consumer society is kept going by an endless process of stimulating, satisfying, and re-stimulating desire. It is more like an addiction than a quest for fulfilment.

Describing the search for happiness with different example, the American Christian evangelist Billy Graham wrote that: 12

Our materialistic world rushes on with its eternal quest for the fountain of happiness! The more knowledge we acquire, the less wisdom we seem to have. The

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:12:22 29.1 Our World – Materialism and Happiness Page 3 of 6

more economic security we gain, the more boredom we generate. The more worldly pleasure we enjoy, the less satisfied and contented we are with life. We are like a restless sea, finding a little peace here and a little pleasure there, but nothing permanent and satisfying. So the search continues! Men will kill, lie, cheat, steal and war to satisfy their quest for power, pleasure, and wealth, thinking thereby to gain for themselves and their particular group peace, security, contentment, and happiness.

But it cannot be. And yet, according to the Jesuit priest Gerard Hughes, our consumerist culture: 13

...fools us into thinking that joy, happiness and contentment are only to be found in the accumulation of possessions. It is this attitude that ravages the world's resources, divides the 'haves' from the 'have-nots', and leads to frustration on the part of the 'haves' because it distracts their attention from their deeper needs and desires.

Materialism being an antithesis of happiness was realised by the psychoanalyst Carl Young. In his autobiography ‘Memories, Dreams, Reflections’ he made the point that technological advances are not often for man’s happy advantage: 14

Reforms by advances, that is, by new methods or gadgets, are of course impressive at first, but in the long run they are dubious and in any case dearly paid for. They by no means increase the contentment or happiness of people on the whole. Mostly, they are deceptive sweetenings of existence, like speedier communications which unpleasantly accelerate the tempo of life and leave us with less time than ever before. Omnis festinatio ex parte diaboli est all haste is of the devil, as the old masters used to say .

Life is certainly speeding up and this acceleration gives us less time to chill-out and reflect. Within the last decade an inter-city rail project, known as HS2, with an initial estimated spend of £55 billion and a probable eventual cost over £100 billion, will provide a half- hour reduction in the journey time between London and Manchester. To what real end, say its opponents? The politicians and decision makers for this project ought to consider the quotation which St. Theophan the Recluse used from Isaiah 55.2: 15

Why do ye spend money for that which is not bread and labour for that which satisfieth not?

This project seems, from a national perspective, to parallel the acquisition of resources at the personal level – it can never provide satisfaction as the author and mystic Frederick Crossfield Happold realised: 16

Yet the concentration on 'having' can never give satisfaction. The Buddha said this very clearly, when he attributed the whole of human suffering to 'desire'.

The ‘desire’ of government to have a state-of-the-art rail network will give them kudos; it will not do much for the majority of the population. Other countries have one, therefore we ought to follow suit. How this parallels the personal acquisitive trait in many people. The Scottish minister of the Free Church of Scotland Marcus Dods discussed this from the

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:12:22 29.1 Our World – Materialism and Happiness Page 4 of 6 individual’s view point: 17

We may not definitely covet our neighbour's house or his wife or his position or anything that is his; but deep within us remains the scarcely-conscious conviction that we have not all we might and ought to have until our condition more resembles his. We take our ideas of happiness from what we see in other people, and have little originality to devise any special and more appropriate enjoyment or success. Fashion or tradition or the necessity of one class in society has promoted certain possessions and conditions to the rank of extremely desirable or even necessary elements of happiness, and forthwith we desire them, without duly considering our own individuality and what it is that must always constitute happiness for us, or what it is that fits us for present usefulness. Health, position, fame, a certain settlement in life, income, marriage; such things are eagerly sought by thousands, and they are sought without sufficient discrimination, or at any rate without a well- informed weighing of consequences.

This apparent competitive way of thinking and an indiscriminate search for financial and material gain, will lead to discontentment and unhappiness. As far back as the Katha Upanishad, as noted by Swami Paramananda, it was recognised that: 18

Man cannot be satisfied by wealth.

And from Beatrice Russell’s guide came the observation that: 19

It is a sad thing how few people are contented in the life of earth. .. Rich people are seldom contented.

This same spirit teacher suggested that there are a few things which we can do in order to move to a more happy state of mind. Firstly, from a collective perspective, that: 20

The world needs simplicity, and in the future there will be a great reversal of the present state of affairs. Man will become sickened of the emptiness and futility of their lives, and will turn to simple things again. All truly great men are simple at heart, therein lies the secret of their greatness.

...and from a personal point of view he recommended that we adopt a peaceful and calm approach to all things: 21

It is this calm, this acceptance, that I would urge on you to bring in some measure into your lives. For you will gain greatly in happiness.

Simplicity was found in the distant past and perhaps so was greater happiness. Evidence for this came to the notice of the researcher Helen Wambach during her work on past life regression which revealed that: 22

Some of the happiest [past] lives reported were those of peasants or primitives.

The overall implication is that we ought to move to a more spiritual and less materialistic way of living. This was the direction that the actor William Roache’s life took: 23

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:12:22 29.1 Our World – Materialism and Happiness Page 5 of 6

Life goes on, always moving, always changing, and once I had stopped looking for permanence in the material world, I was much more at ease with it.

According to the London priest Terry Tastard, the mystic and anchoress Julian of Norwich in her ‘Revelations of Divine Love’, indicated that she believed that no one can be satisfied if their life has a material and worldly emphasis: 24

We have got to recognise the littleness of creation and to see it for the nothingness that it is before we can love and possess God who is uncreated. This is the reason why we have no ease of heart or soul, for we are seeking our rest in trivial things which cannot satisfy, and not seeking to know God, almighty, all-wise, all-good.

Therefore the conclusion as stated by St. Theophan the Recluse becomes evident: 25

...as long as you are not living in the spirit, do not expect happiness.

That does not mean that we have to be po-faced and miserable. As the spirit of Diana, Princess of Wales informed the writer Hazel Courteney: 26

We still want you to have fun, because laughter helps to raise the vibratory rate on the planet...

However, from my own experience and observations of the people that I have encountered over my life, I have come to the following conclusion and believe that significant happiness can be achieved by each one of us if we should:

Be grateful for what you have, Don’t be judgmental of others, Be positive and focus on the good bits of life, Meditate, relax, chill-out, and Live your life in goodness

To provide support for this thesis, I use the words written by Adeline Yen Mah which are based upon the teachings of Confucius: 27

Goodness would lead to happiness, prosperity and peace; whereas evil would invite suffering and chaos.

Take all this advice and apply it to your own life ... and be happy.

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:12:22 29.1 Our World – Materialism and Happiness Page 6 of 6

1 Alan Jacobs, The Gnostic Gospels, Watkins Publishing, 2006. The Gospel of Thomas, (Pg 44) 2 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book Ten: Of the Affections of Man, Which Are Hurtful to Himself and Others. Chapter I- Covetousness, (Pg 72) 3 St Augustine, The City of God (De Civitate Dei), J M Dent, 1945. Volume One: The Fifth Book: Chapter XVIII, (Pg 165) 4 Extract from 'A World Split Apart' - Commencement Address Delivered At Harvard University, June 8, 1978 by Alexander I. Solzhenitsyn 5 The Rev. C. Drayton Thomas, Beyond Life's Sunset, Psychic Press, Undated. Chapter II: Life in the Hereafter: A Real World, (Pg 13) 6 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XVI: Philosophy - Experience, September 29, 1920, (Pg 439) 7 Swami Vivekananda, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Watkins Publishing, 2007. Chapter I - Concentration: Its Spiritual Uses, (Pg 28) 8 St Augustine, The City of God (De Civitate Dei), J M Dent, 1945. Volume One: The Ninth Book: Chapter XIV, (Pg 264) 9 Beatrice Russell, Beyond the Veils through Meditation, Lincoln Philosophical Research Foundation, 1986. Planes of the Mind, (Pg 36) 10 Christopher Jamison, Finding Happiness, Phoenix, 2008. Part TWO Eight Thoughts: Fourth Thought Greed - Consuming Happiness, (Pg 122) 11 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 2 - Globalisation and its Discontents, (Pg 40) 12 Billy Graham, The Secret of Happiness, Educational Book Exhibits, 1974. Chapter I: The Search for Happiness, (Pg 1 / 2) 13 Gerard W Hughes, God in all Things, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Chapter Eight: Pilgrimage - The Preservation and Accumulation of Our Possessions: 'National Security', (Pg 143) 14 Carl Gustav Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Fontana, 1995. VIII The Tower, (Pg 264) 15 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. Introduction (by Fr. Philip Tolbert), (Pg 26) 16 F C Happold, Religious Faith and Twentieth-Century Man, Pelican Books, 1966. 7 The Quest of Being: The Existentialist Pilgrimage, (Pg 79) 17 Marcus Dods, How to Become Like Christ, Thos. Whittaker and also available on-line through Project Gutenberg, 1897. Indiscreet Importunity, (Pg 71 / 72) 18 Swami Paramananda, The Upanishads, Grange Books, 2004. Katha - Upanishad - Part One: XXVII, (Pg 40) 19 Beatrice Russell, Fragments of Truth from the Unseen. Unknown Publisher, 1951. Contentment, (Pg 26) 20 Beatrice Russell, Fragments of Truth from the Unseen. Unknown Publisher, 1951. Simplicity, (Pg 41) 21 Beatrice Russell, Fragments of Truth from the Unseen. Unknown Publisher, 1951. Simplicity, (Pg 41) 22 Helen Wambach, Reliving Past Lives, Arrow Books, 1980. 8. Adding It Up, (Pg 118) 23 William Roache, Soul on the Street, Hay House, 2007. Part III: On The Street. 16: Moving Forward, (Pg 247) 24 Terry Tastard, The Spark in the Soul, Darton Longman and Todd, 1989. (Pg 51) 25 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 13 Life According to the Spirit, (Pg 77) 26 Hazel Courteney, Divine Intervention, Cico Books, 2002. Chapter 10: The Predictions, (Pg 154) 27 Adeline Yen Mah, Watching The Tree, Harper Collins, 2001. 4 Do Not Do to Others What You Do Not Wish Others to Do to You, (Pg 57)

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:12:22 29.2 Our World – We are Custodians of the Earth Page 1 of 16

29:2 Our World – We are Custodians of the Earth

We come into this world with nothing and we leave it with only our soul experiences. Because of this, all that we are given should be used with grace and care leaving it for the next generation – hopefully in a better and not worse condition. Therefore, we can view ourselves as custodians and stewards of the Earth; there are no others; it is our responsibility to look after our planet and all things living thereon. Andrew Harvey, an author of books on spiritual or mystical themes, in discussing nature revealed that there are two important perspectives that we should appreciate: 1

The first is that all living things are equally holy and equally sacred... The second revelation that the marriage of body and spirit brings is that all human beings, precisely because they have been graced with organic consciousness, have the responsibility to serve and protect creation...

...and, because we have this wherewithal, we must shoulder this responsibility which has also been outlined in the ‘Lost Scrolls of the Essene Brotherhood’: 2

For the earth hath been given unto the keeping Of the Children of Light, That they treasure and care for it...

Describing this notion of stewardship in more detail, the Quaker Christine A. M. Davis in her treatise ‘Minding the Future’ has already done this for us: 3

The steward, the person who practices stewardship, is in the original sense the keeper of the hall for the master or mistress. The steward is charged with responsibility for seeing that all is in good order; that the resource - the land, person, group organisation, whatever - is productive and available, now and in the future, to meet whatever demands are made of it. Good and careful stewards nurture the resource entrusted to their care by the master: stewards hold responsibility, but are never the ultimate authority. They do not own the resource.

This puts our role on this planet into its rightful position. We must care for all aspects of the Earth whether they are organic or inorganic, sentient or not; we must treat all with respect. This was a theme communicated in 1920 through the trance mediumship of Mrs Wickland: 4

Everything that God has put in Nature is for man to use, not misuse.

Many of the Church Fathers, those doyens of the ancient Christian mystic world, viewed our approach to material things, in particular property, in a similar vein. Nicolas Berdyaev identified a few of them with the view of reminding current members of the Church: 5

...of what the Fathers of the Church, particularly those of the East, had to say on the subject of property. St Basil the Great considers that common-ownership is a natural condition for all beings created by God. "Take off your roofs," he says, "throw down your walls, and let in the daylight on the corn which you are allowing to rot." He sees in property-owner only a manager and goes as far as to call those

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:58:36 29.2 Our World – We are Custodians of the Earth Page 2 of 16

who do not share their goods with the poor, "bandits." Bread is for the man who is hungry, clothing for the naked. St Ambrose of Milan says that common rights have been created by nature and that private rights are the result of usurpation. "It is not out of your own goods that you bestow your bounty on the poor. You are only giving him back a portion of what really belongs to him." The earth belongs to everybody. St John Chrysostom is particularly interesting on this: "Private property always has its origin in some crime or injustice." God has not created some poor and some rich, and injustice will only disappear when the goods of this world pass into the possession of all.

This thought was perhaps in the mind of St. Benedict when he created his Rule for monks. As Justin Welby noted, this father of monastic life insisted that monks should have no possessions at all: 6

More than that, anything any individual receives as a gift has to be given to the community. It is clear that this was always a big problem. Even bigger, though, was the inequality caused by private possessions that, in the hierarchical societies of the Middle Ages, would provoke deep divisions within the community. Not to hold on to what we receive - even to accept that it is not ours to use - goes against all our instincts.

But we must overcome this urge. Moving up to the current time, this Christian theme is still apparent, although the injustice of inequality appears to be growing. Nevertheless the 105 th Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby re-stated that: 7

We are stewards. At the heart of Christian discipleship is to know that all we have is gift, and to live out that knowledge.

It hasn’t happened in the last 2000 years and it may take many millennia to achieve, but in the meantime we should take the advice of the Baptists Steve Chalke and Simon Johnston who realised that, for the Earth: 8

We are its trustees or stewards .

When we first decided to incarnate into this current life, we agreed a set of objectives which positively will change our character through a number of lessons. We came on board this whirling planet with a set of potential abilities which allow us to achieve our aims. As a consequence of our abilities as almost a secondary and parallel theme, we will acquire resources; possessions, money, status, etc. All these ‘givens’ many religious would consider to be ‘God given’ and it is also these of which we need to be custodians, as the American evangelical Christian pastor Rick Warren stated: 9

We are stewards of whatever God gives us.

Born in Antioch in the 4 th century John Chrysostom, too, has a similar angle on possessions as he argued that: 10

...rich people should see themselves as stewards of their wealth lent to them by God to be used for the common good.

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:58:36 29.2 Our World – We are Custodians of the Earth Page 3 of 16

Again, this early Christian father’s view was echoed by Justin Welby: 11

We are called to be good stewards of our money, and part of that is about discerning how we give and ensuring that we give with wisdom.

This is an important point which many do not realise. The teacher Silver Birch told us from his place in the Spirit World that: 12

People who have much of your world's goods do not realise that they are only trustees.

In this respect they, and each of us, are responsible for the way in which we and those around us abuse our beautiful Earth. We have to change our mind-set and realise the truth in the words of the philosopher and mystic Ralph Waldo Trine: 13

The things that come into our hands come not for the purpose of being possessed, as we say, much less for the purpose of being hoarded. They come into our hands to be used, to be wisely used. We are stewards merely, and as stewards we shall be held accountable for the way we use whatever is entrusted to us.

Stewardship is not just a personal objective; it is a collective one. Even if we all accepted that we have this environmental responsibility, one man’s way of stewardship could be very different from another’s. On occasions we have to step back and review our approach and perhaps, challenge those of other people. This has been the experience of the Scottish Quaker Christine Davis who noted that: 14

Sometimes stewardship demands that we know what to challenge, as much as what to preserve.

At the end of the day, to realise that we own nothing, even though we have use of many possessions, is one of our objectives. One of the chapters in Francis de Sales’ book, ‘Introduction to the Devout Life’ is entitled ‘How to Practise Real Poverty, Remaining notwithstanding actually Rich’ and in it he states that: 15

...the possessions which we have are not our own: God has given them to us to cultivate, and he wishes us to render them fruitful and profitable, and therefore we do him an agreeable service in taking care of them.

It is imperative, therefore, that we view everything as John Chrysostom recommended. He advised that we: 16

...regard nothing as your own, and everything you have as a temporary loan.

According to Oliver Davies, this was a theme of one of the talks of instruction given by the 14 th century mystic Meister Eckhart: 17

Furthermore, we should keep all things only as if they had been merely lent and not given to us, without any sense of possessiveness, whether it be our body or soul, our senses, faculties, worldly goods or honour, friends, relations, house or home or

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:58:36 29.2 Our World – We are Custodians of the Earth Page 4 of 16

anything whatsoever.

...and Laurie Worger also believed that, in this life, we only borrow: 18

Nothing is really "mine", for similar to the issue from the quartermaster's stores, all these things have come to us through the bounty of a great power and are on loan during the period of our actual need.

Collectively we are trustees of the Earth; we do not own it but we must look after it. The British rabbi, philosopher and scholar of Judaism Jonathan Sacks agreed with this and used a quotation from the Old Testament to support this view: 19

Ultimately, all things are owned by God, creator of the world. What we possess we do not own - we merely hold it in trust for God. The clearest example is the provision in Leviticus: 'The land must not be sold permanently because the land is Mine; you are merely strangers and temporary residents in relation to Me' [Leviticus 25:23)

Imagine what our world would be now if everyone had taken this proposal to heart all those years ago. Another mystic from that era, Jacob Boehme, thought that we could view our residency on earth as if we were a foreign migrant: 20

...consider that in this world we have nothing of our own, and that we ourselves are not our own, but that we are only workers and foreign guests in this world for a short time; that we are only managers for our God over His creation and creatures; that what we work and produce we do not only for ourselves but for God and our neighbour...

The analogy of us being guests was also used by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his prologue to ‘The Dignity of Difference’: 21

We are guests and guardians on earth.

He, later in the book, expanded on this and wrote: 22

The knowledge, too, that the earth is not ours, that we are temporary residents, heirs of those who came before us and guardians for those who will come after us in turn, steers us away from the destructive impulse - whether to war or premature genetic intervention or excessive exploitation - which may sometimes come to those who have no stake in a future beyond their lifetime.

Thus realising our eternal existence may be an important part of coming to terms with our stewardship. We have all these resources available to us, and whilst we can use them, we must have in the back of our minds the fact that we must not abuse them. In making this point, the mystic and teacher Joel S Goldsmith wrote: 23

"The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof," [Psalm 24:1] and we can be just as generous with it as we want to be, as long as we recognise, "This that I have is mine by the grace of God, and it is mine to use and to share."

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:58:36 29.2 Our World – We are Custodians of the Earth Page 5 of 16

...and the Quaker and Buddhist Jim Pym agreed: 24

We do not own the world, nor do we have the right to exploit it, or to exploit other beings who share it with us.

I suppose that one of the problems that Christians have had in the past comes from the scriptural use of the phrase ‘dominion over’ expressed in Genesis: 25

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

This theme was developed by the anonymous author of ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’ and ‘The Book of Privy Counselling’, who, in the latter book wrote: 26

...it is only fitting for a man to realise and experience his unique self-existence, because man stands apart in creation, far above all the beasts, as the only creature graced with reason.

The implication is that we, human beings made in God’s image, have complete sway over everything on Earth. This could not be further from the truth as the Jesuit Gerard W Hughes explained: 27

As human beings we do not have the right to look on the rest of creation as our personal fiefdom.

This was also stressed by another cleric Joel S Goldsmith who explained that: 28

...man has no power over God's creation, man has no jurisdiction over God's world, man has no jurisdiction over God.

It is all about how we have interpreted the words of the Bible. The scientist Professor Tom McLeish, falling back on his biblical knowledge, expressed the same sentiment in a refreshingly different way: 29

He [St Paul in his Epistle to the Romans 8:18ff] will certainly be thinking of the duty of care we found in Isaiah, and of that prophet's future vision for a relationship between people and nature that outgrows the pain and peril of our current experience. He must have equally in mind the command to Adam in Genesis (1:28): 'Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves upon the ground'. This rule is not the exploitative one of a tyrant, but the regulatory and facilitating oversight of a supervisor, of one who is in charge because they possess the right experience and understanding, but who know themselves also to be under authority.

None of the mystics or sages of the past would disagree with this. Where the focus on life is one of love, then how can anyone abuse another creation. The poet William Wordsworth, according to Karen Armstrong, also believed that: 30

Nature was not an object to be tested, manipulated, and dominated but should be

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:58:36 29.2 Our World – We are Custodians of the Earth Page 6 of 16

approached with reverence as a source of revelation.

Nature does not belong to us and therefore we have no right to abuse any of it, or as Jonathan Sacks stated: 31

We do not own nature. .. Life forms are not inventions but discoveries. They do not belong to scientists or biochemical corporations but equally to all and none of us: they are God's loan, entrusted to our collective care.

As naturalists and biologists would agree, Mother Nature shows us so much of the beauty of the planet that we should be in awe of whatever mechanism you believe created it – God or the eternal progress of evolution. Of course, I recognise that it is both of these that apply; God created an environment and set of Natural Laws after which the latter were left to progress and the Cosmos, as it is now known, emerged. Because of this we must take a universal outlook as recommended by Bede Griffiths: 32

We need to develop the sense of the cosmic whole and of a way of relating to the world around us as a living being which sustains and nourishes us and for which we have responsibility.

It is this personal responsibility that Pope Francis referred to in a speech on May 22, 2014 where he: 33

…embraced the stewardship notion, calling upon Christians to become “custodians of creation,” and warning us to “safeguard creation, because if we destroy Creation, Creation will destroy us! Never forget this!”

Everywhere should be respected; every aspect of our planet and beyond. We could all aim to forge such a relationship with the planet and its inhabitants. The 18 th century English mystic William Law wrote that every good person: 34 35

...should consider every place as holy, because God is there, so he should look upon every part of his life as a matter of holiness, because it is to be offered unto God.

And each one of us should attempt to follow the advice of the American author Dannion Brinkley: 36

Envision yourself as guardian or steward of the Earth, working to protect and nurture the global environment.

Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows, a renowned Christian mystic, knew this should be our goal, and if we follow this pathway then our total environment will be that much the better: 37

If humanity is to achieve a fully peaceful surrounding, it is essential that people learn to care for everything which the Creator has loaned to them for the duration of their current existence.

In extending our thoughts beyond our own planet, we should be aware of the possibility of other beings and living environments within the universe. Cosmologists have long since recognised the very strong probability that other life sustaining planets exist. In

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:58:36 29.2 Our World – We are Custodians of the Earth Page 7 of 16 corroboration with these findings, in the book ‘The Only Planet of Choice’ one of the communicators stated that humans: 38

...alone are not in control of the Universe, that they are not alone as beings, and that they must be responsible not only for them selves, and for the Planet but also for the Universe.

This is quite a responsibility, but if we collectively take on board this idea, then the ‘universe is our oyster’. Along with a meaningful life for each of us, it all hinges upon love. If we can develop this non-selfish love for the universe, then the planet will be a beautiful place once again. If you want to develop this love of nature, then do read some of the mystical poets whose way of expressing love is so stirring. Andrew Harvey found that the 13 th century Middle Eastern poet Jalal-ud-Din Rumi, usually known as just Rumi, provided this inspiration and he wrote: 39

I have turned to Rumi to try to give to you what I have found in him, which is the inspiration to love this world unconditionally with passion and fearlessness.

An example of such Persian verse was given in Idries Shah’s book ‘The Way of the Sufi’ where he quotes Hashim the Sidqi, on Rumi who says: 40

Man, you enter the world reluctantly, crying, as a forlorn babe; Man, you leave this life deprived again crying again, with regret. Therefore live this life in such a way that none of it is really wasted.

We should not waste anything and everyone should live as James Redfield, Michael Murphy, and Silvia Timbers suggested with the following as a living mantra: 41

Care for the environment is one of our greatest imperatives .

The Christian movement known as the Religious Society of Friends or Quakers have, as Jim Pym noted, always taken such a stance: 42

Quakers have long had a testimony towards simplicity in living. Today, this leads them to be concerned about waste, about the environment, and about the sharing of world resources .

One particular aspect of the world’s resources which we ought to cherish is its flora. Plant life is vital to humanity not only for its beauty but the fact that without the process of oxygen production – plants take in carbon dioxide and provide us with oxygen – our atmosphere would soon be depleted of oxygen. It is not surprising therefore that the following passage is given in the Lost Scrolls of the Essene Brotherhood: 43

As the Heavenly Father hath loved all his children, So shall we love and care for the trees That grow on our land, So shall we keep and protect them, That they may grow tall and strong, And fill the earth again with their beauty. For the trees are our brothers,

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:58:36 29.2 Our World – We are Custodians of the Earth Page 8 of 16

And as brothers, We shall guard and love one another.

If only we could achieve this for all of God’s creations. Jonathan Sacks argued that: 44

The danger posed by the global economy to the natural environment is well known. We are damaging the biosphere in ways that will be deeply harmful in future generations.

To try to arrest this economic tsunami, which appears to be destined to destroy our beautiful planet, we could try to impress on everyone the simple image, and surely a really sensible one as expressed by Jonathan Sacks, is to: 45

...see the earth as belonging to the source of being, and us as its trustees, charged with conserving and if possible beautifying it for the sake of our grandchildren not yet born.

Brother should love and support brother as we should love and cherish our trees – and all other sentient and non-sentient living things. Because many people on earth are not vegans, we have to balance the need for food with respectful farming of those plants and animals which are grown to keep us fed. Martin Israel touched on this when he wrote: 46

To mankind belongs the privilege and the duty of caring for the other inhabitants of our world, the animal and vegetable kingdoms. But man is also predatory on these lesser forms of life. What should have been a mission of service and conservation has all too often become an orgy of violation and destruction.

In trying to articulate Man’s difficulty in this arena the lawyer David Dudley created a conversation with his cat Mona in which he said: 47

Mona was right as usual. But humans can comfortably keep alive without killing anything at all, as she has pointed out to me more than once when explaining how fortunate I am to be omnivorous whiles she is a mere carnivore. And when I reply that although I do eat meat, I do so with a sense of guilt on moral grounds and would prefer to be vegetarian, she doesn’t take my ethical agonisings seriously and just says she wishes she could be vegetarian, because vegetables, unlike animals can’t run away. I wonder whether she is too insensitive to appreciate the problem, or whether she is just exposing the hypocrisy of the sentimental.

Perhaps if each of us took the view, as expressed by the spirit guide Chan (referred to in Stephen Turoff’s ‘Seven Steps to Eternity’) that: 48

The animal kingdom has been placed in the hands of man so that he can help it climb to Godhood – not so that he can eat it.

The problem is in overcoming our inherent natural instinct, as betrayed by the shape of our teeth, to eat meat. Certainly we ought to look after the creatures which we use for food as best we can and in a caring way because our existence on the planet is dependent upon the complex ecosystem which involves all creatures. Jonathan Sacks explained that: 49

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:58:36 29.2 Our World – We are Custodians of the Earth Page 9 of 16

We are more aware than any previous generation of how much our existence depends on the presence of other species, which produce the food we eat and the oxygen we breathe, absorb the carbon dioxide we exhale, sustain the fertility of the soil and provide the raw materials we need.

We could take this even further and, in considering stewardship, we tend to forget that we, as parents and grandparents, are stewards of our children. We have an obligation to nurture them carefully so that they develop in a way which is appropriate to their soul. In discussing this role that parents have, the Belgian academic Emile Cammaerts revealed that: 50

They should realise that their family does not belong to them, but to God who made them, not masters, but stewards of their children.

All parents are guardians of their children’s souls and as such must do what they can to provide them with the right knowledge and experiences for them to make the right decisions as they develop. Children are fortunate to have such parents. It is recorded that, as a child, Mère Ignace Goethals - Third Mother-Genera of the Sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur: 51

...responded naturally and generously to the care lavished upon her by her parents, who regarded all their children as precious trusts from God, to be brought up in His love and service.

This theme also runs into the teacher / student relationship; teachers are guardians of knowledge which they impart appropriately to their charges. In ‘The Book of Knowledge’ written by the Persian mystic and Sufi Al Ghazzali about 1000 years ago, he discussed this relationship: 52

Thus on the one hand the work of the teacher is a (form of) praise to God and on the other hand a (form of) stewardship. It is in fact the highest form of stewardship because God has bestowed upon the heart of the learned man knowledge, which is His most intimate attribute. Hence the learned man is like the keeper of God's most valuable treasures and has permission to give from them to all who need.

Stewardship is a form of love which emanates from the custodian to those within his or her care. You cannot look after anything properly if you have no love for it. Andrew Harvey tells of a meeting at a conference in New York with an old Indian Chief who, on this subject, said: 53

When you allow yourself really to fall in love with the world, your whole being becomes full of a mother's passion to protect her children, and a father's hunger to see them safe and strong.

...and this applies to everything in the universe. Extending this further, Andrew also accepted the necessity for each of us to love ourselves: 54

If I didn't love and honour and revere my own body, how could I really love, honour and revere the bodies of others and so be a guardian and steward of creation?

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:58:36 29.2 Our World – We are Custodians of the Earth Page 10 of 16

This is not an egotistical love, but an acceptance of what we are and a desire to maintain its correct functioning through right eating, right exercise, etc. Extending our love also comes as a natural consequence of the development of our spirituality; following the spiritual pathway brings us near to others and our environment. For most people, the whole focus of spirituality is love – love of God and love of humanity. This was extended to include the environment by the English pathologist, Anglican priest, spiritual director, and author Martin Israel: 55

As we grow in the spiritual life so we come to realise that our greatest service to humanity lies in working in our local environment.

Thus we ought to be living in balance with both the local and global environments. If we don’t there may be dire consequences as outlined by the American psychiatrist Brian Leslie Weiss: 56

Humankind has not learned about balance, let alone practiced it. It is guided by greed and ambition, steered by fear. In this way it will eventually destroy itself. But nature will survive; at least the plants will.

To prevent this apocalyptic scenario from becoming a reality, maybe we ought to move towards the stance that Parsees take, who, according to Geoffrey Parrinder, believe that the Earth is sacred and therefore: 57

... he will not defile [it] ...

If only we all could achieve this through taking some element of responsibility for our mother-earth. British occultist and medium Dion Fortune was provided during the 1920s with the following view from the Spirit World: 58

All should remember that as developed and developing human beings they have a great debt to the earth who is in very truth their mother, their parent; they are made of her substance and live upon her substance and all that they do here on earth, all that they discover in science, all that they make in art or industry are also parts of her. But she develops less quickly than her children and it is the duty of the children by their development to aid hers. ... You have a very great responsibility not only to yourselves and to each others but also to the great group-soul of the earth, the great mass-mother of you all.

This inter-relationship and dependency of one to another was also a thread developed by the inspirational teacher Michal Levin who wrote: 59

...we are all part of the notion of God. Our energy is part of the energy of God. That is not to say by any means that events depend solely on mankind’s actions. We are not, fortunately, capable of controlling the force we know as God. But we are responsible for playing our part in creating the lives we choose and contributing to the life of our planet. Expecting some higher power to take responsibility for you is not enough, or in any way appropriate.

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:58:36 29.2 Our World – We are Custodians of the Earth Page 11 of 16

Supporting this, we ought to look at what has happened in the past, take on board our current knowledge and then we may have a realistic view of what may happen in the future. From all this accumulated knowledge we ought to be able to steer the right environmental course. Teaching our children includes embedding into their psyche the personal responsibility that each of us has both for our planet and each other. Because of what humanity has already achieved and the speed of potential destruction stimulated by materialism, the times that we are living through is so different to that which our parents experienced. Jonathan Sacks, writing about globalisations, stated that: 60

Previous generations could take the natural environment as a given. We no longer can. We are already changing it in destructive ways. These are difficult issues to think through using terms such as duty or consequence. What duties do we have to nature? What responsibilities do we have to persons not yet in existence?

During the week of 30 th June 2016, we were informed that the hole in the ozone layer was shrinking. This, it is believed, is a direct consequence of the international ban on CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbon gases) made in 1987 in the Montreal Protocol. 61 This is an example of international political and technological co-operation at its best. Currently it is also recognised that there is significant global warming. This may, in part, be part of the natural cycle of the Earth, but it is recognised than man has played a significant part in this potential catastrophe – the Arctic polar ice cap is melting, sea levels are rising, some animal species have moved further north to cooler regions, average annual rainfall has globally increased [also reported in the National Geographic]. Knowing this we ought to again take political and technological steps to reduce this effect as much as possible in order to prevent our planet from becoming less habitable. All this demonstrates the Quaker view, expressed by Christine A M Davis that cultivating stewardship: 62

...draws on the wisdom and traditions of the past, yet takes into account the discoveries and pressures of the present and the probable demands of the future.

Christine further developed the implications of this and recommended that: 63

...good stewardship sets standards, and that we in the next and following generations have to measure up, as best we can.

These are not just personal standards anymore, they are International. The London priest Terry Tastard, in the first page of the opening chapter of his book ‘The Spark in the Soul ‘, stated that: 64

Our crisis is a global one: we have so many problems together that we can only find the answers together.

Of course, most of these problems are man-made. We have created, through application of our scientific discoveries, such situations that will, if not checked, lead to detrimental and irreversible consequences. The mystic Martin Israel in ‘The Pain That Heals’ gave us his perspective on this scenario: 65

It can be said with some irony that man is now in command of such unlimited physical resources that he may well destroy himself and all the creatures of this

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:58:36 29.2 Our World – We are Custodians of the Earth Page 12 of 16

earth with nuclear energy, even within this century, unless he undergoes a radical spiritual change. Such a change may well be the fruit of a terrible humiliation and loss of life. What we call evil is often part of the experimentation of man in understanding the world and gaining inner mastery. A young child will pull out the wings of a living insect with little awareness of the distress he is causing that small creature. Only as he himself learns how it feels to be injured physically and hurt emotionally does he come to identify himself with all God's creatures. And in this life there seem to be some who are morally incapable of learning how to enter into another person's suffering. The vast span that separates the bestiality of a Hitler from the spirituality of a Gautama or a Jesus is one of the mysteries of creation. It certainly tells us that there is an extensive journey to be made by the individual human being before he can transcend the purely animal nature in which he is clothed and participate in the divine nature, from which he arose in the beginning as an unconscious, undifferentiated soul and to which He is to return as a vibrant, articulate spirit.

So it is through personal experience that we come to realise the implications of our actions. We have to support nature and our environment and all therein. About 2200 years ago, according to the authors Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh, the Chinese Confucian philosopher known as Xunzi ("Master Xun") reminded everyone that: 66

...human endeavours were about building on what is ‘natural’ and making it incomparably better.

We can do it personally and locally, but to have an important and positive impact on our planet requires international co-operation on a scale not yet observed. We have to recognise that all views are important both in terms of the problem and the solution to ecological change. We all have to work together to find a way forward; dogmatism has no part in this. Because we are all servants to the greater cause, we should appreciate Rick Warren’s view that: 67

Servanthood and stewardship go together...

...and hence, as Christine Davis wrote, in the stewardship of all aspects of life: 68

...each of us, of every generation and background, needs to bear in mind how our perspectives are shaped by the struggles we live through; by the things we take for granted; by the hopes and despairs which have filled us and our companions... No less significantly, they are different from the experiences which have shaped others... We have lived through our struggles; we did not live through theirs.

You can understand, therefore that not only is international stewardship difficult to attain, but so it is in our individual lives. Andrew Harvey drew our attention to this fact in ‘The Direct Path’: 69

In choosing to love and be one with the motherhood of God, you choose, in fact, to embrace the suffering of struggling for the transformation of real conditions in the world and the suffering of constant labour and disappointment, even defeat; you put your entire being constantly at risk in the name of divine love and for its sake and

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:58:36 29.2 Our World – We are Custodians of the Earth Page 13 of 16

for its victory in the real.

In all situations of custodianship there are two characteristics which Christine Davis identified. Firstly: 70

Good stewardship involves actually exercising our minds and, crucially, our imaginations .

...and, secondly: 71

Discernment is essential to good stewardship of our resource...

Using all our resources to hand, we must attempt to look after everything organic and inorganic in our world. Everything is sacred. In one of his letters to his spiritual children, Father Andrew expressed this particular point: 72

...whether we like it or not, whether we realise it or not, all of us are stewards.

...and from his own experience and the revelations bestowed upon him, Dannion Brinkley changed his view of the world and came to understand that: 73

...the truth is we have actually been entrusted with the fate of the world.

This is a collective responsibility because our lives are so interconnected in such a way that our actions impinge on the lives of others. We are a cog in the cosmic wheel. This theme was expressed during 1854, when the slavery debate was pressing in the USA and the Chief of the Suquamish and Duwamish tribes of North American Native peoples was pressing for land rights for his people. Chief Seattle, as he was known, made an important and widely publicised speech in which he argued in favour of ecological responsibility. According to the Unitarian minister William Houff this speech included this plea: 74

Teach your children what we have taught our children – that the earth is our mother. What befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth. This we know: the earth does not belong to us, we belong to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. We did not weave the web of life; we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.

So, if we pray at all, we ought to accept the advice of the author Beth Collier and ask our Creator to: 75

...help us to be careful stewards of all the raw materials that we take for granted...

...and for many people, as Martin Israel realised, this will be a quantum change: 76

Only a complete change in man's fundamental outlook can save the world .

Or in the closing words of Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh’s book ‘The Path’: 77

If the world is fragmented, then it gives us every opportunity to construct things anew. It begins with the smallest things in our daily lives, from which we change

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:58:36 29.2 Our World – We are Custodians of the Earth Page 14 of 16

everything. If we begin there, then everything is up to us.

Finally, I will leave you with a ‘Prayer for our Nation’ given by the evangelist Billy Graham which was aired on Paul Harvey’s radio program, 'The Rest of the Story’:

'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done.. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics.. We have coveted our neighbour’s possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time- honoured values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!'

We should all acknowledge this and try, as best we can, to follow our spiritual pathway and treat everyone and everything with the respect and love they deserve.

1 Andrew Harvey, The Direct Path, Rider & Co, 2000. Three: Embodiment and Integration - Nature as Revelation and Source of Healing, (Pg 235) 2 Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, The Gospel of the Essenes, C W Daniel Co, 1976. Lost Scrolls of the Essene Brotherhood: The Angel of Work, (Pg 168) 3 Christine A M Davis, Minding the Future, Quaker Books, 2008. Chapter 2 - What is this 'Stewardship' anyway? (Pg 21) 4 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XIV: Christian Science - Experience, November 3, 1920, (Pg 370) 5 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. Social Revolution and Spiritual Awakening, (Pg 47) 6 Justin Welby, Dethroning Mammon, Bloomsbury, 2016. Chapter 4: What we receive we treat as ours, (Pg 87) 7 Justin Welby, Dethroning Mammon, Bloomsbury, 2016. Chapter 4: What we receive we treat as ours, (Pg 84)

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:58:36 29.2 Our World – We are Custodians of the Earth Page 15 of 16

8 Steve Chalke and Simon Johnston, Faithworks: Intimacy and Involvement, Kingsway Publications, 2003. 2. Intimacy and Involvement: Spirituality in the Old Testament, (Pg 28) 9 Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan, 2002. Seeing Life from God's View, (Pg 44) 10 John Chrysostom - The Golden Voice of Protest, Arthur James, 1996. Introduction 11 Justin Welby, Dethroning Mammon, Bloomsbury, 2016. Chapter 5: What we give we gain, (Pg 128) 12 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Twelve: Postscript, (Pg 118) 13 Ralph Waldo Trine, In Tune with the Infinite, G Bell & Sons, 1931. Chapter IX - Plenty of all things - the Law of Prosperity, (Pg 186) 14 Christine A M Davis, Minding the Future, Quaker Books, 2008. Chapter 1 - What have I inherited? The roots of my stewardship, (Pg 17) 15 Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Burns & Oates, 1948. Third Part of the Introduction. Chapter XV - How to Practise Real Poverty, Remaining notwithstanding actually Rich, (Pg 151) 16 John Chrysostom - The Golden Voice of Protest, Arthur James, 1996. (Pg 38) 17 Oliver Davies, Meister Eckhart - Selected Writings, Penguin Books, 1994. The talks of instruction - 23 On Inner and Outer Works, (Pg 47) 18 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 16: The Influence of Other People, (Pg 152) 19 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 6 - Compassion: The idea of Tzedakah, (Pg 114) 20 Jacob Boehme, The Way to Christ, Paulist Press, 1978. The Third Treatise on Holy Prayer with an Order for each day of the week (1624), (para 7) 21 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 1 – Prologue, (Pg 16) 22 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 4 - Control: The Imperative of Responsibility, (Pg 81) 23 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter FOUR - The Esoteric Meaning of the Easter Week, (Pg 58) 24 Jim Pym, Listening to the Light, Rider & Co, 1999. Commitment, (Pg 104) 25 Bible, Old Testament, Genesis 1:28 26 The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling, Doubleday, 1973. The Book of Privy Counselling: Chapter 2, (Pg 152) 27 Gerard W Hughes, God in all Things, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Chapter Three: Down-to-Earth Holiness - The 'Fourfold Grid: Guidelines for Distinguishing True Spirituality from False, (Pg 46) 28 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter THREE - Beginning the Contemplative Life, (Pg 45) 29 Tom McLeish, Faith & Wisdom in Science, Oxford University Press, 2014. Chapter 6: Creation and Reconciliation: the New Testament Creation Narratives, (Pg 155) 30 Karen Armstrong, The Case For God, Vintage Books, 2010. Part Two: The Modern God - 9 Enlightenment, (Pg 221) 31 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 9 - Conservation: Environmental Sustainability, (Pg 165) 32 Bede Griffiths, A New Vision of Reality, Fount, 1992. 13 The New Age, (Pg 281 / 282) 33 Downloaded 29 th June 2016 from http://www.earthintransition.org/author/michael-mountain/ 34 William Law, A serious call to a Devout & Holy Life, J M Dent, 1906. Chapter IV - All things are God's, (Pg 132) 35 William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life - extracts, Mowbray, 1981. All things are God's, (Pg 12) 36 Dannion Brinkley, Secrets of the Light, Piatkus, 2012. Part 3: The Seven Lessons from Heaven - 22 The Panoramic Life Review, (Pg 180) 37 Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows, Pathway of the Immortal, International Publications Inc, 1980. Chapter IX: World of Prophecy (Science of Tomorrow), (Pg 184) 38 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. I: The Universe and its Beings - 5: Visitations, (Pg 71) 39 Andrew Harvey, The Way of Passion, Souvenir Press, 2002. Chapter 1 - Journey to Love, (Pg 6) 40 Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi, Penguin Books, 1975. Part Eight: Letters and Lectures: On Entering, Living in - and Leaving - the World, (Pg 290) 41 James Redfield, Michael Murphy, Silvia Timbers, God and the Evolving Universe, Bantam Press, 2002. Part Three - Participating; 13: Transforming Culture: A Deeper Environmentalism, (Pg 171) 42 Jim Pym, Listening to the Light, Rider & Co, 1999. Commitment, (Pg 104)

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:58:36 29.2 Our World – We are Custodians of the Earth Page 16 of 16

43 Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, The Gospel of the Essenes, C W Daniel Co, 1976. Lost Scrolls of the Essene Brotherhood: Trees, (Pg 195) 44 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 1 – Prologue, (Pg 16) 45 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 9 - Conservation: Environmental Sustainability, (Pg 170 / 171) 46 Martin Israel, Healing as a Sacrament, Darton Longman and Todd, 1984. Chapter 1: The Nature of Healing, (Pg 7) 47 David Dulley, Conversations with Mona, David Dulley, 1993. 19: Hunting, (Pg 46) 48 Stephen Turoff, Seven Steps to Eternity, Clairview, 2002. Chapter 6, (Pg 100) 49 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 9 - Conservation: Environmental Sustainability, (Pg 173) 50 Emile Cammaerts, The Flower of Grass, The Cresset Press, 1944. Chapter vii - Under God, (Pg 144) 51 Mère Ignace Goethals - Third Mother-Genera of the Sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur, A Member of the Same Congregation, Alexander Ouseley Limited, 1934. Chapter I: Childhood and Early Training (1800 - 1817), (Pg 19) 52 Al Ghazzali, The Book of Knowledge, SH. Muhammad Ashraf, 1991. Section I - Evidence (for the Excellence of Knowledge) from Reason, (Pg 29) 53 Andrew Harvey, The Direct Path, Rider & Co, 2000. Three: Embodiment and Integration - Nature as Revelation and Source of Healing, (Pg 237) 54 Andrew Harvey, The Direct Path, Rider & Co, 2000. Three: Embodiment and Integration - The Sacred Body, (Pg 174) 55 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 12: The social roots of the spirit, (Pg 97) 56 Brian Leslie Weiss, Many Lives, Many Masters, Judy Piatkus, 2002. Chapter Sixteen, (Pg 209) 57 Geoffrey Parrinder, Worship in the World's Religions, Association Press, 1961. Part II - India and Southern Asia: Chapter 5 - The Parsis, (Pg 90) 58 Dion Fortune, The Cosmic Doctrine, Helios Book Service, 1966. Part II, (Pg 156) 59 Michal Levin, Spiritual Intelligence, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Part II: Your Journey. Chapter Nine – Spiritual Principles of Relationships, (Pg 207 / 208) 60 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 2 - Globalisation and its Discontents, (Pg 33) 61 See http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/06/antarctic-ozone-hole-healing-fingerprints/ 62 Christine A M Davis, Minding the Future, Quaker Books, 2008. Chapter 2 - What is this 'Stewardship' anyway? (Pg 22) 63 Christine A M Davis, Minding the Future, Quaker Books, 2008. Chapter 3 - Quaker witness: inheritance and challenge, (Pg 27/28) 64 Terry Tastard, The Spark in the Soul, Darton Longman and Todd, 1989. Chapter 1 - Finding another way, (Pg 1) 65 Martin Israel, The Pain That Heals, Hodder & Stoughton, 1981. Chapter 12: Equanimity: the Precious Fruit of Suffering, (Pg 138 / 139) 66 Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh, The Path, Viking, 2016. 8: On Humanity: Xunzi and Putting Pattern on the World, (Pg 174) 67 Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan, 2002. Thinking Like a Servant, (Pg 267) 68 Christine A M Davis, Minding the Future, Quaker Books, 2008. Chapter 1 - What have I inherited? The roots of my stewardship, (Pg 18 / 19) 69 Andrew Harvey, The Direct Path, Rider & Co, 2000. One: The Map - The Map of the Transformation of Consciousness, (Pg 59) 70 Christine A M Davis, Minding the Future, Quaker Books, 2008. Chapter 4 - Tools for Life, (Pg 39) 71 Christine A M Davis, Minding the Future, Quaker Books, 2008. Chapter 10 - Time and energy, (Pg 85) 72 Kathleen E. Burne, The Life and Letters of Father Andrew, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. Part II: Letters: To Spiritual Children (Various): To Mrs S. August 8, 1944, (Pg 237) 73 Dannion Brinkley, Secrets of the Light, Piatkus, 2012. Part 3: The Seven Lessons from Heaven - 17 Lesson Three, (Pg 146) 74 William Houff, Infinity in Your Hand, Skinner House Books, 1994. The Sacred Web of Life, (Pg 206) 75 Beth Collier, Beyond Words, Triangle, 1987. 8 Suiting the style to the situation, (Pg 90) 76 Martin Israel, The Pain That Heals, Hodder & Stoughton, 1981. Chapter 15: The Path to Wholeness, (Pg 175) 77 Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh, The Path, Viking, 2016. 9: The Age of Possibility, (Pg 198)

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:58:36 29.3 Our World – Materialism and Spirituality Page 1 of 12

29:3 Our World – Materialism and Spirituality

Let me open this chapter with an analogy. Imagine materialism to be in the foreground and approaching the horizon is spirituality. Using a pair of binoculars allows you to focus either on that which is close or that which is far away. You cannot do both; you can either centre your life around a worldly view or one which concentrates on spiritual aspects. The overwhelming majority of people spend, their myopic lives giving very little thought to their spiritual journey. This is borne out from the experience of the 20 th century Russian philosopher Nicolas Berdyaev who stated that: 1

...truth must out: the overwhelming majority of men, and among them Christians, are materialists!

...he also pointed out that: 2

Man lives and organises himself either according to the law of the world or that of God. The law of the world is not neutral but hostile to God, in fact atheistic.

...and the psychiatrists Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall also believed that: 3

We live in a spiritually dumb culture characterised by materialism, expediency, narrow self-centredness, lack of meaning and dearth of commitment.

What an indictment of our modern society. Perhaps, like the mystic Martin Israel, we ought to look towards the Bible for clarification: 4

Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth where it grows rusty and moth- eaten, and thieves break in to steal it. Store up treasure in heaven, where there is no moth and no rust to spoil it, no thieves to break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matthew 6.19-21)

This is an early reference to the theme of ‘love is where the heart is’ or as the 19 th century Congregational clergyman Henry Ward Beecher remarked: 5

No man can tell whether he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger. It is the heart that makes man rich. He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has.

We could even go as far as Maurice Barbanell, the trance medium who channelled the teachings of Silver Birch, and make the statement: 6

The greatest enemy in the world is materialism. This is the malignant cancer, with parasitical growths in all classes and nations.

Of course he is right; materialism pervades every culture. John Blofeld, who spent a great deal of his life in the Far East and who wrote extensively on Asian thought and religion, had the opinion that: 7

Leisure, tranquillity, simple affection - everything worth having was sacrificed on

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:02 29.3 Our World – Materialism and Spirituality Page 2 of 12

the altar of Ts'ai Shen (the God of Wealth)

And this emphasis which society places on satisfying our material aspects continuously militates against our spiritual development. At the start of the 21 st century the chief editor of the Journal for Spiritual and Consciousness Studies, Michael E. Tymn, expressed in the preface to his book ‘The Articulate Dead’, the view that: 8

...we live in an era of moral decadence, a time of egocentricity, intolerance, hatred, hypocrisy, disorder, flux, strife, chaos, and fear. We have become hedonistic materialists, consumed with the pursuit of pleasure and sensory gratification, making merry with intoxicants and drugs, and revelling in the 'Playboy' philosophy. Can any thinking person doubt that today's hedonistic materialism is a result of a loss of spiritual values, especially a lack of belief in survival?

Similarly, Lance G Trendall, who wrote a compelling insight into life and death entitled ‘Dead Happy’, suggested that from his perspective at the end of the 20 th century: 9

We seem to outgrow our psychicness and our western society seems to help us focus on the material factors of our environment rather than developing a spiritual awareness.

This erroneous trajectory of humanity has created an environment where it is easier to doubt spirituality and spiritual experiences than to try to understand it. The spirit teacher White Eagle, from his vantage point in the Spirit World, concluded that: 10

The worldly mind dwells within us all and causes us to doubt the reality of spiritual truth.

This phenomenon of materialism, however, has ever been present in humanity; it is just that in the post Victorian era it appeared to escalate out of all proportions. This period, however, was significant for Estelle Robert’s guide Red Cloud, who remarked that when he returned to earth as a spirit guide, he: 11

...found that man had become so saturated with his beliefs, which are and always have been totally opposed to God, that he was dead to the reality of himself and the spiritual laws which govern him.

For me, born in 1946 and who experienced university life in 1960s England, the upsurge in materialism was very apparent. Perhaps it was with the advent of increased living standards and the potential for the majority of people to have money over and above that which is necessary to sustain life. Certainly, in our Western society, we all need money to live as was noted by Margery Kempe in her 15 th century mystical conversation with God: 12

For, as you think, they all - holy and unholy - want money to live with, as is lawful for them to do, but they will not all busy themselves to love me, as they do to get themselves temporal goods.

It is this move away from the spiritual that is so sad, as the Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, Thomas Merton remarked: 13

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:02 29.3 Our World – Materialism and Spirituality Page 3 of 12

The whole mechanism of modern life is geared for a flight from God and from spirit into the wilderness of neurosis.

...or from another monk Dom Aelred Graham’s perspective: 14

The manifold evils of our time can be summed up, without undue simplification, in one word - irreligion.

This unconscious drift towards a money and possessions centred life is getting greater and greater. Nicolas Berdyaev accepted this chasm between the power of wealth and the pull of the Spirit when he wrote: 15

In this fallen world the force of money is incomparably greater than that of spirit. .

I cannot see this abating in the near future. It will take something really momentous to move the population away from a belief in materialism. I would have expected the two world wars, climate change, the financial depressions, uncertainty of job tenure, declining investment in health services and a whole host of other depressing facts to have stimulated development of alternative political, commercial and financial systems. It has not happened, and I can therefore conclude that it is up to you and I to demonstrate that living with a spiritual focus provides a greater potential for happiness and longevity. The spirit who used Irene Bays as a channel hoped that: 16

...Man will realise that survival is more important than power, and that a love and understanding of one's fellow beings and creatures is more important than the hoarding of gold.

We have to determine what really matters to us; it ought to be as the medium Stephen O'Brien’s spirit teachers have often told him: 17

What counts are the treasures of the heart, not earthly wealth.

The reason for this being that we are eternal beings; our stay on this planet is extremely short compared to our total existence. Another comparison, which was made by William of St Thierrry, a Benedictine monk who died in 1148 A.D., was that the soul ought to: 18

...find all created things little and inadequate and insignificant when it compares them with God.

It is unfortunate that most people don’t even think about such things – they travel their material pathway with spiritual blinkers. According to Rabbi Dan Cohn-Sherbok, the 18 th century born Jewish spiritual leader Dov Baer of Mexhirech realised that: 19

...the majority are incapable of attaining a state of ecstasy because they are completely absorbed with daily affairs.

...or using the 14 th century mystic Meister Eckhart’s phraseology: 20

For those who understand only physical things, have a high regard for the kind of

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:02 29.3 Our World – Materialism and Spirituality Page 4 of 12

life which they can perceive with the senses. Thus one ass is adored by another!

The problem is that the major religions don’t really help in answering the sort of questions which emerge when contemplating life and the hereafter. This point was brought to the fore in Carl Jung’s autobiography: 21

The old question posed by the Gnostics, "Whence comes evil?" has been given no answer by the Christian world, and Origen's cautious suggestion of a possible redemption of the devil was termed a heresy. Today we are compelled to meet that question; but we stand empty-handed, bewildered, and perplexed, and cannot even get it into our heads that no myth will come to our aid although we have such urgent need of one. As the result of the political situation and the frightful, not to say diabolic, triumphs of science, we are shaken by secret shudders and dark forebodings; but we know no way out, and very few persons indeed draw the conclusion that this time the issue is the long-since-forgotten soul of man.

There are a number of biblical references which may be useful, although they do seem to be ‘finger wagging’ rather than providing a forceful and compelling reason to change one’s perspective on life. Cyprian, a 3 rd century Christian writer used a quotation from the Old Testament book: 22

Cursed be the man that putteth his hope in man. [Jeremiah. 17:5]

Whereas John Eldredge in the 20 th century used text from the New Testament: 23

Whatever we might gain - money, position, the approval of others, or just absence of the discontent itself - it's not worth it. "What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?" [Matt. 16:26]

In general, however, religion has not been very helpful as was recognised by the higher spirit communicating through the American medium Phyllis V. Schlemmer: 24

You have wars upon Earth, religious disturbances, because humankind has not felt comfortable in the role that it has been placed in by religion.

For those whose lives are deeply bound with religion and who view it from the inside, it has much more of a significant role that most who may consider it as being irrelevant. Jonathan Sacks, who once served as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, believed that in these material times everyone: 25

...needs a compass, and the great faiths have been the compasses of mankind. In an age of uncertainty, they remind us that we are not alone, nor are we bereft of guidance from the past .

For most people, this is not the case and materialism points the way. Somehow, therefore, we have to move everyone’s focus from the external world to the internal; from the physical and temporal to the spiritual. This difficulty seems to have been around for millennia. In the 4 th century B.C. the Chinese philosopher Chuang Tsu wrote: 26

A man who plays for counters will play well. If he stakes his girdle [in which he

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:02 29.3 Our World – Materialism and Spirituality Page 5 of 12

keeps his loose cash] , he will be nervous; if yellow gold, he will lose his wits. His skill is the same in each case, but he is distracted by the value of his stake. And everyone who attaches importance to the external, becomes internally without resource.

Internal and external, or spiritual and material will always be aspects of each person’s life. They can never be separated or followed independently no matter how they are described. St Augustine described these two extremes as two cities in his book ‘De Civitate Dei’ (The City of God) written at the turn of the 5 th century. He described that humanity’s two loves - spiritual and material - have: 27

...given rise to these two cities, self-love in contempt of God unto the earthly, love of God in contempt of one's self to the heavenly.

This idea was used by the evangelist Billy Graham to stress the difference between the material and spiritual: 28

“Two verbs have built two empires,” wrote St. Augustine, “the verb ‘to have’ and the verb ‘to be’. The first is an empire of things, material possessions and power. The second is an empire of the Spirit, things that last.”

The famous mystical writer Evelyn Underhill believed that most people seem to create an impervious barrier of materialism which shuts out any thoughts of real spirituality. It is this shell that everyone, at some time in their soul’s journey, must break. In her extensive tome on mysticism she expressed this view as: 29

By false desires and false thoughts man has built up for himself a false universe: as a mollusc by the deliberate and persistent absorption of lime and rejection of all else, can build up for itself a hard shell which shuts it from the external world, and only represents in a distorted and unrecognisable form the ocean from which it was obtained. This hard and wholly unnutritious shell, this one-sided secretion of the surface-consciousness, makes as it were a little cave of illusion for each separate soul. A literal and deliberate getting out of the cave must be for every mystic, as it was for Plato's prisoners, the first step in the individual hunt for reality.

Margaret Smith tells us that in his manuscript ‘Spiritual state of the soul’ John of Lycopolis, one of the hermits of the Nitrean desert in the 4 th century, summed up his own teaching by saying: 30

...everything which is of this world is opposed to that which belongs to the Way of Christ. .. As long as the mind is captive to, and dominated by, the things of this world, whether they be great or small, so long will the light of truth of the Way of Christ be hidden from it ... when the creature is reborn from the material world into the spiritual world, it begins to see with the spiritual eye, while it increases in spiritual knowledge, according to its degree of purity and holiness

Thus we have to remove this veil, this cloud of deception which shrouds most people from their spiritual pathway. From the same book, another Christian theologian from a similar era, Cassian, indicated that: 31

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:02 29.3 Our World – Materialism and Spirituality Page 6 of 12

For the impurity of the world is a dark covering before the face of the soul and it preventeth it from discerning spiritual wisdom.

This deception is also recognised within the Chishti Order – an order within the Sufi tradition of Islam which was created around 930 A.D. – which, according to Idries Shah, states that: 32

...it will be some time before they truly realise that the only means of their survival in their exiles [on earth] - the superficials [materialism] which they think important - are the barriers to their [spiritual] understanding.

Moving on down the centuries to the 14 th century, the English mystic Richard Rolle in his passionate book ‘The Fire of Love’ also identified the potential for the material aspects of life to prevent us from even looking at the spiritual: 33

Nothing is loved except for the good it contains or is thought to contain, whether real or apparent. This is the reason why those who love physical beauty or temporal wealth are deceived...

Today, this dilemma has been expressed by Ian Lawton as the biggest problem facing humanity at the moment. It is: 34

... a lack of spiritual awareness and understanding, and excessive focus on the material world, is the primary problem.

Cyprian, in his letter to Donatus, highlighted the problem of their time, which does not seem to have changed: 35

He then goes on to speak of the abuses of the times, and of people possessing money only for the sake of letting no one else use it.

Everyone knows that ‘there are no pockets in shrouds’; we cannot take any material possessions with us into the afterlife. You would think, therefore, that little emphasis would be placed upon physical trinkets. In ‘Towards a New Epoch’ written in the mid 20 th century by Nicolas Berdyaev we are reminded that: 36

Materialism is linked up with what is superficial...

It has no lasting substance. The Trappist monk Thomas Merton recognised that all possessions are time bounded and will, in time, decay: 37

Human traditions all tend towards stagnation and lifelessness and decay. They try to perpetuate things that cannot be perpetuated. They cling to objects and values which time destroys without mercy.

...and through his link with the Spirit World, Harry Emerson was able to confirm that: 38

Material possessions are temporal. Hold fast to the spiritual possessions and they will serve you.

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:02 29.3 Our World – Materialism and Spirituality Page 7 of 12

This must be our goal, for these are the things which are important in the Afterlife, as the Rev. C. Drayton Thomas noted: 39

Here on earth our senses are tuned to things physical; hereafter they will be tuned to things ethereal.

We have to get to the stage where material possessions are viewed for what they really are, and as such we should place little value upon them. It would be nice to get to the stage of development which was described by the Rev. C. Drayton Thomas’s father communicating from the Spirit World: 40

That which is given up willingly, or which you see taken from you, yet you do not waste time in repining over, you have made yours. Whereas, things which men pursue, seize by force, are things they lose.

If we are not able to overcome this situation, then we will be one of the many described by the spirit guide to William Stainton Moses: 41

The busy world is ever averse from the things of spirit life. Men become absorbed in the material, that which they can see, and grasp, and hoard up, and they forget that there is a future and spirit life. They become so earthly that they are impervious to our influence; so material that we cannot come near them; so full of earthly interests that there is no room for that which shall endure when they have passed away. More than this, the constant preoccupation leaves no time for contemplation, and the spirit is wasted for lack of sustenance.

If spirituality becomes our focus then materialism will be put into its rightful context – not eliminated but treated appropriately. We have to weigh the spiritual against the material or as Thomas Merton put it: 42

For the "unreality" of material things is only relative to the greater reality of spiritual things.

Brian Leslie Weiss, an American psychiatrist whose research included reincarnation, past life regression, future-life progression and survival of the human soul after death, had a similar view. He questioned the value of materialism if the focus of one’s live were spiritual: 43

And if indeed, "by knowledge we approach God," of what use are material possessions, or power, when they are an end in themselves and not a means to that approach?

Many people, as their experience expands and their knowledge improves, start to ask questions about life’s journey. This happened to the psychoanalyst Carl Jung for whom spiritual questions loomed larger in his later years. David L Edwards, the Anglican priest who, after he retired, became an honorary chaplain at Winchester Cathedral, referred to that part of Jung’s life after he broke with Sigmund Freud. This split happened largely because Freud so disliked the mystical and psychical phenomena which were becoming Jung's chief interest in life. In Jung's words. 44

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:02 29.3 Our World – Materialism and Spirituality Page 8 of 12

Among my patients in the second half of life - that is to say, over 35 - there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not one of finding a religious outlook on life.

Looking for spiritual answers stimulates many people to change their emphasis as their life progresses. One way of changing to this state, the journalist and trance medium Maurice Barbanell suggested, is the gain: 45

A knowledge of survival after death, with all its spiritual implications, makes belief in materialism impossible.

Looking into ‘life after death’ and examining all the other questions about life and the afterlife, will draw us away from material considerations as our knowledge expands. In a chapter of his book ‘The Afterlife Experiments’, Gary Schwartz discusses the relationship between the material and spiritual: 46

If we do not primarily spend our time in the search for more money, a more beautiful partner, and a bigger house, or in a competition with people who get in our way, how will we spend our time? Is it possible that we'll spend more time revisiting questions that have troubled us since the beginning of humankind? Where did we come from? When did consciousness begin? Why are we here? Where are we going? As science and spirituality come together, this will enable us to make a collective spiritual advancement that could be greater than at any other time in recorded history.

The problem is that people either think nothing about death or are too frightened to try to get their minds around the questions it stimulates. In the worst case, they bury their heads in the sand as noted by Dr Eben Alexander in his book ‘Proof of Heaven’ which he wrote after a life-changing Near Death Experience: 47

Those who assert that there is no evidence for phenomena indicative of extended consciousness, in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, are wilfully ignorant. They believe they know the truth without needing to look at the facts.

Those of us with a less arrogant view of our own knowledge could well adopt the stance of the spiritual healer Harry Edwards who made the statement that: 48

Peace and brotherhood, to be real, must be based upon an insistent spiritual force, founded on knowledge, recognizing the true perception of life and its purpose. As prejudice recedes and the general acceptance of the implications of survival advances so must our civilization conform more and more to spiritual values, impelling the reconstruction of our social, economic, national, and international codes, developing life on the understanding that human effort should contribute to the peaceful, harmonious, and spiritual progress of humanity. In other words, the aim must be to spiritualize the world.

As I only have a small influence on those around me, the way to achieve this, for me at least, is probably through example. Through my appreciation of the eternal nature of our souls, being this is reflected in everything I say and do, perhaps others will be stimulated to

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:02 29.3 Our World – Materialism and Spirituality Page 9 of 12 think more about what happens after death of the physical body. The ‘psychic barber’ Gordon Smith made the point that: 49

If we all accepted our end in this world while still alive, the chances are that we would behave much better and more mindfully of others, knowing that it would affect our progress in the afterlife.

How this manifests itself, will often appear to be a rebellion against religion and civilisation. Many of the early African missionaries set their hearts on converting the native peoples to the missionary’s particular religion – usually a variation of Christianity. This, more than anything else, has seriously impacted on the traditions and heritage of those native peoples. Many of the natives were reluctant to lose their ancestral belief system and were perceived as being against the progress of civilisation. A report by the Rhodesian Ministry of Information in 1969 provided the view of the Rhodesian people: 50

The spirit world with its host of spirits, some important and some not, is very real in the minds of the African people and this accounts for their adherence to, and reluctance to drop, many customs which stand in the way of progress.

Perhaps, by retaining their traditional beliefs, they remained at a spiritual level greater than any of those who were suggesting that their religion was inferior. Our previous and possibly current ideas of cultural, social and spiritual progress are not necessarily borne out by history. Such native peoples tend to follow systems of belief within which there are many gods – often each one is linked to some aspect of the natural or astronomical world. During séances which were held in the mid-1920s the medium Dion Fortune channelled much knowledge from the Spirit World which included confirmation that: 51

...the primitive religions are along polytheistic lines. Monotheism marks the nadir of materiality and the transition from the involutionary to the evolutionary arc. The Jews, who first achieved this, are the most materialistic of all peoples.

So do single God-based religions tend to lead their followers towards materialism? I would not have thought so, although my experience of polytheistic religions is very limited. One thing that seems significant, however, is the fact that the current expression of the major religions does not challenge the materialistic society which is endemic in the West. The English Christian David Lawrence Edwards believed that manifestation of this can be seen through the watered-down versions of religions that litter the religious landscape of the 21 st century. He argued that: 52

...both the civil religion of contemporary America (i. e. the watered-down 'democratic' faith which pleases millions by confirming what they already believe) and the less compromising and more challenging 'old-time' religion in its various forms are at bottom religions of escape - for, it can be said, none of this religiosity is allowed to argue with the crude materialism which dominates American life...

However, there is still a very active evangelical movement in some counties; the idea that religion, in its current form, is the answer to life’s difficulties. Similarly, in the Western world, there has been engendered a strong belief that science will provide all the answers to both the material and the spiritual questions. In their current forms, neither any of the extant religions, with their proscribed dogmas and creeds, nor science, which refuses to

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:02 29.3 Our World – Materialism and Spirituality Page 10 of 12 seriously investigate man’s spiritual experiences and source of intuitive thought, will provide the answers. In the preface to his book ‘Thoughts in Solitude’ Thomas Merton expressed his view that: 53

No amount of technological progress will cure the hatred that eats away the vitals of materialistic society like a spiritual cancer. The only cure is, and must always be spiritual.

...and the spirit teacher White Eagle concluded that: 54

In this present age, this sense called intuition, hitherto insoluble truths will be solved - truths insoluble to the materialist, however great his or her intellect.

Thus we inevitably are drawn to the same conclusion as the Chinese-American author and physician Adeline Yen Mah arrived at: 55

In terms of material wealth and scientific progress, achievements in the west have been undisputedly awesome in the last two hundred years. But, has western prosperity brought westerners inner contentment and genuine satisfaction? When desire for money takes precedence over human relationships can one be truly happy? ... Many are seeking alternatives to materialism, science, Communism and the institutional religions.

Over the years such alternatives have been created but none appear to have been successful. The leaders of movements such as fascism, communism, socialism, so the Christian agnostic Leslie D Weatherhead informs us: 56

...do not seem to know how to satisfy their followers for the simple reason that the leaders themselves have found no spiritual answer for their persistent problems.

...and he expanded this notion a couple of pages further on in his treatise ‘A Shepherd Remembers - A Devotional Study of The Twenty-Third Psalm’: 57

You cannot make an unselfish world with selfish men. You cannot make a world in which men share the good things of life - which is surely a Socialist as it is a Christian aim - merely by contemptuous and bitter hostility towards those who possess most. You cannot build a city of God with the bricks of jealous hate. Love is essential; and the only reason why we should live is that we realise that we are brothers; and the only basis for brotherhood is the one great Fatherhood of God. The most obvious feature of all these movements is that their leaders seem incapable of bringing their followers where they want to be; and the indictment of modern leadership in a hundred spheres is that it is not leading us where we want to get.

One answer is to develop your own spirituality which has been described by Evelyn Underhill as: 58

Spirituality - correctness of response to God and our eternal surroundings - is most often ignored.

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:02 29.3 Our World – Materialism and Spirituality Page 11 of 12

This must be changed. Certainly take what you can from your underpinning religion but you must accept that there may be areas of it which may throw you off a truly spiritual pathway. Develop your own Philosophy of Life from your beliefs and experiences and make sure that the material and spiritual aspects have the right degree of emphasis; bring balance into your life and maybe to the life of others. The medium Tony Stockwell believed that: 59

...life is not just about material things, it is about developing the spiritual self, creating light and harmony, and changing the world for the better.

...and we can all do it.

1 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. Spirit and Force: I, (Pg 1) 2 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. Spirit and Force: III, (Pg 9) 3 Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall, SQ : Spiritual Intelligence, The Ultimate Intelligence, Bloomsbury, 2001. Chapter 1: Introducing SQ, (Pg 16) 4 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 1 – Intimations, (Pg 5) 5 Edna Dean Proctor, Life Thoughts gathered from the extemporaneous discourses of Henry Ward Beecher’, Ward, Lock and Tyler, 1858. (Pg 80) 6 Maurice Barbanell, This is Spiritualism, The Spiritual Truth Press, 2001. Chapter 21 - The Implications, (Pg 212) 7 John Blofeld, Beyond the Gods, E P Dutton & Co, 1974. Chapter 3 - The Path of Observation and Acceptance. (Pg 55) 8 Michael E. Tymn, The Articulate Dead, Galde Press, 2008. Preface, (Pg xxii) 9 Lance G Trendall, Dead Happy, Lance Trendall Publishing, 1992. 9: At Home with Spirit, (Pg 63) 10 White Eagle, Spiritual Unfoldment 1, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1994. I: A Simple Approach, (Pg 13) 11 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Foreword - By Red Cloud, (Pg x) 12 Margery Kempe, The Book of Margery Kempe, Penguin Books, 2004. Book I: Chapter 65, (Pg 199) 13 Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, Burns & Oates, 1997. 6: Asceticism and Sacrifice, (Pg 95) 14 Dom Aelred Graham, Christian Thought in Action, The Catholic Book Club, 1958. Chapter Five: Self- Fulfilment, (Pg 74) 15 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. Spirit and Force: II, (Pg 5) 16 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part One: Chapter X - Predictions (Climatic Conditions), (Pg 106) 17 Stephen O'Brien, Visions of Another World, The Aquarian Press, 1989. 19 Touching Souls, (Pg 232) 18 William of St Thierrry, On the Nature and Dignity of Love, Mowbray, 1956. Chapter VI - The Five Senses of Love, (Pg 33) 19 Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Jewish & Christian Mysticism - An Introduction, Continuum, 1994. Part I The Jewish Tradition - 5 Modern Jewish Mystics: Dov Baer of Mexhirech and Habad Mysticism, (Pg 78) 20 Oliver Davies, Meister Eckhart - Selected Writings, Penguin Books, 1994. Selected German Sermons: Sermon 30, (Pg 242) 21 Carl Gustav Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Fontana, 1995. XII Late Thoughts I, (Pg 364 / 365) 22 Cyprian, CYPRIAN De Lapsis and De Ecclesiae Catholicae Unitate, Oxford University Press, 1971. The Lapsed – 17, (Pg 27) 23 John Eldredge, The Journey of Desire - Searching for the Life We've Only Dreamed Of, Thomas Nelson, 2001. Chapter One: Our Heart's Deepest Secret - In Defence of Discontent, (Pg 13) 24 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. V: The Other Side of the Coin - 17: Preventing Disaster, (Pg 231) 25 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 1 – Prologue, (Pg 12) 26 Chuang Tsu, Musings of a Chinese Mystic, John Murray, 1927. Random Gleanings, (Pg 100 / 101)

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:02 29.3 Our World – Materialism and Spirituality Page 12 of 12

27 St Augustine, The City of God (De Civitate Dei), J M Dent, 1945. Volume Two: The Fourteenth Book: Chapter XXVIII, (Pg 58) 28 Billy Graham, The Secret of Happiness, Educational Book Exhibits, 1974. Chapter V: Happiness through Hunger and Thirst, (Pg 41) 29 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter III - The Purification of the Self, (Pg 198/199) 30 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter V - Early Mysticism in the Middle East, (Pg 93) 31 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter IV - Early Mysticism in the Near East, (Pg 70) 32 Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi, Penguin Books, 1975. Part Three: Four Major Orders. 1: Chishti Order, (Pg 134) 33 Richard Rolle, The Fire of Love, Penguin Books, 1972. Chapter 23, (Pg 116) 34 Ian Lawton, The Wisdom of the Soul, RSP (Rational Spirituality Press), 2007. 3: Humanity's Past and Future, (Pg 105) 35 'Reader', Features of the Church Fathers, Heath Cranton Limited, 1935. Second Century and Onwards: Cyprian - Epistle I to Donatus, (Pg 41) 36 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. On Freedom to Create, (Pg 85) 37 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 12 - Tradition and Revolution, (Pg 83) 38 Harry Emerson, Listen My Son, The Psychic Book Club, 1945. Chapter Ten: A New Year's Eve Séance, (Pg 54) 39 The Rev. C. Drayton Thomas, Beyond Life's Sunset, Psychic Press, Undated. Chapter I: Why these Chapters are Written, (Pg 4) 40 The Rev. C. Drayton Thomas, Beyond Life's Sunset, Psychic Press, Undated. Chapter VIII: Happiness in the Life Beyond Death, (Pg 57) 41 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section V, (Pg 38 / 39) 42 Thomas Merton, Thoughts In Solitude, Burns & Oates, 1993. Part One: Aspects of the Spiritual Life, (Pg 19) 43 Brian Leslie Weiss, Many Lives, Many Masters, Judy Piatkus, 2002. Chapter Nine, (Pg 122 / 123) 44 David L Edwards, Religion and Change, Hodder & Stoughton, 1974. Part One: Chapter 3 - The Psychological Impact of the Secular Century - The Challenge of Freud, (Pg 132 / 133) 45 Maurice Barbanell, This is Spiritualism, The Spiritual Truth Press, 2001. Chapter 21 - The Implications, (Pg 212) 46 Gary E. Schwartz, The Afterlife Experiments, Atria Books, 2002. Part V: Discovering the Larger Reality. 18 How Our Lives Might Change, (Pg 250 / 251) 47 Dr Eben Alexander, Proof of Heaven, Piatkus, 2014. Chapter 33: The Enigma of Consciousness, (Pg 153) 48 Harry Edwards, The Mediumship of Jack Webber, The Harry Edwards Spiritual Healing Sanctuary, 1978. Chapter I Foreword, (Pg 15) 49 Gordon Smith, Through My Eyes, Hay House, 2007. Chapter 4: Realising Life Beyond death, (Pg 76) 50 The Man & His Ways, Ministry of Information, Rhodesia, 1969. The Man - and his spirits, (Pg 8) 51 Dion Fortune, The Cosmic Doctrine, Helios Book Service, 1966. Chapter XX: Influences of the Manifested Universe, (Pg 98) 52 David L Edwards, Religion and Change, Hodder & Stoughton, 1974. Part One: Chapter 2 - The Social Impact of the Secular Century - The Social Reality of American Religion, (Pg 97) 53 Thomas Merton, Thoughts In Solitude, Burns & Oates, 1993. Preface, (Pg 13 /14) 54 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part One: What the Intuition is, and is not - III: Moving Beyond the Age of Reason, (Pg 29) 55 Adeline Yen Mah, Watching The Tree, Harper Collins, 2001. 1 Watching the Tree to Catch a Hare, (Pg 7 / 8) 56 Leslie D Weatherhead, A Shepherd Remembers - A Devotional Study of The Twenty-Third Psalm, Hodder & Stoughton, 1960. Chapter 3: Green Pastures and Still Waters, (Pg 59 / 60) 57 Leslie D Weatherhead, A Shepherd Remembers - A Devotional Study of The Twenty-Third Psalm, Hodder & Stoughton, 1960. Chapter 3: Green Pastures and Still Waters, (Pg 60 / 61) 58 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VII Education and the Spiritual Life, (Pg 183) 59 Tony Stockwell, Spirited, Hodder Mobius, 2005. Chapter 5 Is There Really Life After Death? (Pg 83)

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:02 29.4 Our World – Materialism Focuses on Self Page 1 of 7

29:4 Our World – Materialism Focuses on Self

Materialism, reinforced by our capitalist society, appears to foster concentration on oneself at the expense of happiness, harmony and humanity’s long-term future. In fact, the 20 th century American who brought science to the people, Carl Sagan, considered capitalism in more detail and wrote: 1

Greed, the Industrial Revolution, the free enterprise system, and corruption of government by the monied are adequate to explain nineteenth-century capitalism.

...which has grown into the uncaring society in which we now live. Most companies which sell goods directly to the public imply through their literature and advertising that their product will, in some form or other, give the purchaser some degree of happiness. We are constantly being told that we can buy our way to happiness. This cannot be further from the truth. The broadcaster and writer Malcolm Muggeridge wrote that the Russian philosopher Leo Tolstoy was: 2

...calling upon a world rushing headlong in the direction of technology, affluence and egotistical pursuit of happiness, to return to (God’s) love, recognising that only the spirit gives life to man.

Malcolm, in his spiritual autobiography ‘Conversion’, also suggested that everyone ought to follow the path which is the opposite direction to that offered by materialism. He suggested a spiritual approach whereby we ought: 3

...to sacrifice rather than grab, to love rather than lust, to give rather than take, to pursue truth rather than promote lies, to humble oneself rather than inflate the ego.

In a similar vein, the American monk Thomas Merton in his most famous book ‘Seeds of Contemplation’ noted that most people do not even recognise this alternative pathway: 4

People who know nothing of God and whose lives are centred on themselves, imagine that they can only find themselves by asserting their own desires and ambitions and appetites in a struggle with the rest of the world.

According to Margaret Smith, over a thousand years ago the Persian Sufi al-Hujwiri informed us that: 5

...the spirits of men are absorbed in their own phenomenal existence, so that their minds fail to perceive the Divine mysteries and their spirits but dimly apprehend the wonderful nearness of God. Man is engrossed with himself and heedless of aught else, and so he fails to recognise the Unity behind all things and is blind to the Beauty of Oneness, and will not taste the joy offered to him by the One, and is turned aside by the vanities of this world...

...and, according to Geraldine Cummins, even in Jesus’ days it was reported that Heli, a vagrant mystic, talking to Jesus said: 6

Verily, boy, the cities are as nests of vipers and toads. There is little pity and scarce

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:13:48 29.4 Our World – Materialism Focuses on Self Page 2 of 7

any hope in them. They are builded for the joy of a few and for the despair of many.

So materialism seems to be spurred on, not through individual hardship, but through discontentment and in search of the temporal and ephemeral; it gives us nothing that lasts, nothing that is eternally worthwhile. In ‘ An Evelyn Underhill Anthology’ compiled by Brenda Blanch, Evelyn is quoted as saying: 7

The practical life of a vast number of people is not, as a matter of fact, worth-while at all. It is like an impressive fur coat with no one inside it.

The late British medium Colin Fry confirmed that, from his experience, this was really the case: 8

We seem to live in an age where society presents us with superficialities and encourages us to compete for non-existent and non-meaningful goals.

We should lament this fact. Teilhard de Chardin was saddened by man’s inability to recognise the vaporous objectives that society seems to place upon each of us in the Western world. He suggested that man: 9

...must lament that he cannot pursue and embrace everything within the compass of a few years. Finally, and not without reason, he is incessantly distressed by the crazy indifference and the heart-breaking dumbness of a natural environment in which the greater part of individual endeavour seems wasted or lost, where the blow and the cry seem stifled on the spot, without awakening any echo.

Some, like you and I, see through much of the smoke and mirrors created by a material focus and could be considered similar to what George Gurdjieff thought of his group of followers who were: 10

...people who have more or less cognised the absurdity of our ordinary life...

...or, in the words of the Japanese visionary Ryuho Okawa, who took materialism to include the search for control over others as well as money and possessions: 11

If we search for earthly power and fame, all we find is emptiness.

Expanding the theme of materialism, there seems to be a desire for intense physical experiences; the rise of more and more extreme ‘rides’ in theme parks is a good example. In Malcolm Muggeridge’s articulate understanding of St Augustine, he recognised that it was easier for us to get inside Augustine’s skin than perhaps it would be for any of the intervening generations. He remarked: 12

The similarity between his circumstances and ours is striking, if not to say alarming. There is the same moral vacuity, leading to the same insensate passion for new sensations and experiences, the same fatuous credulity opening the way to every kind of charlatanry and quackery from fortune telling to psychoanalysis; the same sinister combination of wealth and pointless ostentation with appalling poverty and unheeded affliction. As Augustine wrote “O greedy men, what will satisfy you if God himself will not?”

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:13:48 29.4 Our World – Materialism Focuses on Self Page 3 of 7

Even Carl Jung when thinking about his own physical aspects of life as a student, recognised that he had to go forward: 13

...into study, moneymaking, responsibilities, entanglements, confusions, errors, submissions, defeats.

That is the way of the material world, which we are continuously battling against. Daily we are being offered an opportunity to win large amounts of money for a very small stake – betting shops, casinos and the National Lotteries and similar organisations all prey on people’s desire to get something for nothing. In the book ‘Introduction to the Devout Life’ the accomplished French preacher Francis de Sales similarly described his view of games of chance: 14

Success in these games is not won according to reason, but according to chance, which very often favours him who, as far as skill and industry are concerned, deserves nothing.

And the 12 th century visionary and mystic Hildegard of Bingen touched on this point in a letter to the clerics of Cologne: 15

You do not see God, nor even wish to do so, but you look at your own works and judge them according to your own standards, that is to say, by doing or abandoning at your own pleasure. Oh, what great evil and enmity this is! That a person is unwilling to live an upright life, either for God's sake or mankind's, but, rather, seeks honour without work and eternal rewards without abstinence.

We have to earn what we gain and, more often than not, anything ‘life-changing’ gained through such gambling means increases hardship rather than offsets it – as most of those who have won on the lottery will testify to. This cost is very high as Lorna Byrne noted in typical terms: 16

If we allow Satan into our lives he will come in. He will act as a 'god' and may let great things happen in our lives There may be great wealth, great external success; but at enormous cost.

This ‘enormous cost’ is to our soul and its progress. Although there is only one extant treatise remaining written by Julianus Pomerius, a Christian priest in fifth century Gaul, it nevertheless contains the notion that through material pursuits we suppress our spiritual aspects. He said that such actions: 17

...offend God and cause Him to depart and to abandon proud hearts.

Taking a material outlook will, therefore, cloud our spirituality. This is something that each of us has to overcome – no one else can do it for us. Zodiac, a spiritual teacher, was recorded as confirming this when he said that: 18

...parables of our beloved Master are prized by many but so few have the will or the faith to unravel the many folds which envelop the parables and disclose the truth,

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:13:48 29.4 Our World – Materialism Focuses on Self Page 4 of 7

the beauty and the revelation that are contained therein. The light that is within man often is buried under the bushel of materialism or of self in one of its many forms...

Hence we ought not to be thus absorbed. The past life regression specialist, Michael Newton, believed that: 19

If we become obsessed by our physical bodies, or carried along on an emotional roller coaster in life, the soul can be subverted by its outer self.

We have to accept that the world in which we live, if left to continue as it currently is, will totally undermine our spiritual progress. This situation is little different from the one which Evelyn Underhill encountered in the early 20 th century. She described a world in which: 20

The soul's inherent beauty and possibility are taken and twisted out of shape by our worse than animal acquisitiveness, our steady self-occupation and indifference to the common good.

Understanding this is part and parcel of realising that humanity is a complex web of relationships, and because of this the relationships that we have are all important. Justin Welby, a 21 st century Archbishop of Canterbury, recognised that: 21

Money warps our judgment of wealth and corrupts our appreciation of individuals.

This is a great shame. The mystic and spiritual philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti whilst talking to a group of people including a psychologist, an analyst and a doctor, stressed his view that: 22

Society is man’s relationship with man; its structure is based on his compulsions, ambitions, hates, vanities envies, on the whole complexity of his urge to dominate and to follow. ... Break away from society, of course; be free, not from mere outward things, but from envy, ambition, the worship of success, and so on.

I don’t think that we can do this. If we are to have influence at all on humanity’s future, we must live in the world, in society, whilst maintaining a spiritual focus. In that way our relationships with those we meet, work with and love will have beneficial consequences. Thus we must guard against believing that relationships with others are just for our own benefit; we cannot treat them as being disposable. This was the image that the spiritual author Peter Meadows felt that our current society mimicked: 23

...we now have a society where relationships have become almost as disposable as a razor blade. Once used, we're just tossed in the bin. That hurts.

It is so easy to damage other people by exploitation of friendship. In modern terms, the anonymous abuse through social media has caused much mental trauma. Alongside this, is the abuse of people through a desire to acquire. To progress at the expense of another appears to be the norm observed by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: 24

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:13:48 29.4 Our World – Materialism Focuses on Self Page 5 of 7

The perennial temptations of the market - to pursue gain at someone else's expense, to take advantage of ignorance, to treat employees with indifference - needed to be fought against.

This demonstrates that society considers the individual to be much more important than humanity, and apparently any initiatives to collectively improve are very difficult to achieve. Marcus J. Borg, an American New Testament scholar and theologian, expressed this as: 25

The dream of God - a politics of compassion and justice, the kingdom of God, a denomination-free order - is social and communal, and egalitarian. But our dreams - the dreams we get from our culture - are individualistic: living well, looking good, standing out. ... The individualistic strand has become dominant in our recent history, so that the core value or ethos of contemporary American society is individualism. Our quest - in our work, relationships, families, ambitions, organisations, often our religious practises - is the personal fulfilment of the individual...

Certainly this is true in the material sense, but in the spiritual our focus veers away from ‘self’ to one where love of humanity is crucial. In recognising this we must try to stimulate change; change from an egoistic and material attitude to one which puts relationships in their correct spiritual context; we must not be cowed by all the external pressures which are upon us. Take the observation of the educationalist Rudolf Steiner and guard against it: 26

The waves of outward life press in upon the inner man from all sides, if, instead of controlling this outward life, he is controlled by it.

We must accept that we are the ones in control of our own destiny; our life is our responsibility; no one else can take on our burdens. Many try to put their woes and life’s adversities onto the shoulders of others – leading, of course, to an increasingly litigious society. This ought not to be the case. Greg Braden in his book ‘The Divine Matrix’ referred to Neville Goddard, a man who gave up the entertainment industry to devote his full attention to the study of spiritual and mystical matters, who said: 27

Man's chief delusion is his conviction that there are causes other than his own state of consciousness.

If we can avoid this and bear the trials of life with fortitude and resilience then we will certainly progress along our spiritual journey. We will then have avoided the state described by the 19 th century American preacher Henry Ward Beecher: 28

It is one of the worst effects of prosperity to make a man a vortex instead of a fountain; so that instead of throwing out, he learns only to draw in.

We must, therefore, steer clear of too great a concentration upon ourselves and instead consider how we may help those around us – both in a material and spiritual sense. Letting go of ‘I’ is not easy but it is necessary. Laurie Worger used this notion to express the fact that all the material goods we have are merely objects for which we have custodianship and not possession: 29

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:13:48 29.4 Our World – Materialism Focuses on Self Page 6 of 7

So it is with the "me" and "mine" which in love and fullness can be the "we" of humanity and the "thine" of God, not "my garden", but THE garden, perhaps not even "my" house, but my temporary quarters, for no house is a permanent home.

Look at life without rose tinted glasses; see materialism for what it really is and step back from the brink of being externally driven. Some are so absorbed in their worldly life and in particular their possessions that, as St. Augustine considered: 30

...many a father when he dies, if he could take his possessions with him, would leave nothing to his children.

Fortunately we realise the folly of thinking that material things are more important than spiritual. We must not let our lives slip into the banality of acquisitiveness. In Jostein Gaarder’s excellent introduction to philosophy, ‘Sophie's World’, he explained that after thinking about aspects of life his pupil started to feel that: 31

...at school as well as everywhere else people were only concerned with trivialities.

Thus, we must readily accept the journalist and trance medium Maurice Barbanell’s statement that, in a material sense, man: 32

...may be prosperous; spiritually, he is bankrupt. His knowledge of the earth is massive; his ignorance of himself is appalling. 'Man know thyself,' the ancient injunction, has still to be fulfilled.

Use your abilities not to accumulate in a self-interested way, but to provide yourself with a sufficiently acceptable standard of living which recognises the needs of others. Don’t be led by the temporal attractions of materialism – see them for what they are.

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:13:48 29.4 Our World – Materialism Focuses on Self Page 7 of 7

1 Carl Edward Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997. Chapter 14 : Antiscience, (Pg 260) 2 Malcolm Muggeridge, A Third Testament, The Plough Publishing House, 2002. (Pg 139) 3 Malcolm Muggeridge, Conversion: A Spiritual Journey, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1989. 7: The Journalist, (Pg 67) 4 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 4 - We are One Man, (Pg 38) 5 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 2: Chapter IX - The Mystical Doctrines of Early Sufism, (Pg 200 / 201) 6 Geraldine Cummins, The Childhood of Jesus, Psychic Press, 1972. Chapter XXXVII, (Pg 161) 7 Brenda Blanch, Heaven a Dance - An Evelyn Underhill Anthology, Triangle, 1992. The Spiritual Life, (Pg 13) 8 Colin Fry, Life Before Death, Rider & Co, 2008. Introduction, (Pg 7) 9 Teilhard de Chardin, Le Milieu Divin, Fontana, 1966. The Divine Milieu, (Pg 115) 10 Gurdjieff G I, Life is real only then, when "I am", Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981. Third Talk, (Pg 103) 11 Ryuho Okawa, The Laws of the Sun, Element, 1996. Chapter Four: Ultimate Enlightenment - Shakyamuni's Enlightenment, (Pg 87) 12 Malcolm Muggeridge, A Third Testament, The Plough Publishing House, 2002. About St Augustine ... (Pg 5) 13 Carl Gustav Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Fontana, 1995. III Student Years, (Pg 108) 14 Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Burns & Oates, 1948. Third Part of the Introduction. Chapter XXXII - The Forbidden Games, (Pg 192) 15 The Personal Correspondence of Hildegard of Bingen, Oxford University Press, 2006. Chapter 8: A Sermon. Letter 57 to the Clerics of Cologne, (Pg 110) 16 Lorna Byrne, Angels in my Hair, Century, 2008. Chapter Twenty-Two: Satan at the Gate, (Pg 249) 17 Julianus Pomerius, The Contemplative Life - 'De Vita Contemplativa', Newman Bookshop, 1947. Book Three - Chapter 8, (Pg 120) 18 Gems of Thought, The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Assn, 1989. The Spiritual Life Within Man, (Pg 129) 19 Michael Newton, Journey of Souls, Llewellyn Publications, 2009. Chapter Thirteen: Choosing a New Body, (Pg 248) 20 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. Some Implicits of Christian Social Reform, (Pg 143 / 144) 21 Justin Welby, Dethroning Mammon, Bloomsbury, 2016. Chapter 1: What we see we value, (Pg 21) 22 J Krishnamurti, Commentaries on Living - Third Series, Victor Gollancz, 1961. The Fragmentation of Man IS Making Him Sick, (Pg 91) 23 Peter Meadows, Joseph Steinberg and Donna Vann, Beyond Belief?, Word Publishing, 1999. Chapter 1: Life Sucks, (Pg 15) 24 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 5 - Contribution: The Moral Case for the Market Economy, (Pg 89) 25 Marcus J. Borg, The God We Never Knew, HarperSanFrancisco, 1997. Part III: Chapter 6: The Dream of God - A Politics of Compassion, (Pg 145 / 146) 26 Rudolf Steiner, The Way of Initiation, Theosophical Publishing Society, 1912. The Way of Initiation: III - The Path of Discipleship, (Pg 99) 27 Gregg Braden, The Divine Matrix, Hay House, 2009. Part II: Chapter Three: Are we Passive Observers or Powerful Creators? (Pg 64) 28 Edna Dean Proctor, Life Thoughts gathered from the extemporaneous discourses of Henry Ward Beecher’, Ward, Lock and Tyler, 1858. (Pg 62) 29 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 16: The Influence of Other People, (Pg 153) 30 'Reader', Features of the Church Fathers, Heath Cranton Limited, 1935. Second Century and Onwards: St. Augustine - Sermons of St Augustine, (Pg 77) 31 Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World, Phoenix, 1995. The Top Hat, (Pg 10) 32 Maurice Barbanell, This is Spiritualism, The Spiritual Truth Press, 2001. Chapter 21 - The Implications, (Pg 207 / 208)

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:13:48 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 1 of 30

29:5 Our World - Refocusing Education

The future of our race and our planet rests with the next and subsequent generations. It is each generation’s responsibility to instil all the extant knowledge and experience, and stimulate the correct values into its young so that the right decisions may be made which will continuously advance all that inhabit the Earth. It has ever been true, but it is a tall order.

Within this chapter I make no apology for quoting extensively from Evelyn Underhill’s book ‘The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today’ in which I have found a resonance with my own views relating to the refocusing of the education of our children. Since it is always well, in a discussion of this kind, to be quite clear about the content of the words with which we deal, Evelyn, an English Anglo-Catholic mystical author, describes education as being: 1

...that deliberate adjustment of the whole environment of a growing creature, which surrounds it with the most favourable influences and educes all its powers; giving it the most helpful conditions for its full growth and development. Education should be the complete preparation of the young thing for fullness of life; involving the evolution and the balanced training of all its faculties, bodily, mental and spiritual.

What we are trying to achieve is an appropriate balance of the physical and the spiritual aspects. Generally, if we continue as we are then the comments of the English pathologist, Anglican priest, and spiritual director Martin Israel would apply: 2

That I am the result of the conditioning received from the earliest period of my life, both parental and social, is undoubted. Without the conditioning of education, I would not be able to communicate effectively with other people, nor would I be able to engage usefully in any work. Furthermore, I am the product of my animal inheritance. The impulses driving me to self-preservation and sex are strong indeed, and much of what I believe is autonomous reaction, is really dictated by unconscious urges and impulses.

To avoid this we must not just concentrate on the physical aspects of life, but incorporate an understanding of the spiritual (not necessarily religious) experiences of past and current generations in order to allow children to grow with the right set of values and a balanced attitude. Max Müller, the German-born philologist and Orientalist, who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life, doubted: 3

...whether it is possible to take too high a view of life where the education of children is concerned. It is the one great work intrusted to us, it forms the true religion of life. Nothing is small or unimportant in forming the next generation, which is to carry on the work where we have to leave it unfinished. No single soul can be spared—every one is important...

This does not apply at the present. The philanthropist John Templeton recognised that: 4

...only secular, not spiritual knowledge is respectable. New generations are being educated to be intellectual and cultural adults but spiritual and ethical infants.

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 2 of 30

...and from three mystics of the East we have similar statements. Firstly from Japan, the healer Mokichi Okada’s realisation that: 5

The very premises of the social sciences, the arts, and education will all have to be fundamentally revised in recognition of the spiritual laws of the universe.

Secondly, the Indian teacher, Swami Paramananda explained that within the Hindu sacred texts there was, all those years ago, a realisation that: 6

The ordinary man hears, sees, thinks, but he is satisfied to know only as much as can be known through the senses; he does not analyse and try to find that which stands behind the ear or eye or mind. He is completely identified with his external nature. His conception does not go beyond the little circle of his bodily life, which concerns the outer man only. He has no consciousness of that which enables his senses and organs to perform their tasks.

Thirdly, in the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’ which were brought together by the 19 th century Russian saint Theophan the Recluse, we learn that the Byzantine Christian monk Simeon The New Theologian understood that: 7

It is written of fleshy men that seeing they see not and hearing of Divine things they do not understand and cannot absorb spiritual things because to them they seem utter madness.

It has been suggested by the medium Pamela Young that the Spiritualist Lyceum - their equivalent to Sunday school – did achieve this: 8

Unlike ordinary school where children were often put down and humiliated, at the Lyceum children were encouraged to think creatively and our ideas were regularly complimented.

Unfortunately, the Lyceum no longer exists.

The world of the senses has been given more and more prominence in our education systems at the expense of the spiritual. In fact, it is even worse than this; political imperatives have imposed objectives on all levels of teaching which puts the emphasis not on learning but on passing particular examinations. This is true in most parts of the world even though James Redfield, Michael Murphy, and Silvia Timbers make the following statement about the United States of America: 9

Today, unfortunately, most US schools are caught in a tide of standardised achievement testing, which tends to work against creativity, originality, and the joy of learning. Highest priority is given not to learning in a broad sense, but to learning how to make good grades...

...or as the American professor of literature Hiram Corson wrote in 1896: 10

...the ever-increasing amount and variety of knowledge which students are compelled to acquire in the schools. There is no time left for education.

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 3 of 30

This is the problem of education, which as Evelyn Underhill recognised ought to be more than ‘learning by rote’: 11

Such an education as this has little in common with the mere crude imparting of facts.

This total emphasis on materialism is exacerbated in some schools – particularly those of a single faith - by an emphasis on a particular religion (with all its associated dogma and creeds) which can similarly lead the student away from an open set of values and towards bigotry. This thought came to mind when I read the remarks of the Anglican priest and author David L Edwards: 12

Although time may be given to religious worship and teaching, the mass-media and the schools excite worldly curiosity and desire. In addition to intellectual and cultural awakenings, people are encouraged in 'the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life', in the New Testament's ancient but accurate phrase; and the activities of organised religion are not connected with the things which matter most.

This potential corruption of the minds of our youth was noticed by Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon (commonly known as Madame Guyon) who, around the beginning of the 18 th century asked us to look at human education, which: 13

...is of so little value and yet so much care is given to it. There is that Divine science, and its so important and so necessary yet so neglected.

All aspects of life should be studied in the right way and the apparent barriers between religion and science destroyed. This is not the case yet. Tom McLeish pointed out that: 14

Science and ‘faith’ are often perceived as ‘incompatible’ in surveys of young people in full-time education.

The 20 th century spiritual philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti, during a conversation with an eager follower, commented that: 15

Education is not merely a matter of imparting a technique which will equip the boy to get a job, but it is to help him discover what it is he loves to do. This love cannot exist if he is seeking success, fame or power; and to help the child understand this is education... Unfortunately, no one seems to care about right education, yet it is far more important than any other single factor in bringing about a fundamental social transformation.

This Indian visionary who constantly stressed the need for a revolution in the psyche of every human being and emphasised that such revolution cannot be brought about by any external entity, be it religious, political, or social, went on to say that we should educate our children: 16

...to be completely self-sufficient, not to depend on your own or other people’s

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 4 of 30

favour, to love their work, and to have confidence in their capacity to work without ambition, without worshipping success; you will teach them to have the feeling of cooperative responsibility, and therefore to know when not to cooperate. Then there is no need for your children to inherit your property. They are free human beings from the very beginning, and not slaves either to the family or to society.

This is a tall order even for a refocused education system. We have to start from where we are and take a little step at a time whilst having the long term goal in our ultimate sights. The present situation was described by the transpersonal psychotherapist Sue Minns: 17

Our educational systems are based on the storage of facts and figures - working things out, logical conclusions, cause and effect, and tremendous value is accorded to those who are skilled in mastering the mind in this way.

From this standpoint, we can appreciate the thinking of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks who linked possession of knowledge with creativity: 18

Education - the ability not merely to read and write but to master and apply information and have open access to knowledge - is essential to human dignity. I have suggested that it is the basis of a free society. Because knowledge is power, equal access to knowledge is a precondition of equal access to power. It is also the key to creativity, and creativity is itself one of the most important gifts with which any socioeconomic group can be endowed.

I’ll accept that from knowledge, given freedom of thought and action, creativity can be stimulated but this is still in the worldly arena. I would extend this and introduce a critical approach to knowledge and experience so that our children are not hide-bound by the past, and provide them with a spiritual appreciation which provides confidence in the future. In this way I would agree with another statement of Jonathan Sacks that: 19

Investment in education is the most important way in which a society offers its children a future.

One of the difficulties at the moment is that understanding of spirituality for many is completely missing and for others corrupted. William Law, a Cambridge graduate from 18 th century and spiritual author, believed that: 20

We are all of us, for the most part, corruptly educated, and then committed to take our course in a corrupt world...

The psychic researcher Harry Emerson went further, using a paragraph which emanated from a spirit teacher known as Zuru: 21

It is the want of true spiritual education that is responsible for the indifference to God of the majority of earth people. They have no real belief in God as an indiscriminating power, a Father of all, so a great barrier of materialism has been erected between man and the spirit world.

This obsession with materialism was discussed by the cultural philosopher Rudolf Steiner who wrote: 22

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 5 of 30

The civilisation of the present day is the result of the training of our senses, and of that part of our mind which is occupied with the world of sense.

If our children are not properly educated then we can assume that society as a whole is also limited. This means that our social imperatives are distorted and the external pressures on everyone are at the expense of the spiritual. According to Ben Dupre, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a major 18 th century Genevois philosopher, writer, and composer considered that: 23

...human vice and other ills are the products of society - that the 'noble savage', naturally innocent, contented in the 'sleep of reason' and living in sympathy with his fellow men, is corrupted by education and other social influences.

This corruption was also mentioned by the high level spirit communicating through the American trance medium Phyllis V. Schlemmer: 24

Humanity has created corruption within, which came about because people became more involved in physicalness than in attempting to balance and understand.

This was not the case 800 years ago in China where education was not biased towards learning and regurgitating facts but on the student’s ability to assess a situation. Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh in their book ‘The Path’ explained: 25

By the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, these great governing bureaucracies in China had become truly meritocratic institutions: every single position of power, except for the emperorship, could be gained only by becoming educated and taking the civil service exam. The exam was not aimed at gauging what inborn talents a candidate possessed or what skills and abilities he could demonstrate. Rather, during the exam, a candidate would be asked questions about real-life scenarios that any official would likely face; situations full of moral quandaries and conflicting, incomparable interests. He was not judged on the right answer, because there wasn’t one. He was evaluated on the promise he showed to see the whole picture and navigate complex moral situations. The exam was a measure of goodness.

And this ‘goodness’ was part of the ‘spirituality’ which I suggest should lie within our children’s education. This is not the case now in 21 st century England, where materialism lies at the heart of everything that is taught. This situation must not be allowed to continue; we have to find some way of bringing back into the education system a spiritual perspective. We must try to understand the abilities of our infants, children and young adults in particular, in order to make sure life’s real objectives are recognised. Evelyn Underhill discovered that: 26

Two facts emerge from the experience of all educationists. The first is, that children are naturally receptive and responsive; the second, that adolescents are naturally idealistic. In both stages, the young human creature is full of interests and curiosities asking to be satisfied, of energies demanding expression; and here, in their budding thrusting life for which we, by our choice of surroundings and influence, may provide the objective is the raw material out of which the spiritual

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 6 of 30

humanity of the future might be made.

...and she also noted that: 27

...for the child-mind demands firm outlines and examples and imagery drawn from the world of sense.

And coupled with this, we ought to try to provide answers for the difficult questions which children often raise. Children are psychic and we should be sufficiently aware of their ability to see the spirits of those that have died. We ought not to chastise them for using this ability but foster it to the extent that these children become aware of the fact that life is eternal and the soul never dies. Lance G Trendall in his self-published book ‘Dead Happy’ was saddened that, because this does not happen, people are not even aware of what happens when we die. He wrote that: 28

The situation should not be possible where we can die and not understand what’s going on. By now, in the 20th century, we should know better. We should be better educated or at least, better informed.

There is no absolute proof that there is eternal life, but there is so much experiential evidence that it is foolish to deny that our spirit continues to exist after death. In order to explain many of the concepts of a spiritual life, examples, perhaps through using metaphors, need to be found which are taken from the child’s external world. For example, perhaps to partly explain the proximity of the Spirit World and the process of passing over, the analogy of two rooms close to each other can be used – one the physical world and one the spiritual – and dying to be a simple process of going from one to another where our spirit friends are awaiting our arrival with happiness.

There are many Natural Laws which ought to form part of our children’s education. One which the 20 th century English psychic, medium and spiritual healer Betty Shine felt was important to convey was that of ‘like attracts like’. In her book ‘The Infinite Mind’ she wrote: 29

Where the mind is concerned, I can only repeat that one attracts 'like to like'. Universal Law will always ensure that what is given out will return. I believe that this knowledge should be part of every child's education and should be taught in all of our homes and schools.

So, education is not just for schools; it is first and foremost a family responsibility. The most formative time in a child’s life, when many values are understood and appreciated, is the time up to the start of their formal education. This means that a great onus falls on the shoulders of parents and their family and social environment. Evelyn Underhill confirmed such a situation and wrote that: 30

The first factor of this education is the family: the second the society within which that family is formed.

A spirit teacher communicating through the medium Phyllis V. Schlemmer indicated that it is in this context that a love of the environment and all things therein can be stimulated: 31

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 7 of 30

But most important, those with children must build the structure within these children of great love for all creatures, for all life upon your planet Earth.

Similarly, a questioning approach to life should also be stimulated; it ought not to be constrained by parental beliefs. Certainly what each parent believes will form part of the belief systems of the developing child, but as it grows it ought to be allowed to question and reason for or against those beliefs. Again from Phyllis V. Schlemmer’s book, a spirit communicator said: 32

You know that, many individuals in the mass understand that, but when a mass is totally controlled by religious leaders, it cannot accept learning from others. What is of necessity is the allowance for others to live also. What is necessary also is the allowance of complete education for their mothers, for keeping their mothers in ignorance then breeds ignorance again. We speak now of leadership of a nation that believe a woman has less value, then the corruption ... it was once the same in your own states also, but with education and non-ignorance it moved forward - for in controlling women nations stop their own growth. They have convinced those mothers that it is beneficial for them to be less than they are. It is the will of their civilisation.

Some religions continue to reinforce this environment. Irrespective of this religious context, there are so many parents who have not been taught or realise how to raise their children. This puts the children at an immediate disadvantage. Hazel Courteney, is a British journalist specializing in alternative health and spiritual issues, relayed a conversation with the spirit of Diana, Princess of Wales in which she commented that: 33

...too many children are being brought into the world by parents who are still children themselves, who have never been taught to respect or how to behave in a kind way. Her statement reminded me of my meeting with Francis Rossi of the rock band Status Quo. He told me that at school he was taught to swear and how to spit, but he was never taught how to be kind.

...and at school we learn many things not in the curriculum; we start to learn about the society around us. For some nations, individuals learn from the people around because there is no formal learning in place. Jonathan Sacks believed this to be an indictment on those nations for who every child has an opportunity for schooling. He wrote: 34

The best investment developed nations can make in the developing world - and developing economies themselves - is to ensure that every child has maximal opportunity for learning.

Provided it is learning with the right balance of material and spiritual. No matter what type of environment in which we live, it is initially the parents that do all the teaching; mainly by example. In particular, it is the mothers who begin the education of their children; these are special people who, themselves, must be educated and made aware of the best way to teach their child of the balance between physical and spiritual aspects. Each child retains a very close link with the Spirit World, and it is this which parents must support as the child grows. All children are able to communicate with the Spirit World from when they were born but within 5 years this ability is currently squeezed out of them by parents and society both of who concentrate on the material.

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 8 of 30

However, we are where we are. We should look back at our previous generation and see where our own education has been deficient; this will provide us with at least a starting point for moving forward. This suggestion was made by the Jesuit priest and writer Gerard W Hughes: 35

It is good to ponder the destructive conditioning of previous generations and the destructive conditioning that we perceive in other individuals and other nations, provided it can help us to recognise our own present destructive conditioning, for example the competitive nature of our education system, which then permeates our inner thought patterns and so affects every area of life.

We can look back at the past (even our own past) and use it to benefit what we can teach the next generation. The monk Jean Leclercq accepted that this is useful, but, for our children, also speculated: 36

Why not teach them to speculate on the future, to explore its possibilities and probabilities?

Exploration, questioning our historical truths, mental adventures need to be stimulated in our children. This is not the line which formal education currently takes, as physicist Tom McLeish observed, we should not be surprised when: 37

...most of the goals presented to school pupils constitute arriving at the right answers, rather than formulating the right questions. In science, as in any creative activity, the ‘uphill’ work is the formulation of the problem in the right way. Once this is done the finding of the solution is not the hardest work.

This is where freedom and being allowed to think ‘outside the box’ is important. I had freedom at home and to some extent at school, but what I did not have is grounding in spirituality – as opposed to religion. An area where my own personal formal education was lacking was in the development of any spiritual aspects of my character. Certainly the Christian religion was, in part, drummed into me, but this did very little to help me to bring the spiritual into my daily life. Evelyn Underhill recognised that: 38

...it does not seem to occur to many educationists to give the education of the child's soul the same expert delicate attention so lavishly bestowed on the body and the intellect.

An important aspect of this was considered about 2500 years ago by the Chinese philosopher Confucius who, according to the Chinese-American author Adeline Yen Mah, believed that: 39

Besides cultivating the intellect and imparting knowledge, the purpose of education was also to discipline a student's morals and emotions, as well as to train his character...

Even now this is not happening, and to achieve it, our formal education must change. Over the last fifty years education has changed considerably as Martin Conway noticed: 40

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 9 of 30

No longer is it the case that the content and method of education are given and man required to measure up to it; rather must the contents and methods serve the true needs of man and continually be adapted accordingly.

That is, of course, the case, but the changes have always had the focus on the same sense oriented world. It is this bias that must be amended. The religious and political philosopher Nicolas Berdyaev experienced the same situation in Russia in the mid-20 th century: 41

We must create in our soulless and chaotic world more intense and more profound centres of spirituality. The inertia of political parties, which are necessarily directed towards external activities, is really terrifying and we cannot expect, we must not expect, salvation and renaissance from them.

But it is these political masters that determine overall formal educational curricula. They do have an influence although in order to reach out and create a spiritually oriented society requires, as observed by one of the attendees at a talk by Jiddu Krishnamurti: 42

...a different education, a different world-society, and neither our politicians nor our average educators are capable of this wider vision.

Notwithstanding this observation, the evangelist Billy Graham accepted that: 43

Constitutional and statutory law lacks the essential element to purify human nature. ... All of us agree that one form of government may be better than another, but all forms of government have been inadequate to suppress vice and give universal prevalence to virtue. Rome was no more pure under the eloquent Cicero than under the cruel Nero.

Whatever political regime exists, and these often change quite considerably over time, we must not let the spiritual aspects of life get buried beneath the soil of materialism. We have to set our sights on effective change and try to stimulate all avenues in order to achieve this goal; the politicians, educationalists, our local community, friends and family can all be stimulated to recognise the need for a spiritual dimension in our education. Evelyn Underhill identified that our best hope of giving Spirit its rightful, full expression within our temporal world lies in the future: 44

It is towards that, that those who really care must work. Anything which we can do towards persuading into better shape our own deformed characters, compelling our recalcitrant energy into fresh channels, is little in comparison with what might be achieved in the plastic growing psychic life of children did we appreciate our full opportunity and the importance of using it.

According to Lumsden Barkway, Evelyn is also reported to have said: 45

Did we know our business we surely ought to be able to ensure in our young people a steady and harmonious spiritual growth.

This is not the case ... and whilst current education militates against it, it is not altogether impossible as John Blofeld understood. This British writer on Asian thought and religion,

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 10 of 30 especially Taoism and Chinese Buddhism believed that there is hope because: 46

The effects of a Western education involving the outward-turning of the whole personality do not make attainment of the inner Wisdom wholly impossible.

I am an example of this. In my early years I experienced at first hand Church of England, Methodist and Welsh Baptist variations of Christianity; at Leeds University one of my closest friends was a confirmed Islamist from Iraq; an encounter with the Mirfield Fathers in Leeds; in my early work years I briefly joined the Spiritualist church in Exmouth, Devon. This religious soup simmered and eventually sublimated into my current belief system in which I do not subscribe to any one religion but try, as best I can, to be a spiritual person driven by two objectives: love of my Divine Creator and love, through service, of humanity. Fortunately, my spiritual goals survived through my ‘sense life’ much as Albert Einstein’s did: 47

Explaining why he was unable to think about scientific problems for a year after his final exams, Albert Einstein said: "It is a fact nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry..."

This was emphasised by the communicating spirit in Neale Donald Walsch’s ‘Friendship with God’: 48

You must improve your education systems, reigniting the spirit of inquiry, and the joy of learning, in your schools.

But it is difficult with materialism and lack of spiritual direction on all sides. As with every talent, whether acquired or innate, if you ‘don’t use it then you lose it’. This point was expressed by the 20 th century Chinese Christian missionary Watchman Nee: 49

If man's spirit is divorced from the divine spirit it becomes as useless as the other parts of man.

And it is no different now than in the days of Confucius, in which, so Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh tell us: 50

...society was failing to enable human flourishing.

For this we need imagination. This is the starter for all new hypotheses. Every new idea begins in someone’s imagination. The problem is that most formal education systems stifle imagination. Sue Minns in ‘Soulwork - Foundations for Spiritual Growth’ expressed her view that: 51

Going to school soon changes the focus from the creative use of our imaginations to the left-brain skills that are valued so highly in our contemporary culture. Over- dosing on television and computer games shrivels growth and expression of children's collective imagination. They don't have to invent their own stories because it is done for them. No more fairies at the bottom of the garden - you'll find them on Channel 3.

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 11 of 30

One of the avenues to overcome this is to accept Evelyn Underhill’s advice, and have a stated aim which is to: 52

...induce, in a wholesome way, that sense of the spiritual in daily experience which the old writers called the consciousness of the presence of God.

Our goals have to have a basis in the spiritual which seems to go against the grain for most people. Billy Graham knew that most believe that: 53

...man’s needs were entirely physical, but we are beginning to realise that they are also spiritual.

Corroboration of this came from the mystic Martin Israel: 54

We are schooled in the belief that the measure of successful living is the attainment of definite ends: a place of esteem among our fellows, material possessions and a respectable income, a family responsibility which we parade proudly to the world and in which we can find inner security and repose, a means of employment by which we can affirm ourselves. None of these requirements is contemptible, nor to be disregarded. But they are all subordinate to something even more needful for immediate salvation and eternal hope; a fixed centre within oneself that radiates the fire of God which in turn integrates the personality and leads one on to mental and bodily health.

This cannot be achieved through squeezing the student into a particular religious strait- jacket, but doing the exact opposite; releasing him through knowledge and personal experience to find his own Philosophy of Life and spiritual direction. Carl Gustav Jung knew this was needed: 55

As a rule, however, the individual is so unconscious that he altogether fails to see his own potentialities for decision. Instead he is constantly and anxiously looking around for external rules and regulations which can guide him in his perplexity. Aside from general human inadequacy, a good deal of the blame for this rests with education, which promulgates the old generalisations and says nothing about the secrets of private experience.

Much of this personal experience is psychic in nature which many people often take for granted; for example, intuitions, inspirations, premonitions and similar associated phenomena. However, nothing in our current education even touches on the fact that such experiences may be encountered let alone understood. Thomas Charles Lethbridge, a 20 th century British explorer, archaeologist, parapsychologist and dowsing expert, agreed: 56

Nothing in one's studies suggested that humanity might be fitted with a sixth sense, which could appreciate matters outside time and distance.

Science has little to say about these spiritual experiences – it is too embroiled in the physical and transient world. Of the relationship between science and our intuitive ability, the psychic Heidi Sawyer explained that: 57

As soon as we go to school, much of our sensitivity to our sixth sense is lost. This is

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 12 of 30

because society teaches logic, practicality and 'common sense'. It is emphasised that we must accept only science rather than any form of intuitive instinct. Indeed, science is considered the only acceptable way of knowing, and the scientific method the only acceptable means of arriving at 'the truth'.

What a fallacy. The medium and psychic researcher Alan E Crossley in discussing ‘The Enigma of Psychic Phenomena’ asked: 58

What then is the future of psychic science? I believe that the supernormal faculties which men have demonstrated throughout our history will find their true place. The study and development of these faculties will increase and form part of curriculum in schools, colleges and universities, the same way as other subjects such as art, music, science and medicine.

A similar projection was made by Heidi Sawyer who believed that: 59

...intuition and psychic ability in years to come will be part of our mainstream intelligence.

Based on my own experience, this is very optimistic in the short to medium term. What are the elements which comprise this psychic science, or put another way, what do we need to teach our children in order that they will develop a spiritual understanding and balance it correctly with their material considerations. Probably all children start with a psychic ability and therefore they have to be taught to understand what it is and how to use it positively in their life. This ought to be a major feature of primary school education and it will allow the psychic to be placed in the right context relative to the spiritual and material aspects of their future life.

The way that science touches our lives is through its application. For example in the 1870s the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, who developed an integrated theory of electromagnetism, predicted the existence of radio waves. It wasn’t long after this that Heinrich Hertz became the first person to transmit and receive controlled radio waves. From these small beginnings when Hertz recorded no practical application for his discovery to the tremendous impact that mobile phones make of it now. It is mobile phone technology that is having a tremendous impact on everyone’s lives rather than the knowledge of the existence of radio waves.

The same logic applies to the ability to communicate with the Spirit World. Many people have heard of the possibility of life after death and that some special people can ‘talk to the dead’ but it makes no impression on their lives until they have first hand experience of it through developing their own psychic ability or through messages received through mediums.

So no matter what science discovers or what ideas comes to mind, it is only when it touches the lives of individuals that it has any real impact. This is why development of spirituality is an individual journey and which should start with education. It doesn’t at the moment for it is considered to be in the realms of fiction. For example, the children’s author David Walliams, in his book ‘Awful Auntie’ described a scene where the heroine Stella was being told by the ghost ‘Soot’ how he met his end and why grown-ups cannot see ghosts: 60

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 13 of 30

When you grow up ya stop believin' in magic and all that. So ya can't see anyfink that isn't really there any more. Yer mind has to be open, like a child's.

And most have closed minds. Understanding the Spirit World is one of the avenues which open a person’s spiritual vista. And to reach this education must change. Billy Graham described the situation in the USA in the mid 1970s: 61

You can put a public school and a university in the middle of every block of every city in America – but you will never keep America from rotting morally by mere intellectual education. Education cannot properly be called education which neglects the most important parts of man’s nature. Partial education throughout the world is far worse than none at all if we educate the mind but not the soul.

This statement was made 70 years after the American academic Hiram Corson recommended that: 62

The University of the Future, in order to be a vastly greater power than the University of the Present, must, at least, rank spiritual education with intellectual training and discipline.

...and he went on to suggest: 63

The present signs of the times, however, give promise that humanity, far as it has drifted in one direction, will assert its wholeness, and will 'render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's,' and that the awakening of 'the interior divinity,' of the spiritual instincts and intuitions, will be as much the aim of the education of the future as the exercise of the mere intellect now is. This awakening must begin in infancy, when the child first 'rounds to a separate mind,' and can respond to its mother's smile, and feel her protecting care, and the rosy warmth of her love. Then will the wise mother regard her child as almost wholly an impressionable being, and will see especially to its surroundings and its associations whether they are suitable to be stamped upon its plastic mind.

I agree that starting to embed moral and spiritual values early in life, is one of the keys which will unlock humanity’s brighter future. So we must take the words of Pamela Young to heart and follow her advice: 64

If we put our Spirit mind in the driving seat, instead of our material mind, we really could change the world in the twinkling of an eye.

Whilst this is easy to say, we must try to tease out the elements which allow it to happen. I will try to identify the components which I believe will create the right environment.

At the outset we ought to take the advice of a spirit communicating through Irene Bays who stated that it is very necessary that all young children: 65

...have the correct teachings and are not fed with what I will term bogey stories.

Perhaps one of the first concepts to reveal is the existence of a Spirit World and that

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 14 of 30 inhabitants of that world can communicate with us. Winifred Graham’s father communicating through ‘automatic writing’ explained: 66

I am sure if belief in our nearness, and the actual presence of spiritual and unseen beings on earth were fostered in the young and taught children, they would grow up expecting to get messages and impressions, and not take it as anything out of the way or extraordinary... No one thinks it wrong to stuff a child's brain with untrue fairy tales, but the beautiful fact of spirit communication is condemned and abhorred.

Similarly, another spirit known as Dr. Root talking through the trance mediumship of Mrs Wickland believed that: 67

People should be taught the truth, then, when they pass out, they will look for the spirit world and a happy place beyond instead of a fictitious 'Heaven.'

Underpinning all of this is the fact that our spiritual essence exists for more than the duration of this current life, and that which we carry over into other lives is our soul. Before this life we existed and we will continue similarly after we have departed this earth. We come to earth to learn as the medium Robert Brown understood that those in the Spirit world: 68

...saw the Earth as a great school for education...

...and, according to Evelyn Underhill: 69

The child's whole educational opportunity is contained in two factors; the personality it brings and the environment it gets.

These conditions were established for the incarnating soul before it was born into this life. To ‘prove’ this the Indian philosopher and statesman Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who eventually became the second President of India, reasoned: 70

If we do not admit pre-existence, we must say that the soul is created at the birth of the body. Such a view makes all education and experience superfluous. If the soul is said to be created with a definite nature, it is difficult to understand why such varied natures should be imposed on the souls. Our fates seem to be due to caprice and cruelty.

That surely is not the case. We are empowered with a Divine spark which is eternal and so when our physical body dies, this spark continues to exist. During a séance held in November 1922 the spirit of Madam Blavatsky (founder of the Theosophy movement) communicated the following through the trance mediumship of Mrs Wickland: 71

There is no death, only progression. All should be taught that. Selfishness, ignorance and jealousy would be gone then; doubt would be buried. Love and charity would rule.

This continuity was a point also stressed in ‘Ancient Egypt Speaks’ by Howard Hulme and Frederic H. Wood: 72

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 15 of 30

The 'false ideas put into their minds by Materialism' are bearing bitter fruit in Europe today [1936] . Civil war in Spain, mutual fear and distrust in other Continental nations are the terrible aftermath of a war which twenty years ago was brought about by the stupid belief that might was right... The danger is immediate, and if the race is to be saved from self-destruction brought about by misapplied scientific inventions, some means must be found to bring home to all men the fact that life is continuous: that for each of us the mistakes and wrong-doings of this present life must be worked out in future lives: that payment must be made, individually, and "to the uttermost farthing." "Only knowledge of eternal life will impress people sufficiently to make them desire to change all evil things into good ones. Only the sure knowledge that they carry their load of accumulated responsibilities into the next world will make men feel the necessity for better living. A vague sense of heaven and hell is of no use whatsoever."

Thus we can instil in our children the fact that death is a healthy and inevitable part of our journey. The author Lance G Trendall had a similar view that we ought to: 73

...teach our children that death is a natural part of our Spiritual growth and something to celebrate and feel comfortable about...

Through this everyone will come to understand the reason for our lives, and accept that each of us, within our lifespan, has responsibilities that we cannot off-load and for which we will have to bear the consequences now or in the future. As the Norwegian artist and spiritual educator Jostein Saether explained: 74

What would be the consequences for the world at large if the leaders of commerce, politics and culture were to recognise karma as the practical consequence of more than one life on Earth?

It is not only deeds which carry compensation and retribution but thoughts and words as well. In a communication from her father, who is in the Spirit World, Winifred Graham was told: 75

You never sufficiently train the young to understand this, their thoughts are the last things you talk to them about. Their deeds are often discussed, and condemned, but no one questions them about the most important part of their lives, the marshalling of their inner thoughts down the right track. It has been said that thoughts are verily the things that count most in life, and I am sorry so many mortals are unable to realise this important living truth.

One way in which we can achieve this realisation in everyone is to try to impress on every child that, because each person is a spark of the Divine, they are all important and that their views are just as important as anyone else’s. Coupled with this we ought to foster the feeling of service; to promote a thread in life of help for one’s fellow life travellers. From this we could build a real community spirit which is sadly lacking in today’s world. The psychologists Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall believed this to be a significant crisis: 76

That shared community simply does not exist for most urban people in today's

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 16 of 30

world. We are deeply undernourished in that whole associative, middle layer of the self. We have few collective traditions that point beyond the prosaic, everyday level of life, that ground us in the deeper origin and meaning of our communities and of our life within them... In the absence or poverty of this healthy associative middle, we are left to find or create our own meanings, or just to feel their loss... As a result, too often we seek meaning in distorted or peripheral activities like materialism, promiscuous sex, pointless rebellion, violence, drug abuse or New Age occultism.

We must re-build our communities on collective activity; we have to work for each other through service. The spirit of Diana, Princess of Wales implored us, through Hazel Courteney, to: 77

...begin teaching all children the basics of discipline, love and caring for their fellow men and women by example.

That means that we also have to educate the next generation through our own example. We are the ones who teach our children about their responsibilities. If we can create such community spirit then our children will realise the importance of thinking of others rather than just oneself. Jonathan Sacks informs us that in societies where people are important: 78

Children are habituated into virtues and rules of conduct. They learn to value the 'We' as well as the 'I'. The rewards of a moral order are great.

But effective living only arrives when the ‘self’ is understood and education is of the right type. Jiddu Krishnamurti believed that: 79

Right occupation comes through the right kind of education, and with the understanding of oneself.

Thus, as we educate our children, then they too will have a better foundation from which to grow. One activity which everyone ought to practice is contemplation or meditation. The consequences of frequent meditation are legion. In particular, it brings us not only peace of mind and stillness in life but an increasing connectivity to our own Self. Peter Spink, a Canon of Coventry Cathedral, explained that: 80

The regular practice of contemplative meditation will provide you with the foundation for the building of a kind of watch-tower, a vantage point from which you can look from a new perspective at all life. A learning process has begun. Now you need to foster this widening vision, through wisdom and knowing rather than education.

This therefore provides a supplement to formal learning, and if parents take time to meditate then it becomes far easier to make sure that their offspring continue with it. There is no reason why children cannot be taught this in schools as recommended by Dr. Herbert Benson: 81

Schools should set aside a period of silence during which children could practice this habit, some of them using a secular focus to elicit the relaxation response

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 17 of 30

purely for its health benefits, some eliciting it with prayer...

This is the path to calmness and enlightenment as noted by the philosopher, mystic, and author Ralph Waldo Trine who, from his own experience, knew that: 82

When one ... opens himself to this Spirit of Infinite Wisdom, he then enters upon the road to the true education, and mysteries that before were closed to him.

This is opening of the intuitive door. Combining knowledge with these inspirations move humanity forward much more than assuming that knowledge itself is the ‘be-all-and-end- all’. In my own experience, connecting through meditation not only provides an increasing spiritual understanding but supports and improves our ‘normal’ material life. It puts everything into the right perspective. Without it there is far too much emphasis on the material aspects of life. Neale Donald Walsch’s spirit communicator observed that: 83

For it is still true that most people continue to be engaged by another question altogether. Not, what is the highest [most spiritual] choice, but, what is the most profitable? Or how can I lose the least?

If this is a parent’s way of looking at life, then there is a reduced chance that their children will be any different. Stand on any street in the centre of a large city, as the monk and social activist Thomas Merton did, and notice the activities of many people: 84

And how strange it was to see people walking around as if they had something important to do, running after buses, reading the newspapers, lighting cigarettes. How futile all their haste and anxiety seemed.

So as well as an emphasis on the material, there seems to be an increase in the trivial – those activities that seem to waste our precious time. I am not advocating that life should be all work, but that our play ought to achieve something beneficial to us; simulating the mind, helping us to relax and enjoy our life on earth and not chasing the transient and temporal. So looking at life today, it is not surprising that the 12 th century Benedictine monk William of St Thierrry said of humanity: 85

We can understand hardly anything except concrete and physical things while we are passing through this world like shadows...

We have to make the best of it for ourselves and particularly our family. We have to increase the spirituality of humankind for two reasons. Firstly, to help us as individuals to progress and, secondly, to make sure that our community takes care of itself and its environment. This does not seem to be happening, as the increased dependence and concentration on the material is detrimentally affecting society. Nicolas Berdyaev saw this at first hand in the mid 20 th century: 86

Today Russia has witnessed a great progress in the social sphere and in that of the elementary instruction of the masses, but it has also experienced a great regression in the sphere of the creation of a spiritual culture. It is one of the inevitable results of the massive social re-organisation of society.

We cannot allow this to continue or to promulgate; we must reassess our objectives and

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 18 of 30 priorities especially for our children. This naturally means that we have to change our own attitudes. If we want our children to possess spiritual values then we must enshrine them in our lives and hence in their lives. In the preface to ‘God in the Dock’ by C. S. Lewis he is quoted as saying: 87

...no generation can bequeath to its successors what it has not got.

Similarly, as Evelyn Underhill realised: 88

...the child whose infancy is not surrounded by persons of true outlook is handicapped from the start; and the training in this respect of the parents of the future is one of the greatest services we can render to the race.

Why our society assumes that parents automatically have the right attitude and necessary abilities to raise children baffles me. Schools used to teach topics such as ‘domestic science’ which is only one aspect of making a home and creating a fitting environment for growing children. All youngsters of both genders ought to be taught the rudiments of building an effective home in which children are nurtured and developed ... and, in fact, educated. With the right background, parents will be able to meet the challenge which the spirit of Diana, Princess of Wales laid down for all of us: 89

It is imperative that parents learn to distinguish children that are truly special from those who are simply being naughty so that their 'talents' can be nurtured. Loving discipline is needed.

Our children are our great responsibility and those parents who do not recognise this tend to treat all aspects of the education of their children with indifference. This was observed by the spirit communicator who channelled his teaching through Irene Bays: 90

There is so much upon the Earth plane now that is desirous to the young and there are so many who are given everything and are not taught the values, whether it be the physical values or the spiritual values.

To counter this we have to develop an ethos centred on a moral and ethical code which is able to recognise, as far as possible, right from wrong. In discussing this aspect of life the 4th century mystic John Chrysostom offered the following thoughts: 91

But whether or not they [city or national rulers] have natural gifts, there is another type of gift which surpasses all others: the gift of knowing right from wrong, and the courage to choose what is right. This moral gift is not something which is given at birth, and which some people possess and others do not. The potential moral discernment is like a seed sown in every human heart; and this seed grows only if it is nurtured through reflection, education, prayer and practice. It would be better that our leaders were poor in natural gifts, but rich in this moral gift, than that they exuded authority and wisdom, but used these natural gifts for their own ends.

This morality needs to be cascaded down all the levels of society. This lack of morals has led some scientists to misdirect and misapply their research and findings. In a chapter entitled ‘When Scientists Know Sin’ Carl Sagan wrote in his book ‘The Demon-Haunted World’: 92

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 19 of 30

The price of moral ambiguity is now too high. For this reason - and not because of its approach to knowledge - the ethical responsibility of scientists must also be high, unprecedentedly high. I wish graduate science programs explicitly and systematically raised these questions with fledgling scientists and engineers.

Spirit teachers have been saying this to us for eons. The example below is from a spirit referred to as John J. A. who said, through the trance mediumship of Mrs Wickland: 93

John J.A. Why are not these things taught in the world? Carl Wickland: Would the world listen? Humanity as a whole does not look for the spiritual side of life, but looks for other things. The world is seeking for amusement and for selfish gain, not for truth.

We must develop every talent that emerges in our young – not just those which are perceived as being useful for a material lifestyle. Evelyn Underhill noted that: 94

Where we find individuals with special powers in one of these directions, we aim at their perfect development, at the production of the athlete, scholar, man of action. But it cannot be said that we are equally on the look-out for special qualities of spirit, or that when found, we train them with the same skill and care.

We are blind to spiritual qualities. It is possible, although not yet proven, that ‘indigo children’ (those who are believed to possess special, unusual and often supernatural abilities or characteristics) need to be nurtured and have their skills developed and enhanced. Perhaps those children attributed as being autistic may also fit into this category rather than being labelled as having a ‘learning difficulty’. Time and lots of research will tell whether this is true or not.

For the rest of us who follow, like sheep, the education pathway, materialism is impressed into our psyche all through our formative years. This fact was not lost on the Greek- Armenian mystic George Ivanovich Gurdjieff. In his book ‘Life is real only then, when "I am"’ he recognised that for those people living around the end of the 19 th century: 95

...the chief evil is that on reaching responsible age we acquire - thanks to various conditions of our ordinary existence established by ourselves, chiefly in consequence of the abnormal what is called 'education' - a common presence corresponding to that stream of the river of life which ultimately empties into the 'nether regions,' and, entering it, we remain passive and, without reflecting about the consequences of this state, submit to the flow and drift on and on.

We must break out of this strait-jacket. We must allow creativity to flourish and not force everyone into the same mould those who aspire to learn about a particular subject. Yes! There does have to be formal learning but, as Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows realised: 96

...formal education is not the criteria for success but may be used as another vehicle in the journey.

There is another important point which Ben Goldacre has made. We do not seem to provide our children with sufficient critical nous in order that they may be able to be critical of

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 20 of 30 what they read and are told. Ben regreted that: 97

The process of obtaining and interpreting evidence isn’t taught in schools, nor are the basics of evidence-based medicine and epidemiology, yet these are obviously the scientific issues which are most on people’s minds.

We have to be aware that all that we are told is not necessarily correct – the media and many global organisations do not tell us the whole truth. Their objective is to sell copy or make more money.

Each one of us is unique and, therefore to some extent, this must be recognised by whatever system is in place to teach us what our forefathers have known – both material and spiritual. The system must be sufficiently robust and flexible to impart to its young that which is good and effective and to discard what is wrong. Thomas Merton, in his book ‘The New Man’ identified one aspect which he believed was to be corrected: 98

Humility, therefore, is absolutely necessary if man is to avoid acting like a baby all his life. To grow up means, in fact, to become humble, to throw away the illusion that I am the centre of everything and that other people only exist to provide me with comfort and pleasure. Unfortunately, pride is so deeply embedded in human society that instead of educating one another for humility and maturity, we bring each other up in selfishness and pride.

Putting this into another framework, it is sad that humility seems to recede more and more and the ‘I, me, mine’ becomes more and more dominant. We have to guard against this. In his novel Émile, written in 1762, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the Genevois philosopher, according to Karen Armstrong, tried to show how an individual could be educated in this attitude: 99

It was ‘amour propre’ ("self-love") that imprisoned the soul within itself and corrupted our reasoning powers with selfishness and arrogance. So before he attained the age of reason, a child should be taught not to dominate others; instead of receiving a purely theoretical education, he must cultivate the virtue of compassion by means of disciplined action. As a result of this training, when his reasoning powers finally developed, they would not be distorted by egotism.

Thus, we can collectively change the state of society by adjusting the way we educate, in the broadest sense, our children. Change is imperative but, as the Persian Sufi Al Ghazzali recognised: 100

Men are the enemies of things they do not know.

That is, change is difficult to stimulate unless, of course, it is a natural and accepted process from the very beginning, as Evelyn Underhill believed: 101

Young people therefore should constantly be encouraged to face as practical and interesting facts, not as formulae, those reactions to eternal and this-world reality which used to be called our duty to God and our neighbour; and do concrete things proper to a real citizen of a really theocratic world. They must be made to realize

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 21 of 30

that nothing is truly ours until we have expressed it in our deeds. Moreover, these deeds should not be easy. They should involve effort and self-sacrifice; and also some drudgery, which is worse. The spiritual life is only valued by those on whom it makes genuine demands. Almost any kind of service will do, which calls for attention, time and hard work. Though voluntary, it must not be casual: but, once undertaken, should be regarded as an honourable obligation.

This is education in the fullest sense of the word. Through this way of thinking we can also engender a sense of responsibility in parents and in the child for their own education. This was considered true for the Quaker Christine Davis who recalled that in her childhood: 102

...there was still a strong sense in Scotland that education was a responsibility; that you worked to better yourself and others, and that through learning, you could go far. Superficially, the meritocracy started in Scotland; however, in another, and much deeper sense, the 'democratic intellect' permitted and encouraged those of ability to exercise their gifts for the good of all.

As you can imagine, the quality of our teachers has a very great impact on our learning progress. Again Evelyn Underhill recognised this and wrote: 103

It is in the enthusiastic imitation of a beloved leader that the child or adolescent learns best.

We learn well through example; through seeing our teachers ‘walk the talk’. This will demonstrate that learning is a continuous process – it does not stop with the end of formal education. The English theologian, Martin Conway, outlined that the term ‘education’: 104

... is still commonly held to refer to a process directed towards a point where education will cease in favour of that which it was education for.

...and he went on to say: 105

Moreover, in almost every field from the rarefied to the humdrum - even cooking, in an age where foreign produce becomes widely available - human knowledge increases and moves on so fast that all sorts of continuing education and re- education becomes necessary. Learning and doing are not two consecutive stages so much as two constantly related elements, and the term 'education' refers to the whole. Once you really embark on the process of education you are involved in it for life.

The process of formal education combined with an understanding of life experiences form part of a continuing process of change in all of us. The mystic Frederick Crossfield Happold in discussing ‘Religious Faith and Twentieth-Century Man’ provided us with his summarised view of continuing change: 106

Each man stands where, by divine providence, he is. Put in another way, he is inevitably conditioned by race, environment, heredity, education and experience. The two statements can mean the same thing. He did not start with a clean slate; he was partially made before he was born. And all his life he is continually being re-

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 22 of 30

formed and re-made or is continually re-making and re-forming himself. The germ, which was himself when he entered the world, with all its latent potentialities, has been in a perpetual state of evolution. Everything, institutions, social patterns, systems of thought, evolves in accordance with this same pattern. The primal germ, with its latent potentialities, is played upon by environment - and, I would say, by Spirit - and perpetually changes until it reaches its eventual consummation.

When we put all this together we can form an informal Philosophy of Life. This is never a one-off activity; it is on-going and as we recognise any change in our knowledge and experience then this adjusts our philosophy. Evelyn Underhill understood that everything is brought together in this way: 107

Further, in all this teaching, those inward activities and responses to which we can give generally the name of prayer, and those outward activities and deeds of service to which we can give the name of work, ought to be trained together and never dissociated. They are the complementary and balanced expressions of one spirit of life: and must be given together, under appropriately simple forms. Concrete application of the child's energies, aptitudes and ideals must from the first run side by side with the teaching of principle.

Education is not a one-off activity finishing when we finally leave the education system and start to earn our living. Learning is life-long and much more so in the rapidly evolving technological environment of the 21 st century. Jonathan Sacks supported this view: 108

In fact, so rapidly are technologies changing that the idea that education is confined to childhood will have to be revised in favour of lifelong learning...

I continue to return to the thread running through the changes necessary to our overall learning principles - spirituality. It is a change of emphasis; a change of direction and once achieved then we will be able to use the same phrase as did Mère Ignace in a letter written in August 1836 in Ghent to Sister Augustine: 109

To ensure this, dear Sister, often emphasise in your instructions to the children how vain and foolish it is to be governed by the maxims of the world, and to become their slave.

Materialism has a lot to answer for – it corrupts our youngsters and destroys our planet. Advice about this has been around for millennia. The spirit communicating through John Scott when discussing the value of Native North American teachings remarked that: 110

I do not think that Indian teaching can offer one whit more than you will find in the Bible if you read it with intuition. There is far more to be found in that collection of sacred writings than the interpretation of orthodox churches shows. There is room for much explanation from the psychic point of view, and an earnest, well-educated man needs no other literature to teach him the theory and practice of spiritualism in its best sense. He will find indeed a spirituality which Indian teaching seldom gives and a psychic method which has never been surpassed.

This does not necessarily mean that we have to teach our children to become neither Christians nor ‘Bible-thumpers’ to move their spirituality forward. Evelyn Underhill had

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 23 of 30 this broader perspective and understood the limitations of many religious teachers: 111

It does not seem to occur to most teachers that religion contains anything beyond or within the two departments of historical creed and of morals: that, for instance, the greatest utterances of St. John and St. Paul deal with neither, but with attainable levels of human life, in which a new and fuller kind of experience was offered to mankind.

Perhaps not all of us can be stimulated through biblical reading and contemplation. For those who do not have a leaning towards spiritual aspects of life, the apparent ‘dryness’ of much of the Bible and other Scriptures may militate against even taking them off the shelves and dusting them down. However, if spirituality were given a real face in the light of experience, then there is no reason why anyone cannot respond to spiritual triggers rather then material. According to the saint of the Russian Orthodox Church Theophan the Recluse: 112

"Religious faith is instilled through education." It does not instil it, but develops it and gives it a definite form. Every newborn enters into a society that has faith. The faith of society becomes his faith, as with other things. An aptitude for faith, however, and its requirement for the soul, are not instilled by society. It is the same with respect to knowledge. Society, through education, transmits the knowledge it has accumulated to its new member, but does not give him the aptitude for knowledge. This aptitude is an inherent property of the mind.

This inherent quality is one with which we are born. Our soul seems to have an impulse to develop through one or more earth lives and the associated experiences, and this must be fostered by the overall education that we receive – Plato recognised this: 113

For the soul on her journey to the world below takes nothing with her but her training and education.

What we learn now, we never lose. Such education is life-long (at the very minimum) and as Michael Hollings pointed out in the foreword to Terry Tastard’s book ‘The Spark in the Soul’: 114

It is also important to realise that God’s work often, perhaps normally, takes a long time. Not enough weight is given to this education which God works in and with each person.

There is one spin-off to this overall and balanced education which was highlighted by a spirit known as William Y Senior: 115

The teaching of children should be very different from what it is. Children should be taught about God in Nature, taught that God is Love. If they were properly taught you would not have any crime. They would love Nature, they would love animals, they would love humanity at large. But they are taught not to worship Nature.

Back in the early 18 th century missionaries believed that native Africans needed to be ‘converted’ to the Christian religion. Through this process humanity has lost much and the

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 24 of 30 lives of many Africans have been changed for the worse. Within the subsequent 100 years people like the German Protestant theologian Ernst Troeltsch were suggesting that: 116

...the Foreign Mission enterprise of the Church ought not to aim at converting men, but at uplifting them by education.

Education is the key! If that education includes real appreciation of nature, the physical and spiritual necessities, then the Earth will become a peaceful and harmonious planet.

My love of nature was stimulated by my Victorian born father, and in like manner I have given my own children a similar appreciation of our environment and all that lives therein. This love, for that is what it is, is further developed as we take our transition into the Spirit World. This has been expressed by the visionary and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg who informed us that: 117

...all children who die, whether baptised or unbaptised, whether Christian or Gentile, are given immediately into the care of the wisest angels and are trained and educated to become angels likewise.

...and Robert Brown the English born medium also understood our education does not stop with our death: 118

What I believe is meant by growing up [in the spirit world] is the maturing and education of the real you, which is why we continue to evolve even in the spirit world. We have tasks and lessons in the spirit world, and clearly they are not tasks that necessitate a material condition, but the world that we find ourselves in after passing is exactly as we choose to think it.

Just to provide an example of such education in the Spirit World, when Rev. G. Vale Owen described the scene where a theatre full of students were taught about the nature and anatomy of animals: 119

The animals about the walls were also used for a like purpose. One would be vivified by these powerful rays and brought forth into the centre of the hall. When so treated it could walk of itself like a live animal, which it was temporarily, and in a certain restricted way. When it had ascended a platform in the centre space, then it was treated with the enlarging rays - as I may call them, not knowing their scientific name - and then with others which rendered it transparent, and all the internal organism of the animal became plainly visible to the students assembled. Those who were of that settlement said that it was very beautiful sight to see the whole economy of the system of animal or man at work so displayed. Then it was possible to bring over the living model a change, so that it began to evolve backward - or should I say "involve"? - towards its simpler and primal state as a mammal, and so on. The whole structural history of the animal was shown in that life-like process. And often when the first period of its separate existence as a separate creature was reached, the process was reversed, and it passed through the different stages of development, this time in their correct order and direction, until it became again as it is to-day. Also it was possible for any student to take charge and continue the development according to his own idea, and this not of the animals alone, but of the heavenly bodies, and also of nations and peoples, which are dealt

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 25 of 30

with in another hall, however, specially adapted to that study.

Oh that this were available here! We can only hope that this three-dimensional image scenario could be a variation of one of the developments of a future generation of television.

In terms of how our formal education system ought to look I can only throw out some ideas – I’ll leave it to the educationalists and similar professionals, through inspired thoughts, to come up with a blueprint for a future which balances spiritual and material considerations. Nevertheless, I can give you a couple of recommendations. The first was taken by James Redfield, Michael Murphy and Silvia Timbers from magazine articles and George Leonard’s eloquent book 'Education and Ecstasy' (1968). He has proposed daring and creative ways in which schools at every level can simultaneously cultivate our physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual capacities: 120

In such schools, he writes, students can: * learn the commonly agreed upon skills and knowledge of the ongoing culture (reading, writing, figuring, history, and the like), and to learn them joyfully * learn how to ring creative changes on all that is currently agreed upon * learn delight, not aggression; sharing, not excessive acquisition; and uniqueness, not narrow competition * learn heightened awareness of emotional, sensory, and bodily states and, through this, increased empathy for other people * learn how to enter and enjoy varying states of consciousness in preparation for a life of change * learn how to explore and enjoy relations between people * learn how to learn, because learning - a word that includes singing, dancing, interacting, and much more - is the main purpose of life.

Neale Donald Walsch also believed that: 121

Re-creating school is not all we need to do. We need to make it clear that we are never going to ignite the thinking process and encourage independent inquiry if we allow our children to spend twenty hours a week watching television, then twenty hours more glued to video games. Children will not learn much that way.

The mystical writer Evelyn Underhill, in her book ‘The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today’, added that: 122

...it is that the slow quiet pressure of tradition, first in the home and then in the school, shapes the child during his most malleable years. We, therefore, are surely bound to watch and criticize the environment, the tradition, the customs we are instrumental in providing for the infant future : to ask ourselves whether we are sure the tradition is right, the conventions we hand on useful, the ideal we hold up complete. The child, whatever his powers, cannot react to something which is not there; he can't digest food that is not given to him, use faculties for which no objective is provided. Hence the great responsibility of our generation, as to providing a complete, balanced environment now, a fully-rounded opportunity of response to life physical, mental and spiritual, for the generation preparing to succeed us.

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 26 of 30

Such education as this has been called a preparation for citizenship. But this conception is too narrow, unless the citizenship be that of the City of God; and the adjustments involved be those of the spirit, as well as of the body and the mind. Herbert Spencer, whom one would hardly accuse of being a spiritual philosopher, was accustomed to group the essentials of a right education under four heads: First, he said, we must teach self-preservation in all senses: how to keep the body and the mind healthy and efficient, how to be self-supporting, how to protect one self against external dangers and encroachments. Next, we must train the growing creature in its duties towards the life of the future : parenthood and its responsibilities, understood in the widest sense. Thirdly, we must prepare it to take its place in the present as a member of the social order into which it is born. Last: we must hand on to it all those refinements of life which the past has given to us the hoarded culture of the race. Only if we do these four things thoroughly can we dare to call ourselves educators in the full sense of the word.

...and finally, from the same pen, I leave you with a summary of what I think is our educational objective: 123

It is our business to prepare, so far as we may, a favourable atmosphere and environment for the children who will make the future: and this environment is not anything mysterious, it is simply ourselves. The men and women who are now coming to maturity, still supple to experience and capable of enthusiastic and disinterested choice that is, of surrender in the noblest sense will have great opportunities of influencing those who are younger than themselves. The torch is being offered to them; and it is of vital importance to the unborn future that they should grasp and hand it on, with out worrying about whether their fingers are going to be burnt. If they do grasp it, they may prove to be the bringers in of a new world, a fresh and vigorous social order, which is based upon true values, controlled by a spiritual conception of life ; a world in which this factor is as freely acknowledged by all normal persons, as is the movement of the earth round the sun.

So we must have emblazoned in our minds the words of the spirit of Dodi Fayed which was recorded by Hazel Courteney: 124

Children are your future, so teach them well.

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 27 of 30

1 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VII Education and the Spiritual Life, (Pg 177) 2 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 1: The measure of a man, (Pg 12) 3 Max Müller, Thoughts on Life and Religion, Archibald Constable and Company, 1905. Children, (Pg 12) 4 John M Templeton, The Humble Approach - Scientists Discover God, Collins, 1981. IX. The Benefits of Competition, (Pg 87) 5 Mokichi Okada, Johrei - divine light of salvation, Society of Johrei, 1984. Part Two: Dynamics of Spiritual Healing: 4 The Way of Nature: Nature Farming, (Pg 128) 6 Swami Paramananda, The Upanishads, Grange Books, 2004. Kena - Upanishad - Part One: II, (Pg 85 / 86) 7 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part One: St. Simeon The New Theologian - Practical and Theological Precepts: 175, (Pg 139) 8 Pamela Young, Hope Street, Coronet, 2011. Part One: A Spiritual Childhood, (Pg 42) 9 James Redfield, Michael Murphy, Silvia Timbers, God and the Evolving Universe, Bantam Press, 2002. Part Three - Participating; 13: Transforming Culture: The Transformation of Education, (Pg 166) 10 Hiram Corson, LL.D., The Voice and Spiritual Education, Macmillan, 1914, (Pg 12) 11 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VII Education and the Spiritual Life, (Pg 178) 12 David L Edwards, Religion and Change, Hodder & Stoughton, 1974. Part One: Chapter 1 - Religion and the World's Coming of Age – Secularisation, (Pg 17) 13 Madame Guyon, Spiritual Torrents, Christian Books, 1984. Part I: Chapter 2, (Pg 8) 14 Tom McLeish, Faith & Wisdom in Science, Oxford University Press, 2014. Chapter 8: Mending Our Ways, Sharing Our Science and Figuring the Future, (Pg 234) 15 J Krishnamurti, Commentaries on Living - Third Series, Victor Gollancz, 1961. Psychological Revolution, (Pg 46) 16 J Krishnamurti, Commentaries on Living - Third Series, Victor Gollancz, 1961. Psychological Revolution, (Pg 47 / 48) 17 Sue Minns, Soulwork - Foundations for Spiritual Growth, College of Psychic Studies, 2003. Chapter 2: Meditation, (Pg 19) 18 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 7 - Creativity: The Imperative of Education, (Pg 137) 19 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 7 - Creativity: The Imperative of Education, (Pg 137) 20 William Law, A serious call to a Devout & Holy Life, J M Dent, 1906. Chapter XVIII, (Pg 231) 21 Harry Emerson, Listen My Son, The Psychic Book Club, 1945. Chapter Twelve: Marie Corelli Manifests, (Pg 59) 22 Rudolf Steiner, The Way of Initiation, Theosophical Publishing Society, 1912. The Way of Initiation: 1 - The Superphysical World and its Gnosis, (Pg 50) 23 Ben Dupre, 50 Philosophy ideas you really need to know, Quercus, 2007. 46 – Leviathan, (Pg 186) 24 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. II: Planet Earth - 7: Life on Earth, (Pg 91) 25 Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh, The Path, Viking, 2016. 9: The Age of Possibility, (Pg 187) 26 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VII Education and the Spiritual Life, (Pg 186) 27 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VII Education and the Spiritual Life, (Pg 195) 28 Lance G Trendall, Dead Happy, Lance Trendall Publishing, 1992. 4: How to Deal with Ghosts – Rescue: what is a rescue? (Pg 31) 29 Betty Shine, The Infinite Mind, Harper Collins, 2000. Chapter 21: Horror, Violence, and the Paranormal, (Pg 141) 30 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VII Education and the Spiritual Life, (Pg 179) 31 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. V: The Other Side of the Coin - 17: Preventing Disaster, (Pg 236) 32 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. IV: Vital Links in the Chain - 13: Hoovid Branchings, Hebrew Roots and the Crescent, (Pg 180) 33 Hazel Courteney, Divine Intervention, Cico Books, 2002. Chapter 18: The Higher Realms, (Pg 231) 34 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 7 - Creativity: The Imperative of Education, (Pg 136)

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 28 of 30

35 Gerard W Hughes, God in all Things, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Chapter Eight: Pilgrimage - Our Own Conditioning as a Key to Inner Freedom, (Pg 147) 36 Jean Leclercq, Contemplative Life, Cistercian Publications, 1978. Tradition and Evolution, (Pg 22) 37 Tom McLeish, Faith & Wisdom in Science, Oxford University Press, 2014. Chapter 7: A Theology of Science? (Pg 194) 38 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VII Education and the Spiritual Life, (Pg 183) 39 Adeline Yen Mah, Watching The Tree, Harper Collins, 2001. 4 Do Not Do to Others What You Do Not Wish Others to Do to You, (Pg 56) 40 Martin Conway, The Undivided Vision, SCM Press, 1966. Chapter Three - Where are we headed?: History, (Pg 53) 41 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. Social Revolution and Spiritual Awakening, (Pg 49) 42 J Krishnamurti, Commentaries on Living - Third Series, Victor Gollancz, 1961. The Fragmentation of Man IS Making Him Sick, (Pg 92) 43 Billy Graham, The Secret of Happiness, Educational Book Exhibits, 1974. Chapter VI: Happiness through Showing Mercy, (Pg 66) 44 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VII Education and the Spiritual Life, (Pg 177) 45 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. IV The Spiritual Life: I Life, the School of Love: Education for Love (The Life of the Spirit), (Pg 107) 46 John Blofeld, The Wheel of Life, Rider & Co, 1959. Chapter 11 - The Tibetan Borderlands and Initiation, (Pg 237) 47 James Redfield, Michael Murphy, Silvia Timbers, God and the Evolving Universe, Bantam Press, 2002. Part Three - Participating; 13: Transforming Culture: The Transformation of Education, (Pg 165) 48 Neale Donald Walsch, Friendship with God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1999. Seven, (Pg 126) 49 Watchman Nee, When is My Spirit Normal?, Ministry of Life, 1927. Chapter 1 - The Dangers of Spiritual Life, (Pg 142) 50 Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh, The Path, Viking, 2016. 4: On Decisions: Mencius and the Capricious World, (Pg 58) 51 Sue Minns, Soulwork - Foundations for Spiritual Growth, College of Psychic Studies, 2003. Chapter 4: The Chakras, (Pg 48) 52 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VII Education and the Spiritual Life, (Pg 195 / 196) 53 Billy Graham, The Secret of Happiness, Educational Book Exhibits, 1974. Chapter VI: Happiness through Showing Mercy, (Pg 68) 54 Martin Israel, The Pain That Heals, Hodder & Stoughton, 1981. Chapter 9: Strength in Weakness, (Pg 96) 55 Carl Gustav Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Fontana, 1995.XII Late Thoughts I, (Pg 362) 56 T C Lethbridge, The monkey's tail, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969. Eight, (Pg 88) 57 Heidi Sawyer, Why My Mother Didn't Want Me To Be Psychic, Hay House, 2008. Chapter 2: What Are Psychic Development and Intuition? Society Teaches Head, Not Heart, (Pg 23) 58 Alan E Crossley, The Enigma of Psychic Phenomena, Alan E Crossley, 1974. Chapter 6 Some Personal Views and Observations – Conclusion, (Pg 86) 59 Heidi Sawyer, Why My Mother Didn't Want Me To Be Psychic, Hay House, 2008. Chapter 12: Psychic Children, (Pg 142) 60 David Walliams, Awful Auntie, Harper Collins, 2014. Chapter XIV: Ghost Snot, (Pg 154) 61 Billy Graham, The Secret of Happiness, Educational Book Exhibits, 1974. Chapter VI: Happiness through Showing Mercy, (Pg 67) 62 Hiram Corson, LL.D., The Voice and Spiritual Education, Macmillan, 1914, (Pg 53) 63 Hiram Corson, LL.D., The Voice and Spiritual Education, Macmillan, 1914, (Pg 55) 64 Pamela Young, Hope Street, Coronet, 2011. Part Four: The Work, (Pg 251) 65 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Three: Chapter III - Spiritual Teaching (Teaching the Young), (Pg 270) 66 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Belief in Spiritual Communication, (Pg 42) 67 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XVI: Philosophy - Experience, December 24, 1919, (Pg 454) 68 Robert Brown, We Are Eternal, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Part Two: Chapter 5 - In My Father's House, (Pg 77)

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 29 of 30

69 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VII Education and the Spiritual Life, (Pg 180) 70 Radhakrishnan, An Idealist View of Life, Unwin, 1980. Chapter VII : Human Personality and its Destiny - 9. Rebirth, (Pg 230) 71 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XV: Theosophy - Experience, November 1, 1922, (Pg 426) 72 A. J. Howard Hulme and Frederic H. Wood, Ancient Egypt Speaks, Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter X - Why Ancient Egypt Spoke, (Pg 153 / 154 / 155) 73 Lance G Trendall, Dead Happy, Lance Trendall Publishing, 1992. 13: Rescue Work – Summary, (Pg 94) 74 Jostein Saether, Living With Invisible People - A karmic autobiography, Clairview, 2001. Epilogue 75 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. The Power of Thought, (Pg 21) 76 Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall, SQ : Spiritual Intelligence, The Ultimate Intelligence, Bloomsbury, 2001. Chapter 2: The Crisis of Meaning, (Pg 25) 77 Hazel Courteney, Divine Intervention, Cico Books, 2002. Chapter 18: The Higher Realms, (Pg 232) 78 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 4 - Control: The Imperative of Responsibility, (Pg 79) 79 J Krishnamurti, Commentaries on Living - Third Series, Victor Gollancz, 1961. Self-Interest Decays the Mind, (Pg 154) 80 Peter Spink, Beyond Belief, Judy Piatkus, 1996. 6: The How of Learning, (Pg 80) 81 Herbert Benson, MD with Marg Stark, Timeless Healing - The Power and Biology of Belief, Scribner, 1996. Chapter 13: Timeless Healing - The Relaxation Response in the Schools? (Pg 290) 82 Ralph Waldo Trine, In Tune with the Infinite, G Bell & Sons, 1931. Chapter VI - Wisdom and interior Illumination, (Pg 104) 83 Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God - Book 1 An uncommon dialogue, Hodder & Stoughton, 1997. Chapter 8, (Pg 129/130) 84 Thomas Merton, Elected Silence, Hollis and Carter, 1950. Part Three - True North, (Pg 282) 85 William of St Thierrry, On the Nature and Dignity of Love, Mowbray, 1956. Chapter XIV - The Beatific Vision, (Pg 58) 86 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. Freedom to Create and the "Fabrication" of Souls, (Pg 89) 87 C S Lewis, God in the Dock, Fount, 1998. Preface (by Walter Hooper), (Pg viii) 88 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VII Education and the Spiritual Life, (Pg 178 / 179) 89 Hazel Courteney, Divine Intervention, Cico Books, 2002. Chapter 4: The Return, (Pg 52) 90 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Three: Chapter XI-Thoughts of Love (Universal Illness), (Pg 357) 91 John Chrysostom - The Golden Voice of Protest, Arthur James, 1996. (Pg 40) 92 Carl Edward Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997. Chapter 16: When Scientists Know Sin, (Pg 291) 93 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XII: Selfishness - Experience, October 22, 1916, (Pg 282) 94 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. The Education of the Spirit, (Pg 61) 95 Gurdjieff G I, Life is real only then, when "I am", Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981. Third Talk, (Pg 106) 96 Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows, Pathway of the Immortal, International Publications Inc, 1980. Chapter XII: Keeper of the Light, (Pg 249) 97 Ben Goldacre, Bad Science, Fourth Estate, 2009. And Another Thing, (Pg 334) 98 Thomas Merton, The New Man, Burns & Oates, 1985. Spirit in Bondage, (Pg 71) 99 Karen Armstrong, The Case For God, Vintage Books, 2010. Part Two: The Modern God - 9 Enlightenment, (Pg 212) 100 Al Ghazzali, The Book of Knowledge, SH. Muhammad Ashraf, 1991. Section III Determining How Much is Praiseworthy (to acquire) of the Praiseworthy Sciences, (Pg 105) 101 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VII Education and the Spiritual Life, (Pg 196) 102 Christine A M Davis, Minding the Future, Quaker Books, 2008. Chapter 1 - What have I inherited? The roots of my stewardship, (Pg 15) 103 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VII Education and the Spiritual Life, (Pg 187)

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.5 Our World - Refocusing Education Page 30 of 30

104 Martin Conway, The Undivided Vision, SCM Press, 1966. Chapter Six - Into the way of it: Educating Christians, (Pg 107) 105 Martin Conway, The Undivided Vision, SCM Press, 1966. Chapter Six - Into the way of it: Educating Christians, (Pg 107 / 108) 106 F C Happold, Religious Faith and Twentieth-Century Man, Pelican Books, 1966. 13 The Idea of Intersection, (Pg 158) 107 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VII Education and the Spiritual Life, (Pg 196) 108 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 7 - Creativity: The Imperative of Education, (Pg 139) 109 Mère Ignace Goethals - Third Mother-Genera of the Sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur, A Member of the Same Congregation, Alexander Ouseley Limited, 1934. Chapter VII: Assistant to the Mother-General (1836 - 1838), (Pg 129) 110 John Scott, I Lent a Hand to a Ghost, Psychic Press, 1950. General, (Pg 178) 111 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VII Education and the Spiritual Life, (Pg 189) 112 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 76 Temptations from Unbelievers, (Pg 302) 113 Plato; Selected Passages, Humphrey Milford, OUP, 1945. Chapter II - The Spiritual Life: Love, (Pg 45) 114 Terry Tastard, The Spark in the Soul, Darton Longman and Todd, 1989. Forward (by Michael Hollings), (Pg x) 115 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XVI: Philosophy - Experience, October 27, 1920, (Pg 432) 116 Hugh Ross Mackintosh, Types of Modern Theology, Nisbet, 1949. VI: The Theology of Scientific religious History, Ernst Troeltsch – Chapter 4: The Laws of Development and Revelation, (Pg 202) 117 George Trowbridge, Swedenborg - Life and Teaching, Swedenborg Society, 1935. Trowbridge takes the following thought from Swedenborg: (Pg 187) 118 Robert Brown, We Are Eternal, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Part Two: Chapter 7 - Life after Life, (Pg 140) 119 Rev. G. Vale Owen, The Life Beyond the Veil, Thornton Butterworth, 1929. Chapter III: From Darkness into Light - Saturday, October 11, 1913. (Pg 82 / 83) 120 James Redfield, Michael Murphy, Silvia Timbers, God and the Evolving Universe, Bantam Press, 2002. Part Three - Participating; 13: Transforming Culture: The Transformation of Education, (Pg 164) 121 Neale Donald Walsch, Friendship with God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1999. Seven, (Pg 127) 122 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VII Education and the Spiritual Life, (Pg 181 / 182) 123 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VIII The Life of the Spirit and the Social Order, (Pg 216) 124 Hazel Courteney, Divine Intervention, Cico Books, 2002. Chapter 20: The Vision, (Pg 242)

DAJ 20/12/2019 18:59:30 29.6 Our World - Social Acceptability Page 1 of 6

29:6 Our World - Social Acceptability

In each one of us, there appears to be a fundamental need to have significant relationships with other people. Perhaps this harks back to ancient times when our security, reproducibility and overall viability were determined by collective rather than individual actions. In order to be part of such a group, everyone needed to be socially acceptable; they had to ‘fit in’.

Around the 15 th century in Europe, technological and social changes started to impact on life. This expanded so much over the next couple of centuries that by the mid 18 th century parts of Europe were heralding the Industrial Revolution. At this time scientific advances and their innovative applications through engineering and technology brought massive growth in agricultural and industrial production. With these emerged economic changes which totally affected the lives of ordinary people, particularly changes in the rural landscape which often became increasingly urban. Against this background a more materialistic philosophy began to emerge in all aspects of society and this progressed to such a degree that material success and progress became the highest values in life – to the detriment of moral and spiritual values.

Therefore, being accepted in society is about having similar values to those people to whom you do, or wish to, associate. You can imagine that this causes real difficulties when our own Philosophy of Life appears to contradict those of the majority of society. Scientists who investigate spiritual or psychic phenomena are often starved of research funding and, more often than not viewed, as weirdoes. This view has also been portrayed in the media and so society continues to support the majority whilst denigrating the pioneers. Some time before the 6 th century B.C. Zoroaster had a similar view: 1

1. The inferior man 2. Is attempting to hinder from progress 3. Those who are the bearers 4. Of the Cosmic Order

...and centuries later the 17 th century Bishop of Geneva, Francis de Sales, confirmed that: 2

...the world, on the contrary, always thinks evil, and when it cannot find fault with our actions, it finds fault with our intentions. Whether the sheep have horns or not, whether they be black or white, the wolf will not fail to devour them if he can.

So taking a spiritually obvious line in one’s life is often a route which, in so many ways, separates us from the majority. What we say and what we do are sufficient to allow us to follow our spiritual journey without shouting our philosophy from the roof-tops. Nevertheless, often decisions that we make cut across what most would do; this may serve as a sufficient reason for us to be considered strange. The British career military officer serving in the Indian army as Lieut.-Colonel, and psychic researcher Roy Dixon-Smith summarised this and wrote: 3

We all know that those very qualities of unselfishness and lack of greed for power and material possessions which mark the evolved soul, are the primary handicaps to worldly success.

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:14:53 29.6 Our World - Social Acceptability Page 2 of 6

Because of this many people are wary or even afraid to buck the trend; to stick out against the pressures of society. The 18 th century English mystic William Law recalling his own experiences in his book ‘A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life’ wrote: 4

Others have frequent intentions of living up to the rules of ... perfection, which they are frighted [we would use frightened] from by considering what the world would say of them.

More recently Peter Spink, an English Anglican priest, rounded on financiers and politicians for whom, because of their devotion to material and self-inflating attributes, a cynical view awaits: 5

The all-pervading pressure [in the material world] is to project the right, i.e. acceptable image. Increasingly the personality becomes the creation of those whose financial interests lie in its successful implementation. The same applies to politicians. Elections are won or lost according to the perception of personality. Increasingly, the gap between reality and the acceptable mask widens. Occasionally the mask fails through a moral lapse or the flagrant breaching of conventional behaviour. Disillusionment and cynicism result.

This does not seem to change them however – they still follow an increasingly egoistic life- style. So there doesn’t seem to be much chance of politicians changing our country’s social attitudes for the better. Now and again there is an exceptional person who will take a stance which involves spiritual values – Mohandas Gandhi was one such pre-eminent political and ideological leader. Others do not appear to have taken his lead; there is still an excess of materialistic outlook. We cannot let this dampen our resolve to pursue a life which, whilst it centres on the spiritual, allows us to live in a material society. Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemane, Kentucky, who was aware of the material vagaries of most people, pleaded that: 6

The murderous din of our materialism cannot be allowed to silence the independent voices which will never cease to speak: whether they be the voices of Christian saints, or the voices of Oriental sages like Lao-Tze or the Zen masters, or...

Using a similar analogy Michael Mitton, once an honorary canon of Derby Cathedral, stressed that we should be wary of society in which we live which is: 7

...a world that is going insane with noise, activity and superficiality.

Michael also explained that: 8

...by and large, life, for many of us, still goes at a breathless pace, and that lack of breath is endangering our souls.

...and creating havoc with people’s lives. Max Müller , the German-born philologist and orientalist, who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life, was acutely aware of the chasm between those who follow a material life and those who are determined that spirituality is the way forward. He suggests that; 9

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:14:53 29.6 Our World - Social Acceptability Page 3 of 6

If you want to be at peace with yourself, do not mind being at war with the world.

For this will be the case for many years yet. Each of us, however, can prevent this, in part, by making sure that we are able to follow the advice of the Welsh poet William Henry Davies which he expounded in his poem ‘Leisure’:

What is this life if full of care We have no time to stand and stare? No time to stand beneath the boughs And stare as long as sheep, or cows. No time to see, when woods we pass, Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass. No time to see, in broad daylight, Streams full of stars, like skies at night. No time to turn at Beauty's glance, And watch her feet, how they can dance. No time to wait till her mouth can Enrich that smile her eyes began. A poor life this, if full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.

So make sure that you take time out to take your ease and bring your mind back from the material humdrum world into one of silence and peace. This is not escapism; it is creating space in your life to breathe the fresh air of spirituality and doing this regularly will make it easier. The 19 th century Russian Saint Theophan the Recluse indicated to the religious that the more contact that we have with the overly material the easier it is to accept it: 10

God grant that such a feeling - rejecting worldly life and amusements - always be within you. But it is also possible to fall in love with such things. It is obvious that you should not come into contact with such a life. The second time around, it will not seem so destructive and disturbing; the third time, even less so, and then it will not even seem bad at all. As they say about vodka, with the first glass you are just breaking the bonds, with the second glass you soar like an eagle, and after than you just pour.

Perhaps, for some, drinking is a response to social isolation. This loneliness may well be created by quite a recent phenomenon; the advent of social media which supports instant and often anonymous communication without any social contact. Technology has developed so quickly, that it has outpaced society’s ability to accommodate it. In this context, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks referred to the concept of ‘cultural lag’, as coined in 1964 by the American sociologist William Ogburn, which is: 11

...a state, like now, in which material culture, such as technology, is being transformed faster than non-material culture such as modes of governance and social norms. When the world out there is changing faster than the world in here - in our mental and emotional responses - our environment becomes bewildering and threatening. Societies take time to change. So do people.

The young readily accept such changes; the old have more difficulty and hence the

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:14:53 29.6 Our World - Social Acceptability Page 4 of 6 generation gap of understanding increases dramatically. Nevertheless, technology will continue to develop apace and because we haven’t really come to terms with how best to control and use these modern developments, unscrupulous people and organisations will use it for their material benefit. We must make sure that our spiritual journey is not compromised by our own use of such technology. According to Martin Israel, whose spirituality developed from discussions with his family’s servants in South Africa, we should be: 12

...leaving all behind us that offers spurious comfort at the cost of inner development. ... An especially dangerous snare on the path is our subservience to the canons of the world’s approval and our dependence on the rewards this servitude promises.

It is easy to let our ego get the better of us but we must have a spiritual and wider perspective as the Rosicrucian Lonnie C. Edwards recommended: 13

We must broaden our objective from that of a personal evolution to that of the evolution of all humanity, for all living beings.

We must not succumb to the wiles of the material world which judges us according to our possessions and industrial output. On this, Michael Mitton recognised that: 14

Our value is defined by our productivity and industriousness. It is a bitter fruit of our industrialised society

Kindness, compassion and all those qualities associated with the term ‘love’ are considered secondary. It is our responsibility, in our own lives, to make sure that this love is our first objective. Even many of those who live their lives within a religious context are not immune from this problem, as Frederic Percy Harton, who served as Dean of Wells Cathedral in the 1950s, noted: 15

Immersed in the world, they tend to conform to its standards, allowing public opinion to obscure the will of God;

This, as the young French mystic Simone Weil explained is: 16

The trap of traps, the almost inevitable trap, is the social one. Everywhere, always, in everything, the social feeling produces a perfect imitation of faith, that is to say perfectly deceptive.

Deception is a creed of the material world; advertising tries to sell us happiness, politicians cloud the truth with weasel words, industrialists and financiers use ‘smoke and mirrors’ to stop us from understanding the truth of their actions. An instance of this was the banking crisis of 2008 as described by the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby: 17

To put it simply we found ourselves with a banking system that was both out of control and uncontrollable. It is a system that generates debt for people who can't pay it back, owed to those who can't afford to lend it in the first place. And we wonder why people were surprised that it ended in tears. This is really not the place for a discussion of fractional reserve banking (the idea

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:14:53 29.6 Our World - Social Acceptability Page 5 of 6

that banks can lend out money that they do not really have), but it does provoke some very serious questions about the way the markets saw the world, and the resulting way that societies, central bankers, customers, you name it, saw and see the world.

As far as you can, keep your life and your mind away from involvement in such machinations and take the recommendation of the spirit who channelled his teaching through the medium Beatrice Russell: 18

...you must not become entangled in ideologies, controversies, passions and the strife of nations.

You are above such things and in our life we should listen to the words of the 16 th century Spanish mystic Teresa of Avila and: 19

...never pay heed to such matters of popular opinion.

...because from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s philosophical perspective: 20

Society is always idolatrous and exaggerates the merits of those who work to vulgar ends.

If you have to exist in this very material world, be careful not to be duped by the majority; always be yourself – caring, loving and honest. I have seen first hand the ability that some people possess to distort the outcomes of meetings to their own ends. Similarly, because of people’s desire to conform and not be socially out on a limb, the results of some meetings does not really represent the inner feelings of the attendees. The 20 th Century Anglican rector Graham Jeffery in ‘The Rabbi's Tale’ explains that: 21

This, particularly in committees, leads to a common mind that is not 'common' at all. Indeed, I am not sure if the resolutions of our meetings and recent Sanhedrims reflect at all the personal feelings of those present.

Don’t worry if you don’t ‘fit in’; stand your spiritual ground. Your destiny is in following your own spiritual pathway and do not be distracted from that journey by the material route that others are travelling.

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:14:53 29.6 Our World - Social Acceptability Page 6 of 6

1 The Zend Avesta of Zarathustra, International Biogenic Society, 1973. GATHAS 11: YASNA XLVI, I, (Pg 61) 2 Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Burns & Oates, 1948. Fourth Part of the Introduction. Chapter I - That we must pay no heed to what the Children of the World Say, (Pg 218) 3 Roy Dixon-Smith, New Light on Survival, Rider & Co, 1952. Part Two: Chapter XIII: Psychology and Reincarnation, (Pg 243) 4 William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life - extracts, Mowbray, 1981. Conquest of the World, (Pg 41) 5 Peter Spink, Beyond Belief, Judy Piatkus, 1996. 8: Relationships and the Human Condition, (Pg 118) 6 Thomas Merton, Thoughts In Solitude, Burns & Oates, 1993. Preface, (Pg 12 / 13) 7 Michael Mitton, Wild Beasts and Angels, Darton Longman and Todd, 2000. Introduction, (Pg 7) 8 Michael Mitton, Wild Beasts and Angels, Darton Longman and Todd, 2000. Chapter 3 - The Value of the Sick, (Pg 64) 9 Max Müller, Thoughts on Life and Religion, Archibald Constable and Company, 1905. The Art of Life, (Pg 3) 10 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 3 Emptiness, (Pg 37) 11 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 4 - Control: The Imperative of Responsibility, (Pg 69 / 70) 12 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 5 - The Hollow Image, (Pg 38) 13 Lonnie C. Edwards M.D., Spiritual Laws That Govern Humanity and the Universe, Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, 2015 - Kindle version. Chapter 14: A Call for Healing and Peace 14 Michael Mitton, Wild Beasts and Angels, Darton Longman and Todd, 2000. Chapter 3 - The Value of the Sick, (Pg 65) 15 F P Harton, The Elements of the Spiritual Life: A study in Ascetical Theology, SPCK, 1950. Part I - Chapter III Actual Grace, (Pg 22) 16 Simone Weil, Waiting on God, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Essays: Forms of the Implicit Love of God, (Pg 129) 17 Justin Welby, Dethroning Mammon, Bloomsbury, 2016. Chapter 1: What we see we value, (Pg 29 / 30) 18 Beatrice Russell, Beyond the Veils through Meditation, Lincoln Philosophical Research Foundation, 1986. Inner Knowledge, (Pg 45) 19 Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection, Sheed & Ward, 1984. Chapter XXI, (Pg 92) 20 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natural History of Intellect, Solar Press, 1995. II. Celebration of Intellect, (Pg 117) 21 Graham Jeffery, The Rabbi's Tale - Letters from Gamaliel, Palm Tree, 1989. Letter Fifteen, (Pg 44)

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:14:53 29.7 Our World – Materialism and Peace Page 1 of 9

29:7 Our World – Materialism and Peace

Spirituality and peace go hand in hand, and following on their coat tails emerges freedom. Many seek peace and happiness within a material context, and it eludes them; the only route to a peace which ‘passeth all understanding’1 is to have a spiritual outlook on life and everything therein. If we develop an increasing love of humanity and gratitude to our Creator, then we will expand our understanding of our eternal nature and through this knowledge and experience we will recognise the temporal nature of this world in which we elected to live. Part of this process will be recognition of the transient nature of the material and we will believe, as did, according to the author Alan Young, the legendary spiritual master of the ancient wisdom St Germain when he said: 2

The importance of maintaining a feeling of peace and love cannot be emphasised too strongly.

Hence the statement by Walter Hilton, an English Augustinian mystic: 3

It is good for a man to be at peace with all things...

Often spirituality is considered to be synonymous with purity, and through this link the Augustinian monk Thomas A Kempis, in the 15 th century, wrote: 4

A very quiet heart has he Who cares for neither praise not cursing, If his conscience be but pure, he is at peace and content.

...and he also understood that peace cannot be found through material searching: 5

Seek true peace in the heavens, not on earth, Not among men, nor in the rest of creation, But in God alone.

The problem is that most people are not doing this; the material seems to be the sole driver. Marcus J. Borg, the American New Testament scholar, theologian and author, was at pains to point out that: 6

Our modern preoccupation with producing and consuming leads us to live on the surface level of reality and to seek our satisfaction in the finite.

And this is the opposite of what ought to happen, as it was anonymously written in the Theologia Germanica: 7

...true peace and rest lie not in outward things.

Over the last couple of hundred years, contentment has been eroded through the advance of a materialistic outlook cynically stimulated by the media and commerce. In 1976 the American Evangelical Christian theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor, Francis Schaeffer described the situation: 8

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:15:20 29.7 Our World – Materialism and Peace Page 2 of 9

Gradually, that which had become the basic thought form of modern people became the almost totally accepted viewpoint, an almost monolithic consensus. And as it came to the majority of people through art, music, drama, theology, and the mass media, values died. As the more Christian-dominated consensus weakened, the majority of people adopted two impoverished values: personal peace and affluence. Personal peace means just to be let alone, not to be troubled by the troubles of other people, whether across the world or across the city - to live one's life with minimal possibilities of being personally disturbed. Personal peace means wanting to have my personal life pattern undisturbed in my lifetime, regardless of what the result will be in the lifetimes of my children and grandchildren. Affluence means an overwhelming and increasing prosperity - a life made up of things, things, and more things - a success judged by an ever higher level of material abundance.

What Schaeffer has described is the antithesis of what we seek; love of God and loving service to humanity. Accepting that we are all different gives us a starting point from which we can become non-judgmental and compassionate towards everyone. People are important and one of our roles in life is to support others. The spirit linking through Irene Bays insisted that: 9

Until man respects man there will not be peace.

Many religious put this in the context of their own religion, which you can see from the words of the Jesuit priest Gerard W Hughes: 10

Spirituality is a matter of becoming more attentive and responsive to the Holy Spirit dwelling within us and among us: the Spirit of love and compassion, forgiveness and reconciliation, peace and justice.

Let me give you a few more quotations, which express a link between peace and following the Divine Will; from Ralph Waldo Trine, Georges Huber, Don Piper, and Therese of Lisieux respectively:

To be at one with God is to be at peace . 11

A deep sense of peace is one of the characteristics of God's friends . 12

Even though I don't have full answers to many of my questions, I do have peace. I know I am where God wants me to be. I know I'm doing the work God has given to me . 13

...yet in the depths of my soul I never ceased to have the profoundest peace because I sought the will of God alone 14

This peace, to which they all refer, is not transient; it does not vanish like the pleasure obtained from satisfying material desires. The mystical writer Evelyn Underhill in her book ‘The Fruits of the Spirit’ stated: 15

Peace and joy are necessarily permanent characteristics of true spiritual life...

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:15:20 29.7 Our World – Materialism and Peace Page 3 of 9

You can imagine using John Tauler’s analogy of a glass where the more we remove material considerations, the more capacity there will be for the spiritual. In other words, following a spiritual life is one of the factors which help us to avoid material snares. Henry Ernest Hardy, who is more often known as Father Andrew, an Anglican friar and Church of England clergyman, knew from his own experience that: 16

The fullness of the divine life within us must expel from us all that is not good, and flood and fill us with all that is. The result of this will be a state of equanimity. There is something wrong with us if our lives lack peace and religious joy.

The teaching spirit Zodiac recommended that we can protect ourselves if we: 17

Draw the curtain of peace around you and shut out thoughts of anger, thoughts of ill- will.

Continuing with a protection type of analogy, we can consider that a spiritual shield could form part of the armoury of those who follow a cloistered life. Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk himself, said that: 18

The interior 'conversion' that makes a monk will usually show itself outwardly in certain ways: obedience, humility, silence, detachment, modesty. All of these can be summed up in the one word: peace.

However, it is not necessary for us to follow a monastic lifestyle in order to gain peace. According to Margaret Smith, Hasan al-Basri, a Muslim theologian and scholar of Islam who dies in the 8 th century B. C., is reported as saying: 19

He who is content, who needs nothing, and who has sought solitude apart from mankind will find peace...

So don’t hang your hat on the material peg; reflect your spirituality to all and be at peace both within and without or as the New Age author Diana Cooper mentioned: 20

Peace within leads to peace in your life.

Peace is a consequence of the life you lead not something to be sought in its own right; it is a characteristic of your soul developed though following your spiritual pathway. This was expressed in ‘In Tune with the Infinite’ by the American philosopher and mystic, Ralph Waldo Trine: 21

Peace lies not in the external world. It lies within one's own soul.

The relationship between improved godliness or spirituality and inner peace is very strong. Martin Israel indicated that: 22

The spiritual ascent is, in essence, one of inner tranquillity in which we may become attuned to the voice of the soul within us.

Confirmed by Michael Newton, this spiritual ascent of individuals has been increasing as the centuries pass: 23

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:15:20 29.7 Our World – Materialism and Peace Page 4 of 9

However, I do think each century brings improvement of awareness in all humans.

In reality, whilst each of us is following our spiritual pathway, life will always have its ups and downs. There will be times when our state of tranquillity is sorely tested and a peaceful state seems hard to maintain. Perhaps in a few thousand years and many lives on earth we may be able to say that we have achieved a peaceful state of being, but in the meantime we would do well to acknowledge the hesitancy of the anonymous author of ’The Cloud of Unknowing’ who knew that: 24

Experience will teach you that in this life there is no absolute security or lasting peace.

Whilst I’m no great fan of some of the ideas espoused by Sigmund Freud, depending on how you considered the words he used, he did have one exceptional statement to make. Considering ‘nature’ as representing man’s material desires, then the statement: 25

For the principle task of civilisation, its actual raison d’être, is to defend us against nature.

...is one which I would subscribe to. It is our responsibility, to stimulate everyone to improve their spirituality which eliminates their material tendencies and thereby vastly increases their tranquillity. This is because peace gives us freedom; freedom from temptation; freedom from oppression; complete freedom. Mère Ignace Goethals, the third Mother-General of the Sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur, recorded in her notes from a particular retreat: 26

I feel that the more generously I give myself to God, the freer I shall be.

Freedom is not just about liberty. Gerard W Hughes gave an impressive example in his book ‘God in all Things’: 27

One can suffer severe restrictions upon one's liberty while remaining free. This truth is strikingly affirmed in the diary of Alfred Delp, a German Jesuit priest who was imprisoned by the Nazis and eventually executed in 1945. In an entry in his diary which he made while imprisoned, his hands bound with chains, Delp managed to write of the great inner freedom he was experiencing. Living true to his inner convictions had brought him to imprisonment, but he delighted in it. Freedom is about being true to the deepest desires within us. Such fidelity is incompatible with servitude or coercion in any form, whether enslavement to a despot, a totalitarian government or to a religious system.

...and this complete freedom came from an inner spiritual peace which can be developed by careful application and patience. The life of the modern Spiritualist and mystic Pamela Young became increasingly peaceful. She described her development as: 28

We were learning to be sensitive and find peace, to see ourselves as Spirits who were having a human experience.

Aldous Leonard Huxley, in conveying this link between spirituality and peace, wrote that

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:15:20 29.7 Our World – Materialism and Peace Page 5 of 9

François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, more commonly known as François Fénelon, a French Roman Catholic archbishop and theologian, insists: 29

...upon the need for "calm and simplicity", why St Francois de Sales is never tired of preaching the serenity which he himself so consistently practised, why all the Buddhist scriptures harp on tranquillity of mind as a necessary condition of deliverance. The peace that passes all understanding is one of the fruits of the spirit.

You cannot reach this level of tranquillity without effort. It is not just thinking about it now and again; it must be at the heart of everything that you do. In addition, regular mediation and contemplation must be part of the process. In the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’ it is understood that: 30

He who strives daily towards peace and silence of the mind, and who seeks it with diligence, will easily scorn all sensory things, lest he labour in vain.

...and a part of this process was outlined in the ancient Rosicrucian text ‘Unto Thee I Grant’: 31

Put a bridle on thy tongue; set a guard before thy lips, lest the words of thine own mouth destroy thy peace.

Thus being prudent in words and deeds will help us towards a peaceful life. Within a meditative state we will also be open to intuitive thoughts from our spirit guides – peace is a key to this as Martin Israel recognised: 32

The key to a real unfolding of latent talents is a state of balance. Once there is outer calm and inner tranquillity, the work of the Holy Spirit, Who is the source of inspiration, can proceed through an efficient organism.

Meditation has always been a key element in spiritual development. Setting aside time each day to meditate brings untold benefits for both the material and spiritual aspects of our lives. The Tibetan Dzogchen lama Sogyal Rinpoche has travelled the world for over 30 years trying to convey the idea that: 33

...meditation the true practice of peace, the true practice of non-aggression and non-violence, and the real and greatest disarmament.

Another important consequence of having a tranquil disposition is that there is the ability to accept all that life throws at us. This was at the heart of the philosophy of St. Augustine for he wrote: 34

...I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content

...and, again, from the ancient tome ‘Unto Thee I Grant’ is the advice: 35

...be satisfied with a little is the greatest wisdom; and he that increaseth his riches increaseth his cares; but a contented mind is a hidden treasure, and trouble findeth it not.

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:15:20 29.7 Our World – Materialism and Peace Page 6 of 9

Following a spirit life (aka doing God’s Will) will create in us a peaceful demeanour. Quoting from Isaiah 26:3, Rick Warren wrote: 36

You, LORD, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you.

It is not just the Abrahamic religions that strive for inner peace; those born in the East have always had peace as a golden thread. A professor of Comparative Religion and a Methodist minister Geoffrey Parrinder, in discussing Chinese Cults and Taoism, revealed that: 37

...as a personal religion and an individual philosophy of life Taoism is of great and abiding value. Its exaltation of nature mysticism and inward calm have been and are likely to remain an integral part of Chinese life and culture.

However, one aspect of spirituality which I believe is central to effective progress is love; in particular love for one’s fellow travellers. The Russian philosopher Nicolas Berdyaev, from his personal perspective, realised that: 38

True love and respect for liberty presupposes love and respect for the liberty of others.

From a spirit communicator recorded in Phyllis V. Schlemmer’s ‘The Only Planet of Choice’ we are given: 39

The two words 'love' and 'peace' mean the same in our world as in your world but the vibration (or feeling) is experienced differently. It gives you peace, with peace you can then love, and love is necessary for the evolution of all the beings on this planet.

No one is perfect. There will be times when your ego gets the better of you and puts a strain on a relationship. It is important that as soon as possible the rift is healed – and it is always healed by one party in the relationship who must be sufficiently magnanimous to use the words described by Agnes Sanford: 40

...for the words which make peace are "I'm sorry."

Doing so is a sign of great strength not of weakness, for as Zodiac remarked: 41

Blessed are the peacemakers.

...and it all starts with the individual as the Rosicrucian Lonnie C. Edwards recognised: 42

All expressions of peace - be they personal, ethnic, religious, national, or international—begin within the personal aspiration of the individual. From there it grows and manifests in all human behaviour.

Those who take on this peacemaking role for nation states ought themselves to have a high degree of spirituality and be at peace within themselves. This point was expressed by the group of spirits communicating through Phyllis V. Schlemmer: 43

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:15:20 29.7 Our World – Materialism and Peace Page 7 of 9

How can the nations exist in peace when the people do not exist in peace within themselves?

So a nation’s peace with other nations can only be developed through the inner peace of its peoples. The Welsh healer Jack Angelo understood this necessary condition: 44

Peace on earth depends on the peace within our hearts and minds. Because of the laws that govern the effects of energy, balance and harmony have to begin with ourselves.

Each of us should we aware that as a cog in the national wheel, we have an important part to play. The difficulty is that many of the decisions affecting us and our environment are completely beyond our control. This fact was recognised by Jonathan Sacks, a British rabbi, philosopher and scholar of Judaism and he recorded this thought as: 45

At the core of our culture is the knowledge that too much of what happens to us is beyond our control, the result of economic choices or political decisions taken far away by people we will never meet nor be able to identify.

We do not have to let this deter us from doing all we can in furtherance of peace and tranquillity. Every step we take along this road will potentially help others. Douglas Dales, in his book ‘Called to be Angels’ cited the Russian saint, St Seraphim of Sarov who proclaimed: 46

Have peace in yourself and thousands will be saved.

This was also confirmed by that great spiritual teacher White Eagle who said: 47

You speak of peace, you pray for peace, you seek peace on earth. The way to realise this ideal is to live in tranquillity yourself. To attain this tranquillity of spirit, surrender life and all it means to God...

Is it that simple? Each human being must follow a spiritual pathway and thereupon will be peace on Earth. One of the insurmountable problems is the variety of religious experience and the basic difference in the way people throughout the world understand life. The English are so different from the Greeks; the Greeks different again from the Sudanese; the Sudanese from the Koreans; and so on. It is only through a global intermixing of nationalities and races, that there can be any hope of an integrated national view of individual objectives. The goal of St Paul, as identified by Geraldine Cummins, would have: 48

...all men as one nation, all that lived and breathed, the children of our Father.

Nicolas Berdyaev understood that this integration has to be across all aspects of life and must be spiritually underpinned: 49

True political, social and cultural unity can only be the product of spiritual unity.. .

In ‘Ancient Egypt Speaks’ a prediction was given in the 1930s as to the need for this

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:15:20 29.7 Our World – Materialism and Peace Page 8 of 9 complete integration. Nona, the communicating spirit, was of the opinion that: 50

...the next great generation of the world may come from the East, but "not until a terrific struggle has taken place between the nations of the world, out of which may come a desire for spiritual peace [given April 3, 1933] She also foresees that "in the far future, the whole of your planet will be inhabited by a race of human beings of all nationalities, bound together as one family, and inspired by the single aim to help each other lest all should perish." [given in October 2, 1935]

Two things that every individual can do to move things spiritually forward; firstly, is to follow the advice given in ‘Entwining Lives’: 51

...never forget in your daily lives to send forth a prayer for peace upon the Earth plane. The prayer links up with the light and the love for Mother Earth, one is for the Planet and the other is for the minds of men.

...and secondly, whether an individual or a nation, remember the words of Mohandas Gandhi:

You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist

1 Bible, New Testament, Philippians, 4:7 2 Alan Young, Cosmic Healing, DeVorss & Co, 1988. 6 Saint Germain - Causes of Disease, (Pg 86) 3 Walter Hilton, The Stairway of Perfection, Image Books, 1979. Book Two: Chapter Eleven, (Pg 212) 4 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. Book II - Warnings to draw us to the Inward Life. Chapter VI, (II) 5 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. Book IV - Book of Inward Consolation, Chapter XXXV(II) 6 Marcus J. Borg, The God We Never Knew, HarperSanFrancisco, 1997. Part III: Chapter 5: Opening to God - The Hearth of Spirituality, (Pg 113) 7 Susanna Winkworth, Theologia Germanica, Macmillan & Co, 1874. Chapter XII, (Pg 39) 8 Schaeffer speaking about this from "How Should We Then Live" (1976). 9 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part One: Chapter XII – Meditation, (Pg 133) 10 Gerard W Hughes, God in all Things, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Chapter Nine: Reflections of Christian Unity - The Seventh Step, (Pg 172) 11 Ralph Waldo Trine, In Tune with the Infinite, G Bell & Sons, 1931. Chapter VII - The Realisation of Perfect Peace, (Pg 133) 12 Georges Huber, My Angel Will Go Before You, Four Courts Press, 2006. They see God, (Pg 86) 13 Don Piper, 90 Minutes in Heaven, Kingsway Publications, 2005. 18 The 'Why' Questions, (Pg 204) 14 Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul, Anthony Clarke Books, 1973. Chapter 5, (Pg 64) 15 Evelyn Underhill, The Fruits of the Spirit; Light of Christ; Abba, Longmans, Green and Co, 1957. The Fruits of the Spirit: Part I; II Joy and Peace, (Pg 12) 16 Father Andrew SDC, In the Silence, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. Union with the Will of God: VIII. Equanimity [calmness], (Pg 92)

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:15:20 29.7 Our World – Materialism and Peace Page 9 of 9

17 Gems of Thought, The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Assn, 1989. Draw the Curtain of Peace, (Pg 62) 18 Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, Burns & Oates, 1997. 8: Vocation, (Pg 129 / 130) 19 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 2: Chapter VIII - The rise of Sufism and the Early Ascetic Ideal, (Pg 177) 20 Diana Cooper, A Little Light on the Spiritual Laws, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Chapter Two: As Within, So Without, (Pg 9) 21 Ralph Waldo Trine, In Tune with the Infinite, G Bell & Sons, 1931. Chapter VII - The Realisation of Perfect Peace, (Pg 132) 22 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 3: The vale of enlightenment, (Pg 22) 23 Michael Newton, Journey of Souls, Llewellyn Publications, 2009. Chapter Nine: The Beginner Soul, (Pg 123) 24 The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling, Doubleday, 1973. The Cloud of Unknowing: Chapter 33, (Pg 90) 25 Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion, Hogarth Press, 1978. Future of an Illusion III 26 Mère Ignace Goethals - Third Mother-General of the Sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur, A Member of the Same Congregation, Alexander Ouseley Limited, 1934. Chapter IX: Mother-General (1838 - 1842), (Pg 147) 27 Gerard W Hughes, God in all Things, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Chapter Two: What is Holiness? Our Longing to be Free is a Mark of Holiness, (Pg 26) 28 Pamela Young, Hope Street, Coronet, 2011. Part Three: Pamela's Journey, (Pg 177) 29 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter XXII: Emotionalism, (Pg 255) 30 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part Two: Hesychius of Jerusalem to Theodulus - Texts on Sobriety and Prayer – 128, (Pg 305) 31 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book One: The obligations that relate to Man, Considered as an individual. Chapter V – Prudence, (Pg 8) 32 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 4: Spiritual growth in everyday life, (Pg 31) 33 Sogyal Rinpoche, Meditation, Rider & Co, 1994. The Practice of Mindfulness, (Pg 22) 34 The Confessions of S. Augustine, Seeley & Co, 1909. Book the Tenth, (XXXI) 35 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book One: The obligations that relate to Man, Considered as an individual. Chapter VII- Contentment, (Pg 11) 36 Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan, 2002. What Drives Your Life, (Pg 32) 37 Geoffrey Parrinder, Worship in the World's Religions, Association Press, 1961. Part III - The Far East: Chapter 8 - Chinese Cults and Taoism, (Pg 151) 38 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. Spirit and Force: I, (Pg 4) 39 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. I: The Universe and its Beings - 4: The Universal Civilisations, (Pg 50) 40 Agnes Sanford, Healing Gifts of the Spirit, Arthur James, 1999. Chapter 5; The Way of Love, (Pg 80) 41 Gems of Thought, The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Assn, 1989. Golden Opportunity, (Pg 111) 42 Lonnie C. Edwards M.D., Spiritual Laws That Govern Humanity and the Universe, Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, 2015 - Kindle version. Chapter 4: Creating Peace and Unconditional Love 43 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. II: Planet Earth - 8: Accelerating Earth's Evolution, (Pg 106) 44 Jack Angelo, Spiritual Healing - energy medicine for today, Element, 1991. 5: The Range of Healing, (Pg 87) 45 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 4 - Control: The Imperative of Responsibility, (Pg 79) 46 Douglas Dales, Called to be Angels, Canterbury Press, 1998. Gregory the Great: (Pg16) 47 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part Two: Developing the Intuition - XI: Becoming Still, (Pg 106) 48 Geraldine Cummins, I Appeal Unto Caesar, The Psychic Book Club, 1950. Chapter IV, (Pg 23) 49 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. World Discord and Christian Unity, (Pg 39) 50 A. J. Howard Hulme and Frederic H. Wood, Ancient Egypt Speaks, Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter X - Why Ancient Egypt Spoke, (Pg 156 / 157) 51 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Three: Chapter IV - Prayer (Prayers for Peace), (Pg 293)

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:15:20 29.8 Our World – Spoiling the Earth Page 1 of 9

29:8 Our World – Spoiling the Earth

This chapter is not a complete thesis on why and how we are spoiling our planet, but rather a number of points which I have found within the books that I have read which relate to it. Certainly, we must heed the advice of the 20 th century inventor, author, lecturer and spiritual teacher George King, because: 1

It is the time when the turning point has been reached. Mankind can no longer be permitted, by Karmic Law, to stray as blatantly from the paths of truth as he has done throughout his past lives.

Now, in the twenty-first century, we must develop a love for all created things from which will follow cessation of needless destruction and a diminution of the greed exhibited by nations, organisations and individuals. As Andrew Harvey, an author of books based on spiritual and mystical themes, suggested, we should: 2

...do everything in your power to honour all living creatures and to protect them and nature in general from greed and violence.

No other type of creature has the responsibility that we humans have. Other life forms are not there for us to ‘have dominion over’ or abuse but to support – we are custodians of the Earth. The British philosopher and scholar of Judaism Jonathan Sacks believed that: 3

The mandate to exercise dominion is therefore not technical but moral and is limited by the requirement to protect and conserve.

And not to exploit and abuse as we seem to have done nor, in fact, to support it as many religions have rubber-stamped. This latter view was taken by the Victorian born Indian Muslim leader Maulana Mohammad Ali, and in his ‘Introduction to The Study of the Holy Qur'an’ he wrote: 4

Man is endowed with faculties and powers which can make him excel all creation; if he stoops before the very things which are made subservient to him, he makes himself unfit for attaining the high position which is meant for him in the Divine scheme.

I do not think that this approach is beneficial to neither our planet nor its inhabitants. We ought to take the view of the highly influential architect William Lethaby author of ‘Architecture Mysticism and Myth’ whose express desire during the last thirty years of his life which was to: 5

...get us all to look at England and see it, not as a land to be exploited but as a home to be protected and rightly used.

Was he successful? He died in 1931 and we still seem to be in a situation where the earth and all forms of life are being dangerously exploited; some have even been forced into extinction by our abusive practices. In all those areas of technological development which impact upon nature in any way there have been unforeseen or ignored consequences – we know the Sumatran rainforests are being destroyed and the Orang Utang is in danger of

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:17:02 29.8 Our World – Spoiling the Earth Page 2 of 9 extinction and yet we continue to deforest. The ohysicist Tom McLeish observed that: 6

The natural world seems to respond to our technologies in deeply problematic ways that we did not anticipate.

We have got to correct our damaging approach. Ian Lawton, using his experience as a researcher and author specialising in ancient history and spiritual philosophy, similarly stated the requirement for: 7

...humanity to return to a position of respect for and balance with our environment and planet, so that all life-forms work together as part of the great unity.

The spirit communicator, who channelled advice through Neale Donald Walsch, reminded us that it is our choice that we abuse the planet: 8

Nothing, nothing is more gentle than Nature. And nothing, nothing has been more cruel to Nature than man. Yet you step aside from all involvement with this; deny all responsibility. It is not your fault, you say, and in this you are right. It is not a question of fault, it is a matter of choice.

The choice seems not just to lie with a person acting individually, but with those who act within the context of nations and companies where profit is the goal. The American professor of psychology, Gary E. Schwartz, in discussing how our lives ought to change wrote: 9

The global economy has put an extra strain on the earth, and our planet never gets its essential rest. On any given day, around the clock, automobile and truck traffic, airline traffic, commercial shipping and even use of the internet contribute twenty- four hours a day to polluting our air and using the earth's valuable resources to power the global connections we've come to depend on and expect to be accessible for ever.

...and communicating through Phyllis Schlemmer, a wise spirit observed that: 10

...for the oceans of the Planet Earth, the trees and forests, the skies and atmospheres, the very essence of breathing, the life-force, have reached a level of contamination bringing the downward destruction of Earth.

Even the ‘man-in-the street’ is aware of the damaging effect of global progress. This understanding is represented by the actor Alan Alda’s speech given at his daughter’s graduation, where he said: 11

For one thing, you can clean the air and water. Some people have said that lead poisoning was a major cause of the fall of the Roman Empire, because the ruling class had their food cooked in expensive pots that were lined with lead. They didn't know any better, but we don't have that excuse. Now, almost two thousand years later, we've hit upon the incredibly clever idea of getting rid of our industrial waste by putting it into our food. Not directly, of course, that would be too expensive. First they put it in the ground - then it goes into the water, and the next thing you know, you're eating a sludgeburger. If you want, you can do something about that.

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:17:02 29.8 Our World – Spoiling the Earth Page 3 of 9

This was a challenge given to all the students on that day. How many accepted that challenge I do not know, but very little seems to have changed, and what change has occurred seems very slow indeed. During this current time, early in the 21 st century, many people have come to realise that we are polluting our planet with plastic; the oceans are teaming with many types of discarded plastic. Most of the plastic in the UK doesn’t end up in the oceans but a lot is disposed of in the environment either being burned or buried in landfill sites. Individuals are helping by separating waste for recycling but, in terms of plastic, only about 3% is recycled. Consequently, based on consumer pressure, the use of plastic is slowly being limited. But this is the tip of the iceberg. So much pollution is created by the life style that we have fostered and it will only change when companies see a financial benefit in providing cleaner alternatives – the electric car being one example. On this subject, the spirit of Diana, Princess of Wales informed Hazel Courteney that from her perspective in the Spirit World: 12

New energy sources will be found, ones that do not harm you or the planet. Many of these are already available but are being suppressed by large corporations who wish to continue earning huge profits instead of helping the Earth.

Every company should take to heart the fact expressed by Adeline Yen Mah: 13

Every living organism is part of the universe and the universe is made up of all of us. When we pollute our environment to suit our convenience we are destroying part of ourselves because we and the universe are one and the same.

Adeline uses ‘we’ in the collective sense of humanity. A similar theme was expressed by the Czech writer, political dissident, and statesman Václav Havel who, from 1989 to 1992, served as the last president of Czechoslovakia. This philosopher, according to Jonathan Sacks, articulated in 'The Art of the Impossible' that he believed that: 14

...we have little chance of averting an environmental catastrophe unless we recognise that we are not the masters of Being, but only a part of Being. .. We must recognise that we are related to more than the present moment and the present place, that we are related to the world as a whole and to eternity. We must recognise that, by failing to reflect universal, supra-individual and supra-temporal interests, we do a disservice to our specific, local and immediate interests. Only people with a sense of responsibility for the world and to the world are truly responsible to and for themselves.

Other than doing our little bit for our community, there seems little that you and I can achieve as individuals other than to lobby and, through our desire to change things, try to develop a financial and commercial environment in which companies put as much, if not more, emphasis on the environment as it does on making profits. Perhaps we could start with the sort of question posed by one of the great Sufi poets of the 15 th century, Hakim Jami, who, according to Idries Shah, said: 15

The ruler is a shepherd and his flock is the people. He has to help them and save them, not to exploit and destroy them. Is the shepherd there for the flock, or the flock for the shepherd?

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:17:02 29.8 Our World – Spoiling the Earth Page 4 of 9

...or in my terms ‘Is the company there for its customers, or the customers for the company?’ Anyway, underpinning the objectives of many companies are those who develop new ways for them to exploit our planet and its limited resources – the scientists and technologists. Carl Sagan, himself an astronomer, astrophysicist, and cosmologist, mentioned that: 16

Roughly half the scientists on Earth work at least part-time for the military. While few scientists are still perceived as outsiders, courageously criticising the ills of society and proving early warnings of potential technological catastrophes, many are seen as compliant opportunists, or as the willing source of corporate profits and weapons of mass destruction - never mind the long-term consequences.

The British-born Benedictine monk who lived in ashrams in South India, Bede Griffiths, in ‘A New Vision of Reality’, was more scathing of such exploitation: 17

This again exactly reflects the present state of the world, where western science and technology, based on a mechanistic view of the universe, seek to control the world and subject nature to the machine. The ecological disaster which is now overtaking the civilised world and the threat of planetary destruction are the inevitable result of this type of civilisation.

I do not believe that industry will, of its own volition, change the fundamental way it operates unless there is either pressure from governments, on the one hand, and / or pressure from people’s changing attitudes on the other. Because all economies are global, change will only be reached if all governments change at the same time. Based on their disparate cultural and sociological progress, this currently seems inconceivable – they can’t even agree on a way forward to reduce the impact of industrialisation on the planet’s atmosphere. Even if there were agreement on this topic, which has been under international discussion for decades, how long will it take to sort out the next environmental problem? Perhaps one way forward would be to agree, at an international level, a way of assessing new technology which includes financial gain but also moral and ethical factors. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks realised: 18

Every technological advance can be used for good or evil. Every economic order can be exploited, allowed to run free, or directed by consideration of justice and equity. There is nothing inevitably benign or malign in our increasing powers. It depends on the use we make of them. What we can create, we can control. What we initiate, we can direct. With every new power come choice, responsibility and exercise of moral imagination.

...and this moral and ethical stance should be internationally mandated. Again from Jonathan Sacks’ ‘The Dignity of Difference’ he expressed his view that: 19

...economic systems are to be judged by their impact on human dignity... That does not mean abandoning the global market, but it does mean taking seriously a set of non-market values which must be factored in to our decisions about the future.

This seems a long way off. In the meantime we, as individuals, can act. We can develop that which is lacking in the general population – a view that there is a spiritual aspect to life and through it we can change humanity. In the mid 1970s, the British writer and television

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:17:02 29.8 Our World – Spoiling the Earth Page 5 of 9 commentator Malcolm Muggeridge recognised that in his day: 20

...the earthly city looks even larger, to the point where it may be said to have taken over the heavenly one. Turning away from God, blown up with the arrogance generated by their fabulous success in exploring and harnessing the mechanism of life, men believe themselves to be at last in charge of their own destiny. As we survey the disastrous consequences of such an attitude, the chaos and destruction has brought, as Augustine did the fall of Rome and its aftermath.

Exploiting nature and natural habitats of all types of flora and fauna, has become a feature of man’s indiscretions. Andrew Harvey asks the question: 21

...how can we work together to try to preserve the planet from environmental holocaust if we do not truly know the presence of Divine Spirit in every deer, tiger, dolphin, and whale?

To underline this, Jonathan Sacks uses an ancient rabbinic comment - Midrash Kohelet Rabbah, 7: 20 - where God said: 22

Take care, therefore, that you do not destroy my world, for if you do, there will be no one left to repair what you have destroyed.

Everyone must appreciate our link to the natural world. Tom McLeish argued that this relationship between us and nature: 23

…is a relationship characterised by ignorance and fear in the past and to a great extent in this present also. It is often a damaging one: we exploit rather than care for the world, inadvertently tearing away vital components of the atmosphere, or replacing them with harmful ones; it can hurt us also with storm, earthquake and tsunami, with rising sea levels.

It is perhaps only through the spiritual attitude that many will be stimulated to reach out to those creatures, including man, who are less fortunate and who are troubled by man’s exploitations of nature. In his first book Neale Donald Walsch was given, by a communicating spirit, an insight into some of the situations which man is creating for himself: 24

You claim that there are good reasons that 40,000 people a day must die of hunger. There are no good reasons. Yet at a time when you say you can do nothing to stop 40,000 people a day from dying of hunger, you bring 50,000 people into your world to begin a new life. And this you call love. This you call God's plan. It is a plan which totally lacks logic or reason, to say nothing of compassion.

The author David Dudley also made this point: 25

Some Christians are appalling in their refusal to recognise that human over- population is the most sinister threat to all living things on this planet, and others are appalling in their intellectual dishonesty and their intolerance...

Problems are being swept under the cosmological carpet as Tom McLeish noted: 26

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:17:02 29.8 Our World – Spoiling the Earth Page 6 of 9

At no point in the history of Homo Sapiens on planet Earth have we been less prepared to think through the consequences of our own actions for the world we inhabit and to understand the potential of our own abilities to change the world radically.

Of course, the only way to prevent this sort of situation arising is for humanity to operate on a totally global scale which crosses all national boundaries. Do you think that current politicians will agree to this? Brian Leslie Weiss thought not: 27

There are too many politicians ... who are not open to the concepts of charity or global responsibility.

They must accept that everyone, especially those in positions of power and authority, shoulder a responsibility for spoiling the Earth and therefore can do something about it. Firstly, though, accept your responsibility as the spirit communicating through the medium Phyllis V. Schlemmer intimated: 28

Know this: that most of the illnesses upon this planet are brought about by the peoples of Earth in their error of thinking, their foods, their pollution of lands and waters, by contamination from ingestion, by those who make business at the expense of humankind.

Changing our education and the way we build our knowledge and experience life will affect how we view our potential; our ability to change things. The Teachings of Don Miguel Ruiz point us in the direction of balancing our spiritual and material lives: 29

When a sufficient number of people accept the change in world view that allows them to live free of guilt, judgment, worry and unhappiness, the entire earth will be more in balance.

...and the mystic Evelyn Underhill, too, recognised the importance of this balance: 30

...for life means the fullest possible give and take between the living creature and its environment...

To reach this point we have to build our knowledge of what is happening to our planet, and within our own small lives to make changes which will help to prevent further despoliation.

Can religion help in this process? Look back at its history and even the current shocking activity in God’s name and you have your answer. Martin Israel in ‘The Pain That Heals’ recognised that: 31

It is well attested in human history that more cruelty has been perpetrated in the name of religion than in any other sphere of human endeavour. When one includes such secular religions as fascism and communism in this saga of human bestiality, we can see how man reaches the depths of depravity when, paradoxically, he is seeking what he believes to be ultimate truth.

Nevertheless, each week hundreds of thousands of people pray in their churches, mosques,

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:17:02 29.8 Our World – Spoiling the Earth Page 7 of 9 temples, synagogues or other religious houses for their God or Prophet to correct the mistakes that man has made and make the Earth more like heaven. The mystic and spiritual teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti explained this in a very stark way: 32

You want to know who has created this environment and all the appalling mess and trouble, because you want a redeemer to lift you out of that trouble and set you in a new heaven. Clinging to all your particular prejudices, hopes, fears and preferences, you have individually created this environment, so individually you must break it down and not wait for a system to come and sweep it away.

He then went onto suggest that: 33

If one wants really to help the world, it cannot be, from my point of view, through any organised religion, whether it be Christianity with its innumerable sects, or Hinduism with its innumerable sects, or any other religion. These are in reality pernicious divisions of mind, of humanity.

So religions cannot help but we can through taking a spiritual route through our lives and changing how we react to environmental problem. As Tom McLeish reminded us: 34

A human population growing towards 10 billion, in possession of surging energy- rich technologies, now holds the balance of climate, fresh water and crop cycle. This makes ignorance of the world even more frightening – for now we see that making the wrong move may alter radically the degree to which our planet is hospitable to human life.

The upshot of observing all this abuse of planet Earth is that it is easy to become despondent and start to look on the negative side of life. Do not do this! Follow the advice of White Eagle who suggested that we should: 35

...not permit yourself to be pessimistic. You are bearers of joy and you must not be cast down or dismal about the world; the evolution of the whole race is steadily going forward and you must always see the progress, see the beauty, see the good outworking.

...and take the reassuring words of Neale Donald Walsch’s spirit communicator: 36

All I am saying here is to stay calm, stay peaceful, stay serene, in the face of these dire predictions of planet-wide calamity, and you will have the best outcome possible.

Eventually things will work out for the best – provided we chip away doing what we can to prevent spoiling of the Earth - with a bright smile and a compassionate attitude. Perhaps this is what Bertrand Russell meant when he wrote: 37

Thus the world is continually growing richer in content, and will in time become quite a nice sort of place.

...let’s hope so and we can do our own little bit to prevent spoiling our beautiful planet and all thereon.

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:17:02 29.8 Our World – Spoiling the Earth Page 8 of 9

1 George King, The Three Saviours are Here!, Aetherius Society, 1967. Chapter Two: The Truths of Saint Goo-Ling, (Pg 19) 2 Andrew Harvey, The Direct Path, Rider & Co, 2000. Three: Embodiment and Integration - Nature as Revelation and Source of Healing, (Pg 242) 3 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 9 - Conservation: Environmental Sustainability, (Pg 166) 4 Maulana Mohammad Ali, Introduction to The Study of the Holy Qur'an, The Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha'at- Islam, 1976. Chapter II - Essentials of Religion: Section 1 - Unity of God, (Pg 67) 5 William Lethaby, Architecture Mysticism and Myth, The Architectural Press, 1974. Introduction by Godfrey Rubens, (Pg viii) 6 Tom McLeish, Faith & Wisdom in Science, Oxford University Press, 2014. Chapter 8: Mending Our Ways, Sharing Our Science and Figuring the Future, (Pg 249) 7 Ian Lawton, The Wisdom of the Soul, RSP (Rational Spirituality Press), 2007. 2: Soul Development, (Pg 62) 8 Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God - Book 1 An uncommon dialogue, Hodder & Stoughton, 1997. Chapter 1, (Pg 50) 9 Gary E. Schwartz, The Afterlife Experiments, Atria Books, 2002. Part V: Discovering the Larger Reality. 18 How Our Lives Might Change, (Pg 241) 10 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. II: Planet Earth - 8: Accelerating Earth's Evolution, (Pg 102 / 103) 11 Alan Alda, Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself, Hutchinson, 2007. Chapter 2: Lingering at the Door, (Pg 19 / 20) 12 Hazel Courteney, Divine Intervention, Cico Books, 2002. Chapter 9: The Duchess, (Pg 143) 13 Adeline Yen Mah, Watching The Tree, Harper Collins, 2001. 5 Look Inwards for Salvation, (Pg 92 / 93) 14 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 9 - Conservation: Environmental Sustainability, (Pg 161) 15 Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi, Penguin Books, 1975. Part Two: Classical Authors. 6: Hakim Jami, (Pg 103) 16 Carl Edward Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997. Chapter 1 : The Most Precious Thing, (Pg 11) 17 Bede Griffiths, A New Vision of Reality, Fount, 1992. 4 The Christian Vision of the New Creation, (Pg 84) 18 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 4 - Control: The Imperative of Responsibility, (Pg 85) 19 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 1 – Prologue, (Pg 17) 20 Malcolm Muggeridge, A Third Testament, The Plough Publishing House, 2002. About St Augustine... (Pg 21) 21 Andrew Harvey, The Direct Path, Rider & Co, 2000. Two: Practicing the Path - Eighteen Sacred Practices for Transformed Spiritual Living, (Pg 147) 22 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 9 - Conservation: Environmental Sustainability, (Pg 173) 23 Tom McLeish, Faith & Wisdom in Science, Oxford University Press, 2014. Chapter 7: A Theology of Science? (Pg 208 / 209) 24 Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God - Book 1 An uncommon dialogue, Hodder & Stoughton, 1997. Chapter 1, (Pg 49) 25 David Dulley, Conversations with Mona, David Dulley, 1993. 11: Cats and Congregations, (Pg 30) 26 Tom McLeish, Faith & Wisdom in Science, Oxford University Press, 2014. Chapter 8: Mending Our Ways, Sharing Our Science and Figuring the Future, (Pg 248) 27 Brian Leslie Weiss, Same Soul, Many Bodies, Piatkus, 2006. Preface, (Pg 5) 28 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. VI: Terrestrial Affairs - 20: Soul Matters, (Pg 296) 29 Mary Carroll Nelson, Beyond Fear - The Teachings of Don Miguel Ruiz on Freedom and Joy, Rider & Co, 2003. Chapter Eleven: The Way of the Nagual in the World, (Pg 151) 30 Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life, Mowbray, 1984. Part One: What is Spiritual Life? (Pg 26) 31 Martin Israel, The Pain That Heals, Hodder & Stoughton, 1981. Chapter 4: A Devouring Fire, (Pg 46) 32 Krishnamurti, Authentic Report of Twelve Talks given by Krishnamurti, The Star Publishing Trust, 1934. Third talk in The Oak Grove (June 18, 1934), (Pg 24) 33 Krishnamurti, Authentic Report of Twelve Talks given by Krishnamurti, The Star Publishing Trust, 1934. Sixth talk in The Oak Grove (June 23, 1934), (Pg 44)

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:17:02 29.8 Our World – Spoiling the Earth Page 9 of 9

34 Tom McLeish, Faith & Wisdom in Science, Oxford University Press, 2014. Chapter 7: A Theology of Science? (Pg 182) 35 White Eagle, The Quiet Mind, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1984. The Master Soul is Constant: .. Is Patient, Trusting in God's Goodness and His Perfect Plan: Be Bearers of Joy, (Pg 93) 36 Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God - Book 3 An uncommon dialogue, Hodder & Stoughton, 1999. Chapter 6, (Pg 111) 37 Bertrand Russell, Religion and Science, Oxford University Press, 1960. Chapter VIII: Cosmic Purpose, (Pg 213)

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:17:02 29.9 Our World – The Media and Consumerism Page 1 of 9

29:9 Our World – The Media and Consumerism

The capitalist basis of society has been increasing at an invasive rate and with alarming consequences. Companies and organisation vie for the money in the average man’s pocket to such an extent that often morality and honesty seem dirty concepts. To underline this, I have recently watched an investigative television documentary 1 which reported on the recycling of cardboard coffee cups – 2.5 billion of them each year are used in the UK but virtually none are recycled. Notwithstanding this, the major coffee shops of Starbucks, Costa Coffee and Café Nero all deliberately put false claims on their cups which hoodwink their customers into believing that their cups will be recycled after use; companies are so disrespectful to the population at large and their customers in particular. You would think that, as Kierkegaard said, that: 2

...the world wants to be deceived...

I don’t think that any of us wants to be the subject of national deception, but perhaps we have to accept that this is how companies and other organisations operate. Such industries seem to believe that, as Karen Armstrong pointed out: 3

If an argument was sufficiently attractive, human beings could be persuaded to believe almost anything.

Such a cynical attitude! Carl Sagan, with tongue in cheek, recognised that part of the success of the tobacco industry in purveying this brew of addictive poisons: 4

...can be attributed to widespread unfamiliarity with baloney detection, critical thinking, and the scientific method. Gullibility kills.

From the experience of a practising American cardiologist, Herbert Benson also believed that people were susceptible to astute advertising: 5

At odds with ourselves, convinced that we must overcome our natural tendencies rather than learn to enjoy and manage them, we are primed for sales pitches in which advertisers tell us how to fill the voids. Be it closet organisers, time management seminars, exercise equipment we use briefly and then banish to a closet or den, or a variety of pain relievers we're disposed to take at the first twinge of discomfort, our consumer habits are often based not on actual needs but on needs cultivated in us by advertisers.

We are being conned. A similar notion, but couched more modestly, was expressed by the Reverend Peter Mockford: 6

In the Western world there is little doubt that we are potentially heavily compromised by our consumerism and drive for comfort.

...we have to become much more discerning and very critical. This was well articulated by Carl Sagan: 7

Commercial culture is full of similar misdirections and evasions at the expense of

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:18:05 29.9 Our World – The Media and Consumerism Page 2 of 9

the consumer. You're not supposed to ask. Don't think. Buy. Paid product endorsements, especially by real or purported experts, constitute a steady rainfall of deception. They betray contempt for the intelligence of their customers.

You will not be surprised to learn that, according to the activist Ben Goldacre, that: 8

Drug companies, more than most, know the benefits of good branding: they spend more on PR, after all, than they do on research and development.

...and Ben observed that they use devious methods to get their advertising message across: 9

But there is another, more subtle benefit to be had from editorial coverage of your pseudo-medical product: the claims that can be made in advertising and on packaging for food and supplements and ‘borderline medicinal products’ are tightly regulated, but there are no such regulations covering the claims made by journalists.

But why is all this happening; why are companies out to deceive us? It is all due to the expanding economic system which has been dubbed ‘consumerism’ – where, it is believed, a greater consumption of goods and services is beneficial. That is, beneficial to the companies but not necessarily to humanity collectively or to us as individuals. The evidence for this as company philosophy can be seen in every, and any, form of media. Glance at newspaper advertisements, television commercials, promotional literature and internet advertising – they are all different ways of applying the theory of consumerism. It is a distressing aspect of modern life that we are so bombarded with ‘potential happiness’. This emotion was also in the mind of Thérèse de Lisieux, a French Catholic Carmelite nun, when she wrote: 10

I am sorry for the people who lose their souls; it is so easy to miss your way when the paths of the world seem so attractive.

Does this apply to charitable organisations? My one time mentor asked the chief executive of a well known charity to tell him his salary – his response was a polite refusal. The monk Thomas Merton regularly used to make entries in his diary and on March 29, 1940 the following was recorded: 11

...and incidentally giving the 'charitable' organisers a nice cut on the way between the giver and the far less blessed receiver.

Do people donate to charities to assuage their guilt – made even stronger through clever advertising and chuggers? We certainly cannot buy our way out of such an emotion, nor can we buy our way to happiness. We can purchase transient pleasure trips in all sorts of guises, but real happiness only comes through the spiritual route not material. Ah! But the promoters of material products tell us otherwise. The Anglican priest David L Edwards suggested that there is no interest whatsoever in stimulating spiritual (he calls it religious) aspects of our lives: 12

Nevertheless, the fact remains that in many countries of the modern world those who set the pace for society are usually not much influenced by this continuing or

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:18:05 29.9 Our World – The Media and Consumerism Page 3 of 9

reviving religion; and in a million subtle ways the media of mass communication and public instruction spread a secular emphasis.

Or in the words of the American cardiologist and founder of the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Herbert Benson: 13

Western society promotes outward self-improvement, not inward development ... [and] ...worships long life and physical beauty, not full, exuberant living or inner peace.

And it seems to be growing more extreme. In ‘Finding Happiness’, Abbott Christopher Jamison articulates the problem: 14

...the consumer culture tries to persuade us that more things mean more happiness: the marketing upon which consumer culture is based is always about more, never about less.

...and once we have been persuaded to acquire what the salesmen recommend, we often find the product does not live up to our expectations. A few years ago we had a neighbour who often bought items through seeing them on TV shopping channels and yet, within days, either returned or scrapped them. A more serious example, as Marcus Dods explained, comes from Israel’s history: 15

Perhaps no form of ruin covers a man with such shame or sinks him to such hopelessness as when he finds that what he has persistently clamoured for and refused to be content without, has proved the bitterest and most disastrous element in his life. This particular form of ruin is nowhere described with more careful, and significant detail than in the narrative of Israel's determination to have a king over them like other nations. Samuel, foreseeing the evils which would result from their choice, remonstrated with them and reminded them of their past success, and pointed out the advantageous elements in their present condition. But there is a point at which desire becomes deaf and blind, and the evil of it can be recognised only after it is gratified. God therefore gave them a king in His anger.

It is this seed of desire which the advertising specialists attempt to implant into the population and then feed this embryo to stimulate an unjustifiable need within us; temptation. An example of this is the whole marketplace surrounding fashion. This is not new, but continues to rise to unprecedented heights through a huge £26 billion 16 industry. However, the question to ask yourself was posed by the 19 th century American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson: 17

Is it so important whether a man wears a shoe-buckle or ties his shoe-lappet with a string?

...and even more profoundly, the Very Reverend Philip Tolbert notes: 18

"Is your soul inspired?" St Theophan asks, or is it a slave to the fashion of superficial, worldly life?

It seems that it is not just what we wear that is subject to fashionable trends. Through all

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:18:05 29.9 Our World – The Media and Consumerism Page 4 of 9 types of media, we are constantly bombarded with celebrity culture – yesterday’s headline about the huge number of people dying of starvation is replaced by today’s top story of the divorce of a TV celebrity. Underlining the fickle nature of the media, spirit of Diana, Princess of Wales informed the journalist Hazel Courteney that: 19

Most arguments usually stem from one's own ego, and all war is a waste of life, time, money and energy. If all the money spent on war and weapons (and the money needed to rebuild communities after any war) could be spent on helping people, no one would need to be hungry and you could make Heaven a place on Earth. As you [Hazel] write there are millions in need, and yet what remains on the front pages of most papers and magazines? Who's screwing who. Who has the biggest boobs. Really mind-blowing stuff. You all need to wake up.

The London parish priest Terry Tastard, in his book ‘The Spark in the Soul’ also described the situation in the latter part of the 20 th century: 20

In Britain there has been a retreat into fantasy, with the personages of television drama series being elevated to the status of major news events. A bizarre reversal of values has taken place, in which fictional characters are more real than people caught up in - for example - famine or torture.

Why do we accept this? According to Idries Shah, the Sufi El-Ghazali also queried this phenomenon: 21

A man who is being delivered from the danger of a fierce lion does not object, whether this service is performed by an unknown or an illustrious individual. Why, therefore, do people seek knowledge from celebrities?

It is not just actors and sports celebrities whose opinions are held in high esteem, but also those scientific celebrities who often grace our television screens. The distinguished researcher in zoology, Carl Pantin, who contributed to invertebrate physiology and evolutionary theory, was reported by Mervyn Stockwood to have recognised that because scientific topics have become so detailed, the average man can never get to the bottom of proposed theories and therefore has to accept what scientists offer. He wrote: 22

The beauty of the natural science of the last three hundred years has rested on the fact that it could be communicated from man to man by common images; so that it could truly be said that man could properly reject authority as the basis of their knowledge by the power of direct appeal to experience and experiment. It was that rejection that destroyed superstition. Today there is, I think, a real danger of the return of a magical view of things through the rise of expert authority which the ordinary man immediately accepts. We no longer require the exponents of transmutation of metals to substantiate their claims. When the newspapers tell us that Professor Nobodaddy's experiments on nuclear energy will give us a great deal of something for nothing we would believe them - and we do not expect that at least if we tried we could truly understand his work. Once this happens, we can loosen that necessary care in everyday conclusions about natural events that are continually thrust upon us. All this is well known to those whose task it is to pervert our judgments by propaganda.

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:18:05 29.9 Our World – The Media and Consumerism Page 5 of 9

Scientists and pseudo-scientists are wheeled in to give their ‘expert’ judgments about particular products in order that we may be fooled into buying a particular product. This is particularly the case for cosmetic and medicinal products. Dr Herbert Benson, in his excellent book ‘Timeless Healing - The Power and Biology of Belief’ argued that such advertising may often be detrimental to our health: 23

Our bodies are very good at healing us but all too often we hinder this process, worrying that a cough could be indicative of something far worse because we've read or heard so many worst-case scenarios in the media, doubting that we have the strength to overcome it without help because that's what a host of advertising agencies and pharmaceutical companies have told us.

In fact, it is also channelled through the media in general. The campaigner Ben Goldacre, from his experience of the MMR scandal, believes the blame: 24

...lies instead with the hundreds of journalists, columnists, editors and executives who drove this story cynically, irrationally, and wilfully onto the front pages for nine solid years. ... they over-extrapolated from one study into absurdity, while studiously ignoring all reassuring data, and all subsequent refutations. They quoted ‘experts’ as authorities instead of explaining the science, they ignored the historical context, they set idiots to cover the facts, they pitched emotive stories from parents against bland academics (who they smeared), and most bizarrely of all, in some cases they simply made stuff up. ... It is because of the media’s blindness – and their unwillingness to accept their responsibility – that they will continue to commit the same crimes in the future.

It seems as this will never change; somehow we have to surmount this problem. Even though breakthroughs in science and technology require such specialised understanding of a particular field, it is important that we, who only have a fleeting knowledge and at a very high level, should be able to make some sort of judgment other than just accepting something based on the charisma of a personality or the skill of the script writer. This aspiration was in the mind of Carl Sagan when he wrote: 25

In all uses of science, it is insufficient - indeed it is dangerous - to produce only a small, highly competent, well-rewarded priesthood of professionals. Instead, some fundamental understanding of the findings and methods of science must be available on the broadest scale.

We are not there yet, probably because we seem to have an innate desire to believe what is told to us by ‘experts’. Barry Oates, David Hopkins and Carole Austin in their book about the philosophy of Spiritualism offered the following: 26

The effects of newspaper articles, for example, can influence countless lives and decisions because there is a tendency to accept that what is written has some particular validity.

...or in Carl Sagan’s words: 27

There's a great deal of pseudoscience for the gullible on TV...

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:18:05 29.9 Our World – The Media and Consumerism Page 6 of 9

Television, so Jonathan Sacks recognised, with its emphasis on the visual, creates a culture of sight rather than sound - the image that speaks louder than the word: 28

Images evoke emotion. They do not, of themselves, generate understanding. The result is that the most visual protest, the angriest voice and the most extreme slogan win.

This is exacerbated by how everything is being reported in all aspects of the media. There are no lengthy debates which explore all aspects of a topic; we seem to want only to accept the expert conclusions. Again from Carl Sagan’s book ‘The Demon-Haunted World’ he noted his observation that: 29

The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.

This is not just in the USA, it is happening everywhere. Ben Goldacre believed that the biggest problems with science stories are that: 30

...they routinely contain no scientific evidence at all. Why? Because papers think you won’t understand the ‘science bit’, so all stories involving science must be dumbed down, in a desperate bid to secure and engage the ignorant, who are not interested in science anyway.

...and that they: 31

...generally fall into one of three categories: the wacky stories, the ‘breakthrough’ stories, and the ‘scare’ stories. Each undermines and distorts science in its own idiosyncratic way.

Everything conspires against us having the right knowledge about a particular subject in order that we can make informed decisions and choices. It appears that we should not be allowed time and space and quietness in order to think. There is noise everywhere – music played as a background to television documentaries, radios blare away in stores and restaurants; silence has been exiled. Harry Wilmer in ‘Quest for Silence’ referred to Max Picard’s ‘The World of Silence’ in which was written: 32

Silence has been banished from the world today. .. All that is left is muteness and emptiness. Silence seems to survive as a mere 'structural fault' in the everlasting flow of noise.

Perhaps the noise has some subtle impact upon us of which we are unaware. Certainly, it is difficult to get away from it and bathe in glorious silence. Aldous Leonard Huxley expanded this topic and wrote: 33

Spoken or printed, broadcast over the ether or on wood-pulp, all advertising copy has but one purpose - to prevent the will from ever achieving silence. Desirelessness is the condition of deliverance and illumination. The condition of an

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:18:05 29.9 Our World – The Media and Consumerism Page 7 of 9

expanding and technologically progressive system of mass production is universal craving. Advertising is the organised effort to extend and intensify craving - to extend and intensify, that is to say, the workings of the force, which (as all the saints and teachers of all the higher religions have always taught) is the principal cause of suffering and wrong-doing and the greatest obstacle between the human soul and its divine Ground.

Maybe noise is the barrier erected by materialism to shield us from our spiritual journey; to drown our thoughts in a sea of triviality. There is no balance; materialism, from the company perspective, must come first. This dawned on the Wesleyan Methodist minister William L Watkinson, who, in 1898, made the following statement: 34

In the secular systems of morals now being pressed upon us, instead of righteousness coming before material prosperity, it is represented as coming out of it, after it, if it ever comes at all.

According to Father M. C. D’Arcy, the worldly temporal emphasis that humanity has was outlined by Thomas Aquinas in one of his sermons: 35

Some put their trust not in God but in vanities ... temporal goods, riches, honour, and the like...

...and everyone ought to realise that there is no lasting impact of such transient effects, as the Belgian academic Emile Cammaerts highlighted: 36

There is no promise of reward or success in this world...

We ought not to turn our backs on the world which, through media, try to divert us onto the material superhighway, but we should understand what they are trying to achieve and set it in context of our own spiritual pathway. That is, let their cries fall on deaf ears. We must keep in mind the words of Harry Earnest Hunt: 37

The shops of the city hold many things for sale; but only the gifts of God endure for ever.

Take this as a basis for understanding your eternal journey, and follow the advice of Herbert Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian philosopher of communication theory, who, according to William Johnston said that: 38

...man must learn to defend himself against the tyranny of mass media...

...and therefore, as the Rosicrucian Lonnie C. Edwards suggests: 39

Be cautious of your perceptions, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings generated by the news presented for you to ingest.

If we can do this in the face of everything that is thrown at us, then we will certainly be on the true spiritual pathway.

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:18:05 29.9 Our World – The Media and Consumerism Page 8 of 9

1 Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Hugh’s War on Waste: The Battle Continues, BBC1, screened 9pm Thursday 28 th July 2016. 2 Malcolm Muggeridge, A Third Testament, The Plough Publishing House, 2002. (Pg 75) 3 Karen Armstrong, The Case For God, Vintage Books, 2010. Part Two: The Modern God - 7 Science and Religion, (Pg 172) 4 Carl Edward Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997. Chapter 12 : The Fine Art of Baloney Detection, (Pg 218) 5 Herbert Benson, MD with Marg Stark, Timeless Healing - The Power and Biology of Belief, Scribner, 1996. Chapter 12: The Ills of Information - The Side Effects of Information, (Pg 261) 6 Peter Mockford, Light and Liberty, Instant Apostle, 2017. Chapter 3: Power – The Power of the Children of God, (Pg 46) 7 Carl Edward Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997. Chapter 12 : The Fine Art of Baloney Detection, (Pg 208) 8 Ben Goldacre, Bad Science, Fourth Estate, 2009. Chapter 5: The Placebo Effect, (Pg 68) 9 Ben Goldacre, Bad Science, Fourth Estate, 2009. Chapter 8: ‘Pill Solves Complex Social Problems’, (Pg 155) 10 Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul, Anthony Clarke Books, 1973. Chapter 4, (Pg 47) 11 Thomas Merton, A Secular Journal, The Catholic Book Club, 1959. Part One: Perry Street, New York (winter 1939 - 1940), (Pg 22) 12 David L Edwards, Religion and Change, Hodder & Stoughton, 1974. Part One: Chapter 1 - Religion and the World's Coming of Age – Secularisation, (Pg 17) 13 Herbert Benson, MD with Marg Stark, Timeless Healing - The Power and Biology of Belief, Scribner, 1996. Chapter 12: The Ills of Information - The Side Effects of Information, (Pg 261 & 263) 14 Christopher Jamison, Finding Happiness, Phoenix, 2008. Part TWO Eight Thoughts: Fourth Thought Greed - Consuming Happiness, (Pg 122) 15 Marcus Dods, How to Become Like Christ, Thos. Whittaker and also available on-line through Project Gutenberg, 1897. Indiscreet Importunity, (Pg 69 / 70) 16 Estimate for 2014 - Downloaded on 4 th August 2016 from http://www.thecreativeindustries.co.uk/uk- creative-overview/news-and-views/news-value-of-uk-fashion-industry-report-(updated) 17 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natural History of Intellect, Solar Press, 1995. II. Celebration of Intellect, (Pg 129) 18 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. Introduction (by Fr. Philip Tolbert}, (Pg 30) 19 Hazel Courteney, Divine Intervention, Cico Books, 2002. Chapter 6: Another Death, (Pg 86 / 87) 20 Terry Tastard, The Spark in the Soul, Darton Longman and Todd, 1989. Chapter 6 - Towards a spirituality of Resistance. (Pg 122) 21 Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi, Penguin Books, 1975. Part Two: Classical Authors. 1: El-Ghazali, (Pg 59) 22 Mervyn Stockwood, Religion and the Scientists, SCM Press, 1959. C.F.A.Pantin, (Pg 81 / 82) 23 Herbert Benson, MD with Marg Stark, Timeless Healing - The Power and Biology of Belief, Scribner, 1996. Chapter 9: Wired For God - Transcendent Faith, (Pg 203) 24 Ben Goldacre, Bad Science, Fourth Estate, 2009. Chapter 16: The Media’s MMR Hoax, (Pg 291) 25 Carl Edward Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997. Chapter 2 : Science and Hope, (Pg 37) 26 Barry Oates, David Hopkins and Carole Austin, Philosophy of Spiritualism, Spiritualists' National Union, 2007. Fifth Principle: Personal Responsibility, (Pg 51) 27 Carl Edward Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997. Chapter 22 : Significance Junkies, (Pg 375) 28 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 1 – Prologue, (Pg 3) 29 Carl Edward Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997. Chapter 2 : Science and Hope, (Pg 25 / 26) 30 Ben Goldacre, Bad Science, Fourth Estate, 2009. Chapter 12: How the Media Promote the Public Misunderstanding of Science, (Pg 237) 31 Ben Goldacre, Bad Science, Fourth Estate, 2009. Chapter 12: How the Media Promote the Public Misunderstanding of Science, (Pg 225) 32 Harry Wilmer, Quest for Silence, Diamon, 2000. 2 The Nature of Silence - Philosophers and Poets, (Pg 39) 33 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter XV: Silence, (Pg 219) 34 William L Watkinson, The Influence of Scepticism on Character, Charles H Kelly, 1898. The Influence of Scepticism on Character. Chapter II, (Pg 57)

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:18:05 29.9 Our World – The Media and Consumerism Page 9 of 9

35 Father M C D'Arcy, Thomas Aquinas - Selected Writings, J M Dent, 1950. 1. Sermon for the Feast of S. Martin, (Pg 5) 36 Emile Cammaerts, The Flower of Grass, The Cresset Press, 1944. Chapter v - Liberalism and Christianity, (Pg 109) 37 Harry Earnest Hunt, The Gateway of Intuition, Wright & Brown, 1930s (?). XVI Money, (Pg 66) 38 William Johnston, Silent Music - The Science of Meditation, Fount, 1979. Part I: Meditation. 1. The meditation movement, (Pg 18) 39 Lonnie C. Edwards M.D., Spiritual Laws That Govern Humanity and the Universe, Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, 2015 - Kindle version. Chapter 14: A Call for Healing and Peace

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:18:05 29.10 Our World – Poverty Page 1 of 9

29:10 Our World - Poverty

Even though poverty and equality cannot be measured in numbers and calculations alone, statistical analysis can be very revealing; they act as a megaphone, as a clarion call. From the collected data for 2011 1 we know that over 800 million people, out of the 1.3 billion people who live in extreme poverty, do not have enough food to eat. This is a staggering statistic! As individuals, most people care about this, but are often so used to seeing different expressions of poverty in the media that they become anesthetised to it. The Jesuit priest Gerard W Hughes expressed this in a different way: 2

Most of us know how easy it is to be so preoccupied with our immediate concerns that we fail to notice the distress of those around us. We also fail to make connections between, for example, the pictures of famine victims we see on the television and the supermarket shelves with their bewildering choice...

Every one of us ought to have emblazoned in our hearts the fact that we, in developed countries, are very fortunate. The English medium Tony Stockwell stated this as: 3

Having a roof over one's head, food in one's belly and clothes on one's back is a phenomenal privilege.

From this position we are well placed to attack the sources of poverty. However, the desensitisation through media over-exposure to the plight of millions, whilst it creates sadness and indignation, only produces minimal action. At the start of the third millennium, Harry Wilmer offered his view on this in ‘Quest for Silence’: 4

We declare war on poverty and crime. We make a lot of noise about those wars and accomplish little. We declare ourselves for human rights, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness but we commit deeds and intensify poverty, dividing the nation between 'haves' and 'have nots'.

Stressing this, I provide another salient statistic: 5

Today the richest 1% of the world’s people receives as much as the poorest 57%. The 25 million richest Americans have as much income as almost two billion of the world’s poorest people

Not all these extremely wealthy people are totally self-indulgent and ignore the distress of millions. For example Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of ‘Facebook’, and his wife Priscilla Chan are donating 99 percent of their fortune (in 2015 estimated at $45 billion) to charitable causes. Similarly, Bill and Melinda Gates have created the ‘Gates Foundation’ with an endowment (as of 2014) of $44.3 billion where one of the aims of this charity is to reduce extreme poverty. In principle, these two very talented individuals have used their abilities to develop ideas which has not only generated a lot of money for them and their organisations but which has had an enormous impact on humankind. I am certain others, with similarly large assets, are equally charitable and to them I doff my cap – they are able to achieve so much to reduce poverty. These are rare people indeed, who have, through their entrepreneurial ability and the capitalist system, created great wealth and yet are prepared to do so much with it for others; generally this is not the case.

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:18:38 29.10 Our World – Poverty Page 2 of 9

However, it is a strange way to progress equality. Raynor Carey Johnson, the 20 th century English physicist and author became connected with the Society for Psychical Research in London, understood that equality provided us with: 6

...a moral and intellectual problem is that of the great inequality, desserts, and opportunity with which people enter it.

And equality cannot be forced as Justin Welby recognised from historical evidence. All systems where equality is one of the drivers seem to fall at the hurdle which is human greed: 7

In the twentieth century, the history of communism, whether in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, or in China, Cambodia, Vietnam and North Korea, was one of the most unspeakable cruelty. Efforts to chase money and its mastery out of the system simply resulted in the domination of the system by a group of people who became richer and richer, creating inequalities that surpassed those they sought to replace.

Most pursue wealth for their own gain and possibly at the expense of others. The monk Thomas Merton, in his personal journal for 1 st September 1941, linked such traits with continuing poverty: 8

Poverty will never be abolished as long as everybody loves riches, or honours, or position, or fame, or importance.

...and another religious, Gerard W Hughes, expanded the scope to cover national wealth and poverty: 9

The poor and innocent suffer for the greed and ambition of the powerful. We see this clearly in the poverty of the Third World, which could be alleviated by a little more justice on the part of so-called 'developed' countries.

Gerard also gave a striking example of this: 10

In the same way, we fail to connect the fate of innocent victims of landmines with the fact that Britain has exported landmines in order to boost its economy.

As you may remember, this was a theme of the life of the late Diana, Princess of Wales. Striving for financial gain, as individuals and nations, is the ‘sine qua non’ of a materially focussed society. From the Spirit World, the father of Winifred Graham observed that: 11

Want and poverty are not the will of God Who created the earth for man. Poverty has been made by centuries of civilisation, and would be unknown if the simple pastoral life of early creation still prevailed. Money has much to answer for; it is a curse as well as a blessing.

The philosopher and scholar of Judaism, Jonathan Sacks, used Scriptural references to demonstrate that poverty is not a blessed or divinely ordained condition: 12

It is, the rabbis said, 'a kind of death' and 'worse than 50 plagues'. They added:

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:18:38 29.10 Our World – Poverty Page 3 of 9

'Nothing is harder to bear than poverty, because he who is crushed by poverty is like one to whom all the troubles of the world cling and upon whom all the curses of Deuteronomy have descended. If all other troubles were placed one side and poverty on the other, poverty would outweigh them all'

Money, itself, is fine. The problem comes when it is seen as the centre of life’s progress. This is when it impacts upon people’s lives by stimulating change to their philosophy of life and their moral judgments. This is why the Russian philosopher, Nicolas Berdyaev, wrote: 13

It is precisely on these foundations that the capitalist regime is based, which deliberately ignores every higher principle of morality.

Capitalism hinges on market forces, but, as Jonathan Sacks recognised: 14

The market is good at creating wealth but not at distributing it.

The implication from this is that the rich get richer and the poor become poorer. And this is realised in practice. The capitalists, having money and power, are the drivers of social and economic policy through political systems. The ‘gun lobby’ in the USA is a sad example of this. The American New Testament scholar and theologian Marcus J. Borg was very much aware of these drivers: 15

...the passion for social justice does not focus on individual change but on structural change.

...which he subsequently expanded and wrote: 16

...the growing gulf between rich and poor is the result of social and economic policy, not because some classes of people worked harder and others slacked off...

Our political social and economic environment over thousands of years has demonstrated that it is impossible to eradicate poverty and create an equitable society. The philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti once asked one of his eager listeners ‘What is man’s most fundamental need?’ and the subsequent conversation was: 17

“Food, clothing and shelter; but to bring about an equitable distribution of these basic necessities becomes a problem, because man is by nature greedy and exclusive.” You mean that he is encouraged and educated by society to be what he is? Now, another kind of society, through legislation and other forms of compulsion, may be able to force him not to be greedy and exclusive; but this only sets up a counter- reaction, and so there is a conflict between the individual, and the ideal established by the State, or by a powerful religious-political group. To bring about an equitable distribution of food, clothing, shelter, a totally different kind of social organization is necessary, is it not? Separate nationalities and their sovereign governments, power blocks and conflicting economic structures, as well as the cast system and organized religious - each of proclaims its way to be the only true way. All these must cease to be, which means that the whole hierarchical, authoritarian attitude towards life must come to an end.

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:18:38 29.10 Our World – Poverty Page 4 of 9

”I can see that this is the only real revolution.” It is a complete psychological revolution, and such a revolution is essential if man throughout the world is not to be in want of the basic physical necessities. The earth is ours, it is not English, Russian or American, nor does it belong to any ideological group. We are human beings, not Hindus, Buddhists, Christians or Muslims. All these divisions have to go, including the latest, Communist, if we are to bring about a totally different economic-social structure. It must start with you and me.

Whilst I accept that, as individuals, we have to become more spiritual and less materialistic, it is difficult to see how this extreme political and religious situation can be brought about. Change is always slow and best achieved by evolution rather than by revolution.

Political change, which happens surprisingly regularly, always affects the poorest and the already disadvantaged. In the UK, governments are loathe to increase taxes (which tend to affect the middle and upper classes most) but would rather cut the money which they provide to essential services. Justin Welby reported that: 18

Research commissioned in 2016 by the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research noted that 'as a general rule, the more deprived the local authority the greater the financial loss'. That is, those who are poorest - as seen, by the way we measure things, to be the least valuable - are those who have borne the brunt of spending cuts.

...and this is not the only way in which the divide between rich and poor increases. Most governments sponsor and take the profits from lotteries. These are cash cows and provide top-up money to essential services. However, those which most often gamble on the lotteries are those with most to gain and most to lose – the poor. The Welsh geneticist Steve Jones concluded that: 19

Gambling is the sale of hope to those who despair of success by other means. It is, above all, a method of transferring money from poor to rich.

This may change if everyone, especially the politicians, were able to put themselves in the shoes of those in abject poverty or those in such desperate situations as currently exist on earth due to war and conflict. Unless you have personally experienced having nothing or lived in a war torn environment, it is so hard to be able to appreciate the physical and mental distress which exists in those who are currently living so. Recognition of this was expanded by the North American born clergyman and academic Morton T Kelsey: 20

We live in relative comfort psychologically as well as physically, and this makes it difficult for us to imagine what it means to struggle just for a little to eat and a place to lay one's head. We can hardly picture our own children crying with hunger each night, perhaps with not even enough clothing to keep out the chill wind, nor do we really comprehend how helpless most of the world is in the face of natural disasters like famine and flood and pestilence, or for that matter when faced by injustice and cruelty from higher up.

It seems to me that in order to reach a state when nations and individuals themselves change, we have to alter the central system upon which capitalism is based. This needs to get to the heart of capitalism and in particular the way pressure is applied to a company by

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:18:38 29.10 Our World – Poverty Page 5 of 9 its shareholders – who provide capital only with the expectation of making money. I make this observation without, unfortunately, an alternative to offer, in much the same way as did Christopher Jamison: 21

Until the world’s economic system evolves to reduce poverty in the Third World, the migration of poor people is going to increase.

This prediction, made in 2006, is happening; the increased flow of economic migrants across the Mexican border into the USA, and the staggering number of men women and children trying to escape poverty and war who are daily risking their lives in unsafe and overcrowded boats to cross the waters of the Mediterranean. According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), between 1 st January and 30 th May 2016, there were 204,311 recorded migrants and of that total 2,443 tragically died. 22 There are many such statistics which are an indictment on humanity, and on its ability to care for the human family. Change must happen! Nations have to accept that collectively they must change. We can help to stimulate this change as we can follow the advice of the professor of psychiatry Harry Wilmer: 23

The problem is that we are silent when we should speak out and speak out when we should be silent.

Over the years campaigners have, to some extent, been able to stimulate some governments to help others whose peoples are in desperate need. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, underlined the UK’s commitment to give 0.7 per cent of national income to the international aid budget which, he tells us: 24

...is one that springs out of long campaigning by groups - Christian and otherwise - with deep concern about global poverty. It has become established policy, despite attacks from many quarters, and is something that we can continue to speak in favour of, supporting those politicians who defend it - often against their own political interests - so that, over time, the sense that it marks a point of virtue in our society becomes more deeply established.

So the real problem was articulated by the author David Dulley: 25

How to share, not how to exploit, is our problem.

So we can do two things. Firstly, by our own actions we can, through national pressure, move our country to be more altruistic and caring for other nations, and secondly to develop our own spirituality which will change our own attitude and by example the actions of others. The mystical writer Evelyn Underhill took this to be a statement of fact rather than a political message: 26

But I cannot help pointing out that we shall never get spiritual values out of a society harried and tormented by economic pressure, or men and women whose whole attention is given to the daily task of keeping alive. This is not a political statement: it is a plain fact that we must face. Through the courageous lives of the poor, their patient endurance of insecurity may reveal a nobility that shames us, it still remains true that these lives do not represent the most favourable conditions for the human soul. It is not poverty that matters; but strain and the presence of

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:18:38 29.10 Our World – Poverty Page 6 of 9

anxiety and fear, the impossibility of detachment. Therefore this oppression at least would have to be lightened, before the social conscience could be at ease.

The total food production of the planet, if appropriately distributed, could adequately feed the current 7 billion human inhabitant of the Earth. Mother Earth is the amazing provider and as the Christian agnostic Leslie D Weatherhead commented: 27

...God has provided enough for everybody, and where the true spirit of brotherhood exists no one need want.

Such brotherhood and spirituality go hand in hand because love is the golden thread which runs through both. It has been suggested that if everyone recognised the existence of the Spirit World and consequentially believed that death was not the end of life then spirituality would flourish and hence love of all created things would result. One such person was the famous author of books about life after death and near-death experiences (NDEs), Raymond A. Moody who, in reflecting on his research, postulated that: 28

After all, rather than making us indifferent to social injustice, belief in an afterlife may give us an incentive to try to correct it.

...and taking a spiritual viewpoint, the consequence for those who take a very materialistic stance is stated in Proverbs: 29

There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.

Or in a more modern phraseology from the New International Version of the Bible:

One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.

That is, poverty of spirit. Improving our spiritual standing is our primary life objective and this can well be served by helping others collectively and individually. It has often been quoted that, as St Jerome stated at the turn of the 4 th century: 30

...one man's gain must always be another man's loss

...but that is only true if you have some attachment to the thing that you lose. If you have no love for that which you give away, then it cannot be considered as a loss – detachment is the key. Look back at those peoples who were considered primitives in days gone by – they were much more contented and happier before they became ‘civilised’. The late Dean of St Pauls, William Ralph Inge, said of such people: 31

In countries where money-making has never been made a religion the poor are worse off, but much less bitter.

It is not just bitterness that develops in the poverty stricken. Martin Israel identified a number of other characteristics which develop consequential on poverty: 32

Man's inhumanity to man is often the result of deep inner deprivation which shows

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:18:38 29.10 Our World – Poverty Page 7 of 9

itself in such anti-social attitudes as anger, jealousy, race and religious hatred, and a desire for the destruction of all that is beautiful and noble. What the deprived person cannot attain, he wishes to destroy in others, and he is filled with malice against those who are happy and prosperous. He attributes underhand dealing to those who do well for themselves, especially if they are strangers. The pain that accrues from the injustice that men suffer as part of their social heritage can bite very deep...

With this comes humiliation; loss of respect by others and for oneself. Commenting on this Jonathan Sacks remarked: 33

Poverty humiliates, and a good society will not allow humiliation.

And neither should it. So the question is ‘How can we change ourselves and all nations in order to eliminate humanity’s poverty?’ or as author Cecil Rose posed it: 34

How do you create the quality of life that has the answer to selfishness and therefore makes it possible for every man to give according to his capacity and receive according to his need?

This utopia seems a distant state. We do not seem to be able to develop an international system to which all can sign up to and which alleviates poverty. Perhaps the United Nations could stimulate a number of changes which when taken cumulatively would achieve the desired result. Limiting population growth is one area. Of this David Dulley put the following words into the mouth of his cat, Mona: 35

...as for population problems, you seem to know how to solve them for species other than your own.

This is the tip of the iceberg. At the heart of inequality and hence poverty lies greed – for possessions and for power over others. The headlines in our daily papers, according to the evangelist Billy Graham, demonstrate that: 36

...there is discontentment and unhappiness all over the world as a result of greed, ambition, lust, prejudice, and evil desire. It men could only be content in whatever state they find themselves; if men could love their fellow men regardless of the colour of the skin or shape of the nose; if those who ‘have’ would show compassion on the ‘have-nots’; if greedy men would give up their unholy ambition for power – would not this world be a different place in which to live?

Have we made progress along these lines? The evidence says not. If you compare child mortality in the rich OECD countries and other regions, children in poorer regions are more, not less likely to die under the age of five compared to 1990 levels. 37

In 1990 a child in sub-Saharan Africa was 18 times more likely to die than a child in a rich country. In 2001 it was 25 times more likely. In 1990 a child in the former Soviet Union was 3.5 times more likely to die. In 2001 it was 5 times.

So our progress has been retrograde! Nevertheless, each of us must continue to influence

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:18:38 29.10 Our World – Poverty Page 8 of 9 the decision makers in our own country, as best we can, so that we have a positive change to humanity’s poverty. And as individuals we must improve our love for all through following our spiritual pathway.

1 Downloaded on 6 th August 2016 from https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-global-poverty 2 Gerard W Hughes, God in all Things, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Chapter Three: Down-to-Earth Holiness - The Compassion of God in the Teaching of Jesus, (Pg 36)

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:18:38 29.10 Our World – Poverty Page 9 of 9

3 Tony Stockwell, Spirited, Hodder Mobius, 2005. Epilogue, (Pg 206) 4 Harry Wilmer, Quest for Silence, Diamon, 2000. 5 War, (Pg 90) 5 Downloaded on 8 th August 2016 from https://newint.org/features/2004/02/01/equality-facts/ 6 Raynor Carey Johnson, Nurslings of Immortality, Pelegrin Trust, 1993. Chapter 9 -Creation: The Adventure of Being Man: Karma and Moral Law, (Pg 209) 7 Justin Welby, Dethroning Mammon, Bloomsbury, 2016. Chapter 6: What we master brings us joy, (Pg 132 & 133) 8 Thomas Merton, A Secular Journal, The Catholic Book Club, 1959. Part Five: St Bonaventure, Harlem and Our Lady of the Valley (1941), (Pg 119) 9 Gerard W Hughes, God in all Things, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Chapter Ten: Reflection on Human Suffering, Death and Christian Faith - Why Do the Innocent Suffer? (Pg 196) 10 Gerard W Hughes, God in all Things, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Chapter Three: Down-to-Earth Holiness - The Compassion of God in the Teaching of Jesus, (Pg 37) 11 Winifred Graham, More Letters From Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, 1943. Without Finance, (Pg 55 / 56) 12 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 5 - Contribution: The Moral Case for the Market Economy, (Pg 97 / 99) 13 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. Some Trends in Humanism, (Pg 18) 14 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 5 - Contribution: The Moral Case for the Market Economy, (Pg 87) 15 Marcus J. Borg, The God We Never Knew, HarperSanFrancisco, 1997. Part III: Chapter 6: The Dream of God - A Politics of Compassion, (Pg 141) 16 Marcus J. Borg, The God We Never Knew, HarperSanFrancisco, 1997. Part III: Chapter 6: The Dream of God - A Politics of Compassion, (Pg 148) 17 J Krishnamurti, Commentaries on Living - Third Series, Victor Gollancz, 1961. Psychological Revolution, (Pg 44 / 45) 18 Justin Welby, Dethroning Mammon, Bloomsbury, 2016. Chapter 2: What we measure controls us, (Pg 45) 19 Steve Jones, In The Blood: God, Genes and Destiny, Harper Collins, 1996. Chapter II: Sex and Taxes, (Pg 107) 20 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Two: The Basic Climate for Meditation - 5: Cracking the Husk: Man's Need for God, (Pg 51) 21 Christopher Jamison, Finding Sanctuary, Phoenix, 2007. PART TWO: STEP 5 – Community, (Pg 133) 22 https://www.iom.int/news/mediterranean-migrant-arrivals-2016-204311-deaths-2443 23 Harry Wilmer, Quest for Silence, Diamon, 2000. 5 War, (Pg 90) 24 Justin Welby, Dethroning Mammon, Bloomsbury, 2016. Chapter 6: What we master brings us joy, (Pg 153) 25 David Dulley, Conversations with Mona, David Dulley, 1993. 29: Spoon and Slogans, (Pg 68) 26 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VIII The Life of the Spirit and the Social Order, (Pg 219) 27 Leslie D Weatherhead, A Shepherd Remembers - A Devotional Study of The Twenty-Third Psalm, Hodder & Stoughton, 1960. Chapter 2: I Shall not Want, (Pg 54) 28 Raymond A. Moody, Reflections on Life After Life, Corgi, 1978. 4 Reactions From the Ministry, (Pg 57) 29 Bible, Old Testament, Proverbs 11:24 (King James Version) 30 'Reader', Features of the Church Fathers, Heath Cranton Limited, 1935. Second Century and Onwards: Jerome, (Pg 65) 31 Dean Inge, Goodness and Truth, Mowbray, 1958. Sermon 12: The Law of Vicarious Suffering, (Pg 105) 32 Martin Israel, The Pain That Heals, Hodder & Stoughton, 1981. Chapter 13: Taking up the Cross, (Pg 153) 33 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 6 - Compassion: The idea of Tzedakah, (Pg 119) 34 Cecil Rose, When Man Listens, Blandford Press, 1956. Chapter Five: Revolution, (Pg 71) 35 David Dulley, Conversations with Mona, David Dulley, 1993. 10: Prisoners of the Past, (Pg 27) 36 Billy Graham, The Secret of Happiness, Educational Book Exhibits, 1974. Chapter II: Happiness through Poverty, (Pg 12 / 13) 37 Downloaded on 10 th August 2016 from https://newint.org/features/2004/02/01/equality-facts/

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:18:38 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 1 of 34

29:11 Our World – War and Conflict

Man’s inhumanity to man 1 has been borne out over recent years and seems to be getting worse. To give you an appreciation of the scale of problem, during the 20 th century and the first decade of the 21 st century there have been at least 256 wars which have culminated in an estimated 75 million civilian deaths. 2 It was believed that WWI, the Great War, would be the one to end all wars – and then came WWII when over 50 million people were killed. In fact, Peter Spink, an English Anglican priest, acknowledged that between then and 1990s: 3

...over one hundred acknowledged wars have broken out and the vision of world peace seems as remote as ever.

Do such conflicts achieve their intended goal? No! The Baptist minister and social activist Steve Chalke recognised that: 4

...history proving time and again that war and hostility solves nothing in the long run .

...or as the Russian philosopher Nicolas Berdyaev phrased it: 5

...humanity may degenerate into inhumanity; something to be observed a good many times in history.

In terms of WWII, which had then just ended, he wrote that: 6

This terrible War and its conclusion - the desired conclusion - mark an important date in the history of the world. The War is finished, but no true joy comes as a result of it, indeed we scarcely have the feeling that it is over! ... We cannot say, "Peace on earth to men of good-will." For that matter have we ever been able to say it, for war is practically a normal state in the life of the world?

A look at some of the statistics from that period might demonstrate that we have a long way to go to reach a peaceful planet. In 1942, according to the evangelist Billy Graham, the American political scientist Quincy Wright in his magnum opus ‘A Study of War’ that in the 461 years from 1480 to 1941 the various nations experienced wars as follows: 7

Great Britain 78 wars, France 71, Spain 64, Russia 61, Austria 52, Germany 23, China 11, Japan 9, the United States 13, and, in addition, 110 wars were fought, often ruthlessly, against the Indians within the United States. Someone has pointed out that in the past four thousand years there has been less than three hundred years of peace. Even the most optimistic person is forced to admit that there is something seriously wrong with a world that has such a passion for destruction.

These numbers were significantly increased during the remainder of the 20 th century and, because of the widespread distribution of mass communications devices, most people are aware of conflicts virtually as they begin. The authors Peter Meadows, Joseph Steinberg and Donna Vann in their book ‘Beyond Belief?’ ratified this and wrote: 8

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 2 of 34

Horrendous images flash across our TV screens daily, until our minds are almost numb with the horror of it all. The bloodbath of genocide in Rwanda, the devastation of war in Bosnia, life-destroying drought in the Sudan, hurricanes in Central America, floods in Bangladesh. Stark pictures cling to our minds - a weeping children, distraught mothers, and battle-scarred victims.

However, the problem is that we get so accustomed to hearing of conflict and extreme human suffering that we become accustomed to it and it does not have the impact which it ought to have. Wherever in the world we turn there appears to be conflict which every day is evident from reports in the national media. Are we being conditioned into believing that conflict is a natural state of the world? What a frightening prospect. We should be aiming for peace not war. In ‘Wild Beasts and Angels’, the honorary canon of Derby Cathedral, Michael Mitton, expressed the view that: 9

There should be peace on earth, but there is violence. There should be justice on earth, but there is repression and poverty.

The impact of such conflict was expressed by Scottish minister James Martin in his book ‘Suffering Man, Loving God’: 10

War exacts a terrible price in terms of untimely deaths and ruined bodies, shattered homes and broken hearts.

Social and economic injustice has been the trigger for many conflicts, and if we are not careful our ability to create weapons of mass destruction may result in annihilation of nations or even worse. This negative scenario was articulated by Martin Israel, a mystic who was very shy and suffered for many years from depression which he eventually overcame with the help of psychotherapy: 11

The present escalating unrest and violence in the world, which may well presage the total annihilation of the human race unless there is a radical change in our attitude to life and the values by which we work together, is the result of centuries of social and economic injustice.

This is where we have to be very careful as to the consequences of recognising such injustice. Consider the picture painted by the philosopher and mystic Jiddu Krishnamurti, during a talk given in 1934: 12

So through this increasing conflict, divisions and sects are created. Each mind creates a new set of values according to its own reactions to the environment, and then begins the division of peoples; there come into being class distinctions and fierce antagonisms between creeds, between doctrines. And out of the immensity of this conflict, experts come into activity and call themselves reformers in religion and healers of social and economic life. Being experts, so blinded are they by their own expertism, that they merely increase division and struggle. These are the religious reformers, social reformers, and economic and political reformers, all experts in their own limitations, and all dividing our life and human functioning into compartments and conflict.

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 3 of 34

And they all believe that they are right! This is one of the factors which cause so much unrest in our world today. The spirit communicating through Neale Donald Walsch observed that: 13

...it is this very teaching of superiority that has caused so much pain in your world. The idea, deeply ingrained in a people, that they are somehow “better” than others may give them an extra measure of confidence, but it also too often translates “how can anything we do go wrong?” into “how can anything we do be wrong?” This is not self-confidence, but a dangerous brand of hubris that allows an entire population to believe itself to be in the right, no matter what it says or does.

In order to change this situation, we have to alter humanity’s focus. Religions should at least emphasise peace between peoples and peace between individuals as being one of humankind’s objectives. The monk Thomas Merton captured this in his remark: 14

The God of peace is never glorified by human violence.

In principle, it is a matter of recognising that there is a designer of the Universe and that all that we do is, to some extent, consequential upon this Creator and creation. The Belgian academic Emile Cammaerts believed that: 15

As long as this supernatural and therefore supernational authority is not acknowledged, man will go on fighting in order to conquer or to recover his self- righteous illusions.

...and Aldous Huxley, the famous author and satirist who in his latter years became very interested in spiritual subjects such as parapsychology and philosophical mysticism, expressed his pacifist view that: 16

Every violence is, over and above everything else, a sacrilegious rebellion against the divine order.

Perhaps we can look to nature to find an answer. This idea was not lost on Brian Leslie Weiss. This American psychiatrist whose research includes reincarnation, past life regression, future-life progression and survival of the human soul after death, suggested that from his own experience: 17

Everything must be balanced. Nature is balanced. The beasts live in harmony. Humans have not learned that. They continue to destroy themselves.

Where could we start to stimulate change in our collective approach to our life and that of others? Perhaps with our youngsters! Carl Sagan, from a scientist’s perspective observed that: 18

An extraterrestrial being, newly arrived on Earth - scrutinising what we mainly present to our children in television, radio, movies, newspapers, magazines, the comics, and many books - might easily conclude that we are intent on teaching them murder, rape, cruelty, superstition, credulity, and consumerism. We keep at it, and through constant repetition many of them finally get it. What kind of society could

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 4 of 34

we create if, instead, we drummed into them science and a sense of hope?

A similar message was presented in the teachings of Don Miguel Ruiz. As a Mexican author of Toltec spiritualist texts he believed that: 19

Domesticated youths usually rebel against the dream imposed on them. They are no longer innocent. In the Westernised culture that dominates earth, young people see violence everywhere. Violence is fashionable in entertainment and in the gangs that youths identify with in all parts of the world. The system of violence swallows them. They look up to accepted idols, such as the macho male and the female as sexual object. The criminal becomes a hero. The models our young people follow are hellish.

Because of this degradation, a couple of objectives were suggested by a communicator from the Spirit World: 20

It is important for the youth to insist upon their elders that they will not permit the destruction [of the environment] . It is important for the youth also to understand that being bombarded by violence [from the mass media] implants a violence that is then out of their control.

The purity of our children is continuously being compromised by what they observe around them and in the things that the media present them with. One person who was very outspoken in her recognition of the violence that is shown on television, video, and in the cinema, was the medium and healer Betty Shine. She understood that the aspects of life that these media portray are not those experienced within most families. In her book ‘The Infinite Mind’ she wrote: 21

...for decades ordinary decent parents have struggled to protect their children from the violence that they have been able to see by simply turning on the television. Because of this mindless education, children who were introduced to violence at an early age are now committing unbelievably inhumane acts on anyone who gets in their way. One can see from their incredulous or arrogant expressions when they are given a term of imprisonment that they cannot understand why they have been sentenced when their idols, the stars, are given awards for their violent performances. The fact is, these children and teenagers are no longer able to tell fact from fiction. They have been so brutalised and damaged that they have lost touch with reality.

Most spiritually focussed people would have the same view, especially those from the major religions. Billy Graham’s summary may represent this caucus of people: 22

Our children are given toys representing violence: guns, tanks, fighting planes, and soldiers. Our entertainment media have catered to our savagery by giving us films of intrigue, murder, war, and lawlessness. Our pulp magazines have added fuel to the flame by dramatising the hatreds, the lusts, and the passions of human nature. Of course our comic books have contributed to our moral chaos by exploiting our children and making them violence minded.

Out of control is where we currently are. I see it all around. I see it in the language that

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 5 of 34 children use which is often taken from the violent electronic games which they are allowed to play. It is seeping into our culture. The Jesuit priest Gerard W Hughes, too, had seen this emergence: 23

The crisis of our time does not lie primarily in the danger of nuclear Annihilation, environmental pollution or over-population. It lies rather in our mental conditioning, our ingrained culture of violence.

Stimulating emotional response seems to sell copy. Following this path, we have been pushed onto the slippery slope of extremism. John Eldredge, an American author, counsellor, and lecturer on Christianity, believed that this leads to a downward spiral of addiction: 24

What began as an attraction to 'Playboy' ends up for the porn addict in some really horrific stuff. Just look at the progression of television drama over the past thirty years. What we have now would have been considered shocking, even repulsive, to an earlier audience. Networks have to keep adding more sex, more violence, to keep our attention. We have become so sensual.

And this, drop by drop, leaks into society and sets the scene described by Neale Donald Walsch: 25

We’re still killing our own kind, running our world on power and greed, sexually repressing our society, mistreating and maleducating our children, ignoring suffering, and, indeed, creating it .

Like attracts like; violence spawns violence. We see it everyday in the news. Towards the end of the 20 th century, even in Great Britain, we have seen such inhuman behaviour. Peter Meadows recalls that: 26

...we've lived through Lockerbie, Dunblane, murders of children by children, senseless killings in Northern Ireland and terrorist bombs which decimate entire city districts, carrying the innocent in their wake.

Irrespective of what the media throw at us, an additional problem, for example with violence in electronic games, is that these tend to be played in a solitary environment – by a child interfacing with a machine. This reduces a child’s contact with others and hence there is a reduced ability to communicate and interact with others. As parents we have to take responsibility for teaching our children, whose souls are temporarily in our charge, how best to interact with others. If we don’t then how will we be able to develop the art of diplomacy in personal and national relationships? It is from such inability that many wars and conflicts start or are prevented. This is an historical fact and we seem to be exacerbating the situation; power is used in preference to discussion. The Quaker, John Punshon, faced the fact that: 27

...settling differences by power rather than persuasion is called violence.

This endemic attitude can probably only be resolved in a political context. However, those ‘good’ politicians, particularly those who have more than a 5 year election horizon, who feel the need to try to change the emotional direction of humanity, have real difficulties as

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 6 of 34 was well articulated by the critic of Soviet totalitarianism Alexandr Solzhenitsyn: 28

In today's Western society the inequality has been revealed [in] freedom for good deeds and freedom for evil deeds. A statesman who wants to achieve something important and highly constructive for his country has to move cautiously and even timidly. There are thousands of hasty and irresponsible critics around him; parliament and the press keep rebuffing him. As he moves ahead, he has to prove that each single step of his is well-founded and absolutely flawless. Actually, an outstanding and particularly gifted person who has unusual and unexpected initiatives in mind hardly gets a chance to assert himself. From the very beginning, dozens of traps will be set out for him.

Another Russian born observer and philosopher, Nicolas Berdyaev, knows that: 29

Peace cannot be attained by the beggarly ruses of international politics.

Those who do have a hand in international peace must not take that responsibility lightly or flippantly. At this highest level, words and attitude are very important but, as the Anglican Sibyl Harton explained: 30

In these days when muddled thinking and slipshod speaking are increasingly prevalent in high places and when the value of words, which are used so casually and carelessly, is surely as low as it has ever been...

This is not much different from the situation that existed over 2800 years ago. The Chinese historians Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh tell us that the Greek poet Hesiod, who is generally thought by scholars to have been active around the same time as Homer, captured the ethos of the time, lamenting that: 31

...he was living in an era when relationships had crumbled: fathers and offspring disagreed with one another, children failed to care for their ageing parents, siblings fought with one another, and people freely gave their “praise to violence.

...and in the days around the start of the 16 th century, things still had not changed. According to the Jesuit theologian Ladislaus Boros, Erasmus, in his 'Handbook of a Christian Prince', warns that those involved in conflict ought to: 32

...seriously and with their whole heart see that there be an end to the fury of war, and that peace and concord be instituted. ... We are all rushing upon our destruction

An interesting observation on the promulgation of aggressive political decisions was made by Thomas Merton: 33

Worse still, while we learn to be humble and virtuous as individuals, we allow ourselves to commit the worst crimes in the name of "society". We are gentle in our private life in order to be murderers as a collective group. For murder committed by an individual, is a great crime. But when it becomes war or revolution, it is represented as the summit of heroism and virtue.

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 7 of 34

The 17 th century Spanish Jesuit and baroque prose writer and philosopher Baltasar Gracián also understood the foolish passion that humanity has for rewarding the violent and disregarded the humanitarian activity of ‘good’ people. In his 280 th aphorism he expressed the view that: 34

In all the world, the greatest services are now the least rewarded. There are entire nations inclined to treat others badly.

Some politicians have stepped out of this mould and moved from commending conflict because of a realisation of its futility. The Russian 20 th century statesman Mikhail Gorbachev's was one such remarkable person. In the book ‘God and the Evolving Universe’ it is noted that he had a ‘'Damascus moment' which changed the direction of the Cold War. This situation: 35

...came while he was riding a helicopter with former U. S. President George Bush to Camp David. "Near President Bush sat a military aide," he said, "with the nuclear codes enabling him to destroy the Soviet Union. Near me sat my military aide with the codes to destroy the United States. Yet President Bush and I sat together on that small helicopter talking about peace." This sudden realisation inspired him to change directions...

But how many are courageous enough to change their political direction and to strive with all their energies to prevent future conflict. Such magnanimity is very rare indeed; most act as though they were in a school playground. In fact, this point was made by Alan Alda in a speech at his daughter's graduation, at which he said: 36

You're an adult when the leaders of the world are behaving like children .

In Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’ reference was made to the inability of politicians to see the error of their ways. In that epic, Dante’s teacher Vigil remarked: 37

"Direct," he said, "towards me the keen eyes Of intellect, and clear will be to thee The error of the blind, who would be leaders.

Being truthful about the reasons for war is a rarity. The 19 th century essayist and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson used a lovely turn of phrase when he described this: 38

I think that the reason why men fail in their conflicts is because they wear other armour than their own.

Often freedom, justice and many other similar desirable qualities are cited as justifiers for an aggressor’s conflict. These can never be attained, as the journalist Malcolm Muggeridge realised: 39

...and whole continents are devastated by wars and revolutions purporting to uphold liberty and enlarge happiness, and inevitably destroying both.

Nicolas Berdyaev knew that even for the ‘winners’ this is true: 40

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 8 of 34

Liberty is promised when the enemy is defeated. But the enemy always reappears in new guises and the hour of freedom continually recedes!

Freedom appears to have been the objective of Islam. Writing in the early 20 th century the Indian Muslim leader and Islamic activist Maulana Mohammad Ali, based on Qur’anic writings, declared that: 41

The Muslims were allowed to fight indeed, but what was the object? Not to compel the unbelievers to accept Islam, for it is against all the broad principles upon which they had hitherto been brought up. No, it was to establish religious freedom, to stop all religious persecution, to protect the houses of worship of all religions, mosques among them.

...and this seems to give validity to aggression as opposed to defence which I cannot condone. Peace can never be realised as a product of war or conflict which seems to fly in the face of wars’ objectives. The Algerian Berber philosopher and theologian St. Augustine remarked: 42

The warrior would but conquer, and war's aim is nothing but glorious peace.

But it never happens; humanity does not learn from its mistakes. Other justifying principles which war-mongers use, and often even believe, are those associated with religion. Terry Pratchett, in one of his funny Discworld novels, ‘Snuff’, reported that: 43

...some of the most terrible things in the world are done by people who think, genuinely think, that they are doing it for the best, especially if there is some god involved.

...and their God is the one and only true God. This very naïve concept, so John M Templeton noted, can be seen throughout historical conflicts. He said that: 44

History reveals that great havoc and suffering were caused not by religion, but by men who thought their concept of God was the only one worthy of belief.

Similarly, we are also told by Greg Austin, Todd Kranock and Thom Oommen in their ‘God and War: An Audit and an Exploration’ that Palmer Fernandez, in ‘Encyclopaedia’ notes correctly that:

...there is a striking similarity between the Jewish, Christian, and Koranic views of war ... all three traditions see war as a way of establishing the divine will on earth...

It is often believed that most of the wars over the last couple of millennia were caused by one religion or another. That is not strictly true. Nevertheless, those wanting to stimulate or drum up support for a particular conflict have often used religion as a ‘leader’. Abbott Christopher Jamison explained this in his book ‘Finding Sanctuary’ using research as the basis: 45

In February 2004 BBC Television broadcast a programme entitled 'What the World Thinks of God'. As part of this research they commissioned Bradford University's

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 9 of 34

Peace Studies to carry out an audit of wars [GOD AND WAR: AN AUDIT & AN EXPLORATION Compiled by Greg Austin, Todd Kranock and Thom Oommen] over the last hundred years, with specific reference to the role of religion in causing those wars. Looking back at history, they analysed the actual mechanisms by which religion might cause war and found several possible ways in which this occurs. These mechanisms might be the promise of salvation to those who fought the infidel, or the intention of religious leaders to seize holy places - both key factors in the medieval crusades. Or they might be the desire to convert the enemy, as in the wars of the reformation. The researchers then analysed the thirty-two wars of the twentieth century. Their conclusions were that only three had significant religious element. They considered the Israeli-Arab wars, for example, to be wars of nationalism and liberation of territory (and I would add that the same is true of the Irish wars and conflicts).They noted that the current campaign being waged by Arab terror groups is largely about political order in the Arab countries, especially the presence of foreigners there. These groups use the language of religion... Political leaders use differences in confessional faith as a way of mobilising support for political wars, and it is mainly in this way that religion becomes a factor in war.

And a favourite ruse of those who desire to aggravate conflict situations use religiously based and very emotive expressions to try to achieve their goal. Gerard W Hughes observed that: 46

'The will of God' is a phrase with which we can control, oppress, exclude, bully, beat, enslave and even murder: it is the reason why religion can be such a danger in human life, why so many of the wars and bloody conflicts for centuries past and up to the present day have a religious element in them.

No matter what religion we belong to, we, of course, realise that no spiritual objective entails harm to others. Every religion should shout out this message; few, however, do. One notable exception is the group known as the Quakers. According to Jonathan Fryer, in the Journal of one of their founders George Fox, is written: 47

All that pretend to fight for Christ are deceived. For His kingdom is not of this world, therefore His servants do not fight.

Some Scriptures, used as a basis for some religions, are extremely violent towards those of different faiths. One example is the Old Testament of the Bible. Bede Griffiths, a British- born Benedictine monk who lived in ashrams in South India, was very conversant with the Bible and, on this point, wrote: 48

Again when the Israelites were about to enter the land which had been promised them, they were told to destroy all the people of the land, "You shall smite them and utterly destroy them!" [Deut. 7:2] Again in the book of Samuel, Saul is commanded, "Go and smite Amelek and utterly destroy all that they have and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and camel and ass." [1 Sam 15:3] Of course, we must remember the context of the civilisation in which this took place, yet what is shocking is that it is presented as the command of a God who is

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 10 of 34

supposed to be "righteous" and this attitude of hatred for one's enemies became a permanent feature of the religion of Israel. The psalmist never ceases to proclaim his hatred for his enemies and to ask God to destroy them. When personal or racial enemies are seen as enemies of God there is no limit to the violence and hatred which they evoke. Unfortunately this spirit has entered into all the Semitic religions and has left a terrible record of war and violence behind.

I expect that in every religion, possibly tucked away and not necessarily accepted by those stirring up conflict, are words which state something like ‘never take God’s word in vain’. Certainly, this is so in the Qur’an as explained by Reza Aslan: 49

War, according to the Quran, is either just or unjust; it is never 'holy'.

It is a shame that the ‘love’ theme of Jesus the Nazarene which was meant to supplant the aggression expounded in the Old Testament was not understood and implemented 2000 years ago. The Spirit World teacher, Red Cloud who was the guide to the pioneering medium Estelle Roberts, explained that: 50

Man lives in an imperfect matter-world where you have two laws in operation. You have the law of Christ, the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill." That must supersede the law of Moses which says, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."... One thing you cannot yet understand is that the Moses man, of which there are many in your world, is not yet capable of understanding the law of Christ... In my world we have only one law, the law of Christ, which has superseded the law of Moses.

All major religions and certainly human rights conventions respect life and condemns violence of any sort. You would not think so looking at the atrocities carried out by the so- called Islamic State but Islam, at its core, extols its adherents to value life of all people. The Christian author Karen Armstrong, from her own experience, described that: 51

...the majority of Muslims who condemned the attacks all gave religious reasons, quoting, for example, the Qur'anic verse that states that the taking of a single life is equivalent to the destruction of the entire world [Qur'an 5:32].

Similarly, the idea that a person must be punished if they reject the Islamic faith after once being a Muslim is not an inherent part of the Islamic faith. Maulana Mohammad Ali stated that: 52

The Qur'an speaks repeatedly of people going back to unbelief after believing, but never once does it say that they should be killed or punished.

How religions can be distorted by the fundamentalist. On the other hand, the existence of the Scriptures had allowed the development of a very effective legal system – the development of a caring society. The English academic Ian Robinson also explained that: 53

Within Christendom the Bible is the supranational authority (a role that in post- Christian Western societies is displaced by Human Rights).

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 11 of 34

Of course, this Human Rights Act, which in the UK was enshrined in Law towards the end of the 20 th century, says little about the spiritual and eternal development of an individual’s soul. Religions, too, place so much emphasis on the temporal nature of man that the spiritual appears to be of secondary concern. Aldous Huxley placed such an attitude alongside that of national violence: 54

From the records of history it seems to be abundantly clear that most of the religions and philosophies which take time too seriously are correlated with political theories that inculcate and justify the use of large-scale violence.

Furthermore, religions condone and exploit the involvement of individuals in wars; ‘Bless the heroes’ is the cry! This was not lost on Aldous who also observed that: 55

The representatives of the organised churches begin by putting haloes on the heads of the people who do most to make wars and revolutions, then go on, rather plaintively, to wonder why the world should be in such a mess.

Religious representatives have gone even further noted Gerard W Hughes: 56

This spiritual immaturity has allowed high-ranking clergy to bless nuclear submarines and a Catholic chaplain to bless the plane that dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima in 1945.

Another twist emerges when we examine the detailed philosophies of those who have had a significant religious influence and who consider that there is such a concept as a ‘just war’. Steve Chalke explains that: 57

In the fourth century, Constantine declared that the Roman Empire was Christian, causing a massive clash of worldviews. How could such a dominant cultural and political force disband its armies when it had been built on and sustained by the power of violence? Then in the following century, the influential theologian Augustine took the step of arguing for the separation of Jesus' teaching into personal and national ideals. As part of his argument he recognised that Jesus called for non-violence from Christians at a personal level and that they "should not take up the sword in self-defence". However he continued, the principle of love constrained Christians to defend their neighbour. To put it personally, though I couldn't defend myself, it became my God-given responsibility to defend you - and that defence was seen in terms of necessary violence. So it was that Augustine sowed the seeds of the present-day Just War theory, which Thomas Aquinas developed and popularised in the thirteenth century.

In reality, it appears that most religions allow for self-defence. Karen Armstrong referring to the Qur’an wrote: 58

...it was extremely difficult to implement the will of God in a tragically flawed world. Muslims must make a determined endeavour on all fronts-intellectual, social, economic, moral, spiritual, and political. Sometimes they might have to fight, as Muhammad did when the Meccan kafirun vowed to exterminate the Muslim community. But aggressive warfare was outlawed, and the only justification for war was self-defence.

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 12 of 34

And using a similar Scripture, Reza Aslan informed us that: 59

"Fight in the way of God those who fight you" the Qur’an says, "but do not begin hostilities; God does not like the aggressor."

...and Nicolas Berdyaev included other reasons as underpinning self-defence: 60

The use of force is only justified in defence of the weak for the safeguarding of freedom and of spiritual values and the extermination of violence and injustice.

An extension of this is that it is impossible to change people’s mind through force; fear does not create peace or acquiescence to imposed rule. The priest Leslie D Weatherhead argued that: 61

In human affairs, both in the home and school, in society and in the State, in relations national and international, which is supposed to be disciplinary action often merely secures the illusion of peace by creating sufficient fear to impose restraint. The naughty boy is put outside the classroom or caned, the criminal is put in prison or hung, the armaments race is increased and nations threaten one another with violence; but by none of these means is the bad scholar made into a good one, or the bad citizen into a good one, or the belligerent nation made into a peace loving nation. Hearts are not thus often changed, though they are often frightened and restraint is effected... Man cannot be made good by being forcibly restrained...

This is the problem created by the fundamentalist regimes, whose imposition of extreme religious mandates reduces their population’s ability to spiritually progress and interface constructively with its neighbours. From her own experience, Karen Armstrong relayed that: 62

Every single fundamentalist movement that I have studied in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is rooted in profound fear.

...and she further added that: 63

Subsequent history would show that when a fundamentalist movement is attacked, it almost invariably becomes more aggressive, bitter, and excessive.

We are back to defending spiritual values, which, for most people, equates to defending a particular religious stance, and this has been the basis of so many bloody wars. Martin Israel described this as: 64

The terrible wars and persecutions undertaken in the name of religion - and they are with us even today - testify to the demonic aspect of man's search for God.

But more often than not, religion has been used as the excuse rather than the reason. As of now, 2016, the so-called Islamic State has razed cities, butchered innocent people behind the veil of Islam. This distortion of the Islamic faith tars all Moslems with this fanatical brush and brings more discord, division and conflict to the world. It is not surprising,

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 13 of 34 therefore, that people, similar to Radhakrishnan, have a divisive view of religion: 65

While the economic and political forces are bringing people closer together, religions are doing their utmost to maintain the inner barriers that divide and antagonise people.

...and the more immature and narrow-minded the followers of a particular religion, the more they are prone to resisting progress and hence breed fanaticism. On this topic the 11 th century born Sufi Al Ghazzali felt moved to write: 66

Furthermore when the common men, through some kind of an argument, have been diverted from the truth, it is quite possible, while their fanaticism in these errors is still not far gone, to bring them back to it through similar arguments. But if fanaticism becomes rooted (in their hearts) their redemption becomes hopeless because fanaticism fastens beliefs deeply to the minds of men... Finally they call this a defence of religion and a protection for the Muslims, while in fact it results in nothing but the destruction of all people and in the firm establishment of innovation in their minds.

Taking a broader view of entrenched religious activity, the American pastor Timothy Keller recalled: 67

Christian nations institutionalised imperialism, violence and oppression through the inquisition and the African slave trade. The totalitarian and militaristic Japenese Empire of the mid-twentieth century grew out of a culture deeply influenced by Buddhism and Shintoism. Islam is the soil for much of today's terrorism, while Israeli forces have often been ruthless too. Hindu nationalists, in the name of their religion, carry out bloody strikes on both Christian churches and Muslim mosques. All of this evidence seems to indicate that religion aggravates human differences until they boil over into war, violence and the oppression of minorities.

Confirming this murderous state of affairs, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks believed that religion is not always the driver but that when combined with an individual’s or an organisation’s thirst for power untold damage can be wrought. In this way the underlying principles of the religion are brushed to one side by the intense desire for domination of others. In his book ‘The Dignity of Difference’ he provided a couple of examples: 68

In some cases, most notably Afghanistan under the Taliban, whole societies have been subjected to the rule of religious law. In others - Saddam Hussein's Iraq is a good example - religion is invoked by essentially secular leaders as a way of mobilising and directing popular passions. There are some combinations that are incendiary, and the mixture of religion and power is one.

Humanity must change this sorry state of affairs; we are the only ones who can do it. Perhaps there is a solution which was recognised, according to Nicolas Berdyaev, by Leo Tolstoy who was right when he said that: 69

...you cannot defeat evil by violence ... for victory over evil can only be spiritual

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 14 of 34

Nicolas had also explained that: 70

The worship of force must be countered by the force of the spirit and of liberty.

So, in our more enlightened and spiritual, as opposed to religious, journey, we know that it is wrong to take the life of another no matter what the circumstances. Life is precious and God given; man has never been empowered to remove it. In the ancient writing recorded in the Rosicrucian text ‘Unto Thee I Grant’ is stated: 71

There is but one way for man to be created; there are a thousand by which he may be destroyed. There is no praise, or honour, to him who giveth being to another; but triumphs and empire are the rewards of murder.

In our present day, on the one hand we decorate those heroic individuals who return from wars covered in glory and yet on the other hand we appear to do very little to stimulate ‘peace in our time’ 72 . Jonathan Sacks explained that: 73

Those who show courage in the heat of battle are celebrated. Those who take risks for peace are all too often assassinated - among them Lincoln, Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Anwar El-Sadat and Yitzhak Rabin.

...and the pioneer Spiritualist, Maurice Barbanell, knew that the problems of war have ramifications beyond death of the individual: 74

The man who has been killed in battle still remains a spiritual fact that cannot be extinguished. War is thus seen to solve no problems; it transfers them only to other planes of existence.

In that context, Imperator, the spirit guide of William Stainton Moses. Stated that: 75

Nothing is more dangerous than for souls to be rudely severed from their bodily habitation, and to be launched into spirit-life, with angry passions stirred, and revengeful feelings dominant. It is bad that any should be dismissed from earth-life suddenly, and before the bond is naturally severed. It is for this reason that all destruction of bodily flesh is foolish and rude: rude, as betokening a barbarous ignorance of the conditions of life and progress hereafter; foolish, as releasing an undeveloped angry spirit from its trammels, and enduing it with extended capacity for mischief.

In addition to this destruction of life, conflict can have terrible consequences for those who are directly affected by it. Leila Ward, a Quaker compiler of the thoughts of other Quakers, recorded that words of one referred to as Katharine who emotionally stated that: 76

...I find it difficult to share my experience of life under German occupation, because the hardest to bear were not the appalling outer circumstances, the worst was the ceaseless emotional anxiety, the fear and pressure. When those war-years come into conversation with people, there seems a barrier to my possibility to explain and to their understanding what I really mean to tell.

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 15 of 34

The scars of war and conflict are everywhere. A late family friend of ours, who was so traumatised by his time in a Japanese concentration camp in Burma, refused to talk about it all – it was too painful. We must stop these atrocities and consign them to history for once and for all. The communicator who used Neale Donald Walsch as a channel for inspired thoughts suggested that humanity: 77

...can simply end all war tomorrow. Simply. Easily. All it takes - all it has ever taken - is for all of you to agree. Yet if you cannot all agree on something as basically simple as ending the killing of each other, how can you call upon the heavens with shaking fist to put your life in order? [God] will do nothing for you that you will not do for your Self. This is the law and the prophets.

Using a similar theme, Evelyn Underhill considered love to be the linchpin. To achieve this state then: 78

(1) we must replace material by spiritual values... (2) We must replace the belief in achievement through conflict and the defeat of our adversary ... by belief in achievement through love, united effort, and the winning of our adversary ... (3) We must replace tyranny between class and race by love between class and race.

These imperatives, these ‘must do’ statements start with changing the emphasis from material to spiritual, or as Deepak Chopra said: 79

Getting serious about bringing violence to an end means giving up a personal stake in the world.

Henry Thomas Hamblin summarised this very effectively when he wrote that: 80

The reason things are in the state they are in the world is that mankind is working against the laws which govern the universe.

These are the spiritual laws. Put more starkly, we have from William Stainton Moses’ spirit communicator: 81

Wars are but the product of your lust for gain, your ambition, your angry, proud, vengeful passions. And what is the product? God’s fair works destroyed and trampled under foot: the lovely and peaceful results of man’s industry destroyed: the holy ties of home and kindred severed: thousands of families plunged into distress: rivers of blood shed wantonly: souls unnumbered rent from their earth- body to rush unprepared, uneducated, unpurified into the life of spirit. Bad, all bad! earthy! evil sprung from earth, and resulting in misery. Till you know better than this, your race will progress but slowly...

We must alter our collective ways; we must accept that materialism – our striving for ‘more’ – is not the way to progress humanity. The healer Stephen Turoff in ‘Seven Steps to Eternity’ recognised that: 82

Materialism can only lead to war between brothers and sisters, thereby creating untold hardships for many.

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 16 of 34

We must not let history repeat itself. This was the point that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made after the end of WWI: 83

But the people go their way and religion is dead, save in so far as intellectual culture and good taste can take its place. But when religion is dead, materialism becomes active, and what active materialism may produce has been seen in Germany.

...and then came WWII! We do not learn from our past experiences. Even at a national level we are still putting materialism before spiritual values. For example, how many industries exist in the world in order to produce mechanisms for killing people? Gerard W Hughes believed that: 84

...we fail to connect the fate of innocent victims of landmines with the fact that Britain has exported landmines in order to boost its economy.

This also reminds me of the battles and conflict between companies and even within companies as self-interest dominates. It seems that the more financially successful a company the more potential there is for individuals to try to dominate others in the rat-race for personal gain. Henry Thomas Hamblin, in his ‘Divine Adjustment’ expanded this thought: 85

Yet, again, we may have to meet experiences in everyday life every whit as difficult and trying as any met on the battlefields of France. The battles which are forever being carried on in the business world, for instance, are as merciless and devastating as any actual warfare. No mercy is shown to the weak; they are ruthlessly pushed to the wall.

In fact, it has been suggested by Stephen O'Brien that the source of this: 86

...materialism is a mental disease which leads to greed and selfishness, poverty and the breakdown of human dignity.

...and therefore should be countered as much as we are able. You can imagine what those in the Spirit World think of our destructive activities – they are the ones who have to cope with the arrival of spirits whose lives have been curtailed and who are so traumatised by life and death. From this Spirit World vantage point they, through Winifred Graham’s departed father, have told us: 87

....how easily half the quarrels could be avoided, if the children of earth would only be more patient with each other's shortcomings, and less selfish and acquisitive.

The consequence of war, relative to the Spirit World, is far reaching. Many soldiers have never been instructed or made aware of the existence of the Spirit world and therefore it comes as a great shock to their spirit to realise that they still ‘live’ after they have died. This creates a situation where many, because they perceive themselves to be still alive, cannot accept their own death and ‘walk the earth’ searching for understanding. Thus many earthbound spirits are created by wars. The author Lance G Trendall calling these earthbound spirits ghosts, understood that: 88

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 17 of 34

War can create ghosts. As soldiers fight and exist in fear of dying, they are so busy trying to survive, that they can go on thinking they are alive even after they are killed. They continue fighting the war long after they’ve died. Even after the war is over soldiers will be fighting their battles as ghosts. ... The price of war is much higher than the death and suffering we see. The price can still be being paid by the dead soldiers centuries later.

All for the sake of a little understanding about death.

So let us return to the last two points of Evelyn Underhill both of which were underpinned by love; this is the focus which is necessary in order to overcome the human tendency to conflict. We need to evolve rapidly in order to replace the natural instinct of survival of the fittest, with something which revolves around compassion and love. The only way in which others have compassion for me, is for me to have compassion for them. This has been expressed in a few aphorisms provided by Silver Birch: 89

Cruelty begets cruelty, war begets war, but love begets love and compassion begets compassion.

This highly regarded teaching spirit also stressed the importance of living by spiritual rather than material laws: 90

Does your world of matter realise that peace can only come from the application of spiritual laws to worldly matters? It is selfishness that brings not only war, with its train of bloodshed, misery and weeping, but chaos, confusion, disaster and bankruptcy.

...and of all these laws, the unifying one is that of love. If we can try our best – intention is all important – to apply this law in all that we do then we may achieve the situation which was described by Thomas Merton, where love: 91

...may perhaps show me that my brother is not really my enemy and that war is both his enemy and mine. War is our enemy. Then peace becomes possible.

We should all have this one collective aspiration towards which we strive and journey. This is not just a way of thinking but one where, for those who come close to being completely loving people, there seems to be a force which they possess which surrounds and protects them. In ‘The Healing Light’, Agnes Sanford, using a story about a farm boy, described that, through a deep spiritual experience, he: 92

...had seen, for the first time, the working of that force that will eventually take the place of bombs and shells upon this earth. For as soon as enough people are able to use the power of love in such a way as to create thereby a perfect self-defence, wars will be outmoded.

So, the more of us that turn towards love, the more people will turn away from using conflict as a means of resolving our differences or satisfying our desires. Evelyn Underhill, when discussing her view of the spiritual life, explained that, through following the spiritual pathway, we may experience: 93

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 18 of 34

...occasional dazzling flashes of pure beauty, pure goodness, pure love which show us what God wants and what He is, only throw into more vivid relief the horror of cruelty, greed, oppression, hatred, ugliness; and also the mere muddle and stupidity which frustrate and bring suffering into life.

These very negative qualities cited by Evelyn are individual human traits which when their possessing individuals are brought together by a powerful national or idealistic state cause immense devastation and suffering. Elimination of such drivers can never be achieved by war as Billy Graham pointed out: 94

...peace can never come out of war. War is the sire of poverty, depression, suffering, and hatred – it has never given us permanent peace.

The wall of spiritual values must be built around the city of materialism in order to isolate it and slowly diminish its impact. It is only through a collective strengthening of our true spirituality that such social change can occur, as Nicolas Berdyaev understood: 95

The passing on to a new social order must not be effected through any weakening of spiritual forces, but must be accompanied by a deepening of these forces and their increasing tension. For a long time now there has been a manifest weakening of spirituality, but a development of the human spirit would be of supreme importance in a social revolution.

As individuals we can spiritually advance, but what is more important from the point of view of cessation of wars and other conflicts, is that we develop a shared appreciation of this. Perhaps the first line of attack, therefore, is to stop using divisive articles within the media. Time and time again a wedge is driven, by the media, between nations rather than expressing the cement of friendship. The press seeks out discord rather than accord. By expressing a love between different groups then such groups will, eventually, be drawn together; the love between the individual will result in glue which binds nations together. This is the only way in which the world will be healed of its current malaise – through the love expressed by individuals as described by Agnes Sanford: 96

Nations are made up of individuals and the law of love that applies to individuals applies also to nations. The only way to make a sure and lasting peace among individuals is to win their love. This is equally true among nations.

Has this been grasped by most nations? Henry Thomas Hamblin had the answer: 97

We are so slow to learn. [Jesus] came so long ago to teach us this wonderful gospel of love. Have we learnt it? Have we surrendered to it? Have we obeyed it? Have the nations of the earth obeyed it? Alas no.

You may say that it is virtually impossible within our earthly life to love everyone; and I agree with you. However, what we can do is to apply the Law of Love such that the way in which we treat people does not generate conflict. There are people who we cannot feel in harmony with, and yet it is our responsibility, through application of love, not to cause friction and conflict. I suppose that what I am trying to express was similar to that stated by Thomas Merton who used the concept of God in place of what I called the Law of Love: 98

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 19 of 34

Will you end wars by asking men to trust men who evidently cannot be trusted? No. Teach them to love and trust God; then they will be able to love the men they cannot trust, and will dare to make peace with them, not trusting in them but in God.

It would be nice if we felt that the various religions had learned this lesson; from the evidence that we see all around us, I do not think so. In an interesting book entitled ‘Why Priests?’ the Swiss Catholic priest and theologian, Hans Küng agreed: 99

No, in a time of 'fundamental democratisation’ (of society and of the state), the Church ought to express its essential content the Christian message which is both proclamation and active aid - in an unequivocally critical yet constructive manner. Then it might again become the major advocate and defender of humanity in our so often inhuman society.

However, with increased globalisation and the reduced importance of national barriers, the one element that ought to expand in order to bring people together is their spirituality expressed through religion. This responsibility does not seem to have been taken on board – religions are still trying to demonstrate their differences rather than their similarities. This emphasis on similarity could start by stressing the nature of our Divine Creator which seems to span, in various forms, the divide of religions. This point was expanded in ‘Unto Thee I Grant’ as more of a threat than a statement: 100

Thou who art happy by the goodness of thy Creator, how darest thou in wantonness put others of his creatures to torture? Beware that it return not upon thee in compensation. Serve they not all the same Universal Master with thee? Hath He not appointed unto each its laws? Hath he not the care of their preservation? and darest thou to infringe it?

If we take this theme of a common Source, then we ought to consider ourselves as having elements of the same spiritual DNA – we are all brothers who exist in the same environment and we ought to support each other. In 1970 the pop group the Hollies had a worldwide hit with the song ‘He ain't heavy, he's my brother’ written by Bobby Scott and Bob Russell, which contains the following: 101

So on we go His welfare is of my concern No burden is he to bear We'll get there For I know He would not encumber me He ain't heavy, he's my brother

This sentiment ought to be part of our relationship with everyone; with every brother and sister. This concept of brotherhood was stressed by the spirit who channelled his teaching through Irene Bays: 102

Step by step the understanding must go forward, until at last the realisation will be to all men that they must work one for the other. That all are brothers, that all are

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 20 of 34

equal.

If you believe that we are a ‘spark of God’ then the only conclusion is that we are related and must therefore care for each other. Don’t let your material aspirations mask this fact. The Ancient and Mystical Order Rosæ Crucis (AMORC), also calling itself the Rosicrucian Order, and which has the objective of spreading knowledge of mysticism and the supernatural, published some of its teaching in the book ‘Unto Thee I Grant’. In this treatise is stated: 103

If the object of thy desires demandeth the lives of a thousand, sayest thou not, I will have it? Surely thou forgettest that He who created thee, created also these! and their blood is as rich as thine, their Soul as thine also.

This theme is also present in the beliefs of the Quakers. Referring to this order, Gerard W Hughes explained: 104

Jesus does not preach non-resistance to evil: he preaches resistance to evil, resistance to the aggressor, but without the infliction of deliberate physical violence. This form of resistance benefits both aggressor and victim and is based upon the truth emphasised by the Society of Friends, the Quakers: 'there is that which is of God in everyone'.

Embedded within you and I is the essence of similarity and this relationship must be exploited in order to ease tension and prevent all types of conflict. It is through the differences of people that wars are fought. This is borne out by our past which Thomas Merton realised: 105

The history of the world, with material destruction of cities and nations and people, expresses the division that tyrannises the souls of men...

...and of which Deepak Chopra said: 106

As long as you and I have a separate stake in the world, the cycle of violence will remain permanent.

This is the bane of materialism and love can diffuse it. The love that each of us has for one another always stresses aspects which we like. A lover will always ignore or dismiss the foibles that their lover has; they do not see the differences. This, in some way, is how we ought to conduct ourselves with everyone and every nation; we should build on what we consider to be their good points. This is not an easy task for any of us; being non- judgmental is an attitude which has to be cultivated otherwise we will remain in the continuing grip of conflict. Through Phyllis V. Schlemmer we were told by a discarnate from the Spirit World that: 107

...in each nation there must be understanding without condemnation of others.

This is a challenging objective; to move from where humanity is now to where everyone lives in harmony. In fact, our observations of the terrible effects of war ought to drive us into each other’s arms - a point made by Martin Israel: 108

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 21 of 34

The constructive role of conflict in the establishment of harmony is not fully appreciated.

But creating a world living in harmony is much more difficult than continuing to give in to our own material desires at the expense of other individuals and other nations. Through spirit communication the Irish medium Lorna Byrne was able to write: 109

...the angels have told me that war is easy; making and keeping peace is the difficult thing.

And ancient differences between nations or races seem to bubble to the surface every now and again and conflict ensues. An example of this that over the 600 years up to exile of Napoleon in 1815, the French and the British were at war 23 separate times. Jonathan Sacks referred in general terms to this situation and understood that: 110

That is what makes conflict the default option between ancient antagonists, however many years of relative peace have intervened. 'No man', said Ogden Nash, 'ever forgets ... where he buried the hatchet.'

This makes differences of perspective into conflicts and unless we change our collective attitude it will continue to happen. Peace talks will never succeed unless there is spirituality underpinning discussions or negotiations. This was a theme offered by Billy Graham: 111

Though I am not wholly adverse to movement which strive in one way or another for world peace, I have a strong conviction that such peace will never come unless there is a spiritual dynamic at the core.

This maxim, based on what is happening in the early 21 st century, is so evident. To change this state of affairs around we need to stimulate in each of us those elements which are the components of love. Compassion, for example, as outlined by Ladislaus Boros: 112

Today we need people who dare to be mild. Who do not answer evil with evil. Who are a hope for others. People who find words of forgiveness for others. Thus mildness is more that a little 'feeling'. It is a duty.

This mildness, this compassion is very powerful and can emerge through discussions and disarm the most difficult situations. Recognising the powerfulness of this approach, Jonathan Sacks understood that: 113

The greatest single antidote to violence is 'conversation', speaking our fears, listening to the fears of others, and in that sharing of vulnerabilities discovering a genesis of hope.

...and he went on to say: 114

Conversation, the heartbeat of democratic politics, is dying and with it our chances of civic, let alone global, peace.

Tolerance, too, ought to be cultivated as suggested by Barry Oates, David Hopkins and

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 22 of 34

Carole Austin in ‘Philosophy of Spiritualism’: 115

War and conflict might have been prevented in many cases if tolerance, rather than force, had been the guiding principle.

The one component of love which I believe is necessary is humility; a modest view of one’s own importance relative to that of others. According to Christopher Jamison, it is when this characteristic is not present that conflict arises: 116

If you examine human interactions that are going wrong, whether in bitter arguments or wars, there is usually somewhere the lack of humility and an excess of arrogance.

Belief that humility is a key component for peace was recognised thousands of years ago and recorded as desirable in the Tao Te Ching. Of this Geoffrey Parrinder wrote: 117

The Tao Te Ching is of course opposed to militarism and proud displays. It teaches that submissiveness will gain kingdoms, and that the great must learn humility. To think weapons lovely is to delight in them which means 'to delight in the slaughter of men'.

Through these types of characteristics, particularly in our senior politicians, can nation be reunited with nation and disputes settled. Martin Israel chose to express this as: 118

The call in the world's present period of civil and international strife is not so much for the knife of justice as for the embracing arm of reconciliation.

Superimposed on the need to change our political attitudes, is the need for companies to change their product strategy and produce items that are for the benefit of mankind and not for its destruction. In the first chapter of his book ‘The Demon-Haunted World’, the Scientist, Carl Sagan, highlighted the fact that: 119

Roughly half the scientists on Earth work at least part-time for the military. While few scientists are still perceived as outsiders, courageously criticising the ills of society and proving early warnings of potential technological catastrophes, many are seen as compliant opportunists, or as the willing source of corporate profits and weapons of mass destruction - never mind the long-term consequences.

...and later in the book offered his belief that humanity and scientists in particular ought to develop a planet-wide ethic which prevents misuse of scientific developments: 120

Yes, we're developing new technologies as we always have. But when the weaknesses we've always had join forces with a capacity to do harm on an unprecedented planetary scale, something more is required of us - an emerging ethic that also must be established on an unprecedented planetary scale.

Without such a set of spiritual values, humanity will continue to destroy itself as was starkly demonstrated in WWII. This conflict was used by Karen Armstrong to bring the problem into relief: 121

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 23 of 34

The Second World War (1939-45) revealed the terrifying efficiency of modern violence. The explosion of atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki laid bare the nihilistic self-destruction at the heart of the brilliant achievements of Homo technologicus. Our ability to harm and mutilate one another had kept pace with our extraordinary economic and scientific progress, and we seemed to lack either the wisdom or the means to keep our aggression within safe and appropriate bounds.

We must therefore develop the wisdom to apply our technologies correctly only for the benefit of humankind and not to support conflict. Lorna Byrne expressed this quite succinctly: 122

Man's scientific and technological progress is brilliant - but it must never be used to take away any human being's freedom.

You must remember that most of the ideas that scientists and technologists develop tend to be inspired by agents working in the Spirit World. The fact that knowledge is transmitted from spirit to man has been known for millennia and has been a subject contained in many books. One such set of books is ‘Life in the World Unseen’ and ‘More about Life in the World Unseen’ written by Anthony Borgia. In these books communication is made through Anthony Borgia from Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson, a son of Edward White Benson, former Archbishop of Canterbury. On the theme of putting good inspiration to bad use Anthony wrote: 123

Life on earth has become far too complex, and people are spending far too much time in purely material pursuits, usually to the exclusion of the spiritual. Life on earth, therefore, must in the end become simpler, and in doing so will become more enjoyable. The spirit world has much to send to the earth to achieve this end. But the earth world has first to put itself in good order. What is of major importance, the people of earth must learn to banish war from off its face, must learn not to turn to evil purposes that which was transmitted to it for peaceful purposes. In the latter lies disaster; in the former lies happiness.

...and as David Dulley remarked in a conversation he had with his cat: 124

...I was angry because my allegedly intelligent species was devoting its energy to destroying its own kind...

This, again, implies the necessity for a complete change of attitude of humanity, and it all starts with each of us. For those who do not already understand that life has a spiritual dimension, something needs to bring awareness; there needs to be a dawning of spirituality. This may take many forms, but one which is sure to start the grey cells pulsing was articulated by A. J. Howard Hulme and Frederic H. Wood their book ‘Ancient Egypt Speaks’: 125

The 'false ideas put into their minds by Materialism' are bearing bitter fruit in Europe today [1936] . Civil war in Spain, mutual fear and distrust in other Continental nations are the terrible aftermath of a war which twenty years ago was brought about by the stupid belief that might was right. ... The danger is immediate, and if the race is to be saved from self-destruction brought about by misapplied scientific inventions, some means must be found to

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 24 of 34

bring home to all men the fact that life is continuous: that for each of us the mistakes and wrong-doings of this present life must be worked out in future lives: that payment must be made, individually, and "to the uttermost farthing." "Only knowledge of eternal life will impress people sufficiently to make them desire to change all evil things into good ones. Only the sure knowledge that they carry their load of accumulated responsibilities into the next world will make men feel the necessity for better living. A vague sense of heaven and hell is of no use whatsoever."

It is this need to make the eternal real and that whatever each of us think, say or do will bring its own reward. This is perhaps the one thing that could impress.

Zodiac, a teaching spirit, advised us, in the face of those who speak about the need to satisfy injustices that we should say to them: 126

Seek to forgive, do not retaliate for God has in store for you that which will compensate in very truth.

Timothy Keller also felt that our performance during this life will be assessed and we will bear the consequences: 127

If I don't believe that there is a God who will eventually put all things right, I will take up the sword and will be sucked into the endless vortex of retaliation. Only if I am sure that there's a God who will right all wrongs and settle all accounts perfectly do I have the power to refrain.

But there is no use in expecting God to put everything right; we are the ones, as Peter Spink argued, to make the corrections and try to repair the damage that we have inflicted on other nations and other people. 128

Two World Wars demolished much of the residual hopes of a Divine Omnipotence that ensured the survival of the race. Humans themselves had to ensure a future for the species.

Another theory proposed by Thomas Merton was that: 129

Perhaps it is this failure to understand and to face the fact of death that helps beget so many wars and so much violence. As if men, attached to individual bodily life, thought they could protect themselves against death by inflicting it on others.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross agreed with Thomas on this point. This doctor who pioneered near death studies and created the Kübler-Ross model to understanding death and dying, in her famous book ‘On Death and Dying’ realised that: 130

A chance for peace may thus be found in studying the attitudes toward death in the leaders of the nations, in those who make the final decisions of war and peace between nations. If all of us would make an all-out effort to contemplate our own death, to deal with our anxieties surrounding the concept of our death, and to help others familiarize themselves with these thoughts, perhaps there could be less destructiveness around us.

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 25 of 34

I think this is a long shot but worth a try. I believe that underpinning most of the conflicts is material desires; and Malcolm Muggeridge identified the three most common: 131

Every sort of fighting and strife, among individuals or between collectives, is about power, sex or money - all, in themselves, quite worthless things.

Setting these desires in the right context within our own Philosophy of Life is necessary if humanity is to step back from the brink of continuous conflict. We must recognise the importance in our life of ‘spirituality first’. In the epistle to his soldier son, entitled ‘Listen My Son’, Harry Emerson pleaded that we should live our lives according to this philosophy and: 132

Put your religion into practice by helping your neighbour, root out the selfishness in yourself and then you may hope to root out selfishness in those that oppress you. This is not a pious, goody-goody campaign I am calling you to. It is a militant struggle, world-wide in its scope, against the forces of evil, expressed in the material world, to be fought with all your strength and vigour. Only in this way can we hope to put an end to wars and, what is perhaps worse, the exploitation of the masses by the extreme selfishness of the few.

Whilst this is true, be careful not to think that it is only the politicians and those in power that must change their approach to life. It is a goal for each of us; we must all make improvements in our relationship to our God, to nature, and to our fellow life-travellers. Aldous Huxley, a renowned English writer, put this point much more effectively when, in his ‘The Perennial Philosophy’, he wrote that: 133

...most human beings are chronically in an improper relationship to God, Nature and some at least of their fellows. The results of these wrong relationships are manifest on the social level as wars, revolutions, exploitation and disorder; on the natural level, as waste exhaustion of irreplaceable resources; on the biological level, as degenerative diseases and the deterioration of racial stocks; on the moral level, as an overweening bumptiousness; and on the spiritual level, as blindness to divine Reality and complete ignorance of the reason and purpose of human existence.

We don’t have to look far to see these ramifications all around us. This lack of spirituality is the major evil of our time; we have to correct it as Morton Kelsey noted: 134

The idea that we have outgrown our need to turn to God for help in dealing with evil, or the idea, in fact that there is no such thing as cosmic evil, would be funny if it did not show a tragic lack of understanding. This force has to be faced and dealt with or it will keep on turning our homes and our world into a battlefield.

Most people do not think about this and because of this there are some surprising consequences. An example was given by Alan Alda in a speech given on his daughter's graduation day: 135

How can people be capable of both nurture and torture? How we can worry and fret about a little girl caught in a mine shaft, spending days and nights getting her

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 26 of 34

out, but then burn a village to the ground and destroy all its people without blinking?

I think that this is the difference between individual and collective actions. In the back of our minds we have the feeling that we cannot directly affect the decisions of the politicians and therefore national aggression, but we can do something about individual situations that we personally encounter. One way of potentially affecting the decision makers is through prayer. The problem with this approach is that we cannot appreciate the impact of such action; many, many people across the world pray for world peace but seemingly to no avail. Why is this? There are perhaps many reasons which may include some of the following. Firstly, I believe that prayer should be directed towards individuals or Mother Earth and not ‘sprayed’ in all directions. Secondly, the person praying must believe in its efficacy, and thirdly, the praying needs to occur in an environment which brings the Spirit World and our plane of existence into close contact. If these conditions are met then prayer can be a very powerful tool in reducing world aggression. But why should we expect God, either directly or indirectly, to stop something that man has inspired? Red Cloud, Estelle Roberts’ guide was aware that: 136

Humanity today has the opportunity of saving this world from bloodshed. It is no use appealing to God to stop war. What are you doing? What has Spiritualism done for you? What has orthodox Christianity done for you? You must realise that you are the individuals who can stop war through you conscious belief that man cannot kill his fellow man, for man cannot die!

A similar thought was, according to Ladislaus Boros, expressed around the turn of the 16 th century by Erasmus, the Dutch Renaissance humanist and Catholic Christian theologian in ‘Complaint of Peace': 137

How can a soldier pray the "Our Father" at a service in the field? Shameless and loud-mouthed as you are, you dare to call on God the Father, while you put a knife to your brother's throat?

What we can do however, is to follow the example set by Jesus the Nazarene and re- expressed by the spirit teacher, Zodiac: 138

When others strike you and seek to tear asunder that which you by effort and much distress have put together, when such as these do their worst, do not strike back in return but pray for those who hate you.

There should not be any thought of retaliation; it only spurs greater conflict. As Jonathan Sacks realised: 139

Retaliation is the instinctual response to perceived wrong. Montesquieu wrote that 'every religion which is persecuted becomes itself persecuting; for as soon as by some accidental turn it arises from persecution, it attacks the religion which persecuted it’. [taken from Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws, Book XXV, Chapter 9]

Wars create very disadvantaged people. There must be someone in each conflict who is strong enough to say ‘no more war’; to come to the aid of those who are suffering through

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 27 of 34 no direct fault of their own. We must bring into stark relief, as the spirit communicating through the medium Phyllis V. Schlemmer requested, the plight of those suffering. He asked us to: 140

...bring into the consciousness of humankind the need for worldwide protest against the elimination of disadvantaged people on Planet Earth.

Those who appear to be most disadvantaged are those creatures that are ill-treated by humans. For many years organisations have striven to eliminate such barbarity, but to no avail. People still treat animals badly although, in most countries, the criminal law helps to reduce this cruelty. But, as Silver Birch remarked, we all ought to: 141

...prevent the cruelty directed towards helpless creatures who give him no offence.

...and he also made the obvious observation that: 142

He who is cruel to a bird or a beast will be cruel to a man or a woman.

My friend Peter Matthews, who, as well as being a spiritual healer, has significant involvement in our local RSPCA 143 , recognised that: 144

It is also said that violent crime is rapidly increasing and man's inhumanity to man, and animals, is breaking all bounds.

Animals have suffered greatly at humanity’s hands. In fact we are completely abusing nature; it is our responsibility to look after nature and not destroy it or its creatures. Martin Israel, whose formative years were surrounded by the beauty of the fauna and flora of South Africa, explained that our responsibility is not limited to the personal or even the human dimension: 145

We, through our selfish way of life and abuse of the world's resources, have brought about a field of suffering that outdistances our conscious awareness of the damage we have done. I refer to the natural order of which we are essentially a part, though certainly the dominant member. We are in psychic communion with all life, and our own mal-alignment injures the relationship that prevails between all living beings. The tragedy of conflict in the natural order follows on man's conflict with God's creatures.

John R H Moorman, in his book about ‘Saint Francis of Assisi’, made mention of cruelty in the context of man being carnivorous: 146

Man must eat what God provides - and even Francis was no vegetarian - but he has no right to kill animals unnecessarily, and any kind of cruelty is an outrage against God.

‘An outrage against God’ could be the battle cry of all of us who want to see war and conflict eliminated. What a world it is when the likes of Michael Mitton are forced to admit that: 147

Every day I pray for my children and, aware that we do live in a violent world, I

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 28 of 34

pray for their safety.

War, conflict, and violence are currently endemic to humanity. It must be curtailed; we must bring spirituality to bear. If everyone, as Lorna Byrne surmised: 148

If we could see each other's souls we would not be killing each other over different interpretations of God.

...or for any other reason. Origen, the Christian philosopher and Biblical scholar, who taught at Alexandria and Caesarea, knew from first hand experience of unjust imprisonment and torture. This happened during the persecution of Decius (250 A.D.) in which everyone in the Roman Empire was to perform a sacrifice to the Roman gods and the well-being of the Emperor. This imposed a stark choice for the early Christians – many were put to death for non-compliance. With this in mind, his statement on war became more poignant: 149

...there is nothing more vain and more corrupt than the waging of war in this world.

Of course, war between nations involves soldiers on each side killing each other even though, as individuals, they have no quarrel with each other. Blaise Pascal recognised this futility: 150

Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him.

There are many proverbs which exemplify the stupidity of national and personal conflict. The one which I remember, I first noticed in Steve Chalke’s book ‘The Lost Message of Jesus’ and comes from the Chinese tradition: 151

"Whoever opts for revenge." says the Chinese proverb, "should dig two graves."

In the final analysis, wars and conflicts must end; peace will out. We must have hope that this will happen – maybe not in our lifetime but eventually. This hope was skilfully captured in the original five-stanza poem ‘It Came Upon A Midnight Clear’ by Edmund Sears. It was written in 1849 and, with music by Richard Storrs Willis, became a carol in 1859.

It came upon the midnight clear, That glorious song of old, From angels bending near the earth, To touch their harps of gold: "Peace on the earth, goodwill to men, From heaven's all-gracious King." The world in solemn stillness lay, To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come, With peaceful wings unfurled, And still their heavenly music floats

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 29 of 34

O'er all the weary world; Above its sad and lowly plains, They bend on hovering wing, And ever o'er its Babel sounds The blessèd angels sing.

Yet with the woes of sin and strife The world has suffered long; Beneath the angel-strain have rolled Two thousand years of wrong; And man, at war with man, hears not The love-song which they bring; O hush the noise, ye men of strife, And hear the angels sing.

And ye, beneath life's crushing load, Whose forms are bending low, Who toil along the climbing way With painful steps and slow, Look now! for glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing. O rest beside the weary road, And hear the angels sing!

For lo!, the days are hastening on, By prophet bards foretold, When with the ever-circling years Comes round the age of gold When peace shall over all the earth Its ancient splendours fling, And the whole world give back the song Which now the angels sing.

So let us use the phrase, which I learned from Geoffrey Parrinder, and which adorns many modern Jain temples in the great towns of today, most of them small and undistinguished. Often there is the following inscription: 152

Non-violence is the highest religion

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 30 of 34

1 Robert Burns, Man Was Made to Mourn: A Dirge, 1784 2 Downloaded 12 th August 2016 from http://www.war-memorial.net/wars_stats.asp?q=3 3 Peter Spink, Beyond Belief, Judy Piatkus, 1996. 10: Between Two Worlds, (Pg 143) 4 Steve Chalke, The Lost Message of Jesus, Zondervan, 2003. Chapter 7 - a new agenda, (Pg 127) 5 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. Personality and Community in Russian Thought: I, (Pg 60 / 61) 6 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. Social Revolution and Spiritual Awakening, (Pg 43) 7 Billy Graham, The Secret of Happiness, Educational Book Exhibits, 1974. Chapter VIII: Happiness through Peacemaking, (Pg 85) 8 Peter Meadows, Joseph Steinberg and Donna Vann, Beyond Belief?, Word Publishing, 1999. Chapter 10: What a Pain, (Pg 105 / 106) 9 Michael Mitton, Wild Beasts and Angels, Darton Longman and Todd, 2000. Chapter 1 - Following Jesus, (Pg 24) 10 James Martin, Suffering Man, Loving God, Fount Paperbacks, 1990. Chapter One: Suffering Man, (Pg 14) 11 Martin Israel, The Pain That Heals, Hodder & Stoughton, 1981. Chapter 14: Retribution and Suffering: the Significance of Atonement, (Pg 161) 12 Krishnamurti, Authentic Report of Twelve Talks given by Krishnamurti, The Star Publishing Trust, 1934. Ninth talk in The Oak Grove (June 28, 1934), (Pg 66) 13 Neale Donald Walsch, Friendship with God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1999. Seven, (Pg 152) 14 Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, Burns & Oates, 1997. 10: Sincerity, (Pg 174) 15 Emile Cammaerts, The Flower of Grass, The Cresset Press, 1944. Chapter iv - Mediaevalism and Humanism, (Pg 87) 16 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter XII: Time and Eternity, (Pg 194) 17 Brian Leslie Weiss, Many Lives, Many Masters, Judy Piatkus, 2002. Chapter Eleven, (Pg 159) 18 Carl Edward Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997. Chapter 2 : Science and Hope, (Pg 39) 19 Mary Carroll Nelson, Beyond Fear - The Teachings of Don Miguel Ruiz on Freedom and Joy, Rider & Co, 2003. Chapter Five: Mind, Evolution and the Dream, (Pg 60) 20 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. VI: Terrestrial Affairs - 21: The Next Millennium, (Pg 309) 21 Betty Shine, The Infinite Mind, Harper Collins, 2000. Chapter 21: Horror, Violence, and the Paranormal, (Pg 139 / 140) 22 Billy Graham, The Secret of Happiness, Educational Book Exhibits, 1974. Chapter IV: Happiness through Meekness, (Pg 33) 23 Gerard W Hughes, God in all Things, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Chapter Three: Down-to-Earth Holiness - Our Split Spirituality Prevents God's Holiness / Compassion from Transforming our Lives, (Pg 38) 24 John Eldredge, The Journey of Desire - Searching for the Life We've Only Dreamed Of, Thomas Nelson, 2001. Chapter Ten: Entering More Deeply into Desire - Tuning the Instrument, (Pg 175) 25 Neale Donald Walsch, Friendship with God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1999. One, (Pg 13) 26 Peter Meadows, Joseph Steinberg and Donna Vann, Beyond Belief?, Word Publishing, 1999. Chapter 10: What a Pain, (Pg 106) 27 John Punshon, Encounter With Silence, Friends United Press, 1989. An Experience of Unprogrammed Worship - A Witness to the Truth, (Pg 46) 28 Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, in an address given at Harvard University on 8 th June 1978 29 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. World Discord and Christian Unity, (Pg 35) 30 Sibyl Harton, Spiritual Direction - A Practical Essay, Mowbray, 1945. Preface, (Pg 10) 31 Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh, The Path, Viking, 2016. 2: The Age of Philosophy, (Pg 19) 32 Ladislaus Boros, Open Spirit, Search Press, 1974. Erasmus and the Centre, (Pg 86) 33 Thomas Merton, The New Man, Burns & Oates, 1985. Spirit in Bondage, (Pg 72) 34 Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom - A pocket Oracle, Mandarin, 1995. Aphorism 280: (Pg 158) 35 James Redfield, Michael Murphy, Silvia Timbers, God and the Evolving Universe, Bantam Press, 2002. Part Three - Participating; 13: Transforming Culture: Initiatives for Peace and Economic Development, (Pg 177) 36 Alan Alda, Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself, Hutchinson, 2007. Chapter 2: Lingering at the Door, (Pg 16) 37 Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, Capella, 2008. Purgatory - Canto XVIII, (Pg 229)

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 31 of 34

38 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Natural History of Intellect, Solar Press, 1995. I. Natural History of Intellect - II. Instinct and Inspiration, (Pg 85) 39 Malcolm Muggeridge, A Third Testament, The Plough Publishing House, 2002. (Pg 39) 40 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. Freedom and its Difficulties, (Pg 79) 41 Maulana Mohammad Ali, Introduction to The Study of the Holy Qur'an, The Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha'at- Islam, 1976. Chapter IV - Some Misconceptions Regarding Quranic Teachings: Section 1 – Tolerance, (Pg 178) 42 St Augustine, The City of God (De Civitate Dei), J M Dent, 1945. Volume Two: The Nineteenth Book: Chapter XII, (Pg 247) 43 Terry Pratchett, Snuff, Doubleday, 2011. (Pg 180) 44 John M Templeton, The Humble Approach - Scientists Discover God, Collins, 1981. VI. Benefits from Humility, (Pg 45) 45 Christopher Jamison, Finding Sanctuary, Phoenix, 2007. PART TWO: STEP 7 – Hope, (Pg 165 / 166) 46 Gerard W Hughes, God in all Things, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Chapter Five: On Desire - The Relationship Between Our Desiring and the Will of God, (Pg 74) 47 Jonathan Fryer, George Fox and the Children of the Light, Kyle Cathie, 1991. The Journal: The Organiser - A Call to Peace, (Pg 140) 48 Bede Griffiths, A New Vision of Reality, Fount, 1992. 4 The Christian Vision of the New Creation, (Pg 87) 49 Reza Aslan, No god but God, Arrow Books, 2006. 4. Fight in the Way of God - The Meaning of Jihad, (Pg 81) 50 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Fourteen: Armaments, (Pg 68 & 69) 51 Karen Armstrong, The Case For God, Vintage Books, 2010. Part Two: The Modern God - 12 Death of God? (Pg 287) 52 Maulana Mohammad Ali, Introduction to The Study of the Holy Qur'an, The Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha'at- Islam, 1976. Chapter IV - Some Misconceptions Regarding Quranic Teachings: Section 1 – Tolerance, (Pg 183) 53 Ian Robinson, Who Killed the Bible?, Edgeways Books, 2014. 5 The English Bible and The Idea of a Christian Society, (Pg 114) 54 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter XII: Time and Eternity, (Pg 193) 55 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter VI: Mortification, Non-Attachment, Right Livelihood, (Pg 99) 56 Gerard W Hughes, God in all Things, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Chapter Twelve: Light in the Darkness - The Importance of Spirituality, (Pg 218) 57 Steve Chalke, The Lost Message of Jesus, Zondervan, 2003. Chapter 7 - a new agenda, (Pg 126) 58 Karen Armstrong, The Case For God, Vintage Books, 2010. Part One: The Unknown God - 4 Faith, (Pg 103) 59 Reza Aslan, No god but God, Arrow Books, 2006. 4. Fight in the Way of God - The Meaning of Jihad, (Pg 84) 60 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. Spirit and Force: III, (Pg 10) 61 Leslie D Weatherhead, A Shepherd Remembers - A Devotional Study of The Twenty-Third Psalm, Hodder & Stoughton, 1960. Chapter 7: Thy Rod and Thy Staff, (Pg 148 / 149) 62 Karen Armstrong, The Case For God, Vintage Books, 2010. Part Two: The Modern God - 11 Unknowing, (Pg 260) 63 Karen Armstrong, The Case For God, Vintage Books, 2010. Part Two: The Modern God - 11 Unknowing, (Pg 263) 64 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 11: The agnosticism of real faith, (Pg 85) 65 Radhakrishnan, An Idealist View of Life, Unwin, 1980. Chapter I : The Modern Challenge to Religion - 7. Practical inefficiency of religion, (Pg 33) 66 Al Ghazzali, The Book of Knowledge, SH. Muhammad Ashraf, 1991. Section III Determining How Much is Praiseworthy (to acquire) of the Praiseworthy Sciences, (Pg 104 / 105) 67 Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, Hodder & Stoughton, 2009. Part 1: The Leap of doubt. FOUR The Church is Responsible for so much Injustice, (Pg 55) 68 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 2 - Globalisation and its Discontents, (Pg 41) 69 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. Spirit and Force: III, (Pg 10)

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 32 of 34

70 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. Spirit and Force: II, (Pg 6) 71 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book Nine: Man Considered in Regard to His Infirmities and their Effects. Chapter V- Misery, (Pg 62) 72 "Peace for our time " was a declaration made by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Neville Chamberlain in his 30 September 1938 speech concerning the Munich Agreement and the Anglo-German Declaration. The phrase echoed Benjamin Disraeli, who, upon returning from the Congress of Berlin in 1878, stated, "I have returned from Germany with peace for our time". It is primarily remembered for its ironic value: less than a year after the agreement, Hitler's continued aggression and his invasion of Poland was followed by declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom. (Downloaded on 16 th September 2018 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_for_our_time) 73 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 1 – Prologue, (Pg 7 / 8) 74 Maurice Barbanell, This is Spiritualism, The Spiritual Truth Press, 2001. Chapter 21 - The Implications, (Pg 213) 75 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section II, (Pg 17) 76 Leila Ward (compiler), An Exercise of the Spirit, Quaker Home Service, 1984. 18 Katharine, (Pg 31) 77 Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God - Book 1 An uncommon dialogue, Hodder & Stoughton, 1997. Chapter 1, (Pg 50) 78 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. Some Implicits of Christian Social Reform, (Pg 156) 79 Deepak Chopra, The Book of Secrets, Rider & Co, 2004. Secret #2 - The World is in You, (Pg 26) 80 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Book of Daily Readings, The Rally, 1944. September 4, (Pg 132) 81 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section III, (Pg 22) 82 Stephen Turoff, Seven Steps to Eternity, Clairview, 2002. Chapter 3, (Pg 58) 83 Arthur Conan Doyle, The Vital Message, Hodder & Stoughton, 1919. Chapter V: Is it the Second Dawn? (Pg 193) 84 Gerard W Hughes, God in all Things, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Chapter Three: Down-to-Earth Holiness - The Compassion of God in the Teaching of Jesus, (Pg 37) 85 Henry Thomas Hamblin, Divine Adjustment, The Science of Thought Press, 1998. Chapter Four: Individuality and Strength, (Pg 62) 86 Stephen O'Brien, Visions of Another World, The Aquarian Press, 1989. 17 Questions and Answers, (Pg 220) 87 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. On Cares and Quarrels, (Pg 69) 88 Lance G Trendall, Dead Happy, Lance Trendall Publishing, 1992. 16: Why Do we have Ghosts, (Pg 118) 89 Stella Storm, Philosophy of Silver Birch, The Spiritual Truth Press, 1998. Chapter Eleven: Aspects of Animal Survival, (Pg 103) 90 A W Austen, Teachings of Silver Birch, Psychic Press, 1993. Other-side View of War, (Pg 171) 91 Thomas Merton, Reflections on My Work, Collins, Fontana Library, 1989. Preface to the Vietnamese edition of 'No Man is an Island', (Pg 137) 92 Agnes Sanford, The Healing Light, Arthur James, 1985. Chapter V: The Law of Love, (Pg 62) 93 Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life, Mowbray, 1984. Part Three: The Spiritual Life as Co-operation with God, (Pg 82) 94 Billy Graham, The Secret of Happiness, Educational Book Exhibits, 1974. Chapter VIII: Happiness through Peacemaking, (Pg 87) 95 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. Social Revolution and Spiritual Awakening, (Pg 47) 96 Agnes Sanford, The Healing Light, Arthur James, 1985. Chapter XV: For the Healing of the World, (Pg 182) 97 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Life of the Spirit, The Science of Thought Press, 1934. Chapter X - Love the Magic Key, (Pg 51) 98 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 9 - The Root of War is Fear, (Pg 72) 99 Hans Küng, Why Priests?, Fount, 1980. Chapter One: The Church as a Community in Freedom, Equality and Fraternity: 1.Democratisation of the Church? (Pg 17 / 18) 100 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book Nine: Man Considered in Regard to His Infirmities and their Effects. Chapter VII- Presumption, (Pg 68) 101 Downloaded on 20 th August 2016 from http://www.metrolyrics.com/he-aint-heavy-hes-my-brother-lyrics- hollies.html

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 33 of 34

102 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Two: Chapter I - The Search for Spirituality (Spiritual Awareness), (Pg 166) 103 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book Nine: Man Considered in Regard to His Infirmities and their Effects. Chapter IV- On the Insufficiency of Knowledge, (Pg 60) 104 Gerard W Hughes, God in all Things, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Chapter Ten: Reflection on Human Suffering, Death and Christian Faith - How God, in Jesus, Reacts to Pain and Suffering, (Pg 184) 105 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 5 - A Body of Broken Bones, (Pg 54) 106 Deepak Chopra, The Book of Secrets, Rider & Co, 2004. Secret #2 - The World is in You, (Pg 26) 107 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. V: The Other Side of the Coin - 16: War and Peace in the 1990s, (Pg 218) 108 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 6: Love and human relationships, (Pg 43) 109 Lorna Byrne, Angels in my Hair, Century, 2008. Chapter Twenty-Four: Peace in Ireland and at Christmas, (Pg 272) 110 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 10 - Conciliation: The Power of a Word to Change the World, (Pg 178) 111 Billy Graham, The Secret of Happiness, Educational Book Exhibits, 1974. Chapter VIII: Happiness through Peacemaking, (Pg 96) 112 Ladislaus Boros, Open Spirit, Search Press, 1974. Dante and Vision, (Pg 153) 113 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 1 – Prologue, (Pg 2) 114 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 1 – Prologue, (Pg 3) 115 Barry Oates, David Hopkins and Carole Austin, Philosophy of Spiritualism, Spiritualists' National Union, 2007. Second Principle: The Brotherhood of Man, (Pg 24) 116 Christopher Jamison, Finding Sanctuary, Phoenix, 2007. PART TWO: STEP 4 – Humility, (Pg 95) 117 Geoffrey Parrinder, Worship in the World's Religions, Association Press, 1961. Part III - The Far East: Chapter 8 - Chinese Cults and Taoism, (Pg 144) 118 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 12: The social roots of the spirit, (Pg 95) 119 Carl Edward Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997. Chapter 1 : The Most Precious Thing, (Pg 11) 120 Carl Edward Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997. Chapter 16 : When Scientists Know Sin, (Pg 283) 121 Karen Armstrong, The Case For God, Vintage Books, 2010. Part Two: The Modern God - 11 Unknowing, (Pg 264) 122 Lorna Byrne, Stairways to Heaven, Coronet, 2011. Chapter Twenty-nine: A Throwback from the future, (Pg 231) 123 Anthony Borgia, More about Life in the World Unseen , Psychic Press, 1984. Chapter 7: The City, (Pg 75) 124 David Dulley, Conversations with Mona, David Dulley, 1993. 22: War, (Pg 53) 125 A. J. Howard Hulme and Frederic H. Wood, Ancient Egypt Speaks, Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter X - Why Ancient Egypt Spoke, (Pg 153 / 154 / 155) 126 Gems of Thought, The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Assn, 1989. Why Christ Asked Us To Forgive, (Pg 84) 127 Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, Hodder & Stoughton, 2009. Part 1: The Leap of doubt. FIVE How can a Loving God send people to Hell? (Pg 75) 128 Peter Spink, Beyond Belief, Judy Piatkus, 1996. 2: An Evolving God, (Pg 18) 129 Thomas Merton, Reflections on My Work, Collins, Fontana Library, 1989. Preface to the Vietnamese edition of 'No Man is an Island',(Pg 135 / 136) 130 Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, On Death and Dying, Tavistock / Routledge, 1992. II: Attitude Toward Death and Dying, (Pg 12) 131 Malcolm Muggeridge, Conversion: A Spiritual Journey, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1989. 7: The Journalist, (Pg 76) 132 Harry Emerson, Listen My Son, The Psychic Book Club, 1945. Chapter Sixteen: The Truth About Religion, (Pg 84) 133 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter XVII: Suffering, (Pg 233) 134 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Two: The Basic Climate for Meditation - 5: Cracking the Husk: Man's Need for God, (Pg 52) 135 Alan Alda, Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself, Hutchinson, 2007. Chapter 2: Lingering at the Door, (Pg 20)

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.11 Our World - War and Conflict Page 34 of 34

136 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Twelve: Spiritualism versus Orthodox Christianity. (Pg 60) 137 Ladislaus Boros, Open Spirit, Search Press, 1974. Erasmus and the Centre, (Pg 86) 138 Gems of Thought, The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Assn, 1989. The Law That Governs Retaliation, (Pg 82) 139 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 10 - Conciliation: The Power of a Word to Change the World, (Pg 178) 140 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. VI: Terrestrial Affairs - 19: Adventures in Consciousness, (Pg 278) 141 Stella Storm, Philosophy of Silver Birch, The Spiritual Truth Press, 1998. Chapter Eleven: Aspects of Animal Survival, (Pg 103) 142 Stella Storm, Philosophy of Silver Birch, The Spiritual Truth Press, 1998. Chapter Eleven: Aspects of Animal Survival, (Pg 104) 143 Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 144 Peter Matthews, Spiritualism and Reincarnation, Con-Psy Publications, 1997. Chapter 5 - The Process of Reincarnation, (Pg 34) 145 Martin Israel, The Pain That Heals, Hodder & Stoughton, 1981. Chapter 2: Journey into Truth, (Pg 28) 146 John R H Moorman, Saint Francis of Assisi, SPCK, 1979. 4 The Apostolate, (Pg 74) 147 Michael Mitton, Wild Beasts and Angels, Darton Longman and Todd, 2000. Chapter 6 - Healing and Hope, (Pg 138) 148 Lorna Byrne, Angels in my Hair, Century, 2008. Chapter Three: Stairway to Heaven, (Pg 32) 149 'Reader', Features of the Church Fathers, Heath Cranton Limited, 1935. Second Century and Onwards: Origen on St.Luke, (Pg 40) 150 Blaise Pascal quoted by Leo Tolstoy in ‘Bethink Yourselves’ 151 Steve Chalke, The Lost Message of Jesus, Zondervan, 2003. Chapter 7 - a new agenda, (Pg 127) 152 Geoffrey Parrinder, Worship in the World's Religions, Association Press, 1961. Part II - India and Southern Asia: Chapter 3 - The Jains, (Pg 69 / 70)

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:21 29.12 Our World – Criminal Justice Page 1 of 4

29:12 Our World – Criminal Justice

I am not learned in the law, or a criminologist, or a criminal and yet I feel for the 87,000 1 incarcerated people and those who, through their domestic and social circumstances feel aggrieved, abused and disenfranchised. It is an indictment on the human race that people should be in that situation at all. We have got to change; change politically, socially and, most important of all, spiritually. There are many charities which are trying to affect the first two. The one that immediately comes to mind is the Howard League for Penal Reform. This is an excellent organisation, established in 1866, and was the first national penal reform charity in the UK. It works for less crime, safer communities, and fewer people in prison. 2

At the Howard League we know change is possible. People can change, institutions can be changed, whole systems can be changed.

Other charities quite often exist to forge progress in one or more of the recognised areas which give rise to criminal activity; often helping the individual to break out of their criminal cycle but more often unable to do anything about the underlying cause. Such areas include: drug abuse, depression or similar mental disorder, family conditions, regionalisation (crimes between communities), TV violence, racism, political power, poverty and overpopulation. For most of these reasons, incarceration has been shown, time and time again, to be inappropriate and ineffective. This was highlighted in an article I recently read which was the consequence of research undertaken in Australia: 3

What’s more, high levels of incarceration come with a large political cost. In majority-white societies like Australia and the US, where prison populations are mostly non-white, policymakers can become casual about the state’s awesome power to deprive liberty. When this happens, racial inequality is transformed into racial injustice. Alternatives to incarceration then become politically significant, helping to build a more inclusive citizenship in which membership in civic life is not conditional on the colour of one’s skin.

In the same paper, it was similarly stated that:

The American experience shows that incarceration is a poor solution to violence rooted in poverty

This affects so many people and all nations that change is an imperative and as Imperator, the spirit guide and teacher who used William Stainton Moses as a channel, observed and stated: 4

Ah! friend, you must pass through many cycles of progress before you learn that your criminal code is founded on fallacy, and works to mischief and perpetuation of the abuses it is intended to prevent.

Our criminal systems do not serve to change the ways of those jailed but it tends to reinforce their bitterness and anti-social behaviour. In the teachings of the mystic Don Miguel Ruiz, Mary Carroll Nelson tells us that: 5

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:17:41 29.12 Our World – Criminal Justice Page 2 of 4

Injustice creates emotional poison which is expressed as sadness, jealousy and fear. The sore of the wounded mind can hurt. Once the mind is wounded it creates more poison.

We must get to the nub of the problem as the evangelist Billy Graham suggests: 6

We should be vastly more interested in getting to the core of the problem of the criminal than we are in punishing him.

One way to implement change is to take the advice of a spirit known as ‘Pretty Girl’ who communicated the following advice through the trance mediumship of Mrs Wickland in 1924: 7

Instead of condemning criminals, the judges, the lawyers and the ministers should teach them - teach them higher truths and bring out their better nature. If those in prison knew that when they are released people would help them and give them a chance they would be greatly encouraged to do better.

This is the spiritual solution. I’m not talking here about religious conversion or imposing any particular religious view on those in prison, but I am suggesting that understanding some of the spiritual laws – death is not the end and we will always pay for our actions – will start to stimulate that change. We should also try to find the good in everyone; that spark of God that has not been extinguished. Here the words that William Shakespeare put into the mouth of King Henry in the English camp at Agincourt are relevant: 8

There is some soul of goodness in things evil, Would men observingly distil it out.

Everyone is alive on earth for a reason and it is our collective role to allow each person’s objectives to be met. Earth is a testing ground, a school room in which spiritual steps can be taken. The implication of this is that life should be supported and not taken, as Brian Weiss remarked: 9

We have no right to abruptly halt people's lives before they have lived out their Karma.

Fortunately, in Great Britain, capital punishment for murder was abolished in 1965. In most parts of the world however it is still practiced even though those in the Spirit World, according to Roy Dixon-Smith, are: 10

...very naturally opposed to capital punishment, for it is only 'passing the baby' to them.

This application of an ‘eye for an eye’ is one of the Moses based traditions which Jesus the Nazarene, unsuccessfully, tried to replace by ‘love’. Even if most of the world does not try to implement Jesus’ spirituality, there is no reason for us not to do so. One avenue is in the education of our children. Again, taking a cue from a spirit communication recorded by Carl August Wickland: 11

The teaching of children should be very different from what it is. Children should be

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:17:41 29.12 Our World – Criminal Justice Page 3 of 4

taught about God in Nature, taught that God is Love. If they were properly taught you would not have any crime. They would love Nature, they would love animals, they would love humanity at large.

...and from the medium Beatrice Russell’s spirit guide: 12

The more man learns to open his soul to the Source of Love, the quicker will these changes [in treating criminals and disease] come about. Then will follow the abolition of the greatest crime of all - war. For this crime, the twentieth Century will be regarded with horror by the historians of the future...

The power of love abounds. What if we took all our political and financial decisions based on a backdrop love? How improved would be national and personal relationships; everyone would go hand-in-hand into the future. The real and current situation is far from this. There is a lot of political talk but very little action. In his book ‘Quest for Silence’ Harry Wilmer took up this point and wrote: 13

We declare war on poverty and crime. We make a lot of noise about those wars and accomplish little. We declare ourselves for human rights, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness but we commit deeds and intensify poverty, dividing the nation between 'haves' and 'have nots'. The problem is that we are silent when we should speak out and speak out when we should be silent.

We should speak out for spirituality – this is the way to infuse politics with reality, as the Scottish divine and biblical scholar Marcus Dods reported: 14

In modern Europe, and as much in our own country as in others, everything gives place to politics. Nothing stirs so much excitement. Differences in religion do not sever men as differences in politics do. We should, therefore, recognise what is here suggested, and should counter-balance an undue regard for political movements and political power by the remembrance that the hardest tasks of all are accomplished by quite another power, and by a power which the politician often overlooks. What have we seen time after time in our own Parliament, but the civil power rending its garments over evils which it cannot cure? Are not the remedies which have been proposed for prevalent vices absurdly incompetent?

Therefore let each one of us set love in our own actions and through that approach we can, in our own small way, make a difference. If enough of us follow our spiritual destiny, then who knows what can be achieved both personally and collectively. Even so, no matter how well we do, there will still be those who will pursue a hedonistic lifestyle and criminals for whom we must still do the best we can.

Make love your mantra ... and change the world.

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:17:41 29.12 Our World – Criminal Justice Page 4 of 4

1 Downloaded on 26 th August 2016 from https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prison-population-figures- 2016 2 See http://howardleague.org 3 Downloaded 26 th August 2016 from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/04/prison-goes- hand-in-hand-with-poverty-and-violence-in-the-northern-territory 4 William Stainton Moses, Spirit Teachings, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Section XXVIX, (Pg 232) 5 Mary Carroll Nelson, Beyond Fear - The Teachings of Don Miguel Ruiz on Freedom and Joy, Rider & Co, 2003. Chapter One: Teotihuacán, The Place Where Men Become Gods, (Pg 7) 6 Billy Graham, The Secret of Happiness, Educational Book Exhibits, 1974. Chapter VIII: Happiness through Peacemaking, (Pg 95) 7 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XVI: Philosophy - Experience, March 12, 1924, (Pg 446) 8 Extract from William Shakespeare's Henry V, Act IV, Scene I 9 Brian Leslie Weiss, Many Lives, Many Masters, Judy Piatkus, 2002. Chapter Five, (Pg 76) 10 Roy Dixon-Smith, New Light on Survival, Rider & Co, 1952. Part Two: Chapter XIV: Problems of Psychical Research, (Pg 257) 11 Carl August Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead - Part II, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter XVI: Philosophy - Experience, October 27, 1920, (Pg 432) 12 Beatrice Russell, Fragments of Truth from the Unseen. Unknown Publisher, 1951. Remorse, (Pg 49) 13 Harry Wilmer, Quest for Silence, Diamon, 2000. 5 War, (Pg 90) 14 Marcus Dods, How to Become Like Christ, Thos. Whittaker and also available on-line through Project Gutenberg, 1897. Naaman Cured, (Pg 108 / 109)

DAJ 16/11/2019 15:17:41 29.13 Our World - Escaping from Materialism Page 1 of 14

29:13 Our World - Escaping from Materialism

Collectively and individually we must break the bonds which bind us to a material attitude. Look around you for evidence that shows that this is not necessary. If we could step back from the world and look at what we do, then we would see exactly what those in the Spirit world are currently seeing. The observations of Estelle Roberts’ guide Red Cloud would describe what we would see: 1

And so we see your god of materialism failing you. You have had wars and rumours of wars, bloodshed, suffering, bankruptcy, degradation, sorrow. These are the fruits of the law of cause and effect, due to man worshipping his god of materialism.

Although much of the blame can be laid at the door of national and commercial politics, responsibility, in the end, must be shouldered by each of us. This accountability that we must accept was highlighted by the spirit of Diana, Princess of Wales in a conversation with the journalist Hazel Courteney: 2

Every one of us is responsible - we can all make a contribution. A time is coming when profit can no longer be the only motivating force.

To off-set this, we must bring our spirituality to bear on all that we and our community do. This is, according to the palaeontologist, monk and mystic Teilhard de Chardin: 3

...the most important though unvoiced concern of modern Man is much less a struggle for the possession of the World than a search for a way of escaping from it.

We are born without temporal accoutrements and we leave them all behind when we pass to the Spirit World. This tells us a lot about what should be our view of materialism. However, it is in the interests of politicians and companies to foster the idea that we can gain from material possessions and activity. So we are bombarded by information and pressure which puts materialism first and spirituality a long way behind. The opposite is reported, in the ‘Childhood of Jesus’, to have been spoken by Jesus to a blind Elder: 4

The inward grace cometh first with God; the outward signs come last.

If only this were true! The real situation, however, was described, very poetically, by Thomas A Kempis. This Augustinian monk, whose life was mainly spent within a European monastic environment, gave us a view of the situation in the 15 th century: 5

Grant me, O Lord, to know what should be known, To leave what should be left, To praise what best likes Thee, To think on all that seems of price to Thee, And to blame all that in thy sight is foul. Let me not judge according to the vision of the outward eyes, Nor pass a judgment from the hearing of the unskilled ear of man, But to distinguish with a judgment that is true Between the things of sight and those of soul, Above all to ask, ever to ask, what is the pleasure of Thy will.

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:57 29.13 Our World - Escaping from Materialism Page 2 of 14

Often the senses are deceived in judging, The lovers of the present world are cheated, Loving only what they see. And why is man better for this, In that he is thought great by man?

So everything pushes us towards a materialistic outlook which places high values on things without eternal value. A good example of this is the very high price that some people are prepared to pay for a particular car registration which, in itself, has no intrinsic value at all. If we apply our reasoning and logic to this we know, in our hearts, that this is the case and yet we persist in the activity. Teresa of Avila, the prominent 15 th century Spanish mystic and Carmelite nun, tried to describe, in abstract terms, this type of situation: 6

It is this stage that the devils represent these snakes (worldly things) and the temporal pleasures of the present as though almost eternal...these things of the world are not worth anything when compared with what it (reason) is aiming after.

An alternative description, mainly stimulated by our abuse of Mother Earth, was offered by the Lebanese American poet, Kahlil Gibran in ‘The Prophet’: 7

It is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied. Yet unless the exchange be in love and kindly justice it will but lead some to greed and others to hunger.

But this seems to be embedded in our politics and all the decisions that our politicians make. Perhaps one of the problems is that most political decisions which affect the lives of many people are taken at national level, for the benefit of its people. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks remarked: 8

We do not yet have a global culture, global governance or a coherent vision of global concern.

We do, however, have global markets which create money for shareholders often at the expense of the lives of the poor and the Earth’s environment. Jonathan Sacks went on to elaborate the problem of global control of exploitation: 9

Technology, whether in the form of weapons of mass destruction, over-exploitation of natural resources, pollution of the atmosphere, or genetic manipulation, threatens the sustainability of nature itself. Representative democracy remains the best form of government yet discovered, but national-states seem increasingly unable to control global phenomena from multinational corporation to ecological devastation, and we have not yet evolved a form of global governance.

We have a long way to go to be able to apply moral and ethical controls to prevent exploitation of people and other resources. Behind decisions which create these situations lies greed and political ambition, and the excessive suffering of peoples in the world are all due to such decision making as was pointed out in ‘The Only Planet of Choice’ within which it was described as: 10

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:57 29.13 Our World - Escaping from Materialism Page 3 of 14

...a situation, as the Nazarene said, of the money-lenders in the temple. It is a situation of greed, of political motivation.

Staying with the Christian Scriptures, the American New Testament scholar and theologian Marcus J. Borg explained that the passion for social justice that we see in the prophets of the Old Testament - Isaiah, Amos, Micah, etc – is: 11

...a protest against systemic evil. Systemic evil is an important notion: it refers to the injustice built into the structures, systemic evil is a major source (perhaps the single greatest source) of human suffering.

Another ancient book which touched on a similar point was the Rosicrucian ‘Unto Thee I Grant’ which stated that: 12

Evil is not requisite to man; neither can vice be necessary to be tolerated; yet how many evils are permitted by the connivance of the laws? How many crimes committed by the decrees of the council?

Things haven’t changed over the centuries; in fact it has become a lot worse. The Chinese- American author and physician Adeline Yen Mah brought this to our attention and pleadingly wrote: 13

Unfortunately, in the twenty-first century, the era of acquisition and information, money reigns supreme and Mammon is king. ... Surely, there has to be something more meaningful and permanent.

Of course there is! We have to come to terms with our social environment through enhancing our inner or spiritual focus. The 20 th century spiritual philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti understood that this materialism we encounter: 14

...forces the individual, crushes him into this steel frame of standards, of morality, of religious ideas, of moral edicts, and as the individual is crushed from the outside, he seeks and escapes into a world which he calls the inner.

In order to stress the absolute difference between the inner and outer, between spiritual and material, let us have a look at some aphorisms about their relationships: 15

Spirituality and materialism are both seeking after happiness. Spirituality seeks happiness within, materialism seeks happiness without. Spirituality teaches us to aspire for a better life, a more illumined life. Materialism teaches us to desire more material goods and material wealth. Spirituality teaches detachment from the inevitable ‘outrageous slings and arrows of fortune’. Permanent happiness and materialism can never be found together. Spirituality teaches us to be selfless, materialism teaches us selfishness. Spirituality teaches us to love our fellow man. Materialism teaches us to love our material wealth. Spirituality does not compare. Materialism is subject to constant comparison the father of jealousy and insecurity. Spirituality takes the help of material progress, but is never a slave to materialistic desires. Materialism cannot see how spirituality helps.

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:57 29.13 Our World - Escaping from Materialism Page 4 of 14

Spirituality lives in the present moment. Materialism lives in tomorrow’s world of endless desires and yesterday’s world of inevitable dissatisfaction. Spirituality enables peace of mind. Materialism, even with all the wealth in the world can never buy peace.

Don’t you agree? To collectively reach this stage, we must inevitably change as the pre- eminent political and ideological leader Mohandas Gandhi is reported to have said: 16

We must become the change we wish to see in the world.

Continual change is one of the unchanging laws of the universe. Change is all around us and by observing the impact of our environment on ourselves and others we can identify how we need to change in order to meet our own spiritual objectives. William Houff, an American Unitarian parish minister and activist, believed that our current world order is: 17

...no longer serving the highest needs of humankind, if it ever did. And our fumbling attempts to dominate one another, to assure our own comfort at the expense of our fellows, to exploit the ecological systems of the planet, and to improve world peace by threatening nuclear annihilation are stark evidence of our failure. We must become different people; otherwise we will go on making the same old mistakes. We must become persons who are more centred and whole in our own being, persons who relate more harmoniously with one another, who recognise and live in terms of the interconnections of the vast natural web of existence. We must become persons, finally, who know of their fundamental unity with that nourishing mystery – known by many names – in which we live and move and have our being.

‘First you change if you want to change the world’ is an ancient concept dating at least from the Confucian era. According to the authors Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh, this Chinese teacher and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period of Chinese history, understood that: 18

Our lives begin in the everyday and stay in the everyday. Only in the everyday can we begin to create truly great worlds.

In other words, if we believe the world needs to change, then, being part of the world, we also must change and try, not by words but through our example, to affect the lives of others. A couple of years ago a friend of mine sent to me an email which was originally written by Ben Stein and recited by him on US Television CBS Sunday Morning Commentary on 18th December 2005. His message was his confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejewelled trees, Christmas trees... I don't feel threatened.. I don't feel discriminated against.. That's what they are, Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu... If people want a crèche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:57 29.13 Our World - Escaping from Materialism Page 5 of 14

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to. In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking. In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc... I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbour as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about... And we said okay… Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.' Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace. Are you laughing yet? Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us. Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not, then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in. My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully, Ben Stein

...and I do not think that the situation in the UK is any different, in fact I think that ‘civilisation’ continues to deteriorate – we seem to be heading for the lowest common denominator of human values. Perhaps we wouldn’t be heading down this slippery slope if

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:57 29.13 Our World - Escaping from Materialism Page 6 of 14 we understood and believed that everyone had a soul which is eternal and which should be cherished. The hymn composer Frederic Wood working with Egyptologist Howard Hulme between them co-authored the book ‘Ancient Egypt Speaks’ in which a spirit provided much information about the language and writings of ancient Egypt. This 3000 year old spirit also commented on the march of materialism, and she said: 19

The materialist has erred in failing to perceive that man is a soul. He does not 'possess' one. He possesses a physical body, but exists apart from it, as he existed before he had it, and will exist after he has done with it.

Another spirit was reported by the Spiritualist Harry Emerson as advising that: 20

It is in knowing that you have a soul, that you are indestructible, that you are attuned to God, so that when you pray you are praying to the good in everyone. This is the starting point, the foundation, the rock on which to build your house. It is the only way to an escape from meanness, cruelty, injustice and self-interest. No economic, political or social system can operate successfully to the benefit of all without a desire to express that good of which every human being is capable. Any attempt at betterment without this foundation is futile.

Putting it another way, the spirit communicating through the author Neale Donald Walsch declared that: 21

If spirituality is really another word for life, then that which is spiritual is life affirming. To inject spirituality into your politics, therefore, would be to make all political activities and all political decisions life affirming. ... You see, then, that governments and politics were created in order to guarantee the experience of what spirituality is—which is life itself.

This perhaps is why we continue our spiritual decline; we have failed to realise the importance of nurturing and developing our life through our soul. This is not a new realisation; we have known about this for thousands of years. One of the Shankara Acharya – which is a title not a name – who lived in Southern India about the year 686 A.D.' is recorded in ‘The Crest Jewel of Wisdom’ as saying: 22

The fixing of the heart on sensuous things causes the increase of evil mind-images progressively as its fruit; knowing this through discernment, and rejecting sensuous things, let him ever fix the heart on the true Self. From putting an end to sensuous allurements comes quietude of heart; in quietude of heart there is the vision of the Supreme Self; when the Supreme Self is seen clearly, there follows destruction of bondage to the world; therefore the ending of sensuous allurements is the path of deliverance.

One objective that we could have is to try to create ‘heaven on earth’. The mystic Evelyn Underhill used William Blake’s vision declared in his ‘Jerusalem’ to describe this utopian theme: 23

We have made many plans and elevations; but we have not really tried to build Jerusalem either in our own hearts or in "England's pleasant land”. Blake thought that the preliminary of such a building up of the harmonious social order must be

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:57 29.13 Our World - Escaping from Materialism Page 7 of 14

the building up or harmonizing of men, of each man ; and when this essential work was really done, Heaven's " Countenance Divine " would suddenly declare itself " among the dark Satanic mills."

Evelyn, in a different book, used her own words to describe the need for us to elevate our set of values to that of the Eternal: 24

...the first concern ... is with the realm of Being; with God Himself, to whom each one in our ceaseless series of outward acts and experiences must be related. And its second concern is with the bringing of the values of that world of Being into the world of Becoming, the physical world of succession and change.

As individuals, the only way to reach this goal is through personal endeavour and making sure that we live by the values that we believe in; our philosophy of life. Embedded within this is the implication that whatever life throws at us we try to do our best for ourselves and humanity. In this way we meet difficulties head on, accepting the twists and turns of life, and learn the lessons for which our soul was incarnated. The very English acerbic journalist Malcolm Muggeridge encapsulated this from a governmental perspective when he stated that: 25

Envisaging the possibility of a good government is a dangerous illusion, and, indeed, virtually ensures the installation of a bad one. When has the overthrowing of a government installed a better one in its place? Is France a better place for having had a revolution? Or America? Or Russia? In recent years more governments have been overturned than in any comparative period in history, and in the process the confusion, violence, oppression, privation, servitude, bloodshed and injustice in the world have steadily augmented. If, however, we follow the Apostle Paul's guidance, and accept authority whatever it may be ... within its own terms of reference, we are free to concern ourselves with the two basic rules of conduct ... to love God and our neighbour.

There is no stability in politics; governments will continue to change and not necessarily for the better – they are driven by material forces based on greed and power. Much more important are the personal spiritual changes which build the individual soul. This was a significant theme of Jiddu Krishnamurti, who constantly stressed the need for a revolution in the psyche of every human being and emphasised that such revolution cannot be brought about by any external entity, be it religious, political, or social; we must do it ourselves. In his ‘Commentaries on Living - Third Series’ he stated that: 26

Reform, however necessary, only breeds the need for further reform, and there is no end to it. What is essential is a revolution in man’s thinking, not patchwork reform. Without a fundamental change in the mind and heart of man, reform merely puts him to sleep by helping him to be further satisfied. This is fairly obvious, isn’t it?

One of the reasons for this is that reformers perceive that the current situation is not good and strive to change it to one which they believe is much better. However, how do they know what is best for the people? Jiddu Krishnamurti posed this rhetorical question and said, of reformers: 27

You assume so much. You start with so many conclusions; and when you start with

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:57 29.13 Our World - Escaping from Materialism Page 8 of 14

a conclusion, whether your own or that of another, all thinking ceases. The calm assumption that you know, and that the other does not, leads to greater misery than the misery of having only one meal a day; for it is the vanity of conclusions that brings about the exploitation of man. In our eagerness to act for the good of others, we seem to do a great deal of harm.

What governments and political leaders can do is to create a situation where spiritual change by individuals is stimulated. That is, to create within each nation a move towards severing the ties that materialism and associated aspirations bring. Aldous Huxley in ‘The Perennial Philosophy’ argued that: 28

This is, or should be, the guiding principle of all social reform - to organise the economic, political and social relationships between human beings in such a way that there shall be, for any given individual or group within the society, a minimum of temptations to covetousness, pride, cruelty and lust for power.

Governments can help this process indirectly as well as directly within their own country. Stopping the manufacturing of destructive armaments, personal landmines for example, for sale to other countries is one simple and effective way to start. Whilst this is just one path to follow, we must do all we can to step back and away from international conflict; diplomacy and continuing dialogue must be the objective. In this context therefore, we must redirect all our scientific progress and make sure that it is not used for destructive purposes. This was a topic broached by the renowned Christian mystic Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows in ‘Pathway of the Immortal’: 29

In the use of any power, even electrical, the only true rule to follow is that it be used as a tool for the good of all mankind by helping to strengthen the human race. To use it to destroy or harm any living thing, physically, mentally, or emotionally, will return to its user equalising effects.

Thus changing the moral and ethical stance of scientists, engineers and technologists becomes a major task for humanity. We must expand the love that we have for our most intimate friend to our family, to our immediate community, to our nation, and, importantly, to our planet. This follows the observation of Aldous Huxley that: 30

Our present economic, social and international arrangements are based, in large measure, upon organised lovelessness. We begin by lacking charity towards Nature, so that instead of trying to co-operate with Tao or Logos on the inanimate and subhuman levels, we try to dominate and exploit, we waste the earth's mineral resources, ruin its soil, ravage its forests, pour filth into its rivers and poisonous fumes into its air.

So to be able to conquer our human tendency to conflict we need to bring love, in all its forms - kindness, charity, compassion, friendship, forgiveness, patience, humility, and gratitude – into every aspect of our life. Because this love is not possessive we can appreciate the material things in life without fear of them becoming central to our lives. We have some really beautiful original paintings in our house which bring warmth and colour into our home, but, whilst I really like them and look after them, they are not central to the spiritual progress that I wish to continue. My life and emotions would not be greatly affected if we lost them. Aldous also declared that, for created things, it is: 31

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:57 29.13 Our World - Escaping from Materialism Page 9 of 14

...bad to love-know them with self-centred attachment and cupidity; it is somewhat better to know them with scientific dispassion; it is best to supplement abstract knowledge-without-cupidity with true disinterested love-knowledge...

If love is central to life, and materialism banished then humanity would be on the right track. In fact, this situation was prevalent in North America before the Europeans settled there and destroyed it. The Welsh geneticist Steve Jones reminded us of the fact that the Native American Indians based their lives upon joint ownership which: 32

...was an affront to the young United States Senator Henry Dawes of Massachusetts who admired the Cherokee’s communal society, but saw it as a dead end: ‘The defect of the system was apparent. They have got as far as they can go, because they hold their land in common ... There is no selfishness, which is at the bottom of civilisation.’

This shows the way in which our ‘civilisation’ has grown and deteriorated; fostering personal gain at the expense of cooperation and service to others. The mystics have been telling us that humanity has been following the wrong path for eons. A non-material theme has been important to them. It is normally expressed as a love for their God, but in many cases, it is exhibited and expressed as a love for other created beings. Such examples include, the spiritual giants of St Francis of Assisi, Mother Teresa, and Mahatma Ghandi, notwithstanding the prophets of Jesus the Nazarene, Mohammad and the Buddha. These towering examples of spirituality, as Andrew Harvey said of Jesus the Nazarene: 33

The Christ I know is beyond all religion, all dogma, all churches, especially perhaps the ones created in his name; he is nothing less than the love force at the heart of every human being, the love force that is at the heart of the Direct Path, the volcanic, all-transforming nuclear power of active divine human love that is waiting for everyone on earth to be released and expressed and lived and incarnated in every law and institution, in every creative and scientific and political activity.

...and every religion. Arthur Conan Doyle, an avid writer and spiritual reformer, believed that much of the difficulties being experienced by people are not politically created but have been stimulated by religion. He wrote in ‘The Vital Message’ his belief that these types of problem: 34

...lie far deeper than the national squabbles of the day. A thousand years hence those national results may matter little, but the religious result will rule the world. That religious result is the reform of the decadent Christianity of to-day, its simplification, its purification, and its reinforcement by the facts of spirit communion and the clear knowledge of what lies beyond the exit-door of death.

Simplicity is love and embedding it into the heart of everything that we do is fundamental to setting materialism into its correct context. Some people understand this from their early days. Of the young Thérése Goethals, who eventually became known as Mère Ignace Goethals, the Third Mother-General of the Sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur, it is reported that: 35

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:57 29.13 Our World - Escaping from Materialism Page 10 of 14

...her heart was already captivated by other ideals and, undazzled by all she encountered, she devoted herself as far as possible to good works until God should make known His will with regard to her choice of a state of life.

This rather unique lady has inspired many others to follow in her footsteps, and, during her short life, encouraged many to eschew materialism. In one of her letters she wrote: 36

Oh! My dear Sisters, how much I desire that each one of us should be clothed with the apostolic spirit which forgets the petty, base and incessant interests of self-love to have no other end in view but the glory of God and the salvation of souls...

Let each of us, therefore, allow the phoenix of spirituality to rise from the maelstrom of material life and change us and society for the better. For this, Christine R. Page suggested that: 37

Peace and respect for others will not return until we reconnect to spiritual and moral values which are not dictated from outside but emerge from a deep sense of belonging where nothing is hidden and everything is known.

Part of this process is brought about by learning – through study, experience, and inspired thought through meditation. This will reveal to you, as it did to me, a set of Natural Laws which determine our development. These laws are expressions of the Divine and control all our lives. I have a vague notion of what some of them are; two are ‘life is eternal so there is no death’ and ‘personal responsibility for all we do’. However, for all the laws that do exist, they are only sub-laws of that over-riding law which is the Law of Love; love your Maker and, through this, love everything thereby created – human and otherwise. This law is often expressed as living according to the Divine Will. This phrase was used by Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows when she wrote: 38

Care must be taken to insure that the Natural and Cosmic Forces are utilised according to the divine will.

This is telling us to use the abilities that we have for the benefit of all. Particularly, as we develop spiritually we often enhance our latent talents and develop abilities which can be used for the benefit of others. This will change our lives; it will alter the balance between the spiritual and the material aspects of our lives and if we become freed from the bonds of the material, then our natural progress would always be spiritual – that is our eternal destiny which Teilhard de Chardin expressed as: 39

...when the World is left to itself it does not fall in the direction of obscurity; with all its vastness and all its weight it falls forward in equilibrium, towards the light.

This light is the brightness that spirituality brings, and it cannot be clouded from you by what others think. On this point, the Quaker pioneer George Fox recognised and advised each of us to: 40

Heed not the eyes of the world...

...or, in fact, the words of the world. In Thomas A Kempis’ famous book ‘The Imitation of Christ’ God tells us that: 41

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:57 29.13 Our World - Escaping from Materialism Page 11 of 14

If you walk within, You will think little of flying words.

And later in the same book the Deity expands on this and says: 42

My son, Stand firm and hope in me. For what are words but words? They fly through the air, But do not hurt a stone.

We have to erect a spiritual barrier between our own life and those negative and destructive thoughts that many people generate. There is a great deal of negativity which ought to be replaced by a real and vibrant positive love for life – one which accepts what life throws at us as a means of personal development. Look life in the eye and be positive. We must try to help others to overcome their pessimistic life style because, as Alan Young recognised: 43

...the greatest crime in the Universe against the Law of Love is humanity's almost ceaseless sending forth of every kind of irritable and destructive feeling.

If left to its own devices, these thoughts will drive spirituality away. We must never let this happen in anyone’s life. The writer of the ‘Lost Scrolls of the Essene Brotherhood’, which were written close on 2000 years ago, advised similarly: 44

Clean the good things made by the Law, Whose offspring is the Holy Creation. To obtain treasures of the material world, O sons of men, Forego not the world of the Law.

If we take this approach and bring spirituality into the forefront of our lives, over time you will be surprised at the changes that you will have made. In particular, you will be aware of a burgeoning tranquillity, patience and peacefulness within you. This state of mind will help in everything you do, which, as Julie Soskin knew: 45

...peace can help untie and loosen your hold on matter.

Once this happens, then the way in which we view everything around us changes. I realised long ago that what I possess, especially the house and grounds in which I live, I have a responsibility towards. I am no more than a custodian; a steward of my assets whatever form they take. In fact, my body, being given to me so that I may learn lessons, I should treat carefully. In ‘The Teachings of Don Miguel Ruiz’ he explains that: 46

Whatever comes to us, we can use and enjoy, but we do not own it. If we lose something, we will suffer less if we realise that we never really owned it anyway.

You may ask whether religion can help in freeing us from materialism. History indicates that it cannot. Religion teaches us fear of God and to obey God; spirituality teaches us to love God and move towards a better understanding of the Natural Laws which govern us. Religions tend also to be divisive; they drive wedges between each other rather than

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:57 29.13 Our World - Escaping from Materialism Page 12 of 14 erecting bridges. The book ‘God and the Evolving Universe’ referred to a treatise ‘Passion of the Western Mind' by Richard Tarnas who wrote: 47

The need for a clarifying and unifying vision capable of transcending irresolvable religious conflicts was broadly felt. It was amidst this state of acute metaphysical turmoil that the Scientific Revolution began and finally triumphed in the Western mind.

Whether this interpretation of history is correct or not, materialism has gained the upper hand and it is up to each one of us to change the balance towards a more spiritual life style. We are a ‘spark of God’ and as such have an in-built impetus to spiritually develop. In most people this feature is latent, but in you and I it is starting to blossom. It is our divine right to make this journey. This was a thought given to the English medium Robert Brown through a communicating spirit who stated that: 48

We know of no rights of nations or belief systems superior to the rights of humanity.

In conclusion I’ll leave you with an extract from ‘When Man Listens’ from the pen of Cecil Rose: 49

We are living in a divided world. Every day brings news of the war of nations, of classes, or of economic groups. Self-interest, fear, bitter memory, national pride is splitting the human family into isolated fragments. Cooperation, which is the world’s most urgent need, becomes increasingly difficult. Such a world of isolated groups, eyeing each other with growing suspicion over rising walls of misunderstanding, can only be the product of individuals who do not know how to live together. Selfishness, fear, resentment, pride, do not live in the air. They live in men. They only move States because they have the power to move us. We must look for the barriers which separate nations and classes, first in ourselves and our homes, and then in our daily contacts with those around us.

It is our responsibility to ourselves and to humanity to do this.

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:57 29.13 Our World - Escaping from Materialism Page 13 of 14

1 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Thirteen: Universal Law, (Pg 65) 2 Hazel Courteney, Divine Intervention, Cico Books, 2002. Chapter 10: The Predictions, (Pg 148) 3 Teilhard de Chardin, The Heart of Matter, Collins, 1978. Part I: The Heart of Matter - III The Christic, or the Centrict - Prayer for the Ever-Greater Christ, (Pg 57) 4 Geraldine Cummins, The Childhood of Jesus, Psychic Press, 1972. Chapter LII, (Pg 217) 5 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. Book IV - Book of Inward Consolation, Chapter L(II) 6 Teresa of Avila, Selections from The Interior Castle, Harper Collins, 2004. The Second Dwelling Places – Chapter 1, (Pg 16) 7 Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, Arrow Books, 2005. (Pg 44) 8 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 11 - A Covenant of Hope, (Pg 193) 9 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 11 - A Covenant of Hope, (Pg 194 / 195) 10 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. II: Planet Earth - 9: Crossroads, (Pg 122) 11 Marcus J. Borg, The God We Never Knew, HarperSanFrancisco, 1997. Part III: Chapter 6: The Dream of God - A Politics of Compassion, (Pg 141) 12 Unto Thee I Grant, Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1966. Book Nine: Man Considered in Regard to His Infirmities and their Effects. Chapter IV- On the Insufficiency of Knowledge, (Pg 60) 13 Adeline Yen Mah, Watching The Tree, Harper Collins, 2001. 12 The Lessons of Silence, (Pg 231) 14 Krishnamurti, Authentic Report of Twelve Talks given by Krishnamurti, The Star Publishing Trust, 1934. Fifth talk in The Oak Grove (June 22, 1934), (Pg 37) 15 Downloaded 30 th August 2016 from http://www.biographyonline.net/spiritual/articles/spirituality- materialism.html 16 Mohandas K Gandhi - From the book ‘Secrets of the Light’ by Dannion Brinkley 17 William Houff, Infinity in Your Hand, Skinner House Books, 1994. Chapter 15: The Spiritual Basis for Social Action – To change the world, I change myself first, (Pg 172) 18 Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh, The Path, Viking, 2016. 3: On Relationships: Confucius and As-If Rituals, (Pg 53) 19 A. J. Howard Hulme and Frederic H. Wood, Ancient Egypt Speaks, Psychic Book Club, Undated. Chapter I - A Voice from the XVIIIth Dynasty, (Pg 17) 20 Harry Emerson, Listen My Son, The Psychic Book Club, 1945. Chapter Fourteen: The Spirit Tutor, (Pg 74) 21 Neale Donald Walsch, Friendship with God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1999. Eighteen, (Pg 378 & 379) 22 Shankara Acharya, The Crest Jewel of Wisdom, John M Watkins, 1964. The Crest Jewel of Wisdom - The Steadfast Heart, (Pg 54) 23 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VIII The Life of the Spirit and the Social Order, (Pg 215) 24 Evelyn Underhill, Concerning the Inner Life, Oneworld, 1999. Part III - Contemplation and Creative Work, (Pg 77) 25 Malcolm Muggeridge, Conversion: A Spiritual Journey, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1989. 7: The Journalist, (Pg 78 / 79) 26 J Krishnamurti, Commentaries on Living - Third Series, Victor Gollancz, 1961. Can One Know What Is Good for the People? (Pg 12) 27 J Krishnamurti, Commentaries on Living - Third Series, Victor Gollancz, 1961. Can One Know What Is Good for the People? (Pg 13) 28 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter XXIV: Ritual, Symbol, Sacrament, (Pg 270) 29 Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows, Pathway of the Immortal, International Publications Inc, 1980. Chapter IX: World of Prophecy (Science of Tomorrow), (Pg 188) 30 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter V: Charity, (Pg 93) 31 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter V: Charity, (Pg 82) 32 Steve Jones, In The Blood: God, Genes and Destiny, Harper Collins, 1996. Chapter II: Sex and Taxes, (Pg 96) 33 Andrew Harvey, The Direct Path, Rider & Co, 2000. Introduction, (Pg 22) 34 Arthur Conan Doyle, The Vital Message, Hodder & Stoughton, 1919. Chapter I: The Two Needful Readjustments, (Pg 16 / 17)

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:57 29.13 Our World - Escaping from Materialism Page 14 of 14

35 Mère Ignace Goethals - Third Mother-General of the Sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur, A Member of the Same Congregation, Alexander Ouseley Limited, 1934. Chapter II: In the World, but not of it (1817 - July 1821), (Pg 28) 36 Mère Ignace Goethals - Third Mother-Genera of the Sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur, A Member of the Same Congregation, Alexander Ouseley Limited, 1934. Chapter IX: Mother-General (1838 - 1842), (Pg 156) 37 Christine R. Page, Spiritual Alchemy, C W Daniel Co, 2004. Chapter Two - Cycles of Energy, (Pg 66) 38 Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows, Pathway of the Immortal, International Publications Inc, 1980. Chapter VIII: The Mystery and Origin of Power, (Pg 156) 39 Teilhard de Chardin, The Heart of Matter, Collins, 1978. Part I: The Heart of Matter - II The Human, or the Convergent b. The Stuff of the Noosphere, (Pg 35) 40 Jonathan Fryer, George Fox and the Children of the Light, Kyle Cathie, 1991. The Epistles: To Friends in the Ministry (1653), (Pg 219) 41 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891.Book IV - Book of Inward Consolation, Chapter XXVIII 42 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. Book IV - Book of Inward Consolation, Chapter XLVI 43 Alan Young, Cosmic Healing, DeVorss & Co, 1988. 6 Saint Germain - Causes of Disease, (Pg 84) 44 Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, The Gospel of the Essenes, C W Daniel Co, 1976. Lost Scrolls of the Essene Brotherhood: The Holy Law, (Pg 180) 45 Julie Soskin, Transformation, College of Psychic Studies, 1995. Chapter 8 - Spiritual Union, (Pg 65) 46 Mary Carroll Nelson, Beyond Fear - The Teachings of Don Miguel Ruiz on Freedom and Joy, Rider & Co, 2003. Chapter Nine: Life after Death, (Pg 118) 47 James Redfield, Michael Murphy, Silvia Timbers, God and the Evolving Universe, Bantam Press, 2002. Part One - Awakening; 2: A History of Human Awakening: The Enlightenment, (Pg 52) 48 Robert Brown, We Are Eternal, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Part Three: Appendix, (Pg 181) 49 Cecil Rose, When Man Listens, Blandford Press, 1956. Chapter Three: Breaking Barriers and Building Bridges, (Pg 37)

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:19:57 29.14 Our World – Religion and British Law Page 1 of 6

29:14 Our World – Religion and British Law

Can we ever have equality when religions, by their actions, creeds, dogmas, and traditions don’t implement it? In Great Britain the law of the land strives very hard to create an equal society. It imposes taxes and laws which it uses as best it can to balance out the advantages of the rich and the disadvantages of the poor. In 1998 the Human Rights Act 1 became law and it was enshrined in a legal cocoon that stated that each of us can defend our rights in the UK courts and that public organisations (including the Government, the Police and local councils) must treat everyone equally, with fairness, dignity and respect.

The path to this momentous step in personal equality has been long and arduous; it was enacted just over 100 years after the Suffragette movement was started. The struggle for equality has always been hard. Embedded within the Human Rights Act is Article 9 – Freedom of Religion, which states that:

The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion includes: • the freedom to change religion or belief; • the freedom to exercise religion or belief publicly or privately, alone or with others; • the freedom to exercise religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance; and • the right to have no religion (e.g. to be atheist or agnostic) or to have non- religious beliefs protected (e.g. philosophical beliefs such as pacifism or veganism).

Since 2006, the law has prohibited discrimination on the basis of a number of ‘protected characteristics’ or ‘grounds’ when providing goods, facilities, services or premises to the public or a section of the public. However: 2

...religious organisations can rely on an exemption to the general prohibition, enabling them to lawfully discriminate in certain circumstances on the basis of religion or belief or sexual orientation.

All this, and more, has been updated and incorporated into the Equality Act 2010. Within this act: 3

...religion or belief can mean any religion, for example an organised religion like Christianity, Judaism, Islam or Buddhism, or a smaller religion like Rastafarianism or Paganism, as long as it has a clear structure and belief system.

Freedom of religion means that no one can be forced to join a church, be involved in its activities or pay taxes to a church.

This has set the framework within which religions currently operate and their freedom to discriminate is unprecedented; religious intolerance has increased seemingly exponentially in recent years. In fact, human rights and religion appear to be at different ends of the equality spectrum. Why should a religious organisation be treated any differently from any other? The extant legal system within the UK is for the protection of all individuals from gross exploitation why should we make an exception of any religion? And it is not just a

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:20:36 29.14 Our World – Religion and British Law Page 2 of 6 problem in the UK; it is worldwide. The following is from a Kenyan human rights lawyer who said that she was: 4

...dismayed by the rising influence of religion in her part of the world, which she blamed on a mixture of lobbying by religious-right groups in the rich north and an attempt by local elites to offer the "opium" of faith as a substitute for any solution to real problems like poverty or violence. She blamed conservative American lobbies for promoting anti-gay laws in African countries, such as Uganda. As the lawyer, Achieng Maureen Akena, saw things, "the link between religion and oppression is particularly visible today in Kenya, where the public’s religious adherence is increasing with rising poverty and insecurity."

We have the ability and the power to prevent this from spreading to the UK where fundamentalism and fanaticism, under the cloak of religion, have an expanding influence. Let me make a few points which impact on some of the religions of which I am aware; particularly including Roman Catholic and Church of England’s versions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Faith schools are an anathema; at best they constrain free spiritual thinking and at worst are hotbeds for fundamentalism. I believe that they started quite innocently but in the UK, during the 19 th century, they soon developed into a battle between the Methodist church schools and those of the Church of England. We now have the right for any religion to establish a faith school – a real retrograde step away from an education system which is open and free of any religious pressure.

Equality of opportunity is a major plank in British society which has been enshrined in law with the Equality Act 2010. The Church of England recently voted to allow female bishops – a step in the right direction. This, of course, if religions had been subject in the same way as other organisation to the Equality Act would have happened far sooner. Why is this not part of all faiths? If they wish to participate in British society then they ought to follow the principles that British society has, over the years, developed.

In August 2016 a report by the Home editor of the BBC stated that: 5

Muslim women are the most economically disadvantaged group in British society, according to a report by MPs... Many Muslim women in Britain face a "triple penalty" impacting on their job prospects - being women, being from an ethnic minority and being Muslim, the committee suggested.

The way that the Islam, that I see daily, allows its women to be treated as second citizens is inappropriate in today’s world, and it infringes all that we believe is ethically right. It is a very immature religion which allows this to happen. If I look at the writings of the Indian Muslim leader and activist Maulana Mohammad Ali from around the start of the 20 th century, I find that he states that: 6

With God, therefore, according to the Qur'an, there is no difference between man and woman, and morally and spiritually they can rise to the same eminence.

But that is his way of interpreting the Prophet’s ideas as recorded in the Qur’an. He went

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:20:36 29.14 Our World – Religion and British Law Page 3 of 6 further and identified two verses from the Qur’an which restricted the liberty of women: 7

Say to the believing men that they cast down their looks and guard their private parts; that is purer for them; God is aware of what they do. Say to the believing women that they cast down their looks and guard their private parts and not display their ornaments except what appears thereof; and let them wear their head-coverings over their bosoms" [Surah 24: 30,31]

This Islamic leader then continued and made the following comments:

Now the real restriction contained in these verses is that both men and women should, when they meet each other, cast down their looks, but there is an additional restriction in the case of women that they 'should not display their ornaments' with the exception of 'what appears thereof'. The exception has been explained as meaning 'what is customary and natural to cover.' That women went to mosques with their faces uncovered is recognised on all hands, and there is also a saying of the Holy Prophet that, when a woman reaches the age of puberty, she should cover her body 'except the face and hands'.

This, to my thinking, does not necessitate the extreme dress that some Muslim women use or, by some, are mandated to use. Certainly, the Qur'an admonishes Muslim women to dress modestly but it doesn't require covering the head. In May 2016 the BBC reported that: 8

An independent review will establish whether Sharia law in England and Wales has been used to discriminate against women, the home secretary has said. It will look at whether Sharia law - Islamic religious law - is compatible with UK laws and whether it is being "misused", Theresa May added.

There is no smoke without fire – I hope that the findings of the review lead to some positive action and Islam to be practiced within the context of the laws of the land. In support of this, Sir Ernest Barker in his introduction to the 1945 translation of St Augustine’s ‘The City of God’ agreed that: 9

...man should seek to live in equality with others under the peace of God: improperly, unnaturally, violating that law, he seeks to make others live in inequality and subjection under a peace of his own imposition.

We must create a free society in which everyone shares and no religion shall ever force inequality. This was a central theme of the author Harry Emerson who stated that: 10

We cannot all be equal, neither in material possessions or spiritual attainments, but we can all strive to realise that the other fellow has not merely been put amongst us to be used as a pawn in the game. Instead of making him kneel so that we may climb, let us ask for his hand to help us up. And when we have reached the top of the tree, throw down to him his fair share of the apples.

Equality is a freedom to be cherished and people from all over the world are migrating away from inhuman situations to countries where there is much greater equality and opportunity. The movement of migrants from war-torn states to those who are currently at

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:20:36 29.14 Our World – Religion and British Law Page 4 of 6 peace, relatively wealthy and provide support for the poor and vulnerable is to be expected. They are seeking a meaningful life. We would all chose a state where equality was uppermost, as did the Theresa Goethals who later became Mère Ignace Goethals, the Third Mother-General of the Sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur of whom it was said that: 11

...Mère Ignace had confessed that one characteristic which had drawn her to the Institute of Notre-Dame was the perfect equality among the Sisters, and the fact that they not only addressed one another as "Sister" but really lived 'en famille' together, whatever their daily work might be.

As the British MPs will recognise whilst considering their review, forcing equality can have very negative implications as the Eastern Christian mystic John Chrysostom recognised: 12

Equality imposed by force would achieve nothing, and do much harm.

It ought to be a natural developmental process which should be helped and stimulated by all of us. In his book ‘The Voice and Spiritual Education’ first published in 1896, the American professor of literature Hiram Corson expressed his belief: 13

...in the co-education of the sexes, in the opening to women of all the avenues along which men only have hitherto gone, and in the removal of all obstacles to the exercise of the powers inherent in 'distinctive womanhood.' These things will do more for civilization, in the highest sense of the word, that is, the spiritual sense, than all other agencies combined.

As if to stress the current gender inequality the journalist Hazel Courteney was informed by a communicating spirit that: 14

For over 2000 years the earth has been dominated by male energy, but with permission from the highest source, many of us - male and female - in the higher realms have joined together to beam a new frequency to Earth. For too long many men have believed they are superior to woman - this is not so. You are all equal. This frequency will pulse through everyone, no one can avoid it, and as the months and years pass it will increase in intensity. It will act as a perfect balance of male and female energy and will cause gentle but noticeable changes. Some of you will have problems with your sexuality as the frequency pervades your bodies. It is important during these times not to judge a person's sexual preferences, there will be much confusion, but it will sort itself out in time.

I look forward to this time, but we are not there yet. Another aspect of religion which cuts across the laws of Great Britain is that of circumcision. I can understand it from a purely medical perspective, but for every male child to be forced to be circumcised is a violation against our Creator and the Laws of the British Isles. In the Middle-East 3000 years ago, perhaps the consequence of a dry atmosphere and excessive sand may have caused problems for men, but in Great Britain in the 21 st century it is an act of severe abuse that religion (Judaism and some Islamic traditions) inflict. It ought to be outlawed and considered as child abuse.

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:20:36 29.14 Our World – Religion and British Law Page 5 of 6

Perhaps there are a number of ways in which the UK can resolve these issues; and they do need some sort of resolution. The solution lies in education: not, I repeat not, in faith schools but within those environments where religion is absent and spirituality is foremost. This is the only route that I can see which will quickly provide the change that is necessary. Education is not just for children, it is for all of us. It is the mothers who begin the education of their children; these are special people who, themselves, must be educated and made aware of the best way to teach their child of the balance between physical and spiritual aspects of life. It is worthy to note that all children are able to communicate with the Spirit World from when they were born but within about 5 years this ability is squeezed out of them by parents and society both of which concentrate on the material and often a specific religion.

Although the stirrings for human rights stemmed from religious underpinnings, we must always be careful to keep religion and human rights separate. In that way spirituality can flourish in a society where human rights are everywhere applicable and freedom of expression obtains. However, it is never possible to completely divorce religion from how people live and so we have to accept that the words of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks have to be accepted: 15

If religion is not part of the solution, it will certainly be part of the problem.

History teaches us that there is nothing which inflames violent passion more than religion, particularly those with a fundamentalist approach to living. This is not the route to peaceful coexistence one religion with another, one race with another. We have to be tolerant of other people’s religious ideals: 16

People with very different ideas of how society should function must live together, and there is no idea more divisive than that of religion. Many of the most important moral disagreements break out along religious lines. Indeed, differing religious views on freedom, sexuality and justice threaten social cohesion. That must not be allowed to happen.

However, the rule of law should be paramount and ought not to be compromised because of incompatible religious beliefs. This can only occur if those people within different religions trust each other and regularly inter-relate as families, work colleagues and friends. It is through these interactions that trust is built, as Jonathan Sacks remarked: 17

What is crucial, though, is to remember how trust is created through ... people repeatedly interacting with one another.

...and he went on to say that beneath the surface of all significant relationships there must exist: 18

...certain fundamental concepts: love, loyalty, responsibility, authority, obedience, fairness and compassion. ... They define their relationships and frame their expectations... I call such relationships ... covenantal... Covenantal relationships are those sustained by trust.

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:20:36 29.14 Our World – Religion and British Law Page 6 of 6

And this is the only way that people from different religions can coexist – through tolerance on the one hand and trust on the other.

Well, these are a few of my thoughts on the relationship of Religion and British Law. I don’t mind whether you agree or not – at least it may have got you thinking.

I believe that spirituality is the key ... not religion

1 For more see https://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/human-rights/ 2 Downloaded on 4 th September 2016 from http://www.christianconcern.com/sites/default/files/equality- provision%20of%20service-proof.pdf 3 Downloaded 4 th September 2016 from https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and- guidance/religion-or-belief-discrimination 4 For further information see https://www.opendemocracy.net/ 5 Downloaded 4 th September 2016 from From http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37041301 Report by Home Editor of the BBC 6 Maulana Mohammad Ali, Introduction to The Study of the Holy Qur'an, The Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha'at- Islam, 1976. Chapter IV - Some Misconceptions Regarding Quranic Teachings: Section 2 - The Position of Women, (Pg 187) 7 Maulana Mohammad Ali, Introduction to The Study of the Holy Qur'an, The Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha'at- Islam, 1976. Chapter IV - Some Misconceptions Regarding Quranic Teachings: Section 2 - The Position of Women, (Pg 190 / 191) 8 See www.bbc.co. uk /news from 26th May 2016 9 St Augustine, The City of God (De Civitate Dei), J M Dent, 1945. Introduction [by Sir Ernest Barker], (Pg xxvi) 10 Harry Emerson, Listen My Son, The Psychic Book Club, 1945. Chapter Fourteen: The Spirit Tutor, (Pg 74) 11 Mère Ignace Goethals - Third Mother-General of the Sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur, A Member of the Same Congregation, Alexander Ouseley Limited, 1934. Chapter II: In the World, but not of it (1817 - July 1821), (Pg 36 / 37) 12 John Chrysostom - The Golden Voice of Protest, Arthur James, 1996. (Pg 43) 13 Hiram Corson, LL.D., The Voice and Spiritual Education, Macmillan, 1914, (Pg 70) 14 Hazel Courteney, Divine Intervention, Cico Books, 2002. Chapter 12: The Long Road Home, (Pg 174) 15 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 1 – Prologue, (Pg 9) 16 Downloaded 17/09/2018 from https://aeon.co/ideas/understanding-other-religions-is-fundamental-to- citizenship 17 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 8 - Co-operation: Civil Society and its Institutions, (Pg 148) 18 Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, Continuum, 2002. Chapter 8 - Co-operation: Civil Society and its Institutions, (Pg 149 / 150)

DAJ 14/01/2020 09:20:36