Today, we shall begin discussing how science has changed and continues to change many of the basic concepts and experiential modes of spirituality. Such changes beginning in the 16th century with Galileo and Descartes; accelerating in the 17th to 19th centuries with the discoveries of Newton, Huygens, Faraday, and Maxwell; and moving onto unimaginable spheres with Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Dirac and a score of successors. Naturally, philosophical inquiry has kept pace.

First, I support a theoretical perspective known as ‘emergent evolutionary physicalism.’ A scientific model which is not antagonistic to true esoteric schools like the Rosicrucians. In fact, this theoretic stance is consistent with the Rosicrucian emphasis upon thorough study of man’s inner psychological world and the structure and functioning of the purely physical world, including all of its creatures.

For instance, if we imagine far back into our early human history–say one million years ago, it is likely that our predecessors did not possess a sophisticated oral language nor linguistic reasoning. I am of the opinion that they did possess an emotionally-expressive gestural language, rich in facial expressions and prosodic sounds, and conducive to the formation of strong emotive ties between individuals born into the parent group. Without oral language and the capacity to ‘name’ things, our ancestors were restricted to the concrete world and had little capacity to consider abstract ideas. Therefore, they lived in the present dealing solely with their environs in real time. Without the cognitive ability to form abstract ideas, their fund of waking knowledge was severely limited to affairs of the physical world.  I doubt that they were even aware of any dream imaging present during sleep (type I-n reality, see previous blogs).

As the millennia passed, the human pharynx and larynx gradually assumed modern anatomical form allowing for a much increased repertoire of phonetic utterances. Concurrently, the CNS underwent progressive neurosynaptic modeling secondary to richer emotive signaling between parent and child leading eventually to modern speech and symbolic thought.

With the birth of self-awareness and symbolic thinking, our immediate ancestors realized that during the dark hours of the night, each found himself or herself enmeshed in a magical landscape peopled by spirits of the living and the dead, strange creatures unseen during the day, ghosts, demons, and sorcerers. During the day, they must have wondered where this magical land existed–this must be where our dead ancestors live in villages like our own. Regardless of the location of the nocturnal world of spirits and demons, mankind has lived in two seemingly different worlds for many thousands of years.

With the institution of oral language, people could discuss their respective dreams and by social sharing construct explanations and world views to explain these two worlds.

Imagine for a moment that you have two circles drawn upon a large piece of paper. On the left you have a very, very tiny dot representing the extent of actual knowledge and understanding possessed by our early ancestors. On the right is a circle which fills the total face of the paper, this circle representing all the information which was not known to our ancestors and for which they created myths and imaginary explanations based mainly upon agency to explain why it rained, how they came to be, and what happened after physical death. The small circle is called the scientific world and the large circle the parapsychic world.

Imagine that both of these circles begin to move as a pair in time. Over many millennia man created religion, philosophy, and finally science. By the time of Galileo and Newton, the left circle had expanded and the right circle contracted, all the while maintaining a constant summation area. The left circle has continued to expand and the right circle compress, at faster and faster rates, as the clock ticked onward. Today, the circle representing the physical and psychological worlds of man on the left nearly covers the page, while the circle representing myths and the psychic has almost vanished into nothingness.

However, this metaphor concerns verifiable knowledge and not how individuals oriented towards the parapsychic believe.

Now, some of you may be wondering about what this has will do to God and the Divine? If science eventually explains everything, does this mean that we are imprisoned within a godless and purposeless world? An atheist would say yes, the Institute and true esoteric schools, like the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, would say no. For the only way to find God is to remove all the psychical coverings mankind has placed upon God in the name of religion, art, and politics. This is why science and mysticism are brother and sister.

To be continued tomorrow. Blessings, the Good Doctor