Archive for the ‘The Field’ Category

Earlier in May, I attended Day 3 (Sunday) of the Hay House “I Can Do It” event in Toronto.  My main reason for going was to see Gregg Braden who was the keynote speaker on Sunday morning.  While there, I also enjoyed attending sessions with John Holland (the first time I’d ever experienced a “medium in action”), Dr. Christiane Northrup, and Dr. Bruce Lipton who gave the closing keynote address.  I’ve since been absorbing more material from both Gregg Braden and Bruce Lipton.  I love the mix of scientific breakthroughs in the areas of biology and quantum physics as they relate to human spirituality intermixed with findings from our wisdom traditions.

I’m still absorbing some of this information and couldn’t possibly do this justice here, however, I thought sharing a few insights might be of interest.

Lipton and Braden have a lot in common as they both come from a science background, however, Lipton has a PhD in Biology and is more focused on that field.  I just finished listening to his CD’s called the “Biology of Belief” which go quite in depth on genetics but in a way that everyone (even me) can understand.

Braden seems to balance his scientific inquiry with his parallel mission of investigating ancient wisdom traditions which makes his material really fascinating.  I’ve heard them both dispute Darwin’s theories on evolution as it relates to human evolution and the ‘survival of the fittest’.  It’s the first time I’ve really considered that this wasn’t just pure fact but some really interesting points were made.  Braden’s upcoming book will cover this in detail.  The idea that ‘cooperation’ works better for our survival than ‘competition’ is certainly true today.

While there, I was able to briefly meet Gregg Braden and have him sign two of his books (“The God Code” and “Fractal Time”) and slip him a wrapped copy of “Vision Speak”.  I don’t know if he’ll find time to read my novel but I can always dream.  He was very gracious in accepting it.   I also picked up his DVD, “The Language of the Divine Matrix” which I enjoyed watching over a rainy weekend in May.  (which would be most of May this year..)

In this 4 hour DVD, Braden walks us through real science demonstrating some exciting concepts, for example:

• the universe is an intelligent, evolving consciousness of which we are all connected.  He calls this the ‘divine matrix’ (based partly on Planck’s reference to the field as the ‘matrix’)
• we are beings of energy and the strongest electrical and magnetic energy forces in our body come from our heart
• the language of our heart – beliefs and feelings, human prayer energy – (generated by our thoughts and emotions) can change our world, affect our reality, connect us to the divine matrix…

He explained some fascinating, related experiments, including the “Global Consciousness Project” out of Princeton University which is measuring changes in human consciousness on a global scale using devices planted around the earth.  A key result from this experiment occurred around 9/11.  The measurements recorded both just before and after 9/11, indicate some astounding results which not only demonstrate the power of our collective energy but also that we may sense something is about to happen before it actually reaches our conscious state.

He then shared some of his research into ancient traditions, including his visit to Tibet, his knowledge of the Essenes, and the lost scriptures including the Lost Gospel of Thomas and related this to the science.  One of his quotations came from Thomas Verse 106 which referenced the potential power mankind can have: ‘when you can marry thought and emotion into one potent force’..

Ancient wisdom seekers were perhaps more in touch with this ‘prana’, energy body of humanity than we are today in our busy, materialistic world.

If you’re not already a fan of Gregg Braden (http://www.greggbraden.com/) and his work, as well as Bruce Lipton (http://www.brucelipton.com/), then I highly recommend you have a look at the work they are doing (and sharing).  They both have hugely inspiring insights, based on real science, that could rock your world.

I’ve just finished viewing the Evolutionary Leaders’ “A Call to Conscious Evolution, Our Moment of Choice”.  This was a special evening held at UCLA on August 31st.  They had some technical challenges with those of us who signed up to watch the evening event live online so this weekend was our opportunity to view the program with the sound issues resolved.

The roster of speakers at this event were a long list of the “Who’s Who” in the evolutionary, quantum consciousness, personal transformation world of thought leaders (see list).  The common message was that we are all living at a unique moment in time, facing global crises.  In this pivotal time, we must consciously evolve or face the danger of extinction.   Gregg Braden gave an impassioned talk and referenced Scientific America’s recent cover: “A World of Crisis, Crossroads for Planet Earth…. will we choose to create the best of all possible worlds?”

Deepak was the opening speaker.  He must be one of the most prolific authors/speakers in this area today.  With over 50 books, a radio show, and connections or partnerships with countless, it seems like I’m hearing something from him everyday – whether it’s an email, a tweet, his radio show or something I’ve found on youtube.

A couple of Deepak’s significant points were that the only way to transform the world is to transform yourself and that even well-meaning ‘activism’ is coming from a place of ‘outrage’ rather than creative consciousness.   Conscious evolution calls for more creative powers.   A couple of hours ago, en route to the Home Depot to pick up paint supplies, I turned on my XM radio and guess who I heard?  Deepak chatting with his pal Stuart Hameroff about Consciousness.  Yippee, my favourite topic!  They were comparing the Vedic concept of pure consciousness being before ‘perception and thought’ with Hameroff’s “proto-consciousness” and how this relates to the quantum super-position idea where observation of a particle collapses it down to one place (just like conscious thought collapses us down to a specific reality).

Sorry, I digress!  Back to the Evolutionary Leaders’ event..

Jean Houston gave an energetic view of the evolution of the universe, our planet, life on earth, and humanity, with special emphasis on the “jumps” that caused significant transformation.  She said we need to be the ‘creative wellspring’ to trigger our new evolutionary path.

Bruce Lipton talked about the collapse and rebirth of various civilizations and reiterated that we now face crises at the global level unlike ever before.  He reviewed four ‘Myth Perceptions’ that we must overcome to build the foundation for the next civilization where we live in harmony and balance with the universe, with nature.  To give you an idea of his four myth perceptions, he talked about our current understanding that our biological processes employ quantum physics (not classical), that our perceptions can control our biology, overcoming genetic, that rather than the survival of the fittest which says our evolution is driven by competition, it can be driven by cooperation, and that evolution is not just random but adaptive.

There were so many fabulous speakers and the messages all coalesced.  I was thrilled to see Lynn McTaggart of “The Field” and “Intention Experiment” fame talk about the power of intentions and how we must be committed to an “enormous paradigm shift” together, in order to overcome the world’s challenges.  I think it was Barbara Marx Hubbard who talked about the physical emergence of a co-created world and introduced a video talk by Marianne Williamson whose message on our evolutionary potential and the danger of a species who has become maladaptive to its environment (yikes, that’s us!) was very powerful.

For more information on this organization, the evening event and the conference they are planning for 11/1/11, go to the Evolutionary Leaders web site.

I’m inspired by this event as I continue to discover how best to contribute and consciously evolve – along with these transformational leaders.

Maybe I’ll see you there in 2011.

The conflict between Science and Religion, raging for centuries, has taken a surprising turn over the past few decades.  In this new age of spiritually and in the labs of enlightened scientists, the spark of attraction between the two, the esoteric and the practical, is stimulating exciting new ideas.  In some circles, they’re practically dating.

So in taking a glimpse into some of these scientific theories, let’s define “THE Mystery” as not being just any old mystery but rather THE Mystery of the universe, of life and death and afterlife, of the nature of our consciousness, of creation, and the existence of some greater life force.  Some might call this universal life force God, others might say it is an interconnected field of energy to which we are all part of the greater sum.  Regardless, I think we can all agree that this is the mother of all mysteries.

It’s also noteworthy that the title says the science ‘behind’ The Mystery, not that science has “solved” it.  In fact, it might be more relevant to this discussion to say that science today is “enhancing” or “expanding” The Mystery, giving it more colour and depth than ever.

It wasn’t very long ago that many thought they knew the answers.  The laws of Classical, or Newtonian, Physics explained how our physical world worked in deterministic, predictable ways.  Our religious institutions turned a blind eye to science as they already had the meaning of life, death, and creation explained.  Darwin’s theories exploded onto this scene to mess with their creation stories but from a scientific perspective, the evolution of species did appear to connect the dots.

But in the dawn of the twentieth century, brilliant scientists revealed new depths to our understanding of science.  They discovered Quantum Physics, which explained how the very smallest bits of matter behaved (of which everything, even our bodies, are comprised) and then General Relativity which explained how very large objects and spacetime behaved.  And yet, neither of these new areas of science jived with the laws of Classical Physics, nor with one another.

So now the brilliant scientists are searching for a unified theory which will explain how these branches of physics inter-relate. 

And meanwhile, the subatomic world of quantum mechanics has demonstrated some astounding properties.  One established behaviour (Heisenberg uncertainty principle) identified that particles are constantly in motion, in a state of superposition (many places at once) which is seemingly affected by observation.  If one attempts to measure the position of a particle, then it collapses down into one place but it becomes impossible to measure its speed, and vice versa.  

As Dr. Stephen Hawking stated in his book “A Brief History of Time”, “The uncertainty principle had profound implications for the way in which we view the world.” … and it is “not fully appreciated by philosophers and still the subject of much controversy.”

Even more bizarre are the properties of entanglement and nonlocality which state two particles can have interconnected states even if spatially separated by extreme distances.  Once in contact, they remain in contact throughout spacetime.

The implications of this are summarized In “The Field” by Lynn McTaggart: “Nonlocality shattered the very foundations of physics.  Matter could no longer be considered separate.  Actions did not have to have an observable cause over an observable space.  Einstein’s most fundamental axiom wasn’t correct: at a certain level of matter, things could travel faster than the speed of light.  Subatomic particles had no meaning in isolation but could only be understood in their relationships….” 

In the search for the “theory of everything”, quantum field theory is a framework which relates laws of relativity and quantum mechanics.  The zero point field, postulated as a future unlimited source of energy in science fiction and now by real scientists, is a field of energy that underlies and interconnects everything in the universe.  When you try to wrap your brain around this, that our brains, our bodies, our thoughts, the room we’re in, the trees, our planet, the sun and everything in the universe are all part of a quantum web of interconnected energy, you must be struck by the enormity of the possibilities.

In the words of Dr. Hal Puthoff ,  this means that “so called empty space is not really empty at all, it’s actually full of energy.”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbn5vPhLjk0 .  What we do know is that this sea of energy is electromagnetic in nature and vast beyond our imagination.  If we could find a way to tap into this source, our energy troubles might be over.

While some ‘nay-sayer’ scientists or strict religious leaders, committed to their dogma, may scoff at how far imagination and speculation might be going with quantum theories of consciousness, these possibilities take concepts of human spirituality and our place in the universe to a new level. 

An interesting anecodote to end with is Arthur C Clarke’s Law of Revolutionary Ideas: “Every revolutionary idea — in science, politics, art, or whatever — seems to evoke three stages of reaction. They may be summed up by the phrases:

(1) “It’s completely impossible — don’t waste my time”;
(2) “It’s possible, but it’s not worth doing”;
(3) “I said it was a good idea all along.”

Consciousness and Evolution, these two concepts together can stimulate great discussion.  Type them into your favourite search engine and you’ll find a rich assortment of groups and books and information. 

When I was researching and writing “Vision Speak”, I was first struck by Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious and Campbell’s writings and dialogs on the topic, especially with respect to spirituality and mythology.  I imagined that if we could relate at the same level of consciousness where dreams are possible but in a waking state, enabling us to connect to the vision source, we would be poised to evolve to truly spiritual and connected life forms.  Ultimately, it could lead to a new era for humanity.

I’ve since uncovered more fascinating ideas involving the marriage of science and spirituality, how we are all connected in a quantum field of energy and the possibility of proving the existence of soul.  So many wise writers and teachers, scientists like Hameroff and Penrose are responsible for influencing us all in these exciting new areas.  Deepak Chopra, Lynn McTaggart, James Redfield, Gregg Braden, Eckhart Tolle, IONS, EnlightenNext…. just to name a few of the groups and thought leaders that are taking us on a new journey of consciousness.

So, I wonder – will we naturally evolve to a new consciousness as a people (if only we can live in peace) or do we need to first be conscious, present, aware and committed to moving to that next state?  In other words, is it really conscious evolution that we must seek?

On the topic of “Conscious Evolution”, I recently read “The Celestine Prophecy” (over a decade late.  I was too busy with kids and career at the time to even notice).  I’m still musing over the Nine Insights that James Redfield unveiled to the world in his spiritual adventure. Whether or not one buys into these exact insights or progression isn’t essential.  There’s good reason why this book caused such a sensation in the 90′s.   Redfield’s Celestine books raised awareness for mysterious coincidences, human prayer-energy, channelling thoughts into a collective, dynamic force, and evolving towards a spiritual culture on Earth.

Notably, today, the work of “spiritual leader and cultural visionary” Andrew Cohen and his organization (Enlightennext) are all about consciously evolving.  Check out them out at http://www.enlightennext.org/about/ I took their Evolutionary Wordview course.  It was both educational and inspiring.

I’m not generally a big reader of magazines but I came across “EnlightenNext – The Magazine for Evolutionaries” recently. (www.enlightenNext.org)  I can’t believe such a phenomenal publication exists. 

All the really cool ideas that have been circulating and gaining in momentum involving science and spirituality, the nature of consciousness, Noetic Science, and the “mysterious connection between quantum physics and human consciousness” are explored.  To me, this was a gold mine of information as I am formulating my ideas for Book 2 and what transformation might be possible once humans begin to connect in this quantum field.

I’ll be absorbing this material for some time.  Articles include “An Exploration of Quantum Consciousness – Finding Spirit in the Fabric of Space & Time” with Stuart Hameroff, MD and an interview with Marilyn Schlitz, the president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), and so much more..