Part 2 (1/2)
”To identify phenomena to be investigated that may have been missed before.”
He gazed at me questioningly.
”Look,” I said, ”I believe that there's more to the Universe than a strictly skeptical att.i.tude allows into experience. Sometimes you have to bracket your skepticism long enough to fully experience a new phenomenon. Don't you ever wonder if there is something real and universal behind people's spiritual experiences?”
He gave me a hint of a smile. I wasn't convincing him, but I could tell he liked my tact.
”We need Science,” I added. ”But we need it to look at everything.”
”What do you know of Science?” he asked, giving me a superior look. ”Science is a very precise process where individuals explore and draw conclusions about the nature of the world around them. And its activity is very precise: one scientist suggests that something in nature works a certain way, and other scientists try to refute that hypothesis with other facts they think are true. Slowly, consensus is reached about the issue. In turn, this conclusion about reality is replaced with something that is even more true, and so on. That's how scientific fact, and the resulting social reality that flows from it, is established. It's a precise, orderly process.”
He looked away and added, ”At least that's the way it's supposed to work.”
”What do you mean?” I asked.
”Well, lately a lot of corruption has happened: moneyed interests such as big pharmaceutical companies and food processors have taken over the medical schools and university departments with big grants, and now they get the results they want from studies. Other industries do the same thing, but health and food are the worst. It's pitiful.”
I thought of the writings of Dr. Russell Blaylock, who talks about why dangerous additives still remain in our food, then realized something in a flash: this skeptic I'm talking to is an idealist.
Something else came into my mind to say, and I recalled Wil stressing that such ideas had to be voiced.
”Look,” I stated, ”maybe the key is heightening public awareness of the scientific process, and then applying it to every part of our world. What if this doc.u.ment is right about Synchronicity being a part of the natural order of things? Shouldn't it be investigated with the same vigor as a star or bacteria?”
Something about what I said irritated him, and he took the gas nozzle out of his car and slammed it back in its place at the pump.
”W-w-what I'm saying,” he stammered, ”is that something like this doc.u.ment can't be trusted. Synchronicity is too subjective. The problem with Science now is that the emphasis on basic truth is being lost. Once we start allowing too much speculation or corruption, the culture can slip into fantasy thinking and even delusionary movements.”
He was looking at me hard. ”Don't you see that civilization is hanging by a thread? It only takes so many people losing a grip on the basic laws of nature to undermine logical thinking and scientifically established reality altogether. And if that happens we fall back into superst.i.tion and a new dark age.”
I nodded and said, ”But what if a science of spirituality could be logical and orderly?”
He didn't answer. Instead he shook his head and walked into the building to pay. Wil was still seated behind the wheel and smiling at me. He had heard the entire conversation through the open car window.
”Aren't you going to get into this?” I asked.
”Nope,” he said. ”I think it's yours to finish.”
When the scientist came out of the building, I approached him again.
”Look,” I said, ”you're right. No one wants a new dark age. But let me pose the issue in another way: what would it take for scientists like you to be able to study spiritual phenomena in a way that is orderly and logical?”
For a long moment he seemed to be genuinely considering my question. ”I don't know .... We would have to discover something like the natural laws of spirituality-”
He stopped and shook his head, then waved me off.
”Listen,” he said. ”I really don't have time for any more speculation. Believe me, none of this is going to happen.”
I nodded and then introduced myself. He shook my hand and said his name was Dr. John Coleman.
”Enjoyed the conversation,” I said. ”Maybe I'll see you another time.”
He chuckled at that and then said, ”The woman you were asking about ... her name is Rachel Banks. She was going to a town north of Phoenix, a little place called Sedona.”
I sat up straight in the pa.s.senger seat, struggling to wake up. As we drove along, sunlight from behind us was just beginning to fill the car, and the sweet smell of Oklahoma farmland filled my nostrils. Wil nodded when he saw me stirring, then immediately looked back at the road, appearing to be deep in thought.
Which was fine with me; I was talked out. Because we both knew Sedona well, Wil and I had conversed late into the night as we traveled west. For years, the town had been a hotbed of spiritual thought, as it was situated in the famous red rock hills of Native American lore. Because the energy was so strong there, it was claimed by some that the town had more houses of wors.h.i.+p, new age centers, and artists per square mile than any place in America.
The question that had most intrigued us last night concerned Rachel's motivations. Why were her intuitions pointing to Sedona? Was it because one would likely find more people talking about such writings there? Or was it because one could understand esoteric information in general at a deeper level just by being in those hills-the famous ”Sedona effect”?
I shook off the thoughts. All I wanted to do at this point was look out at the landscape. We had traveled from the mountains of Georgia and Tennessee to the flatlands of Oklahoma, and now the sky was big and blue in the morning light. Munching on nuts and apples that Wil had packed for breakfast, I watched the scenery go by for a while.
When I awakened fully, I noticed two neat stacks of pages on top of the dashboard in front of me. I looked over at Wil, figuring he had placed the stacks in front of me for a reason. He kept his eyes on the road but lifted one eyebrow, which made me chuckle. I reached over, grabbed the stack on the left, and began to read.
The pages described the First Integration almost exactly as Wil had relayed it earlier, and then reiterated that once Synchronicity was being sustained, one should be on high alert-for it was that mysterious flow that would reveal the other Integrations.
Reading on, the Doc.u.ment divided the twelve total Integrations into two groups. It called the first five Integrations the ”Foundation” of spiritual consciousness, and the remainder it called the ”Rise to Sacred Influence.”
Rise to Influence? I had no idea what that meant, but I remembered that Wil had said those of us pursuing the Integrations now would make it easier for others to do so later because of some kind of mysterious influence.
Coming to the end of the first stack, I picked up the other stack of text, which began to address the Second Integration. This step up in consciousness begins, it said, when we realize that human conversation, regardless of the subject, is always an exchange of outlook, or worldview-and thus is the basic mechanism of human evolution, taking us from one historical level of knowledge to the next.
When human interaction is done while in centered, Synchronistic truth, this process of exchanging worldviews is lifted into full consciousness. It called this more aware interaction Conscious Conversation.
I looked over at Wil again and said, ”Conscious Conversation. Do you know what this means exactly?”
He looked at me as though I was kidding. ”It's what you were engaging in when you talked with Coleman-only there was one part missing.”
”What was that?” I asked.
He nodded for me to read on, and in the very next pa.s.sage, the Doc.u.ment said the level of conversation, and the consciousness of the partic.i.p.ants, are elevated when both people are aware of the ”historical context” surrounding the interchange.
I looked back at Wil. ”So it's referring to the second Insight of the old Celestine Prophecy?”
”That's right,” he replied. ”Do you remember what the Second Insight is?”
”Yeah,” I said, ”I think so.”
I looked away, my mind drifting into an intense contemplation of the question. The Second Insight was essentially an understanding of the longer history of Western society, in particular the psychological s.h.i.+ft that happened at the beginning of the Modern, secular age. In essence, it marked an awakening in consciousness-one we've been having trouble holding on to ever since.
The old Prophecy had predicted we would one day be able to keep this longer history fully in mind as a surrounding context for our daily activities. And when we could, this historical understanding, in itself, would completely change our individual lives. It would keep us fully awake to the spiritual side of existence.
The Modern worldview, I knew, had begun just after the fall of the dark Medieval period of history. In those times, there was no science in the West, no independent thought to speak of, and very little knowledge of natural causes. The men of the powerful Catholic Church ruled people's minds and decreed that all the events we now call natural operated solely through the hand of G.o.d-including birth, all the challenges of life and illnesses, death, and what came after, Heaven or h.e.l.l. The churchmen declared themselves the only interpreters of G.o.d's will. And they fought hard for centuries to disallow any challenge to this authority.
But then the Renaissance began, motivated by an increasing distrust of the churchmen and a growing awareness that our real knowledge of the world around us was woefully incomplete. Other influences quickly followed: the invention of the printing press, a greater awareness of the philosophies of the ancient Greeks, and the discoveries of the early astronomers such as Copernicus and Galileo, which contradicted the astronomy espoused by the churchmen.
When the Protestant Reformation occurred-a direct rejection of Papal authority-the structures of the Medieval world began to completely break down, and with them, the established reality of the people.
Precisely here, I knew, was where the Modern age began. For centuries, the churchmen had dictated a strictly theological purpose for existence and for natural events. And then that picture of life had systematically eroded, leaving humans in a state of deep existential uncertainty, especially concerning their spirituality. If the churchmen, who had always dictated the facts of spiritual reality, were wrong, then what was right?
The optimistic thinkers of that day had a solution. We would follow the model of the ancient Greeks, they said. We would commission Science to go out and investigate this suddenly new world we found ourselves in. And in the enthusiasm of the day, everything was on the table, including our deepest spiritual questions, such as Why are we here? What happens after death? And is there a plan and destiny for humankind?