The Mystic's Dream.

I was listening to a program recently and this guy said that people that are into the psychology of religion are aware of what they call the primary mystical experience. They’ve gone through the writings of the mystics down through the ages and defined characteristics with a cross cultural generality.

Unity. There is a feeling of oneness with the universe and a loss of ego boundaries. Self is experienced as pure awareness.

Transcendence of Time and Space. There is a loss of usual references of time and space. Time seems to slow down or even stop. Experiences of eternity and infinity are common.

Deeply Felt Positive Mood. There are feelings of blessedness, joy, and peace, and a sense of unconditional love. The uniqueness of these emotions is in the level to which they are elevated, the intensity of the experience.

Sense of Sacredness. There is an intuitive sense of wonder and peace, a sense of special value, and a feeling of the holy and divine.

Subjective Nature of the Experience. The knowledge seems remarkably insightful. It is conveyed not through words, but through the experience itself, and there is a certainty that this knowledge is authentic and direct.

Paradoxicality. When attempting to explain the experience to others, there are frequently logical contradictions in explanations, such as emptiness in which one simultaneously feels full and complete, or a dissolution of self in which something of the individual remains to experience the phenomenon. There is both separateness from and unity with the surroundings.

Alleged Ineffability. The experience seems to be beyond what words can define. Logical descriptions or interpretations are incapable of accurately describing the experience, partially due to the paradoxical nature of the phenomena.

Transiency. The actual time spent in the mystical state is temporary. A return to the everyday surroundings occurs after a short period, whether through sudden awakening or a gradual shift of awareness to the immediate environment.

Persisting Positive Changes in Mood and Behavior. In many cases, the individual integrates these revelations into future life experiences. Pahnke divides these attiitude changes into four areas: toward self, toward others, toward life, and toward the mystical experience itself. The individual is more able to recognize and deal with the negative aspects of his own personality, acts more open to others and is more authentic and more tolerant. The attitude is frequently more optimistic. Purpose and meaning are more prominent in everyday life. There is a new, deeper understanding of the mystical experience and the individual feels more connected with spirituality and religion.

This is what I have faith in, what I mean when I talk about direct spiritual experience of God and the Spirit, gnosis. This is what I seek in my religion and spiritual practice. This is what I see as the substance of my faith and what it means to be in the Spirit. I’ve had a few experiences such as this, and many more glimpses or flashes, such that I can only consider it evidence of its reality. This is what I think its all about.

The Mystics Dream

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Xtians.

I have had it with these people, these bloviators who presume to speak in the name of the Lord. From henceforth I shall call these people Xtians, as in Christ-less Christians. They don’t deserve the honorific prefex, as they bear no more resemblance to the Christ than Osama bin Laden. If you don’t know who I’m talking about, let’s start with the late Jerry “Fat Man” Falwell and James Kennedy. Still kicking are Pat Robertson and James Dobson, though they’re aging fast. There’s the gnome John Hagee and Franklin “The Prodigal” Graham. I suppose you have The Xtian Channel at TBN where you can see a veritable zoo of these types. Other lesser lights include Benny Hinn, Rod Parsley, Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye., Cal Thomas, and we might as well throw George W. Bush into the mix. I’m sure you can come up with your own list.

(h/t to Maha for the word Xtian).

Now before any start screaming how anti-Christian I am let me say unequivocally that I am a Christian and have been for at least thirty seven years. I’m even a member of a very traditional Christian denomination. However, all of my views are mine and mine alone and in no way represent the particular church I go to, or any church for that matter. It’s my experience of God within the Christian context that I speak from.

Now some may say, “Gee, Oldguy, isn’t that way harsh, calling them Christ-less Christians? Shouldn’t you have some Christian charity yourself?” Well, maybe so, but sometimes you have to call a spade a spade, and if something is particularly odious it needs to be called out. It’s what’s called the prophetic ministry.

The latest to move onto the celebrity Christian stage is “Ricky Boy” Warren. That would be he of the Purpose Driven Saddleback Church Candidate Forum where he purposely set Obama up and drove it for McCain. Recently Rick was on Sean Hannity’s show and had this exchange:

HANNITY: Can you talk to rogue dictators? Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust, wants to wipe Israel off the map, is seeking nuclear weapons.

WARREN: Yes.

HANNITY: I think we need to take him out.

WARREN: Yes.

HANNITY: Am I advocating something dark, evil or something righteous?

WARREN: Well, actually, the Bible says that evil cannot be negotiated with. It has to just be stopped. And I believe…

HANNITY: By force?

WARREN: Well, if necessary. In fact, that is the legitimate role of government. The Bible says that God puts government on earth to punish evildoers. Not good-doers. Evildoers.

HANNITY: I’m just gotten, thanks to my wife, who you know, you know, been reading the Old Testament. Because as a good Catholic growing up, I studied more the New Testament.

WARREN: Just ignored that part.

HANNITY: I ignored the Old Testament. But what about King David? What about the — all the battles, all the conflict, you know, going back - - you know, Abraham — Adam and Eve and their children, going forward?

WARREN: The point is, there are some things worth dying for. There’s no doubt about that. And I would die for my family. I would die for my freedom. I would die for this country.

HANNITY: If somebody broke into your house, you would be justified to kill them?

WARREN: I would be justified to protect my family. Absolutely.

HANNITY: And if it took killing them?

WARREN: Absolutely.

HANNITY: But it’s not murder at that point?

WARREN: No. Murder is not self-defense.

This is just so wrong I hardly know where to begin. First, if Rick Warren seems to be everywhere in the media lately, it’s because he is. He’s hawking a new book of his for Christmas. The Purpose Driven Life made him millions, and he wants more. He’s at the top of a mega-church pyramid with something like four thousand members, and you better believe he has them tithing. So they’re probably paying him at least a million a year (that’s what Hagee gets). There’s more to Rick than this, but we can get into that another time. Let’s get back to how wrong this whole thing is:

HANNITY: Can you talk to rogue dictators? Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust, wants to wipe Israel off the map, is seeking nuclear weapons.

First, Ahmadinejad is not a dictator. He is the elected president of Iran, with powers defined by a constitution, which powers are much less than our own president. For example, Ahmadinejad is not over the military as our Commander-in-Chief. In fact, Ahmadinejad is not even the head honcho in Iran. That would be the Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Ayatollah or some such mucky-muck, who is over the military. Now, I cannot believe, that after all this time, that someone has not brought this to Hannity’s attention. Yet he continues to cling to the bogus claim of “dictator” with all its emotional whallop. And he’s not just any old run-of-the-mill dictator, he’s a “rogue dictator” – something even worse. Can I not legitimately call Sean Hannity a false witness going into this exchange? Or given over to a lying spirit?

HANNITY: I think we need to take him out.

WARREN: Yes.

HANNITY: Am I advocating something dark, evil or something righteous?

WARREN: Well, actually, the Bible says that evil cannot be negotiated with. It has to just be stopped. And I believe…

HANNITY: By force?

WARREN: Well, if necessary. In fact, that is the legitimate role of government. The Bible says that God puts government on earth to punish evildoers. Not good-doers. Evildoers.

Holy Crap! Hannity is imagining killing Ahmadinejad and advocating for just that and he asks if it’s righteous. Have you no conscience, Sean? Of course it’s something dark and evil. But more importantly, does Warren reprove Hannity or spiritually direct him in the Word? No. He joins in with some nonsense about evil being stopped that simply encourages Hannity in his self-righteous delusions. Warren then goes on to say that “God puts government on earth to punish evil doers.”

In this context, Warren gives his sanction and blessing to at least assassination of someone some people here don’t like, or even bombing and war “if necessary.” Warren is positioned as a man of God, someone that is supposed to know God, so giving his blessing as it were, says to Sean and all the viewers that God’s all for this kind of thing. Not just no, but hell no! Not for one instant is Rick Warren speaking from God’s Spirit. He is only speaking from some self-delusional framework of his own mind. If you come right down to it, the man is spouting heresy and blasphemy!

Warren’s people confirmed that he was referring to Romans chapter 13 in the New Testament. He also referred back to the Old Testament. I’ll refer you to this guy’s take on the theology involved in this, along with some other insights I appreciated.

Note in the final exchanges how swiftly Warren’s passionate conviction that there are some things worth dying for morphs into what is really at issue: some things being worth killing for.

If Rick Warren wants to spout bible, maybe he should consider this:

James 4:1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?

Romans 12:19-21 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

[ed: Ironically these verses immediately precede the section Warren was referring to.]

Mat 7:12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. (i.e. this is what the whole OT means.)

Mat 5:44-45 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven:

As far as the Old Testament, or more accurately, the Old Covenant or the First Covenant, goes, as a disciple of Jesus, being born again of the Spirit, the old covenant just doesn’t apply. I’m under a new covenant. We have a new way of being. Jesus said, “It is finished,” referring to the old covenant.

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Michigan Reality Check.

I talked to my brother in Michigan today. He’s lived in Grand Rapids for thirty five years or so. Here’s the reality of the state that bases the auto industry. As I’ve said before, Michigan was a good place to grow up. The economy was humming and it was hoppin’ and poppin’. My brother told me that Muskegan, a city on Lake Michigan a little southwest of Grand Rapids, has an unemployment rate at twenty-two to twenty-five percent, and that up where my mother lives it’s near fifty. These are depression levels already and the auto industry hasn’t totally collapsed yet.

But if it’s up to a cabal of southern senators the American auto industry will collapse. These most vocal senators against making loans to the auto industry, who are ubiquitous in the media, every one of them has a foreign car plant in their state. Even in my own state of Georgia, where both of my Republican senators were filibustering against the auto companies, KIA is moving in. They even gave the governor a KIA to drive. It is obvious these senators are acting as agents for foreign corporations in an economic war against the remaining three American automakers. If the American companies go under, it is these foreign companies which stand to gain. These senators are economic traitors to the United States of America and to the American working people.

I called both of my senators 800 numbers Friday and chewed out the person on the other end of the line. I couldn’t believe the line of garbage they were trying to hand me. Then I saw this memo that was circulated among Republicans. This whole thing is about busting the UAW. It’s a union busting exercise. They want to take down the union. This confirms that the line they were giving me over the phone was utter garbage – a pack of lies. Not only do they not represent my interests as a working person, they have so little respect that they will literally bullshit me over the phone.

Every one of the states got these companies to build a plant in their respective states by giving all kinds of concessions, tax breaks, and most of all, assurance of help in keeping the unions out. They say Alabama shelled out what amounted to two hundred thousand dollars per job to get the Mercedes plant. On top of that, the state bought twenty five hundred of the first vehicles to roll off the line – the whole state fleet. That’s Shelby’s state. The loan would amount to five thousand dollars per job.

Never forget that it is so-called conservative, supply side, low tax, Republican, Reaganomic economics that has brought us to the brink of depression – and as I wrote in the opening paragraph, a very real depression already in Michigan. What is this type of economics? It is an economic system whereby wealth is transferred from the poor to the already wealthy. It is a system where the top one-tenth of one percent get as much as the entire bottom half, and it’s not enough!

Oh yeah, my brother told me that his wife, president of the Michigan Diabetic Association who has even testified before Congress, lost her job of some twenty years at the hospital in a cost cutting move. It's starting to get ugly out there.

This is good: 7 Myths About Detroit Automakers

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Food.

Did you happen to see Bill Moyers’ Journal this past weekend on PBS. He interviewed Michael Pollan, whose two books, The Omnivore’s Dilemna and In Defense of Food, Moyers mentions at the beginning of the program, and which I have read and highly recommend. They will forever change the way you look at food.

As Time magazine recently put it: farm policy is ‘a welfare program for the megafarms [ed: that would be agribusiness – names like Archer-Daniels Midland (ADM), Cargill, Tyson] that use the most fuel, water and pesticides; emit the most greenhouse gases; grow the most fattening crops; hire the most illegals; and depopulate rural America.’

[Obama was talking of something he read] when he told Time magazine, ‘that the way we produce our food "is partly contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in health care costs."’

What he had read was this article by Michael Pollan. It’s well worth the read.

As long as we think that the supermarket is where our food comes from we will be totally subject to what others are feeding us. Those others are large multi-national, multi-billion dollar corporations. Do you think they have our health interests in mind? Beware the edible food-like substances.

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