The Material / Spiritual Models of Reality By R.E. Darby

We question whether our single minded focus on the materialiatic explanation of reality hasn't deprivedus of an even greater opportunity to explore a vast territory of undreamed of possibilities.

The Here and Now

With the aid of science and our ability to imagine, our minds are able to take us back to any point in time, and if we go back to when the Human species was very young and inexperienced and imagine the environment our ancestors lived in, we can make some pretty reliable inferences.

For example; in the relatively safe and secure world of today, the idea of the here and now is just an interesting exercise related to meditation. But back then, if you took a walk outside the cave and let your mind wander from the here and now for an instant, you would likely end up a meal for the neighbors. So there was no great environmental pressure for the evolution of the abstract mind that early in Human history.

I would be willing to bet that the rise of the abstract mind was in direct relation to the Human mastery over the environment and the other life forms on the world by virtue of the Human brain and social organization and collaboration. The reason for this is that slowly over time it made the everyday struggle for survival easier and safer. Which in turn gave us more time to consider and explore the mysteries of our world, ourselves, of life and our place in the scheme of it all.

The Abstract Mind

Exploring mysteries is difficult without first becoming aware of them, and so curiosity could now be entertained, and asking questions would inevitably lead to the question 'what if ?' and this is when our mind's ability to wonder began to develop the other abilities of imagination and visualization. All three of which would eventually open the door to infinite possibilities. But in the early days it was probably easier to go with what could be easily verifiable by our direct senses, but also, back then the concepts of the power of belief and faith may not have been widespread. So, the material world was the easiest way to go.

In fact, there is a good chance that it was during this same time that many of the obstacles to exploring the unknown may have come about through fear and undeveloped thinking ability. Obstacles such as superstition, the result of misinterpretation of perceptions of reality. Thankfully throughout history, there have always been a few who had the courage to listen to their own song of life rather than the collective version which is almost always the product of fear.

Ignorance and Superstition

Ignorance breeds superstition and ignorance is a natural state that can only be changed through the power of thought. Thinking ability does not develop automatically. The accurate processing of thoughts is learned by effort and practice, which explains why ignorance has so long held sway in Human history. Not to mention that there have always been a few who after acquiring a certain level of thinking skills found it to their advantage not to spread this knowledge around much. This of course was about power and control and led to a good many people being killed who wanted to share this knowledge.

Too much ignorance for too long creates an environment where irrational fear can conscript the power of emotions to create superstitions and carry out agendas rationalized and justified by those superstitions. This was the situation behind the inquisition and the burning of innocent Humans after labeling them by a fearful term such as witch during the dark ages. Ignorance is responsible for extinguishing more life on this world than any other condition. Therefore, ignorance is, always was, and always will be, the greatest enemy of life on earth.

Time and Change

With time and the continued acquisition of knowledge came mastery over the material world. Connecting the dots we could see and infer those we could not, began to build a larger and larger pool of knowledge from which the Human mind could draw more and more material to feed the imagination in order to explore the limitless creative possibilities.

But all this was confined to the material world, the world without. The world within has been long neglected. But now the investigation of the material world is beginning to reveal small indications that the spiritual Human may possess undreamed of power and potential across yet unknown realities where even space/time are no longer relevant. A world within which the material world is contained and by which the material world is created.

The world of spiritual energy finds expression through the Human mind when the mind organizes that energy into thoughts which in turn are organized into actions and or feelings which in turn are manifested in the objective world we call physical reality that our physical senses detect and experience, that is, after our mind instructs them regarding what to expect.

The Downside of Materialism

There is of course more than one liability that comes with materialism. But by far the most critical was and is the fact that by its very nature it precludes the exploration of the inner world, the spiritual Human power. To be clear, when we speak here of the spirit or the spiritual, we do not refer to, associate with or relate in any way to the concept of religion.

One of the most ironic aspects of the story of which way the Human species chose to take, is the part about how we could have missed the fact that without mind, the material world could not exist. All material reality is built from, and maintained by mind. The exploration and creation of the material world, which is called science, seems to be slowly bringing Humanity full circle back to its origins, the mind. Will we finally turn our gaze upon the lost frontier? And when we do, what might be there waiting for us to discover? And are we ready for what waits there?

One thing is clear. The materialistic view and perception of reality has and is now revealing consequences that our minds were too immature to foresee. The concept of exploiting, producing and consuming material resources for strange dysfunctional purposes, is now coming back to haunt us. Our minds were not yet developed enough to think the materialistic reality through completely, or we would have foreseen all that is happening in our physical world now.

The Evolution of Mind

There is no question that the evolution of the Human mind has been retarded, and there may be many reasons why that is. In fact, there is a wisdom long held that goes 'we only receive what we are ready to possess'. However, the advent of the nuclear age into a civilization of adolescent Humans makes that horse crap. But maybe the material world and the spiritual world have different rules and laws. We just don't know because we haven't yet seriously taken on this challenge.

Where the evolution of the Human mind is concerned we may well be in or infancy. And ready or not the Human species better step it up in this area of exploration, because it may also be our only hope to survive the mistake of neglecting this critical undiscovered world.

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