God has created man in “his” image, and man knows these words, but man cannot grasp their meaning. As knowledge in the areas of subatomic science and particle physics expands, the implications upon the concept of the nature of our reality are profound. It seems that we, and all else in our known universe, are composed of particles that, upon closer investigation, are nothing more than bits of energy. We are evolutionary, metamorphosed stardust contained in some sort of energy field which is governed by laws that we do not yet comprehend, laws that could be described either as technology or magic depending upon your reference frame. Religion, with its generally accepted theologies among the majority of the populace of this planet, cannot incorporate or use scientific enlightenment, even given the extreme limitations of our scientific knowledge. Religion, as expressed by its various sects, is a feudal system. The lords of each particular religious realm desire to expand the boundaries that limit their control. They desire to incorporate more believers in their version of the truth in order to increase power and wealth. All too often, these feudal realms have warred against one another in their quest for control. These power struggles have created most of the recorded history of our planet and rewritten it to increase the influence held in those centers of power. They have spilled more blood and caused more misery than any other force. They have canonically demonized women. At every scientific leap in understanding, the religions of the world have fought hard against the evolution of knowledge until even the lowliest peasants of the realm can see the truth of the new knowledge because of pragmatic improvements created in their lives. It is only at the point of absurdity of continued denial that the religious feudal lords incorporate the accepted beliefs into their own catechism.
As the speed of change increases along with the periodic halving of the time required to double the body of knowledge available in our world, the incorporated religions of the world are approaching an untenable moment, a moment in history when the bottle is uncorked and the genie is set free and will be very difficult to recontain. When a new understanding of the nature of creation, of reality, becomes an issue of practical application, the old religions will change their names and theologies or they will disappear from the world just as many have before them. These centers of control and power find abhorrent the idea that individual persons can have direct knowledge of and connection to the divine, but this direct connection is precisely where the compass needle will point. Religious corporations will continue to attempt to convince people that they provide the one and only doorway to the holy and to salvation. In my opinion, it is this practice seated in religion’s lust for power that has closed man’s eyes to his true nature and heritage.
Mankind is indeed created in the image of his creator because he is one and the same with the creator. We are each cells in the body of the universal intelligence. What the universal intelligence is or why it is – no one can say. Our explanations for the logos of our universe are necessarily limited by the little piece of reality to which we are privy. Even the most enlightened beings who have inhabited our world have provided explanations rooted in their cultural experiences. Even so, each one of us is capable of direct contact with the universal intelligence. The Pentecostal calls it being reborn or born again, the Buddhist names it enlightenment or nirvana, and others may call it a state of grace or bliss. The yogi speaks of the opening of the heart chakra. Opening a chakra is the best description for my own experience. Chakras refer to energy points that connect the various bodies each of us inhabit. In other words, the corporeal body is surrounded by other levels of intelligent energy or bodies which vibrate at differing rates and have different functions, just as the heart and liver have different jobs to perform in the physical body. When humans are able to place themselves in a mental and emotional state such that energy flows from the universal intelligence through the heart chakra, an amazing state of openness to truth and beauty arises. It is a state of union with the creator and it feels good. It generates feelings of love and positivity toward our fellows and for all of creation that can constitute an epiphany.
Why should feelings of love and a desire for harmony be the result of such an energy connection? I propose that these moments give us small and sometimes unconscious glimpses of the nature of the underlying universe and who we really are. We briefly realize that we are members of the same universal mind, that we truly are one. The illusion of separation lifts for a timeless moment, the heart is joyful, and love overwhelms all. We love ourselves and our oneness with creation. Jesus is credited with saying “love they neighbor as thyself” – he might also have said, “because your neighbor is you and you are he.” It is separation that is the illusion.
A desire to hurt oneself is unhealthy. A desire to hurt others is generally considered bad or evil. Why? A desire to help others, to bring comfort in time of need, is considered holy. Religions the world-over extol the virtue of being good (within their parameters). Kindness is considered a virtue. Why? Incorporated religion is based upon a distortion of kernel truths – and this is the big one: We are co-creators of this reality. As cells in the universal consciousness, we are of the same body. Not injuring the body is healthy – it is holy. Anything that moves consciousness toward the truth that we each carry the power to create is sensed as holy, even though most of us are not ready yet to accept that responsibility. It is much easier to cloak the sense of the holy in dogma and mystery – it is safer. Taking responsibility for our actions as individual units of the divine is still too much to take on. This planet is a harsh one. We need comfort. Most of us find it in a cultural mythology or religion. Unfortunately, power so often corrupts, and the empowered leaders of the group can be blinded by ego or degraded by personal gain unless they are unusually enlightened.
Holiness, grace, and goodness are conceptual outgrowths of our connection to our higher nature. They are cloaked in mystery and religion in our world, but they arise from a part of our nature that is ultimately as technologically programmed into our universal reality as is the structure of the atom. Grace and pure energy are one and they are we.
