Shanti Chapter VII: Jennifer Gem’s Impression of the Hudson River and The Law of Recurrence

Synopsis:

Chapter VII is a short prelude to Heaven on Earth. Beautiful Jennifer Gem is a happy, free bird, a seagull:

“Happiness is tantamount to self-discovery, self-cognizance, and within us all, there are as many universes (multiverse) as there are privileged minds, as those of the ancient Egyptians, to reaching the celestial shores of the blessed spirits.” (John 10:34).

She is a philosopher, a mystic, a gnostic, and a staunch subscriber to the wisdom of the ages.

Upon alighting on the boat’s deck, beautiful Jenny takes on the semblance of goddess Minerva.

The seagull-lady asserts the fact that the “noumena” of Kant, thing in itself, the “X,” in conjunction with the phenomena of consciousness and sentience, could be beyond time and space, and it may plunge us all, living things and organisms, and even inorganic matters, such as waters, oxygen and light, the highest blessed elements, into a wider cobweb of interconnectedness beyond the tendrils and algorithmic feelers of AI (artificial intelligence).

She has been sent by Providence to cheer-up the crew’s drooping spirit from the morbid feelings and dejection of the Wailing Woman (La Llorona).

From the gloom of benighted colonialism, Jennifer Gem touches on the inner pulleys and levers, the secret knowledge of spiritual ascension, to conquering the witchcrafts of Lilith and Nihilo, the daunting difficulties and hurdles of life.

When asked about the possibilities of predestination, remote-viewing, telepathy, clairvoyance, and son on, Ms. Gem gives a brilliant summary of both Arthur Schopenhauer’s and Immanuel Kant’s main ideas on a unifying X, “noumena,” which is believed to be far-more-reaching and omniscient than the cognitive powers of man-made machines AI (artificial intelligence).

Like the previous chapters, scenes and people’s collective psyche (zeitgeist) have been steeped deep into our profoundest yearnings, oneiric inwardness (dreams) our fears of death, our love and hope as nursed in the bosom of that dearly loved mother of us all.

The Mother’s Tomb (Chapter VI) could still break my heart.

At the end of Chapter VI, an Argentine journalist, Don Ernesto Gutierrez, is lured to his own death by the ghost of Sara Evangelina Sanchez, who may be symbolic of our unconscious bounds (invisible tethers and lassos) with the haunting “zeitgeist” of the Greco-Roman people: Greece, Italy and Spain.

Most incredible of all is the fact that the Progeny of Los Conquistadors, “Los Latinos,” are said to be living cut-off from the meandering rivers of antiquity (Homer, Virgil, Dante, Miguel Cervantes) and so we are said to be crying the death of that great mother….

​Argentina, the Gem of Latin America (as embodied in the character of Ernesto Gutierrez’ car accident, the end of Chapter VI) lost the essential pulleys, pivots and levers to rising up beyond his ordeals, and consequently, the progeny of Los Conquistadors, have lost their contest to the more ingenious, industrious, diligent northerner children of the United States of America.

Damn, we Latinos have lost the indomitable spirit (zeitgeist) of our ancestors…Greece and Rome. But even more disheartening, we have lost our umbilical cord with our glorious past with the giants…such gigantic obelisks and spires of greatness are gone.

Psychologically compelling, the quest of that orphan-child cradled in the collective psyche of people, Mother Fate seems to smile at those who, like Heinrich Schliemann, are quick to seeking pick and spade to unearthing their most precious gems and treasures, lying beneath the crumbles and ruins of bygone civilizations, the priceless moral lessons of the past.

Teach your child to cast himself-herself in the grand pillars of millennia.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Shanti Chapter VII - Illumination - Ancient Wisdom and the Magical Pulleys of the Old Masters.

Phoenix Bird: “Dear reader, we were so engrossed with the Prince-Philosopher’s in-depth analysis in the collective psyche of our ancestry, that for a moment, we almost lost touch with reality, and even became oblivious to our current surroundings.

The truth is that we could not tell whether we have gone past the Ellis Island, or the Statue of Liberty?

While immersed in the chilly stories of Colonial Times, La Señora Mercedes Espinal had disappeared, and so we were left with more puzzles as yet seeking answers and meanings to the unfortunate fate of Los Conquistadors.

Like the sad fate of Don Ernesto Gutierrez fatally lured to his own death by the exalted ideas of his woman-ghost, Sara Evangelina Sanchez, so this hapless progeny is still crying the death of that dearly-loved Mother.

And from such mysterious bounds between mother and child, soil and lands, we may harken to the frightening wailing of that woman of yore, La Llorona, still seeking her lost children, the latter believed to have been drowned in that river of forgetfulness (The Lethe River in Greek Mythology).

Our voyage around the Isle of Manhattan has been one of introspective inwardness, exhilaration but also of disappointments in the unpalatable lessons of history and the Law of Recurrence.

​The Rise and Fall of people had left us somewhat despondent when seeking to comprehend the meaning of that Old Woman’s omen in the clouds.

Nevertheless, the Hudson River’s unfolding grand views are breath-taking, absolutely magnificent, and now lovely patches of clean skies could turn our mind into things indistinguishable from magic, fantastic and soon we felt transfixed by a multitude of incomprehensible emotions seeking interpretation to the Law of Recurrence.

Just above us, we made up a beautiful bird of most delicate plumage, its widespread pinions shaving the atmosphere as though bent on loftiest things in the abode of the gods.

Ana S. Manson: “It is the omen of a beautiful soul, her story seeking ears.”

Phoenix Bird “We were quite relieved at these winged words, and the Philosopher Prince was more willing to oar the skiff (boat) in the direction of that beautiful bird, a turtle-dove of the sort, but a skimmer, was soon alighting unto our deck, and we were glad to see her transformed into the likeness of Minerva.

The gracious lady greeted us with high-winged things concerning the beauty of the Hudson River vis-a-vis the course of history, and we were more willing to go farther and farther back in time.

‘Dear lady, we would like to be taken back into the mist of history. Please let us sojourn as far as back to our Dreamtime when perhaps this river was navigated by other mariners.’

So said Parsifal, and the angelic creature’s countenance, forthwith, sparked divine with loving-kindness and mirth.”

Jennifer Gem (eyes sparkling the beauty of life) “When you set your mind across the majestic pavilions of millennia, the meaning and Journey of Life may take into solemnest experiences, mystical, awe-inspiring, of the most significance.

As old as the Ganges River in India, as fabulous and enigmatic as the Nile and Euphrates rivers in Egypt, the Hudson River is a portal-gate for a mind attuned across the ages of millennia.”

Phoenix Bird: “Well, I can say I am very fortunate and blessed. From 1988 to 2014, I lived just a few blocks off the legendary soothing waters.

Time and time again, and just before dusk, I would go out to sound the depth, ineffable beauty and delicate pastures of those lovely hills across the silvery waters.

Just around sunset, I would often place myself on the upper terrace's slab overlooking the Divine Hudson River (from 153rd street to 162nd Street and Riverside Drive).

A long, ever-stretching wall separated this world from the other, and all I had to do was to quaff a delicious drink of the upper heaven's streams, and forthwith, all the hurdles of this life could be overcome with a unshakable conviction in the powers of Divinity.

I was often carried away into celestial shores, however free of charge, but signed with the generous transport of air, water, light and magic, such mystical experience smacked of elysian worlds, sylvan places, which are accessible but only to a mind attuned in the writings of Henri Bergson, the Walden Pond of Henry D. Thoreau, or the mystical experiences of Jacob Boeheme. ​

My only requisite, as required by the higher elders of perfection, purity and divinity, was, that I would cleanse my mind and heart from the pollution of New York City; and that in the flow and hurly-burly of urban life, I would develop higher inner faculties —the shimmering sparks of conscience, love, sentience— so as to build within my bosom a greater fortress against the noxious alluvium of human ingratitude, callousness and the toxic effects of civilization.

Is there any favorite bird-perspective when scanning this old river?”

Jennifer Gem: “Sure! I have to say that the Upper West Side has captured my heart.

Those lovely, dark-greened hills in yonder hazy distance, New Jersey’s Palisades, could transform me into a happy bird, a seagull, ever skimming the ever-rolling streams of life with immeasurable zest!

But it is even more mesmerizing when I see the golden beams of light falling into the glaucous waters. Their glorious sparks could set my mind aglow with an inexplicable sense of elation and happiness!

It dawned in my mind that perhaps the elements of Mother Nature, oxygen and water, may enjoy a blissful existence.

I remember a particular unforgettable sunset, summer of 1995, the sun's beams created a veritable portal gate, a Jacob’s Ladder, its ever ascending stairways could transport me into the outer limits of this earthly world's farthermost shores.”

Phoenix Bird: “Dear Jennifer Gem, perhaps you were awakening to a new revelation of yourself in the question of time and space?”

Jennifer Gem: “Definitely! At times, I have fancied to be not only here or there, ubiquitously, but even new worlds seemed to have dawned before me, a damascene experience, a rapture…just before the threshold of my ontology in the twilight of being.”

Phoenix Bird: “Indeed! Jennifer, few wonders could be more spectacular, mystical, uplifting than this Holy Union between water and light in the breathtaking powers of Mother Nature.”

Jennifer Gem: “I remember another glorious sunset, Fall of 1996, as I lost myself in ecstatic contemplation, the Sun’s Glory suffused the Divine River with loveliest tints of gold —shimmering lights unimaginable.

By heaven’s sake, few things on earth could rival this Holy Union between water and light!

I could not wish for a happier existence!”

Phoenix Bird. “Indeed, we have to thank this awesome River, a veritable living book, for stirring our heart an unquenchable longing for a dreamtime in the past.”

Jennifer Gam: “From 1993 to 2014, I spent countless hours roving through the banks of the Hudson River (from 145th Street to the foot of the George Washington bridge, 178th Street).

During that time, I had developed a peculiar congeniality to this lovely river which seems to speak the ineffable language of recurrence better than any writer or philosopher.

The transcendent communication is one of the most personal, intimate, nay, numinous in the decipherment of a wordless language which speaks directly to the heart and mind.

This vast stream of gentle waters would simply hone my mind's faculties, my inner senses aglow with awe, humility and reverence, to the appreciation of those thrilling moments, which, could make us pause most pensively, however imponderable, the meaning of life when confronted with the eddying streams of a splendid vast river.”

Philosopher: “ Dear wayfarers! Like you, I often wondered which civilizations might had built their splendid cities, thrived and eventually disappeared along this same old path?”

Jennifer Gem: “I can be happy with this river. Happiness is tantamount to self-discovery, self-cognizance, and within us all, there are as many universes (multiverse) as there are privileged minds, as those of the ancient Egyptians, to reaching the celestial shores of the blessed spirits.
​
While some neighbors would rather go to distant places in search of awe-inspiring views and past civilizations, I have this splendid stream of hoary waters girding the Isle of Manhattan, the Hudson River, which is a veritable living book for me.

Its silvery waters, after all these years of pollution, have become a little tad sullied and redolent of musty things, but few things in New York could rival the incomparable power of this majestic River to reconnecting me with things fabulous, mystical, ancient.

Across its voluminous body, one could see its imperial domain leaving their conspicuous marks on the turret-wall of history.

At intervals, and as evinced by its dry checked marks in yonder ranges, New Jersey’s palisades, the Hudson River, in the distant past, may had claimed a larger watery domain over the Isle of Manhattan.

The Sweet River, like any other lovely stream admissible, nay, inviting for an internal baptism or renovation, has a soothing power in my mind and soul, healing effects which I often trace back to its ever-eddying gentle waters.

When fronting this Awesome River, one seems to be transported into another world no less enigmatic, fabulous and spacious than the Sahara desert.

Though you will not find the ruins of past civilizations strewn along its banks, the Hudson River seems to bring me back the haunting voices of humanity in ways scarcely comprehensible.”

Philosopher: “Wonderful Jennifer Gem! You are rich if you can understand the ineffable language of a vast River.”

Parsifal: “Dear souls! So far we have journeyed midway round Manhattan, and you are already speaking of heavenly things?

Philosopher: “I thought this twilight to be like a dream, and though it is enveloped in hazy filaments, it seems to proffer the most uplifting feelings of wellbeing.

Our mind is such that it could bring light out of darkness, and from the morbid thoughts of La Llorona and her unhappy children, we are now enjoying a most felicitous journey with the brilliancy of this young lady, Jennifer Gem.”

​Phoenix Bird “True! By heaven’s sake! Look up! Further in view, lo and behold, a receding Fata Morgana, wafting like a city built mid air, may invite my thoughts to sound the depths of time and space.”

Philosopher: “Most big cities, since ancient times, have been built near or around the eddying water of a splendid river: the Lethe, Styx, Xanthus, lovely Enipeus of Tyro —the fairest of floods that ever ran upon the earth (the Odyssey of Homer, Book XI) among many other renown ancient streams, were as real and divine as the Hudson River's silvery waters.

The Hudson River, probably known to the ancient people of Ilios in the Iliad, could have been mentioned in their sacred literature, albeit with another obscure name, which today is very difficult to relocate due the lapse of time (3,000 years or even 5, 000 years into the foggy mist of time).

Vague memories of wondrous rivers, but also references of hills, glens and sun-bathed dales are carried on in the nostalgic lore and hazy myths among the bedraggled survivors of yesteryears.

While fronting this awesome River, we may become philosophers the very moment we start marveling at the meaning of life, the history of humanity and the vastness of this cosmos; and philosophy has its true fervent passion when verging on the speculative, the hitherto unsolved puzzles and mysteries of the distant past.

Let us re-appraise the ancient people and their astounding degree of aesthetic sensibilities when dealing with the fine thoughts and sentiments of life as expressed in their sublime literature.
​
We are told by the most intelligent minds of the last two hundred years, that it is quite a mystery, and a case against linear evolution, how certain people thousands of years ago were so keen so as to resolve the most incredibly subtle rules of writing and style, their peculiar fondness for flowing nuances in their choice of diction, conveying with very pleasant euphonious words, both the subjective and the objective, with equal force and beauty.

Surprisingly, in the Iliad and the Odyssey, we may find highly developed language-structures, polished grammar and the art of communication so perfected, that Homer could well serve as a model, the epitome of perfection, for some current writers to imitate without feeling antiquated, or out-dated in the use of logic and simile.

Not to mention these ancient people's ideas on the ineffable, divine, beautiful and sublime. Indeed, few writers and savants could rival the ancient scribes in fire of expression, tropes, similes, figurative speech, and naturalism: (Check the objective analogies of Homer and his power to keep soaring in poetic beauty with very few digressions.)

Parsifal: (takes on with pleasure and verve): “Of course, perhaps these ancient bards simply imitated their predecessors.

And when you continue going further back into remote time, the origin of literature, beauty and the fantastic may blur into the very heaven of the divine and mysterious (at least in certain regions of Asia and Asia minor, especially in Greece and Egypt, amazing vestiges of exquisite refinement and high culture, competing with the Metropolitan Museum of Art).

It seems as though highly sophisticated societies thrived at intervals in the pristine dawn of Homo sapiens, albeit traces of grim barbarism and primitiveness are to be found everywhere on this old globe as confirmed by archeology, for nihilism, chaos and disorder are the ever- present, co-existing, threatening forces to any rise to civilization.”

Phoenix Bird: “Dear reader, while the crew were wholeheartedly engaged in the seven-wonders and insoluble mysteries of the past, I noticed La Señora Man-Son’s countenance has aged to the semblance of a wise seer, a staid sage, reverent, venerable, saintly.

Her white hair swayed apace with the errant winds, and her hermetic silence only added to the sturdy mysteries of the past.

Nevertheless, we were very pleased at the intellectual frame of mind and niveau of these loquacious interlocutors, whose curiosity for the distant past, from a ‘bird-perspective,’ could lend the present-now the most ponderous if perhaps uplifting possibilities for humankind’s evolution.

Jennifer Gem’s inquisitive mind, ever-sparkling with nays and yeas, seemed to have pleased the Prince-Philosopher, and he was at liberty to continue his philosophic inquiries on the mist of time with the confidence and pep of a seasoned scholar or an archeologist.”

Philosopher. “It is very plausible to suspect recurrent crisis of technology and civilization in the foggy myths of ancient India and the other strikingly scientific lore among certain seemingly primitive African tribes, thus corroborating our previous conversations on the possibility of curving time and ever-converging episodes in tragic history.

And once again, we may say with the author of Ecclesiastes: ‘there is nothing new under the sun.’

From my own observations, our disdain and neglect of the ancient master-works may be based on this absurd, indeed baseless opinion, that in such distant past, mankind could not have developed the magical tools and technology to achieving the wonders of flying vehicles (Vimanas), or their astonishing profound comprehension of the observable cosmos.

Of course, we all know that the further we go back in time, the more we marvel at the greatness and mysterious origin of some pagan people.

Before the Iliad and the Odyssey were written, other ancient sagas recount feuds and wars rife among the children of aurora, especially those chronicles as translated from the Sanskrit or the Vedas.

Therein we may read of wonderful machines, destructive weapons and flying objects, bearing striking similarities to our current jets and rockets, and how they were beset with the same complex problems of survival and other predicaments —as the ones we are now facing in post-America, (peruse the Mahabharata, Upanishads and other archaic writings by such mysterious authors.)

Can we go back to primitive society and barbarism on the brink of a major nuclear disaster and steady decline in culture?

If you look at the pattern of history, I am very skeptical that our current, bi-partisan, diplomatic, ever-grinning post-modern men and women would be any different than their ancient counter-parts, constantly at wars with themselves.

Accordingly, humankind is bound to perpetuate the same silly mistakes and historic errors over and over, bringing our feeble colossal buildings —once again— to wracks and ashes.

Nevertheless, like in times past, a few snouting hillocks and scattered remnants will remain here and there as testaments, irrefutable evidences against mankind’s intrinsically predatory nature, to provide our future historians and scholars with some speculative inklings, yet sealed in the indelible characters of scattered stones and megalithic structures, helter-skelter, all over this old planet Earth

It is very likely that when dealing with the transcendent question of Man and Destiny, many recurrent episodes are in keeping with fixed resolutions —as perhaps inevitable— in human losses and tragedies, that are, indeed, quite beyond the scope of our all-too-human understanding.”

The Philosopher-Prince and Parsifal in Unison:

“The world is but a recycle of civilizations. It is a monster ever feeding upon the carcasses of its own children.”

Phoenix Bird: “At this point, the company became aware of the rather pessimistic worldview of the Prince Philosopher, and his penchant for catastrophes and doomsday scenarios became manifestly clear, a recurrent motif, and so I felt so sorry for him.

​But out of respects, we simply let him pursue his long-winded lectures on the Law of Recurrence for Homo sapiens.

Prince-Philosopher (resuming his discourse with the fervor of a preacher): “A universal disaster, nuclear or otherwise, one occasioned by whimsical forces in the offing, is always looming in the horizon for our human species.

Who would survive the to-morrow of our technological hubris?

Where are we going dear Shanti (peace in Sanskrit)?

We have touched upon the possibility that squirrel-like entities, perhaps sleeping in the prodigious womb of Mother Nature, may be waiting for another striking chord and daybreak according to ideas that seem to be in line with the philosophy of Plato, Schopenhauer, Kant, A. Einstein and John Milton.

We may surmise this and other possibilities, a new dawn, based on what we have hitherto learned and gleaned from the sacred literatures of ancient peoples, as being in harmony with our latest understanding of time and space —as only existing as relative phenomena to the beholder.

Furthermore, we are the more astounded when we bear witness that other innocent species have wonderfully survived next to Homo sapiens, and much to our surprise, with little aggression to other species.

The squirrel-case alone may —from the survival of the fittest— may defy our narrow idea of intelligence and purpose as exclusive to Homo sapiens' self-entitlements, hubris, patrimonies and prerogatives.

Jennifer Gem: “Excuse my unsolicited impertinence dear wayfarers! I was not aware that Squirrels, in the ascending scale of evolution, are so highly admired by my friend philosopher!”

Phoenix: “At this, we all chortled our spleens at such witty remarks, and our chuckles piqued Parsifal, once again, to aim his snarky lampoon at the absurdity and incomprehensibility of Homo sapiens’ long wanderings on the surface of the earth.”

Parsifal: (assuming the air of a righteous teacher of morality)

“My dear Homo sapiens and friends, what more awful calamities could potentially unfold in the day after to-morrow due to humankind’s unbridled onslaught on Mother Nature?

It seems there is something inevitably probable in the erratic nature of mankind; and perhaps Mother Nature will strike first —to get rid of some trouble-makers.

These are potential evils which not even the staunchest of pessimists in the nineteenth century could have foreseen, nor imagined a technologically advanced civilization, ‘sordid brutes,’ with the power to halting the fundamentals of life on the surface of the Earth.

Ye have developed destructive weapons, fire-spurting machines, a flashing technology that could unleash unknown devils into our very midst. Homo sapiens, your black-eyed kids, ever boring and fracking the netherworld, could upset Mother Earth.

But worst things could be reported. With the advent of AI (artificial intelligence) we will see ghastly hybrids, machines, setting loose electric rattlesnakes that would creep around, more horrid and lurid than anything previously conceived in the ingenious womb of Mother Nature or Tartarus.

Which devils could match these electronic mammals?”

Jennifer Gem: “By heaven’s sake, Parsifal, can you stop your long-winded harangue?

Do not suffer my ears such circumlocution and recurrent falls of civilizations. It is time to inquire on the inner fabric of some former human beings, their ‘warmhearted sentiments,’ as perhaps the real stuff for a happy existence: vita beata!

On Remote Viewing and the X of Immanuel Kant:

Jennifer Gen: “Mind you, various species of the human type have been lost (disappeared) in the backyard of history, or perhaps they have simply transcended the seeming dichotomy between matter and energy, distance or proximity in the will-network of CWW (Cosmic Wide Web).

While our civilization could be praised for its astonishing technological advances, and the science of medicine, without doubt, has relieved the load of sufferings for the human race, despite all these technological advances, the spiritual crisis of our time, the phenomenon of sectarianism in the world's leading religions, could place many religious groups on equal footing with the numinous experiences of the ancient pagan people.

We may laugh at the ancients for their benighted ignorance and abominable practices —childish religious rites, but we must admit that the ancients, if judged and appraised by the broad canvas of spiritual sensibilities in the high realms of consciousness and light, were perhaps more keenly perceptive, nay understanding, to the Universal Spirit of Divinity in the awesome operations of Mother Nature.

Their mistake, so I dare say, was not so much in the silly worship of idols (polytheism) —for many people today could be said that they are worshipers of some forms of religious denominations— but the ancient people, except for the dear children of the Nile and Summer, had not yet developed a systematic comprehensive framework, ‘a theory of everything,’ upon which, they could trace back every phenomenon as belonging to a greater network in the Cosmic Mind of God.

Philosopher: “But that is only a matter of personal speculation. It is very likely that they had inferred ‘a unifying force’ to all the phantasmagoria of phenomenology.

Phoenix Bird: “I doubt it. The mystery of Christ was not, as yet, revealed to the pagan people (peruse Colossians Chapter 1: 15-18).”
​
On Monotheism:

Jennifer Gem: “It is generally believed that monotheism starts with the religious system of the Jews, but we may forget that Judaism is simply an outshoot of the body of religious doctrines and belief-system from the ancient people of Babylonia (peruse the writings of Ezequiel in the Old Testament, and confirm, therein, the many symbols and images as reminiscent of the sacred iconography of the ancient Babylonian people).

Nevertheless, the merit of the Abrahamic people was simply their systematic approach to the unification of all the phenomena of Mother Nature as surging from the Omnipresent Yahveh: a high-pitched mystification of the Philosophy of A. Schopenhauer.

It is well known that the Persian people of Zarathustra had already developed a complex monotheistic philosophical system, but like the esoteric fraternity of the ancient Greeks and the Gnostics, the Persian Religion (Zoroastrianism) could not hold sway the impetuous passions of the masses as did the Judeo-Christian religion or Islam, the latter one, nevertheless, appeals more to the fired passions of fanaticism than to the shimmering sparks of reason.

If we are impartial in the classification of all major religious systems, we must admit that many religious beliefs were rather imposed through the tight-fist of established authority than through the free choice of the philosophic mind.

Overtime, such beliefs, ever heaving up in the right soil and clime, are preserved through the gentle flow of customs and habits.”

Philosopher: “Following the same train of thoughts, it is to be observed that the tropical people tend to attune themselves with the warm festivities of the Sun, whereas bucolic people (for the most part, the so-called ‘white peoples’) tend to find congeniality with Mother Nature‘s rather secluded tracts of florid woodlands, glens and hills.

It is reported that the Indians too had their goodly share of strange spirits in their cosmology, ‘panpsychism,’ had brought about the rich creative tapestry of their collective psyche, monstrous things, gargoyles and grotesqueries, galore, the astonishing artworks of the Mayan people, their interpretation of natural phenomena vis-a-vis celestial bodies.”

Jennifer Gen: “Let every one happy with their own gods and spirits, because, as I said before, to every soul, there is given a revelation of that universal principle, which is often a reflection of their own mind. For my part, I tend to enjoy the artworks and mythology of the ancient Greeks.

Such funny a god, Bacchus, and his kindred pal, Pan, and the other kith and kin, Satyrs and Nymphs, such fabulous critters of yore, how much I miss them dear, could make the old wood ring with joy and cheers.”

Parsifal: “Do not forget the blissful deities of the streams, Sybil and Nereids, such bevy of beauties, ever capering and frolicking beyond the tedious drudgeries and chores of thy high-walled civilization.”

Philosopher: “Pixies, elves and gnomes, have already gone extinct in the minds of people,
but the skookum ones (Sasquatch, the Skin-walkers) are still in vogue. I always marvel at the rich tapestry of the human mind to spinning fabulous beings.

Some may wonder whether God is not a projection of people’s inmost yearnings and fears?

Of course, I am not denying the possibility that the collective psyche of people, under the influence of Mother Nature’s mysterious forces, ‘kinetic energies and magnetism,’ may make their transient appearances in our physical world.

Once the ancient Greeks stopped believing in their gods, the mental effigies of their rich imagination —the cohesive glue of their mighty spirit and unanimity— would follow suit and eventually decline, and so it is with people and their cherished religious feelings.”

Phoenix: “May I add that God’s existence is not not a mere projection of our mind, He is in himself self-sufficient (aseity), and has neither beginning nor end, and in Him, as we read in Colossians Chapter 1: 15-23, everything was created according to his good will and purpose through Christ Jesus.”

Philosopher: “Dear friend, your cosmogony replete with angels and celestial beings may be outdated, because the universe, according to our astronomers, seems to be but a monster of blind purposeless energies and waste matters filling the boundless stretches of time and space.”

Phoenix: “That’s an all-too-human opinion. It is very likely that celestial bodies, stars and quasars, could enjoy a blissful existence, ‘nunc stans,’ in eternal love-making with the happy deities of energies and matters.”

Jennifer Gem: “As much as I appreciate a theoretical, comprehensive systematic framework, whether in monotheism or on in ‘the theory of everything,’ Pantheism, is, as yet, a high-pitched interconnectedness with the allness, ‘God’ (transcendence) and I would not bargain it for the numinous experiences of your churchy people.”

Philosopher: “Dear Jenny, religious beliefs and feelings are quite often handled down as any other cultural patrimonies. Of course, every one claims to hear the ‘sotto voce’ of God in his-her head, the soothing gentle touch of the Holy Spirit.”

Jennifer Gem: “It has been observed that a superior race of people (e.g. Ancient Egyptians, the Children of Sumer, or the Ancient Greek gods) may have developed (or evolved) their sensorial faculties to transcending the matrix of time and space, and possessing a thorough understanding of themselves, they probably had also unlocked the secrets of remote viewing, tele-transportation (the Dream Organ of Schopenhauer's philosophy), telepathy, ubiquity, and other psychic abilities scarcely suspected with our current cerebral development.

Quoting from Schopenhauer's treatise on the Will In Nature:

‘Space no longer separates magnetiser and somnambulist; community of thoughts and of motions of the will appears; the state of clairvoyance overleaps the relations belonging to mere phenomenon and conditioned by Time and Space, such as proximity and distance, the present and the future.’

Indeed, some friends may have overlooked this insightful fact about Homo sapiens —and this, notwithstanding the Darwinian biological dynamics of evolution as still affecting our bodies— that humankind’s most deeply-seated desire is to reach the stars.”

The Crocodile of Desires (the root of suffering, the basic teachings of Buddhism)

Please, become a master of your inner-self, and rein the restive crocodiles of desires and wanton appetites (the lowest stroke of the ‘will’ in the reaffirmation of our sensual nature), and like the Ancient Egyptians, command the all-devouring animal to be obedient to you!

Like Zeus, be a terrible child of thunders and lightning bolts, and like Jesus, command the winds and the impetuous sea to obey you.

Jesus says, “it is not written in your Law, ‘I say, you are gods” (John 10:34).

Rise up early in the morning, and claim your due as a prince-princess worthy of wisdom, wealth, intelligence, magic, chastity, ineffable music, kinship with Nature and for Nature; and finally, let a thrill of joy fill your heart with thanksgiving and gladness.”

Parsifal: “Hurrah! I am a terrific creature!”

Philosopher: “Bravo Jenny! Few things, whether found in religion or philosophy, have so much persuaded me to admitting the power of thinking, ‘the crystallization of our thoughts,’ as a phenomenon akin to magnetism or kinetic energy.

Stubborn as I am for any easy chewing of religious cud or dogmatism, I am, nevertheless, totally convinced, by countless personal experiences, on the reality of miraculous healing, or on the power of the mind to transmitting energy through the mysterious will-network of our self-conscious thinking, self-cognizance, self-cognition and sentience. “

Jennifer Gem: “True, just as for the devout Christian or pious Muslim, prayers may have the magical effects of healing, protection and the warding off of evil spirits, so we are all called to be vessels of a higher nature, love, forgiveness; and daily activated by the crystallization of the most elevated thoughts on the quest for God or Divinity, we may live this short life in quiet devotion, humility, charity, contemplation, holiness.

After all, this is the best life on this earth. If you are lucky and can find congeniality with another human being, as united by pure love, agape, eros and mutual respect, then you may be willing to transmute the baser energies and animal instincts into the music of the higher spheres (The Walden Pond by Henry D. Thoreau, Higher Laws).

Now, concerning mutual respect and evolution, we ought to treat ourselves as ‘sentient beings,’ for unlike spiritless machines, we are also moved by an array of the pleasantest feelings in the quest for holiness, perfection and the purification of our inner selves.

Indeed, many religious fanatical people, may fail to perceive the ‘underlying principle’ which transcends religious differences, and how faith, love and conviction may activate the mind to performing miracles and wonders.”

Phoenix Bird: “Pay heeds my dear friends, if you think yourselves wise, learn that the devils, fallen angels, had instructed the ancient Babylonians in all the esoteric wisdom of astrology, demonology and soothsaying —and a black cat was always an omen for bad luck!”

Jennifer Gem: “Of course, Christ, as a universal principle, has led our Christian philologists to embrace the Chinese Culture with greater respect. The lotus-flower may still shine and blossom even in the Far East, India!”

Philosopher: “Dear illustrious lady, fanaticism is so deeply seated in our human nature, we can scarcely see the sunshine beyond the ken of our narrow-mindedness.

There is also this incomprehensible antagonism in the very core of every world's major leading religious system: and from the Book of the Dead of the Ancient Egyptians to the ponderous teachings of Zarathustra, there is to be found an ever-present dichotomy between the forces of good and evil.”

Parsifal: “What is striking is that Mother Nature seems to be prolific and prodigious in spawning a staggering number of human beings, of the worst kind, damaging the most splendid and lush habitats of the planet earth.”

Philosopher: “Like Sigmund Freud, I am inclined to believe that the world is rife with trashy people who could care less about any enhancement of the human type.

Some Christian friends must admit sectarianism and schism as splitting the very body of Christ, and perhaps the emissaries of Mammon-Profitability, are aware that the god of money has compromised the simple teachings of the Man of Galilee.

Even the devils would agree that the business of selling or purloining souls have nowadays become more complicated: the good shepherd, is but a profiteer, has stolen the innocent souls from the holy shrines of Mother Nature.

Reaching a serene level of inner peace, ‘enlightenment,’ with the necessary essentials already provided, is indeed the best life we all can hope for.”

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On Healing and the Bucolic People of Yore:

Jennifer Gem: “The bucolic people of the old days were perhaps too superstitious, but sundry paranormal experiences added to a greater theater (vital pre) on the screenshots of their humble pastoral existence.

But let our faculties be enveloped by all the attendant circumstances in the wood of yore, and how we seem to be transformed by a higher-uplifting elation of being in touch with a greater whole!”

Parsifal: “Well, I regret to say, that many indispensable sense-perceptions (e.g., intuition,, ‘déjà vu,’ telepathy, clairvoyance, and so on) once so common among humans, have nowadays become subjects to metaphysical speculations.

But there was a time when humans may have had a greater synchronicity, a transcendent interconnectedness verging on the supernatural.

Nevertheless, it is a well known fact, that long-lasting, constant contiguity with solid matters could render our mind dull, insipid, toad-like reactive, feeble and insensitive to the other fine misty veils of Mother Nature.

At any rate, let us re-appraise the humble peasants in the wood of yore, perhaps their ghost-stories have a kernel of truth...”

Jennifer Gem: “Parsifal, although I don’t agree with your rather doomsday scenario for the human race, I am startled by your staunch subscription to the wisdom of the old masters.

The old masters believed dreams, however indecipherable or meaningless, to be the depository of knowledge, of prophetic significance, and, in the long lapses of time, the true checkers of our lives’ unfolding destinies

In fact, Dreams and Fate are so spliced in the understanding of our lives' unrolling scroll, that our childhood, our first brushes with the unknown (pre-sentiments), could be said to be but an adumbration of the future.

Let me remind you of this passage from the Odyssey (Book XIX, page 309, as translated by Andrew Lang, Walter Leaf, and Ernest Myers) where Odysseus’ fate seems to have been revealed in a dream:

‘Then Odysseus of many counsels answered her and said: Lady, none may turn aside the dream to interpret it otherwise, seeing that Odysseus himself hath showed thee how he will fulfill it. For the wooers destruction is clearly boded, for all and every one; not a man shall avoid death and the fates.

Then wise Penelope answered him: ‘Strangers, verily dreams are hard, and hard to be discerned; nor are all things therein fulfilled for men. Twain are the gates of shadowy dreams, the one is fashioned of horn and one of ivory. Such dreams as pass through the portals of sawn ivory are deceitful, and bear tidings that are unfulfilled.

But the dreams that come forth through the gates of polished horn bring a true issue, whosoever of mortals behold them.’

Therefore, an intelligent human being would trawl the pond of his mind's deepest sediments and pebbles: the prime of our infancy in the interpretation of our personal life's unrolling scroll.”

Philosopher: “Some people believe the pregnant womb of time, teeming with things and beings at the inception, just before materializing in the visible domains of our sensorial perceptions, to have been already pre-conceived in the biological dynamics of Mother Nature. In other words, before coming into existence, organisms have been sleeping and quietly developing in the womb of Mother Nature.

Dear Jenny, do you believe in entelechy, telepathy, remote-viewing, predestination, omens the hieroglyphs of Mother Nature to predicting the future?”

Phoenix Bird: “Dear reader, I must here admit that Ms. Gem’s brilliant response left us all absolutely dumfounded, for her erudition, ‘breath and depth,’ were quite beyond her age, a twenty-four-year-old beauty, and we just kept silence and reverence for her high appraisal of the marvelous Ancient Egyptians’ profound knowledge of both themselves and the universe.”

Jennifer Gem: (assuming the semblance of goddess Minerva, the patroness of the arts) “Although unschooled and illiterate, some souls are just gifted with the pre-fixes and blessings of pre-science, pre-sentiments, and pre-monition.

There are blessed people among us, whom, even unaware of such pre-fixed gifts and pre--sentiments (e.g., foreknowledge, foretelling, and forewarnings, and so on) could see and perceive things in ways quite contrary to the immediate testimony of our physical reality.

A sceptic neurologist would argue against this assertion, on the ground that even such subtle sensations as dreams, imagery, premonitions and visions —some barely discernible on the wakeful- state, could be the mere outcomes of flashbacks surging from the far-reaching recesses of our unconscious mind, i.e., ebbing stimuli eddying from our cerebral cortex: the mysterious network of nerves, cells, hormones, gray substances and so on, which make up the massive infrastructure of our brain.

In other words, the said person’s imagination (in reference to the astonishing mind of creative artists the likes of Gustav Dore, or Salvador Dali) in question, is the mere plaything of myriad of direct and indirect compounding impressions and sensations as perceived through the filter of our five senses (Hume).

Nonetheless, there is a kernel of truth in this undeniable assertion, but with due respect to the integrity of our sciences, our coarse brain's countless meandering arteries, with its hitherto unknown areas of content and massive fabric (in all their fine substance, chromatic ranges of sundry sensitive stimuli and subtile perceptions therein) could not always account for some striking coincidences affecting the unfolding events of our personal life's sequels: this ‘intuitive perception’ of having felt this ‘pre-fix of many pre-sentiments’ (déjà vu) prior to our daily experiences and the pre-sent moment of ‘I already knew this somehow...’

Moreover, we know and feel that many tingling emotions and sensations, whose tugs and pulse are felt strikingly felt with astonishing reality and vehemence, seem to have their origination in the very pouch of our hearts, or are sometimes conceived in the pit of the stomach or in other parts of our physical bodies!

How to explain all these riddles?

Some fine minds believe that our seemingly scattered petty trifles of our daily experiences and squabbles, even those embarrassing rubbish of our efforts, may have a cohesiveness in the ‘thing in itself,’ and that we are all part of a unifying X, like the Internet or network of your computer: a phenomenon that is not circumscribed by causes and effects, nor it is confined by the ticking clock of linear time.

Consequently, as we are all part of this all-unifying X, we, human beings along with many other sentient entities —beyond the matrix of Euclid, could very well regard ourselves, but as tiny, self-deceived, self enclosed capsules or droplets of individualities rambling and ranging (no-where wayfarers without fixed point or goals) the boundless ocean of self-awareness: the all-compassing ‘will-network’ of this mysterious cosmos!

But more mind-boggling than this scary revelation is this jaw-dropping possibility: the farthest galactic point to the nearest quantum point in our consciousness has no relevance for this X beyond time and space.

Therefore, and in all probability, if this X is boundless and yet one in itself undivided, we may not be too far in the near future —with a clearer understanding of Kant and Einstein's transcendent voyage along the work of serious neurologists— to traverse the sidereal distance with little effort; this could be possible but in the very fundamentals of our mysterious mind, as we attune ourselves with the rest of the cosmos' many paralleled lines in a given X= present reality!

Remote viewing, in all probability, is a vague hint to a greater contact, interconnectedness with boundlessness, a ‘pre-fixed harbinger’ to a greater dawn into the fantastic history of intelligent life and awareness: that the riddles of space and time could be overcome with a complete re-arrangement of object-subject's co-dependency, a relationship we could scarcely hint at on the inside of our mind with Immanuel Kant and the mathematics of Einstein, not on the outside —as it is an impossibility to reach the nearest star with a flying machine, or a spacecraft propelled with steaming power; but if accessible, it is only through a riveting voyage into the unplumbed cobwebs of our ‘will-consciousness.’

You are either with Hume (the pavement's slabs of our senses in the matrix of Euclid) or with Kant's transcendentalism, you are apace with the Phoenix Bird's Flight —above Parsifal, the squirrel of rationality, precluded by the impervious escarpments and the high walls of our materialistic sciences!

If you remember Dr. Ferdinand Ossendowski, today famous for his Magnus Opus, Men, Beasts and Gods, has marvelously touched upon Animal Magnetism and Miracles, for even in the entrails of animals, and those ‘meaningful meandering elements’ (cup-o'-coffee's hieroglyphs) thus spelling your personals in the Wall of Destiny, may all be interlaced and interwoven in the unrolling coils of Mother Nature's serpentine forces!

Therefore, my good friend pay heeds to the meandering, serpentine elements of Mother Nature, ‘omens and auguries,’ for she is the greatest instructor. “

Philosopher Prince: “My deepest apology illustrious woman, the staff of faith and religion can scarcely proffer any solid footing to my incorrigible natural bent for evidence, ‘enlightenment,’ and that high eyrie of the lofty bird, reason (Minerva) whose placid downing into our midst may dovetail with common sense.”

Parsifal: “Jesus! You are all head-on looking for signs and miracles in the womb of Mother Nature, but a higher pitch of ‘self-cognizance’ may be related to the effects of light upon the wonders of consciousness and sentience.

On the heels of men the likes of Leonardo da Vinci and Goethe, I have my decade-old experiments on the action of Sun-Light upon sensitive reflective surfaces.

Like a delicate, diaphanous gown (a lustrous negligee) worn by a beautiful maid like Jeniffer Gem, such transparent pigments and substances, when applied to a white canvas, could shine forth the most beautiful hues and lights.

Their translucent effects, could be analogous to their healing properties upon my mind, and the nervous system is soon in full gear to the glorious powers of light.

Jennifer Gen: “Definitely! Light has magic, and like seasoned acolytes instructed in ‘the natural medicine of ages,’ we ought to seek the sunshine (Natural Light) for healing with the Wisdom of the Ancient People.”

Philosopher: “Yes. I am totally convinced on the healing power of Natural Light: the Sun!”

Jennifer Gem: “Dear Prince, let that wonderful lady, Shanti, ilumine your mind's innermost far-echoed chambers.

Don’t let such ugly a hug overcome you in the night profound, for once there, in that murky dungeon, you may become recipient to the morbid feelings of malaise and hypochondria.

Philosopher “Indeed! The resurrecting power of light cannot be overstated.”
​
On The Ancient Tree of Good and Evil:
​
Jennifer Gem: “Sacred knowledge of the ancient priest should not be revealed to a simpleton, a callow lay student, never advancing beyond the simple rudiments of survival, because such high knowledge, like a cobra’s incomprehensible coils and venom, if untamed by a less capable neophyte, could prove to be lethal, insidious, pernicious and destructive.

Cobra-Sacred-Secret Knowledge

It is as old as the Ancient Egyptian High Priests, but such esoteric wisdom is not imparted to our materialistic generation, neither can it be taught to a block-headed person: a simpleton with clumsy gait and a stupid face stamped with the lower instincts of the vulgar, crass and uncouth.

Some secret knowledge, due to its sensitive materials therein, like the supersensitive fingering-action of a fine violinist, could only be taught to a finely-drilled person of tested probity, intelligence, diligence and maturity.

Of course, the first perquisite to our internal development, is a blessed disposition towards the ineffable music of Mother Nature.

If a person cannot find a congenial rapport with the elements Mother Nature, then he or she cannot be admitted in the Holy Temple of Muse.

Such person, is legion, human beings, mass-produced ‘yahoos’ in the last throes of a society on the brink of collapse, cannot be admitted inside the pyramid of the chosen ones.

Time and time again, Leonardo da Vinci would ask the initiate to remain a servant under the tutelage of a capable master.

Art and science, so interlaced and interwoven like the coils of a cobra-snake, may overlap in blissful moments of epiphanies, and it is quite a daunting task, time consuming, to untangle the riddles of your existence without a good teacher.

Our personal unfolding scrolls could be compared to the treacherous coils of a snake, for, however alert and resilient, unfavorable circumstances could overcome even the strong and powerful.

Nevertheless, we ought to find the ‘the underlying thread’ of our personal spiritual development.

Time presses on inexorably, and you would be surprised on the unpredictable unfolding scrolls of your destiny, because, at times, you almost cracked the serpent’s head.

You were so close to receiving that glorious daybreak —-just missed it by a few centimeters!

Unfortunately, circumstances, rarely outplay her propitious moments to that glorious moment of our inner illumination and self-realization, but like an archeologist of the first order, you must be ready when serendipity come along your path, and gems and treasures are to be found beneath the crumbles of past civilizations.

At times, you ought to pull your psyche out of this existential maze, full-fraught with shadows, snakes, confusion and illusive shades. Once clear of your purpose, retake your inner work with the diligence and trust of an innocent child.

A diligent initiate, depending on the grace of the gods, may need to wait decades before receiving ‘one untangled coil’ (a veritable blessing) in the ascending scale of his or her spiritual development.

Such dawning day, ‘illumination,’ could happen at any moment, like the breaking of bulky clouds amidst the glorious sky of light and meaning in this short life.

I know some sad people, after years of studious hours and devotion, unfortunately, never received the blessings of that glorious day.”

Philosopher: “Why?”

Jennifer Gem: “Like the serpentine heads of Hydra, emblematic of Lilith’s disheveled hairs, however enslaved by the unconscious mind, may remind us of that great challenge for the neophyte or initiate, for every coil ought to be unraveled, and this is not, by any stretch of the imagination, an easy task.

The Ancient Serpent of Genesis is a fact of life!

Once trained in the basic rudiments of the Cobra-Snake, alertness (higher consciousness,) and discipline (morning rites and rituals aimed at the ascending knowledge of the sun) the student would then apply the ‘Sacred Knowledge’ to the ‘internal pulleys’ of our spiritual ascension: chastity, prayers and daily meditations on heavenly things.

I cannot reveal this knowledge to you, because the pulleys, bars, levers and pivots ought to be found in the ‘Will to Exist’ of Arthur Schopenhauer's philosophy, but to a higher pitch, we ought to become one in the mysteries of Christ: ‘I am,’ this is the passport, the unifying X, for a greater network and interconnectedness with the rest of the cosmos.

I hope to have revealed to you some secret knowledge of the conscious vs the unconscious. Such knowledge, which is universal, could be useful for the arts, nay, could be applied to many an area requiring both intellectual stamina and artistic expression.

Conscious vs the Unconscious:

Leonardo da Vinci, like Phidias, Michelangelo, William A. Bouguereau, possessed some secret knowledge which could place you in the order of Melchizedek, the High Priest, alongside the giants of Ancient Egypt, or, simply, an astonishing human being capable to cracking down ‘the head of a cobra snake’ in one single strike of genius.

The child, a Rennaissance Mind, should be trained, from an early age, to see universals in representational imageries, hidden symbols, sacred numerology and the artworks of the old masters.

If your child could resume millennia in short instances of epiphanies, then he is either a Saint or a Genius. Like Champollion, the French divine Child, he or she could decipher the meaning of ages in just a few scattered stones.

A cobra is symbolic of the artistic mind: vigilant, alert, penetrating and keenly perceptive, has often been associated with royalty, nobility, high-pitched intelligence, suppleness and greater sway over the slothful and lethargic ones: the automaton of civilized society sagged down by complacency and forgetfulness.

Therefore, rise early every morning! Above all, avoid the clumsy gait of a cur (a dog), and even in your comportment, strive for integrity, grace and suppleness.

Teach your child to stand defiant and resolute, and let him shake off any traits of cowardice or laxity (laziness).

Test your child for diligence, discipline, methodology, and let him or her master himself in the troubles of existence.

All we need is methodology, application and practice, but above all, we ought to think like a Renaissance Artist.

Remind him or her about the secrets of the masters, gravity (Holy Grail of Intelligence), and how we ought to take advantage of this essential natural law to overcoming obstacles.

—Move your wrist, it is as supple as a cobra!

Let's say you are seeking the hidden knowledge of the Ancient Egyptian pyramids-builders. You may say that the main obstacle is ‘gravity,’ which, from our human perspective, poses great difficulty to lifting stones weighing over five tons.

Either the pyramid-builders were giants, or at some distant past, ‘gravity’ was much weaker than its current gravitational pulling force and tugs.

Some philosophers have already pointed out to the latter: gravity, may not be a stable constant force throughout millennia, therefore, some people, thousands of years ago, were taller, and it is very likely that the giants could claim greater sway over smaller ones.

Philosopher: “How did the Ancient Egyptians lift such stones and megaliths?”

Jennifer Gem: “Like any great architect, we would need a ‘broad foundation’ but also levers, pulleys, bars could help ease the difficult task, and why not?

We would also need stepping stones (pivots). Without this knowledge, it is impossible to mastering the technical difficulties of life.”
​
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Footnotes On the Conceptualization of Time: This Essay is Based On Colossians Chapter 1: 15-23 - A Critical Analysis on Our Latest Understanding of the Cosmos.

Philosopher: “Like poets and artists, philosophers, while immersed in moments of blissfully contemplative reflections, may, though a priori, enter into a comprehension of things beyond the scope of science, mechanics and even beyond the province of mathematics.

Philosophy has its true residence but in the phenomena of sentience, sapience, consciousness, and as their corollary —a crowning diadem— “conscience," I would say, these are the most beautiful gifts ever bestowed upon the nature of a marvelous human being.

Such human being is said to be gifted with intelligence, and when we hear that a genius, of the caliber of Johann Sebastian Bach, or Henry D. Thoreau, could write such beautiful works with science and artistic sensibilities, we simply marvel at the recurrent convergence of goodness, spiritual transcendence and intelligence.

Mindful of our well-known past scientific blunders and damages to our ecosystem, I would not speak of intelligence, "rationalization," --the careful gathering of data— as the highest virtue accorded to human beings, because there are times when genuine fellowship, "charities," and humanities, could surpass the fireworks of science or the witless fanaticism of religious intolerance.

Therefore, in the last analysis, the virtues of conscience, "artistic sensibilities and love," could be said to be in a higher scale, at a higher pitch of susceptivity, than those of intelligence and bellicosity.
.
If my observations on space and time have been proven to be wrong by modern science, then I must beg my highly-valued reader forgiveness for venturing into this controversial field, a priori, because the lessons of the past may still teach us to be cautious when accepting some scientific dogmas, because like religion, we are told to accept them by faith.

As I have said in previous e-mails, the linear trajectory of science may suffer from detours and pitfalls, and, at some latter point, just like the fabulous Babylonian Gardens, somehow hanging loose on the air, some theories may not withstand the test of time.

The faculties of our sciences could be compared to the well-tempered clavier, because with fixed pitches and numerical intervals, one is inevitably forced to dance the same tune, though we fancy to transposing it to different keys (dimensions), the results and tempos are pretty much the same.

In like similitude, an artist, however skillful, cannot expect to see the same results through the intervening agency of different mediums (e.g., water, oil, ink, charcoal, plaster).

Nay, like Zeus's thunderbolts, the electrifying powers of our sciences could even set afire the prospects of our times, because unlike the Ancient Egyptians, who sought orderliness and knowledge by the seemingly placid harmony of celestial bodies, we have become obsessed with quantum physics, and it is just a matter of time before we reach a major nuclear disaster.

Let me surmise the Ancient Egyptians, achieved an agreeable harmony between the subjective and the objective, had unlocked some tricks on the mysterious laws of nature (e.g. Gravity and Cosmic Synchronicity through metempsychosis) hence their large skulls, but like our current sciences, they were met with limitations on the finite keyboard of our epistemology.

But should we assume that our sciences are unlimited?

Perhaps, at some latter point, we will realize that some challenges are simply beyond the scope of our current known sciences. Some scientists, on the other hand, believe our prowess to be linear, and that the benefits cannot be overstated.

It is to be observed that our scientists, as in times past, have often made erroneous inferences on the nature of space-time and light, to causes that sometimes could rather be attributable to optical illusions: "mirages and distortions" in the contiguity of celestial bodies' pulling gravitational forces.

Mirage and the Curvature of Space-Time, Paralleled Lines:

This cosmic phenomenological mirage, as evinced in semi-transparent opaque bodies (e.g. water, lenses, ether, gasses, et al., as affected by the permeating influence of heat or light) should be considered when assessing the seeming "distortions and dimpling" which sometimes may appear around the surface of certain celestial bodies.

The greater the distance, the more we assume transparent bodies, as those of helium and hydrogen (ether, for the astronomer of yesteryears) to affect our earthly judgment of far-descried celestial phenomena as those of curve, round, spherical, oval, flat in conjunction to the afore-mentioned optical causes of heat and light in the distortion of both shape and shade.

The judgment of certain observable phenomena (e.g. curvature of space-time, etc., etc.) may be rather due to causes of an optical earthly perspective-illusion than to purely objective reality. I may wrong, but let us consider the possibility of such afore-mentioned causes as accounting for some optical distortion when accessing the star-studded amphitheater of the visible cosmos.

We are so acquainted with the seeming slight distortion on the symmetrical lines of certain buildings (e.g. Parthenon in Greece) as a phenomenon of an optical illusion in the intervening effects of air, heat and light.

At any rate, such cosmic data as purveyed by our post-modern scientists' lenses to convince us of their postulates, however scanned with the finest telescopic instruments, should be subjected to further inquiries on the field of optics and the illusive phenomena of cosmic mirages in the distant reaches of the cosmos.

Nevertheless, these post-modern astronomers, with an air of solemnest reverence in the name of truth, would then baptize all these cosmic datas as irrefutable facts of science and astronomy.

Concerning the red-shifting of distant stars (lingering trails of wavelengths), one may wonder on the rapid speed of this phenomenon, and whether it is not but the outcome of a more plausible distortion of the atmosphere in the curvature of our own planet earth?

Of course, when speaking of reflected, deflected and duplicated images as those of distant stars or quasars presumably affected by the tugs of some gravitational fields, we are assured, that by the repetition of the same process, that is to say, over many years of careful observation, the same results would appear as consistent and invariable in the enormous distances of galaxies and supernovae.

And thus, since we have no other choice but to rely on the academic might and authority of the established scientific community, we are simply asked to believe such interpretations of the cosmos as factual, scientific and trustworthy.

Like countless books written on UFOs and science fiction, many scientists, versed in the technical jargon of current science, and ever glossing new terms with the luster of academic erudition and obfuscation, could thus purport theories whose verification rarely reach the realm of reality.

Almost a century later, we are still pretty much fumbling in the incomprehensibility of certain phenomena as simply beyond the scope of our cognitive power or epistemology.

A Critical Analysis on Our Latest Understanding of the Cosmos.

I have here written a short, succinct, pithy essay which is actually a continuation of another treatise on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, recurrence, consciousness and sentience.

I am, essentially, a humanist Christian, and my views are simply to support and corroborate the Bible as the Word of God.

Therefore, and following Henri Bergson's insights, I am inclined to believe the Holy Spirit as the greatest journey in the web of consciousness and sentience, through all the marvels and phenomena of this vast cosmos, as perhaps not confined to our swaddling epistemological concepts of time, space, dilation, gravity and density.

For in Him, we seem to partake of a greater interconnectedness; and when we ponder on the semantics of omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence, we are perhaps entering into the very essence (X) of that Point in Time, from which, perhaps all things find their true sustenance, and from whence the visible cosmos has its secondary relativity...for in Him, we are all interconnected!

Yes! I believe in angels, propelled by their self-conscious will, and unlike some new-aged gurus and money-making chupacabras, I don't think such spiritual entities would need the clumsy mechanics of spaceships, or, other chugging celestial vehicles to propel them across the cosmos.

My views of this universe is pretty much the same as that of St. Paul's letters in the New Testament. I do NOT believe in physical extraterrestrial people commingling with the affairs of our human species, but I do believe in spiritual forces, dominions and powers in high places (Ephesians Chapter 6: 12).

On Einstein Relativity:

The barren world of Albert Einstein is blind purposely matter and energy in constant love-making and transmutation, a web of dimensions, a restless machine set into motion by the curvature of time and space in dilation and acceleration. It is a mysterious universe, indifferent to the wishful thinking of humanists, romantics, poets and religious people.

We all know the speed-of-light is a constant to establishing enormous distances in the cosmos, and this, as wavelength, has become the measure-stick to venturing into the history, and hence, a comprehension of the true size and density of the cosmos in the long stretches of time.

There are numerous papers (Google) written by leading scientists explaining the phenomena of expansion, as averred by astronomer Hubble almost a century ago, as the color of light (wavelength), or spectra, shifts to a reddish trail of a faint spectrum. Tracing and understanding the history of these wave-lengths, light-shifts and lingering radiations, from the first striking chord of the Big Bang, has been crucial to formulating a systematic comprehensive framework in the nature of the universe.

The theory of a Big Bang not only shook the academic scientific world, nourished in conventional ideas of a relative stable elysian universe as conceived by John Milton beautiful Paradise Lost, but such primordial explosion even threw into disarray the physics of Newton and Albert Einstein.

Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, which is not easily understood but through great mental exertion and further elucidations and analogies, is still employed when assessing any theoretical conundrums, however unverifiable by our matter-of-fact scientific methods, as mere plausible probabilities in the abstract realms of mathematics.

It is worth mentioning that French philosopher Henri Bergson, one of the leading philosophers of the twentieth century, and perhaps possessing one of the greatest intellects of all time, could not so readily grasp the baffling concepts of times and space as explained by Albert Einstein, i. e. those antiquated clocks of the old days ever ticking in our mind when we dare grasp the gist of the General Theory of Relativity.

I don't know about you, but I have often fancied to see myself to be situated at different locations, spaceships, locomotives, and other coordinates, to faintly infer that time and space are simply relative to an apparent inertial standpoint. After countless analogies, I seem to have finally grasped, that at least, any traveling phenomena are to be assessed in relation to another traveling phenomena; and thus, for example, I may seem to be motionless at a given standing point on this planet earth, but perhaps the latter is traveling in relation to other celestial bodies.

You see, if we continue hatching formulas for any relative point in this ever-expanding universe, we may wonder whether there is any cosmological constant to all these riddles, fixed for all time and space, that is to say, any unmoved spot, so as to establishing any permanent location, dwelling or reliable conjecture in the baffling comportment of the visible universe?

A static model of the universe as that conceived by Einstein's head-scratching Theory of General Relativity of space and time, has completely changed our notions of a cosmos held together by one-sided acting force in the pulling of gravity or attraction (Newton).

But the universe is not static, it is expanding as I write these notes.

Accordingly, the universe may have been growing to such mind-boggling size, that calculation of such cosmic phenomena by establishing a cosmological constant, or static model, valid and unchanging in the flux of time, space and density, has been the merit of Albert Einstein.

Nevertheless, we all know that Einstein was surprised to find out that the universe is actually expanding, and he was the more surprised when his physics could spawn the strangest colossal energetic dragons (celestial bodies, black holes)) falling headlong into the curvature of time and space and density.

Albert Einstein himself had a difficult time fitting-in his General Theory of Relativity in the assessment of a universe ever expanding; and at times, he dismissed such far-fetched hypothesis as practically improbable, and perhaps verging on the realm of metaphysics.

Nevertheless, his devout followers, thousands of scientists daily pondering on the Theory of General Relativity, have basically consecrated this belief-system just as the dogma of Newton's Gravity, two centuries earlier, had the approval of the scientific community: as the sustaining force, bedrock of a universe resting most placidly in the cosmic chasms of boundless space. Newton's ideas of Gravity, by the way, could still harmonize with our conception of a stable universe.

To this day, we are still fumbling and groping in our self-centered earthly chauvinism to apprehending countless mysterious phenomena as perceived in outer space. And as we embark through the labyrinthine insights and manifold physics of Stephen Hawking, we are left in a more bizarre, stranger, barren, dangerous universe than the monster-thing of energy described by Einstein.

On the Issue of Size - Where Is the Cosmological Constant?

But how do we know of any stable size when the universe of Albert Einstein is like a balloon ever-growing and curving, however a monstrous dragon spewing energy, in the complex interweaving interlaces of time, space and velocity.

We are told, by the leading scientists of our days, that once an object reaches the speed of light, it would grow in density as it would also expand the very nature of space.

Some people may argue that this is impossible, for such traveling object, at the speed of light, would need so much propelling fuel that it would make it impractical. This is the main reason why some leading scientists don't believe in any Extraterrestrials reaching our planet's shores through conventional ideas of linear space, because such sidereal traveling, at the speed of light, would simply destroy the witless astronauts, and if we accept Einstein's ideas, the increase of mass, at such rapid acceleration, would amount to a total disaster.

This view has led some leading scientists to believe that the universe, since the time of the Big Bang, has been growing to such mind-boggling size in the exponential mathematics and general relativity of Einstein, that it makes quite difficult to simply speak in terms of any stable observable phenomena, but as something illusive to our relative humble framework of reference & epistemology.

Therefore, and nevertheless, perhaps there is a stable constant to all this phantasmagoria of mater, energy, time, space, gravity and density.

But since there is so much sidereal room to accommodating any world, atom or thing, however big or small, the entire conception of size seems to be but a human-all-too-human matter of comparison; and hence, when we say that Neptune is a humongous planet, it is simply in relation to our relative notion on the size of other celestial bodies; but in itself, and isolated In the dark uncharted voids of the cosmos, and existing, but in the profoundest nap of time and space, the planet Neptune is perhaps neither big nor small, just a dot suspended in the transcendent mathematics of the infinite.

Now we are told by some scientists, and this is indeed stunning, that perhaps space in itself is filled with a type of dark-matter or negative energy to the positive energy of matter or mass in the far reaches of the cosmos.

Or, at least, so we are told, the apparent stability of the universe "has to be sought in something else" but invisible to our telescopes: and this mysterious matter may account for containing or refraining the entire universe from a total collapse in itself (the physics of Newton): or, in the accelerating forces of the Big Bang, something is keeping galaxies with a certain cosmic orderliness...is perhaps due to the presence of antimatter as the true checkers of balance and harmony in the sublime music of the spheres. Bravo!

I shall remind the reader that Albert Einstein's cosmogony was not based on our theory of the Big Bang. Einstein, influenced by Kant's ideas on a primeval nebula of gases or cosmic debris (helium and hydrogen are generally believed to be the most common elements in the vast cosmos), assumed the visible universe to have appeared as the gradual condensation of energy into matter.

We are little aware of those minds whose views of the universe, time and space, could affect us in the very definition of life on this earth, even on the possibility of the after-life.

(Footnotes: Few philosophers have dared venture into proving consciousness as something independent of the cerebral cortex or the brain. For F. Nietzsche such views would be tantamount to lunacy.)

In the nineteenth century, the view that things emerged from a mathematical distribution of matter in time and space, led many people to believe that we live and move in a blind universe set into motion by the inviolable laws of physics; and that every traceable effect was but the direct outcome of an original cause, were the basic fundamental principles for the doctrine of determinism, a philosophic system where human freedom, our petty squabbles and astrology, play little role in the grandest scheme of things.

The Philosophy of Henri Bergson and Consciousness

The philosophy of Henri Bergson, on the other hand, is a universe made-up of creative energy, potential contingency, freedom and evolution in the ascending phenomena of life, duration, sentience and consciousness.

One may say that the ideas of Henri Bergson are a continuation of the idealistic philosophy of Kant and Schopenhauer. Nevertheless, Bergson, aided by an array of the most vivid images in the elucidation of time and space, and as he was admirably schooled in the principles of geometry and mathematics, was able to lay down a transcendent philosophy which may win the high praise of logic and common sense.

But Bergson, unlike Schopenhauer who had followed on the heels of Kant's subjective somersaults in the comprehension of time and space, perhaps failed, or at least, was unable to prove his thesis as did the German philosopher in his will-to-exist (the World as Will and Idea) in both the individual (individualization) and in the object (objectification).

Bergson, I would say, remained for too long spinning abstract similes which sometimes could even lead us to obfuscation of terms, redundancy and semantic incongruity; and sometimes, when he speaks of the past and duration, I am rather impressed by his marvelous prose to embellishing every moment with the colorful brushstrokes of an expressionistic artist.

But as a French writer, ever-preening himself with all the pregnant moments of this short life, Bergson, was, perhaps like countless romantics, yearning for a more meaningful life when time, escorted by the precious memories of past and present reality, could make one a more self-conscious, self-freed, self-collected, self-willed sentient being reveling in the conception of time and expansiveness.

But since modern society has bargained the placid reveries of the soul for the apparent advantages and luxuries of science and innovation, an idealized conception of time, and hence consciousness, lost the race against the advent of thinking machines.

This may explain why Henri Bergson lost proselytes in a world ever reducing spiritual infatuations and reveries to purely mechanistic procedures and pragmatism.

Those who have read Faust Part 1 by Goethe, and have likewise delved into the illuminating insights of Immanuel Kant's philosophy, could find Bergson's loaned ideas on the conception of time and space as by-products of our mental construction of reality, which is a commingling of the subject and the object.

The great merit of Henri Bergson is his remarkable elucidating power to describing subjective ideas, however supported with the expediency of endless analogies, this stately temple of philosophy rising above the turbid clouds of fleetingness and the illusory, where, perhaps time and space may have their true residence, are indeed reflections which in themselves could add a greater luster and glare to the meaning of life. And Bergson, it is to his credits, freed us from the dour pessimistic philosophy of A. Schopenhauer.

That H. Bergson was able to build such imposing turret of metaphysics solely bolstered on the abstract building blocks of thought alone, a priori, is indeed a remarkable feat no less wonderful than the Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant.

Please, read this article, and perhaps you could take side with perhaps the two most influential thinkers of the twentieth century.

I shall write more about this dichotomy at a latter point. If you are struggling to getting your head out of the dismal world of Stephen Hawking or Einstein, you are not alone, countless people cannot come to grips with the view that we are but mere flashes of energy appearing here and there, and then, disappearing in the penumbras of existence.

There is to found in many cities, however barren and inhabited by soulless entities roaming the twilight realms and phantasmagoria of existence, a correlation between the high walls of civilization and a "pervasive increase" on materialism, mechanization and nihilism. First, and according to the mechanization of our times, we seem to morph into clumsy machines in the hectic struggle for survival, and second, we seem to lose that spiritual vitalization which once so activated our inner faculties aglow in the celebration of life.

This gradual transformation or crippling of ourselves may be one of the most subtle and pernicious changes in the comprehension of psyche. To what extent have we been diagnosed with mental-illnesses traceable to this widespread dehumanization?

Speaking from my own experiences as lived in the concreteness and tangibility of solid matters in New York City, I seem to have lost a substantial amount of spiritual vitalization and sentience in the comprehension and meaning of life.

As I trace back the link that connects me to a former self in the lush greenery of childhood and innocence, I am feebly aware of the pernicious effects of a civilization that has little by little wrenched my heart of every sacred feeling of the sublime, divine and beautiful.

Awakening to a new dawn of yourself is to rediscover the gentle feelings of a former self in the threshold of sentience and consciousness, existing but in greater ubiquity along the outer limits of this universe of our earthly journey, which perhaps may connect us to a larger community of sentient beings out there...

As I recall those mystical experiences by the Hudson River (Summer of 1992), I fancied to be in contiguity with distant elysian worlds, extraterrestrial people and angels. It dawned to me that perhaps my greater spaceship, to traverse the outer limits of the universe, was consciousness itself!

At any event, I let you think for a moment, whether you have felt a greater fraternity in the mysteries of love, duration, sentience and consciousness?”

www.eddiebeato.com/shanti-chapter-viii---natasha-blavatskyrsquos-impression-of-manhattan.html

Affectionately,
Eddie Beato, November 9, 2024