____________
Around ten o’clock on the morning of January 14, 1969, I began to experience a set of physiological conditions unlike anything I had ever experienced before. And as it happened, the response I chose to make resulted in my instantly beginning to experience a series of varying types of visions.
While it was a gradual rather than instantaneous enlightenment process, the changes wrought upon my mind-set because of the spirituality-related event and my efforts combined may be likened to going from partial conceptual blindness to comparatively 20-20 I-sight.
Fig. 3. From a 1996 photo. Credit: F. Scott Sadler.
To start with, questions arose regarding the authenticity of the biblical writings. In particular, there were my doubts about the literal accuracy of the account about Moses’ revelation experience. For inasmuch as none of the visions I experienced included speeches, it was relatively impossible for me to take the Exodus account of Moses’ spiritual experience as a non-fictionalized one. It would, however, take me until early spring of 1996 to acquire the additional information, the good physiological health level, and the confidence needed for tackling the issue of the literary exactness in the biblical and other literary documents about natural phenomena. Even then, I thought it would be sufficient to tell my children and a few other persons with whom I had an ongoing relationship about the amazing spiritual-related happening I had undergone. But after envisioning myself as a bystander who had never experienced such a wondrous event, I decided that the general public should also be given the opportunity to view a non-fictionalized account of
7what a transcendent level spiritual revelation experience is like. See Part II - The Awakening for a detailed recount of the one I underwent, and associated commentary.My interpretations and other commentary are ofttimes inserted in the form of footnotes, endnotes, and/or epilogues. So, please, please pause to read this collateral material as you go along. In some instances, the entry may also include a prologue. It all depends upon the specific theme or condition the observed vision or other natural wonder evoked.
Whenever possible, I have also included one or more supportive photographs or illustrations with my entries; for anytime we are left to develop our own mental images of the people, places, and other tangible things recounted of by words alone, there is more cause for doubt about the authenticity of the author’s account. I know that upon meeting someone I have heard about or even spoken with by phone, the person’s physical appearance is always markedly different from what I had visualized it to be.
Throughout this treatise, I shall be using my own personal experiences as a base from which to expound upon my revised ideological views about (a) the Almighty Thou and (b) involuntary natural phenomena. But please keep in mind that pleading a case is not the same as “fussing n’ fighting.” It is not my intention to humiliate or belittle, and thus avoid or stifle serious debate. To the contrary, serious debate is needed. For whether it is in a bible, a philosophical treatise, or a science textbook, no person’s “word” should be accepted on blind faith that it is error-free.
Since much of what I have to say involves the question of Absolute cause and associated involuntary natural things, my arguments will necessarily implicate what other persons have said on these subjects. To my present knowledge, the Torah (Pentateuch) was the first publication to
7 While transcendent level spiritual revelation experiences are beyond the more common everyday spiritual revelation emissions, they are still within the laws of nature governing the involuntary subconscious part of the human psyche.
contain the proposition that the primary creations were the work of an Almighty (Infinite) CreativeMental Power. Subsequent writings about (a) the presumed Cause of the primary cosmic world and (b) involuntary natural phenomena include the Greek Christian Testament and the Arabic Koran. Charles Darwin’s publication: The Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection 9 is the most recent example. However, Mr. Darwin’s theory is only about the natural means whereby each unique primary species was gradually caused to come into existence. No attention was given to the Infinite Designer of the involuntary “natural selection” method.
*In one of his dramas, William Shakespeare had this to say about personal honesty:
“This above all--to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any. . . .”
Honesty is my goal. And although one or more of my judgments or conclusions may not always be correct, I will not have misled anyone if I provide a literally descriptive true account of the events and views I have chosen to share with you.
This introductory section also includes an affirmation statement on my evolved metaphysical beliefs, an outline of my writing styles, and a critique on biblical Hebrew. But first, I would like to list some things I believe each of us needs to keep in mind when reviewing one another’s asserted and/ or implied propositions about either {a} the envisioned Almighty Creative Cause of the primary world, {b} physical and mental involuntary natural events10 and/or {c} semi-involuntary natural events:
8 By primary creations , I mean only those things of the cosmic world which came into existence up to and including the first generation of our species.1. Every human being begins life on earth stark-naked, and totally ignorant of what is safe or wise to consume11or do.
2. All of our information comes from two known sources: (a ) involuntary nature or (b) our speeches, writings, etc. other communicative messages. And of these two sources, only involuntary nature is incapable of misrepresentation. To be in awe of natural phenomena is understandable, but there is no logical reason whatsoever to be in awe of or revere any one of us human beings (e.g., Moses, Jesus, Mohammed). Neither is there any logical reason to be in awe of or revere any of our literary works (e.g., the Jewish Bible, the Christian Bible, the Moslem Bible).
3. Neither are any of us mortal creative powers nor any of our works holy. The only thing on this planet to possibly be of incorruptible holy essence is the conspicuously silent spiritual presence within the involuntary subconscious part of our mental selves.
4. The only kind of life we know anything about and can relate to is finite organic life. To ascribe a finite human nature to the Infinite Creative Power is a disservice to both ourselves and this envisioned Almighty/Absolute Cause of our species.
5. Biographical writings are “hearsay” (second-hand) testimony. The sayings accredited to Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus are biographical. Needless to say, neither is any of the “direct speech” ascribed to either o h v k t/ the Almighty Creative Power or v u v h/ the spiritual presence autobiographical testimony.
6. We are constantly vulnerable to misinterpreting the cause and purpose of the involuntary natural phenomena we directly observe or read about. In fact, millions have become mesmerized or as spellbound by what some of us have said or written about (a) the envisioned Almighty Creative Cause, (b) extraordinary “natural disasters,” and/or ( c) transcendent level spiritual happenings.
10 I.e., events which occur independent of human choice: e.g., storms, volcanic eruptions, etc. “natural disasters”; our sex drives, contrasting good and not good temptations; and the reproduction of animal young that occurs independent of our interference or manipulation.
11 By “consume,” I mean everything that enters our body-mind systems, including the sounds and sights of each other’s spoken, written, “signed,” or otherwise presented communicative messages.7. The freedom to direct one’s own life is a natural endowment distributed over all of humankind. We are at liberty to worship or not to worship the Almighty/ Absolute Creative Mental Power. Our mortal death, however, is not optional. Thus, is it not of good common sense to give some thought to how we ought to treat the envisioned Creator-Ruler-Owner of the cosmic world? Such an Absolute Power could exist. And whether ideal or not, immortal mental life could be our unavoidable ultimate destiny.
8. All human experience is subjective. Whether the thing experienced is of our external environment (as a sunset) or internal environment (as a dream scene), it is perceived by the inner invisible voluntary conscious I part of our mind /psyche.12
9. Be on guard against mislabeled memories. Our raw memory images of what we experience are of four differing types: neuter, masculine, feminine, and collective masculine and feminine. If each is not ascribed the appropriate word type, raw reality is mislabeled.
Most mislabeling involves the use of sex-connotative names for things that are either imagined supernal life forms, abstract things, or human-made things (e.g.,“God Almighty,” mother nature,” “father time,” “a grandfather clock “).
10. All classifying and naming of (a) the particulars of our natural environment, and (b) the particulars of our cultural13environment have been done by certain of us human beings. For instance, it was one or more of us mortal creative mental powers who “called’ (named) the sunlit time ouh /day and the darkness time vkhk /night.
__________12 I.e., the whole aggregate of parts that make up the human mental self: (a) the voluntary conscious level mind’s I, and (b) the involuntary subconscious part that produces dreams, visions, hallucinations, good and not-good impulses, etc. other spontaneous things.
13 By cultural environment, I mean all the things that have been designed, made, established, said, or otherwise produced by we mortal creative powers.M
ay each of you be encouraged to begin thinking for your individual self(s) after a common sense manner about:
• What is real, and what is of fantasy, envisionment, or mere speculation?
• What is logical or credible, and what is not logical or credible?
• What is fair or good, and what is not fair or good?
We also need to keep the things of nature distinguished from the things we mortal creative powers have caused, established, or made. For instance, while spirituality appears to be of involuntary nature, all religions are the product of human volition.
Again, do not be awestruck by any person’s word. Every creative being ever to have come into existence on this planet has been of the same breed–Humankind. And however strange an event might seem to you, all that has happened on this planet since the origination of our species has either been of human cause, . . . involuntary nature alone, . . . or involuntary nature and human choice combined.
Thus, may we cease spooking ourselves by devising ghost beings, demi-deities, etc. superstitious characterizations to account for instances of involuntary natural phenomena which we might not immediately fully understand. My as rule of thumb is__if the conclusion is contrary to one or more of the laws of nature, the conclusion is incorrect.
Respectfully submitted, 14
14 See Ref. #041496 in Part IV- Appendix for a copy of my notification of birth registration certificate.2
An Affirmation ____________
Inasmuch as everything I now do or view is considered within the framework of what I have come to believe or disbelieve since January 14, 1969, about the Cause of the primary natural cosmic world and subsequent natural events, I am including a synopsis of those beliefs and disbeliefs here at the forefront part of my account.
I. All things which exist, exist in time and space. Neither time nor space was created. Both space and time are of an infinite15 dimension. Before the first primary elements16 were created, time and space necessarily existed. The word universe stands for only that portion of infinite or absolute space occupied by (1) primary natural things,17 (2) sub-primary things, 18 and (3) secondary things.19 Likewise, the word year refers to only relative or astronomical finite time; fundamental time is infinite.
15 I.e., was not created, has always existed, is of the absolute world dimension. Albeit infinite space is of an indeterminate physical size, it is necessarily of a real size.17 I.e., Only those things which were caused to come into existence up to and including the first generation of living things of human creative being kind.
18 I.e., (a) things produced or reproduced after a completely involuntary or automatic order, and (b) things produced or reproduced by way of involuntary nature and human choice combined (e.g., human babies, crossbred animals, hybrid plants, cloned animals).
II . I believe that both the primary elements and the primary entities20 made from various unique arrangements of those atomic particles were the artwork of an Infinite/Absolute Creative Mental Power.21 So was the preestablished primarynatural process by which each species was seemingly gradually caused to come into existence. Of this I am unable to experience any sustained disbelief.
III. It is also my firm belief that our prayers are automatically intercepted and processed by the ever-silent, but seemingly divine (holy), spiritual presence22 within the involuntary subconscious part of our mental selves commonly called conscience. However, it would appear that explicitly honest or straightforward I-to-You directed praying is a prerequisite for stimulating this inner spiritual presence to significantly helpful ordinary or routine sensory emissions, as well as the comparatively rare visions.
I am also convinced that extraordinary spiritual revelation happenings are produced by the involuntary part of our mental system. That is to say, I do not believe that the envisioned Almighty Creative Power has ever directly communicated with a mortally-existing human being.
IV. Neither do I believe that the Almighty has at various times altered or manipulated the natural involuntary weather patterns and/or other involuntary nature forces23 in order to selectively torture, confuse, abuse, punish, or even exterminate specific individual ones of us while sparing some others of us.24
Neither has any child been directly begotten by the Creative Cause of our species, as was claimed in Mark 1:1: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God [ QeovvH / the Supreme Deity or Power].” Every child is begotten via the sperm of a reproductively adult male human being.
20 E.g., stars, planets, moons, et cetera, . . . and lastly, the first or origin generation of each species. 21 I.e., Even the Almighty Thou had to exist in real space and at some real time while designing, and causing the primary cosmic world to come into existence in the universe sector of infinite space.24 E.g., Forewarning Noah of the impending deluge of flood waters, but leaving the other inhabitants to drown; destroying the bulk of the citizenry of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, but saving Lot; and killing the firstborn of the Egyptian, but sparing the firstborn of the Hebrew slaves.
V. I do not believe that any act of involuntary nature ever cancels or invalidates any other act or law of involuntary nature. For instance, both “immaculate conception” and “resurrection” are contrary to the laws of nature. For a fact:
1. A female human being can be impregnated against her will (raped) by a male human being, but no child is begotten by involuntary nature alone. Immaculate conception and other happenings dubbed “miracles” are merely natural events of which the actual details are not immediately clarified by us.
2. Corpses do not come back to life. Be the corpse of animal kind or human kind, a fully dead body cannot be revived (resuscitated/ resurrected).3. Physical ascension of the body up into heavenly space is another unwarranted biblical author(s)’ claim. Upon the death of the body part of ourselves, the invisible mental soul may rapidly ascend upward toward another realm of space. But for a human body to freely ascend or rise up into outer space, the earth’s gravity would have to cease functioning--and it obviously never has.
VI. It is also my firm belief that all sensory presences that appear before us are caused by the natural involuntary part of our mental self(s); that is, I do not believe in the existence of either a Supernal25 demonic being (Satan ,Devil/ adversary), Supernal angelic messengers, or mischievous little Supernal messengers (cherubs) that shoot us in our hearts to cause us to fall in love.
VII. I do not know whether the Originator-Owner of the primary world is good or not. All I can affirm to is that the more explicitly honest or candid I am when praying out my thoughts to this envisioned Absolute Creative Power, the more I come to understand, and more at peace I feel.
VIII. I also do not know that immortal life follows upon the death of the human body. But if everlasting or continued mental existence is not our ultimate common destiny, human life is of no more value than that of the gnat. My tentative thought is that immortality is a fact. It’s only a thought, not a firm belief.
25 Compound words containing the word nature or natural imply things of the natural world. Therefore, I use the word Supernal rather than supernatural when referring to either the Creative Cause of the primary cosmic world or associated metaphorical personified supernal beings (e.g., satan /lit. adversary, angel/ lit. messenger).
IX. I do not believe in either an infinite hell or everlasting damnation. That would be an Absolute injustice. Moreover, there is no evidence in involuntary nature with which to support such a theory. Indeed, why would any one of us s u p p o s e that the Almighty Thou would make no allowance for the fact that each of us mortal creative beings begins life on earth totally ignorant of what is safe or wise to do or consume?
As for the “born sinner” claim, no child is a sinner at birth. It is our personal choices that are more or less either sinful or not sinful. Neither are all of our involuntary impulses or inclinations sinful; some are of a good or righteous quality.
And albeit the good or just behavior would be the only rational goal for us to strive for, we naturally physically weak and emotionally frail finite level creative beings of humankind cannot be expected to:
1. Never cease striving to overcome fear of the unknown or unfamiliar;
2. Never fail to discern and choose the good things over the not-good things;
3. Never fail to avoid misrepresenting ourselves;
4. Never fail to share the planet’s distributed natural resources with each other;
5. Never fail to appreciate each another’s diverse and differing high talents;
6. Never fail to avoid cowardly or unfair choices;
7. Never succumb to the self-defeating folly of making idols of some of us (e.g., Jesus), the creative works of one or more of us (e.g., the Jewish, Christian, or Moslem Scriptures), or some other of-the-cosmic world thing (e.g., like those to which the ancient Greek and Roman male and female deities of war, love, et cetera were associated).
While I do not believe that either the biblical or modern day authors intended any disrespect, it is both disrespectful and misleading to portray either (a) the envisioned ohvkt/ Infinite Almighty Creative Power, or (b) vuvh/ the inner self-revealing holy spiritual
presence as speaking characters in fictionalized biblical narratives, poetry, novels, movies, or TV dramas.X. I interpret life of creative being kind to be of three distinct types:
A) Infinite/Absolute__life without a beginning, and without an end. B) mortal/or finite life__life with a beginning, and with an end. C) immortal/or eternal life__life with a beginning, but without an end.
Mortal ( f i n i t e ) life is the only known or verifiable kind of creative life we can relate to. Neither Infinite life nor immortal life is mortally knowable. Therefore, all of our conclusions about these other two kinds of life are necessarily speculative.
I trust that my conclusions are not in error, and that my manner is acceptable.Amen
3
About My Writing Style
Words are the clothes that thoughts wear__ only the clothes. 26
vkhk tre lajku ouh rutk ohvkt trehu 27
And God [the Almighty] called the light Day and the darkness He called Night. Gen. 1:5.28
___________
Literature is of two general genres: fiction and nonfiction. Whereas the bulk of Genesis, Exodus, and the other books of the Torah appears to be based on real events, the recounting of those events is done in a heavily fictionalized narrative literary style rather than literally descriptive nonfiction prose.
Figurative speech can be helpful, but it can also have the adverse effect upon our minds__ even to the extreme. It depends upon w h a t the stated or implied subject is. Helpful figurative speech is made up of words which stand for known or familiar things. Mr. Butler’s metaphor is fair because words and clothes and thoughts do refer to k n o w n things.
To be relatable, figurative speech must also represent an a c t u a l situation. Samuel Butler’s fictionalized statement does. For as with our bodies and the clothes we put upon them, the words with which we label our inner thoughts are add-ons. Check it for yourself(s). Does not your mind contain two types of memory images: (a) the natural or as raw unnamed ones of your experiences and (b) the one or more words or other symbols you use for representing each of those unnamed raw audio, visual, etc. sensory experiences or realities?
26 Butler, Samuel (1835-1902). English author.27 Unless otherwise indicated, all of my included Hebrew examples will be taken from the copy of the Tanach (Jewish Bible) included with the Hebrew/English word processor: DavkaWriter6. David Kantrowitz, CD-ROM ( Davka Corporation and Judaica Press, 1996-2002). DW 6. In each instance, the featured Hebrew word or phrase will be underlined, and the corresponding English translation of it italicized.
28 Unless otherwise noted, all translations of the Hebrew verses will be taken from the Jewish Publication Society of America’s 1917 English version of the Tanach downloaded from website: http://www.shamash.org. JPSIn contrast, the given biblical example of figurative speech is not helpful. Not only is the envisioned subject an unknown, the predicated part is untrue. Points of Fact:
g Both the parts of the cosmic world and all the events which have been detected to have occurred within it have been named by one or more of us finite level human creative mental powers__not The Almighty Thou.
g Neither is the Genesis dramatization of the origination of the primary cosmic world an eyewitness account, for no human existed to witness the origination of the coming into existence of the primary cosmic world creations.
When expressing our views or conclusions about either (a) the presumed Infinite Cause of our species, or (b) the causes of involuntary natural events, we need to do so in a literally descriptive straightforward nonfictional manner. Ascribing speaking lines to either the unknown ohvkt /The
Almighty Ones29 or the silent inner vuvh/ holy presence 30 (or any other part of our subconscious)is not at all helpful. Of this I am certain. Although I shall at times be expounding upon the origination of our species and subsequent natural events of both ordinary and extraordinary kind, it will not be done in the fictionalized style of the biblical authors.
But let me also hasten to note that the authors of the Hebrew Scriptures had several linguistic disadvantages which we users of English do not have, . . . and that this handicap needs to be allowed for. A detailed commentary on the integral flaws of Classical Hebrew and consequential limitations imposed upon the users of that language will be addressed in the critique on Biblical Hebrew to follow after this entry. All I wish to point to now is t h e n e e d to i