Category Archives: religion

Hinduism and ufos

Mar 13

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Here’s another question and answer at allexperts.com. Basically the question is about those who believe they’ve been abducted by a UFO and whether or not their faith – in this case Hindu faith – saves them.

From my perspective the question isn’t entirely clear and could be interpreted to mean that (a) the Hindu faith ends the delusion of being abducted or (b) it ends an actual abduction.

Whatever the case, I got around it by using the word “believe” in my answer, published here:

http://en.allexperts.com/q/UFOs-Aliens-2138/2012/3/hinduism-ufos.htm

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Today’s reading at Mass

Sep 6

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The Resurrection Mass in Stavropoleos, oil on ...

The Resurrection Mass in Stavropoleos, oil on canvass via Wikipedia

I was talking on Facebook earlier this morning about synchronicity, magic and spirituality. Then later at Mass, this reading sort of stood out:

8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces[a] of this world rather than on Christ.  9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.

Source: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+2%3A6-15&version=NIV

It seemed like a funny kind of synchronicity in itself.

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Review – Finding God: The Enlightenment (DVD 3 of 3)

May 24

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Title: Finding God: The Enlightenment – Disc 3
Genre: Body Mind Spirit, Religion, Meta-Physics
Production Company: Reality Films

(Review for Disc 1 is here; Disc 2 is here)

Philip Gardiner’s Finding God: The Enlightenment is a three DVD set including Quantum Mind of God, Science of Soul, and Ancient Code.

Disc 3, Ancient Code: The Movie is a welcome departure from other films using the word “code” in their title–e.g The Bible Code and The Da Vinci Code.

Skeptics who haven’t seen this film might hastily dismiss it as a jump on the bandwagon, the concept of the “code” having a good pretty track record in New Age marketing.

This movie, however, speaks to a code far deeper than mere opportunism. And the writers, artists and thinkers involved in its production are clearly passionate about their beliefs.

The film revolves around several themes found in other Reality Films, such as the divinity of nature and the interconnection of all lifeforms by virtue of the idea that, at bottom, we’re nothing more than nested patterns of light and dark energy.

It’s a compelling position, one prefigured by Baruch Spinoza‘s naturalistic pantheism (and later nuanced by the likes of C. G. Jung and Carl Sagan) to portray spirituality as the human response to a numinous power that isn’t necessarily out there but, instead, exists inside oneself.

Not everyone agrees with this view. But the curious and those genuinely open to learning will find several innovative ideas that some traditional religious and scientific frameworks may overlook or, at least, underemphasize.

By way of example, Ancient Code questions the entire notion of progress. The film doesn’t deny that humanity has made great technological strides, but it asks just how much we’ve developed as a sentient species located within the greater cosmos.

Excessive Western greed, individualism and cultural fragmentation are also addressed, in contrast to more holistic Eastern paradigms sharing a deep appreciation for the old adage–for every action there’s a reaction.

Observations on the roots of crime, a live pagan Horn Dance and a psychological interpretation of the Grail Quest make this DVD a veritable smorgasbord of alternative perspectives about the essential connection and need for balance among body, mind and spirit.

—MC

(Review for Disc 1 is here; Disc 2 is here)

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Jim Carrey denigrates Hinduism on SNL?

Jan 17

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Is being a Lesbian/ being gay a sin?

Dec 18

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Vintage photograph of two intimate women in a ...

Vintage photograph of two intimate women in a hammock, circa 1900 via Wikipedia

Here’s another Q&A at AllExperts.com, where I do volunteer work.

Catholics/Is being a Lesbian/ being gay a sin?

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Christian hip hop

Oct 4

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Jung Today: Reflections on Marion Woodman

Aug 1

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Marion Woodman, Jungian Analyst and Author

Marion Woodman, Jungian Analyst and Author

Copyright © Michael Clark, 2010. All rights reserved.

Marion Woodman is an influential Jungian analyst and author whose publications include Addiction to Perfection and the popular The Pregnant Virgin.

Archetypes and Power

In a post-9/11 address about Jungian theory and terrorism, Woodman says the concept of the archetype is “bandied about” today and tries to clarify this elusive concept.

“As the chromosomes are to the body,” she says, “archetypes are to consciousness.”

Woodman draws an analogy by asking us to imagine we’re holding a magnet underneath a piece of paper which has iron filings on top. When the magnet moves, the filings move along with it.

And so it is, she says, with archetypes and ego-consciousness.

The magnet below the paper represents the archetypal forces that have a dramatic impact on our daytime outlook. Or they may have an impact if we don’t recognize and tame their power.

Jungians believe that healthy ego development entails learning how to come to grips with the archetypes, thereby increasing mastery over one’s entire inner-outer environment.

For Woodman, the vast majority of Western peoples are blinded by a limiting Freudian worldview. Jungians tend to see Freud’s theories as a product of constricted psychic energy, contributing to an inadequate understanding of self and others.

Once we become aware of the archetypes, Woodman says life takes us into entirely new realms. We leave the proverbial river of Freudian theory and embark on the sea of Jungian psychology.

As Jungian Daryl Sharp once put it, the new joys and dangers of the archetypal ocean are quite real but some succumb to its destructive forces if the ego can’t keep step with a host of mysterious, invisible powers.¹

Conflict, Projection and Difference

Einstein once said, “everything in our world has changed except our thinking.”

Woodman relates this aphorism to global terrorism. While it’s pretty clear that humanity is essentially one big family, in terrorism and times of war our limited attitudes, influenced by archetypal energies, insist on projecting the embodiment of pure evil onto some other person or group.

This is Woodman’s and the general Jungian take on conflict. But it might be a bit simplistic. Could not one person or political regime, for instance, be more destructive, imbalanced and oppressive than another?

A further point for debate arises with the perception, sometimes advanced within Jungian circles, that all spiritual paths are the same.

Jung, himself, stressed individual difference. He also saw important differences among Eastern and Western religions.² While Jung encouraged individuality and knowledge (as gnosis), many of his adherents seem to have fallen into a convenient Jungian paradigm.

Just like the Christian churches Jung once criticized, some – but certainly not all – contemporary Jungians tend to conform to ideas and discursive patterns established by the Grand Master, himself, almost as if Jung were a holy and infallible guru.

Jung, however, wrote in his Memories, Dreams, Reflections that he didn’t “have things fixed.” As a psychiatric pioneer, he blazed a trail through the psychological underbrush. And it’s a task for posterity to clear new conceptual pathways appropriate for the 21st century.

Along these lines, Jung apparently once said, “I am glad to be Jung and not a Jungian.” As a Jungian he’s restricted by convention. But as Jung he’s free to revise according to his ongoing thoughts and observations.

Watered-down?

Another impression I got from Woodman’s address is that she, like many Jungians, portrays a sort of watered-down version of Christianity.

Woodman implies that the supposed past glory of the Christian Church rested solely on the inspiration of sublime art and architecture. The Church, she says, once conveyed the numinous but only a long time ago. And she ignores all those who say God’s grace uplifts them within the framework of the Christian Church–not just 500 years ago, but today.

On this point Woodman seems to liken the aesthetic appreciation of statues, paintings and stained glass windows to the indwelling power of God.

But is appreciating created beauty really equivalent to encountering the power of God?

It’s easy to stereotype Christians as one great body of Bible-thumping fanatics or, perhaps, as regimented automatons too insecure to experience God outside of the authoritarian but reassuring confines of ecclesiastical structure.

But these common caricatures ignore the very real possibility that some Christians may be called into and flourish within traditional religious frameworks, as suggested by figures like St. Faustina Kowalska, St. Francis of Assisi and Thomas Merton.

Moreover, we might ask if anyone can, indeed, exist without some kind of system in place. Perhaps the real challenge for our post-9/11 world is to understand and appreciate how various networks interact and potentially mirror our respective human strengths and weaknesses.

With this approach we might collectively identify and redirect the destructive, obsessed or deranged in the global community, thereby encouraging the much sought after qualities of progress, peace and love.

Notes

1. This reference is from an address by Sharp. If I remember correctly, the title is “Jungian Psychology Today: The Opportunity and the Danger.” When I recover the hard copy I’ll cite it fully–it’s currently deep within my library.

2. (a) Compare to Moojan Momen’s perspective as outlined in The Phenomenon of Religion: A Thematic Approach, p.114, posted at http://www.vexen.co.uk/books/momen_tpor.html. Momen overlooks the possibility that an actual being, Mary, chooses to appear in Portugal while another being, Kali, chooses to appear in India.
(b) And consider Geoffrey Parrinder’s comment: “The wise man may not practise the same [magical or religious] cults as his brothers, but he can regard them tolerantly as helpful at their level, while he himself seeks the truth about human life and the universe according to the best knowledge and insight available” (Parrinder, ed. Man and His Gods: Encyclopedia of the World’s Religions, London: Hamlyn, 1971, p. 21). Parrinder arguably doesn’t acknowledge the scenario where the outside observer knows next to nothing of the subtle dynamics, spiritual knowledge, graces and complexities of another person’s cult. Indeed, the person inside the cult may see the outside observer as a presumptuous spectator who thinks they understand when, in fact, they don’t.

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Review – Paul Tillich’s Christianity and the Encounter of the World Religions

Feb 6

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Tillich Park - new harmony indiana: paparutzi / christina rutz

This review also appears at Earthpages.org

I just finished reading Paul Tillich’s Christianity and the Encounter of the World Religions (1963).

Although it seems Tillich is somewhat confined by his particular conceptual categories and dialectical mode of thinking when speaking of the complexities of life and spirit, I found some of his observations interesting.

Perhaps most noteworthy is his assertion that a religion must adapt and change in order to survive. It must “negate itself” (can you hear Hegel clapping?) to continue to live and breathe the Holy Spirit.

This is very much like Carl Jung’s argument, but I wasn’t too surprised to see no reference to Jung in this book (up until about 1990 it was common in the humanities and theology to ignore or discredit Jung’s thought).

Consider this quote, appearing near the end of the book:

We know today what a secular myth is. We know what a secular cult is. The totalitarian movements have provided us with both. Their great strength was that they transformed ordinary concepts, events, and persons into myths, and ordinary performances into rituals; therefore they had to be fought with other myths and rituals—religious and secular. You cannot escape them, however you demythologize and deritualize. They always return and you must always judge them again. In the fight of God against religion the fighter for God is in the paradoxical situation that he has to use religion in order to fight religion (pp. 93-94).

In The Undiscovered Self Jung said, several years before Tillich, “You can take away a man’s gods, but only to give him others in return” (1958, p. 63).

When speaking of the fight of “God against religion” Tillich is talking about movements such as Communism, Fascism and those ossified, oppressive structures that apparently no longer communicate the Holy Spirit (for Tillich, this includes the Catholic hierarchy and sacraments).

It seems he’s pointing to the idea that we cannot escape two main elements in the human adventure: Power and belief. Whether or not the powers and beliefs we encounter are truly in line with God’s will is a question that any mature person will always want to carefully examine.

And yes, it takes belief in God and God’s power to overcome elements that are not from God. On this point I fully agree with Tillich.

However, as I’ve indicated, there’s much in this work that I found limited by his personality structure, Protestant beliefs and historical position.

Of course, a similar charge could be leveled against me. And to his credit Tillich points to this concern in his discussion on dialogue vs. conversion, and the related idea of non-Christian criticisms of Christianity being positively transformed into healthy Christian self-criticism (Tillich is speaking on a group level here, but the same dynamic could be applied to individuals).

Still, I found the book’s overall approach a bit stiff and it contained not a few sweeping generalizations. At times it seems that Tillich is just playing a little philosophy game with a lot of general intellectual ideas. And then suddenly he’ll come back to being relevant and make a good point or two.

In fairness, the fact that I’m taking the time to write this indicates that I found this book far more accessible and meaningful than most of the dry bones theological works I’ve encountered.

While some readers at amazon.com see Tillich’s conclusion as a sort of syncretic cop out, I find it somewhat optimistic, if perhaps simplistic:

In the depth of every living religion there is a point at which the religion itself loses its importance, and that to which it points breaks through its particularity, elevating it to spiritual freedom and with it to a vision of the spiritual presence in other expressions of the ultimate meaning of man’s existence.

This is what Christianity must see in the present encounter of the world religions (p. 97).

I say simplistic because it seems there are many different kinds of spiritual presences, ranging from quite impure (i.e. spacey, gloomy and self-obscuring) to exceedingly pure (i.e. holy, uplifting and self-affirming), a point Jung also touches on in his discussion of numinosity (as did Rudolf Otto and others).

Now, Tillich does talk about differences concerning the idea of individuality (and problems in defining it) earlier in the book with his comparison of Christianity and Buddhism. So it’s not as if he overlooks this point completely.

But it remains unclear why in his conclusion he glosses over the central issue of different spiritual presences.

These shortcomings aside, Christianity and the Encounter of the World Religions is a good little book and certainly worth the dollar I paid for it at the used bookstore.

–MC

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The belief in spiritual warfare: some complexities for 2010

Jan 2

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Stomp: follow777 / Milan Klusacek

This article also appears at Earthpages.org

When one hears the term ‘spiritual warfare’ images of uncompromising religious fundamentalists and TV preachers may come to mind.

The idea of battling demons is nothing new. Hindus have been familiar with it for centuries. As have Buddhists, Jains, Christians, Jews, Moslems, Shamans and Amerindians, among others.

However, not all persons see spiritual warfare in the same way. One historical example is found with the prominent Hindu philosopher, Sankara (c. 700 – 750 CE).

Put simply, Sankara characterizes the Buddha as an evil avatar–that is, a demon in the flesh. For Sankara all Buddhist distinctions between good and evil deities are misguided.

A similar problem arises when we compare Christian and Hindu spiritualities. For some Christians the entire pantheon of Hindu gods and goddesses are demonic; meanwhile Hinduism itself distinguishes among helpful, harmful and sort of trickster-like deities that may seem ethically ambiguous to some.

Confusing? Yeah, a little. At least, it can be if all we have to rely on is a pile of books or Wikipedia.

This kind of riddle is probably insolvable through reading alone. Arguably we have to experience how different spiritual pathways make us feel–and not just think or, even worse, uncritically adopt a politically correct position.

I’ve developed my own criteria to discern what’s right and not so right for me. It’s not a rigid checklist but an ongoing investigation, subject to change according to my experience and reflection. And perhaps everyone who cares about spirituality should develop their own criteria.

Another interesting wrinkle within the idea of spiritual warfare is found in the psychiatric perspective.

Psychiatry is a more or less unified worldview as to what’s right and wrong with people’s heads and their related behavior. The science of psychiatry has developed dramatically over the past few decades and enjoys a high degree of ideological influence, legitimacy and power, these powers differing somewhat according to local policies and laws.

Anti-psychiatry figures usually point out that homosexuality was a disorder in the 1960s and early 70s before the American Psychiatric Association (APA) declassified it as a mental disorder in 1973.

One can view this fact negatively or positively. Anti-psychiatry figures tend to uphold it as alleged evidence that psychiatry is a sham. Meanwhile, supporters of psychiatry argue that science is always changing and evolving. And the fact that the APA made this positive change is evidence of its scientific credibility.

I tend to embrace the latter view, hoping that psychiatry will continue to grow and recognize not only spiritualities linked to major, established religions but also to those prayerful wildflowers, if you will, who are healthy, beautiful and doing good works but not adhering to any major religious group.

We need pioneers of the spirit who can see through all the varnish, hoopla and hypocrisy of organized religion. Otherwise there might not be any significant spiritual evolution for mankind.

With this in mind, the other day I saw a PBS article about an alleged psychiatric emergency in India. Something about the article struck me as incomplete but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

  • Psychiatric Demands Jump as India Battles Mental Illness | PBS NewsHour | Dec. 29, 2009 | PBS: http://bit.ly/8wBbKb

Read and decide for yourself if perhaps the article is a bit hegemonic about the (implied) wonders of 21st century medical science and its associated worldview.

I just wanted to spell out some of the complexities around the oft misunderstood notion of spiritual warfare. There’s no unanimous agreement. For some, gods are demons while others say those very demons are gods.

And atheists might write off the whole gamut of religious deities as some kind of man-made security blanket or possibly hallucinations to be fixed with psychotropic medication, no matter how harmful the short or long term side effects of those medications may be.

This much said, I’d like to direct the reader to the article, Spiritual Warfare Study: Truth Cries Out. Please recall that Earthapages is about dialogue. This piece represents just one perspective among many in this largely unsolved yet important area of debate.

–MC

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Back to Church…

Dec 7

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I was getting that dull feeling that comes if I’ve been away from Mass for too long and going to St. Michael’s Cathedral in downtown Toronto to receive the Eucharist helped to make me feel spiritually well again (so much for all those materialists, skeptics and New Age pundits who say there’s nothing to organized religion…).

But going to church is not always entirely uplifting. There have been irritating things about some churchgoers. Like those who gave me funny looks (before the H1N1 scare) when I didn’t want to risk picking up germs by shaking hands during the Mass.

Now that they’ve been told by the Church not to shake hands with strangers for hygienic reasons, there’s suddenly no more hostile looks or, as happened one time, almost aggressive gestures of disapproval.

Before all the H1N1 hype I was thinking for myself, as I often do. And thank God I was. It might have saved my life, even if I did have to endure a few unruly stares.

I guess the thing is, people are just people. None of us are perfect. And so it goes with organized religion. If we were all perfect, would there be any need for church?

Just some thoughts on a late Sunday night after Mass…

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