With Chet Raymo's philosophical explorations of science I got to thinking. At what point does the institution of science get in the way of science itself? Many would agree that science is necessary in today's world and that hordes of our technological and lifestyle achievements can be attributed to scientific discoveries. At some point in the 20th century, however, science stopped being a philosophical study and started being a business.

This is a natural development for any important movement in the 20th century, what with the advent of capitalism and the free market. Science had to institutionalize to survive and did so across the board from medicine to space exploration. But like so many other things that institutionalized, there is a certain "$5,000 toilet seat" factor that may outshine the need to progress.

How does science keep itself in balance? How does the needs of financial survival get balanced on the need for progress? How do we know, for example, that medical advancement isn't solely for the benefit of drug companies and that warehouses of studies on the effects of chemicals aren't for political agendas? How does the industry of science remain as empirical as it's practice?

Photo courtesy of Savannah Grandfather at Flickr.com.

There are billions in this world that will say with absolute certainty religion is as vital as food or water. Religion is more than only a system of dogma agreed upon by a group of people and it is more than a set of institutions that sway and influence thought. It is an expression of humanity. In today's modern world, with empirical thinking in the driver's seat, how is it that religion has remained so fundamental to the lives of so many?

Personal beliefs aside, I have to admire religion as a social force. No political force can accomplish what it does. No pattern in history has caused so much chaos and at the same time so much unity. No process has been so accepted by so many without prejudice. Nothing is as social volatile nor is there anything as socially widespread.

What is this enigmatic need to commune with the divine in such an orderly fashion? It is one thing to spiritual, or indeed mystical. One can certainly commune with ideas of divinity without structure, institutions, tradition or ritual. However, as far as spirituality goes the non-religious sort is in the vast minority. Not only do we seem to need to embrace the concept of divinity, we also need a system in which to do it. We must feel, as a species, that we cannot be left to our own devices in order to tackle concepts of divinity.

In the past two hundred years mankind has made great strides in knowledge. The cavernous reaches of the unknown are now in a brilliant spotlight. There is very little we do not understand and even fewer things we cannot explain. The role of supernatural belief has fallen in the backseat as we drive our way along the information super-highway. Yet through all of our knowledge and understanding most of us cling to faith and not certainty.

As we explore spirituality on the internet at The Way Things Are, I'd like to know what readers think of how religion and science are reconciling all of this. Can faith and knowledge co-exist? Is there bound to be conflict until one squelches the other?

Photo courtesy of  Max Kiesler at flickr.com

Without a doubt:

The World Wide Web

Coffee Shop Mystic Free Magazine: February 2008

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In This Issue

- What is Mysticism? Exploring modern mysticism

- Mystery! Discovering the ancient Mystery Cults

- The Wickedest Man in the World: The life of Aleister Crowley

- Egypt in San Jose: Walking the gardens of the Rosicrucian Park

Please visit the Coffee Shop Mystic community.

There is something to be said for gods and immortals. Civilizations have destroyed other civilizations over their differences concerning them. Families have been murdered, nations overthrown, armies sent across oceans, cars stolen, bombs made over them. For never having shown their face in modern times they still have a huge influence over the decisions people make.

Like every year since Manifest Destiny was thought up Oklahoma was ravaged by a massive quarter-mile in diameter tornado. An entire town of unfortunates leveled by awesome wind and debris. A flustered news correspondent for a national syndication climbs over a pile of concrete, followed by a sweating cameraman wearing plaid and a beard. They reach a plateau of debris, loosely covering the foundation of a two-story five-bedroom house. The only thing standing is a weather vain neatly tucked in a pile of collapsed wood.

At the crest of personal disaster, a family of hard-working American icons stand: an unshaven father, holding the gentle hand of his eight-year old daughter, still clad in a nightgown and clutching a stuffed duckling. To the father’s right stands a mother, face worn with tears and fright. She grips her husband’s arm like she was trying to keep from falling. In front of the cascade of horror is a boy, maybe ten, wearing his father’s flannel shirt over torn and bloody pajamas.

The correspondent gently approaches the abominable family and tries to delicately point her microphone at their silent sobs.

“We are thankful that God saved our lives,” says the boy with a genuine smile.

It brings up a question: how can people who have eliminated all discoveries with science and technology be so influenced over forces that no one has seen in thousands of years? Gods and immortals have a magnificent control over humans.

We now have to ask, who are these gods and immortals? God, Yaweh, Jesus, Allah, Buddha, Shiva? Zeus, Ra, Baal, Chichen Itza? Sure, history tells us who they are, but who are they really? We should know. After all, most of us make all decisions based on them and many of us live in fear of them. We thank them for saving us from disasters they created, we blame them for atrocities, we print praises to them on our currency, we thank them before we eat, we kill for them, we are controlled by them through our own will.

Who are they?

Maybe they are concepts. Not figments of our imagination, as such, but rather ideas that societies as a whole generate to give political and spiritual guidance. This would be an easy concept to swallow, however, nothing is quite that simple. For one, societies don’t think, they behave. Secondly, the truth is never this complicated.

They are people who have a better seat than the rest of us.

We should not develop religions worshipping their position. Instead, we should get out of our seats and go to where they are.

The view is better there.

Planted in Zaadz by Glenn, this is a very potent exercise and I encourage all thinkers to do it. Put what you believe into a single few hundred word statement. Take a look at this pod to find your voice: This I Believe: http://pods.zaadz.com/this_i_believe

The road we walk on in life was carved by our own hands.

Having been reared in a fundamentalist world I was told at a very young age that our life was the Will of God. He had a plan for us and no matter what we did we fit into God’s Will. Yet, in the very same breath I was told that we had Free Will. How is it possible, I would think, that our life was planned out by God and that we can also choose our own path. Whatever path we’ve chosen is the one God laid out for us right? So what’s the point? Free Will is a myth. An illusion. We are not actually free to choose our own path if God has already chosen it for us.

Many fundamentalists get many things wrong and perhaps it was dogma like that that pushed me into a life of apparent heathenism. However, with any ancient teaching there is always truth buried beneath the mythology. The fundamentalists wanted to believe they had Free Will, but they also wanted to believe that God was omnipotent. The two concepts don’t necessarily always work with one another.

That is, until you realize that God is not an old man with a beard sitting on a cloud. God is a mortal personification of an impossible idea. There is no way we can possibly explain The Way Things Are in human words, we are quite simply limited by our third dimensional perspectives. And that third dimensional perspective is entirely the problem behind concepts like Destiny.

There are two personal truths I acknowledge:

The universe is infinite.
All things are ultimately one.

Based on these truths I have a very specific explanation for the concept of Free Will versus the concept of Destiny: we’ve created our own destiny.

We have chosen this particular level of perception long before we manifested in it and additionally we have chosen the path we want to take. During life we make choices that further direct our path. The more we stray from the path the harder things become. Reality may also have things in the way just because that’s the way it is.

But consider the wild card. We share this reality with every other creature that can perceive third dimensionally. They have also chosen paths. All of these paths are connected at the root and based on choices the paths intersect or don’t intersect. Each time a decision is made it will directly affect all of the paths it was intersecting with. That is the true beauty of infinity, the real truth behind Free Will and the cause for our sense of Destiny.

As I look down my path I know I have chosen it and that others chose all my interactions. But at the core we are all on the same path, because eventually when we broaden our perspectives enough we all are the same stuff.

This I believe.

I very much like the word “mystery”. Too often, terrible connotations of once noble words have corrupted and abused their purpose. I often find myself biting my tongue concerning certain beliefs in public because I do not want to be associated with the New Age movement, hack philosophy, or worst yet, lofty idealism. I respect and acknowledge astrology, follow many Eastern philosophies, perform various rituals and meditations, but I am not the same as an ignorant reckless person who latches onto every alternative theory that can be found in order to make themselves “different” or elitist. I am also not a gullible idealist, wanting to believe in ethereal powers to benefit my own self-destructive life.

The New Age movement has done wonders for introducing ancient traditions to the New World, but it has spiraled out of control. Now every philosophy or tradition that is not Christian is lumped into a single all-encompassing category and that is very detrimental to legitimate philosophies and traditions. Just because one practices Yoga does not mean one also believes in Ouija Boards and a Pagan and a Witch are not the same thing, further recognizing Genesh does not make one Hindu and being Hindu does not mean one believes in Western Astrology. One can practice acupuncture and not be Buddhist, one can practice Yoga and not be Hindu, furthermore one can practice alchemy and not be a witch. Finally, and most importantly, being a witch is not evil.

Throughout time, the Catholic Church has deliberately and systematically destroyed non-Christian beliefs in the western world. Firstly, by lumping any non-Christian religions or traditions into a single category called “pagan”, it dematerialized the various traditions and their purposes and origins. Being a wizard in Germany was a very different thing than being a Druid in England. Likewise, the Nordic gods were very different than the Roman ones. Just because a group of people did not worship Christ, than that made them one thing: non-Christians and there would be no subcategory.

Perhaps this subject is better suited for another discourse. The point I am reaching is that, despite completely different practices, cultures, histories, and beliefs, the word magic has come to apply to any ritual or practice by anyone not Christian. This is far too broad of a generalization to take the word seriously. Further, the systematic devaluing of pagan beliefs in the modern world has also applied the false connotation of evil with the word magic. If not evil, then the 20th century has applied the meaning “illusion” to the word magic. No matter the definition, the word is far too corrupted to be used in its purist form.

Alchemists practiced ancient versions of science. They also practiced magic, in its literal sense. The tradition of wizardry and alchemy lead to the tradition of modern science. It would be a mistake to call them magicians, even though magic was one of their tools. Instead of battling this word and its meaning, it is far better to choose a more fitting word for what alchemy, wizardry, and mysticism is all about.

Mystery is that word.

As the mystics teach, mystery is a word used by the ancients to describe knowledge. It was sacred knowledge that had to be earned through the rites of initiation and disciplined study. Mysteries were not to be taken lightly and carried the very truth of reality.

It must be made clear that I do not practice magic, New Age, or any religion. My whole purpose is to learn the mysteries. Mysticism is one integral facet to this and I am relearning what I once knew. To break the social bonds of ill-natured definitions, I must absolve myself of anything with a false connotation. I am not a wizard, witch, alchemist, devotee, druid, or magician. I am a student, learning the ancient mysteries.

Many pages have been ripped out of philosophical notebooks because words may have a difficult occupation expressing a philosopher’s thoughts. Perhaps the exploration of the facets surrounding a philosopher’s problem has led to the conclusion that the problem is not putting philosophy into words effectively, as it is simply writing words down to begin with. It is with no greater agony than is possible for a person to write down philosophy, however, because by doing so the very motion means the philosophy is real. Before that point it could have been passing thoughts, incomplete images, ideas and notions, but after the act it is a reality. Ink to paper. Thought to words.

Philosophy may not be an acceptable term in the dawn of the twenty-first century, wherein politics are game shows and emotions are constructed. One who claims to write philosophy are often construed as insane. Insanity, however is overplayed and overrated. It is a judgment applied to difference. We, socially, cannot understand what we do not know and so squelch it, stamp it as a problem and treat it with mind-erasing drugs. Philosophy is not insanity.

It has been a tiring day. The night fell hours ago and I am still writing thoughts. They are not written for therapy, but for clarity. It is important that my journey is chronicled. I can begin at the beginning, the end and at no place at all. Events make me, not the order of the events. Sequence is a third dimensional concept. It is important that third dimensional concepts are not confused for reality. I will take events as they come. Compile them into a sensible medium. A rite of passage. A walk. An initiation.

But now I am another spoke in the wheel of The Way Things Are, doing my part as it rotates its way through theoretical history. I am the student of Reality. The harbinger of society. The observer of dimensions. The architect of paths. The haven of the lost. The vanguard of humility. The contradiction within life. The time between lives. The space around the mind. The volume of the soul. The air behind voice. The impulse behind action. The time that measures time. The void surrounding substance.

I have wondered through the city when the earth has rotated enough for the sun to turn off its power on the west side of the planet. In a car, or otherwise. When most are asleep. I have seen few out. The nocturnal. The subculture. Driving casually, looking for authorities. They smoke cigarettes or they don’t. They drive or they walk. They are female or they’re not. They have two dollars or five thousand. They are drunk, they are sober. It is 2006 and 1932. These creatures of the night have destinations. Far and close. They have lives. Full and empty. They have fears. Real and unjustified. They have the city.

It is dark no matter how many lights are on. Reflections from the asphalt reveal forms familiar and unknown. It is a society of sleepers. These people are all at once unexposed. Perhaps free. There is no meaning behind flashing stoplights. They are free to stop or go. No sales pitches are being made. No rush to arrive anywhere. No desire to see the sunrise.
This is when the city is most alive. This is when they see the clearest. Facades are unnecessary. Image is nothing. It is me. Alone in a car with a choice of music. Buildings pass discretely. It is motionless, no matter the indications of the speedometer. It is quiet, no matter the decibels of the radio. It is awake, no matter the hour.

It is at night, in the city, when thoughts occur. Thoughts of societies, secret societies. Their relationships. What is to come.

These are the hours when it is necessary to be.

As the sun rises, the magic passes. Science is awake. The social dance begins. Image is turned on. The walkers go to work and the sleepers go to bed. Money is earned and dreams are dreamt. Lunches served. Questions answered. It is a rush now and the city is dark in the daytime. Humans act as cattle and insanity dies. This is when magic sleeps and when the mystic needs to be awake.

Exchange. Walk. Talk. Breathe. Run. Never whistle . . . they’ll know who you are. Nod. Buy a paper. Vote. Eat breakfast. Make a phone call. Sell. Serve. Consume. Purchase. Neglect. Reject. Honk. Chat. Prioritize. Decide. Learn. Take a break. Learn. Shovel. Set up. Clean. Eat. Rest. Walk. Watch. Ignore. Read. Listen. Nap. But always be awake.

And as the double yellow line escapes from under me weaving its way through nightened asphalt, I think. And thought is heightened by the night. I remember. I put together the pieces in this huge puzzle of cosmology.

Remembering last night in the poorly lit restaurant, that strange man who leaned over and said snidely, “It sucks drinking coffee by yourself.”

And thus started an engagement, mysteriously choreographed to strike notes on thoughts I had been saving. We talk of conspiracies, of games, of the eye in the pyramid. Knowledge is gained and we go our separate ways into the film noir.

We gather these things and remember them. Why was the gentlemen placed so lubricantly into my coffee hour? Why did he touch on subjects I’d spent lifetimes pondering? Answers only lead to more questions.

I am a student. I train to know. Every step towards knowledge results in magic. It is not for health or protection. It is much more. It is everything. It is nothing. It is neutrality. It opposes itself. To make a declaration of learning is to admit one is nothing but clueless. To admit one knows nothing. To admit one’s very philosophy and behavior are contradictory and furthermore to admit that the only true faith is to have none. It is natural to be paranoid. To question even the faiths that have led to perfection over a lifetime. To philosophize over philosophy and religionize over religion.

Our governments figured out a long time ago, perhaps before their birth, that religion and faith offer a blinding directional cure in front of the eyes of man. This blindness is comfortable. Freedom of religion is a reinforcement of a comfort zone we feel we need. It is cultural for us to believe in something. But our governments knew that all of it was nothing more than facades we ourselves created. Why hamper it? It is necessary for us to feel safe.
They knew better.

We are being guided by illuminated ones. It is not necessary to construct a belief system. Fact is always behind fiction. It is irrelevant whether or not people think what they believe is fact or truth, because it does not change nor affect what is really truth. We, as social creatures, constantly search for truth and in many different times in our lives, believe that we have found it.

The truth is, there is no truth.

I was somewhat acquainted with the Rosicrucian’s before May of 2004. The group came up in various studies of eclectic fringe history I participated in. My settlement upon the Rosicrucians was the result of a very lengthy an arduous journey beginning when I was 16 years old, deep in the suburbs of Denver Colorado.

In the early 1990s the world was in a socio-political and spiritual transition. Never before and never again would I see such great energetic activity. During the early months of 1993 my entire worldview changed as a series if inexplicable and insane events occurred. I refer to this time as the Year of the Sparrows, my first year of freedom from the mundane.

It should be my duty, one day, to completely regress into that year and pull out all of the finer points that occurred. This is not the proper discourse for that, so I will do my best to summarize. I will only focus upon those events and practices that guided my direction toward the Rose Cross.

The primary outcome of the Year of the Sparrows was that I unknowingly became a mystic. The events of that year permanently shifted my otherwise mundane future into a deep-seeded desire to learn about how reality works. I became an avid student of philosophy, history, religion, and sociology. At a young 17 years old I regularly read history texts that had nothing to do with my schoolwork and I took in everything I could about the world religions.

The events that sparked this path were many. I was introduced to not only the supernatural in the form of ghosts and spirits, but I was also a participant in paranatural events. For many who’ve seen a ghost, their religion and philosophy is usually unharmed. One can be Christian and believe in ghosts. However, when one sees the whole spectrum of things not human, or even third dimensional, religion fails to explain it. I was in the presence of deities and creatures that were never a part of the physical realm. Some creatures could not even be described as the traditional definition of demons and angels. I played an active part in a paranatural conflict that began long before human civilization.

It wasn’t until the late 1990s that I found information on what this conflict was. What I came to realize was that the cast in the small conflict were, in fact, only a small representation of the actual conflict. It was in a coffee shop that I first heard of the Illuminati and all of my studies and experiences made sense for every day to come.

Most who discuss the Illuminati and fringe science think they know a basic picture of how it all works, but unless someone has seen Illuminatus activity first hand, anything written is far too limited to take seriously. I read many books on the subject, some written by legitimate historians looking for historical patterns in human civilization, while others were written by paranoid freaks who use God and Country as a shield for their sickness. Like most unorthodox studies, there was a grain of truth in them all, and those grains piled into huge mounts in my mind as I was able to apply my own experiences to what these books said.

It is a mistake to think the Illuminati is an all-powerful group of old men that manipulate politics to better their situation. In fact, there is nothing villainous about the Illuminati at all, and further, the very act of personalizing them as a single organization is a completely misleading way to discuss them. Most historians and fringe scientists would be appalled to know that the Illuminati is not a bad thing.

During my years of study on the Illuminati I uncovered almost every secret society that ever existed and read about how they, in one way or another, messed up human civilization or played humans for pawns. Among these groups mentioned were the Rosicrucians, who have a notorious history of torture and evil bad-doings in Medeivel Europe. Of course, many of these stories came from the Catholic Church who had a vested interest in eliminating not only the Rosicrucians, but the Freemasons and any other group that may have, in any way, once been associated with the Knight Templars. So any story I read about any of these groups I took in stride. Instead of assimilating the information, I looked for patterns. And patterns were easy to find.

The course of human civilization, throughout history, has three influences. Many of the things that happened in history were not influenced at all, but were the natural progression of society. However, it is clear that there were times in history where social progress was interrupted, redirected or completely halted by one of three interests. At the most basic level these influences can be defined as Western, Eastern, and Middle-Eastern. That implies that different cultures are involved and that is simply not true, but it does mean that these influences often target particular cultures. In traditional mysticism these influences would be called Black, Yellow, and White schools of magic respectively. Everything in history can be associated with one of these three philosophies.

Once I learned the patterns, it was time to learn the specifics. I began categorizing different societies with different influences and started coming up with a clear picture of the alleged Illuminati. I found various casts of characters working in various capacities to execute various agendas. Although it was clear who was doing what, it wasn’t so clear as to their motivation and ultimately who was responsible for parasocial activity in the first place.

One pattern I discovered was that these influences were often portrayed as gods in various cultures and these gods have similarities between these cultures. Without going onto another tangent, I did come to the conclusion that the gods of the ancient world are the Illuminati today and further, they aren’t gods. They are traditions. Schools of thought. Ideaologies. Movements.

As I try to discipline myself more and access more of my innate memories, my path becomes more and more clear. There was no doubt in my mind that I had to join the Rosicrucians. I know who they are and where they came from and it feels like my home. It could be possible that my prior manifestations were a member of this order, but whether or not that is true, I believe that at the highest level the Rosicrucians are intricately involved in saving the human race from themselves. Those with a higher perspective have gathered into circles to push humanity into the next stage of evolution before it’s too late.

I will be there for that.