God as a state of consciousness
Dec. 5th, 2001 06:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
novapsycheTo think about God is to distance one's self from the thing itself. It is only by being, by letting go of the concept of God--indeed, to let go of all concepts held--can one experience the thing in itself.
Yahweh: A name of the Hebrew God, represented in Hebrew by the tetragrammaton ('four letters') Yod He Waw He, transliterated into Roman script Y H W H. [...] The name may have originally been derived from the old Semitic root, hwy meaning 'to be, to become.'
"Tracing the Synapses of Our Spirituality," Washington Post
"Brain Area Affects Sense of 'Self'," ABCNews.com
Why is it so hard to believe that what we experience as "God", as a higher power, is indeed just a sensation, a causation of our mental processes?
If Y H W H may be derived from a word that means "to be, to become", how exactly is that any different from a person blossoming into being? How is that definition any different than how we experience our self-consciousnesses day in and day out?
In Deuteronomy, God declares, "I am the great I AM." Don't our consciousnesses tell us the same?
The answers I've come to as a result of these simple questions have led me to sincerely believe that God is a state of altered consciousness. This state is one by which we can communicate through an imaginary intermediary (i.e., prayer, esp. prayer to or through 'Jesus'), or directly communicate with through entheogenic substances, or deep mediation, or gnosis.
This is why I identify as New Age more readily than 'Christian' or 'Buddhist' or anything similar. I believe in the self as an avenue to the Source, not just "the soul" (which I, incidentally, do not believe in). I believe that God--what we experience as 'God'--is a particular resonance of one's spirit. This is why I believe entheogens are what they are....
Yahweh: A name of the Hebrew God, represented in Hebrew by the tetragrammaton ('four letters') Yod He Waw He, transliterated into Roman script Y H W H. [...] The name may have originally been derived from the old Semitic root, hwy meaning 'to be, to become.'
"Tracing the Synapses of Our Spirituality," Washington Post
"Brain Area Affects Sense of 'Self'," ABCNews.com
Why is it so hard to believe that what we experience as "God", as a higher power, is indeed just a sensation, a causation of our mental processes?
If Y H W H may be derived from a word that means "to be, to become", how exactly is that any different from a person blossoming into being? How is that definition any different than how we experience our self-consciousnesses day in and day out?
In Deuteronomy, God declares, "I am the great I AM." Don't our consciousnesses tell us the same?
The answers I've come to as a result of these simple questions have led me to sincerely believe that God is a state of altered consciousness. This state is one by which we can communicate through an imaginary intermediary (i.e., prayer, esp. prayer to or through 'Jesus'), or directly communicate with through entheogenic substances, or deep mediation, or gnosis.
This is why I identify as New Age more readily than 'Christian' or 'Buddhist' or anything similar. I believe in the self as an avenue to the Source, not just "the soul" (which I, incidentally, do not believe in). I believe that God--what we experience as 'God'--is a particular resonance of one's spirit. This is why I believe entheogens are what they are....
(no subject)
Date: 2001-12-05 10:19 am (UTC)Well, bypassing the fact that anything we experience is a sensation or a causation of our mental processes by definition, I think that for many, their definition of is that God beyond us, not in us. God is transcendent, not immenent. In a lot of thought God is a separate entity. That's the nature of deism. Pantheism and panatheism have different definitions of the divine.