Over the weekend I was watching the excellent “Ascent of Money” documentary, when in the corner of my eye I spotted another video that also looked interesting; several in fact. Even though I was completely entrenched in The Ascent of Money movie, I didn’t want to forget about this other one that caught my eye. So as not to miss it, I clicked on it in order to share it publicly, to FB or Twitter or even Instagram, and ask people to let me know if it was any good or not. That video was entitled “Our History is Not What We Think“. As soon as I clicked on it to save to a playlist and share it I found myself completely captivated by its content. It’s one hell of a ride. So I began watching IT instead. (Don’t you hate when that happens?)

Most of it is stuff that we’ve already seen or heard before. It’s more than a tad challenging for yours truly at this point to find anything I haven’t already seen or heard of or studied– outside of the ever expanding “tech” underworld that is. Much of the material in this one hour animated presentation seems to be based on the work of Drunvalo Melchizedek. This guy is WAY out there, mind you. By most people’s account he’d be considered a total crackpot, IF they’d heard of him or his work, which they haven’t. His focus is on something he terms The Flower of Life, a pseudo-science theory roughly arranged around sacred geometry, tantric sex and ancient alien theories. I had first started studying him back in the mid-nineties, long before there was a thriving internet or animated YouTube presentations to lend credibility to outlandish claims. Back then we would trade paperback books and pamphlets, rough-copied VHS tapes or snail-mailed cheaply printed newsprint quarterly newsletters in this very hush-hush underground world of alternate history and conspiracy theories. Now there are whole TV shows and networks dedicated to this kind of thinking. Like all things once “niche” it too has become rather mainstream.

In a nutshell the basic idea of this particular “alternate history” movie is that humankind has forgotten it’s real history and has instead embraced the much newer history that the major religions and empires of the world have put forth more recently in our history — think Roman Empire, Christendom, Islam or the British Empire. Nothing too outlandish about that. Perfectly believable premise frankly. Anyone who has really studied the underbelly of human history understands that our true history has been lost for ages and replaced by a revisionist history that is always being written and rewritten by whichever group happens to be in control at the time; in other words — the meanest strongest toughest or cruelest people at any given time in our slow evolution as a species rewrites our shared history in their own image and demands that everyone believe. And for the most part, most people do.

But from that first point of feasibility, the documentary leaps out onto a slippery slope so outlandish that it’s more entertainment than believable academic study. It questions how the ancient Sumerian and Egyptian cultures were so advanced, how the Mayans were able to create the world’s most accurate calendar or have an understanding of the precession of the equinox; brings into light ideas about alternate universes, higher dimensions, the Tree of Life, the Flower of Life, the Merkaba, the Talmud, the Kabala, Ascended Masters, Spirit Guides, you name it. It even asserts that the Hebrews are a non-earthly lifeform that emigrated to earth tens of thousands of years ago, along with the Martians and the Greys. Nothing new in here. Heard it all before. Just all put together quite neatly and succinctly. For the pure pleasure of taking the trip, it’s more than enjoyable, and if this kind of knowledge does interest you, there are tidbits here and there that are interesting.

I was fascinated by the onslaught of comments in the right-hand column by people infuriated that anyone would or could possibly believe such “nonsense” — especially the religious lot of them. They spoke as if the video’s very existence was an insult to their life. Many engaged in endless debates with others filled with angry tirades, misspelled words, red herrings, non-sequitors, slippery slope assertions, ad hominem attacks and insults and the worst grammar this side of kindergarten. I’ve never understood the merit of arguing with someone who you don’t know personally, will never meet and whom you have nothing in common with. Especially when you’re in a public place and on their turf. It’s one thing, if that’s your schtick and you wholeheartedly disagree with what you consider blatant misinformation. But if you’re a practicing theist, you’ve already stepped out onto the ledge and into the land Oz. So why bother starting a fight with people who have absolutely no conception of your view of the world and no intention of changing theirs? More than anything, the video — though it claims to offer a realistic alternative take on human history if one just opens their mind — is so far fetched that I can’t believe anyone would take it any more seriously than the latest sci-fi flick. I certainly don’t get why anyone would bother arguing the merits of such outlandish claims. Especially when they themselves are already professing to believe equally outlandish belief systems such as any of the Big Four religions that have so preoccupied humankind over the last two-thousand years.

It did get me thinking though. About a subject that I have been meaning to write about for some time. What we find on planet earth presently is a variety of different groups of people who each believe a different set of religious or spiritual beliefs or principles that all seem opposed to one another — which has been one of the major causes of war and bloodshed in our short recorded history on earth. Christians will tell you that new agers are all wrong; as will Muslims or other theist types. New Agers will claim that those who practice any of the Big Four religions are brainwashed and closed-minded. Atheists consider the whole lot of them crackpots. Which I think is hilarious since atheism itself is just as whacky and far fetched a religion as any of the Big Three or Four (depending on if you include Hinduism in the group). It’s just the opposite side of the same coin, Atheism that is. There is a God. There isn’t a God. Okay…. prove it. Right? Impossible on either side. So I tend to be more open minded, choosing instead to take the “honestly I have no idea” view. You can’t prove there is no “god” any more than you can prove that there is a “god”. Taking either side is pointless and reeks of ignorance, or at least a mind that is not very well thought out.

For example we know that Christianity is not an original idea, but a ragtag amalgam of different belief systems that stem from primarily paganism, Egyptian, Persian, Greek and Roman mythology. Islam is pretty much the same thing but just the 7th century Arabian’s version of it. Judaism stems from Persia’s Zoroastrianism along with a variety of ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Sumerian, and Pagan beliefs with a good lot of ancient Greek mathematics thrown into it, which lends a more mystical feel to the more esoteric aspects of it, and a hell of a lot of “our God is the best and strongest and he likes us the best” type of survivalist rhetoric. Judaism is very Darwinian in that respect: cultural survival of the fittest speak disguised as religion.

All the major Big Four religions currently being obsessed over by human beings have much in common and tend to agree more than disagree when you break them all down. The primary difference between them all is that THEIR GOD just happens to be “the best” and prefer THEM as “his chosen people” more than any other people. There’s an anthropological irony to it all that is so obvious that it makes it hard not to laugh when pondering or writing about it. If there had not been so much human life lost and so much misery caused by all of them through the centuries, this laughter would be a bit easier and not always feel so distasteful. But one just cannot get beyond the fact that as hysterically irrational and laughable modern religious systems are, they’re also extremely dangerous to the general survival of the human species in general; especially if you don’t happen to subscribe to one of them at any given moment in history — depending on who is in control at the time. Presently it’s the Christians and Jews running things with the Muslims in a close second. The Hindus have given up being in control in modern times, so they’re perfectly content letting their religious beliefs play second fiddle to the rest of them and being a punch-line to numerous jokes about “how many Gods they have” etc. In this respect, Hinduism has more a chance of serving the sincere seeker more simply because the religion itself has less need to prove it’s rightness or political import and believers can focus more on just using the beneficial aspects of the belief system to their own personal advantage rather than worry about how strong of a grip the religion itself has on the mechanisms of modern society or its politics.

To get back to this documentary, if we forget the more primitive legends and myths associated with the religions explored in it, it’s mind boggling how mathematically advanced early humans were when you begin to study the more esoteric Judaic writings. PI, The Golden Mean and the Fibonacci Sequence all come into play in early Judaism, which is more than impressive and suspicious. Advanced stuff for a people supposedly extremely “primitive” and still given to animal sacrificing and blanket misogyny. But again, the perception we have today of Judaism or Christianity is the “modern accepted view” of Judeo-Christian beliefs, AFTER both the rabbis of that day AND the Roman Empire stripped anything remotely intelligent from the writings or teachings offered to the masses. [This in and of itself is one of the greatest cons and conspiracies perpetrated on humans by humans in the history of humankind.] The real meat of both these religions is available to anyone interested in digging a bit deeper. Some of it can be quite advanced. It’s just not knowledge you’ll find being preached about or taught in modern churches or synagogues. Instead you get Noah and the Ark, Adam and Eve, Joseph’s magic coat and Jesus being born in a manger on December 25th when just about everyone knows that Jesus wasn’t even born in the winter, let alone December. But for now these principles seem to work for most people. If they only knew…

Speaking personally, it’s no big secret that I personally practice a loose version of Christianity, belong to the Methodist denomination and even attend and volunteer at a real church on a regular basis. It’s also no great mystery that I’m also an avid student of Avatar, Abraham Hicks, Sedona Method, quantum mechanics, witchcraft and high magic, ancient alien theory and just about anything “new age”, supernatural or paranormal if it interests me. I justify such apparent contradictions in my own belief system by stating that “it works for me”. And in the end, whatever works for you and doesn’t hurt anyone else, should be tolerated by others no matter how different it may be from what works for them. That’s the truly libertarian way to view the world and our fellow man. Frankly I don’t really see that much contradiction between Christian theology and New Age thinking, IF you understand the basics underneath them all.

You just have to, one, go to the roots — learn the history — the real history, and two, learn how to read between the lines. Let’s take two rather popular –though seemingly opposite and contradictory — viewpoints and break them down to show just how similar they really are. On the one hand we have the Theist viewpoint: this would include any of the Big Four religions of modern humankind, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Islam. All contend that a great and powerful all-knowing/seeing God exists who can hear our inner-most thoughts, hopes, dreams, fears and desires and does his or her best to intercede in our lives when we need it. If we pray to him or her, we have a better chance of experiencing the life of our dreams; because “God answers our prayers”. Take Joel Osteen as an example of your average Christian leader. Osteen is a friend. He’s someone I admire. [Though I must admit he sadly disappointed me a few years ago when he publicly flip-flopped on his views of homosexuals and “God’s view of them”, stating “I have plenty of homosexuals in my congregation and God loves all of his flock equally, I’m sure. But I couldn’t in good conscience attend a wedding or officiate at a wedding between two same-sex couples, because I believe that homosexuality is a sin.” This was a very different viewpoint than what Joel had previously professed just a few short months before. He was obviously feeling the heat from the bigger community of Christian pastors around the country — the so-called Moral Majority or Christian Right. Too bad. Because up until that point, Joel really held a great advantage over the rest of this group, even gaining access to people like me, those in the world of the intelligencia who would normally never even give someone like him the time of day. But I’m still holding out hope for Joel. One day he’s going to regret ever saying something so silly and small-minded. I trust in his connection with the Divine. He’s going to come around…]

So… Joel Osteen. He leads the largest congregation of Christians in the United States. He’s adored by millions and apparently hated by an equal number of people who find his brand of Christianity too wish-washy and easy. These types prefer a more stern and conservative “God” construct. They think that Joel is “perverting God’s word”. Little do they know that we’ve been doing that since the moment that we decided to attempt to write down “god’s thoughts” in the first place. As if. Joel preaches a very New Age version of Christianity. Yet he still calls it Christianity. His style has caught on with millions of people all over the world. He focuses less on God’s wrath and more on God’s love. The reason why this has caught such fire with so many people all over the world is because this idea resonates with something that we as human beings have been feeling in our hearts about our own view of “god” for hundreds of years. We just couldn’t shout it out loud because up until Joel (and plenty of others before him to be fair) came along, it just didn’t seem to vibe with what the general consensus of “god” was in mass consciousness. The Unity Church had been preaching this same thing for a hundred years at least. So too had Marianne Williamson and plenty of others. Joel just took it mainstream by cloaking it in traditional Christianity.

Personally, I’ve always found Joel to be an admirable person and an inspiring speaker. His sermons, though never as intelligent or thought provoking as say Stephen Bauman’s — perhaps the most intellectual Christian speaker of our time, are always moving and inspiring. One thing is certain about him: he wholeheartedly believes in a Divine Power in the universe that knows us, loves us and we can access from this dimension (call it the earthly dimension) through prayer. If one prays enough, they can create the life that they desire because God answers our prayers. He claims that his mother cured herself of cancer through prayer — that God cured her of cancer — and that the doctors and hospitals have confirmed this fact and consider it “a miracle”. I have no problem believing this. But perhaps not for the same reasons that Joel and his mother do.

Let’s take the other side of the coin: the so-called New Age theories about the mechanics of the universe. We can use Avatar as an example of it, or the Sedona Method, or Abraham Hicks or even the recent New Age phenomenon of the century — that movie The Secret. The basic theory of all these systems is that “we ourselves are creating our own reality based on our beliefs or vibrations”. If we change our beliefs, if we change our vibrations, we can change our experiences. That’s it in a nutshell. Some belief systems subscribe to a Divine Power at play. And some don’t, instead choosing to skip over that whole paradigm. Some call this divine power “The Universe” or “The Great Spirit” or “The Force” or “Source”…. None of that really matters. What matters is that these systems promote a more pro-active technique for reality creation, i.e. rather than praying to a God to create our lives for us, we create our own lives based on our beliefs and our general vibration. To me this ideology has always felt much less like a victim mentality than pure religiosity, which tends to promote a more sublimated approach to beingness; one must sublimate themselves to this divine all powerful force in the universe to be in “good favor” with it.

We can dissect the pros and cons of both systems ad infinitum, going as deep as humankind ever has, quote the greats and the not so greats till we’re blue in the face and our ego is as big as a hot air balloon, and still not actually get anywhere. This is called “going to seminary” or “becoming a rabbi or an Imam or a priest” in the religious world or “becoming ordained” in the New Age world. A lot of studying and memorizing things that other men made up. But we’re going to skip over all that and head right to the main thesis.

These two systems, the Theist view versus the New Age view, seem diametrically opposed to one another. One preaches a higher power is in control of everything — in an almost fatalistic sense, and one preaches that WE are actually in control of everything that happens to us. I tend to fall right smack dab in the middle of these two groups. Or completely outside of them. Depending on how one looks at it. Being an avid student of science, especially more advanced and esoteric quantum physics, I believe it is only a matter of time before science discovers that there really is a “Divine Force” in the universe. Einstein called it the Unified Field Theory — he was looking for the “fifth force” in the universe that controls the other four forces (those being gravity, electro-magnetism, and the weak and strong nuclear forces) and helps them to all work together. At present science is having a tough time figuring out how the current four forces in the universe all work together so seamlessly when they appear to be so opposed to each other. Especially gravity. He believed that there was a fifth force at play that we just hadn’t discovered yet. Science has come very close as of late to discovering this fifth force. Some assert that Dark Matter and Dark Forces are that fifth force. Some say that we’re still hypothesizing and haven’t proven the existence of Dark Matter or the Dark Forces. Some say that we have yet to discover this fifth force. Some claim that it may lie in the boson, the so-called “god particle”. Personally I don’t think that possessing a knowledge of the names of things is half as important as having an understanding of how it all works. An innate tangible or palpable understanding, as in knowing how to harness the power of these systems, regardless of whether one knows the names that man has arbitrarily attached to them or not.

Either way, I believe there is a good chance that in our lifetimes we will discover this fifth force, and that yes indeed it will tie all the other ones together quite neatly and explain a lot of what we have heretofore considered mysteries of the cosmos. Will it be “God”? Well that all depends on how attached one is to needing to believe that “God” resembles human beings. See, that’s the problem with modern theists’ view of “god”. They seem to have an uncontrollable and inexplicable need for “god” to resemble humankind. They’re all caught up in that whole “God created Man in his image” nonsense. So they’re expecting “god” to be a living breathing intelligent life-like organism. Fat chance. As I have explored numerous times here already, God is most likely a force alright, a mighty big and powerful one; but he/she/it is probably much less life-like and much more like “consciousness” itself. Without the need for an external body or vehicle to get around in. In fact, if I had to guess, I would say that “God” is probably just a giant ball or cluster of all consciousness that’s ever existed since the existence of the universe itself. And in that respect, “god” would not be physical at all. Though that shouldn’t stop scientists from searching for it. They’re definitely onto something in their exploration of Dark Matter or anti-matter and these mysterious bosons. The invisible equal to all things that are visible in the known universe.

So let us say that there is this pulsating Divine Power or Force in the universe that just IS…. It’s an “isness” more than a physical being. It’s most likely “being-less” that still “is”. But that doesn’t preclude it from being “something”. It could still be a very powerful force, perhaps the all-powerful force that theists have postulated for millennia. It just might not be a living breathing organic being in the human being/animal sense of the word. This is why some New Age thinkers tend to just refer to it as “the universe”. I personally don’t prefer this label, “the universe”, because as we already know that the universe as we currently label it is nothing but a giant vacuum that holds all that is. This force either exists inside of “the universe” — is a part of it, OR exists OUTside of it and holds all that is, including the universe, inside of IT. Either way, we fit in somewhere in this equation, albeit quite possibly in a very small near miniscule way. And there’s a good chance that WE as living breathing organic life-streams with access to consciousness can access this powerful force.

THIS is why prayer works. AND this is also why creating and discreating and changing our beliefs and vibration works. Either technique is going to achieve some kind of result, because both techniques summon this force. Some might say that through prayer they are accessing “God” and that “God is granting their wish to come true” because they’ve been good pray-ers. Others might say that because they’ve changed their beliefs and are thus vibrating more closely to that which they wish to experience that THEY are then more easily able to create the outcomes they desire. Both techniques seem to “work”.

In my humble opinion, both parties are doing pretty much the same thing. They’re just calling it different things. If a person walks around all day asserting that “God is my protector. God wants me to be healthy and happy and prosperous. God loves me and takes care of me”, and they experience this, are they not just talking themselves into believing this? And through believing this, are they not then vibrating this? In turn creating it as a reality? No different really than someone else who skips the “god” part of the equation entirely and simply asserts “I deserve to be happy and healthy and prosperous. I am filled with love. My life is wonderful”. They too experience the same outcome. Why? Because through constant affirmation of said statements they are slowly shifting their beliefs toward these vibrations and hence creating these experiences for themselves.

Both are really doing the same thing. Whether they include a “god” in it or not. Perhaps there is a great and all powerful force at play. This force is indeed helping to control and sustain the other four forces in the universe AND consciousness itself. Through connecting with and aligning with this force, any conscious being can create reality. Through affirming good things, we are attaching ourselves in consciousness to the more positive aspect of this force and using it to help create the outcomes that we desire in our lives that we consider to be “good”. And vice versa. Plenty of very bad things have been created in the world in the “name of God” and have manifested. Slavery, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Holocaust, the Genocide of the Native Americans… How do we explain “God” being all-good when humans have consistently used this force called “god” to do some very bad things throughout history? Unless this force doesn’t actually judge whether things are “good” or “bad”. Perhaps as some people claim, “god” is just a force that doesn’t recognize the duality of good and bad. I sincerely doubt it. But that’s just me wishful-thinking — attaching my own human views of good and bad onto my desired view of what “god” might be like. Not very fair to “god”. But how can I help it? I want there to be a “god” and I want him/her/it to be “good”. The problem of course is that one person’s “good” is another person’s “bad” is another person’s “who cares”.

If we choose instead to view “god” as a pure force… a pure energy… one that can be harnessed for both good or bad… by any organic organism — and I hesitate to limit consciousness to being solely organic in nature only — so instead let’s change that to “any state of consciousness”… — then what that means is that anyone or anything that extends enough will and effort to access this “god force” can do so and can use it to create whatever they so choose. Think Star Wars and the idea of “the Force”. When Joel Osteen advises us to walk around all day affirming how much god loves us and how much god wants us to succeed and be happy, in essence he’s really just advising us to do whatever it takes to change our “state” (Tony Robbins and NLP) or change our vibration (The Secret and Abraham Hicks) or change our beliefs (Avatar and Sedona Method) in order to create the reality that we prefer. He’s just using the “god” idea because it’s been so pre-programmed and indoctrinated into human consciousness for so many thousands of years. So for many people, it really helps them to think that “god” is at play in their lives. What they’re really doing of course is changing their state or beliefs or vibrations. And in exchange for them doing this, they can sometimes experience that their greatest wishes and desires come true in their lives. Why? They claim it’s because God answers prayers. But it might just be that they’ve begun to align themselves or their vibration with that which they prefer to experience through incessant affirmation and thought THROUGH praying. [Ultimately does it really make a difference?]

Or perhaps there really IS a “god” in the universe and that’s why prayer works AND that’s why affirmations and changing our state or beliefs or vibration helps — because through doing so we are more readily attaching our own consciousness to “god’s” and he in turn is picking up on what we’re sending out and rewarding us by granting us our deepest desires and wishes. Who knows?

The simple truth is that NO ONE really knows. Anyone who claims to know — be that person a rabbi or pastor or priest or pope or Imam or spiritual leader — is not being honest. They’re lying. At best they’re fooling themselves, through latching on to a quasi-state of a mass-consciousness belief system, participating in a state of mass hypnosis, no different than they did when they claimed “god supported and condoned slavery”. At worst, they know they’re not being honest, but benefitting too greatly from it to admit it. But in reality, most any intelligent or rational person we’d ever sit down in a quiet place with and talk one to one with would admit that they have no more a clue as to if a “god” exists in the world than the next person. And that’s perfectly fine. In fact, it’s preferable to someone who would swear up and down that they really believe that they KNOW that a “god” exists. After all, one day we’re going to be called out on this belief. And “god” help the man whose bluff is called and they can’t summon the power of this great and all powerful “god” when they need to. Best to keep the jury out on this one I say.

But absolutely nothing wrong with admitting that we’d LOVE for there to be a “god” in the universe, regardless of what form it decides to take or not take, visible or invisible. The real meat of the issue is that it does appear that we ARE capable of creating our experiences, our lives, our day to day experiences and circumstances… and the “how” is in our beliefs and vibrations. The true scientific mechanisms of how all this works we will leave to the scientists as we always have. One day I am sure they will figure it all out and let us know what’s really going on. In the meantime, we at least have a clue as to how to make things work out better for ourselves or at least more in our favor. And that’s a very good thing.