Religion/Spirituality

Mine Do! *strut*

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Those of you who follow me regularly know I’ve been struggling through a messy post series lately. The topic? Spiritual Enlightenment, and actual neurological changes in the brain that might go along with it.

I blame Oprah.

It all started with my attempt to review her multi-media marketing of Eckhart Tolle’s psuedo-Buddhism, ala A New Earth.

Then it snowballed into sharing my personal experiences and half baked hypothesis, which I’m afraid comes off like What-The-Bleep, Part Deaux. Still, I’m compelled to finish this series, trudging onward bravely…

First, a reminder of the science:

Modern neurological research has seriously shaken up our understanding of the mind/brain connection. Not only does the brain shape thought, but thoughts help shape the brain. [click to continue...]

Read Part 1

So. Where were we in the discussion of my personal computerized neuro-enlightenment madness? Oh yes, we were about to speculate on contributing factors: exactly how a new computer and online interaction may have brought on a burst of neural re-organization akin to enlightenment.

Here goes:

Sudden Exposure To New and Different Perspectives

I’d already had a pretty interesting mental reorganization as I learned basic DOS structure, and some early Visual Basic programming.

But accessing the Internet itself did more to broaden my perspectives, exposing me directly to people, ideas and cultures I’d otherwise never have encountered. I wasn’t just reading about them; I was interacting with people whose backgrounds spanned spanned generations, geography, income and educational levels. Mixed in was exposure to spiritual systems ranging from psychotic cults like Heaven’s Gate to traditional Buddhism.

Instead of looking on as a spectator, I was trying to put myself in these peoples shoes, to understand their perspectives and what made them tick. All that learning no doubt created a new neural pathway or two (thousand).

Removing Familiar Aspects Of Communication:

[click to continue...]

I cultivate a few unsavory vices; among them is a curious fascination with all-things pseudo-science.

It’s led to an unhealthy love of bad disaster movies, where teens are chased by killer frosts and “volcano tires” let heroes drive miles across molten, flowing lava.

Bad science is also responsible for my compulsive curiosity about late-night infomercials. (Did you know that 25 lbs of alien plaque can live in your intestines? Or that dangerous toxins can be leeched out through your feet?! Wowser, and only 29.95!)

But where pseudo-science really shines is in the “science” of Intelligent Design. (Come on, who can resist the life from a jar of peanut butter argument?) [click to continue...]

I don’t claim to be enlightened. And If I *am*, well, the bulb sure does flicker on and off, like an aging florescent. (Maybe the ballast needs replacing? An upgrade to the modern CFLs, perhaps, mercury be damned?)

Still, I *have*experienced the temporary insanity of expanded, exploding perceptions, and the bizarre aftermath of adjustment that never leaves anything quite the same.

I’ve come to understand those experiences from a number of perspectives less as a spiritual make over, more as an experience of neurogenesis - the brain creating new pathways, rerouting and rewiring itself to adapt to new demands and perceptions.

Here’s the story. Make what you will of it. [click to continue...]

Promises, Promises. I’m full of them, aren’t I?

Last week I promised you my personal “awakening” story, as part of exploring the Oprah/Eckhart Tolle presentation of “A New Earth”.

But as I wrote, I realized I couldn’t reduce it to a simple one post undertaking. It’s a sub-series in it’s own right, and the first part is nearly ready to be posted.

Before I get to that, I did finish reading “A New Earth” and, surprisingly, I surprisingly have very few issues with it, in and of itself.

Here’s an edited version of what I said on the Oprah site: [click to continue...]

So. I’ve made it most of the way through Eckhart Tolle’s “A New Earth”, as promised. I’m still maintaining an open, if discerning, mind - also as promised. And I still don’t hate it.
Oh, I did grit my teeth a few times, and sort of sputtered into my Diet Coke at least once.

But I’ll get to all that in another post. *This* post is about an honest insight I had while reading the first chapter.

First up, some definitions.

Neurogenesis / Neuroplasticity: Both terms refer to the brain’s ability to physically develop and rewire itself according to need. Even adult brains can create new connections between neurons, reroute tasks to different parts of the brain and in some situations, even produce new cells. It’s hard science, measurable and measured.

Enlightenment: In a spiritual context, enlightenment refers to a permanent state of higher wisdom, perception or understanding. Depending on the person talking, and the tradition they’re influenced by, it can mean anything from a simple awareness of their own nature, to the more complex [click to continue...]

If you’ve surfed the Internet at all this month, you’ve been bombarded by incessant tangerine for Oprah’s latest endeavor: a free online course about her book club pick, Eckhart Tolle’s “A New Earth”.

Eckhart Tolle (for those of us who live under rocks where New Age booksellers can’t find us) is one of the big names in the spiritual publishing/workshop niche. Oprah, of course, is Oprah. (And no rock in the world is big enough to insulate us from Oprah!)

For several years, Oprah has been on a spiritual quest, and she’s been excitedly dragging her audience along with her… miss-steps and all. Last year, she promoted the psuedo-scientific mysticism of “The Secret” into a multimillion dollar international obsession. Ouch.

I came late to The Secret party (someone forgot to send me an invitation) and so my posts on the topic didn’t have the impact they could have. Still, I enjoyed my attempts at righteous indignation and skepticism, and they were among my most popular posts.

Determined not to miss the chance to blog about this years Really Big Spiritual Woo from Oprah, I ordered “A New Earth” from Amazon, and signed up for the course on Oprah.com. [click to continue...]

Once upon a time… a much younger MT (who had not yet learned the wisdom of wearing a bag on her head) found herself on a rather poorly marked spiritual path. She was a bit afraid of being lost, and thought she’d rather like a few landmarks and maybe a map (not to mention a few less brambles), so she ought out others who were on a similar path.

But when she found them, the Others didn’t offer her a map. They didn’t have a compass either, and worse, they didn’t really appear to be *doing* much of anything.

They just sort of milled around, muttering about moss and north and trees. When she approached them, they shocked her by turning to her for their own direction and guidance! She did her best to help where she could, until …

[click to continue...]

As I sit here, jotting out notes for a future follow up on “Debunking The Secret”, I realize that I can seem like a skeptical curmudgeon.

It’s not that I don’t believe there’s a great deal of mystery out there, because I do. I’ve had more than my share of odd experiences, some of which do defy my best attempts at explanation - but I prefer my mysteries actually be *mysteries*, rather than carefully crafted illusions or short-sighted thinking. So I’m not a curmudgeon, but a skeptical mystic who resents the insult of pseudo-science applied to poetry.

I don’t think skepticism and mysticism are mutually exclusive, or that science and faith are incompatible; each picks up where the other falls short. The trouble comes in because the line between them isn’t fixed. It shifts and moves as our body of knowledge and world view changes.

The more science discovers about the world we live in, the less we have to rely on religion to tell us how the world works — which is why the battle between science and religion heats up during any period of massive scientific growth.

When science booms, religions are threatened. Suddenly scientists replace priests as the people of knowledge, and text books replace sacred scrolls as the storehouse of wisdom. It’s easy to see how they end up seemingly at war, arguing over who controls the territory.

But they don’t have to be at war, if each will cede the territory it does not excel at controlling.

I reconcile the apparent conflict of science and faith with my most abstract concept of God: Mystery-with-an-upper-case-M. Mystery shifts, and changes, but never vanishes. There is always more, and each answer leads to more questions.

The best expression of the idea I’ve found is from Of Water and the Spirit, by Malidoma Some’. In the book, Some’ explains that in his native language of Dagara, there is no concept of “supernatural”. The closest term they have is Yielbongura , or “The Thing Which Knowledge Cannot Eat”. [click to continue...]