|
As one can imagine, with my book about the
empirical evidence for the afterlife on the net, I do get
a few crackpots trying to take me on. I find that none of
them has done his/her homework. They tend to defend their
personal religious and other beliefs ‘programmed’
in their early formative years. As anticipated, they try
to ridicule anything not consistent with their own beliefs.
Of course attacking me does not give their own personal
beliefs any validation.
As I stated before, people can believe what
they like. Ultimately, it is what we DO in life that will
be critical – not what beliefs we have nor how many
times we read the Bible.
The need to openly attack those who hold
a different belief to your own seems to be an indication
of spiritual immaturity and uncertainty and from my experience
it is a need shared by both closed minded skeptics and religious
fundamentalists. Psychologists talk about the anxiety that
is raised in some people through ‘cognitive dissonance’-
which means that inconsistent and dissonant information
(even empirical information), tends to destabilize them
cognitively. The dissonance between the evidence and what
they have been taught to believe makes their heart rate
beat faster, raises their blood pressure and increases their
hostility to that stimulus which has destabilized them.
All this then makes them attack the source
of their hostility- sometimes using strong, dirty language
and even ridicule. They are really motivated by an internal
voice asking “How can I be wrong all my life? How
could I have wasted all my life believing in the Bible?
How can Biblical beliefs be wrong – they’ve
been around for some 2,000 years! No, what I’m receiving
cannot be true – even if it’s empirically based!”
Of course, anyone with a closed mind will
oppose anything which tends to disrupt his/her entrenched
beliefs. They may say “it’s all bull”
etc BUT they do not apply the tests of validity to their
own subjective, personal beliefs – all of which are
technically subject to complete invalidation. All universities
around the world accept this empirical principle –
anything subjective is itself subject to complete invalidation.
For example this week a Christian fundamentalist
raised the issue of why I don’t accept the Bible and
asked why I state that the information from Silver Birch
and White Eagle is ‘empirical’. It appears to
be a very reasonable question so let’s very briefly
investigate it.
I spent years investigating the Bible as
to the validity of its contents and I find that even Christian
biblical experts agree with my own findings. Whilst some
parts of the Bible appear to be inspirational there are
hundreds of inconsistencies (go to Google.com and write
“biblical inconsistencies”). Many parts of the
Bible are unacceptable because they are highly unreliable
claiming among other things that God is a God of hatred
or of war – or is a jealous God - who will massacre
innocent people in a fit of anger etc..
Does anyone expect me to accept this rubbish
from the alleged ‘Holy Bible’ about the nature
of God when all of the empirical evidence gained from hundreds
of thousands of near death experiences, from empirical mediumship,
from thousands of out of body experiences empirically measured
and from thousands of years of enlightened religious experimentation
is that God is ineffable, incomprehensible unconditional
love.
What religionists have are personal ‘beliefs’
which are based upon what they have been taught by others
interpreting a Bible which has been changed so many times.
Any informed person with an open mind who tries to do research
as how the Bible came into being will seriously question
the information contained in it! Some lost faith in the
Bible altogether.
This is what happened to so many members
of the clergy – one of these is former Professor Peter
De La Rosa who wrote a magnificent book called The Vicars
Of Christ. He has a couple of chapters showing how many
times the Bible has been changed WITHOUT proper authority.
He was NOT a hypocrite – he resigned from the priesthood.
He could not stay in a world of colossal hypocrisy.
Mediumship has been empirically tested a
number of times over the last century. One of the most recent
empiricists is Professor Gary Schwartz from Arizona. Repeatedly
these psi empiricists validated mediumship. They found it
is empirically valid that some gifted mediums receive information
from those who used to live on this planet earth and information
from the afterlife dimension.
When dealing with channeled or transmitted
information we need to use the gift of our own discrimination
and all reputable teachers encourage us to question everything
and subject it to the light of reason. Millions of people
have found that there is a consistency and profundity in
the teachings of Silver Birch which is irrebutable - there
is a richness of spiritual teaching - there are laws which
are observable universal laws and which guide us to profound
spirituality – not to ‘dogmatic religion.’
There is a definitive and fundamental difference
between what is ‘spiritual’ and what is ‘religious.’
With the Silver Birch lectures there is reliability and
validity. So with the teachings of White Eagle.
I spent years investigating this transmitted
information – and certainly, these are regarded as
high masters – and they are eye witnesses to what
is happening in the afterlife. We know who these entities
and are and can be sure that their teaching have not been
tampered with or changed by those who transcribed them.
But we have no idea where the original and authentic Biblical
texts are. We have only copies of changed copies of changed
copies.
In the Bible, there is certain material which is offensive,
insulting and highly unspiritual. But ultimately the empirical
will become unavoidable and inevitable; whenever there is
an inconsistency between the empirical and theology, inevitably
the empirical will prevail – and will ALWAYS prevail.
One clear example of this is the Galileo case. The Bible
leaders of the world demanded all people to believe that
the earth was in the center of the universe and that the
sun revolves around the earth. Any one who did not BELIEVE
this dogma was burnt at the stake.
This was something which was a religious
dogma but was in conflict with observable fact. Galileo
was the one who said ‘but science shows that the earth
is not in the center of the universe.’ The Biblical
fanatics stated that the Holy Spirit would not let anything
into the Bible unless it was correct!
Further, if you think about it – your
beliefs are linked with your environment. If you were born
in communist China or in Hindu India or in atheistic Russia
or in Africa – your beliefs would be fundamentally
different to what they are to-day.
So what make personal Biblical beliefs superior
to other religious beliefs? Absolutely NOTHING! The fundamentalists
tell me ‘you must have faith’! But I quote Silver
Birch who said among other inspirational things, “blind
faith is stupid.” It is stupid because you are trying
to justify your childhood or environmental personal beliefs
which are UNSUPPORTED by any empirical evidence whatsoever.
Biblical beliefs are NOT superior to other
religious writings of the past or the present. As a matter
of fact, if you bother to do your research on the Bible,
you will find that there is absolutely nothing original
in Christianity – the cross, baptism, the ‘Holy
Trinity’, communion, confession, religious ritual
– all these and others where take from existing Pagan
and otherreligious beliefs of the past. Ask the experts.
Read Arthur Findlay’s magnificent books The Rock Of
Truth and The Psychic Stream where you will get the details
about all this.
We are fortunate to share in Spiritualism
an empirical tradition where beliefs are founded on hard
core objective evidence. Spiritualism does not deal with
dogmas or enforced beliefs or try to make you accept the
irrational, illogical, the unspiritual or something which
is unintelligent or contrary to common sense.
Spiritualism is based on empirical evidence.
Over a century many empiricists have cross-confirmed the
legitimacy and validity of the information transmitted from
the other side. Spiritualism gives us empirical certainty
as to what will happen to us when we die. Nobody on this
planet earth has shown that this empirical afterlife information
is not correct and on the contrary more and more evidence
is emerging from new fields of research to support it.
|
