In the 1960's, after reading PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS, A New Way to GET MORE LIVING OUT OF LIFE (Prentice Hall, 1960), I met the author, the plastic surgeon, Dr. Maxwell Maltz, in Toronto. I told him about my interest in the integrative approach to total health of body, mind and spirit. I told him about what I then began calling pneumatology--the study of the human and divine Spirit. I think of Spirit as that which is the primary power--whatever that it. In my humble opinion, Spirit is that which is in and through all that IS--physically and mentally.
I also told him that, as a minister, I believed that I was ordained (1953), not just to preach--that is, declare the basic principles of living the good life--but also to teach about health and help people heal themselves.
"I am passionately interested" I said, "in helping people be the kind of spirit-filled people we all, deep down, want to be, in the NOW. I am not into converting anyone to an absolute form of religion dominated by fixed-position thinking--the kind of religion which promises, 'pie in the sky, by and by, when you die', if followers agree to obey self-appointed religious hierarchy, pray to a god as defined by this hierarchy and pay what is demanded of them."
I showed him a written outline of a lecture series which I started giving in 1964 under the general heading PRAYER THERAPY. Later, I used the term PNEUMATOLOGY--the study of all things spiritual.
After he viewed the outline and a chat with him his words to me were most encouraging.
As we go along in this thread, I am willing to share some of this with anyone interested. Your questions, comments and constructive criticisms will be welcomed.
=================================
What is a "good life" ?
QUOTE(simon @ Mar 28, 2007, 01:10 PM) 
What is a "good life" ?
It is my opinion that, keeping in mind what is legally and socially acceptable, it is up to individuals to decide what is good for them at any particular point in their lives. It is also my opinion that the wise use of cyberntic principles can be of great help to us in making the choices which are the best possible ones for us.
PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS--A New Way to GET MORE LIVING OUT OF LIFE, by Maxwell Maltz, M.D., F.I.C.S., plastic surgeon, was first published by Prentice Hall in 1960. The pocket book edition was published in 1969. Hall. In the preface Maltz writes: "I, myself, take no credit for the breakthrough, other than the recognition of it." (Preface VIII).
As I said, in the late 1960's, I had the opportunity to meet and chat with Dr. Maltz, when he visited and gave a lecture in Toronto. I was impressed. What he said backed up what I had learned from read the works of inspired writers such as:
LESLIE D. WEATHERHEAD
From the beginning of my ministry in 1953, inspired by the writings of the minister/psychologist, Leslie D. Weatherhead, http://www.aabibliography.com/aaphotohtml/weathered2.html
My undergraduate work in psychology and my reading his great book, PSYCHOLOGY, RELIGION & HEALING--A Survey of the Methods of Healing Through Psychology and Religion--by Leslie D. Weatherhead (Abingdon Press, copyright 1952-revised, 541 pages) greatly influenced the direction of my ministry.
Weatherhead had a close connection to the Oxford Group and his book "Discipleship" contains a virtual manual on the Oxford Group principles that found their way into all the A.A. programs, including Alcoholics Anonymous.
In Boston, about 1905, The Emmanual Movement arose which recognized the value of body, mind and spirit in the treatment and healing of illnesses, including alcoholism. An early book describing the Emmanual Movement was "Religion and Medicine". Weatherhead's book "Psychology, Religion and Healing" is an extension of that work and examines the methods of healing through mind and spirit. In 1954-1955, I did post graduate studies at Boston University.
One of the writers quoted by Maltz is:
HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK
http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1933
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Emerson_Fosdick
I preached many sermons based on the writings of Weatherhead and Fosdick.
After I met Maltz, studied his book, and was encouraged by his personal words to me, I incorporated more and more of this basic philosophy of the holistic, or integrated, approach to health in the sermons I preached at Willowdale United Church, where I was the minister from 1966-1994. There, I also continued to give a lecture series under the heading, pneumatology--the study of the human and devine spirit in all of us.
When I retired from the active pastoral ministry I became re-directed--a term I prefer to being retired. I continue to write, counsel and to advocate holism, the totally integrated approach to achieving our full human potential.
The teachings of Maltz have been used, directly, by thousands of successful individuals for decades in achieving their dreams as they increase their belief in themselves. This allows them to use the Automatic Success Mechanism, a term Maltz created, to achieve their dreams. It is Maltz's view that one must have an accurate and positive view of their self before setting their goals. If it does so in the opposite way the individual will continue to get stuck in the same patterns of limiting beliefs.
His ideas focus on visualizing your goals--a simple idea which some cognitive-science research, in the area of priming, has validated under certain conditions.
WHAT IMAGE DO YOU HAVE OF YOURSELF?
Maltz, as did many before him, believed that self-image is the corner stone of all the changes which take place in people. If one's self image is unhealthy, or faulty, all other efforts will end in failure.
============================================
WHAT IS CYBERNETICS?
It is commonly understood that cybernetics is the study of feedback and derived concepts such as communication and control in living organisms, machines and organisations.
SOMA-CYBERNETICS
In my opinion, there are three forms of cybernetics. Physically, or somatically speaking, living bodies are cybernetic mechanisms. The bodies and brains of all living beings, including human beings, depend on cybernetic control.
THE WORK OF WALTER BRADFORD CANNON
Born in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, October 19, 1871 and died in Lincoln, Massachusetts, October 19, 1945, he was an American who did a lot of research in physiology
Fight or flight
In 1915, he coined the term 'fight, or flight' to describe animal's responses to threats (Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear and Rage: An Account of Recent Researches into the Function of Emotional Excitement, Appleton, New York, 1915). He also coined the term 'homeostasis'--literally, back to home, or to balance.
HOMEOSTASIS
He developed the concept of homeostasis, and popularized it in his book The Wisdom of the Body, published in 1932 by W. W. Norton, New York.
Cannon presented four tentative propositions to describe the general features of homeostasis:
1. Constancy in an open system, such as our bodies represent, requires mechanisms that act to maintain this constancy. Cannon based this proposition on insights into the ways by which steady states such as glucose concentrations, body temperature and acid-base balance were regulated.
2. Steady-state conditions require that any tendency toward change automatically meets with factors that resist change. An increase in blood sugar results in thirst as the body attempts to dilute the concentration of sugar in the extracellular fluid.
3. The regulating system that determines the homeostatic state consists of a number of cooperating mechanisms acting simultaneously or successively. Blood sugar is regulated by insulin, glucagons, and other hormones that control its release from the liver or its uptake by the tissues.
4. Homeostasis does not occur by chance, but is the result of organized self-government.
The term cybernetics stems from the ancient Greek Κυβερνήτης (kybernetes, steersman, governor, pilot, or rudder. Interestingly, from this same root we get our words 'governor' and 'government'.
The ancient Greeks used this term for the rudder used to steer ships. Keep in mind that rudders, like the tail feathers of a bird, never remain in a fixed-position. If the ship, or the bird, is to reach its purposed goal, the rudder and tail feathers have to keep changing, constantly, to meet deal with changes in the tide and the wind.
It is an earlier, but still-used, generic term to describe subject matters having to do with adaptive systems, artificial intelligence, complex control systems, decision support systems, dynamical systems, information theory, learning organizations, mathematical systems theory, operations research, simulation, and systems engineering. The computer is a cubernetic system.
PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS
A more philosophical definition, suggested in 1956 by Louis Couffignal, one of the pioneers of cybernetics, characterizes cybernetics as "the art of ensuring the efficacy of action".
When we approach the level of philosophy, we are dealing with matters of the mind and the multiple levels thereof, including the training and education animals, including human animals.
It is commonly understood that cybernetics is the study of feedback and derived concepts such as communication and control in living organisms, machines and organisations.
SOMA-CYBERNETICS
In my opinion, there are three forms of cybernetics. Physically, or somatically speaking, living bodies are cybernetic mechanisms. The bodies and brains of all living beings, including human beings, depend on cybernetic control.
THE WORK OF WALTER BRADFORD CANNON
Born in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, October 19, 1871 and died in Lincoln, Massachusetts, October 19, 1945, he was an American who did a lot of research in physiology
Fight or flight
In 1915, he coined the term 'fight, or flight' to describe animal's responses to threats (Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear and Rage: An Account of Recent Researches into the Function of Emotional Excitement, Appleton, New York, 1915). He also coined the term 'homeostasis'--literally, back to home, or to balance.
HOMEOSTASIS
He developed the concept of homeostasis, and popularized it in his book The Wisdom of the Body, published in 1932 by W. W. Norton, New York.
Cannon presented four tentative propositions to describe the general features of homeostasis:
1. Constancy in an open system, such as our bodies represent, requires mechanisms that act to maintain this constancy. Cannon based this proposition on insights into the ways by which steady states such as glucose concentrations, body temperature and acid-base balance were regulated.
2. Steady-state conditions require that any tendency toward change automatically meets with factors that resist change. An increase in blood sugar results in thirst as the body attempts to dilute the concentration of sugar in the extracellular fluid.
3. The regulating system that determines the homeostatic state consists of a number of cooperating mechanisms acting simultaneously or successively. Blood sugar is regulated by insulin, glucagons, and other hormones that control its release from the liver or its uptake by the tissues.
4. Homeostasis does not occur by chance, but is the result of organized self-government.
The term cybernetics stems from the ancient Greek Κυβερνήτης (kybernetes, steersman, governor, pilot, or rudder. Interestingly, from this same root we get our words 'governor' and 'government'.
The ancient Greeks used this term for the rudder used to steer ships. Keep in mind that rudders, like the tail feathers of a bird, never remain in a fixed-position. If the ship, or the bird, is to reach its purposed goal, the rudder and tail feathers have to keep changing, constantly, to meet deal with changes in the tide and the wind.
It is an earlier, but still-used, generic term to describe subject matters having to do with adaptive systems, artificial intelligence, complex control systems, decision support systems, dynamical systems, information theory, learning organizations, mathematical systems theory, operations research, simulation, and systems engineering. The computer is a cubernetic system.
PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS
A more philosophical definition, suggested in 1956 by Louis Couffignal, one of the pioneers of cybernetics, characterizes cybernetics as "the art of ensuring the efficacy of action".
When we approach the level of philosophy, we are dealing with matters of the mind and the multiple levels thereof, including the training and education animals, including human animals.
UNITING THE TRYPTYCH OF LIFE
Stop for a moment and think, when push comes to shove: LIFE IS REALLY LIKE A TRIPTYCH--a whole picture made up of a set of three panels, which are set side by side. All panels are important, but think of the central panel as that which contains the central and essential you.
The panel on the left is that which contains that which makes up the physical you, which you inherited from your ancestors, including your parents. The one on the right contains that which contains your training and education.
=============================================================
The term 'triptych' comes from the Greek meaning three folds. This is a good way of thinking about the kind of information we give to people who ask: What can the kind of program does your Family Life and Community Foundation, offer to people who come to you for help.
THE CENTRAL PANEL --back to the importance of self-image
Let us call the central panel The Pneuma, or spiriitual, Panel. As part of this panel we could also use terms like spirit, soul, mind, self, or even self-image.
It is no wonder that the first chapter of Maxwell Maltz's best-selling book, PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS--A New Way to GET MORE LIVING OUT OF LIFE (1960), is entitled: The Self Image: Your Key to a Better Life.
By the way, the Pocket Book edition came out in 1969. Millions bought the book in its first decade, and it is still selling (2007). Maltz was trained as a medical doctor and a plastic surgeon. I writes that it was his experience as a plastic surgeon which made him keenly aware of the role played by the human mind, or spirit, when it comes to physical and mental health. He also readily admits that many writers before him discovered the need to understand the psychology of self and that it can mean the difference between health and disease, success and failure, love and hate, a life filled with bitterness and one filled with joy and love.
Long before Maltz, Carl Jung--the author of many books, including Man's Search for His Soul--the founder of analytical psychology, called for a "science of the spirit". I wonder if Jung was aware of pneumatology, which we will discuss, later?
ABOUT JUNG
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/jung.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jung
http://www.friesian.com/jung.htm
Jung, whose work, generally speaking, I admire--I consider him to be one of my intellectual heroes--had many critics. Here is one:
http://www.psychoheresy-aware.org/jungleg.html
ABOUT WILLIAM JAMES
--Who I consider to be another one of my intellectual heroes.
http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/james.html
On his theory of the soul, the mind, the spirit or self-image.
WHAT ABOUT JESUS' POINT OF VIEW?
I have little idea of what the following is all about, but I find it interesting. Check it out and let me know what you think, okay?
http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/articles/james/soul.htm
=================================
For decades, I have been practicing, what I think of as the art of counseling, by asking people, who come to me for help, the following kind of questions:
Are you, personally, willing to be part of the healing process? That is, are you willing to be part of the solution, not just part of the problem?
Then I add: Unless I get a yes, I cannot help you. And, in my humble opinion: Neither can anyone else. Even Jesus could not help people "of little faith". He taught that faith could be as small as a grain of mustard seed--the smallest seed in that part of the world--but it had to be there.
Once I have the consent, or the will, of the person--part of the pneuma panel--to begin the process, without negelecting what is going on in the person's spirit, I move quickly into what is going on in the person's SOMA--the physical panel. Physically speaking, we are what we eat.
SOMA, PSYCHE, AND PNEUMA--THE THREE PANELS
Keep in mind that by 'nutrition' I am talking complete nutrition--physically, mentally and spiritually. Complete nutrition involves the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. It also includes what we ingest mentally and spiritually, as well as physically.
In my humble opinion, physically speaking, incomplete nutrition is what is destroying the physical health of millions of people, locally and worldwide. Incomplete physical nutrition is the root cause of the epidemic of obesity about which we are now being frequently informed by the media.
THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE
Beginning with the study of the spirit, or pneuma, pneumatology, those of us involved in holistic health give prevention priority role in all this. The goal of the FLF (including the community, the total community and students of pneumatology) is the much less expensive route. It is the route of the prevention of disease. Does this include you? We trust it does.
Unfortunately, prevention is not on the top of the mind (the spirit, the soul) of most people. It should be! What about you?
PREVENTION OF PHYSICAL DISEASE IS ABOUT PHYSICAL NUTRITION
By helping us to have complete nutrition--and it is not all that complex. It is the kind of nutrition which is designed to provide us with a balanced metabolism. This can prevent what I call yoyo-glycemia--blood insulin and glucose imbalance--BIGI. Prevent BIGI and diseases such as diabetes will be prevented.
In my opinion, the reward is that we will live by faith, hope and love, remain healthy and happy people, dieopinion, the purpose of life is to live with health and joy, and to die in peace with hope that there is joy is life eternal.
====================
THE ROLE OF RELIGION
By the way: When I say, my 'religion' is...I am simply referring to my way of life--from day to day. In other words, one's philosophy of life IS one's religion. Most people who say they have no use for religion
mean organized religion with all the trappings such as dogmas, rituals and politics.
THE ROLE OF ECONOMICS
Economics. The term comes, almost directly, from Greek word, oikonomos, which literally means, 'rules of managing, or running, one's household'. Interestingly, oikos, is the Greek for 'house'. The usual English translation is 'steward'--a keeper of the animal stys. Before the introduction of metals, animals were basic elements of the economy. Both kinds of commodities made up what we now mean when we refer to a barter economy.
THE BARTER ECONOMY TODAY
The FLF is interested in the promotion of the barter economy in modern times. We think of it as, not in competition to, but complimentary to the market economy.
The members of the FLF believe in the use of complementary and community currencies (CCC).
By the way, we believe that, at little or no personal risk, those who are willing to experiment with this system, will discover that it is a way to employ everyone seeking employment. They will learn how to do many things, which are good, not just for the bottom line, but for the whole of society.
In addition to the hard sciences, such as physics, chemistry and mathematics, this approach leads members of the FLF to develop an interest in all the social sciences, including anthropology, sociology, psychology and ethics.
The Family Life Foundation is a volunteer-operated and non-sectarian and registered charity,
#888 762 663 RR0001.
The FLF was founded in 1973, by the Rev. Lindsay G. King--a retired minister of the United Church of Canada--and friends. The mission of the FLF is about promoting holistic (physical, mental and spiritual) health and prosperity through the process of education. We do this with the help of science, faith and the arts all integrated by the human imagination. http://www.flfcanada.com (905) 764-1125
Currently, we are involved in association with www.princetoncollege of canada.com This association of the FLF with Princeton College is for the purpose of helping both parties fulfill their mission to do public service. We invite invite all who read this message to get involved and be part of the process.
Stop for a moment and think, when push comes to shove: LIFE IS REALLY LIKE A TRIPTYCH--a whole picture made up of a set of three panels, which are set side by side. All panels are important, but think of the central panel as that which contains the central and essential you.
The panel on the left is that which contains that which makes up the physical you, which you inherited from your ancestors, including your parents. The one on the right contains that which contains your training and education.
=============================================================
The term 'triptych' comes from the Greek meaning three folds. This is a good way of thinking about the kind of information we give to people who ask: What can the kind of program does your Family Life and Community Foundation, offer to people who come to you for help.
THE CENTRAL PANEL --back to the importance of self-image
Let us call the central panel The Pneuma, or spiriitual, Panel. As part of this panel we could also use terms like spirit, soul, mind, self, or even self-image.
It is no wonder that the first chapter of Maxwell Maltz's best-selling book, PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS--A New Way to GET MORE LIVING OUT OF LIFE (1960), is entitled: The Self Image: Your Key to a Better Life.
By the way, the Pocket Book edition came out in 1969. Millions bought the book in its first decade, and it is still selling (2007). Maltz was trained as a medical doctor and a plastic surgeon. I writes that it was his experience as a plastic surgeon which made him keenly aware of the role played by the human mind, or spirit, when it comes to physical and mental health. He also readily admits that many writers before him discovered the need to understand the psychology of self and that it can mean the difference between health and disease, success and failure, love and hate, a life filled with bitterness and one filled with joy and love.
Long before Maltz, Carl Jung--the author of many books, including Man's Search for His Soul--the founder of analytical psychology, called for a "science of the spirit". I wonder if Jung was aware of pneumatology, which we will discuss, later?
ABOUT JUNG
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/jung.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jung
http://www.friesian.com/jung.htm
Jung, whose work, generally speaking, I admire--I consider him to be one of my intellectual heroes--had many critics. Here is one:
http://www.psychoheresy-aware.org/jungleg.html
ABOUT WILLIAM JAMES
--Who I consider to be another one of my intellectual heroes.
http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/james.html
On his theory of the soul, the mind, the spirit or self-image.
WHAT ABOUT JESUS' POINT OF VIEW?
I have little idea of what the following is all about, but I find it interesting. Check it out and let me know what you think, okay?
http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/articles/james/soul.htm
=================================
For decades, I have been practicing, what I think of as the art of counseling, by asking people, who come to me for help, the following kind of questions:
Are you, personally, willing to be part of the healing process? That is, are you willing to be part of the solution, not just part of the problem?
Then I add: Unless I get a yes, I cannot help you. And, in my humble opinion: Neither can anyone else. Even Jesus could not help people "of little faith". He taught that faith could be as small as a grain of mustard seed--the smallest seed in that part of the world--but it had to be there.
Once I have the consent, or the will, of the person--part of the pneuma panel--to begin the process, without negelecting what is going on in the person's spirit, I move quickly into what is going on in the person's SOMA--the physical panel. Physically speaking, we are what we eat.
SOMA, PSYCHE, AND PNEUMA--THE THREE PANELS
Keep in mind that by 'nutrition' I am talking complete nutrition--physically, mentally and spiritually. Complete nutrition involves the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. It also includes what we ingest mentally and spiritually, as well as physically.
In my humble opinion, physically speaking, incomplete nutrition is what is destroying the physical health of millions of people, locally and worldwide. Incomplete physical nutrition is the root cause of the epidemic of obesity about which we are now being frequently informed by the media.
THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE
Beginning with the study of the spirit, or pneuma, pneumatology, those of us involved in holistic health give prevention priority role in all this. The goal of the FLF (including the community, the total community and students of pneumatology) is the much less expensive route. It is the route of the prevention of disease. Does this include you? We trust it does.
Unfortunately, prevention is not on the top of the mind (the spirit, the soul) of most people. It should be! What about you?
PREVENTION OF PHYSICAL DISEASE IS ABOUT PHYSICAL NUTRITION
By helping us to have complete nutrition--and it is not all that complex. It is the kind of nutrition which is designed to provide us with a balanced metabolism. This can prevent what I call yoyo-glycemia--blood insulin and glucose imbalance--BIGI. Prevent BIGI and diseases such as diabetes will be prevented.
In my opinion, the reward is that we will live by faith, hope and love, remain healthy and happy people, dieopinion, the purpose of life is to live with health and joy, and to die in peace with hope that there is joy is life eternal.
====================
THE ROLE OF RELIGION
By the way: When I say, my 'religion' is...I am simply referring to my way of life--from day to day. In other words, one's philosophy of life IS one's religion. Most people who say they have no use for religion
mean organized religion with all the trappings such as dogmas, rituals and politics.
THE ROLE OF ECONOMICS
Economics. The term comes, almost directly, from Greek word, oikonomos, which literally means, 'rules of managing, or running, one's household'. Interestingly, oikos, is the Greek for 'house'. The usual English translation is 'steward'--a keeper of the animal stys. Before the introduction of metals, animals were basic elements of the economy. Both kinds of commodities made up what we now mean when we refer to a barter economy.
THE BARTER ECONOMY TODAY
The FLF is interested in the promotion of the barter economy in modern times. We think of it as, not in competition to, but complimentary to the market economy.
The members of the FLF believe in the use of complementary and community currencies (CCC).
By the way, we believe that, at little or no personal risk, those who are willing to experiment with this system, will discover that it is a way to employ everyone seeking employment. They will learn how to do many things, which are good, not just for the bottom line, but for the whole of society.
In addition to the hard sciences, such as physics, chemistry and mathematics, this approach leads members of the FLF to develop an interest in all the social sciences, including anthropology, sociology, psychology and ethics.
The Family Life Foundation is a volunteer-operated and non-sectarian and registered charity,
#888 762 663 RR0001.
The FLF was founded in 1973, by the Rev. Lindsay G. King--a retired minister of the United Church of Canada--and friends. The mission of the FLF is about promoting holistic (physical, mental and spiritual) health and prosperity through the process of education. We do this with the help of science, faith and the arts all integrated by the human imagination. http://www.flfcanada.com (905) 764-1125
Currently, we are involved in association with www.princetoncollege of canada.com This association of the FLF with Princeton College is for the purpose of helping both parties fulfill their mission to do public service. We invite invite all who read this message to get involved and be part of the process.
Check the latest post, please.
QUOTE(Lindsay @ Apr 04, 2007, 01:28 PM)
Check the latest post, please.
No offense Lindsay. But seems that youre having a monologue going here. I do not think it is in the spirit of brainmeta to use the forums as a blog/personal site.
QUOTE(Culture @ Apr 04, 2007, 10:09 PM)
QUOTE(Lindsay @ Apr 04, 2007, 01:28 PM)
Check the latest post, please.
No offense Lindsay.....
BTW, in a post to Max I suggested that I give an outline of my thoughts on doing a close study of Maxwell Maltz's book Psycho-Cybernetics...and how the universal principles he write about there can be of practical use in solving personal problems. Max responded: "Go for it". People who feel like interjecting comments, constructive criticisms, questions, or helpful material they have found, are most welcome.
Keep in mind that this thread is in the Personal Advice section. With people like Angelroze in mind I hope that this thread can serve as a way of helping posters there deal with the mess in which they find themselves. Your contribution will be most welcome. If this is not the way to go, I welcome moderators to let me know. I'm easy.
Maybe it could be published in the BrainMeta Monthly as a chapter-by-chapter post, eh? ( As we say in Canada).
Here's a suggestion: You and others are welcome to take a look at the Miscellany and Personal Advice Sections. Then think about the best kind of advice you have to offer and offer it. Surely all the sciences ought to be pragamatic, not just so much theory--ivory-tower and academic stuff.
THE FOLLOWING PRINCIPLES, WHICH ARE SUBJECT TO BEING REVISED, ARE NOT MEANT TO DOGMATIC CREEDAL STATMENTS. I AM NOT INTO FIXED-POSITION THINKING.
1. For me, life, warts and all, is a sacred and god-like mystery, which I approach with care and a rational philosophy filled with wonder and awe. As I approach life I endeavour to maintain a humble curiousity. With the help of science and logic I work to gain more and more knowledge and understanding about the laws of nature and how things can work together for the personal and social good of all of us. When knowledge becomes wisdom, the sciences and technologies will help us build things of beauty, which can become lasting things of joy.
2. A believer in freedom, I choose to think of myself as a spiritual, conscious, aware, or pneumatological being who willingly lives in the eternal now mentally, or psychologically. I also have the ability to express myself physically, or somatologically, under the strong influence of my spiritual heritage and traditions.
3. While I value freedom, I do not think of freedom as the right to do what we like; it is our opportunity to do that which is moral, ethical, loving and responsible in the spirit of the Golded Rule.
Check out
http://www.goldenruleradical.org/
Accepting guidance from my personal conscience and that of the communiity, I can move with a confident faith, hope and love into the future.
4. Because I value a variety of traditions, I choose to draw from a variety of sources of wisdom, including the great philosophies and religions. There are many things about which I am agnostic.
5. Because I find great joy in the search for knowledge, wisdom and understanding. I love questioning and being questioned.
6. At this point, I freely choose to belong to a family and community that is inclusive, non-discriminatory, non-hierarchical and where our common humanity is honoured in a trusting atmosphere of mutual respect and support.
7. Based on the above, I freely choose to promote forms of individual and community celebration, study, and meditative prayer, which are inclusive, non-dogmatic, and which use value-based language. Life for me is a pilgrimage in which we can walk together and experience growth characterized by honesty, integrity, openness, respect, intellectual rigor, courage, creativity, and balance. Whether we agree or disagree, we now agree to do so agreeably, and in the spirit of agape/love, the highest good.
==========================0000000====================================
1. For me, life, warts and all, is a sacred and god-like mystery, which I approach with care and a rational philosophy filled with wonder and awe. As I approach life I endeavour to maintain a humble curiousity. With the help of science and logic I work to gain more and more knowledge and understanding about the laws of nature and how things can work together for the personal and social good of all of us. When knowledge becomes wisdom, the sciences and technologies will help us build things of beauty, which can become lasting things of joy.
2. A believer in freedom, I choose to think of myself as a spiritual, conscious, aware, or pneumatological being who willingly lives in the eternal now mentally, or psychologically. I also have the ability to express myself physically, or somatologically, under the strong influence of my spiritual heritage and traditions.
3. While I value freedom, I do not think of freedom as the right to do what we like; it is our opportunity to do that which is moral, ethical, loving and responsible in the spirit of the Golded Rule.
Check out
http://www.goldenruleradical.org/
Accepting guidance from my personal conscience and that of the communiity, I can move with a confident faith, hope and love into the future.
4. Because I value a variety of traditions, I choose to draw from a variety of sources of wisdom, including the great philosophies and religions. There are many things about which I am agnostic.
5. Because I find great joy in the search for knowledge, wisdom and understanding. I love questioning and being questioned.
6. At this point, I freely choose to belong to a family and community that is inclusive, non-discriminatory, non-hierarchical and where our common humanity is honoured in a trusting atmosphere of mutual respect and support.
7. Based on the above, I freely choose to promote forms of individual and community celebration, study, and meditative prayer, which are inclusive, non-dogmatic, and which use value-based language. Life for me is a pilgrimage in which we can walk together and experience growth characterized by honesty, integrity, openness, respect, intellectual rigor, courage, creativity, and balance. Whether we agree or disagree, we now agree to do so agreeably, and in the spirit of agape/love, the highest good.
==========================0000000====================================
WHAT ABOUT MEDITATIVE and AFFIRMATIVE POSITIVE [quote]PRAYER
MAPP, for me, begins when I begin the process of having an internal dialogue. Originating in my pneuma it is a kind of PNEUMA-PSYCHO-SOMA-CYBERNETIC ACTIVITY
I do not plead with, or petition, a seemingly reluctant and silent God--the apparent originator of at least three world religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) each with their own sacred books--for this that or the other thing. I usually begin my diallogue by asking questions, about myself, my family and my community. Then I set goals as to what I need to do with my life within myself, my family and my community. I like using the expression: "Wouldn't it be nice if......?"
Looking at the physical, mental and spiritual circumstances in which I find myself, I visualize that which I would like to accomplish; that which I would like to see happen; that which I feel will help the situation and do no harm to anyone.
At this point, as I said above, I ask my favourite question: "Wouldn't it be nice if...? I name the project I wish to accomplisg and make the following affirmation: "I am being guided and led to the people I need
And the prople who need me; I am being guided and led to the things which need to be done, and the things I enjoy doing, which will be of benefit to all concerned.
=====================================
I am usually amazed at how often things turn out well.
=====================================
TO PRAY, FOR ME, MEANS TO
MEDITATE
VISUALIZE
AFFIRM
PONDER
WEIGH
BALANCE
COGITATE
REFLECT
THINK
CONTEMPLATE
RELAX and enjoy the universe as it
UNFOLDS
..............
==================000000000000000000000000000=================
The above are all words which come to mind when I think of the deeper meaning of the term 'prayer'. Our English verb 'to pray' comes to us from through the Old French prier from the Late Latin precare. It simply means to ask earnestly. Most believers think of it as petitioning an almighty God to act on their behalf
It is no longer used in every day language like it was in the Elizabethan era. We use it, almost exclusively, to refer to what believers do when then pray That is, when they speak to a god, gods, or God, inprivate and/or public worship and make an earnest request for help, including things they feel we deserve.
Interestingly, from the Latin term we also get our adjective precarious, which we use to describe being dependent on the will or pleasure of another. It is probably for this reason that many modern and sophisticated people feel very uncomfortable about the act of praying. Many, including the growing number of agnostics and atheists have giving up praying, altogether, equating it with being superstitious. This probably accounts for the dramatic drop, in the last twenty-five years or so, of the number of people who attend churches and other places of worship, regularly.
MEDITATIVE AND AFFIRIMATIVE PRAYING IS MORE ABOUT LISTENING THAN SPEAKING
My search for a better way to connect with WHAT ABOUT MEDITATIVE and AFFIRMATIVE PRAYER
MAP, for me, begins when I begin the process of having an internal dialogue. Originating in my pneuma it is a kind of PNEUMA-PSYCHO-SOMA-CYBERNETIC ACTIVITY
I do not plead with, or petition, a seemingly reluctant and silent God--the apparent originator of at least three world religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) each with their own sacred books--for this that or the other thing. I usually begin my diallogue by asking questions, about myself, my family and my community. Then I set goals as to what I need to do with my life within myself, my family and my community. I like using the expression: "Wouldn't it be nice if......?"
Looking at the physical, mental and spiritual circumstances in which I find myself, I visualize that which I would like to accomplish; that which I would like to see happen; that which I feel will help the situation and do no harm to anyone.
At this point, as I said above, I ask my favourite question: "Wouldn't it be nice if...? I name the project I wish to accomplisg and make the following affirmation: "I am being guided and led to the people I need
And the prople who need me; I am being guided and led to the things which need to be done, and the things I enjoy doing, which will be of benefit to all concerned.
=====================================
I am usually amazed at how often things turn out well.
=====================================
*******************************
G�˜D (the spelling I use in my signature)--that which is total, universal, all-encompassng and inter-penetrating
Speaking personally: Though I have always believed that there is more to life than meets the eye and the other human senses; that there is a spiritual reality beyond the material cosmos, with which we can make a connection, and, which I feel, even inter-penetrates every paricle of it, I have always--perhaps since I was twelve--felt uncomfortable with the idea of praying to an almighty, human-like and personal god, or God, up, or out, there.
Because of this, I am glad that I grew up in a church which allowed, indeed encouraged--and does even NOW--people to feel personally free in matters of belief and ritual. Church leaders, even those who practiced kneeling in prayer, did not preach at us that prayer requires kneeling, or even leaning forward in the pews, with eyes closed. This attitude of prayer has always impressed me as a kind of groveling before some invisible master up there. No one made a fuss when I deliberately avoided using the so-called 'prayer position'. Later, when, as a minister, I began to preach about and explore new ways of communicating with the Divine Mind in all things and behind all that is, only a few conservative believers--and not all of them were in their senior years--objected. Indeed, most of the members of the churches I served welcomed the changes I made.
MEDITATIVE AND AFFIRIMATIVE PRAYING IS MORE ABOUT LISTENING THAN SPEAKING
My search for a better way to connect with G�D began when I decided to see what it says about the act of praying in the Bible. I checked out the meaning of the words having to do with praying as used in the languages of the original Bible. The Jewish Bible--what we call the Old Testament--was written, almost exclusively, in Hebrew. There are a few passages in the OT which were written in Aramaic, which was the official language of the Persian Empire. It had a great influence on Hebrew and Arabic.
Genesis 31:47; Jeremiah 10:11; Ezra 4:8--6:18, 7:12--26; Daniel 2:4b--7:28 were written in Aramaic. Jesus spoke Galilean Aramaic. the verb to pray in Aramaic is 'slaha'. It simply means to 'connect with' or 'to tune in to'. The modern Arabic is similar. This implies that those who spoke Aramaic and Arabic and spoke of tuning in to G�˜D thought of it as more like active listening to G�˜D, as one would listen to a radio broadcast, than it was about talking to G�˜D--as in my signature,
******************************
MAPP, for me, begins when I begin the process of having an internal dialogue. Originating in my pneuma it is a kind of PNEUMA-PSYCHO-SOMA-CYBERNETIC ACTIVITY
I do not plead with, or petition, a seemingly reluctant and silent God--the apparent originator of at least three world religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) each with their own sacred books--for this that or the other thing. I usually begin my diallogue by asking questions, about myself, my family and my community. Then I set goals as to what I need to do with my life within myself, my family and my community. I like using the expression: "Wouldn't it be nice if......?"
Looking at the physical, mental and spiritual circumstances in which I find myself, I visualize that which I would like to accomplish; that which I would like to see happen; that which I feel will help the situation and do no harm to anyone.
At this point, as I said above, I ask my favourite question: "Wouldn't it be nice if...? I name the project I wish to accomplisg and make the following affirmation: "I am being guided and led to the people I need
And the prople who need me; I am being guided and led to the things which need to be done, and the things I enjoy doing, which will be of benefit to all concerned.
=====================================
I am usually amazed at how often things turn out well.
=====================================
TO PRAY, FOR ME, MEANS TO
MEDITATE
VISUALIZE
AFFIRM
PONDER
WEIGH
BALANCE
COGITATE
REFLECT
THINK
CONTEMPLATE
RELAX and enjoy the universe as it
UNFOLDS
..............
==================000000000000000000000000000=================
The above are all words which come to mind when I think of the deeper meaning of the term 'prayer'. Our English verb 'to pray' comes to us from through the Old French prier from the Late Latin precare. It simply means to ask earnestly. Most believers think of it as petitioning an almighty God to act on their behalf
It is no longer used in every day language like it was in the Elizabethan era. We use it, almost exclusively, to refer to what believers do when then pray That is, when they speak to a god, gods, or God, inprivate and/or public worship and make an earnest request for help, including things they feel we deserve.
Interestingly, from the Latin term we also get our adjective precarious, which we use to describe being dependent on the will or pleasure of another. It is probably for this reason that many modern and sophisticated people feel very uncomfortable about the act of praying. Many, including the growing number of agnostics and atheists have giving up praying, altogether, equating it with being superstitious. This probably accounts for the dramatic drop, in the last twenty-five years or so, of the number of people who attend churches and other places of worship, regularly.
MEDITATIVE AND AFFIRIMATIVE PRAYING IS MORE ABOUT LISTENING THAN SPEAKING
My search for a better way to connect with WHAT ABOUT MEDITATIVE and AFFIRMATIVE PRAYER
MAP, for me, begins when I begin the process of having an internal dialogue. Originating in my pneuma it is a kind of PNEUMA-PSYCHO-SOMA-CYBERNETIC ACTIVITY
I do not plead with, or petition, a seemingly reluctant and silent God--the apparent originator of at least three world religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) each with their own sacred books--for this that or the other thing. I usually begin my diallogue by asking questions, about myself, my family and my community. Then I set goals as to what I need to do with my life within myself, my family and my community. I like using the expression: "Wouldn't it be nice if......?"
Looking at the physical, mental and spiritual circumstances in which I find myself, I visualize that which I would like to accomplish; that which I would like to see happen; that which I feel will help the situation and do no harm to anyone.
At this point, as I said above, I ask my favourite question: "Wouldn't it be nice if...? I name the project I wish to accomplisg and make the following affirmation: "I am being guided and led to the people I need
And the prople who need me; I am being guided and led to the things which need to be done, and the things I enjoy doing, which will be of benefit to all concerned.
=====================================
I am usually amazed at how often things turn out well.
=====================================
*******************************
G�˜D (the spelling I use in my signature)--that which is total, universal, all-encompassng and inter-penetrating
Speaking personally: Though I have always believed that there is more to life than meets the eye and the other human senses; that there is a spiritual reality beyond the material cosmos, with which we can make a connection, and, which I feel, even inter-penetrates every paricle of it, I have always--perhaps since I was twelve--felt uncomfortable with the idea of praying to an almighty, human-like and personal god, or God, up, or out, there.
Because of this, I am glad that I grew up in a church which allowed, indeed encouraged--and does even NOW--people to feel personally free in matters of belief and ritual. Church leaders, even those who practiced kneeling in prayer, did not preach at us that prayer requires kneeling, or even leaning forward in the pews, with eyes closed. This attitude of prayer has always impressed me as a kind of groveling before some invisible master up there. No one made a fuss when I deliberately avoided using the so-called 'prayer position'. Later, when, as a minister, I began to preach about and explore new ways of communicating with the Divine Mind in all things and behind all that is, only a few conservative believers--and not all of them were in their senior years--objected. Indeed, most of the members of the churches I served welcomed the changes I made.
MEDITATIVE AND AFFIRIMATIVE PRAYING IS MORE ABOUT LISTENING THAN SPEAKING
My search for a better way to connect with G�D began when I decided to see what it says about the act of praying in the Bible. I checked out the meaning of the words having to do with praying as used in the languages of the original Bible. The Jewish Bible--what we call the Old Testament--was written, almost exclusively, in Hebrew. There are a few passages in the OT which were written in Aramaic, which was the official language of the Persian Empire. It had a great influence on Hebrew and Arabic.
Genesis 31:47; Jeremiah 10:11; Ezra 4:8--6:18, 7:12--26; Daniel 2:4b--7:28 were written in Aramaic. Jesus spoke Galilean Aramaic. the verb to pray in Aramaic is 'slaha'. It simply means to 'connect with' or 'to tune in to'. The modern Arabic is similar. This implies that those who spoke Aramaic and Arabic and spoke of tuning in to G�˜D thought of it as more like active listening to G�˜D, as one would listen to a radio broadcast, than it was about talking to G�˜D--as in my signature,
******************************
SELF-IMAGE, PRAYER AND THE IMAGINATION
======================================
As part understanding self-image it is important that we under the power of the human imagination. To illustrate this, I will tell you about the life and work if The Rev. Dr. Franklin Loehr.
=================================
ABOUT THE LATE DR. LOEHR (1912-1988)
http://www.answers.com/Franklin%20Davison%20Loehr
================================================
THE EFFECT OF PRAYER ON PLANTS, AND OTHER THINGS
================================================
In the 1960's and 1970's I was a close friend--still am--of the then Religion Editor of the Toronto Star, Allen Spraggett, now retired--a carful student of philosophy, psychology, theology and all the religions. He was very interested in the role played psychology, psychic phenomena, and parapsychology in religion and faith healing, and the like.
It was with his help that I first met the Rev. Dr. Franklin Loehr--minister and researcher in the claims of religion--in 1963. Then, in cooperation with the Toronto Star, I invited him and his wife to my church and my home. He spoke to my whole congregation on a Sunday and to a special group interested in faith and healing, later. He spoke of his carefully controlled experiments on the nature and effect of prayer on seeds and plant life.
[color:#6600CC]===============================
Does prayer effect plant seeds?
===============================[/color]
He told us that the objective of his controlled experiments was to see what effect prayer had over living and seemingly non-living matter.
In one experiment--covered in detail is his book, with pictures--his research team took three pans of various types of seeds. One was the control pan. One pan received positive prayer, and the other received negative prayer.
Time after time, the results indicated that prayer helped speed germination and produced more vigorous plants. Prayers of negation actually halted germination in some plants and suppressed growth in others.
In another experiment two bottles of spring water were purchased. One container was used as a control, receiving no prayer; a group prayed for the second.
The water was then used on pans of corn seeds layered in cotton, with one pan receiving the prayer water and the other receiving the control water. The pan receiving the prayer water sprouted a day earlier than seeds in the other pan. The prayer seeds had a higher germination and growth rate. The experiment was repeated with the same result each time.
[color:#FF0000]MY DAUGHTER'S EXPERIMENT--on the power of focussed imagination, affirmitive and meditative prayer[/color]
As I have written above, my daughter, a child in the 1963, was very ill at that time of Dr. Loehr's visit. But what I learned from him and others helped, later, to restore her to health.
Years later, when she was a healthy Grade 9 student in junior high, my daughter became very interested in understanding more about the power which had been of so much help to her. Thus she read the book of which she heard me speak, The Power of Prayer on Plants, by Dr. Loehr. I still have it in my library.
Inspired by this, and with her science teacher's permission and supervision, she decided to do an experiment. I still have her hand-written document on file in which she tells about what she did and what happened as a result of her experiment. She used tomato seeds.
HERE IS A SUMMARY
She planted three containers of fifteen tomatoe seeds each, all with the same kind of soil and each received the same amount of watering.
Container #1, the control group, was set aside and left to grow, naturally, on its own, with no attention other than watering.
Container #2 was placed next to container #3. Using her imagination and a focussed and meditative kind of prayer, she prayed over #3.
The seeds in the container #3 sprouted quickly and grew quite well.
Meanwhile the seeds in container #2 sprouted and grew as expected and in pace with the control group.
At this point, my daughter did something unusual. She focussed on the healthy plants in container #3. She sent them negative prayer-thoughts. Soon, they stopped growing and began to die.
Then she focussed on the slow-growing container #2. Rapidly the plants developed and surpassed the plants in # 3, which continued to wither. Then they all died. Meanwhile, #2 container progressed, rapidly.
I FOUND THE FOLLOWING EXPERIMENT TRULY AMAZING: She brought the healthy plants home--the ones in #2 container--and put them in the freezer long enough to freeze them. Then she took them out; focussed on them her postive imagination and warm prayer thoughts. They survived the freezing and continued their growth as healthy plants.
That summer I had the best tomatoes I ever had.
Her supervising teacher gave her top marks for the project.
My daughter, now an accomplished artist, and her artist husband now live in a floating home, and a floating garden as part of it, near Tofino, British Columbia. It covers over one quarter of an acre. There, they do their art and grow all the vegetables they need. Check out:
http://www.wildretreat.com/
This will give you some idea of what the Tofino area looks like. My daughter said: "This place time came to me as a result of focussed meditative praying."
Her mother and I have visited there, often. It is a work of art in progress, which is at a new creative stage each time we see it.
================================
http://www.plim.org/PrayerDeb.htm
=================================
For three years, beginning in 1952, Dr. Loehr conducted a double-locked laboratory experiment, using 156 people to determine if prayer could have an effect on the growth of plants.
THERE ARE FOUR TYPES OF PRAYING
This book documents the astounding results of these experiments, proving not only that prayer is effective but also isolating four different types of prayer.
1. Imagination
2. Imagination + feeling
3. Imagination + feeling, + spiritual assistance
4. imagination + feeling, + assistance + divine connectivity.
Originally published in 1959, by Doubleday, this book brought Dr. Loehr on a lecture tour that carried him all over the continental United States, Canada and also to lecture at Cambridge in England. 1969. 127 pages.
=========================
ABOUT DR. LOEHR
http://www.answers.com/Franklin%20Davison%20Loehr
======================================
As part understanding self-image it is important that we under the power of the human imagination. To illustrate this, I will tell you about the life and work if The Rev. Dr. Franklin Loehr.
=================================
ABOUT THE LATE DR. LOEHR (1912-1988)
http://www.answers.com/Franklin%20Davison%20Loehr
================================================
THE EFFECT OF PRAYER ON PLANTS, AND OTHER THINGS
================================================
In the 1960's and 1970's I was a close friend--still am--of the then Religion Editor of the Toronto Star, Allen Spraggett, now retired--a carful student of philosophy, psychology, theology and all the religions. He was very interested in the role played psychology, psychic phenomena, and parapsychology in religion and faith healing, and the like.
It was with his help that I first met the Rev. Dr. Franklin Loehr--minister and researcher in the claims of religion--in 1963. Then, in cooperation with the Toronto Star, I invited him and his wife to my church and my home. He spoke to my whole congregation on a Sunday and to a special group interested in faith and healing, later. He spoke of his carefully controlled experiments on the nature and effect of prayer on seeds and plant life.
[color:#6600CC]===============================
Does prayer effect plant seeds?
===============================[/color]
He told us that the objective of his controlled experiments was to see what effect prayer had over living and seemingly non-living matter.
In one experiment--covered in detail is his book, with pictures--his research team took three pans of various types of seeds. One was the control pan. One pan received positive prayer, and the other received negative prayer.
Time after time, the results indicated that prayer helped speed germination and produced more vigorous plants. Prayers of negation actually halted germination in some plants and suppressed growth in others.
In another experiment two bottles of spring water were purchased. One container was used as a control, receiving no prayer; a group prayed for the second.
The water was then used on pans of corn seeds layered in cotton, with one pan receiving the prayer water and the other receiving the control water. The pan receiving the prayer water sprouted a day earlier than seeds in the other pan. The prayer seeds had a higher germination and growth rate. The experiment was repeated with the same result each time.
[color:#FF0000]MY DAUGHTER'S EXPERIMENT--on the power of focussed imagination, affirmitive and meditative prayer[/color]
As I have written above, my daughter, a child in the 1963, was very ill at that time of Dr. Loehr's visit. But what I learned from him and others helped, later, to restore her to health.
Years later, when she was a healthy Grade 9 student in junior high, my daughter became very interested in understanding more about the power which had been of so much help to her. Thus she read the book of which she heard me speak, The Power of Prayer on Plants, by Dr. Loehr. I still have it in my library.
Inspired by this, and with her science teacher's permission and supervision, she decided to do an experiment. I still have her hand-written document on file in which she tells about what she did and what happened as a result of her experiment. She used tomato seeds.
HERE IS A SUMMARY
She planted three containers of fifteen tomatoe seeds each, all with the same kind of soil and each received the same amount of watering.
Container #1, the control group, was set aside and left to grow, naturally, on its own, with no attention other than watering.
Container #2 was placed next to container #3. Using her imagination and a focussed and meditative kind of prayer, she prayed over #3.
The seeds in the container #3 sprouted quickly and grew quite well.
Meanwhile the seeds in container #2 sprouted and grew as expected and in pace with the control group.
At this point, my daughter did something unusual. She focussed on the healthy plants in container #3. She sent them negative prayer-thoughts. Soon, they stopped growing and began to die.
Then she focussed on the slow-growing container #2. Rapidly the plants developed and surpassed the plants in # 3, which continued to wither. Then they all died. Meanwhile, #2 container progressed, rapidly.
I FOUND THE FOLLOWING EXPERIMENT TRULY AMAZING: She brought the healthy plants home--the ones in #2 container--and put them in the freezer long enough to freeze them. Then she took them out; focussed on them her postive imagination and warm prayer thoughts. They survived the freezing and continued their growth as healthy plants.
That summer I had the best tomatoes I ever had.
Her supervising teacher gave her top marks for the project.
My daughter, now an accomplished artist, and her artist husband now live in a floating home, and a floating garden as part of it, near Tofino, British Columbia. It covers over one quarter of an acre. There, they do their art and grow all the vegetables they need. Check out:
http://www.wildretreat.com/
This will give you some idea of what the Tofino area looks like. My daughter said: "This place time came to me as a result of focussed meditative praying."
Her mother and I have visited there, often. It is a work of art in progress, which is at a new creative stage each time we see it.
================================
http://www.plim.org/PrayerDeb.htm
=================================
For three years, beginning in 1952, Dr. Loehr conducted a double-locked laboratory experiment, using 156 people to determine if prayer could have an effect on the growth of plants.
THERE ARE FOUR TYPES OF PRAYING
This book documents the astounding results of these experiments, proving not only that prayer is effective but also isolating four different types of prayer.
1. Imagination
2. Imagination + feeling
3. Imagination + feeling, + spiritual assistance
4. imagination + feeling, + assistance + divine connectivity.
Originally published in 1959, by Doubleday, this book brought Dr. Loehr on a lecture tour that carried him all over the continental United States, Canada and also to lecture at Cambridge in England. 1969. 127 pages.
=========================
ABOUT DR. LOEHR
http://www.answers.com/Franklin%20Davison%20Loehr
SELF-IMAGE, PRAYER AND THE IMAGINATION
As part understanding self-image it is important that we under the power of the human imagination. To illustrate this, I will tell you about the life and work if The Rev. Dr. Franklin Loehr.
=================================
ABOUT THE LATE DR. LOEHR (1912-1988)
http://www.answers.com/Franklin%20Davison%20Loehr
================================================
THE EFFECT OF PRAYER ON PLANTS, AND OTHER THINGS
================================================
In the 1960's and 1970's I was a close friend--still am--of the then Religion Editor of the Toronto Star, Allen Spraggett, now retired--a carful student of philosophy, psychology, theology and all the religions. He was very interested in the role played psychology, psychic phenomena, and parapsychology in religion and faith healing, and the like.
It was with his help that I first met the Rev. Dr. Franklin Loehr--minister and researcher in the claims of religion--in 1963. Then, in cooperation with the Toronto Star, I invited him and his wife to my church and my home. He spoke to my whole congregation on a Sunday and to a special group interested in faith and healing, later. He spoke of his carefully controlled experiments on the nature and effect of prayer on seeds and plant life.
========================
Does prayer effect plant seeds?
========================
He told us that the objective of his controlled experiments was to see what effect prayer had over living and seemingly non-living matter.
In one experiment--covered in detail is his book, with pictures--his research team took three pans of various types of seeds. One was the control pan. One pan received positive prayer, and the other received negative prayer.
Time after time, the results indicated that prayer helped speed germination and produced more vigorous plants. Prayers of negation actually halted germination in some plants and suppressed growth in others.
In another experiment two bottles of spring water were purchased. One container was used as a control, receiving no prayer; a group prayed for the second.
The water was then used on pans of corn seeds layered in cotton, with one pan receiving the prayer water and the other receiving the control water. The pan receiving the prayer water sprouted a day earlier than seeds in the other pan. The prayer seeds had a higher germination and growth rate. The experiment was repeated with the same result each time.
[color:#FF0000]MY DAUGHTER'S EXPERIMENT--on the power of focussed imagination, affirmitive and meditative prayer[/color]
As I have written above, my daughter, a child in the 1963, was very ill at that time of Dr. Loehr's visit. But what I learned from him and others helped, later, to restore her to health.
Years later, when she was a healthy Grade 9 student in junior high, my daughter became very interested in understanding more about the power which had been of so much help to her. Thus she read the book of which she heard me speak, The Power of Prayer on Plants, by Dr. Loehr. I still have it in my library.
Inspired by this, and with her science teacher's permission and supervision, she decided to do an experiment. I still have her hand-written document on file in which she tells about what she did and what happened as a result of her experiment. She used tomato seeds.
HERE IS A SUMMARY
She planted three containers of fifteen tomatoe seeds each, all with the same kind of soil and each received the same amount of watering.
Container #1, the control group, was set aside and left to grow, naturally, on its own, with no attention other than watering.
Container #2 was placed next to container #3. Using her imagination and a focussed and meditative kind of prayer, she prayed over #3.
The seeds in the container #3 sprouted quickly and grew quite well.
Meanwhile the seeds in container #2 sprouted and grew as expected and in pace with the control group.
At this point, my daughter did something unusual. She focussed on the healthy plants in container #3. She sent them negative prayer-thoughts. Soon, they stopped growing and began to die.
Then she focussed on the slow-growing container #2. Rapidly the plants developed and surpassed the plants in # 3, which continued to wither. Then they all died. Meanwhile, #2 container progressed, rapidly.
I FOUND THE FOLLOWING EXPERIMENT TRULY AMAZING: She brought the healthy plants home--the ones in #2 container--and put them in the freezer long enough to freeze them. Then she took them out; focussed on them her postive imagination and warm prayer thoughts. They survived the freezing and continued their growth as healthy plants.
That summer I had the best tomatoes I ever had.
Her supervising teacher gave her top marks for the project.
My daughter, now an accomplished artist, and her artist husband now live in a floating home, and a floating garden as part of it, near Tofino, British Columbia. It covers over one quarter of an acre. There, they do their art and grow all the vegetables they need. Check out:
http://www.wildretreat.com/
This will give you some idea of what the Tofino area looks like. My daughter said: "This place time came to me as a result of focussed meditative praying."
Her mother and I have visited there, often. It is a work of art in progress, which is at a new creative stage each time we see it.
================================
http://www.plim.org/PrayerDeb.htm
=================================
For three years, beginning in 1952, Dr. Loehr conducted a double-locked laboratory experiment, using 156 people to determine if prayer could have an effect on the growth of plants.
THERE ARE FOUR TYPES OF PRAYING
This book documents the astounding results of these experiments, proving not only that prayer is effective but also isolating four different types of prayer.
1. Imagination
2. Imagination + feeling
3. Imagination + feeling, + spiritual assistance
4. imagination + feeling, + assistance + divine connectivity.
Originally published in 1959, by Doubleday, this book brought Dr. Loehr on a lecture tour that carried him all over the continental United States, Canada and also to lecture at Cambridge in England. 1969. 127 pages.
=========================
ABOUT DR.LOEHR
http://www.answers.com/Franklin%20Davison%20Loehr
As part understanding self-image it is important that we under the power of the human imagination. To illustrate this, I will tell you about the life and work if The Rev. Dr. Franklin Loehr.
=================================
ABOUT THE LATE DR. LOEHR (1912-1988)
http://www.answers.com/Franklin%20Davison%20Loehr
================================================
THE EFFECT OF PRAYER ON PLANTS, AND OTHER THINGS
================================================
In the 1960's and 1970's I was a close friend--still am--of the then Religion Editor of the Toronto Star, Allen Spraggett, now retired--a carful student of philosophy, psychology, theology and all the religions. He was very interested in the role played psychology, psychic phenomena, and parapsychology in religion and faith healing, and the like.
It was with his help that I first met the Rev. Dr. Franklin Loehr--minister and researcher in the claims of religion--in 1963. Then, in cooperation with the Toronto Star, I invited him and his wife to my church and my home. He spoke to my whole congregation on a Sunday and to a special group interested in faith and healing, later. He spoke of his carefully controlled experiments on the nature and effect of prayer on seeds and plant life.
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Does prayer effect plant seeds?
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He told us that the objective of his controlled experiments was to see what effect prayer had over living and seemingly non-living matter.
In one experiment--covered in detail is his book, with pictures--his research team took three pans of various types of seeds. One was the control pan. One pan received positive prayer, and the other received negative prayer.
Time after time, the results indicated that prayer helped speed germination and produced more vigorous plants. Prayers of negation actually halted germination in some plants and suppressed growth in others.
In another experiment two bottles of spring water were purchased. One container was used as a control, receiving no prayer; a group prayed for the second.
The water was then used on pans of corn seeds layered in cotton, with one pan receiving the prayer water and the other receiving the control water. The pan receiving the prayer water sprouted a day earlier than seeds in the other pan. The prayer seeds had a higher germination and growth rate. The experiment was repeated with the same result each time.
[color:#FF0000]MY DAUGHTER'S EXPERIMENT--on the power of focussed imagination, affirmitive and meditative prayer[/color]
As I have written above, my daughter, a child in the 1963, was very ill at that time of Dr. Loehr's visit. But what I learned from him and others helped, later, to restore her to health.
Years later, when she was a healthy Grade 9 student in junior high, my daughter became very interested in understanding more about the power which had been of so much help to her. Thus she read the book of which she heard me speak, The Power of Prayer on Plants, by Dr. Loehr. I still have it in my library.
Inspired by this, and with her science teacher's permission and supervision, she decided to do an experiment. I still have her hand-written document on file in which she tells about what she did and what happened as a result of her experiment. She used tomato seeds.
HERE IS A SUMMARY
She planted three containers of fifteen tomatoe seeds each, all with the same kind of soil and each received the same amount of watering.
Container #1, the control group, was set aside and left to grow, naturally, on its own, with no attention other than watering.
Container #2 was placed next to container #3. Using her imagination and a focussed and meditative kind of prayer, she prayed over #3.
The seeds in the container #3 sprouted quickly and grew quite well.
Meanwhile the seeds in container #2 sprouted and grew as expected and in pace with the control group.
At this point, my daughter did something unusual. She focussed on the healthy plants in container #3. She sent them negative prayer-thoughts. Soon, they stopped growing and began to die.
Then she focussed on the slow-growing container #2. Rapidly the plants developed and surpassed the plants in # 3, which continued to wither. Then they all died. Meanwhile, #2 container progressed, rapidly.
I FOUND THE FOLLOWING EXPERIMENT TRULY AMAZING: She brought the healthy plants home--the ones in #2 container--and put them in the freezer long enough to freeze them. Then she took them out; focussed on them her postive imagination and warm prayer thoughts. They survived the freezing and continued their growth as healthy plants.
That summer I had the best tomatoes I ever had.
Her supervising teacher gave her top marks for the project.
My daughter, now an accomplished artist, and her artist husband now live in a floating home, and a floating garden as part of it, near Tofino, British Columbia. It covers over one quarter of an acre. There, they do their art and grow all the vegetables they need. Check out:
http://www.wildretreat.com/
This will give you some idea of what the Tofino area looks like. My daughter said: "This place time came to me as a result of focussed meditative praying."
Her mother and I have visited there, often. It is a work of art in progress, which is at a new creative stage each time we see it.
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http://www.plim.org/PrayerDeb.htm
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For three years, beginning in 1952, Dr. Loehr conducted a double-locked laboratory experiment, using 156 people to determine if prayer could have an effect on the growth of plants.
THERE ARE FOUR TYPES OF PRAYING
This book documents the astounding results of these experiments, proving not only that prayer is effective but also isolating four different types of prayer.
1. Imagination
2. Imagination + feeling
3. Imagination + feeling, + spiritual assistance
4. imagination + feeling, + assistance + divine connectivity.
Originally published in 1959, by Doubleday, this book brought Dr. Loehr on a lecture tour that carried him all over the continental United States, Canada and also to lecture at Cambridge in England. 1969. 127 pages.
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ABOUT DR.LOEHR
http://www.answers.com/Franklin%20Davison%20Loehr
QUOTE(Lindsay @ Mar 28, 2007, 08:41 PM)
PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS, A New Way to GET MORE LIVING OUT OF LIFE
Lindsey, I forget .... why don't christians all commit suicide as the afterlife is supposed to be so good? Why does god offer a life, when it is such a short interlude and the afterlife is so much better and longer? Surely it must be to observe suffering; a little like the way we observe horror movies - for the gory pleasure. If we went straight to the afterlife we would have no option to sin. So why bother with the life thing at all? Then forever could be all sweetness and light .... for god and us.
QUOTE(Hey Hey @ Apr 14, 2007, 01:27 PM)
QUOTE(Lindsay @ Mar 28, 2007, 08:41 PM)
PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS, A New Way to GET MORE LIVING OUT OF LIFE
Lindsay, .... why don't christians all commit suicide ....If we went straight to the afterlife we would have no option to sin. So why bother with the life thing at all? Then forever could be all sweetness and light .... for god and us.Keep in mind: I have very little time for and trust in the values as taught by simplistic religionists. Or haven't you noticed? IMHO, process philosophy and theology, like our evolution to consciousness, requires that we go through challenging processes to reach worthwhile goals.
I do not believe in a heaven where we will do nothing but rest in nothing but eternal peace, without challenge. What do you think?
the fountain of eternal knowledge ......
QUOTE(Hey Hey @ Apr 14, 2007, 09:30 PM)
the fountain of eternal knowledge ......
For me, life eternal is--as life is now--a challenging, adventure-filled and beautiful journey with a variety of destinations. It also involves being with many different kinds of people. It is certainly not just a journey to one single destination called heaven, to be with the same old crowd, singing the same old hymns. BTW, I can enjoy being with the same old crowd, now and then; but not all the time.
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