Leonard Sweet:
Quantum Spirituality (e-book at
http://www.leonardsweet.com/Quantum/quantum-ebook.pdf):
"A quantum
spirituality challenges the church to bear its past and to
dare its future by sticking its big TOE into the time and place
of the present. ... Then, and only then, will a
New Light movement of
'world-making' faith have helped to create the world that
is to, and may yet, be. Then, and only then, will earthlings
have uncovered the meaning... of the last
words poet/activist/contemplative/bridge between East and
West Thomas Merton
uttered: 'We are already one. But
we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover
is our original unity.'" (page 10)
"Mysticism, once cast to the sidelines of
the Christian tradition, is now situated in postmodernist
culture near the center. In pram, the physics of David Bohm and Fritjof Capra are ways of responding to culture's having pushed
it there. In the words of one of the greatest theologians of the
twentieth century, Jesuit philosopher of religion/dogmatist
Karl
Rahner, 'The Christian of tomorrow will be a mystic, one who has
experienced something, or he will be nothing.'... Mysticism... is
metaphysics
arrived at through mind body experiences.
Mysticism, begins in experience; it ends in
theology." (page 76)
Emphasis added
The Higher Self Gets Down To Business
"Both intuition
and visualization were central in the evolution of
consciousness that [Willis]
Harman envisioned. Gathering the
philosophical, scientific, and paranormal wisdom of the
ages, Harman developed a metaphysical vision
of the planet in
which business, as the emerging dominant power, would play a
central role..... This ultimate
destiny, in both New Business and New Age thought, requires
a shift from rational
thought to intuition. Cultivating this intuitive 'inner wisdom' means
doing away with 'the belief in the limited extent of one's
own ability to create what one wants,' as Harman
wrote."
Looking for
God in Harry Potter by
John Granger (Tyndale House, 2004)
"Understanding the Harry Potter books
as alchemical writing in the tradition of the English 'Greats' will
explain otherwise bizarre events, plot turns, and names in the novels....
"The alchemist,
like all traditional or non-modern people, understood man to be essentially
spirit (as man is created by the Spirit), then soul, then physical body....
His personhood or humanity he knew to be a joining of soul and body without
seam—and his tragedy was that he was fallen, i.e., that he had lost his
spiritual capacity or intellectus, by means of which Adam walked and talked
with God in the garden. Alchemy was the means, in conjunction with the
mysteries of the Church, by which he could regain this lost capacity.
The substance changing from lead to gold was his soul, and the riches he
would glean were spiritual riches—holiness and immortality.
"It is essentially a
super-conscious or spiritual work that happens through correspondence
with archetypes that are
above, not below, individual consciousness.
"So what was alchemy? It was a traditional or sacred science,
supporting the work of the revealed tradition and its means of grace,
for the purification and perfection of the alchemist’s soul in correspondence
with the metallurgical perfection of a base metal into gold....
"Rowling clearly understands
both 'alchemy in literature' and the 'alchemy of literature.' Her books
satisfy the need in us, born in a profane culture without heroes or
avenues of transcendent experience....
"We get this experience in our identification
with Harry, and we are better, more human even, for having been at least
for a while in the alembic vessel, changing from spiritual lead to gold,
dying and rising from the dead. In brief, Rowling’s novels are so popular
because her works transform the human person via imaginative identification,
catharsis, and resurrection."
[Emphasis added]
New Thought, Swedenborg & Science of
Mind
"Freemasonry --
'more ancient than any of the world's living
religions' according to Albert Pike -- continued the chain of
the sacred Mysteries. Through an understanding of spiritual
Reality and a dedication to Wisdom, Love and Service, the Master
Masons attained 'supernatural' powers.... The race mind was beginning to feel the effect of
this new Light of Understanding.
"By the 1800's esoteric philosophy and practical mysticism were
moving across Europe and America like a tidal wave. The
Transcendental Movement led by Ralph Waldo Emerson began in New
England; the Metaphysical Movement was ushered in by Phineas Quimby; H. P.
Blavatsky and Henry Olcott founded the
Theosophical Society...
the New Thought Movement blossomed through the work and
teachings of Charles and Myrtle Fillmore (Unity
"church")....
Alice Bailey established the Arcane School;
Rudolph Steiner formed the Anthroposophical Society; Paramahansa
Yogananda founded the Self-Realization Fellowship; and out of
the wealth of material in the Edgar Cayce files grew the
Association for Research and Enlightenment -- to name but a few
contributors to the New Age of spiritual unfoldment.
"It is now estimated that at least 25 percent of the population
America is involved in some measure with what is considered
Esoteric Philosophy or New Thought Religion....
"The Truth
and the Law.... Your outer world of form and experience is a reflection of
your inner world of thoughts and feelings.
As above, so below.
As within, so without. That is the Law."
Assemblies of God: Committed to Spiritual Formation, Contemplation and Emerging
"The first of these five untheorized observations
is that New Light embodiment means to be "in connection" and 'in-formation' with
other Christians. Deeper feeling and higher relating go together. The church is
fundamentally one being, one person, a communion whose cells are connected to
one another within the information network called the Christ consciousness.'"
—Quantum Spirituality, p. 122
He [Leonard
Sweet] goes on:
"Energy-fire experiences take us into
ourselves only that we might reach outside of ourselves. Metanoia is a
de-centering experience of connectedness and community. It is not an
exercise in reciting what Jesus has done for me lately.
"Energy-fire ecstasy, more a buzz than a
binge, takes us out of ourselves, literally. That is the meaning of the word
'ecstatic.'" Quantum Spirituality, P. 93
"This ecstasy Sweet speaks refers to the New Age
ecstasy that occurs in an altered state of consciousness."
See also
Universal Forums of
Culture | Don't Be
Deceived!
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