Musing on Spooky Thoughts

  Recently spent some time musing on spooky things.  And what were once spooky things.  For your musing pleasure:

   A spooky concept for many is that superstition and magic may be real.  Or, more precisely, the phenomena that superstition and magic attempt to describe or portray is real.  Take prayer for instance.  Superstition and magic would describe a situation where certain persons, perhaps priests, would “pray” or call for the action of the gods upon another person for benefit, such as healing.  The person gets well.  No one may know why or how, just that it happened.  If it can’t be explained, then it’s magic – the action of a capricious god or strange force.

   Arthur C. Clarke once noted that a person encountering an advanced technology for the first time would consider it magic.  That is true.  If someone has no idea what prayer is and how it works, it appears magical.

   There is a tremendous burst of knowledge occurring where many “magic and superstitions” of old are recognized as a reality event – an occurrence explainable by the known laws of the universe.  For instance, there have been replicated studies on the impact of prayer on healing.  These studies support the concept that prayer does in face have a healing impact (or certainly comforting) on the target person – even when those praying are distant and not acquainted with those they pray for.  Prayer, then, is no longer magic or divine intervention, but an energy transfer, a syncing of vibrations, as real as a radio broadcast.  The question then, is how we can direct this power.

   Another spooky concept was contained in the November 2005 issue of National Geographic.  It contains an article on letters from wars.  The feature has a photo of the mother of a son killed in Iraq.  She had vivid dreams where her son clearly tells her that he is all right.  This observation is a matter of fact.  There are dreams of exceptional clarity that are not the dross of brain and thought activity coursing around, but are instead more direct links with specific vibrations – tuning in, if you will.  You’ve had a dream like that.  Everyone has.  It’s not superstition.  The Ancients placed great stock in such connections.

   Moving out of dreams and into waking experience are the stories of spooky concepts a.k.a. ghosts and apparitions.  By day and by night many people sense a presence, a vibration, that may provide a visual moment or other sensory event that is associated with a geographic location.  Ghost hunters prowl the old houses and haunts.  Once again, rather than a supernatural event, what is experienced is more a frequency-tuning.  Not everyone is on the same frequency thus may have a different experience or none at all while someone else present is fully tuned in.  An interesting book, “Speaking with the spirits of the old Southwest,” presents a trio of investigators conversing with former residents of Arizona ghost towns and historic sites.  One is a sensitive medium, one a pendulum dowser, and the third a paranormal researcher and animal communicator.  Each perceives the presence of a person (deceased) in his/her distinct manner.  Very often the three are in sync with the vibrations offered and literal conversations are possible (sometimes recorded.)  Something is occurring.  A piece of a grand mosaic of energy.  Demonstrable, if not fully explainable.  Yet.

   Anyone desiring a more pleasant, comfortable, happy life will, sooner or later, conclude that a change in thinking (frequency) has to occur before anything else.  That’s not superstition or magic, it’s a reality.  The impact of thought (thinking) on the mental, physical, emotional and astral self is evident.  Self-evident.  Thinking creates life experiences. 

   Quantum physics studies the actions of incredibly small forces.  This writer only grasped a concept of vastness after peeking at the enormous amount of “space” contained in the extreme realm of micro.  The relative distance between measurable components of an atom is on a scale of our solar system.  There’s a whole lot of “nothing” making up our physical universe.  What’s spooky is that most of this universe consists of, well, we don’t quite know, yet.  Termed “dark matter” it’s stuff we can’t see but can notice its effects on what we can see.  This is truly a realm for magic and superstition.

   It’s curious how some cling to superstitions and magic rather than seek to understand the force that is in play.  Natural Selection.  Intelligent Design.  Two phrases that attempt to describe the same process.  The process is the improving manner of a life form, a.k.a evolution.  The process is so keen that it must be an observation of an intelligence at work.  Nature.  Natural.  Intelligence.  The difference is a curious mine-field.  Intelligence is a characteristic of Consciousness.  For nature to “select” the best process implies some degree of intelligence, at least to this writer.  Treating consciousness as a superstition insulates an awareness that “natural selection” is a conscious process.  I wonder how this debate would exist had Darwin titled his magnificent observations “The Evolution of Species” or “The Development of Species” rather than “The Origin of Species.”

   A really spooky concept for many is that their thinking (and in turn decisions and actions) actually influence what they experience.  It’s often easier to rely on superstition and magic as external forces that make things happen (good things to bad people, bad things to good people.)  If it’s Good, then God did it.  If it’s bad, then the Devil did it.  Or someone else did it.  Anybody, or anything, other than self.  This manner of thinking creates the realm of the victim.

   Medical Intuitive Caroline Myss has a theory why some people will not, or cannot, get well or improve their lives.  She calls it woundology.  This is a situation where a person suffered a loss – perhaps an illness, death of a loved one, and such.  People are instinctively sympathetic to another who’s rebuilding from such a devastating change event.  Yet some folks simply refuse to rebuild, or, get well.  What Caroline noticed is that the person received a lot of power and control by keeping alive the old wound.  To heal the wound would be to lose the power of victimhood.  It’s not a happy place.

   In a lesser extent we may find a spooky tendency to devote attention to negative situations – conditions and situation we do not want.  Yet how often is the conversation between people a lively account of current and past aches, pains, and misery?  “Your back hurts?  Well, let me tell you how bad I felt last night...”

   Now we know that what we hold in our thoughts (mind) is what we create (and experience.)  “The more I thought about it, the angrier I got!”  Dwelling on anything increases its effect.  It doesn’t even have to be real.  Running an imagined slight (insult, wrong, disrespect, etc.,)over and over, replacing sleep, replacing focus on the task at hand, does what?  The mole-hill slight is now a mountain, blocking any relief.  Wouldn’t we really want to hold in our mind a thought/situation that makes us feel good, and have that be our experience?  Duh.  Unless one is so wrapped in victimology .

   Dwelling might be considered the goblin of our past thinking that can lure our here-and-now thoughts back to the earlier state, which fires up the mental engines of creation to restore the former condition (or certainly emotional state reacting to the condition.)

   What about considering our thoughts as a form of prayer?  I suspect they could be synonyms.  If prayer establishes a vibrational “link” with Divine Intelligence, then each and every thought, regardless of intent, is a vibrational transmission whatever supreme consciousness is called.  At the very least, our thoughts are elevated if considered prayers.  That can be a spooky concept – every thought is a prayer.

   What’s in play is the Law ofAttraction.  Birds of a feather flock together.  Many ways describe it.  Like attracts like.  It’s fundamental.  Lets go back to our friend who talks constantly about his/her ailments.  Who listens?  Who is there?  Who is he/she spending time with?  Why, other people who are speaking of their ailments.  Unless you’re interested in sharing health war stories, you’re unlikely to hang around (there’s not much interest, or attraction.)

   We know this universal law so well.  Is there a parent who hasn’t expressed concern to a child about his/her friends?  We know that if the child spends time around children who are up to no good, shall we say , the probability of the child engaging in sad behaviors is high.  Think trash, speak trash, live trash.

  The converse is also true.  The Law of Attraction is totally neutral and answers every prayer (thought) with YES!  If the prayer is trash, then, yes!  More trash.  The Law is totally fair.  Isn’t it strange that we comprehend the negative easily, but find the positive, spooky?  What?  You mean that the way I think has something to do with what I experience.  Duh.

   Do you wake up each morning expecting a good day?  Or, a “see what comes” day?  Which wake up thought is more likely to be a bedtime reflection “what a good day...”  Caroline Myss observed two types of people seeking health.  When given a sure-fire plan to restore health and improve like, people will receive that plan with one of two responses:  That’s all I have to do?  Or  I have to do all of that?  The response predicts whether the person will enjoy life more, or less.  The first response is positive, optimistic – healing is an inside job.  The second response is fearful, overwhelming – healing is an outside job.

   A spooky concept that many have difficulty turning loose is life is meant to be hard.  This frightening concept often has deep roots.  It’s found in such fundamental thinking as:

            I am a sinner by birth

            Life is hard

            I am supposed to suffer

            Suffering is a virtue

            If I don’t do what they say, God will punish me

   These demon thoughts are being cast away in this millennium.  Once, such thoughts served a useful purpose.  But We (human beings) have, on the whole, moved above that (meaning that such thinking is less attractive now, meaning that such beliefs will become extinct for most people.)  Things once considered superstitious or magical are more and more found to be genuine.  How much more comfort could the mother of the slain soldier have, than for her son to personally reassure her that all is well.  And for her to know the communication was real.  That’s not spooky.  It’s a sample of the wonderous things that are part of our total life.

   There’s a whole lot f something going on in that a whole bunch of “nothing” that seems to be around us.  It doesn’t matter what we ask for, the answer is always YES. 

   That isn’t spooky.  It isn’t superstition.  It isn’t magic.  It’s exciting.  And you’re a part of it.