Even as a child, when I'd look up at the stars and see the sky, I didn't see empty space. I saw joy and felt an awake presence. I felt the divine being, expressed through nature and through the creation. As a scientist, I view it that way. This view is not incompatible with the study of the biochemistry of flowers - seeing how incredibly wondrous and extraordinary it's all put together, whether it's genetics, whether it's physics, whether it's electromagnetism, whether it's quantum physics, whether it's string theory, whether it's biochemistry, molecular, anatomy, physiology -- it's all an expression of an incredible conscious living Being. All of this is the outer body of God, phasing, resonating, moving as matter or space or time or energy.
Thus, every created thing is a doorway to the Creator. Walt Whitman certainly knew this, and Thoreau and Emerson. Nature is a great teacher. We have come out of the womb of Mother Earth, which is an outer expression of the infinite Godhead. Infinity is within us and with- in all things, but not divided - eternally in Its perfect wholeness. Everything is within and perfectly connected to each other. It's the perfect quantum hologram.
The question is: Is there a meta-theme that encapsulates all these experiences? The big theme and the transcendent theme is an ineffable oneness. Oneness.
If you have the ability to experience this state of consciousness, where you transcend space and time and materialism, you can encounter someone from another culture on Earth or another person from another planet or another realm, and rather than seeing them as "other," you see them as "same." This is very important, because the consciousness of 'otherness' is rooted in ignorance. Otherness is ignorance, whereas oneness is enlightenment.
If you can look at all beings and see that they're awake and conscious, just as we are, you can experience your oneness with them. This is true no matter how different their intellect, body, emotional timbre, or fund of knowledge may be. All these things that we usually focus on are real- ly ephemeral. If we look at the fact that they're awake and experience that state of awareness where we see the transcendental value of the unbounded Mind, then we won't see them as "alien" or "other." And this is true whether you're talking about someone from Zimbabwe or Saudi Arabia or Alpha Centauri. It really doesn't matter - because it's another sentient, conscious being who has folded within his reality the awake-ness that is this universal aspect of our own selves.
If you can experience this state of Oneness, first of all, you can communicate, which is very important. Secondly, you will not feel that there is anything to be afraid of. Thirdly, you will see nothing to have a conflict over, because the things that are different really aren't essential and aren't important.
I think you could put the founders of every religion on Earth together and they'd have a grand old time with, probably, no differences amongst them. It's the divisions that men create, out of egotism, materialism, chauvinism, ignorance ,hatred and stupidity, that cause the prob- lems. The experience of Oneness is the indispensable experience so needed at this time...
So, the meta-theme that I have taken away from my own experience of these states of awareness is that of oneness. It is the meta-theme of the next half a million years: growing levels of oneness. And out of that grows perfect harmony, peace and enlightenment.
You see this all around us. The world is becoming more integrated and more related. One of the great challenges of the extraterrestrial question is - what level of oneness must be attained for humanity to be uni- versal - to be able to relate peacefully to conscious but non-human life?
We live in a cosmic moment, where humans are starting to go into space, and we're beginning to wake up to the fact that we're being visit- ed by extraterrestrial civilizations, and simply realizing the oneness of humanity isn't enough. We're going to have to transcend even that and go to a level where we understand the universal aspect of the mind; the fact that conscious mind, awake-ness itself, is a universal singularity and that the awake-ness within the being of a life form from another planet is identical to the awake-ness within us - even if our intellects are differ- ent and our bodies are different and our fund of knowledge is different. All those things really are not essential.
This, then, speaks to the need for a universal spirituality. We live in a time not just of the need for the establishment of world peace but of universal peace. A time where such a peace can only be actualized fully through the acknowledgment of the universal nature of spirit and the universal nature of conscious mind. Otherwise, we will say, "Well, humanity is all one, and humans can have peace, but then there are all these others out there" - and what shall we do with them?
The truth is that these life forms are conscious and awake through the same inner awake-ness that shines within each of us. There is absolutely no difference.
Knowledge of This eliminates all fear -- if you can be in that state of awareness, you are in the state that is eternal and immortal, because it is outside the limits of time. And it's infinite, because it's not restricted by space. So, that state of consciousness is the safest path to being able to establish world peace and universal peace. This is why the fundamental challenge in the world today is spiritual.
CHAPTER 7
q^D
Universal Peace
We are in a cosmic moment. Humans today- albeit in classified pro- grams - have the means to travel among the stars. So, we must evolve from a human oriented spirituality to a genuine universal spirituality And if that doesn't occur, we will not be able to evolve to the next level of human destiny
Some say, "Well, this is a tall order. We're still here beating each other up - and now we're going to have to deal with relating to life forms from elsewhere." But look at it this way: when we acknowledge that we're not alone in the universe, it will make humans ~ all humans ~ seem like very close relatives. Now, in order to deal with the challenge of under- standing other civilizations, we will have to transcend the anthropocentric view of spirituality and evolve a universal spirituality. This is actually an extremely positive development. These challenges will propel humanity into truly developing a larger, genuine spirituality that has been missing for so long through our misguided belief system of separation.
The truth is that there is no separation. I've spoken to many Native American peoples who relate that one of the extraordinary things in the early days of native peoples encountering Europeans was the extent to which we lived in the sense of things being separate. The Native Americans considered this thinking quite strange. As for the aboriginals in Australia who still practice 'dream time' and are aware: they know that there is no separation. There's a sense of integration with the stars, with the infinity of things, with other peoples, worlds, and with each other. The extent to which we live in a separate way, we suffer. And the extent to which we live in a sense of oneness within ourselves and with all that there is, we are freed from suffering.
So, that's the essential theme that I see that keeps repeating. It is the experience of a universal oneness rooted in the experience of non-local, cosmic mind. World peace isn't going to be enough: it is time for universal peace. It's that or nothing. There can be no human future without universal peace.
That's the time we live in, and that's the challenge of the coming era. We must
know ourselves as universal, awake beings, and on that foundation universal peace can be established. It may first be just studied intellectually, but ultimately it must be experiential.
We live in a time where universal education and the universal ability to read should open up the whole array of knowledge to every denizen on the planet. And those who would care to be gatekeepers or bottle- necks - and keep a choke- hold on the flow of knowledge - simply need to step down and stand aside.