a reasonable mystic

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Imagine That! - Part 2
2007-02-07 10:31:01
We finished Part 1 by saying that the human mind already has a faculty that appears to fulfill all of the functions needed for spirit to spirit communication. It is called the imagination. For some kinds of communication, e.g. thoughts, words and visions, the imagination is already able to place the information into the mind, with one of the only difficulties being for the mind to know where the thought, etc. came from. For things like physical or emotional feelings, the imagination needs to affect the body. However, such an ability is already well established, as evidenced by the abreaction of the body when a past trauma is remembered, or the rising up of fear, hatred or love when we learn of something happening to someone else, even in a fictional context such as a novel or a movie. We can even conjure up in our imagination details of something that never happened and feel what would be appropriate emotions or sensations as if it was a real event. Psychosomatic illness and many ph...
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Imagine That! - Part 1
2007-02-04 10:29:01
Those with an interest in exploring and understanding how the human brain operates, and the relationship between brain and mind, generally operate with an overriding assumption ? that the human mind is alone, isolated from all other minds except for communication processes relying on the five physical senses ? sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste, and the ability to speak, write, draw, gesticulate, etcetra. Some enthusiasts also posit extra-sensory perceptions, human to human, human to animal, and sometimes human to other entities. Such investigations are not held in high regard by the general scientific and medical community, I believe largely because of their assumptions that other entities do not exist, and that all processes are determined entirely by operation of the physical brain. Leaving out, for now, the possibility of ESP, five physical senses would be enough or simple communication and interaction. However, this neglects the possibility that a considerable amount of hum...
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Richard Rohr on the Church
2006-12-10 03:48:02
First, let me apologise for the delay since my last post. Di and I have been to Queensland for a school on cutting edge ministry with Peter and Heather Toth - anazao.com.au . It was mind-blowing, and I'm sure I'll say more later. But for now, something else. A few weeks ago Rich ard Rohr, a modern mystic, was interviewed on The Religion Report on Radio National .He says some provocative things about church and ministry. (Thanks for the heads-up Gary - theeighthday.org.au/mt/gdh/). Here's an excerpt of what Rohr said: Richard Rohr got some flak from readers of his column in the National Catholic Reporter recently when he suggested that few transformations happen in church, that the places where real transformation happens in our world are Alcoholics Anonymous, Ground Zero, the cancer ward, and of course the mountains of New Mexico. Richard Rohr: Well I did say that. I wrote a whole Lenten series on the concept of liminal space, liminality. It's amazing how interesting that subje...
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My 'Spiritual' Journey - Episode 2
2006-12-02 15:42:07
The movement of my career from DCA Design Draftsman to CSIRO Technical Officer, and then to University Lecturer was most definitely orchestrated by God. Shortly before my 13 years with DCA ended I was becoming bored and in need of a new challenge. I had worked on some interesting projects, such as the Public Flight Information System still in use today, and Interscan, the world's first automatic aircraft landing system. But it was time for a change. I looked with little enthusiasm at a couple of job advertisements, but someone showed me an advertisement for a Technical Officer at a new Division of Manufacturing Technology being established by CSIRO. In particular, the Integrated Engineering and Manufacture Group needed someone to handle the installation of electronic systems for two robots, a computer vision system and a numerically controlled milling machine. I had no experience with any of these. In fact I had little practical experience with any electronic hardware - I was a dr...
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Atheism and Experiencing God
2006-12-02 15:42:07
You must be wondering what happened to My Spiritual Journey, after more than a year! It hasn't finished - I've just been rather busy doing it. More will come, I promise.In the meantime, I've just begun reading Alistair McGrath's The twilight of atheism: the rise and fall of disbelief in the modern world.What has atheism got to do with being a reasonable mystic, you might ask? Well, I discovered something interesting. For a long time I have heard atheists using the words of people like Voltaire and Descartes to bolster their cause. Now I discover that neither of them were atheists. In fact, they were deists. Not only that, but Descartes was actually trying to prove that God does exist, not the reverse!Anyway, let's go back one step so we can see what this has to do with this blog.How many times have you heard someone say that Voltaire said God was an invention of man? They quote him as saying: "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him." On page 25 McGrath gives ...
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Defining Christian Mysticism
2006-12-02 15:42:07
First, let me apologise for the disjointed order of these posts, although I shouldn't need to apologise - blogging gives an author the freedom to post items as they come to mind. The reader must wait in anticipation to see if and when some order emerges from the heap. Why should I deprive anyone of that adventure?Today I plan to begin discovering what mysticism is, and I will begin with a definition from Wikipedia:Myst icism from the Greek ???????? (mystikos) "an initiate" (of the Eleusinian Mysteries, ???????? (mysteria) meaning "initiation") is the pursuit of achieving communion or identity with, or conscious wareness of, ultimate reality, the divine, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, or insight; and the belief that such experience is an important source of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. Traditions may include a belief in the literal existence of realities beyond empirical perception, or a belief that a true human perception of the world trancend...
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Praying Hypertext
2006-12-02 15:42:07
How often, when you are reading an online document or webpage, do you find a link that leads to a related term? You follow the link, fully intending to return, but you find more links. Gradually you diverge further and further from your original quest or task, until eventually you can no longer remember what you wanted. Even if you did, you might be hard pressed to find it again. And, what do you do with all the marvellous things you discovered along the way? Does this remind you of many so called "prayer meetings"? Each person prays their list, while the next person desperately tries to find something they can pray which hasn't yet been mentioned, at the same time trying to listen to the prayer. Or, you may want to add to a prayer, but someone gets in first and changes the subject! And so it goes on, around the world and back again a few times. If you wanted to agree with something and try to drag the prayer back to a previous point, you are just sure that people are thinking, "W...
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Evelyn Underhill - Demystifying Mysticism
2006-12-02 15:42:07
I've begun reading some of the works of Evelyn Under hill, an Anglican writer on mysticism, a novelist, a metaphysical poet, and a student of Baron Friedrich von Hügel. Early in the Twentieth Century she wrote many books on mysticism, some of which go a long way to demystify it (if you'll pardon the pun).In the first chapter of The Myst ics of the Church she gives a useful description of the words "mystic" and "mystical":"Mystic" and "mysticism" are words which meet us constantly in all books that deal with religious experience; and indeed in many books which do not treat of religion at all. They are generally so vaguely and loosely used that they convey no precise meaning to our minds. and have now come to be perhaps the most ambigous terms in the whole vocabulary of religion. Any vague sense of spiritual things, any sort of symbolism, any hazy allegorical painting, any poetry which deals with the soul - worse than that, all sorts of superstitions and magical practices - may be, an...
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Rhonda Hughey - Three Doors
2006-12-02 15:42:07
A year or so ago I went to the YWAM base in Melbourne, Australia to hear Rhonda Hugh ey speak. What i heard was inspiring. Here is a woman who, while being a leader with a global perspective on the church, at the same time sees the preeminent importance of a truly intimate relationship with Jesus. I want to quote to you what she says in the introduction to her book, Desperate for His Presence: Gods Design to Transform Your Life and Your City.In a declining culture, the church cannot fully recover the presence of Godin her midst apart from the catalyst of a true revival from heaven. We areliving in an important hour of history! God is challenging the church'sself-centered identity and shifting our mindsets and ineffective methodologies.He is inviting us to respond to one of the greatest challenges we have everfaced - to return to our first love and to step out of our compromised churchculture into His kingdom!Do you hear the message here? Instead of being focussed on ourselves, or ev...
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Check out the posts on my blogs
2006-12-02 15:42:07
If you are reading this post you would probably also be interested in posts in some of my blogs: Listening 2 God Theology of Lying Prophecy Versus Preaching Purifying the Prophetic - Sanctified Psychic Reading Tell him he's dreaming! Ministry to Children Step Out and Prophesy Welcome to Listening 2 God blog Mal's Meanderings The Law and the Prophets Barbers don't exist - irrefutable proof. Please, Mr Einstein The things you are asked in counselling Is prophecy the same as inspired preaching? Purpose-Driven? Noctaphobia Why 'Beth Tephillah'? Doppler Shift Being Made One What we believe Top Ten Truths That Shape My Teaching Jesus and Walls A Vision for the Church The perfect pastor The words 'charismatic' and 'pentecostal' have passed their use-by dates Managed Friendship Crossing Over - a word from Rick Joyner History of Medicine I've just discovered a great website on open theism I am greatly enjoying...
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Charismatic Mysticism
2006-10-11 19:30:04
In my last post I mentioned the more obvious mystical stream in the Evangelical church, based on the contemplative tradition. Much less recognised, however, and one of the primary motivations for my explorations, is the clear mystical content of the Char isma tic movement. This movement, following on after the original Pentecostal movement of the early 20th Century, introduced the direct, tangible experience of God into the lives of many otherwise conservative, evangelical believers, who would probably neither have, nor desire, contact with anything they thought of as mystical.Evangelicals have long had a suspicion, even a fear, of mystics and mysticism, seeing their teachings and practices as closer to Eastern religions than true Christianity. Some of the old mystics appearing to engage with the occult did not help either. The modern equivalent is seen in the New Age movement. Yet, when we look at the goals of many mystics and those of many charismatics, they are identical - only the...
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Reason, Mysticism and Christianity - Part 1
2006-09-18 04:45:02
So, what do I mean when I say I am a reasonable mystic? And then, in what sense can I be a reasonable mystic and a Chris t ian ?Such descriptions are open to many interpretations, and misinterpretations, depending on your perspective on the nature of mysticism, the role of reason, and the validity of Christianity as a worldview.When I coined the term "reasonable mystic" I was unaware of its having been used before. Since then a quick Google search throws up a number of references, many of which are my own websites. A few websites on the Beguines have it refering to William of St. Thierry (1085-1148), a friend of Bernard of Clairvaux. William described in emotional terms the human desire to know God in perfect love, and was also known as the "learned lover".Some other references were to a site by Douglas Muder called Tips for a Reason able Mystic. It was interesting, but contained many ideas with which I could not agree. His characteristics of the next religion sound to much like humanis...

Welcome to a reasonable mystic
2006-09-12 10:12:01
Welcome to a reasonable mystic ! Mal Dow
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Report on Anazao Conferences
2006-09-12 10:12:01
Di and I have just spent 5 days with Peter Toth and Heather Scott of Anazao. The level 1 and 2 conference was excellent, and despite (or probably because) it stretching some of our theological assumptions. There way of ministering to the most broken of people is undoubtedly the most effective - and easiest - that I have experienced. They effectively and quickly minister to DID and SRA victims without delving into the dungeons and dragons like labrynth that others seem to think is necessary, bringing rapid integration while preserving the dignity of the person and not giving the kingdom of darkness a stage to act upon. Their method of carrying out deliverance resonates very strongly with the practice we learned from Dr Charles Kraft. If there is any way you could get to one of their conferences or schools, whatever the cost, then do it! Details at www.anazao.com.au.
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Re: Atheism and Experiencing God
2006-09-12 10:12:01
The posts to this blog also go to my Google Group - reasonablemystic@googlegroups.com. "Dr David" posted the following comment to that group: ----------------------------------------- -----------------------"because God cannot be logically proved without being experienced inrelationship" Spending time looking at this issue of "proof" and "relationship withGod" can lead one to some interesting conclusions regarding being"prepared to be reasonable mystics" It is not possible for me to recount in this reply decades of researchalong this avenue but I can make a few points. 1) the termsrelationship, mystic and proof need definition 2) the links between theterms need clarification, and 3) the application of these concepts tohumanity and well being need to be further expanded. I have attemptedto do provide some material to address each of these points on mywebsite www.SacredHealingNow.com I think that any one on the path of the "reasonable mystic" is taking apath that few have traveled w...
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