I got to the river just before the sun crested, compass in hand to observe the southeast sky but saw no sign of the Dog Star. According to various internet sources Sirius was due to return to Northern skies today. Ancient people were very precise in their observations of the heavens. The internet, it seems, is not. But that was alright. Seeing the sun rise over the mountains was worth getting up for.

There is a resonant energy to the world just before dawn and there was a time when I used to get up at five o'clock in the morning just to feel the hum. On the way home from the river today, I remembered that time. I remembered how I used to sit in the kitchen and drink black coffee and write straight through until sunrise. I lived in the city then but I could see the better part of eastern sky above the vacant lot outside my back door. I got early up to write and see the sun come up almost every morning. In many ways, that place was my first real home and I made the most of it. 

According to Rabbi and scholar Ayreh Kaplan, in his intro to the English translation of The Sefer Yetzirah, Kabbalah may divided into three categories: theoretical, meditative and magical. Theoretical Kabbalah, which is based largely on the Zohar, is concerned with the dynamics of the spiritual domain (worlds, souls and angels). Meditative Kabbalah, as found in the Sefer (sefer means book) Yetzirah and several other unpublished texts, employs the use of divine names and other methods to reach higher states of consciousness. Magical Kabbalah can be found to a certain extent (per Rabbi Kaplan) in the Sefer Yetzirah as well as The Book of Raziel and other as of yet untranslated texts.

Wonderful translations of many of these primary texts are available through Amazon and elsewhere, including The Bahir and Sefer Yetzirah as translated by Aryeh Kaplan, and The Zohar in the beautiful multi-volume Pritzker edition translated by Daniel Matt. Are these good places to start however? That depends. An understanding any of these texts, is best approached, in my opinion, in conjuncture with a certain amount of left brain understanding of Judaism and the Bible and a good deal of right brain reflection and meditation. It is my personal preference to treat all Kabbalah as essentially meditative, to select a short passage to read and reflect upon and not necessarily struggle for a structured assimilation of information.

If you are looking for a more comprehensive understanding of Kabbalistic concepts than this approach provides, the best place to start may be with modern commentary. The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism by Daniel Matt as well as another of Matt's books, God and the Big Bang, are fantastic first reads on Kabbalah. The Thirteen Petalled Rose by Adin Steinsaltz (reviewed in this publication here) is a great choice as well especially for those interested in increasing their metaphysical understanding of alternate dimensions.

The Essential Kabbalah is a wonderful reflective and mystical text which addresses many of the important concepts of Kabbalah in short, understandable and extremely well-written essays. God and the Big Bang which I hope to reread and review soon, is one of my favorite books. In it, Matt does a truly amazing and sometimes poetic job of discussing the cosmos, the Zohar and many of the fundamentals of Judaism.

The following passage from The Essential Kabbalah describes the ten sefirot in Matt's mystical yet very accessible style:

Dr. Amit Goswami speaking on quantum physics as it relates to spirituality. Read my review of the documentary film "The Quantum Activist" which features Dr. Goswami and his work in my previous post "Mysticism Meets Quantum Science." If you find the film challenging, as I did, or even if you don't, there is what looks like it could be a great free workbook available for download at the website QuantumActivist.com (QuantumActivist.com/workbook).  I'm really looking forward to working with it!

The Quantum Activist is a truly incredible documentary presenting the work and theories of Dr. Amit Goswami PhD, Professor Emeritus of Quantum Physics at the University of Oregon.  The film focuses on a  series of fascinating direct interviews and recorded lectures given by Dr. Goswami, exclusively, with little time wasted on voice overs or filler.  As the focus of the film, he is in all instances charming, innovative, entertaining and quite understandable given the material. 

Goswami is at this point in his career quite well known, a sought after speaker world-wide, as well as the author of numerous books including the quantum mechanics textbook of choice for many universities: Quantum Mechanics, The Self-Aware Universe, God is not Not Dead, How Quantum Activism Can Save Civilisation, The Visionary Window: A Quantum Physicist's Guide to Enlightenment and Physics of the Soul (which is winging its way to me as I write:).   His message may be as important as any other scientific advancement realized to date.

How can I make such an outrageous claim? 

Dr. Goswami expresses ideas about non-local consciousness that have widespread, perhaps even worldwide, transformative potential and what he says makes sense.  Or as much sense as anything said about quantum physics can make at this point in our development.

He speaks against scientific materialism.  The idea, as he defines it, that cause rises, that matter is the force behind all subtle experience.  He maintains that it is impossible to explain all internal phenomena in terms of the movement of molecules.  He calls the attempt to do so upward causation, the method of building upon our understanding from the bottom up, from particle, to atom, to molecule, to the ultimate creation and existence of all that is.

Religions, Goswami maintains,while apparently diverse share a common view of what can be conceived of as God.  That is, a force outside of the material, a downward causation, a subtle body or world aside from the observable.  Goswami considers this principal the essence of spirituality.

So what does any of this have to do with quantum physics?  

Quantum physics describes the nature of tiny particles.  Its application is responsible for many of the great advances of our modern age: satellites, computers, nuclear power, advanced medicine.  Additionally and most notably however, it appears to follow a very different set of rules than those observable in the macro world - as defined by scientists such as Newton.  Quantum physics poses certain problems such as quantum non-locality, in which two particles share information across vast distances, and suggests (as in the well-known double slit experience) that observation at the quantum realm effects matter, literally changing the manifestation of light from a wave to a particle.

It should be noted that like most groundbreaking scientific data, these results have been interpreted in a number of ways and that it is likely that the most comprehensive explanation is still evolving.  Regardless of the interpretation however, no one can say that this phenomena is not remarkable and most will agree that it has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the very nature of reality.

Amit Goswami interprets this phenomena, as do many, in terms of consciousness.  He explains that when consciousness looks - waves collapse and become objects of conscious experience.  In that respect, he considers physics a science of possibilities meaning, as I understand it, that all waves have the possibility of being transformed into objects of conscious experience.  He goes on to address the Quantum Measurement Paradox in terms of philosophical logic and this is where he begins to depart from the majority of physicists. 

He asks: If consciousness, as quantum physics suggests, chooses actuality from material possibilities how can we conceptualize this without paradox?  If we have a possible elementary particle, creating a possible atom, creating a possible neuron, creating a possible brain, creating a possible consciousness, how can we couple possibility to actuality - or consciousness to matter? 

Pointing out the circularity and paradox of that line of reasoning, Goswami then introduces what he terms a radical thought.  This is quite simply put, an idea consistent with the experience of the mystic, the idea that consciousness is the ground of all being.  

As breathtaking as this is, however, there is more.  Goswami goes on to speak quite clearly on the topic of manifestation, maintaining that the level of consciousness which possesses the ability to choose actuality is an altered (as opposed to egoic) state which can only operate in the realm of the subtle.  This state and this realm may be thought of as cosmic or interconnected consciousness.  Separateness in this context is ultimately illusionary and this is what is truly radical about Goswami's science.

Goswami goes on to speak of non-local communication, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the discontinuous leap of creativity and the morphogenetic field with such beauty and precision that it would be a mistake I think for me to attempt to paraphrase here.  Suffice it to say that he believes that non-local or cosmic consciousness is at once God, and ourselves, the object, and subject.  For Goswami, as for me, consciousness does indeed precede all.

On a global scale, the ramifications of such a realization are staggering.  Operating from the subtle body, and the heart chakra specifically, Goswami suggests that we have the ability to recognize this interconnectness and proposes an approach to the resolution of conflict which acknowledges that we are all part of the whole.  He speaks of taking a step beyond even the Bodhisattva.  In the old days Goswami explains, we were concerned only for ourselves.  'If I achieve heaven,' we may have said, 'I don't care about you.'  As we evolve however in we recognize that this is incorrect.  And ideally we realize it to the degree that we now say, 'If you don't go, I don't go either.'

Toward the end of the film, we realize that Dr. Goswami  is not naive.  He is an experienced and educated man, well aware of the dangers posed by our treatment of the environment (a product of separatism and material thinking) and each other.  He sees progress however in an evolutionary sense that is both individual and collective.  He considers this progress demonstrated by the success of leaders such Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King.  He points out that these movements toppled the great institutions of British colonization, apartheid and racism by completely nonviolent means and that this could not have happened 100 or 200 years ago.  And in spite of my continued concern and anxiety about the state of the world, I have to agree.  It is possible.  We may indeed be progressing and while nothing is guaranteed, I see great hope.

The absolute perfection of this documentary, of course, is that it is soundly based in in scientific theory, lending validity to the subjective and credibility to the unseen.  In this regard it is therefore accessible to very wide audience.

A friend sent me this video this evening which was interesting as I was reading Plato's account of Atlantis earlier in the day.  This is not Atlantis of course but it follows a very similar time-line which I find compelling.  I am  absolutely fascinated by the mystery of the past.  Somehow it all comes together in ways  mainstream archaeology is just beginning to consider.  I must do a review on Fingerprints of the Gods (the author of the book, Graham Hancock, is interviewed midway through  this clip).

The History Channel does seem to get a bit off track in this presentation but some good points are made as well.  I've included some background from the Smithsonian Magazine below, including additional photos:

"Six miles from Urfa, an ancient city in southeastern Turkey, Klaus Schmidt has made one of the most startling archaeological discoveries of our time: massive carved stones about 11,000 years old, crafted and arranged by prehistoric people who had not yet developed metal tools or even pottery. The megaliths predate Stonehenge by some 6,000 years. The place is called Gobekli Tepe, and Schmidt, a German archaeologist who has been working here more than a decade, is convinced it's the site of the world's oldest temple."

I have not quite finished Journey of Souls and am already eagerly diving in to the author's second book, Destiny of Souls.  I have high hopes for it.  I found the first book nothing short of amazing.

Dr. Michael Newton PhD. is a counselor and hypnotherapist who discovered soul regression quite by accident during the course of treating his own patients with hypnotherapy.  By tapping into the client's soul experiences between physical incarnations he was able to elicit a large amount of detailed information on what his client's believed to be soul memories.

Over time, and with his patient's permission, Dr. Newton believes that he has interviewed hundreds of souls, questioning them on the specifics of spirit world, and receiving surprisingly consistent information.

Journey of Souls is largely made up of direct transcription of interviews between Dr. Newton and his clients and utilizes specific case studies to illustrate particular aspects of the spirit world.  Through a series of interviews the book book addresses death and departure from the physical plane, the mechanism of travel to the realm of spirit, the spiritual homecoming, meetings with guides, the soul group and provides a wealth of detail about what a religious person might refer to as heaven.   While the book does quite obviously deal with the topic of death I found it to be extremely positive and affirming.  It is available through Amazon in both print format and audio.

For those new to the topic much of the content of Journey of Souls may seem fantastic.  So fantastic that I might have discounted it altogether if it hadn't been consistent with one of my own truths - an incredibly vivid, as well as unusually complex and coherent dream which I experienced in the summer of 2007.  Comparing that dream to Dr. Newton's accounts of the spirit realm I feel that I can at last understand it.  (You can read my account of this dream in the blog entry Dreams: The Wandering Soul.)

It is interesting that while I originally based the title of the above entry on a Jewish tradition which maintains that the soul wanders during dreams I did not have any real sense that my own spirit had in actuality wandered while I was asleep.  Comparing several facets of this dream to Dr. Newton's account of the afterlife, however, I believe that during this dream my soul  did indeed travel into the realm of spirit, encountering my soul group and guides. 

In my dream experience, my guide was a woman in blue and the blue of her jewelry and clothing was vivid and incredibly beautiful - significant to me even as I dreamt it.  I found it interesting to read in Dr. Newton's book that blue is frequently associated with spirit guides.  This ran counter to my  concept of spirit and color at that time (I would have expected white or violet to denote highly evolved spiritual energy).

Perhaps the most compelling parallel between my dream and Dr. Newton's description of the spirit world occurred in paragraph 13 of the  dream and again in the last two paragraphs written.  To summarize: during my dream journey to the spirit world (which I did not at the time conceptualize as the spiritual realm) my group attended a spiritual lecture.  After returning to the everyday life of the dream, I found that the speaker we had listened to on our journey had died while we were away.  As all other aspects of the dream were highly coherent, it seems unlikely that this wasn't significant.

In other words, the speaker could not have been gravely ill in the dream hospital, or already passed, and at the same time giving a spiritual lecture in another location.  I did not understand the importance of this element until I read Dr. Newton's book.  Coupled with the association of color and other symbolism of the dream, it clicked.  My dream journey was indeed a journey of spirit.

In an interesting incidence of reciprocity (or synchronicity), it is both exciting to feel that I have at last solved the puzzle of this very meaningful and mysterious dream and surprising to think that without having first experienced it I would have found Dr. Newton's book too fantastic to be believed.

Thanks to Jill Renee of Beacon for Lightworkers for recommending this book!

While I don't necessarily believe that there are no coincidences, I do believe that there are a lot less of them than most of us suppose.  I think that many of the events we write off as coincidences are in actuality synchronicities between the spiritual and the physical, connecting points if you will between conventional reality and what's beyond.  Because of this belief, I feel that the messages synchronicities give are always significant.  

To put the spiritual 'evidence' synchronicities represent into perspective, however, I want to first mention other sorts of evidence.  These are occurrences that many of us, even most of us, accept without ever really analyzing.  Relatively common events such as paranormal experience for example occur at least occasionally to a great many people but somehow become part of the world view of only a relative few.  Faced with solidity of our visible world it is all too easy to dismiss an event that 'couldn't' be real.  People may even say, 'I couldn't believe my eyes' and mean it!

Case in point:  I heard my first ghost when I was sixteen years old.  It was not my first experience with spirit but my earlier experiences were either heart centered (felt) or 'heard' in the form of interior dialogue.  This experience was different.

I was sitting in the kitchen of an old farmhouse when I clearly (really) heard people talking outside, though the words were muffled.  It was objectively obvious to me that they walking around on the old wooden porch preparing to come in.  I wasn't alarmed because people were expected.  "Here they are," I thought.  The old screen door squeaked.  Then nothing.  Perplexed, I got up to see what the problem was, opened the door and - you guessed it - found nobody there.


This experience should have convinced me of something I already half knew.  The reality of spirit should have become a cornerstone of my belief system.  Instead I set this experience, as well as a series of disturbing dreams and a second event that occurred in the same location, aside and did not revisit the memory for several years.

Experiences such as these  should lead each of us to question the apparent nature of reality (one very positive reason for the phenomena of ghost energy in my opinion) but the truth is they frequently don't or, as in my case, a couple of replays and few really blockbuster events (which occurred elsewhere) are required to really get the ball rolling.  Examined or not, however, displays of paranormal activity are not only evidence of spirit, they are evidence of  an invisible reality and as such should pose important questions about spirit, space and the universality of physical laws.  Questions that far too few people ask.

So where do synchronicities fit in?  If visions and auditory phenomena are true 'eye witness' accounts, synchronicities are admittedly merely circumstantial evidence.  This does not mean that we should discount them.  Quite the contrary, in my opinion; we should actively look for them.  They may be easy to miss but they are very important.  In a court of law, circumstantial evidence lends credibility to evidence which may seem extraordinary, making the layering of circumstance an important part of building a case.  The more circumstance there is, the more believable a given scenario becomes.  Small things take on significance. 

And this is true of synchronicity as well.  Once a person learns to pay attention, it is my experience that they will notice that synchronicities happen a lot.  Far too often, in my opinion, and too exactly to be written off as random.

If the direct experience of paranormal phenomena gives evidence of an invisible reality, what do synchronicities say?  They may be considered evidence of the unseen, of course, but they tell us something about this invisible realm that the experience of ghosts for example does not.  Because they are frequently helpful or instructional, synchronicities speak of a caring and compassionate universe, spiritual or God-force.  Or at least they do to me.

My most recent synchronicity concerned my dog, Samson who has been sick these last four years with what has become a very severe case of kidney disease.  Three years ago I was told he had a had few weeks to live.  We have been on borrowed time so to speak for a while now and that time is running out.  What he means to me is beyond the scope of this article and perhaps beyond words altogether.  I will say that he is best friend in the world and leave it at that.

My goal at this point in his treatment, which is both extensive and costly, is that he will have a good summer and I have prayed about this a lot.  Last week he took a sudden turn for the worse.  It seemed hopeless but after a visit to our wonderful vet and a lot interaction with spirit, I decided to admit him to the animal hospital for a transfusion.  The proposed treatment may see us til the end of the summer in the emergency vet's opinion, then again it might not.

The cost of the transfusion was $1086 which was far more than I expected.  I had 570 dollars in hand and a three hundred dollar check from my oldest son.  My middle boy who had accompanied me had exactly 216 dollars in his wallet.  Between the three of us we paid for Sammy's care without a dollar left over.  As my son took his worldly wealth out  of his wallet, he said "I guess it's meant to be."  An offhand comment from a very committed spiritual skeptic but perhaps it is a start.

Events like this are easy to dismiss and we do dismiss them more frequently than we are even aware of.  It is far better in my opinion to look for their occurrence, far better to be open  and to reflect on the messages they share:  Life is not easy.  Suffering is everywhere.  But compassion is just as available and it is accessible to all of us.  And of course, most importantly, beyond the visible a mysterious and wonderful reality awaits.