Summer 2014 American Fellowship Church Newsletter Spiritual Scoop 13

The Spiritual Scoop - American Fellowship Church Newsletter Solar Summer 2014

THE CLOCK IS TICKING Generously contributed by: Brother Michael Brush!God knows humanity continues to wrestle with two concepts, evolution and higher consciousness. But these are very new ideas, and so are the minds that mull them over. If the age of this planet, 4.5 billion years, were compressed to 24 hours then the emergence of humankind occurred a mere 4 seconds ago Discovery of the Omo fossils in Ethiopia dates the earliest evidence of modern homo sapiens at 200,000 years, barely a blink in Earth time. !It is possible our earliest ancestors sat around campfires contemplating consciousness, but probably not evolution since the

word didn't exist. Language hadn't been born at that point. Even the biblical Adam must have had an extremely limited vocabulary. !But as years rolled by 195,000 times these dormant ideas developed. They cropped up in Sumerian stories, ancient Greek dialogs, the Old and New Testament, the Rig Veda, and folklore that flowered around the world. !So how are we doing as a species? Are we getting any better in terms of compassion and care for the planet? !These are not idle questions. We face threats unprecedented in human history and the clock is ticking. The list of threats is long and numbing. It ranges from global warming to nuclear holocaust f rom corporatocracy to internet spying from worldwide

economic collapse to impending extinction of wild tigers, orangutans and elephants among many endangered species from devastating oil spills and deforestation to widespread human starvation and cancers. That is just the tip of the iceberg.

1 2014 The Spiritual Scoop Newsletter - American Fellowship Church and respective authors - all rights reserved

We face threats unprecedented in human history and the clock is ticking. The list of threats is long and numbing.


!There are those, however, who hold out hope. A pioneer was a Canadian doctor and metaphysicist who coined the term cosmic consciousness when he wrote a book with that term as its title. His name is Richard Maurice Bucke, his book was published 1901 in Philadelphia, and he was a friend of the American poet Walt Whitman. !By studying the Bible and other ancient texts Bucke became convinced that humankind is moving toward higher consciousness inevitably, and rapidly, based on what he discovered about our perception of colors and fragrances. !Color perception evolved recently, he contends, with red being perceived first because its wavelengths vibrate at the highest rate on the spectrum -- "several thousand times as great as the energy" of blue-violet rays. Bucke cites evidence that blue (as we know it today) appears to have been unrecognized by sages who wrote the Rig Veda, the Holy Bible, the Persian Zoroastrian Zend Avesta, the Iliad and Odyssey -- where the color of the sky was never mentioned once. !"The omission can hardly be attributed to accident. The ten thousand lines of the Rig Veda

are largely occupied with descriptions of the sky; and all its features -- sun, moon, stars, clouds, lightning, sunrise and sunset -- are mentioned hundreds of times. So also the Zend Avesta, to the writers of which light and fire, both terrestrial

and heavenly, are sacred objects, could hardly have omitted by chance all mention of the blue sky. In the Bible the sky and heaven are mentioned more than four hundred and thirty times, and still no mention is made of the color. In no part of the world is the blue of the sky more intense than in Greece and Asia Minor, where the Homeric poems were composed. Is it possible to conceive that a poet (or the poets) who saw this as we see it now could write the forty-eight long

books of the Iliad and Odyssey and never once either mention or refer to it?" !Bucke maintains that blue and green were perceived as shades of black as recently as 3,000 years ago, while yellow and white and all intermediate tints were seen as shades of red. He points to our rapid development in the perception of colors, and also fragrances, as evidence that higher consciousness is coming on fast. Some people had it all through the ages, as some saw colors, but more and more

people are approaching it now according to his book. !Of course Bucke was writing before World War I and II. He was writing before the atom was split, and before major crops around the world were genetically modified to withstand massive doses of weed-killing glyphosate and highly toxic pesticides despite documented


Each of us is a candle. The light we shed on the world comes from our flickering faith in love. It is up to us to keep our individual flame burning

Cosmic Consciousness

-RICHARD MAURICE BUCKE M.D.


damage to microorganisms in the soil, to pollinators like honey bees and butterflies, and to bodily functions of livestock fed those crops and humans who eat those animals. !Nevertheless there is room for hope. When Charles Darwin proposed his theory of evolution the key was not survival of the fittest as commonly believed. The key was adaptation. At a time when changes occur exponentially, so evident in this era, our success as a species will depend on how we adapt, and react, to emerging realities that are not always easy to swallow. !

Core beliefs are crucial, so is good attitude. Compassion love thy neighbor as thyself ranks right beside the Great Commandment love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. [Gospel of Matthew 22:37-39] Surely both commandments can be applied to all life forms and to the planet itself. The whole shebang is holy. The animal kingdom and the plant kingdom, the oceans and the atmosphere, all were created by the Almighty to share and support our habitat. They have just as much right to exist as we do to be healthy and wholesome for without them we perish. They are begotten by nature, which comprises every particle in our bodies including foreign harmful particles introduced by children of God, all of whom are endowed with free will according to scriptures. And nature of course is begotten by God a word that passeth all understanding. Man was made in the image of God, one might say, in the imagination of God. Such supreme imagination is supernatural, beyond all measure, beyond our grasp, at least at this stage of the game. !

But if we do not love ourselves, and do not love to be alive, we cannot love our neighbor in this ever-shrinking world. Nor can we love the Lord our God, and everything and everyone begotten by God. Despair is a trapdoor to darkness and doom. !Each of us is a candle. The light we shed on the world comes from our flickering faith in love. It is up to us to keep our individual flame burning. If our candle goes out from noxious news, calamities or other causes we must light it again and again. This is the light of the world, magnified by millions of candles. Maybe there are billions by now if Bucke's book is correct about cosmic consciousness coming on fast. This is the light that triggers change for the betterment, and for the blessing, of all creation. It is the light of truth, and the truth is simple everything is connected.

If you have comments on this article or a story that you would like to see published in an upcoming edition of The Scoop you are welcome to email them to us: [email protected] Otherwise click here for a 4 question reader poll. !!Be sure to check the Valid Until date on your AFC ID Card, if yours has expired you may renew online today, we offer a discount for our 5 year, and Lifetime renewals.


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Summer 2014 American Fellowship Church Newsletter Spiritual Scoop 13