“I saw Eternity the other night
Like a great ring of pure and endless light.”
~ Henry Vaughan, poet, (1622–1695)
The Religious Instinct
It would seem the religious instinct is innate within
humankind, as though a template for the religious experience had been
programmed into our genetic structures that govern human expression. Within the
innate religious or spiritual instinct are experiences that might be classified
as miraculous. But, are many of the events or experiences actually miracles or
no more than ordinary occurrences?
Reports of extraordinary and astonishing events attributed
to supreme being or divine power will be found in virtually every world
religion, every culture, and probably within every human mind from primitive
times right up into the modern age. Many cultures do not regard miracles or
paranormal events as anything extraordinary but merely the natural workings of
a natural world. Most cultures who share that idea have well-formulated
spiritual beliefs that have been carried forward from generation to generation,
throughout history, and many of these cultures have evolved highly
sophisticated belief systems.
Spiritual Knowing
When one reads the history of cultures, it is very apparent
that there has always been a “knowing” within mankind that evolves into
understandings that we are, indeed, spiritual beings and that life does not end
with the death of the physical body. Mankind has always looked to the heavens
in a search for answers. I have often wondered why that is and the answer I
have come up with is, no matter our religious upbringing or belief system, we
have an innate knowledge within, a knowledge that we are much more than a
physical body having a life experience. We are temporarily using a physical
body for an ongoing spiritual life.
The Marriage of Science and Spirituality
That idea and understanding has been presented in writings
since the beginning of recorded history. We are also experiencing the coming
together of science and spirituality and many in the medical profession are
leading the way. Scientific studies are being conducted in various areas of
life and death and maybe one day in the not to distant future there will be
scientific evidence that consciousness lives on beyond the death of the
physical body.
It is my hope that we are now coming into an age of new
spiritual understanding where we can welcome and accept the gift of “knowing”
that we are often given, no matter how subtle that gift may be. We are
immortal, eternal spirits.
Those gifts not only make life more joyous, grief easier,
but help to remove the fear of death that has been placed culturally as an
obstacle to spiritual growth and understanding. We do know who we are. We just
have to bring that knowing, our remembrance, to the forefront. An increasing
number of people are achieving that while in the body. And for those who do not
rediscover the knowing, they will know without doubt one day, as they pass into
another state of being.
© Copyright 2006, 2014 by Linda Pendleton, All Rights Reserved.
