cedric johnson

Another Way of Knowing Truth — The Heart

Cedric Johnson, PhD

A dominant paradigm in scientific materialism is “If we can’t measure it, it does not exist.”

As a result dogmatists of our day don’t have an answer to the nature of consciousness, the mind, and the existence of a world beyond death.

The best they can say is either “We don’t know yet” or worse still, “That stuff is speculation.”

Researchers like Rupert Sheldrake, long considered a heretic in the scientific world, in his book Science Set Free, explores the fallacy of dogmatic materialism where

• Memory is kept in the brain.

• Mind and consciousness are in the head.

So because we cannot measure telepathy, the observations of mediums that are evidence-based, and the power of intention or prayer to impact people thousands of miles away, those efforts are viewed as pure speculation.

But what about claims to have had direct contact with the world of Spirit in this life and beyond?

Where’s the proof?

Even though I cannot prove something, using your “If I can’t measure it, it does not exist” tools for verification.
That’s like saying that because a blind person cannot see something in the physical world, it does not exist.

So the existence of God, divine intervention in our lives, or the visitation of spirits or ancestors from beyond the grave” cannot be measured beyond subjective experience.

Is that so?

Why are there peer-reviewed scientific articles on Near Death Experiences?

There are ways of knowing the truth beyond the confines of our noggin.
Beyond Words with Our Hearts

When Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt 5:8), he spoke about knowing the Eternal One through a different operating system, the heart.

In her book Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, Cynthia Bourgeault identifies this inner or still small voice as “God’s positioning system.”

She describes it as our “magnetic center” or an “organ of spiritual perception” that aligns us with God.

Such direct inward spiritual perception has become my focus for my life of faith.

Some examples of direct knowing include

You get a sense of “Don’t take that road home” later to discover that danger lurks in the shadows like a potential mugging.
Your gut tells you at a social gathering to approach a stranger, “Talk to him.” Later, you discover that it was one of the more critical encounters in your life.
In therapy with a client, I find a place of silence deep within. I then ask, “Give me the wisdom to see what is going on at a deeper level.” Suddenly, I say something to the client, and she cries uncontrollably. I hit a nerve.
A novelist makes a profound observation about the writer’s protagonist. When asked “did you plan it that way?” answers “No, it just came to me. I was just a channel.”

Some inner knowing took me there. We all have this perceptual software in our system.

Humility is, therefore, a necessary precursor to knowing presence directly.

And so is silencing our chattering mind or as the Scriptures state, “Be still and know that I am God”

It’s the prelude to finding a faith of one’s own.

Tribal protestors will display placards reading, “Get out of here, you heretic,” or “How could you betray the foundations of your faith?” or “We found it, you lost it.”

Such protests were a prelude to my being shown the exit door to my church.

These dogmatic fundamentalists are in the intellectual camp with the scientific materialists. They are locked in their heads and ignore the poetry and richness of a heartfelt life.

In the end, eternal verities cannot be known exhaustively with the mind.

We need to engage anther operating system, the heart.

#general

Dead People Appearing

(An excerpt from my upcoming book "Hearts Wide Open - Leaving Religion, Finding Faith"

I am starting to sense a thin veil between this life and the next.

Too many experiences have come my way in recent years to hint that loved ones may die but our relationship with them can continue.

In the past, my academic training taught me that everything I experience comes from within the walls of my brain. Any impressions or dreams or visions come from many physical directions including the collective unconscious.
But reductionist science tells me that the appearances are nothing but physical

My theological training taught me that anyone who consults a medium is damned by the big Kahuna in the sky.

But what was that experience with the praying mantis that came in response to a request to ancestors “Show me a sign”?
“The Day I met an Ancestor” medium.com/p/3c80b5977941

How about the following for a parallel experience?

Recently I read how Mythologist Joseph Campbell was in his fourteenth-floor apartment in Manhattan. He was reading how the praying mantis was a hero symbol in Bushman mythology.

Campbell suddenly had a rare urge to go over to the window and open it. When he stuck his head out the window and peered to his right, he noticed a praying mantis staring at him.

Later he wrote, “Its face looked like the face of a Bushman’s face. It gave me the creeps!”

A posting on The Mystical Underground captured my thinking about both our and Campbell’s experience
“Think about it. How many praying mantises hang out on the 14th-floor windowsills of Manhattan apartments?”

Describing the appearance of this magical creature as a coincidence takes the poetry out of the experience.

It was one of those awe-inspiring goosebumps revelations where the veil between this world and the next can, at times, seem to be very thin. Photographer and poet Anne Berry gives another lens through which to view such visits,

Fragments of stories collected with light,

In a world enchanted, often unreal,

And what’s essential is hidden from sight.

So trust not reason but what you can feel.

Each piece of this tale is part of a whole,

An epic, a play, a poem for the soul.

My expanding faith now embraces the strong possibility of dead folks appearing.

Are my ancestors just a heartbeat away beyond the veil?

Today I find myself communing with my mother, who, in her words, has gone home to her reward. I ask what she thinks about this or that in my life. I get the message, “keep walking in the light!”

Is this message luck, coincidence, or something that just rattles around in my brain? I’m divided and at the experimental stage regarding meetings with departed ones.

What the heck? Why not talk to my departed mother? After all, if Roman Catholics can speak to their saints, why can’t I speak with mine, my mother?

Such contact experiences are my growing edge spiritually. I’m excited to sign up for many other similar classes in the future.

What about your visitations from the great beyond?

#general