Universes
Ministerial Meandering
Universes
‘Whatever universe you inhabit, imagined or real, enjoy it and share that joy with others who are with you in that universe.’
I took this quotation from a memory shared by a 90 year-old friend. It is what his father-in-law taught him when he had been a young man courting his daughter.
His father-in-law had been a great story-teller, later regaling his grandchildren with fearsome tales of how wild crocodiles and tigers would come and visit him to talk in the night - but somehow the grandchildren never got to see them when these creatures came to visit grandpa.
The imagination is a powerful thing, and I recall my mother reading to me when I was very small, and telling me to close my eyes so that I could see the characters of the story in my imagination. It is a wonderful way to listen to stories being read - so long as you don’t fall asleep.
She also got me to use my imagination by reading poems, one of which was about looking into the fire that warmed our small living room, and ‘seeing’ the cities made of coal. I wish I could find that poem again - but I haven’t been able to.
So many of our stories are about worlds or universes that only exist in our imaginations. Are they any less valid for that? After all, we know that other creatures can see parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that we cannot, and others again can hear frequencies that are beyond our perception. We know, too, that electrons leap from the atoms of tungsten filaments of light bulbs, and fall back again to produce photons - light; but no-one has ever seen an electron.
Why, then, should we find it difficult to believe in parallel universes? Why should I be carted off to the funny farm because I believe I have fairies at the bottom of my garden?
Some of the greatest art has been produced out of the imaginary worlds in our heads. Visions have given rise to magnificent paintings and sculptures; I hear tunes in my head - I only wish I could write them down as Mozart and Bach did, before I forget them.
For certain, there are universes that call us to acknowledge them, and doing so does not make us mad - it makes us aware.
Your consciousness and your unconsciousness play games with each other as you go to sleep and as you wake - the one handing over control to the other. So it should be with our spiritual lives, which is another form of ‘consciousness’. Our awareness of other forms of energy is only a wise and respectful acknowledgment that our 5 obvious senses do not reveal all there is to know about our universe - and that’s the only one that we know of.
How much time you spend in prayer and meditation is a reflection of how much you value your awareness of your spiritual life. Ultimately, it is where you are going to spend the majority of your existence - so it’s probably worth getting to know it well now.
Philip+