Beyond the Shadowlands

Spiral Dynamics

I have really been nerding out on Spiral Dynamics lately. I first read Marion’s Putting on the Mind of Christ and new Psychology of Human Well-Being by Richard Barrett. My favorite book so far about spiral dynamics is Integral Christianity by Paul R. Smith. I also listened to an excellent podcast series on Spiral Dynamics by Phil Drysdale (https://soundcloud.com/thephildrysdaleshow/an-intro-to-spiral-dynamics). Spiral Dynamics is basically stages of psychological development.

A basic example of Spiral Dynamics is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Once basic needs are met, individuals can move up to higher level needs. Barrett explains that humans must fulfill their basic or Egoic needs (the first 5 levels of development) before they can then fulfill their higher spirit needs. A key principle of spiral dynamics is that an individual must move through all the issues in their current level before moving to the next level of development. One can help others move up the level of development by talking to them on their level of understanding or even one level above. But when one talks to someone from 2 or more levels above another it creates resistance and even can push someone to dig in and regress in their own development.

Let me give you an example of psychological development over time. The example I will use is God in the Bible. To understand my perspective I need to clarify that I believe the Bible was written by men to understand God and that it is not infallible. In the old Testament people believed in many gods. God told Abraham that he was the One God, but that he was Abraham’s God.

During this time period people believed that gods were angry and needed to be appeased. They would offer human sacrifices to appease the gods. God refined this view when he told Abraham that he did not need to sacrifice his son, but instead could use animals in place of humans. Later, Jews viewed Jesus as the sacrifice for humanity and that we no longer needed to offer sacrifices to God.

Today, many people are waking up that God is love and that means that he never needed sacrifices for sin. We condemn ourselves and suffer from our own guilt. Jesus taught that we’re all God’s children the same as Jesus was God’s son. Instead of identifying as sinners, it is more helpful to understand that we’re perfect in Christ, working to put off our sinful nature.

Globally we’re continuing to develop in consciousness and are starting to reach the integration stage of gathering truth from different traditions and learning how to talk to all people in the way that they understand where they’re at in their development.

Besides stages of development there are states of consciousness that can happen at any stage. Some of these states are awaking experiences and the dark night of the soul. These states help radically shift people forward in their stages of consciousness in a very fast manner as long as they learn to integrate their experiences by making sense of them and then living the truth out authentically.

I’ll give you a few charts below to help you get familiar with spiral dynamics. If you want to learn more I would recommend starting out with the podcast listed above or read Paul Smith’s Integral Christianity.

Salvation…Only for Christians?

I recently read Rohr’s The Universal Christ which was excellent. I’m not going to be a book review here, but I’m going to talk about his essential message which is echoed by many other people I’ve been reading/listening to. This message is that “Christ” is not Jesus’s last name as Christians today have come to believe.

Christ in Greek means “anointed one.” Christ was a title given to Jesus. But does not solely apply to Jesus. What do I mean? Let’s take a look at John 1:1-3: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning. ³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

What is the Word? The word is not the Bible or even Jesus, but the Holy Spirit or Christ Consciousness. Take a look at verse 3. All things were made through the Word. This means that the Holy Spirit was present within everything in this universe. That means that we can discover who God in many different ways and know that his spirit is within us. We can grow into living fully in our identity of Christ consciousness and be granted the free gift of salvation. To be clear, I am saying that any Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, etc. can be granted salvation.

What is the Holy Spirit? It is the Spirit of God that lives within all of us. The spirit is full of the fruits of the spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness (Galatians 5:22-23). It gives us life and is who we truly are as people from the inside out. ”And God formed dust from the earth into a man and he blew into his face a breath of life, and the man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7)

However, there is experiences people have which can be described as coming into Christ consciousness where people fully recognize and live within who they truly are as a part of the spirit of God. This happened to Jesus when he was baptized by John the Baptist and God’s spirit came upon him in full force. This happened to the Disciples at Pentecost when the Spirit was described like wind and fire. This happened to Paul on the road to Damascus in a vision with God.

And its happened to many others throughout the globe throughout time!

In my blog post The Singularity Experience I explained how these experiences were all the same though different ways of expressing what this is has been used. This proves to me that not just Christians have the truth and can live fully how God intended us too.

We cannot put God into a formula. He shows up and interacts with his Children in whatever way he wishes. Religion tries to understand him and put limitations on him, but they fail. I’ve known in my heart for a long time that God’s love was bigger than Christianity’s limitation on him. I could not believe that only Christians went to heaven. Now I have a little more understanding of how this makes sense intellectually. I am still learning and growing in this area. I hope this has helped you as well.

A New Theological Framework

Last week I stumbled across this blog: www.thymindoman.com while researching Jesus’s humanity. Bryce’s blog and writing are my ideals. This week I was blessed to talk with Bryce and understand his worldview. After reflecting, I believe that this worldview is what I most closely align to at the moment. I’m still considering things like different dimensions, levels of heaven/hell, thought forms, reincarnation, etc. but the view laid out below I can more safely claim. Here it is:

Before the beginning God existed. He became aware of himself. Out of his love he expanded and created the universe. Through evolution humans evolved and become aware of themselves. Everything was from God and God was in everything. Suffering began when man believed that he was separate from God. Life/universe continues to evolve and grow. When man realizes he is one with God he experiences the kingdom of heaven or Christ consciousness on earth. When he believes he is separate he suffers and lives in his ego/carnal false self.

God expands and experiences himself through us. When we die our ego self dies. Our divine self returns to God. God continues to expand and produce more of his spirit into the universe humanity as God participates in new life and conception.

Throughout time man has woken up to his divine nature and experienced Oneness with God on earth. Many of these individuals have gone on to create religions and conceptualize their experience(s). Over time these concepts of mystical experiences have hardened into strict rules of religion that lose much of the original meaning and ridicule unique/individual experience/guidance by their higher power.

Man by his divine nature inside of him is capable of many things science today would discredit. Likewise, man in his ego self may corrupt these spiritual abilities and use them against his fellow man. Man may also become so lost in his ego mind that he becomes “possessed.” But this is the allusion for “neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God…” Romans 8:39. Man may also realize more of his divine nature and perceive that as angels or spirit guides helping him along the road of life.

This is a call to everyone to seek the kingdom of heaven on earth and realize that they’re not separated from God. Divinity is within you. For those of you who have awakened, but are confused on the meaning, here it is: You have experienced the Oneness of God. Use this experience as a compass to guide you going forward. May you experience many future mystical experiences with God. Live in the ever expansion of God’s love. Namaste.

Again check out Bryce’s website for more eloquent in-depth discussion of these ideas: www.thymindoman.com

Evangelicism, Twitter, and Deconstruction.

Growing up, I never heard of the word “evangelical.” My Church of Christ heritage didn’t really identify as anything, but Protestant. While we respected different denominations, we have always been pretty self-focused, especially as most members of my church are related to a few large families.

College is the first time I heard the word evangelical, but I still had no clue what it really meant until graduate school. In grad school we were encouraged to market and make connections. Part of me doing that was becoming more involved in twitter and making more friends. I made friends in and began to get a handle on Christian twitter space. What I came to realize is that most of my Christian friends identified as either evangelical or ex-evangelical. Twitter was a safe place where they could connect and heal from toxic religious trauma. The majority were also women. Among these Christians are a smattering of conservative, “traditional” Christians as well. Over time I began to see the dark side of evangelisms and see why so many had left it behind. Some of the issues causing trauma were legalism from the belief in inerrancy, hatred towards LGBTQ, rape/sexual abuse and resulting cover-up, charismatic leaders who abused their power, unethical working hours for employees in the church, etc.

Many people left their churches and received very little inquiry from former church members/friends about where they went. Some pastors would try to get these people back but were unwilling to listen to the issues of abuse. These people, lost and hurt, have difficulty finding another church or even remaining in the faith. They are so worn down and hurt that any delving into Christianity just feels like diving into an open wound. Many begin deconstructing their faith.

Many Christians who haven’t experienced these things cry out against deconstruction. They say its destructive and unhealthy for the Faith. I would argue that the opposite is true. Deconstruction can be very healthy and in fact, it is unhealthy if we do not deconstruct. The model I think is most healthy is the continual motion of a process of construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction. When we’re born we form and are taught a construction of what the world is like. However, this is a simplified version. As we grow we’re able to understand and learn more about what the world is like. We discard or deconstruct ideas that are unhelpful and reconstruct ideas that lead us further into truth.

Deconstruction (like reconstruction) is only unhealthy when we stop and do not move into the next phase of our journey. Everyone is unique. Only God knows how far someone needs to deconstruct, how much time it will take, or when they’re ready to move onto the next phase of reconstruction. It would be more healing and helpful if instead of judging each other for where we’re at in our faith, Christians learn to support and love each other through our individual process. I will end with a short letter I wrote on twitter for those deconstructing:

Dear deconstructing Christian,

You haven’t backslidden in your faith journey. Your faith has grown so that it no longer fits the constricting boxes of the Christianity that you once knew. Having less firm footing of where you stand in your beliefs is scary, but it is much more Freeing. Some of you may even need to deconstruct your belief in a God. God can handle that. He will guide you to truth whether or not you believe in him. You may not believe there is truth to be found anymore, but when you’re ready, when you feel healed enough, it is there waiting to be discovered. Waiting for your soul to once more burn with a passion to discover more infinite love and wisdom. It is there dear brothers and sisters. Don’t ever give up. We’re on this journey together, even though it feels very lonely at times. Brighter days lie ahead. Our culture is changing and we’re at the forefront of it. I believe we’re beckoning in a time of expanded Love, grace, and truth. It will come with its own set up problems and old issues will resurface. History does repeat itself. But global consciousness does grow I truly believe that. I hope you do too, or at least will grow to see that as well. Take hope Brothers and Sisters, we’re children of God. We are not alone. We’re loved. And we’re enough.

Putting on the mind of Christ – Jim Marion

Putting on the mind of Christ is a book that outlines the spiritual levels of development. Psychology has its own stages of development. For example: babies do not understand time. So when a baby is hungry or gets hurt it begins to wail uncontrollably. It does not know that it will get fed or that the pain will go away. It seems like this distress is forever until it goes away. As the baby gets older it learns about time, that there is a world around it. Eventually it learns to think through other perspectives, and so on.

Likewise as spiritual babies we are unable to consider any other spiritual perspective other than our own. As we mature we learn of other perspectives, and hopefully we eventually learn to appreciate wisdom from other spiritual traditions as well as our own. These things and much more are outlined in Marion’s book.

Below is a graphic I found at: https://mazemike.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/marionmemes.jpg that give a short synopsis of Marion’s spiritual levels of development

Marian not only outlined the individual spiritual levels of development, but also notes where Churches and cultures fall among these levels. Most cultures have evolved to the rational stage, but some churches have remained in the mythic stage.

Personally I think that I am in the vision-logic stage. I am in the process of learning to identify myself with my true nature and to operate within the gifts of the spirit. However, as I outlined earlier in this blog, I have experienced a spiritual awakening and an ensuing dark night of the senses.

My friend pointed out to me that we all have all these different levels operating within ourselves, but that we are more aware or focused on some of them than others. He said that these levels align with the different chakras in our body. I have a book on order to talk more about the connection between these things and how you can more practically grow and heal.

Marian also few more sections to his book. The second section outlined special problems facing the Christian on the path to the kingdom of heaven. He talks about the problems of:

Jesus’s last name (Christ) – Also heavily talked about in another book i read, the Universal Christ by Rohr
good and evil – This involves thinking through oneness and duality as well as how we have heaped exaggerated guilt and shame upon the word sin.
Jesus’s cross – how 4 understandings of its meaning are wrong. I will talk more about this in another post.
God’s favorites – this talks about reincarnation and how it fits within Marion’s framework of understanding. Again, this is a topic I will talk about more in another post.

Marion’s 3rd and final section is titled “further reaches of the kingdom of heaven.” In this section are the chapters:

The kingdom of heaven after death – Marion connects the spiritual levels of development with where people will end up in the levels of heaven and hell (not that they are stuck on these levels forever)
The establishment of the kingdom of heaven on earth – Marian speculates at the possibilities of human ability after this establishment.
Where do we go from here – Marian speculates that the church will continue to develop into the ration level of development and that the form may change forever. Marian’s advice for individuals to continue to develop is to A. Assess where we are in the spiritual journey B . Listen to the still small voice of the spirit C. Work hard on ourselves D. Be patient E. Integrative practice: body (exercise, yoga, etc.), emotions (therapy, dreamwork), mind (spiritual reading), soul (meditation).

I really enjoyed Marion’s exploration of inner growth. No doubt he got some things wrong, but its nice to have a tangible example of how we can grow as pursuers of the spiritual and wisdom. So often Western culture focuses on the exterior over the interior and Christians in the West often reflect this as well. So if this sounds interesting to you pick up a copy of Marion’s book and let me know what you think!

Update

I haven’t blogged in a while. I haven’t followed my new year’s resolution very well either. I think there’s several reasons for this. When I wrote my resolutions I expanded on what I had accomplished the past year, but what I found is that instead of increasing what I’ve done I need to change a few things that I’ve been doing. I’ve been slowing down, enjoying the moment, and feeling through life in a more authentic spontaneous manner.

I’ve been happily surprised that my anxiety has been improving. I don’t feel the need to rush to figure out my beliefs. I do not feel like I need to prove my beliefs to my parents or try to get them to make this journey of exploring beliefs that I am on. I am finding that my exploration of beliefs is starting to bear fruit through my interactions with others that I am able to help and many of them are able to help me.

I have also gotten to a point on my blog where my life has not changed much externally, but I am progressing more internally. Writing about feelings, ideas, and beliefs is more complicated than relaying what has happened to me externally, especially when less time has passed. Meaning, there’s less time to process these internal experiences into an intelligible, logical blog post. So I’ve been allowing myself time to process internally before sitting down and writing them out.

I have also kind of lost my linear journey. Now that I’m writing about the internal journey a hundred roads spread out and I’m having a difficult time picking a direction or knowing where to start. However, I do want to talk about my friend.

After I read the Dead Saint’s Chronicles I told my mentor about it and he referred me to someone I had known since I was young, but had never gotten to know closely. When I talked to him it became apparent that he had been on the journey I had started for a few years, reading hundreds of books. After countless hours of talking to him and reading a few books that he recommended to me I believe I have a rudimentary grasp of his beliefs.

I have written a rough draft of his beliefs (beliefs which I am exploring myself). Once he polishes up these beliefs I will present them in a blog post and then begin to explore these beliefs further in future blog posts. I’m really excited to share these things with y’all in the future.

I might write a few blog posts talking about my past and how it relates to my current journey today until my busy friend gets back to me. Sorry about the absence. I will see y’all soon.

2022 Goals

Last year I made my goals pretty simple because in the past I have struggled with perfectionism when trying to improve or organize my life. In my last post I talked about how great 2021 was and how productive I was during that time. I believe that I am ready and able to handle a more in depth and detailed goal list.

1 blog post per week
2 workouts, playing basketball twice a week
1 love letter per week
Meditation/yoga/Bible reading/prayer every day
11PM bedtime
Personal reading 30 min a day (before bed)
Try Audiobooks
Meal prep/clean room on Saturdays
Start another book study
Laundry and grocery shopping every 2 weeks
Be intentional with time on the phone
Do school assignments on time
Journal my dreams and ideas

Some more broad goals

Be open and sensitive to God’s leading
Stay consistent, organized, and disciplined
Improve handling anxiety, procrastination, and perfectionism
Be in the present moment
Be more loving
Deepen relationships
Be content in all things
Balance time for myself and for others
Seek balance in all things
Lean on God’s power instead of my own

I believe that if I continue my good habits, surrounding myself with good people, put my trust in God that 2022 can be an even greater year than 2021!

2021 Review

While most of the world suffered under another year of Covid and the latest batch of bad news I actually had one of if not the best year of my life! At the beginning of the year I made a post about my goals. I’m going to be reviewing how I did.

In 2021 I wanted to be more organized, focused, productive, selfless, and continue to grow. I definitely achieved all of those things! Let’s break these down.

I thought that I could become more organized by utilizing a planner and journal more. I didn’t end up using a planner, but I did use my notes app in my phone for my work schedule, grocery list, workout, etc. I did journal more than in the past year. I journaled reflections from books I read as well as ideas I had about psychology, theology, life, etc. I used my journal to organize my mind and remember things. Many times I used these thoughts to write blog posts.

I have become more focused this year by playing less video games after work, spending less time on my phone, and focusing on the moment. I had an addictions class for grad school and one of the assignments was to give up a habit/addiction during the 8 week class. I gave up social media and it was very helpful. By focusing on my goals and things that I really enjoyed, I didn’t have much of a desire or a lot of extra time to play video games and I was generally happier because of it.

I wanted to be more productive in 2021 by getting these things every week: sunshine, exercise, water, meditation, reading, working, leisure, writing and time with God. I began meditating almost every morning for 20 minutes in the morning, bought a half gallon water bottle that I filled/drank twice daily, read a lot for grad school and personal, successfully worked 2 jobs and grad school, started working out as well as continued playing basketball, spent time outside for sunlight, relaxed when I could, and spent time in the mornings reading the Bible.

I wanted to become more selfless by spending more time with others. I want to continue to grow in that, but I did schedule time to hang out with friends and when people around me needed help or time to talk I usually adjusted my schedule for them.

I wanted to grow by being more fearless, joyful, and growing closer to God. I continued to face my fears with the help of my mentor and counselor. They also helped my improve my outlook on life and become more joyful. I spent a lot of time reading books, listening to podcasts, and meditating about God, but I want to make sure I balance the intellectual pursuit of God with experiencing God in 2022.

I didn’t examine my goals very often, but I did have them in my head and I’m very happy with the result! In 2021 I continued grad school, started a Christian book study with my mentor, started seeing my counselor every week, started doing yoga and lifting weights, meditated/wrote/read more, played less video games and spent less time on my phone, and grew a lot mentally and spiritually.

2021 was probably the most productive and fulfilling year of my life. I hope 2022 builds on that. Next post will be on my goals for 2022.

Baylor Grad School classes on Christianity

To really understand my faith journey and how I got to a point of considering things outside of the Christianity I understood growing up we need to back up and explain some of the things I learned at Baylor.

At Baylor I took two classes on Christianity. I took an English class called the Bible as Literature and I took a History class called Global Christianity. Both of these were formative in my developing understanding of Christianity. First, I will talk about my English class.

Bible as Literature was an English class that did what all good English classes do, analyze the text keeping in mind the genre, symbolism, historical context, author, etc. However, the Bible is complicated because its not really one book, but 66 or more depending on if you include the apocrypha. Most, if not all of the books of the Bible we are unsure of the author. Some books have more than one author.

The books of the Bible also do not tell you flat out what genre they are. Some are literal, some are poetic, some are allegorical, some are historical, some books are mixed. Sometimes the Bible has more than one story of the same event such as the creation story or historical accounts of Israel and Judah.

Basically, this class proved to me that the Bible is complicated and cannot be inerrant. Ideas such as a literal 7 day creation are not explicitly implied in the Bible and that a scientific explanation of creation was not the point or even possible by the authors at the time of its writing. Even with careful scholarship and exploring of contexts does not clear up many Biblical questions. My conclusion was that the Bible is the most powerful book containing spiritual truths, but that it is far from a perfect and easy to understand book.

The other class I took on Christianity was a history class called Global Christianity. This class focused on the rise and fall of Christianity across the globe through the centuries. This class sought to discover and understand the patterns that happened cyclically every time Christianity blew up and died down in different nations.

Global Christianity discovered that Christianity begins to thrive in countries in which it is persecuted in. There are many claims of miraculous healing, casting out demons, prophecy, and deliverance from evil. Christianity solidifies and grows through education, schools and churches. Over time Christianity becomes more accepted in these countries and slowly dies down before blowing up again in another persecuted nation. Christianity has been present for a long time in Europe and the USA. It is slowly dying down in these places. But in places like Asia and Africa where Christianity is often persecuted, it is thriving.

One of the things we discussed in class is how missionaries in these foreign nations decided to use language and talk about the gospel. For example, do the missionaries use the same word for God as the natives did and reframe what he is like? Or do the missionaries use another word such as the word for Sun as a symbol of God. The conclusion we came to is that the language of Christianity is translation. It is amazing how much Christianity has spread around the world, how many different forms it has taken and cultures have embraced it, but also how the core message of Christianity has remained the same throughout time and place.

Global Christianity taught me that Christianity is the most powerful, true, and loving religion, which is evidenced by its survival, consistency, and growth where suffering is greatest. God speaks in all languages to all people in a way that they can understand maintaining what is core to Christianity. I believe that the miraculous, performed by God and through the children of God is an essential tool that continues to this day. I believe that education is important to the deepening of our faith, but that separate from experience is a dangerous and faith-killing process.

Bible as Literature and Global Christianity deepened my faith and gave me the freedom to explore my beliefs in the future, trusting in the Holy Spirit’s guiding voice.

Electronesia – Prologue, Pt. 2

I sat there pondered these things as I waited for the hours to tick by. The shadows grew long on my wall as the dome faded to inky black. I sat down in my electronic chair and drew the helmet over my face. It was time.

As the machine started to whir and the screen lit up with light I thought about what led me to this point. There was no job opportunities left. My relationships with my family and friends had all begun to fracture and break apart like the world in which I once knew

The world had changed so quickly. What was alive was now dead, a cold cosmopolitan, government-controlled society, devoid of any real color. The wild between cities was expressly forbidden, God knows why, and there remained nowhere to go, but inwards.

My previous job with IT had provided me with in an to the black web. Highly illegal, but what else was I going to do? Play all the deadening VR simulations that they government had hooked up to the masses like Opioid dens? No, I wanted the real deal.

A couple of weeks ago, I had begun to hear rumors of a man who had hacked the system. He found a way to access the alleged system that allowed VR to directly immerse with one’s own unconscious. While society had lost the art of introspection a long time ago, this was a promise of reconnection, of a world forgotten and unexplored since the dawn of psychotherapy in the early 20^th Century.

How could I resist? Was it safe? Was this a government sting orchestrated to round of resisters to the reality they presented us? I don’t know, but I was willing to take the risk.

My screen lit up and my curated home filled my vision, a towering castle rising into the sky. I grinned. I will never grow out of castles. I entered in past the outer walls and ascended a tower in the middle of the fortress. The steps wound around and upward into the clouds. At the top I withdrew a key and opened the door to the top chamber. Never could be too careful with digital hackers who wanted to follow your online footprint.

Inside lay a narrow chamber with a chair facing a window looking out into the blue. I could see mountains far away peaking through the clouds. I mashed a button on the stone wall of the window and a stone slat rotated away to reveal a keyboard beneath. Ok, I know the Middle Ages Aesthetic wasn’t perfect. I typed in 3.14 and clicked enter as I stared out the window. A black dot appeared and quickly grew, my home world faded away.