The Ground of Faith
Exploring Science, Mysticism and Experience Together

February 2010
Editors: The Rev. Michael Cocks and The Rev. Victor MacGill

The spiritual body

Previous articles of The Ground of Faith (Forum)

Note: Contributions to this journal need not reflect the views of the Editors or the Panel

This is a web journal not a blog. How therefore to publish feedback? Let's try inserting comments, from time to time, in this issue. An experiment.

The Spiritual Body

A note to my fellow clergy: When we preach at Easter time, will we have the courage to tell our congregation about today's evidence that the resurrection of the body is a real phenomenon? Yes, we do have worshippers who rely on Bible evidence alone; and some in our congregations will be sceptical about an afterlife. All the same, wouldn't it be better if they knew about the evidence?

This passage crops up at Easter.. and at funeral services: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. - 1 Cor 15:44 We also read of a resurrected Jesus whose body appeared normal, yet could appear and disappear from mortal view.

What evidence of today can we refer to? Below, the reader will find Apparitional Experiences from the Swedish University of Lund's The Journal of Public Parapsychology. There are links to ample persuasive material that can be studied. One can read the chapter in Victor Zammit's book, Materialization Mediums.

We can also notice that spirit people can produce measurable physical effects: they move objects, produce poltergeist effects, produce apports, cause items to be transported paranormally from one place to another. Look at this YouTube picture of an apport. Read this article on apports.

I have been re-reading one of the most interesting and evidential of all studies in this field, namely Matthew Manning's The Strangers. (1978) Read this account of physical phenomena in Matthew's house. I strongly recommend the reading of the whole book.

Here I quote from http://www.matthewmanning.com/mmstory.htm “In the same year Matthew had participated in a major series of tests at the New Horizons Research Foundation in Toronto, Canada, led by some of the world's leading scientists, including Britain's Nobel Prize-Winning physicist, Professor Brian Josephson. It was during these tests that psychiatrist Dr. Joel Whitton discovered that Matthew was producing a brain wave pattern never reported previously in anyone else; further tests showed that it was originating from a part of the brain which we all possess but which had, until that time, been believed to be dormant or inactive. It was the central, oldest and most primitive part of the brain, leading the researchers to speculate that perhaps Matthew's special gifts were something which we all at one time used but with the advent of technology were slowly lost.

“After the Toronto tests Professor Josephson stated: "I think we are on the verge of discoveries that may be extremely important for physics. We are dealing with a new kind of energy. This force must be subject to laws. I believe ordinary scientific investigations will tell us a lot about these psychic phenomena. They are mysterious, but no more mysterious than a lot of things in physics already.

In times past, respectable scientists would have nothing to do with it. Many of them still won't. I think the respectable scientists may find they have missed the boat." ”

Readers may care to read again Professor Dr James Beichler 's article in our last issue. Beichler earned his Ph.D. in Paraphysics, a branch of theoretical physics. It is the only such degree from an accredited university in the world. He suggests an expanded view of quantum and relativity theory that will allow for the paranormal phenomena discussed in this journal, including the afterlife.

Michael Prescott's Blog on James Beichler's physics (1) (2) (3)

Michael Tymn's Review of Beichler on Amazon

Unusual Powers of Mind over Matter: Prof Stephen Braud

Fracture Surface Physics Indicating Teleneural Interaction

by Wilbur M. Franklin, Ph.D., Department of Physics, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio.

(The word teleneural stems from the Greek prefix tele, meaning "far" or "distant", and the Greek word neuron which has to do with the nervous system in the broadest sense.)

Wilbur M. Franklin is Chairman of the Department of Physics, Graduate Division, at Kent State University. He holds degrees in biology, metallurgical engineering, and solid state science and technology. His publications include articles on such subjects as diffusion theory, the properties of liquid crystals, and the nature of fractures in metals; and many papers on teleneural physics. His interest in this last area began in 1972, when he first met and worked with Uri Geller. Since then he has initiated a course in teleneural physics at Kent State, the course is funded in part by a grant from the Ford Foundation. Dr. Franklin is a member of the American Physical Society and is listed in American Men of Science. Read this article as it relates to the question of the physics of the spiritual.Objects that abruptly materialise and others that mysteriously vanish from sight - do they come from and go into another dimension?

Guyon Playfair discusses the case for another, invisible, reality:

A spontaneous occurrence that happened to be well-observed involved a Swedish researcher, Jan Fjellander, and the English psychic Matthew Manning, at that time a poltergeist victim. When Fjellander left his laboratory with Manning, he locked it, using the three locks on the door, and then went with Manning to his apartment, where he placed his bunch of keys on a table. After lunch the keys had disappeared, and Fjellander had to call a colleague for a duplicate set. On arriving back at the laboratory, there were the keys he had left at home - inside a closed drawer. He knew and I knew that his keys had travelled right through Stockholm,' Manning said. Read article 

 Norman Kjome (Minnesota, USA ) says that this link has temporarily disappeared. He writes, "I looked more, happened on this site  http://www.mysteriouspeople.com/Matthew_Manning.htm 
and will copy just a bit from that: 'In April 1972 Matthew received an automatic writing message purporting to come from Frederick W. Myers, pioneer psychical researcher and one of the founders of the Society for Psychical Research. It read:  You should not really indulge in this unless you know what you are doing. I did a lot of work on automatic writing when I was alive and I could never work it out. No one alive will ever work out the whole secret of life after death. It pivots on so many things – personality – condition of the physical and mental bodies. Carry on trying though because you could soon be close to the secret. If you find it no one will believe you anyway. '    That is the problem, "no one will believe you anyway." 

Apparitional Experiences:

From: The Journal of Public Parapsychology originating in the University of Lund, Sweden, which has a professorship of psychology that includes parapsychology and hypnosis. This is funded from a bequest of a Dane, Poul Thorsen.

There are actually several known types of apparitions that have been documented by psychical researchers and parapsychologists since the late 19th century. They include: crisis apparitions, post-mortem apparitions, deathbed visions, haunting apparitions, and apparitions of the bystander-type. In addition to describing each one below, we provide an illustrative case example of each to help the reader better grasp what each entails. Visit the website Read the series of articles on this topic     

Hyacinth  Österlin, (Vienna) comments: I told my Chaplain that at last I could explain the resurrection.  He´s used to my weird views from my "non-canonical" readings.  So he asked how so?    Well, I used Einstein´s formula for energy  E=mc²   !!  Matter is frozen energy..... He laughed. 
    So Jesus  raised his vibration to appear and lowered it to disappear.  So that´s how he was able to do that, and to go through locked doors.  My simple mind accepts this. 
    Something else that seems plain to me is the transfiguration, and the parable of the wedding garment at the King´s feast.  I had always thought it unfair to punish people who came in jeans instead of a tuxedo when they had literally been scraped off the street.  But then it suddenly dawned on me some years ago, that the King was not being unfair, he was being factual. He really wanted to know how someone with a low vibration could have found his way in the Wedding Hall, and He was saying, you can´t survive here without the proper rate of vibration.   That you should have acquired BEFORE the invitation was issued.  And I understood the need to be in readiness, there wont be time to go buy oil!  And the "outer darkness" is to be kicked back into a place with low vibration, and possibly a lack of light.....
 

[About Articles marked "ASPSI":  These are reproduced here by permission of the Academy of Spirituality and Paranormal Studies, Inc.  If you wish to reproduce these articles, you should apply to the authors.  We recommend that you become a member of the ASPSI, and you can do this with this link ]

ASPSI Exploring Crop Circles

by Suzanne Taylor

While we argue about actions to take to get the world on course, I try to get my voice heard saying, “Pay attention to the crop circles.”

Look, if we were to ascertain there is other intelligence besides our own, it would produce the biggest change in our thinking since Copernicus and Galileo removed Earth from being at the center of the universe. That reordered human thought. A hierarchical world, with kings on the top, which went along with Earth as supreme, no longer could hold sway Read View film trailer
View http://www.whatonearththemovie.com/flash/#/intro
similar circles in snow    “Cosmicwakening”
and this and this

The Editor comments: While Crop Circles may be a real phenomenon, we should also study the article on the subject in Wikipedia. And also this.

ASPSI From “Religion to Spirituality”

by John F. Miller, III, Ph.D

Some years ago I attended a celebration of the birthday of the Buddha.  The monk who spoke said many things, but the one that made the deepest impression on me was his analysis of the difference between the religious and the spiritual:  religious believers cling to their stories, whereas the spiritual persons either need no stories or can accept the stories of all faiths and can see beyond the particular images, symbols, and their literal meaning to a deeper and more universal spiritual insight. Read the article  Thanks to Julian Dunn, Oxford, England who pointed out that this article had not been accessible for reading. The problem is fixed, and our apologies to the writer John F. Miller.

ASPSI Guest Editorial: Let us Persevere

by Camille Flammarion

Camille Flammarion (1842-1925) was a world-renowned French astronomer This is abridged from his 1922 book, Death and Its Mystery: At the Moment of Death.

There are men who cannot be candid! They would even be afraid to commit themselves by declaring that castor-oil is a laxative. There are limits to skepticism and incredulity. Quibbling and the sophistries of the subtlest dialectic do not affect the existence of fact.

Read the article

ASPSI Scientific research into Prayer:

Causal effects of Intercessory Prayer

Jeanetta W. Dunlap, Ed.D.

This paper focuses on a conceptual overview of prayer, a review of scientific prayer related literature, and multifaceted research projects conducted by the action researcher writer. Uses of prayer to determine whether or not plant growth is stimulated by the healing effects of prayer were investigated. [In picture, plant to the right had been prayed for.] Read the paper

ASPSI Therapy for Sane Hallucinations, Part II

Rev Karen E Herrick, PhD, LCSW, LMSW, CADC

“We can program our life in a more positive way by increasing our

intent to do something different, such as visiting a medium, in order to discover something new about ourselves and our deceased relatives. As we do this, allowing
ourselves to show up in new places to obtain new directions or insights, I have found that more synchronistic events happen to show us we are on our spiritual path because the mechanics of intent and synchronicity coax actual events to precipitate out of the infinite space of probability. Our life then becomes more meaningful.
“The secret of success is human effort merged with Divine Power”

(Ramsey, 2008, p. 87) Read the article

PANEL: What is the best evidence for life after death?

Dr. Richard Cocks Department of Philosophy SUNY Oswego

Six Philosophical Contentions For Which No Rational Argument Can Be Given

The following arguments point out the self-defeating nature of skepticism and also why the IOU method won’t work either. As a footnote, the taboo on discussing scientific research into parapsychology verifies that we philosophers are not committed to the scientific method, but to scientism; wedded to particular classical physics era conclusions.

Ironically, adherents of scientism see themselves as defending rationality against the irrationality of theism. To do so, many are willing to embrace some of the most ludicrous and irrational proposals any intelligent person has ever pretended to accept. Read the paper

Evolution is a Fact and a Theory

by Laurence Moran

When non-biologists talk about biological evolution they often confuse two different aspects of the definition. On the one hand there is the question of whether or not modern organisms have evolved from older ancestral organisms or whether modern species are continuing to change over time. On the other hand there are questions about the mechanism of the observed changes... how did evolution occur? Biologists consider the existence of biological evolution to be a fact. It can be demonstrated today and the historical evidence for its occurrence in the past is overwhelming. However, biologists readily admit that they are less certain of the exact mechanism of evolution; there are several theories of the mechanism of evolution. http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/evolution-fact.html

GOD and DOG

I look up and see God,

I look down and see my Dog:

View