Creating the Creator

Those who believe that there has to be a Creator of the Cosmos –because of the complexity of all that is, their inter-relationships, and the beauty of it all – can be challenged by some as to who created the Creator. To me, this is a semantically meaningless question. Would we then be looking for a creator of a creator of a creator, ad infinitum?

To me, the Creator is a pre-existing, ever-existing essence (but not an entity), from which everything arises, flows, materialises, effervesces, distils, is projected, and so on. This concept had nothing to do with Creationism (as traditionally expounded); one cannot also seek to specify whether what was created was in its final form or capable of evolution from simpler structures (self-improvement). So, accept – or reject!

Dispensing with the concept of a Creator could lead us to a belief that everything that we know exists, or has existed, without being created. Things just happen – then change – and then vacate the scene. There would then be no point in looking for meaning in existence, especially human existence, would there?

While Stephen Hawking has recently stated that there is no need for God, because everything has been explained; and there are other operational scientists seeking a Theory of Everything, we cannot explain black matter/black energy, and the mental and ephemeral realms. Our knowledge is restricted to the material realm operating in a mechanistic manner.

Yet, even if the material realm is only a projection from an ethereal realm, the latter can be construed to have existed beyond all time, without having been created. Is this any more than the other mysteries of existence?

Is this to suggest that we will never know about origins – ours and that of everything else in existence?

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What if the universe was not created?

As inconceivable as it appears, does everything need an origin, a beginning? Or, could some acts of apparent creation be akin to spontaneous combustion? What if, instead of a Void of nothingness, there has existed, forever and ever, an uncreated Void – containing not vortices, fields or forces (as various scientists have asserted over the years) – but an insubstantial fragrance-like aether (as has been claimed recently by scientists who are not committed to a mechanistic material universe)?

Is it any more credible to accept all space being filled with this seemingly insubstantial aether, from which (ultimately) arrived all kinds of matter, forces, and whatever else we have identified, than to accept that a tiniest speck of something (without any origin), enabled by an inherent vast blast of energy (source-less?) formed the universe that we think we know?

The Big Bang Theory is not credible unless it is a temporary facet of the kind of cosmology offered by Hinduism; and that is impossible to prove or disprove! Yet, cycles of bangs and crunches in the physical realm make sense of a kind; pity about the ‘suspension’ of human existence during the cyclical periods when the whole machinery is running down. But, why not? Do we know any better?

Then, there is that other theory about the rise of mankind to head the pantheon of fauna. That is another theory based on more belief. The alleged creation of ‘the Adam’ (refer Genesis in the Bible; and the Sumerian writings of a few centuries earlier from which it seems to have been drawn) raises interesting questions, as do such simple matters as the ability of the chameleon to change the colouration of its hide at will; or, is it an automatic reaction? But, how did it evolve? By chance?

The bottom line in this speculation about origins is how an unstructured aether can result in the complex structures (with their interconnecting forces) constituting the universe we inhabit.

What then of the other dimensions of existence which apparently cross the boundaries of our universe? Are they intersecting overlays? Our spirit world must be one of these dimensions. Since indubitably it exists, our ‘Hereafter’ has to be real!

Celebrating one’s culture

In the early 1980s, that great Greek composer of music, Hadjidakis, arrived in Melbourne. My 2-i-c, a Greek Australian, confirmed that our Greek community was looking forward eagerly to meeting him. I had always enjoyed his music; it set my soul soaring and my feet feeling frivolous.

At a very large gathering, which I attended, both as a representative of my department and to satisfy my own need, we waited for 45 minutes before the great man arrived. We had a splendid evening.

On another occasion, I attended a meeting of the Greek community. I was greeted warmly as the government representative, and then taught how to dance in the traditional style. The warmth of my relationship with Greeks has led me to feel that I may have been a Greek in one of my many lives on Earth.

During the 1980s, officialdom made a great fuss about multiculturalism. While British Australia was becoming multi-ethnic and less sensitive to skin colour, the federal government sought to manage multiculturalism; to tell us ethnics how to get along with one another, and with the host community. Really!

Having contacts with a large variety of immigrants, and participating extensively in civil society, I know this: all of us got along well with one another without government involvement. We are free to pray as we wish, and to celebrate our cultural festivals in the company of those of other cultures, while living day-to-day like everyone else.

As Prime Minister Howard and NSW Premier Carr showed later, we are also connected THROUGH A SHARED CITIZENSHIP, and our pride in being Australian. We are indeed on the way to being the Family of Man.

The on-going mind (Part 3)

In general:
• while memories seem to be located in specific areas of the brain, it has been claimed recently that the path to the memory bank may involve the while brain
• the brain is known to be plastic. It adjusts, with or without conscious effort, to new experiences.

• with dementia, short-term memory is clearly affected. My experience with a neighbour showed that she was not registering her questions addressed to my sister, and my sister’s responses; but her long-term hates were durable.
• recent research apparently shows that the capacity to appreciate music or art is not lost through dementia.
• could joy from loving letters and interesting stories not be lost as well?

• Hinduism claims that the mind is an instrument of Consciousness. That is, mind is not tied to the brain. Yet, it taps into the brain.
• when my uncle died with his mind and memories intact, and was thus able to display both after his brain had been cremated, how much of any mind and its embedded long-term memories are reliably known to be lost through dementia (in its various forms)? Perhaps only the previous link has been suspended, not lost.

• could isolation from loved ones damage an individual with short-term memory problems? There is so little known as to what happens within the brain. Yet certain academics claim otherwise, but only in a speculative manner!

We humans are more complex than we know. And Consciousness seems to explain us, whether dead or alive – death providing a temporary respite to the soul from Earthly experiences. And (possibly) each soul remembering each bodily past: and occasionally allowing the prevailing mind in the current body to obtain a glimpse of a relevant past (as has happened to me).

The on-going mind (Part 2)

When I was confronted with the presence of my favourite uncle in spirit form about 25 years ago, I had to accept that:

• long after his Earthly death, my uncle had materialised (through the medium of a clairvoyant) to offer me guidance on my spiritual progress
• while I could not see or hear him, the clairvoyant could describe his appearance, and to communicate with him mentally
• my uncle, most surprisingly, responded to a comment I had made to the clairvoyant. That is, he could hear what I said
• his advice to me (through the clairvoyant) indicated that he had retained his Earthly memory, and that he knew about matters pertaining to me which had occurred after his demise
• his advice concluded thus: seek to contribute to building a bridge from where you came to where you are.

It took me two years to digest this experience – for I had no knowledge that the spirit realm existed; and to realise that I was then (possibly) the only person to know (through work experience) all about the government’s policies on migrant settlement (now integration). So, I wrote 4 books based on my experience (that was my contribution to the ‘bridge’ mentioned by my uncle). Much to my surprise, I learnt that a number of senior academics now considered me an expert in this field of policy. This is just to indicate when I began to ponder about matters immaterial – like mind and memory.

What is of great import is that my uncle had displayed, without a material brain and ears, that he had retained his Earthly memories and his mind. They seem to go together. As well, what I refer to as the Afterlife (the home of spirits – former humans) clearly exists.

Then, my experience:
• when I read a clue in a crossword puzzle, my brain often pops up with an answer even before I search my memory
• when I had my heart attack, I lost my memory for quite a few faces, even those of significance. After a few years, I progressively recovered most of that memory. That suggests that I had lost the connection to the recorded memory.