Much of the information concerning the rituals of the higher degrees of the Egyptian Mysteries have been gleaned from an examination of the chambers and passageways in which the initiations were given. … Labyrinths were also a striking feature in connection with the Rites of Serapis, and E. A. Wallis Budge, in his Gods of the Egyptians, depicts Serapis (Minotaur-like) with the body of a man and the head of a bull. Labyrinths were symbolic of the involvements and illusions of the lower world through which wanders the soul of man in it’s search for truth. In the labyrinth dwells the lower animal man with the head of the bull, who seeks to destroy the soul entangled in the maze of worldly ignorance. In this relation Serapis becomes the Tryer or Adversary who tests the souls of those seeking union with the immortals.

The Gnostic Mysteries were acquainted with the arcane meaning of Serapis, and through the medium of Gnosticism, this god became inextricably associated with early Christianity. ~Manly P. Hall

“Most of us are familiar with walking a labyrinth as a religious of spiritual ceremony intended to help one awaken spiritual faculties, or to understand the spirit world better, but I have never heard an explanation of this that made much sense to me until I read this one.”

< Read the entire blog online at spiritsun.net. >

by Harold Boulette

Week 9

This week includes two talks by Baroness Susan Greenfield, a professor of synaptic pharmacology (chemistry of brain neurons) who has also been awarded 28 honorary degrees. She has an extraordinary talent for translating ideas into vivid language. Using examples of everyday experiences she brings us into the world of neuroscience and consciousness. In the last minutes of the second lecture she suggests the possibility of consciousness as being a quantum event that somehow becomes measurable neural activity. Could such a thing be feasible?

Two lectures by Greenfield are included because her topic is somewhat dense and warrants a second viewing. Both talks are similar in content, but the second talk is more detailed.

Baroness Susan Greenfield, “The Neuroscience of Consciousness,” November  28,  2012: 86 minutes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_ZTNmkIiBc

Baroness Susan Greenfield, “How Does the Brain Generate Consciousness,” September 19, 2010: 64 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN5Fs6_O2mY

by Michael McIntyre

< WEEK 10 >

Communique editors have received two posts that hold some interesting information on the interaction of water and light in the cosmos:

“Molecule vital for creating water exists in dying sun-like stars”

“Using ESA’s Herschel space observatory, astronomers have discovered that a molecule vital for creating water exists in the burning embers of dying Sun-like stars.”

< Read the entire article posted June 18, 2014 by the European Space Agency at sciencedaily.com. >

 “Solar photons drive water off the moon”

“New research indicates that ultraviolet photons emitted by the sun likely cause water molecules on the lunar surface to either quickly desorb or break apart. The fragments of water may remain on the lunar surface, but the presence of useful amounts of water on the sunward side is not likely.”

< Read the entire article posted June 17, 2014 by the Georgia Institute of Technology at sciencedaily.com. >

links submitted by Frieda Nelson

Saturday, May 16, 2015
10:00 AM COMMUNION
Chapel of The Holy Child
RC Robert Petrovich
Lector: RM Carol Ann Crabb
Cantor: Rev. James Eliott
Reader: Rev. Michael Tamburello

Sunday, May 17, 2015
5:34 AM COMMUNITY SUNRISE
Temple Mount
Leave: 4:45
Gate: 5:20
Sunrise: 5:49

OPEN-AIR COMMUNION
Church of New Philadelphia       RC Elizabeth Reece
Church of New Qumran       RM Carol Ann Crabb
Church of New Bethany       Rev. Barbara Whitney

Wednesday, May 20, 2015
12:00 N COMMUNION
Chapel of the Holy Child
RC Elizabeth Reece

Friday, May 22, 2015
9:00 AM PRAYER & FELLOWSHIP
Chapel of the Roses
(Service Suspended due to Remodeling)

Week 8

Brain Study: If you can read this, you have a strong mind (so it is said, anyway):

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In week 8 we look at a variety of topics, including perception, attention, and memory. The first eight weeks in this series are an introduction to the many fields of research that address “consciousness”; these have been constructed so you may better appreciate and understand the presentations in weeks 9 through 12 that investigate “consciousness” in a more sophisticated manner.

The Ellen Show, “Hosts of ‘Brain Games’ Trick Our Staff,” January 2, 2011: 5 minutes(These examples were actually clinical studies before becoming popular staged performances).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAmhLLtN8qw

V. S. Ramachandran, “Three Clues to Understanding Your Brain,” TED Talks, March 2011: 24 minutes.

http://www.ted.com/talks/vilayanur_ramachandran_on_your_mind

R. Beau Lotto, “Optical Illusions Show Us How We See,” TED Talks, July 2009: 14 minutes.

http://www.ted.com/talks/beau_lotto_optical_illusions_show_how_we_see?language=e

Neil deGrasse Tyson,”How Does the Brain Work?” NOVA, April 19, 2012: 53 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWg0cWFQiiY

National Geographic, “Tap into Your Brain’s Stored Power: A Three Minute Experiment,” February 17, 2014: 3 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QelK8rDrbpM

Daniel Kahneman, “Two Systems of the Mind,” March 19, 2012: 30 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4hqvMYBB1c

Nobelprize.org, The Mystery of Memory, documentary, October 26, 2011: 30 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sWnkBf5V7s

Travis, “5 Synesthesia Videos: Sensory Interplay Relay,” April 2014: 20 minutes.

http://www.synesthesiatest.org/

ASAPScience, “Brain Tricks: This Is How Your Brain Works,” January 31, 2013: 5 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiTz2i4VHFw

by Michael McIntyre

< WEEK 9 >

Mysticism is the art of union with Reality. The mystic is a person who has attained that union in a greater or lesser degree; or who aims at and believes in such attainment.

It is not expected that the inquirer will find great comfort in this sentence when first it meets his eye. The ultimate question, ‘What is reality?’—a question, perhaps, which never occurred to him before—is always forming in his mind; and he knows that it will cause him infinite-distress. Only a mystic can answer it: and he, in terms which other mystics alone will understand. Therefore, for the time being, the practical man may put it on one side. All that he is asked to consider now is this: that the word ‘union’ represents not so much a rare and unimaginable operation, as something which he is doing, in a vague, imperfect fashion, at every moment of his conscious life; … ~Evelyn Underhill

“I think that very short definition of mysticism is such a great one, as is the definition of a mystic that follows it. We can find rather complicated definitions elsewhere that are open to interpretation. It is often defined as “union with the Deity” but what Deity? Different people have different ideas of God, different beliefs of how God behaves, and different ideas of how to become one with this Deity.”

< Read the entire blog online at spiritsun.net. >

by Harold Boulette

The Nevada Clergy Association (NCA), the non-profit network of religious and spiritual leaders in Nevada, is hosting the annual interfaith Nevada Prayer Breakfast on Tuesday, MAY 12, from 7 to 8:50 AM at the Atlantis Hotel in Reno. Seating in the Grand Ballroom on the 2nd floor begins just before 7 AM.

The Nevada Prayer Breakfast (NPB) is for all Nevada’s citizens – including religious, civic, business, cultural and community leaders – to come together to pray on behalf of our state, and to bring the spiritual resources of the community to bear on Nevada’s leaders as they carry on their work, making decisions that affect the lives of all Nevadans. The NCA recognizes that segments of the community approach spiritual practice and devotion differently, so at the Nevada Prayer Breakfast, we gather as equals — without prejudice or discrimination — to devote our energies to the good of the State of Nevada, to our nation and to the world.

Reno’s vice-mayor, Oscar Delgado, will deliver a short welcome to open the program. The keynote speaker is Dr. Tony Slonim, president and CEO of Renown Health. The breakfast program will include a selection of prayers by representatives of the Nevada’s multi-faith community as well as musical selections performed by the Nevada Gay Men’s Chorus, the Damonte Ranch High School Choir, and the Tintabulations Handbell Ensemble. Among the participating speakers are representatives of the Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, LDS, Second Advent, Jewish, Native American, Taoist, and various Christian communities. The Rev. Sean Savoy of the International Community of Christ, who chairs the NPB, will serve as master of ceremonies.

The NCA’s annual Vision Award will go to Cherie Jamason, president and CEO of the Food Bank of Northern Nevada, and posthumously to Col. Charles “Chuck” Fulkerson (1935-2014), co-founder of the Veterans House. The first Vision Award to an organization will be presented to Northern Nevada HOPES. The NCA Vision Award is given to citizens or organizations of Nevada who have demonstrated unique and exemplary leadership and foresight in envisioning and creating a brighter and more unified community.

The program will feature the announcement of a new collaboration between the NCA and Renown Regional Medical Center for the development of an Interfaith Spiritual Care Center at the hospital. A special tribute and community service award will be presented to the late Toni de Salvo (1946-2015) for her dedicated support of Nevada’s interfaith programs.

Cost to attend is $25 in advance or $30 at the door. Patron Tables of 8 are available at $240. Patrons will be recognized in the program. A discount for non-profit Patron Tables is available at $160. Reservations should be made online at www.NevadaClergy.net or by calling (775) 786-1800. Checks may be sent to NCA at 643 Ralston St., Reno, NV 89503.

The Nevada Clergy Association, headquartered in Reno, is a network of religious and spiritual leaders in Nevada whose purpose is to foster and promote interfaith relations, to encourage the sharing of information among its members and their respective institutions, and to promote a climate favorable to and tolerant of religious and spiritual expression and freedom. The Nevada Prayer Breakfast is a Nevada tradition. It was originally known as the Governor’s Prayer Breakfast and was held for nearly two decades in Northern Nevada until 2001. The event was re-established as the “Nevada Prayer Breakfast” in 2010.

< Download the Prayer Breakfast invitation in PDF format. >

< Read about the Nevada Prayer Breakfast online in the Reno Gazette-Journal. >

Saturday, May 9, 2015
10:00 AM COMMUNION
Chapel of The Holy Child
RR Gene Savoy Jr.
Lector: RR Sean Savoy
Cantor: Rev. Karen Eliott
Reader: Rev. Robert Roy

Sunday, May 10, 2015
5:41 AM NEW DIVINE SERVICE
Church of New Pentecost
Leave: 4:45
Gate: 5:25
Sunrise: 5:56
RR Gene Savoy Jr.
Concelebrant: RR Sean Savoy
Assistants: RC Roger Weld
RC Ted Staver
RM Carol Ann Crabb
Organist: RC Gary Buchanan

OPEN-AIR COMMUNION
Church of New Smyrna       Rev. Greg Klinedinst
Church of New Philadelphia       Rev. Michael Tamburello
Church of New Qumran       Dea. Gary Huss Jr.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015
12:00 N COMMUNION
Chapel of the Holy Child
Rev. Harold Boulette

Friday, May 8, 2015
9:00 AM PRAYER & FELLOWSHIP
Chapel of the Roses
(Service Suspended due to Remodeling)

You are invited to the 2015 “Spiritual State of the World” Conference in Otsu City, Japan from May 22-23, 2015.

There will be one day of talks (May 22nd) and one day of workshops (May 23rd) at the Piazza Omi Hotel, 3rd-floor conference rooms.

Over two hundred people are expected to attend the two-day conference and workshop.
Where is the conference being held?
Piazza Omi
Conference: Main conference room, 3 floor
Workshop: conference room, 3 floor
Adress: 1-1-20 Nionohama, Otsu, Shiga 520-0801
What is the cost?
Conference ticket: $125 (15,000 yen). There is a special discount price of $100 (12,000 yen) for registration before 4/30.
2-day Workshop (5/23&24): $200 (24,000 yen). There is a special discount price of $175.00 (21,000 yen) for registration before 4/30.
How can I register?
If you read Japanese, go to the NPO Solar Culture Organization’s Web site: www.npo-taiyo.com
For registration information in English,
contact Miyuki Okayama in Japan by email (mihime21c.anjel2@gmail.com)
or Robert & Noriko Roy in the United States by phone (775-324-4889).

< Watch the promotional video clip for the Conference & Workshop on YouTube. >

Conference topics:
Echan Deravy: “Pilgrimage to the stars: A Journey Through the Solar System”
Gene Savoy Jr.: “The New Sun”
Sean Savoy: TBA
Dr. Gary Robert Buchanan: “Ancient Solar Cutures of Japan”
Jupiter Joji: TBA
Yukinori Matsushita: TBA
Workshop titles:
Workshops on May 23rd
Echan Deravy: “Pilgrimage to the Stars”
Gene Savoy Jr.: “The New Sun”
Sean Savoy: TBA
Dr. Gary Robert Buchanan: “SONATHERAPY: New Directions & Technologies in Wave Front Bioresonance”
Jupiter Joji: TBA
Yasuko Nishimura: “The Secret of Sex and Life”
Workshops on May 24th
Flower arranging session: “ Meet Life” by Mieko Sibata.
Mieko learned Japanese flower arranging under Toshiba Kawase and communicates with the flowers while she is arranging them. She appreciates Nature and loves to give a second life to flowers and plants in her artwork.

Week 7B

 Two thousand years ago Jews would stone a person for working on the Sabbath.  By comparison, in the 21^st century, people are being criminally charged for the abuse and killing of domestic animals.  A seven-year-old child in Western culture today can do math problems using zeros; a concept unfathomable 1,500 years ago and that child would have been celebrated as being beyond genius.  Many expressions of music, art, and architecture from the past century would be virtually indigestible for anyone living 700 years ago.

A new science lies on the horizon that suggests that humans are evolving in a fashion not apparent by any biological display.  Cognitive anthropology is the study of cognition to identify conscious peculiarities between cultures, past or present, and peripherally includes inter-species investigations of humans, primates, dolphins, birds, canines, rodents, even lizards, ants, and bees. 

Carl Jung made a good case for cognitive anthropology, although a bit wishful, long before the science was born, stating, “The differing degrees of self-knowledge within [humankind’s] own species are of little significance compared with the possibilities which would be opened out by an encounter with a creature of similar structure but different origin. . . . The possibility of comparison and hence self-knowledge would arise only if [humankind] could establish relations with quasi-human mammals inhabiting other stars.” (The Undiscovered Self, rev. trans. by RFC Hull, 1958, paragraphs 526 and 525.

Like all previous weeks in this tour, this is just a brief introduction, and the citations are only a whisper compared to all volumes on the subject.

PART B

Wade Davis,”The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World,” Garrison Institute, June 20, 2013: 40 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuJsbjKKh3E

Marcus du  Sautoy, “History and Wonders of Ancient Indian Mathematics,” BBC,  The Story of Maths, posted January 28, 2014: 19 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FcH33Cuj8w

G. W. Domhoff, “A New Neurocognitive Theory of Dreams,”  Dreaming, vol. 11, (2001), pp. 13–33. In the fourth paragraph of this article, which summarizes the study, Domhoff makes this statement: “Dreaming is a cognitive achievement that develops gradually over the first 8 or 9 years of life.” This statement set off a spark in the dream research community to address the possibility that dream awareness or attentiveness may be a cognitive evolutionary skill; that is, one that evolves. Available online at

http://www2.ucsc.edu/dreams/Library/domhoff_2001a.html

Tim Post, “Lucid Dreaming,”TEDx at TwenteU,November 5, 2013: 14 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK3SfNxbK3Y

Susan Blackmore, “Meme Machine,” published by Karol Jalochowski, September 17, 2013: 8 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O5dBgu3Iz4

by Michael McIntyre

< WEEK 8 >