If the base of a felled tree that has grown old in earth and rock “will bud at the scent of water … like a young plant” (Job 14:9), it is also possible for us to be awakened by the power of the Holy Spirit and to flower with the incorruptibility that is ours by nature, bearing fruit like a young plant, even though we have fallen into sin. Sometimes our soul grows despondent at the huge swarm of its sins and temptations, and says, ‘Our hope is gone and we are lost’ (Ezek. 37:11.LXX). Yet God, who does not despair of our salvation, says to us: ‘you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord’ (Ezek. 37:6). To the soul that doubts how it can ever give birth to Christ through great acts of holiness, these words are said: “The Holy Spirit shall come upon you” (Luke 1:35). ~The Philokalia

“I once cut down a tree in the back yard of the house where I was living  in Virginia. There were just too many trees there and that one didn’t seem to be getting much sunlight. But after I cut it down, it quickly started to regrow sending out new shoots from the top of the stump. I decided if it was that determined to grow, I should leave it do so.

“During a drought, trees in some places may dry up and die and fall over. Other may be knocked over by hurricanes and tornadoes or burned down in forest fires. Yet when the conditions are better, some of them will grow again. In desert areas, some flowers and plants have adapted to the environment to the extent that they can become dormant for several years if necessary, then grow green, blossom, and produce seeds in a matter of a few days, or even hours when a rare rain occurs.

“Some people become spiritual at a fairly young age, and that is just fine. Others, however, do not see the value of it until they are in their fifties, sixties, or even older.”

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

by Harold Boulette

Earth’s Moon, as imaged by the Galileo mission. photo: NASA/JPL/USGS

“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

Douglas Eugene “Gene” Savoy (1927-2007) was an American explorer, author, religious leader, and theologian. He undertook a series of daring expeditions to the Andes and the Amazon jungle in search of the ancient mysteries of the Incas, Aztecs and Mayans. He is perhaps best known for bringing to light a number of Peru’s most important archaeological sites, including Vilcabamba, the last refuge of the Incas during the Spanish Conquest.

Today Gene Savoy’s work is continued by the religious community and the educational institution he founded. New Dawn recently spoke to Gene Savoy’s son Sean about his father’s remarkable discoveries and insights based on the lore of lost civilizations.

< Download a PDF of an abridged version of the New Dawn interview HERE. >

Week 10

In week 10 we hear from Stuart Hameroff, who along with his partner, has developed a testable model for measuring consciousness as “qubits,” which when collapsed by a quantum gravity event can trigger tiny proteins within a neuron. They call the model Orch OR. These proteins have a digital processing characteristic that imprint thousands of engrams within the neuron; collectively, millions of these engram events have the potential to translate the “quantum wave of consciousness” into a collective neural episode, which becomes the physiological representation of “a thought.” This week’s videos present some of the work of Hameroff and Nobel-Prize candidate Richard Penrose, who together developed the Orch OR model.  Hameroff is an anesthesiologist. Penrose is a British mathematician. The following are some excerpts from an article posted on Science 2.0  on February 2, 2014, concerning the Hameroff/ Penrose Orch-OR model:

“The origin of consciousness reflects our place in the universe, the nature of our existence. Did consciousness evolve from complex computations among brain neurons, as most scientists assert? Or has consciousness, in some sense, been here all along, as spiritual approaches maintain?” ask Hameroff and Penrose in the current review. “This opens a potential Pandora’s Box, but our theory accommodates both these views, suggesting consciousness derives from quantum vibrations in microtubules, protein polymers inside brain neurons, which both govern neuronal and synaptic function, and connect brain processes to self-organizing processes in the fine scale, ‘proto-conscious’ quantum structure of reality.”

“The evidence now clearly supports Orch OR,” they claim. “Our new paper updates the evidence, clarifies Orch OR quantum bits, or “qubits,” as helical pathways in microtubule lattices, rebuts critics, and reviews 20 testable predictions of Orch OR published in 1998—of these, six are confirmed and none refuted.”

Stuart Hameroff, “Fractal Consciousness and Orch OR,” University of Arizona Consciousness, February 17, 2013: 62 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp20eWejD6Q

Stuart Hameroff, “How Does the Brain Produce Consciousness?” Psychiatry Grand Rounds, January 8, 2003; posted on June 4, 2011: 58 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb-5Pb9qmPE

by Michael McIntyre

< WEEK 11 >

“With spherical-holographic perception, measuring attention isn’t important. You’re more interested in being responsive to the Flow … You don’t need to focus a long time since full awareness occurs in each moment. Therefore, you don’t need to use intention. … With spherical-holographic attention, you notice an idea you want to understand or materialize without having to attach special force to it. Instead of the hard focus of intent, you simply “be with” the idea softly. … When an idea is on your wavelength, it remains alive in your field without you having to grip it to keep it in place. … With a softer, more expansive focus, you notice that your personal field itself is paying attention, that your soul is continually paying attention to creating your reality in the best possible way.” ~Penney Peirce

“You often see horses and donkeys wearing blinders, especially in urban areas. This is intended to keep the animal focused on the path in front of him and not get distracted or frightened by things off to the side. This may be a useful thing to do with these animals under the conditions found in a crowded city as long as there is someone controlling them who is not wearing blinders. Otherwise, the horse may be heading forward blissfully unaware that a runaway car is approaching from the side and about to hit him!

“The same is true of people who wear blinders. Of course, the blinders we wear are not so literal and not so obvious, but they are just as effective and just as dangerous.”

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

by Harold Boulette

Nebulosa NGC1333, one of the stellar formation regions where formamide has been detected. PHOTO: NASA

One of science’s greatest challenges is learning about the origin of life and its precursor molecules.

Complex organic molecules such as formamide, from which sugars, amino acids and even nucleic acids essential for life can be made, have been found to appear in the regions where stars similar to our Sun are born.

< Read the entire article posted online April 16, 2015 at sciencedaily.com. >

link submitted by Frieda Nelson

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

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 >