“Psychologists sometimes divide men into the two extreme classes of extroverts and introverts. The extrovert is the typically active; always leaning out the window and setting up contacts with the outside world. His thinking is mainly realistic. That is to say, it deals with the data of sense. The introvert is the typical contemplative, predominantly interested in the inner world. His thinking is mainly autistic, dealing with the results of intuition and feeling, … and instinctively obedient to the mystic command to sink into the ground of the soul, … he seems able to attend to the messages which intuition picks up from other levels of being.” ~Evelyn Underhill

“What the psychologists say is reasonably true, but it isn’t that simple. Most people are not purely extroverts or purely introverts, they are somewhere between those extremes. What the psychologists don’t know is that spiritual schools can tell which category a person leans toward without even talking to them. This can be done by studying their color bodies which reveals which of their energy centers, or chakras, are strong and which are weak.”

< Read the entire article online at Solar Wind. >

< Visit and bookmark Harold Boulette’s blog Solar Wind at: http://blog.spiritsun.net/ >

contributed by Harold Boulette

Ted Nottingham

 This illustrated presentation by Ted Nottingham traces Essene origins to ancient Egypt, highlights surprising connections to Christian teaching, and offers images representing the life and perennial wisdom of these little known and mysterious practitioners of holy living.

Consociate Robert Anderson thinks this lecture is “quite relevant to our Teachings” and the lecturer’s voice “wonderful to listen to.”

< Watch the 57-minute lecture by Ted Nottingham uploaded on November 15, 2010 on YouTube. >

Theodore J. Nottingham is an author and translator who works in a variety of genres, including non-fiction works on spirituality, historical and metaphysical fiction, children’s books, and plays. He is an ordained minister and currently the pastor of Northwood Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. His focus is on the personal and transformational dimensions of spiritual teachings.

link submitted by Robert Anderson

 “The much advertized herd instinct may weld us into a mob at the mercy of unreasonable passions; but it can also make us living members of the Communion of Saints. The appeals of the prophet and the revivalist, the Psalmist’s ‘Taste and see.’ the Baptist’s ‘Change your hearts,’ are all invitations to an alteration in the direction of desire, which would turn our instinctive energies in a new direction and began the domestication of the human soul for God.
“This, then, is the real business of conversion and of the character building that succeeds it; the harnessing of instinct to idea and its direction into new and more lofty channels of use, transmuting the turmoil of man’s merely egoistic ambitions, anxieties and emotional desires into fresh forms of creative energy, and transferring their interest from narrow and unreal to universal objectives.” ~Evelyn Underhill

“We often hear stories in the news about mob behavior by a crowd or group of people. We hear of folks getting trampled to death at a Black Friday sale. We hear of people getting attacked by a mob at a soccer or football game. We hear of crowds attacking and killing a person without even knowing what offense that person committed.

“These stories often seem to imply that being part of a group is therefore inherently dangerous and evil. They seem to imply that man can only function rationally as an individual, and will automatically go insane if he becomes part of a group. But as Ms Underhill points out, there are two sides to this coin.”

< Read the entire article online at Solar Wind. >

< Visit and bookmark Harold Boulette’s blog Solar Wind at: http://blog.spiritsun.net/ >

contributed by Harold Boulette

Steamboat Hot Springs south of Reno received recognition for its use of the waters for more than therapy. PHOTO: Sage Leehey, RN&R

The Steamboat Hot Springs Healing Center in Reno is one of eight projects that has received special recognition by the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA). The GEA began recognizing companies and individuals who were doing great things in the world of geothermal two years ago, and this year has recognized 11 different projects in four different categories: technological advancement, economic development, environmental stewardship and special recognition.

The Reno News & Review published a short article in its “Green” section on the projects given special recognition.

< Read the online article published January 2, 2014 in the Reno News & Review >

 “There are Three Circles of Reality, three realms, three stages of existence. They are: Heaven, where perfection visualized on Earth may be realized … it is the place where all the properly developed spiritual potential latent in man reaches maturity and fulfillment. Earth, the place of training, development and preparation, … It is here that the proper road must be wisely chosen. Then there is the Realm of the Misty Horizon, the intermediate place, the place of spirits, where those above can commune with those below and where free spirits wander within their limitation.” ~The Kolbrin Bible (CRT:7:16) (emphasis, mine)

“We have a somewhat more complex description of the structure of existence with a total of nine dimensions. The lowest dimension is the Great Void, the place where nothing can exist, spiritual or material. The second dimension is the lowest dimension where beings actually exist and it is a place of total materialism. The third dimension is where we exist as intermediate beings, both physical and spiritual. The highest dimension is the Godhead, where only God exists as a complete whole.”

< Read the entire article online at Solar Wind. >

< Visit and bookmark Harold Boulette’s blog Solar Wind at: http://blog.spiritsun.net/ >

contributed by Harold Boulette

Priene, an ancient Greek solar city built on the southern slope of Mount Mycale PHOTO: Mother Earth News

“In 1903, Charles Pope wrote Solar Heat. ‘The purpose of this book,’” the author stated, was that ‘some call to the people was needed…to arouse interest [in] ‘catching the sunbeams’ and extracting gold from them.’ To accomplish his goal, he tells his reader that he had endeavored ‘to trace the history of attempts and successes in the utilization of solar…discuss ways and means; and attempt to arouse his readers to give to the matter their energy and invention, their brain and capital; that we may very soon see solar enginery take its place by the side of steam enginery and electrical enginery and gas enginery in the public estimation.’

“Despite the vintage of Pope’s book, many still believe that solar energy is a late twentieth-century phenomenon. Hopefully, Let It Shine will change this misconception. Let It Shine shows, for example, that six thousand years ago the stone-age Chinese built their homes so every one of them made maximum use of the sun’s energy in winter. So begins the story of the genesis of solar energy told in Let it Shine, the world’s first and only comprehensive history of humanity’s use of the sun. Page after page the story brings to light information never before unearthed. 2,500 years ago, for example, the sun heated every house in most Greek cities. Years later ancient Roman architects published solar self-help books to show people how to save on fuel as firewood became scarce, and fleets scoured the known world for much needed supplies.”

< Read the full article “Let It Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy” posted online October 25, 2013 online at motherearthnews.com. >

< Read more about the book Let It Shine at the author’s web site. >

< Read chapter summaries of the book Let It Shine here. >

links submitted by Frieda Nelson

Spiritual Initiation

< Read the entire article online at Solar Wind. >

< Visit and bookmark Harold Boulette’s blog Solar Wind at: http://blog.spiritsun.net/ >

contributed by Harold Boulette

PHOTO: medium.com/Physics arXiv Blog

This interesting article opens with discussion about an experiment that confirms that time emerges out of quantum entanglement:

“Time is an emergent phenomenon that is a side effect of quantum entanglement, say physicists. And they have the first experimental results to prove it.

“When the new ideas of quantum mechanics spread through science like wildfire in the first half of the 20th century, one of the first things physicists did was to apply them to gravity and general relativity. The results were not pretty.

“It immediately became clear that these two foundations of modern physics were entirely incompatible. When physicists attempted to meld the approaches, the resulting equations were bedeviled with infinities making it impossible to make sense of the results.

“Then in the mid-1960s, there was a breakthrough. . . .”

< Read the entire article online at The Physics arXiv Blog. >

link submitted by Stephan Fuelling

A new soul was born on August 14, 1951 . . . a Child of Light born to the world from an infinite sea of Light, absolute reality . . . Being pure of heart, the newborn baby still resounds with the angelic music from heaven and the majesty of the divine homeland. At birth the eternal cycle of life is broken, creating a new style of living. The Child of Earth observes the unknown reality with radiance and luminosity in her eyes and she hears the silence from the ultimate harmony of the universe.

For many centuries everyone has been able to start the story of their personal journey by the inoffensive beginning “Once upon a time” . . . there was a little blond girl born in Québec, Canada, from a working-class family that used all its energy and effort to sustain a level of comfort and dignity for the needs of five children. At the age of three, she began to spend her summertime with her grandparents on farmland near the Saint Lawrence River. Being the first grandchild, she was adored by everyone and received much praise, as if she had a special gift that the family could not explain.

This part of Québec—flat, peaceful, and serene—awakened in her the troubled recognition that what she saw and felt could not be the answer to the mysterious energy moving within her . . . seeking secretly the spiritual meaning of life. The harmonious environment taught her how to appreciate the beauties of nature, to have a sense of union with the creative forces of the universe, and to regenerate herself with love and benevolence to reflect back to all the people surrounding her. At her young age, love expressed a feeling of unity and control, and it seemed to be the key to the Big Question . . . and the road to ecstasy . . . . Love without guidance toward an end is like a sailboat without rudder and compass.

In the land of Québec the Catholic religion had powerful authority, instructing through liturgy and reading texts illustrated with symbols, images, and myths. The heart and the mind of the naive girl interpreted these with her own ability and limitations to understand that God exists within every living creature and that she had to be clear of any sin and to reach perfection with her own will. How to connect the earthly heart and the heavenly heart? The true meaning of life became an ecclesiastical mystery.

Life brought to her every opportunity like a mirage, creating an illusion of happiness—”petit bonheur”—life shining like a fake gem, and brought her the urge to be part of everything that moves her. She sought recognition, which she hoped might lead her to the emergence of her Self. But deep inside there was always sadness, emptiness, meaninglessness that remained silent—suffocated in the heart of the little girl becoming now a young woman. Any major realization left her at the top of Mount Everest . . . Voil ! . . . That is it! . . . Always the same turmoil in the heart of the dormant soul. Why is the human soul never at peace? There has to be more than being born, living intensely, burning vital energy, and dying without understanding the secret laws of the universe and the potential power in all of us. Being educated under the influence of the European French, she was haunted by existential questions that had no answers in the material world, and they could have made her sink into the darkness of her own limited intellect.

Love, tenderness, tolerance, and compassion were her bouée de sauvetage (“life preserver”). Family and friends carved deep memories into her that will live forever. Learning to distinguish between the true expression of love and the guilt of not loving enough distressed the life of the young woman, who tried to calm herself with good intentions but false understanding of what life is all about, what power is behind existence, and what is true communion with God.

Suddenly the energy of life placed some signs in front of her. Her reasoning no longer operated normally. She made drastic changes in her life, and she lost the appearance of control and the comfortable environment toward which she had dedicated her energy. Surprisingly, her heart started singing and felt light, energetic, and creative with a drive she had never felt before. All of her past was reduced to a fraction of its importance, and she rushed to reach the unknown . . . eternity . . . the light at the end of the tunnel.

Being stamped since birth with a divine energy, the mature French woman learned that the possibility of being born again unveiled the path of Light and inspired her with a new way of living. The heart of the little girl could shine like a living Sun in the World of Light.

* * * *

The French woman from Québec experienced various major changes in her life, but each time she had no answer to the mysteries of life and the laws of the universe. Destiny led her to the desert lands of Nevada and a drastic culture shock (different language and religion, separation from family, etc.). Yet it was the most uplifting time of her life. It gave meaning to her life. The connection with the infinite creative forces of the universe brought nourishment to her soul, a magical language with Divine Energy. She felt surrounded with grace and a great fountain of joy provided her with strength and vitality to adjust herself to her new lifestyle. Being part of a Community of Light provided her with a loving, universal extended family. The love offered with sincerity from all the members of the Community of Light balanced and defined the notion of Love and developed in her a different perspective, a sense of unity, a new sense of reality. The transfer of love to a higher frame of mind vibrated in her an experience of liberation, a detachment, a pursuit of devotion and a connection with infinite wisdom.

The spiritual school of learning instructed her step-by-step in the dual glories of human life and demonstrated to her how to connect the earthy heart with the heavenly heart. This was the most precious hidden treasure that she could recognize: without awakening the supranatural power that was programmed into her from birth, that spiritual ecstasy might be dormant forever and never express the Supreme Self who is eternally at peace . . . the Hymn of Pure Love.

The ultimate art of self-development, to harmonize with the radiant energy of the Universal forces, implanted in her a seed, the new birth in the heart of creation that fused man between two worlds. The experience of that profound realization calmed the heart of the French woman like a Divine Presence and opened up the realm of eternity. The harmonious way of living guided her to live in a different reality. Silence, the act of listening, became her favorite companion and allowed her to penetrate to purity of the Self.

I write this to all the people that I love and will always love. How could I love you more, with an eternal love that never dies?

Francine Petrovich
November 13, 2013
(Community member since April 1989)

 “Creativity, like the wind, has a will of its own and is hard to predict. Over time, my creative impulses became overpowering. While it was necessary for me to control my creative urges in training as a monk, I later realized that creativity is a divine quality I can use to bring myself and others closer to the experience of God.” ~Russill Paul

“Creativity is indeed a divine gift, but like most gifts it has a negative as well as a positive side. In short, you can say there is true creativity and false creativity. True creativity comes from Divine inspiration, false creativity comes from the human mind simply combining various known things to create something that is only superficially new, and may be harmful.”

< Read the entire article online at Solar Wind. >

< Visit and bookmark Harold Boulette’s blog Solar Wind at: http://blog.spiritsun.net/ >

contributed by Harold Boulette