When I was fifteen, my very best friend (even to this day, and I am seventy one as I write this), Louis Dolmon, gifted me with Robert Heinlein’s novel, Stranger In A Strange Land. That became the foundation of my theology, specifically, the phrase uttered repeatedly by Michael in the story, “Thou art G-d.”
After that, I was exposed to (through college) Baruch Spinoza, Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Giordano Bruno, Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, Alan Watts, Paul Harrison, and after I retired, more Eastern “Gurus” and spiritualists came to my attention, such as Adi Shankara, Mooji, H.W.L Poonja, Ramana Maharshi, and Bhakti Yoga musicians and singer/songwriters such as George Harrison, Krishna Das, The Hanuman Project, Kevin James, and my favorite, Jai Sahaja. Most recently (because this bridges the gap between my “Hindu leanings” and my “Jewish upbringing” : Rabbi Andrew Hahn, aka, “Kirtan Rabbi.” I’ve most recently began reviving my practice with the guitar. Back in the day, I used to play at teen meetings at my synagogue, at Guitar Mass at my father’s church (Dad was Catholic; Mom was Jewish. It’s a long story); and, during my eighteen year sojourn (1971-1989) in “Messianic Judaism (aka, Fundagelical Xtianity)” I was a worship leader for the cult I belonged to. When I moved to California in 1992, I bequeathed the “Lady Galadriel” (my acoustic guitar) to my eldest son Joshua. Anyroad, I’m learning some Kirtan songs and I might or might not lead Kirtan sessions at my home in the future. Waiting is.
So, what is it I exactly believe? You, I and everyone else is G-d. That’s the readers digest version. The interesting thing is that I have never not believed in this paradigm. Even as a “Messianic Jew (born again Xtian)” I still embraced this idea, and even found New Testament verses to justify it. Another belief I have hung onto (and this one began early, maybe age five or six) is reincarnation. Probably why I was kicked out of every cult I got involved with during my eighteen year belief in nonsense. But back to pantheism:
There are other names for this paradigm: “Non-dualism,” “the Oneness of the All,” “transcendentalism,” and Hindu’s call in Advaita Vendata. Your “self” (“soul,” “nefesh,” “atman,”), is the part of you that is REALLY you. Your physical body will someday cease to have life (“die,” “discorporate”) but your “self” is eternal. It cannot die. We speculate that it is pure energy, but it is also sentient. We know from physics that since the “self” is composed of energy, it can neither be created nor destroyed. Your “self” is the part of you that is G-d, and in turn it is one with every other “self” existing in the universe(s). This concept is hard to grok, so I will try to explain it, as best as I can.
There is only One “Self.” The “self” exists throughout all of the universes. It is eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, eternal; all of the attributes that we have been taught that G-d has. That is because the “self” is G-d. Every sentient lifeform shares this same “self.”
The Oneness of the All.
It might be easier to think of G-d as a collective being. There was a science fiction show on television. It was part of the Star Trek franchise and was called Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The episode of particular interest occurs in Season 3, Episode 2.
A main character in the series, Odo, displays attributes that lead me
to think that our self as a member of a collective shares these same attributes. Odo is a shapeshifter (also called a “changeling”), a member of a race whose physical bodies are a kind of liquid, like very thick oil or chocolate fudge topping. When Odo sleeps (‘regenerates’) he does so in a bucket. In ST:DS9, Season 3, Episode 2, Odo, having spent all of his known life with other aliens (referred to as “the solids”) he finally visits his home planet. There he meets other shapeshifters, and enters into what they call “the great link.” Which is to say his body melds with the bodies of all of the other members of his species, in a kind of soup.
I think this might be a good illustration for what happens when we discorporate, or as Sri Babba Ram Stephen puts it in this parable:
Q: Rabbi, what happens when we are born?
A: The ocean becomes a drop.
Q: Then, what happens when we die?
A: The drop returns to the ocean.
I suspect that this also happens when we are asleep, or when we are unconscious. Further, I suspect that it is in this state, “the great link,” where creation takes place.
There are other implications for this, especially in regard to some of the paradigms of Christianity. For example, “Fundagelicals” will cite Romans 3:23 (NT) “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of G-d,” using this verse to explain that humans are separated from G-d, but this is impossible. We can never be separated from G-d because we are G-d, and the separateness we might experience is an illusion. The water contained in an eyedropper still bears all of the characteristics of the body of water that it was taken from.
Because we are G-d we are naturally, fundamentally, good. But, sometimes we do bad things. Some people are serving time in jail for various crimes, felonies, misdemeanors. History has shown us bad people, such as Hitler, Stalin, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Richard Nixon etc. Are they G-d as well? Yes they are(or were). The problem is that they didn’t/don’t know it. They were brainwashed by their culture or by false religions, to the extent that they have no moral compass.
“If a critical mass of humanity were to adopt this belief: that you and I and everyone else is in fact, G-d, we would have world peace, global prosperity and global equality. We would end war. We would end poverty. All beings on Earth would be free and happy.” ~~ Stephan Gabriel
SO SAY WE ALL!!!
