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Three weeks ago I told my dowsing story, noting that dowsing involves being able to sense the energy of water. This touches on one of the key points of this entire Substack enterprise for me. How do we understand reality? What is reality?
Whatever your religion or cultural background, most of humanity has this one particular belief about reality. Even when we give lip-service to another way of thinking, this is how we, especially in the West, operate. This way of seeing reality is called “Materialism.”
Materialism
Materialism is the belief that the only thing that is real is the physical world. That concrete material objects are the only reality that exists. It believes that matter is the primary material of the universe. Materialism says that non-material things like thoughts, ideas, emotions, and consciousness itself, are all generated from the physical brain. They do not exist on their own. Therefore, once you die, materialism believes, your consciousness also ends, because your brain dies. Like my father’s belief that humans are just bags of meat who accidently came to life, and one day we will die and there will then be nothingness. Materialism believes that we are simply physical beings without a soul or larger self.
And at first glance, it seems to make sense. Our bodies are physical. We are surrounded by the physical. We live in a 3D space-time universe. We can touch a tree. We can pick up a cat. We can see and feel with our five senses that they exist, and this existence appears independent of us as individuals. In addition, thinking seems to come out of our head, which is where our brain is located. So it stands to reason that our brain must generate our thoughts and consciousness, and anything that is not material. There is a certain rationality to materialism.
Some of the Problems of Materialism
Taken to its logical conclusion, however, materialism believes there is no God because God cannot be measured by material means, therefore God cannot exist. God must be something humanity invented in its brains to make sense of the world.
In addition, materialism posits that once you die, your consciousness also ends, because your brain dies. If everything originates from the physical, then the non-physical, like consciousness, ends when our material body ceases to function. Of course, this is contradicted by scripture.
“So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable… It is sown a physical body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body… Look, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed.” – 1 Cor 15:42, 44, 51
Jesus himself warns against materialism. He cautions against focusing only on the physical world and ignoring the larger spiritual realm. He clearly makes a distinction between the material world and the non-material.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasurers on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do no break in and steal.” – Matthew 6:19-20
In addition, when we have a profound mystical experience, this blows materialism out of the water! An STE (Spiritually Transcendent Experience) is a real experience. It awakens in us a knowing. And this experience and knowing cannot be explained by materialism. Sadly, the usual result of this is that the mystical experience is dismissed by society as a hallucination, rather than questioning the premise of materialism itself. This is why many who have mystical experiences, don’t share them with others. This is also why STEs often cause a crisis in experiencers, because they must entirely rethink their worldview. Materialism is false.
Matter is Actually Energy
What is interesting to note is that while the science of the post-enlightenment era is what solidified this idea of materialism, current quantum physics is what is now suggesting a different model of reality. This goes back to Albert Einstein’s famous equation that E=MC2, his mathematical formula which states that all physical matter is simply energy.
Quantum Physics supports the idea that the material world is actually made up of waves of energy, vibrations. In very basic lay terms, the material world actually isn’t very “material” at all. Matter is made up of electrons and neutrons, and both of them are mostly empty space. All of what we see is, on the sub-atomic level, is mostly empty space. And the little bit which is not empty space, electrons and neutrons, are forms of energy, like light, and are constantly vibrating.
When electrons and neutrons vibrate really, really fast, they appear solid. For instance, wave one finger in front of your face very fast and you will see it begin to look like ten fingers side-by-side. But there aren’t ten fingers, there is one. The fast motion gives the illusion of ten. In the same way, just a very few electrons and neutrons, moving more quickly than we can imagine, seem to take up a lot of space and create the illusion of a much larger solid object, even though it is made up of mostly space.
When we as humans encounter the physical world, we naturally see it as solid. And why not? I can knock my knuckles on this solid table. I can sit on this chair. I can lay down on the grass. But what physics tells us is that actually the entire material world is just waves of energy and a lot of empty space. The idea that reality is made up of something solid called “matter” is just an illusion. Matter is simply another form of energy. It is energy that is coalesced in a way that makes sense to us in our 3-dimentional reality. Matter allows us to use our personal energy (our physical body) to engage with other energies (other physical objects) in a helpful way.
Now, this is kind of mind-blowing, and I understand if it seems crazy, but please bear with me. Remember, what Jesus did during his human lifetime was rather mind-blowing. He engaged with matter and used energy in dramatic ways. And remarkably, modern physics agrees with this correlation between energy and matter. Could Jesus have been simply trying to get us to see what has been there all along? Could this be part of his trying to open our eyes?
“They had come to hear Jesus and to be healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.” – Luke 6:18-19
“Jesus Healing the Blind Man.” Cutting from an antiphonal, from about 1330–1340, attributed to the Italian Master of the Antiphonary of San Giovanni Fuorcivitas
Jesus used energy, his “power,” to manipulate the material world: sick people. He understood the connection between matter and energy. He wasn’t caught up in a belief of materialism. Jesus could see the larger truth of reality, the energy behind the matter, and use it to his purposes. Like a dowser.
If all the material world is energy, including our own physical bodies, we should be able to use our waves of energy to discern the waves from other objects. Trained dowsers can find more than underground water, including lost objects, and more. In fact, dowsing can move beyond looking for physical objects to discerning information. According to the American Society of Dowsers, regarding “Information Dowsing”:
“This is where dowsing transitions into divining. The dowsing is no longer searching for a hard target like a vein of water or a missing wedding ring. The dowser is now trying to access the universe (or the collective consciousness, or God, or spirit guides, or Guardian Angels, or….) for information to answer questions. These questions range from asking the gallons per minute of a vein of water, diagnosing car problems, purchasing/selling real estate, health & wellness, and ley lines.”[1]
Information Dowsing therefore moves from discerning the energy of a material object to attuning oneself to communication with other forms of energy including information and energy Beings. What we learn is that both the physical and non-physical cosmos are forms of energy, including material substance, thoughts, and emotions. The material and the non-material are two forms of the same thing = energy.
The cool thing is that this means both the physical and spiritual realms are forms of energy. They are both made of the same substance! My car and my dog and my emotions are all made of energy, but simply assembled in different ways. Everything is energy! Physical things as well as consciousness are energy. This is core information for understanding how reality works. It causes us to rethink parts of the Jesus event.
If you like my Substack, please check out my book of sermons available for purchase on Amazon. It is entitled “Holy Incarnation! God Said What?: Transformational Sermons for Progressive Christians, Volume 1, Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany.” This is great way to enjoy brief writings about Christian Spirituality. You can purchase it HERE. Please write a review on Amazon and let me know what you think.
[1] https://dowsers.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/4_3_2_1_Handout-1.pdf, 5/4/2021
Stephanie, what an excellent, mind-opening article. You make the complex ideas of quantum energy understandable. Your case for the Divine is powerfully articulated vis a vis materialism. Thank you for sharing your gift!
Stephanie, your article is awesome! I'll never forget reading how Einstein's E=MC2 came about and being transformed by this new understanding of all that is. Then I read THE DANCING WU LI MASTERS, which really excited me--going much deeper than the surface--materialism. This is coming with me to Synod!