Jackie emailed a question to me, a portion of which I’ve heard many times before:
“I am interested in herbalism, dreams and meditation…I also believe in God. Can you help?”
This is really a plea from Jackie, conflicted by interests she wants to pursue and fears that the information might prove contrary to her belief in God and the teachings of her religion. Consequently, she is not satisfying her desire to explore– or doing so with great trepidation. Her heart is heavy and fearful of what she will discover.
These fears are quite common amongst people who have not had exposure to professionals or quality reading and instructional materials in New Age disciplines. Neither New Age nor metaphysics (one aspect of New Age) is a religion; they are not related in any way to the religion of witchcraft, cults or devil worship. Nor is belief in God synonymous with religion; a person can easily believe in God without engaging in religion. Religion is often a set of instructions or procedures, designed by mortals, to demonstrate an exemplary or particular way of living life in the company of others with similar beliefs.
New Age is a movement that explores alternative approaches to traditional Western culture with emphasis in spirituality (including metaphysics), environmentalism, and holistic methods of living and healing. Metaphysics is often called into question by religious zealots because it is based on abstract reasoning that studies the nature of the mind and how the mind can transcend time and space, or transcend what we’ve come to believe as the “laws of nature”. The mind is not the brain. Studying the mind does not interfere with religious beliefs and practices unless those beliefs are based on fear and the need to dominate or obliterate the beliefs of others. New Age principles and disciplines teach respect, tolerance and compassion for all God’s creatures.
To illustrate: A person who has had a “near-death experience” returns to the outer conscious world knowing there is more to existence than living on planet earth during one lifetime. Yet, scientifically speaking, it’s tough to prove; data has been unreliable in strictly scientific terms. And psychics I know (myself included) believe in “God”; although, maybe not as a male with a white beard and physical characteristics of humans— perhaps more an abstract, an energy or an entity that is the “Supreme Source” from which all life streams. New Age concepts embrace “God”, “Yahweh”, “Allah”, “The Almighty”, “The Supreme Being”, “The Source”.
Understanding reincarnation is a critical aspect of metaphysics. Yet, the concept is greatly feared and avoided by some people because they believe it is inconsistent with their religious teachings. For the most part, they simply don’t know enough about the subject to be able to make an accurate assessment.
“Reincarnation” relates to the progression of the soul through eternity, but is frequently confused with “evolution of the species”. They are not the same. I will briefly explain these terms that confound people.
Evolution of the species: Biological or genetic evolution is the change in the inherited traits of a population of organisms through successive generations. Living organisms adapt to environmental conditions over generations for survival of their species.
Evolution of the soul: The basic precept is that the soul, created by God, is eternal and enjoys free will. Most religions teach this concept. This next step is where reincarnation enters the scene and where people fear a conflict with their religion or their basic belief in God.
Reincarnation: As the soul journeys through eternity, it accepts challenges to work out flaws while it strives towards perfection. Souls may choose to come back time and again into physical body to learn certain lessons until they no longer need a physical body to resolve their imperfections. Souls having achieved a certain level of perfection can continue their path without physical body and may elect to advise and guide mankind. We call these out-of-body souls “universal mind”. Some people choose to call them angels. And there may be a distinction between angels and the souls we call universal mind. I have not chosen to study this aspect and cannot provide such specific advice at this time. And, no, we do not believe that souls cross over into other forms of animal life; that’s bad movie and fantasy book malarkey.
Clearly, by my descriptions above, no concept mentioned interferes with a belief in God or with most traditional religions. The concepts may stretch or take matters a plateau beyond religious teachings, but that doesn’t make them contradictory.
In Jackie’s question, she obviously felt that herbs belonged in the discussion. She’s right.
Herbs are one facet of the fast growing holistic health system that includes:
Organic natural foods, herbs, supplements, homeopathic remedies, acupuncture (China), acupressure (China), massage therapy, Ayurvedic medicine (India), meditation, chi gong, yoga, physical exercise, and many more healing practices.
There will be plenty of time and space to discuss these healing arts in later blog posts but for now, let it suffice to say that we have a responsibility to care for our own bodies, including our mental and emotional health. No one else is responsible for us if we are physically, mentally and emotionally capable of caring for ourselves. Our well-being is up to us. That doesn’t mean you never need the counsel of physicians, but western medicine is limited in its approach to health care. Our medical schools are simply not training traditional western health professionals in holistic methods.
It is up to us to learn how to operate and maintain our bodies so that we are in optimum condition for as long as we need our bodies. We have been given all the tools from the beginning of time, including a healthy planet and solar system within a greater universe in which to live. Unfortunately, since the beginning of time and since the beginning of our own lifetime, we have consistently destroyed and compromised these precious gifts. Everything and everyone is integrative and codependent. It is our obligation to restore, renew, cleanse and rehabilitate our inner and outer worlds.