A discussion on perception...

Theologos has been on retreat this week. He submitted this commentary before he went on retreat in order to help us Demystify the Mystical. That is his title. I am not sure that he achieves that as I've been working on it for four days now trying to make head from tale in this Alice in Wonderland World he is writing about so that I might present it here in an accessible way. I can assure you though, Dear Readers, that as with Peregrinus' comment the other day regarding PJPII's Apsotolic Letter, Salvifici Dolores, perseverence does bring its rewards. My own scepticism about miracles is well known — see my comment last night in the forum following the broadcast of the Catalyst program on ABC Television — but at the end of my days of study of this commentary by Theologos I think I'm close to agreeing with his take on miracles and mysticism. Or he's coming around to my way of thinking LOL. Have a read of his commentary and I'll present some further thought-starter questions at the end of it –Editor

Alice was always wondering why her views of life, were a reflection of her own imagination of all that she perceived life to be. Wondering through life introduced Alice to a wondrous array of colourful characters, whose impact on Alice's understandings of their life's meaning for Alice was revealed in the manner in which Alice reacted to these meaningful characters, as the creation of Alice's imagination running wild when attempting to relate to the very real people who daily impacted on Alice's life, outside the looking glass.

It is in the understandings that the human brain creates for its comprehension, that reality is processed in order to relate to the human person's perceptions of its awareness of it being sentient.

Perception does not always reveal the full picture, that perception perceives to understand.

The human senses are by nature only able to relate to that which is comprehensible to the human brain. When the brain is not able to compute that which is beyond its orbit of understanding, then the resulting reaction of the human being is to question the existence or reality of that which the brain is unable to process, as a result of the inadequacy of human intelligence to fathom that which is beyond its immediate capacity to understand. Nevertheless, human nature is always disposed to exploring the unimaginable, and that which the rational human being fails to comprehend as a result of a manifestation that defies human reasoning. Thus, human kind is willing to learn to understand that which is normally regarded as being paranormal or supernatural, as a result of its inbuilt curiosity to expand its understandings of all that stirs its imagination.

The Dreamer of Dreams...

	This photo of the Alice in Wonderland brass statue in Central Park, New York was found on the net HERE. The full text of Lewis Carroll's classic can be found HERE.

The dreamer of dreams is well aware that he or she enters into a world of imaginary fantasy, when choosing to create a world apart from the daily reality of living. Yet, within the dream there lies the idea that the resulting imaginings are always the result of that which is not of one's own creation. From these dreams there often arises the thought that a meaning has revealed itself within the dream, to assist the dreamer into better understanding that its existence is being influenced beyond its rational sentient self. Within our self we recognise that all that is ourself, is not always that which we believe ourself to be. For we begin to discern a conscious awareness of another reality of existence, that is in its life within ourself the revelation of that which is beyond our rational understanding and yet within our scope of discerning awareness.

The invisible reality of our being as human kind is that which creates our life, when we freely choose to accept its reality as being us within our total being. It is when the human person is at one with its creator, that the life of the human person reveals all that is beyond its normal human perception of sentient being.

It is when living in reliance on the wisdom that lies within human life as a conscious reality of being itself, that the human being is able to relate to that which is no longer considered supernatural, but merely the natural result of living life as The Creator has designed human life to be. Thus, "miracles" become the normal reflection of life's journey and no longer the thought that that which cannot be comprehended by the human person living in rejection of its creating dimension, must not be.

Miracles are the naturally occurring revelation of the human person living at one with its creator, within a faithful relationship. Miracles should not be intuited as being anything more than the normal order of evolving creation. Within the order that is the divine revelation of its creator, there is perfection. To this end, nothing can be added or subtracted in order to correct or intervene within the creator's plan. It is the order of things that The Creator is always its reality of being, when fulfilling its plan of creation within the outreach of all that it has created.

To perceive that which is normally considered supernatural is nothing more than the naturally occurring revelation of creation, rather than in any thought that life has appeared to present its observer with an unnatural or supernatural manifestation that defies the rational understanding of human intelligence.

Nathanael Theologos

EDITOR'S COMMENT AND DISCUSSION STARTER: I honestly do find this commentary by Theologos a hard slog yet, at the same time, I think it is a valuable contribution to a number of on-going discussions that actually started yonks ago on the CathNews discussion forum on the question of Mysticism, on the matter of miracles, on the broader question of how God speaks to us, and even on the question of how our spiritual guides speak to us.

I think I'm correct in suggesting that Nathanael would classify himself as a sceptic on the question of Mysticism but not a sceptic on the question of Miracles and Supernatural Action. My own personal position is almost the polar opposite of that and I know other members of this community have a range of views that are spread all around the spectrum between our points of views and even beyond either of them. My reading of what Nathanael is endeavouring to do in this post is to bring about some form of marriage of the divergent viewpoints that have been expressed by all of us who have made public comment on these matters in recent months, or the past year. In some ways I think he does achieve his aim. I find myself in agreement with him to some extent. I can now see some of his hestitations concerning mysticism — which he seems to share at least to some extent with Ian Elmer — and, at the same time, I would be very comfortable with a Church that was able to perceive of miracles and Special Divine Action in the ways Nathanael seems to be suggesting in this piece. I'd be very interested in the viewpoints of others who have at various times contributed to these discussions on Mysticism, Miracles and the Ways in which God communicates with us.

There is a further issue that is raised by this commentary from Nathanael that may also be worth discussion. I'd value both Nathanael's comments on this and also those of other contributors to this forum. The other day Peregrinus commented on the "hard slog" he found in reading PJPII's Apostolic Letter, Salvifici Dolores. Peregrinus is not an unintelligent individual. The question that has arisen in my mind is this: Is there some kind of systemic problem in the institutional Church that our pastoral leaders and spiritual guides are no longer able to speak with us in plain language? I have been complaining for years that our priests and bishops have largely given up conversing with us such is the constant fear they have of the sort of individuals one finds in that other place who are always "reporting" people to Rome or some higher authority. Everybody in our Church lives in fear. Even Popes seem to live in fear of not contradicting anything any of their predecessors have said. Today we have this gigantic "Alice in Wonderland Game" being played out at an international level where everybody in the entire institution is constantly looking over their shoulders trying to make sure they don't upset those whom they have a sense of reporting to. When someone is brave enough to speak out — even a Pope — what ends up being said is couched in such difficult language that it is almost impossible for the average person to work out what is being said. Peregrinus is not the first to make an implied criticism like the one he made against PJPII. PJPII's number one fan in the lay Church, and his very orthodox biographer, George Weigel, complained that it will take generations for our world to work out what John Paul II was really trying to say in The Theology of the Body. I have read other commentators who have made similar criticisms of his Encyclical letter on Faith and Reason — Fides et Ratio. For discussion in our forum: do you think our pastors and spiritual guides speak to us in accessible language? If not, what do you think has caused this retreat from the sort of plain language that Jesus would have used. Can you imagine Jesus publishing some treatise like Salvifici Dolores? Or Fides et Ratio? Or The Theology of the Body?

Photo Credit: I have to be brutally honest with you. I pinched the Alice photo from a blogsite on the internet and I suspect they pinched it from somewhere else who probably pinched it from the original artist. do not know who the original artist or studio is to be able to provide a credit. I have considerably doctored the original image in order to bring you the animations. It would appear the artwork originally appeared on the net at a site called gamewallpapers.com but they admit to having adapted 90% of the artwork on their site from gameshow developers.

Nathanael Theologos is the pen name of a Catholic priest and clinical psychologist based in the Mediterranean.

Nathanael Theologos can be contacted at:
theologos@catholica.com.au

[Theologos Archive]