Father Jerome's Science, History (and so much more!) Lectures

Good evening again, Ladies and Gentlemen. I'm glad to see that you have returned for another provocative evening of delvings into the true realities of our existence....OR, maybe I should say, our "existential realities", as opposed to the every-day "pseudo-realities" that we experience every day, and which we THINK are the "true" realities.

By now, you should be beginning to see, and realize, that what one experiences in their every-day lives, is NOT necessarily based on the foundations of actual truth. What we do here, in this series of talks, is give you an insight into the scientific foundations of alternative "realities", which may just be the ACTUAL realities of our existence, based, as they are, on the factual and real Principles of both the Cosmos AND Quantum Physics. But, of course, that is ONLY for you to decide, and to KNOW, which is what you have been given, by your Creator....that is, both the Right to Know AND the Right to Choose....in other words, to Know the difference between Good and Bad, and the Right to Choose between them. And only YOU, individually, as an individual human being, can make those choices. As it has been said many times before, "It's all up to YOU!"

So, this evening, I am going to be talking further about that very subject that I just mentioned....knowledge, and KNOWING.

"In the Beginning, God created the heavens and the earth...", OR, in the words of the Christian Gnostic Bible, of the ancient Gnostic religion, "In the Beginning, the HOLY SOPHIA created the heavens and the earth...."

Question: Where did the Gnostics of old, get their name? Well, the word gnostic comes from the Greek word gnosis, meaning "to know". And what was it, that those ancient Gnostics, professed to know?

They KNEW what ALL of us SHOULD know. They KNEW what the meaning of life was. THAT IS, the meaning of life, AS defined BY THEIR culture...meaning what the reason was that they got up every morning and went to work, AND why they lived as they did...meeting their friends, their neighbors, and other people of their culture.

In other words, they had a FRAME OF REFERENCE that carried the conviction of TRUTH. Mahatma Gandhi, in his autobiography, said, "I am far from claiming any finality or infallibility about my conclusions. One claim I do indeed make and it is this. For me, they appear to be absolutely correct, and seem, for the time being, to be final. For if they were not, I should base NO action on them."

And THAT is the key word, right there, of what I am talking about this evening - ACTION! IN RELATION to culture and values...ACTION, meaning the ACTS, and ACTIONS, OF a people, that constitute that people's REASON for existence, that culture's VERY FOUNDATION of "being", as a culture...THOSE everyday actions, that those people take, and do, BASED on what they perceive, and think, and believe, and KNOW, to be the truth...THOSE fundamental aspects of life...THAT is what VALUES are.

Erich Fromm put it this way: "Values are rooted in the very conditions of human existence; hence that our knowledge of these conditions, that is, of the "human situation", leads us to establishing values which have objective validity."

Each person, each individual, throughout their lifetime, gradually builds up a unique frame of reference - a set of basic assumptions concerning FACT, VALUE and POSSIBILITY - which gives him a meaningful picture of himself and of his world. We may think of these assumptions as a basis for THAT individual's answers to the three key questions, "Who am I?", "Where am I going?" and "Why?" THAT frame of reference - THOSE assumptions - IS what enables each individual, of a culture, to take CONSISTENT and PURPOSEFUL action - each and every day of their lives.

Of course, I am talking about the positive aspects of people, and their relation to the culture in which they live. Unfortunately, there ARE also the negative aspects, and I will simply say that those negative aspects are generally bound up in those individuals who do NOT have an adequate frame of reference for their lives. In other words, those LOST souls, who do NOT know WHO they are, where they are going, or why. Exploring the psychological failings of humanity is NOT what I am here to talk about this evening.

As I said, the foundation of an adequate FRAME OF REFERENCE is the individual's picture of how things really are - who he is and what he is worth, what the rest of the world is like (including the people in it), and how he fits into the overall picture. It is on the basis of what he assumes to be FACT that the individual develops his further assumptions of VALUE and POSSIBILITY.

So, what is FACT? Fact is what IS, WITHIN the context OF that individual's knowledge. Knowing what IS, means knowing not only what constitutes one's culture and one's world, but also knowing oneSELF, and how one fits into all that IS, as defined by that culture and that world.

So, what is VALUE? Although our values depend heavily on our reality assumptions, they are different from fact or information, in that they pertain to what is DESIREABLE, or what OUGHT to be, rather than what IS. And where do we get these SHOULD BE aspects of life?
We turn to science, to help us understand ourselves AND the world we live in.
We also look to our own experience, as well as the known experience of others in our culture AND in the history of mankind. (Believe me, KNOWING the experience, and history, of mankind, CAN be VERY enlightening.)
We also turn to belief, religion and spirituality, which gives us a subjective validity and basis FOR the meaning and conduct of our lives.

And finally, POSSIBILITY. The researcher Hadley Cantril said, "It is characteristic of man that he has the capacity to recognize that what IS, does NOT have to stay as it is, and that there MAY be something he can do about it." Life derives meaning and direction not only from the values a man believes in, but also from his assumptions about what he can hope to accomplish and what kind of person he can become.

So, in summary, what one becomes, depends on FACTS, VALUES and POSSIBILITIES. And ALL of this relates to what one KNOWS - "gnosis".

Also, perhaps you might be wondering, "IS it possible to KNOW the TRUTH?" Well, let me assure you. When YOU have achieved the experience, the knowledge, the wisdom, and the consciousness, of the sages of old, whether that be the Gnostics, or Socrates, or whoever....THEN, you will know what is the TRUTH, and what is NOT truth.
One more thought, I ask you to consider, in regard to KNOWLEDGE and TRUTH. IS it NOT possible that, compared to the most ancient knowledge and wisdom, the latest, up-to-date scientific theories and "TRUTH" (quote-unquote), might just be plain WRONG?

In closing, I am reminded of an interview with Carl Jung, that intrepid explorer of the human psyche. The interviewer asked Carl Jung, "Do you believe in God?" Carl replied, "I don't NEED to believe in God. I KNOW Him!"

Aum, Peace, Amen!

Father Jerome.
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