(Above image is of Meister Eckhart, 1260-1328)

We must learn to penetrate things and find God there – Eckhart

A viable, all-inclusive Spirit-Science model of cosmogenesis must necessarily include a foundational understanding of how the universe was created and is maintained. To be all-inclusive, this mythical synthesis must do so in a manner consistent with an integrated blend of perennial theological principles and modern scientific knowledge, in that order. Why in that order? In any Ontological Argument it is axiomatic that (1) deference be given  the highest, deepest, or more foundational (elemental) order of being and its dictum, “as above, so below,” (2) the higher cannot by itself proceed from the lower, and (3) something more perfect or greater cannot of itself originate from something less perfect or lesser (4) sees creation as vertically caused by the Greater, whose presence is both transcendent and immanent, outermost and innermost, equidistant from all things everywhere at all scales.

That is, in a truly unified model it is at once fitting and imperative that the “tail” (science) give deference to the “dog” (theology) that wags it, not the other way around. While divinity indeed seamlessly dwells in the created order, and vice versa, it is not possible for material creation to originate (catalyze) of itself by any horizontal cause, natural means or processes, including chemical evolution. In keeping with same, the theology must occupy a central informing and cohering position, as hub and spokes inform, cohere, and balance the entire circumference of a wheel. God cannot be God unless s/he is all and in all, fills all things, and reconciles all tensions, polarities, and differences micro to macro. Therefore, any proposed Spirit-Science synthesis must be able to plausibly demonstrate how that can be so. These are strict and rigorous terms for most, who by their own means and methods tend to skirt around these higher truths, in the name of science denying divinity its proper place in the overall scheme of things while repudiating they are doing so. Anyone not equal to these investigative principles will neither see into the foundational mysteries, nor understand them. Further, because science has yet to enter and effectively embrace the wisdom phase of its development, wisdom continues to be found in the place where it always has, outside of science, even further away from it than the dominant culture, including prevailing cosmogenic paradigms, which to date remain wanting for same.

While others may call upon various authorities to construct their synthesis models based on different paradigms and principles, the collaborative work of the five authorities mentioned in the text below, chosen for reasons of parsimony, are sufficient to outline the workable core of the kind of dynamic Spirit-Science synthesis Teilhard envisioned, with a few modifications. For the sake of brevity, think of it as the synthesis equivalent of identifying a musical tune using the fewest possible notes, as in the Name That Tune TV game show in the 1950’s. Once a few notes of the “tune” (musical score) are identified and its framework laid out, the body (other notes) of it will follow, rounding itself out by other disciplines (chords), including the arts (chorus line).

Two of the authorities named in this column are distinguished theologians; namely, New Testament apostle and gospel apologist Paul of Tarsus, and medieval theologian and doctor of the Church, Meister Eckhart. And two of the five are distinguished scientists and innovators of the modern era, Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla. The fifth is a less heralded but nonetheless distinguished scientist-theologian, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the pivot, integrating catalyst, and reconciling center of this team’s work and multiple vectors. Pivot, because like the hinge-pin on a door, he ushers the ancient past into the present and future, in the process nudging science and religion closer together at a time when no one dared to think it. By envisioning their future synthesis as a unified whole in his time, he truly was and today remains the conductor of its energy, and inspiring maestro behind its completion in our time.

Because it contains and engenders consciousness, space-time is necessarily of a convergent nature .  .  . it must somewhere ahead become involuted to a point we call Omega, which fuses and consumes them integrally in itself (Teilhard).

The aforementioned synthesis “dream team” have a supporting cast of others worthy of note whose work is beyond the scope of this column to mention. The main purpose here is to look for themes and the essences that connect them, and from those who supply what is most needed to meagerly compose the desired outcome. If the universe is truly “not a collection of objects, but a communion of subjects,” as eco-theologian Thomas Berry cogently proclaimed, then showing interconnectivity and coherence among the basic parts will be all that is necessary in developing a complete cosmogenic model. Along with the “fab five” notables mentioned herein, the contributions of others whose life and work lend themselves to a new, long-awaited universe story are detailed in the author’s novel synthesis paradigm in book form, noted in the bio at column’s end.

To engineer or build something is to apply scientific and/or technical know-how to create an entity from basic parts and foundational principles. Likewise, to reverse engineer something is to take another’s work, product, or understanding of a subject and examine it thoroughly with the specific purpose of identifying its components, learning how they came to be, discovering something of their substance or constituency, and understanding how they arrange and harmonize in the whole. In this case, “another’s work” is the Creator’s handiwork, involving the origin and composition of the universe going back in time from the present, looking at the language and concepts utilized when viewed from the lens of the separate and siloed disciplines of their time, particularly those of science and religion. And to do so, if possible, with the intent of finding common ground, questing in the spirit of free investigative inquiry and interdisciplinary collaboration. This quest pivots on the notion that ultimately there cannot be two or more viable universe stories, religious and scientific, which historically has been the case. Too, it proceeds with the wise understanding that one cannot truly know a thing unless they know it in its first cause, experientially. Duly given pride of place via our Ontological Argument, that first cause is the Creator of the universe. Assuming, that is, those oriented exclusively along empirical lines consider deferring to it according to the investigative principles of our synthesis search. In this quest, science must remain the astute and observant passenger.

My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways (Proverbs 23:6).

That said, the author has decided to proceed in reverse chronological order, starting with notions of the created order proposed by modern science, then as a means of searching for investigative leads and patterns, traveling no deeper into history than the writings of ancient Scripture. Like the Webb Telescope, moving further out into the far reaches of space brings us back in time, further away from the mere derivatives (effects) of the created order, and closer to its naked origins (causes) “in the beginning,” far removed from any post-modern empirical accretions.

In toto and in part, the sixty-six books of Judeo-Christian Scriptures are the lenses utilized in finding common ground among them all. Along with other holy books worldwide, the biblical pages are bathed and saturated in light, literal and metaphoric, as the element most associated with divinity (click on blue Resource Tab above for cross-religious video short on same). It is also the spiritual tradition with which the author has the greatest facility and familiarity, one that teaches that the observer must learn to look through appearances in nature, as in a parable, transparent to the incandescent transcendent its surface merely refers us to. Besides, who can deny the role of light (electromagnetism) in our modern world of electronic communication. As in computer science and fiber optics, light is information. Hence, it is the author’s thesis that the inner and outer, visible and invisible worlds are the same world existing on a continuum of light and sound frequency vibrations operating under similar dynamics and energy transformations throughout. In this quote from The Divine Milieu below, note that Teilhard capitalizes the word “ray” in reference to light, giving deference to it in association with the Holy One. Upon declaring that “nothing is more fused with things and yet separable from them than light,” he declares,

If the divine milieu reveals itself to us as an incandescence of the inward layers of being, who is to guarantee us the persistence of this vision? No one other than the Ray of light itself (Teilhard).

Ironic, in that similar to Teilhard and other mystics, the ancients were devoid of the advances of modern physics and technology, having had either a direct physical experience of light in association with the divine, or an indirect transpersonal/intuitive grasp of same via spiritual illumination (enlightenment). In the Genesis 1 account of Creation authored by Moses, light is central to the first day of creation given with respect to the names of God in Hebrew as El (“The Shining One”), and Elohim (plural, “The Shining Ones”), both having Sumerian roots in the Semitic languages. Further, light in literal association with divinity saturates Scripture, as evidenced in the experiences and radiance on the face of Moses on Sinai, in the Shekinah cloud over the desert tabernacle, surrounding the birth at Bethlehem, as it blinded those on Mount Tabor in the Transfiguration, In Paul’s conversion experience on the Damascus road,  hovering over the resurrection crypt, on the angel’s face who spoke “he is risen” to the women in the crypt, in the self-definition of Jesus whose own transpersonal identity is “The Light of the World.” And in the apostle’s John description of Christ as “the light that lights every man who comes into the world,” and in the Book of Revelation, where the heavenly city (New Jerusalem) is described as a “city of light” illuminated by the glory of God, with the Lamb (Christ) as its lamp, eliminating the need for the sun or moon. Ironic, because at the last Einstein regretted not including the study and place of light as more central in his calculus in his quest of a unified field theory.

It is the epistemological premise of this column that synthesis paradigms are only as strong (whole) as the interior locus, work, and energy of the individuals that birth and fuel them. Meaning, as with Teilhard, their primary inspiration and source must spring from an awakened and integrated transpersonal (spiritual) self, informed by a perennial wisdom tradition, with discoveries from the sense-bound empirical (science) in the supportive role of evidentiary handmaid. Any other investigative sequence would be antithetic to effective integration, proceeding from surface to depth, effects before causes, cart before horse.

Taken together, and combined with recent discoveries in quantum studies, wisdom books offer a generalized glimpse into the origin and nature of the cosmic order and across religious traditions as nesting in a common universal element. Doing so in this panoramic way will enable one to more adequately determine how/if the findings of modern science can be utilized to best compare and contrast whether that is indeed the case dating back millennia, up to and including the present. And in turn, how holy writ might likewise be utilized to best interpret, understand, and harmonize with modern science in a way that reconciles their tensions, and reveals something of the physics (nature and substance) of God, or Spirit, particularly with regard to Teilhard’s synthesis notions of the visible and invisible worlds, matter and spirit-soul as seamlessly annexed.

Though differing in perspective and terminology, if science and religion are to reconcile in a grand synthesis, they must be able to understand the other’s viewpoint and/or nexus with an open mind. Such involves all-inclusive, full access knowing, which includes the rational, transrational, and intuitive ways of knowing rolled into one. Such is the very definition of unitive consciousness, seeing clearly in an integrated way. The purpose is to create a balanced sense of the unified reality each offers when viewed as an integrated whole from their respective vantage points, using different means, methods, and language to describe their reconciling tensions. It is further hoped this approach may lead to reconciling age-old tensions by creating a novel Spirit-Science paradigm that is both scientifically correct and theologically sound. The author believes it is the simplest and most effective way to begin creating a New Universe Story (cosmotheology), a Spirit-Science synthesis completing the vision of Teilhard toward world-centric unity (Omega) and beyond.

Let us begin by understanding that science is a work in progress. There is no greater example of same as in biology, which eventually became interpreted by chemistry, which in turn became interpreted by physics (or astrophysics), the modern-day standard for understanding the origin and composition of the universe. And in turn, that standard must one day give way to and be interpreted by a cosmic Center of Centers, one whose universal energy, information field, and consciousness must be given pride of place, that which ultimately informs the entire holarchy of the created order, innermost and outermost.

As for progress along these lines, it had been scientifically determined that everything in the universe consists of empty space and molecules, until it became understood that inside the molecules are empty space and atoms; until it was further determined that atoms consist of yet more empty space and sub-atomic particles, and so on down the line of nano-granular analysis. Down and down the causal rabbit hole we go, and where that stops nobody knows. In other words, analysis has resulted in a dead-end paralysis in understanding the simple whole of things. The further one travels in that direction, the more they see that the material order of the universe is increasingly emptier, fractioned, and vacuous, less and less solid than it appears. Whatever reality is, as a whole it cannot be seen or understood this way. Analysis has its place and limitations as a cutting tool, as does synthesis, which seeing in wholes perceives the big picture. Teilhard had the gift of reconciling analysis and synthesis in his vision, and so must we, giving preference to the latter that unites. It is forever Spirit that stitches and unifies into wholes. Left to itself, mind divides and parses, missing the forest for the trees. For those who remember the music of Sonny and Cher in the 1960’s and 70’s, Sonny needed Cher more than Cher needed him, as the eventual break up of their duo revealed. Likewise, science needs spirituality to keep it between the rails, able to see, think, and work together with catholicity (small ‘c’) in a universally whole, balanced, and integrated way.

Space is so empty, we are told, that the whole created order is now being understood as an interface or dashboard of sorts, much like a computer screen. And like a computer screen its sophisticated electronic circuitry, though nearby, is hidden from sight. And that circuitry, we’re informed, boils down to the frequency and vibration of an electromagnetic energy supply that makes all objects only appear solid when looked at directly by an observer. (Electromagnetism is the scientific name for light, most of it found on a huge spectrum of light that is invisible, save for a relatively narrow bandwidth on which the seven colors of the rainbow visibly appear.) Unfortunately, that solidity is an optical illusion, like a rainbow, where elementary particles turn into waves and back again, as if by magic. Owing to the discoveries of Einstein and others, all solid-appearing mass has since been understood as “frozen” energy. That is, an object’s form (mass) is but slowed down light and sound waves, energy that can change form and wavelength depending on its frequency of vibration. The slower the frequency vibration, the more visible the object or form, like a desk. The greater the frequency vibration, the less dense or more invisible the light energy, like radiation. Effects are like shadows, which have no substance off their own but are derived from a source that casts them, as sunbeams are cast by the sun having no agency or self-sustaining existence of their own. In changing form, energy can de-cohere, as in nuclear fission and fusion, releasing massive amounts of energy like in a nuclear reactor or a detonated nuclear bomb. Such were the findings of Einstein in developing his general relativity theory, confirmed by scientific contemporary, electromagnetic genius Nikola Tesla, who affirmed,

Everything is the light. If you want to know the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.

In Tesla’s view the universe operates as a cosmic Internet — electrically, vibrationally, digitally, and holographically as we do. All of creation is a rabbit pulled from the magic hat of the zero-point quantum field. And everything in the universe is located on a quantum GPS, one vast and intricate network of vibrating, interconnected energy. As we continue on our panoramic journey it appears that Creation consists entirely of one essence appearing in many parts at all scales macro to micro, and in innumerable forms, inside and out, totally in each thing.

Indeed, the very hairs on your head are numbered (Luke 12:7).

After Einstein and Tesla’s time, quantum studies further revealed that this material interface is the result of a fast-rotating electric field of energy that boils up and spirals over into space-time from an infinite source called a zero-point field (ZPF).  And that, via a vortex of quantum flux (foam). Spin and spiral dynamics are observable at all scales of nature, part of the geometric architecture (archetypes) that is literally responsible for channeling the quantum energy flow that forms and comprises our manifest universe, including mental, spiritual, and physical laws, the latter scientifically determined in both general relativity and quantum physics.

The composition of this invisible foam is akin to the mist that forms in the roiling churn at the base of a waterfall, whose energy congeals into material forms (energy = mass) that emerge and appear in the created order. Again, this means that space and time, and all things in it are totally emergent (or derived), like a rainbow or hologram, having no self-existence or visible means of support on their own. In other words, a person’s material body and immaterial soul (psyche) emerge and totally derive from the invisible spiritual plane that annexes them, giving credence to Teilhard’s view of them as coupled, having an immaterial/material nexus he termed the “spirit-soul.” Being antecedent, the former dimension of the dyad (spirit) gives rise to the latter as origin (first cause), in organic relationship to same as vine to branch. In the created order one must adhere always to the Ontological Argument when determining the causation, origin, and substance of all things, being careful never to confuse the scaffolding for the building, the chaff for the wheat, or the visible (material) appearance for its hidden (quantum-spiritual) template seamlessly proximal to the space-time field.

Faithfully serve and honor first principles first in the synthesis quest, and they will energize, inform, serve, and honor you. Spirit and soul, invisible and visible embody and inhabit each other in the created order and in human consciousness, which in the final analysis is the essential thing that actually evolves. That is, it is unitive conscious that evolves in spiritual awakening and formation, transcending separation consciousness (dualistic thinking) by enabling one to see things as they always have been since the beginning of time, seamlessly co-present to and unified in a higher order. Such is spiritual awakening, the direct result of a divine encounter vertically caused.

And Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it (Genesis 28:16).

In matters of both religion and science it appears that the basic element of reality is consciousness emerging as light energy and congealed as mass, the substance and organizing activity of all created form. It seems that science, by its own methods, interprets and suggests the invisible strata of being, or Spirit, by its own language in this way. Ironic, in that the mystical aspect of world religions consider that conscious oneness with an invisible field (unitive consciousness) typically referred to as Spirit or God, constitutes oneness with the spiritual component of every living being, and with all things everywhere, including every spiritual idea and activity past and present. In terms of physics, this describes what religions call “God” dressed in material garb and quantum lingo — (an ineffable, non-local intelligent Source that creates, sustains, knows, sees, and hears all things; a universal constant that dwells in, as, and through matter as congealed energy manifesting in a variety of forms). In terms of Genesis 1 restated, “In the beginning Energy created the heavens and the earth. And according to the biblical record, in the fullness of time revealed itself in the form of a person who self-identified as The Light of the World, head of all principality and power, able to overrule and have mastery over all mental, physical, and supernatural laws, including physical death (John 8:12, Colossians 2:10).

Our quest is closing-in on embracing the universal constant religion calls God and science calls zero-point energy (quantum flux), “in whom all things consist, hold together, live, move, and have their being” (Acts 17:28). Such are distinctions without an appreciable difference. Arguing the two is tantamount to quibbling over whether it is the U.S. government or Uncle Sam that requires taxes to be paid or debating whether it is water or H2O that is the true “staff of life” and universal solvent.

Continuing our time travels in search of further data points, the author grants Tesla pride of place over Einstein, and surprisingly, by the latter’s recommend. When once asked how it felt to be the smartest man on the planet, Einstein’s quipped, “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask Nikola Tesla.” A century ahead of his time, it was visionary Tesla who proposed that “the day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.” That day has long since passed and now prevails in our fast-developing Electronic Age, including the advent of A.I. non-physical seeing and surveillance, developments in the neurosciences and quantum theology, including non-human intelligence (NHI) phenomena. Nowadays, light is energy, information, and intelligence, clearly the interconnecting “wave” of the future in science and religion. Noetic and non-physical perception studies have become offshoots of those future-looking sciences that both Tesla and Teilhard anticipated. Nothing is more natural than the supernatural, or more supernatural than the natural. There are more things in heaven and earth seamlessly co-present to one another than have been dreamt of in either religion or science.

As we come closer to ground zero on the nature and substance of all things in the universe consisting of light and sound waves vibrating at different frequencies, Big Bang and Genesis 1 descriptions of creation fit together quite snugly. The cosmic CMBR origins as light energy were confirmed by Penzias and Wilson in the 1960’s, as was the relationship between light and matter discovered by physicist Richard Feynman in the same decade. All three scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize for their discoveries on light (electromagnetism) as integral to cosmic origins and the composition of the cosmos. In this vein, the evidence continues to mount in a compelling way on origins and essences, pointing toward a single universal Source (singularity) consistent with scientific discoveries, perennial philosophy, and theological principles. It appears the wheels of science and theology are not two separate wheels after all. Rather, they’re one wheel seen from two different viewing platforms using different language to describe them. Seen as one pea in a pod, not two, perhaps their dynamic most resembles the “wheel within a wheel” vision of Hebrew prophet Ezekiel, spirit and matter, two sides of the same coin, innermost and outermost, recorded in the ancient biblical book bearing his name (Ezekiel 1:15-21). What one man calls God, another calls the laws physics. Historically divided, both are true and mutually binding, seen from different viewing platforms. The former as Source (cause), the latter as lawgiver and law maker — moral, natural, and physical (effects). Perhaps God is the fluid energy and information field humanity has only recently begun to realize that it lives, moves, and has its organic (scientific) being in, as Teilhard surmised — not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience. Recall our Ontological Argument, horse before cart however hidden or seemingly inscrutable.

Unfortunately, Tesla lost out on being awarded the Nobel Prize, defrauded by Guglielmo Marconi, who received the distinguished award after being credited with inventing the wireless. Of little-known fact, Marconi did so by utilizing 17 of Tesla’s patents, despite a high court’s ruling that favored Tesla over Marconi as the lawful wireless inventor. However, Marconi came from a wealthy Italian family with many international connections. In an unprecedented turn of judiciary protocol, the court later overturned its decision in favor of Marconi. Lamentably, in a world where money and influence peddling prevail, wealth and power go a long way toward fatefully determining outcomes.

Which brings us to Teilhard de Chardin, a contemporary of both Einstein and Tesla, neither of whom were personally acquainted with the others. The author speculates that had these three geniuses met and pooled their collective genius, at least one of them, namely Teilhard, would have had the requisite integral components to assemble and approximate a fuller vision of what he termed an “Ultra-Physics (Spirit-Science synthesis), which he anticipated would be developed only after his death. That ultra-physics is now known as quantum physics or quantum mechanics. What Teilhard termed as future has long-since past, some seventy-five years, yet we still have no universally embraced, all-inclusive cosmogenic model. To the tune of Paul Simon’s “Mrs. Robinson” lyrics, in lieu of the Joe Dimaggio’s name, we plea, “Where have you gone Teilhard do Chardin? Our nation turns its binary vision to you.” Teilhard himself pined for synthesis, once posing a similar question to a few colleagues, “Can you tell me who at last will give us the meta-Christianity we are all waiting for?” Following Teilhard, fellow eco-theologian Thomas Berry called for a “functional cosmology” that too would tell a new universe story in a single paradigm toward restoring a degraded and desecrated biosphere. Teilhard theorized that Spirit was the “highest part of matter,” and he left more than a hint of what that substance might consist of, which quantum studies have since revealed as light energy –- a pulsating quantum flux throbbing in and out of space-time from the Infinite Invisible.

Nothing is more consistent or more fleeting — more fused with things or at the same time more separable from them — than a ray of light (Teilhard).

For Tesla, Einstein, and Teilhard, the role of physics, especially that of sub-atomic particles was key to understanding how the universe was created, sustained, and maintained under the hood. Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his relativity theory, while Teilhard was being censored and exiled to remote outposts in China by the Vatican, continuing his work in silence and relative obscurity until his death in 1955. The work of both men brought us closer to an understanding of the material order of creation and something of the relationship between its visible and invisible vectors.

Teilhard felt that the universe continues on its evolutionary way toward Omega, over time leading to a psycho-spiritual interiorization whereby divinity centrates (christifies) in the human spirit-soul, transformed to a higher state of being and consciousness, essentially creating a new phylum. In Teilhard’s view, this evolutionary pinnacle is to essentially occur by horizontal causation (an evolution), contrary to the traditional view of human salvation according to the biblical record. Being more scientist than theologian, straying somewhat from holy writ and Jesuitical logic which imply divinity’s vertical descent from outside of space-time into human nature in order to super-animate it. Uniting the natural self (created life) via the essence of its very nature (uncreated life) “baptized” in a spiritual substrate is the traditional sequence and pathway to human salvation, assisted by personal conviction and repentance. The notion of horizontal vs vertical causation in creation, transformation, and re-creation of the human spirit-soul via an evolutionary trajectory over deep-time was controversial in Teilhard’s day and remains so in some religious circles today. The opposition to horizontal causation has diminished greatly among scientific and academic circles as evolutionary theory has grown more popular (and in some ways, unchallenged) in the post-modern era. In the author’s view, horizontal causation is the consequence of an incomplete understanding of how spiritual and material vectors seamlessly reconcile and maintain their tensional integrity (tensegrity) in the geometric and architectural dynamics of the universe. The latter is fully explained and detailed in the author’s Spirit-Science paradigm in book form.

In the author’s view it is this quantum “Spirit,” now plausibly postulated as light, that makes all things sacred and all persons equal in the sight of God. Aside from the moral law, owing to light’s ubiquity, light is the only organic metric on which to measure and establish equality worldwide, and throughout the intergalactic community. The cross-cultural data supporting light as being central in association with divinity and the afterlife have been identified in near-death-experience studies (NDE’S) in ample and abundant ways.

While referencing Spirit as the “highest part of matter,” leaving the scientific identity of it to future generations, Teilhard referred to Spirit as the “third nature” of the Universal Christ, the other two dimensions being human and divine. He implied that such a synthesis breakthrough would round out and update the juridical aspects of the Gospel (sin and judgement) along scientific lines, further explaining how divinity seamlessly embodies or co-presently inhabits (incarnates) all things.

For from him and through him and to him are all things (Romans 11:36).

The very definition of Omega emerged from Teilhard’s three favorite texts of St. Paul: In him all things consist and hold together (Col.1:17); He fills all things (Col. 2:10); Christ is all and in all (Eph. 4:9). Clearly, though educated more in science than theology, Teilhard, like Tesla, often referred to this mystery element as “ether” or “fire” (akasha), the cosmic unifying constant in which all things consist and cohere. Coincidentally, in Scripture God is also referred to as light, as well as to love and fire; God = light = love = a “consuming fire” (Hebrews 1:29). As God is all-inclusive, and at the heart of matter, things equal to the same thing, by definition, must be equal to each other.

The day will come when, after harnessing the ether, the winds, the tides, and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And, on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire (Teilhard de Chardin).

Moving onward in our time travels, we visit the synthesis contributions of Meister Eckhart, who, employing mystical insights and holy writ, wrote synthesis descriptions of divinity that are strikingly similar to those in modern discoveries mentioned above. Incredibly, long before the findings on the micro-universe, medieval theologian, philosopher, and mystic Eckhart (1260-1328) described divinity as a “fecund ebullient and boiling energy.” He spoke of this invisible boiling energy “flourishing into leaf of everything in the world.” That is, he characterized divinity (uncreated light) expressed as energy (created light) as it appears in, as, and through a variety of created forms in space-time. In the mystical tradition, without the luxury of technical augmentation Eckhart relied heavily on implanted knowing, visualizing divinity welling up from the depths of things, giving itself up in every breath and throbbing heartbeat. Like Teilhard, accused of heresy and censored in his day by Church authorities, Eckhart further described the human spirit-soul as a “vortex or whirlpool,” suggesting that the depth of the human psyche is a flowing cornucopia of blessings emerging from an invisible hidden source. Such was an archetypal vision of what science would later establish as the entity by which energy flows over into space time at all scales from the Infinite Invisible, identifying the VE (vector equilibrium) as the zero phase of the zero-point field (ZPF) or “vacuum” space of the mysterious unified field. Zero pulsation is considered as being the nearest scientific approach to the eternal that empirical science may ever know. In religious language, the ZPF is known as the axis mundi, liminal space, or Spirit, the magnetic still-point or universal naval from which all things emerge. A liminal vortex by any other name is still the same. A Spirit inspired Christ-mind (universal cosmic energy and information field) comes in handy, particularly when empirical tools are absent, or otherwise found wanting.

I can of my own self do nothing. The Father that dwells within, he does the works (John 5:30, 14:10).

Little could Eckhart know that his vision of Spirit as a tornadic vortex (whirlpool) that wells up and boils over from the innermost of all things would be the exact prototype of a torus, symbol of life, physical and spiritual energy, and universal balance. The torus is a spiraling vortex, the liminal interface that conveys energy between the invisible and visible worlds, discovered by quantum physicists some 700 years after Eckhart! Such are the power of archetypal images born and implanted in sacred silence to those inwardly attuned to same. In discovering the secrets of the universe, whether via technical innovation (like Einstein) or implanted mystical knowing (like Eckhart and Tesla), it pays to be receptive to emergent archetypal realities spilling over into space-time and inspired human consciousness from the Infinite Invisible, found via the transpersonal self at the foundational levels of being and consciousness beyond the egoic and pedestrian.

My brain is only a receiver. In the universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength and inspiration. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists (Nikola Tesla).

Hence, the “Universal Christ” refers to the concept and reality of the Christ as not merely a historical person or sectarian religious figure, but an organic cosmic presence embedded (incarnated) in matter throughout ALL of creation from the outset, manifest in human and nonhuman forms, and in creative endeavors of all kinds. This ubiquitous light re-casts divinity (Spirit) as present in every living thing, not limited to one sectarian religion, in essence making it (him) the universal and unifying organic force that incarnates in the universe everywhere. This idea, associated with Franciscan theology, is popularized by theologian Richard Rohr throughout his book The Universal Christ, emphasizing the cosmic nature of divinity within yet beyond the person of Jesus of Nazareth, whose human form and teachings offered a window or transparency into same. This “push-pull” of counterbalancing forces between outer and inner, matter and spirit, lower and higher create a tensional integrity (tensegrity) of the “within and beyond” of things that exists everywhere in the created order. (Tensegrity is a term borrowed from architecture to describe the counterbalancing of contrary forces, as between the inside and outside of an inflated balloon, or between the staves and hoops of a wooden barrel when its contents are full.)

As the divine essence is above (or deeper) than the mind’s faculties, this push-pull of forces can be seen and experienced in higher forms of consciousness. An aspect of our inner ecology (spirit-psyche landscape), it is situated between the two, in the tiny hyphen (structural membrane) that connects them both. Like the space between cells, tissues, and organs, it is interstitial in nature (from the Latin, interstitium, meaning “interval” or “space between”). Functioning like the ventilation and heating space hidden in the ceiling or walls of an office building or home, the space held in common between matter and spirit, human and divine, light is perfectly suitable as the universal membrane, nexus, and solvent for same. Reason being that in pure form, light it is free of all names and bare of all forms, images, and traces of the provincial and sectarian, fitting for the virginal sheath, substance, and citadel of every living spirit-soul. In this part of itself the soul (light or Spirit) intersects more directly, equally, and intimately with the divine than anywhere else, and is their private trysting place.

Draw me away! We will run after you. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in you. We will remember your love more than wine (Song of Songs 1:4).

The tensional integrity between matter and spirit is also experienced negatively (symptomatically), when synergy or VE balances are out of alignment, as in chaos, disorder, in times of stress, with the onset of physical and mental illness, and during major paradigm challenges and shifts when ordinary adaptational and coping mechanisms are insufficient, overwhelmed, or break down.

In the perennial tradition it is theologically axiomatic that God creates ex nihilo, Latin for “out of nothing.” According to Eckhart, all creatures arise that way, and being derivative, are therefore “nothing,” not in terms of value but in relation to sacred origins and the creative process. They are emergent entities like all created things, vertically caused, receiving life and being from outside/within themselves ambiently, and from “nothing” else (no-thing). They emerge borrowing their life and existence by bubbling forth exclusively from the invisible zero-point quantum field (axis mundi), vertically caused energies “boiling over” into the field of space-time as envisioned by the Christ in his public ministry (John 4:14, 7:38)), and Meister Eckhart in the thirteenth century.

The new physics provides a modern version of ancient spirituality in a universe made out of energy; everything is entangled; everything is one (Bruce Lipton).

In the 1970’s, Edward Tryon was the first physicist to solve the riddle of how the universe could be created from nothing (or zero energy) without contradicting either the first law of thermodynamics, or the Genesis 1 account of creation. Along with the CMBR discovery of Penzias and Wilson in the 1960’s, and that of Richard Feynman, Tryon’s discovery has strong synthesis implications, suggesting that the light that created the universe and the indwelling phenomenon of Spirit that surrounds and inhabits it at all scales are one and the same, making all of creation the tabernacle (dwelling place) of the divine. Such was to begin the rallying point of a new spiritual and social consciousness, not one of any nation, provincial tribe, tongue, or sects, perhaps not even of the planet. That did not occur then, as the purveyors and receivers of that message could not exceed the limitations of their tribal temptations and inclinations. The result has been that one in-group of people link themselves against another in-group, with divisive conflicts, walls, and wars following. Until those perceptions, thoughts, and attitudes are transcended, what might be called the new and appropriate mythology (synthesis) for a global consciousness will not have taken place.

The principle of organic unity is seen everywhere in nature. For example, in the life and being of a climbing plant its vine is everything, and its branches, non-self-creating or self-sustaining entities by contrast are “nothing,” the latter having emerged as entirely dependent on the vine for their origin, anchoring, and life. As source, the roots and vines are “everything,” and the branches and leaves they sprout (souls) “nothing.” Branches, leaves, blossoms, and fruit receive life and vitality (something) only via their association with the Everything (= vine = divinity), else they are rendered disconnected “nothings,” like the patriarch Jacob prior to awakening in Bethel, totally unaware of his life embedded in the spiritual plane. In the created order, light and being pour into darkness and “nothing” to create life and make something of nothing.

In Scripture, Israel is referred to by the prophets as God’s vine, as did Christ referring to all souls universally, using the same imagery of vine and branches to describe himself in relation to all created things that receive life from him. Medievalist Eckhart borrowed the same imagery in his “everything – nothing – something” sequence on origins and the relationality associated thereof with the Judeo-Christian Godhead.

I am the true vine, you are the branches, said the Christ, for without me you can do nothing (John 5:30, 15:5).

Perhaps Jesus wasn’t just another prophet, after all, nor did he come to establish another sectarian religion to perpetuate denominating the oneness of all things into tribes via dualistic thinking, or endless brick and mortar temples and cathedrals. On the contrary, his was a theology of cosmic space, an invitation to understand God as embodied everywhere, not in temples made with hands. Though misunderstood, perhaps this Universal Deity intended to do for religion what Edison did for lighting, what Ford did for transportation, what the Wright brothers did for air travel. Or for that matter, what Teilhard, Eckhart and other mystics did for divinity, and Tesla did for light (electromagnetism). And that, without profit motive, — introducing the whole world to the widespread energy and information field that is Spirit everywhere, freely available to all for the common good. Eckhart, Teilhard, and Tesla were Christ figures in their time, stewards of his energy, thought, and innovation on earth, each shunned, censored, and pilloried by the power brokers of their day.

As divinity incarnates in matter and human form, such teaching points to the organic foundation of the entire created order innermost and outermost, inviting others to find their individual and communal identities in it. And in the process, with an assist from Einstein, Eckhart, Teilhard, Tesla, and Co., to one day harmonize all fields of knowledge via unitive consciousness in a long overdue Spirit-Science synthesis. Pray tell, what science or world religion would take offense in understanding that its Source lies in at least one, if not two of the only constants in the universe, light (manifesting as all things) and gravity (gravitas) which holds all things to their center? And what better way to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Teilhard’s passing?

Nature is secretive about her center points, the apple of her Master’s eye. Like a pearl, she covets and protects each precious one in sacred trust. If something is not held closely to the center, it will not radiate, orbit, or rotate properly. The fundamental force is the force that holds to the center, the force that collapses toward infinity, and goes to singularity.

The unifying force of the multiple cannot be composed of the multiple (Teilhard).

Recall, Eckhart envisioned the Christ as the Christ saw himself, the universal Center of Centers, the Everything that creates from scratch, from nada or nothing (no-thing), ex-nihilo; the Everything that forever makes nothing into something. Divinity does so for the sheer joy of creating them after a different aspect of its own ubiquitous Spirit, image, and likeness in each moment of time. Such defies the imagination, akin to making a cake with zero ingredients, one that never stales, replacing each slice at it is removed for distribution, an infinite zero-point supply which never depletes or exhausts itself!  This divine sequence is ongoing, replicating itself in perpetual renewal and repair, laid out simply in Genesis 1 as it began in God prior to the creation of space-time:

Everything — In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1).

Nothing — And the earth was without form and void . . . (Genesis 1:2).

Something — And God said, Let there be light (Let light be) . . . (Genesis 1:3).

There you have the entire Creation Story, a recipe in three simple steps, summarized in Genesis 1, verses one, two, and three. Light is so foundational to material creation that the word itself appears ten times in the first chapter of Genesis, described there as the first thing God made — Let there be light. 

.  .  . and that light was the life of everything made that was made, including the life of all mankind (John 1:2, 1 John 4:9).

Light not only holds the tension of Spirit and matter together as the sun’s gravity anchors the planets, but it is deeply relational, experienced as love, compassion, and belonging, the deepest desires of the soul.

For those with eyes to see, ancient notions and modern data point to a depth to things in which dwells a light that is behind all images, and on which they totally depend. Though this light has no image, it is that on which all images depend, center, receive life, are made visible, whole, and receive life.

Let us further consider why all things point to light as the unequivocal candidate and star of the New Universe Story, Teilhard’s long-awaited “Ultra Physics” (Spirit-Science) synthesis: Light relatives time and space, making the latter part of something big and beautiful, timeless and mysterious, colorful and wonderful. In addition, light and divinity hold these quintessential properties in common: both are in the world but not of it, give of themselves freely without being diminished, seek nothing in return, are unobtrusively silent, and are inclusive. They distinguish not whether their recipients are saints or sinners, wise or foolish, fiends or foes, animals, minerals, or vegetables. Like sunlight and rain, light falls and distributes itself equally on all without prejudice or favor. It is all and in all, not all in some. Describing the Universal or Cosmic Christ, the apostle Paul wrote in the first century,

Who alone has immortality and lives in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see (1 Timothy 6:16).

Light gives a person the vivifying gift of itself and themselves at the same time, enabling good theology, good cosmology, and good psychology (spirit and soul) to work together in tandem without conflict. This heightened awareness prompted Augustine to declare, “God is more me than I am myself,” and medieval mystic Catherine of Genoa to exclaim, “My deepest me is God.” This constitutes the “I and my Father are One” unitive consciousness experience of divinity, and all spiritually realized streams of consciousness as flowing from one and the same energy and information field as Source.

The postmodern era is a call to a broader, deeper, more inclusive and connecting kind of knowing, understanding, and presence that transcends ordinary thought and the mere accumulation of knowledge in all fields. God is that universal light, in whom all things consist and cohere, free of all names and bare of all forms.

Our historical overview rightly takes us to the apostle Paul of Tarsus. It was Paul who in the first century alluded to the organic, or so-called “third nature” of the Christ and entire created order as being inhabited (incarnated) by him, revealed as the long-awaited Mediator (go-between) or reconciling agent between the higher and lower, invisible and visible orders of creation — their zero-point field (magnetic still-point between the poles) that not only creates, maintains, and centrally reconciles all polarities, but is seamlessly coterminous and co-present to one another there joined by a common universal element.

Paul did so by referring to the Christ as “he in whom all things consist of and hold together” (Col. 1:17), and “in him we live, move and have our being” (Acts 17:28), biblical references that anticipate a more descript organic (pan-psychic) explanation of the created order in our times consistent with holy writ. At this time in history both disciplines weigh-in credibly on that count, each able to interpret the other, not only in the language of their own siloed disciplines, but in the context of a universal constant common to each, and all created things.

But wait.

Recall the Ontogenic Argument at the outset which states, axiomatically, that its causes that create effects, and dogs that wag tails, not conversely. Which likewise means that divinity is to have the last word, calling for a reverent bowing of the head as Universal Source. It’s simple: God creates and recreates continuously. Science, at its best, can only hope to catch glimpses of how that is done, pausing to fold its collective hands on bended knee in wonder, reverence, and awe.

It seems most would prefer an explanation of the Everything = God = love = light = Spirit experience proposed by Teilhard, Tesla, Eckhart, and St. Paul, over being lost in the theoretical weeds about multi-verses, quantum foam, quarks, leptons, and evolution (“process theology”) as foundational to understanding the origins and substance of the universe. Had Einstein been a theist instead of a deist who adhered to a more remote, mechanical notion of divinity, he may have been privy to a more interconnected view of the material world as seamlessly wed to its hidden Creator along unifying psycho-physical lines, perhaps leading to the unifying Theory of Everything (TOE) that so eluded him. No wonder, at the last, Einstein had regrets for not pursuing a more detailed study of the phenomena of light in his otherwise relentless quest for same.

The author concludes that in the absence of an overview that attempts to explain how Spirit is central (Everything) in creation, including something about its composition being inchoate to matter at all scales, humanity would be nothing in the way of being, life, and the many blessings and privileges pertaining thereunto.

From him and through him and to him are all things (Romans 11:36).

Ironic, in that the mystical aspect of world religions consider that conscious oneness with this invisible field, typically referred to as Spirit or God, constitutes oneness with the spiritual aspect of every living entity, and with all things everywhere, including every emergent spiritual idea and activity, past, present, and to come. In the eternal realm, there is no sense of linearity or time as we know them. Such makes it more likely, and more consistent with the biblical narrative, that the Light of the World, its Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, first and last are, in essence, one and the same person (Christos), place (everywhere), and thing (energy appearing in many forms, visible and invisible) — the very definition of omnipresence given by the Christ Universal for himself.

Which brings this monograph full circle to where it began, Teilhard’s vision of a new Science of Humanity based on the physics of Spirit, one reconciling religious and empirical views of the cosmos and an enlarged view of the Christ. The evolution of human thought and perception once hindered by its archaic binary tendencies, toward becoming more holistic and unitive in its vision has been gradual over deep time.

Consistent with same, Old Testament writings make seven references to mortals as being comprised of the dust of the earth, a compound substance erstwhile divided into its component parts, as stated in Genesis 3:19, for you are dust, and unto dust you shall return. By contrast, there are no New Testament references to persons being made of dust. Instead, the revelation speaks of living souls as children and sons of light (John 12:36). A realized spiritual being is made eternally whole and undivided by its very transformation and constituency in light. Subsequently, a spirit-soul, as we have learned via numerous NDE studies, is a whole entity unto itself incapable of division, not subject to infirmity or death. If all things are universally one in substance whose constituency is light, then perhaps humanity is closing in on the global awareness that religion, historically understood and practiced it, is due for an update, modification, or radical change in course owing to advances in spiritual vision past, confirmed by more recent scientific discoveries previously unknown. Such a Spirit-Science synthesis appears to be trending in the direction of redefining its common core as a pan-psychic energy and information field in which the vastness of the cosmos and all life in it bathe and embed, innermost and outermost, at all scales. And as it appears thus far, the trajectory of said evolution is ultimately leading to a greater understanding of humankind as light beings and light workers — a new world order of light beings and light workers — homo elektor — in keeping with the biblical narrative and Teilhard’s Omega vision toward the Parousia.

Science has much to learn from the Wisdom of the Ages if it is to take its proper place at the synthesis roundtable discovering the holy grail of Christogenesis; particularly when it comes to discovering origins, essences, and a willingness to become equal to the task by entering the narrow gate, which according to Cristos, nary a single questing knight has ever entered into, much less stumbled upon this side of the grave.

Having paid the ultimate, self-emptying (kenosis) price by following in the bittersweet footsteps of their Master by blazing the synthesis trail thus far, neither Paul, Eckhart, Teilhard, Tesla & Co. would have it any other way.

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed unto his death (Philippians 3:10).

Joe Masterleo

About the Author

Joseph C. Masterleo, LCSW-DCSW, is a clinical social worker in private practice in Syracuse NY, and Rockledge FL. His half-century of service in the mental health care field includes faith-based counseling, with an emphasis on psycho-spiritual integration. His subspecialty involves developing a novel paradigm for the synthesis of science, religion, and psychology, identifying the energy and geometric patterns that connect the quantum world with space-time. His model explains how spirit and matter can co-exist as two facets of one reality in a unified field, dissolving the walls of partition between previously siloed disciplines. Inspired by the writings of Thomas Merton (ecumenism), Teilhard de Chardin (synthesis), Thomas Berry (ecotheology), and others, his objective is to tell a new, future-looking story for the Ecozic Age, one that forms a connecting bridge between the biblical story of creation, modern science, and ancient cosmologies. Further information about Joe and his Spirit-Science model can be found in his book The Ambient Christ, the Untold Story of God in Science, Scripture, and Spirituality, and on his website, www.joeknowsgod.com