(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 to the highest, deepest, or more foundational (elemental) order of being, because (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, denying divinity its proper place in the overall scheme of things, while repudiating they are doing so. Anyone not equal to these things, will not 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, mainly outside of science, even further away from it than the dominant culture, including prevailing cosmogenic paradigms, which 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 the author’s purposes here, are sufficient to outline the workable core of a dynamic Spirit-Science synthesis. Such is 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 the “tune” (musical score) is 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).

Two of the authorities named were distinguished theologians; namely, New Testament apostle and apologist Paul of Tarsus, and medieval theologian and doctor of the Church, Meister Eckhart. And two of the five were distinguished scientists and innovators, Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla. The fifth is a less heralded but nonetheless distinguished scientist-theologian, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the integrating catalyst and reconciling center of the other’s tensions. It is to be noted that the aforementioned “fab five” have a supporting cast whose work is beyond the scope of this column to amplify. The main purpose here is to look for themes, and the essences that connect them. If the universe is “not a collection of objects, but a communion of subjects,” as eco-theologian Thomas Berry astutely observed, then showing interconnectivity and coherence among the parts will be key in developing any complete cosmogenic model. Along with the five notables mentioned herein, the contributions of others whose life and work lend themselves to this new, long-awaited universe story is detailed in the author’s novel synthesis paradigm in book form, noted in his 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, learn how they came to be, discover something of their substance or constituency, and understand how they arrange and harmonize. 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 there cannot be two or more viable universe stories, religious and scientific, which currently is the case. And, that one cannot truly know a thing unless they know it in its first cause, experientially. And duly given pride of place, that first cause is the Creator of the universe.

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

That said, I’ve 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.”

In toto and in part, the sixty-six books of Judeo-Christian Scriptures are the lenses utilized in the interest of 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 video short on same). It is also the spiritual tradition with which the author has the greatest facility and familiarity.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and light unto my path (Psalm 119;105).

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, including Teilhard’s synthesis notions of the human spirit-soul.

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 rational, transrational, and intuitive knowing all 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 has viewed from a different vantage point, using different means, methods, and language to describe it. 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 origin story (a cosmo-theology) or integral Spirit-Science synthesis.

Let us begin by understanding that science is a work in progress. There’s 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 gold standard for understanding the origin and composition of the universe. As for progress, 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 inside atoms are 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 goes in that direction, we see that the material order of the universe is increasingly emptier, fractioned, and vacuous, less and less solid than it appears. Analysis has its place and limitations as a cutting tool, as does synthesis, which seeing in wholes perceives the big picture. As left and right brain, or left and right hand, science and spirituality need the other cooperatively to see, think, and work together with catholicity (small ‘c’), in a truly universal 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 is nearby but hidden from sight. And that circuitry, we’re informed, boils down to the frequency and vibration of an electromagnetic energy supply that makes all material objects only appear solid when looked at directly by an observer. (Electromagnetism is the scientific name for light, most it found on a huge spectrum of light that is invisible, save for a relatively narrow bandwidth on which the colors of the rainbow appear visibly.) Unfortunately, that solidity is an optical illusion, like a rainbow, elementary particles turning into waves and back again, as if by magic. Thanks 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. 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 his scientific contemporary, electrical genius Nikola Tesla, who affirmed,

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

In other words, 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. What’s more, this light has properties of consciousness that is non-local, meaning it’s everywhere, so it consciously interconnects with all things no matter their cosmic location! Technically speaking, not a bad definition of God or Spirit, as characterized in religious terms as omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent.

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 are 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 field of space-time. 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 space-time. 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 hyphenated as “spirit-soul.” Being antecedent, the former dimension of the dyad (spirit) giving rise to the latter as origin and first cause, as vine to branch. In the created order one must adhere always to the Ontologial Argument when determining the causation, origin, and substance of all things, being careful in never to confuse the scaffolding for the building, the chaff for the wheat, or the visible (material) appearance for its hidden (spiritual) template seamlessly proximal to the space-time field.

Faithfully serve and honor first principles first, and they will serve and honor you. Each embodies and inhabits the 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, transcending separation consciousness (dualistic thinking), awakening a person to see things as they always have been since the beginning of time, seamlessly 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).

Summarizing, it increasingly appears that the basic element of reality is consciousness manifesting in 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 of the created order, past and present. It would seem this describes what religions call “God” dressed in scientific garb or quantum lingo —  (identified as universal, an ineffably invisible Source who knows, sees, and hears all things, is non-local (everywhere), incarnates in matter, and appears in, as, and through matter as energy in a variety of forms). In Genesis 1 terms, “In the beginning Energy created the heavens and the earth. And according to one religious movement, 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 all lower laws mental and physical, including physical death (John 8:12, Colossians 2:10).

We’re moving closer to plausibly 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). Arguing the two is tantamount to quibbling over whether it’s the U.S. government or Uncle Sam that requires us to pay taxes.

Continuing our time travels in search of further data points, the author grants Tesla pride of place over Einstein, and that by the latter’s recommend. When once asked how it felt to be the smartest man on the planet, Einstein’s sincere reply was, “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 arrived and now prevails in our fast-developing Electronic Age, including the advent of A.I. and non-physical seeing and surveillance research, including developments in the neurosciences and quantum theology. Too, noetic and non-physical perception studies have become offshoots of those future-looking sciences, now extant, that both Tesla and Teilhard’s work anticipated. There are more things seen in heaven and earth as seamlessly co-present, Horatio, than are dreamt of in any siloed science or philosophy.

As we get closer to ground zero on the nature, substance, and composition 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 also 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 men were awarded the Nobel Prize for their discoveries on light energy (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, headed toward a universal Source (singularity) consistent with science, perennial philosophy, and theological principles. It appears the wheels of science and theology are not two separate wheels. Rather, they’re one wheel seen from two different viewing platforms using different language to describe them. Better yet, as integrated “two-fers,” it’s more accurate to say they likely comprise the “wheel within a wheel” vision of Hebrew prophet Ezekiel, recorded in the ancient biblical book bearing his name (Ezekiel 1:15-21).

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. But Marconi did so by pilfering 17 of Tesla’s patents, despite a high court’s ruling to the contrary. Historically, wealth and influence have gone a long way toward determining outcomes in this world, and unfortunately still do.

Which brings us to Teilhard de Chardin, a contemporary of both Einstein and Tesla, neither of whom were personally acquainted with the other two. The author submits that had these three geniuses met and pooled their collective genius, at least one of them, namely Teilhard, would have had the requisite religio-scientific components to assemble and approximate a fuller vision of what he termed an “Ultra-Physics (Spirit-Science synthesis) which he an anticipated would be developed only after his death. That ultra-physics is now known as quantum physics and quantum mechanics. While that future has long-since arrived, we still have no universally embraced, all-inclusive cosmogenic model. Along with Paul Simon, whose lyrics included stalwart slugger Joe DiMaggio, we plea, “Where have you gone Pierre Teilhard? Our nation and world still turn their lonely eyes and dualistic thinking to you.” Teilhard himself pined for synthesis, once posing a similar question to a few colleagues, “Can you tell me who at last 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. This is that Big Story.

Matter is spirit moving slow enough to be seen. We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience (Teilhard).

Teilhard theorized that Spirit was the “highest part of matter,” though he left no notions 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. For Tesla, Einstein, and Teilhard, the role of physics, especially that of invisible sub-atomic particles (electromagnetic energy) was key to understanding how the universe was created, sustained, and hummed 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 in relative obscurity unheralded 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 physical and spiritual vectors.

Teilhard felt that the universe continues on its evolutionary way of becoming “Christified,” over time leading to a psycho-spiritual interiorization whereby divinity centrates (christifies) in the human spirit-soul toward a higher state of being and consciousness, essentially creating a new phylum. In Teilhard’s view, this evolutionary pinnacle is to occur by horizontal causation (an evolution), contrary to the traditional view of human salvation according to the biblical record and timeline. Being more scientist than theologian, straying widely from holy writ and Jesuitical logic which indicate a path of 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) embedded in a spiritual substrate. 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. 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 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.

What one man calls God, another calls the laws of physics (Tesla).

In the author’s view it is this quantum “Spirit,” now plausibly postulated as light, that makes all things sacred and all people equal. Aside from the moral law, owing mainly to light’s ubiquity, it is the authors view that light is the only organic metric on which to measure and establish same worldwide, and throughout the cosmos. Further, such has been amply confirmed cross-culturally by near-death-experience studies (NDE’s).

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 Christ, the other two natures 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 love and fire; God = light = love = a “consuming fire” (Hebrews 1:29).

It is axiomatic that things equal to the same thing are 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 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 cornucopithe a of blessings from an invisible hidden source. Such was an archetypal vision of what science would later identify as the entity by which energy flows over into space time at all scales.

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.

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).

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” (no-thing). They emerge borrowing their life and existence by bubbling forth exclusively from the invisible zero-point quantum field.

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.

To illustrate via of nature, in the life and being of a climbing plant its vine is everything, and its branches, non-self-creating or self-sustaining entities, are nothing, the latter having emerged as entirely dependent on the vine for their origin, anchoring and life. Because by comparison the vines are “everything,” and the branches (souls) “nothing,” branches receive life and vitality (something) only via their association with the Everything (= vine = divinity), else they are rendered independent “nothings,” like Jacob prior to awakening in Bethel, unaware of their life as embedded in the spiritual plane. In the created order, light and being pour into darkness and “nothing” to create life and make something(s) of nothing(s). 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 nexus to describe himself in relation to all 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.

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 found another sectarian religion in order to divvy and denominate the unity of all things, or perpetuate dualistic thinking, or build more endless brick and mortar places of worship. On the contrary, his was a theology of cosmic space, not of specific religious or sectarian place. He came to invite others to see and experience God as embodied everywhere, not in temples made with hands. In so doing, the Universal or Cosmic Christ did 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 Christos and Tesla, the only notables here sans profit motive, did for light (eletromagnetism) — making it widely available to all for the common good; the Universal Christ as innermost spirit-soul energy, and Tesla as its physical or outermost energy counterpart, each electromagnetic in nature in differing vibrational forms respectively. And each, as embodied images of same on earth, shunned and blackballed by the respective 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, including every religion and discipline in a long overdue Spirit-Science synthesis, joined by a common element. 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), that which holds and orients all things to their center?

Recall, Eckhart envisioned the Christ as the Christ saw himself, cosmic and universal, as the Everything that created from scratch, nada or nothing (no-thing), ex-nihilo, the Everything that forever makes nothing into something. And s/he does so for the sheer joy of creating, fashioning them after a different aspect of his own universal Spirit, image, and likeness in each moment of time. Such defies the imagination, akin to making a cake with zero ingredients; a cake that never stales, invisibly replacing each slice at it is removed for distribution, which never runs out!  This divine sequence is ongoing, replicating itself in ongoing renewal and repair, laid out simply in Genesis 1 as it began in God prior to the creation 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 verses 1, 2, and 3. Coincidentally, 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. In the Semitic languages, particularly Hebrew, references to God as El (singular) and Eloheim (plural) have Sumerian roots, which translate as “The Shining One” (El) and “The Shining Ones” (Eloheim) respectively, associating the very nature of divinity as light. And his offspring once awakened to same, light beings and light workers.

Continuing with Scripture, 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, or a hub anchors an entire wheel and lends balance and tensional integrity (tensegrity) to the whole, but it is deeply relational, experienced as love, compassion, and belonging, the deepest desires of the soul.

Lord, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee (Augustine).

For those with eyes to see, the data, ancient and modern, 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 not only all images depend, but are made visible, and receive life.

In your light we see light (Psalm 36:9).

Let us further consider why all things point to light as the unequivocal candidate, and star of the New Universe Story, and long-awaited 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. Sunlight and rain, for example, fall on all equally and without prejudice or favor. Describing the Universal or Cosmic Christ while ascribing consciousness and personhood to same, 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 forms of consciousness in it, in the Jesus movement known as the “Christ-mind.”

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. The author dedicated his life to the one reality appears to assimilate them all — light. God is that universal light, in whom all things consist of and cohere, in its pure uncreated nature, free of all names and bare of all forms.

Which in closing 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 magnetic still-point that not only creates, maintains, and centrally reconciles the poles, but is seamlessly coterminous and co-present to one another 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 anticipated a future organic (panpsychic) explanation of the created order in our times consistent with holy writ. At this time in history, says here, both disciplines weigh-in evenly 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, not so fast.

Recall the Ontogenic Argument at the outset which states, as axiom, that its dogs who wag tails, not conversely. Which likewise means that divinity is to have the last word, calling for a respectful doffing of the hat, or bowing of the head as Source Universal. It’s simple: God creates and recreates continuously. Science, at best, can only catch glimpses of how that is done, pausing to fold or join its collective hands in thankfulness, wonder, reverence, and awe.

Most prefer an experience of the Everything = God = love = light = Spirit equation any day, essentially proposed by Teilhard, Tesla, Eckhart, and St. Paul, over the vapid post-modern jabber 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, not deist who adhered to a more remote, mechanical notion of divinity, he may have been granted a more interconnected view of the material world as seamlessly wed to its hidden Creator along unifying lines, perhaps leading to the unifying Theory of Everything (TOE) that so eluded him in his lifetime.

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, inchoate to matter at all scales, humanity would be nothing in the way of being, life, and the many blessings and privileges pertaining thereunto.

Ironic, in that the mystical aspect of world religions consider that conscious oneness with an invisible field, 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 of the created order, past and present

Hence, there has been and will be no completing of Teilhard’s Spirit-Science vision, now 70 plus years in the making. Not without deference to following the Ontological Order as herein stated. Such is why, to date, a viable all-inclusive cosmogenic model has yet to be emerge, whereby each stage is inclusive of and interpreted by its next highest evolution in the Cosmic Egg of meaning. Which in the author’s model, true to continuing Teilhard’s synthesis proposal, is to be christogenic in nature, an authentic Spirit-Science model for the ages, spiritually inspired and informed by notions of the Christos (the annointed One), embedded (incarnated) in matter everywhere. This includes access to the Christ-mind (Spirit) as universal via a humble acknowledgement of same, simply by asking.

In the eyes of the world, better a nobody in a heart-felt way like Christos, or like Teilhard and Tesla who went pilloried in their time, than a somebody who is lauded in a head-smart scholarly way. Science has much to learn from the Wisdom of the Ages, not the other way around, especially when it comes to discovering origins, essences, and a willingness to worthily pay the price for espousing same. Those who are seen dancing are often thought  insane by those who cannot hear the music.

Having paid the price, Paul, Eckhart, Teilhard, Tesla & Co. wouldn’t have it any other way.

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