Spiritual guidance

Although the post God-Talk was in no way about the Catholic Church, this picture simply

being a quote from an earlier post, the Catholic Church does have a systemic interest in the belief in an evil intelligence, not amongst Catholics, but amongst Non-Catholics, for it weakens the sola scriptura, sola gratia, sola fides argument, in that it casts doubt on gratia and fides.

I've written a post on grace, but that was just for recognising it, not for discussing any of the more difficult questions concerning it. I've dealt with those in some posts I've written in German on superstition. But Philip Kindred Dick is an excellent case study in himself and so I may use his in addition to my own experiences in order to discuss these things again.

Dick described at least two spiritual influences he came under, namely the I Ching and Diana, and it's of course both times just people and God who participate. Although in a state of grace, Dick was involved in what I would call muddled forms of inspiration and prayer. The I Ching, when used by a graced person, can conjure up the situation it describes. It happened to me four times, the last of these accidentally, that is, I thought I was safe, but wasn't. This happens when you ask the I Ching what will happen to you next. Dick counseled in favour of it, I against it, because I don't like excitement. If you do it however and the situation arises, do what the I Ching said, or it will be bad. The situations that the I Ching describes are luckily not all life or death, but it's still wiser not to conjure up one of them every time you're flipping the coins.

This is a misguided prayer. You don't have a real interest in it. It's frivolous, and it's you, who's in danger of paying for it. Just like Dick, I've come to ask the I Ching other questions. Dick asked it what to write about and that is safe. I ask it, what my inner thought is and that is safe as well.

Is there an I Ching spirit? Is the devil hiding behind the I Ching? Neither. It's just that you have developed a confidence in your ability to get results. I have never sensed any intelligence in the I Ching other than my own. Still a double miracle remains: Why do I flip the coins in such a way that the answers make sense? And how can I conjure up situations? Well, because I'm graced, with God's help. But that doesn't mean that I should do it.

Then again I don't want to be hypocritical. It's nice to know that such things exist. So why not take a look at them? (If you don't have to fear God's vengeance. You may after all get Nothing furthers. from the I Ching.)

In the case of Dick's contact with Diana some other intelligence than his was in play. That might have been God's or some other person's. I had this kind of experience only once and the information contained was minimal, yet still consisted of something that I did not know, namely the meaning of the name Tariq. It felt like a human intelligence, though I can't argue the point. Dick on the other hand didn't just receive a pure thought as I did, without even a voice, he imagined all kinds of things surrounding his contact.

The point is: That means nothing. Dick himself let Diana tell him that he would never understand what she was. This is who we are. My approach to all this is the same as Heisenberg's: Never mind the model, just isolate the information, though I allow myself a conjecture once in a while so that I may test hypotheses.

As a student of these matters I can tell you that you can perceive a distant person's thought, give a distant person a thought, think of the same thing as another person at the same time, conjure up situations that align with your belief, even when it's a stupid superstition. That's all quite real. The question is: What do you make of it and how do you wield it?

Monotheism is Occam's Razor in action. God moderates these things, on occasion He may reveal His intelligence. He definitely has an intelligence, because His moderation betrays one. You can make it more complicated, but it will do you bad, make your belief superstitious and then you will start conjuring up situations according to your superstition.

In other words, you have to stay in the light so that you can be a light in the world. Mental discipline is important. Now, a person in a state of grace may get himself tangled up as well, but grace pretty much means that his nature strives for the light, so usually no bad will come of it.

In particular Dick is a beacon of light in spite of all his muddled thought.

This is the spiritual reality. Through this you have to find your course when you discover it. You have to deal with your own faults. And then on top of it with a superhuman evil intelligence?

That would overwhelm you. You'd run to the Catholic Church and cry for help and it'd tell you that you're safe.

As vigorously as a person can be seized by bad spirits, it's just succumbing to lower pressures. The highest spirit is always depending on its standing in the eyes of God, according to it it suffers or is graced. And therein lies our guarantee: That God deals out creation.