Summer 2023
(Our Current C*NAQ Plus)

Volume 26, Number 1+

Contents

Author

Description

Through the Editor's Eyes

My Figment Chases Me

Catherine Groves

"My Figment Chases Me" examines the faculty behind memory: is it emotion, thought or a combination of the two? Catherine Groves has realized that while she can think about something in the past, it isn't possible for her to draw up the accompanying emotion. Using Versailles as an illustration, Groves pictures her childhood visit as idyllic. But, after painstakingly deliberating about it, it became clear that those memories are not factual. What she felt at the time was exhausted and bored. "The cerebral does not accurately portray the subjective," although we often act as if it did. Turning to the bible, Groves states, "Any redaction reflects the beliefs of those who put forth and supported narratives that match the convictions of the time as per a particular group." And yet some circles can be overly harsh on alternative spiritualities that interpret the bible in new ways — although this has been the norm since belief's very beginnings.

A Blast from
Our Past

Blindly Spiral Into Light

N. Michel Landaiche III

Initially published in the October-December 1991 issue, "Blindly Spiral Into Light" begins with the premise that, at first, the faith journey necessitates following one path exclusively. As Landaiche reminds us, "If I am stranded in darkness, albeit surrounded by a thousand burning candles, I still must choose one to carry with me, to light my way back home." But eventually the narrow path widens until it "disintegrates into the multidimensional experience of: I AM." Once our expression of divinity becomes enlarged, we can no longer return to the earlier exclusivism, even as much as we might cherish the experiences of our "singular childhood."

Another Blast from
Our Past

Synchronicity, the Monadology, and the Law of Attraction

Robert M. Price

First published in C*NAQ's Winter 2011 issue, a whirlwind of thought describes this essay, which explores various theories that might account for what New Agers often call "vibrational frequencies." Here we investigate the Collective Unconscious of the human race as described by Carl Jung; for Price, "the Collective Unconscious is simply the common template for the way all human minds are hardwired." Furthermore, by coincidence Price means "two things with a resemblance occurring together, whether by design or not" — a concept promulgated by Jung as "the acausal principle of Synchronicity." Along the same lines, Gottfried Leibniz speculated that ours is the best possible world in the sense that "given the possibilities, which are finite, this is the best possible combination of options." Leibniz divided all realities into monads, or units, and each of these reflects a built-in image that seems to impact other monads, but without causation. Price narrates a couple of examples from his own experience, which seem to support a predetermined order that has meaning and consciousness built into the universe.

The Letters Library

C*NAQ readers speak out

This time around, we hear from Arthur C. Ford, Sr., William M. Breiding and PJM — all with intriguing ideas and feedback.

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