He was a chicken.  I don’t mean he was afraid to do things; I mean he was really a chicken.  Well, not in all actuality, but he was acting a chicken.

Let me explain.

I was performing at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel Ballroom in some unremembered benefit back in the days when I did such things, and after I had finished my act, the stage manager asked me if I’d like to see the rest of the show.  I said that I would and during the blackout and set change for the next act I was quickly led to a front row table right smack at the stage proscenium.  I was so close to the next act that the comedian could have stepped on my head if he wasn’t careful.

I was not, this time, literally ‘in the wings’, but I was so up close and personal that it felt like it.

I do not remember the comic’s name, but I will never forget his act.  It was hilarious and he kept the audience howling with hysterical laughter for a full ten minutes.

Like I said, he was a chicken.  He was totally committed to being a chicken and, of course, he had to be.  His act was so ‘out there’ that he would have bombed horribly if he had not been so committed.  In it, he chicken-scratched, he rooster-strutted, he hen-squawked, he flapped his wings, he clucked, he gave us the best “cockadoodledoo” I’ve ever heard and he chickened about the stage in a total frenzy for the full ten minutes.  What’s more, he wore no chicken costume at all.  Just a man in his pants and shirt, but he impersonated a chicken before our very eyes.  (Or perhaps he imchickenated a person when he finished his act.)

About the only thing he did that was un-chicken-like was that he sweated.  Oh my god did he sweat.  This comic was workin’ the house and was chickening so deeply that he must have lost ten pounds in ten minutes.  The sweat flew off him like he was in the shower and any number of times flew right on me as I sat, fascinated and wet.  I’ve seen men do this in the last frantic minutes of an overtime basketball game, but never such a constant shower on stage – and I’ve never had, before or since, the ‘privilege’ of taking part in anything resembling that shower of activity.

I don’t remember ever laughing.  I remember thinking that he was really funny, and being aware of the audience roaring almost continuously, but laugh myself?  Not.  I was too fascinated with the caloric burn, the intense mad workout and the tsunami-like proportion of his effort as the sweat flew off him like feathers.

I remember thinking that I was glad that I had never chosen to be a comic.  For such a funny thing, it’s just hard work!  He was a big man, which made his particular chicken character even funnier, of course.  He was so committed that I wondered how long, when he finally got off stage, it would take him to transform back into a human being.  Perhaps they had a big bowl of chicken feed and water waiting for him back in his dressing room.

After the show, as I too was a cast member, I was hanging out back stage, and had to go see him and thank him for his wondrous performance.  He took one look at me and snarled, “Oh, you’re the guy sitting in the front row who never laughed!  Wha’ja think this was, Othello?

A comic to the end.

The stage is an amazing thing.  It gives permission – permission to the performer to be the center of attention in the room.  It contains within itself the power of focus.  It says all by itself even when empty, “Here I am.  Watch me.”

And yet, get too close and sometimes you can cross the line of demarcation from audience to performer unknowingly.  When that happens, life changes dramatically and suddenly you’re on the other side.  You’ve moved from a very safe place of being entertained, to a very dangerous place indeed – if you don’t know what you’re doing.  It’s a whole other world up there and very few except the elite really understand it and can exist comfortably therein or thereon.  I’ve learned to respect it deeply and also respect the great talent, experience and know-how it takes to fill that space with magic.

Many who perform never really get it and it defeats them eventually.  Few truly succeed.  It’s one of the wonders of life on Planet Earth – the stage.  I learned early in life what it takes to be a great performer.  I often stood in the wings and watched them, the great ones, and tried to figure out just how they did it.  The best one-word answer I can come up with is ‘commitment’.  The best are totally committed to that moment in time – to the doing of that moment fully in imaginary circumstances.  It ain’t easy.  And for those who can actually get the job done, I take off my hat – and watch from the wings.

My most recent experience standing in the wings has been the longest.  For the past seven years I have stood in the wings watching my wife, Julia Wade  (affectionately known here as ‘The Missus’) change the face of music in the Christian Science Church performing as Soloist every Sunday at its world headquarters in Boston.  When she was offered the job seven long years ago she was given the direction by the Board of Directors to lead the music of that church into the 21^st century.

We used to joke that she would take it from the 19^th century leapfrogging over the 20^th and into the 21^st the music was so behind the times.

It was not an easy job.  There were many against change of any sort.  In the beginning, even some of those closest to her position were against change and fought her in subtle and not so subtle ways.  But she persisted with the loving support of the Board of Directors and though she often came under fire for her 21^st century choices of style, sound, instrumentation, techniques of performance and especially choices of material, she was a strong world leader in the movement and won over, by example, most of those who were afraid to change in the beginning.  She also, again by example, showed Christian Science churches around the world musically what they could do and how they could do it in their own churches.

The first 3-4 years were especially tough on her.  Often there was great resistance and some turmoil, but through a very high sense of prayerful integrity she led the movement of change – sensitively and definitely.

Now, seven years later, music in this church is seen and heard in a whole different landscape.  She has been able to hold on to the greatness of the past while expanding the range of music so that all would be attracted to the teachings of the church on a musical level.

Along the way also I have witnessed many who did not appreciate a more modern music in the beginning learn to first accept it and then understand and love it in the end.  Not only was she able to make the changes required, but also she was also able to educate as well – education being the panacea for revolution.

And now her time is coming to an end.  At the end of April, 2012 she will complete her job as soloist and move on to a wider sphere of audience and peoples.  Focusing more on her recording career and international concert career, she will continue to be an inspirational communicator through music and I see her taking the experience of seven years of leadership and performance to an expanded world.

These past seven years I’ve had the great privilege of being the unofficial “man behind the curtain” in this endeavor.  As her principal composer and record producer I’ve been able to watch and consult from a bit of a distance and sometimes help her through the shallows and depths of the experience.  I’ve stood in the wings and watched, fascinated, as she encountered obstacle after obstacle and moved gracefully forward.

I’ve been grateful and relieved to be able to stay behind that curtain and not have to step out on that stage with her.  She’s always been the point man (woman) and taken the heat (and gotten the applause) and I’m fine with that.  I’ve learned that standing behind the curtain is where I belong in life.  I’m good there.  It’s a comfortable place for me and it’s where I’m at my best.

The next four months, as she moves towards her time of closure, I shall stay behind that curtain and continue to encourage, suggest and yes, take notes on how she might do it better.  In the meantime, I’m still fascinated in watching greatness evolve from this up close and personal position.

I get to continue to study talent and investigate and explore the amazing craft of performance from my dark protected corner of the stage, there in those wings in the safety of my thoughts and observances.

Many people aspire to the stage.  I learned early on in my career that it’s just not my place and I’m good with that.  I’m happy to watch and learn and I’ve been very fortunate to stand in those wings.

After all, I’ve had the best seat in the house.

Even More Inspiration

• Even Now
• Spiritual Scientist
• Wonderful
• Phoenix Rising
• Chanting/Enchanting
• My Body

Previous to this month I had only ever written one Christmas song – a song recorded by the Jenny Burton Experience called Christmas In My Soul.  They say, in the music business, that the month of June is the month to write and begin one’s Christmas album, the preparation of such to be around 5-6 months.  Who can write Christmas songs in June?  What a silly notion.

This year the Missus has come up short in her search for the perfect Christmas song for her Christmas Day performance in church.  She had decided to employ a terrific Boston harpist and together with her organist, Bryan Ashley, keep it small and delicate in accordance with the spiritual implications of the morning.  Last year she used a brass quintet plus the church four manual pipe organ and blew the roof off, so this year she wanted to do something completely different.

But no song came to mind to fit the criteria.

While watching her go through her turmoil, I happened to mention one day several weeks ago that perhaps I could write one for her.  This was said in a fit of compassion for her plight while I was in the middle of the mad dash of the final throes of my own CD, Goin’ Home.

Seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, she grabbed at the offer and signed me up.  At first I thought, “Oh no, what have I gotten myself into?”  Where would I ever find the time to do this?

Then she came up with the notion that not only should I write it and arrange it for harp and keyboard, but that we should also record it and sell it for Christmas.  Then she came up with the idea that we should also do the sheet music for it and sell that too and let others use it in their churches for their Christmas services as well.  Then she came up with the idea that as long as we were going to do all that, she may as well use the song for her musical Christmas Presence lecture that she does around the country with lecturer, Chet Manchester.  This only moved the deadline for all this up by about 2 ½ weeks!  “Egads,” thought I.  “What have I done?”

So I did it.  In the next 3 days Julia will record the lead vocal to the orchestrated track, Craig Wagner, the designer, will design all the packaging, I’ll mix the song, the WFM staff will manufacture about a hundred singles to start with and by Thursday we’ll be selling this song that will receive it’s first performance in St. Louis on this coming Sunday.  Whew!

Will we make it?  With God’s help, we shall.

It’s a new world.  Things like this can be accomplished in a matter of weeks, a matter of days now.  The power of computers – the power of Mind.

The writing was fun and accomplished in a matter of 48 hours.  Once that was done, I knew we’d be OK.  The rest was just a matter of getting’ it done.

Julia directed me to the Bible for my text and chose the tried and true – think Handel.

“And his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor,
The Mighty God,
The Everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace
Yes his name shall be called Wonderful”

But I also wanted to shed some new light on the subject – not just rehash George Fredric.  Julia suggested that I combine the Bible text with some of the text of Mary Baker Eddy and her thoughts on the life of Jesus.  Julia and her big ideas!  Using text (non-lyrics) always makes good songwriting very difficult in that text is not metered and has a way of not particularly sounding very musical much less poetic.  On top of that the text of Mary Baker Eddy cannot be changed by even the alteration of a comma.

However the text she gave me was poetic to a certain extent so I thought I’d give it a go.  I had a great deal more content than I needed to begin with.  Julia can have her long-winded moments, so I had to do some clever editing.  Always easier to cut than to add.  While fooling around with several lyrical directions the line struck me like a lightening bolt — “And his name shall be called Wonderful,”

“What a great idea,” thought I.  Call the song Wonderful!

And so I did.

I was on my way…

Here is the finished lyric.  In another magical musical week you’ll be able to hear, sing, play, perform, buy and listen to the whole thing through the wonderful world of MIDI, LOGIC, the INTERNET and God’s gift of inspiration.

Hot off the presses!

Wonderful

Text by Mary Baker Eddy
Lyrics adapted from the Book of John
Music by Peter Link

The wakeful shepherd beholds
The first faint morning beams,
Ere cometh the full radiance
Of a risen day.

So shone the pale star
To the prophet-shepherds;
Yet it traversed the night, and came
Where, in cradled obscurity, lay
The Bethlehem babe,
And his name shall be called Wonderful,
Wonderful

The people that walked in darkness
Have seen a very great light:
For unto us a child is born,
And a son is given:
And the government shall be upon his shoulder:

And his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor,
The Mighty God,
The Everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace
Yes his name shall be called Wonderful

Now the Son of man is glorified,
Yes and God is glorified in him.
Verily, he says unto you,
“He that believeth on me,
The works that I do shall he do also;
And greater works than these shall he do;

If ye love me, keep my commandments.
And I will pray the Father,
And he shall give you another Comforter”

The prophet of today
Beholds in the mental horizon
The signs of these times,
The reappearance of the Christianity
Which heals the sick
And destroys error,
And no other sign shall be given.

When a new spiritual idea is borne to earth,
The prophetic Scripture of Isaiah is renewedly fulfilled:
Saying “Unto us a child is born, . . .”
“Unto us a child is born, . . .”

And his name shall be called Wonderful.”
Counsellor,
The Mighty God,
The Everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace
Yes his name shall be called Wonderful
Wonderful
Yes he is wonderful
Wonderful!

Even More Inspiration

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• Love Is The Reason For Living
• The Decline of Lyrical Craftsmanship – Part 1
• Nothing
• You Must Remember This!
• My Body

I’m probably far too caught up in the minutiae of daily life now. Founding and building a company, Watchfire Music, is a task that takes inordinate amounts of my time and energies and sometimes I go weeks without even thinking of the word.

Then again, I live my life these days considering the many ramifications of Inspiration so I like to think that I’m somewhere on the road to enlightenment.

I just have no idea how long that road is and how far it is that I have to go. There aren’t a lot of roadmaps to buy and I don’t have a GPS system to point me the way.

Well, then again, maybe I do.

The world is full of enlightenment talk these days. It’s a confused world we live in, but there are also tremendous signs that people are seeking enlightenment on a mass level like never before.

There’s a lot of information at our fingertips. For all the sins of the internet, and there are unfortunately many, there is also a treasure trove of information gathering that can provide us with that GPS system of sorts – if we can just get it all organized and sift out the chaff from the wheat.

On this auspicious day, 9/9/09, it seems a good subject to consider.

We have so many men and women’s lives to look to as examples of enlightenment. Not only historical religious figures like Jesus, Mohammed, Confucius, Siddhattha Gautama Buddha, Elijah, et al, but it seems to me in this moment that some people reach a kind of enlightenment in their lives by the way they live and do their life’s work.

Perhaps they don’t gain and maintain that higher mind, but they certainly reach a level of enlightenment in their work. Consider Edison and his revolutionary inventions of the light bulb and the phonograph – two world changing inventions in two completely different fields. He certainly had his enlightened moments.

Consider also the genius of Albert Einstein, Stravinsky, Picasso, Horowitz, Beethoven, Shakespeare. Weren’t these enlightened people? Perhaps they did not work in the field of religion, but the mastery of their work that they attained certainly enlightened the world.

Some people are just further down that road than others. We consider many of the Eastern mystics like Yogananda and Krishnamurti to be enlightened. In my lifetime I’ve seen the light through the likes of Baba Ram Dass; certainly today, Eckart Tolle is one of our living guides to enlightenment.

I believe that even television’s Wayne Dyer is on that road somewhere – each of them exploring man’s growth and attraction to the light.

Perhaps there’s a difference between spiritual enlightenment and intellectual enlightenment. If pressed, I would have to say that they both move in the same direction – an understanding of the perception of the nature of mind.

We would probably not argue whether or not Mother Theresa was enlightened – she certainly had an understanding of the power of giving. But how many would get their backs up at the notion that Steven Jobs of Apple has a certain grasp on enlightenment. I’ve watched with great interest the absolute nobility of a Derek Jeter on and off the baseball field.

Perhaps you laugh at my drawing such a conclusion, but when the few reach these high levels in their lives and maintain an elegance and demeanor that is a lesson or a teaching to us all, I call that “being on the road to enlightenment.”

This year, each morning, one of my spiritual practices has been the reading of a book called Glimpse After Glimpse, Daily Reflections on Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche who also was the author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Each day there are several paragraphs that are tied to the particular day of the year.

Yesterday’s reading was the following:

“Enlightenment is real, and each of us, whoever we are, can in the right circumstances and with the right training realize the nature of mind and so know in us what is deathless and eternally pure. This is the promise of all the great mystical traditions of the world, and it has been fulfilled and is being fulfilled in countless thousands of human lives.

The wonder of this promise is that it is something not exotic, not fantastic, not for the elite, but for all of humanity; and when we realize it, the masters tell us, it is unexpectedly ordinary.

Spiritual truth is not something elaborate and esoteric, it is in fact profound common sense. When you realize the nature of mind, layers of confusion peel away. You don’t actually ‘become’ a Buddha, you simply cease, slowly, to be deluded. And being a Buddha is not being some omnipotent spiritual superman, but becoming at last a true human being.”

I found these three paragraphs to be very settling to my quest. I love the “ordinary” approach of these truths, the simple straight forwardness of the explanation. Somehow it seems only right to me.

It also reminds me of Mary Baker Eddy’s definition of the word “Miracle’ given in her book, Science and Health. She says, “Miracle. That which is divinely natural, but must be learned humanly…” I love this idea that miracles too are “not exotic, not fantastic, not for the elite, but for all of humanity”

I love this idea that enlightenment is ordinary, is, in fact, the normal state of man. I’m convinced that we live in our pure spiritual manhood every day, every moment.  Most of the time we are unaware of it.  That’s what awareness is – when we become aware of our ever-present spiritual state.

How strange to be living and breathing every day seeking that which we already have. It’s all kind of goofy really. The above quote talks about our ceasing to be deluded – deluded by the illusion of matter and this mortal dream we are living I suppose. It all strikes me as the truth.

The great hope is that the process of awakening does not require time. I know this because I practice a simple form of waking up every morning. Some mornings I’m immediately awake and others, not so. Time is not the factor, but rather, state of mind is the determiner.

Our minds can change in an instant. We have only to turn to the light and then practice what we already know to be true. Those of us who are fortunate enough to know the difference between good and evil, must choose the good and not delude ourselves.

This is certainly one of life’s requirements – one of God’s requirements.

So who knows how long the road? Who knows how fast we travel it? Who knows what lies over the next hill – around the next corner.

I do know this:  It’s going to be an interesting trip.

For more inspirational music, thoughts and ideas from Peter Link,
please visit Watchfire Music.

Even More Inspiration

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• Inspirational Music

His scream had me running through the living room immediately.  The finger was still caught in the door when I arrived and Dust stood in shock just looking back and forth between me and where his finger disappeared between the steel door and the door jam. I quickly reopened the door and let his finger out.

It didn’t look good. The finger from the first joint to the tip was already bright red and turning a wicked purple and swelling immediately to twice its size. He was horrified and began to scream again. The thought immediately struck me, “How could his finger have possibly fit between door and jam?” There was only 1/8 to 1/4 inch of space between.  The picture in my imagination of his finger caught in that narrow space was not pretty.

I remembered my mother’s advice to me many years ago. Don’t look at the injury. Look away from matter into the realm of Spirit. I ordered Dustin to do the same.

He was totally freaking out. The pain was now extremely intense and shooting up his arm and the finger seemed to be going through its negative changes by the second.

I rushed him into the bathroom, turned the cold water on in the sink, thrust his hand and finger into the pouring water and again ordered him, “Keep your hand in the water.  Don’t take it out. Don’t look at it. Turn away!” At 8 years old he was still young enough to pay total attention to Dad and he did everything I told him to do and stuck mightily to it.

Then I said, “OK, we’re going to repeat the Scientific Statement of Being from Sunday School. I want you to say it over and over and don’t stop until the pain goes away.” We repeated these words of Mary Baker Eddy’s over and over for the next hour.

“There is no life, truth, intelligence nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all.”

That’s all he could remember. That’s all he needed to remember. At first he could only get out one word at a time between sobs. I sat down and worked with him as he stood at the sink. We repeated it over and over, shutting out all else except these words and their meanings.

At one point, he began to faint. We focused harder on the words. He centered and we continued fiercely focusing. We spoke those two sentences a hundred different ways emphasizing different words and different meanings each repetition. Sometimes it was just repetition, just sound coming out of our mouths, but most of the time it was a deep search by both of us for the truths of matter and Mind.

He was 8 years old, but in that hour he was of no age, of no limited intelligence.  He held steadfast to the truths of those words. We were both fierce in our determination to rule out all else but the truth of the moment.

And that truth was that his finger was not substantial in matter. That matter did not rule the moment. That Mind did. And that Mind, or God, was all there was – allness in all – leaving no room for anything else. That his entire being, including his finger, was a reflection only of Spirit, of God. He was not made of matter, but, in fact, was the manifestation of Mind, God.

I certainly got all this in this concentrated hour. I clung to these truths like never before.  Not once did we check out the finger to see how it was doing. We followed my orders, the original orders of my mom.

His tears subsided, his fears slipped away, his voice steadied as we worked and prayed on. We never left these words. We said these two sentences hundreds of times in that hour. I was not aware of time. I was not aware of bathroom. I was not aware of injury. I was only aware of the presence of God and the truths of these words.

Dustin stuck with me the whole time. Finally he said, “Can I take my finger out, Daddy?”  I, matter of fact, said, “Sure.” He did. For the first time in over an hour we looked at his finger. No swelling, no discoloration, perfectly normal except that it was a little wet. He had had a complete healing. He flexed his hand and fingers a few times and went off to school.

For Dustin, it was simply normal. He did what Daddy said to do and it worked. He repeated his prayer and, of course, that worked too. After all, that’s why you prayed. No big deal. Being late for school was a much bigger deal.

For me, it was pretty mind-blowing. This one was a whopper. The material picture in the beginning was extremely frightening and momentous. What transpired in about an hour’s time was what many would call a miracle – what an innocent 8 year old would call normal, what a father would call amazing.

What was the power of the cold water? You gotta ask that question. Did it play a part in the healing? Sure it did, but it wasn’t the healing agent. It just numbed the pain in its coldness. It just helped take away his fear. It was just a temporary placebo to divert his attention.

Doctors will talk about the red corpuscles and the white corpuscles, but I know that our stand at the door of thought and refusal to admit the conclusion that door and finger collide and produce injury was the true healing agent. Why? Because any doctor would tell you that in the science of matter, it takes time for the cold water to do its matter thing, and that the body heals by time and alteration of molecules. Any doctor would tell you that an hour was not enough time to totally heal that extent of an injury.

So did it take an hour for mind to heal the finger? I don’t believe so. I believe that was done in an instant – the instant we got over the fear, the instant that we saw that God was All-in-all, the instant that we saw Dustin as the perfect manifestation of that Mind.

Jesus did the same thing over and over again. He saw the perfect hand and so the material picture of the withered hand simply was no more. The power of thought. Jesus raised the dead and the principle of that we simply applied to the healing of Dustin’s finger.

So was it the words? Was it the repetition? Sure, they all played their parts in the adventure, but there’s no magic in the assembly of those words. Was it the chant? No.  The chant helped the concentration; it kept us alert at the door of thought, it kept us focused on the right ideas, but it was not the healing agent.

The healing agent was simply the truth that matter is an illusion. Wanna change the matter? Change the mind. That’s what we did. We changed our minds – from the frightening material picture to the perfect spiritual picture of Dustin as the perfect reflection of a perfect idea. That was the healing agent – the power of the truth of being.

Looking back, I really think Dustin was the more centered of the two of us once I got him on track.  I had to battle my thoughts, my fears, practicality, material medica, world thought, my own sports injury history. He just did as he was told. I believe today that the power of his thought, which, of course, was God derived, is what healed him. I was just the guide.

There were no after effects to this injury, no stiffness, no swelling, never any discoloration. His finger, a half an inch wide was momentarily flattened to a piece of rearranged matter that was an eighth to a quarter inch wide – all for about 20 seconds.  That’s supposed to create a major trauma to the body, and at first it appeared to be doing just that. But then a more powerful thing took over. Mind replaced the laws of matter and the truer ideas of Spirit stepped in.

Spiritual healing took place.

For more inspirational music, thoughts and ideas from Peter Link, please visit Watchfire Music.

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Sistine Chapel

Around 25 years ago I had my first rock the boat experience working with my religious teacher where my God concept was so severely challenged that it shattered and broke to smithereens.  At the time it was a devastating experience.  Looking back, it was, of course, a great turning point in my life and actually spurned a huge amount of growth on my part because I needed to have my false concept exposed and done away with.  For a couple of years I even stopped praying because I had no idea who or what I was praying to.

Gradually, through study, meditation and certainly a form of prayer, I built back my concept of God on a different and more scientific and, you might say, natural gut level.  I took great steps to eliminate that “guy in the sky” concept from my understanding as much as possible.  I stopped using the gender words of He or She in reference and decided that in this English language, God would simply be, for me, an It.  I changed my prayers from requests basically to acknowledgements – acknowledgements of gratitude, acknowledgements of infinitude, acknowledgements of goodness, etc.

Over time I felt much more comfortable with this concept and actually lived quite well with it for a number of years until it too began to evolve yet again.  I remember thinking to myself, “Oh boy, here we go again.  When will I ever nail this down?”  Now I know that in this lifetime here on Planet Earth, the answer is probably “never”.  The language is insufficient, this mortality a bit too confusing and far too many questions lie unanswered.

So as I’ve studied and prayed, when I’ve had my minor and major revelations about God, I’ve just let them come and tried to stay calm about it all and work it through to see if demonstration proved new thoughts to be valid.  Within the concept of the tares and the wheat, I decided to just see what worked for me and trusted my basic goodness knowing that the mistaken ideas would simply fall away or go blowin’ in the wind in their own time.

Around the turn of the century I became very interested in Quantum Physics and read everything I could get a hold of, that my unmathematical brain could attempt to grasp.  The discoveries of physical science always seemed antithetical to spirituality to me – having more to do usually with the material.  And so I grew a great but respectful distrust of physical science.  I’ve also never gone to doctors or taken medicine because I’ve been able to handle ultimately any healing I’ve needed through prayer.

So I read and pondered with great interest, the recent breakthroughs in quantum physics that came along and that actually, for the first time, supported many of my spiritual beliefs and understandings.

One of these readings that I’ve kept filed away for a number of years sheds light on some of these findings.  I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t know where I found this article – somewhere surfing the internet – but suffice it to say that there are thousands of articles on the subject that put forth the same ideas.

“Quantum Physics and the Undivided Whole”

“Eastern religions are built on the notion that we humans, the universe and God are all part of one undivided, seamless, inseparable whole—one collective consciousness. Quantum physics today is pointing to this notion as reality. Physicist Walter Heitler, author of a standard textbook on light/matter interaction, says that in spite of its obvious partitions and boundaries, the world in actuality is a seamless and inseparable whole. Fritjof Capra, in the Tao of Physics, as well as Deepak Chopra in Creating Affluence adds to this concept. David Bohm, author of The Undivided Universe, says, “One is led to a new notion of unbroken wholeness which denies the classical analyzability of the world into separate and independent parts. … The inseparable quantum interconnectedness of the whole universe is the fundamental reality.”

“Einstein said, “The illusion that we are separate is an optical delusion of our senses.” Irwin Schroedinger, the quantum physicist who developed the wave equation in quantum physics says, “If we could just measure the sum total of the minds in the universe there would be just one.”

Mary Baker Eddy,  a woman whose works I’ve read over my lifetime, said over a hundred years ago in her seminal statement on life and being, “There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all.”  This last part, God being “All-in-all” always eluded me, though somehow I trusted its truth, honored its largess.  But grasping God as all on this planet I found often illusive and too often simply a mystery.

Then along come the principles of quantum physics that seemed to say the same thing.  Finally physical science was shedding light on spirituality instead of fighting it.  Finally the science of Mind and the science of matter were seeming to merge instead of moving in opposite directions.

And so my concept of God began to change, to evolve once again.

Now I must warn you here, dear reader, that this story has no ending – only a continuum.   I’m not going to come to much of anything, no great climax, no dramatic turning point.  Once again, I’m simply moving on through another maze of new thought and intelligence about my own personal view of God.  I may be even barking up the wrong tree here, but it all sure is fascinating and at this moment seems to make some exciting sense to this man’s mind.

And so I take these thoughts and move on through life, eating breakfast, washing my hands, laughing with my wife, making my music – and trying to apply the principles of this new God idea to the every day things of life.  Have I really got something here?  Maybe.  Is it all worth pursuing? Absolutely!  Will it all change once again?

Probably.

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“Jesus said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father, except through Me.’ So… the god of Buddha (or Mohammed, or Confucious (sic), or any other religion) is NOT the same as the GOD of JESUS. They are completely different, and all religions do NOT lead to God. The only way to get to heaven is through a RELATIONSHIP with Jesus Christ who died for our sins. HE IS THE ONLY WAY. ~God Bless ! — Beth Lightle”

Posted by Beth on Tuesday, April 07, 2009 – 7:27 PM

First of all, Beth Lightle, thanks for taking the time to write in. A little controversy is always good for the soul. It keeps us alive and thinking. Though I doubt that you think your thoughts are controversial judging by the number of caps in your missive. You’ve made it clear here that you’re absolutely sure of yourself.

I too am a huge fan and follower of this man Jesus. I’ve spent my life studying the Bible and especially his words and teachings, and have used these teachings to better my life, to heal and be healed. I do not in any way discount his statement, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father, except through Me.” I only slightly interpret the words in a different light than you do. When he says, “…except by me.” I take that to mean, ‘by my teachings, or by the truths that I teach.”

I like to think that truth is truth the world over. I don’t believe for a second that we Christians have the corner on truth and that everybody else completely misses the mark. We Christians have too often missed the mark ourselves with our exclusivity, our wars and our greed.

I’ve also spent my life studying the teachings of Buddha, of Confucius, of Lao-tzu,  Mohammed, Moses, Billy Graham, Baba Ram Dass, Eckhart Tolle, Mary Baker Eddy, Wayne Dyer, and Werner Erhardt, to name but a few, and have found the same truths in all their writings.Often language differs, but the same truths get repeated over and over.

I’m not here to disagree with you. We’re all entitled to our own beliefs. Let’s just make sure that we keep taking those beliefs out daily and  reconsidering them, that we’re digging deeper and not just accepting dogma. If we, as a people, don’t keep thinking for ourselves and challenging the belief systems around us, then we won’t grow.

Jesus, himself, spent a lifetime challenging the systems around him – so much so that they killed him for it.  But the Christ in him lived on to continue to challenge the world’s thinking and it continues to do that today.

Some of us are handed a belief system in childhood and then spend the rest of our lives studying it and defending it. Some of us are converts, discovering a new belief system and then moving our logic into that system. Some of us live and add on to our own concepts every day and take from each system what works for us.

If you study the lives of all the masters, you find one thing in common with all of them. They all broke away in some way from their previous belief system and struck out on their own. They were all revolutionaries.

I’ve discovered for myself that the only thing I really know is that I am. All the rest is speculation.  And so I ask you, as you are asking me, how do you know that what you say is true? Because you were taught that or because you discovered it in the depths of your soul in a deeply personal moment of revolution and revelation?

I’m not saying you’re all wrong. I’m not saying I’m all right, but we do clearly differ in our thinking.  That’s not so bad, as long as we keep searching for the truth in our lives and don’t accept the dogma of others without first thinking deeply about it and then making it our own.

My concept of God has changed over and over again throughout my life. I hope to have a new one tomorrow. I just about grasp one concept, but then I’m on to the next. I’ve learned not to throw the old ones out, however. Instead the new concepts are add-ons or adjustments to the old and tried.  I prefer this way of thinking to formal religion.

You might say I prefer spirituality over religion. If that rattles your cage, so be it. That’s who I am.  I’m still searching and sure of very little. But I’m open – open and eager to learn and reconsider the infinite.

So let’s agree to disagree and step lightly on each other as we do. I respect your commitment. I hope the same from you.

To read the 2nd part of this discussion, go here: Response to Beth Lightle – Part 2

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“Fame is fickle and I know it. It has its compensations, but it also has its drawbacks and I’ve experienced them both.” – Marilyn Monroe

“Now there is fame!  Of all — hunger, misery, the incomprehension by the public — fame is by far the worst. It is the castigation of God by the artist. It is sad.  It is true.” – Pablo Picasso

If you fail to succeed in any case, it is because you have not demonstrated the life of Christ, Truth, more in your own life…” – Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health

I find it interesting to note that Mrs. Eddy says nothing here about money, glory, good reviews, or fame. I personally have experienced all four of the latter, and I can’t say as I have gotten much of anything out of the four. The money, I spent — the glory, only served to confuse my ego — the good reviews, no matter how good, were never good enough, — and the fame — well, let’s just say, “it was all a bit on the hollow side.” in fact, let me tell you my favorite story about fame.

In the early part of my career I was working in New York as an actor– performing the lead role in “Hair” on Broadway at night and doing a leading role on CBS’s “As The World Turns”, better known as “As The Stomach Turns” during the day. I received several hundred fan letters a week, was on the Johnny Carson show and the Ed Sullivan show, was recognized constantly in the streets and generally badgered and harangued whenever I went out of my apartment for autographs and interviews with the media.

“Hair”, at the time, was the hottest production on the planet and just across 47th street Dustin Hoffman was starring in “Jimmy Shine” having just leaped to stardom in the hit movie, “The Graduate”. They cordoned off 47th street every night to cars because the street would fill with fans of both “Hair” and Dustin.

So every night after the show I would take a deep breath at the backstage door, then as the doorman opened the door to let me out, I would run pell mell through the hysterical screaming mob of teenage girls while they, for some reason, would try to grab me and tear the clothes off my back.

Because I was also known from television, the decibels would rise higher as I scrambled through the crowd. Then I would out-run those frenzied females a half a block down 47th Street towards 8th Avenue as they chased me down the street.

8th Avenue was an entirely different story. It was just another New York street.  The mob would not turn the corner; they would not leave the lights of Broadway. And so I would run around the corner, stop, and stand and wait for the bus…

To me, that’s fame. I believe it was Andy Warhol who said, “in the age of television, everybody would get to be famous for 15 minutes.”  For me, it was a half a block.

“Fame is proof that the people are gullible.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized.” – Fred Allen

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