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The Power of an Idea.
Ann Bendall, Nambour, Australia
I strive to know the truth in capital letters and accept that I never will. This "truth" excites me, as finality is a concept that I find almost terrifying as it would mean no more discovery, nothing more to learn. Is my idea true? To me it is for "the power of any idea lies, not in its certainty or truth, but rather in the vividness of its human appeal." (1005)
Vividness relates to the emotional realm, and the emotions have a world of their own. I imagine we have all experienced the confusion subsequent to an intensely vivid dream, that despite our rational analytic processes challenging our emotional reactions as "but it was only a dream," in waking hours is still experienced as so real, that its memory is accompanied by cold shivers.
I have worked with emotionally insular men who have developed suppression of emotion to a fine art, and yet tears of terror will well in their eyes as they recount the "horror...but it was only a dream." These dreams can be particularly disturbing if the person has symptoms of narcolepsy (sleep patterns at inappropriate times). Dreaming can then occur as the person is going off to sleep or is in the process of waking. In a state of conscious awareness, they describe a feeling of being "stuck" in the nightmare, and struggling desperately to wake so as to escape its "terror."
As children develop, most appear to go through the night terrors or nightmare period where the focal symbol may be ghosts or witches or whatever image is portrayed in a horror film. Many go through a fear of the night, which is a fear of such dreams, and I wonder if each of us goes through the personal religious development period of our evolutionary forbears, i.e. through the ghosts, magical thinking, period.
I suspect so for, in times of crisis, I have seen intelligent individuals regress, embracing superstitious, irrational theories to strive to make sense of the nonsensical, to find cause in the "accident." The underlying emotion is fear, fear in confronting the fact of their not being invincible, fear as "the beginning of wisdom." And whilst the belief in their own immortality is held tenuously, often they will continue to believe in magic charms, reincarnation, etc., etc., as a way as a way of trying to regain some sense of control over their destiny.
A person in crisis has the myth of invincibility shot down in an instant. As corks in the ocean, an intolerably tenuous concept of their existence develops, and they cling to whatever, in an attempt to regain some sense of control and power. And alas, as so few of us are deep thinkers, normally "the power of an idea lies not in its reality or reasonableness but rather in its vividness and the universality of its ready and simple application." (961)
What propensities do we humans possess leading to a bias in our ideology, assuming that we decide not to tap into Jesus' Spirit of Truth? Falling into the category of "unbelieving materialists and fatalists" such individuals "can hope to enjoy only two kinds of peace and soul comfort: Either they must be stoics, with steadfast resolution determined to face the inevitable and endure the worst; or they must be optimists, ever indulging that hope which springs eternal in the human breast, vainly longing for a peace which never really comes…. A certain amount of both stoicism and optimism are serviceable in living a life on earth, but neither has aught to do with the superb peace which the Son of God bestows upon his brethren in the flesh. The peace which Michael gives his children on earth is that very peace which filled his own soul when he himself lived the mortal life in the flesh and on this very world. The peace of Jesus is the joy and satisfaction of a God-knowing individual who has achieved the triumph of learning fully how to do the will of God while living the mortal life in the flesh. The peace which Michael gives his children on Earth is that very peace which filled his own soul when he himself lived the mortal life in the flesh and on this very world. The peace of Jesus is the joy and satisfaction of a God-knowing individual who has achieved the triumph of learning fully how to do the will of God while living the mortal life in the flesh. The peace of Jesus' mind was founded on an absolute human faith in the actuality of the divine Father's wise and sympathetic overcare." (1954)
The challenge to us is to believe as Jesus believed, being ever watchful to the power of an idea, born of our misconceptions and preconceptions, whilst acknowledging that, "It requires a great and noble character, having started out wrong, to turn about and go right. All to often one's own mind tends to justify continuance in the path of error once it is entered upon." (1981) The Urantia Book abounds with examples of the power of an idea leading to actions far removed from being in the best interests of the individual or civilization. Jesus preached a simple message. He repeated and repeated this message to his apostles. During the week prior to his crucifixion his preaching turned to being an explicit demand that his apostles preach only that message, with his continuing to emphasize this in most of his appearances after his resurrection. But the power of the belief in the kingdom concept was too appealing to the minds of most of his apostles, and their love and relief that he was alive too great so they ignored his gospel by the power of the idea of theirs.
Last year I had the honor of observing the power of an idea to create reality, through a client who was referred for training in relaxation strategies prior to surgery. Fifteen years previously this lady had had 90% of her thyroid gland removed due to cancer. Additional growths had now been discovered, with surgery having to be aborted due to inability to complete the pre-operation procedure. The operation was scheduled for five days hence,
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