Last Week's Class Left Me with this Question
What is the relationship between imagination and the experience of god-connectedness?
posted by Gerry Smit @ 1:28 PM
6 Comments
RootSeeker
This is a place to further discuss themes mentioned in class and to share our ideas, thus forming a community outside the classroom including former students and friends.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
About Me
- Name: Gerry Smit
- Location: Bear, Delaware, United States
After years in ministry my retirement allowed me to study and to share my resulting visions with students at Osher Lifelong Learning at the University of Delaware. Courses I've thought: Exploring Christian Roots, "Q", Jesus the 'mensch', Spirituality, Gnosticism, The Axial Age, Even God has a History.
6 Comments:
I have to admit that you ask an extremely well posed question, of which I often think about. I also had asked my daughter, who is going for a Doctoral degree in psychology and my husband what they thought….
While yes, it is all about how the interpreter experiences an event, happening or situation…we all came to the conclusion that it is the persons’ experiences that will formulate whether they BELIEVE/THINK it is due to a DIVINE presence or part of their imagination….Just as it is the UNKNOWABLE…how can a definition be placed upon how it is thought of or experienced by any individual. SO, for some it may indeed be part of IMAGINATION, and others it may indeed be EXPERIENTIAL….
Whatever each person thinks/experiences in the moment is THEIR TRUTH in that moment!
I don’t know if that helps, but it has been my deep thoughts that what each of us experience seems to be due to how we are psychologically and experientially wired up!
I have come to find that to be MORE often true and harder to find a different explanation…because how can we say what is TRUE for someone else…And if this question could easily be answered, there would never be a debate whether God existed or not...or "what is God" Ultimately, it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks, it is what we each think for ourselves....Hope this is what you were looking for Gerry....Debbie
Imagination is something that we make up. God-connectedness is something we experience. The Being makes known to us through our experience that which is truth. All doubt is erased and there is no longer any place for imagination. So I guess I'm saying that there is no connection between the two. God-connectedness is not a dream to me but my reality of life. Knowing without questioning. Loving unconditionally all peoples and places. When God-connectedness is experienced we are finally home.
I have never been able to buy into the concept of believing in God...I feel that religion originally was man made to answer the questions that man couldn't answer. Originally didn't people pray to the sun, rain, earth etc. and then they created idols to worship what represented those elements. I think that as man became more sophisticated belief morphed into a God. What are your feeling regarding my thought process?
I wish I could answer you, but since you didn't sign your name I don't know to whom to address my answer.
Gerry
In general, American Indians understood the connection between themselves and all nature. Although you might interprete that as 'worshipping the sun' I think it was a much deeper, spirital connection to the mysterious life force that was responsible for our miraculous existence. We have lost that connectedness unfortunatly. Additionally, Indians typically as a rite of passage via a vision quest or through a Shaman, had personal experiences, visions if you will, that re-inforced their place in the world, and their connnection to the 'great spirit'. Their experience was deeply personal. In general, as I have read, most religions, somewhere in their experience, have versions of the 'vision quest' to attempt to experience that power within themselves.
EricR
Debbie, when you use the phrase: you indicate what is touched on in the following comments. You made a great start to get the “blog” going. My thanks again, Gerry
Anonymous 1 : 'Imagination is something that we make up. God-connectedness is something we experience' AND 'When God-connectedness is experienced we are finally home.' How powerful! Thanks, Gerry
Anonymous 2 : My feelings regarding your thought process are exactly what the Course "Even God has a history" is trying to convey. Stay 'connected'. Gerry
Eric: Thanks for your thought. It proves again how 'desire for connectedness' is something that is inborn in human nature, because we are originally 'from God'. Thanks, "follower"! Gerry
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