Pages 324-326 from APPENDIX D: Healthy and Unhealthy Skepticism about Spirit, in The Sacred Promise (Schwartz, 2011)
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As mentioned in The Sacred Promise, Dr. Carl Sagan is one of my heroes. His was a creative and visionary mind, committed to science and the
possibility that the Universe was grander than most of us currently
imagined.
You will recall that Dr. Sagan said something that soothed my
mind as it touched my heart that I quoted at the beginning of the
appendices. He said:
“When Kepler found his long-cherished belief did not agree with
the most precise observation, he accepted the uncomfortable fact. He
preferred the hard truth to his dearest illusions; that is the heart of
science.”
The ultimate hope for humanity and this planet is that all of us,
in principle, have the potential to learn to accept uncomfortable facts
and follow the hard truth rather than our dearest illusions.
This is the heart of science; it is also our greatest challenge as well as our finest
capability.
We have the capability to see beyond illusions, to go beyond our
limited senses, and as Marcel Proust said, see with new eyes.
It is an illusion that the earth is flat. It just looks that way with
our limited vision when we are on the surface of the earth.
It is an illusion that the sun revolves around the earth. It just
looks that way with our limited vision when we are stationary on
the earth.
It is an illusion that objects are solid. It just looks that way with
our limited vision when we see physical objects.
It is an illusion that invisible space is empty. It just looks that way
with our limited vision when we process frequencies of light only
using the retinal cells of our eyes.
Just because we experience illusions with our limited senses does
not mean we are unable to go beyond them. The history of science
provides repeated, and I would say definitive, evidence indicating that
we can change our minds and go beyond what we once believed, as
new evidence appears and awakens us.
What is even more remarkable to me is that we all have the innate
capability to learn this meta-lesson, this lesson of lessons. We have
the potential to see beyond our biological limitations, and we can
evolve and transform our consciousness accordingly.
Though we may love certain ideas and be frightened of others,
this does not mean that we are unable to let go of long-cherished
beliefs and adopt new ones that may seem at first to be foreign, uncertain,
gigantic, and even beyond our current imagination.
The history of science shows us that our minds can do this, and
our hearts can catch up. As Dave Palmer wrote, and Carole King
sang, “I can see you’ve got a change in mind but what we need is a
change of heart.”
What is precious about The Sacred Promise hypothesis is that if it
is true, then this bigger than life vision is full of hope, opportunity,
adventure, and discovery. The Sacred Promise hypothesis gives new
meaning and purpose to this life and life beyond life.
If numerous mediums are correct—and I underscore if—then Carl
Sagan has changed his mind about life after death and a larger spiritual
reality. So too has Harry Houdini (as discussed in chapter 14).
Only a week before I was writing the first draft of this appendix,
two mediums again claimed that Einstein wants to speak with me.
More important, he wants to speak with all of us.
And just this morning, as I was working with the copyedited
draft of this appendix, a distinguished Professor at Tel Aviv
University in Israel and her highly skilled intuitive called me,
revealing remarkable evidence indicating that the intuitive could bring
forth accurate physics formulas from Einstein and other deceased
luminary physicists which can be scientifically verified.
Are we willing to listen to Einstein, Sagan, Houdini, and
countless other wise and caring deceased persons, if they are still
here? Are we willing to listen to Sophia, Michael, Gabriel, and countless
other wise and caring spirit guides and angels, if they are here?
Are we willing to listen to the Great Spirit, the Source, the
Sacred, if She/He/It is here?
I would hope that if future science reveals that they are here, that
we will be able to honor Carl’s vision and wisdom. That we will be
able to let go of the illusion that all there is the physical world, and
sooner rather than later embrace the truth that they are here, with us
and for us.
This is the heart of science. And also The Sacred Promise.