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Seeking Sense in Hindsight

Posted by Roberta Grimes • July 02, 2022 • 34 Comments
Afterlife Research, Death, Understanding Reality

Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.
Let there be peace on earth, the peace that was meant to be.
With God as our father, brothers all are we.
Let me walk with my brother in perfect harmony.
– Jill Jackson Miller (1913-1995) & Sy Miller (1908-1971), from “Let There Be Peace on Earth” (1955)

Sometimes people try to imagine how the world will look in a hundred years. But what about a thousand years? And have you ever wondered how people living a hundred years from now might look back at us? Or what about people living a thousand years from now? Has it ever occurred to you to wonder how this moment is going to look in hindsight, when viewed from a thousand years from today?

Someone who was interviewing me about Seek Reality Online just this past week asked me what I hoped it might achieve over the next five years. And I miffed that question. Five years isn’t much time. But a thousand years is a whole different matter!

It has lately been estimated, based upon surveys, that close to ninety percent of all the people on earth are still afraid to die. To Craig Hogan and me, that is a horrifying statistic! If only the mainstream scientific community had listened to the illustrious Max Planck when he said in 1931, “I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness! Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.” And then in 1944 he said, “As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear-headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.”

Max Planck received the 1918 Nobel Prize in Physics as the father of quantum mechanics. Just think how the world could have changed back then, if the scientific community had listened to him! Dr. Planck knew that the matrix of matter is consciousness. And at some point in the next thousand years, whether it happens sooner or it happens later, that fact will be seen to be incontrovertible. But meanwhile, as Dr. Planck also said, “A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.” But we have already had three generations of scientists grow up since he said those words! And still, even today, more than three quarters of all the people in the world are so ignorant of the fact that their minds are eternal that, tragically, they remain terrified of death. The consequences of their fear are manifold. And they are tragic beyond words, as you will shortly see.

So Craig Hogan and I and our significant others are giving up our dreams of retiring in Tahiti. Instead, we have resolved to work until we take our final earthly breaths, and to knock down that awful ignorance-of-death statistic by using our Seek Reality Online platform to teach as many people as possible the glorious certainty that our minds are eternal, and that the life beyond this life truly is wonderful beyond their fondest imaginings. We don’t want to go home ourselves until we can leave behind a world where at least five percent more of the people on earth are as certain as we are that their lives are eternal!

But, what good will that do?

Well, first let’s look back from a thousand years from now at the world as it is today. I know that doing this is hard to get your mind around! But let’s be as frank as we can. Let’s look at all the political battling, at the wars here and there that cause so much pain, at the vast disparities between poverty and wealth, and at the places in the world where a few hold power and put multitudes in such desperate straits. Let’s notice the soulless power of transnational mega-corporations, although – true – in some parts of the west there is a healthier sense of middle-class ease. Some worry, though, that our middle-class lifestyle carries a risk of causing global warming. My particular gripe is that we are gradually choking the seas with plastic bits. And over us all hovers the minute-by-minute threat of nuclear annihilation! One way or another or in some combination, it seems impossible to imagine that this world and the human species that inhabits it can survive for another hundred years, and never mind another thousand years!

There is one word that describes what unites every one of these problems. From the wars to the multinational corporations carelessly spewing their carbon and plastics, and the plutocrats and dictators seizing power, and frankly every other mess in the world that we despair of ever solving. No matter what is wrong, FEAR is at its base! We know that, of course, because fear is the lowest consciousness vibration. It is fear that drives people and nations to seize and accumulate their money and their power, and yet they never have enough to ever really feel safe enough. Fear is at the root of jealousy, anger, avarice, and every other negative emotion you can name!

So we wallow in all the emotional filth that fear produces, not realizing until in some much more enlightened age it will be pointed out to us that:

  • All of these problems are loosely related, and they all stem from our existential fears; and
  • All of them have at their core our nameless terror of death and extinction.

Those looking back at us from a thousand years from now will understand all of this perfectly well. They will diagnose all of our current problems, trace them to their singular source, and justifiably blame the culprit, which is a shortsighted scientific community that barely a century prior to this benighted moment turned itself into a dogma-based belief-system in order to avoid the remote possibility that it might discover a Christian God.

So, no Tahitian bungalows for us! When I explained all of this to the reporter who had asked me that question about where I hoped to be in the next five years, I told him that once we teach as few as five percent more of the world’s population that they will live eternally, then since all human minds are connected, we will raise the consciousness vibration of the population of all humanity enough to stop all wars and immensely reduce the political problems and the oligarchic oppression worldwide. He calculated then that we were going to have to reach and teach more than three hundred million more people. So we had better get busy!

Of course, all we can do is the best that we can do. But apparently wise souls as diverse as Confucius and Eleanor Roosevelt have been quoted as having said that it is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness! So our candle is lit. And since all that we will have to do is to educate what amounts to the entire population of the United States, we plan to concentrate our efforts here.

Where Roman Christianity is concerned, however, the view from a thousand years from now begins to look increasingly dark. The religion’s stubborn insistence on clinging to its Roman version rather than returning to its roots in the teachings of Jesus seems to be cutting itself off from those roots together, and at a rapid rate: since 1944, when 92% of Americans still believed in God, the percentage of Americans believing in God has now dipped to an appalling 81%. I plan to build a companion website for SRO that will teach the Way of Jesus, but that likely won’t be nearly enough to stop what is an increasingly rapid decline.

It does feel ironic to think that when historians look back a thousand years from now, perhaps the greatest gift that Roman Christianity is likely to be thought to have given to the world during its so often benighted reign will have been its truly remarkable attempts at an open-minded science. Of course, they did it with a motive in mind. In trying to prove that this or that complex biological phenomenon could not have arisen without an active Mind involved, the Christian scientists that will be lauded then for their farsightedness were trying to prove the existence of the Christian God. But nevertheless, while heavily funded twenty-first-century materialist scientists were wasting billions of dollars trying to find a source of consciousness inside the human brain, some really brilliant contemporary scientists with very little funding were doing groundbreaking work in abundantly proving that phenomena like DNA required a Designer.           I admire some of these unsung geniuses more than I can say!            

And it amuses me to imagine what a laugh those future scientists are going to have when they study these years. Think of it! The supposedly serious scientists of today will look like Luddite knuckleheads, seeking a source of consciousness inside the human brain, when it will long since have become self-evident that consciousness is the base creative force. Consciousness is who we are. It also is the water in which we swim. And the Christians, by contrast, will look like heroes, doing their pioneering work with almost no funding. I have attended a couple of their conferences, and have been blown away by the joyous pioneering scholarship of people who are free to do their science without the burden of that heavy hand of their own self-imposed dogmas.

And so we press on. But it gives you a new perspective on your own life and culture when you imagine the distant future watching you making your decisions, doesn’t it? I can’t think of any generation, with the exception perhaps of the American Founders, who lived with the conscious thought that people a thousand years hence were actively watching them going about their work!

Let peace begin with me. Let this be the moment now.
With every step I take, let this be my solemn vow.
To take each moment and live each moment
With peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.
– Jill Jackson Miller (1913-1995), Sy Miller (1908-1971), from “Let There Be Peace on Earth” (1955)

 

Roberta Grimes
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34 thoughts on “Seeking Sense in Hindsight

  1. Good Morning Roberta, Everyone!
    In reading your blog today, it strikes me that some of us (including me) most often don’t think about the “big picture” in all this. I read the science article, thank you for including it, and it is encouraging.
    I also read a special communique from Richard Rohr, who recently visited Pope Francis at the Vatican, to share his work and more importantly, to share his personal journey to awakening. He was thrilled to know Francis is quite aware of him and his books, and encouraged him to keep on working, to not stop and “retire”, that the world needs to wake up to the greater reality.
    It also struck me that the Jesuits, of which Francis belongs, have long been known for education and study, logic and seeking. I had not known the Franciscans, of which Richard belongs, also follow this course, albeit in a more inner and mystical way. Wouldn’t it be nice to “join forces” and learn from each other and more importantly, share the info with the world?
    Anyway, I’m grateful for your work, and the unsung heroes who are chiseling away at the facades of dogma and doctrine.
    I’d love the bursting forth of truth to be sooner than a thousand years! LOL

    1. Oh my dear Fran, I also read Fr. Rohr daily, and I admire his efforts to to seek a more enlightened way despite his religious constraints. It is impossible, of course, but I do admire him for trying!

      1. is Seek Reality Online getting a lot of viewers/subscribers so far? or more than anticipated at this time?

  2. Dear Roberta,

    This statement of yours establishes a foundation that merits elaboration:

    ” Consciousness is who we are. It also is the water in which we swim. ”

    1) Consiousness is who we are. Our eternal consciousness, alternatively termed “spirit,” is distinct from our body and its brain; during a lifetime, for some people they may experience their consciousness separating from their body, and thus learn directly that their body is merely a temporary vehicle designed to support a material life. What Roberta teaches assures those who have not had this experience of separation is that our consciousness is eternal, it precedes life (typically many lives), and returns to the Heavenly domain when a given life is over.

    2) Consciousness is also the water we swim in. In my own research, it appeared to be a logical inference that the “water” we swim in once separated from the body is well described as a Universal Field of Consciousness (UFC). Universal, because thru it we share thoughts and experiences with all other conscious entities in Heaven, and even Jesus and God the Father; alternatively, we may term this UFC the mind of God.

    Now consciousness is a very mysterious concept in our material life, because whe learn about the world we inhabit primarily by sight, and a bit by hearing, with the other senses contributing somewhat too. Mysterious because we cannot see consciousness, hear it as such, smell it, or feeling how it acts; because consciousness is not separate from our being, it is thus unobservable.

    In our material life, we can reason about iconsciousness, or be told about it such as Roberta does. Because consciousness is unobservable and mysterious, academic science, which at its best separated from academic philosophy by insisting that its key terms label observable phenomena– but in the material domain in which we live, consciousness may not in principle be directly observed, only inferred.

    Once we accept that we own an eternal consciousness as spirit, there are two related conclusions we may draw. First, we ought to stop any worry over the death we shall meet as Roberta emphasizes, and also gain some peace knowing that our loved ones also return from here to Heaven (and that includes our pets and all other animals).

    Second, as Christ has instructed, we ought to learn to love others as much as our selves and practice the Golden Rule as our way of life. That starts with treating our peers as equals, never as subservient, always treating children with love, if at times also with loving discipline.

    As an eventual result of a culture that becomes adept at practicing the Golden Rule as the foundation principle without fear of death, political strife will diminish domestically and in international affairs–this is a proper Thousand Year Goal.

      1. I think that we all do, dear Jackie. Our dear Jack has a wonderful gift for taking what he knows about science and using it to craft a world of new possibilities!

    1. Oh my dear beloved Jack, this is so beautifully said! You never cease to astonish me. I really hope that your vision turns out to be right, and it comes to fruition in a more enlightened time. The problem is now that simply everything is out of kilter, and its base really lies in that core fear of death, not only in the fear itself but also in the sense of a lack of accountability, a fundamental pointlessness to life when people believe that at death we blink out like a light. Modern science does the whole world such monstrous harm!

      1. Yes, my dear beautiful Louise, I think we all imagine a nation and a world turned rightside-up! The endless new possibilities then soon to flow from a simple straightening-out and the start of a benevolent cycle of endless new possibilities!

  3. If the world trend continues as it is, 100 years from now, the only “humans” may well be lab grown with a computer implant inserted at birth. Somewhat like Brave New World by Aldous Huxley on steroids or The Matrix series. The implant into their brain could be downloaded with information the government wants them to learn right from the start. Sort of like a hive mentality, with no opportunity to learn anything other than government sanctioned protocol. All history of the planet would be erased. There would be no parents to teach the children values, love, spiritual knowledge. They might well be automatons governed by AI. That’s not a hopeful picture. It’s not how God intended us to be on this beautiful planet He created for us. There is evil afoot trying to subvert God’s plan of redemption.

    I sincerely pray that we can overcome that sorry situation. We hear a lot about plandemics, starvation, diesel oil shortages that shuts down the trucking industry and power outages that sends us back to the stone age. God help us all!

    1. Oh my dear Betty, no chance of that! Please never forget that God is real, no matter what anyone may think, and indeed God is in control. There is no “they” to be feared, my dear, but rather indeed love will out!

  4. Want to thank you Roberta for your Sunday posts. I have cancer and bedridden plus I cannot walk. I was drawn to your loving discovery about death and feel the joy and understanding of forgiveness. Your posts are the highlight of my week.!I feel intuitively Jesus is always by my side. I am slow but I am learning Roberta!
    God bless you.

    1. Oh my goodness, my dear Patrick, knowing that these posts are the highlight of your week makes me especially glad that writing them is also the highlight of mine! What is the best part of these lives on earth is that when we come to a natural planned exit point, we find that a joyous return to our real home awaits us, and it includes a new young body that is healthy and works perfectly! I’m sending you a great big hug, dear friend!

  5. Hi Roberta. Your question about the future reminded me of an interview I had seen a while back of Stephan A. Schwartz by Jaffrey Mishlove on his “New Thinking Allowed” YouTube channel about a remote viewing experiment Schwartz had done back in 1978 with many many people all around the world looking at the year 2050, which he then analyzed and crunched through computers to look for the patterns that emerged. The number of these that came about or are in the process of coming about, many barely conceivable in 1978, was amazing. I scrolled back a ways through the eposodes on Mishlove’s channel, but didn’t find it. It turns out it was 5 years back and I hadn’t gone that far. Then, lo and behold, a new interview with Schwartz just came out, now on a new study looking at 2060. To cut to the chase, besides all the other fascinating trends he found, and he’s still analyzing the data, is a shift in how people start to think of reality as consciusness based, and we’re all part of the same matrix of what he calls non local consciousness, and this shift in awareness really starts to change the world and how people live in it for the better. Could the work you’re now doing be part of what leads to that shift he is finding? It is fascinating and heartening to contemplate.

    1. Wow, my dear Scott, that certainly is fascinating and heartening! From where I sit, things look a lot more discouraging, with at least eighty percent of the world still afraid to die. Craig Hogan and I get so many emails still from people who are afraid of death, and even afraid of hell, which is very distressing! But I have always thought that when the change comes it will happen rapidly, and perhaps in the space of just a year. Let’s see what happens….

  6. Dearest Roberta,
    Do you know which culture has long held close the saying:

    “Why lament the darkness when you can light a candle?”

    Russian culture. Great writer-visionaries, like Leo Tolstoy, made clear reference to it in their Nineteenth Century tomes. This is very, very old Russian, household wisdom. In light of current world events, I find this fact quite poignant..

    NB: I’ve always compared this typically Russian aphorism to the more energetic, enterprising, American equivalent:

    “When life gives you lemons make lemonade!”

    Can we not feel the difference in the mindsets of these two different cultures?

    In short, your own well researched, optimistic, fresh look at life, the afterlife and the true message of Jesus is the knowledge that may well end the tired fatalism of modern human thinking. The energy of knowing we are eternal souls with no reason to fear, will be a far more powerful force in the world than we yet realize. 🌅

    1. Dear Efram, Thanks for this marvelously succinct, but powerful conclusion”
      ” In short, your own well researched, optimistic, fresh look at life, the afterlife and the true message of Jesus is the knowledge that may well end the tired fatalism of modern human thinking. The energy of knowing we are eternal souls with no reason to fear, will be a far more powerful force in the world than we yet realize. “

      1. Oh my dear Jack, from your mouth to God’s ears, as the wonderful old Jewish aphorism goes! What we are quickly finding with Seek Reality Online is that denial is not just a river in Egypt. While at least 80% of Americans by survey have no idea what happens after death and are actively afraid of dying, they still don’t want to think about it until they or someone they love are confronted with it. Quite amazing, actually!

      2. Dear Jack,
        I consider the above response high praise indeed, coming from you!

        I very much enjoyed your logical dissertation on consciousness (above) and its bright lucidity! May we all sample your wisdom for many a year. As we 70s teens used to say; “Keep rocking on!”
        🙏🏼👍🎉

    2. Oh my dear Efrem, it’s a variant on something that Jesus said as well. When you light a candle, you don’t hide it under a basket, but you put it on a candle-stand and it lights the whole house. And you’re right: there are three different mindsets there! Making the best of things vs. American ingenuity vs. bringing light into the world, I guess?

  7. I’m a very sensitive person. I get my feelings hurt easily. Will I still be like this in the Afterlife?

    1. Jackie, while we are awaiting Roberta’s response, which I am sure will be more succinct and clear, I will take a try at addressing your concern (in this experience we perceive as incarnation, I have a similar temperament and inclination): You are a Divine Eternal Process. What we think of as our temperament now is an experience we are having in order to learn more about our true Self. We are here to perceive and experience and discover—and it is our Higher Self engaging in that discovery on a mission of Divine Love. In short, you as your Self are already perfect. Your (our) tendency “now” to be sensitive is part of that process of discovering.

      1. Woah Mike! This is an answer of the Spirit eternal. Way beyond the limited thinking of the modern, human world. Love it! ♐️🌅

    2. Oh my dear Jackie, all of us choose various challenges as part of our life-planning, and that sensitivity was something that you chose, believe it or not. It was something that you would have to push against, try to overcome, and you hoped would make you spiritually stronger. But it is not a part of who you truly are. my dear – never fear!

      1. Oh my dear beloved Jackie, you make me smile! Please never forget that you are a powerful, eternal being. You never began, and you never will end. These little quirks of your personality here are like a kind of overcoat that you put on in this lifetime, but the deeper beautiful You is who you truly are!

          1. Oh my sweet Jackie, just think of it as your having chosen to take some especially difficult courses this semester, and know that all of it is going to just make you stronger! Big hug, and be especially proud of yourself, my dear! 🙂

  8. In all my reading about the afterlife, I’ve never heard of anyone trying to hurt someone’s feelings. It seems to be the opposite in that there is love and acceptance

    1. Oh yes, dear Lola, that is very true. Everyone there seems to be very concerned about one another! If there is any effort to be made at topping other people, it’s an effort at seeing who can be the very kindest person of all!!

  9. Dearest Roberta

    Let me apologize in advance for posing a question uniquely crafted for me. Many of you will probably smile at such a simple question and wonder out of love that you would waste many bytes on publishing this, but I can assure you that every time I see the phrase “higher vibration” or the like, I can’t help but think to myself, “Yes, but the vibration of what?” But here it is in the third paragraph of your post, Roberta: “All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together.”

    So it is the atoms of our beings that vibrate, and they, in turn, transmit their vibrations to what? Probably the strings of string theory.

    One block down, several to go, and I am feeling better already. The next block has to do with how these strings, or whatever is the true vibratee? connects to our spirit/source so as we strive to raise our vibration, our vibration really does get raised.

    Yours,

    Cookie

    1. Oh my dear Cookie, that isn’t my phraseology, but instead it is the highly illustrious physicist Max Planck who has put it that way. Now, it is my understanding that all energy vibrates. That is a basic characteristic of energy. I don’t know much about string theory, but I don’t think it is necessary to invoke it since consciousness itself is in the nature of an energy, and it is consciousness itself that vibrates – at the low and slow end when excited by the lesser emotions, and at the more rapid end when excited by love.

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