WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW – FOR DOWSERS

WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW – FOR DOWSERS

All opinions given today, are my own, and do not reflect the official position of either the American Society Dowsers or the Southwest Conference. There will be time for questions at the end, so please hold your questions until then.

I would like to share with you a few observations about paradigm shifts.

A paradigm is simply a set of beliefs about anything that contributes to an outlook on life of either an individual, or a whole society. A sudden change in this belief system is a paradigm shift.

I have had several paradigm shifts in my own life, which I believe gives me the insight to recognize a number of shifts going on in the world, today. Any one shift, by itself, would have a huge impact on mankind. The combination of several at the same time will contribute to what some would call the ‘graduation’.

First, my own experiences: I once was a Christian fundamentalist. I had a set of beliefs which were rigid and unchangeable. Now, I have an entirely different view of Deity.

I think my view of Deity changed as my self-image changed. In some ways, it is not that God created man, but that man has created God. Each of us has a different view of God, according to how we view ourselves.

When a group of people with similar perspectives get together, they tend to form a religion, with a set of doctrinal beliefs about God. It is all unproven theory. But shhh, keep that quiet, because most of them accept their theories as facts, and feel compelled to convince others to accept the same views. There are thousands of different religions. They can’t all be correct.

Most religions are fear-based and are related to feelings of guilt. I felt guilty and ‘worthless,’ which attracted me to the doctrine of the atonement. When I became dissatisfied with the church I was attending, I started visiting many other churches, searching for the one that worshiped the ‘true God.’ When I asked a friend, "Whose God?" he replied "Do you spell that ‘whose’ or ‘who’s’? I got the idea, and started to search deeper into my own self-image.

Most of us, as children, acquire the subconscious feeling that we are bad, that there is something wrong with us, we are inferior and worth less than others. This leads to self-condemnation and a sense of shame.

I felt that my father did not accept me and that he was always trying to put me down. I felt very competitive with my father. Eventually, I discovered that he had been treated the same way by his father, my grandfather. It had been going on down through many generations – this feeling of worthlessness. The rationale is: "If I am worthless, how can anything that comes from me be of any value? My children are worthless, too."

After a long struggle, I decided that I could consciously change that view. I decided that I was a worthwhile person. The Law of Projection then began to work. What I saw in myself, I saw in others. The Golden Rule also began to work. What you give out – you get back. Others, including my father, began to treat me differently. An amazing thing happened. My father’s rationale changed to: "My son is a nice guy – and he came from me – therefore, maybe I’m okay." I literally became my father’s father, psychologically. We were best friends, without being competitive, for the remainder of his years. I loved my father, in spite of the treatment he had given me. He had done his best, according to how he had been taught.

This also changed my view towards my children. I began to see them as worthwhile, and treat them accordingly. That was a paradigm shift.

I had also been a firm believer in science – Newtonian style. If I couldn’t see or touch something, it didn’t exist. The paranormal, especially dowsing, was a bunch of ‘hooey.’ When I discovered that dowsing worked and I could do it, my life changed dramatically.

So, here is the story of how that happened: I have had a life-long interest in exploring and studying natural limestone caverns. I’m a speleologist, a spelunker, a caver. I was working with a group that was doing exploratory excavation in a large sink hole on a mining claim in the Stanislaus National Forest, in Tuolumne County, CA. While on an outing with another group from the San Francisco Bay area, we visited the site and were showing them what we had been doing.

We had done some blasting and some of the copper blasting wires were lying nearby. A lady from the other group, LeRue Parker, picked up a couple of wires and fashioned them into crude L-rods. She walked about and said "There’s a passage here – it’s headed that way – there’s another passage coming in from the side here – it gets wider there – it makes a turn to the left over here.

I’m standing there thinking to myself "Yeah and I’m Napoleon, too." Very skeptical. The next day, I was telling the story to a friend, John Malon. He said, "Yes, Ralph, there is something to that. I have a friend in San Jose that located the Japanese telephone cables for the Army after they had recaptured an island. He doesn’t know you, he doesn’t know LeRue, and he has never been to that place. Would you be willing to go back there with the two of us? Let’s see what he finds."

I was still skeptical, but I thought, "Any excuse for an outing to the mountains," so I said okay. When we got there, I asked him to walk across here, and walk across there, and here and there. In every single instance he said the same things LeRue had said. I was standing there with my jaw hanging open, thinking "What’s going on here?" He said he had an extra pair of rods in the car, got them and showed me how to hold them. I walked along side of him. Every time his rods crossed, mine crossed. I thought, "Hot dog, not only does it work, but I can do it, too." My life was changed forever. That was a paradigm shift.

We as dowsers have been criticized by many scientists because how it works it could not be explained. Many religionists have also criticized dowsing because we know that it has a ‘spiritual’ nature, and since it does not fit into the mold of their religious paradigms, it must be ‘of the devil.’

So now let’s look at two paradigm shifts I see occurring in the world today.

Let’s begin with a look at the history of science. For centuries, everyone knew that there were only four basic elements: Earth, Water, Fire and Air. Then Sir Isaac Newton ‘invented’ the ‘laws of physics.’ This explained how everything works. It is still the basis of instruction in our public school system. It is why most scientists are skeptical of dowsing.

In the first decade of the 1900s, Albert Einstein (who, by the way, claimed to be a dowser) developed the Theory of General Relativity. Up to that time, there were three dimensions of space, plus the fourth dimension of time. Einstein postulated a fifth dimension – speed. He said that time and space are relative to speed. As speed

increases, time and space shrink. He said it was impossible to exceed the speed of light, but if we could, we would be in eternity, where there is no time and space. It took years for his theories to be accepted, partly because they were misunderstood, but mostly because they disagreed with accepted paradigms.

About 1930, other physicists developed the theory of Quantum Physics, or Quantum Mechanics. Whereas Einstein dealt with ‘the big picture’ of the Universe, quantum physics dealt with ‘the little picture,’ sub-atomic particles. Einstein was still alive and agreed with the theory. However, the big picture and the little picture could not be reconciled, and Einstein spent the rest of his life searching for what he called ‘the Unifying Field.’ He died without finding it.

In 1971, a group of physicists proposed the Super String Theory. It said that all sub-atomic particles are taut strings, like the strings on a violin, that are vibrating. More theories have been proposed in rapid order, each suggesting how things really are. Several of them say they have found the Unifying Field.

Finally now, a group of serious advanced scientists are saying ‘What the Bleep Do We Know?’ The more we know, the more we know how much we don’t know. Or in other words, it is impossible to state with certainty just how things really are. It leaves the door open for an unknown force to be at work in the Universe. Let’s call that force subtle energy. Perhaps subtle energy is what makes dowsing work. Perhaps it is what makes healing work. It may explain a lot of mysteries beyond our present paradigms.

Could it be that science has stumbled onto the nature of Deity before religion? If so, then religion will need to adjust, in order to keep the populace interested and attending their organized churches. This paradigm shift in science will cause a paradigm shift in religion. In fact, I have seen much evidence that this is already happening.

Many fundamentalist churches no longer dwell on the fear of Hell – the people don’t want to hear it. The Pastor of a large church in Houston, Texas, Joel Osteen, has a regular TV program each Sunday. I would describe his sermons as being motivational messages. He is preaching the ‘Dignity of Man,’ challenging his people to live up to the potential of being worthwhile. He has published a best-selling book. What a change! A paradigm shift?

A man in the Catholic Church close to the Pope, Monsignor Valducchi, has said that extra-terrestrials are a real possibility. What a change! A paradigm shift?

Two months ago, there was a conference in Berkeley, California, that was inter-faith. They had Catholic priests, Protestant ministers, and Muslim leaders joining together to seek spirituality outside of traditional organized religion. They have agreed to pursue their efforts further. This is a record-breaking ground swell. What a change! A paradigm shift?

Those who believe strongly in any belief system are known as fundamentalists. There are Christian Fundamentalists. There are Muslim Fundamentalists. Fortunately, the vast majority of followers in any religion are hypocrites, espousing a belief, but not living it to its extreme. Thank goodness for hypocrites, I think they may save our society. They may be more open-minded to change.

Let’s take a look at the history of religion. First, we had polytheism – many Gods. Each rock and tree was a god. Then Moses introduced the concept of monotheism – one God. But He was thought to be an angry, judgmental God, needing to be appeased. Sacrifices were necessary. Blood of animals was spilled on the altar.

When Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, the apostles were Hebrew and still thought in the paradigm of blood sacrifice, and the first Christians interpreted his death as a blood sacrifice for an angry God. I believe Jesus of Nazareth had an entirely different message. The coming paradigm is that of Deity as a kind, loving Father, who needs no appeasement. The only part of our being ‘lost’ is that we need to realize that we are His children, and claim our birthrights (similar to the parable of the prodigal son, who returned to his father bearing no gifts, making no sacrifices), and we need to realize that we are all children of Deity. We are all part of the larger whole. As children of God, we are Gods also.

When I have had paradigm shifts in my life, they have occurred rather rapidly. Past society world-view shifts such as ‘Gosh, the world is not flat,’ or ‘Golly, the Earth is not the center of the universe,’ or ‘Gee, our sun is not the only star in the sky,’ etc., etc., took years to be fully accepted.

Even though quantum physics was discovered in 1930, it is just now being brought to the fore of thinking, 75 years later. Don’t expect everyone to jump on the band wagon immediately. It will take time, but it has started, and the trend is non-reversible.

There are two other shifts occurring that could speed up this trend.

One is the realization that man is not the only intelligent life in the universe. A majority of people, world-wide, believe that UFOs are real, and that there are extra-terrestrial beings. Crop circles are fascinating more and more folks. Many are expecting contact by extra-terrestrial beings at any moment.

In my opinion, there are two basic types of extra-terrestrials. First, there are the true extra-terrestrials, mortals from other worlds in our local universe. They have a higher technology than do we, but not necessarily higher moral values.

Second, there are celestial beings, immortals from further away. They definitely have higher moral values.

It is claimed that celestial beings did make contact as early as the 1930s. They gave mankind a complex message, which became printed and distributed as the Urantia Book. The Urantia Book has not been popularized because it has advanced concepts beyond the paradigms of either science or religion, up to this time. The entire book can be read on line at

www.urantiabook.org

. Or it can be ordered for under $20 from amazon.com. It has had a profound influence on my own life.

I would like to quote the first paragraph from the Foreword:

"IN THE MINDS OF THE MORTALS OF URANTIA – THAT BEING THE NAME OF YOUR WORLD – THERE EXISTS GREAT CONFUSION RESPECTING THE MEANING OF SUCH TERMS AS GOD, DIVINITY AND DEITY. HUMAN BEINGS ARE STILL MORE CONFUSED AND UNCERTAIN ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIPS OF THE DIVINE PERSONALITIES DESIGNATED BY THESE NUMEROUS APPELLATIONS. BECAUSE OF THIS CONCEPTUAL POVERTY ASSOCIATED WITH SO MUCH IDEATIONAL CONFUSION, I HAVE BEEN DIRECTED TO FORMULATE WORD SYMBOLS AS THEY MAY BE HEREINAFTER USED IN THOSE PAPERS WHICH THE ORVONTON CORPS OF TRUTH REVEALERS HAVE BEEN AUTHORIZED TO TRANSLATE INTO THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE OF URANTIA."

Another shift occurring is the change going on with our sun, which is causing major changes to our climate and other physical activities, such as earthquakes and volcanism. Mitch Battros, from Seattle, has written a book, "Solar Rain," that I would recommend. Mitch is asking: "What is driving these changes in the sun?"

In Paper 15 of the Urantia Book, it tells about the mind-boggling vastness of the Universe of Universes. It tells that there are seven Super Universes, each containing one trillion inhabited worlds that rotate counter-clockwise around the Isle of Paradise, the geographic center of eternity, where there is no time and space. It tells that this circuit is not a perfect circle, but an ellipse or oval.

Think of it as a race track with a straightaway on both sides and curves on both ends. When a race car approaches the end of the track, it slows and slides around the curve before accelerating again as it enter the next straightaway.

The Urantia Book tells that our Super Universe, called Orvonton, has just about rounded the corner and is starting to speed into a straightaway. Our world has been at this same point many times before, but never in our recorded history. This is what causes the long-term cycles of weather, etc., that scientists have seen in sedimentation, tree rings, glaciers, etc. As we move faster, time and space change, which also results in changes in consciousness.

Keep in mind that this is affecting one trillion inhabited worlds, not just ours. Our sun is only one of many. It is truly mind-boggling.

But our world, which is called Urantia in the celestial registry, is the one we live on, and that we should be concerned about. All these shifts combined is what I would call the ‘Graduation.’ We live in exciting times! It all coincides with the Mayan Calendar and the Hopi prophecies.

Now, is this a graduation with a PhD? Or, is this a graduation with a Bachelor’s degree? Or is this a graduation from high school? Or, from the eighth grade? I suspect that the comparison could better be made as going from the first grade to the second grade. We’ve got a long way to go. We will never know it all in this life, on this planet. So stay humble.

What gives me hope is that the Urantia Book tells that there are beings, known as Absoniters, or those who do know absolute truth. These beings originate from the Infinite, the source of all truth. I believe that it is these beings to whom our dowsing questions are directed with focused intent, and from whom we receive our answers. As dowsers, we can know a lot more through the use of this subtle energy emanating from the Infinite, and we can be a help to mankind during these times of shifting paradigms. As dowsers, we can be the middle ground, as science and religion merge.

But there are limitations. I know of no dowser who gets 100% accuracy. Three limitations come to mind:

First, we are mortals, not yet capable of comprehending complex concepts. If I spoke to a kindergarten class about nuclear physics, and asked if they had any questions, would they be capable of asking appropriate questions? That’s sort of our situation. Some things we just can’t understand yet, and that affects our dowsing ability.

Second, we are limited by language. Word symbols mean different things to different people. If each of you were interviewed by a newspaper reporter tomorrow, you would each give a different story of what I have said today. We do not have a perfect language – a definite limitation.

Third, we cannot yet comprehend the meaning of eternity. We tend to think in terms of how far and how long. We live in time and space. Eternity is somehow beyond our grasp. Maybe another shift, later?

The paradigm shifts I’ve mentioned are only those I see as a result of my experiences. Perhaps you have had other experiences and see other shifts occurring?

One possible shift I’ll mention is just that, a possibility. It has to do with money. Many sources are predicting a financial collapse more severe that the Great Depression and having world wide implications.

I’ll stay neutral on any predictions, but I’ll do a ‘what if’ scenario. What if money itself loses all value and the world goes to a complete barter system? Those with large cash reserves and those with inherited wealth, and those who use money to maintain control over others would suddenly lose their power. Those who control natural resources would not be able to sell them for a high price, because their money could not buy anything. The ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ would be more nearly equal. Now, that would be a paradigm shift of great proportion. Who knows? We’ll wait and see.

But, the one big change for now is: ‘What the Bleep Do We Know?’ That is a giant stride forward, perhaps the biggest idea to be thought in the history of mankind.

Learn all you can, but be aware that we have only begun to know what there is to know.

To help mankind better understand this subtle energy, and its various components, several of us have formed a new international organization. We call it the Subtle Energy Research Institute – World Wide, or the acronym is (SERI). It is web based. Keep an eye on our new web site

www.seri-worldwide.org

.

We plan it to be an online journal to report on research and discussion of subtle energy with at least 35 different Focus Areas, or categories, one of which is dowsing. We will have a coordinator for each Focus Area, which will have its own page on the web site. The public will be invited to ask questions, submit articles or do book reviews. We will attempt to keep wording at a level that can be understood by common citizens.

We hope to give research grants, limited only by the generosity of donations, which are tax deductible. SERI is a 501(c) 3 corporation.