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Saturday, February 14, 2009
March 12, 2009
For the past few days I have listened to
a renewed debate on both radio and television regarding President Obama's decision to fund stem cell research. And, it
occurred to me that this subject is indirectly related to ghosts, or at least to the human spirit.
I have never met nor heard an individual who can honestly claim to have seen a human spirit;
the closest we get is a ghost or apparition. Yet, that ghost energy is not necessarily the fullness of an individual's
spirit or soul. Our individuality (for a single lifetime) is an extension of the eternal self which is having trouble
in returning "home" to its source. It still believes itself to be an entity separate from The One. And therein lies
its problem: attempting to resolve so many details in its sense of separateness.
If the destruction of human
embryos (which otherwise would be discarded in the trash) in research is a sin, I cannot understand what the "no abortion"
proponents want done with such embryos; I haven't seen anyone picketing the fertility clinics. Yet, the opponents of stem
cell research have a certainty that each embryo contains a soul. But how can anyone tell which embryos contain souls?
And if they all have a soul, why not stop fertility clinics from discarding them?
The time in which a soul takes
up residence in a fertilized egg has been the subject of debate for centuries, way back to Roman times. There is so much fervor
on both sides of the issue, a certainty that this side or that knows the full truth, yet without empirical evidence. My attempt
to resolve this dilemma (in my own mind and conscience) leads me to believe that a soul can take up station in a physical
body at any time in that body's development. Edgar Cayce did some readings in which he suggested that souls can enter
bodies even after physical birth has taken place.
Because so much of this debate (over whether or when
a soul is present in a body) cannot be resolved through any current form of scientific study, it seems to me that the
living ones among us (those with birth defects, spinal cord injuries, or malignancies) should get the edge. I believe
it is nobler to save an already-existing person than a potential individual. Souls seem to move on to their next opportunity
if the chance to enter a body is foreclosed.
Another issue that I guess we should consider: at what point does
the soul (especially if an individual's consciousness remains with the "ghostly form") depart from the entity,
so that it may finally cease to exist? I'll keep working on my thoughts on this matter--you do too. Let me know
if you have a personal revelation. Don't waste time (yours and mine) by simply re-phrasing the ideas of some other person.
I'd like to hear how you arrived at YOUR current belief or theory.
12:08 pm est
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