A Geezer Takes Stock of Non-traditional Spirituality
When the magic fades, but the glow still beckons.
I realized my mistake the instant I pushed the car door shut, seeing the hand of my 3-year-old daughter Tara in the hinge. She screamed. I yanked the door open and grabbed her hand in mine. Without thinking I “went to level,” a healing technique I had recently learned. I dropped my left hand at my side, visualizing it in a bucket of ice water. I imagined the cold running up my arm, across my shoulders, and down into the tiny mashed hand I held in my right.
After just a few moments, Tara stopped crying. I felt intense heat in her hand, but there seemed to be no blood. Cautiously she moved her hand in front of her face. “Look, Dada, it worked” she said.
That episode in 1971 was one of several “manifestations” in my early years of dabbling in metaphysics. I’m using “metaphysics” here to mean simply, “that which is beyond physics.” That particular event made use of techniques I learned from a humble Mexican peasant, Jose Silva, founder of Silva Method Mind Control. In those days I had other remarkable experiences with healing my own brain tumor and “knowing” instantly when a friend had been killed.
I became a teacher of Silva Method Mind Control for a few years. But the magic didn’t seem to last. I moved on to a series of other beliefs and practices.
Most notably, I’ve spent decades in a New Thought spiritual movement. It filled my need for community among those who likewise believe in something “beyond physics.” We celebrate Spirit within and know the Oneness of humanity. We believe there is a power for good in the Universe that works through our thinking. I’ve benefited from experiences of oneness, positive thinking, and encouragement to be my best self. I am surrounded by friends whose glow from a lifetime of spiritual practice helps me remember who I truly am.
The miracles have continued. But they have been smaller ones. The kind my materialist friends chalk up as coincidence, while I call them blessings.
Meanwhile my spiritual community has experienced all the well-known snares: spiritual bypass, spiritual materialism, lack of diversity, and occasional victim blaming or magical thinking. Luckily we never had a major scandal over money, sex, or power…as so many others have.
Throughout the journey, I’ve also enjoyed the benefits of traditional congregation — hospital visits, spaghetti suppers, singing in the choir, and standing together in times of crisis. When war came to Ukraine, our congregation there called us together for daily affirmative prayer online. I’ve benefited from all this without traditional religious beliefs that no longer fit me.
What can provide all this for a new generation?
I think about that now that I’m old and sniffing mortality. I want to take stock. I’m inviting friends to help me, here in this publication. I hope Metaphysics Today will give voice to old yogis and new seekers. Within my own movement, Centers for Spiritual Living, a new generation of ministers is striking a fresh tone. What have we learned from a life dedicated to the proposition that God is All there is? What have we still to learn about belonging in community without surrendering our sovereignty? And how might our experience help others to co-create with the Power for Good that works through our thinking?
These are among the questions I hope we’ll explore together in Metaphysics Today — along with quick posts of encouragement to brighten our days.
