So after 11 issues, I’ve decided to switch things up a bit. I’ve decided to just post about a book I’m currently reading, and riff off of that.
It was a good run, but it was getting a little exhausting. I was reluctant to change, but this will definitely be for the better because I don’t want to collect pictures of the meals I eat, or pictures of nature, or tweets I’ve liked, just for the sake of it. It has to be a bit more meaningful than that.
And with the preamble out of the way, let us begin.
As you may have noticed in the past issue, I’ve been getting into esoteric subjects of late. It has been a fascinating journey, and I’m so thankful for the people I’ve met on Twitter who’ve introduced me to a whole other world.
Gotta thank my friend @visakanv for being a conduit for that.
Today, I’d like to talk about two conversations I’ve had with two of my newest Twitter friends I’ve made with Visa’s help.
The first friend I’ve made introduced me to the book, Real Magic: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science, and a Guide to the Secret Power of the Universe by Dean Radin.
It’s an interesting deep dive into how a modern scientist uses scientific methods to prove that magic is real.
Magic here refers to the three categories defined by the author as: “the mental influence of the physical world, perception of events distant in space or time, and interaction with nonphysical entities”; commonly referred to as
Force of will; associated with spell-casting and other techniques meant to intentionally influence events or actions.
Divination; associated with practices such as reading Tarot cards and mirror-gazing.
Theurgy; from the Greek meaning “god-work”, involving methods for evoking and communicating with spirits.
Now, I can understand if you’re thoroughly spooked out by this point, and won’t blame you if you’d rather stop reading. Please close this tab if you’re even mildly frightened.
But if you’ve continued reading, then I’ll attempt to explain my interest in this realm.
I’m only at the introduction and have not reached the scientific methods used to prove that magic is real, but have been pleasantly surprised to learn that Isaac Newton, apart from being a foremost thinker in physics, was also very involved and interested in alchemy, a branch of magic.
For me, the world has been an ordered and logical one, and the only supernatural portion used to come from practices that originated from within the evangelical, charismatic church I used to belong to.
The gifts of the Holy Spirit used to be something I believed in wholeheartedly, and I have prayed for, and witnessed people being healed, whether of a headache, a fever, or pain in various parts of the body.
Even if that’s psychosomatic, or a placebo effect, it’s still pretty cool.
I mean that in a good way.
It’s interesting as well, the author points out, that in the Catholic Church, if hundreds of thousands of priests each week hold a ritual to transform the bread and wine into the literal body and blood of Jesus, a practice known as transubstantiation; you gotta admit that they practice magical thinking too.
In any case, magical thinking has been a core part of all cultures, all throughout the world, going by different names, and manifesting in different forms.
The author also pointed out that what German physician Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) proposed, the idea of an invisible, universal “fluid” that flows continuously everywhere, which also served as a means by which the planets, the Earth, and all living creatures interacted, is very similarly to what the Chinese call chi or qi, the yogic concept of prana, Greek philosopher Pythagora’s pneuma, Austrian psychotehrapist Wilhelm Reich’s orgone and so on.
The point is that a living or “vital force” permeates all esoteric traditions.
Very intriguing.
Perhaps the reason why I’m so interested in this would be my felt experience, precious little as it were, that’s informing my study into this realm.
I’ve learnt breathing meditation through some Buddhist nuns and monks at the NUS Medical Dhamma Circle, a fellowship of Buddhists under the medical faculty at a local university, a friend introduced me to.
Meditation has done what prayer never could.
It’s really put me in an altered state of consciousness, and by that I mean it’s given me a sense of calmness and focus that I’ve never gotten anywhere else.
Even in my most manic highs or depressed lows, when I choose to put in a couple minutes to meditate, life is so much better after.
And this is just simple breathing, in and out.
It amazed me when even my psychiatrist could spot a difference in my demeanour.
And once, when a monk came by to teach dynamic meditation, aka tai chi, where one moves and breathes in tandem with different actions, done repeatedly, which really transformed how I approached looking at energy.
My former friends would call this a slippery slope, or the beginning of the end, a gateway drug, but it’s been a most wonderful and healing practice, and I’ll persist in doing so.
Which brings me to my next point.
Diversity.
I think just being exposed to a myriad of religious traditions in the past 3 years: Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Islam, Unitarian Universalism, Satanism (TST variety), Mormonism; some of the ones I have become more familiar with, has changed how I approach religion and faith as it were.
In the past, Christianity, and our particular brand of it, was seen to be the one true faith.
That is so mistaken, really.
There are beautiful parallels between the various faith traditions I’ve studied; such as the concept of metta, or loving-kindness in Buddhism, which was so similar to the exact word found in the King James Bible, it’s uncanny.
And the best part of it?
I bet that most Buddhists or Christians probably are unaware of that.
It never ceases to amaze me how information that is common knowledge in one tradition is a brand-new concept in another.
Perhaps inter-faith conflict could be reduced if we just took time to immerse ourselves in each other’s houses of worship.
Then instead of fighting over what’s different, we can all come to appreciate the many startling similarities in the various ancient practices.
I had an hour-long conversation with yet another new Twitter friend I’ve made via Visa’s tweet.
We talked about how culture influences religion, and vice versa.
And how the passage of time changes how things are done, even within a community.
An example I’d like to bring up would be the increase in Arabization in our Muslim community here.
I was recently in a larger conversation with a group of friends who explained to all of us that it’s important to call Eid, Eid, instead of Hari Raya, because the large majority of Bangladeshi migrant workers might not understand Malay, but they are Muslim too.
And yet, erasing one’s local culture, whether in terms of language, clothing, or food, is pretty sad too.
There lives a healthy tension between what should be embraced for the sake of inclusivity, but also what should be expressed to celebrate one’s roots and origins.
Back to my new Twitter friend.
I was telling him how it was surprising for me to find out that the local traditions us Singaporean Chinese people take for granted - celebrating Chinese New Year with all the whole she-bang, Chinese weddings with the gifts and all, and even Mid-Autumn Festival (which happens to be today, Happy Mooncake Festival, yo!), is not so commonly practised among Chinese people in China.
A Chinese friend my sister knew said these are things their grandmother did, and that us Singaporeans are very “traditional”.
I suppose immigrants landing in sunny Singapore about a hundred years ago wanted to retain their traditions to remember where they came from, and clinging on to that helped them feel more at home in a different land.
Various ones I’ve spoken to concurred.
So we’ve ended up with us Singaporean Chinese people celebrating things even the Chinese people from our “ancestral homeland” currently don’t.
What an interesting state of affairs, don’t you think?
I shall end this week’s issue on this very random note. Feel free to email me your thoughts or tweet at me at @missrachelreads.
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