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This chapter is about Thales' scientific (i.e., empirical and testable) concept of free will. Let us begin with some things which appear to rule out the possibility of free will.
Time: The physical universe is four dimensional. The past and future really exist, just as do things distant from us in space. Not only do physical events of the future already exist, but so do psychonic events. In order to receive a nouon from the future, there must be a mind (possibly our own) 'already' there to send it. Even though minds and bodies exist four-dimensionally, we experience time as a flow, always at the same rate and always in the same direction, because Brahman and its droplets move through the four dimensional universe along the time axis.
Is time travel possible? There is anecdotal evidence that it can occur in Stewart Robb's Strange Prophecies That Came True. Air Marshal Sir Victor Goddard projected (apported?) into the past; Mrs. Coleen Buterbaugh projected into the future. These two cases suggest that beings already in the past or future behave like automatons, unable to change. Choice, like consciousness, happens only where Brahman/Atman is to be found.
Prophecy: Prophecy can be terrifying if it is taken fatalistically and literally and uncritically. Here in the bible belt we periodically have prophecy crusades, sponsored by ignorant and unspiritual charlatans terrifying people out of their money with their interpretations of biblical prophecy. This is an unspeakable evil. Let's try to approach the subject scientifically.
An event may be real when a prophet sees it, yet it may never happen in human experience. The events we see in time can be changed just like the events we see in space. Some prophets are aware of multiple possible futures which exist at some point in time. Thirdly, prophets are not necessarily blessed with wisdom. They may see something genuine but misinterpret the symbols (psychic events are usually symbolic to some extent). Furthermore, we must certainly be on guard against the prophet's evaluation of the event as good or evil. Such evaluations merely reflect the limited point of view of the prophet's conscious, historical mind. Most visions of the future would seem terrifying, and thus evil, to earlier men who are simply not able to understand or accept such changes as necessary.
When prophets disagree which do we accept? Accept none of them as foreordained, according to Cayce. Work to avoid or prevent bad prophecies and work to bring about the truth of the prophecies you want. Be sceptical (but not totally so) about events which are 'scientifically impossible.' Never believe anyone who prophesies the end of the world. Remember the Great Way. The higher centers have permitted great cataclysms before, but man always survives it. The end of the globe will not take place until the sun becomes a red giant, many billions of years from now. By then, we will have been cosmic citizens for a very long time.
There are certain events which have been widely (but not universally) prophesied by otherwise proven visions or prophets. These include Armageddon (WW III), the covering of eastern seaboard cities by seawater, and a great earthquake and land sinking which will make Southern California an island. We are beginning to see possible causes for all three events, and none of the three should be regarded as inevitable. More optimistic events which are also widely prophesied are the coming of a universal world wide religion, and a peaceful world unity, usually said to follow the dire events above.
According to George Washington's vision, WW III will see Europe, Asia and Africa united against America and the towns and cities of America will be devastated. America will eventually triumph, and the golden age will follow.
This triumph will have religious overtones, symbolized by the aid of 'legions of white spirits.' This may relate to the 'second coming' which does not refer to the literal return of the Jesus entity, but to a return of a correct, spiritual scientific understanding of the Christ-Avatar's actual teachings (different from the bible). Modern avatars can see the past and future in the superconscious state, and Yukteswar, Steiner and Cayce agree that Christ was a well-traveled, well-educated initiate who taught the essential truths of spiritual science. These truths were unintelligible to the Hellenized Jews and Romans, and the bible is a product of their misunderstands. This throws light on the various anti-Christs and false anti-Christs mentioned by Nostradamus and Jeane Dixon. The true second coming of Christ-consciousness might very well seem anti-Christ by the establishment Christians. Thus, the false anti-Christ, the 'second coming,' and the new universal religion all refer to the same event.
According to Nostradamus, Jeane Dixon, and Cheiro, Armageddon will be initiated by an Arab prince, who will unify the Arab world by conquest, who will destroy Rome and Paris, who will make his home base Istanbul, where he will be betrayed. The seat of English government will be moved to America. A vast battle will be fought over Jerusalem, with millions killed. According to Nostradamus and John of Patmos, the Arab prince will be a magician, who will proclaim himself as the messiah and will be widely (and correctly in this case) regarded as the anti-Christ. He will destroy the churches and temples of Europe, and will eventually be defeated by a great French leader, with the aid of American forces. Nostradamus gives dates: by 1981 for the formation of the Arab league; July of 1999 for one particularly great battle, perhaps the destruction of Paris. Germany will also be invaded and the Poles will be on the side of the Arabs. The end of the war will be accompanied by violent changes in nature: "percussive signs in the springtime, and after extreme changes ensuing, reversal of kingdoms, and great earthquakes...Then by great deluges the memory of things will suffer incalculable loss."
Jeane Dixon's predictions for 1999 and 2000 are similar to Nostradamus's except that she sees us invaded at the same time by Mongol armies...thus bringing her prediction more in line with that of Washington's vision. Alan Vaughan, Bessent, Pendragon, Daniel Logan, and Jeane Dixon have all predicted war with red China somewhere around 1981, unlikely as that now appears. We will then be allied with Russia, and presumably the Arab prince will make his first moves then. Edgar Cayce also predicted close ties with Russia and predicted some important spiritual and libertarian movement developing there (or his words could equally well be interpreted as referring to communes). Cayce mentioned the Mongolians along with Dixon, and said if Americans did not come to recognize the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of god, the center of civilization would pass to the Mongolians, unlikely though that presently appears.
Other psychics (notably Ann Jensen) predict smooth sailing for the next thirty years. And the several prophecies mentioned are by no means identical. It is interesting, however, that the closer we get to the predicted event of Armageddon, the more plausible it appears. By 1980 the new currents of religious ideas may very well be sweeping the globe, stirring up both enthusiasm and fanatical rejection by conservative elements in all religions. By 1990 the Arab nations will also be immensely strong, because of the energy crisis, and the growing shortage of oil and other non-renewable natural resources. By 1990 the world will run out of oil, if the present rate of exponential use continues. Long before that, the oil shortage could cause major economic and political changes in the world, particularly in the middle east, where almost all the large reserves of oil in the world are now to be found. The Arabs will no doubt rapidly raise the cost of crude oil, make large demands for shares in the industrialized world's wealth and even demand political voice. No doubt the decadent West will grant these demands for a long time. Meantime, the Arabs will rapidly industrialize and militarize and support dissident groups everywhere.
What happens when even the third world begins to run out of non-renewable resources? They will deny them to the rest of the world. This could trigger Armageddon. At exponential growth as at present, oil will be gone in 1990, the southeast Asians will run out of tin by 1985, China's tungsten will be in short supply by 1998. The Belgian Congo will run out of uranium, Chile will run out of copper, South Africa will use up its platinum group ores, and so forth. Since the countries producing these non-renewable resources are not the same as the countries squandering them, an explosive situation is created. A charismatic religious and political leader in the Arab world would have all the ingredients for organizing the third world against the industrialized and westernized nations. He could play on the religious history of the Middle East and on the conservative religious traditions everywhere in the third world. It's all quite plausible.
There is an alternative future, which has been seen in trance by Ann Jensen (see Premonitions: A Leap Into the Future, by Greenhouse, p. 278). She sees the world-wide religious revival and unified religion coming in 1980 rather than after 2017, and she sees world government and a new economic order arising between 1980 and 2000. As a result of these developments, there are only minor wars in the far East, no Armageddon, and the 'second coming of love' by 2000. These are the possibilities we must further. For instance, if we can create the world-wide ecolomat economy and the world aristarchian government by 1980, then we shall certainly avoid the economic and political tensions which otherwise contribute to Armageddon. We do not have much time, however. Exponential growth in a finite place comes to an end with cataclysmic suddenness.
Edgar Cayce did not predict Armageddon, either. Rather, he seemed more aware of the hypothetical nature of events. He certainly saw the possibility of world government: "Know that right, justice, mercy, patience...is the basis upon which the new world order must eventually be established before there is peace." Cayce did predict social chaos, which has not yet occurred. He predicted that there would be still another president who will not live through his office, and his death will produce mob rule. He also indicated the possibility of revolution: "Unless there is, then, a more universal oneness of purpose on the part of all, this will one day bring here in America---revolution!"
What about the natural disasters? According to Ann Jensen, 1977 will see a "cosmic upheaval" (Greenhouse, p. 276). When it comes to making predictions about earth changes, the master prophet was Edgar Cayce. We might begin by looking at some of his predictions which have already come to pass, to give a clue as to how to take the predictions. Reading 195-32, given August 27, 1926, predicted violent wind storms, two earthquakes, one in California, another in Japan with tidal waves to the southern portion of the isles near Japan, all of these to occur on or about October 15th to 20th, 1926, as a result of astrological influences of Jupiter and Uranus.
According to the anonymous author of EARTH CHANGES, who quotes the appropriate scientific authorities, October was an exceptionally stormy month in the North Atlantic, and in the Caribbean, and in the Kuril Islands, and in the vicinity of the Philippines. There was a California earthquake October 22, 1926, with three strong shocks up to magnitude VIII on the Rosso-Forel scale. Three earthquakes occurred in Japan on the 19th and 20th of October, but they were not strong shocks, and there were no reported tidal waves. Thus, the reading is generally accurate, though not exactly so, but the earthquakes are by no means catastrophic earthquakes, as we are somehow led to expect from a psychic prophecy.
Readings 3976-10 and 5748-6, both from 1932, illustrate the same point. They predict a shifting of the earth's axis in 1936, along with other accurate predictions about the rise of Fascism and the breakout of WW II. You may suppose the prophecy about the earth axis shift to be a miss. The interesting thing about it, is that it is a hit. Very accurate measurements of mean latitudes show that there was a minute pole shift between 1932 and 1938. Indeed, such minute pole shifts are observed fairly frequently today, with the aid of very accurate telescopes and atomic clocks. The shift in or around 1936 was the largest such shift from 1903 to 1952. There is evidence that these minute pole shifts are associated with major earthquakes. Nevertheless, the shift itself is completely unnoticeable except by very subtle scientific instruments.
The point is that the events predicted by Cayce are not necessarily severe or dangerous to life. The same caution must be made about the prophecies of cities underwater or Northern Europe changing in the 'twinkling of an eye.' These things could very well have some simple non-cataclysmic explanation.
Almost every psychic has predicted what sound like dire events for major capitals, such as New York. Paul Nearby sees a great stillness in New York; Allan Vaughan and Pendragon see New York underwater; Edgar Cayce says Los Angeles and San Francisco will be destroyed first, then New York. All of these disasters could refer to a gradual rise in seawater, which could result from the melting of the polar ice caps. What could melt them? The exponentially increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the air (industrial pollution) may dramatically increase the 'greenhouse effect' and may cause a general warming of the earth. Or the Russian's plan to divert Siberian rivers to the south could change weatherr patterns in the arctic. Another Soviet Siberian plan for putting great reflectors in space to warm Siberian regions could melt the ice caps. Such event might be allowed or even welcomed by the United States, because large cities are rapidly becoming unnecessary as well as unmanageable.
What earth change has Cayce predicted which have not yet come to pass? One thing he did not predict is that California would slide into the ocean. He did predict a major upheaval in nature, but said it would affect the southern hemisphere more than the northern. This may very well be the same upheaval seen by Ann Jensen for 1977 and Paul Neary for 1974-5. Edgar Cayce said that it would be sometime before 1998, but that it was not inevitable. To quote from reading 270-35, given January 21, 1936, "If there are the greater activities in the Vesuvius, or Pelee, then the southern coast of California---and the areas between Salt Lake and the southern portions of Nevada---may expect, within the three months following same, an inundation by the earthquakes. But these, as we find, are to be more in the southern than in the northern hemisphere."
There are several other readings which refer to this same event and amplify the description. For example, 3976-15: "The earth will be broken up in many places. The early portion will see a change in the physical aspect of the west coast of America...South America shall be shaken from the uppermost portion to the end, and in the Antarctic off Tierra Del Fuego, Land, and a strait with rushing waters." This is just the first installment on the physical changes. The second, described in reading 826-8, is that of a shifting of the poles and the beginning of a new astrological cycle in 2000 or 2001, which seems to fit in with Nostradamus's prediction of great deluges. Cheiro places this event in 2150, but there is reason to think his time scale always has to be contracted to be accurate.
In reading 3976-15, given in 1934, Cayce combines together all the major physical changes, including the pole shift:
As to the changes physical again: The earth will be broken up in the western portion of America. The greater portion of Japan must go into the sea. The upper portion of Europe will be changed as in the twinkling of an eye. Land will appear off the east coast of America. There will be upheavals in the Arctic and Antarctic that will make for the eruption of volcanoes in the torrid areas, and there will be the shifting of the poles---so that where there have been those of a frigid or semi-tropical will become the more tropical, and moss and fern will grow. And these will begin in those periods when His Light will be seen again in the clouds.
What are we to make of this? The analysis of the earlier confirmed Cayce prophecies must make us suspect that if the changes occur, they will not be as drastic as the reading makes it sound.
For instance, he says the changes will begin in our period. The toppling of the poles could be a gradual process, with many small jumps over thousands of years. And the changes described in Western America could all be caused by a simple subsidence of land, which would make the Great Basin of the west part of the Pacific again. Much of it is already below seal-level and has been flooded many times in past geological ages. It is not unusual for vast areas of land to rise or sink during a major (not necessarily cataclysmic) earthquake.
The second thing that must be pointed out is that these disasters (or any other prophecy) can be prevented. Reading 311-10: "What form will they take? To be sure that may depend upon much that deals with metaphysical as well as what people call actual...there are those conditions that in the activities of individuals, in line of thought and endeavor, oft keep many a city and many a land intact, through their application of the spiritual laws in their associations with individuals."
As with most things, the complete causes of earthquakes include both physical and psychonic factors. Absorption of gravitons provides the energy, plate tectonic movements provide the mechanism, but unless the earth's psychonic body changes the de Broglie vibes locally to allow some rock to bend or flow or break, then the plate movement does not occur.
It is easy to discuss fulfilled prophecy. The test is how well we can handle unfulfilled prophecy based on the coherent testimony of many great psychics. Only then can we truly be said to know the future by prophecy. Right now we seem to be facing two distinct futures, with the choice ours. If the future actually turns out to be some third alternative, wildly different from anything seen by the prophets, then we must conclude that knowing the future by prophecy is impossible. If, on the other hand, one or the other of the futures becomes part of our experience, we will know that knowing the future is possible by prophecy.
The idea of free will has never been successfully elucidated by the sophists (professional philosophers), simply because experience and concepts must develop together.
One curious thing about free will, is that belief in its existence or non-existence makes a great difference to societies, despite the fact that no one before Toynbee had ever been able to define it or say what it is. One of the reasons St. Augustine was quite right in rejecting astrology and oracles in his day, is that such things made people believe in fortune, or fate, and deny their own free will, and this was an important factor in the exhaustion and petrification of later Hellenic civilization. As usual, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
ST. MALACHY: The prophecy of St. Malachy is one that must stagger our belief in free will...or elucidate its nature. St. Malachy was an early twelfth century Irish monk and bishop, a friend of St. Bernard and renowned as a prophet and miracle worker. He healed the sick and raised the dead, and traveled all over Ireland, founding monasteries and convents. (See Justine Glass, They Foresaw the Future, p. 90). His prophecy consists in a description of all the remaining popes, from 1143 on beyond our times. According to Abbe Joseph Maitre, writing at the beginning of this century, the prophecy has so far been accurate. Malachy described 111 Popes, of whom all but four have served. Since these 111 popes an average slightly less than 8 years, the last pope will serve around the year 2000 or shortly after. According to Malachy, the last pontiff will be Peter of Rome, who shall serve during the "last persecution of the Holy Roman Church...shall feed the sheep amid great tribulations, and when these are passed, the City of the Seven Hills shall be utterly destroyed and the awful Judge...will judge the people." This seems to fit in with the numerous predictions of the 17 year reign of the Arab prince and of Armageddon (WW III) around the end of the century or shortly after. It is also believable that with the rise of scientific religion, Catholicism and all other previous traditional religions will gradually disappear.
Another monk predicted the last 20 popes in 1740, often naming names. Malachy's predictions are in the form of Latin phrases, such as De ruro Albo (Adrian IV, born at St. Albans) or Rosa Umbriae (Clement XIII, formerly governor of Umbria, whose symbol is the rose), or the present pope, the Flower of flowers, whose coat of arms is a floral design. It is apparent that one can identify Malachy's predictions with actual people only very close to the event (during the election of popes, for instance). This is also true of many of Nostradamus' prophecies. Be that as it may, Malachy's prophecies are among the most remarkable on record. How is it possible for the future to remain fixed and stable for 800 years if there is free will?
Thales' hypothesis is that the future will NOT remain so fixed and stable for so long in areas of human culture where there is any creative vitality. The last period of creative vitality for the papacy was precisely the period in which Malachy lived, the time of St. Bernard. By that time, the rituals, beliefs, and art forms of the Catholic church had all been fixed. This history of the Catholic church from that time to this has been merely a conservative holding action, a blind reaction against events, completely dictated by astrology and karma and the moira of the period. As the Chinese might have put it, the mandate of heaven (the creative forces and energies) left the church in the 12th century and moved to other realms of human action.
In studying the prophecies in Miss Glass's book, it appears that prophecies are almost always confined within a certain period or epoch of culture. The prophecies are always made well after the dominant idea patterns for that culture-epoch or civilization have been created. There are often prophecies about the end of such a period, but Egyptian prophecies do not deal with the Hellenic civilization, nor Hellenic prophecies with modern civilization. Thus, when a period is still in crysalis, as is the coming period of the age of Aquarius and of the Strength Tarot key, then the future is not determined and creative individuals can mold it one way or another.
Free will, unpredictability, and creative vitality all go together. As Toynbee has pointed out, challenges require creative responses, if the culture is to remain alive. Merely repeating old patterns or hanging on to existing institutions guarantees downfall. On the other hand, the past offers little clue to the correct response to a new challenge. The creative response is always surprising, often lying in the opposite direction from what one might expect.
Cayce throws light on the whole question of free will. He emphasized that no matter how restricted the circumstances and capabilities of any individual, each life is a set of challenges in Toynbee's sense, which may be met creatively and constructively, or mechanically. In the latter case, one 'loses,' meaning that one has built more obstructions and constrictions for oneself in future lifetimes. On the other hand, if one meets the challenges of life creatively, then one has gained slightly more opportunity, slightly more creative energies for future lifetimes. The 'lucky' people, the people of genius and talent, have slowly worked up to that status by making creative responses in humble lives. And if they use their gifts mechanically or unwisely, then they will sink back again in future lives to humble or miserable conditions.
If life were fatalistically determined, it would be impossible to avoid a prophecy made by so many proven psychics as that of Armageddon. If life were mere fate, there would be no difference between the history of fulfilled prophecy in creative institutions such as modern art or science, and uncreative institutions such as the Catholic church. But prophecies can be and have been avoided and there is a difference in the prophesiability of creative and uncreative institutions. This is empirically testable, as is Toynbee's idea of creative and uncreative response to historical challenges. Thus, free will is no longer a mere meta-physical chimera.
All the factors which constitute what the ignorant call fate are really just the ground rules of the cosmic LILA or sport (fig. 17). They are challenges, lessons, tools. But the way we play the game is unpredictable, unless we simply allow ourselves to become thing-like and mechanical.
One reason the sophists (professional philosophers) were never able to elucidate free will is that they could never conceive of any middle ground between total order and total disorder. Toynbee's concept of the creative response to a challenges provides that middle ground. Some sophists believe that you merely need to feed the facts into a logic machine, throw the switch and out will come solutions. But these are merely the mimetic and mechanical responses, which lead a culture further and further into degradation, decadence and lifelessness. The creative response is never of the same order as the facts and puzzles that go into making up the challenge. It is always surprising, and always supremely difficult to create (though often seeming obvious once it is created).
It is the struggle to surmount challenges and evolve that creates the meaning of the universe. It is the novelty of an ordered sort thus created which lies at the heart of the aesthetics theorem, and is the secret to the quality of life. Thus, it is foolish to remove all challenges, to make things too comfortable and easy, and equally foolish to think there could be or should be a stable, final solution to human problems. If there were, we would have to destroy it, and forget it, and begin all over.
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