Guided Visualizations & Meditations

The Metaphysics of the Internet

Sunday Inspirational Talk Given at the Celebration Center of Religious Science

Sunday, 5/18/97

By Christina Tillotson, RScP

I. Introduction

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to substitute for our wonderful Rev. Sunday Cote who is out of town one more time before my husband, John, and I move back home to California six weeks from today. .

Practitioner

I am passionate about a lot of things, and the Internet is one of them I consider myself first and foremost a Religious Science Practitioner, and everything else comes out of that. As many of you know, I teach a lot of classes in a lot of places in things that I'm passionate about --classes like the Roots of SOM, prosperity classes, meditation, a moving meditation called T'ai Chih Chih, , and beginning last month, Men are from Mars, Women are From Venus workshops. Thank you to all who came yesterday - we had an enlightening time!!

Internet

I also do a lot of Internet training and Internet Web Site developing. So, why the Internet on top of all of the other things? My mission in life is to share with people tools that enhance lives and organizations For me, the Internet is a very powerful one of those tools. (I Tell students in Net workshops that, when I found the Net four years ago,, I finally found what I wanted to be when i grow up. And, the truth, is, its one of the things about which I'm passionate that have the privilege of sharing with people and enhance my life in the process.

Some of my tai chi Chih students keep asking what the heck Internet has to do with T;ai Chih Chih and all of the other things that I teach. In the next 20 minutes, I'll attempt to answer that question. I believe that the Internet is a manifestation on this physical plane of many of the spiritual principles we teach in Religious Science.

II. Introduction to the Net

As many of you know, the Internet is an amorphous network of millions of computers throughout the world connected to each other by different means, often by just phone lines. The Internet is not run or managed by any person, group, organization, or nation. With the Internet, anyone can tap into a great deal of the accumulated knowledge of the human race with a few clicks of a mouse at any time from any place that has a connection. I read somewhere that within the next three years, all of the accumulated knowledge of humanity will be accessible through the Net. And, the Internet is a the most powerful communications tool that the world has ever seen, in my opinion. With it, one can communicate with one person or millions of people almost instantaneously.

It is very interesting to me that the huge explosion of the popularity of the Internet has coincided with the explosion of unabashed interest in Spirituality and the proliferation in bookstores and on television of best-selling spiritual teachers such as Deepak Chorpa, James Redfield, Marianne Williamson, and on and on and on. Although it is not surprising, it is very appropriate that these phenomena should so closely coincide in this time-space continuum. Even though the 100 million +_ people that use the internet now may or may not realize it yet, they are part of the evolution of the planet into a more spiritual society.

III. Emerson/Troward/ Knonke- everything everywhere at the same time

I think the Internet has the potential of empowering people even more radically than the printing press did in Europe in the 15th. century when it empowered people to discern for themselves the meaning of the scriptures by reading them themselves without the intercession of a priest.

In this place and time,I believe that The Internet is a Spiritual metaphor, and an exciting manifestation of the Principles of Religious Science, that are permeating the world in many ways. It shows that, as the mystics have taught, there is really no space or time. In Religious Science, we know that there is only One Divine Intelligence, God, which is manifest in all places and all times at once.

The Internet has shrunk the boundaries of our physical world-- people can easily communicate, receive information, and create information no matter where they live, and that information is delivered and received almost instantaneously. In Religious Science, Spirit; has no boundaries On this physical plane, the internet has no boundaries.

IV.. No place
A. Ramifications of placelessness

I've been thinking a lot about the ramifications of the placelessness of the Internet lately. From the beginning of Time, place has been a primary part of human consciousness - from the tribes of our ancestors to the nations of today---- where one's physical body resided was of primary importance.

William Knonke , author of a very fascinating book, Bold New World, talks very eloquently about the placelessness into which our world is evolving.

'But what if location becomes irrelevant? Imagine a world where you could close your eyes and appear in Bombay or Paris as if you had been assisted by a Star Trek transporter. Think of being in two or three spots at once. Further visualize the ability to move objects around the world as instantly and effortlessly as Aladdin's genie. The Placeless society is a world of everything and everybody being at once everywhere.

Knonke goes on to say:

"Such a world. of course, does not exist. Not yet. However, several mainstream technologies are rapidly evolving right now that may bring us pretty close. " Pundits talk of the satellite and fiber-optic links as being the highways of the future. while design engineers throw around words like "virtual reality" and "cyberspace".

"In the fourth dimension, everyone is compressed to a critical mass, accelerating the pace of debate and advancing the state of human knowledge in gargantuan strides."

I like to think of myself as one who is ready to embrace the placeless society, since I do a lot of work on the computer from home, and it really doesn't matter from where I do it unless I'm out teaching a class. So, I was surprised at my unenlightened reaction to the change in our area code back home that I found out about last week.

People in North SD county, where our house is, don't want to be identified with anything but San Diego county . I really became upset about our new area code that does not even include San Deigo itself but goes all the way up to central CA-, past LA!!! So, I have some work to do on my consciousness.

But placelessness has been a fact of my husband, John's, and my life for the past few months. Until a couple of weeks ago, we knew we were moving at the end of June, but didn't know whether it was going to be to Hawaii, Singapore, Monterey, the Hague, or back home!!! We now know it will be home to Cardiff by the Sea, at least for the time being.

In all of that uncertainty, I was feeling very disoriented and placeless. So, I got myself what's called a domain name, a name for a Web Site on the Net -- now, no matter where I am, or no matter where I choose to put that Web Site, it will be a constant for me. At the moment, it resides on a computer in Florida. Because it's name, www.enhancing.com, now belongs to me, it doesn't matter where we go or even upon which computer I put it - it is a stable "virtual" home where people can always contact me. -So, since I've had a home in cyberspace - I haven't felt quite so placeless.

A very Religious Science example of placeless the idea of Spiritual Mind Treatment. Treatment is our form of affirmative prayer which is one of the things I'm privileged to do for people as a RS Practitioner.

Ernest Holmes, the founder of RS, says,

"There is just one subjective mind in the universe. " And, he talks about the fact that place is irrelevant in Treatment.

As a RS Practitioner, I do a lot of treatment by phone, and even some by e-mail. I have people who call from all kinds of places in the Eastern US and my clients report the same positive results as the clients I see personally.

and, as place is irrelevant in treatment, in that subjective mind, the Law of God, as place is irrelevant on the Internet, time is irrelevant, too.

V. No Time

Time is just the movement of thought The mystics have said that time is just something we humans made up so that on this physical plane, things can happen in an orderly, linear way instead of all at once. On the Internet, everything can happen all at once. I can send a message to one person or million people at the same time. AS many people who choose can access our Church's Web Site all at once. On the Internet, everything happens in the present.

Chopra - The past is history, the future is a mystery, and this moment is a gift. That is why this moment is called the present.

A place on the WWW, a Web site is like that- no past, no future, only the present The information comes to one's computer for as long as one chooses, then, at click of a mouse , that information disappears and other information takes its place. It's a very immediate thing.

Living in this time--
I had to remind myself two weeks ago that there is really no time. I turned 50, and have been thinking about what a privilege it is to be living in this time on this physical plane.

Glad I got through graduate school on a manual typewrite - so I can really appreciate the power of the Net now!! I'm glad that I can now go out on the Net at 3:00 AM and find information for a talk or a class I'm doing the next. And, I'm glad that I am in the Religious Science teaching that embraces all discoveries of science, philosophy,a and spirituality. (That's why we're called RS!!!)

So there is no time, no place, even though we are living i this wonderful time and place, there is only one mind, as we teach in RS.

VII. One Mind

The Internet can also be a metaphor for the One Mind we teach in RS---

Thanks to Ed Preston for this quote from--Dilbert -(in a frenzy of programming)

All things go from simple to more complex. A supreme being must be our future, not our origin (We disagree --it's both.) What if God is the consciousness that will be created when enough of us are connected to the Internet?

Noel's article

Rev. Noel McGinnis, who co-founded this church over 10 years ago and is now a minister in California, wrote an aritcle about the Internet in Science of Mind Magazine a few months ago. In it, he addresses the one mind. I'm going to read some quotes from that article.

"The Internet is to the mobility of our minds what the wheel has been to the mobility of our bodies.

"Holmes proclaimed that there is only one Intelligence governing all things. "everything exists for the harmonious good of every other part.. Accordingly, the essence of all things in the universe, from thought forms to physical forms, is their interconnectedness. Since the essence of the One Mind is that of super connectivity, command of the One Mind in any of its expressions becomes possible only as we are in compliance with the the interconnectivity of all things."

"This inter connectivity characteristic of the One Mind is likewise for the Internet: the entire Internet may be accessed from any computer, even though none of the Internet's contents reside in most of the computers that access it. Ernest Holmes often remarked that "what exists in mind anywhere exists in mind everywhere." So it is with the Internet."

VIII. matter and non-matter

So, not only is there a placeless, timeless One Mind in the universe that is reflected on the net, but this One Mind is pure energy that simply changes form. That form is what we call matter, but it's only energy changing form.

A. roots, Hopkins discussion Einstein, energy, etc.

In Religious Science, we believe that all is God. Einstein said that matter is not created or destroyed, it just changes form. The modern quantum physicists has shown that the universe is made up of only energy, or bits of information, and that energy changes form. We know that that energy is God. The Internet is not a material thing. It is the ultimate manifestation of bits of information flying throughout the planet and being changed into a form that is useful to someone somewhere.

It's like the Life Force called Chi that I teach in T'ai Chi Chih classes.

We carbon-based entities allow that invisible life force called Chi (or The Force or God, or whatever you want to call it) to flow through us to promote healing and well-being and spiritual growth. The Internet allows those invisible bits and bytes of information to be captured and circulated and formed into useful, visible or audible information.

Even though the Internet is a very interesting metaphor for RS, it's a tool, not the be-all and end-all of all good in the world.

IX. I think it's a tool- a very powerful tool

Even though I think the Internet is wonderful, it is still just a tool. It is one of the most powerful tools avaiable, but it is a tool.

I was amazed when I first came here at all of the calls I was getting as a Practitioner from people all over the East who were far away from any church of RS and desperate to have more information and take classes.

A. That prompted me to resume my technology lobbying of United Church of RS HQ in LA. John and I had been lobbying United Church since about 1989 to get into the 20th. century technologically, and and stopped that lobbying the year before we moved here in 1993. The desperation of the people looking for RS information here in the East prompted me to resume my lobbying, this time for a presence on the internet. Almost two years ago, our Church was the first RS Church with its own Home Page (Web Site) on the Net. When I showed some of the UCRS powers that be our Site the year it was created, I told them that not using this God-given tool to get information out about SOM was like telling a Practitioner that they weren't allowed to pray for a client who was also seeing a doctor. (We believe in all tools for healing and enhancing one's life.) I told them that all of the tools are for our use, and the Net was the most powerful, easily accessible tools available.

B. I got appointed to the UCRS tech committee, and continued to lobby hard for a presence on the Net, along with a few other very dedicated people, including Rev. Noel McGinnis, who wrote to article I quoted earlier.

C. Well, it took almost two years, but UCRS is now, finally on line!!! Science of Mind Magazine went on-line last April, and United Church just went on line with its own Site last month. The neat thing is that Noel McGinnis, along with being a minister in San Carlos, CA, has gone into business as an Internet service provider!!! He and his partner and some other people are creating the UCRS Site.

And, the neat thing is, that although I had volunteered to created a Site for UCRS, no I don't have to do it because Noel is doing it. !!!!

D. Although I didn't create the Site myself, I was very honored to receive and e-mail last week from Rev. Duane Cox, the head of Growth, Education and Ministries at UCRS, thanking for for persisting in being an impetus for getting UCRS on-line.

E.I'm really happy that UCRS and now a lot of other RS churches are on-line. I'm looking forward to Ernest Homes writing and other to be easily accessible on the Net. I think there are Lots of closet metaphysicians on he Net -- A T'ai Chi student Thursday night was telling me that using the Net is like meditating - (he's a real techie) he says sitting and watching packets of information going back and forth is like going into a deep one-pointed meditation!!!

F. I'm so exited that a critical mass of churches on-line is mushrooming because I think of the net as a primary Communication tool. AS John Shotacicvich, from UCRS Youth ministries said last week when he visited us, we will soon be able to seemlessly communicate between churches, between people, among ministers, etc. I think this is especially crucial for the few churches here in the East so that we will feel more part of the movement and not be so isolated.

X. Jesus

In preparing for this talk, I Had a request to continue the last talk I did here in February and talk more about dispelling the myths about the great teacher and example, Jesus - This time, I really wanted to talk about the Internet. All I can say about Jesus and the Internet is that he surely would have seen it as the powerful communication tool it is and used it to spread his teachings. Using the Internet, his teachings would have remained as he originally taught them. And, he could have been everywhere at once during his lifetime instead of, as his disciples claimed, he was after the crucifixion and resurrection.

And to think that we don't have to go through a crucifixion and whatever happened next to have a presence everywhere at once as long as we use the Internet to do it!!! Jesus did say, greater things than these shall ye do!!! And, are we ever doing them.

XI. Conclusion

So, I see the Internet as a manifestation on this physical plane of the timelessness, the placelessness, the Oneness , and the non-materiality of the One Mind, God, Spirit, or whatever you want to call it. And one can tap into that energy or merge one's own energy into that energy at will.

And, going back to this physical space-time continuum,

I'll really miss the energy you all in this physical place called CCRS. It's interesting to me how, when I first came here, all I could think of was how much better back home was than here. Now, there are a lot of things here that I will really miss, especailly all of you. As Sunday has said so many times, this is truly a very special church in the RS movement. It's been such a privilege and a growing experience to be here. And, I'll work on expanding my consciousness to know in my heart that, as the Internet reflects, place is truly irrelevant.

I just want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for a great four years. And, when we do finally go home in six weeks, I'll see you on the net!!!!

Let's have a prayer.

Phone: 1-800-546-4061 (In San Diego County, CA: 760-944-2990) Email: christina@enhancing.com

[Home] [Mars/Venus] [T'ai Chi Chih] [Spirituality] [Visualizations] [Resources] [About Us]

Site by: A-MAZEINC.com