Transcript 1sacraments - what is it

Prof. M. M. Ninan
Marthoma Church of San Francisco Bay Area
Prof. M. M. Ninan
Marthoma Church of San Francisco Bay Area
Why is the horse not laughing?
Levels of cognitions
Because the horse does not understand
what they are saying.
Levels of cognitions
Here is another dilemma . The letter he received contains the above writing.
He cannot make sense to it. Why?
Because he does not know the language in which it is written.
The key is that it is written in Korean and if he
knew it, it meant “I love you.” To understand
that he needs to know the what those symbols
mean.
Levels of cognitions
Every culture understood these facts. In the ancient Hebrew culture the
cosmos was classified as four dimensions with sentient beings in every
dimensions sometimes spanning several dimensions at a time.
These dimensions are the four worlds:
Asiyyah (Action) - the material universe in which we live. This is the world
of sensations
Yezirah (Formation) - the abode of the "lower angels," men's souls and the
Garden of Eden. This is the world of mind, thought and patterns. The
mental realm. The first heaven
Beriah (Creation) - considered "Heaven" proper, it is the first separation
from the Divine, and "location" of the Throne of God and archangels.
This is the spiritual realm – the second heaven
Azilut (Emanation) - the eternal unchanging Divine world. This is the divine
realm – the third heaven
It is a convenient way of thinking.
These can be represented as a tree as is usually done in Hebrew mystic
tradition.
A traditional pictorial representation is given in the next page. We can think
that Man is living in a four level mansion. We usually live on the ground
floor and seldom ascend to the higher floors.
We live in four floors
The Hebrew Cosmology
The Jain Universe
1
2
3
4
We live in four floors
We know this
dimension through
our five senses
The Hebrew Cosmology
smell
taste
sight
hearing
touch
We have developed the
sciences of our world
using these sense
impulses – Physics,
Chemistry, biology etc.
We know this
dimension through
our five senses
Since man lives in a multidimensional world, we have other senses of
perceptions which are not just material. We learn through them also.
All learning comes through communication within the various realms
of existence.
"All instruction is either
about things or about signs;
but things are learned by
means of signs,“
(On Christian Doctrine, I:2).
A sign, is “something that
shows itself to the senses
and something other than
itself to the mind”
(Signum est quod se ipsum
sensui et praeter se aliquid
animo ostendit) (Augustine
De dial. 1975, 86)
Augustine of Hippas
(354-430 A.D.),
Without Signs
Nothing is conceivable
Sless, 1986
Symbol communicates
meaning purely through
arbitrary conventions.
This is the way natural
language carries meaning
Eye sees things because light
of different frequencies and
different intensities reach the
retina through a lens and then
the brain makes sense out of it
as some form of image.
Similar argument follows for
every sense perceptions of
ours.
“every thought is a sign”
Without Signs Nothing is conceivable
Sless, 1986
What the brain receive
through the senses are some
form of impulse which are
simply signs connected with
what is perceived. Hence
every thought that you have is
the product of a sign and is in
itself a sign.
These signs are associated
with object perceived by the
mind.
The next time when the brain
sees a sign it immediately
associates through memory to
the previous experience to the
object itself.
The reverse process takes
place when we perceive a sign
and this leads us to make
coherent connected thinking.
Object, Concept and its sign
form a triangular relation.
They are all distinct, yet
related.
...'reality' is always encoded,
or rather the only way we can perceive and make sense of reality
is by the codes of our culture.
There may be an objective, empiricist reality out there,
but there is no universal, objective way of perceiving and making
sense of it.
What passes for reality in any culture is the product of the
culture's codes,
so 'reality' is always already encoded, it is never 'raw'.
Fiske (1987 )
The Word became flesh
and tabernacled among us
Incarnation was nothing but the encoding of the divine into human realm so that we
may be able to understand what is otherwise not directly knowable. God is in our
realm and beyond and above all our dimensions. We can make some sense out of it
only when God can be understood by us in our world. This is what incarnation did.
“The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us”
Communication,
is not merely a characteristic of humans, or of living
organisms. .
Successful
survival in any
environment
depends upon an
organism's
ability to acquire
information from
its environment
through its
senses.
Fish can sense
light, chemicals,
vibrations and
electricity.
Communication, …. of living organisms.
There is no leader, no overall control; instead the flock's
movements are determined by the moment-by-moment
decisions of individual birds. How do they communicate?
Communication, is present
at the deepest levels of our material universe.
How do chameleons change color and how do they know
what color to change to?
How do they manage to get the camouflage colors?
Communication, is present
at the deepest levels
of our material universe.
Neurons are specialized cells that
convey sensory information into the
brain, carry out the operations
involved in thought and feeling and
action, and transmit commands out
into the body to control muscles and
organs.
The most prominent part of the
neuron is the cell body or soma.
The nucleus is the largest organelle
inside the cell body and contains the
cell’s chromosomes.
Dendrites are extensions that branch
out from the cell body to receive
information from other neurons.
The axon extends like a tail from the
cell body and carries information to
other locations.
Because of the nerve cells that surround the body like a net, messages from the brain
reach the most remote areas of the body with great speed.
In the brain of one individual|
one quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000)
communications can occur
simultaneously
In the brain of one individual|
one quadrillion
(1,000,000,000,000,000)
can occur
Human bodycommunications
is a marvellous
simultaneously
communication
system using signals.We
describe them in terms of neurons and
electric potential variations through the
nerves.
A gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism.
All living things depend on genes.
Genes hold the information to build and maintain their cells and pass genetic
traits to offspring.
Genes are stranger forms of encoded transmission of properties, characters,
traits etc in many dimensions from one generation to the other.
It is like a documentation through out ages
from the beginning of creation.
DNA transmits inherited experience
in coded form. It is decoded in organism’s
physique, Character and behavior
Decoding of the coding of
DNA
codon-to-amino acid
paradigm
The genetic code is
the set of rules
by which information
encoded in genetic material
(DNA or RNA sequences) is
translated into proteins
(amino acid sequences) by
living cells. The code defines
a mapping between trinucleotide sequences, called
codons, and amino acids
Here is the three-letter code
employed to encode the 20
standard amino acids used
by living cells to encode
proteins where informations
are stored.
Decoding of DNA proteins
The human genome is the
full complement of genetic
material in a human cell; it
contains instructions for
making all the protein
molecules for all the
different kinds of cells of
the human body – neurons
in the brain, red blood cells,
bone tissue, liver cells, etc.
In decoding DNA,
researchers determine the
"sequence" or exact order
of the individual chemical
building blocks, or bases,
that make up the DNA.
Human DNA contains 3 billion base pairs
The total length of DNA in 1 human equals 70 round
trips from the Earth to the Sun
This is the study of inheritance,
the passing of traits from on generation to the next.
Genes are the units of hereditary, found at specific loci on each
chromosome.
Genes are made up of DNA, and DNA replication in meiosis passes on
the genes to offspring.
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)
is a nucleic acid that contains
the genetic instructions used in
the development and
functioning of all known living
organisms and some viruses.
The main role of DNA
molecules is the longterm storage of
information.
You are the decoded reality of your DNA in all dimensions.
The information goes back to
Adam and Eve
or even to the creation
Meiosis produces genetic
recombination,
because each daughter cell is
given half of the genetic
material as the original
dividing cell.
Sacraments are the DNA codes
In the transmission
Of
Faith
From one generation
to the other.
ommunication
hannels
Communication channels in the atom, brain, and modem
Transmission
from Source
Medium & communication
channel
Received at destination &
form sent
Transmitter
sends
microwave
communicati
on
Travels via empty space to satellite Travels over cables to be
dish which send again through
reconstructed as same
medium of space to receiver
communication sent
Brain
Soma sends
message
Sent over axon to synaptic knob
where shot as neurotransmitter
through a space called synaptic
cleft
Next received by dendrite and
travels to next soma
Atom
Protons send
W+
Travels via inter-nuclear space
along wave function
Received by neutron which
somehow analyzes and
recognizes W+ and emits W-
Modem
Atomic communication channels
Communication medium: wave function
Source <=> Destination
Messenger
Electrons <=> Nucleons
Photons
Weak particles &
Protons <=> Neutrons
gluons
Quark
<=> Quark
Gluons
Universe
Tribes, flocks
Organism
Organ Systems
Organs
Cells
Macromolecules
Molecules
Atoms, ions
Quarks
Strings
Our brains mathematically construct "concrete" reality
by interpreting frequencies from another dimension, a realm of
meaningful, patterned primary reality that transcends time and
space.
The God gene hypothesis proposes that
human beings inherit a set of genes that
predisposes them to believe in a higher
power. The idea has been postulated by
geneticist Dean Hamer, the director of the
Gene Structure and Regulation Unit at the
U.S. National Cancer Institute.
The God gene hypothesis is based on a
combination of
• behavioral genetic,
• neurobiological
and
• psychological
studies.
The Vesicular Monoamine Transporter 2 or VMAT2 is an
integral membrane protein that acts to transport
monoamines—particularly neurotransmitters such as
dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin, and histamine—
from cellular cytosol into synaptic vesicles.
In humans, the VMAT2 protein is encoded by the VMAT2
gene. A single change in a single base of the gene seems
to be directly related not to the belief in God, but to the
increased probability that that individual will identify as
spiritual.
There is a
statistically
significant
correlation
between
religious
behavior and
the isoform of
VMAT2?
"It's a pump. A teeny-tiny pump responsible for packaging a neurotransmitter
for export during brain activity. The neurotransmitter is released at the
synaptic knob at the tip of an axon into the synaptic cleft. It diffuses across to
the opposite membrane (the postsynaptic membrane), where it triggers the
propagation of a nerve impulse in the next neuron.
The major arguments of the theory are
(1) spirituality can be quantified by
psychometric measurements;
(2) the underlying tendency to spirituality
is partially heritable;
(3) part of this heritability can be
attributed to the gene VMAT2
(4) this gene acts by altering monoamine
levels, and
(5) spirituality arises in a population
because spiritual individuals are
favored by natural selection.
However Hamer notes that the importance of the
VMAT2 finding is not that it explains all spiritual or
religious feelings, but rather that it points the way
toward one neurobiological pathway that may be
important.
Determination of the transcriptional
initiation site of the rat VMAT2 gene,
by primer extension analysis
Biochemical Journal (1999) Volume 337, 193-199
The discovery of vmat2 seems to imply that spirituality is transmitted
from parents to children like other human traits.
The gene, it is well known, makes membrane-covered containers that
neurons use to deliver neurotransmitters to one another. What do they
transfer? How are they decoded?
Hamer proposes that the God gene changes the
level of these neurotransmitters so as to alter a
person’s mood, consciousness and, ultimately,
self-transcendence.
He goes so far as to say that the God gene is,
along with other faith-boosting genes, a product
of natural selection.
Self-transcendence makes people more
optimistic, which makes them healthier and
likely to have more kids.
Actual messages
from the human
brain are not a
function of the
human brain itself –
they are not
generated by the
brain.
IS THE WORLD IN THE
BRAIN, OR THE BRAIN IN
THE WORLD?
The Third Eye
and the Pineal Gland
The pineal gland
Produces Melatin
The Pineal Gland is about the size of a pea, and is in the center of the brain in
a tiny cave, behind and above the pituitary gland, which lies a little behind the root
of the nose. It is located directly behind the eyes, attached to the third ventricle.
The true function of this mysterious gland, has long been contemplated by
philosophers and Spiritual Adepts. Ancient Greeks believed the pineal gland,
to be our connection to the Realms of Thought. Descartes called it, the Seat of
the Soul.
Our powerful pineal gland is believed to
be the seat of our soul and the gateway
to the universe and to higher realms.
Because it’s structure is remarkably
similar to our eye balls, it’s called the
‘third eye’ or the ‘mind’s eye’. It actually
has a lens, cornea and retina.
The pineal gland is bio-luminescent
and is sensitive to light. Like a cell
phone, it has a built in wireless
transmitter and is the connecting link
between the physical and
spiritual worlds and higher frequencies.
By awakening our pineal gland, we can
speed up our learning and memory
abilities, enhance our intuition and
creativity, trigger our psychic healing
abilities and experience bliss.
What is transmitted… is a message of the universe that
represents a certain meaning.
Upon receiving such a command,
our brain will process this into our present language or
other…forms of expression
In Sacramental Symbols which are in our present language and
forms, the brain tries to interpret it in terms of the universal
dimensions and codings. These form part of the future person,
behavior and decisions.
Sacraments thus form the anchoring force of faith and beliefs.
Man a Holographic generator.
Pribram's Holonomic Theory of Memory
Object beam
= current
experience
The brain behave,
like a hologram.
Reference beam = state of man
which is created by history and all
inputs from all dimensions of
existence.
What Man recognizes
Just as a hologram functions as a sort of lens,
a translating device able to convert an apparently meaningless
blur of frequencies into a coherent image,
the brain also comprises a “lens” and uses holographic principles
to mathematically convert the frequencies it receives through
the senses into the inner world of our perceptions.
Immediate perception impulses
Inherited understanding
Quantum Holonomic model of brain
This is what a hologram will look like
Often meaningless blur of rituals are
transformed into a coherent image by the
spiritual lens which convert the frequencies
it receives through the senses into the inner
world of our perceptions.
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for
they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them,
because they are spiritually appraised. 1Co 2:14
Only the Spiritual Man has the decoder reference
Hebrew Cosmology again
We live in four floors
The Hebrew Cosmology
We live in four floors
We know this
dimension through
our five senses
The Hebrew Cosmology
Influenced
from top
and bottom
worlds
We know this
dimension through
our mind - thinking
Our mental
perception is
based on the input
both from the top
and the bottom
levels
The Hebrew Cosmology
Pancha Kosam
“We are constituted by the intersection of two flows—one direct,
from the divine, and one indirect, from the divine via our
environment and history. We can view ourselves as interference
patterns, because the inflow is a wave phenomenon, and we are
where the waves meet.”
Rev. Dr. George F. Dole,
Professor of theology at the Swedenborg School of Religion in Newton,
Massachusetts
In Sacramental Symbols which are in our present language
and forms, the brain interprets it in terms of the universal
dimensions and codings.
These form part of the future person, behavior and decisions.
Sacraments thus form the anchoring force of faith and beliefs.
All four worlds are
filled with created
beings.
Seraphim
Cherubim
Dominions
Virtues
Powers
Principalities
Archangels
Angels
Sons of Men
Three Heavens
(2Co 12:2) I knew a man in
Christ above fourteen years
ago, such an one caught up
to the third heaven.
“For by Him all things were created,
both in the heavens and on earth,
visible and invisible, whether
thrones or dominions or rulers or
authorities—all things have been
created by Him and for Him. And
He is before all things, and in Him
all things hold together.”
We live in four floors
We know this
dimension through
our Spirit
The Hebrew Cosmology
Restricted to
Sons of God
only
The Hebrew Cosmology
Man was created as
Sons of God
PROF.M.M.NINAN
Psa 8:5 For thou hast
made him but little
lower than God, and
crownest him with glory
and honour.
PROF.M.M.NINAN
After the fall – thrown out of paradise
For a little while limited within the three
Lower realms
Heb 2:7 You have made him a little
lower than the angels. You
crowned him with glory and honor
and set him over the works of Your
hands.
Gal 3:26 For ye are all
the children of God
by faith in Christ Jesus.
PROF.M.M.NINAN
Because of who he is and of
what he did for us, we have
the opportunity to become
by grace what he is by
nature. That is, we can put
on the divine, becoming
partakers of the divine
nature.
A life of repentance and
participation in the
sacraments is the means by
which man cooperates with
God.
This cooperation is termed
synergeia (synergy).
In theosis, man becomes filled
with the divine life. He takes
on God's attributes, but he
does not become merged with
the Holy Trinity. There is
union without fusion.
Thus, a classic patristic
image of theosis is a sword
held in a flame—the sword
gradually takes on the
properties of the flame
(light and heat), but
remains a sword.
Man can become a god by grace,
not in a polytheistic sense,
but rather in terms of becoming
a son or daughter
of the Most High by means of adoption.
But we all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of
the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to
glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.
(2Co 3:18)
till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge
of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fulness of Christ: (Eph 4:13 )
Man Class
These two classes are connected
only through the fourth dimension.
God Class
PROF.M.M.NINAN
“We are constituted by the intersection of two flows—one direct,
from the divine, and one indirect, from the divine via our
environment and history. We can view ourselves as interference
patterns, because the inflow is a wave phenomenon, and we are
where the waves meet.”
Rev. Dr. George F. Dole,
Professor of theology at the Swedenborg School of Religion in Newton,
Massachusetts
In Sacramental Symbols which are in our present language
and forms, the brain interprets it in terms of the universal
dimensions and codings.
These form part of the future person, behavior and decisions.
Sacraments thus form the anchoring force of faith and beliefs.
The sacraments are rituals
through which the grace of
Christ is communicated to
persons by the power of the
Holy Spirit operative in their
administration.
It is understood as an experience of grace, subsequent to
salvation, with the effect that the Holy Spirit takes full
possession of the soul, sanctifies the heart, and empowers
the will so that one can love God and others blamelessly in
this life. One is justified and then sanctified-understood as
communing with God with the result that the holiness of God
is actually imparted, not just imputed on the basis of what
Christ accomplished on the cross.
(Mar 4:11-12)
And he said to them,
"To you has been given
the secret of the kingdom of God,
but for those outside
everything is in parables;
so that they may indeed see
but not perceive,
and may indeed hear
but not understand;…."
They don’t know the code
Even though the human brain seems to be bound
to the material realm and it receives its impulses
from the material world, the ultimate image
formed in the brain is a complex product of the
multidimensional existence of the holographic
brain/
Formation of the image as seen by a man is due to the interaction
of the light rays received with the neural causes and correlates of
consciousness and the neural representation of the object itself.
Object beam
Referemce beam
The reference
beam contains
both conscious
levels and the
unconscious
levels.
The decoding by our
brain is a complex
process. The external
input interferes with
the reference beam
to get an output
The complex
interaction between
external object
beam and the
internal reference
beam produces the
final image and
consequent
expressions.
Neuro Linguistic Programing interpretation
The Neuro Linguistic Programing Communication Model
Experiential Sonship of God through Christ
Spiritual
understanding
Spiritual
Assurance
Intellectual
understanding
Intellectual
anchoring
Tangible
Rites and Rituals
Fruits of the Spirit:
Christianity in
action
(Mar 4:11) And he said to them, "To
you has been given the secret of the
kingdom of God, but for those
outside everything is in parables;
(Mar 4:12) so that they may indeed
see but not perceive, and may indeed
hear but not understand;…."
How external
sacraments
leads to greater
understanding of
God and causes
transformation of
conduct and
behavior
God within
and the
transformation
of body
DIVINE
Divine
Transformed into His
likeness
Spirit
Mind
Body
Sacramental life
The Sacraments, or Sacred Mysteries
are the most important
means
by which the faithful may obtain
union with God,
provided
they are received
with faith and appropriate preparation.
.
God is present everywhere and fills all things
by his Divine grace,
and that
all of creation is a "sacrament."
In that sense there is nothing profane.
We set apart some of the ordinary and make it
sacred. It is the purpose and act of man that make
the profane sacred.