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No one in government pays the slightest attention to the root of the undocumented immigrants� complaints and demands. None of the present reform efforts in Congress is relevant to or addresses the true cause of these immigrants� claims for legal rights as other Americans.

Consider you were walking home at night. A pickpocket, suddenly, jumps on your front with a gun pointed at you and demands your valet. Unwillingly, you surrender your valet and he lets you go. The valet contained all the money you owned. You hide in a corner and follow him to his resident. You know you cannot face him openly to get your valet back. You try to find a way to get in the house attempting to retrieve your valet or take some of his belongings in return. He catches you and calls the police. Police arrests you for your illegal breaking and entering into his house. The pickpocket denies your claim about your valet and you are taken away for attempted burglary. Leaving the house, you whisper to him that you will be back to get your money. As a result of your threat, the owner places bars on the windows and fortifies the entrance to the house to prevent happening of such incidents without thinking that the man he robbed had a legal right to his money which is now in his possession.

This is what we have been doing in regard to undocumented immigrants. All immigrants coming to the United States from any developing country, where the American corporations have or have had established business, have certain claim on the American wealth which was accumulated as a result of subjugation of that county�s labor force where the workers received minimal survival wages, with no sick leaves, no meaningful retirement benefits or health care, and working long hours under excruciating work environment.

They are entitled to attain legal status,(1) social benefits such as health care and education for themselves and their children for which their present and previous generations of workers in their native country were entitled but were denied by their American employers.

The U.S. national and state governments are also responsible, financially and socially, to assist the undocumented immigrants in getting jobs, settling down, and receiving social benefits accorded to the U.S. citizens. This responsibility comes from the U.S. government�s bloody hands in establishing influence and dominance in their native country in order to sustain stability and security for the operation of the U.S. corporate entities who ravaged the nation�s resources and wealth, subjugated its working class and suppressed its people through a dictatorial government under American protection.

For example consider the power and influence of the American Fruit Company in Central and South America established and operated for decades at the cost of tens of thousands lives of innocent citizens whose only crime was to have control over their own land and national resources. The history is well illustrative of the American direct or indirect and often bloody suppression in countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq. In some of these countries the U.S. military operation had amounted to the level of genocide such as Vietnam where 2 to 4 million human lives were destroyed including total population of many villages; Indonesia, where by the help of the U.S. government the socialist government of Sukarno was overthrown and replaced by that of Suharto who slaughtered about 800,000 of his own people and an additional 250,000 in East Timor; Iraq where, according to a recent study, 625.000 lives have been banished so far, nearly 99 percent being innocent men, women and children.

It is interesting to notice that the American economic elite was much harsher on its own people before paying attention to the economic and human resources abroad. For over two centuries until the early twentieth century,this elite's sole objective was to sustain stability, often by force, and create means to maximize profits and accumulate wealth and power by enslaving the poor and working class with nearly total disregard to their welfare even essential needs. For example, "The economic crisis of 1857 brought the shoe busines to a halt and the workers of Lynn (Massachusetts) lost their jobs. ...Prices were up, wages were repeatedly cut, and by the fall of 1859 men were earning $3 a week and women were earning $1 a week, working sixteen hours a day."(2) That was 96 hours per week including Saturdays amounting to nearly 3 cents per hour for men and one cent per hour for wemen.

"A newspaper in North Carolina in August 1855 spoke of 'hudreds of thousands of working class families existing upon half-starvation from year to year'"(3) "in 1860s in New York City, girls sewed umbrellas from six in the morning to midnight, earning $3 a week from which employers deducted the cost of needles and thread. Girls who made cotton shirts received twenty-four cents for a twelve-hour day."(4) "The crisis was built into a system which was chaotic in its nature, in which only the very rich were secure. It was a system of periodic crisis -- 1837, 1857, 1873 (and later: 1893, 1907, 1919,1929) -- that wiped out small businesses and brought cold, hunger, and death to working people while the fortunes of the Asters, Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, Morgans, kept growing through war and peace, crisis and recovery."(5)

W. E. B. DuBois an Afro-American intellectual who came to teach at Atlanta University "saw the late nineteen century betrayal of the Negro as part of a larger happening in the United States, something happening not only to poor blacks, but to poor whites. In his book Black Reconstruction, written in 1935, he said:

'God wept, but that mattered little to an unbelieving age; what mattered most was that the world wept and still is weeping and blind with tears and blood. For there began to rise in America in 1876 a new capitalism and a new enslavement of labor.'"(6) Regarding the expantion of the American elite's operation abroad DuBois wrote later: "Home labor in cultured lands, appeased and misled by a ballot whose power the dictatorship of vast capital strictly curtailed, was bribed by high wage and political office to unite in an exploitation of white, yellow, brown and black labor in lesser lands..."(7)

More importantly, Americans who don't want Mexicans to immigrate, should remember or learn that Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase had doubled the territory of the United States, extending it to Rocky Mountains, bordering Mexico in the southwest, which had won its independence in a revolutionary war against Spain in l821. It was a large country which included Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, and part from Colorado. After agitation and aid from the United States, Texas broke off from Mexico in 1836 as the "Lone Star Republic" which was brought into the Union as a state by Congress in 1845. Then the United states decided to invade Mexico to occupy territories to the west of the Rocky Mountains, California in particular.(8)

Colonel Ethan Allen Hitchcok, commander of the 3rd Infantry Regiment, wrote in his diary: "Fort Jesup, La., June 30, 1845. Orders came last evening by express from Washington City directing General Taylor ... immediately to proceed with his whole command to the extreme western border of Texas and take up a position on the banks of or near the Rio Grande, and he is to expel any arm force of Mexicans who may cross the river."(9) The traditional border between Texas and Mexico had been the Nueces River, about 150 miles to the north, and both Mexico and the United states had recognized that as the border.(10)

General Taylor's visit to the tent of his aide Hitchcock to discuss the move is described by the latter in his diary: "He seems to have lost all respect for Mexican rights and is willing to be an instrument of Mr. Polk for pushing our boundary as far west as popssible."(11) The army progressed and arrived, March 28, 1846, in cultivated fields and hatched-roof huts hurriedly abandoned by the Mexican occupants, who had fled across the river to the city of Matamoros.(12) All that was needed was a military incident to begin the war that President Polk wanted. It came in April, when General Taylor's quartermaster, Colonel Cross, while riding up the Rio Grande, disappeared. His body was found eleven days later. It was assumed he had been killed by Mexican guerrillas. The next day (April 25), a patrol of Taylor's solders was surrounded and attacked by Mexicans, and wiped out: sixteen dead, others wounded, the rest captured. The Mexicans had fired the first shot. They had done what the American government wanted. It did not matter that they were defending their country against foreign occupation.

Colonel Hitchcock had predicted: "I have said from the first that the United States are the aggressors. ... We have not one particle of right to be here. ... It looks as if the government sent a small force on purpose to bring on a war, so as to have a pretext for taking California and as much of this country as it chooses, for, whatever becomes of this army, there is no doubt of a war between the United States and Mexico. ... My heart is not in this business ... but, as a military man, I am bound to execute orders."(13)

Accordingly, The Mexican people, have every right, historical, legal and natural, as part owners of the land taken away from them by brute force. They have right to come to the states which were part of the Mexican territory before the war. Those are their land and they have legal and natural right to be there. We are the aggressors, usurpers and occupiers. No country can take the territory from another by force and against the will of its people.

On August 2001 a study by North American Integration and Development (NAID) Center estimated that assumed 3 million undocumented immigrants from Mexico alone contributed $154 billion to the U.S. GDP in 2000 including $77 billion to the Gross State Product of California.(14) Using a higher estimate of 4.5 million, their contribution rose to 220 billion.(15)

Based on all these facts, Mexican people have every right to enter to parts from their motherland taken away from them by force and fraud and reside there as their own land. They may even try to take their land back not by force, which seems impossible, but by the weapon supplied to them by the U.S. Constitution, the ballot box. For this purpose they must be organized nationwide with a definit plan and coordination as how to take back their territory state by state. They would have important allies including Latino immigrants from other countries of South and Central America and a substantial number of those from the rest of the world. They would have also sympathizers from ordinary citizens which will vote for their candidate.

Based on the March 2002 Current Population Survey estimates, there are 34.5 million foreign-born population in the United states(16) of which 9.3 million are undocumented. Mexicans make up 57 percent of the total or about 5.3 million. 23 percent or 2,2 million are from other Latin American countries together constituting about 80 percent of all undocumented immigrants.(17)

Since World War II, forty-eight nations have been the subject of open U.S. military action or military assistance to a friendly dictatorial regimes and, at least, twenty two nations have been subject to covert operation, nearly all administered by the CIA, such as assassinations, military coups, bribery, all aimed to sustain dictators willing to protect American economic interests.

The presently claimed 12 million undocumented immigrants in the country are a very small part from the working people in developing countries subjugated, sppressed and exploited for decades by the American corporations resulting to accumulation of enormous wealth taken out of these countries amounting to trillions of dollars. In all fairness, American people owe them something substantial in return. They should be allowed to stay and be treated like citizens as a part payback from what we have taken from countries under our present or previous subjugation. The government�s reform policy should also allow two to four million immigrants to enter our country each year to benefit from our social and economic resources while contributing to our social and economic well being.

If Congress is truly interested in solving the problem, this is the only rational and humane way to go. Building a protective wall, the National Guard watch, or other protective measures will not stop immigration as long as people of countries we have benefited from their labor and resources are conscious of their well documented subjugation by the American economic entities. They think they have a valid claim on American wealth which allows them a right to share in its prosperity which they have contributed to be materialized.

Immigration from developing countries to America will not last for long since the U.S. economy has started its downfall as a result of globalization and free trade.(18) Increasingly, the U.S. production of goods and services will be outsourced to countries with low costs of production and marketing, causing substantial decrease in domestic production, increasing unemployment, decreasing wages and other benefits. As this inevitable downhill trend continues, Americans will have no choice but accept low wage jobs now taken by the immigrants. All these changes will cause a decrease in immigration and the start of migration of Americans to countries where the jobs will be.

Consequently, the immigration reform as proposed above would be a temporary policy. It is estimated that by 2030 unemployment rate in the United States will rise above 12 percent. People will be happy if they could earn enough for a modest living standards. Luxury living standards will be history except for a very few super rich. Immigration will cease to be a problem.

____________________________________________________________

References:

1. Matt C. Abbott. "Undocumented Immigrants Should Be Given Legal Status"

2. Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States:1492-Present, New York: Harper Collins. p. 231

3. Ibid. p. 232

4. Ibid., p. 234

5. Ibid., p.242

6. Ibid., p.210

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid., p.149

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid., p.150

11. Ibid.

12. Ibid.

13. Ibid., p. 151

14. Matt C. Abbott. op. cit.; Eving Walter. "Immigration Policy for the 21st Century: The Case for legalization of Undocumented Immigrants"

15. Ibid.

16.

17. Ibid.

18. See "Globization and the End of Capitalism"

Dr. Reza Rezazade

Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin

B.S.M.E., LL.B., J.D., LL.M., Ph.D., S.J.D.

Wbsite: www.democracywhere.com

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Dangers of Underestimating Iran

Iran is not afraid of the United States because it has a better, more devastating weapon than the atomic bomb against the United States. It is obvious that Iran could be of no danger to the United states if it possessed such weapon because it has no delivery system and has no intention of invading its neighbors. It only fears Israel as the U.S. proxy. It may need atomic weapons for security reasons while it is surrounded by nations possessing such weapon. Iran is correct with its claim that its atomic energy establishments are for peaceful purpose. It may mean that if Iran possessed such weapon, it would not be for offensive purpose but for stopping intimidation by other countries such as Israel.

With this strategy in minds, Iran should not be pressured to stop its atomic energy research. After all, India, Pakistan and Israel were not pressured not to engage in such activities. If Iran is unjustly pressured by the United States and Europe, there may come a point that it may have no choice but to counteract. Iran is in a position of wrecking the American and European economies just in a matter of hours. If Iran is pushed against the wall or its installations are bombed, it may be obliged to bomb and deactivate the Saudi Arabia's famous oil refinery, the largest in the region, capable of refining some 10 percent of the world's oil. Iran can do this by launching a few of its long range missiles accurately directed to their targets.

Regardless of any counteraction against Iran by its enemies, the damage will be done. Iran may also threaten that any counteraction may oblige it to invade other oil installations in the region except those of Iraq. Ayatollah Khamnei recently clearly declared that in the case of American intervention, no American interest in the region will be spared.

It is estimated that restoring this refinery to its present level of production will require at least six months and this destruction alone will cause, also as estimated, the price of oil to rise to $6.00 in the U.S. and $10.00 in Europe. In the United States, the production cost and price of nearly all commodities will skyrocket, Many small and medium size businesses will go bankrupt; a significant part of the work force would become unemployed and the life will become hectic even for the middle class Americans. The government, already operating with some $500 billion deficit and with substantially reduced revenues, will not be able to respond to desperate conditions of the population or the protection of its global policies.

With all these easily possible actions, a wise decision for the West may seem to let Iran alone in its atomic energy endeavors in accordance with the nonproliferation treaty which allows member countries to do research and discoveries in the atomic energy field.

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ALIENS AND ANGELS: WHO ARE THEY?

This topic has been the subject of discussions, debates and often stormy arguments for centuries, none having a tangible evidence showing the reality or truth about their existence except statements by some people as seeing them, even talking to them, all ending up to be hearsays including those known as biblical. In reality both aliens and angels exist. Here I will attempt to explain the scientific base for their existence. Since this theory deals with non-material world, understanding it may not be easy unless the reader has read some of the materials about the creation of the universe, its course of development, maturity, decline and disappearance. These materials are cited at the reference section at the end of this essay.

Angels and aliens are the same beings. There are no demons because all aliens or angels are good beings that visit us on earth and attempt to lead us to discover and understand the meaning and purpose of life, the reason for us to be here, and the whole purpose of creation and evolution. Accordingly, they try to move us toward being good, loving, and caring human beings with respect for honesty and dignity within ourselves and toward others; try to keep us away from bad and inhuman tendencies such as materialism and accumulation of wealth beyond our daily needs, suppression, exploitation, and hurting of others. Simply, they help us to understand the meaning of life, who we are, why we are here, and where did we come from. But we won’t feel their presence unless we develop an inner consciousness about their presence. This is not an easy matter. It requires hard work, more likely through meditation, expanding our mental capacity to feel their presence, understand the nature of their existence and then be able to communicate with them. Yes, you can communicate with them if you have determination and endurance to travel the rocky passage mental development to reach them.

Who are the angles and aliens? First, there are no fallen angles as it has been claimed to be by different historical and religious sources. If we understand the nature of the Creator, Its (God has no gender) power and characteristics, and the way the universe was created and set up, its purpose and operation, we easily reject such claims. Angles and aliens both are purified souls who initially lived as human beings like us. They were few in number in each human generation, among millions of other human beings, who through their own efforts were able to discover the secrets of being, the essence of the Creator, the secrets of the creation and evolution of the Universe, reason for their own existence. They were honest, caring, humble, devoted to help others in finding their way toward discovering the same knowledge and purification they themselves had experienced. When they left their material body, they ascended to the special place reserved for them in another universe which was non-material and permanent. They were high quality spirits, deciding to continue the same guidance activities they had ardently followed when they were material humans. It is important to note that angels existed, billions of them, far before the human race was created on the Planet Earth, because, they came from many other planets in the Universe with advanced civilization, as they became purified and left their material body. This may be a reason that some religions consider, since they existed before the human life was created on the Planet Earth, they must have belonged to the heavenly world. Of course this thought was correct since all angels, being purified beings, belong to the heavenly world of the Creator.

For better understanding the nature, characteristics, life and functions of the aliens and angels, we have to go all the way up and start from the Creator known by different names in different religions and thought of under different images. The following description has nothing to do with any religion because the Creator is a secular being and does not belong to any religion. It is a scientific description of the Creator and the whole concept of being which consists of not one but three universes all put together. For better understanding this complex system reference to materials at the end of this writing is a necessity. Here there is neither space nor relevancy to the subject matter of this writing to discuss these matters in more detail.

We start with the material universe which is the smallest of the three. As to how it was created and its evolution and the future course, the reader is guided to read Universe Long Before the Big Bang cited below. The mind or spirit is the true existence of every human being located in his material body like a pilot in an airplane cockpit with all levers and switches it employs to operate its material component, in this case the body. The mind actually belongs to another universe which is non-material, scientifically known as “dark matter,” and proved to be about five times the size of the material universe. In this universe the time has a different dimension and nearly stops. Because, non-material universe is much closer to matterless universe where there is neither time nor space. This has not been measured yet but as an example consider that one second passage of time in non-material universe is equivalent of fifty years in the material world. This fact is very important and we will come back to it later. The third universe is matterless thus is not subject to time or space. Therefore, it is timeless and spaceless with no beginning or end, limitless in size, existing everywhere. This consists of pure energy which is the source of life everywhere, scientifically known as “dark energy”. It is the source of limitless intelligence, power, and creativity, and in control of everything including the two other universes both being Its creation. This Pure Energy we know as the Creator recognized in a variety of religions as the God, Allah, Ahura Muzd , Izaad, Khodah, Yazdan, and so on. But the Creator is a totally secular being and does not belong to any specific religion. All religions are man-made.

The evolution is in a process leading the whole universe and everything in it to perfection. It was created from the perfect matterless (nothing, from material viewpoint) and as it moves to perfection it will end ultimately in nothing (matterless). As it is believed in many different cultures, “we come from dust and will return to dust.” Human beings are a small piece from this complex puzzle. As the rest of the universe, they are also subject to the same evolutionary process in moving toward perfection. As mentioned above, since, compared to non-material universe, the time moves very fast in the material world, including our planet Earth, purification can be achieved much faster and easier while we are in our material state. What one needs is to be conscious of the way he or she has to evolve to become purified. Among the goals to be attained are: to seek material things only to the extent of what is needed for a modest and simple living standards, be totally honest truthful to oneself and others, have integrity as well as humility, be unselfish in dealing with others and their problems, and devote one’s life in serving, helping and enlightening the others. Those fortunate to achieve these goals during their material life enter the non-material world at a higher stage. It is like in our educational system you finish high school then you go to college for your first college degree and then master’s and ultimately your doctoral degree. These individuals after leaving the material world enter the non-material universe at the level that their purification allows and proceed from there toward perfection. Those who do not improve themselves during their material life, or even exploit and subjugate others for their own gains, enter the non-material world at the level they do belong to. They live in absolute darkness and solitude for centuries or more; they become subject to many thousand degrees of extreme heat and cold, harsh ray storms and more. But their greatest suffering would be solitude and suspension in absolute darkness.

Those on the upper levels of purification have the pleasure of being acquainted with billions of others with the same quality. They often time have desire to descend to their old material world to help those in the need of purification. Some stay close to a chosen individual and some, far more advanced, can enter the mind of the person for direct contact. Since they belong to non-material world, they are invisible beings and in some quarters are known as angels. Not all of these are individuals who had their material life on the planet Earth but in other planets. There are millions of planets with human civilization in the material universe. All these when leave their material life enter the non-material world. They may choose people from our planet to help. Though these are angels from other planets they are considered aliens in our planet. Angels cannot appear in material form because they are non-material. They are not visible to us under our present primitive perception of reality. They emanate electro-magnetic energy which is the source of life in the universe and in our planet as well. By this way, they cause elimination of pain and physical and mental sufferings in the mind of the person who asks for help or they desire to help. However, they can create images of other individuals, things, even of themselves for us to see. Since those images are created in our mind, they are visible only to us; others cannot see them. This image creation is a scientific matter; we see now that images of reporters or others are created in television screens. We see them doing reporting but actually they are not there.

Angels, like students within an educational system, are automatically organized based on their level of purification. In this celestial organization, we can say in general that there are high angels, middle angels, and low angels, the high angels being closer to the Creator. There is a group relationship between angels and human beings and among themselves as well. The purpose is all for good of humanity and existence of all things. Consequently, the angels are not independently created as a class. All its members have come from the human beings living in different planets. Once they become purified enough, before or after death, they become qualified as an angel. The Satan known as Shayateen and Jin does not exist outside and separate from the human beings. Actually, in materialistic society, most of the people have different kinds of bad spirit within themselves. Some religions like Catholicism recognize this by considering human beings as sinners. Islam recognizes the individual nature of human being as being originally good but evil things from their contact with the outside world enter their soul and influence their behavior pushing them to do wrong things, harming other individuals even a society as a whole. Jihad in Islam means war, but the biggest jihad, as prescribed by Prophet Mohammad, is the one within each individual against the forces of evil, Satan and Jin. This is, of course, a direction for purification.

The non-material universe, where all angels reside, is a celestial one situated between the material universe and the matterless one which is the essence of the Creator. Accordingly, angels have no specific shape. Trillions of souls in this non-material universe all progress toward purification and ultimately join the essence of the Creator by becoming matterless. Thus the Creator knows no anger or revenge since these are by their very nature evil. It created human beings free to determine their own destiny which may end up in liberty and justice or evil and brutality. The Creator does not punish anyone. Those who do evil things, punish themselves beyond any imagination. They will not know the extent of it until they leave the material world, enter the non-material one, and become subject to their determined level of punishment. They go to the worst places and become subject to incredible suffering in absolute darkness and total solitude. There, even angels cannot do much since, based on that universe’s time frame, sufferings may last for thousands of years by our measure of time. Angels are self-appointed messengers of the Creator. There are, more likely, billions of them just in our planet. If you ask the Creator for help, it will be one or more of the angels who will come to your help. We usually don’t feel their presence unless we pay conscious attention, then, we feel their assistance and help and consequently their presence.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- References:

To access the following materials visit <democracywhere.com> and <ezinearticles.com/?expert=Dr._Reza_Rezazadeh> .

Reza Rezazadeh. Passage to the Heaven: The Secrets of the Universe, Life and Happiness, 2002, pp. 384.

-------------------, Universe long Before the Big Bang and After: Neosecularism vs. Atheism and Religion.

-------------------, Matterless Universe of which Our Universe Is a Tiny Part.

-------------------, Who Are We? Why Are We Here? Where Did We Come From?

-------------------, Dark Energy, Dark Matter and the Big Bang: LHC Experiments Are No Way To Go.

Dr. Reza Rezazadeh

Professor Emeritus and Fulbright Scholar

University of Wisconsin

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Who Are We? Why Are We Here? Where Did We Come From?

These questions have been asked for thousands of years and from the very beginning there have been men of knowledge and wisdom dedicating their life to find an answer. The resulting answers have come mainly from two different groups. The older and traditional one is presented by major religions claiming that there is a Creator who created human beings to pursue a good life and join Its essence after death. The other one is a modern thought, known as Darwinism, claiming that human beings were the result of a natural evolutionary process from lower species. They die after their span of life and disappear into the nature as any other species. For decades the Darwinists have tried to relate their theory to a scientific explanation which is still the subject of heated debate. Of course, the religious community has no scientific base for its claim thus presenting it as a dogmatic religious belief, facts which should be accepted without doubt or question.

None of these groups have been able to answer the question reasonably, logically and conveniently acceptable. We know we are not holy beings, neither are we like other species. The certain fact is that we are intelligent, with consciousness and power of perception, all far superior to all other species. But the question still remains to be answered: Who are we and why are we here?

It seems proper to have a brief look at the stories of creation and their interconnections, if any. Under Christianity, the story has been told in Bible by Genesis 1, believed to be written 7^th to 5^th centuries BCE, according to which the world was created in six days in the following order: heaven and earth, light, vault of heaven (separation of earthly and heavenly waters), seas and dry land, plants, sun and stars, fish and birds, land animals, and last humans. Interestingly, the Persian Zend-Avesta, the sacred book of Zoroastrianism, a powerful religion established about 1000 BCE, cites the creation in the same order. The order of creation in Egyptian mythology, which would surely have been familiar to the writers of the Genesis, is ocean, sun, atmosphere, earth, and sky.[1] There are a great deal of contradictions about the creation in Bible as told in Genesis 1, such as Genesis 2, Ps 74: 13-17, and Ps 89:10 which are not the subject of our discussion here. We will look at the Genesis 1 for the purpose of our discussion. The Koran, the holy book of Islam, which is considered by devout Moslems coming directly from God as revealed to the Prophet Mohammad, in 7^th century AD, refers to the biblical creation story. Sura 11 verse 6: “Throned above the waters, he made the heavens and earth in six days.”

The fall of Adam is quite similar to a Persian myth, established centuries before, in which Ahriman, or Angra Mainyu (The spirit of darkness and evil), acting through a serpent, causes the first man to fall into knowledge of good and evil. Variations of this story can be also found in a variety of myths of the Middle East. There are carvings showing a man, a woman, a serpent, and a tree. The “Tree of Knowledge” or “Tree of Life” is an almost universal element of mythology in the Middle East.[2]

In sharp contrast to the concept of creation cited in Genesis and other sources, there are those who believe in the evolutionary process of the creation based on, in their opinion, well established scientific and historical facts. The theory of evolution, in brief, consists of the gradual change in species of plants and other living creatures, starting with a very primitive single-cell life form and proceeding to advanced stages of life including humans. According to this concept, apes and humans have had common ancestors.[3]

According to the scientific community:

1. The life of the planet has been estimated between four to five billion years, in contrast to a few thousand years under the Genesis and other religious creation stories.

2. Life first appeared about 3.5 billion years ago, around a billion years after the formation of the planet, while, according to Genesis 1 story, plants appeared in the third day, sea life and birds on the fifth, animals and humans on the sixth.

3. The first primates, apparently with some human characteristics, appeared in East Africa some million years ago, and genus Homo in about 1.7 million years ago, followed by the appearance of modern humans in around 200,000 to 500,000 years ago. According to the Genesis, humans appeared in Mesopotamia about 6,000 years ago

4. The life form actually appeared in the following order: sea-dwelling life, land plants, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, which is quite different from the Genesis account.

Many Christian authorities believe that the creation story in Genesis is absolutely true; that God created the world, its life forms, and the rest of the universe in one continual six-day act of creation. But they have developed conflicting ideas about the date of the creation. It ranges from 3615 to around 6,000 BCE in contrast to 4.5 billion years estimated by the scientists.[4]

The precise meaning of the day has long been debated among religious authorities. It is believed that the creation happened in six intervals of time, each defined by the Hebrew word “Yom” which is generally translated as “day.” This time interval has been defined differently by various groups. Some believed it was just a standard 24-hour day; for some others, it was a 24-hour day but each day separated by a very long time interval; yet, some believed definitely in six long intervals each considered as one day.[5]

In the light of enormous scientific evidence, there is no doubt that the universe including our planet was not created at once but through a long process of evolution before the presence of human beings. The claim that God created the universe in six days, if true, certainly does not refer to a 24-hour day on planet Earth, because it did not exist at the time of creation. A day consists of a one rotation of the planet around itself. So, the length of a day depends on the size of the planet and the speed of its rotation. Thus, it is different for each planet. Since no planet existed at the time of creation it seems proper to consider the term day mentioned in the Genesis to refer to some extraterrestrial time frame which may amount to billions of terrestrial years. If we apply this assumption to the length of the days of creation mentioned in various holy scriptures then the story of creation within six days would appear quite reasonable since it would be compatible with the theory of evolution extending to some thirteen billion years.

A new, more logical and rational theory goes even beyond the evolutionary theory of Big Bang and thereafter, according to which the universe was set up as an experimentation by the Creator, a totally secular being like a super-scholar, to examine certain hypotheses. Considering that energy is the source of life, the essence of the Creator consists of Pure Energy thus the ultimate level of life, matterless, super-intelligent and creative with no gender. The universe was created long before the Big Bang and proceeded afterward through evolution as well as creation side by side. Some species developed through evolution, some others by creation when the material and non-material environment became favorable, yet some others became extinct when they could not survive under the existing environment. Accordingly, human beings were created, not directly by the Creator but as a result of the experimentation when the environment became suitable for their creation, more likely, after all other beings were created. Like all other creatures, they were also created in successions in different time intervals in different parts of the planet. When a better environment was produced, it gave birth to a new and more advanced human beings with higher intelligence, while some old ones became extinct. Look at the variety of the monkeys , horses, dogs and cats in different parts of the world. They were created in different parts of the planet under different atmospheric and physical environment and for this reason they are different from one another in physical appearance, quality and behavior. Exactly the same applies to the creation of human beings. They were not created in Africa and then migrated to other parts of the world; they were created in different parts of the planet in different time intervals and different from one another. It is true that after their creation some immigrated to other parts of the planet.

The initiation of the experimentation started a billion or more years before the Big Bang, in a space designated by the Creator where It (the Creator has no gender) created high energy substance as Pure Matter. The moment this matter was created, so was the time and space. Therefore, the life of the universe is much longer than what is presently assumed.[6] This is where we come from.

Who are we? In the Islamic holy book Koran, referring to the creation of man, God says “congratulate Allah for the best of Its creations.” (Fatabarakallah ahsanul khalegheen.) Similar statements are found in both Jewish and Christian holy books of Torah and Bible, to the effect that God created human on Its own image. The energy being the source of life, higher energy would mean a higher level of life which at certain level would include intelligence. The Creator being the ultimate source of energy, possesses the ultimate level of intelligence and creativity expanding to infinity because of being matterless. Humans are the only creatures sharing this high level of intelligence with the Creator. The locus of this intelligence is the human mind also referred to as human spirit or soul. The brain is different from the mind. It is the place the mind resides and control the body. The mind is non-material and capable of expanding anywhere within the sphere of the universe without leaving the human brain where it resides. It creates a link between the humans and the Creator and certainly is created in Its image and thus is the best of its creations. But still it should not be forgotten that the creator did not create human beings but their creation was one of the outcomes of Its experimentation in creating the universe.

Why are we here? It seems reasonable and logical to think that the Creator’s purpose from the creation of universe was to find out to what extent billions of differently degraded matters including living creatures in different planets, planets themselves, solar systems, galaxies and so on, can advance themselves toward their origin which is the Pure Energy, the matterless essence of the Creator. Among all these creatures human beings seem to have Its most attention likely because of being the best of Its creations with capability of establishing mental link to Its essence. We already know that through the evolution and the creation of better beings, including more intelligent humans, the world has been progressing to a better stage and the human intelligence has been instrumental in discovering knowledge necessary or helpful in advancing human beings in their individual qualities and causing better societies, living, and spiritual environment for themselves. The expectation seemingly is to see to what extend human beings can advance themselves in reaching the ultimate quality of life within the essence of the Creator. This stage is reached when individuals become able to contact the Creator through transcendence and realize the vision of their destiny in reaching the destination which is nothing but to become matterless as the Creator.[7] This is why we are here and all this has nothing to do with religion which is a human creation and nothing in it relates to the Creator who is a totally secular being. It has been said that “from dust we are created and in dust we end.” In reality we are created from pure energy which is matterless for which the scientific community has neither feeling nor description. We will return to the same stage at the end. It may be said that we are created from nothing and we will end in nothing. But this nothing is not really nothing; it is something for which we have no description at this time. It is the matterless universe and the essence of the Creator.

　

References:

1. The Bible: Is it a True and Accurate Account of Creation? (Part 2).

www.cesame-nm.org/index.php?name=Sections&req=viewarticle&artid=43&page3

2. Ibid., p. 3

3. Comparing Origins: The Bible v. the theory of evolution, p.1. www.religioustolerence.org/com_geev.htm

4. The Bible... op. cit., p.2

5. Comparing ... op. cit., p.2

6. Universe Long Before Big Bang and After. www.ezinearticles.com/?expert=Dr._Reza_Rezazadeh p.2. For more details on this concept, relevant books and articles see the author’s website

7. Ibid., pp.2-5

Dr. Reza Rezazadeh

Professor Emeritus and Fulbright Scholar

University of Wisconsin

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MEDITATION MADE EASY:HOW TO MEDITATE FOR TRANSCENDENCE

Meditation has never been easy for beginners even for many of those with long experience. Here, I attempt to present a way that with my over thirty years of experience, I consider to be the easiest and more effective way to succeed. There are a variety of methods proposed by experts such as concentrating on one subject or on counting your breathing from one to four and repeating it. All these methods are aimed at clearing your mind from any other thoughts causing a degree of mental relaxation. As you choose and advance in any of these methods, you would be able to bring down or totally eliminate your mental depression, bodily pain, anxiety as well as fatigue from your daily work whether it is mental or physical.

It won’t be easy to achieve these aims. It requires years of serious practice. It demands absolute concentration, unshakeable discipline, continuity and determination for success. These are necessary because unconsciously we have given our mind a total freedom of thought on whatever, whenever and wherever it may desire. It won’t be easy to harness its floats and restrict it only to one thought, one place or one situation. It has become like a disobedient boy doing everything possible to escape any restriction we try to impose on his accustomed unrestricted freedom.

The meditation methods mentioned above, if mastered, may achieve the goals mentioned above to different degrees. These goals all are related to our mental, physical and material world. They also discipline our mind and bring it under our control. The latter is the most resourceful attainment we may achieve. However, none of these practices extends the mind beyond our material environment and mental conditions associated with it.

The mind, which is the same as the soul or spirit, is a matterless entity with incredible capacity to expand beyond our body and our material planet into the materless world which also embodies the whole of the material Universe. The mind resides in our brain, as sitting in a pilot’s cockpit with innumerable switches and buttons controlling our physical and mental functions. To reach any distance beyond our planet, we must transcend our planet into the unlimited outer space including the whole universe. It is the only way we can reach galaxies, stars and other planets and have contacts with other civilizations. The idea of being able to travel physically to other planets outside of our solar system in the search for other civilizations is nothing more than just a wishful thinking. If we consider a spaceship with an incredible speed of 200,000 miles per hour, equal to ten times going around our planet in one hour, will take 2,200 years to travel a distance of just one light year which travels with an speed of over 180,000 miles per second. The closest star to our planet is many light years away. For the same reason no being from any other planet is able to visit us by any kind of spaceship and the UFO stories do not make sense unless they are of our own creation. Therefore, meditation to transcend is the only way to reach the extremities of the Universe. This is possible because once the mind expands beyond the material world, the elements of time and space disappear. within the sphere of the extension of the mind you can be any place in a matter of no time. This means you may travel thousands of light years at a glance so to speak.

This was the sole purpose of my attraction to meditation. The idea didn’t come to me from nowhere. Based on the experiences of my childhood and further studies when I became older, I knew there were likely thousands of individuals in this planet capable of transcending to outer space and some landing in other planets with its own civilization and they have been able to communicate with them and were continuing doing so. I later, by my own experience, learned that there are very many beings from other planets here on Earth interacting with our people and helping them to a better way of life as much as they can. Under the present limited scientific knowledge, this is almost impossible to understand. When you transcend to another planet with human civilization, you may live there and interact with its people, appearing under our standards of time as extending to many years, but when you return to your body no time has past from the time of your departure. I know it is almost impossible to understand but I know it is true because I personally have been in such a situation.

Now that I have described my purpose and mind set for meditation I can explain the process by which I started it, improved it and reached the best and easiest way that it can be done. From my childhood I was familiar with the extraordinary results of transcendental meditation since my father had oriental friends, particularly from India who visited him now and then and stayed with us for a day or two. These were people called fakir who through meditation had been able to gain the power of seeing the future of an individual by just looking at him or her. It was one of these fakirs who after looking at me pointedly, when I was in the process of serving tea for him, told my father that I will gain access to the world beyond ours and cause transformation in the civilization and way of life. I was only eleven year old and did not really understood the meaning of his statement at the time. I didn’t know what my father thought of this but he later on told me to forget what the man had said, it didn’t mean anything. I did forget all about it until about a year later a gypsy fortune teller came to our house, in my step mother’s invitation, to tell her fortune and by my mothers insistence she also looked at mine. To my surprise and amazement, by opening and placing her fortune-telling cards one by one on the floor, she ended up telling me nearly exactly the same prediction made by the Indian fakir. My mother dismissed her claims which made the gypsy quite upset. Leaving the house passing by me she murmured “You should believe and remember what the cards have revealed.” My step mother later on told me laughingly “ Don’t pay any attention, they just say these things to make some money.” However, I never forgot their predictions. It remained an important force in directing me to meditation and fortifying my determination to continue and go back to it anytime I had quit in desperation and lack of success. Some fifty years later when I first succeeded in my transcendence I realized the truth about their revelations.

Initially, I had chosen to go to the top of a hill in the farm I owned next to my house. It was surrounded by threes and plants. There was a rock on the top of the hill and I always sat on it in the evening concentrating on the horizon until the sun would go down and darkness would envelop the surrounding.. I continued this practice, for twelve years, on and off, without success. In 1968, when I was in Colombia on a research project in helping the municipal governments to modernize their administrative and financial sectors, I was asked by the Colombian government if I would go to the Putumayo Amazons and try to establish a municipal government for some 20,000 frontier people and incorporate in it some 200 Indian tribes. I found it an opportunity to visit a rare region of the world untouched by modern civilization and technology. I accepted and was send to the destination by a helicopter since there were no roads for other kind of transportation. The name of the community I created was Puerto Aziz at the bank of Putumayo River which now has over a quarter of a million population.

I spent over five weeks in the wilderness of the Amazons submerged in its dark nights , solitude, away from all amenities of the modern world. I was entertained and at times frightened each night by the sounds and cries of the creatures in the jungle surrounding me. The immense differences between the two worlds of modern-industrialized and old-primitive-traditional had attracted my attention. In the peaceful and dark nights of the jungle, the extensive poverty, despair, fraud, and corruption I ad witnessed in the so-called civilized world, along with unrelenting human thirst for material gains, all had preoccupied my thoughts. With the passage of every night in the solitude of the immense jungle, I had become deeper and deeper involved in these thoughts and started to think why there was so much injustice in the world where there is enough for everyone to live comfortably. The sounds of jungle had turned into some kind of message and cries for help and direction. I was driven closer and closer to the primitive jungle life.[1] I paid more and more attention to my surroundings trying to extract some meaning from them. It seemed that the nature through all its creatures and way of life was trying to convey a message to me. On occasions it appeared as a form of command penetrating my soul and creating a distinct feeling that I was not alone. Someone was with me and within me.

As the nights with solitude passed, my inner feelings became more and more vivid. Besides all the creatures of the jungle and its total being, I developed an increasing sense of a companion with me and within me. It was an extraordinary feeling. This companion not only directed me in my thoughts but focused my attention directly on the primitive and natural world around me. The jungle nights became less and less frightful and the sounds from its creatures appeared normal and less disturbing. Gradually within a few weeks, I began to look forward to disappearance of the sun on the colorful sky of the Amazon horizon, gradual dominance of darkness and the nightfall. I grew anxious for the companionship of my inner thoughts which not only became increasingly distinct from my own, but clearly responded to my thoughts and provided me either with answer or directed me where I would find one. “Could this be my Creator?” I asked myself every time. I was left each time with the same answer. “Who else it could be except the Creator.”

When I left the Amazons I had developed a distinct feeling, through my inner guidance , against so-called civilized world and how by materialistic drive it had disturbed and often destroyed the natural order and balanced forms of life. It had polluted the air and water, devastated the environment, wasted and depleted natural resources, and above all derailed and degraded humans character and quality, and their natural harmony with their fellow humans, the environment and the rest of the nature.

Capitalism, which is based on materialism and drive for profits, seemed to be the prime cause of this devastation. In the environment of Amazons, life was organized in its eternal existence. It provided materials for the needed consumption by the nature’s creatures--humans, animals, insects, plants, etc. and it renewed and restored deficiencies created by the use. In the civilized society, on the other hand, not only the used natural resources were lost forever but a tremendous amount of waste materials – garbage, industrial, toxic, and atomic wastes – where left in their place. Furthermore, capitalism had allowed the wealth and resources to be accumulated in the hands of a few, leaving an immense sector of human race in poverty despair and servitude. They were denied equal opportunity of access to the same resources to sustain a decent living standards.

When I returned to my academic life in 1969, my inner feelings were quite different. The civilized world did not look the way I had visualized before. The voices of Amazons nights were still in me and would haunt me nearly every night. Sometimes, I felt that I had brought with me the spirit of the jungle, its creatures, its orderly mission and its eternal balanced process of life. As a refuge, I became inclined to spend more and more time in the woods of my farm, ending at the top of the hill, sitting on the rock more like the old days but with quite different feelings. By no means did this replace the majesty and serenity of the Amazons, but during the sunset, I enjoyed sitting on the top of the highest hill watching the nature gradually plunge into darkness. I listened to the sounds of the nature as I used to do in the Amazon jungles – the sounds that I had become accustomed to hear through my Amazon’s experience; the sounds that could not be heard by ordinary people.

Before the Amazon experience, I had been many times around this farm and walked in the woods and over the hills. I had never developed such feelings. Now suddenly everything had become different. The nature had acquired a new life and become a part of me united with me. I felt among friends – trees, shrubs, animals and all others. I had a feeling that they all felt my presence and I was welcomed among them.

Years passed and during this time, often at dusk, I would have certain strange feelings within me, like someone or something was directing me to go out in the farm, climb the hill and sit on the same rock and remain alone and concentrate on the horizon. Of course, I did not feel alone but among my natural friends. However, I had a feeling that they understood my need for solitude. Often, following my inner inspiration, I would remain in solitude for hours. All this time I would try to concentrate and penetrate what my eyes could see on the horizon.

This was the way I was introduced to meditation. It had become a pleasure and I continued for years with the aim of reaching the unknown. I had no idea what that unknown would be. But I knew there was something there, far beyond that colorful sunset horizon, to discover. At times in later years, I would feel I was floating in the air, losing my hold on the ground. As the years passed, a feeling of anxiety and expectation developed within me which gradually reached a dominant level. The hours spent alone became increasingly exciting and a sense of inner fascination consumed me. As the days weeks passed, I developed a feeling and much later a belief that something extraordinary was going to happen and I was going to be a part to it. Then one evening, to be exact on the fourth day of October, 1974, after some sixteen years of meditation with dedication and inner devotion, the moment arrived and my belief became reality and the door for the secrets of the Universe opened before me.

First, I felt like I was becoming weightless, then I felt being lifted from the ground raised up in the air. It was a pleasant yet strange feeling. While in the air, I could see myself still sitting on the hill. Suddenly, everything disappeared and I was plunged into the absolute darkness of space moving with infinite speed toward a destination I knew nothing about. In the extreme darkness of the space, I was not scared but astonished. From the absolute darkness, planets appeared, and in a matter of no time, became magnified to enormous size, bypassed me, diminished in size and disappeared in darkness. Soon the number of planets decreased and then no more appeared.

Now, I was alone, traveling through space and time in pure darkness. Not only I wasn’t scared, but I had a feeling that somebody or something was with me, very close to me making me feel secure. Soon, I arrived in an environment that was not dark but also didn’t have any source of light. I came to a halt. I felt exalted with lightness and joy in me. I felt the Creator’s presence, not only all around me but also within me. There was in the air a sense of enormous authority and an environment of full kindness and affection. Then in full clarity and authority it was suddenly revealed. “Welcome to the Center of the Universe and My close presence. Here is the eternity, the ultimate in life, its purpose and existence.”[2]

The Creator is a totally secular being and has no relation to any religion practiced today. Even in highly technological and scientifically advanced societies of today, very few people truly understand the true nature and essence of the Creator. It is the pure living energy, highly conscious, creative and intelligent, labeled erroneously as “Dark Energy” by the scientific community but Its true nature has not been “so-called scientifically” discovered yet.[3]

When my mind was relieved from my material body and the surrounding physical environment, it became boundless, expanding to infinity. I was also freed from the element of time which is connected to matter. I fell into an environment where there was no time only eternity. I could be everywhere or anywhere in a matter of no time and always with my Creator who had the same characteristics and essence. Right after revelation, suddenly I felt myself in my physical body, sitting on the top of the hill on my farmland. The sky looked the same as when I had left it behind. The sun had gone down, leaving a trace of light still glowing in the horizon. Its reflection on the clouds far away produced striking colors which were getting darker and darker as the night was falling upon my surroundings.

I was astonished. The cloud formation and the horizon appeared exactly the same as I had left behind. It seemed that no time had elapsed, yet, it was like I had been traveling and visiting places in the boundless space for years. I found myself full of new knowledge. I was not the same person sitting on this hill just a few seconds ago. First, I felt the Creator’s presence in my mind in a way I had never felt before. Second, I had acquired an immense knowledge of the Universe, its unity and organized life from its highest being, the Creator, to its smallest particles, and how the creation, evolution and life of every part were in harmony, connected and depended on the rest. I had no other explanation but to conclude that when my mind expanded outward into the outer space, it assumed its boundless and matterless, and thus, timeless nature.. It was under these circumstances that I could rationalized traveling millions of light year distances and being downloaded with such an immense knowledge not discovered by our scientific community yet and may not be discovered for many decade from now.

A year later, l sold the farm and moved into a new house and after a year of experimentation with different forms of meditation I selected my present form which I found logically and otherwise more appropriate and preferable to all other forms used at the present. If you decide to meditate or have been already practicing, this is the form I would recommend to try. I lie down, preferably on a carpeted floor than a mattress, head toward North and feet pointing to the South with my arms resting on my sides. My body lies in the direction of the Earth’s magnetic lines in a way that minimizes their effect in the body. This position also allows the body to use much less energy than any other position making concentration easier. After taking your position close your eyes and clear your mind of all thoughts. Simply make it blank. This won’t be easy in the beginning; all kinds of thoughts would invade your mind. You should close all the doors and not let any enter it. First try to keep your mind blank for a few seconds and then add more seconds. One of the best way to practice this is when you go to bed every night. lying down on your back and your arms on your sides try to empty your mind of all your thoughts. This practice would have also some collateral benefits it will reduce your anxiety, depression, fatigue and mental pressures; it will provide you with a sound sleep. Often time you will fall sleep while trying to make your mind blank. Soon you will learn how to maintain your mind blank for an extended time. I started to practice this type of meditation in 1979. It was effective for relaxation and reducing pain and stress but my purpose was to transcend into outer space as I had done it once before. With this aim I faced failure after failure but without giving up because I knew it can be done. It took over five years until in 1984 which I finally succeeded. I want just to show the extent of determination and discipline you should have in order to succeed. Once you succeed the next one will be easier but still may take a substantial time and the same determination and discipline.

I would like to present one of my successes under this form of meditation details of which with the whole story can be found in my two books on this subject.[4] My purpose was to meet a girl by the name of Ziba who was temporarily gifted to me by her parents who were also my host and hostess on planet Zoras which I had visited a year before. She had lived with me for about eleven months and was taken back by her parents to her planet because of mounting possibilities of her being discovered here by authorities and becoming subject to unaffordable hardships. She had promised to look for me every Tuesday in outer space and helping me to transcend.

On the night of meditation I had several problems utterly disturbing my mind making it extremely difficult to concentrate. I prepared myself for meditation, turned off the lights and lied down on the place I had prepared for this purpose in the middle of the living room. The time was 3:10 a.m. keeping my mind blank, I tried to send my mind out into the boundless space in absolute darkness searching for Ziba. It was a night of big mental struggle. Despite my undisputed devotion and love for her, it seemed so difficult to move totally away from the painful events of the day. I would kick them out of my mind but they would turn around, reclaim and repossess my thoughts. I don’t remember exactly when I was finally able to empty my mind of all thoughts and concentrate my efforts to transcend, or how long I had remained on this stage of meditation that I entered a world of fantasy. Colorful figures were moving around me with delightful and soft sounds of music. They did not seem to be human figures but rather multicolor silhouettes at times appearing as humans and then changing shapes, being always in motion. I felt joy and was pleased by being surrounded by such wonderful creatures in a delightful environment. Gradually, the bright pleasing colors transformed into darker combinations. I became conscious of changes when colors slowly faded into darkness, and musical melodies into silence. Soon I was submerged in total darkness which I felt extending to infinity with a cool and chilly environment and total silence. I felt afraid. Suspended in the air, I could move around but every point of pause was the same as before, an environment of total darkness and absolute silence with a sense of infinity. I got the feeling that regardless how fast and in what direction I moved, I wasn’t going anywhere. Despite this feeling, as a human being in desperation who would resort to any means to survive, I tried to move in one direction and then in another without any result. I had no hold on anything and felt suspended in the space. I screamed and screamed for help but no sound came out of my throat. Shivering from cold, I thought this was my end, to banish in darkness and silence into infinity without leaving a trace behind.

I remained at this stage of suspension and had reached a level of total helplessness when suddenly I saw a vague light in the horizon. Actually, because of boundless space there could not have been any horizon. But in a desperate stage I was in, there was no time for this reasoning. I was overjoyed despite the fact that it did not promise any relief. The vague shadows became brighter and brighter and dark environment lightened gradually, ever expanding and approaching while turning into a combination of colorful moving and intermingling clouds. I felt warmth around me, the chill had disappeared. But all this transformation formed just a spot approaching me. The rest of the environment remained in total darkness.

Gradually, I was engulfed by the clouds. I felt conveniently warm. Slight aroma of a perfume was in the air, the kind that one smells when walking in a garden of flowers. I felt that some beings or things were touching or moving closer to me. But being relieved from that awful darkness and suspension was such a joy that I was not much concerned yet with such movements around me until I felt someone or some being softly and delicately held my hand. I turned around and could not see anything in the thick fog that had surrounded me, but I felt my hand still being held.

“It is me Reza,” a delicate voice exclaimed, a voice very familiar, a voice I could never forget, the voice of my beloved Ziba. “Ziba!” I cried with utmost amazement “Is it you? Where are you? I can’t see you.” I continued looking while turning around and around. The hand in my hand sure felt like that of Ziba; the hand that I had held a thousand times before. I pulled her closer, I could feel her but I couldn’t see her.

“Where are you? What is going on?” I questioned. “I can’t see you. I know you are here. I feel you fully, but I can’t see you.” There was a long conversation between us which is not relevant to the subject presented here [5] Then it came time to say goodbye.

“I have to go now, Reza. I will guide you to my planet and my house in our next meeting. It won’t be so hard.”

“But, how would I know that you are here waiting for me?”

“Every Tuesday, Darling, every Tuesday.” She repeated while embracing me and kissing me goodbye. I didn’t want let her go but she just evaporated right between my arms. I opened my arms and was engulfed in the same dense fog as before but in a little lighter environment.

While I was quite astonished of sudden disappearance of Ziba and pursuant changes, the fog around me had gradually cleared. To my great surprise, there was a huge door, more like a gate, right in front of me. The outer surroundings were still submerged in darkness. Fearful of falling into the state of darkness as I had experienced before I was pleased to see an exit regardless what I may find on the other side. I thought it could not be worse. It looked huge and heavy. I put my hands on both parts of the door to push it open but as soon as my hands touched the gate it opened readily half way. I was anxious to see the other side. It was also dark with one exception. I was facing the night sky with many stars blinking in far distances. I couldn’t step in a boundless sky. The fog and the light had disappeared on the other side and a full darkness had taken its place. I realized that either way my chance of survival was quite slim. At this moment the gate started to close. I desperation, I tried with all my power to hold the gate open. My efforts were useless and the gate kept closing. It was during this helpless struggle that I became conscious, finding myself lying down on my meditation mattress in my living room. I felt relieved. It took a few seconds to collect my thoughts and get rid of my fears.

It was 3:13 in the morning. Exhausted, I walked toward my bedroom for a good rest. I remembered once Ziba had told me that when you decide to travel into outer space, you never know where you are going to end up. There are so many terrifying and horrifying places in space and there is always a chance that you may end up in one of those. However, if you continue the experiment and you reach some desirable or fascinating place, then you have a destination to aim for in your next meditation and have a good chance to avoid straying into unknown wilderness, unless you desire to seek places beyond what you already have discovered. She had told me that this is what most people in her planet do every night and that is why they have discovered so many planets with life and civilization, some even more advanced than theirs.

As any teacher, that is who I am, I would like some feedback from those who decide to experiment with my proposed form. You can place a comment on my website or e-mail me getting my e-mail address on the opening page.

References:

1. For details, see my book Passage to the Heaven, pp.18-36 by visiting my website www.democracywhere.com

2. Ibid.; see also some of my writings on the subject by visiting

www.ezinearticles.com/?expert=Dr._Reza_Rezazadeh

3. To understand the secular nature of the Creator see “The Universe Long Before the Big Bang” and other relevant articles by visiting Ezine Articles cited above.

4. Passage to the Heaven: Secrets of the Universe, Leisure and Happiness; and Passage to a Just Society: Secrets of Democratic Life, Leisure and Happiness. Visit my website: www.democracywhere.com .

6. Passage to the Heaven, op. cit., pp.359-376.

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ASTONISHING SPIRITUAL AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Today, according to recent studies, people in advanced societies, while overwhelmingly believing in a Creator whether called God, Allah, or else, less and less desire to be attached to religious institutions such as churches or synagogues, or adhere to the strict rules of these institutions. Spiritual thoughts are tending to be based on reason and rationalization. Maybe for this reason Islam, which is an individualized religion without organizational hierarchy , is flourishing so rapidly in developing as well as developed countries.

Recent studies reveal that worldwide, for every one person converted into Christianity, seven enter Islam. An ayatollah is the highest person of spiritual knowledge in Islam. He is like a person holding a Ph.D. degree. The holder does not belong to any religious hierarchy. After graduation, he selects a community for his residence and is considered an Islamic scholar and the source of knowledge in Islam. He is contacted by the people in the community seeking answer for religious questions or for clarification of religious issues, or resolving relevant problems brought before him. Large communities have several resident ayatollahs. Muslims in the community are free to choose any of the resident ayatollahs they prefer for referrals. They may desire to choose none which is usually the majority of the residents. So, individuals are left alone in their spiritual thoughts and practices. Even in Iran which has an established theocratic regime, there are ayatollahs in different communities who do not agree with certain spiritual rules advocated by the regime; they have their own followers and some are quite influential such as Grand Ayatollah Shariatmadari. Some ayatollahs following, like any scholar, may extend beyond their community of residence, even beyond national borders. Unlike Christianity or Judaism, the non-hierarchical status of Islam creates a free and peaceful environment for Muslims to practice their religion the manner they, as individuals, wish and desire.

As stated by Richard Holloway, “when authority, in religion as well as politics, is dispersed among many centers it helps to neutralise the corrupting and oppressive effects of power.”(1) More likely, this freedom of spiritual thought in Islam is a powerful factor in enticing to embrace Islam by individuals seeking a rationally acceptable spiritual commitment. Fundamentalist Islamic groups of today advocating rigid and radical Islamic life will not succeed and will be marginalized in time, including those in control of a country such as Saudi Arabia or Iran. It is expected that by the year 2050, Islam, in its free and moderate form, to become an influential social and political, if not economic, force in advanced societies and dominant majority force in many important developing nations. This would be one substantial transformation in the 21^st century. It will have an unexpected political implications since in Islam there is no separation between religion and state; the community organizational and operational norms are parts from the spiritual belief. However, such political and social implications will be positive, with a tendency toward moderation and democratic orientation. An important ground for such transformation would be that “we are astoundingly fertile in our conceptions. There is unlikely to be a final, settled endgame which absolutely establishes everything in a single theory, because it is in our nature to go on questing for understanding through time and space.”(2)

The explosion of information and communication technology, the Internet in particular, has created a fluid environment for such transformation. “I am so optimistic that I expect to live to see the evaporation of then powerful mystique of religion. With the worldwide spread of information technology, … it is no longer feasible for guardians of religious traditions to protect their young from exposure to the kinds of facts … that gently, irresistibly undermine the mindsets requisite for religious fanaticism and intolerance.”(3) Today, many “young people quietly walk away from the faith of their parents and grandparents. That trend will continue, especially when young people come to know how many of their peers are making this low profile choices.”(4)

The reason for democratic tendencies in religion, which is usually dogmatic where the religious norms must be obeyed, is the global development of tolerance in religious beliefs, mainly as a result of phenomenal expansion of electronic information and communication technology . What Richard Holloway stated years ago is the same true today and will be in the future. He said “My working assumption was that the discoveries we have made in our quest for meaning all came from us, were all human constructs. …We are constantly digging for meaning, searching for understanding.”(5) For example, “if you believe that every word in Bible was in some sense dictated by God then you are going to have massive problems with contemporary society…. If you are a Christian who believes in the freedom of women to order their own destiny within the normal limitations that define any human life, then you have already deconstructed the traditional view of the Bible.”(6)

According to Nicholas Lash, “The ‘modern’ world is ending, and the consequent confusion contains the possibility of discovering new forms of ancient wisdom which the ’modern’ world obscured from view.”(7) However, this enormous spiritual reorientation, though somehow, satisfactory for many people, will not resolve the quest for spiritual liberalism, namely, a system of spiritual thought that would be based on reason, rationalization, open for individual discovery without interference by any intermediary. An earnest search for such an spiritual philosophy in advanced societies is already in motion and will continue.(8) It will mainly be centered on three fundamental issues:

First, while many believe in the existence of a Creator, there are question about Its essence, origin, purpose, and the extent of Its authority over individuals. Many religions do not allow doubt or feasibility of search and investigation for the truth or, at least, a reasonable answer for these questions. This old dogmatic approach is not anymore acceptable to many of those in the search of a logical and rationalized spiritual commitment.

Second, the secret and purpose of the Creation of the Universe and human beings as a part from it, is the next question. How was the material universe created? Is it rational to believe that it was created by the Creator in six days? Or, was it created by a Big Bang; if so, who caused it? Does the universe follow a pre-set course? Who set it up? Were human beings created by God, or came to existence through evolution from lower species, or a combination of both.

Third, what is the purpose of life? Are we here to live and then perish, or is there a life after death? Many religions tell us that the life continues beyond our material life and we are assigned a mission to accomplish. We are here to purify ourselves facing the pitfalls of the material life. We are here to create a just and fair society , help, educate, and guide our follow humans toward that end, and avoid being pre-occupied with material things beyond our needs. Are these the purpose of our life? Is this an ordained mission by the Creator? What is the kind of society which would be just and fair for all? How can it be rationally created under such spiritual belief? Should there be a separation between people#’s spiritual beliefs and the state?

It must be noted that if this latter transformation takes place within the framework of Christianity, there will still be a substantial rapprochement to the Islamic beliefs. Christ will be demoted from his God-like status to that of a prophet like Mohammad which is the way Muslims believe in Christ. This, seemingly, may lead to a closer cooperation between the followers of the two major spiritual sectors. Such cooperation, more likely, will be a matter of survival since the world, particularly advance societies, would be seeking a logical and rationalized answer for their spiritual beliefs if any.

These are fundamental questions. People will be looking for rational and satisfactory, if not ascertainable, answers for their spiritual commitments during this century. As these questions are answered one by one through search and research, we will face enormous economic and social changes. It, definitely, will not justify the survival of Capitalism, neither would those of socialism, communism or other prevailing ideologies. A new spiritual philosophy, rather than a religion, will develop. Its principles will be based on scientific research, analysis, and rationalization. It will encompass the concept of the Creator, the Universe, the human life, its purpose and meaning of just and fair societal system. (9) Authoritarianism whether spiritual, political, social or economic will be universally despised and popularly suppressed. People will strive for a taste of true democracy with equality of opportunity available to all in every aspects of the societal life.

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1. Richard Holloway, “Radical Faith: Exploring Faith in a Changed World.”

2. Ibid., p.4.

3. End of Religion<<Think write.

4. Ibid.

5. Holloway, op.cit., p.3

6. Ibid., p.2

7. Nicholas Lash, “The Beginning and the End of ’religion’”

8. Reza Rezazadeh, “Neosecularism v. Atheism and Religion”

References for Further Documentation

See the author‘s website:www.democracywhere.com for relevant articles and the following books.

9. Reza Rezazadeh, We the People: Toward a Just and Fair Society and How to Get There. 2010.

Reza Rezazadeh. Passage to the Heaven: Secrets of the Universe, Life and Happiness.2004.

--------------------. Passage to a Just Society: Secrets of a Democratic Life, Leisure and happiness. 2004,

----------------------. Technodemocratic Economic Theory: From Capitalism and Socialism to Democracy,1992.

----------------------. Technological Democracy: A Humanistic Philosophy of the Future Society, 1990.