I don’t look back too much, but I do have some observations. My life has been chaotic and impulsive, and hasn’t seemed to have a focus or purpose in the ‘normal’ ways of looking at the human experience. In this connection, the tendency is to look at ‘past lives.’ I know that Bahá’í doesn’t acknowledge reincarnation. I accept that and I also have had experiences that aren’t easily explained in other terms.
I have a slightly different view. If there isn’t really a thing we call time, then time is part of the creation.
Bahá’í says that the Creator has always existed. If our Creator has always existed then the creation has always existed. And, if that’s true, then the NDE-ers are correct when they get back to the other side and they report that it is timeless. This creates a paradox – this life is constrained to appear real, but it really isn’t. That means that religions tell us things that may not be true, but are useful. In other words, we need to believe that there is only this life.
The Brothers (a book my late wife co-authored) says it better: “The individual is the reality, time is the illusion.” They also said that this would be the only life quite like it we would every have.
“Your experience on earth is meant to be a pleasure and you more often make it a pain. Enjoy; it is the only journey precisely like it you will make.”
If all that is too deep, please ignore it. I tend to be outside the box in many areas. That’s why I wondered about the things I mentioned to you. I find that BioKinesiology is provable and valuable. Also the “Power vs. Force” material is significant. Likewise, astrology. While many would challenge that view, I suggest their definition is incorrect.
I am a Bahá’í, in part, because of the principle of Truth is One, and independent investigation of Truth. I discovered astrology in 1968, and Bahá’í in 1969. When I asked about it, my teachers opened Some Answered Questions to The Influence of the Stars.
I think you are a smart and brave person for taking the journey to Vietnam and exploring the places, or tried to, where your father spent his service. That was a different time. I have attempted to blog many times, but kept changing what I was doing or how I was doing it. I have had some people ask to read my work. Now, I wish I had a more coherent whole. I encourage you to keep writing and creating. Those are very real human things. That is becoming so important in this day of AI.
I think maybe I should take my own advice and return to my personal blog. Perhaps if people don’t like it, they don’t have to read it. I was outside the Bahá’í Faith from 1979 until I applied to rejoin in 2019. It actually took a bit longer because there wasn’t a process for rejoining and because I didn’t fit into a category. Forty years in the wilderness!