Transcendent Man

Have any of you seen the film, Transcendence?  It’s a sci-fi thriller/love story giving Ray Kurzweill’s ideas of Transcendent Man the Hollywood treatment.

What exactly is transcendence? Basically, it’s uploading one’s consciousness to a computer, something Kurzweill says will be possible by mid-century, and on which scientists are now feverishly working. 

As artificial intelligence researcher Will Caster, played by Johnny Depp explains, “Once online, a sentient machine will quickly overcome the limits of biology. Its analytical power will be greater than the collective intelligence of every person born in the history of the world. Imagine such an entity with the full range of emotions, even self-awareness."

Will is mortally wounded by anti-technology terrorists. His loving wife and professional partner, Evelyn, played by Rebecca Hall, successfully copies and uploads his biological, actual intelligence into a computer before he dies.

Now interesting questions arise. Is that really Will in the computer?  Was his consciousness and his soul uploaded? Should we be worried about creating something like this?

What appears to be Will, or a duplicate of Will, evolves into a super-intelligent, self-aware computer entity, gains access to the Internet, builds a huge underground data center in the desert, and uses nano-computers as building blocks for everything from solar cells to human drone “hybrids” who do his bidding.

He sees himself as doing good for humanity and the planet, but one character says he is “an unnatural abomination and threat to humanity.” Will basically is immortal and omniscient, unless his enemies can find a way to unplug him. You’ll have to see the movie to find out.

Inventor, author and futurist Kurzweill has popularized the ideas of "Transcendent Man" and "The Singularity." He sees computers becoming exponentially more intelligent and believes we’re approaching a point where computers will become more intelligent than humans. Then our bodies, minds and civilization--all of humanity-- will be completely transformed.

“The Singularity” is that moment, he says, when technological change becomes so rapid and profound that it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history.

What form would this take? Perhaps we would merge with computers and become super intelligent cyborgs OR we’ll scan our consciousness into computers and live inside them as software, forever, virtually. This was the option taken in the movie, Transcendence.

Kurzweill is not alone in this thinking. Singularitarians are studying this possibility, and also looking at life extension. Death is seen as a solvable problem; old age as a curable illness.

Kurzweill writes in one of his books about taking many dietary supplements to extend life to the point where he can  transfer his own mind and consciousness to a computer to obtain immortality. He envisions humans taking charge of  their own evolution, dying only if they choose to.

As we evolve, we’ll swap our bodies for immortal robots and eventually light out for the edges of space as intergalactic god-like beings, perhaps simply as spheres of light riding on laser beams. Within a matter of centuries human intelligence will re-engineer and saturate all the matter in the universe.

In the documentary, Transcendent Man, he says the Universe is dead and we’ll wake it up; it will become intelligent. To the question, “Does God exist?" Kurzweill responds, “I would say, not yet.”

What would Ernest Holmes say about all this? First, that God DOES exist, and is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. Second, that man already IS immortal.

So when you’re on your deathbed and know that science can upload your brain, do you go for it? What if you don't like it? What if you're lonely, or miss the human touch? What if you're stuck in the computer and miss out on transitioning to the "other side," and something fabulous? Lots of unknowns, lots of "what ifs."

And so it is.

Am I Pretty Enough?

Here's an interesting story from the Internet: A young woman is cheated on by husband, who tells her, “you’re not pretty enough.” She goes on to write a book and start a movement to upgrade women’s self esteem.

 The same day I read about this, I was talking to Rev. Mike about doing online classes with video and I’m saying, “I’m not pretty enough. My voice isn’t good enough.”  I’m thinking, I should be a producer, behind the camera; let some young, pretty girl be the voice, the face.

But he says, No. It’s my voice, my wisdom, my life experiences, my zany humor, my authenticity he wants to see in the classes. So I’ll go ahead.

But it's amazing, even at the quarter-century mark, with the supposed accumulated wisdom, with years of Science of Mind under my belt, I’m still thinking this way. Does it never end for women?

My husband didn’t cheat on me. I was young, and apparently “pretty enough” for him and for our 43-year marriage. I’ve had a good life, I’ve birthed and raised great children, I’ve moved forward on my spiritual and personal path.  Yet, when an opportunity is presented to move from invisibility to visibility, I go with “I’m not pretty enough.”

It’s not as though someone said that to me. I say it to myself. I look in the mirror and I think, OMG! What happened?

And yes, I could do the Louise Hay thing, look in the mirror and say, “I love you, unconditionally.”

So many tools, techniques, years of wisdom....and still. “I’m not pretty enough....plus, with the years added on, “I’m not young enough.”  Or I’m not blah blah enough.

Why do we do this to ourselves?

Is it the world of conditions, the relative world, the earth plane and its cacophony of messages? Young women seem particularly vulnerable. Television, films, the Internet, magazines, etc. constantly parade images of idealized beauty...and frankly, many of these women look alike.  I can’t tell one from another.  The movie star, the weather girl, the entertainment TV hostess...honey blond hair trickling over the shoulders, white, white teeth that sparkle, flawless skin, make up just so with lush lashes, a svelte yet sensual figure.

Back in the day...when I was a girl, when I was a young woman...messages were similar, but not so pervasive.  In high school, I was too tall, or not short enough. Or too smart, not bimbo enough?  I dunno. It goes on and on.

Perhaps men have some of these problems.  For them, issues are often about success, money, and power.  "I'm not rich enough!"

So Science of Mind should help, right? We know what to do: affirmations, positive self talk, Spiritual Mind Treatment, visioning, clearing our consciousness.  Treat and use our feet. Be proactive about getting what we want in life.

Because the truth is this...."God don’t make no junk! God don’t make ugly." We are magnificent, beautiful in mind, body and spirit. We step into our power here on this plane of consciousness.

We come here with our gifts. It’s up to us how we’re going to use those gifts. We can’t be distracted by the fear messages, the seeds of doubt planted by the media to sell products, the efforts by others to tear us down, the efforts by ourselves to tear ourselves down.

Repeat after me. " I am pretty enough. I am strong enough. I am rich, I am successful, I am powerful.  I love my life and everything about it. I radiate health, wealth, love and creativity. I am God in action here on this plane of consciousness."

And so it is!

Techno-love in "Her"

Not too long ago I saw the movie “Her.”  It’s a thought-provoking story about a lonely man and his techno-romance with his smartphone’s advanced operating system. The lead character Theodore, heart-broken by the breakup of his marriage, becomes intrigued and eventually falls in love with an intuitive, bright, insightful, sensitive and funny smartphone operating system named Samantha.

The film raises some interesting questions:

 Is the flesh and blood romantic spark between two human beings the only path to intimacy or romantic love?  It’s startling to think about relationships between people and silicon based entities...whether smart phones or robots.  Yet how often do we see people absorbed in their smart phones even when among human companions?

Is technology so seductive that life becomes much easier if we could insulate ourselves from messy human emotions? Hmmm:  no drama, no cooking, no cleaning up after, no sharing of home space, no one making demands on time or energy. Or like Samantha, someone to organize life, help with internet research, talk me to sleep and ask nothing in return. Could I, would I, ever fall in love with a computer operating system molded to my psyche?  Sounds attractive. Would I need a “real” relationship?

The larger question:  is technology accelerating the trend toward social isolation?

In examining my own life, I’m amazed at how much time I spend alone...with my computer, Internet, Netflix, even online classes. I don’t have to leave the house, aside from my runs to the library, Trader Joe, the bank, the gym, and to this Center. But even some of those could go. I could order in groceries, do online banking, read on a Kindle, exercise with DVDs, study through EdX,  and even Skype with my family.

Well, I’m not admitting to being a total hermit. I actually do go out with friends and have human interactions. But I can see the danger as well as the opportunity from all these technological changes.

The danger? To melt into and become part of the trend toward social isolation. To become insular.

The opportunity? Technology also brings meetups, and ways to find new friends and activities in the world. All kinds of organizations are online, with places to gather. People still crave connection.

So what’s the point of all this? In the film, both Samantha and Theodore grow, evolve and are are transformed by the adventure of their relationship. As we also can grow, evolve and be transformed by many of life’s adventures and changes.  I look around, as Holmes would say, and know that opportunity lies open to me, full rich, and abundant....whether it is through harnessing technology or using my feet to get out in the world to create something fabulous.  The relative world, the world of conditions is continually changing.  And I know there is always one Constant, one Creative Intelligence, one First Cause, expressing through me and for me and as me. So bring it on...I’m Spirit having a human experience, and I’m hungry for all this world has to offer.

And so it is.

The Power of a Smile

Recently I made an interesting discovery about smiling. I feel better when I smile. I also look better. After making a short video of myself for an online public speaking class, I was pleasantly surprised.

“Well, look at that,” I says to myself. You actually look younger. And better.  And that very expensive dental work from a few years ago... thank you Dr.Gottlieb! Even Rev.Mike, when he saw the video said, It takes off 10 years.  Who knew?

Well, Ron Gutman knows. He’s the founder and CEO of the online health information app, HealthTap. He’s done quite a bit of research on smiling and writes in a column for Forbes online that it’s an “untapped power.”

Did you know a research project involving photos of major league baseball players in 1952 found that the span of a player’s smile could predict the span of his life? Players with broad, beaming smiles lived an average of 79.9 years to the sober player’s measly 72.9 years...a seven year advantage just from smiling.

Also, he found that smiling is evolutionarily contagious. We see someone smile and we want to smile. Ultrasound shows that developing babies are smiling in the womb, and continue to smile a lot after birth. Children smile a lot...up to 400 times a day. Smiles are cross-cultural, basic and biologically uniform expressions of all humans...even cannibals in New Guinea.

Also, we activate happiness circuitry in our brains when we smile, and smiling can actually make us healthier and less stressed.

Even though I’m into health and fitness, this is the first time I realized that my perpetual serious demeanor was a health hazard. I mean, I’ve always been serious. And I thought that might help preserve my face from wrinkles.  Why smile and get those pesky laugh lines?

But now...I know differently! And I’m learning to flex those facial muscles for good health, happiness and longevity.

Plus... I have another reason. I’ve often complained about my raspy speaking voice, and I decided I want to become a better public speaker.  And I just accepted that I couldn’t sing and never would, but secretly I wanted to sing. I hear other people singing and wish that I could express myself that way.

So recently I hired a vocal coach. And the first thing he’s teaching me is to bring my voice up into my head, my facial mask, and to do that I need to open my mouth wide in a smiling way. He comes to my home and we work on speaking the first half hour, and then...believe it or not...on singing. He’s very encouraging. I’m hearing these hoarse unattractive sounds coming out, and he’s playing notes on the piano going up, up, up. And what do you know, he had me actually singing up the scale. Then I was trying Eidelweiss. He says I’m a soprano. Really? Seriously? I actually had an emotional moment, realizing I had this hidden potential to sing.

Am I going to perform? No. I’m not ready for prime time. But I’m going to keep working on this and see where it takes me.

In closing, let me quote an anonymous poet from the Internet:

“Smiling is infectious,
You can catch it like the flu.
Someone smiled at me today,
And I started smiling too.

And so it is.

MOOC Experience

I’ve been exploring the Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs, which seem to be expanding globally. Coursera, with free courses from major prestigious universities such as Stanford, Princeton, Cal Tech, Michigan and others, has recently expanded to Russia and Asia, opening higher education to millions of people.

On the international scene, Future Learn started up in the U.K. with many educational partners, and even more recently Iversity began in Berlin with the goal of becoming the Coursera of Europe. 

As I’ve been exploring how our Center could become involved in online learning, I decided, “I need to experience it.”  I completed a course at Udemy on how to create an online course for their platform, in which anyone with expertise can set up a course for profit as well as for free. 
Then I signed up for a Coursera course, not in the more prevalent high tech area, but in literature: “Fantasy and Science Fiction,” from the University of Michigan.

We have assigned reading each week, complete a short essay of about 300 words and evaluate several peer essays. The professor, aside from creating the course and appearing in course videos, does not evaluate our work. Basically, we’re on our own as self-directed learners.

This is challenging for some students, as peer evaluations can be harsh, and there is a low completion rate. This course reportedly has 15,000 students.  Those who finish have to be dedicated, because there is a time commitment to do the work.

Our first assignment was “Grimm’s Fairy Tales,” which are available from the Gutenberg Project...or your public library. Next up was “Alice in Wonderland,” to be followed by Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and other works.

After submitting our essays, we receive five peer essays to evaluate. This is challenging, as writing ability varies.

Evaluations of my work are generally positive and suggest I pull more symbolism from the story and follow more traditional  route of thesis, body, conclusion.  On a scale of 1 to 3, my grades have been a 2. One commented that my tone was refreshing and a bit “snarky,” which could mean that I was being irascible--really? Am I irascible?

There’s also a forum, and I was surprised how uptight students were about the evaluations. One student decided to quit because of poor evaluations. My response is that I’m taking the class for fun and experience, enjoy the feedback-- whether positive or negative-- and see this as a fabulous opportunity to learn something new.

Peer reviews can be useful, but as a Religious Scientist, I know that I’m 100 percent responsible for my own experience here and elsewhere.

I did learn something new. When I purchased the Rapunzel costume and doll for my granddaughter last holiday season, I wasn’t aware of the tower as a phallic symbol and that the fairy tales are all about sex. Live and learn!

There’s a tsusami, a huge experiment going on right now in education. It shows that higher education is open at the top, is responding to changing conditions in the world, and presents great opportunities for those willing to jump in.

One reason Silicon Valley is backing these courses is the huge need for software engineers and coders now and in the coming years. Software is an invisible thread through many disciplines, and embedded in almost all devices, many of which talk to each other. So even musicians and artists may need this coding skill to develop apps or tell computers what to do.

It’s like learning a new language, a language that is becoming all pervasive in the global society. Even children can learn coding. Search on the web for “coding for children” and links come up for Code.org or Khan Academy, or one that says “How to Raise the Next Zuckerberg: 6 Coding Apps for Kids."


That’s not to say online education is replacing traditional education. Only time will tell where all this is going.

When Ernest Holmes says, “There is an inner urge in our own minds to grow, to expand, to break down the barriers of previous limitations and to ever widen our experience,” he didn’t know about computers, online learning or any of the 21st century innovations.  But as he continues: “This persistent urge (to grow) is a driving influence, an irresistible force, and constitutes the greatest impulse in human experience....It is the urge back of all fulfillment.”

As we create our own experience here on this plane of existence, it’s good to know what opportunities are evolving in the material world, opportunities of which we or our children can take advantage. We know that life externalizes at the level of our thought, and we can use the one Power for Good in the Universe to guide us through the ever-evolving conditions of the 21st Century.

And so it is.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother’s Day! This special day was created back in 1908 by Anna Jarvis to honor her deceased mother, and became a national holiday by proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson back in 1914. Today it’s a global holiday celebrated all over the world.

This got me thinking about the mothers in my life, and in my lineage. The furthest back I remember is my grandmother, after whom I was named.  She came to this country from Ireland in the 19th century, and married my grandfather who came over from Germany when he was two years old. Together they created a life for themselves and raised four daughters.

The eldest was my mother, who came of age in the flapper era and married my father, a Swedish immigrant. Together they had two boys in addition to me.

I came of age in the 1950’s, married in the ‘60s and birthed a boy and a girl in the 70’s. The girl married in this new century, the 21st, and has also birthed two children, a boy and a girl.

So I see five generations of women in my personal history, four of them mothers and one, now a five-year old, a possible future mother.

As Ernest Holmes says, We have all emerged from that One Whose Being is ever present and Whose Life, robed in numberless forms, manifest throughout all Creation. All of us, different personalities, are propelled by the cosmic Urge to bring us into being, into perfect manifestation.

I looked for commonalities in these different family feminine life experiences Different times, different places. Three generations enjoyed long, stable marriages.  My grandparents, parents and myself were married some 40 years, with no divorce or early widowhood. The men in the families did not experience the killing fields of wartime military,

My great grandfather was in the German military under Bismarck, and --the story goes -- one night he and some buddies drank too much beer and cut down the trees in front of the Kaiser’s palace. I assume they used their swords. In any case, that prompted a swift trip out of the country to America, followed by their wives, children, feather beds, pots and pans.

My grandfather did not serve in World War I, avoided the flu pandemic, and made it through the depression with a solid job as a postman. My own father was a bit old for World War II, but managed a toy factory converted to producing munitions for the war effort.

My own husband, Larry, served stateside in the army in the 50’s.

I might have been raised by a single mother, if my father had died as expected from a deadly pneumonia. But my mother wore out her rosary praying for his recovery, and just in time, a totally new sulfa drug saved his life.

So aside from that near miss, and the late life illnesses of transition, my ancestors as well as my own family have been blessed with good health. I survived a bout with breast cancer in my fifties, and enjoy grandmama status today.

One recurring theme through my family history is education. For my grandmother. a high school diploma was enough to become a school teacher. My mother, with two years of Normal school, was a grade school teacher before marriage and insisted we children all go to college. My two brothers and myself earned masters’ degrees. I married a college professor, have done a bit of college teaching myself, and my own children have advanced degrees...my son a doctorate and my daughter a master's degree. Education is highly valued in their families as well.

So as I look back at the generations of mothers before and after me, I realize we have manifested very positive life experiences. I am humbled, amazed and thankful that I am privileged to be a link in this chain of motherhood...this tangle of love, caring, wisdom, guidance, hard work and more created from the divine urges of the Cosmos.

As the poet Rajneesh has said:

“The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new.”

And so it is, on this Mother’s Day, May 11, 2014.

Small Things That Change Our World

Sometimes it’s the smallest things that can change the world.

Here’s an example: In June 1812, Napoleon marched on Russia with an army of 600,000. By December, that number had fallen to 10,000 as the remnants of his force retreated from Moscow. Napoleon’s downfall followed. Why did this happen?

One theory is described in the book, Napoleon’s Buttons: 17 Molecules That Changed the World. Buttons? Yes, the buttons that held together everything from officers’ greatcoats to the jackets and trousers of the foot soldiers were made of tin. And tin disintegrates into a gray powder when temperatures fall.

So picture this:  soldiers grasping their clothes in the freezing weather when they should be grasping their weapons. Napoleon’s influence disintegrated along with the buttons.

True or not, the authors Penny LeCouteur and Jay Burreson were inspired by this story of to explore connections between something as small as a molecule and momentous events in human history.

Take nutmeg...a spice we can buy easily in the supermarket and keep in our kitchen cupboards to spice up our foods. But it wasn’t always so. A small bag with nutmeg around the neck was highly desired in the middle ages to ward off the Black Death, the plague that devastated Europe for centuries.

Superstition? As it turns out, nutmeg contains a natural pesticide, isoeugenol, which could have repelled fleas. We now know the bubonic plague was transmitted by infected rats through the bites of fleas.

And because the Dutch, who were successful spice traders, wrested a nutmeg monopoly from Great Britain by trading Manhattan for the tropical island of Run, we have New York instead of New Amsterdam.

The authors cite many examples of human demand for specific molecules as the stimulus for great changes: spices and voyages of discovery; cotton, sugar and the huge slave trade; salt, salt taxes and revolutions, ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and new prosperity from successful trading voyages, antibiotics and the prevention of millions of deaths, and many others.

So I started thinking. What small things that we do every day can have momentous effects on our personal lives?  I immediately thought back to my 21st birthday, when I was going to register to vote. My mother, who was a Republican, said: “Register as a Democrat. You never know.”  At that time my father, also a Republican, was managing a toy factory and one of his foremen was influential in the Democratic Party. He knew all the bigwigs.

A few years later I joined the Foreign Service and was assigned to Dakar, Senegal. I really didn’t want to go there. I wanted to go to Europe. On a Friday I called my father. What can "so and so" do, I wailed. The next Monday, Personnel called me:  I was now assigned to Brussels, Belgium. I called my father. “Don’t do anything. I got Brussels.”

Father said: “The call went out Friday night.”

Later, I discovered Lyndon B. Johnson written in parentheses  on my personnel card. So I owe my husband, who I met at the American Embassy in Brussels, and our two beautiful children, to L.B.J. And to my Mom, for suggesting I register as a Democrat.

That’s not exactly a molecule story, but a story of a small action that brought huge change to my personal life.

Another event, not so small, was my diagnosis of breast cancer that spurred my spiritual journey.  A small event evolving from this larger event was driving by this Center and seeing the sign, Church of Religious Science. “How can religion be scientific?” I mused. I came one Sunday to find out, and never left.

And so it is.