PSI Annual Journal 2003

As a part of our human nature, we have been given our physical senses. We use these senses or abilities to learn, discover, and understand more about our environment and the world. However, if truth be told, the relative ability and the capacity of our human physical senses are, especially when compared to the rest of the animal world, mediocre at best! We cannot smell as well as a dog, hear as well as a cat, see as well as a bird, and yet, we have been given some special abilities that grant we human beings a special place in the Creation. What abilities are those?

Now many people would quickly say that what distinguishes us from our animal brothers and sisters is the development of our brain's neo-cortex—the higher brain—and the complex functions of reason and intelligence. My response is sure, all that is true, but there is still more that contributes to the uniqueness of our species—gifts and abilities that more properly belong to the spiritual realm, or that which goes beyond, and some would say, completes our ability to think and to formulate ideas.

As I see it, while our nine physical senses are not the sharpest, and sometimes when we look at our society, the current news headlines, and how we treat one another, I have a healthy amount of doubt as to how well our reasoning or thinking has served us, I am glad that God, GUS, Evolution or the Creation gave human beings a greater assortment of gifts than just sensation and reason.

I feel that what solves problems and uplifts all humanity is not our rational intellect, but the solution to many of life's dilemmas, and to tapping our greatest human potentials are to be found in the spiritual gifts we have been given; gifts and abilities that philosophers and theologians have called the super-sensible senses: those innate and cultivated abilities that allow humanity to create, to dream, to project, and to consider new horizons and vast possibilities. They allow us to conceive of larger ideas and ideals, so that we can arrive at a personal sense of truth that goes beyond critical thinking and rational analysis. These gifts of the super-sensible, that is, beyond the nine physical senses are three: imagination, inspiration, and intuition.

As you are coming to realize about me, I have been a wide ranging explorer in the worlds of philosophy, East and West, and have been given training and access to various spiritual and metaphysical systems of study and understanding. Along that path, I have studied in depth the many unique or dissenting forms of American and European approaches to Christianity. Those particular studies have ranged from the elaborate German idealism that became Anthroposophy, all the way to the American offshoots of Unitarian Universalism and our Transcendentalist heritage such as Christian Science, Unity, and the one I will use today, the Science of Mind or Religious Science.

Briefly, it was from the Anthroposophists—a word that inclusively is defined as the study of the higher realms and dimensions of humankind—that I was given this insight into the super sensible qualities and traits that we humans possess. Focusing today only on the mental gift of imagination, and having to leave the emotional gift of inspiration, and the visceral gift of intuition for another time, these teachers taught me that without the super sensible gifts, there would be very little humanly created beauty in our world—for much of art, music, theatre, literature, poetry, dance, and all the patterns and forms of human expression, come from our imagination. Imagination deals with the human mind, its loftier thoughts and all of the questions that frame its ideals such as "the what ifs, or the I wonder if, the could bes, would bes, and ought to bes of life...".

Imagination is our human gift that as Einstein puts it, is more important than knowledge, because it is grounded in both the possibilities for faith and the optimism and perseverance found in hope. Our imagination gives energy and expression to our ideas and allows them to have a voice and yield a design that gives rise to creative pursuits and projects ranging from symphonies to scientific discoveries!

Now, to be fair and objective, we have to state that this gift of imagination is value neutral; that is, like so many of our human thoughts, desires, and actions, it can be used or abused by the intention and motives behind it—for just as we can receive gratefully the imaginative vision and composition of a Monet or a Mozart, we have to accept that we can also receive the products of the scientific or the creative imagination that are far less noble and exhalting. For our imagination and intelligence can also create horrific weapons, deadly diseases, vile prejudices, and pornography—all from the crucible fires of our imagination.

Therefore, in the balance, it is our intentions and motives that guide or direct our imagination, so that our creativity can be exhalting and worthwhile. Given the events of last year, this week especially, we need to remember that the best focus for our imagination can be used to create visions of peace, cooperation, and healing. As we approach September 11th, we can remember to use the gift of our imagination, especially through the techniques of imagery and visualization, to empower each person, a committed group, or even our international consciousness, to focus their intent, their prayers, their rituals and images, on sustaining individual and worldwide outcomes that benefit all of humankind, all sentient beings, even Gaia (or the earth) herself!

While it could be an endless list of positive and negative results or impacts that our human imagination has had on culture and humankind, I will make a brief plug for our liberal heritage. Two positive examples of this would be famous Unitarian Thomas Edison, who gave so much enjoyable and useful technology to our world through the use of his inventive imagination, and the Universalist, Horace Mann, whose imagination about learning and the need for literacy helped him to devise a national approach to public education that was to benefit every school child. ( So, I guess that means that if you don't like going to school, you can blame it on the Universalists!)

The next idea that speaks to our gift of imagination and that could be used to frame this next church year comes from the New Thought school of religion, known popularly as "positive thinking." There is, as a distinct part of our American character, our genogram, our cultural and collective archetype, a particular kind of optimism that claims to be unsinkable, and determined to overcome adversity and challenge. This part of our national character reinforces the use of our capacity for imagination to look for ways that can lead us out, and up from any tragedy and despair, and how we can best use our capacity for creative thinking to counter the claims of fear and hate.

Imagination is the best defense against feeling helpless; it keeps us focused on the hopeful possibilities, rather than rehearse or perpetuate the same attitudes and opinions that contributed to the problems we face, and relive its negative impact on us. From the writings of Transcendentalism, various religious teachers of the 1800's and early 1900's took hold of our American character and its imaginative attitude. From the writings and speeches of such people as Emerson, Fuller, Alcott, Whitman and other possibility thinkers were woven those essential ideas about the sacredness and the integrity of one's mind and how thinking, perceiving, and understanding can shape our lives.

These American religious reformers took those writings and combined them with insights of their own, and created various strains of contemporary American religion. One such person was Ernest Holmes, who founded the Science of Mind or Religious Science. Holmes believed that our lives are shaped and influenced by the quality of our thoughts, and therefore we need to listen to the impelling directives and compelling messages of the super-sensible—that a life without imagination, inspiration and intuition is mostly barren. He believed that the greatest fear we have is not that we will die, but that without sufficient faith, hope, and love, we would come to realize that we had never really lived!

One of the core teachings of this approach is one that I ask you to consider deeply. As we start this church year together, using the yearlong theme of imagination to guide us towards a more expansive sense of community, identity and service, let us use Holme's foundational statement as our own gauge or measure of inner and outer growth or awareness. In this way what we hold in our minds, and the thoughts that we share among us, can help us to overcome any previous fears or concerns about our current limitations.
His words, slightly adapted, are these:

What the mind can conceive,
What the heart can believe,
The person or the community can achieve!

If we are willing to actively imagine together a more expansive, prosperous and dynamic future for UU Society East, then we can begin by setting our intention, our prayer, our thought and our resolve to reflect and project whatever our minds can conceive, and what our hearts can believe, about this community—its value, its vision, and what it can become in the near future! So today, I will begin to imagine with you. And my hope is that you will find in a shared imagination, a stronger, deeper belief in yourselves, and a power to achieve more than you had thought, and more of what can be realized as good, right, and true! SO BE IT!

PSI Symposium Annual Journal 2003