FMBR Editorial: April, 2008
Judgments and Prejudices: Non-local Implications
Marion and Bill Gough
In the March 2008 FMBR Newsletter the Editor asks whether “fundamentalists – who keep repeating endless cycles of war and destruction, and who are resistant to change – are too hardwired to mutate and evolve.” Marion, whose sister’s family is “Christian fundamentalist,” felt an emotional reaction. She loves this family, but does not agree with many of their views. However, she knows that they do not intentionally represent a “war-mongering consciousness.”
This got us into a discussion on judgments and prejudices and how our belief system affects our views of others. This was highlighted by news from Kenya where tribal rather than racial differences resulted in hatred, violence, and bloodshed on a national scale. In the United States, Senator Barack Obama delivered a speech to bring out the point that it is possible to be a good person and yet deliver inflammatory speeches as his pastor had done. We can condemn a person’s words but we do not have to condemn the person.
The reason is that we are ultimately one people – something that is being supported by scientific theory and data but is not yet a heartfelt human belief. Quantum theory predicts that a physical system, once separated, retains a "connectiveness.” This phenomenon is known as "non-locality" and implies non-separability at the most fundamental level that transcends space and time. Experimental physics results now strongly support the existence of non-locality. Hence, at some fundamental level we are all connected, and are one people.
The Global Consciousness Project, which started in 1998, seeks evidence of a communal, shared mind in which we are unknowing participants. In effect, our individual intentions, thoughts, and emotions appear to interact and combine to create a non-local field that ultimately has a global presence. This project now has over 60 sites around the world, each recording second-by-second data from physical devices known as random event generators (REGs). The data is sent for analysis to a dedicated computer server in Princeton, New Jersey.
Global-scale events bring great numbers of us to a common focus with a coherence of thought and feeling. These situations have been found to correlate with anomalous structures in the random data. For example there have been striking results for the billion-person meditation, the September terrorist attacks on the U.S., and many other events (for more details go to The Global Consciousness Project Meaningful Correlations in Random Data).
Although more scientific data is always needed, let’s assume: 1) an interconnectiveness exists between everything in our world, and 2) therefore, our thoughts and emotions affect our world and its direction. Now let’s look at some of our actions. We tend to blame people for not changing and agreeing with our viewpoint. Yet whatever exists must represent a part of us since everything is connected. However, we can love a person yet not accept all their viewpoints or statements.
Sen. Barack Obama expressed these feelings in regard to his controversial pastor’s words. They are at the heart of prejudices that divide the peoples of the world. When we project judgmental viewpoints through our thoughts, words, or writings, we are introducing separateness into the inherent wholeness that underlies everything. This is why the Golden Rule is a tenet of every major religion (see: FMBR Golden Rule article).This is why forgiveness has such power to heal.
Our brains are wired based upon genetics and past experiences, but we believe that each person can connect to an inner wisdom that provides the knowingness that we are all one. This can change the wiring in the brain. There exists much evidence that a person’s belief system can change when they encounter certain events in their life, for example a near-death experience or a “spiritual” awakening. Additionally, programs and technologies to alter our brain patterns are increasingly becoming available. Thus, there really is no inherent “hard wiring” in the brain that under the right conditions cannot be altered for the better of the whole of society. What we think, feel, and write has “invisible” effects on others, everywhere in the world. There are even measurable effects upon inanimate objects like random event generators!
Thus, we need to avoid judgments and prejudices. Rather, we must learn to understand each other’s belief systems and “faults,” yet help and support each other everywhere in the world, whenever possible, if we are going to live in harmony.
Marion and Bill Gough
Marion Gough is the former Secretary of FMBR, one of the organization’s original members and an on-going contributor. Bill Gough is the co-founder of FMBR and Chair Emeritus. He is currently involved in a number of projects both at FMBR and outside the organization to apply consciousness on a practical and global level. Bill and Marion are continued supporters of FMBR (Contact: billgough@FMBR.org).