Why did the Klingbeils start the research of prayer and human consciousness?
Without being consciously aware of it, society has moved away from prayer and religious values. Should some of us be alarmed? Yes. If prayer is more than a habit and ritual ignorantly believed as real for thousands of years, to discover something authentic about prayer should be a step in the right direction. But to seek authentic elements in prayer requires research.
When we hear someone speak versus seeing someone speak.
Civilization has experienced a shift from hearing to seeing.
In September 1960, an historic debate would change history for the future. Vice President Richard Nixon debated Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy. This debate was the first visual debate for president of the United States. This first televised debate from Chicago put John F. Kennedy as the winner and helped him become president. The people who used their ears instead of their eyes, who heard the debate on the radio, put Richard Nixon as the winner of the debate. Something about seeing over hearing was in the air. Eyes could trump ears. Visual presentation could trump hearing.
"The medium through which a communication is conveyed has the medium embedded within the message." The Medium is the Message. - Marshall McLuhan
During the 1960s, Bruce Klingbeil detected that modern society would increasingly make God and Christianity bend to modernity. Aligning with change isn't always a negative, but Bruce asked, "With technology providing answers for almost everything, will prayer become obsolete?" There is a strong possibility that prayer will become obsolete or at least not taken seriously. One motive behind doing research was to discover scientific ways to show that prayer isn't a superstition that should be wiped-out by the well-educated.
The effects of history and time on spiritual healing.
During the 1960s, it occurred to Bruce that a few nontraditional healers were accountable for their healing claims, but most nontraditional healers were not accountable to society for their healing claims. Bruce observed that our increasingly scientific society was beginning to notice the holes in the claims of nontraditional healing and some religious claims of belief.
Bruce's work as a Christian Science practitioner contributed to his outlook for the future, too. He noticed that the healing success rate was diminishing. Why was successful spiritual healing diminishing? Something was shifting in collective consciousness away from a religious cultural mindset to a materialistic cultural mindset that hindered healing. A majority of the time, spiritual healing operates in an atmosphere conducive to healing. The zeitgeist of society had changed the picture, the atmosphere. The picture was changed from faith in invisible divine forces that produce good to being overwhelmed by visible and technological ways to solve most problems.
The observation of social change isn't that technology is all bad. The point is this: There are consequences of material progress taking center stage for mankind. The spiritual forces to be harnessed by mankind have been proportionally less and more difficult to demonstrate as religious values and training have been pushed aside. Many youth are adverse to stepping inside a church or a synagogue.
Bruce concluded that it was easier for spiritual healing to happen a hundred years ago, and pre-World War II, than in the 1950s and 60s and moving forward in time. Prior to World War II, the country was immersed in a religious mindset. In most situations, to have a spiritual healing occur, the mental atmosphere should be receptive to religious ideas. The religious atmosphere of the past made it easier to occasion spiritual healings.
After World War II, the religious atmosphere was quickly dissolving and being replaced with a materialistic and scientific atmosphere. Every human being was being unconsciously translated into a scientific mindset, if people noticed the translation was arising in them or not. Science is good. Nonetheless, do expect the unanticipated consequences of science and new technology that will change many spiritual influences on mankind.
The atmosphere of society has shifted from religion to technology. Are aspects of mankind's spiritual and moral compass hindered by modern forms of materiality?
Yes. The Klingbeils tried to get the attention of Christians and Christian Scientists to warn them of the impending dominance of science and technology. Bruce and John often asked, "What are Christians and religious people going to do when God's creation is replaced with algorithms?" It's getting that way. Much of creation is being translated into illusions where a person's mind can escape into virtual realities and digital tricks. Living in these realities, these created sensory deceptions are believed to be actual reality. If people believe tech-deceptions as reality today, just imagine the tech-deceptions people will believe in the future? Technology will fill their minds. Thus, the battlefield for life, truth, and divine Love is in the mind.
Bruce said that Christian Scientists made the assumption that past successes were a predictor of future successes. Why didn't the future maintain its success rate? In large part it's because society, technology, and medicine have altered beliefs and pictures about life, truth, and love.
Another reason is that in the past the human mind found it easier to remember unusual successful positive hits of spiritual experiences and not remember the misses.
The analogy of musical chairs has an application to the past and present. In the prosperous decades of Christian Science, when the music stopped, someone was left without a chair; without getting healed. More recently, when the music stopped, several people were left without chairs; without getting healed. In modern society, the misses started to get some remembrance.
THE TELEPHONE BOOTH IS GONE.
Bruce was well-known as a Christian Science healer. Bruce had to admit that it had become more difficult to heal in the modern world. Cascades of material atmospherics and many forms of electronically transmitted interference were causing mental noise. For example, the clatter of electronic emissions were increasingly encroaching on human beings. The telephone booth had disappeared from the landscape. Instead, hundreds of millions of people carried around over seven billion small radio transmitters. Such jabbing signal intruders on collective consciousness and on individual mindsets began to tip over the tipping point in the decades after World War II. Fast healings were slower healings. There was an increase in failures of healing. The atmosphere of the world continued to change toward modern forms of materiality that occupied human attention. The unintended consequences of progress has had an annoying effect on spiritual healing, morals, and behaviors. This link speaks about the saturation of technology that interferes with sustaining distinctive spirituality.
In the 1960s, Bruce read about the advances being made by science, theology, and medicine. He concluded that after World War II, the age of religion had been foundationally transformed into the age of science. For example, the destructive power of the atomic bomb, where matter as energy was terrifying the entire population of the earth, has contributed to people unconsciously losing their faith in being spiritual and being protected. Also, the advances in healing problems by the medical profession have been directly and indirectly accomplished because of the medical sciences.
If Christianity and Christian Science were to survive the future ages, they would have to address scientific issues. Bruce and John felt that Spindrift could assist in bridging a gapping hole between religion, science, consciousness, and psi. (The pictogram psi refers to invisible forces that occur-at-a-distance.)
One motive was to develop ways to qualify people who assert spiritual healing and other psi abilities.
In this current age, people who claim a healing ability, or another psychic ability, should require some indications of doing something visible. People of psi should also have some regulation. Otherwise, their services would not be taken seriously by modern society much longer.
Bruce started doing basic science experiments with his own thoughts and prayers in 1969. As time moved on, a modest way to test the healing ability of other people was developed. An accumulation of the results from a test showed effects, or lack of effects, occasioned by thoughts and prayers of the people praying.
During the 1970s, Bruce and John were encouraged that their church was paying attention to consciousness related research through its daily newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor. The Monitor was carrying articles and interviews with innovative scientists who explored consciousness and quantum physics.
Bruce thought it strange, that at the same time America was experiencing an increase in awareness of consciousness, there was a decline in awareness of religious training, and church and synagogue attendance. Children had little interest in what their parents taught about God and religious truths that related to consciousness. Bruce noticed a systemic educated perception by society that many discoveries of science were seen as the enemies of religion instead of friends of religion.
The atheist says prayer is soap bubbles. The believer says prayer is hope.
Are we praying attention (pun intended)? More people are becoming atheists these days. Why? Generally speaking, it's because atheists and young people assert, "Why do we need God when science, video, and tech can explain everything to us? We can see reality on our computer screens, smartphones, and in virtual reality." The Klingbeils would respond that as society becomes more scientific, secular, and skeptical, the claims made for prayer and holiness should find fresh ways to be accountable as a healing influence that promotes the wisdom and welfare of society, even if society doesn't believe it.
At times a downtrodden society decides to feel that prayer inserts hope into a situation.
When religion is the cause of trouble and gets into trouble.
The 9/11 terrorism began with Islamic prayers. 9/11 also gave a boost to atheism and anti-religion sentiment. People could visualize religion in motion by watching 9/11 and beheadings on television.
9/11 was a wakeup call for the Freedom of Religion clause in the US Constitution. In some instances, the clause may protect sedition, not religion.
The Freedom of Religion clause in the US Constitution protected faith healers, Christian Scientists, and psychics to do about whatever they wanted to do. The First Amendment permitted healers to do things that doctors would never be allowed to do in their practice. Healers could claim a curative gift without showing a gift existed in them. To believe in the First Amendment's provision of the freedom to believe in God and the laws of God was all that was required to justify why believers could believe their weird beliefs. Bruce Klingbeil predicted that permissions for "weird beliefs" afforded by the Constitution and society would come to an end. How? Bruce predicted that society will give increasing power to secularists and scientists.
With only perceived "weird beliefs," no scientific evidence for back-up, believers in psychic actions-at-a-distance that manifest beneficial effects could face the potential of no more protection by the First Amendment.
Virtually no one cared what Bruce Klingbeil thought about the danger ahead for religion in America. But few people would deny today that religious credibility is on the way out of America and Europe.
Judge evidence by digging under the appearance.
To a secularist, evidence is seen. Evidence is not heard unless what is heard is tied to what is seen. Spirituality, faith, prayer, and reading books are more of a hearing thing than a seeing thing. One Bible translation says "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." {Romans 10:17, World English BIble.} Another verse says "Judge not according to sight, but judge righteous judgment." {John 7:24, Darby Bible Translation.} Also, "Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, And apply your mind to my knowledge." {Proverbs 22:17, The New American Standard.}
A switch has been thrown from man perceiving through hearing, which is a strong spiritual avenue of learning, to learning through seeing, through visuals; through movies, videos, concerts, television, IPhones, Google. What else? A cell phone draws the ear and eye, texting, messaging, tweets, and YouTube are all "The Never Ending Story." It's argued that 'Hollywood' gives the population its version of morals through its mediums.
"Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture." - Allen Ginsberg
For good or ill, society is becoming image oriented and seeing oriented. Written words and hearing information is being substituted with optics. Fast paced visual electronic impressions flood thought. The world is becoming connected by images that sometimes dominate thought, creating a visual dependency for the viewers. Watching television, video screens, and playing video games might be putting the population into an alternate state of consciousness. Either we are spiritually awakening or we are being controlled half-awake.
Words determine our experience, but images are taking the place of our words. Society has gone over the tipping point from trusting the reality of hearing words to trusting the reality of seeing images on screen. People have a touch screen mentality. More people are seeing words than hearing words. Reading and hearing for the meaning of words is being replaced with seeing and hearing images as truth. A Bible verse that speaks about hearing words has another translation. "Therefore faith is from the hearing ear, and the hearing ear is from the word of God." {Romans 10:17, Aramaic Bible in Plain English.}
The Klingbeils noticed this switch in what people trust as real and true; the switch from hearing words to seeing images. When people are watching images, they are not focused on the extended meaning. Seeing brief images versus longer reading for understanding is the present reality and the battle for the mind.
A lack of reading skills became a calamitous problem for Christian Science that relies on reading Bible lessons six days a week and hearing the lesson read back to the mind as the Sunday morning sermon.
To address society's hearing and attention deficits, Bruce and John conceived of modest Spindrift lab experiments as visual images or symbols of what individual and group prayer might do for mankind's desire for "A picture is worth a thousand words."
Symbols are tools of communication.
The Bible does say that God reveals Himself "Through mighty signs and wonders." {Daniel 4:2 - 3 and also Romans 15:19, King James Version.} It could be argued that signs and wonders are visual and observable.
Faith may be about the unseen realm. The Bible also suggests that you can show your faith in examples. {James 2:18.}
The Klingbeils presumed that prayer produces order and promotes Quality. The existence of God couldn't be shown in the laboratory yet, but examples of order in human circumstances might suggest to the scientific mind that there is an underlying Ordering-Cause for the ordering-effects that emerge from Quality intentions.
God calls Himself the Word (hearing). God rejects idols as images of Himself to be worshiped (Exodus 20:4). Symbols of meaning bridge the gap between hearing words and seeing images properly. Spiritual thinking differentiates images as meaning and symbolic meaning. Spiritual thinking is hearing your own mind.
The Klingbeils embraced the importance that Mary Baker Eddy placed on using symbols for spiritual teaching. She wrote "Spiritual teaching must always be by symbols." (Science and Health, page 575.) As a mathematical example, if 2 x 2 equals 4, then 22 x 22 equals 484. A small symbol of healing could hint at a large symbol of healing. If people need a symbolic image to see, they could see an image of prayer in an experiment. If prayer can help a plant gain more order, can prayer help a person gain more order? A visual impression made on people could be a spiritual teaching. The teaching people see may awaken the power to hear Quality and holiness within their own consciousness. People might glimpse the relationship between their thoughts, holiness, and other people. On a collective scale, they might aspire to attune to prayer and holiness that could slowly lift mankind above the masks of the Matrix.
Former Massachusetts Representative Patrick Kennedy, who overcame drug addiction, hints at what spiritual teaching might do for a person. Kennedy said, "Life isn't really in our control. There is a Mover in the universe, a higher power, so to speak, and we can't imagine what we're going to find in our universe if we let go and just let God lead us." (From a NBC interview, February 17, 2014, reported by Tony Dokoupil.)
