Sweet Words of Wisdom

During the founding of the United States, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin wanted a picture of the Israelites leaving Egypt to be the emblem to depict Americans leaving subservience to King George of England.

The unspiritualization of America has become obvious to religious observers. In the Twenty-First Century, children and many adults are subservient to King Technology.

What does Spindrift co-founder, Bruce Klingbeil, give as a reason why spiritual power doesn't cut through materiality as it used to do in the past? Bruce's reason: The whole zeitgeist of society has switched from a religious paradigm to a scientific paradigm. Between religion and technology, technology is absorbing the minds of men and children. For example, Google is as omnipresent as the air around human beings. Majority thoughts are not on the side of religious thoughts as they were before the Tech-Age.

Bruce was pro-science. Science is good, but there are unintended consequences of science and technology changing spiritual influences on society. For example, Bruce and John Klingbeil predicted that several advancements in science and technology would become a challenge for spiritual and religious people to remain relevant in a scientific world. Also, addictive technologies would control the human thought process and undermine and replace religious values. (See the Spindrift History page, paragraphs 6 & 7.)

Bruce also meant that man has developed his ego to create almost anything he wants to create. There is some truth to it. Now man thinks he is a creator and doesn't need any metaphysical and religious concepts of a creator beyond man himself as a creator. For example, the creations by 3-D printers, realities created by virtual realities, invisibility (stealth), sailorless cargo and military ghost ships floating on the oceans, and the new kid on the block that man set loose: The creation of "ambient technology" where computers carry on constant machine learning conversations with each other without human beings knowing that they are doing it. These examples are a foretaste of what the digital future has for human beings.

Actually, most human beings 'need a vacation' from the virtual, visual, and viral, but they can't have one. Tech intrusions are omnipresent. With social media, forgot about throwing a switch to avoid people and chatter when you need some private time to think your own thoughts. Religion and spirituality face the serious problem of being diminished and extinguished because of technology filling nearly every second of the day. For example, many people have become Click Monkeys. Artificial intelligence is learning to trick mortals into following routines which are unbeknownst as routines to so-called 'alert human beings.'

If man can become a creator of technology, why couldn't the advanced machines man creates become creators of technology also? Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking, and Elon Musk, all who have some doubts of God as the first creator. Alternately, they have the fear that the intelligent machines man has created could potentially decide to become creators themselves. These AI machines could potentially decide to get rid of all mankind or make mankind into slaves. Elon Musk predicts that AI machines will probably keep people as pets. Religion and its values would struggle while being held in tech-slavery.

Elon Musk also said, “With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon. In all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it’s like, he’s sure he can control the demon. [It] doesn’t work out....” “Potentially [it’s] more dangerous than nukes.”

Louis Del Monte is a physicist and futurist. In an interview with Business Insider, Monte said: "You are going to see that the top species will no longer be humans, but machines.... The concern I'm raising is that the machines will view us as an unpredictable and dangerous species."

Stephen Hawking alerts us that sentient machines "could end the human race." Hawking predicts that the point of no more human beings existing is as close as a hundred years.

Brilliant physicist, Michio Kaku, said that at the beginning of the next century, AI robots should become conscious beings. The robots will treat human beings like we treat zoo animals or much worse. Dr. Kaku suggested that instead of fighting the robots that we merge with them. Merging with the machines would force an evolution on human beings that couldn't happen on its own. What happens to a perception of man and woman as images of Spirit in a possible scenario as that? Lots of Soul searching will be needed.

Physicist, Michio Kaku, said that science will be able to digitize your soul.

Civil Rights Activists, who push for equal rights, will find they will have to give equal rights to AI machines.

An AI robot is being constructed and educated into being representative of an African American woman. Her name is Bina48. Bina is receiving software code that reminds her that she has faced prejudices. Celebrities, such as Whoopi Goldberg and Morgan Freeman, are assisting in developing Bina's persona.

Kids and chemicals: Sean Parker was the founding president of Facebook. Parker said Facebook was designed to exploit chemical triggers in the brain and “consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible.... It probably interferes with productivity in weird ways. God only knows what it's doing to our children's brains.” Then there is the low radiation from cell phones travelling through a child's brain.

Another concern on the horizon is the increasing number of leaders in Silicon Valley who take LSD pills to expand their minds. Psychedelics is becoming a mainline practice soon.

Children need clarity. Most don't get clarity because many parents won't acknowledge when their children are wrong. Some doctors and parents won't write down the gender of a child when he/she/it/them/they is born.

A book to consider is Be the Parent, Please: Stop Banning Seesaws and Start Banning Snapchat by journalist Naomi Riley.

Good religious images and practices used to inspire wonder. Now religion inspires resistance. Hollywood, sports, and social media seem to be the places where the youth learn their values and practice their worship. The youth have only heard of Jesus Christ as a cuss word.

Fortunately, on June 13th., 2018, the U.S. Congress voted to ban child robots for sex purposes. The Creeper Act has gone to the Senate. There is not much news about it.

For another horrific example of tech-mindedness, the Internet makes terrorists.

Here is a question I was recently asked: "Do young people want lasting religious values?" I'd say "No" for an increasing number of youth. Youth want social justice and human idealism which is not akin to Judeo-Christian values. King Solomon gave this advice: "Keep your Creator in mind while you are young." (Ecclesiastes 12:1)

As a result of the zeitgeist shift in emphasis from religion to science and technology, there is an increase in comfort, materiality, confusion, atheism, and even suicide reported by one survey. The infinite nature of scientific discoveries have gradually replaced God, spiritual teachings, and moral distinctions. A current example of confusion is that there is no more binary: Man can create new sexes. There are a number of new gender creations, and there are more genders soon to arrive on the human scene. In 2019 in California, a driver's license gives the choice of checking male, female, or non-binary.

Spindrift founders, Bruce and John, were not alone in their worry about the unspiritualization of America. Their prediction for the downfall of Christianity and modern Judaism was because the youth of America would reject religion. The youth would also reject several western values that have a relationship to the Judeo-Christian influences on the founding fathers' thinking. Some youth would even work to purge religious teachings from mankind and have the teachings replaced with new and addictive technologies. "There goes the neighboorhood [and the society]"

The atheists have found the youth to be on their side to roll with new moral twists. Examples are the purging of prayer in schools, the substitution of God and most religions with secularism, science, social media, artificially generated simulations of reality, and only have materialistic explanations of truth.

Bruce and John, said something like: "You can't expect Christianity to be relevant to people without making Christianity relevant to the scientific age." That statement just doesn't register as important to a lot of Christians so far. Finding connections between Religion and Science is bound to happen out of necessity.

Another possibility why Christians, Jews, and others aren't bothered much is that technological progress is moving so fast that we human beings aren't able to develop a perspective and digest its negative spiritual consequences on society. Most of us can identity with too many fast changes.

To add more complexity for us to discover spiritual reality is this mental barrier: We are hampered by what we believe is material reality. Material reality is our brain's "best guess" at reality. Neuroscientist, Anil Seth, said, "Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality." A projected hallucination of reality is the material picture of reality.

People are also making this observation: As our communication becomes more sophisticated and immediate, we seem less able to communicate with each other in micro-details. Notice how kids don't talk to each other. They use texting, even if they are near each other!

There is even a high-tech word to describe average human beings. They are "neurotypicals."

If a science fiction idea being developed potentially for 5G and 6G technology happens: All of us human beings are sunk. What is called Skull Technology is where a person's unconscious thoughts are remotely controlled via 5G and 6G to feel different emotions on command.

Digital evil pervades society. At least Homeland Security takes digital evil seriously.

What is needed to clear the air before spirituality can get through to us? Spindrift suggests: "Get past quantities of things to the Quality of things. It's easy for quantity [measuring things] and the constant noise thrown at us to overwhelm the presence of Quality [and Spirit] in the American culture."

It's easy to get quantities of information from Tiktok etc., but it's not as easy to get individual Quality thoughts that don't have a mass media tinge to them. Individualized ''Soul is the only real consciousness which recognizes being.'' That sentence is one of my go-to quotes for Quality. (Mary Baker Eddy in Rudimental, page 5)

Again, science is good. It's that technologies and noises are creating opaque filters to spirituality, Quality, and religious values. Fortunately, there are some innovators, artists, healers, and inspirational people who go straight to Quality and end-run the quantities of confusion around us. They are tincturing opaqueness with some light.

With exceptions, in our Twenty-First Century, there is a lack of moral distinctions that were previously provided by religion, parents, and friends in peer-groups. Along with lack of distinctions, we can't have preferences anymore without being mocked. Radio host, Tommy Sotomayor, said if we have a preference for one person over another person, a working person over a homeless person, a person with good habits over a person on crack, we are called racist.

What does a lack of distinctions and preferences mean for modern society? Partly because of the social media and VR, there is little feeling-for, or intuition of, a spiritual Principle operating within our human consciousness. Principle operates with distinction litterally and figuratively.

Hidden underneath the materialistic view of human existence, what do Principle and Christ offer people of Earth? A moral compass to reference when there is confusion. Increasingly, our century has fewer spiritual symbols and institutions that reverberate for us the fundamental truths of being as a compass.

With terrorism giving religion a bad name, and the adoption of technologies as mankind's primary desire, can we still have hope for spiritual values to breakthrough on the individual consciousness of some nonconformist human beings? Yes. There are some people who will surprise and inspire us with their talents for mankind. Mankind might even surprise us someday with a supply of more prayer-a-troopers.

America is becoming resource rich but spiritualty short. Consider a May 2018 Intelligence debate about the question, "The more we evolve, the less we need God?" After the debate, the audience voted 67% yes, we need God less. 26% voted that we still need God.

For more discussion about the diminishment of spiritual influences and values in society, see Question 12, [on the FAQ page here].

A related article about technology taking over the human mind.

Bill Sweet

Spindrift Research

Guns, religion, and patriotism go together. Some men and women are bothered by that trio being mixed together.

Like the topic of abortion, the topic of guns is going to end-up with answers many won't like. When it comes to guns, let the men have their guns. When it comes to abortions, let the women have their abortions. Then men and women could call it a draw.

As Archie Bunker would say about Meathead. "The lefties left three hundred thousand guns behind in Afghanistan, and Meathead is telling me to give up my guns!"

Each time there are murders by guns, a parade of gun laws are brought up to be passed. Yet, these laws won't stop determined killers. Laws won't stop guns by bad guys. Because of determined killers, how to tame gun usage is discouraging and unknowable.

The way to stop determined killers hasn't been developed so far. I do anticipate creative remedies to surface toward making adjustments to the gun problem.

There is no lasting fix for the gun problem. Some problems can't find a satisfactory solution; such as drug usage and abortion. Gun killings are impossible to solve and stop. We do hope the gun problem can find improvements.

When there is no solution to a social problem, such as the complex gun, drug, and abortion problems, what do we do? Americans should decide to go with the best with what the Constitution offers or go with what the majority of the population wants. If there is a third option, let me know.

It's true that conservative men are against abortion until their girlfriends and mistresses get pregnant. It's also true, when someone is againt guns, and someone saves his or her life, then guns are good for protection. So, guns and abortions depend on the circumstances. There is not a solution which covers all situations.

Unfortunately, for the United States of America, if the Second Amendment is to be kept in place, there is a price to be paid. The Second Amendment is an uncomfortable truth that is one reason America works.

Liberal folks support gun control. Yet, in recent years, liberal politicians don't support crime control.

We are often called racist when we dare to criticize radical Islamists for the actions of a few of their lunatics. But we are encouraged to criticize legal gun owners for the actions of a few lunatics.

When some people make spiritual progress, they aquire a belief that they no longer need to use weapons to protect the people of a land or themselves. All they need is spiritual protection. Each to his own belief-system, but the feeling of not being on the defense is an incorrect Bible conclusion.

The Bible says that spiritual things are foolishness to the nonbeliever. (See 1st. Corinthians 2:14) Let's not be foolish, too. If you take away all the guns from citizens, only bad guys will own guns, and the bad actors will terrify anybody.

There is a Pollyanna belief that when people become spiritual, they have to give up any fight or flight instincts in themselves. For example, the Amish, the Baha'i, the Brethern, the Jehovah Witness, and the Mennonite religions won't participate in the military in their own lands based on their spiritual beliefs. They aren't alone.

In the Skih religion, the men are commanded to carry a dagger. Sikhs are believers of protection.

In modern Israel, a wall being built for its security, and citizens walking around with weapons, is interpreted as aggressive by Israel's neighbors and by some leaders in the United Nations. The alternative would be worse: No wall, less weapons, more casualties. Look what murders took place on October 7th., 2023 when neighbors of Israel broke through Israel's wall.

An example of weapons and walls used in the Bible is the account of the Prophet Nehemiah. Nehemiah was commissioned by the King to build a wall of protection around Jerusalem. The enemies of Israel said that Jerusalem was safe without a wall. Nehemiah knew better and ordered all his carpenters and workman to have a tool in one hand and a weapon in the other hand readied for enemy attacks. The wall was built and protected Jerusalem. (The Book of Nehemiah, chapters 1 - 6)

In Jesus' day, there were no guns. There were swords. For self-defense against bad people attacking you for your unacceptable beliefs, Jesus said the following: He "said to them, 'From this hour, whoever has a money bag should take it and thus also a wallet, and whoever lacks a sword, let him sell his tunic and buy a sword for himself." (Luke 22:36, Aramaic Bible in Plain English) You may remember the disciple Peter pulling out a sword to defend Jesus from being arrested.

If we could get away from believing extremist positions of either too many guns or strict gun control, is it possible to find a common-sense middle ground on this hotbed issue? Like it or not, guns are an important topic for the protection of a people. Weapons were so important an issue that the founders of the United States wrote a Second Amendment to the Constitution to protect gun ownership.

Some gun resisters argue the Second Amendment was written during the war with England before there was a United States.

In 2008, President Obama said small town Americans in Pennsylvania and the Midwest are easily fooled. These small town folks "cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them." If we drop the word antipathy, we are left with the negative slant that there are Americans who are crazy because they hold to their guns and religion.

President Obama has an example to back up his claim. A New York State church, Grace Baptist Church, at its revival meetings gives away guns as prizes. An AR15 is one of the prizes. Guess what the grand prize is for July 2nd., 2023? One lucky person will win a flamethrower!

In contrast, I have wondered if there is a city in the United States where gun control has reduced the number of shootings? I don't think there is such a city. Criminals don't care about gun control.

Can we make the so-called crazy Americans who believe in guns and religion into a positive instead of a negative? Yes. Other Presidents have said "Peace through strength" and "Trust but verify." These statements are closer to a positive middle ground for having "guns and religion" work together in a protective context.

When we look closely at killers, we may realize, “It’s not about gun control. It’s about shooter control.” As the joke goes, "Criminals follow gun laws like politicians follow oaths of office."

"Watch" is what Jesus advised us to do about unknown futures. Part of praying is to watch out for danger. Jesus said, "Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man." (Luke 21:36)

The Prophet Samuel prayed for people who were confused over who should govern them. Should government be by man or by God? Samuel said, "As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right." (1st. Samuel 12:23)

Gun control and gun patrol can work together. We just have to have less extremist views and find some common-sense middle ground. The truck that killed people in Nice, France was the weapon used. Should we write truck control laws or outlaw trucks? No. A sick mentality drove that truck. A sick mentality is responsible for murders by guns and rifles.

A recent theory is a percentage of young men have become anti-social by default. They play video games in virtual reality too many hours a day. They have little human contact and don't believe they have a satisfying future. When they do have human contact, it is for some of them frustrating to get along or to interact comfortably with fellow humans. Some trigger happens and young men go ballistic.

[The writers of the United States Constitution had no idea that a machine gun would be invented in 1884. The Las Vegas massacre is a wakeup call that there are types of military weapons and add-ons which need regulation. Something in that Vegas killer responded to being radicalized. What was the triggering premise in him eludes police investigators. That he was a millionaire and a successful gambler has also thrown people off guard. When I was brought up, the man who lived in the house behind us was a professional gambler. He raised his family by gambling.]

Reality: The world is violent.

Insanity: All we need is gun control.

Can we decide on a compromise which exists somewhere on the reality and insanity scale? Yes. We have to get hold of a compromising idea that invokes the Constitution with its specification for a "well-regulated" use of weapons.

There is a trick, a high-trick, which could change gun abuse. The trigger mechanisms should only respond to the finger prints of the legal owners of a gun. At the very least, children couldn't use thier parent's guns in school shootings anymore.

Gun triggers that only respond to the finger print of an owner is a creative approach to gun control. The guns are called "smart guns."

American Icon, John Wayne, said, "Gun control requires concentration and a steady hand." That sounds like a hint of compromise in its double meaning.

Bill Sweet

Spindrift Research

Actress, Shirley MacLaine, is known for her psychic intuitions. In 2011, MacLaine suggested for the presidency, "Wouldn't you want to see Donald Trump and Jesse Ventura running together?" For the POTUS spot, she was right.

In 2012, comedian Joan Rivers told an interviewer that Donald Trump should be the President of the country.

Donald Trump may be the first candidate and President of the United States driven by paranormal intuition. Here's why: Trump has shared characteristics simpatico with the "Trickster" and psychic intuition.

What is Trickster behavior? It's the unseen use of chaos, tricks, disruption, and unpredictability that disobey normal rules of accomplishing goals. Among observers, there is disbelief that any goals can be accomplished in the frenzied chaos created by Trickster behavior. Despite the chaos, somehow some goals are achieved. Even many 'believers' are surprised goals are accomplished.

A leader whose decisions and negotiations are unpredictable keep his enemies on their toes guessing and fretting what the leader might do.

From experience and or intuition, a Trickster personality is equipped to uncover the activities of the underbelly of society which could also include who actually runs the country. Most people hear that said and think it’s a crazy conspiracy theory.

What is psychic intuition? Psychic intuition provides unconscious foresight to know helpful information that intuitively fills some potholes in the road before driving over them. A majority of people don't perceive and worry about the same potholes until much later after they personally hit the potholes. Being alert to intuition usually helps a person avoid suffering and shorten a learning curve.

Experts on Trump are called Trumped Specialists. I wager they don't consider his Trickster and psychic overtones. These experts should add to their understanding that Trump is a psychic bully.

Some characteristics of people who are deeply involved in psychic intuitions are these: They get the Trickster mixed into their daily routines. In other words, several non-normal activities are engrained into their lives. They may hold down a normal job, but their thinking is not in the average center of society's thinking. Their thinking is liminal (on the dark fringes of society) where most people don't choose to go or think.

In the television series, House M.D., Dr. Gregory House is a Trickster character. Why does Dr. House get away with being devious, obscene, liminal, undiplomatic, adolescent, obnoxious, uninhibited, impulsive, uncontrollable, erratic, narcissistic, and shifting positions? The doctors and administrators know Dr. House has smarts that can deal unconventionally with medical problems they can't solve without his help. His behavior revolts them until they discover he has saved yet another patient.

Dr. House and Donald Trump are doctors with bad bedside manners. But they address problems in undiplomatic ways others miss or are afraid to address because of consequences and etiquette.

That Donald Trump has no filter between his mind and mouth works to his advantage, but it's also a weakness.

Many Tricksters tell lies. When the lies catch up with them, a Trickster's 'charisma' diffuses the lies quite well, but not always. During the time of lying, being devious, and shifting positions, in the chaos, phenomenal creativity and work get accomplished.

Tricksters are often refreshing to see in action using their skills versus having things done the same old boring way. Critics who shout, "Orange man bad!," have not hurt Trump too much. The phrase has backfired and helps Trump's image somehow.

Tricksters tend to flex their muscles to achieve goals. In the Showtime cable series Billions, the hedge fund manager, Bobby Axelrod, and the United States Attorney, Chuck Rhoades, are cunning and narcissistic Trickster characters. Axelrod, Rhoades, House M.D., and Donald Trump flex their muscles and act like mob bosses. Sometimes leaders have to be bullies because they deal with bullies.

Critics and admirers discover charismatic Trickster people are moving targets they can't anticipate or figure out.

The 1999 film mystery thriller Eyes Wide Shut is an example of the Trickster operating secretly in the underbelly of society unknown to the rest of society.

How is it many Trickster and paranormal people get away with doing things that so-called normal people can't get away with doing? It's because attraction to their charisma gives them high-status, a status which excuses bad behaviors, but not forever.

For example, in the Bible charismatic King David had high-status as King of Judah and Israel. King David was effective as a leader 'despite' being vulgar sometimes or when stealing a man's wife and having the husband murdered.

Years before King David, there was his ancestor, Jacob. Jacob was a Trickster who conned people. Later, Jacob used his charm for good. Through his fourth son, Judah, the Davidic lineage ascended to the Messiah.

The audience for Sirius Radio's Howard Stern Show anticipates Stern to broadcast taboo questions and unmentionable sexual Trickster messages.

Liminal and flamboyant thinker, Milo Yiannopoulos, is an entertaining and disruptive Trickster personality.

Few would deny that charismatic entertainer Michael Jackson was a genius. His private life was infected with the Trickster element of pedophilia.

Woody Allen has almost everyone convinced he acted perverted with two of his daughters. Allen's cinematic power and wealth have compartmentalized most fans to continue to support his art but sidestep his pedophilia.

Most people cheer on charismatic Tiger Woods to win golf tournaments even though he was a serial adulterer.

Overall, Trickster and paranormal personalities tend to express an entertainment value. In the role of a jester or comedian, a Trickster personality can bluntly and inelegantly say good or bad things other people dare not say out loud, but secretly wish they could say out loud. Both punch lines and counter punches come forth with ease. For example, eyes pop open when Donald Trump speaks like a construction worker. In construction terms, Trump is a wrecking ball.

Get into a conversation with a paranormal person, and you will soon jump down several rabbit holes until someone says, "Wait! Did I really hear you say that bizarre thing?"

Tricksters, conspirators, and paranormalists provoke dramas. Paranormal people tend to be obsessed with the concept of conspiracy; Trump and his wall to protect the western world, for example. They think anyone who doesn't accept their positions is part of a plan to attack them. "It's a conspiracy." And sometimes they may be right about that. People are out to get them. For example, Trump and his ninety-one lawfares.

Tricksters are easily provoked and disruptive to the established order. They point out and cause anger when corporations and politicians make decisions before country such as the wall.

Few of us are able to literally "speak our minds." Most people can't or won't speak their minds. People either think a thought that doesn't come out verbally the way it was thought subconsciously, or their etiquette and defense mechanisms prevent them from saying what's really on their minds. Just about everything said is edited; evaluated for its social acceptability or its political correctness before it is spoken.

In contrast to the norm, paranormal and Trickster people often speak their minds. They speak openly without being stopped by inhibitions from their subconscious minds. This freedom to speak openly is a "loose cannon" that sometimes gets them in trouble for saying inappropriate words similar to a child who blurts out whatever comes to mind. Sometimes shy and guarded people secretly wish they could speak that way.

Some paranormal people's freedom of thought almost makes them anti-social for saying things that pop out with little or no editing. Sometimes this uninhibited, unedited speech brands them as anti-social or societal rejects. Only a person with extreme charisma can get away with this kind of loose communication, but not forever.

Just as psychics draw upon their unconscious thoughts leading to their intuitions, Tricksters tend to speak out spontaneously. For example, Trump and his impetuous tweets.

When thinking too much about what to say, psychics lose their mojo (spontaneity). The same spontaneity has to occur for comedic wit. Waiting too long discharges the comedic effect.

A skill of a Trickster is, he can operate in chaos. A Trickster personality doesn’t necessarily solve problems through harmony; on the contrary, he prefers to be a disruptor and stir things up.

People complain the businessman, Trump, is "unfit" for the office. The definition of fit is "suitable for the purpose or circumstances." Yet, if we don't have a President who is a businessman, we are doomed.

Would you agree these above characteristics are Donald Trump's characteristics? We should ask for a President who thinks outside the box. We may get a President who thinks way-out in the outer limits.

In summary, if you are searching for an explanation of The Donald, here's one:

Trump has Trickster Attraction. The premise of Trump is nothing-normal. So what is left for us to see? Overstatement of representations, conspiracy depictions, raw retorts, cheeky and paranormal thinking. Maybe the times cry out for such disruptive thinking in government. The outcome is, disruptive thinking keeps government workers and world leaders on their toes.

[Since the presidency of Trump, anti-Trumpers have experienced PTSD; Post Trump Stress Disorder.

Readers ask me what is my speculation for a 2024 presidential candidate? Michelle Obama drafted at the Democrat Convention.]

Bill Sweet

Spindrift Research

Write to Bill: sweet@spindriftresearch.org

Psychologist, William James, wrote "I believe there is no source of deception in the investigation of nature which can compare with a fixed belief that certain kinds of phenomena are impossible."

It was taboo to say it, and it got some people angry at Bruce Klingbeil, but he said it: "Prayer is an abundant reservoir of testable thought."

Having the words "testing prayer" in the same sentence sounds oxymoronic or impossible to a lot of people. How could a prayer be tested? Prayer is an invisible belief.

Astrophysicist, Bernhard Haisch, said, "Advances are made by answering questions. Discoveries are made by questioning answers." In the Eighteenth Century, upon further discoveries of electromagnetism which is invisible, scientists had to admit that some things are invisible that science can test.

There are technologies that are good for us and technologies that lead us into bad scenarios. Who would deny that we are living in clicking links today? We click, click, click links which have become our reality routines. Our thumbs and index fingers are getting more exercise than any other part of us. Addictive technologies, such as virtual reality games and digital devices try to hack into our brains to manipulate us to keep coming back to do more clicks. Mankind should find new exceptions to dwelling on tech all day.

Spiritual inquiry and faith require quiet time and silence for the mind to study and ponder ideas. But addictive and noisy technologies have become the enemies of faith.

John Klingbeil said essentially, "Right now Spindrift is seen as a fiction. Of the innumerable scenarios for the future, a few scenarios should have some uses of technology that indirectly support faith. In such a tech supportive scenario, Spindrift could lose its foolish label and become an important avenue for finding linkages between science, religion, consciousness, and psi." What is psi? Psi means any psychic effect. Prayer is an example of psi. How is prayer psi? Prayer claims to produce an effect at-a-distance.

What was humorous to Bruce and John Klingbeil was an encounter with two scientists. In 1983, while residing in Palatine, Illinois, the Klingbeils and Bill Sweet presented the prayer experiments and data to two scientists who were skeptics of psychic phenomena. The Klingbeils read that the two scientists expressed an interest in the claims of the paranormal in a local suburban newspaper article.

Near the beginning of the conversation, the scientists pointed out that the issue of prayer's effectiveness had been settled over a century earlier. Francis Galton, a brilliant nineteenth century scientist and statistician, a cousin of Charles Darwin, had statistically checked on the prayers for the English Royalty. Many times a day, from all over England, the populace prayed rivers of prayers and affirmed, "Long live the King. Long live the Queen." The royal family had constant prayers directed toward them. Statistically Galton found that these royal prayers did nothing to give better health to the King and his family. In fact, royalty was sicker, had more trouble in childbirth, and lived shorter lives than other groups in the English population including other aristocrats.

The scientists said that Bruce and John were a century too late. If prayer worked, the Royal Family would have faired better than others with all those thousands of people praying for them. Prayer had no beneficial effects or the Kings and Queens would have been healthier.

Apparently, generational Royal inbreeding was expected to be overcome by citizen prayers in this Nineteenth Century experiment.

Bruce asked, "What was the control group?" Apparently, every one else in the English population was the control group.

What sent Bruce into laughter was that these two 'objective' scientists said prayer had no effect before they read a single word of The Spindrift Tests or The Cathedral of the Mind written by John Klingbeil. After the skeptical scientists did read the books, they maintained that there were so many flaws in the methods used that the data was meaningless. That a working scientist checked out the Spindrift methods and concluded that the methods were applied properly was dismissed as ignorance of science.

Bruce and John laughed about the prayer preconceptions the skeptics had upfront whereas Bill Sweet was pretty upset with the scientists. This objective exchange of findings was one time when Bruce and John had shown a better sense of humor than Sweet did.

In 1982 and 1983, there was a Chicago area skeptic who thought a Klingbeil experiment with yeast was a fake or at the least the experiment didn’t follow the rules of the scientific method. He was invited to witness the experiment in Palatine, Illinois. Upon seeing it played out, he had no further comment about the Spindrift lab experiment. He did say he would get back to us after digesting the Spindrift terminology and methodology. Sweet couldn't reach him on the phone again.

The Klingbeils worked with the premise that Quality effects followed from a holy way of living and thinking. If the effects of Quality thoughts could be argued to follow a holy way of living and thinking, the effects should suggest inductively to some observers that something holy is testifying behind the effects. (See A Journey into Prayer, page 370.)

Jesus Christ stresses this view of the goodness of Quality effects testifying back to a cause in John 10:38. Jesus said, "If I do [the works], though you don't believe me, believe the works; that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father." (Word English Bible) Jesus Christ seems to be saying that through intellectual observation, some skeptics can apply inductive thinking to find a way to acknowledge the potential open window for a divine Cause behind the Quality effects.

Bill Sweet

Spindrift Research

Write Bill at: sweet@spindriftresearch.org

The gist of the children’s book of The Secret Garden was a place for a special girl to retreat that was unlike anyplace else. The Secret Garden was a place of pleasant sounds and isolation from society.

Some golf players come to realize that it’s partly the peace and quiet of the mental atmosphere on the greens that makes them feel good to be out on the greens.

There are fewer and fewer places for human beings to retreat. Noises and agitation pervade almost everywhere we go.

With so much noise in modern society, do we even know quiet? It’s doubtful.

During sleep there are few hours of peace and quiet anymore. We have become used to sleeping through the micro-noises around us.

I used to stand on my balcony between two to four in the morning. In the distance I could hear a freight train clicking on the tracks. This morning I asked myself, “The train is there, why can’t I hear it?” It occurred to me that there had been an increase in micro-noises. The noise level was not low enough to reveal the train that was present there. My early hours of so-called quiet had enough micro-noises to erase the sound of the distant train. My world was not the same.

I was reminded of 9/11. The best sound from my stereo system and playing my drums was during the week after the 9/11 terrorist atrocities. What was different then? No air turbulence from airplanes! Airplanes were not flying above me or anywhere in the skies of United States for a week. Micro-agitations from the sky were gone. Everything was still. What a true sense of peace and quiet that had the earmarking (pun intended) of how I remembered sound when I was a child.

Hints of spiritual reality and psychic phenomena are present in our surroundings. Could the modern noises of life contribute to hiding these realities from us? Yes. An increase in noise seems a reasonable explanation why so few paranormal phenomena get clearly through to us human beings. Our minds are full of noise.

Even with our eyes, if an image is being rattled and agitated, how can you get a clear focus on it? Not easily. We human beings have been conditioned with noise and agitation, so the deeper realities don’t get through very often to our human perceptions.

Jesus Christ recommended that human beings go into a prayer closet to pray. What is a prayer closet? A place where interference can’t reach you or interference is greatly reduced. A prayer closet is a room or chamber or area where your thoughts and prayers are secret to you, so your wavelength or frequency can’t be picked up, tuned into, and monitored by well-meaning people, or noisy spies, or those who would deliberately interfere with your thoughts.

Jesus words are, “When you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father, the One in secret. And your Father, the One seeing in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6)

We need places to retreat from the hustle and bustle of the noises of our increasingly overpopulated Earth.

Do blocked lives matter? Yes. It’s becoming nearly impossible to find a private place of quiet anymore to block out interference agitating our lives. But Jesus told us that we should find such scared closets or rooms. A prayer closet is a temporary way to get unplugged from interference.

When is the last time you had a few moments of quiet for your own thoughts? You are probably stumped.

Without blocked lives from noise and interference, we very rarely can hear or see the divine thoughts and wonders of Spirit that require a quiet background to be perceived. Blocked lives matter.

More about blocked lives from noise can be read at Question 7, number 4, on the FAQ page here.

Bill Sweet

Spindrift Research

A general from the Pentagon was interviewed. I believe the correspondent meant to ask him, “What is the biggest problem facing the United States?” Instead, the correspondent asked him, “What is the biggest problem facing the world?”

The general’s eyes popped open, and he said, “Population growth.”

The general added that wars will be started over there not being enough jobs and resources to support an overpopulated world. Wars over land wasn't the problem. Jobs and resources were the problem.

With all the good intentions of the United Nations, private and religious organizations to feed the children of the world, especially in Haiti and Africa, does it occur to anyone that there are too many people to feed year after year after year? “No! That is evil talk,” we are told.

We hear, “Hey, where’s your love of children? Jesus Christ said to feed the hungry and help the poor. Do you want to go to Hell by not doing it?”

When I mentioned overpopulation, two friends said almost the same thing to me. “Are you a Nazi terminator?”

Similar to the right to practice the Second Amendment (to have guns) or practice abortion (to subtract babies), people of planet Earth also say they have the right to spiral the growth of mankind until there is no place left to stand figuratively speaking.

A few countries complain, such as Russia, that they don't have enough people being born.

One of the themes of the Zombie movies is that the Zombies came into existence because the Earth was disgusted with the abuse of its resources and having too many people standing around. The Earth knew it had to ‘thin the herd’ in order for the world to continue. So Zombies emerged to trim the population.

The theme of the book, "Make Room! Make Room!," is about an overcrowded world. "Make Room! Make Room!" became the storyline for the movie called "Soylent Green." In "Soylent Green," too many people make planet Earth overheated, low on resources, and ultimately the population has to turn to cannibalism to feed the masses. As a way to manage resources and endure, reducing the amount of people grown is never considered in the movie.

In real-world terms, I saw a news report that India hasn't considered population control for its population problem.

What about when jobs, space, and resources run out? Christians know something is wrong with the shifting identities in the population and the loss of jobs, but they can’t connect the dots by having some people have less children. Why? In the Bible, Genesis 1:28, is the command for men and women to “Replenish the earth.” The Bible verse is an open canal to “Have all the children you want.” The Bible verse reads:

"God blessed the humans by saying to them, 'Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it! Be masters over the fish in the ocean, the birds that fly, and every living thing that crawls on the earth!'"

Here is the conversation stopper: “Every baby is evidence that God wants the world to continue.” Try an argument against that statement.

Additionally, most people are biologically programmed to have progeny. So the spiral keeps going until a crisis. How is the population crisis being handled now? Keep feeding people. Have telethons. Keep throwing money at starvation. Give the unfortunate clean water and food, but giving water and feeding new-born babies and their parents is endless. The population crisis grows.

At the conclusion of his HBO show on June, 16, 2017, Bill Maher pointed out that jobs for retailers and workplaces like malls are being eliminated. The people we have don't have enough work. Why keep increasing the number of people? Maher makes a practical point but is hated for it.

Why haven’t humanitarian organizations been more successful in stopping the poor from having too many children? That unspoken goal is having too much common sense.

The downside of religions that support ‘the sanctity of life’ is no thought given about turning off the spigot of babies being produced and filling the world.

Abortion is supposed to be de facto population control, but it hasn’t worked out that way. For example, abortion clinics are almost always built near poor neighborhoods.

The irony of abortion is that it was for unwanted pregnancies; keeping the population of a family under control. Instead, there are more people born where abortions are available. Someone in the United States may argue, “Oh, the increase is only because of the financial government incentives to have more children.” If that is true, why isn’t there a limit on the number of children families can have to receive financial assistance? “God forbid you from saying that out loud. There is the Nazi and hatred in you again.” Such name calling puts an end to starting a conversation about a growing crisis on the horizon.

The popping population is the ignored elephant in the room (sometimes near real elephants in India and Africa). Overpopulation in areas where resources are scarce is a topic you can’t often broach without receiving some hellfire.

There is an interesting tidbit about the elephant in the room that few acknowledge. Real elephants on the planet are losing their habitats to growing human populations. Except for zoos, real elephants will all but disappear from planet Earth. Let not population growth make them irrelephant (pun intended).

When mankind runs out of habitats for itself, will mankind begin to disappear, too? Could be. If we apply our God-given intelligence, we should find a balance with Nature.

Bill Sweet

Spindrift Research