Connect to Your Source

In The Big Picture, belief in an ultimate source figures prominently in a persuasive argument by noted world religions scholar Huston Smith that the power of Spirit is a viable explanation (complementing the scientific view) about ultimate reality.

Bob Arnot talks about the practical benefits of faith and prayer in The Biology of Success: “Modern day cynics might disregard prayer and speak scornfully of religion. But first-rate science has now demonstrated the amazing power of spirituality in general and prayer in specific. I don’t mean to suggest that spirituality, religion and prayer be adopted simply as another technique for improving mood and improving positive thought. The religious or spiritual impulse must first come out of deeply held beliefs. But if you have this impulse, then practicing your religious or spiritual belief will be extremely beneficial to your life.”

He continues: “scientific, not anecdotal, studies now show that prayer works wonders on health (among other areas of life). Of the three hundred studies on spirituality in scientific journals, the National Institute of Health Research found that 75 percent (of these studies) showed that religion and prayer have a positive effect on health.”

“Although the choice of a specific faith is not a medical but a personal decision, several physicians now actually recommend that people incorporate spirituality in their lives. ‘I encourage a spiritual program consisting of (a) prayer, (b) reading of scripture, (c) worship attendance, and (d) involvement with a faith community,’ says Dale A. Matthews, author of the Faith Factor and Associate Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine.”

One of the other powerful aspects of faith, is that all faith traditions speak about and cultivate virtues (e.g., standards of behavior including wisdom, courage, love, justice, temperance and transcendence) that nurture good character, and promote goodwill among people.

And, then, there is the energy or power that emanates from a connection to Source. Psychologist Wayne Dyer, who among many others is a great synthesizer of insights from spiritual traditions, science and psychology, uses this metaphor to describe the power of Source and the importance of our always maintaining a connection to Source. He says in Manifest Your Destiny and Secrets to Manifesting Your Destiny: Imagine the God-force in the universe, as the ocean(s) on the Earth. Beneath the surface, the ocean is omnipresent, calm, nourishing; it sustains all life in it; it sustains life in the biosphere that extends from it. All of the drops of water in the ocean are in it and of it. A drop of water, out of the ocean, is still of the ocean -- but it has very little of the ocean's energy and power. A drop of water, a molecule of water in the ocean, embodies the ocean's energy and power.

In There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem, he urges us to maintain a connection to Source -- like an electrical cord in an electrical socket -- in order to access the inspiration and energy to manifest what we desire into our lives. Wayne Dyer's Spiritual Solution, hope-inspiring and practical, is available at Amazon.com.

This may all sound a little "metaphysical" to our left brain intellects. But there's a point here to remember: we don't just live our lives by processing sensory information through the left hemisphere of our brains, the intellectual side of mind. We, and the world that we process through our intellect, have much more dimension than what is known, stored in memory in our intellects and ego.

When our being -- our brains, our hearts, our essence -- is connected to all-loving, all-sustaining Source, we can accomplish the miraculous.

Connecting to source, inspires good character -- both of which help produce and sustain positive thought and money making . . .