Intentionality VI: How Much Can We Create?

O My Servant! Obey Me and I shall make thee like unto Myself. I say 'Be,' and it is, and thou shalt say 'Be,' and it shall be.

            (Baha'u'llah, The Four Valleys: 63)

           Intentionality is the power to advance toward some conscious goal or object.  I have said that we can advance either through the power of reason, or through the power of faith, but when these powers work together they reinforce each other.  To make a simple, somewhat arbitrary and inaccurate, comparison, we reason with known things, but we use faith with the unknown.  As Saint Paul put it: “Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (The Book of Hebrews 11:1)  When we reason, as in science, art and craftsmanship, we use primarily human power.  But when we move into intention by faith we need divine power.

Intentionality of any kind is bringing something to an intended state, which is the state of realization.  It is guiding the process of transforming potentiality into actuality.  It starts with a formal cause, or image finding material form.  But the potential to reach the final form or manifest goal must be there.  So material cause is a given.  The steps needed to reach intention must be possible, so there is efficient cause.  Finally, purpose must play its part; i.e. one must intend for a reason.  Thus, there is also final cause.

For me, in order for humans to best actualize intentionality, which is a likeness to the intentionality of the Manifestations, individuals need the Prophets and Their Words, for these Words are the divine vibrations of consciousness that organize the creation.  All created things are “intended” from the Creative Word of God, the divine intent.  Of the power of His own Revelation to realize its “intent” Baha’u’llah claims: “All that hath been sent down hath and will come to pass, word for word, upon earth.” (Epistle to the Son of the Wolf: 150)  We cannot do as well, of course.  Nonetheless, we intend in the same way.  But while “He doeth as He willeth”, we do the best we can.  Our intention is contingent upon His confirmation.  By identifying Revelation as divine intent that is infused throughout the creation, and knowing that we are made in His image, after His likeness in all respects, we properly place human creative power in that middle slot between believing that we are but poor, helpless, dependent creatures, and believing that intentionality makes us completely independent and god-like.  In the middle ground, we are powerful yet humble. Human intentionality is like divine power, but our intentionality only imitates the Divine and should connect to It.

Some recent philosophers of intentionality recognize the pervasiveness of some universal organizing Will.  Dr. Wayne Dyer, author of the popular book The Power of Intention, calls intention “a force that exists in the universe as an invisible field of energy.” (The Power of Intention:4)  It is a universal field “because everything in the universe has intention built into it.” (Ibid. 6)   A team of neuroscientists remarks: “After centuries of inquiry, philosophers have come to suggest that true reality possesses an unmistakable quality….phenomenologists describe it as intentionality.”  (Newberg et al. Why God Won’t Go Away)

Revelation is the divine intentional power that brings or calls all things into being, a master field of thought that surrounds all living things and which is composed of potentialities that human intention can build into material and intellectual forms.  We live and move in this field.  How does our thought cooperate with the divine power?

There are many approaches, using similar techniques, to do this.  But central to every approach is the idea that intentionality as the process of creating or reconfiguring reality, starts with a mental image of the reality one intends to achieve.  This image creates a prototype that physical potential can conform to.  Think of a computer analogy: intentionality is being able through the use of directed thought to write a certain program to actualize some of the potentials of the universe---much like word processing software carries out pre-programmed command functions so that words appear on the screen.

True enough, but just any old thought will not do.  “We know the frequencies of thoughts are neither consistent nor constant; they exist, cease to exist, and exist again, in a continuous on-and-off pattern.” (Valerie Hunt, Infinite Mind :142)  The average thought lasts at most a few seconds before it ceases to exist, or is replaced by a new thought in that on-going internal chatter we call everyday consciousness.  One must hold a thought for it to have effect.  A few seconds is hardly time enough for an image to be imprinted upon the flux of moving matter, let alone long enough for that image to be received and the universe decide to respond to it.  Physicist William Tiller says: “It is terribly important to sustain the thought and the intention if you want to make a transformation occur…when one wants to focus intent, you want to be a singleness of mind.”  He further states: "a persistent and consistent intention, maintained with patient but focused power, usually achieves correlated events in our 4-D frame of experience." (Tiller, Science and Human Transformation:90)

‘Abdu’l-Baha concurs: “So long as the thoughts of an individual are scattered he will achieve no results, but if his thinking be concentrated on a single point wonderful will be the fruits thereof.  One cannot obtain the full force of the sunlight when it is cast on a flat mirror, but once the sun shineth upon a concave mirror, or on a lens that is convex, all its heat will be concentrated on a single point, and that one point will burn the hottest. Thus is it necessary to focus one’s thinking on a single point so that it will become an effective force.”(Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha:110)

The power of the mental image to materialize depends in large measure upon the vitality of the original image itself and the willingness to hold that image in mind for a period long enough for it have effect.  This may be more difficult than it sounds.  Holding a thought is difficult itself.  But one must also overcome one’s own internal and the world’s external resistance to change.  Thought attracts its physical equivalent, acting as a kind of gravitational power.  But because of the principal of resonance, intention attracts other thoughts and feelings that will work to either reinforce or to sabotage one’s efforts; that is to say, thought will attract energies both positive and malignant to it.  Hence in regards to the realization of intent, the intentional thought attracts help at the same time that it attracts obstacles to its own realization.  Hence perseverance—what Tiller called “patient but focused power”—is essential to the realization of intention.

Thus moderation is necessary.  We cannot by force of will hold a thought, but we can be persistent in returning to it.  Too, intentionality is not deadly serious.  In fact, regardless of statements such as “being intent upon something”, and “fixing one’s purpose”, there should also be the element of “play”: what psychologists call “flow.”  If intentionality becomes over-conscious and over-serious then it becomes WORK.  Intentionality is the creative process, and play is the foundation of creativity.  We often miss this part, because we live in a culture obsessed with wringing an external result from everything we do.  Play is not external or extrinsic. It's not about the end, but the experience. It is highly imaginative and thus obeys the imagination’s creative principle, namely, “Let this be.”  Healing prayers, it has been suggested, work best when the prayer simply asks the “universe” to allow a sick person to heal.  The prayer that demands healing is actually a kind of anxiety attack.  To force the “universe” to obey one’s prayer is childish, not child-like, and is likely to get some pushback from that universe.

          

Intentionality V

O My Servant! Obey Me and I shall make thee like unto Myself. I say 'Be,' and it is, and thou shalt say 'Be,' and it shall be.

            (Baha'u'llah, The Four Valleys: 63)

            We continue making our way toward a possible understanding of the Baha’u’llah’s statement above.  I have been examining the relations between the physical and intellectual realms, in an attempt to elucidate how much human intention can create within this context.  Last post talked about seeing the universe as either primarily a physical mechanism or an intellectual idea.  Neither view needs God or what I called the Supreme Thinker as a Creator.  But to connect human intentionality with the prophetic utterance is to hearken back to the medieval understanding of intentionality as discovering structure to the universe: that visible structure being a reflection of deeper hidden structure.    

Thus the third way to view creation is as the product of divine thought, or mind force, that surrounds and pervades everything.  In this context we understand 'Abdu’l-Baha’s statement on healing: “All that we see around us is the work of mind.  It is mind in the herb and the mineral that acts on the human body and changes its condition.” (Abdu'l-Baha in London: 95)  It is also from this perspective that statements like the following make sense: “Human belief that a plant might grow faster was apparently acting as a nutrient to actually produced faster growth.  Thought was a food!” (Peter Thompkins and Christopher Bird, The Secret Life of Plants 359)       

            The three views come from the three components that is the structure of two things in relation.  The third view grasps the whole situation from the point of view of the relation itself.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha says the relation between the physical and intellectual forms of things is like that between the sun and its image in the mirror.  The medium between sun and mirror is the real connection between these discrete levels of reality.  A similar kind of relation binds the material place of manifestation with its immaterial power.  He says: …if you examine the human body, you will not find a special spot or locality for the spirit, for it has never had a place; it is immaterial. It has a connection with the body like that of the sun with this mirror. The sun is not within the mirror, but it has a connection with the mirror.”  He goes further: “The mind which is in man, the existence of which is recognized—where is it in him? If you examine the body with the eye, the ear or the other senses, you will not find it; nevertheless, it exists. Therefore, the mind has no place, but it is connected with the brain. The Kingdom is also like this. In the same way love has no place, but it is connected with the heart; so the Kingdom has no place, but is connected with man.” (Some Answered Questions: 242)

          Objects become more transparent as their relations become more apparent. Bringing relations to awareness and percept reveals the previously hidden causes which are the environment of creation.  Environment is the hidden unity, the secret synthesis.  For the environment as process is an active agent, not a passive container within which activity takes place.

            This relation between the mental form and the physical form of something, between mind and matter, gives a double-formed nature to every created thing.  This mirror-imaging is what physicists call symmetry.  F. David Peat, in his book Synchronicity, says: “Matter, in this sense, would be a reflection or the representation of these fundamental patterns; or rather, symmetry and material structure form two sides of a deeper order.” Peat goes on to suggest that: “…these processes are themselves based on even deeper orders whose origin is a particularly subtle movement that is neither matter nor mind.  The fundamental symmetries and their structures have their origin in something that is close to a pure intelligence which springs from an unknown creative source.” (Synchronicity:196)  This more subtle order of pure intelligence postulated by Peat would be, from my point of view, divine Revelation, that creative Source we call the Word of God.  (It is worth noting that Peat’s book is subtitled The Bridge between Mind and Matter which is what others have called Intentionality.  Synchronicity is a term he borrowed from Jung: synchronicity being the name Jung gave to what he saw as an acausal connecting principle manifesting meaningful coincidences.  But for Jung all causality was efficient causality, not the formal causality we have discussed.  Hence the only way for him to explain those events for which we do not understand the cause, but which cluster together in meaningful ways, was designate them acausal. They were caused, of course, not efficiently but formally. However, there is meaning and volition (i.e. intention) involved if we postulate a higher will.  

            From a Baha’i point of view, the Manifestations and other holy souls have complete command of both the physical and the intellectual dimensions of reality.   Every Manifestation recreates this subtle intellectual level of creation with His Words, making new thought forms which become new sciences and arts and other rational forms.  Other holy souls understand this new creation and the fertilizing effect of the Word gradually brings other minds into an understanding of it.

         Every Revelation recreates both the physical universe and the intellectual one, the relation of these two being one of symmetry or direct connection as the sun in the mirror.  This evolving twofold aspect of mental and physical existence of the creation manifests in increasingly complex form and relations the pre-existent formal “glorious structure” of “these two are the same yet they are different” (Tablets of Baha’u’llah:140) i.e. the relation that is an intellectual reality reflected in a physical mirror, making a unity or symmetry of forms but not an identity of essence. 

            This last is an important point, for it means that the universe is not an undivided continuum of degrees of consciousness, but a series of discrete levels in connection—i.e. kingdoms.  One of the most significant of these divisions is that between Nature and Humanity.  In the Tablet of Wisdom Baha’u’llah praises Socrates for the: “penetrating vision into philosophy this eminent man had!  He it is who perceived a unique, a tempered, and a pervasive nature in things, bearing the closest likeness to the human spirit, and he discovered this nature to be distinct from the substance of things in their refined form.” (Tablets of Baha’u’llah: 152)  

The concept of "likeness" is one we are familiar with, though we discussed it under the word symmetry before.  Likeness is the theological equivalent to the scientific symmetry, but it highlights the essential aspect of discreteness yet connection.  Likeness is how the kingdoms are connected.  The Bible states “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” An image is the outer form of something; that is, a form that “embodies” a greater reality in a smaller number of “dimensions.”  For example, a photograph is a likeness of a person, but it is two-dimensional, not three.

The outer form of God is His attributes and the Manifestation is a perfect likeness to God, being the perfect embodiment of God’s attributes, but not His Essence.  Human beings are made not after God, but after the likeness of God, which is the Manifestation of God, since all the qualities of God are within every human reality, but not perfectly.  The animal world, in turn, is made in the likeness of the human spirit. ‘Abdu’l-Baha states all three relations in the following quote: “God has created man after His own image and likeness. He has endowed him with a mighty power which is capable of discovering the mysteries of phenomena...This is the foundation of the world of humanity; this is the image and likeness of God; this is the reality of man; otherwise, he is an animal. Verily, God has created the animal in the image and likeness of man, for though man outwardly is human, yet in nature he possesses animal tendencies.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 262)

Intentionality IV

O My Servant! Obey Me and I shall make thee like unto Myself. I say 'Be,' and it is, and thou shalt say 'Be,' and it shall be.

(Baha'u'llah, The Four Valleys: 63)

Let us turn our attention to the question: How much can human intentionality create?  For me, that depends upon what one means by intentionality.  While much of the most recent Intentionality literature concerns itself with what can be almost magically manifested through personal thought in one’s daily life, we should not overlook the obvious.  Intentionality, the manifesting of thought, is not really new and unknown till now, if we remember the well-known collective expressions of human thought, namely, Science and Art.  

For me there are two modes of Intentionality.  The first mode is through Reason.  Intentionality occurs here through science, art and the application of our regular human faculties. These are perhaps the best known examples of human intentionality, and there is no denying that they change the physical realm and manifest human thought and desire.  But their breakthroughs and advances are made through unified thinking working together on some problem or challenge.

But there is also Intentionality through faith.  This kind of Intentionality is what most current discussions of Intentionality mean. Those of us reared in our secular, rational culture have lost the idea that faith is the other great means of obtaining knowledge, so we think it is new and almost magical. This post will discuss the first form of human intention.

Science and art are, according to the Bahá’í teachings, connected to and dependent upon divine Thought.  Baha’u’llah writes: “Unveiled and unconcealed, this Wronged One hath, at all times, proclaimed before the face of all the peoples of the world that which will serve as the key for unlocking the doors of sciences, of arts, of knowledge, of well-being, of prosperity and wealth” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 96)  And: “Such arts and material means as are now manifest have been achieved by virtue of His knowledge and wisdom which have been revealed in Epistles and Tablets through His Most Exalted Pen—a Pen out of whose treasury pearls of wisdom and utterance and the arts and crafts of the world are brought to light.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah:39) 

This treasury of new knowledge brought forth from the spiritual realm into the human one by Revelation is then brought forth (educed) into manifest form by a certain use of the power of thought possessed by human beings.  Baha’u’llah writes: “The source of crafts, sciences and arts is the power of reflection. Make ye every effort that out of this ideal mine there may gleam forth such pearls of wisdom and utterance as will promote the well-being and harmony of all the kindreds of the earth.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 72)  And ‘Abdu’l-Baha explains: “This faculty (of meditation) brings forth from the invisible plane the sciences and arts. Through the meditative faculty inventions are made possible, colossal undertakings are carried out; through it governments can run smoothly.” (Paris Talks: 174) 

The objects of this world are the outer pictures of the inner spiritual world.(Promulgation of Universal Peace: 10)  As I see it, the inmost spiritual realities get reflected in the inner mirror of human consciousness and from consciousness are brought into this world where they can be manifested in physical form.  One might say that, the mind in meditation gradually tunes in to the complementary vibration, resonates with this vibration until the commensurate spiritual "object" appears, and this image is reflected in consciousness so that inspiration occurs.  But all is in potentia already in consciousness.

‘Abdu’l-Baha writes: “Thou didst write as to the question of spiritual discoveries. The spirit of man is a circumambient power that encompasseth the realities of all things. Whatsoever thou dost see about thee—wondrous products of human workmanship, inventions, discoveries and like evidences—each one of these was once a secret hidden away in the realm of the unknown. The human spirit laid that secret bare, and drew it forth from the unseen into the visible world. There is, for example, the power of steam, and photography and the phonograph, and wireless telegraphy, and advances in mathematics: each and every one of these was once a mystery, a closely guarded secret, yet the human spirit unravelled these secrets and brought them out of the invisible into the light of day. Thus is it clear that the human spirit is an all-encompassing power that exerteth its dominion over the inner essences of all created things, uncovering the well kept mysteries of the phenomenal world.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 169-170)

Now back to Intentionality, the manifesting of intellectual realities in physical reality.  Intellectual realities are “spiritual” in that they occupy no place or space and are non-local—they lack form, volume and position as material entities, though they possess intellectual form.  They explain natural and human phenomena because they can penetrate to interior relationships.  Immanuel Kant reasoned that ideas were concepts of reason which transcend all experience and which complete the concrete as a totality.  But physicists are careful to say that subatomic particles and waves really only “exist” as mathematical symbols (i.e. intellectual forms) of natural processes.  The mathematical symbols and the logic of these symbols are metaphors for something which cannot be perceived by the senses, but whose effects are known to happen in the physical world.  Everything advanced physics is learning about Nature is in accord with the idea that the fundamental processes of Nature lie outside space-time, but generate events that can be located within space-time.  Mathematics explains and comprehends these insofar as they are mathematical.  It does not comprehend them in themselves, for this would require their true spiritual reality to be understood and Baha’u’llah has said that “no mind nor heart, however keen or pure, can ever grasp the nature of the most insignificant of His creatures…” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah:62) 

            Depending upon one’s view, one can say either, that there are two categories of created things, physical and intellectual, or that there are two forms for every created thing, a physical form and a spiritual or intellectual form, dual aspects of one reality, with the physical form being the seat, or locus of spiritual power in the physical world.  “Each power is localized. Reason has its seat in the brain, sight in the eye, hearing in the ears, speech in the tongue. The force of gravity is localized in the center of the earth. Everything on the surface of the earth is attracted toward the center. Our light is localized in the sun.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Divine Philosophy: 96)

           In the language of modern sub-atomic physics, we can think of a “thing’s” physical form, localized in space/time, as, metaphorically speaking, its “particle” form.  Its spiritual form is an intellectual reality: that is, nonlocal and occupying no physical space, being everywhere at once, existing in a field of active information.  This form is, metaphorically, its wave form.  In this perspective, the human body is the physical seat of power for the human soul, while the mental power is the rays of influence emanating from that locality—i.e. the body—but originating from the soul’s rational faculty.  One could also call the wave form of a thing the vibration of its name or attribute of God, because: “Upon the inmost reality of each and every created thing He hath shed the light of one of His names, and made it a recipient of the glory of one of His attributes.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 65)  And this inner reality is a vibrational template of information for its manifestation in the world, for all the attributes and names of God are within the world and in human soul—the universe is enfolded within each of us.

           More on human reason's intentionality in next post.

Intentionality III: Divine Thought and Intellectual Realities

O My Servant! Obey Me and I shall make thee like unto Myself. I say 'Be,' and it is, and thou shalt say 'Be,' and it shall be.

            (Baha'u'llah, The Four Valleys: 63)

We have read where some people are coming to the conclusion that the universe is really a gigantic thought-form.  If that is so, there must be a Supreme Thinker.  But further, if the universe is a thought, then everything in it is suffused with this thought, is built by it and sustained by it.  For me the Supreme Being is the Thinker Who creates by His own intention which is communicated by the Revealed Word.  It is to this that we must turn first, before we examine how human beings best use their own intentionality to create.

‘Abdu’l-Baha writes: “Praise and thanksgiving be unto Providence that out of all the realities in existence He has chosen the reality of man and has honored it with intellect and wisdom, the two most luminous lights in either world. Through the agency of this great endowment, He has in every epoch cast on the mirror of creation new and wonderful configurations. If we look objectively upon the world of being, it will become apparent that from age to age, the temple of existence has continually been embellished with a fresh grace, and distinguished with an ever-varying splendor, deriving from wisdom and the power of thought.

This supreme emblem of God stands first in the order of creation and first in rank, taking precedence over all created things. Witness to it is the Holy Tradition, "Before all else, God created the mind." From the dawn of creation, it was made to be revealed in the temple of man.” (The Secret of Divine Civilization:1)

This mind that ‘Abdu’l-Baha refers to as created before all else is the universal mind of the Manifestation of God.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha explains the relations between His mind and other minds: “But the universal divine mind, which is beyond nature, is the bounty of the Preexistent Power. This universal mind is divine; it embraces existing realities, and it receives the light of the mysteries of God. It is a conscious power, not a power of investigation and of research. The intellectual power of the world of nature is a power of investigation, and by its researches it discovers the realities of beings and the properties of existences; but the heavenly intellectual power, which is beyond nature, embraces things and is cognizant of things, knows them, understands them, is aware of mysteries, realities and divine significations, and is the discoverer of the concealed verities of the Kingdom. This divine intellectual power is the special attribute of the Holy Manifestations and the Dawning-places of prophethood; a ray of this light falls upon the mirrors of the hearts of the righteous, and a portion and a share of this power comes to them through the Holy Manifestations. (Some Answered Questions: 217)

The universal, divine mind of the Manifestation of God casts “on the mirror of creation new and wonderful configurations” making both sensible and intellectual realities.  Sensible realities are objects perceptible by the physical senses.  Intellectual realities are the forms of thought for the sensible realities, a mental dimension of intellectual objects which science discovers and art reveals.  The material and mental levels of reality are connected, with physical objects being a kind of concretion or materialization of the various interactions of the laws and principles governing mental forms of energy.  Using the sun as an example, ‘Abdu’l-Baha gives an example of this point of view: “The sun is born from substance and form, which can be compared to father and mother, and it is absolute perfection; but the darkness has neither substance nor form, neither father nor mother, and it is absolute imperfection.” (Some Answered Questions:89)

Plato would call such thought forms the archetype or Ideal Form of a sensible reality.  This is called philosophical idealism, for it takes thoughts to be real things.  Philosophical realism takes physical things to be the only reality, with thoughts a reflection of these.  John Locke would be an example of this school.  But, of course, both mental and physical reality are necessary for spiritual reality to be manifest in this world.  In a more general sense, the Master states: “The spiritual world is like unto the phenomenal world. They are the exact counterpart of each other. Whatever objects appear in this world of existence are the outer pictures of the world of heaven.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 10)

That there is a mental foundation to the physical universe is part of the Baha’i Teachings. This subtle mental level of the physical universe is what many ancient philosophers called, and an increasing number of modern researchers are calling, the ether.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha says: “Even ethereal matter, the forces of which are said in physics to be heat, light, electricity and magnetism, is an intellectual reality, and is not sensible. In the same way, nature, also, in its essence is an intellectual reality, and is not sensible.” (Some Answered Questions:83) In another place, he stated: “For example, ethereal matter is not sensible, though it has an undoubted existence. The power of attraction is not sensible, though it certainly exists. From what do we affirm these existences? From their signs. Thus this light is the vibration of that ethereal matter, and from this vibration we infer the existence of ether.” (Some Answered Questions:189)

Given that “the reality of man is his thought”, then, using the terminology of quantum mechanics, every thought of each person is a participation in the interrelations of the universe of realities.  There are, then, no observers, strictly speaking, only participating interactions.  Here is the origin of the realization of human intentionality.  But this power of creation is especially true for God’s expressed thought, which is revelation.  Baha’u’llah states that His Revelation is “all-encompassing”; its “virtues have pervaded the whole of creation. Such is their virtue that not a single atom in the entire universe can be found which doth not declare the evidences of His might, which doth not glorify His holy Name, or is not expressive of the effulgent light of His unity.” (Gleanings: 62) In another place He asserts that “the revelations of My grace and bounty have permeated every atom of the universe.” (Gleanings: 325)

And, given that the universe is an emergent reality, and that revelation is progressive, then all is evolving—i.e. new configurations are cast on the mirror of creation with every revelation.  This means, too, that every atom in the universe is evolving in its capacity to express revealed reality.  The Master again: “Therefore, each atom of the innumerable elemental atoms, during its ceaseless motion through the kingdoms of existence as a constituent of organic composition, not only becomes imbued with the powers and virtues of the kingdoms it traverses but also reflects the attributes and qualities of the forms and organisms of those kingdoms. As each of these forms has its individual and particular virtue, therefore, each elemental atom of the universe has the opportunity of expressing an infinite variety of those individual virtues. No atom is bereft or deprived of this opportunity or right of expression….It is evident, then, that each elemental atom of the universe is possessed of a capacity to express all the virtues of the universe. This is a subtle and abstract realization.” (Promulgation of Universal Peace: 286)

With a strong foundation in place we are finally able to turn to human intention and see how much can be created.