You seek your knowledge from nature, the cycles of change that work miraculously to keep a balance, it is natures way.
For the wise…..It is a true and righteous path you have chosen.
You are old souls with much knowledge.
You long to heal the broken system we live in, to amend or eradicate,
united states currency eye- IMG_7364_web (Photo credit: kevindean)
the laws that are no longer useful or applicable, that have brought our great nation to shame.
We have entered-
(“The end of living, as we have known it, and the beginning of what I will call “Great Injustice to our Children, “.In the form of Slavery”) YES!
~Darcy Drogorub~ Quote
You stand before our Government, who’s face you NOW TRULY SEE!?! Is full of GREED. And who’s Heart has hardened to your pain. These trait’s I see that you have, will serve a courageous purpose.~Darcy Drogorub~ Quote
I pray you never lose touch with your knowledge nor compassion, for others pain, your sensitivities to Mother Earth , and for Humanity as well. It is you warriors that keep the world at peace, as you and I would have it. Granted there are many who will want to silence you, I myself have been silenced just recently.
United States of America (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
They ignore the laws, and just plain medicate you, or your children into submission.
Be AWARE!
We established a government , and it seems(mildley put) that they have turned against the people …YOU….ME…! They call themselves our leaders.Leaders are respected for their integrity,amogst the higher moral qualities of man/women.They are as the money changer in the Temple, they set their own laws and go by THEM. What will God do? They are weak in spirit, tapped of their humanity, liar’s, thieve’s and more…and yet…we pay them to operate on us in this manner.
We the people will no longer allow the powers that are running OUR Country to get away with manipulating the system for their own gain.
We have seen these injustices being applied to our own lives, by the very people that we have elected to serve US!
Am I right?
We had expected Truth,Justice…and, what we believe should be! simply put, (The American Way).
We are under (what looks to be! A Police State!) We are not free any longer if this is so, we have waited too long to take control, which in my note here to you means that the next person to starve, hide in an alley with their child- due to homelessness,or thrown in prison, for NO reason! That person could be you, it really could be any one of us. YES!. Yes! YES!.
I have talked to many,many victims of our system, as a counselor since 2006. Citizens of the U.S. are scared, most of them, they definitley are hiding. I will not hide, but yes, we should be afraid!
But fear now is a puddle as apposed to walking on water. We have an Ocean to deal with here in OUR COUNTRY.
Our Children are paying already, the government feeds them!? hhhuuummm they tell you what they will eat…you have no choice( not really) the school lunch program,breakfast program, and the wick system is their provider. “”The Hand That Rocks The Cradle Is The Hand That Rules The World” is a poem by William Ross Wallace that praises motherhood as the pre-eminent force for change in the world. The poem was first published in 1865 under the title “What Rules The World”.
NEVER BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU?!? That’s the PLAN…………………..Exactly………Meaning of “Never Bite The Hand That Feeds You“: – “We treat each other with the greatest respect . We never bite the hand that feeds us.”
We can create a society that allows for peace, justice, and prosperity for us all , not just a select few.
We DO NOT have to “Fight to win.” America has been ours ALL Along.
I wonder why.. we would allow a few politician”s to kill us all off?
What have they done to the Brave and the strong? They have scared us into submission,false belief,and terror…..in my Prophetic View—- most corruption, and violence has been allowed to go untouched to keep us in fear=in our homes=out of the way of the men that Rule us, UNJUSTLY, to their own gain.
If YOU only knew the truth! Some of you do,, but fear stops you, or you work in silence.
Take a good look at your Children, and know…That freedom for the People of the United States of America” is specifically THEIR FREEDOM.
And as you pay for,and Own the United States….You need to set them FREE now…before it’s too late.
The time for change is NOW! We will all thrive in the new world we build, because we know we the people have the power.
I pray for you….and your Children .
Find out the truth, if you don’t know already! I DO! AND I will SHARE IT WITH YOU. I have a date set for that. But ” DO NOT WAIT” Blessings
English: Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (1731 – 1802), wife of George Washington and first First Lady of the United States of America. Image housed in the Hulton Archive. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
For most people, there’s no place like home. Familiar surroundings, your own bed, your own food in the fridge, and maybe pets or other comforting objects all make life run a little smoother.
For people with mental illness, having the optimal environment for healing can make a significant difference in how quickly they recover. If they are living in a stressful environment, it can make getting better a big challenge–not only do they have to deal with their symptoms, but they have to manage household stressors as well.
As the partner of someone with a mental illness, you can play a large role in creating a place of safety and stability for your partner.
Research on the family environment (especially with schizophrenia and PTSD) has clearly demonstrated that the family atmosphere has a strong effect on the functioning of a person with mental illness. In fact, people living in families with high stress levels are more likely to relapse and/or be re-hospitalized (Tarrier, Sommerfield, & Pilgrim, 1999).
Tips to Minimize Stress in Your Home Create a predictable schedule. This includes sleep and wake times, approximate times to go to and come home from work, meal times, and times for any other routine activities, such as exercise or chores/errands. For people who are recovering from the effects of mental illness, having a routine creates purpose, encourages activity, helps the person feel as if they have been productive, and regulates their system (as in the case of sleep). It also reduces anxiety because the person will be able to predict what is going to happen when.
Agree on roles and responsibilities for family members. If it is just you and your partner at home, decide who is responsible for what household chores, errands, meal preparation, pet responsibilities, paying bills, etc. If there are kids at home, include them in the divvying up of responsibilities. Similar to the effects of creating a predictable schedule, knowing explicitly who will do what in the relationship can ease anxiety for both partners that one will not uphold their end of the bargain. While your partner is recovering, they may not be able to handle everything they once could, so have a discussion about what’s possible and what they feel they can handle.
Maintain a calm atmosphere in the house. Loud music, slamming doors, technology everywhere you look, people talking in loud voices, bright lights and colors, piles of stuff strewn everywhere, and barking dogs can all contribute to high stress levels for everyone in the house. Look for ways to reduce the noise level, clean the messes, and create a space where it feels calm and quiet.
Reduce stimulation. Related to the above point, look for ways to eliminate excessive stimulation. Watching violent shows or movies, using technology constantly, and having visitors (welcome or not!) coming and going on a regular basis should be experienced judiciously while your partner recovers. Have couple time. This is not the time to discuss the bills, the kids, the stuff happening at work–this is a time to nurture and strengthen your relationship with your partner. Creating weekly rituals, such as going on a walk, taking a picnic to the park, or having “date night” can give you and your partner something to look forward to and take some of the focus off your partner’s illness. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the effects of the symptoms of mental illness, but taking time to play and reconnect can do wonders for your partner’s mood and self-esteem, as well as bolster the bond of your relationship.
Measurement of a Circle (Greek: Κύκλου μέτρησις, Kuklou metrēsis) is a treatise that consists of three propositions by Archimedes. The treatise is only a fraction of what was a longer work.[1][2]
Propositions
Proposition one
The circle and the triangle are equal in area.
Proposition one states:
The area of any circle is equal to a right-angled triangle in which one of the sides about the right angle is equal to the radius, and the other to the circumference, of the circle.
This proposition also contains accurate approximations to the square root of 3 (one larger and one smaller) and other larger non-perfect square roots; however, Archimedes gives no explanation as to how he found these numbers.[2] He gives the upper and lower bounds to √3 as [3] However, these bounds are familiar from the study ofPell’s equation and the convergents of an associated continued fraction, leading to much speculation as to how much of this number theory might have been accessible to Archimedes. Discussion of this approach goes back at least to Thomas Fantet de Lagny, FRS (compare Chronology of computation of π) in 1723, but was treated more explicitly by Hieronymus Georg Zeuthen. In the early 1880s,Friedrich Otto Hultsch (1833–1906) and Karl Heinrich Hunrath (b. 1847) noted how the bounds could be found quickly by means of simple binomial bounds on square roots close to a perfect square modelled on Elements II.4, 7; this method is favoured by Thomas Little Heath. Although only one route to the bounds is mentioned, in fact there are two others, making the bounds almost inescapable however the method is worked. But the bounds can also be produced by an iterative geometrical construction suggested by Archimedes’ Stomachion in the setting of the regular dodecagon. In this case, the task is to give rational approximations to the tangent of π/12.
Christianity interprets the city as a physical reconstruction, spiritual restoration, or divine recreation of the city of Jerusalem. It is also interpreted by many Christian groups as referring to the Church to be the dwelling place of the saints.
Many traditions based on biblical scripture and other writings in the Jewish and Christian religions, such as Protestantism, Orthodox Christianity, and Orthodox Judaism, expect the literal renewal of Jerusalem to some day take place at the Temple Mount in accordance with various prophecies. Dispensationalists believe in a literal New Jerusalem that will come down out of Heaven, which will be an entirely new city of incredible dimensions. Other sects, such as various Protestant denominations, modernist branches of Christianity, Mormonism and Reform Judaism, view the New Jerusalem as figurative, or believe that such a renewal may have already taken place, or that it will take place at some other location besides the Temple Mount.
It is important to distinguish between “the camp of the saints, and the beloved city” spoken of in Revelation ch.20:9, and the New Jerusalem of chapter 21. Rev.ch.20:9 refers to an earthly City, description and purpose of which is found in book of Ezekiel, starting with chapter 36 and ending with ch.48. One of the most obvious differences is, the dimensions of the New Jerusalem of Rev.ch.21 are 1000 times bigger than dimensions of the city in Ezekiel ch.48 (and in Rev.ch.20:9) New Jerusalem of Revelation ch.21 is 2225 km. in length, width, and height, a city of these gigantic proportions can not be located on this earth, but as stated in ch.21 comes down from heaven on to the new earth.
The Babylonian threat to the Kingdom of Judah began as the Babylonian Empire conquered Assyria and rose to power from 612-609 BCE. Jerusalem surrendered without major bloodshed to Babylon in 597. An Israelite uprising brought the destruction of Nebuchadnezzar’s army upon Jerusalem in 586 BCE. The entire city, including the First Temple, was burned. Israelite aristocrats were taken captive to Babylon. The Babylonian conquest and exile catalyzed Jewish apocalyptic literature. This is the first example in Judaism where conflict leads to apocalyptic hopes for the New Jerusalem.
The Book of Ezekiel contains the first record of the New Jerusalem. Within Ezekiel 40-48, (Ezek 40-48) there is an extended and detailed description of the measurements of the Temple, its chambers, porticos, and walls. Chapter 48:30-35 contains a list of twelve Temple gates named for the Israel’s tribes. (Ezek 48:30-35)
The book of Zechariah[5] expands upon the Ezekiel’s New Jerusalem. After the Second Temple was built after the exile, Jerusalem’s population was only a few hundred. There were no defensive city walls until 445 BCE.[6] In the passage, the author writes about a city wall of fire to protect the enormous population. This text demonstrates the beginning of a progression of New Jerusalem thought. In Ezekiel, the focus is primarily on the human act of Temple construction. In Zechariah, the focus shifts to God’s intercession in the founding of New Jerusalem.
Mosaic of the 12 Tribes of Israel. From Givat Mordechai synagogue wall in Jerusalem. Top row, right to left: Reuben, Judah, Dan, Asher Middle: Simeon, Issachar, Naphtali, Joseph Bottom: Levi, Zebulun, Gad, Benjamin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Another biblical response to the Babylonian exile is in Isaiah,[7] where the author adorns the New Jerusalem with precious sapphires, jewels, and rubies. The city is described as a place free from terror and full of righteousness. Here, Isaiah provides an example of Jewish apocalypticism, where a hope for a perfected Jerusalem and freedom from oppression is themed.
As the original New Jerusalem composition, Ezekiel functioned as a source for later works such as 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, Qumran documents, and the Book of Revelation. These texts used similar measurement language and expanded on the limited eschatological perspective in Ezekiel.
Antiochene Persecutions, Hasmonean High Priesthood
The Animal Apocalypse within 1 Enoch (chapters 85-90), is another example where conflict sparks hopes for the New Jerusalem. First Enoch is an apocalyptic response to the persecutions under Seleucid Emperor Antiochus IV. In 167 BCE, Emperor Antiochus returned from fighting in Egypt to quell a revolt in Jerusalem led by Jason, the former High Priest. An agitated Antiochus imposed harsh restrictions on Jewish religion. Circumcision, feast celebration, Sabbath observance were all banned. Antiochus ordered the burning of Torah copies. Jews were required to eat pork. The worst oppression came in the desecration of the Temple. A polytheistic cult was formed, and worship of Yahweh abolished. A statue to a Seleucid deity was constructed on the Jewish altar.
Jews praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur. (1878 painting by Maurycy Gottlieb) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
First Enoch was written in the wake of this calamity between 166 BCE-163 BCE. For the author of 1 Enoch, history is a steep descent into evil from the utopia in Eden. The author’s vision of the eschaton centers on the restoration of Jerusalem: “I saw until the owner of the sheep brought a house, new and larger and loftier than the former” (1 Enoch 90:29). In this New Jerusalem passage, the sheep are the Jewish people, the builder is the Lord, and the House is the Temple. During the same time period, the Dead Sea scrolls contain a New Jerusalem tradition formed out of strife. As a tiny Jewish sect living in the caves of Qumran, the Essenes opposed Temple leadership and the High Priesthood in Jerusalem. Their condemnation of the Temple focused on criticizing High Priests. They were also frustrated that Judean Kings were also given the role of High Priest.[dubious – discuss] The Essenes were not against the institution of the Temple and its cult per se. The Essenes at Qumran predicted the reunified twelve tribes to rise together against Roman occupation and incompetent Temple leadership and re-establish true Temple worship.
The surviving New Jerusalem texts in Qumran literature focus specifically on the twelve city gates, and on the dimensions of the entire new city. In 4Q554, the gates of Simeon, Joseph, and Reuben are mentioned in this partial fragment. For the author of this fragment, the New Jerusalem’s twelve gates signify the reunification of the twelve tribes of Israel. In 5Q15, the author accompanies and angel who measures the blocks, houses, gates, avenues, streets, dining halls, and stairs of the New Jerusalem. There are two important points to consider on the Qumran Essenes. First, we do not have enough scroll fragments to completely analyze their New Jerusalem ideologies. Second, based on the evidence available, the Essenes rebelled against Temple leadership, not the Temple itself. Their vision of the New Jerusalem looked for the reunification of the twelve tribes around an eschatological Temple.
4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, 3 Baruch
As evidenced above, the historical progression of New Jerusalem language is specifically tied to conflict. The Babylonian Exile, Antiochene persecutions, and corrupt leadership in Jerusalem incited apocalyptic responses with a vision for a New Jerusalem. In the 1st century CE, an even greater conflict exploded in Iudaea province; the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, as well as the other Roman-Jewish Wars. Subsequent apocalyptic responses fundamentally altered the New Jerusalem eschatology for Jews and Early Christians.
English: Jerusalem, Mount of Olives, Gethsemane, Church of all nations Deutsch: Jerusalem, Ölberg, Kirche aller Nationen (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
At the core, apocalypses are a form of theodicy. They respond to overwhelming suffering with the hope of divine intercession and a perfected World to Come. The destruction of the Second Temple in 70 meant an end to Second Temple Judaism. Naturally, apocalyptic responses to the disaster followed. This section will first cover 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch. Fourth Ezra and 2 Baruch are important for two reasons. First, they look for a Temple in Heaven, not the eschaton. Second, these texts exhibit the final new Temple texts in Judaism. Jewish texts like 3 Baruch began to reject a restored Temple completely. However, these texts were deemed to be apocryphal by the Rabbis who maintained the belief in a Third Temple as central to Rabbinic Judaism.
The Jewish apocalypse of 4 Ezra is a text contained in the apocryphal book 2 Esdras. The genre of 4 Ezra is historical fiction, set thirteen years after the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem. Fourth Ezra is dated approximately in 83 CE, thirteen years after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. The story follows Ezra’s period of mourning following Jerusalem’s fall. Ezra is Job-like in his criticism of God’s allowance of Jerusalem’s downfall.
In Ezra’s deep state of grief, he meets a woman lamenting over Jerusalem. Ezra consoles the woman, and tells her to, “shake off your great sadness, and lay aside your many sorrows… the Most High may give you rest.” (4 Ezra 10:24). Suddenly, the woman is transfigured in an array of bright lights. She transforms into the New Jerusalem being rebuilt. As a bereaved widow she convinced Ezra to apply solace to himself through the image of a New Jerusalem.
Fourth Ezra has two clear messages. First, do not grieve excessively over Jerusalem. Second, Jerusalem will be restored as a heavenly kingdom. Fourth Ezra also uses the title “Most High,” throughout the apocalypse to emphasis that the Lord will once again reign and reside in Jerusalem.
The apocalypse of 2 Baruch is a contemporary narrative of 4 Ezra. The text also follows the same basic structure 4 Ezra: Job-like grief, animosity towards the Lord, and the rectification of Jerusalem that leads to the comfort of the Job-figure. Second Baruch is historical fiction, written after the Roman destruction but set before the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians.
Baruch is distressed when the Lord informs him of Jerusalem’s impending doom. Baruch responds with several theological questions for God. For
Depiction of Fleuve de Vie, the “River of Life” (right), from the Book of Revelation, Urgell Beatus, (f°198v-199), c. 10th century (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
this study, Baruch’s inquiry about the future of Israel and the honor of the Lord are most pertinent (2 Baruch 3:4-6). Baruch learns that the Lord will destroy the city, not the enemy. Baruch also learns of a pre-immanent heavenly Temple: “[The Temple] was already prepared from the moment I decided to create paradise.” And I showed it to Adam before he sinned.” (2 Baruch 4:3). This Temple was created before Adam, and shown to him before Adam’s fall.
Two important conclusions come from 2 Baruch. First, the author dismisses hopes for an earthly re-built Temple. The focus is entirely on the heavenly Temple that pre-dated the Garden of Eden. This may be a device to express the supremacy of the heavenly Temple as a sanctuary built before Eden (the traditional location of the earthly Temple). Second, Baruch believes that restoration for the people of Israel exists in heaven, not on earth.
The apocalypse of 3 Baruch is the anomaly among post-revolt New Jerusalem texts. Unlike 2 Baruch and 4 Ezra, the text exemplifies an alternative tradition that lacks a restored Temple. Like other apocalypses, 3 Baruch still mourns over the Temple, and re-focuses Jews to the heavens. Yet 3 Baruch finds that the Temple is ultimately unnecessary. This move could be polemical against works which afforded the Temple with excessive veneration. In the passage, an angel comes to Baruch and consoles him over Jerusalem: “Where is their God? And behold as I was weeping and saying such things, I saw an angel of the Lord coming and saying to me: Understand, O man, greatly beloved, and trouble not thyself so greatly concerning the salvation of Jerusalem.” (3 Baruch 1:3)
Third Baruch certainly mourns over the Temple. Yet 3 Baruch is not ultimately concerned with the lack of a Temple. This text goes along with Jeremiah and Sibylline Oracles 4 to express a minority tradition within Jewish literature. In the first Christian apocalypse, the Book of Revelation coincides with this perspective on Jerusalem. The study will now move to early Christian perspectives on the Temple and the apocalyptic response in Revelation.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]
1729 Schryver Map of Israel showing 12 Tribes – Geographicus – Israel-schryver-1729 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Since Christianity originated as a sect of Judaism, the history of Jewish places of worship and the currents of thought in ancient Judaism described above served in part as the basis for the development of the Christian conception of the New Jerusalem. Christians have always placed religious significance on Jerusalem as the site of The Crucifixion and other events central to the Christian faith.
Based on the Book of Revelation, premillennialism holds that, following the end times and the second creation of heaven and earth (see The New Earth), the New Jerusalem will be the earthly location where all true believers will spend eternity with God. The New Jerusalem is not limited to eschatology, however. Many Christians view the New Jerusalem as a current reality, that the New Jerusalem is the consummation of the Body of Christ, the Church and that Christians already take part in membership of both the heavenly Jerusalem and the earthly Church in a kind of dual citizenship.[16] In this way, the New Jerusalem represents to Christians the final and everlasting reconciliation of God and His chosen people, “the end of the Christian pilgrimage.”[16] As such, the New Jerusalem is a conception of Heaven, see also Heaven (Christianity).
The Book of Revelation
Folio 55r of the Bamberg Apocalypsedepicts the angel showing John the New Jerusalem, with the Lamb of God at its center.
The term New Jerusalem occurs twice in the New Testament, in verses 3:12 and 21:2 of the Book of Revelation. A large portion of the final two chapters of Revelation deals with John of Patmos’ vision of the New Jerusalem. He describes the New Jerusalem as “‘the bride, the wife of the Lamb’”, where the river of theWater of Life flows (22:1).
After John witnesses the new heaven and a new earth “that no longer has any sea”, an angel takes him “in the Spirit” to a vantage point on “a great and high mountain” to see the New Jerusalem’s descent. The enormous city comes out of heaven down to the New Earth. John’s elaborate description of the New Jerusalem retains many features of the Garden of Eden and the paradise garden, such as rivers, a square shape, a wall, and the Tree of Life.
Alchemy Cycle symbol (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Description
According to John, the New Jerusalem is “pure gold, like clear glass” and its “brilliance [is] like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper.” The street of the city is also made of “pure gold, like transparent glass”. The base of the city is laid out in a square and surrounded by a wall made of jasper. It says in Revelation 21:16 that the height, length, and width are of equal dimensions – as were the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle and First Temple – and they measure 12,000 furlongs which is approximately 1500.3 miles). John writes that the wall is 144 cubits, which is assumed to be the width since the length is mentioned previously. 144 cubits are about equal to 65 meters, or 72 yards. It is important to note that 12 is the square root of 144. The number 12 was very important to early Jews and Christians, representing the 12 tribes of Israel and 12 Apostles of Jesus Christ. The four sides of the city represented the four cardinal directions (North, South, East, and West.) In this way, New Jerusalem was thought of as an inclusive place, with gates accepting all of the 12 tribes of Israel from all corners of the earth.
There is no temple building in the New Jerusalem. God and the Lamb are the city’s temple, since they are worshiped everywhere. Revelation 22 goes on to describe a river of the water of life that flows down the middle of the great street of the city from the Throne of God. The tree of life grows in the middle of this street and on either side, or in the middle of the street and on either side of the river. The tree bears twelve fruits, or kinds of fruits, and yields its fruit every month. According to John, “The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” This inclusion of the tree of life in the New Jerusalem harkens back to the Garden of Eden. The fruit the tree bears may be thefruit of life.
John states that the New Jerusalem will be free of sin. The servants of God will have theosis, and “His name will be on their foreheads.” Night will no longer fall, and the inhabitants of the city will “have need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light.” John ends his account of the New Jerusalem by stressing its eternal nature: “And they shall reign forever and ever.”
Gates
There are twelve gates in the wall oriented to the compass with three each on the east, north, south, and west sides. There is an angel at each gate, or gatehouse. These gates are each made of a singlepearl, giving them the name of the “pearly gates“. The names of the twelve tribes of Israel are written on these gates.
The new Jerusalem gates may bear some relation to the gates mentioned in Enoch, Chapters 33 – 35, where the prophet reports (at the extremities of the whole earth) “heavenly gates opening into heaven; three of them distinctly separated.” [33, 3.] And so on for each of the four major compass directions.[ref. Laurence translation, Book of Enoch.]
Art Relecting Art, Reflecting on Art (Photo credit: cobalt123)
The wall has twelve foundation stones, and on these are written the names of the Twelve Apostles. Revelation lacks a list of the names of the Twelve Apostles, and does not describe which name is inscribed on which foundation stone, or if all of the names are inscribed on all of the foundation stones, so that aspect of the arrangement is open to speculation. The layout of the precious stones is contested. All of the precious stones could adorn each foundation stone, either in layers or mixed together some other way, or just one unique type of stone could adorn each separate foundation stone.
This latter possibility is favored by tradition, as each gate presumably stands on one foundation stone, and each of the twelve tribes has long been associated with a certain type of precious stone. These historical connections go back to the time of Temple worship, when the same kinds of stones were set in the golden Breastplate of the Ephod worn by the Kohen Gadol, and on the Ephod the names of each of the twelve tribes of Israel were inscribed on a particular type of stone.
It is interesting to note that the translated meanings of the various sorts of foundation stones have varied through the centuries: those in King James Version are differently named in later translations.
“18: And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. 19: And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; 20: The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.” <KJV, Rev. 21>
“18 The wall was built of diamond, and the city of pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundations of the city wall were faced with all kinds of precious stone: the first with diamond, the second lapis lazuli, the third turquoise, the fourth crystal, 20 the fifth agate, the sixth ruby, the seventh gold quartz, the eighth malachite, the ninth topaz, the tenth emerald, the eleventh sapphire and the twelfth amethyst.” <NJB, Rev. 21>
Geometry
The angel measures the New Jerusalem with the rod or reed. Note the Lamb of God and the twelve sets of figures, gates, and stones.
In 21:16, the angel measures the city with a golden rod or reed, and records it as 12,000 stadia by 12,000 stadia at the base, and 12,000 stadia high. A stadion is usually stated as 185 meters, or 607 feet, so the base has dimensions of about 2220 km by 2220 km, or 1380 miles by 1380 miles. In the ancient Greek system of measurement, the base of the New Jerusalem would have been equal to 144 million square stadia, 4.9 million square kilometers or 1.9 million square miles. If rested on the Earth, its ceiling would be inside the exosphere.
Temple Mount and Western Wall during Shabbat (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Book of Revelation was composed during the end of the 1st century CE, sometime during the later end of the reign of Emperor Nero Domitius (54 to 68 CE). The work is addressed to the “seven churches that are in Asia” (1:4). Revelation is normally broken into three sections: the prologue (1:1-3:22), the visions (4:1-22:5), and the epilogue (22:6-20). This study is principally concerned with chapter 21.
The author of Revelation was both a Jew by birth and a believing Christian. For the author and the addressees of Revelation, they are searching for the Lord to vindicate them and judge the “inhabitants of the earth,” for their suffering (6:10). The fall of Jerusalem coupled with the Neronian persecutions form the tension within the subtext of Revelation.
Throughout Revelation, several references to the Temple are made (3:12, 7:15, 11:19, 14:15, and 16:1). This Temple appears to be of heavenly origin. When the eschaton arrives in 21:1, the reader expects the temple to come down from heaven with the New Jerusalem. Revelation 21 even contains typical New Jerusalem terminology that accompanies a restored Temple. Specific measurements are given for the new city (Ezekiel 40-48, 4Q554), and the city is built with gold, sapphires, and emeralds (Isaiah, Tobit). In addition, 21:21 references the “twelve gates.” Revelation maintains another typically aspect of New Jerusalem tradition – the reunification of the twelve tribes of Israel (Ezekiel 48:33-34, 4Q554).
Verse 22 marks a sudden and remarkable shift in New Jerusalem apocalyptic rhetoric: “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.” Following with the tradition of 3 Baruch and 4 Sibylline Oracles, Revelation foresees an eschaton without the Temple. Why has the Revelation suddenly denied an eschatological Temple? Verse 23 sheds light on this disparity.
Verse 23 proclaims, “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is the light, and its lamp is the lamb.” For the author of Revelation, there is no need for a Temple because the Lord will be the New Jerusalem’s eternal light and Jesus (the lamb) will be its lamp. This re-interpretation utilizes Isaiah to make its case: “The LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun shall no more go down, or your moon withdraw itself; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.” (Isaiah 60:19)
The Temple is discarded in the eschaton because the Lord will provide illumination for the New Jerusalem, and Christ will be the glory for its residents. Henceforth, Christians believed that the New Jerusalem no longer required a Temple. For Christians, their Lord sufficiently replaced
English: Jerusalem, Dome of the rock, in the background the Church of the Holy Sepulchre Deutsch: Jerusalem, Felsendom, im Hintergrund die Grabeskirche (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
the Temple.
Montanism
From the middle of the 2nd century CE to the middle of the 6th century CE, the ancient Christian sect of Montanism, which spread all over the Roman Empire, expected the New Jerusalem to descend to earth at the neighboring Phrygian towns of Pepuza and Tymion. In late antiquity, both places attracted crowds of pilgrims from all over the Roman Empire. Pepuza was the headquarters of the Montanist church. The Montanist patriarch resided at Pepuza. Women played an emancipated role in Montanism, serving as priests and also bishops. In the 6th century CE, this church became extinct.
Since 2001, Peter Lampe of the University of Heidelberg has directed annual archaeological campaigns in Phrygia, Turkey. During these interdisciplinary campaigns, together with William Tabbernee of Tulsa, numerous unknown ancient settlements were discovered and archaeologically documented. Two of them are the best candidates so far in the search for the identification of the two holy centers of ancient Montanism, Pepuza and Tymion, the sites of the expected descent of the New Jerusalem. Scholars had searched for these lost sites since the 19th century.
The ancient settlement discovered and identified as Pepuza by William Tabbernee and Peter Lampe was settled continuously from Hellenistic times to Byzantine times. In Byzantine times, an important rock-cut monastery belonged to the town. The town is located in the Phrygian Karahallı area, near the village of Karayakuplu (Uşak Province, Aegean Region, Turkey). The ancient site of Tymion identified byPeter Lampe is located not far away at the Turkish village of Şükranje. For the Montanists, the high plane between Pepuza and Tymion was an ideal landing place
for the heavenly New Jerusalem.
Catholicism
English: Dome of the Rotunda of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Israel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
theologians deem more appropriate that there should be a special and glorious abode, in which the blessed have their peculiar home and where they usually abide, even though they be free to go about in this world. For the surroundings in the midst of which the blessed have their dwelling must be in accordance with their happy state; and the internal union of charity which joins them in affection must find its outward expression in community of habitation. At the end of the world, the earth together with the celestial bodies will be gloriously transformed into a part of the dwelling-place of the blessed (Revelation 21). Hence there seems to be no sufficient reason for attributing a metaphorical sense to those numerous utterances of the Bible which suggest a definite dwelling-place of the blessed. Theologians, therefore, generally hold that the heaven of the blessed is a special place with definite limits. Naturally, this place is held to exist,
New Jerusalem, 1890s postcard (Photo credit: paukrus)
not within the earth, but, in accordance with the expressions of Scripture, without and beyond its limits. All further details regarding its locality are quite uncertain. The Church has decided nothing on this subject.
Eastern Christianity
Emperor Lalibela of Ethiopia built the city of Lalibela as a new reconstructed Jerusalem in response to the Muslim capture of Jerusalem by Saladin‘s forces in 1187.
The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that the New Jerusalem is the City of God that will come down from heaven in the manner described in the Book of the Apocalypse (Revelation). The Church is an iconof the heavenly Jerusalem.[17] The New Jerusalem Monastery in Russia takes its name from the heavenly Jerusalem.
Puritan
The New Jerusalem was an important theme in the Puritan colonization of New England in the 17th century. The Puritans were inspired by the passages in Revelation about the New Jerusalem, which they interpreted as being a symbol for the New World. The Puritans saw themselves as the builders of the New Jerusalem on earth. This idea was foundational to American nationalism.[18]
Swedenborgian
Ecclesiastic Swedenborgians often refer to their organizations as part of or contributing to the New Jerusalem as explained by Emanuel Swedenborg in such books as New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine, Apocalypse Revealed, and Apocalypse Explained. According to Swedenborg, the New Jerusalem described in the Bible is a symbol for a new dispensation that was to replace/restore Christianity. Also according to these books, this New Jerusalem began to be established around 1757. This stems from their belief that Jerusalem itself is a symbol of the Church, and so the New Jerusalem in the Bible is a prophetic description of a New Church.
In the Latter Day Saint movement (Mormonism), the New Jerusalem is viewed as a physical kingdom that will be built in North America,[19] centered around Independence, Missouri.[20] The movement refers to the New Jerusalem as Zion. The movement’s founder, Joseph Smith, Jr., attempted to establish this Zion in the early 1830s, and drafted a detailed plat of Zion based on his view of the biblical description of the New Jerusalem, including plans for a temple. However, due to political and military rivalry with other Missouri settlers, members of the religion were expelled from Missouri in 1838. Subsequently, several Latter Day Saint denominations have established residence there, believing that it will be the center of God’s Millennial kingdom.
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that New Jerusalem is made up of anointed Christians serving in heaven as Kings and Priests over the earth. The number of these King-Priests will eventually number 144,000. This belief is based on New Jerusalem being described as “a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev 21:2), and this same “bride” then being described as “the Lamb’s wife” (Rev 21:9,10). Revelation 14:1 is seen as depicting a wife-like relationship between the Lamb and the 144,000, therefore linking the identity of the 144,000 with the Lamb’s wife and in-turn also that of New Jerusalem.[21]
Universal Friends
The religious community known collectively as the Publick Universal Friends that gathered around the QuakerevangelistJemima Wilkinson in the late 18th century was one of religious righteousness and devotion to Christian ideals. In 1790, Jemima founded a community she called New Jerusalem, planned as a communal society where righteousness would prevail. It was situated in the wilderness of New York’sFinger Lakes region, in what is today the town of Jerusalem, New York. The society faded away after the death of their leader, and so died the prospect of a community based on the will of God.
British Israelism
Richard Brothers, the originator of British Israelism, developed a viewpoint explained by Adrian Gilbert in his 2002 book The New Jerusalem. Gilbert proposes a secret tradition, that the British are descended from the Lost Tribes of Israel, an idea known as British Israelism, and that the capital city of Britain should therefore be re-modeled as a New Jerusalem for the coming Age of Enlightenment. Supposedly this idea was already present in 6th Century England, and that it reached its height of influence during and just after the First World War; certain buildings, such as St Paul’s Cathedral, supposedly contain elements of the plan in their design.
Bedwardism
Bedwardism, a Jamaican religious movement active between 1889 and 1921, asserted that August Town (a suburb of Kingston) was the New Jerusalem for the western hemisphere, and that Union Camp, where Alexander Bedward‘s Free Baptist Church was located, was Zion. This movement fell apart when Bedward was arrested in 1921.
Kimbanguism
Kimbanguism, a Congolese sectarian church founded in 1921 by Simon Kimbangu, refers to Kimbangu’s birthplace in Nkamba, Congo (a village near Mbanza-Ngungu), as New Jerusalem, where he reputedly performed miracles. Like Bedward, Kimbangu was imprisoned for life in the year 1921, however his movement continues with many followers to the present.
The Kimbanguist believe that people of the Nkamba village saw the New Jerusalem descending from heaven (a building) physically in 1935, by which time Father Simon Kimbangu was in prison. The Kimbanguist has constructed this same design of the building, calling it Nkamba New Jerusalem, in reference to Revelation 21; it has a river with supposed healing power.
Bahá’í faith
The Bahá’í Faith views the New Jerusalem as the renewal of religion that takes place about every thousand years and which secures the prosperity of the human world.[22][23]Bahá’u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá’í Faith, identified the New Jerusalem with his claimed revelation (the word of God), and more specifically with the Law of God.[24][25]
`Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’u'lláh’s son, further explains that the New Jerusalem which descends from heaven is not an actual city which is renewed, but the law of God since it descends from heaven through a new revelation and it is renewed.[26]Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, stated that specifically Bahá’u'lláh’s book of laws, the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, is the new Jerusalem.[27][28] Bahá’u'lláh, in the Tablet of Carmel, also states that the new Jerusalem had appeared upon the new Mount Zion, Mount Carmel.[24]
^ Averky (Taushev), Archbishop; Fr. Seraphim (Rose) (1998). The Apocalypse in the Teachings of Ancient Christianity. Platina CA: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood. p. 26. ISBN0-938635-67-0.
Ezekiel Saw the Wheel, ca. 1944-1945 (Photo credit: americanartmuseum)
References
Bernet, Claus: The Heavenly Jerusalem as a Central Belief in Radical Pietism in the Eighteenth Century, in: The Covenant Quarterly, 63, 4, 2005, p. 3-19.
La Cité de Dieu, ed. by Martin Hengel, Tübingen 2000.
La Gerusalemme celeste, ed. by Maria Luisa Gatti Perer, Milano 1983.
Kühnel, Bianca: From the Earthly to the Heavenly Jerusalem. Representations of the Holy City in Christian Art of the First Millennium, Rom 1987.
Peter Lampe, Die montanistischen Tymion und Pepouza im Lichte der neuen Tymioninschrift, in: Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum 8 (2004) 498-512
W. Tabbernee/Peter Lampe, Pepouza and Tymion: The Discovery and Archaeological Exploration of a Lost Ancient City and an Imperial Estate (deGruyter: Berlin/New York, 2008) ISBN 978-3-11-019455-5 und ISBN 978-3-11-020859-7
Daniel C. Harlow, The Greek Apocalypse of Baruch (3 Baruch) in Hellenistic Judaism and Early Christianity (New York: E.J. Brill, 1996)
Sanders, E P. The Historical Figure of Jesus. New York: Penguin Books, 1993.
David Flusser, Judaism and the Origins of Christianity (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1988)
Aune, Word Biblical Commentary: Revelation 17-22
Stephen Pattemore, The People of God in the Apocalypse : discourse, structure, and exegesis (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004)
English: Jerusalem, Via Dolorosa, Station IX. Deutsch: Jerusalem, Via Dolorosa, Station IX. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: 14th Dalai Lama, Dharasmala, India (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Dalai Lama was born Lhamo Thondup on July 6, 1935 in Taktser, China. At age 15, he assumed political power of Tibet as the Dalai Lama. The People’s Republic of China invaded that same year. Fearing assassination, he and thousands of followers fled to Dharamsala in northern India, where they established an alternative government. Since then,has taken numerous actions in hopes of establishing an autonomous Tibetan state within the People’s Republic of China. However,the Chinese government has shown no signs of moving toward peace and reconciliation with Tibet. The Dalai Lama has also conducted hundreds of conferences, lectures and workshops worldwide, as part of his humanitarian efforts. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. In December 2008, the Dalai Lama announced his semi-retirement after having gallstone surgery.
Early Life
Lhamo Thondup was born on July 6, 1935 in Taktser, China, northeast of Tibet, to a peasant family. He is the head of state and spiritual leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile based in Dharamshala, India. Tibetans believe him to be the reincarnation of his predecessors. For nearly 50 years, he had aimed to establish Tibet as a self-governing, democratic state.
Lhamo Thondup was the fifth of 16 children—seven of whom died at a young age. After several months of searching for a successor to the 13th Dalai Lama and following many significant spiritual signs, religious officials located Lhamo Thondup, at age 2, and identified him as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. Young Lhamo was renamed Tenzin Gyatso and proclaimed the 14th Dalai Lama.
Dalai Lamas are believed to be the reincarnation of Avalokitesvara, an important Buddhist deity and the personification of compassion. Dalai Lamas are also enlightened beings who have postponed their own afterlife and chosen to take rebirth to benefit humanity. “Dalai” means “ocean” in Mongolian (the name “Gyatso” comes from the Tibetan word for ocean). “Lama” is the equivalent of the Sanskrit word “guru,” or spiritual teacher. Put together, the title of Dalai Lama is literally “Ocean Teacher,” meaning a “teacher spiritually as deep as the ocean.”
Buddhist Teachings
Buddhism was created in the sixth century, BCE, with the birth ofBuddha Siddhartha Gautama, making it one of the oldest religions practiced today. Originating in India, the religion spread throughout most of eastern and southern Asia. Buddhism came to Tibet in the 8th century, CE. Unlike other religions that are centered on a supreme being, Buddhism is centered on four basic truths: Life is not perfect; people are left unsatisfied by trying to make life perfect; people can realize there is a better way to achieve fulfillment; and by living one’s life through wisdom, ethical conduct and mental discipline, people will reach enlightenment.
Within these truths are countless layers of teachings on the nature of existence, life, death and the self. Buddhism encourages its followers not to believe in those teachings, as followers of other religions believe in their religion’s central figures and dogma, but rather to explore, understand, and test the truths against their own experiences. The emphasis here is on the exploration. The Buddhist belief of rebirth is a concept of “renewal” and not exactly reincarnation of a spirit or body. Under Buddhism, the consciousness of a person can become part of the consciousness of another person, as a flame moves from one candle to another. The second flame is not identical to the first, nor is it totally different. Thus, Buddhists believe life is a continual journey of experience and discovery and not divided between life and the afterlife.
Becoming the Dalai Lama
Tenzin began his religious education at age 6. His schooling consisted of logic, Tibetan art and culture, Sanskrit, medicine and Buddhist philosophy, which is divided into five other categories dealing with the perfection of wisdom, monastic discipline, metaphysics, logic and epistemology—the study of knowledge. At age 11, Tenzin met Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian mountaineer, who became one of his tutors, teaching him about the outside world. The two remained friends until Harrer’s death in 2006.
In 1950, at the age of 15, Tenzin assumed full political power as the Dalai Lama. However, his governorship was short. In October of that year, the People’s Republic of China invaded Tibet against little resistance. In 1954, the Dalai Lama went to Beijing for peace talks with Mao Zedong and other Chinese leaders. However, in 1959, continued suppression of the Tibetan people by Chinese troops led to their uprising. The Dalai Lama and his closest advisers believed the Chinese government was planning to assassinate him. Consequently, he and several thousand followers fled to Dharamshala in northern India and established an alternative government there.
At the time, the People’s Republic of China considered the Dalai Lama to be a symbol of an obsolete religious movement, not in line with communist philosophy. More recently, the Chinese government alleges that he is a separatist and a traitor for advocating Tibetan self-rule, and a terrorist for inciting Tibetan rebellion.
Conflict with China
Since the Chinese invasion, the Dalai Lama has taken numerous actions in hopes of establishing an autonomous Tibetan state within the People’s Republic of China. In 1963, he issued a draft constitution for Tibet containing a number of reforms to democratize the government. Called the Charter of Tibetans in Exile, it grants freedom of speech, belief, assembly, and movement. It also provides detailed guidelines for Tibetans living in exile.
During the 1960s the Central Intelligence Agency funded and trained Tibetan forces to resist the Chinese invasion and occupation with the Dalai Lama’s full knowledge and support. The program was a failure as thousands of lives were lost in the resistance and is now considered merely a Cold War tactic on the part of the United States to challenge the Chinese government’s legitimacy in the region.
In September 1987, the Dalai Lama proposed the Five Point Peace Plan for Tibet as the first steps in a peaceful solution to reconcile with the Chinese government and end the volatile situation there. The plan proposed that Tibet would become a sanctuary where enlightened people can exist in peace and the environment can be preserved. In June 15, 1988, the Dalai Lama addressed members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. There he proposed talks between the Chinese and Tibetans that would lead to a self-governing democratic political entity for Tibet. The entity would be associated with the People’s Republic of China, and the Chinese government would be responsible for Tibet’s foreign policy and defense. In 1991, the Tibetan government-in-exile declared the Strasbourg Proposal invalid because of the current Chinese leadership’s negative attitude toward the proposal.
Humanitarian Work
The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, and in the tradition of Bodhisattva he has spent his life committed to benefiting humanity. He has written numerous books and conducted hundreds of conferences, lectures and workshops at major universities and institutions throughout the world, discussing engaging in wisdom, compassion and, more recently, environmental sustainability. Unlike his predecessors, the Dalai Lama has met with many Western leaders and has visited the United States, Europe, Russia, Latin America and many countries in Asia on a number of occasions.
Known as an effective public speaker, the Dalai Lama is often described as charismatic. His message is always one of peace and compassion for people all over the world. During his travels abroad, he has stressed the need for a better understanding of and respect among different faiths of the world. He has made numerous appearances at interfaith services and has met with several heads of other religions, including Pope John Paul
Tibet (Photo credit: moniqca)
II; Dr. Robert Runcie, the Archbishop of Canterbury; Gordon B. Hinckley, the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; and Patriarch Alexius II, of the Russian Orthodox Church.
In 1989, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent efforts for the liberation of Tibet and his concern for global environmental problems. The Committee’s citation stated, “The Committee wants to emphasize the fact that the Dalai Lama in his struggle for the liberation of Tibet consistently has opposed the use of violence. He has instead advocated peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of his people.” In recent years, a number of Western universities and institutions have conferred peace awards and honorary doctorate degrees upon the Dalai Lama in recognition of his distinguished writings in Buddhist philosophy, as well as his outstanding leadership in the service of freedom and peace.
Working for Peace
In the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, unrest broke out in Tibet in anticipation of media attention and increased repression by the Chinese government. The Dalai Lama pleaded for calm and condemned Chinese violence. This was met with frustration by many in Tibet, who considered his comments ineffective, and allegations by the Chinese that the Dalai Lama incited the violence—an accusation that he strongly denies. While the United Nations has passed several resolutions on China, calling for the respect of fundamental human rights and a cessation of human rights violations, and has expressed concern about continuing human rights violations in Tibet, little has been done to resolve the problem. In recent years, proposed resolutions to protect Tibetan human rights have been postponed or reworded to ease any pressure on the Chinese government.
In recent years, Chinese President Hu Jintao has shown no signs of moving toward peace and reconciliation with Tibet.
Some say that the Chinese government is just waiting for the Dalai Lama, now 74, to die and thereby finally dispel any lingering hopes for an autonomous, democratic Tibet. In December 2008, the Dalai Lama announced his semi-retirement after having gallstone surgery.
On March 10, 2011, on the 52nd anniversary of his exile from Tibet, the Dalai Lama announced that he would give up his role as Tibet’s political leader. He said the decision came from a long-held belief that the Tibetans needed a freely elected leader. A spokeswoman from the Chinese foreign ministry called his resignation “a trick’.
When a neurosurgeon found himself in a coma, he experienced things he never thought possible—a journey to the afterlife.
As a neurosurgeon, I did not believe in the phenomenon of near-death experiences. I grew up in a scientific world, the son of a neurosurgeon. I
Paradise: Ascent of the Blessed (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
followed my father’s path and became an academic neurosurgeon, teaching at Harvard Medical School and other universities. I understand what happens to the brain when people are near death, and I had always believed there were good scientific explanations for the heavenly out-of-body journeys described by those who narrowly escaped death.
As a neurosurgeon, I did not believe in the phenomenon of near-death experiences. I grew up in a scientific world, the son of a neurosurgeon. I followed my father’s path and became an academic neurosurgeon, teaching at Harvard Medical School and other universities. I understand what happens to the brain when people are near death, and I had always believed there were good scientific explanations for the heavenly out-of-body journeys described by those who narrowly escaped death.
The brain is an astonishingly sophisticated but extremely delicate mechanism. Reduce the amount of oxygen it receives by the smallest amount and it will react. It was no big surprise that people who had undergone severe trauma would return from their experiences with strange stories. But that didn’t mean they had journeyed anywhere real.
Although I considered myself a faithful Christian, I was so more in name than in actual belief. I didn’t begrudge those who wanted to believe that Jesus was more than simply a good man who had suffered at the hands of the world. I sympathized deeply with those who wanted to believe that there was a God somewhere out there who loved us unconditionally. In fact, I envied such people the security that those beliefs no doubt provided. But as a scientist, I simply knew better than to believe them myself.
In the fall of 2008, however, after seven days in a coma during which the human part of my brain, the neocortex, was inactivated, I experienced something so profound that it gave me a scientific reason to believe in consciousness after death.
I know how pronouncements like mine sound to skeptics, so I will tell my story with the logic and language of the scientist I am.
Very early one morning four years ago, I awoke with an extremely intense headache. Within hours, my entire cortex—the part of the brain that controls thought and emotion and that in essence makes us human—had shut down. Doctors at Lynchburg General Hospital in Virginia, a hospital where I myself worked as a neurosurgeon, determined that I had somehow contracted a very rare bacterial meningitis that mostly attacks newborns. E. coli bacteria had penetrated my cerebrospinal fluid and were eating my brain.
When I entered the emergency room that morning, my chances of survival in anything beyond a vegetative state were already low. They soon sank to near nonexistent. For seven days I lay in a deep coma, my body unresponsive, my higher-order brain functions totally offline.
‘You have nothing to fear.’ ‘There is nothing you can do wrong.’ The message flooded me with a vast and crazy sensation of relief. (Photo illustration by Newsweek; Source: Buena Vista Images-Getty Images)
There is no scientific explanation for the fact that while my body lay in coma, my mind—my conscious, inner self—was alive and well. While the neurons of my cortex were stunned to complete inactivity by the bacteria that had attacked them, my brain-free consciousness journeyed to another, larger dimension of the universe: a dimension I’d never dreamed existed and which the old, pre-coma me would have been more than happy to explain was a simple impossibility.
But that dimension—in rough outline, the same one described by countless subjects of near-death experiences and other mystical states—is there. It exists, and what I saw and learned there has placed me quite literally in a new world: a world where we are much more than our brains and bodies, and where death is not the end of consciousness but rather a chapter in a vast, and incalculably positive, journey.
I’m not the first person to have discovered evidence that consciousness exists beyond the body. Brief, wonderful glimpses of this realm are as old as human history. But as far as I know, no one before me has ever traveled to this dimension (a) while their cortex was completely shut down, and (b) while their body was under minute medical observation, as mine was for the full seven days of my coma.
All the chief arguments against near-death experiences suggest that these experiences are the results of minimal, transient, or partial malfunctioning of the cortex. My near-death experience, however, took place not while my cortex was malfunctioning, but while it was simply off. This is clear from the severity and duration of my meningitis, and from the global cortical involvement documented by CT scans and neurological examinations. According to current medical understanding of the brain and mind, there is absolutely no way that I could have experienced even a dim and limited consciousness during my time in the coma, much less the hyper-vivid and completely coherent odyssey I underwent.
It took me months to come to terms with what happened to me. Not just the medical impossibility that I had been conscious during my coma, but—more importantly—the things that happened during that time. Toward the beginning of my adventure, I was in a place of clouds. Big, puffy, pink-white ones that showed up sharply against the deep blue-black sky.
Reliving History: The search for the meaning of the afterlife is as old as humanity itself. Over the years Newsweek has run numerous covers about religion, God, and that search. As Dr. Alexander says, it’s unlikely we’ll know the answer in our lifetimes, but that doesn’t mean we won’t keep asking.
Higher than the clouds—immeasurably higher—flocks of transparent, shimmering beings arced across the sky, leaving long, streamerlike lines behind them.
Birds? Angels? These words registered later, when I was writing down my recollections. But neither of these words do justice to the beings themselves, which were quite simply different from anything I have known on this planet. They were more advanced. Higher forms.
A sound, huge and booming like a glorious chant, came down from above, and I wondered if the winged beings were producing it. Again, thinking about it later, it occurred to me that the joy of these creatures, as they soared along, was such that they had to make this noise—that if the joy didn’t come out of them this way then they would simply not otherwise be able to contain it. The sound was palpable and almost material, like a rain that you can feel on your skin but doesn’t get you wet.
Seeing and hearing were not separate in this place where I now was. I could hear the visual beauty of the silvery bodies of those scintillating beings above, and I could see the surging, joyful perfection of what they sang. It seemed that you could not look at or listen to anything in this world without becoming a part of it—without joining with it in some mysterious way. Again, from my present perspective, I would suggest that you couldn’t look at anything in that world at all, for the word “at” itself implies a separation that did not exist there. Everything was distinct, yet everything was also a part of everything else, like the rich and intermingled designs on a Persian carpet … or a butterfly’s wing.
It gets stranger still. For most of my journey, someone else was with me. A woman. She was young, and I remember what she looked like in complete detail. She had high cheekbones and deep-blue eyes. Golden brown tresses framed her lovely face. When first I saw her, we were riding along together on an intricately patterned surface, which after a moment I recognized as the wing of a butterfly. In fact, millions of butterflies were all around us—vast fluttering waves of them, dipping down into the woods and coming back up around us again. It was a river of life and color, moving through the air. The woman’s outfit was simple, like a peasant’s, but its colors—powder blue, indigo, and pastel orange-peach—had the same overwhelming, super-vivid aliveness that everything else had. She looked at me with a look that, if you saw it for five seconds, would make your whole life up to that point worth living, no matter what had happened in it so far. It was not a romantic look. It was not a look of friendship. It was a look that was somehow beyond all these, beyond all the different compartments of love we have down here on earth. It was something higher, holding all those other kinds of love within itself while at the same time being much bigger than all of them.
Without using any words, she spoke to me. The message went through me like a wind, and I instantly understood that it was true. I knew so in the same way that I knew that the world around us was real—was not some fantasy, passing and insubstantial.
The message had three parts, and if I had to translate them into earthly language, I’d say they ran something like this:
“You are loved and cherished, dearly, forever.”
“You have nothing to fear.”
“There is nothing you can do wrong.”
The message flooded me with a vast and crazy sensation of relief. It was like being handed the rules to a game I’d been playing all my life without ever fully understanding it.
“We will show you many things here,” the woman said, again, without actually using these words but by driving their conceptual essence directly into me. “But eventually, you will go back.”
The universe as I experienced it in my coma is … the same one that both Einstein and Jesus were speaking of in their (very) different ways. (Ed Morris / Getty Images)
A warm wind blew through, like the kind that spring up on the most perfect summer days, tossing the leaves of the trees and flowing past like heavenly water. A divine breeze. It changed everything, shifting the world around me into an even higher octave, a higher vibration.
Although I still had little language function, at least as we think of it on earth, I began wordlessly putting questions to this wind, and to the divine being that I sensed at work behind or within it.
Where is this place?
Who am I?
Why am I here?
Each time I silently put one of these questions out, the answer came instantly in an explosion of light, color, love, and beauty that blew through me like a crashing wave. What was important about these blasts was that they didn’t simply silence my questions by overwhelming them. They answered them, but in a way that bypassed language. Thoughts entered me directly. But it wasn’t thought like we experience on earth. It wasn’t vague, immaterial, or abstract. These thoughts were solid and immediate—hotter than fire and wetter than water—and as I received them I was able to instantly and effortlessly understand concepts that would have taken me years to fully grasp in my earthly life.
I continued moving forward and found myself entering an immense void, completely dark, infinite in size, yet also infinitely comforting. Pitch-black as it was, it was also brimming over with light: a light that seemed to come from a brilliant orb that I now sensed near me. The orb was a kind of “interpreter” between me and this vast presence surrounding me. It was as if I were being born into a larger world, and the universe itself was like a giant cosmic womb, and the orb (which I sensed was somehow connected with, or even identical to, the woman on the butterfly wing) was guiding me through it.
Later, when I was back, I found a quotation by the 17th-century Christian poet Henry Vaughan that came close to describing this magical place, this vast, inky-black core that was the home of the Divine itself.
“There is, some say, in God a deep but dazzling darkness …”
That was it exactly: an inky darkness that was also full to brimming with light.
I know full well how extraordinary, how frankly unbelievable, all this sounds. Had someone—even a doctor—told me a story like this in the old days, I would have been quite certain that they were under the spell of some delusion. But what happened to me was, far from being delusional, as real or more real than any event in my life. That includes my wedding day and the birth of my two sons.
What happened to me demands explanation.
Modern physics tells us that the universe is a unity—that it is undivided. Though we seem to live in a world of separation and difference, physics tells us that beneath the surface, every object and event in the universe is completely woven up with every other object and event. There is no true separation.
Before my experience these ideas were abstractions. Today they are realities. Not only is the universe defined by unity, it is also—I now know—defined by love. The universe as I experienced it in my coma is—I have come to see with both shock and joy—the same one that both Einstein and Jesus were speaking of in their (very) different ways.
I’ve spent decades as a neurosurgeon at some of the most prestigious medical institutions in our country. I know that many of my peers hold—as I myself did—to the theory that the brain, and in particular the cortex, generates consciousness and that we live in a universe devoid of any kind of emotion, much less the unconditional love that I now know God and the universe have toward us. But that belief, that theory, now lies broken at our feet. What happened to me destroyed it, and I intend to spend the rest of my life investigating the true nature of consciousness and making the fact that we are more, much more, than our physical brains as clear as I can, both to my fellow scientists and to people at large.
I don’t expect this to be an easy task, for the reasons I described above. When the castle of an old scientific theory begins to show fault lines, no one wants to pay attention at first. The old castle simply took too much work to build in the first place, and if it falls, an entirely new one will have to be constructed in its place.
I learned this firsthand after I was well enough to get back out into the world and talk to others—people, that is, other than my long-suffering wife, Holley, and our two sons—about what had happened to me. The looks of polite disbelief, especially among my medical friends, soon made me realize what a task I would have getting people to understand the enormity of what I had seen and experienced that week while my brain was down.
One of the few places I didn’t have trouble getting my story across was a place I’d seen fairly little of before my experience: church. The first time I entered a church after my coma, I saw everything with fresh eyes. The colors of the stained-glass windows recalled the luminous beauty of the landscapes I’d seen in the world above. The deep bass notes of the organ reminded me of how thoughts and emotions in that world are like waves that move through you. And, most important, a painting of Jesus breaking bread with his disciples evoked the message that lay at the very heart of my journey: that we are loved and accepted unconditionally by a God even more grand and unfathomably glorious than the one I’d learned of as a child in Sunday school.
Today many believe that the living spiritual truths of religion have lost their power, and that science, not faith, is the road to truth. Before my experience I strongly suspected that this was the case myself.
But I now understand that such a view is far too simple. The plain fact is that the materialist picture of the body and brain as the producers, rather than the vehicles, of human consciousness is doomed. In its place a new view of mind and body will emerge, and in fact is emerging already. This view is scientific and spiritual in equal measure and will value what the greatest scientists of history themselves always valued above all: truth.
Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander, M.D. To be published by Simon & Schuster, Inc.. Copyright (c) 2012 by Eben Alexander III, M.D.
This new picture of reality will take a long time to put together. It won’t be finished in my time, or even, I suspect, my sons’ either. In fact, reality is too vast, too complex, and too irreducibly mysterious for a full picture of it ever to be absolutely complete. But in essence, it will show the universe as evolving, multi-dimensional, and known down to its every last atom by a God who cares for us even more deeply and fiercely than any parent ever loved their child.
I’m still a doctor, and still a man of science every bit as much as I was before I had my experience. But on a deep level I’m very different from the person I was before, because I’ve caught a glimpse of this emerging picture of reality. And you can believe me when I tell you that it will be worth every bit of the work it will take us, and those who come after us, to get it right.
Quantum pseudo-telepathy is a phenomenon in quantum game theory resulting in anomalously high success rates in coordination games between separated players. These high success rates would require communication between the players in a purely classical (non-quantum) world; however, the game is set up such that during the game, communication is physically impossible. Quantum pseudo-telepathy is often and easily misrepresented as paranormal[1], given that most people are not aware that the quantum laws of physics are subtly non-local and allow violations of Bell inequalities. This means that for quantum pseudo-telepathy to occur, prior to the game the participants need to share a physical system in an entangled quantum state, and during the game have to execute measurements on this entangled state as part of their game strategy. Games in which the application of such a quantum strategy leads to pseudo-telepathy are also referred to as quantum non-locality games.
In their 1999 paper,[2]Gilles Brassard, Richard Cleve and Alain Tapp demonstrated that winning quantum strategies can exist in simple games for which in the absence of quantum entanglement a winning strategy can result only if the participants were allowed to communicate. The term quantum pseudo-telepathy was later introduced[3] for this phenomenon. The prefix ‘pseudo’ is appropriate, as the quantum non-locality effects that are at the heart of the phenomenon do not allow any transfer of information, but rather eliminate the need to exchange information between the players for achieving a mutual win in the game.
The phenomenon of quantum pseudo-telepathy is mostly used as a powerful and explicit thought experiment of the non-local characteristics of quantum mechanics. Yet, the effect is real and subject to experimental verification, as demonstrated by the experimental confirmationof the violation of the Bell inequalities.
he Mermin-Peres magic square game
When attempting to construct a 3×3 table filled with the numbers +1 and −1, such that each row has an even number and each column an odd number of negative entries, a conflict is bound to emerge. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When attempting to construct a 3×3 table filled with the numbers +1 and −1, such that each row has an even number and each column an odd number of negative entries, a conflict is bound to emerge.
An example of quantum pseudo-telepathy can be observed in the following two-player coordination game in which the participants fill one row and one column of a 3×3 table with plus and minus signs.
The two players Alice and Bob are separated so that no communication between them is possible. In each round of the game Alice gets informed which row is selected, and Bob is being told which column is selected. Alice does not get to know the column Bob has been presented with, and vice versa (Bob remains unaware of the row presented to Alice). Alice and Bob both have to put the same sign in the cell common to the row and column selected. Furthermore (and this is the catch), Alice has to fill the remainder of the row such that there is an even number of signs in that row, whilst Bob has to fill the remainder of the column such that there is an odd number of signs in that column.
It is easy to see that any prior agreement between Alice and Bob on the use of specific tables filled with + and – signs is not going to help them. The reason being that such tables simply do not exist: as these would be self-contradictory with the sum of the minus signs in the table being even based on row sums, and being odd when using column sums.
So, how can Alice and Bob succeed in their task?
The trick is for Alice and Bob to share an entangled quantum state and to use specific measurements on their components of the entangled state to derive the table entries. A suitable correlated state consists of a pair of Bell states:
here |+> and |-> are eigenstates of the Pauli operator Sz with eigenvalues +1 and −1, respectively, whilst the subscripts a and b denote which component of each Bell state is going to Alice and which one goes to Bob.
Products of these Pauli spin operators can be used to fill the 3×3 table such that each row and each column contains a mutually commuting set of observables with eigenvalues +1 and −1, and with the product of the obervables in each row being the identity operator, and the product of observables in each column equating to minus the identity operator. This so-called Mermin-Peres magic square[4] is shown in below table.
Effectively, while it is not possible to construct a 3×3 table with entries +1 and −1 such that the product of the elements in each row equals +1 and the product of elements in each column equals −1, it is possible to do so with the richer algebraic structure based on spin matrices.
Current research
It has been demonstrated[5] that the above described game is the simplest two-player game in which quantum pseudo-telepathy can occur. Other games in which quantum pseudo-telepathy occurs have been studied, including larger magic square games,[6] graph colouring games[7] giving rise to the notion of quantum chromatic number[8], and multiplayer games involving more than two participants.[9] Recent studies tackle the question of the robustness of the effect against noise due to imperfect measurements on the coherent quantum state.[10]
^ Peter J. Cameron, Ashley Montanaro, Michael W. Newman, Simone Severini, Andreas Winter, “On the quantum chromatic number of a graph” Electronic Journal of Combinatorics 14(1), 2007.
Masaccio, Brancacci Chapel, Adam and Eve, detail. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The apple’s many admirers like to portray it as a symbol of wholesomeness – apple cheeks, an apple for teacher, and so forth. Don’t be deceived. This is a fruit with a history.
Let’s review the story. Genesis depicts Adam and Eve leading the plush life in Eden. They
Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
may eat fruit from any tree except one, “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Unsurprisingly, they eat the forbidden fruit and are expelled from paradise. As you suggest, the original Hebrew says only “fruit,” but in latter-day Western art ranging from serious religious painting to about a million cartoons, the item in question is invariably depicted as an apple.
But it wasn’t always. Early rabbis suggested the fruit was:
the fig, because the next verse mentions sewing together fig leaves to make loincloths;
Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Masaccio. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
grapes, which later cause trouble for Noah, not to mention many other vino lovers;
the citron, a lemonlike fruit which in Hebrew is etrog, a pun on ragag, “desire”;
wheat, khitah in Hebrew and thus a pun on khet, “sin” – a stretch, considering wheat isn’t a fruit and doesn’t grow on trees; or
the carob, because in Hebrew its name puns on the word for “destruction.”
Many modern scholars think the author(s) of the text had the pomegranate in mind.
Genesis doesn’t mention apples, but Proverbs 25:11 says a timely word is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. More significantly, in the Song of Solomon the apple is an erotic symbol indicating sweetness, desire, and the female breast, which gives you an idea how things are starting to go, metaphor-wise.
Early Christian scholars often took the forbidden fruit to be an apple, possibly because of the irresistible pun suggested by the Latin malum, which means both “apple” and “evil.” At least one early Latin translation of the bible uses “apple” instead of “fruit.” A contributing factor no doubt was that apples were a lot more popular in Europe than in the Middle East, where it’s generally too hot for them to thrive.
It wasn’t just Christians who picked up on the apple’s racy side. The most famous apple of Greek myth is the one you cite, the gold apple labeled “To the fairest” that Eris, goddess of discord, throws among the guests at a wedding party, leading to the judgment of Paris (he has to choose whether Hera, Aphrodite, or Athena is the most beautiful) and ultimately to the Trojan War. You get the picture: apples may look good, but they’re trouble. Christian scholars knew the Greek myths and adapted many to their new religion.
English: Adam and Eve with the Face ov Lilith.On the top right hand corner you can see an Apple,the fruit of Knowledge and at the bottom you can see a big Snake representing Evil we have got inside our heart (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Still, the apple wasn’t the unanimous choice for forbidden fruit. Carved depictions of Adam and Eve with apples are found in early Christian catacombs and on sarcophagi. The apple was the favored representation of the forbidden fruit in Christian art in France and Germany beginning around the 12th century. But Byzantine and Italian artists tended to go with the fig.
In fact, you can read Christian iconography as a long, twilight struggle between figs and apples over which is the alpha temptation symbol. The apple has a lot to recommend it: red (blood) or golden (greed), round (fertility) and sweet-tasting (desire). The fig, on the other hand, has a certain phallic look, noted as far back as the ancient Greeks, who, admittedly, thought everything looked phallic. By the Renaissance, almost simultaneously we have Albrecht Dürer depicting Adam and Eve and the serpent with an apple (1504, 1507), and Michelangelo equipping the same cast with figs on the Sistine Chapel ceiling (circa 1510).
The Christian concept of apocatastasis includes a restoration of the world to its original state, as in the Garden of Eden (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Ultimately the apple prevailed. In Areopagitica (1644), Milton explicitly described the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil as an apple, and that was pretty much the ball game. Islamic tradition, however, commonly represents the forbidden fruit as the fig or olive.
Sistine Chapel Panorama (Photo credit: Scott MacLeod Liddle)
A related question: what’s meant by the “knowledge of good and evil”? Take your pick:
Ethical discrimination, knowing right from wrong. One problem with this interpretation: if Adam and Eve had no knowledge of right and wrong before eating the fruit, how would they know disobedience was wrong?
Knowledge of sex. The first thing Adam and Eve do after their snack is realize they’re naked.
Knowledge, period. In this view, “good and evil” is an encompassing bookend phrase, like “A to Z.” Having tasted of the tree, mankind wants to know everything.
In any event, the gist is clear: knowledge = the loss of innocence; ignorance = bliss.
4 Seasons Flower Still Life by Phil Manker (Photo credit: Phil Manker)
The “Flower of Life” can be found in all major religions of the world. It contains the patterns of creation as they emerged from the “Great Void”. Everything is made from the Creator’s thought.
After the creation of the Seed of Lifethe same vortex’s motion was continued, creating the next structure known as theEgg of Life.
This structure forms the basis for music, as the distances between the spheres is identical to the distances between the tones and the half tones in music. It is also identical to the cellular structure of the third embryonic division (The first cell divides into two cells, then to four cells then to eight). Thus this same structure as it is further developed, creates the human body and all of the energy systems including the ones used to create the Merkaba. If we continue creating more and more spheres we will end up with the structure called the Flower of Life.
The Flower of Life (left) and the Seed of Life (right).
The flower of life holds a secret symbol created by drawing 13 circles out of the Flower of Life.
By doing this, one can discover the most important and sacred pattern in the universe. This is the source of all that exists; it’s called the Fruit of Life. It contains 13 informational systems. Each one explains another aspect of reality. Thus these systems are able to give us access to everything ranging from the human body to the galaxies. In the first system, for example, it’s possible to create any molecular structure and any living cellular structure that exists in the universe. In short every living creature.
The most common form of the “Flower of Life” is hexagonal pattern (where the center of each circle is on the circumference of six surrounding circles of the same diameter), made up of 19 complete circles and 36 partial circular arcs, enclosed by a large circle.
The “Seed of Life” is formed from seven circles being placed with sixfold symmetry, forming a pattern of circles and lenses, which acts as a basic component of the Flower of Life’s design.
English: Signature of Lucas Cranach the Elder: snake. Česky: Podpis Lucas Cranach starší: had. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: Genesis : God the Father forbids Eve to pick the fruit from the tree of good and evil; marble bas-relief on the left pier of the façade of the cathedral; Orvieto, Italy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Eden story, which takes up chapters 2 to 4 of the Book of Genesis, tells how the Abrahamic God creates the first man and puts him in a paradise-garden in Eden. Before making the first woman, God tells the man that he may eat the fruit of any of the trees in the garden except that of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God then forms the first woman (named Eve) and Genesis 2 ends with a note that the man and woman “were naked and felt no shame”. A talking snake subsequently tempts the woman to eat the fruit with the promise of knowledge. The woman and the man both eat, become aware of their nakedness and make coverings for themselves. God, aware that the first humans now have knowledge, banishes them from the garden lest they eat from the Tree of Life and live forever.
It is not clear what kind of knowledge is involved, but the three major candidates are:
knowledge of everything, through the mental capacities which lead to human culture;
moral capacity; and
sexual knowledge, since the man and woman recognise their nakedness upon eating the fruit.
English: Bronnbach Abbey. Choir stalls by Daniel Aschauer (1778): Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil Deutsch: Kloster Bronnbach. Chorgestühl von Daniel Aschauer (1778): Baum der Erkenntnis (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Gordon and Rendsburg[3] have suggested that the phrase “טוֹב וָרָע”, translated good and evil, is a merism, i.e. a figure of speech whereby a pair of opposites are used together to create the meaning all or everything (as in the English phrase, “they searched high and low”, meaning that they searched everywhere). They conjecture, therefore that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil means tree of all knowledge. This meaning can be brought out by the alternative translations tree of the knowledge of good and of evil (the word of not being expressed in the Hebrew) or tree of knowledge, both good and evil. The phrase occurs twice as applied to the tree, Genesis 2:9, Genesis 2:17. It also occurs twice as describing the knowledge gained Genesis 3:5 and Genesis 3:22 where it may be translated perhaps with knowledge, both good and evil.
Judaism
In Jewish tradition, the Tree of Knowledge and the eating of its fruit represents the beginning of the mixture of good and evil together. Before that time, the two were separate, and evil had only a nebulous existence in potentia. While free choice (apparently) did exist before eating the fruit, evil existed as an entity separate from the human psyche, and it was not in human nature to desire it. Eating and internalizing the forbidden fruit changed this and thus was born the yeitzer hara, the Evil Inclination.[4][5]
Rashi notes[6] that the first sin came about because Eve added an additional clause to the Divine command:
“Neither shall you touch it.” [By saying this, Eve] added to the command, and thereby came to detract [from it]. This is as it is written [Proverbs 30:6], “Do not add to His Words.”
Kabbalah
Kabbalah explains that the sin of the Tree of Knowledge (called Cheit Eitz HaDa’at) brought about the great task of beirurim, sifting through the mixture of good and evil in the world to extract and liberate the sparks of holiness trapped therein.[7] Since evil has no independent existence, it depends on holiness to draw down the Divine life-force, on whose “leftovers” it then feeds and derives existence.[8] Once evil is separated from holiness through beirurim, its source of life is cut off, causing the evil to disappear. This is accomplished through observance of the 613 commandments in the Torah, which deal primarily with physical objects wherein good and evil are mixed together.[9][10][11] Thus, the task of beirurim rectifies the sin of the Tree and draws the Shechinah back down to earth, where the sin of the Tree had caused Her to depart.[12][13]
Catholic interpretation goes back to Augustine of Hippo, who taught that the tree should be understood both symbolically and as a real tree – similarly to Jerusalem being both a real city and a figure of Heavenly Jerusalem. Another example was Sarah and Hagar, real persons representing two covenants: Old and New (Gal 4,24n).[14] Augustine underlined that the fruits of that tree were not evil by themselves, because everything that God created was good (Gen 1:12). It was disobedience of Adam and Eve, who had been told by God not to eat of the tree (Gen 2:17), that was obnoxious and caused disorder in the creation.[15] Augustine also taught that humanity inherited sin itself and the guilt for Adam and Eve’s sin.[16]
This doctrine of inherited guilt was accepted by the Roman Catholic Church at various Councils, including Carthage (418), Second Council of Orange (529), and Council of Trent (1546).[17] Catechism published after Second Vatican Council states clearly that Adam and Eve’s “human nature deprived of original holiness and justice” is “transmitted by propagation to all mankind” (CCC 404). Consequences of the original sin, which remain in the human nature even after baptism, are not bound to sexual dimension alone, but “it can refer to any intense form of human desire … It unsettles man’s moral faculties and, without being itself an offence, inclines man to commit sins” (CCC 2515).[18] By eating of the fruit of the tree, Adam and Eve sought to be like God.
Flower of Life (Photo credit: DeFries)
This is the human condition vividly described by the Book of Genesis when it tells us that God placed the human being in the Garden of Eden, in the middle of which there stood “the tree of knowledge of good and evil” (2:17). The symbol is clear: man was in no position to discern and decide for himself what was good and what was evil, but was constrained to appeal to a higher source. The blindness of pride deceived our first parents into thinking themselves sovereign and autonomous, and into thinking that they could ignore the knowledge which comes from God. From that time onwards the human capacity to know the truth was impaired by an aversion to the One who is the source and origin of truth. St. Paul reveals just how far human thinking, because of sin, became “empty”, and human reasoning became distorted and inclined to falsehood (cf. Rom 1:21-22). The eyes of the mind were no longer able to see clearly: reason became more and more a prisoner to itself. The coming of Christ was the saving event which redeemed reason from its weakness, setting it free from the shackles in which it had imprisoned itself. [19]
Other Christian traditions
Some Christians debate over the Western doctrine of original sin and the Eastern doctrine of ancestral sin.[20] There is a minority of Christians that affirm the doctrine of Pelagianism, which believes every individual faces the same choice between sin and salvation that Adam and Eve faced and that ultimately each person can by themselves and without God’s assistance (grace) overcome sin or temptation. There are some non-denominational Christians who do not accept the idea of original sin, because they believe that we are not born into sin, we are born into a sinful world. Therefore children are innocent until an age of accountability and the decision to accept Jesus Christ is possible with full understanding. Illuminism as per gnostic mysticism has been associated with the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. To the Christian, the Tree of life is Jesus, and not by higher knowledge, but only by faith in the atonement brought by His blood, true life in Him can be found and restored.[citation needed]
Islam
The Qur’an doesn’t name this tree and it is always referred to as “the tree”. Muslims believe that when God created Adam and Eve, He told them that they could enjoy everything in the Garden but this tree, and so, Satan appeared to them and told them that the only reason God forbade them to eat from that tree is that they would become Angels or become immortals.
When they ate from this tree their nakedness appeared to them and they began to sew together, for their covering, leaves from the Garden. As a result of their sin, they were removed from heaven and placed on Earth to live and die. Consequently, they repented to God and asked for his forgiveness and were forgiven. It was decided that those who obey God and follow his path shall be rewarded with everlasting life in Heaven, and those who disobey God and stray away from his path shall be punished in Hell.
God in Quran (Al-A’raf 27) states: “[O] Children of Adam! Let not Satan tempt you as he brought your parents out of the Garden, stripping them of their garments to show them their shameful parts. Surely he[Satan] sees you, he and his tribe, from where you see them not. We have made the Satans the friends of those who do not believe.”
Trees in other religions
This image depicts the Tree of Life derived from the Flower of Life. Created by sloth_monkey 11:48, 4 November 2006 (UTC) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Similar trees appear in other religions. Stories with male, female, serpent, and tree can be found depicted on Mesopotamian cylinder seals dating as far back as 2200 BC. But they are very unlikely to constitute a source for the author of Genesis because they do not connect very well with the Genesis account.[21] According to Toledoth Hypothesis, sources probably did exist for the writing of Genesis that extend into history even earlier than 2200 BC but they would have belonged to someone in the genealogical line of Abraham. In the closest, most relevant comparison, the iconic image of the tree guarded by the Serpent appears on Sumerian seals; much later, it is the central feature of the Garden of the Hesperides in Greek mythology, where the guardian serpent receives the name Ladon.
In Indian mythology the tree similar to the Tree Of Knowledge is known as Kalpvruksh and can grant any wish.
In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil is an immense tree that is central in Norse cosmology. It was said to be the world tree around which the nine worlds existed. Its name is generally considered to mean “Ygg’s (Odin’s) horse”.
Sacred Geometry / Flower of Life / Share with Love (Photo credit: Sarjana Sky)
Theosophy
According to the Theosophical teachings, eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents the point in evolution when humanity acquired a mind and self-consciousness. This made human beings recognize themselves as individuals, symbolized by Adam and Eve becoming aware of their nakedness. Being expelled from Eden is a symbol of the fact that, by acquiring a mind, humanity steps outside the realm of animals, which are taken care of by Nature. Human beings now have to work to build shelter and to get food. Besides now having the ability to distinguish between good and evil, humans became responsible for their actions. In this view, being expelled from Eden is the natural result of evolution and not a punishment, and a necessary step to awaken the spiritual consciousness through self-directed efforts.
New Age
According to some, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis may mean the beginning of dualistic thinking, and the Garden of Eden represents the previous spiritual world, a world of enlightened mankind, a world of oneness. Ishmael, a 1992 novel by Daniel Quinn, discusses the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as representing the story of the Fall Of Man.
The pseudepigraphicBook of Enoch, dated from about 300 BC to the end of the 1st century BC,[22] and purporting to be by the antediluvianprophetEnoch, describes the tree of knowledge: “It was like a species of the Tamarind tree, bearing fruit which resembled grapes extremely fine; and its fragrance extended to a considerable distance. I exclaimed, How beautiful is this tree, and how delightful is its appearance!”[23]
Talmud
In the Talmud, several opinions are proposed as to the identity of the fruit:
Rabbi Meir says that the fruit was a grape, made into wine.[24] The Zohar explains similarly that Noah attempted (but failed) to rectify the sin of Adam by using grape wine for holy purposes.[25] The midrash states that the fruit was grape,[26] or squeezed grapes (perhaps again alluding to wine).[27]
Rabbi Nechemia says that the fruit was a fig, as it was from fig leaves that God made garments for Adam and Eve upon expelling them from the Garden: “By that with which they were made low were they rectified.”[24]
On the other hand, Rabbi Yehuda proposes that the fruit was wheat, because “a babe does not know to call its mother and father until it tastes the taste of grain.”[24] On this, Tosafot there explains, “And this is called the Tree of Knowledge.”
Christian art
In Western Christian art, the fruit of the tree is commonly depicted as the apple, which originated in central Asia. This depiction may have originated as a Latin pun: by eating the malum (apple), Eve contracted mālum (evil).[28] or simply because of religious artists’ poetic licence.
Other
Proponents of the theory that the Garden of Eden was located somewhere in what is known now as the Middle East suggest that the fruit was actually a pomegranate, partly because it was native in the region.[29] This ties in with the Greek myth of Persephone, where her consumption of four pomegranate seeds leads to her having to spend time in Hades.
^ Augustine, On the Literal Meaning of Genesis (De Genesi ad litteram), VIII, 4.8; BA 49, 20
^ Augustine of Hippo, On the Literal Meaning of Genesis (De Genesi ad litteram), VIII, 6.12 and 13.28, BA 49,28 and 50-52; PL 34, 377; cf. idem, De Trinitate, XII, 12.17; CCL 50, 371-372 [v. 26-31;1-36]; De natura boni 34-35; CSEL 25, 872; PL 42, 551-572
You own integrity,(Revised)
comforting objects all make life run a little smoother.
Maintain a calm atmosphere in the house. Loud music, slamming doors, technology everywhere you look, people talking in loud voices, bright lights and colors, piles of stuff strewn everywhere, and barking dogs can all contribute to high stress levels for everyone in the house. Look for ways to reduce the noise level, clean the messes, and create a space where it feels calm and quiet.
wrapped up in the effects of the symptoms of mental illness, but taking time to play and reconnect can do wonders for your partner’s mood and self-esteem, as well as bolster the bond of your relationship.
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Media related to 
Quantum pseudo-telepathy is a 
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Products of these Pauli spin operators can be used to fill the 3×3 table such that each row and each column contains a mutually 
See also
