Discovering Our Potential by Expanding Our Circle of Compassion

Dear Everybody,

Now to test your wisdom and sense of humor:

#1 If you are supposed to learn from your mistakes, why do some people have more than one child?
~ Author Unknown

#2 My wife has a slight impediment in her speech. Every now and then she stops to breathe.
~ Jimmy Durante

#3 I have never hated a man enough to give his diamonds back.
~ Zsa Zsa Gabor

This week I may be a bit out there but I can’t help but be fascinated by the mystical and spiritual experiences that people have. This comes from my personal experiences as an individual and physician and this sentence says it very well. Sir Arthur Eddington, the famous British astrophysicist put it this way,”Something unknown is doing we don’t know what.” And from evolutionary biologist J.B.S. Haldane, “The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.”

I have learned to accept what I experience even when I cannot explain it. I think it had a lot to do with how I was brought up and we need to help children grow up without being deprived of information. When they understand Einstein’s words, “A human being is part of the whole, called by us ‘Universe,’ and is a part of that whole limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

When we do this not only are we more likely to save our planet from self destruction but we are also likely to discover our potential and abilities which we had no idea existed. As a physician I have seen the power of the mind to kill or cure based upon an individual’s beliefs. I know that dreams and drawings can provide us with information about the future. That meditation can accomplish amazing things, both physical and psychic. Psychic predictions, distant viewing, non-local consciousness are all examples of our potential and should be explored and considered with open minds.

On a personal level I have had a near death experience and past life experience and hear voices speaking to me which have been very meaningful in my life. I don’t worry about what those reading this will think of me because I have had the experience and know they are true for me even if I can’t explain the why and wherefore of them. As science opens its mind and the minds of our children the future of exploration and experimentation will not be limited by past beliefs.

Now in contrast to Einstein’s words and desires think of what you read in the newspaper headlines about the behavior of our species. I recently wrote to the New Haven Register to ask them if they might put one article on the front page which shares some good news and is not about murder, abuse, deception and thievery. We may be the family of man but the family members sure don’t get along with each other. And our consciousness affects the planet and all who reside here.

When Carl Jung was in Africa during a drought he attempted to talk to the rainmaker but the man avoided Jung and went into a hut. A day later it began to rain and the rainmaker came out of his hut so Jung went over and asked him why he isolated himself. His response was that the drought was due to the unhealthy consciousness of the people and so he avoided them and meditated in isolation so their unhealthy consciousness would not affect him and it always started to rain in a day or two.

Think of how we are treating each other today based upon our differences and the lack of compassion shown by the behavior of individuals towards their families and co-workers and by nations and what the ultimate affect is upon our lives and consciousness. We need to eliminate indifference, rejection and abuse and replace them with love and compassion if we hope to see our planet survive.

Just as I see people make this change when they develop a life threatening illness I hope we find a way to change our behavior and become a family for the right reasons rather than because life on this planet is threatened for all of its inhabitants. Think of the potential humanity has if we all focused on healing each other and our common home. When you are in outer space and look at the planet earth you get a very different feeling about it than when you are annoyed by your neighbor’s behavior.

Just imagine and I have to stop with that word: Imagine all the people living life in peace – Nothing to fight and die for – A brotherhood of man – You may think I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one – Why don’t you come and join us and the world can live as one. Bless the Beatles for their message and words of wisdom.

Now back to what I was about to imagine. Just think of all nations, and religions coming together and creating a universal plan for the health and healing of our planet by providing food and water and housing and preventive and therapeutic medical care for all its residents. It also occurs to me that if we had these things money and gold would lose their value and meaning because we all would have what we need. I am a dreamer and do hope it all happens for the right reasons and not because of a disaster and threat to all life on earth.

Our Creator loves us and hoped we would become complete, as animals are, from the lessons we learned from life. So far we have not lived up to His expectations. We have to learn from water, a sign of God’s love, that we are capable of changing to meet the conditions necessary for survival or of being destructive with the same behavior. Water can change form and become solid, gas or liquid to meet the requirements of life. So I can cure a drought or destroy life with a tsunami.

As residents of this planet we need to defy the odds the way ice does, by becoming less dense than water, and protecting life rather than becoming cold and more dense as every other liquid does and destroying life. So forgive me for imitating water and being different this week. I am always impressed by all the things we can’t explain or understand but do experience. Life is a miraculous event and obviously not an accident or lucky series of events. So join in and become a co-creator.

Now in closing let me see what I can ask of you. How about finishing or answering these:
My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery,…………………. War does not determine who is right…………………You live longer when you realize that any time spent……………When Richard Feynman’s mother heard he was named the smartest man in the world she said, “If he is……

Peace,
Bernie Siegel, MD

You see things and say ’Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say ‘Why not?’
~ George Bernard Shaw

Within each of us lies the power of our consent to health and sickness, to riches and poverty, to freedom and slavery. It is we who control these, and not another.
~ Richard Bach