Shedding light on our Sun, an interview with Gregory Sams
Gregory Sams: I’ve had that feeling that everything has some smidgen of consciousness for a long as I can remember but think it probably developed in my late teens when I began eating natural and organic foods, having been on a meat-free diet from the age of ten. Being thus better tuned to the world around me made me more connected somehow to organic objects like trees and sesame seeds. As life progressed I noticed connections between our consciousness and so-called inanimate objects, whether lost things, furniture, kitchen implements, office equipment, whatever. We’ve all experienced curious and amusing, frustrating and infuriating encounters with inanimate stuff. I venture to say that our consciousness is some form of electromagnetic field, however that field arises. All stuff, all matter, has some form of electromagnetic field, and is infused with the electromagnetic force that permeates our Universe. Our fields overlap and interact with those of our surroundings and sometimes all the energy needed is enough to aim our eye at a particular moment to reveals something of great value. Being in tune makes a huge difference.
“…a giant spiralling magnetic bubble, called the heliosphere, which reaches out beyond Pluto to encompass our entire solar system in its protective embrace.” — Gregory Sams, Sun of gOd
Michael Patterson: There is a powerful sense here that gives rational form to that idea of deity being that ‘great being in whom we live and move and have our being’. If we work with the idea that Sun is the center of agency that is underpinned by fundamental consciousness then can we not see this heliosphere as a kind of organic envelope? I am conscious that even when we try to think in terms of fundamental consciousness our habits of mind pull our thoughts into conformity with our norms, so I’d like you speculate here and give some creative thought to how we might think of the heliosphere.
Gregory Sams: You might view this answer as too concise but if we’re trying to reduce the heliosphere into something that we can understand then you might see it as a Sun-built bus that transports us all safely through the galaxy. At another level this all-embracing electro-magnetic field could be the means through which Sun keeps in touch with all of its charges.
Michael Patterson: You were saying that you have been studying Zoroastrian thought and have realised how much Zoroaster and quantum physicists are ‘speaking the same language’. Personally I think that mystical and scientific inquiry should arrive at essentially the same understanding, even if the narrative is different in form. However some in the quantum physics community are pretty frustrated by folk hijacking their science to support mystical arguments. I guess I can see where they are coming from, especially when complex ideas are reduced to almost glib recitations of marvelous fact in not very clear support of a metaphysical proposition.
Gregory Sams: The connection in understanding between the two, however, is the focus of a talk I give with the theme of “seeing the light through ancient eyes.” Light itself is the divinity of Zoroastrians and they have 101 names for it, which are all descriptive, the main one being “Ahura Mazda,” which translates into “light wisdom.” Many of the others fit neatly into the quantum understanding of light’s strange qualities, including Richard Feynman’s famous quote that “Anybody who says they understand quantum theory doesn’t understand quantum theory.” EM = Electromagnetic Force, which manifests as light. Without going into the full lecture, here are just a few of those names, with comment in parentheses:
A-ehem Beyond Reason
An-aiyâfah Cannot be Understood
n-âinah Formless (photons are without substance or form)
Aokh-Tan Without Body (photons have no content)
Mb înôtum Invisible (we don’t see light, just the information it carries)
A-zamân Timeless (at the speed of light, time ceases to exist)
Abadah Without beginning (this implies time)
Abî-anjãm Without end (this implies time)
Vasna All-Pervading (the EM force, manifested by light, is everywhere)
Rakhôh All-energetic (light is pure energy)
A-Gar-Aa-Gar-Gar Creator of Stars (The EM force shapes cosmic dust into stars)
Meeno-Nahab Hidden in Invisible Creation (the EM force gives atoms the sense of substance despite being 99.99% empty space)
Afjaa Creator of Growth (Photosynthesis, a quantum process, means made by light)
Parwara Nourisher
Safana Bountiful One
Stewart Edward White’s 1947 book With Folded Wings is centered on conversations with his deceased wife, Betty, and other persons described simply as Invisibles. Here is a quote from the book. “The first business of each day,” said the Invisibles, “is a recognition of the sun of your life: unquestioning and eager heart-lifting acknowledgment of the warm, loving, positive creative force of the universe beyond our knowledge. Always give time to purify and clothe fittingly your spirit to contemplate the unknown great Causal Force operating through each living thing.”
This allusion to the sun surprised me. It is not clear from the book whether the sun is literal or figurative, or both. As you know the sun has played a central role in many religions, including Christianity. Alvin Boyd Kuhn, in Easter – The Birthday of the Gods observes that Jesus was transformed from a spring equinox solar deity to a winter equinox solar deity (effectively inverting the birth and death celebrations). D.M. Murdoch is strong on the Jesus as the Sun theme with her book, Jesus as the Sun. In a sense Christianity was continuing the earlier solar traditions.
The logic of the sun as being the focal point of thinking about the divine is plain enough. Even before you know the science the experience of Sun is powerful enough in an entirely mundane way. The solstice and equinox festivals I celebrated during my time in Wicca were, in one sense, scarcely religious in the sense we now know the word. They were expressions of awe and gratitude, as well as awareness of the round of seasonal changes. The religious seems to have arisen from the absence of any notion of materialism or mechanism (all was entirely animistic), and from a natural sense of awe and respect for something that is palpably present and yet utter mysterious.
So the idea of the sun as a literal and/or symbolic agency (including ideas of the hidden sun, or the sun behind the sun) seem fundamental to our psyche and our culture.
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Originally posted by JRS
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