There is only One presence, and One power in my life and in the Universe, God, the good, omnipotent.

I have been saying this affirmation, or some variation of it, since I was 5 years old. (You can search the site to find out how long it’s been:-) There are so many layers to the statement. Every so often I get some insight that deepens my understanding of this Truth.

I went to Catholic school for most of my elementary education. In fact, the Montessori school that I went to was Catholic and I started there at 2. They started talking to us early on about evil and sin. So my first observation was really early on, around 5 when I started learning this affirmation. In my very young mind, if there was only one presence, and it was good, then there couldn’t be evil. I never really entertained the questions about where “evil” things like wars came from until maybe middle school. By then, I had eschewed the idea of a “devil” so I needed to make sense within the paradigm of there only being one presence and one power.

That’s when I came up with the lens theory. I reasoned that if there was only one presence and power and it was good and bad things still happen, then we have to be filtering that presence somehow. There must be varying levels of awareness. At the same time, I was introduced to the term “race consciousness”. Race consciousness is the phenomenon that we all contribute to the overall level of awareness of the planet and the sum perception is what we experience as a whole. I started to consciously enhance my awareness. In my preteen and early teen years, I would experience hours of pure joy followed by crashes (or maybe it was the hormones). As I got better at meditation and bringing myself to a state of complete awareness, I started to perceive things around me VERY clearly. I could also see events several steps before they happened. In my awareness states, I was extremely sensitive to stimuli (touch, sound, sight). I started to explore less and less so I wouldn’t feel so sensitive.

As an older teen and young adult, I started to focus on worldly accomplishments. Whereas I felt alienated in my spiritual pursuits, I felt understood when I excelled and it was effortless. I could understand science and math so clearly. To me, it was like reading a novel. Then I began to see similarities between the world of science and Spirit. That’s when I began to see the one presence and power as Creator. Not just an essence to be expressed, but capable of creating harmonies. It’s almost like God was saying “here I am” everywhere I turned. In the silence, and in science, pervasive, the Only presence and power. Even as my pursuits became extremely material, that energy was there.

Fast forward to today, I am even more confounded by the statement. I think marriage did it:-) I started thinking of the one presence and power as All there is. It’s difficult to conceive and practice consistently, at least for me. I feel it moving in me, through me, and as me. I also see it reflected all around. Now, of course it’s not enough for me to observe this. I want to know what it means. So I started working on affecting my world by affecting the energy. The best way I can explain it is the scene in Contact when Jodie Foster is whisked away to the planet and she can play sounds on the scenery and it ripples when she touches it.

I was working with this notion when I heard about the Hawaiian doctor. Before that I was just toying with the idea. To me, that article was a note from the Universe saying that I am on the right track. It is possible! There really is just ONE. The repurcussions are fascinating. I would like to do a group study on what happens if the group holds the same thought over a determined period of time. Better yet, if we meditated on the same idea for a period of time at the same time every day. What would be the effect in the Force and by extension the material world?