The briefest ever history of metaphysics, mysticism, monotheism, and manifestation - Part 1

On one of our first “dates” my wife and I engaged in a 2-hour debate about the nature of truth.  We were driving from Central Wisconsin to the southern part of the state in order to catch a comedy show with a couple friends.  The miles melted away as the car became a heated yet high-spirited scholastic seminar and, before we knew it, we were in Madison.

What was the debate exactly?  It broke down pretty simply along these approximate lines:

Me: Truth is unified, and any apparent disparities appear because our vantage point is not sufficiently broad

Her: Truth has many manifestations, and people describe it differently due to the perspective afforded by their varying vantage points, which means that they can all, in a sense, be correct

The spirit of that early debate has accompanied us happily in the 2 intervening decades, and we continue to challenge and push on each others’ thinking and logic in similar ways.  I was remarking to her yesterday that one of the core values of our marriage and nuclear family is argumentation.  We’ll discuss pretty much anything as long as we do it through rational argumentation.  And I do mean ANYTHING.  Pretty much.

I lay this out to help you understand my approach to the world.  I am trying to tie everything together, because at some level there MUST be an ultimate explanation.  That’s not the same thing as claiming that we can know it, and I suspect that the limits of our human sensations and intuitions will always preclude this.  But if “truth” is to mean anything I don’t think it can be divided, (unless there’s a flaw with the concept itself, but if there was we could never know it).

As such I am always looking for the deeper unifying patterns between concepts and phenomena that appear disparate and unrelated.  The results seem helpful to entrepreneurs and leaders.  I’m not always sure why, but they are.  This tells me that many ambitious, creative, and passionate people are trying to figure out what this miraculous human life thing is all about, and are intentionally anchoring their creative efforts and outcomes to the deepest possible sense of purpose and meaning.  

And I think that’s beautiful and awesome.  The MOST beautiful and awesome thing that could ever be.

So, let’s get into that spirit of unified truth and explore the deep connections between monotheistic religion, metaphysical philosophy, and entrepreneurial manifestation (often called the “Law of Attraction”).  You may be surprised to find how similar and interrelated their deepest themes actually are.

I’ll see you in Part 2 for The briefest ever history of metaphysics, mysticism, monotheism, and manifestation!