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Energy and the Spirit

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Holding space in the background of my work is the belief that “Love is all there is.”  The writings of Paul Tillich underscore this perception and provide depth to its understanding. Tillich was a German-born existential theologian/philosopher who lived in the early-mid 20th century. Bringing a cosmic focus to his understanding of God and salvation, Tillich coined a unique vocabulary to express the nature and essence of God.  He saw God as the power and essence of unconditional love, calling him/her the ground-of-being, ultimate reality, ultimate concern, and being itself. God as infinite and indefinable, but at the same time as manifesting in the tangible as finite reality; in other words, God is in all things, but also above all things. Creation completely embodies God and God completely embodies creation. In this way, no separation is possible, because no separation exists.

According to Tillich, the human condition is estrangement; the belief that we are separate from God, causing us to feel incomplete, broken, and guilty. Tillich went so far to say that the cosmic disease afflicting mankind is this guilt we manifest over being disconnected from God our Source of Being. Because of this, he saw salvation as a healing process, a return to the wholeness that was lost in the process of estrangement. [1]   This includes individual salvation of course, but within the greater scope of cosmic salvation, the saving of all creation.

“When salvation has cosmic significance, healing is not only included in it, but salvation can be described as the act of cosmic healing… Salvation is basically and essentially healing, the re-establishment of a whole that was broken, disrupted, or disintegrated.”[2]

So the return to wholeness, our natural state, is the purpose of salvation.  Healing then is restorative. It reestablishes our connection to the divine on both an individual and cosmic level and reunites us with grace. The return to right relationship with God is also the return to right relationship with our selves.  From a Christian perspective, this is the saving work of Jesus.

Tillich’s perception of God as ground-of-being, and salvation as healing, are important concepts in understanding the spiritual dimension of healing. Seeing the energy of the universe as the power, essence, and love of God means that our embodiment by the Holy Spirit is the flow of the power of God within us. This indwelling of power/energy/Spirit/God as both life force and inner healer opens the door to understanding both how healing occurs in us and through us. It is natural then to see healing as a spiritual activity, a God-mediated process that brings restoration of our inherent wholeness. This brings me back full circle to the spiritual focus of my ministry and work. It is the Spirit that heals.

[1] This is a compilation of Tillich’s ideas that I made after reading transcripts of discussions he had with a professor of religious studies and his students at the University of California in Santa Barbara in the 1960’s. Later published in a book called Ultimate Concern: Tillich in Dialogue with D. Mackenzie Brown. Harper and Row 1965, this dialogue can be accessed online at http://www.religion-online.org/showbook.asp?title=538

[2] Paul Tillich, The Meaning of Health. Edited by Perry Le Fevre. Chicago, IL: Exploration Press, 1984, 17.

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Made in the Image…

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The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Gen 2:7 (NIV)

To embody something is to give it life. In Genesis, God breathes life into the inert human creation and it is filled with life force energy, the “breath of life.” The human has become a “being” because it is now alive with spiritual energy.  This understanding has important ramifications for how we view our bodies and for how we heal.

As physical beings we are dependent on our senses for interpreting the world. We process and relate to our environment by seeing, feeling, hearing, tasting, and touching it.  This means that we internalize our perceptions about everything from this standpoint, including God and ourselves.  Although we may understand on some level that we are more than our physical selves, we cannot see our emotions, our spirit, or God, so they are less real.  This idea of “not real” also translates into “less important”, so the emotional and spiritual sides of us are often discounted, dismissed, or ignored. When this perception becomes fixed, it allows us to feel separate from those aspects of self, and from God.

What this means, is that the image of God we embody within ourselves is often very small, constricted, and one-dimensional.  The magnificence of God becomes the pettiness of God and we construct a humanized vision of God that reflects only our own insecurities and limitations. That small view of God translates into an even smaller view of our ability to heal. By limiting who God can “be” we restrict our innate capacity for wholeness. But, if wholeness is our natural state, then healing is a natural process.  We are “fully equipped” for our life in this world and that implies that everything we need for wholeness we already possess. [1] This means that our bodies are programmed to heal. How? The life force energy that enlivened us at creation is still present and the Gospel stories show us how to use it to heal. Jesus was an amazing energy healer! So what’s the problem?  We have forgotten who we are and we no longer hear the voice of Spirit within our bodies.

[1] 2 Tim 3:17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (NIV)