The Void or An Awakening?

It is said that Albert Einstein said, “One percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.” It means that any genius is both inspiration and hard work. It doesn’t come easy for adults. Why is that? It seems like kids are quick problem solvers and arrive at solutions in record time. They are little rocket scientists. By the time those same kids arrive at teenage years, only 5% can still do what they have always done. Are you ready? It gets worse. This same study showed that only 2% of adults can still think outside the box in rocket science inspirations. That’s a real problem. What has happened to dumb us down? Some would say, “It is the school system!” Maybe partially. Since when have you seen a curriculum that encourages thinking logically? Where is the love of learning? So what happens in between? Where did our brain go? What’s the reason? Some say it is because us adults live a sedentary lifestyle and we dumb ourselves down. Do we still have a love of learning and stimulate our brains? That is the question to ask ourselves if we find ourselves at a crossroads or trying to learn a new skill.

Let’s get scientific. Where does genius even come from? It’s a Brainwave called Theda. What is that? And why in adults is it lacking? What makes it lie dormant awaiting to be awakened and used? We are waiting for our full potential. Sure there are plenty of machines said to awaken it but that costs hundreds of dollars. Others say, wake up at 4 am. Billionaires do. Both of these options are effective to awaken Theda but difficult to assimilate and not an option for most of us. Theda is the brainwave that connects and turns on multiple areas of the brain at once to arrive at answers and inform our intuitions and skills to succeed. Einstein used it as well as his rival Tesla. But not just geniuses can use it. The normal every day person can use it too. Theda can be awakened in anyone. Our brain needs it to thrive and grow.

Guess what? When it is turned on, a study showed that Theda can affect and awaken other people’s Theda and can be passed on. So let’s say mom and dad’s brain is suddenly turned on. There’s a high chance that once that happens, kids’ brains will be turned on too as well as others who are in close contact. It’s contagious. Also good things are said to start happening to this person and life gets easier once it is turned on. Solutions just come to you. New skills are easily assimilated. Memory is improved. Sound too good to be true? Do you want to operate at a higher level? Then this article is for you.

How can I do this? How can I awaken my brain? The nuero researcher who discovered this study done by Nasa developed a 7 minute sound wave to awaken Theda but that costs money too. It is affordable like any supplement might cost you. But there is another way that this researcher mentions that does not cost money and that most of us need to practice but don’t because of our busy lifestyles or the mind numbing action of just going from moment to moment and getting lost in the fray. This would be mindfulness and meditation. I don’t mean that eastern garbly goop but the same thing in faith. Remember from my previous article? Our superpower. The supernatural in us. Being aware of God’s presence and work in our lives and spending time in prayer with Him. This takes time to develop, so any 7 minute promise seems auspicious. But don’t be tempted to take shortcuts or avoid the perspiration and satisfaction of a job well done. We need to get to the root of the problem.

This is a place where faith and science agree. It is part of the human experience. I’ve given you the science, now it’s time to delve into the spiritual. How would the saints and Jesus do this? Let’s look at Jesus first. He spent thirty years in the quiet of his carpentry and only three years in active ministry. He kept to his work six days. He prayed in synagogue on the seventh. Then He went back to serving the people of Nazareth and His mother after Joseph died. The poet Paul Claudel says a beautiful line that sheds more light on this. “The Word is the adopted son of silence, for St. Joseph passes through the pages of the gospel without uttering a single word.”

In his hidden and active life he was available. He was like a spring welling up. Power came out of Him. People were healed and fed both physically (loaves and fishes) and spiritually (the paralytic). Every day the sick were brought to Him and demoniacs and what happened? He healed them all. But what does he do to be able to keep going with this intense schedule? He withdrew to quiet and isolated places to pray in silence and solitude. But we are not saved just by prayer even though Christ says, “Pray always.” We are saved by Love. Catherine Doherty says in the book Poustinia, “We are not saved by prayer, but by love; and love is at the service of the beloved. Love has to incarnate itself in action.”

Catherine of Sienna is another good example. She would isolate herself under the stairs and pray. Christ would come visit her but soon He asked more of her. She was persecuted by her mother and forced to be the maid of the family. But her joy didn’t diminish because she kept interior recollection. She spent her days working and her nights praying. Joy emanated from her. Then God called her even higher in holiness and started suggesting, what about the poor and sick of Sienna? Catherine complained and said, “No Lord! Let me just encounter you in my staircase.” He said, “Go ahead, but I won’t be there.” As a result, she became a Dominican tertiary and served these people in the streets of Sienna and also her family. So we see a marriage of service and prayer. Service is the fruit of prayer.

So, meditation. It is work. We avail ourselves to the voice of God through the scripture and the gospels and spiritual reading and other reading. We work out in our brains what struck us and we journal our insights. Mental prayer is work but what comes after that? Contemplation which is God’s work and response to our conversation and work. He awakens Theda and gives us the answers we need. How do we know this? The more we practice, the better we get and the more we become receptive to what God wants, the more we are able to work. Don’t believe me? Let’s look at a couple of other quotes to drive home the point. Evdokimov in The Struggle With God, says:

“To hear the voice of the Word, we must know how to listen to his silence, and above all, learn it ourselves. Speaking from experience the spiritual masters are very definite; ‘If one does not know how to give a place in his life to recollection and silence, it is impossible for him to arrive at a higher degree and to be able to pray in public places.'”

Here we see that in order to “pray in public places” we need recollection and silence. This is carried out in the secret places of our hearts. We have to maintain the presence of God in order to be effective in the public square. In order to hear the Holy Spirit, we have to avail ourselves to the battle of hard work and patiently await the breakthrough. We have to press in. God wants to heal and help us. He wants us to succeed. He wants us to have a “God Encounter.” He wants us to know what to do in our daily lives. It is important not to be measured by our doing but our being.

He continues and says, “This degree makes us aware that one part of us, being immersed in what is immediate, is always worried and distracted, while the other part observes this with astonishment and compassion.” Good St. Benedict agrees with this notion with his Ora et Labora, prayer and work. What do Benedictines do? Prayer and then hard manual labor to provide for the religious community and those in community around the abbey. We lay people can do the same. If we don’t, we find ourselves in an empty void and try to fill it with other things. This empty void of silence and depression is completely different than the full effort of trying to reach a break through with God. It is dumbed down and sedentary. It is miserable and focused on ourselves. It only gets even worse if we don’t remedy it. We fall into despair without God. Theda cannot be awakened. Our brain dies and shrinks. Even more so as we age.

On the flip side, peace grows and is contagious and spreads when we stay with God. Here is what St. Serapion says about it. “Recollection opens our souls to heaven, but also to other men. The contemplative life or the active life–this problem is somewhat artificial. The real problem is that of the heart’s dimension. Aquire interior peace and a multitude of men will find their salvation near you.” Notice it does not say, “in you.” Hmm. See? It backs up science. When our minds are open to the supernatural we spread the supernatural. Theda is real. And Theda can be awakened in our daily life. WE WANT TO STAY AWAY FROM THE EMPTY VOID AND A LIFE LIVED WITHOUT COMMUNION. We need God. No seven minute sound wave will truly give us the result we are really looking for like God can. A life filled with love of God and neighbor will. I’ll close with one more quote from Catherine Doherty, “The Lord is calling us to stand still before him while walking with men.”

(I was able to make these connections from the research of Nasa to the spiritual by the book I am currently reading, Poustinia by Catherine Doherty in Chapter Seven in Part One)