THE MANY BLESSINGS OF WINE: AN EXAMINATION OF COHERENCE
By
ALLAN R. SUSOEFF, JR.
allan@thinktankgreen.com www.ThinkTankGreen.com
A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, Ph.D. Specializing in METAPHYSICAL PARAPSYCHOLOGY
On behalf of the Department of Graduate Studies of the University of Sedona
this dissertation has been accepted by
Dissertation Advisor
IMM President
November 14, 2018
Chapter 1: Introduction
“The body must be nourished physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We’re spiritually starving in this culture – not underfed but undernourished.” – Carol Hornig
Balance is an often-heard word these days. All one must do is turn on the TV, read Facebook or pick up a newspaper and one may read or hear about the balanced use of the environment, balancing career and home, or perhaps balancing the budget. The challenge here is that most often, when people speak of balance, they are attempting to balance two things; career and family life for example. There always seems to be a dualism; a dichotomy. Right and Wrong. Good and Evil. Positive and Negative. Chaos and Coherence. Balance in a person’s life should never be a tug-of-war between perceived opposites but rather something more akin to a building a home. We start with solid foundations on a well-prepared site, we use the best materials we can get our hands on, and we employ architects, engineers, bankers and contractors who know more than we do about the process to assist us in building the best structure possible. From basics to more lofty aspirations, we painstakingly pay attention to the details until we have a home worth bragging about. The mighty oak starts off as nothing more than a small acorn and builds from that simple seed year after year to become what we see in the forest, does it not? The discussion should never be about whether we are living in a world of chaos or one of coherence, but rather where we are at any moment in time in a linear spectrum that has at one end of itself total infinite chaos, and total infinite coherence at the other.
The American psychologist, Abraham Maslow believed that “There are at least five sets of goals,which we may call basic needs. These are briefly physiological, safety, love, self-esteem, and self-actualization.” (Maslow, 394). He goes on to say,
“These basic goals are related to each other, being arranged in a hierarchy of prepotency. …the most prepotent goal will monopolize consciousness and will tend of itself to organize the recruitment of the various capacities of the organism. The less prepotent needs are minimized, … when a need is fairly well satisfied, the next prepotent (‘higher’) need emerges, in turn to dominate the conscious life and to serveas the center of organization of behavior, ” (Maslow, 395).
Basically, this theory suggests that a human being will only stretch themselves to a higher state of being when their lower, more base needs are met. For example, if you’re worried about whether you’ll eat tonight which is more of a physical and security need, you would not care whether you are having red beans and rice or a ribeye. Though seemingly true in the physical state, this theory seems to assume a poor vision of humanity. It sees us in a constant state of desperation, our fight or flight mechanism being the primary force to guide our lives. It describes a model based on competition. Taken a step further, it does not follow the known tenants of basic life on the planet. Does the oak tree mentioned in a previous paragraph wait until it has the proper blend of sunlight, water and fertilizer to grow or does it grow and stretch, against any and all challenges in search of those things?
In the past, this model has meant that we handle the physical needs of our bodies first, followed by any mental and/or emotional needs we may have and finally perhaps a short walk through our spiritual selves usually in the form of some religious belief system and/or church family. This may have worked at the dawn of history, back when we were competing for food and shelter with those who would gladly have made us their lunch, but today life is safer, simpler, and can be much more rewarding if one is willing to perhaps change a few habits and live from a place of coherence, or “wholeness”rather than one of desperation and chaos.
This dissertation shall show the relationship of chaos to coherence, discuss the importance of coherence to the body, mind, and soul, explain the relevance of receiving and giving coherent information both internally and externally, and prove that coherence is the language of the universe.
Why Coherence?
In discussing subjects such chaos and coherence and their effect on the life and livelihood of human beings, we must first understand why such avocations are even important enough to merit such discussion. Back into time immemorial, just as man has been subject to the laws of time and space, man has also been embroiled in the polarity of chaos and coherence. We see it in all that is mundane and all that is awe inspiring around us. We see it in the cycles of the seasons. We see it the circle of life. We see it in the day to day operations of simply being human. All religions have their stories, myths and legends and while many of them have creation stories that describe a universe being born from chaos and becoming in some way coherent as it matured, all of them studied for this dissertation show a cycle ofman as well as man’s gods being good or bad, warlike or peaceful, vengeful or loving, and the list goes on and on.
The Holy Bible discusses these subjects in great depth. A simple search in a concordance of the New King James Version of the scriptures yields the word “sin”, which we will take to mean separation from God and therefore a more chaotic state, mentioned 446 times in 393 verses, while the term “holy”, which we will assume to be the most coherent state, occurring 637 times in 567 verses. (Nelson, 994, 485). Plainly, the Christian religion has a fixation on chaos and coherence and attempting to move fromthat state of chaos to one of coherence over one’s lifetime.
Accordingly, the Bhagavad Gita speaks of coherence as well when it points out that the purpose of life is to attain love, peace and happiness as well as realize God and our true nature , called Sat Chit Ananda, (Sanskrit: स िदान ), which literally means Absolute Bliss Consciousness. “My dear Arjuna, he who engages in My pure devotional service, free from the contamination of fruitive activities and mental speculation, he who works for Me, who makes Me the supreme goal of his life, and who is friendly to every living being – he certainly comes to Me”, (Gita.11.55). It also explains the road to chaos; “there are three gates leading to this hell – lust, anger and greed. Every single man should give these up, for they lead to the degradation of the soul”, (Gita 16.21).
These two examples alone hint at a universal principle. That principle is this: first, certain deeds, thoughts, and lifestyles are inherently chaotic, while others are definitely coherent, and it is better, or perhaps for purposes of this text, more effective to do, think and be in a more coherent state and a less chaotic one.
Definitions
Before we can show a relationship of chaos to coherence or discuss the importance of coherence for ourselves or for the world at large, it would be relevant to agree on and understand the definitions we will be using for both of these terms in this text.
According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary chaos has two definitions: “ (1) a state of utter confusion or a confused mass or mixture and (2) the confused unorganized state of primordial matter before the creation of distinct forms”. This is the definition we of the modern era are most familiar with. However, if we look into antiquity this is not original meaning of this word. Chaos is a Greek word khaos,spelled χάος in the ancient Greek text and refers to the state of complete void before the creation of the universe, and in no way references anything that relates to confusion. In fact, the Greek originally means emptiness, void, or chasm. According to Wikipedia, Chaos, (Greek: χάος, khaos) was the first of several Greek deities called the primordial deities. The others were Gaia (Greek: Γαῖα, Gaĩa) which we know to be mother earth, Tartarus (Greek: Τάρταρος Tartaros) who is the God that created light and the cosmos, and Eros (Greek: ἔρως, Eros), which is of course the god of love.
Many of the creation stories of antiquity include something in their creation myth that in basic terms explains how chaos gave birth to coherence or coherence was born from or came out of chaos.
The Enuma Elish is the ancient Babylonian creation story and dates back to the Bronze Age, probably around the time of Hammurabi, roughly the 18th to 16th centuries BC. Leonard king’s translation states, “When in the height heaven was not named, And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name, And the primeval Apsû, who begat them, And chaos, Tiamat, the mother of them both, Their waters weremingled together” (King, 51). The Holy Bible says, “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis1:2, NKJV). Alexander Heibel also points out that there are similarities and parallels with the Enuma Elish and the Holy Bible, “Thus Enuma Elish and Genesis 1:1 – 2:3 both refer to a watery chaos whichwas separated into heaven and earth”, (Heibel, 82). The Maori cultures of the Pacific islands have a creation myth wherein Rangi and Papa the earth and sky deities only give birth to male children who get trapped in the dark cramped nothingness between the earth and the sky. That nothingness can certainly be considered chaos. Norse mythology has a story where the universe started as Ginnungagap, a “chaosof perfect silence and darkness that lay between the homeland of elemental fire ,Muspelheim and thehomeland of elemental ice, Niflheim”. (The Creation of the Cosmos, n.p.). It is then created from three gods Odin, Vili, and Ve who murder and dismember a primordial being named Ymir. From Ymir’s body parts come the oceans and the hills and the clouds in the sky. Conceptually, it is not hard to see that dismemberment is another form of chaos, not to mention the original chaos, Ginnungagap. Finally, inHesiod’s account of creation from the ancient Greek traditions, all of the universe springs forth fromchaos which is defined by Glenn Most’s translation of Hesiod’s Theogony as Chasm. “Chasm (not, as it is usually, misleadingly translated, “Chaos”) is a gap upon which no footing is possible” (Hesiod, xxxi). This concept of course leads us once again to an understanding of chaos as a void, or absence of anything rather than a disordered mass
By way of comparison, the Quran seems to state that the Universe was a coherent homogeneous entity and was then separated into its present state, “Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together (as one unit of creation), before We clove them asunder?”(Quran 21:30). Google defines coherence as “the quality of being logical and consistent or the quality of forming a unified whole”. Researching concordances, as well as versions of scripture for the word“coherent” in fourteen versions of the Holy Bible yielded on one verse from one translation: ”Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don’t impose it on others. You’re fortunate if your behavior and your belief are coherent” (Romans 14:22, MSG). However, using the Google definition of a unified whole we see that Paul admonished the Corinthians that “…our many-ness becomes one-ness – Christ doesn’t become fragmented in us. Rather, we become unified in him…”, (1 Corinthians 10:17, MSG) and in the Old Testament, when the Israelites return to the promised land from Babylon, we see that “all thepeople assembled in Jerusalem with a unified purpose”, (Ezra 3:1, NLT) to become once again one with God through the rituals and rites they practiced at that time as well as the rebuilding of the altar and the temple.
So, in summary, it could be said that chaos is exactly the totality of nothing, and ultimately this text will show that it is the less effective state while coherence is exactly the totality of everything and is the most effective state.
Ritual in Religion
A brief study of religious belief systems will reveal certain commonalities. First and foremost, all religions believe in some sort of supreme being. The Bible says, “Look now; I myself am He! There is no other god but me!”, (Deuteronomy 32:39, NLT). While the Upanishads of the Hindu read, “He is One only without a second”, (Chandogya Upanishad 6:21). Next, all religions bring a sense of community to their participants. For example, the Bible says, “Do not stay away from the meetings of the community, as some do, but encourage each other to go; the more so as you see the day drawing near.”, (Hebrews 10:25, JB) , while the Quran states, “The believers are a single brotherhood, so make reconciliation between your brothers, and be mindful of God so you can receive mercy.” (Quran 49:10). Further, each belief system has a way of defining and dealing with wrongdoing. The American Standard Version of the Bible Says“ For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is become guilty of all. (James 2:10, ASV), while the Quran promises punishment by God for disobedience, “Allah desires to afflict them for their sins” (Quran 5:49), and according to Mhabharata, one of the many texts of the Bhishma Parva that make up part of the body of knowledge that is the Hindu religion, “In half a verse Iwill tell you that which is written in hundreds of thousands of Scriptures. Virtue is any act which benefits another, and sin is that deed which causes suffering to others.” (Sharma, 256). And finally, all religions have ritual.
It goes without saying that all religions engage in some sort of prayer. For purposes of brevity, and because prayer is a common theme in all religions, we will discuss prayer only from a Judeo- Christian perspective. According to the Bible there are many types of prayer. Paul in his first letter toTimothy said, “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving being madefor everyone”, (1Timothy 2:1, NIV). From the original Greek texts we learn that these four prayer types are: Needs or supplications, (Greek: deésis, δέησις ), begging or beseeching prayers(Greek: proseuchas,προσευχάς), Intercessions and help, (Greek: enteuxeis, ἐντεύξεις ) and thanksgiving, (Greek: eucharistia, εὐχαριστία) from where we get the English word eucharist. (All Greek, 1Timothy 2:1, LEB).
Dr. Leon Master’s has stated that even something as simple as an affirmation can be a prayer.Affirmations “may be spoken or thought of in the context of the practice of METAPHYSICAL PRAYER or SPIRITUAL MIND TREATMENT, which in most cases is one and the same as the practice of metaphysical prayer or affirmative meditation”. (Master’s Degree Curriculum 2, pp 23).
While all religions have rituals surrounding prayer, it turns out that nearly all religions have rituals surrounding prayer and wine, specifically. The Blessing of wine goes back eons. There are records that as early as 4,000 BCE, the Egyptians were associating several gods with wine. Hathor was the Egyptians’ god of wine, and once a year they had an annual “Festival of Drunkenness”, (Ngugi, n.p.).“Nearly all Roman religious festivals coincided with important phases of the grape-growing and wine- producing agricultural cycle”, (Let Us Adore Drink, n.p.). Asian cultures have associated wine with the spiritual. The Japanese place large casks of sake at Shinto shrines and some Japanese believe “sipping a cup is still a prayerful act of symbolic unification with the gods”, (Kazaridaru, n.p.). The Christians have their sacramental wine; it was used in the earliest celebrations of the Lord’s Supper. The Catholics call it“The Most Holy Sacrifice of the Eucharist” , (Ratzinger, 335), and it must be celebrated in bread, and in“wine to which a small quantity of water is added”, (The Eucharist, n.p.). The Jewish faith has Kiddush. In general, Buddhists tend to abstain from alcohol as they believe alcohol clouds the consciousness, making it difficult to achieve enlightenment. However, many Buddhists partake in what they call “mindful drinking”, (MacKenzie, n.p.), which is essentially a loophole that justifies alcohol as a tool to clear the mind rather than confuse it. Wine as well as other fermented juices is used in the Hindu healing system of Ayurveda. It seems fitting then, as well as funny, that Benjamin Franklin, In a letter to French economist Abbé Andre Morellet in 1779, teased “that the strategic location of the elbow is proof that God desires us to drink wine. After all, had God placed the elbow lower on the arm, our wine glass would never make it all the way to our mouths. Had the elbow been placed higher, our glass would shoot straight past our lips”, (Let Us Adore Drink, n.p.).
Prayer and wine. With all religions having some ritual that involves the two of these items being used together, the question comes up, why wine? Why specifically wine? Why not water? Why not beer or some oil or fruit juice or even blood? It may be important to note that all the afore mentioned liquids have rituals in this religion or that, but none of these is as universally used in so many as the fruit of the vine. What is it about blessing wine that makes it so special?
Summation
These and many more questions were asked while ruminating on the subject of this dissertation. If all religions place emphasis on prayer, and in particular the blessing and usually the subsequent consumption or sacrifice of wine, it seems reasonable to assume that there must be some intrinsic value to it. Though they differ in terms of the ritual itself, each religion of the world has similar traits as described in earlier subchapters. Each religion has also defined that which is chaotic, dysfunctional, and ineffective as well as coherent, functional and effective. Finally, each religion has dictated that it is better to live a life from a standard of coherence rather than one of chaos.
This dissertation investigates whether wine is changed by praying over it, what we will refer toin subsequent chapters as “blessing” it, and if changes occur, whether they can be detected through some sort of measuring device. If changes can be detected then they should be able to be recorded, and if so can we should be able to show a pattern of chaos, a pattern of coherence, both or neither. If we can show a pattern, and if that pattern be a change toward more coherent, or to put in more scientific and statistical terms less variant, energetic state, then we can show that blessing wine, and perhaps blessing anything, renders its energy more coherent and therefore more functional, effective and healthy for the body, mind and soul.
More about The many Blessings of Wine:
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