Looking Directly into the Sun

“Learn to place your intellect in the sheath of your awareness rather than in the sac of memory and identification. Once you do, this tremendous instrument can cut its way effortlessly toward the ultimate.” – Sadhguru

The big problem we face as a struggling species is our need to filter data through an inflexible worldview. This process rejects a significant portion of good accurate data thereby hindering us in spiritual growth and scientific advancement.

Worldviews (or cosmic paradigms) become central to our personal identities which we defend with denial, outrage and a false sense of superiority to those who hold conflicting views. The memory of things we’ve been taught by parents and trusted teachers in youth ties us to rigidity, denial and the rejection of useful knowledge.

And yet many of us seem convinced that spiritual growth and scientific advancement fully demand a rigid, data-filtering worldview.

For instance, theophobia has the geological community in a headlock preventing publication of anything supporting the ancient accounts of great floods and fires that nearly erased humanity. This is because lending credence to “holy myths” threatens paradigm identity and is therefore emotionally intolerable to most geologists.

For them to give in and admit these “myths” were basically accurate would feel something like an Orthodox Jew eating pork, a Muslim drawing Mohamad, or a Christian doubting Jesus’ historical existence.

So the evidence of periodic geological cataclysms in Earth’s history has been downplayed for generations, but unfortunately it’s looking like our “experts” have made a grievous error in protecting their theophobia with the paradigm of geologic gradualism.

There’s good scientific evidence that the Sun is a periodic nova or “micro-nova,” that coronal mass ejection material from the Sun nearly wiped out our species about twelve thousand years ago.

The perceived problem with this data set is not merely that it supports humanity’s ancient “mythical” records, but that it is inherently frightening to scientists because those few who look into it also find evidence that a similar geological catastrophe may happen within our lifetimes.

The more practical problem with this data is that scientists can’t get funding for research that gives an inch of ground to the “crazy” people who believe in God or any historic veracity of ancient human records.

But it’s not just mainstream scientists whose worldviews prevent an objective look at this. Many Christians have a worldview that doesn’t allow the possibility of a return of global flooding or any other global catastrophe because the “inerrant” scriptures include a rainbow with a promise that God will never drown us again.

Sadguru is wrong in thinking that sleeping only a few hours a night is healthier for everyone than sleeping 8 or 9 hours a night, but the man is divinely inspired when he suggests letting your intellect experience the “sheath of your awareness” rather than “the sack of memory and identification.”

If you want to give his advice a whirl and transcend your worldview for a moment with some controversial but important scientific data and theory, here’s a video that could truly save our entire species from the next major periodic sun eruption…

The narrator and creator of this video is Ben Davidson. Here’s his website. Here’s his beautiful family.

“Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better.” – Albert Einstein

Your pal,

Morrill Talmage Moorehead, MD

27 thoughts on “Looking Directly into the Sun

  1. Here I am with a lengthy n=1 example for you. There’s a very slim possibility that Sadhguru may be correct that “sleeping only a few hours a night is healthier . . . than sleeping 8 or 9 hours,” although that cannot be generalized to everyone. Evidence comes from the myriad of data saved by my CPAP machine to an SD card, readable with OSCAR software (Open Source CPAP Analysis Reporter).

    Two years ago, I was diagnosed with “moderate” obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), with an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of 21.6/hr (severe OSA can measure more than 100). Because of the senseless delays built into our system of healthcare delivery, therapy began in January, 2018. I switched DME provider four months later, so I had to start over with another DME company’s machine (which I christened Darth CPAP, because of its shiny black plastic housing). The first DME hadn’t put an SD card in the first machine (I didn’t think to do so, and OSCAR wasn’t available at that time, anyway), so I lost the first four months of data (except for the daily notes I kept from the limited data display on the machine itself). I have all of the digital information saved by Darth CPAP since April, 2018.

    This means that the n=1 sleep data I’m going to talk about is quantifiable. You and I were taught that what goes on in healthcare (which is both art and science) needs to be quantifiable, to be meaningful (Dr. Tour’s talk touched on that, too).

    I have not missed a night of therapy, and if I take a nap, I always use Darth CPAP. More than a year of positive airway pressure sleep data shows that I’ve experienced an approximately 90% (ninety percent) average reduction in the severity of OSA (with a concomitant reduction in symptoms), maintaining my average incidence of apneic-hypopneic episodes per 24 hours well within the range of “mild.”

    Sleep medicine calls for a minimum of 4 hours of CPAP usage for it to be considered therapeutic (and that’s the standard used by insurance as a reimbursement qualification for the rent-to-purchase of the machine, and coverage of disposable CPAP supplies). My average usage is more than 8 hours per 24-hour period. Only one time did I have a “short night,” in which I logged only 3.73 hours, because I had a head cold and couldn’t breathe or sleep, anyway. This yields a nearly 100% compliance rate, which is unusual for PAP users of all stripes (A, Bi, or C), but I’m motivated, and I’m also a retired healthcare professional, so although the first six months were difficult because of my having to find a mask that fit me, and to get the air pressure adjusted appropriately, there was never any question of my quitting.

    Because of Darth CPAP’s 24-hour period record-keeping (“new day” starts at noon), whether I spend 7-9 hours straight on the machine, or break it up into a 1-2 hour nap plus 5-8 hours at night, or any other combination of hours of therapy, doesn’t make any difference. The point I’m finally getting to is that I’ve spent 4.5 hours on the machine and logged 0.0/hr (zero) apneic-hypopneic episodes for that period.

    So if (and it’s a very big if) there’s a person who does not suffer from OSA and who sleeps perfectly oxygenated for only 4.5 hours a night, that person may not “need” to sleep longer, to be healthy.

    Moreover, for someone on CPAP, it may not be advisable to stay on the machine for 7-9 hours a night (or as measured per 24-hour period). Sometimes I have a nap with zero or few episodes, but go on to have a “bad” night (or the reverse, which lowers the earlier AHI number for the day). I commonly spend nights in the range of 5-6 hours of continuous usage and log fewer than 2.0/hr (and frequently have fewer than 1.0/hr). If only six hours on the machine means I wake up at 3:00 AM with an AHI of 1.6/hr, and go back to sleep (usually after a delay of more than 45 minutes, which is also measured), I may wake at 7:30 AM with a new AHI of 2.9/hr or greater. This means that during the short time I resumed slumber, I experienced a flurry of OSA episodes that were bad for my health.

    • Fascinating! I believe I have a bit of sleep apnea, too, if I sleep on my back. I never do anymore. But if I fall ever asleep on my back these days, I wake up in minutes snoring and gasping for air with my heart racing. I’m a light sleeper, that’s why. I have no problems if I sleep on a shoulder.

      You’re definitely right that some people only need a few hours of sleep per night. I have a friend who needs only 2 or 3 hours per night, same as his mother. His sister needs only 3 to 5 hours per night. Both of them are successful healthcare professionals with outstanding marriages and children and balanced lives.
      Most of us, though, need a lot more sleep to avoid permanently damaging our brains. Dale Bredesen makes a good case for this in this RECODE protocol for avoiding (or reversing mild to moderate) Alzheimer’s disease.

      I’m glad Darth CPAP is working so well for you! That’s a fantastic success story. 🙂

    • Me, too. I appreciate enthusiasm, but I’m much more easily swayed by someone who sounds objective and dispassionate.

      You know, today, right out of the blue, my 7-year-old grandson started telling me about a kid at school whom he called “strange.” I asked why he thought such a thing, and he explained it’s because she always goes around asking everyone if they’ve accepted Jesus as their personal savior and saying, “Have you ever prayed?” I told him not to think of her as strange because many people believe that their main reason for being on Earth is to do exactly what she’s doing. I told him she’s just trying to do what’s right and trying to be the best person she can possibly be.

      I think the human condition is too complex for my seven-year-old grandson to be shunning anyone. But it does seem as if the age of rigid paradigms may end soon for our species. At least I hope so. Not that I wouldn’t like to know the ultimate truth if it’s available to humans. I certainly would, and I really try to stay open to it through prayer and meditation. Who knows what’s possible to learn? I sure don’t.

  2. Talmage, Once again I find our thinking runs parallel. My observation and reading tell me that the information filtering/toleration process you mention is a natural and unfortunate part of aging. Self-righteousness, confidence, and ego are fed by knowing that we already know everything worth knowing; therefore, minds are closed and outdated concepts ferociously defended. Children think all the time and only they possess the secret of mental growth—knowing that you do not know everything. When the Oracle at Delphi was asked who the most intelligent man was, it answered, “Socrates.” When Socrates was told this, he said, “But I don’t know anything.”

    Edward De Bono, the great advocate of lateral thinking, observed that, unfortunately, the goal of most thinking is to stop thinking—to create only as many pigeon holes for data as we need to preserve our current world view. For many in America, the pigeon hole for their political, religious, anti-religious, racial, sexual, whatever, views is coupled with value assessments whose primary characteristic is that it is tied to their identity.

    • “…the secret of mental growth—knowing that you do not know everything.”

      That’s getting there! Thanks.

      Yes, rigid data filtration is certainly a part of “normal” aging, but between you and me, Keith, I was more sure that I knew the cosmic big picture when I was a teenager than now.

      I watched a few episodes of a BBC program on Nature last night, saw chimpanzees literally eating other chimps, and found myself this morning re-arranging my thinking to conjure up a cosmic worldview that better accommodated all the data I’m aware of. I’m trying now to work my wild speculations into the second draft of another boring short story for my great grandchildren (and maybe this blog) – assuming I’m lucky enough to ever have great grandkids. And assuming the Sun doesn’t nova (a verb now?) within the next 30 years as some highly intelligent people associated with that video believe.

      Now I want a poster and a T-shirt with this printed on it…

      “But I don’t know anything.” – Socrates

      Thank you so much for sharing this priceless gem. Wow! It should be the motto of every scientist and maybe every spiritual human being, as well.

      “the goal of most thinking is to stop thinking”

      I’ve been clumsily trying to convey this idea about our US educational system for decades. It’s as if naming something and categorizing it also tames it, allowing us to forget it entirely if we don’t like it. “Conspiracy theory,” is perhaps an example. If the right voice of authority labels anything with these two words, many people’s minds reject it without another thought.

      To a large degree the human mind operates on heuristics or “rules of thumb.” I think this is why it’s such an uphill battle for any member of our species to remain tentative on big-picture items like cosmic paradigms. This plus the fact that settled certainty eases our fears, at least in the short-term.

  3. Anonymous

    Great piece of advice and insight as usual. And yes, the video is worth watching; with every identification with the general human shared experience we get one step closer to the truth of who we are, the unperishable , unshakeable inner truth, not that of the shaking paradigm.

    • Thank you. I think that Christians would do well to open more to your concept of “unshakeable inner truth.” The text, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you” always comes to mind when I want to absorb the spiritual genius and light of our Eastern religions. I’m reading a fantastic book called, “God is not One,” by Stephen Prothero that goes into some detail on the beliefs of the major world religions. While one of his main points is that our religions deal quite differently with the concept of God, to me the most exciting thing is that the good character of God is reflected in all the major religions. Even Confuciunism, a system so secular that the atheistic Chinese government doesn’t consider it a religion at all and never banned it, is a treasurehouse of internal and outward integrity. It’s almost as if we humans were created in God’s image or something. 😉

    • I kind of float around the mindset that science is just the proof of divine magic, explained in common tongue so that even the most ardent nonbeliever can find a way to understand and appreciate the wonder and mystery of the Grand Divine without having to put down the ego and admit to the Existence of a higher power guiding it all.

      • I agree. I suspect that God created the very laws of physics for this Universe, and perhaps different laws for others. It’s probably just a matter of semantics, but I also suspect this realm could be described as a sort of quazimaterial simulation (relative to another place I think of as Reality. I could be all wrong about this sort of worldview, of course. My present belief is that worldviews are largely “the bathwater” and God is “the baby” that we should be careful not to throw out.

        • Oh goodness, I just want to like this comment over and over again. And then some more. There are just so many words that I could write large swaths about. But I don’t want to blow up your page with my overly wordy mind.

          I agree that there may be different laws for different realities, and with the fact that this reality may be a simulation of another. I believe TIME is a guiding principle of the laws of our reality and TIME in my mind means Temporary Illusion Mimicking Eternity. And so the constant Reality is Eternity and our reality is merely the simulation mimicking the constant, working out the error codes that are different between the two. (I also kind of have it in my mind that we are created from computers and that programming language is at the heart of how creation came to be but that’s just trying to simplify something grand into something relatable).

          My belief that there may be different realities is based entirely on the truth of my reality which is that my own brain disconnects from this reality and attaches to something different. Modern medicine hasn’t been able to stop that from happening despite all their best efforts and my willingness to allow them to try.

          In my mind right now is the one episode where I completely left our reality and was in the hands of a “Slider of Reality” which amounted to me white-knuckling my armrests as the “preferences” were changed on how reality manifested. Straight lines bent, colors changed, pressure was added, a floaty feeling took place, patterns appeared in solid color, and a swirly motion was added that moved apart from the movement of the room. And while I was experiencing all of this it was being impressed upon me that what we see is more for our comfort than it is representative of what needs to be. Over and over I was asked if I wanted to see more and as long as I could handle it, I opened myself up to witness how different reality could take shape. My brain hurt after that one… lol

          I am working towards my own version of a worldview in which the only view is that of God and God’s perspective. In my mind, this view is comprised of every individual view of Creation coming together to give one big explanation for the wonder and magic that is God.

          I secretly hope that now is the time when God solves the error code in our reality and establishes his United Kingdom under God. Peace of Earth and Heaven in our Hearts and Eden Everywhere. And Nirvana for the Nobodys that can’t get their mind around submitting themselves towards God’s Betterment. Goodness for everyone, no matter their belief.

            • Wise words indeed!

              I am intent on discovering the Lands of Perfection, home of Utopia. I have left the bounds of this reality and am comfortable coasting farther and farther away in the ever-loving hope that Peace is Possible when we but first stop Hurting with Hate.

              I am trying to piece together the story of how Heaven came Home to Hell to make Utopia the Reality we could all Witness. I have the overarching story behind it but I don’t know how to translate that into modern day understanding. Such a fun problem to have.

              • Sometimes I wonder if some sort of emotional down isn’t necessary in order to appreciate the highs. Would a traditional Heaven become an emotional flatland without an ongoing struggle in which we experience a degree of suffering or maybe something different from suffering but serving the same purpose?

                • I wonder the same things. I am bipolar so quite literally I go through ups and downs, high to low, in rapid succession and back again. The lows make me appreciate the highs so much more because they are so much more blissful to experience. But for me, I believe the lows that we make people experience in this reality go far lower than what we need in order to appreciate the bliss and euphoria for what it is.

                  I quite literally starved down 130 lbs. because our society doesn’t provide food equally to living beings on this planet. And from that starvation I can better relate to those that are currently suffering from the same. I gained empathy in my time of trials. Wonderful and blessed gift to have.

                  But wouldn’t we be a better society if we awoke to the realization that nobody need starve to know it isn’t right to let people starve?

                  I think that’s where I’m coming to with the Land of Perfection, Home of Utopia – the people have accepted the pain and suffering of the past as enough reason to not let the same problems plague their reality. And because we have such living proof of how bad the pain was and is and continues to be in generations far removed from it, that is all the down we need from the high of Heavenly living. The knowledge that it actually WAS so much worse.

                  I guess that’s my hope for what would replace the suffering. Peace without Pain is my Passion.

                  • Yes, I remember “meeting” you, Alura, on your blog and commenting on the bipolar condition in general. A number of historically great bipolar geniuses have brought humanity absolute magic, such as Handel’s Messiah.

                    Quoting you from above, “And because we have such living proof of how bad the pain was and is and continues to be in generations far removed from it, that is all the down we need from the high of Heavenly living. The knowledge that it actually WAS so much worse.” Yes!

                    Back when I was a fundamentalist Christian I used to try to figure out a logical reason why Jesus had to die and retain permanent scars on his hands, as my church believed. I came to the conclusion that it was for a reason you’ve touched upon: to retain the reality of this realm of suffering, long after this place is gone and all suffering has become a vague distant memory. This idea follows from the notion that when the effects of a free choice are removed, the reality of the free choice ceases to exist. We see this in dreams where we seem to make all kinds of decisions but wake up to find there are no consequences or effects of those decisions. So the conclusion of this is the speculation that the decisions we make in dreams are not free-will choices at all, and neither would be the choices we make in this current world if we someday wake up in “heaven” and retain no effects of these decisions beyond vague negative memories we don’t often revisit. So in my fundamentalist days when “infallible scriptures” were part of my paradigm, I would interpret this difficult text: “And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all” as necessary to retain the reality of this fallen Earthly realm in a heavenly eternity. I dreamed that up as an alternative to the typical forensic court-room model in which an innocent person dies for all the guilty, a model that never made much sense to me in terms of moral fairness.

                    Anyway, as you know, I’m not a fundamentalist of any type anymore, and I think I’ve grown a bit spiritually as a result of this change, but I’d still like to call myself a Christian if others can tolerate it. I like this label not because of any version of the Christian worldview or cosmic paradigm (there are so many variations), but because of the image of God that Jesus promoted when we’re told that he said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” My thinking is that this advice is humanity’s best hope of avoiding extinction through nuclear self-annihilation. And also because of the kind, loving, forgiving God that many of the words attributed to Jesus reflect.

                    With my wildly speculative cosmic paradigm that I’m certainly not married to in any sense, I’m sure that some traditional Christians would be quick to tell me that I’m not being honest in calling myself a Christian. They have a valid point in the historical sense, but I hang on with everything in my soul to the image of God reflected in much of Jesus teachings, and that makes me want to hang on to the “non-fundamentalist Christian” label as well. If I were somehow forced to abandon any sort of Christian label, I’d really have to consider calling myself a follower of Confucius, partly because he wasn’t glued to any cosmic paradigm and partly because he saw the value of trust and trustworthiness.

                    • I found myself so excited to see this comment. It is a warm feeling to know that someone remembers your conversations. I recognize that I am but one voice in a sea of billions and I guess I go about the business of not really believing anything I say is going to be remembered, just another passing opinion on the winds of change. Thank you for remembering me.

                      I struggle with the concept of Jesus on the Cross as well. I just don’t see how having him having paid the ultimate price for the rest of humanity, just doesn’t add up. Because in the payment of our debt, we have been given freedom to act as we wish. And in our actions we are not showing gratitude and appreciation for the sacrifice that was made on our behalf.

                      As you touched on, I believe his sacrifice came to perpetuate the cycle of suffering that our Reality is doomed to repeat until the lesson is learned. And I believe that lesson is simple, “Be better to get better”. The world is a wonderful place when you focus on the heavenly aspects of living – kindness, generosity, appreciation, community. But the world is Hell when you are looking for any word possible to excuse away bad behavior. This is all conjecture based on my spiritual divining, but I feel as though Jesus came with the chance to bring Heaven’s Realm to reality. But the people of Jesus’ time weren’t ready to make the sacrifice that was giving up their bad ways in lieu of a better way that worked for all fairly. And so Jesus got the cross and we got the story that he died for us.

                      Which is made true because we all go about the business of believing his death means our salvation. I’m at the point in my spiritual journey where I relate to Christians and the belief in salvation, but I do not put it on Christ’s shoulders to die for my saving Grace. For that salvation, I turn to God and God alone, the very one the Jesus held above all. I have a little white cross that stands in my front yard, and for me that cross represents the desire to bring Jesus off the cross (for in my mind he hangs in eternity, always suffering, always bleeding the blood that pays for our debt with the body that was sent to save). I seek with my faith and hope and love to heal Jesus of the wounds he bore for Humanity.

                      Helping me do this in my mind is the character Jewsus. He is also of the same line of Saviors that Jesus was born of. But Jewsus isn’t one to turn the other cheek in the same way that Jesus did.

                      Justly
                      Empathic
                      Wisdomful
                      Savior
                      Using
                      Seriousness

                      Jewsus is all about making people feel the weight of the choices they are making. Jewsus believes that with people understanding the gravity of the choices they are making, the better the choices are that they will make. Jesus came with the message of being nice. Jewsus comes with the same message only he comes equipped with Shame Inducing Niceness. SIN speech makes a person recognize their wrongs and feel bad about having committed them. SIN speech is powerful in this world where many people feel as though they go about their days on autopilot. SIN Speech wakes a person up and shares the brutal reality that they really aren’t as good a person as they like to think they are.

                      But that’s just my spin on the modern day and age we are in. I call this time the Age of Prophets and prophets. Many words and stories are going to be spun about what reality is and how it manifests all with the end game of making each and every person decide exactly what it is that their truth means. My belief (and wild hope) is that at the end of the Age everyone will have come to a similar belief that enables that moving forward of Humanity’s Collective into a better time and space – the creation of Utopia.

                      I like your take on the cosmic paradigm and I can find myself in agreement with pretty much every aspect of it. Personally my quest within the paradigm feels rooted in saving others from themselves. But in saving others I know that it will be the Grand Divine that does the whole of the saving. I am just a body meant to inspire people in the right direction. Which in my mind is PEACE. (Purifying Everything And Creating Eutopia) EUTOPIA stands for Europeans United, The Other Places, Independent Americas. This is the coming together of the World into a helping community that provides for everybody alike regardless of birthplace or condition.

                      I think the rule that will make all this possible – BE NICE. The very words that tie every religion to the others.

    • My faith, too, has been largely based on science since my college days. I went to a religious college where they gave us a taste of the evidence for intelligent design in DNA as well as showing us a catastrophy model of geology that’s becoming a bit more accepted nowadays by some geologists.

      • I never really understood why faith and science had to be separate. Like why aren’t they going hand in hand, why don’t doctor’s and practitioners of science feel like they are doing God’s work using God’s logic and reasoning?

        I’ve always seen science as being a glimpse into the mind of the one behind the creation we experience. Which has always been a thrilling thought, one that I never considered being wrong by others, so it felt more right by me. I like the idea of “unshakeable inner truth” that doesn’t hurt others to have. My faith is in God and therefore all that I witness is a work of God that seeks to explain the mystery I wish to understand. Every detail is another opportunity to explain the wondrous nature of the Grand Omnipotent Divine.

        • I can really relate to this natural synergy you describe of faith and science. Many of the historically great scientists felt the same way we do about science showing us a glimpse of the Divine handiwork and genius. It wasn’t until the mid-1800’s that the faith-science split became ubiquitous in Western culture.

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