Integral Padre Pio
August 27, 2007
PADRE PIO
Ethical Development: Ethnocentric (i.e. HATED Pentecostals, saw them as “enemies of the church”)
Spiral Dynamic: Blue/Transpersonal - Absolutistic-obedience mythic order—purposeful/authoritarian
Stage of Moral Development: Level 2/Conventional
Political Ideology: Democratic (did not approve of Mussolini’s socialist, was happy when the Allies won, praised the Americans he met, voted democratic, was hated by communists)
I’ve been reading Bernard Ruffin’s Padre Pio: The True Story and (though it is almost as boring as the Bible) it has extremely interesting content (if there can be such a contradiction of qualities in a book, you’ll find it in these 319 pages).
Padre Pio was a Capuchin friar. Capuchins are Catholic fundamentalists not to be confused with monks. Capuchin are a branch of the Franciscan Order. It is a level of discipline and dedication that few of ANY faith can muster. They live with no possessions giving up EVERYTHING including will to the Catholic church. They live a life of complete abstinence, austerity and piety. They are as far beyond secular priests as priests are beyond everyday Catholics.
That being said, Padre Pio was the cream of the crop. His level of dedication afforded him a following that spanned the Western world. Bernard’s book talks about many of the miracles that 1st, 2nd and 3rd hand witness’ claimed he did. I don’t have any doubt that Pio was a conduit for some incredible force of nature (divinity?), but he was also surrounded by fanatics and superstitious country folks whose minds were still in medieval Europe even though it was the late 1800’s - mid 1950’s. One example of this archaic mind set is that the people of his local township, San Giovanni Rotondo (southern Italy) threatened to beat or even kill anyone who would dare take their blessed saint. Their passionate wrath is both amazing and sad, but I guess such possessive attitudes over local saints was common in that part of the world in that era. At one point the Mayor himself Mocaldi told the officials of the Holy Office that if they took Padre Pio away he would shed his title and join the mob himself. A local brick layer even pulled a gun on Pio and told him he was staying “dead or alive”!
Padre Pio, though cut from the same cloth as his beloved townsmen, was frustrated with their behavior. He was down right mean to those that gave him the glory instead of God. The most impressive thing to me about Padre Pio was not his miracles (these were amazing feats, no doubt) but his humility, compassion and dedication that for me made him a true saint. These (his level of submission to God) seemed to be the conditions that allowed him to be a vessel for such miracles. Ultimately, it is his love that converted so many.
His miracles included:
bi location, stigmata, healing, predictions, telepathy, the ability to know languages he’d seemingly never studied and virtually all the miracles that were performed by the Apostles in Acts.
Bernard’s book is worth reading if only to see the wealth of anecdotal evidence of Padre Pio’s works. If you are researching Pio’s life, look no further than Padre Pio: The True Story.
Psycho-energetic Powers of the Human Species: Intro
August 20, 2007
I have read a few accounts of people with amazing abilities. Abilities such as being two places at once (bilocation), telepathy, healing and other incredible phenomenon. Now since the majority of these “miracles” are hearsay, science and the more credible brain trusts of Western culture, tends to marginalize or even ridicule the mere mention of such claims.
But it seems ignorant to discount ALL these things when they are reported all over the world in almost every language, culture and religion. Like the UFO phenomenon, I would think that the shear volume of credible witnesses with such claims would peak more interest. Both science and religion are proper to their respective forms. Science from the beginning denies anything and everything until the bitter end. Religion no longer kills people for being heretics but they have a trump card that defeats followers every time. If they disagree with something that is taking convert away than “its evil”.
I believe that both science and religion are wrong about these powers that the human species seem to possess. Orthodoxy mainstream science is wrong in discounting the phenomenon and some major religions are wrong in claiming exclusive rights to the phenomenon and/or condemn it as “evil”.
Now I don’t want to generalize. Not all credible scientist discount all supernatural phenomenon and not all religions condemn and/or claim exclusive rights.
Perhaps these things are not “supernatural” at all, but a natural part of normally dormant abilities. We call them supernatural and magical because we don’t understand the true “nature” of reality. I hope that one day we will have an understanding that will place phenomenon such as bilocation on the same level as rational thinking and talking. These are also amazing abilities we have but we don’t call them supernatural
Miracles of Modern Science
July 17, 2007
The thing about science is that once you’ve figured out what appears to be a miracle, it is no longer a miracle. So science is more like realization of facts.
Quantum “Teleportation”
Quantum physicists have known about the ability of particles to instantaneously transport states with no regard for space for decades. This property of quantum physics has been coined, “entaglement“. Researchers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have demonstrated that it is possible to “teleport” information from one so-called quantum dot to another (2). This demonstration may be progress toward a quantum computer.
more on quantum teleportation of states:
“Teleportation is a really unfortunate term,” says University of Michigan physicist Christopher Monroe. “It implies moving people from point A to point B,” when in fact it refers to “creating a quantum state in one place that used to exist somewhere else” with no intervening connection (1).
NanoWires: Nanodevice Synthesis Revolutionizes Biological Sensors
A novel approach to synthesizing nanowires (NWs) allows their direct integration with microelectronic systems for the first time, as well as their ability to act as highly sensitive biomolecule detectors that could revolutionize biological diagnostic applications, according to a report in Nature. They’ve created molecule sized sensors that can detect antibodies in real time (3).
MIT Researchers Find Key Enzyme for Reversing Retardation in Mice Researchers at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT have, for the first time, reversed symptoms of mental retardation and autism in mice (4).
Works Cited:
1 - Christian Science Monitor. Spooky Action At a Distance. http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1004/p15s1-stss.html
2 - The Register. Boffins Go Dotty over Quantum Teleporation. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/01/quantum_teleporting/
3 - Yale edu. Breakthrough Biological Sensors. http://www.yale.edu/opa/newsr/07-01-31-02.all.html
4 - MIT News. Reversing Retardation in Mice. http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/fragilex-0625.html
7 Wonders of the World - @ greatsubjects
July 16, 2007
http://greatsubjects.com/2007/05/14/new-7-miracles-of-the-world-will-be-named-on-july-7th-this-year-that-is-070707-participants-photos-21/
