The Prison Dialogue represents the starting point of a long-overdue, and very different conversation about the near-term consequences of our behavior.
And while our culture is brimming with post-apocalyptic imagery, the immediate cause of apocalyptic events is largely attributed to future events. We choose not to link our current, familiar forms of behavior to our potential demise.
While THE PRISON DIALOGUE does not create a nexus between present actions and future problems, it does state that evolution is the unavoidable––and magical––constant of all life, and that by the operation of our wills we can suppress the collective state of fear that invariably leads to our downward evolution––and hopelessness––as we elevate the hope that will lead to a higher state dominated by the many avatars of love.
Institutions, like the individuals that comprise them, are likewise subject to evolution. In fact, the most successful institutions take great pride in declaring their ability to evolve and accommodate changes in consumer demands, competitive stress and regulatory environments.
The same cannot be said of organized religions. While among the largest institutions on the planet, organized religions––self-described divine/human institutions––largely focus on the divine component of their mixed pedigree and downplay, or are in denial, of the evolutionary forces that effect the humans who run and rely on them.
This has led to an untimely, self-imposed paralysis. Consider: For millennia organized religions have provided two essential things that only organized religions can provide; a moral and ethical foundation for the development of human society, and charitable works that sustain the neediest members of that society. No institutions do these things better, and no institutions willingly benefit more people beyond their institutional borders than organized religions can and do.
However, there is third thing that organized religions can––and must––do but have largely failed to do. They must openly and vigorously bear witness to the shared spirituality of all sentient beings.
This is not tantamount to sharing the pulpit with a local Imam during the annual Ecumenical Sunday service, or sending missionaries to convert non-believers.
This institutional obligation is only fulfilled when organized religions declare––and act upon their declaration––that our shared spirituality is the primary point of affiliation for all people, a point that exists beyond the sectarian boundaries of any religion, and one that supersedes the racial, political, class and, yes, religious affiliations that have culminated in the tribalization of present-day America.
This begs the question:
What is spirituality?
It’s simply a word that describes how Universal Energy is shared among, and affects, all sentient beings.
Or to hear Dr. Gina Gilford describe it: ‘All major religions are also what I term ‘unilistic’ at their roots. Minus the sectarian narratives and social dicta, all begin with the postulation of an omnipotent God beyond the scope of human comprehension characterized by an unbridled capacity for love and an intimate involvement with every aspect and element of creation.
The same definition could be applied to Universal Energy, the stuff that has been present from before the first instant of creation and that defines, binds, and empowers everyone and everything. In fact, the terms God and Energy would be perfectly interchangeable were it not for the anthropomorphic, sectarian limitations placed on God.
The term Energy, likewise, has long been miscategorized as referring to the purely scientific and being at loggerheads with all things religious. Yet we are edging ever closer to the realization that there is no practical distinction between the empirical findings of modern science and the tenets of spirituality.
To assert one’s spirituality is to say nothing more than, “I am connected to all of creation.” The connective mechanism, it winds up, is the same Energy shared by God and science.’
- The Prison Dialogue, Chapter 17, Dr. Gina Gilford’s Commentary On Raul’s 3,827th Letter.