The Mystery of Life

 

The following is a transcript of a talk (see video) I gave at Unity Lincoln on November 16, 2025.

I came across something online a few years ago: a now-deceased Facebook friend had written it decades before.

It was in response to an age-old question many people have grappled with: "Since everything in the universe requires a cause, must not the universe itself have a cause, which is God?"

This is the best answer I've ever read, which I've edited for length:

"The universe is the total of that which exists. … To demand a cause for all of existence is to demand a contradiction: if the cause exists, it is part of existence; if it does not exist, it cannot be a cause.  Nothing cannot be the cause of something.  Nothing does not exist. . .. The forms of existence may change and evolve, but the fact of existence is the irreducible primary at the base of all causal chains. 

… The universe did not 'begin'--it did not, at some point in time, 'spring into being.' Time is a measurement of motion. Motion presupposes entities that move. If nothing existed, there could be no time. Time is 'in[ the universe; the universe is not 'in' time. 

… Nothing is outside of existence, and 'nothing' is not just another kind of 'some-thing--it is nothing.  Existence exists; you cannot go outside it, you cannot get under it, on top of it or behind it. Existence exists--and only existence exists: there is nowhere else to go."

This was written by Nathaniel Branden, who was a leading proponent of the philosophy called Objectivism, and ironically, Objectivism is probably the most anti-mystical, anti-spiritual, anti-religious philosophy out there. 

But I found this to be a compelling explanation. I don't know if there was a Big Bang, but if there was, what was before it? The Universe existing in some other form. The Big Bang could not have come from nothing. The Universe may change, but it has no origin. It is the all-in-all.

Nathaniel Branden's mentor was the founder of Objectivism, the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand. Ayn Rand was born in Russia. Her childhood was during Tsar Nicholas's reign and her teen years were under the Communist Party regime. Rand came to the United States in her early twenties. She rejected any hint of superstition, which historically had led rulers like the Tsar to derive their legitimacy from the blessings of priests. And she fervently rejected the weaponization of compassion and altruism that produces communism. Rand has been criticized for her ideas and personality by people who have never experienced anything like what she did in her youth.  

I have only a superficial understanding, but in some ways, Objectivism is common sense, as in the description of existence I just read. Objectivists also express in their own way the importance of respecting the freedoms of others that you claim for yourself, and that you are the operant power, the only one responsible for creating the life you want.

However, Objectivism holds that the universe exists independent of consciousness broadly speaking or of any individual consciousness, and that Reason is the only absolute. According to Objectivism,  "the mind does not create reality, but rather, it is a means of discovering reality.": Put another way, "existence has 'primacy' over consciousness, which must conform to it." The outer world of existence and the inner world of reason are separate.

And that is where I respectfully part ways with the Objectivists.

I plead guilty to "mysticism" because I think existence is consciousness and love is the only absolute. I am conscious - aware of- my existence, and therefore I exist. Consciousness and Existence are two sides of the same Unity coin. Another way to say it is that the universe - existence - is energy, and consciousness is with that energy and is that energy. This energy is light. It is the life force. It is love. Many people call that energy Spirit, or God. God did not come before or create the universe, God is the universe.

Spirit, God, the good, love, is what we are. The universe and all that is in it is nothing but God, including you and me. 

The inner world and the outer world are the same. As Vivian May Williams wrote in There is Nothing But God, "Heaven and earth are but terms used to indicate invisibility and visibility … Hence the prayer 'Thy kingdom (invisible ideas) come on earth (be visibly expressed) as it is in heaven (let the two worlds function as one).'" 

This makes more sense to me than separating the concepts of existence and consciousness. But I do understand the Objectivist or materialist skepticism towards the mystical. I understand the rejection of belief in God as imagined by the literal interpretation of ancient Scriptures. And if someone asks you to do something that doesn't make sense to you, it is valid to ask them their reason. "Spirit told me that you should do this" is not a reason. I agree with the Objectivist rejection of submitting to the faith-based authority of others.

But to me, the physical universe and non-physical mind seem to be intertwined. I am persuaded by the body of evidence in my own life, the life of friends, and information from broader society. 

Example 1: Healing can be achieved by belief alone: for example, believing that the pill will make you well can make you well, even if the pill is a placebo.

Example 2: Healing can also be achieved through prayer alone when doctors have given up on the case as hopeless. Even if the people praying for you have different conceptions of the God they are praying to, they are still sending their loving intentions—healing energy—your way.

Example 3: Sleeping dreams, Near-Death Experiences, Remote Viewing, and the very ability to imagine, all suggest that we can see with our minds, not only through our physical eyes.

Example 4: Personally, I have dreamt things in my sleep, things I would not have imagined, that have come to pass.

Example 5: I've experienced several minor and some major miracles in which desires I was praying about had manifested in improbable and unexpected ways, and without the use of my rational faculties. I know many of you have experienced these as well.

Example 6: In general, it appears that the people most successful in their fields are those who dreamed bigger than Reason would say is realistic. Belief, not Reason, is the key. 

So I am on Team Mystical. I believe this existence is much more than the evidence of the five senses and using the rational faculty to survive.

We are divine beings with the power to shape reality through our consciousness, our minds. Spirit won't guide me to tell you what to do, but I will bless the Spirit, the divinity, in you, for we are all free, and should be free, to let the spirit within each of us guide our own lives.

 As Vivian May Williams also wrote:

"God and man are not two but One, as evidenced by Jesus Christ. . . . [W]e do not have to struggle to attain our divinity— we have but to accept it as Jesus did . . . We do not have to become spiritual—we are spiritual and perfect now."

And she emphasizes:

"I wish to remind you that I am speaking of you as you appear here in this world for this is the real universe peopled with spiritual beings." 

Ayn Rand and Nathaniel Branden said that existence exists and there is nowhere else to go. I agree. And I also agree with Vivian May Williams, who calls existence heaven, saying "Heaven is here around us so we can not go any other place."

You might as well be free and unlimited right here and right now, because you have nowhere else to go.

You might as well feel never-ending joy right here and right now, because you cannot be joyful any other place; there is no other place.

Now, all of what I just said is my context for pondering the great mystery of life. For me, it is this: If we are perfect, where did erroneous thinking come from, and why do we often feel that the love of God seems so distant?

And especially, "Where did the erroneous thinking come from that produced the appearance of disease and poverty?"

Thinking of Veterans Day that just passed, we ask, "Where did the erroneous thinking come from that leads us to war?"

From Christian Science to A Course In Miracles, here in Unity, we've heard about the nothingness of evil, that it is an error. That's true, but sometimes it doesn't sound very helpful, does it?

To trace error thinking back to the ego or to fear only begs the question. But the allegory of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil may provide a clue. Perhaps Adam and Eve were just innocent, like children, and received confusing messages from beings they perceived were wiser than they were. One of them, the serpent, essentially said, "Eat from this tree, and then you will be perfect." In other words, the serpent was saying, "You are not perfect yet; there is something more you can do." So the thought of imperfection led to the mistake of eating from the Tree.  After Eve and Adam ate from the Tree, they began making more mistakes, and ever since that story was written, many of us have been taught that we were born into sin, inherently sinful and imperfect. And even those who don't come from that tradition will say, "Nobody's perfect."

And so based on the false belief that we are imperfect, we kept making mistakes. All our worries, our seeming problems, trace back to, well, other mistake-prone human beings and flawed human-created systems where we can point fingers and place blame. Marriage problems. Other relationship problems. Money problems. Career problems, especially when you only have the career to make the money. Health problems exacerbated by added chemicals in our food and by air and water pollution. Political problems.

And each of us, in one way or another, seems to contribute to these problems. We make mistakes and other people are hurt or inconvenienced, adding to their frustrations and strengthening our belief in our weaknesses.

We've been taught that we aren't perfect and that nobody's perfect, and learning life skills is mostly about "improving" ourselves and managing our problems and other people's problems

But the only reason we are imperfect - that is, the only reason we seem to be imperfect- is because that is what we have been taught.

Far be it from me to make assumptions about anyone's age, but most of you were probably taught in school that Pluto is a planet.

Did you believe it? I did.

Well, in 2006, the International Astronomical Union decided that Pluto is not, in fact, a planet.

Did you ever for a moment think, "What an idiot I am! What a fool I was for believing Pluto was a planet! I'm worthless."

No, you didn't ever think that? Your opinion of yourself did not change with the new information? That's because you knew it wasn't your fault that you believed what you were taught by people who were in a better position to know things than you.

Well, guess what: in spite of what you may have been taught…

You are perfect. Your neighbor is perfect. Your coworker is perfect. The homeless person you see on the street is perfect. The richest and most powerful people on earth are perfect. But we all have been taught that we are imperfect, by people who themselves were taught they were imperfect, going back and back to time immemorial.

Not only do we make mistakes because of the false beliefs that we are imperfect, but we make even greater mistakes when we try to fix the imperfections we see in others.

We see the perfection of the trees outside our house. We see the perfection in our pets, who can't even conceive that they are imperfect. We only think we see imperfection in others because we believe in their imperfections, but we only believe that because we believe in our own imperfections.

However, to say "Namaste" is to behold the divinity in the person next to you, to behold their perfection. You might as well joyfully and thankfully acknowledge their perfection as you would in heaven, because this is heaven; there is no other one to go to.

Unfortunately, we often do not realize that someone was perfect until we receive the news that their soul has transitioned out of their body, that is, when their current physical body has died. Then, their perfection lives on in memory.

This past week, November 10, marked the 50th Anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, a freighter that sank in stormy Lake Superior. All 29 crew members were lost. Although newsworthy at the time, the tragedy may well have been forgotten by history except that the news moved the singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot. He researched the incident and released the song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" the following August. It was a big hit, and the Edmund Fitzgerald is now one of the best-known and most analyzed shipwrecks in history.

The song is vivid in placing the listener on the ship, imagining what sailors must have felt. And it hits the heart with lines like:

And all that remains are the faces and the names

Of the wives and the sons and the daughters

And:

In a musty old hall in Detroit, they prayed

In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral

The church bell chimed 'til it rang twenty-nine times

For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald

It's a song that creates a sense of oneness with and love for the crew and their families. But for me, it is also a song in tribute to everyone who has lost their lives on the sea and in other high-risk and dangerous occupations that help create abundance for the rest of us. 

Gordon Lightfoot donated his royalties from the song to the families of the crew and built lasting friendships with them. When he passed away in 2023, the Mariner's Church in Detroit rang its bell 30 times.

Gordon Lightfoot showed us what heaven is by bringing to this world a song that fostered love and appreciation. If we strip away, unlearn, all of our own false beliefs about ourselves and others, we can continually experience more and more of the heaven that we are here to experience.  

Thank you.

James Leroy Wilson writes The MVP Chase (subscribe) and JL Cells (subscribe). Thank you for your subscriptions and support! You can contact James for writing, editing, research, and other work at jamesleroywilson-at-gmail.com.