So, let's start in Genesis 1:1, with what I consider the most controversial passage of the entire Bible. It says this; "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

If you believe that, nothing else in the Bible is hard to believe. Nothing existed and God created it all out of nothing. God created the universe, the heavens, everything you see, everything you don't see. He created it all. And then He created earth as a special one of the planets to be inhabited by all humankind; the crown of His creation. If you believe that, there's nothing else in the Bible that will be hard for you to believe.

But most people don't make it out of Genesis 1:1 without saying, "No, that's not how it happened." There's no way there was a God who created everything out of nothing, let alone on six literal days. Listen, God created everything out of nothing in six literal 24 hour days, 'cause that's what the Word of God teaches. So, at the end of our day, if we can believe chapter one and verse one, then everything else is not a problem.

So, chapter 1 verse one says that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And so, we see that the earth was formless and void, and there was darkness over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was moving on the surface of the waters.

You may say so what? But what we have here with further revelation is the Triune God. In the beginning, God, the Hebrew Elohim, plural, the strong, powerful God, created the heavens and the earth. So, who all was there?

In John 1:1, John, speaking of Jesus says: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." So, who else was there?

Jesus.

And who else was there? The Holy Spirit hovering over the waters.

So, what do you have? The Father, Son and Holy Spirit creating everything!

Here's what we also know. Because God was the only eyewitness at creation, His testimony is the only one that counts, right?

Charles Darwin wasn't there.

We weren't there.

Nobody else was there.

Anytime you don't believe that God is the only one who created. And anytime you don't believe the way He said what He did, it's because you'd rather believe man's ideas than what God has to say in His Word. It's as simple as that. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

https://bahaiteachings.org/the-universal-mind-and-you/

Manning, I have no desire or intention to be part of your intended group with it's intended subject of inquiry, but do have a few comments.

First, the Bahai teaching (of Bahá'u'llá) website posted at the top of the page uses your "Universal Mind" label, if not concept. The Baháʼí Faith began on May 22, 1844, as an offshoot of Islam. Their motto: "The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."

My initial thought on the "Universal Mind" was of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's "noosphere," born on May 1st, 1881 to Emmanuel and Berthe-Adele Teilhard de Chardin - his mother was the great grandniece of Francois-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was a French geologist, anthropologist, and Jesuit priest.
He was considered a visionary as he developed an evolutionary vision of our planetary future, developing from a sphere of life, or biosphere towards a sphere of mind, or noosphere - later identified with the internet. He wrote "The Formation of the Noosphere," in 1947... Teilhard was said to be on the brink of formulating the internet, he also anticipated current academic efforts toward globalization, as well as human, cultural and technological evolution.

In reading through the initial comments on this thread, as a Christian, and lifelong student of Comparative Religion, including their history, founders, countries, dates, beliefs, etc., of Christianity, Judaism, Islam and other major World Religions, as well as Cults, the Occult, Philosophers, Psychologists, and Dictators/Tyrants, I found the lack of spiritual knowledge and discernment displayed by very serious, intelligent, well educated, upstanding citizens in their right mind, somewhat surprising.

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I see. Which means I don't see, if you are talking about myself. Both sky, JW and I are not attempting to enter into the Theology that others have seized upon. We are very simply trying to figure out how to access what we call the Universal Mind. Both of us have had experiences that tell us that there is something there, and we may be able to connect with it by some non-verbal means as "it" connected with us multiple times. We are curious about UM.

If this means we are stirring up a hornet's nest due to our total ignorance of what UM really is, we will back off, I am sure. I am mindful of my own spirituality and intend to preserve it and protect it from any threat, and I am sure that sky and JW feel the same. The key word here is ignorance, and the next key word is curiosity. Do you have any thoughts about this approach? We are open to any and all thoughts.

What sets this little group apart from the population as a whole is our willingness to entertain the possibility of the supernatural.

Atheism and agnosticism are on the rise, and although people still are interested in tales of the supernatural they are far less likely to incorporate that other realm into their daily lives.

It's such a shame, to settle for the shallow and pedantic secular life when it is so easy and richly rewarding to take that step towards, to paraphrase the Ghost Busters, 'Being Ready to Believe. '

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Good! We agree! Does JW agree?

Our real first steps are simple: 1. collect and document what we do know about UM/UC. 2. Use what we find out about means for accessing the UM to make strong attempts to achieve that. 3. We either succeed or fail at this point, singly or collectively. I am assuming that we will know when we succeed! In addition, the more people we have trying the better, I believe! I classify this approach as a Bottom Up one, not a Top Down one. In general, you can begin anywhere, of course, in your research, but some approaches are easier than others. In the end, you will course through it all anyway, if you have success. The UM itself will tell us what is true, I suppose! Which leads me to believe we should figure out just what we must ask of the UM in step 1.

I _imagine_ or _feel_ that there is a G-d that loves me. What we imagine can be important. What we feel can be important. What we usually call "physical reality" is sometimes less important than what we feel.

I occasionally imagine some property of G-d. For example, I feel that we live in a 4-dimensional space (3 spatial dimensions and 1 time dimension). In this 4-D space everything that has ever happened is preserved, similarly as an insect can be preserved in amber. Moreover, a G-d which exists in 5-D (or more-than-5-D) space can look down on the 4-D space (similarly as a 3-D entity can look down on a 2-D plane); and, looking down upon it, might, perhaps, view the entirety of the 4-D space: what we call the past, present, and future.

I often feel that there's a G-d which knows everything. I do feel guilty about doing or saying a bad thing, even if I'm not found out about it by other people. It's bad enough that I had to witness myself doing or saying the bad thing. To me it is as though there is a G-d that sees all of it.