November 18, 2025

When I threw out theology all those years ago, I had to replace it with something that could serve as the core ground of existence, the “rock solid foundation” of who we are and what we are about, the Source of Life and Being. Initially, I referred to the bedrock of all that is “That Which Has Always Been Called God,” which I thought of as being “before and beyond the God of theology.” I have narrowed this over time and now think of the Source and Sustaining Force of Life and Being as the Psyche, or the Psychic Source of Life and Being.

“Psyche” and “Psychic” are terms that Carl Jung used exclusively to refer to “That which can be experienced but not understood, and that which can be understood but not explained” (R. D. Laing’s term), and which increasingly are terms used to refer to the unconscious, or that area of our experience which we are not conscious of directly but “see” evidence of in our dreams, premonitions, extrasensory perceptions, etc. The trend popularized by Alan Watts of thinking of consciousness as the root cause of physical existence at work throughout the universe, or cosmos, is a companion theory along with Psyche as alternative ways of comprehending the origin of life in ways that supplant the God of theology (Which was invented by the Church of Rome, now the Roman Catholic Church) during the 400 years between Jesus’ execution and the closing of the bible to any additional scriptures in 392 CE).

However we choose to think about the origin of existence, simply sitting quietly, empty of thoughts, emotions, memories, etc., and opening ourselves to the experience of silence and what may be stirring to life itself in the stillness beyond the silence, the adventure of being alive takes on a powerful new meaning as we imagine the possibilities and the paths that open themselves to us free from the burdens and restraints of theology and all of the things we must not allow ourselves to think, or say, or ask and step into new opportunities for thinking and being.