HIM Blog #2: Turning to Christ.

Although I had made great progress in my understandings of ‘consciousness’, I felt like I was reaching the end of this particular line of seeking, and a new more pointed direction of searching was beginning to emerge. Even though I had a deeply meaningful relationship with God and understood with unmovable conviction that He loved not only myself but the entirety of all created things, I knew that I hadn’t given this aspect of my life the due attention it required, as it wasn’t being enriched and fed on a daily basis. I only had an understanding of what God is but not who God is. At this point in my life, I was not very religious, as my personal understanding of the personhood of God was underdeveloped. I didn’t know the personhood of God, as the infinite and divine singular individual of reality itself. I could sense God calling me to know Him on a level that He wanted me to know Him.

My knowledge of God from a religious perspective was mainly from what I learnt through Hinduism, which was very limited, as most of my study in relation to Hinduism was isolated to non-duality and the practice of self-inquiry as opposed to the Hindu teachings of who God is. Though, instead of looking deeper into Hinduism, I felt a natural pull towards the God of the Bible. I knew the source of pure consciousness I was encountering in the silence of my direct experience belonged to the Spirit of God; the same God of Holy Scripture. I felt deeply compelled to begin learning about classic Christianity.

I began by reaching out to an old friend who used to be my chaplain in high school and was now a local Pastor. We had a great catch up and very deep discussion about God, leaving me in state of excitement, as I could feel a newfound sense of determination and encouragement coming from within to form a real living personal relationship with the Lord. From this point on, I began reading the Bible, attended Church with my family and conducted my own research into questions I had about Christianity. One of the most fascinating aspects of God, which helped me understand ‘who’ He is as a relational being, was learning about His Trinitarian nature. Comprehending Him as Father, Son and Holy Spirit made complete sense in the way I was already personally connecting to God. Everything I read about God and Christianity was mind blowing and wonderful and acted to further deepen my spiritual knowledge and personal relationship with Him. This process filled me up with so much gratitude and humility, as I was in awe of the story of Jesus and how much He has done for us sinning humans, even when we repeatedly turned our back on His free grace throughout the course of human history. Although, what surprised me the most is knowing how He has always been subtly directing me back towards Himself throughout my life. As I began reflecting on the journey I had taken back to my spiritual home, I could now make sense of that pivotal moment when my perception became saturated with silence after meditating; this was my born-again moment, where the Holy Spirit revealed Himself to me.

Even though my identity went through a great transformation after my initial encounter with the Holy Spirit, it took a further three years to accurately interpret what had actually occurred in that moment. Consequently, a sense of completion in relation to who I truly was identity-wise came over me. That is when I began to wholeheartedly embrace my identity as a follower of Christ. This represented a very deepening time in my personal life, as I could feel God’s Holy Spirit working within me, helping me properly frame all the knowledge that I had accumulated since I stepped into His ever-present silence.

It was during this period that I received a perfectly timed email from a neurologist named Dr Sultan Tarlaci, who is the head editor of a journal called 'NeuroPhilosophy'. He had read my papers published in JCER and was very interested in my model of consciousness. He invited me to rewrite the whole model so that it could be considered for re-publishing in NeuroPhilosophy. I thought that this would be a great opportunity to recast my model in a way that allows us to see how the origin and nature of consciousness and its connection to the study of science can be understood through the truth of Christianity. I was beginning to see more clearly how Christianity does indeed hold the secrets behind the mysteries of consciousness that has baffled the human mind in various fields related to its study. It was obvious that God was laying out a new pathway for my writing, as it was now going to be shaped by how He could use me to glorify His existence. It was at this point that I also knew that I had to re-write my manuscript from a Christian-based lens to serve followers of Christ in understanding how meditation can also be used to commune inwardly with the Holy Spirit in the present moment.

Over the next couple of years, I immersed myself in the Christian Faith, which felt very ‘right’ and natural as this newborn identity was pushing me in directions related to my studies that were incredibly insightful. I was uncovering many interconnections between Christian doctrine, consciousness studies and relevant scientific principles that suggest that consciousness is fundamentally an immaterial infinite self-knowing field that exists beyond the physical universe but also completely pervades it and is responsible for the creation of every single piece of differentiated information that makes up the cosmos. During this period, I was successful in re-writing and re-publishing my model of consciousness, although this time consciousness was presented as God the Father. Last year (2024) I began reading how St Thomas Aquinis views the nature of God the Father in one of his great pieces of work, Summa Theologica, and was pleased to discover how the principles of God he talks about had strong overlap with axioms my model was structured by and also provided me with further insights and extensions that I could incorporate into an updated version of my model. As a result, I published a Christian-based model of consciousness in the Journal of Science and Christian Belief called ‘A Theistic Cosmological Theory Aligned with Principles of Thomism: The Holy Infinite Memory Model of Consciousness.’ From my perspective, this was the greatest piece of writing I’ve yet produced and felt like the final culmination of years of research and personal insight that presents new and fresh ways to consider the mysteries of consciousness, framed so we can’t ignore the likelihood that it originates from an all-loving eternal God.

At the same time, I was still working on the re-write of my manuscript, which was also shaped by my readings of St Thomas Aquinas. Finally, in about March of this year, I finished the new manuscript. It is called ‘Holy Infinite Memory (HIM) Meditation: Revealing Your True Worth and Identity Through the Remembrance of the Holy Spirit Within’. This manuscript rewrite was the most satisfying writing process I’ve ever experienced. As I mentioned, the previous version of the manuscript did not refer to God directly, which, in retrospect, was very limiting and therefore, lacked a depth that can only be achieved when your writing has an explicit reverence to the one true God: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Therefore, the writing experience this time around was very freeing and easier to write, as I could explain ideas and concepts in a much more explicit and direct way with reference to God and the way in which His Spirit dwells within us. The truth of God is at the foundation of all truths and this spiritual fact, therefore, made it much easier and clearer to articulate how different understandings interrelate, as without the foundation of God’s existence behind all things, which is the unified source that all knowledge emanates from, it can be difficult to illustrate how different principles and concepts from different fields of study make sense in relation to one another. 

I am now at a point along my path where I am primed to begin teaching the principles of HIM Meditation, outlined in my book, to Christians. This blog is a part of my efforts to create a HIM Meditation platform, where visitors can inspect my website (HIM-meditation.com) and gain free access to material that supports the information contained within my book, such as my blog, associated vlogs, videos of guided meditation. They can also explore web links to my published papers. HIM Meditation is for any Christian who wants to deepen their personal relationship with God and continue undergoing the process of identity formation that aligns with the purpose God has for us as image bearers of His Spirit. This practice is meant to act as an ‘additional tool’ that can be utilised to commune with and spend time in God’s presence in addition to the other more traditional ways of developing an intimate relationship with the Lord, such as praying, reading the Bible and attending Church. I believe this practice will have a strong resonance with Gen Z. A lot of studies are showing that this generation is increasingly identifying as Christian and looking towards spirituality for truth and answers about life. Personally, I have a lot of experience teaching people of the Gen Z generation, as I was a primary school teacher for 15 years and am now 42.

HIM Meditation not only provides practical instructions on how to conduct Christian-based meditation, but it also explains how our perception biologically operates in relation to the fact that God’s infinite worth exists as the centre of your existence, which is reasoned from a variety of viewpoints. Ultimately, HIM Meditation will benefit anyone who already follows Christ or, indeed, anyone who is interested in becoming a Christian. This is a very serious practice that aims to facilitate one's natural beckoning to turn to Christ, repent of their sins and take up their cross in order to experience the infinite love He has for all and to awaken to His internal divine value through the inner-presence of the Holy Spirit.

Images belong to singingwiththespirit and inspiredpencil respectfully.