The theology of sweets and smiles?

Godly Humor Series

the funny side of life

Ice cream is always a cure.

Mirror of human nature?

Where Frailty and Nobility Intertwine

Nowhere does Shakespeare capture this tension better than in the speeches where majesty and mortality meet in a single breath.

What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty—and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? (The ultimate synthesis—infinite mental capability paired with mere dust).

—Hamlet (Act II, Scene ii)

Man, proud man, drest in a little brief authority, plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, as makes the angels weep. (Humanity's noble striving for authority collapsed into fragile, foolish arrogance).

—Measure for Measure (Act II, Scene ii)

We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep. (Dignified wonder interwoven with fleeting, fragile mortality).

—The Tempest (Act IV, Scene i)

Depicting Human Frailty

These terms and lines highlight our vulnerability, foolishness, fleeting existence, and moral susceptibility.

Quintessence of dust (Hamlet)—The underlying insignificance of physical existence.

Bare, forked animal (King Lear)—Man stripped of clothes, wealth and status—raw vulnerability.

A walking shadow (Macbeth)—Life devoid of substance or permanence.

A poor player (Macbeth)—Humanity pretending to have control on a grand stage.

Bubble reputation (As You Like It)—The fragile, easily popped nature of human fame.

Mortal coil (Hamlet)—The heavy, tangling burden of physical life.

Frailty, thy name is woman!

—Hamlet (Act I, Scene ii)

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.

—Macbeth (Act V, Scene v)

Unaccommodated man is no more but such a bare, forked animal as thou art.

—King Lear (Act III, Scene iv)

Depicting Human Nobility

These selections emphasize moral grandeur, intellectual majesty, empathy, and spiritual grace.

Noble in reason (Hamlet)—The divine spark of intellect and logic.

Infinite in faculty (Hamlet)—Boundless capacity for creativity and thought.

In apprehension how like a god (Hamlet)—The capacity for deep understanding and vision.

The quality of mercy (The Merchant of Venice)—Moral grace elevated above earthly power.

Brave new world (The Tempest)—A vision of humanity as radiant, goodly creatures.

His life was gentle, and the elements so mix'd in him that Nature might stand up and say to all the world, 'his was a man!

—Julius Caesar (Act V, Scene v)

How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in't!

—The Tempest (Act V, Scene i)

The quality of mercy is not strain'd, it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven—It is an attribute to God himself.

— The Merchant of Venice (Act III, Scene i)

How to unlock the power of the mind?

How can you learn to remember spirit travels?

How can you learn to remember spirit travels?

How can you learn to remember spirit travels?

How does a spirit travel?

How can you learn to remember spirit travels?

By training the brain to remember physical experiences correctly and thoroughly—a sort of memory training course.

Start by thinking and trying to recall everything you did yesterday, remembering it, not only in minute detail, but in proper sequence—

Then try to remember in the same way and as fully what you did the day before yesterday, and the day before that, and so on—

It requires a great deal of practice and a great deal of patience, but it is the best foundation for recalling psychic and spiritual experiences.

Through these material scenes, you are forcing the memory back as regards time. You would not need to force the memory back so far in this respect to recall spiritual experiences, but you would need to force it further as regards distance.

As I have often told you, time has no meaning for us here, but distance has though to those of us who advance it becomes of less and less significance—it has to be reckoned with however by the newcomer.

For travelling under particular conditions, we have to learn to control the forces and powers within ourselves, so as to be able to go through certain experiences.

A novice is only allowed to walk about here as if he were on the earth—if he has to go on a journey guides go with to protect him—in fact they have to work and concentrate on him to keep him intact during his voyage through space! (Yes, what I am saying is literally a fact).

If a newcomer took himself from here to the earth plane (if he could), his body would be almost falling to pieces—it would be flopping about because the currents and forces in the atmosphere would be too powerful for him.

When I come to you I concentrate and will my body to stiffen and consolidate, and not until I feel I have absolute mental command over myself in detail, even down to my toes and ears, do I start.

I had to learn how to locate in my mind the exact place or distance from my mind to where my toes would be (we measure everything from the head in this case), for I must set the mental picture to get exactly five toes on each foot.

I must then switch off and yet retain the idea while I think of what the top of my head looks like (I know it seems to you a troublesome thing to have to do, but remember our consciousness or mind can hold a hundredfold what yours will).

I do all this because as soon as I get in touch with these atmospheric forces I have to hold myself together strongly to resist them.

Now, if I am not in a hurry to reach my destination, I do not trouble to do anything further than to keep a clear picture of myself in the proportions in which I appear in my own sphere, and I project my thoughts all the time to the place to which I am going, but the first consideration is always my body.

If I were in a great hurry, directly I started I should get the picture of myself very clear, and then I should quickly, but gradually contract my body from within (yes, I know it sounds extraordinary, but you must remember there is an elasticity about our bodies—only an advanced spirit can do this, not a newcomer).

I begin by drawing my whole consciousness within myself, and in so doing I draw upward and inward each part of my body, making myself very self-centred and bringing my extremities nearer to my consciousness.

I have told you my body is made of atoms, but because they are minutely fine I can actually consolidate them into a very small space, there is so much God-force holding them together.

When I get near my destination I gradually and consciously expand my body to its normal dimensions.

I only contract my body in this way for emergency travelling, and I know spirits who have been here many years and who cannot do it—it is only intended for those who have serious and special work to do, in which case it is expedient.

I know it sounds difficult to realise, but you must understand that in our sphere mind does govern matter.

On earth it is often the other way. There, for instance, suppose a man's liver is out of order, his mind gets depressed—

My mind here would mend whatever part of me was not quite right (if that were possible).

In our own conditions our bodies are quite as solid as yours, but in as far as they are matter, they are completely under the control of the trained mind.

Your physical body contains a good proportion of water. Suppose that water could be temporally expelled into the atmosphere, your body would become much lighter and would shrink.

My body here has certain gases and moisture in it (in greater proportion than the amount of actual atoms it contains)—to contract my body I expel those gases and that moisture, and this enables me to draw the atoms closer in.

When I get near my destination, the atoms of my body, my life force, my consciousness, and my spirit are all there—It is only the gases and moisture that are missing.

I, to regain my normal size, draw in the gases and moisture of your sphere, and it is better for me to do so though it is not absolutely essential. The advantage is this, that through absorbing a certain amount of the physical condition around you I am more easily able to get into touch with you and earth things.

—Claude in Spirit