Article 1 - "TUNING INTO A HIGHER FREQUENCY" by Jessica Kuzmier November 2007 edition of First Church of The Streets

     A person's mind seems like the ultimate private domain. In an age of digital markers tracking one's journey on the Internet, it seems that the only place for refuge is within the mind. This sanctuary seems secure enough. After all, what one thinks can't be traced by Homeland Security or computers. Miscommunication with the person right next to you is prevalent and quite common. If that is so, it would seem that people can't read one's mind. What someone thinks is completely impervious from intrusion, it appears. As long as one keeps his thoughts to himself and is conscious of his moves not betraying him, his thoughts can remain a secret. At least, in his own mind.

     How true is this story that this person tells himself? His premise sounds solid in principle. Private thoughts seem to be contained within the house of a mind, unable to affect what is outside of a person. After all, it seems impossible to control circumstances outside of one's self, and difficult to control even within one's self. A person may find it impossible to convince an outsider of her point of view, even when factually she turns out to be correct, such as noticing a loved one's descent into drug addiction. She may find it hard to control herself, as in lashing out in rage at the person who is self-destructing. So if she has angry thoughts that she doesn't tell anyone, suppressing them to think more rationally, she certainly has reason to think that her self-control is containing any leak.

     Because of this literal cause and effect, it may be strange to consider the fact that what one thinks is not as contained as a person would like to believe. Science has explored this reality, creating theories such as Chaos theory or the Butterfly Effect, essentially remarking that disconnected events, at least in a rationalistic, linear sense, can have chain reactions against each other. Within this theory, one's thoughts, which are actions even if they remain in the domain of the brain, might have unforseen effects on activities that go on around a person.

     This may not be as strange as it seems at first glance. In a dating situation, a man may seem perfectly "normal" in appearance to a woman, and yet the woman has a bad feeling about him anyway. An applicant comes in seeking a job with all the right things on her resume, but the interviewer picks up something in things she doesn't say, maybe a certain shiftiness in her behavior, and rejects her as a candidate despite superficial perfection. In both the dating situation and the job interview, the man and the applicant may have had cognizant plans to suppress negative thoughts and control their behavior, but the woman and the interviewer picked it up anyway. Perhaps it was nonverbal actions that gave them away, or, as the woman in the dating situation experienced, "a bad feeling" about the person.

     Nonverbal cues seem obvious enough to communicate a message, as in a lack of eye contact or laughing at seemingly inappropriate times. But despite the insistence that certain expressions are universal throughout humanity, many nonverbal cues are cultural and can be easily misunderstood. North Americans prefer more distance between those they dialogue with than Mediterraneans. Asians tend to smile when they are nervous, and lack of eye contact is more common in their culture than amongst Occidentals. Just within these simple differences a load of misunderstanding can take place, rendering the solidity of nonverbal cues to verify dialogue as unsatisfactory. And of course, there are those cultural anomalies such as the North American Italian who likes to get up close and personal, reserved Arabs, the Japanese businessman who oozes confidence with his brimming smile while eyeing one down, and the Englishwoman who avoids eye contact out of shyness and coyness rather than outright deception. Because people are individuals rather than cookie cutter replicas of their itinerant cultures, relying on cultural cues to determine meaning fall short as well.

     The strange feelings that don't seem to be rational in origin can't really be explained away by comforting stereotypes such as gender, generational differences, or cultural misunderstanding. It is as though something random is in play, as in the theories of randomness and chaos, because despite rational planning, something else is being communicated. And because of this strange interplay, it seems as though the thoughts that a person is trying to keep private is on some level being broadcasted, despite his or her best effort to contain the flow.

     Perhaps a man with violent tendencies is trying to hook up with a woman, and is trying to maintain a benign profile in his mind as well as his persona so as to attain success with this woman. It may not even be an intentional game of control on his part. For example, perhaps he has admitted to his struggle and is actively seeking help somewhere. However, since he still struggles to keep his dark side under containment, his thoughts are broadcasted loud and clear to a woman who is paying strong attention for her own personal safety. The interviewee may have done great in college but is unassertive when she interacts on the job, so even though she read the self-help book on how to make it big in the real world, her doubts override her good intentions, sabotaging her efforts to overcome her fears. She speaks her inferiority complex through her peppy self-presentation and the interviewer hears it anyway.

     This phenomenon isn't the result of modern technology and accessing radio waves to give us Clear Channel. Its discovery seems to have been apparent to the Preacher, as he remarks: "Do not curse the king, even in your thought... a bird of the air may carry your voice, and...may tell the matter" (Eccl. 10:20). One's thoughts seem to carry as much weight as the spoken word or bodily action to the Preacher. It is as though the energy that creates the thought somehow travels through the air, and is transmitted in a way that the person with the thoughts never expected it would.

     Perhaps this is not as strange as it seems. It is a given that radio waves and other types of energy can be easily transmitted around the globe. And the human brain gives off its own kind of energy as well. If this is true, then why wouldn't a person's thought be transmitted on a type of frequency that would go beyond his own neurological radio station?

     Religious mystics have capitalized upon this phenomenon for years. It can be summarized in two words: prayer works. By asking God, meditating on a concept, or quieting one's soul, the petitioner can affect change well beyond his or her horizon, or at least that is what most religions promulgate. God, the ultimate creator, can hear requests upon this frequency as well, affecting change, which many religions believe as well. Or, perhaps, prayer and meditation, as far as temporal expression, is simply the supplicant's tuning into a frequency that is more finely tuned than anything that our bandwidth can measure. In turn, the energy of those around him and in the distance to be affected. Certainly, many believers attest to this fact, expressing testimony after testimony of this phenomenon.

     With this in mind, how strange then is it to presume that one's thoughts are louder than one might presume? Perhaps morality and ethics are deeper than simply making sure the outside of the package is in working order. Most people are probably aware of this to some extent, but if the frequency is that sensitive, even the rare indulgence of a mental tirade or flirtation with imaginary adultery has its own cause and effect beyond what one may think when they give into such temptations.

     It may be disturbing to suspect that one's private thoughts are being broadcast on some universal frequency for all to partake in. It may feel like an additional burden for a person trying to live by moral precepts to realize that even his lapse into the occasional mental fantasies are bringing him down, giving new meaning to Paul of Tarsus' admonition "There is none righteous, not one" (Rom. 3:10; written with reference to Eccl: 7:20). For even in his mind, he is unrighteous, no matter what he truly intends.

     However, the fact that a person's mind is so strong is also a message of hope. This means that no matter how powerless a person may seem to be in human society, she has great power. It is, as Jesus said, faith that moves mountains. Maybe the mountain that moves is not obvious, not the linear, rational cause and effect that modern culture seems most comfortable with. But move the mountain it can. For if one can curse the king and have it be told, then one can bless the king or anyone else and have it be told as well. The mind is a powerful tool that is wiser than some may wish to think, and that wisdom is a very good thing.