Episode 26: A Higher Power

Welcome to wisdom from the aerial view, the podcast for those who wish to learn how to crush their anxiety and find meaning and purpose in their lives. I want to start this good afternoon, good morning, good evening, everybody. And good day to you too, Mark, Mark Klein, my dear, friend. I wanted to start today's podcast, the quote that I read, and then talk about something that, I don't know, may surprise you a little bit. The quote is, Believing in a higher power helps us find purpose. Regardless of the higher power we believe in, having faith is something bigger than ourselves that can help us find peace. Why am I talking about this? Higher power. We had mentioned in a podcast a few weeks back about when we talking about the aerial view, talked about, you mentioned this word, higher power. And I kept thinking about it and thinking about it and thinking about it. And then the world changed in many ways when the world or whoever elected a new pope. Now you and I are not Catholic, but you and I are both Americans. And I suspect on the day that they announced this pope, we were a little happy about that. It's nice to have an American to be the pope, simply because it's our country, represents us, et cetera, et cetera. But the conversations that hold for weeks on end and days on end was about higher power and what it means and how it affects our lives and it affects the lives of those who flocked to Rome to listen. And I don't think they were all Catholic. In fact, I know they weren't because they interviewed a lot of them. So what I wanted to talk to you about today was this thing called higher power. And it's interesting because when I started doing some you know, research, well, what I call research, looking at the higher power. When you would Google that, the only things that come up or the main things that come up are for all these recovery websites, people who are in recovery from alcoholism or drug addiction. And they talk about higher power. And if you go through Google, it's higher power addiction center, this, this, this, this, this. And it's sort of interesting to me that they say it's about

seeking answers, etc. etc. Not necessarily about God, not necessarily about the Lord, just a higher power. And I kept thinking about you talk about a higher power in the aerial view. So I'm going to throw this at you. You had no idea that I was going to talk to you about this today. I probably didn't have any idea either, but tell me about that. Your view of the aerial view, the higher power, tell me about that. Where does that fit in your life?

Hello, Enid. So yes, I had no idea. Of course, you like to tease me and you won't tell me what we're going to talk about because you think it's more fun, but it's probably more fun for you than it is for me because you know what we're going to talk about and I don't. but it's good and it keeps me on my toes. And it's very interesting topic because I think I've mentioned this before.

Hello.

Right. It is. It is. I'm having a ball.

I'm very pro-religion in the sense that it encapsulates or requires, not all religions, most religions require a higher power of some sort. Like I was having lunch with a good friend of mine who's describing me all the, you know, in the Sikh and Hindu religions have many gods, lots of them, right? Of course, in the... Judeo-Christian world, monotheism, which began with Judaism and evolved into Christianity and many forms of Christianity. There's only one God. But there is a higher power, right? Somebody's either pulling the strings or has some influence over us. And humans, since probably the dawn of time, have felt the need to... Either they felt the need to invoke a higher power or they really felt that there was a higher power. since we don't know. I know Bill Maher on his show, he's quite anti-religion and he would just look at, if he were on our show now, if we were on a show now, we'd have a lot more listeners. But at any rate, maybe one day. But I mentioned him because he's very much in the atheist camp.

Ha ha ha.

Let me actually digress something even more interesting. Most people have heard of Stephen Hawking, who's no longer with us, a brilliant British physicist, did a lot on black holes. He was very famous also for having ALS and being in a wheelchair and actually exceeding expectations by decades of how long he would live.

Yeah.

And I like physics from a non-physics point of view. I'm not a physicist, obviously, but I like reading a lot of lay physics books. And I've read a bunch of his stuff. And I can get through probably 60 % of it and just have to go with the other 40%. But one of the books he wrote was about the fact that because of the way that the physics works, Universes actually pop in and out of existence all the time. It's not just one universe. are probably an infinite number of universes. And when he explains how this work, one of his conclusions is, we don't need God to explain the universe. Meaning you don't have to have a divine power that created us to explain why we're here. Okay, that's very interesting. So from his point of view, believe in God if you want, you don't really need to. Physics has another explanation. Then I was listening to another, I guess it was a podcast or whatever, was on YouTube, a bunch of physicists. This is a couple of months ago. They talked about something called the boundary problem. The boundary problem is even if you go back to what's called the Big Bang and there are theories of what happened before the Big Bang and so on, but no matter what you do, you end up with a boundary problem. what happened at the beginning. There always has to be a beginning, which goes contrary to what Stephen Hawking was talking about, that you don't really need a beginning. It just happens. But these guys, are physicists equal in brilliance, that kind of level to Stephen Hawking. These weren't a bunch of college students. These are the real deal. Columbia University, Oxford University, people all over the world. And they've recently, and I think this is fairly recent, have come to the conclusion that it's stuck. They get this boundary problem. How do you get to the other side of the boundary? You have to We still don't have an explanation of how anything began. No matter what theory you use, you get this problem. How did it all start? And where does that lead you? Back to the higher power. Okay, then something, somewhere, somehow we can explain. People say to me, do you believe in God? And the short answer is, I would say yes, but I would like to say I believe in something else. Meaning, I don't exactly think of a guy with a beard and a scepter sitting on a throne.

you know, running the show, I believe in something else. I can't describe it. I don't think it's describable, at least in human terms. But I believe this in something else. but in our society and in the Western world especially, and I'm not familiar enough with the Eastern world right now, I've been there, but I wouldn't be able to come in an erudite manner about it, so I won't. But at least in the Western world, We've away from religion. We've moved away from this idea of this divine power and this overall divine being. And that hasn't worked out too well, right? We have more chaos, more loneliness, more depression, more sorrow, more trauma. The world does much better if we agree on an absolute set of rules rather than a man-made set of rules. So one thing that's nice about a higher power is the higher power says, here are the rules. And we talked about this. We're going to start with 10 because humans can't remember that many things. So we're going to start with 10. Here they are, right? Dash out of no other gods before me, honor thy father or mother, no adultery. Sorry, boys. That's a rule. No adultery.

Mm-hmm.

sometimes sorry girls do, but that's the rule. Thou shalt not steal. That's a good one. Thou shalt not kill. So, there's 10 of them. Some of them, a good number actually are about, don't take any of the gods. I'm the one god, pay attention. But the rest of them are very more street view kind of things. Don't kill, don't steal. Don't covet. I like that one. Don't covet. We say, okay, well, you I guess we can't covet because the higher authority says no coveting, right? And no stealing. So when people steal, they know it's wrong. Why do people know it's wrong to steal? Well, there's two possibilities that I can think of. One is that it just doesn't feel right. But I think it's more like the higher authority says no stealing. So when we steal, we're breaking a fundamental rule that came not from man, but from the higher power, from God or that divine being.

Mm-hmm

That's a good reason to have a higher power, to agree on a higher power, because then we can have an absolute set of rules that are neither your opinion nor my opinion. Unfortunately, we moved away from that, I think, in the Western world. So now what? Well, that's where we come to the aerial view, because what I spend a lot of time doing is figuring out, how do we get to the place we want to be as a community, as individuals, if we don't believe in a higher power, if we don't follow a particular religion? know, religions have sets of rules and regulations and rituals and they are very helpful to many people how they live their lives. We talked about the Pope. You know, a lot of Catholic people, lot of, I lived in Italy for a while. There a lot of, especially still a lot of elderly Italian women who go to mass every day. They take their beads and off they go and they go to mass every day. And the religion is super, super important. It is essential to their lives on every level you can think of on how to do everything. Religion has something to say about it. And in a way, that's very good because it gives them guidance, it gives them a path to follow. If you don't have that, then you're making it up as you're going along to a certain degree, then who are you hanging out with? Who are we telling you who's giving you advice or what rules to follow? What community do you live in? What are your parents like? What's, know, then it's very random after that, you know, that's why we have, I think, a bit more of a mess than we than we'd like. So.

Do you think it's that they find they need, not they, people, need some structure? They need something, the guideline, need something that says, yes, you can do this, no, you can't, or no, you shouldn't. You say we're moving away from religion, and yet, when you look at the Pope is responsible, he's a man of 1.4 billion followers. So why do you say we're moving away from religion? It seems to me, in many respects, more and more we're moving toward religion.

Okay, so let's put it this we have been in the last decades, I say since the 1960s. I think it's a good place to start. I think we've been moving away from religion. Church attendance has dropped for all denominations, all religions. It's dropped precipitously. Now we may be coming back because people have realized, well, this hasn't worked out too well because man's rules are just all over the place and people keep changing them and it's okay to steal now. Well, yeah, it's okay to steal as long as only $900 and you're okay. Man's rules haven't worked out as well. I think we're going to see a resurgence. But in the meantime, there's still always going to be people who don't embrace a higher power or religion. One of the things I spend a lot of time doing and

Yeah.

Right, right, right.

is figuring out, is there another way to get to where we want to get both as individuals and as a society? And voila, we have the aerial view. So the two are not mutually exclusive. You can believe in God and still appreciate the aerial view. They are not mutually exclusive. The aerial view is a perspective. And in fact, the perspective becomes even more meaningful and more believable even if you believe in a higher authority. Because then you understand it's a little easier to believe that the crazy things we talk about or I talk about you just kind of nod your head about in terms of time and so on. It's a little bit more believable if God or divine being created it. jukebox of time. So here is something I wanted, since you didn't tell me what we're going to talk about today, but I was thinking about something last night and I'd actually been reading and watching a few more things on time and the kind of stuff I like to talk about. And I will tell you, Enid, and I'm telling you this as if it was just you and me and nobody was listening to this, imagine this is That's true. How sad. At any rate,

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Maybe nobody is, yeah.

that I am pretty, I am more and more confident that the things we've been talking about are real and true. First of all, I know the aerial view is real and true, but the whole idea of time and the whole idea of our mission, these things are right. And it's very hard for me. thinking, okay, I want to tell you, I almost called you. It was late, but I figured you'd kill me if I called you late. So I figured I can wait till tomorrow. But I had this, for some reason I was really not quite overcome. That's a bit dramatic, but I was full, filled with this thought was these things are right. These things are true, which made me more enthusiastic about our podcast and our this effort to try and bring this tranquility through a different perspective to as many people as we can. This is true. So when we say there is a mission, when we say it's about turning the camera away from you and outwardly, from inward focus to outward focus. When we say that our mission is to help as many people as we can in preparation, when we talk about time, that all time exists contemporaneously, that in a sense, free will, I don't think it's zero, but it's a relatively small percentage of what happens in our lives. So yes, we all make choices and we want to make, quote, the right choices. And of course, we've talked about it as another way of knowing what the right choices is. But still, you want to give yourself the best odds. All these things though are made in the name of this process, of this evolution, of why we're here. So it's really, becomes, not that it wasn't clear to me before, but some reason that I cannot explain. I got this feeling last night, this sense that, yes, was as if, talking about a higher power. This is going to sound crazy. But it was as if my doubt, and I'm always doubting, I'm always questioning, I'm a skeptic by nature, as if my continuing question and doubt had gotten through to the person upstairs who said, okay, all right, calm down. Yes, you're on the right track. This is correct. Now go back to what you're supposed to do. Go back to your mission. Go help a bunch of people. Don't fret over this. It's correct.

Mm-hmm.

Some people might listen to this and roll their eyes. I'm looking, you haven't rolled yours yet, but that's a good, oh, there they go. But it is true. I really, you know me, I'm not dogmatic about anything. I tell you, this is my opinion. But now more than ever, especially since we've continued these discussions on these episodes on this podcast, it has become clearer and clearer to me and whatever that little divine intervention I experienced yesterday, just really reinforce that this is the right path.

Mm-hmm.

This is the right path. we're talking about is the right path. I think whether or not there's a divine, whether it's a higher power, if I had a bet, I would say there's something else. You can call it God, perfectly legit, call it whatever you want, or maybe there's a lot of gods. I don't know. I grew up in a monotheistic religion where we only believe in a single God, but I couldn't tell you that the Hindus are all wrong. mean, wow.

Sure.

you talked about the Pope has 1.4 billion followers. Those are Catholics. He's probably got a lot more than that. So I think there's like, if I got these numbers right, there's about, I think there's a little over 2 billion Christians, 2 point something. There's a little less, pretty close, but same order magnitude Muslims. That's about 4 point something billion people. I think Hindus are

I'm sure he does.

under a billion, if I recall. And you add on a couple of little small religions, Judaism, Sikhs, things like that. There's a bunch of very small religions, relatively speaking. You bundle them all together, maybe you get, I don't know, five and a half billion people. That still leaves two and a half billion who are not affiliated with any religion. And also out of those five and a half billion, there's a significant percentage that are part of the club, but they don't really practice or believe or follow and so on. So there is a need for probably close to half the population. to have another way to get to where they need to get in their lives. And that's where the aerial view is so helpful. You don't have to sign up. You don't have to join. There's no initiation fee. You don't have to go anywhere every Saturday or Sunday. You don't have to swear allegiance. You don't have to believe. You don't have to believe if you don't want to believe, but it's going to get you to the same place. I always say that religion is a shortcut. Big fan. Really like it as long as they can. you're not using your religion to bludgeon other people or impose your will or suppress and subjugate other people. As long as you're not doing that, I'm all for it. It's good. It's helpful. But if it's not your thing, and that's probably close to half the people on the planet or some significant proportion, then embrace the aerial view. It will get you to the same place.

So in other words, it's almost looking for your comfort zone. I I'm comfortable in religion. I'm comfortable when I go to church. I'm comfortable in the area of view because there I can look at things in a different way. In other words, I'm out of the street view as you talk about it and I'm somewhere else. I guess the other issue I was thinking about, because you mentioned Bill Maher and I'm a Bill Maher, I watch him every week. I he's fun. I actually listen to his podcast every now and again. He is an atheist and he's a devout atheist and he...

That's right.

dislikes religion, et cetera, et cetera. question I would have, I'd love to ask him why. What is it about it that he doesn't believe in a higher power? And if not, that's fine, as you say. But where does he find comfort? He would probably say in the marijuana. But I'm wondering where he does find comfort. And I'm wondering where people who are not.

I was gonna say the same thing.

believers, if you will. And it's an interesting word too. We believe in God. We believe in something. So if you're not a non-believer, where do you find comfort? What gives you the comfort that we are all seeking to get out of this uncomfortable place that we're in and free ourselves and free our minds and free ourselves of worry? I wonder how people get there. And maybe what you're talking about is if they should experience the aerial view, maybe that's a solution for people.

Too many people don't find the resolution of their anxiety. It's a super anxious world we're living in. It's a problem.

Right, right. Which is why I have to go back to when I looked at this, when you look at the Google machine and you realize we're looking at higher power, where people are finding comfort, the search engine took me to all these recovery centers. These were people, I suppose, for one reason or another were either using alcohol or drugs. And this is about finding that higher power. to give them the comfort they were seeking to get out of this bad behavior, this bad place that they're in. It was sort of interesting to me that this is where the Google search took me when I was looking for higher power.

That's really, that's really interesting. It means that a lot of other people did the same search for some reason ended up that that's how it got to the top of the list. Right. That's how it works. So there's a lot of lonely people. There's a lot of nervous, anxious people. There's a lot of sad people. There's a lot of depressed people. Some of them probably are religious, but I would kind of guess that the the majority are are not because we know that religious people

Interesting. Yeah. Yeah.

live longer, they're happier, they're healthier, they're more successful. mean, facts speak for themselves. That's just the way it is. It's because it gives them, you talked about it earlier, a roadmap, a game plan, right? If an elderly woman in Italy has for the last 50 years has been getting up every day and going to mass and then going about her chores and then saying more prayers in the afternoon or whatever it is, or a Muslim person getting on his knees and praying towards the East five times a day, they have a program. And their religion teaches them certain things. Here's how you treat people. This is about why it's so important to be hospitable, to welcome a guest, to treat them as a member of your family. There are rules. It's a roadmap. It's a how-to book for life. If you don't have that, then you've got to depend on finding a way through other people. Hopefully, you have a great family. Hope you have parents, siblings, relatives, teachers who will help you. But that's kind of random, right? So a lot of people don't have that either. So they're stuck and they have nothing. and they're floating in the middle of the street view trying to figure out how the heck, which way is up? What do I do? How do I get a feeling? And so what do they do? They take drugs, they drink, or they kill themselves. Right? Look at the numbers. It's staggering. So we have to give them something else. Well, there is something else. And like I said, if you if you turn to Christianity or any religion or Judaism or anything and you find solace in that, go for it. I'm all for it, whatever works for you. But if you don't understand that there's another way to get there, and the two again are not mutually exclusive, you have to remove yourself, become the independent observer, learn to get out of the street view and into the aerial view, learn to understand how the world works, all the things we've talked about. This will point you in the right direction. Aha, it's not about me. Turn off the selfie camera, turn it outward.

help other people, focus on other people, focus on your mission to make that evolution. That's a roadmap. Okay, if you're not in an organized religion and you have a set of rules to follow. Here's one you could try, right? Your goal is to evolve from selfish to selfless, from inward to outward focus, to prepare for what comes next. So everything you do every day, whenever you can, keep that in mind. How am I doing? Am I a victim? Am I moaning and whining and complaining about my life? I don't have this and I don't have that and that person has more than I have. If you do that, you're going to fail. You're going to be sad and lonely and maybe even suicidal at some point, God forbid, but you might. If you turn the camera around and you go, okay, it's not about me. It's about what impact I can have on the world. What can I do to make the world better? That's how you make yourself better. That's your roadmap. Focus on those things. That gives you guidance. That gives you something to do. Again, I'm always afraid that people are going to say, it's so simple. It's so simple. It's mostly simple. The world is not so hard. Yes, street view life can be hard. do I... make enough money to feed my kids? Where am I going to live? What about my father's illness? What about so many things? They're hard. I'm not minimizing any of them, but they are all part of the life. Here we are. We signed up for this life. We're in it. Okay, we're here. Now what? Okay, what am I here for? What can I do to make my transition as peaceful and meaningful as possible? If you're not going to go to church or synagogue or to the mosque, here's something you could try.

Or do both.

Or do both. Absolutely. You could do them. Yes, 100 percent.

You know, you probably don't remember this, but one day I said to you something about meditation. And you said when you were in college you tried meditating, but you stopped doing it. Let me ask you about meditation. A, why did you start and B, why did you stop?

I can absolutely tell you why I started, for all the reasons you just said. I was young. I was aimless. I was probably lonely, confused, whatever. I was looking for, show me the yellow brick road. Give me a path to follow. That's what happens to most young people or most people at some point. Okay, so this guy, that was just in the beginning of Mari Mahesh Yogi, right? He was with the Beatles and... And I was really hot, right? We remember. And so I said, okay, and so somebody came to campus and said, I teach transcendental meditation. Okay, I signed up, got my mantra, and off I went. Okay. All it ever did really for me was put me to sleep. I always took a nap. I mean, I couldn't help it. I always fell asleep. And so it didn't work for me personally. And I tried again as an adult.

yeah.

I just too restless. I just could not quiet my mind. I just have one of those minds that I wake up at two o'clock in the morning and it's full speed ahead. My mind just rarely stops. But that's okay. I've learned to live with it. I'm very happy with it. It mostly keeps me entertained. There's usually a joke flying out of my brain silently to myself. So it doesn't work for me, but I've... found another way. I've learned another path. I've learned about the aerial view and how understanding how the world works, the physics of the world and the underlying invisible infrastructure of the world have helped me and given me a path. And I think it's a real path and it absolutely, positively works.

And does it help you to calm your mind? I mean, that's why I bring it up. It's about how do we stop this inner voice from constantly giving us angst? So is that what the aerial view does for you too?

Well, my inner voice is again, mostly telling jokes and making fun of me, right? You know, I was thinking of having all the mirrors taken out of my house because I can't walk by a mirror without my inner self making some joke about me. So I do. So quieting your mind. Yes. So I think quieting your mind is we talked about this is

Mhm. Really?

I think you need to see a doctor, doc. Yeah, yeah.

understanding two things. One is everything you see, no event or interaction or word or activity has any meaning until you put a meaning on it, until you give it a meaning. So don't label things bad because it's going to make you sad.

Mm-hmm.

You can label them interesting if they're not going to be fun and happy and entertaining and delightful. Pick a different word. But so we interpret everything through our mind. Number two is we're in complete control of how we feel. The Viktor Frank rule, right? You're in complete control of how you feel. If you remember those two things, that goes a long way. But also remember it's... It's a life. It's just a life. It's a limited time engagement. It's not a permanent thing. You've come, you're going to stay, you're going to go at some point. We don't know what day that's going to be. We know it's going to happen. It will be the last day of your life. It's not a forever thing. Make the most of it. You're here for a reason. Make that evolution. Make that progress. Run through the tape. Keep going. Always try to improve yourself. know, I have friends, you know, this is going to, I don't mean to make this sound about me because it's not meant to be about me. But I do a lot. I'm doing a lot of things. I have another company. We do the podcast. I write books. I like to play music. I'm interested in foreign languages. So I have a lot of stuff. I don't get bored. And people look at me go, wow, how do you do all those things? You're a psycho. What are you some kind of super? Superman, how do you do all those things? I go, me? Superman? Hardly. I make fun of myself every day. No, it's just that I realized this is a limited time engagement. Right. It's like you get a ticket to the amusement park, you're to sit on the bench and eat popcorn or you're going to go do the rides. Right. You're going to go, wow, I got like eight hours at the amusement park. I got to go do those rides. Well, that's life. You got a ticket. Right. You have a certain number of moments in your life. Don't sit on the bench, eat popcorn. Go on the rides, do something and make sure the things you do, even more importantly, are not just entertaining, but meaningful, that you're making that evolution, that you're making that progress, that you're moving towards the fulfillment of your mission. So just look at it that way, limited time engagement. Don't sit on the bench and eat popcorn. Make it worthwhile and meaningful.

With that Clark Kent, I want to end with a quote from your book, The Wisdom from the Area of View, The Superpower that Can Change Your Life and This World. And interestingly enough, the chapter is called The Answer. And the quote is, I take my glasses off to read it, some religions claim that everyone has a unique purpose. God, they say, has put each of us

You

here for a reason that is ours and ours alone. Perhaps, but the clues we have uncovered in this podcast also imply that there is a universal purpose to human life, precisely what is required for a world that provides the opportunity for us to live in peace and harmony, free from anxiety. Our clues also confirm that every life counts and every life. matters. That to me is the higher power. I thank you for sharing these 30 minutes with me today, Doc, and I look forward to the next podcast. And as usual, I leave you with the final word.

That was fun and I hope our listeners enjoyed it and I always enjoy talking to you, but maybe you can give me a hint next time before we get started. That I know. Thanks a million. Love you. Thank you everybody. Bye bye.

Here's a hint, you're not Superman. a... Love you too. Peace.