The God Chill, a New Direction
Exploring the convergence between faith, science, and the world religions.
The God Chill newsletter explores the massive convergence between faith, the wisdom of the ages, quantum mechanics, and Epigenetics.
Even though I’m in the business of commercial real estate development, investor relations, and community betterment, I’ve always been fascinated with faith and science and how they relate to world religions, and especially to the wisdom of the ages.
As a fervent student of philosophy, history, psychology, literature, mythology, and ontology, the older I get, the less I know. The two most important lessons I’ve learned over the last sixty-two years are these:
I overestimated my ability to start, fund, and build successful businesses.
I underestimated the risk in everything; live free or die is one of my mantras.
In other words, I’m humbled by my failures, which were horrendous dark nights of the soul at their worst.
I had a blessed childhood. My parents did their best to love me, my younger sister, and my brother. But life happened, and when life became most stressful, and the income and money went away, and we risked losing our home and wearing old school clothes the first day of the new school year, I felt all the stress, internalized it, and developed what I call serious head trash.
Plus, I was a crappy altar boy. I questioned everything and paid a heavy price; fear, guilt, and shame were made virtuous. That can lead to a lot of head trash and the need to reprogram oneself from the depths of spiritual darkness. I went to grade school when teachers thought hitting us with a yardstick was okay.
Most of us go within when life beats the crap out of us, especially at a young age. We retreat. Something bigger, higher, more powerful, and seemingly indescribable takes over; the God Chill.
The God Chill is an inner knowing there is a part of you that is indescribably brilliant, warm, and fuzzy. At its best, we see, feel, or do something, and we get a chill from the crown of our head through the shoulders and into the body no matter how hot or cold it seems outside. We all know the God Chill when we feel it. I believe it’s real.
Why write about faith, spirituality, and science, including the word God? Because since I was a boy, I’ve thought, “I’m not from this place. What a freak show! How can people be this way?” I’ve dedicated countless hours to reading countless books, including the Bible and foundational works from all the world religions. The more I study, the easier it is to see the similarities at every faith and religion's root and foundational level.
It’s as if I was given the gift of spiritual ophthalmology, and I can see what many can’t; we are eternal beings living on earth in things called bodies, and we are very temporary for our respective trials and training here on this beautiful planet we keep trashing. All the credit goes to those I’ve been led to study and still pursue.
Here’s a short list of the works I suggest every human study, including world history and anything else that calls your heart to learn. This list is not in any specific priority of importance unless you, the reader, assign it.
The Bhagavad Gita - author unknown, estimated 400 BCE-200 BCE - a Hindu scripture that presents a dialogue between Krishna and the warrior Arjuna, exploring themes of duty, dharma, and self-realization.
The Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu, 6th century BCE - a Chinese text that guides living a virtuous life in harmony with the Tao, or "the way."
The Bible - various authors, written between the 12th and 2nd centuries BCE - a collection of religious texts that form the basis of Judaism and Christianity, telling the story of creation, the history of Israel, and the life and teachings of Jesus.
The Quran - Prophet Muhammad, 610-632 CE - the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be the word of God as revealed to Muhammad.
The Dhammapada - attributed to the Buddha, 3rd century BCE - a collection of Buddhist verses that guide living a mindful, ethical life and achieving enlightenment.
The Analects - Confucius, 5th century BCE - a collection of sayings and teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius, offering guidance on ethics, education, and social relationships.
The Book of Mormon - Joseph Smith Jr., 1830 - a foundational text of the Latter Day Saint movement, believed by adherents to be a translation of ancient American scriptures.
The Tao of Pooh - Benjamin Hoff, 1982 - a modern exploration of Taoist principles through the lens of A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories.
The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle, 1997 - a contemporary guide to spiritual awakening and mindfulness, drawing on teachings from various religious and philosophical traditions.
Autobiography of a Yogi - Paramahansa Yogananda, 1946 - a memoir by the Indian spiritual teacher Paramahansa Yogananda, detailing his spiritual journey and experiences with yoga, meditation, and the search for self-realization.
As a subscriber, you’ll receive insights from my studies, expert interviews with authors and subject matter experts, recent scientific references, and sourcing of well-curated educational content that helps us improve ourselves and the world around us. The only way to improve ourselves is to improve our consciousness and accept our moral obligation to be wiser and less selfish jerks.
My version of the Golden Rule is simple; don’t be a jerk.
The God Chill is about finding the light within yourself that will guide you better than anything else. When we learn to “Be still and know …” we practice listening and being with the part of us that never dies.
Fear is a bitch. I’ve been terrified to take this publishing path even though faith and spirituality have been my passions since I was a boy. Like most of you who read my work, you, too, feel an inner calling, a knowing or gnosis, that you are to be an example to others. You know you have unique abilities. You feel everything deeply, at a heart level. Over time, you’ve learned to let go of your egoic mind and trust God or whatever it is you call your higher power.
If we’re blessed, we are called to know our creator, the source, the one, all-loving, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent power that humans have warred over more than anything else. It goes by many names, and everyone who believes in anything more significant than themselves calls it what we will.
We must never take the freedom to choose our faith for granted, even if millions of us walk around in the dark and seek differences in others more than similarities. Life is a game of confidence and improving our consciousness. The more we align our conscious contact with the source of all things, the more we align with a power that calls us from within.
I grew up as the firstborn son of a hardcore Irish/German devout Roman Catholic mother. My father was a modern-day mystic who didn’t know himself. Looking back on his wisdom, and the folly of my formative religious programming and education, I know my father was a mystic because he inherently knew unity. That’s one definition of a mystic. One who knows unity and is dedicated to rising consciously above the seeming insanity of humanity all around us.
It’s taken me a lifetime to find myself within and loves all that is, especially when fear, impatience, anger, rage, lust, or greed kick in. You don’t need to be a spiritual genius to know the high cost of missing the mark by focusing on passions more than virtues found in the Bible and all the great works of the mystics and ancient masters.
Join me in exploring the convergence of faith, spirituality, and science, specifically microbiology, epigenetics, and quantum mechanics.