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Humans should not deny that we are virtually identical as to our brains under the skin. The differences when found are due to gender and there is a qualitative difference in children's' brains. This is because their brains change at an astounding pace during the human animal's extended childhood. But none of this diminishes the truth of that fundamental fact that regardless of differences in race, color, creed, national origin and sexual orientation we humans are identical as to our brains. Much has been written about this wondrous gray dream factory that creates a universe of illusions and realities - trillions of sensations, thoughts and desires are vividly mainstreamed from time to time , or worse all at once. My brain likes books. Yours may enjoy silk undies even more. Or watching blue jays while your friend talks about Lance Armstrong's seventh Grand Prix riding a bicycle. Each human brain though shaped like a round of country bread is a crowded chemical bath in which neural connectivity arcs are in non-stop conversations.

We are making such rapid progress in "Brainwave Entertainment" that it is now possible to improve your brain capacity, intelligence, and creativity. Tom Kenyon of Acoustic Brain Research has brought together psychoacoustics in the way of eight sound programs that use subtle frequencies to promote learning, creative visualization and cognitive growth. Using Stereo Earphones the programs transport you immediately from the everyday brain "beta" state to the relaxed focused alpha, the rejuvenating delta, or the dream state theta. Kenyon's programs are active exercises that build new neurological connections - physical pathways between the two hemispheres of the brain. The eight CDs are a virtual gymnasium for the brain. (See References at the end of this section , under Sounds True.)

Diane Ackerman wrote a splendid book, An Alchemy of the Mind- the Marvel and Mystery of the Brain in which she said,

"It's (The Brain) also an impersonal landscape where minute bolts of lightning prowl and strike. A hall of mirrors it can contemplate existentialism, the delicate hooves of a goat, and its own birth and death in a matter of seconds. It's blunt as a skunk, and a real gossip hound, but also voluptuous, clever, playful and forgiving."

This gifted writer has created a treasure for us, her book, that demonstrates what a marvelous animal the human is.

The spiritual but not religious would prefer to think that we are not merely animals but, then, we are certain we are not angels , we must be something in between. Again, we turn to Ackerman who said (paraphrase) , "Among the bad jokes evolution played on us are these: 1) we have brains that can conceive of states of perfection that can not be achieved , 2) we have brains that are in a never ceasing desperate dance to stay alive, yet we are finite beings who perish." Not a very intelligent design, one may add.

Most religious people are comfortable with the idea of giving praise to something called God. Prayer and Meditation are ways we focus our attention. To one philosopher attention is the natural prayer of the soul. But, many scientists would find this thought suspiciously religious.The great majority of members of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) count themselves among non-believers.Traditional religionists would want to label them agnostic, atheistic, or possibly nihilistic.

Scientists have raised paying attention to a highly focused level by using mathematics, microscopes, telescopes and other instruments to enhance focused attention, and measurement. Yet, we know some celebrated scientists are religious in some way, perhaps, they are spiritual humans.Such scientists find themselves more comfortable with abstractions such as "God is Love."A famous scientist has said, "The more we refine our understanding of God the more it seems pointless." Scientists are, on the whole, uncomfortable with "Belief in Believing."

It is true that the two greatest forces in the modern world , traditional religions and modern science are in serious conflict.  Although some forward-thinking religious people do embrace the scientific story of the Earth and the cosmos while focusing their spiritual lives on the mysteries, and mystical praise as the focus of their attention.Some traditional religionists shout blasphemy! At the scientists for their discoveries. Many others simply put the conflict out of their mind.

As has been said, "The conflict will not go away." We are a curious species, and the scientific way of knowing has been phenomenally successful in making our curiosity an effective tool of human progress.

But we also seem to be born with an innate longing for transcendence.The mystics seem to enjoy the endless search for personal knowledge of God.The faithful find a Way by belief in the Word.Their faith is a truth that their brains have accepted.Many scientists are appalled by their ignorance.But they do nothing about it.The spiritual but not religious say the ground of faith is "not proven" and they happily go on with their search for God's truth to be revealed.

Many hard-headed rational analytic scientists such as Dawkins are even cruel toward those who find more comfort in blind faith than in the axioms and algorithms of mathematical science.Most of these types of scientists have been sheltered from economic hardship and the cruelties of a life by the sciences meritocracy which yields a cocoon of scholarships and grants so they don't have to worry about food, clothing, and shelter. Their culture treats them as favored ones.They know little if anything about the

The hardships of poverty and the lack of medical care. They are sheltered by the fact that their brilliant exceptional minds have granted them the largess of society that enables them to avoid the very causes of the need for faith for many average humans. It is normal not exceptional human life that demands that we work our way through eight stages or crises in our life journey.Ordinary life is hard and it is difficult to make a success out of it.Spiritual humans have learned about the normal eight stages of human life from birth to death.This knowledge enables them to work their way through the crises without breakdown and dolorous defeat and despair.The human brain is better able to withstand the turmoil of ordinary life if it has an understanding that some crises we face are not unique, not exceptional but the normal fare of spiritual humans.It is easier to carryon through the suffering. Scientists don't live in the flood plains or poverty hovels; they should find their way to more constructive criticism.

Sir Arthur Eddington Pondered ,"what is the ultimate truth about us? We are a bit of stellar matter gone wrong. As puppets we strut and talk, and laugh and die as the hand of time pulls the strings from above. But there is one elementary inescapable answer: We are that which asks the question."

Or is it as Brian Swimme suggested,perhaps,we were put on this Earth for a simple purpose Having created such a beautiful place God felt there shouldbe a creature here who would sigh at its beauty. Not a bad purpose, after all.

Many believe that we have a consciousness that seems to have emanated from the vigor of our matter/energy body. Such humans seem to believe there must be luminous bridges that link our brain processes to a universal experience. Mystics lead us in the search for it. Scientists caution us it can not be observed or measured.

We are a self infatuated species who just know that we are the pinnacle of life on this Earth. Thus, consciousness. What could be grander? It enables a belief that we are more than a mere brain's squishy parts. We know that we have a most dazzling brain! Still, the better informed among us know that the human brain is not fundamentally much different from what other animals experience. Is it that our brain seems more complex because it unfurls such elaborate states of being? Yes, it does so even without psychedelics. We know our brain is more convoluted but that is not to say it conjures something that is supernatural. We are fundamentally different, but less so than we may wish to think.

We like to think that we are more than reptilian. But, then life suddenly may stage a crisis of survival that demands the instant , non-thinking , reptilian response that empowers our mind/body with an instinctual rush of adrenaline that saves the day so we can play a game of chess later. No doubt we are self aware and able to save archives of memories for use in the present. A woman sees a leaf or berry that she has seen before. Her neural structure feels familiarity. Our ancestral lady not only feels self-awareness but can retrieve , remember and recreate - the thought that the berry is recognized. Her senses report that its color, shape, and location are not something new but a thing she has experienced before.Is this sense of self reflection unique to human consciousness? We seem to use human consciousness to loft humans to a height other animals can not reach. Could this be a case of a lack of sufficient self reflection? Have we chosen to take the easy way out and attribute consciousness to the beneficent largess of a governing God? Such designing intelligence begs the question.

Consider the brain of our nearest relative, the chimpanzee. Chimpanzees feel deeply, strategize, plan, think abstractly to a surprising degree, mourn, experience pleasure, empathize some, deceive, seduce, laugh and are conscious of life's illusions and psychic pressures.

But then, we think we think. Or at least we think about thinking... We try to guess what the chimpanzee is thinking. We even anthropomorphize dolls and talk to dogs. Because we can project ourselves into the minds of other people we tend to endow everything with a human mind. Dolls, oceans, winds, plants, ships are subject to our name-calling. Hurricanes are categorized with human names.

Generally, those who are spiritual but not religious have learned not to fall into the trap of objectifying the ethereal. The Universe is not an abstraction, but then it is not an object. We clarify our thinking when we cease to attribute human attributes to the intelligent designer. To observe the order, symmetry and complexity of life surely does not realistically result in providing the designer with a human hand that shoots out a spark of life to awaken the human coil known as Adam. This is human imagination gone wild with objectification of a presence , the, I AM - one may feel is there but not seen or known.

We may be closer cousins to chimpanzees than we want to believe. We share our emotional and intellectual heritage with chimpanzees by way of 95 per cent of identical genes. Some of us are even closer to chimps than to other humans in our shared genetic makeup. Know thyself is a way of identifying our humanness. But, then the mirror test has become the gold standard for judging a creature's self awareness. Chimps recognize themselves in a mirror (as compared to other chimps). There are reports that dolphins are doing the same.

Scientific research is helping us to understand more precisely what it is to be human. Some claim that humans are the only animals that have a subjective phenomenal experience of the world. Before we can take an objective, dispassionate, self-reflecting look at the continuum we know of as life's journey, we must find our way to the humility that comes from knowing what other animals know.

Consider the male orangutan known as Fu Manchu. It was observed that he kept escaping from his enclosure within a zoo in a large city. Bored and curious he roamed the zoo and watched the herds of human. How did he escape from time to time? Hidden cameras revealed that the orangutan was hiding an unfolded paper clip beneath his upper lip when humans were around. If he thought the coast was clear, he would bend the wire into a useful shape to pick a lock. Thereby he let himself out of the enclosure. Returning, he would straighten his designer tool (the paper clip) and hide it under his lip for a future jailbreak! This orangutan had to be able to mentalize how humans perceived him to know where to hide the paper clip , under the lip so it wouldn't be visible. He had to be able to hold in memory the thought of how some one else was thinking of him, He had to know that he was doing illicit behavior. He had to act in such a manner that he was not menacing to the humans who saw this large animal wander about. This is a lot of mentalization for a supposedly unconscious animal.

What characterizes the human personality? It would take a long list to catalogue human behaviors and traits. Donald E. Brown's list runs to many pages. It is an eye opening glimpse of the quirky humanity we all share. We know that each of us brings our own unique combination of these basic thematic traits to our life quest. Still, philosophy and psychology along with psychiatry have enabled us to see that as humans develop their unique personalities they all face the same life crises though they may be cloaked in differing cultural garments.

The MeetingHouse is committed to the idea that all humans who successfully negotiate the maturation of their personality by the ways they live over time; will pass through the stages below or very similar stages in the journey of life from birth to death.

EIGHT STAGES OF HUMAN LIFE AND DEVELOPMENT

We will teach the fundamental idea that though we can be successful in slowing the ageing of the mortal body, our soul knows, within its Mind/Body and Spirit that our life on Earth consists of eight stages of indeterminate lengths starting with birth and ending with death so far as we know...

The success each human may have with each segment or stage will depend on one's ability to follow God's lead in confronting each crisis as it opens to the next stage in our maturation.

Tragically, it is not inevitable that we move on to the next stage, too many humans are forlorn because they have empowered past-programming to arrest them. They are caught in or on the platform of one of these stages while their mortal body yearns to move on to the next. It is certain that any human's life cycle shall not be denied. The flow from birth to death is inevitable. What happens "in between" will be the subject of this discussion. There are some overarching principles that under gird the discussion of the eight stages.

Each One Teach- One -The General Public Needs to Know about the Eight Stages of Human LifeWe believe that all humans born to life on our Earth have a basic urge to grow and develop into a mature autonomous human capable of self actualization in pursuing happiness through an ennobling life that necessarily includes service to their fellow humans thereby serving the Good Force we know as God.

Our church will teach that this fundamental life pursuit consists of eight progressive stages with each stage of necessity confronting a crisis in order to accomplish transition to the next. [Crisis is used here in the way used by medical doctors, that is, to connote an important turning point in the life as lived.] If the crisis is resolved positively, a virtue emerges in the human's personality through maturing. This new virtue is then developed as one passes on through to the next stage.

The First Stage Involves The Accomplishment Of The Virtue Of Trust:

If the infant child ,now in the psychosexual stage of development - is provided with loving care and consistency in training and discipline by those who should be satisfying his or her needs for love and guidance, the child will develop basic trust. But, if the child's caretakers are rejecting, preoccupied, or indifferent and/or the child's needs are satisfied in an inconsistent manner then the child will develop mistrust. This fundamental basic struggle for trust vs. mistrust is the crisis that is favorably resolved when the child develops more trust than mistrust. Granted, a certain amount of mistrust is healthy in this life; it is conducive to survival. Still, a child who has the right ratio , the predominance of trust , will develop the self actualized courage to take risks and not be overwhelmed by setbacks. By successfully passing through this crisis the emerging human achieves entry to the next stage ,Hope.

The Emergence of the Virtue of Hope=Second Stage:

For most of us, this stage ought to be from about age one to age four. Hope is the enduring belief that fervent wishes are attainable despite the dark urges and rages that are a part of beginning human existence. A trusting child dares to hope and is future-oriented. The child, or even an adult, who lacks trust is stuck in this stage because he or she constantly worries whether or not his or needs will be satisfied. In contrast, those trusting souls who make hope a part of their ideational reference pattern will transit this crisis and traverse to the next stage.

The Third Stage - Initiative Versus Guilt:

This stage ought to occur about the fourth or fifth year of the human's early stage development. Developing motor, language, thinking and imaginative skills enable the child to initiate ideas and actions, to fantasize, and to plan future events. During this stage the human begins to test limits, find out what is permissible and what is not, explore what kind of a person he or she wants to become. During this stage, if the parents or caregivers encourage self-initiating behaviors and fantasies this crisis will be resolved in favor of a healthy sense of self-initiative. If a parent prohibits or ridicules self-started behavior and imagination the child will leave this stage lacking in self-sufficiency. The virtue that is achieved in this stage is that of , Purpose , the courage to envisage and pursue valued goals uninhibited by the defeat of infantile fantasies or by deforming guilt and brain-numbing fear of punishment. The child who confronts and successfully overcomes the crises of the first three stages has assimilated the virtues of self-actualized , hope, will, and purpose and is ready for the next stage , learning to take pleasure from completing work.

The Fourth Stage , Industry vs. Inferiority:

This stage should last from about age six to around age eleven. Some humans become arrested in this stage, as well. While attending school the child ought to be starting to learn the skills necessary for economic survival in our globalized world. If there is a positive response, the child learns the technological skills that enable him or her to become a productive member of the community.

In the United States learning the social skills of cooperating with others and networking are necessary for surviving this stage. The most important lesson the child learns during this stage is, as Erikson says, "the pleasure of work completion" by way of "steady attention and persevering diligence." As some like to say, `staying in the Zone'. - `staying focused.' By succeeding at the task, the child gains confidence in self-identifying his role in society and among other people. The alternative is a sense of inferiority; lose of confidence, and a belief that he or she will not become a contributing member of society. A negative identity is developing.

There is a different path of development that is misconstrued in American society: Rarely, for some persons, `work' becomes equated with life. Many of our "over-achiever/ workaholics" plateau for many years at this stage of their development. The virtue achieved at this stage should be , Competence. But it should not be all consuming. Erikson says that competence is the free exercise of dexterity, and intelligence in the completion of tasks unimpaired by infantile inferiority, which comes from ridicule or lack of concern by those most important (parents, caregivers, coaches) to the child.

In the USA we place a very high value on competence in a variety of marketable skills: athletics, dance, music making, filmmaking, video production, etc. This has provided broader scope for Americans to seek to achieve competence. But, it has distorted our vision, and we are paying the price of values distortion. At the same time we praise high skill in the arts we have become a nation of anti-intellectuals when it comes to high skills (competence) in the fine arts, poetry, architecture and the like. This lack of realistic focus can adversely affect normal development and cause role confusion. The ages of twelve to about twenty years ought to be a time for testing the limits of talents and skills , a time to risk failure - a time for seeking a realistic identity.

The Fifth Stage , Identity Versus Role Confusion.

We are at a very critical stage in clarifying our nation's chosen course of action toward developing competent persons who identify with their work. This psychosocial stage is the transition from childhood to adulthood. During this stage children (teenagers) ponder the accumulated information about themselves and their society. Adolescents are committing themselves to a strategy about life. Gaining a satisfactory personal identity marks a satisfactory end of this stage of development. Tragically, the media fosters magical, improbable, expectations about careers in music, sports, dance, stage, and cinema.

This "reach for the stars" is the right of everyone. But, hoopla leads to role confusion for the vast majority of our adolescents who are only about-average. This is true for not only adolescents of the USA's `underclass' but also for the neglected "over-privileged" children of America's professional working couples. Churches could, and should be playing a leading role in helping most of the adolescents to choose goals within their grasp. There is a shortage of good appropriate role models and a surfeit of Eminems, Ice Cubes, and Boy Toys. Still, for a dynamic society this prolonged interval between youth and adulthood gives play to autonomous self-actualizing humans.

Risks ought to be taken during this psychosocial moratorium while on the search for a realistic identity. Otherwise, society will stagnate as has been evidenced by some conservative societies in history as well as today. Clear thinking would observe that both in the USA and the world of M human leadership is making a tragedy out of this search for identity by promising illusions. Is 73 virgins in heaven as the reward for a Muslim youth that much different than the dream of wide-eyed lovely-girl groupies for a rock star? The pornography of illicit power overwhelms good sense. We believe churches can and should foster correct models and do more to encourage fun ways to serve God.

If the young adult does not leave this stage with a realistic workable identity he or she is leaving with role confusion in America or worse as a human bomb for the fraudulent Jihadists of ISL It is also true that some young adults choose `not to become' for years. Organizers of this web church will try to explicate much of the unrest and hostility expressed by human adolescents because no workable alternative is offered to them. The virtue achieved with the self-creation of a positive identity is fidelity. Erikson defines fidelity as the ability to sustain freely pledged loyalties despite the inevitable contradictions of the ambient value system. The young adult who pushes through the crisis is ready for choosing between intimacies versus isolation.

The Sixth Stage , Intimacy Versus Isolation.

For most humans, this stage, called early adulthood, usually lasts from about twenty to twenty-four years of age.

(As a useful aside - Confusion is caused in role-modeling for the typical human in that many of our ablest humans are asked to commit themselves to postponement of the sixth stage as they pursue professional prowess of the highest order. Examples are women gymnasts and soccer players who often discontinue menstruating as they pursue championship status. In effect, they postpone the choice of intimacy for a form of isolation that discourages achieving biological maturity. Male weightlifters are sometimes impotent as they pursue more muscle with a "no- pain- no-gain" mentality.)

Organizers of the MeetingHouse will try to edify many who are uneasy, even hostile, as adolescents because no workable alternative is being offered to them. Our media has again failed us in that they promote (through marketing) the ludicrous idea that all young adults should emulate these outstanding atypical humans.

For the normal healthy person the virtue achieved by successfully passing through this stage is love. Erikson defines love as the mutuality of devotion forever subduing the antagonisms inherent in divided function. A young adult who comes to this stage with a strong identity can risk merging him or herself in a love relationship with another. Love is not life fulfillment, but it can garner strength and power to the psychosocial personality if one finds love that is returned.

(We note that some compulsively and obsessively pursue their personal dreams in isolation during this stage. Such may become poets, artists, inventors, writers, and great scientists. But this is a rare form of successful adaptation. Unfortunately, the media knows good copy when they see it , who wants to be boring, boring? , So there is too much focus on these isolates.)

The discussion here is about what the church should do in providing the educational function for normal-state persons. There has been a serious lack of proportionality and balance in the USA and unrealistic life objectives have been encouraged for ordinary people. Everyone can be a CEO! Anyone can be President! Wrong! )

Churches and other social organizations can do better than the media. Somewhere, between about twenty-four and sixty-five we come to the crisis of generativity versus stagnation or possibly even to be touched with morbidity. We ought to be confronted with our mortality in the journey of the life cycle during this coming stage.

The Seventh Stage , Generativity Versus Stagnation.

During middle adulthood, between ages twenty-four and sixty-five, if one has been fortunate enough to develop a positive identity and to live a happy and productive life the older human will try to pass on to the next generation the kind of circumstances that produced this effect.

This can be done by interacting with children. They need not be one's own, nor, must it be done directly. Producing and parenting a family can do it, or creating things or ideas that will enhance the lives of those in the next generation - that is why we call it generativity. The person who does not develop a sense of generativity will find life characterized by stagnation, interpersonal impoverishment, and boredom. If the ratio between these two states is favorable to generativity one leaves this stage with the virtue of care and a widening concern for the positive things and ideas that have been generated by love, accident, and necessity, in passing through these productive years.

The caring overcomes the ambivalence arising from the irreversible trend line of life's duties and obligations as one enters decline.

This stage occurs from age sixty-five until death and is called later adulthood or we could use the marketing hype , the golden years. The times they are a'chang'in, as Dillon, himself, is one of the recent entrants into the golden-age category. In the Earth's advanced modern countries most reaching age sixty-five years can look forward to another one-third of their life due to medical and other technological advances. The safety net of social security, Medicare, and pensions provides some (Those who have not been victimized by corporate piracy) with a sense of economic security for the remainder of their natural life. The epochal change is that for some elderly this secure golden age beckons them to dynamic, re-energizing changes in their new patterns of adult behavior.

Other caught up in old paradigms despair that life is slipping away. Too many churches have encouraged the prayer shawl, breviary; a `woe is me, as I die' mentality. In contrast, modern churches are encouraging volunteerism and participatory involvement by the elderly with the younger generations. (We hope not to be in an interfering, judgmental way.) This church, and others, will have much to do with those who look back on a life of missed opportunities and frustrating experiences with despair. Strange as it may seem those experiencing the dark despair of depressing old age are not yet ready for death because they lack a sense of fulfillment.

The eighth stage should complete the virtuous circle. The elderly adult's attitude toward death can directly influence a young child's sense of trust. If the old one has more ego-integrity as an integrated personality than one who despairs; his or her life will be characterized by the virtue of wisdom. Erikson defines this virtue as detached concern. Finding zest for this extended life, many are prolonging it with anti-aging supplements so they can have as many years leading useful lives, as their mortal coil will allow. Usually they are people who arrived at this stage having already enjoyed a rich and meaningful happy life. They do not fear death and already have a sense of completion and fulfillment. They are accepting of God's blessing of a few more years to serve their fellow humans.

If the old one has more ego-integrity, as an integrated personality, than one who despairs, his or her life will be characterized by the virtue of wisdom, which Erikson defines as detached concern with life in the face of death. We will close this part with a quote that has benefited the Chinese for centuries. This is one of Lao Tze's many teachings: In this case it promotes the idea of correct inaction or interference by the old one.

"About the governing of a nation, Lao Tze, said, "Of the best rulers, the people only know they exist. The next best, they love and praise. The next they fear, and the next they revile . . . but (of the best) when their task is accomplished, their work done, the people remark, we have done it ourselves."

The MeetingHouse will encourage mature personalities to serve their fellow humans so we will be blessed with good leaders in the years to come. The educational function provides much opportunity for this church and others who will follow.

After this review of the characteristics and attributes of the Spiritual Human it is clear that Spiritual Humans are on a life enhancing quest that follows the path toward a Buddha-like state of enlightenment where every day we show our love for G-D by  serving G-D by helping our fellow humans and acting to conserve Earth. One can gain greater insight to a new kind of human. According to the great teacher Osho, that human can be one who has the capacity for inner transformation which will enable a Self that is capable of enjoying the earthly pleasures of Zorba the Greek and the silent serenity of Gautama Buddha. The limitation of the MeetingHouse's encyclopedic format for the world religions does not permit the MeetingHouse to provide a detailed review of Osho's teachings and active meditations. Still, we urge you to take the next step and obtain a copy of Osho's The Buddha Said, Watkins Publishing, 6th Floor., Castle House, 75-76 Wells Street, London, WIT 3QH., 2007. The book's radical wisdom will be a great aid in meeting the challenge of life's difficulties. Osho interprets the Sutra of Forty-two Changes using contemporary anecdotes to illustrate his points. As Osho says:

No belief is required to travel with Buddha. You can come to him with all your skepticism , he accepts and welcomes you and says, "Come with me"

REFERENCES:

SOUNDS TRUE , Kenyon, Tom, The Ultimate Brain, and (a nine CD Boxed Set) ISBN 1-59179-448-X, Publisher: Sounds True, P O Box 8010, Boulder, CO 80306.

Osho's The Buddha Said, Watkins Publishing, 6th Floor., Castle House,  75-76 Wells Street, London, WIT 3QH., 2007