As "I" See It: The Scientifically Spiritual Perspective

As "I" See It: The Scientifically Spiritual Perspective by Hargreaves, John. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780964563223.

At the close of World War II the author joined the War Crimes Investigation Team with the task of interrogating both victims and camp administrators in a number of concentration camps. It was the Holocaust seen at first hand. Confronted with the physical and moral bankruptcy of post-war Europe, he sought an answer to the old question of how it was possible to reconcile the suffering and evil that he saw with a God who was supposed to be good and, indeed, Love. The alternative to being able to answer this question satisfactorily was to turn from it with indifference or resignation in face of the impossible. Having explored many religious beliefs, his search turned from the attempt to answer the problem from within its own terms of reference, to find a higher law that transcended the apparent good and evil of human experience. In this book, the writer introduces three themes which are reiterated throughout. The first is that thinking not only affects but actually constitutes experience. The second is that what we accept as thought depends on the standpoint of perception, the "eye" that colours all that is perceived. The third is that the mental framework which characterizes the "eye" is also the identity, or "I", of the beholder. From this standpoint the writer suggests a new perspective from which everything can be regarded. He equates this with that altitude of consciousness which, in religious terms, is called the divine Mind, or God. The cultural climate to which his search had lead him was Christian Science, not in any organizational sense so much as a demonstrable law which offered a fresh and practical perspective from which to live and understand the problems of our times.