Book: Theoism – Understanding the Universe Within
Author: Theo Chambers
Critic: Glenville Ashby, PhD
Insightfully engaging is ‘Theoism,’ the latest work of Caribbean thinker Theo Chambers. Written in his signature unorthodox style, Theoism reads like a codex reserved for esoteric societies. But this hardly takes away from its pragmatism.
Chambers forays into a pastiche of timeless questions, none more than the nature of being. His is a philosophy of science, measurable and determinable, an ontology arguably stripped of creationism. He trumpets social responsibility and filial piety, his Confucian principle weaving through much of his literary fabric.
Not that the First Cause is absent in our daily lives, far from it. It’s a matter of interpretation, according to Chambers. “The creative intelligence (God) who empowered our parents’ egg and sperm with the human creation blueprint, laid out the human creation process, and does not interfere with that process under any circumstance,” he argues.
Very much in the vein of deists, Chambers holds that the First Cause is non-existent in a didactic sense. In his Neo-Socratic methodology, we are left to separate the wheat from the chaff and to use our inherent resourceful to unravel life’s mysteries. Any other mode of self-enquiry is but an exercise in circumambulation, an avidya that bounds us to a state of enduring misery.
Chambers calls for Shabdkosh (Reason) and Viveka (Discernment). He poses questions foundational to religio-philosophical thought: “Who are we? Why are we here? From whence we came? Where do we think we are going when nature automatically turns off our access to oxygen on the expiration date of our transitory earthly vacation passport?”
At the outset, he notes, with emphasis, “There are about 100 trillion cells that make up the human body. We are not our names. We are not our titles. We are not our material possessions.
We are trillions of cells working in harmony expressing as you and I.”
Chambers advances a teleological approach to creation. The human body and all of nature are intricately and masterfully designed, purposeful, all part of an indissoluble construct, a whole from which there’s healing and enlightenment. He acknowledges our ability to use energy to effect positive change. He cites Near Field Communications (NFC) as “a compelling human trait” to support his claim.
“Reiki, Acupuncture, Group Meditation, Group Training, Live Concerts, Seminars, and other such services and events,” he writes, “are the ideal environment where groups (crowd) get their energy and excitement from each other,” and “our proximity to each other in those settings triggers an energy (signal) that automatically engulfs those close to us.”
He adds that the power of Near Field Communication is evidentiary, that “there is proof that we can change the molecules in water based on the way we think.” He adds, “Did you know that the mood of plants can be influenced by our thoughts?
He rejects supplicatory orations, though, stating that although “THEOism practitioners believe that prayer and meditation have powerful energy & vibration qualities, they do not participate in prayers or meditation that passes on to any deity to do for them what they should and can do for themselves.”
Chambers challenges sociological arguments on the nature of self. He peers into our cellular constitution, that portion of being that is colourless and race-less. He posits, “if we remove the skin from all humans, our internal organs are the same.
We are a carbon copy of each other except for the amount of melanin in our bodies that determines our skin colour.” He elaborates, “Babies, children, and blind people are racially colour blind,” and that “diseases affect all humans the same, and the death (transition) of loved ones, family, friends, associates, and even strangers trigger emotions in all human beings equally, regardless if they are poor, middle class, or super-rich.
“The adrenaline that takes over our body when we got our first kiss is the same among all human beings regardless of our geographical location, money in the bank, family title, political affiliations, education, or religious dogma.”
Chambers attributes much of the world’s ills to our infractions, our violations of natural laws of which ignorance is inexcusable.
He states, “Man tries to overrule the Creator’s Laws of Nature by using human- made ideology and belief, for example, the Creator of the cosmos made it possible for all males and females on Planet Earth to have a child with each other regardless of the colour of their skin, economic or social success, still, humans say, whites should be with whites. Blacks should be with blacks, and Jews should be with Jews.
“Regardless of how hard humans try to overrule the Cosmic Laws of Creation, the basic rules of nature always prevail. This is grounded in the fact that when the sperm of a male comes face to face with the ovum of a female, it does not care one bit about economic or social circumstances.”
He avers that “THEOism conversations free us from any religious, political, and social ideologies by making us examine the raw facts that can be disputed or accepted, without invoking blind faith to accept a conclusion that cannot be proven truthful beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Of our moral responsibility to self, he exhorts us “to become the master of our existence and the gatekeeper of our good health,” and that “we must understand how to read the human blueprint of creation.”
He continues, “We must learn from an early age that the genome of an organism is the whole of its hereditary information encoded in its DNA,” that “there are approximately 100 Trillion Cells in the human body,” and “that cellular nutrition is the correct formula we need to keep our immune system optimized, and ready to defend our internal WellBeing against unwanted visitors.”
Invariably, he contends that we must guard the Universal Womb, our environment, of which he writes in near hagiographic terms.
“It is our godly obligation to keep our Temple of Inner Peace in optimum condition, and to keep our mind-body-soul in perfect synchronization with The Universe Within and the external Laws of Nature.” We are encouraged “to respect nature’s laws by protecting the rainforest, which is a vital player in keeping the balance of the ecosystem.”
Throughout his thesis, Chambers views life as interwoven, a gestalt that must be honoured lest we fall victim to our ignorance. He challenges us to be mindful of our every action for, wittingly or unwittingly, we create other realities if only we knew. He pronounces that our choice of political leaders and consumerist patterns may have deleterious effects on a much larger scale than we could ever anticipate.
He prods the conscience, ever inviting reflection. “If we operate a restaurant and one of our main courses includes steak or pork, we might not be aware of how those animals are slaughtered.
If there is any cruelty towards animals in our chain supply, our ignorance should not be an excuse from blame because we are an active participant in that network of supply and demand.
When we join and pledge allegiance to a religious, political, business, or social institution that claims to be the Real McCoy, aren’t we directly or indirectly guilty of promoting separatism and discrimination?”
Chambers paints a world of paradoxes, a world of wonderment that buckles under man’s chaos, fatalism, and insouciance. He responds with THEOism, a reminder of our innate ‘godhood,’ and our unique gift of reasoning.
Surely, there is much to glean from the metaphysics of THEOism. In an age marked by media-driven herd culture, Chambers’ work proves timely and refreshing. Measuredly and seamlessly, he lays bare once radical views on religion, psychology, health and environment into practical formulas that are as accessible as they are engaging.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
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Theoism – Understanding the Universe Within by Theo Chambers
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