Myrtle Fillmore was a strong believer in regeneration, proclaiming
that humankind’s need for it began in the Garden of Eden:
[i]According
to the Bible allegory, it was not until after man separated himself from the
spiritual consciousness of life that
the curse fell upon generation, and pain and sorrow followed in its wake. In
order to restore Adamic conditions, man must open his mind to divine
inspiration and again walk and talk with God.
Bodily regeneration was a major concept in her thinking. Her position is evident as she writes:
Unity teaches the regeneration
taught and demonstrated by Jesus Christ, and all who aspire to eternal health
and prosperity. And even eternal life here and now, are accepting the way of
Jesus Christ.
Not only did Myrtle believe Jesus Christ taught and
demonstrated regeneration, she also believed that anything He did we could also
do also. Furthermore, she believed Jesus now lives in a regenerated body and,
eventually, we may all arrive at the same bodily state:
[ii]This
is the body in which Jesus now lives, and into which we shall all enter when we
have lifted up the body idea and set free the forces that enter into it.
She taught that Jesus was able to obtain regeneration by raising
His body consciousness and by realizing the Absolute Truth. We,
too, can attain regeneration by following his example. Fillmore goes on to explain that we
can raise our consciousness by finding the “Christ within ourselves.” However, she
admits, “It is no easy matter.” To do this, we must believe, without a doubt, that
regeneration is possible. Along with unwavering faith, we must continually apply
Truth Principles and affirmations, live a healthy lifestyle, and curtail sexual
passion. Myrtle advises that for regeneration to occur, “Sex passion is a
taint. The Unity co-founder was not against sexual passion, but suggested it should
be reserved for the less evolved:
[iii]We
do not condemn generation. It is all
right for those who are not highly evolved sufficiently to accept and
understand regeneration.
Myrtle believed regeneration could happen for all of us. In
fact, she believed we would continually be reincarnated, until we mastered the process:
[iv]Every
one of us is going to have to reincarnate until we make the union of Spirit,
soul and body, and spiritualize these bodies.
While Myrtle believed regeneration was one of our most
primary and ultimate goals, she also believed it was a choice: [v]"People
are free to choose their own destiny. Those who desire to continue generation
may do so, for Unity does not force Christ principles on anyone.”
[i] Fillmore,
Myrtle Fillmore (2013-10-04). Myrtle Fillmore's Healing Letters (Kindle
Locations 855-859). Kindle Edition.
[ii] Neal
Vahle, Torch-Bearer to Light the Way: the Life of Myrtle Fillmore (Unity Village, Mo: Open View
Press, 1996),
Beth,
ReplyDeleteI was struck by several points you made:
First, I am glad that you connected Myrtle's views on sex to regeneration. I am going to go back and see if Myrtle made a distinction between sex within marriage and sex outside of marriage. Or are all forms of sexual activity-- even within marriage-- reducing the chances of regeneration in Myrtle's eyes? (Is she viewing the sublimation of sex as necessary for regeneration?)
Second, I was struck by your comments about Adam/Eden and 'fall' from regeneration. Wow, is this more of Myrtle's Methodist background clinging to her in adulthood? (i.e., She doesn't believe in 'original sin' and the 'fall' that was presented in her father's church back in Ohio before the Civil War, but she does seem to believe in some kind of 'fall' from the intended design of regeneration. So it is fair to ask: Did knowledge of 'good and evil' result in the fall from the intended path of regeneration, as far as Myrtle was concerned?)
Thanks for a thought provoking share Beth!
Rick
Rick,
ReplyDeleteI get the impression Myrtle made no distinction between sex within, and sex outside marriage. She believed the depletion of sexual energy, lessons the prospects for regeneration.
Vahle writes: Myrtle received the inspiration for specific Unity teaching regarding the process of regeneration through prayer and mediation with Charles. They prayed and mediated together in the silence, where the law governing regeneration unfolded to us. From that time onward Myrtle made the quest for regeneration a part of her own practice.
Thanks Beth. This is so different from my Jewish roots. The Jewish tradition is that the rabbi SHOULD be married-- and if he isn't the congregation is busy getting him married (and it was traditionally assumed that the rabbi was a man). Also, the Jewish norm is/was that the rabbi and his wife are busy making babies!~~ and that is what God wanted, it was assumed.
ReplyDeleteBeth,
ReplyDeleteI have been interpreting Myrtle's thoughts on regeneration the same way you have. It is interesting to think about. Okay, I'm going to go there... Did the Fillmore's stop having sex after the they had their children? At what point did they decide that engaging in sex would take away from their ability to regenerate, These are questions I have and I can't be the only one wondering. Right? Thanks, for the great post my friend.
Okay, I'll get in on this discussion too. Christine, you ask (I'm paraphrasing) if they stopped having sex after they had their children in order to physically (not spiritually) regenerate their bodies? If the answer to that question is yes, this makes it even more interesting that Myrtle (apparently) decided to give up on physical regeneration in 1931.
DeleteBeth:
ReplyDeleteThank you for going into Myrtle’s attitude on sex. I’ve held a suspicion that neither Charles nor Myrtle found their physical time together particularly satisfying. Now I’m thinking those encounters may have drained Myrtle’s spirit like 'sucking the life out of her’ so that she’d keep them to minimum to retain a vibrant spirituality. The Victorian Age put forth many anti-sex ideas into the culture--with lots of dualistic bias, e.g. mind vs body, good girl vs bad girl, etc. Myrtle’s ideas about regeneration flow from an core vision of an unlimited energetic spirit animating the body to health, wealth and greater spiritual heights, so long as one turned away from the material mind. Myrtle may be on the cutting edge of spiritual expansiveness; when it came to living successfully in the physical realm, she might have been less than functional. Now, I’m no proponent of Sigmund Freud and his sexual theory explaining everything (what Jung said)…. but, you know, Myrtle might have benefitted there. Thanks for opening that door for discussion.
Beth - I loved how you started at the beginning, with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. (again, my classmates are brilliant in their approaches to these assignments!) And after I was convinced that Myrtle made few actual references to "regeneration", you come up with several!
ReplyDeleteSo, now for the sex part. I have two impressions. Myrtle appears to have fallen into the realm of the Victorian Age ideas about sexuality, maintaining purity and all that involves. (by the way, I have read in contemporary work that the more intellectual and spiritual a person becomes, they often also become less inclined to participate in sexual intimacy. No further comment here...)
My second thought is about Charles. Since this post is not about Charles, I will refrain commenting further, other than to say that my summations of the Fillmore's stands on sex may not have been the same.
Beth. Like you, I made reference to "sex passion is a taint." I found Myrtle's comments on the subject rather intriguing. Certainly controversial, I wonder if her views were based on her theological beliefs or were in keeping with the era? Quite possibly a combination of both. Good post!
ReplyDeleteBeth writes:
ReplyDelete"Myrtle advises that for regeneration to occur, 'Sex passion is a taint.' The Unity co-founder was not against sexual passion, but suggested it should be reserved for the less evolved: [iii] 'We do not condemn generation. It is all right for those who are not highly evolved sufficiently to accept and understand regeneration.'"
Is Myrtle actually saying "sex is okay" when she declares, "We do not condemn generation", or is she saying it's okay to have babies without giving approval to the act which produces them? Does "generation" mean sex in Myrtle's context, or does it merely mean you may have children while trying to purify yourself so no replacements are necessary?
The general comments by several students about the influence of the Victorian Age have seldom been taken as foundational to the Fillmorean sex ethics & its supportive metaphysics, but I have been suggesting this link for several years. How could anyone live through 9-11 and not be changed? We speak of a "post 9-11 age" and assume the consciousness of the American nation was altered. But altered from what? Any operational worldview which dominates a culture will be as invisible to its inhabitants as ocean water to a fish. What assumptions motivated Myrtle and Charles to reject sexuality as tainted, profoundly unclean, and even somewhat naughty? Do their values sound so radically different to us because we have lived through the sexual revolution of the 60s and 70s? What would Myrtle say to Masters & Johnson or the Kinsey Report?
As anyone who attended my first student chapel service in May knows, I'm always happy to talk about sex! Ahem. I mean to say that I'm happy to have a meaningful...intercourse...about it, that is! ;))) Seriously, in general, here's the thing. In general, I tend to think that Unity/Myrtle/Charles (all of the aforementioned) teaches that our desires come from Spirit. But they get filtered through our individual consciousness. We seek in the outer for that which we must come to know in the inner, right? For instance, it's the knowing that we are provided for that we want. Yet, it seems okay for that to manifest in financial prosperity. It's ultimately the knowing of oneness that we want. But it seems okay that that gets expressed in love for our families/partners. So, perhaps it's the knowing that we're eternal in nature that we want, but then is it also okay that that knowing be expressed through our sexual expression?
ReplyDeletePerhaps all Myrtle is saying is that the focus on lust is misguided desire in the outer for the knowing of our oneness with Spirit or even the knowing of our eternal nature. At the same time, it doesn't answer the question of whether, once we have that "knowing"/consciousness we'll even have "sex passion" at all. Perhaps we will and it's not whether it's sex passion or not but whether the passion comes from a perceived lack within or is an expression of knowing our wholeness and eternal nature? I'm wondering how is this piece different from the ways in which Myrtle normally teaches that, yes, we start with the spiritual knowing of our Christ self but then part of the purpose of life is EXPRESSING that.