Overview

"Because of her early studies where she had learned that science was claiming full explanatory power of our world, author Mary Conrow Coelho pursued several years of formal theological studies and search to understand spiritual experiences. But then she learned that knowledge from physics has changed profoundly with the discovery that atoms are almost entirely comprised of a powerful, nonvisible nonmaterial reality. We now know based on this discovery proven by quantum physicists that a nonvisible realm is integral to our very being. The human person and everything on Earth is comprised of this nonvisible realm that the manifest world of daily life has risen within and continues to emerge within. We are given a new understanding from science of the reality of the nonvisible. In her book, The Depth of Our Belonging: Mysticism, Physics, and Healing, we are encouraged to not be intimidated by the seemingly difficult and foreign world of the quantum physicist but to explore our transformed worldview with the guidance of careful teachers. There are many terms for this radical discovery; author Mary Coelho uses ""seamless plenum."" She shows how this new information at the level of physics connects with descriptions in the writings of mystics of their experiences, such as, from Julian of Norwich, John Yungblut, Catherine of Genoa, Meister Eckhard, Hafiz, Teresa of Avila, and others. She proposes that these mystics are actually describing the seamless plenum. The Depth of Our Belonging is beautifully illustrated by paintings by the author. At a personal level she shows how this new information has provided profound healing for herself. She writes, ""Thanks to my deepened understanding of human identity within our evolutionary story and the breakthrough in the recognition by physicists and mystics of the nonvisible sacred Presence integral to my very being, I dared to know with confidence that the loss of adequate nurture and the resulting suffering I experienced as an infant and young child are not the final word. The situation of the person who suffers is profoundly different within our new context as compared to a dualistic world that separates our bodies and the natural world from spirit (prana or ruah). In the dualistic world we do not know that the spirit, the dynamic and life-giving energy of the universe, is intrinsic to our very being, always present and active. In our new worldview there is an identity not circumscribed by the loss and suffering; the ongoing sacred Presence (seamless plenum) provides a place to stand, a willingness to feel the suffering deeply with confidence in the possibility of fresh emergence, a fresh expression of the Self. We can be confident that we can become true differentiated subjects in communion with our world and other people, given the ancient archetypal patterning intrinsic to the person."""

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Reviews

Mary Conrow Coelho has written a remarkable new book, The Depth of Our Belonging: Mysticism, Physics and Healing. As Mary came to understand the meaning of the evolutionary story and of the depths of numinous matter, she realized to her great joy that mystical experiences are not strange or unusual. Rather, they are integral to the natural world and to our very being. This transformed world view enabled her to find healing from the consequences of a family tragedy when she was just an infant and a young child. In her courageous book, we are invited to move from self-doubt and alienation to deep belonging in a universe that unfolds with endless creativity. Highly recommended. -Brian Thomas Swimme, Professor of Cosmology, California Institute of Integral Studies In this enlightening and beautifully illustrated book, Mary Coelho joins discoveries in new physics with mystical wisdom to reset our orientation to the inner and outer life. In her hopeful vision, the transformation of the self and the beneficence of the natural world spring from the underlying sacred Presence or seamless plenum, opening a path of healing for our wounded souls and for our world. -Beverly Lanzetta, Ph.D., contemplative scholar and author of A New Silence: Spiritual Practices and Formation for the Monk Within.

Author Information

Mary Conrow Coelho has a background in both science and theology. She taught high school biology in the American Community School in Buenos Aires. She has an MDiv degree from Union Theological Seminary and a PhD from Fordham University. She is the author of Awakening Universe, Emerging Personhood: The Power of Contemplation on an Evolving Universe, several articles, and a Pendle Hill Pamphlet, Recovering Sacred Presence in a Disenchanted World. She has led a number of workshops and founded and led groups on spirituality, mysticism and the universe story. She has been a watercolor painter for many years, becoming a signature member of the Northeast Watercolor Society and the Catherine Lorillard Art Club in New York City.

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