BillD - "So, L.H.... how would that be different from simple "thoughts feelings and emotions" that were merely our 'ID' and 'superego' as Freud said?.

My answer to that, Bill, is that each person must decide for himself where the difference lies...and if there is one. I can't decide for you. You can't decide for me.

What I am speaking about is, for me, far more than just poetic words.

pete - you quoted from Paul: "in him we live and move and have our being...for we are also his offspring"

Yes, I quite agree with that, although you could also say "in her we live and move and have our being"...if you wanted to say it that way. I think of God as omnipresent and beyond gender, but manifesting in and through both genders and also through genderless things...as the source of all that is.

pete, point #2 - "we do have record of him commissioning the apostles to bear witness to him"

Of course. All spiritual teachers advise their students to bear witness to the teachings they are given and to the source of the teachings. The question in my mind is, "Did Jesus want people to worship him as God? Or did he want them to learn from him and to follow his example and so become like him, thus bringing to actuality the Kingdom of God as a living experience?" I think it was probably the latter, not the former. I think he was attempting to awaken the Christ Spirit in each person, not get them to worship it solely in the form of his own identity. And, yes, I think it sleeps in a potential form in every human being, waiting to be awakened and brought into full expression.

That is one of the most essential teachings in the great Asian religions, and also in some of the more mystical wings of Christianity. To achieve enlightenment is to awaken the Christ within.

We can talk about it all we want, but the only way to make it real is to actually experience it...and that's something that usually takes either a great deal of hard work...or a great capacity to open the heart and surrender...or both. Both pride and fear stand in the way.