Supernatural

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Moral Development
Omens
Miracles

Moral Development

The virtue of success is often keeping it by some sound measure.

It Makes Sense to Talk of Personality Levels

It cannot be wrong to do what it takes to build a firm and fit character. One's ego is part of the personality. It is the rational (thinking) part of ourself in TA (Transactional Analysis), for example. And it should very work well in the long run to live attuned to our highest parts of conscience. Researchers hold that personality development is the "causative factor" in moral development. It is good to know something about it too, and reflect on it.
Peck and Havighurst (and later W. Kohlberg) discern between moral levels, and think, to repeat, that personality development is the "causative factor" in moral development. They speak of five types of moral, types which also appear to be levels:

Amoral - going for self-gratification
Expedient - also self-gratifying, but trying to mask it
Irrational conscientious - rule oriented; extremist
Other directed - conforming
Utilitarian - Rational altruistic, considerative, having high regard for others.

Kohlberg discerns much like it:

Preconventional Level
Conventional Level
Post-Conventional, Autonomous, or Principled Level.

On the third level (with sub-groups) one seeks to function according to valid principles independently of the authority of groups and other persons, no matter how prominent. Mere opinions may become binding on this stage, however.

Maslow findings

OVER AND above the set and unverified opinions one behaves quite in reciprocity with individuals, and they had better be normal. Abraham Maslow has much to say about what marks those who tend to their individual sides.

Acquiring knowledge and systematizing the universe have been considered as . . . for the intelligent person, expressions of self-actualization. Also freedom of inquiry and expression have been discussed as preconditions of satisfaction of the basic needs. [Pusb 23]

Let there be room for curiosity, philosophizing, experimenting - also for budding impulses to to know, to explain, and to understand. They can help you on too. A decent community must allow for one's personal growth and growth as an individual (which is different, has uniqueness) and not down any of them. [Pusb 21]
We have very little scientific information about the belongingness need of persons who are torn from their homes and families, friends, neighbors and one's local traditions and ways. Instead of being thoroughly okayed as natives, many functional, enabled parts of oneself seem more or less sacrificed on the altar of urbanisation, which is marked by increasing worsening of many such ties and traditions, or breakdown them. In our society the thwarting of the needs of belongingness and cameraderie can be "the most commonly found core in cases of maladjustment and more severe pathology", along with thwarting of the love needs, maslow further points out. [Pusb 20-21]
In urban settings our positive emotions need to be gratified and well served. It could have good social effects, as far as the individual is also a citizen. Then, as Maslow says, "even though most people are doomed to wish for what they do not have, it is nevertheless useful to work for greater satisfaction for all." [Pusb 42]
In urban environments our instinctlike, basic need are subject to frustrations, and may therefore require different sorts of special help, even psychotherapeutic ones. And most of all, self-actualization may help interpersonal relations too.
Now there are personality types to talk of too.

Omens

If life is to be awakened and fit
From a superior clarity,
Anticipate new opportunities each day,
Giving birds a drink or feed them well now and then.

A rising sun looks ahead
And has a joyous and joy-giving mood.

Saved by a Seal, Can it Be?

Many years ago some friends and I walked on the surfer beach beneath the SRF hermitage in Encinitas. Right beneath the hermitage cliffs we came across a huge seal on the beach. We paused and looked at the animal. I felt a fit of sympathy with it.
At the SRF convocation that year, I talked with the lecturer Anandamoy and was asked if I had considered becoming a monk. "Yes, but it will have to wait," I answered.
Another senior SRF monk, Bhaktananda, said some days later at the SRF Hollywood Centre, "If you want to live in the world, you have to work, but if you come here . . . " He did not finish the sentence.
What could the huge seal on the beach be taken to mean as a natural sign? "Give it up," surely was the mature seal's essential marking as a miraculous omen, or "Give up the SURF thing (SRF, so associated)".

UFO Convocation Talk

At the same convocation I stood near Bhaktananda when someone pressed him to tell about Yogananda and UFOs. Were they real? Reluctantly Bhaktananda admitted that Yogananda had said they were real and told a story about someone Yogananda took with him into the desert. The person did not believe in UFOs, she said, and then a UFO landed.
What could it mean if you meet a UFO? It is best that I refrain from telling it for now.

Synchronicity and the God of Death

Now and then things appear to happen in confluent ways. Carl G. Jung termed this phenomenon synchronicity. A dictionary explains it as "the coincidental occurrence of events and especially psychic events (as similar thoughts in widely separated persons or a mental image of an unexpected event before it happens) that seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality - used especially in the psychology of C. G. Jung".
Accordingly, many seemingly small deeds and incidents on our way could be strange things derived from levels that have clarity above our heads, as we move to our inner truth-sides by attempts at meditation. To the degree we know the meanings and significance of such "items" we might be better able to guard ourselves, do anything about what an omen tells of, or make good use of good opportunities.
Some books interpret pictures and symbols that appear in dreams, as important messages of this and that. However, some mental ideas are not like that, they are not common or rooted in dream interpretations fit for other people. And some dreams may just as well go by ignored; it happens to most of them anyway, according to dream researchers. "Better be fit for life than for enigmatic dreams" - is derived from the Old Testament.

Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses. The Lord heard this and at once said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, "Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you."
Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam and said, "Listen: When a prophet of the Lord is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my faithful servant Moses. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord."
And lo, Miriam now turned leprous, like snow. [Numbers 12:1-10, in part rendered]

This central section of the Old Testament says that a faithful man who lives well, does not depend on interpreting dreams and visions. Not that interpretations of dreams, omens and visions need to be faulty; but there is something even better to go for, and behaving well is a part of it. Moral development against conformity may be fit. Q.e.d.
In folklore, three talking birds at times appear to tell the good girl or good boy which of three treasure boxes to choose - they serve like omen singers. Maybe the folk tale tradition reflects something in a real world, but I would not put much trust in the outward scene. God in heaven is within somehow. That is where to look first, says the Bible, and Paramahansa Yogananda too. "Find Him within, you find Him without. You will not find Him anywhere unless you find Him within." - Yogananda [East-West, January—February, 1929 Vol. 4—1. Abridged]. Hence, proper wariness and adjustment rises above tale traditions.
If you find a bull's head in your bed one morning, or dream of a bull's head, what then? It depends.
The Death-God Yama has a bull's head with long and outspread horns and also takes care of a bleeding human heart as he stabs the enemy, rings a hand-bell, and binds him with a noose. Yama is also thought to be an Osiris-like judge of the dead, the controller of rebirth, and he is righteous - even the one who consumes and destroys Samsaric ignorance (index).
Much is symbolic in tantric art. Here is a shot at it: Maybe - just maybe - the animal head is a token that you are heading downwards to an animal level. Maybe it is a warning, not a token of what is to be. And so on.

SAYING: Man comes to this world not by proxy and whim, and does not leave it by proxy either.

Miracles

I am not embarrassed to tell you that I believe in miracles. [Corazon Aquino]

A miracle is something you did not think could happen. It can be loosely understood, and differently understood. "Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature," says Augustine.
Many folktales and people claim that there are events that are "miraculous". People in different faiths have different understandings of the word. Some groups are very cautious about proclaiming apparent miracles to be genuine ones.
"The miracle . . . that elevates the few is to be found in their industry, application, and perseverance under the prompting of a brave, determined spirit," says Mark Twain. He tones down the understanding of "miracle" thus, whereas George Bernard Shaw says, "Miracles, in the sense of phenomena we cannot explain, surround us on every hand: life itself is the miracle of miracles." There are other sides to it:

More on Miracles

Do not stand in a place of danger trusting in miracles. [Arabian proverb]

A miracle is an extraordinary and surprising happening that may not be explained by normal standards and is therefore attributed to the presence and action of a supernatural or divine power. Belief in miraculous happenings - they include signs - occurs in all cultures and is a feature of practically all religions.
In religions of the ancient world (eg, Babylonia and Egypt) certain kinds of divine action or cosmic operation (eg, oracles) were accepted as part of the normal order of things. [Britannica Online]
A miracle can rest on one or more natural law not discovered or divulged to the public, but that is not the most important here: In some traditions miracles involve acts of some supernatural being.
A miracle is an unusual event, and may or may not bring with it wonderment. A miracle is also a significant event, and hopefully to a good purpose. And a miracle can be done to authenticate a person and his message.
Miracles that do not stand up to the standards of what is permitted to be used as evidence in a court of law, should not count.
Accounts of miracles abound the world over, and are contained in stories, and stories have context, characters, plots, climaxes, and so on. In order to profit somewhat from miracle tales, we may look at the miracles with a literary view too. And along with understanding of plot, character development an so on, we hope to distill essential meanings through observing happenings, scenes and other things; interpreting thoughtfully and carefully the day we can; and as for application, that is not our subject here. It may be individual or tailored individually. So by interpreting stories that abound in miracles, maybe we get to sense the id dynamics that urged such stories and faith in the first place. That could be good for us.
It is good to track the progression of thought in a miracle tale, for its progression ties the story together - as in a folk tale. [Propp] Here are facets to note:

Where - geographical items.
When - people and conversations as presented in more or less chronological sequences.
Who - the people involved.
How - practically or logically (etc) with a view to effects, for example.
What - What he makes use of: Persons, animals, things, knowledge, and miracles may be among them.
Why - Truths and ideas emphashise ideological parts of the tale. Questions of why this and that miracle was performed.

Basic understanding of literary sides of miracle tales may help us derive benefits. Such knowledge happens to be important for making things out of tales, by and large.
Interpretations of meanings rest on fit and good concepts. One may ask: "Where and what is their focus? What relevance has this teaching for us here today?"
After than questioning comes the application phases - they rest on individualised meaning-making. Management linked to essential ideas or core values (norms) found in gospel tales, had better not be under-studied. It should be skilled and patent, hopefully well-informed enough to make a living.

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common. [Ralph Waldo Emerson]

Literature
Moof: Propp, Vladimir. Morphology of the Folktale. Austin: University of Texas, 1968.
Pusb: Maslow, Abraham. Motivation and Personality. 3rd ed. New York, HarperCollins, 1987.

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