Believing the unbelievable

     I have just been reading some of my really old blogs, searching for any insights I may have shared that would relate to or be a repetition of what I want to talk about. One of my very favorite scriptures for increased understanding of all things is Doctrine and Covenants 131:7-8:
There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes; We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter.
And in my scriptures I penciled in- The cellular structure in the brain is so fine that the length of a wave of visible light is too blunt to probe it. It requires an electron microscope to "see".
     I was reading a recent National Geographic magazine and came across several pages of amazing pictures of very ordinary flowers. The photographer has been using a special technique now for about 5 years called ultraviolet-induced visible fluorescence. When he photographs flowers exposed to UV light, vibrant colors, unseen by the ordinary human eye, are displayed. Here is an ordinary myrtle-

It is not photo-shopped or altered other than the original UV exposure and camera picking up what is made visible to it. I couldn't help but think about what exists that we either don't know about or ignore because it isn't apparent to us in our current sensory abilities. Most of us know about sounds beyond what human ears hear- bats, dogs, dolphins and all kinds of creatures hear what are real sounds but not audible to us. We know there are colors beyond the spectrum that our eyes can discern. We are limited by what enters our eyeballs, gets reflected on our retinas and transported by our optic nerve to be translated (for lack of a better word) by our brain. We have known for awhile now that our brains are capable of more than we are aware. I recalled some near-death experiences that I have read about in several different books:
     "The meadow and lake were striking, with magnificent displays of flowers and flowering shrubs of many varieties." (Visions of Glory as told to John Pontius)
     "I have seen good gardens on this earth, but I never saw any to compare with those that were there. I saw flowers of numerous kinds, and some with from fifty to a hundred different colored flowers growing upon one stalk.................At first I became aware of beautiful colors which were all the colors of the rainbow.. They were magnified in crystallized light and beamed with a brilliance in every direction.... As my senses expanded I became aware of colors that were far beyond the spectrum of the rainbow known to the human eye." (Glimpses Beyond Death's Door by Brent and Wendy C. Top)
     "'Hearing' in the spiritual state can apparently be called so only by analogy, and most say that they do not really hear physical voices or sounds. Rather, they seem to pick up the thoughts of persons around them, and... this same kind of direct transfer of thoughts can play an important role in the late stages of death experiences....There are just no words to express what I am trying to say...They just don't make adjectives and superlatives to describe this....No, there is a real problem for me as I'm trying to tell you this, because all the words I know are three-dimensional." (Life After Life- research and collected anecdotes from around the world by Raymond A. Moody, Jr. M.D.)
     Do you see what I mean? We tend to be skeptical of spiritual things, like God and angels and the Holy Ghost, because we can't perceive them right now. This by no means is "proof" that they don't exist! Magic and miracles are simply reality that we don't yet understand. Once we know how it's done, it is no longer "impossible" to our finite minds. It's easy enough to believe in wind because, although we can't "see" it, we can feel it and see the results of it around us. It's easy enough to believe in love or hate even though we can't "see" them because we can feel them in ourselves and from others. Because we lack the advanced knowledge and wisdom that God has, we cannot fully comprehend Him or all that He comprehends. But "the glory of God is intelligence" and He wants to share with us all that He has. We are His children, His heirs- but only if we choose to be. He wants to share what He knows but we have to want to know. In our current state, we are more likely to "feel" the Spirit and know It is good and right rather than understand all It has to offer. In order for us to advance from where we are, we have to trust in the knowledge offered us and choose to trust God. Jesus said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect" and He has promised that the way will be provided for us to obey any and all commandments He gives us. We just have to trust and keep trying. Our increase in knowledge will come little by little, step by step, but it will come if we choose to accept it. How glorious!