The Great Awakening was a movement that swept through American in the 1740s and its ministers encouraged people to develop a personal relationship with God. Differences between religious affiliations were set aside and ministers were encouraged to preach to people of contrasting denominations, to facilitate a more universal approach to religion. Services were often held in open fields, to enhance the message of universal salvation. Indeed, the Great Awakening made religious toleration part of the fabric of American Society.
One of the founding lights of this movement was Jonathan Edwards, who in our present day has been identified as Wayne Dyer, Ed.D. I first made the connection between Edwards and Dr. Dyer when I was reading about the Great Awakening. Ahtun Re, the spirit guide channeled through Ahtun Re, later confirmed this past life match.
Jonathan Edwards was considered one of the greatest theologians of his day. Born in East Windsor, Connecticut in 1703, he demonstrated an early aptitude and talent for metaphysical issues. In fact, at age ten, he wrote an essay on the nature of the soul.
Three years later, Edwards matriculated into the Collegiate School of Connecticut, which later evolved into Yale University. Edwards graduated valedictorian of his class. After earning a Masters Degree at this same institution, he moved to Northhampton, Massachusetts, to assist his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, who was considered one of the most influential Puritan ministers in New England. After Stoddard died, Edwards took over responsibility for the congregation.
Reverend Edwards, much like Wayne Dyer, was a charismatic orator who could draw large crowds to his sermons. Edwards combined traditional Puritan ideas with mysticism, Newton’s physics, and the philosophy of John Locke. He believed strongly in predestination and the need for people to have direct, individual experiences of God. Interestingly, Edwards’s focus on direct religious experience influenced the great American parapsychologist, William James, and Edwards’s thought is invoked in James’s classic text Varieties of Religious Experience. In Return of the Revolutionaries, William James is identified in contemporary times as parapsychologist Jeffrey Mishlove, host of the Thinking Allowed television series.
Edwards’s passionate approach to the pulpit helped bring about the “Little Awakening,” a religious revival that swept over Massachusetts in 1734 and 1735. Edwards later authored A Faithful Narrative in the Surprising Work of God, in which he recorded the events of the Little Awakening for posterity. In 1740, George Whitefield, an equally fervid minister visiting from Britain, called upon Reverend Edwards. Whitefield was blessed with a voice that was musical in quality and could reach thousands in the open air. In his sermons, Whitefield liked to use the word “ Mesopotamia,” and it was said that he could melt an audience with his pronunciation of this word. Edwards and Whitefield joined forces and together started the Great Awakening. The contemporary identity of George Whitefield is known, by the way, but will be revealed at a later time.
In 1757, Reverend Edwards became President of the College of New Jersey, which later became Princeton University. This role is consistent with the character of Wayne Dyer, who has a doctorate in counseling psychology and who is considered an educator. Jonathan Edwards authored a number of highly popular works, which is also consistent with the talent of Wayne Dyer. Several of Edwards’s essays, such as “A Careful and Strict Enquiry into Notions of Freedom of Will,” “A Treatise Concerning Religious Affectations,” and “Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World,” are considered classics in American theological literature.
Edwards’s works are reflected in Wayne Dyer’s books, which increasingly have focused on spirituality and religion. Indeed, themes of the Great Awakening are evident in Dyer’s books. In his bestseller, Wisdom of the Ages: 60 Days to Enlightenment, Dr. Dyer surveys the spiritual thought of great minds throughout history, many of whom stem from divergent religious traditions. This mirrors Edwards’s approach to theology, in which he integrated traditional Puritan doctrine with the ideas of Newton, Locke, and other great thinkers. As implied in the title of Dr. Dyer’s book, personal enlightenment or direct religious experience is the ultimate goal. This again reflects the thought of Jonathan Edwards.
A subsequent book composed by Dr. Dyer, There’s a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem, was inspired by a St. Francis of Assisi poem. Review of this book’s jacket reveals another parallel between Edwards and Dr. Dyer. Due to his emphasis on feelings and emotions, Jonathan Edwards was known as the “theologian of the heart.” On the jacket of Dr. Dyer’s book, he writes, “Thinking is the source of problems. Your heart holds the answer to solving them.”
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And finally, we have Dr. Dyer’s book, Manifest Your Destiny, which is based on Dattatreya Siva Baba’s teachings. Regarding this book, there is an informative interview conducted by Randy Peyser, which can be reviewed at http://members.aol.com/rpeyser/dyer.htm. Dr. Dyer, in this interview, relates:
“There is a universal intelligence that we call God or Soul or Spirit or Consciousness, and it is everywhere and in all things. There is no place that it is not. What we have to do is figure out a way to reconnect to our Source, rather than seeing ourselves as separate from it. Almost all of our conditioning has told us that we can’t manifest. We believe we can’t attract to ourselves what we want because we think we are separate from God, and whether we are able to manifest anything is dependent upon whether God wants us to do that or not. But if we see ourselves as connected to God, or as reconnecting to our Source through meditation, then we can attract anything we want into our lives.”
Note a common theme of Jonathan Edwards and Wayne Dyer, which is to reconnect with our Source, to have a direct experience of God. Note also that Jonathan Edwards was a child prodigy in matters of spirit and at the age of ten, he wrote an essay on the nature of the soul. This is similar to the history of Agnastyar, Ramalinga and Dattatreya Siva Baba, who all demonstrated spiritual gifts early on in life. Dattatreya Siva Baba has indicated that in previous lifetimes, Wayne Dyer has been his disciple. Dr. Dyers statement, “if we see ourselves as connected to God, or as reconnecting to our Source through meditation, then we can attract anything we want into our lives,” certainly reflects the teachings of Siva Baba and the Tamil Siddhas.
Perhaps Wayne Dyer was one of the 12 disciples of Agastyar, or perhaps he was Ramalingam’s principle disciple and biographer, Velayutha Mudalier, or perhaps Dr. Dyer was one of the disciples who sang “Supreme Grace Light, pour down upon us,” when the “flash of violet light emanated from Ramlingam’s room, signaling the merger of Ramalingam “into all the bodies of His creation.” Perhaps Dattatreya Siva Baba will reveal his past life connections to Dr. Dyer in more detail someday.
One thing we know for sure is that Wayne Dyes is a great orator, as he was in his lifetime as Jonathan Edwards. If Dr. Dyer chooses to use his voice to spread the word regarding objective evidence of reincarnation, then, with the help of Agastyar/Ramalingam/Dattatreya Siva Baba, we can truly transform the world.
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