About This Website and the Author
Why I am and Who I am

The goal of my efforts through this website is the betterment of the human condition

and of all life on this little blue marble we are floating on in space.

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In this section I discuss why I chose Iamwhoam as the name of this website

and in the next section I tell you a little about me. (Bio)

 

Why I Am and Who Am.

 

My choice for using Iamwhoam for the website

is based on my beliefs about God,

the human condition

and the nature of life.

 

Like you, I was conceived into certain circumstances in the world. 

I was born into a catholic family

and still participate as a member of the Roman Catholic Church. 

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I have spent much of my life studying philosophy

and the various religions of the world.

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I based the name of the website on a story found

in the Judeo-Christian literature (Torah and Bible).

I believe that in this story can be found

a fundamental truth about the human experience. 

 

The story is about Moses, who was a leader of his people. 

He spoke to God on many occasions. 

At one point, Moses asked God what God’s name is,

“God replied to Moses: I am who I am.”  Exodus 3:14

 

The original text was written in Hebrew,

and there are other possible translations such as

I will be who I will be

I am what I am

I will be what I will be

 

I have shortened it to “I am who am”

because I believe this phrase

expresses a special relationship

between humans and God

and

this phrase also says something

about the good in the world

 

 

God is Good

Relationships and Happiness

 

God is a term to describe the ultimate,

highest being or good

of which humans can conceive.

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In contemplating God

and the experience Moses, or anyone, has with God

It is important to understand the nature of your experience and mine.

Human life happens

one person at a time

in the continuous moment.

​​

Moses, like many others before and after him,

experienced God one on one.

Moses had to decide for himself

that the voice he heard was God.

​

When he told his people about his experience with God,

each person had to decide for themselves that what he said was true,

and that God had spoken to him.

 

Moses told his people about many laws and commandments

which God wanted them to follow. 

 

God also performed many miraculous feats through Moses.

There were many great events in this story about Moses and God,

as they were led out of slavery and into a wonderful land.

 

Each individual follower of Moses,

each person hearing the words of Moses,

each person witnessing the events attributed to God,

had to decide for themselves that they were from God.

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Experiencing the Story

what was said and what happened

to Moses in his encounter with God

has come to us either by someone telling us the story

or by reading the story.

​This story entered into you, me, and each person since Moses

through one of our five senses.

​

It is possible that Moses may have heard the voice of God

in his head, within his mind, heart or soul.

​​

everyone who has claimed to have encountered God

either had the encounter externally,

in seeing or hearing God with their senses,

or experiencing God within themselves.

​

Every thought or event

that occurs in the universe

is experienced by one person at a time.

 

The big events of history,

and the little events of daily life,

are all experienced by one person at a time.

 

In some way, shape or form,

these big events ripple through the individuals in a group,

like the waves in water. 

 

Individuals gather around their shared experiences

and join as religions, nations, or any number of collections of individuals.

 

However, every collection of people

is made of individuals

deciding one at a time, to be a part of the group.

 

Each individual person

goes home after a meeting, a rally

or any other collective event

and must decide

in their inner world of thought and emotion,

what to do next:

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do I continue to follow this leader,

adhere to these laws,

follow the group directives

or do I go in another direction with my life?

​

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Every country, religion, social group

or any form of collective organization

comes together 

one individual at a time,

and stays together,

as a collection of individuals,

each of which decides one moment at a time

to stay with the other individuals.

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​Moses, Me and God

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Looking back at history as it is recorded,

we see the many big events,

such as wars, or the rise and fall of civilizations,

and attribute them to collective actions.

​

From the many encounters humans have had with God, like Moses,

members of our Judeo-Christian religion

have frequently looked for grand plans in the events of history,

and have attributed them to the actions of God.

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every event in history, large or small, occurred one person at a time.

 

A good way to understand big events and the significance of the individual

is through another religious example.

 

In my Judeo-Christian faith,

many people hold the belief that God has a grand plan of salvation for all the people

and that events transpiring in the world are leading to this grand salvation.

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However, the notion of a grand plan 

makes it very difficult to understand some of the horrible tragedies in history,

as something God needs to have happen to fulfill this grand plan.

   

It is much simpler to understand God's plan for salvation,

in light of the nature of the individualistic experience of life.

In this context, salvation can be seen as directed to each individual.

 

As the large-scale events of history unfold,

each individual must decide how to act or react.

There is no collective mind, thought or feeling,

just the sum of individual actions.

 

In the religious context

an individual’s actions, in the situations God presents to them

will determine their salvation.

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My plan for salvation

and the challenges i face

and your plan and challenges

may be similar,

but can never be exactly the same,

because of our individual nature.

​​

One of the reasons I chose Iamwhoam

as the name of this website is to emphasize

the individual nature of human actions.

​

I have made the individual choice to believe in God.

However, I find it impossible to get my head around God.

The universe, and my experience of it is mindboggling.

​​​

I have encountered God through my Judeo-Christian experience.

Others have encountered God through different religions

or different kinds of experiences in life,

which I can understand from a limited basis

but can never fully comprehend. 

​

the expression I am who am, 

means that every human encounters God,

and has God within them.

God connects all of us.

​​​

God within us is the good of humanity and of the universe.

​

Through the individual effort to be good, moral individuals,

we will individually and collectively find peace, joy and happiness,

and will flourish as a global community.

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Ethics

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​The Goal of Ethics is to teach moral behavior.

​​​

I believe earth is a paradise.

Individually and together 

we can make it so much better.

by trying to be good.

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We need to try to strive to be good,

to be like God, the highest good.

this good is within each and every one of us

found in the voice of God in our head and heart.

 

One of the greatest expressions of how to create heaven on earth is:

​to love God, love neighbor and love self

and do everything out of that love.

​​

The love of God

is a love of the good which is in every human being.

The good is inherent in every individual.

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Me, You and Us

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We humans sometimes have a tendency to look to the group,

a group of other people, or some form of shared belief

in God, nation or other group ideal,

to justify our decisions and our actions,

and take the responsibility off of us individually.

 

There are no group decisions.

There are only individual decisions.

 

We may at times act together,

in a collection of individual decisions,

or make decisions as a group

by adding up individual choices, as in voting. 

 

However, all decisions are always made individually,

inside of a person.

 

God

 

I believe that we human beings are a part of God,

God is a part of us,

and

we are all good,

we are all connected through the good that is God.

that is, we are all conceived of,

or captured in,

the many different notions of God.

​

God is inside of us.

In a sense, God’s answer,

"I am who I am",

is an expression of our nature

and the nature of the universe.

​

God is in me, you and every human being.

Sometimes God, the good in us is hard to find,

and even harder to see in others.

​

The clearest way to see the God in humans

is in the eyes of a child.

The purity, beauty, love and connection we have to a baby,

that is God.

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In the modern scientific world, we toss about this idea

that the universe began about 14 billion years ago in a Big Bang.

This simple idea cannot be expressed in word or thought.

 

It says that at one point there was absolutely nothing,

no space or time.

Then a tiny dot appeared nowhere,

with no time for it to not be and then be,

 

everything in this massive universe,

including your thought and emotion,

was contained in this little dot. 

 

Seems impossible to comprehend,

yet all scientific indications currently point to that being the case.

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It is equally incomprehensible to imagine the nature

of an individual, all-powerful God.

 

How can an individual comprehended a Being

that is capable of creating the universe,

in all its vastness, simplicity, complexity, power and variety.

 

The big bang is as incomprehensible and impossible to understand as is God.

​

Yet here we, you and I.

We experience the universe,

and can contemplate its nature.

 

God can be experienced, and discovered in you and me,

for as we grow, and get older in life,

the God which was so visible in us when we were infants,

is still there.

 

However, as we grow, experience the world, learn and develop,

God becomes harder to find,

because things get in-between the God within me

and the me that is within me.

 

It is harder for someone outside of me

to see this God within me.

 

So many things create a cloud around God,

such as our worries, doubts, and fears,

our wants and desires, the things we have and do not have,

and in particular, our negative emotions and experiences.

 

As we grow older, it becomes more difficult to see God in the eyes of another

and equally difficult for others to find God inside of us.

​

Yet God, this Good, this pure love, which was in us as babies

is still there in everyone.

There is just too much other stuff,

in our hearts and on our minds,

to be able to clearly connect to our inner I am.

​

God in us is the "I am". 

God is the purity, simplicity and beauty inside you and me.

God is our pure love.

God is in everyone "Who am"

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Connection

 

An important part of having God within you,

being aware of and keeping in contact with the God in you

is that you are never alone.

 

Think about it, or rather, try not to think.

There is always a voice inside of your head.

 

The God in you is one of the voices in your head.

The voice is real, it is always encouraging you to do good,

to do the right, morally correct thing,

to strive for excellence.

 

The voice is your connection to others

and the God Who created everything.

 

Everyone has this voice.

It is a mystery as to how it works,

but it is real, always there as a constant part of your existence.

 

It is important to keep your connection to God.

You are never alone. 

The voice is real.

It is you and God

in communication

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​Existence is Good

The Continuous Me (and You)

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God, or if you rather, religion,

connects to science through the good in you,

by virtue of your existence.

 

To exist is good.

 

This is a scientific and religious statement.

 

Existence is good simply because that is the nature of the universe.

The universe exists.

I exist as a part of the universe.

You and everything else in the universe exists,

as an integral part of the universe.

 

My Journey

 

Just as the universe had a beginning,

so too, I had a beginning.

​

In my life, there was my beginning,

the moment of my conception. 

 

At various points during the ensuing years,

there were different moments of awareness

of myself, and the world around me. 

 

As I grew and observed the world inside and outside of me,

I started thinking about the nature of life

and began to search for understanding. 

 

I began formal and informal study of philosophy and religion.

 

The more I learned,

the more keenly aware I became of what Socrates meant in his definition of wisdom,

that a wise person is one who knows what they do not know,

 

There is so much I do not know. 

In my old age I am even more aware of the fact 

that I am only beginning to know what I do not know. 

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It is important to note here:

I am aware of how important religious beliefs are to many people.

I mean no disrespect to anyone's religious convictions

by the use of Iamwhoam as my website name.

My goal is to convey a useful understanding of God

to help make a better world for each and every individual.

​

I believe there is some form of Being, only one God,

who has created all,

but that God is impossible to fully comprehend.

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Yet there is one thing I know for certain,

that I am.

I exist, in the continuous present moment.

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If you have read the first pages of this website,

and gone through the Start Here class,

you will know that I have put a focus on what we do know

with absolute certainty. 

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We can each say that I am.

As you read this, you know that you are.

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Inside of me there is a voice,

thinking and feeling always,

and it never stops while I am awake and conscious.

It is me. 

I am in here. 

 

The Conversation

 

I seem to struggle and wrestle with myself. 

 

When I want to do something,

for example, lose some weight,

I map out a plan for want to eat and not eat. 

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Then, before long,

I am challenged by something not on my diet, not in the plan. 

The battle begins. 

 

I seem to fight with myself. 

Some part of me wants to eat food

that is not a part of my plan.

 

That part of me that wants to eat the ‘wrong’ food,

food not on the plan,

apparently is some other part of me,

different from the part of me that made the plan.   

 

One part of me wants to stick to the plan.

One part of me does not.

 

Why am I not a complete whole?

Who am I battling with inside my head and body?

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It is the same with many things in life. 

It can be as simple as a diet, exercise, or study plan,

or as complex as the choice of who to date or marry.

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From a moral perspective,

we define it as the battle of good and bad

or good and evil. 

 

Often the things I do wrong,

are wrong

because part of me believes or feels that they are wrong.

That part of me, or voice in my head, is God or the Good in me

and I believe in everyone.

 

When I do the wrong thing, things like guilt or remorse set in.

I promise myself that it won’t happen again. 

Then temptation arises, and the battle begins again.

but maybe this time I win,

or rather,

that part of me that wants to do what is right wins.

 

In religion this battle is often taken out of me and put in a different context. 

God is the good

and the devil is the bad. 

There have been many different variations over the millennia

in many different forms of religion. 

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One of the great problems in life, 

is when we quit trying to hear that Good or God voice in our heads,

because we sometimes fail, and do the wrong things.

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The course on this website about Human Excellence

is designed to help you understand that excellence is not perfection,

always doing the right thing,

but never giving up on the Good inside you, your Iamwhoam.

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Creation:

 

“I am who am” expresses a fundamental way of understanding

God, the universe, the nature of life

and the relationship between God and me (you).

 

“I am who am” captures

the essence of me.

and

every human is who is

in the continuous present moment.

 

“I am who am” can also help understand

the significance and importance

of the moral struggle inside of me

between right and wrong, good and bad.   

 

Understanding God

 

When I was young,

I had the image of God as a bearded man sitting on a throne

somewhere in the clouds,

controlling the world.

 

The devil was this red, man-like creature

with horns and a tail,

who ran around the earth talking people into doing bad things.

 

Over the years I have learned that there isn’t God or a devil,

who is a being like me,

somehow separate from me,

but who can somehow get inside my head,

and the head of the other billions of people on earth.

 

That is,

there is no separate,

powerful

good or evil being

engaged in some battle for my soul

or for the souls of others. 

 

Rather, I am good. 

To exist is to be good, a creation of God,

Who created the universe.

 

Everything God created is good,

because it exists.

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I am, just like an atom, a star, a galaxy,

a tree, fish, lion or blade of grass.

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However, I am different.

I am the universe aware of itself,

looking at itself,

conscious of itself.

 

I do not know exactly what it means

to be the universe conscious of itself,

just as I cannot comprehend the entire nature of the universe.

 

I do not know exactly how I came to be this way,

how life started and how others like me came to be,

but I do know that I am.

 

I was created and I create.

​

I cannot create a star, or a planet

or something from nothing,

but I can create.

 

I create the moral world,

the right and wrong, or good and bad

as we think of them.

 

Somehow, I participate with God,

and with you and every other human being

who was, is and will be,

in this creation process.

 

Creation is unfolding in the continuous present moment. 

I am a part of that creation process

and have the power to create part of the universe,

the moral component.

 

"I am" a part of God,

as is every human who is (or rather "who am"),

as God is a part of me. 

I don’t know exactly how that works,

but I believe that is what God meant when he spoke to Moses. 

 

What Moses heard was either in his head,

or entered his head through his ears. 

 

When I read those words as a young man,

they entered me the same way, through my senses. 

 

When God speaks to someone,

it can be an external voice of God,

or an internal voice of God inside their head.

 

Either way,

it happens inside them,

as does all the experience of the universe.

The universe happens inside one person at a time.

 

Thus, God was telling Moses

that he, Moses,

and all humans,

are participants in God

and in creation.

​

God is not separate and apart from us,

but a part of us, 

that is the voice of good inside of us. 

 

Help and Happiness

 

You are never alone.

 

The other part of me, inside my head,

is God, the part of me that wants to do what is right.

The other voice is also inside of me,

the desire to do what is wrong.

 

These two voices are born of our power of creation,

from our freedom,

that little part of God that is free will,

choice.

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The particles and forces in the universe follow laws

set by God in the creation of the universe.

 

God is the life force in the collection of particles.

Life is God.

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Somehow my soul, mind and spirit are an expression of the universe.

The God in each of my particles

brings them together

and to life,

a life which is aware of itself and the universe,

and has some of God’s power of creation.

 

I am who am,

as are you.

So, what are we?​​​​​​​