The 7 Jehovian Seals. The 7 Jehovian Seals were placed in the earth's Planetary Shield about 200,000 years ago.They were placed around the same time as the 12 Star Crystal Seals.The Star Crystal Seals were placed in preparation for the earth' s ascension in this time period.The Jehovian seals were placed to interfere with this process. They ride on the frequency being brought in by releasing the Star Crystal Seals and start distorting these higher frequencies.Six of the Jehovian Seals have been activated at this time.The 12 Star Crystal Seals are connected to the 12 Universal Stargate portals and once all of them are activated, they will allow for the axiatonal lines in the Earth's Grid to be activated and a merkabah will be built for the earth.When a Star Crystal Seal and Star Gate portal connect it will allow for higher frequencies to be released into the earth's dimension. It allows for a blending within the earth's dimensions and connecting above with below.The distortion created by the Jehovian Seals has damaged out Earth's Planetary Shield.This shield resides on the outer limits of our universe.At this point in time the shield has been significantly damaged and a new shield has been brought into place just inside of earth's planetary shield but it is not activated yet.Once all 12 portals are opened it will allow for this shield to be activated.Six of the Jehovian Seals have been activated in the earth's planetary shield and in our own physical body since we are connected to the energy of the earth's planetary shield.In the times before the fall, some 200.000 years ago, humans were not dying, they would simply ascend from the density on earth and leave through the Universal Star Gate Portals.In those days there were 12 angelic human tribes appointed to carry the original Planetary Templar complex.These Human Angelic Tribes were the guardians of this Planetary Templar complex.Each tribe was holding one-twelfth of the Emerald Covenant, and each tribe was divided into 12 groups each holding one-twelfth of the one twelfth of the Emerald Covenant.The Emerald Covenant held the original divine blue print for earth's ascension and our ascension. It has the ability to complete all activations that are needed to ascend the earth and the human that choose to ascend with the earth.For over 11,000 years humans and illuminati were denied the truth and the history of all this.They have been destroying each other on behalf of the fallen races outside of our universe. The Sacred teachings of the 12 tribes are hidden among all religions.So the 12 Star Crystal Seals open us up to a higher frequency, the Jehovian seals are distorting this frequency. Since we have 7 Jehovian seals inside the human body, we are not able to fully integrate the higher frequencies and what we integrate is distorted and out of balance.The distortion of the frequencies also had its affect on the Planetary Shieldd and created holes that unbalance the energies even more influencing our weather and the tectonic plates of the earth.The Illuminati have chosen to work with the Zetas instead of the Emerald Covenant nations preventing us from knowing about this and preventing us from doing repairs here from the earth itself.The Emerald Covenant Nations have been sending in energies that can assist us in balancing the distortions and these energies are being anchored on earth.The opening of the Star Gate Portals allows for more energies to be sent in at this time.The Zetas represent several groups that are there only for the sole purpose of controlling the earth and use it for their purposes.Six of these Jehovian Seals have been activated and are influencing every human being on earth at this time. They prevent us from completely activating our DNA and restore our original Divine Blueprint in the physicals and spiritual bodies.They will allow for just enough activation to make you feel like you are making progress, but they will prevent full activation.Since the opening of the Star Gates and the securing of these gates we have been able to receive more energies that are stabilizing the energies in our dimensions.This allows for a different approach in removing the J-seals ( Jehovian seals) at this time.We are ahead of schedule so the knowledge on releasing these J-seals in a different and faster way has been given to us. This knowledge is protected under the Seal of Isis, as to not have interference while removing these J-seals from humans at this time.As you might understand, we cannot remove the J-seals from the earth as we cannot interfere with the process of releasing the Star Crystal Seals, the Jehovian seals are energetically connected to activate when a Star Crystal Seal is released. We can however prevent these seals from affecting us as humans in our ascension process.The removal of the J-Seals is very delicate and requires more then just removal.We will be able to explain more about this once all J-seals have been removed.Once enough humans are without J- Seals, we will be able to start repairing the earth's Planetary Shield at this time so we will be able to stabilize the energy in our dimensions which will allow for a more balanced and peaceful road toward the ascension of the earth.We will also be able to make sure the opening of the 7th J-seal, which is scheduled for 2012, will be having no effect on the earth's ascension.
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Monday, August 24, 2009
We will be there as the energies for the Diamond Gate in the Land of Khem will be opened once more and we will travel to many of the sacred sites connected to the Ancient times of the Land of Khem, which is now known as Egypt.
The final part of our and the earth's cosmic ascension process is starting on 9-9-9, as we open the gate on 11-11-11, we will be initiating another gate that will bring the complete light codes for the diamond ascension body onto the earth.
These light codes allow for the change in our divine blueprint to be adjusted to this cosmic ascension process and will be the divine blueprint for the cosmic ascension and our light body that we will be living in after that.
We will be the first to receive these light codes as we open the Gate and travel through it during this amazing journey through the Land of Khem, Ancient Egypt.
This if the start of the final process for our Cosmic Ascension, it will return the Power back to the 12 tribes, spread out on our planet together with Isis and Amen ra.
Go into your heart and see if you are to be there, ask your I Am presence for the monies to be manifested and you send gratitude and thanks it is done now!
We will be working with Amen Ra, Isis, Imhotep, Anubis, the Priests and Priestesses of Ur, all the Ascended Masters, Archangels and Angels, the Pleiadians and many more Beings of Light as we explore our Ancient past in the Land of Khem.
As we join with these beings as we are the Adepts and Initiates that were there during the time the Gate was closed and now we will be there to open the Gate once more.
The cost for this Journey into the Land of Khem is $ 1850.00
This is the itinerary as far as we have set it up now, I cannot book until I have received confirmation from 10 people which is the minimum amount for the travel agent. Our travel agent is very experienced in these journeys and I met her in person when I went on my own trip to Egypt in 2007 which was for me one of the most wonderful and amazing experiences in my life.
The final part of our and the earth's cosmic ascension process is starting on 9-9-9, as we open the gate on 11-11-11, we will be initiating another gate that will bring the complete light codes for the diamond ascension body onto the earth.
These light codes allow for the change in our divine blueprint to be adjusted to this cosmic ascension process and will be the divine blueprint for the cosmic ascension and our light body that we will be living in after that.
We will be the first to receive these light codes as we open the Gate and travel through it during this amazing journey through the Land of Khem, Ancient Egypt.
This if the start of the final process for our Cosmic Ascension, it will return the Power back to the 12 tribes, spread out on our planet together with Isis and Amen ra.
Go into your heart and see if you are to be there, ask your I Am presence for the monies to be manifested and you send gratitude and thanks it is done now!
We will be working with Amen Ra, Isis, Imhotep, Anubis, the Priests and Priestesses of Ur, all the Ascended Masters, Archangels and Angels, the Pleiadians and many more Beings of Light as we explore our Ancient past in the Land of Khem.
As we join with these beings as we are the Adepts and Initiates that were there during the time the Gate was closed and now we will be there to open the Gate once more.
The cost for this Journey into the Land of Khem is $ 1850.00
This is the itinerary as far as we have set it up now, I cannot book until I have received confirmation from 10 people which is the minimum amount for the travel agent. Our travel agent is very experienced in these journeys and I met her in person when I went on my own trip to Egypt in 2007 which was for me one of the most wonderful and amazing experiences in my life.
The 999 Gates and Codes
The 9-9-9 Gate of the Diamond Cosmic Consciousness As we approach this significant date in time where the earth will start merging with her counterpart, we have a special celebration planned.This is the first time in 14.400 years that the New Earth is so close that it will merge again with ours.The New Earth is already on a Solar Galactic Level as the merging will allow our own earth to start raising her frequencies to the Solar Galactic Level.Many of the new frequencies have already slowly been released onto the earth, coming from the sun and other planets in our universe. The 9-9-9 gate allows for a release of all the codings needed for the earth and our own cosmic ascension to come to earth fully.Once our earth starts merging with the new earth on 9-9-9, we are in the final process of ascension for ourselves and our planet earth.The 9-9-9 Gate will remove the veil that has been present for so long and allow us to look far beyond the 3rd dimensional realities. Some have already experienced this view with the limited coding that was available. Now we can start to fully access the inter-dimensional, solar, galactic, universal and cosmic views in and beyond our universe.The celebration is about the merging of our earth with the new earth, the opening of the 9-9-9 Gate into awareness beyond our imagination and is there for us to start receiving the light code packages that will be released through this opening into the new earth.Come join us on 9-9-9 as we will be with the earth and experience the beginning of the merger with the New Earth. We will be there as the veil is being removed and we will start receiving the first wave of light codings that will come through this gate.The new light codes will remove the veil in us as well as we get a glimps of the new earth while it starts the merger with our own earth.
This conference call celebration will be held on Wednesday September 9 at 10:30pm EST.The cost is $ 25.00We would like to do something special for those that cannot afford it at this time, so for every 10 people that sign up we will accept 2 people for free. Just email us at petra@bluelightstar.com and we will add you to the list in the order we receive them.So for everyone that would like to sign up, please sign up early so we know how many people can join us for free.
You can register here
This conference call celebration will be held on Wednesday September 9 at 10:30pm EST.The cost is $ 25.00We would like to do something special for those that cannot afford it at this time, so for every 10 people that sign up we will accept 2 people for free. Just email us at petra@bluelightstar.com and we will add you to the list in the order we receive them.So for everyone that would like to sign up, please sign up early so we know how many people can join us for free.
You can register here
Gold and Platinum Rays
gold and platinum rays and 999
In my original 999 information as well as my two subsequent 999 articles "999 - A Gift of Cosmic Consciousness" and "Metatronic Lions and Lambs," I spoke to a number of different perspectives on the 999 Cube of Stars. This included information on the inversion of the 666 Solar Threshold into the 999 Cube of Stars.
This 666 to 999 inversion is also directly related to the Gold and Platinum Rays. They are both Solar Rays, with the 666 being representative of the indigenous Solar Law of the 666 and the Platinum Ray representing the higher universal 999 Solar Logos found within the Great Central Sun or Hunab Ku.
Therefore the Gold Ray is a local Solar Ray and the Platinum Ray is a non-local Solar Ray, cosmically speaking. In the esoteric school of thought put forth by Alice Bailey in the first half of the 20th century it was revealed that our Solar Logos/Law is under the influence of the 2nd Universal Cosmic Ray, which is the Ray of Love-Wisdom. Here are some notes on this ray which I have gleaned from Alice Bailey's book "Esoteric Astrology I":
The Second Universal Cosmic Ray:
Second of the three primary rays of aspect (Rays 1, 2, 3).
The 2nd Ray's method of activity is as the "Ray of Love-Wisdom."
It is esoterically referred to as "The Second Purpose of Deity."
The Great Stream of Cosmic Life this ray represents has been esoterically referred to as "Lord of Eternal Love," "Giver of Wisdom," "Master Builder," "Cosmic Mystery," and "Cosmic Christ."
The 2nd Ray operates on the Plane of the Monad. Its higher expression manifests as the process of initiation taught by adepts. Its lower expression manifests as religion.
Expresses as consciousness, expansion, initiation. It is associated with the role of the "spiritually oriented psychic."
Ultimate goal in manifestation: perfected intuition.
Correlates to the 4th or heart chakra.
Exoteric color: indigo with tinge of purple. Esoteric color: light blue.
Human Principle: the auric envelope
Divine Principle: love.
Esoterically seen as the consciousness or soul principle, seated in the head.
This is a wonderful explanation of the basis of what I am referring to as our local "Solar Law" which is conditioned archetypally by the 2nd Universal Cosmic Ray. There is more to it than this, but this is a key understanding needed to fully grok the concept of the Gold and Platinum Rays as being representative of the 666 ~~ 999 dynamics respectively.
The Platinum Ray is not just another octave higher than the Gold Ray, it is a composite of all 7 Cosmic Rays and thus a completion thereof. In truth, one cannot separate one Cosmic Ray from another as we tend to do in our minds to understand them. Yet, our local Solar Law comes under the primary influence of the 2nd Universal Cosmic Ray. `The Platinum Ray on the other hand has no such primary influence of one ray over the other affecting it.
Another attunement to the difference in these rays can be gleaned from something I have written about on a number of occasions over the last few years. The Golden Rule is commonly stated as: "do unto others as you would like to have them to do unto you." The Platinum Rule takes us to another level of awareness as: "do unto others as they would have you do unto them."
When I have written about this topic in the past I have discovered through feedback that many people have already shifted into the Platinum Ray frequency but they still consider themselves to be following the Golden Rule. That is only a matter of semantics and not so important. Yet it IS important to understand the difference in consciousness these two rays represent. Understanding this difference also gives one a better grasp on the further shifts that will occur as we pass through the final 9/9/9 time gate in a couple of weeks.
The Golden Rule of "doing unto others as you would have them do unto you" implies that what is right for you is necessarily right for others, which is often not the case unless we apply this rule only in the most essential way. The Golden Rule escorted us through the densest of times in our evolutionary thrust and its rarified essential form is still a solid anchor for the collective consciousness. It operates within a field of compassion that extends itself according to the degree of one's own self-awareness. It guides one to understand that others need to be treated with at least the same honor and respect that we ourselves wish to be treated with, this is its most essential core.
Yet, there is a furtherance of this principle possible with the Platinum Ray. The Platinum Ray expands us into a more universal plane of awareness that allows us to see more clearly what the true needs of the other are so we can meet them with our compassion in the core of their life experience. This rule also operates on the subtler essential planes of reality but allows us a wider scope of application on the manifest plane. The Platinum Ray is thus not a replacement for the Gold Ray, it is the completion of it and therefore the Gold Ray is also held within it.
When we pass through the final 9/9/9 time gate on 09/09/2009 we will enter into the final phase of development in the collective consciousness soul of Earth's humanity. Before we reach 09/09/2109 we will have made the full inversion into the vibrational harmonics of our higher Solar Logos operating within the 999 Cube of Stars. We will also have collectively begun to operate fully under the auspices of the more expansive Platinum Ray.
Back on April 5th, 2009 I held a tele-event entitled "A Drink from the Platinum Grail." I did not realize until recently that this was a preliminary work in preparation for the upcoming 999. If you read the original information you will see 999 is mentioned there. However at the time I was focused moreso on the Sirian connection aspect of the Platinum Grail. Thus on 09/09/09 in the 999 Cube of Stars dynamic we will be offered the opportunity to take a real honest to goodness "gulp" from the Platinum Grail and thus to quench our soul's thirst for the sublime elixir of Universal Cosmic Consciousness as we open the windows and doors upon our Earthen home to the Great Cosm and allow its multi-dimensional infusion to pour through us into our beloved Gaia. She gave birth to us as a collective, now we give birth to her as we all bond within a new octave of love and pass into the cup of the Star Grail together.
In my original 999 information as well as my two subsequent 999 articles "999 - A Gift of Cosmic Consciousness" and "Metatronic Lions and Lambs," I spoke to a number of different perspectives on the 999 Cube of Stars. This included information on the inversion of the 666 Solar Threshold into the 999 Cube of Stars.
This 666 to 999 inversion is also directly related to the Gold and Platinum Rays. They are both Solar Rays, with the 666 being representative of the indigenous Solar Law of the 666 and the Platinum Ray representing the higher universal 999 Solar Logos found within the Great Central Sun or Hunab Ku.
Therefore the Gold Ray is a local Solar Ray and the Platinum Ray is a non-local Solar Ray, cosmically speaking. In the esoteric school of thought put forth by Alice Bailey in the first half of the 20th century it was revealed that our Solar Logos/Law is under the influence of the 2nd Universal Cosmic Ray, which is the Ray of Love-Wisdom. Here are some notes on this ray which I have gleaned from Alice Bailey's book "Esoteric Astrology I":
The Second Universal Cosmic Ray:
Second of the three primary rays of aspect (Rays 1, 2, 3).
The 2nd Ray's method of activity is as the "Ray of Love-Wisdom."
It is esoterically referred to as "The Second Purpose of Deity."
The Great Stream of Cosmic Life this ray represents has been esoterically referred to as "Lord of Eternal Love," "Giver of Wisdom," "Master Builder," "Cosmic Mystery," and "Cosmic Christ."
The 2nd Ray operates on the Plane of the Monad. Its higher expression manifests as the process of initiation taught by adepts. Its lower expression manifests as religion.
Expresses as consciousness, expansion, initiation. It is associated with the role of the "spiritually oriented psychic."
Ultimate goal in manifestation: perfected intuition.
Correlates to the 4th or heart chakra.
Exoteric color: indigo with tinge of purple. Esoteric color: light blue.
Human Principle: the auric envelope
Divine Principle: love.
Esoterically seen as the consciousness or soul principle, seated in the head.
This is a wonderful explanation of the basis of what I am referring to as our local "Solar Law" which is conditioned archetypally by the 2nd Universal Cosmic Ray. There is more to it than this, but this is a key understanding needed to fully grok the concept of the Gold and Platinum Rays as being representative of the 666 ~~ 999 dynamics respectively.
The Platinum Ray is not just another octave higher than the Gold Ray, it is a composite of all 7 Cosmic Rays and thus a completion thereof. In truth, one cannot separate one Cosmic Ray from another as we tend to do in our minds to understand them. Yet, our local Solar Law comes under the primary influence of the 2nd Universal Cosmic Ray. `The Platinum Ray on the other hand has no such primary influence of one ray over the other affecting it.
Another attunement to the difference in these rays can be gleaned from something I have written about on a number of occasions over the last few years. The Golden Rule is commonly stated as: "do unto others as you would like to have them to do unto you." The Platinum Rule takes us to another level of awareness as: "do unto others as they would have you do unto them."
When I have written about this topic in the past I have discovered through feedback that many people have already shifted into the Platinum Ray frequency but they still consider themselves to be following the Golden Rule. That is only a matter of semantics and not so important. Yet it IS important to understand the difference in consciousness these two rays represent. Understanding this difference also gives one a better grasp on the further shifts that will occur as we pass through the final 9/9/9 time gate in a couple of weeks.
The Golden Rule of "doing unto others as you would have them do unto you" implies that what is right for you is necessarily right for others, which is often not the case unless we apply this rule only in the most essential way. The Golden Rule escorted us through the densest of times in our evolutionary thrust and its rarified essential form is still a solid anchor for the collective consciousness. It operates within a field of compassion that extends itself according to the degree of one's own self-awareness. It guides one to understand that others need to be treated with at least the same honor and respect that we ourselves wish to be treated with, this is its most essential core.
Yet, there is a furtherance of this principle possible with the Platinum Ray. The Platinum Ray expands us into a more universal plane of awareness that allows us to see more clearly what the true needs of the other are so we can meet them with our compassion in the core of their life experience. This rule also operates on the subtler essential planes of reality but allows us a wider scope of application on the manifest plane. The Platinum Ray is thus not a replacement for the Gold Ray, it is the completion of it and therefore the Gold Ray is also held within it.
When we pass through the final 9/9/9 time gate on 09/09/2009 we will enter into the final phase of development in the collective consciousness soul of Earth's humanity. Before we reach 09/09/2109 we will have made the full inversion into the vibrational harmonics of our higher Solar Logos operating within the 999 Cube of Stars. We will also have collectively begun to operate fully under the auspices of the more expansive Platinum Ray.
Back on April 5th, 2009 I held a tele-event entitled "A Drink from the Platinum Grail." I did not realize until recently that this was a preliminary work in preparation for the upcoming 999. If you read the original information you will see 999 is mentioned there. However at the time I was focused moreso on the Sirian connection aspect of the Platinum Grail. Thus on 09/09/09 in the 999 Cube of Stars dynamic we will be offered the opportunity to take a real honest to goodness "gulp" from the Platinum Grail and thus to quench our soul's thirst for the sublime elixir of Universal Cosmic Consciousness as we open the windows and doors upon our Earthen home to the Great Cosm and allow its multi-dimensional infusion to pour through us into our beloved Gaia. She gave birth to us as a collective, now we give birth to her as we all bond within a new octave of love and pass into the cup of the Star Grail together.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
Daily Highlights
Aug 01, Saturday. Traditional Lammas. The waxing out -of-bounds Moon is passing through the late degrees of Sagittarius and is visible in the constellation of Scorpio. Venus (1 Cancer) opposite Pluto (1 Capricorn)Aug 02, Sunday. The waxing out-of-bounds Moon is crossing the Galactic Cross where the plane of the Solar System and the Plane of the Galaxy intersect near the center of our Galaxy. Mercury enters Virgo until August 25. Mercury is .59 degrees NNE of RegulusAug 03, Monday. Mercury trines Pluto. Aug 04, Tuesday. Moon moves into AquariusAug 05, Wednesday. The Aquarius Full Moon Penumbral Lunar Eclipse (14 Aquarius) exact at 5:55 pm PST.Aug 06, Thursday. Moon conjuncts Jupiter (23 Aquarius) visible 3.1 degrees NNW of Jupiter, Chiron and (24 Aquarius), Neptune (25 Aquarius)Aug 07, Friday. Astrological Cross-quarter. Moon moves into Pisces. Mercury sextiles Venus.Aug 08, Saturday. 8/8 Sun (16 Leo) in the Lion’s gate or the constellation of the Lion.Aug 09, Sunday. The Moon conjuncts Uranus and then moves into Aries.Aug 10, Monday. Mars (21 Gemini) squares Saturn (21 Virgo)Aug 11, Tuesday. Moon moves into TaurusAug 12, Wednesday. Tomorrow Mars (22 Gemini) trines Jupiter (22 Aquarius)Aug 13, Thursday. Last Quarter Moon (21 Taurus)Aug 14, Friday. The Moon occults the Pleiades in the morning sky as it moves into Gemini. Sun (22 Leo) opposes Jupiter (22 Aquarius)Aug 15, Saturday. The Moon passes 9.5 degrees N of Aldebaran and is 3.2 degrees North of Mar.Aug 16, Sunday. The waning Moon moves into Cancer crossing the Galactic Cross near the Galactic Edge.Aug 17, Monday. Sun sextiles Mars, Mercury passes 2.9 degrees SSW of Saturn about 26 degrees from the Sun. This is the first of 3 passes due to Mercury’s retrograde next month. Sun (25 Leo) opposes Neptune (25 Aquarius) and the Moon conjuncts Venus at the fifth gate, third charka.Aug 18, Tuesday. Moon passes by Pollux and Castor passing out of the Sacred Hoop and moving into the seasonal sign of Leo. Mars (25 Gemini) squares Uranus (25 Pisces)Aug 19, Wednesday. Moon reaches perigee (closest approach to the Earth just a few hours before the New Moon possibly affecting weather patterns. Venus sextiles Saturn.Aug 20, Thursday. Leo New Moon (28 Leo near Regulus) 7 am PST.Aug 21, Friday. Moon moved into Virgo yesterday and will conjunct Saturn passing about 6.1 degrees SSW of Saturn this evening. Moon passes 2.6 degrees SSW of Mercury (25 Virgo). Plus, Virgo is opposite Uranus (25 Pisces). The North Node enters Capricorn returning to this area of the sky every 19 years.Aug 22, Saturday. The waxing Moon conjuncts Mercury and then moves into Libra. Venus trines Uranus and the Sun moves into Virgo.Aug 23, Sunday. The Sun trines Pluto. Aug 24, Monday. The Moon passes 3.1 degrees SSW of Spica before moving into Scorpio. Mercury is at greatest elongation in the evening sky 27.4 degrees from the Sun. Vesta and Venus are conjunct in the Morning Sky.Aug 25, Tuesday. Mars moves into Cancer returning to the place where it went retrograde in 2007 and travels through here until October 16. Mercury moves into Libra staying in this area of the sky until October 28 due to the Mercury Retrograde that begins September 6.Aug 26, Wednesday. Mercury squares Pluto. Venus moves into Leo until September 20.Aug 27, Thursday. The Sagittarius First Quarter Moon is 5 Sagittarius and then the Moon occults Antares.Aug 28, Friday. Mercury is sextile VenusAug 29, Saturday. The Moon crosses the Galactic Cross for the second time this month as it passes into Capricorn and conjuncts Pluto.Aug 30, Sunday. Mars is reaching its greatest declination north in this cycle at 23.6. In 1993 Mars reached 27 degrees North Declination. Neptune at 24 Aquarius has retraced its steps to align again with Deneb Algeidi a fixed star marking the tale in the constellation of the Goatfish (a.k.a. Capricorn).Aug 31, Monday. The Moon moves into Aquarius.
Aug 01, Saturday. Traditional Lammas. The waxing out -of-bounds Moon is passing through the late degrees of Sagittarius and is visible in the constellation of Scorpio. Venus (1 Cancer) opposite Pluto (1 Capricorn)Aug 02, Sunday. The waxing out-of-bounds Moon is crossing the Galactic Cross where the plane of the Solar System and the Plane of the Galaxy intersect near the center of our Galaxy. Mercury enters Virgo until August 25. Mercury is .59 degrees NNE of RegulusAug 03, Monday. Mercury trines Pluto. Aug 04, Tuesday. Moon moves into AquariusAug 05, Wednesday. The Aquarius Full Moon Penumbral Lunar Eclipse (14 Aquarius) exact at 5:55 pm PST.Aug 06, Thursday. Moon conjuncts Jupiter (23 Aquarius) visible 3.1 degrees NNW of Jupiter, Chiron and (24 Aquarius), Neptune (25 Aquarius)Aug 07, Friday. Astrological Cross-quarter. Moon moves into Pisces. Mercury sextiles Venus.Aug 08, Saturday. 8/8 Sun (16 Leo) in the Lion’s gate or the constellation of the Lion.Aug 09, Sunday. The Moon conjuncts Uranus and then moves into Aries.Aug 10, Monday. Mars (21 Gemini) squares Saturn (21 Virgo)Aug 11, Tuesday. Moon moves into TaurusAug 12, Wednesday. Tomorrow Mars (22 Gemini) trines Jupiter (22 Aquarius)Aug 13, Thursday. Last Quarter Moon (21 Taurus)Aug 14, Friday. The Moon occults the Pleiades in the morning sky as it moves into Gemini. Sun (22 Leo) opposes Jupiter (22 Aquarius)Aug 15, Saturday. The Moon passes 9.5 degrees N of Aldebaran and is 3.2 degrees North of Mar.Aug 16, Sunday. The waning Moon moves into Cancer crossing the Galactic Cross near the Galactic Edge.Aug 17, Monday. Sun sextiles Mars, Mercury passes 2.9 degrees SSW of Saturn about 26 degrees from the Sun. This is the first of 3 passes due to Mercury’s retrograde next month. Sun (25 Leo) opposes Neptune (25 Aquarius) and the Moon conjuncts Venus at the fifth gate, third charka.Aug 18, Tuesday. Moon passes by Pollux and Castor passing out of the Sacred Hoop and moving into the seasonal sign of Leo. Mars (25 Gemini) squares Uranus (25 Pisces)Aug 19, Wednesday. Moon reaches perigee (closest approach to the Earth just a few hours before the New Moon possibly affecting weather patterns. Venus sextiles Saturn.Aug 20, Thursday. Leo New Moon (28 Leo near Regulus) 7 am PST.Aug 21, Friday. Moon moved into Virgo yesterday and will conjunct Saturn passing about 6.1 degrees SSW of Saturn this evening. Moon passes 2.6 degrees SSW of Mercury (25 Virgo). Plus, Virgo is opposite Uranus (25 Pisces). The North Node enters Capricorn returning to this area of the sky every 19 years.Aug 22, Saturday. The waxing Moon conjuncts Mercury and then moves into Libra. Venus trines Uranus and the Sun moves into Virgo.Aug 23, Sunday. The Sun trines Pluto. Aug 24, Monday. The Moon passes 3.1 degrees SSW of Spica before moving into Scorpio. Mercury is at greatest elongation in the evening sky 27.4 degrees from the Sun. Vesta and Venus are conjunct in the Morning Sky.Aug 25, Tuesday. Mars moves into Cancer returning to the place where it went retrograde in 2007 and travels through here until October 16. Mercury moves into Libra staying in this area of the sky until October 28 due to the Mercury Retrograde that begins September 6.Aug 26, Wednesday. Mercury squares Pluto. Venus moves into Leo until September 20.Aug 27, Thursday. The Sagittarius First Quarter Moon is 5 Sagittarius and then the Moon occults Antares.Aug 28, Friday. Mercury is sextile VenusAug 29, Saturday. The Moon crosses the Galactic Cross for the second time this month as it passes into Capricorn and conjuncts Pluto.Aug 30, Sunday. Mars is reaching its greatest declination north in this cycle at 23.6. In 1993 Mars reached 27 degrees North Declination. Neptune at 24 Aquarius has retraced its steps to align again with Deneb Algeidi a fixed star marking the tale in the constellation of the Goatfish (a.k.a. Capricorn).Aug 31, Monday. The Moon moves into Aquarius.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Help from a Hummingbird
Soul RetrievalSoul Retrieval leads us on a journey back to the Essential Self. It can accomplish in a few sessions what can sometimes take years to work through in psychotherapy. In the Hummingbird Path of the North we learn the mystery teachings that can be "known but not told."HUMMINGBIRDIn the North direction, hummingbird represents the courage required to embark on an epic journey. Hummingbirds migrate over the Atlantic, traveling every year from Brazil to Canada. When you work with someone who is embarking upon an epic life's journey, you can help them connect with the energy of hummingbird. Once touched by the energies of this archetype, we are propelled on our own epic journey that eventually leads us back to our source, where our spirit was spawned. The North energy helps us embark on great journey despite tremendous odds. When there is not enough time, money or know-how for what you are attempting, hummingbird can provide the courage and guidance necessary for success.
Bill Harris
A graduate of Portland State University, Bill also has three years of graduate study in music, studying with world-renowned Czech composer Tomas Svoboda and Spanish composer Salvador Brotons. He is a Certified Trainer of Neuro Linguistic Programming and is trained in Ericksonian Hypnosis. He is a long time student of contemporary psychology, quantum mechanical physics, the evolution of non-linear systems (chaos theory) and the effects of a wide range of neurotechnologies on human change, evolution and healing. He is known for his ability to explain difficult subjects in a way that makes them easy to understand.
Bill is frequently invited to speak at scientific and transformational forums and conferences across the U.S., and over the years has taught a wide range of workshops and seminars. In the past he has conducted his own private therapy practice utilizing cognitive psychology and Neuro Linguistic Programming.
Bill is currently President and Director of Centerpointe Research Institute. Bill started Centerpointe Research Institute in 1989 with borrowed recording equipment set up on his kitchen table. As of 2007, hundreds of thousands of people in over 172 countries on six continents had used Centerpointe programs to improve their lives. In his role as Director of Centerpointe Research Institute, Bill is the creator of The Holosync Solution™ program and The Life Principles Integration Process™.
The Holosync Solution program utilizes Centerpointe's proprietary Holosync sound technology, embedded beneath soothing music and environmental sounds, to induce deep meditative states, causing the brain to reorganize at higher levels of functioning.
The Life Principles Integration Process is designed to help people discover how they unconsciously create their internal states and external results, and show them how to take control of these internal processes to create whatever they want in life.
Bill is a member of the Advisory Board of Self Enhancement, Inc., an organization helping inner city young people. He is also a founding member of the Transformational Leadership Council started by best-selling Chicken Soup for the Soul author Jack Canfield.
Bill is a private pilot and CEO of Mercury Aviation, LLC. He has played saxophone, flute, clarinet, and piano professionally for over 40 years. He lives in Hillsboro, Oregon.
Bill is frequently invited to speak at scientific and transformational forums and conferences across the U.S., and over the years has taught a wide range of workshops and seminars. In the past he has conducted his own private therapy practice utilizing cognitive psychology and Neuro Linguistic Programming.
Bill is currently President and Director of Centerpointe Research Institute. Bill started Centerpointe Research Institute in 1989 with borrowed recording equipment set up on his kitchen table. As of 2007, hundreds of thousands of people in over 172 countries on six continents had used Centerpointe programs to improve their lives. In his role as Director of Centerpointe Research Institute, Bill is the creator of The Holosync Solution™ program and The Life Principles Integration Process™.
The Holosync Solution program utilizes Centerpointe's proprietary Holosync sound technology, embedded beneath soothing music and environmental sounds, to induce deep meditative states, causing the brain to reorganize at higher levels of functioning.
The Life Principles Integration Process is designed to help people discover how they unconsciously create their internal states and external results, and show them how to take control of these internal processes to create whatever they want in life.
Bill is a member of the Advisory Board of Self Enhancement, Inc., an organization helping inner city young people. He is also a founding member of the Transformational Leadership Council started by best-selling Chicken Soup for the Soul author Jack Canfield.
Bill is a private pilot and CEO of Mercury Aviation, LLC. He has played saxophone, flute, clarinet, and piano professionally for over 40 years. He lives in Hillsboro, Oregon.
Master Charles Cannon
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Master Charles Cannon
Master Charles Cannon, affectionately known as Master Charles, was coined The American Guru in the award-winning documentary film, The Spiritual Revolution. He is the originator of the Synchronicity Experience, author of the spiritual autobiography, The Bliss of Freedom and Spiritual Director of Synchronicity Foundation for Modern Spirituality. He is an ordained monk of the Vedic/Tantric Tradition and for many years was a close disciple of Paramahansa Muktananda, one of the most acknowledged Eastern Spiritual Masters of the modern era. His monastic name is His Holiness Swami Vivekananda Saraswati.
Radical, revolutionary and iconoclastic, he is an authentic Spiritual Master who breaks the rules, defies the established dogmas and delivers a living spirituality reflective of the times in which we live. His seeming abandonment of traditional contexts of spirituality in favor of a modern approach has made him one of the most innovative spiritual teachers of our time.
Master Charles and the Synchronicity Experience have been well-featured in the international media. His speaking engagements have included: the United Nations; the World Health Organization; the National Institutes of Health; Columbia, Oxford, Tel Aviv and Bombay Universities; Westminster Abbey and the Vatican.
Master Charles Cannon
Master Charles Cannon, affectionately known as Master Charles, was coined The American Guru in the award-winning documentary film, The Spiritual Revolution. He is the originator of the Synchronicity Experience, author of the spiritual autobiography, The Bliss of Freedom and Spiritual Director of Synchronicity Foundation for Modern Spirituality. He is an ordained monk of the Vedic/Tantric Tradition and for many years was a close disciple of Paramahansa Muktananda, one of the most acknowledged Eastern Spiritual Masters of the modern era. His monastic name is His Holiness Swami Vivekananda Saraswati.
Radical, revolutionary and iconoclastic, he is an authentic Spiritual Master who breaks the rules, defies the established dogmas and delivers a living spirituality reflective of the times in which we live. His seeming abandonment of traditional contexts of spirituality in favor of a modern approach has made him one of the most innovative spiritual teachers of our time.
Master Charles and the Synchronicity Experience have been well-featured in the international media. His speaking engagements have included: the United Nations; the World Health Organization; the National Institutes of Health; Columbia, Oxford, Tel Aviv and Bombay Universities; Westminster Abbey and the Vatican.
"Intention"By Isira Sananda,
letter no. 4 - intention
Hello everyone, You might remember that in letter 2 I made reference to intention and that it played a significant and specific role in some of the results I have experienced in my life.The thing is - intention is playing a role in EVERY result in our life. It's just that most people are not really aware of this. And, even those who are aware of the intention factor may still not know how effective it is when you align with it in the right way, or how to do so most effectively and consciously. But what do I mean by that?I know - all these manifestation and mastery stories just keep adding to the picture - kind of like the knife sale: "But wait - there's more"!Well - the good news is - No. 1 - I'm not actually trying to sell you something, I'm trying to give you something...And No.2 - even if life IS telling you - "but wait there's more" - this is the sort of thing you can only benefit from.Why? Because it's essential stuff.Essential to what?You.Life.Your happiness. Your awakening. Your fulfillment. (I don't think more knives are so essential. ☺)And that's true inspiration. But to get inspiration rolling you have to have the right formula of intentions.So. Here's what I want to give you:3 of the most important clues about working with the power of intention.These clues may seem incredibly simple. But they are powerful and more important than you can imagine. And they work.1/ Watch every thought - every thought is attached to an intention. When you watch your thoughts you can be far more selective of your intentions. Many intentions unfortunately come from the superficial self. It's why people's lives are full of so many superficial and unfulfilling things.2/ Prepare your space for the reflection and holding of intention. You must not have distractions. Distractions waste your energy and keep your energy hooked at a superficial level. Your intention will only work if it connects at the right level of your being. This means you must be in the right state of energy with the right level of vibration. So, always meditate before you set intention. In other words - if you already meditate then intention should follow at the end - when you are in a deeper and clearer space.3/ Set a regular time to get clear on your intentions - EVERY DAY. Your schedule should include reflection about your intention for your state of BEING - that means how you intend to feel, and be aware in the state of the NOW. This must come FIRST. Then align with the intention you have for the day. Then align with the intention you have for a goal. Then align with an intention you have for your life.Now... I am also going to encourage you to look further than these 3 clues I just gave you. Why? Because without the right application even intention can fall short. Intention needs a follow up energy - right energy AND right habit. And this is what I can give you in the programs.In the program The Presence * 1 I give you practical teachings to help you establish the right placement and vibration of your awareness (along with many other powerful applications and insights) and the right habits that create true Self Mastery - a life of real happiness, peace and true power. In The Presence II *1, I take you into the underlying and integrating depths of these practices. That means you get to work CONSCIOUSLY with your vibrational levels (I don't mean just your usual idea of 'conscious' either), align with awareness and anchor your awareness and intentions in the place it matters most... the place that gets real results! From there the right habits are well anchored and easier to sustain.My deepest heart's intention is for YOU to get results. This is why I am so enthusiastic about what I can give you. Because I know it works. I have been there - and I have results.I know some of you have already been getting results - especially if you have been to The Presence I. And, I know that there is still so much more... because I know it's a process... and when you show up YOU take the journey. And, you only get results if you TAKE the journey. I am so enthusiastic that I want to help you take that step. That's why I keep giving to you in different ways. And one of those ways is to offer you a discount to the next program - The Presence II. All you need to do is call Sophie at Living Awareness and say the word INTENTION. * 2 If you haven't been to the first program - or you just aren't able to make it, I would really recommend you use the guided CD I produced called - Awaken to Self (just click here to have a look at it). This is a powerful way to clear the space of non-effective intention - make the space of the right level of energy - and set clear and effective intentions into place in your life.So remember: inspiration gets you started, intention sets you rolling, habit keeps you going and the space in which you do all of this is where you ground it.Hey, and guess what? The fact that you received this letter is a good sign that you are getting closer and closer to grounding your soul's true intentions.I look forward to sharing further with you.Great Love and Blessed INTENTIONS,Isira
Extras *1 The Presence I and The Presence II are a core programs that allow you to access experientially who you truly are. For more details click here. *2 Call Sophie on 9091 6833 or 0404 162285 to book and find out how you can be eligible for a discount for The Presence II.
We hope you have enjoyed this gift. Please feel free to pass it on."Love is a gift that keeps on giving" Isira
www.isira.com
Hello everyone, You might remember that in letter 2 I made reference to intention and that it played a significant and specific role in some of the results I have experienced in my life.The thing is - intention is playing a role in EVERY result in our life. It's just that most people are not really aware of this. And, even those who are aware of the intention factor may still not know how effective it is when you align with it in the right way, or how to do so most effectively and consciously. But what do I mean by that?I know - all these manifestation and mastery stories just keep adding to the picture - kind of like the knife sale: "But wait - there's more"!Well - the good news is - No. 1 - I'm not actually trying to sell you something, I'm trying to give you something...And No.2 - even if life IS telling you - "but wait there's more" - this is the sort of thing you can only benefit from.Why? Because it's essential stuff.Essential to what?You.Life.Your happiness. Your awakening. Your fulfillment. (I don't think more knives are so essential. ☺)And that's true inspiration. But to get inspiration rolling you have to have the right formula of intentions.So. Here's what I want to give you:3 of the most important clues about working with the power of intention.These clues may seem incredibly simple. But they are powerful and more important than you can imagine. And they work.1/ Watch every thought - every thought is attached to an intention. When you watch your thoughts you can be far more selective of your intentions. Many intentions unfortunately come from the superficial self. It's why people's lives are full of so many superficial and unfulfilling things.2/ Prepare your space for the reflection and holding of intention. You must not have distractions. Distractions waste your energy and keep your energy hooked at a superficial level. Your intention will only work if it connects at the right level of your being. This means you must be in the right state of energy with the right level of vibration. So, always meditate before you set intention. In other words - if you already meditate then intention should follow at the end - when you are in a deeper and clearer space.3/ Set a regular time to get clear on your intentions - EVERY DAY. Your schedule should include reflection about your intention for your state of BEING - that means how you intend to feel, and be aware in the state of the NOW. This must come FIRST. Then align with the intention you have for the day. Then align with the intention you have for a goal. Then align with an intention you have for your life.Now... I am also going to encourage you to look further than these 3 clues I just gave you. Why? Because without the right application even intention can fall short. Intention needs a follow up energy - right energy AND right habit. And this is what I can give you in the programs.In the program The Presence * 1 I give you practical teachings to help you establish the right placement and vibration of your awareness (along with many other powerful applications and insights) and the right habits that create true Self Mastery - a life of real happiness, peace and true power. In The Presence II *1, I take you into the underlying and integrating depths of these practices. That means you get to work CONSCIOUSLY with your vibrational levels (I don't mean just your usual idea of 'conscious' either), align with awareness and anchor your awareness and intentions in the place it matters most... the place that gets real results! From there the right habits are well anchored and easier to sustain.My deepest heart's intention is for YOU to get results. This is why I am so enthusiastic about what I can give you. Because I know it works. I have been there - and I have results.I know some of you have already been getting results - especially if you have been to The Presence I. And, I know that there is still so much more... because I know it's a process... and when you show up YOU take the journey. And, you only get results if you TAKE the journey. I am so enthusiastic that I want to help you take that step. That's why I keep giving to you in different ways. And one of those ways is to offer you a discount to the next program - The Presence II. All you need to do is call Sophie at Living Awareness and say the word INTENTION. * 2 If you haven't been to the first program - or you just aren't able to make it, I would really recommend you use the guided CD I produced called - Awaken to Self (just click here to have a look at it). This is a powerful way to clear the space of non-effective intention - make the space of the right level of energy - and set clear and effective intentions into place in your life.So remember: inspiration gets you started, intention sets you rolling, habit keeps you going and the space in which you do all of this is where you ground it.Hey, and guess what? The fact that you received this letter is a good sign that you are getting closer and closer to grounding your soul's true intentions.I look forward to sharing further with you.Great Love and Blessed INTENTIONS,Isira
Extras *1 The Presence I and The Presence II are a core programs that allow you to access experientially who you truly are. For more details click here. *2 Call Sophie on 9091 6833 or 0404 162285 to book and find out how you can be eligible for a discount for The Presence II.
We hope you have enjoyed this gift. Please feel free to pass it on."Love is a gift that keeps on giving" Isira
www.isira.com
Short Emails,by David Pierce.
Mastering The Short Email
"I apologize that this letter is so long. I did not have the time to make it short." -- Blaise PascalGood writers know that lean, vibrant language is almost always preferable to verbose, rambling writing. There is virtually no writing in the world so good that it can't be made better by making it shorter. There are exceptions, of course - a contract needs to cover every possible potentiality, as does the text of an international treaty, but these documents are not really meant to be read, they're meant to be enacted.When you send email, though, you most definitely mean for it to be read. By a person, even. With everyone's inboxes bulging at the seams with unwanted come-ons, weekly newsletters, Amazon notices telling them about the latest product that people who bought whatever they bought also bought, status updates, listserv posts, and who knows what else, you face an awful lot of competition in your recipient's inbox for their attention. Getting read is no small feat in and of itself; getting your reader to take action even a greater accomplishment.Writing well is one key - good prose is engaging and persuasive, no matter what the aim. And writing concisely is a big part of writing well. But writing concisely offers benefits on its own - the short email, particularly the email whose contents fit into the preview pane without any scrolling, has a much higher chance of gaining a reader's attention than one that starts off with three pages about trivia.This is what Mike Davidson figured out - if his recipients were half as slammed as he was, he figured they could use some relief from long-winded emails that ramble on and on in the guise of pleasantries. Instead, he committed himself to writing emails that were five sentences or less, every single time. To explain his decision, and to encourage others to follow suit, he created the site five.sentenc.es, which explains:
The ProblemE-mail takes too long to respond to, resulting in continuous inbox overflow for those who receive a lot of it.
The SolutionTreat all email responses like SMS text messages, using a set number of letters per response. Since it's too hard to count letters, we count sentences instead.
five.sentenc.es is a personal policy that all email responses regardless of recipient or subject will be five sentences or less. It's that simple. You add the link to your email signature, dash off your five-sentence response, and let your recipient know that you are looking out for his or her time. (For the really daring, Davidson set up domains with even fewer sentences, down to two.sentence.es.)That's all well and good, of course, but how can you make sure you say what you need to say if you limit yourself to five sentences? (Or even if you make the less-radical commitment to just write as short an email as possible?) You don't want to leave anything out, right?Unfortunately, concision isn't really taught or, to be honest, valued sufficiently. The huge novel is seen as more significant than the slim novella, the fat envelope more important than the thin one, the 10-page essay as more A-worthy than the 5-page essay. Teachers actually encourage wordiness, giving students instructions to write papers "at least" 500 words long, or 6 pages, instead of encouraging the shortest possible length in which you can fully express your thoughts.Fortunately, super-entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki has offered a good guide to the five-sentence email (scroll down to point #9). He says:
Whether UR young or old, the point is that the optimal length of an email message is five sentences. All you should do is explain who you are, what you want, why you should get it, and when you need it by.
(Don't ask me what purpose the seemingly out-of-place IM-speak serves there - let's just chalk it up to 5 saved keystrokes.)If we take Kawasaki's advice to heart, a good outline for a five-sentence email might look something like this:
Who are you? This might be skipped if you already have a relationship with the recipient; otherwise, in as little space as possible, explain the relevant facts about yourself.
What do you want? Explain why you're writing the email, what you expect your recipient to do about it, and any relevant information they need to respond with the appropriate action.
Why should you get it? Or, more to the point, why should they bother? Explain why your request is important, and if relevant, what's in it for them.
When do you need them to act? Open-ended requests get open-ended responses - that is, they get responded to whenever the recipient gets around to it. Be as specific as possible, so that your recipient a) has a sense of urgency, b) feels that their response is important to you, and c) feels inspired to act.
So, for example, emailing a professor to ask for an extension on an essay (that must be at least 10 pages long...) might look something like this:
Professor Wax,
I'm a student in your Thursday afternoon anthropology class, and I'm having some trouble finding enough references for my term paper. Could you please give me an extra week to complete the assignment? I realize this might affect my grade, but I really want to give you the best paper I can, not just 10 pages of filler to make up for the missing information. Please get back to me by tomorrow morning so I can plan my writing schedule.
Thanks,
Ace Tudent
Or an email to a colleague asking for data you need to finish a report might look like this:
Dustin,
I'm working on the report for our proposal to Acme, Inc. and really need the figures from the marketing analysis you ran. Could you get those to me by the end of the day so I can wrap this up? As you know, this report is crucial if we want to land that co-branding deal with Acme!
Best,
NM Ployee
Notice that both of those examples are less than five sentences - the point isn't to shoehorn your work into a particular format but to write as little as you need to get the point across.Sometimes, of course, that means writing more than five sentences. Kawasaki's advice presupposes that most email is requesting some kind of information, but that's not always the case. But if you force yourself to think in terms of a five sentence email, and you go over a sentence or two, you will be far more effective than if you dash off a 2,000-word treatise.While emails are technically just text, just writing, and therefore could theoretically be as long as you care to make them, in reality longer emails are more likely to go unread, and less likely to be read carefully, as short ones. If more information is needed, a formal report, a webpage, a memo, or some other form of document is probably going to be better-suited to presenting it than an email. Send an attachment, send a link, or schedule a face-to-face meeting if necessary; don't blast off a giant email that takes you hours to write in the vain hope that it will be read.
By David Pierce.
"I apologize that this letter is so long. I did not have the time to make it short." -- Blaise PascalGood writers know that lean, vibrant language is almost always preferable to verbose, rambling writing. There is virtually no writing in the world so good that it can't be made better by making it shorter. There are exceptions, of course - a contract needs to cover every possible potentiality, as does the text of an international treaty, but these documents are not really meant to be read, they're meant to be enacted.When you send email, though, you most definitely mean for it to be read. By a person, even. With everyone's inboxes bulging at the seams with unwanted come-ons, weekly newsletters, Amazon notices telling them about the latest product that people who bought whatever they bought also bought, status updates, listserv posts, and who knows what else, you face an awful lot of competition in your recipient's inbox for their attention. Getting read is no small feat in and of itself; getting your reader to take action even a greater accomplishment.Writing well is one key - good prose is engaging and persuasive, no matter what the aim. And writing concisely is a big part of writing well. But writing concisely offers benefits on its own - the short email, particularly the email whose contents fit into the preview pane without any scrolling, has a much higher chance of gaining a reader's attention than one that starts off with three pages about trivia.This is what Mike Davidson figured out - if his recipients were half as slammed as he was, he figured they could use some relief from long-winded emails that ramble on and on in the guise of pleasantries. Instead, he committed himself to writing emails that were five sentences or less, every single time. To explain his decision, and to encourage others to follow suit, he created the site five.sentenc.es, which explains:
The ProblemE-mail takes too long to respond to, resulting in continuous inbox overflow for those who receive a lot of it.
The SolutionTreat all email responses like SMS text messages, using a set number of letters per response. Since it's too hard to count letters, we count sentences instead.
five.sentenc.es is a personal policy that all email responses regardless of recipient or subject will be five sentences or less. It's that simple. You add the link to your email signature, dash off your five-sentence response, and let your recipient know that you are looking out for his or her time. (For the really daring, Davidson set up domains with even fewer sentences, down to two.sentence.es.)That's all well and good, of course, but how can you make sure you say what you need to say if you limit yourself to five sentences? (Or even if you make the less-radical commitment to just write as short an email as possible?) You don't want to leave anything out, right?Unfortunately, concision isn't really taught or, to be honest, valued sufficiently. The huge novel is seen as more significant than the slim novella, the fat envelope more important than the thin one, the 10-page essay as more A-worthy than the 5-page essay. Teachers actually encourage wordiness, giving students instructions to write papers "at least" 500 words long, or 6 pages, instead of encouraging the shortest possible length in which you can fully express your thoughts.Fortunately, super-entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki has offered a good guide to the five-sentence email (scroll down to point #9). He says:
Whether UR young or old, the point is that the optimal length of an email message is five sentences. All you should do is explain who you are, what you want, why you should get it, and when you need it by.
(Don't ask me what purpose the seemingly out-of-place IM-speak serves there - let's just chalk it up to 5 saved keystrokes.)If we take Kawasaki's advice to heart, a good outline for a five-sentence email might look something like this:
Who are you? This might be skipped if you already have a relationship with the recipient; otherwise, in as little space as possible, explain the relevant facts about yourself.
What do you want? Explain why you're writing the email, what you expect your recipient to do about it, and any relevant information they need to respond with the appropriate action.
Why should you get it? Or, more to the point, why should they bother? Explain why your request is important, and if relevant, what's in it for them.
When do you need them to act? Open-ended requests get open-ended responses - that is, they get responded to whenever the recipient gets around to it. Be as specific as possible, so that your recipient a) has a sense of urgency, b) feels that their response is important to you, and c) feels inspired to act.
So, for example, emailing a professor to ask for an extension on an essay (that must be at least 10 pages long...) might look something like this:
Professor Wax,
I'm a student in your Thursday afternoon anthropology class, and I'm having some trouble finding enough references for my term paper. Could you please give me an extra week to complete the assignment? I realize this might affect my grade, but I really want to give you the best paper I can, not just 10 pages of filler to make up for the missing information. Please get back to me by tomorrow morning so I can plan my writing schedule.
Thanks,
Ace Tudent
Or an email to a colleague asking for data you need to finish a report might look like this:
Dustin,
I'm working on the report for our proposal to Acme, Inc. and really need the figures from the marketing analysis you ran. Could you get those to me by the end of the day so I can wrap this up? As you know, this report is crucial if we want to land that co-branding deal with Acme!
Best,
NM Ployee
Notice that both of those examples are less than five sentences - the point isn't to shoehorn your work into a particular format but to write as little as you need to get the point across.Sometimes, of course, that means writing more than five sentences. Kawasaki's advice presupposes that most email is requesting some kind of information, but that's not always the case. But if you force yourself to think in terms of a five sentence email, and you go over a sentence or two, you will be far more effective than if you dash off a 2,000-word treatise.While emails are technically just text, just writing, and therefore could theoretically be as long as you care to make them, in reality longer emails are more likely to go unread, and less likely to be read carefully, as short ones. If more information is needed, a formal report, a webpage, a memo, or some other form of document is probably going to be better-suited to presenting it than an email. Send an attachment, send a link, or schedule a face-to-face meeting if necessary; don't blast off a giant email that takes you hours to write in the vain hope that it will be read.
By David Pierce.
Solar Wave 2009,Paradise is in our Hands!
This is a Joyful Invitation to Participate in an Unquenchable Spiritual Evolution! We invite one and all to join a Glorious WAVE OF LIGHTTo and raise up your hands and hearts to create a better world.This is a call to ALL Light Workers and Way-Showers, Mystics and Sages,Masters, Saints and Angels! This is your time to SHINE, SERVE & AWAKEN the WORLD!Are you a member of the Spiritual Conspiracy? Have you joined the ranks of the Conscious Army? Are you a Bridge Builder to a Bright New Age? Yes you are! "You who have the light, what are you doing with it?" ~ Paul Claudel
Planetary Ascension for all!
This is it . . . This is not a dress rehearsal.From where we stand, we cannot conceive of the immensity of what is happening right now in the heavens . . . that which is mirrored right here on Earth today. The creative force of the creator, a.k.a. God's Light, is increasing greatly and at a mind-boggling, multiplying rate of speed. This acceleration phenomenon is encompassing everything from the greatest of mountains to every grain of sand, from each human being to each minuscule ameba, virus and bacteria. Today the crushing feeling of the density of this disappearing dimension is nearly more that we can withstand. Yet we can also feel the presence of Ascended Beings assisting us through this incredible time. If we ever needed their help, this is the time. This is not a one man/woman job anymore. This step takes a collective group effort! That means you, me, and our communities. We can feel the presence of luminous beings holding space for us to complete this cosmic transition. We are so grateful that they are here with us. If I can feel them here with me now, then they are also here with YOU, if you can feel them or not! Trust this! We are all connected and not separate as it seems to appear. One is no better than another. What happens to one, happens to all of us. We are Family, one and unified. We always have been and always will be. The tree of life is growing new roots in the next world as we write this. Your body aches as the density of the past world rises up to be released. You look at your world, and you can't tell if it is a dream, a mirage, or real. Just as the tree of life is growing new roots, so are your chakras, and the energy/life force of your Kundalini is being rooted in the new world. Because of this, you might feel you are split in two. You might feel that one part of you wants to die and the other half wants to live! And the really interesting feeling is that you are losing the attachment to which way it goes. We ask ourselves, do we have to LET GO to this all encompassing extent to bring about the shift of the ages? If we are so filled up holding onto what was in the past, do we have space to move forward to the promised land? Are we really going to have to finally live the truth that we must let go and let God emerge through us to arrive into a new land? This is why we are here at this time. We have trained for this pivotal time over and over . . . And OVER . . . and OVER. We have had our trial runs, and our dress rehearsals. If we think we are ready or not, we are ready for this! This is the real deal now. It is time to make the leap . . . together. Stay positive and keep your focus on the light. You will find the courage and strength to do what you need to do at the exact time you need it to do it. Trust this fact. Spirit works in the present moment. Spirit is not somewhere out in the future. Spirit does not recognize that there is a past. There is only the power of NOW. It is up to you to use this power. If you have made it this far, then you are also here to help co-create this great shift that is part of the greatest plan of unimaginable perfection. This plan is the evolution which takes us past duality, separation, lack, and suffering! You have made it to the greatest of cross roads. You have made a huge choice and have joined the greatest spiritual and physical revolution/evolution the universe has ever witnessed. You are the healers, creators and visionaries of a new world.
Witness Consciousness
Witness Consciousness
The most ancient philosophies of holism established four levels of human reality. The first level is the waking state. The second level is the dream state. The third level is the deep sleep state and the fourth level is the state of witness consciousness. Consciousness thus is the substratum of all human experience as delineated by these ancient philosophies. The four levels are offered as proof to the validity of consciousness as the Source.
The philosophical delineation is easy to understand and is as follows..... who is always watching your experience while you are awake? Who is the real experiencer of the waking state? It is consciousness. Who is the witness of the dream state? Who really experiences the dream and reports it to you when you wake? It is consciousness. Who is the witness of the deep sleep state? Who experiences deep sleep and informs you when you wake that you have enjoyed deep sleep? It is consciousness. Who is the witness of the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep? It is consciousness. Source is a witnessing consciousness and it is the substratum of all experience.
Consider this truth in this moment..... Who is watching as you are reading these words on this computer screen? It is consciousness. The words that you are reading are also consciousness and so is the computer within which they appear. Thus, consciousness is watching consciousness or consciousness is watching itself. Within this awareness, right here and right now, you are experiencing unified consciousness or wholeness.
Contemplate this during your meditations this coming week. Remain aware that it is you as Source Consciousness that is watching the meditative experience that is happening. Thus you will know that you are a witnessing consciousness and duration in witness consciousness will expand to the experience of unified consciousness in which you are aware that you are watching yourself. Again, there is only One.
The most ancient philosophies of holism established four levels of human reality. The first level is the waking state. The second level is the dream state. The third level is the deep sleep state and the fourth level is the state of witness consciousness. Consciousness thus is the substratum of all human experience as delineated by these ancient philosophies. The four levels are offered as proof to the validity of consciousness as the Source.
The philosophical delineation is easy to understand and is as follows..... who is always watching your experience while you are awake? Who is the real experiencer of the waking state? It is consciousness. Who is the witness of the dream state? Who really experiences the dream and reports it to you when you wake? It is consciousness. Who is the witness of the deep sleep state? Who experiences deep sleep and informs you when you wake that you have enjoyed deep sleep? It is consciousness. Who is the witness of the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep? It is consciousness. Source is a witnessing consciousness and it is the substratum of all experience.
Consider this truth in this moment..... Who is watching as you are reading these words on this computer screen? It is consciousness. The words that you are reading are also consciousness and so is the computer within which they appear. Thus, consciousness is watching consciousness or consciousness is watching itself. Within this awareness, right here and right now, you are experiencing unified consciousness or wholeness.
Contemplate this during your meditations this coming week. Remain aware that it is you as Source Consciousness that is watching the meditative experience that is happening. Thus you will know that you are a witnessing consciousness and duration in witness consciousness will expand to the experience of unified consciousness in which you are aware that you are watching yourself. Again, there is only One.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
999 Cube Stars
~ a gift of cosmic consciousness
The upcoming 999 time gate will usher us into the final leg of our cosmic journey on Earth by finally providing all the vibrational keys and codes we need to complete the harmonic set of the old Solar Law and threshold known as the 666 whereby we can more fully reside within its inverted state of consciousness, the 999 Cube of Stars.
The Cube of Stars is the open-ended consciousness system that allows you to access the supra-akashic and universal soular memories beyond the 666 threshold. Many of us have had occasional forays into this expanded 999 field of universal awareness for years such as when "remembering" experiences in other star systems and planets not within our Earth's solar system.
After passing through this upcoming 999 we will have a new matrix supporting us in operating within this expanded celestial plane of awareness more continually. It will take less energy to get to this awareness than previously. We will be able to more easily stay focused within this universal plane of awareness. Thus, we will also find a new sense of balance wherein we can simultaneously co-exist and operate within the remaining aspects of the current world system that for a time will still operate under the confines of the old 666 Solar Law.
For those who have not yet experienced fields of awareness beyond the 666 Solar Threshold these experiences will more easily open to you after we pass through the upcoming 999 time gate. Ultimately, experiencing the states of awareness possible through the 999 Cube of Stars inter-dimensional portal is a major step towards being able to know more completely what your true identity is. I am speaking here of knowing your true identity at a visceral "in the marrow of your bones" level, not just intellectually.
We all have our truest identity rooted in a state of Pure Awareness. Its not just a place we can go to hang out, its actually who we are and that is why it is so enticing to experience. It is in that place of Pure Awareness that the state of beingness we often refer to as Divine Love is to be found. They are actually synonymous. When we are in that state we are experiencing ourselves fully, our true identity beyond all form and expression.
The transmission of awareness I am experiencing around this, indicates that wherever we are in our process of being able to experience who we truly are as Pure Awareness, will be taken to an entirely new level following the upcoming passage through the 999 time gate. This will not necessarily happen immediately, at least not for everyone, but it will start unfolding in earnest and will rapidly accelerate with time.
It is within this state of Pure Awareness that we are able to access the complete repository of universal memories without any filters applied. For that is in effect what the 666 represents; it is a filter meant to protect beings who would otherwise be overwhelmed by an inundation of cosmic awareness and multi-dimensional information. Our mental institutions are full of souls who for one reason or another had this filter prematurely removed, for it exists ultimately within our DNA.
It has taken many aeons of evolution of the human psychological, emotional and energy systems to prepare us collectively wherein we could properly process the type of multi-dimensional information one is exposed to through the 999 when the filtered protection of the 666 Solar Threshold is inverted and made transparent.
You can think of the 666 protective filter as being somewhat like a piece of one-way privacy glass. We have been on the side facing the mirrored surface where when we would go to "look out beyond" we would simply see a mirrored reflection of what was here in our local reality. Our world reality has been like being in a house with this glass in all the windows but oriented such that we could not look out, others outside could look in though, such as the Illumined Ones and other celestials. This "reflection effect" has been confusing to many. It took me a long time with many, many forays through the 666 Solar Threshold into the 999 Cube of Stars to even begin to understand what was actually occurring.
After the 999 inversion has fully taken place this "privacy glass" will have reversed it's position relative to our reality whereby we will then have the see-through side facing us where we can look out of our "home" in this reality into all that lies beyond. Truly awesome to contemplate.
A lot of what we are experiencing going on within ourselves this year is related to this final upcoming 999 time gate. Accessing a more complete universal awareness also requires that all the identities, attachments and incomplete emotional experiences we are still carrying around have to find their way into liberation too. These are all operating within the main set of harmonics represented in the more limited 666 Solar Threshold, that is where they were created.
In the upcoming 999 Cube of Stars Tele-Transmission we will work with some universal level processes to more efficiently give passage to these old harmonics and to succinctly and directly access the 999 Cube of Stars codes of liberation.
To be sure, all beings will have equal opportunity to access these codes and keys. Yet the more directly we can access them and begin to open to these new universal fields of awareness they offer, the more easily and quickly will we be able to step forward as newly radiant beings embodying the 999 Cube of Stars for the whole collective soul of humanity. We will be more powerfully centered in our true identity as Pure Awareness.
The upcoming 999 time gate will usher us into the final leg of our cosmic journey on Earth by finally providing all the vibrational keys and codes we need to complete the harmonic set of the old Solar Law and threshold known as the 666 whereby we can more fully reside within its inverted state of consciousness, the 999 Cube of Stars.
The Cube of Stars is the open-ended consciousness system that allows you to access the supra-akashic and universal soular memories beyond the 666 threshold. Many of us have had occasional forays into this expanded 999 field of universal awareness for years such as when "remembering" experiences in other star systems and planets not within our Earth's solar system.
After passing through this upcoming 999 we will have a new matrix supporting us in operating within this expanded celestial plane of awareness more continually. It will take less energy to get to this awareness than previously. We will be able to more easily stay focused within this universal plane of awareness. Thus, we will also find a new sense of balance wherein we can simultaneously co-exist and operate within the remaining aspects of the current world system that for a time will still operate under the confines of the old 666 Solar Law.
For those who have not yet experienced fields of awareness beyond the 666 Solar Threshold these experiences will more easily open to you after we pass through the upcoming 999 time gate. Ultimately, experiencing the states of awareness possible through the 999 Cube of Stars inter-dimensional portal is a major step towards being able to know more completely what your true identity is. I am speaking here of knowing your true identity at a visceral "in the marrow of your bones" level, not just intellectually.
We all have our truest identity rooted in a state of Pure Awareness. Its not just a place we can go to hang out, its actually who we are and that is why it is so enticing to experience. It is in that place of Pure Awareness that the state of beingness we often refer to as Divine Love is to be found. They are actually synonymous. When we are in that state we are experiencing ourselves fully, our true identity beyond all form and expression.
The transmission of awareness I am experiencing around this, indicates that wherever we are in our process of being able to experience who we truly are as Pure Awareness, will be taken to an entirely new level following the upcoming passage through the 999 time gate. This will not necessarily happen immediately, at least not for everyone, but it will start unfolding in earnest and will rapidly accelerate with time.
It is within this state of Pure Awareness that we are able to access the complete repository of universal memories without any filters applied. For that is in effect what the 666 represents; it is a filter meant to protect beings who would otherwise be overwhelmed by an inundation of cosmic awareness and multi-dimensional information. Our mental institutions are full of souls who for one reason or another had this filter prematurely removed, for it exists ultimately within our DNA.
It has taken many aeons of evolution of the human psychological, emotional and energy systems to prepare us collectively wherein we could properly process the type of multi-dimensional information one is exposed to through the 999 when the filtered protection of the 666 Solar Threshold is inverted and made transparent.
You can think of the 666 protective filter as being somewhat like a piece of one-way privacy glass. We have been on the side facing the mirrored surface where when we would go to "look out beyond" we would simply see a mirrored reflection of what was here in our local reality. Our world reality has been like being in a house with this glass in all the windows but oriented such that we could not look out, others outside could look in though, such as the Illumined Ones and other celestials. This "reflection effect" has been confusing to many. It took me a long time with many, many forays through the 666 Solar Threshold into the 999 Cube of Stars to even begin to understand what was actually occurring.
After the 999 inversion has fully taken place this "privacy glass" will have reversed it's position relative to our reality whereby we will then have the see-through side facing us where we can look out of our "home" in this reality into all that lies beyond. Truly awesome to contemplate.
A lot of what we are experiencing going on within ourselves this year is related to this final upcoming 999 time gate. Accessing a more complete universal awareness also requires that all the identities, attachments and incomplete emotional experiences we are still carrying around have to find their way into liberation too. These are all operating within the main set of harmonics represented in the more limited 666 Solar Threshold, that is where they were created.
In the upcoming 999 Cube of Stars Tele-Transmission we will work with some universal level processes to more efficiently give passage to these old harmonics and to succinctly and directly access the 999 Cube of Stars codes of liberation.
To be sure, all beings will have equal opportunity to access these codes and keys. Yet the more directly we can access them and begin to open to these new universal fields of awareness they offer, the more easily and quickly will we be able to step forward as newly radiant beings embodying the 999 Cube of Stars for the whole collective soul of humanity. We will be more powerfully centered in our true identity as Pure Awareness.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Gnosis,
Gnosis is the Light Within. It is the voice of the Higher Self. It is the only true Guru, the only true Teacher. It deals with matters that are Absolute. There are many who follow an external guru or teaching, because they do not have the Light Awakened within them, and require to be told by another what is Absolute. For me, there are many enlightened teachers (and even more that are not so enlightened), whom I respect. But respecting them does not mean slavish imitation.
Gnosis articulated is what is known as the Perennial Philosophy. Note, I don't necessarily agree with every perspective or author mentioned or cited, but with the general sentiment.
One way in which I differ from the standard religious-based Perennialist postion is in non-harmfulness to all sentient beings, not just humans. This was taught by Buddha and Mahivira in India, by Pythagoras in the classical west, and St Francis of Assisi in the Christian world. For me, this non-anthropocentric perspecticve also implies not merely a vegetarian but a vegan lifestyle. However, while that is what my gnosis compells me to do, I am not claiming it as absolute that should be forced. If one feels that way, one will act in such a way, to walk lightly on the Earth, with the right ecological attitude, and not harm other beings; to have a right attitude to humans, animals, plants, even inanimate nature (interestingly, the Baal Shem Tov spoke of sparks in even inanimate matter that need to be "raised up"). One should be guided by the inner light, the True Light, and then one will act correctly, regardless.
For me, ahimsa, non-harmfulness, does not mean one should stand by idly and let innocents or loved ones be harmed because you don't want to harm the aggressor. To me, that is just stupid. Strength is a part of the Divine Plan as much as Empathy and Compassion. In this the Kabbalists and Hermeticists are absolutely correct, I feel. Interestingly, Sri Aurobindo also was critical of the non-violence advocated by Gandi as a universal solution, and I see where he is coming from. Gandhi's peaceful protest worked with the British, who are a democratic nation with a sense of justice and human rights. Martin Luther King also was able to bring about civil rights for afroamericans because, again, America is a nation based on these principles. But peaceful protest does not work against, say, the Communist Chinese, as they are a totalitarian regime who care neither for their own dissidents nor for other people (e.g. the Tibetans) they wish to repress.
One very big problem many mystical teachings have, which to me is an abberration and not part of true spirituality or genuine (as I experience it) gnosis, is their guilt trips and hang-ups over the the physical body and associated lower emotional tendencies. We see this in exoteric religions with their obsession with "sin" and guilt (Catholic Church private schools that in the past would teach girls when they shower not to look at their bodies being only one such example), many spiritual teachings (many yogis and mystics have hang-ups with asceticism, hatred of the body etc), blanket rejection of the ego, using the same attitude of "that is bad" that those exoteric religions do to the body (this is typical of a vast number of pop Gurus with little true insight), fear of the mind and of reason (leave your mind at the door (Osho Rajneesh), elements in the New Age movement, a young lady in the rebirthing movement I knew some time back (no, she wasnt my girlfriend)) etc etc.
The true approach is not denial, but transformation and transmutation. e.g. the Vajrayana teaching of changing the five poisons into five wisdoms. Also Taoist internal Alchemy, working with the flow of ch'i. And Sri Aurobindo speaks of (his) yoga as an "integral" transformation of all faculties of the being.
Yet Gnosis, perhaps, and despite its core of unity, is a profoundly individual thing, and what Gnosis is for me may not be what Gnosis is for you. But this is how I understand, interpret, and experience it.
An intuitive awareness that the nature of the self, the cosmos, and reality as a whole, is a profoundly mystical, holistic, unitive one. There is no God separate from the rest of the universe, no matter mechanistically acting apart from anything else.
A realisation of the limitedness and narrowness of mental dogmas of any kind - religious, ideological, scientistic, or whatever.
A profound sense of meaning or purpose in all things and events (even those we normally consider "unfair"), of a larger working out or "plan" in both individual lives and the cosmos as a whole.
Practice of non-harmfulness, wherever possible, to all beings (not just humans alone).
Not using non-harmfulness as an excuse where there is genuine wrongdoing.
Not depending on or giving up one's individuality to an external guru or authority figure, but rather follwoing one's own guidance (c.g. Buddha, Krishnamurti).
Working on oneself, realising that ultimately one has to go beyond the boundaries of the current limited self.
Understanding the "lower" principles as things to be transmuted, not denied.
Comments on GnosisArvan Harvat
12 March 2000
Having consulted a few various sources ( books, Web resources, talks with both experts and informed enthusiasts ), there emerged a picture curiously similar to your original definition of Gnosis. Briefly, some other points, especially regarding relation to the cosmos and the eschatological or "evolutionary" questions, can be subsumed under single differentia specifica not necessarily shared with multiplicity of orthodoxies and heterodoxies. Just a reference to a landmark book: beautiful Happold's anthology, "Mysticism". He differs between three kinds of mysticism:
God-centered ( all "classic" religious paths ) Nature-centered ( more "poetic" expressions ( Blake, Whitman, .., also - classical Paganism, naturalistic Taoism and many others ). Soul-centered ( in this sense, "Soul" has more similarities with "Self" ). The immortal man, Divine Self, soul spark, the deepest "I" - this is the true goal of the third way.
In this respect, the widest possible definition ( or intuitive flash of insight into the nature of Gnosis, as liberated from frequently more nuanced, but, alas, simultaneously musty and sometimes anemic academic dissections ) is: Gnosis is awakening to the deepest Self and Light within. It is the cornerstone of dramatic transmutations of consciousness achieved through theoria, death-and-resurrection initiations and spontaneous awakenings. It is pilgrimage of the self to the Self.
So, Gnosis in the widest sense is the "discovery" of inner Self as the true "I". A corollary must be added: not all meditative/contemplative disciplines can be termed as "Gnostic". Only those that affirm the reality of Reality qualify ( this adjunct dumps Advaita and Ch'an/Zen ). The premier examples of Gnosis are Shamanism, Hermetism, Christian and Jewish Gnosticisms, Kashmir Shaivism and Siddha Yoga in general; also, some schools of Vajrayana/Tantric Buddhism ( six Yogas of Naropa- here, things become fuzzier due to the Mahayana Buddhist dogma of illusory nature of the Cosmos ). In short, Gnosis equals radical self-reliance on and/or fierce transmutational/expansionary voyage towards Inner Self/Light within.
(see also Gnosis and esotericism)
A more recent reformulation:M.Alan Kazlev
(3 May 2007)
I wrote the following definition (slightly edited here) in reply to comments to a blog post
By Gnosis I mean an inner certainty about spiritual realities that has been very real to me since i was only 20 or 21. It pertains to the inner mind (to use Sri Aurobindo's terminology). I have never been a "seeker", because a seeker doesn't know. Rather I have - ever since the "scales fell from my eyes" (wonderful saying, from Acts 9:18) when i was about 20, known, not in a rational sense., But in a sense that when i read spiritual knowledge it was like a remembering. A bit like in the Platonic sense that all true knowledge and education is remembering what we knew before. When I read Tibetan Buddhism, Jung, Sri Aurobindo, Henry Corbin, whoever, ah - of course, how obvious! Why didn't I see that before. That's what I mean when I speak about Gnosis. I have found on forums like Open Integral it is impossible to convey this concept.
But my gnosis is just one form of gnosis, one facet of gnosis. And authentic mystical experience is also gnosis (obviously more profound than mine). An example of this is enlightenment, for example the state of being of Ramana Maharshi. The ascent to the Supermind in Aurobindonian Integral Yoga is an even more profound gnosis again. Sri Aurobindo even uses the term gnosis. So I wouldn't say that gnosis is only this but not that. There are many forms and types and grades of gnosis.
Two things can be said about gnosis
It conveys a sense of certainty, but this is very different to the certainty a fundamentalist gets from their religion, or a materialist from their materialism. It is a certainty of spiritual truths that at the same time is open to other realities, other possibilities and truths, even those from traditions antithetical to one's own. It is never egotistic or exclusivist or authoritarian
it is transformative in its very nature. The very fact and experiences of gnosis changes one's consciousness and being, and the more profound the gnosis, the greater the change (until with Supramental Gnosis the body can be divinised and ultimatley the entire world can be transformed)
Of course it is easy for the ego to hijack gnosis, then you have the "intermediate zone, the mixture of truth and falsehood that characterises most gurus.
See also my suggestion for an Integral Gnostic Community - posted on Zaadz ; the same posted on Integral Transformation and comments by others
A still more recent reformulation:
(18 July 2009)
Working on my book in progress The Integral Paradigm has encouraged me to further reformulate my understanding of gnosis, basically on the basis of material written above. As I now understand it, gnosis (or Common Gnosis, to use a phrase I coined for this particular level of realization) is a state of inner certainty, which goes beyond the normal holistic/intuitive/"spiritual" stage of opening to transpersonal experience, because it does not involves a complete transformation of values, a profound sense of alienation, and a realization of the necessity and ultimate orientation of ego-transcendence and Realization ("Enlightenment").
Thus Gnosis as often defined and experienced is not the final state, but a transitional stage between the exoteric (or at best public esoteric (Hanegraaff) "Translucent"/Transpersonal/New Age/Cultural creative stage, and more authentic states of Realization, which I used to call "Enlightenement" but are less happy to do so now because of the misuse of the term by fake gurus (whether sincere but self-deluded into thinking they are Enlightened/Awakened/Realized when they aren't, or deliberately abusiove, or both (I was thinking of substituting the term "Enlightenement" with Realization, but decided to leave it as it would be too much work with all teh revisions required - 22 Jul 09)
For this reason I propose an admitedly simplistic linear sequence of Stages of Realization, althougha more accurate model would be a multidimensional matrix of possibilities.
I n t e g r a l Y o g a (individual and cosmic transformation)
Realization/Aspect
Outer being
Inner Being
Enlightenment
Divinization
Spirit
Samsara
Spiritualization
Divinization/Supramentalization
Soul
Evolving Divine Soul
Psychicization
Mind
Non-Gnosis/Exoteric
Gnosis/Esoteric
"IntermediateZone"
Nonduality
Religion/Secular
Postmaterialism
Feeling
Ego-Shadow
I-Thou Empathy
Body
Physicalevolution
EvolutionarySpirituality
Transformation
note: the above represents a simplistic linear interpretation only; in fact all these stages interact and overlap. Rarely do all these levels develop at the same time, and the Integral/Divine Realization encompasses all of them.
Gnosis articulated is what is known as the Perennial Philosophy. Note, I don't necessarily agree with every perspective or author mentioned or cited, but with the general sentiment.
One way in which I differ from the standard religious-based Perennialist postion is in non-harmfulness to all sentient beings, not just humans. This was taught by Buddha and Mahivira in India, by Pythagoras in the classical west, and St Francis of Assisi in the Christian world. For me, this non-anthropocentric perspecticve also implies not merely a vegetarian but a vegan lifestyle. However, while that is what my gnosis compells me to do, I am not claiming it as absolute that should be forced. If one feels that way, one will act in such a way, to walk lightly on the Earth, with the right ecological attitude, and not harm other beings; to have a right attitude to humans, animals, plants, even inanimate nature (interestingly, the Baal Shem Tov spoke of sparks in even inanimate matter that need to be "raised up"). One should be guided by the inner light, the True Light, and then one will act correctly, regardless.
For me, ahimsa, non-harmfulness, does not mean one should stand by idly and let innocents or loved ones be harmed because you don't want to harm the aggressor. To me, that is just stupid. Strength is a part of the Divine Plan as much as Empathy and Compassion. In this the Kabbalists and Hermeticists are absolutely correct, I feel. Interestingly, Sri Aurobindo also was critical of the non-violence advocated by Gandi as a universal solution, and I see where he is coming from. Gandhi's peaceful protest worked with the British, who are a democratic nation with a sense of justice and human rights. Martin Luther King also was able to bring about civil rights for afroamericans because, again, America is a nation based on these principles. But peaceful protest does not work against, say, the Communist Chinese, as they are a totalitarian regime who care neither for their own dissidents nor for other people (e.g. the Tibetans) they wish to repress.
One very big problem many mystical teachings have, which to me is an abberration and not part of true spirituality or genuine (as I experience it) gnosis, is their guilt trips and hang-ups over the the physical body and associated lower emotional tendencies. We see this in exoteric religions with their obsession with "sin" and guilt (Catholic Church private schools that in the past would teach girls when they shower not to look at their bodies being only one such example), many spiritual teachings (many yogis and mystics have hang-ups with asceticism, hatred of the body etc), blanket rejection of the ego, using the same attitude of "that is bad" that those exoteric religions do to the body (this is typical of a vast number of pop Gurus with little true insight), fear of the mind and of reason (leave your mind at the door (Osho Rajneesh), elements in the New Age movement, a young lady in the rebirthing movement I knew some time back (no, she wasnt my girlfriend)) etc etc.
The true approach is not denial, but transformation and transmutation. e.g. the Vajrayana teaching of changing the five poisons into five wisdoms. Also Taoist internal Alchemy, working with the flow of ch'i. And Sri Aurobindo speaks of (his) yoga as an "integral" transformation of all faculties of the being.
Yet Gnosis, perhaps, and despite its core of unity, is a profoundly individual thing, and what Gnosis is for me may not be what Gnosis is for you. But this is how I understand, interpret, and experience it.
An intuitive awareness that the nature of the self, the cosmos, and reality as a whole, is a profoundly mystical, holistic, unitive one. There is no God separate from the rest of the universe, no matter mechanistically acting apart from anything else.
A realisation of the limitedness and narrowness of mental dogmas of any kind - religious, ideological, scientistic, or whatever.
A profound sense of meaning or purpose in all things and events (even those we normally consider "unfair"), of a larger working out or "plan" in both individual lives and the cosmos as a whole.
Practice of non-harmfulness, wherever possible, to all beings (not just humans alone).
Not using non-harmfulness as an excuse where there is genuine wrongdoing.
Not depending on or giving up one's individuality to an external guru or authority figure, but rather follwoing one's own guidance (c.g. Buddha, Krishnamurti).
Working on oneself, realising that ultimately one has to go beyond the boundaries of the current limited self.
Understanding the "lower" principles as things to be transmuted, not denied.
Comments on GnosisArvan Harvat
12 March 2000
Having consulted a few various sources ( books, Web resources, talks with both experts and informed enthusiasts ), there emerged a picture curiously similar to your original definition of Gnosis. Briefly, some other points, especially regarding relation to the cosmos and the eschatological or "evolutionary" questions, can be subsumed under single differentia specifica not necessarily shared with multiplicity of orthodoxies and heterodoxies. Just a reference to a landmark book: beautiful Happold's anthology, "Mysticism". He differs between three kinds of mysticism:
God-centered ( all "classic" religious paths ) Nature-centered ( more "poetic" expressions ( Blake, Whitman, .., also - classical Paganism, naturalistic Taoism and many others ). Soul-centered ( in this sense, "Soul" has more similarities with "Self" ). The immortal man, Divine Self, soul spark, the deepest "I" - this is the true goal of the third way.
In this respect, the widest possible definition ( or intuitive flash of insight into the nature of Gnosis, as liberated from frequently more nuanced, but, alas, simultaneously musty and sometimes anemic academic dissections ) is: Gnosis is awakening to the deepest Self and Light within. It is the cornerstone of dramatic transmutations of consciousness achieved through theoria, death-and-resurrection initiations and spontaneous awakenings. It is pilgrimage of the self to the Self.
So, Gnosis in the widest sense is the "discovery" of inner Self as the true "I". A corollary must be added: not all meditative/contemplative disciplines can be termed as "Gnostic". Only those that affirm the reality of Reality qualify ( this adjunct dumps Advaita and Ch'an/Zen ). The premier examples of Gnosis are Shamanism, Hermetism, Christian and Jewish Gnosticisms, Kashmir Shaivism and Siddha Yoga in general; also, some schools of Vajrayana/Tantric Buddhism ( six Yogas of Naropa- here, things become fuzzier due to the Mahayana Buddhist dogma of illusory nature of the Cosmos ). In short, Gnosis equals radical self-reliance on and/or fierce transmutational/expansionary voyage towards Inner Self/Light within.
(see also Gnosis and esotericism)
A more recent reformulation:M.Alan Kazlev
(3 May 2007)
I wrote the following definition (slightly edited here) in reply to comments to a blog post
By Gnosis I mean an inner certainty about spiritual realities that has been very real to me since i was only 20 or 21. It pertains to the inner mind (to use Sri Aurobindo's terminology). I have never been a "seeker", because a seeker doesn't know. Rather I have - ever since the "scales fell from my eyes" (wonderful saying, from Acts 9:18) when i was about 20, known, not in a rational sense., But in a sense that when i read spiritual knowledge it was like a remembering. A bit like in the Platonic sense that all true knowledge and education is remembering what we knew before. When I read Tibetan Buddhism, Jung, Sri Aurobindo, Henry Corbin, whoever, ah - of course, how obvious! Why didn't I see that before. That's what I mean when I speak about Gnosis. I have found on forums like Open Integral it is impossible to convey this concept.
But my gnosis is just one form of gnosis, one facet of gnosis. And authentic mystical experience is also gnosis (obviously more profound than mine). An example of this is enlightenment, for example the state of being of Ramana Maharshi. The ascent to the Supermind in Aurobindonian Integral Yoga is an even more profound gnosis again. Sri Aurobindo even uses the term gnosis. So I wouldn't say that gnosis is only this but not that. There are many forms and types and grades of gnosis.
Two things can be said about gnosis
It conveys a sense of certainty, but this is very different to the certainty a fundamentalist gets from their religion, or a materialist from their materialism. It is a certainty of spiritual truths that at the same time is open to other realities, other possibilities and truths, even those from traditions antithetical to one's own. It is never egotistic or exclusivist or authoritarian
it is transformative in its very nature. The very fact and experiences of gnosis changes one's consciousness and being, and the more profound the gnosis, the greater the change (until with Supramental Gnosis the body can be divinised and ultimatley the entire world can be transformed)
Of course it is easy for the ego to hijack gnosis, then you have the "intermediate zone, the mixture of truth and falsehood that characterises most gurus.
See also my suggestion for an Integral Gnostic Community - posted on Zaadz ; the same posted on Integral Transformation and comments by others
A still more recent reformulation:
(18 July 2009)
Working on my book in progress The Integral Paradigm has encouraged me to further reformulate my understanding of gnosis, basically on the basis of material written above. As I now understand it, gnosis (or Common Gnosis, to use a phrase I coined for this particular level of realization) is a state of inner certainty, which goes beyond the normal holistic/intuitive/"spiritual" stage of opening to transpersonal experience, because it does not involves a complete transformation of values, a profound sense of alienation, and a realization of the necessity and ultimate orientation of ego-transcendence and Realization ("Enlightenment").
Thus Gnosis as often defined and experienced is not the final state, but a transitional stage between the exoteric (or at best public esoteric (Hanegraaff) "Translucent"/Transpersonal/New Age/Cultural creative stage, and more authentic states of Realization, which I used to call "Enlightenement" but are less happy to do so now because of the misuse of the term by fake gurus (whether sincere but self-deluded into thinking they are Enlightened/Awakened/Realized when they aren't, or deliberately abusiove, or both (I was thinking of substituting the term "Enlightenement" with Realization, but decided to leave it as it would be too much work with all teh revisions required - 22 Jul 09)
For this reason I propose an admitedly simplistic linear sequence of Stages of Realization, althougha more accurate model would be a multidimensional matrix of possibilities.
I n t e g r a l Y o g a (individual and cosmic transformation)
Realization/Aspect
Outer being
Inner Being
Enlightenment
Divinization
Spirit
Samsara
Spiritualization
Divinization/Supramentalization
Soul
Evolving Divine Soul
Psychicization
Mind
Non-Gnosis/Exoteric
Gnosis/Esoteric
"IntermediateZone"
Nonduality
Religion/Secular
Postmaterialism
Feeling
Ego-Shadow
I-Thou Empathy
Body
Physicalevolution
EvolutionarySpirituality
Transformation
note: the above represents a simplistic linear interpretation only; in fact all these stages interact and overlap. Rarely do all these levels develop at the same time, and the Integral/Divine Realization encompasses all of them.
Mantak Chia
Master Mantak Chia was named "Qigong Master of the Year" at the World Congress on Qigong (1990). Born in Bangkok, Thailand in 1944, Chia was recognized very early as having great potential for spiritual development, he was initiated into meditation practices by Buddhist monks at the age of 6. While studying in Hong Kong, he learned Tai Chi Chuan, Aikido and Kundalini Yoga from a variety of teachers. His pursuit of Taoist teachings lead him to meet the White Cloud Hermit, a Taoist Master originally from Central China, living at that time in the mountains not far from Hong Kong. Master Yi Eng was to become Master Mantak Chia's principal teacher.
Over a period of five years, Master Yi transmitted to Master Mantak Chia the most sacred and closely held Taoist practices, formulas and methods of internal alchemy, culminating in the Reunion of Heaven and Man. Realizing that as transmitted to him, these Immortal practices could not easily be absorbed by western students, Master Mantak Chia undertook to integrate them with his studies in western physical anatomy. Through this process he created a unique view of the internal aspects of these practices.With the Universal Tao system, he has created for the first time, a way for any individual to quickly get to the essence of subtle practices whose real purpose has been shrouded in secrecy for millennia. The author of dozens of books, booklets, videos and CDs describing the theory and methods of these practices, Master Mantak Chia has taught hundreds of thousands of eager students the principles of Taoist internal practice over the past 40 years. He has certified hundreds of Instructors and Practitioners to help in the transmission of these teachings.
Grand Master Mantak ChiaGrand Master Mantak Chia was born in Bangkok, Thailand in 1944 Recognized very early as having great potential for spiritual development, he was initiated into meditation practices by Buddhist monks at the age of 6. While studying in Hong Kong, he learned Tai Chi Chuan, Aikido and Kundalini Yoga from a variety of teachers. His pursuit of Taoist teachings lead him to meet the White Cloud Hermit, a Taoist Master originally from Central China, living at that time in the mountains not far from Hong Kong. Master Yi Eng was to become Master Mantak Chia's principle teacher. Over a period of five years, Master Yi transmitted to Grand Master Mantak Chia the most sacred and closely held Taoist practices, formulas and methods of internal alchemy, culminating in the Reunion of Heaven and Man. Realizing that as transmitted to him, these Immortal practices could not easily be absorbed by western students, Grand Master Mantak Chia undertook to integrate them with his studies in western physical anatomy. Through this process he created a unique view of the internal aspects of these practices.
With the Universal Healing Tao system, he has created for the first time, a way for any individual to quickly get to the essence of subtle practices whose real purpose has been shrouded in secrecy for millenia. The author of dozens of books, booklets, videos and CDs describing the theory and methods of these practices, Grand Master Mantak Chia has taught hundreds of thousands of eager students the principles of Taoist internal practice over the past 40 years. He has certified hundreds of Instructors and Practitioners to help in the transmission of these teachings.
Universal Healing Tao System The Universal Healing Tao is a practical system of self-cultivation and spiritual development.
Grand Master Mantak Chia created the Universal Healing Tao system to effectively share the many ancient Chinese meditative and internal energy practices transmitted to him by a series of masters and teachers from throughout Asia. His sincere wish is that every individual have the opportunity to complete the harmonious evolution of body, mind and spirit. Through these practices the student learns to take personal responsibility for their own physical, emotional and spiritual well being.
Through learning to nurture and heal oneself a solid foundation is laid for the realization of one's spiritual potential. By re-establishing a direct connection with the natural energies surrounding us, the subtle awareness necessary for spiritual progress arises spontaneously. Ultimately, the boundaries of the physical body are transcended by the development of the soul and spirit bodies.
Though self-healing, the healer is born. Once the energy channels, or meridians, of the body have been opened and the energies of the internal organs harmonized, this unique integrated energy becomes available to heal others. Then, by opening and connecting to the sources of energy around us in Nature and the Universe beyond, boundless healing power becomes available for the benefit of all.
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Science and Esotericism
Whilst the physical sciences have continued to progress ever since the time of Galileo, the esoteric sciences have not advanced to the same degree; and some haven't advanced at all (e.g. Astrology - with all the advances in so-called Esoteric, Humanistic, etc - still rests on the foundation of Ptolemaic (Geocentric) physics. Hassidic Kabbalah rehashes and reinterprets material written two centuries and more ago. Theosophy draws on the 19th century writings of Balvatsky, including Victorian science.). In fact esoterica in general does not progress the way science does. This is because esoterica is based on experiences, anecdotes, and dogmas, whereas science uses testable and objective experimental methodology. Science works because other scientists can conform or refute the findings of the original author. e.g. special relativity can be confirmed by measuring the slightly lower speed of atomic clocks in a moving aircraft, and other means. With esotericism this is not possible.
The problem is that there is no "objective" standard in esotericism. How does one for example prove or disprove something like Blavatsky's Seven Root Races? Or the Kabbalistic world of Atzilut? Or purusha and prakrtiti of the Samkhya philosophy?
Because physical science is to be based on the empirical unit of testable experiment ( Galileo etc) and falsification (Popper), it is possible over the years, decades and centuries to create a vast edifice of knowledge. It is not necessary for every physicist to rediscover Newton's laws, and Einstein's relativity, and the quantum physics of Plank, Bohr, Schroedinger, Heisenberg and the rest. These are already assumed to be valid, they have been tested, confirmed through independent experimental results, and so can serve as the foundation for further explorations.
This is the reason science is so powerful, and has achieved such miracles of knowledge and technology.
In contrast to the wonders of the modern scientific understanding of the workings off the universe, poor old Esotericism cannot get beyond the basic foundations. And what is worse, even those foundations are biased; coloured by the religious or personal idiosyncrasies of the author, and not amenable to confirmation or refutation the way physical science is. Each school follows the Founder, without questioning. The 4th Way people follow Gurdjieff and only use his jargon. The Theosophists ditto Blavatsky. Sometimes schisms occur, like the rival schools of Theosophy (Adya, Point Loma, Alice Bailey, etc), and there is no objective test to see which one is correct.
If an esoteric science is to be truly universal, it must be based on fundamental elements of knowledge that can be confirmed or refuted (as much as possible) and can serve as the foundation for further units.
In one respect this is not as easy as with physical science. Physical science - like exoteric religion - doesn't require one to alter their consciousness. It does however ask that one immerse oneself in a specialised body of knowledge, often for years at a time, of little relevance or interest to humanity as a whole, before one can embark on one's own research. Let us say you want to study, oh, say, prehistoric amphibians ( labyrinthodonts) of the Triassic period. You have to spend several years learning basic palaeontology and geology. Then spend more years specialising in vertebrate palaeontology, especially labyrinthodont amphibians, and that means you have to find someone who has already studies and researched and written papers on Triassic labyrinthodont amphibians. That person then becomes your supervisor, who helps you with your work and makes sure you are on the right track. Or if astronomy, you may have an interest in protoplanetary nebulae, say. Again, the same pattern; general study, then specialised, and finally your own research (Master's thesis, then Phd), all this taking quite a few years. As you can see, it is very like getting initiated into, say, a Sufi or Tantric sect, and following the teacher or guru, who is there to help you find your own way (and never, as in many fake pop-gurus of the West, to take advantage of you).
And after all this, one's own research, when it is published, can be tested by one's peers. This process of peer-review is a fundamental element of western science. Whilst it leads to the danger of becoming hide-bound and stuck in old paradigms, it also ensures that any new discoveries are authentic; they are not something being churned out by any lunatic.
Now, consider esoteric science. You can, if you wish, join a school, according to your inclination and interests and talents. Say a Hermetic School, or a Tibetan Buddhist lineage. You are given material to learn, and when you feel ready you are initiated into the group. As you progress you are given more advanced material, or meditation practices, to learn and master. You are supervised by the elders of the group, who make sure you don't go astray, and help you if you have problems. You can specialise if you wish, perhaps you prefer a particular meditation, or a particular practice. Eventually, after many years, if you feel comfortable in this group, you become an elder or master or teacher too. And here also there is a sort of review by peers, although not in such a formal sense (although sometimes it may be). If you have wildly eccentric interpretations, your views may not be accepted. Sometimes they may be good views, sometimes ridiculous. There may be a schism, or you may be expelled. Paradigms determine belief-systems and behaviour in esotericist groups just as much as in science - if not more so! And most of all in exoteric religions, which at their worst are hidebound to the most literal interpretations of an old book, which, worthy as it may be in its message, becomes twisted and distorted when every word is taken as "gospel truth" (literally!).
So each branch of human endeavour - science or esotericism - follows a broadly similar path. Novice who joins specialised or specialist or even eccentric group, where he/she can pursue ones interests, is encouraged and guided, and eventually becomes a master or teacher or elder in his/her own right. this is just part of the cycle of human existence and interrelationships.
But science and esotericism also differ. Science is about discovering things - pure knowledge - for their own sake. The joy of learning is reward enough. Esotericism, being more pragmatic, is not only about knowledge, it is also about attainment. Of course, this varies too, with some forms of esotericism, like Theosophy, being almost totally theoretical (and hence like science), while others, like various schools of Buddhist or Yogic practice, being almost completely practical, with only minimal theory (just enough to provide a framework for the practice).
The greatest denial of knowledge however is found in some hidebound exoteric Religions and Cults, where learning of anything other than one's own faith or the teachings of the cult leader is actually depreciated or condemned as a distraction, or the work of the devil.
So an esoteric science, as suggested here, is not about the path to enlightenment or self-realisation, which is the true goal of mystical and esotericist practice, but about understanding the "intermediate realities" between the objective physical and the transcendent. In no way do I think this a bad thing. In fact, I consider this a worthy extension of human knowledge, and one that may even be necessary, if we are to broaden our understanding of the universe about us, and our own psyches. For me, the practical and theoretical should go together; each is unbalanced without the other.
Laying the Foundations
How then do we begin to lay the foundations for a Universal Esoteric Science? What methodologies do we use?
This is not an easy question. Perhaps a few propositions to begin with?
Let us begin with the Most Fundamental Empirical Datum of all, The Primacy of consciousness. Cartesian/Husserlian method (I remember this was taught by my old lecturer at La Trobe University, Dr Moshe Kroy, and it influenced me greatly) is that one can doubt anything but one's own consciousness, one's own existence, one's own bare awareness. This of course takes us to Advaita Vedanta, as Moshe perceptively realised. Because Shankara's Advaita, following on the "great sayings' of the Upanishads, says that all there is is the Self, the bare datum of Consciousness/Awareness, the Absolute Reality (Atman = Brahman).
So this is the first proposition - all that exists is my (well, your, because you are the one reading this) Awareness
Now, Moshe Kroy used the Cartesian method, but this is potentially debatable. As someone said, Descartes was wrong with his "Cogito, ergo sum". I perceive, therefore I am. The most honest declaration would be: perception exists.
But one could go further than that (because perception is still perception of something) and say "Bare Awareness Is" (Kashmir Shaivism, also Advaitin Atman (Self) = Brahman)). The ratiocination-based Western philosophical methodology is in this regard more limited than Vedantic/Tantric Bare Awareness methodology. It is important to understand what is being referred to here is not an ego or finite conscious self, but a boundless consciousness. It is proposed here that this is all that is.
This can be proved by a simple thought experiment. Try to imagine another bare awareness. You can't, because to do so would mean you include it in your awareness. Other than Being (which in this thought experiment is your being, your consciousness, although technically speaking the limited "I" is a reflection of the infinite awareness - see below) there is not even nothing. There is only That Being.
It is true that dualists, pluralists, physicalists and the like do assume the duality of subject and object, and say that there is an objective or other subjective reality, or non-being, beyond the All-Encompassing Awareness. But of course, to postulate such a reality, they have to imagine /visualise it. So they have still not gone beyond their awareness
Of course, solipsism is absurd too, but only because solipsism makes the mistake of identifying the Absolute Awareness (Parasamvit, Atman-Brahman or nirguna brahman, etc). with the limited sphere of the individual ego-consciousness and its sphere of awareness. So I emphasise, when referring to Absolute Awareness, I mean the Supreme, of which your subjective awareness is simply a reflection (good analogy here is the golden lion metaphor in Hua Yen Buddhism (Fa-tsang). The infinite reflections in the mirror are not the actual golden lion)
So we have proposition number one - all that exists, all that is, is Infinite Non-dual Consciousness.
See this page for a more detailed take on this
This is the basic monistic insight, the mystical experience of Unity (see e.g. Mysticism Defined by W.T. Stace), the premise of most (but not all - there are dualists as well) esoteric teachings, from Plotinus to Shankara to Ibn Arabi to Theon. At the beginning, and in essence now, there is only The One.
This of course has a corollary - everything is nothing else but Transformations of that One. Even inanimate matter is Consciousness, is nothing but Consciousness.
But if there is only the Supreme, why are we limited finite beings. Proposition two, there must be a progression from Infinite Absolute to Finite Relative. And hence, Reality has a structure, a gradient, and can be mapped. This is the field of study of esoteric science, mapping this structure, the "Body of God" as the Kabbalists so evocatively say. This also takes us to Emanationism, regarding which I have already provided an overview. See also Professor Huston Smith's book Forgotten Truth : The Common Vision of the World's Religions which presents human knowledge and experience in terms of a gradation of several metaphysical levels, in keeping with the teachings of mystics and spiritual traditions of all times and cultures. (Professor Smith's thesis is that an over-emphasis on experimental science since the time of Galileo has led to the loss of this sacred insight in the Western world)
But the Map of Reality - the Body of God - is not something static. That is where the Theosophists and Kabbalists and others go wrong, in trying to formulate a rigid set of planes, perhaps by analogy with physical characteristics. Rather, it is a dynamic process. Esoteric science is a study of processes, not of "things"
We now have the Ground of Reality, and the Body of the Godhead. But what about the Method to be used?
Since Consciousness is the sole reality, we should not depreciate consciousness in seeking to understand the universe. This gives us a Method, again shown to me by Moshe Kroy almost a quarter of a century ago.
Everything that appears in Consciousness is a valid datum of inquiry
This is the completely opposite approach to physical science, which seeks to screen out the effect of subjectivity (although it cannot deny the reality of the Observer - and hence of Consciousness). This is why science works best with inanimate objects, still adequately with living beings (although there is no conception of ch'i and little of the dynamics of the whole organism), not so good with societies and anthropology, and worst of all with psychology, leading to such absurdities as Behaviourism (which in its extreme form (Watson, Skinner, etc) even denies the existence of subjectivity!!!) and statistics-driven so-called experimental psychology. The more "inward" (the "within" to use Teilhard de Chardin's term) you go, the less that science works.
Science therefore is a methodology that works supremely well on the gross physical plane, when dealing with purely physical; objects, and less well with more subtle things.
Conversely subjectivism becomes absurd when applied to purely physical processes, this is where "magic" becomes "superstition", and the reason that the physically advanced but metaphysically impoverished Western and Western-inspired nations were able to conquer and enslave the technologically more primitive but metaphysically more advanced Asian, Tribal, etc societies (everything from the 16th to 19th century European colonisation of the rest of the world to the 20th century Chinese conquest of and on-going genocide in Tibet)
Therefore Objective Physical Science and Subjective Esoteric Science thus complement each other perfectly. Which brings us to the next proposition.
On matters of physical reality, Esotericism should defer to Science.
Why? Because this way we can avoid absurdities like Steiner's cosmological cycles, in which the whole Solar System comes into and moves out of manifestation within the time of a single Procession of the Equinoxes. Examined in the hard light of scientific analysis, the Anthroposophical science of Steiner and his followers has all the persuasiveness of the Young Earth theory of fundamentalist Christian Creationism
Which brings us to our next point.
If we are to use as a foundation of inquiry the basic framework already established by the various esoteric teachings, we have to be very careful of one thing. Fixed opinions, which freeze the original fleeting inspiration or process into something stultifying. We need to get away from dogmas. Dogmas in esotericism are as bad as dogmas in science. In science, dogmas become old paradigms that obstruct new ideas, and have to be overthrown, and are only with difficulty. In esotericism, dogmas are far worse, they become fundamentalist and literalist fixations, and blind one to other truths and other possibilities, and destroy even the original truth that was in that teaching in the beginning. This is why dogmatism in esotericism, in religion, and everywhere else, should be completely avoided. Even the ideas presented here should only be taken as hypotheses and suggestions, never as dogmas, and only accepted if one feels in one's own heart that they have value.
Finally, we need to ask what teachings and experiences we will use and take as authoritative, in formulating our new Esoteric Science. Let us say (for sake of example) you like Osho and I like Aurobindo. Now, if Osho says the Absolute Reality and the Self (Atman) are the same, and if Aurobindo says that too, well, that is fine, there is no problem. But if Osho says once you attain Enlightenment that is the highest state, but Aurobindo says, no, there is a higher state beyond Enlightenment, you have to draw the Divine Consciousness down and transform your body and matter, there is a problem. (I am mentioning this because I once many years ago had a discussion/argument with a friend who was a devotee of Osho; I took (and still take) the Aurobindoan position, and he did not feel comfortable with that, because it referred to states beyond what Osho taught. One could say the same using Adi Da instead of Osho as an example). So, where there is a conflict, we need to decide which teacher is the most authoritative.
Everyone will have different ways of doing this, but my method regarding this is simple. The most Inclusive Teaching is the one that should be chosen. This is something the Buddha said once, his teaching is like the footprint of the elephant which can hold the other teachings in itself. So the more all encompassing the teaching, the more preferable it is.
Simple real world example (from religion rather than esotericism, but only to make a point): The fundamentalist Christian, or fundamentalist Muslim, who says "all non-believers go to hell", does not seem as persuasive as an ecumenical Muslim or ecumenical Christian who says "to every people God has sent a prophet" (or Teacher, or whatever). This is because the bigot excludes all others, and so their teaching is extremely arbitrary: why should the fundamentalist of sect x be right, but the fundamentalist of sect y wrong? Or vice versa for that matter? The ecumenicist includes all others, seeing them as part of a greater whole, therefore, devotee of sect x has part of the truth, devotee of sect y also has part. Both are partly correct, (but also partly limited) no favouritism. Seems a lot more reasonable to me.
Regarding this, see also the tale of the Blind Men and the Elephant
So we have, so far
All that exists is Infinite Non-dual Consciousness. (The Absolute Reality)
Reality has a gradient and can be mapped (the Body of the Godhead).
Everything that appears in Consciousness is a valid datum of inquiry (Phenomenology)
On matters of physical reality, Esotericism should defer to Science (Critical Thinking)
All dogmatism is to be avoided (receptivity to new Possibilities).
Where there is a conflict between two teachings, the more inclusive Teaching is preferable.
Note that this is still a provisional list; as this essay is a work in progress, not a finished manifesto.
Why have Metaphysics?
A pragmatist may point out that the first two Propositions sound more like dogmas, and imply an unnecessary philosophisation. One can still construct an esoteric science or sciences using modern esoteric philosophies that differ (e.g. evolutionary-Gurdjieffian like that of John Lilly versus the American Zen of Ken Wilber) - or with no underlying "grand philosophy" at all. All that is required, from a pragmatic point of view, is to state that this physical universe is not all that is (as indicated by evidence of phenomena such as precognition, OBEs, NDEs, I Ching,..), and that various fields now subsumed under esoterica umbrella will be investigated according to their respective nature (e.g. the bioplasmatic body "needs" only some kind of energy body or "fluid", but not complete revolution in worldview that will annihilate old space-time 4-dimensional physics).
My reply to the purely pragmatic position is as follows. Without a unified framework, esoteric science becomes just one more version of scientistic agnosticism. Traditionally, aristotlean-medieval knowledge was tied to God/Prime Mover, the whole thing cohered because of that. Is is the foundation of all "sacred cosmologies". In most esoteric cosmologies (with only a few exceptions like Classical Samkhya and Manicahean Dualism) everything goes back to the original One.
What I am interested in is a universal system of knowledge, such as the Unified Science of Edward Haskell and co-workers, the Cosmic Humanism of Oliver Reiser, the Sacred Soviety of William Irwin Thompson, the Primordial Tradition of Professor Huston Smith.
Objective/Hard versus Subjective/Soft, and Levels of Reality
In some cases using terms like "Objective" for Physical Science and "Subjective" for Esoteric Science is too simplistic, abstract, or meaningless. And how do we know that physical reality is more "objective" (if, as the Kashmir Shaivites assert, everything is just a condensation of consciousness, it isn't). So whilst as a methodology these terms are useful, they should not be given any metaphysical authenticity. A better analogy here might be physics and chemistry ("hard" or "objective") versus psychology and sociology ("soft" or "subjective").
Or, "hard sciences" and "soft sciences" and "objective" and "subjective" may simply be some of a number of levels on the gradient of reality
More than that, Esoteric Science itself spans the spectrum from "hard" to "soft", and hence becomes a more inclusive paradigm that includes the hard/physical sciences as special cases within itself, (just as Newtonian Physics is a "special case" of Einsteinian physics), and adds a radical dimension of depth to - or even completely reinterprets, the soft/social sciences. Hence some parts of this research program can be subsumed under (hard/experimental/objective) "science" (acupuncture, etc), others under metaphysics and "art".
Arvan Harvat suggests we might divide human creativity into these areas:
arts (music, painting, imaginative literature,...) (Fine Arts)
philosophy, theology, historiography, criticism (social, literary,..) (Humanities?)
social sciences (sociology, linguistics, psychology, economics ?,..)
exact sciences (math, chemistry, ..)
applied sciences and technology (electrical engineering,..)
Looking at this sequence, which runs from "subjective/soft" to "objective/hard" (or "lunar/yin" to "solar/yang" consciousness; see for example Stan Gooch's map of the mind - Ststem B and System A) traditional esoteric sciences could be considered a hybrid of humanities and arts; its "precision" or "exactitude" measured not by exact sciences standards, but by, say, those of humanities or social sciences. In fact. some of what is defined as esotericism - astrology especially, or Buddhism, or Gurdjieff or even Hermeticism in part - can be interpreted as (alternative) psychology, with psychoanalysis, behaviorism, functionalism, and neuropsychology, say, being the more exact sciences side of the spectrum. Conversely some forms of psychoanalysis, Jung especially, might belong under traditional Estericism. So might Maslow, or Assagioli
Again, ch'i and bioplasmatic body would belong in the exact sciences realm, occult planes in the humanities, and Ching and Tarot divination (as opposed to Tarot psychology) to speculative physical theories that are still emergent (multidimensional universe etc.).
But there can be even more to it than just this. I have already referred to Professor Huston Smith's book Forgotten Truth : The Common Vision of the World's Religions which presents human knowledge in terms of four basic metaphysical levels. If we apply this here, in terms of exoteric (conventional knowledge, as indicated in Arvan's list) and esoteric fields of inquiry and practice, we have the following (note, this correlation differs from the original table which remains more faithful to Prof Smith):
Reality
my cosmology
Huston Smith (Forgotten Truth)
Established fields
Suggested esoteric areas and possible of research
Unmanifest Godhead or Absolute
Absolute Reality
Spirit/Infinite
As revealed ("finger pointing at the moon") through Monistic mysticism
Enlightenment experiences of transcendence; Moksha, Kaivalya, Nirvana
Absolute in Manifestation
Dynamic Absolute
--
Aurobindoan Supramentalisation and equivalents (Lurianic concepts etc)
Spiritual- Divine
Noetic Noeric
Soul/Celestial
Theistic mysticism
Theosophic esotericism and metaphysics (Sufism, Kabbalah, Tantra, etc), higher yogic experiences, Adi Da's 5th and 6th Stages in part
Psychic- Intermediate
Psychic
Mind/Intermediate
Fine Arts, philosophy, religion, social sciencesPsychology, etc,..)
psi, OBE, NDE, various aspects of occultism
Etheric
Physical-Psychic Interface
(Life)
holistic and alternative healing, some elements of biology, emergent evolution, self-organising phenomena
morphogenetic fields (Sheldrake) and holistic physics (Bohm), chakras, acupuncture medians, Kirlian photography, bioplasma, orgone energy, ley lines, geomancy, feng shui, etc
Physical
Physical
Body/Physical
exact sciences applied sciences and technology
questions on causality/synchronicity, time-travel, superluminal phenomena, multiverse,
The above gives us a foundation, but what about the bricks to build the edifice? We will find there are different approaches and methodologies, depending on the aspect of reality we are inquiring into. For the physical, this is
There are two broad approaches we can take here - experimental/empirical method science, and the experiential/phenomenology of mysticism. Many areas of esotericism however - for example practical occultism, represent an overlap of these two.
The Experimental/Empirical Approach of Science
Arvan Harvat
The Experimental Approach is non-Metaphysical. Newton didn't care for Descartes or any philosophy of that kind. Real scientists (Newton, Huyghens, Euler,..) only needed that there is a world "outside there" with immutable laws and no whimsical divine interventions. For physical-experimental esoteric science all that is required is that this 4-dimensional world described in Einsteinian space-time 4-dim physics and with 4 forces (some are united in Salam-Weinberg Standard model) are not complete reality.
From this perspective the only starting point might be:
contemporary mainstream fundamental (quantum, relativity) physics is only partially true. Therefore I Ching, planes, parallel universus, precognition, NDEs,..
the 4 forces world of fundamental physics are similarly just a part of the larger picture. Therefore ch'i, telepathy, plants, auras,..
(for auras there is probably a conceptual effort that combines a) and b)- which is reality, because the Standard model is a quantum model)
Here we have two stages:
experiment, in exact sciences manner, with everything that can be subjected to good, old fashioned ways (bioplasm, plants, dowsing,..) and compile a corpus of verifiable data-without some strong theory. Just incontrovertible facts.
other, more metaphysical matters (I Ching, planes, evolution,..) will have to wait for breakthrough in speculative physics etc. For instance, when Relativity goes down and physicists' general concept of universe collapses (no velocity greater than speed of light, causality,...)- then, and only then will be possible to seriously ask questions like this: how can tossing I Ching coins predict something that will happen in next 6 months ? How this works ? What's the "mechanism"?
The Experiential/Phenomenological Approach of Mysticism
M.Alan Kazlev
Science uses experiment and confirmation (or falsification). In esotericism however this is not easily possible. Sri Aurobindo may have experienced the Overmind (Noetic Reality), and Adi Da the Radiant Transcendental Being, and Max and Alma Theon explored the byways of the psychic planes, but it is not easy for the average person to attain such heights (understatement of the month).
Of course, it is not easy to confirm or refute the existence of the Higgs Boson either, but assuming a suitably large particle accelerator can be built, it can be done, by physicists with the required training. Whereas the realisation of the Noetic Reality or of Shunyata or psychic planes can be done very cheaply (in terms of material cost) but only with great personal skill and very rare attainment (in terms of individual training and realisation). Once again, Physical Science and Esoteric Science are polar opposites and complementary (like Yin and Yang)
A Universal Esoteric Science deals with experiences as authentic data (phenomenology, proposition 3 in the provisional list). But not all experiences, not all phenomena of consciousness, are accessible, as just explained. Pragmatic Esotericism (Spiritual Practice) takes experiences gained by those who have trailblazed before and above us, and uses them as guideposts on the spiritual path. Applying this to Esoteric Science, and not "just" Esoteric Practice, we should have the option to take these experiences and descriptions and use them to piece together an account of other planes of existence.
There are a number of obviously overlapping sources of experiences (for example a single individual may present both a teaching and an autobiography).
In the accounts of traditional (ancient or recent, include channelling) spiritual literature. This is often highly stylised and mythologised, and hence hard to decipher. e.g. the Vision of Ezekiel in the Bible, which some people like to interpret as a UFO. [e.g. link, link link]. Sometimes the symbolism may be so dense as to render the whole thing incomprehensible - e.g. the Sefer Zohar of Kabbalah - or tied in with folklore and myth - e.g. the Mahabarata. Or the narrative may be deliberately stylised or obtuse (Gnosticism, Blavatsky's Stanzas of Dyzan), or seek to conceal or confuse (Gurdjieff's Beelzebub's Tales). Often there is a quality of channelled material, and indeed many of these works are channelled (e.g. the prophets who heard voices etc). For these reasons, even though these accounts were all written by human beings (although the pious may interpret them as literal revelation by God/Deity in which the human author played no part other than to inscribe the words) they are not much, or any, use for formulating a Universal Esoteric Science
Then there are teachers who are presenting their own vision of Reality. They may be intelligent and have read widely, hence they are not likely to be so limited to one tradition, although they may have a preference for a particular tradition. Examples might include Adi Da, Sri Aurobindo, Meher Baba, Rudolph Steiner, and many many others. However, the immediacy of the autobiographical account is lost, and the whole thing has a didactic tone. Sometimes this also moves into the field of channelling, which will often tend to deteriorate the quality of the material (the Alice Bailey material, turgid, verbose, and unreadable, essentially Theosophy with a Christian slant, is a good example here). Even so there are a few rare individuals like Edgar Cayce, Jane Roberts, and David Spangler that retain a sense of purity not found in most channelled material
Of great value are the autobiographical accounts of both historical and recent mystics and psychonauts. Even with those who have drawn upon the traditional literature, which is very often (especially in Medieval material) all they know, and hence their experiences are coloured and biased by it, and the genuine insights have to be extracted, but at least they recorded their experiences faithfully. The Christian Mystical tradition is a good illustration of this. Even better are recent autobiographies like Swami Muktananda's Play of Consciousness; perhaps one of the best works of its kind, and one I found far more inspiring than Yogananda's cloying Autobiography of a Yogi. Hagiographies obviously are less useful, since there is the tendency to worship and hence gloss over things that the author did not like. Even so, in some cases the saint's words may be described and record his or her experiences. Also of use are the accounts of modern educated westerners, such as John Lilly's.
Also of great use are modern individuals who may or may not come from a tradition, but are simply describing their experiences, without pompousness or unnecessary symbolism, and without any agenda other than: well, this is what happened to me. Even though their experience may be colored by the symbolism of their culture, background, or religious upbringing - e.g. a Hindu might have a vision of Krishna, a Christian of Christ, one can still take away the superficial form, and look at the quality of the experience in itself.
In some cases the various descriptions referred to in some or all of the preceding categories may be collated by others, for example Aldous Huxley (The Perennial Philosophy) on mysticism, Masters and Huston's, or Stan Grof's account of psychedelic experiences, Jung's work on the Collective Unconscious, or Ken Wilber's mapping of states of consciousness. Such systematic coverage can be extremely useful, because the editor will have noticed certain common themes, and draw the reader's attention to them. Often both traditional and modern accounts are placed side by side, showing that these sort of experiences really are universal.
Of course, you yourself, the reader, may also have experiences, these are just as valid as those in any of the above categories.
"Type Experiences"
In biology, geology, and palaeontology, reference is made to the "type specimen". A type specimen is the specimen - perhaps a new species of insect, that a scientist refers to when describing it in a scientific journal. That way, if someone else finds a similar specimen, they can check and see if it is the same as the original, or warrants its own name and description.
I would suggest here that certain esoteric experiences which are described by mystics, sages, adepts, occultists, psychonauts, and the rest, be taken as Type Experiences, and hence referred to, in the same way that a biological or geological sample might be.
One must however be careful in selecting an experience, so as to avoid unnecessary bias. A contemporary educated person may be preferable to a medieval monastic ascetic, but if the ascetic has progressed further, they would have experienced things the modern person would not. If a person has a modern education, can think and write clearly, is aware of the pitfalls and delusions of the spiritual path, and has progressed to great heights, their experiences will obviously be very useful in the mapping out of the nature of reality.
The worst thing in all this are subjective distortions. e.g. a person may have a pure and profound experience, but straight away distort it into their own mental formulation. A lot of Rudolph Steiner's material reads like this. One senses amazing insight, a great and pure soul, but then reads the most ridiculous medieval nonsense, that would have been fine a thousand years ago, but just seems absurd today.
Also not too good, but not as bad as the above, is egotism and self-delusion. An individual may attain a very elevated state, and then claim to be the only one to have attained it, or to have attained it in its fullness. Now, in some cases, they may very well be the only one! In other cases, they are simply caught up in an Intermediate Zone delusion of grandeur, or overpowered by the great down-rush of light.
The only way to tell if an adept is sincere and has attained the highest state, or is just caught in the intermediate zone, is to compare their experiences with others. If others have had the same experience, then to claim uniqueness is a sign either of simple ignorance (which is forgivable, especially if the individual in question has not read much, perhaps coming from a culture or society where books or learning is limited) or self-delusion (which may or may not be forgivable, depending on how you view these things, and which in itself does not negate the rest of the experience), or seeking to delude others to further his or her career as guru or cult leader (which is a sure sign that this person should be avoided, unless you are an anthropologist or sociologist and want to study the phenomenon of cultish behaviour).
Suggestions for Areas of Research and Study
An incomplete list of suggestions and ideas:
Physical Reality
Pragmatic experimentation, using the methodology of the exact sciences, on those topics of paranormal, etc that can be subjected to traditional scientific method (morphogenetic fields, kirlian photography, bioplasm, plants, dowsing,..) and compile a corpus of verifiable data.
In those cases with poor or no results from hard scientific approach to psi and paranormal, is it because there is no phenomenon, or because the nature of the experimental method adversely affects the subjects consciousness (a sort of esoteric exclusivity law?).
Etheric Reality
Understanding energy levels in the subtle body (acupuncture, ch'i, microcosmic orbit, reiki, and other phenomena - note, these are close enough to the physical with sufficient "objectivity" to also be amenable to standard scientific methodology (but the paradigm-resistance would be huge)
Understanding Homodynamics and other alternative means of treatment that cannot be explained in reductionist terms
Mapping out of Chakras, aura, yogic anatomy, etc - understanding the subtle body
Application/reinterpretation of transpersonal psychology, meditative states, etc in terms of esoteric map of the nature if reality; alternatives to the standard monistic (usually Zen or Sufi based) or old Wilberian paradigms of TP Psychology
Paranormal
Sympathetic but non-gullible re-evaluation of psi and similar phenomena, what is the mechanism?
Thanatology, Near-Death experiences etc interpreted as authentic psychic bardo states (rather than as "hallucinations of an oxygen-starved brain"); looking at both historical and recent accounts
UFOs, bigfoot, nessie, etc as etheric / parallel physical dimensions rather than materialistic explanations of little green men, surviving neanderthals, plesiosaurs, etc
Providing plausible theory for crop circles and other anomalous phenomena
Psychic Reality
What is the influence of esotericism upon social sciences and humanities; e.g. , painters (Boticelli, Mondrian, Kandinsky,..), writers and poets (Goethe, Blake, Balzac, Rimbaud, Yeats, Henry Miller,..) had been attracted to various parts of esotericism: hermeticism, theosophy, kabbalah; how does art relate to esoteric realities, and vice versa?.
Magick and Occultism (applied hermetics, shamanism, etc) as valid techniques for interacting with the psychic realities, and manipulating psychic or physical events.
Reinterpretation of Jung's archetypes, synchronicity, etc as valid phenomena ("gods") on the supra-physical planes, and their expression and qualities as understood in that light (getting away from Jung's sloppy half-heated attempt at Kantean dualism and biological reductionism ("collective unconscious" as inherited or racial memory)
Reinterpretation of psychology and study of psyche to take into account experiential, phenomenological, and supra-physical factors as well standard physical elements; Steven Guth's "Theory of the Double" (work in progress)
Mystic Reality
Empirical and phenomenological study of meditative, enlightenment, and other such states, free of preconceived religious or metaphysical biases. What does the "bare experience" in itself tell?
Application/reinterpretation of transpersonal psychology, meditative states, etc in terms of esoteric map of the nature if reality; what sort of map emerges? Look at alternatives to the standard monistic (usually Zen or Sufi based) or old Wilberian paradigms of TP Psychology
Causality
Consider I Ching as a mathematical/"syncronistic" map of fundamental archetypes (ref DNA codons, other similarities? Particle physics in quantum mechanics perhaps?)
Synchronicity/meaningful coincidence - how can tossing I Ching coins predict something that will happen in the next 6 months? What about prophetic dreams? Classic Jungian synchronicity? What is the "mechanism"?
Explore thesis of Astrological causation in terms of subtle etheric spheres (Steiner), dumping of old humanistic-materialistic explanations of the "moon's tides" etc (works fine for the moon but what about Pluto?)
Evolution
Exploration of interactions of "cosmic devic forces" with the terrestrial evolution; hypotheses of planetary and biological evolution, human society, etc [see e.g. Steven Guth and my work on "Astrognosis" Considering Islam, Cosmogenic Evolution, as well as Eco-Gnosis in general - see also Adendndum A for more (below))
What effect will future technologies have upon the body and psyche - cyborgization, nanotechnology, colonization of space, etc?
Possibility of new (different? higher?) kingdoms and/or grades of sentience emerging? e.g. AI and Vingean-Transhumanist Posthuman Singularity through technological evolution or augmentation, or Aurobindoan "Superman" through spiritual-divine transformation
Cosmology
Formulating a map or diagram of the "Body of the Godhead" as a dynamic unfolding-enfolding process (not static planes) - concepts from Taoism, Neoconfucianism, Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, Suhrawardi, Ibn Arabi, Kashmir Shaivism, pre-Lurianic, Lurianic and Hassidic Kabbalah, Max and Alma Theon, Theosophy, Anthroposphy, Teilhard de Chardin, Sri Aurobindo and Mirra, Meher Baba, and others.
No doubt many more fields of exploration could be added.
Addendum 1 - Old and New Style Esotericism
Steven Guth
The history of modern esotericism really comes out of an attempt to formalise the spiritual medium situation that existed in the 1800's. Groups gathered in the 1840's so that "scientific" evidence about the afterlife could be collected.
People like Theon fit in here.
And later came the attempts by people like Blavaskey, Steiner, etc to present the old esoteric truths and the new discoveries in a scientific frame work, using terms like rounds, and tables and hierarchies. They felt a need to adapt their visions into the social thought patterns (including the science) of the time ... which quickly became dated and so their descriptions have became absurd - e.g. the history of the planet c/o Steiner (he combined astrology with what Science at the time understood).
An example is the chemistry table of elements which unlocked the wonders of alchemy. The discovery of coal tar colours revolutionised the world. So of course attempts were made to classify in this way.
Part of the burden that the modern esoteric movement carries is the concept of evolution. At the time Blavatsky and others were writing Darwin's evolutionary concept let people keep the idea of a prime creator and abandon religion. You see, evolution suggests that everything things has been created to end up somewhere ... the end point of Newton's clock work universe - and we are moving towards the resolution of the creator architects great plan. Alas I suspect that rogue influences play into the world's spiritual ecology at random times creating a situation which is far from clockwork. See my somewhat discomforting meditative insight ... into the energy behind Islam [see Considering Islam] and then Alan's further development of this idea [see Cosmogenic Evolution]...
Before that earlier attempts to make sense of the formlessness of the Spiritual worlds gave us stuff like the Abramelin with its divisions into, Kings, Dukes etc - following the sociological thought patterns of the 14th Century. So it is not surprising that in our current attempts to forge a bit of "scientific" logic into the huge complexity of what surrounds us that we should be using the sociological thought patterns of our time - which come from the benefits that science has placed into our lives.
But, and it's a big but, many of the premises that modern science rests on are weak if not faulty. One of my favourite criticisms is our intrinsic belief that there is a "cause" for everything. I have come to the conclusion that "Causation is just a special case of association". Adopt my idea that association is the rule and "causation" is just a special case and you end up with the involvement of the spiritual world in everything in some form or another. What we do in the physical effects the Spiritual worlds and vice versa - and it is an ongoing interaction slightly out of time and place ... incidentally this is what the Australian Aboriginal concept of the "Dreaming" is all about.
And that's just one of the premises.
Now, the largest revolution in modern science has been the discovery of deep space, deep time and the huge complexity of the out there. As one astronomer said in a lecture I attended as she showed us the image of the radio energy coming out of a galaxy, "It is better not to think about such things". I wonder if Kepler had similar qualms?
And another major revolution in the making is the concept of randomness and variability. All our scientific modelling to date still runs on the concept of averaging - its part of our sociological democratic thought pattern. But it is a very poor premise to work from. So much cannot be usefully explored by averaging ... from the weather to the effectiveness of medicines ... and how do you average spiritual phenomena? (What is the average ghost or crop circle? ... randomness is inherent in the systems around us).
Now, both deep space and variability/randomness have not been added to our thinking patterns. New patterns are necessary to accommodate the new base line insights science has presented to us.
We need to add our new insights to our understandings of esoteric experiences. And that is what astrognosis is trying to do. Which places this developing concept [Cosmogenic Evolution] into a potentially revolutionary position.
It is interesting that in our new formulations about the development of life forms on our planet we end up with Devas as the link between our new ideas and concepts of the past. You see, Devas are just consciousness in a place. Remove the idea of place and leave consciousness and you have a "God or Goddess" ... And of course that is what we are too ... the "prima medica" is consciousness.
As an afterthought ...
I am working on a lecture series on the Doppleganger, the Double, at the moment and am exploring the multiple facets of human consciousness and the very nature of consciousness itself. Interestingly it is leading me to the conclusion that "consciousness" intrusions from deep space play an important part in our need to go to war. Yes, perhaps our leaders and the people that surround them are schizophrenic. Their minds and decisions being influenced by other consciousnesses "out there" which like to playing games with events on this planet ... So if we can stop the games we could have peace and if we don't, or can't, we will never have peace ... this is an interesting thought but only possible if one accepts some of the new premises suggested in this essay. It also makes one wonder if the images presented by Science Fiction and the beliefs of the UFO people are not coming from a consciousness "out there" identical to what is presenting me with these insights!
Material on the Doppleganger and its role in human consciousness will soon be on this web site - stay tuned for further inputs!
Addendum 2 - From Aristotle to Science to Esotericism
Arvan Harvat (slightly edited and first paragraph added by MAK)
The "Traditionalist" School of Fritjof Schuon, Rene Gueneon, and others (reinterpretation/esotericisation of exoteric religions), tradition-bound esotericism in general, and people like Rudolph Steiner and his Anthroposphy (which through application of Goethean and Steiner's own clairvoyant gives it much to contribute to a Universal Esoteric Science) all seek to tie themselves to the past, rather than explore possibilities of the future. Their dependence on the aristotlean-medieval paradigm with its sacred universe and natural philosophy, means they are relying on failed science, in the same way that the Theosophists still are stuck with the Victorian science that Blavatsky new and write about (and that was, by the way, cutting edge in Blavatsky's time (later 19th century).
The problem is that the Aristotlean approach is not a form of science that gives results. Aristotle was abandoned due to inefficacy. It was simplistic because he did not know "the world", he was freely speculating, using the limited data and information available to him in the ancient Greek world.
Putting under a single umbrella concepts such as ch'i, I Ching, planes, evolution, etc is reminiscent of the times of Aristotle when all sciences (biology, psychology, physics, political sciences,..) were parts of philosophy. But this widely multidisciplinary approach is not the same as a holistic esotericism of science. One thing is "sci infancy" (Aristotle), and completely another modern multidisciplinary approach that is "mature science" (say, quantum chemistry tries to explain genetic processes by using thermodynamics, chaos and complexity, computer science, higher algebraic theories, ...and to connect them to the levels of electrochemisty and biochemistry).
In esoteric science you could imagine experiments (Kirlian, high voltage) combined with other high tech photographs (computer analysis of highly sensitive detectors) and explanation, in the beginning, with some kind fields combined with electrophysiology and biochemical processes monitored and theorized upon.
A true holistic paradigm can emerge only after any science has passed thru various stages of disintegration and integration. The following process or sequence could be suggested:
primitive science (Aristotle)
beginnings of empirical and mathematical science in modern sense (Galileo, Kepler)
new paradigm established (Newton, Laplace,...)
other paradigms appearing (Faraday-Maxwell, fields,...)
fundamental redefinition and new paradigmata (Einstein, Planck, Heisenberg,...)
multidisciplinary approach (chaos theory, complexity, Feigenbaum ...)
emergent holistic approach ( Sarfatti, Bohm's hologram universe, quantum geometrodynamics of John Wheeler,.., also synchronicity)
Bohm is a true scientist with a holistic approach.
The crux of the matter as far as superluminality is concerned (see e.g. the Stardrive web site) is that the universe obeyed the laws of quantum mechanics at its birth subjecting it to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle when it was smaller than an electron. Hoyle and Sarfatti believe that it was at this primordial moment that consciousness from the future created the universe bringing itself into being.
Einstein's work on relativity provided a starting point for intuitive physicists such as Wheeler, Feynman, Josephson and others. The new physics has also given rise to a new cosmology of which Sir Fred Hoyle is a leading proponent. Hoyle compiled a massive body of evidence in his book The Intelligent Universe that seems to strongly suggest that only a living and intelligent (superluminal) God could have created a universe where life (us) exists. The very conditions of the birth of the universe (the big bang) were specifically tailored to produce life. The final anthropic cosmological principle championed by Hoyle, Sarfatti and others was first discovered in weaker form by Brandon Carter 9 The God Phone], who in 1968 stated:
"Had the numerical values of certain fundamental constants (the speed of light, the mass of an electron etc.) been only slightly different - the universe would not be able to sustain life as we know it." Experimentalist Alain Aspect proved (at the University of Paris in 1982), the reality of faster-than-light action-at-a-distance in an experiment on the quantum connection between pairs of photons. Delayed choice experiments (by Carol Alley of the University of Maryland ) and gamma photon-proton scattering experiments (by Charles Bennett of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory ) showed that future causes do create past effects.
Recent work by such respected physicists as David Deutsch, Kip Thorne, Yakir Aharanov, Alcubierre and Sarfatti, involving time-travel to the past, future-causality and other mind-boggling vistas, is invigorating superluminal physics as never before. For example, Alcubierre has shown that a Star Trek faster-than-light warp drive is possible within the known laws of physics [but see this on-line essay by John Cramer for problems with Alcubierre drive - MAK]. Indeed, Sarfatti, interviewed by Kim Burrafato in UFO Magazine (Vol 9, No. 30 1994), speculates that UFO's, if real, would be time-travelling ships from our future explaining the strange phone call(s) he got in 1952. Sarfatti is no true believer here. He is quite willing to admit that the 1952 call(s) may have been some sort of prank, and all the subsequent synchronicities a random coincidence.
Sarfatti's credibility among other physicists, like the superluminal conjecture, seemed for years to lay dormant in the barren soil of a conservative physics establishment. For many years, talk of faster-than-light communication and time travel has been beyond the pale of good science. It was a suitable subject for comic books and science fiction only, 'strictly kid stuff.' "
Crazy, but...?
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Science and Esotericism
Whilst the physical sciences have continued to progress ever since the time of Galileo, the esoteric sciences have not advanced to the same degree; and some haven't advanced at all (e.g. Astrology - with all the advances in so-called Esoteric, Humanistic, etc - still rests on the foundation of Ptolemaic (Geocentric) physics. Hassidic Kabbalah rehashes and reinterprets material written two centuries and more ago. Theosophy draws on the 19th century writings of Balvatsky, including Victorian science.). In fact esoterica in general does not progress the way science does. This is because esoterica is based on experiences, anecdotes, and dogmas, whereas science uses testable and objective experimental methodology. Science works because other scientists can conform or refute the findings of the original author. e.g. special relativity can be confirmed by measuring the slightly lower speed of atomic clocks in a moving aircraft, and other means. With esotericism this is not possible.
The problem is that there is no "objective" standard in esotericism. How does one for example prove or disprove something like Blavatsky's Seven Root Races? Or the Kabbalistic world of Atzilut? Or purusha and prakrtiti of the Samkhya philosophy?
Because physical science is to be based on the empirical unit of testable experiment ( Galileo etc) and falsification (Popper), it is possible over the years, decades and centuries to create a vast edifice of knowledge. It is not necessary for every physicist to rediscover Newton's laws, and Einstein's relativity, and the quantum physics of Plank, Bohr, Schroedinger, Heisenberg and the rest. These are already assumed to be valid, they have been tested, confirmed through independent experimental results, and so can serve as the foundation for further explorations.
This is the reason science is so powerful, and has achieved such miracles of knowledge and technology.
In contrast to the wonders of the modern scientific understanding of the workings off the universe, poor old Esotericism cannot get beyond the basic foundations. And what is worse, even those foundations are biased; coloured by the religious or personal idiosyncrasies of the author, and not amenable to confirmation or refutation the way physical science is. Each school follows the Founder, without questioning. The 4th Way people follow Gurdjieff and only use his jargon. The Theosophists ditto Blavatsky. Sometimes schisms occur, like the rival schools of Theosophy (Adya, Point Loma, Alice Bailey, etc), and there is no objective test to see which one is correct.
If an esoteric science is to be truly universal, it must be based on fundamental elements of knowledge that can be confirmed or refuted (as much as possible) and can serve as the foundation for further units.
In one respect this is not as easy as with physical science. Physical science - like exoteric religion - doesn't require one to alter their consciousness. It does however ask that one immerse oneself in a specialised body of knowledge, often for years at a time, of little relevance or interest to humanity as a whole, before one can embark on one's own research. Let us say you want to study, oh, say, prehistoric amphibians ( labyrinthodonts) of the Triassic period. You have to spend several years learning basic palaeontology and geology. Then spend more years specialising in vertebrate palaeontology, especially labyrinthodont amphibians, and that means you have to find someone who has already studies and researched and written papers on Triassic labyrinthodont amphibians. That person then becomes your supervisor, who helps you with your work and makes sure you are on the right track. Or if astronomy, you may have an interest in protoplanetary nebulae, say. Again, the same pattern; general study, then specialised, and finally your own research (Master's thesis, then Phd), all this taking quite a few years. As you can see, it is very like getting initiated into, say, a Sufi or Tantric sect, and following the teacher or guru, who is there to help you find your own way (and never, as in many fake pop-gurus of the West, to take advantage of you).
And after all this, one's own research, when it is published, can be tested by one's peers. This process of peer-review is a fundamental element of western science. Whilst it leads to the danger of becoming hide-bound and stuck in old paradigms, it also ensures that any new discoveries are authentic; they are not something being churned out by any lunatic.
Now, consider esoteric science. You can, if you wish, join a school, according to your inclination and interests and talents. Say a Hermetic School, or a Tibetan Buddhist lineage. You are given material to learn, and when you feel ready you are initiated into the group. As you progress you are given more advanced material, or meditation practices, to learn and master. You are supervised by the elders of the group, who make sure you don't go astray, and help you if you have problems. You can specialise if you wish, perhaps you prefer a particular meditation, or a particular practice. Eventually, after many years, if you feel comfortable in this group, you become an elder or master or teacher too. And here also there is a sort of review by peers, although not in such a formal sense (although sometimes it may be). If you have wildly eccentric interpretations, your views may not be accepted. Sometimes they may be good views, sometimes ridiculous. There may be a schism, or you may be expelled. Paradigms determine belief-systems and behaviour in esotericist groups just as much as in science - if not more so! And most of all in exoteric religions, which at their worst are hidebound to the most literal interpretations of an old book, which, worthy as it may be in its message, becomes twisted and distorted when every word is taken as "gospel truth" (literally!).
So each branch of human endeavour - science or esotericism - follows a broadly similar path. Novice who joins specialised or specialist or even eccentric group, where he/she can pursue ones interests, is encouraged and guided, and eventually becomes a master or teacher or elder in his/her own right. this is just part of the cycle of human existence and interrelationships.
But science and esotericism also differ. Science is about discovering things - pure knowledge - for their own sake. The joy of learning is reward enough. Esotericism, being more pragmatic, is not only about knowledge, it is also about attainment. Of course, this varies too, with some forms of esotericism, like Theosophy, being almost totally theoretical (and hence like science), while others, like various schools of Buddhist or Yogic practice, being almost completely practical, with only minimal theory (just enough to provide a framework for the practice).
The greatest denial of knowledge however is found in some hidebound exoteric Religions and Cults, where learning of anything other than one's own faith or the teachings of the cult leader is actually depreciated or condemned as a distraction, or the work of the devil.
So an esoteric science, as suggested here, is not about the path to enlightenment or self-realisation, which is the true goal of mystical and esotericist practice, but about understanding the "intermediate realities" between the objective physical and the transcendent. In no way do I think this a bad thing. In fact, I consider this a worthy extension of human knowledge, and one that may even be necessary, if we are to broaden our understanding of the universe about us, and our own psyches. For me, the practical and theoretical should go together; each is unbalanced without the other.
Laying the Foundations
How then do we begin to lay the foundations for a Universal Esoteric Science? What methodologies do we use?
This is not an easy question. Perhaps a few propositions to begin with?
Let us begin with the Most Fundamental Empirical Datum of all, The Primacy of consciousness. Cartesian/Husserlian method (I remember this was taught by my old lecturer at La Trobe University, Dr Moshe Kroy, and it influenced me greatly) is that one can doubt anything but one's own consciousness, one's own existence, one's own bare awareness. This of course takes us to Advaita Vedanta, as Moshe perceptively realised. Because Shankara's Advaita, following on the "great sayings' of the Upanishads, says that all there is is the Self, the bare datum of Consciousness/Awareness, the Absolute Reality (Atman = Brahman).
So this is the first proposition - all that exists is my (well, your, because you are the one reading this) Awareness
Now, Moshe Kroy used the Cartesian method, but this is potentially debatable. As someone said, Descartes was wrong with his "Cogito, ergo sum". I perceive, therefore I am. The most honest declaration would be: perception exists.
But one could go further than that (because perception is still perception of something) and say "Bare Awareness Is" (Kashmir Shaivism, also Advaitin Atman (Self) = Brahman)). The ratiocination-based Western philosophical methodology is in this regard more limited than Vedantic/Tantric Bare Awareness methodology. It is important to understand what is being referred to here is not an ego or finite conscious self, but a boundless consciousness. It is proposed here that this is all that is.
This can be proved by a simple thought experiment. Try to imagine another bare awareness. You can't, because to do so would mean you include it in your awareness. Other than Being (which in this thought experiment is your being, your consciousness, although technically speaking the limited "I" is a reflection of the infinite awareness - see below) there is not even nothing. There is only That Being.
It is true that dualists, pluralists, physicalists and the like do assume the duality of subject and object, and say that there is an objective or other subjective reality, or non-being, beyond the All-Encompassing Awareness. But of course, to postulate such a reality, they have to imagine /visualise it. So they have still not gone beyond their awareness
Of course, solipsism is absurd too, but only because solipsism makes the mistake of identifying the Absolute Awareness (Parasamvit, Atman-Brahman or nirguna brahman, etc). with the limited sphere of the individual ego-consciousness and its sphere of awareness. So I emphasise, when referring to Absolute Awareness, I mean the Supreme, of which your subjective awareness is simply a reflection (good analogy here is the golden lion metaphor in Hua Yen Buddhism (Fa-tsang). The infinite reflections in the mirror are not the actual golden lion)
So we have proposition number one - all that exists, all that is, is Infinite Non-dual Consciousness.
See this page for a more detailed take on this
This is the basic monistic insight, the mystical experience of Unity (see e.g. Mysticism Defined by W.T. Stace), the premise of most (but not all - there are dualists as well) esoteric teachings, from Plotinus to Shankara to Ibn Arabi to Theon. At the beginning, and in essence now, there is only The One.
This of course has a corollary - everything is nothing else but Transformations of that One. Even inanimate matter is Consciousness, is nothing but Consciousness.
But if there is only the Supreme, why are we limited finite beings. Proposition two, there must be a progression from Infinite Absolute to Finite Relative. And hence, Reality has a structure, a gradient, and can be mapped. This is the field of study of esoteric science, mapping this structure, the "Body of God" as the Kabbalists so evocatively say. This also takes us to Emanationism, regarding which I have already provided an overview. See also Professor Huston Smith's book Forgotten Truth : The Common Vision of the World's Religions which presents human knowledge and experience in terms of a gradation of several metaphysical levels, in keeping with the teachings of mystics and spiritual traditions of all times and cultures. (Professor Smith's thesis is that an over-emphasis on experimental science since the time of Galileo has led to the loss of this sacred insight in the Western world)
But the Map of Reality - the Body of God - is not something static. That is where the Theosophists and Kabbalists and others go wrong, in trying to formulate a rigid set of planes, perhaps by analogy with physical characteristics. Rather, it is a dynamic process. Esoteric science is a study of processes, not of "things"
We now have the Ground of Reality, and the Body of the Godhead. But what about the Method to be used?
Since Consciousness is the sole reality, we should not depreciate consciousness in seeking to understand the universe. This gives us a Method, again shown to me by Moshe Kroy almost a quarter of a century ago.
Everything that appears in Consciousness is a valid datum of inquiry
This is the completely opposite approach to physical science, which seeks to screen out the effect of subjectivity (although it cannot deny the reality of the Observer - and hence of Consciousness). This is why science works best with inanimate objects, still adequately with living beings (although there is no conception of ch'i and little of the dynamics of the whole organism), not so good with societies and anthropology, and worst of all with psychology, leading to such absurdities as Behaviourism (which in its extreme form (Watson, Skinner, etc) even denies the existence of subjectivity!!!) and statistics-driven so-called experimental psychology. The more "inward" (the "within" to use Teilhard de Chardin's term) you go, the less that science works.
Science therefore is a methodology that works supremely well on the gross physical plane, when dealing with purely physical; objects, and less well with more subtle things.
Conversely subjectivism becomes absurd when applied to purely physical processes, this is where "magic" becomes "superstition", and the reason that the physically advanced but metaphysically impoverished Western and Western-inspired nations were able to conquer and enslave the technologically more primitive but metaphysically more advanced Asian, Tribal, etc societies (everything from the 16th to 19th century European colonisation of the rest of the world to the 20th century Chinese conquest of and on-going genocide in Tibet)
Therefore Objective Physical Science and Subjective Esoteric Science thus complement each other perfectly. Which brings us to the next proposition.
On matters of physical reality, Esotericism should defer to Science.
Why? Because this way we can avoid absurdities like Steiner's cosmological cycles, in which the whole Solar System comes into and moves out of manifestation within the time of a single Procession of the Equinoxes. Examined in the hard light of scientific analysis, the Anthroposophical science of Steiner and his followers has all the persuasiveness of the Young Earth theory of fundamentalist Christian Creationism
Which brings us to our next point.
If we are to use as a foundation of inquiry the basic framework already established by the various esoteric teachings, we have to be very careful of one thing. Fixed opinions, which freeze the original fleeting inspiration or process into something stultifying. We need to get away from dogmas. Dogmas in esotericism are as bad as dogmas in science. In science, dogmas become old paradigms that obstruct new ideas, and have to be overthrown, and are only with difficulty. In esotericism, dogmas are far worse, they become fundamentalist and literalist fixations, and blind one to other truths and other possibilities, and destroy even the original truth that was in that teaching in the beginning. This is why dogmatism in esotericism, in religion, and everywhere else, should be completely avoided. Even the ideas presented here should only be taken as hypotheses and suggestions, never as dogmas, and only accepted if one feels in one's own heart that they have value.
Finally, we need to ask what teachings and experiences we will use and take as authoritative, in formulating our new Esoteric Science. Let us say (for sake of example) you like Osho and I like Aurobindo. Now, if Osho says the Absolute Reality and the Self (Atman) are the same, and if Aurobindo says that too, well, that is fine, there is no problem. But if Osho says once you attain Enlightenment that is the highest state, but Aurobindo says, no, there is a higher state beyond Enlightenment, you have to draw the Divine Consciousness down and transform your body and matter, there is a problem. (I am mentioning this because I once many years ago had a discussion/argument with a friend who was a devotee of Osho; I took (and still take) the Aurobindoan position, and he did not feel comfortable with that, because it referred to states beyond what Osho taught. One could say the same using Adi Da instead of Osho as an example). So, where there is a conflict, we need to decide which teacher is the most authoritative.
Everyone will have different ways of doing this, but my method regarding this is simple. The most Inclusive Teaching is the one that should be chosen. This is something the Buddha said once, his teaching is like the footprint of the elephant which can hold the other teachings in itself. So the more all encompassing the teaching, the more preferable it is.
Simple real world example (from religion rather than esotericism, but only to make a point): The fundamentalist Christian, or fundamentalist Muslim, who says "all non-believers go to hell", does not seem as persuasive as an ecumenical Muslim or ecumenical Christian who says "to every people God has sent a prophet" (or Teacher, or whatever). This is because the bigot excludes all others, and so their teaching is extremely arbitrary: why should the fundamentalist of sect x be right, but the fundamentalist of sect y wrong? Or vice versa for that matter? The ecumenicist includes all others, seeing them as part of a greater whole, therefore, devotee of sect x has part of the truth, devotee of sect y also has part. Both are partly correct, (but also partly limited) no favouritism. Seems a lot more reasonable to me.
Regarding this, see also the tale of the Blind Men and the Elephant
So we have, so far
All that exists is Infinite Non-dual Consciousness. (The Absolute Reality)
Reality has a gradient and can be mapped (the Body of the Godhead).
Everything that appears in Consciousness is a valid datum of inquiry (Phenomenology)
On matters of physical reality, Esotericism should defer to Science (Critical Thinking)
All dogmatism is to be avoided (receptivity to new Possibilities).
Where there is a conflict between two teachings, the more inclusive Teaching is preferable.
Note that this is still a provisional list; as this essay is a work in progress, not a finished manifesto.
Why have Metaphysics?
A pragmatist may point out that the first two Propositions sound more like dogmas, and imply an unnecessary philosophisation. One can still construct an esoteric science or sciences using modern esoteric philosophies that differ (e.g. evolutionary-Gurdjieffian like that of John Lilly versus the American Zen of Ken Wilber) - or with no underlying "grand philosophy" at all. All that is required, from a pragmatic point of view, is to state that this physical universe is not all that is (as indicated by evidence of phenomena such as precognition, OBEs, NDEs, I Ching,..), and that various fields now subsumed under esoterica umbrella will be investigated according to their respective nature (e.g. the bioplasmatic body "needs" only some kind of energy body or "fluid", but not complete revolution in worldview that will annihilate old space-time 4-dimensional physics).
My reply to the purely pragmatic position is as follows. Without a unified framework, esoteric science becomes just one more version of scientistic agnosticism. Traditionally, aristotlean-medieval knowledge was tied to God/Prime Mover, the whole thing cohered because of that. Is is the foundation of all "sacred cosmologies". In most esoteric cosmologies (with only a few exceptions like Classical Samkhya and Manicahean Dualism) everything goes back to the original One.
What I am interested in is a universal system of knowledge, such as the Unified Science of Edward Haskell and co-workers, the Cosmic Humanism of Oliver Reiser, the Sacred Soviety of William Irwin Thompson, the Primordial Tradition of Professor Huston Smith.
Objective/Hard versus Subjective/Soft, and Levels of Reality
In some cases using terms like "Objective" for Physical Science and "Subjective" for Esoteric Science is too simplistic, abstract, or meaningless. And how do we know that physical reality is more "objective" (if, as the Kashmir Shaivites assert, everything is just a condensation of consciousness, it isn't). So whilst as a methodology these terms are useful, they should not be given any metaphysical authenticity. A better analogy here might be physics and chemistry ("hard" or "objective") versus psychology and sociology ("soft" or "subjective").
Or, "hard sciences" and "soft sciences" and "objective" and "subjective" may simply be some of a number of levels on the gradient of reality
More than that, Esoteric Science itself spans the spectrum from "hard" to "soft", and hence becomes a more inclusive paradigm that includes the hard/physical sciences as special cases within itself, (just as Newtonian Physics is a "special case" of Einsteinian physics), and adds a radical dimension of depth to - or even completely reinterprets, the soft/social sciences. Hence some parts of this research program can be subsumed under (hard/experimental/objective) "science" (acupuncture, etc), others under metaphysics and "art".
Arvan Harvat suggests we might divide human creativity into these areas:
arts (music, painting, imaginative literature,...) (Fine Arts)
philosophy, theology, historiography, criticism (social, literary,..) (Humanities?)
social sciences (sociology, linguistics, psychology, economics ?,..)
exact sciences (math, chemistry, ..)
applied sciences and technology (electrical engineering,..)
Looking at this sequence, which runs from "subjective/soft" to "objective/hard" (or "lunar/yin" to "solar/yang" consciousness; see for example Stan Gooch's map of the mind - Ststem B and System A) traditional esoteric sciences could be considered a hybrid of humanities and arts; its "precision" or "exactitude" measured not by exact sciences standards, but by, say, those of humanities or social sciences. In fact. some of what is defined as esotericism - astrology especially, or Buddhism, or Gurdjieff or even Hermeticism in part - can be interpreted as (alternative) psychology, with psychoanalysis, behaviorism, functionalism, and neuropsychology, say, being the more exact sciences side of the spectrum. Conversely some forms of psychoanalysis, Jung especially, might belong under traditional Estericism. So might Maslow, or Assagioli
Again, ch'i and bioplasmatic body would belong in the exact sciences realm, occult planes in the humanities, and Ching and Tarot divination (as opposed to Tarot psychology) to speculative physical theories that are still emergent (multidimensional universe etc.).
But there can be even more to it than just this. I have already referred to Professor Huston Smith's book Forgotten Truth : The Common Vision of the World's Religions which presents human knowledge in terms of four basic metaphysical levels. If we apply this here, in terms of exoteric (conventional knowledge, as indicated in Arvan's list) and esoteric fields of inquiry and practice, we have the following (note, this correlation differs from the original table which remains more faithful to Prof Smith):
Reality
my cosmology
Huston Smith (Forgotten Truth)
Established fields
Suggested esoteric areas and possible of research
Unmanifest Godhead or Absolute
Absolute Reality
Spirit/Infinite
As revealed ("finger pointing at the moon") through Monistic mysticism
Enlightenment experiences of transcendence; Moksha, Kaivalya, Nirvana
Absolute in Manifestation
Dynamic Absolute
--
Aurobindoan Supramentalisation and equivalents (Lurianic concepts etc)
Spiritual- Divine
Noetic Noeric
Soul/Celestial
Theistic mysticism
Theosophic esotericism and metaphysics (Sufism, Kabbalah, Tantra, etc), higher yogic experiences, Adi Da's 5th and 6th Stages in part
Psychic- Intermediate
Psychic
Mind/Intermediate
Fine Arts, philosophy, religion, social sciencesPsychology, etc,..)
psi, OBE, NDE, various aspects of occultism
Etheric
Physical-Psychic Interface
(Life)
holistic and alternative healing, some elements of biology, emergent evolution, self-organising phenomena
morphogenetic fields (Sheldrake) and holistic physics (Bohm), chakras, acupuncture medians, Kirlian photography, bioplasma, orgone energy, ley lines, geomancy, feng shui, etc
Physical
Physical
Body/Physical
exact sciences applied sciences and technology
questions on causality/synchronicity, time-travel, superluminal phenomena, multiverse,
The above gives us a foundation, but what about the bricks to build the edifice? We will find there are different approaches and methodologies, depending on the aspect of reality we are inquiring into. For the physical, this is
There are two broad approaches we can take here - experimental/empirical method science, and the experiential/phenomenology of mysticism. Many areas of esotericism however - for example practical occultism, represent an overlap of these two.
The Experimental/Empirical Approach of Science
Arvan Harvat
The Experimental Approach is non-Metaphysical. Newton didn't care for Descartes or any philosophy of that kind. Real scientists (Newton, Huyghens, Euler,..) only needed that there is a world "outside there" with immutable laws and no whimsical divine interventions. For physical-experimental esoteric science all that is required is that this 4-dimensional world described in Einsteinian space-time 4-dim physics and with 4 forces (some are united in Salam-Weinberg Standard model) are not complete reality.
From this perspective the only starting point might be:
contemporary mainstream fundamental (quantum, relativity) physics is only partially true. Therefore I Ching, planes, parallel universus, precognition, NDEs,..
the 4 forces world of fundamental physics are similarly just a part of the larger picture. Therefore ch'i, telepathy, plants, auras,..
(for auras there is probably a conceptual effort that combines a) and b)- which is reality, because the Standard model is a quantum model)
Here we have two stages:
experiment, in exact sciences manner, with everything that can be subjected to good, old fashioned ways (bioplasm, plants, dowsing,..) and compile a corpus of verifiable data-without some strong theory. Just incontrovertible facts.
other, more metaphysical matters (I Ching, planes, evolution,..) will have to wait for breakthrough in speculative physics etc. For instance, when Relativity goes down and physicists' general concept of universe collapses (no velocity greater than speed of light, causality,...)- then, and only then will be possible to seriously ask questions like this: how can tossing I Ching coins predict something that will happen in next 6 months ? How this works ? What's the "mechanism"?
The Experiential/Phenomenological Approach of Mysticism
M.Alan Kazlev
Science uses experiment and confirmation (or falsification). In esotericism however this is not easily possible. Sri Aurobindo may have experienced the Overmind (Noetic Reality), and Adi Da the Radiant Transcendental Being, and Max and Alma Theon explored the byways of the psychic planes, but it is not easy for the average person to attain such heights (understatement of the month).
Of course, it is not easy to confirm or refute the existence of the Higgs Boson either, but assuming a suitably large particle accelerator can be built, it can be done, by physicists with the required training. Whereas the realisation of the Noetic Reality or of Shunyata or psychic planes can be done very cheaply (in terms of material cost) but only with great personal skill and very rare attainment (in terms of individual training and realisation). Once again, Physical Science and Esoteric Science are polar opposites and complementary (like Yin and Yang)
A Universal Esoteric Science deals with experiences as authentic data (phenomenology, proposition 3 in the provisional list). But not all experiences, not all phenomena of consciousness, are accessible, as just explained. Pragmatic Esotericism (Spiritual Practice) takes experiences gained by those who have trailblazed before and above us, and uses them as guideposts on the spiritual path. Applying this to Esoteric Science, and not "just" Esoteric Practice, we should have the option to take these experiences and descriptions and use them to piece together an account of other planes of existence.
There are a number of obviously overlapping sources of experiences (for example a single individual may present both a teaching and an autobiography).
In the accounts of traditional (ancient or recent, include channelling) spiritual literature. This is often highly stylised and mythologised, and hence hard to decipher. e.g. the Vision of Ezekiel in the Bible, which some people like to interpret as a UFO. [e.g. link, link link]. Sometimes the symbolism may be so dense as to render the whole thing incomprehensible - e.g. the Sefer Zohar of Kabbalah - or tied in with folklore and myth - e.g. the Mahabarata. Or the narrative may be deliberately stylised or obtuse (Gnosticism, Blavatsky's Stanzas of Dyzan), or seek to conceal or confuse (Gurdjieff's Beelzebub's Tales). Often there is a quality of channelled material, and indeed many of these works are channelled (e.g. the prophets who heard voices etc). For these reasons, even though these accounts were all written by human beings (although the pious may interpret them as literal revelation by God/Deity in which the human author played no part other than to inscribe the words) they are not much, or any, use for formulating a Universal Esoteric Science
Then there are teachers who are presenting their own vision of Reality. They may be intelligent and have read widely, hence they are not likely to be so limited to one tradition, although they may have a preference for a particular tradition. Examples might include Adi Da, Sri Aurobindo, Meher Baba, Rudolph Steiner, and many many others. However, the immediacy of the autobiographical account is lost, and the whole thing has a didactic tone. Sometimes this also moves into the field of channelling, which will often tend to deteriorate the quality of the material (the Alice Bailey material, turgid, verbose, and unreadable, essentially Theosophy with a Christian slant, is a good example here). Even so there are a few rare individuals like Edgar Cayce, Jane Roberts, and David Spangler that retain a sense of purity not found in most channelled material
Of great value are the autobiographical accounts of both historical and recent mystics and psychonauts. Even with those who have drawn upon the traditional literature, which is very often (especially in Medieval material) all they know, and hence their experiences are coloured and biased by it, and the genuine insights have to be extracted, but at least they recorded their experiences faithfully. The Christian Mystical tradition is a good illustration of this. Even better are recent autobiographies like Swami Muktananda's Play of Consciousness; perhaps one of the best works of its kind, and one I found far more inspiring than Yogananda's cloying Autobiography of a Yogi. Hagiographies obviously are less useful, since there is the tendency to worship and hence gloss over things that the author did not like. Even so, in some cases the saint's words may be described and record his or her experiences. Also of use are the accounts of modern educated westerners, such as John Lilly's.
Also of great use are modern individuals who may or may not come from a tradition, but are simply describing their experiences, without pompousness or unnecessary symbolism, and without any agenda other than: well, this is what happened to me. Even though their experience may be colored by the symbolism of their culture, background, or religious upbringing - e.g. a Hindu might have a vision of Krishna, a Christian of Christ, one can still take away the superficial form, and look at the quality of the experience in itself.
In some cases the various descriptions referred to in some or all of the preceding categories may be collated by others, for example Aldous Huxley (The Perennial Philosophy) on mysticism, Masters and Huston's, or Stan Grof's account of psychedelic experiences, Jung's work on the Collective Unconscious, or Ken Wilber's mapping of states of consciousness. Such systematic coverage can be extremely useful, because the editor will have noticed certain common themes, and draw the reader's attention to them. Often both traditional and modern accounts are placed side by side, showing that these sort of experiences really are universal.
Of course, you yourself, the reader, may also have experiences, these are just as valid as those in any of the above categories.
"Type Experiences"
In biology, geology, and palaeontology, reference is made to the "type specimen". A type specimen is the specimen - perhaps a new species of insect, that a scientist refers to when describing it in a scientific journal. That way, if someone else finds a similar specimen, they can check and see if it is the same as the original, or warrants its own name and description.
I would suggest here that certain esoteric experiences which are described by mystics, sages, adepts, occultists, psychonauts, and the rest, be taken as Type Experiences, and hence referred to, in the same way that a biological or geological sample might be.
One must however be careful in selecting an experience, so as to avoid unnecessary bias. A contemporary educated person may be preferable to a medieval monastic ascetic, but if the ascetic has progressed further, they would have experienced things the modern person would not. If a person has a modern education, can think and write clearly, is aware of the pitfalls and delusions of the spiritual path, and has progressed to great heights, their experiences will obviously be very useful in the mapping out of the nature of reality.
The worst thing in all this are subjective distortions. e.g. a person may have a pure and profound experience, but straight away distort it into their own mental formulation. A lot of Rudolph Steiner's material reads like this. One senses amazing insight, a great and pure soul, but then reads the most ridiculous medieval nonsense, that would have been fine a thousand years ago, but just seems absurd today.
Also not too good, but not as bad as the above, is egotism and self-delusion. An individual may attain a very elevated state, and then claim to be the only one to have attained it, or to have attained it in its fullness. Now, in some cases, they may very well be the only one! In other cases, they are simply caught up in an Intermediate Zone delusion of grandeur, or overpowered by the great down-rush of light.
The only way to tell if an adept is sincere and has attained the highest state, or is just caught in the intermediate zone, is to compare their experiences with others. If others have had the same experience, then to claim uniqueness is a sign either of simple ignorance (which is forgivable, especially if the individual in question has not read much, perhaps coming from a culture or society where books or learning is limited) or self-delusion (which may or may not be forgivable, depending on how you view these things, and which in itself does not negate the rest of the experience), or seeking to delude others to further his or her career as guru or cult leader (which is a sure sign that this person should be avoided, unless you are an anthropologist or sociologist and want to study the phenomenon of cultish behaviour).
Suggestions for Areas of Research and Study
An incomplete list of suggestions and ideas:
Physical Reality
Pragmatic experimentation, using the methodology of the exact sciences, on those topics of paranormal, etc that can be subjected to traditional scientific method (morphogenetic fields, kirlian photography, bioplasm, plants, dowsing,..) and compile a corpus of verifiable data.
In those cases with poor or no results from hard scientific approach to psi and paranormal, is it because there is no phenomenon, or because the nature of the experimental method adversely affects the subjects consciousness (a sort of esoteric exclusivity law?).
Etheric Reality
Understanding energy levels in the subtle body (acupuncture, ch'i, microcosmic orbit, reiki, and other phenomena - note, these are close enough to the physical with sufficient "objectivity" to also be amenable to standard scientific methodology (but the paradigm-resistance would be huge)
Understanding Homodynamics and other alternative means of treatment that cannot be explained in reductionist terms
Mapping out of Chakras, aura, yogic anatomy, etc - understanding the subtle body
Application/reinterpretation of transpersonal psychology, meditative states, etc in terms of esoteric map of the nature if reality; alternatives to the standard monistic (usually Zen or Sufi based) or old Wilberian paradigms of TP Psychology
Paranormal
Sympathetic but non-gullible re-evaluation of psi and similar phenomena, what is the mechanism?
Thanatology, Near-Death experiences etc interpreted as authentic psychic bardo states (rather than as "hallucinations of an oxygen-starved brain"); looking at both historical and recent accounts
UFOs, bigfoot, nessie, etc as etheric / parallel physical dimensions rather than materialistic explanations of little green men, surviving neanderthals, plesiosaurs, etc
Providing plausible theory for crop circles and other anomalous phenomena
Psychic Reality
What is the influence of esotericism upon social sciences and humanities; e.g. , painters (Boticelli, Mondrian, Kandinsky,..), writers and poets (Goethe, Blake, Balzac, Rimbaud, Yeats, Henry Miller,..) had been attracted to various parts of esotericism: hermeticism, theosophy, kabbalah; how does art relate to esoteric realities, and vice versa?.
Magick and Occultism (applied hermetics, shamanism, etc) as valid techniques for interacting with the psychic realities, and manipulating psychic or physical events.
Reinterpretation of Jung's archetypes, synchronicity, etc as valid phenomena ("gods") on the supra-physical planes, and their expression and qualities as understood in that light (getting away from Jung's sloppy half-heated attempt at Kantean dualism and biological reductionism ("collective unconscious" as inherited or racial memory)
Reinterpretation of psychology and study of psyche to take into account experiential, phenomenological, and supra-physical factors as well standard physical elements; Steven Guth's "Theory of the Double" (work in progress)
Mystic Reality
Empirical and phenomenological study of meditative, enlightenment, and other such states, free of preconceived religious or metaphysical biases. What does the "bare experience" in itself tell?
Application/reinterpretation of transpersonal psychology, meditative states, etc in terms of esoteric map of the nature if reality; what sort of map emerges? Look at alternatives to the standard monistic (usually Zen or Sufi based) or old Wilberian paradigms of TP Psychology
Causality
Consider I Ching as a mathematical/"syncronistic" map of fundamental archetypes (ref DNA codons, other similarities? Particle physics in quantum mechanics perhaps?)
Synchronicity/meaningful coincidence - how can tossing I Ching coins predict something that will happen in the next 6 months? What about prophetic dreams? Classic Jungian synchronicity? What is the "mechanism"?
Explore thesis of Astrological causation in terms of subtle etheric spheres (Steiner), dumping of old humanistic-materialistic explanations of the "moon's tides" etc (works fine for the moon but what about Pluto?)
Evolution
Exploration of interactions of "cosmic devic forces" with the terrestrial evolution; hypotheses of planetary and biological evolution, human society, etc [see e.g. Steven Guth and my work on "Astrognosis" Considering Islam, Cosmogenic Evolution, as well as Eco-Gnosis in general - see also Adendndum A for more (below))
What effect will future technologies have upon the body and psyche - cyborgization, nanotechnology, colonization of space, etc?
Possibility of new (different? higher?) kingdoms and/or grades of sentience emerging? e.g. AI and Vingean-Transhumanist Posthuman Singularity through technological evolution or augmentation, or Aurobindoan "Superman" through spiritual-divine transformation
Cosmology
Formulating a map or diagram of the "Body of the Godhead" as a dynamic unfolding-enfolding process (not static planes) - concepts from Taoism, Neoconfucianism, Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, Suhrawardi, Ibn Arabi, Kashmir Shaivism, pre-Lurianic, Lurianic and Hassidic Kabbalah, Max and Alma Theon, Theosophy, Anthroposphy, Teilhard de Chardin, Sri Aurobindo and Mirra, Meher Baba, and others.
No doubt many more fields of exploration could be added.
Addendum 1 - Old and New Style Esotericism
Steven Guth
The history of modern esotericism really comes out of an attempt to formalise the spiritual medium situation that existed in the 1800's. Groups gathered in the 1840's so that "scientific" evidence about the afterlife could be collected.
People like Theon fit in here.
And later came the attempts by people like Blavaskey, Steiner, etc to present the old esoteric truths and the new discoveries in a scientific frame work, using terms like rounds, and tables and hierarchies. They felt a need to adapt their visions into the social thought patterns (including the science) of the time ... which quickly became dated and so their descriptions have became absurd - e.g. the history of the planet c/o Steiner (he combined astrology with what Science at the time understood).
An example is the chemistry table of elements which unlocked the wonders of alchemy. The discovery of coal tar colours revolutionised the world. So of course attempts were made to classify in this way.
Part of the burden that the modern esoteric movement carries is the concept of evolution. At the time Blavatsky and others were writing Darwin's evolutionary concept let people keep the idea of a prime creator and abandon religion. You see, evolution suggests that everything things has been created to end up somewhere ... the end point of Newton's clock work universe - and we are moving towards the resolution of the creator architects great plan. Alas I suspect that rogue influences play into the world's spiritual ecology at random times creating a situation which is far from clockwork. See my somewhat discomforting meditative insight ... into the energy behind Islam [see Considering Islam] and then Alan's further development of this idea [see Cosmogenic Evolution]...
Before that earlier attempts to make sense of the formlessness of the Spiritual worlds gave us stuff like the Abramelin with its divisions into, Kings, Dukes etc - following the sociological thought patterns of the 14th Century. So it is not surprising that in our current attempts to forge a bit of "scientific" logic into the huge complexity of what surrounds us that we should be using the sociological thought patterns of our time - which come from the benefits that science has placed into our lives.
But, and it's a big but, many of the premises that modern science rests on are weak if not faulty. One of my favourite criticisms is our intrinsic belief that there is a "cause" for everything. I have come to the conclusion that "Causation is just a special case of association". Adopt my idea that association is the rule and "causation" is just a special case and you end up with the involvement of the spiritual world in everything in some form or another. What we do in the physical effects the Spiritual worlds and vice versa - and it is an ongoing interaction slightly out of time and place ... incidentally this is what the Australian Aboriginal concept of the "Dreaming" is all about.
And that's just one of the premises.
Now, the largest revolution in modern science has been the discovery of deep space, deep time and the huge complexity of the out there. As one astronomer said in a lecture I attended as she showed us the image of the radio energy coming out of a galaxy, "It is better not to think about such things". I wonder if Kepler had similar qualms?
And another major revolution in the making is the concept of randomness and variability. All our scientific modelling to date still runs on the concept of averaging - its part of our sociological democratic thought pattern. But it is a very poor premise to work from. So much cannot be usefully explored by averaging ... from the weather to the effectiveness of medicines ... and how do you average spiritual phenomena? (What is the average ghost or crop circle? ... randomness is inherent in the systems around us).
Now, both deep space and variability/randomness have not been added to our thinking patterns. New patterns are necessary to accommodate the new base line insights science has presented to us.
We need to add our new insights to our understandings of esoteric experiences. And that is what astrognosis is trying to do. Which places this developing concept [Cosmogenic Evolution] into a potentially revolutionary position.
It is interesting that in our new formulations about the development of life forms on our planet we end up with Devas as the link between our new ideas and concepts of the past. You see, Devas are just consciousness in a place. Remove the idea of place and leave consciousness and you have a "God or Goddess" ... And of course that is what we are too ... the "prima medica" is consciousness.
As an afterthought ...
I am working on a lecture series on the Doppleganger, the Double, at the moment and am exploring the multiple facets of human consciousness and the very nature of consciousness itself. Interestingly it is leading me to the conclusion that "consciousness" intrusions from deep space play an important part in our need to go to war. Yes, perhaps our leaders and the people that surround them are schizophrenic. Their minds and decisions being influenced by other consciousnesses "out there" which like to playing games with events on this planet ... So if we can stop the games we could have peace and if we don't, or can't, we will never have peace ... this is an interesting thought but only possible if one accepts some of the new premises suggested in this essay. It also makes one wonder if the images presented by Science Fiction and the beliefs of the UFO people are not coming from a consciousness "out there" identical to what is presenting me with these insights!
Material on the Doppleganger and its role in human consciousness will soon be on this web site - stay tuned for further inputs!
Addendum 2 - From Aristotle to Science to Esotericism
Arvan Harvat (slightly edited and first paragraph added by MAK)
The "Traditionalist" School of Fritjof Schuon, Rene Gueneon, and others (reinterpretation/esotericisation of exoteric religions), tradition-bound esotericism in general, and people like Rudolph Steiner and his Anthroposphy (which through application of Goethean and Steiner's own clairvoyant gives it much to contribute to a Universal Esoteric Science) all seek to tie themselves to the past, rather than explore possibilities of the future. Their dependence on the aristotlean-medieval paradigm with its sacred universe and natural philosophy, means they are relying on failed science, in the same way that the Theosophists still are stuck with the Victorian science that Blavatsky new and write about (and that was, by the way, cutting edge in Blavatsky's time (later 19th century).
The problem is that the Aristotlean approach is not a form of science that gives results. Aristotle was abandoned due to inefficacy. It was simplistic because he did not know "the world", he was freely speculating, using the limited data and information available to him in the ancient Greek world.
Putting under a single umbrella concepts such as ch'i, I Ching, planes, evolution, etc is reminiscent of the times of Aristotle when all sciences (biology, psychology, physics, political sciences,..) were parts of philosophy. But this widely multidisciplinary approach is not the same as a holistic esotericism of science. One thing is "sci infancy" (Aristotle), and completely another modern multidisciplinary approach that is "mature science" (say, quantum chemistry tries to explain genetic processes by using thermodynamics, chaos and complexity, computer science, higher algebraic theories, ...and to connect them to the levels of electrochemisty and biochemistry).
In esoteric science you could imagine experiments (Kirlian, high voltage) combined with other high tech photographs (computer analysis of highly sensitive detectors) and explanation, in the beginning, with some kind fields combined with electrophysiology and biochemical processes monitored and theorized upon.
A true holistic paradigm can emerge only after any science has passed thru various stages of disintegration and integration. The following process or sequence could be suggested:
primitive science (Aristotle)
beginnings of empirical and mathematical science in modern sense (Galileo, Kepler)
new paradigm established (Newton, Laplace,...)
other paradigms appearing (Faraday-Maxwell, fields,...)
fundamental redefinition and new paradigmata (Einstein, Planck, Heisenberg,...)
multidisciplinary approach (chaos theory, complexity, Feigenbaum ...)
emergent holistic approach ( Sarfatti, Bohm's hologram universe, quantum geometrodynamics of John Wheeler,.., also synchronicity)
Bohm is a true scientist with a holistic approach.
The crux of the matter as far as superluminality is concerned (see e.g. the Stardrive web site) is that the universe obeyed the laws of quantum mechanics at its birth subjecting it to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle when it was smaller than an electron. Hoyle and Sarfatti believe that it was at this primordial moment that consciousness from the future created the universe bringing itself into being.
Einstein's work on relativity provided a starting point for intuitive physicists such as Wheeler, Feynman, Josephson and others. The new physics has also given rise to a new cosmology of which Sir Fred Hoyle is a leading proponent. Hoyle compiled a massive body of evidence in his book The Intelligent Universe that seems to strongly suggest that only a living and intelligent (superluminal) God could have created a universe where life (us) exists. The very conditions of the birth of the universe (the big bang) were specifically tailored to produce life. The final anthropic cosmological principle championed by Hoyle, Sarfatti and others was first discovered in weaker form by Brandon Carter 9 The God Phone], who in 1968 stated:
"Had the numerical values of certain fundamental constants (the speed of light, the mass of an electron etc.) been only slightly different - the universe would not be able to sustain life as we know it." Experimentalist Alain Aspect proved (at the University of Paris in 1982), the reality of faster-than-light action-at-a-distance in an experiment on the quantum connection between pairs of photons. Delayed choice experiments (by Carol Alley of the University of Maryland ) and gamma photon-proton scattering experiments (by Charles Bennett of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory ) showed that future causes do create past effects.
Recent work by such respected physicists as David Deutsch, Kip Thorne, Yakir Aharanov, Alcubierre and Sarfatti, involving time-travel to the past, future-causality and other mind-boggling vistas, is invigorating superluminal physics as never before. For example, Alcubierre has shown that a Star Trek faster-than-light warp drive is possible within the known laws of physics [but see this on-line essay by John Cramer for problems with Alcubierre drive - MAK]. Indeed, Sarfatti, interviewed by Kim Burrafato in UFO Magazine (Vol 9, No. 30 1994), speculates that UFO's, if real, would be time-travelling ships from our future explaining the strange phone call(s) he got in 1952. Sarfatti is no true believer here. He is quite willing to admit that the 1952 call(s) may have been some sort of prank, and all the subsequent synchronicities a random coincidence.
Sarfatti's credibility among other physicists, like the superluminal conjecture, seemed for years to lay dormant in the barren soil of a conservative physics establishment. For many years, talk of faster-than-light communication and time travel has been beyond the pale of good science. It was a suitable subject for comic books and science fiction only, 'strictly kid stuff.' "
Crazy, but...?
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