On Pseudoscience....

February 23, 2015, 2:52 am

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Rational Wiki's critical take on Pseudoscience...

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If you are in possession of this revolutionary secret of science, why not prove it and be hailed as the new Newton? Of course, we know the answer. You can't do it. You are a fake.

—Richard Dawkins on pseudoscientists^[1]

”Quixotism is a folly when the energy which might have achieved conquests over misery and wrong, if rightly applied, is wasted in fighting windmills[.]

—Flat-earther Samuel Birley Rowbotham^[2]

Pseudoscience is any belief system or methodology which tries to gain legitimacy by wearing the trappings of science, but fails to abide by the rigorous methodology and standards of evidence that are the marks of true science. Although pseudoscience is designed to have the appearance of being scientific, it lacks any of the substance of science.
Promoters of pseudoscience often adopt the vocabulary of science, describing conjectures as theories or laws, often providing supposed evidence from observation, expert testimonials, or even developing what appear to be mathematical models of their ideas. However, in pseudoscience there is no real honest attempt to follow the scientific method, provide falsifiable predictions, or develop double blind experiments. Pseudoscientists often use the tactic of cheating the scientific method.

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[edit]History

A happy Richard Dawkins

A bored James Randi

With the rise of the Enlightenment movement and the success of the physical sciences in describing the natural world, a new-found respect for science was developing in the western world. As a result, charlatans everywhere attempted to capitalize on this phenomenon by hawking a range of "scientifically proven" remedies, potions, treatments, and devices to cure the woes of man and bring peace and well-being to all. The term "pseudoscience" developed in response to these con men. One of the first recorded uses of the word "pseudo-science" was in 1844 in the Northern Journal of Medicine, I 387:

“”That opposite kind of innovation which pronounces what has been recognized as a branch of science, to have been a pseudo-science, composed merely of so-called facts, connected together by misapprehensions under the disguise of principles.

By the beginning of the 20th century science had further extended the boundaries of human understanding. With the development of quantum mechanics and relativity, science was presenting reality as a strange place challenging peoples' ability to understand the mess of particles and high velocities that make up everything we think we know. These ideas persisted and proved themselves because of their ability to make predictions that could be verified experimentally. Against this backdrop one of the most famous modern philosophers of science, Karl Popper, tried to establish what separated out the true science of people like Albert Einstein from intuitively less rigorous concepts such as psychoanalysis. Popper decided that the key was falsifiability. True science made specific predictions that could be proven false by examining empirical reality. Pseudosciences rarely cared about making predictions, and if they did they were unfalsifiable or impossible to test.
After Popper, philosophy entered the stage of social constructionism, with philosophers arguing that science was an illusion. Some, such as Paul Feyerabend, argued that it was impossible to separate science and pseudoscience, and in the end such a separation is undesirable anyway.^[3]
The reality of pseudoscience and recognition of the harm it causes was, and remains, a unifying idea behind skepticism and the work of most practising scientists. With the emergence of New Atheism and its emphasis on critical thinking, a groundswell of effort to combat modern (and sometimes very non-modern) pseudoscience has developed. The popularisation of debunking pseudoscience may have begun with Harry Houdini, who spent his later days taking on spiritualists and mediums. In the latter half of the 20th Century, people like James Randi, Carl Sagan, and Richard Dawkins published books and made television appearances tackling these subjects. Relative newcomers Ben Goldacre, who wrote the best-seller Bad Science, and Simon Singh, who is currently winning a libel case after calling out chiropractors on their unsupportable claims, have furthered the trend. Meanwhile, skeptical groups and knowledge bases continue to expand on the internet and Skeptics in the Pub has changed from a small gathering in London to a worldwide event often attracting hundreds to each meeting. All of these groups and individuals have actively and publicly fought against woo, quacks, cranks, creationism, and the thousands of other manifestations of pseudoscience.

[edit]Characteristics of pseudoscience

[edit]Vague and/or exaggerated claims and ambiguous language

"A good day for buying patio furniture."^[4]

One of the easiest ways to avoid being proven false is to not make any specific claims at all. Predictions in science are all about specificity and exactness. Operational definitions have to be clearly defined and shared; what you are measuring, how you will measure it and how you will determine if any results are significant are all hallmarks of good science. Pseudoscientific claims are never specific but rely on vague and ambiguous language, often encompassing grandiose claims.
Astrology is one of the prime examples of this, as its vague claims allows its "predictions" to apply widely to many people at once and its clever language allows it to be very wrong, but save face. For example, ask an astrologer who you have never met before to describe your personality. He may reply, "You consider yourself a very selfless person but there are times you have acted rather selfishly." This statement is true for pretty much everyone.
In quack medicine a pseudoscience promoter might claim a given treatment "removes toxins from your system", never saying what toxins, or how they will be removed, or how you can tell if they will be removed. The toxins are the true cause of disease, never saying how they cause disease, and that removing them will cure you of all known afflictions. In the few cases like this where the claims are specific, they can be tested and are often left wanting. In the case of Kinoki Foot Pads, the manufacturers claimed they removed numerous chemicals such as benzene and mercury (most of which weren't supposed to be in the body anyway) and lab trials found none of them in the pads.
In other areas of science, it is popular to claim that one has discovered a "unifying theory" that explains all of reality through special "energy" and "forces". Or that your perpetual motion machine works from hitherto undiscovered principles of magnetism.

[edit]Lack of peer review, and claims of vast establishment conspiracies

A peer-reviewed journal

One of the single most important aspects of true science is replication and verification, particularly from third parties not involved in the original experiments. This is the heart of peer review, where new ideas are laid out before fellow scientists with all the details of how to replicate and extend the research. While the social dynamics of peer review are not foolproof, and many interesting issues can emerge, there is still nothing better for advancing human knowledge. It is, of course, not surprising that people who promote pseudoscience want to avoid peer review like a plague.

The Illuminati are everywhere

If an idea has not been published in a single peer review journal, it is safe to say it is not science. Most people have at least a passing knowledge of the peer review system and so pseudoscience promoters often have to offer hand-wavy explanations for why their ideas have not been published anywhere. In alternative medicine it is common to blame Big Pharma for wanting to hide the fact that some natural product cures all known illnesses because it will hurt their profits – despite the fact that such a thing would generate more profit, and Big Pharma would be dying to get their hands on it! In biology creationists often claim that evolution is propped up by a vast atheist and materialist conspiracy, as if every PhD student ended their final viva with their supervisor taking them to one side for "a little chat". This "big conspiracy" is perhaps the most common tactic, but more imaginative excuses do exist; such as Jason Lisle claiming that his theory on how to solve the starlight problem doesn't need to pass through the peer review system of major science journals because you wouldn't expect evolutionist papers to pass through creationist journals.

A "peer review" journal.

When pseudosciences are published, they are often published in pseudo-journals; journals that use "peer review" but are less rigorous than one would expect of the scientific mainstream. Pseudoscience promoters will sometimes start their own journals that are "reviewed" only by fellow promoters. These journals are often easily identified by their poor standards for inclusion, or their lack of inclusion in scholarly indexes such as ISI Web of Knowledge (or even Google Scholar). One of the most obvious characteristics of pseudo-peer review is a total lack of interest in replicating or verifying the "work" of others in the field. Which brings us to the next point.

[edit]No attempts or interest in replication or outside verification

While closely related to a refusal to submit to peer review, the total lack of interest in any form of replication or outside verification is an important issue in and of itself. Whereas real science is a work in permanent progress with many people around the world replicating experiments, exchanging results, working out details and deriving further hypotheses; pseudoscience is presented as a completed package, a done deal. Pseudoscientific ideas may claim to have unified physics, cured the sick, reduced all of mathematics to an algebraic proof, and created limitless energy. They claim there is no need to go any further, just embrace the idea and enter utopia. In contrast real scientists love it when others pick up their work and use it as a basis for further research – if nothing else, it pumps up their citation numbers.
Often the pseudoscience promoter will use the techniques of vague language to make outside verification impossible, or will offer the secrets only to those people who are deemed worthy or pay large sums of money. If by chance, someone attempts to replicate or verify the idea and fails they must be either stupid or a paid shill for the evil conspiracy out to hide the truth.
This embracing of the idea that the problem is solved and needs no verification is also the source for our next major characteristic of pseudoscience.

[edit]Stasis, and hostility towards development or change of the idea

Acupuncture: You'll only feel a little prick.

Pseudoscience is embraced by its proponents with almost religious fervor. Since the idea can never be wrong, there is very little that needs to be changed or should be changed. This is most aptly seen in pseudosciences that have been around for generations such as homeopathy or acupuncture. One is hard pressed to find significant differences between the basic idea proposed 300 or 3,000 years ago and the beliefs and practices of modern day quacks.
This is in marked contrast to real science, where stasis of even a few years is rare – let alone decades or centuries. The difference between physics as proposed by Isaac Newton and the modern day is huge. Despite what creationists like to claim, Charles Darwin's idea of evolution by natural selection has gone through huge changes with the advent of genetics, developmental biology and hundreds of other fields.
While progress in science can be rough, and personalities can clash, nothing can compare to the outright hostility of a pseudoscience promoter when faced with having his ideas developed or changed. Any such attempts will usually mark the upstart as a member of the establishment out to undermine truth once again.

[edit]Frequent changes in methodology without changing the conclusions

As an alternative to the above, pseudoscience can be overly eager to update its claims and ideas. While science is always a "work in progress" to some extent and undergoes rapid change, new hypotheses and theories are both formed on top of existing ones and more importantly generate new claims or avenues of exploration. Relativity, groundbreaking as it was, did not completely discard Newtonian physics; indeed, Einstein was able to formulate his theory through the classic Maxwell Equations. However, in this hallmark of pseudoscience, previous hypotheses and mechanisms are dropped wholesale as soon as something slightly more promising comes along – while still keeping the same basic conclusion. Transhumanism as a movement in the 1960s has almost no resemblance to transhumanism in the 21st century, yet people are still somehow promised a future of immortal supermen through the power of science. Fad diets in particular are prone to this, spewing out technobabble on how this newly discovered trick will trim the hell out of your ~~wallet~~ waistline while not explaining why it dropped the previous dozens of claims.

[edit]Refusal to use the scientific method, or the claim that it can not be used

Pseudoscience promoters rarely discuss experimental evidence when promoting their falsehoods. But in debates that inevitably emerge they must sometimes face the question of why they don't submit their ideas to the basic practice of science. This is commonly seen in medical woo where the gold standard of the double blind study would clearly show the ideas to be false. Most promoters will refuse to do the studies, and often claim that their ideas are somehow impossible to test through standard means.
This special pleading is often hidden in a positive light. For example, promoters of "alternative medicine" will claim that the "whole body" approach to healing requires full disclosure between the doctor and patient. Homeopaths claim that true remedies must be tailor-made and thus cannot be tested against any kind of standard.
Another technique is claiming that attempts to apply skepticism or testing to the idea destroys it. This objection is common in various forms of psychic woo where skeptics are alleged to disrupt the delicate "telepathic waves". Many pseudoscience concepts based around supernatural causes will claim that their particular cures are carried out by an agency of some sort that will not willingly be tested in such a manner.

[edit]Misuse of scientific terms

The device pictured is called "The Quantum Xrroid Consciousness Interface". Honestly!

One of the easiest ways to gain the trappings of science is to describe pseudoscience using the words of science, or terms that sound scientific (often aptly described as technobabble or equivocation). This is easiest to do with scientific concepts that are poorly understood by the general public (which, admittedly, includes the vast majority of scientific concepts). New Agers are particularly fond of "energy" as a catchall term. Another favorite target for pseudoscience promoters is the use of quantum woo, where waves, particles, strings and force lines magically come together to produce amazing consequences. Law of Attraction proponents, for example, claim that you can manifest anything you want into reality (money, fame, sex, a better hair style) by focusing on it and "collapsing wave functions" in reality.
Other techniques often involve not misusing existing terms, but rather creating whole new terms in a style that seems scientific. An excellent example of this is the creationist baraminology and barmin, which is their fancy replacement for the old PRATT that animals only evolve within "kinds".

[edit]Misrepresentation of terms

Another facet of pseudoscience that occurs in popular culture is the misrepresentation of a term.
The most obvious example of this is "life expectancy" as seen in the In Search of... episode "The Man Who Would Not Die" (About Count of St. Germain) where it is stated "Evidence recently discovered in the British Museum indicates that St. Germain may have well been the long lost third son of Rákóczi born in Transylvania in 1694. If he died in Germany in 1784, he lived 90 years. The average life expectancy in the 18th century was 35 years. Fifty was a ripe old age. Ninety... was forever."
Even though it talks about life expectancy as being an average, the statement still presents ages past that average as being very rare, which is not exactly true. The life expectancy generally quoted is the at birth number, which is an average that includes all the babies that die before their first year of life as well as people that die from disease and war.
Say you have two people born the same day: one dies at the age of 2, but the other lives to the age of 80; the average age of those two people is 41 ((80+2)/2) and if you averaged three people of 2, 3, and 80 you would get an average age of only 29! As you can see it doesn't take that many child deaths to send the average down and this is exactly what a chart regarding Roman Life Expectancy shows. Just living to the age of 5 nearly doubled your life Expectancy from 25 to 48.
Even with these averages you still had people who lived a long time. For example, Benjamin Franklin died in 1790 at the age of 84 and Ramesses II is thought to have lived 90 years.

[edit]Poor standards of evidence

In science evidence is valued when it is collected in a rigorous manner and is as divorced as possible from personal bias. The classic example is a controlled, double blind study. Though naturalistic observation is sometimes used, it is not proof of a theory. Furthermore, when it is used, a substantial quantity of data is usually involved. The use of statistics and an emphasis on statistical significance is also a strong hallmark of legitimate science.
In pseudoscience the importance placed on the value of evidence is almost reversed. Rigorous and controlled experiments, large data sets, and statistical reasoning are replaced with an emphasis on personal, anecdotal evidence and testimonials. Another major emphasis is on expert opinion. Anyone with letters after their name who is willing to say something positive about the idea is quoted to provide evidence the idea is valid. (It's a minor red flag when someone insists on attaching "Dr." or "Ph.D." to their name.)^[5] One well known example of this are the ridiculous lists of scientists that question Darwinian evolution put together by creationists. This is nicely countered with Project Steve that shows the ridiculous nature of this technique. Often the expert or scientist quoted in support of a pseudoscientific idea may not actually support it and the quote is taken out of context. This is called quote mining and is a great indicator of pseudoscience.
One final problem is that pseudoscience promoters are only interested in evidence that confirms the initial idea. This confirmation bias means that any evidence that might contradict the theory is ignored.

[edit]Reliance on negative proofs

In science ideas are never really proven, which is demonstrated in the old adage that "proof is for math and alcohol". Pseudoscience promoters however are big fans of the negative proof. They push the idea that somehow the "truth value" of an idea is a binary claim, that if an idea is not proven false it must be true. However, most of their claims are positive claims – and as such would require evidence to back them up. The burden of proof is on the promoter, and extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

[edit]Reliance on outside or unrelated fields for results

Especially applicable to "almost science" are ideas which place an undue burden on fields of science or engineering not directly covered by the topic to make it work. While modern science is noteworthy for hand-holding between disciplines and real scientific projects are sometimes unable to be immediately implemented due to real-world limitations, pseudoscience always ends up passing the buck to a more trustworthy discipline. For example, advocates for cryonics often claim that their bizarre method of revivification will be completely validated and viable once nanotechnology catches up. Or that cold fusion is just around the corner, once engineers design a viable containment reactor.

[edit]Reliance on outdated or later refuted scholarly works

Sometimes a pseudoscience supporter will present a scholarly article from a work in the related field as "proof" that the claim is not pseudoscientific, but via further research it can be shown that this sole study was a glitch or later proven false.
For example, K. Linde, N. Clausius, G. Ramirez, et al., "Are the Clinical Effects of Homoeopathy Placebo Effects? A Meta-analysis of Placebo-Controlled Trials,"Lancet, September 20, 1997, 350:834-843 at first glance supports homeopathy but this paper was refuted in "The end of homoeopathy"The Lancet, Vol. 366 No. 9487 p 690. The Vol. 366 No. 9503 issue (Dec 27, 2005) and by 14 studies from 2003 to 2007^[6]
This by far is the more dangerous form of pseudoscience as it gives a (generally false) air of legitimacy to a claim.

[edit]Ideas are unfalsifiable

Karl Popper

See the main article on this topic: falsifiability

As Popper laid out seventy years ago, one of the primary demarcations between real science and pseudoscience is that pseudoscience relies on pushing ideas that cannot be falsified. Unfalsifiable claims shield those steeped in woo from any true criticism since there can be no "proof" that their idea is wrong.
Unfalsifiability can manifest itself in different forms. The most general sense is when an idea is proposed that is "not even wrong", meaning that it can never be tested or can never be formulated in such a way as to make empirical predictions. For example, some young earth creationists claim that God created the world with the appearance of old age. As there is no difference between a world that is old and one that merely looks old, the hypothesis cannot be tested in a scientific way.
Sometimes specific concepts and claims within a pseudoscience can be falsified – the efficacy of alternative medicines for example. When this happens, the usual tactic is to change the criteria for falsification – a strategy known as "moving the goalposts". Intelligent design is constructed almost completely from this approach by altering the criteria by which evolution can be disproved every time new research is carried out. Many of the specific claims of intelligent design, such as the irreducible complexity of certain biological features, can and have been falsified (when the naturalistic evolutionary pathways are eventually found). ID advocates then 'move the goalposts' to another irreducibly complex feature until that is disproved, and so on. However, the general concept that a supernatural entity designed life in its current form remains an unfalsifiable idea. Since we can neither prove nor disprove this "hypothesis" it lies outside of the domain of science, and adorning it with scientific trappings is a textbook example of pseudoscience.
Moving the goalposts is also common in more liberal theologies that try to place God as the overseer of the natural world. Whatever cannot be explained by science, well, that is God. And when science comes up with an explanation, well then, we move God to whatever still can't be explained. This God of the gaps mentality is generally unfalsifiable as there will always be such gaps ready to be filled by God, even if specific claims might be falsifiable.

[edit]Political and/or religious motivation

This proves everything. Doesn't it?

A huge red "pseudoscience flag" should go up when an idea is pushed against the backdrop of a strong agenda that has nothing to do with the idea being proposed at all. This is most easily seen with creationism and intelligent design where the "science" is an afterthought to the general battle between "evil materialism" and religion. This can often be seen when an individual suddenly starts promoting a pseudoscientific idea shortly after a major political or religious conversion, or a list of "supporters" of an idea are all unified in some sort of philosophy or religion.
Pseudoscience can also thrive as the backdrop of political as well as religious ideology. Lysenkoism thrived in the Soviet Union because it was put forward as part of the Communist ideology. Pseudoscience is also often used to repress minorities or "undesirables" such as the "science" that was used to support eugenics programs. In modern right-wing politics the influence of the religious right has led to a politicization of science that links religious and political motivation in pushing various forms of pseudoscience.

[edit]Common fields plagued by pseudoscience

[edit]Medicine

Probably the single most destructive form of pseudoscience is quack medicine. Its toll financially, and in terms of human health and life is immense. At face value, quack remedies for mild headaches or "feeling down" may seem harmless, the placebo effect as well as other factors may lead people to believe that they actually work. Alternative medicines prey on a minority of bad experiences with conventional medicine to draw people into their use, first for mild conditions and then serious ones. This leads to patients forgoing conventional (i.e., proven) medicine for a range of ailments that are far more serious, from cancer to AIDS.
There are two major categories of pseudoscience in medicine. The first is supernatural, psychic, and paranormal healing. This faith healing is popular with televangelists like Benny Hinn. Some religious sects, such as Christian Science, are based exclusively around the pseudoscience that every major illness can be cured through supernatural means and this often results in death from easily preventable or curable illnesses. This form of healing doesn't need to be overtly religious; quantum woo such as the Law of Attraction, or techniques like psychic surgery and Reiki are often non-theistic but still "supernatural" in origin. Some "ancient traditions" such as acupuncture and chakras also generally fall into this category.
The second category avoids supernatural claims, but instead relies on poorly supported or discredited "science". Often this kind of pseudoscience takes the form of pushing various vitamin or herbal supplements as magic cures for diseases. Other forms include taking outdated concepts of disease and cures and claiming they are just as accurate or more accurate than modern medicine. Homeopathy is a great example of this, based on a 200 year old theory of disease that wasn't even widely accepted when it was first proposed--and, perhaps more importantly, was compiled before the germ theory was ever established. Finally, when terrible things happen the desire to "blame" someone leads to false scapegoats. This is most clearly seen in the anti-vaccination movement, particularly about the role of thiomersal in autism. Some of the arguments used by the anti-nuclear movement also fall into this category.

[edit]Biology

Creationist William Dembski. (Yes, his head really is that shape.)

Biology is subjected to probably the best known and most widespread pseudoscience of all — creationism. Whatever the manifestation, whether old Earth, young Earth, or intelligent design, creationism has been a prolific and long standing pseudoscience. It all stems from the perceived threat of evolution to religion.
While creationism has certainly dominated as the main pseudoscience in biology it is not the only one. Historically, Lysenkoism and eugenics have both been extraordinarily deadly. Purported differences between the innate abilities of different races such as in The Bell Curve share many characteristics with pseudoscience. Many of the pseudosciences in medicine overlap with biology, with denying AIDS or even the germ theory of disease and replacing it with ridiculous concepts like homotoxicology.

[edit]Physics

Deepak Chopra

Physics has been home to some of the weirdest forms of pseudoscience. Because its concepts are particularly arcane to most lay people it sometimes seems to be possible to pass off just about any incoherent drivel as "science". By invoking the magic word "quantum", suddenly the most ridiculous, utterly impossible statements become easily accepted as true. This pops up all over the place with cranks like Deepak Chopra and his quantum healing, or Esther Hicks and her Law of Attraction.
Physics also offers a home for many grand theories of everything. Unified field theories abound which bring together not only all of the forces of reality but also the human mind into one algebraic equation that explains everything. This form of pseudoscience is helped along by a lot of the popular press and books discussing unified field theory as the holy grail of physics.
Another very popular subject for physics-based pseudoscience is free energy. Whether through magnetism or orgone or any other made-up substance, people have claimed for generations to have the solution to our world's energy needs in their garage. Cold fusion, similar to free energy, had its heyday in the media before its original perpetrators were exposed as frauds. However, cranks regularly rant on internet forums that they have cold fusion powering their freezers right now. These ideas merge with engineering into claims of perpetual motion machines or devices that can generate more energy than they consume.
And finally we have straight out denialism coated in "scientific" language with things like the moon landing hoax or anti-relativity tirades.

[edit]Mathematics

Pseudomathematics is probably one of the most under-appreciated fields of pseudoscience, which is too bad since there is a wealth of great material. One of the biggest areas for exploitation is in the area of "proofs" and "theorems." Cranks love to "prove" theorems that have not yet been proven by real mathematicians, or to "disprove" theorems that have been proved, and even better to "prove" already proven theorems using high school algebra. Andrew Wiles and his proof of Fermat's last theorem has been a major lightning rod for cranks. Another favorite is squaring the circle.
In addition to proofs, there is a range of pseudoscience proponents that like to try their hand at destroying core concepts in mathematics. The imaginary number is a common target, as well as irrational numbers. Finding an exact solution to Pi remains the most popular application of pseudoscience in this category.

Rorschach test

[edit]Social Sciences and the Humanities

The various social sciences are absolutely rife with pseudoscience. The field is particularly dangerous because many of the ideas are actually "accepted" by some "experts" in the field. Psychoanalysis is a classic in psychology; it was the pseudoscience that Popper picked out to compare to the theory of relativity. Many of the diagnostic and testing methodologies in psychology, things like repressed memories, multiple personality disorder and the Rorschach test, are based on nothing but pseudoscience.

[edit]History

As the analysis of history is generally non-experimental, the discipline is not "scientific" in popular understandings of the term. Except in cases where propositions can be definitively demonstrated or discounted through, for instance, the analysis of archaeological evidence, it makes little sense to talk about history as a pseudoscience.
That said, history can also be practiced in an intellectually dishonest manner, giving us pseudohistory. Pseudohistory is the handmaiden of conspiracy theories, harnessed to trouble conventional time-lines or to prove the existence of nefarious plots such as the John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory or the 9/11 truth movement.
What distinguishes history from pseudohistory is the rigorous application of the historical method^[wp], refraining from resorting to ad hoc explanations (e.g. aliensdidit or Goddidit), and the ability to formulate hypotheses that fit with existing results of historical research (contrast the latter with the exponents of alternate historical chronologies).

[edit]Linguistics

Common forms of pseudolinguistics are spurious claims of relationships between language families (often for nationalist reasons) and nonscientific theories about how language influences our thought.

[edit]A note on terminology

See the main article on this topic: Sound science

Pseudoscience is sometimes referred to as "junk science." However, the term "junk science" has become associated with anti-environmental bullshit due to corporate mouthpiece Steve Milloy's use of the term. Milloy runs a blog called "Junk Science" where he obfuscates and denies global warming, risks associated with the use of DDT, and other environmental problems. Michael Fumento, another shill, has furthered this use of the phrase. In general, when a pundit is being interviewed or writing a column about environmental or health issues, the term "junk science" usually translates to "science that will be very inconvenient for my funders" and "sound science" translates to "some bullshit I just made up to deny the problem."

[edit]See also

Για αυτό το λήμμα υπάχει και διαθέσιμο άρθρο στα Ελληνικά, με τίτλο Ψευδοεπιστήμη.

(Article also available in Greek).

[edit]Footnotes

↑http://old.richarddawkins.net/quotes/28
↑Zetetic Astronomy Earth Not a Globe, Chapter XV.
↑ Feyerabend P Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge (1975)[1]
↑A good day for buying patio furniture - This was a genuine horoscope, published in the Khaleej Times
↑ Like this guy, who is both a creationist and a global warming denialist.
↑Clinical Trials (2003-2007)

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	Pseudoarcheology - Pseudohistory - Pseudolaw - Pseudolinguistics - Pseudomathematics - Pseudoscience - Pseudopsychology - Pseudoscience list - Pseudoscience in advertising - Pseudoskepticism - Pseudovitamin

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Wolfgang Pauli, Carl Jung, and the Acausal Connecting Principle: A Case Study in Transdisciplinarity

March 18, 2015, 7:56 am

≫ Next: What Does Quantum Mechanics Suggest About Our Perceptions of Reality?

≪ Previous: On Pseudoscience....

September 1, 2011

By Charlene P. E. Burns Metanexus

The same organizing forces that have shaped nature in all her forms are also responsible for the structure of our minds.
—Werner Heisenberg¹

While many universities and colleges have only recently begun moving toward multi-and interdisciplinary programs and offerings, transdisciplinarity, a concept that first appeared on the academic scene in the early 1970s, has become an important trend in some circles. NYU, for example, has established a Transdisciplinary program in Trauma and Violence; several universities now have Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Centers. The case for trans-rather than inter-disciplinarity in graduate education has been made by educational researchers on the basis of expectations that “graduate students need to be educated for a diverse, technical, problem-oriented world that does not yet exist, which makes it imperative that they become self-directed, lifelong learners who can thrive and participate in collaborative environments with ever-changing disciplinary boundaries.” However, there appears to be little idea yet of how this kind of education should be structured: “Only as scholars develop, study and share multiple case studies will we begin to see consistencies across cases as evidence for connections between learning and design decisions, developing generalizable principles for achieving best practices in transdisciplinary graduate education and scholarship.”²

The Weavers, 24x24" Oil. © 2009 Jeanie Tomanek. www.jeanietomanek.com
I agree with the transdisciplinary agenda in principle. I fear, though, that there has not been sufficient public discussion of the potential problems inherent in this kind of work. Scholars are prone to enthusiastic and wholesale commitment to new approaches, and in this case such a response glosses over very real pitfalls in the offing. In order to illuminate some of these problems, I explore here the collaboration between Nobel Prize winning physicist Wolfgang Pauli, a founder of quantum theory, and Carl Jung, founder of archetypal psychology, with focus on their development of the concept of synchronicity. The history of Jung’s reception by the scientific and scholarly communities serves as a caution to all who venture into the realm of what Basarab Nicolescu has called the “Included Middle”. Exploration of the Pauli-Jung collaboration is particularly apropos here, given that Nicolescu is himself a specialist in quantum physics and attributes his vision of transdisciplinarity to his scientific work.³
Nicolescu’s quest for “a space of knowledge beyond the disciplines”⁴ is exemplified by the Pauli-Jung collaboration aimed at explication of a unifying or connecting principle bridging the gap between mind and matter. Jung’s theory of synchronicity posited that certain events-often called coincidences-actually reveal the operation of an acausal connection between mental and physical events through meaning. Jung’s paradigmatic example of a synchronicity occurred during a therapy session. In this session, his patient was in the midst of relating an intense dream she had had in which someone gave her a piece of gold jewelry in the shape of a scarab beetle. As she related the dream, Jung heard a tapping sound on the office window, which was caused by a very large insect flying repeatedly against the glass. He opened the window, and in flew a small goldish-green colored scarabeid beetle. The connection between the woman telling the dream and the appearance of the actual beetle is non-causal – the inner dream experience did not cause the beetle to appear, and yet there is a connection through meaning for the woman. The connecting meaning in a synchronistic event is experiencer-specific, related to the individual’s process of psychological maturation, or individuation. Events like this occur often enough to be more than meaningless coincidence, Jung and Pauli believed.
Jung and Pauli were convinced that synchronistic events reveal an underlying unity of mind and matter, subjective and objective realities. Synchronicity was (and continues to be) a prime target for criticism of Jung that for decades bordered on outright dismissal by many in the scientific and academic communities. For example, historian of science Suzanne Gieser writes that she finds Pauli’s interest in Jung “unusual” because “most of those with an academic or scientific background dismiss Jung totally.”⁵
Following Pauli’s death in 1958, Pauli’s wife actively opposed including any of his correspondence with Jung in the collections of his papers.⁶ The chairman of CERN’s Pauli Committee recently wrote that, “inclusion of letters dealing mainly with psychology … was much debated by the committee.”⁷ In the end, they did decide to publish the correspondence, explaining that, “it is of no importance what we think of Jung and his psychology. The important thing is that Pauli was a convinced adherent of Jung’s teachings.”⁸ A brief look at the evolution and content of the decades-long correspondence between these two men will reveal the possibilities and problems inherent in efforts of even the most brilliant of specialists to transcend disciplinary limitations.
Jung’s fascination with physics actually began early in his career as a result of a series of dinners with Albert Einstein between 1909 and 1912. He later wrote that “It was Einstein who first started me thinking about a relativity of time as well as space, and their psychic conditionality…years later this stimulus led to my relation with the physicist Professor W. Pauli and to my thesis of psychic synchronicity.” His first public mention of the concept occurred 1928 during a seminar on the interpretation of dreams. Jung noted then that, in addition to the frequent appearance of common mythic motifs, dreams are often connected to coincidences in people’s lives. Taking a phenomenological stance, he said that while it would be “absurd” to consider the conjunction of dream material and life events to be causal, “it is wise to consider the fact that [these coincidences] do happen…The East…considers coincidences as the reliable basis of the world rather than causality. Synchronism is the prejudice of the East; causality is the modern prejudice of the West.”⁹ In 1930, Jung mentioned the concept again in his speech honoring Richard Wilhelm, a scholar of Chinese philosophy who had died earlier that year. In this address (later published as part of his commentary on Wilhelm’s translation of The Secret of the Golden Flower), Jung said “the science of the I Ching is based not on the causality principle but on one which-hitherto unnamed because unfamiliar to us-I have tentatively called the synchronistic principle.” He concluded that “the causality principle” cannot explain “psychic parallelisms” that must somehow be connected but are not causally related.¹⁰ In 1935, he referred once again to the idea during lectures given in London. This time he equated synchronicity with the Chinese Tao and described it as “a peculiar principle active in the world so that things happen together somehow and behave as if they were the same, and yet for us they are not.”¹¹ It was to be many years before Jung would write about this concept again, and when he did, his focus would shift from the empirical and phenomenological aspects of synchronistic phenomena to the ontological and archetypal nature of such events.¹² This shift was the outcome of his long term relationship with Wolfgang Pauli, which began in 1932, when Pauli sought help during a period of intense psychological distress.
This “crisis of his life”, as Pauli would later call the period between 1927 and 1932, was stimulated by his mother’s suicide, his father’s quick remarriage to a woman Pauli’s age, and the end of his own brief marriage to a cabaret singer, all complicated by his own meteoric rise in the world of physics. Pauli’s father suggested he seek treatment with Dr. Jung, and the two great men had their first meeting in January, 1932. By the time of this encounter, Pauli had already written a critique of Einstein’s theory of relativity so perceptive that Einstein later said Pauli was perhaps the only physicist who truly understood his work. Pauli had already done work foundational for the new field of quantum mechanics, developed the Exclusion Principle (for which he would be awarded the Nobel Prize in 1945), become the youngest person ever to hold the Chair of Theoretical Physics at Zurich, and postulated the existence of the neutrino (which was not demonstrated experimentally until 1956) by the time of this meeting.¹³ Needless to say, Pauli’s career as a highly respected physicist was well established by the time he met Jung.
During their initial session, Jung discerned that Pauli’s most immediate problems stemmed from his difficulty in relating to women and referred him to one of Jung’s students, Erna Rosenbaum. In later writings, Jung made reference to Pauli without identifying him and confessed that, upon realizing that this scientist offered a unique opportunity to explore his theory of archetypes and dreams, he had decided not to treat Pauli himself in order to “get [dream material] absolutely pure, without any influence from myself.” Since Rosenbaum was “just a beginner,” said Jung, “I was absolutely sure she would not tamper” with the raw dream content. During five months of analysis with Rosenbaum, Pauli recorded hundreds of dreams. He then worked on his own for several months before entering into a two year period of meetings with Jung himself, which some biographers claim was for analysis and others say was the meeting of colleagues exploring theories related to their common interests.¹⁴ Regardless of interpreters’ claims, in a letter written to Jung in July of 1934 Pauli makes it clear that the relationship was a therapeutic one. He wrote to break off the sessions, which had been focused on “dream interpretation and dream analysis.” The next year, Pauli renewed contact by sending Jung some notes and drawings from his own efforts to work though fantasy and dream material; thus began a relationship that would continue until 1957, when Jung experienced a period of illness. Jung recovered, but Pauli subsequently became very ill and died in 1958 as a result of pancreatic cancer.¹⁵
Pauli’s early dreams provided Jung with a rich resource for theoretical exploration, and his own interpretations played a role in Jung’s theories. In 1935 Jung sought and received permission to use Pauli’s dream content in lectures and in his essay, “Psychology and Alchemy”. Pauli was happy that his dream work might help advance Jung’s exploration of human psychology, and clearly believed that this effort was scientific: in his letter of October 2, 1935, he said, “I am pleased that my dreams may serve some scientific purpose”.¹⁶ In a 1937 letter, he said that “even the most modern physics also lends itself to the symbolic representation of psychic processes, even down to the last detail.”¹⁷
Their collaboration transformed Jung’s understanding of synchronicity. He had argued early on that “the simultaneous occurrence of a certain psychic state with one or more external events which appear as meaningful parallels to the momentary subjective state”,¹⁸ was a phenomenological concept. As a result of his interaction with Pauli, Jung gradually came to see this acausal connecting principle as an explanatory theory which, in combination with causality, might well lead to a more complete understanding of deep reality.¹⁹ The first reference to the concept in their written correspondence appears in a 1948 letter from Pauli to Jung. The two had recently conversed, and Pauli wrote to offer an illustration of synchronicity using one of his own dreams. He alluded to an unpublished essay, “Modern Examples of ‘Background Physics’” and explained that his ‘background physics’ idea referred to “the appearance of quantitative terms and concepts from physics in spontaneous fantasies in a qualitative [symbolic] sense” which is “ample proof of the fact that the kind of imagination I call ‘background physics’ is of an archetypal[in the Jungian sense] nature…the purely psychological interpretation only apprehends half of the matter. The other half is the revealing of the archetypal basis of the terms actually applied in modern physics.” This ‘background’ seems to be directed toward development of a “description of nature that uniformly comprises physics and psyche.” To accomplish this, the physicist necessarily shifts from background physics to psychology. He said, “As I regard physics and psychology as complementary types of examination, I am certain that there is an equally valid way that must lead the psychologist… (through investigating the archetypes) into the world of physics.”²⁰ In the unpublished essay, he delves more deeply into the connection between psychics and psychology: “Complementarity in physics…has a very close analogy with the terms ‘conscious’ and ‘unconscious’ in psychology, in that any ‘observation’ of unconscious contents entails fundamentally indefinable repercussions of the conscious on these very contents.”²¹
Pauli thought that the probabilistic nature of quantum theory and the Uncertainty Principle offered the possibility of discovering something beyond the mind-matter gap: “’we must postulate a cosmic order of nature beyond our control to which both the outward material objects and the inward images are subject.”²² There is, he thought, a quantum explanation for synchronistic occurrences which somehow “acausally weaves meaning into the fabric of nature.” Exploration of this might lea to an answer to the conundrum posed by quantum indeterminacy: if the deepest structures of reality are probabilities then “what fixes what actually happens”?²³ Jung and Pauli sought a unifying theory that would allow interpretation of reality as a psycho-physical whole. Pauli thought that probability mathematics expresses physically what is manifested psychologically as archetypes (deep-structure patterns for certain types of universal mental experience, or patterns of the instincts) and synchronistic events.²⁴
The two men collaborated on the synchronicity concept for several years before publishing anything on the topic. Between 1949 and 1952, Pauli reviewed Jung’s written drafts and offered many suggestions for developing the concept, including suggestions for defining terms like “acausal” and encouragement to clarify the connection between meaning and time. Jung hoped to substantiate the theory using statistical analysis of the Rhine ESP experiments and astrological claims, but his physicist collaborator said it “is paradoxical that physicists are now obliged to tell psychologists that they must not eliminate the unconscious in their statistical investigations.”²⁵ His suggestions were often quite specific. Once he reminded Jung of the need to explain that “appearance of [synchronistic events] is complementary to the archetypal contents becoming conscious.”²⁶
In his responses to Pauli’s input, Jung clearly shifted from an empirical-phenomenological approach to an ontological one which led the two men toward a more explanatory and interpretive view of synchronicity that promised to reveal the much sought-after unified mind/matter worldview. In his final version of the synchronicity essay, Jung wrote that the “archetype represents psychic probability” (italics in original).²⁷Pauli wrote in his Kepler essay (published as part two of The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche-Jung’s synchronicity essay was part one), that “pure logic” is not capable of establishing a “bridge between the sense perceptions and the concepts.” Kepler himself thought that scientific ideas discerned by humanity exist eternally as archetypes in the mind of God, and Jung’s theories pave the way to understand archetypes “as ordering operators and image-formers” in the symbolic realm which may well function as the sought-after bridge between mind and matter.²⁸“It would be most satisfactory” said Pauli, “if physics and psyche could be seen as complementary aspects of the same reality.”²⁹
The tone of Pauli’s written communication with Jung was always that characteristic of peers who respect one another’s work. When disagreeing with Jung or expressing a point that arose due to Jung’s less complete knowledge of physics, he was clear about his reasons, never belittling or demeaning Jung for having less knowledge of physics than he. Pauli’s letters to others about Jung contain, however, an altogether different tone. In a 1948 letter to another physicist (Pascual Jordan), Pauli stated that he did not think Jung’s essay, “The Spirit of Psychology”, was good, nor did he think it scientifically feasible to substantiate paranormal phenomena. And yet, the record shows that Pauli was actually at this time engaged in study of paranormal events, examining them with Jung in the context of their work on synchronicity.³⁰ Another example of Pauli’s strikingly different tone when talking about rather than to Jung comes from letters to his assistant Marcus Fierz. In 1948 he wrote, “’The danger of this situation lies in Herr Jung publishing nonsense about physics and could moreover quote me in the process’.” In 1950, he commented to Fierz that Jung was “’quite without scientific training.’”³¹ To Neils Bohr in 1955 he wrote, “most unsatisfactory seems to me the emotional and vague use of the concept ‘psyche’ by Jung, which is not even logically self-consistent.” Yet Pauli published in Dialectica, the British philosophy of science journal, that “’Jung employs a psychological-scientific terminology instead of the philosophical-metaphysical’.”³²As Geiser says, “Apparently we have here an example of Pauli showing one face to his colleagues and another to his Jungian friends.”³³
Jung was well aware of the potential for professional damage inherent in publishing his work on synchronicity, although there is no indication that he was aware of Pauli’s negative appraisal of his work when speaking with fellow physicists. In the foreword to The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche, Jung said that he “lacked the courage” to publish this work for many years, and even then, this effort was nothing more than an attempt to open discussion on “a very obscure field which is philosophically of the greatest importance.” He did not even pretend to be offering “a complete description and explanation” of synchronicity.³⁴. Although he made reference to discoveries in quantum physics throughout the essay and hoped the pairing of it with Pauli’s work would open more minds to the concept, he was not successful in communicating this intent to the wider scientific and psychological communities. In the end, the failure of many readers to grasp that his project was shaped by quantum theory as filtered through his relationship with Pauli conspired to damage his reputation. His reception has been quite mixed, sometimes praised as prophetically brilliant, often dismissed as obscurantist purveyor of mystical mumbo-jumbo.
On the positive side, the collaboration between these two men illustrates the power of a non-reductive approach to scientific exploration. Pauli’s influence echoes throughout Jung’s work. Examples in addition to the work on synchronicity include the parallels between Pauli’s complementarity principle and Jung’s “coincidence of opposites”, and Pauli’s background physics and Jung’s theory of the Collective Unconscious.
Returning to the article by the chairman of CERN’s Pauli Committee regarding publication of Pauli’s papers, his scientific works

are presented in strictly scientific terms and make no reference to any influence of the psyche in theoretical physics. Nevertheless, Pauli was convinced that science was unable to provide all of the answers. He was deeply interested in psychology and in particular in the significance of dreams… It was therefore considered proper that the publication of his scientific correspondence should reveal the thinker as a whole and not only the physicist, providing clues about how Pauli reached his ideas... The psychological correspondence of Pauli culminated in his long exchange of letters with C G Jung from 1932 to 1958. This reveals an hitherto poorly known facet of Pauli's mind. It is fascinating to follow how these two intellectual giants argue from different sides to find mutual enlightment [sic].³⁵

The declared goals of the Transdisciplinarity movement are consonant with the aims of the Pauli/Jung collaboration. Nicolescu says that “‘beyond disciplines’ precisely signifies the Subject-Object interaction,” “the Subject-Object interaction seems to us to be at the very core of transdisciplinarity,” and further, “the logic of the included middle is the very heart of quantum mechanics.” This logic is “a tool for an integrative process” that will eventually provide us with the means for reconciling differences not just among academic disciplines but between cultures and religions. Sounding a bit like Jung himself at his most poetic, Nicolescu proclaimed in his 2007 speech that transdisciplinarity will lead to a new spirituality that promises to carry us to a “’fusion of horizons’” without succumbing to the temptation of creating a “super-science or a super-religion”.³⁶ Transdisciplinarity’s “included middle” is precisely the issue at stake in the Pauli-Jung collaboration on synchronicity.
Pauli and Jung were trailblazers in their own disciplines as well as in the realm of collaboration across disciplines. Both men benefited personally and professionally from the relationship, although Jung perhaps suffered more negative consequences in the end. His work became quite popular in some circles, with students and practitioners adopting an almost messianic interpretation and a ‘Jungian’ vocabulary that unfortunately prevented the uninitiated from understanding. This trend continues to the present day, with some proclaiming him to have been the prophet of a New Age in human consciousness. I suspect this would have made Jung very unhappy. His response to the efforts to establish an institute in Zurich dedicated to his work while he was still alive says it all: “I can only hope and wish that none becomes ‘Jungian’.”³⁷ In the broader discipline of psychoanalysis, he has until very recently been marginalized except for Jungians and some who specialize in the psychology of religion. The tide is slowly turning, though, and Jung may yet have his day.
Physicists with a psychological or spiritual inclination, like David Peat and Victor Mansfield,³⁸ have taken note of synchronicity and written of its validity as an experimental conceptual frame for exploring the connection between quantum and classical physics. Other scientists have begun to explore theories of human cognition that rely on constructs very much like Jung’s archetypes and his evolutionary understanding of human religious experience.³⁹ In the end, the history of collaboration between these two brilliant men merits careful reflection for all who venture into the realm of transdisciplinary scholarship.

Endnotes

¹ W. Heisenberg, Physics and Beyond. Cambridge University Press, 1971, p 101.

²Sharon J. Derry and Gerhard Fischer, “Transdisciplinary Graduate Education”, Socio-technical Design for Lifelong Learning: A Crucial Role for Graduate Education. American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Canada. 2005

³ B. Nicolescu, “Transdisciplinarity as Methodological Framework for Going Beyond the Science-Religion Debate,” Conference Paper, Metanexus Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA. June 4, 2007. http://www.metanexus.net/conference2007/abstract/Default.aspx?id=227

⁴ B. Nicolescu, “Transdisciplinarity as Methodological Framework”.

⁵ Suzanne Gieser, The Innermost Kernel:.Depth Psychology and Quantum Physics. Wolfgang Pauli’s Dialogue with C.G.Jung. (Berlin: Springer, 2005), 162.

⁶ Gieser, The Innermost Kernel., p 4. Pauli’s wife’s distress over the possibility that his reputation as a physicist might be damaged by his interest in Jungian psychology was so great that she burned a box of letters from Marie-Louis von Franz after he die. (pg.4n5).

⁷ Maurice Jacob, CERN Courier, International Journal of High-Energy Physics. Aug 18, 2000. http://cerncourier.com/cws/article/cern/28293 accessed 2/20/09.

⁸ Gieser,5.

⁹ W. McGuire, ed. Dream Analysis: Notes on the Seminar Given on 1928-1930 by C. G. Jung (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982), 44.

¹⁰ Richard Wilhelm, Carl Gustav Jung, and Tung-Pin Lu, The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life. Trans. R. Wilhelm. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1970), 141.

¹¹ Published in C. G. Jung, Analytical Psychology: Its Theory and Practice. Collected Works 18 (London, 1968), 36, 76.

¹² M. Donati, “Beyond Synchronicity: The Worldview of Carl Gustav Jung and Wolfgang Pauli,” Journal of Analytical Psychology Vol 49 (2004): 707-728.

¹³ Beverly Zabriskie, “Jung and Pauli: A Subtle Asymmetry,” Journal of Analytical Psychology 40 (1995): 531-53).

¹⁴ David Lindorff, Pauli and Jung: The Meeting of Two Great Minds (Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 2004).

¹⁵ C. A. Meier, ed. Atom and Archetype: The Pauli/Jung Letters 1932-1958. (Princeton University Press, 2001).

¹⁶ Meier, 10.

¹⁷ Ibid., 19.

¹⁸ C. G. Jung, “Synchronicity”, Collected Works 8.

¹⁹ Donati, “Beyond Synchronicity”,

²⁰ Meier, 179-80.

²¹ Ibid., 185.

²² Letter to Marcus Fierz, 1948. Quoted in Henry p. Stapp, Mind, Matter, and Quantum Mechanics /em> (Berlin: Springe

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What Does Quantum Mechanics Suggest About Our Perceptions of Reality?

March 18, 2015, 8:03 am

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Illustration by Stephen Halvorson Blog Ref http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science

By Hans Halvorson /Big Question Online

February 24, 2015

Quantum mechanics suggests that we perceive at most a tiny sliver of reality. Of course we already knew that! We knew that the visible spectrum is only a small part of the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. We knew that the universe is much, much larger than our ancestors believed. And we already knew that we are made of things that are too small for our eyes to see. So how is it news that we only perceive a tiny sliver of reality?
It’s news because quantum mechanics says that the part of reality that we do not perceive is radically different than the part of the world that we do perceive. The difference is so profound that we still don’t fully understand how to talk about quantum reality. There doesn’t seem to be any direct analogy between quantum reality and the reality we perceive with our senses.
Before I explain the gap between our perceptions and reality, I want to state that I completely disagree with the idea that quantum mechanics forces us to accept an idealist view of reality. Idealism says that the physical universe is made out of our perceptions – in other words, out of spiritual reality. Several early interpreters of quantum mechanics thought that it supported this idealistic understanding of reality. Why would they have thought this? The reason, quite simply, is that they didn’t know how to cope with the issue of quantum indeterminacy.
Quantum indeterminacy is the unavoidable fact that not all quantities can simultaneously have determinate values. For example, if an electron has a location, then it simply has no speed – it is neither at rest, nor is it moving slowly, nor is it moving quickly. There simply is no fact of the matter about its state of motion. Similarly, if an electron is in a definite state of motion, then it’s not in any particular place – not here, nor there, nor anywhere.
Let’s be completely clear about what we’re saying here. We are not just saying that if you know the position of the electron, then you don’t know whether or not it’s moving. We’re saying that if the electron has some position, then it does not have any state of motion. What could this possibly mean? Nobody is quite sure.
But the story gets more interesting. Whenever a conscious observer tries to determine the position of the electron, she will always finds that it does indeed have a position. Similarly, whenever a conscious observer tries to determine the state of motion of an electron, she will always find that it does indeed have some particular state of motion. If these facts weren’t true, then we wouldn’t be able to test the predictions of quantum mechanics! So how are we to reconcile the fact that sometimes the electron doesn’t have a position with the fact that, whenever we look, it does have a position?
Some quantum pioneers, such as Heisenberg and Wigner, thought that the act of “looking” caused the electron to take on a definite state of motion, or a definite position. And then it wasn’t much of a further leap for them to suggest that, before anybody looks, there wasn’t any electron. If that were the case, then physical reality is brought into existence by our acts of perception.
But the path from quantum indeterminacy to subjective idealism involves several illogical leaps. First of all, why think that before a measurement occurs, no quantities possess values? While some quantities must lack values, it was proven by Jeff Bub and Rob Clifton that many quantities can possess values even when nobody is looking.
Perhaps the reason Heisenberg and others fell into idealism is that they just couldn’t see any reason why some quantities would have values while others wouldn’t. Why would an electron have a state of motion, but not have a position? Perhaps they felt like Buridan’s ass, who starved because he couldn’t see any reason to prefer one pile of straw to another identical pile.
I grant that there’s a puzzle here that needs to be solved — how can we figure out which quantities have determinate values? Several people have tried to solve this puzzle. For example, according to an idea of Louis de Broglie, which was later developed by David Bohm, reality is made out of small corpuscles that always have completely determinate positions. But why treat particle configurations as special? One reason for thinking that particle configurations are always determinate is our eyes seem to tell us that this is the case! Another good reason for thinking that particle configurations are determinate is that it’s possible to describe how they move in terms of elegant dynamical laws. Thus, the possibility of Bohmian mechanics shows that subjective idealism is by no means forced on us by quantum mechanics.
Be that as it may, Bohmian mechanics does not suggest that our perceptions mirror the nature of fundamental reality. For Bohmian mechanics also postulates the existence of a hidden field that guides the particle configurations – and this field is so mysterious that Einstein rejected it as an explanation of quantum reality. So Bohmian mechanics might be a realist interpretation of quantum mechanics, but it doesn’t license a return to naive realism. If Bohmian mechanics is true, then the physical world radically different from our perceptions of it.
There are other interpretations of quantum mechanics that describe a deep reality that is hidden from our perception. Two of the most plausible, but also most wild, suggestions are the configuration space interpretation of quantum mechanics, and the Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics.
According to the configuration space intepretation of quantum mechanics, the world of our perception is just a projection of an incredibly high dimensional configuration space. Again, this interpretation of quantum mechanics is realist in that the space of all configurations has its existence and properties quite independent from our observations. But once again, this configuration space is perceptually inaccessible to us — we can only see the effects it has within our much smaller three-dimensional space. The upshot, as before, is that if you really believe quantum mechanics, then you believe that the physical world outruns our perceptions of it.
Another popular way to think of quantum mechanics is in terms of the Everett, or “many worlds,” intepretation of the theory. In this case, the configuration space doesn’t cause any ontological headaches; however, the wave function of the universe must be taken to be a real thing. But now we have some real work to do in explaining why human experience portrays the world in a very different light, i.e. as something that looks to have determinate properties, when in fact it doesn’t.
But what could we possibly mean by this? How could something without determinate properties explain the appearance of determinate properties? Well, good Everettians would say that the wave function does have properties — just not those properties that appear in our observation reports (e.g. “the particle is in position ”). But what properties does the wave function have? According to a famous proponent of the Everett interpretation,
“Every mathematical property of the wave function describes, or corresponds to, some property of the real, physical world.”[1]
This is an intriguing idea. But what exactly are the mathematical properties of the wave function? As a mathematical object, a wave function is a function; and a function is a certain sort of set of ordered pairs. What kinds of properties can a set of ordered pairs have? Well, it might contain the pair consisting of the emptyset and the number 17. But what physical property corresponds to that mathematical property? What if it didn't contain that pair, but instead contained the pair consisting of a singleton set and the number 17. What would the corresponding difference be in the physical world? As you can see, these are fruitless questions. It's a bad idea to say that the wave function represents a thing whose properties are in one-to-one correspondence with that function's mathematical properties.
Realists about quantum mechanics – such as Bohm and Everett – say the wave function is “real”; and I think that’s a good thing to say. But let’s be careful. To call the wave function a “thing” is to commit a basic grammatical error: a state is not a thing, but a way of being. A wave function is more like a “situation” or a “possible world,” not a thing you can touch or pick up. Sure, we could say that situations and possible worlds “exist,” but they’re of a different kind than “things.” Situations aren’t the fundamental bearers of properties — instead, a situation is composed of things bearing properties. Thus, we can grant that the wave function is real while denying that it is a thing; and if this is right, then it’s a mistake to think that the wave function has properties.
Another important point to keep in mind is that perception cannot possibly reveal the wave function. The impossibility here follows from the “no cloning theorem” of quantum mechanics. According to the no cloning theorem, no physical object whatsoever can reliably track (by changing its state) the quantum state of another object. In other words, the laws of nature do not allow for the existence of a machine that copies quantum states; consequently, the human brain cannot possibly track the wave function of a physical object. So, if reality is the wave function, then we simply cannot perceive reality as it is in itself.
Where does that leave us? The remarkable thing is that we can still reliably track aspects of reality. Whatever quantity you want to measure — be it position, momentum, or spin — if you measure it twice, within a short span of time, you will find that it has the same value. Thus, we have good reason to think that our measurements provide reliable information about reality. This sort of reliability is good enough to guide our actions, and it provides strong evidence of the hidden reality behind our perceptions.

Discussion questions

How does quantum mechanics bear on the age-old philosophical debate between materialism and idealism? Does it tip the scale in either direction?
Which view of quantum reality is most plausible? The Bohmian view? The Everett view?
Is the quantum wave function real? What does it mean to say that it’s real?
The author argued that the quantum wave function is not a thing. But then what does exist according to quantum mechanics?
Does the no-cloning theorem support a form of perspectivalism, i.e. that our knowledge of the world is always bound to a particular perspective, and cannot encompass all aspects of reality?

[1]David Deutsch, post on groups.google.com

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Results challenge conventional wisdom about where the brain processes visual information

March 18, 2015, 8:08 am

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Neuroscience

March 2, 2015

Blogger Ref http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science

Results challenge conventional wisdom about where the brain processes visual information — Localization of the human lateral geniculate nucleus, using high-resolution functional MRI (orange) and anatomical MRI (green). Credit: Tong Lab, Vanderbilt University

Neuroscientists generally think of the front end of the human visual system as a simple light detection system: The patterns produced when light falls on the retina are relayed to the visual cortex at the rear of the brain, where all of the "magic" happens that transforms these patterns into the three-dimensional world view that we perceive with our mind's eye.
Now, however, a brain imaging study - published online by the journal Nature Neuroscience on Mar. 2 - challenges this basic assumption. Using high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a team of researchers from Vanderbilt and Boston universities, have discovered that more complex processing occurs in the initial stages of the visual system than previously thought. Specifically, they have found evidence of processing in the human lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), a small node in the thalamus in the middle of the brain that relays nerve impulses from the retina to the primary visual cortex.
An important function of the visual cortex is the processing of rudiments of shape, the angles of lines and edges, which are important for defining the outlines of objects. The researchers found that the human LGN is also sensitive to the orientation of lines and that this effect is enhanced when a person simply pays attention to the orientations in an image.
"These findings demonstrate that even the simplest brain structures may play a fundamental role in complex neural processes of perception and attention," said Frank Tong, professor of psychology at Vanderbilt, who conducted the study with postdoctoral fellow Michael Pratte and Sam Ling at Boston University. "They also highlight how higher cortical areas can influence and modulate how we see by modifying the responses of neurons at the earliest stages in the visual pathway through feedback connections."
"The findings challenge the conventional wisdom about how and where in the brain the processing of visual orientation information first occurs," commented Michael A. Steinmetz, acting director of the Division of Extramural Research at the National Eye Institute, which provided funding for the study. "The research also underscores the concept that the perception of visual stimuli evolves from dynamic processes in widely distributed networks in the brain."

Explore further:Researchers find where visual memories are made

More information: Attention alters orientation processing in the human lateral geniculate nucleus, Nature Neuroscience , DOI: 10.1038/nn.3967

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Voices in people's heads more complex than previously thought

March 18, 2015, 8:11 am

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Date:

March 10, 2015

Source:

Durham University/Science Daily/Blogger Ref http;//www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science

Summary:

Voices in people's heads are far more varied and complex than previously thought. One of the largest and most detailed studies to date on the experience of auditory hallucinations, commonly referred to as voice hearing, found that the majority of voice-hearers hear multiple voices with distinct character-like qualities, with many also experiencing physical effects on their bodies. The study also confirmed that both people with and without psychiatric diagnoses

hear voices.

Voices in people's heads are far more varied and complex than previously thought, according to new research by Durham and Stanford universities, published in The Lancet Psychiatry today.

One of the largest and most detailed studies to date on the experience of auditory hallucinations, commonly referred to as voice hearing, found that the majority of voice-hearers hear multiple voices with distinct character-like qualities, with many also experiencing physical effects on their bodies.
The study also confirmed that both people with and without psychiatric diagnoses hear voices.
The findings question some of the current assumptions about the nature of hearing voices and suggest there is a greater variation in the way voices are experienced than is typically recognised.
The researchers say this variation means different types of therapies could be needed for voice-hearers, such as tailored Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) geared towards distinct voice sub-types or patterns of voice hearing.
Current common approaches to help with voices include medication, CBT, voice dialogue techniques and other forms of therapy and self-help.
Auditory hallucinations are a common feature of many psychiatric disorders, such as psychosis, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but are also experienced by people without psychiatric conditions. It is estimated that between five and 15 per cent of adults will experience auditory hallucinations during their lifetimes.
This is one of the first studies to shed light on the nature of voice-hearing both inside and outside schizophrenia, across many different mental health diagnoses.
Lead researcher Dr Angela Woods, from the Centre for Medical Humanities at Durham University, said: "Our findings have the potential to overturn mainstream psychiatric assumptions about the nature of hearing voices.
"We call into question the presumed auditory quality of hearing voices and show that there is an unrecognised complexity in the 'character' qualities of some voices.
"It is crucial to study mental health and human experiences such as voice-hearing from a variety of different perspectives to truly find out what people are experiencing, not just what we think they must be experiencing because they have a particular diagnosis. We hope this approach can help inform the development of future clinical interventions."
The researchers, funded by the Wellcome Trust, collected answers to open- and close-ended questions through an on-line questionnaire focused on description of experiences from 153 respondents. The majority of respondents had been diagnosed with a psychiatric condition but 26 had no history of mental illness. Participants were free to respond in their own words.
The large majority of respondents described hearing multiple voices (81 per cent) with characterful qualities (70 per cent).
Less than half the participants reported hearing purely auditory voices with 45 per cent reporting either thought-like or 'inbetween' voices with some thought-like and some acoustic qualities. This finding challenges the view that hearing voices is always a perceptual or acoustic phenomenon, and may have implications for future neuroscientific studies of what is happening in the brain when people 'hear' voices.
66 per cent of people felt bodily sensations while hearing voices, such as feeling hot or tingling sensations in their hands and feet. Voices with effects on the body were more likely to be abusive or violent, and, in some cases, be linked to experiences of trauma.
While fear, anxiety, depression and stress were often associated with voices, 31 per cent of participants said they also felt positive emotions.
Co-author Dr Nev Jones from Stanford University said: "Our findings regarding the prevalence and phenomenology of non-acoustic voices are particularly noteworthy. By and large, these voices were not experienced simply as intrusive or unwanted thoughts, but rather, like the auditory voices, as distinct 'entities' with their own personalities and content. This data also suggests that we need to think much more carefully about the distinction between imagined percepts, such as sound, and perception."
Case study
Rachel Waddingham is an independent trainer and consultant with Behind The Label and a trustee of the National Hearing Voices Network and the International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis.
Rachel hears voices, sees visions and has struggled with overwhelming beliefs.
Rachel explains: "I hear about 13 or so voices. Each of them is different -- some have names, they are different ages and sound like different people. Some of them are very angry and violent, others are scared, and others are mischievous. Sometimes, I hear a child who is very frightened. When she is frightened I can sometimes feel pains in my body -- burning. If I can help the voice calm down, by doing some grounding strategies, the burning pains stop.
"Since going to a Hearing Voices Group, I have found ways of making sense of and coping with my voices. I no longer feel terrorised by them even though some of them say some very frightening things. I now have a family of voices and have a better relationship with them. I can make a choice about how I respond to them -- whether I listen to them, and how I reply. Some of them are now much more helpful -- they can be a window to my feelings, letting me know about a problem that I have in my life that I need to address.
"Although in our society, people who hear voices are often seen as 'mad' or 'crazy', I do think things are changing. I find that lots of people are interested in voice-hearing. Many people have told me about experiences they have had -- either in their childhood, or as an adult. It's as if by talking about voices we are starting to de-stigmatise the experience and opening the door for others to speak openly too.
"As long as we believe that voices are signs of pathology and illness, it makes little sense to really explore a person's lived experience. Instead we try to suppress or eliminate the voices as far as possible. Listening to them seems 'crazy'. Still, in my experience it can be really useful to be interested in people's lived experience of voice-hearing. Every one of us is different, and being curious about my experiences was one of the first steps to dealing with them.
"This research is a step forward. If we want to understand more about voice-hearing, it makes sense to ask a voice-hearer -- and be willing to modify our perception of what it means to hear voices based on their answers. For me, the word 'voices' isn't sufficient. I use it, but it hides the embodied parts of my experience for which I have few words to describe.
"I would like to live in a world where we are curious about one another's experiences and seek to understand rather than pathologise. Everyone has a story and the world would be much kinder if we started to listen to it."

Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Durham University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Journal Reference:

Angela Woods, , Nev Jones, Ben Alderson-Day , Felicity Callard, Charles Fernyhough. Experiences of hearing voices: analysis of a novel phenomenological survey. Lancet Psychiatry, 2015 DOI: 10.1016/S2215-0366(15)00006-1

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The strange world of felt presences

March 18, 2015, 8:14 am

≫ Next: ARE YOU LIVING IN A COMPUTER SIMULATION?

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What links polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, sleep paralysis, and hearing voices?

Endurance expedition 1914 — On 5 December 1914, explorer Ernest Shackleton left South Georgia with his ship HMS Endurance, heading for Antarctica. Within weeks the crew had run into trouble. Heavy pack ice surrounded the vessel, and gradually began to crush the ship. Above, men play football on the floe while waiting for the ice to break up around the ship. Photograph: Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images

Ben Alderson-Day and David Smailes

On 20 May 1916, Ernest Shackleton, Frank Worsley, and Tom Crean reached Stromness, a whaling station on the north coast of South Georgia. They had been walking for 36 hours, in life-threatening conditions, in an attempt to reach help for the rest of their party: three of their crew were stuck on the south side of the island, with the remainder stranded on Elephant Island. To reach the whaling station, the three men had to cross the island’s mountainous interior with just a rope and an axe, in a journey that few had attempted before or since. By reaching Stromness they managed to save all the men left from the ill-fated Imperial Transantarctic Expedition.
They did not talk about it at the time, but weeks later all three men reported an uncanny experience during their trek: a feeling that “often there were four, not three” men on their journey. The “fourth” that accompanied them had the silent presence of a real person, someone walking with them by their side, as far as the whaling station but no further. Shackleton was apparently deeply affected by the experience, but would say little about it in subsequent years, considering it something “which can never be spoken of”.
Encounters such as these are common in extreme survival situations: guardian angels, guides, or even Christ-like figures have often been reported. We know them now as “third man” experiences, following a line in TS Eliot’s poem, The Wasteland:
“Who is the third who walks always beside you? When I count, there are only you and I together. But when I look ahead up the white road, there is always another one walking beside you”
Eliot had heard of Shackleton’s encounter, but could not remember the precise details – meaning that the “fourth” man became the “third”.
In his book The Third Man Factor, John Geiger collects together a wide range of third man stories, including accounts from mountaineers, sailors, and survivors of terrorist attacks. They all involve a strong impression of a felt presence, sometimes with a voice or a shadow-like image, but often without a clear form. Extreme physical conditions, threat to life, and social isolation all seem to trigger the feeling of a presence, which will often feel as if it has a spiritual or guiding purpose.
In the case of the third man, it is tempting to think that strong feelings of presence act as some sort of hallucinatory defence mechanism – something that could happen to anyone, but only in very extreme scenarios. Such experiences are, however, also reported in much less dramatic circumstances. Following bereavement, for example, many people report sensing the presence of their deceased loved one; a feeling that someone is still in the house, just upstairs, or in their favourite chair.
Felt presences are common during the experience of sleep paralysis, when people have the feeling of being awake but not being able to move their body. Often this is accompanied by a sense of a presence in the room, along with physical sensations such as pressure on the chest and difficulty breathing. Feelings of presence also feature in particular neurological disorders – such as Parkinson’s disease – and cases of brain damage.
The different contexts in which felt presences occur give us some clues about what might be happening. For example, their association with bereavement suggests that emotional factors (eg, strong, persistent feelings of sadness), as well as strong expectations that another person ‘should’ be present, are important factors. In the case of Parkinson’s disease, they appear to occur most often in people who receive high doses of medication, suggesting that the neurotransmitter dopamine may well be involved in felt presence experiences.
Perhaps most revealingly, people with brain injuries who report felt presence experiences often have damage to an area called the temporoparietal junction (TPJ), and electrical stimulation of this area can induce the feeling of a nearby sensed presence. Among many other things, the TPJ appears to play an important role in maintaining an internal representation of our body image. So, one possibility is that feelings of a presence occur when our representation of our body is somehow duplicated or projected outside of us (something known as an “autoscopic” experience). Supporting this idea, often the person having a felt presence feels like they have some important bond or affinity with the figure they experience.
On the other hand, some feelings of presence are described as being very alien and often malevolent towards the perceiver: sleep paralysis, for example, is often accompanied by feelings of anxiety and dread in relation to the “entity” in the room. It has been argued that cases of sleep paralysis also involve old, evolutionary impulses to detect threat in our environment. This, coupled with muscle paralysis, could lead to an intense fear of the presence in the room.
Understanding more about how and why felt presences occur has the potential to tell us many things about ourselves: how we react under intense mental or physical stress, how we deal with danger and threat, and how we recognise the shape and position of our own body. But one thing it also may do is shed light on other unusual experiences that are hard to understand.
For example, in cases of hearing voices (sometimes called auditory verbal hallucinations), people sometimes struggle to describe the nature of the “voice” they hear. Because we tend to use the term ‘hearing voices’ to describe this experience, researchers and clinicians often focus on auditory characteristics (Did the voice sound like it was coming from inside your head, or outside of your head? How loud was the voice?). But sometimes, feelings of presence might accompany the voice-hearing experience, and some people who hear voices describe their “voice” being there even when it is not speaking; a voice that seems to have a presence of its own. In these cases, hearing a voice may be much more like sensing a person or being visited by an entity, rather than experiencing sound. Interestingly, there is also some evidence that the neural connectivity of the TPJ area is organised in a different way for people who hear regularly hear voices.
If voices and presences were to overlap in some way then it could have consequences both for research and treatment, when help is sought. For instance, researchers might need to look closer at social factors that seem to trigger voices, or study brain networks that support social cognition and body representation. Approaches that involve interacting with voices and treating them like people – something that voice-hearers themselves have often advocated – could prove to be useful for health professionals, and some psychologists are already having success with such techniques. In this way, the third man does not just tell us about our own minds or bodies; it offers us a way to help and understand others – just as he did for Shackleton.
If you like to know more about felt presences and hearing voices, or would like to take part in our research, you can visit our blog or contact us via email.

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ARE YOU LIVING IN A COMPUTER SIMULATION?

March 18, 2015, 8:23 am

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BY NICK BOSTROM

Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford University

Published in Philosophical Quarterly (2003) Vol. 53, No. 211, pp. 243-255.

[www.simulation-argument.com]

pdf-version: [PDF] Blogger Ref http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that at least one of the following propositions is true: (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage; (2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof); (3) we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation. It follows that the belief that there is a significant chance that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor-simulations is false, unless we are currently living in a simulation. A number of other consequences of this result are also discussed.

I. INTRODUCTION

Many works of science fiction as well as some forecasts by serious technologists and futurologists predict that enormous amounts of computing power will be available in the future. Let us suppose for a moment that these predictions are correct. One thing that later generations might do with their super-powerful computers is run detailed simulations of their forebears or of people like their forebears. Because their computers would be so powerful, they could run a great many such simulations. Suppose that these simulated people are conscious (as they would be if the simulations were sufficiently fine-grained and if a certain quite widely accepted position in the philosophy of mind is correct). Then it could be the case that the vast majority of minds like ours do not belong to the original race but rather to people simulated by the advanced descendants of an original race. It is then possible to argue that, if this were the case, we would be rational to think that we are likely among the simulated minds rather than among the original biological ones. Therefore, if we don’t think that we are currently living in a computer simulation, we are not entitled to believe that we will have descendants who will run lots of such simulations of their forebears. That is the basic idea. The rest of this paper will spell it out more carefully.

Apart form the interest this thesis may hold for those who are engaged in futuristic speculation, there are also more purely theoretical rewards. The argument provides a stimulus for formulating some methodological and metaphysical questions, and it suggests naturalistic analogies to certain traditional religious conceptions, which some may find amusing or thought-provoking.

The structure of the paper is as follows. First, we formulate an assumption that we need to import from the philosophy of mind in order to get the argument started. Second, we consider some empirical reasons for thinking that running vastly many simulations of human minds would be within the capability of a future civilization that has developed many of those technologies that can already be shown to be compatible with known physical laws and engineering constraints. This part is not philosophically necessary but it provides an incentive for paying attention to the rest. Then follows the core of the argument, which makes use of some simple probability theory, and a section providing support for a weak indifference principle that the argument employs. Lastly, we discuss some interpretations of the disjunction, mentioned in the abstract, that forms the conclusion of the simulation argument.

II. THE ASSUMPTION OF SUBSTRATE-INDEPENDENCE

A common assumption in the philosophy of mind is that of substrate-independence. The idea is that mental states can supervene on any of a broad class of physical substrates. Provided a system implements the right sort of computational structures and processes, it can be associated with conscious experiences. It is not an essential property of consciousness that it is implemented on carbon-based biological neural networks inside a cranium: silicon-based processors inside a computer could in principle do the trick as well.

Arguments for this thesis have been given in the literature, and although it is not entirely uncontroversial, we shall here take it as a given.

The argument we shall present does not, however, depend on any very strong version of functionalism or computationalism. For example, we need not assume that the thesis of substrate-independence is necessarily true (either analytically or metaphysically) – just that, in fact, a computer running a suitable program would be conscious. Moreover, we need not assume that in order to create a mind on a computer it would be sufficient to program it in such a way that it behaves like a human in all situations, including passing the Turing test etc. We need only the weaker assumption that it would suffice for the generation of subjective experiences that the computational processes of a human brain are structurally replicated in suitably fine-grained detail, such as on the level of individual synapses. This attenuated version of substrate-independence is quite widely accepted.

Neurotransmitters, nerve growth factors, and other chemicals that are smaller than a synapse clearly play a role in human cognition and learning. The substrate-independence thesis is not that the effects of these chemicals are small or irrelevant, but rather that they affect subjective experience only via their direct or indirect influence on computational activities. For example, if there can be no difference in subjective experience without there also being a difference in synaptic discharges, then the requisite detail of simulation is at the synaptic level (or higher).

III. THE TECHNOLOGICAL LIMITS OF COMPUTATION

At our current stage of technological development, we have neither sufficiently powerful hardware nor the requisite software to create conscious minds in computers. But persuasive arguments have been given to the effect that if technological progress continues unabated then these shortcomings will eventually be overcome. Some authors argue that this stage may be only a few decades away.[1] Yet present purposes require no assumptions about the time-scale. The simulation argument works equally well for those who think that it will take hundreds of thousands of years to reach a “posthuman” stage of civilization, where humankind has acquired most of the technological capabilities that one can currently show to be consistent with physical laws and with material and energy constraints.

Such a mature stage of technological development will make it possible to convert planets and other astronomical resources into enormously powerful computers. It is currently hard to be confident in any upper bound on the computing power that may be available to posthuman civilizations. As we are still lacking a “theory of everything”, we cannot rule out the possibility that novel physical phenomena, not allowed for in current physical theories, may be utilized to transcend those constraints[2] that in our current understanding impose theoretical limits on the information processing attainable in a given lump of matter. We can with much greater confidence establish lower bounds on posthuman computation, by assuming only mechanisms that are already understood. For example, Eric Drexler has outlined a design for a system the size of a sugar cube (excluding cooling and power supply) that would perform 10²¹ instructions per second.[3] Another author gives a rough estimate of 10⁴²operations per second for a computer with a mass on order of a large planet.[4] (If we could create quantum computers, or learn to build computers out of nuclear matter or plasma, we could push closer to the theoretical limits. Seth Lloyd calculates an upper bound for a 1 kg computer of 5*10⁵⁰ logical operations per second carried out on ~10³¹ bits.[5] However, it suffices for our purposes to use the more conservative estimate that presupposes only currently known design-principles.)

The amount of computing power needed to emulate a human mind can likewise be roughly estimated. One estimate, based on how computationally expensive it is to replicate the functionality of a piece of nervous tissue that we have already understood and whose functionality has been replicated in silico, contrast enhancement in the retina, yields a figure of ~10¹⁴ operations per second for the entire human brain.[6] An alternative estimate, based the number of synapses in the brain and their firing frequency, gives a figure of ~10¹⁶-10¹⁷ operations per second.[7] Conceivably, even more could be required if we want to simulate in detail the internal workings of synapses and dendritic trees. However, it is likely that the human central nervous system has a high degree of redundancy on the mircoscale to compensate for the unreliability and noisiness of its neuronal components. One would therefore expect a substantial efficiency gain when using more reliable and versatile non-biological processors.

Memory seems to be a no more stringent constraint than processing power.[8] Moreover, since the maximum human sensory bandwidth is ~10⁸ bits per second, simulating all sensory events incurs a negligible cost compared to simulating the cortical activity. We can therefore use the processing power required to simulate the central nervous system as an estimate of the total computational cost of simulating a human mind.

If the environment is included in the simulation, this will require additional computing power – how much depends on the scope and granularity of the simulation. Simulating the entire universe down to the quantum level is obviously infeasible, unless radically new physics is discovered. But in order to get a realistic simulation of human experience, much less is needed – only whatever is required to ensure that the simulated humans, interacting in normal human ways with their simulated environment, don’t notice any irregularities. The microscopic structure of the inside of the Earth can be safely omitted. Distant astronomical objects can have highly compressed representations: verisimilitude need extend to the narrow band of properties that we can observe from our planet or solar system spacecraft. On the surface of Earth, macroscopic objects in inhabited areas may need to be continuously simulated, but microscopic phenomena could likely be filled in ad hoc. What you see through an electron microscope needs to look unsuspicious, but you usually have no way of confirming its coherence with unobserved parts of the microscopic world. Exceptions arise when we deliberately design systems to harness unobserved microscopic phenomena that operate in accordance with known principles to get results that we are able to independently verify. The paradigmatic case of this is a computer. The simulation may therefore need to include a continuous representation of computers down to the level of individual logic elements. This presents no problem, since our current computing power is negligible by posthuman standards.

Moreover, a posthuman simulator would have enough computing power to keep track of the detailed belief-states in all human brains at all times. Therefore, when it saw that a human was about to make an observation of the microscopic world, it could fill in sufficient detail in the simulation in the appropriate domain on an as-needed basis. Should any error occur, the director could easily edit the states of any brains that have become aware of an anomaly before it spoils the simulation. Alternatively, the director could skip back a few seconds and rerun the simulation in a way that avoids the problem.

It thus seems plausible that the main computational cost in creating simulations that are indistinguishable from physical reality for human minds in the simulation resides in simulating organic brains down to the neuronal or sub-neuronal level.[9] While it is not possible to get a very exact estimate of the cost of a realistic simulation of human history, we can use ~10³³ - 10³⁶ operations as a rough estimate[10]. As we gain more experience with virtual reality, we will get a better grasp of the computational requirements for making such worlds appear realistic to their visitors. But in any case, even if our estimate is off by several orders of magnitude, this does not matter much for our argument. We noted that a rough approximation of the computational power of a planetary-mass computer is 10⁴²operations per second, and that assumes only already known nanotechnological designs, which are probably far from optimal. A single such a computer could simulate the entire mental history of humankind (call this an ancestor-simulation) by using less than one millionth of its processing power for one second. A posthuman civilization may eventually build an astronomical number of such computers. We can conclude that the computing power available to a posthuman civilization is sufficient to run a huge number of ancestor-simulations even it allocates only a minute fraction of its resources to that purpose. We can draw this conclusion even while leaving a substantial margin of error in all our estimates.

· Posthuman civilizations would have enough computing power to run hugely many ancestor-simulations even while using only a tiny fraction of their resources for that purpose.

IV. THE CORE OF THE SIMULATION ARGUMENT

The basic idea of this paper can be expressed roughly as follows: If there were a substantial chance that our civilization will ever get to the posthuman stage and run many ancestor-simulations, then how come you are not living in such a simulation?

We shall develop this idea into a rigorous argument. Let us introduce the following notation:

: Fraction of all human-level technological civilizations that survive to reach a posthuman stage

: Average number of ancestor-simulations run by a posthuman civilization

: Average number of individuals that have lived in a civilization before it reaches a posthuman stage

The actual fraction of all observers with human-type experiences that live in simulations is then

Writing for the fraction of posthuman civilizations that are interested in running ancestor-simulations (or that contain at least some individuals who are interested in that and have sufficient resources to run a significant number of such simulations), and for the average number of ancestor-simulations run by such interested civilizations, we have

and thus:

(*)

Because of the immense computing power of posthuman civilizations, is extremely large, as we saw in the previous section. By inspecting (*) we can then see that at least one of the following three propositions must be true:

(1)

(2)

(3)

V. A BLAND INDIFFERENCE PRINCIPLE

We can take a further step and conclude that conditional on the truth of (3), one’s credence in the hypothesis that one is in a simulation should be close to unity. More generally, if we knew that a fraction x of all observers with human-type experiences live in simulations, and we don’t have any information that indicate that our own particular experiences are any more or less likely than other human-type experiences to have been implemented in vivo rather than in machina, then our credence that we are in a simulation should equal x:

(#)

This step is sanctioned by a very weak indifference principle. Let us distinguish two cases. The first case, which is the easiest, is where all the minds in question are like your own in the sense that they are exactly qualitatively identical to yours: they have exactly the same information and the same experiences that you have. The second case is where the minds are “like” each other only in the loose sense of being the sort of minds that are typical of human creatures, but they are qualitatively distinct from one another and each has a distinct set of experiences. I maintain that even in the latter case, where the minds are qualitatively different, the simulation argument still works, provided that you have no information that bears on the question of which of the various minds are simulated and which are implemented biologically.

A detailed defense of a stronger principle, which implies the above stance for both cases as trivial special instances, has been given in the literature.[11] Space does not permit a recapitulation of that defense here, but we can bring out one of the underlying intuitions by bringing to our attention to an analogous situation of a more familiar kind. Suppose that x% of the population has a certain genetic sequence S within the part of their DNA commonly designated as “junk DNA”. Suppose, further, that there are no manifestations of S (short of what would turn up in a gene assay) and that there are no known correlations between having S and any observable characteristic. Then, quite clearly, unless you have had your DNA sequenced, it is rational to assign a credence of x% to the hypothesis that you have S. And this is so quite irrespective of the fact that the people who have S have qualitatively different minds and experiences from the people who don’t have S. (They are different simply because all humans have different experiences from one another, not because of any known link between S and what kind of experiences one has.)

The same reasoning holds if S is not the property of having a certain genetic sequence but instead the property of being in a simulation, assuming only that we have no information that enables us to predict any differences between the experiences of simulated minds and those of the original biological minds.

It should be stressed that the bland indifference principle expressed by (#) prescribes indifference only between hypotheses about which observer you are, when you have no information about which of these observers you are. It does not in general prescribe indifference between hypotheses when you lack specific information about which of the hypotheses is true. In contrast to Laplacean and other more ambitious principles of indifference, it is therefore immune to Bertrand’s paradox and similar predicaments that tend to plague indifference principles of unrestricted scope.

Readers familiar with the Doomsday argument[12] may worry that the bland principle of indifference invoked here is the same assumption that is responsible for getting the Doomsday argument off the ground, and that the counterintuitiveness of some of the implications of the latter incriminates or casts doubt on the validity of the former. This is not so. The Doomsday argument rests on a much stronger and more controversial premiss, namely that one should reason as if one were a random sample from the set of all people who will ever have lived (past, present, and future) even though we know that we are living in the early twenty-first century rather than at some point in the distant past or the future. The bland indifference principle, by contrast, applies only to cases where we have no information about which group of people we belong to.

If betting odds provide some guidance to rational belief, it may also be worth to ponder that if everybody were to place a bet on whether they are in a simulation or not, then if people use the bland principle of indifference, and consequently place their money on being in a simulation if they know that that’s where almost all people are, then almost everyone will win their bets. If they bet on not being in a simulation, then almost everyone will lose. It seems better that the bland indifference principle be heeded.

Further, one can consider a sequence of possible situations in which an increasing fraction of all people live in simulations: 98%, 99%, 99.9%, 99.9999%, and so on. As one approaches the limiting case in which everybody is in a simulation (from which one can deductively infer that one is in a simulation oneself), it is plausible to require that the credence one assigns to being in a simulation gradually approach the limiting case of complete certainty in a matching manner.

VI. INTERPRETATION

The possibility represented by proposition (1) is fairly straightforward. If (1) is true, then humankind will almost certainly fail to reach a posthuman level; for virtually no species at our level of development become posthuman, and it is hard to see any justification for thinking that our own species will be especially privileged or protected from future disasters. Conditional on (1), therefore, we must give a high credence to DOOM, the hypothesis that humankind will go extinct before reaching a posthuman level:

One can imagine hypothetical situations were we have such evidence as would trump knowledge of . For example, if we discovered that we were about to be hit by a giant meteor, this might suggest that we had been exceptionally unlucky. We could then assign a credence to DOOM larger than our expectation of the fraction of human-level civilizations that fail to reach posthumanity. In the actual case, however, we seem to lack evidence for thinking that we are special in this regard, for better or worse.

Proposition (1) doesn’t by itself imply that we are likely to go extinct soon, only that we are unlikely to reach a posthuman stage. This possibility is compatible with us remaining at, or somewhat above, our current level of technological development for a long time before going extinct. Another way for (1) to be true is if it is likely that technological civilization will collapse. Primitive human societies might then remain on Earth indefinitely.

There are many ways in which humanity could become extinct before reaching posthumanity. Perhaps the most natural interpretation of (1) is that we are likely to go extinct as a result of the development of some powerful but dangerous technology.[13] One candidate is molecular nanotechnology, which in its mature stage would enable the construction of self-replicating nanobots capable of feeding on dirt and organic matter – a kind of mechanical bacteria. Such nanobots, designed for malicious ends, could cause the extinction of all life on our planet.[14]

The second alternative in the simulation argument’s conclusion is that the fraction of posthuman civilizations that are interested in running ancestor-simulation is negligibly small. In order for (2) to be true, there must be a strong convergence among the courses of advanced civilizations. If the number of ancestor-simulations created by the interested civilizations is extremely large, the rarity of such civilizations must be correspondingly extreme. Virtually no posthuman civilizations decide to use their resources to run large numbers of ancestor-simulations. Furthermore, virtually all posthuman civilizations lack individuals who have sufficient resources and interest to run ancestor-simulations; or else they have reliably enforced laws that prevent such individuals from acting on their desires.

What force could bring about such convergence? One can speculate that advanced civilizations all develop along a trajectory that leads to the recognition of an ethical prohibition against running ancestor-simulations because of the suffering that is inflicted on the inhabitants of the simulation. However, from our present point of view, it is not clear that creating a human race is immoral. On the contrary, we tend to view the existence of our race as constituting a great ethical value. Moreover, convergence on an ethical view of the immorality of running ancestor-simulations is not enough: it must be combined with convergence on a civilization-wide social structure that enables activities considered immoral to be effectively banned.

Another possible convergence point is that almost all individual posthumans in virtually all posthuman civilizations develop in a direction where they lose their desires to run ancestor-simulations. This would require significant changes to the motivations driving their human predecessors, for there are certainly many humans who would like to run ancestor-simulations if they could afford to do so. But perhaps many of our human desires will be regarded as silly by anyone who becomes a posthuman. Maybe the scientific value of ancestor-simulations to a posthuman civilization is negligible (which is not too implausible given its unfathomable intellectual superiority), and maybe posthumans regard recreational activities as merely a very inefficient way of getting pleasure – which can be obtained much more cheaply by direct stimulation of the brain’s reward centers. One conclusion that follows from (2) is that posthuman societies will be very different from human societies: they will not contain relatively wealthy independent agents who have the full gamut of human-like desires and are free to act on them.

The possibility expressed by alternative (3) is the conceptually most intriguing one. If we are living in a simulation, then the cosmos that we are observing is just a tiny piece of the totality of physical existence. The physics in the universe where the computer is situated that is running the simulation may or may not resemble the physics of the world that we observe. While the world we see is in some sense “real”, it is not located at the fundamental level of reality.

It may be possible for simulated civilizations to become posthuman. They may then run their own ancestor-simulations on powerful computers they build in their simulated universe. Such computers would be “virtual machines”, a familiar concept in computer science. (Java script web-applets, for instance, run on a virtual machine – a simulated computer – inside your desktop.) Virtual machines can be stacked: it’s possible to simulate a machine simulating another machine, and so on, in arbitrarily many steps of iteration. If we do go on to create our own ancestor-simulations, this would be strong evidence against (1) and (2), and we would therefore have to conclude that we live in a simulation. Moreover, we would have to suspect that the posthumans running our simulation are themselves simulated beings; and their creators, in turn, may also be simulated beings.

Reality may thus contain many levels. Even if it is necessary for the hierarchy to bottom out at some stage – the metaphysical status of this claim is somewhat obscure – there may be room for a large number of levels of reality, and the number could be increasing over time. (One consideration that counts against the multi-level hypothesis is that the computational cost for the basement-level simulators would be very great. Simulating even a single posthuman civilization might be prohibitively expensive. If so, then we should expect our simulation to be terminated when we are about to become posthuman.)

Although all the elements of such a system can be naturalistic, even physical, it is possible to draw some loose analogies with religious conceptions of the world. In some ways, the posthumans running a simulation are like gods in relation to the people inhabiting the simulation: the posthumans created the world we see; they are of superior intelligence; they are “omnipotent” in the sense that they can interfere in the workings of our world even in ways that violate its physical laws; and they are “omniscient” in the sense that they can monitor everything that happens. However, all the demigods except those at the fundamental level of reality are subject to sanctions by the more powerful gods living at lower levels.

Further rumination on these themes could climax in a naturalistic theogony that would study the structure of this hierarchy, and the constraints imposed on its inhabitants by the possibility that their actions on their own level may affect the treatment they receive from dwellers of deeper levels. For example, if nobody can be sure that they are at the basement-level, then everybody would have to consider the possibility that their actions will be rewarded or punished, based perhaps on moral criteria, by their simulators. An afterlife would be a real possibility. Because of this fundamental uncertainty, even the basement civilization may have a reason to behave ethically. The fact that it has such a reason for moral behavior would of course add to everybody else’s reason for behaving morally, and so on, in truly virtuous circle. One might get a kind of universal ethical imperative, which it would be in everybody’s self-interest to obey, as it were “from nowhere”.

In addition to ancestor-simulations, one may also consider the possibility of more selective simulations that include only a small group of humans or a single individual. The rest of humanity would then be zombies or “shadow-people” – humans simulated only at a level sufficient for the fully simulated people not to notice anything suspicious. It is not clear how much cheaper shadow-people would be to simulate than real people. It is not even obvious that it is possible for an entity to behave indistinguishably from a real human and yet lack conscious experience. Even if there are such selective simulations, you should not think that you are in one of them unless you think they are much more numerous than complete simulations. There would have to be about 100 billion times as many “me-simulations” (simulations of the life of only a single mind) as there are ancestor-simulations in order for most simulated persons to be in me-simulations.

There is also the possibility of simulators abridging certain parts of the mental lives of simulated beings and giving them false memories of the sort of experiences that they would typically have had during the omitted interval. If so, one can consider the following (farfetched) solution to the problem of evil: that there is no suffering in the world and all memories of suffering are illusions. Of course, this hypothesis can be seriously entertained only at those times when you are not currently suffering.

Supposing we live in a simulation, what are the implications for us humans? The foregoing remarks notwithstanding, the implications are not all that radical. Our best guide to how our posthuman creators have chosen to set up our world is the standard empirical study of the universe we see. The revisions to most parts of our belief networks would be rather slight and subtle – in proportion to our lack of confidence in our ability to understand the ways of posthumans. Properly understood, therefore, the truth of (3) should have no tendency to make us “go crazy” or to prevent us from going about our business and making plans and predictions for tomorrow. The chief empirical importance of (3) at the current time seems to lie in its role in the tripartite conclusion established above.[15] We may hope that (3) is true since that would decrease the probability of (1), although if computational constraints make it likely that simulators would terminate a simulation before it reaches a posthuman level, then out best hope would be that (2) is true.

If we learn more about posthuman motivations and resource constraints, maybe as a result of developing towards becoming posthumans ourselves, then the hypothesis that we are simulated will come to have a much richer set of empirical implications.

VII. CONCLUSION

A technologically mature “posthuman” civilization would have enormous computing power. Based on this empirical fact, the simulation argument shows that at least one of the following propositions is true: (1) The fraction of human-level civilizations that reach a posthuman stage is very close to zero; (2) The fraction of posthuman civilizations that are interested in running ancestor-simulations is very close to zero; (3) The fraction of all people with our kind of experiences that are living in a simulation is very close to one.

If (1) is true, then we will almost certainly go extinct before reaching posthumanity. If (2) is true, then there must be a strong convergence among the courses of advanced civilizations so that virtually none contains any relatively wealthy individuals who desire to run ancestor-simulations and are free to do so. If (3) is true, then we almost certainly live in a simulation. In the dark forest of our current ignorance, it seems sensible to apportion one’s credence roughly evenly between (1), (2), and (3).

Unless we are now living in a simulation, our descendants will almost certainly never run an ancestor-simulation.

Acknowledgements

I’m grateful to many people for comments, and especially to Amara Angelica, Robert Bradbury, Milan Cirkovic, Robin Hanson, Hal Finney, Robert A. Freitas Jr., John Leslie, Mitch Porter, Keith DeRose, Mike Treder, Mark Walker, Eliezer Yudkowsky, and several anonymous referees.

[Nick Bostrom's academic homepage: www.nickbostrom.com]
[More on the simulation argument: www.simulation-argument.com]

[1] See e.g. K. E. Drexler, Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology, London, Forth Estate, 1985; N. Bostrom, “How Long Before Superintelligence?” International Journal of Futures Studies, vol. 2, (1998); R. Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines: When computers exceed human intelligence, New York, Viking Press, 1999; H. Moravec, Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind, Oxford University Press, 1999.

[2] Such as the Bremermann-Bekenstein bound and the black hole limit (H. J. Bremermann, “Minimum energy requirements of information transfer and computing.” International Journal of Theoretical Physics 21: 203-217 (1982); J. D. Bekenstein, “Entropy content and information flow in systems with limited energy.” Physical Review D 30: 1669-1679 (1984); A. Sandberg, “The Physics of Information Processing Superobjects: The Daily Life among the Jupiter Brains.” Journal of Evolution and Technology, vol. 5 (1999)).

[3] K. E. Drexler, Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation, New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1992.

[4] R. J. Bradbury, “Matrioshka Brains.” Working manuscript (2002), http://www.aeiveos.com/~bradbury/MatrioshkaBrains/MatrioshkaBrains.html.

[5] S. Lloyd, “Ultimate physical limits to computation.” Nature 406 (31 August): 1047-1054 (2000).

[6] H. Moravec, Mind Children, HarvardUniversity Press (1989).

[7]Bostrom (1998), op. cit.

[8] See references in foregoing footnotes.

[9] As we build more and faster computers, the cost of simulating our machines might eventually come to dominate the cost of simulating nervous systems.

[10] 100 billion humans50 years/human30 million secs/year[10¹⁴, 10¹⁷] operations in each human brain per second [10³³, 10³⁶] operations.

[11]In e.g. N. Bostrom, “The Doomsday argument, Adam & Eve, UN⁺⁺, and Quantum Joe.”Synthese 127(3): 359-387 (2001); and most fully in my book Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy, Routledge, New York, 2002.

[12] See e.g. J. Leslie, “Is the End of the World Nigh? ”Philosophical Quarterly 40, 158: 65-72 (1990).

[13] See my paper “Existential Risks: Analyzing Human Extinction Scenarios and Related Hazards.” Journal of Evolution and Technology, vol. 9 (2001) for a survey and analysis of the present and anticipated future threats to human survival.

[14] See e.g. Drexler (1985) op cit., and R. A. Freitas Jr., “Some Limits to Global Ecophagy by BiovorousNanoreplicators, with Public Policy Recommendations.” Zyvex preprint April (2000), http://www.foresight.org/NanoRev/Ecophagy.html.

[15] For some reflections by another author on the consequences of (3), which were sparked by a privately circulated earlier version of this paper, see R. Hanson, “How to Live in a Simulation.” Journal of Evolution and Technology, vol. 7 (2001).

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Cheating the Ferryman: A New Paradigm of Existence?

March 18, 2015, 8:30 am

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December 1, 2010 By davidjones /Blogger Ref http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science

By ANTHONY PEAKE

—

What happens when we die? This is the ultimate question and one that we still have no real answer. From the first few moments that man became a self-aware being he has pondered upon this mystery.
Every culture has attempted an explanation, and it is reasonable to conclude that all religions exist to give an account of what happens at that moment and, more importantly, where does the person go after their body dies.
One of the most enduring myths is that of the Ancient Greeks. They believed that the recently dead would find themselves at the banks of a vast river, the River Styx. Out of the mists would appear Charon, the Ferryman. It was his job to ferry the soul, termed a “Shade,” across to the other side…. To the Land of the Dead.
But he did not do this for free. He needed a payment. The relatives of the recently dead person made sure the Shade could pay the ferryman. This payment was usually a small coin called an obolus. Depending upon the tradition, either this would be placed under the tongue of the corpse or two oboli would be placed over each eye.
This well known myth still resonates over three thousand years later. “To Pay The Ferryman” can still be heard today. However, there is a lesser known myth that suggests a deeper truth: The myth of the River Lethe.
The Greeks believed that before getting to the banks of the Styx the Shade would encounter a much smaller tributary of the great river. This could be crossed with ease by wading from bank to bank. This small river was called the Lethe, and its waters contained a profoundly important quality.
If the Shade or newly deceased soul drank of this water all their memories would evaporate. They would forget who they are and the events of their life. Their memories would become like those of a new born baby. Of course by doing so the Shade also forgot all of the lessons learned during that life.
But before doing this the Shade had the option of drinking from a small pool next to the Lethe. This was the Spring of Mnemosyne. By drinking here the Shade’s past-life memories became sharp and distinct. Each action and its subsequent effects became crystal clear. Life’s lessons became precise and understood.
If the Shade drank of the Spring of Mnemosyne they were allowed to pay the ferryman, board the boat, and sail across the Styx to the Elysian Fields.
But if a drop of the waters of the Lethe was drunk by the Shade, then they were sent back to be reborn again with no memories of their previous life. Now this was not a form of reincarnation as it is understood by most people. It was a re-birth process in which the same life was lived again. The Shade found itself back in its mother’s womb waiting to start all over again.
This concept is called “The Eternal Recurrence” and has been a long held alternative belief to that of the linear life found in most religions, even those who have reincarnation as their central belief.
However, those who have long held this belief never shared it with the masses. Such a belief has always been found in the secret – esoteric – groups within most of the major religions. This is the great secret carried through the ages by the groups loosely termed as “Gnostics.”
The Gnostic tradition can be found behind the great mystery traditions of the Middle East and Europe. From the Manicheans of Persia to the Cathari of Southern France, and from the Cabbalists of Southern Spanish Judaism to the Sufi’s of Arabia, this hidden knowledge is the real Holy Grail in whose defence the Knights Templar and the Albigenesians died in their thousands to protect.
In my books I present evidence for this belief system, that at the moment of death we are catapulted back to our moment of birth. The theory is supported by a good deal of evidence from modern science, particularly quantum physics, neurology, psychiatry and consciousness studies.
I call this theory “Cheating the Ferryman” because I suggest many of us never make it across the River Styx. We never step into Charon’s boat and we never pay him his obolus. We cheat the ferryman out of his fare and return to live our lives again.
On what evidence do I base such a totally weird idea?

Dreams & Precognitive Déjà Vus

Well, for me, the whole theory started with one very peculiar dream. In this dream I experienced a déjà vu… yes a dream that contained the sensation that I was experiencing an event that I had dreamed before, if that makes sense.
In the dream I had an inner dialogue with another me and this being stated that a déjà vu is a memory of an event that you have lived before in a different life. I then woke up with this idea echoing round my mind.
I had for some time wanted to write a book and now it seemed that my dream self, or more accurately a part of my dream self, had given me both the theme and the incentive.
I was surprised to discover that déjà vu is not only the most common anomalous psychological perception (70% of people will experience the sensation at least once in their lives) but also that experts have no real idea what causes it. Various suggestions have been made but none have been shown to be correct.
As an example, for many years a proposal made by the psychiatrist Paul Efron was considered to have nailed the mystery. Efron suggested that one part of the brain processes information before the other. In this way we have the feeling of experiencing an event twice. This occurs because each hemisphere of the brain receives signals from the right and left visual fields of each eye. As such the non-dominant hemisphere processes the incoming images a split second before the dominant hemisphere. So, in effect, the consciousness receives the signal twice with a short time delay. As one signal is immediately, but not fully, over-written by another we feel as if we have experienced the images twice. But this curious message transferal only works for the eyes. It has recently been shown that congenitally blind individuals experience aural déjà vu sensations. As the brain processes sound in a totally different way to sight, the Efron thesis simply cannot explain this form of déjà vu.
I wondered if déjà vu may not be simply what it feels it is: a curious sensation that suggests the observer has lived this moment before. The Seattle based psychiatrist Dr. Vernon Neppe has defined déjà vu as, “any subjectively inappropriate impression of familiarity of the present experience with an undefined past.”
So the “undefined past” could be part of this life or a past life. However this ‘past life’ for me did not imply reincarnation for one simple reason: for a déjà vu sensation to be effective it has to be a memory of the exact circumstances, not a circumstance that is similar. For example, if my “subjectively inappropriate impression” consisted of me remembering being in this place in Victorian times, the two images would be quite different. The location may be the same but my clothing, my companions and the décor would be totally different. It would feel more like a time-slip than a doubling of consciousness. For a déjà vu to be a déjà vu the two impressions have to be identical, in all ways. My memory of the event is identical to my experiencing of the event. I am literally re-living an event from my own past, but a past that is, for the moment, the future.
Indeed, I have now interviewed many people who experience precognitive déjà vu’s. The ‘memory’ includes a remembrance of what happens/happened next. The subject suddenly has very short-term clairvoyance.
I found that these precognitive déjà vu sensations are usually reported by individuals who experience three brain-states: migraine, temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and schizophrenia. I was intrigued as to why this was the case and began researching what may link these three ‘illnesses’.
Much to my delight I found there is one common factor, a neurotransmitter called glutamate.

Perception and Time Distortion

In a curious coincidence that was to have great significance to me later, I learned that neurotransmitters were first discovered by an Austrian scientist called Otto Loewi. Just like me, Loewi had a dream guider. On Easter Sunday 1920 he awoke in the middle of the night having experienced a really vivid dream. He wrote down what he had experienced and went back to sleep. The next morning he excitedly looked at his notes to find them to be illegible scrawl. He knew that he had dreamed something of profound importance so he went to bed early the next night. The dream came again and when he awoke he reproduced his dream experiment exactly as he experienced it that night. In doing so he isolated a substance that was to eventually be called acetylcholine. Such was the importance of this discovery that in 1936 Dr. Loewi and his English associate Sir Henry Dale were awarded the Nobel Prize.
What Loewi’s dream had helped find was the first example of the chemicals that were later to be called neurotransmitters. These are internally-generated substances that facilitate the transmission of messages from cell to cell within the body. The most important group is found in the brain and glutamate is the most important of the brain neurotransmitters.
Glutamate is directly responsible for the peculiar feelings described by migrainers, temporal lobe epileptics and schizophrenics, specifically a sensation that is technically known as “the aura.”
The aura is a form of early warning system. It is triggered by over-production of glutamate and usually takes place a short time before an attack of migraine or a temporal-lobe seizure. (Glutamate’s role in schizophrenia is different but the overall outcome is similar). Experiencers report sensations of time slowing down, of hyper-sensitivity, of visual or aural hallucinations and profound déjà vu sensations. Déjà vu had been linked with both migraine and TLE for years before Loewi’s serendipitous discovery.
Here was the link I had been looking for. Déjà vu has, as one of its causes, a flood of glutamate in the brain. It was then that I made my first big step to “Cheating the Ferryman.”
Quite by chance I was reading an old book I had on Near-Death Experience (NDE). One of the more technical articles discussed the neurochemical causes of the NDE. Much to my surprise I found that glutamate was also connected to this well-reported experience. Another, and quite unrelated, article in the same book discussed one of the most commonly reported elements of the NDE, what is technically known as the “panoramic life review.”
“My life flashed before my eyes” is a quotation recorded time and time again by people who have close encounters with death. Some report the experience as being a series of snapshots, others that they literally re-live every experience of their life but in super-speed. One person reported that it was as if somebody had recorded a movie of his life and was running it in fast-forward.
I was fascinated by this link. Both déjà vu and the Panoramic Life-Review were linked by a specific brain-chemical, glutamate. After doing some subsequent research, I found that Dr. Karl Jansen of the Maudsley Hospital in London had been able to reproduce a full near-death experience in volunteers when he had them take small doses of the drug ketamine. Now ketamine is chemically almost identical to glutamate so here again we had an amazing link.
I was later to find that ketamine, and by implication glutamate, also brings about another curious subjective sensation in the brain: time slows down or almost stops for the experiencer.
In another fortuitous event I was to be given a first-hand description of a glutamate effect by a person who experienced TLE seizures.

Temporal Lobe Epilepsy Breakthrough

I received a phone call one afternoon. It was a lady from a recruitment agency who was wishing to discuss with me a vacancy she was handling. “Margaret” asked me whether I was working and I explained that I was driven to write a book. “What about?” she asked, “I don’t really know at the moment,” I truthfully responded. I then explained that I was reading a good deal about temporal lobe epilepsy and was making some fascinating links.
She went very quiet and suggested that we should meet up to discuss the vacancy. Three days later I met her at a coffee shop nearby. As soon as she had sat down she explained to me that she had to meet me because she wished to discuss with me something she could not mention in her office where she would have been overheard.
“Margaret” informed me that she had recently been diagnosed as a having temporal lobe epilepsy. She described to me how she had first discovered that something unusual was happening in her brain.
She had been having lunch with a work associate in a crowded café. As her associate started to pour a cup of tea from a teapot she suddenly felt a snap over her right ear. Surprised by this she looked at her associate assuming that she too would have heard the noise. One look told her that her lunch companion had heard nothing. This was because she had stopped moving. The stunned recruitment consultant looked round the café and every person was frozen in time and space. It was as if she had suddenly found herself in a three-dimensional photograph. She could hear a low humming sound that seemed all around her. She then looked back at her companion to notice that she was not frozen at all, she was moving incredibly slowly.
Margaret then realised that the low hum she could hear was, in fact, people’s voices! Her metabolic rate had increased to such an extent that time had slowed down to a crawl. She watched in amazement as the tea slowly appeared from the spout of the teapot and slowly fell into the cup. Margaret assured me that this took hours to take place in her mind.
At that point she made a fascinating comment. She said that she could have been in this state for days, months, years, “even a lifetime.” Then, after what seemed like many hours, Margaret felt another snap over her right ear and her associate finished pouring the tea and sat back. “Are you okay,” she asked. “I am not sure,” replied Margaret. Her friend then explained that Margaret had suddenly stopped moving and had stared into space… for about twenty seconds! As Margaret explained to me, those twenty seconds had been hours for her. She went on to tell me that she feared she had a brain tumour but after a series of scans she was told that she had TLE.
I was amazed at this story. Here was evidence that glutamate, when it floods the brain, does, indeed, slow subjective time to an absolute crawl. For some reason I then asked Margaret if she experienced déjà vu. “I get déjà vu’s to kill for” was her reply. “Not only that but when I am in this pre-seizure aura state I know what is going to happen next. I really do see the future!”
My meeting with Margaret presented me with the final piece of a jigsaw puzzle that I had not known, until that moment, I was trying to complete. I knew then what the book would be about – not an explanation for déjà vu but something much bigger, an explanation as to what happens to human consciousness at the point of death!
My theory was both simple but stunning. Déjà vu sensations are exactly what they seem to be: they are recollections of past events, otherwise known as lost memories.
So how can we “remember” the future? Simple, because the future is also the past. Confused? Well the best way to explain this is to give a fictitious example based upon an amalgamation of many NDE reports.

The Physics of the NDE – Cheating the Ferryman

Our hero is a skydiver. He is a very unlucky skydiver because his parachute has refused to open and he forgot to pack his back-up ‘shute’. As he plummets to the ground there will be a point where the stress levels will be so high that glutamate floods the brain. In doing so it brings about the subjective slowing down of time. Indeed, for the skydiver the duration of time slows down to a virtual standstill. But his brain remains completely active.
Just as he is about to hit the ground his motion through space is slowed by the fact that his motion through time has similarly been changed. As we know from the theories of Albert Einstein, time and space are the same thing and they are “relative” to the observer. This is where the word “Relativity” comes from.
So “relative” to the skydiver, time duration has slowed down to a crawl. For him a split second can last days, weeks, years, even a lifetime. This is exactly what Margaret experienced in the canteen.
What happens then? Well something very strange. Recall that many people who report Near-Death Experiences explain they see their lives “flash before my eyes.” This is a Near Death Experience. Our skydiver is in a Real Death Experience. There is no way he will survive the impact with the ground. In this case his life does not “flash” before his eyes but he experiences it in a literal, minute by minute, recreation of his life from the moment of his birth. In effect he lives his whole life again. And at the end of the second life it happens again, and again and again. It is like the movie “Groundhog Day,” but it is not a “day” but a “life” – and all this takes place in the split second before he hits the ground.
This is how he “Cheats The Ferryman.” In his subjective time-frame he never reaches the point of death because it is always in his future.
But there is more – and this where things get very interesting. I suggest each life-rerun is not like a pre-recorded movie that cannot be changed but more like a video game in which all consequences of all decisions are already programmed in. By applying the latest findings of quantum physics I present a model whereby the implications of something called the “Many-Worlds Interpretation” can be shown to allow such a scenario.
Put simply, according to the MWI hypothesis there are literally billions of versions of each person and each one of these versions have the capacity to live out – and lay down re-playable memories – the outcomes of every decision made in a lifetime. There is available to each person a recording of every possible life they could live. I call this recording the “Bohmian IMAX.” Others may recognise it as the “Akashic Record” or the “Akashic Field” of Professor Ervin Laszlo.
I further suggest that at the point of death consciousness splits into two elements. I term these the Eidolon and the Daemon. The Eidolon is the everyday being that calls itself “I” or “me” and it has no knowledge of its previous lives. The Daemon is different. It carries all the memories of the past life (or lives) and as such it acts as a form of “Higher Self” or “Guardian Angel.” In my books I present evidence from modern neurological research to suggest this may be the case.
The “changes” that bring about a new “life-path” are instigated by the Daemon when it warns the Eidolon of potential dangers lying waiting in the future. These can be conveyed through dreams, precognitions, inklings, voices and many other subtle methods – possibly even a deja sensation.
We don’t just “Cheat The Ferryman,” we are also given opportunities to change things and possibly put right the wrongs we do.
I agree that on first encountering this hypothesis it is both bizarre and incredible. But the science does seem to work. Could this be the paradigm changer that we have all been waiting for?

If you appreciated this article, please consider a digital subscription to New Dawn.

.

ANTHONY PEAKE is the author of two books, Is There Life After Death – The Extraordinary Science of What Happens When You Die and The Daemon, A Guide To Your Extraordinary Self. NDE expert Professor Bruce Greyson calls Anthony’s theory “the most innovative and provocative argument I have ever seen.” He has a very active international forum at www.anthonypeake.com/forum

The above article appeared in New Dawn Special Issue 14.

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Prisoners 'could serve 1,000 year sentence in eight hours'

March 18, 2015, 8:40 am

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Future biotechnology could be used to make prisoners feel as if they were serving a 1,000 year sentence, a team of scientists claim

Ms Roache said drugs could be developed to distort prisoners' minds into thinking time was passing more slowly Photo:Alarmy

By Rhiannon Williams Blogger Ref http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science

3:01PM GMT 14 Mar 2014/ The Telegraph

Future biotechnology could be used to trick a prisoner's mind into thinking they have served a 1,000 year sentence, a group of scientists have claimed.

Philosopher Rebecca Roache is in charge of a team of scholars focused upon the ways futuristic technologies might transform punishment. Dr Roache claims the prison sentence of serious criminals could be made worse by extending their lives.

Speaking to Aeon magazine, Dr Roache said drugs could be developed to distort prisoners' minds into thinking time was passing more slowly.

"There are a number of psychoactive drugs that distort people’s sense of time, so you could imagine developing a pill or a liquid that made someone feel like they were serving a 1,000-year sentence," she said.

A second scenario would be to upload human minds to computers to speed up the rate at which the mind works, she wrote on her blog.

"If the speed-up were a factor of a million, a millennium of thinking would be accomplished in eight and a half hours... Uploading the mind of a convicted criminal and running it a million times faster than normal would enable the uploaded criminal to serve a 1,000 year sentence in eight-and-a-half hours. This would, obviously, be much cheaper for the taxpayer than extending criminals’ lifespans to enable them to serve 1,000 years in real time."
Thirty years in prison is currently the most severe punishment available in the UK legal system.
"To me, these questions about technology are interesting because they force us to rethink the truisms we currently hold about punishment. When we ask ourselves whether it’s inhumane to inflict a certain technology on someone, we have to make sure it’s not just the unfamiliarity that spooks us," Dr Roache said.
"Is it really OK to lock someone up for the best part of the only life they will ever have, or might it be more humane to tinker with their brains and set them free? When we ask that question, the goal isn’t simply to imagine a bunch of futuristic punishments – the goal is to look at today’s punishments through the lens of the future."

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TOROIDAL SPACE

March 18, 2015, 8:58 am

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DYNAMIC EXPRESSIVE SURFACE TOPOLGY

A REAL WORLD PRACTICAL USE OF TOROIDAL SPACE

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THE TORUS IN SCIENCE
A torus is defined by two parameters: the radius of the torus (that is the radius of the torus's defining circle, measured from the origin) and the radius of the tube (the perpendicular distance from the defining circle to the surface of the torus). These are R and rrespectively. Normally R > r.
An implicit definition of the torus is:

Toroidal Space is the name used to describe the area and volume of a torus or so-called doughnut shape. This special form has been used to describe and/or represent a number of things in our "real" actual material world, as well as, our "imaginary" potential one.
A major branch of geometry is the study of geometrical structures on manifolds. A manifold is a curved space of some dimension. For example, the surface of a sphere, and the torus (the surface of a doughnut), are both 2-dimensional manifolds. Here the manifold itself is only the background for some mathematical object defined upon it, as a canvas is the background for an oil painting. This kind of geometry, although very abstract, is closer to the real world than you might think. Einstein's theory of General Relativity describes the Universe - the whole of space and time - as a 4-dimensional manifold.
Space itself is not flat, but curved. The curvature of space is responsible for gravity, and at a black hole space and time are so curved they get knotted up. Everything in the universe - light, subatomic particles, pizzas, yourself - is described in terms of a geometrical structure on the space-time 4-manifold. Manifolds are used to understand the large-scale structure of the Universe in cosmology, and the theory of relativity introduced the idea of matter-energy equivalence, which led to nuclear power, and the atomic bomb. The universe is now considered to be a 12 dimensional nested manifold.
In "superstring" physics, the torus is known as the "perfect" shape. It is now accepted as a mathematical model that can be used to describe objects in space. Surface topology is superior to geometry for describing such phenomenon because it deals with much more sophisticated and profound spacial and temporal relationships.

Other scientists have also suggested that the entire universe may be shaped like a torus.Itzak Bentov in a final book called A Brief Tour of HIgher Consciousness published just after his passing is dedicated to the idea that all reality including consciousness itself can be modeled with the toroidal manifold. His diagrams show galaxies as being toroidal forms with "white holes" putting out energy while "black holes" on the opposite side taking it back in. The inventor of the Bell Helicopter and other major innovations, Arthur Young, also explores the function of toroids as models of primary cosmology in his famous work...The Reflexive Universe.
For an image of the Earth’s field, which science refers to as the Van Allen Belt, click on www.windows.ucar.edu/ and click on Enter the Site, then Our Planet, then Image Archives. See how the field is donut shaped close to the Earth? This is referred to in sacred geometry as the tube torus. It’s a shape that occurs often in Nature.
In particle physics, the doughnut shape is also known to provide the best environment within which to accelerate particles as it can hold and route the plasma formed by such machines in a more efficient manner. Toroidal geometry is attractive for space energy storage magnets because it results in small external magnetic fields. Russia first manifested this idea in their Tokamak accelerator. The new European Union and the United States have recently improved on the Russian model and are using these new designs to perform important experiments in plasma physics. These devices operate on the principle of fusion...the technique used by the sun and stars to produce their vast amounts of light and heat. One of the first and most important practical uses of such incredible devices will be to generate electrical power. All of the electricity required annually for one person can be produced by the fusion of only 500 liters of water!

THE INTERIOR OF THE JET TOROIDAL ACCELERATOR (CLICK FOR MORE IMAGES)

When it comes to designing gravitational environmental habitations, the torus has been realized as the preferred shape within which to enclose a space station or star colony. The design below was engineered at Stanford university and is called the Stanford Torus. It is the most efficient way to distribute the space and achieve the gravity required to maintain life.

AN ILLUSTRATED VIEW OF THE STANFORD TORUS IN SPACE (CLICK FOR MORE IMAGES)

The toroidal shape has also been discovered by to be the most efficient way to wind an electrical transformer, as a coil wound in this configuration produces very clean, highly accurate, precise and reliable power. For that reason, toroidal transformers are employed by engineers in high-end audio equipment and other electronics to lower distortion and increase power at the same time.

THE TORUS IN METAPHYSICS
In addition to its real world correlations, the torus has also been used to illustrate certain concepts of the so-called "subtle energy" worlds. The toroidal form figures heavily into the esoteric study of sacred geometry...a meta-science that reveals how shape and form are primary underlying principles of manifestation.
Since ancient times, "seers" have confirmed that the human aura appears as a series of nested spherical torus formations. Modern seers such as Barbara Ann Brennan (Hands of Light) have confirmed that each “chakra” is shaped like a two-ended trumpet, and this is a visualization of where each spherical torus or energy body has its axis. She describes the torus as the perfect shape for a black hole to white hole vortex, and also comments on the gyroscopic properties of this energy form. Ancient seers also went out-of-body and reported their observations of the structure of the CU, often calling it the “World Tree” after their sighting of the main central axis. We will show that this concept reappears in a remarkably similar fashion across a huge number of different cultures, and a clear connection to the nested spherical torus can easily be established; it is, literally, one and the same formation.

THE "WORLD TREE" OF QUAN YIN

For many years esoteric researchers have been searching for the meaning of the Language of Light. Scholars of every school have wondered of this parabolic statement. Is there really such a thing as the Language of Light? The answer seems to be yes. There is contained within the structure of Light such a language. In one of the basic structures of physics, called the Tube Torus there is a study of vortex energy that describes Light and Language in it’s potential.

THE TUBE TORUS OF THE FLOWER OF LIFE

The Tube Torus is derived from the basic study of the Flower of Life. By using a simple compass one can create the Flower of life very easily. There are seven basic steps in the composition of the Seed of Life which, if continued to its conclusion, yields the study of the vortex through the Flower of Life.
One of the energy patterns around the body is in the shape of a torus - or donut - with the energy flowing through the body and looping around to connect in at the feet and the head. It is as though we are in the middle position of the donut. The flow in through the head and feet is bidirectional. In other words it flows like the tides one way and then the next. In the matrix of this flow are the wave and particle relationships that structure and govern the nurturing "cosmic" energy from which we are crystallized.

It has even been suggested that the torus can be used to define the workings of consciousness itself. In other words...consciousness has a geometry! The geometric shape used to describe the self-reflexive nature of consciousness is the torus. The torus allows a vortex of energy to form which bends back along itself and re-enters itself. It 'inside-outs', continuously flowing back into itself. Thus the energy of a torus is continually refreshing itself, continually influencing itself. Some amazing work has been done over the years by Dan Winter (whose books are now out of print), who suggests with geometric diagrams that the only way self-reflexiveness can continue without breaking down is by using waveforms based on harmonics of the golden section, which we have talked about in the Geometry section of this website. He claims our very DNA is a helix formed by 2 rotating geometric figures called icosahedrons and dodecahedrons. Stan Tenen (MERU Foundation) has also done some great work along these lines, contradicting Winter's work and basing his own discoveries on the work of Arthur Young, who also worked with the torus. Regardless of who is correct, the torus does seem to be the common denominator, the self-organizing way consciousness is designed.
The torus enables vortexes to be formed. All torii create energy vortexes. Energy can funnel up or down through it; the rotating nature of a torus generates a flow of energy through the torus, depending upon the speed of rotation of the torus and the kind of torus it is (there are 3 kinds of standard torii). An examination of the torus shows that its very construction forms energy funnels, or vortexes.

Mr. Winter and others has also shown how the biophysical manifestations such as the human heart and DNA have toroidal configurations. For more information contact the San Gral School of Sacred Geometry.

THE TORUS IN HARMONIC RESOLUTION THERAPY (HRT)
The toroidal shape used in HRT is similar to a doughnut but rather than having an empty central "hole", the topology of a torus folds in upon itself and all points along its surface converve together into a zero-dimensional point at the center called the Vertex. This makes it the perfect environment within which to populate the automatous partials that make up the essence of any dynamic function such as a person's vibrational essence. Any input placed at the Vertex while the torus is "torsioned" (folded and rotated inward) is spread out and distributed over the entire surface of the toroid (see below).

A TORUS IN TORSION

The spectral essence matrices produced in the HRT process are gathered up within such a toroidal manifold. A pure, coherent harmonic source is fed through the "portacle" - the modulating filter generated from the individual's voicing - and focused to a zero-dimensional point at the vortex thread (or "origin") of the flowing torus. As the torus rotates and folds through itself - each point passing through the central thread - its framework is populated by the partials of the spectral essence.
The torus, however, is not the most practical format for presentation, as the partials populating the interior or back-facing surfaces would be obscured from view. Unfolding the native toroidal space and projecting it into a 2-dimensional matrix allows us to see every partial in a uniform grid. The illustration above shows the dynamics of this process, and the characters to the right of the diagram is the actual unfolding algorithm. After unfolding is complete, the partials in the matrix are shifted by 1/2, thus restoring the origin to the center.

The unfolded torus produces a flat 256 x 256 pixel image that is sort of a cross-sectional view of the original torus. This image can then be viewed on a computer screen as biofeedback representing a person's spectral domain essence. As the torus is rotated through 360 degrees of the Chromaphase cycle, the unfolded image (called a Matrix) continually changes over time, providing something similar to a dynamic "Rorschach" (inkblot) image. Viewing this image allows one to take apart, re-arrange, re-distribute, and then re-assemble themself.

RETURN TO HARMONIC RESOLUTION SESSION GRAPHIC

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The Subtle Discrimination between the Practices of Sunyata in Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana

March 18, 2015, 9:14 am

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CW27:No.18

Yogi C. M. Chen

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This essay is divided into two parts. The first part is a general discussion. The second part gives particulars. The purpose is to give a concept of the Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana (Mahamudra, Great Perfection and Chan) practice of Sunyata, throughout the whole system of Buddhism. Thus, the reader may see the essence of each, and chart his own course, while avoiding the two extremes of self-pride and self-abasement.

I. General Discourse

There are two great paths in the whole system of Buddhism; one is the Path of Liberation, the other is the Path of Love. The Path of Liberation emphasizes the philosophy of Right Views. The Path of Love lays stress on deep breathing. Our present subject is all five kinds of practice of Sunyata belonging to the Path of Liberation, and their philosophical views.
A. The Hinayana practice of Sunyata is based on the philosophical view of Non-Egoism of Personality. Here, it is necessary to recognize that there is no self nature in any personality, either man or Buddha. This practice leads to the four realizations of the Arhat, but gives only a one-sided view of Nirvana.
B. The Mahayana practice of Sunyata is based on the view of Non-Born in the Middle Way school. It is necessary to recognize that all Dharmas, whether persons or things, have no self nature. Here, one must use all eight meditations and contemplations which are: non-born, non-destruction, non-ceasing, non-permanence, non-coming, non-going, non-similarity, and non-difference. The Four Noble Truths and Twelve Causations are not taken as Final Truth as in Hinayana, nor is the doctrine of the Idealist School accepted as final truth. Meditate with determination on tile Non-Born philosophy of every Dharma both within consciousness and in the material world. The truth of Non-Born should penetrate not only the good but also the evil. The Hinayanists flee from evil through their Vinaya, but the Mahayanists penetrate it through Sunyata.
C. The Vajrayana practice of Mahamudra is based on the Right View of Spontaneous Wisdom. This is sometimes called the Dharmakaya view. Here, one must be able to recognize that every Dharma is the same as the Enlightened Entity of Spontaneous Wisdom; then, hold it, learn to keep it and confirm it and finally learn how to use it. At last, it becomes intrinsic and natural. No method should be used to transform it, nor should one desire to get anything else. There is no need for any kind of exoteric contemplation as in the Mahayana teachings.
D. The Vajrayana method called the "Great Perfection" is based on the Right View of Natural Purity. This is also called the Right View of Great Perfection. Here, every Dharma is naturally pure. There is no such defilement in discernment as belief in birth, death, Samsara or Nirvana. There is no bondage, hence no liberation, no practice and no realization. It is by itself, appears by itself, performs by itself, and is itself the result. What Dharma appears, whatever happens, there is the Great Perfection within it.
E. In Vajrayana Chan there is no Right View to keep. The supernatural power of the Chan is within the Truth. There is no instruction, no teachings, no words or speech and no meditation. Communication between students and teacher is intuitively made by the Chan realization. Here there can be no hesitation, nor admission of comprehension.
We have dealt with the five fundamental philosophical views. Now, we will cover their practical applications.
1. Hinayana Non-Egoism of Personality lays most stress on analysis. Practitioners attempt to find the self in organs and every part of the body and mind, until the full recognition that there is no self at all.
2. Mahayana practices Sunyata with the Six Paramitas which require a long time to attain. The Mahayana yogi desires to save all sentient beings but suffers defilement from the surrounding pollution in the process. It is said that when you meet a single sinful person and drink with him from the same river, you too will be polluted. This creates great obstacles. But the Bodhisattvas of the Mahayana school take no account of this for they are willing to sacrifice themselves and thus they spend many lives helping all sentient beings and thereby postponing their own attainment. Some of the Mahabodhisattvas such as Avalokitesvara and Manjusri attained Full Enlightenment but for the sake of all sentient beings they have returned to the position of Bodhisattva. It is said that Manjusri is the Guru of seven Buddhas. Despite this, he continues to retain his position of Bodhisattva. To overcome these obstacles, it is written in the Bodhisattvas Vinaya that every Bodhisattva must meditate in the Sunyata at least three times a day. That is why the path of Mahayana must last through three great kalpas.
3. To practice Mahamudra one should have the traditional Guru and Initiation from which one obtains the practical starting point of the Enlightened Entity. Then one is able to progress through four sequences or graduations of practice. There are four yogas in Mahamudra, viz: (1) One-pointed yoga (2) Give-up-play-words yoga (3) One-taste yoga (4) Non-practice yoga. It is said that through Mahamudra, one may attain Buddhahood within this lifetime.
4. The Great Perfection does not set up four yogic sequences. It is more immediate than Mahamudra. It lays stress on the Right View of Natural Purity and thus one attains Buddhahood at every moment. However, it is difficult to distinguish whether ones Right View of Natural Purity is accurate or not.
5. Chan dispenses with even the view of Natural Purity. Here, one does not even use the word Buddhahood. It is said a Chanist is walking in the air as a bird; no trace remains in the air.

II

The second part of this essay is composed of five divisions, progressing from the lower to the higher stages, thus making the necessary discriminations very clear.
Before going into the discriminations, some discussions of two important principles are necessary. We must know how to use both exoteric and esoteric approaches, and recognize the similarities between Dharma teachings as well as knowing each as a whole. This is the principle of harmonization. For example, each of the five Dharmas mentioned in their Doctrines take Sunyata as a main condition. Hinayana practices Sunyata as does Mahayana and Vajrayana. The quality of Sunyata is the same in all three yanas. That is why Tsong-Kha-pa has said that the difference between Hinayana and Mahayana is in the merit and not in the Sunyata. However, he knew only how to recognize the homogeneity, but not the discriminations. I have given eight sufficient reasons in the argument against Tsong-kha-pas theory which emphasizes that the difference between Mahayana and Hinayana lies only in merit but not in wisdom as he viewed the Sunyata as similar in both. This was written about in my Chinese essay entitled "A Criticism on Tsong-kha-pas Great Workan Essay on the Stages of the Bodhi Path." I hope one day it may be translated into Tibetan and into English for readers of those languages.
To be able to make these discriminations, it is first necessary to: (1) Study them wisely, (2) Inquire into them searchingly, (3) Reflect upon them carefully. Only then can we (4) Discriminate accurately. This will enable us to know both the differences between Dharma teachings, as well as the essence of each. Finally, when one has grasped these essential points, it becomes possible to (5) Practice them diligently. This is the Principle of Discrimination. By learning the subtle discriminations, we then know what stage we should work on, and thus resolve our self-deceit, self-pride and self-abasement.

1. Discrimination between the practice of Sunyata in Esoteric and Exoteric Schools

The practice of Sunyata in the exoteric schools is according to a general procedure which goes from Vinaya to Dhyana to Prajna, i.e. Commandment, Meditation, and Wisdom. It is practiced according to the Eight Negatives and Four Phrases of the Mahaparamita Sutra. This may take a long time and requires much effort.
In the second esoteric schools, Sunyata is practiced after initiation using many techniques and methods in the Position of Consequence. That is why it is called the Consequence Doctrine. It is obtained from an accomplished Guru who is in the Position of Consequence and can bestow blessings. Through the initiation, the Guru gives a short and immediate experience of Sunyata which constitutes realization of the Consequence Position. This is a very quick method. It enables the disciple to see the Enlightened Entity intuitively. From this point he starts to practice the Mahamudra. Hence, such a Sunyata practice is not only theory, but realization. It may be compared to a rocket.
In the exoteric schools, attempt is made to unite the philosophic practice of Sunyata with the six active paramitas. Thus philosophy and conduct are united. This is very difficult to do and often requires many attempts. The Bodhisattva spends many kalpas trying to save others before he himself is released. He can not forget his main purpose.
In the esoteric schools, Sunyata is practiced using many kinds of yantras, mantras, visualizations and other methods based upon the experience of the Buddhas who themselves were in the Consequence Position. These are not imparted in the exoteric schools, which lack these Tantric teachings. In this way, the spiritual food and merits are gathered many times faster and easier via these Tantras. The essentials of the exoteric schools constitute the foundation of the esoteric teachings. These are practiced by the Tantrist before he practiced the Tantra. There are people who practice exoteric teachings but not Tantra. However, there is no one who practices Tantra without first practicing the exoteric.
2. Discrimination between the Practice of Sunyata in Hinayana and Mahayana

A. Hinayana practice of Sunyata lays stress on step by step analysis of the personality, while the Mahayana lays most stress on the here and now without analysis. In the former practice, things are broken down to atomic levels. The atom is assumed to be incapable of further division. This is taken as "Haveness" and the present seems to be there, but past and future are void. But in Mahayana practice, every Dharma of here and now is completely empty, and past, present, and future time periods are not attainable. They practice Sunyata without analysis. That is why they say that every Dharma is intrinsically void, every Dharma only a false name, and every Dharma is itself the Truth. Hinayana practice uses the example of the "broken bottle." When the analysis reaches the end, the mind which holds this "bottle" form also becomes Sunyata. Mahayana practice sees the bottle as Sunyata at once.
B. The student of Hinayana practices the Four Noble Truths with the desire to use the Sunyata idea to escape the pain of haveness. Or, he may practice the Twelve Causations with the aim of achieving cessation of suffering by the reverse order of the Twelve Causations. Again, this is an attempt to use the Sunyata to stop pain. This practice is negative. Parables such as those of "the cow,""babies," and "fire" are used with the idea of escape from suffering. For example, there is the parable of the man who makes the mistake of thinking an officials cow is his own. He takes it with him, but upon discovering his error he frees the cow and flees his home in fear of punishment by the official. The meaning of the parable is that every Dharma is originally Sunyata but when we take the Sunyata to be self (ego), we have to fear being seized by others. This results when one practices Sunyata with the Four Noble Truths out of desire to free oneself from suffering. The highest level achieved in Hinayana is only the four realizations of Arhatship.
The Mahayana practice of Sunyata lays stress on the same entity of Sunyata, for all sentient beings. The Mahayanist practices it with Non-Egoism and altruism, from which develops the Great Compassion of the Same Entity and the Great Compassion of the Non-Condition. Hence, he practices the six paramitas and unites with the Sunyata of Three Wheels. In this way, the ego is eventually virtually eliminated. In these ways Mahayana lays stress on positive values.
C. The follower of Hinayana practices Sunyata in accordance with the doctrine of Causation of Karma, thus laying most stress on Vinaya. In Mahayana practice, the Sunyata is practiced in accordance with the Causation of Tathagata. In this Causation, there are Ten Wonderful Gates of the Conditional Virtues (Hwa Yen School) from which is practiced the Bodhi and thus much spiritual food of merit and wisdom is collected. In such a fashion, one may reach the Mahayana Nirvana, not just the four stages of Arhatship. Actually, the Sunyata Condition and the Sunyata Nature are just like two sides of a piece of paper. No one practices Sunyata Nature only and not Sunyata Condition, or vice versa. However, it is possible to practice Sunyata Nature with many different methods, just as it is possible to practice Sunyata Condition with many other methods.

3. The Discrimination between the Practice of Sunyata by the Great Middle Path and the Way of Mahamudra:

The name "the Great Middle Path" was written in a Tibetan book called The Mahamudra of the Dro Pa School. My guru said the "Great Middle Path is the seed, Mahamudra is the way or path and Great Perfection is the result or consequence." We use the adjective "great" to modify the Middle Path, because the paramita yana, belonging to exoteric doctrine, is called the Middle Way. But when we are discussing esoteric doctrines, the word "great" is used. The discrimination between the two doctrines will be discussed in the following eight paragraphs:

A. In the Paramita Yana, one practices Sunyata with the eight negations, four phrases, eighteen kinds of Sunyata, eight parables, and certain other methods. Sunyata is investigated by using rational reason, utilizing all phenomena. The Mahamudra is based upon this exoteric doctrine, but on this foundation it adds certain other methods; in particular, the initiations through which one receives blessings and eventually the insight of the Enlightened Entity. Only at this point does one actually start to practice Vajrayana Mahamudra.
B. The practice of Sunyata in the Paramita Yana must be combined with the other five paramitas. In this way, the student develops the Bodhicitta and the resolve to lead all sentient beings to Buddhahood before himself. The student of Vajrayana Mahamudra must stress complete renunciation. Through continuous meditation in his hermitage, he develops resolve to shorten the time of attainment and ultimately to save all sentient beings in this lifetime. To this end, he must now give up such practices as divination, magic, healing and all other Karmas which can give only temporary help to sentient beings. That was why in the Mahamudra doctrine it is written that "to practice Mahamudra, he must keep the nine cessations of body, speech and mind."
C. The Paramita Yana moves in a gradual sequence from vinaya to dhyana to prajna. During the practice of dhyana, one first practices samatha, then samapatti, and finally the two together. Vajrayana Mahamudra practice starts at the time one gets the insight of the Enlightened Entity. At this time, samatha and samapatti become intrinsically unified. Samatha is the "entity" and samapatti is itself the "enlightened." Thus, there is no duality within the Enlightened Entity. When one has achieved this unity of samatha and samapatti it becomes possible to practice the first yoga, called "One-Pointed Yoga" In the book Mahamudra of Dro Pa School One-Pointed Yoga is considered to be just samatha. The next yoga, called "Give-up-the-Play-Word Yoga" is taken to be samapatti. In my humble opinion, this is a great mistake in the actual meaning of "one-pointed." While abiding constantly on the Enlightened Entity of Mahamudra, there is no samatha of subjectivity, no insight of objectivity, and the Enlightened Entity appears by itself, abides by itself, and continues by itself. This is the practice of Sunyata in the Consequence Position. What "Give-up-the-Play-Word Yoga" means is to give up volition in meditation on the Enlightened Entity. This does not mean giving up the sensations or thoughts of ordinary mental states, as the Great Middle Path suggests. The reader is advised to refer to my Chinese book entitled The Subtle Discrimination of the Essential Mahamudra Teachings.
D. The practice of Sunyata of the Great Middle Path progresses in a straight line, step by step through samatha and samapatti, until the two become unified. This progression is arithmetic in quality. From the starting point of Mahamudra practice with the Enlightened Entity, to its full realization, the quality of progress is no longer in a straight line, but progresses sphere by sphere. At the starting point of the Enlightened Entity, each yoga is a sphere, perfectly round consisting of the Sunyata and Dharmakaya though yet imperfect. After each yoga is practiced and realized, the wisdom of enlightenment becomes crystalized and becomes the concrete embodiment of Dharmakaya. The term "enlightened" in the term of "Enlightened Entity" is the gnostic light of the Sunyata Condition which is the Rupakaya, while "entity" is the Dharmakaya. The practice of Sunyata of the Great Middle Path gives only a partial realization of this. That is why the Bodhisattva of the first stage does not know the Sunyata of the second. He partially cuts off some sorrows and achieves some partial realization of Dharmakaya. Hence, the Way of the Causal Doctrine can not compare with the doctrine of the Vajrayana Mahamudra. We can take the example of travelling by train or airplane as an analogy. In a train we may get out and explore the details of the stations if we wish, but we have a view limited to the immediate vicinity of the tracks. In an airplane we have a birds eye view of both sky and earth at every moment. The latter is the Tantric method of practicing Sunyata, that is, the Mahamudra.
E. The Tantric doctrine of Mahamudra uses some metaphors and parables which are the same as those usually used in the exoteric schools. For instance, the Mahamudra Yoga of One-Taste uses the parables of "water and waves,""water and ice" and "sleep and dreams." These are also mentioned in the Prajna Paramita Sutra. While the subject of the parables is the same in both, their objects are used quite differently. The books Mahamudra of Dro Pa School and the book called Rest from Maya Method written by the Nyingmapa sage named Undefiled Light, did not point out the difference between the two objects of the parable. Hence, it has been criticized by the Gelugpa as the same exoteric doctrine. In my book Subtle Discriminations of the Teachings of Mahamudra I have explained the difference in the two senses very clearly. The main difference is that the object practiced in the Great Middle Path is only philosophic and theoretical, while the object of the parable as practiced in the Mahamudra is the Enlightened Entity. This is the "water" or "sleep" of the parables, while its Wonderful Function is the "wave,""dream" or "ice." This appears in the Yoga of One-Taste. These, I must add, are practical realizations and not just theory.
F. The term "Non-Practice Yoga" in Mahamudra means there is no defilement in the practice of the Enlightened Entity and its conditional function. But, the same term in the doctrine of the Great Middle Path means that there is no defilement in the philosophy of Sunyata since they never have the Enlightened Entity for a starting point of practice. There is a position of non-knowledge in which the exoteric cuts off sorrow and achieves the Buddha. This realization is approaching Buddhahood. It is very difficult to attain. In the Mahamudra one has the advantage of the initiations and blessings of a guru who is himself in the position of Dharmakaya. Thus the approach to the Non-practice Position is comparatively easy and quick. While the theory of non-practice seems the same in Mahamudra and the Great Middle Path, its quality is very different in the two.
G. The practitioner of the Great Middle Path purposely aids others and thus prolongs the time taken to realize Sunyata. He desires that all beings achieve Budahood before he does. The student of Vajrayana, on the contrary, forbids himself these practices and adds some methods, such as the fourth Mahamudra initiation, to shorten his path, as I have already explained.
H. Although the Causation of Tathagata or Bhutatathata in the Great Middle Path is superior to the Causation of Alaya in the Idealism school (which lays much stress on mentality), the latter never takes account of this. Philosophically, the Theory of Tathagata is not limited by mentality. In their doctrine "mind" is always used, but actually it does not mean consciousness, which is separate from materiality. Actually, the Causation of Tathagata includes every Dharma and every phenomena of mentality and materiality, all of which are included in the Tathagatagarbha. It does not separate matter from mind. I always say that "among the three realms there are only conditions, and every condition is Sunyata" instead of the Idealist saying that "the three realms are only Mind and all Dharmas are consciousness." Actually the Mahamudra is practiced only after the second and third initiation. During the practice of these initiations one is practicing deep breathing. Here mind actually meets the five elements.

4. Discrimination between the Practice of Sunyata and Mahamudra and Great Perfection
Both Mahamudra and the Great Perfection are esoteric. The latter belongs to the Nyingmapa School. Some of these doctrines come from the "Hidden Treasure of Dharma" hidden by Padmasambhava, which the Gelugpa rejects for the reason that they were not imparted from India. Mahamudra is accepted by every Tibetan school, although the Gelugpa considers it very esoteric, and therefore do not readily talk about it. In my humble opinion, the Hidden Treasure of Dharma is not completely reliable. Some of the doctrines are not authentic. But, we can investigate them with reason and philosophy. What is really the Gem of Dharma is without a doubt excellent. Unfortunately, the Gelugpa rejects all types of hidden Treasure. This shows a kind of ignorance of the tradition, and a lack of "Dharma eye" with which these discriminations must be made. For example, they refuse to accept the Book of the Dead. This goes against philosophy, logic and reason. The Buddha must have had compassion for those in the Bardos. Are the teachings of no help to those in the Bardo states? Is the practice of reading from the book and visualizing the five Buddhas of no value even if the book was not written by Padmasambhava himself? While it is not the purpose of this essay to discuss at length the value of the Treasury of Dharma, since the Great Perfection belongs to the Nyingmapa Hidden Treasures, I must speak about it a little.
The Gelugpa holds to the imparted tradition from India. But, were all these Dharmas imparted orally, from mouth to ear. If we dig up the source of the Tantra, then we find that the lower three yogas were discovered by Nagarjuna in the Iron Pagoda in Southern India. Is this not the real tradition? It has never been rejected by the Gelugpa, yet it was a hidden treasure. Of the other Tantras of the Anuttara Yoga, some are said to have descended from Heaven and some were given to the Guru by the wisdom Yidam. Thus, not all were imparted personally by Gautama Buddha. That is why it is said that the Tantra is always imparted by the Sambhogakayas. This is admitted even by the exoteric schools; the reader can have no doubt about this, thus strengthening his faith.

A. Mahamudra establishes four yogas and practices them one by one, whereas the Great Perfection does not establish these yogas. The former method is gradual, while the latter is rapid. The Right View of the Mahamudra is called the Dharmakaya View, while the Great Perfection is called the Natural Purity View. The former requires practice to gain realization, while the latter does not. Because there is no bondage in the Cause position, there is no need of liberation in the Consequence position. In terms of time, the present is taken as Sunyata without hesitation or waiting. In terms of space, whatever is before one, is taken without choice or selection. Where there is the Right View of Natural Purity there is Right Practice, Right Conduct and Right Result without gradation or sequence. The practitioner must just keep the Right View of Natural Purity without a moments cessation. That is why the great guru Gampopa said, "You think I practice, but what is it that I practice? If you say I do not practice, then why am I not disturbed?" We should not deceive ourselves, only the great sages can do this.
In the works of the great Nyingmapa sage named Undefiled Light there are many mistakes that make the Mahamudra so much like the Great Perfection. I have written an essay entitled "Padmasambhavas Secret Teaching on the Great Perfection" which someday may be translated by some one, and may be used for reference on this subject.
B. Through the aid of the third initiation, one attains the Rainbow Body in the practice of Mahamudra, while in the Great Perfection, one may do without Dakinis. Here another method called Torga is used, through which the body is transformed into the Rainbow Body. The former practice is both dangerous and difficult since real Dakinis are hard to meet. It is also very dangerous to lose the White Bodhi and very difficult to dissolve it into Wisdom light, in the maya body of Buddhahood or Heruka. In the Great Perfection, there is nothing quite so difficult or dangerous. In the first state of practice, advantage is taken of external light such as the sun and moon. By and by, the light is induced within the maya body. This is easily done in the Great Perfection. Practice is carried out in a totally dark building. Even if the yogi does not succeed in this, he avoids the traps of lust and suffering which sometimes catch those who have received the third initiation. There is a special doctrine in the Nyandhi Yoga called "The Highest Method for Getting Enlightenment in One Week" which explains this. I have given a commentary on this in my Chinese book published in Hong Kong.
C. The concept of Causation in the Mahamudra is different from that in the Great Perfection. The practitioner of Mahamudra has already passed through the second and third initiations in which Tumo and deep breathing are practiced, and has sublimated the gross breathing into non-dualism of mind and energy. On this basis he established the gnostic Sambhogakaya or Dharmakaya. Now the student should practice the fourth initiation of Mahamudra with this maya body and achieve the non-duality of enlightenment. In the Great Perfection the concept of causation is also related to the five energies of breathing, the five of wisdom, five lights and five Vajrayana chains (Torga) which form the foundation of non-duality of mind and energy. In the Great Perfection these elements and five wisdoms are intrinsically harmonized. Thus, the student does not practice them separately. He knows that mind and energy are naturally pure and perfect. Therefore it is not necessary to practice first with the mind, and then with deep breathing and finally with the non-duality of the two, since there is no duality between mind and energy in the View of Natural Purity. In the Five Lights of Torga, one experiences the harmonization of the five energies and five wisdoms. Here there is no analysis, for there is no need to analyze whether the light belongs to this wisdom or this energy.
D. Che Cho means View of Natural Purity. It is the foundation of the Great Perfection. It views everything as the five elements, five energies, five wisdoms and five lights, which are two Parts of the Great Perfection. All are intrinsically pure and holy. With this view one is able to practice the Torga through which ones body may be transformed into the Rainbow Body.

5. Discrimination between the Practice of Sunyata in the Great Perfection and Chan:
Before proceeding with a more detailed discussion of this topic, a short introduction to Chan is necessary. Two things must be mentioned:
i) In China the Tantra and the Chan have been considered as two separate schools. But in accordance with my emphasis on all systems of Buddhism being one whole, the Chan actually should be considered as belonging to the highest stage of the Great Perfection in the Vajrayana, which is Tantra. There are three reasons why they should not be divided:

a) My root guru, the great Lola Rimpoche, who was highly skilled in the practice of Great Perfection and the first guru to impart it in China, made contact with many Chinese scholars and practitioners of Chan. As a result he called it the "Great Tantra" which is the highest stage of the Great Perfections. This will be discussed in more detail later on. Historically, Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelugpa school is said to have criticized the Chinese Chan monk who came to Tibet and induced Tibetan Tantric monks to become his disciples. Tsongkhapa was born in Chin Hai Province which is close to Tibet and on the periphery of China. In this province, Tibetan but not Han customs are followed. He himself never entered Han and hence never learned about Chan. I have given some criticism of his book, The Great Path of Tantra, on this point in Chinese. It has been published in Hong Kong.
b) What we have called the Tantra may have secrecy in its content. But the Chan has not only this secrecy, but secrecy of function in Truth. This kind of function of Truth has many wonderful methods which are without logic or reason, but give the student instant comprehension of the Truth. This will be discussed later on. For this reason Chan is not exoteric as the Chinese scholars classified it.
c) The first patriarch of the Chinese Chan school was Bodhidharma who had been a famous Tantric guru in Tibet. In China he was known as a patriarch of Chan alone but in Tibet he imparted the Great Perfection whose foundation was completely the same as that of the Chinese Chan school. So, without question, Chan belongs to the Tantra.

ii) The second part of my introduction to Chan concerns its classifications. The Venerable teacher Tai Hsu classified Chan schools in terms of their purport and dynasty as follows:

a) Tathagata Chan which tries to teach how to recognize the mind with doctrines.
b) Patriarchal Chan which points out the mind intuitively without one word of doctrines and goes beyond the Buddhas.
c) Chan of the Five Sects which goes beyond Chan of the Patriarchs.
d) Chan in the Sung, Yuan, Ming and Ching dynasties.

"Dhyana Buddhism in Chinese History and Teachings" written by Doctor Chu Shang Kung used these four classifications, but in my humble opinion I cannot agree with them. The first three categories are based on the standard of quality, whereas the fourth uses that of dynasties. One should not use two standards to classify one thing. In accordance with the prophecies of the ancient Gurus of Chan, I made the following four categories:

a) Tathagata Chan of Dharmic teachings.
b) Patriarchal Chan pointing out the Essence.
c) Offspring Chan using, opportunity and function to impart the Truth.
d) The Oral Chan spoken by sand-like Buddhists.

The terms "offspring" and "sand-like" were both predicted in the prophecies of Chan history. The Chinese scholars mistakenly thought the Sand-like Chan would be known by everyone. Actually, it is said that the common Oral Chan is not Chan at all, just as sand is not gold. It was a term of ridicule rather than praise.
Using the above system of classification, the comparative study of Chan and the Great Perfection should take account of the following: First, we should know that Chan is the highest stage of the Great Perfection, and therefore is part of the Tantra. This contrasts with the view of the Chinese scholars who treat the Tantra as a doctrine of outsiders and considered Chan as an exoteric doctrine. The second point is that the Chan which can be compared to the Great Perfection is the third type, which I have called Offspring Chan. This is not so for the other three types of Chan. Patriarch Chan can only be compared to the Mahamudra, and Tathagata Chan only with the Great Middle Path. The ordinary Oral Chan is not Chan at all and not worth a straw. Thus, I will use the Offspring Chan in the following comparisons.
A. Great Perfection employs three kinds of imparting methods in initiations. The first is called Denoting Initiation, the second is Oral Initiation and the third is Mind Initiation. In the first one, a crystal or round mirror is usually used as a symbol of the initiation. In all three there are formal rituals which are traditional. In Chan there are no such rituals, rather, the Great Opportunity and the Great Function of the Truth are used. The Chan guru must impart it in his own realization and the disciple must also accept it in this newly appeared realization, intuitively. No established rituals or objects are used as symbols or denotation. Thus the guru is only able to impart it if he himself has realized it; and the disciple cannot accept it if he does not suddenly make his own realization appear. In the Great Perfection on the other hand the guru may not have had the realization himself. But if he has received and studied the tradition, he may give the initiations using the prescribed rituals.
B. In the history of the accomplished gurus of the Great Perfection, there are very few who could use the Great Opportunity and Function with the Truth. One such was Tilopa who gave Naropa instant comprehension of the Truth when he struck his penis with a rock. When Bewapa received his initiation of Great Perfection, he began to dance in the Mandala and immediately attained the sixth stage of Bodhisattva. Every Tibetan knows this story. However, there are one hundred thousand more examples of this kind in the records of the Chinese Chan. For example the Chan guru who lived in a birds nest and was therefore called Birds Nest Guru, gave his disciple instant comprehension when he blew on a feather. Was not the feather a small thing, and blowing on it a small action? Yet, they performed such profound functions of the Truth. Without the gurus great attainment and the great devotion of his disciple, this result could not have been achieved. Many, many different instances of this have been recorded. For example, drawing a bow, raising a finger, beating or hitting the ground, killing a snake, a punch in the armpit, raising a fist, breaking a pot, destroying a stove, upturning a bed, blowing out a breath and knocking a bamboo, have all been used by the great Chan gurus for imparting the truth. At times, crying, shouting and the like have been used. Even seeing a reflection in the water, or taking a cup of tea or a piece of cake have served the purpose. This all seems very wonderful, but actually is very simple. It seems simple but actually it is very wonderful. There is nothing in the history of Buddhism in all of India, Tibet, China or Japan that can compare with it.
C. The Doctrine of the Great Perfection has been divided into two parts, Che Cho and Torga, both of which have been used by many Nyingmapa Lamas. Both are quite different from Chan where one is not allowed to practice meditation before achieving some realization. There is a proverb which goes, "Without passing the first crisis, one should not be a hermit; without passing the second crisis, one should not abide on a mountain." That was why the Chan monks usually wandered everywhere, searching for a guru through whom they could get the realization of the truth. When the student comprehends the truth, it is said that he has passed the first crisis. From this point on he can practice the Chan which consists of just keeping the realization constantly in mind. Many wonderful powers and forms of liberation have been recorded in Tang Dynasty, through the practice of Chan. For example, there was the sage Yin Fung who died standing upside down and the monk Pu Wha who flew away with his body. Comparing the two schools just in terms of the number of sages in each we see that the Chan had many, many more followers who achieved higher attainments than the Great Perfection.

III. Summary

I will now give a brief but important summary of what I have said. The discrimination between the exoteric and esoteric schools is a gross one, and they are easily distinguished. The following essential distinctions between Mahamudra, Great Perfection and Chan must be discerned. The practitioner of Mahamudra must understand the fourth yoga called "Yoga of Non-Practice" before he can begin to practice the Great Perfection and its view of Natural Purity. The practitioner of Great Perfection must not only have the view of Natural Purity, but actually some realization of Great Perfection, then he can begin to practice Chan. The practitioner of Mahamudra must get the insight of the Enlightened Entity before he can actually practice the Mahamudra. Until he gets this insight, he is still at the stage of paramita meditation even though he has received the impartation and initiation of Mahamudra.
The practitioner of Great Perfection must personally get the realization of Che Cho, of Natural Purity. Even with initiation and impartation he may only know the theory intellectually, and not have the realization. Until he has this, he can not practice the Great Perfection.
The practitioner of Chan must have seen the Truth and must understand the special impartation beyond doctrine. He must know the Preaching of Dharmakaya without words. He must have personally seen the Natural Face. Then and only then can he practice the Chan, which is to say, "box without hands" and see that everything is in the Bodhi. All this must be known intuitively and not just as "words from the mouth."
In conclusion, let me give some simple terms for distinguishing these five kinds of Sunyata.

1-2. To practice Sunyata is the Course of the exoteric schools, Hinayana and Mahayana. 3. To master the Sunyata is the Course of Mahamudra.
4. To naturalize Sunyata is the Course of Great Perfection.
5. To realize and function in Sunyata is the Course of Chan.

The student of Mahamudra masters the Sunyata because he has the Enlightened Entity. This is somewhat quicker than in the exoteric schools, but more gradual than in the Great Perfection since the student must go through the four yogas, i.e. One-Pointed Yoga, Giving-Up-Play-Word Yoga, One-Taste Yoga, and Non-Practice Yoga.
I wrote a poem symbolizing this:
Needles head argues with its end
Passing thread is what they mind.
Head has hole, end must work on.
The point has much work to find.Here, the head is the Great Perfection which has its hole already made. The point of the needle must work its way through the four yogas.
The Chan of Offspring is very difficult to understand, yet when once you have discovered it, there is no practice so easy, so plain, and so intrinsic. Among the five kinds of practice of Sunyata, it is the shortest and straightest way, as is said, an attainment without walking.

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Nada Yoga – outer and inner

March 18, 2015, 9:17 am

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Nada Yoga

Article from Bindu no 10/ Blog Ref http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science

Collected and edited by Swami Janakananda
Based on texts by Sankaracharya, Swami Sivananda, Kabir and Goraknath among others, but above all by Swami Satyananda.
Revised in the summer of 2009.

Nada Yoga is about sounds. It is the knowledge of the quality of sounds and the way they affect people. There are coarse sounds and fine sounds. The very finest sounds we hear within.

Inthis article, we will explore the ancient science of Nada Yoga and present a detailed practical introduction to a powerful form of meditation.

In 1969 Swami Satyananda and I visited an ashram at Bhagalpur in Bihar, India. A yogi had settled there who specialised in Nada Yoga. I remember the big paintings there, of meditating figures with rainbow auras around them. The different colours illustrated different levels of consciousness and their corresponding inner Nada (sound).
The reason why this yogi (who had the same teacher as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of Transcendental Meditation) had established an ashram exactly there was because of the special nature of the place. The area had earlier belonged to the military. The soldiers had dug subterranean corridors and tunnels which reached all the way to the nearby town. There were caves or rooms connected to these corridors deep under the ground, and it was those caves which attracted the yogi. There you could sit and meditate without hearing a sound from noisy India, and so you could concentrate on the inner sounds. In the total silence down there, I experienced how the sounds really stood out.
Such ideal conditions can be difficult to reproduce. But we can compensate for them with certain exercises and poses. These we will describe in this article.

The Outer Nada Yoga - under the Influence of Music

Some years ago, when I made the CD Experience Yoga Nidra, I asked the musician and composer, Roop Verma, to make the background music to the longer of the two deep relaxations on the CD. I knew that he possessed a knowledge that was about to be forgotten, of how outer sounds, such as tones and composition of tones influence us. He learned this, partly with his first teacher, Swami Shyam, and partly through studies of old texts about Nada Yoga in Indian music.
In connection with the production of Experience Yoga Nidra he recorded, as the first musician of our generation, themes and harmonies which are in tune with and touch our different chakras or psychic centres.
In Bindu # 2 (so far published only in printed form in English, but soon to become available on yogameditation.com) we dealt with the effects of music, and Roop Verma contributed an article. In the current issue, our subject is the innersounds, which are experienced and used in the deeper steps of the Nada Yoga meditation. But first Roop Verma shall tell us a little about the development of Indian music and its splitting away from its original wholeness and power.
Some time ago, when Roop Verma came to play on our Three Months Sadhana Retreat, I asked him whether or not there were different ways to perform Indian music. It had puzzled me that certain celebrated musicians of India today, at least to me, did not seem to communicate any feeling of meditation. I seem to experience a difference between those who 'put on a show' or 'perform' their music – and such people as the flute player Pannalal Ghosh or the singer Kumar Gandharva, who radiate such a degree of devotion in their music that it places the listener in a deeper state. Roop gave me the answer in the introduction to the music that he was going to play for us:

"Until about a thousand years ago there was no such thing as 'concerts' in the Indian tradition. There was no 'performance' of music or dance or singing.
Music was confined to the temples for sacred ceremonies and rituals. They were not entertainment forms of music, but what I call very potent sound formulas. Such formulas are like different elements; you put them together and you get a certain effect. They were used in ancient times to bring tranquillity and peace to agitated minds and tired bodies, as well as to change and transform the listener.
On the one hand it had a therapeutic effect; to heal disease, to heal sickness. On the other hand its aim was to focus the attention of people who came to the temple – towards one-pointedness. When we are centred and one-pointed, our lives take on a different meaning. When, on the other hand, our minds are scattered, the way we experience things is also influenced. So in order to achieve that focus, music was instrumental.
From the beginning of the eleventh century, we see a turn in the history of India. Many foreign invaders came and established their empires there: the Persians, the Moguls, and so on. They liked the music and art so much that they invited the musicians to their courts, to appreciate and honour them.
Therefore something very significant happened at that time. The musicians and the music, which so far had only been played at the temple, were now made available to everyone from the king to the common people. People who did not belong to the temples could now enjoy the music.
However, this had one disadvantage. Previously, the artist or the musician did not have to prove anything. In the temple you play as part of a ceremony. There is a deity, there is a God sitting there and you don't have to prove anything, because supposedly God knows everything – all the music, and all the variations, all the rhythms.
But the king doesn't know. You have to prove it to the king. So the ego comes along. Now the egos began to build up as the art was developing. They became very intellectual. A lot of music started to come from the left brain, and as a result the music took another shape.
As the inner feelings change so does the art – expression changes.
From that point onwards there are two branches in music. One became the entertainment branch or what I call deshi. The other is called margi ( marga means a path) when we use the music as a path to evolve ourselves.
I had the honour of studying in both schools..."

One can say that Indian music today, besides folk music and popular film music, includes devotional music (singing like Kirtan and Bhajan); the classic concert music; but also an esoteric music, which is linked to Nada Yoga and which masters the aforementioned knowledge of the influence of sounds. These three may very easily overlap and there is no doubt that music as such, and Indian music in particular, affects us and therefore is often seen as being part of Nada Yoga.

To that may be added the fact that Indian musicians, at least in earlier times, had to learn yoga, as well as the inner Nada yoga and various breathing exercises to strengthen and develop their ear for music. We present one such exercise in this issue of Bindu: Bhramari – the Bumble Bee.

The Ragas and Nada Yoga

In different conscious states the mind is attracted to different vibrations of Nada. In Indian music, these forms of Nada are known as Ragas; tonal frameworks that are appropriate to certain times of the day or certain seasons. It seems as if some compositions of sounds are unpleasant at one time of the day and pleasant at another.
Swami Satyananda says that he is especially fond of India's midnight music, the Malkos, the Durga or Jogia Ragas. The evening raga, such as Bhimpalasi, is also popular with many. India's morning music (Bhairawee or Bhairawa Raga) appeals to some, but not to all. For the most part, girls and boys at the sensitive age prefer Bhairawee.

"The deer is entrapped by sweet sound.
The cobra is enchanted by sweet music.
Raga Punnagavarrali charms the cobra.
Nada entraps the mind.
The mind gets Laya in sweet nada.
Therefore you can easily control the mind
through the practice of Nada Yoga"
(Swami Sivananda)

Music can be a pleasant, interesting and inspiring spiritual practice in itself – but as we have heard from Roop Verma, it can also be a part of Nada Yoga. Through music, the mind can be tuned to the finest vibrations and thereby be prepared for the transcendent Nada.

"Nada is found within.
It is a music without strings which plays in the body.
It penetrates the inner and the outer
and leads you away from illusion."
(Kabir)

The inner Nada Yoga – dissolves the inhibitions of the mind

"By one who is desirous of attaining perfection in Yoga,
Nada alone has got to be closely heard (meditated upon),
having abandoned all thoughts and with a calm mind."
(Sankaracharya, Yoga-taravali)

The first version of this article was printed in the Danish Bindu magazine in 1973. An updated version was prepared in 1996, and published in 1997 in Danish, Swedish, English and German. This article is mainly based on what I learned in the late sixties, during my time in India with Swami Satyananda, on his teaching and lectures, and on lectures and expositions he gave when he visited the Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School in Copenhagen in the seventies.

In 1974 I participated in a conference in Denmark where doctors, psychologists, authors and others, as well as myself representing yoga, were invited by the Ministry of Education to exchange ideas on psychosomatics (the relationship between body and mind). I then happened to tell a young scientist that there are methods in yoga where you do not have to suffer to liberate yourself from old influences or tensions, where you do not always have to confront your traumas, but can dissolve them. I was thinking about Laya Yoga, and especially about Nada Yoga, which is a discipline of the former.
The young scientist was certainly interested, but perhaps rather shocked. Despite the ostensible independence of science in relation to religion, the basic belief prevails that things must hurt before they do us any good.

Laya Yoga

Music helps us relax and creates an atmosphere, but the Nada Yoga meditation on the inner sounds reaches deeper and more precisely into our states, and has a strong liberating effect in dissolving the very deepest blocks and inhibitions of the mind. Every meditation practice or technique which dissolves the inhibitions of the mind and minimises its activity is called Laya Yoga. Therefore Nada Yoga belongs to Laya Yoga.
The ancient great masters of Hatha Yoga, such as Gheranda Rishi (author of The Gheranda Samhita) claimed that Hatha Yoga could also be a part of Laya Yoga. For instance, breathing exercises can be used to achieve a mental state totally free from tensions. Even during the meditation Antar Mauna (Inner Silence) you are able to bring your mind to a state of complete rest.
Nada Yoga is an important method in Tantra, and the inner Nada Yoga is a permanent part of the education at the retreats of the Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School.

Nada – a Definition

The word Nada comes from the Sanskrit root, Nad. Nad means to
flow. The etymological meaning of Nada is a process or a stream of consciousness. Generally, the word Nada means sound.

Different States of Nada

In Tantra it is thought that sound occurs in four dimensions – four levels of sound relating to frequency, degree of fineness and strength.
1. The coarse (ordinary audible, material) sound,
2. the mental sound,
3. the visualised sound and
4. the transcendent sound.

Other Tantric Meditations
We can compare the different states of Nada with other tantric meditations where we begin in the senses, in order to satisfy the mind and create a state of security as a basis for going deeper. (See also Bindu # 8: Harmony between the Experiencer and the Experienced)
We can also begin in the physical: From having experienced the body and its muscles and organs we turn to the breath, which is experienced without any interference. In this way, a deeper relaxed state is gradually triggered.
With a mantra, a sound syllable which we repeat mentally, we transcend the mind and reach the inner sounds and symbols; pictures which we see within and which, depending on their nature, represent various levels of consciousness.
Through the use of an inner or psychic symbol, we remain aware in normally unconscious states and get closer to the core of our being and the state of pure being.

Ordinary sounds are the coarsest manifestation of Nada. We are aware of the coarse sounds and we hear them every day. They are vibrations which hit our ear drums from the space around us, from our surroundings.
After having left the coarse and tangible sounds that we experience through the senses, we can become conscious of the mental sounds. They are sounds which we hear in the mind. Their frequency and strength is dependent on both our mental and physical state. In a relaxed state they are easy to perceive. The sounds also become clearer when we are exhausted, agitated or after intense and prolonged physical activity.
When we go deeper still, we reach the astral sound, the sound which is found in the inner space and which appears in visual form. Certain forms answer to certain sounds and certain states. Sounds or forms which we, for instance, experience in our dreams, belong to this plane, as well as sounds which are linked to certain meditation symbols.
See also About Sound and Form in this issue
Behind the visual sounds the transcendent or supra-conscious sound is found. The transcendent sound and the transcendent consciousness are the same. In Nada Yoga, universal consciousness is perceived in the form of sound.
The tangible or coarse universe, that which we experience through our senses, and in the mind, can in this way be led back to the source, to the sound, to Nada.
For the Nada yogi it is important to make contact with the sounds that are found in the other dimensions: the mental and psychic. In this way the capabilities of the mind are expanded.

Let us look at each of the four states in more detail. In Sanskrit they are called: Para, Pashyanti, Madhyama and Vaikhari. We start with the highest:

Para Nada

The transcendent sound, which has the highest frequency, is called Para Nada. Para means highest or farthest, and in this connection: transcendent. Para Nada is beyond the reach of the sense organs. It is heard in other dimensions, on other levels of consciousness.

In music, each tone has a certain number of vibrations per second, which we call frequency. The character of the tones can vary in length, strength, height and harmonics (overtone structure). Exact knowledge of this can be obtained by using a frequency analyser, which can split a tone in vibrations per second, show its amplitude (strength) and its overtone structure.
In Indian music the vibrations are called Andolana.
We are familiar with high frequency sounds from daily life, such as dog whistles and the sounds which bats emit, as well as electronically produced tones.
The ear cannot grasp sounds which vibrate beyond a certain speed. When a certain frequency is reached, the sounds become inaudible and can only be perceived subjectively – as an inner sound. Still, we are not conscious of all vibrations in the cosmos .
Also below a certain level, we are limited by our sense of hearing. The waves, which the electroencephalograph (EEG) registers in order to measure the brain's bioelectric impulses, are limited to a quite small number of sinus waves, between one and 60 Hz. These 'waves' actually belong to the musical scale. But the human ear cannot perceive sounds below about 16 Hz – although the structure of such tones is in harmony with the rest of the scale.
The very low bass tones, for example, can be felt as vibrations directly on the body even though they are not audible.

The Nada Yogis reveal that Para or transcendent sound has the highest frequency. Para's intense vibration makes it inaudible. Various texts mention that the Para sound has no vibrations. It is a sound without movement or frequency – a still sound. We cannot grasp a sound which has no vibration. When a sound reaches its maximum height, then it reaches stillness – and that is Para Nada. It is completely uniform. A state of consciousness corresponds with this stillness. The Nada Yogi reaches this state by becoming one with Para Nada.
In the Upanishads, the mantra OM is said to be the manifestation of Para. But not the audible OM, which we chant. That is not Para because it is the object of our hearing, our understanding and our logic. Therefore it cannot be called transcendent. Para is at the same time silent and eternal. It has form and its nature is Jyoti (light). It is different to the sounds one usually understands or hears.

The Upanishads state clearly about the Para Sound: "This is OM, this sound is OM."

"Nada is sound.
OM is Nada Brahman.
Veda is Nada Brahman.
Sound is vibration.
Name is inseparable from form.
The form may vanish,
but the name or sound remains.
OM is the first vibration of sound.
The world has come out of Nada or OM.
In Pralaya all sounds merge in OM.
Sound vibrations are gross and subtle.
The quality of Akasha [space or ether] is sound.
Akasha is infinite.
So you can fill the ear with the infinite sound."
(Swami Sivananda)

Pashyanti

The second level of sound has fewer vibrations and is coarser than Para. It is called Pashyanti.
Pashyanti in Sanskrit means: "that which can be seen or visualised". The old scripts maintain that sound can also be seen. How can one see sound? Have you ever heard music in a dream? This particular dimension of sound that occurs in dreams is called Pashyanti. It can be called a mental sound. It is neither conscious nor half conscious. It is a subconscious sound which is linked to the characteristic of your mind and not to your vocal organs; tongue, throat or mouth. It is not heard with the physical ear, but with the inner ear.

When I loudly say "Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram", it is called Vaikhari, but when I close my eyes and mouth and go in and mentally repeat the sound, "Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram", while visualizing its colour and form, it is called Pashyanti. When the word or the sound is heard in a sphere where one is not conscious of the outer surroundings, it is called Pashyanti. When every outer sound has disappeared and you hear a completety new sound, unlike the ordinary sounds, then it is Pashyanti Nada.

Madhyama

A sound, which has fewer vibrations than Para and Pashyanti, but which is finer than Vaikhari, is called Madhyama.

Madhyama is a sound that can hardly be heard. Ordinarily, when two objects hit each other they produce a coarse sound; like when we clap. But in the case of Madhyama no two things physically hit each other to produce an audible sound. Madhyana produces vibrations such as when one whispers. It is an intermediate sound. The word Madhyama means "in between" or "in the middle". So this middle sound can be called whispering or is like the sound of whispering.

Vaikhari

The fourth and coarsest plane of Nada is Vaikhari. The Vaikhari sounds are audible and can be physically produced. Vaikhari is the spoken sound. It is produced for example by rubbing or hitting two things against each other. Its vibrations are limited to a certain range.

Para has the quality of soul, Pashyanti has a mental quality. Madhyama has the finer quality of the vocal organs, and Vaikhari has the coarse quality of the same physical organs.

The Universe and Nada

According to Nada Yogis and scriptures dealing with Nada Yoga, the original and transcendent sound is the seed from which the whole of creation has grown.
The Nada Yogi experiences the macrocosmic universe as a projection of sound vibrations; the whole world as having developed from sound alone.
The Bible says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". This word is called Nada or Shabda in Sanskrit.
Sufis in India call it Surat. Surat Shabda Yoga is another name for Nada Yoga practice. Certain Muslim mystics are also of the opinion that the world has developed from sound and form.
Australia's original inhabitants, who supposedly have the oldest continuous culture on earth, tell how the ancestors made the world come into being through song.
The Nada Yogis claim that the five elements, the five physical senses, the five subtle senses, the fourfold mind and the three gunas have developed from an eternal sound. That means that the material, the mental, the psychic and the intellectual universe have all originated from Nada-Brahma, the sound universe. It is the way the Nada Yogi experiences his/her reality. It manifests itself in the form of vibrations, of which the highest either does not vibrate at all or vibrates at such a high frequency that it lies outside the reach of human senses.
The eternal or original Nada vibration is the highest. When any object vibrates with an enormous and incredible speed, it then becomes silent. That means that the highest point of speed and vibration is silence. This eternal vibration seems to be the creative principle behind all matter.
The Upanishads (specially the Nada-Bindu-Upanishad and the Hansa-Upanishad) and the Vedas describe that in the beginning was nothing. There was absolutely nothing, there was non-existence in the universe – there was only sound. The sound was unending; the sound was the only existing reality. From that sound, the universe evolved, and therefore the fundamental structure of the universe is based on Nada or sound vibrations.
Music is a result of Nada.
Mantra in its purest form is a manifestation of Nada.
The movement of Energy (Prana) in the body is an expression of Nada.

Nada Yoga Meditation

All real forms of meditation share certain common effects.
Some forms are stronger, others lighter, some focus on one thing, others focus on another.
The method in Nada Yoga Sadhana is to reach the original, the finest inner sound, Shabda or the inner word.
You could characterise Nada Yoga as a sort of vibrating vacuum cleaner, which dissolves tensions and blocks, even at the finer levels of consciousness.
To reach the superconscious or transcendent and non-empiric sound, the process must start with the experience of the coarser sounds.

The Nada Centre

In which centre is the transcendent Nada experienced? There are different traditions: Bhaktas (those who liberate themselves through devotion, Bhakti Yoga) place their Ishta, their personal symbol, in Anahata Chakra by the heart. Yogis use the centre of intuition in Ajna Chakra in the middle of the head. The Vedantics seek it in Hiranya Garbha, the luminous or golden egg in Sahasrara Chakra at the upper part of the head.
Bindu
In the Nada Yoga tradition, the yogis have located the sound centre in Bindu. The Brahmins in India have a tuft of hair where Bindu is situated, at the top of the back of the head. It is the centre in the brain where an on-going sound vibration takes place. To be able to experience the Nada sound, Bindu has to be located.
But rather than exploring the theory of this science at the outset, it is better initially to investigate it in a practical way and localize or discover the mental, astral and psychic nature of the Nada sound.
Within Nada Yoga, there are different techniques and aids that can be used to help the aspirant go through the different psychic or non-physical sounds, so that consciousness can be brought into harmony with the real Nada.

Japa Yoga – Nada Yoga in Bhakti Yoga

Vaikhari
When a Bhakti Yogi uses a Mantra, it is first repeated ( Japa) aloud ( Vaikhari). Here he or she focuses on the sound of the Mantra produced by the vocal cords.
Upanshu
When the Bhakti Yogi has warmed up with this practice, or when he or she has attained a deeper and clearer awareness of the sound of the Mantra, then the Bhakta intensifies the experience of the Mantra by whispering it or by saying it with the lips without producing an audible sound. The Bhakta aims at becoming one with the whispered Mantra.
When this is achieved, and the Bhakta realises that the mantra has become mental, the movements of the lips will stop.
Manasika
The same mantra is now chanted in the head or rather in the heart. And the mind begins to merge with the rhythm and vibration of the mantra. The Bhakti Yogi experiences it as if the mind actually sings it, so that everyone can hear it. But it happens only within.
Ajapa Japa
Then it occurs to the Bhakti Yogi, that he or she is not producing the mantra, but hearing the mental and fine tones, as if they are there by themselves (Ajapa Japa).
Mantra-Nada-Yoga
When the Mantra begins to have the desired effect, it causes the awareness to let go of all outer things (Pratyahara) and turn to the deeper levels of consciousness. Then the Mantra changes to Nada, a constant sound which occurs by itself. The aspirant will on this level of consciousness think it is audible, but it will not be noticed or heard by others. It is Mantra-Nada-Yoga for Bhakti Yogis.

Practical Introduction to Nada Yoga

Precautions

There are certain precautions one must take as an intense Nada Yoga practice may give rise to a disturbing presence of certain sounds. It can happen that a person experiences the sound as if it's humming in the ears the whole day. Or that they hear the ringing of bells or other sounds. They may become perturbed in their daily tasks by these tones.
But this happens very rarely, if at all. On the contrary, a number of students have experienced relief from tinnitus after combining Nada Yoga with the breathing exercise Bhramari and the Yoga Nidra relaxation. Still we are obliged to write these precautions.
Through the practice of Nada Yoga, the inner sounds are gradually developed, but you do not have to listen to them at other times of the day. Let us presume that Nada Yoga has been practiced in the night and you have discovered different sounds. The next morning you go to the office or the classroom and begin to hear the sound of bells. You want to avoid it, you try, but you still hear the sound. You may also experience it as if bees are humming in your ears.
If these symptoms appear you have to consider what to do. Is your diet okay? If not, you have to change it. Do you want to continue, but get irritated or disturbed by the sounds? Then you have to either change your attitude or (if you do not succeed and want the sounds to stop) give up the Nada Yoga path.
A Siddhi
The Nada Yogi can hear a voice in a wakeful state if he is at an advanced level. To him, it sounds as if someone is whispering in his ears. This is a kind of 'siddhi', a psychic or extraordinary ability, such as here, to hear an unknown voice.
This, however, should not be confused with a group of people in India called Karnapischachee, which means "the ghost in the ears". The Karnapischachees are used as oracles, often consulted by people in difficulties. They hold a kind of bell in their hands and ring it close to their ears for some time, until they hear a voice. Whatever is heard or whispered in their ears is communicated to the person who asks. A Yoga practitioner should never use such a method to achieve this ability as it often leads to deafness. As a consequence, the Karnapischachees in India have hearing problems.
These days, many people have impaired hearing, for reasons comparable to the case of the Karnapischachee. Rock musicians, for example, or people who work in a noisy environment. These injuries of course have nothing to do with Nada Yoga. Also there are people who spontaneously hear sounds like a ringing in their ears. Some of these sounds may be caused by ear injuries, while others can be related to sounds, such as the ones heard in Nada Yoga. The Yogi cannot monopolize these phenomena; the yogi has only discovered them and knows how to benefit from them, but the sounds are there anyhow.
The Attitude will often make a difference
If a person seeks help from a doctor because he or she is suffering from disturbing sounds and does not know the positive sides of this phenomenon, and if the doctor cannot help, maybe it could be useful for the person to change his/her attitude towards the sounds and begin to practice Nada Yoga under the guidance of an expert.
It often happens that things we want to get rid of do not disappear when we fight them. It applies, for example, to pain. If we, on the other hand, meet the pain and allow ourselves to experience it, then we can let go of it. In the tradition of tantric yoga this method is called Pratyahara. It has already been explained in Bindu and is described in more detail in my book, Yoga, Tantra and Meditation in Daily Life(Rider Books, UK and Red Wheel Weiser, USA. In France, Editions Satyanandashram).
This way of applying Pratyahara is in accordance with a conclusion that science has reached concerning noise in the environment: If you view the sounds as harmful and become irritated, you are more likely to be harmed by them than if you, to a certain extent, accept them.
With regard to Nada Yoga, it is possible to turn what you once considered disturbing sounds to your own advantage; see On a Wavelength with Oneself.
Teresa of Avila (Teresa de Jesus) did not find guidance about the inner sounds in the European culture in which she grew up, so she didn't realise how she could use them in her spiritual life. She describes them as clearly as any Nada Yogi in her book, "The Interior Castle":

"It roars like many big rivers with waterfalls, there are flutes, and a host of little birds seems to be whistling, not in the ears, but in the upper part of the head, where the soul is said to have its special seat."

A Nada Yogi's Diet

A Nada Yogi's diet ought to be easily digested. Food which brings a quick energy rush to the brain is not suitable. Food and drink which cause hypertension or high blood pressure should be avoided. You have to ensure that you get the necessary nutrients to maintain the body's normal functions.

Preliminary Practice of Nada Sadhana

The Nada Yogi makes use of certain Mudras (attitudes) and Bandhas (locks) and a few Pranayamas (breathing exercises).
Here follows a short description of Mula Bandha, which is known by most people who practice Hatha Yoga; then of a Mudra which is useful to awaken the Nada sound: Vajroli Mudra. Vajroli Mudra is also known by many Hatha Yoga practitioners, but here it may be explained in another way.
In many books on Hatha Yoga we are told that, in Mula Bandha, we should concentrate on the anus, on the anal sphincter muscle. That is in itself correct, but according to Tantra, and the more advanced yoga, Mula Bandha is actually a contraction of the perineum. This must be understood fully. The contraction of the anus or the anal sphincter muscle is Mula Bandha as understood by Hatha Yoga novices. In Tantra Yoga, however, Mula Bandha is the contraction of the perineum, the 'seat' of kundalini, also known as Muladhara Chakra. It is the area between the anus and the sexual organs which should be contracted.
Vajroli Mudra also comes under Hatha Yoga. Many different forms of Vajroli are found, which we shall not go into detail about here. The contraction of the muscles of the sexual organs and the urinary system is called Vajroli Mudra. It influences two important nerve flows in such a way that the energy is freed or transformed to heat.

Muladhara Chakra is the actual starting point for Nada. When this chakra is heated, the sound is experienced by the aspirant. But the original sound is split up in different frequencies in the different chakras or psychic centres found in the spine and in the head. Vocally they are expressed through different Bija Mantras, the seed-syllables: Lam, Vam, Ram, Yam, Ham and Om– beginning in Muladhara and ending in Ajna Chakra.
The chakras are central seats of consciousness and psychic energy in the spine and in the body. They are symbolised by lotus flowers – four-leafed, six-leafed, 10-leafed, 12-leafed, 16-leafed, two-leafed and a thousand-leafed lotus flowers. The leaves represent the number of minor energy flows, Nadis, to and from each chakra and their corresponding frequencies, indicated by secondary Mantras (sound syllables) written on each leaf. As an example, see the illustration of Muladhara Chakra above.
Breathingexercises can call forth or manifest Nada. As already mentioned, Bhramari (the Bumble Bee) is essential for yoga practitioners and musicians.
When you have learnt Mula Bandha, Vajroli Mudra and Yoni Mudra (see exercise 3 in the next section), then they are practiced while you hold the breath and turn your awareness to Bindu. This is where the Nada Yoga concentration really begins.

The Poses in Nada Yoga

1. The Nada Yoga pose is the most suitable pose for beginners. Take a fairly big and hard pillow, place it on the floor and sit astride it, so there is pressure on the perineum. Sit with the soles of the feet flat on the floor. The knees project upwards, so that the elbows can rest on them. The back is kept straight.
Then put a thumb in each ear and at the same time rest the head in the hands.

2. Sit in Siddhasana –the perfect pose– with a stool in front of you to rest the elbows. This pose should be used by those who can sit in this pose for a long time without moving.

Siddhasana is done by placing one heel up against the perineum (for men) or the vagina (for women) with the rest of the foot lying against the thigh. Then put the other foot above the first, so that the heel presses the lower abdomen and the pubic bone above the sexual organs. The two heels must be placed right over each other without touching. Finally, the toes of the upper foot are placed between the thigh and leg muscle. In this way the pose is locked. Some people are also able to pull the toes of the lower foot up between the calf muscle and the thigh.

3. For the more advanced, Yoni Mudra– to be as in the womb – is recommended. Sit in Siddhasana. Inhale and close the ears with the thumbs. Place the index fingers over the eyelids, so they can stay closed without being pressed too hard. Close the nostrils with the middle fingers, one at each side and close the mouth with the ring and little fingers by placing them above and below the lips respectively. Then do Mula Bandha and Vajroli Mudra while holding the breath.

Variation: Do the above but without closing the mouth and nose. Stay sitting for longer and breathe normally.

Some suggest only practising Shanmukhi Mudra. It is Yoni Mudra without Mula Bandha and Vajroli Mudra. It is, however, a less effective practice, as you will understand from the above explanations.

4. For the even more advanced Nada Yoga practitioner, who has succeeded in following the sounds with closed ears: sit in Siddhasana with the hands resting on the knees and the index finger in contact with the thumb, either at its root or at its top. The three other fingers are stretched out and together. This position of the hands is called Chin Mudra.

At this stage you need no longer close the ears if there is reasonable silence around you.

"Bathe in the centre of sound,
as in the continuous sound of a waterfall.
Or, by putting the fingers in the ears,
hear the sound of sounds"
(Vigyana Bhairava Tantra)

When you sit in the Pose in Nada Yoga

Lock the ears gently with your fingers. Listen inwardly up to Bindu at the top of the back of the head.
When you concentrate on Bindu, after having closed the ears, it is here that the sound is manifested from the transcendental plane to the next and where you experience it as an astral sound.
Now, you may hear the sound of a bumble bee. It can be the sound of a musical instrument, a harp perhaps or a flute, the rhythm of a guitar, birds chirping at sundown, crickets or grasshoppers. It can even be the vision of the sky on starry night where a total silence prevails.
Continue listening for some time to the sound which comes to you first.
Let the first sound be the starting point – the one end of a thread. Hold on to it as closely as you can. When you are getting really close to the sound, then you will experience that other sounds arise in the background. Now you let go of the first sound, move on to another and concentrate intensely on it.
While you listen, the sound you have chosen will become clearer. You get closer to the sound, both mentally and psychically, and feel as if you become one with it. When this has happened you discover that other sounds have arisen in the background, and you choose one of them, which you then concentrate on.
In this way you can continue with a fourth, a fifth, a sixth sound, a seventh, eight and ninth inner sound. Different sounds can arise. It can be like a river flowing through the landscape; the distant murmur of the sea, or a bell which rings or chimes
If it is difficult to discover a sound at Bindu, then let the mind search at Sahasrara or Ajna, or at the left or right ear drum. Or experience a space within, hearing it there in the middle of the head. Or search at the eyebrow centre – go on until you are sure you hear a sound.
The method to discover the sound is simple. Instead of imagining a sound, put all your attention on listening, and you will soon hear the first sound. The sound you have chosen should be followed until it becomes clear and distinct. As soon as it is distinct, another sound, another tone, finer or weaker is heard or felt in the background, and then you listen to that, till that has become prevailing.
Sometimes it is a finer sound of the same kind e.g. a flute, but finer, more subtle, than the first, that you discover behind the first; sometimes it is like you hear in a different way or another direction and quite another kind of sound appears, e.g. of bells chiming.
When you discover a new sound, then let go of the one you just listened to, and follow the new. Sound after sound will keep coming up as if from the bottom of an ocean.

The Nada Yoga Sadhana unfolds and reaches the unbroken sound, which in yoga is known as Anahata Nada– the sound which continues. It has no beginning and no end.
At the highest point of your practice, your Sadhana's highest state, you may feel that the whole body and mind, the whole personality is nothing but rapid vibrations, a movement of fast sound vibrations. Thus you experience yourself as sound.
This Nada Yoga is a great Sadhana, a great spiritual method, a process that continues until consciousness is free of the mind's influences. In India many people have perfected it.

When to practice

You can practice Nada Yoga whenever you have time. However, in order to get a tangible result, a beginner should practice between midnight and two o'clock in the morning.
At midnight, there no disturbing sounds, and the absence of light in the atmosphere also helps. Doing it at this time helps to turn the mind inwards.
Or get up at two or three o'clock in the morning, take a shower and sit for the meditation. You will find it quite different at this time, and you will surely hear something. Once you have found a trace of the sound and come into contact with it, then it's easy to go on.
Of course, at the beginning there are disturbing diversions regardless of the time of practice. Our mind is influenced by inhibitions, habits, tendencies and urges. But even if there are many disturbances within, the practice of this Sadhana, the spiritual practice, is generally very rewarding.

Traditional Descriptions

Nada at different Levels of Consciousness

The sounds which are heard are real. They are symbols of the contents of the mind and consciousness. The mind rests in those symbols and, with their help, goes quickly on to a finer state. The sounds are experiences from a deeper level of consciousness, they are not imaginary. They can be understood as vibrations of different spheres of one's existence.
In the various dimensions of existence, different sounds are heard. First, there are the physical sounds. Then, when the consciousness becomes fine and transcends the physical plane, it comes into contact with the fine sounds, which arise with the movement of the prana or the vital energy in the body.
The whole range of human consciousness can be divided into three, or subdivided into five parts.
The conscious area is made up of Anna-Maya-Kosha and Prana-Maya-Kosha, two 'bodies' which exist respectively as physical matter, the 'food' dimension; and as Prana, the energy dimension.
The personality's other sphere is made up of Mano-Maya-Kosha and Vigyan-Maya-Kosha, mainly mental and astral material, the conscious mind and the dream dimension.
The third area of consciousness is Ananda-Maya-Kosha, which is a 'body', a dimension, a 'veil'– Kosha – a state full of bliss.
When you practice Nada Yoga, the sounds appear in accordance with the connection between the mind and the other areas of consciousness.
Consciousness can, for example, linger in the physical body and, when the ears are closed, the sounds or vibrations that come from the heart, the lungs, the brain, the blood circulation and the different metabolic processes taking place in the body, can be heard.
If the consciousness lingers in Prana Maya Kosha– the vital energy – and has merged with it, then Nada will be heard as a flute among many other sounds.
If the mind has reached deep into Ananda Maya Kosha, then other sounds will disappear and the fruit of Nada Yoga will remain.
Despite this description, it is difficult to say which Nada belongs to a certain area.

In India, illustrations are given in the form of symbolic stories.

Rishi Narada

The individual consciousness, which continues to rise upwards and discover the transcendental tones is, in Indian mythology, symbolised as Rishi Narada. Without denying his historic existence, the esoteric meaning of Rishi Narada must be understood.

Narada is supposed to be a Rishi, who has a Veena (a string instrument) in his hands. According to the traditional Nada Yoga schools, the inner sound from a Murli (a flute) or a Veena belongs to that conscious sphere where Dwait Bhava or the duality of consciousness ceases to exist.

Nada Yoga in Bhagavata

Nada Yoga is illustrated in the big Indian book called Bhagavata Purana (not to be confused with the Bhagavad Gita). Krishna's life story is related in the form of an allegory.

Bhagavata says:

"Krishna left his palace at midnight and went into the jungle. The light of the full moon shone in the first winter month. He began to play the flute.
The flute's echo spread over the quiet and undisturbed atmosphere. The music travelled from the jungle and was heard by the Gopis (village cowherd girls).
When they heard the sound of the flute, they left their homes and their men in an instant and forgot everything that had happened there.
They ran straight away to the place from where the flute's Nada was flowing. They began to dance around the flute player. After a little while they each discovered, that they danced with Krishna himself."

If the story seems fantastic, when it is taken at face value, it is because what lies behind it, is only properly understood by yogis.
Nada Yogis regard Krishna as a higher conscious plane whose Nada flows in the deepest state of Nada-Sadhana. When the flute's tones arise, the senses leave their respective objects of pleasure and experience – they withdraw to the place from where the flute's sound or Nada flows. There the senses dance around Nada. In that stage the senses let go completely of their links with the outer objects and the yogi will say, "Dharana (the ability to see and experience within) has taken place and Dhyana (meditation) is dawning".

In Sanskrit the word Krishna means
"that which draws" or
"that which attracts".
It is derived from the root "Karshan".
Therefore the word Krishna means
"the one who draws", "the one who withdraws" or
"the one who attracts".
It also means "farmer". And the word Gopi usually means "daughter of a cow herd family". In Sanskrit "go" means senses, cow, poor, the humble, and the whole visible universe. Symbolically, Gopi means: "senses".

Who then are the men who are married to these senses – these Gopis? You could say that the men of the eyes are the forms, and the men of the ears are the gross sounds.
When the music of the flute is heard, the sense of hearing withdraws from the outer audible sound and merges with the inner Nada.

This process is Pratyahara.

Nada Yoga and Kabir

A famous Nada Yogi and poet, Kabir (see him also cited earlier in this text,
and in Bindu # 9: "Kabir – Four Poems") says:

"Who is there playing the flute in the middle of the sky?
The flute is played where Ganges and Jamuna flow together
and the confluence of the three rivers –
Ganges, Jamuna and Saraswati –takes place in Trikuti.
Oh, this is the meeting place for Ganges and Jamuna.
The sound flows forth from the North.
The Gopis hear the sound of the flute and lo!
They are all spellbound by Nada."

Sky = symbol for Bindu, the centre on the top of the back of the head.
Often Bindu is symbolised by the sky on a starry night.
Ganges, Jamuna and Saraswati = the Nadis (energy flows): Ida, Pingala and Sushumna.
Trikuti = The Centre between the two eyebrows.
Gopi, see above.

The ultimate experience in Nada Yoga is a sound which is higher than the sound of the flute. The music on this highest plane of consciousness is not a flute, Veena, clapping or the sound of brass instruments being hit together, nor is it any other instrument. It resembles neither the classical music of the East nor of the West. The music of the highest conscious plane is "Unahada Nada".

Unahada Nada or Anahata Nada

What is Unahada Nada? Up to now, people have not been able to agree on this. Some say that it is the cosmic sound of OM. Others say that it is like Bhramari - a sound which is unending, unbroken like the sound of a bee. Some say that it is the heartbeat, "throb, throb, throb" which is called "Unahada Nada".
Some call it Anahada and others call it Anahata. These two words have two different meanings.
Anahata comes from "an" + "aahata". "An-" means "no" or "un", "aahata" means "that which strikes, beats or hammers". Therefore, Anahata means "unbeaten, or no hitting of two things against each other". When a sound is produced, it happens through striking, but Anahata is a sound that is not produced through any striking. It is spontaneous and automatic.

Certain scholars say that Nada is Anahada. "Un-" or "An-" means "none" and "Hada" means "boundary" or "connection". Anahada means "infinite", "without beginning or end" or "indescribable". It is a sound on which no limitation can be placed. It can be any sound.

Nada Yoga and Yogi Goraknath

Yogi Goraknath, disciple of Yogi Matsyendranath, was more spiritually developed and had greater insight into the spiritual life than even his own Guru. He describes Nada Yoga thus:

"Oh Sadhu (aspirant), carry out Japa [the repetition of mantra] with 'So Ham'. That Japa should not be carried out by the mind. It should be experienced in the breath so that even when you are engaged in your daily activities you should be conscious of your day's 21.600 breaths. When your subconscious or your inner consciousness unites with your breath throughout the 24 hours of a day, 21.600 rhythms are experienced with a speed of 15 to 19 rounds per minute (which is at least 900 breaths per hour). Then Anahata Nada manifests itself."

He continues:

"There will be light in the spine. The 'Sun' energy [which is connected to the right half of the brain] , Surya Nadi, will be awakened. You will feel an indescribable vibrating sound resonate from every pore of your body and it will be like Om or Soham".

Nada Yoga in India

Different Nada Yoga schools exist in India - for example those which came into existence after Maharishi Mehidas, Radha Swami and Kabir.
The initiation into Nada Yoga in India is passed on personally as is the case with the initiation into the use of Mantra and into the great Kriya Yoga. While Hatha Yoga, Dhyana Yoga, Raja Yoga and other branches of yoga are more fully and accurately described, down to the smallest detail, the Nada Yoga Sadhana remains incompletely elucidated, both in practice and in theory. Perhaps because it is taught directly from teacher to student.

"The mind exists as long as there is sound, but with the cessation of sounds, there is the state of being above the mind.
The sound is absorbed in the Akshara (indestructible), and the soundless state is the supreme seat.
The mind, which along with Prana has its Karmic affinities destroyed by the constant concentration upon Nada, is absorbed in the unstained One. There is no doubt about it."
(Nada Bindu Upanishad)

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[This article appeared in IONS Review, No. 59, March-May 2002. Reprinted with permission of the author and the Institute of Noetic Sciences (www.noetic.org ).]

When David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk, proposed investigating the “rainbow body,” a phenomenon in which the corpses of highly developed spiritual individuals reputedly vanish within days of death, he received an enthusiastic response from Marilyn Schlitz, IONS’s director of research.

In a new joint initiative with the Esalen Institute, IONS is expanding its research on “metanormal capacities”- behaviors, experiences, and bodily changes that challenge our understanding of ordinary human functioning- because they raise crucial questions about the developmental potential of human beings.
“Brother David told us that he had taken this project to various institutions and foundations looking for support,” recalls Schlitz. His intention was to corroborate these claims, and accumulate data that would not only help us understand more about the rainbow body, but also look at its broader implications. He had been told that this type of research is unacceptable within mainstream science. But, I said, “This is exactly the kind of project we’re interested in at IONS. As long as the research can be conceptualized within a rigorous critical frame, we are open to examining any and all questions that can expand our idea of what is possible as humans.”
Steindl-Rast’s own curiosity about the rainbow body began when he heard various stories of Tibetan masters who had, through their practices, reached a high degree of wisdom and compassion. It was reported to him that when they died, rainbows suddenly appeared in the sky. “And I was told that after several days their bodies disappeared. Sometimes fingernails and hair were left. Sometimes nothing was left.”
These stories made him reflect upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is central to his own faith. “We know that Jesus was a very compassionate, selfless person. When he died, according to the gospels, his body was no longer there.
In today’s world, Steindl-Rast points out, the resurrectionof Jesus Christ is interpreted differently, depending upon ones spiritual leanings. For fundamentalists, the resurrection- the act of rising from the dead- happened only to Jesus, and couldn’t happen to any other human. The minimalists, on the other hand, says Steindl-Rast, focus on Jesus’s spirit living on, and believe that the resurrection of Jesus had nothing to do with his body.

Yet, a large number of people (including himself) are open to the concept that the body, too, is significant in the spiritual realm, and that certain spiritual experiences are universal.
In 1999, he decided to explore the strange phenomenon of the rainbow body and a possible connection to the resurrection of Jesus. “I sent a fax to a friend in Switzerland, who is a Zen Buddhist teacher. I knew that many Tibetans live there, and so I asked him if he could inquire about the rainbow body. Two days later, I received a fax back stating that a Tibetan had unexpectedly approached him, and when the rainbow body was mentioned, the Tibetan said, ‘It happened to one of my teachers just recently, and a famous lama who witnessed the events wrote an account about them.’ ” At this point, Steindl-Rast contacted Father Francis Tiso, an ordained Roman Catholic priest who has not only studied ten languages, including Tibetan, but is also familiar with Tibetan culture. (Francis Tiso holds the office of Canon in the Cathedral of St Peter, Isernia, Italy, and is assigned to the Archdiocese of San Francisco, where he is parochial vicar in Mill Valley.)
“I was aware,” says Steindl-Rast, “that Father Tiso occasionally went to Tibet, so I asked him if he was planning to travel there in the near future. He told me he was leaving that very day.”
Steindl-Rast asked if he would stop in Switzerland and interview the Tibetan. Despite the short notice, Tiso took a detour to Switzerland, and thus the research journey began.
The rainbow body is a complex phenomenon that will probably take years of study. “If we can establish as an anthropological fact,” says Steindl-Rast, “that what is described in the resurrection of Jesus has not only happened to others, but is happening today, it would put our view of human potential in a completely different light.”
Recent Rainbow Body Experiences
Through his Swiss contact, Tiso received the name of the monk whose body had vanished after his death: Khenpo A-chos, a Gelugpa monk from Kham, Tibet, who died in 1998. Tiso was able to locate the village, situated in a remote area where Khenpo A-chos had his hermitage. He then went to the village and conducted taped interviews with eyewitnesses to Khenpo A-chos’ death. He also spoke to many people who had known him.
“This was a very interesting man, aside from the way he died,” observes Tiso. “Everyone mentioned his faithfulness to his vows, his purity of life, and how he often spoke of the importance of cultivating compassion. He had the ability to teach even the roughest and toughest of types how to be a little gentler, a little more mindful. To be in the man’s presence changed people.”
Tiso interviewed Lama Norta, a nephew of Khenpo Achos; Lama Sonam Gyamtso, a young disciple; and Lama A-chos, a dharma friend of the late Khenpo A-chos. They described the following:
A few days before Khenpo A-chos died, a rainbow appeared directly above his hut. After he died, there were dozens of rainbows in the sky. Khenpo A-chos died lying on his right side. He wasn’t sick; there appeared to be nothing wrong with him, and he was reciting the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM over and over. According to the eyewitnesses, after his breath stopped his flesh became kind of pinkish. One person said it turned brilliant white. All said it started to shine.
Lama A-chos suggested wrapping his friend’s body in a yellow robe, the type all Gelug monks wear. As the days passed, they maintained they could see, through the robe, that his bones and his body were shrinking. They also heard beautiful, mysterious music coming from the sky, and they smelled perfume.
After seven days, they removed the yellow cloth, and no body remained. Lama Norta and a few other individuals claimed that after his death Khenpo A-chos appeared to them in visions and dreams.
Other Rainbow Body Manifestations
Francis Tiso remarks that one of is most intriguing interviews was with Lama A-chos. He told Tiso that when he died he too would manifest the rainbow body. “He showed us two photographs taken of him in the dark, and in these photographs his body radiated rays of light.”
Because Lama A-chos emphasized that it was possible to manifest the rainbow body while still alive, not just in death, Tiso plans to return to Tibet with professional camera equipment to try to photograph this radiating light.
Other incidents of metanormal occurrences upon death are also being studied. For instance, several of Tiso’s colleagues were present for the postmortem process of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, who died eight years ago. “This man was a very large-boned individual,” says Tiso, “and it was reported that seven weeks after his death the flesh was reduced. That could have been done by chemical substances, however, the bones also shrank.”
Shrinkage of the body occurred with another guru, Lama Thubten. His miniature-sized frame is now kept in a monastery in Manali, India. Tiso has ascertained that incidents of bodies shrinking or disappearing shortly after death were documented centuries ago, such as in the classic story of Milarepa, a Buddhist saint from Tibet who lived in the 11th century. Milarepa’s biography was translated into French by Jacques Bacot in 1912, and into English by Walter Evans-Wentz in the 1920s.
“In the ninth chapter of this literary classic,” explains Tiso, who wrote a dissertation about the Buddhist saint, “It states that his body completely disappeared shortly after his death.”
Even the earliest biographies of Milarepa, says Tiso, attest to this phenomenon. In addition, accounts exist about the great eighth-century tantric master Padmasambhava and how his body vanished.
The Significance of Practice and Culture
When conducting this type of research, says Tiso, it is important not only to interview as many people as possible, but also to study biographies and any written explanations of these events. When he arrived in Tibet to investigate the death of Khenpo A-chos, Tiso was fortunate enough to obtain the bulk of his biography by Sonam Phuntsok within an hour of his arrival.
What is at stake, explains Tiso, is not simply verification of a phenomenon, but understanding the values, spiritual practices, and culture in which this phenomenon is embedded. “We need to examine these institutions and practices in a new light in order to recover for humanity some very profound truths about the expansion of the human consciousness and our potential as human beings.”
This opportunity is present in the Nyarong region in Tibet, where several incidences of the rainbow body are said to have occurred. The research team is now studying their way of life, especially their spiritual practices.
Tiso has also obtained copies of spiritual retreat manuals, which have been particularly helpful.
Lama A-chos told Tiso that it takes sixty years of intensive practice to achieve the rainbow body. “Whether it always takes that long, I don’t know,” acknowledges Tiso, “but we would like to be able to incorporate, in a respectful way, some of these practices into our own Western philosophical and religious traditions.”
At the same time, continues Tiso, the research team plans to expend the scope of this research beyond the confines of the Tibetan culture, so they can compare the rainbow body phenomenon with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. To our knowledge, says Tiso, the bodies of most Christian saints did not disappear or shrink after their deaths.
“Highly realized saints in Catholic and Orthodox Christianity tend to move in the direction of incorruption, so that the body does not decay after death.”
However, he adds, bodily ascensions are mentioned in the Bible and other traditional texts for Enoch, Mary, Elijah, and possibly Moses. And there are numerous stories of saints materializing after their death, similar to the widespread phenomenon known as the “light-body.”
“In my church of Saints Cosmas and Damian in Italy, we have a large number of accounts, going back centuries, that indicate that these saints appeared in dreams and visions, rescued people from harm, and cured them of diseases. Even today, people still tell me they have these visions,” says Tiso.
In 1984, when Tiso was meditating with his eyes open in a chapel in Italy, he, too, had an extraordinary vision. Jesus Christ, he says, appeared before him in the form of a violet light-body. At that time, Tiso was considering taking a teaching position in the United States, but in this vision Christ indicated he should stay in Italy. “It was important not to make a mistake at that point in my life,” reflects Tiso. “I did stay in Italy, where I was eventually ordained, and I lived in a hermitage chapel for almost twelve years.”
Tiso has also had several Tibetan teachers appear to him in dreams. When he gives public lectures he speaks frankly about these experiences, because he feels it is important for people to understand that they are more common than we think. “I think that as people mature in their spiritual practice, they begin to have visionary experiences.”
Recent Implications
Countries such as China, Tiso notes, and certain political movements in Western Europe have chosen to abandon and even physically destroy anything to do with the contemplative life. “We’re now being asked to examine those institutions and their practices in a new light in order to recover for humanity some very profound truths about who we are as human beings.”
This research is clearly controversial because it tackles the age-old questions of life after death, the immortal soul, and reincarnation. Furthermore, it suggests that the alleged resurrection of Jesus Christ was not an isolated case, but shines as an example of what may be possible for all human beings.
Both Tiso and Steindl-Rast emphasize that these experiences are said to occur only in highly evolved individuals who are the embodiment of compassion and love. They speculate these qualities- conscience and consciousness- are a driving force of evolution. “It is my great hope that the rainbow body research will make us more aware of this possibility,” says Steindl-Rast.
Tiso holds the opinion that in today’s world, where consumerism, exploitation, and economic injustice are still out of control, there is an urgent need to reinforce the more loving, altruistic, and spiritual dimensions of the human being. In the future, he says, we should consider establishing new models of monasteries and retreat centers for individuals who wish, with idealistic motivations, to intensify their spiritual practices. He also proposes initiating a “holy” laboratory to document the progress of individuals.
As for the rainbow body, Tiso and his team hope actually witness and scientifically document the entire experience while it is occurring.
“What is important” says Schlitz, “is that we broaden our scope of what we believe is possible. We want to discover if there are ways we can begin to develop spiritual practices that, even though they might not lead us to personally experience the rainbow body, could lead us to some other manifestation of our highest potential.”
Gail Bernice Holland is an associate editor of IONS Review, and former editor of Connections. She is the author of A Call for Connection: Solutions for Creating a Whole New Culture (New World Library, 1998). Contact: gbauthor@noetic.org.
Brother David Steindl-Rast is the director of the Network For Grateful Living and oversees the content development of its website www.gratefulness.org .

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Wolfgang Pauli, Carl Jung, and the Acausal Connecting Principle: A Case Study in Transdisciplinarity

March 18, 2015, 7:56 am

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September 1, 2011

By Charlene P. E. Burns Metanexus

The same organizing forces that have shaped nature in all her forms are also responsible for the structure of our minds.
—Werner Heisenberg¹

are presented in strictly scientific terms and make no reference to any influence of the psyche in theoretical physics. Nevertheless, Pauli was convinced that science was unable to provide all of the answers. He was deeply interested in psychology and in particular in the significance of dreams… It was therefore considered proper that the publication of his scientific correspondence should reveal the thinker as a whole and not only the physicist, providing clues about how Pauli reached his ideas... The psychological correspondence of Pauli culminated in his long exchange of letters with C G Jung from 1932 to 1958. This reveals an hitherto poorly known facet of Pauli's mind. It is fascinating to follow how these two intellectual giants argue from different sides to find mutual enlightment [sic].³⁵

Endnotes

¹ W. Heisenberg, Physics and Beyond. Cambridge University Press, 1971, p 101.

⁴ B. Nicolescu, “Transdisciplinarity as Methodological Framework”.

⁵ Suzanne Gieser, The Innermost Kernel:.Depth Psychology and Quantum Physics. Wolfgang Pauli’s Dialogue with C.G.Jung. (Berlin: Springer, 2005), 162.

⁷ Maurice Jacob, CERN Courier, International Journal of High-Energy Physics. Aug 18, 2000. http://cerncourier.com/cws/article/cern/28293 accessed 2/20/09.

⁸ Gieser,5.

⁹ W. McGuire, ed. Dream Analysis: Notes on the Seminar Given on 1928-1930 by C. G. Jung (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982), 44.

¹⁰ Richard Wilhelm, Carl Gustav Jung, and Tung-Pin Lu, The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life. Trans. R. Wilhelm. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1970), 141.

¹¹ Published in C. G. Jung, Analytical Psychology: Its Theory and Practice. Collected Works 18 (London, 1968), 36, 76.

¹² M. Donati, “Beyond Synchronicity: The Worldview of Carl Gustav Jung and Wolfgang Pauli,” Journal of Analytical Psychology Vol 49 (2004): 707-728.

¹³ Beverly Zabriskie, “Jung and Pauli: A Subtle Asymmetry,” Journal of Analytical Psychology 40 (1995): 531-53).

¹⁴ David Lindorff, Pauli and Jung: The Meeting of Two Great Minds (Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 2004).

¹⁵ C. A. Meier, ed. Atom and Archetype: The Pauli/Jung Letters 1932-1958. (Princeton University Press, 2001).

¹⁶ Meier, 10.

¹⁷ Ibid., 19.

¹⁸ C. G. Jung, “Synchronicity”, Collected Works 8.

¹⁹ Donati, “Beyond Synchronicity”,

²⁰ Meier, 179-80.

²¹ Ibid., 185.

²² Letter to Marcus Fierz, 1948. Quoted in Henry p. Stapp, Mind, Matter, and Quantum Mechanics /em> (Berlin: Springe

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Rudolf II of Habsburg. Emperor and alchemist

March 31, 2015, 3:45 am

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Mauro Ruggiero
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His name has always been associated with magic and mystery, but also with pursuit of knowledge and tolerance. His work and his mind have marked a city and an era which is still remembered today, exactly 400 years after his death.

Rudolf II of Habsburg was born in Vienna at 18:45 on July 18th 1552, third son of Emperor Maximilian II and Mary of Spain. His grandfather Charles V had been the absolute monarch of the largest Empire ever: an endless territory that extended from Madrid to Vienna, from Naples to Brussels, from Prague to the distant lands of Mexico. An Empire over which, as they used to say, the sun never sets.

In 1556, when Charles V abdicated, his empire was divided in two: his son Philip II was to reign in Spain and over the possessions of Catholic Monarchs, while his brother, Ferdinand, over the Eastern part of the House of Austria. As head of the Empire, Ferdinand was succeeded by his son the Archduke Maximilian and, in turn, by his son Rudolf. The young Rudolf was educated at the Spanish court. He lived in Madrid and at El Escorial and very soon proved to have a rather complex personality. He opposed the marriage to his cousin the Infanta of Spain and never got married, therefore, did not even take advantage of the important political card of marriage. In 1571 Rudolf returned to the court of Vienna, where he was crowned first King of Hungary and Bohemia, and then in 1576, Emperor of the Germanic Holy Roman Empire. Since the very beginning, the young emperor had to deal with the religious opposition between Catholics and various Protestant denominations, but it was soon quite evident that Rudolf was more interested in arts, sciences and in the hidden and sublime secrets of nature rather than in political issues and wars of religion. In 1582 Rudolf leaves Vienna and moves to Prague. This decision, besides other political reasons, was also determined by other factors such as the search for beauty, but above all in the esotericism and architectural charm that the esoteric Emperor Charles IV had brought to the city. With Rudolf, Prague experienced its golden age. The new capital and frontier town of the Empire, home to diverse cultures, under the Emperor’s leadership was to make great progress in science, tolerance and free thought. During his reign, spread across two eras, Emperor Rudolf II turned Prague into an ideal city by creating a favourable climate, conducive to the advancement of knowledge and circulation of ideas; a kind of heavenly Jerusalem of sciences, an established utopia that reacted vigorously against any form of decline in the areas of knowledge after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Thanks to his patronage, Rudolf made Prague the jewel case of the highest and most advanced knowledge of his time.

But there is a dark side to Rudolf’s complex and multifaceted personality: an aspect that was to earn him the ambiguous fame which, even today, his name still evokes. As a solitary individual, prone to depression, Rudolf was obsessed by the desire to know things and was ready to do anything to achieve this goal. He believed that everything we see is part of a whole and of a harmonious order. In this hidden aspect of reality, the wise, the magician and artist are basically the same thing and Alchemy is the supreme science in order to understand the ultimate secrets of nature and thus overcome the laws that govern it.

Rudolf was literally obsessed by this science and at court, all the guests that were invited by the emperor in person, found themselves among the brightest and enlightened minds of the time. In exchange for protection, magicians, alchemists, astronomers, scholars and artists helped him to achieve his goal: to search for the philosophers’ stone and elixir of immortality, the symbols of supreme knowledge. Before him, his father, the Emperor Maximilian II, had already gathered around him an elite group of historians, antique dealers, collectors and scientists. Rudolf kept much of the staff of his father’s court and was greatly involved in printing new and old books that he accumulated in large libraries such as one at the Strahov Monastery in Prague. Under his reign, the study of pharmacy and mineralogy were fostered and great advances were made in the study of the stars and their movements. Very important personalities attended Rudolf’s court, such as the likes of John Dee, the English astrologer and cabbalist, Giordano Bruno, the philosopher and populariser of the hermetic tradition, the dark magician Edward Kelley, the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe and the great mathematician and astronomer John Kepler.

Rudolf filled his Kunstkammer with objects from his most varied interests, with art collections and rare, exotic objects. Various kinds of scientific experiments were carried out at the Castle, to which the Emperor attended in person. Rudolf II was very erudite and chose his scientists very carefully, submitting them to difficult trials and – contrary to how he has been depicted today in various films or in certain type of literature – he was not easily deceived. However, thanks to his support, new astronomical instruments were invented and Kepler was able to develop the famous three laws that are at the basis of modern cosmology.

Moreover, artists such as Giuseppe Arcimboldo and many others lived in the palace thanks to the Emperor’s great passion for arts, which allowed him to gather the works of many artists into a collection which is now one of the most important for that period.

In the social field, Rudolf was able to maintain a certain stability among the social classes, which led to period of peace and order.

In matters of religion, though nominally a Catholic, he did not take part in religious persecution, but conceded – contrary to other European courts – religious freedom. This allowed him to pursue his studies and manage his court scientists and scholars. But the golden era that Prague was experiencing thanks to its emperor, who loved beauty and mystery, was destined to end soon.

Quite often these personalities, for whom the Emperor provided protection, caused a certain amount of embarrassment and led to conflicts with the Church of Rome, which suspected him of heresy, or even worse, of being a patron of necromancers. Moreover, his frequent depressions and interest in the occult sciences, together with the fact of being the grandson of Joan of Aragon known as “Joan the mad woman” and his anti-conformism, fuelled a certain amount of speculation in Catholic circles that he was crazy and demoniac.

The imperial ambition of his brother, Matthias of Habsburg, the continuous pressure of the Vatican and the pretensions of the Protestant nobility, continually undermined the delicate balance that Rudolf was trying to maintain, and this was broken when Matthias, after taking control of Austria, Hungary and Moravia advanced with an army, backed by Spain and Rome, towards the capital of the Empire. When they triumphantly entered Prague in 1611, Rudolf was forced to abdicate and retire to his castle, where he died a year later, in 1612.

But, before giving up the Czech crown, Rudolf II, the betrayed Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and lover of the occult sciences, cast a terrible curse over Prague and the whole Czech nation:

“Prague.., ungrateful Prague, I have made thee famous and now you drive me out, me your benefactor … May you be crushed by vengeance and may damnation befall you and the entire Czech nation!”

This is what he said, and his ominous words soon revealed to be a sort of prophecy. Shortly after the seizure of power by Matthias, who proved to be unable to control and deal with the delicate situation that had arisen, conflicts between Catholics and Protestants resulted in the famous Defenestration of Prague, which gave rise to the bloody and terrible Thirty Years’ War. A War that from 1618 to 1648 tore apart the heart of Europe and left Prague at the mercy of foreign armies and the famous Battle of the White Mountain, on November 8th, 1620 when Bohemia lost its independence for 300 years.

The death of Rudolf II meant the end of an era, the Renaissance and religious tolerance. After him came a new regression of ideas, of free thought and the downfall of occult sciences.

As historian Peter Marshall wrote: “The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire died as a failing, lonely and depressed man, but together with his collaborators and lovers of Truth, had contributed to creating in Prague’s renaissance period, a cultural revolution that still continues to reverberate to this day”.

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A Muslim Fortune Teller

April 20, 2015, 5:09 am

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A Muslim fortune teller has over the years taken some interest in me in Slough. However, it was to be sometime before we met properly, and talked face to face. That happened in early 2014. He claimed to have come from a line of fortune tellers in Pakistan.

He seemed to regard me as being "100% good". But I said I was no saint, and neither was I totally good in a spiritual sense. It would be nice if it were so.

Anyway, I was invited to see him at his home. He gave a colourful description of his past, and it transpired that he was wanting me to raise money to help poor people in Pakistan. Yet, I politely said no to this.

More amusingly, he seemed to want me to stay the night, but I declined. As I was about to leave he insisted that he loved me more than a brother! I suspected, he had homosexual leanings, and left. Yet I allowed him to kiss my hand which he did profusely......

It was quite a time before I met him again for a chat. In April 2015 I was in Slough High Street. I brought up the point as to whether he gave some form of initiation. He said yes, and suggested that I should make an appointment with him. He said it would be best to have the initiation outside, and in a quiet spot . However, I did not ring to fix an appointment, but met him again in Slough where he undertook an impromptu "initiation" in an area near the library.

For legal reasons, I have not given out his name.......Let us just call him S.

......To begin with S wrote some Arabic letters, and some numerological numbers as well as some odd "magic symbols," plus two "crude drawings". He suggested to me that I had brothers..this was incorrect. S seemed to think I had children...again incorrect...S said I did not get on with my step mother...incorrect...His so-called fortune telling was a whole series of misses rather than hits!! I could not take him seriously. Among other things, he indicated that I should create a special vegetable soup for health, and claimed that I would die at a certain age!

Lastly, he explained that a woman I knew had cast a black magic spell on me. But I knew of no woman who would hate me that much to do something so "silly". S said that this "curse" or whatever it was, would be lifted in 21 days time!!

After this, came something very surprising. S told me to shut my eyes, and banged me on the top of my head for three, or four times. With each hit, if I recall rightly he made a strange "Schoooo, Scchhooo," sound as if he was trying to imitate the sound of "psychic energy" being transmitted into my head.

When I opened my eyes with a temporarily sore head I pretended that nothing happened. S asked me to grip his very strong hand in a certain manner. Again, he came out quick with "Schooo, Sccchhhooo" sounds. It seemed to me he was trying to transmit "psychic energy" to me, but admittedly, I felt nothing of the sort.

Just before we parted S again told me to shut my eyes. He then thumped me three, or four times on the right arm. Once more, the "Schoo, Scchhhooo," sound was repeated....I played along as if nothing serious had happened (ie. another assault). I opened my eyes, and he held out his hand to shake goodbye. I took it, and then, he left heading towards the library.

I have never experienced an "initiation" quite like this......especially the assaults on my head, and arm. I did think of reporting him to the police, or even getting him charged. But I presumed that this was all part of his "show," so to speak. He was not well-educated as he admitted. Maybe the assaults I experienced would be more acceptable in Pakistan, but not in Britain......................

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Mysteries of the Mind

April 20, 2015, 6:11 am

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by Dr. Richard Lawrence

The exact function of the mind is a constant source of speculation. There is disagreement on a variety of theories from different academic disciplines and research projects. Some approach it from a primarily neurological point of view, believing that the entire secret can be revealed by understanding the function of the brain. Others tackle it from a primarily psychological point of view, especially taking into account emotional and subconscious behavior. Others, drawing upon a rich fund of teaching, analyse this fascinating subject from a metaphysical point of view, including in their findings such concepts as the soul and spirit of man.

An in-depth analysis of the mind is beyond the scope of this book. We are concerned here with one particular aspect of its function die psychic potential in us all. Since psychic ability is a manifestation of the intuitive faculty, and intuition is in itself an aspect of mind function, we need to devote at least one chapter to the mysteries contained within the mind.

YOGA MASTERS ON MIND

Thousands of years before any modern writings on the function of the mind, the yoga masters known as the Rishis existed, reputedly dwelling in seclusion in the forests of India. Their findings about the human psyche formed the basis for later eastern philosophical teachings, which were passed down orally at first from student to student, and were later written down in the ancient Brahmin texts.

Since the late nineteenth century these teachings have been brought to the West by yogis such as Swami Vivekananda, who was the leading disciple of the great Hindu saint, Sri Ramakrishna. Swami Vivekananda's mission was to bring this ancient wisdom to the West, which he did very success fully, lecturing extensively in America and Britain. Many of his brilliant lectures are available in published form, and I certainly recommend them to those who wish to learn about the tremendous potential within us all. Perhaps his most out standing work was entitled Raja Yoga, in which he comments on the Aphorisms of Patanjali who was widely regarded as the father of Raja Yoga, the Yoga of control of the mind.

The works of Yogi Ramacharaka were written an the early part of the twentieth century by an Englishman, William Walter Atkinson, in conjunction with Baba Barata who had learnt these teachings in India from Yogi Ramacharaka, his guru. These very readable books throw a beacon of light on the subject of mind potential, among other subjects.

My favourite teacher is the western master of yoga, His Eminence Dr George King. His lectures and writings, which are available through The Aetherius Society, are very simple and clearly explained and, in my view, apply more than any others I have come across to the modern world in which we live. He has tailored his teachings through his own personal realisation and demonstration, so that they can be safely practised and easily understood by those of us who dwell in the hectic, highly pressured lifestyles of the modern era.

One thing all these teachers have in common is that they are not so much theorists, basing their findings on deductions and ideas, as proven practitioners of the psychic sciences in heir own right. Each one has entered the deeper states of meditation and has discovered along the way a fund of knowledge available through awakening the faculty of intuition. Experience is, after all, the finest guide to a true understanding of mind potential.

In addition to these yogis, there are many other valuable sources of information about the mind. One thing that all researchers are agreed upon is that we have only scratched the surface in using the full capacity of our mental potential. The mechanism of the human psyche both on a physical and a metaphysical level, is extraordinarily brilliant, if we only take full advantage of it.

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

Spectacular progress has been made in scientific research into the mind, which can add considerably to our understanding. For example, over the last few years researchers have dis covered much about the difference between tie right and left-hand sides of the brain. This is a massive subject about which entire treatises have been written, but I shall give a brief summary here of some recent findings.

The two sides of the physical brain are responsible for controlling very different aspects of our mental process. Scientists have discovered that the left-hand side of the brain is concerned with the analytical function of our mind, such as deduction, calculation, memory, logic and all things rational. The right-hand side is concerned with the creative function, all things intuitive.

Researchers believe that, on the whole, the right-hand function of the brain neglected in the modern world in favour of the left-band function, and that there is a serious imbalance as a result this. Our educational systems have concentrated primarily on deduction and memory and devoted very little time to expanding and developing the creative process. Obviously there are notable exceptions to this, such as the Rudolph Steiner approach to education and others who develop the creative side of our nature within their educational programmes certainly the emphasis in most schools has been on calculation, logical expression and remembering a fund of facts, theorems and data. This has also been the content of most examinations which mainly test our memory of data and the ability to present information in a rational way.

But the right-hand side of the brain as equally as important as the left, and this imbalance can be redressed by developing and using the intuitive and creative aspects of our mind. In my opinion it would be a very good thing if a basic course in psychic development was included in educational programmes in schools. Controversial as this may sound, it would have very practical applications, not only in the personal life of children and students, but in their professional life as well.

Many business decisions have to be made partly on the basis of instinct and gut feeling. Those who work in the money markets for example, would agree with this. Despite the knowledge of economists and bankers around the world, the same information and statistics, when analysed by different experts, produce opposing opinions about where exactly the market will go, the future value of different currencies and so forth. Knowledge and deduction alone, winch are attributes associated with the left-hand side of the brain, are not enough to make conclusive decisions.

I am certainly not suggesting that we should try to use our intuitive faculty to make money, although many business people have used methods of divination to assist them in their enterprises, and still do. I have found that if one's motive is purely selfish, intuitive attributes are very limited in their effectiveness. They are far more conducive to unselfish, humanitarian activities. Nevertheless, our obsession with using the left-hand side of the brain far more than the right-hand side is a major limitations even in the business world.

Other areas of scientific research into the brain over recent years have also drawn some very significant conclusions. One particular series of experiments involved registering the responses of the brain. Before we take any physical action, the brain has transmitted a mental impulse through our nervous system to cause us to walk, lift our hand, scratch or whatever the action may be. The experiments were designed to measure these internal impulses and nervous responses to a fraction of a second, using carefully devised apparatus connected to the people taking part. It was discovered that, in certain cases, the apparatus registered a reaction from the individuals before the brain itself was activated. This reaction took place only a fraction of a millisecond before, but it illustrated something very significant that thought impulse within a human being does not necessarily originate in the brain but in another part of the human psyche.

Some took this experiment to confirm the existence of the soul and others referred to the existence of 'will' as distinct from the brain. However you interpret it, it does back up what metaphysicians have said for thousands of years: that although the physical brain is very important indeed, it is not the fount of all knowledge. It is not the source of all mind.

THE METAPHYSICAL APPROACH

The word 'metaphysical' literally means that which is beyond the physical. When examining the mind, the metaphysician does not see it as being contained within the physical brain. He sees mind as energy, bringing a close interaction between thought and feeling. For example, inspiration may originate from a feeling and then be translated into a thought process which manifests itself in literature, science or the arts. The initial seed of the idea or impulse which actually produced that inspired mental process may have been a combination of impressions which are more related to feeling than thought. These feelings cannot be said to have originated in the physical brain, although the physical brain will have translated them into some form of intelligence.

It is interesting to examine the states of being which produce inspiration. The poet Wordsworth describes in some of his poems the virtual state of grace in which a certain oneness with nature is felt, a state he obviously experienced himself. Religious writings also refer to elevated states of grace or higher consciousness. From a psychic point of view, these states are created when the vibrations within the aura of the person in question have been raised to a high level or frequency. In such a state of consciousness, great inspiration will come to the person in one form or another. It might be poetry; it might be hearing wonderful sounds in one's imagination, which culminate in a great musical work. It might be an inspired realisation which can lead to the invention of an important scientific innovation. It might be a state which leads to a mediumistic rapport with an advanced person who is no longer living in a physical body but now inhabits a higher plane of existence and who gives a message of wisdom and healing. It might be the moment in which a painter sees the interplay of colour in a landscape in a new way and is able to visualise this to such an extent that it can be expressed in a historic work of art. These inspirations result from an elevated state of consciousness, which causes the physical brain to produce great thoughts. The brain is virtually a translating mechanism which helps to express the state of being of the individual.

There is still considerable investigation going on into the exact internal functions that ensue when the brain, for example, causes us to walk or to make any physical movement. Exactly what mental impulses have been sent and how the nervous system responds to those impulses to bring about the action is not fully known. Nor is it known at what stage the subconscious mind becomes involved m this process. These issues are the source of continuing programmes of enquiry and research. From the point of view of this book, it is sufficient to note that although the physical brain is a wonderful mechanism and a source of fascination and mystery even to those who make it their lifetime study, it is not the sole key to understanding the function of mind.

It is easy to see how western culture has misunderstood the exact nature of enlightenment. Even in the eighteenth century, which is referred to by historians as the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, it was seen almost entirely as a product of the left-hand side of the brain. Deductive logic and reason were the hallmarks of this age. The metaphysician believes that enlightenment is not any single thought, realisation or even discovery. It is a state of being or consciousness in which thoughts, discoveries and so on can be expressed. It involves the left-hand side of the brain, the right-hand side of the brain and more than that, because it also involves the feelings, which are crucial in all forms of psychic development.

THE AURA AND PSYCHIC CENTRES

For all mysticism, occultism and yogic philosophy, the starting point when examining the mind is the aura. This is seen as the source of all mental and emotional functions within the individual. The aura contains a multitude of different energies of a psychic nature, which, as one develops psychically, one can begin to see clairvoyantly. These energies arc received through the psychic centres and travel throughout the aura in an intermingling network of psychic channels which were known in Hindu scripts as the nadis. In fact the early scripts, known as the Upanishads , stated that there are seventy-two thousand of these nadis running throughout the aura in a complex matrix of interconnecting channels which produce a balanced flow of energies in the aura, providing we perform certain simple, purifying exercises. Especially recommended for this purpose was the practice of Pranayama, the science of correct breathing.

Among the many psychic centres in the aura, there are seven major ones: base of the spine (muladhara ),sex (svadhisthana ), solar plexus (manipura ), heart (anahata ), throat (viskudda ), the Christ centre or third eye, positioned where the eyebrows meet (ajna ), and the Crown centre, positioned just above the head (sahasrara ). I have included the Sanskrit names in brackets for each of these centres (or chakras, as they were known) because so many writings on this subject refer to them under these names. These centres are in the aura and not in the physical body. They are a few inches in front of the body, depending on the individual, and not necessarily positioned exactly opposite the respective physical organ - the heart centre, for example, is in the centre and not the left-hand side. Books abound on this subject, but the illustrations above and below give you an idea of the human aura and the location of the seven major psychic centres.

These psychic centres have a practical effect on our daily and nightly lives, whether or not we are aware of their function. The constant interchange of energies which takes place among the psychic centres and interconnecting channels within the aura directly affects our psychic development. Any blockages in this flow of psychic energy will tend to block our psychic perception. Any blockage in the reception or discharge of energies into and out of the aura will also tend to prevent the free flow of intuitive thought.

It is not necessary to have a detailed understanding of just how these psychic centres function and it is probable that very few of those who have written about this subject fully understand it themselves. It is believed by some mystics that those who really know about this do not share their knowledge with others too freely because the information, if misused accidentally or on purpose, could be extremely damaging.

Those books that do attempt to describe this interchange of energies within the chakras and the nadis are very often in coded form for the purpose of secrecy which was common in ancient texts. The most notable of theme is probably the classic occult treatise,The Serpent Power, written in the early part of the twentieth century by Sir John Woodroffe, which was based on a hitherto untranslated Sanskrit text It is a highly complex and somewhat technical but highly informative work for those who can decipher its inner meanings.

In addition to the internal transfer of energies, there is a psychic relationship with the outside environment in which we live. The reason we feel very uplifted in certain country locations is not just the beauty of the scenery and the fresh smell in the air, but also the flee-flowing natural energies, or pranas as they are termed in Sanskrit, which can rejuvenate our whole being by charging up die psychic centres in our aura. We may not be consciously aware of this process going on, but we will still feel the natural elation caused by it. On the other hand, a ride on an underground train in London or some other busy metropolis is not only stuffy dirty and imbued with unpleasant noises and smells, but there is also an interaction of energies going on between the passengers, many of whom may be frustrated, tired, irritated or just looking forward to getting off the train. This interchange takes place within the psychic centres and channels within the aura and tends to bring as a result a depleted state of mood and feeling.

If you are in the company of a very dynamic and vibrant person, even if you do not speak to each other, you will start to feel uplifted by his or her presence. If you are in the company of a depressed and pessimistic person and again nothing is said, almost immediately you may start to feel negative and melancholy yourself. This is a result of the interchange of psychic energies and illustrates the vital importance of this process to our general well-being, as well as our overall psychic development.

Great scientific discoveries and inventions which have taken place while the scientist was in a state of elation, and great works of art which have been produced while the artist was in a highly uplifted state of being, were caused by a positive interaction of psychic energy. This energy, which was attracted to them by, the vibration of their aura, affected their psychic centres. Each of these psychic centers controls differrent aspects of mind and produces an intelligent thought process, which in an exceptional case would be termed genius.

In ancient writings there is usually a tendency to concentrate very heavily on the higher psychic centres, particularly the Christ centre ('third eye' ) and the Crown centre ('Brahma Chakra'). Sometimes an implication runs through these ancient writings that the lower centres should almost be regarded as evils to be avoided as much as possible. More recent writings do not advocate this type of exclusivity of emphasizing only the higher centres. A more balanced attitude is generally found nowadays, which is very important to the developing psychic who should strive to use all his psychic attributes in a positive, but always controlled, fashion.

All the psychic centres have a vital function to perform. In certain ways this concentration upon the higher centres in traditional writings is understandable. Material things, which are so valued today, are said to be governed by the lower centres, and sex probably dominates modern cultures as much as it did in imperial Rome and some of the other eras an man's history which can only be regarded as decadent Advertising, pop music, magazines and youth culture are becoming increasingly obsessed with erotic images, as though the greatest pleasures on earth are found through activating the sex centre. But the elated states brought on by higher centres, activated in the correct manner, can bring greater states of ecstasy and, according to advanced exponents of mysticism, it is only when the Christ centre and ultimately the Crown centre are activated that true, lasting bliss can be experienced.

We should neither reject the lower centres nor ignore the importance of the higher centres, which will give us access to psychic ability and intuition, the more we use them in a careful, balanced manner. When we start to see mind as an interaction of energies creating a thought process through our psychic centres in the aura, we shall have a much clearer idea of how to enhance our psychic awareness.

It is interesting to note that research into the minutiae of atomic particles has shown that the mind of the physicist performing the experiments has, according to some, had a direct effect upon the results. This is one of the reasons why certain physicists are rejecting traditional definitions of proof as being an event which is repeatable under identical physical conditions. They are starting to realize that mind is beyond the purely physical environment and can actually affect the physical outcome of their experiments. Mind over matter, which was hotly disputed by physicists at one time as an impossibility, is now accepted in some form by an increasing number of modern scientists.

For many of us, academic proof of the power of mind over matter is not necessary. Our common sense tells us, for example, that if we are sick and being visited by friends or relatives certain people will cheer us up far more than others. This is not necessarily because we like them more than others, nor because of their conversation, which may be the last thing we feel like at such a time. But there are certain people who radiate a vibration before any words are uttered, which is at once uplifting and healing. These vibrations are psychic energies channelled through the psychic centers of the visitor outwards and received by us into our own aura. This process can cause us to feel better, and is in fact a natural form of healing.

To Be Continued ...

Extract from 'Unlock Your Psychic Powers' by Dr. Richard Lawrence
Published by Souvenir Press ©1993

Dr. Richard Lawrence, as Executive Secretary for Europe of The Aetherius Society, an international Spiritual organisation embracing many New Age ideas and practices, has travelled to several continents, lecturing and broadcasting on Mind Power, E.S.P. and related subjects.

He has researched and studied for over twenty years many aspects of psychic and mental development and is himself an internationally renowned psychic practitioner.

Other recommended reading ...

'Journey Into Supermind - Unlock your Inner Potential' by Dr. Richard Lawrence. Souvenir Press ©1995

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An Artist's Conception of the Master Universe

April 21, 2015, 4:27 am

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The following is based on the Book of Urantia
Source Urantia Foundation

http://www.urantia.org/

PARADISE

Paradise

At the center of the universe of universes is the stationary Isle of Paradise, the geographic center of infinity, and the abiding place of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit.
Paradise is the absolute source and the eternal focal point of all energy-matter in the universe of universes. This central Isle is the most gigantic organized body of cosmic reality in all the master universe. Paradise is motionless. It is ellipsoid and essentially flat.
The immensity, material beauty, and spiritual glory of Paradise are beyond the comprehension of the finite mind of man. Since you are beginning to glimpse the enormousness of the material universe, it should become evident to you that such a tremendous material universe must have an adequate and worthy capital, a headquarters commensurate with the dignity and infinitude of the universal Ruler of all this vast and far-flung creation of material realms and living beings.
After all, to mortals the most important thing about eternal Paradise is the fact that this perfect abode of the Universal Father is the real and far-distant destiny of the immortal souls of the mortal and material sons of God.
Revolving clockwise about Paradise are three seven-world circuits, the sacred spheres of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, enormous worlds of unexcelled grandeur and unimagined glory.

THE CENTRAL UNIVERSE OF HAVONA

Central Universe of Havona

The central universe of Havona revolves clockwise about Paradise and its 21 satellites. It is of enormous dimensions and almost unbelievable mass and consists of one billion perfect worlds of unimagined beauty and superb grandeur. These worlds are arranged in seven concentric circuits represented in blue on the drawing. The circuits are not superimposed; their worlds follow each other in linear procession in one vast plane. Havona is not a time creation; it is an eternal existence. Each Havona world is different-no two are alike.
Surviving mortals in their ascension to Paradise, will pass through each of these billion worlds. Continuing astonishment, unending wonder, is the experience of those who traverse these gigantic spheres. Not until you visit the last of the Havona worlds, will the tonic of adventure and the stimulus of curiosity disappear from your career. And then will the urge, the forward impulse of eternity, replace its forerunner, the adventure lure of time.
Out beyond Havona there swirl two elliptical circuits of enormous dark gravity bodies pictured in gray on the drawing. The inner circuit is tubular in arrangement. The outer circuit is arranged perpendicularly, being 10,000 times higher than the inner circuit. These gravity bodies neither reflect nor absorb light; thus they completely enshroud Havona and hide it from view of the nearby superuniverses. They so effectively equalize the lines of Havona gravity as to render the central universe a physically balanced and perfectly stabilized creation.

THE GRAND UNIVERSE

Grand Universe

The grand universe is the presently organized and inhabited creation. It consists of the perfect central universe of Havona and the seven evolutionary superuniverses revolving about it. The superuniverses are unfinished; new nebulae are constantly being organized. When finished, each superuniverse will contain 100,000 local universes, each of which will contain about 10,000,000 inhabited planets.
Our superuniverse, the seventh, is called Orvonton, which has a diameter of approximately 500,000 light years and contains more than ten trillion suns. Practically all of the starry realms visible to the naked eye belong to the superuniverse of Orvonton. The vast Milky Way starry system represents the central nucleus of Orvonton. This great aggregation of suns, dark islands of space, double stars, globular clusters, star clouds, spiral and other nebulae, together with myriads of individual planets, forms a watchlike, elongated-circular grouping of about one seventh of the inhabited evolutionary universes. When the angle of observation is propitious, gazing through the main body of this realm of maximum density, you are looking toward Paradise.
Our local universe, Nebadon, is located near the edge of Orvonton. Our planet, Urantia, belongs to the system of Satania, which is well out towards the borderland of Nebadon. The location of Urantia is indicated on the drawing by a dot and the letter U.
Christ Michael, Jesus of Nazareth, is the Sovereign of our local universe of Nebadon.

THE MASTER UNIVERSE

Master Universe

The master universe encompasses all of material creation. This includes the central universe of Havona, the seven superuniverses, and the four uninhabited outer space levels, which revolve alternately clockwise and counterclockwise. The immensity of the far-flung creation of the Universal Father is utterly beyond the grasp of finite imagination.
In outer space millions of new galaxies are in the process of formation. The first outer space level is about 500,000 light years beyond the periphery of the grand universe. Between the seven superuniverses and the first outer space level and between each of the space levels are enormous elliptical zones of quiescent space activities. They are free from star dust-cosmic fog.
The sizes of the outer space levels are enormous-millions of light years in width. Improved telescopes will reveal to the wondering gaze of our astronomers no less than 375 million new galaxies in outer space. There are already in outer space 70,000 aggregations of matter, each of which is greater than any one of the seven superuniverses-and this is just the beginning of stellar evolution in these regions. We can imagine the immensity of outer space, we can sense its extent and its majestic dimensions, but otherwise we can know little more about these realms.
It is believed that surviving mortals born on the planets of space (like Urantia) in their ascent to Paradise are being trained to take part in the future administration of these outer space levels.

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Structure of spiritual Hierarchy in Metasocmos

April 21, 2015, 4:39 am

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Arkady G. Aseev, Dmitry N. Fonarev

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Noocomology is the science which describes structure of the Universe, based on the works of the Russian Cosmic scholarship (cosmists). In the middle of 1990ths Soviet military specialists not only worked out the possibility of information exchange at the extrasensorial level (technology of «metacontact»), but confirmed the ideology of great Russian cosmists. Developing their ideology, engaging leading Russian and soviet scientists, the military specialists came closer to the bases of modern science, which is named Noocosmology
Stages of this work and results of experiments are described in details in the book series «Chronicles of the Real World». These books contain reports of the operators of informational channels (the people, who due to their talents and experience, under the guidance of military specialists, are able to get unique data about the structure of the Universe.
Certainly the question of data origin was always of top interest for investigators. Any information must be not only comprehensive, but trustworthy as well. Validity check of source and method was done meticulously. Validity of information received from high-class specialists reached 95%. Source at each channel asked to call him a Patron [acting guardian, protector]. Each operator has his own Patron, and there was no even thought to change him. No man establishes rules of this game. Quality was the only thing dependant on a specialist. Information received by operators was transferred verbally of via automatic writing. Images and terms depended on operator, his efficiency and capabilities, education and abstract thinking. Specialists, who checked operators, learned to ask questions and follow the rules, established for them. Patrons have rather direct told what Metacosmos is and how it is organized. We have taken Chapter 20 from the book «Eternity Guide» as a basis in order to describe structure of Metacosmic Hierarchies, to which patrons belong.
Where is the place for each of us? Who we are from Their point of view? Why they allow the contact? What they teach us? Is there anyone else between operator and the patron? What is the role and place of patron? Who is above patrons? One can ask endless questions, being simply curious. But if you have a goal, then cognitive vector sets the limit, and natural logic will help. So ahead with logic!
Noocosmology is describing a man as energoinformational system, which is inseparably bound to the whole Hierarchy structure of the Universe. This point of view is based on thesis that at this planet a man himself should be priority object for learning. If we observe a man as a system (Greek work «systema» means «whole, constructed of elements; conjunction»), conjunction of interdependent elements, which forms entity according to the creation task, then the main question of this Noocosmology division will turn as following: origin (creation) of a man on the planet. A man, as a system, could be described by well known methods, using standard measures. Certainly this is not pretending to be description of absolute system. But each created system (created by someone) is created (based on something) at a purpose. Nothing is done without a purpose. An accident is just unknown law. Absence of distinct explanation for the reason and genesis of a man at the planet does not mean that he just «accidentally» arrived. If something happens, then somebody needs this to happen. So we have to find out, who and for what reason wanted us to appear on Earth.
Metacosmic Hierarchy is the absolute ruling system, which controls its development. Role of Hierarchy is clear management for all systems of Metacosmos. Tasks of Hierarchy vary from multiplication of common intelligence [by this accumulation of common sense is meant] to progressive development in each point of the Universe, with the goal to upgrade Metacosmos as an environment, in which Hierarchy exists. Form of Hierarchy life being is constant and purposeful work, which differs from the vanity, because reality must improve as a result of this work.
Energoinformational substances are the fundamental elements (constructive foundations) of Hierarchy. Let us use the word «Hierarch» to build appropriate image. Hierarch is at a higher level of development and place at energoinformational level (used term is «psy-level»), Hierarch is Patron and Teacher for the one below him. Hierarch suggests his mentees ways of life, behavior, development, destruction. He is responsible for the particular part of the work with regard to the planets, planet systems or just a human life. Each mentee, living creature, has a right to choose the particular way of his existence.
Main rule of patrons is — do no harm, not interfere in other life. But in terms of common sense — to avoid his mentees interfere.
The better is the system organized, it is strong and stable. Role of Hierarchy consists of clear management of all systems of Metacosmos.
Hierarchy tasks — multiplication of common intelligence, development, progress. Intelligent [reasonable] Metasosmos should embrace everything, be mighty and indivisible. Core of intelligence knowledge must be protected from invasions. Core of intelligence knowledge contains all valuable thoughts, might and power of intelligence..
Brain is the main thing for living creature, one cannot go without brain. The head, which contains brain, must be protected above all, as existence of unprotected brain — without skull and body — is impossible. Thus core of Intelligence is the cumulative treasury of thinking Metacosmos.
Structure of Hierarchies could be described as following.
The Lord [God] is on top of All. Below are executives, responsible for main trends of development and management. Farther they are from the management Center, less possibilities and obligations they have.
Initially the Lord was firstborn. It is considered that He is self-born and self-realized, and there was nobody to teach him.
It is not obligatory that everything is created by somebody. Could be self-origin and self-birth. For this there was the primary ethereal source, which contained the first thought. It started spiraling in all directions. This spiral was build according to the laws, which we know as Fibonacci numbers. Each whorl generated new substances, assistants of the Lord.
In the beginning the Lord artificially created thinking intelligence for assistance, as there was nowhere to get it, except via self-multiplication.
This was how He created Firstborn, because they were the first. We can consider that they were created by the Lord via division. Further on there was no need to divide. But to grow and educate his kin, to start gathering spiritual mass, grown from the very beginning. They represent forces, who manage the whole set of works, in which the Lord does not need to interfere. The same process of energy exchange is with the people: first parents give to the children, then children — to the parents.
Then come the second. They are very appreciated by gained intelligence and life experience. Man cannot enter the level of connection with the Firstborns; connection with the Second is possible, but rare due to their small amount and overload.
The Thirds are at the lower level. They have wonderful natural education, adjusted to the high grade. Connection to that level is rather often. Structure of Hierarchies could be presented as follows:
Structure of Energo-Informational Hierarchies of Metacosmos according to Noocosmology

Structure of Energo-Informational Hierarchies of Metacosmos according to Noocosmology

Obedience starts from the low est rank of the high level — the Eighths. They are young entity, who reached high spiritual level.
All lower spiritual structures must obey to the higher; themselves they have partial power, single and mutual. Those lower than the Eighths, are Obeying, higher — are administrated.
The Firstborns did not undergo hard living experience. They are great from their birth and their spiritual building. The Firstborns are responsible for the structural agglomerations of the Universes and for some old Universes. All other Hierarchies are in their subordination.
The Firstborns do not have mass or body. Their intelligence is mighty and full of love to God, and for this they are loved. Second are grown in hard crossings and examinations, they are chosen for this level for their hard work, character, faith, dedication and virtue. This position is granted by Firstborns to their stewards. Sphere of their work is huge: creation and birth of the new Universe, Galactic work, work on the planets, in human souls and souls of other beings. Their main task is to form new Galaxies in a proper place of the Universe and at a proper time, also they supervise the order of Galactic formation. They also administrate all other lower Hierarchies; observe the work of those under subordination. Other levels report to them. High is demand for the refusal in subordination. They are mighty to punish and to raise those who deserve it up to their level (but not higher).
But this is not their single job. More important is self-improvement. You cannot demand from the others, if you are on the same level, if you do not develop, do not fulfill a new work. If you are given the right to demand from the others, please ask from yourself, first of all.
Higher is the position, higher is responsibility before the others.
It would be useful for the administrators on Earth at the high rank — to tend to further knowledge and improvement, not just fight for their position. Then their subordinates will follow their example, and develop.
Thirds and Fourths also undergo the way of crosses and examinations, and obey to the Seconds, as well as lower Hierarchies. Fourths are responsible for the Galaxies, and all that happens there. Special attention is to the speed of Galaxy whirling. Origin of life, in particular, depends on this. Also these Hierarchies are responsible for the spiritual development of thinking structures, and storage of positive energy. Work is highly specialized, to find out, who is responsible for what. Lower structures also obey to the Fourths. They have large power over humans, live or dead. Higher than the Fourths are God, Firstborns, Seconds and Thirds.
The Thirds differ from Fourths non-significantly, but are more responsible for themselves and the others. They have to overview the life of Galaxy conglomerations, their inner connections and transfers. This is high position and high rank.
A man can become the Third, if he had a large responsibility, significant task on Earth, did it with honor, and took other people’s problems and crosses on his own will, not for the benefits.
From far away, everything is seen — you cannot hide, cannot lie. Only sincerity is valued at the highest value. For example, Alexander Nevsky was hard in his deeds, and not always right. He did a lot for himself, but thought about others more.
Fifths are responsible for star agglomerations, their connections and transfers from one to another star.
Sixths are responsible for the stars, their temperature, circling and life on them.
Sevenths are responsible for the star systems. There are many Sevenths by each star system.
Eighths and Sevenths are needed for the work with a man.
The Eighth shows the way from birth of a child. His role is to preserve a man, alive and healthy. If this is not done, there will be no development. He defends a child at his birth, brings his soul straight forward until application to a «higher school». Seventh leads a child before birth. His will is — child’s birth with illnesses, spots, which will attract other people attention. For a man this is a test for his soul. Seventh can stop child’s life for his parent’s sins in their thoughts or opposite — give birth to a child, but punish his parents.
This is so called «all is in God’s will».
So, to summarize, Metacosmos consists of seven levels: agglomerations of the Universes, Universes, agglomerations of Galaxies, Galaxies, star agglomerations, stars and planets.
See schematic picture.

Circles of higher Hierarchies doeth not diminish in the battle with Evil Forces. In general, there is more Good, and will it not come little of cunning thoughts. Wilth not black fury dragon knock down the white holy mantle. Can this not be from the beginning of beginnings! Will not eternal failure be!
Higher intermediate level is the level of dead souls, who stepped over mental layer. Each soul stays there not more than a year.
Only dead souls stay here.
Soul is energoinformational identifier of a man in the hierarchy, soul is able to grow and develop. Soul is temporarily in human body or similar constructions, which have intellect and mind, able for self-development and self-regulation. Soul has ability to change its place and to reincarnate from generation to generation to achieve its main goal — high moral potential, able to lead other souls.
Everything in Cosmos consists of aether. What one calls soul is condensed universal aetheric organization, which develops up to highest level of «the thought-energy».
Mental level is higher than astral level, it is intermediate between astral and high-spiritual. Its inhabitants are souls, first time born at the mental level. In comparison to astral level they are more spiritual, strong in the rules of spirituality, following the way of development.
More highly organized souls, which made more self-development, live at the mental level. They are given opportunity to teach human souls. As usual they are main to guide people. They have power at the lower level and obey to the highest. Mental is the most continuous level.
There live highly spiritual human souls, which have possibility to enter higher level.
When channel operators contacted extraterrestrials via metacontact, they failed to do this directly. Discussion was held via the leader. Leaders are at the Eighth level. If extraterrestrials were at the higher Hierarchie levels, they would contact operators directly. One should take in consideration that development of extraterrestrials is greater than of the humans. They can visit our Earth, but we cannot visit them. As their level of development is lower than Eights, we can consider they belong to Mental layer.
Intermediate level. Reason for this level is the same as between Highest and Mental ones. Selection, self-assessment is done there.
Astral is very interesting level. Everything is gathered here: from nothingness to genius, what is top needed and what is useless. In the astral layer in the form of unseen energy everything is collected, which died at the physical layer. Part of energy is used for utilization of the physical body, its disintegration. But not only inner energy is used here. Environment comes for help. One living being comes to help another and destroys it for the prolongation of life. So astral layer is the level of souls of the dead and spirits.
Spirit is low-spiritualized material, originated from low-development beings. Spirit does not have a soul. Spirit also is self-developing, self-regulating and evolutionizing.
Spirits are in the astral layer only. Entrance to the higher levels is closed for them.
Astral consists of the following levels:

arrival;
understanding;
exiting.

But these are rather not levels, but temporary shelter.
Reason or Arrival level is clear.
Level of understanding is the level where self-assessment is done. Only soups of dead people do this. Animals are thinking creatures, but they are not allowed here are not do that important work after physical death. Moment of the transfer by animal, man and plant differs. Man enters this level after consideration or at the necessity in his soul.

One can ask why only man has the right of birth of the higher levels, and born a spider will not turn highly spiritual being?
That is because only man always undergoes spiritual choices, the tests.

Only a man has the right of choice between good and evil. Animals has only right for life. And this right they use even to bring harm to the others.
Thus the lowest level and the nearest to the Earth in comparison to other layers, «populated» by the beings, is called Astral.
Astral is the first layer of the spirits and souls after living body. Willing or unwilling to enter this level means nothing, because all souls come here, if not entered the body of the higher rank. In this case, soul immediately after the physical death, not entering astral, goes to the higher level. All the others enter astral level, where self-assessment of life and assessment of the achieved level of soul development is going on. Here the soul stays until the moment of transfer to the new physical body, which soul has not reached intermediate or mental layer. For most of people this is during the whole first ear after death. One but should not think that souls of bad people are those who just entered from physical layer, new-born or not reached higher level of spiritual development. They have no right yet to guide the others or enter the Councils, their work is self-education and apphrehension.
Low astral layer is the layer of dead people, who had bad recommendation during their life and lived in hatred and malice.
More rough the energy is, nearer to the Earth it is situated. Staggering ghosts, demons, evil spirits, who holds human souls down, all these spirits are at the lowest level. They are nearer to the people, brings them to temptations every day, pushing them to do bad things and fight their thoughts and feelings. These beings are required for the examination during evolution of the soul. If the Lord wanted, He would easily deal with all enemies of the man. But this is not to be done: otherwise where would be examinations, if everything is goodness.
There is a layer of many unpacified souls, which did not find explanation to their deeds on Earth. These souls have high negative energy, directed for harm.
Further on the layer is changing for better, and in its highest part, near intermediate to mental, consists of the human sould, who lived their life as normal people with ordinary sins and downsides.
Spirits will never enter higher levels. Here they are forever to stay. But souls can.
In the layers and interlayers between levels there are so called Paradise, Hell and limbo.
Everybody wants to come to Paradise and forever enjoy without any worries, live for pleasure.
But what is pleasure? Each man has his own understanding, while here «different» is not accepted.
Paradise is a place, where every day difficult but joyful work for the benefit of others is done. Paradise is the home of Spiritual forces, and their work is top happiness.
Hell is opposite to the paradise. It is the place where unpacified souls are, who lived their lives bad, who assessed their lives as obscene, and now wait for disintegration. Not incubation period is that horrible, but the process of apprehension itself. This is the time when soul is in pain, and thoughts become clear, which should be horrible.
Limbo actually does not exist. Intermediate levels could become limbo, as they are transfer and assessment elements between layers.
All is created by the Lord to reach the main goal — high spiritual development, not for horror or stimulation.
This structure of Hierarchies of the Universe was given to the Russian military specialists in the 90th of the XX century via metacontact. Wonderful is that the same structure is known in the USA. On the one-dollar banknote thirteen-steps pyramid is painted with an eye on top.
Nowadays there is much speculation to create the new religion, but better talk not of «new religion», but of mutual religion. Many might not accept it, which happened with different religions not once, and resulted in not good results, lead to concern, disgust and opposition.
Much evil comes of difference between religions. One religion seems like our, but is not ours.
At the end of the day, there should be no religion as it is. Should be high spiritual science, which combines moral and serving the Lord. Serving different gods — is rubbish, like serving sun, moon, stone, etc. Still there is sense in this service. Better serve somebody or anybody, than just yourself.
Question of good and evil is difficult to answer, it sounds strange. Every man must give his own answer, as it depends on the spiritual level of the man.
Good is given freely, with pleasure and without greed. Good is the sign of delicacy, love, sacrifice — for the other people. Good from intent — is the present for others.
It is that: more gets the one who gives, than who accepts.
Source of evil is in evil intent. Horrible is that all people have possibility to realize the intent: evil and good. Evil in its growth cannot exist, if is not constantly brought up by wars, anger, quarrel, envy, and so on.
Evil in the man is born by his own dissatisfaction, may-have-been dreams, ambition, self-assessment as of unrecognized genius, huge egoism. Envy warms up all this. Envy — is the snake with deathly bite, which bites often healthy and clever people. Envy is unlimited, it gives birth to other defects and deeds actions (roguery, intrigues, slander, wrongful accusations). Envy can kill.
Righteous men quickly come to the Lord, not requiring any evidences. Sky sign is often granted to them. One has to seek ways of knowledge, investigate yourself and nature, but complete picture will not come out.
If spiritual leader find necessity for man to receive information, he will bring this himself to the brain of a man, while a man cannot get information from the data bank himself, because Absolute is «not talkative». Those lie, who say they speak to Absolute. May be they would like to say, they talk to the Lord, but have scruples: feel uncomfortable to glorify themselves, but do not agree for the less, because they are the most of the most. And thus say about Absolute.
So getting information is prerogative of the leaders, not a man himself, this is practically impossible.
One has to believe. Life without faith returns simple existence.
Even hunting animal believes in success. Not only because of hunger and instincts, but belief that his worries are not in vain, otherwise there is no sense to go. With absence of faith in success, absence of will to do mutual work, compatriots start killing each other. Man must have faith. At the first steps it was equal for him, in what to believe. Good and evil with the same fear related to good or evil force. Later they started to choose, what is more worth believing, what is easier for realization, what is unexplained and mysterious. Multiple believes arrived. Faith must be single, and it is just some time to wait until multiple believes disappear, now they bring bitter fruits.
We from our side suggest the following. Let us consider that

The Lord is Unlimited [Living] Soul of Harmony.

The Lord does not need to be «found» by somebody. He is, and everyone founds Him for himself. He is single, but different for everyone.
From the beginning man did not need religion, as he had stable connection with Cosmos. He received information from his leaders directly. While losing this connection, his consciousness started creating systems of self-development, which he called religions. Then cults, societies, churches arrived as instruments of exploitation of faith that religion is the only way of development. What we have now — you can see. Pastors, mullahs, rabbins got the place of the Leaders, usurped the right to serve to the Lord (Cosmos). But each of us can do it himself. Truth cannot be marked by crux, half moon, Magen David or anything else.

Keep reference to the original resource http://noocosmology.com/article/structure-of-spiritual-hierarchy-in-metasocmos.html

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Shaktipat

April 21, 2015, 4:45 am

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Shaktipat or Śaktipāta (Sanskrit, from shakti - "(psychic) energy" - and pāta, "to fall")^[1] refers in Hinduism to the conferring of spiritual "energy" upon one person by another. Shaktipat can be transmitted with a sacred word or mantra, or by a look, thought or touch – the last usually to the ajna chakra or third eye of the recipient.
Saktipat is considered an act of grace (anugraha) on the part of the guru or the divine. It cannot be imposed by force, nor can a receiver make it happen.^[2] The very consciousness of the god or guru is held to enter into the Self of the disciple, constituting an initiation into the school or the spiritual family (kula) of the guru.^[3] It is held that Shaktipat can be transmitted in person or at a distance, through an object such as a flower or fruit or else by telephone or letter.^[4]

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Levels of intensity[edit]

Levels[edit]

In Kashmir Shaivism, depending on its intensity, Śaktipāt can be classified as:

tīvra-tīvra-śaktipāta - the so-called "Super Supreme Grace" - produces immediate identity with Śiva and liberation; such a being goes on to become a siddha master and bestows grace from his abode (Siddhaloka), directly into the heart of deserving aspirants^[5]

tīvra-madhya-śaktipāta - "Supreme Medium Grace" - such a being becomes spiritually illuminated and liberated on his own, relying directly on Śiva, not needing initiation or instruction from other exterior guru. This is facilitated by an intense awakening of his spiritual intuition (pratibhā) which immediately eliminates ignorance^[5]

tīvra-manda-śaktipāta - "Supreme Inferior Grace" - the person who received this grace strongly desires to find an appropriate guru, but he does not need instruction, but a simple touch, a look or simply being in the presence of his master is enough to trigger in him to the state of illumination^[5]

madhya-tīvra-śaktipāta - "Medium Supreme Grace" - a disciple who receives this grace desires to have the instruction and initiation of a perfect guru; in time he becomes enlightened. However, he is not totally absorbed into this state during his lifetime and receives a permanent state of fusion with Śiva after the end of his life^[6]

madhya-madhya-śaktipāta - "Medium Middle Grace" - such a disciple will receive initiation from his guru and have an intense desire to attain liberation, but at the same time he still has desire for various enjoyments and pleasure; after the end of his life, he continues to a paradise where he fulfills all his desires and after that he receives again initiation from his master and realizes permanent union with Śiva^[7]

madhya-manda-śaktipāta - "Medium Inferior Grace" - is similar to "Medium Middle Grace" except that in this case the aspirant desires worldly pleasures more than union with Śiva; he needs to be reincarnated again as a spiritual seeker to attain liberation^[7]

manda - "Inferior Grace" - for those who receive this level of grace, the aspiration to be united with Śiva is present only in times of distress and suffering; the grace of Śiva needs to work in them for many lifetimes before spiritual liberation occurs^[8]

Table[edit]

Type of spiritual grace	When is the moment of liberation?	What one needs in order to attain liberation?	What is the defining quality of the recipient?
tīvra-tīvra-śaktipāta Super Supreme Grace	immediate	nothing exterior, only the grace of Śiva	capability to abandon duality
tīvra-madhya-śaktipāta Supreme Medium Grace	immediate	nothing exterior, only the grace of Śiva	intuition of nonduality^{[note 1]}
tīvra-manda-śaktipāta Supreme Inferior Grace	after meeting a perfect guru	the presence of a physical guru	total surrender for his guru
madhya-tīvra-śaktipāta Medium Supreme Grace	at the end of life in this physical plane	the initiation and instruction of a guru	intense spiritual aspiration
madhya-madhya-śaktipāta Medium Middle Grace	after living for some time in a paradise	the initiation and instruction of a guru	spiritual aspiration is more intense than worldly desires
madhya-manda-śaktipāta Medium Inferior Grace	in the next physical incarnation	the initiation and instruction of a guru	lower aspiration than worldly desires
manda Inferior Grace	after many lifetimes of incremental progress	the initiation and instruction of a guru and lots of time

Descriptions[edit]

Swami Muktananda, in his book, Play of Consciousness, describes in great detail his experience of receiving shaktipat initiation from his guru Bhagavan Nityananda and his spiritual development that unfolded after this event. ^[9]
Paul Zweig has written of his experience of receiving shaktipat from Muktananda.^[10] In the same book Itzhak Bentov describes his laboratory measurements of kundalini-awakening through shaktipat,^[11] a study held in high regard by the late Satyananda Saraswati, founder of the Bihar School of Yoga, and by Hiroshi Motoyama, author of Theories of the Chakras.
Barbara Brennan describes shaktipat as the projection of the guru's "aura" on the disciple who thereby acquires the same mental state, hence the importance of the high spiritual level of the guru. The physiological phenomena of rising kundalini then naturally manifest.^[12]

Notes[edit]

Jump up ^Abhinavagupta distinguishes here between two sublevels:
- those whose intuition (pratibhā) is firm
- those whose intuition is hesitant, who need more practice in order to stabilize; they would take a guru, study the scriptures or practice yoga^[1]

References[edit]

^ Jump up to: ^a ^bAbhinavagupta, The Kula Ritual, as Elaborated in Chapter 29 of the Tantrāloka, John R. Dupuche, page 155
Jump up ^Abhinavagupta, The Kula Ritual, as Elaborated in Chapter 29 of the Tantrāloka, John R. Dupuche, page 154
Jump up ^Abhinavagupta: The Kula Ritual, as Elaborated in Chapter 29 of the Tantrāloka, John R. Dupuche, Page 131
Jump up ^Satyananda Saraswati, Kundalini Tantra, Yoga Publications Trust (1984), p. 46.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^cKashmir Shaivism, The Secret Supreme, Lakshman Joo, Page 66
Jump up ^Kashmir Shaivism, The Secret Supreme, Lakshman Joo, Page 67
^ Jump up to: ^a ^bKashmir Shaivism, The Secret Supreme, Lakshman Joo, Page 68
Jump up ^Kashmir Shaivism, The Secret Supreme, Lakshman Jee, Page 69
Jump up ^Muktananda, Swami (1978). Play of Consciousness. Siddha Yoga Publications. ISBN 0-911307-81-8.
Jump up ^Paul Zweig, in John White (editor), Kundalini, Evolution, and Enlightenment (ISBN 1-55778-303-9)
Jump up ^Itzhak Bentov, Micromotions of the body as a factor in the development of the nervous system, in John White (editor), Kundalini, Evolution, and Enlightenment (ISBN 1-55778-303-9)
Jump up ^Barbara Brennan, Hands of Light

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Worship in Hinduism

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[edit]Characteristics of pseudoscience

[edit]Vague and/or exaggerated claims and ambiguous language

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[edit]A note on terminology

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[edit]Footnotes

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