Quantcast
Channel: Metaphysical Thoughts and Visions
Viewing all 524 articles
Browse latest View live

Sufi Cosmology

$
0
0


 

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



We will present two doctrines, both based on Qur'anic revelation enriched and clarified ( or corrupted- depending on one's taste ) by Neoplatonic emanationist cosmology.
A. According to the first doctrine (ref), God has three dimensions/modes of Being before creation, followed by three worlds/planes of created cosmos.
1. The unfathomable God's Essence; Abyss of the Unmanifest Absolute. The Sufi technical tems are: Ghayb ul-Ghaib ( Mystery of Mysteries ), Amma ( Darkess ), Dhat/Zat ( Essence ). The corresponding spiritual stage is called Ahadiyyat- Oneness. This is equal to Plotinus's  One - To Hen, or to the Shaivite Tantric Paramashiva or Mahabindu.
2. The Manifest Absolute/God. The Sufi terms are Ar-Ruh al-Qudsi ( the Supreme Spirit ), Aql-i-Awwal ( First Intellect ) or Aql-i-Kulli ( Universal Intellect ). The corresponding spiritual stage is named Wahdah. The Neoplatonic equivalent of the Plotinus's doctrine would be Nous ( Divine Mind ), while certain schools of Tantricism speak of Shiva, or Shiva/Shakti union. N.B. There are tariqas and scholars who deny divine status of the First Intellect and relegate it to the realm of creation.
3. The God's creative energy as manifested through divine names and attributes ( ayan at'-thabita ).  The "energy"/creative aspect is clear from identification with Qur'anic notion of Nafas-i-Rahmani ( The Breath of Mercy ).  Also, it is termed Nafs-i-Kulliya ( Universal Soul ). The spiritual stage is Wahdaniyyat. The exact correspondence is with Plotinus's Psyche ( World Soul ). Shaivite texts refer to Shakti as activated Shiva's creative energy.
N.B. Having in mind all similarities with Neoplatonism, one must not overlook the difference: in Plotinus's system, emanations are hypostases of the One, flowing, as it were, "outward" and signifying the degradation of the Absolute.  On the other hand, the above noted processes represent a desirable unfoldment of the Absolute in Sufi mythic cosmology.
B. The second doctrine (ref) operates with two concepts.
1. The Unmanifest Absolute ( Alam-i-Hahut/the "world" of "He-ness", Hu-He being the Arabic term pertaining to God's Essence prior to manifestation. The "world" is just a symbolic reference. This, unmanifest dimension is frequently referred to only as Hahut). Of course, all other Arabic names given under the point 1. of the first doctrine are valid. The spiritual stage is Ahadiyyat.
2. The manifest Absolute (Alam-i-Lahut/the "world" of God-ness, the root "Lah" one and the same as in Al-Lah (God). Also, generally spoken of as Lahut). The spiritual stage pertaining to Lahut is sometimes referred to as Wahdah, sometimes as Wahadiyyat. There is no consensus communis re this matter.
Both above elucidated doctrines share the same terminology re the stages of manifestation ( tanazzulat ) of the created cosmos. Following the emanationist scheme, we have top to bottom ( of course, not literally; these are dimensions of manifestation conveniently stratified ):
4. Alam-i-Jabarut/the world of power; also Alam-i-Arwah ( the world of spirits; ruh meaning spirit, arwah being the plural form ). Roughly corresponding to the world of Platonic archetypes, Shaivite Shivaloka ( the world of Shiva ), or causal world of Western occultism.
5. Alam-i-Malakut/the world of angels. This somewhat incongruous term is frequently replaced by Alam-i-Mithal/the world of similitudes.  This Henry Corbin's famous mundus imaginalis/world of imagination, Tantric Antarloka ( the intermediary world ), or subtle/astro-mental world of Western occultists.
6. Alam-i-Nasut/the world of humanity, better designated as Alam-i-Ajsam/the world of bodies. Tantric tradition speaks of Bhuloka/the world of earth. In Western occultism, the name is gross or physical world. To summarise on tabular form:
Kosmos /AlamSufi terminology
Kosmos(general)
Neoplatonic equivalent -Plotinus
Tantric equivalent
 Western occultism - Theosophy and contemporary Hermeticism
Hahut
The Unmanifest Absolute
The One
 Paramashiva
--
Lahut
The Manifest Absolute
The Nous
Shiva-tattwa
--
Jabarut
Causal World
--
 Shivaloka(world of Shiva)
Causal Plane
Malakut
Subtle World
--
Tantric Antarloka (intermediary world)
Mental PlaneAstral Plane
Nasut
Physical World
--
Bhuloka(world of earth)
gross or physical

printed referenceReferences:

Mir Valiuddin: Quranic Sufism
Titus Burckhardt: Amazon comIntroduction to Sufi Doctrine


Introduction
Cosmology
Psychology
The Lataif



Kheper index page
Topics index page
Islamic Esotericism
Sufism


The Fractal Matrix, A Paradigm for Multidimensional Reality

$
0
0
 
PART I
(June, 2004)
Clearly there will be great difficulties with this subject and consequently there will only be degrees of understanding. Such a model has to have a framework which underlies all existing knowledge and experience, ranging from the God concept to the trivial. It should explain, handle or embrace all fundamental issues, for example:
  • systems from the micro to the macro
  • holistic properties
  • unity/polarity
  • quantum reduction (a feature of quantum mechanics)
  • chaos theory
  • fractals
  • nature's computer programmes
  • consciousness and free will
  • subjective/objective relationship and hierarchical, holographic and gestalt properties
  • synchronicities
  • higher dimensions
  • God concept and theory of One
  • emergent software
  • context
  • qualitative/quantitative
  • the relationship between the part and the whole
  • time, etc...
The reader may wish to study first the author's article Time as an Infinite Fractal, since time manifesting as an infinite fractal arises from the infinite fractal aspect of energy. Note that although the phenomenon of fractals, first evaluated in the 1960s by Benoit Mandelbrot, was considered by some to be the greatest discovery in mathematics, it is even more significant, with far reaching applications.
The heart of the difficulty is that our minds are formatted for linear operations in this third dimension. Moreover when we extend this into nonlinear (inner) perceptions such as in art and music appreciation but also in many underlying concepts to intellectual pursuits, and then attempt to observe this more holistic state of mind, it breaks down (quantum reduces) to the ego-conscious observer reality of the physical sense perceptions (the parts within or representing the whole).
In other words, we can't observe analytically, a state of unity and multiconnected phenomena, since the objective observation process breaks them down into linear parts. It is important to stress how difficult this material is otherwise the point will be missed by many.
If we think of ourselves on a single 2D flat plane, movement and thought along this plane would be what we are calling linear. Nonlinearity would come in from imaginary countless other layers superimposed 'above' our familiar single linear plane. In reality though, it is not 'above' but in expanding spheres (concentric circles in 2D).
In truth each point in our plane is influenced by the upper levels. We are merely introducing the subject by means of simple examples or analogies. In effect the behaviour of a particle or a living entity on the bottom plane is governed ultimately by the whole of the countless layers. This is where the real difficulty arises; to obtain some grasp of the effect of infinitely superimposed nonlinear variables. This is the key problem in understanding the mind's (or universal or nature's) computer system.
Perhaps a very simple analogy depicting only two variables (in fact only one nonlinear variable) would help; that of taking the dog for a walk. The dog's behaviour represents the external view of our material world of physical senses or the first plane. The human (upper plane) represents a higher order of control. The leash links the two together and determines the boundary conditions imposed on the bottom plane (the dog).
The longer the leash, the greater the gap between the levels and the more freedom the dog has. This also means the more probable choices it has relative to the human's control. Moreover, we see that the decisions of the human are superimposed on those of the dog, and the dog's behaviour acts within the context of the human's control. If one could observe only the dog (analogy: external world), its activity could not be understood without taking into account the superimposed human control (higher order, for example, soul level).
This gives the reader an idea of the resultant effect of only two combined variables---the dog's control and the human control. These are each equivalent to fractal levels. Also the dimensional gap between two such fractals determines how much randomness there is between the two fractal levels or how many probabilities there are for selection (choices, freewill).
The longer the leash the more possibilities the dog can experience on its own, but note that it then has less guidance and it is in effect more disconnected. We can refer to the lower level control (the dog's) as local control (LC) and the upper, as global control (GC). LC is always in the context of GC. But this GC becomes local relative to a greater GC. All LC and GC programmes occur at fractal levels.
What would be the most simple structure for the initial development of such a model? It would be a circle. Let us now elaborate on this circle and make it into a spiral; a little like connecting together many circles---see Figure 1. This should be imagined as a fine spiral with no gaps (beyond about quantum size).
In 2D they are like circles within circles but in 3D or more they are like shells within shells connected as a total spiral (ideally this should then be envisaged in 4D to give perfect super-symmetry when we introduce the anti-spiral). This is the same as the vortex model given in other articles where much more detail is presented, such as the article, The Basic Energy Unit ---which, in particular, shows the higher-dimensional nature of the vortex.
In terms of three or more dimensions, this spiral would resemble spheres within spheres. The direction of motion of the energy is inwards from be periphery to the centre. This is essentially a model for a vortex. Current science interprets reality at the particle level and thus focusses only on the external world and the lowest contextual orders of the spiral near the centre.
What logical justification do we have for introducing these concentric circles or spirals? The spiral or vortex is a natural and efficient way for energy to transduce from higher dimensions to low. The reader is referred to the articles, The Source of Fractals and The Theory of One.
Returning to Figure 1, what may be surprising now is that each turn of the spiral (a circle) is a potential fractal level. Figure 2 shows three potential fractal levels highlighted---meaning they have manifested a form into reality. If we imagine an opposite total spiral underlying the one in Figure 1---see Figure 3, a 'side' view---using the 2D or 3D view of this, we can give it standing wave structures at each of the levels where the opposite interacts. (There are no stable forms or even time without counteraction and limitations.)
Figure 2 shows the three fractal shells formed by opposing spirals, creating standing waves. Figure 3 gives an idea of the inner structure. Since this has been covered in other articles we will not repeat the explanation as we wish to move on to programming applications to nature and the universe.
In effect, we are describing a vortex matrix from which all forms emanate. In Figure 2 the fractal strata A, B, C could be a universe, a planet, an atom, respectively. One might see at this point that the universe, circle A will spiral through other fractal levels, not shown: into many galaxies, which in turn spiral into many star systems, which in turn spiral into planets, such as fractal level B in Figure 2, and further eventually into atoms, say, fractal C (see later figures).
These must be stable stationary states---and there will be many in reality. Note that the spiral forms closed systems at these fractal levels (which on the negative side provide a mechanism of entrapment and evolutionary control).

Figure 4 gives another view of this. The top represents the unity of everything below it, and corresponds to A. Then B and C are levels further down.
Figure 3 shows the connection between the spiral and the anti-spiral, and is a 'side' view of Figure 2. The next feature we need to mention is that each spiral circle in Figure 2 functions in the context of the next higher (larger circle) context. For example the fractal level B, say, a planet, will regulate the order of the lower fractal level of atoms at C. Also the dimensions and frequencies increase towards the greater spiral circles.
The significance and meaning of dimensions and frequencies is not easy, except to recognize that the probabilities increase with the widening spiral, that is, greater degrees of freedom, greater number of choices, increased variety, etc. The centre circle of the spiral (Figure 3) would represent a particle or a world made up of these units; this centre circle is the manifestation region of the interacting spirals and can be any level such as A, B, or C, where stable standing waves are formed.
So far then we have one big spiral or vortex (with its opposite), which splits up into a myriad of smaller ones---we need many smaller circles to make up a reality. When a split occurs, this forms new fractal levels of stability or existence---the atoms, the planet, universe, in Figure 2. Figure 5 illustrates the multiplication of these spiral fractals---anti-spirals not shown---and can be compared with Figure 4.
An upper fractal contains the innate programming for ordering a lower one, such as Earth and an atom, respectively. We shall occasionally use the analogy of the pyramid company organization, such as the manager being a higher fractal, giving instructions to a ground-floor worker, a lower fractal. The ground-floor worker, manager, executive, president, would represent stable fractals such as in a fern and its fronds, or branches on a tree.
Between and within these fractal levels are the probabilities---the random area. Prior to the advent of chaos theory (and to some degree quantum mechanics) scientists thought that the universe was created from a random condition. This would correspond to the spiral in Figure 1---containing no orders and thus there would really be no fractals and therefore no existence---there would only be the particle level. But science tells us the universe is made up of particles only; however, this is not so. Established fractal levels, such as a planet, galaxy, etc. are also basic, besides elementary particles.
Randomness and unpredictability are essential though to free will and creativity. The random areas are the ones with flexibility and instabilities, available for further programming. The degree of free play between fractals is proportional to the gap between adjacent global control fractals and local control fractals. But even this relation is governed by its context and application. (It is not essential that the following more mathematical analysis is understood.)
If we are applying it to consciousness then it would appear we are saying that the greater the gap between, say, the soul level and its human extension, the more free will the human has. But this applies only when the soul level has set a programme for the human---the soul is free of this program. If the gap was very small the human would act as one with the soul more frequently, thus having still greater freedom. Compare the dog's leash decreasing so that eventually the dog's path is the same as the dog's owner's, with the freedom that the owner has. (Note: 'human' here, is not to be confused with the dog's owner in the analogy.)
Thus there are two counter variables when we increase the gap. If there is a higher programme:
1) the human (soul extension, not the dog analogy) has more freedom since there are more probabilities available 'around' the programme (the dog has a longer leash) and the human can, for instance, try some negative, egotistical paths that are not in the programme,
2) but as we increase the gap, the effect of the programme becomes more compulsive (enforced) and not within the choice of the human---it is more unconscious. As we decrease the gap, the programme is more willingly applied by the human, since it is acting more as the soul (oneness with the soul).
The fractal levels are programmes of information but will have boundary conditions that give some free play. For example, a tree might be fixed to have seven fractal levels:
1) trunk,
2) first large branch,
3) smaller branches . . . still smaller branches to 7) twigs.
However, the fixed programme does not say the trunk and the branches must be of exact thicknesses, or that a branch must begin precisely at such and such a point, or be of such a length before another offshoot branch forms.
There is thus growth creativity in addition to growth programming, according to environmental circumstances. For example, the DNA of a seed or plant will be in continuous communication with higher fractal collective levels for this species, making selections, within boundary conditions, for the next cell placement in its growth.
If the programmer is looking for instructions/programming of the type used in man's artificial computers he won't find them. Man's encoding systems are relative and arbitrary and essentially are governed by algebra formulae, which means representations; let this or that equal whatever. Nature's universal system must be absolute and ubiquitous for all entities and will thus operate on geometric intelligence.
Another simple analogy is to consider a wire net, which has square openings between the wires. The wires give the boundary condition, the dimensional framework for free play and exploration within the squares. However, we have to imagine many nets of different size openings (fine to coarse) all superimposed but hierarchically, as are the circles in Figure 1, or as in a company organization.
The ground-floor worker functions in narrow boundary conditions, the managers have a wider span of operation and the president would be like a 'net' with just one big square opening (spanning all the company activities).
Now, in the human body, for example, arm movements, we have fractals at the fixed points: shoulder, elbow, wrist, fingers. The same basic model applies here. The shoulder movement contains the larger spiral which is a vortex (working with the muscles and regulating the angle of the joints), and the elbow fractal is within this, and so on to the fingers. The fingers operate in the context of the wrist, the wrist in the context of the elbow, etc. See article Free will and Fractals and articles on physical mobility.
This is an efficient system. There could be fractals between shoulder and elbow or elbow and wrist, that is, more joints. In fact there could be continuous fractals (joints) along the arm to produce a prehensile arm, as in a monkey's tail, but the human arm arrangement is considered adequate. We programme the learning patterns for control of angular movements of fingers, wrist, elbow, and shoulder.
Psychologists some 30 years ago discovered experimentally that learning at the shoulder would pass down the ranking system to low levels (fractals) such as elbow, wrist, fingers (previously explained in detail). But learning pattern information would not pass up the rank (hierarchical system from fingers to wrist, elbow, and shoulder). Thus any 'circle' in Figure 1 operates in the context of any greater circle.
And we are not using an analogy when we say that the shoulder vortex passes down its information to a smaller elbow joint vortex, and further to smaller vortices, wrist and fingers, when a sequence of movements is learned. We are actually stating that storage of information for, say, a keyboard sequence of movements comes from the shoulder, where the programme is in a higher-order format and quantum reduces through the lower context and fractals of elbow and wrist, to the fingers. See articles on physical mobility.
Let us now consider another application of these same fractal nonlinear programming principles. This particular example will be used intermittently throughout the text for clarification purposes. Each analogy gives a different angle on the problem for aiding overall understanding.
Consider a soccer team; though this will be too complex for a simple example of the way nonlinear programming works. Therefore let us take the following components only: a goal post, goal keeper, one defense, and one opponent, or offense/attacker. This example is only an analogy to show the mechanics of this computer system since, in particular, the players will have free will (within certain higher-dimensional limits) and be independent of a weak collective effect---compared with the tree, which has a much more formatted programme.
Since we consider that the energy (of creation or fundamental programming)---and this is an inherent part of this system---flows from a large 'circle' to a small one, then for illustration purposes we can put in a programme at level A---see Figure 6. We set the programme at A to give player at D, the attacker, a goal. Note that this is relevant to anyone setting personal goals.
They might activate the goal postulate at this higher order level (many other factors must agree though). Nevertheless we are taking an imaginary case here. Thus the programme has the instruction that a goal is made in, say, a few minutes---because of the free play between fractal levels this interval is quite flexible.
Let's give the attacker the ball. He basically has countless probabilities to choose from as an independent entity. But this is now a programme and all component parts must be interrelated; his probable choices will be less. The individual mode corresponds to the centre of Figure 1---like a particle.
In Figure 6 we see that A is the 'president' component in the programme which spans all factors or lower fractal levels. We have in fact already created a fractal postulate by establishing the goal to be achieved.
Figure 6 has been simplified even beyond our three players and the goal post by reducing the programme to only four fractal levels A, B, C, D, but in general there would be a gradient from A to D. This gradient involves the mind and physical processes of the components of the programme.
Returning to the offensive player with the ball. Although he has a complete array of probabilities, choices to select from, such as move right, move left, etc., all these selections will not give the goal because there is a defense and a goal keeper. Nevertheless D has numerous possibilities that will lead to the goal which A will emphasize.
Thus we shift now from fractal control at level D to fractal level C, which spans both defense and attack (keep in mind we are explaining these, one after the other, D, C, B, A, but they are simultaneous and that there is really a gradient going back to total control at A).
Level C's probabilities, which also must lead to the goal, will limit the attack player's choices still further. But this player will make one of these goal selections (since levels B and A are operating, giving simultaneous guidance with a necessary 'homing in' gradient to the goal). We see that the available probabilities are reducing---not in time though; it is simultaneous activity.
Let the offensive player now select a movement, say, to the right for passing the defense. But all the while this is occurring, in addition to A, which is influencing the whole scene, fractal programme component B is functioning and influencing C and D. We may see that B covers the collective interrelationship between offense, defense, and goal keeper, that is, C and D.
Beware of thinking in a sequence, but the material level must play off in time. A learning pattern in skills such as playing a sequence of movements on a keyboard will span a couple of seconds (or so) by the 'president' level, such as fractal A, with a gradient breakdown to D; and a sequence in time is achieved in precisely the same manner as described above. If the reader becomes lost on this nonlinearity/simultaneous concept, go back to the example of the person taking a dog, which is on a long leash, for a walk.
The dog can make decisions where to go within the boundary conditions (context) of the human and leash, but also the human's decisions, such as where to go, are superimposed on this for the final outcome or result.
We specially constructed the soccer example so that it would justify about four fractal levels (which could be understood) but in truth one should realize that, in general, our programme must handle conceptual as well as physically-fixed fractal examples, such as in the case of a tree (branches to twigs), and the full gradient (Figure 1) must be taken into account. Why is this? Why can't we have subprogrammes at A, B, C, D with gaps between as illustrated in this simplified example.
This is because continuous (contiguous) nonlinearity is required, otherwise during those gaps the sequence will have to be predictable linear paths (because of the enforced programme) with no free will or interference occurring, such as the players falling down. The gaps would be acceptable if they could be rigid like the arm arrangement. This is a programme not designed to have steps in it like the arm and its joints; the programme must include the viewpoint of the other players and environmental factors.
In the natural condition of this soccer example there would of course be no head programmer setting a goal to be made, and our example is essentially fictitious for our level of evolution.. However, note that the players, with sufficient cohesion of their minds, could quantum regenerate a goal to be made for their collective group. This means a fractal level at A is now programmed with the goal result.
It means level A will now superimpose on level D at all times, influencing what level D produces or selects in the way of probabilities available to it. Level A would restrict the choices at level D to probabilities that culminate in the goal. This would be controlled through sub-levels B and C.
A programme must contain a complete number of fractal steps according to its requirements and applications. The above fractal strata has been compared with the arm action: A (shoulder), B (elbow), C (wrist), D (fingers). But with the arm there is rigidity between the fractal levels (forearm, upper arm) and programmed fractal levels cannot be added (new joints). Whereas this is flexible in the soccer example, and as stated must therefore have a continuous gradient available.
Note that when we refer to 'linear' we mean only one of the levels would be present, which would be D for us---the material expression---and then a string of Ds would be a linear programme (as in our computers). Life and the universe never work this way; they are always nonlinear, as scientists are beginning to realize.
The reason is that consciousness is inherently multidimensional---a slice of this 'thickness' would be a limited and 'artificial' viewpoint which is what we have in this 3D. Let us continue with further analogies and applications to consciousness in Part II, eventually examining the locomotion aspects of the energies and physical fractal expressions.
 
 
Back to Contents   (The link leads to further information on the above Paradigm)
 
 
The author of the above is Noel Huntley
 
 
Noel Huntley, Ph.D.


About the author

Primarily a truth seeker, pushing out the frontiers of knowing has been a lifelong passion of Dr. Huntley; even taking precedence over his remarkable talents as a painter and musician.



Amongst many areas of extensive study, Noel Huntley has investigated UFO and ET reports, chanspiritual phenomena. With a background in physics from Leeds University and formerly employed at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, Aldermaston, he later acquired further doctorates externally in psychology and parapsychology and has developed the foundations for a higher-dimensional physics that embraces life, mind, the universe, and the spirit.

This, he considers, will reconcile physics and religion into a spiritual science, in addition to aligning the viewpoints of the atheist and the religionist. While a dedicated scientist, he dares to cross the line between objective investigation and subjective investigation. His contention being that scientific investigation must not be confined to the material and that which is exterior to self.

 
He has written technical manuals and numerous books, articles and papers. Studies also included many other subjects, attaining qualifications in art, music, metaphysics and computers. In addition, research has been conducted in the field of physical mobility, coordination and skills with an evaluation of the true scientific principles involved.

Currently he authors a website which addresses a wide variety of subjects pertinent to the nature of consciousness, ascension and evolution of the individual and our civilization.

 
   neling and

 

The Concentric "Rainbow"

Mystic Fractals

$
0
0
 
 
Mystic Fractal features powerful yet easy to use fractal generators with all the options you need to create intriguing high-resolution images, artwork and 3D models. Explore the infinite geometry of fractals with our programs. They are great learning tools too.
Slide into the driver's seat and experience it for yourself. Each fractal generator can take you into worlds far apart from the ordinary. (Many of our generators have free trial versions, including the 64 bit versions!)
Most fractal programs are limited to static two-dimensional images or require you to work with a cryptic interface. Montezuma and other generators in the Mystic Fractal line give you much more:
  • 3D graphics with Phong highlights, ambient occulusion and contrast controls for added realism
  • The simplicity of random image creation and push-button remote controls, for ease of use
  • Advanced 3D export capabilities [obj, pov, dfx] to programs like Bryce, POV-Ray and Vue d'Esprit, or as stl files to 3D printers
  • 64-bit Windows support and distance estimators on many programs for improved resolution, drawing speed and memory handling
  • AVI options to animate every image, so when you finish an image the fun is just starting!
  • Free program updates, so you always have the latest features available for download
  • Unlimited email support: we are always happy to see what you're doing with our programs, to help you understand the basics of a program, or to point you in the right direction if you get lost
  • Getting Started tutorials -- just in case you need a heads-up orientation
  • Proceed at your own pace: when you're ready for the nuts and bolts there are plenty to tinker with
  • Random batching -- create up to 1000 images unattended
  • Bargain prices -- as low as five dollars per program (or less) when purchased in packages!
Each of our programs is a different world to discover, but all are driven by the same simplified interface. So in the short time it takes to learn one program, you're ready to start on another. Then the programs begin to act more as a suite of programs, since many options such as palettes, formulas and textures are exportable from one program to another.
Follow the unwinding stream to wherever the road takes you, into the mystic, into no-where and beyond. The great Buddha sits over there, smiling and beckoning. This is the gateway. This is the Tao.
The science of fractals lies on the edge of infinity. Like Mobius standing on a world unseen, no one knows what's around the corner.
Let us show you.

Nature article on Consciousness

$
0
0
Nature article on Consciousness
Jack Sarfatti
 
On Jan 13, 2016, at 11:08 AM, JACK SARFATTI wrote:


OK I posted this comment on the Atlantic blog

Jack Sarfatti
I agree that consciousness is not mysterious, but not at all for the reasons the author gives. I am a PhD theoretical physicist (University of California degree) cited over 600 times in MIT physics professor David Kaiser's award-winning "How the Hippies Saved Physics." Werner Erhard and others tasked me to work on the "hard problem" (David Chalmers) in 1975 and now forty years or so later I am pleased to announce a fundamental solution to the problem. See my London Savile Club talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?... for a popular introduction to the new post-quantum physics of mind-matter-consciousness beyond orthodox quantum theory. More technical details are here:
http://www.nature.com/news/the...
my comment
Clearly, classical physics cannot describe living systems completely. Quantum physics, we all agree, is necessary. However, in my opinion it is not sufficient. Quantum theory violates Einstein's organizing idea of action-reaction that he used successfully to get to general relativity from special relativity - matter back-reacts on the space-time geometrodynamic field. Similarly, it is known to Bohmian pilot wave theorists, though not apparently to enough Bohr's followers including many-worlders, that the reason entanglement cannot be used as a direct messaging channel between subsystems of an entangled complex quantum system, is the lack of direct back-reaction of the classical particles and classical local gauge fields on their shared entangled Bohmian quantum information pilot wave. Roderick. I. Sutherland of the University in Sydney, Australia, in a series of papers 2006 to 2015 had clarified this issue mathematically. Using Yakir Aharonov's retrocausal two-vector weak measurement theory, Sutherland using Lagrangian field theory, shows how to make the original 1952 Bohm pilot-wave theory completely relativistic, and how to avoid the need for configuration space for many-particle entanglement. The trick is that final boundary conditions on the action as well as initial boundary conditions influence what happens in the present. The general theory is "post-quantum" beyond orthodox quantum theory, and it is non-statistical consistent with Einstein's intuition that God does not play dice with the universe. There is complete two-way action-reaction between quantum pilot waves and the classical particles and classical local gauge fields including Einstein's geometrodynamical field.
Sutherland, then derives orthodox statistical quantum theory, with no-signaling, in two steps, first arbitrarily set the back-reaction (of particles and classical gauge field on their pilot waves) to zero. This is analogous to setting the curvature equal to zero in general relativity, or more precisely in setting G to zero. Second, integrate out the final boundary information, thereby adding the statistical Born rule to the mix. Interestingly enough, is that the mathematical condition for zero post-quantum back-reaction of particles and classical fields (aka "beables" J.S. Bell's term) is exactly de Broglie's guidance constraint. That is, in the simplest case, the classical particle velocity is proportional to the gradient of the phase of the quantum pilot wave. It is for this reason, that the independent existence of the classical beables can be ignored in most quantum calculations. However, orthodox quantum theory assumes that the quantum system is thermodynamically closed between strong von Neumann projection measurements that obey the Born probability rule. The new post-quantum theory in the equations of Sutherland, prior to taking the limit of orthodox quantum theory, should apply to pumped open dissipative structures. Living matter is the prime example. This is a clue that should not be ignored.
reference:
Lagrangian Description for Particle Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics -- Entangled Many-Particle Case
Roderick Sutherland
(Submitted on 5 Sep 2015 (v1), last revised 4 Oct 2015 (this version, v2))
"A Lagrangian formulation is constructed for particle interpretations of quantum mechanics, a well-known example of such an interpretation being the Bohm model. The advantages of such a description are that the equations for particle motion, field evolution and conservation laws can all be deduced from a single Lagrangian density expression. The formalism presented is Lorentz invariant. This paper follows on from a previous one which was limited to the single-particle case. The present paper treats the more general case of many particles in an entangled state. It is found that describing more than one particle while maintaining a relativistic description requires the introduction of final boundary conditions as well as initial, thereby entailing retrocausality.
This paper focuses on interpretations of QM in which the underlying reality is taken to consist of particles have definite trajectories at all times1. It then enriches the associated formalism of such interpretations by providing a Lagrangian description of the unfolding events. The convenience and utility of a Lagrangian formulation is well-known from classical mechanics. The particle equation of motion, the field equation, the conserved current, action-reaction, the energy-momentum tensor, , etc., are all easily derivable in a self-consistent way from a single expression. These advantages continue in the present context. Since a Lagrangian description is available in all other areas of physics and continues to be useful in modern domains such as quantum field theory and the standard model, it is appropriate to expect such a description to be relevant and applicable here as well2.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1509.0244...

The Concentric Circle as "Symbolic" of Multi-Dimensional Realities

$
0
0
Sometimes, higher dimensional realities in Mystic "Transport" maybe "described" as being a series of differently coloured concentric circles. These "circles" represent "other worlds," and they may have "sounds"...denoting that they are a specific kind of sub-plane, or dimensional reality..and the colours likewise ofcourse...RS
 
 
 
 
 
 
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about geometric objects with a common center. For concentric muscle contractions, see Muscle contraction#Concentric contraction.
An archery target, featuring evenly spaced concentric circles that surround a "bullseye".
Kepler's cosmological model formed by concentric spheres and regular polyhedra
In geometry, two or more objects are said to be concentric, coaxal, or coaxial when they share the same center or axis. Circles,[1]regular polygons[2] and regular polyhedra,[3] and spheres[4] may be concentric to one another (sharing the same center point), as may cylinders[5] (sharing the same central axis).


Geometric properties[edit]

In the Euclidean plane, two circles that are concentric necessarily have different radii from each other.[6] However, circles in three-dimensional space may be concentric, and have the same radius as each other, but nevertheless be different circles. For example, two different meridians of a terrestrial globe are concentric with each other and with the globe of the earth (approximated as a sphere). More generally, every two great circles on a sphere are concentric with each other and with the sphere.[7]
By Euler's theorem in geometry on the distance between the circumcenter and incenter of a triangle, two concentric circles (with that distance being zero) are the circumcircle and incircle of a triangle if and only if the radius of one is twice the radius of the other, in which case the triangle is equilateral.[8]:p. 198
The circumcircle and the incircle of a regular n-gon, and the regular n-gon itself, are concentric. For the circumradius-to-inradius ratio for various n, see Bicentric polygon#Regular polygons.
The region of the plane between two concentric circles is an annulus, and analogously the region of space between two concentric spheres is a spherical shell.[4]
For a given point c in the plane, the set of all circles having c as their center forms a pencil of circles. Each two circles in the pencil are concentric, and have different radii. Every point in the plane, except for the shared center, belongs to exactly one of the circles in the pencil. Every two disjoint circles, and every hyperbolic pencil of circles, may be transformed into a set of concentric circles by a Möbius transformation.[9][10]

Applications and examples[edit]

The ripples formed by dropping a small object into still water naturally form an expanding system of concentric circles.[11] Evenly spaced circles on the targets used in target archery[12] or similar sports provide another familiar example of concentric circles.
Coaxial cable is a type of electrical cable in which the combined neutral and earth core completely surrounds the live core(s) in system of concentric cylindrical shells.[13]
Johannes Kepler's Mysterium Cosmographicum envisioned a cosmological system formed by concentric regular polyhedra and spheres.[14]
Concentric circles are also found in diopter sights, a type of mechanic sights commonly found on target rifles. They usually feature a large disk with a small-diametre hole near the shooter's eye, and a front globe sight (a circle contained inside another circle, called tunnel). When these sights are correctly aligned, the point of impact will be in the middle of the front sight circle.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Jump up ^Alexander, Daniel C.; Koeberlein, Geralyn M. (2009), Elementary Geometry for College Students, Cengage Learning, p. 279, ISBN 9781111788599 .
  2. Jump up ^Hardy, Godfrey Harold (1908), A Course of Pure Mathematics, The University Press, p. 107 .
  3. Jump up ^Gillard, Robert D. (1987), Comprehensive Coordination Chemistry: Theory & background, Pergamon Press, pp. 137, 139, ISBN 9780080262321 .
  4. ^ Jump up to: abApostol, Tom (2013), New Horizons in Geometry, Dolciani Mathematical Expositions 47, Mathematical Association of America, p. 140, ISBN 9780883853542 .
  5. Jump up ^Spurk, Joseph; Aksel, Nuri (2008), Fluid Mechanics, Springer, p. 174, ISBN 9783540735366 .
  6. Jump up ^Cole, George M.; Harbin, Andrew L. (2009), Surveyor Reference Manual, www.ppi2pass.com, §2, p. 6, ISBN 9781591261742 .
  7. Jump up ^Morse, Jedidiah (1812), The American universal geography;: or, A view of the present state of all the kingdoms, states, and colonies in the known world, Volume 1 (6th ed.), Thomas & Andrews, p. 19 .
  8. Jump up ^Dragutin Svrtan and Darko Veljan, "Non-Euclidean versions of some classical triangle inequalities", Forum Geometricorum 12 (2012), 197–209. http://forumgeom.fau.edu/FG2012volume12/FG201217index.html
  9. Jump up ^Hahn, Liang-shin (1994), Complex Numbers and Geometry, MAA Spectrum, Cambridge University Press, p. 142, ISBN 9780883855102 .
  10. Jump up ^Brannan, David A.; Esplen, Matthew F.; Gray, Jeremy J. (2011), Geometry, Cambridge University Press, pp. 320–321, ISBN 9781139503709 .
  11. Jump up ^Fleming, Sir John Ambrose (1902), Waves and Ripples in Water, Air, and Æther: Being a Course of Christmas Lectures Delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, p. 20 .
  12. Jump up ^Haywood, Kathleen; Lewis, Catherine (2006), Archery: Steps to Success, Human Kinetics, p. xxiii, ISBN 9780736055420 .
  13. Jump up ^Weik, Martin (1997), Fiber Optics Standard Dictionary, Springer, p. 124, ISBN 9780412122415 .
  14. Jump up ^Meyer, Walter A. (2006), Geometry and Its Applications (2nd ed.), Academic Press, p. 436, ISBN 9780080478036 .

External links[edit]

Multi-Dimensional Science, 2016

$
0
0
From P2P Foundation

There have been a few corrections in the text. This is the 2016 draft as it were. RS/


Basic Introduction to Multi-Dimensional Science


Project by Robert Searle

Multi-Dimensional Science, or MDS represents a new revolutionary approach towards a more objective understanding of claimed psychic, and spiritual phenomena. If possible, and if ultimately correct it could in the future have extraordinary benefits for the advancement of the human race.

It should be noted that the "Science" word in MDS is ofcourse used in an entirely provisional sense.The subject can thus be known as the Multi-Dimensional Hypothesis,or MDH. This is arguably a more accurate term. At present, it is purely at the "pseudo-scientific" stage of evolution, and there is a long way to go.
The words "Multi-Dimensional" have been criticized, but in this context it clearly implies claimed "psychic", and "spiritual dimensions", or "worlds" variously called spheres, planes of existence, higher realms, et al. They could be seen as being akin to a certain extent with "scientific" concepts of Parallel Universes, the Multiverse, and ofcourse the Fourth (or the Fifth, Sixth, or more) Dimension(s).
A number of people have expressed some interest in MDS. They include Jean Houston, Stanley Krippner, Elisabet Sahtouris, Ronald Pearson (originator of Survival Physics), Bruce Lipton, Brian Clegg, David Peat, Jurgen Ziewe, and the noted author, Anthony Peake who called it "..a new paradigm for borderland science."
It should be added that like a "science" MDS may also be falsifiable to some extent. Also, any relevant mathematical models (where possible) have yet to be developed. What is discussed here is purely a verbal presentation.

PS. Please note that the material here may be subject to corrections of one kind, or another (eg.text editing). It is a "work in progress" project. and must be seen as such. However, the basic concepts of MDS will probably remain unaltered.


Important to Understand, and Appreciate.

Most of all what follows is highly speculative, and theoretical. Unfortunately, this is unavoidable due the nature of the subject in hand. Understandably, many mainstream scientists would regard MDS as nonsense, and too New Agey to have any credence.
Some people have claimed that it is "insane,""impossible", "a mad goose chase," and "..turns the esoteric inside-out". Yet, there are many others who are able to take it more seriously.
It should be stated here that some of the things said here may come across a little dogmatic but this is not intentional. But, it is not always easy to describe "concepts" such as these in neutral terms.
Anyhow, let us try if possible to proceed with an open-mind.


The Aim of the Multi-Dimensional Paradigm.


The basic aim of Multi-Dimensional Science, or MDS is to prove albeit indirectly the existence of so-called non-physical psychic/spiritual energies, and the claimed realities in which they are said to exist. If possible, and if it can be done within the context of a new version of the scientific method it could have untold benefits for physics, biology, psychology, psychiatry, parapsychology, et al. This is a huge all-encompassing subject.
Anyway, most of what follows is essentially theoretical as already indicated, and would require in the goodness of time to be "proved" indirectly as far as possible via serious research studies, and later if possible via experimentation.


The Basic Methodology, and Keystone of MDS.


There are five methodological steps in the process of "objectifying" the claimed "subjective" encounters of the unseen psycho-spiritual universe. Since what we are discussing are said to be non-physical energies it should be obvious that we cannot use normal "scientific" protocol as they are physically undetectable in the main.

Anyway, the methods of research, and ultimately experimentation, are as follows.

STEP I.

Finding MDOs, or Multi-Dimensional Observers would be necessary, and a special directory could be created. These are specific psychics (concerned mainly with psychic development), and mystics (concerned mainly with self-development, and "God-Realization")who claim to have inner experiences of a range of non-physical phenomena. They would notably include the manifestations of claimed ethereal inner sounds,and lights. They may among other things notably be able to view the so-called "subtle body", "auras", "the chakras","discarnate entities," or perhaps translate some of their more advanced experiences into "symbolic imagery" where necessary, et cetera.
Such data would in Western Philosophy be regarded as a form of phenomenology, a notable advocate of which was Edmund Husserl(1859-1938). Ofcourse,it should be added that people could be trained to become "reliable" MDOs via some form of meditation, or out-of-the body "technology".

STEP II.

A simple questionaire would probably be used first to ask MDOs what they experience. A detailed one(s) could follow, and some ad hoc(unplanned)questioning could also occur. The aim of this is to see how many major "obscure" pieces of data are independently corroborated beyond the laws of mathematical chance. In other words, we have as it were "objective" non-physical phenomena which may not be purely the product of subjective imagination of the MDO.
It may well be discovered that there are sets of detailed supersensory data which vary. In MDS this would be indicative that "phenomena" such as the subtle body, auras, psychic rays, non-physical structures, et al exist differently (to varying extents) on differenet sub-planes, or planes of existence. Another factor in variation may be due to mental projections from the MDOs themselves. All this is further "enlarged" later on in the text.

STEP III.

Such attempted descriptions of "other worlds", and their "subtle energies" are translated from words into images. This would notably be true again in connection with the subtle body, auras, psychic rays, et al. Such data could ofcourse appear on a computer with the right programming (aided probably with "instant" Computer Generated Imagery, and Virtual Reality) when attempted descriptions are reported by memory, or ideally, in Real-Time. Such "descriptions" could also where necessary be converted into "scientific" diagrams.

STEP IV.

If possible in full, or in part, (or indeed, if at all in certain cases) mathematical models, and theories could then be created using reported material from MDOs.

STEP V.

On the basis of step iii, and iv tests, or bona fide experiments could be undertaken to see how reliable, and objective the initial data really is. If all things go to plan we would have an approach in which we could understand on a more scientific basis the actual workings of claimed psycho-spiritual energies in both man, and the universe. All this could be a huge step forward, and may have profound implications.


The Unique MDS Methodology


The idea of trying to marry science with psychical research, esotericism, mysticism, and religion is in itself nothing new.But what is unique with MDS is that we have for the first time probably the complete Methodology to do just that. This could have revolutionary implications, and also open up utterly vast, and infinite sources of information, and understanding never seen before in our physical world.

Anyway, as indicated in the previous section of this presentation, there are infact four basic "components" of the Methodology. They are highlighted in the following listing:-

i. Using mathematics (and modelling) to try, and understand "other worlds" is nothing new. This may be possible to some extent.
ii. Trying to "depict" unseen realities, and energies into pictures, and indeed, diagrams has been done before. This has been proferred by the likes of Barbara Brennan, and notably Charles Leadbeater, and his famous images of the subtle bodies, and their auras created on the basis of his inner experiences.
iii. Utilising Questionaires, and indeed, ad hoc questioning are essential in the Methodology of MDS. Ofcourse, they have also been used to find out what people encounter during Near-Death Experiences, and Out-of-Body Experiences. Mystical Experiences have been subjected to "simplistic" analysis in a similiar manner. For example,the Sir Alistair Hardy Society for the Study of Spiritual Experience has on occasion used a similar approach as evidence based "science". However, those used in MDS would be much more detailed, and far more advanced as they would in certain cases be probably dealing with "higher""mystical/psychic""realities".
iv. Using psychics to try, and discover "physical" knowledge is nothing new. Besant, and Leadbeater in their clairvoyant researches into "occult" chemistry are a classic example. Ofcourse, psychics have also been used to contact "non-physical paranormal energies." Examples of this include Remote Viewing, Reichenbach, and the "Odic Force," and the controversial "aura" studies of Dr Kilner using special screens. Another good example of all this, was discussed by Mark Smith who gave workshops on seeing "auras" in which many participants gave largely accurate reports of specific psychic imagery in connection with a particular person. In other words, "objective" phenomena of sorts (ref Auras; See them in only 60 seconds, by Mark Smith, llewelyn Publications, 2002 edition, p50-52 notably).

It should be stressed again that the Methodology of MDS for using the four above "components" appears to be unique. But as indicated ofcourse these "components" are nothing new in themselves. Professor Tart, and his State-Specific Science,or S-SS comes close to it, but does not go far enough.
Some people would argue that Quantum Mechanics is enough to explain claimed psychic, and mystical/spiritual phenomena. This is probably incorrect because "mainstream" parapsychology is incomplete without detailed knowledge of the "inner" phenomenology involved.The latter is the "missing link" in the theoretical side of psi research..and may someday be taken more seriously if credible corroborative data emerges. However, "relevant" mathematical interpretations of Quantum Mechanics could arguably be adapted to MDS.


Describing the "Indescribable"?


Many psychics, and especially mystics have at times found it difficult to put into words their inner experiences of "higher worlds". This is especially true of the latter. They may resort at times to using symbolism of one form, or another. It would appear that those following a bona fide mystical path involving entrance into higher planes of conciousness, or Altered States of Conciousness (or ASCs) claim that the power to describe things accurately, and clearly, "progressively" diminishes. However, whatever can be recorded could still have scientific validity.

Much relies on the literal, and/or symbolic descriptive powers of the MDOs (irrespective of whether they are psychics, or notably mystic meditators) concerned. Yet,inevitably there will be "things" which can never be described at all. These would be indicated via the questionaires, and ad hoc questioning(which can ofcourse become more elaborate after the initial questions) and ultimately via the mathematical models if possible.
Ofcourse, it is well-known that ASCs can be created artifically by certain electronic stimulations of the brain, and by specific drugs. Arguably, none of this though can fully explain away in purely materialistic, and scientific terms the "simple", or usually "complex" mental imagery (ie "hallucinations" of the sane) involved by the experiencers. They are clearly not identical to the neuron* nets, and neuron nerves firing electronic impulses in the brain. However, some recent research into neuroscience suggests that it is possible to some extent to recreate "mental imagery" via computers from the brain itself as indicated by the work of James Gallant et al. But the phenomenon of self-awareness, or consciousness itself remains essentially a "mystery," and is arguably outside the confines of present day neuroscience altogether.


  • neuron, or neuron nerves are micro tiny transmitters of electricity, or "thoughts" in the brain.
PS. Please note that at present, there are no basic reviews on present day psychiatry, neuroscience, western philosopy, physics, and other related subjects in connection with the development of Multi-Dimensional Science. What is presented here is "largely" focused on the esoteric, or theoretical nature of MDS. Serious credible research, and experimentation has yet to be undertaken on it.


Interfacing with the Physical,and Non-Physical.


If MDOs can collectively produce reasonably reliable data about the energies in, or around physical objects, and people it would be possible to measure them scientifically using physical instruments. For example, a microscope could be used to examine in detail certain materials.Reliable MDOs should in theory be able to largely come up with the same data concerning their non-physical psychic structure, and energies not seen by the "normal" naked eye.

In another example, a person may be able to produce claimed psychic rays from his, or her body. This could be accurately measured using some kind of physical object(s) with the help of what MDOs see, and may hear psychically in non-physical dimensions (ie.clairaudience).

A similiar process to the above could be had in which physical objects do not exist. In other words, research, and experimentation in the "other world".Thus, wholly non-physical "measurements" and other "quantifiable" findings could be recorded to a limited extent.


Different Distinguishing Sights, Lights, and Sounds in Different Planes, and Different Sub-Planes.


MDOs may be able to describe energies differently irrespective of whether they are focussed on something physical, or not. This suggests that they may see the supersensory "energies" of a physical, or non-physical object(s), or person(s) at different levels of conciousness in different planes, or sub-planes. Hence, the variations in the appearances of such "energies". In other words, they exist as different psi "frequencies" which produce their varying qualities in different "worlds", or states of consciousness. Ofcourse, certain key sights (eg."cities", "mountains,"unusual symbolic/psychic geometrical phenomena") in general may distinguish one sub-plane from another.

To help clarify the above, it may be best to take a simple example. Certain MDOs may describe the aura radiating around the subtle body as monochromatic, or one coloured. Others may describe it as polychromatic, or many coloured. Such colours may manifests themselves notably as rays, or concentric "circles" around the subtle body. This could again suggest that the "energies" seen are at a "higher", or "lower" world, or plane, or sub-plane of conciousness. In another instance, the aura may not appear ovoid, but have a different shape altogether around the individual, such as a pyrammidial triangle.
Some MDOs may be able in Real-Time be able to "go through" intermediate stages, or planes of being in which the aura, and subtle sub-planes (plus any other surrounding supersensory phenomena) may change in an orderly, or "disorderly" sequence via a light, or deep waking "trance"(involving a degree of withdrawal of consciousness to the "Third Eye"). In effect, they would see the inner sights, and energies change from one plane to another until the "final" one is reached (ie. the level of self-attainment of a MDO).
In certain cases, certain "energies" may be purely, or partly illusionary self-projections. In theory, or indeed,in "reality" we would be dealing ofcourse with mental "matter" which could be affected conciously, and unconciously by ones own mind to varying degrees. In other words, psycho-interactivity.

In MDS we are indicating here is that the science of the future may become increasingly more humanized, and less objective in the normal scientific sense. By "humanized" we are implying ofcourse that tested "reliable" MDOs, or "special" people would become more, and more a part of the experimental process gradually unlocking something of the secrets of the non-physical universe. To what extent, such experiments are repeatable, and indeed, reliable is presently unknown.

Materialising, and Dematerialising "Non-Physical" Energies, and Possible Subtle "Psychic" Energies in the Physical World.


It should perhaps be said that there is a belief largely founded, or unfounded that these subtle psychic energies may also exist as...
a)The finest forms of subtle energy existing to a certain extent in the invisible electromagnetic spectrum of the physical universe either temporarily, or permanently.

b)On occasion, they could be detectable to some degree with certain kinds of physical instruments. This in itself is a big subject, and one is reminded here of the work of the physicist William Tiller, and the independent researcher Harry Oldfield.

However, it should be noted that MDS tends in the main to go beyond this "limited" approach because it believes that it may be dealing with higher non-physical energies (ie undetectable altogether by physical means), and hence, this knowledge would arguably have greater psychic, and spiritual benefits than dealing with low level energies that may be detectable, or become "materialized" in the material world.


Basic Theoretical Representations of Higher Worlds, and Higher Energies.


Many mystical, and psychic writings claim that there are a series of higher worlds, and hence, higher energies in the non-physical Universe. Such psychic/spiritual cosmologies have often been illustrated as a set of seven or more lines either in concentric, or linear forms. They are on occasions sub-divided into smaller planes, or sub-planes. Sometimes, they are shown concentrically around our planet earth, and extending ultimately into infinity.

There are a number of Hermetic, and Alchemical texts which notably illustrate higher planes of existence as being concentric. Certain Buddhist depictions of the "after-life" realms indicate a linear, or concentric set of worlds, or planes. indeed, they can often, or not be described as colourful concentric "rainbows."

In the Alice Bailey Teachings, there is a scheme of spiritual cosmology in which there is in each plane a division of seven sub-planes.The reality of the situation is probably that there are an infinite number of planes, and sub-planes, and their number tends to vary from one esoteric, or mythological source to another.
Ofcourse, none of the above should be taken literally. They are ways of explaining something which in essence lies "largely" outside the mind to comprehend. The linear, and concentric sets of "worlds" are only representations, and simplifications for our limited intellectual understanding.

In spite of all this, some things can be explained at the level of mind. For instance, it is said that as one ascends from one higher reality to another the "skies" of each plane, or sub-planes becomes increasingly brighter, and there is growing expansion of superconciousness, or mystical experience. Simultaneously, the energies of each succeeding plane, and indeed, each sub-plane become increasingly subtle. The content of such visionary ascents can as one progresses "upwards" become more difficult, or impossible at times to describe in the limited language of this world.

In relation to our physical world of the five limited senses, such realms could arguably exist as psycho-spiritual energies having a vibratory rate faster than the speed of light. Such a theoretical notion notably appears in Quantum Physics as the Bell Theorem, and Non-Locality. The thing to grasp here is that faster-than-light energies would transcend time, and space as we would understand it. It is believed that they may exist, and interact in ways conceivable, and inconceivable in relation to our visible physical world.
Moreover, there may be at times manifestations of acausality in connection with the "mechanics" (or rather non-mechanics) of certain kinds of psychic, and spiritual phenomena. In other words, they just happen without any causal factors at all. For example, telepathy in the "other world" would not always need a transmitter wave of psi energy. What is sent is not sent but already exists at the target receiver of the telepathic message. This could also be interpreted as the realization that beyond space-time as we know it energy, and everything else in the physical universe, and "Beyond" exists in an Eternal Now...


The "Highest Truth", and "Objectivity"?


One "advanced" understanding of these other planes, realms, or dimensions of Being, or Higher States of Conciousness can be found in Sant Mat as propounded by the Radhasoami Faith notably. It claims among other things that most religions, and mystical sects reach only the lower "worlds" mistaking them to be the highest where true "God-Realization" or "salvation" occurs. Through meditation known as Surat Shabd Yoga the aspirant can "die while living" and gain contact to the "higher worlds" via the "jet propulsion" power of inner Light, and inner Sound. At the same time, the Radiant Form of the living Master acts as the inner Guide.

The point of all this is that the spiritual cosmology as revealed in Sant Mat give not only the claimed five major inner Sounds, but also their inner Lights, or key "symbolic" sights of each of the higher worlds, or planes. Thus, we have in effect an actual basic "roadmap" to "salvation",or "God-Realization" which also takes one ultimately beyond the Wheel of Rebirth, or so it is claimed. In Sufism the inner "ascent" to "higher realities" is sometimes referred to as a Journey in "Symbols."

However, if a mystic practioner is willing to disclose his, or her inner experiences for comparative analysis via questionaires, and ad hoc questioning, basic supersensory experiences may emerge concerning how "real," and "objective," they are. This is a big area of research.

To complicate things, there are those mystics from both East, and West who would argue that unlike Shabd Yoga perse there is no basic set sequence of key inner Lights, and Sounds, or even key "symbolic" sights on the way "up" to the "highest" plane of superconciousness. These may even be regarded as being essentially hallucinations of the Mind. In other words, unlike Surat Shabd Yoga there may be no basic "roadmap" to "God." However, the most likely Reality is that there is a Pathway to "God", and indeed, a Pathless "Pathway" to "God," or "Ultimate Enlightenment" existing simultaneously. Remember that we are dealing probably with a super dynamic Spiritual Cosmos where anything, and everything can be "possible" in infinite "micro-seconds".
Apart from what has been said these "other worlds" appear among other things to be polymorphic to varying extent along with their content. In other words, they can instantly change form, or "shape shift" to use the New Age expression. They can also be termed multi-representational. In effect, this means that how, and "when" they are seen is dependent to some extent on a visionaries background. Hence, a "hidden" psychic connection. Ofcourse, there could well be "static" worlds which do not "shape shift" at all.
Some have argued that the "higher inner realities" become more objective, and less subject to polymorphism, and subjective dynamics/projection. Thus, the "lower realms" are said to be very deceptive in an infinite number of ways unlike their higher "counterparts".

It is interesting to highlight the point that mystics may describe each successive "planes" as becoming less illusionary, and more real than the preceeding ones. However, if the highest "plane" is reached the lower ones could be interpreted as merely illusions, or even as total projections of the mind without any "objective" substance at all. Thus, for example, the five key "Spiritual Regions" or "planes" known in Sant Mat could be interpreted as just hallucinations, or illusions due to the changes in perception mentioned here.
Moreover, possibly depending on one's psychological make up, and other factors unknown no experience of "movement" to "higher" planes, or higher states of Being, or superconciousness may be experienced. In other words, "spatiality" as we would understand it can be transcended as "space-time" is "different" if not "non-existent" in most case scenarios.


Subtle Bodies, or Vehicles of Conciousness.


A key feature in occult, or esoteric lore is the concept of subtle bodies (which also appears in the Radhasoami Faith). Here, we need to imagine the possibility of the human being consisting of a set of subtle bodies simultaneously existing in a number of planes of existence but "working" all together to a certain extent as if they were one.

It should also be said here that these "bodies" have special centres, or what in the East are referred to as chakras which can be translated as "wheels" which are to a degree replicated in the higher bodies. These involve the transmissions of psychological energies in the literal sense existing in the subconcious, and unconcious parts of the human psyche. They manifest as inner subtle lights, and sounds, and have direct connections to various planes, and sub-planes.

Anyhow, to return to the subtle bodies per se. The first of them traditionally is the etheric (or "health")body existing in the etheric world. Then there is the so-called astral, or emotional body inhabiting the plane of emotions. Next the mental body which inhabits the mental plane. Then, the the higher mental, or causal body which ofcourse exists in the higher causal, or higher mental plane. Finally, there is the Soul "Body" which is who, or what we really are but is largely controlled by the lower "bodies" corresponding to the "lower" planes.


Meditation, and the Chandian Effect.


Arguably, many forms of meditation are the means by which people can gain greater mastery over the Mind, and lower subtle bodies, or "forces" of the human being. The Soul is said to be a part of God, or the Absolute Reality, and is sometimes referred to as our God-Self or Higher Self which can manifest Itself independently of the Lower Self, and can act as a Spiritual Guide, or manifest ItSelf as the Ishta Dev (or Chosen Ideal such as Buddha, Christ, or some Guru etc) in the inner journey during meditation, or after death. This is sometimes referred to as Atma-Lila, or the Play of Self.

A respected mystic of Shabd Yoga called Faqir Chand claimed that though he was meant to be the physical "omniscient" manifestation of God he was unaware of his disciples experiences concerning their contact notably of his Radiant Form during meditation, or any inner/outer miracles connected with It.In Sant Mat this would have arguably implied that he was an "imperfect" master but he found that others like himself were also seemingly unaware of their disciples inner experiences. He came to conclusion that it was the faith, and belief of the followers which enabled them to have the inner, and outer phenomena connected with him.

Infact,Chand indicated that the inner Radiant Form was actually the manifestation of the disciples Self, or rather Higher Self (ie. ones Personal God beyond the lower subtle bodies) taking on the appearance of their Master (ie. Chand as the Ishta Dev, or Chosen Ideal). The implications of this are remakable because it also implies that a "criminal" teacher, or guru could also do the same thing. Yet, the disciple would still benefit spiritually.

All this seems to indicate that powerful "subjective" dynamics are involved which are to varying degree projected (from a lower, or higher part of ones self, or selves, or indeed, ones Higher Self in the case of the so-called Chandian Effect described)into an "objective" psycho-spiritual universe. This is notably true in spiritualist literature in which the "dead" conciously, or unconciously create their surrounding world to some extent with their "thought-energy." This factor has always to be taken into account into the "objective" investigations into psychic, and spiritual phenomomena using MDOs.
It is important to say that many spiritual Teachers of various traditions, and even some New Age groups have long known about all this, and expressed the above ideas in their own ways.

A Note. The term Chandian Effect was originated by David Christopher Lane, an academic, who is well-known for his work into the history, and practice of the Radhasoami Faith


The Kundalini Dimension.

An aspect of Eastern Mysticism is the Kundalini which is claimed to be a psychic energy that exists within the "subtle body". This can bring about superconcious "God-Realization." By its adherents it is said to be the most advanced form of meditation, or Yoga. However, special mental exercises involving notably chanting, and visualization can in certain cases bring about premature awakening that could lead to psychological damage...hence, the need for a genuine Adept of the Kundalini tradition.
Infact, many people may be awakened to its activity, but are unaware of its true significance. It may notably involve powerful mood swings, and other psychological phenomena. On the positive scale, it can lead to greater creativity, or even genius. As the old adage goes "genius is akin to madness" as the awakening Kundalini can lead to "strange" changes in the personality.
Essentially, the human being is at a transitional stage in his, or her life in which there is a great influx of higher "creative" energies. This can lead to a "continous" tug-of-war with an "equal" influx of lower negative energies that can dangerously "unbalance" the personality.
It should also be stated that many people who have the Kundalini "Syndrome" may claim that any negative aspects of it have been publicly overstated, and quite often, such inner experiences are positive. Usually, this is dependent on the right spiritual discipline (ie.some form of Kundalini Yoga, or some other type of meditation).It is then that Kundalini can be awakened gently, and naturally in its own time (without notably using direct visualization methods as this could lead to "premature" awakening) via love for ones Teacher irrespective of whether he, or she may be a Hindu, Sufi, Buddhist,or anything else. This should be accompanied with little, or no negative side effects.
Kundalini is a universal phenomena as evidence from various texts seem to show. The negative psychological energies of personality can be neutralized, and transmuted via meditation, and most importantly by an initial transmission of higher spiritual energy from a genuine Master. This "transmission" grows with greater love for an Adept who acts as a living channel for It.
In Surat Shabd Yoga though it is claimed there is no direct awakening of the Kundalini. Moreover, it believes that the "God-Realization" had by Kundalini Yoga (and certain other mystical traditions)only takes one to one of the lower planes of the "Great Beyond" rather than the "highest" where the Source of all is said to exist.


Esoteric Secrecy.

Inner mystical experiences via meditation are strictly speaking meant to be kept private, or "secret," and the reasons for this can be various. It can happen though that the "narrow" strictures concerned about non-disclosure are not always adhered to by disciples of some inner Paths. Thus, they may write, and/or talk about their internal visionary "ascents."
What follows though is a brief presentation of key reasons for non-disclosure.
i) Inner mystical experiences are not meant for the mind but for the awakening intuition. As such there may be "much" data which cannot be described accurately by the limits of earthly language. This is the foremost reason for non-disclosure.
ii) Divulging "higher" experiences of "other worlds", or planes of conciousness along with meetings with "advanced" spiritual beings may lead to ego inflation.
iii) Revealing "secret" initiation techniques, and other practices, and ofcourse, in this case inner experiences can be seen as showing disrespect to ones Master, and the tradition he, or she may follow, and represent. Indeed, the case of inner visions could in certain instance be stopped as soon as they are disclosed to the public.
iv) Attempting to "describe" the "workings" of "Divine Energies" in the language of this world can be viewed as being a trivialization, or be-littlement. They are meant to be experienced, and not talked about as they cannot necessarily be described fully, or accurately.
v) Most mystical spiritual paths are concerned essentially with self-development as opposed to psychic development which could lead to psychic powers. Thus, using knowledge from ones inner experiences is not to be disclosed in such a way as to achieve psi phenomena. Inner mystical experience is normally meant for self-unfoldment usually culminating in "God-Realization," or "Enlightenment".
vi) Revealing inner knowledge to all, and sundry is wrong as it can be regarded as being "mad" by the uninitiated. Thus, esoteric knowledge is mainly for the few who are ready for it, and not for the masses per se.
vii) Though not directly connected with non-disclosure of inner experiences as such it is something which needs to be said. Knowing, and revealing inner meditation practices from books, or from initiation may be "useless" unless one has a genuine Teacher of high repute (ideally) as he, or she has hopefully experienced the meditative Path, and can warn the Seeker of any "dangers" on the Way.
It should be added that in MDS most attempted descriptions of "other worlds" would probably come in the main from the so-called astral world, or astral "sub-planes." This is important to understand. Attempted written records of mystical ascents to even "higher realities" will probably be very limited, and ofcourse, "descriptions" of them would be far more difficult if not nigh impossible.

Entering the "Other World" via Waking Trance in Meditation.

Some hints, and clues are given in "rare" literature which can give some insight into the theory, and practice of some form of meditation. Also, on occasion references to inner experiences can also be found in a scattered, or in a more "condensed" form.
For example,Die to Live by Charan Singh, Shabd Yoga is discussed, and there is
i)Reference to "varied" initial inner experiences (notably "mystical" Lights, and Sounds)as the conciousness is withdrawn to the "Third Eye" during meditation so that it can be temporarily released into the "astral" world in an advanced form of "Soul Travel".
ii) Something akin to "lightning flashes" (or neuron nerves firing?) may be experienced.

iii) With increasing concentration "images" of the "Beyond" become clearer, and "less shaky." This indicates that conciousness acts as a "focus field" for tuning into "energies" of the "Beyond" which can be contacted along with their Sounds,and Lights
iv) The meditator on the threshold of the "other worlds" may see in turn the "Star,""Sun", and "Moon World," but not necessarily in that sequence. These are "pierced through" via increasing concentration, so that the meditator, or "Soul Traveller" goes beyond them. The Sound of so-called Astral Bells may notably be experienced. Some critics regard this as merely tinnitus though esoteric lore indicates that this is something very different, and very "real".
To some degree, independent corroborations of this advanced form of astral projection, or meditation can be found in obscure texts. For example, Swami Sivananda in his Spiritual Experiences gives some interesting "descriptions" even though he taught Raja Yoga, and not Surat Shabd Yoga.
Incidently, The colour blue is on occasion associated with the "astral plane". This is sometimes mentioned for example in the healing literature of Reiki, and possibly in other like traditions.



The Association for Multi-Dimensional Science.


MDS is not just concerned about mysticism but also with parapsychology, or psychical research as it used to be commonly called. It may be that with the aid of MDOs we would be able possibly to understand, and even improve the potential development of a whole range of alleged psychic powers. Such "pseudo-scientific" subjects are slowly becoming to be taken more seriously through the long march of scientific, and intellectual evolution.

Yet, most forms of mysticism per se see these so-called powers, or siddhis (to use the Sanskrit term) as largely being unimportant, and possibly an obstacle from the direct path of "God-Realization", or "salvation," or "ultimate enlightenment," or "Nirvana." Thus, the onus on all this is arguably the need to focus on credible "scientific" research, and experimentation concerned with human potential technologies (ie. forms of meditation) for self-development, and "self-purification" via contact with claimed psycho-spiritual energies. This could act as the bedrock on the later "limited" use of the "psi powers" garnered via psychic development techniques.


Essentially, for such serious studies there is a need in the future for an Association for Multi-Dimensional Science, or AMS. Ideally, this would be a multi-disciplinary society hopefully in time attracting people with academic backgrounds in physics, biology, psychology, psychiatry, mathematics, and other relevant subjects.

AMS would have the following basic aims which can in time be expanded.

I. It would continue to search out willing MDOs for possible phenomenological studies, and possible experiments. Social networking on the internet for subjects could play a major role in this.

II. AMS would try to build an ever-expanding online global database directory of Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Shinto, Sufi, Kabbalistic, Hermetic, Gnostic, Rosicrucian, and other mystical type societies/traditions. This in itself would require detective work as most of them do not always "advertize" themselves. This would involve i) contacting scholars, and writers ii)usuage of the internet iii) contacting interfaith organisations iv) examining charity registers v)looking through esoteric magazines vi) examining existing directories....and so on. Scientific organisations could also be included in such searches.
At the sametime, an online descriptive global database of a bibliography of relevant popular books, and magazines, scholarly books, and papers, and the like could be built up. Foreign titles could also be included along with blogs that have original material.

III. Apart from the two databases above another one could deal with disclosure reporting of non-physical interactions with the "other world". This would notably include questionaires, and the records of experiences of "other worlds," and "other energies" by various people. It could also act as a support group (like certain other sites online) to help those who have had psychic, and spiritual problems of one kind or another. Essentially, though it would be a highly comprehensive ongoing research site for those interested in claimed psychic, and spiritual phenomena.
Moreover, it may be possible to get volunteers to help collect inner experience data. In other words, a P2P process possibly entitled Psi Citizens Evidenced Based "Science".
Also, those who belong to some esoteric sect could also anonymously attempt to describe their own experiences. Yet, they must be comfortable about this. The reason being is that their sect may have strict rulings concerning confidentiality about the nature of practices involved, and also, the "exact" nature of their inner experiences.

IV. The need for continuing research, and development of a general theory, or working hypothesis of the Unseen Universe would be necessary. This would involve ideas from Theosophy, the Alice Bailey Teachings, Spiritualism, Maharishis Vedic Science, and Technology, Pearsons Survival Physics, Bohms Implicate Order,and the like. Concepts from "mainstream" science could be included too such as Quantum Mechanics, the Multiverse, the Holographic Model,the Fourth Dimension, Tachyons,the Participatory Universe, et al.

Also, it must be remembered that Multi-Dimensional Science probably cannot give totally "provable" answers as to what the ultimate nature and purpose of Truth is really all about. It is quite possible that there are no absolute truths, and that everything exists as relativism in an infinite universe. Science can only go so far, and at the end of the day there will always be those who would understandbly argue that our own personal experience is the only thing that really matters.


A Public Notice.
At present, the following (edited) request has been closed down for the time being due to workload. Yet, it is worth reading as it can be considered as a continuation of the above body of the text:-
"..Any reader here who has, or is able to experience (like the MDOs) a range of "energies" notably seeing auras, subtle bodies, inner mystical sounds, and lights, et cetera would be welcomed if they contact us. We are seeking attempted descriptions of such "phenomena". Much of this data will probably come from various healing "fraternities" such as Reiki, and those who meditate (eg. Kundalini Yoga). So-called Remote Viewing, or RV could have some relevance as well.
It is suspected that the best approach to the above is probably via direct phone contact rather than a simple public notice such as this.In spite of this, it is hoped that this public notice will elicit some response.
Furthermore, we are also on the lookout for anyone who may be willing to divulge contacts in connection with little known esoteric societies in Sufism, Hinduism, Judaism, Paganism, or any other tradition.."
It should be made clear that with the exception of most psychic groups, esoteric/mystical orientated ones would in the main not appreciate the kind of research indicated by MDS. Hence, the need to approach them with caution. The investigator could "pose" as a truth seeker, and should be able to find out whether disclosure of any inner experiences are forbidden, or not.
Another thing to fully understand, and appreciate is that some psychics, and some mystic disciples may suffer from a degree of "madness", or "psychosis" (eg. an obssession with certain far out conspiracy theories, or they may confuse themselves with sounds, or "people" that seem to be physical, but are not heard, or seen by "normal" individuals in their vicinity). They may have delusions about themselves, and others. This does not necessarily mean that their attempts at describing inner "energies" in the "other worlds" is invalid. Only by collecting testimonies from such people, and their "sane" counterparts can we determine whether "key" patterns emerge, and this could be suggestive of the "objective" nature of their "other-wordly" experiences. The problem of possible "psychosis" may be due to Kundalini activity as already suggested in another section of this presentation.

Basic Glossary

  • Multi-Dimensional Observer(MDO)= A psychic who can on regular occasions possibly "witness" psi "energies", and forms like the chakras, subtle bodies, rays, auras, out-of-body experiences, et al. They have key relevance in the potential advance of Multi-Dimensional Science.
  • Polymorphism = In the context of MDS, this term implies that "higher planes", and the "beings" in them can change their structure, or form. It could also be problematic, and deceptive when attempts are made to "describe" various kinds of psi "energies," such as rotating lights, spiral forms, odd spatial geometric patterns, radiation fields, unexpected materializations, and dematerializations, et cetera.
  • Psycho-Interactivity = The concept that people who are able to enter "other worlds" can to varying extents, interact, and actually change the content of their "visions" via the means of their mind power, and intentionality.
  • Multi-Representation (of Planes) = In the context of MDS, this can imply that the "design" of the "same set" of "higher worlds" can manifest themselves differently in an infinite number of ways. In other words, a form of polymorphism. Ofcourse, any number of "planes", or "worlds" can represent themselves in ways largely effable, or "ineffable".
  • Polychromatic (Psi) Field = Many coloured Aura, or indeed, any form of psi energy (eg a ray) which manifests itself as many coloured.
  • Monochromatic (Psi) Field = One coloured Aura.

Please note an extended glossary may be included which would have terms, and defintions not found in the main body of the text.


A. Some Key References, and Notes.


1) Bohm, David, Wholeness, and the Implicate Order, Routledge, 2002

2) Karangulla, Shafica, Breakthrough to Creativity-Your Higher Sense Perception.De Vorss, 1970
Among other things, interesting "evidence" is presented from certain psychics to suggest that chakras, and subtle bodies are indeed "objective" phenomena

3) Capra, Fitjof, The Tao of Physics, Shambala 2010
The seminal text which popularised the connection of Quantum Physics with Mysticism.

4) Talbot, Michael, The Holographic Universe,Harper Perennial Books,1992
A brilliantly readable introduction to how holography can relate to Mysticism, and Psychic Phenomena.


5) Powell, Arthur, books by him The Etheric Body, The Astral Body, The Mental Body, and the Causal Body.
A fascinating compilation of data from the literature of Theosophy notably the writings of Charles Leadbeater.


6) McTaggart, Lynne, The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe, HarperCollins, 2008


7) Radin, Dean, The Concious Universe; The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena, Harper Collins, 1997


8) Masters, Robert, and Houston, Jean, The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience: The Classic Guide to the Effects of LSD on the Human Psyche,Park Street Press,2000
A very important seminal work on the phenomenology of drug induced experience.


9) Blackmore, Susan, Beyond the Body: An Investigation into Out-of-the-Body Experiences,Academy of Chicago Publisers, 2005
An important, and reasonably comprehensive account of "astral projection" by a sceptic.


10) Leadbeater, Charles, Man, Visible, and Invisible, Quest Books, 2000
An intriguing work with the classic coloured plates of the auras of the different subtle bodies existing simultaneously in different planes of conciousness, and making up the "whole" man, or indeed, the "whole" woman.


11) Sanella, Lee, The Kundalini Experience: Psychosis, or Transcendence, Integral Publishing, 1987
A psychiatric study into Kundalini

12) Moen, Bruce, Afterlife Knowledge Guidebook: A Manual for Retrieval and Afterlife Exploration, Hampton Roads Publishing, 2005

13) Krishna, Gopi, Kundalini:The Evolutionary Energy in Man, Shambala, 1997

14) Goel, B.S., Third Eye, and Kundalini(An Experiential Account of the Journey from Dust to Divinity), Third Eye Publication, New Delhi, 1986
A rare, and unusual lengthy text of one mans experience of Kundalini activity. However, some of the images used are a bit crude.

15) Muktananda, Swami, Play of Conciousness: A Spiritual Autobiography, Siddha Yoga Publication, 2000
An extraordinary "detailed" account of inner experiences...


16) Singh, Sawan, Discourse on Sant Mat, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 1997
This contains references from mystic poets of Sant Mat, and Surat Shabd Yoga which can be seen as being suggestive that the so-called "Spiritual Regions" may be "objective" realities to a certain extent.


17) Puri, Lekh Raj, Mysticism: The Spiritual Path, Vol II, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, nd
Important work that gives some insight into "higher planes" of conciousness accessed by Surat Shabd Yoga. Puri also produced another book called The Radha Swami Teachings, which also gave similiar insight.

18) James, William, The Varieties of Religious Experience, A Study in Human Nature.Longmans, Green, and Co, 1902.

19) Peake, Anthony, Is There Life After Death? Chartwell Book, 2006.

20) Stephens, Arran, Moth & the Flame,Adventures with Spiritual Adepts of our Times, Here, the focus is on Sant Kirpal Singh Ji who wrote a coded diary of his inner experiences (intended for the attention of his Master,Sawan Singh Ji)about his inner ascents into "higher" worlds by means of mystical Sound, and Light. Most remarkably, he claimed that there was a "secret" set pattern of visionary phenomena of what is to be experienced before entering the "highest" Spiritual Region of "God-Realization." In other words, something akin to an "objective" reality which other initiates had to experience.
http://www.arranstephens.com/Arran/Moth_%26_the_Flame.html

21) Grof, Stanislav, Beyond Death, The Gates of Conciousness (Art & Imagination) Thames, and Hudson, 1980.

22) Crookall, Robert, The Supreme Adventure, Analyses of Psychic Communications, James Clark, and Co, 1975

23) Parmahansa, Yogeshwaranand,Science of Soul : Atma-Vijnana (A Practical Exposition of ancient method of visualisation of Soul)Science of Soul : Atma-Vijnana (A Practical Exposition of ancient method of visualisation of Soul) Yoga Niketan Publication, 1997




B. A Few Examples of a Questionaire(s).

In MDS the evolution of more, and more detailed questionaires could be seen as a continous process along with ad hoc questioning. To gain any idea of the kinds of questions required would ofcourse require an "initial" reporting from MDOs of their inner experiences. The following is just a brief example of examples so to speak of the kinds of questions which could be asked from memory, or better still in real-time.

i) The Chakras.
Do these have specific Sounds?
Do the colours change?
Do you see thoughts travelling in, and out of them?
Do the Chakras have specific patterns, or images......................? (ie. etcetera)


ii) The Aura.
Does the Aura emanate as rays from the subtle body?
If not how can they best be described?
For example, do they manifest as blobs of moving coloured lights?
Do the coloured rays, or "lights" have Sounds?
Is it possible to describe, or even transcribe these Sounds....................?


iii) Inner Sounds.
Do you hear inner Sounds during concentration, and vision of inner worlds?
Do they become clearer with greater concentration?
Do these Sounds create "music" of somekind?
Can you hear them from physical, and non-physical "objects".....................?


iv) Inner Lights.
Do you sometimes see different kinds of "disembodied" lights in psychic "space?"
Do these lights communicate, or create music of some "description?"
Do they change shapes?
Do they react to thoughts coming from you? (ie. psycho-interactive)
Do the lights move rapidly, and in what ways (eg. zigzaging).....................?

What follows is a brief on the hoof basic questioning of the visionary, David Harrington, and his inner experiences. Ofcourse, alot more could have been garnered if a more structured, and far more comprehensive approach had been initiated...
RS.I assume you had experience with inner Sounds

DH.Oh yes Voices, Visions, etc
RS.Do you normally hear a specific Sound like Bells, or thunder or drums? Does the colour blue often feature in your experiences?
DH.Lots of thunder and voices, water
RS.Very interesting
DH.Blue? A little but not overly so.
RS.Interesting...what about the colour red?
DH.About the same....Lots of rainbows in my visions.
RS.Do you see things during normal waking conciousness rather than via trance, and astral travel Or is the former a rare phenomenon
DH.Normal waking conciousness..usually with very little warning.
RS.I see. It happens suddenly
DH.I have been transported to spiritual realms you might say.
RS.And do the phenomena suddenly go as well rather than fade away..have you come across Surat Shabd Yoga?
DH.Yes suddenly, usually my ears will plug up and I am compelled by a strong urge to seclude myself somewhere quiet where I can receive the vision(s) without interruptions.
RS.Very interesting... And Shabd Yoga...heard of it? It teaches advanced soul travel, and uses the Sound as a means of mystic transport
DH.I've heard of it but not familiar with it though. Sounds very interesting indeed.
RS.But do you use Sound to transport upwards, or do you have a whirlwind type off experience Do you merge into the Sound, and does it pull you up or not? In other words, spiritual levitation.
DH.Hmm....it has a couple of times I would say.
RS. Interesting... And you have met beings, and have had a telepathic rapport with them
DH.I have ascended to higher realms and then back down to earth again several times in my visions.
RS.Do the beings change forms at all...maybe I should read the book!!
DH.Yes you should read the book for sure. Yes there are creatures that change forms to adapt to their surroundings.
RS.Do any appear alien like as understood in UFO "mythology".
DH.No mostly animal forms or humans who take on animal forms..........................



C. Some Interesting Links.
http://www.spr.ac.uk/main/ This Society for Psychial Research was the first "credible" organisation to seriously investigate psi phenomena in a serious scientific fashion. Founded in 1882.
http://www.spr.ac.uk/main/links This an important source of links for more scientifically orientated societies concerned with psychic phenomena (eg. The Rhine Research Center).

Please note that the following tend to be less credible, and less "scientific" However, they are still important especially in the potential development of Multi-Dimensional Science.
http://www.iacworld.org/
http://www.monroeinstitute.org/ Founded by Robert Monroe, a respected populariser of out-of-body experiences.

http://www.astralinfo.org/about-the-author/
http://www.journeyoftruth.co.uk/testimonials.html
http://www.multidimensionalman.com/Multidimensional-Man/Astral_Travel_and_life_after_death.html
http://www.astraldynamics.com/
http://www.kurtleland.com/my-books/multidimensional-human/89-the-multidimensional-human-outline
http://www.grahamnicholls.com/out-of-body-experience-coaching/

http://www.spiritualresearchfoundation.org/ This link has some interesting attempts to depict psychic interactions. However, some of its pics of "spirits" look comical, and unprofessionally drawn. Furthermore, some of its notions about the world appear at times questionable, and "unscientific".
http://www.issseem.org/index.cfm
http://www.esotericscience.org/ This has some interesting writings, and is promoting a book.
http://www.alisterhardysociety.org/
http://www.ehe.org/display/splash.html

http://www.scpr.org/programs/patt-morrison/2011/09/29/20837/jackgallantucberkeleyShinjiNishimotobrainimaging/ The link presents a short intro into brain imagery research undertaken by Gallant, et al as mentioned in the main body of the text to MDS. Also, this other link may be of interest http://gallantlab.org/brainviewer/cukuretal2013/

Two Important Blogs
http://esotericotherworlds.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/neurocosmology_26.html
http://thoughtsandvisions-searle88.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/subtle-perceptions.html


D. Pictures of "Psychic Energies".

The following are from basic image searches on the internet
Please note also there may be a technical problem with the links. Thus, one section on Chakras may come up instead with the images of the Subtle Body, et cetera. It is hoped that his may be corrected somehow. Apologies for this if it happens.

Depictions of "Auras".

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=aura&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bpcl=35466521&biw=1280&bih=771&wrapid=tlif135150329084810&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=mk2OUOjmOYvM0AWYq4DoAQ

Depictions of "Subtle Body."
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&cp=11&gs_id=w&xhr=t&q=subtle+body&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bpcl=35466521&biw=1280&bih=771&wrapid=tljp1351503699870020&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=NU-OUKmBC_Pa0QWQyoGQCw

Depictions of "Chakras."

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=chakras&hl=en-GB&gbv=2&prmd=ivns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=MV9BU_blPMaxhAeBhoHYAg&ved=0CAUQ_AU

Kundalini Energy
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=kundalini%20energy&bav=on.2,or.&bvm=bv.53537100,d.d2k,pv.xjs.s.en_US.MLJSUkuQGS4.O&biw=1280&bih=771&dpr=1&wrapid=tlif138096534659711&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=DtxPUrCFLJD70gXT2IHoCw

Depictions of "Planes of Existence."
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=planes+of+existence+buddhism&hl=en-GB&gbv=2&prmd=ivns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=_A9EU-CdMKjG7AaD7IDgAg&ved=0CAUQ_AU

"Inner Planes"
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=inner+planes&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=oIhOUsi7GsmZhQejn4CYCA&sqi=2&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1680&bih=910&dpr=1

Depictions of Psychedelic-like "Worlds."
Sometimes reports from the "other world" suggest that the colours of various beings, and objects can be more "stunning," and "more real" than anything known in the physical universe. In other words, "psychedelic-like".
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=psychedelic+art&hl=en-GB&gbv=2&tbm=isch&oq=psychedelic+art&gs_l=img.12...0.0.0.2844.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1ac..34.img..0.0.0.gbUOqAcVfMI
Buddhist Thangka Art
Such art is meant to represent "higher states," or "worlds" of conciousness. Ofcourse, they can possibly link with "other worlds".
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=tangpa+buddhist+tibetan&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=pxxpUqypGfGY1AWxwICwDg&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=933#q=buddhist%20thangpa%20art&tbm=isch

Kirlian Photography.
By using electricity, and using a special Kirlian "camera" (or something similiar) it is possible to artifically create what appear to be "auras", and other kinds of colourful "psychic energies". However, these are probably not "real" energies as seen by certain types of psychics. Yet, the examples of Kirlian Photography presented here are arguably a good "representation" of what they could look like without artist representations of them seen on other links of this section on Multi-Dimensional Science

https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&noj=1&biw=1280&bih=770&q=kirlian%20photography&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=iPWQUc7aGsqu0QW4u4HoAw

Surrealism
The "lower" psychic "realms" are said to be similar in nature to Surrealism in art
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=surrealism&safe=strict&biw=1600&bih=752&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=Z_2cVYDYK_Hd7QbI8IK4Bw&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ

What Dreams May Come
The images are from a film, and they often depict scenery in the "afterlife" as being "extra colourful" like psychedelic experiences.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=what+dreams+may+come&safe=strict&biw=1600&bih=752&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=APicVYPwKYG9UvKPgbAL&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAg#imgrc=_

Patterns
Inner experiences may involve in part seeing a variety of patterns that maybe describable, semi-describable, or indeed, indescribable "altogether".

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=patterns&biw=1280&bih=930&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=MbefVdK6OIWjU4rcjrgL&ved=0CC0Q7Ak

Geometry
"Other Worlds" may have a variety of geometrical shapes in "certain places". Again, they maybe describable to some extent, or indeed, "indescrible".
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=geometry&hl=en-GB&biw=1280&bih=930&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=zbifVff5IcvkUty1g7AL&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ

Esoteric Geometryhttps://www.google.co.uk/search?q=esoteric+geometry&safe=strict&biw=1680&bih=897&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMIypia1OeRxwIVro_bCh2BDQe6

Occult Geometryhttps://www.google.co.uk/search?q=occult+geometry&safe=strict&hl=en-GB&biw=1680&bih=897&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMIsKast-iRxwIVxbIeCh01Ug-F

Sacred Geometry
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=sacred+geometry&safe=strict&biw=1280&bih=626&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMI4eGXvf6MyAIVQTgUCh2WxgoQ

Leadbeater, Man Visible, and Invisible
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=leadbeater+man++visible+and+invisible&biw=1280&bih=930&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMIkM3et9z2xwIVyZceCh1teguw

Spiritual Science Research Foundation
The following is from pinterest as opposed to google image search
https://www.pinterest.com/ssrf/

Hypnagogic
"Hallucinations" experienced by some people as they slowly enter the sleeping state
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=hypnagogic+and+hypnopompic+hallucinations&safe=strict&biw=1280&bih=626&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMIsbiu1PqMyAIVhSPbCh0JhQky#tbm=isch&tbs=rimg%3ACaDpZ50us6O1IjhxsNPP_1uc350XTKK_1wbFrJ6TbTPhb-BSjGmSXVz-V_1PSibNOTocnrTCETXrsaj4GoyYlNjFqLQDCoSCXGw08_1-5zfnEVsPZtww1vh-KhIJRdMor_1BsWskRSbPWqcHA36UqEgnpNtM-Fv4FKBH8MM9J1g2nUioSCcaZJdXP5X89EaXKhLm4CWYIKhIJKJs05OhyetMRlBEY79m3NQMqEgkIRNeuxqPgahErONzrlDfqCSoSCTJiU2MWotAMEaT4jwzCegwd&q=hypnagogic%20
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=hypnagogic&safe=strict&hl=en-GB&biw=1280&bih=626&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMInJr3i_yMyAIVyz8UCh1SLwwP

Magic Symbols
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=magic+symbols&safe=strict&hl=en-GB&biw=1280&bih=626&site=webhp&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0CB8QsARqFQoTCNn0vc3_jMgCFaVq2wod2bUERA

Thought Forms
The following pics are from an important text by the title of Thoughts Forms by Annie Besant, and Charles Leadbeater

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=thought+forms+leadbeater+besant&safe=strict&hl=en&biw=1280&bih=626&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMIwZyW1I2cyAIVwr8UCh0pfA1T


E.Some Interesting Articles

The following link on so-called hyperreality may well have relevance to the above link, and to other aspects of the MDS project.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperreality

An interesting article on Kundalini
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundalini_Syndrome

The following link suggests that kundalini is largely safe if it is arounsed naturally. It is also a brief critique of the above kundalini link which appears to "overemphasise" the negative.
http://www.raviana.com/faq_125.html

The following link has links so to speak to certain key diagrams of planes of existence in the Radhasoami/Sant Mat Tradition.

http://santmat.livingcosmos.org/
The following maybe of interest, and was originally taken from the Kheper website, and put on Esoteric Other Worlds blog http://esotericotherworlds.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/how-real-and-objective-are-chakras.html

The original Kheper essay on MDS which appeared back in 2005.
http://kheper.net/essays/Multi-Dimensional_Science.html


F."Relevant" Articles.

All articles in this section are by Robert Searle.

I. The Two Inner Awakenings; A Personal Account.

Meeting Dr Sharma In London 1990.

Back in summer 1990, I met up with Dr Sharma also referred to as Manav Dayal a teacher of "Shabd Yoga" in the Faqir Chand tradition. I came across him via a contact, who claimed that it might be best to meet him at Heathrow Airport which was not far from where I lived at the time (ie Slough). This I did, and went to the correct arrival point for passengers. I had a sign with his name on it. The only pic I had of him was as a younger man, and it was not a particularly good reproduction. Anyway, I waited awhile as the passengers left the plane, and then I saw an Asian go towards a portly elderly man from the crowd of onlookers. He put a garland around the new arrival to Britain. This I knew to be a traditional gesture of respect to someone of importance, and I rightly guessed that it was Dr. Sharma being honoured. The Asian devotee though seemed taken aback by this as he could not understand how I could have known the identity of his guru....
Anyway, I talked briefly to Dr. Sharma, and for whatever reasons he mentioned something about psychic odours. Personally, I found this an odd subject compared with the high brow thinking of "Shabd Yoga", and Sant Mat. Indeed, I have to confess that I found Sharma to be somehow eccentric in manner.
After that, I drove down to Hammersmith, London to a certain address to meet him again for an interview I was doing for the magazine Yoga and Healing. Dr. Sharma was staying with some devotees, and I hardly got any questions out as he seemed to be intent in giving a long rambling intellectual discourse on Hindu mysticism. This was recorded ofcourse but unfortunately the tape was later lost. Anyway, he referred to Sant Mat as Sat Mat, or the Path of Truth, and regarded Beas Satsang as ".....being like an empire." He may well have got these two points from his own master Faqir Chand, and simply repeated them to me. He also gave the old traditional interpretation of the word Radha, and reversed it by repeating it as "Dhara, Dhara, Dhara,"......meaning spiritual current! At some point during the interview (or should I say discourse from Dr Sharma!) I thought I heard him say the following......"I do not know who is saying this. Some current is flowing through me.." or words to that effect. Again, I must stress the word "thought" of him saying this as I do not fully recall whether this actually appeared on the tape, or not! Maybe a trick of the mind........After all this, I had an informal chat with him. At one point, he left the room, and thereupon re-appeared, and said "I am your Satguru!" Later, we had a wonderful vegetarian lunch.
When I left to return to Slough in my car I had an extraordinary experience. I became aware of a power flowing through me. It was controlling me in the most NATURAL, and SPONTANEOUS manner. There was no fear of any sort involved. It was as if something truly wonderful had been re-discovered from ages past. This energy was incredibly subtle in a way that is difficult to describe. It was a super-tactile experience. No sounds, or lights, or anything similiar was had. It was a PROCESS of AWAKENING from the dream-like creation of the physical universe. Though I used the word "natural" just now in capitals it was somehow more than "natural". This experience went on for a long while. The following day after my encounter with Dr. Sharma I rang him about it. He commented to his surprise "......that it was happening already " (spontaneous initiation). However, I felt that this subtle energy seemed to be trying to "control" me too much, and I managed to break away from it. I would have loved the intensity of that experience to have continued but the problem was that I did not really take Dr. Sharma very seriously, and did not regard him as my real Satguru. Yet, as Jashan Vaswani once informed me that "THE REAL SATGURU IS WITHIN YOU" Oddly enough, this was what Faqir Chand claimed...that the physical master only acts as a catalyst for psycho-spiritual experiences. This was something I did not appreciate at the time.
Sadly, Dr. Sharma passed on several years ago, but the teachings continue through various lines of "masters".
Postscript. I should also said that at the interview Dr Sharma claimed that the Sound Om could be heard not just in the lower realm but also in the higher ones. A Sant Mat purist might well interpret this as indicative that his "version" of "Shabd Yoga"s did not lead beyond the planes of Kal, and Maya. Morever, it is not seen as the highest spiritual meditation, but seen as being one of many.

Meeting Sant Harjit Singh in Southall.

In January 2007 I made contact with Sant Harjit Singh. He is one of the recognized successors of Faqir Chand. Before actually visiting him in Southall I viewed his website, and on occasions listened to his mantric "music", or rather extracts of it to be more precise. It definitely carried a highly subtle energy, and helped to create a devotional "atmosphere" in me (ie. a heightening of conciousness).
What occured was a PROCESS largely identical to that experienced after visiting Dr. Sharma back in 1990. This could be suggestive that both teachers reached the same "highest", or "ultimate" level of superconciousness usually indicative of "God-Realization" though ofcourse there are an infinity of different "planes". The key features of the PROCESS OF AWAKENING are as follows.
i) An awareness that ones own inner lower self was being slowly transmuted into something else in the most NATURAL, and SPONTANEOUS manner. In other words, I was "dying" to gradually be reborn into a higher state of being......

ii) An awareness of being surrounded by the unseen energies of higher conciousness especially in the evening, and indeed, the morning.

iii) An awareness at times of being "possessed" in the most NATURAL, and SPONTANEOUS fashion by these extremely subtle "forces" without any sense of fear at all. Yet, there was something akin to awe by the growing onset of these experiences, and at times an overwhelming sense of gratitude. This was ones feeble response to the awakening process.

iv) An ability to spontaneously control, and dissolve any improper thoughts entering the mind.
v) A greater ability as never before to actually calm the mind without any mental chatter. In other words, I often became one-pointed with the repetition of the Five Holy Names in a wonderfully NATURAL way. I suspect the unseen energies were stilling my mind oftentimes to perform "real" meditation.
The above is all GRACE without which any kind of spiritual practice is virtually impossible. Infact, I am coming to the conclusion that a true Master of any degree should be able to successfully transmit such experienes irrespective of the evolution of the disciple. However, I suspect that it depends on ones sincerity for it to happen rather upon the amount of purity an individual soul may, or may not have.

Anyway, I met Sant Harjit Singh at his Southall home. Just before that, and earlier on at home in Slough I was acutely aware of energies of higher conciousness. When I arrived at Harjits home positive vibrations were virtually palpable, and inspiring. As I entered the front room I shook hands with him. He was dressed in orange, and wore a homemade turban if I recall correctly.
I explained I had some experiences before meeting him. I claimed that the higher conciousness which was trying to "posses" me in the most SUBTLE, NATURAL, AND SPONTANEOUS fashion was influencing my behaviour for the good. Submission to it was proving beneficial.
I mentioned being suddenly awoken in the bed when I felt a transmission of energy shoot right though me. This caused my body to jerk. Harjit claimed that this was something due to the (spiritual) heart though I did not fully understand what he meant by this.. I mentioned my contact with a certain Sound though this may well have been a trick of the mind.
Though I asked only a few questions, Harjit two, or three times asked "Can I go now?" as he was wanting to do some meditation upstairs. Admitedly, he did have some doubt about the genuiness of my experiences (though I did not fully describe them).
He also seemed to regard Dr. Sharma, the chief successor of Faqir Chand a little questionable too. This was evident in the way he spoke. Like many devotees of the latter Master the former was not liked particularly. However, Sharma did visit Harjit Singh on a certain occasion.
One thing that did clearly tanspire in the meeting was this. Harjit Singh clearly revealed that there was no set sequence of key planes as indicated in the Radhaswami literature. Indeed, such things were merely mental projections....nothing more.

Harjit Singh understandably wanted his exact address secret. The reason was that he wanted to make sure that whoever visited him was "genuine" in their desire for spiritual progress rather than someone who was merely interested in intellectual "games".

PS. Sometime before I met Harjit, and had the above experience a woman unknown to me used to say to me in the high street in Slough that "You will be reborn." At one point, I followed her into the mall, and asked for an explanation. It turned out that she was a Peruvian, and a spiritist. She believed to in reincarnation, and even suggested that I might have been her husband in one of her previous lives. What her strange statement of "You will be reborn" was probably a kind of prediction in which I would be reborn in the spiritual sense via my encounter with Harjit Singh.
Significantly, a link to my awakening process appeared on a yahoo forum. This was the forum connected with Harjit Singh which seemed to validate the genuiness of my experience. Morever, Mushin Schilling on his blog seemed to regard it as such, as it was probably like those of his group which had "awakenings".


II. Psycho-Electronic Connection Testing (PECT)

Ref Esoteric Other Worlds Blog, 2013

What is suggested here may seem strange. But if one understands the basic reasoning behind it then all should appear clear, and "obvious"..
...One important way to "prove" that there are such things as subtle energies from some form of psycho-spiritual universe is to actually experience them. This can happen via meditation (or indeed, via a "healing" session) in which degrees of a highly subtle bliss may be experienced, and visions even may be had. However, one way way to facilitate any "connection" may be through being in the prescence of some esoteric Teacher of any tradition. He, or she may give out "positive vibes". Depending on ones degree of sensitivity these can be picked up, and may even include visual phenomena such as seeing an aura, or coloured rays, et cetera. Such experiences with a Teacher may lead to some degree of "mystical" awakening. How long this awakening continues probably depends on the amount of purity, and genuine desire to seek self-unfoldment. This process is a spontaneous initiation. A Teacher may be willing to disclose some form of meditation which helps to enhance the awakening into something more permanent, and more purifying. Yet, some awakenings may involve an official initiation in which subtle energies may then be experienced. In India, just looking at the Guru to receive such inner experiences, or "Grace" is known as Mouna Upadesa, or Silent Initiation.
I, the originator of PECT had two awakenings from Dr, Sharma, and Sant Harjit Singh who belonged to the same lineage of the originating Master, Faqir Chand. The descriptions which I gave, and published in Thoughts, and Visions blog were almost identiical to one another but difficult ofcourse to describe completely. This seemed to be suggestive that both Gurus emanated from the "same" spiritual level of superconciouness.

Apart from this, for many years I associated myself with a sect known as Radha Soami Satsang Beas. This involved attending various spiritual meetings along with their rareified "atmosphere" or "energies" which probably increased my sensitivity to essentially positive "vibrations". What was later discovered when I had contact with Sant Harjit Singh in 2007 is that I became even more aware of waves of highly subtle energy.....notably via a landline telephone which seemed to be "less" effective than a mobile phone which ofcourse has no "wire" connections..

Anyway, a respected devotee of Harjit Singh, James Chagula also had a like experience, and probably others likewise.. It was as if the electronic transmission of the telephonic communication was not only transmitting physical energy but also uplifting psycho-spiritual energies at the sametime. This in turn lead to a raising of conciousness to a "high". However, the afteraffects of this awareness may last for sometime after communication with the Guru on the phone. It also appears too that just looking at a photo of some live, or dead Master may also stimulate "higher conciousness". It is suspected though that the voice transmited via electronic means is perhaps the most potent means to bring about "connection" But it must be said that what is experienced is probably in most cases a low grade form of higher energy.
Another bizarre thing happened when I started to realize that I could actually feel different grades of this subtle energy from various voice (and visual) recordings of Gurus,and other advanced Teachers on the internet. It seemed immaterial whether they were living, or dead. Their recorded words still carried energies which could transcend time, and space. Virtually no visual "phenomena" were involved.
A fascinating aspect to this which needs to be fully tested is to see if certain Adepts came from the same plane of superconciousness. Thus, one line of Teachers from one tradition teaching the same meditation practice should have the "same" energy as his, or her predecessor. If so, this could be suggestive of them being from the same plane of higher concioussness. Such a notion has already been mooted at in connection with Dr Sharma, and Sant Harjit Singh.. but is worth repeating. It indicates a degree of objective dynamics at work.

Creating PECT as a Structured System.

It should become obvious that such Psycho-Electronic Connection Testing, or PECT could be a structured system in which people could make deliberate attempts to contact energies via spiritual Teachers of one sort, or another. Such an approach may inspire those who are really keen for spiritual development to have their progress quickened possibly. Yet, as indicated this will be only temporary in most cases but at least it would be a step in the right direction.
The internet could play a major part in the development of PECT in which a series of Teachers, and/or advanced disciples could be filmed in real-time, or otherwise. People staring at them on their computer screens may receive experiences. This in the main may be super tactile as opposed to visual. Attempted discriptions of the resulting PECT experiences could be recorded, and compared at a "centralised" point of researchers in the network of internet users.

No doubt other ideas could be developed in the structuring of PECT. But the present should suffice....

.......On the internet somewhere (if it still exists) there was an image of guru, or yogi who claimed to cure illnesses just by looking at his picture.Whether anyone had any success at this at all is another matter, and could result in a placebo effect!
One is also reminded here that someone went to a healer, and later discovered through meeting him, or her that the "gift" of healing had been "transmited" to them. Incidently, feeling healing energies, or being "healed" is usually an easy, and quick way of experiencing "subtle energies". Unlike PECT though, none of this involved physical electrical energy as a "carrier" of psycho-spiritual energy save for the case of the guru, or yogi mentioned in the above.

Some "Relevant" Links.

The links below originated notably from my blog entitled Thoughts, and Visions. Here again, they do not deal with the use of electronic energy to facililtate human connection, but the matters discussed here may still be of relevance, and interest. Electrical energy, and its relationship with "psychic" energy is still esentially terra incognito from a more scientific point of view. http://thoughtsandvisions-searle88.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/meeting-dr-sharma-in-london-1990.htmlhttp://thoughtsandvisions-searle88.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/more-light-on-two-inner-awakenings.htmlhttp://thoughtsandvisions-searle88.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/anyone-can-feel-energies.html

The following is a copy of a section from the following link. http://thoughtsandvisions-searle88.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/religare-gurinder-and-beas-satsang-part.html

"...Depending on ones sensitivity when I have attended Satsang at Southall there is an intense concentration of the subtle energies of higher conciousness. This awareness I believe has been increased after my experiences with Sant Harjit Singh. What is significant is that this "sea" of higher energies does NOT come from the Satsangis alone. In other words, it may well have a divine source, or sources. I recall feeling this Power descending from the ceiling of the Satsang Hall in a most gentle, and spontaneous manner. Sometimes ofcourse one can see a white glow in some of the Satsangis themselves which is extremely subtle.
When I leave the Southall Satsang this higher energy of conciousness can be experienced in the wonderful park nearby. I also recall Sant Harjit Singhs energy not only in his house but also outside...and beyond ofcourse. This is a matter of personal experience, and I cannot prove it unfortunately...
Ofcourse, critics would say that the above is experienced in places like football matches, and pop music festivals...when the atmosphere becomes electric!! However, what I experienced (along with many others) is something far more than this. It is A POWER unlike anything of this world..."
The following link is of great interest in regards to PECT, and comes from a google discussion group, and it is clear that a devotee of Harjit Singh received "energies" via a telephonic conversation....to quote in brief ... ".......as I (James Chagula ) listened to the Saint's voice; a very tangible, warm, Love-energy began to seep directly from the telephone handset into my earlobe. The shakti (energy) then permeated my body and began to flood my mind................

Full text

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/alt.meditation.shabda/UlWFECaGFyU


III. A Spontaneous "Initiatory" Transmission....

Ref Esoteric Other Worlds, 2013

The blogger of this site has had a connection with the Teachings of Faqir Chand, and with one of his authorized successors, Sant Harjit Singh. The following is a brief account of one of the possible outcomes of being associated with an advanced mystical Path.


Sometime ago, I had real-time contact called "John" on the internet who seemed to be "fascinated" in a positve manner with myself. Anyway, he was trying to find someone, or some organisation which could rid him of certain re-occuring negative psychic experiences. I suggested that if he followed Sant Harjit Singh his problem might disappear. Indeed, just talking with the latter on the phone could lead to an awareness of protective spiritual energies. I suggested to John that these "energies" could have a healing effect, and possibly help "cure" him of his negative psychic experiences.

Around this point of the internet "conversation" I became pleasantly aware of changing into a higher state of conciousness. Simultaneously, I was aware of an "energy" along my head, and shoulders. It was as if it was creating this higher state of conciousness so that it could transmit some form of indescribable "energy". This was a highly subtle, and spontaneous experience. It was totally unexpected. The energy transmitted itself from the upper right side of my physical body. Just before this experience happened I tried to resist it but this resistence totally "dissolved" itself in my mind in the most unimaginably loving, and subtle way. It totally overcame my resistence into a state af total unconditional acceptance. Thus,I felt that there was nothing wrong at all with this spontaneous "initiatory" transmission...

I explained to John what had happened via our internet contact, and he seemed impressed. But it is not clear whether he experienced anything at the other end...possibly not, but the experience was real to me. However, I told him in no uncertain terms that if he thought I was somekind of bona fide spiritual guru he was sorely mistaken. I had no official authority to initiate anyone, and instead, he should contact Sant Harjit Singh, a real Master to perhaps get a genuine initiation (which is a spontaneous energy phenomenon).

It is interesting to point somethng out. In the Teachings of Faqir Chand it is revealed that the Guru is regarded as the physical manifestation of God. However, Chand claimed that he was not all-knowing. Thus, he was unaware of the experiences of his disciples in connection with him. He believed it was their belief, and faith in him that created inner, and outer "miracles." Thus, the "Faqir Chand" experienced by the disciples in meditation notably was infact a manifestation of their Higher Self. This also implies that even imperfect "gurus" could have the same effect on disciples, and yet, turn them possibly to their own worldly advantage. Indeed, they could even give something akin to a spontaneous initiatory transmission.......irrespective of whether they were aware of it, or not..

Important (PS)
A certain person who who undertook a form of meditation claimed that he saw a tv programme on Swami Muktananda a long time ago. At the time, he experienced Shaktipat (ie a spontaneous "initiatory" transmission) from the televisual image of this controversial guru. He had a few days of bliss, and then claimed that Muktananda "possessed" him for awhile. He felt as if he were this guru. However, this "possession" later ended.
In my case, when I was with Dr Sharma, another guru, I had the "initiatory" experience, but ultimately pulled away from his subtle energy transmission as It seemed to become more of a projection of his lower ego trying to "control" me. I did not experience this with Sant Harjit Singh.


IV. Some Light on Instant "Spiritual" Experiences.

The following is extracted from Esoteric Secrecy originally published online on the Kheper site

There are some mystical societies which claim that they can give instant "spiritual" experiences. Though such phenomena can be very encouraging for the disciple it does not mean that he, or she is any more special than anyone else in terms of spiritual growth. This is the key point to grasp. Depending on where one goes anyone can infact have an instant "spiritual" experience. I, the author for example once attended a Sahaja Yoga meeting in which the now controversial guru Mataji Nirmala Devi was presiding. She claims that the kundalini can be activated by following her instructions, and that it is not experienced as heat, but rather as coldness, and/or wind. In one of her meditational "exercises" I suddenly became aware of a "vortex", or whirlpool of "wind" from the top of my head. Other people claimed to have had the same thing, and it is interesting to point out that psychic depictions of this energy exist. At the time of the first initiation certain kriya yoga Teachers can make one aware of the kundalini going up, and down the spine. This instant spiritual experience can only continue if one is prepared to regularly undertake certain meditation practices which ofcourse are meant to be "secret". . for the disciple only. However, some spiritual teachers believe that such inner phenomena are really just tricks. This may well be true in some cases but surely not all. Sometimes due to past karmas, or actions (if we believe in reincarnation) one may across a specific mystical path, and may have an instant spiritual experience at the time of initiation, or even long before (eg. having a vision of seeing ones Master before physically meeting him or her). Back in 1990 when I had finished interviewing Dr. Sharma (a "Satguru" of Shabd Yoga, and a successor of Faqir Chand) I became aware of being surrounded by highly subtle invisible energies of higher conciousness. The whole process of being possessed by them was so natural, and so spontaneous. Postscript: I was once initiated "by mistake" into a Sufi sect headed by Sheikh Nazeem from Cyprus. At the Mosque I was suddenly surrounded by the "brothers" in their special robes, and hats. I was trapped I could not run away, and even if I did I felt it would be very rude of me. So, I just played along. Unfortunately, no instant spiritual experiences were involved.



V. Free Will, Reincarnation, and Karma

Ref Esoteric Other Worlds Blog, 2013


Introduction
The following essay is concerned with free will, and reincarnation. The idea of the former has been a thorn in the side of Western Philosophy for centuries. What we propose here is that free will probably does not exist. Yet, there may be a very limited form of it. With potential future advances in the emerging paradigm of Multi-Dimensional Science it may become possible to find out to what extent free will does, or does not exist. The same goes for reincarnation.

The Mind
In Eastern Philosophies notably, the individual Mind has sometimes been regarded as being a problem in the way of inner spiritual progress. It is seen often, or not as being like a machine, or a computer. Unfortunately, the Soul, or a lower manifestation of Its energies have been "entangled" with It. Thus, it can be seen that the Mind is essentially in control of the Soul. To gain an idea of how powerful it is, meditation, or attempting to meditate can often be impossible to begin with. The Mind behaves like a monkey continually active with any number of "unnecessary" inner thoughts. A set of phrases are usually required to help still the mental activity. But even then the task can be difficult, if not impossible for some.

Four Key Reasons Against The Existence Of "Free Will"

They are as follows:-
i) Most scientists, and philosophers tend to think that our Minds are largely, if not wholly deterministic in complex ways.
ii) Quite a number of Mystics such as Kabir, and Guru Nanak believed that free will is an "illusion."
iii) The Subconscious, and the Unconscious Mind in Western Psychology clearly suggests that we probably have no "real" free will.
iv) A claim made in neuroscience appears to indicate that our decision-making has its initial origins first in the Subconcious, and Unconcious Mind before it becomes a concious desire leading possibly to an action.


The Spiritual Will = Free Will?

It could be argued that the Spiritual Will is genuine free will because it is said to be unconditioned by anything. It is pure instantaneous Knowledge. It can be intuitive in which It can present knowledge inwardly without recourse to reasoning. On the other hand, the Mind can be conditioned positively, and negatively by the outer world, and by other factors.


Reincarnation.
The concept that we have lived many, many lives before is very ancient. Reincarnation, along with the Law of Karma (implying Action) is arguably the only explanation for the injustices of the world. Such "injustices" are due in the main to bad actions of a past life, or lives of an individual. Generally speaking, we have no memories of our previous birth, or births in the physical world. This is said to be a good thing as it might overwhelm us.
There is evidence to suggest that Christianity originally had reincarnation as a part of it teachings. But this was regarded as anathema by people in power who probably had little, or no real spiritual vision.
The mystical dimension of Islam is known as Sufism. Some of its sects also indicate that reincarnation exists.
Similiarly, Judaism may have had some belief in the doctrine of rebirth. This is indicated at times in the interpretation of the Kabbalah, or the Tree of Life.
Ofcourse, reincarnation plays a prominent part in Hinduism, and Buddhism. However, ideas may vary as to how reincarnation, and karma "work".
There is some serious scientific evidence suggestive of reincarnation. Here, we point to the often quoted work of Professor Ian Stevenson. This involved a huge number of cases of notably children who claimed to remember a past life, and often, or not, their obscure details of their previous family, and friends were proven correct. Furthermore, birthmarks appeared on certain persons which were "due" to certain types of death (eg. gunshot wounds) in a "previous life."

The Law of Karmic Justice

There are many examples of the possible "workings" of Karma. Here, are some such instances, but it must stressed that the brief examples here may be offensive.

i) A man is born blind, or develops blindness in early life. In a previous life he had blinded someone deliberately (ie Role-Reversal).
ii) A man is defrauded of the monies of his business by an accountant. In a previous life, he is the perpetrator of a like crime, and now becomes the victim in the present incarnation.
iii) Some children during a War in the Middle East are murdered by irresponsible soldiers. In a previous birth, or births, the children possibly in separate incidents did the same thing as adults.
Incidently, Spiritualists claim that children may grow up in the "Spirit World," and hence, complete their cycle of life.
iv) A child is abducted, and murdered by a perpetrator. In a previous life, the child is an adult, and committed the same offence as the perpetrator.
v) A woman in life A aborts a child she does not want. In life B she gives birth (or re-birth) to a child she wants but shortly dies afterwards.
Again, Spiritualists have claimed that sometimes a young soul "decides" after birth not to continue in the tiny physical form, and hence, leaves it for another.
Many other examples could be conjured up. Unlike the above, there could be "non-specific," or "blanket" causes(notably natural disasters) in which accumulated types of past karmas are paid off via varying degrees of suffering. However, some degree of remission may occur. This, too, may be dependent on "good" past karmas.
It is said a Guru, or some other non-Indian Teacher has the power to give remission, but the pralabdh, or fate karma has to be generally gone through. An example of this is the shortening of the duration period of a fated illness. To what extent this can occur, probably depends on the spiritual status of the Teacher.
Diseases, and disabilities of one sort, or another may also reflect the paying of certain kinds of actions of a past birth, or birth. The aim of all this (including the above) is not purely retributive, but meant to help achieve positive psychological changes within a person, and act as a goad towards greater spiritual evolution. Indeed, it has been claimed that people in the post mortem state may actually "choose" certain ailments, and/disabilities irrespective of whether they karmically deserve it, or not in the interest of spiritual "evolution".

So-called hypnotic regressions can throw some light on how karmas works. The psychic readings of Edgar Cayce is possibly a good instance of this, and the authoress Gina Cerminara wrote a number of eye opening books in connection with him, and his work. The Seth Material is also another interesting example of greater light on the matter.
As can be seen the subject of reincarnation, and karma is a huge, and indeed, complex subject. As such it is well beyond the scope of this essay.

A NOTE. The following section may require greater elucidation /RS

Creation
Many mystical traditions indicate that the purpose of our life is to re-discover who, and what we really are....the Higher Self, or the God Within which is meant to be our real Spiritual Being. The seemingly "endless" rounds of reincarnation aim to achieve this via the accumulation of more, and more good actions which takes us towards that Power. In other words, the increased positive conditioning of the individual Mind, and individual Will. In turn, this makes It more responsive, and agreeable to the Higher Power notably via some form of meditation.

At the "start" of creation since God, or the Higher Power could not separate Itself from Itself, parts of It could not help wanting to experience ItSelves in the lower worlds for the first time. Unfortunately, with further, and further reincarnations (into various living forms) It became more, and more under the sway of the Mind. As a result, It came to know more, and more of what suffering is, and what degrees of happiness are for the first time.
From the highest planes everything that has happened, or will happen in the lower planes already exists in a "timeless" Eternal Now....
...However, there may be a kind of progressive Spiritual Relativity. For example, if we enter plane A we may, or may not experience at some point the "past," and "future" of that plane. Then, we may enter plane B which is more subtle, more real, and more fantastic than plane A. Again, we may be able to see the "past", and "future" of this plane in a state of superconciousness. In other words, there could be an advanced non-physical form of what might be called "space-time" or Spiritual Relativity as mentioned.

Meditation

The aim of many forms of meditation is to connect in some way with the "Higher Self". The ultimate aim ideally is to achieve liberation from reincarnation, and attain the highest planes/levels of superconcious bliss where the desires for anything of this, and the next world are totally extinguished. This liberation is the ultimate purpose of human life. Through endless rebirths the Soul is largely imprisoned by the individual conditioned Mind, and through various objects, and people of this physical world It has been trying to find Real Happiness. Yet, to no avail as everything is temporary. Deep down It actually wants to return to the "highest" Regions to true, and lasting Bliss. Via the accumulation of good actions, or karmas, and Grace (unearned spiritual help) one may get help from the Higher Power via a living Guru, or by some other means (eg. an inner "Master").
In the following we list some basic aspects of the meditational experience. It does not pretend to be totally comprehensive, but it may be of some interest.

a) The Emergence of the "Higher Self."
With the correct practice of meditation one may experience a gradual emergence of a Higher Conciousness which can become part of ones Lower Self, and the individual Mind. Yet, It should have a growing control over ones thoughts, and can still them in an inner "sea" of internal Bliss.

b) Effort, inspires Subtle Inner Grace, Subtle Grace inspires Greater Effort

The likely reality is that we cannot by a sheer effort of our conditioned Mind, and our individually conditioned Will be able to transform ourselves into a better human being (unless there has been some positive conditioning in former lives). This requires the gradual subtle emergence of a Higher Power. It acts as Grace to inspire greater effort in meditation.
The idea of "I" doing spiritual practice is probably illusionary as it is only this Inner Power which inspires the Mind to carry on. Thus, if a guru says he, or she has been meditating for many years this in a sense is a huge lie, and deception. It is the Higher Power, or the "Higher Self" attempting to control the individual Mind, more, and more. Most, if not all the credit should go to this Power.

c) The Flow of Devotional Energy.
Ideally, the disciple, especially if he, or she has an outer living Master should carry out his, or her actions selflessly as if He, or indeed, She were physically present. This is very powerful, but one needs to be fully committed for any success to occur. One may experience at times the flow of intense ecstasy, and become aware of some of the impurities being "washed away" naturally, and spontaneously.

Some Serious "Ethical" Problems

If the individual conditioned Mind appears to largely control the Soul then this is an unnatural situation. Meditation can help bring about the reverse situation as already indicated. However, the success on this may depend on what ones spiritual connection is, be it a living outer Teacher, or even an inner One. Moreover, the progress "upward" into higher planes represent higher energies of the Spirit. The highest realms represent the more purer, and more subtler ones, and if one is connected with a Teacher (or indeed, the Higher Self probably) from that level, the degree of purification, and control of the Mind would be far better. Unfortunately, there is no "objective" way of ascertaining this situation.
The idea of the Mind as being largely conditioned raises powerful ethical considerations.

i) How can one be made liable to the punishments (or indeed rewards) of certain actions in this life? Evidence suggests that the "Soul" judges the Mind Itself via the life review in near death experience, and ofcourse after death itself. This is an absurdity in one sense, and arguably a form psychic entrapment as the Mind of the Soul feels guilt, and feels the need to make amends. In other words, the former has been "tricked" in the interests of "spiritual evolution".

ii) How can it be right if a person "can be made" to do wrong actions so that the victim receives his, or her "just desserts" from another life? In effect, it implies that the perpetrator is in a sense acting out a Play in which he, or she has to act "unwittingly" as an agent for the Law of Karma metering out "punishment(s)"? And if what someone did was right to ensure "punishment" for the victim it implies that the whole world of karmic credits, and debits is a highly "exact." If this were not so there would be no "real justice?" In other words, a set-up.
Yet, it may be perfectly possible that there are "injustices" which are not karmically caused by a previous life, or lives. Yet, they may have somekind of effect which helps to "cleanse" the individual psychically, and "spiritually".

iii) All this indicates something very important. Maybe we are meant to realize via experience that karma is a form of "sham" justice? In one sense, it appears right, but there is also another way of looking at it.

iv) If the Soul has been tricked by the conditioned Mind to suffer more,and more...why should It partake in reincarnation? After all the former is meant to be a part of God, or some Higher Power?

v) If it is largely, or wholly the Higher Power which can ultimately take us to the higher worlds, and not really our individual efforts then the whole thing can be seen as an elaborate "farce".

vi) Morever, if God, or the Higher Power is qualitively the same as the Soul then potentially It is the manifestation of the Supreme. But since the "beginning" of creation parts of ItSelf have trapped ItSelf in Its own creation in the process of experience. Again, if God ultimately equals Soul then at a simple whim It should be able to return to the highest planes were reincarnation does not exist irrespective of any bad actions, or karmas.
Yet, it is claimed that if one tried to do this in the post mortem state it would take alot longer as life is far easier. Thus, reincarnation into the physical world is "necessary" as life is a lot more difficult, and spiritual progress is much quicker.

A Form of Spiritual Compensation?

What we are suggesting now may seem fantastic. The creation of the visible, and invisible creation may be a "mistake" in part. At the "start" of creation,the Soul(s)(or "God") experienced the "need" to experience the degrees of difference between good, and evil in order to achieve an understanding of Itself, and Its Real relationship with Its own Creation. The seemingly only way to do this is to let the projected part of the Soul to be more, and more enslaved by the individual Mind (Lower energy). This could also be seen as an "educative deception," or a grave injustice (or "mistake" mentioned earlier). As ongoing "compensation" for this the Soul before, and after Its "death" may get greater Grace. If the Soul were totally responsible for Its karmas, or actions in the physical world this would not be the case, and It would suffer alot more.
Furthermore, the seeming "fact" that we,(our Selves, or Souls) have to go through "countless" rebirths probably suggests that our spiritual evolution is largely the outcome of "trial, and error." It may also indicate that we have little, or no free will, or else we could have arguably achieved spiritual liberation from reincarnation, and the lower worlds a longtime ago....simply by force of reason.
There are many aspects of this metaphysical subject which are beyond the scope of this essay. Anyway, it should be food for thought


VI. A Certain Ethical Problem in Esotericism


The following essay(2006)comes the Kheper website, and is similiar to the last metaphysical "discourse," .

This short "thought-piece" challenges the esoteric orthodoxy of many traditions. It centres on the concept, and likely reality of reincarnation, and the so-called law of karma, or "perfect justice". It is accepted without question especially in the Buddhist, and Hindu traditions.
Reincarnation is also the "only" real explanation for the so-called injustices of life itself. Yet, it is believed rightly, or wrongly that there is a fundamental "flaw" in it which undermines the need for the "continous necessity" of re-birth, and indeed, the law of karma itself. This can no longer be ignored, and needs to be openly discussed as never before. Here, we will just touch upon the key areas.....
1. Free Will, or Conditioned Free Will?

It is not our intention here to review the notion of free will in Western Philosophy. Most people though would agree that our thoughts, words,and actions are largely conditioned by our past. Pure unconditioned free will is largely, if not wholly "non-existent". As such the rewards, and punishments we receive in this life due to the present, or past actions of another former birth are in the main due to our mental conditioning.

2. Virtual Non-Awareness of Subconcious, and Unconcious Forces Moulding the Concious Mind.

The central ethical problem is this. Since we are largely unaware of what makes us decide the way we do then it becomes clear that "we" are not totally responsible for our actions. In various esoteric traditions it can be said that our (mechanical) mind is in control of the soul (both can be seen as independent "entities" which interact with one another). The injustice of this is that we are really unaware of this predicament, and how it so greatly influences us to do right, or wrong. How many times have we heard people say that "I did not mean to do it", or "I cannot help the way I am"?
Western, and eastern psychologies recognize this in their own ways. If we were fully aware of how, and why we do certain things, and were in true concious control then the law of karma would be rightly applicable. The opposite situation appears to be true, and makes a mockery of the resulting "justice". The question is why? There are esoteric answers but they do not seem to fully justify this situation as we shall shortly see.
Furthermore, with the possible future emergence of Multi-Dimensional Science we may well be able to find how much of our minds are conditioned from actions in this, and previous lifetimes. This could be undertaken via controlled experiments.

3. Four Basic Pro, and Con Arguments, and the Possible Interactions of the Higher Self.

Many psychic communications from the "lower planes" usually claim that "free will" exists. Man is seen as the concious architect of his destiny. However, when we come to great mystics such as the Sufi, and Christian ones (eg. Rumi, and Boehme) it would appear that "free will" is nothing but an illusion as perceived from the "higher planes" of Being. Everything is seen in this world, and the next as the outworkings of the Divine.
Anyway, let us see the key arguments for, and against what has so far been discussed.
1a) In order to achieve spiritual evolution (ie. learning via experience to try, and hopefully bring about higher virtues, and greater purification in ourselves from one life to another) people have no choice but to have a mind through which the soul has to somehow function. Reincarnation notably into the limited physical universe is the only way to do this.
2a) The above claim assumes wrongly that an almighty, and super intelligent God, or the Universal Power cannot come up with something far better, and much fairer to achieve spiritual unfoldment, and ultimately union with the Divine after seemingly endless incarnations. In other words, we do not have full justification for the present "universal" predicament.
1b) The amount of suffering via life after life is nothing compared with the infinite bliss, and final union with the Divine.Thus, whether the process is"unfair" in any way is largely immaterial.
2b) Again, this does not address the central ethical problem of human beings making, and paying off good, and bad actions which are largely the outcome of conditioned free will. This is naturally confounded by the seeming fact that we are unaware of the subconcious, and unconcious influences of our minds!
3a) It has been claimed that what we are discussing here is simply beyond the mind, and the reasons for it can only be understood intuitively.
3b) Many people would regard this "argument" as a cop out when perhaps we have not really thought, and/or researched hard enough. Yet, to be fair it would also be right to say that we cannot explain everything in esotericism by the mind as there are always worlds, and forms of knowledge which are totally ineffable.
4a) In certain hypnotic regressions into past lives, and especially what happens between lives it has been claimed that souls are usually given a plan for the next incarnation. Indeed, they may well agree to receive specific negative experiences (meant to be remedial rather than retributive) that may help them to "grow" more spiritually. These are usually the result of "their" past actions. More incredibly, certain "advanced" souls may "volunteer" to experience bad things for the ultimate aim of speeding up their progress towards total perfection (the ultimate goal of spiritual evolution via experience after "endless" rounds of rebirth. and probable union with the "Divine").
4b) From the general mystical perspective, lives on earth,and other planets are meant to be a means of learning via experience for the pressing need to develop greater, and greater spiritual qualities. This ofcourse can be an uneven path, and may result in a certain amount of spiritual "devolution".
An added dimension to this is the Higher Self which is our Pure Being working to a certain extent via the lower subtle bodies including the mind (ie. the mental body). It is the "God Within", and at the same time is part of the Infinite Power. It is who, or what we really are. Reincarnation is the way in which we re-discover our Selves. Since It can manifest ItSelf as our Chosen Ideal (eg. Christ, Krishna et al), and act as an inner guide before, or after death. It emanates from realms well beyond our limited understanding of time, and space.
In the light of what has been said the Higher Self may during the intermediate stage between births, and deaths may make the lower self, and lower mind accept certain future negative experiences to encourage spiritual growth. This whole process is laid bare in a state of superconciousness when one can see ones previous lives instantaneously, and objectively. It is then that we understand "everything". But is this really a full moral justification? Is it right that when one is incarnate that one is largely unaware of this arrangement if we had agreed to it conciously in the intermediate stage? Again, let us repeat ourselves is there not a better way of doing things? The answer we think is yea!
If what we have been discussing are part justifications rather than full ones it could perhaps even be argued that to a large degree reincarnation, and the so-called law of karma are "null,and void." In the physical world we could perhaps get legal recompense for such an "injustice!" In the spiritual one we have a different ball game. The person, or rather Being to be blamed ofcourse would be our own Higher Self which ofcourse to the limited vision, and understanding of our human mind is absurd! All the same, if our initial claim is indeed correct it should be possible to change things on the "other side" (or via controlled OOBEs, or meditation) with the help possibly of like-minded beings. It could be powerful bargaining counter for the lower mind, and self to achieve liberation from the wheel of births, and death (plus possible other matters) since the very ethical basis of this whole process of "evolution" is seriously in doubt.

4.Beyond the Mind, Beyond All Reason?

In a most bizarre fashion all that has been said for, and against this major ethical issue in esoterism is all correct. If we assume that the infinite psycho-spiritual universe consists of non-absolute truths then this would be possible, and "acceptable!" In other words, Esoteric Relativism.
On the other hand, the endless unseen realities would have absolute truths. Such Esoteric Universalism seems to be more "rational", and acceptable. Yet, it could be said that if the unseen (and indeed, the visible) universe is infinite then everything, and anything is, and can be possible. In effect, it goes beyond all reason which would be seen as the "ultimate(!)" limited illusion.
There are certain arguments which could be used in support for Esoteric Relativism,and they could include the following;-
i) Who created God? This is the classic question notably found in Western Philosophy. One answer is ofcourse is that He created Himself..... and we as the Higher Self are a part of It,and potentially It! This whole notion ofcourse defies reason...
ii) The universe in its "totality(!)" is probably infinite. This too defies reason because how can anything be limitless, and beyond our ability to imagine, and completely quantify in any "scientific" manner?
iii) In the "scientific" many worlds theory it is perfectly possible that parallel universes exist with an infinite number of alternate histories. Ofcourse, if correct this has some rather interesting implications for mysticism, and especially our claimed "unfairness" of the reincarnation process in connection with the mind, and conditoned free will.
No doubt we could present some more "evidence" that Esoteric Relativism could be the Absolute Reality so to speak. Whether it is, or not is largely unprovable by normal means, and will probably remain an Eternal Mystery. Yet, the claimed "unfairness" of reincarnation just mentioned would be fully, or partly justified in an infinite number of ways, and indeed, in an infinite number of worlds. This point was already expressed differently right at the start of this section of the present essay.
Indeed,there would probably be realities where reincarnation as a means of spiritual evolution would not exist. Again, such realities would inhabit countless numbers of different universes, and have their own kinds of "justifications." In the end the Truth cannot really be limited by finite reality but is boundless, and creative in any infinite number of ways both conceivable, and inconceivable to our limited mind, and vision.
What we have been reading here is very important. It can also be expanded by further debate, and research in the future. It is something which is well worth exploring.

VII The Anatomy of Thoughts

Ref Thoughts, and Visions Blog, 2011

The following is an extract from another article which may be of interest, and relevance.
.......I began to develop a questionaire about thought structure, and contents of the human mind. Unfortunately, I do not have a copy of it. But I can give some idea of the questions presented....
1. Do your thoughts appear visual most of the time?
2. If you close your eyes, and see an image what is the appearance of its surrounds. Is it fuzzy? Is it grainy? Is it firelike? etc
3. Does the surround of your image change, or not? If so, what shape manifests itself?
4. Do you feel thoughts as images enter different points of the human body? Do your thoughts of love for example enter the heart area? Do mainly intellectual thoughts enter the top the head....et cetera.
5. Do you sense thoughts sometimes enter your head as if they were "disembodied" energies? (Here, the notion is like question 4) For example, people sometimes say that a thought just struck them, or it just came into their mind out of the blue...and so on.
The above are just some examples of the thoughts questionaire.
A member of the Slough Writers Group called Miss Portsmouth actually undertook answering the questions. She found it very interesting, and incidently, she was studying psychology! She gave some intriguing answers but unfortunately I do not have a record of it.
In occult circles "thoughts are things". I recall once doing a telepathic experiment with a friend. The latters thought with the actual word sent was seen by my minds eye as it flashed into my head.
I recall too when I was in a watch repair workshop which was close to East Berks College in Windsor, that I was gaining a strong mental rapport with a friend, Steven Stroud. All of a sudden I was aware for a few seconds of a coloured "field" of energy connecting me with him in a kind of telepathic link.

PS Sir Francis Galton was apparently the first known person to actually create something like the thoughts questionaire mentioned above.


VIII. Brief Introduction to Key Indian Esoteric Societies

From the Kheper site

The following is a brief listing of 17 Indian esoteric societies. They represent the key ones which Westerners have come across, and have become influential to varying degrees. There are of course many other ones which are largely, or wholly unknown. Most of them do not have any formal organization at all, and as such we will probably hear nothing about them, or their "background".
This though for a truth-seeker is largely unimportant because the informal "societies" ( if such they can be called) largely teach types of meditation that are already known to the key ones in the 17 given below.

1. The Ramakrishna Mission.
Regarded as arguably being the first Indian society, or movement to seriously introduce mainstream yogic meditation practices, and Vedanta to the West. This occured through the pioneering work of Swami Vivekananda who succeeded Ramakrishna as the chief guru. He tried to present it as being like a "science" rather than purely as a faith in which the unseen spiritual universe could be proved directly to oneself along with the superconcious realization of "God".
http://belurmath.org/

2. The Divine Life Society.
This was started by the highly influential Swami Sivananda who wrote many authorative works on various types of yogic meditation. His chief successor was the noted Swami Chidananda who was a highly respected mystic of great influence. Ma Yogashakti, and Vishnu Devananda are a few notable teachers who drew their inspiration from the life and work of Swami Sivananda.
http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/

3. Ramana Maharshi.
He taught a form of yogic (jnana, or knowledge) meditation in which one could find ones Inner God, or "Higher Self" through a form of "self"-discrimination. His ideas became known in the West, notably through the writings of Arthur Osborne. As with the other societies mentioned here there are a number of recognized, and unrecognized successors.

http://www.kheper.net/topics/gurus/Ramana_index.html

4. Sri Aurobindo Society.
Sri Aurobindo was a highly educated, and brilliant spiritual teacher who developed Integral Yoga via his published writings.It claims that one can become a channel for the Divine which can be experienced in the physical world, and at the same time help to spiritually transform it. His partner Mira Richard helped his movement to flourish, and was known respectively as the Mother. Auroville in Pondicherry, India is a large evolving "New Age" township of people concerned with putting Integral Yoga into action.
Among many other subjects, Sri Aurobindo himself also wrote some interesting ideas concerned with dream interpretation. He was also originally a political activist who wanted Self-Rule for India but his interest later turned to higher matters especially after some visionary experiences.

http://www.kheper.net/topics/Aurobindo/index.htm

5. Siddha Yoga Dham.
This society was inspired by the controversial Swami Muktananda whose practices notably involve chanting mantras, or words of power as a way of awakening the psycho-spiritual energy known as kundalini. He also wrote a remarkable book in which he gave a highly detailed description of his inner experiences. It is called Play of Conciousness, and it has been claimed to initiate "awakenings" in people who are new to Siddha Yoga Dham.
http://www.siddhayoga.org/

6. Sahaja Yoga.
This was founded by Mataji Nirmala Devi who is able to awaken the kundalini directly in people either "en masse," or on a one to one basis. She claims that this is experienced as a "psychic" wind rather than as "heat". The latter phenomenon it is claimed only happens to those gurus, and students who "misuse" the Kundalini which appears at first sight to contradict centuries of tradition, and understanding on the subject!

http://www.kheper.net/topics/gurus/Mataji.htm

7. Ananda Marg.
This society was founded by the controversial Anandamurti who believed that the world could be seriously transformed with the aid of kundalini which could create something akin to a "super-race" existing in proposed "anti-capitalist" type communities. It has also has involved itself in politics, and has notably been "persecuted" by the Indian government.
http://www.anandamarga.org/

8. The Brahma Kumaris, or BKs.

This large organization teaches "RajaYoga" meditation but is not the same as Patanjalis system, and claims to get messages en direct from Shiv Baba, or "God". Like some Christian sects it believes that its followers will be reborn into a Golden Age on earth after the world as we know it has been largely destroyed.
The BKs, or "Raj Yogis" have tried to do much good in the world, and have helped to raise the social status of women in India.

http://www.brahmakumaris.org/

9. Shiva Yoga.
This form of meditation was notably expounded by Kumarswamiji, and has had some influence in the West. It involves meditating on the lingam (in this instance an egg-shaped object, and symbol of Lord Shiva) which along with repetition of a mantra can arouse the kundalini into activity, and lead to "Enlightenement", or "God-Realization."

http://www.shivayoga.net/

10. Transcendental Meditation/TM.
This was introduced to the world by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi notably with help from the Beatles. Essentially via a "mantra" ones thoughts can be ultimately traced back to their origin which is seen as the Ground of Being of Everything in Existence (ie. the "Absolute Reality," or "God"). This ofcourse is Transcendental Meditation, or TM the physical, and mental benefits of which have been studied scientifically. It along with its worldwide organization has drawn much public attention especially its "yogic flying" which is said to release positive collective spiritual energy to influence the world for the good (eg. reducing crime....).

http://www.tm.org/

11. International Society for Krishna Conciousness/ ISKCON.
Very well-known Indian society which claims that repeating the Holy Name of Krishna can link directly to the Supreme Personality of the Godhead. Unlike most Indian societies it does not believe that its recognized teaching "gurus" are the physical manifestations of God.
Sri Prabhupada in his seventies left India virtually penniless to start up ISKCON in America, and helped many of the youth to adopt a high ethical life free of drugs, and alcohol. He also wrote many interesting, but "simplistic" books on Krishna, and the ancient Vedic scriptures.

http://iskcon.org/

12. 3HO Yogi Bhajan.

It involves a wide variety of meditational, and physical exercises to awaken the kundalini into activity. The 3 HOs mean Healthy,Happy, and Holy Organization. Yogi Bhajan its original teacher was among other things responsible in helping to popularize genuine interest in Sikhism, and like ISKCON (and other "movements") helped to reform many young people.

http://www.3ho.org/

13. Shivabalayogi.
After many years of austerity Shivabalayogi introduced to the world his dhyana, vibuhti, bhajan, bhava samadhi, or respectively his meditation, holy ash (said to have healing powers), spiritual songs, and divine trance. The last item can be facilitated by "energy" emitted from one of the successors of this tradition. During spiritual songs some, or indeed, many people can enter into a trance, and temporarily leave the body in a state of higher conciousness, and see their Ishta Dev, or Chosen Ideal (eg. Christ, Shiva, etc), and become "possessed" ecstatically by It).
http://shivabalayogi.org/

14. The Self-Realization Fellowship.
This society was originated by the "ageless", and "mythical" Mahavatar Babaji. The specific line of Masters in the Self-Realization Fellowship included the illustrious Sri Yukteswar whose chief successor was Paramahansa Yogananda. They taught Kriya Yoga which involves the awakening of kundalini via a series of initiations, or "grades" of development using a variety of meditation techniques... which tend to vary from one "sect" to another teaching the "same system" with the same name!
Yogananda took this teaching to the world to much acclaim, and authored the classic book on the subject "The Autobiography of a Yogi"
http://www.yogananda-srf.org/

15. Osho Shree Rajneesh.
Controversial Osho Shree Rajneesh was a very prolific author of books especially concerned with mysticism.Essentially,he belived that "anything goes" including sex. By indulging in it we could ultimately go beyond it, and attain "Enlightenment". In other words, a form of Tantra Yoga.Moreover, his ideas, and his meditational practices notably included "Western pop psychology" in which via certain forms of pent-up emotions (eg crying, wild laughing, etc) could be released in a structured manner (eg in Dynamic Meditation) so that they could no longer ultimately become a problem in life.

http://www.osho.com/

16. The Meher Baba Association.
Meher Baba regarded himself as the "Highest of the High, the first Perfect Master, or Avatar". He went through several phases of his "Universal Work", and became well-known in India, and abroad. From July 10th 1925 he maintained silence, and communicated via an alphabet board, and special hand gestures.

http://www.kheper.net/topics/Meher_Baba/index.htm

17. The Radhasoami Faith / Sant Mat, or the Teachings of the Saints. This believes that one can "die before death" in a meditation referred to as surat Shabd Yoga. It claims to have a "complete" understanding of the Spiritual Regions, and claims rightly, or wrongly to go beyond the reach of all other forms of eastern, and western meditation practices. This inner journey involves guidance from the Radiant Form of a Master, and utilizes the inner mystical Sound, and indeed, the inner Light as a means of visionary "ascension," or Mystic Transport.
The best known "movement" to spread Surat Shabd Yoga especially in the West is the Radha Soami Satsang Beas notably via the classic book The Path of the Masters (1939) by Dr. Julian Johnson. Ofcourse, other groups exist each with their own teacher, or Satguru, or Perfect Master.
http://www.kheper.net/topics/Sant_Mat/index.html

There are a number of other gurus/socieites which have been excluded for one reason or another. They include Guru Maharaj, Sathya Sai Baba, Jashan Vaswani, Amritanandamayi, Swami Ramdas, Gururaj Ananda Yogi, Shri Chinmoy, Brahmarishi Kumar Swami, et al..........


IX. Auras and Mark Smith

The following extracts come from a fascinating book entitled Auras; See Them In Only 60 Seconds. It was written by Mark Smith, and he reveals on odd occasion the "objective" nature of the Auras. In other words, they are not purely projections of the imagination, but are something more. Such evidence came about in Smith's Workshops for his students. However, a far more "scientific" approach (ie.Multi-Dimensional Science)is needed to gather such data on Auras, and other related phenomena.


Auras in a Box
Ref Thoughts and Vision Blog (edited)
"..................the shape of the aura is related to certain professions as well. Unusual, for all but engineers, is the square, or box halo.

One of the most dramatic examples of a box halo was witnessed by an entire class, as I had them write down what they saw without any prior commentary on my part. This person had a perfectly square aura, which extended laterally out the left side of the head and was dark blue in colour. As the classs began to see it murmurs and exclamations could be heard throughout the room. I shushed them and told them to draw or write about what they saw.

Fully three-quarters of the nearly sixty people in the room had drawn the box coming out the left side of the head and written that the colour was blue or violet. There was no surprise when the subject said he was the head of an architectural firm in Washington. He certainly had geometric shapes firmly in mind that night!"

P 50

".......The triangle, or dunce cap, is far less rare but also somewhat unusual. This was seen numerous times in class and usually seems to be either golden or violet/purple in colour. No pattern of lifetstyle or professional association is apparent, although some subjects report higher than normal awareness of spiritual matters, or psychic phenomena.

I have been told by some of my students that I appear on occasion to have a triangular light above my head, or sometimes rays of light pointing up in a wedge shape or inverted triangle. The triangle shape is most often in my auric field when I'm rested and unstressed, frequently right after an extended prayer or meditation period. Colours seem more vibrant at the time as well, tending toward bright yellow or gold in the etheric(inner) aura and purple in the astral (secondary) field.

Standing in front of the class, breathing deeply and thinking loving thoughts, I can feel the warmth spreading throughout my body, with a tingling sensation shooting up my spine, energizing my hands and head. As this rush of energy develops, some members of the class will start to remark about shapes or rays of golden or silver light seen extending far above and around my body. When the feelings start to subside, often someone will remark at that moment how the "light has been turned off", and the the aura changes shape or colour and reverts "back to normal". Whatever that is." P 51-52

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2oa1ITiripQC&pg=PR11&lpg=PR11&dq=auras+mark+smith&source=bl&ots=hYwgT4NuQc&sig=e6JlWLlVFaLcea2BxTt6R6RsPHI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Vy2QVJrTBcjyUp-wgJAM&ved=0CFQQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=auras%20mark%20smith&f=false


X. Islamic Explorations of Consciousness

Theories of Occult Radiation

One of the greatest Arab occult scholars was Ya'kub ibn Sabbah al Kindi who died in 873 A.D. and is simply known as Alkindi. He translated the works of Aristotle and other Greeks into Arabic, and wrote books about philosophy, politics, mathematics, medicine, music, astronomy and astrology. He developed his own very detailed philosophy based on the concept of the radiation of forces or rays from everything in the world. Fire, color and sound were common examples of this radiation. Alkindi was quite careful to distinguish between radiation that could be observed through the science of physics -- due to the action of objects upon one another by contact -- and radiation of a more hidden interaction, over a distance, which sages perceive inwardly. Radiant interactions were for him the basis of astrology. Human imagination, was capable of forming concepts and then emitting rays that were able to affect exterior objects. Alkindi claimed that frequent experiments have proven the potency of words when uttered in exact accordance with the imagination and intention. Favorable astrological conditions were capable of heightening these "magical" effects. Furthermore, the rays emitted by the human mind and voice became the more efficacious for moving matter if the speaker had his mind fixed upon the names of god or some powerful angel. Such an appeal to higher powers was not necessary however when the person was attuned to the harmony of nature (or in Chinese terms, the Tao). Alkindi also advocated the use of magical charms and words:
The sages have proved by frequent experiments that figures and characters inscribed by the hand of man on various materials with intention and due solemnity of place and time and other circumstances have the effect of motion upon external objects. He further recognized that humanity's psychic vision is heightened when the soul dismisses the senses and employs the formative or imaginative virtues of the mind. This happens naturally in sleep. Unfortunately, the details of the experimental techniques of Alkindi and his associates have not been handed down. Nevertheless he does deserve credit as an important pioneer. One of the most sophisticated critics of psychic phenomena, a contemporary of Alkindi, was Costa ben Luca of Baalbek who wrote an important work on magic called The Epistle concerning Incantations, Adjurations and Suspensions from the Neck. In this document he strongly asserts that the state of one's consciousness will have an effect on their body. If a one believes a magical ritual or incantation will help, one will at least benefit by his or her own confidence. Similarly, if a person is afraid magic is being used against him, he may fret himself into illness. Ben Luca did not accept the notion of the occult virtues of stars or demons but did admit that strange phenomena were possible and would one day be understood. He listed a number of ancient magical techniques and maintained these were useful in treating people who felt they were enchanted. Although both Alkindi and ben Luca lived in Arab countries and wrote in Arabic, neither of them were Moslems. Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam was essentially an historical religion with primary emphasis on the law. Yet within Islam the perennial philosophy was maintained by the Sufi mystics who were often persecuted.

References . Lynn Thorndike, op. cit., Vol. I. p. 643. . Ibid.

Ref Roots of Consciousness by Geoffrey Mishlove http://www.williamjames.com/Intro/CONTENTS.htm


Final Notes.

Some bio-data http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Robert_Searle
The above link also includes sections of articles published onsite, and links to other articles which may be of interest.

Reassembling the Lost Library of a 16th-Century Magician Who Spoke to Angels

$
0
0

 


by Allison Meier on January 18, 2016/ Hperallergic
Fold-up geometrical illustrations in the first English edition of Euclid’s Elements of geometry, published London, 1570. John Dee wrote a mathematical preface to the book. Credit: ©Royal College of Physicians
Fold-up geometrical illustrations in the first English edition of Euclid’s ‘Elements of Geometry,’ published London, 1570. John Dee wrote a mathematical preface to the book. (© Royal College of Physicians)
The 16th-century John Dee was a magician in the court of Elizabeth I, a man who had conversations with angels, an astrologer once imprisoned for predicting Queen Mary Tudor’s death through her horoscope, and a spy. He signed his coded name as 007, a sign-off which later inspired Ian Fleming’s character James Bond. Despite this litany of lore, much of the real life of John Dee remains a mystery, one which researchers are helping to unravel with the reassembly of his library.
A rotating paper volvelle used as a cipher disc in Johannes Trithemius’ cryptographic book Polygraphy, published Paris, 1561. This book was owned by John Dee. Credit: ©Royal College of Physicians
A rotating paper volvelle used as a cipher disc in Johannes Trithemius’ cryptographic book ‘Polygraphy,’ published Paris, 1561. This book was owned by John Dee (© Royal College of Physicians)
Scholar, Courtier, Magician: The Lost Library of John Dee opens today at the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) in London. It features 47 volumes chosen from the 100 books that survive from his massive library on the esoteric, and for the first time since his death in 1609, reunites them with some of his curious possessions. These include a crystal ball used for spirit conversations and his “magic disc” for messaging the angels, both in the British Museum’s collection, and his “scrying mirror,” from London’s Science Museum, used to see into the future. Along with his books, that focus on math, philosophy, and history, as well as more mystical texts on astrology, cryptography, and alchemy, Dee’s objects represent his fervent search for knowledge both scientific and occult.
“Today we tend to think of magic as being something quite separate from, indeed the exact opposite of, science,” Katie Birkwood, rare books and special collections librarian at the Royal College of Physicians and The Lost Library of John Dee curator, told Hyperallergic. “In Tudor England, the distinctions between magic and natural philosophy — as the subject we now think of science would have been termed then — were not nearly so clear cut. A keen interest in subjects such as mathematics could sometimes be seen as threatening and magical to Tudor eyes.”
Lost Library of John Dee Books (courtesy RCP and John Chase)
“Lost Library” of John Dee books (courtesy RCP and John Chase)
According to Birkwood, by “the early 1580s, John Dee had amassed one of the largest and richest libraries in England, said to number some 4,000 volumes.” When he left England in 1583 to travel to Europe to seek patronage, he left most of the books with his brother-in-law, Nicholas Fromond. “Unfortunately, shortly after Dee left England, his library was raided by various people; Fromond was most probably complicit in the thefts,” Birkwood explained.
John Dee's crystal, used for clairvoyance and for curing disease (courtesy Science Museum, London / Wellcome Images)
John Dee’s crystal, used for clairvoyance and for curing disease (courtesy Science Museum, London / Wellcome Images) (click to enlarge)
One of these raiders was Nicholas Saunder, who scribbled his own name over Dee’s, or tried to bleach it away in some books. Birkwood stated that it’s here that “the story gets a little murky,” as it’s known around 160 of Dee’s books became part of the library of Henry Pierrepont, Marquis of Dorchester, although it’s not clear how they arrived from Saunder — just that it’s “for certain that Dorchester had the books by 1664, when a catalogue of his library was completed.” As Dorchester was the first honorary fellow of RCP, after he died in 1680, his library became part of the institution, where the books have stayed ever since.
So while the books on view were never “lost,” Dee’s connection, and especially the inclusion of his occult objects, is something being emphasized in this exhibition for the first time. Much of the research for The Lost Library of John Dee focuses on annotations in his books, where he marked important passages, scratched out horoscopes, mused on alchemy, and even chronicled some biographical information.
The books also represent the complications of practicing magic in Tudor England, where it was both sometimes accepted, but often dangerous. Dee had a copy of a treatise by the Italian astrologer and physician Cardano, with horoscopes alongside biographical information about himself, his family, and a patron, yet it was the 1555 horoscope calculation for Mary I that got him arrested.
“Astrology, an arguably magical practice, was widely used at the time by people of all social status,” Birkwood stated. “However, it did not occupy a stable position in society. An astrologer — someone adept at measuring, plotting and interpreting the positions of the stars and planets — could be viewed with suspicion, hostility and fear because it could be felt that their knowledge and skills gave them access to too much information about people and events.”
Later, he did become the conjuror to Queen Elizabeth I, and his legacy is now a magician who fused scientific knowledge with a curiosity about the supernatural, a delicate balance of two sides of the Tudor age.
John Dee Ashmolean Portrait (artist unknown) (1594) (© Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford)
John Dee Ashmolean Portrait (artist unknown) (1594) (© Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford)
Claude Lorrain mirror in shark skin case, believed at one time to be John Dee's scrying mirror. (courtesy Science Museum, London / Wellcome Images)
Claude Lorrain mirror in shark skin case, believed at one time to be John Dee’s scrying mirror. (courtesy Science Museum, London / Wellcome Images)
Henry Gillard," John Dee performing an experiment before Queen Elizabeth I" (1913) (courtesy Wellcome Library, London)
Henry Gillard Glindoni,” John Dee performing an experiment before Queen Elizabeth I” (late 19th century) (courtesy National Gallery, London/Wellcome Library, London)
A small pointing hand — known as a manicule — drawn in the margin of a book of classical rhetoric, owned and heavily annotated by John Dee. (Quintilian, 'Institutionum oratoriarum,' published Lyon, 1540) (© Royal College of Physicians / Mike Fear)
A small pointing hand — known as a manicule — drawn in the margin of a book of classical rhetoric, owned and heavily annotated by John Dee. (Quintilian, ‘Institutionum oratoriarum,’ published Lyon, 1540) (© Royal College of Physicians / Mike Fear)
A ship sweeps on the waves at the corner of a page of the complete works of Cicero. John Dee was likely inspired by the adjoining lines of verse: "So huge a bulk glides from the deep with the roar of a whistling wind / Waves roll before, and eddies surge and swirl / Hurtling headlong, it snorts and sprays the foam." (Cicero, 'Opera,' published Paris, 1539–1540) (© Royal College of Physicians / John Chase)
A ship sweeps on the waves at the corner of a page of the complete works of Cicero. John Dee was likely inspired by the adjoining lines of verse: “So huge a bulk glides from the deep with the roar of a whistling wind / Waves roll before, and eddies surge and swirl / Hurtling headlong, it snorts and sprays the foam.” (Cicero, ‘Opera,’ published Paris, 1539–1540) (© Royal College of Physicians / John Chase)
A horoscope chart jotted by John Dee in the margin of an ancient treatise on the power and influence of the heaves. (Claudius Ptolemy, 'Quadriparti,' published Venice, 1519) (© Royal College of Physicians / John Chase)
A horoscope chart jotted by John Dee in the margin of an ancient treatise on the power and influence of the heaves. (Claudius Ptolemy, ‘Quadriparti,’ published Venice, 1519) (© Royal College of Physicians / John Chase)
Two attempts at a horoscope chart, drawn in haste by John Dee in the margins of a book about astrology. (Girolamo Cardano, 'Libelli quinque,' published Nuremberg, 1547) (© Royal College of Physicians / John Chase)
Two attempts at a horoscope chart, drawn in haste by John Dee in the margins of a book about astrology. (Girolamo Cardano, ‘Libelli quinque,’ published Nuremberg, 1547) (© Royal College of Physicians / John Chase)
A sketch of alchemical equipment — an alembic — drawn and signed by John Dee in the margins of an alchemical treatise. (Petrus Bonus (attrib), 'Introductio in divinam chemiae artem integra,' published Basel, 1572) (© Royal College of Physicians / Mike Fear)
A sketch of alchemical equipment — an alembic — drawn and signed by John Dee in the margins of an alchemical treatise. (Petrus Bonus (attrib), ‘Introductio in divinam chemiae artem integra,’ published Basel, 1572) (© Royal College of Physicians / Mike Fear)
John Dee exhibtion
Doodles by John Dee in the margins of Cicero’s work ‘De legibus,’ relating to the worship of gods, and the Persian king Xerxes setting fire to Greek temples. (Cicero, ‘Opera,’ published Paris, 1539–1540) (© Royal College of Physicians / Mike Fear)
John Dee's doodle of three bearded faces in the margin of a treatise on alchemy (Arnaldus de Villanova, 'Opera,' published Venice, 1527) (© Royal College of Physicians / Mike Fear)
John Dee’s doodle of three bearded faces in the margin of a treatise on alchemy (Arnaldus de Villanova, ‘Opera,’ published Venice, 1527) (© Royal College of Physicians / Mike Fear)
Scholar, Courtier, Magician: The Lost Library of John Dee continues at the Royal College of Physicians (11 St Andrews Place, Regents Park, London) through July 29 . 

Odd Truths: The Magic Mirror

$
0
0

 

http://www.thethinkersgarden.com/about-the-thinkers-garden/#.VqjbCVLTHcs

Throughout our lives, we spend countless hours in front of mirrors. Arguably one of our mot indispensable accessories, mirrors give us the means to supervise the often meticulous routine of fashioning ourselves before we leave the house. In some circumstances however, these everyday objects can become tools for other kinds of activities.
Vanitas by Jacob de Gheyn II. The inscription above the mirror reads: 'Human Vanity'
Vanitas by Jacob de Gheyn II. The inscription above the mirror reads: ‘Human Vanity’
On Halloween for example—according to some folkloric traditions—wishful lovers can see future partners while holding a mirror as they walk backwards, eat an apple, or comb their hair. In the American urban legend of Bloody Mary, one can also perform an amateur summoning by pricking one’s finger, closing one’s eyes, and shouting Bloody Mary a number of times. In fantasy film and literature, mirrors have elucidating or even magical properties and can serve as revealers of supernatural presences (Dracula), portals to other worlds (Through the Looking Glass), and as reflectors of the desires of one’s soul (Harry Potter).
The Greek Magical Papyri
The Greek Magical Papyri
Much of the mirror lore we have probably derives in part from the historical uses of mirrors for divination and spirit evocation; practices that go all the way back to ancient times. In Greece, diviners would use bowls filled with water to enter a state of altered consciousness where they would claim to be able to see images of dead loved ones, demons, and even gods themselves. The effectiveness of dramatic procedures such as this could be improved with incense, lamps, and ritual fasting.
The Crystal Ball, John William Waterhouse (1902)
The Crystal Ball, John William Waterhouse (1902)
In the Middle Ages, various manuals provided instructions to construct personalised magical mirrors. The 11th century Arabic treatise Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm (translated into Latin in the 13th century as The Picatrix) has a section in which the owner of a specially prepared mirror is praised as having the power to control the weather and command humans and demons (pp. 210-11). The Renaissance Munich Manual of Demonic Magic, which was partially republished by Northwestern University professor Richard Kieckhefer, also includes ‘recipes’ for magical mirrors. ‘The Mirror of Floron’, one of the many types of mirrors mentioned in the grimoire, is described as being made of polished steel, inscribed with the names of angels, and anointed and fumigated with a variety of spices and oils such as balsam and frankincense. If the mirror was designed correctly, the conjuror would see a knight in armour appear on the surface who would answer all of his questions. Similarly, famed scryer, Dr. John Dee and his long-time assistant Edward Kelley used mirrors as well as crystals for a series of experiments to communicate with angels.
magic mirror1
New scrying techniques were advocated in the 19th century by American esotericist Paschal Beverly Randolph. Randolph, who claimed that he had been contacted by various schools of enlightened initiates during his travels in Egypt and the Turkish Empire, believed that magic mirrors had to be ‘magnetically charged’ by specific bodily fluids. His system was later adopted and expanded upon by the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, an occult society that was a contemporary of Helena Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society. The Brotherhood unveiled its method in its Laws of Magic Mirrors. The work is probably one of the most practical guides due to its explicit and lengthy instructions on the preparation of the seer’s psychological state as well as advice on how the mirror should be cleaned and maintained. The intriguing text can be found here.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
The history of mirror-gazing is as complex and bizarre as the individual histories of its proponents, and that is perhaps one of the reasons why the more peculiar aspects of the practice have been retained to a lesser degree in modern folklore and superstitions. Nevertheless, the visionary experience of trance and other meditative states are still important components of Western occultism. A famous quote in the classic esoteric novel Zanoni reads: ‘Be it so, man’s first initiation is in trance’.  In this manner, mirrors—as hypnotic devices which may facilitate the imaginal embodiment of entities and characters from one’s own ego—endure as valuable instruments for spiritual and psychological insight among followers of many forms of religious philosophies.

Beyond the Physical......

$
0
0

He claims to have traveled outside his body to bring back art… and much more |297|


Jurgen Ziewe used lucid dreaming to travel outside of his body and explore other realms of consciousness.

photo by: Jurgen Ziewe



I always thought lucid dreaming was baloney, until I had one myself. For several years my oldest son had told me about the wild escapades he orchestrated in his dreams. But Zack’s stories sounded like childhood fantasy, and I didn’t pay much attention.  Then, I discovered  lucid dreaming had become a hot topic among dream researchers and those attending weekend retreats “teaching” lucid dreaming.  I decided to try it for myself.
As it turns out the most effective trigger for having a lucid dream is becoming aware it’s possible. Learning others have them is sometimes all it takes to propel us into these other realms of consciousness. It was almost that easy for me. Soon after researching lucid dreaming I found myself in an ordinary dream with the realization that “I” was somehow separate from the scene being played out in front of me. It seemed like natural and normal realization, “hey, this is a dream.” Once the idea sunk in I decided to take control. I did what most rookie lucid dreamer do — I jumped into the air and took flight!
It seems unlikely this simple experience that almost anyone can achieve during a weekend course at their local Marriott can turn science’s understanding of who we are on its head, but it can. Because as today’s guest on Skeptiko explains, lucid dreaming gives us the undeniable experience of being the observer of reality; and that’s a vantage point our current understanding of consciousness can’t accommodate:
Alex Tsakiris: Even though I’ve interviewed several very respectable people who have had similar out-of-body experiences… I always feel obligated to come back and remind us that most of the world is living in a reality that doesn’t allow for this. How do you balance that on a day-to-day basis? How did you deal with it for that long period of time when you really weren’t telling anyone that this was what was going on?
Jurgen Ziewe: I think the first thing of course is we are totally focused on the physical reality, nearly everybody is. And when it comes to our dreams we hardly pay any attention. We just dismiss them as dreams. But the moment you become aware in your dreams, which is what usually happens during lucid dreams, things start changing dramatically. When you have an out-of-body experience, and very often [this] happens from a lucid dream… then you suddenly are in a position to take control of the experience. And that’s what I did–I disintegrated or interrupted the dream narrative, which is a lucid dream–which usually takes its content from the subconscious. And by doing so, after you dismantle the dream narrative, you then find yourself in a new consensus reality, which is just as real as our physical reality. And this is where things become really interesting.
Click here for Jurgen’s Website


Read Excerpts:
Alex Tsakiris: We don’t know about that extended realm. We hear about people who go and they meet these beings, and the being says, here’s my hand where I was crucified on the cross and I am Jesus… We don’t know what to make of that. And it really raises the larger question about your work: what can we really take out of these extended realms and bring back into our world? I always wonder and worry that maybe we’re looking through the wrong end of the telescope when we do that. And since that’s the larger reality over there when we try and jam it back into our reality it winds up being nonsensical in a lot of different ways. What are your thoughts on that?
Jurgen Ziewe: My explanation is that I have a strong experience and a strong feeling that when you start to move away from this physical reality, you get into a realm of consciousness which contains

all the data that has ever been recorded or everything that is known or unknown about the universe. It’s like a massive databank. And that’s the only way I can explain it because what happens for example in this [extended] realm, and you for example want to materialize something by an effort of will–let’s say you want to have a cup of tea. You can actually manifest the cup of tea and then you wonder, how did this cup of tea come about? And what happens in my observation is [the cup of tea] is already in existence. I just focus the data right in front of me then it materializes. Now the interesting thing was when I did this experiment, which I also describe in my book Vistas of Infinity, I materialized the tea cup but I wasn’t very good at actually manifesting the tea which tasted a bit watery.
—————–






Alex Tsakiris: A while back I had an interview with Robert Bruce–this was episode #203 of Skeptiko. [Bruce] is probably one of the best known out-of-body experiencers in the world. He wrote the book Astral Dynamics which was hugely successful and many people have read it. So Robert’s account was of demonic possession. He was doing a healing. He encountered a demon. That demon possessed him in this world and he battled this demon in this world and this extended consciousness realm, and this demon was sent off. And he says that he’s had similar encounters with these other spirits in this other realm. Now this is the kind of issue I think that people are trying to fit into this framework that you’re laying out there. On the one hand, we can say that there’s this infinite field of infinite consciousness that we are creating our reality out of, but there’s another reality that’s very primal to people that is, I encountered Jesus, or I encountered Buddha, or I encountered Krishna. And that’s been the guiding force of their whole life. Or people are encountering, like Robert Bruce did, these demonic beings or evil spirits. So how do we sort this out? I don’t know that we can just blow by it and go, oh well there’s this consciousness field and it’s created out there. I don’t know if that really hits people’s experience.
Jurgen Ziewe: The moment we are born we are sort of endowed with some sort of genetic program or cultural program. And that determines the experiences we look for and we find [based] on our educational upbringing and so on. That takes us in a certain direction in our life and endows us with a certain type of belief. And it is this program which makes us focus our attention into distinct directions. For example, if we had a very strong Christian upbringing we may focus our attention into this aspect of the infinite universe which is endowed with Christian paraphernalia, environments, churches, belief systems, holy entities and so on. And we may well with our strong focus and passion draw essences of these entities into our awareness. And by the mere focus of doing so we may actually get a part or the essence of these historic beings [and] bring them into our reality. And they may actually act authentically–the way we would expect them to act. This is just a theory. The same thing may happen if you focus on negative aspects of our personality.
I disintegrated or interrupted the dream narrative, which is a lucid dream -- Jurgen Ziewe Click to Tweet
Alex Tsakiris: Robert Bruce is saying I didn’t just form this out of a thought form, I was interacting with another individual and there was this third entity that was this spirit entity that was interacting with both of us. And I had a similar experience–I interviewed this woman Marilyn Hughes who I thought was really interesting. She’s an out-of-body traveler. That’s what she reports, similar to you. We actually did an experiment because this was during the time when I was investigating medium communication. And we did somewhat of a demonstration I should say rather than an experiment. It was controlled and she did a very convincing job of accessing this other realm of deceased people. And she assisted this woman who lived in Texas whose daughter who committed suicide. And [Marilyn] was able to go–this was her report–find the daughter and bring back information that was extremely significant to the mother who was completely blinded from the reading. I was in the middle so she didn’t have any way of knowing any of this. So if we’re going to say where’s the proof, Marilyn Hughes provided proof to me that she had gone to some other realm, accessed some other spirit being–that being this deceased daughter–and bring back the information and transfer it to me, and me [relaying] it to the mother. So I always wonder when I hear your talks and your work which I find very fascinating and important in so many ways, but I wonder if we’re missing the point when we talk about this huge field of consciousness and we’re creating all these islands of our consensus reality. Maybe we’re really missing the point. That’s what Marilyn would say–she would say the point is that there are these beings out there on these other levels. So are they important or are they just being created by us and they’re not important?
Jurgen Ziewe: No she’s absolutely right because these are tangible realities made out of individuals. The only difference is people given up the physical body and now they’re living in another dimensional reality. And I have met fairly sinister people myself perhaps similar to what Robert Bruce has described. They are basically people on a much lower dimensional level with very negative atmosphere and persona but my experiences were probably different. One thing I can confirm is over the years I have met my mother who died in 1997. I met her on several occasions and I’ve re-met her and I’ve had conversations with her and I’ve watched how she’s progressed and developed. I’ve [also] had conversations with my wife’s brother who died in 2006 and I met him again. And we discussed at great length where his life had gone wrong and so on. And I could even confirm afterwards with my wife and I gave her some details that I couldn’t have known that she confirmed. So I’m absolutely convinced that there’s no such thing as death or disappearance of individual people once we are stripped of our physical body. I would even go so far [to say] what we experience here on the physical level is only a tiny percentage of the greater reality which we enter into once we leave our physical body behind. So I think what I’m saying is not in contradiction to what you’ve just mentioned.
Alex Tsakiris: Great. So now let’s tackle some of the really big questions: destiny or free will? Are we as you said programmed at birth or as many others have suggested from the reincarnation experience before birth? Or through a period of many births? Are we playing out a destiny in our life or are we shaping our destiny as we go, or both?
Jurgen Ziewe: I think it’s a bit of both really. We are sort of programmed by our personal experience, our environments and parents in order to act in a certain manner. But on the other hand we also have a free will and I personally am not 100% convinced that we are totally enslaved to karma or to a past program.
——————
Alex Tsakiris: Does this suggest a hierarchy? Does this suggest a moral imperative? Are we driven by some evolutionary force in a direction, be it towards good if we want to put it in those terms or some other way? Is there a God I guess is the question.
Jurgen Ziewe: The idea of a hierarchy is perhaps not the best way of expressing it because before I had my out-of-body experience I was told there are seven levels of the astral plane and so many of the mental plane. And very early on in the beginning I was out of my body and I met people who were actually permanent inhabitants there and one of the stupid questions I asked was what level am I on. And of course they looked at me as if I was mad because they didn’t know what I was talking about. So we create abstraction from actual experiences in consciousness in order to make it understandable. But I think there is no such thing as hierarchies which you can define in a numeric system. When I talk about higher states of consciousness I mean more awareness, more light, more power, more energy…this sort of thing. The consciousness is more expanded, more inclusive. And also a higher consciousness to me means you are closer to the source level of who you are. So there’s a feeling that you are–you feel at home. This home feeling to me is the best way to describe how close I am to the source consciousness.
—————–
Alex Tsakiris: How are we supposed to understand what our purpose is here? It doesn’t seem adequate to say we’re here only to transcend being here.
Jurgen Ziewe: This is exactly what I feel. This is why I sort of part with the idea that we are here in order to transcend our state we are at, and then sort of escape from it and become enlightened beings to be in some sort of celestial dimension, and be relieved of all the hassle and pain. That is not how I see it. My understanding is exactly–we are here because we are here. We are part of this reality. To me that is absolutely fine. And if you experience hardship and all the other things the best thing we can do with it is bring a higher state of awareness into this reality and make it illuminated in a sense…. so we don’t feel the extremes of suffering we do normally. We still suffer but the mere fact that we are physical beings and have this physical body and experience pain, we are not associated with it any longer with this limited shell which we carry around. And it think that’s the next stage in our evolution if you like as human beings … that we are able to use the energy forms we carry around with it but from an enlightened or luminous viewpoint. So it’s nothing really I feel that we need to get away from, quite the opposite–we are here to embrace it properly with the greatest level of consciousness and awareness.


 

Ecstasy

$
0
0

Ecstasy (emotion)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia/Blogger ref http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science
 
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about informal use of the term. For its usage in the philosophical perspective, see Ecstasy (philosophy).
The Ecstasy of St. Theresa by Gianlorenzo Bernini (1652). Left transept of Santa Maria della Vittoria (17th century) in Rome.
Ecstasy (from Ancient Greekἔκστασις ékstasis) is a subjective experience of total involvement of the subject, with an object of his or her awareness. Total involvement with an object of interest is not an ordinary experience because of being aware of other objects, thus ecstasy is an example of an altered state of consciousness characterized by diminished awareness of other objects or the total lack of the awareness of surroundings and everything around the object. The word is also used to refer to any heightened state of consciousness or intensely pleasant experience. It is also used more specifically to denote states of awareness of non-ordinary mental spaces, which may be perceived as spiritual (the latter type of ecstasy often takes the form of religious ecstasy).


Description[edit]

St Filippo Neri in Ecstasy by Guido Reni
From a psychological perspective, ecstasy is a loss of self-control and sometimes a temporary loss of consciousness, which is often associated with religious mysticism, sexual intercourse and the use of certain drugs.[1] For the duration of the ecstasy the ecstatic is out of touch with ordinary life and is capable neither of communication with other people nor of undertaking normal actions. The experience can be brief in physical time, or it can go on for hours. Subjective perception of time, space or self may strongly change or disappear during ecstasy. For instance, if one is concentrating on a physical task, then any intellectual thoughts may cease. On the other hand, making a spirit journey in an ecstatic trance involves the cessation of voluntary bodily movement.

Types[edit]

Ecstasy can be deliberately induced using religious or creative activities, meditation, music, dancing, breathing exercises, physical exercise, sexual intercourse or consumption of psychotropic drugs. The particular technique that an individual uses to induce ecstasy is usually also associated with that individual's particular religious and cultural traditions. Sometimes an ecstatic experience takes place due to occasional contact with something or somebody perceived as extremely beautiful or holy, or without any known reason. "In some cases, a person might obtain an ecstatic experience 'by mistake'. Maybe the person unintentionally triggers one of the, probably many, physiological mechanisms through which such an experience can be reached. In such cases, it is not rare to find that the person later, by reading, looks for an interpretation and maybe finds it within a tradition."[2]
People interpret the experience afterward according to their culture and beliefs (as a revelation from God, a trip to the world of spirits or a psychotic episode). "When a person is using an ecstasy technique, he usually does so within a tradition. When he reaches an experience, a traditional interpretation of it already exists."[2] The experience together with its subsequent interpretation may strongly and permanently change the value system and the worldview of the subject (e.g. to cause religious conversion).
In 1925, James Leuba wrote: "Among most uncivilized populations, as among civilized peoples, certain ecstatic conditions are regarded as divine possession or as union with the Divine. These states are induced by means of drugs, by physical excitement, or by psychical means. But, however produced and at whatever level of culture they may be found, they possess certain common features which suggest even to the superficial observer some profound connection. Always described as delightful beyond expression, these awesome ecstatic experiences end commonly in mental quiescence or even in total unconsciousness." He prepares his readers "... to recognize a continuity of impulse, of purpose, of form and of result between the ecstatic intoxication of the savage and the absorption in God of the Christian mystic."[3]
"In everyday language, the word 'ecstasy' denotes an intense, euphoric experience. For obvious reasons, it is rarely used in a scientific context; it is a concept that is extremely hard to define."[2]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Jump up ^"Ecstasy". The Free Dictionary By Farlex. Retrieved 2012-05-31. 
  2. ^ Jump up to: abcBjörkqvist, Kaj. "Ecstasy from a Physiological Point of View". (Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis XI: Religious Ecstasy. Based on Papers read at the Symposium on Religions Ecstasy held at Åbo, Finland, on the 26th-28th of August 1981. Edited by Nils G. Holm. 
  3. Jump up ^James H. Leuba, "The Psychology of Religious Mysticism", p.8. Routledge, UK, 1999.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and the Flow...

$
0
0

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia/Blogger re http://wwwp2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science
 
Jump to: navigation, search
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Csikszentmihalyi
Csikszentmihalyi on 2010 (aged 75)
BornSeptember 29, 1934 (1934-09-29) (age 81)
Fiume, Kingdom of Italy (now Rijeka, Croatia)
Known forFlow (psychology)
autotelic activities
The native form of this personal name is Csíkszentmihályi Mihály. This article uses the Western name order.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Hungarian: Csíkszentmihályi Mihály, pronounced [ˈt͡ʃiːksɛntmihaːji ˈmihaːj]; born 29 September 1934) is a Hungarian psychologist. He created the psychological concept of flow, a highly focused mental state.[1][2] He is the Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University. He is the former head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago and of the department of sociology and anthropology at Lake Forest College.[citation needed]


Work[edit]

Csikszentmihalyi is noted for his work in the study of happiness and creativity, but is best known as the architect of the notion of flow and for his years of research and writing on the topic. He is the author of many books and over 120 articles or book chapters. Martin Seligman, former president of the American Psychological Association, described Csikszentmihalyi as the world's leading researcher on positive psychology.[3] Csikszentmihalyi once said: "Repression is not the way to virtue. When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. Only through freely chosen discipline can life be enjoyed and still kept within the bounds of reason."[4] His works are influential and are widely cited.[5]

Personal background[edit]

Csikszentmihalyi immigrated to the United States from Yugoslavia at the age of 22.[citation needed] He received his B.A. in 1960 and his PhD in 1965, both from the University of Chicago.[6]
Csikszentmihalyi is the father of artist and professor Christopher Csikszentmihályi and University of California, Berkeley[7] professor of philosophical and religious traditions of China and East Asia, Mark Csikszentmihalyi.[citation needed]
In 2009, Csikszentmihalyi was awarded the Clifton Strengths Prize[8] and received the Széchenyi Prize at a ceremony in Budapest in 2011.[9]

Flow[edit]

Main article: Flow (psychology)
AnxietyArousalFlow (psychology)OverlearningRelaxation (psychology)BoredomApathyWorry
Mental state in terms of challenge level and skill level, according to Csikszentmihalyi's flow model.[10] (Click on a fragment of the image to go to the appropriate article)
In his seminal work, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Csíkszentmihályi outlines his theory that people are happiest when they are in a state of flow— a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation. It is a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter.[11] The idea of flow is identical to the feeling of being in the zone or in the groove. The flow state is an optimal state of intrinsic motivation, where the person is fully immersed in what he is doing. This is a feeling everyone has at times, characterized by a feeling of great absorption, engagement, fulfillment, and skill—and during which temporal concerns (time, food, ego-self, etc.) are typically ignored.[11]
In an interview with Wired magazine, Csíkszentmihályi described flow as "being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost."[12]
Csikszentmihalyi characterized nine component states of achieving flow including “challenge-skill balance, merging of action and awareness, clarity of goals, immediate and unambiguous feedback, concentration on the task at hand, paradox of control, transformation of time, loss of self-consciousness, and autotelic experience.”[13] To achieve a flow state, a balance must be struck between the challenge of the task and the skill of the performer. If the task is too easy or too difficult, flow cannot occur. Both skill level and challenge level must be matched and high; if skill and challenge are low and matched, then apathy results.[10]
One state that Csikszentmihalyi researched was that of the autotelic personality.[13] The autotelic personality is one in which a person performs acts because they are intrinsically rewarding, rather than to achieve external goals.[14] Csikszentmihalyi describes the autotelic personality as a trait possessed by individuals who can learn to enjoy situations that most other people would find miserable.[11] Research has shown that aspects associated with the autotelic personality include curiosity, persistence, and humility.[15]

Motivation[edit]

A majority of Csikszentmihalyi’s most recent work surrounds the idea of motivation and the factors that contribute to motivation, challenge, and overall success in an individual. One personality characteristic that Csikszentmihalyi researched in detail was that of intrinsic motivation. Csikszentmihalyi and his colleagues found that intrinsically motivated people were more likely to be goal-directed and enjoy challenges that would lead to an increase in overall happiness.[16]
Csikszentmihalyi identified intrinsic motivation as a powerful trait to possess to optimize and enhance positive experience, feelings, and overall well-being as a result of challenging experiences. The results indicated a new personality construct, a term Csikszentmihalyi called work orientation, which is characterized by “achievement, endurance, cognitive structure, order, play, and low impulsivity." A high level of work orientation in students is said to be a better predictor of grades and fulfillment of long-term goals than any school or household environmental influence.[17]

Publications[edit]

  • Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (1975). Beyond Boredom and Anxiety: Experiencing Flow in Work and Play, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ISBN 0-87589-261-2
  • Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (1978) Intrinsic Rewards and Emergent Motivation in The Hidden Costs of Reward : New Perspectives on the Psychology of Human Motivation eds Lepper, Mark R;Greene, David, Erlbaum: Hillsdale: NY 205-216
  • Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly and Larson, Reed (1984). Being Adolescent: Conflict and Growth in the Teenage Years. New York: Basic Books, Inc.ISBN 0-465-00646-9
  • Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly and Csikszentmihalyi, Isabella Selega, eds. (1988). Optimal Experience: Psychological studies of flow in consciousness, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-34288-0
  • Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper and Row. ISBN 0-06-092043-2
  • Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (1994). The Evolving Self, New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-06-092192-7
  • Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (1996). Creativity : Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-06-092820-4
  • Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (1998). Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement With Everyday Life. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-02411-4 (a popular exposition emphasizing technique)
  • Gardner, Howard, Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, and Damon, William (2001). Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet. New York, Basic Books.
  • Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (2003). Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning. Basic Books, Inc. ISBN 0-465-02608-7
  • Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (2014). The Systems Model of Creativity: The Collected Works of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Dordrecht: Springer, 2014. ISBN 978-94-017-9084-0
  • Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (2014). Flow and the Foundations of Positive Psychology: The Collected Works of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Dordrecht: Springer, 2014. ISBN 978-94-017-9087-1
  • Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (2014). Applications of Flow in Human Development and Education: The Collected Works of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Dordrecht: Springer, 2014. ISBN 978-94-017-9093-2

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Jump up ^O'Keefe, Paul A. (September 5, 2014). "Liking Work Really Matters". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 October 2015. 
  2. Jump up ^Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (1990). Flow : the psychology of optimal experience (1st ed.). New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 9780060162535. 
  3. Jump up ^Thinker of the Year Award
  4. Jump up ^"Virtue Quotes & Quotations". focusdep.com. Retrieved 19 January 2014. 
  5. Jump up ^Nigel King & Neil Anderson (2002). Managing Innovation and Change. Cengage Learning EMEA. p. 82. (ISBN 1861527837)
  6. Jump up ^"Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi". Claremont, CA, USA: Claremont Graduate University, Division of Behavorial and Organizational Sciences. Retrieved 3 March 2014. B.A., University of Chicago, 1960 
  7. Jump up ^http://eall.wisc.edu/?q=node/28[dead link] East Asian Languages and Literature
  8. Jump up ^Nakamura, Jeanne. "2009 Clifton Strength Prize Laureate". Clifton Strengths School. Retrieved June 15, 2012. 
  9. Jump up ^"President of Hungary honors SBOS Prof. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi with national science prize". Claremont Graduate University. June 3, 2011. Retrieved 2012-06-15. 
  10. ^ Jump up to: abCsikszentmihalyi, M., Finding Flow, 1997.
  11. ^ Jump up to: abcCsikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper and Row. ISBN 0-06-092043-2
  12. Jump up ^Geirland, John (1996). "Go With The Flow". Wired magazine, September, Issue 4.09.
  13. ^ Jump up to: abFullagar, Clive J.; Kelloway, E. Kevin (2009). "Flow at work: an experience sampling approach". Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology82 (3): 595–615. doi:10.1348/096317908x357903. 
  14. Jump up ^Car, A. Positive psychology. The Science of happiness and human strengths. Hove, 2004.
  15. Jump up ^Csikszentmihalyi, M. & Nakamura, J. (2011). Positive psychology: Where did it come from, where is it going? In K.M. Sheldon, T. B. Kashdan, & M.F. Steger (Eds.), Designing positive psychology (pp. 2-9). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
  16. Jump up ^Abuhamdeh, Sami; Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (2012). "The importance of challenge for the enjoyment of intrinsically motivated, goal-directed activities.". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin38: 317–30. doi:10.1177/0146167211427147. PMID 22067510. 
  17. Jump up ^Wong, Maria; Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1991). "Motivation and academic achievement: The effects of personality traits and the quality of experience". Journal of Personality59: 539–574. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.1991.tb00259.x. 

External links[edit]

The State of Flow

$
0
0

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



CsikszentmihalyiCsikszentmihalyiCsikszentmihalyiCsikszentmihalyi




Ecstasy = Greek term meaning being outside oneself.



The Basics of Flow as understood by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi


 Engage in activity that we enjoy and that gives enough challenge to our skills


 We become absorbed in that activity and reach a state of flow in which we are....


totally focussed..........we feel a sense of serenity.......we feel a sense of timelessness....we have a feeling of inner clarity...


Above all, we are not conscious of ourselves or the world around us...


Flow is similar to a state of ecstasy...


Source ref The Psychology Handbook, DK, 2012, p198







Stream of consciousness (psychology)

$
0
0

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia/Blogger Ref http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science
 
Jump to: navigation, search
Stream of consciousness refers to the flow of thoughts in the consciousmind. Research studies have shown that we only experience one mental event at a time as a fast-moving mind stream.[1][2]William James, often considered to be the father of American psychology, first coined the phrase “stream of consciousness".[3] The full range of thoughts - that one can be aware of - can form the content of this stream.


Buddhism[edit]

The phrase "stream of consciousness" (Pali; viññāna-sota) occurs in early Buddhist scriptures.[4] The Yogachara school of Mahayana Buddhism developed the idea into a thorough theory of mind.[5]
The practice of mindfulness involves being aware moment-to-moment of one’s subjective conscious experience from a first-person perspective.[6] In other words, when practising mindfulness, one becomes aware of one’s "stream of consciousness." Buddhist teachings describe six triggers that can result in the generation of different mental events.[7] These are input from the five senses (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting or touch sensations), or a thought (relating to the past, present or the future) that happen to arise in the mind. The mental events generated as a result of these triggers are: feelings, perceptions and intentions/behavior.[7] In Buddhist teachings, the manifestation of the "stream of consciousness” is described as being affected by physical laws, biological laws, psychological laws, volitional laws, and universal laws.[7]
Hammalawa SaddhatissaMahathera writes: "There is no 'self' that stands at the mentality to which characteristics and events accrue and from which they fall away, leaving it intact at death. The stream of consciousness, flowing through many lives, is as changing as a stream of water. This is the anatta doctrine of Buddhism as concerns the individual being."[8]

Proponents[edit]

In his lectures circa 1838-1839 Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet described "thought" as "a series of acts indissolubly connected"; this comes about because of what he asserted was a fourth "law of thought" known as the "law of reason and consequent":
"The logical significance of the law of Reason and Consequent lies in this, - That in virtue of it, thought is constituted into a series of acts all indissolubly connected; each necessarily inferring the other" (Hamilton 1860:61-62).[9]
In this context the words "necessarily infer" are synonymous with "imply".[10] In further discussion Hamilton identified "the law" with modus ponens;[11] thus the act of "necessarily infer" detaches the consequent for purposes of becoming the (next) antecedent in a "chain" of connected inferences.
William James[3][12] asserts the notion as follows:
"Consciousness, then, does not appear to itself chopped up in bits. Such words as 'chain' or 'train' do not describe it fitly as it presents itself in the first instance. It is nothing jointed; it flows. A 'river' or a 'stream' are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described. In talking of it hereafter let us call it the stream of thought, of consciousness, or of subjective life. (James 1890:239)
He was enormously skeptical about using introspection as a technique to understand the stream of consciousness. "The attempt at introspective analysis in these cases is in fact like seizing a spinning top to catch its motion, or trying to turn up the gas quickly enough to see how the darkness looks."[13]
Bernard Baars has developed Global Workspace Theory[14] which bears some resemblance to stream of consciousness.

Criticism[edit]

Susan Blackmore challenged the concept of stream of consciousness. "When I say that consciousness is an illusion I do not mean that consciousness does not exist. I mean that consciousness is not what it appears to be. If it seems to be a continuous stream of rich and detailed experiences, happening one after the other to a conscious person, this is the illusion." However she also says that a good way to observe the "stream of consciousness" may be to calm the mind in meditation.[15]

Literary technique[edit]

In literature, stream of consciousness writing is a literary device which seeks to portray an individual's point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character's thought processes, either in a loose interior monologue, or in connection to his or her sensory reactions to external occurrences. Stream-of-consciousness as a narrative device is strongly associated with the modernist movement. The term was first applied in a literary context, transferred from psychology, in The Egoist, April 1918, by May Sinclair, in relation to the early volumes of Dorothy Richardson's novel sequence Pilgrimage.[16] Amongst other modernist novelists who used it are James Joyce in Ulysses (1922) and William Faulkner in The Sound and the Fury (1929).[17]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Jump up ^Potter MC, Wyble B, Hagmann CE, McCourt ES (2014). "Detecting meaning in RSVP at 13 ms per picture". Attention, Perception & Psychophysics76 (2): 270–9. doi:10.3758/s13414-013-0605-z. PMID 24374558. 
  2. Jump up ^Raymond JE, Shapiro KL, Arnell KM (1992). "Temporary suppression of visual processing in an RSVP task: an attentional blink?". Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance18 (3): 849–60. doi:10.1037/0096-1523.18.3.849. PMID 1500880. 
  3. ^ Jump up to: abJames, William (1890). The principles of psychology. New York, NY: Henry Holt. 
  4. Jump up ^Specifically, in the Digha Nikaya. See Steven Collins, Selfless Persons; Imagery and Thought in Theravāda Buddhism. Cambridge University Press, 1982, page 257.
  5. Jump up ^Dan Lusthaus, Buddhist Phenomenology: A Philosophical Investigation of Yogācāra Buddhism and the Ch'eng Wei-shih Lun. Routledge 2002, page 193.
  6. Jump up ^(Kabat-Zinn, 1994, p. 4)" - Mindfulness Training as a Clinical Intervention: A Conceptual and Empirical Review, by Ruth A. Baer, available at http://www.wisebrain.org/papers/MindfulnessPsyTx.pdf
  7. ^ Jump up to: abcKarunamuni ND (May 2015). "The Five-Aggregate Model of the Mind". SAGE Open5 (2). doi:10.1177/2158244015583860. 
  8. Jump up ^Hammalawa Saddhatissa, Buddhist Ethics. Wisdom Publications, 1997, page 23.
  9. Jump up ^Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet, (Henry L. Mansel and John Veitch, ed.), 1860 Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic, in Two Volumes. Vol. II. Logic, Boston: Gould and Lincoln. Downloaded via googlebooks.
  10. Jump up ^To imply is "to involve or indicate by inference, association or necessary consequence rather than by direct statement", the contemporary use of 'infer' is slightly different. Webster's states that Sir Thomas More (1533) was the first to use the two words "in a sense close in meaning", and "Both of these uses of infer coexisted without comment until sometime around the end of World War I". cf Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc, Springfield, MA, ISBN 0-87779-508-8.
  11. Jump up ^Hamilton 1860:241-242
  12. Jump up ^First usage of the phrase was probably James (1890); for example, Merriam-Webster's 9th Collegiate dictionary cites 1890 as first usage. But James was not necessarily the first to assert the concept. Furthermore, whereas James uses the phrase "the stream of thought" throughout his 1890 (he dedicates an entire chapter IX to "The Stream of Thought"), in the 689 pages of text he offers just nine instances of "stream of consciousness", in particular in consideration of the "soul".
  13. Jump up ^James, William (1890), The Principles of Psychology. ed. George A. Miller, Harvard University Press, 1983, ISBN 0-674-70625-0
  14. Jump up ^Baars, Bernard (1997), In the Theater of Consciousness New York: Oxford University Press
  15. Jump up ^"There is no stream of consciousness". Retrieved 2007-11-05. 
  16. Jump up ^Wilson, Leigh, 2001. May SinclairThe Literary Encyclopedia
  17. Jump up ^Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, p.212.

More on the Stream of Conciousness...................

$
0
0
William James
 
 
 
Conciousness seems to be a stream of thoughts
 
 
These thoughts are entirely separate from each other...   Each thought follows one after another....
 
.....and yet somehow they combine to give a sense of unified consciousness.
 
This is because thoughts that enter our awareness at the same time form a "pulse" within the stream of consciousness..
 
These pulses jolt us from one conclusion, or "resting pace" to another......but continue to stream onwards...
 
Our consciousness is constantly evolving....
 
We know the meaning of "consciousness" so long as no asks us to define it....
 
 
Ref The Psychology Book, D K, 2012, p41

Mindstream...........................

$
0
0
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia/Blogger ref  http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science
Jump to: navigation, search
Mindstream (citta-santāna) in Buddhist philosophy is the moment-to-moment continuum (Sanskrit: saṃtāna) of awareness which provides a continuity from one life to another. The concept developed in later Yogacara, to avoid reification of the ālaya-vijñāna.


Definition[edit]

Citta-saṃtāna (Sanskrit), literally "the stream of mind",[1] is the stream of succeeding moments of mind or awareness. It provides a continuity of the personality in the absence of a permanently abiding "self" (ātman), which Buddhism denies. The mindstream provides a continuity from one life to another, akin to the flame of a candle which may be passed from one candle to another:[2][3][note 1]
Indian Buddhists see the 'evolution' of mind i[n] terms of the continuity of individual mind-streams from one lifetime to the next, with karma as the basic causal mechanism whereby transformations are transmitted from one life to the next.[4]
According to Waldron,
[T]he mind stream (santāna) increases gradually by the mental afflictions (kleśa) and by actions (karma), and goes again to the next world. In this way the circle of existence is without beginning."[5][6]
The vāsanās (karmic imprints) provide the karmic continuity between lives and between moments.[7] According to Lusthaus, these vasanas determine how one
...actually sees and experiences the world in certain ways, and one actually becomes a certain type of person, embodying certain theories which immediately shape the manner in which we experience.[8]

Etymology[edit]

Sanskrit[edit]

Citta holds the semantic field of "that which is conscious", "the act of mental apprehension known as ordinary consciousness", "the conventional and relative mind/heart".[9]Citta has two aspects: "...Its two aspects are attending to and collecting of impressions or traces (Sanskrit: vāsanā) cf. vijñāna."[9]Saṃtāna or santāna (Sanskrit) holds the semantic field of "eternal", "continuum", "a series of momentary events" or "life-stream".[9]

Tibetan[edit]

Citta is often rendered as sems in Tibetan and saṃtāna corresponds to rgyud, which holds the semantic field of "continuum", "stream", and "thread"--Citta-saṃtāna is therefore rendered sems rgyud. Interestingly, rgyud is the term that Tibetan translators (Tibetan: lotsawa) employed to render the Sanskrit term "tantra".[10]
Thugs-rgyud is a synonym for sems rgyud[11]--Thugs holds the semantic field: "Buddha-mind", "(enlightened) mind", "mind", "soul", "spirit", "purpose", "intention", "unbiased perspective", "spirituality", "responsiveness", "spiritual significance", "awareness", "primordial (state, experience)", "enlightened mind", "heart", "breast", "feelings" and is sometimes a homonym of "citta" (Sanskrit).[12]Thugs-rgyud holds the semantic field"wisdom", "transmission", "heart-mind continuum", "mind", "[continuum/ stream of mind]" and "nature of mind."

Chinese, Korean and Japanese[edit]

The Chinese equivalent of Sanskrit citta-saṃtāna and Tibetan sems-kyi rgyud ("mindstream") is xin xiangxu (simplified Chinese: 心相续; traditional Chinese: 心相續; pinyin: xīn xiāngxù; Wade–Giles: hsin hsiang-hsü). According to the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, xīn xiāngxù means "continuance of the mental stream" (from Sanskrit citta-saṃtāna or citta-saṃtati), contrasted with wú xiàngxù無相續 "no continuity of the mental stream" (from asaṃtāna or asaṃdhi) and shì xiāngxù識相續 "stream of consciousness" (from vijñāna-saṃtāna).
This compound combines xin"heart; mind; thought; conscience; core" and xiangxu"succeed each other", with xiang"each other; one another; mutual; reciprocal" and xu or "continue; carry on; succeed". Thus it means "thoughts succeeding each other".
Xin xiangxu is pronounced sim sangsok in Korean and shin sōzoku in Japanese.

Origins and development[edit]

The notion of citta-santāna developed in later Yogacara-thought, where citta-santāna replaced the notion of ālayavijñāna,[13] the store-house consciousness in which the karmic seeds were stored. It is not a "permanent, unchanging, transmigrating entity", like the atman, but a series of momentary consciousnesses.[14]
Lusthaus describes the development and doctrinal relationships of the store consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna) and Buddha nature (tathāgatagarbha) in Yogācāra. To avoid reification of the ālaya-vijñāna,
The logico-epistemological wing in part sidestepped the critique by using the term citta-santāna, "mind-stream", instead of ālaya-vijñāna, for what amounted to roughly the same idea. It was easier to deny that a "stream" represented a reified self.[15]
Dharmakīrti (fl. 7th century) wrote a treatise on the nature of the mindstream in his Substantiation of Other Mindstreams (Saṃtãnãntarasiddhi).[16] According to Dharmakirti the mindstream was beginningless temporal sequence.[17]
The notion of mindstream was further developed in Vajrayāna (tantric Buddhism), where "mindstream" (sems-rgyud) may be understood as a stream of succeeding moments,[18] within a lifetime, but also in-between lifetimes. The 14th Dalai Lama holds it to be a continuum of consciousness, extending over succeeding lifetimes, though without a self or soul.[19]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. Jump up ^Compare the analogies in the Milinda Panha

References[edit]

  1. Jump up ^Keown, Damien (ed.) with Hodge, Stephen; Jones, Charles; Tinti, Paola (2003). A Dictionary of Buddhism. Great Britain, Oxford: Oxford University Press. P.62. ISBN 0-19-860560-9
  2. Jump up ^Kyimo 2007, p. 118.
  3. Jump up ^Panjvani 2013, p. 181.
  4. Jump up ^Waldron, William S. (undated). Buddhist Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Thinking about 'Thoughts without a Thinker'. Source: [1] (accessed: 1 November 2007)
  5. Jump up ^Waldron, William S. (2003). "Common Ground, Common Cause: Buddhism and Science on the Afflictions of Identity" in Wallace, B. Alan (editor, 2003). Buddhism & Science: Breaking New Ground. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-12335-3 (pbk.: alk. paper) p.178
  6. Jump up ^AKBh:III 19a-d: Yathākṣepaṃ kramād vṛddhaḥ santānaḥ kleśakarmabhiḥ / paralokaṃ punaryāti...ityanādibhavacakrakam
  7. Jump up ^Lusthaus, Dan (2002). Buddhist Phenomenology: A Philosophical Investigation of Yogācāra Buddhism and the Ch'eng Wei-shih Lun. Routledge. ISBN 0-7007-1186-4. Source: [2] (accessed: 13 January 2009) p.472
  8. Jump up ^Lusthaus, Dan (2002). Buddhist Phenomenology: A Philosophical Investigation of Yogācāra Buddhism and the Ch'eng Wei-shih Lun. Routledge. ISBN 0-7007-1186-4. Source: [3] (accessed: 13 January 2009) p.474
  9. ^ Jump up to: abcSource: [4] (accessed: 13 December 2007)
  10. Jump up ^Berzin, Alexander (2002; 2007). Making Sense of Tantra. Source: [5] (accessed: 13 December 2007)
  11. Jump up ^Dharma Dictionary (28 December 2005). Source: [6] (accessed: 17 July 2008)
  12. Jump up ^Dharma Dictionary (4 October 2006). Source: [7] (accessed: 17 July 2008)
  13. Jump up ^Lusthaus 2014, p. 7.
  14. Jump up ^Davids, C.A.F. Rhys (1903). "The Soul-Theory in Buddhism" in The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Source: [8] (accessed: Sunday 1 February 2009), pp. 587-588
  15. Jump up ^Lusthaus, Dan (undated). What is and isn't Yogācāra. Source: [9] (accessed: 4 December 2007)
  16. Jump up ^Source: [10] (accessed: Wednesday 28 October 2009). There is an English translation of this work by Gupta (1969: pp.81-121) which is a rendering of Stcherbatsky's work from the Russian: Gupta, Harish C. (1969). Papers of Th. Stcherbatsky. Calcutta: Indian Studies Past and Present. (translated from Russian by Harish C. Gupta).
  17. Jump up ^Dunne, John D. (2004). Foundations of Dharmakīrti's philosophy. Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-184-X, 9780861711840. Source: [11] (accessed: Monday 4 May 2010), p.1
  18. Jump up ^Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (2002). Healing with Form, Energy, and Light. Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publications. ISBN 1-55939-176-6. p.82
  19. Jump up ^Lama, Dalai (1997). Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a Buddhist Perspective. Translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa. Snow Lion Publications. Source: [12] (accessed: Sunday 25 March 2007)

Sources[edit]

  • Kyimo (2007), The Easy Buddha, Paragon Publishing 
  • Lusthaus, Dan (2014), Buddhist Phenomenology: A Philosophical Investigation of Yogacara Buddhism and the Ch'eng Wei-shih Lun, Routledge 
  • Panjvani, Cyrus (2013), Buddhism: A Philosophical Approach, Broadview Press 

Further reading[edit]

  • Lama, Dalai (1997). Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a Buddhist Perspective. Translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa. Snow Lion Publications. Source: [13] (accessed: Sunday 25 March 2007)
  • Waldron, William S. (1995). : How Innovative is the Ālayavijñāna? The ālayavijñāna in the context of canonical and Abhidharma vijñāna theory.
  • Welwood, John (2000). The Play of the Mind: Form, Emptiness, and Beyond. Source: http://www.purifymind.com/PlayMind.htm (accessed: Saturday 13 January 2007)

External links[edit]

Higher Conciousness

$
0
0

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia/ Blogger ref http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science
 
Jump to: navigation, search
Higher consciousness is the consciousness of a higher Self, transcendental reality, or God. It is "the part of the human being that is capable of transcending animal instincts".[1] The concept developed in German Idealism, and is a central notion in contemporary popular spirituality. There is extra level of awareness that is only found in some cases. This ability to know how people are intending their thoughts is a step closer to complete knowledge of people's thoughts.


Philosophy[edit]

Fichte[edit]

Fichte distinguished the finite or empirical ego from the pure or infinite ego. The activity of this "pure ego" can be discovered by a "higher intuition".[2][note 1]
Fichte (1762-1814) was one of the founding figures of German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant.[2] His philosophy forms a bridge between the ideas of Kant and those of the German Idealist Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
According to Michael Whiteman, Fichte's philosophical system "is a remarkable western formulation of eastern mystical teachings (of Advaita."[2]

Schopenhauer[edit]

In 1812 Schopenhauer started to use the term "the better consciousness", a consciousness
...[that] lies beyond all experience and thus all reason, both theoretical and practical (instinct).[3]
According to Yasuo Kamata, Schopenhauer's idea of "the better consciousness" finds its origin in Fichte's idea of a "higher consciousness" (höhere Bewusstsein)[4] or "higher intuition",[5] and also bears resemblance to Schelling's notion of "intellectual intuition".[4] According to Schopenhauer himself, his notion of a "better consciousness" was different from Schelling's notion of "intellectual intuition", since Schelling's notion required intellctual development of the understanding, while his notion of a "better consciousness" was "like a flash of insight, with no connection to the understanding."[4]
According to Schopenhauer,
The better consciousness in me lifts me into a world where there is no longer personality and causality or subject or object. My hope and my belief is that this better (supersensible and extra-temporal) consciousness will become my only one, and for that reason I hope that it is not God. But if anyone wants to use the expression God symbolically for the better consciousness itself or for much that we are able to separate or name, so let it be, yet not among philosophers I would have thought.[6]

Religion[edit]

Schleiermacher[edit]

Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) made a distinction between lower and higher (self)consciousness.[1][7] In Schleirmacher's theology, self-consciousness contains "a feeling that points to the presence of an absolute other, God, as actively independent of the self and its 'world'."[8] For Schleiermacher, "all particular manifestations of piety share a common essence, the sense of dependency on God as the outside 'infinite'."[8] The feeling of dependency, or "God-consciousness", is a higher form of consciousness.[7] This consciousness is not "God himself",[9] since God would then no longer be "an infinite infinite, but a finite infinite, a mere projection of consciousness."[9]
For Schleiermacher, the lower consciousness is "the animal part of mankind", which includes basic sensations such as hunger, thirst, pain and pleasure, as well as basic drives and pleasures, and [1] higher consciousness is "the part of the human being that is capable of transcending animal instincts",[1] and the "point of contact with God". Bunge describes this as [1]"the essence of being human".[1]
When this consciousness is present, "people are not alienated from God by their instincts".[1] The relation between the lower and the higher consciousness is akin to "Paul's struggle of the spirit to overcome the flesh",[1] or the distinction between the natural and the spiritual side of human beings.[7]

19th century movements[edit]

The idea of a "wider self walled in by the habits of ego-consciousness"[10] and the search for a "higher consciousness" was manifested in 19th century movements as Theosophy[10]New Thought[10]Christian Science,[10] and Transcendentalism.[11]
The 19th century Transcendentalists saw the entire physical world as a representation of a higher spiritual world.[12] They believed that humans could elevate themselves above their animal instincts, attain a higher consciousness, and partake in this spiritual world.[13]
According to Blavatsky, who founded the Theosophical Movement,
By that higher intuition acquired by Theosophia - or God-knowledge, which carried the mind from the world of form into that of formless spirit, man has been sometimes enabled in every age and every country to perceive things in the interior or invisible world.[14]
Blavatsky refers to Fichte in her explanation of Theosophy:
Theosophy [...] prompted such men as Hegel, Fichte and Spinoza to take up the labors of the old Grecian philosophers and speculate upon the One Substance - the Deity, the Divine All proceeding from the Divine Wisdom - incomprehensible, unknown and unnamed.[14]

Modern spirituality[edit]

The idea of "lower" and "higher consciousness" has gained popularity in modern popular spirituality.[15] According to James Beverley, it lies at the heart of the New Age movement.[16]
Ken Wilber has tried to integrate eastern and western models of the mind, using the notion of "lower" and "higher consciousness". In his book The Spectrum of Consciousness Wilber describes consciousness as a spectrum with ordinary awareness at one end, and more profound types of awareness at higher levels.[17] In later works he describes the development of consciousness as a development from lower consciousness, through personal consciousness, to higher transpersonal consciousness.[15]

Cognitive science[edit]

Gerald Edelman, in his 'Theory of Consciousness', distinguishes higher consciousness, or "secondary consciousness" from "primary consciousness", defined as simple awareness that includes perception and emotion. Higher consciousness in contrast, "involves the ability to be conscious of being conscious", and "allows the recognition by a thinking subject of his or her own acts and affections". Higher consciousness requires, at a minimal level semantic ability, and "in its most developed form, requires linguistic ability, or the mastery of a whole system of symbols and a grammar".[18]

Psychotropics[edit]

Psychedelic drugs can be used to alter the brain cognition and perception, some believing this to be a state of higher consciousness and transcendence.[19] Typical psychedelic drugs are hallucinogens including LSD, DMT (Dimethyltryptamine) cannabis, peyote, and psiloscybe mushrooms.[20] According to Wolfson, these drug-induced altered states of consciousness may result in a more long-term and positive transformation of self.[21]
According to Dutta, psychedelic drugs may be used for psychoanalytic therapy,[20] as a means to gain access to the higher consciousness, thereby providing patients the ability to access memories that are held deep within their mind.[20]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. Jump up ^See also Daniel Breazeale (2013), Thinking Through the Wissenschaftslehre: Themes from Fichte's Early Philosophy, and Stanford Encyclopedia of Phiolosophy, "Johann Gottlieb Fichte".

References[edit]

Sources[edit]

  • Beverly, James (2009), Nelson's Illustrated Guide to Religions: A Comprehensive Introduction to the Religions of the World, Thomas Nelson Inc. 
  • Bunge, Marcia JoAnn, ed. (2001), The Child in Christian Thought, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing 
  • Cartwright, David E. (2010), Schopenhauer: A Biography, Cambridge University Press 
  • Clark, W. H. (1976). Religious Aspects of Psychedelic Drugs. Social Psychology, pp. 86–99.
  • Dutta, V. (2012, July–September). Repression of Death Consciousness and the Psychedelic Trip. Journal of Cancer Research and Therapeutics, pp. 336–342.
  • Edelman, G.M. (2004), Wider Than the Sky: The Phenomenal Gift of Consciousness, Yale University Press 
  • Gillespie, Michael Allen (1996), Nihilism Before Nietzsche, University of Chicago Press 
  • Hanegraaff, Wouter J. (1996), New Age Religion and Western Culture. Esotericism in the mirror of Secular Thought, Leiden/New York/Koln: E.J. Brill 
  • Heisig, James W. (2003), Jung, Christianity, and Buddhism. In: Polly Young-Eisendrath, Shoji Muramoto (eds.), "Awakening and Insight: Zen Buddhism and Psychotherapy", Routledge 
  • Johanson, P., & Krebs, T. S. (2013, August). Psychedelics and Mental Health: A population study. PLOS ONE.
  • Ladd, Andrew; Anesko, Michael; Phillips, Jerry R.; Meyers, Karen (2010), Romanticism and Transcendentalism: 1800-1860, infoBase Publishing 
  • Lerner, M. M. (2006, June). Values and Beliefs of Psychedelic Drug Users: A Cross Cultural Study. Volume 38, pp. 143–147.
  • Merklinger, Philip M. (1993), Philosophy, Theology, and Hegel's Berlin Philosophy of Religion, 1821-1827, SUNY Press 
  • Stasko, A., Rao, S. P., & Pilley, A. (2012). Spirituality and Hallucinogen Use: Results from a pilot study among college students. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 23-32.
  • Tart, C. T., & Davis, C. (1991). Psychedelic Drug Experiences on Students of Tibetan Buddhism, A preliminary Exploration. The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 139-173
  • Whiteman, Michael (2014), Philosophy of Space and Time: And the Inner Constitution of Nature, Routledge 
  • Wilber, Ken (2002), The Spectrum of Consciousness, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., ISBN 978-81-208-1848-4 
  • Wolfson, P (2011) Tikkun January/February Vol. 26 Issue 1, p10, 6p

Further reading[edit]

Classical western texts
Secondary sources
Contemporary spirituality (primary sources)

External links[edit]

Luminous mind

$
0
0

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia/Blogger ref http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science
 
Jump to: navigation, search
Luminous mind (also, "brightly shining mind,""brightly shining citta") (Sanskrit prakṛti-prabhāsvara-citta,[1]Palipabhassara citta) is a term attributed to the Buddha in the Nikayas. The mind (Citta) is said to be "luminous" whether or not it is tainted by mental defilements.[2]
The statement is given no direct doctrinal explanation in the Pali discourses, but later Buddhist schools explained it using various concepts developed by them.[3] The Theravada school identifies the "luminous mind" with the bhavanga, a concept first proposed in the Theravada Abhidhamma.[4] The later schools of the Mahayana identify it with both the Mahayana concepts of bodhicitta and tathagatagarbha.[5] The idea is also connected with features of Dzogchen thought.[6]


Anguttara Nikaya[edit]

In the Anguttara Nikaya (A.I.8-10) the Buddha states:[7]"Luminous, monks, is the mind. And it is defiled by incoming defilements."[8] The discourses indicate that the mind's natural radiance can be made manifest by meditation.[9]
Ajahn Mun, the leading figure behind the modern Thai Forest Tradition, comments on this verse:
The mind is something more radiant than anything else can be, but because counterfeits – passing defilements – come and obscure it, it loses its radiance, like the sun when obscured by clouds. Don’t go thinking that the sun goes after the clouds. Instead, the clouds come drifting along and obscure the sun. So meditators, when they know in this manner, should do away with these counterfeits by analyzing them shrewdly... When they develop the mind to the stage of the primal mind, this will mean that all counterfeits are destroyed, or rather, counterfeit things won’t be able to reach into the primal mind, because the bridge making the connection will have been destroyed. Even though the mind may then still have to come into contact with the preoccupations of the world, its contact will be like that of a bead of water rolling over a lotus leaf.[10]

Buddha-nature[edit]

Main article: Buddha-nature

Bhavanga[edit]

Main article: Bhavanga
The Theravadin Angutta Nikaya Atthakatha identifies the luminous mind as the bhavanga, the "ground of becoming" or "latent dynamic continuum", which is the most fundamental level of mental functioning in the Theravada Abhidhammic scheme.[11] Thanissaro Bhikkhu holds that the commentaries' identification of the luminous mind with the bhavanga is problematic, but Peter Harvey finds it to be a plausible interpretation.[12][13]

Alaya-vijnana[edit]

Main article: Eight Consciousnesses
According to Walpola Rahula, all the elements of the Yogacarastore-consciousness (alaya-vijnana) are already found in the Pali Canon.[14] He writes that the three layers of the mind (citta, called "luminous" in the passage discussed above, manas, and vijnana) as presented by Asanga are also used in the Pali Canon:
Thus we can see that Vijnana represents the simple reaction or response of the sense organs when they come in contact with external objects. This is the uppermost or superficial aspect or layer of the Vijnanaskanda. Manas represents the aspect of its mental functioning, thinking, reasoning, conceiving ideas, etc. Citta which is here called Alayavijnana, represents the deepest, finest and subtlest aspect or layer of the Aggregate of consciousness. It contains all the traces or impressions of the past actions and all good and bad future possibilities.[15]
According to Yogacara teachings, as in early Buddhist teachings regarding the citta, the store-consciousness is not pure, and with the attainment of nirvana comes a level of mental purity that is hitherto unattained.[16]

Svasaṃvedana[edit]

Main article: Svasaṃvedana
In Tibetan Buddhism, the luminous mind (Tibetan: gsal ba) is often equated with the Yogacara concept of svasaṃvedana (reflexive awareness). It is often compared to a lamp in a dark room, which in the act of illuminating objects in the room also illuminates itself.

Tathagatagarbha[edit]

Main article: Tathagatagarbha
In the canonical discourses, when the brightly shining citta is "unstained," it is supremely poised for arahantship, and so could be conceived as the "womb" of the arahant, for which a synonym is tathagata.[17] The discourses do not support seeing the "luminous mind" as "nirvana within" which exists prior to liberation.[18] While the Canon does not support the identification of the "luminous mind" in its raw state with nirvanic consciousness, passages could be taken to imply that it can be transformed into the latter.[19][20] Upon the destruction of the fetters, according to one scholar, "the shining nibbanic consciousness flashes out of the womb of arahantship, being without object or support, so transcending all limitations."[21]
Both the Shurangama Sutra and the Lankavatara Sutra describe the tathagatagarbha ("arahant womb") as "by nature brightly shining and pure," and "originally pure," though "enveloped in the garments of the skandhas, dhatus and ayatanas and soiled with the dirt of attachment, hatred, delusion and false imagining." It is said to be "naturally pure," but it appears impure as it is stained by adventitious defilements.[22] Thus the Lankavatara Sutra identifies the luminous mind of the Canon with the tathagatagarbha.[23] (Some Gelug philosophers, in contrast to teachings in the Lankavatara Sutra, maintain that the "purity" of the tathagatagarbha is not because it is originally or fundamentally pure, but because mental flaws can be removed — that is, like anything else, they are not part of an individual's fundamental essence. These thinkers thus refuse to turn epistemological insight about emptiness and Buddha-nature into an essentialist metaphysics.[24])
The Shurangama Sutra and the Lankavatara Sutra also equate the tathagatagarbha (and alaya-vijnana) with nirvana, though this is concerned with the actual attainment of nirvana as opposed to nirvana as a timeless phenomenon.[25][26]

Bodhicitta[edit]

The Mahayana interprets the brightly shining citta as bodhicitta, the altruistic "spirit of awakening."[27] The Astasahasrika Perfection of Wisdom Sutra describes bodhicitta thus: "That citta is no citta since it is by nature brightly shining." This is in accord with Anguttara Nikaya I,10 which goes from a reference to brightly shining citta to saying that even the slightest development of loving-kindness is of great benefit. This implies that loving-kindness - and the related state of compassion - is inherent within the luminous mind as a basis for its further development.[28] The observation that the ground state of consciousness is of the nature of loving-kindness implies that empathy is innate to consciousness and exists prior to the emergence of all active mental processes.[29]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Jump up ^Oxford Reference, Luminous mind
  2. Jump up ^Harvey, page 94.
  3. Jump up ^Harvey, page 99.
  4. Jump up ^Collins, page 238.
  5. Jump up ^Harvey, page 99.
  6. Jump up ^Wallace, page 96.
  7. Jump up ^Harvey, page 94. The reference is at A I, 8-10.
  8. Jump up ^Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu, [1].
  9. Jump up ^Harvey, page 96.
  10. Jump up ^Ven. Ajahn Mun, ‘A Heart Released,’ p 23. Found in Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro, The Island: An Anthology of the Buddha’s Teachings on Nibbāna, pages 212-213. Available online at [2].
  11. Jump up ^Harvey, page 98.
  12. Jump up ^Thanissaro Bhikkhu, [3].
  13. Jump up ^Harvey, pages 98-99. See also pages 155-179 of Harvey2.
  14. Jump up ^Padmasiri De Silva, Robert Henry Thouless, Buddhist and Freudian Psychology. Third revised edition published by NUS Press, 1992 page 66.
  15. Jump up ^Walpola Rahula, quoted in Padmasiri De Silva, Robert Henry Thouless, Buddhist and Freudian Psychology. Third revised edition published by NUS Press, 1992 page 66, [4].
  16. Jump up ^Dan Lusthaus, Buddhist Phenomenology. Routledge, 2002, note 7 on page 154.
  17. Jump up ^Harvey, page 96.
  18. Jump up ^Harvey, pages 94, 96.
  19. Jump up ^Harvey, page 97. He finds the reference at S III, 54, taking into account statements at S II, 13, S II, 4, and S III, 59.
  20. Jump up ^Thanissaro Bhikkhu, [5].
  21. Jump up ^Harvey, page 99.
  22. Jump up ^Harvey, pages 96-97.
  23. Jump up ^Harvey, page 97.
  24. Jump up ^Liberman, page 263.
  25. Jump up ^Harvey, page 97.
  26. Jump up ^Henshall, page 36.
  27. Jump up ^Harvey, page 97.
  28. Jump up ^Harvey, page 97.
  29. Jump up ^Wallace, page 113.

Sources[edit]

  • Maha Boowa, Arahattamagga, Arahattaphala. Translated by Bhikkhu Silaratano. Available online here.
  • Steven Collins, Selfless Persons; imagery and thought in Theravada Buddhism. Cambridge University Press, 1982.
  • Peter Harvey, Consciousness Mysticism in the Discourses of the Buddha. In Karel Werner, ed., The Yogi and the Mystic. Curzon Press, 1989.
  • Peter Harvey, The Selfless Mind. Curzon Press, 1995.
  • Ron Henshall, The Unborn and the Emancipation from the Born. Thesis by a student of Peter Harvey, accessible online from here.
  • Kenneth Liberman, Dialectical Practice in Tibetan Philosophical Culture: An Ethnomethodological Inquiry Into Formal Reasoning. Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.
  • B. Alan Wallace, Contemplative Science. Columbia University Press, 2007.

External links[edit]

Dimension...Dimension...

$
0
0

 

This appears to be an improved entry on Dimension from Wikipedia which has also appeared somewhere else on this blog, or on another.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This article is about the dimension of a space. For the dimension of an object, see Physical dimension. For the dimension of a quantity, see Dimensional analysis. For other uses, see Dimension (disambiguation).
From left to right: the square, the cube and the tesseract. The two-dimensional (2d) square is bounded by one-dimensional (1d) lines; the three-dimensional (3d) cube by two-dimensional areas; and the four-dimensional (4d)tesseract by three-dimensional volumes. For display on a two-dimensional surface such as a screen, the 3d cube and 4d tesseract require projection.
The first four spatial dimensions.
1Two points can be connected to create a line segment.
2Two parallel line segments can be connected to form a square.
3Two parallel squares can be connected to form a cube.
4Two parallel cubes can be connected to form a tesseract.
In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a mathematical space (or object) is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it.[1][2] Thus a line has a dimension of one because only one coordinate is needed to specify a point on it – for example, the point at 5 on a number line. A surface such as a plane or the surface of a cylinder or sphere has a dimension of two because two coordinates are needed to specify a point on it – for example, both a latitude and longitude are required to locate a point on the surface of a sphere. The inside of a cube, a cylinder or a sphere is three-dimensional because three coordinates are needed to locate a point within these spaces.
In classical mechanics, space and time are different categories and refer to absolute space and time. That conception of the world is a four-dimensional space but not the one that was found necessary to describe electromagnetism. The four dimensions of spacetime consist of events that are not absolutely defined spatially and temporally, but rather are known relative to the motion of an observer. Minkowski space first approximates the universe without gravity; the pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of general relativity describe spacetime with matter and gravity. Ten dimensions are used to describe string theory, and the state-space of quantum mechanics is an infinite-dimensional function space.
The concept of dimension is not restricted to physical objects. High-dimensional spaces frequently occur in mathematics and the sciences. They may be parameter spaces or configuration spaces such as in Lagrangian or Hamiltonian mechanics; these are abstract spaces, independent of the physical space we live in.


In mathematicsEdit

In mathematics, the dimension of an object is an intrinsic property independent of the space in which the object is embedded. For example, a point on the unit circle in the plane can be specified by two Cartesian coordinates, but a single polar coordinate (the angle) would be sufficient, so the circle is 1-dimensional even though it exists in the 2-dimensional plane. This intrinsic notion of dimension is one of the chief ways the mathematical notion of dimension differs from its common usages.
The dimension of Euclidean n-spaceEn is n. When trying to generalize to other types of spaces, one is faced with the question "what makes Enn-dimensional?" One answer is that to cover a fixed ball in En by small balls of radius ε, one needs on the order of εn such small balls. This observation leads to the definition of the Minkowski dimension and its more sophisticated variant, the Hausdorff dimension, but there are also other answers to that question. For example, the boundary of a ball in En looks locally like En-1 and this leads to the notion of the inductive dimension. While these notions agree on En , they turn out to be different when one looks at more general spaces.
A tesseract is an example of a four-dimensional object. Whereas outside mathematics the use of the term "dimension" is as in: "A tesseract has four dimensions", mathematicians usually express this as: "The tesseract has dimension 4", or: "The dimension of the tesseract is 4".
Although the notion of higher dimensions goes back to René Descartes, substantial development of a higher-dimensional geometry only began in the 19th century, via the work of Arthur Cayley, William Rowan Hamilton, Ludwig Schläfli and Bernhard Riemann. Riemann's 1854 Habilitationsschrift, Schläfli's 1852 Theorie der vielfachen Kontinuität, Hamilton's 1843 discovery of the quaternions and the construction of the Cayley algebra marked the beginning of higher-dimensional geometry.
The rest of this section examines some of the more important mathematical definitions of the dimensions.

Complex dimensionEdit

Main article: Complex dimension
A complex number (x + iy) has a real part x and an imaginary part iy whose magnitude is y. A single complex coordinate system may be applied to an object having two real dimensions, for example an ordinary two-dimensional spherical surface, when given a complex metric, becomes a Riemann sphere of one complex dimension.[3] Complex dimensions appear in the study of complex manifolds and algebraic varieties.

Dimension of a vector spaceEdit

The dimension of a vector space is the number of vectors in any basis for the space, i.e. the number of coordinates necessary to specify any vector. This notion of dimension (the cardinality of a basis) is often referred to as the Hamel dimension or algebraic dimension to distinguish it from other notions of dimension.

ManifoldsEdit

A connected topological manifold is locallyhomeomorphic to Euclidean n-space, and the number n is called the manifold's dimension. One can show that this yields a uniquely defined dimension for every connected topological manifold.
For connected differentiable manifolds, the dimension is also the dimension of the tangent vector space at any point.
In geometric topology, the theory of manifolds is characterized by the way dimensions 1 and 2 are relatively elementary, the high-dimensional cases n> 4 are simplified by having extra space in which to "work"; and the cases n = 3 and 4 are in some senses the most difficult. This state of affairs was highly marked in the various cases of the Poincaré conjecture, where four different proof methods are applied.

VarietiesEdit

The dimension of an algebraic variety may be defined in various equivalent ways. The most intuitive way is probably the dimension of the tangent space at any regular point. Another intuitive way is to define the dimension as the number of hyperplanes that are needed in order to have an intersection with the variety that is reduced to a finite number of points (dimension zero). This definition is based on the fact that the intersection of a variety with a hyperplane reduces the dimension by one unless if the hyperplane contains the variety.
An algebraic set being a finite union of algebraic varieties, its dimension is the maximum of the dimensions of its components. It is equal to the maximal length of the chains V_0\subsetneq V_1\subsetneq \ldots \subsetneq V_d of sub-varieties of the given algebraic set (the length of such a chain is the number of "\subsetneq").
Each variety can be considered as an algebraic stack, and its dimension as variety agrees with its dimension as stack. There are however many stacks which do not correspond to varieties, and some of these have negative dimension. Specifically, if V is a variety of dimension m and G is an algebraic group of dimension nacting on V, then the quotient stack [V/G] has dimension mn.[4]

Krull dimensionEdit

Main article: Krull dimension
The Krull dimension of a commutative ring is the maximal length of chains of prime ideals in it, a chain of length n being a sequence \mathcal{P}_0\subsetneq \mathcal{P}_1\subsetneq \ldots \subsetneq\mathcal{P}_n of prime ideals related by inclusion. It is strongly related to the dimension of an algebraic variety, because of the natural correspondence between sub-varieties and prime ideals of the ring of the polynomials on the variety.
For an algebra over a field, the dimension as vector space is finite if and only if its Krull dimension is 0.

Lebesgue covering dimensionEdit

For any normal topological spaceX, the Lebesgue covering dimension of X is defined to be n if n is the smallest integer for which the following holds: any open cover has an open refinement (a second open cover where each element is a subset of an element in the first cover) such that no point is included in more than n + 1 elements. In this case dim X = n. For X a manifold, this coincides with the dimension mentioned above. If no such integer n exists, then the dimension of X is said to be infinite, and one writes dim X = ∞. Moreover, X has dimension −1, i.e. dim X = −1 if and only if X is empty. This definition of covering dimension can be extended from the class of normal spaces to all Tychonoff spaces merely by replacing the term "open" in the definition by the term "functionally open".

Inductive dimensionEdit

Main article: Inductive dimension
An inductive definition of dimension can be created as follows. Consider a discrete set of points (such as a finite collection of points) to be 0-dimensional. By dragging a 0-dimensional object in some direction, one obtains a 1-dimensional object. By dragging a 1-dimensional object in a new direction, one obtains a 2-dimensional object. In general one obtains an (n + 1)-dimensional object by dragging an n-dimensional object in a new direction.
The inductive dimension of a topological space may refer to the small inductive dimension or the large inductive dimension, and is based on the analogy that (n + 1)-dimensional balls have n-dimensional boundaries, permitting an inductive definition based on the dimension of the boundaries of open sets.

Hausdorff dimensionEdit

Main article: Hausdorff dimension
For structurally complicated sets, especially fractals, the Hausdorff dimension is useful. The Hausdorff dimension is defined for all metric spaces and, unlike the dimensions considered above, can also attain non-integer real values.[5] The box dimension or Minkowski dimension is a variant of the same idea. In general, there exist more definitions of fractal dimensions that work for highly irregular sets and attain non-integer positive real values. Fractals have been found useful to describe many natural objects and phenomena.[6][page needed][7][page needed]

Hilbert spacesEdit

Every Hilbert space admits an orthonormal basis, and any two such bases for a particular space have the same cardinality. This cardinality is called the dimension of the Hilbert space. This dimension is finite if and only if the space's Hamel dimension is finite, and in this case the above dimensions coincide.

In physicsEdit

Spatial dimensionsEdit

Classical physics theories describe three physical dimensions: from a particular point in space, the basic directions in which we can move are up/down, left/right, and forward/backward. Movement in any other direction can be expressed in terms of just these three. Moving down is the same as moving up a negative distance. Moving diagonally upward and forward is just as the name of the direction implies; i.e., moving in a linear combination of up and forward. In its simplest form: a line describes one dimension, a plane describes two dimensions, and a cube describes three dimensions. (See Space and Cartesian coordinate system.)
Number of
dimensions
Example co-ordinate systems
1
Number line
Number line
Angle
Angle
2
Cartesian system (2d)
Cartesian (two-dimensional)
Polar system
Polar
Geographic system
Latitude and longitude
3
Cartesian system (3d)
Cartesian (three-dimensional)
Cylindrical system
Cylindrical
Spherical system
Spherical

TimeEdit

A temporal dimension is a dimension of time. Time is often referred to as the "fourth dimension" for this reason, but that is not to imply that it is a spatial dimension. A temporal dimension is one way to measure physical change. It is perceived differently from the three spatial dimensions in that there is only one of it, and that we cannot move freely in time but subjectively move in one direction.
The equations used in physics to model reality do not treat time in the same way that humans commonly perceive it. The equations of classical mechanics are symmetric with respect to time, and equations of quantum mechanics are typically symmetric if both time and other quantities (such as charge and parity) are reversed. In these models, the perception of time flowing in one direction is an artifact of the laws of thermodynamics (we perceive time as flowing in the direction of increasing entropy).
The best-known treatment of time as a dimension is Poincaré and Einstein's special relativity (and extended to general relativity), which treats perceived space and time as components of a four-dimensional manifold, known as spacetime, and in the special, flat case as Minkowski space.

Additional dimensionsEdit

In physics, three dimensions of space and one of time is the accepted norm. However, there are theories that attempt to unify the four fundamental forces by introducing more dimensions. Most notably, superstring theory requires 10 spacetime dimensions, and originates from a more fundamental 11-dimensional theory tentatively called M-theory which subsumes five previously distinct superstring theories. To date, no experimental or observational evidence is available to confirm the existence of these extra dimensions. If extra dimensions exist, they must be hidden from us by some physical mechanism. One well-studied possibility is that the extra dimensions may be "curled up" at such tiny scales as to be effectively invisible to current experiments. Limits on the size and other properties of extra dimensions are set by particle experiments[clarification needed] such as those at the Large Hadron Collider.[8]
At the level of quantum field theory, Kaluza–Klein theory unifies gravity with gauge interactions, based on the realization that gravity propagating in small, compact extra dimensions is equivalent to gauge interactions at long distances. In particular when the geometry of the extra dimensions is trivial, it reproduces electromagnetism. However at sufficiently high energies or short distances, this setup still suffers from the same pathologies that famously obstruct direct attempts to describe quantum gravity. Therefore, these models still require a UV completion, of the kind that string theory is intended to provide. In particular, superstring theory requires six compact dimensions forming a Calabi–Yau manifold. Thus Kaluza-Klein theory may be considered either as an incomplete description on its own, or as a subset of string theory model building.
In addition to small and curled up extra dimensions, there may be extra dimensions that instead aren't apparent because the matter associated with our visible universe is localized on a (3 + 1)-dimensional subspace. Thus the extra dimensions need not be small and compact but may be large extra dimensions. D-branes are dynamical extended objects of various dimensionalities predicted by string theory that could play this role. They have the property that open string excitations, which are associated with gauge interactions, are confined to the brane by their endpoints, whereas the closed strings that mediate the gravitational interaction are free to propagate into the whole spacetime, or "the bulk". This could be related to why gravity is exponentially weaker than the other forces, as it effectively dilutes itself as it propagates into a higher-dimensional volume.
Some aspects of brane physics have been applied to cosmology. For example, brane gas cosmology[9][10] attempts to explain why there are three dimensions of space using topological and thermodynamic considerations. According to this idea it would be because three is the largest number of spatial dimensions where strings can generically intersect. If initially there are lots of windings of strings around compact dimensions, space could only expand to macroscopic sizes once these windings are eliminated, which requires oppositely wound strings to find each other and annihilate. But strings can only find each other to annihilate at a meaningful rate in three dimensions, so it follows that only three dimensions of space are allowed to grow large given this kind of initial configuration.
Extra dimensions are said to be universal if all fields are equally free to propagate within them.

Networks and dimensionEdit

Some complex networks are characterized by fractal dimensions.[11] The concept of dimension can be generalized to include networks embedded in space.[12] The dimension characterize their spatial constraints.

In literatureEdit

Science fiction texts often mention the concept of "dimension" when referring to parallel or alternate universes or other imagined planes of existence. This usage is derived from the idea that to travel to parallel/alternate universes/planes of existence one must travel in a direction/dimension besides the standard ones. In effect, the other universes/planes are just a small distance away from our own, but the distance is in a fourth (or higher) spatial (or non-spatial) dimension, not the standard ones.
One of the most heralded science fiction stories regarding true geometric dimensionality, and often recommended as a starting point for those just starting to investigate such matters, is the 1884 novella Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott. Isaac Asimov, in his foreword to the Signet Classics 1984 edition, described Flatland as "The best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions."
The idea of other dimensions was incorporated into many early science fiction stories, appearing prominently, for example, in Miles J. Breuer's The Appendix and the Spectacles (1928) and Murray Leinster's The Fifth-Dimension Catapult (1931); and appeared irregularly in science fiction by the 1940s. Classic stories involving other dimensions include Robert A. Heinlein's —And He Built a Crooked House (1941), in which a California architect designs a house based on a three-dimensional projection of a tesseract; and Alan E. Nourse's Tiger by the Tail and The Universe Between (both 1951). Another reference is Madeleine L'Engle's novel A Wrinkle In Time (1962), which uses the fifth dimension as a way for "tesseracting the universe" or "folding" space in order to move across it quickly. The fourth and fifth dimensions were also a key component of the book The Boy Who Reversed Himself by William Sleator.

In philosophyEdit

Immanuel Kant, in 1783, wrote: "That everywhere space (which is not itself the boundary of another space) has three dimensions and that space in general cannot have more dimensions is based on the proposition that not more than three lines can intersect at right angles in one point. This proposition cannot at all be shown from concepts, but rests immediately on intuition and indeed on pure intuition a priori because it is apodictically (demonstrably) certain."[13]
"Space has Four Dimensions" is a short story published in 1846 by German philosopher and experimental psychologistGustav Fechner under the pseudonym"Dr. Mises". The protagonist in the tale is a shadow who is aware of and able to communicate with other shadows, but who is trapped on a two-dimensional surface. According to Fechner, this "shadow-man" would conceive of the third dimension as being one of time.[14] The story bears a strong similarity to the "Allegory of the Cave" presented in Plato's The Republic (c. 380 BC).
Simon Newcomb wrote an article for the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society in 1898 entitled "The Philosophy of Hyperspace".[15] Linda Dalrymple Henderson coined the term "hyperspace philosophy", used to describe writing that uses higher dimensions to explore metaphysical themes, in her 1983 thesis about the fourth dimension in early-twentieth-century art.[16] Examples of "hyperspace philosophers" include Charles Howard Hinton, the first writer, in 1888, to use the word "tesseract";[17] and the Russian esotericistP. D. Ouspensky.

More dimensionsEdit

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

  1. ^"Curious About Astronomy". Curious.astro.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2014-03-03. 
  2. ^"MathWorld: Dimension". Mathworld.wolfram.com. 2014-02-27. Retrieved 2014-03-03. 
  3. ^Yau, S-T and Nadis, S.; The Shape of Inner Space, Basic Books, 2010, Chapter 4.
  4. ^Fantechi, Barbara (2001), "Stacks for everybody"(PDF), European Congress of Mathematics Volume I, Progr. Math. 201, Birkhäuser, pp. 349–359 
  5. ^Fractal Dimension, Boston University Department of Mathematics and Statistics
  6. ^Bunde, Armin; Havlin, Shlomo, eds. (1991). Fractals and Disordered Systems. Springer. 
  7. ^Bunde, Armin; Havlin, Shlomo, eds. (1994). Fractals in Science. Springer. 
  8. ^CMS Collaboration, "Search for Microscopic Black Hole Signatures at the Large Hadron Collider" (arxiv.org)
  9. ^Brandenberger, R., Vafa, C., Superstrings in the early universe
  10. ^Scott Watson, Brane Gas Cosmology (pdf).
  11. ^Song, Chaoming; Havlin, Shlomo; Makse, Hernán A. (2005). "Self-similarity of complex networks". Nature433 (7024). arXiv:cond-mat/0503078v1. Bibcode:2005Natur.433..392S. doi:10.1038/nature03248. 
  12. ^Daqing, Li; Kosmidis, Kosmas; Bunde, Armin; Havlin, Shlomo (2011). "Dimension of spatially embedded networks". Nature Physics7 (6). Bibcode:2011NatPh...7..481D. doi:10.1038/nphys1932. 
  13. ^Prolegomena, § 12
  14. ^Banchoff, Thomas F. (1990). "From Flatland to Hypergraphics: Interacting with Higher Dimensions". Interdisciplinary Science Reviews15 (4): 364. doi:10.1179/030801890789797239. 
  15. ^Newcomb, Simon (1898). "The Philosophy of Hyperspace". Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society4 (5): 187. doi:10.1090/S0002-9904-1898-00478-0. 
  16. ^Kruger, Runette (2007). "Art in the Fourth Dimension: Giving Form to Form – The Abstract Paintings of Piet Mondrian"(PDF). Spaces of Utopia: an Electronic Journal (5): 11. 
  17. ^Pickover, Clifford A. (2009), "Tesseract", The Math Book: From Pythagoras to the 57th Dimension, 250 Milestones in the History of Mathematics, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., p. 282, ISBN 9781402757969 .

Further readingEdit

External linksEdit

Read in another language

Plane (esotericism)

$
0
0

 

Planes of existenceGross and subtle bodies
Theosophy
Rosicrucian
The 7 Worlds & the 7 Cosmic Planes
The Seven-fold constitution of Man
The Ten-fold constitution of Man
Thelema
Body of light | Thelemic mysticism
Hermeticism
Hermeticism | Cosmogony
Surat Shabda Yoga
Cosmology
Jainism
Jain cosmology
Sufism
Sufi cosmology
Hinduism
Talas/Lokas - Tattvas, Kosas, Upadhis
Buddhism
Buddhist cosmology
Gnosticism
Seven earths
Kabbalah
Atziluth -> Beri'ah -> Yetzirah -> Assiah
Sephirot
Fourth Way
Ray of Creation
The Laws
Three Centers and Five Centers
Blogger Ref  http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science


In esoteric cosmology, a plane other than the physical plane is conceived as a subtle state of consciousness that transcends the known physical universe.
The concept may be found in religious and esoteric teachings—e.g.Vedanta (Advaita Vedanta), Ayyavazhi, shamanism, Hermeticism, Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, Kashmir Shaivism, Sant Mat/Surat Shabd Yoga, Sufism, Druze, Kabbalah, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, Rosicrucianism (Esoteric Christian), Eckankar, Ascended Master Teachings, etc.—which propound the idea of a whole series of subtle planes or worlds or dimensions which, from a center, interpenetrate themselves and the physical planet in which we live, the solar systems, and all the physical structures of the universe. This interpenetration of planes culminates in the universe itself as a physical structured, dynamic and evolutive expression emanated through a series of steadily denser stages, becoming progressively more material and embodied.
The emanation is conceived, according to esoteric teachings, to have originated, at the dawn of the universe's manifestation, in The Supreme Being Who sent out—from the unmanifested Absolute beyond comprehension—the dynamic force of creative energy, as sound-vibration ("the Word"), into the abyss of space. Alternatively, it states that this dynamic force is being sent forth, through the ages, framing all things that constitute and inhabit the universe.


Origins of the conceptEdit

The concept of planes of existence might be seen as deriving from shamanic and traditional mythological ideas of a vertical world-axis — for example a cosmic mountain, tree, or pole (such as Yggdrasil or Mount Meru) — or a philosophical conception of a Great Chain of Being, arranged metaphorically from God down to inanimate matter.
However the original source of the word "plane" in this context is the late NeoplatonistProclus, who refers to to platos, "breadth", which was the equivalent of the 19th century theosophical use. An example is the phrase en to psychiko platei.[1]

Conceptions in ancient traditionsEdit

Directly equivalent concepts in Indian thought are lokas and bhuvanas. In Hindu cosmology, there are many lokas or worlds, that are identified with both traditional cosmology and states of meditation.
Planes of existence may have been referred to by the use of the term corresponding to the word "egg" in English. For example, the Sanskrit term Brahmanda translates to "The Egg of Creation". Certain Puranic accounts posit that the Brahmanda is the superset of a set of fractal smaller Eggs, as is seen in the assertion of the equivalence of the Brahmanda and the Pinda.[2]
The ancient Norse mythology gave the name "Ginnungagap" to the primordial "Chaos," which was bounded upon the northern side by the cold and foggy "Niflheim"—the land of mist and fog—and upon the south side by the fire "Muspelheim." When heat and cold entered into space which was occupied by Chaos or Ginnungagap, they caused the crystallization of the visible universe.
In the medieval West and Middle East, one finds reference to four worlds (olam) in Kabbalah, or five in Sufism (where they are also called tanazzulat; "descents"), and also in Lurianic Kabbalah. In Kabbalah, each of the four or five worlds are themselves divided into ten sefirot, or else divided in other ways.

Esoteric conceptionsEdit

The alchemists of the Middle Ages proposed ideas about the constitution of the universe through a hermetic language full of esoteric words, phrases, and signs designed to cloak their meaning from those not initiated into the ways of alchemy. In his "Physica" (1633), the Rosicrucian alchemist Jan Baptist van Helmont, wrote: "Ad huc spiritum incognitum Gas voco" q.e., "This hitherto unknown Spirit I call Gas." Further on in the same work he says, "This vapor which I have called Gas is not far removed from the Chaos the ancients spoke of." Later on, similar ideas would evolve around the idea of aether.
In the late 19th century, the metaphysical term "planes" was popularised by the theosophy of H.P. Blavatsky, who in The Secret Doctrine and other writings propounded a complex cosmology consisting of seven planes and subplanes, based on a synthesis of Eastern and Western ideas. From theosophy the term made its way to later esoteric systems such as that of Alice Bailey, who was very influential in shaping the worldview of the New Age movement. The term is also found in some Eastern teachings that have some Western influence, such as the cosmology of Sri Aurobindo and some of the later Sant Mat, and also in some descriptions of Buddhist cosmology. The teachings of Surat Shabd Yoga also include several planes of the creation within both the macrocosm and microcosm, including the Bramanda egg contained within the Sach Khand egg. Max Theon used the word "States" (French Etat) rather than "Planes", in his cosmic philosophy, but the meaning is the same.
The planes in Theosophy were further systematized in the writings of C.W. Leadbeater and Annie Besant.
In the early 20th century, Max Heindel presented in The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception a cosmology related to the scheme of evolution in general and the evolution of the solar system and the Earth in particular, according to the Rosicrucians. He establishes, through the conceptions presented, a bridge between modern science (currently starting research into the subtler plane of existence behind the physical, the etheric one) and religion, in order that this last one may be able to address man's inner questions raised by scientific advancement.
The spiritual teacher Meher Baba proposed that there are six planes of consciousness that must be experienced before one can attain God-realization on the seventh plane: "Each definite stage of advancement represents a state of consciousness, and advancement from one state of consciousness to another proceeds side by side with crossing the inner planes. Thus six intermediate planes and states of consciousness have to be experienced before reaching the seventh plane which is the end of the journey and where there is final realisation of the God-state."[3]

Emanation vs. Big BangEdit

Further information: Emanationism
Most cosmologists today believe that the universe exploded into being some 13.8 billion years ago[4] in a 'smeared-out singularity' called the Big Bang, meaning that space itself came into being at the moment of the big bang and has expanded ever since, creating and carrying the galaxies with it.[5]
However, in esoteric cosmology expansion refers to the emanation or unfolding of steadily denser planes or spheres from the spiritual summit, what Greek philosophy called The One, until the lowest and most material world is reached.
According to Rosicrucians, another difference is that there is no such thing as empty or void space.
"The space is Spirit in its attenuated form; while matter is crystallized space or Spirit. Spirit in manifestation is dual, that which we see as Form is the negative manifestation of Spirit--crystallized and inert. The positive pole of Spirit manifests as Life, galvanizing the negative Form into action, but both Life and Form originated in Spirit, Space, Chaos! On the other hand, Chaos is not a state which has existed in the past and has now entirely disappeared. It is all around us at the present moment. Were it not that old forms--having outlived their usefulness--are constantly being resolved back into that Chaos, which is also as constantly giving birth to new forms, there could be no progress; the work of evolution would cease and stagnation would prevent the possibility of advancement."[6]

The PlanesEdit

In occult teachings and as held by psychics and other esoteric authors there are seven planes of existence.[7]
Most occult and esoteric teachings are in agreement that seven planes of existence exist; however, many different occult and metaphysical schools label the planes of existence with different terminology.

Physical planeEdit

The physical plane or physical universe, in emanationist metaphysics taught in Neoplatonism, Hermeticism, Hinduism, and Theosophy, refers to the visible reality of space and time, energy and matter: the physical universe in Occultism and esoteric cosmology is the lowest or densest of a series of planes of existence.
According to Theosophists, after the physical plane is the etheric plane and both of these planes are connected to make up the first plane.[8] Theosophy also teaches that when the physical body dies the etheric body is left behind and the soul forms into an astral body on the astral plane.[9]
The psychical researcher F. W. H. Myers proposed the existence of a “metetherial world”, which he wrote to be a world of images lying beyond the physical world. He wrote that apparitions have a real existence in the metetherial world which he described as a dream-like world.[10]

Astral planeEdit

The astral spheres were thought to be planes of angelic existence intermediate between earth and heaven
The astral plane, also known as the emotional plane is where consciousness goes after physical death. According to occult philosophy man possesses an astral body. The astral plane (also known as the astral world) was postulated by classical (particularly neo-Platonic), medieval, oriental, and esoteric philosophies and mystery religions.[11] It is the world of the planetary spheres, crossed by the soul in its astral body on the way to being born and after death, and generally said to be populated by angels, spirits, or other immaterial beings.[12] In the late 19th and early 20th century the term was popularised by Theosophy and neo-Rosicrucianism.
Throughout the renaissance, philosophers, Paracelsians, Rosicrucians, and alchemists continued to discuss the nature of the astral world intermediate between earth and the divine. The Barzakh, olam mithal or intermediate world in Islam and the "World of Yetzirah" in LurianicQabala are related concepts.
According to occult teachings the astral plane can be visited consciously through astral projection, meditation, and mantra, near death experience, lucid dreaming, or other means. Individuals that are trained in the use of the astral vehicle can separate their consciousness in the astral vehicle from the physical body at will.[13]
The Theosophist author Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa wrote that [sic] "When a person dies, they [sic] become fully conscious in the astral body. After a certain time, the astral body disintegrates, and the person then becomes conscious on the mental plane."[14]
Occultist George Arundale wrote:
In the astral world exist temporarily all those physical entities, men and animals, for whom sleep involves a separation of the physical body for a time from the higher bodies. While we "sleep", we live in our astral bodies, either fully conscious and active, or partly conscious and semi-dormant, as the case may be, according to our evolutionary growth; when we "wake", the physical and the higher bodies are interlocked again, and we cease to be inhabitants of the astral world.” [15]
Some writers have claimed the astral plane can be reached by dreaming. Sylvan Muldoon and psychical researcher Hereward Carrington in their book The Projection of the Astral Body (1929) wrote:
"When you are dreaming you are not really in the same world as when you are conscious — in the physical — although the two worlds merge into one another. While dreaming, you really are in the astral plane, and usually your astral body is in the zone of quietude."[16]
Astral projection author Robert Bruce describes the astral as seven planes that take the form of planar surfaces when approached from a distance, separated by immense coloured "buffer zones". These planes are endlessly repeating ruled Cartesian coordinate system grids, tiled with a single signature pattern that is different for each plane. Higher planes have bright, colourful patterns, whereas lower planes appear far duller. Every detail of these patterns acts as a consistent portal to a different kingdom inside the plane, which itself comprises many separate realms. Bruce notes that the astral may also be entered by means of long tubes that bear visual similarity to these planes, and conjectures that the grids and tubes are in fact the same structures approached from a different perceptual angle.
In his book Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramhansa Yogananda provides details about the astral planes learned from his resurrected guru.[17] Yogananda reveals that nearly all individuals enter the astral planes after death. There they work out the seeds of past karma through astral incarnations, or (if their karma requires) they return to earthly incarnations for further refinement. Once an individual has attained the meditative state of nirvikalpa samadhi in an earthy or astral incarnation, the soul may progress upward to the "illumined astral planet" of Hiranyaloka.[17] After this transitionary stage, the soul may then move upward to the more subtle causal spheres where many incarnations allow them to further refine until final unification.[18]

Mental planeEdit

The mental plane, also known as the causal plane is the third lowest plane according to Theosophy. The mental plane is divided into seven sub-planes.
Charles Webster Leadbeater wrote:
In the mental world one formulates a thought and it is instantly transmitted to the mind of another without any expression in the form of words. Therefore on that plane language does not matter in the least; but helpers working in the astral world, who have not yet the power to use the mental vehicle.[19]
Annie Besant wrote that "The mental plane, as its name implies, is that which belongs to consciousness working as thought; not of the mind as it works through the brain, but as it works through its own world, unencumbered with physical spirit-matter.[20]
A detailed description of the mental plane, along with the mental body, is provided by Arthur E. Powell, who has compiled information in the works of Besant and Leadbeater in a series of books on each of the subtle bodies.
According to Hindu occultism the mental plane consists of two divisions, the lower division is known as heaven (swarglok) and the upper division is known as the causal plane (maharlok).[21]
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami wrote:
"The causal plane is the world of light and blessedness, the highest of heavenly regions, extolled in the scriptures of all faiths. It is the foundation of existence, the source of visions, the point of conception, the apex of creation. The causal plane is the abode of Lord Siva and His entourage of Mahadevas and other highly evolved souls who exist in their own self-effulgent form--radiant bodies of centillions of quantum light particles."[22]
Sri Aurobindo developed a very different concept of the mental plane, through his own synthesis of Vedanta (including the Taittiriya Upanishad), Tantra, Theosophy, and Max Théon ideas (which he received via The Mother, who was Theon's student in occultism for two years). In this cosmology, there are seven cosmic planes, three lower, corresponding to relative existence (the Physical, Vital, and Mental), and four higher, representing infinite divine reality (Life Divine bk.1 ch.27) The Aurobindonian Mind or Mental Plane constitutes a large zone of being from the mental vital to the overmental divine region (Letters on Yoga, Jyoti and Prem Sobel 1984), but as with the later Theosophical concept it constitutes an objective reality of sheer mind or thought.

Buddhic plane (also known as Unity Plane)Edit

The buddhic plane is described as a realm of pure consciousness.[23] According to Theosophy the buddhic plane exists to develop buddhic consciousness which means to become unselfish and solve any problems with the ego.[24]Charles Leadbeater wrote that in the buddhic plane man casts off the delusion of the self and enters a realization of unity.[25]
Annie Besant defined the buddhic plane as
Persistent, conscious, spiritual awareness. This is the full consciousness of the buddhic or intuitional level. This is the perceptive consciousness which is the outstanding characteristic of the Hierarchy. The life focus of the man shifts to the buddhic plane. This is the fourth or middle state of consciousness.[26]
Sri Aurobindo calls the level above the mental plane the supermind.[27]

Spiritual planeEdit

George Winslow Plummer wrote that the spiritual plane is split into many sub-planes and that on these planes live spiritual beings who are more advanced in development and status than ordinary man.[28] According to metaphysical teachings the goal of the spiritual plane is to gain spiritual knowledge and experience.[29]

Divine planeEdit

According to some occult teachings, all souls are born on the divine plane and then descend down through the lower planes; however souls will work their way back to the divine plane.[30][31] On the divine plane souls can be opened to conscious communication with the sphere of the divine known as the Absolute and receive knowledge about the nature of reality.[32]
Rosicrucianism teaches that the divine plane is where Jesus dwelt in Christ consciousness.[33]

Logoic plane (also known as Monadic Plane)Edit

The logoic plane is the highest plane, it has been described as a plane of total oneness, the "I AM Presence". Joshua David Stone describes the plane as complete unity with God.[34]
The monadic plane (hyperplane) or continuum/universe, enclosing and interpenetrating grosser hyperplanes, respectively is the plane in which the monad or holy spirit or oversoul is said to exist.

31 planesEdit

Main article: Buddhist cosmology
In Buddhism, the world is made up of 31 planes of existence that one can be reborn into, separated into 3 realms.

The SummerlandEdit

Main article: The Summerland
The Summerland is the name given by Theosophists, Spiritualists, Wiccans, and some earth-based contemporary pagan religions to their conceptualization of existence on a plane in an afterlife.[35]
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) inspired Andrew Jackson Davis (1826–1910), in his major work The Great Harmonia to say that Summerland is the pinnacle of spiritual achievement in the afterlife; that is, it is the highest level, or sphere, of the afterlife we can hope to enter. The common portrayal of the Summerland is as a place of rest for souls after or between their earthly incarnations. Some believe spirits will stay in the Summerland for an eternal afterlife, though others believe after an amount of time some spirits will reincarnate. The Summerland is also envisioned as a place for recollection and reunion with deceased loved ones.[36]
As the name suggests, it is often imagined as a place of beauty and peace, where everything people hold close to their hearts is preserved in its fullest beauty for eternity. It is envisioned as containing wide (possibly eternal) fields of rolling green hills and lush grass. In many ways, this ideology is similar to the Welsh view of Annwn as an afterlife realm. The Summerland is also viewed as the place where one goes in the afterlife in traditions of Spiritualism and Theosophy, which is where Wicca got the term.
In Theosophy, the term "Summerland" is used without the definite article "the". Summerland, also called the Astral plane Heaven, is depicted as where souls who have been good in their previous lives go between incarnations. Those who have been bad go to Hell, which is believed to be located below the surface of the Earth and is on the astral plane and is composed of the densest astral matter; the Spiritual Hierarchy functioning within Earth functions on the etheric plane below the surface of the Earth.[37]
It is believed by Theosophists that most people (those at high levels of initiation) go to a specific Summerland that is set up for people of each religion. For example, Christians go to a Christian heaven, Jews go to a Jewish heaven, Muslims go to a Muslim heaven, Hindus goes to a Hindu heaven, Theosophists go to a Theosophical heaven, and so forth, each heaven being like that described in the scriptures of that religion. There is also a generic Summerland for those who were atheists or agnostics in their previous lives. People who belong to religions that don't believe in reincarnation are surprised to find out when they get to heaven that they will have to reincarnate again within a few dozen to a few hundred years. Each heaven is believed to be an extensive structure composed of astral matter located on the astral plane about three or four miles (5–6 km) above the surface of Earth, above that part of the world where the particular religion that the heaven is meant for is most predominant.
Theosophists also believe there is another higher level of heaven called Devachan, also called the Mental plane Heaven, which some but not all souls reach between incarnations—only those souls that are more highly developed spiritually reach this level, those souls that are at the first, second, and third levels of initiation. Devachan is several miles (around 10 km) higher above the surface of Earth than Summerland.[37]
The final permanent eternal afterlife heaven to which Theosophists believe most people will go millions or billions of years in the future, after our cycle of reincarnations in this Round is over.[38] In order to go to Nirvana, it is necessary to have attained the fourth level of initiation or higher, meaning one is an arhat and thus no longer needs to reincarnate.

Alleged inhabitants of the various planesEdit

Occult writers such as Geoffrey Hodson, Mellie Uyldert, and Dora van Gelder had attempted to classify different spiritual beings into a hierarchy based on their assumed place and function on the planes of existence.
Charles Webster Leadbeater fundamentally described and incorporated his comprehension of intangible beings for Theosophy. Along with him there are various planes intertwined with the quotidian human world and are all inhabited by multitudes of entities. Each plane is purported as composed of discrete density of astral or ethereal matter and frequently the denizens of a plane have no discernment of other ones. Other Theosophical writers such as Alice Bailey, a contemporary of Leadbeater, also gave continuousness to Theosophical concepts of ethereal beings and her works had a great impact over New Age movement.[39][40] She puts the nature spirits and devas as ethereal beings immersed in macro divisions of an interwoven threefold universe, usually they belong to the etheric, astral, or mental planes. The ethereal entities of the four kingdoms, Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, are forces of nature.
The Dutch writer Mellie Uyldert, self-proclaimed clairvoyant, characterized the semblance and behavior of ethereal entities on the etheric plane, which, she said, hover above plants and transfer energy for vitalizing the plant, then nourishing themselves on rays of sunlight. She depicted them as asexual gender, and composed of etheric matter. They fly three meters over the ground, some have wings like butterflies while others only have a small face and an aura waving graciously. Some are huge while others may have the size of one inch.[41]

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

  1. ^Dodds, cited in Poortman, 1978, vol II, p. 54
  2. ^Kak, Subhash: The Architecture of Knowledge
  3. ^Baba, Meher (1967). Discourses. 2. San Francisco: Sufism Reoriented. p. 22. ISBN 978-1-880619-09-4.
  4. ^"Cosmic Detectives". The European Space Agency (ESA). 2013-04-02. Retrieved 2013-04-15. 
  5. ^Wright, E.L. (9 May 2009). "What is the evidence for the Big Bang?". Frequently Asked Questions in Cosmology. UCLA, Division of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Retrieved 2009-10-16. 
  6. ^Heindel, Max, The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception (Chapter XI: The Genesis and Evolution of our Solar System), 1909, ISBN 0-911274-34-0
  7. ^Seven Planes of Existence - Theta Medical Intuition
  8. ^John Friedlander, Gloria Hemsher Psychic Psychology: Energy Skills for Life and Relationships 2011, p. 196
  9. ^Norman C. McClelland Encyclopedia of Reincarnation and Karma 2010, p. 32
  10. ^Myers, F. H. W. (1903). Human personality and its survival of death. London: Longmans.
  11. ^G.R.S.Mead, The Doctrine of the Subtle Body in Western Tradition, Watkins 1919.
  12. ^Plato, The Republic, trans. Desmond Lee, Harmondsworth.
  13. ^J. H. Brennan, Astral Doorways, Thoth Publications 1996 ISBN 978-1-870450-21-8
  14. ^First Principles of Theosophy, pp. 139–140
  15. ^Curuppumullagē Jinarājadāsa First Principles of Theosophy Theosophical Publishing House, 1922, p. 93
  16. ^Sylvan J. Muldoon and Hereward Carrington Projection of the Astral Body Kessinger reprint edition, 2003, p. 97
  17. ^ abParamhansa Yogananda (1946). Autobiography of a Yogi (Google books). The Philosophical Library, Inc. Retrieved 20 July 2011. 
  18. ^Paramhansa Yogananda (1946). "Autobiography of a Yogi". Retrieved 20 July 2011. 
  19. ^Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, p. 264
  20. ^Annie Besant The Ancient Wisdom: An Outline of Theosophical Teachings 1939, Chapter IV
  21. ^Ravindra Kumar, Jytte Larsen The Kundalini book of living and dying: gateways to a higher consciousness 2004, p. 39
  22. ^Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, Dancing With Siva : Hinduism's Contemporary Catechism, 1996, xxxv, 1008 p., ill., Sixth Edition, First Printing, 2003 Himalayan Academy online
  23. ^Joshua David Stone, Janna Shelley A Beginner's Guide to the Path of Ascension p. 11
  24. ^Charles Leadbeater Inner Life Kessinger reprint edition, 2003, p.226
  25. ^Charles Leadbeater The Masters and the Path 2007, p. 180
  26. ^Alice Bailey The Rays and the Initiations 1971, p. 463
  27. ^Madis Senner The Way Home: Making Heaven on Earth 2009, p. 239
  28. ^George Winslow Plummer Mercury: An Official Organ of the Societas Rosicruciana in America 1916-1921 Kessinger reprint edition, 1998, p. 106
  29. ^Raymond T. Kranyak Metaphysical Secrets for Health and Success in Life 2009, p. 12
  30. ^M. C. Poinsot Complete Book of the Occult and Fortune Telling Kessinger reprint edition, 2003, p. 472
  31. ^The encyclopedia of occult sciences, R. M. McBride and company, 1939, p. 472
  32. ^John Hamlin Dewey New Testament of Occultism Kessinger reprint edition, 2003, p. 105
  33. ^The Rosicrucian Digest September 1932, p. 288
  34. ^Joshua David Stone, Janna Shelley Parker A Beginner's Guide to the Path of Ascension 1998, p. 13
  35. ^The Spirit World Descriptions by Early Spiritualists by Barbara N. Starr
  36. ^Life in the Spirit World: Part One General Introduction By Rev. Simeon Stefanidakis
  37. ^ abLeadbeater, C.W A Textbook of Theosophy 1912
  38. ^Various Levels of the Afterlife in Theosophy:
  39. ^Gary Laderman, Luis D. León; Religion and American cultures: an encyclopedia of traditions, diversity, and popular expressions - Volume 3, 2003; p. 236. ISBN 1-57607-238-X.
  40. ^Michael York, The emerging network: a sociology of the New Age and neo-pagan movements, 1995; p. 66. ISBN 0-8476-8001-0.
  41. ^Mellie Uyldert The psychic garden: Plants and their esoteric relationship with man Thorsons, 1980 ISBN 0-7225-0548-5

Further readingEdit

  • Johannes Jacobus Poortman, Vehicles of Consciousness. The Concept of Hylic Pluralism, The Theosophical Society in Netherlands, 1978
  • Heindel, Max, The Rosicrucian Mysteries (Chapter III: The Visible and the Invisible Worlds), 1911, ISBN 0-911274-86-3
  • H. P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Theosophical Publishing House, 1888

External linksEdit

Read in another language
Viewing all 524 articles
Browse latest View live