“See how he dances
See how he loops from side to side
See how he prances
The way his hooves just seem to glide
He’s just a one trick pony (that’s all he is)
But he turns that trick with pride”
- Paul Simon, One Trick Pony
This is something I was tipped to, over at Aaron Kinney’s Kill the Afterlife blog, here. Specifically, one Samael Aun Weor.
While this fellow in his lifetime dabbled in a plethora of arcane subjects, he was a one-trick pony, via the use of Occam’s razor, illustrated here:
“In The Revolution of Beelzebub (1950), Samael Aun Weor announced himself the White Rider of the New Testament's Book of Revelation, whose name is the "Word of God."
Which gave him the authority to multiply entities needlessly (dontcha just love paradoxes?).
As with any self-declared prophet, he of course had a zillion anecdotes to back his play:
“In his autobiographical work The Three Mountains, Samael recounts the ways in which he had already assimilated into his understanding a vast amount of esoteric and occult knowledge before reaching adulthood. He states that because he was born with an awakened consciousness, he recapitulated his practice of meditation and was analyzing previous incarnations before mastering how to walk.”
Yeesh, the mystical equivalent of Mozart without music?
“At the age of seventeen, he was asked to lecture at the local Theosophical Chapter, and a year later was admitted into the occult society Fraternitas Rosicruciana Antiqua (F.R.A.). While a student in the F.R.A., Samael methodically studied the entire Rosicrucian library, expanding his intellectual culture and seeking out the secret path of true religion. Allegedly it was here that Samael was secretly taught the "Great Arcanum," or White Sexual Magic, the profoundly veiled sexual key which, according the occult sciences, underpins all of the world's great religions.”
Of course, he brings SEX into the picture. Everyone likes sex, don’t they?
“A period of historical obscurity ensues between the mid-1930s and 1950.”
Probably underwent training at the Academy of Used Car Salesmen, is my bet.
“Admittedly recapitulating some of the bygone events of his former incarnations, he became a spiritual vagabond of sorts, traveling with neither home nor income. While exploring the regions of Central and South America, he encountered a secluded tribe of indigenous peoples of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta (Northern Colombia). Invited to live with them, he recruited a vast wisdom of ancient indigenous medical practices, which would later form the foundation of his medical treatise, Occult Medicine & Practical Magic.[3] It was also during these years that he claimed to have had his first experience of the Illuminating Void where he first met his "Inner Being", or Atman whose name is "Aun Weor".
Listen closely: can you hear the audience say “OOOOOO! AAAAAAHHH!”?
I wonder if that fraud Castaneda took his cue from this. Of course, this is par for the course in most magickal stories: the vanishing act, the reappearance, the good ole ‘I was studying with the reclusive shaman/tribe, which I can’t verify, nor can anyone else find. Ergo, I am heir apparent to mystic powers beyond human reckoning!”
Now, I’ve always liked the Gnostics: they had some sensible ideas. Only some, though. Ideas such as women’s rights, free love (hey, everyone likes…wait, I said that already), communal living (no, not communism, but that’s a different topic), etc. I especially liked the concept of the Demiurge – it makes a helluva lot more sense than the Judeo-Christian template. (It’s all crapola, but let me play, willya?)
So, I began digging around here, as my starting point.
And, as always, like multiple other frauds, he had a number of predictions that failed miserably.
In his ‘The Great Rebellion’, good old Samael makes a series of predictions that don’t come true (is anyone surprised?).
He mixes a number of easily observable phenomena, while citing ‘experts’ without any kind of citation whatsoever [the underlined is my emphasis on failed ‘prophecies’]:
CHAPTER 2.
THE HARSH REALITY OF FACTS
“Soon millions of people from Africa, Asia and Latin America could die of starvation.
"Gases released from Aerosol sprays could radically put an end to the Ozone layer of the terrestrial atmosphere.
"Some experts forecast that by the year two thousand the subsoil of our terrestrial globe will be exhausted."
It has already been proven that marine species are dying due to contamination of the sea.
Unquestionably, at this rate, by the end of this century al the inhabitants of big cities will have to wear oxygen masks to protect themselves from pollution.
If contamination continues at this alarming pace, it will very soon be impossible to eat fish.
Living in totally contaminated waters, this will be a serious danger to health.
"Before the year two thousand it will be impossible to find a beach where one can bathe in pure water.
"The excessive consumption and exploitation of the top-soil and subsoil, the land soon won't be able to produce the necessary agricultural elements to feed people.”
He DOES make a prediction in Chapter Two, of a single nuclear event that would cause ‘great consternation’, but there’s no demarcation: nice, loose and general.
In Chapter three, he waxes on (and on and on) about how unhappy people in general are. No doubt to induce nods from aspiring acolytes. [Special note: for someone who claims a vast array of erudition, the documents in question are riddled with typographical errors. I’ve had to run a number of spellchecks on the quotes here].
Skip ahead: Chapter 23, he touches on Elohim being the Lord of Atlantis. Not joking.
In ‘The Rings of Alcyone”, he makes a pile of weird, bizarre statements:
“Friends, once again I address myself to everyone, with the purpose of talking a little bit about the spaceships that cross space. This topic of the flying saucers, that is so disquieting, has propagated in al the corners of the Earth; nobody can deny it any more.
"Nowadays, those who dare deny it are heard, unquestionably, by their foolishness.
The English themselves do not deny it any more. Some time ago, England officially declared: “Flying saucers exist and are manned by extraterrestrials; they are people who are ahead of us in civilization by many millions of years. As we, earthlings, cannot understand them, we prefer not to think about it. Let us see if we can build our own ships to conquer the infinite.”
England declared this? When? Who? Where? Was it at a Crop Circle convention? WTF?
Also:
”Not long ago, a probe was sent to Mars with the purpose of knowing whether there was life there. The men of NASA ended up affirming in an emphatic manner that there was no life there. The photographs that they showed to humanity were not of Mars; they were actually of the moon.”
Yeah, the surfeit of red dust sure proves THAT, doesn’t it?
“This signifies that the Martians knew how to orientate the American cameras towards the earthly satellite. So, what these cameras transferred to the Earth were lunar images. What I know, however incredible it may seem, is due simply to the information from an extraterrestrial who, as he says, laughs at the silliness of the Americans and their NASA.”
Ooooo, it’s all a ‘Martian conspiracy.’ Gimmee a break here, willya?
He blathers on for some time here and elsewhere, about ‘blue men’ [no, not the Blue Man Group]:
“I was there in that forest, when I was surprised by a ship that slowly descended until landing in a clearing of the forest. Moved by curiosity, I approached to see what was happening and my surprise was great when I saw, precisely over a steel tripod, an extraordinary ship, marvelous. A hatch opened and a slim person descended by a ladder, of medium stature, copperish skin, blue eyes, ample forehead, straight nose with slim lips, small and tucked ear, conic hands, elongated like that of Francis of Assisi or Antonio de Padua. He had a strange apparatus, a mechanical instrument that was unknown by me. Behind him, descended a whole team, among them two ladies of unknown age. I extended my hand to salute them and as a curious thing, he extended his hand and stretched it with mine. I greeted him in our language and he answered in perfect Spanish, something that really surprised me; I did not know that the astronauts spoke Spanish. Anyway, it seems that they have the gift of languages. So, I understand, because he spoke with no difficulties.”
And, not to mention, he not only invokes the Kabballah and the Bible, he also seems to give Dante (of all people!) theological veracity, here. All the while, a very labyrinthine meritocracy with liberal doses of East ‘n West.
So, nutshelling it:
Bible, Kaballah, Atlantis, Lemuria, UFO’s, little blue men, and varying degrees of psychic psychobabble (I particularly liked the bit about the ‘igneous particles’ being manipulated by ancient alchemists). I think he missed the Reptoids, but then, he hit base with close to almost every crackpot mythology extant.
Fun as this has been, I have to stop now: my eyes are beginning to cross.
"The customs and fashions of men change like leaves on the bough, some of which go and others come." -Dante Alighieri.
Till the next post, then.
32 comments:
You mean that Castaneda isn't true? Oh woe is me. I wanted a way to justify the ingestion of copious amounts of peyote.
On the UFO thing. The problem for a lot of people is that they don't understand what the term means. They fail to realize that calling something a UFO doesn't mean it is a spaceship from Beutelguese full of Beutelguesians.
Yeah, Castaneda had WAY too much influence on me as a teenie-bopper.
How odd, that when drugs were in, he was a proponent of ingestion, & when they went out, he changed his tune significantly.
On the UFO thing. The problem for a lot of people is that they don't understand what the term means.
& then they invest heavily in pareidolia - a lot more people do than should, I say.
Hey buddy those are not predictions those are things that would be assumed with the way the world is going, just like global warming was expected to be farther into the future but it isn't.
All you are doing is trying to find something wrong with anything that may affend your believeless faith in reality.
Why does anyone even get up out of bed anymore with the beliefs you hold, your beliefs are none so what is your life about. What is the point of an atheiest even living if they don't even believe that the world in which we live in is alive and will continue to be alive even if the planet blows up transferring every atom that dwells within to a new creation.
A smart ol atheiest so smart yet so blind to the fact that nothing is lost all is restored and transformed into different forms, memory is apart of our being and it is never destroyed only transferred, all things are the work of energy, energy is the force behind all things, our nature is to create so creation is what we are and what we do.
An atheist, how have they put down on paper all that is true then send the message unto the crowds so they can be blind of there own being also.
Who is so wise as to tell the others who they are and what they should believe, wheather is a christian or an unbeliever they all assume they are right, but my life my experience, noone can tell me my god is not real for in my life he is the only one that is real and not fake like the image of how a person should be and if they can't live up to the societies standards then they should just hide away for they are not wanted.
What a useless portrait of life man has created for himself and his brother, if life is about what you atheist say it is then everyone would adventually come around to accepting it, but it is not because people have there own lives and there own experiences and noone can tell someone who has experienced for themselves a new reality other then the earth plane inwhich we live.
The man who wrote this article isn't after real truth for how is real truth found when someone picks and chooses instead of accepting all things as a form of someones own truth.
Do not live your lives based on what someone else believes whatever you are interrested in don't waste time experience it for yourselves.
This article is a sloppy way to introduce a man who lived out his own experience with truth that is identified with himself, it is real because he experienced it noone else can ever say if what he claims is true or not because they were not there in his mind; his own secret universe.
Noone can prove that I have my own secret universe going on inside my mind, noone can prove what dream I had last night, they can never see inside and experience it like I do. It is the same thing for all. So tell me what wise man can really tell someone else what truth is, truth is in the eyes of the beholder, one mans truth is another mans reject because of lack of proof, and out of all the damn beliefs that are known in the world an atheist is the one who say they have science to back them up, hahahaha with what, that theres no god, hahaha where has science proved there is no god, it hasn't been proven yet, so until they do prove it then nobody should care what you say because your as equal as a believer in god in evidence.
You want another challenge why don't you try and disprove astral projection to be fake also. Of course you will have to have a real experience with it first, thats if your not to scared.
Millions of people do it everyday and they visit different worlds and planes of existences, everyday.
Lets see what you can come up with on the subject, who knows you might become a bleiever if you have your own experience,
Always remember that nothing is real unless it is first experienced, don't be scared there is nothing that is going to hurt you, anyone can travel outside the body with training. Try astral projection today!!!=)
My apologies to the writer of this article it isn't sloppy it is just a little closed minded, my writing is also sloppy and it doesn't matter because it's just a blog...
Well, anonymous, can you prove any of those claims?
1st off, I don't need to disprove the existence of something you can't prove.
2nd off, I used to believe in all this sort of claptrap.
3rd off, this is a wondrous world, & I don't need belief in a supernatural entity for my life to have meaning.
Noone can prove that I have my own secret universe going on inside my mind, noone can prove what dream I had last night, they can never see inside and experience it like I do.
Sure, but that's a personal 'revelation': does that mean I need to believe your dreams, or start living in them, or even use them as my raison detre? Of course not. If you dreamt you could fly last nite, would you wake up & promptly jump off a 5 story building?
As for your claim about astral projection, I'm very familiar w/the concept, thanks. If you can provide proof that it actually works (i.e., you can voyage out in incoporeal form, & actually bring back details you had no way of knowing otherwise), then I suggest strongly that you go & collect Randi's million $ prize.
"One should be open-minded, but not so open-minded, that one's brains fall out" - Dawkins.
I am by far more open-minded than you give me credit for.
But reality is a harsh mistress, & so, my litmus test is: prove it. Or, as they say in Missouri: "Show me."
Oh, 1 more thing: in re - 'Hey buddy those are not predictions those are things that would be assumed with the way the world is going'
Then said author should've have been more careful about using words like 'unquestionably' (used it twice), & I'd sure love to hear about how the entire country of England 'officially declared' that flying saucers exist, if you please.
Got link?
You are a very patient K.
I have to remind myself that the occasional comments of certain individuals do not necessarisilly reprozent all who hold challenging belief nuggets.
It seems to be a commonplace that THEY will take the time to post some fascinating bits o' verbiage.
It just punctuates the need for more mental health professionals.
Hey, remy, how are ya?
Well, my patience (I like to think) is in re: I used to be a lot like these folks, such as anonymous. I'd read a few books, get no counter-point, & accept the written word unquestioningly.
1 of the main points, is that they don't get challenged often enough. The trick I learned, was that if someone tells you you have a stupid idea, you should go out & discover if indeed it is that. Sometimes it is, & sometimes they are.
& usually, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, doesn't only apply to financial investments. ;)
True dat!
Listen buddy, you say such and such but you still don't hear the concept of personal proof and evidence.....
Chapter I
The Visible and Invisible Worlds
The first step is the study of the invisible Worlds. These Worlds are invisible to the majority of people because of the dormancy of the finer and higher senses whereby they may be perceived, in the same way that the Physical World about us is perceived through the physical senses. The majority of people are on a similar footing in regard to the super-physical Worlds as the man who is born blind is to our world of sense; although light and color are all about him, he is unable to see them. To him they are non-existent and incomprehensible, simply because he lacks the sense of sight wherewith to perceive them. Objects he can feel; they seem real; but light and color are beyond his ken.
So with the greater part of humanity. They feel, and see objects and hear sounds in the Physical World, but the other realms, which the clairvoyant calls the higher Worlds, are as incomprehensible to them as light and color are to the blind man. Because the blind man cannot see color and light, however, is no argument against their existence and reality. Neither is it an argument, that because most people cannot see the super-physical Worlds no one can do so. If the blind man obtains his sight, he will see light and color. If the higher senses of those blind to the super-physical Worlds are awakened by proper methods, they also will be able to behold the Worlds which are now hidden from them.
While many people make the mistake of being incredulous concerning the existence or reality of the super-sensuous Worlds, there are also many who go to the other extreme, and, having become convinced of the verity of invisible Worlds, think that when a person is clairvoyant all truth is at once open to him; that when one can "see," he at once "knows all about" these higher Worlds.
This is a great mistake. We readily recognize the fallacy of such a contention in matters of everyday life. We do not think that a man who was born blind, but has obtained his sight, at once "knows all about" the Physical World. Nay, more; we know that even those of us who have been able to see the things about us all our lives are far from having a universal knowledge of them. We know that it requires arduous study and years of application to know about even that infinitesimal part of things that we handle in our daily lives, and reversing the Hermetic aphorism, "as above, so below," we gather at once that it must be the same in the other Worlds. At the same time it is also true that there are much greater facilities for acquiring knowledge in the super-physical Worlds than in our present dense physical condition, but not so great as to eliminate the necessity for close study and the possibility of making a mistake in observation. In fact, all the testimony of reliable and qualified observers prove that much more care in observation is needed there than here.
Clairvoyants must first be trained before their observations are of any real value, and the more proficient they become the more modest they are about telling of what they see; the more they defer to the versions of others, knowing how much there is to learn and realizing how little the single investigator can grasp of all the detail incident to his investigations.
This also accounts for the varied versions, which superficial people think are an argument against the existence of the higher Worlds. They contend that if these Worlds exist, investigators must necessarily bring back identical descriptions. If we take an illustration from everyday life, the fallacy of this becomes apparent.
Suppose a newspaper sends twenty reporters to a city with orders to "write it up." Reporters are, or ought to be, trained observers. It is their business to see everything and they should be able to give as good descriptions as can be expected from any source. Yet it is certain that of the twenty reports, no two would be exactly alike. It is much more likely that they would be totally different. Although some of them might contain leading features in common, others might be unique in quality and quantity of description.
Is it an argument against the existence of the city that these reports differ? Certainly not! It is easily accounted for by the fact that each saw the city from his own particular point of view and instead of these varying reports being confusing and detrimental, it is safe to say that a perusal of them all would give a fuller, better understanding and description of the city than if only one were read and the others were thrown in the wastebasket. Each report would round out and complement the others.
The same is true regarding accounts made by investigators of the higher Worlds. Each has his own peculiar way of looking at things and can describe only what he sees from his particular point of view. The account he gives may differ from those of others, yet all be equally truthful from each individual observer's viewpoint.
It is sometimes asked, Why investigate these Worlds? Why is it not best to take one World at a time; to be content for the present time with the lessons to be learned in the Physical World, and, if there are invisible Worlds why not wait until we reach them before investigating? "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof!" Why borrow more?
If we knew without doubt that at some time, sooner or later, each one of us must be transported to a far country where, under new and strange conditions, we must live for many years, is it not reasonable to believe that if we had an opportunity to learn of that country in advance of our removal to it we would gladly do so? Knowledge would render it much easier for us to accommodate ourselves to new conditions.
There is only one certainty in life and that is--Death! As we pass into the beyond and are confronted by new conditions, knowledge of them is sure to be of the greatest help.
But that is not all. To understand the Physical World, which is the world of effects, it is necessary to understand the super-physical World, which is the world of causes. We see street cars in motion and we hear the clicking of telegraph instruments, but the mysterious force which causes phenomena remains invisible to us. We say it is electricity, but the name gives us no explanation. We learn nothing of the force itself; we see and hear only its effects.
If a dish of cold water be placed in an atmosphere of a sufficiently low temperature ice crystals immediately begin to form and we can see the process of their formation. The lines along which the water crystallizes were in it all the time as lines of force but they were invisible until the water congealed. The beautiful "frost flowers" on a windowpane are visible manifestations of currents of the higher Worlds which operate upon us all the time, unrecognized by most of us, but none the less potent.
The higher Worlds are thus the worlds of causes, of forces; and we cannot really understand this lower World unless we know the others and realize the forces and causes of which all material things are but the effects.
As to the reality of these higher Worlds compared with that of the Physical World, strange as it may seem, these higher Worlds, which to the majority appear as mirages, or even less substantial, are, in truth, much more real and the objects in them more lasting and indestructible than the objects in the Physical World. If we take an example we shall readily see this. An architect does not start to build a house by procuring the material and setting the workmen to laying stone upon stone in a haphazard way, without thought or plan. He "thinks the house out." Gradually it takes form in his mind and finally there stands a clear idea of the house that is to be--a thought-form of a house.
This house is yet invisible to all but the architect. He makes it objective on paper. He draws the plans and from this objective image of the thought-form the workmen construct the house of wood, iron, or stone, accurately corresponding to the thought-form originated by the architect.
Thus the thought-form becomes a material reality. The materialist would assert that it is much more real, lasting and substantial that the image in the architect's mind. But let us see. The house could not have been constructed without the thought-form. The material object can be destroyed by dynamite, earthquake, fire, or decay, but the thought-form will remain. It will exist as long as the architect lives and from it any number of houses similar to the one destroyed may be constructed. Not even the architect himself can destroy it. Even after his death this thought-form can be recovered by those who are qualified to read the memory of nature, which will be dealt with later.
Having thus seen the reasonableness of such Worlds existing around and about us, and having satisfied ourselves of their reality, their permanency, and of the utility of a knowledge concerning them, we shall now examine them severally and singly, commencing with the Physical World.
Chemical Region of the Physical World
In the Rosicrucian teaching the universe is divided into seven different Worlds, or states of matter, as follows:
World of God.
World of Virgin Spirits.
World of Divine Spirit.
World of Life Spirit.
World of Thought.
Desire World.
Physical World.
The division is not arbitrary but necessary, because the substance of each of these Worlds is amenable to laws which are practically inoperative in others. For instance, in the Physical World, matter is subject to gravity, contraction and expansion. In the Desire World there is neither heat nor cold, and forms levitate as easily as they gravitate. Distance and time are also governing factors of existence in the Physical World, but are almost non-existent in the Desire World.
The matter of these worlds also varies in density, the Physical World being the densest of the seven.
Each World is subdivided into seven Regions or subdivisions of matter. In the Physical World, the solids, liquids and gases form the three denser subdivisions, the remaining four being ethers of varying densities. In the other Worlds similar subdivisions are necessary, because the matter of which they are composed is not of uniform density.
There are still two further distinctions to be made. The three dense subdivisions of the Physical World--the solids, liquids and gases--constitute what is termed the Chemical Region. The substance in this Region is the basis of all dense Form.
The Ether is also physical matter. It is not homogeneous, as material science alleges, but exists in four different states. It is the medium of ingress for the quickening spirit which imparts vitality to the Forms in the Chemical Region. The four finer or etheric subdivisions of the Physical World constitute what is known as the Etheric Region.
In the World of Thought the three higher subdivisions are the basis of abstract thought, hence they, collectively, are called the Region of Abstract Thought. The four denser subdivisions supply the mind-stuff in which we embody and concrete our ideas and are therefore termed the Region of Concrete Thought.
The careful consideration given by the occultist to the characteristics of the Physical World might seem superfluous were it not that he regards all things from a view point differing widely from that of the materialist. The latter recognizes three states of matter--solids, liquids, and gases. These are all chemical, because derived from the chemical constituents of Earth. >From this chemical matter all the forms of mineral, plant, animal, and man have been built, hence they are as truly chemical as the substances which are commonly so termed. Thus whether we consider the mountain or the cloud that envelops its top, the juice of the plant or the blood of the animal, the spider's thread, the wing of the butterfly or the bones of the elephant, the air we breathe or the water we drink--all are composed of the same chemical substance.
What is it then which determines the conformation of this basic substance into the multiplex variety of Forms which we see about us? It is the One Universal Spirit, expressing Itself in the visible world as four great streams of Life, at varying stages of development. This fourfold spiritual impulse molds the chemical matter of the Earth into variegated forms of the four Kingdoms--mineral, plant, animal, and man. When a form has served its purpose as a vehicle of expression for the three higher streams of life, the chemical forces disintegrate that form so that the matter may be returned to its primordial state, and thus made available for the building of new forms. The spirit or life which molds the form into an expression of itself is, therefore, as extraneous to the matter it uses as a carpenter is apart from and personally independent of the house he builds for his own occupancy.
As all the forms of mineral, plant, animal, and man are chemical, they must logically be as dead and devoid of feeling as chemical matter in it primitive state, and the Rosicrucian asserts that they are.
Some scientists contend that there is feeling in all tissue, living or dead, to whatever kingdom it belongs. They include even the substances ordinarily classed as mineral in their category of objects having feeling, and to prove their contentions they submit diagrams with curves of energy obtained from tests. Another class of investigators teach that there is no feeling even in the human body, except in the brain, which is the seat of feeling. They say it is the brain and not the finger which feels the pain when the latter is injured. Thus is the house of Science divided against itself on this as on most other points. The position taken by each is partly right. It depends upon what we mean by "feeling." If we mean simply response to impacts, such as the rebound of a rubber ball that is dropped to the ground, of course it is correct to attribute feeling to mineral, plant, and animal tissue; but if we mean pleasure and pain, love and hate, joy and sorrow, it would be absurd to attribute them to the lower forms of life, to detached tissue, to minerals in their native state, or even to the brain, because such feelings are expressions of the self-conscious immortal spirit, and the brain is only the keyboard of the wonderful instrument upon which the human spirit plays its symphony of life, just as the musician expresses himself upon his violin.
As there are people who are quite unable to understand that there must be and are higher Worlds, so there are some who, having become slightly acquainted with the higher realms, acquire the habit of undervaluing this Physical World. Such an attitude is as incorrect as that of the materialist. The great and wise Beings who carry out the will and design of God placed us in this physical environment to learn great and important lessons which could not be learned under other conditions, and it is our duty to use our knowledge of the higher Worlds in learning to the best of our ability the lessons which this material world has to teach us.
In one sense the Physical World is a sort of model school or experiment station to teach us to work correctly in the others. It does this whether or not we know of the existence of those other worlds, thereby proving the great wisdom of the originators of the plan. If we had knowledge of none but the higher Worlds, we would make many mistakes which would become apparent only when physical conditions are brought to bear as criterion. To illustrate: Let us imagine the case of an inventor working out his idea of a machine. First he builds the machine in thought, and in his mind he sees it complete and in operation, performing most beautifully the work it is designed to do. He next makes a drawing of the design, and in doing so perhaps finds that modifications in his first conception are necessary. When, from the drawings, he has become satisfied that the plan is feasible, he proceeds to build the actual machine from suitable material.
Now it is almost certain that still further modifications will be found necessary before the machine will work as intended. It may be found that it must be entirely remodeled, or even that it is altogether useless in its present form, must be discarded and a new plan evolved. But mark this, for here is the point: the new idea or plan will be formulated for the purpose of eliminating the defects in the useless machine. Had there been no material machine constructed, thereby making evident the faults of the first idea, a second and correct idea would not have been formed.
This applies equally to all conditions of life--social, mercantile, and philanthropic. Many plans appear excellent to those conceiving them, and may even look well on paper, but when brought down in the actual test of utility they often fail. That however, should not discourage us. It is true that "we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes," and the proper light in which to regard this Physical World is as a school of valuable experience, in which we learn lessons of the utmost importance.
The Etheric Region of the Physical World.
As soon as we enter this realm of nature we are in the invisible, intangible World, where our ordinary senses fail us, hence this part of the Physical World is practically unexplored by material science.
Air is invisible, yet modern science knows that it exists. By means of instruments its velocity as wind can be measured; by compression it can be made visible as liquid air. With either, however, that is not so easy. Material science finds that it is necessary to account in some way for the transmission of electricity, with or without wires. It is forced to postulate some substance of a finer kind that it knows, and it calls that substance "ether." It does not really know that ether exists, as the ingenuity of the scientist has not, as yet, been able to devise a vessel in which it is possible to confine this substance, which is altogether too elusive for the comfort of the "wizard of the laboratory." He cannot measure, weigh, nor analyze it by any apparatus now at his disposal.
Truly, the achievements of modern science are marvelous. The best way to learn the secrets of nature, however, is not by inventing instruments, but by improving the investigator himself. Man has within himself faculties which eliminate distance and compensate for lack of size to a degree as much greater than the power of telescope and microscope as theirs exceeds that of the naked eye. These senses or faculties are the means of investigation used by occultists. They are their "open sesame" in searching for truth.
To the trained clairvoyant ether is as tangible as are the solids, liquids, and gases of the Chemical Region to ordinary beings. He sees that the vital forces which give life to the mineral forms of plant, animal and man flow into these forms, by means of the four states of ether. The names and specific functions of these four ethers are as follows.
Chemical Ether:
This ether is both positive and negative in manifestation. The forces which cause assimilation and excretion work through it. Assimilation is the process whereby the different nutritive elements of food are incorporated into the body of plant, animal and man. This is carried on by forces with which we shall become acquainted later. They work along the positive pole of the chemical ether and attract the needed elements, building them into the forms concerned. These forces do not act blindly nor mechanically, but in a selective way (well-known to scientists by its effects) thereby accomplishing their purpose, which is the growth and maintenance of the body.
Excretion is carried on by forces of the same kind, but working along the negative pole of the chemical ether. By means of this pole they expel from the body the materials in the food which are unfit for use, or those which have outlived their usefulness in the body and should be expurgated from the system. This, like all other processes independent of man's volition, is also wide, selective, and not merely mechanical in its operation, as seen, for instance, in the case of the action of the kidneys, where only the urine is filtered through when the organs are in health; but it is known that when the organs are not in health, the valuable albumen is allowed to escape with the urine, the proper selection not being made because of an abnormal condition.
Life Ether:
As the chemical ether is the avenue for the operation of the forces the object of which is the maintenance of the individual form, so the life ether is the avenue for the operation of the forces which have for their object the maintenance of the species--the forces of propagation.
Like the chemical ether, the life ether also has its positive and negative pole. The forces which work along the positive pole are those which work in the female during gestation. They enable her to do the positive, active work of bringing forth a new being. On the other hand the forces which work along the negative pole of the life ether enable the male to produce semen.
In the work on the impregnated ovum of the animal and man, or upon the seed of the plant, the forces working along the positive pole of the life ether produce male plants, animals and men; while the forces which express themselves through the negative pole generate females.
Light Ether:
This ether is both positive and negative, and the forces which play along its positive pole are the forces which generate that blood heat in the higher species of animal and in man, which makes them individual sources of heat. The forces which work along the negative pole of the light ether are those which operate through the senses, manifesting as the passive functions of sight, hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling. They also build and nourish the eye.
In the cold-blooded animals the positive pole of the light ether is the avenue of the forces which circulate the blood, and the negative forces have the same functions in regard to the eye as in the case of the higher animals and man. Where eyes are lacking, the forces working in the negative pole of the light ether are perhaps building or nourishing other sense organs, as they do in all that have sense organs.
In plants the forces which work along the positive pole of the light ether cause the circulation of the juices of the plant. Thus in winter, when the light ether is not charged with sunlight as in summer, the sap ceases to flow until the summer sun again invests the light ether with its force. The forces which work along the negative pole of the light ether deposit the chlorophyll, the green substance of the plant and also color the flowers. In fact, all color, in all kingdoms is deposited by means of the negative pole of the light ether. Therefore animals have the deepest color on the back and flowers are deepest colored on the side turned towards the light. In the polar regions of the earth, where the rays of the sun are weak, all color is lighter and in some cases is so sparingly deposited that in winter it is withdrawn altogether and the animals become white.
Reflecting Ether:
It has heretofore been stated that the idea of the house which has existed in the mind can be recovered from the memory of nature, even after the death of the architect. Everything that has ever happened has left behind it an ineffaceable picture in this reflecting ether. As the giant ferns of the childhood of the Earth have left their pictures in the coal beds, and as the progress of the glacier of a bygone day may be traced by means of the trail it has left upon the rocks along its path, even so are the thoughts and acts of men ineffaceably recorded by nature in this reflecting ether, where the trained seer may read their story with an accuracy commensurate with his ability.
The reflecting ether deserves its name for more than one reason, for the pictures in it are but reflections of the memory of nature. The real memory of nature is found in a much higher realm. In this reflecting ether no thoroughly trained clairvoyant cares to read, as the pictures are blurred and vague compared to those found in the higher realm. Those who read in the reflecting ether are generally those who have no choice, who, in fact, do not know what they are reading. As a rule ordinary psychometrists and mediums obtain their knowledge through the reflecting ether. To some slight extent the pupil of the occult school in the first stages of his training also reads in the reflecting ether, but he is warned by his teacher of the insufficiencies of this ether as a means of acquiring accurate information, so that he does not easily draw wrong conclusions.
This ether is also the medium through which thought makes an impression upon the human brain. It is most intimately connected with the fourth subdivision of the World of Thought. This is the highest of the four subdivisions contained in the Region of Concrete Thought and the home world of the human mind. There a much clearer version of the memory of nature is found than in the reflecting ether.
The Desire World
Like the Physical World, and every other realm of nature, the Desire World has the seven subdivisions called "Regions," but unlike the Physical World, it does not have the great divisions corresponding to the Chemical and Etheric Regions. Desire stuff in the Desire World persists through its seven subdivisions or regions as material for the embodiment of desire. As the Chemical Region is the realm of form and as the Etheric Region is the home of the forces carrying on life activities in those forms, enabling them to live, move and propagate, so the forces in the Desire World, working in the quickened dense body, impel it to move in this or that direction.
If there were only the activities of the Chemical and Etheric Regions of the Physical World, there would be forms having life, able to move, but with no incentive for so doing. This incentive is supplied by the cosmic forces active in the Desire World and without this activity playing through every fiber of the vitalized body, urging action in this direction or that, there would be no experience and no moral growth. The functions of the different ethers would take care of the growth of the form, but moral growth would entirely lacking. Evolution would be an impossibility, both as to form and life, for it is only in response to the requirements of spiritual growth that forms evolve to higher states. Thus we at once see the great importance of this realm of nature.
Desires, wishes, passions, and feelings express themselves in the matter of the different regions of the Desire World as form and feature express themselves in the Chemical Region of the Physical World. They take forms which last for a longer or shorter time, according to the intensity of the desire, wish, or feeling embodied in them. In the Desire World the distinction between the forces and the matter is not so definite and apparent as in the Physical World. One might almost say that here the ideas of force and matter are identical or interchangeable. It is not quite so, but we may say that to a certain extent the Desire World consists of force-matter.
When speaking of the matter of the Desire World, it is true that it is one degree less dense that the matter of the Physical World, but we entertain an entirely wrong idea if we imaging it is finer physical matter. That idea, though held by many who have studied occult philosophies, is entirely erroneous. The wrong impression is caused principally by the difficulty of giving the full and accurate description necessary for a thorough understanding of the higher worlds. Unfortunately, our language is descriptive of material things and therefore entirely inadequate to describe the conditions of the super-physical realms, hence all that is said about these realms must be taken tentatively, as similes, rather than as accurate descriptions.
Though the mountain and the daisy, the man, the horse, and a piece of iron, are composed of one ultimate atomic substance, we do not say that the daisy is a finer form of iron. Similarly it is impossible to explain in words the change or difference in physical matter when it is broken up into desire-stuff. If there were no difference it would be amenable to the laws of the Physical World, which it is not.
The law of matter of the Chemical Region is inertia-the tendency to remain in status quo. It takes a certain amount of force to overcome this inertia and cause a body which is at rest to move, or to stop a body in motion. Not so with the matter of the Desire World. That matter itself is almost living. It is in unceasing motion, fluid, taking all imaginable and unimaginable forms with inconceivable facility and rapidity, at the same time coruscating and scintillating in a thousand ever-changing shades of color, incomparable to anything we know in this physical state of consciousness. Something very faintly resembling the action and appearance of this matter will be seen in the play of colors on an abalone shell when held in the sunlight and moved to and fro.
That is what the Desire World is--ever-changing light and color--in which the forces of animal and man intermingle with the forces of innumerable Hierarchies of spiritual beings which do not appear in our Physical World, but are as active in the Desire World as we are here. Some of them will be dealt with later and their connection with man's evolution described.
The forces sent out by this vast and varied hose of Beings mold the ever-changing matter of the Desire World into innumerable and differing forms of more or less durability, according to the kinetic energy of the impulse which gave them birth.
From this slight description it may be understood how difficult it is for a neophyte who has just had his inner eyes opened to find his balance in the World of Desire. The trained clairvoyant soon ceases to wonder at the impossible descriptions sometimes brought through by mediums. They may be perfectly honest, but the possibilities of parallax, and of getting out of focus are legion, and of the subtlest nature, and the real wonder is that they ever communicate anything correctly. All of us had to learn to see, in the days of our infancy, as we may readily find by watching a young babe. It will be found that the little one will reach for objects on the other side of the room or the street, or for the Moon. He is entirely unable to gauge distances. The blind man who has been made to see will, at first, often close his eyes to walk from one place to another, declaring, until he has learned to use his eyes, that it is easier to walk by feeling than by sight. So the one whose inner organs of perception have been vivified must also be trained in the use of his newly acquired faculty. At first the neophyte will try to apply to the Desire World the knowledge derived from his experience in the Physical World, because he has not yet learned the laws of the world into which he is entering. This is the source of a vast amount of trouble and perplexity. Before he can understand, he must become as a little child, which imbibed knowledge without reference to any previous experience.
To arrive at a correct understanding of the Desire World it is necessary to realize that it is the world of feeling, desires, and emotions. These are all under the domination of two great forces--Attraction and Repulsion, which act in a different way in the three denser Regions of the Desire World from that in which they act in the three finer or upper Regions, while the central Region may be called neutral ground.
This central Region is the Region of feeling. Here interest in or indifference to an object or an idea sways the balance in favor of one of the two previously mentioned forces, thereby relegating the object or idea to the three higher or the three lower Regions of the Desire World, or else they will expel it. We shall see presently how this is accomplished.
In the finest and rarest substance of the three higher Regions of the Desire World the force of Attraction alone holds sway, but it is also present in some degree in the denser matter of the three lower Regions, where it works against the force of Repulsion, which is dominant there. The disintegrating force of Repulsion would soon destroy every form coming into these three lower Regions were it not that it is thus counteracted. In the densest or lowest Region, where it is strongest, it tears and shatters the forms built there in a way dreadful to see, yet it is not a fatalistic force. Nothing in nature is vandalistic. All that appears so is but working towards good. So with this force in its work in the lowest Region of the Desire World. The forms here are demoniac creations, built by the coarsest passions and desires of man and beast.
The tendency of every form in the Desire World is to attract itself all it can of a like nature and grow thereby. If this tendency to attraction were predominate in the lowest Regions, evil would grow like a weed. There would be anarchy instead of order in the Cosmos. This prevented by the preponderating power of the force of Repulsion in this Region. When a coarse desire form is being attracted to another of the same nature, there is a disharmony in their vibrations, whereby one has a disintegrating effect upon the other. Thus, instead of uniting and amalgamating evil with evil, they act with mutual destructiveness and in that way the evil in the world is kept within reasonable bounds. When we understand the working of the twin forces in this respect we are in a position to understand the occult maxim, "A lie is both murder and suicide in the Desire World."
Anything happening in the Physical World is reflected in all the other realms of nature and, as we have seen, builds its appropriate form in the Desire World. When a true account of the occurrence is given, another form is built, exactly like the first. They are then drawn together and coalesce, strengthening each other. If, however, an untrue is given, a form different from and antagonistic to the first, or true one, is created. As they deal with the same occurrence, they are drawn together, but as their vibrations are different they act upon each other with mutual destructiveness. Therefore, evil and malicious lies can kill anything that is good, if they are strong enough and repeated often enough. But, conversely, seeking for the good in evil will, in time, transmute the evil into good. If the form that is built to minimize the evil is weak, it will have no effect and will be destroyed by the evil form, but if it is strong and frequently repeated it will have the effect of disintegrating the evil and substituting the good. That effect, be it distinctly understood, it not brought about by lying, nor denying the evil, but by looking for the good. The occult scientist practices very rigidly this principle of looking for good in all things, because he knows what a power it possesses in keeping down evil.
There is a story of Christ which illustrates this point. Once when walking with His disciples they passed the decaying and ill-smelling carcass of a dog. The disciples turned in disgust, commenting upon the nauseating nature of this sight; but Christ looked at the dead body and said "Pearls are not whiter than its teeth." He was determined to find the good, because He knew the beneficial effect which would result in the Desire World from giving it expression.
The lowest Region of the Desire World is called "the Region of Passion and Sensual Desire." The second subdivision is best described by the name of "Region of Impressionability." Here the effect of the twin forces of Attraction and Repulsion is evenly balanced. This is a neutral Region, hence all our impressions which are built of the matter of this Region are neutral. Only when the twin feelings, which we shall meet in the fourth Region, are brought to bear, do the twin forces come into play. The mere impression of anything, however, in and of itself, is entirely separate from the feeling it engenders. The impression is neutral and is an activity of the second Region of the Desire World, where pictures are formed by the forces of sense-perception in the vital body of man.
In the third Region of the Desire World, the force of Attraction, the integrating, upbuilding force, has already gained the upper hand over the force of Repulsion, with its destructive tendency. When we understand that the mainspring in this force of Repulsion is self-assertion, a pushing away of all others that it may have room, we shall understand that it gives way most easily to a desire for other things, so that the substance of the third Region of the Desire World is principally dominated by the force of Attraction towards other things, but in a selfish way, and therefore this is the Region of Wishes.
The Region of Coarse Desires may be likened to the solids in the Physical World; the Region of Impressionability to the fluids; and the fluctuating, evanescent nature of the Region of Wishes will make that compare with the gaseous portion of the Physical World. These three Regions give the substance for the forms which make for experience, soul-growth and evolution, purging the altogether destructive and retaining the materials which may be used for progress.
The fourth Region of the Desire World is the "Region of Feeling." From it comes the feeling concerning the already described forms and upon the feeling engendered by them depends the life which they have for us and also their effect upon us. Whether the objects and ideas presented are good or bad in themselves is not important this stage. It is our feeling, whether of Interest or Indifference that is the determining factor as to the fate of the object or idea.
If the feeling with which we meet an impression of an object or an idea is Interest, it has the same effect upon that impression as sunlight and air have upon a plant. That idea will grow and flourish in our lives. If, on the other hand, we meet an impression or idea with Indifference, it withers as does a plant when put in a dark cellar.
Thus from this central Region of the Desire World come the incentive to action, or the decision to refrain there from (though the latter is also action in the eyes of the occult scientist), for at the present stage of our development the twin feelings, Interest and Indifference furnish the incentive to action and are the springs that move the world. At a later stage these feelings will cease to have any weight. Then the determining factor will be duty.
Interest starts the forces of Attraction or Repulsion.
Indifference simply withers the object or idea against which it is directed, so far as our connection with it is concerned.
If our interest in an object or an idea generates Repulsion, that naturally causes us to expurgate from our lives any connection with the object or idea which roused it; but there is a great difference between the action of the force of Repulsion and the mere feeling of Indifference. Perhaps an illustration will make more clear the operation of the twin Feelings and the twin Forces.
Three men are walking along a road. They see a sick dog; it is covered with sores and is evidently suffering intensely from pain and thirst. This much is evident to all three men-their senses tell them that. Now Feeling comes. Two of them take an "interest" in the animal, but in the third there is a feeling of "indifference." He passes on, leaving the dog to its fate. The others remain; they are both interested, but each manifests it in a quite different way. The interest of one man is sympathetic and helpful, impelling him to care for the poor beast, to assuage pains and nurse it back to health. In him the feeling of interest has aroused the force of Attraction. The other man's interest is of a different kind. He sees only a loathsome sight which is revolting to him and wishes to rid himself and the world of it as quickly as possible. He advises killing the animal outright and burying it. In him the feeling of interest generates the destructive force of Repulsion.
When the feeling of Interest arouses the force of Attraction and it is directed toward low objects and desires, these work themselves out in the lower Regions of the Desire World, where the counteracting force of Repulsion operates, as previously described. From the battle of the twin forces--Attraction and Repulsion--results all the pain and suffering incident to wrongdoing or misdirected effort, whether intentional or otherwise.
Thus we may see how very important is the Feeling we have concerning anything, for upon that depends the nature of the atmosphere we create for ourselves. If we love the good, we shall keep and nourish as guardian angels all that is good about us; if the reverse, we shall people our path with demons and our own breeding.
The names of the three upper Regions of the Desire World are "Region of Soul-Life," "Region of Soul-Light," and "Region of Soul-Power." In these abide Art, Altruism, Philanthropy, and all the activities of the higher soul-life. When we think of these Regions as radiating the qualities indicated by their names, into the forms of the three lower Regions, we shall understand correctly the higher and lower activities. Soul-power, however, may for a time be used for evil purposes as well as for good, but eventually the force of Repulsion destroys vice and the force of Attraction builds virtue upon its shattered ruins. All things, in the ultimate, work together for good.
The Physical and the Desire Worlds are not separated from each other by space. They are "closer than hands and feet." It is not necessary to move to get from one to the other, nor from one Region to the next. Just as solids, liquids, and gases are all together in our bodies, inter-penetrating one another, so are the different Regions of the Desire World within us also. We may again compare the lines of force along which ice-crystals form in water to the invisible causes originating in the Desire World, which appear in the Physical World and give us the incentive to action, in whatever direction it may be.
The Desire World, with its innumerable inhabitants, permeates the Physical World, as the lines of force do the water--invisibly, but everywhere present and potent as the cause of everything in the Physical World.
The World of Thought
The World of Thought also consists of seven Regions of varying qualities and densities, and, like the Physical World, the World of Thought is divided into two main divisions--the Region of Concrete Thought, comprising the four densest Regions; and the Region of Abstract Thought, comprising the three Regions of finest substance. This World of Thought is the central one of the five Worlds from which man obtains his vehicles. Here spirit and body meet. It is also the highest of the three Worlds in which man's evolution is being carried forward at the present time, the two higher Worlds being practically in abeyance as yet, so far as man is concerned.
We know that the materials of the Chemical Region are used in building all physical forms. These forms are given life and the power of motion by the forces at work in the Etheric Region, and some of these living forms are stirred into activity by means of the twin Feelings of the Desire World. The Region of Concrete Thought furnishes the mind-stuff in which ideas generated in the Region of Abstract Thought clothe themselves as thought-forms, to act as regulators and balance wheels upon the impulses engendered in the Desire World by impacts from the phenomenal World.
Thus we see how the three Worlds, in which man is at present evolving, complement one another, making a whole that shows forth the Supreme Wisdom of the Great Architect of the system to which we belong, and Whom we reverence by the holy name of God.
Taking a more detailed view of the several divisions of the Region of Concrete Thought we find that the archetypes of physical form no matter to what kingdom they may belong, are found in its lowest subdivision, or the "Continental Region." In this Continental Region are also the archetypes of the continents and the isles of the world, and corresponding to these archetypes are they fashioned. Modifications in the crust of the Earth must first be wrought in the Continental Region. Not until the archetypal model has been changed can the Intelligences which we (to hide our ignorance concerning them) call the "Laws of Nature," bring about the physical conditions which alter the physical features of the Earth according to the modifications designed by the Hierarchies in charge of evolution. They plan changes as an architect plans the alteration of a building before the workmen give it concrete expression. In like manner are changes in the flora and fauna due to metamorphoses in their respective archetypes.
When we speak of the archetypes of all the different forms in the dense world it must not be thought that these archetypes are merely models in the same sense in which we speak of an object constructed in miniature, or in some material other than that appropriate for its proper and final use. They are not merely likenesses nor models of the forms we see about us, but are creative archetypes; that is, they fashion the forms of the Physical World in their own likeness or likenesses, for often many work together to form one certain species, each archetype giving part of itself to build the required form.
The second subdivision of the Region of Concrete Thought is called the "Oceanic Region." It is best described as flowing, pulsating vitality. All the forces that work through the four ethers which constitute the Etheric Region are there seen as archetypes. It is a stream of flowing life, pulsating through all forms, as blood pulsates through the body, the same life in all forms. Here the trained clairvoyant sees how true it is that "all life is one."
The "Aerial Region" is the third division of the Region of Concrete Thought. Here we find the archetype of desires, passions, wishes, feelings, and emotions such as we experience in the Desire World. Here all the activities of the Desire World appear as atmospheric conditions. Like the kiss of summer breeze come the feelings of pleasure and joy to the clairvoyant sense; as the sighing of the wind in the tree-tops seem the longings of the soul and like flashes of lighting the passions of warring nations. In this atmosphere of the Region of Concrete Thought are also pictures of the emotions of man and beast.
The "Region of Archetypal Forces" is the fourth division of the Region of Concrete Thought. It is the central and most important region in the five Worlds wherein man's entire evolution is carried on. On the one side of this Region are the three higher Regions of the World of Thought, the World of Life Spirit and the World of Divine Spirit. On the other side of this Region of Archetypal Forces are the three lower Regions of the World of Thought, the Desire and the Physical Worlds. Thus this Region becomes a sort of "crux," bounded on one side by the Realms of Spirit, on the other by the Worlds of Form. It is a focusing point, where Spirit reflects itself in matter.
As the name implies, this Region is the home of the Archetypal Forces which direct the activity of the archetypes in the Region of Concrete Thought. From this Region Spirit works on matter in a formative manner. Diagram 1 shows the idea in a schematic way the forms in the lower World being reflections of the Spirit in the higher Worlds. The fifth Region, which is the one nearest to the focusing point on the Spirit side, reflects itself in the third Region, which is nearest the focusing point on the Form side. The sixth Region reflects itself in the second and the seventh reflects itself in the first.
The whole of the Region of Abstract thought is reflected in the World of Desire; the World of Life Spirit in the Etheric Region of the Physical World; and the World of Divine Spirit in the Chemical Region of the Physical World.
Diagram 2 will give a comprehensive idea of the seven Worlds which are the sphere of our development, but we must carefully keep in mind that these Worlds are not placed one above another, as shown in the diagram. They inter-penetrate--that is to say, that as in the case where the relation of the Physical World and the Desire World was compared, where we likened the Desire World to the lines of force in freezing water and the water itself to the Physical World, in the same way we may think of the lines of force as being any of the seven Worlds, and the water, as in our illustration, would correspond to the next denser World in the scale. Another illustration may perhaps make the subject clearer.
Let us use a spherical sponge to represent the dense earth--the Chemical Region. Imagine that sand permeates every part of the sponge and also forms a layer outside the sponge. Let the sand represent the Etheric Region, which in a similar manner permeates the dense earth and extends beyond its atmosphere.
Let us further imagine this sponge and sand immersed in a spherical glass vessel filled with clear water, and a little larger than the sponge and sand. We place the sponge and sand in the center of the vessel as the yolk is placed in the center of an egg. We have now a space of clear water between the sand and the vessel. The water as a whole will represent the Desire World, for just as the water percolates between the grains of sand, through every pore of the sponge, and forms that clear layer, so the Desire World permeates both the dense Earth and the ether and extends beyond both of these substances.
We know there is air in water, and if we think of the air in the water (in our illustration), as representing the World of Thought, we shall have a firm mental picture of the way in which the World of Thought, being finer and more subtle, inter-penetrates the two denser Worlds.
Finally, imagine that the vessel containing the sponge, sand and water is placed in the center of a large spherical vessel; then the air in the space between the two vessels would represent that part of the World of Thought which extends beyond the Desire World.
Each of the planets in our solar system has three such inter-penetrating Worlds, and if we think of each of the planets consisting of three Worlds as being individual sponges, and of the fourth World, the World of Life Spirit, as being the water in a large vessel where these three cold separate sponges swim, we shall understand that as the water in the vessel fills the space between the sponges and percolates through them, so the World of Life Spirit pervades inter-planetary space and inter-penetrates the individual planets. It forms a common bond between them, so that as it is necessary to have a boat and be able to control it, if we wish to sail from America to Africa, so it is necessary to have a vehicle correlated to the World of Life Spirit under our conscious control in order to be able to travel from one planet to another.
In a manner similar to that in which the World of Life Spirit correlates us to the other planets in our own solar system does the World of Divine Spirit correlate us to the other solar systems. We may regard the solar systems as separate sponges, swimming in a World of Divine Spirit, and thus it will be apparent that in order to travel from one solar system to another it would be necessary to be able to function consciously in the highest vehicle of man, the Divine Spirit.
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Listen, 'buddy', 1st off, I'd like to know what that's from. 2nd off, I'm very familiar w/the bible, & I KNOW that story about the dog carcass ain't in there, 3rd off, which 'scientists contend that there is feeling in all tissue, living or dead, to whatever kingdom it belongs'? Who are these people? Citations? Anything?
Citing air as an 'invisible substance' is poppycock. Yes, invisible: but it's absence is noted quite quickly - "None sing a hymn to air, but oh, to be w/o it!" Electricity is likewise.
You have proof, I'm more than willing to listen to it. But this huge copy 'n paste is nothing more than idle speculation.
Clairvoyance is crap, otherwise James Randi would be bankrupt & homeless.
The supernatural explanation fails EVERY TIME: that's why science employs an empirical method, based on a materialist approach.
Demons, wizards & angels are better suited to B-grade movies, & Dungeons & Dragons.
Oh, & a distinct quote from 1 of my heros:
"But admitting, for the sake of a case, that something has been revealed to a certain person, and not revealed to any other person, it is revelation to that person only. When he tells it to a second person, a second to a third, a third to a fourth, and so on, it ceases to be a revelation to all those persons. It is revelation to the first person only, and hearsay to every other, and, consequently, they are not obliged to believe it."
Thomas Paine, Age of Reason.
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/thomas_paine/age_of_reason/part1.html#1
Baby boy if you learn to astral project you can know it all because you are invited in my dreams, so hurry up, i'll be waiting=)
Also I will show you these other worlds, and we can experience them together, I'm not lying I am serious, I will show you honey what is real.........
anon:
Baby boy if you learn to astral project you can know it all because you are invited in my dreams, so hurry up, i'll be waiting=)
'Baby boy'? Hey, I thought astral projection & lucid dreaming were different things?
Also I will show you these other worlds, and we can experience them together, I'm not lying I am serious, I will show you honey what is real.........
Ummm...you know I'm a middle-aged man, right?
I find your responses to be...worrisome.
My advice is (as I assume you're much younger than myself) to go out & instead of saying 'either/or', approach it from 'does it hold up in the real world?'
I have a frequent poster on this site, who does experience similar things.
She readily admits she's on medication.
I am 21 years old, and astral projection and lucid dreaming are to different things but in the astral plane you create your own experiences, and anyone can join you if they are also traveling on the astral at the same time as you.
I am not crazy I am just happy and accepting, I don't care how old you are I am always willing to show anyone the routs..
anon:
I am 21 years old, and astral projection and lucid dreaming are to different things but in the astral plane you create your own experiences, and anyone can join you if they are also traveling on the astral at the same time as you.
Well, I'm sorry, but I'm going to need more proof than your word on the subject.
Something along the lines of a double-blind study, where people doing the AP thing come back w/some solid results, details, etc.
Please, no anecdotal tales. It's been my experience, that we see what we want to see, if it's strongly desired.
I am not crazy I am just happy and accepting
Well, I'm sorry, dear, but that other lady I told you about? She's not crazy either. She's a warm, wonderful person, who happens to have DID because of some awful childhood experiences.
I would recommend that you go look up the DSM-IV, & take a hard, honest look.
I would love nothing more than to have all these magical experiences, but the years have taught me that the bulk of them are romantic fantasies.
You ARE a special, complex person. You don't need a bunch of occult claptrap to prove it.
No supernatural crap necessary.
Hi anonymous
I'm the person KA was referring to.
I've had OBEs, but I do not astral project. I gave up reading your copied and pasted work, it was so lengthy and seemed to be from quite a while back. I too would like to know its source. Maybe I'll go back to reading the rest of it later, but how about just some real life explanations of what you do and see and experience when you're "in the zone" so to speak?
Do you touch the face of gawd?
You must have some excellent drugs! Mine just keep me in the here and now.
KA
As to the post itself, I think our man Sammy spent a little too long smoking herb with the indigenous peoples. It's a wonder he's not trying to shake off the Thetans from his body.
Hey doll. Yeah, Sammy Sammy double-whammy was clearly somewhere out in left field. Thx for droppin' in - missed your input, sweetie.
As to anonymous, well, let's say I'd have made the same weird arguments myself at that age.
Messianic complex means some serious, serious troubles, I say.
I wonder if Barnes and Noble has Astral Projection for Dummies ?
All I can say to that, is:
hehehehe.
When you go to sleep at night you go through different stages of sleep, for someone to astral project all they have to do is train thereself to keep there mind awake while there body falls asleep, the body must be in sleep paralysis, then you will get a state of vibrations which is scarey for anyone who 1st experiences it, they are like a pulling almost like getting electrocuted but it doesn't hurt its just like a strong pulling, when the vibrations accure then you can sit up or float up or whatever you want fly up out of your body.
Some people can train themselves to wake up while in a dream so it becomes lucid being aware, then you can come out of your body once you are aware that you are dreaming.
there are laws in the astral just like there are laws here on the earth plane, the astral laws are different, you can never enter someones private places, not even there bedroom unless you are invited, and if and when ever you get scared the guardians well pull you back to your body right away, I know because I have been scared before and they pulled me back.
The astral is real and if anyone would try it to see then they will not be disapointed.
I don't take any drugs to oobe, that is crazy because that clouds your awareness making the experience prolly scarey. Its all natural just takes some training because most of us did not get taught as a child like walking and talking etc... although there are many who has and they are advanced travelers, spending alot of time there.
Anyone who doesn't know can call it whatever but anyone that knows they will tell you it is another world like earth with different laws.
And by the way I am not crazy or have any problems other then my anger sometimes which I can get really mad and say a bunch of shit I don't mean, that is all that is wrong with me.
Oh and when I experience something so great I want everyone to know so they can have the same, astral projection and the love of jesus, which is laying down your life for your brother and friend, love everyone even your enemies because there is no truth or end to the same sorrow in hate, no change other then for the bad comes out of hate, to hate is to hate yourself 1st. Jesus Christ, what love he showed me when I found none such in the world, he changed my life because there was a time when I prolly could have hurt or killed someone because of my anger and rage, but I read about a man who was beaten and killed for his own personal beliefs, beliefs that we all have and are real in our own personal world, there is evidence in our own world we need none from someone who doesn't even know whats going on in our own personal universe. Jesus taught me that love is the answer to any problem. I will stand by that because there is peace and freedom.
anon:
Hey, I've kinda done the lucid dreaming thing. Not long ago, either. It's fun, realizing that you're dreaming, & being able to manipulate it.
NOW: I've asked for citations. Both in that huge copy 'n paste, as well as for Samael's claim that all of England seems to believe in UFOs. I've also asked that you don't bring in anecdotes, I've asked that you bring in some sort of scientific study. You have turned around & gone on & on about your personal experiences.
I'm going to mention this again: James Randi is offering a million $ reward to ANYONE who can prove they have occult/supernatural powers. I firmly believe that what you claim falls under that umbrella. I suggest you go collect the reward. I will (upon your collection) follow you whereever you lead. That is no joke, darlin'.
You know where to find me.
anonymous
Start from dream paralysis? No thanks. Getting there by accident is bad enough; I'm not putting myself in that state on purpose.
Hey KA, maybe that "dream" I had about flying backwards around Pgh. was really astral projection!
Sorry...I asked anon for personal experiences, and I guess she decided to go with that over your request. She may not have citiings for England believing in UFOs, but she oughts be able to source her cut and paste.
karen, D'oh! You did ask her. My bad. However, I still require more proof. Something along the lines of carefully catalogued evidence. A blind study, or something.
The problem w/personal anecdotes, is that it's difficult for the person relating them to view them in any sort of detached way.
Aside from times of crisis, astral projection can take place when meditating, in trance, resting or while sleeping. Rather than hover over his or her body, the subject might travel great distances, such as to other states or countries where loved ones are located. Sometimes information or details gleaned while astral projecting is said to have been later verified by the subject whose physical body could not have perceived the information directly.
Edgar Cayce was widely believed to conduct medical diagnosis of needy victims from all corners of the world -- all while in a trance on his couch at home. Many journalists, scientists and doctors of Cayce's day investigated him expecting to uncover a clever fraud, but instead came away convinced of his talents albeit mystified as to any possible scientific explanation.
In 1970 the CIA working with the Department of Defense reportedly began their own then-undercover research program into astral projection. They called it remote viewing and were interested in it as a possible means to surreptitiously obtain information from enemies and engage in psychic warfare. The name of the remote viewing program was originally SCANATE (standing for Scan by Coordinate). According to those involved in the project, Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff headed up the research team at Stanford Research Institute. The organization that began as SCANATE became PSI TECH in 1989, and moved into the private sector but continues to be run by former military members who were involved with it when it was still under the auspices of the DOD. In November 1991 the Associated Press reported PSI TECH was engaged by the UN to help find possible biological weapons in Iraq.
Internationally celebrated psychologist Charles T. Tart differentiates between science and scientism when it comes to work regarding altered states of consciousness and astral projection. He believes parapsychology, including astral travel, is dismissed because an attitude of dogmatic scientism preempts scientific study, creating instead a presupposition that the experience cannot be real because it violates known laws of physics. Dr. Tart believes scientific methodology should be applied rather than give way to prejudicial attitudes.
Tart has spent 40 years studying various states of consciousness, from dream state, to hypnosis, to parapsychology and astral projection. He has looked at over 100 years of parapsychology research on psi phenomenon including astral travel and OBEs. His findings lead him to conclude that consciousness does, at times, behave in ways unexplainable by our current understanding of the laws of physics. And though many experiences can be dismissed as imagination, dream or hallucination, he claims there is a large body of empirical evidence that goes beyond all known explanations.
To further study astral projection, clairvoyance, telekinesis and precognition, Tart founded TASTE (The Archives of Scientist's Transcendent Experiences), where scientists can report personal OBEs or psi experiences in an environment conducive to furthering understanding of the human mind. The contributions are posted with anonymity out of deference to the scientists who participate, but part of the process of submission involves verification of identity. These online archives are available for anyone to read.
While science looks for understanding of phenomenon among recognized laws of nature, human experience may at times run inconveniently ahead of science. For those who claim psi experiences like astral projection, clairvoyance, telekinesis and precognition, scientific explanation does not appear to be a prerequisite. For those who dismiss them out of hand, scientific proof will always be a prerequisite. As science and technology advance, perhaps the nether regions of psi experience will become clearer to both sides.
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Cardiologist Pim van Lommel did a monumental study of near-death experiences—which raises fascinating questions about life after death, DNA, the collective unconscious, and everyone’s karma.
When the The Lancet published his study of near-death experiences, Dutch cardiologist Pim van Lommel couldn’t have known it would make him into one of the world’s most-talked-about scientists. It seems everyone wants to know about the man who managed to get his study of this controversial topic published in one of the leading journals of medical research. Yet it’s not really surprising that its publication in 2001 created a stir. Never before had such a systematic study been conducted into the experiences of people who were declared dead and then came back to life. And never before have we seen such a clear illustration of how these people’s stories could affect our way of thinking about life and death.
Van Lommel, 63, isn’t one to seek name and fame. On this lovely summer day in his garden near the Dutch city of Arnhem, he displays more interest in what’s going on at Ode magazine than in his own story. That same deep curiosity was at work 35 years ago when Van Lommel, working as a physician’s assistant in a hospital, listened intently to a patient talk about her near-death experience. He was immediately fascinated. But it wasn’t until years later, as he read the book Return from Tomorrow in which the American doctor George Ritchie describes his own near-death experience in detail, that Van Lommel wondered if there were many other people who had undergone similar experiences.
Van Lommel decided from then on to ask all his patients whether they remembered anything that had happened during their cardiac arrests. “The answer was usually ‘no’ but sometimes ‘why?’ When I heard the latter, I extended the office visit.” Over two years he heard stories from 12 patients and his scientific curiosity was piqued. Those stories were the beginning of a years-long study.
I was looking down at my own body from up above and saw doctors and nurses fighting for my life. I could hear what they were saying. Then I got a warm feeling and I was in a tunnel. At the end of that tunnel was a bright, warm, white, vibrating light. It was beautiful. It gave me a feeling of peace and confidence. I floated towards it. The warm feeling became stronger and stronger. I felt at home, loved, nearly ecstatic. I saw my life flash before me. Suddenly I felt the pain of the accident once again and shot back into my body. I was furious that the doctors had brought me back.
Just about every description of a near-death experience is this beautiful. People feel connected and supported. They grasp how the universe works. They experience unconditional love. They feel free of the pressing concerns of earthly existence. Who wouldn’t want such an experience? “It sounds fantastic, doesn’t it?” Van Lommel laughs. “But it’s not always easy to deal with. When people come back, they often have the feeling they’re being imprisoned. And it can take years before they are able or have the courage to integrate the insights they’ve gained into their everyday life.”
Still, a majority of people who have had a near-death experience describe it as magnificent and say it enriched their lives. Van Lommel explains, “The most important thing people are left with is that they are no longer afraid of death. This is because they have experienced that their consciousness lives on, that there is continuity. Their life and their identity don’t end when the body dies. They simply have the feeling they’re taking off their coat.”
That may sound like it’s coming from someone who’s spent a little too much time hanging around New Age bookstores. But from what Van Lommel has seen, near-death experiences are not at all limited to members of the “spiritual” community. They are just as prevalent among people who were extremely skeptical about the topic beforehand.
I became “detached” from the body and hovered within and around it. It was possible to see the surrounding bedroom and my body even though my eyes were closed. I was suddenly able to ‘think’ hundreds or thousands of times faster—and with greater clarity—than is humanly normal or possible. At this point I realized and accepted that I had died. It was time to move on. It was a feeling of total peace—completely without fear or pain, and didn’t involve any emotions at all.
The most remarkable thing, Van Lommel says, is that his patients have such consciousness-expanding experiences while their brains register no activity. But that’s impossible, according to the current level of medical knowledge. Because most scientists believe that consciousness occurs in the brain, this creates a mystery: How can people experience consciousness while they are unconscious during a cardiac arrest (a clinical death)?
After all those years of intensive study, Van Lommel still speaks with reverence about the miracle of the near-death experience. “At that moment these people are not only conscious; their consciousness is even more expansive than ever. They can think extremely clearly, have memories going back to their earliest childhood and experience an intense connection with everything and everyone around them. And yet the brain shows no activity at all!”
This has raised a number of large questions for Van Lommel: “What is consciousness and where is it located? What is my identity? Who is doing the observing when I see my body down there on the operating table? What is life? What is death?”
The body I observed laying in bed was mine, but I knew it wasn’t time to leave. My time on earth wasn’t up yet; there was still a purpose.
In order to convince his colleagues of the validity of these new insights, Van Lommel first had to demonstrate that this expansion of the consciousness occurred, in fact, during the period of brain death. It was not difficult to prove. Patients were often able to describe precisely what had happened during their cardiac arrest. They knew, for example, exactly where the nurse put their dentures or what doctors and family members had said. How would someone whose brain wasn’t active know these things?
Nevertheless, some scientists continue to assert that these experiences must happen at a time when there is still some brain function going on. Van Lommel is crystal clear in his response: “When the heart stops beating, blood flow stops within a second. Then, 6.5 seconds later, EEG activity starts to change due to the shortage of oxygen. After 15 seconds there is a straight, flat line and the electrical activity in the cerebral cortex has disappeared completely. We cannot measure the brain stem, but testing on animals has demonstrated that activity has ceased there as well. Moreover, you can prove that the brain stem is no longer functioning because it regulates our basic reflexes, such as the pupil response and swallowing reflex, which no longer respond. So you can easily stick a tube down someone’s throat. The respiratory centre also shuts down. If the individual is not reanimated within five to 10 minutes, their brain cells are irreversibly damaged.” He is aware that his findings on consciousness fly in face of orthodox scientific thinking. It is remarkable that an authoritative science journal like The Lancet was willing to publish his article. But it wasn’t without a struggle. Van Lommel recalls with a smile, “It took months before I got the green light. And then they suddenly wanted it finished, within a day.”
Van Lommel’s work raises profound questions about what “death” actually means: “Up to now, ‘death’ simply meant the end of consciousness, of identity, of life,” he notes. But his study topples that concept, along with the prevailing medical myths about who has near-death experiences. “In the past, these experiences were attributed to physiological, psychological, pharmacological or religious reasons. So to a shortage of oxygen, the release of endorphins, receptor blockages, fear of death, hallucinations, religious expectations or a combination of all these factors. But our research indicates that none of these factors determine whether or not someone has a near-death experience.”
This experience is a blessing for me, for now I know for sure that body and soul are separated, and that there is life after death. It has convinced me that consciousness lives on beyond the grave. Death is not death, but another form of life.
Van Lommel contends that the brain does not produce consciousness or store memories. He points out that American computer science expert Simon Berkovich and Dutch brain researcher Herms Romijn, working independently of one another, came to the same conclusion: that it is impossible for the brain to store everything you think and experience in your life. This would require a processing speed of 1024 bits per second. Simply watching an hour of television would already be too much for our brains. “If you want to store that amount of information—along with the associative thoughts produced—your brain would be pretty much full,” Van Lommel says. “Anatomically and functionally, it is simply impossible for the brain to have this level of speed.”
So this would mean that the brain is actually a receiver and transmitter of information. “You could compare the brain to a television set that tunes into specific electromagnetic waves and converts them into image and sound.
“Our waking consciousness, the consciousness we have during our daily activities,” Van Lommel continues, “reduces all the information there is to a single truth that we experience as ‘reality.’ During near-death experiences, however, people are not limited to their bodies or their waking consciousness, which means they experience many more realities.”
This explains why people who have a near-death experience sometimes have great difficulty functioning in their daily lives afterwards. They retain the sensitivity that enables them to tune into different channels simultaneously, making a cocktail party or bus ride an overwhelming experience as all the information from people around them comes in on all channels.
I saw a man who looked at me lovingly, but whom I did not know. At my mother’s deathbed, she confessed to me that I had been borne out of an extramarital relationship, my father being a Jewish man who had been deported and killed during the Second World War, and my mother showed me his picture. The unknown man that I had seen years before during my near-death experience turned out to be my biological father.
According to Van Lommel, near-death experiences can only be explained if you assume that consciousness, along with all our experiences and memories, is located outside the brain. When asked where that consciousness is located, Van Lommel can only speculate. “I suspect there is a dimension where this information is stored—a kind of collective consciousness we tune into to gain access to our identity and our memories.”
By means of this collective information field, we are not only connected to our own information, but also that of others and even the information from the past and future. “There are people who see the future during a near-death experience,” Van Lommel says. “For example, there was a man who saw his future family. Years later, he found himself in a situation he had already seen during his near-death experience. I suspect this is also the way déjà vu works.” According to Van Lommel’s research, during a near-death experience, people can also make contact with the dead, even if they don’t know them.
But how does the brain “know” what information to tune into? How can someone tune into his own memories and not those of other people? Van Lommel’s answer is surprisingly short and simple: “DNA. And primarily the so-called ‘junk DNA,’ which accounts for around 95 percent of the total, whose function we don’t understand.” He suspects that the DNA, unique to every person and every organism, works like a receptor mechanism, a kind of simultaneous translator between the information fields and the organism.
The idea that DNA works as a receptor mechanism to attune people to their specific consciousness fields sheds new light on the discussion of organ transplantation. Imagine you get a new heart. The DNA of that heart will gear itself to the consciousness field of the donor, not the recipient. Does this mean you suddenly get different information? Yes, Van Lommel says: “There are stories of people who developed radically different desires and lifestyles after an organ transplant. For example, there’s a story of a ballet dancer who suddenly wanted to drive a motorcycle and eat junk food.”
I perceived not only what I had done, but even in what way it had influenced others.
The cliché is true: People see their lives flash before them at the time of death. And people gain insight into the consequences of their actions. They might see themselves as at 4 years old, taking away their sister’s toys, and feel her pain. Van Lommel comments, “At that moment it’s as if you have the thoughts of someone else inside you. You are given insight into the impact of your thoughts, words and deeds on yourself and others. So it appears that every thought we have is a form of energy that continues to exist forever.”
People who have experienced such a “life review” say it’s not so much about what you do as the intention behind it. “It is extremely intense to experience that everything that goes around comes around.” Van Lommel leans forward to be sure his words come across. “No one avoids the consequences of their thoughts. That’s very confrontational. Some people discover there’s something they can never put right. Others come back and immediately start calling people to apologize for something they did 20 years ago.”
So is there a Last Judgment after all? Van Lommel is clear: “Absolutely not. No one is judged. It’s an insight experience. Most people go through this flashback in the presence of a being made of light. That being is entirely loving, absolutely accepting, without judgment, but has complete insight. The flashback changes people’s understanding of life. They adopt other values. They feel they are one with nature and the planet. There is no longer any difference between themselves and others. It’s not about power, appearance, nice cars, clothes, a young body. It’s about completely different things: love for yourself, for nature, for your fellow human beings. The message is as old as time, but now they’ve experienced it themselves and they have to live by it.”
Then, after a short silence, he says, thoughtfully: “It’s almost scary to realize that every thought has a consequence. If you let that sink in…every thought we have, positive or negative, has an impact on us, each other and nature.”
Do you have to nearly die to learn these life lessons? No, says Van Lommel, who has never had a near-death experience himself. Thanks to his research, he learned so many valuable lessons that he decided to abandon his career in cardiology in 1992 and dedicate himself fully to further research, publishing and lecturing on the subject of near-death experiences. He founded the Merkawah Foundation in the Hague, the Dutch department for the International Association for Near-Death Studies, which offers information and guidance to Dutch people who have had near-death experiences.
“Working with it and being open to it have changed my life,” Van Lommel says. “I now see that everything stems from consciousness. I better understand that you create your own reality based on the consciousness you have and the intention from which you live. I understand that consciousness is the basis of life, and that life is principally about compassion, empathy and love.”
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I personally experienced a scientific breakthrough last year – a miracle that was as unexpected as it was jaw-dropping.
I forget the ailment, but my doctor asked me about the pain I felt. More than that – he asked me to rate it on a 1-to-10 scale. And then – get this – he prescribed medicine on the basis of my observation.
This had never happened before in my 50-years plus of life. And yet, a few months later, the same miracle repeated itself with my dentist. Apparently, various medical associations have given their approval to the revolutionary concept of listening to and acting upon patients’ assessments.
For all its marvels, science often wears blinders. A s Loraine Magda notes ( in her article on this site), in "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions," Thomas Kuhn notes that the scientific community traditionally remains closed to alternative possibilities – until a breakthrough occurs. Those possibilities always existed – but closed minds precluded their consideration.
These thoughts come to mind because in a fascinating new film, "What the (bleep) Do We Kow?" rips off the blinders to offer new explanations to the biggest questions of all: Why are we here? What’s the nature of existence?
In "WTB," as it’s known, an array of scientists make a convincing case that in light of quantum physics, we need a new paradigm to answer these questions. It states that consciousness is not located in the brain, and goes on from there. It proposes that we largely create, quite literally, our own world – and that an eternal, timeless dimension is the true reality. Ignorance of this reality creates misery in our lives.
The award-winning movie earned cult status from the start with a series of sell-outs, and now has been picked up for national distribution.
Why the popularity for, of all things, a film about quantum physics? Is it wishful thinking? Or is it, instead, something that resonates as the truth within?
That debate will rage, because "WTB" directly and forcefully challenges current religious and scientific paradigms. But one likely blessing of the film is that it will free minds to now reconsider personally-experienced phenomena that previously has been discarded as "paranormal."
There is no better place for this open-minded science to begin than by exploring the near-death experience (NDE). A 1982 study estimated that 13 million adults had had NDEs in the U.S. alone. They’ve happened to everyone from priests to murderers, from soldiers to Sharon Stone.
They happen to children with no idea of what death even is, atheists, fundamentalists, "good" and "bad" people - doesn’t it seem like there’s something there worth seriously considering… and worth considering on the terms of the experiencers?
Consider that for most of its existence, psychiatrists regarded homosexuals as mentally ill - that was the starting point of diagnosis! No matter that all around them, scientists could observe the same phenomenon in all forms of life, and then some.
One can only imagine how many gays told doctors, "But I’m not sick! I handle life quite well, except if I admitted my preference, I’d be fired from my job, shunned by family, regarded as pathological by society, assaulted by some – and maybe even prosecuted by the law." Why didn’t those scientists listen?
They don’t prosecute people with NDEs. But all the rest applies. One thing NDErs learn early-on is to shut up. Believe what they tell you – it’s a dream, a hallucination, neurons gone nuts.
As a member of International Association of Near-Death Studies, I’ve heard many NDErs tell how they revealed these incredible life-altering events to their best friends – and were told you’d better not talk about this. You better not. Most of them got the message.
I know people who had NDEs 30 years ago, before Dr. Raymond Moody had even named the phenomenon "near-death experience." T hey buried this event in their mind – and yet, it wouldn’t die. It was too real – "more real than anything in this life," as I’ve heard so often.
When it comes to NDEs, most scientists grasp for familiar ground to explain a spiritual happening: it’s a hallucination of sorts. But as the computer folks say, GIGO – garbage in, garbage out. When you start with a fundamentally false paradigm, what do you expect you’ll get as a conclusion?
Might not science be wiser to seek experiencers who could pass any mental health test given, listen to them, and then devise studies to investigate what the NDE is according to those insights, rather than forming a conclusion first and then tossing out half-baked theories?
Scientists look at NDEs and say: well, they’re all over the map. One person may go through a tunnel, another up a stairway. Some have "negative" NDEs, most have positive ones – why? Some see cities of light, others simply a mist. Some meet relatives, others meet Jesus.
To complete the GIGO, there’s another batch of scientists who ask the exact opposite: why is there so much similarity in NDEs? Isn’t this proof that NDEs are merely physiological phenomenons? Or that it’s all just wishful thinking?
These reasonings follow a familiar pattern. They try to define the primary dimension by the same rules of this dimension – thus, a NDE should have this or that quality, based on the "logic" of this dimension. This is good science?
They ignore what NDErs say is the essence of the experience, and instead concentrate on the "special effects" – how has the brain produced this light, this perception? Better they should ask, if this is a hallucination, why does it change basic perceptions of life forever, unlike true hallucinations?
If they listened to many NDErs, they’d learn that NDE’s are tailored to the individual – it is communication to the experiencer. They’d find negative experiences were later regarded as positive "wake-up" calls. They’d find that NDErs say the spiritual beings in the primary dimension communicate using cultural and personal elements of the experiencer’s life. And so much more. All they have to do is listen.
One of the great ironies is that for centuries, science has been used as a club by materialists to batter religion – at least the literal versions of religion, with Adam and Eve (before or after dinosaurs?) 600-year old men, parting seas and such. There’s certainly good in that, given that many of these stories were doubtless intended as parables.
But now, it is the materialists who seek to disavow the new, more noetic sciences. With blinders firmly in place, they cling to paradigms that crumble even on their own materialist terms.
There should be no contradiction between your god and your science. Until recently, that would have seemed impossible. No longer.
As the tagline for "What the Bleep" says, "It’s time to get wise."
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my yahoo screenname is sheep8607@yahoo.com, anyone who would like to see the video what the bleep do we know then write me or email me i will send it through file..
hlp:
Well, you sounded semi-convincing, until you brought in that pseudo-scientific psychobabble flick by the name of 'What the #$##() do we know?"
Yes, I've seen. It's a big helping of crap, is what it is. I even purchased that unscientific book about water crystals by that Japanese gentleman.
It was most definitely NOT a film about 'quantum physics'. I may go into this on a later date, but it's easily dismantled.
Oh, here's more on Cayce:
http://skepdic.com/cayce.html
Fact is, all the info is based on testimonials & anecdotes.
Thus far, unimpressed.
All you 'true believers' can't seem to get any results except while in the company of other 'true believers', which is highly suspect.
Wow. Another tome.
I have the WTB site bookmarked, and meant to alert you to the water crystal guy some months ago, KA. Kept forgetting. (Or falling down rabbit holes, I suppose.)Glad to see you're already familiar w/it.
As an OBEr, I've been intrigued by the concept of the consciousness being outside the brain, a tap-in availability if we train it or are in dire need. But I can't really buy it; just fun to think on, like winning the lottery.
Yeah, I've got the book somewhere. It seemed like a real pretty idea, but sadly, I didn't read the reviews at Amazon - it seems that there was no scientific methods involved. He just cherry-picked, didn't list his methods, etc.
'WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW?' is just a sad, sad film. It's a lotta pseudoscientific psychobabble - it's got some ridiculous moments as well (A deaf woman dancing at a wedding? Whaaa?).
It had this really, REALLY stupid thing in the flick - when the 1st Europeans came over on ships, the damn thing claimed that the natives COULDN'T see the ships. Much 'subjective reality' crap was spewed forth. Where'd they get this piece of info? You guessed it - it was made up. It had a few facts in it - neural pathways, hypothalamus - but only a few.
It was a fuzzy-wuzzy feel-good flick straight outta Hollyweird.
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