Wednesday 21 May 2014

Do You Smell What I Smell? The Psychic Sense of Clairolfactance






 
 
 

Clairalience is the psychic sense of smelling, (also known as clairescence). A person with this form of extra-sensory perception is able to smell energy or gain psychic knowledge through the physical sense of smell. Most of the time, they are the only person in a group/space who is able to smell the etheric fragrance.

The gift of clairolfaction or clairolfactance can be useful for discerning spirits. One may "smell a skunk" so to speak or sense an unpleasant odor coming from a person who has detrimental energy in their field or sickness in their body. But, it is not just the foul odor of contamination that can be sensed by those who have this ability. Some people have reported smelling roses, lilacs, or other heavenly fragrances associated with angels when a loved one passes. My husband and I are both able to smell cigarette smoke when the spirit of a particular "deceased" loved one visits our home.

Sometimes this ability is referred to as claireolfactory or claireolfactant because it is believed that the olfactory nerve is involved in perceiving these astral smells.

I remember being able to smell my own soul essence when I was in my twenties and thirties. I missed being able to smell this beautiful aroma  I had a significant soul shift in 1999 and the ability to tap into my personal soul signature stopped. In 2011, the heavenly fragrance returned for twelve days, during which I was in a state of bliss. I knew that a 9th dimensional future version of my soul self or my natal soul had returned to be integrated with the soul in this incarnation. I wrote about these encounters in my book, Walk-ins Among Us ~ Open Your Personal Portal to Cosmic Awareness.

On December 4, 2013 the psychic smell returned and is still going constantly. I can smell it simultaneously with "earthly" smells that everyone can sense. I can put on perfume and not be able to smell that manufactured aroma after a short while; yet, the heavenly essence will rise above other smells such as food, pet/people odors, car exhaust, or lotions. The fragrance goes with me everywhere I go—I smell it in my car, while shopping in stores, and even in the shower. If I have spent time in a particular room of my house, I will smell it even stronger when I walk into that room.

I would like to hear from others who have this ability and know what you have smelled and how you have used this spiritual gift as a guidance tool on your spiritual journey.



Learn more about these types of symptoms and the ascension process in Shifting into Purer Consciousness ~ Integrating Spiritual Transformation with the Human Experience. The author, Yvonne Perry, 

Levels of Selfhood



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Most religions and many philosophies interpret Man [1] as a single consciousness or soul or spirit in a physical body. But, although an improvement over gross Materialism[2], this interpretation is actually extremely naive, for it ignores all the manifold aspects and dimensions that human consciousness includes.
A more sophisticated understanding is that the so-called individual is made up of a multiplicity of "souls" or levels of being. The human entity (and for that matter, every evolutionary entity) is thus a synthesis of a number of elements of being, corresponding to different dimensions or planes of existence. In the present essay, these various levels of body, soul, and spirit can be defined as follows:












Table 1. The various levels of self and corresponding planes of existence






Level of being or self ('microcosm")World or Plane ("macrocosm")Associated experience
Unmanifest AbsoluteUnmanifest AbsoluteShunya, Sachchidananada, etc
Transcendent Higher Self Manifest AbsoluteEternal Consciousness
Immanent Higher SelfInmost BeingInner Divine Consciousness
Spirit(Noeric Ideational) Plane
(Spiritual/ Angelic)
Inspiration,
gnosis, wisdom
SoulImaginal Plane
(Higher Psychic)
Intuition, Love,
Spiritual purpose
Double Astral Plane
(Lower Psychic)
Dreaming, Imagination, "Astral travelling"
Physical PsycheEtheric Plane
(Subtle Physical)
Physical Consciousness
Physical BodyPhysical Plane Body Consciousness


















One can use Egyptian, Indian, Greek, and Kabbalistic terms to supplement the imprecise and ambiguous English equivalents like "spirit" and "soul". If you look at other esoteric [3] teachings, you will notice all use pretty much the same schema, although differing in details and terminology.  A few examples of these inter-doctrinal equivalences are given as follows:






Table 2. The various levels of self in different esoteric systems












Level of being or self ('microcosm")Egyptian equivalentTaoist equivalentNeoplatonic equivalentSufi equivalentBlavatsky
Theosophical equivalent
Theosophical equivalent
(Adyar School & others influenced by)
Aurobindo equivalent 
(Integral psychology)
Absolute Self?TaoThe One?not representednot representedParamatma?
Transcendent Higher Self  ??HenadDivine NameAtmaMonadJivatma
Immanent Higher Self"Memphite Theology" (Old_Kingdom) Ka; 
New Kingdom
Khu (in part)
Shen - immortal spirit Augeoidesayn thabithaImmortal EgoSoul;
Higher Triad
(Atma-Buddhi- Manas)
Psychic Being
(Chaitya Purusha)
SpiritKhu (in part)Hun (Spirit)Noetic Soulaql (intellect)Buddhi ManasHigher Mental (Causal)Mental (in part)
SoulBa (soul)
Ab (heart)
Hun (Spirit)Soulqalb
(heart)
Kama ManasHigher Emotional/ AstralVital (in part)
Double Sahu;
Ka (Double) 
P'o (yin nature)Irrational Soulnafs
(soul)
Kama rupaLower Emotional/ AstralVital (in part)
Physical PsycheKa (in part)Ch'iVegetative soulnafs
(soul)
SthulaEtheric bodySubtle Physical
Physical BodyKhatbodyPhysicalPhysicalSukshmaPhyscal bodyGross Physical



Physical, Spiritual and Causal

Taking the five "lower" principles in Table 1 - the Body, Psyche, Double, Soul and Spirit - these each correspond to a particular "vertical" Plane or stratum of existence, from pure "matter" to pure "spirit" (the higher three principles do not lie on the Spirit-Matter axis at all).   In addition to this "vertical" axis, there is a "horizontal" one, which constitute a sequence of "frequency octaves" equivalent to the energy levels in an electron orbital shell around an atom's nucleus
Just as there are an infinite number of possible quantum energy levels in an electron's orbit, so there are an indefinate number of "vibratory" or "frequency" levels of consciousness on each plane. In Indian Vedantic and Tibetan Buddhist metaphysics, these frequency levels are grouped into Gross, Subtle, and Causal [4]; whilst Western Esotericism [5] refers to Physical, Psychic and Spiritual.
 Table.3 illustrates the relation between the "horizontal" and the "vertical" gradations of manifestation, and gives the terms used here.












Table.3. The Frequency octaves in the Physical Body, Physical Psyche (or "subtle bodies"), Double, Soul, Spirit, and higher grades of existence.












Pure Spirit
 
 
 
 
 
:
:
Higher Planes
 
 
 
 
 
:
:
Spirit
 
 
 
 
 
Spiritual Being...
Soul
 
 
 
 
BaSpiritual Ba...
Double
 
 
 
 
Ka/Astral doubleSpiritual Ka...
physical psyche
 
Etheric bodyEmotional bodyMental bodyPsychic BodiesSpiritual Bodies...
physical bodyexternal physicalOrganic (wholistic) Physical Emotional Physical Mental Physical Psychic PhysicalSpiritual Physical...
:
physical mechanicalPhysical subconsciousEmotional subconscious
(= Jungian shadow)
Mental subconscious
(= Jungian shadow)
Psychic subconscious
(= Collective Unconscious)
Spiritual subconscious
(= the Jungian "Self")
...
:
physical mechanicalinconscientinconscientinconscientinconscientinconscient...
:
pure matter<----------------------------------------------------------------->
pure spirit
 
 
gross (outer)
subtle (inner)
very subtle
 
 
Body
Emotion
Mind
Spirit











Unfortunately, many esoteric teachings tend to confuse the "vertical" series of planes, the "horizontal" frequency series, the "inner-outer" sequence from Higher Self to ego, and the Absolute Self, collapsing everything into a single set of planes of consciousness. That is why it so hard to match up the different systems; they use similiar language and concepts to describe totally different things.





Notes

[1]. The term "Man" as used here is, it hardly needs to be pointed out, gender neutral. Because of patriarchial overtones, feminists have suggested that the term be replaced by a gender-neutral one like "Person". However, the word "Person" comes from the Greek persona, meaning a mask used in theatre, whilst "Man" is derived from the Indo-European root mn, from which we also derive "mind"; hence Man literally means "a thinking being". Since the only way the human species can be distinguished from the rest of the animal kingdom is in our superior intellectual devlopment, I feel that this is a more appropriate term to use here.
[2]. "Materialism" here refers not to a particular lifestyle based around material goods, but a sceptical way of looking at things, that denies all realities beyond those that are currently known to physical science. This is a reductionist perspective that actually constitutes a specific meme
[3]. "Esoteric" means the inner or hidden meaning of things, the occult, the metaphysical; as opposed to "exoteric", the outer meaning, conventional knowledge or reality
[4] The division "gross, subtle, and causal" is derived from Indian Vedantic philosophy, specifically the Mandukya Upanishad), which speaks of four states of consciousness, the waking, dream, dreamless sleep, and transcendent state. These were later identified with the five koshas [see note 5 below]. Tibetan Buddhism refers to a similiar three-fold distinction as "gross", "subtle", and "very subtle" [Table 3].
[5] By "Western Esotericism" is meant the occult and spiritual teachings that have developed in the West in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; such as Theosophy, Hermetic Qabalah, Rosicrucianism, and Thelema. The division of being into "body, soul, and spirit" is central to the teachings of the Christian theosophist and clairvoyant Rudolph Steiner.







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The Higher Self in Sri Aurobindo's Teaching


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The Higher Dimensions of one's being

Not only does Sri Aurobindo describe the various planes of consciousness, but also the Divine Soul that incarnates in and through them, as well as the Transcendent Self beyond incarnation.

"The being of man is composed of these elements - the psychic being supporting all, the inner mental, vital and physical, and the outer, quite external nature of mind, life and body which is their instrument of expression.  Above all is the central being (Jivatma) which uses them all for its manifestation; it is a portion of the Divine Self." [Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, vol 1, p.301 (Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Ponndicherry, 1971)].
See the Jivatman, Soul-spark, an dPsychic Being
So we have:
      Jivatma

           True Mental
                --> Inner Mental ----> Outer Mental
    Psychic
    Being
           True Vital
                --> Inner Vital  ----> Outer Vital

           True Physical
                --> Inner Physical --> Outer Physical


The Central Being (Jivatma)

"When the One Divine manifests its ever inherent multiplicity, the essential Self or Atman becomes for that manifestation the central being (Jivatman) who presides from above over the evolution of its personalities and terrestrial lives here, but is itself an eternal portion of the Divine prior to the terrestrial manifestation"
[Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, Vol I, p.278].
The Jivatman or "Central Being" (the latter term can also refer to the Psychic Being) is similar to the a`yan thabita of Ibn Arabi; the Divine as many Essences rather than One, with each Essence presiding over its corresponding phenomenal reality.  Each Essence is the archetypal truth, the Higher Self, the "Divine  Name", the Logos, behind that reality.
But Sri Aurobindo's conception of the Higher Self is more dynamic than Ibn Arabi's.  For he envisages the Divine Self in a threefold mode; the first being the transcendent Jivatman just referred to.  When this "eternal portion of the Divine" appears in the lower manifestation, it is as the second element of the Higher Self, the Psychic Being

The Psychic Being

"the soul, a spark of the Divine Fire, supporting the mental, vital, and physical being.  The Psychic Being (element number three) is the spark growing into a Fire, evolving with the growth of consciousness.  The Psychic Being is therefore evolutionary, not like the Jivatman (the essential Self) prior to the evolution."
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, Vol I, p.278].
According to Sri Aurobindo, "the Jivatma, spark-soul, and psychic being are three different forms of the same reality" that should not be confused.  The "Jivatma or spirit" is above the manifested being;
   "it is superior to birth and death, always the same, the individual Self or Atman; the eternal true being of the individual.
   The soul is a spark of the Divine that "enters into the manifestation of the self, consents to be a part of its  natural phenomenal becoming...It carries with it at first an undifferentiated power of the divine consciousness containing all possibilities which have not yet taken form but to which it is the function of evolution to give form....

    The Psychic Being is a spiritual personality put forward by the soul in its evolution; its growth marks the stage which the spiritual evolution of the individual has reached and its immediate possibilities for the future.  It stands behind the mental, the vital, the physical nature, grows by their experiences, carries the consciousness from life to life.  It is the psychic Person, caitya purusha  (literally "Pure Consciousness Person")..."
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, Vol I, p.280-281
Illustration from Integral Psychology home page
The Psychic Being, as the individual indwelling Divine Presence, is equivalent in some ways to the Guide or "Heavenly Twin" of Gnostic, Manichaean, and Ishraqi cosmology (although this can also refer to the Central Being too).  Indeed, it even has a particular form, as Mirra explains
"...(T)he psychic being is an individual, personal being with its own experience, its own development, its own growth, its own organisation....(W)hen it is fully formed, the psychic being has a distinct form which corresponds to our physical form.  It is not altogether similiar, but it has a definite form.  Every psychic being is different from another...each has an individuality, a personality."
The Mother, Collected Works vol 4, p.141


The Psychic Being - more


  the psychic being

The Inner Being

Sri Aurobindo is careful to distinguish the Inner Mind from the higher, divine levels of consciousness:
"the inner mind is not the higher mind; it is more in touch with the universal forces and more open to the higher consciousness and capable of an immensely deeper and larger range of action than the outer or surface mind - but it is of the same essential nature.  The higher consciousness is above the ordinary mind and different from it in its workings; it ranges from higher mind through illumined mind, intuition and overmind up to the border line of the supermind."
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, vol 1, p.308


 This constitutes the more Universal aspect of the lower (Mental, Vital, and Physical) Planes, whilst the "outer being" is the Individual Dimension.  The "psychic being" or evolving Higher Self, is the "inmost being" of the inner mind, vital, and physical [Ibid p.1971].


The True Being

In addition to the Inner there is also the "true" dimension, which is more in touch with the Divine and can be seen as an aspect of the Psychic Being.  Thus, in the case of the Vital:
"The surface vital is narrow, ignorant, limited, full of obscure desires, passions, cravings, revolts, pleasures and pains, trans-cient joys and griefs, exultations and deppressions.  The true vital being, on the contrary, is wide, vast, calm, strong, without limitations, firm and immovable, capable of all power, all knowledge, all Ananda..."
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, vol 1, p.309
 This constitutes the more Divine aspect of the lower (Mental, Vital, and Physical) Planes.  The Psychic Being is a sort of coordinating purusha, but also all the purushas are aspects of the same divibe essence; all the True aspects constitute another Dimension of the Universal being; an immanent Divine.


The True Being - more


Spiritual Transformation

It is also the activity and consciousness of the Psychic Being that constitutes the necessary first step in the evolutionary journey to Supramentalisation.  To bridge the gulf between Mind and Supermind, a "triple transformation" is required.
"(T)here must first be the psychic change, the conversion of our whole prsent nature into a soul-instrumentation; ...along with that there must be a spiritual change, the descent of a higher Light, Knowledge, Power, Force, Bliss, Purity into the whole being, even into the lowest recesses of the life and bdy, even into the darkness of the subconscience; last, there must supervene the supramental transformation, ...the ascent into the Supermind and the transforming descent of the supramental Consciousness into our entire being and nature."
The Life Divine (10th ed.), , p.891].
Thus, as with Steiner's teachings on "Supersensible Perception", there are a number of distinct stages of greater and greater spiritualisation of consciousness, beyond the present human rational waking consciousness.
The following table correlates these "higher self" hypostases in Sri Aurobindo's psycho-philosophy with comparable terms and concepts in other esoteric teachings.


Table 2. The various levels of self in different esoteric systems
Sri Aurobindo
(Integral Yoga)
Egyptian equivalentNeoplatonic equivalentKashmir ShaivismSufi equivalentKabbalistic equivalentBlavatsky
(Original Theosophy)
Later Theosophical equivalent
(Adyar School & others influenced by)
Paramatma
as aspect in Supermind
?The OneParamashivaHahutEn SofParabrahman
higher Kosmic Planes
Parabrahman
Logoic
JivatmaPtahNousMantra-maheshwara
Mantreshwara
Mantra
Vidyeshwara
Vijnanakala
`ayn thabitaYehida (Unity)
Hayya (Life)
AtmaMonad
Psychic Being
(Chaitya Purusha)
"Memphite Theology" (Old Kingdom) - Ka;
New Kingdom - Khu (in part)
Noetic SoulPurusha
Buddhi
Ahamkara
Ruh (Spirit)
Qalb (Heart)
Neshamah (Soul)Immortal EgoSoul / Higher Triad (Atma-Buddhi- Manas)
True Being and Inner BeingKhu (in part)Noetic SoulRuah (Spirit)Permannet Atoms?






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Friday 9 May 2014

Observing Self; Mysticism, and Psychotherapy

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An Invitation

   Psychotherapy arose in response to human suffering, and, as far as we can tell, human suffering has always existed. The ancient lineage of psychotherapy is seldom appreciated because Western culture considers psychotherapy as a relatively recent development of psychiatry, one of its subdivisions. If we define psychotherapy as the treatment of mental distress through psychological means, we find records of such practices from the origins of civilization whenever priests, shamans, and witch doctors appear. While psychiatry, a category of scientific medicine, is a modern development, psychotherapy has been associated with the sacred for thousands of years. Historians of psychotherapy acknowledge priests and shamans as the first to heal the psyche. A sorcerer, his head crowned with deer's antlers, is depicted on the wall of a cave In southern France, dating from 15,000 B.C. Psychotherapists of one sort or another have been around a long time.
   Formal psychotherapy originated in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when treatment was taken over from the clergy by rationalistic medicine and eventually became the specialty of psychiatry. Psychiatry at first dealt primarily with madness, but Freud's psychoanalysis extended psychiatry and psychotherapy to neurotic and character problems as well. The scope of formal psychotherapy has been progressively enlarged and is now concerned with problems of existential human suffering, the traditional domain of religion, from which psychotherapy historically originated.
   Psychotherapy appears to have come full circle. Although the modern version is quite different from the archaic ceremonies that featured magic, taboos, gods, and dramatic rituals of exorcism, there have been changes other than appearance. Its marriage to rational medicine has given psychotherapy a systematic understanding of neurotic and psychotic syndromes and refined technical procedures. And an entirely new dimension, the enhancement of the observing self, has been added.
   However, Western science is characterized by a split between the sacred and the rational, which has left modern psychotherapy less well equipped than the superseded ancient, primitive versions to handle certain problems. The loss of dramatic placebo devices is not the difficulty. The issue goes deeper, involving the most fundamental assumptions of Western thought. Freud's view of reality and that of most contemporary theorists of psychotherapy is based on a nineteenth-century physical and biological scientific model that is far too narrow to encompass human consciousness. Consequently, certain sources of suffering cannot be dealt with from within a Western framework. We are faced with major problems that call for broadening our perspective and extending our science.
THE MYSTICAL TRADITION
   The mystical tradition is also ancient in origin. The oral teachings recorded in the Upanishads, Buddhist sutras, and similar records go back thousands of years and provide evidence that mystical teachers of widely different cultures say remarkably similar things. Also concerned with human suffering, they propose that human beings are ignorant of their true nature and that ignorance leads to lives of pain and futility. The sages describe a Way that leads to a higher level of existence, one infinitely more desirable than the level on which most people conduct their lives. The mystical tradition does not offer therapy in the usual sense of that word, but achieving the goal of mysticism -‑ experiencing the Real Self  — is said to cure human suffering because its very basis is thereby removed.
   Often confused with religion, the mystical tradition occupies a place of its own. Durkheim suggested that human beings developed religions through their perception of the tiered, a superior realm impalpable through the five senses but one that can nevertheless be experienced. Religion and mysticism are both concerned with the sawed realm, but most religions tend to associate the sacred with a deity, Whereas mysticism associates the sacred with the unrecognized Real Self of each human being. Thus, followers of formal religions often try to affect the behavior of a god -‑ propitiating, phasing, and seeking aid. In contrast, the mystical tradition asserts the equation: I (Real Self) = God. While "I am God"” is the fundamental realization of mysticism, it is blasphemous in many religions.
   Because both religion and mysticism respond to the perception of the sacred, the work of mystics historically took place within a religious context although it remained distinct from the activities of everyday religious practices. For example the wandering monks for whom the Upanishads were mitten did not perform Hindu sacrifices and rituals, but followed special practices imparted in secret by their teacher.
   The monks, usually thought of by laypersons as part of an established religious tradition, were actually following a teaching that said the ordinary forms and concepts of that religion were illusions one must transcend. A similar situation prevailed for Zen monks who pursued their training in the context of Buddhism.
   Western culture often overlooks the distinction between religion and mysticism, especially in the psychological and psychiatric literature. This is unfortunate because the mystical emphasis on self‑development makes it consonant with modern psychotherapy. The mystical tradition has been concerned with the very problems that modern psychotherapy has been unable to resolve. It makes sense, therefore, to investigate mysticism with a view to dealing more effectively with those problems and gaining wisdom as human beings.
THE PROBLEM OF MEANING
   Human beings need meaning. Without it they suffer boredom, depression, and despair. Increasingly, psychotherapists are called on to deal with these symptoms as people confront aging and death in the context of a society that is coming to realize the possibility of its own decline and extinction. The religious framework that formerly defined meaning has been replaced by a scientific world view in which meaning does not exist. "What is the purpose of human life?" and "Why am I?" are questions that are said by most scientists to lie outside the scope of science or to be false, since they assume that the human species developed by chance in a random universe. According to this view, human beings are complex biochemical phenomena, of considerable scientific interest but not essentially different from anything else that science examines.
   Western psychotherapy is hard put to meet human beings’ need for meaning, for it attempts to understand clinical phenomena in a framework, based on scientific materialism, in which meaning is arbitrary and purpose nonexistent. Consequently, Western psychotherapy interprets the search for meaning as a function of childlike dependency wishes and fears of helplessness or, at best, a genetic disposition toward intellectual control, preserved and enhanced by natural selection because of its survival value.
   Such explanations, however tidy they may be, do not offer much help to adolescents and young adults seeking a life path, to persons confronting the anxieties of the nuclear age, or to those who experience despair as death approaches, unable to find significance in life goals based on personal acquisition, unable to find meaning in the purposeless universe of scientific empiricism. Not only are patients affected; psychotherapists fall prey to the same ailment. Consider the following extract from an article in the American Journal of Psychiatry reporting the experience of a group of therapists, aged thirty-five to forty-five, most of whom had a psychoanalytic background. The group met ostensibly to obtain peer supervision but soon became a therapy group to deal with a crisis all the members were experiencing:
    The original members of the group were remarkably homogeneous in their purpose in joining. The conscious reason was to obtain help in mastering a phase in their own development the mid‑life crisis. We refer to that stage of life in which the individual is aware that half of his time has been used up and the general pattern of trajectory of his work and personal life is clear. At this time, one must give up the normal defenses of early life‑infinite faith in one's abilities and the belief that anything is possible. The future becomes finite childhood fantasies have been fulfilled or unrealized, and there is no longer a sense of having enough time for anything. One becomes aware that one's energy and physical and mental abilities will be declining. The individual must think of prolonging and conserving rather than expanding. The reality of one‘s limited life span comes into sharp focus, and the work of mourning the passing of life begins in earnest.
   This depressed, resigned outlook should not be dismissed as peculiar to that particular group; it is, in fact, an approved psychiatric standard. The American Handbook of Psychiatry articulates its contemporary "wisdom" as follows:
    To those who have obtained some wisdom in the process of reaching old age, death often assumes meaning as the proper outcome of life. It is nature's way of assuring more life and constant renewal. Time and customs change but the elderly tire of changing; it is time for others to take over, and the elderly person is willing to pass quietly from the scene.
   Here, the meaning of life is death, which provides an end to the fatigue of the elderly. What a vision!
   The greatest problem Western psychotherapists face may be the absence of a theoretical framework to provide meaning for patients and therapists alike. Clearly, those struggling to overcome neurotic problems are likely to be badly handicapped when the context within which they view themselves provides neither meaning, direction, nor hope. It is also clear that science's vision of an orderly, mechanical, indifferent universe can provide no purpose for life. Yet our lives and our psychological health depend on a sense of purpose. Mere survival is a purpose, but not enough for human consciousness. Nor is working for the survival of others sufficiently meaningful if one believes that the human race has no place to go, that it endlessly repeats the same patterns, or worse.
   The "midlife" crisis with which the psychotherapists grappled probably reflects the fact that at midlife one's own death becomes less theoretical and more probable. Goals of money, security, fame, sex, or power might formerly have peen purpose to life. With experience, the limited nature of such satisfactions becomes increasingly evident. As one grows olderan awareness surfaces that one is on a relentless slide toward extinction, making self‑serving goals seem utterly futile. Even altruistic goals can wear thin without a larger picture of the human race than the one our scientific culture provides. As life progresses, the search for meaning becomes increasingly urgent. Profound despair and dull resignation are symptoms of failing in that search. The pervasive use of alcohol, sedatives, and narcotics In our society might well reflect many people's attempts to suppress despair at their purposelessness, to substitute heightened sensation for meaning.
   This widespread malady need not be inevitable, for it is possible that the conclusions of scientific materialism are wrong. From time to time we sense a larger reality than the pot science provides, a subtle perception pointing to a better, Meaningful existence. The dissonance between the scientific view and the one we intuit produces restlessness and a need for resolution. Even the pursuit of material goals may be a blind response to the urge to attain a dimly sensed reality in which purpose and meaning are facts, not fantasies. Our ability to progress in that direction is severely hampered by our notunderstanding the nature of the problem, by restricting reality to the empirical realm. Indeed, Western psychological science tends to regard the very consciousness through which we know the physical world to be no more than a product of that world, an epiphenomenon less real than that which it comprehends. No wonder meaning vanishes. A physicist commented on this assumption:
    Most painful is the absolute silence of all our scientific investigations towards our questions concerning the meaning and scope of the whole display. The more attentively we watch it, the more aimless and foolish it appears to be. The show that is going on obviously acquires a meaning only with regard to the mind that contemplates it. But what science tells us about this relationship is patently absurd; as if the mind had only been produced by that very display that it is now watching and would pass away with it when the sun finally cools down and the earth has turned into a desert of ice and snow, 
   t is as if Descartes had been stood on his head and made to declare, "I think; therefore, the world exists and I am an illusion."
   Pain and dysfunction inevitably result from the denial or distortion of reality, a consequence clearly demonstrated in the effects of the fantasies of those suffering from psychosis or neurosis. It is equally true of the fantasies and beliefs promulgated by an entire culture. Our culture's belief in positivistic empiricism  — only the tangible is real‑produces increasing symptoms at the individual, social, and political levels. A person who seeks psychotherapy may be suffering from a distortion of reality. not only at the interpersonal but at the metaphysical level, and neither the person nor the psychotherapist is aware of that.
   A basic tenet of mysticism is chat reality as ordinarily perceived is indeed a distortion' and that human suffering is the consequence of believing in that distorted view. According to mystics, the problem is compounded by human beings' inherent need to progress in their ability to perceive the reality that underlies the phenomenal world, which can result only from the development of a higher intuitive faculty, a process called "conscious evolution." People whose evolutionary need is frustrated experience a persistent dissatisfaction with the course of their lives. On the other hand, fulfillment of that developmental goal enables people to perceive the meaning of their own lives and the purpose of human existence. Thus, in the mystical tradition, meaning is a perceptual issue.
   The problem of limited perception -‑ as encountered in biology ‑- has been described by C. F. Pantin:
    . . . if you are not careful you may start to imagine that you can explain the whole behavior of the sea anemone by very simple reflexes ‑- like the effect of a coin in a slot machine. But quite by accident, I discovered that apart from reflexes, there was a whole mass of purposive behavior connected with the spontaneous activity of the anemone about which we simply know nothing. (Actually, this behavior was too slow to be noticed; it was outside our sensory spectrum for the time being.)
   Similarly, it is possible that the meaning and purpose of human life are outside the spectrum of ordinary consciousness, whose widening and deepening are the concern of the mystical tradition. In fact, some see the evolution of consciousness as the principal task of the human race. Western psychology, in its often vain attempts to explain away the sense of meaninglessness and its attendant symptoms, may havemuch to learn from mysticism, which sees meaning as something real and accessible to consciousness, provided the appropriate perceptual capacity has been developed.
   The fundamental questions, "Who am I?" and "What am 1?" arise increasingly in the struggle to find meaning and purpose in life. Therapists hear them as explicit queries or to indirect form: "Who is the real me?" or "I don't know what I want  — part of me wants one thing and part of me wants something else. What do I want?" Western psychology is severely handicapped in dealing with these questions because the center of human experience  — the observing self  — is missing from its theories. Yet, at the heart of psychopathology lies a fundamental confusion between the self as object and the self of pure subjectivity. Emotions, thoughts, impulses, images, and sensations are the contents of consciousness: we witness them; we are aware of their existence. Likewise, the body, the self-image, and the self‑concept are all constructs that we observe. But our core sense of personal existence ‑- the "I" ‑- is located in awareness itself, not in its content.
   The distinction between awareness and the content of awareness tends to be ignored in Western psychology, its implications for our everyday life are not appreciated. Indeed, most people have trouble recognizing the difference between awareness and content, which are part of everyday life. Yet, careful observation shows people that they can suspend their thoughts, that they can experience silence or darkness and the temporary absence of images or memory patterns ‑- that any element of mental life can disappear while awareness itself remains. Awareness is the ground of conscious life, the background or field in which all elements exist, different from thoughts, sensations, or images. One can experience the distinction simply by looking straight ahead. Be aware of what you experience, then close your eyes. Awareness remains. "Behind" your thoughts and images is awareness, and that is where you are.
   What we know as our self is separate from our thoughts, memories, feelings, and any content of consciousness. No Western psychological theory concerns itself with this fundamental fact; all describe the self in terms of everything but the observer, who is the center of experience. This crucial omission stems from the fact that the observing self is an anomaly  — not an object, like everything else. Our theories are based on objects: we think in terms of objects, talk in terms of objects. It is not just the physical world that we apprehend in that way; the elements of our mental life are similar. Seemingly diffuse and amorphous emotions are localized and observable; they have definite qualities. emotions, like fluid objects, are entities we observe. Images, memories, and thoughts we objects we grasp, manipulate, and encompass by awareness just as we do the components of the physical world. In contrast, we cannot observe the observing self; we must experience it directly. It has no defining qualities, no boundaries, no dimensions. The observing self has been ignored by Western psychology because it is not an object and cannot fit the assumptions and framework of current theory.
   Lacking understanding of this elusive, central self, how are we to answer the essential questions "Who am I" "What am I?" that lie at the heart of science, philosophy, the arts, the search for meaning? To find answers we must step outside the boundaries of our traditional modes of thought.
   Here too the mystical tradition has focused on an area ignored by Western science. Both Yogic and Buddhist metaphysics and psychology emphasize the crucial difference between the observer and the content of consciousness and use meditation techniques to heighten the observing self. As with meaning, mystics hold that answering "Who am I?" and "Why am I?" requires a special mode of perception. That claim is not surprising, considering the anomalous character of the observing self. To understand the "I," we should first learn what the mystical tradition can teach us about it.
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Tantra and the elements
The subtle body, showing the five elements and the chakras - image from Yoga News



Metaphysics on its own is meaningless without Transformation. Gnosis provides insight into the nature of Reality, and empathic sentientism into the value of all sentient beings, but these things on their own can not bring about change in the world. There has to be the element of will, and that, when rightly applied, means what I might call (to coin a neologism) theovertive (turning to the Divine) transformation. The ultimate goal of transformation is the divinization and perfection of the universe, what Sri Aurobindo calls Supramentalization.



There are a number of dimensions or parameters of transformation:
Dimensions of Transformation -
The quantitative dimension or field of transformation: is it individual only, limited to a small group, or embraces the whole world, or even the cosmos?

Types of Transformation -
These describe the types or aspects of the being that are transformed, and also those aspects that do the transforming. Because each aspect develops at different rates, there are also separate lines of development or aspects of the being that are transformed. Does transformation begin with the body alnoe, or emotions and feeling, or mental consciousness, or all three together? Does it extends to or from the higher aspects of the being - the Immanent and Transcendent Divine, or the lower, the Subconscious and Intraphysical? The old yogas ignored the lower in favour of the higher; Integral Yoga is unique in bringing the higher down to transform and transmute the lower:

Intersubjective Transformation -
What is the Orientation of the consciousness and being? Is it limited and narcisistic, or limitless with empathic identification with all sentient beings? Here there are progressive stages from adverse selfishness to universal empathy. They can be listed as follows:

Stages of Transformation -
The following are progressive stages of Transformation. They represent the conversion or dissolution of lower states in higher spiritual Light, Love, Power and Harmony. At the stage of Higher Divinisation (Supramentalisation), the entire Earth is transformed, entropy reversed, and the entire Cosmos redeemed.








Dimensions of Change
EvolutionTransformationTransmutation/Metamorphosis


Towards a Foundation of a Universal Esoteric Science




by
with additional material by Steven Guth and Arvan Harvat

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This essay presents the first steps at formulating a universal and unified esoteric science; one which works alongside and with scientific method, rather than belittling or rejecting it. Such a universal system of esotericism would constitute a wider framework into which more specialised aspects of human knowledge, in all its facets, can be placed. It also represents and requires a radical paradigm shift. I have tried to minimise the amount of intellectualising and dogma, keeping it to the minimum, and emphasise instead a diverse range of ideas and suggestions.
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Science and Esotericism

Whilst the physical sciences have continued to progress ever since the time of Galileo, the esoteric sciences have not advanced to the same degree; and some haven't advanced at all (e.g. Astrology - with all the advances in so-called Esoteric, Humanistic, etc - still rests on the foundation of Ptolemaic (Geocentric) physics. Hassidic Kabbalah rehashes and reinterprets material written two centuries and more ago. Theosophy draws on the 19th century writings of Balvatsky, including Victorian science.). In fact esoterica in general does not progress the way science does. This is because esoterica is based on experiences, anecdotes, and dogmas, whereas science uses testable and objective experimental methodology. Science works because other scientists can conform or refute the findings of the original author. e.g. external link special relativity can be external link confirmed by measuring the slightly lower speed of atomic clocks in a moving aircraft, and other means. With esotericism this is not possible.
The problem is that there is no "objective" standard in esotericism. How does one for example prove or disprove something like Blavatsky's Seven Root Races? Or the Kabbalistic world of Atzilut? Or purusha and prakrtiti of the Samkhya philosophy?
Because physical science is to be based on the empirical unit of testable experiment (external link Galileo etc) and external link falsification (Popper), it is possible over the years, decades and centuries to create a vast edifice of knowledge. It is not necessary for every physicist to rediscover Newton's laws, and Einstein's relativity, and the quantum physics of Plank, Bohr, Schroedinger, Heisenberg and the rest. These are already assumed to be valid, they have been tested, confirmed through independent experimental results, and so can serve as the foundation for further explorations.
This is the reason science is so powerful, and has achieved such miracles of knowledge and technology.
In contrast to the wonders of the modern scientific understanding of the workings off the universe, poor old Esotericism cannot get beyond the basic foundations. And what is worse, even those foundations are biased; coloured by the religious or personal idiosyncrasies of the author, and not amenable to confirmation or refutation the way physical science is. Each school follows the Founder, without questioning. The 4th Way people follow Gurdjieff and only use his jargon. The Theosophists ditto Blavatsky. Sometimes schisms occur, like the rival schools of Theosophy (Adya, Point Loma, Alice Bailey, etc), and there is no objective test to see which one is correct.
If an esoteric science is to be truly universal, it must be based on fundamental elements of knowledge that can be confirmed or refuted (as much as possible) and can serve as the foundation for further units.
In one respect this is not as easy as with physical science. Physical science - like exoteric religion - doesn't require one to alter their consciousness. It does however ask that one immerse oneself in a specialised body of knowledge, often for years at a time, of little relevance or interest to humanity as a whole, before one can embark on one's own research. Let us say you want to study, oh, say, prehistoric amphibians (external link labyrinthodonts) of the external link Triassic period. You have to spend several years learning basic external link palaeontology and geology. Then spend more years specialising in vertebrate palaeontology, especially labyrinthodont amphibians, and that means you have to find someone who has already studies and researched and written papers on Triassic labyrinthodont amphibians. That person then becomes your supervisor, who helps you with your work and makes sure you are on the right track. Or if astronomy, you may have an interest in external link protoplanetary nebulae, say. Again, the same pattern; general study, then specialised, and finally your own research (Master's thesis, then Phd), all this taking quite a few years. As you can see, it is very like getting initiated into, say, a Sufi or Tantric sect, and following the teacher or guru, who is there to help you find your own way (and never, as in many fake pop-gurus of the West, to take advantage of you).
And after all this, one's own research, when it is published, can be tested by one's peers. This process of peer-review is a fundamental element of western science. Whilst it leads to the danger of becoming hide-bound and stuck in old paradigms, it also ensures that any new discoveries are authentic; they are not something being churned out by any lunatic.
Now, consider esoteric science. You can, if you wish, join a school, according to your inclination and interests and talents. Say a Hermetic School, or a Tibetan Buddhist lineage. You are given material to learn, and when you feel ready you are initiated into the group. As you progress you are given more advanced material, or meditation practices, to learn and master. You are supervised by the elders of the group, who make sure you don't go astray, and help you if you have problems. You can specialise if you wish, perhaps you prefer a particular meditation, or a particular practice. Eventually, after many years, if you feel comfortable in this group, you become an elder or master or teacher too. And here also there is a sort of review by peers, although not in such a formal sense (although sometimes it may be). If you have wildly eccentric interpretations, your views may not be accepted. Sometimes they may be good views, sometimes ridiculous. There may be a schism, or you may be expelled. Paradigms determine belief-systems and behaviour in esotericist groups just as much as in science - if not more so! And most of all in exoteric religions, which at their worst are hidebound to the most literal interpretations of an old book, which, worthy as it may be in its message, becomes twisted and distorted when every word is taken as "gospel truth" (literally!).
So each branch of human endeavour - science or esotericism - follows a broadly similar path. Novice who joins specialised or specialist or even eccentric group, where he/she can pursue ones interests, is encouraged and guided, and eventually becomes a master or teacher or elder in his/her own right. this is just part of the cycle of human existence and interrelationships.
But science and esotericism also differ. Science is about discovering things - pure knowledge - for their own sake. The joy of learning is reward enough. Esotericism, being more pragmatic, is not only about knowledge, it is also about attainment. Of course, this varies too, with some forms of esotericism, like Theosophy, being almost totally theoretical (and hence like science), while others, like various schools of Buddhist or Yogic practice, being almost completely practical, with only minimal theory (just enough to provide a framework for the practice).
The greatest denial of knowledge however is found in some hidebound exoteric Religions and Cults, where learning of anything other than one's own faith or the teachings of the cult leader is actually depreciated or condemned as a distraction, or the work of the devil.
So an esoteric science, as suggested here, is not about the path to enlightenment or self-realisation, which is the true goal of mystical and esotericist practice, but about understanding the "intermediate realities" between the objective physical and the transcendent. In no way do I think this a bad thing. In fact, I consider this a worthy extension of human knowledge, and one that may even be necessary, if we are to broaden our understanding of the universe about us, and our own psyches. For me, the practical and theoretical should go together; each is unbalanced without the other.

Laying the Foundations

How then do we begin to lay the foundations for a Universal Esoteric Science? What methodologies do we use?
This is not an easy question. Perhaps a few propositions to begin with?
Let us begin with the Most Fundamental Empirical Datum of all, The Primacy of consciousness. Cartesian/Husserlian method (I remember this was taught by my old lecturer at La Trobe University, Dr Moshe Kroy, and it influenced me greatly) is that one can doubt anything but one's own consciousness, one's own existence, one's own bare awareness. This of course takes us to Advaita Vedanta, as Moshe perceptively realised. Because Shankara's Advaita, following on the "great sayings' of the Upanishads, says that all there is is the Self, the bare datum of Consciousness/Awareness, the Absolute Reality (Atman = Brahman).
So this is the first proposition - all that exists is my (well, your, because you are the one reading this) Awareness
Now, Moshe Kroy used the Cartesian method, but this is potentially debatable. As someone said, Descartes was wrong with his "Cogito, ergo sum". I perceive, therefore I am. The most honest declaration would be: perception exists.
But one could go further than that (because perception is still perception of something) and say "Bare Awareness Is" (Kashmir Shaivism, also Advaitin Atman (Self) = Brahman)). The ratiocination-based Western philosophical methodology is in this regard more limited than Vedantic/Tantric Bare Awareness methodology. It is important to understand what is being referred to here is not an ego or finite conscious self, but a boundless consciousness. It is proposed here that this is all that is.
This can be proved by a simple thought experiment. Try to imagine another bare awareness. You can't, because to do so would mean you include it in your awareness. Other than Being (which in this thought experiment is your being, your consciousness, although technically speaking the limited "I" is a reflection of the infinite awareness - see below) there is not even nothing. There is only That Being.
It is true that dualists, pluralists, physicalists and the like do assume the duality of subject and object, and say that there is an objective or other subjective reality, or non-being, beyond the All-Encompassing Awareness. But of course, to postulate such a reality, they have to imagine /visualise it. So they have still not gone beyond their awareness
Of course, solipsism is absurd too, but only because solipsism makes the mistake of identifying the Absolute Awareness (Parasamvit, Atman-Brahman or nirguna brahman, etc). with the limited sphere of the individual ego-consciousness and its sphere of awareness. So I emphasise, when referring to Absolute Awareness, I mean the Supreme, of which your subjective awareness is simply a reflection (good analogy here is the external link golden lion metaphor in Hua Yen Buddhism (Fa-tsang). The infinite reflections in the mirror are not the actual golden lion)
So we have proposition number one - all that exists, all that is, is Infinite Non-dual Consciousness.
See this page for a more detailed take on this
This is the basic monistic insight, the mystical experience of Unity (see e.g. external link  Mysticism Defined by W.T. Stace), the premise of most (but not all - there are dualists as well) esoteric teachings, from Plotinus to Shankara to Ibn Arabi to Theon. At the beginning, and in essence now, there is only The One.
This of course has a corollary - everything is nothing else but Transformations of that One. Even inanimate matter is Consciousness, is nothing but Consciousness.
But if there is only the Supreme, why are we limited finite beings. Proposition two, there must be a progression from Infinite Absolute to Finite Relative. And hence, Reality has a structure, a gradient, and can be mapped. This is the field of study of esoteric science, mapping this structure, the "Body of God" as the Kabbalists so evocatively say. This also takes us to Emanationism, regarding which I have already provided an overview. See also Professor Huston Smith's book Forgotten Truth : The Common Vision of the World's Religions which presents human knowledge and experience in terms of a gradation of several metaphysical levels, in keeping with the teachings of mystics and spiritual traditions of all times and cultures. (Professor Smith's thesis is that an over-emphasis on experimental science since the time of Galileo has led to the loss of this sacred insight in the Western world)
But the Map of Reality - the Body of God - is not something static. That is where the Theosophists and Kabbalists and others go wrong, in trying to formulate a rigid set of planes, perhaps by analogy with physical characteristics. Rather, it is a dynamic process. Esoteric science is a study of processes, not of "things"
We now have the Ground of Reality, and the Body of the Godhead. But what about the Method to be used?
Since Consciousness is the sole reality, we should not depreciate consciousness in seeking to understand the universe. This gives us a Method, again shown to me by Moshe Kroy almost a quarter of a century ago.
Everything that appears in Consciousness is a valid datum of inquiry
This is the completely opposite approach to physical science, which seeks to screen out the effect of subjectivity (although it cannot deny the reality of the Observer - and hence of Consciousness). This is why science works best with inanimate objects, still adequately with living beings (although there is no conception of ch'i and little of the dynamics of the whole organism), not so good with societies and anthropology, and worst of all with psychology, leading to such absurdities as Behaviourism (which in its extreme form (Watson, Skinner, etc) even denies the existence of subjectivity!!!) and statistics-driven so-called experimental psychology. The more "inward" (the "within" to use Teilhard de Chardin's term) you go, the less that science works.
Science therefore is a methodology that works supremely well on the gross physical plane, when dealing with purely physical; objects, and less well with more subtle things.
Conversely subjectivism becomes absurd when applied to purely physical processes, this is where "magic" becomes "superstition", and the reason that the physically advanced but metaphysically impoverished Western and Western-inspired nations were able to conquer and enslave the technologically more primitive but metaphysically more advanced Asian, Tribal, etc societies (everything from the 16th to 19th century European colonisation of the rest of the world to the 20th century Chinese conquest of and on-going genocide in Tibet)
Therefore Objective Physical Science and Subjective Esoteric Science thus complement each other perfectly. Which brings us to the next proposition.
On matters of physical reality, Esotericism should defer to Science.
Why? Because this way we can avoid absurdities like Steiner's cosmological cycles, in which the whole Solar System comes into and moves out of manifestation within the time of a single Procession of the Equinoxes. Examined in the hard light of scientific analysis, the Anthroposophical science of Steiner and his followers has all the persuasiveness of the Young Earth theory of fundamentalist Christian Creationism
Which brings us to our next point.
If we are to use as a foundation of inquiry the basic framework already established by the various esoteric teachings, we have to be very careful of one thing. Fixed opinions, which freeze the original fleeting inspiration or process into something stultifying. We need to get away from dogmas. Dogmas in esotericism are as bad as dogmas in science. In science, dogmas become old paradigms that obstruct new ideas, and have to be overthrown, and are only with difficulty. In esotericism, dogmas are far worse, they become fundamentalist and literalist fixations, and blind one to other truths and other possibilities, and destroy even the original truth that was in that teaching in the beginning. This is why dogmatism in esotericism, in religion, and everywhere else, should be completely avoided. Even the ideas presented here should only be taken as hypotheses and suggestions, never as dogmas, and only accepted if one feels in one's own heart that they have value.
Finally, we need to ask what teachings and experiences we will use and take as authoritative, in formulating our new Esoteric Science. Let us say (for sake of example) you like Osho and I like Aurobindo. Now, if Osho says the Absolute Reality and the Self (Atman) are the same, and if Aurobindo says that too, well, that is fine, there is no problem. But if Osho says once you attain Enlightenment that is the highest state, but Aurobindo says, no, there is a higher state beyond Enlightenment, you have to draw the Divine Consciousness down and transform your body and matter, there is a problem. (I am mentioning this because I once many years ago had a discussion/argument with a friend who was a devotee of Osho; I took (and still take) the Aurobindoan position, and he did not feel comfortable with that, because it referred to states beyond what Osho taught. One could say the same using Adi Da instead of Osho as an example). So, where there is a conflict, we need to decide which teacher is the most authoritative.
Everyone will have different ways of doing this, but my method regarding this is simple. The most Inclusive Teaching is the one that should be chosen. This is something the Buddha said once, his teaching is like the footprint of the elephant which can hold the other teachings in itself. So the more all encompassing the teaching, the more preferable it is.
Simple real world example (from religion rather than esotericism, but only to make a point): The fundamentalist Christian, or fundamentalist Muslim, who says "all non-believers go to hell", does not seem as persuasive as an ecumenical Muslim or ecumenical Christian who says "to every people God has sent a prophet" (or Teacher, or whatever). This is because the bigot excludes all others, and so their teaching is extremely arbitrary: why should the fundamentalist of sect x be right, but the fundamentalist of sect y wrong? Or vice versa for that matter? The ecumenicist includes all others, seeing them as part of a greater whole, therefore, devotee of sect x has part of the truth, devotee of sect y also has part. Both are partly correct, (but also partly limited) no favouritism. Seems a lot more reasonable to me.
Regarding this, see also the tale of the Blind Men and the Elephant
So we have, so far
  1. All that exists is Infinite Non-dual Consciousness. (The Absolute Reality)
  2. Reality has a gradient and can be mapped (the Body of the Godhead).
  3. Everything that appears in Consciousness is a valid datum of inquiry (Phenomenology)
  4. On matters of physical reality, Esotericism should defer to Science (Critical Thinking)
  5. All dogmatism is to be avoided (receptivity to new Possibilities).
  6. Where there is a conflict between two teachings, the more inclusive Teaching is preferable.
Note that this is still a provisional list; as this essay is a work in progress, not a finished manifesto.

Why have Metaphysics?

A pragmatist may point out that the first two Propositions sound more like dogmas, and imply an unnecessary philosophisation. One can still construct an esoteric science or sciences using modern esoteric philosophies that differ (e.g. evolutionary-Gurdjieffian like that of John Lilly versus the American Zen of Ken Wilber) - or with no underlying "grand philosophy" at all. All that is required, from a pragmatic point of view, is to state that this physical universe is not all that is (as indicated by evidence of phenomena such as precognition, OBEs, NDEs, I Ching,..), and that various fields now subsumed under esoterica umbrella will be investigated according to their respective nature (e.g. the bioplasmatic body "needs" only some kind of energy body or "fluid", but not complete revolution in worldview that will annihilate old space-time 4-dimensional physics).
My reply to the purely pragmatic position is as follows. Without a unified framework, esoteric science becomes just one more version of scientistic agnosticism. Traditionally, aristotlean-medieval knowledge was tied to God/Prime Mover, the whole thing cohered because of that. Is is the foundation of all "sacred cosmologies". In most esoteric cosmologies (with only a few exceptions like Classical Samkhya and Manicahean Dualism) everything goes back to the original One.
What I am interested in is a universal system of knowledge, such as the Unified Science of Edward Haskell and co-workers, the Cosmic Humanism of Oliver Reiser, the Sacred Soviety of William Irwin Thompson, the Primordial Tradition of Professor Huston Smith.

Objective/Hard versus Subjective/Soft, and Levels of Reality

In some cases using terms like "Objective" for Physical Science and "Subjective" for Esoteric Science is too simplistic, abstract, or meaningless. And how do we know that physical reality is more "objective" (if, as the Kashmir Shaivites assert, everything is just a condensation of consciousness, it isn't). So whilst as a methodology these terms are useful, they should not be given any metaphysical authenticity. A better analogy here might be physics and chemistry ("hard" or "objective") versus psychology and sociology ("soft" or "subjective").
Or, "hard sciences" and "soft sciences" and "objective" and "subjective" may simply be some of a number of levels on the gradient of reality
More than that, Esoteric Science itself spans the spectrum from "hard" to "soft", and hence becomes a more inclusive paradigm that includes the hard/physical sciences as special cases within itself, (just as Newtonian Physics is a "special case" of Einsteinian physics), and adds a radical dimension of depth to - or even completely reinterprets, the soft/social sciences. Hence some parts of this research program can be subsumed under (hard/experimental/objective) "science" (acupuncture, etc), others under metaphysics and "art".
Arvan Harvat suggests we might divide human creativity into these areas:
  1. arts (music, painting, imaginative literature,...) (Fine Arts)
  2. philosophy, theology, historiography, criticism (social, literary,..) (Humanities?)
  3. social sciences (sociology, linguistics, psychology, economics ?,..)
  4. exact sciences (math, chemistry, ..)
  5. applied sciences and technology (electrical engineering,..)
Looking at this sequence, which runs from "subjective/soft" to "objective/hard" (or "lunar/yin" to "solar/yang" consciousness; see for example Stan Gooch's map of the mind - Ststem B and System A) traditional esoteric sciences could be considered a hybrid of humanities and arts; its "precision" or "exactitude" measured not by exact sciences standards, but by, say, those of humanities or social sciences. In fact. some of what is defined as esotericism - astrology especially, or Buddhism, or Gurdjieff or even Hermeticism in part - can be interpreted as (alternative) psychology, with psychoanalysis, behaviorism, functionalism, and neuropsychology, say, being the more exact sciences side of the spectrum. Conversely some forms of psychoanalysis, Jung especially, might belong under traditional Estericism. So might Maslow, or Assagioli
Again, ch'i and bioplasmatic body would belong in the exact sciences realm, occult planes in the humanities, and Ching and Tarot divination (as opposed to Tarot psychology) to speculative physical theories that are still emergent (multidimensional universe etc.).
But there can be even more to it than just this. I have already referred to Professor Huston Smith's book Forgotten Truth : The Common Vision of the World's Religions which presents human knowledge in terms of four basic metaphysical levels.  If we apply this here, in terms of exoteric (conventional knowledge, as indicated in Arvan's list) and esoteric fields of inquiry and practice, we have the following (note, this correlation differs from the original table which remains more faithful to Prof Smith):

Realitymy cosmologyHuston Smith (Forgotten Truth) Established fieldsSuggested esoteric areas and possible of research
Unmanifest Godhead or AbsoluteAbsolute RealitySpirit/InfiniteAs revealed ("finger pointing at the moon") through Monistic mysticismEnlightenment experiences of transcendence; Moksha, Kaivalya, Nirvana
Absolute in ManifestationDynamic Absolute--Aurobindoan Supramentalisation and equivalents (Lurianic concepts etc)
Spiritual- DivineNoetic
Noeric
Soul/CelestialTheistic mysticismTheosophic esotericism and metaphysics (Sufism, Kabbalah, Tantra, etc), higher yogic experiences, Adi Da's 5th and 6th Stages in part
Psychic- IntermediatePsychicMind/IntermediateFine Arts, philosophy, religion, social sciencesPsychology, etc,..) psi, OBE, NDE, various aspects of occultism
EthericPhysical-Psychic Interface(Life)holistic and alternative healing, some elements of biology, emergent evolution, self-organising phenomenamorphogenetic fields (Sheldrake) and holistic physics (Bohm),
chakras, acupuncture medians, Kirlian photography, bioplasma, orgone energy, ley lines, geomancy, feng shui, etc
PhysicalPhysicalBody/Physicalexact sciences
applied sciences and technology
questions on causality/synchronicity, time-travel, superluminal phenomena, multiverse,
The above gives us a foundation, but what about the bricks to build the edifice? We will find there are different approaches and methodologies, depending on the aspect of reality we are inquiring into. For the physical, this is There are two broad approaches we can take here - experimental/empirical method science, and the experiential/phenomenology of mysticism. Many areas of esotericism however - for example practical occultism, represent an overlap of these two.

The Experimental/Empirical Approach of Science

Arvan Harvat
The Experimental Approach is non-Metaphysical. Newton didn't care for Descartes or any philosophy of that kind. Real scientists (Newton, Huyghens, Euler,..) only needed that there is a world "outside there" with immutable laws and no whimsical divine interventions. For physical-experimental esoteric science all that is required is that this 4-dimensional world described in Einsteinian space-time 4-dim physics and with 4 forces (some are united in Salam-Weinberg Standard model) are not complete reality.
From this perspective the only starting point might be:
  1. contemporary mainstream fundamental (quantum, relativity) physics is only partially true. Therefore I Ching, planes, parallel universus, precognition, NDEs,..
  2. the 4 forces world of fundamental physics are similarly just a part of the larger picture. Therefore ch'i, telepathy, plants, auras,..
(for auras there is probably a conceptual effort that combines a) and b)- which is reality, because the Standard model is a quantum model)
Here we have two stages:
  • experiment, in exact sciences manner, with everything that can be subjected to good, old fashioned ways (bioplasm, plants, dowsing,..) and compile a corpus of verifiable data-without some strong theory. Just incontrovertible facts.
  • other, more metaphysical matters (I Ching, planes, evolution,..) will have to wait for breakthrough in speculative physics etc. For instance, when Relativity goes down and physicists' general concept of universe collapses (no velocity greater than speed of light, causality,...)- then, and only then will be possible to seriously ask questions like this: how can tossing I Ching coins predict something that will happen in next 6 months ? How this works ? What's the "mechanism"?


The Experiential/Phenomenological Approach of Mysticism

M.Alan Kazlev
Science uses experiment and confirmation (or falsification). In esotericism however this is not easily possible. Sri Aurobindo may have experienced the Overmind (Noetic Reality), and Adi Da the Radiant Transcendental Being, and Max and Alma Theon explored the byways of the psychic planes, but it is not easy for the average person to attain such heights (understatement of the month).
Of course, it is not easy to confirm or refute external link the existence of the Higgs Boson either, but assuming a suitably large particle accelerator can be built, it can be done, by physicists with the required training. Whereas the realisation of the Noetic Reality or of Shunyata or psychic planes can be done very cheaply (in terms of material cost) but only with great personal skill and very rare attainment (in terms of individual training and realisation). Once again, Physical Science and Esoteric Science are polar opposites and complementary (like Yin and Yang)
A Universal Esoteric Science deals with experiences as authentic data (phenomenology, proposition 3 in the provisional list). But not all experiences, not all phenomena of consciousness, are accessible, as just explained. Pragmatic Esotericism (Spiritual Practice) takes experiences gained by those who have trailblazed before and above us, and uses them as guideposts on the spiritual path. Applying this to Esoteric Science, and not "just" Esoteric Practice, we should have the option to take these experiences and descriptions and use them to piece together an account of other planes of existence.
There are a number of obviously overlapping sources of experiences (for example a single individual may present both a teaching and an autobiography).
In the accounts of traditional (ancient or recent, include channelling) spiritual literature. This is often highly stylised and mythologised, and hence hard to decipher. e.g. the Vision of Ezekiel in the Bible, which some people like to interpret as a UFO. [e.g. external link link, link link]. Sometimes the symbolism may be so dense as to render the whole thing incomprehensible - e.g. the Sefer Zohar of Kabbalah - or tied in with folklore and myth - e.g. the Mahabarata. Or the narrative may be deliberately stylised or obtuse (Gnosticism, Blavatsky's Stanzas of Dyzan), or seek to conceal or confuse (Gurdjieff's Beelzebub's Tales). Often there is a quality of channelled material, and indeed many of these works are channelled (e.g. the prophets who heard voices etc). For these reasons, even though these accounts were all written by human beings (although the pious may interpret them as literal revelation by God/Deity in which the human author played no part other than to inscribe the words) they are not much, or any, use for formulating a Universal Esoteric Science
Then there are teachers who are presenting their own vision of Reality. They may be intelligent and have read widely, hence they are not likely to be so limited to one tradition, although they may have a preference for a particular tradition. Examples might include Adi Da, Sri Aurobindo, Meher Baba, Rudolph Steiner, and many many others. However, the immediacy of the autobiographical account is lost, and the whole thing has a didactic tone. Sometimes this also moves into the field of channelling, which will often tend to deteriorate the quality of the material (the Alice Bailey material, turgid, verbose, and unreadable, essentially Theosophy with a Christian slant, is a good example here). Even so there are a few rare individuals like Edgar Cayce, Jane Roberts, and David Spangler that retain a sense of purity not found in most channelled material
Of great value are the autobiographical accounts of both historical and recent mystics and psychonauts. Even with those who have drawn upon the traditional literature, which is very often (especially in Medieval material) all they know, and hence their experiences are coloured and biased by it, and the genuine insights have to be extracted, but at least they recorded their experiences faithfully. The Christian Mystical tradition is a good illustration of this. Even better are recent autobiographies like Swami Muktananda's Play of Consciousness; perhaps one of the best works of its kind, and one I found far more inspiring than Yogananda's cloying Autobiography of a Yogi. Hagiographies obviously are less useful, since there is the tendency to worship and hence gloss over things that the author did not like. Even so, in some cases the saint's words may be described and record his or her experiences. Also of use are the accounts of modern educated westerners, such as John Lilly's.
Also of great use are modern individuals who may or may not come from a tradition, but are simply describing their experiences, without pompousness or unnecessary symbolism, and without any agenda other than: well, this is what happened to me. Even though their experience may be colored by the symbolism of their culture, background, or religious upbringing - e.g. a Hindu might have a vision of Krishna, a Christian of Christ, one can still take away the superficial form, and look at the quality of the experience in itself.
In some cases the various descriptions referred to in some or all of the preceding categories may be collated by others, for example Aldous Huxley (The Perennial Philosophy) on mysticism, Masters and Huston's, or Stan Grof's account of psychedelic experiences, Jung's work on the Collective Unconscious, or Ken Wilber's mapping of states of consciousness. Such systematic coverage can be extremely useful, because the editor will have noticed certain common themes, and draw the reader's attention to them. Often both traditional and modern accounts are placed side by side, showing that these sort of experiences really are universal.
Of course, you yourself, the reader, may also have experiences, these are just as valid as those in any of the above categories.

"Type Experiences"

In biology, geology, and palaeontology, reference is made to the "type specimen". A type specimen is the specimen - perhaps a new species of insect, that a scientist refers to when describing it in a scientific journal. That way, if someone else finds a similar specimen, they can check and see if it is the same as the original, or warrants its own name and description.
I would suggest here that certain esoteric experiences which are described by mystics, sages, adepts, occultists, psychonauts, and the rest, be taken as Type Experiences, and hence referred to, in the same way that a biological or geological sample might be.
One must however be careful in selecting an experience, so as to avoid unnecessary bias. A contemporary educated person may be preferable to a medieval monastic ascetic, but if the ascetic has progressed further, they would have experienced things the modern person would not. If a person has a modern education, can think and write clearly, is aware of the pitfalls and delusions of the spiritual path, and has progressed to great heights, their experiences will obviously be very useful in the mapping out of the nature of reality.
The worst thing in all this are subjective distortions. e.g. a person may have a pure and profound experience, but straight away distort it into their own mental formulation. A lot of Rudolph Steiner's material reads like this. One senses amazing insight, a great and pure soul, but then reads the most ridiculous medieval nonsense, that would have been fine a thousand years ago, but just seems absurd today.
Also not too good, but not as bad as the above, is egotism and self-delusion. An individual may attain a very elevated state, and then claim to be the only one to have attained it, or to have attained it in its fullness. Now, in some cases, they may very well be the only one! In other cases, they are simply caught up in an Intermediate Zone delusion of grandeur, or overpowered by the great down-rush of light.
The only way to tell if an adept is sincere and has attained the highest state, or is just caught in the intermediate zone, is to compare their experiences with others. If others have had the same experience, then to claim uniqueness is a sign either of simple ignorance (which is forgivable, especially if the individual in question has not read much, perhaps coming from a culture or society where books or learning is limited) or self-delusion (which may or may not be forgivable, depending on how you view these things, and which in itself does not negate the rest of the experience), or seeking to delude others to further his or her career as guru or cult leader (which is a sure sign that this person should be avoided, unless you are an anthropologist or sociologist and want to study the phenomenon of cultish behaviour).

Suggestions for Areas of Research and Study

An incomplete list of suggestions and ideas:
  • Physical Reality
    • Pragmatic experimentation, using the methodology of the exact sciences, on those topics of paranormal, etc that can be subjected to traditional scientific method (morphogenetic fields, kirlian photography, bioplasm, plants, dowsing,..) and compile a corpus of verifiable data.
    • In those cases with poor or no results from hard scientific approach to psi and paranormal, is it because there is no phenomenon, or because the nature of the experimental method adversely affects the subjects consciousness (a sort of esoteric exclusivity law?).
  • Etheric Reality
    • Understanding energy levels in the subtle body (acupuncture, ch'i, microcosmic orbit, reiki, and other phenomena - note, these are close enough to the physical with sufficient "objectivity" to also be amenable to standard scientific methodology (but the paradigm-resistance would be huge)
    • Understanding Homodynamics and other alternative means of treatment that cannot be explained in reductionist terms
    • Mapping out of Chakras, aura, yogic anatomy, etc - understanding the subtle body
    • Application/reinterpretation of transpersonal psychology, meditative states, etc in terms of esoteric map of the nature if reality; alternatives to the standard monistic (usually Zen or Sufi based) or old Wilberian paradigms of TP Psychology
  • Paranormal
    • Sympathetic but non-gullible re-evaluation of psi and similar phenomena, what is the mechanism?
    • Thanatology, Near-Death experiences etc interpreted as authentic psychic bardo states (rather than as "hallucinations of an oxygen-starved brain"); looking at both historical and recent accounts
    • UFOs, bigfoot, nessie, etc as etheric / parallel physical dimensions rather than materialistic explanations of little green men, surviving neanderthals, plesiosaurs, etc
    • Providing plausible theory for crop circles and other anomalous phenomena
  • Psychic Reality
    • What is the influence of esotericism upon social sciences and humanities; e.g. , painters (Boticelli, Mondrian, Kandinsky,..), writers and poets (Goethe, Blake, Balzac, Rimbaud, Yeats, Henry Miller,..) had been attracted to various parts of esotericism: hermeticism, theosophy, kabbalah; how does art relate to esoteric realities, and vice versa?.
    • Magick and Occultism (applied hermetics, shamanism, etc) as valid techniques for interacting with the psychic realities, and manipulating psychic or physical events.
    • Reinterpretation of Jung's archetypes, synchronicity, etc as valid phenomena ("gods") on the supra-physical planes, and their expression and qualities as understood in that light (getting away from Jung's sloppy half-heated attempt at Kantean dualism and biological reductionism ("collective unconscious" as inherited or racial memory)
    • Reinterpretation of psychology and study of psyche to take into account experiential, phenomenological, and supra-physical factors as well standard physical elements; Steven Guth's "Theory of the Double" (work in progress)
  • Mystic Reality
    • Empirical and phenomenological study of meditative, enlightenment, and other such states, free of preconceived religious or metaphysical biases. What does the "bare experience" in itself tell?
    • Application/reinterpretation of transpersonal psychology, meditative states, etc in terms of esoteric map of the nature if reality; what sort of map emerges? Look at alternatives to the standard monistic (usually Zen or Sufi based) or old Wilberian paradigms of TP Psychology
  • Causality
    • Consider I Ching as a mathematical/"syncronistic" map of fundamental archetypes (ref DNA codons, other similarities? Particle physics in quantum mechanics perhaps?)
    • Synchronicity/meaningful coincidence - how can tossing I Ching coins predict something that will happen in the next 6 months? What about prophetic dreams? Classic Jungian synchronicity? What is the "mechanism"?
    • Explore thesis of Astrological causation in terms of subtle etheric spheres (Steiner), dumping of old humanistic-materialistic explanations of the "moon's tides" etc (works fine for the moon but what about Pluto?)
  • Evolution
    • Exploration of interactions of "cosmic devic forces" with the terrestrial evolution; hypotheses of planetary and biological evolution, human society, etc [see e.g. Steven Guth and my work on "Astrognosis" Considering Islam, Cosmogenic Evolution, as well as Eco-Gnosis in general - see also Adendndum A for more (below))
    • What effect will future technologies have upon the body and psyche - cyborgization, nanotechnology, colonization of space, etc?
    • Possibility of new (different? higher?) kingdoms and/or grades of sentience emerging? e.g. AI and Vingean-Transhumanist Posthuman Singularity through technological evolution or augmentation, or Aurobindoan "Superman" through spiritual-divine transformation
  • Cosmology
No doubt many more fields of exploration could be added.
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Addendum 1 - Old and New Style Esotericism

Steven Guth
The history of modern esotericism really comes out of an attempt to formalise the spiritual medium situation that existed in the 1800's. Groups gathered in the 1840's so that "scientific" evidence about the afterlife could be collected.
People like Theon fit in here.
And later came the attempts by people like Blavaskey, Steiner, etc to present the old esoteric truths and the new discoveries in a scientific frame work, using terms like rounds, and tables and hierarchies. They felt a need to adapt their visions into the social thought patterns (including the science) of the time ... which quickly became dated and so their descriptions have became absurd - e.g. the history of the planet c/o Steiner (he combined astrology with what Science at the time understood).
An example is the chemistry table of elements which unlocked the wonders of alchemy. The discovery of coal tar colours revolutionised the world. So of course attempts were made to classify in this way.
Part of the burden that the modern esoteric movement carries is the concept of evolution. At the time Blavatsky and others were writing Darwin's evolutionary concept let people keep the idea of a prime creator and abandon religion. You see, evolution suggests that everything things has been created to end up somewhere ... the end point of Newton's clock work universe - and we are moving towards the resolution of the creator architects great plan. Alas I suspect that rogue influences play into the world's spiritual ecology at random times creating a situation which is far from clockwork. See my somewhat discomforting meditative insight ... into the energy behind Islam [see Considering Islam] and then Alan's further development of this idea [see Cosmogenic Evolution]...
Before that earlier attempts to make sense of the formlessness of the Spiritual worlds gave us stuff like the Abramelin with its divisions into, Kings, Dukes etc - following the sociological thought patterns of the 14th Century. So it is not surprising that in our current attempts to forge a bit of "scientific" logic into the huge complexity of what surrounds us that we should be using the sociological thought patterns of our time - which come from the benefits that science has placed into our lives.
But, and it's a big but, many of the premises that modern science rests on are weak if not faulty. One of my favourite criticisms is our intrinsic belief that there is a "cause" for everything. I have come to the conclusion that "Causation is just a special case of association". Adopt my idea that association is the rule and "causation" is just a special case and you end up with the involvement of the spiritual world in everything in some form or another. What we do in the physical effects the Spiritual worlds and vice versa - and it is an ongoing interaction slightly out of time and place ... incidentally this is what the Australian Aboriginal concept of the "Dreaming" is all about.
And that's just one of the premises.
Now, the largest revolution in modern science has been the discovery of deep space, deep time and the huge complexity of the out there. As one astronomer said in a lecture I attended as she showed us the image of the radio energy coming out of a galaxy, "It is better not to think about such things". I wonder if Kepler had similar qualms?
And another major revolution in the making is the concept of randomness and variability. All our scientific modelling to date still runs on the concept of averaging - its part of our sociological democratic thought pattern. But it is a very poor premise to work from. So much cannot be usefully explored by averaging ... from the weather to the effectiveness of medicines ... and how do you average spiritual phenomena? (What is the average ghost or crop circle? ... randomness is inherent in the systems around us).
Now, both deep space and variability/randomness have not been added to our thinking patterns. New patterns are necessary to accommodate the new base line insights science has presented to us.
We need to add our new insights to our understandings of esoteric experiences. And that is what astrognosis is trying to do. Which places this developing concept [Cosmogenic Evolution] into a potentially revolutionary position.
It is interesting that in our new formulations about the development of life forms on our planet we end up with Devas as the link between our new ideas and concepts of the past. You see, Devas are just consciousness in a place. Remove the idea of place and leave consciousness and you have a "God or Goddess" ... And of course that is what we are too ... the "prima medica" is consciousness.
As an afterthought ...
I am working on a lecture series on the Doppleganger, the Double, at the moment and am exploring the multiple facets of human consciousness and the very nature of consciousness itself. Interestingly it is leading me to the conclusion that "consciousness" intrusions from deep space play an important part in our need to go to war. Yes, perhaps our leaders and the people that surround them are schizophrenic. Their minds and decisions being influenced by other consciousnesses "out there" which like to playing games with events on this planet ... So if we can stop the games we could have peace and if we don't, or can't, we will never have peace ... this is an interesting thought but only possible if one accepts some of the new premises suggested in this essay. It also makes one wonder if the images presented by Science Fiction and the beliefs of the UFO people are not coming from a consciousness "out there" identical to what is presenting me with these insights!
Material on the Doppleganger and its role in human consciousness will soon be on this web site - stay tuned for further inputs!
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Addendum 2 - From Aristotle to Science to Esotericism

Arvan Harvat (slightly edited and first paragraph added by MAK)
The "Traditionalist" School of Fritjof Schuon, Rene Gueneon, and others (reinterpretation/esotericisation of exoteric religions), tradition-bound esotericism in general, and people like Rudolph Steiner and his Anthroposphy (which through application of Goethean and Steiner's own clairvoyant gives it much to contribute to a Universal Esoteric Science) all seek to tie themselves to the past, rather than explore possibilities of the future. Their dependence on the aristotlean-medieval paradigm with its sacred universe and natural philosophy, means they are relying on failed science, in the same way that the Theosophists still are stuck with the Victorian science that Blavatsky new and write about (and that was, by the way, cutting edge in Blavatsky's time (later 19th century).
The problem is that the Aristotlean approach is not a form of science that gives results. Aristotle was abandoned due to inefficacy. It was simplistic because he did not know "the world", he was freely speculating, using the limited data and information available to him in the ancient Greek world.
Putting under a single umbrella concepts such as ch'i, I Ching, planes, evolution, etc is reminiscent of the times of Aristotle when all sciences (biology, psychology, physics, political sciences,..) were parts of philosophy. But this widely multidisciplinary approach is not the same as a holistic esotericism of science. One thing is "sci infancy" (Aristotle), and completely another modern multidisciplinary approach that is "mature science" (say, quantum chemistry tries to explain genetic processes by using thermodynamics, chaos and complexity, computer science, higher algebraic theories, ...and to connect them to the levels of electrochemisty and biochemistry).
In esoteric science you could imagine experiments (Kirlian, high voltage) combined with other high tech photographs (computer analysis of highly sensitive detectors) and explanation, in the beginning, with some kind fields combined with electrophysiology and biochemical processes monitored and theorized upon.
A true holistic paradigm can emerge only after any science has passed thru various stages of disintegration and integration. The following process or sequence could be suggested:
  1. primitive science (Aristotle)
  2. beginnings of empirical and mathematical science in modern sense (Galileo, Kepler)
  3. new paradigm established (Newton, Laplace,...)
  4. other paradigms appearing (Faraday-Maxwell, fields,...)
  5. fundamental redefinition and new paradigmata (Einstein, Planck, Heisenberg,...)
  6. multidisciplinary approach (chaos theory, complexity, Feigenbaum ...)
  7. emergent holistic approach (external link Sarfatti, Bohm's external link hologram universe, quantum geometrodynamics of John Wheeler,.., also external link synchronicity)
Bohm is a true scientist with a holistic approach.
The crux of the matter as far as superluminality is concerned (see e.g. the external link Stardrive web site) is that the universe obeyed the laws of quantum mechanics at its birth subjecting it to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle when it was smaller than an electron. Hoyle and Sarfatti believe that it was at this primordial moment that consciousness from the future created the universe bringing itself into being.
Einstein's work on relativity provided a starting point for intuitive physicists such as Wheeler, Feynman, Josephson and others. The new physics has also given rise to a new cosmology of which Sir Fred Hoyle is a leading proponent. Hoyle compiled a massive body of evidence in his book The Intelligent Universe that seems to strongly suggest that only a living and intelligent (superluminal) God could have created a universe where life (us) exists. The very conditions of the birth of the universe (the big bang) were specifically tailored to produce life. The final anthropic cosmological principle championed by Hoyle, Sarfatti and others was first discovered in weaker form by Brandon Carter 9external link The God Phone], who in 1968 stated:
"Had the numerical values of certain fundamental constants (the speed of light, the mass of an electron etc.) been only slightly different - the universe would not be able to sustain life as we know it." Experimentalist Alain Aspect proved (at the University of Paris in 1982), the reality of faster-than-light action-at-a-distance in an experiment on the quantum connection between pairs of photons. Delayed choice experiments (by Carol Alley of the University of Maryland ) and gamma photon-proton scattering experiments (by Charles Bennett of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory ) showed that future causes do create past effects.
Recent work by such respected physicists as David Deutsch, Kip Thorne, Yakir Aharanov, Alcubierre and Sarfatti, involving time-travel to the past, future-causality and other mind-boggling vistas, is invigorating superluminal physics as never before. For example, Alcubierre has shown that a Star Trek faster-than-light warp drive is possible within the known laws of physics [but see external link this on-line essay by John Cramer for problems with Alcubierre drive - MAK]. Indeed, Sarfatti, interviewed by Kim Burrafato in UFO Magazine (Vol 9, No. 30 1994), speculates that UFO's, if real, would be time-travelling ships from our future explaining the strange phone call(s) he got in 1952. Sarfatti is no true believer here. He is quite willing to admit that the 1952 call(s) may have been some sort of prank, and all the subsequent synchronicities a random coincidence.
Sarfatti's credibility among other physicists, like the superluminal conjecture, seemed for years to lay dormant in the barren soil of a conservative physics establishment. For many years, talk of faster-than-light communication and time travel has been beyond the pale of good science. It was a suitable subject for comic books and science fiction only, 'strictly kid stuff.' "
Crazy, but...?

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