Primary Reading: "They" and "Lost Legacy" in Assignment in Eternity.

Heinlein Readers Group /Ref Heinlein Society

March 1 and 3, 2001M

AIM.

Topic: Heinlein and Mysticism

Supplemental Reading: Stranger in a Strange Land, I Will Fear No Evil, and In Search of the Miraculous by P.D. Ouspensky (for breadth. A lot of us may have been exposed to mystical thinking within the framework of conventional major religions; this last book is not recommended for any specific positions of Heinlein's -- but it gives a very good overview of several strains of occult and mystical thinking outside that framework)

Heinlein has often been discussed as the god-emperor of scientists/engineers-turned-sf writers of "hard sf," which puzzled him. Although he did write hard or gadget sf occasionally, he was really much more interested in the soft sciences like sociology and psychometry and medicine. Most of what he wrote, however, he did not consider science fiction at all, and he preferred the term "speculative fiction." So influential was Heinlein within science fiction, however, that the genre definitions expanded to include what he wrote. The readers of 1947-48 thought that the simple-minded stories he wrote for The Saturday Evening Post were not science fiction; and readers in 1961 were sure that Stranger in a Strange Land wasn't science fiction. But to readers in 2001, it's all science fiction. The field grew up around Heinlein. We can see the process at work in Beyond This Horizon (1942), which posits reincarnation as one of the things we might find if we started a scientific investigation of the mind.

He wrote a few outright fantasies -- "Magic, Inc.," for example or "Our Fair City" and "The Man Who Travelled in Elephants," or his shaggy politician story about Mu, "Beyond Doubt." There were also a few stories which were not quite outright fantasies of any usual kind and not quite science fiction, either -- like "Elsewhen" and "Lost Legacy," "They" and "Waldo" and "Project Nightmare." Alexei Panshin in Heinlein in Dimension talks of them as including mysticism in one degree or another, but he is not very clear about what he means. To this short list we could add the 1970 novel I Will Fear No Evil, in which Heinlein takes the improbable cliche of a brain transplant as his basis and then deals with two personalities inhabiting the same body. Rationalization becomes quite rubbery at this point - and it get stretched all out of shape when a third person, who had nothing to do with either brain or body, joins the two. Some of these stories are "mystical" only in Panshin's imagination. We can eliminate the outright fantasies because they were written for, we presume, the usual reasons outright fantasies are written for. We can also eliminate from candidates for "mysticism" stories that deal with ideas that were, in Heinlein's estimation,"exotic facts." For example, Heinlein thought the space-time physics of J.W. Dunne, allowing for sideways time travel was a perfectly good scientific theory, though not the theory most commmonly held -- so "Elsewhen" isn't mystical at all. And, by extension, The Number of the Beast and the rest of the World As Myth Books are as stfnal as anything else Heinlein wrote. In the 1960's Dunne's time theories got a quantum-mechanics polish with Wheeler's "many worlds" hypothesis, so the alternate time tracks thesis has gotten written into the fringes of ordinary science.

As Heinlein was at pains to point out, science fiction must not contradict known facts, but it may play around with theories within very broad limits. Telepathy and certain types of psychic "powers" Heinlein does not seem to have regarded as fantastic, but as simply factual. As late as Expanded Universe (1980) he talks of anyone who rejects telepathy out of hand as simply "pigheaded" or "ignorant." Mark Twain had written two accounts (the "Mental Telegraphy" essays) of what are called "anecdotal evidence" of telepathy, and Upton Sinclair had followed them up in 1930 with Mental Radio accounts of telepathy and clairvoyance experiments he had performed. The late 1950's reprint of this book had an introduction by Albert Einstein. And in the meantime, psychologist J.B. Rhine had been conducting scientific experiments with telepathy and clairvoyance out of Duke University since 1927. Rhine had made good progress initially, though the project had hit a glass wall by the late 1940's. Telepathy, levitation, and clairvoyance were to Heinlein, simply exotic facts that were grist for the spec-fic mill. So "Project Nightmare," for example, is a speculation on what use might be made of these exotic facts once they had been domesticated

Even when we eliminate these, there are other ideas that might be mystical. There are some stories that contain hybrids -- some factual material extended by speculation and connected up with material that is frankly religious in nature. "Lost Legacy," for instance, starts out with a brain operation that affects a gambler's clairvoyance and leads to telepathy, levitation, and a host of other powers of mind that might (or might not) fall into the category of exotic facts, not well understood, but still factual in nature. But it also connects to a mystical brotherhood that has access to the Akashic records of the Theosophists. Theosophy is a religion. Most of Mike's Martian "powers" correspond rather closely with Yogic demonstrations. Yoga is a branch of Hinduism, but the yogic demonstrations, or siddhes, are things anybody can theoretically learn to do if they follow the yogic disciplines -- slowing of the heart rate and respiration, suppression of bleeding, even a kind of levitation that is really a bizarre form of hopping. People independently discover some of these methods occasionally. Harry Houdini is thought to have discovered some of the yogic breathing disciplines on his own, and he used them in his escapes. So the Mike's yogic demonstrations are halfway between the exotic facts that don't constitute mysticism and the religious aspects that do. Very fittingly, Mike cannot tell the difference we make between science and religion -- they are all teachings.

Mysticism does have something to do with religious ideas, though the exact relationship isn't clear. Heinlein doesn't seem very interested in exploring Christian theology, the way Walter Miller or C.S. Lewis were.

Karen Armstrong in A History of God suggests that there is a dialectical relationship in the God religions -- Judaism, Islam, and Christianity -- between dogmatics and mystics. Leaving aside the dogmatics, the mystics are defined as those that are concerned with the direct experience of the divine. This seems to connect up to Rudolph Otto's definition in 1915: All religion begins with the experience of the noumenal. The noumenal experience cannot really be talked about; it can only be experienced. A lot of people have flashes of contact with it -- the most common ways of talking about it are the "white light experience," where everything in the entire universe and all your consciousness dissolves into a blinding white glare, or the disappearance of the self into the universe, what the Buddhists call the "pouring out" of the self. Or the emotional experience that everything is unified, connected, together. Mystics seek that experience and they try ways of bringing that "inner light" into their everyday experience. Given this understanding, can Heinlein be said to be interested in mysticism in any significant way?

I think he was at least interested in the mystical experience, even if he didn't practice any of the mystical methods. Certainly the unity of the entire universe shows up over and over again in his fiction, and for his theory he seems to have drawn principally on Ralph Waldo Emerson's (religious) doctrine of The Over-Soul. All humans, everything that exists in time, Emerson says, are bits -- tendrils -- of the single reality that is the Over-Soul. The Over-Soul is God: it stands outside time, but we are bits of the Over-Soul that have intruded into time, and our separateness is an illusion. This figure appears over and over and accounts for many of the instances people call "solipsism" in Heinlein. "The universe is just a game we whipped up among ourselves and agreed to forget the gag." "Don't be silly -- I'm your other end." "All that groks is God." Emerson even goes so far as to say "a single blood rushes through every vein."

In "They," the nameless protagonist has his moments of noumenal clarity in dreams of communion with his kind whom he cannot find in this here-and-now of consensus reality. Here there is opposition and conflict -- insane conflict -- masterminded by a motivationless antagonist whose main task is to prevent him from recognizing his true nature.

"Lost Legacy" is a story of the removal of a block to human spiritual evolution. The three humans who come together join with the Shasta Lodge, experience, wisdom, drive, and purify the world by spiritual education. It is a celebration of the human dimension of that spiritual experience: after the story ends, the evolution away from the merely human can take place and humanity can attain its destiny

And in Stranger, the Over-Soul is almost explicitly stated. The single God of the God religions is assumed to be somewhere, though His presence is never directly known. Instead the message is Thou art God - All that Groks is God. The gospel is an awakening to humanity's true nature as aspects of the single reality.

When you remove the mundane, the fantastical and the merely exotic, there remains in Heinlein a moving strain of ideas that are frankly religious, frankly mystical. They don't have much to do with the church politics and little homiletics that passes for Sunday morning (or Friday evening) religion, but they definitely have something to do with the ecstatic experience, and with each individual's central place in the meaning of reality.

Heinlein thought well of science fiction's capacity to carry important ideas, and he certainly proved his point

Bill

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Déjà vu

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For other uses, see Déjà vu (disambiguation).

Déjà vu, from French, literally "already seen", is the phenomenon of having the strong sensation that an event or experience currently being experienced had been experienced in the past.

Contents  [hide]  1 Scientific research 1.1 Links with disorders 1.2 Pharmacology 1.3 Memory-based explanations 1.4 Parapsychology 2 Related phenomena 2.1 Jamais vu 2.2 Presque vu 2.3 Déjà entendu 3 In popular culture 3.1 Film 3.2 Television 3.3 Radio 3.4 Theatre 3.5 Music 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links

[edit] Scientific research

The psychologist Edward B. Titchener in his book 1928 A Textbook of Psychology, explained déjà vu as caused by a person having a brief glimpse of an object or situation, before the brain has completed "constructing" a full conscious perception of the experience. Such a "partial perception" then results in a false sense of familiarity.^[1] The explanation that has mostly been accepted of déjà vu is not that it is an act of "precognition" or "prophecy", but rather that it is an anomaly of memory, giving the false impression that an experience is "being recalled".^[2][3] This explanation is supported by the fact that the sense of "recollection" at the time is strong in most cases, but that the circumstances of the "previous" experience (when, where, and how the earlier experience occurred) are uncertain or believed to be impossible.
As well, as time passes, subjects may exhibit a strong recollection of having the "unsettling" experience of déjà vu itself, but little or no recollection of the specifics of the event(s) or circumstance(s) which were the subject of the déjà vu experience itself (the events that were being "remembered"). This may result from an "overlap" between the neurological systems responsible for short-term memory and those responsible for long-term memory, resulting in (memories of) recent events erroneously being perceived as being in the more distant past. One theory is the events are stored into memory before the conscious part of the brain even receives the information and processes it.^[4] However, this explanation has been criticized that the brain would not be able to store information without a sensory input first. Another theory suggests the brain may process sensory input (perhaps all sensory input) as a "memory-in-progress", and that therefore during the event itself one believes it to be a past memory. In a survey, Brown had concluded that approximately two-thirds of the population have had déjà vu experiences.^[5]

[edit] Links with disorders

Early researchers tried to establish a link between déjà vu and serious psychopathology such as schizophrenia, anxiety, and dissociative identity disorder, but failed to find the experience of some diagnostic value. There does not seem to be a special association between déjà vu and schizophrenia or other psychiatric conditions.^[6] The strongest pathological association of déjà vu is with temporal lobe epilepsy.^[7][8] This correlation has led some researchers to speculate that the experience of déjà vu is possibly a neurological anomaly related to improper electrical discharge in the brain. As most people suffer a mild (i.e. non-pathological) epileptic episode regularly (e.g. a hypnagogic jerk, the sudden "jolt" that frequently, but not always, occurs just prior to falling asleep), it is conjectured that a similar (mild) neurological aberration occurs in the experience of déjà vu, resulting in an erroneous sensation of memory. Scientists have even looked into genetics when considering déjà vu. Although there is not currently a gene associated with déjà vu, the LGII gene on chromosome 10 is being studied for a possible link. Certain forms of the gene are associated with a mild form of epilepsy and, though by no means a certainty, déjà vu occurs often enough during seizures that researchers have reason to suspect a link.^[9]

[edit] Pharmacology

Certain drugs increase the chances of déjà vu occurring in the user. Some pharmaceutical drugs, when taken together, have also been implicated in the cause of déjà vu. Taiminen and Jääskeläinen (2001)^[10] reported the case of an otherwise healthy male who started experiencing intense and recurrent sensations of déjà vu upon taking the drugs amantadine and phenylpropanolamine together to relieve flu symptoms. He found the experience so interesting that he completed the full course of his treatment and reported it to the psychologists to write up as a case study. Due to the dopaminergic action of the drugs and previous findings from electrode stimulation of the brain (e.g. Bancaud, Brunet-Bourgin, Chauvel, & Halgren, 1994),^[11] Taiminen and Jääskeläinen speculate that déjà vu occurs as a result of hyperdopaminergic action in the mesial temporal areas of the brain.

[edit] Memory-based explanations

The similarity between a déjà-vu-eliciting stimulus and an existing, but different, memory trace may lead to the sensation.^[6][12] Thus, encountering something which evokes the implicit associations of an experience or sensation that cannot be remembered may lead to déjà vu. In an effort to experimentally reproduce the sensation, Banister and Zangwill (1941)^[13][14] used hypnosis to give participants posthypnotic amnesia for material they had already seen. When this was later re-encountered, the restricted activation caused thereafter by the posthypnotic amnesia resulted in three of the 10 participants reporting what the authors termed "paramnesias". Memory-based explanations may lead to the development of a number of non-invasive experimental methods by which a long sought-after analogue of déjà vu can be reliably produced that would allow it to be tested under well-controlled experimental conditions. Cleary^[12] suggests that déjà vu may be a form of familiarity-based recognition (recognition that is based on a feeling of familiarity with a situation) and that laboratory methods of probing familiarity-based recognition hold promise for probing déjà vu in laboratory settings. A recent study that used virtual reality technology to study reported déjà vu experiences supported this idea. This virtual reality investigation suggested that similarity between a new scene's spatial layout and the layout of a previously experienced scene in memory (but which fails to be recalled) may contribute to the déjà vu experience.^[15][15] When the previously experienced scene fails to come to mind in response to viewing the new scene, that previously experienced scene in memory can still exert an effect—that effect may be a feeling of familiarity with the new scene that is subjectively experienced as a feeling of déjà vu, or of having been there before despite knowing otherwise. Another possible explanation for the phenomenon of déjà vu is the occurrence of "cryptomnesia", which is where information learned is forgotten but nevertheless stored in the brain, and similar occurrences invoke the contained knowledge, leading to a feeling of familiarity because of the situation, event or emotional/vocal content, known as "déjà vu". Some experts suggest that memory is a process of reconstruction, rather than a recall of fixed, established events. This reconstruction comes from stored components, involving elaborations, distortions and omissions. Each successive recall of an event is merely a recall of the last reconstruction. The proposed sense of recognition (déjà vu) involves achieving a good ‘match’ between the present experience and our stored data. This reconstruction however, may now differ so much from the original event that we ‘know’ we have never experienced it before, even though it seems similar.^[16]

[edit] Parapsychology

Some parapsychologists have advocated other interpretations of déjà vu. Ian Stevenson and other researchers have written that some cases of déjá vu might be explained on the basis of reincarnation.^[17][18] Anthony Peake has written that déjà vu experiences occur as people are living their lives not for the first time but at least the second.^[19]

[edit] Related phenomena

[edit] Jamais vu

Main article: Jamais vu

Jamais vu (from French, meaning "never seen") is a term in psychology which is used to describe any familiar situation which is not recognized by the observer.
Often described as the opposite of déjà vu, jamais vu involves a sense of eeriness and the observer's impression of seeing the situation for the first time, despite rationally knowing that he or she has been in the situation before. Jamais vu is more commonly explained as when a person momentarily does not recognize a word, person, or place that they already know. Jamais vu is sometimes associated with certain types of aphasia, amnesia, and epilepsy.
Theoretically, as seen below, a jamais vu feeling in a sufferer of a delirious disorder or intoxication could result in a delirious explanation of it, such as in the Capgras delusion, in which the patient takes a person known by him or her for a false double or impostor. If the impostor is himself, the clinical setting would be the same as the one described as depersonalisation, hence jamais vus of oneself or of the very "reality of reality", are termed depersonalisation (or surreality) feelings.
Times Online reports (see semantic satiation):

Chris Moulin, of the University of Leeds, asked 95 volunteers to write out "door" 30 times in 60 seconds. At the International Conference on Memory in Sydney last week he reported that 68 percent of the volunteers showed symptoms of jamais vu, such as beginning to doubt that "door" was a real word. Dr. Moulin believes that a similar brain fatigue underlies a phenomenon observed in some schizophrenia patients: that a familiar person has been replaced by an impostor. Dr. Moulin suggests they could be suffering from chronic jamais vu.^[20]

[edit] Presque vu

Presque vu is similar to, but distinct from, the phenomenon called tip of the tongue, a situation where someone cannot recall a familiar word or name, but with effort eventually recalls the elusive memory. In contrast, déjà vu is a feeling that the present situation has occurred before, but the details are elusive because the situation never happened before.
Presque vu (from French, meaning "almost seen") is the sensation of being on the brink of an epiphany. Often very disorienting and distracting, presque vu rarely leads to an actual breakthrough. Frequently, one experiencing presque vu will say that they have something "on the tip of my tongue".

[edit] Déjà entendu

Déjà entendu, (literally "already heard") is the experience of feeling sure that one has already heard something, even though the exact details are uncertain and/or were perhaps imagined.^[21][22]

[edit] In popular culture

[edit] Film

Déjà vu provides a plot point in The Matrix, a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski. The protagonist, Neo, glances at a black cat and comments that he has just experienced déjà vu. Those with a knowledge of 'The Matrix' and its internal workings state that déjà vu means something within the Matrix was altered from its prior state and is referred to as a "glitch".
The 2006 science fiction film Déjà Vu revolves around a US federal law enforcement officer using an instrument called Snowhite to view the past four and a half days of anywhere in the world (limited radius as permissible by the program) in order to solve a murder and a terrorist bomb attack on a ferry that was being boarded by about 500 citizens and military members.

[edit] Television

Déjà Vu was the third episode of the second season of Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British comedy program. Michael Palin plays a television host with the problem.^[23]
The concept is explored in the episode 119 of Garfield and Friends in the Orson's Farm segment.
The X-Files episode "Monday" (Season 6, Episode 14) in which Mulder and Scully repeat the same day again and again explores the complexities of deja vu. In the episode Mulder uses his experience of deja vu to influence events.
The final episode of season 1 of Charmed, called "Déjà Vu All Over Again" sees Phoebe Halliwell reliving the same day over and over again at the hands of a demon named Tempus.^[24]
Déjà Vu is also a recurring plot element on Fringe. In the Season One episode, "The Road Not Taken", Olivia described the experience of déjà vu to Walter after she briefly experienced an alternate reality as the result of being a Cortexiphan subject. In the Season Two episode "White Tulip", Olivia experiences déjà vu while investigating the apartment of a time traveler who reset the timeline.
Déjà Vu is also a plot element in the episode "Mystery Spot" of the television series Supernatural where Sam Winchester wakes up in the same day as a result of being trapped in a time loop.
In the Star Trek, The Next Generation episode, ‘Cause and Effect’, The U.S.S Enterprise is destroyed in a collision with another ship close to a temporal anomaly. This causes the event to repeat over and over which in turn causes several crew members to have feelings of Déjà Vu.
In the Stargate SG-1 episode "Window of Opportunity (Stargate SG-1)" Teal'c and O'Neil experience the same day over and over again due to a device on an alien planet.

[edit] Radio

Déja Vue at the festival Le Mois Molière (fr) in June 2006

Déjà Vu is a 2009 radio play by Alexis Zegerman in French and English co-produced by BBC Radio 4 and ARTE Radio.

[edit] Theatre

Déjà Vu is a 1991 stage play by John Osborne.

[edit] Music

Main article: Déjà vu (disambiguation)- Music

[edit] See also

• Capgras delusion
• Intuition (knowledge)
• Jamais vu
• Phenomenon
• Precognition
• Presque vu
• Psychological repression
• Psychology
• Rapport congruency

[edit] References

1. ^ Titchener, E. B. (1928). A textbook of psychology. New York: Macmillan
2. ^ "The Meaning of Déjà Vu", Eli Marcovitz, M.D. (1952). Psychoanalytic Quarterly, vol. 21, pages: 481-489
3. ^ The déjà vu experience, Alan S. Brown, Psychology Press, (2004), ISBN 0-203-48544-0, Introduction, page 1
4. ^ Pierre Janet (1942). Les Dissolutions de la Mémoire. Quoted in Tolland. Disorders of Memory, 1969, p.152
5. ^ Brown, A. S. (2004). The déjà vu illusion. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 13, 256-259.
6. ^ ^{a b} Brown, Alan S. (2004). The Déjà Vu Experience. Psychology Press. ISBN 1-84169-075-9. http://books.google.com/?id=5flMtjmezeYC&vq=the+deja+vu+experience+alan+brown.
7. ^ Neurology Channel
8. ^ Howstuffworks "What is déjà vu?"
9. ^ Brynie, Faith (2009). Brain Sense: The Science of the Senses and How We Process the World Around Us. Amacom. pp. 195.
10. ^ Taiminen, T.; Jääskeläinen, S. (2001). "Intense and recurrent déjà vu experiences related to amantadine and phenylpropanolamine in a healthy male". Journal of Clinical Neuroscience 8 (5): 460–462. doi:10.1054/jocn.2000.0810. PMID 11535020.  edit
11. ^ Bancaud, J.; Brunet-Bourgin; Chauvel; Halgren (1994). "Anatomical origin of déjà vu and vivid 'memories' in human temporal lobe epilepsy". Brain : a journal of neurology 117 (1): 71–90. PMID 8149215.  edit
12. ^ ^{a b} Cleary, Anne M. (2008). "Recognition memory, familiarity and déjà vu experiences". Current Directions in Psychological Science 17 (5): 353–357. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00605.x. 
13. ^ Banister H, Zangwill OL (1941). "Experimentally induced olfactory paramnesia". British Journal of Psychology 32: 155–175. 
14. ^ Banister H, Zangwill OL (1941). "Experimentally induced visual paramnesias". British Journal of Psychology 32: 30–51. 
15. ^ ^{a b} Cleary et al. (2012). "Familiarity from the configuration of objects in 3-dimensional space and its relation to déjà vu: A virtual reality investigation". Consciousness and Cognition 21 (2): 969–975. 
16. ^ Youngson, R.. "Deja Vu". The Royal Society of Medicine Health Encyclopedia. Dr R.M. Youngson. http://www.credoreference.com/entry/rsmhealth/deja_vu. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
17. ^ Fisher, J. (1984). The case for reincarnation. New York: Bantam Books.
18. ^ Stevenson, I. (1987). Children who remember past lives. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia.
19. ^ Anthony Peake Is There Life After Death? The Extraordinary Science of What Happens When We Die Arcturus Publishing Limited, 2012 ISBN 1-84837-299-X
20. ^ Ahuja, Anjana (2006-07-24). "Doctor, I've got this little lump on my arm . . . Relax, that tells me everything". London: Times Online. Retrieved 2010-05-01. 
21. ^ Grinnel, Renée (2008), Déjà Entendu, PsychCentral, http://psychcentral.com/encyclopedia/2008/deja-entendu/, retrieved 04-10-2011
22. ^ Mental Status Examination Rapid Record Form
23. ^ "Monty Python's Flying Circus: Just the Words - Episode 16". Ibras.dk. http://www.ibras.dk/montypython/episode16.htm. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
24. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0539356/

[edit] Further reading

• "What is déjà vu?". Psychology Today. 2010-01-05. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ulterior-motives/201001/what-is-d-j-vu.
• Draaisma, Douwe (2004). Why life speeds up as you get older. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-69199-0.
• Hughlinks-Jackson, J. (1888). "A particular variety of epilepsy "intellectual aura", one case with symptoms of organic brain disease". Brain 11 (2): 179–207. doi:10.1093/brain/11.2.179. 
• Carey, Benedict (2004-09-14). "Déjà Vu: If It All Seems Familiar, There May Be a Reason". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-01. 
• Ratliff, Evan (2006-07-02). "Déjà Vu, Again and Again". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-01. 
• "When déjà vu is more than just an odd feeling". The Ottawa Citizen. 2006-02-20. 
• "UGH! I Just Got the Creepiest Feeling That I Have Been Here Before: Déjà vu and the Brain, Consciousness and Self". Neurobiology and Behavior. 1998. http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro98/202s98-paper2/Johnson2.html.
• "The Tease of Memory". The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2004-07-23. http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i46/46a01201.htm.
• "The Psychology Of Deja Vu". Science Daily. 2008-11-19. http://www.rebornspirit.com.
• Herbert, Wray (2008-10-23). "And I feel like I've been here before". Psychological Science. http://www.psychologicalscience.org/onlyhuman/2008/10/and-i-feel-like-ive-been-here-before.cfm.
• McHugh TJ, Jones MW, Quinn JJ et al. (July 2007). "Dentate gyrus NMDA receptors mediate rapid pattern separation in the hippocampal network". Science 317 (5834): 94–9. doi:10.1126/science.1140263. PMID 17556551. 

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Déjà vu

• Anne Cleary discussing a virtual reality investigation of déjà vu
• Familiarity from the Configuration of Objects in 3-dimensional Space and Its Relation to Deja vu: A Virtual Reality Investigation
• Deja Vu: Scientifically Explained | Medchrome
• Chronic déjà vu - quirks and quarks episode (mp3)
• A new theory that links déjà vu to Near-Death Experience — by Anthony Peake, 2006.
• The Skeptic's Dictionary
• How Déjà Vu Works — a Howstuffworks article
• Déjà Experience Research — a website dedicated to providing déjà experience information and research
• Nikhil Swaminathan, Think You've Previously Read About This? Scientific American June 8, 2007
• Deberoh Halber, Research Deciphers Deju-Vu Brain Mechanics MIT Report June 7, 2007
• documentary about DEJA VU: TEMPORAO

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Déjà_vu&oldid=546256229"

 

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The New Age Spirituality

Introduction:

The New Age Movement is in a class by itself. Unlike most formal religions, it has no holy text, central organization, membership, formal clergy, geographic center, dogma, creed, etc. They often use mutually exclusive definitions for some of their terms. The New Age is in fact a free-flowing spiritual movement; a network of believers and practitioners who share somewhat similar beliefs and practices, which they add on to whichever formal religion that they follow. Their book publishers take the place of a central organization; seminars, conventions, books and informal groups replace of sermons and religious services.
Quoting John Naisbitt:

"In turbulent times, in times of great change, people head for the two extremes: fundamentalism and personal, spiritual experience...With no membership lists or even a coherent philosophy or dogma, it is difficult to define or measure the unorganized New Age movement. But in every major U.S. and European city, thousands who seek insight and personal growth cluster around a metaphysical bookstore, a spiritual teacher, or an education center." ₁

The New Age is definitely a heterogeneous movement of individuals; most graft some new age beliefs onto their regular religious affiliation. Recent surveys of US adults indicate that many Americans hold at least some new age beliefs:

	8% believe in astrology as a method of foretelling the future.
	7% believe that crystals are a source of healing or energizing power
	9% believe that Tarot Cards are a reliable base for life decisions
	about 1 in 4 believe in a non-traditional concept of the nature of God which are often associated with New Age thinking: 11% believe that God is "a state of higher consciousness that a person may reach" 8% define God as "the total realization of personal, human potential" 3% believe that each person is God.

The group of surveys cited above classify religious beliefs into 7 faith groups. ₂ Starting with the largest, they are: Cultural (Christmas & Easter) Christianity, Conventional Christianity, New Age Practitioner, Biblical (Fundamentalist, Evangelical) Christianity, Atheist/Agnostic, Other, and Jewish, A longitudinal study from 1991 to 1995 shows that New Agers represent a steady 20% of the population, and are consistently the third largest religious group. ₂

History of the New Age movement:

New Age teachings became popular during the 1970's as a reaction against what some perceived as the failure of Christianity and the failure of Secular Humanism to provide spiritual and ethical guidance for the future. Its roots are traceable to many sources: Astrology, Channeling, Hinduism, Gnostic traditions, Spiritualism, Taoism, Theosophy, Wicca and other Neo-pagan traditions, etc. The movement started in England in the 1960's where many of these elements were well established. Small groups, such as the Findhorn Community in Inverness and the Wrekin Trust formed. The movement quickly became international. Early New Age mileposts in North America were a "New Age Seminar" run by the Association for Research and Enlightenment, and the establishment of the East-West Journal in 1971. Actress Shirley MacLaine is perhaps their most famous current figure.
During the 1980's and 90's, the movement came under criticism from a variety of groups. Channeling was ridiculed; seminar and group leaders were criticized for the fortunes that they made from New Agers. Their uncritical belief in the "scientific" properties of crystals was exposed as groundless. But the movement has become established and become a stable, major force in North American religion during the past generation. As the millennium comes to a close, the New Age is expected to expand, promoted by the social backlash against logic and science.

The one version of the "New Age" that does not exist:

Major confusion about the New Age has been generated by academics, counter-cult groups, fundamentalist and other evangelical Christians and traditional Muslim groups, etc. Some examples are:

	Many of the above groups have dismissed Tasawwuf (Sufiism) as a New Age cult. In reality, Sufiism has historically been an established mystical movement within Islam, which has always existing in a state of tension with the more legalistic divisions within Islam. It has no connection with the New Age.
	Some conservative Christians believe that a massive, underground, highly coordinated New Age organization exists that is infiltrating government, media, schools and churches. No such entity exists.
	Some conservative Christians do not differentiate among the Occult, Satanism, Wicca, other Neopagan religions. Many seem to regard all as forms of Satanism who perform horrendous criminal acts on children. Others view The New Age, Neopagan religions, Tarot card reading, rune readings, channeling, work with crystal energy, etc. as merely recruiting programs for Satanism. In fact, the Occult, Satanism, Neo-pagan religions are very different phenomena, and essentially unrelated. Dr. Carl Raschke, professor of Religious Studies at the University of Denver describes New Age practices as the spiritual version of AIDS; it destroys the ability of people to cope and function." He describes it as "essentially, the marketing end of the political packaging of occultism...a breeding ground for a new American form of fascism."

New Age beliefs:

A number of fundamental beliefs are held by many -- but not all -- New Age followers; individuals are encouraged to "shop" for the beliefs and practices that they feel most comfortable with:

	Monism: All that exists is derived from a single source of divine energy.
	Pantheism: All that exists is God; God is all that exists. This leads naturally to the concept of the divinity of the individual, that we are all Gods. They do not seek God as revealed in a sacred text or as exists in a remote heaven; they seek God within the self and throughout the entire universe.
	Panentheism: God is all that exists. God is at once the entire universe, and transcends the universe as well.
	Reincarnation: After death, we are reborn and live another life as a human. This cycle repeats itself many times. This belief is similar to the concept of transmigration of the soul in Hinduism.
	Karma: The good and bad deeds that we do adds and subtracts from our accumulated record, our karma. At the end of our life, we are rewarded or punished according to our karma by being reincarnated into either a painful or good new life. This belief is linked to that of reincarnation and is also derived from Hinduism
	An Aura is believed to be an energy field radiated by the body. Invisible to most people, it can be detected by some as a shimmering, multi-colored field surrounding the body. Those skilled in detecting and interpreting auras can diagnose an individual's state of mind, and their spiritual and physical health.
	Personal Transformation A profoundly intense mystical experience will lead to the acceptance and use of New Age beliefs and practices. Guided imagery, hypnosis, meditation, and (sometimes) the use of hallucinogenic drugs are useful to bring about and enhance this transformation. Believers hope to develop new potentials within themselves: the ability to heal oneself and others, psychic powers, a new understanding of the workings of the universe, etc. Later, when sufficient numbers of people have achieved these powers, a major spiritual, physical, psychological and cultural planet-wide transformation is expected.
	Ecological Responsibility: A belief in the importance of uniting to preserve the health of the earth, which is often looked upon as Gaia, (Mother Earth) a living entity.
	Universal Religion: Since all is God, then only one reality exists, and all religions are simply different paths to that ultimate reality. The universal religion can be visualized as a mountain, with many sadhanas (spiritual paths) to the summit. Some are hard; others easy. There is no one correct path. All paths eventually reach the top. They anticipate that a new universal religion which contains elements of all current faiths will evolve and become generally accepted worldwide.
	New World Order As the Age of Aquarius unfolds, a New Age will develop. This will be a utopia in which there is world government, and end to wars, disease, hunger, pollution, and poverty. Gender, racial, religious and other forms of discrimination will cease. People's allegiance to their tribe or nation will be replaced by a concern for the entire world and its people.

The Age of Aquarius is a reference to the precession of the zodiac. The earth passes into a new sign of the zodiac approximately every 2,000 years. Some believe that the earth entered the constellation Aquarius in the 19th Century, so that the present era is the dawning of the age of Aquarius. Others believe that it will occur at the end of the 20th century. It is interesting to note that the previous constellation changes were:

	from Aries to Pisces the fish circa 1st century CE. This happened at a time when Christianity was an emerging religion, and many individuals changed from animal sacrifice in the Jewish temple to embracing the teachings of Christianity. The church's prime symbol at the time was the fish.
	from Taurus to Aries the ram circa 2,000 BCE. This happened at a time when the Jews engaged in widespread ritual sacrifice of sheep and other animals in the Temple.
	from Gemini to Taurus the bull circa 4,000 BCE. During that sign, worshiping of the golden calf was common in the Middle East.

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New Age practices:

Many practices are found among New Agers. A typical practitioner is active in only a few areas:

	Channeling A method similar to that used by Spiritists in which a spirit of a long dead individual is conjured up. However, while Spiritists generally believe that one's soul remains relatively unchanged after death, most channelers believe that the soul evolves to higher planes of existence. Chanelers usually try to make contact with a single, spiritually evolved being. That being's consciousness is channeled through the medium and relays guidance and information to the group, through the use of the medium's voice. Channeling has existed since the 1850's and many groups consider themselves independent of the New Age movement. Perhaps the most famous channeling event is the popular A Course in Miracles. It was channeled through a Columbia University psychologist, Dr. Helen Schucman, (1909-1981), over an 8 year period. She was an Atheist, and in no way regarded herself as a New Age believer. However, she took great care in recording accurately the words that she received.
	Crystals Crystals are materials which have their molecules arranged in a specific, highly ordered internal pattern. This pattern is reflected in the crystal's external structure which typically has symmetrical planar surfaces. Many common substances, from salt to sugar, from diamonds to quartz form crystals. They can be shaped so that they will vibrate at a specific frequency and are widely used in radio communications and computing devices. New Agers believe that crystals possess healing energy.
	Meditating A process of blanking out the mind and releasing oneself from conscious thinking. This is often aided by repetitive chanting of a mantra, or focusing on an object.
	New Age Music A gentle, melodic, inspirational music form involving the human voice, harp, lute, flute, etc. It is used as an aid in healing, massage therapy and general relaxation.
	Divination The use of various techniques to foretell the future, including I Ching, Pendulum movements, Runes, Scrying, Tarot Cards.
	Astrology The belief that the orientation of the planets at the time of one's birth, and the location of that birth predicts the individual's future and personality. Belief in astrology is common amongst New Agers, but definitely not limited to them.
	Holistic Health This is a collection of healing techniques which have diverged from the traditional medical model. It attempts to cure disorders in mind, body and spirit and to promote wholeness and balance in the individual. Examples are acupuncture, crystal healing, homeopathy, iridology, massage, various meditation methods, polarity therapy, psychic healing, therapeutic touch, reflexology, etc.
	Human Potential Movement (a.k.a. Emotional Growth Movement) This is a collection of therapeutic methods involving both individualized and group working, using both mental and physical techniques. The goal is to help individuals to advance spiritually. Examples are Esalen Growth Center programs, EST, Gestalt Therapy, Primal Scream Therapy, Transactional Analysis, Transcendental Meditation and Yoga.

The Canadian Census (1991) recorded only 1,200 people (0.005% of the total Canadian population) who identify their religion as being New Age. However, this in no way indicates the influence of new age ideas in the country. Many people identify with Christianity and other religions, but incorporate many new age concepts into their faith.

"Indigo Children"

Some within the New Age movement believe that children with special powers and indigo colored auras have been born in recent years. According to Nancy Ann Tappe, this is a global phenomenon affecting over 95% of newborns since 1995. She writes:

"As small children, Indigos are easy to recognize by their unusually large, clear eyes. Extremely bright, precocious children with an amazing memory and a strong desire to live instinctively, these children of the next millennium are sensitive, gifted souls with an evolved consciousness who have come here to help change the vibrations of our lives and create one land, one globe and one species. They are our bridge to the future."

Some New Agers feel that the special personality factors among Indigo Children result in them being diagnosed with ADD or ADHD by therapists who do not understand their special qualities and needs. _6,7,8

References used:

1. J. Naisbitt & P. Aburdene, Megatrends 2000", William Morrow & Company, New York, NY (1990)
2. George Barnia, "The Index of Leading Spiritual Indicators", Word Publishing, Dallas TX, (1996)
3. Richard Kyle, "The Religious Fringe", InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL (1993), Page 285-298
4. J.Gordon Melton, "Whither the New Age?", Chapter 35 of T. Miller, "America's Alternative Religions", SUNY Press, Albany, NY (1995)
5. R.T. Carroll, "A Course in Miracles," The Skeptic's Dictionary, at: http://skepdic.com/cim.html
6. Nancy Ann Tappe, "Understanding Your Life Through Color," 2004 book review at Sentient Times. See: http://www.sentienttimes.com/
7. Lee Caroll, "Indigo Children," Hay House, (1999). Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
8. Doreen Virtue, "The Care and Feeding of Indigo Children," Hay House, (2001). Read reviews or order this book

Links to New Age web sites:

	AquariusAge.com is a spiritual/new age web site with articles mostly in Dutch. See: http://www.aquariusage.com/
	Blue Ridge Spirit is a web site featuring New Age and Metaphysical gifts and products. They also have a series of self-help essays "dedicated to empowering Individuals in the pursuit of clarity and truth during their lives journey." See: http://www.blueridgespirit.com/
	The Center for the New Age in Sedona, AZ has "... over 15 professional psychic readers and energy healers..." specializing in "...spiritual quest and inner transformation." They distribute many free newsletters. See: http://www.sedonanewagecenter.com/
	Life Positive offers "a complete encyclopedia on holistic living and new age alternative sciences." See: http://www.lifepositive.com/
	LinkLight is a New Age site whose goal is to "create a spiritual connection between everyone on this Planet, and in this way raise the Consciousness of the Planet." They are at: http://www.linklight.com
	New Age Truth emphasizes that: "...in seeking our paths we have the opportunity to embrace and explore all possible 'truths' before choosing the path which best fits our footsteps. Remembering that no one path is absolute. No truth is in itself whole. See: http://www.newagetruth.com/
	New Age Web Works honors: "....all life as important, and all humanity as One." They support and invite :....the New Age, UFO, Pagan, Occult and Alternative Spirituality communities to share ideas, products and services." See: http://www.newageinfo.com/
	Open2love.com is "a positive spiritual new age community for Lightworkers and Wanderers, featuring chat, forums, links and more." See: http://www.open2love.com Ref link  http://www.religioustolerance.org/newage.htm