A switch here from odds and ends to science again, this time with Eva Herr's book, "Consciousness." Herr describes herself as an average woman of average academic background, a former Southern Baptist who one day, from out of nowhere, had a numinous experience. Suddenly, she understood everything; suddenly, her former understanding looked petty and ludicrously inadequate. By "everything," we are speaking of an emotional experience of certainty that is common among mystics, and often enough among psychedelic drug takers. Of the latter, this realization is often quickly lost; of the former, it is usually incorporated into a system of meditation that the mystics have been using for years or decades (which is the reason why systematic study is greatly preferable to instant illumination by chemicals). But this "knowing everything" is general - she does not really know why it happened to her, and especially is puzzled by the specific changes it has brought to her mentation. For this reason, she went to the greatest experts in scientific consciousness studies and interviewed them, resulting in this book.
The questions she asks cover nearly everything, and the answers range from brilliant to non-committal. Many of the questions pertain to my own experiences with the numinous, which have been caused by chemicals, meditation, and, in the very beginning, simply by chance. For instance, she asks Dean Radin, who experiments with psi phenomena and distance perceptions (once with support from the CIA) how shifts in perception occur. I have noticed these shifts for decades, which can transform an ordinary view of a valley into the portal to heaven, and he unfortunately has no answer. This shift itself is of maximum importance, because if humanity at large were capable of a group shift to this "depth" of paradise, it would be only a matter of time before all our problems would be solved, right in the flesh and blood world. I do believe that a science could be developed to access these different perceptual levels at will (this science has been made already, in meditation, but I seek a shorter, easier route, if possible). It would be enough to change the world, if not into a literal paradise, then one very close to it. Perhaps someone further in the book will have this answer.
However, Radin has found that thought acts like waves - he uses waves in a pond as an example. One thought is like a pebble tossed, creating waves in the still pond. Technically, he claims, one might be able to splash all the water out of the pond - that is to say, change the nature of reality - with intention, but not by millions having the same intent- that would be like many pebbles tossed at random, each wave negating the other. Rather, the intent must be made all at once, with a certain cosmic timing to create one large wave. In this, death itself might be conquered, but that is theoretical. For now, it is enough to know that intention causes waves that have real, if usually small, effects. This he has proven. Thoughts - intentions and prayers - matter.
Speaking with Amit Goswami, a theoretical physicists, we DO find a rather radical answer to the question of "why? Why, if God is perfect, must IT create an incomplete, imperfect world?" His answer comes from quantum theory; which is, that all possibilities exist in the quantum - but for something to happen, a choice must be made to collapse the wave function and make an actuality. To have choice, we must have limitations - this, not that; to have limitations, we must have imperfection (lack of the whole). Being, then, must be imperfect to exist.
Still, one asks: why have being, when all is ultimately whole? Here, he answers the million dollar question with the answer we have heard before: because Being's intent is to become whole, the direction of being is ultimately towards God; thus God realizes himself through existence, in Its way, just as we do over time. Here, however, we note that Goswami has to move back to metaphysics to answer the question; there is no ultimate intent in physics. And so we are, perhaps, left unsatisfied.
That alone is the reason this blog always, after discussions on everything from UFO's to telepathy to consciousness shifts, moves back to religion and spirituality. Religion necessarily has its limitations - it is meant to reach imperfect beings. But the spirituality embedded in it does not - and it is here, whether we like it or not, where the answers to the deepest questions lie. Not on the superficial level, which has often been used to suppress greater knowledge, but in the inner intent. Still, to know that greater possibilities exist in this world here and now is important, so that we might learn to think "out of the box" of culture and start on a path that goes anywhere and everywhere. FK
The questions she asks cover nearly everything, and the answers range from brilliant to non-committal. Many of the questions pertain to my own experiences with the numinous, which have been caused by chemicals, meditation, and, in the very beginning, simply by chance. For instance, she asks Dean Radin, who experiments with psi phenomena and distance perceptions (once with support from the CIA) how shifts in perception occur. I have noticed these shifts for decades, which can transform an ordinary view of a valley into the portal to heaven, and he unfortunately has no answer. This shift itself is of maximum importance, because if humanity at large were capable of a group shift to this "depth" of paradise, it would be only a matter of time before all our problems would be solved, right in the flesh and blood world. I do believe that a science could be developed to access these different perceptual levels at will (this science has been made already, in meditation, but I seek a shorter, easier route, if possible). It would be enough to change the world, if not into a literal paradise, then one very close to it. Perhaps someone further in the book will have this answer.
However, Radin has found that thought acts like waves - he uses waves in a pond as an example. One thought is like a pebble tossed, creating waves in the still pond. Technically, he claims, one might be able to splash all the water out of the pond - that is to say, change the nature of reality - with intention, but not by millions having the same intent- that would be like many pebbles tossed at random, each wave negating the other. Rather, the intent must be made all at once, with a certain cosmic timing to create one large wave. In this, death itself might be conquered, but that is theoretical. For now, it is enough to know that intention causes waves that have real, if usually small, effects. This he has proven. Thoughts - intentions and prayers - matter.
Speaking with Amit Goswami, a theoretical physicists, we DO find a rather radical answer to the question of "why? Why, if God is perfect, must IT create an incomplete, imperfect world?" His answer comes from quantum theory; which is, that all possibilities exist in the quantum - but for something to happen, a choice must be made to collapse the wave function and make an actuality. To have choice, we must have limitations - this, not that; to have limitations, we must have imperfection (lack of the whole). Being, then, must be imperfect to exist.
Still, one asks: why have being, when all is ultimately whole? Here, he answers the million dollar question with the answer we have heard before: because Being's intent is to become whole, the direction of being is ultimately towards God; thus God realizes himself through existence, in Its way, just as we do over time. Here, however, we note that Goswami has to move back to metaphysics to answer the question; there is no ultimate intent in physics. And so we are, perhaps, left unsatisfied.
That alone is the reason this blog always, after discussions on everything from UFO's to telepathy to consciousness shifts, moves back to religion and spirituality. Religion necessarily has its limitations - it is meant to reach imperfect beings. But the spirituality embedded in it does not - and it is here, whether we like it or not, where the answers to the deepest questions lie. Not on the superficial level, which has often been used to suppress greater knowledge, but in the inner intent. Still, to know that greater possibilities exist in this world here and now is important, so that we might learn to think "out of the box" of culture and start on a path that goes anywhere and everywhere. FK
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