PETER: Just a follow up to my last post. Soon after posting it I came across the following article which is relevant to the ever shifting chameleonic nature of religious belief.

I wrote in the post –

[Peter to Alan]: ‘The major force in resisting human change and progress has always been the shamans, priests and Popes, God-men and Gurus. Always they look backwards for the answers, desperately clinging to the musty trite and dogma of a long distant past. Always cleverly trying to be seen to move with the times, adapting their message, window dressing it to current fashion and demand. Thus we see the Western religions adopting trendy Eastern concepts and all religions adopting the Earth-as-God religion of the Environmentalists, the modern day worshippers of earth spirits. The foundation and driving force of all religious belief is fear – fear of death is transformed into a passionate belief in an after-life and fear of inevitable approaching death is transformed into a doomsday outlook and a desperate fear of the future and change. Consequently, any human progress in leisure, pleasure, comfort and safety have been fearfully resisted throughout history and any attempts at finding a genuine, actual freedom have been met by the sacred ceiling of spiritual and religious beliefs.’ Peter to Alan 1.4.2000

And the article from Brittanica.com –

[quote]: Kabbalah Goes to Hollywood

When Kabbalah ceases to be Jewish, does it become more or less than it was before?

A Talmudic story tells of four rabbis who attempted to glean mystical understanding through certain esoteric practices. It didn’t turn out too well. One, we are told, went mad, another died, the third became a heretic. But the fourth, ‘entered in peace and left in peace.’ This story bears a warning: Unless you know yourself to be Akiba’s equal in wisdom, righteousness, and learning, stick to your formal religious routines. If you insist, others have amended, wait until you are 45, married, and steeped in the precepts of Judaism. Today the four have become thousands, and as for the other advice, suffice it to say the suggested qualifications are going West, as more and more Jews and non-Jews alike seek the answers to their spiritual longings in the Jewish mystical tradition known as Kabbalah. From ancient secret knowledge to a recent Hollywood trend, Kabbalah is not just for mystics anymore. Kabbalah, Hebrew for ‘tradition’, is the name given to the entire Jewish mystical tradition. To speak of Kabbalah as a structure is not easy, given the numerous texts and schools of thought that characterized it over the centuries.

Broadly speaking, Kabbalistic writings (such as the 13^th-century Zohar) were meant to be a special kind of commentary on the Torah. Kabbalah teaches that certain formulas and rituals will open up secret meanings in the holy scriptures which in turn will allow the adept to experience a mystical, if not ecstatic, union with the divine.

According to Lurianic Kabbalah (named Rabbi Isaac Luria, a 16^th century mystic), the light of God’s creative power was too much to bear for creation itself and it is now the responsibility of human beings to repair the damage done by ‘the breaking of the vessels.’ This responsibility consists of a mystical reading of the Torah which leads to devekut, the cleaving of the soul to God. The mystic’s practice of devekut, begins to return creation to proper alignment with the creator. Over the years these texts have become separated from their original intent. For some such a separation is intolerable, for others it seems more like liberation. For adherents to Reform Judaism in particular, the idea of tikkun (to heal or restore) addresses the need to be both spiritually and socially responsible and allows them to feel connected to Judaism in a way that yearly visits to the synagogue on Yom Kippur does not. For these Jews tikkun olam is a call to social action and the healing of political ruptures. By repairing the world we are helping to bring about the harmony God originally intended. For Jews looking to create and teach Jewish values without the hard edge of Jewish legal language, performing a duty to the world born out of mystical teachings can be a perfect marriage of the religious and the secular.

Rabbi Lawrence Kushner is the forerunner of this new tradition of Jewish mysticism. With books like Honey from the Rock: An Introduction to Jewish Mysticism Kabbalah: The Way of Light, he provides spiritual answers to those who might be disenchanted or alienated by Jewish orthodoxy and its tendency toward conservative political and social ideologies. Jewish feminists, meanwhile, have used concepts such as shekhinah the feminine aspect of the divine, to help Jewish women create new and intense mythic and practical relationships to their tradition. Kabbalah has also gone a long way in bringing together those Jews whose tendencies lean toward more non-Jewish spiritual practices, such as Eastern religions, herbalism, and meditation. A slight re-interpretation of kabbalistic ideas allows seemingly incomprehensible subjects to become quite familiar. Transmigration of souls, known as gilgul, can seem a lot like reincarnation. There are Hasidic tales of rabbis who perform what looks a lot like astral projection. From ‘thou shall not’ to ‘become a vessel of light’ is a very appealing way to remain within the context of Judaism for the religiously apprehensive. At the extreme end of the Jewish interest are organizations like the Society of Souls , which teaches ‘Integrated Kabbalistic Healing,’ and The Kabbalah Centre , an organization based in Los Angeles with centers all over the world. This center is gaining incredible popularity and boasts such members such as Madonna and Roseanne Barr. It teaches kabbalistic doctrine in order to ‘encourage spiritual change and growth and thereby reveal the Light of the Creator which will ultimately achieve fulfillment for all.’ Like many groups the center offers a prepackaged Kabbalah, connecting it to everything from DNA to the Big Bang. The teachings retain a certain amount of Jewish language and sources, but are presented in a way that absolves the customer even of the need to be Jewish.

Because Kabbalah is a mystical understanding of God and ideas of creation, other traditions with their own mystical bent have looked to kabbalistic lore for new insight into their own beliefs. As early as the 1400s Christian thinkers such as Pico della Mirandola believed that kabbalistic symbolism provided insight into their own faith, including a way to work out the complexities of the Trinity. This appropriation foreshadowed the way in which non-Jewish meaning could be extracted from very Jewish sources. Various aspects of Jewish mysticism also contain what might be called theurgy, magical secrets that the mystic must learn if he is to traverse the dangerous landscape of the seven heavens--a place fraught with angry guardians and demonic tricksters. Early modern occultists such as Aleister Crowley and the Order of the Golden Dawn used kabbalistic symbols for their own devices, for example, trying to conjure spirits.

Kabbalah’s appeal for both Christians and secret societies has caused it to undergo considerable remoulding and, at times, complete disassociation from its original Jewish sources. The Church Universal and Triumphant, home to Elizabeth Clare Prophet and source of such books as Kabbalah: Key to Your Inner Power, is one such tradition: It draws on Kabbalah to support or otherwise give more depth to its own teachings. There is no need for what is particularly Jewish about Kabbalah once you have appropriated its symbolism. A twofold phenomenon has made it possible for Kabbalah to find its way into the mainstream. On the one hand Westerners have always done a good job of reworking and redefining other traditions for the sake of their own spiritual development.

On the other hand the imagery of Jewish mysticism – such as tikkun and gilgul – allow it to be understood without the ‘Jewishness’ of its roots. Almost every New Age discipline has at onetime or another attached itself to Jewish mysticism, integrating alongside it things like Hinduism, astrology, and tarot. A Web search can be revealing. Searching for the words ‘Kabbalah’ and ‘aliens’ produces more than 1,300 hits. Searching for Web pages that contain the word ‘Kabbalah’ but exclude the words ‘Judaism’ and ‘Jewish’ produces almost 15,000 pages. The new ‘multi-religionism’ has certainly done much in the way of teaching diversity. But while beneficial to those seeking spiritual sustenance, there is a danger that only the very surface of these teachings is accessible and so the original meaning may be diluted. Kabbalah, a complex tradition, is at its core a Jewish tradition. Wisdom should not be guarded like precious stones, but for these gems to retain their value they must not be played with like marbles. Peter Bebergal, special to Britannica.com.

The other bit I found relevant was

[quote]: ‘Jewish feminists, meanwhile, have used concepts such as shekhinah the feminine aspect of the divine, to help Jewish women create new and intense mythic and practical relationships to their tradition.’ [endquote].

And I had written –

[Peter]: ‘Even more curious is the female response of current stoking the fires of feminist religion as the Goddesses arise to do battle with the male Gods.’ [endquote].

It’s so easy to write about the sacred ceiling because all one needs to do is present facts and then beliefs simply wilt away, a bit like when you stick a pin in a balloon.

PETER: (...) Perhaps upon reflection you might consider that the fact that you regard such matters as ‘even not worth a thought’ may well be the very reason why you are at loggerheads with the content of what is written on the Actual Freedom Trust website.

RESPONDENT: First of all, it is not a fact that I regard such matters as ‘even no worth a thought’. What you talk about is something completely different from what I don’t consider as ‘even not worth a thought’. I consider ‘even not worth a thought’ the idea that some ‘blind’ (in the sense of ‘random’ or ‘mechanical’) forces are the cause for life in general and human life in particular.

PETER: I do realize that you have done some thinking about the nature of these forces yet what you have concluded along with countless others who have come to the same conclusion, is that these ‘forces’ must in some way be other-than-physical forces – the notion of noumenon and phenomena.

Here is the statement I commented on in context and where you define this non-physical noumenon in spiritual terms, whilst disingenuously blurring the distinction between spirit and matter, whereas elsewhere you have attempted to explain it in pseudo-scientific terms –

[Respondent]: ‘If we rephrased Richard’s statement ‘matter is not merely passive’ into ‘matter (that which is passive) is not different from spirit (that which is active)’, then we become able to acknowledge that matter is able to self-organise, that it is inately intelligent, that it is creative. We are used to think of matter as passive, hence, we have to postulate either a creator or blind evolution. The postulation of a creator as separate from its creation gets us into unsurmountable epistemological problems, while the postulation of blind (‘random’) evolutionary ‘forces’ is even not worth a thought. From where would these ‘forces’ come to act upon matter if not out of matter itself? So, in fact, matter creates the creation out of itself. In the Christian mythos Maria (matter) creates Christ (nature) out of herself. The logical conclusion: The Holy Spirit which impregnates Maria must be two aspects of the same, that is, Maria and the Holy Spirit are the two aspects of the Father, which together create the Son, that is, Nature.’ [emphasis added] Re: To No 71, Sat 10.9.2005

What I was pointing to was the fact that some people are beginning to do some down-to-earth thinking about the nature of these ‘evolutionary ‘forces’’ as opposed to the traditional notion that they must have an underlying non-physical (spiritual or metaphysical) nature, as you succinctly stated in another of your posts –

[Respondent]: ‘Hopefully people would eventually understand that their true nature is some factor X, noumenon, something that cannot be known phenomenally’. Re: Human Comedy – Goodbye, List! Sat 10.9.2005

RESPONDENT: Obviously, instinctual behaviour is not ‘blind’ (in the sense of ‘random’ or ‘mechanical’) but fulfils ‘purpose’. As soon as there is a purpose guiding behaviour it is not ‘random’ anymore.

PETER: If this is so obvious to you, may I ask what ‘purpose guiding behaviour’ do you see in the phenomena of the instinctual passions (to use your terminology)? And further, is this purpose not also the purpose of the ‘factor X, noumenon’, (given that your latest thinking apparently proposes that noumenon and phenomena are one and the same as in inseparable)?

*

PETER: And further, is this purpose not also the purpose of the ‘factor X, noumenon’, (given that your latest thinking apparently proposes that noumenon and phenomena are one and the same as in inseparable)?

RESPONDENT: We cannot ascribe ‘purpose’ to the unknown factor X (noumenon), as long as it is unobservable; as soon as noumenon becomes observable it is not noumenon anymore but phenomenon; we can discover purpose, intelligence, meaning all over the place in the phenomenal world (‘nature’).

PETER: It sounds to me as a layman that this ‘factor X’ is totally useless as it has no purpose at all and not only that, when it does become observable it ceases to exist!

I can only conclude that your treasured ‘factor X’ (which presumably has something to do with your answer to your ‘ultimate questions’) has by its very metaphysical, non-purposeful, nature blindsided itself from being able to do anything at all about bringing an end to the phenomena of human malice and human sorrow. (...)

*

RESPONDENT: Besides, the existence or non-existence of passionate instincts and their effects on animal and human behavior is completely irrelevant for the postulation of a noumenon.

PETER: I for one was not musing about the existence or non-existence of the passionate instincts, I was simply pointing out the fact that some primatologists are starting to dare to publicize the readily observable fact that human malice and sorrow are the direct result of the animal instinctual passions,

RESPONDENT: Yes, I see that as well.

PETER: … a fact that makes any and all postulations of noumenon/phenomena completely irrelevant.

RESPONDENT: I don’t see why that would be the case.

PETER: Perhaps I can put it this way – when one takes on board the fact that human malice and sorrow are the direct result of the animal instinctual passions – and only the animal instinctual passions – then any musings or postulations about a ‘noumenon’ incarnating the instinctual passions, about an underlying metaphysical reality, a greater reality, a lesser reality, an intelligent design or an intelligent designer and so on become not only irrelevant but are clearly seen as puerility writ large.

*

RESPONDENT: So, in fact, I have no problem at all with the facts that are written on the Actual Freedom Trust website. I have only a problem with your conclusions what these facts mean regards the ‘ultimate questions’.

PETER: I do realize that some people spend a good deal of time wondering about such questions as ‘why are we here’, ‘where did we come from’ and ‘where are we going’ … but I have always been far more concerned with the down-to-earth questions such as why can’t we, as intelligent human beings, live together in peace and harmony, or more to the point, why can’t I live with people in peace and harmony.?

RESPONDENT: Yes, yes, I ask that myself.

PETER: Are you saying ‘yes, yes’ to the first set of questions or the latter two questions? The reason I ask is that in the hundreds of posts you have sent to this mailing list I can’t recall you expressing any interest in the latter questions – ‘why can’t we, as intelligent human beings, live together in peace and harmony, or more to the point, why can’t I live with people in peace and harmony?

RESPONDENT: The Holoscience people discount the notion of higher dimensions, but I still maintain we may be constrained by our sensory apparatus to only those detectable inputs. Of course, I could be entirely wrong about that ... maybe we are seeing all that there is. Maybe it is adequate, and complete. I’ll have to mull this over some more and rein in my skeptical bent a tad.

PETER: Human beings have an obsession with ‘the notion of higher dimensions’ – the belief that the world is subject to the influence of good forces and evil forces is prevalent in every tribe and every culture on the planet. This belief is somewhat understandable considering that it emerged in the days when it was universally believed that the world was three layered – a flat earthy plane full of dangerous animals and dangerous humans, a mystifying heavenly realm above and a mysterious underworld below. Eventually it was empirically observed that the earth was not flat but was spherical and subsequent explorations over centuries proved that this was in fact so. Nowadays photos of earth taken from spacecrafts have subsequently convinced all but the wacky that the earth is not flat.

The next belief to be demolished by empirical observation was the notion that the earth was the centre of the solar system – an empirical observation only made possible by the invention of a mechanical enhancement of our ‘sensory apparatus’ – the telescope. As telescopes got bigger and better, the belief that our galaxy was all there was to the universe – a conviction held in Einstein’s time – was replaced by the discovery that there are in fact countless other galaxies in the universe. The subsequent invention of radio telescopes and the like has meant that we are now able to observe and measure spectrums of the electromagnetic energy of the universe that lay outside the range human eyes can detect.

And yet, despite this long history of scientific discoveries about the extraordinary magic that is the physical universe, the eons-old search for some sort of ‘higher dimension’ or metaphysical energy – the famed spirit-energy of mythology – still persists.

The same long trek from belief and superstition to actuality and wonder can be seen in the discoveries about the creation of animate life. The process of animal reproduction was unknown to early humans and all sorts of beliefs and superstitions flourished in ignorance. Now, thousands of years later, the science of observation and investigation – mightily boosted by the invention of the inverted telescope, the microscope – has revealed the facts to be far more wondrous than the puerile myths dependant upon the belief in supernatural spirit forces.

I could go on tripping through other fields of scientific discovery and endeavour, but you probably have got the gist of what I am saying – human beings will never be free from the fear and hope inherent in superstition if they insist on believing in higher dimensions, supernatural forces, metaphysical realms, divine beings, good and evil spirits and so on – or persist in hoping that one day science will provide the empirical evidence that spiritual belief so tellingly lacks.

*

RESPONDENT: My statement does not imply anima, intelligence, etc. I flat out refute the notion of gods, fairies, and other such forces.

PETER: Your use of the words ‘higher dimension’ led me to make my comment – i.e. I was taking your words at face value. If I take out the word ‘higher’, as in lofty or elevated or principle, and take out the word ‘dimension’, as in attribute or aspect, I am left presuming you meant that the human sensory apparatus is limited in that it cannot detect the full range of all of the physical matter, nor the full range of all of the physical energies in the universe.

Scientific progress has gone hand-in-hand with the invention of tools and apparatus that have allowed humans to extend the range and effectiveness of their sensory apparatus. The human invention of language, then written language, then mass printed words on paper, then the digitalizing of words and the subsequent invention of a world wide web of home computers is what allows us to have this conversation across the globe – an astounding extension of the ‘limitations’ of the human language and auditory capacity.

*

PETER: This belief is somewhat understandable considering that it emerged in the days when it was universally believed that the world was three layered – a flat earthy plane full of dangerous animals and dangerous humans, a mystifying heavenly realm above and a mysterious underworld below. Eventually it was empirically observed that the earth was not flat but was spherical and subsequent explorations over centuries proved that this was in fact so. Nowadays photos of earth taken from spacecrafts have subsequently convinced all but the wacky that the earth is not flat.

RESPONDENT: This is my point exactly. We base our understanding of the universe on the facts we have gathered using the scientific method, and the tools we have available presently. A spacecraft is a sophisticated tool that allows us to gather useful information about the physical characteristics of the universe. Historically, the availability of ever more sophisticated tools (telescopes, microscopes, particle accelerators, ...) has resulted in the refutation of previously held beliefs (masquerading as truths of course). So, the tool that someone invents in the 25^th century could prove conclusively that the universe is not actually filled with plasma as previously thought, but actually filled with rubber duckies.

PETER: By the same logic, an agnostic would say it is best to keep one’s options open because ‘higher dimensions’ or evidence of creation or other worlds or black holes or singularities or meta-physical forces, or whatever else one chooses to believe in, might well be found to be true after all. This line of reasoning is often used as a last resort by those who can find no evidence to substantiate their belief and fall back on claiming the evidence does exist but it ‘hasn’t been discovered yet’.

RESPONDENT: BTW, I don’t think any of this is incompatible with the perception in a PCE, ‘that the universe is infinite and eternal and hence peerless both in its perfection and purity’.

PETER: I used to think that a lot of beliefs I held didn’t matter or weren’t relevant to actualism, but eventually I discovered the act of holding onto any beliefs only served to keep ‘me’ in existence and therefore kept me hobbled to the human condition of malice and sorrow. In short, if I couldn’t drop a belief I always knew it was something ‘I’ identified with – i.e. that it was part and parcel of ‘me’ as a social or instinctual identity.

*

PETER: I could go on tripping through other fields of scientific discovery and endeavour, but you probably have got the gist of what I am saying – human beings will never be free from the fear and hope inherent in superstition if they insist on believing in higher dimensions, supernatural forces, metaphysical realms, divine beings, good and evil spirits and so on – or persist in hoping that one day science will provide the empirical evidence that spiritual belief so tellingly lacks.

RESPONDENT: I guess I don’t really like the term ‘higher dimensions’ – maybe a better term is ‘characteristics of the universe that are not perceptible at present with the available human senses and tools’.

PETER: Maybe you would like to refect on what characteristics of the universe have changed since the beginning of human awareness of the universe? Such reflection might lead you to the conclusion that the characteristics of the universe exist independently of human sensory perception, and are unaffected in any way by human sensory perception.

Anthropocentricity runs deep within the human psyche, manifested in each and every human being as ‘self’-centredness. Contrary to popular belief, the universe was not ‘created’ especially for human beings – the human species is manifestly a species of animate life that has evolved from the matter of the universe. So predominant is anthropocentric belief that early humans, out of ignorance, believed the earth to be the centre of our solar system – a geocentric belief – but it has been discovered over time that the earth is but one of a number of planets that orbit the sun, which is but one sun in a galaxy full of suns, which is but one galaxy in an endless cosmos of countless galaxies.

And yet these physical characteristics of the universe have always been so despite the early beliefs and superstitions that the earth was the centre of the world and that this world must have been created by a Someone or Something.

I don’t know wether you came across the modern ‘Fingers of God’ tabulation – if this didn’t send the alarm bells ringing amongst creationist cosmology as to how geocentric, hence anthropocentric, their observations are then nothing will. http://www.electric-cosmos.org/arp.htm

RESPONDENT: Again, I emphasize that none of what I am talking about has anything to do with metaphysics or spiritual belief.

PETER: And yet, despite your disclaimer, you have said previously in this post –

[Respondent]: ‘The Big Bang theorem is still a theorem as it has not yet passed the test of the scientific method.’ [endquote].

The Big Bang theory is a creationist theory. The Big Bang theory is metaphysical in that it presumes there was a force or energy existing prior to the existence of physical matter and that this non-material force or energy then created the physical matter of the universe. The Big Bang theory is spiritual at root in that ancient spiritual belief was the prior source of all metaphysical science.

And just a note to finish with –

Personally I didn’t try to understand the science of all this too much. Simply contemplating on what would have existed before the universe was supposedly created, what would exist after in supposedly ended and what I would see if I got to the supposed edge of the universe was enough to convince me that the creationist cosmologists were off with the fairies.

*

RESPONDENT: No 45 quoted David Bohm recently:

PETER: I find it telling that those who propose such statements as ‘95% of the phenomena are invisible and not perceived from our senses’ most often resort to the example of electromagnetic radiation, as though this specific case provides proof of the existence of invisible and unperceivable phenomena.

Whilst it is a fact that we cannot see electromagnetic radiation in the ultraviolet spectrum with our eyes – the spectrum of wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation thus far detected ranges from 10³ HZ to 10²² HZ and the unaided human eye is only capable of detecting the visible light portion within the 10¹⁴ HZ to 10¹⁵ HZ range – we are nevertheless able to sensately perceive UV as warmth on our skin and we are able to detect it and measure it with instruments that are mechanical extensions of our senses. In short, we know by sensory observation that UV exists as a fact, that it is a thing in itself, that it is physical in nature.

Similarly, anyone who has stood near an infrared lamp can sense infrared electromagnetic radiation, anyone who has eaten food cooked in a microwave oven can see and taste the effects of microwave electromagnetic radiation. Anyone who has listened to radio or watched television can sensately experience the results of encoded information being sent via the longer wave frequencies of electromagnetic radiation. Anyone who has had an X-ray in a hospital can not only see and touch the machine that produces the electromagnetic radiation but they can also see and touch the resultant picture produced by the X ray electromagnetic waves.

Perhaps you could offer another example other than the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation in support your stance that David Bohm’s statement is valid. In doing so, you may well find that Mr. Bohm is using the word phenomena in the philosophical sense –

Phenomena Philos. An immediate object of perception (as distinguished from substance, or a thing in itself). Oxford Dictionary

– in which case he is talking of objects of perception that have neither substance nor physical existence – in other words, he is talking of phenomena that are meta-physical, as in –

Metaphysical Not empirically verifiable. Immaterial, incorporeal, supersensible; supernatural. Oxford Dictionary

While you say ‘you may argue David Bohm’s ‘spiritual’ bent’, there is no need for me to do so because his spiritual bent is a matter of fact – well-publicized, well-known and readily verifiable. ( see also)

RESPONDENT: So, making absolute statements about the nature of the universe is presumptuous and smacks of a belief system.

PETER: And yet, earlier in this same post, you have maintained that Mr. Bohm’s absolute statement about the nature of the universe – ‘that 95% of the phenomena are invisible and not perceived from our senses’ – is valid. I take it from this that you do not regard his statement as being presumptuous nor do you regard it as smacking of a belief system.

Whilst you have said in the past –

[Respondent]: Belief and superstition are not primary obstacles to me, ... I don’t believe either that the universe is finite or infinite, or that it is filled with gods or fairies. Respondent to Peter 16.2.03

you are, yet again, coming out of the ‘not-knowing’ closet and championing yet another meta-physical theory about the nature of the physical universe.

RESPONDENT: But that’s just my opinion...

PETER: Having an opinion about something that you do not know to be a fact is but another way of saying I believe this to be so solely on the basis of what I hear other people have to say about the matter.

If I can refer you back to your claim that you hold no beliefs about the nature of the physical universe, I’ll take the opportunity of reposting my response –

[Respondent]: Belief and superstition are not primary obstacles to me, ... I don’t believe either that the universe is finite or infinite, or that it is filled with gods or fairies. [endquote].

To choose to not believe that the universe is finite or infinite is but to remain an agnostic – a person who is uncertain and non-committal about a particular issue. An agnostic is not someone who is free of belief; an agnostic is someone who remains open to belief, who keeps his or her options open, who has a bet each way.

On the other hand, an actualist is someone who recognizes the necessity of becoming free from being a believer in the much-vaunted wisdom of humanity if one is to become free of the human condition and the way to become free from beliefs is to replace one’s beliefs with obvious and irrefutable facts thereby depriving ‘the believer’ from sustenance.

I do realize that ‘not-knowing’ is highly valued in the spiritual world, but an actualist is vitally interested in life, the universe and what it is to be a human being and as such makes exploring, investigating and ‘finding-out’ his or her prime mission in life. Peter to Respondent 22.2.03

I don’t know whether it has occurred to you in the course of our conversations but those who value ‘not-knowing’ do in fact hold to many opinions based solely on what they have heard other people say and they do in fact stubbornly cherish many beliefs – principal amongst them the belief that some type of ‘Unknowable’ forces and energies permeate the physical universe.

RESPONDENT: What a load of projected bullshit. Everything you say below is your own behaviour, your own scurrying for cover when myself, No 22 and No 12 have questioned you! So why should I cough up when you’re not willing to reciprocate! When you can finish the dialog that you so pettily (and with the usual lack of thought) entitled ‘No 22’s 17 words’, and answer the pertinent questions he put to you before you whimped out feigning computer problems (though you had access to two others) and then returned with some asinine excuse that you couldn’t continue what had degenerated in a tit for tat – a behaviour which BTW you were the only one contributing to – then and only then will I gladly answer any question you wish.

PETER: No 22’s pertinent questions?

No 22 came to this list under the pretence of studying actualism

[Respondent No 22]: ‘The only interest is in completing the advice ‘I thoroughly recommend the study of actualism.’ No 22 to Peter 10.01.2000

knowing full well that this is a non-spiritual mailing list. Having previously read his long discourses to Richard, I was upfront when I entered into conversation with No 22 –

[Peter]: The purpose of this mailing list is to question beliefs, investigate feelings and uncover the facts appertaining to the human condition we all find ourselves born into, absorbed by and totally identified with. Given that the human condition is exemplified by malice and sorrow, the function of this enquiry and investigation is to become free of malice and sorrow – to become free of the human condition in total. This list is for sincere enquiry into the human condition in total – both the real world and the spiritual world. As such, it is meaningless to participate in this list unless you are eager and willing to enquire into the psychic nature of the spiritual world and the narcissistic nature of your spiritual beliefs and feelings.

In spite of the reservations I have about your inflexible track record of being either unwilling or unable to participate in this type of enquiry, I repeat my invitation – Should you have any questions regarding the process of actualism I would be only too pleased to share my expertise but I have zilch interest in indulging in meaningless dialogues with recalcitrant defenders of their own personal version of Godship. Peter to No 22 28.12.2000

No 22 couldn’t even get past the second sentence as he had great trouble with the notion of being born.

[Respondent No 22]: The same can be actually determined about your own birth. What will be found, if there is an honest interest in what is actual, is that ‘you’ never actually began at all, and certainly that which never began can never end. Saying you began at such and such an event is a subjectively imposed limitation. It is an agreed upon thought, or commonly shared belief that useful for supporting the commonly held world view. All that is fine, but it is not actual.

If you believe you are a ‘flesh and blood body’ how can you even begin to believe you began when sperm entered and egg? There was no flesh and blood involved in either the sperm or the egg, yes?

I simply lost interest in his omnipotent metaphysics, his solipsistic viewpoint and his Grübelsucht behaviour, not to mention the quality of his supposed questions about actualism. –

[Respondent No 22]: That would be the alibi an actualist would use as an excuse for making such a baseless offering. Just not ready to acknowledge responsibility? Still finding it easier (safer) to believe that you are a hapless victim?

It is also a denial of one of the imagined scapegoats of the actualists’ worldview and the refutation of one of things an actualist’s instinctual passions urges him to desire to talk about, yes?

Are you being victimized again by the overwhelming instinctual passions?

Do you mean like the impassioned imagination (I am an expert in actualism) combined with fervent belief (actualism is good) that results in the conjectured ‘human psyche’? It is in fact amazing, but equally so-very sad.

That is the excuse and an actualist would use as an alibi for anger, yes? Very important to establish the fact that you are just not responsible, yes?

Does this sound like someone who is interested in studying actualism? Then when I tried to introduce the subject of becoming free of malice and sorrow, he responded in classic dissociative terms –

[Respondent No 22]: ... it can be offered that I have never been malice (a desire to harm others or to see others suffer; extreme ill will or spite) or sorrow (mental suffering or pain caused by injury, loss, or despair).

I have been anger and still often choose to be sadness.

What was offered, with no hinting, alluding to, hedging, fudging, ducking, or weaving, carefully done or no, and while actually saying exactly what was meant was ‘... it can be offered that I have never been malice or sorrow’.

I have existed as fear, doubt and aloofness, although, and this is important, I have never owned what I existed as.

When I tried to talk about God-men –

[Respondent No 22]: Wrong thought has lead to an incorrect conclusion. To wit; there may be claims of being God-men, just as there may be claims of being owners of psyches, however, this is no proof of the actuality of either God-men, nor owners of psyches or emotions.

Moreover, since ‘A person who is both God and man’ must needs be a flesh and blood mortal human being believing them self to be God-on-Earth, that passage too is absurd.

And then some of the dismissals –

[Respondent No 22]: As far as I can tell, to be an actualist is to be neck deep in this escapist fantasy, saying anything, regardless of its senselessness to maintain the delusion of being a victim of their own abhorrent behaviour.

No wonder you were psychological suffering (and likely still are). You seem just to be surrounded by possible victimizers, yes?

You must needs rely on Richard’s word for that, yes?

And then, after I stopped writing to him, he posted the following to the list –

[Respondent No 22]: Do you find it reasonable to imagine there is some-thing called mind? And more if you will, do you find it reasonable to imagine a some-thing called ‘Peter’ that might be the owner of said mind? No 22 to No 12 19.5.2001

Goodness knows who he thought he was talking to but then again, being a solipsist, he obviously had been talking to a some-thing of his own creation. No wonder he had ‘nothing but calm and rational dialogue’, as you put it – he was talking to none other than Him-self. But he does seem to be miffed about actualists – why else would God waste good creating time by bothering to sign on to the non-spiritual actualist mailing list to strut his Godship and heap scorn on actualists?

By the way, the posts are available in full so you can understand the context.

RESPONDENT: Peter,

PETER:

Grübelsucht [G, f. grübeln to brood + Sucht mania.] A form of obsession in which even the simplest facts are compulsively queried. Excerpted from Oxford Talking Dictionary Copyright © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Here is a relevant URL (the fourth paragraph down the page ... plus footnote No 4): http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/prin21.htm

I liked what you posted, particularly that the characteristic form of the mania is of a metaphysical character ...

[quote]: Doubting Mania: Ger. Zweifelsucht, Grübelsucht; Fr. folie du doute; Ital. follia (or monomania) del dubbio. This disorder, which has received various names (see art. Doubt, Insanity of, in Tuke’s Dict. of Psychol. Med.), may be most naturally described as an abnormal self-consciousness in the direction of great hesitation and doubt, combined with more or less impairment of the will. The main symptom, haunting doubt, may be regarded as a form of fixed imperative idea from which the patient finds no escape.

Sufficient cases have been described, in which this symptom is apparently the only divergence from normal mental action, as to lead to their classification as cases of insanity of doubt. The disease seems to affect frequently, but not invariably, those hereditarily disposed to mental disorders; it progresses usually with periods of intermission, and as a rule remains incurable. The patient often maintains a long struggle against his morbid ruminations, and is perfectly aware of their unreasonable character; he retains, as long as he can, his place as a useful working member of society, but in the end withdraws more and more within himself, and frequently voluntarily seeks admission in an asylum. The cases vary considerably; a few types may be described. A characteristic form of the mania is of a metaphysical character; the subject doubts his own existence, questions the evidence of his senses, speculates as to the precise and ultimate causes of every detail and trifle, and recurs unceasingly to the same topic, repeating the same arguments pro and con , and with all forms of subtleties and hair-splitting considerations. This form of mental rumination may be confined to one special topic; frequently it is numbers (cf. ARITHMOMANIA), such as an irresistible impulse to count everything. Another class are morbidly scrupulous and conscientious, fearing lest they may have done wrong, may have failed to do their precise and literal duty; they dwell upon the most trifling and improbable circumstances, and often come to a standstill in their actions by reason of such fear. Others are constantly anticipating accidents, are in dread that somebody may fall out of a window at his or her feet, may speculate as to what should be done, and so on. Somewhat different, but frequently mentioned in the same connection, is the fear of contact with objects. The patient lives in a constant dread of contamination, and regulates his action, and allows his thoughts to dwell unnecessarily upon these considerations. Some of these forms have received special designations, such as metaphysical mania, reasoning mania, arithmomania, &c.

Transitory and slight tendencies to almost all these habits may be recognized by all as normal at certain periods. The abnormality consists in their persistence and absorption of the intelligence to the exclusion of normal thought and action. See INSISTENT IDEAS, and WILL (defects of).

Literature: LEGRAND DU SAULLE, La Folie du Doute (1875); RITTI, Gaz. Hebdomadaire, No. 42 (1877); GRIESINGER, Arch. f. Psychiat. (1868-9), i. 626 ff.; BERGER, Arch. f. Psychiat. (1876), 237; B. BALL, art. Doubt, Insanity of, in Tuke’s Dict. of Psychol. Med.; MAGNAN, Recherches sur les Centres nerveux (2^e sér.); BALLET-MORSELLI, Le Psicosi (1896). Also works cited under DEGENERATION. (J.J.)  from http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Baldwin/Dictionary/colls.htm#jj

RESPONDENT: Hi Peter & No 37, I am following the conversation with interest (not 100% attention as I give to other matters involving consciousness, but I am intending to give it a thorough thought/read soon). Some points I observed/request for comment/ clarification:

PETER: Normal human experiencing of the physical universe is that ‘I’, as a non-physical entity parasitically residing in a physical body, thinks and feels the physical universe to be an alien and fearful place (contrary to anthropocentric/ geocentric thinking, the physical universe is not limited to what is out there, it includes this planet and its oceans, clouds, earth, trees, animals, human beings, rivers, cities, buildings and so on). It is only because human beings think and feel themselves to be separate from the physical world of the senses that they have long imagined and felt that there is an underlying reality the physical world – an underlying reality that is metaphysical in nature.

When you take this on board it is clear that Einsteinian subjective relativity is but the latest in a long line of mathematical/ philosophical/ mystical theories that propose that there is a metaphysical underlying reality (a timeless, spaceless and formless reality) to the physical matter and space that is this infinite and eternal universe.

RESPONDENT: Moreover, everybody in these circles have tried to fit common sense with these models and seem to have failed and only ask us to abandon the common sense and use principles of logic and experimental evidence(?), not imagination based on common sense (that which we use to conduct our everyday life).

PETER: I take it from what you have written that you have had a pure consciousness experience whereby you have directly experienced the infinitude of the actual universe. If this is the case, you would know by your own direct experience that it is only ‘me’, the parasitical entity, who thinks and feels himself to be separate from, and alien to, the physical universe … and when ‘I’ am temporarily absent in a PCE all feelings of separation and alienation disappears.

Perhaps I can put it this way – a PCE is the direct sensate experience of the actuality of the physical universe because ‘he’ of ‘she’ who desperately seek a metaphysical underlying reality to the physical universe, is temporality in abeyance. This is the antithesis to an altered state of consciousness whereby the supposed underlying metaphysical reality of the universe is imaginatively and passionately revealed because ‘I’ think and feel myself to be a part of the illusionary underlying metaphysical reality (or in some cases even the creator of this Reality).

RESPONDENT: As a layman (outsider to the understanding of intrinsic nuts and bolts of how these works), one is concerned here how it translates to this everyday world... I am not particularly interested in how well the foundations are supported using logic and mathematics.

PETER: Nor am I. Whether people think this underlying reality is religious or mystical or mathematical in nature does not interest me at all. It’s their fantasy after all.

What is on offer on this mailing list is an actual freedom from the human condition including a freedom from all of the fantasies that propose that there is an underlying metaphysical reality to the physical universe. And the very first step in becoming actually free of the human condition is to abandon all of these religious or mystical or mathematical fantasies and start to come down-to-earth to the world of the senses where we humans actually live.

RESPONDENT: Back to me: If I have understood the line of thought somewhat correctly, I am also in favour of that currently as it relates to my quest for direct experience. I had realized long ago when I corresponded to Richard that I was defending science based on my strong belief in scientists (no other discipline relies on objectivity and explicitly stated goals and experiment as the final arbiter) and decided to step out of my defence till I understand them myself to a great detail (I have good mathematical and scientific training and I have the toolkit to expand my knowledge if I find it necessary).

PETER: A very sensible approach – and this is the approach I took. When I first came across Richard there were many things that jarred with ‘me’ but it soon became obvious that the only way I could find out if what he was saying was factual was to conduct my own investigation as to the nature of the human psyche (including its innate cunningness to do whatever it can to survive) – otherwise I was relying on either believing what others say or rejecting what others say, pathetically dependant upon ‘my’ own beliefs and predilections.

RESPONDENT: My intrigue though (loosely stated objections and not strongly felt):

PETER: Einsteinian relativity theory relies upon imagining that time is a fourth dimension to the three dimensions of space, thereby allowing that time can be an abstract entity (t) having a hypothetical numerical value in abstract relativistic mathematics. A PCE experientially reveals that time is not an abstract dimension because a pure consciousness experience is the direct experience that this very moment is the only moment that is happening and that this very moment is perpetually happening. Whilst past moments did happen and future moments will happen, only this moment is actual – one is perpetually locked into this seamless moment of time as it were. It is always this moment of time, one cannot actually experience any other moment of time but this very moment.

This is not an esoteric or philosophical wisdom as one can also become aware of this fact in one’s normal daily life – in fact the actualism method is specifically designed to bring one’s attention to this fact as an on-going experience. As an example, if you care to remember back to the moment when you first opened this post and began to read it, it is obvious that when you did so you could experience that the opening of the post was happening in this moment and now that you are reading these words it is also this moment. As Richard puts it – this very moment is the arena in which actual events happen.

To keep with this practical observation, if you look at the computer monitor that you are reading these words on you will see that it has three spatial dimensions – width, length and depth – and that your observation of this is happening in this moment. The very spontaneity and instantaneity of this very moment gives vibrancy to the things and events that one sensately experiences in this moment of time. In short, in actuality, time is not a fourth dimension, space and time are not a continuum, space is not bent, nor is it expanding – all of these concepts and theories are nought but impassioned (subjective) fantasies.

To get back to your comment, I take it that you are aware that the theoretical subatomic particles described in quantum physics are mathematical suppositions that have no material existence. Quantum physics deals with abstracted models of hypothetical subatomic realms in exactly the same way that relativistic cosmology deals with abstracted models of hypothetical universes that have no material existence.

For me, once I understood that much of science masquerades theory as being fact and imaginary models as being things that actually exist, I also understood the absurdity of calling an internally-logical subjective theory an objective scientifically-verifiable fact. But then again, I have no emotional investment in supporting relativistic theory because I was not indoctrinated into believing that it is true, and nowadays I know by direct on-going experience that there is no underlying metaphysical reality to the universe. My ongoing objective attentiveness reveals that this is the only moment I can experience and this objective observation itself makes a nonsense of Einsteinian relativistic subjective observations and theoretical calculations.

The actuality of the infinitude of the physical universe compared to the fantasies of metaphysical beliefs is such a good subject to contemplate upon.

Who knows, it may even provoke the males of the species to get out of their heads and in touch with their feelings – after all taking such a step is an essential prerequisite to beginning to become free of the insidious grip of the instinctual passions.

RESPONDENT: What do you think about this statement of Jesus? ... ‘Come to take light!’

PETER: Exactly the same as I think about every other supposed statement that somebody called Jesus who was purportedly the son of God is reported to have said.

RESPONDENT: Here’s the 100 billion HumanityTM sponsored question: is that Light metaphysical or physical?

PETER: I have read that many people who have had near-death experiences report ‘seeing’ a light before losing consciousness, indeed I watched a TV documentary of volunteers who were placed in a centrifuge and were exposed to high ‘G’ force levels and most reported briefly seeing a light immediately before losing consciousness.

It would seem from this that there is substantive evidence that the phenomenon of seeing a light (or ‘seeing the Light’) is caused by a withdrawal of blood from the brain as a prelude to losing consciousness in particular circumstances or (as a reasonable extrapolation) as a prelude to the irrevocable and total cessation of the functioning of the brain organ itself … and not, as many people believe, as a curtain raiser to the ‘main event’, the entry of one’s psyche or ‘being’ or spirit into some mythical after-death ethereal realm.

PETER: Good to see you hanging in there with Actual Freedom. These investigations and discussions into the myths of Religions and the theories of science can literally shake the very ground you – and Humanity – stand on. For aeons the Sacred has been held as inviolate and the ‘upper’ echelons of philosophical and scientific theory as meaningful explorations. When one begins to understand that it is all a search for a somewhere else, a someplace else or a something else apart from the physical universe, then one understands that the ‘scientific’ beliefs, concepts and theories are all nothing more or less than a search for God. ‘Anywhere but here and any place but now’ is how Richard puts it.

RESPONDENT: Obviously you have read and thought over this subject lot more than I have. I have not finished reading the book. So I can’t say much about it. However, I did not say, suggest or imply that Roger Penrose was giving a prescription to eliminate Human Condition and/or obtain Freedom.

PETER: I have really only done a ‘skim’ over science and philosophy in order to see where it is they are coming from. In terms of the Human Condition there is a set-in-concrete belief that ‘you can’t change Human Nature’, and that is understandable from their point of view. The Human Condition is, after all, ‘the way it is and the way it has always been’ for human beings and no-one up until now has found an actual freedom from its instinctual clutches. As such, any investigations to date have been a study of what exists, a re-vamp of old ancient ‘solutions’ that have failed or an ‘escape’ into denial or fantasy.

RESPONDENT: From the little I read and the talk several years ago, I got the impression that he might have done a good job in researching on physics and biology of mind and trying to answer the question how mind works.

PETER: From what I read and from his own words that I pasted he is re-interpreting the research in physics and biology into a philosophical-mathematical theory of consciousness that is metaphysical in nature. We tend to think of metaphysics as the domain of the mystics and shamans but modern cosmology, quantum physics, mathematics and the like are mostly concerned with metaphysics.

metaphysical –– 1 a Of, belonging to, or of the nature of metaphysics; such as is recognized by metaphysics. b Excessively subtle or abstract. c Not empirically verifiable. 2 Immaterial, incorporeal, supersensible; supernatural. Oxford Dictionary

You will remember, Sir Roger said –

[Roger Penrose]: ‘The position that I have been strongly arguing for is that this ideal notion of human mathematical understanding is something beyond computation’... R Penrose, Psyche Magazine

By ‘beyond computation’ he means unable to be computed, calculated, reckoned, worked out, demonstrated, or made sense of. Or to use Mr. Oxford’s words – not empirically verifiable.

PETER: In the previous post you said, ‘in the PCE the ‘I’ is lost and only here and now is experienced.’ Now you seem to be saying that Love is experienced.

RESPONDENT: The operative word is ‘this’, referring to Agapé. When one experiences Agapé the illusion of past and future or there, or other is no more.

PETER: The writer 2 must admit to having missed ‘this’, it completely passed the writer 2 by. Maybe it is the ‘this’ that cannot be put into words and that is why the writer 2 couldn’t see it. Is ‘this’ any relative to ‘That’ or is it different?

RESPONDENT: Vivian, Mabel, Winnifred and Florian, among others, have reported a different reality than the one you espouse about being soulless.

PETER: Never heard of these people or their reports. I am interested in anyone who has described their experiences. Can you give me some references as to where I can read of them?

RESPONDENT: These are women who have described to the writer, their existence after dying; between days and years following the event.

PETER: The writer 2 is confused again. Does the writer 1 mean that the writer 1 is channelling these women after physical death or is the writer 1 referring to their spiritual death as in Enlightenment?

RESPONDENT: But then you have probably not had any direct experience with the DIVINE yet.

PETER: Yes, I have had many experiences, a description of the strongest experience I will post below. <snip>

RESPONDENT: And as was written, ‘...you have probably not had any direct experience with the DIVINE yet.’ Your description attests to this.

PETER: The writer 2 is confused again. The writer 2 guesses that it is because the writer 2 cannot channel. Thus the experiences are not DIRECT experiences and are only imaginary.

RESPONDENT: Channelling is different from the ‘direct’ or mystical experience.

PETER: From what I understand, in the ‘Ancient Times,’ channelling was the exclusive preserve of the Prophets who channelled the Word of God by some Divine transmission. The witchdoctors and shamans dealt with both good and evil spirits of the dead but not in a such a personal channelling of individual spirits as is common today. This fashion seems to have taken hold in the seances held in the parlours of Victorian England where people attempted to ‘communicate’ with dead relatives via mediums.

The New Age has taken this to the extreme of channelling Guides, Aliens, Dolphins, etc. with gay abandon. Everybody ‘channels’ at some point in their life, be it talking to dead relatives, lovers, or praying to God or dead Masters. It is a common experience of most humans and some merely take it to extremes. A woman I knew made a good living out of it for a while. So yes, I agree, channelling is different from the direct or mystical experience in that it involves some contact with another individual ‘spirit’, but the common thread is the belief in an after-life and that the experience is affective and not actual.

PETER: We have found no one who has challenged the Eastern spiritual and religious texts, let alone proposed that ... EVERYONE HAS GOT IT 180 DEGREES WRONG, EVERYONE.

RESPONDENT: Have you read any writings of Yashua ben Yosef?

PETER: No, and a web search revealed nothing.

RESPONDENT: It just goes to show you the shortcomings of technology. In the world of mystics there is much known of this adept.

PETER: Well, as you may have gathered, I am not a fan of mysticism but I’m not going to surrender so easily on this one. I’ll have a few guesses and you can let me know if I’m close – <Snip>

• Jesus Christ in the disguise of his second (or first) father’s name Joseph.

RESPONDENT: Yes. Although that particular name was unknown to him during his lifetime. He claimed a name with the same meaning as the Latin word, Lucifer. Mr. Crowley was familiar with his real identity.

Much of what the world supposedly ‘knows’ about this adept is made up by his disciples to fit their own expectations.

PETER: Let me keep guessing ... then.