1. INSIGHT ACROSS THE BORDERLANDS
I did not know whether I was Chuang Tzu dreaming I was
a butterfly; or a butterfly dreaming I was Chuang Tzu.
There is a state of
consciousness with which we are all familiar, although most of us see the state
as only an artifact, and not as something ‘real’ nor of any practical use in
consensual reality. Psychologists refer to this as the ‘hypnopompic’ state, the
borderlands between sleep and full awakening. It is somewhat similar to
the ‘hypnogogic’ state which sometimes occurs, say, when one is reading and
drifts into another reality where everything has full meaning, but when one
snaps back awake, one sees – no matter how ‘real’ it had seemed just a moment
before - that ‘that other reality’ was but a dream artifact.
These two ‘hypno’ states are
similar in that they are both windows to natural non-ordinary states, yet are
vastly different for the purpose of accessing non-local information, or – for
the purposes here – of acquiring insight. For one thing, the hypnogogic state
occurs through involition – i.e. when one’s physical body is tired and under
stress; whereas the hypnopompic state arises on awakening, when one’s body is
refreshed and at maximum relaxation, and when one can allow one’s mind
unfettered access to its internal resources without the usual daily overburden
of ego, image and physical concerns. One can then ‘quest’ for truth without
concern for conventional (and consensual) reality. One is simply lying
quiescent on one’s back, with hands folded over the chest, while breathing
lightly and slowly; floating between dream and full awareness. Some meditation
streams – e.g. insight vipassana – in a way parallel both the processes and the
goals of what occurs naturally in this awakening state. As well, some people
claim the same results through ‘lucid dreaming’ or ‘astral flight’ experiences
such as Robert Monroe described in his books “Journeys Out of The Body”, etc.
Also similar in goal was the extensive US government research over the last
couple decades at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) into remote viewing. In
all of these practices, the objective is to transit from one ‘reality’ to
another, and ‘come back’ with information which in one’s normal state is beyond
access. To see or attain insight into the heart of dynamics without
personal emotional bias, egocentric preference nor pre-judgment.
My own
initial experiences in this area commenced in the late teens, spontaneously and
without any prior preparation nor study into the process. One can perhaps
appreciate how fascinated I was by this apparently new-found ability to “escape
the surly bonds of earth” – to ‘visit’ far realms and states of being and
thereby acquire experience and insights. In my naivety I even thought that this
was a personally unique phenomenon and little realized at the time that it
occurs to all humans, and most assuredly to other animals and lower orders, in
that other sentient creatures are not so reliant on ‘analyzing’ everything as
we humans are. So personally unique did I think the experience was at the time,
that I analyzed the process as being one in which a numerical formula was
required to dial up each astral destination, and these ‘akashic formulae’ were
a personal gift from the creation gods – one of the keys entrusted to a
deserving quester. Ah – the subjective rationalizations which a person indulges
in when there is no teacher. And of course this one doubted, and desired a sign
– to bring back something tangible so that one could ‘realize’ those other
non-tangibles brought back –
What if you slept?
And what if in your sleep you dreamed?
And what if in your dream you went to heaven
and there plucked a strange and
beautiful Flower?
And what if, when you woke,
you had the flower in your hand?
Ah !! What then?
Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
- see how young this one then
was, to put more tangibility reliance on
material ‘proof’ than upon insight – but with enough time and experience we are
all able to prioritize such earlier egocentricity, aren’t we. And in time, this
one did encounter – in writings and in person – others who were aware of their
transiting experiences, and who could consciously engage the process so as to
benefit their lives with deeper meaning.
As is the case in so many
things, conscious intention (rather than dismissal of any states as useless
artifacts) makes all the difference in results realized. One time I had an
extended series of discussions with a Transcendental Meditation teacher
(formerly a Catholic priest) who one day described his amazing experience upon
awakening that morning, and while in a hypnopompic state, had in his mind
viewed creation, the accreting of stellar gases into density states which
gravity collapsed into ignited novae – stars from which solar systems evolved
so that sentient life could manifest. Time-lapse of this observation – only a
few moments. Upon my query as to whether the experience were one of observation
as opposed to participation, the response was “observation”, which
reminded me of my own early trips wherein I had adhered to a felt
admonition to “observe all, but affect nothing” – and thus the teacher’s
personal progression was known. This individual’s major insight concerning his
experience was that ALL reality was essentially of MIND, which in turn gave
rise to physical cosmology; and further – that his experience of
cosmological creation, through having observed it, deeply impressed him in a
way that reading about it as a theory never would have. An example of the vast
difference between experiences ‘known’, rather than merely ‘believed’.
So – what seems to be going on
here in this access for insight?? A developing view is that all information
exists everywhere concurrently (see Nature's Mind: The Quantum Hologram by
Edgar Mitchell, in The Sublime section of ‘remedy’)
– the challenge is to intentionally tune in to information desired, selecting it
out of all-that-is, and then decode it
into structures that one’s experience allows one to understand. There is an
emerging field of study – named
psychophysiology – which may render a key here: Apparently all information –
whether idea, thought, feeling or emotion – is only in a virtual state unless
allowed to take form through mind, i.e. in an embodied, sentient
observer-participant. Many therapies – both somatic and psychological – focus
on moving memories stored in parts of the patient’s body (not just in
their ‘minds’) into consciousness, where – in the open – coping strategies can
be organized. [One can’t handle what one can’t see]. This key in
some way appears to apply not only to the microcosm (you, or I, and our
realized experiences) but likewise to the macrocosm – all that is – from which
all virtual and embodied experience can be accessed: Just as we are part of the
All, the All is part of us; all is already imbedded within us, awaiting our
access.
As
to information about anything ‘here and now’ [or, for that matter, processes in
time or abstraction], seemingly a non-material ‘Matrix’ exists in which any and
all information about any person, place or thing is embedded and accessible
through the agency of a signal line. The Matrix has been described as a huge,
non-material, highly structured, mentally accessible framework of information
containing all data pertaining to everything in both the physical and
non-physical universe. Take insight meditation as an example. The
observer/meditator psychically perceives and decodes the signal line and
objectifies the information so obtained. In the same vein as Jung's Cosmic
Unconscious, the Matrix comprises and is open to all conscious entities as well
as all information relating to everything else living or nonliving. It is this
informational framework from which the data encoded on the signal line emerges
and is realized by – in our example – the meditator. In a manner roughly
similar to standard radio propagation theory, the signal line is a carrier wave
that is inductively modulated by its involvement with information and it is
this information that is decoded as a quested insight by the meditator.
Essentially, when the meditator accesses the information signal line through
disciplined humility – one approaches rather than demands
insight, and waits upon the response – it is in effect a re-membering from
within, as Plato wrote.
Some can better understand the
insight process in terms of a Freudian model of human consciousness levels. The
lowest level of consciousness is paradoxically named the “unconscious.” All
this label really means is that the part of our mental processes that we know
as cognitive awareness or consciousness does not have access to what goes on
there. It is apparently this part of the individual's psyche that first detects
and receives the quested signal line. From here it is passed to the autonomic
nervous system (ANS), and when it impinges on the ANS, the information is
converted into a reflexive nervous response conducted through muscular channels
controlled by the ANS (as in the dowsing process); or – if one is consciously
stilled at the physical level, it may manifest itself as an ideogram – an
insight.
At the same time that the signal
is passed up through the subconscious, it is ‘kindled’ across the limen and
into the lower fringes of the consciousness. However, our normal waking
consciousness poses certain problems, occasioned largely because of the linear,
analytic thought processes that are societal conditioning ingrained from our
earliest stages of cognitive conditioning. While extremely useful in a society
relying heavily on quantitative data and technological development, such
analytic thinking hampers intuitive processes by the manufacture of what can be
thought of as analytic overlay. As the signal line surges up across the
consciousness limen and into the threshold areas of consciousness, the mind's
conscious analytical processes feel duty-bound to assign meaning to the signal,
and this is the stage where it is absolutely necessary to be unattached
to the insight – one’s mind will try to ‘protect’ one by interpreting the
signal into preferential or existing belief comfort areas. Conscious mind will
try to make a ‘logical’ assessment based on the impressions being received.
[This bias is completely
reflexive and will occur naturally unless one is truly impartially receptive to
the insight. Instead of allowing holistic right-brain processes (through which
the signal line apparently manifests itself) to assemble a complete and
accurate concept, untrained left brain based analytical biases seize upon
whatever bit of information seems most familiar and form a familiar construct
based on it.]
All information has a specific
nature or gestalt that makes it uniquely what it is. Unbiased humility – a
quest for insight truth no matter what – allows the meditator to acquire
the signal line, attune himself to it, and proceed to decode and objectify this
information gestalt. The focused quest itself is the main pointer
– all information is available from the Matrix – but information for its own
sake is stupefying – the individual’s personal concerns are what he must tune
himself to when engaging the hypnopompic or meditative states.
There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I
dream of things that never were, and ask why not. (Robert F Kennedy)
As to the evolution FROM
merely observing the truths of different states of reality, TO
participating as co-creator? For this, one wants to not only access different
states of consciousness, but to identify and bring back analogues of
those states for replication within one’s normal awareness – i.e. to learn how
to create otherwise unavailable perspectives, emotions, attitudes and
approaches to challenges as required: “I choose to realize this particular
mind-set over that one, and thus have new coping strategies in this life”. To
focus their results in this regard, some people use dream journals, with
emphasis on remembering those dreams experienced just before arising. Others
may ‘walk’ their insight into embodiment. The important thing in any event is
to treat one’s dreams with respect – to wonder about them and try to find their
value in our lives. Dreams can either provide entertainment, or meaning. They
are an essential part of us, through us and for us. Expansion of cognitive
capabilities engenders optional variations in role execution.
Keith and Marnie Elliott’s “REMEDY” Site
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