Expanding Consciousness Options

[Shawn]

I'll start things off on this board with one of my essays:

"Expanding Consciousness"


Introduction

The evolution and expansion of consciousness is inevitable. With the expansion of consciousness comes new ways of seeing reality. Everything changes. You see things that you never could of conceived of before. Old philosophies and religions suddenly appear naive and give way to a far more profound understanding. Most religions and philosophies will not last long, simply because it is inevitable that a profound transformation in our consciousness, in our way of understanding and interacting with reality, is going to soon take place. It is inevitable because that is the direction that consciousness is headed.

A few of us have chosen to make consciousness our 'game', in all of its forms and degrees of intensity, as well as its neural basis, modification, manipulation, and expansion. We observe our own experiences during various different states of consciousness as both a psychologist and cognitive scientist would. We note how different modalities are effected and enhanced, how space and time are altered, and how our sense of 'self' is effected (assuming the ego is still intact). In sum, we note both qualitatively and semi-quantitatively how the myriad different dimensions of consciousness are transformed during altered states of consciousness. It is from such experiences that the unfathomable potential for the enhancement and extension of consciousness in all of its forms reveals itself.

Ordinary consciousness is simply too mundane and limiting. It is necessary to understand the neural basis of altered/heightened states of consciousness and to control the neural system so as to bring about these desired states of consciousness. Neuroscience is just reaching into the realm of expanded states of consciousness, though the future consequences of such are simply amazing, and are utterly beyond the imaginative capabilities of the vast majority of people.




How do we expand consciousness?

An oft-used method for expanding consciousness involves mind expanding/altering drugs , also known as entheogens, though more effective and permanent ways will be devised in the future. Unfortunately, the negative side effects associated with such drugs are oftentimes many, and include poor memory.

Nootropics, also known as "smart drugs", such as piracetam, hydergine, vasopressin, l-deprenyl, acetyl l-carnitine, and nicotine, can offset some of the negative side effects produced by entheogens, and in fact, will oftentimes produce a synergism, not only amongst themselves, but particularly if used simultaneously with entheogens.

Thus, with materials readily available to us today, we can engineer our mind-states and expand our consciousness along many different dimensions.

In the long term, however, it is crucial to identify the particular brain activities and key areas of the brain that are responsible for expanded/transcendent states of consciousness, because then we will be in a position to modulate neural activity in these brain areas using safer and more controlled techniques than what are currently available to us today. Possibly one such technique is Neural Systems Control. Another technique could involve brain-activity biofeedback (for example, EEG biofeedback, though current EEG is too crude a technique to be really useful for the purposes of expanding consciousness via brain-activity feedback).




What are these brain areas and what types of neural activity are responsible for expanded consciousness?

At this point, anything said is speculative, and is best disclosed at a future time when more certainty is obtained. What does seem certain, however, is the involvement of cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex (and other associational cortices), and the thalamus.




Consciousness may be Expanded along Multiple Dimensions

Consciousness is a multi- dimensional phenomenon. There are many ways of expanding consciousness. The transcendent states achieved thru meditation, while important, are but one type of transcendent consciousness. Unfortunately, many people seem to be of the opinion that there exists only one type of transcendent consciousness, and that it can be reached thru meditation. However, this view is naive because it disregards the multi-dimensional aspects of consciousness, which may be expanded (or transcended) along many different dimensions to result in myriad different transcendent states of consciousness. The tendency to label such transcendent states as simply 'samadhi', 'nirvana', 'Buddha-consciousness', 'cosmic-consciousness', or 'satori' just reinforces the mistaken notion that there exists only one type of transcendent consciousness.

One of the objectives of Mind-Brain.com, and in particular, this essay, is to educate others that there are multiple different types and modes of transcendent consciousness, not just those associated with the 'classic' mystical experience, and that these different types of consciousness will play a role in the evolution of our consciousness towards the Singularity, when our consciousness, at both the personal and species level, will transcend itself into something that is currently inconceivable for our species.




What is it like to Experience Expanded Consciousness?

In the following, some of the dimensions along which consciousness may be transformed and expanded will be described. These effects will not necessarily be experienced simultaneously, and are to some extent dependent on the individual. The following list is not meant to be exhaustive by any means, but rather highlights a few of the many interesting effects experienced during states of expanded consciousness.

Time Dilation

We've all experienced time dilation to some extent during 'normal' states of consciousness. In general, time dilation occurs when thought processes speed up while memory is left intact (if memory is not intact, you often sense something happened but you do not know what or how much subjective time has passed). It is interesting that time dilation occurs along a spectrum. Normally, we may feel like an hour of subjective time has passed after only five minutes of objective time. However, there does not seem to be a limit concerning how much we can potentially dilate subjective time, and some mind enhancing/altering drugs have the property of taking time dilation to the extreme. What seems like entire lifetimes can be experienced in a few minutes.

Vastness

Imagine the sense of 'vastness' you experience when you gaze into the clear night sky. Now imagine that sense of vastness magnified a million-fold or more and you may begin to appreciate the type of expansion of perceptual spaces that occurs during this experience so that they become extremely vast, beyond anything 'normally' conceivable.

Body Expansion

The experience of one's 'body consciousness' extending outwards, usually far beyond one's immediate body. This particular mode of consciousness falls under the category of 'Cosmic Consciousness'. Normally, we have a 'body-consciousness', meaning we're conscious of our arms and legs, as our own and not somebody elses. 'Body Expansion' occurs when your 'body consciousness' extends beyond, usually far beyond, your immediate physical body. It is as if your new body is your whole environment and that your 'old' body is simply a nexus or nodal point thru which your will exerts itself. Even during 'normal' consciousness, it is possible to willfully enter into the proper mind-set for 'Body Expansion', though naturally, not everyone is currently capable of doing this.

Ego-Death and the Experience of the 'Self'

The experience of the death of ones ego or 'self' can be frightening for some. Such experiences are often related to near-death experiences (NDEs), in the sense that the two often, but not always, occur hand-in-hand. Following ego-death, or the destruction of the individuals 'self', what remains is intense, non-reflective (or non-self-conscious) consciousness, the radiant 'Self' (presumably, this is the same 'Self' as revealed in ancient Eastern religious texts such as the Bhagavad-Gita and the Upanashads, the same as experienced during states of 'Cosmic Consciousness', and the same as experienced by religious mystics). This is why such experiences are invariably mystical and religious. Through the death of ones 'self' and unveiling of the 'Self', one soon learns to identify oneself completely with the 'Self' thereafter. Even if and when the individual's ego subsequently 're-crystallizes', it is transparent and seen through for the illusion it is.

Presence

It is not possible to put this ineffable experience into words, other than to say that it involves a vivid consciousness of a strong, ubiquitous 'presence' which has some relation or similarity to the 'presence' that we can be normally aware of when others are watching us.

Higher-Dimensional Space and Time

Normally, we construct space and it is limited to 3 spatial dimensions. However, because 3-dimensional space as we perceive it is nothing more than a mental construct, it is perhaps not surprising that this limitation to 3 spatial dimensions can be transcended. This grants one, among other things, the ability to discern patterns and connections in perceptual and conceptual thought not visible during 'normal' consciousness.

Similarly, our mental representation of time is normally of a flowing, continuous, and unitary nature, but this may be modified as well, in a way that is analogous to the modifications of our mental representations of space discussed above.

Ecstasy

This involves the experience of ecstasy and rapture far, far beyond what we are capable of experiencing normally. This experience has absolutely nothing to do with the 'ecstasy' experienced using the drug that goes by the same name, but rather involves an intensity and depth that far exceeds those produced by typical 'recreational' drugs.

Multi-Modal Integration

This experience involves integration across multiple modalities, such as visual, auditory, and proprioceptive, to yield new modalities that are greater than the sum of their parts.

God-Mode

God-Mode is a somewhat humorous name for an expanded state of consciousness that 'simultaneously' involves many of the above effects, including time dilation, body expansion, vastness, ecstasy, consciousness of the 'Self', and presence. There are many degrees and many types of 'Cosmic Consciousness'. God-Mode is perhaps the highest and most profound type of Cosmic Consciousness that our species has yet experienced.





A few more thoughts on the nature of expanded consciousness

The universe, as we directly experience and understand it, is but a construct of the brain that enables us to navigate about and get what we want. It's not a true picture of reality. There are many ways of constructing and experiencing reality, and there are ways of perceiving things other than the 'normal' construct that the vast majority of mankind employs.

These different constructs depend on different modes of consciousness.

Space itself is but a mental construct. There are many ways to construct space other than the familiar Euclidean space most people experience.

Our perceptual constructs will soon give way to something far more profound, something currently inconceivable for the vast majority of humanity because they are all trapped in their little worlds, and they think it is reality, but it is not. We are the universe conscious of itself. Very soon, consciousness is going to experience an abrupt change. Humanity has been confined for so long in an illusion. Individuality will give way to the experience of something common, that sort of underlies the individuality.

Our perceptual realities are only the dimly lit surface of a vast sea of consciousness. This is not the Jungian collective unconscious per se, but rather something which is indeed very conscious. However, the great majority of our species has not experienced this directly because they are confined within their little, illusory perceptual shells which they think is somehow reflective of reality, but it is not.

We (our conscious worlds) are but waves or ripples on the surface of something vast, the Self, a consciousness which underlies and encompasses all the little spheres of self-consciousness. This is why being self-centered is naive. We, as a species, are moving inexorably towards Self-centeredness.

If you directly experience the bigger picture, you willl see just how much of an illusion our 'normal' perceptual reality is. For good reason, no-one can claim to experience the full, true picture. However, a few of us have experienced a much bigger picture, and know that this is the direction that consciousness is heading, that this is in our future.

People are stuck in their little waves of individuality, they never look deep beneath the surface, and there is something vast there that likely is common to all. It is something that you have to directly experience because explanations and descriptions will be empty without the actual experience, though it is not recommended that everybody attempt to experience it just yet. Nonetheless, it is where the future is headed.

[Laz]

Excellent Shawn, I don't know why i didn't notice this before, but I'm glad i have now. This is just what I was looking for from you the other day when we spoke, I can see where you're at now and its a very similar place to my own position.

I find an interesting comparison to make on my journey is to look back at your friends/family from time to time and see how they are trapped by there normal reality. I'm not wishing to say that I am better than they, rather I forget how far I have come and get dissapointed with my progress, so its actually quite humbling to see what I used to be like and it spurs me onward.

Thanks for posting this essay.

[Shawn]

I'm glad you like it Laz. I'd written that essay over a year and a half ago, though my current thoughts and sentiments still resonate with those expressed in this essay.

[pelastration]

Indeed nice work Shawn.

Small suggestion: include hypnotism as a controlled provider of endorphines. Since they are body-self-made they can't harm and will be neutralized instantly when instructed.
When I hypnotize I learn people to produce them. They get an experience very similar to very deep meditation and what you described as God-mode. I use a number of images from Shamanism and archetypes to reinforce the effect.

Dirk

[Shawn]

hi Dirk,
Thank you for the suggestion. The use of hypnotism as you've described sounds very interesting. I had read some months ago that, through the use of fMRI, cingulate areas were shown to be involved with hypnotic suggestion but, unfortunately, that's not saying much.

[pelastration]

[Shawn]

what about the thing about only certain people being susceptible or able to be hypnotized? Have you found this to be the case, and if so, what types of people can be hypnotized?

I'm curious, is NLP (neuro linguistic programming) self-hypnosis? (I ask because, for some reason, I seem to have downloaded a lot of NLP pdf's onto my hard-drive some months ago, but haven't really looked at them, or if I did, I didn't really get anything new out of them.)

[pelastration]

[Nyarlathotep]

[Shawn]

hello Nyarlathotep,

[Nyarlathotep]

[Nyarlathotep]

[Karl]

I'd say that the Tao, for lack of a better word, is the puppeteer of our actions, in the sense that it is the governing force of all action. There is no action it will not permit, thus free will. So then yes, we have control over our actions, but all actions are predetirmined by laws of the universe. So although we may feel in control when we do any one action, it is all governed by the Tao.

[Guest]

Shawn why cant I edit my posts any more? I just made a new name for this site, is that it?

[Karl]

The error returned was:

Flood control is enabled on this board, please wait 30 seconds before replying or posting a new topic

I think I found the problem. Though I don't know what flood control is.

[Shawn]

hi Karl and welcome to our forum. Flood control just means that posts must be at least 30 seconds apart, to prevent unscrupulous individuals (i.e., board trolls and spammers) from posting a lot of messages in a little period of time (seriously, I've seen some "board trolls" post over 20 messages in under a minute, not in this forum, but in other forums). Maybe 30 seconds is too long, though, and so I'll probably reduce it to 15 later tonight or tomorrow.

Btw, Guests cannot edit their posts (because you can't really identify the same Guest, even if you rely on their IP address), but (registered) Members can always edit or delete their posts.

Hope you enjoy your time here.

take care,
Shawn

[Nyarlathotep]

[Karl]

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I'm confused. This sounds like a complete reversal of your position from a determinist one to a free-willist one. Is the Tao the puppeteer of our actions, or does it grant us free-will?
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Both, two sides of the same coin.

The nature of Tao is indeed nonsense. It gives infinitely without expecting anything in return, and because of that it manifests for all of time. When I say predetermined by the laws of the universe, I mean that it is because of the nature of Tao that we all manifest in this universe. The Tao is the Creator, for lack of a better word, of our world and everything in it. The Tao is also unchanging, so no matter what the laws of the universe will not change. The laws of the universe and the Tao are identicle brothers indeed. If you understand the yin and yang principal it is easier to understand and, i'm not saying you don't because it looks like you do but if you don't and want me to explain it to you I will.

Let me explain it best I can. Take the nature of a rock, it is confined to itself comletely. It cannot talk or move, nor does it desire to. It is there to be used in any fasion by any creature, it is indifferent. Sould this rock have free will or conciousness it would not be a rock. It would be something else. It's competly relient of nothing but the laws of the universe. We are also relient on the laws of the universe but, we continue to think, because of the ego, that we have free will, when really it is all governed by the inevitable forces of the Tao.

[Shawn]

Here is a solution that may satisfy our intellects:

Spinoza was a determinist who admitted 'free-will' if it meant self-determined. That is, we are free when we express ourselves and our nature.... we are free when we act from our own inner necessity (in contrast to being acted upon by others, non-self, or the environment). Spinoza's God was a Totality, and as such, was free because God is completely self-determined and self-caused. Similary, to the extent that we identify ourselves with this Totality, thus are we said to be free.

That being said, even without an appeal to our intellects, I see no real conflict between free-will and determinism. To the extent that we speak of the 'feeling' of free-will versus feeling like a puppet (or feeling like our actions are predetermined), we must admit that these are just feelings and human experiences. To attribute some objective status to these feelings and experiences doesn't make much sense to me, except in a pragmatic sense. That is, whether we choose to believe in free-will vs. predeterminism should be based on whatever is most advantageous for us to believe in under the given circumstances. Whenever I think more deeply on the issue, I always find myself coming back to Spinoza's logic.... what is freedom and 'free-will' but the expression of our inner nature and inner necessity?

[Karl]

That is a very good way to explain it.

[Joesus]

Logic, hmmmm.

The totality of God is the point of creation and all action.. Free will and free thought are two different things. My will and Gods will. My will and my thoughts being self determined without any connection to any source of creation other than that which I am. Who is the I? I think therefor I am. I came into creation as an entity sole unto myself and I go from this creation back to which I came. Oblivion!
The delusion of the definition of our free will is that we determine our own actions by our free will is an illusion of the Ego. That we of our own manufacture outside the creation of God are something that is not of the same mind and action.
Free will is to align with the reality that there is no action or will outside of Gods creation, or not.
Ego believes itself as being of its own mind and separate from the Ascending currents of Conscious creation.
Ego evolves from its roots in the relative evolution of matter, from the protplasm of the primordial ooze to the present self recognized self grandeur, and the polishing of the Egoic badge.
Once one aligns will with God or the Tao or whatever one wishes to call it then all thoughts and actions turn away from the selfish desires to the service of Humanity, leaving self recognition aside.
The distortions of the Ego in self recognition and the misinterpretations of Christs statement, "through their actions they will be known" is not of the person and their personna, but of God. They who have cast the ego aside will speak as God, or as the Tao. That which pushes evolution towards union and perfection and away from self recognition and individual need.
As Christ said, "I and my Father are one and I am the way." To the lesser thinking and less conscious, would believe he was speaking of himself as the body, as the Man. He was speaking of the Conscious mind of God as it could through the boundaries of the physically manifest and the limits of the human mind.

The acid test for any religious philosophy consists in whether or not it distinguishes between the realities of the material and the spiritual worlds while at the same moment recognizing their unification in intellectual striving and in social serving. A sound religious philosophy does not confound the things of God with the things of Caesar. Neither does it recognize the aesthetic cult of pure wonder as a substitute for religion.

Never can there be either scientific or logical proofs of divinity. Reason alone can never validate the values and goodnesses of religious experience. But it will always remain true: Whosoever wills to do the will of God shall comprehend the validity of spiritual values. This is the nearest approach that can be made on the mortal level to offering proofs of the reality of religious experience. Such faith affords the only escape from the mechanical clutch of the material
world and from the error distortion of the incompleteness of the intellectual world; it is the only discovered solution to the impasse in mortal thinking regarding the continuing survival of the individual personality. It is the only passport to completion of reality and to eternity of life in a universal creation of love, law, unity, and progressive Deity attainment, or Conscious maturity.

[theta]

[Joesus]

Are we talking about your Truth and my Truth, or the one Truth?
Spirituality can be defined only within the boundaries of relative definitions when it is about The Truth. Especially if you are going to equate it to the whole outside of Yourself and Your experience.
If you had an experience of God and it was true to you, could you hope to transfer your expereince to another by simply describing it? I don't think so, in fact I know that it is not possible to trigger the nervous system in another to psychologically or spiritually duplicate the experience of God within relative definitions. IF that were true there would be no difference in the expression of God and we would look and act exactly the same.

The pusuit of True Religion is the study of all religions and the uniting of all expereinces which enliven the connection to God in its entirety.
Observing minds and discriminating souls know religion when they find it in the lives of their fellows. Religion requires no definition; we all know its social, intellectual, moral, and spiritual fruits. And this all grows out of the fact that religion is the property of the human race; it is not a child of culture. True, one's perception of religion is still human and therefore subject to the bondage of ignorance, the slavery of superstition, the deceptions of sophistication, and the delusions of false philosophy.

One of the characteristic peculiarities of genuine religious assurance is that, notwithstanding the absoluteness of its affirmations and the stanchness of its attitude, the spirit of its expression is so poised and tempered that it never conveys the slightest impression of self-assertion or egoistic exaltation. The wisdom of religious experience is something of a paradox in that it is both humanly original and Spirit derivative. Religious force is not the product of the individual's personal prerogatives but rather the outworking of that sublime partnership of man and the everlasting source of all wisdom. Thus do the words and acts of true and undefiled religion become compellingly authoritative for all enlightened mortals.

Intellectual deficiency or educational poverty unavoidably handicaps higher religious attainment because such an impoverished environment of the spiritual nature robs religion of its chief channel of philosophic contact with the world of scientific knowledge. The intellectual factors of religion are important, but their overdevelopment is likewise sometimes very handicapping and embarrassing. Religion must continually labor under a paradoxical necessity: the necessity of making effective use of thought while at the same time discounting the spiritual serviceableness of all thinking.

Religious speculation is inevitable but always detrimental; speculation invariably falsifies its object. Speculation tends to translate religion into something material or humanistic, and thus, while directly interfering with the clarity of logical thought, it indirectly causes religion to appear as a function of the temporal world, the very world with which it should everlastingly stand in contrast. Therefore will religion always be characterized by paradoxes, the paradoxes resulting from the absence of the experiential connection between the material and the spiritual levels of the universe--spirit/manifest Conscious Union, the superphilosophic sensitivity for truth discernment and unity perception.

Material feelings, human emotions, lead directly to material actions, selfish acts. Religious insights, spiritual motivations, lead directly to religious actions, unselfish acts of social service and altruistic benevolence.

Religious desire is the hunger quest for divine reality. Religious experience is the realization of the consciousness of having found God. And when a human being does find God, there is experienced within the soul of that being such an indescribable restlessness of triumph in discovery that he is impelled to seek loving service-contact with his less illuminated fellows, not to disclose that he has found God, but rather to allow the overflow of the welling-up of eternal goodness within his own soul to refresh and ennoble his fellows. Real religion leads to increased social service.

Science, knowledge, leads to fact consciousness; religion, experience, leads to value consciousness; philosophy, wisdom, leads to co-ordinate consciousness; revelation (the preview and taste of Conscious Unity) leads to the consciousness of true reality; while the co-ordination of the consciousness of fact, value, and true reality constitutes awareness of personality reality, maximum of being, together with the belief in the possibility of the survival of that very personality.

Knowledge leads to placing men, to originating social strata and castes. Religion leads to serving men, thus creating ethics and altruism. Wisdom leads to the higher and better fellowship of both ideas and one's fellows. Revelation liberates men and starts them out on the eternal adventure.

Science sorts men; religion loves men, even as yourself; wisdom does justice to differing men; but revelation glorifies man and discloses his capacity for partnership with God.

Science vainly strives to create the brotherhood of culture; religion brings into being the brotherhood of the spirit. Philosophy strives for the brotherhood of wisdom; revelation portrays the eternal brotherhood, the road to immortality.

Knowledge yields pride in the fact of personality; wisdom is the consciousness of the meaning of personality; religion is the experience of cognizance of the value of personality; revelation is the assurance of personality survival.

Science seeks to identify, analyze, and classify the segmented parts of the limitless cosmos. Religion grasps the idea-of-the-whole, the entire cosmos. Philosophy attempts the identification of the material segments of science with the spiritual-insight concept of the whole. Wherein philosophy fails in this attempt, revelation succeeds, affirming that the cosmic circle is universal, eternal, absolute, and infinite. This cosmos of the Infinite I AM is therefore endless, limitless, and all-inclusive--timeless, spaceless, and unqualified. And we bear testimony that the Infinite I AM is also the Father of Christ the Consciousness in Form of Man, and the God of human salvation.

Science indicates Deity as a fact; philosophy presents the idea of an Absolute; religion envisions God as a loving spiritual personality. Revelation affirms the unity of the fact of Deity, the idea of the Absolute, and the spiritual personality of God and, further, presents this concept as our Father--the universal fact of existence, the eternal idea of mind, and the infinite spirit of life.

The pursuit of knowledge constitutes science; the search for wisdom is philosophy; the love for God is religion; the hunger for truth is a revelation. But it is the indwelling Spirit that attaches the feeling of reality to man's spiritual insight into the cosmos.

In science, the idea precedes the expression of its realization; in religion, the experience of realization precedes the expression of the idea. There is a vast difference between the evolutionary will-to-believe and the product of enlightened reason, religious insight, and revelation--the will that believes.

In evolution, religion often leads to man's creating his concepts of God; revelation exhibits the phenomenon of God's evolving man himself, while in the earth life of Christ we behold the phenomenon of God's revealing himself to man. Evolution tends to make God manlike; revelation tends to make man Godlike.

Science is only satisfied with first causes, religion with supreme personality, and philosophy with unity. Revelation affirms that these three are one, and
that all are good. The eternal real is the good of the universe and not the time illusions of space evil. In the spiritual experience of all personalities, always is it true that the real is the good and the good is the real

The highest evidence of the reality and efficacy of religion consists in the fact of human experience; namely, that man, naturally fearful and suspicious, innately endowed with a strong instinct of self-preservation and craving survival after death, is willing fully to trust the deepest interests of his present and future to the keeping and direction of that power and person designated by his faith as God. That is the one central truth of all religion. As to what that power or person requires of man in return for this watchcare and final salvation, no two religions agree; in fact, they all more or less disagree.

The unity of religious experience among a social or racial group derives from the identical nature of the God fragment indwelling the individual. It is this divine in man that gives origin to his unselfish interest in the welfare of other men. But since personality is unique--no two mortals being alike--it inevitably follows that no two human beings can similarly interpret the leadings and urges of the spirit of divinity which lives within their minds. A group of mortals can experience spiritual unity, but they can never attain philosophic uniformity. And this diversity of the interpretation of religious thought and experience is shown by the fact that twentieth-century theologians and philosophers have formulated upward of five hundred different definitions of religion. In reality, every human being defines religion in the terms of his own experiential interpretation of the divine impulses emanating from the God spirit that indwells him, and therefore must such an interpretation be unique and wholly different from the religious philosophy of all other human beings.

When one man is in full agreement with the religious philosophy of a fellow man, that phenomenon indicates that these two beings have had a similar religious experience touching the matters concerned in their similarity of philosophic religious interpretation.

While your religion is a matter of personal experience, it is most important that you should be exposed to the knowledge of a vast number of other religious experiences (the diverse interpretations of other and diverse men) to the end that you may prevent your religious life from becoming egocentric--circumscribed, selfish, and unsocial.

Rationalism is wrong when it assumes that religion is at first a primitive belief in something which is then followed by the pursuit of values. Religion is primarily a pursuit of values, and then there formulates a system of interpretative beliefs. It is much easier for men to agree on religious values--goals--than on beliefs--interpretations. And this explains how religion can agree on values and goals while exhibiting the confusing phenomenon of maintaining a belief in hundreds of conflicting beliefs--creeds. This also explains why a given person can maintain his religious experience in the face of giving up or changing many of his religious beliefs. Religion persists in spite of revolutionary changes in religious beliefs. Theology does not produce religion; it is religion that produces theologic philosophy.

That religionists have believed so much that was false does not invalidate religion because religion is founded on the recognition of values and is validated by the faith of personal religious experience. Religion, then, is based on experience and religious thought; theology, the philosophy of religion, is an honest attempt to interpret that experience. Such interpretative beliefs may be right or wrong, or a mixture of truth and error.

The realization of the recognition of spiritual values is an experience which is superideational. There is no word in any human language which can be employed to designate this "sense," "feeling," "intuition," or "experience" which we have elected to call God-consciousness. The spirit of God that dwells in man is not personal--Spirit is prepersonal--but this Monitor presents a value, exudes a flavor of divinity, which is personal in the highest and infinite sense. If God were not at least personal, he could not be conscious, and if not conscious, then would he be infrahuman.

Theology is the study of the actions and reactions of the human spirit; it can never become a science since it must always be combined more or less with psychology in its personal expression and with philosophy in its systematic portrayal. Theology is always the study of your religion; the study of another's religion is psychology.

When man approaches the study and examination of his universe from the outside, he brings into being the various physical sciences; when he approaches the research of himself and the universe from the inside, he gives origin to theology and metaphysics. The later art of philosophy develops in an effort to harmonize the many discrepancies which are destined at first to appear between the findings and teachings of these two diametrically opposite avenues of approaching the universe of things and beings.

Religion has to do with the spiritual viewpoint, the awareness of the insideness of human experience. Man's spiritual nature affords him the opportunity of turning the universe outside in. It is therefore true that, viewed exclusively from the insideness of personality experience, all creation appears to be spiritual in nature.

When man analytically inspects the universe through the material endowments of his physical senses and associated mind perception, the cosmos appears to be mechanical and energy-material. Such a technique of studying reality consists in turning the universe inside out.

A logical and consistent philosophic concept of the universe cannot be built up on the postulations of either materialism or spiritism, for both of these systems of thinking, when universally applied, are compelled to view the cosmos in distortion, the former contacting with a universe turned inside out, the latter realizing the nature of a universe turned outside in. Never, then, can either science or religion, in and of themselves, standing alone, hope to gain an adequate understanding
of universal truths and relationships without the guidance of human philosophy and the illumination of divine revelation.

If your definitions of Logic still falls under the above then we are perhaps on the same page.
But in reference to Shawns statement of falling back on Spinozas Logic I find it highly unlikely that his determination of this form of logic is other than intellectual and speculative at best of Spinozas revelations of the Universe.
Hence the Statement, "Logic, hmmm...."

[Dan]

Joesus Christ! I wonder if Cliff's Notes could boil that down a little.......

[Laz]

Hey Joe, I found these statements struck a particular chord with me today

[richard evans]

AT LAST!A decent mind-expansion/hallucinogen site!I don't know what to say apart from does anyone know where I can find some good models/diagrams of the filter/projection(of memories-from the unconscious),and how to "empty the memory",or reach a state where the rate of sensory data taken in is overtaken by the amount of projected information outwards,and a state of mind exists where there is a synchronicity between mind and matter-as though the information taken in and the information projected out form a loop,and you can theoretically know what is about to happen,because experience BECOMES A MEMORY,and therefore,for example,you can sing along to song that you have never heard before.Does anyone know what I mean by this?

Sorry for the intrusion by the way.I am still finding my way around.Thanks.

[epoxy ethane]

nutter

[richard evans]

Pardon?Maybe I haven't made myself clear-I don't know the proper terminology,just what I have picked up.The above experience I have described above is very similar to a deja vu,except it is more intense,more conscious,and lasts longer,and happened to me on liberty caps(several times),and was also accompanied by a very intense mind expanding experience.In fact,I believe my mind was expanded to the rate that my thoughts and actions were "made"(become conscious)faster than the outside world of perception is projected(and hence hallucinations),making my senses and re-actions become,for lack of a better description,"super-human".

Don't you know of this experience,epoxy-ethane?(I'm not a nutter,by the way.)

[Unknown]

wtf? ^