donald h. wolfraim - the gnostic path to spiritual reality-2011-60pp 2

8/15/2019 Donald h. Wolfraim - The Gnostic Path to Spiritual Reality-2011-60pp 2

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2011 All Rights Reserved

ISBN: 978-0-9810331-1-2


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The Gnostic Path to Spiritual Reality

Contents

Introduction

Chapter One: Perception and RealityThe Multidimensional Universe

Perception as a Neurological Construction The Doctrine of Realism

Reality and Common SenseThe Kantian RevolutionReality and the ImaginationGnosis – Perceiving Spiritual Reality

Samyama and Spiritual CognitionJung and the Individuation ProcessGoethe’s Method of Spiritual CognitionRudolf Steiner’s Method of Gnosis

Chapter Two: The Mystery of the Self Exploring the Mystery of the Self The Search for Self-RealizationPsychological Realism and the Self

Neurological Realism and the Self

Resolving the Mystery of the Self

Chapter Three: The Spiritual Cognitive Faculties The Nature of Clairvoyance

Remote Viewing Secrets of Telepathy

Blind Vision Blind Vision and Light Remote Viewing and LightJung and Ultraviolet Light

Chapter Four: The Enigma of Consciousness Consciousness and Epiphenomenalism

Consciousness beyond the Brain: Prenatal Consciousness The Near-Death Experience Twelve Years in a Haunted House The Reach of the Mind

Intention and the Imagination Psychoanalysis and the Transpersonal Realm Seeking an Explanation

Experiencing the Transpersonal Mind


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The Imaginal Realm Quantum Physics and the Imaginal Realm

Chapter Five: Rediscovering Gnostic Science The Psychophysical Unity of Reality

The Thought Experiments of Nikola Tesla

Exploring the Spatiality of Mental Images Photographing Mental Images The Creation Of Ghosts and Tulpas Living in the Light

Creating Protective Thought-Forms

Chapter Six: The Magic of Perceptual IntegrationSecrets of the Alchemists

Living the Spiritual Life

Rediscovering the Religious Experience Encountering the Divine

Some Perceptual-Integration Exercises: Cloud Busting – with your Mind

The Art of Spoon Bending Gnosticism and the Divine Imagination

Following the Gnostic Path

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Introduction

Today, we live in a broken world in which only the physical aspects of our existence aregenerally recognized while the underlying spiritual nature of reality remains cognitively missing.

Since the 17th century, the spiritual vision of man has been deeply entombed beneath the rubble

of Newtonian physics, which indoctrinated the western world into believing that all that exists isa meaningless, mindless universe of matter and that the miracle of our existence is due entirely to

fixed mechanical laws.

Even at the dawn of the 21

st. century, we continue to be mesmerized by this scientific myth that

we live in some kind of magical world of matter - a world from which living miracles mindlessly

arise from some mysterious depth of dead, uncaring matter. We envision molecular messengers

traveling the inner highways of the bloodstream scurrying about with vital information thatwould simply remain meaningless without some semblance of consciousness to comprehend its

significance. Molecular genetic material is naively believed to have the magical power of being

able to single-handedly create a perfect living fetus entirely from the interaction of inertchemicals guided by mechanical necessity.

Since the development of quantum physics we now know that the existence of the physical worldis extremely unsubstantial - that matter consists mostly of empty space and that the energy


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comprising its material form manifests from the emptiness of a quantum vacuum, momentarily

appearing in a billionth of a second and disappearing just as quickly back into the microcosmic

source from which it was created. Like a swiftly moving river, the appearance of the physicalworld might seem to remain the same from moment to moment, but this perceived continuity of

matter in physical space and time is simply an illusion.

Like the Greek atomists, Sir Isaac Newton an English physicist, (1643-1727) perceived the

essence of matter to be passively inert. Matter was incapable of acting on its own without some

kind of external interference, remaining at rest until moved by an external force. He envisionedthe solid, massy properties of external objects as being essentially identical to the internal atom-

like constituents of matter. Thus the inert, materialistic clock-like world was the same inside or

out, both strictly obeying natural laws of cause and effect. No longer was the world perceived as

a living organism imbued with divine purpose, but a dead, mechanical, uncaring one. TheEnglish philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) shared Newton’s view of reality declaring that

only matter exists.

The consequences of adopting such a materialistic worldview is that we live in a world that isunaware of its own existence, as well as ours. The chair you are sitting in, the car you are driving

and even the cells comprising your heart and brain, all remain completely oblivious to your personal existence. Material realism presents us with a bleak picture of an unaware universe

lacking any spiritual meaning.

But if mindless matter is all that exists, then how do we account for our ability to perceive anobjective world? How can perceptual awareness be derived from dead inert matter, which by its

very nature is completely unaware that an external world exists in the first place?

Neurologists have tried to dispel this mystery by claiming that the ionic activity of neurons

present in the nervous system adequately explains how information gathered by the physical

senses is transformed into an authentic replication of the external world in the biochemicalsubstrate of our brain, which is somehow capable of becoming consciously aware of itself.

A popular alternative to material realism is monistic idealism, expounded for example, in Amit

Goswami’s book: The Self-Aware Universe, in which consciousness itself is perceived as the basic element of reality rather than matter.

The ancient gnostics, including those who lived during the early centuries of the Christian era,discovered a way to redeem this broken vision of the world, restoring it to its primal unity by

consciously experiencing both its physical and spiritual aspects together through a process of

perceptual integration.

The practice of gnosis, which is discussed in detail throughout this book, is a way of knowing

that transcends the limited physical senses, manifesting as a sudden intuitive realization of theessence or meaning of something, or the direct experiential knowledge validating the existence

of the divine or supernatural. It is identical to intuitive or epiphanic knowing, which allows one

to directly experience spiritual reality using one’s inner cognitive faculties.


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The gnostic path to spiritual reality is the path to spiritual awakening through personal innerexperience. It is a profound realization that can engage one's whole being with an insightful

knowledge of transcendent realms that exist beyond the physical dimension. Rather than

concentrating the mind inwardly, as is done in conventional meditative techniques, archetypalimagery is projected outwardly upon the external world, thus uniting inner and outer reality into

a single experience of gnosis or ‘knowing’ that transcends them both, often with magical results.

The ancient gnostics included charismatic philosophers and teachers living in the second century

A.D., who believed that true knowledge could only be found through inner revelation rather than

hearsay and endless theological speculation; a belief that seriously challenges Christian doctrine

even today. They also believed that the creation of the physical world was seriously flawed fromthe very beginning but that by acquiring true knowledge through inner experience this mundane

physical dimension of reality could be transcended to comprehend higher transcendent realms of

existence.

Different forms of Gnosticism gradually developed during the past three thousand years

including the Jewish kaballah, esoteric Christianity, hermeticism and alchemy, and more recentlyRosicrucianism and Freemasonry. In this book, I will be primarily concerned with the gnostic

techniques of perceptual integration used by the alchemists and the interaction of the imaginal

upon the external physical world.

In Chapter 1, I examine some of the problems encountered with sense perception within the

context of material realism and the Kantian revolution, and discuss how the practice of gnosis

can account for the missing attributes that we experience as existing ‘out there’ which the physical senses are incapable of providing. Gnostic techniques of perception adopted by Goethe

and Rudolf Steiner are covered in detail, providing readers with a step-by-step procedure for

experiencing the power of perceptual integration for themselves.

The mystery of the self is explored in Chapter 2, challenging the belief that the embodied self is

only a neurological construct - a mere epiphenomenon created by the physical brain and nervous

system. What the nature of the personal self actually is can be readily determined by observingwhat it is actually capable of accomplishing – such as directly interacting with the objective

world and perceptually transcending the limitations of physical space and time.

As the practice of gnosis is based on inner perception, the existence of our spiritual cognitive

faculties is discussed in detail in Chapter 3, beginning with an examination of clairvoyant vision,

remote viewing and telepathic perception. A step-by-step procedure for experimenting withtelepathic cognition is included for those who wish to develop their inner vision.

In Chapter 4, the nature of consciousness is explored, including paranormal modes of perceptionthat transcend the limitations of the physical senses, extending into transpersonal realms of

awareness and the imaginal world of the gnostics. Modes of awareness and memory that exist

beyond the brain, such as prenatal and after-death states of consciousness are also examined.


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The psychophysical unity of reality is explored in Chapter 5, particularly as it relates to the

gnostic principles inherent in the practice of alchemy. The gnostic belief that knowledge

regarding the nature of reality could be accurately attained through inner experience was basedon the fact that a congruency exists between inner mental imagery and the experiential world that

those images represent. Also included are detailed instructions on utilizing the alchemist’s ‘Light

of Heaven’ to create protective thought-forms.

In Chapter 6, the gnostic method of perceptual integration used by the ancient alchemists is

explored in depth revealing how the imaginative powers we have been given can be used tospiritualize and transform the world. A guide to living the spiritual life and the gnostic path to

religious experience is also discussed. Several exercises have been included to provide the reader

with an opportunity to experience first-hand how the projection of one’s inner spiritual vision

can directly affect the physical world.

1 ____________________________________________________________________________

Perception and Reality

Most of us share a common faith in our ability to observe and comprehend the nature of ourexistence because of the possibility of obtaining a deeper knowledge of reality using the

scientific approach, which has proven so successful in the past. But what is overlooked is that

scientific methodology is confined to its own materialistic concerns that preclude any possible

recognition of a spiritual reality existing beyond the physical senses, which is not subject toexperimental observation or physical measurement.

During our normal state of consciousness our knowledge of the physical world, which we obtainthrough the evidence of our five physical senses, is generally regarded as being the ‘true measure

of reality’ as it alone is believed capable of providing us with an authentic awareness of what

really exists. Consequently, most individuals believe that the only aspect of reality that we needto be concerned with is the material world revealed by our physical senses. Our cognitive

boundaries of existence are thereby narrowly confined to the particular way our physical senses

are capable of interacting with what is ‘out there’ and the sensations we experience as a result ofhow the brain and nervous system interpret this incoming sense data.

Although we might believe that our physical senses are capable of accurately informing us about

the real nature of the external world, our limited sensory organs tell us a different story. As the physical senses can only respond to a very limited range of energy frequencies that are present

around us, they can only convey a mere fraction of the information that is available regarding the

objective world. Thus our knowledge of reality is invariably confined to the meager informationour physical senses are able to provide. For example, the only world we can see with our

physical eyes is a mysterious world of light comprised of wavelengths between 300 to 800


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nanometers. Out of sixty octaves comprising the entire range of electromagnetic radiation, only

one is visible. Therefore the belief that the entire universe can be known using this limited

perceptual range of sensory data is merely a common misconception.

The Multidimensional Universe

The multidimensional nature of reality has remained an important subject of enquiry throughoutmy life because of the many experiences I have had that contradict the general belief that the

only reality we can ever experience is a four-dimensional space-time world perceptible through

our physical senses. Although our knowledge concerning the nature of reality is grounded inexperience, there are indeed other ways of knowing which transcend the limitations of sensory

perception, such as the gnostic technique of spiritual cognition called gnosis.

One of the paradoxes challenging scientific materialism today is the awareness of the existenceof other dimensions of reality based on an increasing number of scientific studies on nonsensory

modes of perception that do not depend on the physical senses at all - such as clairvoyant vision.

As a result, there is a growing scientific acceptance of the possibility that human consciousness

does have access to psychic and spiritual realities beyond the outer fringes of the physical world.

Science is presently confronted with some unfathomable mysteries that have necessitated thegradual development of a multidimensional science. Largely responsible for this changing

worldview are new theoretical developments, such as the discovery of cosmic black holes, as

well as Bell’s theorem and the phenomena of 'time reversal' in quantum physics etc. It has

become quite clear that many contemporary scientific problems in quantum physics, paraphysicsand parapsychology now require the expansion of traditional scientific boundaries to include a

multidimensional worldview.

With recent developments in quantum physics, the scientific worldview now extends far beyond

the limitations of Einstein’s four-dimensional worldview. Today quantum physicists have

conceptualized a ‘string theory’ that mathematically envisions many space-time dimensions ofreality that are presently being theoretically explored, even though they cannot be directly

observed.

However, such a multidimensional vision of reality in quantum physics contains theoreticalentities that are not only imaginary but also impermanent and invisible. For example, in order to

mathematically express the mass of a quantum particle in physical terms, strange imaginary

integers with magical properties have to be employed for these equations to work. Like theconventional decimal place, these imaginary numbers used in the conjugation of complex

numbers have no reality in the external world but are nevertheless useful for describing such

things as quantum ‘wave functions’ associated with electron behavior.

In addition, virtual particles, which momentarily exist and then don’t exist, are perceived as

emerging from a realm of nothingness called a quantum vacuum, for a billionth of a second or soand then disappearing back into it again. These quantum particles having such a brief life span

are never directly observed but only assumed to exist by photographing tracks of mist that they

create as they pass through a Wilson cloud chamber.


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How then are we to comprehend the nature of reality – this experiential world of ours comprised

of such a strange mixture of physical objects permeated by the invisible presence of the

imaginary? Indeed, we cannot even begin to describe the nature of an external world without alsoconsidering its invisibility, which tends to obscure any clear vision of the truth. However, if we

wish to personally experience spiritual reality here in the physical world, we need to acquire a

much deeper understanding of how these visible and the invisible aspects of reality areinterrelated.

The nature of reality envisioned by Jung and the alchemists consists of two interpenetratingdimensions – a visible physical reality and an invisible imaginary one that together form a single

integrated world of mind and matter called the Unus Mundus. Normally, our perception of the

external world is so tightly compartmentalized that the visible and the imaginary remain

completely isolated from each other, thus creating an artificial separation between inner andouter, mind and world.

Today, we have many different theories that have been proposed to explain how it is possible for

a physical brain to perceptually construct an accurate representation of an objective reality. Someacademics continue to spend time debating whether in fact an external world exists at all! But

when we examine these different theories, we discover that something very important is missingin all of them, and that is the recognition that without the participation of both our physical

senses and inner cognitive faculties we would not perceive any objective world at all.

The gnostic approach to perception however is something quite different, as it provides thismissing element that is essential to adequately explain how it is possible to perceive an objective

world in the first place. But before introducing this gnostic theory of perception, called gnosis,

lets review some of the conventional approaches that have been offered in the past in an attemptto solve this problem.

Perception as a Neurological ConstructionModern science presently views consciousness and our perception of reality as a neurological

phenomenon, a mere by-product of electrical and chemical activity occurring in the brain and

nervous system. Such an explanation has been popularized in recent books, such as DanDennett’s Consciousness Explained and Francis Crick’s The Astonishing Hypothesis.

Back in 1961, Alan W. Watts suggested in his book Psychotherapy East and West [1] that oursensory experiences are only states of the nervous system. Consequently, all that we are able to

perceive are states of ourselves. For Watts, our consciousness of an external world is entirely

determined by the way our physical senses, brain and nervous system responds to an influx of

external sense data.

Watts does not deny the existence of an objective reality but insists that the observer or

‘experiencer’ is identical to the experience. The only thing that is seen is the act of seeing andthere is no one, other than the nervous system to experience it. For Watts, you are your nervous

system and its interpretation of some external reality is all that you can ever experience, thus the

real nature of reality can never be known. Our field of vision, which appears to be outside of us,is in fact within us, because it is simply a mental representation of external reality created by


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optical and neurological activity. According to Watts, what we are really seeing are merely states

of the organism or states of ourselves. Similarly, we do not hear a sound; the sound is the

hearing, otherwise it remains a silent vibration in the air.

As a consequence of accepting a neurological theory of perception, Watts concluded that there is

no self to experience anything and that all knowledge of our existence depends upon the capacityof the brain and nervous system to be aware of its own electrochemical activity. However, he

fails to explain how such a state of awareness is possible.

In Mind and Nature, [2] Gregory Bateson suggested that there is no objective experience as such.

For Bateson, all experience is subjective, as neurological processes in the brain create the images

that we perceive. The sensations we experience, which we believe accurately represents the

nature of external reality, are mediated by our physical senses and nervous system, whichunconsciously creates a ‘representation’ of objective reality for us that is simply not out there.

Bateson came to this conclusion while attending a series of experiments conducted by Adalbert

Ames Jr. an ophthalmologist working in New York, which proved beyond any doubt that we useclues of parallax to guide us in creating the appearance of depth. Also Bateson discovered that

these images that our unconscious mind constructs could be altered at will by adjusting theexperimental equipment. In other words, the manner in which the objective world appears to us,

according to Bateson, can be manipulated by altering the clues the unconscious mind uses to

construct a representation of reality that we perceptually experience.

For most physicists today, the word ‘real’ refers only to a specific type of experience which

individuals are able to share in common. Such a consensus reality is believed to accurately define

what we can scientifically claim to be real, based on the evidence of the senses. Scientifictheories rest upon the assumption that such a consensus reality actually exists, that it endures

through time, and that it will repeatedly yield the same experimental results independently of

who is observing it. But consensual knowledge based on sensory experience is for the most partdualistic, inferential and entirely symbolic. For the rational mind, the reality of the world

therefore appears split into opposites of knower and known, thinker and thought, subject and

object. But does our physical senses really reveal what is real or merely what appears to be real?

The Doctrine of Realism

The certitude of human observation that underlies scientific thinking today is based on the

doctrine of realism, which assumes that a physical objective world exists independently of ourknowledge of it and can therefore be passively observed without mentally influencing it in any

way. Adopting this materialistic view of reality, one’s perceptual experience is regarded as being

identical to the objective world being experienced, while at the same time ignoring the possibility that we could be unwittingly participating in constructing our perception of that

world, due to personal biases, beliefs and expectations.

Physical reality is believed to be absolute and completely predetermined according to fixed

immutable laws. Thus we all experience exactly the same reality and although it can be

perceived differently under varying conditions, we do not create that objective reality or

cognitively alter it in any way. Rather, it is believed to remain self-consistent with its own


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inherent nature in spite of any theoretical context we might use to comprehend it or the particular

method we might use to observe it.

Reality and Common SenseFor most individuals, their only guide to truth and reality has always been just good old

‘common-sense reasoning’ based on actual experience. Common sense tells us that an objectiveworld actually exists ‘out there’ and that it includes physical objects such as clouds, trees and

rocks. We know from hard experience that hot objects can burn us and that if you kick a boulder

it could break your foot. In other words, common sense tells us that the objective world is real because we continually interact with objects and events extended in time and space that produce

very real consequences. But does this objective world really exist completely independent of

human consciousness as the realists claim or does the human mind in some strange way

participate in its construction?

Einstein once remarked that common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age 18 and

are formed within the context of one’s cultural beliefs and customs. Consequently, there have

been many common sense prejudices that have persisted for thousands of years that wereeventually proven to be in error, such as the firmly held belief that the earth was flat and that it

was positioned at the very center of the universe.

As common sense is based on our perception of the familiar, it will often fail us in strange,

unfamiliar circumstances, such as suddenly being immersed in a foreign culture. As common

sense does not yield the same conclusions from individuals of different backgrounds orexperience, our common sense view of things may prove to be extremely unreliable when trying

to interpret and cope with unfamiliar ideas, events or circumstances that we have never

encountered before. More importantly, a strict adherence to a common sense worldview based onone's limited experience will exclude other important aspects of reality that are beyond the reach

of the physical senses - such as a psychic dimension or the existence of a spiritual world.

Today we know that any perception or scientific observation is never free of subjective factors

including such things as unconscious biases, beliefs and expectations held by the experimenter,

both in the choice of experiments to be performed as well as the interpretation of the results of

those experiments. For example, quantum mechanics has experimentally demonstrated that thehuman mind not only participates in determining the type of phenomena perceived, such as the

wave or particle nature of light, but also that the mind of an observer has a direct influence on the

outcome of all such experiments.

The confirmation of Bell’s inequality theorem has further revealed that a nonlocal awareness is

present in quantum energy particles acting at a distance. Other experiments have repeatedlyverified the fact that we cannot observe phenomena on this quantum microcosmic level without

at the same time interfering with what we are observing.

The Kantian RevolutionOne of the most crucial problems challenging realism today is the fact that many of the qualities

and characteristics we perceive as existing ‘out there’ in the objective world do not physically

exist and therefore are really not there. Therefore, the real nature of objective reality, as we


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actually experience it to be, cannot be accounted for entirely in physical terms.

Galileo, an Italian physicist and astronomer (1564-1642) suggested that a distinction should bemade between the primary and secondary qualities of objects. The primary qualities were of

special interest to science, such as weight, shape and motion, as these could be objectively

measured. On the other hand, the perception of secondary qualities, such as sensations of color,taste and temperature etc. existed only in the mind and were therefore considered to be less real.

The primary qualities Galileo observed and measured during his experiments were found to be

consistently reliable and mathematically predictable, thus capable of serving as an empirical basis for the future development of science, while perceived secondary qualities were not.

This incongruence existing between our perception of reality and its actual underlying nature

was a problem that the philosopher Immanuel Kant spent many years trying to resolve. Kant was born in Konigsberg Germany in 1724, the son of a saddle maker. After serving several years as a

private tutor and lecturer he was appointed professor of logic and metaphysics at Konigsberg

University, a position he held until his retirement in 1796.

Kant believed that there is a distinct difference between our perception of reality and the physical

world being perceived. For Kant, an individual’s perceptual experience of objects as existingobjectively in the external world was referred to as phenomena, while noumena represented the

underlying reality - the 'things-in-themselves' giving rise to those perceptions. For Kant, sense

perception is preconditioned by synthetic a priori categories that are responsible for structuring

the way we experience a world of time, space and causation, which are functionally similar toJung’s archetypes. Both refer to how the psyche or unconscious mind preconditions the way we

perceive reality, which is essential for us to experience anything at all.

Kant concluded that we could never know the ultimate nature of reality because the mind itself

creatively participates in creating and projecting those secondary qualities that we attribute to

objective reality. Thus the underlying noumenal nature of the physical world must remaincompletely unknown to us because it simply doesn’t exist ‘out there’ independently of our

conscious awareness. But for the gnostics, the nature of Kant’s noumenal world is not something

that must remain forever beyond all human knowledge. Their profound belief in the existence of

an absolute transcendent reality is based on the fact that it can be directly known through innerexperience.

When we attempt to describe the physical world purely in terms of perceived sensations, wediscover that any such description is not equivalent to the physical reality they are given to

represent. For example, when looking at an apple I may perceive the sensation of 'redness' yet

the colour red does not physically exist out there. In fact, our perception of an apple includes farmore than the attributes of its visible surface. It also includes different perspectives and parts of

the apple that are presently invisible as well, such as the whiteness of its interior pulp and the

blackness of its seeds. Here the imagination, which is a cognitive faculty of inner vision, can beseen actively participating in structuring our perception of an apple largely based on one’s

previous experience.


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As Kant reminds us, there is a distinct difference between our perception of reality and the

underlying nature of what is being perceived. All that we can experience is a limited range of

physical sensations generated by our brain and nervous system, while the 'thing-in-itself’ thenoumenal world, was regarded by Kant as something unknowable. So the scientific realist, in

denying the existence of a spiritual dimension of reality is at the same time overlooking the fact

that sensory knowledge alone is not capable of revealing the real nature of objective realityeither. Rather it only provides us with a psychological representation of reality, in the form of

images, sensations and sounds taking place in the theatre of our own mind.

According to Kant, to account for our perceptual experience of an external world we must

include something else - the constructive imagination that actually functions as a spiritual

cognitive faculty that actively participates in revealing the hidden nature of reality through the

perceptual process itself.

Reality and the ImaginationJust as materialists attempt to reduce everything to matter, subjective idealists attempt to reduce

everything to mind. It was George Berkeley, an Irish bishop and philosopher who suggested inthe 18th century that because the perceiving mind is the only thing that exists, there is no

external world without a perceiver. Objects out there, such as flowing rivers and falling trees,simply cease to exist when they are not being perceived by a human mind. But, because of

philosophical difficulties in trying to use human observation to sustain the existence of the

universe, Berkeley introduced an idea borrowed from Vedantic Brahmanism, that it was God'somnipotent presence and awareness that was responsible for sustaining the existence of the

world.

The philosophy of Mentalism, popularized by Paul Brunton in his writings, including The Hidden Teachings Beyond Yoga, [3] is simply another version of subjective idealism, which

denies the physical existence of a material world and even energy, such as electricity, by

replacing it with thought-forms created by the mind. Not only is our perception of an externalworld a construction of the imagination but everything existing in the world ‘out there’ is also.

Brunton uses the example of a train engine, claiming that in spite of its apparent substantialityincluding its spatial attributes and massive weight, it is entirely a mental construction or thought-

form having no independent existence apart from our perception of it. Just as the realists believe

that everything in the external world is made of matter and identical to the way we perceive it to be, subjective idealists believe that the appearance of an external physical world merely exists in

the perceiving mind.

Kant, on the other hand, suggested a more realistic approach in his transcendental idealism, inwhich he sought to combine phenomenalism and realism by claiming that although real objects

are independent and separable they are also the phenomenal images present in perception. For

Kant, what we perceptually experience is a seamlessly integrated subjective-objective world.

David Bohm, a quantum physicist, believes that subjective and physical processes originate from

some identical underlying source simultaneously manifesting together in a way that cannot beunderstood without integrating them into a single psychophysical process. For Bohm, the


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manifestation of a physical world and one's perception of it are merely different aspects of the

same thing. This claim is supported by the fact that on the quantum level of reality the observing

mind is able to reach out into space and time and influence the nature of what is being observed.

But if Kant is correct in assuming that the imagination actively participates in constructing our

perceptual experience of an external world, then how is it possible to determine what actuallyexists and what does not? If everything we experience is a mental representation created withinthe brain, how do we explain how sense data is transformed through neurological processes to

become a conscious experience of a vibrant, objective four-dimensional world?

Gnosis: Perceiving Spiritual Reality

Gnosis is a method of perceiving the spiritual dimension of reality based on one’s inner

experiences; a ‘knowing’ that transcends all the physical limitations associated with the physicalsenses. In the following sections we will examine some examples of gnosis, including the Hindu

concept of Samyama and techniques of spiritual cognition used by Goethe and Steiner. The

gnostic path to spiritual reality practiced by the ancient alchemists can still be realized, bylearning how to perceptually integrate these divergent multidimensional aspects of reality

effectively restoring them to their original underlying unity.

The only veil that separates the subtle spiritual dimension of reality from the physical one is

perception itself. As we possess both physical and spiritual cognitive faculties of perception,

what we are able to experience depends on the faculties we are using. When we learn to integratethem into a single act of perception, then any distinction we might make between spiritual and

physical reality simply disappears.

Samyama and Spiritual CognitionPantanjali, who lived about 800 B.C., is considered to be the founder of Raja Yoga, a Hindu

school that teaches a method of attaining spiritual development based on 195 short instructions,

which are now referred to as the ‘Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali.’

In book three, Pantanjali describes Samyama, as an intuitive way of discerning the spiritual

nature of reality transcending the limitations of the physical senses. He refers to this new organof intuitive cognition as the ‘imagination’ that enables individuals to directly perceive the subtle,

imaginal level of reality permeating the physical world. But Pantanjali is not referring here to

imagination as we normally associate it with fantasy and unreality, but rather it refers to a mode

of inner perception in which we can become directly aware of the inner spiritual essence ofthings, by expanding our consciousness intuitively.

In Samyama, the individual seeks to penetrate the hidden subtle nature of reality through a process of concentration, meditation and visualization in which any distinction between subject

and object disappears. The object of spiritual cognition can be something that is physical in

nature or anything that can be perceived imaginatively.

In the practice of Samyama, the imagination, being a spiritual cognitive faculty of the subtle

body, is able to perceive the objective spiritual dimension that interpenetrates the physical world.This new way of seeing, which Pantanjali calls Samyama, is achieved through the conscious

integration of both our physical and spiritual cognitive faculties - by projecting one’s inner vision


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onto the outer landscape of the physical world. As a result of directly interacting with this

imaginal realm, we are able to obtain new insights into the hidden spiritual essence of things as

they respond to our participatory presence.

Jung and the Individuation Process

In Jungian psychology, the Individuation process is a technique in which the active imaginationis used to project unconscious archetypal contents onto the external world, which is essentially

regarded as being just as real as objective reality itself. By consciously interacting with this

projected archetypal imagery one is able to experience the merging of inner and outer reality,resulting in therapeutic benefits for the patient.

The purpose of this psychoanalytic technique used by Jung, was to transform the patient’sconsciousness by objectifying and confronting the unconscious content of one’s projections. This

was accomplished by exploring the projected archetypal imagery further through creative

activities such as dancing, music, painting, and even by playing in a sand box.

Goethe's Method of Spiritual CognitionJohann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) was a German writer and scientist. He was a masterof poetry, drama, and the novel, spending 50 years writing Faust, a two-part dramatic poem first

published in 1808. As well as conducting scientific research in botany he also held various

governmental positions throughout his life.

Goethe recognized an important difference between thinking about isolated objects perceived in

physical space and time and the imaginative spiritual perception of their 'coming into being'

which by its very nature transcends any perception of their physical existence that we might haveof them. He believed that we have two different perceptual faculties – the intellectual mind using

the physical senses and the intuitive mind using higher spiritual organs of perception. The

intuitive faculty of perception (the imagination) allowed him to perceive the inner nature of anobject or phenomena.

Using Goethe’s method allows us to go beyond the limitations of the physical senses, which perceives only fixed objects temporarily frozen in physical space and time. He recognized that

direct sensory experience of phenomenon is the foundation for understanding nature but he was

also aware that the information the senses provided was incomplete. His scientific approach was

to understand the wholeness of existence rather than just observing its segregated parts, but to dothis he believed that the limitation of the physical senses had to be transcended by perceiving

reality in a new way. Goethe, who was a practicing alchemist, did not really invent a new method

of ‘seeing’; he was simply using an ancient method of perceptual integration that was familiar tognostics even during his lifetime.

The goal of Goethe’s method was to integrate the physical and spiritual (imaginal) cognitivefaculties into a single act of observation. Using both his physical and spiritual cognitive faculties

he found that he could perceive qualities of the phenomenon being studied which the senses

alone could not provide. Perceptual integration permitted Goethe to cognitively enter that

imaginal, spiritual dimension of the physical world and mentally interact with it as he participated in its enfoldment in physical space and time. By combining his physical and spiritual


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faculties of perception Goethe was able to experience a far deeper, more direct contact with the

hidden spiritual nature of things.

Here is Goethe's Method of Perceptual Integration.1. Using your physical senses, study any physical object intently without subjectively imposing

theoretical concepts on what you are observing, thus making it possible to directly receiveintuitive insight into its nature. Goethe’s method is to move one’s attention away from the

influence of the rational mind, its judgments, concepts and theories and learn how to 'just see' the

inner qualities of the phenomenon directly.

2. Mentally internalize the object by visualizing its dynamic form, that is, imagining it as

being part of a whole process that is moving through space and time as it comes into being, thus freeing it from its present static condition. In doing so, the observer is no

longer confined to the present moment but is free to internally visualize the phenomenon

taking place over an extended period of time; such as observing the growth of a plantfrom a seedling into a blossoming flower, giving us a glimpse of the whole of which it is

a part. The real nature of anything can never be grasped when perceptually confined to a present moment in space and time.

3. Next, mentally externalize your inner vision by projecting it onto the objective

physical object that is being studied, thus integrating your physical and spiritual

perception into a single unified experience. Your perception of the object has now becomes an integrated vision which includes both the spiritual and physical nature

of what you are observing.

These different stages of Goethe’s 'Exact Sensorial Imagination' are intended to occur

simultaneously, that is, when perceiving something with your physical senses you have to

simultaneously perceive it through your imagination or inner vision as well. These are merelydifferent aspects of a single act of seeing resulting in the integration of one’s physical and

spiritual cognitive faculties.

The curious thing about the perceptual integrative process is that it is not passive but

dynamically responsive in nature. When we imaginatively participate in the spiritual aspect of

nature using Goethe’s method, we will often experience some kind of response – either in theform of a marked change in consciousness or as an actual physical event. With the expansion of

consciousness one might experience an oceanic feeling, charged with emotion and intuitive

significance having an overwhelming reality of its own. It is like moving into another space – animaginal realm that is experienced as being more real than the physical world. This can result in

a profound self-transcending experience in which self and world are no longer separate but form

a single dynamic unity - you suddenly become aware of yourself as being part of a larger whole,in fact the entire world.

Rudolph Steiner’s Method of GnosisRudolf Steiner (1861-1925) an Austrian philosopher, educator and the founder of

Anthroposophy, was greatly influenced by Goethe’s spiritual epistemology and his contribution

to the development of 17th

century physical sciences. Steiner edited Goethe’s complete scientific


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works while living in Weimar prior to moving to Berlin in 1897 and becoming the editor of a

German magazine.

In 1891, Steiner submitted his thesis, Truth and Knowledge at the University of Rostock in

Germany and was granted a doctorate in philosophy. In his paper, Steiner rejects Kant’s concept

of a ‘noumenal world’, which he considers to be an illusion. Steiner believed that it was pointlessto seek the foundation of our existence beyond the known experiential world.

For Kant, all we perceptually experience are mere appearances, or mental representations of anexternal world, which simply can’t be relied upon. For Kant, true knowledge could only be

obtained by beginning from a point-of-view based on a priori judgments that were completely

independent of experience itself, as well as being free of all presuppositions. Kant defines a

priori knowledge as that kind of knowledge which is held independently of all experience,whereas empirical knowledge is possible only through experience. He believed that mathematics

and the natural sciences, being based on a priori knowledge was a good place to start. Steiner

points out that Kant’s claim that mathematics and the pure natural sciences are based on a priori

knowledge is itself a presupposition, which invalidates Kant’s intended criteria for attaining atranscendental understanding.

Steiner suggested that our search for true knowledge should begin, not from searching for a

priori knowledge, but rather based upon the nature of cognition itself, as knowledge emergesfrom participating in our own perceptual activity. Prior to any conceptual thinking, nothing really

exists for us because we lack the mental pictures that allow us to distinguish between rocks and

trees, good and evil, cause and effect, mind and matter etc. Although we do not create thecontent of the world, Steiner believes that it is initially incomplete and undefined; a world

waiting for us to determine its meaning and what its characteristic features will be.

This process of thinking that Steiner is referring to is an imaginal spiritual ‘picture making’

facility that functions independently of the physical senses, which presents us with a worldviewthat our concepts represent; a process that begins with the activity of the creative imagination. In

order to explain a given phenomena or identify an object, we create a picture in our mind, label itand file it in our memory so that we can refer to it again in the future. Photons, muons and

electrons did not exist for us until a physicist envisioned their existence in his mind and decided

to name them that way. For Steiner, as all observation is theory laden, truth does not exist untilwe perceptually create it ourselves.

This however does not mean that we create reality. What is implied here is that whenever the

given is perceived with the physical senses it always remains incomplete. There is always some

aspect of its existence that remains hidden that has not yet been perceptually revealed to us.

This hidden secondary aspect of the world, such as the colour of a rose, is intuitively revealed tous through what Goethe and Steiner called the imaginative faculty of the soul. It is our

imagination that participates in providing the mental pictures of all the concepts our perceivingmind requires in order to organize and identify what it is that we are feeling, hearing or looking

at.

Steiner recognized that perceiving the external world, the way we actually experience it to be,requires that the conceptual structure of our inner mental pictures must conform to the nature of


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the objects they represent. That is, in order to perceive a tree, the inner mental image we have of

it and its physical counterpart must share the same qualities and spatial structure, otherwise we

would not be able to identify what it is that we are aware of. This fact suggests that our perception of an external world is not entirely structured by the physical presence of external

things. Rather our perception of the external world is also structured by the inner images or

thought-forms perceived by our inner spiritual vision that determines how reality is experienced.

The nature of our inner world and the objective world we perceive around us equally share thesame perceived qualities and characteristics, such as colour, beauty, meaning, and spatial

attributes etc., not because of the way our physical senses respond to the presence of external

things but because these attributes are perceived by our spiritual cognitive faculties, revealingaspects of reality that would otherwise remain unknown. Both modes of perception obey the

same laws and principles in constructing an integrated inner-outer vision of the same world.

2 ___________________________________________________________________________

The Mystery of the Self

Many individuals living in western society have never experienced any urgent need to

question their beliefs regarding who or what they believe they are – whether they are spiritual

in nature or merely a physical epiphenomenona resulting from neurological activityoccurring in their brain and nervous system. Most are passively content with their perception

of a self that is physically embodied and entirely dependent on biological processes for itsvery existence. Consequently, they believe that when all biochemical and neurologicalactivity ceases, one’s conscious awareness as a living indwelling self must come to an end as

well.

Many others however have at sometime experienced a vague awareness of a greater truth –

that their personal identity is really spiritual in nature, a soul perhaps. But even if a spiritual

self does exists, does it really have any practical significance for us as long as we are still

physically alive? As you read this book you will begin to realize that your spiritual self reallydoes exist because its presence does make a difference; that it has a direct impact on your

daily life ‘right now’ and that its activity is not just relegated to some heavenly existence

encountered in the distant future, which some religious teachings would have us believe.

In The American Religion: The Emergence of The Post-Christian Nation, Harold Bloom, a

Professor of Humanities at Yale University, defines Gnosticism as the experience of knowingthat one’s personal identity is a duality - of a physically embodied self as well as an

uncreated spiritual self; a self within a self. The gnostics of antiquity reported experiencing a

profound awakening as a result of becoming aware of the fact that one’s authentic self has

never been born – that it has always existed and therefore independent of one’s physical


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body. And what they realized through direct inner experience is that to know oneself at the

deepest level of one’s being is to discover God. The great secret of gnosis is that the spiritual

self and the divine are identical in nature.

Throughout this book we will be following the gnostic path to spiritual reality and personal

empowerment, particularly regarding the magical ability of the spiritual self to transform the physical world we live in through the perceptual process itself.

Exploring the Mystery of the Self I can still recall when I first began to seriously question conventional scientific beliefs

regarding the nature of consciousness and the perceiving self. It was during a cold winter

night while trying to sleep on a speeding train headed for New Brunswick. As I lay there inthe dark listening to the sound of clicking tracks and the rushing wind outside, I began to

think about the duality of the human cognitive faculties and the possibility of perceptually

transcending the limitations of my physical senses.

What, I wondered, is the real nature of the perceiving self? Is it really imprisoned in my physical body as it now appears to be, or is it capable of transcending its biological

limitations and even space and time itself? If the self is really disembodied, as some religiousdoctrines claim, and which parapsychological experiments have repeatedly demonstrated,

then I should be able to perceptually experience everything that is presently occurring in the

wintry countryside outside the train as well!

As our ability to perceptually experience the external world is believed to be entirely limited

to the location of one’s physical body and sense organs, relative to the surrounding

environment, it is usually assumed that the self must be entirely confined to one’s bodilyexistence. This of course is what neurologists steadfastly believe - that the self if it really

does exists at all, is simply a byproduct of neurological processes taking place within the

brain and nervous system.

We have then, different contradictory perceptions of the self. If we are indeed spiritual beings

residing in a physical body, then perceiving at-a-distance is not just a possibility but also anestablished fact that has been demonstrated in ‘remote-viewing’ experiments conducted in

research facilities throughout the world. On the other hand, if self-consciousness is merely an

epiphenomenon created by the physical brain, then according to Owen Flanagan, DanielDennett and others, we are nothing more than soulless animals trapped within a physical

body.

The first vision of the self promises us freedom, spiritual empowerment and self-determination, while the second reflects the prevalent demoralizing materialistic view of man

that now permeates scientific thinking and western society in the twenty-first century.

The Search for Self Realization

How then can we hope to obtain an authentic perception of the self? Does the self really exist

as an independent entity, or is it, as the Buddhists claim, a mere illusion? Does the self reallysurvive the demise of the physical body and if so, what is the purpose of our earthly


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existence? These are very important questions that have far reaching implications for us all.

Although the presence and uniqueness of the self remains beyond question, it is notsomething that we can perceive directly. Rather we often peer into the eyes of others with the

hope of finding oneself reflected there. The particular concept of selfhood that we adopt,

based on a set of beliefs and assumptions regarding the nature of reality and our place in it, isa perception that changes as we grow older, which alters our vision of who we are and what

we might become. So we search for something or someone capable of reflecting our selfhood

back to us in an authentic way. We tend to depend on others to recognize us as we recognizeourselves, thereby providing a sense of certainty about who we are based on the authority of

someone else's personal opinion.

But the existence of one’s authentic spiritual self is not in anyway dependent on how othersmight care to perceive us. Rather, a deeper knowledge of our real self can be gleaned in a

very simple way - through the perceptual process itself, which ultimately reveals the spiritual

nature of our being as a soul dwelling in a physical body struggling to express itself

according to its own truth.

Psychological Realism and the Self Just as scientific realists believe in the existence of the theoretical constructs they use to

understand the physical world, so also do psychological realists believe in the existence of

the theoretical entities they use to explain mental phenomena. For example, psychological

constructs, such as the Self, Soul, Id, Ego and the Unconscious mind, are believed to have areality of their own, either embodied or existing independently of biological processes.

By positing such theoretical concepts, psychologists attempt to understand the real nature ofthe self within the context of a particular theory. As there are different psychological

theories, we also have different beliefs about the nature of our being. And, just as we find in

physics, there are also skeptics, referred to as instrumentalists, who consider that all thesetheoretical entities, although useful in conceptualizing our inner nature, really don't exist at

all.

The basic problem is that there is no real consensus as to where self-consciousness is actuallylocated. Descartes believed it resides in the pituitary gland, whereas the Japanese pointing to

the navel area claim that it resides there. Most individuals in the western world believe that

the mind is in the head; in some hidden recess of the brain in which consciousness appears asa mere byproduct of neurological processes. But the mind, psyche or spiritual nature of man

can't be so conveniently localized. The paradox is that mind appears to exist everywhere and

yet nowhere in particular. J. Krishnamurti, speaking about the interrelatedness of things,agrees with the Zen perspective of the self by proclaiming: "I am the world".

According to Vedantic philosophy, many of our western concepts actually don't exist at all.For example, there is no such thing as a personal self; in fact, all sensory experiences of

reality are simply Maya, or an illusion.

Western psychology generally leans toward the idea of a self, soul or psyche,

which exists as an entity in its own right and can make demands and claims.


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Buddhist psychology recognizes no such entity. The Buddha nature is simply

the fact that the universe lives in us and we in it. This identity of self and cosmos

is the ultimate foundation of Zen ethics. [1]

For the Zen Buddhist, the fountainhead of consciousness is Jnana, the universal or

primordial mind. Chitta is the perceiving cognizing mind of normal awareness, while Alaya

roughly corresponds to the unconscious, both of which are manifestations of Jnana thecosmic mind. Here we find no separation between inner and outer, mind and matter, or between self and world.

Unlike Descartes, who thought that body and mind were two separate things, Zen Buddhistsclaim that mind and body form an inseparable functional unity, each dependent upon the

existence of the other. Great importance is therefore placed on maintaining a state of

harmony between them. Yet mind is more than the body and greater than it is conceived to be. For Buddhists, the inner realization of mind is the realization that ‘you and the universe

are one'. Mind is no other than mountains and rivers and the great wide earth, the sun and the

moon and the stars. [2] Phenomenologists, like Edmund Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, also

believed that self-awareness is embodied, embedded in the world itself.

Even in the Jungian school of psychology we find this subtle merging of psyche and matter,

self and world. For Carl Gustav Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, the Unus Mundus was the potential, eternal ground of all being, unifying psyche and matter and

therefore representing the underlying unity between the essence of human existence and the

world itself. Jung believed that there was no separation between the inner and outer worldand that by studying one it would reveal the nature of the other.

The psyche cannot be totally different from matter, for how otherwise could it

move matter? And matter cannot be alien to psyche, or how else could matter

produce psyche? Psyche and matter exist in the same world and each partakes

of the other, otherwise any reciprocal action would be impossible. If research

could only advance far enough, therefore, we would arrive at an ultimate

agreement between physical and psychological concepts. [3]

Throughout Jung's writings, he recounts many instances of synchronistic events thatindicated to him that meaningful connections exist between mind and matter. These

synchronistic experiences encountered in his practice encouraged Jung to postulate the

existence of an underlying unified reality, the Unus Mundus, which could explain how suchmeaningful coincidences could arise simultaneously both within the mind and as a physical

events in the outer world. In order for the psyche and the physical world to participate in the

same meaningful event, something underlying both mind and matter must be manifesting in

the same meaningful way in both the inner and outer world at the same time.

When we compare Jung's concept of the Unus Mundus with the Buddhist concept of Sunyata

and the modem scientific concept of the quantum vacuum, we cannot help but notice thatthey are all trying to describe the same underlying source of creation; a virtual state of

nothingness from which everything manifests. In fact, an Indian yoga master informs us that

the inner gateway to God, or this creative cosmic void, is the 'third-eye' through which onecan experience a sense of pure being.


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But when we enter this inner domain, we discover that the inner has suddenly become the

outer and the outer has become the inner and that we have attained some marvelous ability tosee distant places and events in the outer physical world, as well as experiencing other

psychic abilities that we never knew we had. It is as if we have momentarily become the

universe, for we appear to be no longer hampered by physical space-time boundaries. For theDhyana school of Buddhism, we have now become aware of our true identity, encountering

our 'original mind', our original face before we were born.

Neurological Realism and the Self In the West however, we have a different, more materialistic view of the self, based on the

belief that all psychological concepts, such as consciousness and the self, are merely illusionsconstructed by neurological processes occurring in the brain. In his book: The Problem of the

Soul , [4] Owen Flanagan envisions a new 'mind science' or neurological psychology based on

the assumption that the self is embodied and entirely dependent for its existence uponneurological processes. Consequently, Flanagan perceives human beings as being nothing

more than soulless animals. The existence of a personal self or soul is simply an illusion because self-awareness is identical to the neurological activity responsible for creating such

an experience.

Flanagan's so-called ‘mind science’ reflects a totally impoverished view of man's nature.

Since when does neurology replace psychology, the study of the psyche - the existence ofwhich Flanagan denies? Neurology can't explain what it doesn't believe exists, such as the

self or soul. But Flanagan does concede that a conscious mental state arising due to neural

events will never result in an experience without a subject to experience it in the first place.

So what is the nature of the subject?

Flanagan claims that it is philosophically irresponsible to believe that we have souls as well

as personalities or that we are continually reincarnated. Religious beliefs are illusions andmeaning and purpose are entirely based on evolutionary processes. Only the natural material

world exists. There are no spiritual beings and neither is there an after-life or even a personal

free will. For Flanagan, there is no divine creator, as God doesn't exist. Meaning, moralityand purpose are merely byproducts of evolutionary processes and can be explained within the

context of the scientific neurological image of man.

Flanagan however admits that there are no strict laws in neuroscience. Physical laws are of

no use in explaining functions of human bodies. Causal laws can't be applied to mind

science, as there are no causal laws regulating mental events. There are no strict deterministic

laws governing perception either. If no strict causal laws exist that are able to explain thisnew mental science, then upon what is it based? It only assumes that principles of causal

determination apply. But assumptions are not good enough to serve as a foundation for a

neurological psychology. How can a biochemical process become a conscious experience, particularly when there are no known causes that can account for it?

He also reluctantly agrees that no systematic and unified theory has emerged in the 'decade ofthe brain'. And I personally believe it never will. If this is so, then how can a neurological


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psychology be flaunted as a new mind science? How can we possibly accept Flanagan's

scientific psychology based on physical brain processes when there is not the slightest shred

of evidence available to support such an assumption? It is only assumed that for every mentaleffect there exists a set of causes that are sufficient to produce that effect. What these causes

are, if they do exist, will never be known, as they are nothing more than the creation of an

overactive academic imagination.

How then can we possibly arrive at a true understanding of the nature of the self? The answer

is that rather than trying to evaluate all these conflicting theories, which lack any substantialexperimental evidence, there is a much better, more direct way of arriving at the truth

regarding the nature of the self. The method I will be using is not based on metaphysical

speculation but rather on actual experimental evidence available to us regarding what the

spiritual self is actually able to accomplish - such as accurately perceiving distant locationsthousand of miles away and mentally interacting with the objective world. Let us then see

what this mysterious self can actually tell us about itself by observing what it can actually

accomplish and then redefining its nature based on that experimental evidence!

Resolving the Mystery of the Self

In attempting to understand the real nature of the perceiving self we must abandon anyattempt to reduce everything to either matter or mind, which has previously proven to be a

complete waste of time. We also know that any theory of perception that relies completely on

the physical senses and neurological processes to provide an answer is also doomed tofailure.

The nature of the self is only a mystery because of our reluctance to recognize that human

beings are both physical and spiritual in nature and consequently have two distinctly differentmodes of perception; a fact that has been recognized in the eastern world for countless

centuries. We not only have our five physical senses, which informs us about the external

world, but we also have spiritual faculties of perception which Henry Corbin describes as the Active Imagination. [5] Corbin however is not referring to imagination as pure fantasy or

something unreal, rather it is a subtle faculty that we all have that allows us to perceive

spiritual qualities present in the external world that are imperceptible to the physical senses.

In attempting to solve the mystery of the observing self, we know that any explanation of

perception that relies completely on sense data and neurological processes to provide ananswer will not work, as the physical senses alone cannot account for the way we actually

experience the world. A reality perceived by our physical senses alone would be a strange

place indeed - appearing as a bleak undifferentiated nothingness, which Kant referred to as

the noumenal world, which is completely devoid of any secondary qualities, such as colour,value, beauty or meaning. What then is missing?

Our conscious awareness of an external world filled with all kinds of subjective secondaryattributes is only possible because of the unconscious integration of sense stimuli and the

inner imagery provided by our spiritual vision. It is through this mutual participation of

subjective content and the sense data provided by our physical senses that a consciousexperience of an external space-time world can occur at all.


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While the physical body perceives the external world through our sensory organs, the spirit

utilizes what Ibn 'Arabi calls the Heart , or active imagination, which is a spiritual cognitivefaculty situated in the subtle body that not only perceives the spiritual dimension in the form

of reflected images within one's inner vision, but also unconsciously projects thought-forms

onto the external world during normal perception in the form of qualities and attributes thatobjectively appear extended in physical space and time.

In the materialistic age in which we live, we have become alienated from the spiritual natureof the self and therefore unable to perceive whom and what we really are. We have carelessly

forgotten our spiritual inheritance, which is always there for us to consciously reclaim by

simply becoming aware of it again. Consequently, the importance of our subtle perceptual

faculties has remained unrecognized and undeveloped, resulting in a sense of self that isfragmented, incomplete and relatively powerless due to the lack of the conscious perceptual

integration of one’s physical and spiritual cognitive faculties. We are no longer in touch with

the spiritual reality in which we live and it is only by consciously integrating these two

perceptual faculties once again that we can regain a true vision of the self and themultidimensional nature of the world we live in.

The perceptual process, once correctly understood, is the key that reveals how the spiritual

self and the physical body participate together in creating the reality that we experience every

moment of our lives. If they did not, the world the way we actually experience it to be, would

simply cease to exist. What needs to be understood is that both our physical and spiritualcognitive faculties continually work together as co-creators of everything we experience.

It is a sad fact that in the materialistic age of the brain, the scientific community has failed to provide us with pathways to the spirit based on their latest theories and experimental

findings. Today, many scientists, psychologists, neurologists and psychiatrists mistakenly

believe that anything we call mental or spiritual is merely an epiphenomenona created by the blind activity of biochemical processes occurring in the brain. For them, the spiritual self or

soul is merely an illusion - it simply doesn't exist.

But for many more enlightened scientists, consciousness and the spiritual self are notregarded as illusory but rather something transcending the physical brain altogether. Recent

developments in quantum physics, parapsychology and transpersonal psychology have now

experimentally confirmed that our western belief in a physically embodied self is simply nottrue! Science, for example, has finally rediscovered the existence of the transpersonal self

and the nonlocal nature of consciousness.

The main reason why many scientists now recognize the fact that the self is spiritual in nature

is because of what it is capable of accomplishing - such as creating telesomatic effects in

others, perceiving external events at remote distances, psychokinetically affecting theexternal world, as well as its proven ability to leave the body during out-of body and near-

death experiences.

Consequently, any theory that seeks to confine the self to a brain and nervous system simply


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cannot account for its miraculous powers, such as the ability to perceive the same objective

world by either ‘looking out’ using the physical senses, or by ‘looking within’ using one's

inner vision. There is no way a neurological theory of perception could possibly explain howan unconscious patient is able to perceive in great detail the activities and conversations

taking place in an operating room from a remote point-of-view near the ceiling. Many such

out-of-body reports have later been confirmed and found to be correct in every detail.

Based on both my personal experience and the research findings of many others, I believe

that the spiritual self is always present and perceptually active in our daily affairs and that ourinner perceptual faculties are able to see, hear and know things that are beyond the normal

ability of the physical senses to acquire. Consequently, the existence of extrasensory

perception and other transpersonal phenomena is both a celebration and an acknowledgment

of our spiritual nature. In the chapters to follow, we will be discussing these remarkableabilities of the spiritual self in greater detail.

3 ________________________________________________________________________

The Spiritual Cognitive Faculties

Although different cultures throughout the world have described the spiritual cognitive senses indifferent ways, they have all agreed that the subtle organs of perception are associated with a

nonphysical spiritual body. Essentially, the ‘subtle body’ is perceived as an energy field

permeating and surrounding the physical body that exists in an objective imaginal realm. Servingas an intermediary between the physical and spiritual world, the subtle body is visible to one’s

inner vision or by means of Kirlian photography.

The early Greeks recognized the subtle body as being the soul, capable of existing independently

of the physical body and possessing its own cognitive faculties, including vision and hearing, as

well as taste and touch. Today these spiritual cognitive faculties are associated with specificchakra centers in the auric field, such as the Third Eye located above and between the eyebrows.

Ibn ‘Arabi, a Sufi mystic (1165-1240 AD) called the spiritual organ of perception the ‘Heart’which does not refer to the physical heart as such, but rather a psycho-spiritual faculty capable of

inwardly perceiving the mundus imaginalis or world of spirit. For Ibn ‘Arabi, every human beingis suspended between two worlds – a meeting point between the spiritual and physical world. Asthe human heart is a space in which our physical and spiritual cognitive faculties operate, it is

possible to be in both worlds simultaneously by consciously integrating them.

In more recent times, C. G. Jung described the subtle body as a medium of realization comprisedof neither matter nor mind, but being a part of the imaginal realm, it serves as a bridge between

the physical and spiritual world. Consequently, there is no need to distinguish between the


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psyche and the physical body as they were already conjoined in what he referred to as the Unus

Mundus, a unitary ground that contains both.

As our spiritual cognitive faculties play such an important role in our perceptual awareness of

reality, by providing the missing qualities and attributes that the physical senses are unable to

provide, it is important to have a good understanding of how our physical and subtle senses participate together to create a single integrated representation of our experiential world.

Clairvoyant perception can best be understood as being a nonlocal field of awareness having no

rigid boundaries preventing access to realms of reality beyond the reach of the physical senses.Here the observing self enters into a subtle dimension of reality in which the physical senses are

transcended altogether.

The Nature of Clairvoyance Clairvoyance means ‘clear seeing’ or perceiving reality with the mind without sensory

obstructions or veils. Although Descartes attributed the source of this inner vision to the pineal

gland situated between and behind the eyebrows, it actually exists as a subtle energy center or

sixth chakra in one's subtle body called Ajna, a Sanskrit word meaning 'command'. It is alsoreferred to by a variety of other names depending on the language being used, such as the

Tibetan term Shivanetra or the Eye of Shiva.

Some physiological theories have claimed that clairvoyant vision is only possible because the

pituitary gland is sensitive to electromagnetic light, just as the physical eyes are. But how can

ordinary light penetrate the human skull, particularly at a great distance, to the extent that a perception of something external could result from it.

Since Descartes, it has been popularly believed that the third eye and pituitary gland are the samething, which is not correct. The third eye, like the Sufi heart, is not a physical organ at all, but is

a perceptual faculty of the subtle body. Further, what is perceived through inner vision

completely excludes any possibility of being limited to any kind of physical process, as one isable to perceive aspects of reality that are not bound by any limitations of matter, space or time.

Just as the physical eyes can perceive the electromagnetic frequencies of energy comprising the

physical aspects of the world, the third eye is able to perceive the subtle non-physical energiesthat form the ethereal counterpart of the physical world. Consequently, to perceive reality using

only the physical senses is to perceive only a fragment of it, with the most important part

remaining hidden. Thus it is the clairvoyant eye that can perceive the subtle aspects of the worldat a distance, while the precognitive eye is able to see into the future. Psychometry, another form

of clairvoyance, is the art of using one’s spiritual senses to perceive subtle energy patterns

imprinted on physical objects and geographical locations in the world around us.

For most individuals in the western world, the third eye remains inactive due to the fact that

hardly anyone is aware that it exists and consequently no attention is given to it. In old Tantratexts we are told that conscious attention is the very food upon which the third eye thrives, so by

paying attention to it - it can become alive and active once again.

Jung believed that clairvoyant vision and our normal physical vision competed with each other


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and that these different perceptual orientations could not be experienced at the same time. But

through personal experience, I have found that both sensory and clairvoyant modes of perception

can be experienced simultaneously. This is due to the fact that the human mind can experience amerging of different states of consciousness in which one can be fully aware of one's physical

surroundings while at the same time being consciously present elsewhere.

It is my personal belief that the spiritual nature of man is always present and perceptually active

in our daily affairs and that our mind, psyche or spirit is able to see, hear and know things that

are beyond the normal ability of the physical senses to acquire. Consequently, the existence ofclairvoyant perception is both a celebration and an acknowledgment of the spiritual nature of

man.

Remote ViewingTo help clarify the dual nature of perception, which includes both our physical and spiritual

cognitive faculties, I would like to begin by using the phenomenon of remote vision to

demonstrate how it is possible to perceive the external world by using one's inner spiritual

vision.

The actual term ‘remote viewing’ was not used in the West until the 1970's when two American physicists, Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff adopted this name, even though Targ thought at the

time that a more accurate definition should be remote sensing as it includes smell, sound and

touch as well as sight. However, remote viewing is not some modern discovery. In fact, it was

referred to in ancient Hindu Yoga texts thousands of years ago, as a sidhi, a psychic power thatcould be developed by anyone.

An early example of remote viewing is the well-known case of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), a Swedish scientist, philosopher and mystic. While attending a dinner party in

Gothenburg, Sweden, he described a fire that had broken out in his hometown of Stockholm.

Two days later, it was discovered that his vision was correct with the fire stopping just threedoors from his own house.

Frederic W. H. Meyers, who conducted many remote-viewing experiments during the nineteenth

century, observed that the phenomena often appeared to be a combination of telepathy,retrocognition, precognition and clairvoyance, as events often did not follow any logical time

sequence. That is, the viewing target was often clairvoyantly perceived before it was randomly

selected. Later, in the early 20th century Upton Sinclair an American writer, and ReneWarcollier a French engineer, conducted a number of remote-viewing experiments accumulating

data that was later used in 1972 by Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff in their research.

Although the available material on the history of remote-viewing research is too vast to cover

here, there is however one well known research project that warrants our attention. During the

1970's, under the sponsorship of the CIA, Harold Puthoff at the Stanford Research Institute inMenlo Park, Ca. conducted extensive experiments on the potential use of remote viewing for

military intelligence gathering. [1]

Between 1969 and 1971, American intelligence sources reported that the Soviet Union was


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deeply engaged in psychic research, concentrating on the field of Applied Psychoenergetics,

which included remote viewing experiments. By 1970, it was estimated that the Soviets were

spending about sixty million rubles a year on it, and over three hundred million by 1975.Obviously, the American government needed to evaluate the possible future consequences of this

emerging Russian capability of spying at-a-distance.

One of the participants in this CIA research project at the Stanford Research Institute was Ingo

Swann and the results of the experiments he conducted were quite remarkable. He could, for

example, describe a distant location simply by being given the geographical coordinates. Onetarget given was 15" North and 120" East. Ingo Swann responded by describing this location as

"land with jungles and mountains that resembled peninsular-type mountains." The target area

was actually the west coast of the Zambales' mountains, a peninsular formation in the

Philippines. In another experiment Swann was able to breach the security of a remotesubterranean military installation, which he was able to sketch in great detail. [2]

There have of course been many other individuals who have made significant contributions to

this research, but the information provided above demonstrates the fact that human beings havetwo entirely different cognitive faculties, one physical and the other spiritual. To help us

understand the nature of this subtle cognitive faculty of 'seeing' we have to keep in mind that it isthe perceptual power of the imagination itself that Swann is using to perceive the objective world

at a distance.

Secrets of TelepathyOne of the mo

donald h. wolfraim - the gnostic path to spiritual reality-2011-60pp 2

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