Reality 101 (part 1)

“Until you are free of the drug [of self-identification], all your religions and sciences, prayers and yogas, are of no use to you for, based on a mistake, they strengthen it.” -Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

In 1922, Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity showed that time isn’t necessarily a line along which we ‘travel’ from past to future; that spacetime is a field, such that any particle produced is to be viewed as an excitation of the field, in no way independent of it.

In 1935, the EPR (Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen) Paradox occurred, when a non-spinning particle was split, the halves moving in opposite directions with opposite spin (the spins mathematically canceling each other out). When the spin of the one was changed, that of the other instantly changed and would have changed no matter how far apart they had moved, demonstrating a seemingly faster-than-light communication.

In 1964, (John) Bell’s Theorem in quantum physics clearly demonstrated that every ‘thing’ is connected.

In 1982, the Aspect-Dalibard-Roger Experiment proved that instantaneous communication, or connectedness, exists.

These discoveries proved that the Observer affects Reality, is part and parcel of Reality, which is one, massive, interconnected, instantly communicating whole. The particle nature of the universe makes it appear to be separate bits of stuff, but the underlying electromagnetic/subatomic nature is a higher-order reality than the one we become accustomed to during our lives.

Thus did Western science reach the point of saying that the concept of matter, and the Cosmos as a whole, is flow, movement—a perpetual becoming that is infinitely complex, as is a single atom.

Buddhist doctrine would add: All ‘things’ are anicca, changing and therefore impermanent; all ‘things’ are dukkha, unhappy, suffering in the sense of being incomplete, imperfect ‘joined to the unloved, separated from the loved’; and all ‘things’, conditional and unconditional, are anatta, without a separate ‘soul’ or quality of permanence which marks them as eternally distinct from other ‘things’.

Life is a bridge; pass over it, but build no house upon it. On Earth, there is no lasting security, and it is useless to search for it. When one fully realizes the truth of anicca, that Life is simply changing form, endlessly, behind the façade of birth and death, one becomes free of concern and anxiety: equanimous.

Even if you consider ‘consciousness’ to be an illusion caused by the sum total of subtle electromagnetic fields flowing through and around the body, there is an unmistakable sense of being experienced by every organism. This feeling of “I am” is at the root of consciousness, and the threshold of Un/consciousness, Non/existence Alpha-Omega.

Most people are never introduced to this concept. Of those who are, few consider it seriously enough to investigate. Fewer still persist in their practice—unless, perhaps, they are relatively sensitive types, or are convinced by the presence or words of an adept, or are somehow shocked out of their mundane consciousness by a brush with mortality, a near-death experience—either their own or a loved one’s. If one is lucky, such an experience instantly, and permanently, makes such things as fashion, riches, status, etc. unimportant, and reminds one that, once the basic needs of food, clothing and secure shelter are met, one can focus on the important questions in life, rather than fritter it away with distractions, such as hedonistic pursuits or whatever else.

Feelings of disgust, remorse, futility and the like are not excuses for nihilism, but a precondition for the renunciation of luxury and worldly aspiration, a simplification of life to the degree that circumstances allow.

With practice, one can learn to focus attention at the physiological vortices—chakras—and resonate with the electromagnetic fields that flow between Sun and Earth (Schumann resonances), until the conscious mind is subsumed by the unconscious and seen to be a miniscule part of the whole, and the distinction between the self and other is seen to be illusory. Saints, angels and etc. are often depicted with haloes or lotus flowers radiating out from their crown, brow, and heart chakras. These auras, which are subtle, resonating electromagnetic fields, are fractals of infinite iteration. When one’s attention is so focused that thoughts no longer distract, one realizes the truth of sat-chit-ananda, “consciousness of being is bliss,” in and of itself.

So lucky to have been born human! and luckier still to perceive one’s personal, familial, social and cultural façades and hypocrisies; to get a sense of the artifice with which many people live their lives; to realize that one’s perceptions are colored by one’s accumulated experiences, that the brain is constantly accumulating, categorizing, weighing, judging and deciding; that one is, in effect, trapped inside the ego’s definition of and operating strategy for life in the world, trapped in a duality of Me/Us vs. Them.

The subject-object, dualist behavior of the brain is the reason that all desires are, at root, the desire of the ego to increase itself in strength and number, and perpetuate itself, to live eternally, one way or another. All fears, meanwhile, boil down to the fear of decrease, loss, extinction. Both desires and fears are based on the belief that what can be perceived through the senses is all that there is.

Western Psychology

The psyche had been explored in Western literature by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-81), who once faced execution and lived to tell about the ecstasy and spiritual awakening it aroused. In Crime and Punishment (1866) and succeeding novels, he wrote about the unconscious element in the mind that influences consciousness. Modern psychology is said to have begun, though, with Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and his theory of the id, ego, super-ego, libido, etc. (see BBC’s “The Century of the Self”). Freud founded psychoanalysis as a therapeutic practice, and believed that neurotic thoughts and behavior were the result of sexual frustration. He treated his patients by having them lie on a couch and relate their dreams and all passing thoughts (“free association”), while he sat behind them, making notes. In one of his letters, Freud wrote, “I am interested only in the basement of the human being.”

Humanity would benefit immeasurably if all school children were familiarized with several other schools of psychology, to better understand their own minds and motives—why people act the way they do as individuals and in groups. To that end, below is presented a brief summary of the world of four less famous psychologists.

Alfred Adler (1870-1937) stressed the individual’s intimate interconnections with family members and society, and believed that equality, in the form of democratic structures (in families and communities) was necessary to engender self-esteem and prevent mental disorders such as the inferiority complex (which often results in “superiority striving”). The success of the interconnected “life tasks” of occupation/work, society/friendship, and love/sexuality depends on cooperation and seeing other people in the context of the socio-historical-political forces that shape their communities.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), once a colleague of Freud, studied Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, sociology, literature and the arts. In addition to dreams, he used art, mythology, religion and philosophy to treat his patients, and proposed the concepts of psychological archetypes, the collective unconscious, and synchronicity. Jung believed that people in his day relied on science and logic to the extent that they divorced themselves from the unconscious, spiritual realms. He stressed the importance of balance and harmony, the integration of conscious and unconscious—the self and the Divine—as a prerequisite for the fulfillment of one’s innate potential on the journey of transformation, or “individuation,” which he believed to be at the heart of all religions.

Jung also theorized that people who do not, or cannot, see good and evil as complementary opposites, who “choose a side” by labeling themselves “good," for example, create a “shadow psyche” in their unconscious, which emerges, perverted to the degree that it is suppressed by the conscious mind. He also believed that there is an “absolute shadow” that lives in the collective unconscious of nations and cultures. In The Secret of the Golden Flower, he writes: “Our time is so utterly godless and profane, for we…pursue the cult of consciousness to the exclusion of all else…there are parts of the psyche which are autonomous…if we deny the existence of the autonomous systems…their effect which nevertheless continues cannot be understood, and they can no longer be assimilated to consciousness. They become an inexplicable factor of disturbance which we finally assume must exist somewhere or other outside of ourselves. In this way, a projection of the autonomous fragmentary systems results…now attributed to bad will outside ourselves…this leads to collective delusions, ‘incidents’, war…to destructive mass psychoses.

“Today, [autonomous psychic systems] are called phobias, compulsions, and so forth…neurotic symptoms. The gods have become diseases…The Westerner ought to learn to recognize these psychic forces again, and not wait until his moods, nervous states, and hallucinations make clear to him in the most painful way that he is not the only master in his house. The products of the disassociation tendencies are actual psychic personalities of relative reality. They are real when they are not recognized as such and are therefore projected; relatively real when they are related to the conscious (in religious terms, when a cult exists); but they are unreal to the extent that consciousness has begun to detach itself from its contents. However, this devotedness, that no more unfulfilled obligations to life exist, when therefore, no desires that cannot be sacrificed unhesitatingly stand in the way of inner detachment from the world….Where the god is not acknowledged, ego-mania develops, and out of this mania comes illness.”

In terms of chakras, Freud is almost wholly concerned with the second chakra (sex), Adler primarily with the third (power), and Jung with the fourth (compassion). Between the third and the fourth chakras, there is a discontinuity, where ego is transcended, and one enters a realm independent of space and time.

For most people, almost all psychic energy is confined to the lower three chakras: survival as a separate being; sensual gratification and reproduction; and power/mastery/ego control. They justify their lives in terms of gratification of their egos, and get so much gratification out of their melodramas that they don’t want to give them up. Such is often the case with so-called handsome men and beautiful women, who are beguiled from an early age by their societies.

Playing by society’s rules often leads to feelings of emptiness, meaninglessness, vague depression, disillusionment about marriage, family and relationship; loss of values; yearning for personal fulfillment; hunger for spirituality. Freudian psychoanalysts will analyze these complaints in Freudian terms, but these symptoms reflect a “loss of soul.” People obsessively, compulsively, endlessly search for salvation outside of themselves, in entertainment, power, intimacy, sexual fulfillment, material things, the “right” relationship, job, church or therapy but, without soul, whatever they find will be unsatisfying. Their façades of normality often hide deviance of great proportions.

Roberto Assagioli (1888-1974) was a pioneer in the field of humanistic and transpersonal psychology, who founded the movement known as psychosynthesis. Nature is always trying to reestablish harmony and, within the psyche, the principle of synthesis is dominant…Jung differentiates four functions: sensation, feeling, thought, and intuition. Psychosynthesis posits that fantasy is also a function, as are instincts, tendencies, impulses, desires and aspirations. If further posits that there is a fundamental differences between drives, impulses, desires and the will, at the heart of self consciousness, or ego.

Assagioli wrote, "I realized that I was free to take one attitude or another towards the situation, to give it one value or another, to utilize it or not in one or another way . . .I could rebel inwardly or curse; or I could submit passively, vegetating; or I could indulge in the unwholesome pleasure of self-pity and assume the martyr’s role; or I could take the situation in a sporting way and with a sense of humor, considering it as a novel and interesting experience (what the Germans call an erlebnis) [an experience]. I could make it a rest cure; or a period of intense thinking either about personal matters, reviewing my past life and pondering on it, or about scientific and philosophical problems; or I could take advantage of the condition in order to submit myself to a definite training of my psychological faculties and make psychological experiments on myself; or finally as a spiritual retreat…I had the clear sure perception that this was entirely my own affair; that I was free to choose any or several of these attitudes and activities; that this choice would have definite and unavoidable effects which I could foresee, and for which I was fully responsible. There was no doubt in my mind about this essential freedom and power and their inherent privileges and responsibilities. A responsibility towards myself, towards my fellow mankind and towards life itself or God."

Erik Erikson (1902-1994) divided the journey of “psychosocial development” into eight stages, each marked by a conflict, or challenge, of balancing, understanding, and accepting two extremes without rejecting either one. The life-stage virtues that may be realized, and the challenges from which they emerge, are:

1. Infant stage—Hope: Basic Trust vs. Mistrust. Does the infant believe its caregivers to be reliable?

2. Toddler stage—Will: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt. Caregivers must be neither over-protective nor completely neglectful, so that the toddler may learn to explore the world.

3. Age 4-6—Purpose: Initiative vs. Guilt. Can the child plan and do things on its own, without feeling “guilty” about making its own choices?

4. Age 6-14—Competence: Industry vs. Inferiority. Child recognizes disparities in personal abilities relative to other children.

5. Teenage years—Fidelity: Identity vs. Role Confusion. Has the teenager been allowed to explore and determine its own identity, or have parental pressure to conform resulted in identity confusion?

6. Young adult years—Love (in relationships, work, family): Intimacy vs. Isolation. Does the young adult know with whom s/he wants to associate, what path s/he wants to take, when or whether to settle down?

7. Mid-life crisis—Caring: Generativity vs. Stagnation. Measurement of accomplishments/failures, whether or not one is satisfied. Has one’s relationship with the younger generation engendered feelings of mentorship or stagnation?

8. Old age—Wisdom: Ego-Integrity vs. Despair. Reflections on the past lead to satisfaction or hopelessness/despair with what one has accomplished or failed to accomplish.

B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) developed behavior analysis, especially the philosophy of radical behaviorism. He also used operant conditioning to strengthen behavior, and to change the motivation and behavior of oneself or another, whether person or animal. One’s character, or psychic state, is largely psychological, the result of habits ingrained over time. The earlier one understands this, the easier it should be to take control of one’s destiny (as distinct from fate, or external circumstances).

Viktor Frankl (1905-1997) was an Austrian neurologist, psychologist, philosopher, and Holocaust survivor who founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that describes a search for a life's meaning as the central human motivational force. Logotherapy is part of existential and humanistic psychology theories, and was promoted as the third school of Viennese Psychotherapy, after those established by Freud and Adler.

While head of the Neurological Department at the general Polyclinic Hospital in 1945, Frankl wrote Man's Search for Meaning over a nine-day period. The book, originally titled A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp, was released in German in 1946. The English translation of Man's Search for Meaning was published in 1959, and became an international bestseller. Frankl saw this success as a symptom of the "mass neurosis of modern times," since the title promised to deal with the question of life's meaningfulness.

Frankl identified three main ways of realizing meaning in life: by making a difference in the world, by having particular experiences, or by adopting particular attitudes. The primary techniques offered by logotherapy and existential analysis are:

• Paradoxical intention: clients learn to overcome obsessions or anxieties by self-distancing and humorous exaggeration.

• Dereflection: drawing the client's attention away from their symptoms, as hyper-reflection can lead to inaction.

• Socratic dialogue and attitude modification: asking questions designed to help a client find and pursue self-defined meaning in life.

In Man's Search for Meaning, Frankl states: “Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.”

Eric Berne (1910-1970) starts with the clinically proven fact that infants need recognition in the form of touch, “strokes” to satisfy “stimulus hunger” and “recognition hunger,” and maintain physical and psychological health. As the child matures, physical strokes can be supplemented, even replaced, with other, nonverbal and verbal strokes, such as smiles and praise. Berne identified three specific neural networks in the brain that correspond to coherent ways of feeling-thinking-acting, which he called ego-states. Child ego-states develop early in life. Parent ego-states are internalizations of the feeling-thinking-acting of a caregiver. Adult ego-states evaluate reality objectively and make fact-based decisions. Different ego-states are energized according to circumstances, but two or three ego-states may operate simultaneously.

A “transaction” is an exchange, usually one in a series, between ego-states within the individual or between different people, and consists of a stimulus and a response. People structure their time to avoid boredom (which, if it persists, leads to emotional starvation), relate to each other, and attempt to gain strokes, which are rarely given due to internal and social rules that prevent people from exchanging them freely. With two or more people, the options for structuring time, in order of complexity, are: Rituals, Pastimes, Games, Intimacy, and Activity (which can form a matrix for any of the others). Each member of the group wants to obtain as many “gains/advantages” as possible from his or her transactions with other members.

Pastimes and Games are substitutes for real intimacy. A game is a power-play for strokes, one principle of which is that any social intercourse whatsoever is biologically advantageous over no intercourse at all (which explains why many people can’t stand solitude, why solitary confinement is dreaded by otherwise hardened criminals). A game is a patterned and predictable series of transactions which leads to a well-defined, predictable outcome—it is a habitual, dysfunctional way to obtain strokes—superficially plausible, but concealing the true motivations of the people involved, who are not fully aware of the multiple levels of transactions in which they are engaged. Many relationships are based, in part, on variations of the same game. Intimacy begins when social patterning and ulterior restrictions and motives give way, and individual programming, which is usually instinctive, becomes more intense.

Besides Berne’s Child, Parent and Adult ego-states, there are other, neuro-glandular networks in the brain and body that can be stimulated by conscious attention to various points, such as the crown, the midpoint between the brows, the middle of the throat, the middle of the chest, and so on. These points correspond to the system of chakras discovered in the lands around the Himalayas, thousands of years ago. Regular stimulation of these points causes them to resonate at a frequency that matches the Schumann resonances that are constantly active between the surface of the Earth and the ionosphere, at a distance of roughly 80 kilometers. Suppose this physical reality is the mechanism by which the saints since time immemorial realized their connection with the consciousness of the Cosmos…