Berserk2
|
In his experiments with nitrous oxide, psychologist William James came to this conclusion: our consciousness is divided into thin layers, each its own feeling tone and function. He called for exploration of each level to shed light on this hidden potential. I suspect that evidence that tends to refute the genuineness of contact with astral worlds arises from our inability to identify and determine which level of consciousness is generating our experiences on a given occasion. The deception of spirit impersonators should not be blamed for all the astral errors of adepts like Robert Monroe, Robert Bruce, and Emanuel Swedenborg; these adepts probably operate on an oversimplified model of the levels of consciousness they are experiencing.
We need to drop the New Age doctrine of "the higher self" and replace it with the more modest and neutral notion of the hidden self yet to be discovered. In my view, the imagination operates at several unconscious levels that do not involve actual spiritual dimensions. Failure to recognize this leads to erroneous descriptions of afterlife realms and beings. I wonder whether the transition from waking to sleeping or vice versa takes us through a transitional level of consciousness that is more conducive to spirit contact than either waking or sleeping. Perhaps, ES stumbled on to this transitional level and learned to stay in it through trial and error.
Some of my bizarre waking experiences make me wonder about this transional level of consciousness. I am often awakened by loud psychic knocks, a loud voice calling my name, and by a whirling sensation as if my soul ins re-entering my body through some spin cycle akin to a washing machine. Last night, I was awakened by the sound of my car's horn honking repeatedly and at first I attributed this to some annoying mechanical malfunction that woke up my neighbors! But as I regained consciousness, the knocking stopped and I realized it was all in my mind--or was it? I certainly would never deliberately wake myself up in these bizarre ways. Am I experiencing mischief built into my hidden unconsicous self (not my higher self!)? Or are passing spirits making sport of me or trying to contact me? At this point, the more mundane interpretation seems more plausible.
Don
|