TAT Journal Issue 6
TAT Society
The TAT Society was formed in 1973 because a need was felt for a philosophical forum, for a meeting and working together of all manners and levels of deep spiritual study and investigation, and for a friendly dialogue between material science and mystical intuition.
The latter category is especially necessary. Science disdains mysticism but it is forever and belatedly proving things previously declared as truth by an intuitive individual. Mysticism may disdain science, but it is forever attempting to tell of its findings in a scientific manner, so that it can convince rational and relative minds of its discoveries.
A place for meeting was needed and groups were formed in many Eastern cities. A farm is now available in West Virginia as a general headquarters, and study center.
The TAT Society holds meetings in a number of different cities for study and discussion. Other events, such as lectures, seminars and films, are also presented from time to time. Telephone numbers for the cities listed below are of TAT members who can provide information about activities in their area.
Akron, Ohio - Canton, Ohio - Cleveland, Ohio - Columbus, Ohio - Pittsburgh, Pa. - Los Angeles, Ca.
Perspective
The manager of a newsstand, upon being presented with a copy of our last issue for sale, quickly reviewed it with his experienced eye and placed it on his shelf for the "self-help" category. His rapid evaluation of our "awareness" theme and articles dealing with depth psychology, dreams and biorhythms was, in a sense, extremely accurate. "Self-help" is a readily recognizable movement today, reflecting an effort by people to develop some control over their bodies and minds while living in an increasingly controlled, technological society. What is not so apparent is the goal that prompts a person's desire to help himself; and what fragments the self-help movement is the myriad of directions that people choose to follow with their newly-developed control, or imagined control.
Fritz Perls, the late guru of Gestalt therapy, a popular self-help movement, constantly insisted that the consideration of philosophical questions was "garbage" that would interfere with one's progress towards psychological health; the natural, healthy man and woman respond freely to the "pleasure principle." There is, of course, a certain philosophy implicit in Perls' position: in order to accept it, you must make a (philosophical) decision to reject philosophical decisions. But common sense, more than logical analysis, displays the limitation and error in the Gestalt approach. Humans think and question as a natural function, and it seems more fruitful to cultivate and refine that function than to deny it.
If we do wish to help ourselves, we should be willing to periodically evaluate our motives and success. What do I really want? Love, health, power, knowledge, wealth? Are my efforts showing any result? Is what I want, what is really good for me? Self-help is laudable because effort is preferable to sloth as a way of life, but certain activities, like yoga, can be approached either as a recreational past-time or as a tool for understanding the relationship between the mind and the body. Both reasons are legitimate, but while the former is its own end, the latter can point to discovery and yet deeper effort.
Proper care and study of the body through exercise, health and nutrition allow one greater control over his or her emotions. Control of the emotions gives freer rein to the rational mind for its role of analyst and decision-maker. And a clear, active mind could lead, if one so desired, into a consideration of the most profound questions that men can ask and to a direct study of the mind itself. If our efforts are not to be wasted in idleness or, worse yet, narcissistically projected into a glorified self-image, then they must be integrated into this ascending spiral of human endeavor. Self-help is then pursued in the realization that our original motives may have to change and our chosen direction may be wrong. But we pursue it, nonetheless, because of our hope of what we might become.
Editor: Louis Khourey
Managing Editor: Paul Cramer
Associate Editor: Jake Jaqua
Circulation Manager: Eric Hadidian
Printing: Doran Fried
Typesetting: Cecy Rose
Staff: Michael Baldrige, David Diaman, Keith McWilliams
©1979 TAT Foundation. All rights reserved.
[Cover photograph by Jack Holmes]
CONTENTS
Real astrology is not found in the generalizations of newspaper horoscopes, but is a remarkable, symbolic explanation of the types and manifestations of human and natural energy. Few people really understand it, but those who do can use the world's oldest system of "psychoanalysis."
Keep in touch with our entire readership, fellow inquirers you would otherwise not have access to, or would have to spend a lifetime searching for.
Joseph Chilton Pearce's popular book, now over seven years old, contains a modest proposal that mankind can create Its own reality. His ideas have yet to be grasped.
Autism is a medically incomprehensible affliction that locks children into a strange, asocial world. Gordon Broussard's work with autistic children has led him to an intuitive method of healing that produces amazingly successful results.
The Jonestown affair and a personal experience with a cult prompted this consideration of the explosive issue behind the stories: Do Americans really believe in freedom of religion and belief?
Dr. Bissell talks about wholistic health and American medicine, biofeedback, illness, nutrition, caffeine, fasting and stress.
The second installment of this series focuses on a traditional Indian guru who became universally known on the strength of his spiritual teaching, before eastern religion became fashionable in the west.
An ancient manuscript depicts a philosophical Jesus that we rarely encounter.
Astrology works by showing how human types reflect universal patterns of energy.
Astrology and Energy
by Michael Whitely
A Brief History
No one can determine exactly where or how astrology came to be. At best, fragments of history point in the direction of its most likely course of development. The roots of astrology extend back into the earliest phases of human history. Archeological research indicates that as far back as 15,000 B.C. Mesolithic man, the inventor of the bow and arrow and sharp cutting tools, was aware of the moon's phases and recorded these in bone.
The Babylonian empire of 2350 B.C. is credited with the earliest beginnings of astrology. Situated in the southwest portion of Asia, temple priests of this kingdom had been carefully observing and recording changes in the night skies. They discovered, besides the sun and the moon, the existence of five other visible planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Christopher McIntosh gives an account of their method in his work, The Astrologers and Their Creed: "These priests lived highly secluded lives in monasteries usually adjacent to the (observation) towers. Every day they noted the movements of the heavenly spheres and noted down any corresponding earthly phenomenon from floods to rebellions. Very early on they had come to the conclusion that the Laws which governed the movements of the Stars and Planets also governed events on Earth." (1)
From the early findings of these Babylonian priests a complex system has evolved. In its first form each planet was considered a God, a directing force in itself. This notion was later discarded for a system whereby each planet emanated or exemplified various properties as noted by the priests. The exact method of arriving at each planet's properties can only be guessed at in hindsight since no accurate records are available.
The Babylonians are also credited with the development of the Signs of the Zodiac. The original Zodiac was named with the twelve constellations or star patterns in the sky. The year was divided in twelve segments following the lunar cycles and each segment or month related to a particular part of the sky picture.
There are two basic theories, concerning the development of the Zodiac offered by McIntosh: "The most popular theory pictures a Babylonian shepherd gazing up at the night sky, and, seeing in the Stars the shapes of animals and man - here a Ram, there a Bull, and so on. From these shapes it is supposed developed the signs of 'the Zodiac.' While this is the popular theory the author considers it doubtful and in keeping with the universal nature of the Zodiac he suggests a quite different line of development. "The twelve signs of the Zodiac and their attributes developed from the existing mythology of the culture and the shapes of the various star groups were adjusted to fit them." While there is no record this explanation of its development does indicate that the essential ideas of the Zodiac may have been in existence long before this historical period. (2)
Although the origins of astrology appear rooted in southwest Asia, some form or variety developed in many major cultures simultaneously. Within the span of a few hundred years the basics of astrology spread throughout India, Tibet and Egypt, each adding to the original. It is also interesting to note that the development of astrology in Central and South America was apparently a separate phenomenon, not connected with the Babylonian origins.
The civilizations of the Mayans and the Aztecs developed sophisticated systems of astronomy and astrology which are preserved in their art work and temples. The role of astrology in these cultures was cut short following the invasion by the Portuguese and the Spanish. While war spelled the end of early astrology in Central America, it also served as the catalyst for its world-wide spread. It was the Persian invasion which brought it to Egypt and the conquests of Alexander the Great which paved the way for its entry into the Greek world.
At approximately 300 B.C. astrology was far from the system we know it as today. The planets and their meaning were established, as was the Zodiac, but both came clothed in the language of the Greek mythology, with Apollo through Zeus reigning as planetary powers.
The Greeks produced the first Horoscope (horo-hour, scopos-to-view) based on the exact birth time. From this they established the Zodiac sign on the eastern horizon at the time of birth known as the Ascendant. Due to the rotation of the Earth this sign on the horizon would change every two hours of clock time. The twelve two-hour divisions eventually resulted in the segments of the Birth Chart known as the Houses. The addition of the Houses to the Planets and the Signs form the fundamentals of astrology.
Tradition has it that three Chaldean Magi/Astrologers predicted the birth of Christ and traveled to the appointed place. Fact or fiction, this event of 1 A.D. marked a basic change in the use of astrology. Up to that time the main use was for what is known now as Mundane or Political astrology. As many of the astrologer/astronomers of the era were funded by the royal courts, their area of interest was the welfare of the rulers, the state of the kingdom, and other events of local importance. The concept of casting a natal chart for a common individual was foreign to this period of history and would only gain support 300 years later.
The next 1500 years of history reveal that the popularity of astrology rose and fell with a wave of regularity. For example, the first major textbook on astrology was published in 140 A.D. by Greek astrologer/ astronomer Ptolemy of Alexandria. It was significant as a summation of the information to date and it helped astrology to reach greater numbers of people on a wider scale.
By 410 A.D. astrological thought had found many supporters in the Catholic Church, but this trend was soon reversed by a full scale anti-astrology campaign waged by St. Augustine. In his De Civitate Dei he argued against it effectively. The weight of his argument, combined with the drop in literacy during the Middle Ages, contributed towards another decline for astrology in Europe and the West.
Coincidental with its decline during the dark ages it was gaining support worldwide. Indian and Arabian astrology flourished, with each culture adding new calculations and techniques. For centuries astrology remained a sub-current in the capitals of Europe while holding its own in the East and Southern Mediterranean.
The 12th and 13th centuries saw a reconciliation between astrology and the Church through the efforts of scholars such as Thomas Aquinas. This period also saw the return of astrology to the universities of Europe, many of which had a chair or department of astrology.
At this time one of the main points of opposition between the Church and astrology was the "Free Will" question, which implied that the "Stars" controlled the destiny of men. Man's condition as a free agent, as a conscious maker of decisions who could be held responsible for his actions, was upheld by the Church. The astrological premise of Planetary relationships affecting the actions and affairs of men was fundamentally unacceptable to the Church until Aquinas proposed a compromise.
McIntosh relates the new line of thought behind the question: "Aquinas got around the question of free will by the device of asserting that, although the Stars had an influence on human affairs, the Will was still sovereign. The Stars, he held, govern the bodily appetites and desires, which condition most human affairs since few can resist them. Thus the Astrologer is capable of correct predictions about the mass of humanity. His predictions cannot include those few men who are able to rise above their appetites by the exercise of their Will." (3) While this temporarily solved the problem, the same question has surfaced repeatedly throughout history and is still hotly debated today.
The beginning of the 19th century in the United States saw a great surge of interest in Esoteric and Occult philosophy. The founding of Theosophical Society and the various Rosicrucian Orders added to the "new" interest in astrology and related topics in the States. During the early 1900's the first astrology school, the First Temple and College of Astrology, was founded in Los Angeles. Astrological magazines, such as, "Destiny" and "American Astrology" and organizations such as the The American Federation of Astrologers became popular. Within a few years astrological columns became daily features of the major newspapers. The business of merchandising astrology to the public had become profitable.
The 1930's brought a new slant to the search for an understanding of Man's inner Nature in Depth Psychology. This school as a new method of astrological interpretation was pioneered by Mark Edmund Jones and Dane Rudhyar, two of the better known astrologers of the period. Depth Psychology attempted to find the roots of human behavior by examining the deepest layers of the mind. It combined techniques of astrology with Freudian concepts of personal development and growth. This combination of psychologically-oriented astrology continued through the 1950's and helped lay the groundwork for the astrological explosion of the 1960's.
Astrology in the midst of the 1960's Psychedelic Era was in its popular glory. The signs of the Zodiac were found everywhere. The business world was quick to capitalize on the phenomenal interest in astrology and produced Zodiac T-shirts, posters, bumper stickers, jewelry, etc., etc. The sales of astrological books skyrocketed and astrological themes were found in all of the Arts. Phrases such as, "I'm an Aries" and "What's your Sun sign" were the popular language of the day.
There was a challenge to society from the counter-culture, the Vietnam War, and the drug generation, and many of the traditional values and beliefs that serve as the glue holding the details of living together were lost in the struggle. To fill an empty space many of this generation turned to mind-altering drugs, to Jesus, back-to-nature, to the East, and to astrology in an attempt to find a new direction.
The 'sixties were an open door to social, psychic, and psychological experimentation of all kinds. The astrology of the period reflected this attitude by blending pieces of Eastern and Occult concepts such as Karma and Reincarnation with modern psychology and traditional astrology, to produce dozens of separate astrological approaches and philosophies. Names such as Uranian Astrology, Cosmo-biology, Unitology, Astro-dynamics, and many others, became more common as astrology mutated to fit the needs of the 'sixties.
Symbolic Building Blocks
The basic system of Astrology as practiced in the United States today involves three primary parts:
I. The Planets (Chart 1)
They represent Active energies or basic principles at work on all levels of Nature: Mineral, Vegetable, Animal, Human, the Solar System, and Universe.
II. The Signs (Chart 2)
These are forms or Patterns through which the energy of the Planets is expressed. The Sun Sign is the Solar energy expressing itself through the Zodiac.
III. The Houses (Chart 3)
The Houses of Astrology refer to areas of activity or experience.
CHART 1 - Planets as Universal and Archetypal Energies
| PLANET |
PRINCIPLE |
IN NATURE |
PSYCHOLOGICAL |
| SUN |
Individuality |
Energy, Vitality |
Ego/ extroversion |
| MOON |
Personality |
Instinctual Reactions |
Receptivity, Personality |
| MERCURY |
Rational Mind, Curiosity |
Mentality |
Communication |
| VENUS |
Personal Magnetism |
Attraction, Affections |
Unification |
| MARS |
Personal Drive |
Aggression |
Aggressiveness |
| JUPITER |
Expansion |
Growth |
Growth |
| SATURN |
Limitations |
Structure |
Obstacles to overcome |
| NEPTUNE |
Transcendence |
Universality |
Sensitivity, Inspiration |
| URANUS |
Intuition |
Awakens to Change |
Intuition |
| PLUTO |
Regeneration |
Transmutation |
Destruction of Barriers to Growth |
CHART 2 - The Signs of the Zodiac
| Sign |
Principle |
Key to Sun Sign* |
| Aries |
Beginnings |
I am, therefore I am |
| Taurus |
Stability |
I have, therefore, I am |
| Gemini |
Communication |
I think, therefore I am |
| Cancer |
Foundations |
I feel, therefore, I am |
| Leo |
Integration |
I create, therefore, I am |
| Virgo |
Discrimination |
I select, therefore, I am |
| Libra |
Harmony |
We are, therefore, I am |
| Scorpio |
Regeneration |
I desire, therefore, I am |
| Sagittarius |
Philosophical Mind |
I seek, therefore, I am |
| Capricorn |
Structure |
I build, therefore, I am |
| Aquarius |
Humanitarianism |
I envision, therefore, I am |
| Pisces |
Sacrifice |
I believe, therefore, I am |
* Taken from Alan Oken, As Above, So Below (Bantam Books, 1973)
The word Zodiac is from the ancient Greek work Zodiakos, meaning a circle of animals.
CHART 3 - The Houses
| HOUSE |
TRADITIONAL |
BASIC |
PEOPLE |
ABSTRACT |
PHYSICAL BODY |
| 1st |
Personality, appearance |
Self |
Self |
Manifestation |
Brain, head |
| 2nd |
Possessions, assets |
Possessions of Self |
Supporters, fans |
Modifications of the I |
Throat, neck |
| 3rd |
Short trips, routines |
Lower mind |
Siblings, neighbors |
Functional activity |
Arms, hands, lungs, nerves |
| 4th |
Home environment, parent |
Home |
Remote parents |
Basic resource |
Breasts, stomach mucus membrane |
| 5th |
Creativity, entertainment |
Personal creativity |
Children |
Tentative, unpremeditative attempts |
Back, spine, heart |
| 6th |
Service, health |
Self acting for others |
Servants |
Voluntary limitations |
Solar plexus, intestines, spleen |
| 7th |
Partners, marriage |
Others |
Partners |
Polarity contact |
Bladder, kidneys |
| 8th |
Others' money, regeneration |
Possessions of other |
New people |
Manifestation of polarity |
Sex organs |
| 9th |
Ideas, religion, long journeys |
Higher Mind |
Foreigners, In-laws |
Theoretical activity |
Thighs, liver, blood |
| 10th |
Professional status |
Profession |
Concerned parent, boss |
Group contact |
Knees, bones, skin |
| 11th |
Friends, hopes, social demeanor |
Group creativity |
Friends |
Involvement |
Lower leg circulation |
| 12th |
Confinement, limitations |
Others acting for self |
Secret enemies |
Involuntary limitations |
Feet, lymph glands |
If the planets are the what of astrology, and the signs the how, the houses are considered the Where. Where in the person's life, in which area of earthly existence, does the energy indicated by the planet-sign configurations manifest itself with the greatest intensity?
The combination of these three factors in the diagram form results in the Natal or Birth Chart: The main tool for analyzing Astrological information.
The Natal Chart is erected for the moment of birth (at the first breath in the West and the moment of conception in the East), because that point defines the uniqueness of the event in time and space. Within the framework of time and space the motions of the Planets, as seen from Earth is repetitive and cyclical. The orbits, speeds, and other individual characteristics of their positions have been charted in an Ephemeris, a book of planetary positions. At a specific time and at a particular location your birth occurred. The Birth Chart is a diagram, an actual map showing the relationship of the Planets for that moment, from that location. In that sense it is unique.
Through a study of the Chart, examining how the types of energy (Planets) are modified (by Sign) and where in life they are expressed (House), the astrologer translates the planetary relationships into specific information. In this way he relates the two, the Universal to the Particular, the Macrocosm to the Microcosm.
To illustrate this process we can refer to Mars (see Chart 1), representative of Personal Drive, the energy to obtain desired objects, aggression, etc. This function or quality of being is found in all organisms, plants, animals, even single cells, as a spur to survive and fulfill its needs.
A Birth Chart containing Mars, modified through Pisces, and expressed in the Tenth House could indicate that the assertive drive (Mars) is expressed in an indiscriminate and unfocused manner (Pisces), towards a striving for success in public or professional life (Tenth House). While this is an isolated example it serves to illustrate the process of arriving at exact and specific information from the Chart.
A person with this emphasized in their chart would incorporate this tendency as part of their basic psychological equipment. The other facets of the Chart would then be mapped out and digested resulting in a picture of the inner person and the outer person revealed, the parts functioning as a whole. The Natal Chart emerges as an "Energy Portrait," showing the potentials inherent in the person, as well as how they may unfold over time.
Astrology and Energy
Astrology can be seen as a study in Energy, of the continuously changing balance of energy in the Universe, Solar System and Man. Physics research into the nature of energy and the structure of matter has indicated that the "Physical Universe," down to the smallest sub-atomic particle, may function less like a machine and more like a "Field of Energy." Let's take a moment to discuss the concept of energy, what it means, and how we are using it.
From physics, energy is defined as the capacity to do work or perform activity. It was classified into two categories, kinetic energy in motion and potential energy at rest. We then acknowledge different types of human energy to accomplish various kinds or levels of activity, such as physical pep and vitality, emotional force and inspiration, and dynamic energy needed to solve problems and think. Each has its own quality. It can be useful to examine the chain of energy in the solar system and take a look at our position on this chain.
Our Sun as a Star is considered as the source of Matter and Energy in the Solar System. The radiations of energy from the Sun manifest as light, heat, and many other frequencies of energy, i.e. gamma, alpha, and x-rays. The mineral world is composed of energy in the molecular form of matter, which can react and rearrange itself to produce other forms of energy. A piece of coal can be burned and chemical compounds such as nitroglycerin and calcium carbonate combine to produce the energy released by dynamite. When the structure of an atom (a field of energy?), is disturbed tremendous energy is released.
Continuing the process another step, the vegetable world consumes the mineral energy through sunlight and photosynthesis. The plants are consumed by animals and used to build and maintain the body or they decay and return to the Earth.
This quick sketch serves to display the various forms of energy which change form and shape to eventually become part of us as our bodies. Our bodies are composed of food, which is composed of earth, water, air/gases, and higher frequency energies, which are derived from the Sun. This example relates energy changing as Matter, and shows the Play of Nature, constantly changing forms and shapes of energy, which we are part of and take part in.
Astrology exposes a set of energies at work in Nature. In Man they take on a physical, emotional, mental, and evolutionary meaning, the details of which are revealed in the Astrological Chart.
Stephen Arroyo, in Astrology, Psychology and the Four Elements, clarifies the role of the Planets: "The Planets generally symbolize basic forces or active centers ,in our Solar System which manifest as fundamental psychological functions, needs, urges, and motivators. They represent the major active principles which form character and motivate all types of self-expression simultaneously on all levels, Mental, Emotional, Physical." (4)
In astrological terms the Sun is the source of Energy, Life, and Vitality. In Man it is the Individuality, the self among the many facets that combine to make the total person. For most this is an unknown quantity and the object of their own search for identity and purpose. Landis Green in the Astrologer's Manual: "The Sun shows the deeper motivations and needs of the individual. It represents the protagonist in the drama of existence, the vital force that provides each individual with a feeling of conscious purpose and self-expression. As such the Sun denotes the deeper character and convictions that affect his main experiences and obligations." (5)
The Moon is the opposite of the Sun. Whereas the Sun is the source from which our energies flow, the Moon embodies the receptive and changeable aspect of our being. The lunar function conveys our personality, that aspect of ourselves that responds to the constantly changing stimulus from our environment. These responses are a storehouse of social conditioning, genetic and racial memory, instinctual urges, etc.
Mercury is the communicator, the rational mind, the type of mentality in Man. As the faculty of active intelligence this function can isolate and offset the instinctive nature through the use of logic and reason. It corresponds to our Need to Know, the drive of Curiosity that compels us to explore and seek. Exactly how this faculty operates in us as individuals is determined by the Zodiac sign it came through at birth as revealed in the Natal Chart.
Venus denotes the principle of Attraction and Unification. In Man this is seen as Personal Magnetism or Attractiveness. In nature this factor corresponds to the pleasing colorations and designs that are so necessary to draw the bee to the flower, the man to the red apple, and the woman to the man. On an individual level, Venus attracts Man to that which he may need to grow physically or spiritually. Psychologically it represents our affections or things we are fond or.
Mars is the energy of personal Drive, the active force of the Ego expressing itself. In Nature Mars is the sexual urge and the urge to aggression. Depending upon the placement in the Chart, Mars relates to courage and stamina, the urge to win, to step out of the crowd. The shadow side of this impulse is the wild expression of the most base desires and instinctual aggression.
Jupiter has been called the "Wisdom of Life"; it is the planet associated with positive expansion and growth. Through this planet the self can expand in two directions, either toward the animal desires to explore the five senses or the higher mental expansion into abstract and philosophical realms.
In Nature all objects and forms result from energy given structure. It is the Saturn principle which insists on the development of a solid structure in order that growth may occur. Saturn is the teacher who insists that you learn the lessons of discipline and self-control before passing. Psychologically Saturn reveals the need for the fulfillment of obligations and responsibilities, so that personal growth may occur. The House and Sign position of Saturn in the Chart can detail the particular obstacles which must be overcome.
The planets up to Saturn refer to active faculties at work in everyone. The last three planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, are considered higher octave planets because they refer to faculties that are only partially active in most of us. The slower orbits of these outermost planets cause them to linger in each Sign for dozens of years, 84, 164, 242 years respectively. Their influence is felt for the most part as psychological trends existing on a mass scale.
In Nature Uranus is the faculty that awakens to change. As the higher octave of Mercury, Uranus denotes the awakening of the intuition and "sixth sense" mental abilities. On a general level it adds inventiveness, new approaches, and original ways of expression. The area of life where these features are manifest can be seen from the House position of Uranus in the Chart. Neptune is the higher octave of Venus and works through emotional sensitivity. In its purest sense Neptune can lead the way to prophetic visions, inspiration, or the realization of Universal Truths. The same impulse gone astray can result in clouds of confusion, illusion, and deception in the mind. For most, Neptune serves to add an element of emotional sensitivity to the area of the chart in which it is found.
Pluto is considered the higher octave of Mars. Whereas Mars is aggression and desire, Pluto is the energy that is needed to destroy completely. . . in order to clear the way so that new birth can occur. In nature Pluto is the transformer of life, the agent of renewal and transformation. This principle in action is related to the leaves dying in the fall to prepare for the new growth in the spring.
For the evolving person Pluto is the function which can provide the energy necessary to break down the blocks preventing growth. Alan Oken describes the Pluto effect in As Above, So Below: "Pluto serves in a dual capacity as an eliminator and a renewer. In this respect it works surreptitiously, as its nature is subversive and its domain lies underground, but there is a good reason for its modus operandi. It reveals ideologies, neuroses, and activities which have long remained hidden or suppressed in the subconscious of a person or a nation. It draws these clandestine situations out of the darkness so that they can serve their purpose in the universal Plan. The unlocked energy may annihilate or become annihilated, but the important thing is that it is released and can be transmuted into other forms by the creative processes."
The various functions outlined above can be seen to be active throughout Nature and Man. Through studying the Astrological Chart a distinct and individual pattern emerges. The Natal chart offers the possibility of studying our own internal dynamics, conflicts, and strengths with the aid of a larger frame of reference. A general description of the Planets can only indicate the type of activity involved; to pinpoint how we will experience these processes we must examine the Zodiac of Signs in detail.
Zodiac as Energy
One of the aspects of astrology that totally fascinated me was the implication of an order or structure behind the apparent randomness of experience. I wondered if the people I had met and the experiences I encountered were conforming to some kind of unwritten, unknown pattern. I had recognized various characteristics shared by a number of people and while this was conceded by others, no one I had come across had a very satisfying answer for why this should be so, much less an accurate system of human type and personality.
The Zodiac offers an interesting system of basic personality types by identifying the varieties of experience and the elementary divisions of Nature. Through the symbology of the Zodiac and Planets, astrology can work as a systematic language to provide insights into the basics of human nature and personality.
The Elements Earth, Air, Fire and Water are the building blocks of the external world of Nature and of our inner nature. These same four are recognized as primary forces in almost all cultures and mythologies. Claudius Galen, an early Greek pioneer in medicine, related the elements to the four humours or temperaments, sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic. The Greek philosophy of the period related the elements to four faculties in Man: Fire/moral, Water/aesthetic or soul, Air/intellectual, and Earth/physical. Medieval alchemist/physician Paracelsus classified various nature "spirits" or entities as belonging to the four elemental categories. They are found in legend and myth the world over as Undines or the Water element, Sylphs with Air, Gnomes with Earth, and Salamanders with Fire. (6) An understanding of our significant elemental energies is the key to astrological insight leading to self-knowledge.
As the physical world is spun from combinations of elements, so Man's inner nature is a reflection of the balance or imbalance of elemental energies manifesting for most as their Suh-sign element. In a very personal way, the Sun-sign position is a powerful if not dominant force for each of us. Our internal sun is our own source of vital energy and the essential type we are as individuals.
The astrological symbol for the Sun is a circle with a dot in the center. This symbol at once conveys the essence of the Sun's activity as a radiating source of energy. The circle represents the Source of energy, the universe as a whole, the Absolute. The dot is an aperture, an opening from which the energy from the source becomes manifest in forms. The signs of the Zodiac are basic types of this energy, as variations of the elemental qualities in Nature.
The Fire element in astrology refers to animation, vitality, and activity, as well as experiences which are intense and indivi- dual. The Fire energy is excitable and radiant, and people who personify this energy are enthusiastic, glowing, and capable of the highest of spirits. The energy of Fire and the Fire signs, Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius, are geared for activity, a positive expression as an individual. The fire-dominated signs are individuals who establish their identity or Ego through self-expression. In occult terminology, Fire is the element of Spirit and the highest aspirations.
Astrologically, Air represents the intellect or thought, especially in its use to interact and communicate. This element is associated with the breath and the energy of Prana. In the western occult tradition the Air realm is the world of Ideas, and Airy people are immersed in a world of concepts and mental activity. As a type of consciousness or sensing, these people experience life as something to be thought about, analysed and understood. This is not to say that the Air types don't have an urge to act, as all four elemental energies are in each of us, but that their actions are the result of thoughts and concepts. The Airy signs are Gemini, Libra and Aquarius.
The Water element incorporates the principles of universality, sensitivity, and the emotional plane of being. The Water signs - Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces - are in touch with and sense the world through their feelings. These are receptive and impressionable people. Like their element, Water-influenced people have a mode of sensing that is fluidic, ebbing and flowing, sensitive to the nuances and subtle changes in their emotional environment. The occult meaning for this element refers to the Soul and the deepest yearnings.
The Earth element provides the substance of stability, the mundane, the practical. It serves to crystallize the energy manifested and results in disciplined and constructive activity. Earth types are in tune with the physical senses and the reality of "here and now." The Earth signs, Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn, easily relate to giving form to material projects and accomplishing that which is before them. The realms of endless concepts or cascading feelings are foreign to the strong Earth types. The mode of sensing is through the physical senses and the occult term is Matter, energy crystallized into forms.
Astrology is considered as a branch of the occult and while that term applies to a wide variety of activity there is a connection. The various occult studies and schools of thought have in common the search for and appreciation of real natural laws and relationships. Any body of knowledge is occult for the uninformed, and the premises around which astrology is established are no exception. One of these Laws is the Law of Three.
The Law of Three, as stated by esoteric philosopher P.D. Ouspensky states: "Everything in the world, all manifestations of energy, all kinds of actions, whether in the world or in human activity... are always manifestations of three forces which exist in Nature. These forces are called Passive, Active, and Neutralizing. The three forces work together, but one of them predominates in each combination. When three forces meet together things happen." (7) The three can be seen as related phases of the same energy.
The author gives an example of the three at work internally when we try to do a certain thing. Suppose, as an example, that you wanted to diet to lose excess weight, to look and feel better. Your desire to diet is one force, the resistance put up by your appetites to eat is an opposing force. A third influence is needed for action to result.
This threefold aspect of energy is noted in the Indian Vedic writings as the three Gunas - Rajas, Tamas and Satva. In astrology the three kinds of force are known as the Qualities - Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable.
The Cardinal (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) quality is a centrifugal force, generating and emitting energy. It is typified in the energy generated as the desire to create and express the self. The result of the Fire element working in a Cardinal way is the sign Aries, the sign of the individual ego in action, personifying independence, enthusiasm and personal drive.
When the Air element is functioning in a Cardinal manner we have the sign Libra, energy generated to find a point of equilibrium or harmony. Cardinal Air is active, circulating and Libra is an attempt to find balance through interaction.
The Water element, working in a Cardinal way produces Cancer, the sign of emotional unfoldment. As Cardinal Water, Cancer generates activity in response to strong emotional needs and yearnings as opposed to the action for actions sake.
Capricorn as Cardinal Earth generates energy and activity directed to concrete tasks and accomplishments. In Capricorn energy finds the discipline needed to build a solid foundation.
The Fixed quality of energy (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius) manifests as a centripetal force, radiating in. This quality acts to organize, concentrate, and stabilize activity or energies. Taurus as Fixed Earth is fairly self-descriptive. The image this combination evokes is solid, conserving, earthy. Central to Taurus is a yearning for security through possessing material and solid values. With Fixed Earth there is an instinctual understanding of the function of Earth as energy built into forms.
The Fixed Fire sign is Leo, the sign of creative self-expression. The energy of Leo is concentrated and turned in on itself such that strong Leo types see all aspects of their environment as potential means for their own self-fulfillment. In Leo the element of Fire is intensified and like the actual element this sign can inspire, entertain, and give life to its surroundings. The Leo Fire can become overly self-centered and consume everything in its range, in its desire to keep the flames of its ego burning.
The Water element when functioning in the Fixed mode results in Scorpio. Water is the energy of emotion and feeling and Fixed quality adds the extra intensity that typifies the Scorpio type. In Scorpio, the capacity to focus emotional energy results in a potential for power as well as the need for great self-control.
The sign of Aquarius is Fixed Air as an expression of a mental type. Air as an element tends to circulate and this sign stabilizes that quality and adds the concentration needed for thinking to reach its full potential. Aquarius is the sign related to the intuition, as the higher mental faculties.
The Mutable quality acts to distribute or transfer energy as opposed to generating or concentrating it. This is a quality of adaptation and transition, the flexibility necessary to pass from level to level, or allow the possibility of change.
The Sun sign Gemini personifies the element of air at its airiest. This sign is constantly involved in some type of motion or reaction. Mentally, Gemini lives in the realm of sensations as mental stimuli, a constant correlation of new experience. This sign is always adding new data to its logical, rational worldview. The adaptable quality of air is highlighted in this sign's mentality and constant interaction with the environment.
Mutable Earth is almost a contradiction in terms, but the changeable and practical qualities combine in the Sun sign of Virgo to give us an image of a practical and analytical individual. Virgo is concerned with arriving at realistic and practical results as a result of a critical and discriminating attitude.
The combination of the Fire element and the Mutable quality yields the sign of Sagittarius. The Mutable signs have a certain restlessness as their function is unbalance or transition. For this sign the result is a constant search. Alan Oken summed up the Sagittarius restlessness with the phrase, "I seek, therefore, I am." The Fire element adds an expansive quality to this sign and can instill a drive for the broadest perspective to view life.
Pisces is the sign culminating in Mutable Water as constantly changing feeling and emotion. If Cancer is flowing Water and Scorpio is intense Water, then Pisces is the Sea, vast and deep. Those strongly influenced by this sign are not the thinkers of the Zodiac, but use an intuitive and empathetic approach to life. In this sign the Mutable restlessness can surface as an urge to explore the emotions or the depths of Being in a search for understanding.
There are almost limitless possibilities for the use of astrology. Because of the universal scope of the principles and symbols, it can be applied to just about anything which had a beginning in Time and Space. The planetary orbits and cycles are the hands of the Astrological clock and make it possible to project an Astrological Chart for past or future situations. The Signs of the Zodiac are the spokes of the wheel of Nature, each having a time, a place, and a purpose in the scheme of things.
The system of astrology is an invention. It is a response to our need to find order in our lives and to obtain meaning from our experiences. It is an attempt to arrive at a clearer understanding of some of the forces at work in our lives and in the world. It is possible that the changing moods and events which make up our daily lives can be seen from a clearer and broader perspective. Astrology as Energy, as an attempt to organize experience and find order in Chaos, can serve as a tool for the expansion of our perspective and help us to arrive at a more exact definition of ourselves and our place in the world.
Notes
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Death Watch
Much evidence indicates there are specific principles which can be applied successfully towards achieving a goal. The fact that these principles are of general use in the spiritual as well as the economic and social worlds is a fact many "spiritual seekers" attempt to deny. These people would have the spiritual neophyte believe that Spiritual Truths are to be found by discarding common sense, rational thinking, and everyday responsibilities and cares that "hold one to the physical plane" (like money). A sincere neophyte is able to wade through such malarki due to the fact that he sets protective forces in motion the moment he makes his commitment to Truth or God or whatever. This law of commitment is a fact of life that many people have recognized, at least in retrospect, as being at work in their lives.
Of course there are some principles, such as Karma, (you reap what you sow), the Golden Rule, and others that most people accept as fact without much problem. But most people are satisfied with falling within the status quo. People with a goal that calls for abandonment of former ways, or a total life commitment to discovering Truth, soon learn that knowing and using forces that have formerly used them becomes vital to success.
The very basic principle of being aware of one's own death is the most important idea that a person can incorporate into his life philosophy. The fact that every major philosopher from Socrates to Heidegger to Gurdjieff stresses the importance of this knowledge is no accident. Socrates defined philosophy as the study of death. The most common theme in Castaneda's Don Juan books is the theme of using the knowledge of one's own death to make this lifetime significant beyond the ordinary.
Why is it important to be aware of one's own death? This is an excellent question to ask oneself before, for example, putting off an important project until after next summer's vacation, or, putting off next summer's vacation until the completion of an important project.
A man aware of his death knows that his time is limited. If he has committed himself to a search for Truth, and he knows that his death is an ultimate fact, then he will put aside many interests that will prove tangential to his goal. Then, once he has achieved his goal, he may return to other interests.
Most young people do not think about their own deaths. When asked about death, their opinions are often flippant and thoughtless. There is no question that Nature steers the young away from such thoughts until her goal of reproduction has been achieved. If young people actually realized how much time they actually had on this earth, there would be fewer families on the planet.
Death is kept from the sight of the American society in general. The cosmetics industry is quite pleased that an eighty year old lady worries more about her make-up and wardrobe than the fact that she may wear both to her grave tomorrow. Any person that knows his every act might be his last soon loses a great deal of pettiness and gains a great deal of energy and purpose.
Many people discern the plots and gimmicks of Madison Avenue and do think about death. Many times a death of a loved one is the catalyst. For these people, another rationalization is provided - Reincarnation. Anyone believing in Reincarnation can always offer himself and others consolation by the reassurance of returning again, and again, and again, ad infinitum. To a dynamic seeker, this idea offers not a series of increasingly blissful lifetimes but an eternal prison sentence.
Much more can be written on this all-important principle but it is more important for the individual to meditate on death at, for lack of a better word, his "leisure."
Stacked Deck
I like to think of myself as an amateur philosopher of sorts and find it very rewarding to develop my own philosophy from observing life. I try to develop my ''first hand philosophy'' solely from my own observations and believe that this type of philosophy is much more practical than anything that can be learned in books.
One conclusion that I've come to about life is that it is no playpen full of "God's delights.'' Most people would like to believe this world is a very nice place; many even waste their lives trying to pretend this. However, to anyone who tries to see things objectively, it is apparent that this world is not a nice place! We are born into this world in blood and pain, and most leave this world in the violence of accidents, sickness, or senility. Few die peacefully in their sleep.
Between the violence of birth and the violence of death is more violence - the violence and restrictions of public law, the violence of ever difficult personal relationships, and the violence of economic necessity. One has to struggle through life just to make ends meet and keep self and family in food, clothing and house.
Many people seem to hold their hopes somewhere in the future. They know that things are not all so ''great" now, but believe we are headed towards a "golden age'' in which all strife will cease. I cannot believe this either. The "game" does not seem to be set up this way. This is what is meant when it is said that this is a relative world.
For every solution we come up with, another problem takes its place. I read in the newspaper recently that a newly devised electronic brake system was installed on some semi-trucks - only to be discovered that a particular CB frequency caused the brakes to be applied. The microwave oven was a marvelous invention, but then it is discovered that it causes heart pacemakers to dysfunction. In the fall of '78 we had abnormally warm temperatures, and thus rejoiced at our expected low heating bills. But then we discover that the heating oil price has been raised because an excess amount of gasoline has been used with people driving their cars more than usual in the warm weather! Damned if you do, and damned if you don't!
A short time back, I asked a 90-year-old man "just where did he think it was all heading?'' He thought for a moment and then replied, "I don't know, but I'll tell you one thing - it's not getting any easier!"
I've come to believe that this game of life is "fixed" and things won't get any better - ever. There will be no utopia or "heaven on earth." Such things are only air-castles of pretenders. Whatever the strange purpose of this life is, it is not for us to have an easy time of it or for us to be "happy". To paraphrase a Russian proverb, "Even God himself cannot beat the ace of diamonds with the two of hearts."
Paracelsian Psychological Theory of Elementaries
Psychologists have argued for a hundred years as to just what is the nature of neurosis, compulsion and obsession. But still, after a hundred years of psychological theory, it is a well-known fact and embarrassment that the rate of recovery of treated patients is no higher than that of those that spontaneously recover. Even though a patient may know the nature of his neurosis, he is often unable to overcome or resist it. He is frequently a helpless observer of his own predicament.
In overcoming a neurosis I believe the subjective attitude, or personal "relationship" to the neurosis is of utmost importance. In modern psychological theory the neurosis is part of the person - it is the person insofar as the person is regarded as a particular personality or character. In the theory of the 16th century magus, Paracelsus, the neurosis or mental problem is an entity in itself, it is an actual, created, mental being which victimizes the neurotic sufferer for his freedom and vital energy. This theory, I believe, explains much that modern theory is unable to cope with. Modern psychologists will agree that a neurotic pattern has a seeming life of its own even after it has been fully recognized by the patient.
In Tibet there is a process by which a visible being is created by meditation, exercises and mental energy. By repeated visualization and concentration on the form of a man, woman or beast, an actual phantom creature can be created which can be seen by other people. Madame Alexandra David-Neel relates this in her book Magic and Mastery in Tibet. She herself created a phantom monk which other people saw and inquired about. Initially this phantom is under the control of its creator but eventually gains in independence and may become a pest or obsession to its creator. Madame David-Neel's phantom eventually became troublesome to her and when she attempted to be rid of it, it took six months of arduous meditation to dissolve.
The creation of a complex, neurosis, or the Paracelsian elementary is much the same process as the creation of the Tibetan tulpa or phantom being. Years of dwelling on fear, anger, hate, despair or other specific mental and emotional attitudes will create an actual mental creature whose essence is this very attitude. The creature will depend on a continued dwelling on the particular emotion which created it for its continued sustenance from the vital energy spent on that emotion. Man is obviously a creator externally with his technology and engineering, but he is also a creator on the inner invisible realms.
As Manly Hall states in his booklet on Paracelsus: ". . when God created Adam, he breathed into him the divine power. Man is therefore a creator, not merely in terms of the perpetuation of the species, but especially in terms of the imagination. . . The invisible progeny of man include thought-forms and emotion-forms. These are like infants, especially in their beginnings, for they depend upon their creator for their nutrition and survival. Later, however, if the forces which generate them continue to operate, these thought-forms and emotion-forms gain strength, finally attaining a kind of independence which is their immortality. Having thus become stronger than their creator, these thoughtor emotion-forms will turn upon the one who fashioned them, often causing in him a terrible habit and destroying his health and happiness."
Within our modern materialistic belief-system, it seems quite an extreme thing to suggest that we are often victim of mental entities with a life and level of intelligence their own. Modern psychologists refuse to admit any invisible but objective influences on the human psyche, yet it seems narrow-minded to believe we are affected drastically by nothing our extremely limited senses cannot directly perceive. In this amazingly complex and infinitely diverse universe, there are undoubtedly influences and dimensions which we cannot perceive with our eyes or instruments. The most important part of man is his psyche, and this is invisible and of another dimension. To me, man seems to be half animal, half angel. Modern psychology is animal psychology and deals with the material-animalistic nature of man. True depth psychology must deal with the "angelic" or invisible and creative realms of the mental and psychic.
The elementary is not a "natural'' creation per se, but lives on the vampirization of the life forces of another creature. Elementaries are man-created entities. For instance, a particular mental state, say fear, if continually dwelled upon will create a gestalt which, continually fed from the repetition on fear, will be animated into a separate being with survival interest. If the person is prone to fear, then every time he becomes fearful, a tremendous amount of energy is released into this mental state. In time he no longer decides to be fearful, but is "seized" by fear. The created mental being or gestalt has obtained enough strength and independence that it can stimulate or obsess the person into the fear state - and thus obtain the vital energy which is expended in this state. Something "comes over" the person and he is no longer totally in the driver's seat. He does not wish to be fearful, but something strongly stimulates him to be so. This applies not only to fear, but to anger, compulsion, despair or any other repetitive and strong emotional state. To quote Manly Hall again: ''The psychic formations are nourished by the constant repetition of the attitude which formed them."
We all know people who grow uncontrollably angry or are chronically depressed or fearful. We undoubtedly can find some habitual and uncontrollable mood in ourselves. To become the creator and victim of an elementary (popular psychology would call it a neurotic complex), a person must have a tendency toward extremes in emotion or thought. Moderation does not provide sufficient energy for the formation of a specific elementary. A particular habitual and extreme emotion is required.
The will of a person is crucially important in the formation of an elementary or psychic parasite. Initially the person must will to become angry, morose, or whatever. Once the elementary gains the strength and independence to stimulate the person toward its particular life-giving emotion, the person must acquiesce to the urge and identify with the emotion if the elementary is to "succeed" and gain the vital energy and strength it seeks. The elementary cannot gain energy and strength unless the person willfully expresses or acquiesces to the emotion which forms and nourishes the elementary. Once the psychic tick gains enough strength it can only be destroyed or dissolved by refusal to acquiesce to the entity's stimulation. This can be very difficult if the elementary and its compulsive stimulation have been an accepted part of the psyche for many years. I believe the most effective way of dealing with compulsive emotions and mental states is not to aggressively resist them, but to conserve energy and to consistently and objectively observe them and refuse to acquiesce, identify or react.
Dream Experiment
I wanted to experiment with dream telepathy and asked my mother (who lives ten miles or so away from me) to think of a simple message to send to me each night before she went to bed. I wanted to see if I would pick up anything in my dreams as a result of this. I wrote down my dreams for the week and then we got together to see if there were any successful results.
In the first vivid dream I had that week, I was sure I had gotten it as "Niagara Falls," the symbol, or picture of cliffs kept coming into the dream. I was wrong. I kept getting water in dreams during the rest of the week.
I had a few more guesses during the week but no luck. In desperation, I asked my mother what or how she was doing it, was she using props, concentrating on any one thing, etc. I suggested she send the message to me, not just absorb herself in the subject. The next day I wrote down this dream: I was at a picnic in the park. I was taking a picture of my brother, now a little boy of 3 or 4. I was ordering him to step up closer, then back again; I was really irritated because I could not focus the camera on him the way I wanted. Then my mother came up and showed me a little yellow plastic switch on the camera and told me to switch it over and the camera would automatically focus. I then took a great picture of my brother, a closeup with sharp features and color.
This was the last dream of the week and when I read this to my mother she got excited and showed me the picture she had been trying to send to me. It was a printed check with a sunset, mountains in the background, and a lake. The whole picture was in a hazy yellow and she said she had concentrated on sending the color yellow to me the night before.
Considering that the picture was more complicated than I expected she would pick, I did pick up on the picture, the cliffs as mountains, the lake below and the color yellow (the plastic switch on the camera).
We are trying it some more; hopefully practice will make perfect in these experiments.
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The Apple
My little boy sat under a tree in the setting sun Amongst the fallen Autumn apples in his red suit And I wondered: is he just an apple too? That is: all the myriad apples fall, One or two penetrate the ground and germinate a new sapling, and Of the thousands of young trees thus produced One or two rises to maturity and bears fruit unto continuance.
But the tree that is man,
Beyond the circle of reproduction,
Produces also Jesus's fruit,
Breaking through the circle to Beyond...
Or does it?
Or does it not blossom merely into a greater circle?
Is not this too capped by the final Crown,
Enclosing all transcendences within the Greatest Circle?
In which case, all is the White Light,
Shining from the heart of the littlest apple on barren soil
Just as from the eyes of my son and
The soul of the Buddha.
All this: Now, as it's ever been and shall be.
Nothing more is needed:
It is, I am, We are all That Which Is.
Later, in a different space, an alternate vision rose;
Strange how it began in the seeming-same root.
This is the Whole Thing, here now, in me, it is me.
I knew what I needed to hear,
Jumped up and grabbed Kabir, and
Yes, yes, it grokked - and frighteningly added more.
The voice from out of Kether
Speaking through the pen of the long-dead sage:
All must ripen whilst you live, whilst you live,
Whilst you live,
Else death is but an empty dream.
Oh Lord, is this my only chance?
Suddenly eternity melted away,
The quiet, sun-flecked sea of grass and decaying apples,
Waiting calmly for consummation in this cycle,
Or the next,
Or the next a thousand times removed;
And my heart was stirred by hastening images.
It now became urgent to ask: Am I on the right path?
It seemed so, perhaps; reassurance.
But Kabir ripples the waters once more, admonishing:
The true path is rarely found.
All the rest is forgotten apples,
Their once-promising seeds blown to the winds
Or feeding insects
Or dissolved to dust.
And still yet:
Brahma Himself is the tree, the seed, and the germ...
Is the wind which scatters it and
The worm which devours it and
The entropy which grinds it into dust.
In what ground shall I plant my soul?
In the peace of Everything Is?
Or the catalyzing discontent which shouts:
Awaken now, or wither and be gone?
Or does the upward-spiraling shoot,
Fertilized by fear-of-ending,
Sprout from the crystal sphere
Of placid endless circles?
The bitten apple,
Whole and perfect.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
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Free public lectures are given on alternate Sundays at 7:30 p.m. at Buckeye Federal Savings and Loan, 3180 East Broad Street, just west of James Road.
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Meetings are held at the University and City Ministries, Fifth and Bellefield Avenues, at 7:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month. For more information, call _____
Megavitamin Warfare
In recent years we have seen the rate of death and suffering due to heart disease and hardening arteries soar. Consequently, Americans' concern for their health and well-being has increased almost as rapidly. Many are linking this dilemma with the food we eat, naming the overprocessed food that is forced upon us as the culprit. I think it can truthfully be said that, to a certain extent, we are what we eat.
When I think of this business of health and nutrition, it always reminds me of the commercial for a particular brand of yogurt which is advertised on television. In this commercial a mountain village is shown where it is not uncommon for a person to exceed one hundred years of age. An atmosphere of simplicity is experienced. There is no machinery or electricity. All the labor, which is mostly gardening, is manual. They show one of these centenarians walking from the garden, where he has been raking and hoeing, and they tell you that he eats yogurt every day.
This insinuates that all a person has to do to live a hundred years is to eat yogurt every day. When I see this commercial, I think of the article I read in a magazine which explores different lifestyles according to a geographical location. I can't remember the name of the publication, but the article was concerned with a particular tribe or village of mountain people who had an average age in the nineties. In one part of the article one of these people was asked what one thing he does every day to which he might attribute his long life. His reply was that he worked up a sweat every day.
The eating of yogurt was also mentioned. They do not have cows in the mountains, but goats can be seen wandering around, so I assume it is goat's milk yogurt that is spoken of. Since goat's milk is naturally homogenized, I doubt that they use low fat skim milk to make their yogurt. They do not have sugar, so I doubt also that their yogurt is loaded with sugar-rich preserves, which destroys all the helpful bacteria found in yogurt.
To go back to the previous paragraph though, I feel an important statement is present here, which is, "Health can be directly linked to a person's lifestyle." The food we eat is an important part of this lifestyle, but it is not the only factor. Daily exercise is equally important, as is a mental attitude free from the onslaughts produced by a society immersed in a hurry-up-live-for-today lifestyle.
Many things have changed since the days of old, and it is hard to pinpoint those for the better from those for the worse. We have seen the elimination of much suffering due to disease, only to be inflicted with new diseases for which medicine has not yet found a cure.
Harsh working conditions have been done away with, leaving us with an easier lifestyle and more leisure time. Instead of a physical benefit, this seems to have been a detriment to our health, making us soft and more susceptible to disease.
Having more time for contemplation, again we have fallen prey to adversaries. Instead of living by a proven moral, and using our free moments from the strife for meditation, we have become deluged with the endless possibilities of altered lifestyles with endless variations of distractions and dissipations.
Our healers and guardians of the mind have not seen fit to investigate the roots of physical and mental illnesses properly, largely due to the fact that there is not a solid scientific method of exploring a realm not easily measured in the physical. Overcome by the odds against them, they seem to have given up, retiring into a position of no longer healing, but merely eliminating symptoms.
Consequently, our healers have become weak. Without the strength for assured self-gained knowledge and unwaning authority, they have become worse examples of health than the layman. Their weakness inhibits their speaking against any popular issue, no matter how unhealthy it may be. Their defense is that there is no scientific evidence which proves this activity or that activity to be unhealthy. Falling prey to their own dictates, they find themselves running to each other's clinic for help, only to find their colleagues in as bad a shape or worse.
We are suffering a grave misfortune so that our system of health and healing can claim to be scientific. No longer being able to rely upon our professional counterparts, we are going to have to discover a system of health or a lifestyle which is conducive to health.
So we turn to those who have labeled themselves as wholistic healers or nutritionists and find equal contradiction and confusion. The wholistic medicine man is usually found to be nothing more than the peddler of some personal fetish disguised in the form of a particular megavitamin.
It may be apple cider vinegar or chelated magnesium or vitamin C or God only knows but if you take only two multi-mega-units a day and if you can get all of your friends to do the same we can save the world, or least save the vitamin industry from bankruptcy.
The nutritionist, or health food nut, not being able to find Jesus or Krishna or Allah, has settled upon food as his savior. Only food of a very pure state of organicity. The enchanter, chanting incantations about how certain types of food when placed within the house of the soul set up certain unhealthy cosmic vibrations, and like man it's really a bad trip. He has sold his soul to fanaticism, no longer eating to live and remain strong, but eating healthier and healthier foods that he may live longer and longer in order that he might consume ever healthier foods.
Food or vitamins or whatever has become the god and religion of the nutritionists and wholistic medicine man, and as far as I can tell has not had a noticeable effect upon their well being.
We cannot afford to spend our lives involved in megavitamin warfare only to find out that megavitamins cause cancer. The average man does not have the time to school himself on all the aspects of medicine and his anatomy. Equally, he does not have the time to investigate all the areas of nutrition on the market. A method must be found by which a man can gain a working knowledge of health without spending his life at it, by which time it will be too late.
I would like to propose a system of common-sense and intuition. Both of these faculties can be cultivated into a usable function. A basic understanding of the body and the food we eat will be necessary to direct our intuition properly. The intuition will begin to take force when the desire for health and sanity outweighs all other desires. Fasting will sharpen the language between the body and the mind as well as periodically cleansing the system. The elimination of meat from the diet every single day at every meal, to perhaps three or four days a week has been known to sharpen the intuition.
Common sense merely states that we become aware of exactly what it is that we are eating and exactly how we are living our lives: The reading of labels instead of listening to the dictates of the commercial or advertisement. By observing those around us who are afflicted and noting their lifestyle as compared to those who are not afflicted.
A few years ago vitamin C became a very popular antidote to the cold or flu viruses. What we were not told was that in certain cases vitamin C will eliminate a head cold by lowering it into the chest. Quite a magical feat! Large quantities of vitamin C will also cause stomach cramps and diarrhea.
In the days of old, when drugs weren't sold, and colds were to be prevented, dosages of cod liver oil were taken. This is very concentrated in vitamin A. Research has shown that in the presence of a cold, if 10,000 units of vitamin A were taken daily, broken into three dosages, it eased the symptoms. I do not think a cure has been found yet.
Dr. Yudkin and some of his chaps at the University of London have found that consuming four ounces of sugar daily will increase your chance of contracting heart disease five times over the chance you would have if you consumed only half as much sugar!
The amount of sugar in some foods is phenomenal. The reading of labels will not give you the exact amount, but it can give you a rough idea. The ingredients must be listed with the ingredient of highest weight first and second highest second and so forth. Beware if sugar is at the top of the list.
If only the fittest are to survive, then living smart to keep fit will put you ahead of the game.
Biorhythm Correction
In my article "Critical Day for Biorhythms" in the last issue of the TAT Journal (Autumn, 1978, Vol. 1, No. 5), an error was made in the caption for Figure 1. The first sentence read, "A Biorhythm chart of the first 30 days of life"... It should have read. . ."of the first 46 days of life". Each vertical line represented a span of one day.
A Taste of the Design
On the very day that Laura Mae's leg came out of the cast she was hit again. I had a wounded three legged dog. I did not see the reason for all of it; the trips to the vet, her pain, the expense, the repetition. That night after her hind quarter had been shattered again I walked her up the road and bumped into a taste of the design.
It was a damp, foggy late winter night. I led my dog past the field next door, and waited wincing as she tried to "go." We gave up after ten minutes. Laura sidled up to me to be carried home. I picked her up and headed for our driveway. As I passed a clump of silver birches at the driveway's edge, I saw trees as living beings with legs planted in the ground. I thought of Laura Mae's leg and said, "Well, at least they don't feel it when they are cut or chopped down." And the trees answered immediately "Oh yes we do."
I stopped on the walk halfway to the house still tenderly holding my feathery dog. I took a deep breath, conscious of inhaling life force. I lifted my face, or was it the heart, and said without words, "Please heal Laura Mae's leg and her spirit, and the legs and spirits of all living things everywhere."
For a moment I was in tune. There followed a dialogue with someone, somewhere, perhaps the stillest part of myself that went like this:
"You who would not wish immortality for yourself - do you then wish it for all that is alive?"
"No"
"What then?"
"An end to the senseless suffering."
"Do you know it is senseless?!"
"No"
"Then wait."
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Is humanity ready for the idea that the "real world" can be altered by changes in thought and belief?
Reflections on The Crack in the Cosmic Egg
by Jake Jaqua
If readers of The Crack in the Cosmic Egg take the book to heart, the results can be world-shattering. The ideas set forth are not new, but Joseph Chilton Pearce brings the insights of philosophers and psychologists together in a concise and highly intelligible way in stating that our world is an agreed-upon mental creation. The world would be different, or become different, if we all agreed it were different. Paradoxically though, this agreement is subconscious and can only be affected consciously through great difficulty and personal adroitness.
Like many great and innovative synthesizers of knowledge, Joseph Chilton Pearce went through a period of intense personal suffering which generated dynamic mental struggle and searching. In his case it was the ghastly specter of cancer. His wife's grandmother died of cancer, then it was a favorite aunt; his wife's mother was barely saved from the disease by the mutilation of the knife. Her father was the next to succumb and it appeared to all that Pearce's wife would follow. It was almost a fiat, then it happened. A tumor was diagnosed which was wildly stimulated by the growth hormones of pregnancy. Pearce's world was tumbling to the ground. She submitted herself to the "priests of the scalpel," but to no avail; her death sentence had been passed.
Something was amiss here. Must his wife die? It almost seemed that she was proscribed by some force from living much longer, and that she must perform her duty to "the way things are" and die, as she was expected to. Was there an unalterable physical cause of the cancer, or was it somehow confused with belief and thus "creation" of his wife's imminent death? Pearce set foot with desperate intention into a "reprogramming" of his wife's mentality. He went on five and six-day fasts. During the day he constantly read her literature on healing, and while she slept, he endlessly repeated suggestions of hope and strength. Then a miracle occurred. In a mere three weeks she had, to all appearances, gotten well. They tramped to the "temple" of medicine and amongst much hysterics on the doctors' behalf, it was agreed that she had miraculously and completely recovered. But then the fatal blow was struck, and they were warned of the "inevitable reoccurrence." A year later, and after the birth of a child with cerebral palsy, the cancer returned and the death of his wife occurred - or was perhaps created. Few people understood his fury when the medical center suggested that he begin bringing his just-pubescent daughter for regular check-ups. Pearce had come to the conclusion or intuition that these things were somehow created or caused by the indoctrinating influence of expectation and belief. His daughter was being "set-up" for her own encounter with cancer. His intuitions were validated years later by a realization which revealed to him the means by which belief and expectation become self-fulfilling and actually create the nature of our reality.
Joseph Chilton Pearce is a man who has probed the deeper aspects of the human thinking process. Pearce has taught in various capacities in college, high school and junior high school for over fifteen years and has received degrees from the College of William and Mary, Indiana University and Geneva Theological College. He is presently devoting his time to writing and occasionally lecturing. He is the author of three books, The Crack in the Cosmic Egg, Exploring the Crack in the Cosmic Egg, and Magical Child, and is currently working on another book on what he labels the ''primary process'' in the psyche.
In Exploring the Crack in the Cosmic Egg Pearce examines a wide variety of areas including telekinesis, the death concept, guilt, fear, the functions of the right and left hemispheres of the brain, and Castaneda's writings. He claims that through the overdevelopment of the logical and cultural mode of thinking we have split ourselves off from an organic "primary process" thinking, thus destroying our sense of unity and participation in nature. This culturally determined thinking has "turned our Eden into our hell" and destroyed the very roots of modern man's psyche. We have identity crises and feel a lack of authenticity because we have split ourselves from our proper organic role. Pearce maintains that the only means to regain our feeling of authenticity and wholeness is to reintegrate primary processes, which are ''the intricate 'thinking' systems operating below the limen of awareness''.
In Magical Child Pearce describes the progressive nature of childhood development and brings to light how our present child-rearing practices are not appropriate for this biologically-determined maturation. Children have several stages of mental development and if the child is not allowed to naturally go through these stages, then the child will be literally ''stymied" at a level. A common example of this would be "force-feeding'' abstract learning such as mathematics to a six or seven-year-old in hopes of developing his intellect. His intellect will be developed, but it will be at the sacrifice of the fantasy and feeling part of his nature which is biologically meant to be developed at this age. Pearce devoted the first two-thirds of Magical Child to child-rearing practices and theory and in the last third of the book places childhood maturation within the philosophy of his previous two books. He also relates some personal experiences and experiments in the realms of dreams, hypnagogic imagery, and "rapport group" sittings that are thoroughly intriguing.
Pearce's philosophy is a result of his own personal struggles and this can be ascertained from the tone of his book. He is never overly abstruse and ceremoniously intellectual like many pretenders of insight. He writes in "his own voice," and you are aware that a man is writing and not an isolated, computerish exponent of dry abstraction. His book has a heart. His research was the result of a heart-felt motivation and bears the stable character of his honestly-felt desire to discover the nature of reality formation. It is paradoxical that the culmination of his search verified the very manner in which he searched.
Pearce's philosophy is unique, yet it contains seeds provided by many great thinkers. This seems to be the process of all great and world-changing theories. Many thinkers tangentially touch on the culminating theory, but one man gathers all in, and is the channel for the grand synthesis. Pearce proved to be such in this case. His sources of inspiration span from anthropology to physics and include such innovators as physicists Leonard Feinberg and David Bohm, psychologist Jerome Bruner and linguist Susanne Langer. Our "cosmic egg" is formulated and altered by scientists such as these, and Pearce has discovered the very ontology by which this occurs.
Inside Our Cosmic Egg
Pearce's "cosmic egg" is our individual or group "world-view" - the picture or mental representation we constantly maintain in our minds of what the world is "really" like. It contains values, opinions, likes, dislikes, what we regard as important and unimportant and, germane to this discussion, what is possible and impossible. We are never directly in contact with what is "out there" in the physical world. The only nearly direct contact we have with the "out there" is a limited amount of raw sensation we are able to receive through our imperfect senses. This raw data is then interpreted or formed into a concept or idea by the personal consciousness. We get such and such sensory stimulation and interpret it as "apple," or such and such sensory data and interpret "she is angry." The only "things" we are directly in contact with are our concepts of things. Our view of the world is a second-hand view and a homemade affair. We make a personal representation of the world and view our own representation.
The world is a mental picture-show we hold up for ourselves and for our children to emulate.
Each of our world views is progressively formulated from childhood. As an infant, raw sensation is the basic focus of attention. An infant notices colors, movements, noises, smells and tactile sensations but has yet formed no concepts from these. He gradually forms basic concepts from the emulation and instruction of his parents. He learns "mamma," "dadda," "doggy," and "cat." He learns to react to particular groupings of sensation as a "thing" or concept. This group of noises and colors is "mamma" and that is "dadda." His conceptual categories have not quite narrowed down, though, because sometimes a cow is "doggy" and Aunt Betty is "mamma." This narrowing down of concepts exponentially progresses through early life in reference to subtler and subtler sensations and concepts.
After time and maturation, the child begins to react to his own concepts, and not just simple sensation. This is when he begins to "think" per se, and this is when his conceptual structure of reality begins to be formulated. The child comes to know that when mother contorts her face in a particular manner she is angry. This "anger" (and the consequences) is a concept in the child's mind. To interpret a particular facial expression requires a thinking process; the information is not contained in the raw sensation. This simple type of concept is even present in animals, but in humans these concepts become more complex in an ongoing process throughout maturation until a gestalt-like world-view of inter-related ideas is created. Constantly new things and relationships are perceived which are not in the present reality-view and must be incorporated or ignored. This process is our individual "creation of the world. "
The world-view is our present mental schema of the world and consists of all our accepted beliefs and "facts" about the world. These world-views differ between cultures and, in smaller ways, between subcultures, families and individuals. Junior may have his whims granted in one family but not in another because of different child-rearing viewpoints. To a westerner a cow means "milk" or "meat," but to a Hindu the same cow is a sacred animal and is not "food." Someone living in a rural area will regard reality differently than someone living in New York City. The world-view is handed down from generation to generation with slight and sometimes drastic changes in each succeeding epoch. We "inherit the sin of our fathers and forefathers" as it may be. We all believe the world is "out there" in some sort of ultimate concreteness but, while still rather concrete, it is really "in here." It is a mental picture-show we hold up for ourselves and for our children to emulate. This is not bad; in fact, it is the only way it can be.
All our knowledge of the outside world is mental knowledge; we are in touch with nothing directly outside our own minds. All we know is that something produces an effect on the mind in the categories of our five senses. The causes of our sensation could just as logically have a totally mental origin rather than a physical origin. In this case "matter" would just be an idea, the idea of "concreteness." Actually this is all we know anyway; we do not know matter directly, but only as an idea. It makes little difference in our practical life that matter may be only a mental construct, but it has great philosophic and possibly spiritual significance. It is never known directly "out there"; it is only known "in here." We just assume it is out there. Subjectively we cannot even tell if an object of sensation - a tree, a dog, or the color blue - looks the same to you as it looks to me. My color blue could be green to you, but as long as we call it by the same name - blue - we'll never know the difference. Dreaming is a completely mental condition and our reality in dreams often seems more vividly real than when we are in the "physical" world. Our reality and our minds are not as definite, stable and unambiguous as we like to believe.
The "crack in the cosmic egg" is a small excursion or peek into the unknown.
Our cosmic egg is an arduously developed logical schema within which man is able to develop his potentials. Man's abilities are innate but he needs a structure of language and accepted facts with which to build. Allegorically, he can build with bricks, or he can build with stone, but he must build with something. Castles cannot be built with air. A person cannot jump beyond the cultural agreement of language and facts and hope to discover anything of practical importance. (He may have a mystical experience of the realm beyond "world views" but would be unable to communicate without world-view terms.) All new theories and insights are the result of recombination and metaphor of existing world-view ideas. The mind is literally a computer and, like a computer, it can only create from a storehouse or paradigm of already existing concepts. If you attempt to create a totally new creature in your imagination, you cannot do so. Your creature may have the tail of a cat, the beak of a bird and the skin of a reptile, but it is still the composite of parts or ideas you have in your storehouse of concepts about already existing animals. There are no new concepts, only recombinations of old concepts and ideas, often in a very creative way.
This logical construction which is our reality Pearce calls "the clearing in the forest." The forest is the great "out there," the dark unknown of infinite possibility. The "clearing in the forest" is our society, culture, science and our agreed upon assumption of what constitutes normal reality. The "crack in the cosmic egg" is a small excursion or peek into the unknown. Pearce relates an experience of his own of the "crack" during his college days. He felt himself enter a dissociated or trance state and was able to butt out lighted cigarettes on his face and hands without any ill after-effects, much to the chagrin of his college friends.
A similar example of the "crack" from my own life concerned my eight-year-old brother. I was once observing him play with a paperclip and a padlock and was amazed that he had unlocked the padlock two times in succession with the paperclip. I asked him to do it again and he dutifully repeated the feat. I expressed my astonishment and after this he was unable to unlock the padlock again even though he tried many times. By expressing my astonishment at his trick, I believe I indoctrinated him into the normally accepted reality-view - the reality-view in which it is impossible for a non-skilled person to open a padlock with a paperclip. Previously, he had no categories for padlocks and paperclips and could turn the trick with ease.
The Normal Aborigine
There are more dramatic examples of cracks in the cosmic egg the world over, mostly in "backward" and semi-isolated cultures. These people are out of touch with what we accept as normal, possible and impossible, and thus have freer minds to set up different concepts of possibility. The Australian aborigines and various cultures where "fire-walking" is practiced are examples. Where fire-walking is conducted in religious ceremonies, participants are able to walk over twenty feet of white-hot coals without being burned or harmed in the least. To our western minds, this is physically impossible, but nonetheless it is a "scientific fact" with sufficient evidence and data to validate it as with any other "fact." Fire-walking and similar "impossible" feats performed in various sub-cultures are definite evidence that western science does not have a complete understanding of what physical reality is, and what is possible and impossible. There seems to be a key somewhere, or an undiscovered law.
The Australian aborigines live in a culture with a drastically different reality-view. Their religious life and practical way of life are totally integrated so that a very complex and complete way of regarding reality is formulated. Upon entering adolescence the male aborigine is submitted to an initiation rite, the severity of which is not known elsewhere. The youth is starved, kept sleepless and frightened in such an extreme manner and for such a long period of time that death sometimes results. The effect of all this is that eventually the psyche is totally shattered. When the boy's mind is completely disjointed as a result of shock (no world-view), he is indoctrinated into the "Totem System" by the elders. The Totem World is a synthetic, complex and complete reality-system or world-view, but it is different. In the Totem System every aspect of the man's life is prescribed and regulated - how he walks, how he urinates, how he talks, how he throws his spear, etc. It is all done in the manner in which the "Two Brothers" did it on the first day of creation in their cosmology. Each aborigine man is in constant rapport with the "Two Brothers" who are simultaneously in every place and every time. Since the aborigine is in constant rapport with the Two Brothers who know all, he is able to hit with his boomerang an animal on the other side of a hill, he is able to run twenty miles across the desert to intercept a sacred rainfall, and he is able to track without hesitation miles of terrain which a man had traveled a year before. In our reality this is all impossible, but in the aborigine's it is possible, normal, and occurs!
As can be seen by the general resistance to new ideas, there is virtually a biological survival urge to maintain the present reality-view. The reason for this can be most easily seen from the personal point of view. A person has to believe he has the correct view towards the world in order for him to aggressively seek to earn a living and promote his personal ego and interests. A person caught in the tumult of self-doubt is robbed of his power to act. He is unable to act because he does not know in what direction to act. His survival possibilities are subtly reduced because of psychological impotence and ambiguity. A person who is sure of his values (world-view) has no doubts in what direction to act. He can be one-pointed. The principle can also be seen in cultures or nations. A nation that has much internal dissension will be greatly weakened in case of war. Pearce puts it: "A mind divided by choices, confused by alternatives, is a mind robbed of power. "
Each aborigine man is in constant rapport with the "Two Brothers" who are simultaneously in every place and every time.
While a confused reality-view can be culturally or personally detrimental, it can also be the seed-bed of creative synthesis and increased complexity - and through this complexity results increased potential. The world-view is the material through which man works out his potentials. The nature of astronomy, mathematics, music, art, economics, politics, linguistics, chemistry, physics, sociology, anthropology, etc. The highly complicated interrelationship between these fields is the mental gestalt of our culture. This labyrinth of correlation is the result of centuries of analogy and shuffling of simpler ideas. As Pearce describes it, "Scientific growth became a process of metaphoric combinations and mutations of existing scientific metaphor, a continual expansion of an inherited web of ideas."
It is the complexity and not the nature of the reality-system which determines what can be accomplished within it. If the ether theories of nineteenth century science were carried to their conclusions instead of discarded, we would undoubtedly be able to do everything with that system that we are able to now do with our modern physics. That is, if previous systems of science would have developed at the same pace and to the same complexity along different lines up to the present time, then we would have just as an advanced technology, but we would have a different description of it - different theories and "facts" that worked. It seems arbitrary that science has developed along certain lines rather than others. There have been plenty of "eccentric" scientists and theories that did not develop a following sufficient to redirect the course of science. Some eccentrics were followed, like Einstein, but other scientists and theories - like Baron Von Reichenbach and his "Odic Force," or Reich and his "Orgone Energy'' - were ignored due to no inconsistencies in their systems. We are not discovering things or laws "out there" in the material world, but developing a sufficiently complex mental schema to play out our potentials.
Metanoia and Autistic Thinking
How does the possibility that there are different but equally effective reality structures affect us? Can this possibility be used to improve life or provide an avenue of spiritual growth? Pearce gives a law for applying his insights, but the price is heavy. Two terms, "metanoia" and "autistic thinking," are used by Pearce to describe the sudden restructuring of personal reality. A good example of metanoia is the born-again Christian. When the born-again Christian has his experience of faith or conversion, his whole outlook on life is immediately changed. He has a dramatically altered view of the world; nearly every aspect of life has a novel meaning and purpose. Something causes an instantaneous reorganization of his psyche; he exchanges one world-view for a different world-view. This conversion experience is not the sole possession of Christians but can happen to persons in the sciences, psychology, philosophy or any walk of life. The key to the experience is the discovery or realization of a personally unique schema for regarding the world. The catalyst of the experience may be an idea, theory, or system which instigates a rapid mental reappraisal of the world and seeing in a different light. There are converts to physics or a school of psychology as well as converts to Christianity or Islam.
Pearce labels his second type of reality-restructuring "autistic thinking" because he believes it to be the case with autistic children. For varying reasons the autistic child never enters our reality structure but makes and lives in a "world of his own." In normally adjusted people autistic thinking is the temporary or permanent rearrangement of world-view so that things are seen in a different light and have altered significance and value. The fire-walker temporarily reinterprets reality so that in his world-view fire does not burn (and it doesn't). The scientific genius suffers a dramatic and catalytic reorganization of his concepts and a new reality structure and scientific theory is the result.
The autistic process does not come cheaply. Even to temporarily change his world-view the fire-walker must undergo a period of abstinence and rigorous discipline. The aborigine adolescent undergoes a horribly severe initiation rite. The scientific or philosophic thinkers who have undergone the "Eureka!" experience of discovery (Pearce would say "creation") have almost universally struggled through years of questioning.
The conversion experience is not the sole possession of Christians but can happen to persons in the sciences, psychology, philosophy or any walk of life.
The passionate questioning and desire is the key to the creation of the Eureka! experience. Most of the Eureka! experiencers seemed to be victims of the autistic process, that is, they did not know they were unconsciously setting the stage for an illumination. Pearce hints that the experience can be synthetically created. What is needed to set the gears in motion is a constant, total commitment to the answering of a personal question. One's life must be placed on the line and staked on finding the answer to the question. The question may be "Who am I -ultimately?", "Why is there suffering?" or "How can the speed of light be surpassed?" Regardless of the question, the process is the same. The type of answer found will be a mirror of the question asked. Additionally, the question asked must be a question with "heart." If the seeker cannot put his heart into the question, then commitment will not be possible and the catalyst for illumination will not be there.
The autistic process is a subliminal or unconscious process. In the memory banks there is a tremendous accumulation of ideas, facts and isolated theories all relating to the central question the mind is poised upon. It seems that a critical mass is reached when the whole mental structure is in danger of toppling under its own weight. An unforeseen catalyst appears (a brick in the pavement?), and instantly the whole massive mountain of concepts comes tumbling down, the pieces of the puzzle fall into place, and the awe-striking vision, a reorganization of reality and what may be called the experiencing of an idea of an idea, occurs. The realization is usually not in the form of a neat formula, but is an abstraction and an intuition which may take years to interpret in normal world-view terms. The astro-mathematician Sir William Hamilton is a case in point. After years of searching for a solution to a problem in modern mechanics, he unexpectedly experienced an illumination in which the "galvanic circuit of thought closed" and he received a grand intuition. He became aware in the midst of his realization that it would require years to express his insight (Quaternion Theory).
Many people may have the quanity of facts and ideas in their mind that the experiencer of an illumination does, but few experience an illumination. The overwhelming desire proves the impetus which causes the fusion of memory into an illumination. As it is, the desire acts to form a constant tension between all the isolated bits of information in the memory. A "connection" is always subliminally sought to weave all the bits of information into one whole. When the "connection" is found, perhaps on a subconscious level, all the isolated ideas crystalize into one, tremendous idea. In the extremely knowledgable person - who has no consuming desire or question - this "tension between ideas" is not there, and thus the dramatic integration resulting in illumination does not occur.
Several years after his wife died, and concluding his own search to discover the meaning of it, Pearce experienced a tremendous illumination which crystallized the ideas in his book. Pearce explains, "And there, in my own little suspended moment out of mind, I 'saw'. The connecting link between the fragmented parts of my search fused. There was a great wash of understanding, powerful, total. I had my answer. Nothing was specific or articulate. It just was, in a perfectly clear kind of ultimate certainty.... in my experience what was understood to be the 'answer' was the very function by which I had achieved my 'seeing'. My answer was a turning in on the process of questioning. That is, the answer to my passionate pursuit was insight into how the answers to passionate questions are formed in the mind. I saw that this was but an extension of the very ontological function by which 'things were' . . . I saw that the only 'truth' for us is the process of questioning what truth might be, and receiving answers in keeping with the nature of our questions." The process of realization proved to be the realization of the process. For Pearce, the mirror had reflected upon itself and the serpent had bitten its tail.
With The Crack in the Cosmic Egg Pearce has opened up new vistas for research and created avenues for unprecedented speculation and possibility. He has not said it all, but provided the kernel that can provide direction to form a "metaworld-view," that is, a world-view which is "one step back" and realizes the very process of world-view formation. Pearce outlines the processes by which realities are formed and thus provides us with the possibility of consciously altering our reality. This has great meaning on the social as well as the personal level. The book is now over seven years old and it has not of yet produced any great furor in the sciences. I fear that the time is not yet ripe for the type of ideas Pearce has presented. My suspicion is still greater that the time may never be ripe. He has provided a formula for "grabbing the tiller of the world" and, as is usual with such esoteric ideas, only a few will be motivated to carry the ideas out of the realm of abstraction and into their personal lives - the only place where they can be realized.
The Puzzle of Autism
Researched by Keith McWilliams
Among childhood developmental disabilities, "autism" is perhaps the most difficult to understand because of the wide differences in severity, periodic symptomatic changes, inconsistent past research and difficulty in diagnosis due to the lack of specific physical signs at the onset.
The word "autism" was first coined by the Swiss psychiatrist Eugene Bleuler in 1906 to describe the quality of psychotic ideation in a group of patients diagnosed as having dementia praecox or "schizophrenia," another word Bleuler introduced into the professional nomenclature. The common characteristic of these patients was an obstinate referring of everything in the world to themselves.
In 1943 child psychiatrist Leo Kanner, using Bleuler's terminology, described a group of disturbed children who shared an inability to relate to other human beings in a paper entitled "Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact." The following years found clinical centers studying and treating this dysfunction from different angles employing such techniques as vitamins, drugs, shock and psychotherapy. Each research group developed its own terminology and treatment until it was finally realized that a common language was needed for researchers to work together. The term "autism" was eventually chosen to refer to this little understood condition. Synonymous terms that are also commonly used are childhood autism, primary autism, infantile autism and autistic child.
Results of research have led the medical and psychiatric professions to believe that autism is a physical disease of the brain and central nervous system (CNS), often found in conjunction with other diseases affecting the CNS. It manifests itself at birth or shortly thereafter and lasts the life of the patient. It afflicts children without regard to race, family background or geographical distribution. No known factors in the psychological environment produce autism.
It is usually the mother who notices unusual characteristics in her child at birth or shortly thereafter, particularly if she has had other children, although she may not be able to specify the subtle nature of what she sees and feels. Otherwise, parents may note normal development up to eighteen to twenty-four months before symptoms appear. By the thirty-sixth month if autism is present it will have manifested itself.
The symptoms of autism fall into five groups:
Perception disturbances may be either hypo-reactive or hyper-reactive. The hypo-reactive patient does not react to verbal commands or sounds. Loud noises do not startle the patient. Visually there is no reaction to new persons or objects and tactile or painful stimuli have no effect. Walking into walls or objects as if they do not exist is common.
The hyper-reactive patient shows heightened awareness and sensitivity to stimuli and may seek out this stimulation. Scratching surfaces while placing the ears close, rubbing, banging or flicking at the ears, listening to background noises of minimal intensity and teeth-grinding produce auditory input. Visual input might be watching hand and finger movements, observing fine details of surfaces or simply intense staring episodes. Autistic children also show a marked interest in objects that spin such as a top. Tactile stimuli may be provided by rubbing furniture or objects. Other common behaviors are whirling, rocking and head-rolling. Repetitive hand-flapping is also thought to provide stimulus input.
Any routine stimuli might also provoke distress or fear in the autistic child. A sudden change in light or a barking dog may produce severe agitation. A child who whirls himself might be terrified by the feeling of motion in an elevator.
Autistic children have an abnormal developmental rate in terms of the normal sequence of motor, language and social expectancies. They may learn to sit without support very early but never manage to pull to a stand.
Disturbances of relating emerge in deviant or poor eye contact, delayed or absent social smile and stranger anxiety, aversion to physical contact and relating to only a part of another person. Older autistics are unable to form peer relationships and are sporadically responsive to their parents.
Speech and language may be totally absent, or when it does occur, atonal, arhythmic and lacking in inflection and emotion.
Motility disturbances usually involve moving the hands and arms within the visual field. Toe-walking while running has been observed. Body-rocking, head-rolling or banging, and swaying are also common disturbances. These periods of motility are often interrupted by spells of immobility.
Autism and epileptic seizures frequently co-exist, especially as the autistic child becomes older. First seizures usually develop between the ages of thirteen and nineteen and may include grand mal and psychomotor seizures.
There is no known cure for autism. At present the only available treatment for autism is symptomatic. This has proven, however, to be effective in the majority of cases. Research is continuing into the natural history of the disease in the hopes of someday finding the specific cause and nipping the problem in the bud. Until that time autism remains a puzzle to those who treat it.
The Way of the Heart:
A Transpersonal Approach to the Severely Disharmonized Child
by Gordon Broussard
[Gordon Broussard was born on August 19, 1943 in Beaumont, Texas. He has a B.S. in chemistry and an M.Ed. in counseling, and is presently working as a counselor at Angie Nall Hospital in Beaumont, Texas. He is interested in utilizing mechanical apparatus to validate the existence of the Heart and its integral relationship to healing and meditation.]
Preface
This book did not start out as what it has become - a philosophical treatise. In the beginning it was planned simply as a book on a different approach to disturbed children. Somehow, along the way it became what it had to become; for what I do each day with my kids is not something I turn off and on just for their benefit.
My approach to the disharmonized children with whom I work is the same as my approach to life - it springs from the Heart. My philosophy is an integral part of even the most minute part of my life and it is only natural that it should be the most important part of this book.
What is recorded here was once something I only read about. Now it is becoming something I live. I can truthfully say that little of what I record herein is beyond my experience. I can also say that for the most part this book flowed from within with little thought on my part. This book comes from the Heart, not from the mind. Although recorded as though written by "me," it was really written by "I am."
The way of the Heart is a starting point. One may look to Chapter 11 or perhaps find what he is looking for elsewhere. I make no claims, beat no drums, proclaim no truths that are mine alone. If you find something within it is because the time was right. This book is the truth as I know it, nothing more.
Chapter 1: Spiritual harmonization
What's in a name? What is the significance of a word? Of a label?
This is a book on spiritual harmonization; what is really meant by that?
Often things of the spirit and religion are identified with each other and sometimes this is quite appropriate. It is indeed true that many spiritual people - people who have turned toward things of the spirit - are also religious; that is, they oftimes belong to organized religion. However, it is not always true that religious people are spiritual.
It is the job of a specialist such as a psychotherapist to work with individuals who are said to be emotionally disturbed. Most often, this work is done only at the lower levels of the multidimensional being that is man. For this reason, changes which occur, especially for the severely disturbed, are not always as prompt nor as complete as they could be. It is the job of the spiritual harmonizer to work with individuals who have somehow become disharmonized to an extent greater than is considered normal for the general population. Generally speaking, almost everyone is disharmonized to at least some extent. Almost everyone, that is, except one of those exceedingly rare individuals who have become aware of their essential nature. It is an axiom of spiritual harmonization that the more harmonized one is the more of a harmonizing effect he has on others. As one progresses, he moves from being an unconscious harmonizer (one can thus be a spiritual harmonizer without being aware of it) to being a conscious one and the effectiveness of the harmonization increases significantly.
There are degrees and varieties of disharmony. That form of disharmony encompassed by physical illness, involving the body, is usually treated by physicians; and that form of disharmony encompassed by the emotions is usually treated by one of the many kinds of specialists who deal with the ''mind." The spiritual harmonizer is unique in that he works with disorders of both mind and body. Many physicians and specialists who deal with the mind are either conscious or unconscious spiritual harmonizers but more often they are the latter.
All disharmony is spiritual in nature. It is, in fact, a part of spiritual growth. One assumes an illness - that is, he accepts it at some level of his being - as a way of learning a necessary lesson.
As will be explained in more detail in a later chapter, an individual can be helped to achieve greater harmony only to the extent that he has learned his lesson and is ready to give up - again, at some level of his being - the disease or emotional problem.
The way to total harmony is both hard and easy. Few people, however, are willing to undergo the discipline required to travel the road to the Oneness that is total harmony. Fewer people still find the right road.