Mysticism and its potential for (human) mind development
404 views
Skip to first unread message
Brandon Woodson
Sep 1, 2014, 11:42:11 AM9/1/14
to brain-t...@googlegroups.com
(Discussion imported from offspring conversation regarding mysticism in existing thread: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/brain-training/d-p0sjpe3FU%5B51-75-false%5D)
The endeavors of analysis and traditional Eastern study don't necessarily have to be mutually exclusive. In fact, it's likely that in the future they will be highly complimentary and that a synergistic discipline will form. Ultimately, the proponents of these now distinct disciplines all seek truth, and history has a habit of marrying apparently disjunctive fields into unity. They are more like dots that need connection than bridges to many different and irreconcilable truths.
It seems that, beneath the veneer of nonsensical dogma and superstition, the purpose of many schools of occultism and esotericism (yoga technically qualifies) is to harmonize elements of the "unconscious" and reveal more and more of the mind. From what I can tell with the data on hand, there are many ways to achieve this, and many different practices commonly employed might be operating under very similar principles.
As for rearranging one's neurochemistry, yes, one could alter consciousness by chemical force, but ideally one would alter chemical composition by consciousness, reversing the causation. It's reported that persons, for instance, who master certain schools of yoga involving the "energy body" like Hatha, Tantra, or Kundalini, develop mastery over their body's pleasure systems and can induce intoxicating states of euphoria at will. In fact, there is much that can be done to gain increased control over normally autonomous bodily functions. Like the scientific demonstration in 1973 before a small team of experts where the yogi stopped the activity of his heart for days. Or another demonstration where a yogi remained conscious in stage 4 sleep. Or another where one stopped all detectable brain EEG activity, again before a panel of expert in controlled settings. Need I go on? Maybe future humans will decide which state of consciousness to momentarily evince based on suitability to task.
Not all human intelligence, while all being interrelated, demands the use of "conceptual" differentiation. The high kinesthetic intelligence of a world-class athlete, who demonstrates remarkable control over the movement of the body, is an example. The sense of mechanisms involved is differentiated enough so as to give more freedom (options), and therefore precision, in movement. It's a non-conceptual form of differentiation. Psychometric intelligence deals primarily in the level of conceptual and schematic differentiation, and the levels of non-conceptual differentiation that make thought possible. Since no one is going back to the benighted mindset wherein superstition is valid epistemology, the ability to conceptualize is as important as ever, hence the common goal here on the ML to raise I.Q, or at least ascertain whether it's possible.
I wouldn't be so quick to subscribe to any established dogma or worldview, but to test and question every bit of data as critically as possible, and thoughtfully examine truth wherever it may be gleaned. My feeling is that, while schools of mysticism will bring untold truths to Western thought, they by no stretch of the imagination individually possess comprehensive apodicticity, as evident by each's (to varying extents) limited workability. Superior understanding would manifest superior workability.
Project gF? I've been meaning to update it for some time, but until this past week where I've had some spare time, I've been pretty busy. I may post an update soon (or at least remove the last update promising a future update). :P It'll probably be defunct for some time to come since I travel a lot lately for work and probably won't have time to properly maintain it.
--Brandon
The endeavors of analysis and traditional Eastern study don't necessarily have to be mutually exclusive. In fact, it's likely that in the future they will be highly complimentary and that a synergistic discipline will form. Ultimately, the proponents of these now distinct disciplines all seek truth, and history has a habit of marrying apparently disjunctive fields into unity. They are more like dots that need connection than bridges to many different and irreconcilable truths.
It seems that, beneath the veneer of nonsensical dogma and superstition, the purpose of many schools of occultism and esotericism (yoga technically qualifies) is to harmonize elements of the "unconscious" and reveal more and more of the mind. From what I can tell with the data on hand, there are many ways to achieve this, and many different practices commonly employed might be operating under very similar principles.
As for rearranging one's neurochemistry, yes, one could alter consciousness by chemical force, but ideally one would alter chemical composition by consciousness, reversing the causation. It's reported that persons, for instance, who master certain schools of yoga involving the "energy body" like Hatha, Tantra, or Kundalini, develop mastery over their body's pleasure systems and can induce intoxicating states of euphoria at will. In fact, there is much that can be done to gain increased control over normally autonomous bodily functions. Like the scientific demonstration in 1973 before a small team of experts where the yogi stopped the activity of his heart for days. Or another demonstration where a yogi remained conscious in stage 4 sleep. Or another where one stopped all detectable brain EEG activity, again before a panel of expert in controlled settings. Need I go on? Maybe future humans will decide which state of consciousness to momentarily evince based on suitability to task.
Not all human intelligence, while all being interrelated, demands the use of "conceptual" differentiation. The high kinesthetic intelligence of a world-class athlete, who demonstrates remarkable control over the movement of the body, is an example. The sense of mechanisms involved is differentiated enough so as to give more freedom (options), and therefore precision, in movement. It's a non-conceptual form of differentiation. Psychometric intelligence deals primarily in the level of conceptual and schematic differentiation, and the levels of non-conceptual differentiation that make thought possible. Since no one is going back to the benighted mindset wherein superstition is valid epistemology, the ability to conceptualize is as important as ever, hence the common goal here on the ML to raise I.Q, or at least ascertain whether it's possible.
I wouldn't be so quick to subscribe to any established dogma or worldview, but to test and question every bit of data as critically as possible, and thoughtfully examine truth wherever it may be gleaned. My feeling is that, while schools of mysticism will bring untold truths to Western thought, they by no stretch of the imagination individually possess comprehensive apodicticity, as evident by each's (to varying extents) limited workability. Superior understanding would manifest superior workability.
Project gF? I've been meaning to update it for some time, but until this past week where I've had some spare time, I've been pretty busy. I may post an update soon (or at least remove the last update promising a future update). :P It'll probably be defunct for some time to come since I travel a lot lately for work and probably won't have time to properly maintain it.
--Brandon
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages