Alterations of Consciousness, Ultimate Reality, The Catuskoti & Self-Realization

Alterations of Consciousness at a Self-Development Seminar: A Matrix Energetics Seminar Survey by Imants Baruss, Carolyn van Lier & Diana Ali

Matrix Energetics is a system of self-transformation developed by Richard Bartlett in the context of alternative medicine, which he teaches at training seminars around the world to anyone who wishes to learn it. The authors conducted the present study to determine what happens psychologically at a Matrix Energetics seminar and to see if there could be any long-term health benefits associated with participation at such a seminar. Participants were 97 attendees at a Matrix Energetics seminar held over three days at a hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There were 69 women and 26 men (N = 95) with a mean age of 51.1 years (SD = 13.2; age range: 18–77 years; N = 94). Participants were given questionnaires to complete before the beginning of the seminar, at the end of each of the three days, and through a website at a two-month follow-up. The questionnaires included measures of demographic information, personality, psychological well-being, physical and mental health, state of being, and profundity of experiences. In addition, behavioral observations were made and participants were interviewed. During the seminar participants appeared to experience reality as being more plastic than we ordinarily assume it to be while in an attentive, expanded, and emotionally positive state of being. Using the total scale of the 36-Item RAND Health Survey, a paired samples t test revealed that overall health was better at the follow-up (M = 81.33; SD = 10.43) than at the time of the initial questionnaires (M = 72.77; SD = 16.15) with t(24) = 3.42, p = .002 (two-tailed), although that result needs to be interpreted with caution. The alterations of consciousness experienced in the context of Matrix Energetics should be further investigated as should the potentially therapeutic benefits of experiencing Matrix Energetics. See http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/419

The Catuskoti by Peter Fumich

An essential principal to Buddhism is non-dualism. However, the Catuskoti is clearly a system still immersed in dualism. This sort of dualism is more like that of the dual in Tao. Taken by themselves, the two relative states contain within themselves the nature of the absolutes. The only thing which differentiates are the notions both, neither. It is much like the yin and yang symbol. However, more accurately as we go on we see a fractal emerge. Hence, the ultimate truth, one in which we seem to conceptually call the more subtle truth is an illusion. The infinite recursion of this extension hints at an ultimate truth arising at ¥. The conception which takes within it this very fractal nature is truly enlightened. A truth which is free from dualism is either entirely immersed within dualism, or it lacks the distinction of truth all together. The use of the Catuskoti serves the purpose to hint ultimately at a non-truth. Speaking in terms of tautologies and ineffables, we will see the Catuskoti is a conceptual elaboration of traditional dualism, absolute true and false. While this itself is a conceptual elaboration of the union of true and false, Sunyata or 0. Sunyata is a conceptual elaboration of itself, which of course cannot be explained conceptually because then it emerges from non-conceptual Sunyata to conceptual Sunyata of 0. We can hint at it by saying, as a truth space, the non-conceptual Sunyata be U, then the set of ineffables of U and tautologies of U forms the conceptual elaboration of U. It should be clear that careful attention to our use of V4, the Klein 4 group, will be sufficient to realize a conceptual grasp of the non-conceptual Sunyata. See http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/420

On the Ultimate Reality underlying both the World & Consciousness by James Kowall & Pradeep Deshpande

The scientific basis for spirituality is discussed in the context of a recent book by Amanda Gefter. This book demonstrates that the standoff between science and spirituality is about what is meant by "reality". For science, "reality" is perceivable reality, while for spirituality, "reality" is ultimate reality. This is the difference between somethingness and nothingness; the difference between what is perceivable and the perceiving consciousness; the difference between physical reality and spiritual reality; the difference between the manifested world and the unmanifested source. There is a perfect standoff in this debate because when the term "reality" is used, science and spirituality are speaking about different "things". See http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/421

The Problem of the Self by Cosmin Visan

Consciousness presents us with many aspects. In trying to explain consciousness, one may be tempted to address only the problem of qualia, as for example explaining color red. But can this attempt be done on its own without somehow taking into account also the subject of experience? In this paper, we will concentrate in addressing the problem of the Self without any reference to any particular quale. The best place where the Self can be analyzed is at a point where it no longer exists, that being in principal the moment of death. By analyzing what life after death might mean, we will shed light on some characteristics of the Self. It will turn out that the problem of the Self is the problem of the continuity or discontinuity of the Self. See http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/422

The Ocean of Consciousness by Steven E. Kaufman

No matter how the world appears, it is still composed of Consciousness, the same Substance, the same Beingness, flowing in stillness and turbulence. That is why the Universe is one, regardless of how it appears, because of the singular and unchanging Nature of that of which it is composed. As the ocean is composed only of water, regardless of how many waves arise from it, the Universe is composed only of Consciousness, regardless of how many forms arise within it. See http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/423

The Field of Formless Potential by Steven E. Kaufman

Body and mind are just vehicles, just Forms that the formless Self uses to apprehend other Forms of Itself that arise like swirls within the formless Ocean of its ever formless Self. And so it is that, That which tries to apprehend what seems to be there is eventually found to be not different from or other than what actually is there, once what seems to be there as physical and mental form has been completely untangled into the Formless Potentiality that is actually there. See http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/424

The Mythology of Materialism by Steven E. Kaufman

The philosophy of materialism holds that Life arises within an otherwise lifeless universe. And so it is that Consciousness, when viewed through that lens, must be seen as a by-product, as an accident, as something that only arises through the chance interaction of otherwise lifeless matter that by chance happens to be involved in the process we call life. However, as there is nothing in the apple that is not first in the tree from which it grows, there is nothing in us that is not first in the Universe out of which we grow. Thus, Life seems to arise from within the Universe because the Universe is already Alive, and Consciousness seems to arise out of Life because the Universe is already Conscious. See http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/425

That Which Flows by Steven E. Kaufman

That of which form is composed is Emptiness, Beingness, Formlessness, whereas form itself is just a pattern of flow that arises where Emptiness, Beingness, Formlessness flows in relation to Itself. See http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/426

That Which Is Hidden by Steven E. Kaufman

Blind to the Formlessness of which all forms are composed, we are blind to That which connects all forms, and so blind to That which makes all forms One. But once you recognize the part of yourself that has been hiding from you, and yet was always there in plain sight, then what once seemed most real becomes the shadow, and what seemed to be the shadow becomes what is most Real. See http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/427

The Mythical Brain: Is the Science of Movie Lucy Wrong? by Eduardo Schenberg

The movie Lucy explores the idea that we use only 10% of our brains which, according to an editorial in Nature Neuroscience, is wrong. However, we may reframe the myth to reveal the underlying meaning: it is not about using just 10% of the brain, but about perceiving only a very small fraction of what the brain is doing. If we will, we can stop our usual, daily routine activities, or our usual day dreaming, and immediately we start noticing more. The alternative interpretation to Lucy is that the movie is not about the brain, but about consciousness. Change the metaphor and you get a totally different meaning. See http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/428