Education

[CFTraveler]

edit: actually, I'm rattling my brains at the moment to remember a book I read, written by a psychiatrist who had spent his whole career documenting the experiences, beliefs and concepts of drug-takers and the mentally-ill. He made some remarkable discoveries during his documentations due to the fact that many deities, achetypes and symbols of ancient texts were known to manifest again during these sessions/documentations, suggesting, although very lightly, that there are firm and consistent spirit realities that can be tapped into.

I think this might be a sign of undercurrents in the brains processing and how it handles representations of reality and abstractions of it. This might be a bit vague as I’ve just thought of it and so not fleshed it out, but it seems under the surface layer of word based thought, one meets deeper levels of associations, symbols and abstractions.
What if there are certain natural processes which produce, through their actions, affinity to certain concepts, such as certain religious iconography or archetypes.
What if (more likely) our current known spiritual archetypes, religious figures and symbols are outwards representations of this, and so explaining why down the ages certain associations/symbols seem to appear. It might not point to a greater reality (as such) more a reality of the mind/brain.

Maybe this has something to do with the discovery that when certain parts of the brain (in the temporal lobe, I believe) are stimulated with a particular frequency, an 'alien abduction eposiode' is experienced. I've often wondered who put that particular 'video' in our brains?

[mick]

Maybe this has something to do with the discovery that when certain parts of the brain (in the temporal lobe, I believe) are stimulated with a particular frequency, an 'alien abduction eposiode' is experienced. I've often wondered who put that particular 'video' in our brains?

Sounds like you are referring to the work of Persinger, an account here.
http://www.geocities.com/satanicus_2/GodHelmet.html

From what I have read the experience has a tendency to match the persons cultural makeup so a strongly religious will maybe have a religious experience, others maybe a UFO experience. The basic stimulus often seems to be a sense of presence.
The article is kind of interesting in that it talks about him having no peer support for his work nor funding. It apparently has all been financed privately.

[sash]

It is about perceptions. What an exorcist might see as a demon, a psychotherapist might see as a brain anomaly, a counsellor might see as a social disorder, a spiritualist might see as an awakened energy body.
I find synthesis is useful, and dropping these terms in general much a requisite.
For instance, isn't it odd that most people suffering from schizophrenia also have seemed to attain some level of spiritual enlightenment?
Or should we rather say, isn't it odd that so many people who have attained spiritual enlightenment have experienced some form of schizophrenia?

I'm beginning to view this whole general perspective as an issue of awareness rather than education per se.
Education seems to lose the essence of meanings.
No wonder it is near to impossible for spiritual teachings to work in a structured environment.

In the meantime I still think basic premises such as astral projection or healing, for instance, could be taught in such a structured environment.
I know that healing is taught quite a lot institutionally in Australia (and astral projection too, but not quite as widely).
Unfortunately it is not reaching as many people as it needs to be reaching.

Even in the most professional cases all related studies appear to be bucketed under "Psychology" (that's if they are lucky and not deemed "parapsychology").
However it appears that seldom people wouldn't want to know about their true nature and functioning. If this statement is true, then such teachings should not be exclusive to just psychology, when we are talking about the issue in a practical sense.

[Freawaru]

It is about perceptions. What an exorcist might see as a demon, a psychotherapist might see as a brain anomaly, a counsellor might see as a social disorder, a spiritualist might see as an awakened energy body.
I find synthesis is useful, and dropping these terms in general much a requisite.
For instance, isn't it odd that most people suffering from schizophrenia also have seemed to attain some level of spiritual enlightenment?
Or should we rather say, isn't it odd that so many people who have attained spiritual enlightenment have experienced some form of schizophrenia?

I think that article by Dion Fortune (at the Expanding Consciousness, Western mystery schools) hit it on the nail. During childhood our brain devellops a sense of self, that bases on comparing what happens to what is expected. Energy work or any other spiritual work, also shock, etc, can destabilize this sense of self or make it too strong, so that new "talents" and levels are not integrated properly. This is why the acient traditions do teach how to integrate this new stuff into the sense of self. The "demon" as well as the "angel" or "teacher" origins inside the person but it is experienced as outside and beyond control.

Also take for example "depersonalization disorder"

http://www.depersonalization.info/overview.html

I have experienced both this disorder (only a short time) and it is no fun. But there is another state, similar in many ways, namely the Impersonal Witness that is a (almost) full Enlightment state (state of vipassana). In both cases you are detached from this brain created sense of self and merged with something else (this also happend in samadhi). The difference is that in the disorder you just detach but do not reach higher levels of insight.

There seem to be three basic ways of dealing with the "demons". The first is to accept it as an ouside form and fight it (excorcism), the second is to know it is an inner form and lean to use and control it by rituals, symbolism and what Fortune calls "rising on the planes", that do not let the psychics influence the sense of self. The third is to expand the sense of self (a slow process) and finally overcome it completely (it is artifical after all) and thus become aware that the external had always been an internal force (Atman=Brahman Enlightment).