On October 11, 1975, in San Francisco, Archangel Zadkiel announced the transfer from the priests and priestesses of the Violet Planet of the Cathedral of the Violet Flame. We will continue working with the Six Rays of God to transmute any elements from the previous day’s journey. Saint Germain will guide us to Table Mountain, Wyoming to the “Cave of Symbols” which is a cave in the mountain lined with pink and white crystals that gives way to a gigantic chamber covered with rainbow colored stalactites that form symbols representing sacred geometry.

 

Each participant will work through the revelations they received from the Royal Teton Retreat. This retreat houses the “Cosmic Mirror” in which an individual will see the cause and effect of their karma along with the “Atomic Accelerator” which brings forth electrons in the Light Body to make the necessary changes, and lastly, the “Sphere of Light” which is a room that will help an initiate in their ascension process.We now start the work within the 7th Ray of the Violet/Purple Flame with the Archangels Zadkiel and Amethyst along with the Elohim Masters Arcturus and Virginia.Students of Ascended Master Teachings organizations (also known as Ascended Master Activities) believe that their doctrine has been given to humanity by the Ascended Masters, individuals believed to have lived in physical bodies, acquired the wisdom and mastery needed to become immortal and free of the cycles of "re-embodiment" and karma, and have attained their "ascension", a state of "one-ness" with God. This knowledge is believed to have previously been taught for millions of years only within "Ascended master retreats" and "Mystery schools".

 

Adherents of the Ascended Master Teachings believe that this wisdom was partially released by the Theosophical Society beginning in 1875, by C.W. Leadbeater and Alice A. Bailey, and began to have more detailed public release in the 1930s by the Ascended Masters through Guy Ballard in the I AM Activity.[1][2] However, Theosophists maintain the concept of Ascended Masters are a corruption of the original Theosophical concept of the Masters of the Ancient Wisdom.

 

The term Ascended Master was first introduced in 1934 by Guy Ballard with the publication of Unveiled Mysteries, a book which he said was dictated to him by the Ascended Master: St. Germain. Other Ascended Master Teachings are contained in The Bridge to Freedom The Summit Lighthouse (1958), (Known also as The Church Universal and Triumphant[6] The Aetherius Society (1955),[7] The Temple of The Presence (1995),[8] the I AM University (2004), the White Eagle Lodge (1936) and the Aquarian Christine Church Universal, Inc. (2006)

 

Our first visitation on this day will be “The Cathedral of the Violet Flame” in the Rocky Mountains which includes all Violet Flame Angels and Priests and Priestesses of the Violet Planet representing elemental life. This retreat represents to ability to be cleared of human burdens and densities.

 

Our second visitation will be the “Temple of Purification”with Archangels Zadkiel and Amethyst which is located over the islands of Cuba (previously known to be the location of Atlantis). Part of the initiation for this journey will represent the work with the Order of Melchizedek as training as a Priest/Priestess along with learning the true meaning of “spiritual freedom.

 

The third visitation will be the “Temple of Freedom” with Elohim Masters Arcturus and Virginia which is located over Luanda, Angola; they release the violet, purple and pink flames of mercy, forgiveness, transmutation and freedom for the entire planet, as a giant fiery pillar. We will be utilizing the Violet Flame to overcome difficult situations on a personal and planetary scale, to transmute darkness into light.

Universal All-Pervading Presence of Life[edit]

Students of the Ascended Master Teachings believe that there is One God, the "Universal All-Pervading Presence of Life", "The One", Who is the Source of all Life, Light, and Love in existence, and that all forms of existence and consciousness emanate from this "Allness of God" - "The One". The Voice of the I AM states "All Life is One" [11] and that there is "One Substance, One Energy, One Power, One Intelligence" as the Source of all consciousness and creation.[12] This Divine Being and Mind is considered to be above and distinct from all creation (in the sense of classical theism), transcending all creation yet interpenetrating all existence. Belief in this "One God" stresses the essential unity of the spiritual and material components of the universe. God creates through Individualized Identities that have distinct Self-Consciousness and that make up the Spiritual Hierarchy of Creation, yet remain connected through the flow of the "River of Life" and "Lifestream" to the "One Undivided God" - the "All in All" - the "Good" - the "Source from which all Life, Light, and Love come." There is always an uninterrupted "Oneness" that is maintained with the "Allness" of God. From the "One God" all other realities, including hierarchy, humanity and the material universe, are the result of a process of emanation.[2]

 

The Individualized "I AM" Presence[edit]

Adherents of the Ascended Master Teachings believe that each person is an incarnation of an "Individualized Presence" of the "Most High Living God" - the "Mighty I AM Presence" - as part of our very Nature and Being. God (as Life and Love) manifests in the 7 octaves of the created universe through individual Divine Identities. As embodied individuals, we are the outer expression of that God Self in form. It is our unique and immortal True Identity, yet always sharing in the Allness of the ONE GOD.[2]

 

Ascended Master Saint Germain, believed by those adherent to the Ascended Master Teachings to have previously been embodied as Plato, Proclus, Roger Bacon, Francis Bacon, and numerous others, was quoted as saying:

 

"When one individualizes within the Absolute, All-Pervading Life, he chooses of his own free will to become an intensified individual focus of Self-Conscious Intelligence. He is the conscious director of his future activities. Thus, having once made his choice, he is the only one who can fulfill that Destiny — which is not inflexible circumstance but a definitely designed Plan of Perfection." [13] When You, the 'Mighty I AM Presence,' will to come forth into an Individualized Focus of Conscious Dominion and use the Creative Word, 'I AM,' Your First Individual Activity is the Formation of a Flame. Then you, the 'Individualized Focus' of the 'Mighty I AM Presence,' begin your Dynamic Expression of Life. This Activity, We term Self-consciousness, meaning the Individual who is conscious of his Source and Perfection of Life, expressing through himself." [1]

 

Twin Flames[edit]

Saint Germain explained through Guy Ballard:

 

"The 'Almighty God Flame,' breathing within Itself, projects Two Rays into the 'Great Sea of Pure Electronic Light.' This Intelligent Light-substance becomes the clothing, as it were, for these Rays of the 'Mighty I AM Presence.' Each Ray has all the Attributes of the Godhead within It, and no imperfection can ever enter into or register upon It. The Individualized Flame sends down into each Ray a Focal Point, or Spark, forming a Heart Center upon which gathers the 'Electronic Light Substance,' creating the Electronic Body." [1]

 

In 1937, The Voice of the I AM article on this subject elaborated:

 

"When the Ascension of both has taken place, each is the complete balance of all masculine and all feminine qualities within himself. Then the Threefold Flame of Life is completely unfolded, the individual becomes Master at Cosmic Levels of creation and does work with systems of worlds, as well as in this physical world. Thus, that which came out of the Great Central Sun as One Flame becomes Three complete Flames, each of the same full Limitless Power and Activity as the Great Central Sun. This becomes the Cosmic Activity of the Power of the 'Three times Three'. "When both Rays have made the Ascension, then the individual works with systems of worlds instead of just in one world. This is the way the Godhead is ever expanding the Perfection of Itself throughout Infinity and keeping order throughout interstellar space." [14]

 

Beliefs about Ascended Masters[edit]

It is believed that Ascended Masters are individuals who were once embodied on Earth and learned the lessons of life in their incarnations. They gained mastery over the limitations of the matter planes, balanced at least 51% of negative karma, and fulfilled their Dharma (Divine Plan). An Ascended Master has become God-like and a source of unconditional Love to all life, and through the Ascension has united with his or her own God Self, the "I AM" Presence. It is claimed that they serve as the teachers of mankind from the realms of Spirit, and that all people will eventually attain their Ascension and move forward in spiritual evolution beyond this planet. According to these teachings, they remain attentive to the spiritual needs of humanity, and act to inspire and motivate its spiritual growth. In many traditions and organizations, they are considered part of the Spiritual Hierarchy for Earth, and members of the Great Brotherhood of Light, also known as the Great White Lodge or Great White Brotherhood.[2]

 

Belief in the Brotherhood and the Masters is an essential part of the beliefs of various organizations that have continued and expanded the concepts released in the original Saint Germain instruction in the 1930s through The "I AM" Activity.[15][16][17][18][19] Examples of those believed by the ones proposing these teachings to be Ascended Masters would be the Master Jesus, Confucius, Gautama Buddha, Mary the Mother of Jesus, St. Paul of Tarsus (aka Hilarion), Melchizedek, Archangel Michael, Metatron, Kwan Yin, Saint Germain and Kuthumi, as well as dozens of others.[20]

 

Unveiled Mysteries records:

 

"Truly the Great Ascended Masters are Gods. It is no wonder in the mythology of the ancients that their activities have been brought down to us in the guise of myth and fable. They wield Tremendous God Power at all times because they hold with unwavering determination to the Great God Presence and hence all Power is given unto them for they are All-Perfection. "'When Jesus said, All these things I have done, ye shall do and even greater things shall ye do, he knew whereof he spoke,' continued Saint Germain. 'He came forth to reveal the Conscious Dominion and Mastery that it is possible for every human being to attain and express while still here on Earth." [13]

 

Great Sea of Universal Light, Life, and Love[edit]

Unveiled Mysteries states:

 

"Try to think upon this Power, which is within you. Call into use the Great Sea of Universal Substance from which you may draw without limit. It obeys, without exception, the direction of thought, and records any quality imposed upon it, through the activity of the feeling nature in mankind. Universal Substance is obedient to your conscious will at all times. It is constantly responding to humanity's thought and feeling whether they realize it or not. There is no instant at which human beings are not giving this Substance one quality or another, and it is only through the knowledge that the individual has conscious control and manipulation of a Limitless Sea of It that he begins to understand the possibilities of his own Creative Powers, and the responsibilities resting upon him in the use of his thought and feeling." [13]

 

Spiritual Hierarchy[edit]

Main article: Spiritual Hierarchy

Adherents of these Ascended Master Teachings believe that the All-Pervading Presence of God does not act nor create except through Its Individualizations. All creation comes forth through These Individual Identities and is sustained by Them. According to Elizabeth Clare Prophet, this Spiritual Hierarchy is a "Universal Chain" of Individualized God Free Beings fulfilling Attributes and Aspects of God's Infinite Selfhood. Included in this Cosmic Hierarchical scheme are Solar Logoi, Elohim, Sons and Daughters of God, Ascended Masters, Cosmic Beings, the Twelve Solar Hierarchies, Archangels, Angels, Beings of the Elements, and Twin Flames of the Alpha-Omega Polarity sponsoring Systems of Worlds and entire Galactic Systems. This Universal Order of Divine Self-Expression is the means whereby God in the Great Central Sun steps down [ spiritual energy from ] the Presence and Essence of His Universal Being / Consciousness in order that all Life in time and space might give and receive Unconditional Divine Love. One's placement on this "Ladder of Life" in the Spirit / Matter Universes is determined by one's level of Spiritual Attainment - measured by Awareness and Manifestation of balanced Love, Wisdom, and Power - as well as the embodying of other Divine Qualities."

 

Use of "I AM" in decrees, affirmations, and invocations[edit]

A characteristic of students of the Ascended Master Teachings is the use of God's Creative Name - "I AM" - in the use of Decrees, Fiats, Adorations, and Affirmations to invoke and send forth the Light of God to Bless Life, to bring forth the Perfect Divine solution for every situation, and to fulfill the Divine Plan. It is believed to be a way of externalizing more Divine Light, Divine Love, and Divine Life into the lower planes of creation through the dynamic force of sound vibration as creative energy.[2]

 

The Magic Presence states:

 

"Only the Self-conscious Individual has ALL the Attributes and Creative Power of the 'Mighty I AM Presence.' Only He can know who and what He is, and express the Fullness of the Creative Power of God whenever He decrees, by the use of the Words, 'I AM.' The outer human part of this activity is what We call the personality. It is but the vehicle through which Perfection should be expressed into the outer substance of the Universe.

 

"Within the 'Pure God-Flame' is a Breath that pulsates constantly. This `Great Fire-Breath' is a Rhythmic Outpouring of Divine Love, Its Three Attributes being 'Love, Wisdom, and Power in action.' These pour out constantly, into the 'Infinite Sea of Pure Electronic Light.' This Light is the Universal Substance or Spirit, out of which all forms are composed. It is intelligent, mark you, because It obeys law through the command of the Individual who says, or is conscious of, 'I AM.' These Two Words are the Acknowledgment and Release of the Power to Create and bring forth into outer existence, whatever quality follows That Acknowledgment. For Intelligence to act there must be Intelligence to be acted upon, and the Universal Substance, being like a photographic film, takes the record of what-ever quality the Individual imposes upon It through his thought, feeling, and spoken word. The Words 'I AM' whether thought, felt, or spoken, release the Power of Creation instantly. Make no mistake about this. Intelligence is Omnipresent, and It is within the Electronic Light." [1]

 

Violet Flame[edit]

Use of the "Violet Flame of Divine Love" is considered to be the 7th Ray aspect of the Holy Spirit and the "Sacred Fire" that transmutes and consumes the "cause, effect, record, and memory" of sin or negative karma. Also called the "Flame of Transmutation", the "Flame of Mercy", the "Flame of Freedom", and the "Flame of Forgiveness". "Our God is a Consuming Fire" in Deuteronomy 4:24 (KJV) and Hebrews 12:29 (KJV) is believed to be refer to this "Sacred Fire of God".

 

The "Violet Fire" is held to be a raising, transforming, purifying action of "Divine Love" from the "Heart of God" in the "Great Central Sun". It acts to transmute and consume human creation that is not worthy of becoming Immortal, and all negative karmic causes, effects, records, and memories, without the need to individually balance that karma face-to-face with each person back to the earliest beginning of one's individualized manifestation on this or any other world.[2]

 

Ascension[edit]

Main article: Initiation (Theosophy)

The Ascension is believed to be the returning to complete "Oneness with God" - "raising the outer atomic structure of the physical, emotional, and mental bodies into the Electronic Structure of the I AM Consciousness", becoming an Ascended Master, eventually a Cosmic Being, and beyond. The Ascension into Immortality through reunion with the God Self requires the consuming of at least 51% of the records and memories of "negatively qualified karma" as well as:

 

Mastery of the matter planes[edit]

It is believed that the "Individualized Flames of Perfection", emanating as lifestreams taking physical embodiment, can develop further attributes that express a unique Identity, and attain the fullness of the use of Light. This is done by mastery over matter planes that have a slower vibratory action, thus requiring more energy and concentration to externalize form. This allows for the development of greater skills of creation and "Causal Body Momentums" of various "Divine Qualities". Physical embodiment gives each individual the opportunity to expand these attributes and faculties through matter substance, and to become a "master of energy" through thought and feeling. This allows for accomplishments and added power which one who does not ever embody on a planet does not possess. Thus an individual may expand the "Flame in the Heart", and expand the "Perfection of the Allness of God's Love" in the created universe, eventually becoming an Ascended Master and later a Cosmic Being.

 

According to the Ascended Master Teachings, gaining "mastery over matter planes" means learning to consciously use 100% of one's Creative Power of thought, feeling, and spoken word to create greater perfection, joy, and love in the world, as opposed to using thoughts, feelings, and words to create greater limitations, bondage, and chaos in one's own experience and in the world at large through carelessness and lack of awareness of the extent of one's influence in the world. "Matter planes" refers to the differentiations of atomic and molecular structure in which evolution takes place, the lower planes (dimensions / wavelength frequency resonance) sometimes correlated with physical solids, liquids, and gases; the higher subplanes of the Physical Octave are sometimes referred to as "etheric" and are not normally perceivable by the physical senses. The emotional and mental octaves are also made up of electrons and atoms of feeling and thought substance and differentiated into levels of density and vibratory rate.[2]

 

"To understand the above explanation concerning the electron and the conscious control the individual has through his thought and feeling to govern the atomic structure of his own body is to understand the One Principle Governing form throughout Infinity. When man will make the effort to prove this to himself or within his own atomic flesh body, he will then proceed to Master Himself. When he has done that, all else in the Universe is his willing co-worker to accomplish whatsoever he wills through Love." [13]

 

Fulfillment of the Divine Plan[edit]

"Within the Life of every human being is the Power by which he can express all that the Ascended Masters express every moment — if he but chooses to do so. All Life contains Will but only Self-Conscious Life is free to determine upon its own course of expression. Hence, the individual has free choice to express either in the human, limited body or the Super-Human, Divine Body. He is the chooser of his own field of expression. He is the Self-determining Creator. He has willed and chosen to live as Self-Conscious Life. . . . When one individualizes within the Absolute, All-Pervading Life he chooses of his own free will to become an intensified individual focus of Self-Conscious Intelligence. He is the conscious director of his future activities. Thus, having once made his choice, he is the only one who can fulfill that Destiny - which is not inflexible circumstance but a definitely designed Plan of Perfection.[13]

 

Threefold Flame[edit]

The Threefold Flame of Life is the Immortal Flame within the Heart of the children of Light and Sons and Daughters of God, and is an actual extension of the Heart of the I AM Presence of each Lifestream in embodiment on Earth.[2]

 

The fall of man[edit]

It is believed that since the "fall of man" during the time of the incarnation of the Fourth Root Race, imperfection, limitations and discord increasingly entered into our world. The memory body is considered to have become known as a "soul", and this temporary personality has taken on the sense of a self that is separated and not connected to God. It is believed that a "Dictation" from Maitreya further clarified this matter through the "Messenger", Geraldine Innocente, on September 27, 1954 when what occurred during the time of the "Fourth Root Race" was described:

 

"Curiosity, rebellion against holding true to the Divine Pattern and the use of thought and feeling in creation of imperfection, began the building of what you call the 'soul'. It is a consciousness apart from the full Purity of God. The first thought a man had that was imperfect and impure, energized by a secret feeling, was a cause and that, sent out into the atmosphere, created an effect. Like a boomerang, the effect came back into the consciousness and made a record. That record was the beginning of an impression. Energy sent out in a certain manner returned to affect the lifestream who had sent it forth and there began to be created a shadow between the I AM Presence and the human consciousness. Endeavoring to contact the Presence, the individual would find these 'tramp' thoughts and feelings flowing through that line of contact until more and more imperfect was the conscious use of them. Finally, those centers got completely away from the control of the ego and acted independently.[21]

 

Dictations[edit]

Within The "I AM" Activity, contact and cooperation with the Ascended Masters became a central part of each member's life. Through the Ballards as "Messengers", the Ascended Masters were believed to have regularly communicated with the students of The "I AM" Activity. Those Addresses (known as "Dictations") were delivered before gatherings of members in Conclaves held throughout the United States of America, published in the monthly periodical, The Voice of The "I AM", and some were collected and reprinted in the books of The Saint Germain Series. In all, 3,834 Dictations from the Masters were received through Guy and Edna Ballard. Other "Ascended Master Activities" believed that the Ascended Masters, Cosmic Beings, Elohim, and Archangels continued to present a program for both individual development and spiritual transformation in the world.[22] They believe that further instruction from the Ascended Masters and the rest of the Spiritual Hierarchy continued through new Dispensations with new Messengers, such as The Bridge to Freedom,[23] The Summit Lighthouse,[6] and The Temple of The Presence.

 

Dawning Golden Age[edit]

Students of the Ascended Master Teachings believe that this world is destined to again have a Golden Age, a "Heaven on Earth", that will be permanent, unlike previous Golden Ages millions of years ago.[2]

 

"In your beloved America, in the not so far distant future, will come forth a similar recognition of the Real Inner Self, and this her people will express in high attainment. She is a Land of Light, and Her Light shall blaze forth, brilliant as the sun at noonday, among the nations of the Earth. She was a Land of Great Light, ages ago, and will again come into her spiritual heritage, for nothing can prevent it." [13]

 

"The Divine Plan for the future of North America is a condition of intense activity in the greatest peace, beauty, success, prosperity, spiritual illumination, and dominion. She is to carry the Christ Light and be the Guide for the rest of the Earth, because America is to be the Heart Center of the 'Golden Age' that is now dimly touching our horizon. The greater portion of the land of North America will stand for a very long time." [13]

 

The Aquarian Church[edit]

The Aquarian Christine Church Universal, Inc. (ACCU) is a denomination founded in 2006 based on The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ transcribed from the Akashic Records by Levi H. Dowling. The Aquarian Christine Church actively promotes Ascended Master Teachings and shares many beliefs in common with the I AM Movement, White Eagle Lodge and New Thought and Theosophical groups. The book "Initiations of the Aquarian Masters: The Theosophy of the Aquarian Gospel" by ACCU founder Rev. Dr. Jacob L. Watson, expounds on the church's teachings which draw heavily from the writings of A.D.K. Luk, the Saint Germain Series published Saint Germain Press (The Saint Germain Foundation), and especially from "The Lost Years of Jesus" compiled by Elizabeth Clare Prophet and published by The Summit Lighthouse.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascended_Master_Teachings

 

Archangel Zadkiel said:

 

"In this moment it is being transported by angelic hosts as they carry this giant cathedral to be placed in the etheric plane of earth's atmosphere for the consecration of the violet flame and as another focal point for souls desiring to be free to frequent while their bodies sleep at night. And therefore, the Cathedral of the Violet Flame is placed in the heart of the Rocky Mountains in commemoration of the light of freedom of the Ruler of the Violet Planet, Omri-Tas, who does respond to the calls of men and women who pursue the light of freedom, yet do not know of the violet flame.

 

"Hail unto the children of light! Hail to the elementals! For they are invited also to enter into the Cathedral of the Violet Flame to be saturated with that light, to be cleared of all of the burdens of the planes of mankind's consciousness...

 

"The focuses of light in this Cathedral are the jewels of the amethyst and violet crystals of many varieties that also hold the action of the violet flame. And these crystals are not native to Terra but come from the Violet Planet as specimens of that which coalesces there as the crystallization of the Christ mind...

 

"Remember To Enter The Violet Flame Cathedral.

"You will find violet flame angels tending there, tending the flame of sacred fire, and you will also find on the altar, the central altar, a focus of jade, the gift of the Angel Deva of the Jade Temple, placed there as the offering of healing for those who come to have their substance transmuted—a focus of jade, healing jade, for the removal of the cause and core of that sin and that struggle that produce disease in mind, in souls, in bodies.

 

"And you will see also certain angels, twelve in number, who come from the Temple of the Angel Deva. You will also see an arc of light from that temple in China to the temple in North America. And if you are fortunate in the flame of living Truth, you may also find the Angel Deva standing there also officiating at the altar with the violet-flame angels.

 

"So I have come in the midst of the judgment to tell you of this gift of the priests and priestesses of the sacred fire. So make your way to the Cathedral of the Violet Flame and be blessed as you carry that flame north and south and east and west."1

 

Call to Give Violet Flame at the Cathedral of the Violet Flame Retreat

In the name of the Christ, my own Real Self, I call to the heart of the I AM Presence and to the angel of the Presence, to Archangel Michael and Archangel Zadkiel and your legions of light to take me in my soul and in my soul consciousness to the Cathedral of the Violet Flame, that I may join the heavenly hosts and elementals in invoking the violet flame for the freeing of elementals and mankind from the burdens of mankind's karma. And I ask that all information necessary to the fulfillment of my divine plan be released to my outer waking consciousness as it is required. I thank thee and I accept this done in the full power of the risen Christ.

 

Spiritual Books on the Saint Germain & the Violet Flame:

Books by Mark and Elizabeth Clare Prophet on the Great Divine Director, Saint Germain, and the Violet Flame. Spiritual books showing how to work with the violet flame to clear the obstacles to your divine plan for effect personal change and world spiritual transformation:

 

Saint Germain on Alchemy: Formulas for Self-Transformation

The Soulless One: Cloning a Counterfeit Creation by the Great Divine Director

Saint Germain: Master Alchemist

Violet Flame to Heal Body, Mind and Soul

Alchemy of the Heart: How to Give and Receive More Love

The Masters and their Retreats

Lords of the Seven Rays: Mirror of Consciousness

The Chela and the Path: Keys to Soul Mastery in the Aquarian Age by El Morya

www.ascendedmastersspiritualretreats.org/ascended-master-...

Saint Germain's Spiritual Retreat, Chohan of the 7th Ray

Saint Germain's Cave of Symbols retreat is in Table Mountain near North America's Rocky Mountains. This is an important focus, and many inventions are to be released from this retreat. Saint Germain uses this retreat along with the Rakoczy Mansion in Transylvania, the Cave of Light in the Himalayas and the nearby Royal Teton Retreat in the Grand Teton range.

 

Interior of the Cave of Symbols

One enters through a cavern in the mountain lined with pink and white crystal and then moves on into a vaulted chamber two hundred feet wide covered with stalactites of rainbow hue in the formation of occult symbols. As focuses of the rainbow rays of God and geometric keys to the release of fohat, the energy that blazes through these symbols extends throughout the United States. This energy has a most significant influence upon her people, keying into their consciousness the matrix of the golden age and the remembrance of their lost inheritance. The cave derives its name from these symbols.

 

Ascended master Saint Germain, violet flame alchemist. On the opposite wall, at the far side of the chamber, there are three arches, spaced twenty feet apart: the first a deep rose, the second a penetrating white and the third a cobalt blue. These are the focuses of great cosmic beings for the victory of the Christ consciousness in America.

 

Accompanied by the ascended master Saint Germain, who raises his hand toward the center archway, we gain entrance to a tunnel that opens at his command. After several hundred feet, he shows us through a door on which there are more ancient symbols into a twelve-sided, domed room sixty feet in diameter. Immediately we notice that four of the twelve sides are a brilliant white (focusing the purity of the Christ consciousness in the four elements and the four lower bodies of the planet). The remainder are the pastel hues of the rays.

 

Cave of Symbols: Home to Many Inventions

In this room we are shown the fantastic radio invented by the ascended lady master Leonora, by which one can communicate with other planets in this solar system, with the center of the earth, or with any point on the surface of the earth. There are chemical and electrical laboratories where scientists are perfecting formulas and inventions they have been permitted to take from the hermetically-sealed cities at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. These cities have been protected since the sinking of Atlantis. These discoveries will be brought forth for mankind's use in the golden age, just as soon as man has learned to harness greed, selfishness and the desire to control others through war and dishonest financial policies.

 

When the Sons of God are once again in control of the great nations of the world, the ascended masters will step forth with a tremendous wealth of information that has been guarded in their retreats for ages. Unascended scientists come here in their finer bodies while asleep or between embodiments.

 

Opportunity to Spiritually Travel to Saint Germain's Retreat

Students of the light can also ask to be taken to Saint Germain's Cave of Symbols. Saint Germain is training a large cadre of souls devoted to the Christ and to the science of the Christ, who at the proper time will have lowered into the outer consciousness all that they have learned in this and other retreats of the Great White Brotherhood.

 

The Golden Atomic Accelerator Chair

There is an "atomic accelerator"—a golden chair through which are passed electronic currents that quicken the vibratory pattern of the atoms and electrons within the four lower bodies. Initiates of the Brotherhood who have proven their merit by service and devotion to the light and who have already balanced a considerable amount of their karma are allowed to sit in this chair for a length of time prescribed by the master Saint Germain and the Lords of Karma. By accelerating the light frequency in the four lower bodies, a portion of one's karma is balanced and a portion of one's misqualified substance is thrown off by the centrifugal action produced by the revolving electrons and transmuted by the sacred fire.

 

Thus, the individual's four lower bodies can be accelerated in ascension currents and the soul raised into the ascension. Under the sponsorship of Saint Germain, many lifestreams have ascended from this room.

 

Entering Further into the Retreat

Entering an elevator, we descend a hundred feet into the heart of the mountain, emerging in a circular room having a diameter of twenty feet. We are led through a door into a huge hall equipped with furnaces and machines for the production of materials used in the experimental work carried on in the chemical and electrical laboratories in the upper level of the retreat.

 

Returning to the upper level, we are shown a reception hall with a domed ceiling, adjoining sleeping quarters, and an audience hall also with a domed ceiling of sky blue with painted clouds, giving the impression of being in the open air. Here there is a magnificent organ and piano that is used by the masters to focus the harmonizing currents of the music of the spheres on behalf of the freedom of sons and daughters of God on earth.

 

The Cosmic Mirror

The Cosmic Mirror in the Cave of Symbols. The Cosmic Mirror is on the east wall of the Crystal Chamber. When the disciple has reached a certain degree of attainment, he is taken by the master before the Cosmic Mirror, which keys into his etheric body and reflects his past lives, including the cause and effect upon his world of every thought, feeling, word and deed he has ever manifested. The Cosmic Mirror also reflects the original blueprint of his divine plan that is placed upon the etheric body when the soul is born in the heart of God.

 

In viewing his past lives, the disciple then may learn what portion of the divine plan he has outpictured. He may see what conditions in his world must be corrected and what good momentums he has developed that he can now use to overcome the difficulties of the past and the present and thus fulfill his divine plan in the very near future.

 

The Sphere of Light

At the far end of the audience hall, through a concealed door, one enters the Sphere of Light, a spherical-shaped room where the focus of the sacred fire is used to intensify the expansion of the light within those who are permitted to enter there. The function of this room correlates with the action of the light in the Cave of Light in the charge of the Great Divine Director in India.

 

Together with the Atomic Accelerator, these focuses serve to bring the disciples of the masters closer to their ascension and to provide them with the assistance to accelerate the process that could not be achieved in the outer world.

 

It is a very real and enlivening experience to stand before the Cosmic Mirror in this retreat. The disciple needs to be ready to look through the illusions, the fantasies and the synthetic self. He must be able to own up to the deceits that the ego continually practices against itself. It is not possible to hide anything from God.

 

The sincere student who would like to get rid of these illusions may call to Saint Germain to be taken to stand before the Cosmic Mirror.

 

Violet Flame Call by Saint Germain

Violet flame alchemy for spiritual transformationThis violet flame mantra for the Aquarian age is for accelerating personal and planetary spiritual transmutation of past errors in thought, feeling and action.

 

I AM a being of violet fire,

I AM the purity God desires.

 

Call to be Taken to Saint Germain's Violet Flame Retreat.

In the name of the Christ, my own Real Self, I call to the heart of the I AM Presence and to the angel of the Presence to take me in my soul and in my soul consciousness to the Cave of Symbols retreat of Saint Germain. I ask that I be saturated with the violet flame focused there and be taught the mastery of the ritual of the atom for the Aquarian age. And I ask that all information necessary to the fulfillment of my divine plan be released to my outer waking consciousness as it is required. I thank thee and I accept this done in the full power of the risen Christ.

 

Ascended Master Retreats of the Chohans

 

Fourteen-Day Cycles at the Universities of the Spirit Chart (PDF)

El Morya and the Temple of Good Will near Darjeeling India

Lord Lanto and the Royal Teton Retreat in Wyoming

Paul the Venetian Le Château De Liberté In Southern France

Serapis Bey and the Ascension Temple and Retreat at Luxor

Hilarion and the Temple of Truth over Crete

Lady Master Nada and the Arabian Retreat

Saint Germain and the Cave of Symbols in the Rocky Mountains

Maha Chohan and the Temple of Comfort over Sri Lanka

Summit Lighthouse Books on the Chohans of the Rays

 

The Book of Apocalypse explained. Like the captain of the Host of the Lord, I invite you to stand up in honor of your Powerful Presence I AM, because I release upon you the power of the sword of the Spirit and I will increasing its power, according to the measure which you are able to receive it! Holding this sword, that my mentor give me long time ago, I direct its power to consume the cause and nucleus of all the negative conditions that can be upon you or in your interior! wields the flaming sword and direct its omniconsuming fire to the insane areas of your subconscious and unconscious minds. My Friends, adverse conditions like those that you have allowed to poison the organs of your physical body, affects also the astral body, the mental and also the etheric body, dimming the mind and preventing that you assume the divine control on your conscious mind! Therefore, I hold my sword of the Spirit and I let that it traverse you! I traverse you! I traverse you with the power of First Ray of the Sacred Will of God! With my sword I extirpate any precancerous conditions in your four lower bodies, from the etheric body to the mental, from the body of desires where its tentacles reaches the physical body and strangle the body as well your soul. Therefore, if you want to save yourself and save others, Call me, and with my sword of blue flame I will extirpate those conditions inside you and your beloveds, close or far to you.

 

www.ascendedmastersspiritualretreats.org/chohan-retreats/...

"Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged, but a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end."

Virginia Woolf

 

(Heure 221)

“The detectors don’t induce the phenomenon of wave function collapse; conscious observation does. Consciousness is like this giant roving spotlight, collapsing reality wherever it shines—and what isn’t observed remains probability. And it’s not just photons or electrons. It is everything. All matter…A testable, repeatable fault in reality.”

Ted Kosmatka - The Flicker Men

 

Photography by Cajsa Lilliehook

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Island of Consciousness

 

Island of Now

 

HKD

 

Ich habe eine schwarz-weiße und eine farbige Fassung dieses wichtigen Motivs "der Mitte" angefertigt. Die farbige, weiche bringt eher "weibliche" Gefühle zum Mitschwingen, während die sw-Fassung eher das Männliche und Intellektuelle anspricht. Also auch hier die Gegensätze Logos Eros oder intellekt und Gefühl. Beide Seiten können in Bildkompositionen ausgedrückt werden.

  

HKD

 

Falls Psychologie interessiert:

Die Insel des Bewusstseins.

Die Insel des Jetzt.

Zwischen Zukunft und Vergangenheit liegt die Insel des Jetzt

 

HKD

 

Anmerkung:

 

This is digital art work, not reality.

Das Bild ist ein digital hergestelltes Werk.

Jede Ähnlichkeit mit realen Gegebenheiten wäre rein zufällig.

 

HKD

  

If you like to see my latest video:

 

Path of Wisdom

 

www.youtube.com/user/koppdelaney

 

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Ecstasy a theory of embodied emotions that anticipates the role ascribed by twentieth century phenomenology to anxiety and other ‘bad moods’, as possibilities for philosophical reflection and self-understanding. (from Ancient Greek ἔκστασις ékstasis) is a subjective experience of total involvement of the subject, with an object of his or her awareness. In classical Greek literature it refers to removal of the mind or body "from its normal place of function."In love, one feels simultaneously vulnerable and strong, united with the beloved and isolated in a heightened sense of self, abased and exalted – delicious emotions that well out of one’s innermost being and gratitude for the splendors of the objective real. Almost the same words serve to describe an encounter with the divine. To most people, the tidal swing of emotion culminating in the ecstasy of sexual embrace is the most they will ever know of mystical union and transcendence. Not surprisingly. World literature and art – notably those of India, China, and the West – have seen fit to conjoin the two. There was then no cover-up, no sense of a split between body and soul, the “low” and the “high”. In the absence of such a sense of split, a body evokes feelings that merge and rise effortlessly to the realm of the spirit. In the West, Solomon’s poetry (Song of Songs) provides an early and familiar model of how a charged erotic language can call forth the passion and mystery of divine union. Again and again, Western mystics and poets have availed themselves of this model, outstandingly St. John of the Cross, whose Spiritual Canticle contains images that could shock even W. H. Auden, a very worldly and modern poet. In sculptural art, the voluptuous forms of gods and goddesses, the transparent identification of sexual congress – the herd girls’ desire for Krishna – with mystical ecstasy, richly adorn the exterior of Hindu temples. Almost as gloriously unselfconscious are works of Western sculpture and painting from classical antiquity to the seventeenth century. Over and over again, the perfectly formed human nude is made to serve as a symbol of spiritual perfection. In medieval times, sculptors saw nothing amiss in using pagan Nereids to represent blessed souls on their way to heaven. During periods of religious fervor, outstandingly the sixteenth century, the line between sacred and profane ecstasy was exceedingly fine. Saints, daringly uncovered, turned their eyes to heaven in bliss. Michelangelo’s drawing of the risen Christ (housed at Windsor) shows him completely nude, with exposed genitals. To the art historian Kenneth Clark it is “perhaps the most beautiful nude in ecstasy in the whole of art.”Religious ecstasy is a type of altered state of consciousness characterized by greatly reduced external awareness and expanded interior mental and spiritual awareness, frequently accompanied by visions and emotional (and sometimes physical) euphoria. Although the experience is usually brief in time,[1] there are records of such experiences lasting several days or even more, and of recurring experiences of ecstasy during one's lifetime. A person's sense of time and space disappear during a religious ecstasy forsaking any senses or physical cognizance in its duration. Among venerated Catholic saints who dabble in Christian mysticism, a person's physical stature, human sensory, or perception is completely detached to time and space during an ecstatic experience. In Sufism, the term is referred to as wajd and the experience is referred to as either jazbah or majzoobiyat. The religious ecstacy of Saint Teresa of Avila of the Carmelite Order, here portrayed being pierced a thousand times in the heart by a Putto. The adjective "religious" means that the experience occurs in connection with religious activities or is interpreted in context of a religion. Marghanita Laski writes in her study "Ecstasy in Religious and Secular Experiences," first published in 1961:

"Epithets are very often applied to mystical experiences including ecstasies without, apparently, any clear idea about the distinctions that are being made. Thus we find experiences given such names as nature, religious, aesthetic, neo-platonic, sexual etc. experiences, where in some cases the name seems to derive from trigger, sometimes from the overbelief, sometimes from the known standing and beliefs of the mystic, and sometimes, though rarely, from the nature of the experience. Ecstasies enjoyed by accepted religious mystics are usually called religious experiences no matter what the nature of the ecstasy or the trigger inducing it."

Exclusive and inclusive views Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy. Caravaggio, oil on panel. Religious people may hold the view that true religious ecstasy occurs only in their religious context (e.g. as a gift from the supernatural being whom they follow) and it cannot be induced by natural means (human activities). Trance-like states which are often interpreted as religious ecstasy have been deliberately induced with techniques or ecstatic practices; including, prayer, religious rituals, meditation, breathing exercises, physical exercise, sex, music, dancing, sweating, fasting, thirsting, and psychotropic drugs. An ecstatic experience may take place in occasion of contact with something or somebody perceived as extremely beautiful or holy. It may also happen without any known reason. The particular technique that an individual uses to induce ecstasy is usually one that is associated with that individual's particular religious and cultural traditions. As a result, an ecstatic experience is usually interpreted within the particular individual religious context and cultural traditions. These interpretations often include statements about contact with supernatural or spiritual beings, about receiving new information as a revelation, also religion-related explanations of subsequent change of values, attitudes and behavior (e.g. in case of religious conversion). Achieving ecstatic trances is a shamanic activity, inducing ecstasy for such purposes as traveling to heaven or the underworld, guiding or otherwise interacting with spirits, clairvoyance, and healing. Some shamans take drugs from such plants as Ayahuasca, peyote and cannabis (drug) or certain mushrooms in their attempts to reach ecstasy, while others rely on such non-chemical means as ritual, music, dance, ascetic practices, or visual designs as aids to mental discipline. Athletes may follow rituals in preparing for contests, which are dismissed as superstition, but this sports psychology device may help them to attain advantage in an ecstasy-like state. Yoga provides techniques to attain an ecstasy state called samādhi. According to practitioners, there are various stages of ecstasy, the highest being Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Bhakti Yoga especially, places emphasis on ecstasy as being one of the fruits of its practice.

In Buddhism, especially in the Pali Canon, there are eight states of trance also called absorption. The first four states are Rupa or, materially-oriented. The next four are Arupa or non-material. These eight states are preliminary trances which lead up to final saturation. In Visuddhimagga, great effort and years of sustained meditation are practiced to reach the first absorption, and that not all individuals are able to accomplish it at all. Modern meditator experiences in the Thai Forest Tradition, as well as other Theravadin traditions, demonstrates that this effort and rarity is necessary only to become completely immersed in the absorptions and experience no other sensations. It is possible to experience the absorptions in a less intense state with much less practice. In the Dionysian Mysteries, initiates used intoxicants and other trance-inducing techniques (like dance and music) to remove inhibitions and social constraints, liberating the individual to return to a natural state. In the monotheistic tradition, ecstasy is usually associated with communion and oneness with God. However, such experiences can also be personal mystical experiences with no significance to anyone but the person experiencing them. Some charismatic Christians practice ecstatic states (such as "being slain in the Spirit") and interpret these as given by the Holy Spirit. The firewalkers of Greece dance themselves into a state of ecstasy at the annual Anastenaria, when they believe themselves under the influence of Saint Constantine. Historically, large groups of individuals have experienced religious ecstasies during periods of Christian revivals, to the point of causing controversy as to the origin and nature of these experiences. In response to claims that all emotional expressions of religious ecstasy were attacks on order and theological soundness from the Devil, Jonathan Edwards published his now-famous and influential Treatise on Religious Affections. Here, he argues, religious ecstasy could come from oneself, the Devil, or God, and it was only by observing the fruit, or changes in inner thought and behaviour, that one could determine if the religious ecstasy had come from God.

In hagiography (writings about Christian saints) many instances are recorded in which saints are granted ecstasies. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia religious ecstasy (called "supernatural ecstasy") includes two elements: one, interior and invisible, in which the mind rivets its attention on a religious subject, and another, corporeal and visible, in which the activity of the senses is suspended, reducing the effect of external sensations upon the subject and rendering him or her resistant to awakening. The witnesses of a Marian apparition often describe experiencing these elements of ecstasy. Modern Witchcraft traditions may define themselves as "ecstatic traditions," and focus on reaching ecstatic states in their rituals. The Reclaiming Tradition and the Feri Tradition are two modern ecstatic Witchcraft examples. As described by the Indian spiritual teacher Meher Baba, God-intoxicated souls known as masts experience a unique type of spiritual ecstasy: "[M]asts are desperately in love with God – or consumed by their love for God. Masts do not suffer from what may be called a disease. They are in a state of mental disorder because their minds are overcome by such intense spiritual energies that are far too much for them, forcing them to lose contact with the world, shed normal human habits and customs, and civilized society and live in a state of spiritual splendor but physical squalor. They are overcome by an agonizing love for God and are drowned in their ecstasy. Only the divine love embodied in a Perfect Master can reach them."

Total involvement with an object of interest is not an ordinary experience because of being aware of other objects, thus ecstasy is an example of an altered state of consciousness characterized by diminished awareness of other objects or the total lack of the awareness of surroundings and everything around the object. The word is also used to refer to any heightened state of consciousness or intensely pleasant experience. It is also used more specifically to denote states of awareness of non-ordinary mental spaces, which may be perceived as spiritual (the latter type of ecstasy often takes the form of religious ecstasy). From a psychological perspective, ecstasy is a loss of self-control and sometimes a temporary loss of consciousness, which is often associated with religious mysticism, sexual intercourse and the use of certain drugs.[2] For the duration of the ecstasy the ecstatic is out of touch with ordinary life and is capable neither of communication with other people nor of undertaking normal actions. The experience can be brief in physical time, or it can go on for hours. Subjective perception of time, space or self may strongly change or disappear during ecstasy. For instance, if one is concentrating on a physical task, then any intellectual thoughts may cease. On the other hand, making a spirit journey in an ecstatic trance involves the cessation of voluntary bodily movement.

Ecstasy can be deliberately induced using religious or creative activities, meditation, music, dancing, breathing exercises, physical exercise, sexual intercourse or consumption of psychotropic drugs. The particular technique that an individual uses to induce ecstasy is usually also associated with that individual's particular religious and cultural traditions. Sometimes an ecstatic experience takes place due to occasional contact with something or somebody perceived as extremely beautiful or holy, or without any known reason. "In some cases, a person might obtain an ecstatic experience 'by mistake'. Maybe the person unintentionally triggers one of the, probably many, physiological mechanisms through which such an experience can be reached. In such cases, it is not rare to find that the person later, by reading, looks for an interpretation and maybe finds it within a tradition." People interpret the experience afterward according to their culture and beliefs (as a revelation from God, a trip to the world of spirits or a psychotic episode). "When a person is using an ecstasy technique, he usually does so within a tradition. When he reaches an experience, a traditional interpretation of it already exists." The experience together with its subsequent interpretation may strongly and permanently change the value system and the worldview of the subject (e.g. to cause religious conversion). In 1925, James Leuba wrote: "Among most uncivilized populations, as among civilized peoples, certain ecstatic conditions are regarded as divine possession or as union with the Divine. These states are induced by means of drugs, by physical excitement, or by psychical means. But, however produced and at whatever level of culture they may be found, they possess certain common features which suggest even to the superficial observer some profound connection. Always described as delightful beyond expression, these awesome ecstatic experiences end commonly in mental quiescence or even in total unconsciousness." He prepares his readers "... to recognize a continuity of impulse, of purpose, of form and of result between the ecstatic intoxication of the savage and the absorption in God of the Christian mystic." "In everyday language, the word 'ecstasy' denotes an intense, euphoric experience. For obvious reasons, it is rarely used in a scientific context; it is a concept that is extremely hard to define."For over three centuries, western science – and in particular, psychiatry – has tended to pathologize ‘mystical experience’, to reduce it to a delusion or mental illness. In the Enlightenment, natural philosophers called it ‘enthusiasm’, and blamed on an over-active imagination or an over-warm brain. In the late 19th century, psychiatrists labelled it ‘hysteria’. In the 20th century, spiritual experiences were (and still are) reduced to brain disorders like schizophrenia or epilepsy. The consequence of this long pathologization of ecstasy is that there’s a taboo around such experiences. As Aldous Huxley put it: ‘If you have an experience like this, you keep your mouth shut, for fear of being told to go to a psychoanalyst’, or, in our day, a psychiatrist. And the result of that taboo is that western culture has become spiritually flat, afraid to let go, stuck in our heads and our egos, lacking a window to transcendence. In the last few years, however, a consensus has begun to emerge in psychology and psychiatry that ecstatic experiences – moments when we go beyond our ordinary ego and feel a connection to something bigger than us – are often good for us. Scientists can’t agree on what to call this sort of experience – it’s variously studied as self-transcendence; flow; mystical, religious, spiritual or anomalous experience; altered states of consciousness; or (my preferred term) ecstasy. But scientists do agree that it’s an important human experience that can be very healing. This is a big shift for western science, and western culture. Ecstasy is good for us because it gets us out of our head. Emotional disorders like depression, anxiety and addiction are perpetuated by rigid and repetitive patterns of thinking, feeling and acting. We get stuck in loops of negative rumination, endlessly thinking about ourselves and our imperfections. We can free ourselves from these rigid mental habits by using rationality to unpick our beliefs – this is what Cognitive Behavioural Therapy does. But we can also get out of these loops by shifting our consciousness. To use the terminology of the New Testament, we can have sudden epiphanies which break us out of the tomb of our egos, giving us the experience of being born again. Being reborn – suddenly reconfiguring the self – is a fundamental human capacity, not found only in followers of Jesus. There are shallower and deeper forms of ego-loss. At the lighter end of the spectrum, there are the sort of ‘flow’ states which we might find each day or week, where we lose ourselves in reading a good book, or walking in the park, or going for a run. These activities settle and absorb our consciousness, taking us out of the loop of rumination, helping us forget ourselves in the moment (here’s an interview I did with flow psychologist Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi on flow and ecstasy). We are anxiety-ridden animals. Our minds are continually active, fabricating an anxious, usually self-preoccupied, often falsifying veil which partially conceals our world…The most obvious thing in our surroundings which is an occasion for ‘unselfing’ is what is popularly called beauty…I am looking out of my window in an anxious and resentful state of mind…Then suddenly I observe a hovering kestrel. In a moment everything is altered. The brooding self with its hurt vanity has disappeared. There is nothing now but kestrel. Nature is the most reliable route to this sort of ego-dissolving wonder. When we go for a walk, run, ride or swim in nature, we might discover what Wordsworth called ‘the quiet stream of self-forgetfulness’. We get into the ‘reverie’ that Rousseau wrote about when he went walking, feel a mind-expansion at the beauty of the landscape, and this breaks the loop of rumination. Here’s a 2015 study on how a 90-minute walk in nature reduces rumination. The arts can do something similar – absorb our consciousness so that we lose ourselves in the moment, in the book, poem, play, painting, song, cathedral etc – and this shift in consciousness breaks the loop of rumination and takes us somewhere quieter, better, more spacious. A 2016 mass survey by Durham University found reading and nature were our favourite ways to rest – and switching off the restless ego-mind is an important part of that. Likewise, meditation and prayer can help us find the space between our ruminating thoughts. Many of us use sport as a way to get out of the noise of our head and into our bodies. Such moments of absorption can be very socially connecting. Suddenly, we’re taken out of our ego-loops and joined in what social psychologist Jonathan Haidt called ‘the hive mind’. That’s a great antidote to the chronic western affliction of loneliness. We might get that experience singing, dancing, marching or playing music together, which studies shows helps to synchronize people’s breathing and even heart-beat. We might get collective flow from playing or watching sport together, or participating in a concert or political rally. Or – the oldest route – we might get it by worshipping the divine in some form or other. And then there are deeper moments of self-transcendence, which the mystics call ‘ecstasy’, in which one becomes so absorbed in a moment or activity that one’s identity and conception of reality are radically altered, perhaps permanently. Such moments are rare, but they can be life-changing. At this deeper end of what I call the ‘continuum of absorption’, one finds experiences like strong psychedelic trips, moments of deep contemplation, spontaneous spiritual experiences, and near-death experiences. Take spontaneous spiritual experiences. In surveys, between 50% and 80% of people say they have experienced a moment of ecstasy, where they’ve gone beyond their normal sense of identity and felt a deep connection to something greater than them. Here’s one example: During my late 20s and early 30s I had a good deal of depression. I felt shut up in a cocoon of complete isolation and could not get in touch with anyone…things came to such a pass and I was so tired of fighting that I said one day, ‘I can do no more. Let nature, or whatever is behind the universe, look after me now.’ Within a few days I passed from a hell to a heaven. It was as if the cocoon had burst and my eyes were opened and I saw. Everything was alive and God was present in all things….Psychologically and for my own peace of mind, the effect has been of the greatest importance. In a survey I did, agnostics and atheists also reported moments where they felt a deep connection between themselves and all things – indeed, arch-rationalist Bertrand Russell had a mystical moment where he suddenly felt profoundly connected to everyone in the street. He said that experience turned him into a pacifist. We might make sense of such moments of connection differently, but they seem very common, and on the whole good for us. Psychedelics are similarly effective at giving people a sense of spiritual connection and oneness. Comedian Simon Amstell has spoken of how a psychedelic brew called ayahuasca, found in the Amazon jungle, helped him overcome depression: ‘Before I left I felt broken. After I came back, I didn’t feel broken anymore…I felt like I was part of the world, not disconnected from it.’,After 40 years in the wilderness, psychedelics are rapidly returning to the mainstream of western medicine. Just this month, the Lancet published a trial showing the effectiveness of ketamine at treating chronic depression, while BBC One’s main daytime TV show, Victoria, had a segment on the benefits of LSD microdosing in managing emotional problems. Other trials have found psychedelics effective at treating depression and addiction. One of the most powerful forms of ecstatic experience is the ‘near-death experience’. Thanks to improved resuscitation procedures, NDEs are increasingly common and there are several academic research units studying them. They seem to share common features, particularly an encounter with a white light and a sense of being profoundly loved. People typically return from NDEs less afraid of death, because they no longer think it’s the end. I had an NDE myself when I was 21 – that’s how I became interested in this topic – and it helped me recover from PTSD. After five years of feeling my ego was permanently broken, I realized there was something within me bigger than my ego, which was loved and OK.

Other forms of ecstatic experience seem to work in a similar way – they take people beyond their constructed ego and give them a sense of love-connection to some greater whole. In the trials I mentioned at the start of this article, psilocybin seemed to give the participants an NDE-type experience. Here’s the report of one participant in the NYU study:

For the first time in my life, I felt like there was a creator of the universe, a force greater than myself, and that I should be kind and loving. I experienced a profound psychic shift that made me realize all my anxieties, defences and insecurities weren’t something to worry about. Now, this poses a challenge for western science. It appears that moments of ecstasy or ‘mystical experiences’ can be very therapeutic. But are they true? Are we really connected to all beings and the universe in some kind of psychic love-connection? Is there really a loving God beyond our ego? Tucked away in the formal language of the Johns Hopkins study is the comment that one psychedelic trip increased people’s belief in the afterlife (see the passage below), and this was one of the factors in the reduction of death-anxiety.St. Theresa of Avila was a Spanish nun, mystic and writer during the Counter-Reformation. Some sources suggest that as a girl, Theresa was willful and spoiled, and chose to enter the Carmelite sisterhood instead of marrying a wealthy hidalgo based on the mistaken belief that as a nun she would be afforded more freedom. Upon entering the convent aged 19, Theresa became seriously ill (she has now become a patron saint for the infirm), possibly depressed and subjecting her body to self-mutilation. By the time she reached her forties, Theresa had settled down to her new spiritual life, when one day, while praying and singing the hymn "Veni Creator Spiritus," she experienced the first of the episodes that would accompany her for the rest of her life: a rapture. In her writings, Theresa describes how she would feel suddenly consumed by the love of God, feel the bodily presence of Christ or of angels, and be lifted to an exalted state of ecstasy. Although in her own lifetime Theresa was sometimes ridiculed for such claims, or even accused of communing with the devil, she became a prominent figure in the church. Theresa was one of only three female church doctors and was finally canonized in 1622. Bernini's famous sculpture was commissioned by Cardinal Federico Cornaro of Venice in 1647 for his burial chapel in Santa Maria della Vittoria, replacing the previous sculpture showing St. Paul in Ecstasy. The Cardinal hired an already famous but down and out Bernini (his reputation was tarnished after his bell tower for the façade of St. Peter's had to be demolished in 1646) for the fantastic amount of 12,000 scudi (roughly $120,000), a price unheard of at that time. The Ecstasy of St. Theresa is considered by many as the apogee of Bernini's oeuvre and is notable for the following qualities; Bernini's St. Theresa is often described as a gesamtkunstwerk (a German word meaning "total work of art") for the artist's incorporation of a variety of elements: sculpture, painting, and lighting effects all presented in a theatrical setting. The Ecstasy of St. Theresa is not just a sculpture, but a total environment: Bernini designed the entire chapel, creating a veritable stage set complete with sculpted audience members. Although some art historians insist that Bernini could not possibly have intended to imbue this subject with an erotic energy, as that would have been inconceivably heretical for that time, in reality the concupiscent implications of this work are unmistakable: the beautiful, bare-chested young angle gently opens Theresa's dress, preparing to penetrate her with his arrow, while the saint throws back her head with an expression of ecstasy. The sensuality of the piece is directly inspired by St. Theresa's own writings, in which she describes her mystical experiences in overtly erotic terms; "... Beside me, on the left hand, appeared an angel in bodily form... He was not tall but short, and very beautiful; and his face was so aflame that he appeared to be one of the highest rank of angels, who seem to be all on fire... In his hands I saw a great golden spear, and at the iron tip there appeared to be a point of fire. This he plunged into my heart several times ... and left me utterly consumed by the great love of God. The pain was so severe that it made me utter several moans. The sweetness caused by this intense pain is so extreme that one cannot possibly wish it to cease, nor is one's soul then content with anything but God. This is not a physical, but a spiritual pain, though the body has some share in it-even a considerable share ..." Even more so than in his previous works, in The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa Bernini takes the principles of the Baroque (drama, emotion, theatricality) to unknown heights. Note the emphasis on the dramatic qualities of light, as well as the virtuoso and utterly fantastic mass of fluttering draperies.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecstasy_(emotion)

What is real what is truth where are the lies. I must open my mind to a bigger consciousness. I must seek truth. what is the illusion of knowledge of life. I would like to wake from the sleep and see truth. that joy can be open to the full. life is stranger then any fiction!

 

Mike

 

Father and son collaboration

 

Our photographic art is a kinetic motion study, from the results of interacting with my son A.J and his toys.

 

He was born severely handicapped much like a quadriplegic. On December 17,1998. Our family’s goal has always been to help A.J. use his mind, even though he has minimal use of his body.

 

A.J. likes to watch lights and movement. One of the few things he can do for himself is to operate a switch that sets in motion lights and various shiny, colorful streamers and toys that swirl above his bed.

 

One day I took a picture of A.J. with his toys flying out from the big mobile near his bed like swings on a carnival ride. I liked the way the swirling objects and colors looked in the photo.

 

I wanted to study the motion more and photograph the whirling objects in an artful way, I wanted my son A.J. to be a part of it. After all, he’s the one who inspires me. When A.J. and I work together on our motion artwork, A.J. starts his streamers and objects twirling, I take the photographs.

 

Activating a tiny switch might not seem like much to some, but it’s all A.J. can do. He controls the direction the mobile will spin, as well as when it starts and stops. The shutter speeds are long, and sometimes, I move the camera and other times I hold it still.

 

I begin our creation with a Nikon digital camera. Then I use my computer with Photoshop to alter the images into what I feel might be an artistic way. Working with Photoshop, I find the best parts from several images and combine them into the final composite photograph. I consider the finished work to be fine art. The computer is just the vehicle that helps my expressions grow.

 

I take the photographs and A.J. adds the magic. It’s something this father and son do together. After I’ve taken a few shots, I show him the photos in the back of the camera. When the images are completed, I show him from a laptop. He just looks. He can’t tell me whether or not he likes the images, but he’s always ready to work with me again.

 

It offers me my only glance into A.J.’s secret world. We’ve built a large collection of images and I hope the motion and color move you as much as they do me.

 

A.J. inspires me to work harder to understand my life in the areas of art, photography, people, spirituality, and so much more. He truly sets my mind in motion and helps me find the beauty in everyday things.

 

AJ Patnode - A Journey of Hope (documentary):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR7m8QFcmRM

 

This shows how I do the Camera work:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmjVVGraUVw

 

AJ'S blog:

www.ajpatnode.com

 

Abstract set:

www.flickr.com/photos/patnode-rainbowman/sets/72157602269...

  

Persistent vegetative state

SpecialtyNeurology

A persistent vegetative state (PVS) is a disorder of consciousness in which patients with severe brain damage are in a state of partial arousal rather than true awareness. After four weeks in a vegetative state (VS), the patient is classified as in a persistent vegetative state. This diagnosis is classified as a permanent vegetative state some months (three in the US and six in the UK) after a non-traumatic brain injury or one year after a traumatic injury. Today, doctors and neuroscientists prefer to call the state of consciousness a syndrome,[1] primarily because of ethical questions about whether a patient can be called "vegetative" or not.[2]

  

Contents

1Definition

1.1Medical definition

1.2Lack of legal clarity

1.3Vegetative state

1.4Persistent vegetative state

2Signs and symptoms

2.1Recovery

3Causes

4Diagnosis

4.1Diagnostic experiments

4.2Misdiagnoses

5Treatment

5.1Zolpidem

6Epidemiology

7History

8Society and culture

8.1Ethics and policy

8.2Notable cases

9See also

10References

11External links

Definition[edit]

There are several definitions that vary by technical versus layman's usage. There are different legal implications in different countries.

 

Medical definition[edit]

A wakeful unconscious state that lasts longer than a few weeks is referred to as a persistent (or 'continuing') vegetative state.[3]

 

Lack of legal clarity[edit]

Unlike brain death, permanent vegetative state (PVS) is recognized by statute law as death in very few legal systems. In the US, courts have required petitions before termination of life support that demonstrate that any recovery of cognitive functions above a vegetative state is assessed as impossible by authoritative medical opinion.[4] In England and Wales the legal precedent for withdrawal of clinically assisted nutrition and hydration in cases of patients in a PVS was set in 1993 in the case of Tony Bland, who sustained catastrophic anoxic brain injury in the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.[3] An application to the Court of Protection is no longer required before nutrition and hydration can be withdrawn or withheld from PVS (or 'minimally conscious' – MCS) patients.[5]

 

This legal grey area has led to vocal advocates that those in PVS should be allowed to die. Others are equally determined that, if recovery is at all possible, care should continue. The existence of a small number of diagnosed PVS cases that have eventually resulted in improvement makes defining recovery as "impossible" particularly difficult in a legal sense.[6] This legal and ethical issue raises questions about autonomy, quality of life, appropriate use of resources, the wishes of family members, and professional responsibilities.

 

Vegetative state[edit]

The vegetative state is a chronic or long-term condition. This condition differs from a coma: a coma is a state that lacks both awareness and wakefulness. Patients in a vegetative state may have awoken from a coma, but still have not regained awareness. In the vegetative state patients can open their eyelids occasionally and demonstrate sleep-wake cycles, but completely lack cognitive function. The vegetative state is also called a "coma vigil". The chances of regaining awareness diminish considerably as the time spent in the vegetative state increases.[7]

 

Persistent vegetative state[edit]

Persistent vegetative state is the standard usage (except in the UK) for a medical diagnosis, made after numerous neurological and other tests, that due to extensive and irreversible brain damage a patient is highly unlikely ever to achieve higher functions above a vegetative state. This diagnosis does not mean that a doctor has diagnosed improvement as impossible, but does open the possibility, in the US, for a judicial request to end life support.[6] Informal guidelines hold that this diagnosis can be made after four weeks in a vegetative state. US caselaw has shown that successful petitions for termination have been made after a diagnosis of a persistent vegetative state, although in some cases, such as that of Terri Schiavo, such rulings have generated widespread controversy.

 

In the UK, the term is discouraged in favor of two more precisely defined terms that have been strongly recommended by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP). These guidelines recommend using a continuous vegetative state for patients in a vegetative state for more than four weeks. A medical determination of a permanent vegetative state can be made if, after exhaustive testing and a customary 12 months of observation,[8] a medical diagnosis is made that it is impossible by any informed medical expectations that the mental condition will ever improve.[9] Hence, a "continuous vegetative state" in the UK may remain the diagnosis in cases that would be called "persistent" in the US or elsewhere.

 

While the actual testing criteria for a diagnosis of "permanent" in the UK are quite similar to the criteria for a diagnosis of "persistent" in the US, the semantic difference imparts in the UK a legal presumption that is commonly used in court applications for ending life support.[8] The UK diagnosis is generally only made after 12 months of observing a static vegetative state. A diagnosis of a persistent vegetative state in the US usually still requires a petitioner to prove in court that recovery is impossible by informed medical opinion, while in the UK the "permanent" diagnosis already gives the petitioner this presumption and may make the legal process less time-consuming.[6]

 

In common usage, the "permanent" and "persistent" definitions are sometimes conflated and used interchangeably. However, the acronym "PVS" is intended[by whom?] to define a "persistent vegetative state", without necessarily the connotations of permanence,[citation needed] and is used as such throughout this article. Bryan Jennett, who originally coined the term "persistent vegetative state", has now recommended using the UK division between continuous and permanent in his book The Vegetative State, arguing that "the 'persistent' component of this term ... may seem to suggest irreversibility".[10]

 

The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council has suggested "post coma unresponsiveness" as an alternative term for "vegetative state" in general.[11]

 

Signs and symptoms[edit]

Most PVS patients are unresponsive to external stimuli and their conditions are associated with different levels of consciousness. Some level of consciousness means a person can still respond, in varying degrees, to stimulation. A person in a coma, however, cannot. In addition, PVS patients often open their eyes in response to feeding, which has to be done by others; they are capable of swallowing, whereas patients in a coma subsist with their eyes closed (Emmett, 1989).

 

Cerebral cortical function (e.g. communication, thinking, purposeful movement, etc) is lost while brainstem functions (e.g. breathing, maintaining circulation and hemodynamic stability, etc) are preserved. Non-cognitive upper brainstem functions such as eye-opening, occasional vocalizations (e.g. crying, laughing), maintaining normal sleep patterns, and spontaneous non-purposeful movements often remain intact.

 

PVS patients' eyes might be in a relatively fixed position, or track moving objects, or move in a disconjugate (i.e., completely unsynchronized) manner. They may experience sleep-wake cycles, or be in a state of chronic wakefulness. They may exhibit some behaviors that can be construed as arising from partial consciousness, such as grinding their teeth, swallowing, smiling, shedding tears, grunting, moaning, or screaming without any apparent external stimulus.

 

Individuals in PVS are seldom on any life-sustaining equipment other than a feeding tube because the brainstem, the center of vegetative functions (such as heart rate and rhythm, respiration, and gastrointestinal activity) is relatively intact (Emmett, 1989).

 

Recovery[edit]

Many people emerge spontaneously from a vegetative state within a few weeks.[10] The chances of recovery depend on the extent of injury to the brain and the patient's age – younger patients having a better chance of recovery than older patients. A 1994 report found that of those who were in a vegetative state a month after a trauma, 54% had regained consciousness by a year after the trauma, whereas 28% had died and 18% were still in the vegetative state. But for non-traumatic injuries such as strokes, only 14% had recovered consciousness at one year, 47% had died, and 39% were still vegetative. Patients who were vegetative six months after the initial event were much less likely to have recovered consciousness a year after the event than in the case of those who were simply reported vegetative at one month.[12] A New Scientist article from 2000 gives a pair of graphs[13] showing changes of patient status during the first 12 months after head injury and after incidents depriving the brain of oxygen.[14] After a year, the chances that a PVS patient will regain consciousness are very low[15] and most patients who do recover consciousness experience significant disability. The longer a patient is in a PVS, the more severe the resulting disabilities are likely to be. Rehabilitation can contribute to recovery, but many patients never progress to the point of being able to take care of themselves.

 

There are two dimensions of recovery from a persistent vegetative state: recovery of consciousness and recovery of function. Recovery of consciousness can be verified by reliable evidence of awareness of self and the environment, consistent voluntary behavioral responses to visual and auditory stimuli, and interaction with others. Recovery of function is characterized by communication, the ability to learn and to perform adaptive tasks, mobility, self-care, and participation in recreational or vocational activities. Recovery of consciousness may occur without functional recovery, but functional recovery cannot occur without recovery of consciousness (Ashwal, 1994).

 

Causes[edit]

There are three main causes of PVS (persistent vegetative state):

 

Acute traumatic brain injury

Non-traumatic: neurodegenerative disorder or metabolic disorder of the brain

Severe congenital abnormality of the central nervous system

Medical books (such as Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins. (2007). In A Page: Pediatric Signs and Symptoms) describe several potential causes of PVS, which are as follows:

 

Bacterial, viral, or fungal infection, including meningitis

Increased intracranial pressure, such as a tumor or abscess

Vascular pressure which causes intracranial hemorrhaging or stroke

Hypoxic ischemic injury (hypotension, cardiac arrest, arrhythmia, near-drowning)

Toxins such as uremia, ethanol, atropine, opiates, lead, colloidal silver[16]

Trauma: Concussion, contusion

Seizure, both nonconvulsive status epilepticus and postconvulsive state (postictal state)

Electrolyte imbalance, which involves hyponatremia, hypernatremia, hypomagnesemia, hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, hypercalcemia, and hypocalcemia

Postinfectious: Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM)

Endocrine disorders such as adrenal insufficiency and thyroid disorders

Degenerative and metabolic diseases including urea cycle disorders, Reye syndrome, and mitochondrial disease

Systemic infection and sepsis

Hepatic encephalopathy

In addition, these authors claim that doctors sometimes use the mnemonic device AEIOU-TIPS to recall portions of the differential diagnosis: Alcohol ingestion and acidosis, Epilepsy and encephalopathy, Infection, Opiates, Uremia, Trauma, Insulin overdose or inflammatory disorders, Poisoning and psychogenic causes, and Shock.

 

Diagnosis[edit]

Despite converging agreement about the definition of persistent vegetative state, recent reports have raised concerns about the accuracy of diagnosis in some patients, and the extent to which, in a selection of cases, residual cognitive functions may remain undetected and patients are diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state. Objective assessment of residual cognitive function can be extremely difficult as motor responses may be minimal, inconsistent, and difficult to document in many patients, or may be undetectable in others because no cognitive output is possible (Owen et al., 2002). In recent years, a number of studies have demonstrated an important role for functional neuroimaging in the identification of residual cognitive function in persistent vegetative state; this technology is providing new insights into cerebral activity in patients with severe brain damage. Such studies, when successful, may be particularly useful where there is concern about the accuracy of the diagnosis and the possibility that residual cognitive function has remained undetected.

 

Diagnostic experiments[edit]

Researchers have begun to use functional neuroimaging studies to study implicit cognitive processing in patients with a clinical diagnosis of persistent vegetative state. Activations in response to sensory stimuli with positron emission tomography (PET), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and electrophysiological methods can provide information on the presence, degree, and location of any residual brain function. However, use of these techniques in people with severe brain damage is methodologically, clinically, and theoretically complex and needs careful quantitative analysis and interpretation.

 

For example, PET studies have shown the identification of residual cognitive function in persistent vegetative state. That is, an external stimulation, such as a painful stimulus, still activates "primary" sensory cortices in these patients but these areas are functionally disconnected from "higher order" associative areas needed for awareness. These results show that parts of the cortex are indeed still functioning in "vegetative" patients (Matsuda et al., 2003).

 

In addition, other PET studies have revealed preserved and consistent responses in predicted regions of auditory cortex in response to intelligible speech stimuli. Moreover, a preliminary fMRI examination revealed partially intact responses to semantically ambiguous stimuli, which are known to tap higher aspects of speech comprehension (Boly, 2004).

 

Furthermore, several studies have used PET to assess the central processing of noxious somatosensory stimuli in patients in PVS. Noxious somatosensory stimulation activated midbrain, contralateral thalamus, and primary somatosensory cortex in each and every PVS patient, even in the absence of detectable cortical evoked potentials. In conclusion, somatosensory stimulation of PVS patients, at intensities that elicited pain in controls, resulted in increased neuronal activity in primary somatosensory cortex, even if resting brain metabolism was severely impaired. However, this activation of primary cortex seems to be isolated and dissociated from higher-order associative cortices (Laureys et al., 2002).

 

Also, there is evidence of partially functional cerebral regions in catastrophically injured brains. To study five patients in PVS with different behavioral features, researchers employed PET, MRI and magnetoencephalographic (MEG) responses to sensory stimulation. In three of the five patients, co-registered PET/MRI correlate areas of relatively preserved brain metabolism with isolated fragments of behavior. Two patients had suffered anoxic injuries and demonstrated marked decreases in overall cerebral metabolism to 30–40% of normal. Two other patients with non-anoxic, multifocal brain injuries demonstrated several isolated brain regions with higher metabolic rates, that ranged up to 50–80% of normal. Nevertheless, their global metabolic rates remained <50% of normal. MEG recordings from three PVS patients provide clear evidence for the absence, abnormality or reduction of evoked responses. Despite major abnormalities, however, these data also provide evidence for localized residual activity at the cortical level. Each patient partially preserved restricted sensory representations, as evidenced by slow evoked magnetic fields and gamma band activity. In two patients, these activations correlate with isolated behavioral patterns and metabolic activity. Remaining active regions identified in the three PVS patients with behavioral fragments appear to consist of segregated corticothalamic networks that retain connectivity and partial functional integrity. A single patient who suffered severe injury to the tegmental mesencephalon and paramedian thalamus showed widely preserved cortical metabolism, and a global average metabolic rate of 65% of normal. The relatively high preservation of cortical metabolism in this patient defines the first functional correlate of clinical–pathological reports associating permanent unconsciousness with structural damage to these regions. The specific patterns of preserved metabolic activity identified in these patients reflect novel evidence of the modular nature of individual functional networks that underlie conscious brain function. The variations in cerebral metabolism in chronic PVS patients indicate that some cerebral regions can retain partial function in catastrophically injured brains (Schiff et al., 2002).

 

Misdiagnoses[edit]

Statistical PVS misdiagnosis is common. An example study with 40 patients in the United Kingdom reported 43% of their patients classified as PVS were believed so and another 33% had recovered whilst the study was underway.[17] Some PVS cases may actually be a misdiagnosis of patients being in an undiagnosed minimally conscious state.[18] Since the exact diagnostic criteria of the minimally conscious state were only formulated in 2002, there may be chronic patients diagnosed as PVS before the secondary notion of the minimally conscious state became known.

 

Whether or not there is any conscious awareness with a patient's vegetative state is a prominent issue. Three completely different aspects of this should be distinguished. First, some patients can be conscious simply because they are misdiagnosed (see above). In fact, they are not in vegetative states. Second, sometimes a patient was correctly diagnosed but is then examined during the early stages of recovery. Third, perhaps some day the notion itself of vegetative states will change so to include elements of conscious awareness. Inability to disentangle these three example cases causes confusion. An example of such confusion is the response to a recent experiment using functional magnetic resonance imaging which revealed that a woman diagnosed with PVS was able to activate predictable portions of her brain in response to the tester's requests that she imagine herself playing tennis or moving from room to room in her house. The brain activity in response to these instructions was indistinguishable from those of healthy patients.[19][20][21]

 

In 2010, Martin Monti and fellow researchers, working at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge, reported in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine[22] that some patients in persistent vegetative states responded to verbal instructions by displaying different patterns of brain activity on fMRI scans. Five out of a total of 54 diagnosed patients were apparently able to respond when instructed to think about one of two different physical activities. One of these five was also able to "answer" yes or no questions, again by imagining one of these two activities.[23] It is unclear, however, whether the fact that portions of the patients' brains light up on fMRI could help these patients assume their own medical decision making.[23]

 

In November 2011, a publication in The Lancet presented bedside EEG apparatus and indicated that its signal could be used to detect awareness in three of 16 patients diagnosed in the vegetative state.[24]

 

Treatment[edit]

Currently no treatment for vegetative state exists that would satisfy the efficacy criteria of evidence-based medicine. Several methods have been proposed which can roughly be subdivided into four categories: pharmacological methods, surgery, physical therapy, and various stimulation techniques. Pharmacological therapy mainly uses activating substances such as tricyclic antidepressants or methylphenidate. Mixed results have been reported using dopaminergic drugs such as amantadine and bromocriptine and stimulants such as dextroamphetamine.[25] Surgical methods such as deep brain stimulation are used less frequently due to the invasiveness of the procedures. Stimulation techniques include sensory stimulation, sensory regulation, music and musicokinetic therapy, social-tactile interaction, and cortical stimulation.[26]

 

Zolpidem[edit]

There is limited evidence that the hypnotic drug zolpidem has an effect.[27] The results of the few scientific studies that have been published so far on the effectiveness of zolpidem have been contradictory.[28][29]

 

Epidemiology[edit]

In the United States, it is estimated that there may be between 15,000 and 40,000 patients who are in a persistent vegetative state, but due to poor nursing home records exact figures are hard to determine.[30]

 

History[edit]

The syndrome was first described in 1940 by Ernst Kretschmer who called it apallic syndrome.[31] The term persistent vegetative state was coined in 1972 by Scottish spinal surgeon Bryan Jennett and American neurologist Fred Plum to describe a syndrome that seemed to have been made possible by medicine's increased capacities to keep patients' bodies alive.[10][32]

 

Society and culture[edit]

Ethics and policy[edit]

An ongoing debate exists as to how much care, if any, patients in a persistent vegetative state should receive in health systems plagued by limited resources. In a case before the New Jersey Superior Court, Betancourt v. Trinitas Hospital, a community hospital sought a ruling that dialysis and CPR for such a patient constitutes futile care. An American bioethicist, Jacob M. Appel, argued that any money spent treating PVS patients would be better spent on other patients with a higher likelihood of recovery.[33] The patient died naturally prior to a decision in the case, resulting in the court finding the issue moot.

 

In 2010, British and Belgian researchers reported in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine that some patients in persistent vegetative states actually had enough consciousness to "answer" yes or no questions on fMRI scans.[34] However, it is unclear whether the fact that portions of the patients' brains light up on fMRI will help these patient assume their own medical decision making.[34] Professor Geraint Rees, Director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, responded to the study by observing that, "As a clinician, it would be important to satisfy oneself that the individual that you are communicating with is competent to make those decisions. At the moment it is premature to conclude that the individual able to answer 5 out of 6 yes/no questions is fully conscious like you or I."[34] In contrast, Jacob M. Appel of the Mount Sinai Hospital told the Telegraph that this development could be a welcome step toward clarifying the wishes of such patients. Appel stated: "I see no reason why, if we are truly convinced such patients are communicating, society should not honour their wishes. In fact, as a physician, I think a compelling case can be made that doctors have an ethical obligation to assist such patients by removing treatment. I suspect that, if such individuals are indeed trapped in their bodies, they may be living in great torment and will request to have their care terminated or even active euthanasia."[34]

 

Notable cases[edit]

Tony Bland – first patient in English legal history to be allowed to die

Paul Brophy – first American to die after court-authorization

Sunny von Bülow – lived almost 28 years in a persistent vegetative state until her death

Gustavo Cerati – Argentine singer-songwriter, composer and producer who died after four years in a coma

Prichard Colón – Puerto Rican former professional boxer and gold medal winner who spent years in a vegetative state after a bout

Nancy Cruzan – American woman involved in a landmark United States Supreme Court case

Gary Dockery – American police officer who entered, emerged and later reentered a persistent vegetative state

Eluana Englaro – Italian woman from Lecco whose life was ended after a legal case after spending 17 years in a vegetative state

Elaine Esposito – American child who was a previous record holder for having spent 37 years in a coma

Lia Lee – Hmong child who spent 26 years in a vegetative state and was the subject of a 1997 book by Anne Fadiman

Haleigh Poutre

Karen Ann Quinlan

Terri Schiavo

Aruna Shanbaug – Indian woman in persistent vegetative state for 42 years until her death. Due to her case, the Supreme Court of India allowed passive euthanasia in the country.

Ariel Sharon

Chayito Valdez

Vice Vukov

Helga Wanglie

Otto Warmbier

See also[edit]

Anencephaly

Brain death

Botulism

Catatonia

Karolina Olsson

Locked-in syndrome

Process Oriented Coma Work, for an approach to working with residual consciousness in patients in comatose and persistent vegetative states

References[edit]

^ Laureys, Steven; Celesia, Gastone G; Cohadon, Francois; Lavrijsen, Jan; León-Carrión, José; Sannita, Walter G; Sazbon, Leon; Schmutzhard, Erich; von Wild, Klaus R (2010-11-01). "Unresponsive wakefulness syndrome: a new name for the vegetative state or apallic syndrome". BMC Medicine. 8: 68. doi:10.1186/1741-7015-8-68. ISSN 1741-7015. PMC 2987895. PMID 21040571.

^ Laureys S, Celesia GG, Cohadon F, Lavrijsen J, León-Carrión J, Sannita WG, Sazbon L, Schmutzhard E, von Wild KR, Zeman A, Dolce G (2010). "Unresponsive wakefulness syndrome: a new name for the vegetative state or apallic syndrome". BMC Med. 8: 68. doi:10.1186/1741-7015-8-68. PMC 2987895. PMID 21040571.

^ Jump up to: a b Royal College of Physicians 2013 Prolonged Disorders of Consciousness: National Clinical Guidelines, www.rcplondon.ac.uk/resources/prolonged-disorders-conscio...

^ Jennett, B (1999). "Should cases of permanent vegetative state still go to court?. Britain should follow other countries and keep the courts for cases of dispute". BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.). 319 (7213): 796–97. doi:10.1136/bmj.319.7213.796. PMC 1116645. PMID 10496803.

^ Royal College of Physicians 2013 Prolonged Disorders of Consciousness: National Clinical Guidelines

^ Jump up to: a b c Diagnosing The Permanent Vegetative State by Ronald Cranford, MD

^ PVS, The Multi-Society Task Force on (1994-05-26). "Medical Aspects of the Persistent Vegetative State". New England Journal of Medicine. 330 (21): 1499–1508. doi:10.1056/NEJM199405263302107. ISSN 0028-4793. PMID 7818633.

^ Jump up to: a b Wade, DT; Johnston, C (1999). "The permanent vegetative state: Practical guidance on diagnosis and management". BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.). 319 (7213): 841–4. doi:10.1136/bmj.319.7213.841. PMC 1116668. PMID 10496834.

^ Guidance on diagnosis and management: Report of a working party of the Royal College of Physicians. Royal College of Physicians: London. 1996.

^ Jump up to: a b c Bryan Jennett. The Vegetative State: Medical facts, ethical and legal dilemmas (PDF). University of Glasgow: Scotland. Retrieved 2007-11-09.

^ Post-coma unresponsiveness (Vegetative State): a clinical framework for diagnosis. National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC): Canberra. 2003. Archived from the original on 2006-08-20.

^ Jennett, B (2002). "Editorial: The vegetative state. The definition, diagnosis, prognosis and pathology of this state are discussed, together with the legal implications". British Medical Journal. 73 (4): 355–357. doi:10.1136/jnnp.73.4.355. PMC 1738081. PMID 12235296. Retrieved 2012-06-11.

^ "New Scientist". 2014-02-02. Archived from the original on 2017-07-11. Retrieved 2019-01-07.

^ Nell Boyce (July 8, 2000). "Is anyone in there?". New Scientist: 36.

^ Schapira, Anthony (December 18, 2006). Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience. Mosby. p. 126. ISBN 978-0323033541.

^ Mirsattari SM, Hammond RR, Sharpe MD, Leung FY, Young GB (April 2004). "Myoclonic status epilepticus following repeated oral ingestion of colloidal silver". Neurology. 62 (8): 1408–10. doi:10.1212/01.WNL.0000120671.73335.EC. PMID 15111684.

^ K Andrews; L Murphy; R Munday; C Littlewood (1996-07-06). "Misdiagnosis of the vegetative state: retrospective study in a rehabilitation unit". British Medical Journal. 313 (7048): 13–16. doi:10.1136/bmj.313.7048.13. PMC 2351462. PMID 8664760.

^ Giacino JT, et al. (2002). "Unknown title". Neurology. 58 (3): 349–353. doi:10.1212/wnl.58.3.349. PMID 11839831.

^ Owen AM, Coleman MR, Boly M, Davis MH, Laureys S, Pickard JD (2006-09-08). "Detecting awareness in the vegetative state". Science. 313 (5792): 1402. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.1022.2193. doi:10.1126/science.1130197. PMID 16959998.

^ "Vegetative patient 'communicates': A patient in a vegetative state can communicate just through using her thoughts, according to research". BBC News. September 7, 2006. Retrieved 2008-08-14.

^ Stein R (September 8, 2006). "Vegetative patient's brain active in test: Unprecedented experiment shows response to instructions to imagine playing tennis". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2007-09-26.

^ Willful Modulation of Brain Activity in Disorders of Consciousness at nejm.org

^ Jump up to: a b Richard Alleyne and Martin Beckford, Patients in 'vegetative' state can think and communicate,Telegraph (United Kingdom), Feb 4, 2010

^ Cruse Damian; et al. (2011). "Bedside detection of awareness in the vegetative state: a cohort study". The Lancet. 378 (9809): 2088–2094. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.368.3928. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61224-5. PMID 22078855.

^ Dolce, Giuliano; Sazbon, Leon (2002). The post-traumatic vegetative state. ISBN 9781588901163.

^ Georgiopoulos M, et al. (2010). "Vegetative state and minimally conscious state: a review of the therapeutic interventions". Stereotact Funct Neurosurg. 88 (4): 199–207. doi:10.1159/000314354. PMID 20460949.

^ Georgiopoulos, M; Katsakiori, P; Kefalopoulou, Z; Ellul, J; Chroni, E; Constantoyannis, C (2010). "Vegetative state and minimally conscious state: a review of the therapeutic interventions". Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery. 88 (4): 199–207. doi:10.1159/000314354. PMID 20460949.

^ Snyman, N; Egan, JR; London, K; Howman-Giles, R; Gill, D; Gillis, J; Scheinberg, A (2010). "Zolpidem for persistent vegetative state—a placebo-controlled trial in pediatrics". Neuropediatrics. 41 (5): 223–227. doi:10.1055/s-0030-1269893. PMID 21210338.

^ Whyte, J; Myers, R (2009). "Incidence of clinically significant responses to zolpidem among patients with disorders of consciousness: a preliminary placebo controlled trial". Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 88 (5): 410–418. doi:10.1097/PHM.0b013e3181a0e3a0. PMID 19620954.

^ Hirsch, Joy (2005-05-02). "Raising consciousness". The Journal of Clinical Investigation. 115 (5): 1102. doi:10.1172/JCI25320. PMC 1087197. PMID 15864333.

^ Ernst Kretschmer (1940). "Das apallische Syndrom". Neurol. Psychiat. 169: 576–579. doi:10.1007/BF02871384.

^ B Jennett; F Plum (1972). "Persistent vegetative state after brain damage: A syndrome in search of a name". The Lancet. 1 (7753): 734–737. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(72)90242-5. PMID 4111204.

^ Appel on Betancourt v. Trinitas

^ Jump up to: a b c d Richard Alleyne and Martin Beckford, Patients in 'vegetative' state can think and communicate, Telegraph (United Kingdom), Feb 4, 2010

This article contains text from the NINDS public domain pages on TBI. [1] and [2].

 

External links[edit]

Sarà, M.; Sacco, S.; Cipolla, F.; Onorati, P.; Scoppetta, C; Albertini, G; Carolei, A (2007). "An unexpected recovery from permanent vegetative state". Brain Injury. 21 (1): 101–103. doi:10.1080/02699050601151761. PMID 17364525.

Canavero S, et al. (2009). "Recovery of consciousness following bifocal extradural cortical stimulation in a permanently vegetative patient". Journal of Neurology. 256 (5): 834–6. doi:10.1007/s00415-009-5019-4. PMID 19252808.

Canavero S (editor) (2009). Textbook of therapeutic cortical stimulation. New York: Nova Science. ISBN 9781606925379.

Canavero S, Massa-Micon B, Cauda F, Montanaro E (May 2009). "Bifocal extradural cortical stimulation-induced recovery of consciousness in the permanent post-traumatic vegetative state". J Neurol. 256 (5): 834–6. doi:10.1007/s00415-009-5019-4. PMID 19252808.

Connolly, Kate. "Car crash victim trapped in a coma for 23 years was conscious", The Guardian, November 23, 2009.

Machado, Calixto, et al. "A Cuban Perspective on Management of Persistent Vegetative State". MEDICC Review 2012;14(1):44–48.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_vegetative_state

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Die Wahrheit ist im Außen nicht zu finden.

Das Außen ist die Wahrheit.

 

Um das Außen als Wahrheit zu erkennen, bedarf es eines dem Alltagsbewusstseins enthobenen Zustandes. Das Alltagsbewusstsein hofft, die Wahrheit in der äußeren Welt zu finden. Ohne diese Illusion, würde es sich nicht auf die Suche begeben. Aufgrund der erfolglosen Suche und der damit verbundenen Frustration wird schließlich das Alltagsbewusstsein (Ego) selbst infrage gestellt und untersucht. Psychologisch wird das meist als Selbsterforschung umschrieben. Mystiker nennen es die „dunkle Nacht der Seele“ und Albrecht Dürer stellte es als „Melancholia“ dar, der tiefsinnige Mensch erfährt sie als Quelle (Ursache oder Motivationskraft) seiner Grübelei.

Die tiefsinnige oder auch philosophische Denkweise erkennt schließlich die erfahrbare Wahrheit, die natürlich nur in einem selbst liegt und zwar in der Erkenntnis, dass „Vater“ und „Sohn“ eins sind. Diese alte mystische und religiös allgemein bekannte Aussage bleibt so lange ein Rätsel, bis der Zustand des „Einsseins“ erfahren wurde.

Aufgrund dieser Erfahrung wird das Außen als die Wahrheit erkannt, nämlich das, was die Welt wirklich ist: eine Erscheinung wie ein Traum. Dass die Welt einem Traum gleicht, ist ebenfalls eine bekannte Volksweisheit. Die Tiefe dieser Wahrheit wird schließlich aus einem selbst heraus erkannt: Das Außen (die Erscheinung) ist die Wahrheit.

Aus dieser Perspektive ist es unsinnig, auf ein Leben nach dem Tod zu hoffen. Das Leben im Hier und Jetzt – vor dem Tod – ist das Ziel aller geistigen und weltlichen Reisen.

Bedenke:

Nichts ist innen, nichts ist außen, doch was innen ist, ist außen.

Die Paradoxie, die Johann Wolfgang von Goethe hier beschreibt entspricht der Wahrheit. Innen und Außen sind ein und dasselbe. Vergleichbar mit einem Traum. Alle in ihm befindlichen Erscheinungen haben eine Quelle: das träumende Bewusstsein. Bewusstsein kann mit dem Wort Seele in Analogie gesetzt werden. Die Seele träumt das Leben. Bewusstsein erschafft (träumt) die Welt in jedem Augenblick. Träumen ist der schöpferische Akt der Seele oder des Bewusstseins.

 

HKD

 

"They try to climb up one of the fine hairs of the rabbit’s fur and stare straight into the eyes of the Great Magician."

50 sec exposure shot on Olympus E-30.

 

- Perpetual events may be mistaken for continuous actions depending on the amount of time between each cycle or separate actions. This is the case with consciousness when we observe it from a quantified perspective. The flow of time is nothing but our perception on the changes in observable values.

 

► . ◄

A road leading to the vast wilderness of the Colorado Rockies.

Introduction

 

The doctrine of the ‘Body of Light’ is replete throughout Western esoteric literature. Unfortunately, while many references are made to the concept, little information is supplied regarding its origin (or formation), stages of growth, and applications. The purpose of this document is to supply qabalistic and alchemical students with a workable esoteric theory, and practical technique, regarding this often obscure subject.

 

Theoretical and Historical Background

 

The origin of the “body of light” is seen in gnostic literature as early as the first century. However, extensive documentation and theory exist in Chinese, Mongolian, Tibetan, and Indian literature and practices of an earlier date. Under the general heading of chi kung, or Chinese internal alchemy, these practices are designed to create and mature a body of subtle astral and etheric energy that is capable of existence independent of material consciousness. This body is also thought to be capable of infusing the material body with sufficient energy to allow it to become more subtle and ‘etherial’. This ‘etherialization’ is said to make the physical body, under the direction of the adept, capable of de-materialization at the time of death. Enoch, Ezekiel, the ascension of Jesus, his mother Mary, and even Mohammed with his horse, are often given as examples of this form of dematerialization in Western spiritual literature.

 

Unfortunately, while Eastern systems have maintained a working technical tradition of the theory and its application needed to achieve this goal, little information remains in the West of a similar nature. The idea of the ‘simulacrum’ is the closest we have, and may very well be the starting point of such experimentation. It can be seen from the Eastern literature available, that the idea of the “Body of Light” often called the “Rainbow” or “Diamond Body” is the perfection of a vehicle for the exteriorization (projection), and continuation of consciousness beyond material reality. This paper will attempt to show how the development of this body can be achieved through existing qabalistic practices, and that the stages of its growth corresponds to total realization on the Lunar (Yetzirah), Solar (Briah), and Saturnian (Daath) planes of consciousness.

It is important to realize what is meant by these ‘planes’ however, as they can be confusing when first encountered as an esoteric teaching. When the Cosmic created the universe, humanity, or the ‘human seed’, that aspect of consciousness which was to grow into realization of godhood, descended from primal unity. This unity is symbolized by the Divine World of Atzilooth, and the Holy Upper Trinity in the Tree of Life.

 

When consciousness experiences increasing levels of density as matter is created, duality forms and continues to the material world. This first descent from unity to duality is the so-called “Fall” and to prevent a premature return to Unity, that is before all of creation could be encountered, a barrier was placed called in qabalistic literature, the Abyss. This is the “First Day of Creation” or appearance of time/space. As the descent continued, the human seed experienced progressive levels of sexual polarization as well as being further removed from its memory of Divine consciousness. After the level of Divine Harmony in creation, or Tiphareth, the center of humanity's sense of self, an additional barrier was created, the Veil, or Paroketh. This is the appearance of individuality free of the Divine spark. Finally, a third barrier of Veil is encountered, and that is what separates material creation from the psychic and spiritual worlds. Here, humanity has no memory of its Divine origin, and has complete free will to seek what it desires.

Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, states, “When working in this way [Pathworking] you are using the astral body, and you know already about your Magical Personality1) which has been quietly growing in strength with each month’s work. But there is another form used by some magicians, the Body of Light. Some think that it is the same as the astral body, but it is in fact quite different. The astral is an etheric form common to everyone, a Magical Personality is acquired through practice and concentration. The Body of Light is deliberately built for a purpose, another term for it is ‘cowan’. It is not easily formed, some people never manage it, or at least not fully, and once it is formed it can be troublesome, and requires firm handling.” P. 153, The Ritual Magic Workbook Ms. Ashcroft-Nowicki further states that the Body of Light can acquire a kind of ‘self consciousness’ after a period of development. This idea is also stated in Tibetan and Chinese literature. The small ‘child of light’ is often compared to a fetus in the astral womb of the practitioner’s aura and temple. It must be matured, fed, educated, and grown to proper strength so that is can be a help to the magician and not a hindrance, or even potential danger. However, like in all occult activity, dangers come more often from rushing through preliminary work instead of allowing it to proceed in a healthy and natural pace, than from the exercises themselves actually being psychically dangerous. She also goes on to say that few Western magicians have ever been able to master the technique fully, although no reasons are given. When we attempt esoteric exercises and a return to Primal Unity, we must pierce the first Veil, or that of the Gate of Life and Death. So called, because few people pierce it except during near-death-experiences (NDE’s), Out-of-Body experiences (OOBE’s), or physical death itself. The astral body has access to three levels of consciousness, and then must be shed, encountering the ‘Second Death” in order to penetrate the Veil, or Paroketh, to the next three levels. However, precautions must be undertaken to avoid the destruction of the astral body if the Second Death is to be avoided. If this is not done, then it must be reconstructed with a new birth. Above the Solar World, the Resurrection Body is established, and it is the ‘body’ or expression of consciousness used for Reintergration to Unity.2)

It is possible, as this paper will attempt to show, that just as there is confusion among some students regarding the Body of Light as being the astral body, there may also be confusion regarding its actual purpose — that of extended consciousness, or ‘surviving the Second Death’. When its function is clearly understood, then greater attempts can be made to realize its full potential. Mead and the Subtle Body: GRS Mead wrote a booklet around the turn of the century titled, The Doctrine of the Subtle Body in the Western Tradition. It very well may be one of the few books dedicated to this subject available, and while it is full of scholarly research regarding the theories and beliefs regarding the subtle body, it lacks any description of the techniques used to experience it. The material quoted is almost exclusively Gnostic-Christian in origin: Mead states that the doctrine of the subtle body achieved its highest expression in India, although he may have been unaware of other oriental teachings, and that notions of the subtle body develop along with those of alchemy and astrology. This is both true in East and West, and is seen in the techniques often suggested for use by the student. This astrology has nothing to do with “..vulgar horoscopy, philosophic astral theory set up a ladder of ascent from the earth to the light world.” (p.9) Mead also states: “But even as there was a deeper, more vital, side of astrology, a subtler phase intimately bound up with the highest themes of sidereal religion, so there was a supra-physical, vital and psychic side to alchemy — a scale of ascent leading finally to man’s perfection in spiritual reality.” (p.13)

Mead also states that Zosimus states catagorecally that the Rites of Mithras were identical in purpose to the practices of alchemy, and is the only complete ritual of the Mithrian cult that has survived to present time, and its theurgical practices are similar to Indian yoga. (p.30) The ritual also states clearly that it is the method whereby spiritual perfection and birth of the subtle body are attained. As in the Sepher Yetzirah and the Golem, the body of Light is often suggested.

 

Three Levels of Light: The three basic ideas around the subtle body are that it progresses though the levels of the spheres, increases in power and purity, and is made of light and/or fire. It is described as : the spirit-body, the radiant body, and the resurrection body, depending on its degree of purity. Mead points out that there is the possibility of extreme confusion when reading the ancient literature and the vocabulary used to describe the spiritual body. Despite appearances to the contrary, Mead asserts that the spiritual body is essentially one, and that the sidereal body, has nothing to do with today’s (1919) astral body. The Spirit-Body, orsoma pheumatikon, is the force closely aligned to the physical body. Similar to the nephesch, or vegetative-animal soul, in Jewish Qabalah. The Radiant Body, allows us to experience the Vision of Beauty Triumphant as referred to in modern qabalistic schools: “Tiphareth translates to Beauty. It is located on the Pillar of Balance which is the Pillar of consciousness and corresponds, we are told, to the highest state in which a man incarnate on this earth can live, that is, a man “of flesh and blood.” This does not mean that he cannot receive the influences of the higher sepheroth (higher according to the Tree), perceive or live something of their nature and mode of action. This means that a man capable of remaining in Tiphareth has “spiritualized” his matter, has formed his glorious body and has obtained the power to go beyond incarnation.” “There was a time when we they could behold Beauty in all its brilliance, when, together with the rest of the Blessed Company — we [philosophers] in the train of Zeus, and other [ranks of souls] in the train of the Gods — they both beheld the beatific spectacle and [divine] vision, and where initiated into that mystery, which may be called the holiest of all, in which we joyed in mystic ecstasy.” (p. 58) Proclus states,

“Moreover, the radiant vehicle (augoeides ochema) [corresponds] with heaven, and this mortal [frame] with the sublunary [region]”. While the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the flesh was hotly contested during its developmental stages, with the ‘flesh lovers as they were called, winning out over those believing in a purely spiritual resurrection. Mead points out that the belief in physical resurrection was not universally accepted by the Jews of Jesus’ day, yet, there was a strong Biblical and midrashic tradition of increasing in grades of purity of the individual allowing for ascension and resurrection to take place. The descriptions of these accounts, Elijah and Jesus, suggest that the bodies they inhabited were the same, and yet not the same. They were tangible, yet could overcome material limitations, such as Jesus’ passing through the locked door. Elijah, unlike Jesus however, did not die, but was taken into heaven bodily in a chariot of fire. These ‘bodies’ in fact, are not really separate bodies, but increasingly purified expressions of the personality, the individual and unique expression of God we all carry within us. As one ‘body’ or expression is purified and ‘dies’ another takes its place. What makes the resurrection body different is that while it can and does exist within the material world, it is free from material constraints. This perfect body was, or is, essentially a quintessence. It is differentiated into subtle and simple elements, where as the physical body is contaminated by the grosser elements. The Mithraic initiation states:“O Primal Origin of my origination; Thou Primal Substance of my substance; First Breath of breath, the breath that is in me; First Fire, God-given for the Blending of the blendings in me; First Fire of fire in me; First Water of my water, the water in me; Primal Earth-essence of the earthly essence in me; Thou Perfect Body of me!..” (p. 102, and A Mithraic Ritual, London 1907)

 

The technique suggested by Ashcroft-Nowicki is the simplest and most direct. However, while no specific rituals are employed, as in A.S. method, it is suggested that the ritual be performed in a consecrated temple to prevent the simulacrum from wondering. She also states that when the B.O.L. is sufficiently developed to begin to desire acting on its own, that it should be given firm disciplining.“With the constant implanting of consciousness, even the tiny amount used here, the cowan [Body of Light] will eventually gain a half conscious mind of its own. You will in fact have partially ensouled it. At this point, it will almost certainly make a bid for freedom. Something you cannot allow for it has no protection against the darker forces who will take it over and use it against you and even against those with whom you are involved. They will think it is you and trust the appearance. Therefore the moment you feel as if the cowan is getting above itself, give it a good psychic shake, and in no uncertain terms remind it who is boss.” She then suggests withdrawing all contact with the cowan for a lunar month, and to feel no sympathy for this self-created and projected aspect of ourselves. To do otherwise, she warns, is to court disaster. This would in fact, be tantamount to “the Fall” in our own personal microcosm. Yet despite these warnings, and problems, the creation of the BOL, even partially, can be a very rewarding psychic and spiritual experience. It offers many avenues for psychological cleansing, as we shall see, and psychic enhancement. These four directives: going slow, performing in a sacred space or enclosure, preventing it from wondering, and reminding the BOL who is boss, are common to Eastern and Western methods of creating the BOL. What is missing in the modern accounts, but clearly stated in the Oriental ones, is that the BOL is a superior being to physical world, and can be directed to have effects on the physical body, if they are desired. It is these effects which allow for the etherialization of the physical body, increased health, longevity, and possibly even a kind of ‘psychic mutation’ that allows for increased psychic activity along family lines. The Western schools are silent about what the implications of the Hermetic axiom, “The subtle rules the dense” and how it might apply here. Despite the projective imagery, the genuine sense of the simulacrum being ‘other’, and unconscious, often violent imagery that can be dredged up from a nephesch (subconscious) that doesn’t want to be integrated into the workings of the ruach (Mental-Spiritual functions), the BOL is still a part of us. By disciplining it, giving it function and purpose, and guiding it with a firm hand, we are in reality giving those things to our self. The simulacrum however, shows us in no uncertain terms, that these forces and ideas within us, left unregenerated and when given the opportunity, will seek to manifest, and to take on self-consciousness. In magical work we see this clearly in the creation of the BOL; in psychology in neurotic and schizophrenic behavior; and even in severe forms of psychosis. Esoteric work allows us to address these diverse aspects of our being, to integrate them, and in doing so, to prevent psychic ruptures that might otherwise manifest in modern terms as mental illness. The following method can be performed by anyone regardless of their level of experience. Ideally however, it would be best if it is done during the third or fourth year of qabalistic study. The reasons for this are simple: the more experience you have in psychic and occult matters, the easier it will be to achieve noticeable success. In addition, the required skills of concentration, visualization, and creating a strong working environment for psychic activity will have become second nature. In relation to what has been said previously, by the third or fourth year of study, the aspiring qabalistic magician will hopefully have worked through some of their more obvious psychological issues, as seen and experienced through the multi-colored glasses of the Lesser Pentagram and Hexagram Rituals. Previous experience with planetary invocations will make some of the following instructions easier. Within the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the first 3-3 ½ years is spent learning very basic magical procedures, coupled with the memorization and intellectual comprehension of a vast amount of qabalistic, alchemical, and astrological knowledge. The techniques given by Regardie in The Golden Dawn, such as the Supreme Rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram, and the Rose+Cross Ritual, are not generally taught until the 5=5 Grade, or Adeptus Minor. On occasion, they may be given in the preliminary section, known as the Portal Grade. All magical tools are also constructed after being received into the Second Order, or Adeptus Minor grade. Only after this period are planetary rituals, talismans, and related techniques as seen in Regardie’s work undertaken.4) For those who do not belong to any formal course of study, it is generally suggested that the first year of activity be spent learning Elemental and Pentagram work. The second year doing planetary work; with the third year being spent integrating the two. The fourth year often focuses on zodiacal magic and the completion of any Pathworking. Pathworking can be started anywhere from the first year on and requires about 1 1/2 years to fully do all of the 32 Paths of the Tree of Life. Since each Path is often done more than once, it is best to allow two to three years for this additional aspect of magical training. Pathworking, particularly Paths 32 through 24 are critical for psychological health and should be done two or three times before doing the second set of Paths, or 23 through 19.5) Of course, the speed at which one works is not important. It is better to go slowly and diligently and make real progress, than to rush through and simply do the work haphazardly. The most complete method available for creating the Body of Light is in the ritual called “The Magician” in Mysteria Magica, vol 3 of The Magical Philosophy by Melita Denning and Osborne Phillips.6) The material belongs to the curriculum of the Aurlem Solis Sacra Verbum. The ritual is divided into five main sections, composed of fourteen distinct parts in total. A note belonging to the title suggests that the ritual is considered most effective when performed at the beginning of the day. Presumably, during the first planetary hour of the day.

Among the most important points in gnostic and Platonic literature is the need to separate the subtle body from the physical body for its purification. This imagined, and eventually real separation, forms the core of the technique. Only by freeing the psychic self from the constraints of material life can we experience the full degree of good and evil in our psyche. The methodical and militant purification of our psyche and integration of its diverse aspects constitutes the most difficult, and rewarding, psycho-spiritual practices known.

 

Preliminaries: The temple area should be set as usual, with alter in the middle, or slightly East of center. If possible, wear a consecrated Rose+Cross present, and place the Pentacle of Earth on the altar.7). Establishing the Temple: Perform the Banishing Ritual of the Lesser or Greater Pentagram.8)

Higher Self: Place your left hand, the hand of Mercy, upon the Earth Pantacle. Invoke the presence of your Higher Self. Imagine in brilliant phosphorescence a flaming sphere, or flaming yod, touching your crown and uniting you with the cosmos. Stand in the posture of the Adeptus Minor. (Tau Cross, arms outstretched).

Lower arms and meditate on the significance of your Higher Self, this flame of Creation within you. This cosmic seed. Perform the Middle Pillar exercise.: Affirm your intentions for performing this exercise, and appreciation for consciousness and the opportunity to develop in awareness and Service. Ask that Light, Life, and Love be expressed in every cell, thought, and action of your being. The Lower Self: Turning clockwise, face the West of the Temple. Pause and imagine the great streams of energy circulating through your physical and psychic bodies. Energize your heart center, feeling a stream of energy running from your crown to your heart, and feet, and back up again. Affirm your position of authority over your lower self and physical body in a loving, but firm manner. Be thankful that they are present to serve you, but that they are at the service of the development of Self, and not as independent beings. Assume the position of the Adeptus Minor, and imagine yourself growing to a vast and immense size. Maintain or reformulate your Flaming Crown center. Feeling most of your consciousness operating from inside of it. Send thoughts of blessing, love, good health, and well being to your lower self and guph. Pause for a few moments as the feeling of vastness disappears and you return to normal awareness of the temple. Turn to the East and ask that the Powers of the Higher Self be present and fully utilized for this operation and at all times forward. Move to the eastern Quarter and Face the West again. Perform the Middle Pillar a second time if needed. Project the simulacrum from the solar plexus, upper abdomen region. Have it facing East, or toward the operator, with the silvery-bluish cord visible between the simulacrum and the operator’s abdomen or solar plexus.

Exhortation and Instruction: In the Name of your Higher Self, address the image before you firmly and lovingly that it is to give your full assistance in the Great Work. If any particular instruction, assistance, or additional work is needed, it is to be interjected here. Give blessing to your Nephesh, in the Name of the Most High, and thank it for its participation in this ritual.

Energize and imagine the simulacrum attaining a high degree of integration. Completion: Re-absorb the simulacrum and the silver cord by imaging it return to a cloud or mist of bright bluish-gray or silver psychic protoplasm and collapsing backward along the cord (bring the cord with it) into your body at the level it was projected from. Close down firmly. Feel the energy move throughout your body and sink deep into your muscles, bones, marrow, and envelope you in a body of light, just below the surface of the skin. Rejoice in the successful operation.

Instructing the Simulacrum: After a two or three weeks of successful projection and reabsorbing of the simulacrum, you can begin projecting specific ideas into it. This can be done in several ways depending on your personal preference. First, use a general plan of associating the simulacrum with the planets, by imagining them along the spinal column from Saturn at the base, to Luna and Sol at the head. Imagine them in bright white light, or the Queens Color Scale. Using the colors, symbols, and sounds of the planets, the simulacrum can be tincted with particular qualities and virtues. Or imagine counterparts of physical organs inside the simulacrum and them having the colors and sounds of their planetary counterparts, filling the whole image with the light and sense and virtues of that planet.

This is the Lunar, or Astral purification of the simulacrum so that it can be rightly called a Silver Body, as it will be influenced and influential upon the Lunar and Astral worlds as a whole. At some point you can then begin to educate it further, that it might become a Solar, or Golden, Radiant Body, influenced by the Briactic Worlds. Beyond this, it would find perfection in the Diamond, or Resurrection Body, under the influence of the Sphere of Saturn. Also, practice performing the Middle Pillar inside the simulacrum, after it has been projected. Always reabsorb the energy, either as a mist, or a shadow image fusing itself into your earthly body. When venturing into the Quarters, use the simulacrum and tune it to the Element you seek to explore, making it a body of Fire, Air, Water, or Earth. When generally projected, it should be thought of as a body of Quintessence, or Spirit, of dynamic electric and magnetic qualities containing within it the balanced potential for all bodies of the four Elements. The simulacrum can also be projected and modified to a deific image or godform. The effects of this are different than the usual methods for Assumption of the Godform. In this instance it is helpful to grow the image in size and stature to a larger than normal appearance after it has been created. It is important that your consciousness be projected firmly into the simulacrum during any working, and that the energy be completely reabsorbed after it is over. The simulacrum can be charged with Hebrew letters. Engraving them according to there location and association with the physical organs as outlined in the Sepher Yetzirah. This can be done to the physical body as well, prior to projection of the simulacrum, and will assist in its creation and projection.9) The letters can be done in blazing white, or according to the Queen’s Scale. It can also be charged with the Tetragrammaton, in the normal Y (Head) Heh (Shoulders) Vau (Spine) Heh (Hips Feet) fashion. As with the alphabet, they should be seen as existing inside the figure, glowing and strong, and not carved on the surface, or projected onto it from elsewhere. The purpose of the simulacrum is to create a vehicle for the purification and expression of astral (Yetziric) and mental (Briah) energies. As such, it also acts as a bridge between not just our objective and subjective worlds, but also between our emotional and physical realities. As stated, we can in effect, alter our physical appearance and health through proper and loving purification of our astral matrix. The Nephesch, which constitutes the bulk of the ‘self’ that we are refining in this work, overlaps and connects the worlds of matter (forming our Salt) and mind (forming our Mercury). When we address it from the perspective of our Kether, we are adding the third Essential, or the overlap of Mind and Spirit (forming our Sulfur). These Four Qabalstic Worlds and their overlapping, forming the Three Essentials, form the basis for inner and outer alchemy. The 27th Path is also a sort of Kundalini Yoga exercise, whereas the 24th Path is the arousal of Kundalini. Where the 27th connects Natural Energy to the Intellectual World, the 24th Path converts Solar (soul) energy into Natural (psychic) energy. Both are under the influence of Mars, or Will, as they reverse the flow of Mezla, and clear out psychic blockages on the Path of Return. This exercise will have secondary effects on the 24th Path, and some effects on the 28th Path (Net-Yes) as this Path governs the flow of Psychic energy through our Psychic centers. All of the Paths of Yetzirah will be effected to some degree by this exercise. We cannot ascend and take our mistaken ideas with us, or our passions and lusts. Both are eradicated, disciplined, or redirected by the Sword of Geburah, or an Enlightened Will. The Lightning Bolt on the tarot card the Tower, sometimes called the House of God (Deu) or Fire (Feu) shows us that the ever flowing lightning bolt of Mezla will destroy any imperfections that it comes in contact with. 1) The Magical Personality is defined as a self-created image of one’s self that allows for greater power and presence when doing esoteric work. 2) See: Fundamentals of Esoteric Knowledge, Lesson 1-3. The Philosopher’s of Nature (PON), Wheaton, Ill. ©1988. 3) See: Qabala Course, Lesson 17. The Philosophers of Nature (PON), Wheaton, Ill. © 1995.

4) See: Self-Initiation into the Golden Dawn Tradition by Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero. Llewellyn Publications. Saint Paul, MN. Copyright 1995 5) For more information on Pathworking see: PON Qabala Course, Lessons through . Highways of the Mind by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, and Magical States of Consciousness by Melita Denning and Osborne Phillips. 6) P. 359-362.

7) As mentioned, in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Hermetic Rose+Cross and the Pantacle of Earth are ‘adept level’ tools. In The Philosopher’s of Nature (PON) Qabala Course, they are not constructed until the very end of the six year course. However, the Supreme Pentagram and Hexagram rituals are presented in the second year. 8) Use of the ‘Elemental Grade Signs’ or the ‘Rending of the Veil’ is at the performers discretion.

9) One student who did this noted that the simulacrum was more vital, but also slightly more difficult to control. They also noted, they when they imagined the letters within their physical body when falling asleep, that astral projection occurred rapidly, often before the fifth or sixth letter was reached.

 

hermetic.com/stavish/essays/bodylight

 

The Advanced Middle Pillar Ritual: The Middle Pillar ritual seems to be a ritual that one can progressively build upon. Visualization of the 5 central spheres and reciting the corresponding God-names is obviously the foundation. From there on, I have begun incorporating the remainder of the spheres - and also reciting the Angelic correspondences too (Metatron - Raphael - Gabriel - Sandalphon). Upon adding these to the ritual - it has become considerably more powerful (in terms of how strongly it alters my consciousness) and immersive. I am looking to further energize and advance the ritual. From those of you who have developed their own Middle Pillar Ritual - what have you specifically done, and what has been in the effect? Also, do you supplement the process by topping it off with another ritual (Bornless Ritual, LIRP, etc...) This practice is based on the symbolism of the Middle Pillar of the qabalistic Tree of Life. Alternately, this pillar is known by the titles Equilibrium, Balance, or Mildness. The Middle Pillar Exercise imagines bright spiritual light descending and flowing through the central axis of the body, marked by a series of energy centers (circles 1, 6, 9, 10, and the unmarked throat center in the diagram). Visualizing certain colors and using intense vocalization, called vibration, of the associated name of G-d activates these centers. Then the light is circulated, or directed into a certain pattern of flow, throughout the whole energy field. This practice connects us to the Divine, clears and recharges our personal energy field, and increases our capacity to channel spiritual energy. Additionally, it brings us a sense of peace and harmonious balance. Many teachers recommend performing a clearing ritual prior to practicing the Middle Pillar Exercise. The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (LBRP) is frequently used. I have used the Middle Pillar Exercise with students for many years without a prefatory clearing ritual and with no ill effects. However, if you feel your energy is disproportionately out-of-balance, please consider using the LBRP or otherwise setting sacred space before beginning this meditation.The name of the exercise is taken from the position of the central Sephiroth on the diagrammatic Tree of Life.

As has been said... "The Secret of Wisdom can be discerned only from the place of balanced power" - that is, from between the pillars of Severity and Mercy. The Middle Pillar positions us at a balanced point, neutralizing to some extent the swing of the psychic pendulum from one extreme to the other.

In this exercise we will visualize the sephiroth of the middle pillar as part of our bodies, illuminating them in descending order while vibrating the sephiroth's divine name. This establishes balance and fills us with energy.Once the middle pillar is 'lit' we will circle the energy around and through our bodies, to cleanse and fortify. Think of the names as vibratory rates.

The exercise can be performed standing, sitting, or lying down. Names can be vibrated aloud or internally.Kether

After a few minutes of relaxation, imagine a sphere of white light just above your head. Vibrate the name Eheieh (pronounced Eh-hey-yay, meaning I am). Keep vibrating this word until it is the only thought in your conscious mind. Then imagine a shaft of light descending from your Kether center to your Daath center at the nape of the neck.

Daath: Form a sphere of light at the Daath center. Vibrate the name YHVH Elohim (pronounced Yode-heh-vav-heh El-oh-heem, meaning Lord of Hosts).

Tiphareth: Bring a shaft of light down from the Daath center to the Tiphareth center around your heart. Form a sphere of light there. Vibrate the name YHVH Eloah ve-Daath (pronounced Yode-heh-vav-heh El-oh-ah v’-Dah-ath, meaning Lord of Knowledge).

Yesod: See the shaft of light descending from Tiphareth into the Yesod center in the genital region. Imagine a sphere of light formed there. Intone the name Shaddai El Chai (pronounced Shah-dye El-Chai meaning Almighty Living God.

Malkuth: Visualize the shaft of light descending from Yesod into your Malkuth center at the feet and ankles. Vibrate the name Adonai ha-Aretz (pronounced Ah-doe-nye ha-Ah-retz, meaning Lord of Earth). Visualize the Middle Pillar complete.

 

Circulating the light: Then circulate the light you have brought down through the Middle Pillar around the outside of your body to strengthen your aura (Perform each circulation a number of times.): Circulation One: Side to Side. Using the cycles of rhythmic breathing, bring the light down one side of the body and up the other, from Kether to Malkuth and back to Kether. Exhale and visualize the light descending the left side of the body. Inhale and imagine the light ascending the right side of the body back to Kether.. Circulation Two: Front to Back:

After performing this for a short space of time, imagine the ribbon of light descending from Kether down the front of your body to Malkuth and rising up your back, returning again to Kether. Circulation Three: The Shower of Light Still employing rhythmic breathing, visualize the sphere of Malkuth, then see the shaft of light rising up the Middle Pillar in the center of your body. When it reaches Kether, imagine a shower of light cascading down the outside of your body as it descends to Malkuth again. Circulate the light in this manner for some time. Circulation Four: The Ascending Spiral Then see the light rise again in a ribbon that spirals around the outside of your body from Malkuth to Kether. Closing Finally focus some of the energy back into your Tiphareth center, the seat of equilibrium and balance.

Often, the Middle Pillar is combined with the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (see also Site "Rituals") To do this:

Perform the opening Kabalistic Cross .Formulate the Pentagrams

Call the Archangels: Perform the Middle Pillar exercise

Perform the closing Kabalistic Cross. The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. The Kabalistic Cross: Face east. Perform the Kabalistic Cross as follows:. Imagine a sphere of light just above the crown of your head. Touch the forehead and vibrate Ateh (Thou Art, or, Unto Thee) Bring hand down the body. At about the level of the genitals, indicate the feet and vibrate Malkuth (The Kingdom) Imagine a shaft of light descending from the Crown Sphere to the feet where another sphere expands just under your feet. Touch the right shoulder and vibrate Ve-Geburah (and The Power) Imagine a 6 inch sphere of brilliant white light appear just next to the right shoulder.

Touch the left shoulder and vibrate Ve-Gedulah (and The Glory)

Imagine a shaft of light emerge from the right Sphere and cross your breast to expand and form another Sphere at your left shoulder. Clasp the hands before you and vibrate Le-Olam (For Ever) Imagine clearly the cross of light as it extends through your body.

Amen.

 

The Pentagrams

Draw, in the air facing east, a banishing Earth Pentagram (Begin at the lower left corner and trace clockwise). Bringing your hand to the center of the Pentagram, vibrate the Name Y H V H (pronounced Yahd Hey Vau Hey)

Trace a semicircle before you as you turn toward the south. Again trace the Pentagram, bring your hand to the center of it, and vibrate the Name Adonai, (pronounced Ah-Do-Neye)

Again, trace the semicircle with the dagger to the west, trace the Pentagram, bring your hand to the center, and vibrate the Name Eheieh, (pronounced Eh-Hey-Yay)

Then, turn towards the north, trace the circle, trace the Pentagram, bring your hand to the center and vibrate the Name AGLA, (pronounced either Ah-Gah-Lah or Atah Gibor Le-Olahm Adonai) Return to the EAST, completing tracing the circle of Light, bringing your hand to the center of the east Pentagram.

 

The Archangels

Extend the arms in the form of a cross, say:

Before me (then vibrate) Raphael

Behind me (then vibrate) Gabriel

At my right hand (then vibrate) Michael

At my left hand (then vibrate) Ariel

About me flames the pentagrams, and in the column shines the six-rayed star.

 

At this point, perform the Middle Pillar exercise

 

Repeat the Kabalistic Cross

 

Adding Color

Once the ritual becomes familiar, try adding color to the spheres. While white light contains all colors within it, visualizing the spheres in color can strengthen the individual energy of each.

 

Colors in the Middle Pillar

Kether – White

Daath – Lavender or grey

Tiphareth - Yellow

Yesod – Violet

Malkuth – Traditionally a swirl of russet, olive, citrine and black. Or simply brown.

 

Colors in the LBR

Ateh – White

Malkuth – Brown, or russet – olive - citrine – black

Ve-Geburah – Red

Ve – Gedula – Blue

Le-Olam – Yellow

Visualize the complete cross in white.

 

East - a yellow pentagram

South – a red pentagram

West – a blue pentagram

North – a green pentagram

 

aethyrea.blogspot.com/p/middle-pillar.html

 

Front cover illustrations for the You and Your Music 'Stream of Consciousness' EP.

I’m always fascinated with the stream of Consciousness that happens during these ArtQuests. Images shift, sometimes disappear making room for new ideas to arise, nothing is fixed, it is a dance… an expansion with new insights… It started with the second image… a memory of a movie scene flashes…

 

#2

In the true story movie “Patch Adams”, Robin Williams character finds himself in a psychiatric ward during an existential crisis. His life is turned around when a fellow patient, once known to be a genius tells him to hold up his hand and tell him how many fingers he sees. Ater many attempts, Patch finally understands that the answer is not always in what you see before you but in what is possible to be seen before you. Patch Adams goes on to revolutionalize medical care for thousands of people by seeing in this way. I was reflecting on this while sketching the moving hand in my notebook. Out of one hand became two…

 

#1

We live in such a beautiful world, such magnificent wonders and yet there is so much isolation and disconnection, so much pain and confusion, lack of fulfillment…

 

#3

Another world appears and now thought reaches between worlds…through the power of observation…Who is the Observer? Where does one world begin and the other end?

 

#4

“Slaves of the Information Age”… “Perception, organized, identified”… separated from the actual experiences by windows… Hands extend holding a fragile butterfly …a breakthrough…like seeing a new number of fingers… wings…

 

#5

The inner theater appears…the birthing, the mountaintop moments, the song arising from the unknown, no walls …there is a breakthrough …breaking away from the masses…a recognition… delight…

 

#6

The realization of the glorious inner life as a part of the outer life… a place that vibrates with the living direct experience…that is the breakaway…the reintegration of the opulent emotional well of Being…I Am everything and every thing is I… It is beyond the realm of the mind … Life pulsates the reminder again and again…

nella polvere colorata

di parole ascoltate

prima ancora che scritte

 

The 4th Dimension

 

Consciousness

 

Source of everything

 

Motivation to get there: The Prometheus komplex (aspect) in my soul

 

HKD

 

Androgyn – die Präsenz von weiblichen und männlichen Energien im geeinten Bewusstsein.

Im geeinten Bewusstsein befinden sich Yin und Yang in Harmonie. Das Dunkle akzeptiert das Helle, Ordnung räumt Chaos einen Platz ein, der Himmel liebt die Erde und die Erde den Himmel.

Liebe und Zorn haben einen und denselben Ursprung: Licht – Bewusstsein.

Alle Wege führen zum Ursprung zurück, zum Licht, zum reinen, transdualen Bewusstsein. Aus der Quelle, aus dem transdualen Bewusstsein, entspringt die phänomenale und duale Welt.

Die anfangs unbewusste Dualität entwickelt sich im Verlauf des Lebens zur bewussten Dualität – das ist bewusste Androgynität. Diese möchte ich mit meinem Bild ausdrücken und zwar auf der visuell dargestellten Energieebene. Das Licht scheint hier dem sogenannten „Dritten Auge“ zu entspringen, das hier als Metapher für Bewusstsein steht.

Und so entwickelt jeder Mensch auf dem Weg zurück zu seinem Ursprung das „Dritte Auge“.

 

Wer dem Teufel davon läuft, hat ihn hinter sich.

Wer sich mit dem Teufel auseinander setzt, hat sich vor sich. :-)))

  

Der – die – Blick ist mephistophelisch

 

„… denn alles was entsteht

ist wert

dass es zugrunde geht“

 

J. W. v. Goethe Faust

  

HKD

 

She looked at me in a way as if something pofound was going to pass through her and I waited as she sighed as if to indicate the fact everybody already knows. She explained that unless we experience Truth for ourselves with every fibre of our own Being, we cannot know the freedom of existence. Accepting the experience of someone else without that is being sold a can of goods. She touched my arm and whispered: “and we know that a can of goods always has an expiry date”. We “rolled up the rim” together and laughed. As she left the coffee shop my heart began to stir…

 

Artpiece: Ganga Fondan “Canned Consciousness” (2016)

   

www.youtube.com/watch?v=j82r1vU838g&NR=1

 

Lalka .... Andrzej Kurylewicz

A few notes from a great composer

Passed away in 2007

This photo flew in while listening

gmayster private art collection ... ( Panning was involved )

g

Animus and Anima are present in all modes of consciousness. The masculine and feminine both manifest themselves consciously in qualia (feeling a baby kick in the womb) in the subconscious and unconscious (releasing progesterone during pregnancy to stop ovulation, producing semen, the focus arising from testosterone) and in the collective unconscious (masculine and feminine roles structure collective experience, language, literature, etc.)

 

Animus has distinctive notes that must be expressed in the mode of Anima where Anima predominates. For Jung, the distinctive notes of Animus are Power, meaning, and self-consciousness. Power is the predominant mode of animus in primitive experience. Here the paradigms are the hero (Achilles, Beowulf), the cowboy, the athlete. The paradigm manifests competition, drive, determination, authority, superiority. This level of Animus has many expressions in Anima: the figure skater, female gymnast, powerful queen, grizzly-mother, activist, office manager. Where meaning and self-consciousness are measured by relationship to God or in religious terms, there are also clear modes of equality between Animus and Anima: Animus makes theologies and disputes over abstract concepts; Anima has personal, mystical insight within the religious-wisdom tradition.

 

The problem arises when self-consciousness is defined through the inherently abstract, impersonal, and fundamentally subjugative mode of technological accomplishment. Anima has yet to find a way to express itself in this mode, and so finds itself fundamentally alienated. This is the problem of Anima in the contemporary world, and it is not clear whether valuing technology in this way can be just. But this does not bode well for technology, since Anima simply will not tolerate this sort of exclusion from the highest mode of consciousness for long.

 

“The problem arises when self-consciousness is defined through the inherently abstract, impersonal, and fundamentally subjugative mode of technological accomplishment. Anima has yet to find a way to express itself in this mode, and so finds itself fundamentally alienated.”

 

Which sort of technological accomplishment do you have in mind here?

 

I guess when I think of technological trends in the last 10-20 years, a significant number have been toward an increase in social functions (Facebook & other social media, texting, Skype), intuitive interface (iPad, Nintendo Wii), and personal customization (iPhone, Android). Rather than abstract and impersonal, they are becoming normal elements of everyday social interaction and personal expression.

The use of technology (used broadly to include biotech, machines, etc.) and science can always be personal and integrative, but its the making of the stuff that is seen as the height of self-consciousness and human achievement. We’ve exalted the mastery and dominance over nature in thought and praxis as the ideal, and Jung’s claim is that we have yet to find a way in which Anima can express this. This has led some to deny the value of Anima and say either that liberation requires assimilating all to the masculine or that masculine and feminine mere constructions imposed on a sexless substrate. But what could be more male than to see “person” as an objectively sexless substrate? This is exactly the sort of depersonalized abstraction that is alienating Anima in the first place. Both ideas involve the grossest sexual injustice.

 

Note that, while on the first level of approximation this will lead to an obvious tension between the sexes and a subjugation of women, Animus and Anima are definitive characteristics in all persons. To put it concretely if crudely, men have estrogen and women have testosterone. While the problems set down above is primary a problem with alienating women, the problem will manifest itself in another way by alienating the proper expression of the Anima in male life too.

Okay. That helps. Perhaps the problem is that modern technology arises from a largely Animus-dominated scientific progression, focusing on impersonal laws and mechanisms in the first place. I’m not sure what the Anima parallel might be, but I guess it is easier for me to imagine something arising in the future altogether different than the technology in question than to see some significant way in which Anima could modify or fit into what we have now. The way you put it, it seems like a square peg/round hole problem, akin perhaps (acknowledging that both men and women have Animus and Anima) to the protests of some modern feminists today that the liberation women achieved in the past was that women could do everything a man does like a man, but that she still is not honored to do specifically feminine things as a woman, e.g. having special breaks at work after childbirth to beastfeed her child or pump milk. I’m not sure if that is the most helpful example, but it’s the best I can do.Emma Jung (1880-1955) was wife of psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) for more than 50 years and, also for many years, was one of the directors of Carl Gustav Jung Institute in Zurique, where she gave lectures and worked as a psychotherapist and supervisor. Twelve important works (from 1931 and 1955) are together in this book; the book was published in Jerusalem in 1967 and only now in Portuguese. Jung's psychology, the animus and the anima are forças mentais that, among other activities, form laços between (1) or collective unconsciousness, that is present from birth and that is genetically (biologically) determined, and (2) the unconscious person, that is the product of all the experiences of a person in the environment. Animals and animations also have important functions in the sexual identification of a person and in forming relationships with people of the opposite sex. In Jung's terminology, these are special types of archetypes. For the last few years, C. G. Jung's psychotherapy theories and techniques are attracting ever-growing attention. Jung is not suffering the progressive decline of interest that other psychiatric psychiatric writers, such as Freud and the various post-Freudians, are suffering. It is provable that in large part the persistence, and even the increase, of Jung's influence is due to the fact that Jung's psychology combines well with religious points of view. Only Jung, among the great pioneers in psychology and psychiatry in the 20th century, has this quality. Jung also has, and always has, a wide audience, especially among people who are interested in spiritual matters. In order to satisfy the growing interest of Jung in Brazil, Editora Cultrix, besides this volume, published in recent years more than a few vintage or other classic works of Jungian literature. It's clear that many psychiatrists and psychologists cannot accept Jung's basic theories. They cannot agree with the Jungian theses that (1) complete mental health requires an extensive development of forces (arquétipos) that have potential for religious expression, and that exist since the birth of collective unconsciousness in each person, and (2) one of the fundamental functions of psychotherapy is to help that spiritual development. Still, it is clear that psychiatrists and other professionals in the field of mental health are updated on important currents in the various branches of our profession, and this book by Emma Jung deals with a significant aspect of the Jungian psychological system. Readers who have accepted, or are willing to accept, Jung's points of view will make this book interesting enough, but readers who cannot afford to accept Jung's theories will try to make many speculative parts of it.

Practising psychotherapists in the West are becoming

familiar with the emergence of the psychological

problems that are affecting “liberated” women. A large

number of women who are highly successful and

competent in outer terms are plagued with a deep-

rooted inner feeling of worthlessness, lack of value and

inferiority. The conventional approach to this malaise

has been to ascribe it to psychological overloading, ME

or the necessity for these women to become yet more

ambitious and striving.

 

The Jungian concept of the animus is particularly suited to dealing with the problems facing the new women. Jung discovered that the human psyche was androgynous

and consisted of both masculine and feminine. Because of gender-identified ego-development, however, the masculine element in the woman and the feminine element in the

man remain unconscious and undifferentiated. When any psychological content is unconscious it follows two courses – either it becomes projected outwards onto an external

object, or leads to identification with it.

 

While a woman’s animus remains unconscious it too will follow these channels for expression. Whilst the “unliberated” woman will project her animus outwards through

romantic novels, stereotyped relationships and an existence lived through the men in her life, the liberated woman falls into the other side of the trap, i.e. she becomes identified with her animus and loses the vital link with her feminine identity, living on a false (for a woman) masculine level. Such a woman will then find herself in a double-bind situation, where her idealisation of the masculine leads her to denigrate the feminine. Considering the thousands of years of the patriarchal inflation of the male principle it is hardly surprising that women who introject this find themselves in the grip of a tyrannical, powerful and judgemental force that undermines their individual identity. ’Together with this the woman also introjects inferior images of the feminine, images that are based on the two classic reactions of the male to the female: horror and fascination. The witch at one end of the pole suggests woman in her demonic aspect, devouring, ugly, isolated, and phallic, representing everything that is despised and rejected in the feminine. The enchantress on the other end of the pole is sexually voracious, a siren and a Circe who traps men and turns them into swine. On the individual level

each woman carries this rejected aspect of the feminine in her shadow side.Women who are presenting with this problem in analysis will often have initial dreams of witches, hags and down-and-out women, which is how they see themselves unconsciously. Thus identified with the negative side of their shadow they find that the moment the animus emerges it allies itself with the shadow, leading at the moment of greatest outward animus-fulfilling achievements to the most dejected feelings of inner worthlessness.

The Father Complex

Because the first carrier of the woman’s animus is her father the condition and force of her personal animus will be determined by the father-complex. If her father has been

too strong, she will internalise the voice of judgement and critical authority. If he is too weak, she will have no opportunity for internalising the masculine and will lead a

vegetative, unconscious existence, ready to serve the projections and needs of all the male forces in her life. The animus also provides a woman with the ability to question,

think, and for spirituality. It must not be forgotten that the animus does have a positive role to play in the psychological development of women. When it is activated

in its positive aspect, it releases positive masculine energy, focused attention, concentration and every quality associated with logos thinking, the ability to connect in consciously with what was previously unconscious. It can also be a positive “father-force”, carrying encouragement, protection, principle and containment. In dreams the animus can appear as collective body of men, soldiers, sailors, jury, committees and other symbols of masculine authority. It can also appear as the father, brother, lover, husband, son or other male figure from the dreamer’s life. More undifferentiated animus symbols includes clouds, wind, rain, thunder, penetrating phallus,

animals such as snakes, bulls, horses and dogs. In its more collective archetypal force the animus can appear as a king, a warrior, a wise man as well as mythological figures such

as Pan, Adonis, Dionysus, Appollo and Hermes.Apart from the father aspect of the animus in its mantel of law, order, authority and establishment, the animus also presents itself in the unexpected guise of the trickster both on the outer and the inner plane. In this aspect, the animus is an amoral dissolute adventurer who yet performs the necessary function of releasing the woman from the tyranny of established law (father) to a life of adventure, instability and subversion. On

the outer level, women often get involved with Don Juans with whom they can only enjoy a transient non-committal relationship which they can use as a tool of rebellion

against an authoritarian father. On the inner level too the trickster-animus has a similar function, providing a woman with a counterpoint against the father-animus. Pan,

Hermes, monkeys, goblins, dwarves, knackers, clowns, harlequins, leprechauns etc. are images of the trickster in dreams. Over a period of time, the trickster has a way of evolving from an amoral, half-human creature to its rightful function as a symbol of transformation and then it appears increasingly in dreams in the various guises of Hermes, ringing bells, knocking on doors, demanding attention, bearing gifts, guiding journeys, and generally being indispensable in the woman’s psychological development.

It is important to keep in mind that as in any psychological process, there is no strict logical order; the analysand is having to deal with different aspects of the animus at the

same time, and this will be reflected in her dreams. It will generally be well into the process of differentiation when dreams contain different aspects of the animus. When this

happens, it is important to pay attention to what is presenting, allowing the woman to reclaim what is hers and reject that which is psychologically alien. A woman engaged in

this process dreamt:

”While my father, my husband and I are out of our flat, my maid has let in a 14 year old boy who had come selling sachets of herbal perfume. He needs a job as he is quite poor, and there is something very honest

about him. My father sees red, and says he will only break things. But the boy assures me he is very careful and always pushes back drawers that he has opened. I have a struggle with myself, my first instinct being to listen to the better judgement of my father. But then I decide that I can find a job for the boy, he can take charge of the daily shopping for

groceries.”The dream indicates a distinct turning point in the dreamer’s struggle for liberation from an idealised father. The boy is the new emerging personal animus who will be in

the service of the woman, the rightful place psychologically speaking for a woman’s masculine element. Both perfume sachets and shopping indicate the feeling values, which is

what the dreamer needs to balance her thinking-orientated activities. The boy is very careful to push back the drawers which to the dreamer held contents that were intimate,

for instance jewellery and underwear. So this animus can be entrusted with exploring the secrets of her psyche whilst yet providing a container that is safe and private. This would be yet another function of the positive animus.The above dream occurred about two years into the woman’s analysis. Her previous dreams had consisted of negative male figures constellated both by her father-complex and her partner. In its negative aspect, the animus constellates as the inner critic, judge, sadist, murderer, evil magician and the proverbial cad who constantly informs the woman that she’s ugly, worthless, stupid, and unlovable. It disrupts all the feeling-relationships

of the woman, in the face of all reality “proving” to her that her partner doesn’t love her. This is the inner critical voice that every woman has heard. It always strikes when something has already occurred to shake the woman or when she has been very successful, to deflate her. This inner tyrant holds complete sway and she finds herself yielding areas of her life that gave her pleasure and enrichment. Every time she tries to enjoy a well-deserved rest or treat the animus will taunt her with the accusation that she’s wasting her time, she’d be better off doing something “productive”.This is the introjected father-turned-judge who lays down the laws of acceptable behaviour and feelings. It convinces us that if we go against these dictates we are letting some authority down. In the presence of this voice every woman will be made to feel

like a silly little girl, who possesses no dignity in her own right.

The Inner Tyrant

The classic manifestation in dreams of this inner tyrant is as a Nazi imprisoning the woman in a concentration camp. If we keep in mind that the Nazis considered themselves Ubermenchen (Supermen) we can see how apt a symbol of this inflated masculine the unconscious has chosen. Women often have dreams of trying to escape from a camp,

being chased or shot at by the Nazi guards. Rapists, killers, and burglars are also common symbols. As well as violation, invasion, mutilation and dismemberment all indicate the

masculine principle turned awry and attacking the feminine identity. The following is a dream of a 26 year old woman before analysis:“It is night-time. There is a young, beautiful homosexual man inside a military camp. Outside the military camp, under a street lamp, sits a dwarf in a wheelchair. The young homosexual man passes by. The dwarf

calls him over as if asking for help. When the young man comes up to the dwarf, the dwarf pulls out a big knife and cuts the young man up in pieces.”The violence perpetrated in this dream is on the emerging personal animus. The young, beautiful aspect of the animus has an ambiguous masculinity, i.e. he is homosexual. The young and beautiful also suggests a narcissistic quality which in fact is a reflection of the dreamer’s father who suffered a narcissistic personality disorder. The dwarf is a stunted animus who is guarding the military camp and who cuts up the young

animus with a huge (and phallic) knife.The experience of sexual abuse can greatly affect the woman’s introjection of the masculine. When this has been the case the analyst has to take special care to disentangle the symbolic from the literal. For instance, a woman who had been sexually molested

when she was eight, as an adult often had dreams and fantasies of being attacked by several large penises. She also felt extremely uncomfortable with male physicality. During

the course of the analysis the possibility that she had been abused began to emerge. In her case, the invasion by the masculine had been a literal one, and had contaminated her

animus so that the animus too had turned against her. She was obsessive about her work, cut off from feeling type activities, highly successful but also with an inbuilt feeling of

worthlessncss which reflected her damaged femininity. The task of therapy was to cut down the animus to size by enhancing and encouraging the feminine.

The Wise ManAnother aspect of the animus is the Wise Man, the man who knows everything, whose function it is to inform, guide, teach and lead us. In its positive forms this is the archetype of wisdom. Like Moses or Solomon this man can relate to an idea in a subjective way and represents the true thinking function which is not split off, cold, sterile and objec

tive as it is assumed to be, but passionate and original However, if the woman identifies with the wise man archetype, she can become totally, and dangerously, caught up with the ideal way to be, invaded by the “spirit-father”. She will then seek achievement in masculine spiritual and cultural terms seeing herself as a sybil, a genius or a pure unearthly angel untainted by the blood and flesh of her feminine identity. Or she could live out this fantasy vicariously, through serving as the anima of some great man.Identification with any aspect of the animus, negative or positive, incurs the enmityand wrath of the Great Mother archetype (the mature feminine) which turns negative and appears in the woman’s dreams often as a witch, devouring, malignant. The negative great mother can also manifest in physical symptoms such as irregular menstruation, amenorrhoea and fertility problems.

High-achieving, animus-possessed women can also suffer from compulsive disorders such as bulimia or anorexia nervosa. Because of the lack of a strong female matrix, the

body is attacked by the negative animus, and the woman becomes split off from the feminine. Women who suffer from these disorders will in fact often acknowledge that it is

their own femininity they are attacking, and will often say that it is an internal dictator who drives them in such a regimented and forceful way to the brink of death. Angelyn Spignesi, in “Starving Women” quotes an analysand who describes the “morbid urge which rules her” as “an enemy, a man with a drawn sword, or an armed man who surrounds me and stops me whenever I try to escape his domination.”The animus possesses such extraordinary power within the woman’s psyche because it is an archetype. It is impersonal, inhuman and autonomous. If we don’t relate to it and allow it a conscious channel, it can obliterate the ego-identity. It has a life of its own, which is not under human control. Barbara Hannah pointed out that the animus jumps in whenever the feminine ego is not functioning, choosing and discriminating.

 

Emma Jung wrote that women have need for the spiritual. When this need is denied, the animus appropriates the Self.

Jung, in the Visions Seminars , wrote that “the animus is a very greedy fellow, and everything that falls into the unconscious is possessed by it. He is there with open mouth

and catches everything that falls down from the table of consciousness….if you let some feeling or reaction get away from you he eats it, becomes strong, and begins to argue

.” So becoming more conscious of her thoughts, feelings and values is crucial to the woman. This is particularly so as regards hurt feelings which if not expressed in a related way,

can turn into animus attacks. These attacks take the form of being caught or possessed in a spiral of rage, which gathers, momentum and leads us on to say the most appalling

things. The animus can damage marriage or close relationships by cutting off the feeling function, and also by unconsciously engaging the man’s anima. When the anima and animus begin to argue they are fed by a store of suppressed feelings of anger, resentment, envy, power, coldness and fear, each fed by the parental complexes of the partners.

 

Redeeming the Personal Father

In dealing with the problem of the animus the therapist will first have to deal with the father, since the main problem of the animus is constellated by the father-complex.

The woman’s main task in this process is to redeem her personal father, or rather her inner relation to her father. By attempting to see her father in both his dark and light

side she can get out of the trap of being caught in opposite sides of a spectrum which is what gives a complex its force. The dark side of the father consists of anger, lack of con

trol and incompleteness, the positive side offers power, generosity and creativity. But as long as the woman is caught in an idealised/rejecting pole she will be disowning elements of her own psyche. Being whole also requires the withdrawal of projections by reclaiming the parts of ourselves that we have projected externally. Because the father

also represents authority and something, by rejecting him the woman is also rejecting her own authority. If the woman’s attitude to her father is too idealised on the other hand, it will have the effect of cutting her off from her own professional capabilities. She will only be able to succeed on her father’s terms, and will have great difficulty in accepting and devel

oping her own talents. They will always appear slightly inconsequential to her. Too positive a relationship to the father can also prevent the woman from having a real re

lationship with another man, as any prospective partner will be compared to the idealised father and inevitably found wanting. To internalise the father principle, the woman then

has to break the idealised transference to her father by acknowledging his negative side. Linda Schierse Leonard, writing in “To Be a Woman” (3) says that “ultimately, redeeming the father entails reshaping the Masculine within, fathering that side of ourselves. Instead of the “perverted old man” and the “angry, rebellious boy”, we need to find the Man with Heart, the inner man with a good relation to the Feminine.” The emergence of this man with heart was signalled for an analysand in the following dream:“A friend of my partner’s called Sweetman has called on me. He has a briefcase in one hand and a doll in the other. He says that the doll had gone bald but he had transplanted hair back onto its head. He never went anywhere without it now.”The bald doll represents a sterile logos, thinking without heart. One is reminded of Yeats’ “Bald heads forgetful of their sins”. By restoring hair, Sweetman restores to it the crowning glory of the feminine. This is the man who is sweet, who has found a balance between the masculine and the feminine. Now he never goes anywhere without the feminine.Of course the integration with the feminine is still only in its formative stages, since it appears as a doll, but its a start and this analysand’s subsequent dreams show how the doll becomes a flesh and blood woman, a positive shadow figure who is “at her side”.

Strengthening the Feminine

Apart from redeeming the father and the masculine the woman, in her efforts to humanise the animus, also has to strengthen the feminine within her. This means not only

restoring value to the feminine in the face of patriarchy and her own rejection of the feminine but also to acknowledge her female ancestors. Modern woman, in order to free herself from the shackles of subservient femininity also rejects her mother and the collective archetype of femininity. The conscious separation from the mother’s model of life and marriage also separates the woman from the emotional and instinctive part of herself. So an intrinsic part of the healing will be to develop a strong feminine container, which can reconcile the woman to her nurturing, receptive, biological identity. The therapist’s role is crucial to this process in providing a safe maternal container. The unwary therapist can worsen matters at this stage if he/she has political feminist views which are concerned with liberating women from the feminine rather than liberating them to be feminine. Counselling the animus-identified woman who secretly feels inferior to be more assertive and ambitious is the worst possible thing. In fact, the therapist has to make it possible for the analysand to be more receptive, intuitive and feeling.

 

Rituals are particularly good for grounding in the feminine. Anything that the patient relates to is valuable e.g. drawing, sculpting, clay-modelling, dancing, knitting. It enables the patient to act out the boundaries outside that she’s trying to create inside. Rituals provide containers which allow one to play within a pattern. Acting them out can be tremendously healing. I have found rituals to be of particular help to women suffering from eating disorders. Women should also be warned against sacrificing their personal instincts and feelings for an ideal, an achievement or external goal, a particularly strong temptation for the conscious female. Animus, being very goal-oriented keeps woman on the move. Whenever this voice dictates, women should try and resist it, by taking time off or treating themselves. Humour can quickly restore a sane perspective, deflating the pompous self-importance of the animus. Indulging oneself in trivialities too can be very healing. One woman, in the grip of her animus, dreamt that she was in a large store in Grafton Street looking at little trinkets. She then bought a perfume called “Sweet Nothings”.The dream was a gentle hint to pay more attention to the sweet nothings of life. Caught in the grip of the animus, a woman feels cut off from precisely the sweetness of life. Activities that help us to use our feeling function of relatedness are perhaps the best antidote to the grip of the animus. Taking time off to play with the children, giving attention to a pet, cultivating a garden, these are all activities that centre around nurturing life. They have to be undertaken in a very deliberate manner, even though this might seem unspontaneous at the time.

 

Channelling Energies

If a woman is in the grip of the “spirit-father: (see above) animus, she can be caught up in thinking that she is a creative genius or get involved in some project that is vague and inflated. At this time, what is needed is a very specific project that the woman can channel her energies into. This grounds the high-flying animus, at the same time of fering it a channel for its energy. Emma Jung wrote in “Anima and Animus” that “confronted with one of these aspects of the animus, the woman’s task is to create a place for it in her life and personality. Usually our talents, hobbies and so on, have already given us hints as to the direction in which this energy can become active. Often too, dreams point this way, and….will mention studies, books, and definite lines of work, or of artistic or executive activities”.

 

Confronted with the difficulties that the animus creates, women sometimes wonder whether it is not best left alone. The animus in fact is extremely important in the psychological development of women, enabling her to extend her consciousness, and through the capacity for objective, independent thought, allowing her to reclaim territories of her psyche previously unconscious and in the possession of extrinsic authority. The big struggle that now faces women is in learning to contain the animus both in its archetypal and personal spheres. Traditional feminist theories have fed the negative animus, because they have believed that women can only succeed on men’s terms. This extreme position was necessary to compensate for the oppression of women. But now women need to create structures in their lives and in society which ensure a niche for the conscious feminine. It is time to explode the fallacy that men and women are the same. Being equal does not mean having to be similar. Perhaps the time has come when we can afford to be different yet equal.

 

iahip.org/inside-out/issue-7-winter-1991/rescuing-the-fem...

  

My art tonight. drawing colored.

Synchronicity was in a great way for this picture between couple sun ☀️ and moonlight 🌙 , throned son, cristal light’s heals all the soul under nymphs...( thanks to Nymphaea by Claude Monet ) Cristal healing and echoes of consciousness.

Liberation of darkness is possible way with your pineal glands and you can compare them with a crystal light and follow the guidance through your dream.Other significant work for linking the throne to nymphaea could be a Jungian interpretation for Alchemist (following old Egyptian science)

It’s amazing how crystal light is a healing process for testing your body to sitting on a throne.However, it has only recently become clear that apomorphine can be utilized, with excellent results, to treat erectile dysfunction. It is a centrally acting, selective D1/D2 dopamine agonist, and activation of dopaminergic receptors in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus initiates a cascade of events, ultimately resulting in smooth muscle relaxation and vasodilatation within the corpora cavernosa, leading to penile erection. Crystal river and albedo was whiteness day for a throne of consciousness enlightenment

 

This discovery provides a likely explanation for the appearance of Nymphaea in the Luxor frescoes and in erotic cartoons ... The fact that temple drawings only depict use by the higher castes, such as priests and royalty, suggests that the masses did not benefit from this discovery. The Nymphaea story serves as a further illustration of how the effects of substances of plant origin were known even though the discoverers lacked the technology to explain them. The water lily was also used for other medicinal purposes, according to Lise Manniche in An Ancient Egyptian Herbal, including liver disease, poultices for the head, constipation and as an enema (1989, p. 134). She also notes that it was used in a magical spell to cause a "hated woman"'s hair to fall out. In Greco-Roman times, it was thought of as a cooling herb, and was thus used to bring down a fever.

 

Original article: www.thekeep.org/~kunoichi/kunoichi/themestream/egypt_wate...

© Caroline Seawright

 

The source is one: male and female are united. In alchemical images we see a throne from which streams of water flow into one flashback to primordial life’s hermaphrodite.

The Syrian love goddess who the Egyptians married off to Min, was depicted as a naked woman who stood on the back of a lion, carrying snakes and water lily buds. The buds are likely linked with her role as a goddess of sexuality and fertility. Votive offerings to Hathor included bowls with water lily motifs, again alluding to fertility, the renewal of life and rebirth. (A water bowl was also the hieroglyph for a woman, which A.H. Gardiner in Egyptian Grammar believes to represent the vagina, linking the fertility sign of the water lily in the bowl to female fertility in this case.) The Egyptian idea of sexuality was identified with creation. Being a flower of creation, the flower became linked to human fertility and sexuality. The images of women holding the flower may be hinting at her ability to bear children or that she was sexually desirable, and images of men holding the flower may hint at their potency. It could also be a way to ensure that the person painted would be fertile - and sexy - in the afterlife.

 

Contemporary reference to the role of water lilies and mandrakes (Nymphaea and Mandragora, respectively) in ancient Egyptian healing ... suggest the possible importance of these plants as adjuncts to shamanistic healing in dynastic Egypt. Although the usual interpretation of the water lily and the mandrake has been that of a part of ritual mourning ... it is argued that the dynastic Egyptians had developed a form of shamanistic trance induced by these two plants and used it in medicine as well as healing rituals. Analysis of the ritual and sacred iconography of dynastic Egypt, as seen on stelae, in magical papyri, and on vessels, indicates that these people possessed a profound knowledge of plant lore and altered states of consciousness. The abundant data indicate that the shamanistic priest, who was highly placed in the stratified society, guided the souls of the living and dead, provided for the transmutation of souls into other bodies and the personification of plants as possessed by human spirits, as well as performing other shamanistic activities. test was carried out to see if there were any narcotic effects of the blue water lily. There were no known psychotropic substance found in the flower itself. In The Mystery of the Cocaine Mummies Rosalie David ('Keeper of Egyptology, Manchester Museum') says that "we see many scenes of individuals holding a cup and dropping a water lily flower into the cup which contained wine". The assertion by Dr Andrew Sherratt, based on these depictions, is that he believes that when the flower was infused with wine, that the chemical content might change and become the ancient Egyptian party drug or a shamanistic aid. The lilies were flown from Cairo to England, and nineteen of them opened after the sun came out. The flowers were soaked in the wine, and after a few days, two volunteers - who claimed to know nothing about ancient Egypt - drank the lily-wine:Unfortunately the test was not up to scientific standards - there was no control group (where another set of volunteers would drink wine not infused with the lily, but told that it had been) - so it is rather difficult to know how much of the effects on the two were just from the alcohol and if any were from the lily infusion itself.The blue water lily was possibly also a symbol of sexuality - Dr Liz Williamson says that the flower "has a sort of Viagra effect". Women were wooed with the blue water lily. In certain erotic scenes from the Turin Papyrus, women are shown wearing very little apart from the white lily as a headdress.The blue water lily was possibly also a symbol of sexuality - Dr Liz Williamson says that the flower "has a sort of Viagra effect". Women were wooed with the blue water lily. In certain erotic scenes from the Turin Papyrus, women are shown wearing very little apart from the white lily as a headdress.

The blue water lily was possibly also a symbol of sexuality - Dr Liz Williamson says that the flower "has a sort of Viagra effect". Women were wooed with the blue water lily. In certain erotic scenes from the Turin Papyrus, women are shown wearing very little apart from the white lily as a headdress.

 

More recently, it has been discovered that this plant could have been used by the ancient Egyptians to help with erectile dysfunction. This would help explain why the plant was so intimately connected with sex and sexuality:

 

Nymphaea caerulea (blue lotus) and N. ampla, which has a white flower but a similar alkaloid content, grow along lakes and rivers, thrive in wet soil, and bloom in the spring. They belong to the water-lily family ... The isolation of the psychoactive apomorphine from Nymphaea species has offered chemical support to speculation that Nymphaea species may have been employed as hallucinogens in both the Old and the New World. The use of N. caerulea and of N. lotos in rites and rituals is depicted in the frescoes within the tombs, and in very early papyrus scrolls. The most important of these was the scroll of Ani (Book of the Dead). Nymphaea is mentioned and represented in several chapters of the book, always tied to magical-religious rites.

The water lily was also used for other medicinal purposes, according to Lise Manniche in An Ancient Egyptian Herbal, including liver disease, poultices for the head, constipation and as an enema (1989, p. 134). She also notes that it was used in a magical spell to cause a "hated woman"'s hair to fall out. In Greco-Roman times, it was thought of as a cooling herb, and was thus used to bring down a fever.The flower wasn't just used at parties, but it was used at funerals. As with many symbols of fertility, the blue water lily was also symbolic of rebirth after death. Tutankhamen's innermost gold coffin had blue water lily petals scattered over it along with a few other floral tributes. The Egyptians looked forward to their souls coming to life "like a water lily reopening", thinking that the deceased died as the water lily closed awaiting opening with the morning sun. The Book of the Dead has a spell to allow the deceased to transform into one of these flowers:

 

The goddess Qedeshet, standing on a lion, holding water lilies and a snake, the Syrian love goddess who the Egyptians married off to Min, was depicted as a naked woman who stood on the back of a lion, carrying snakes and water lily buds. The buds are likely linked with her role as a goddess of sexuality and fertility. Votive offerings to Hathor included bowls with water lily motifs, again alluding to fertility, the renewal of life and rebirth. (A water bowl was also the hieroglyph for a woman, which A.H. Gardiner in Egyptian Grammar believes to represent the vagina, linking the fertility sign of the water lily in the bowl to female fertility in this case.) The Egyptian idea of sexuality was identified with creation. Being a flower of creation, the flower became linked to human fertility and sexuality. The images of women holding the flower may be hinting at her ability to bear children or that she was sexually desirable, and images of men holding the flower may hint at their potency. It could also be a way to ensure that the person painted would be fertile - and sexy - in the afterlife.As we mentioned above, Aphrodite/Venus as the morning star is a central image for the albedo phase of the Great Work. Aphrodite was born from the foam that arose when the genitals of Uranus (cut of by Chronos, out of hate and jealousy) fell into the sea. The cutting of the genitals represents repressed and tormented love. The sea, symbol of the soul, however will bring forth the love goddess. Liberation will happen when we become conscious again of the contents of the soul. As Aphrodite is born from the sea, she is the guide through the fearful world of the unconscious (the sea, or the underworld). The alchemist descends into these depths to find the ‘prima materia’, also called the ‘green lion’. The color green refers to the primal life forces. Venus also has the green color. An important characteristic of Aphrodite is that she helps us in our human shortcomings. She gives ideals and dreams to fulfill. But she also gives frightening images in order to make man aware of his lower nature. "By her beauty Venus attracts the imperfect metals and gives rise to desire, and pushes them to perfection and ripeness." (Basilius Valentinus, 1679) Liberation can only happen by becoming conscious of the lower nature and how we transmute it.

In Jungian psychology Venus/Aphrodite is the archetype of the anima (in alchemy also the ‘soror’ or ‘wife’ of the alchemist). The anima is the collective image of the woman in a man. It is an image especially tainted by his first contact with his mother. The anima represents all the female tendencies in the psyche of a man, such as feelings, emotions, moods, intuition, receptivity for the irrational, personal love and a feeling for nature. She is the bearer for the spiritual. Depending on the development of the man she can also be the seductress who lures him away to love, hopelessness, demise, and even destruction.

Other alchemical images for albedo are baptism and the white dove, both derived from Christianity. Baptism symbolizes the purification of both body and soul by ‘living water’. ‘Living water’ was regarded as the creative force of the divine. It allowed the soul to be received into the community of the holy spirit. Thus baptism allows the purified soul to bring forth the resurrection of Christ in oneself. This is the ‘hieros gamos’, the ‘sacred marriage’ between the soul and Christ. Christ here represent our own inner divine essence.

There are many other symbols in alchemy for the second phase, or albedo: the white swan, the rose, the white queen, and so on. As lead is the metal of nigredo, silver is the metal of albedo, transmuted from lead. As silver is the metal of the moon, the moon was also a symbol for albedo. Alchemists also talk about the white stone or white tincture. They all means basically the same thing, although one has to understand them in the context in which they were written.

The union of Hermes and Aphrodite. The moon is above the retort, indicating this is the stage of Albedo. The sun above is the next stage of Rubedo. At the same time sun and moon are again the opposites to be united. Aphrodite has two torches. One pointing down, representing the lower passions to be transmuted. The upside down torch is the purified energies. Aphrodite is standing on a tetrahedron, the perfect three dimensional body, as all corners are equally distant from each other, resulting in a lack of tension.

Albedo, symbolized by Aurora, by the dawn, the morning star (Venus-Aphrodite), and by the sun rising up from the Philosopher's Sea.

 

Albedo is also represented by Aurora, the Roman goddess of the dawn. Her brother is Helios, the Sun. With a play of words aurora was connected with aurea hora, ‘the hour of gold’. It is a supreme state of conscious. Pernety (1758): "When the Artist (=Alchemist) sees the perfect whiteness, the Philosophers say that one has to destroy the books, because they have become superfluous."

Albedo is also symbolized by the morning star Venus/Aphrodite. Venus has a special place in the Great Work. In ancient times Lucifer was identified with the planet Venus. Originally Lucifer has a very positive meaning. In the Bible we find 2Petrus 1:19 "…till the day arrives and the morning star rises in your hearts". In Revelation 12:16 Christ says: "I am the shining morning star". Here Christ identifies himself with the Lucifer! We find the same in mystic literature. In ancient times Lucifer was a positive light being. It was just one man who changed all that: when a certain Hieronymous read a phrase from Jesaja 14:12 (Jesaja talking to a sinful king of Babylon): " How did you fall from heaven, you morning star, you son of the dawn; how did you fall to earth, conqueror of people". Hieronymous used this phrase to identify Lucifer with the dragon thrown out of heaven by Michael. By the interpretation of this one man, Lucifer was tuned from a shining light being into the darkest devilish being in the world.

We find Lucifer in alchemy associated with impure metals polluted by rough sulfur. It means that the light being Lucifer in ourselves is polluted by what the alchemists call ‘superfluities’, ‘dross’, caused by man himself.

Mercury and Lucifer are one and the same. One talks about Mercury when he is pure, it is the white sulphur, the fire in heaven. As ‘spiritus’ he gives life. As ‘spiritus sapiens’ he teaches the alchemist the Great Work. Lucifer is the impure Mercury. Lucifer is the morning star fallen from (the golden) heaven. He descended into the earth and is now present in all humans. Lucifer is Mercury mixed with impure elements. He dissolved ‘in sulfur and salt’, ‘is wrapped with strings’, ‘darkened with black mud’. Keep in mind we are always talking about our consciousness. Lucifer represents our everyday consciousness, all the (psychological and other) complexes have clouded our pure consciousness, Mercury.

The light of Mercury that appears to us as Lucifer, because of the distortion caused by the impurities, gives the impression of what the alchemists called ‘red sulfur’. The red sulfur of Lucifer, as traditional devil, is actually an illusion. It does not exist by itself because it is only an image, a distorted image of Mercury. We ourselves caused the impurities, the blackness that veils our true light being.

Red sulfur is the same as what is called Maya in eastern philosophies. Maya is the world of illusions, or the veil that prevents us from seeing and experiencing true reality, where the eternal light is. By the impurities of Maya, man has become ignorant. He has forgotten his origin and thinks he is in a world which in actuality is an illusion.Albedo - Whiteness

 

Je ne craignais pas de mourir

mais de mourir sans etre illumine.

(I was not afraid to die,

but to die without having been enlightened)

Comte de Saint-Germain, La Tres Sainte Trinisophie

The herald of the light

is the morning star.

This way man and woman approach

the dawn of knowledge,

because in it is the germ of life,

being a blessing of the eternal.

Haji Ibrahim of Kerbala

Lucifer, Lucifer stretch your tail,

and lead me away, full speed through the narrow passage,

the valley of the death,

to the brilliant light, the palace of the gods.

Isanatha Muni

Being deep in nigredo, a white light appears. We have arrived at the second stage of the Great Work: albedo, or whiteness. The alchemist has discovered within himself the source from which his life comes forth. The fountain of life from which the water of life flows forth giving eternal youth.

The source is one: male and female are united. In alchemical images we see a fountain from which two streams of water flow into one basin. Albedo is the discovery of the hermaphroditic nature of man. In the spiritual sense each man is a hermaphrodite. We can also see this in the first embryonic phase of the fetus. There is no sex until a certain number of weeks after conception. When man descended into the physical world his body entered a world of duality. On the bodily level this is expressed by the sexes. But his spirit is still androgen, it contains duality in unity. Its unity is not bound to space, time or matter. Duality is an expression of unity in our physical world. It is temporal and will eventually cease to exist. When male and female are united again, one will experience his true self. Conscious and unconscious are totally united.

Albedo happens when the Sun rises at midnight. It is a symbolic expression for the rising of the light at the depth of darkness. It is the birth of Christ in the middle of the winter. In the depth of a psychological crises, a positive change happens.

 

www.soul-guidance.com/houseofthesun/alchemy 2.htm

 

Shit went crazy at SOFLES solo Melbourne show.

 

Read and see more here:

blog.ironlak.com/search/label/Fragments%20Of%20Consciousness

 

isn't it a beautiful sunset, edna?

it is, stanley. just perfect.

shall I allow the servants to see it?

but they're busy preparing dinner, stanley!

of course. foolish of me.

you know how dedicated they are to us1

I do. it's so. . . gratifying. don't you think?

you can never go wrong by treating people right, stanley.

so true dear. pass me a truffle, would you?

of course.

funny face, 1956:

jo stockton (audrey hepburn);

marion (dovima)

Consciousness about controlling the uncontrollable.

View On Black-->

Monica Belluci's felt sense.

Felt sense is the name Gendlin gave to the unclear preverbal sense of 'something', as that something is experienced in the body. It is not the same as an emotion. This bodily felt 'something' may be of a situation, or of something that is 'coming' like an idea or the line of a poem.

The focusing process makes a felt sense more tangible and easier to work with.

 

Well, in few words Monica Bellucci saw an animal on the tree and had an idea to caught it! :-))

**********************************************************************************

♰ Update: Monica crossed the Rainbow Bridge on June 1st, 2023.

Melting Consciousness.

 

Syniadau nofio rhyfedd Anghredadwy proffesu anobaith tragwyddol yn dychmygu cyfrifiadau amser nyddu,

Les miracles cérébraux théâtral intellectuels de la fantaisie torturée les planètes tremblantes l'intersubjectivité les pensées les plus sauvages,

neo-ghnàthach còmhraidhean tàileasg mothachadh plodding faireachdainnean saidheansail èaladh deuchainnean,

allucinazioni geometriche della natura esagerando passaggi espansione dimensioni Stati fragili morphing effetti,

ψυχεδελικά πλαστικότητα παράξενη ατμόσφαιρα που απειλούν μεθυστική δαίμονες κατάποση ισχυρά οράματα έντονα,

sonidos surrealistas descripciones detalladas consistentes dilemas crescendo prominentes voces escribiendo escenarios poéticos,

nekonečný prostor rekreační rarity smyslné sny neustálé absurdní příběhy zahřívá afrodiziakum mozkové,

våldsamma hjälplösa illusioner skeptiska sinnen underbart skratt förvirrande fenomen yrande terapeutisk,

興味深い成功を楽しむ励まな満足感野心的な刺激物私的な想像力はすべてを刺激するすべてのインスピレーション.

Steve.D.Hammond.

Consciousness

Miroslaw Magola Interview - Disney Plus Marvel Magneto

 

Tell us something about yourself?

 

My name is Miroslaw Magola. I come from Poland and have been living and working as a freelance artist in Munich for a long time. I am interested in philosophy, artificial intelligence, science fiction in film and literature, consciousness research and art. My friends call me Magneto.

Sir David Frost was a British journalist and BBC and ITV Television presenter, best known for his interview with Richard Nixons in the Watergate affair. On February 28th, 1996 I was on an ITV live show in England with him, where he gave me the name Magnetic Man.

Stan Lee, the inventor of numerous superheroes from the Marvel Comics Cosmos, such as Spiderman, the X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Ant-Man, the Fantastic Four, Black Panther, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch and Black Widow. In Stan Lee’s Superhumans television documentary, he gave me the name Mind Force.

Christophe Dechavanne and Patrice Carmouzeon an TF1 live show La soirée de l'étrange in France gave me name Magnetic.

When and where did you discover your abilities?

 

I discovered the phenomenon of attracting metal objects by my hands and head while waiting for asylum in Neuburg an der Donau in 1987. I lived alone and had a lot of time to experiment with my consciousness. Describe your experiments with consciousness? I came to realize that a special state of consciousness allows for interaction between the object and me. It is not sleeping, not meditation nor any other known state of consciousness. I can best describe the state as follows: When I enter this state, I am surrounded by light. This is most comparable to the Northern Lights. And I am part of this light, this energy – and I have no body. I see this as the key to the special state of consciousness in which other people can also demonstrate these abilities when they reach this state of light.

Modern neuroscience and psychology speak of neuron and synapse activities. I think that music is also a fantastic way for a lot of people to relax and forget everything around them. Likewise, art moves our imagination. Meditation elevates us to another state of consciousness. But the world I speak of is something else.

 

Why are your demonstrations interesting?

 

In my demonstration I show that I attract objects made of different materials like metal, plastic, glass, wood with my hands or my head. I lift these objects vertically off the floor with the palm of my hand and move them vertically, horizontally or in a circle. I also attach them to my head. According to the laws of physical gravitational force, this is not possible and only exists in science fiction imaginations.

 

Where did you present your skills so far?

 

In the 90s I held public lectures, workshops and tried to confront many people with these abilities and asked them to imitate them. That’s when I had the idea of presenting my abilities on Television shows or scientific TV programs. It was also my thought to get a scientific explanations of my abilities and to share it around the world. I had the opportunity to be on very popular Television programs in Germany, England, France, Russia and the USA.

 

Have you convinced the scientists or the doubters of your abilities?

 

I see that the scientists and the doubters are also trying to imitate the phenomenon. They show pictures on the internet or video clips on YouTube of placing objects on their stomachs, shoulders or backs while in a horizontal position so that gravity holds the object against their body. So the objects are not held by their own attraction, which is the phenomenon that cannot yet be explained. They place the objects on the flat skin like on a table. They are also unable to lift objects off the floor with their heads. They can’t pick up the objects vertically off the ground and, while being attached to their hands, shake them in any direction like I do. It also means that they are unable to reach the state of consciousness I have described.

I tried to thoroughly research my discoveries with scientists and exchanged ideas with professors and doctors in the fields of physics, psychology, genetics, biochemistry and others. Some names and institutions are listed on my website. I have shown my demonstrations to various scientific institutions under strictly controlled conditions. So far, they have not been able to find a plausible explanation for the phenomenon, nor a concept that anybody can imitate it.

 

How do you see the future for this phenomenon?

 

If we look at history, we learn that whenever something new is discovered, it is always controversial and has critics and advocates. The internet connects people worldwide. So many people around the world can see my live TV appearances. I am convinced that very soon a new generation will show that with more developed technology and a more developed state of consciousness of humanity such things can be seen as nothing out of the ordinary but as something quite natural.

 

marker on paper

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International Society For Krishna Consciousness

www.redbubble.com/people/icalink/shop

 

www.facebook.com/icalink

 

www.pinterest.com/icemaidenart

 

www.vimeo.com/user4470172

 

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