Towards a Foundation of a Universal Esoteric Science

 

by

M.Alan Kazlev

with additional material by Steven Guth and Arvan Harvat

 

I may have published the following before on this blog, and possibly elsewhere. But it is worth publishing again. The author is a certain Alan Kazlev who has produced an influential site for studies into Mysticism, and the like. It is known as Kheper, and links to it can be found here. Alan also published a number of my articles, or "working papers" on his site including one on Multi-Dimensional Science. However, my link to that subject is a more up-to-date version, and can be found at the respected p2p Foundation. The link is http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science

Robert Searle/ Blogger

 

 

This essay presents the first steps at formulating a universal and unified esoteric science; one which works alongside and with scientific method, rather than belittling or rejecting it. Such a universal system of esotericism would constitute a wider framework into which more specialised aspects of human knowledge, in all its facets, can be placed. It also represents and requires a radical paradigm shift. I have tried to minimise the amount of intellectualising and dogma, keeping it to the minimum, and emphasise instead a diverse range of ideas and suggestions.

Science and Esotericism
Laying the Foundations
Why have Metaphysics
Objective/Hard versus Subjective/Soft, and Levels of Reality
The Experimental/Empirical Approach of Science
The Experiential/Phenomenological Approach of Mysticism
"Type Experiences"
Suggestions for Areas of Research and Study
Addendum 1 - Old and New Style Esotericism
Addendum 2 - From Aristotle to Science to Esotericism

Science and Esotericism

Whilst the physical sciences have continued to progress ever since the time of Galileo, the esoteric sciences have not advanced to the same degree; and some haven't advanced at all (e.g. Astrology - with all the advances in so-called Esoteric, Humanistic, etc - still rests on the foundation of Ptolemaic (Geocentric) physics. Hassidic Kabbalah rehashes and reinterprets material written two centuries and more ago. Theosophy draws on the 19th century writings of Balvatsky, including Victorian science.). In fact esoterica in general does not progress the way science does. This is because esoterica is based on experiences, anecdotes, and dogmas, whereas science uses testable and objective experimental methodology. Science works because other scientists can conform or refute the findings of the original author. e.g.  special relativity can be  confirmed by measuring the slightly lower speed of atomic clocks in a moving aircraft, and other means. With esotericism this is not possible.
The problem is that there is no "objective" standard in esotericism. How does one for example prove or disprove something like Blavatsky's Seven Root Races? Or the Kabbalistic world of Atzilut? Or purusha and prakrtiti of the Samkhya philosophy?
Because physical science is to be based on the empirical unit of testable experiment ( Galileo etc) and  falsification (Popper), it is possible over the years, decades and centuries to create a vast edifice of knowledge. It is not necessary for every physicist to rediscover Newton's laws, and Einstein's relativity, and the quantum physics of Plank, Bohr, Schroedinger, Heisenberg and the rest. These are already assumed to be valid, they have been tested, confirmed through independent experimental results, and so can serve as the foundation for further explorations.
This is the reason science is so powerful, and has achieved such miracles of knowledge and technology.
In contrast to the wonders of the modern scientific understanding of the workings off the universe, poor old Esotericism cannot get beyond the basic foundations. And what is worse, even those foundations are biased; coloured by the religious or personal idiosyncrasies of the author, and not amenable to confirmation or refutation the way physical science is. Each school follows the Founder, without questioning. The 4th Way people follow Gurdjieff and only use his jargon. The Theosophists ditto Blavatsky. Sometimes schisms occur, like the rival schools of Theosophy (Adya, Point Loma, Alice Bailey, etc), and there is no objective test to see which one is correct.
If an esoteric science is to be truly universal, it must be based on fundamental elements of knowledge that can be confirmed or refuted (as much as possible) and can serve as the foundation for further units.
In one respect this is not as easy as with physical science. Physical science - like exoteric religion - doesn't require one to alter their consciousness. It does however ask that one immerse oneself in a specialised body of knowledge, often for years at a time, of little relevance or interest to humanity as a whole, before one can embark on one's own research. Let us say you want to study, oh, say, prehistoric amphibians ( labyrinthodonts) of the  Triassic period. You have to spend several years learning basic  palaeontology and geology. Then spend more years specialising in vertebrate palaeontology, especially labyrinthodont amphibians, and that means you have to find someone who has already studies and researched and written papers on Triassic labyrinthodont amphibians. That person then becomes your supervisor, who helps you with your work and makes sure you are on the right track. Or if astronomy, you may have an interest in  protoplanetary nebulae, say. Again, the same pattern; general study, then specialised, and finally your own research (Master's thesis, then Phd), all this taking quite a few years. As you can see, it is very like getting initiated into, say, a Sufi or Tantric sect, and following the teacher or guru, who is there to help you find your own way (and never, as in many fake pop-gurus of the West, to take advantage of you).
And after all this, one's own research, when it is published, can be tested by one's peers. This process of peer-review is a fundamental element of western science. Whilst it leads to the danger of becoming hide-bound and stuck in old paradigms, it also ensures that any new discoveries are authentic; they are not something being churned out by any lunatic.
Now, consider esoteric science. You can, if you wish, join a school, according to your inclination and interests and talents. Say a Hermetic School, or a Tibetan Buddhist lineage. You are given material to learn, and when you feel ready you are initiated into the group. As you progress you are given more advanced material, or meditation practices, to learn and master. You are supervised by the elders of the group, who make sure you don't go astray, and help you if you have problems. You can specialise if you wish, perhaps you prefer a particular meditation, or a particular practice. Eventually, after many years, if you feel comfortable in this group, you become an elder or master or teacher too. And here also there is a sort of review by peers, although not in such a formal sense (although sometimes it may be). If you have wildly eccentric interpretations, your views may not be accepted. Sometimes they may be good views, sometimes ridiculous. There may be a schism, or you may be expelled. Paradigms determine belief-systems and behaviour in esotericist groups just as much as in science - if not more so! And most of all in exoteric religions, which at their worst are hidebound to the most literal interpretations of an old book, which, worthy as it may be in its message, becomes twisted and distorted when every word is taken as "gospel truth" (literally!).
So each branch of human endeavour - science or esotericism - follows a broadly similar path. Novice who joins specialised or specialist or even eccentric group, where he/she can pursue ones interests, is encouraged and guided, and eventually becomes a master or teacher or elder in his/her own right. this is just part of the cycle of human existence and interrelationships.
But science and esotericism also differ. Science is about discovering things - pure knowledge - for their own sake. The joy of learning is reward enough. Esotericism, being more pragmatic, is not only about knowledge, it is also about attainment. Of course, this varies too, with some forms of esotericism, like Theosophy, being almost totally theoretical (and hence like science), while others, like various schools of Buddhist or Yogic practice, being almost completely practical, with only minimal theory (just enough to provide a framework for the practice).
The greatest denial of knowledge however is found in some hidebound exoteric Religions and Cults, where learning of anything other than one's own faith or the teachings of the cult leader is actually depreciated or condemned as a distraction, or the work of the devil.
So an esoteric science, as suggested here, is not about the path to enlightenment or self-realisation, which is the true goal of mystical and esotericist practice, but about understanding the "intermediate realities" between the objective physical and the transcendent. In no way do I think this a bad thing. In fact, I consider this a worthy extension of human knowledge, and one that may even be necessary, if we are to broaden our understanding of the universe about us, and our own psyches. For me, the practical and theoretical should go together; each is unbalanced without the other.

Laying the Foundations

How then do we begin to lay the foundations for a Universal Esoteric Science? What methodologies do we use?
This is not an easy question. Perhaps a few propositions to begin with?
Let us begin with the Most Fundamental Empirical Datum of all, The Primacy of consciousness. Cartesian/Husserlian method (I remember this was taught by my old lecturer at La Trobe University, Dr Moshe Kroy, and it influenced me greatly) is that one can doubt anything but one's own consciousness, one's own existence, one's own bare awareness. This of course takes us to Advaita Vedanta, as Moshe perceptively realised. Because Shankara's Advaita, following on the "great sayings' of the Upanishads, says that all there is is the Self, the bare datum of Consciousness/Awareness, the Absolute Reality (Atman = Brahman).
So this is the first proposition - all that exists is my (well, your, because you are the one reading this) Awareness
Now, Moshe Kroy used the Cartesian method, but this is potentially debatable. As someone said, Descartes was wrong with his "Cogito, ergo sum". I perceive, therefore I am. The most honest declaration would be: perception exists.
But one could go further than that (because perception is still perception of something) and say "Bare Awareness Is" (Kashmir Shaivism, also Advaitin Atman (Self) = Brahman)). The ratiocination-based Western philosophical methodology is in this regard more limited than Vedantic/Tantric Bare Awareness methodology. It is important to understand what is being referred to here is not an ego or finite conscious self, but a boundless consciousness. It is proposed here that this is all that is.
This can be proved by a simple thought experiment. Try to imagine another bare awareness. You can't, because to do so would mean you include it in your awareness. Other than Being (which in this thought experiment is your being, your consciousness, although technically speaking the limited "I" is a reflection of the infinite awareness - see below) there is not even nothing. There is only That Being.
It is true that dualists, pluralists, physicalists and the like do assume the duality of subject and object, and say that there is an objective or other subjective reality, or non-being, beyond the All-Encompassing Awareness. But of course, to postulate such a reality, they have to imagine /visualise it. So they have still not gone beyond their awareness
Of course, solipsism is absurd too, but only because solipsism makes the mistake of identifying the Absolute Awareness (Parasamvit, Atman-Brahman or nirguna brahman, etc). with the limited sphere of the individual ego-consciousness and its sphere of awareness. So I emphasise, when referring to Absolute Awareness, I mean the Supreme, of which your subjective awareness is simply a reflection (good analogy here is the  golden lion metaphor in Hua Yen Buddhism (Fa-tsang). The infinite reflections in the mirror are not the actual golden lion)
So we have proposition number one - all that exists, all that is, is Infinite Non-dual Consciousness.
See this page for a more detailed take on this
This is the basic monistic insight, the mystical experience of Unity (see e.g.   Mysticism Defined by W.T. Stace), the premise of most (but not all - there are dualists as well) esoteric teachings, from Plotinus to Shankara to Ibn Arabi to Theon. At the beginning, and in essence now, there is only The One.
This of course has a corollary - everything is nothing else but Transformations of that One. Even inanimate matter is Consciousness, is nothing but Consciousness.
But if there is only the Supreme, why are we limited finite beings. Proposition two, there must be a progression from Infinite Absolute to Finite Relative. And hence, Reality has a structure, a gradient, and can be mapped. This is the field of study of esoteric science, mapping this structure, the "Body of God" as the Kabbalists so evocatively say. This also takes us to Emanationism, regarding which I have already provided an overview. See also Professor Huston Smith's book Forgotten Truth : The Common Vision of the World's Religions which presents human knowledge and experience in terms of a gradation of several metaphysical levels, in keeping with the teachings of mystics and spiritual traditions of all times and cultures. (Professor Smith's thesis is that an over-emphasis on experimental science since the time of Galileo has led to the loss of this sacred insight in the Western world)
But the Map of Reality - the Body of God - is not something static. That is where the Theosophists and Kabbalists and others go wrong, in trying to formulate a rigid set of planes, perhaps by analogy with physical characteristics. Rather, it is a dynamic process. Esoteric science is a study of processes, not of "things"
We now have the Ground of Reality, and the Body of the Godhead. But what about the Method to be used?
Since Consciousness is the sole reality, we should not depreciate consciousness in seeking to understand the universe. This gives us a Method, again shown to me by Moshe Kroy almost a quarter of a century ago.
Everything that appears in Consciousness is a valid datum of inquiry
This is the completely opposite approach to physical science, which seeks to screen out the effect of subjectivity (although it cannot deny the reality of the Observer - and hence of Consciousness). This is why science works best with inanimate objects, still adequately with living beings (although there is no conception of ch'i and little of the dynamics of the whole organism), not so good with societies and anthropology, and worst of all with psychology, leading to such absurdities as Behaviourism (which in its extreme form (Watson, Skinner, etc) even denies the existence of subjectivity!!!) and statistics-driven so-called experimental psychology. The more "inward" (the "within" to use Teilhard de Chardin's term) you go, the less that science works.
Science therefore is a methodology that works supremely well on the gross physical plane, when dealing with purely physical; objects, and less well with more subtle things.
Conversely subjectivism becomes absurd when applied to purely physical processes, this is where "magic" becomes "superstition", and the reason that the physically advanced but metaphysically impoverished Western and Western-inspired nations were able to conquer and enslave the technologically more primitive but metaphysically more advanced Asian, Tribal, etc societies (everything from the 16^th to 19^th century European colonisation of the rest of the world to the 20^th century Chinese conquest of and on-going genocide in Tibet)
Therefore Objective Physical Science and Subjective Esoteric Science thus complement each other perfectly. Which brings us to the next proposition.
On matters of physical reality, Esotericism should defer to Science.
Why? Because this way we can avoid absurdities like Steiner's cosmological cycles, in which the whole Solar System comes into and moves out of manifestation within the time of a single Procession of the Equinoxes. Examined in the hard light of scientific analysis, the Anthroposophical science of Steiner and his followers has all the persuasiveness of the Young Earth theory of fundamentalist Christian Creationism
Which brings us to our next point.
If we are to use as a foundation of inquiry the basic framework already established by the various esoteric teachings, we have to be very careful of one thing. Fixed opinions, which freeze the original fleeting inspiration or process into something stultifying. We need to get away from dogmas. Dogmas in esotericism are as bad as dogmas in science. In science, dogmas become old paradigms that obstruct new ideas, and have to be overthrown, and are only with difficulty. In esotericism, dogmas are far worse, they become fundamentalist and literalist fixations, and blind one to other truths and other possibilities, and destroy even the original truth that was in that teaching in the beginning. This is why dogmatism in esotericism, in religion, and everywhere else, should be completely avoided. Even the ideas presented here should only be taken as hypotheses and suggestions, never as dogmas, and only accepted if one feels in one's own heart that they have value.
Finally, we need to ask what teachings and experiences we will use and take as authoritative, in formulating our new Esoteric Science. Let us say (for sake of example) you like Osho and I like Aurobindo. Now, if Osho says the Absolute Reality and the Self (Atman) are the same, and if Aurobindo says that too, well, that is fine, there is no problem. But if Osho says once you attain Enlightenment that is the highest state, but Aurobindo says, no, there is a higher state beyond Enlightenment, you have to draw the Divine Consciousness down and transform your body and matter, there is a problem. (I am mentioning this because I once many years ago had a discussion/argument with a friend who was a devotee of Osho; I took (and still take) the Aurobindoan position, and he did not feel comfortable with that, because it referred to states beyond what Osho taught. One could say the same using Adi Da instead of Osho as an example). So, where there is a conflict, we need to decide which teacher is the most authoritative.
Everyone will have different ways of doing this, but my method regarding this is simple. The most Inclusive Teaching is the one that should be chosen. This is something the Buddha said once, his teaching is like the footprint of the elephant which can hold the other teachings in itself. So the more all encompassing the teaching, the more preferable it is.
Simple real world example (from religion rather than esotericism, but only to make a point): The fundamentalist Christian, or fundamentalist Muslim, who says "all non-believers go to hell", does not seem as persuasive as an ecumenical Muslim or ecumenical Christian who says "to every people God has sent a prophet" (or Teacher, or whatever). This is because the bigot excludes all others, and so their teaching is extremely arbitrary: why should the fundamentalist of sect x be right, but the fundamentalist of sect y wrong? Or vice versa for that matter? The ecumenicist includes all others, seeing them as part of a greater whole, therefore, devotee of sect x has part of the truth, devotee of sect y also has part. Both are partly correct, (but also partly limited) no favouritism. Seems a lot more reasonable to me.
Regarding this, see also the tale of the Blind Men and the Elephant
So we have, so far

1. All that exists is Infinite Non-dual Consciousness. (The Absolute Reality)
2. Reality has a gradient and can be mapped (the Body of the Godhead).
3. Everything that appears in Consciousness is a valid datum of inquiry (Phenomenology)
4. On matters of physical reality, Esotericism should defer to Science (Critical Thinking)
5. All dogmatism is to be avoided (receptivity to new Possibilities).
6. Where there is a conflict between two teachings, the more inclusive Teaching is preferable.

Note that this is still a provisional list; as this essay is a work in progress, not a finished manifesto.

Why have Metaphysics?

A pragmatist may point out that the first two Propositions sound more like dogmas, and imply an unnecessary philosophisation. One can still construct an esoteric science or sciences using modern esoteric philosophies that differ (e.g. evolutionary-Gurdjieffian like that of John Lilly versus the American Zen of Ken Wilber) - or with no underlying "grand philosophy" at all. All that is required, from a pragmatic point of view, is to state that this physical universe is not all that is (as indicated by evidence of phenomena such as precognition, OBEs, NDEs, I Ching,..), and that various fields now subsumed under esoterica umbrella will be investigated according to their respective nature (e.g. the bioplasmatic body "needs" only some kind of energy body or "fluid", but not complete revolution in worldview that will annihilate old space-time 4-dimensional physics).
My reply to the purely pragmatic position is as follows. Without a unified framework, esoteric science becomes just one more version of scientistic agnosticism. Traditionally, aristotlean-medieval knowledge was tied to God/Prime Mover, the whole thing cohered because of that. Is is the foundation of all "sacred cosmologies". In most esoteric cosmologies (with only a few exceptions like Classical Samkhya and Manicahean Dualism) everything goes back to the original One.
What I am interested in is a universal system of knowledge, such as the Unified Science of Edward Haskell and co-workers, the Cosmic Humanism of Oliver Reiser, the Sacred Soviety of William Irwin Thompson, the Primordial Tradition of Professor Huston Smith.

Objective/Hard versus Subjective/Soft, and Levels of Reality

In some cases using terms like "Objective" for Physical Science and "Subjective" for Esoteric Science is too simplistic, abstract, or meaningless. And how do we know that physical reality is more "objective" (if, as the Kashmir Shaivites assert, everything is just a condensation of consciousness, it isn't). So whilst as a methodology these terms are useful, they should not be given any metaphysical authenticity. A better analogy here might be physics and chemistry ("hard" or "objective") versus psychology and sociology ("soft" or "subjective").
Or, "hard sciences" and "soft sciences" and "objective" and "subjective" may simply be some of a number of levels on the gradient of reality
More than that, Esoteric Science itself spans the spectrum from "hard" to "soft", and hence becomes a more inclusive paradigm that includes the hard/physical sciences as special cases within itself, (just as Newtonian Physics is a "special case" of Einsteinian physics), and adds a radical dimension of depth to - or even completely reinterprets, the soft/social sciences. Hence some parts of this research program can be subsumed under (hard/experimental/objective) "science" (acupuncture, etc), others under metaphysics and "art".
Arvan Harvat suggests we might divide human creativity into these areas:

1. arts (music, painting, imaginative literature,...) (Fine Arts)
2. philosophy, theology, historiography, criticism (social, literary,..) (Humanities?)
3. social sciences (sociology, linguistics, psychology, economics ?,..)
4. exact sciences (math, chemistry, ..)
5. applied sciences and technology (electrical engineering,..)

Looking at this sequence, which runs from "subjective/soft" to "objective/hard" (or "lunar/yin" to "solar/yang" consciousness; see for example Stan Gooch's map of the mind - Ststem B and System A) traditional esoteric sciences could be considered a hybrid of humanities and arts; its "precision" or "exactitude" measured not by exact sciences standards, but by, say, those of humanities or social sciences. In fact. some of what is defined as esotericism - astrology especially, or Buddhism, or Gurdjieff or even Hermeticism in part - can be interpreted as (alternative) psychology, with psychoanalysis, behaviorism, functionalism, and neuropsychology, say, being the more exact sciences side of the spectrum. Conversely some forms of psychoanalysis, Jung especially, might belong under traditional Estericism. So might Maslow, or Assagioli
Again, ch'i and bioplasmatic body would belong in the exact sciences realm, occult planes in the humanities, and Ching and Tarot divination (as opposed to Tarot psychology) to speculative physical theories that are still emergent (multidimensional universe etc.).
But there can be even more to it than just this. I have already referred to Professor Huston Smith's book Forgotten Truth : The Common Vision of the World's Religions which presents human knowledge in terms of four basic metaphysical levels.  If we apply this here, in terms of exoteric (conventional knowledge, as indicated in Arvan's list) and esoteric fields of inquiry and practice, we have the following (note, this correlation differs from the original table which remains more faithful to Prof Smith):

Reality	my cosmology	Huston Smith (Forgotten Truth)	Established fields	Suggested esoteric areas and possible of research
Unmanifest Godhead or Absolute	Absolute Reality	Spirit/Infinite	As revealed ("finger pointing at the moon") through Monistic mysticism	Enlightenment experiences of transcendence; Moksha, Kaivalya, Nirvana
Absolute in Manifestation	Dynamic Absolute	--	Aurobindoan Supramentalisation and equivalents (Lurianic concepts etc)
Spiritual- Divine	Noetic Noeric	Soul/Celestial	Theistic mysticism	Theosophic esotericism and metaphysics (Sufism, Kabbalah, Tantra, etc), higher yogic experiences, Adi Da's 5th and 6th Stages in part
Psychic- Intermediate	Psychic	Mind/Intermediate	Fine Arts, philosophy, religion, social sciencesPsychology, etc,..)	psi, OBE, NDE, various aspects of occultism
Etheric	Physical-Psychic Interface	(Life)	holistic and alternative healing, some elements of biology, emergent evolution, self-organising phenomena	morphogenetic fields (Sheldrake) and holistic physics (Bohm), chakras, acupuncture medians, Kirlian photography, bioplasma, orgone energy, ley lines, geomancy, feng shui, etc
Physical	Physical	Body/Physical	exact sciences applied sciences and technology	questions on causality/synchronicity, time-travel, superluminal phenomena, multiverse,

The above gives us a foundation, but what about the bricks to build the edifice? We will find there are different approaches and methodologies, depending on the aspect of reality we are inquiring into. For the physical, this is There are two broad approaches we can take here - experimental/empirical method science, and the experiential/phenomenology of mysticism. Many areas of esotericism however - for example practical occultism, represent an overlap of these two.

The Experimental/Empirical Approach of Science

Arvan Harvat

The Experimental Approach is non-Metaphysical. Newton didn't care for Descartes or any philosophy of that kind. Real scientists (Newton, Huyghens, Euler,..) only needed that there is a world "outside there" with immutable laws and no whimsical divine interventions. For physical-experimental esoteric science all that is required is that this 4-dimensional world described in Einsteinian space-time 4-dim physics and with 4 forces (some are united in Salam-Weinberg Standard model) are not complete reality.
From this perspective the only starting point might be:

1. contemporary mainstream fundamental (quantum, relativity) physics is only partially true. Therefore I Ching, planes, parallel universus, precognition, NDEs,..
2. the 4 forces world of fundamental physics are similarly just a part of the larger picture. Therefore ch'i, telepathy, plants, auras,..

(for auras there is probably a conceptual effort that combines a) and b)- which is reality, because the Standard model is a quantum model)
Here we have two stages:

• experiment, in exact sciences manner, with everything that can be subjected to good, old fashioned ways (bioplasm, plants, dowsing,..) and compile a corpus of verifiable data-without some strong theory. Just incontrovertible facts.
• other, more metaphysical matters (I Ching, planes, evolution,..) will have to wait for breakthrough in speculative physics etc. For instance, when Relativity goes down and physicists' general concept of universe collapses (no velocity greater than speed of light, causality,...)- then, and only then will be possible to seriously ask questions like this: how can tossing I Ching coins predict something that will happen in next 6 months ? How this works ? What's the "mechanism"?

The Experiential/Phenomenological Approach of Mysticism

M.Alan Kazlev

Science uses experiment and confirmation (or falsification). In esotericism however this is not easily possible. Sri Aurobindo may have experienced the Overmind (Noetic Reality), and Adi Da the Radiant Transcendental Being, and Max and Alma Theon explored the byways of the psychic planes, but it is not easy for the average person to attain such heights (understatement of the month).
Of course, it is not easy to confirm or refute  the existence of the Higgs Boson either, but assuming a suitably large particle accelerator can be built, it can be done, by physicists with the required training. Whereas the realisation of the Noetic Reality or of Shunyata or psychic planes can be done very cheaply (in terms of material cost) but only with great personal skill and very rare attainment (in terms of individual training and realisation). Once again, Physical Science and Esoteric Science are polar opposites and complementary (like Yin and Yang)
A Universal Esoteric Science deals with experiences as authentic data (phenomenology, proposition 3 in the provisional list). But not all experiences, not all phenomena of consciousness, are accessible, as just explained. Pragmatic Esotericism (Spiritual Practice) takes experiences gained by those who have trailblazed before and above us, and uses them as guideposts on the spiritual path. Applying this to Esoteric Science, and not "just" Esoteric Practice, we should have the option to take these experiences and descriptions and use them to piece together an account of other planes of existence.
There are a number of obviously overlapping sources of experiences (for example a single individual may present both a teaching and an autobiography).
In the accounts of traditional (ancient or recent, include channelling) spiritual literature. This is often highly stylised and mythologised, and hence hard to decipher. e.g. the Vision of Ezekiel in the Bible, which some people like to interpret as a UFO. [e.g.  link, link link]. Sometimes the symbolism may be so dense as to render the whole thing incomprehensible - e.g. the Sefer Zohar of Kabbalah - or tied in with folklore and myth - e.g. the Mahabarata. Or the narrative may be deliberately stylised or obtuse (Gnosticism, Blavatsky's Stanzas of Dyzan), or seek to conceal or confuse (Gurdjieff's Beelzebub's Tales). Often there is a quality of channelled material, and indeed many of these works are channelled (e.g. the prophets who heard voices etc). For these reasons, even though these accounts were all written by human beings (although the pious may interpret them as literal revelation by God/Deity in which the human author played no part other than to inscribe the words) they are not much, or any, use for formulating a Universal Esoteric Science
Then there are teachers who are presenting their own vision of Reality. They may be intelligent and have read widely, hence they are not likely to be so limited to one tradition, although they may have a preference for a particular tradition. Examples might include Adi Da, Sri Aurobindo, Meher Baba, Rudolph Steiner, and many many others. However, the immediacy of the autobiographical account is lost, and the whole thing has a didactic tone. Sometimes this also moves into the field of channelling, which will often tend to deteriorate the quality of the material (the Alice Bailey material, turgid, verbose, and unreadable, essentially Theosophy with a Christian slant, is a good example here). Even so there are a few rare individuals like Edgar Cayce, Jane Roberts, and David Spangler that retain a sense of purity not found in most channelled material
Of great value are the autobiographical accounts of both historical and recent mystics and psychonauts. Even with those who have drawn upon the traditional literature, which is very often (especially in Medieval material) all they know, and hence their experiences are coloured and biased by it, and the genuine insights have to be extracted, but at least they recorded their experiences faithfully. The Christian Mystical tradition is a good illustration of this. Even better are recent autobiographies like Swami Muktananda's Play of Consciousness; perhaps one of the best works of its kind, and one I found far more inspiring than Yogananda's cloying Autobiography of a Yogi. Hagiographies obviously are less useful, since there is the tendency to worship and hence gloss over things that the author did not like. Even so, in some cases the saint's words may be described and record his or her experiences. Also of use are the accounts of modern educated westerners, such as John Lilly's.
Also of great use are modern individuals who may or may not come from a tradition, but are simply describing their experiences, without pompousness or unnecessary symbolism, and without any agenda other than: well, this is what happened to me. Even though their experience may be colored by the symbolism of their culture, background, or religious upbringing - e.g. a Hindu might have a vision of Krishna, a Christian of Christ, one can still take away the superficial form, and look at the quality of the experience in itself.
In some cases the various descriptions referred to in some or all of the preceding categories may be collated by others, for example Aldous Huxley (The Perennial Philosophy) on mysticism, Masters and Huston's, or Stan Grof's account of psychedelic experiences, Jung's work on the Collective Unconscious, or Ken Wilber's mapping of states of consciousness. Such systematic coverage can be extremely useful, because the editor will have noticed certain common themes, and draw the reader's attention to them. Often both traditional and modern accounts are placed side by side, showing that these sort of experiences really are universal.
Of course, you yourself, the reader, may also have experiences, these are just as valid as those in any of the above categories.

"Type Experiences"

In biology, geology, and palaeontology, reference is made to the "type specimen". A type specimen is the specimen - perhaps a new species of insect, that a scientist refers to when describing it in a scientific journal. That way, if someone else finds a similar specimen, they can check and see if it is the same as the original, or warrants its own name and description.
I would suggest here that certain esoteric experiences which are described by mystics, sages, adepts, occultists, psychonauts, and the rest, be taken as Type Experiences, and hence referred to, in the same way that a biological or geological sample might be.
One must however be careful in selecting an experience, so as to avoid unnecessary bias. A contemporary educated person may be preferable to a medieval monastic ascetic, but if the ascetic has progressed further, they would have experienced things the modern person would not. If a person has a modern education, can think and write clearly, is aware of the pitfalls and delusions of the spiritual path, and has progressed to great heights, their experiences will obviously be very useful in the mapping out of the nature of reality.
The worst thing in all this are subjective distortions. e.g. a person may have a pure and profound experience, but straight away distort it into their own mental formulation. A lot of Rudolph Steiner's material reads like this. One senses amazing insight, a great and pure soul, but then reads the most ridiculous medieval nonsense, that would have been fine a thousand years ago, but just seems absurd today.
Also not too good, but not as bad as the above, is egotism and self-delusion. An individual may attain a very elevated state, and then claim to be the only one to have attained it, or to have attained it in its fullness. Now, in some cases, they may very well be the only one! In other cases, they are simply caught up in an Intermediate Zone delusion of grandeur, or overpowered by the great down-rush of light.
The only way to tell if an adept is sincere and has attained the highest state, or is just caught in the intermediate zone, is to compare their experiences with others. If others have had the same experience, then to claim uniqueness is a sign either of simple ignorance (which is forgivable, especially if the individual in question has not read much, perhaps coming from a culture or society where books or learning is limited) or self-delusion (which may or may not be forgivable, depending on how you view these things, and which in itself does not negate the rest of the experience), or seeking to delude others to further his or her career as guru or cult leader (which is a sure sign that this person should be avoided, unless you are an anthropologist or sociologist and want to study the phenomenon of cultish behaviour).

Suggestions for Areas of Research and Study

An incomplete list of suggestions and ideas:

• Physical Reality
  • Pragmatic experimentation, using the methodology of the exact sciences, on those topics of paranormal, etc that can be subjected to traditional scientific method (morphogenetic fields, kirlian photography, bioplasm, plants, dowsing,..) and compile a corpus of verifiable data.
  • In those cases with poor or no results from hard scientific approach to psi and paranormal, is it because there is no phenomenon, or because the nature of the experimental method adversely affects the subjects consciousness (a sort of esoteric exclusivity law?).
• Etheric Reality
  • Understanding energy levels in the subtle body (acupuncture, ch'i, microcosmic orbit, reiki, and other phenomena - note, these are close enough to the physical with sufficient "objectivity" to also be amenable to standard scientific methodology (but the paradigm-resistance would be huge)
  • Understanding Homodynamics and other alternative means of treatment that cannot be explained in reductionist terms
  • Mapping out of Chakras, aura, yogic anatomy, etc - understanding the subtle body
  • Application/reinterpretation of transpersonal psychology, meditative states, etc in terms of esoteric map of the nature if reality; alternatives to the standard monistic (usually Zen or Sufi based) or old Wilberian paradigms of TP Psychology
• Paranormal
  • Sympathetic but non-gullible re-evaluation of psi and similar phenomena, what is the mechanism?
  • Thanatology, Near-Death experiences etc interpreted as authentic psychic bardo states (rather than as "hallucinations of an oxygen-starved brain"); looking at both historical and recent accounts
  • UFOs, bigfoot, nessie, etc as etheric / parallel physical dimensions rather than materialistic explanations of little green men, surviving neanderthals, plesiosaurs, etc
  • Providing plausible theory for crop circles and other anomalous phenomena
• Psychic Reality
  • What is the influence of esotericism upon social sciences and humanities; e.g. , painters (Boticelli, Mondrian, Kandinsky,..), writers and poets (Goethe, Blake, Balzac, Rimbaud, Yeats, Henry Miller,..) had been attracted to various parts of esotericism: hermeticism, theosophy, kabbalah; how does art relate to esoteric realities, and vice versa?.
  • Magick and Occultism (applied hermetics, shamanism, etc) as valid techniques for interacting with the psychic realities, and manipulating psychic or physical events.
  • Reinterpretation of Jung's archetypes, synchronicity, etc as valid phenomena ("gods") on the supra-physical planes, and their expression and qualities as understood in that light (getting away from Jung's sloppy half-heated attempt at Kantean dualism and biological reductionism ("collective unconscious" as inherited or racial memory)
  • Reinterpretation of psychology and study of psyche to take into account experiential, phenomenological, and supra-physical factors as well standard physical elements; Steven Guth's "Theory of the Double" (work in progress)
• Mystic Reality
  • Empirical and phenomenological study of meditative, enlightenment, and other such states, free of preconceived religious or metaphysical biases. What does the "bare experience" in itself tell?
  • Application/reinterpretation of transpersonal psychology, meditative states, etc in terms of esoteric map of the nature if reality; what sort of map emerges? Look at alternatives to the standard monistic (usually Zen or Sufi based) or old Wilberian paradigms of TP Psychology
• Causality
  • Consider I Ching as a mathematical/"syncronistic" map of fundamental archetypes (ref DNA codons, other similarities? Particle physics in quantum mechanics perhaps?)
  • Synchronicity/meaningful coincidence - how can tossing I Ching coins predict something that will happen in the next 6 months? What about prophetic dreams? Classic Jungian synchronicity? What is the "mechanism"?
  • Explore thesis of Astrological causation in terms of subtle etheric spheres (Steiner), dumping of old humanistic-materialistic explanations of the "moon's tides" etc (works fine for the moon but what about Pluto?)
• Evolution
  • Exploration of interactions of "cosmic devic forces" with the terrestrial evolution; hypotheses of planetary and biological evolution, human society, etc [see e.g. Steven Guth and my work on "Astrognosis" Considering Islam, Cosmogenic Evolution, as well as Eco-Gnosis in general - see also Adendndum A for more (below))
  • What effect will future technologies have upon the body and psyche - cyborgization, nanotechnology, colonization of space, etc?
  • Possibility of new (different? higher?) kingdoms and/or grades of sentience emerging? e.g. AI and Vingean-Transhumanist Posthuman Singularity through technological evolution or augmentation, or Aurobindoan "Superman" through spiritual-divine transformation
• Cosmology
  • Formulating a map or diagram of the "Body of the Godhead" as a dynamic unfolding-enfolding process (not static planes) - concepts from Taoism, Neoconfucianism, Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, Suhrawardi, Ibn Arabi, Kashmir Shaivism, pre-Lurianic, Lurianic and Hassidic Kabbalah, Max and Alma Theon, Theosophy, Anthroposphy, Teilhard de Chardin, Sri Aurobindo and Mirra, Meher Baba, and others.

No doubt many more fields of exploration could be added.

Addendum 1 - Old and New Style Esotericism

Steven Guth

The history of modern esotericism really comes out of an attempt to formalise the spiritual medium situation that existed in the 1800's. Groups gathered in the 1840's so that "scientific" evidence about the afterlife could be collected.
People like Theon fit in here.
And later came the attempts by people like Blavaskey, Steiner, etc to present the old esoteric truths and the new discoveries in a scientific frame work, using terms like rounds, and tables and hierarchies. They felt a need to adapt their visions into the social thought patterns (including the science) of the time ... which quickly became dated and so their descriptions have became absurd - e.g. the history of the planet c/o Steiner (he combined astrology with what Science at the time understood).
An example is the chemistry table of elements which unlocked the wonders of alchemy. The discovery of coal tar colours revolutionised the world. So of course attempts were made to classify in this way.
Part of the burden that the modern esoteric movement carries is the concept of evolution. At the time Blavatsky and others were writing Darwin's evolutionary concept let people keep the idea of a prime creator and abandon religion. You see, evolution suggests that everything things has been created to end up somewhere ... the end point of Newton's clock work universe - and we are moving towards the resolution of the creator architects great plan. Alas I suspect that rogue influences play into the world's spiritual ecology at random times creating a situation which is far from clockwork. See my somewhat discomforting meditative insight ... into the energy behind Islam [see Considering Islam] and then Alan's further development of this idea [see Cosmogenic Evolution]...
Before that earlier attempts to make sense of the formlessness of the Spiritual worlds gave us stuff like the Abramelin with its divisions into, Kings, Dukes etc - following the sociological thought patterns of the 14th Century. So it is not surprising that in our current attempts to forge a bit of "scientific" logic into the huge complexity of what surrounds us that we should be using the sociological thought patterns of our time - which come from the benefits that science has placed into our lives.
But, and it's a big but, many of the premises that modern science rests on are weak if not faulty. One of my favourite criticisms is our intrinsic belief that there is a "cause" for everything. I have come to the conclusion that "Causation is just a special case of association". Adopt my idea that association is the rule and "causation" is just a special case and you end up with the involvement of the spiritual world in everything in some form or another. What we do in the physical effects the Spiritual worlds and vice versa - and it is an ongoing interaction slightly out of time and place ... incidentally this is what the Australian Aboriginal concept of the "Dreaming" is all about.
And that's just one of the premises.
Now, the largest revolution in modern science has been the discovery of deep space, deep time and the huge complexity of the out there. As one astronomer said in a lecture I attended as she showed us the image of the radio energy coming out of a galaxy, "It is better not to think about such things". I wonder if Kepler had similar qualms?
And another major revolution in the making is the concept of randomness and variability. All our scientific modelling to date still runs on the concept of averaging - its part of our sociological democratic thought pattern. But it is a very poor premise to work from. So much cannot be usefully explored by averaging ... from the weather to the effectiveness of medicines ... and how do you average spiritual phenomena? (What is the average ghost or crop circle? ... randomness is inherent in the systems around us).
Now, both deep space and variability/randomness have not been added to our thinking patterns. New patterns are necessary to accommodate the new base line insights science has presented to us.
We need to add our new insights to our understandings of esoteric experiences. And that is what astrognosis is trying to do. Which places this developing concept [Cosmogenic Evolution] into a potentially revolutionary position.
It is interesting that in our new formulations about the development of life forms on our planet we end up with Devas as the link between our new ideas and concepts of the past. You see, Devas are just consciousness in a place. Remove the idea of place and leave consciousness and you have a "God or Goddess" ... And of course that is what we are too ... the "prima medica" is consciousness.
As an afterthought ...
I am working on a lecture series on the Doppleganger, the Double, at the moment and am exploring the multiple facets of human consciousness and the very nature of consciousness itself. Interestingly it is leading me to the conclusion that "consciousness" intrusions from deep space play an important part in our need to go to war. Yes, perhaps our leaders and the people that surround them are schizophrenic. Their minds and decisions being influenced by other consciousnesses "out there" which like to playing games with events on this planet ... So if we can stop the games we could have peace and if we don't, or can't, we will never have peace ... this is an interesting thought but only possible if one accepts some of the new premises suggested in this essay. It also makes one wonder if the images presented by Science Fiction and the beliefs of the UFO people are not coming from a consciousness "out there" identical to what is presenting me with these insights!
Material on the Doppleganger and its role in human consciousness will soon be on this web site - stay tuned for further inputs!

Addendum 2 - From Aristotle to Science to Esotericism

Arvan Harvat (slightly edited and first paragraph added by MAK)

The "Traditionalist" School of Fritjof Schuon, Rene Gueneon, and others (reinterpretation/esotericisation of exoteric religions), tradition-bound esotericism in general, and people like Rudolph Steiner and his Anthroposphy (which through application of Goethean and Steiner's own clairvoyant gives it much to contribute to a Universal Esoteric Science) all seek to tie themselves to the past, rather than explore possibilities of the future. Their dependence on the aristotlean-medieval paradigm with its sacred universe and natural philosophy, means they are relying on failed science, in the same way that the Theosophists still are stuck with the Victorian science that Blavatsky new and write about (and that was, by the way, cutting edge in Blavatsky's time (later 19th century).
The problem is that the Aristotlean approach is not a form of science that gives results. Aristotle was abandoned due to inefficacy. It was simplistic because he did not know "the world", he was freely speculating, using the limited data and information available to him in the ancient Greek world.
Putting under a single umbrella concepts such as ch'i, I Ching, planes, evolution, etc is reminiscent of the times of Aristotle when all sciences (biology, psychology, physics, political sciences,..) were parts of philosophy. But this widely multidisciplinary approach is not the same as a holistic esotericism of science. One thing is "sci infancy" (Aristotle), and completely another modern multidisciplinary approach that is "mature science" (say, quantum chemistry tries to explain genetic processes by using thermodynamics, chaos and complexity, computer science, higher algebraic theories, ...and to connect them to the levels of electrochemisty and biochemistry).
In esoteric science you could imagine experiments (Kirlian, high voltage) combined with other high tech photographs (computer analysis of highly sensitive detectors) and explanation, in the beginning, with some kind fields combined with electrophysiology and biochemical processes monitored and theorized upon.
A true holistic paradigm can emerge only after any science has passed thru various stages of disintegration and integration. The following process or sequence could be suggested:

1. primitive science (Aristotle)
2. beginnings of empirical and mathematical science in modern sense (Galileo, Kepler)
3. new paradigm established (Newton, Laplace,...)
4. other paradigms appearing (Faraday-Maxwell, fields,...)
5. fundamental redefinition and new paradigmata (Einstein, Planck, Heisenberg,...)
6. multidisciplinary approach (chaos theory, complexity, Feigenbaum ...)
7. emergent holistic approach ( Sarfatti, Bohm's  hologram universe, quantum geometrodynamics of John Wheeler,.., also  synchronicity)

Bohm is a true scientist with a holistic approach.
The crux of the matter as far as superluminality is concerned (see e.g. the  Stardrive web site) is that the universe obeyed the laws of quantum mechanics at its birth subjecting it to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle when it was smaller than an electron. Hoyle and Sarfatti believe that it was at this primordial moment that consciousness from the future created the universe bringing itself into being.
Einstein's work on relativity provided a starting point for intuitive physicists such as Wheeler, Feynman, Josephson and others. The new physics has also given rise to a new cosmology of which Sir Fred Hoyle is a leading proponent. Hoyle compiled a massive body of evidence in his book The Intelligent Universe that seems to strongly suggest that only a living and intelligent (superluminal) God could have created a universe where life (us) exists. The very conditions of the birth of the universe (the big bang) were specifically tailored to produce life. The final anthropic cosmological principle championed by Hoyle, Sarfatti and others was first discovered in weaker form by Brandon Carter 9 The God Phone], who in 1968 stated:

"Had the numerical values of certain fundamental constants (the speed of light, the mass of an electron etc.) been only slightly different - the universe would not be able to sustain life as we know it." Experimentalist Alain Aspect proved (at the University of Paris in 1982), the reality of faster-than-light action-at-a-distance in an experiment on the quantum connection between pairs of photons. Delayed choice experiments (by Carol Alley of the University of Maryland ) and gamma photon-proton scattering experiments (by Charles Bennett of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory ) showed that future causes do create past effects.
Recent work by such respected physicists as David Deutsch, Kip Thorne, Yakir Aharanov, Alcubierre and Sarfatti, involving time-travel to the past, future-causality and other mind-boggling vistas, is invigorating superluminal physics as never before. For example, Alcubierre has shown that a Star Trek faster-than-light warp drive is possible within the known laws of physics [but see  this on-line essay by John Cramer for problems with Alcubierre drive - MAK]. Indeed, Sarfatti, interviewed by Kim Burrafato in UFO Magazine (Vol 9, No. 30 1994), speculates that UFO's, if real, would be time-travelling ships from our future explaining the strange phone call(s) he got in 1952. Sarfatti is no true believer here. He is quite willing to admit that the 1952 call(s) may have been some sort of prank, and all the subsequent synchronicities a random coincidence.
Sarfatti's credibility among other physicists, like the superluminal conjecture, seemed for years to lay dormant in the barren soil of a conservative physics establishment. For many years, talk of faster-than-light communication and time travel has been beyond the pale of good science. It was a suitable subject for comic books and science fiction only, 'strictly kid stuff.' "

Crazy, but...?

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New Civilization - collage by M.Alan Kazlev

Terms like "Postmaterialism", "cultural creatives", "participatory approach", "integral consciousness", "planetary consciousness", "new age", "new paradigm", "holistic", "sustainable", and "transluscent revolution" are among the many convenient labels that can be applied to the current social, cultural, and/or spiritual, individual and/or collective, evolutionary development of consciousness and society beyond, or rejecting, both reductionistic materialism (and its counterpart, exoteric, literalist religion), and materialism in the sense of soul-destroying and ecologically unsustainable consumerism, superficiality, and monolithic capitalism.
Individually, postmaterialistic consciousness can be defined physically, emotionally, and mentally, although these are three interrelated perspectives on the same thing, not three separate things.
Physically it corresponds to conscious evolution or evolutionary or secular spirituality, which means taking progress into our own hands, rather than follwing narcissistic greed, hierarchically authoritarianism, and the destructive pattern of naked ape politics and competiveness.
Emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually, it means is moving beyond ego-shadow (I-It) duality to empathic (I-Thou) wholeness.
And as far as mental worldviews and understanding goes, it equally reiects both the consensus paradigm of secular materialism, agnosticism, reductionism, and relativism (modernity) and institutionalized religion. At the same time it is not yet at the level of gnosis. So on the one hand it is no longer really exoteric and yet it isn't quite esoteric; although on the other hand if esoteric is equated with gnosis, and exoteric with lack of gnosis, then it is still very much exoteric. Indeed my feelings when encountering this material and these subcultures is that they are exoteric, but a wholesome and socially and ecologically sustainable exoteric.
Socially, culturally, and collectively, the challenge at present is to attain a post-materialistic society (sometimes called integral society, rising culture, etc). I do not believe it is possible for humanity as a whole to attain gnosis or a gnostic society at this stage; indeed there has never been a collectively gnostic or esoteric society on Earth, even in ancient Egyptians and traditional Tibetan society most of society would have been on a self-serving and surface consciousness level, and gnosis mixed up with mythological thinking, politics, ignorance, duality, etc.
I find it significant that even the majority of the "new consciousness" New Age / Cultural Creative / Alternative movements today (obviously there are exceptions!) seems to have been barely penetraded by sentientist awareness, and instead buy into the meat, dairy, poultry, etc industries, thus helping to perpetuate the torture of countless innocent beings. Without consideration for all sentient beings on Earth, how can the collective karma be addressed and a new world created? This is the great taboo in the New Age/Integral/etc movement. One of the things I would like to do is create a new esoteric system based on sentientist insights. Of course I'm not the first, Mahatma Gandhi has already done so. This is a work for true visionaries, and the most radical moral challenge of our age.
Also, in contrast to the standard idea of gradual evolutionary progress (Theosophy, Spiral dynamics, Wilberian Integralism, etc), I do not consider that higher consciousness and a truely spiritual and gnostic society will evolve or appear through a simple, gradual, and linear progression. Those worldviews are still caught up in the 19th and early 20th century "myth of progress" idea. Instead I like to believe in a series of transitions centered around locii of radical individual and collective Divinization, and this will have a backward effect of gnosticising a proportion of the population. This seems to be what Sri Aurobindo is describing when he refers to a ladder of degrees of consciousness from ordinary consciousness to the Supramental (in The Life Divine, pp.968-9) that develops after supramentalisation (i.e. among those beings and nature that has not yet been supramentalised).

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The Divinisation of Matter- Lurianic Kabbalah, Sri Aurobindo, and the New Physics

 

The Divinisation Of Matter -

Lurianic Kabbalah, Sri Aurobindo, and the New Physics

M.Alan Kazlev

This essay first appeared in Esoterica (later Magick) magazine, issue no.7, 1996.  Apart from converting it to HTML, but it's basically the same as how I originally wrote it
Some material from this essay has also been copied in other pages on this site

Blogger Ref Link http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science

Contents

1. The Kabbalistic Cosmology
2. The Fall - Stage One
3. The Origin Of The Universe According To Modern Physics
4. The Cause Of Imperfection
5. The Restitution (Stage One), And The Fall (Stage Two)
6. A Lurianic-Physics Synthesis
7. Tikkun Or Restitution (Stage Two)
8. The Aurobindoan-Mirran Conception Of Supramentalisation
9. The Collective Transformation
10. Stages On The Path To Supramentalisation
11. The Universal Body
12. The Transcendence Of Life And Death
13. The Physics Of Supramentalisation

The Kabbalistic Cosmology

Of all the esoteric systems of thought that describe the various planes and subdivisions of reality, Kabbalah (also spelt "Qabalah", "Cabala", etc) is the most complex.  Although there are many different schools of interpretation, the general consensus refers to four (or in the case of the Lurianic school, five) successive worlds or universes; each of which is divided into ten sefirot: Divine Archetypes or Essences.  The first world, which emanates directly from the Absolute Godhead (or En Sof), forms the basis for the second world, and so on.  Thus there are forty (or in the Lurianic system fifty) planes of existence altogether.
 Each successive sefirot and each world or Universe represents a veiling or diminishing of the original Divine Light, progressing from subtle to gross, with each universe being "spirit" or "soul" relative to the one below it, and "matter" or "body" relative to the one above it, until one comes to the lowest sefirah of the lowest universe, Malkut of Asiyah (or "Malkuth of Assiah" in the Hermetic transliteration), representing the physical creation [Krakovsky, pp.83-84].  Reference is also made to the Klippot ("Qlippoth") or "shells" or "husks" or in modern occultism "unbalanced forces", that exist outside this divine sequence of creation.
 The following Kabbalistic cosmology is based on the teachings of the sixteenth century Kabbalists of Safed, northern Palestine, specifically the two greatest figures of the time, Rabbi Moses Cordovero (1522-1570) and Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572) [1].  These kabbalists present an interpretation of the nature of the four Universes a little different to that preferred by modern occultists (Golden Dawn and later).
 In Kabbalah, the Absolute Godhead is referred to as En Sof, literally "no end", i.e., "The Infinite," which is not only infinite, eternal, and unitary, but ineffable and indescribable as well.  Most Kabbalists, being good monotheists, identified the En Sof with the God of Revealed Religion (the "God of Israel", etc).  Rabbi Luria however was very perceptive in allocating the Personal God to a lower station, the World of Atzilut, so that the En Sof becomes the Transcendent Absolute, equivalent perhaps to the Nirguna Brahman of Vedanta, and the original Tao of  Taoism.  Modern occultists tend to understand the En Sof in this manner too.
 The Lurianic system is unique for another reason too.  Whereas his immediate predecessor Cordovero refers to the conventional four Universes of Atzilut (Emanation), Beriah (Creation), Yetzirah (Formation), and Asiyah (Making), Luria adds a fifth world, "Adam Kadmon", that precedes Atzilut and is the first to emanate from the En Sof or Infinite Light.  In Kabbalah Adam Kadmon or the "Primordial Man" is usually taken to mean the original spiritual archetype of humanity - equivalent to the spiritual anthropos of Gnosticism and Manichaeism.  Luria however gave this term an eccentric meaning (hence my use here of inverted commas); he made it refer to the original and ineffable manifest Absolute itself.  As such it constitutes the original transcendent and ineffable archetypes, which are described as "Divine Names", and can only be known by analogy with the four worlds of creation [Luzzatto, pp.14-15].
 Atzilut ("Atziluth") is the first Universes to exist apart from the Absolute.  Its ten Sefirot [2]are the ten archetypal manifestations of the Godhead, analogous perhaps to the Christian three persons of the Trinity, or the Hindu three-fold God(s) of Brahma (Creation), Vishnu (Preservation) and Shiva (Dissolution).  So we can contrast the Unmanifest Absolute - Nirguna Brahman or En Sof - with the Manifest Absolute or Godhead - Saguna Brahman or the Universe of Atzilut..
 The next Universe to emanate is the Universe of Beriah ("Briah") or Creation, which is the realm of the mystical ascent to the Throne of God, and consists of ten archangelic sefirot.  Here then we have the first grade beneath the pure Godhead of Atzilut.  Beriah corresponds not only to the Throne of God (representing perhaps higher spiritual illumination), but also to the Soul [Kaplan, p.209], and more specifically the Neshamah or "Divine Soul" in Man, the inner divine Spark which emanated from the Divine Intellect [Binah] of the Godhead [Scholem, 1961, p.241]   From the Universe of Beriah in turn there originates the Universe of Yetzirah or Formation, made up of ten angelic Sefirot.  This constitutes the lowest of the "untainted" spiritual worlds.  In the teachings of the Safed Kabbalists, the angels or maggidim are spirit guides or thought-forms, created through the prayers and actions of the Kabbalist himself [Kaplan, p.223].  This universe also corresponds to the Ruah or "Spirit" in Man, which is the source of moral consciousness [Scholem, 1974, p.156] (although modern occultists identify it with the "Rational Soul" [Denning & Phillips, p.238; Stoltz, p.78]).
 Finally we have the Universe of Asiyah ("Assiah") or Making.  In the Safed teachings this corresponds not to the physical world (as it does in contemporary occultism), but the creative archetypes behind the world [Scholem, 1961, p.272], or alternatively to the "Astral Plane", where good and evil, or Truth and Falsehood, are intermixed and it is very difficult to separate them [Kaplan, p.40].  Here the pure sefirot have been tainted by the klippot, which, according to the Lurianic schema, has come about through the Fall of the primordial Adam [Scholem, 1974, p.162].  Psychologically, Asiyah corresponds to the Nefesh or lower soul, the seat of unrefined passions [Zalman, pp.3-5 ], which has to be purified through the spiritual ascent [Krakovsky, pp.29-30].

The Fall - Stage One

 The conventional Kabbalistic cosmology - taught for example both by Cordovero and in the modern Golden Dawn system, sees creation simply as a series of emanations, with each successive emanation being more "dense" or "material" than the preceding one.  This is also the understanding of the universe that one finds in the Neoplatonism of the Hellenistic, Islamic, and Renaissance civilisations, in the Vedanta (especially the Pratyabijna or Trika school of Kashmir Shaivism) of India, and in the Theosophy of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
 An alternative to the "neoplatonic" hypothesis is the "gnostic" hypothesis, represented by occult cosmologies such as Hellenistic Gnosticism, Manichaeism, and the Lurianic form of Kabbalah.  This adds to the "vertical" dimension of planes of existence a "temporal" dimension of Fall and Restitution.  These teachings interpret the origin of the cosmos in terms of a sort of Pre-Creation "Fall" or Crisis in the lowest of the Divine planes.  To translate this concept into a familiar idiom: according to conventional Christianity, the present unsatisfactory state of the universe is due to the "fall" of Man (Adam and Eve and all that stuff).  But according to Gnostic and Lurianic speculation, it was not Man, but God (or at least an aspect thereof), who fell (the Biblical fall being simply a later echo), and this fall was the first stage in the formation of matter and the universe.  The whole of existence is then tied up with the rectification of this original Crisis.  The Gnostics, being radical dualists, were concerned only with the salvation of the individual Divine Sparks (Souls).  The more subtle teachings of Lurianic Kabbalah, in contrast, were directed to the redemption (tikkun) of the universe as a whole [3].  We have seen that the Lurianic cosmology refers to five successive Worlds - "Adam Kadmon", Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah - that emanated from the En Sof or Infinite Light.  The sefirot of the Worlds of "Adam Kadmon" are of the nature of pure unmanifest Light.  They only acquire a "vessel", or manifest characteristics, in the lowest of the "Adam Kadmonic" worlds, the Bound World, so called because all its ten Lights resided in a single vessel.  This was itself only a prelude to the "World of Chaos" (Olam ha-Tohu) or "World of Points" (Nekudot), the first World to be emanated from "Adam Kadmon" and thus have actual manifest existence [Luzzatto, pp.29-30].  The word Tohu refers to the state of the original Sefirot, as unformed and unordered points.  It comes from Genesis 1:2, "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep."  The "World of Points" was so called because at this time the sefirot did not relate to each other, but were in the form of unorganised (chaotic) atomistic separateness (hence the term World of Points).  The Sefirot, apart from the first three, were not or-ganised in three columns as they are in the present world of Atzilut, but in a single row, making it impossible for them to in-terrelate [Luzzatto, pp.26, 30; Krakovsky, p.145] [4].  So when the pure Light of Adam Kadmon shone down into them, these atomistic sefirot could not take the strain, and they shattered and fell (this is called "the breaking of the vessels" or "the death of the kings"; the latter term being derived from a reference in the book of Genesis to the "seven kings of Edom who died").  The fallen vessels became the klippot or "husks" of evil, which held trapped the sparks of sefirotic light [Luzzatto, Chapter 3; and Scholem, 1961, p.266, and 1974, pp.138-139].

The Origin Of The Universe According To Modern Physics

 Now, some of this doctrine actually relates quite well to modern scientific speculation regarding unified field theory.  According to this, the original vacuum state from which the universe emerged consisted of ten dimensions, in which all the disparate forces of nature were united in a single "supersymmetric" state.
 Now, the existence of ten, eleven, or even twenty-six dimensions of space, or of space-time, is required by various forms of Unified Field Theory, such as "Supersymmetry" and "Superstring Theory".  Later some physicists, including Michael Green, one of the original founders of the theory, had second thoughts about this, and suggested that these higher dimensions "were not really dimensions at all", and that "dimensions" as we understand them only pertain to the ordinary macroscopic world, and not to the micro-quantum world of superstrings [Peat, pp.320-321].  Other physicists however, such as superstring theorist Michio Kaku, retain the idea of actual higher physical dimensions.  So the jury is still out on this one.  But, in view of the curious parallels between the Lurianic and the ten-dimensional Unified Physics cosmology, I have decided to opt for an interpretation that these hyperspace dimensions are real rather than imaginary.
 So, this original ten-dimensional vacuum state may have been unstable, or what physicists call a false vacuum.  If so, it would inevitably make a "quantum leap" to a more stable, but less symmetrical [5], vacuum energy state.  Current Unification Physics however gives no explanation is given as to why the original vacuum was unstable to begin with, or what preceded this unstable state.
 According to Kaku and Trainer [p.158], the result of the collapse of the false vacuum would have been a violent rupture in the ten dimensional fabric of space-time - a truly Lurianic scenario! - which rapidly reformed into two lower energy states or universes.  One of these is made up of six of the space-time dimensions, which had become contracted or curled up into sub-atomic size.  The other consists of the remaining four dimensions - three of space and one of time - that define our mundane or ordinary reality.
 However, F.D. Peat simply refers to the contraction of these higher dimensions - the term used in physics is compactification - which then coexist in and as part of our own universe, on a sub-atomic level, and are responsible for the number of families of elementary particles, and the existence of the forces of nature.  Hence the six hidden dimensions are necessary to fully explain phenomena in our four obvious dimensions [Peat, p.161].
 Apart from compactification, another result of the original "symmetry breaking" would be that the original "E(8) x E(8)" supersymmetric state would have broken into two lesser symmetry "E(8)" states, each representing a different universe.  (The notation E(8) x E(8) refers to a particular mathematical symmetry group, used in modern Superstring Theory.  E(8) is a subset of this.  There may well be a connection here with the 8 x 8 geometry of the I Ching, with its 8 trigrams and 64 hexagrams, but I am not knowledgable enough in this area to say).
 Of these two "E(8)" universes, one is our own, the other is a parallel "shadow universe."  Both these universes coexist, but because the only force they share is gravity, it is difficult for them to interact.  Hence, we cannot really know anything about what physical forces developed in the "shadow universe" [Peat, pp.147-151].  Meanwhile, in our universe, further "symmetry breaking" generates the strong and weak nuclear and the electromagnetic forces, and the various subatomic particles [Peat, p.151].

The Cause Of Imperfection

 If we assume the standpoint of the Lurianic gnosis, that this world is the result of a pre-creation crisis, it may be asked why this whole situation came about in the first place.  Why wasn't the cosmos created or emanated in an original pure state?  The answer given is that the first sefirot were of the nature of nefesh alone [Luzzatto, p.20], this being, as we have seen, the lowest of the grades of soul in Kabbalistic theory.
 This statement by itself is still meaningless.  Why should the first sefirot consist of nefesh?  However, modern Astrophysics offers as one possible theory an oscillating universe in which each successive cycle develops from the accumulated radiation of the preceding one [Barrow& Silk, pp.70-71].  So perhaps the "nefesh" in question is energy, or, to give a more esoteric interpretation, the karmic energy residue - the Sanskrit term karma literally means work, action or activity, hence the connection with "energy" - of the preceding universe.  So if the "karma" of the preceding universe wasn't perfect, that of the present universe won't be either.  Hence the original "fall" or "symmetry breaking".

The Restitution (Stage One), And The Fall (Stage Two)

 So far we have discussed tohu, or the formation of the universe.  But what about tikkun, its spiritual restitution?
 According to Luria, immediately after the "breaking of the vessels", and hence before the creation of the physical universe, a new emanation of the World of Atzilut was required to rectify (tikkun) this situation.  This involved not Sefirot (which belonged to the old order) but Divine Partzufim("faces" or "physiognomies").  The Universe of "Adam Kadmon" itself is orientated according to Partzufim rather than Sefirot, each identified by a Divine Name of a particular numerical value.
 Within "Adam Kadmon" then, the "Name 72" and the "Name 63" (the higher octaves of the Hokmah and Binah respectively) united in a mystical marriage to give birth to the "Name 54" (= higher Tifaret) and "Name 45" (= higher Malkut) [Luzzatto, p.68].  These two Divine Names descended into the Universe of Atzilut, and transformed the defective sefirot there.  Recall that the "Breaking of the Vessels" had primarily affected the seven (or, if one includes Daat, eight) lower sefirot.  Keter of Atzilut, which, being the closest to the En Sof had suffered least, became the Arik Anpin or "Macroposopus" (greater countenance).  Hokmah and Binah, which had suffered a defect, but hadn't actually shattered, became the "Father" and "Mother" partzufim.  The essence of the next six or seven lower sefirot that had risen and returned to their source, became the basis of Ze'er Anpin or "Microposopus" (lesser countenance), the male polarity of Deity.  And Malkut, which hadn't broken to the degree of the six or seven above it, became Nukvah, the female polarity of Deity [Luzzatto, pp.71-73].
 Thus there came about the new or restored Universe of Atzilut, in which the ten sefirot of the earlier Atzilut are replaced by the five Partzufim or Divine Faces.
 This appearance of successive Divine Partzufim as a result of the marriage of two Divine Names in the World of Adam Kadmon has clear Gnostic overtones, with the idea of the creation and emanation of transcendent divine entities through the sexual union of even more transcendent Divine essences.
 From this "Mystical Marriage" came about the World of Restitution, Olam ha-Tikkun, the opposite of the World of Tohu, and the beginning of the spiritualisation of Creation.
 According to the Lurianic gnosis, the restoration of creation would then have been assured, were it not for the Fall of Adam.  As in the theology of Paul of Tarsus and his successors (who gave us Christianity, the religion, as opposed to the teachings of the historical Yeshua (Jesus)), this simple Biblical myth is taken out of context and made the basis of an extended cosmological drama.  Adam is a cosmic supra-physical being, composed of al the worlds and made up of 613 limbs or partzufim or "great roots", each of which contains 613 - or in other accounts, 600,000 - "small roots" or "great souls", each of which in turn consists of a further 600,000 "sparks" or souls [Scholem p. 162].  The nature of Adam's sin was never agreed on by different Kabbalistic writers; worshipping one sefirah (usually Malkut) apart from the others ("the cutting of the shoots") and hurrying to complete the tikkun before the appointed time (on the first Sabbath) being two common versions [Scholem, 1974, pp.163-164].
 Anyway, as a result, instead of uplifting and restoring creation, he caused it to fall further.  In Atzilut there was a separation (also called "the cutting of the shoots") of the "Tree of Knowledge" from the "Tree of Life" [Scholem, 1974, p.124].  Because of this, the primordial Torah, residing in Hokmah of Atzilut (as with the Muslims, the Jews see their Earthly Scripture as a material copy of a pre-Creation celestial Scripture), is torn into white and black letters, the white letters descending to Tifaret and becoming the visible or unwritten Torah, and the black letters to Malkut to become the written or manifest Torah, and corresponds to the exiled Shekinah or female polarity of God, who fell from her supernal position as well [Marshall, p.106].
 Moreover, the entire spiritual universe of Asiyah, which had previously stood securely on its own foundation, was now immersed in the realm of klippot and subjected to their domination [Scholem, 1974, p.162].  This entrapment of the lower hierarchies of the powers of Light (the higher hierarchies being beyond reach) by the powers of Darkness is a very typical Gnostic one.
 As a result of the mixture of the World of Asiyah and the Klippot, Adam acquired a material body, and the unity of his soul shattered into fragments.  The higher of these, who had refused to participate in Adam's sin, immediately ascended to the spiritual realms above.  The others though, became subject to the klippot, and must achieve their tikkun through a long process of reincarnation (in Kabbalah called gilgul - "return") [Scholem, 1974, p.163; pp.347-348].
 But to this "Hindu-Buddhist" orientation another, unique, component must be added.  The group-soul theory means that souls descended from a single "root" comprised "families" who had a special affinity and hence were able to help each other [Scholem, 1974, p.163].  Moreover, before any one soul in a particular family or root is able to develop beyond a certain point, all the other souls in that family or root must also be raised up.  So salvation cannot be individual, as it is in much of the Indian tradition (with the exception of Mahayana Buddhism); it becomes a collective affair.

A Lurianic-Physics Synthesis

 It is interesting to consider the parallels between the quantum physical ten-dimensional theory (assuming of course that these other dimensions are actual dimensions in the same way that the ordinary four dimensions of space-time are) and the "Breaking of the Vessels" of Lurianic Kabbalah.  The parallels can be set out as follows:
 (1) Both begin with an unstable ten-fold state: in Kabbalah the ten sefirot of the "World of Points"; and in physics a supercharged vacuum of the original ten-dimensional hyperspace.
 (2) Both referred to a "phase shift", a sort of cosmic fracturing, preceding the present sequence of creation, whether a mythological "Breaking of the Vessels" or a mathematical "breaking" of an original "supersymmetry".  It was this "phase shift" that defines the present nature of physical existence.
 (3) Both refer to a resulting two-fold order; an undistorted and a distorted series, so to speak.  In Kabbalah the undistorted series constitutes the three higher sefirot that did not shatter; in physics our familiar four dimensions of space-time.  As for the lower or contracted or hidden series, in Kabbalah this is made up of the seven unstable lower sefirot; in physics the six dimensions that were compacted to sub-atomic scale.
 (4) In Kabbalah (as a result of the fall of Adam), the unmanifest or unwritten Torah was torn into two; in Physics, as a result of the afore-mentioned "symmetry breaking," the single "Superforce" that defined all phenomena became the four distinct forces of nature.
 (5) As a result, according to Kabbalah, the world of opposites, including good and evil, came into existence, and hence the existence of history with its moment toward cosmic restitution.  In physics, time and entropy (the determinator of "the arrow of time", and hence history or sequence) came about.
 Does this mean then that a Kabbalist like Luria was somehow "intuitively" able to perceive astrophysical cosmological events, which he then described according to his own mystical and religious understanding?  Fritjof Capra, in his book The Tao of Physics, argues that modern physicists and ancient mystics are actually describing the same reality, but approaching it in different ways.
 Yet even in this particular example (to say nothing of the Buddhistic examples Capra deals with) there are still many clear differences between the two.  For example, Luria is concerned primarily with spiritual, supra-physical events, accessible to the inner mystical intuition, and in which the physical plane is only one aspect.  Physics on the other hand deals solely with external material reality.  For Luria and his successors, time is primarily redemptive, moving towards the final glorious tikkun or restoration of the original unity; but in physics and materialistic science all one has is a gloomy choice between an entropic "heat-death", in which all the stars have expended their fuel, and no life is possible anywhere in the universe, and a "big crunch," the reverse of the Big Bang, where everything comes together and all matter is annihilated (or reconverted to featureless energy).
 So there are parallels, certainly, but not necessarily an identity of doctrine.  Perhaps one could say that Luria was intuitively attuned to a more inner or subtle reality, whereas what physics is describing is the activity of this phenomena on the gross or outer physical level.

Tikkun Or Restitution (Stage Two)

The Lurianic scheme sees the final tikkun as the uniting of all that was previously rendered asunder.  According to this, the conjunction or sacred marriage of Father (Abba) and Mother (Imma) begins the task of transformation.  A further and very important conjunction involves Ze'er Anpin and Nukvah (including the Shekinah), the Male and Female polarities of God.  These unite as the King (Melekh) and Queen (Malkah), which incidentally is also a common alchemical metaphor [Marshall, p.112].  Through the union of these two partzufim, the visible and invisible letters of the Torah are also united, and rise once again to the home of the original Torah in Hokmah.  The exiled Shekinah then ascends to Binah and unites with the Supernal Shekinah.  The final conjunction involves the uniting of the male and female polarities within Arik Anpin itself, which reunites the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge, and enables the Light of Keter to flow down to the lower worlds.  This in turn is a prelude to the final Messianic redemption - through a downpouring of the Light of "Adam Kadmon" - and restitution of the Cosmos. [Krakovsky, p.99; Marshall, pp.114-116].
 Thus, according to Lurianic Kabbalah, and the various Messianic Sabbatean and Hassidic schools it inspired and gave rise to in later centuries (one of which, the Lubavitch sect of Hassidism still flourishes to this day), mankind alone is able to repair the primal fault, and restore the connection between the lower and higher worlds.  Hence there is a shift from the "external" Messiah of conventional religion to the "internal" Messiah of occultism; a sort of "esoteric empowerment," if you will.
 Yet how does one participate in this act of cosmic redemption?  Here is where things become very disappointing.  It is achieved, so the Kabbalists and Hassidics claim, through outward observance of the Torah and its precepts, and inward prayer and meditation [Luzzatto, p.69; Scholem, 1974, p.165].  In other words, through being an orthodox religious Jew.  This of course applies only to people of Jewish origin, and ultimately is nothing but an apology for religious conservatism.  That is why the Lurianic system is only really of value through its incredible occult and mythopoeic insights, but is of literal practical value as regards the actual transmutation of the Earth.  See however the effort of a current new Sabbatean movement that provide a more universal teaching and system of tikkun (restitution) within the Kabbalistic tradition.
There are also two other great spiritual adepts who have given a practical side to the cosmology of cosmic redemption.

The Aurobindoan-Mirran Conception Of Supramentalisation

 Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) was an English-educated poet, philosopher, and yogi, who settled in the French colony of Pondicherry, where he set up an ashram, dedicated to the spiritual transformation of life on Earth.
 The Mother (1878-1973 - not to be confused with a number of female gurus who bear the same title), originally known as Mirra Alfassa, was a Parisian of Egyptian descent, who, after many spiritual and occult experiences of her own, encountered Sri Aurobindo, and worked with him at their ashram at Pondicherry.
 The Aurobindoan Cosmology is as follows:
 The Supreme or Divine Reality consists of four planes or attributes: Sat or Infinite Being, Chit-Tapas or Infinite Consciousness and Consciousness-Force, Ananda or Infinite Bliss and Delight, and a fourth plane.  The three higher Planes together make up the eternal, unchanging, reality of Sacchidananda (Sat-Chit-Ananda), the Supreme Absolute.  But this Absolute in its own intrinsic transcendence could not manifest or creates anything.  Hence the need for the fourth plane of the Absolute, the dynamic, infinite Truth-Consciousness that is the cause or Source or First Principle of all subsequent Creation [Aurobindo, pp. 125-6, 262].  Sri Aurobindo referred to this as the "Supermind", as it is the principle beyond finite mental existence [Aurobindo, pp.127ff].
 From the Supermind arises the three planes of finite existence: Mind, then Life, and finally Matter.  Transitional between Mind and Supermind are a number of Spiritual or Divine regions: Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind, and Overmind [Aurobindo, pp.276ff, pp.938ff], which last is the region of the Gods or Cosmic Creative powers [Aurobindo, pp.280-283].  It is the Overmind that, up until now, has supervised the Creation.
 Now, one could think of Sacchidananda as equivalent to the Kabbalistic En Sof, and the Supermind, as the mediator between that Absolute and creation, as similar to the Lurianic "Adam Kadmon."  The Overmind seems to be pretty similar to the universe of Atzilut, and the three spiritual grades of Mind (above ordinary consciousness and pertaining to the spiritual-mental ascent) can be compared with Beriah, the universe of the merkava ("chariot") and hence likewise of the visionary ascent.  Thus there are a number of parallels between the Lurianic and the Aurobindoan systems.
 Sri Aurobindo sees the world in which we exist, and not only the physical world but all the subtle or psychic and spiritual worlds as well, is a world dominated by ignorance and nonconsciousness; by what he called the Inconscient, the utter lack of Consciousness in matter and in the lowest existence.  Again, this is more or less equivalent to the Kabbalistic conception of Klippot.  It is because of all this Ignorance and Incon-science that the world is so imperfect, so ruled by negativity, so full of suffering and disharmony.
 And quite apart from agreement regarding the basic planes of existence, Sri Aurobindo's teachings are in agreement with those of Lurianic Kabbalah regarding the most central facet of his message, that of Supramentalisation.
 Previous spiritual teachers, according to Sri Aurobindo, followed the Yoga of Ascent.  Correctly interpreting the nature of the world as one of ignorance and suffering, saw the only solu-tion to be a radical transcendence of this existence, through a return to the Absolute; what the Hindus call "Liberation" and the Buddhists "Nirvana".
 In contrast to this world-denying mysticism is the Yoga of Descent.  This involves drawing the Divine or Supramental Consciousness down into this world, the gross physical world of matter, into one's physical body (the individual centre of inconscience), and by doing so transform, perfect, and Divinise it [Aurobindo pp.967ff; see also Mother's Agenda].  In other words, the final state of Tikkun, the state of Divine Restitution.
     The result of this would be a glorified Supramental Body, in which all disharmony - all sickness, old age, death (there will still be transformation, but not death as we know it), ignorance, and imperfection disappear.
 Here we see a clear parallel with the Zoroastrian and later Judaeo-Christian idea of immortality as a sort of bodily resurrection or transcendence of death.  This was an idea popularised and beautifully expressed by Paul of Tarsus.  He spoke of a "Spiritual body" as opposed to the present "fleshly" body.  These terms refer not to spirit verses matter, as the modern reader would assume, but rather of the transformation from the present imperfect and corruptible physical and psychic condition to a incorruptible Christlike psychophysical divinity [Cullmann, pp.25ff].  Reference is likewise made to a glorified body:  "At the end Christ will transform our lowly bodies into the body of his own glory (doxa)" [Phil. 3:21], and that "We are being transformed into his own likeness from glory to glory" [II Cor. 3:18; quoted in Cullmann p.36].
 The thesis of bodily transmutation and divinisation is in marked contrast to the dualistic and spiritualistic idea of the body dying and the soul or spirit continuing in some aetherial heaven or spirit-realm [Cullmann, pp.12ff].  This is not to deny (as some unfortunately so often do) the reality of higher or more subtle planes of existence in which consciousness continues after death (and before rebirth), but only to suggest that what is being referring to here is something other than that.

The Collective Transformation

 As with the Lurianic theory of redemption of souls, the importance  of transforming every member of the group also appears in the Sri Aurobindo and the Mother's teachings.  According to the former, "this illumination and change...must take form not only in the life of the individual but as a collective life of gnostic beings..." [Aurobindo, p.1018].  Their ashram was to be a "laboratory of Yoga" whereby the group as a whole had to be transformed, if the "new creation" was to manifest itself.

Stages On The Path To Supramentalisation

 Supramentalisation can be approached both in terms of the work of the individual adept (the microcosm) and in terms of transformation of the world as a whole (the macrocosm).  Previously, the various spiritual and religious teachers were obsessed with the macrocosmic vision, but utterly unable to manifest or achieve anything on the microcosmic or individual level.
 The yoga of Supramentalisation involves what Sri Aurobindo terms a "triple transformation."

 "...(T)here must first be the psychic change, the conversion of our whole present nature into a soul-instrumentation; ...along with that there must be the spiritual change, the descent of higher Light, Knowledge, Power, Force, Bliss, Purity into the whole being,...even into the darkness of our subconscience; last, there must supervene the supramental transformation....as the crowning movement the ascent into the Supermind and the transforming descent of the supramental Consciousness into our entire being and nature." [Aurobindo, p.891]

 The terminology is a little confusing: "psychic" refers not to the psychic planes, but do what Aurobindo and Mirra call the "Psychic Being", the immortal reincarnating Divine self, pretty much equivalent to the Qabalistic and Thelemite "Holy Guardian Angel."  This is an inward movement, an awakening of the inner being [Aurobindo, p.907].
 Moreover the "spiritual change" involves not only a descent, but, as a necessary precursor to that, a spiritual ascent as well:

 "...(T)he mind rises into a higher plane of pure Self,...or...into regions of Light...or into planes where it feels an infinite Power or a divine Presence..." [Aurobindo, p.911]

 So even before the supramental transformation, there has to be an inward movement, and ascending movement, and a descent of higher Spirit.
 This same theme of ascent and descent, of integrating above and below, is referred to in the famous Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus:

 "It ascends from the earth into the heaven, and again descends into the earth and receives the power of the superiors and inferiors." [Taylor, p.78]

 The interesting thing about the Aurobindoan path is that it starts where most other teachings leave off.  Usually it is Enlightenment that is the goal; but in the way of Supramentalisation it is only one of the beginning stages.
 Sri Aurobindo talks about his own spiritual development in terms of three realisations: the first being the realisation of the "silent Self" or Brahman, the second (while in prison for sedition against the British) of the personal Divine or Vasudeva, and the third being the realisation of the Overmind.
 It seems then that the higher regions of the Absolute are, paradoxically, easier to attain than the lower.  This is because to attain the higher Absolute nothing is added; one simply Realises that one always was, is, and will be that very same Absolute Reality.  It is harder to realise one's identity with the Godhead possessing qualities, and harder again to actualise these qualities within one's being; to oneself become Divine.
 Neither Sri Aurobindo nor the Mother left a specific set of techniques that everyone had to follow.  They worked on the principle that each spiritual aspirant is an individual with specific strengths and weaknesses, who will obviously pursue the spiritual path in different ways.  Hence they left a huge body of teachings behind that the aspirant that peruse and select from according to his or her own inclination.

The Universal Body

 Having attained this Supramental state, the physical body becomes universal in extent (comparable perhaps to the primordial Adam or Anthropos), and this universal body has a constant restoring or healing task.  Says the Mother:

 "I am conscious of my body, but I don't mean this  (Mother touches her body): I am conscious of THE body - it could be anyone's body!  I am conscious of these vibrations of disorder, which come most often in the form of suggestions of disorder: a suggestion of haemorrhage for example....The battle begins to be fought...between what we can call "the will to haemorrhage" and the reaction of the cells of the body....But suddenly, the body is seized with a very strong determination and proclaims an order, an immediately the effect begins to be felt and everything returns gradually to normal.  All this happens in the material consciousness.  My body has all the physical sensations except the (actual) haemorrhage....A few days later, I receive a letter from someone, and in the letter is the whole story: the attack, the haemorrhage, and suddenly the being is seized with an overpowering determination and hears the words - the very words uttered HERE.  In the end he is cured, saved.  In the end he is cured, saved....And so I began to realise that my body is everywhere!  You see, it is not just a matter of these cells: they are cells in, who knows how many, perhaps hundreds or thousands of people...It is THE body..."
[Mother's Agenda vol.4, pp.109-110]

 It would seem that the universal body is a body that has incorporated (or is in the process of incorporating) not only the higher, spiritual dimensions and Universes of existence, but also the lower, "inconscient" dimensions.  Because the Supramental, or Manifest Absolute, includes and transcends both the highest and the lowest Universes, the Supramentalised body is transformed in both these dimensions.  And it is precisely because the body becomes universalised in this way, that it brings about a collective or global evolutionary transformation, rather than the purely individual transformation of conventional mysticism.

The Transcendence Of Life And Death

 Perhaps the most amazing thing of all (at least to mundane consciousness) about this new state of being is that there is no longer the dichotomy between life and death that so characterises our present existence.  As the Mother explained in 1962:

 "I spent at least two hours in a world...the subtle physical, where the living and the dead are side by side without feeling the difference!...There were...what WE call "living people", and what WE call "dead people": they were there together, moved together, played together.  And all that was in a lovely light, quiet, very pleasant indeed..." [Mother's Agenda, vol.3, pp.373-4]

Ponders her associate and biographer Satprem:

 "Could there be a place in physical, material consciousness - let's say the next earthly consciousness - where life and death change in nature?  That would really mean a new state on earth: not life as we know it nor death as we know it."
[Satprem, p.170.]

 Again, there are remarkable parallels with Christianity and other religions.  As one theologian proposes, through Christ's resurrection, death has already been overcome (death, be it noted, not the body); there is already a new creation, not a [spiritual] immortality which the soul has always possessed, and the resurrection age is already inaugurated [Cullmann, p.31].
 Yet although early Christianity says so much that is in tune with Mirra's experiences, it are also bound by an attitude of ignorance.  We read for example that Christ has conquered death, that death will be conquered as the last enemy, that it will be cast into a pool of fire, etc [Cullmann, p.37].  Yet all this is really missing the point of what Satprem suggested: a new state of existence where both life as they are and death as they are transcended in some higher state, an "overlife".

The Physics Of Supramentalisation

 Since the Supramental transformation involves the Physical Reality, is it possible to explain it in terms of physics?  I would suggest that it is.
 Basically, the process of Supramentalisation, or what the Christian would call "the victory over death", pertains to the overcoming of entropy.  Entropy, or the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which says that heat always flows from a hot to a cold object, but never the reverse.  Assuming the oscillating universe theory is true, the present universe will end in a "big crunch" in which everything is contracted to a single point or "singularity".  If this isn't the case, then after countless billions of years all the stars will have exhausted their fuel and be cold and dead, and the entire universe will be exactly the same temperature (a few degrees above absolute zero.  In such a universe, all life, and all activity would be impossible (because activity or work can only occur if there is a difference in temperature).
 In terms of physical structures or organisation, entropy means the breakdown of complex ordered systems (e.g. a living organism) into disordered equilibrium ones, (e.g. inanimate matter).  Hence a building will eventually crumble into rubble, but rubble by itself won't reform itself into a building.
 Although it has been argued that the existence of life itself indicates a principle opposite to entropy - "negative entropy" or "negentropy" - since living organisms grow and evolve from simple to complex structures, this statement is not correct.  For life on Earth still depends on the energy from the sun; life involves a local reversal of entropy, but not an absolute reversal.  The overall energy in the universe is still "running down".
 I would suggest that Supramentalisation is the only way to escape the tyranny of entropy, and in fact in a supramentalised universe, there automatically would be no such thing as entropy, except as part of the overall yin-yang anabolic-catabolic diastole-systole cycle of existence.
 The conquest of entropy, and hence of death, can also be understood on a deeper level through the unified field theory.  We have seen that according to modern Scientific quantum cosmology, originally all the forces of nature existed as a single unified super-force.  This original mathematical "supersymmetry" was broken, resulting in the compactification of six of the original ten space-time dimensions, and a division of the original unity into two universes, our own, and a parallel "shadow universe," and into the four fundamental forces of physical reality we know today.
 Now, suppose that through the process of Supramentalisation - i.e. the descent of the Manifest-Absolute or Supramental Consciousness into the physical and subphysical, and its integration into the material realm - this process is somehow reversed, and the original "supersymmetry" is re-established, this time in a more stable form.  There would then be a single quantum-physical law determining all physical existence.  Phenomena that characterise our present universe, such as entropy, and the limitation of each consciousness to a single body or brain, as by-products of the present physical conditions, would not then be the case.  Hence there would no longer be illness or old age, or limited individual existence.  And the world in which "the living" and "the dead" exist together could be the result of the re-unification of the gross or outer Physical and the Subtle or Inner Physical.
 Assuming the existence of a cyclic universe (and indeed this seems by far the most reasonable theory of the nature of things), we have to admit that Supramentalisation has never been achieved in any previous cycle (or kalpa).  Why?  Because if Supramentalisation had been achieved in a previous cycle, then we wouldn't be in our present imperfect state now, because that state, once attained, can never be lost.  And even if it had been achieved on some distant world karmically unconnected to the Earth, the present universe would have still turned out better than it did.  So we have to assume that what is being described as "Supramentalisation" is something totally new, at least as far as the cyclic evolution of this series of universes is concerned.  Indeed, Supramentalisation - and following that even greater and greater states of Supreme Divinisation - could be the logical goal towards which all oscillating universes (our own and an infinite number of other ones) are evolving.

Notes

[1] Luria himself wrote very little down, so his teachings were transmitted via his disciples, the most important of which was Rabbi Hayyim Vital (1542-1620).  back
[2] the word sefirah (sing. of sefirot) can be roughly translated as "sphere" or "number".  It is worth mentioning one good reference: The Golden Dawn Journal - Qabalah: Theory and Magic, edited by C. and S.T. Cicero (reviewed in Esoterica no.6). back
[3] The Lurianic system is extremely complex, and only some parts of it have been translated into English.  What follows is of course a simplified account. back
[4] Thus Modern Hermetic or "Magical" Kabbalah (Qabalah) relates to the present Atzilut and its subsequent emanated worlds, and not the original "World of Points". back
[5] The word "symmetry" is here used in an abstract mathematical sense.  It refers to complex mathematical equations that allow elementary particles to be grouped together into families, and explain how one elementary particle can be transformed into another. back

Bibliography

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