Newsgroups: alt.out-of-body
Subject: Re: astral planes
From: jim@netlink.cts.com (Jim Bowery)
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 92 10:09:30 PDT
Organization: NetLink Online Communications, San Diego CA

Audit:  alt.out-of-body,JBowery,2
wombat@cs.montana.edu (Izurieta) writes:
>that is related to what happens after we die.  However, I find it 
extremely
>difficult to believe people (I am very open minded) when they start 
subdividing
>astral planes into subregions, and they know the exact number of 
"planes" after
>you die, etc, etc.    Where do you get all of this information???
>
>        How do you expect me to believe this stuff?  Do not insult my 
intelligence.
>
>        COME ON!!,   I am not trying to start a network fight here, but 
you
>can see how I can be this sceptical.  Anyone else feel my way??
 
If it is any comfort, ah Clem, I share your incredulity for people 
who simply pronounce "the gospel according to Spiritual Master 
Vishnu Rama Lama Ding Dong Steve" or some western counterpart.
 
They push limbic buttons to put us into a child-like ego state which 
will accept as self-evident whatever the speaker is saying -- and as we
all know, there are more than enough "spiritual masters" to go around
out there and they are NOT all saying the same stuff in different 
terminolgies.  This sort of arrogance can elicit hostility if we
aren't careful -- and thus cloud our thinking about this very important
topic.
 
First, I'd advise you to to view such pronouncements more as an 
anthropologist would view the statements of a primitive tribe.  There 
is wisdom there that has value within some historical/evolutionary 
context, just as Catholicism's seemingly primitive opposition to
birth control and abortion have real value in their contexts.  Identify
the context of these pronouncements -- even if the context is as 
degenerate as the technique some old fart uses to wet his willie.  Just 
see it and accept it for what it IS.
 
Second, whenever there appears to be a proliferation of entities and
theories, the folks purporting these entities and theories are usually
missing something more fundamental of which these entities are
merely instances.  Without attempting to promote any particular
theory, I CAN say that there is a CLASS of HYPOTHESES which MIGHT shed
some light on this proliferation:  They are archetypal hypotheses
of the types promoted by Jung and Sheldrake.  I won't go very far
into these theories here except to state that I can see how they
fit very well into current mathematical models of how the mind
works in terms of a hyperdimensional energy surface with vast 
numbers of "local minima" -- each of which can be viewed at its
own "plane" or "locale".  For an introduction on such energy
surfaces, I suggest you get the Scientific American article by
Hopfield about neural networks which was published a year or two
ago.  Jung tended to see such an energy surface as being formed
by genetics alone whereas Sheldrake extends this to a sort of
"overmind" of which all conscious entities are instances.
 
Third, at this stage of understanding, OBSERVATION is far more
important than hypotheses or theories.  The worst aspect of our
current situation is that people confuse emperical data with
their own hypotheses, thus obscuring their highly valuable
experiences within the mask of their beliefs.  This is a tragedy
for the individuals but it is even more so for the rest of us
who could benefit from an accurate account of their experiences.
Fortunately, there are many who appear to understand the 
importance of observation at this stage of the game.  I would 
encourage those of us who DO understand how important observation
is to focus our efforts on sharing our EXPERIENCES in the most
accurate and detailed way we can.  Indeed, specific experiments 
with controls etc. are not nearly as important at this stage as 
is simply gathering accurate subjective reports.

--                    
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