We believe that a 'consciousness revolution' and indeed a new renaissance is afoot and that a true science of consciousness must take into account all data arising within human experience. We reject the claims of rationalism to have a monopoly of rationality and also to equating of a 'scientific explanation' with 'materialistic' or 'reductionist'. We nevertheless support the use of reason and maintain that it can and should be applied to the evaluation of intuitive insights. Intuitive and participatory gnosis transcends the discursive range of reason. In this sense, Parmenides and Pythagoras, rather than Plato, are the true fathers of Western philosophy.
Language proceeds from silence and returns to it.
We call for an inclusive and integral science of consciousness that uses the rational analysis of current scientific methods to corroborate intuitive insights and distinguish them from flights of fantasy. Science, taken in its essence should stand only for a method and not for any special beliefs, yet as habitually taken by its votaries, Science ahs come to be identified with a certain fixed general belief, the belief that the deeper order of nature is mechanical exclusively, and that non-mechanical categories are irrational ways of conceiving and explaining even such a thing as human life. These phenomena are currently regarded as anomalous by science since they implicitly challenge the materialistic assumptions outlined above. My first great lesson in the inquiry into these obscure fields of knowledge was never to accept the disbelief of great men, or their accusations of imposture or of imbecility, as of any weight when opposed to the repeated observation of facts by other men admittedly sane and honest. We believe that the experience of contemplatives from all traditions can enhance our understanding of the nature of reality and the development of human potential.