------------------------------------------------------



Introduction:

A unitive energy is felt by a disciple or a client
engaged in mystical energy exchange with a spiritual
master.  This follows from independent reports found
in the literature.



As the spiritual master is projecting this energy, his
students are drawn into sensing it directly.  Many
spiritual masters are adept at helping a person sense
this energy.  The mystical energy is the same for all
spiritual teachers, saints and so-called God-persons.



Here are some brief descriptions of sensations of the
mystical energy:



1.  Here is a quote from a devotee of the spiritual
teacher Gangaji:



"Two weeks ago I didn't know what satsang or Gangaji

was.  But when I saw your tape and I looked into your

eyes, the longing was fulfilled. I didn't see form, I

saw my heart."(1)



2.  Consider Austin Rust's experience in the presence
of Benjamin Creme:



"I was transfixed in eye to eye contact with Him. Then

I had the experience that He was in me and outside of

me simultaneously. I experienced Him within myself at

the very center of my Being. I then realized that He

was the one Whom I served. I was His servant and would

help pave the way for His reappearance to the best of

my limited ability." (2)



3.  Here is a quote in a recent letter from Phil
Servedio who has studied under several spiritual
masters:



When asked in an e-mail, "In your article "Breaking

the Hymen Of The Heart" you describe "Gazing with

Lawrence was really a meeting in being, heart to heart

and wonderfully opening for me."  Would you explain

what you mean by "gazing with"?  Were you gazing at

the same scene together or were you gazing at each

other?"



Phil Servedio answered:

 

"John, We were gazing into each others eyes. This is a

common form of initiation and transmission in various

schools, eyes being the 'window to the soul', so to

speak, and more. Gazing is very powerful and moving

stuff."(3)



4.  Here is a quote from Molly Jones, a devotee of Adi
Da formerly Da Free John and Franklin Jones:



"It was as though someone had turned on 10,000 lights.

The actual physical light in the tent had not

changed, but the vibratory level of energy went way,

way up, and it was visible as a form of light

emanating from Avatara Adi Da's body..... Everyone was

singing and gazing at Avatara Adi Da.  He looked

fiercely around the room, resting his Gaze on

different people as He slowly moved His head.  I felt

His Love absolutely, without qualification."(4)





These reports are anecdotal and there are not
thousands of these reports.  Nevertheless I believe
that thousands of persons have witnessed this exchange
between themselves and a spiritual master. I myself
have worked with a number of clients in the
relationship of friend and private consultant.



1.  The first line of argument, which is from many
independent reports of sensing the mystical energy,
goes like this:



The claim is that there is an energy which is sensed
directly by a spiritual adept.  This paper presents
written accounts of this perception by independent
observers who didn't know each other. These reports
agree on several points.  This agreement suggests that
these reports do not just stem from imagination or
from guesswork but from direct experience of an energy
which is universal.



Mystical experiences associated with unusual visual
effects



1.  As described by Jacob Boehme:



Jacob Boehme was twenty-five years old when he

happened to glance at the reflection of sunlight in a

pewter vessel.  As he continued to gaze at the light

the shoemaker felt that he had seen into the very

heart

of nature.  Leaving his cobbler's shop Boehme walked

through a gate out into the green countryside, where

he continued to be struck by a change in his

perceptions. Quoting directly from Andrew Weeks,



"Abraham von Franckenberg gave an account that has

become legendary.  Surprised by a gleam, presumably of

sunlight, in a tin or pewter vessel, the shoemaker

began to imagine that he was seeing into the secret

heart of nature, into a concealed divine world. 

Intent upon clearing his mind of this "phantasy,"

perhaps so that he could resume his shoemaking labors,

the young man went out-of-doors.  Since the city was

small, he could easily pass through a nearby gate and

into the green countryside.  There, according to

Franckenberg, the rapt cobbler continued to see all

the more powerfully into the secret "center of

nature."  Forms, lines, and colors now bore some new

meaning for him.  In his own account, the strongest

emotional effect associated with the experience was

his sense of having been embraced by divine love: as

if life had been resurrected from death, he recalled

twelve years afterward."(5)



2.  As described by Ruth Dahlen:



She gazed at a snowflake which had landed on a spruce

needle.  The needle dissolved into flickering flames

of light.  Soon the whole spruce tree was a pillar of

flame.  She saw visions of a five dimensional geometry

behind the physical universe.  She had repeated 

visions of lessening intensity over a five day period

and then these visions left her.(6)



3.  As described by Barry Stevens:



She was walking along a New York street and the sun's

reflection off a safety pin caught her eye.  As she

gazed into the bright light she experienced a rapid

sequence of thoughts which culminated in her sensing

that she had arrived at "an explanation of the

universe."(7)



4.  As described by Martinus:



"I looked right into a figure of flame...A wonderful,

elevated emotion seized me...In the white light, the

world became changed to God's Kingdom."(8)



5.  As described by C.M.C.:



"The light and color glowed, the atmosphere seemed to

quiver and vibrate around and within me....On several

occasions, weeks after the illumination described, I

distinctly felt electric sparks shoot from my

eyes."(9)



6.  As described by Gustav Fechner:



"Every flower beamed upon me with a peculiar clarity,

as though into the outer light it was casting a light

of its own....Indeed, one will hardly believe how new

and vivid is the nature which meets the man who

himself comes to meet it with new eyes."(10)



7.  As described by Alan Watts:



"The sky was in some way transparent, its blue quiet

and clear, but more inwardly luminous than ever at

high noon.  The leaves of the trees and shrubs assumed

qualities of green that were incandescent, and their

clusterings were no longer shapeless daubs, but

arabesques of  marvelous complexity and

clarity...Flowers--I remember especially the

fuchsias-were suddenly the lightest carvings of ivory

and coral."(11)



8.  As described by Orson Bean:



"The sky over the East River...was a deeper blue than

any I had seen in my life, and there seemed to be

little flickering pinpoints of light in it.  I looked

at the trees.  They were a richer green than any I had

ever seen.  It seemed as though all my senses were 

heightened.  I was perceiving with greater clarity.  I

walked home feeling exhilarated and bursting with

energy."(12)



9.  As described by a subject of Alister Hardy:



"About 14 years ago when life was difficult and I was

in a state of near despair one evening, the quality of

sunlight seemed to change, and this time, though the

scenic beauty all around was magnificent, it was the

colour and pattern of a common weed's tiny clustered 

flowers which I found I was really seeing for the

first time, and in the contemplation of which I was

again swung into that wider vision and

participation."(Quote from (821,F,63))(13)



10.  As described by David Boadella:



"If such phenomena as Reich described in the sky in

fact exist, why is it, one may reasonably ask, that

other people have not commented on them.  Let us

consider a related phenomenon that can be observed 

in the daytime, which Reich also described.  If one

looks into the daytime sky on a clear day, relaxes the

eyes, and looks into empty space, a number of minute

brilliant points of light become visible.  They appear

to dance about in whirling motions."(14)



11.  As described by Jiddu Krishnamurti:



"It was a clear morning though soon clouds would be

gathering.  As one looked out the window, the trees,

the fields were very clear.  A curious thing is

happening; there is a heightening of sensitivity.  

Sensitivity, not only to beauty but also to all other

things.  The blade of grass was astonishingly green;

that one blade of grass contained the whole spectrum

of colour; it was intense, dazzling and such a small

thing, so easy to destroy.  Those trees were all of

life, their height and their depth; the lines of those

sweeping hills and the solitary trees were the

expression of all time and space; and the mountains

against the pale sky were beyond all the gods of man. 

It was incredible to see, feel, all this by just

looking out of the window.  One's eyes were

cleansed."(15)



12.  As described by Jean-Joseph Surin:



"on a number of occasions my soul was invested with

these states  of glory, and the sunlight seemed to

grow incomparably brighter than usual, and yet was so

soft and bearable that it seemed to be of another kind

than natural sunlight.  Once when I was in this state,

I went out into the garden of our college at Bordeaux;

and so great was this light that I seemed to myself to

be walking in paradise."  Every color was more

"intense and natural," every form more exquisitely

distinct than at ordinary times.(Huxley's

paraphrasing.)(Quotes from Jean-Joseph Surin)(16)



13.  As described by Rabindranath Tagore:



"All of a sudden a covering seemed to fall away from

my eyes,  and I found the world bathed in a wonderful

radiance, with waves of beauty and joy swelling on

every side.  The invisible screen of the commonplace

was removed from all things and all men, and their 

ultimate significance was intensified in my mind."

(Quote from Rabindranath Tagore.)(17)



II.  The second line of argument, which is no speech
or thought, goes like this:

The mystical sense is first keenly felt by a person
who has temporarily lost the ability to think, read,
listen and talk in the way which society and school
train a young person to think, read, listen, and talk.
 For a person to become adept in this sense of the
mystical, he must spend time using his brain, mind,
and body in a way which isn't encouraged in
schoolchildren.  This adeptness with sociability and
wordiness is radically different from the adeptness
which enables a disciple to become a spiritual adept. 
Therefore those persons who excel in school and in
social life are very unlike the spiritual masters.



This sense of "one-ness", "timelessness" and
"universal presence" is a new sense and a new
sensitivity which is not one of
the senses which students study about in biology
books. This sense is still not understood by
scientists.  And the way for scientists to begin to
understand this sense is for them to take a serious
interest in studying spiritual masters.  However a
large number of spiritual masters do not seek
notoriety or scientific scrutiny. That is, they avoid
scientists, and scientists avoid them.  There is a gap
in understanding which keeps these two types of person
apart.  They work their brains so very differently!  



Recapping the argument:  There is a certain sense
which the spiritual adept has cultivated but which
intellectuals have not studied or cultivated. This
mystical perception disrupts or switches off the
capacity to engage in careful thinking, listening,
talking, reading, and writing, so that in a deep
trance the mystic doesn't use the intellect.  The
problem, then, is to integrate the intellectual mind
with the mind of the entranced or inspired person. 


III.  The third line of argument, continuity and
grace, goes like this:



In a mystical trance the entranced person sometimes
moves his or her body in a graceful manner rather as
we can see as we watch people doing "tai chi".  These
graceful body movements may be sped up in the master
of martial arts.  But whether the movements are fast
or slow, the same curves in space are traced by the
master.  These curves are continuous curves.  By
continuous curves I mean that they are the graphs of
continuous mathematical functions.



The graceful movements of a human body whose brain
activity is non-verbal are comparable to the graceful
movements of an animal whose brain activity is
non-verbal.  During the state of mystical entrancement
the verbal brain activity is switched off so that the
mystical person's brain activity is comparable to the
brain activity in an autistic person or in an animal
whose brain doesn't use words at all.  In this state
of "no mind" (Jiddu Krishnamurti's term) and grace,
the wordless person isn't diverting any brain energy
to thinking consciously and using words.  Therefore,
all the brain activity or intelligence is available
for focused use in clearer perception and more
graceful body movement.  The autistic child, then, and
the mystically entranced person are both attuned to
the animals more than to the highly cultured verbal,
social, and rational humans.  This explains how
certain autistics and certain mystics perform feats
which are considered by cultured persons to be
"savant," "miraculous," or "super-human."  A higher
integration is integrating the mystical grace in body
movement with grace in thinking, speaking, and
writing. This integration enables humans to clearly
understand the source of inspired speech and writing.



We can use mathematical language in studying the lines
produced by the graceful movements of an artist or a
dancer who holds a pointed instrument so that it
traces a continuous curve in space-time.  We can use
mathematical language to define these movements.  Pure
mathematics is the precision language which defines
exactly these graceful body movements.  But if a
person is not in a mystic trance, and his or her
attention is therefore upon thinking in words and
using words, then the biochemical activities in his or
her brain are divided between the grace of autistic
movement and the lack of grace in the person who is
thinking about what to do and how to move.  The grace
is more in the person whose brain activity is not so
divided, because the energy in a brain is limited and
the same energy can't be used twice.


IV.  The fourth line of argument, which is
experimental, goes like this:



It is possible to take an experimental adult subject
out for a two-hour experimental "mini-vision-quest"
and have the person visit the same spot where other
persons have visited, and assume a similar position
for twenty minutes, and give a report on what he or
she senses as the experiment is being run.  Each
subject will produce one anecdotal report.  This
procedure will produce a number of independent
records.  Under similar environmental conditions, when
each experimental subject engages in certain similar
behaviors, comparable reports will be generated. 
Naturally there will be some variations in personal
sensitivity and in personal perception.



It is also possible to take each of these experimental
subjects and allow each of them to interact with a
spiritual master for thirty minutes.  This could be
another part of the two-hour experimental session. 
However the adult subjects would have some prior
knowledge and some prior prejudices which could not be
experimentally controlled.  Therefore, to eliminate
this,
we can experiment with very young children.



A very young child is either non-verbal or else is
frequently non-verbal, as it is only after intensive
training that a child comes to spend most all his or
her time thinking or speaking or being especially
attentive to words.  The very young child hasn't yet
learned to focus his or her attention on speaking,
thinking, and listening to words the way adults do.



As the spiritual master interacts with a very young
child, the action can be recorded on a videotape.  As
a control, the same child can be observed interacting
with an adult who is not a spiritual master.  A number
of different controls might be used.  Then the
question would be explaining the various behaviors of
the child. The expectation would be that the spiritual
master would engage the child in ways which the
controls would not engage the child.  This experiment
could be repeated a number of times on different
occasions with a number of different children.



V.  The fifth line of argument, the mind-body link,
goes like this:



The natural unity is what the mystic senses.  By
natural unity is meant the reality of being one with
the rest of existence so that the person is not named
or imagined as being separate from others.  The
autistic person and the spiritual master do not focus
on anything that is named.  Autistics and spiritual
masters present a wordless presence and grace.  In
making the effort to use words and construct
boundaries, this grace is
diminished.

----Include here a reference to NADIA the autistic
artist.  Nadia was described in detail in a book by
Dr. Lorna Selfe.  This book tells us she lost her
artistic grace as she learned to pay more attention to
words and to persons. (I need to quote from the book.)
 Even as a three-year-old, an autistic artist called
Nadia could draw with the detailed perspective
normally associated with the classical masters like
Leonardo da Vinci. However, she could not recognise
her parents or describe what she was drawing. As the
linguistic abilities of this (and other) autistic
artist improved, her naturalistic drawing skills
deteriorated.(18) 




The natural unity is also expressed by the child who
is learning to count unities or wholes.  We can
observe a child who is learning to count whole
objects, and we can observe ourselves as we are
counting many objects one at a time.  Each time we
count one object, and recite the name of a number,
"n", after that we count one more unity as we proceed
to recite the name of the next number, "n+1".  We
learned to do this when we were children. We count
objects now without thinking about what we are doing. 
But if you watch the body movement of a child counting
objects, you see that the child moves his body over
and over again repeating the same body movement.  This
is the non-verbal physical body helping a person
count. The conscious, verbal mind recites the names of
the numbers, but the unconscious, physical,
kinesthetic preverbal mind registers and attends to
this non-verbal aspect of counting unities. 
Furthermore, it is logical to conclude that the
physical body understands the natural unity and senses
the natural unity by repeating the same movements over
and over and over, the way autistic children do when
they rock their bodies or move their bodies in other
ways, over and over again, often without reciting any
number names at all.  The autistics enter trance and
sense the mystical unity, but they can't think,
reason, and argue this point cogently. 


The direct perception and expression of the natural
unity has been difficult for verbal people to study. 
Even so, our own culture is based upon the inspiration
of mystics who introduced certain morals and ethics
which science and rational philosophy haven't improved
upon.  Consequently in promoting atheism certain
scientists, intellectuals, and academics have been
regarded as amoral and dangerous persons.



In addition, the problem of medical scientists and
other healers trying to cure autistics and psychotics
comes up.  If even highly educated adults don't really
understand autism and schizophrenia, then they can't
deal with these conditions effectively.  Many cases of
"psychotic disorder" might be due to the baffling
sensitivity described in this paper.



Notes And References:



1.  Taken from the webfile

http://www.gangaji.org/satsang/library/excerpts/darknt.htm



2.  Taken from the webfile

http://www.friendsofm.com/wib/wib.html
This website no longer exists.



3.  Personal communication.   website

http://www.realization.org/page/namedoc0/serv_joa/joa_12.htm

      

4.  Taken from  Beyond Comprehension, a story of

one devotee's first encounter with Avatara Adi Da.

P.27 from the booklet "An Introduction To Adi Da."



5.  Weeks, Andrew, "Boehme" (Albany:State University

of New York Press,1991),pp 1,2



6.  Jacobson, Nils M.D. "Life Without Death?" (New

York:Dell Publishing Company, Inc.,1971),p.289



7.  Rogers, Carl and Stevens, Barry "Person to Person"

(Lafayette, California: Real People Press,1968), p.115



8.  Jacobson, Nils M.D. "Life Without Death?" (New

York: Dell Publishing Company, Inc.,1971), p.293-295



9.  Bucke, Richard Maurice "Cosmic Consciousness" (New

York: E.P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1946).pp. 325-329



10.  Fechner, Gustav and Lowrie, Walter "Religion of a

Scientist"  (New York: Pantheon Books Inc., 1946),

p.211



11.  Watts, Alan "Nature, Man, and Woman" (New York:

Pantheon Books Inc.,1958), p.125



12.  Wilson, Colin "The Quest For Wilhelm Reich"

(Garden City, New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1981),

p.165



13.  Hardy, Alister, F.R.S. "The Spiritual Nature of

Man- A study of contemporary religious experience"

Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1972. page 72



14.  Boadella, David "Wilhelm Reich- The evolution of

his work." Arkana Press London, Boston and Henley 1985

page 160



15.  Krishnamurti, Jiddu "Krishnamurti's Notebook"

Harper &  Row, Publishers New York 1976 pages 38, 39



16.  Huxley, Aldous "The Devils of Loudun" Chatto &

Windus,  London 1970 page 353



17.  Kripalani, Krishna "Rabindranath Tagore- a

biography" Grove Press, Inc. New York 1962 page 101


18.  Snyder, Allan W. and Thomas, Mandy "Autistic
Artists give Clues to Cognition"

http://wwwrsphysse.anu.edu.au/osc/PB/Autistic_artists.doc
accessed May 16, 2005 12:20AM
  
10:40PM Friday, May 19, 2000

Revised Monday, October 30, 2000

Revised Monday, May 16, 2005


John L. Waters

New Ideas And Selected Writings

© 1998

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