Spirit Matters

COMING to its senses from seeming insanity, a new humanity is “raising its voice.”

This view represented H. P. Blavatsky’s welcoming the New Age, publicized by her over a hundred years ago.

Humanity today speaks, as she hoped, “in those authoritative tones to which the men of old listened in reverential silence through incalculable ages.”

Emerging into this ‘new age’ the spirit in man “has returned like King Lear,” Blavatsky wrote in her article ‘The Tidal Wave.’

She was not the first to acknowledge and dramatize the arrival of a newly awakened humanity.

Humanity had in the long past listened to a higher voice, she says, but they were so “deafened by the din and roar of civilization and culture, they could hear it no longer.”

But “look around you and behold,” exulting as if writing today, and “think of what you see and hear, and draw therefrom your conclusions.”

Please note, this post was updated and republished at:

A New Humanity

Conscious Without A Brain

CONSCIOUSNESS is still considered, by most neuroscientists, to be located and created entirely in our physical brain tucked safely inside our skulls.

This persistent worldview is reinforced by our body language in describing thinking, by people pointing upward to their heads.

But native cultures never engaged in such scientific skull-duggery.

The Native American view, according to tradition, always deferred with hand over the heart to that revered organ as the real seat of the moving force thought.

Ritual divination, mythical Norn, and crystal ball were not required.

Confusing matters even more are the familiar ‘gut-feelings’ we often have, seeming thoughts that recent studies show are more often than not accurate depictions of a situation, condition, person’s character, or even foretelling of some future event.

Undeterred, many neuroscientists continue to diligently catalog what they insist are ‘the neural correlates of consciousness’ in our brain, and seem determined to prove those billions of correlates are the creators of our thoughts and feelings, located exclusively in the fatty workshop between our ears.

In their view when we die everything disappears forever — including our soul and our individual ‘I am I’ awareness. But this reductionist view of mind and consciousness is losing favor with many research scientists on the leading edge today, and is about to radically change.

Happy Birthday, Guan Yin!

You might see her sitting inconspicuously in the corner of a Chinese restaurant. Dressed in white and sometimes with children about her, she’s always poised and calm and ready to assist anyone in need.

And some credit her with miraculous healings and intercession–rising up into the air over Taiwan in World War II, for example, and wrapping her radiant white garments around a dropping bomb, deactivating it.

Of course, I’m talking about Guan Yin, the Chinese Goddess of Mercy aka the Bodhisattva of Compassion. Her name is also rendered Kuan Yin, Kwan Yin, or Quan Yin, which literally means, “observe sound.” Devotees traditionally might translate that “one who hears the cries” or, as Guan Shi Yin, “one who hears the cries of the world.”

Prajna-paramita Hrdaya Sutram (The Heart Sutra)

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Guan Yin, Male & Female

While many, East and West, revere her as a type of Madonna figure or saviouress, she’s also esteemed as a role model for Earthly responsibilities such as being a parent, as well as a role model and inspiration for those seeking the Bodhisattva path.

But there are other ways to view and understand this profound Being who was first known in India as the male Avalokiteshvara but was increasingly experienced as female in China, given the Tibetan esoteric teaching that the female consort or shakti of Avalokiteshvara is Pandaravasini-the “White Robed” or White Tara.

The Lotus Sutra also confirms with vivid examples that Avalokitesvara can manifest in any form, male or female, young or old, spirit or animal, as the situation calls for.

Asian art records this transition from male to female with some pivotal images showing Guan Yin with characteristics of both sexes–such as a female form, yet bearing a mustache.

Guan Shi Yin/Guan Yin as Male/Female in Theosophy

“Kwan-shai-yin [Guan Shi Yin] is often confused with Kwan-yin, the Chinese goddess of compassion, the feminine Logos and counterpart of Kwan-shai-yin,” explains Helena Blavatsky in the Theosophical Glossary, “but ‘Kwan-shai-yin — or the universally manifested voice ‘is active — male; and must not be confounded with Kwan-yin, or Buddhi the Spiritual Soul … and the vehicle of its ‘Lord.'”

“It is Kwan-yin that is the female principle or the manifested passive, manifesting itself ‘to every creature in the universe, in order to deliver all men from the consequences of sin’. . . while Kwan-shai-yin, ‘the Son identical with his Father’ is the absolute activity, hence — having no direct relation to objects of sense is — Passivity.”

“Kwan-shai-yin, the Voice or Logos, is “the germ point of manifested activity; — hence — in the phraseology of the Christian Kabalists ‘the Son of the Father and Mother,’ and agreeably to ours — ‘the Self manifested in Self — Yih-sin, the ‘one form of existence,’ the child of Dharmakaya (the universally diffused Essence), both male and female.” (Mahatma Letters No.59).

Guan Shi Yin and Future Buddha Maitreya Are One

“As this Bodhisattva is said ‘to assume any form he pleases’ from the beginning of a Manvantara to its end, though his special birthday (memorial day) is celebrated according to the Kin-kwang-ming-King (‘Luminous Sutra of Golden Light’ [Jin Guang Ming Jing]) in the second month on the nineteenth day, and that of ‘Maitreya Buddha’ in the first month on the first day, yet the two are one,” Madame Blavatsky says.

“He will appear as Maitreya Buddha, the last of the Avatars and Buddhas, in the seventh Race. This belief and expectation are universal throughout the East.” (Secret Doctrine 1:470).

Let us be mindful this day of Guan Shi Yin and Guan Yin, and the hope of the future Buddha.

Imee Ooi – Namo Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva (Chanting)

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Nicholas Roerich "Agnifire"

Guan Yin Pledge:

“Never will I seek nor receive private, individual salvation; never will I enter into final peace alone; but forever and everywhere will I live and strive for the redemption of every creature throughout the world from the bonds of conditioned existence.” — Kwan-Yin

Mantras associated with Guan Yin:

Om mani padme hum

Gate, Gate, Paragate, Bodhi, Svaha!

Ten Vows and Dharani of Great Compassion

© Kara LeBeau 2009 All rights reserved

Guan Yin & The Clam

Namo Guan Yin of the Clam

During the 6th-9th centuries in China, devotion to 33 manifestations of the Bodhisattva of Compassion Guan Yin (aka Kwan Yin, Kuan Yin, Quan Yin) became popular. The sets of 33, however, changed throughout those years.

The Clam Guan Yin eventually became number 25 of the 33. She is depicted seated on a shell and is known for her miracles in the palace of the Tang Dynasty Emperor Wen Zong who reigned from 826-840 A.D.

33 Sacred Prescriptions

I would imagine having the 33 manifestations would be something like a set of prescriptions for self-diagnosis. The devotee could choose a particular manifestation of this great being of compassion to focus on according to their specific need at the time.

And I think the “prescription” of number 25 of this set, addresses a lack of intuition-the question: “What am I not seeing that I need to see?” Perhaps the message is to listen to the still small voice of one’s own intuition. Or seek help for spiritual guidance when one is unsure of dangers lurking around the bend.

The Imperial Cook’s Discovery

Here’s one story about the clam Guan Yin as I have translated it, with some added historical context.

One day, the imperial cook for Emperor Wen Zong was boiling some chicken eggs when suddenly he heard a sound from the cauldron. He attentively listened and in fact it was one egg in the cauldron crying out sorrowfully with all of its might, “Guan Yin Bodhisattva, save me!”

When the Emperor first heard about it, he didn’t believe it. But later when it was confirmed, he said, “The Buddha’s power is vast” and he gave the mandate that chicken eggs were no longer to be used for food. (Click here to read Madame Blavatsky’s teaching on the significance of the egg and its sacredness to Isis.)

The Second Discovery

Then another day in the imperial kitchen, the cook was boiling some clams. Again he heard a sound from the cauldron. It was a clam also crying out to the Bodhisattva Guan Yin. Thereupon he lit some incense and prayed fervently. Guan Yin then appeared in the form of the Mahasattva (Great Being).

The Emperor summoned the South Mountain Zen Master and asked him about it. The Zen Master said, “You have been faithful and strong in purpose, you deserve to be delighted by this blessing.”

But the Emperor wasn’t fully satisfied with this answer and replied, “I ponder the Mahasattva’s appearance, and I can’t fathom what this blessing is.”

Mahasattva Guan Yin

The Warning

The Emperor had good reason to be perplexed. The appearance of the Mahasattva Guan Yin was not a blessing per se, but a warning. Emperor Wen Zong was in danger.

But who could have properly interpreted this warning for him? The Zen Master was more interested in flattering him. And why didn’t Wen Zong send out a request for help? Was he too proud? Nations are won or lost based upon the correct interpretation of warnings, prophecies, and signs. Think of Joseph and his correct interpretation of the Pharaoh ‘s dreams.

Palace Intrigue and Imprisonment

Since the beginning of the ninth century, Tang emperors had been plagued by factions of eunuchs usurping power. It’s not entirely the eunuchs’ fault; it was the earlier Emperor De Zong (reigned from 780-805 A.D.) who gave them extraordinary power and influence. He removed his ministers and even the commander of his army and replaced them with his eunuchs. He believed the eunuchs would be faithful to him-those he knew and trusted as his caregivers since childhood.

Two emperors before Wen Zong had been assassinated by court eunuchs and he himself was beleaguered by their destructive intrigues. He had planned a coup against them, but it backfired and the eunuchs executed many of Wen Zong’s prominent and most capable ministers. Then they put him under house arrest. So, for the rest of his life, he became the imprisoned little voice of the egg and the clam boiling in hot water and crying out for the merciful intercession of Guan Yin.

W. Q. Judge’s Perspective

“It is the attitude of the mind which draws the Karmic cords tightly round the soul,” Judge said, “It imprisons the aspirations and binds them with chains of difficulty and obstruction. It is desire that causes the past Karma to take form and shape and build the house of clay. It must be through non-attachment that the soul will burst through the walls of pain, it will be only through a change of mind that the Karmic burden will be lifted.” (“Karma,” Path Dec. 1886)

Heart Sutra Song

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Nicholas Roerich, Kuan-yin. 1933

© Kara LeBeau 2001, 2009 All rights reserved

Descent Of Darwin

Darwin

Blavatsky

This year marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth on February 12,1809. His seminal work On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, was published in 1859.

Sixteen years later with Isis Unveiled (1875), and twenty-nine years later with The Secret Doctrine (1888), the World Mother of Theosophy H. P. Blavatsky (HPB), in her widely publicized works, frequently disputed Darwin’s premises.

In The Secret Doctrine 2:662-5, she writes:-

“The fact is, that only the partial truth of many of the secondary ‘laws’ of Darwinism is beyond question.”

Blavatsky is adamant:- “…the esoteric teaching is absolutely opposed to the Darwinian evolution, as applied to man, and partially so with regard to other species. It would be interesting to obtain a glimpse of the mental representation of Evolution in the Scientific brain of a materialist.”

Challenging Selection

“As to Natural Selection itself, the utmost misconception prevails among many present-day thinkers who tacitly accept the conclusions of Darwinism. It is, for instance, a mere device of rhetoric to credit ‘Natural Selection’ with the power of originating species.

“‘Natural Selection’ is no Entity,” HPB writes,  “but a convenient phrase for describing the mode in which the survival of the fit and the elimination of the unfit among organisms is brought about in the struggle for existence.”

Pure Myth

“‘Selection, as a Power,’ is in reality a pure myth,” she insists, “—especially when resorted to as an explanation of the origin of species. It is merely a representative term expressive of the manner in which ‘useful variations’ are stereotyped when produced. Of itself, ‘it’ can produce nothing, and only operates on the rough material presented to ‘it.'”

“The real question at issue is: what Cause
– combined with other secondary causes –
produces the ‘variations’ in the organisms themselves?”

A Theory Is Not Law

“A ‘theory’ is simply a hypothesis, a speculation, and no law. To say otherwise is only one of the many liberties taken now-a-days by scientists. They enunciate an absurdity, and then hide it behind the shield of Science. Any deduction from theoretical speculation is no better than a speculation on a speculation.“

“But, fortunately, the greatest, the most eminent thinkers and Scientists of the day are now beginning to rise against this “Pedigree,” and even Darwin’s natural selection theory, though its author had never, probably, contemplated such widely stretched conclusions.”

Darwin’s Grand Voyage

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Blavatsky was the first to use the phrase “intelligent design,” while she acknowledged the “minor law” of adaptation to the environment meticulously detailed by Darwin: “The origin of the variety of organic forms, [are] made to fit their environments, with such evident intelligent design.”

“…by the existence and the mutual help and interaction of two principles in (manifest) nature, the inner Conscious Principle adapting itself to physical nature and the innate potentialities.”

“The whole order of nature evinces a progressive march towards a higher life. There is design in the action of the seemingly blindest forces. The whole process of evolution with its endless adaptations is a proof of this. The immutable laws that weed out the weak and feeble species, to make room for the strong, and which ensure the “survival of the fittest,” though so cruel in their immediate action—all are working toward the grand end.”

The very fact that adaptations do occur, that the fittest do survive in the struggle for existence, shows that what is called “unconscious Nature” is in reality an aggregate of forces manipulated by … the mind of the Universe and its immutable law.

As Above So Within

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What Is Evolution?

HPB answers:- “If asked to define the full and complete meaning of the term … Webster does: ‘the act of unfolding; the process of growth, development; as the evolution of a flower from a bud, or an animal from the egg.’ Yet the bud must be traced through its parent-plant to the seed, and the egg to the animal or bird that laid it; or at any rate to the speck of protoplasm from which it expanded and grew.”

“And both the seed and the speck must have the latent potentialities in them for the reproduction and gradual development, the unfolding of the thousand and one forms or phases of evolution, through which they must pass before the flower or the animal are fully developed. Hence, the future plan, if not a design, must be there. Moreover, that seed has to be traced, and its nature ascertained.

“Have the Darwinists been successful in this?”

Irreducible complexity’s main proponent is Michael Behe, a biochemist at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Among the systems that Behe claims are irreducibly complex are the bacterial flagellum, a microscopic whip-like structure that some bacteria use to swim:

The Bacterial Flagellum

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The Bacterial Flagellum-2

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“Nothing Dead In Nature”

Scientists think bacteria have lived on the Earth for 2 billion years!

“Everything is the product of one universal creative effort. . . . There is nothing dead, in Nature. Everything is organic and living, and therefore the whole world appears to be a living organism.” (Paracelsus, “Philosophia ad Athenienes,” F. Hartmann’s translations, p. 44.)

“The Universe was evolved out of its ideal plan,“ Blavatsky propounded, “upheld through Eternity in the unconsciousness of that which the Vedantins call Parabrahm. This is practically identical with the conclusions of the highest Western Philosophy — ‘the innate, eternal, and self-existing Ideas’ of Plato…”

There is no single “creator” per se, she says, rather a hierarchy of intelligent guides. The Process consists of: “(a) the irrational brute energy, inherent in matter, and (b) the intelligent soul or cosmic consciousness which directs and guides that energy …reflecting the Ideation of the Universal mind.”

The Origin Of Life?

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This activity of cosmic consciousness results, she continues, “in a perpetual series of physical manifestations … the whole being subservient to Karma. As that process is not always perfect—and since, however many proofs it may exhibit of a guiding intelligence behind the veil, it still shows gaps and flaws, and even results very often in evident failures —

“Therefore, neither the collective Host (Demiurgos), nor any of the working powers individually,” Blavatsky says, “are proper subjects for divine honours or worship. All are entitled to the grateful reverence of Humanity, however, and man ought to be ever striving to help the divine evolution of Ideas, by becoming to the best of his ability a co-worker with nature in the cyclic task.”

A Maze Of Complexity

Without anyone realizing the implications, the discovery of the double helix (DNA) by Watson and Crick in 1953, opened the door to the eventual demise of unguided evolution.

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The Eternity Of The Universe

Everything that is, was, and will be, eternally IS, even the countless forms, which are finite and perishable only in their objective, not in their ideal Form. They existed as Ideas, in the Eternity, and, when they pass away, will exist as reflections. Neither the form of man, nor that of any animal, plant or stone has ever been created, and it is only on this plane of ours that it commenced “becoming,”i.e., objectivising into its present materiality, or expanding from within outwards, from the most sublimated and supersensuous essence into its grossest appearance.

“The Language Of Life”

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“Therefore our human forms have existed in the Eternity as astral or ethereal prototypes—according to which models, the Spiritual Beings (or Gods) whose duty it was to bring them into objective being and terrestrial Life, evolved the protoplasmic forms of the future Egos from their own essence.”

“After which, when this human … basic mould was ready, the natural terrestrial Forces began to work on those supersensuous moulds which contained, besides their own, the elements of all the past vegetable and future animal forms of this globe in them. Therefore, man’s outward shell passed through every vegetable and animal body before it assumed the human shape.”

Not By Chance Alone

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After the human genome project was sequenced (2003), there was uncovered massive amounts of what science quickly labeled “junk DNA”— i.e. coding with no understood purpose. Many students of Blavatsky have intuited this discovery as revealing advanced coding for future human evolution, as outlined in The Secret Doctrine. And H. P. Blavatsky explains that earth, and its inhabitants, have only reached the halfway point in their evolution. We are a long way from fulfilling our destiny, and responsibilities to Mother Earth. In many ways we are very similar to complex, intelligent cells in the body of Gaia.

Entering The Heart Of The Cell

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Darwin’s theory is still being debated 150 years later. While a majority of scientists still advocate random mutation and natural selection as their gold-standard, many respected scientists are sharply divided over the issue of an unguided evolution.

Unfinished Animal

“It is seldom remembered,” writes Theodore Roszak in Unfinished Animal (1975), “that, in the years following publication of ‘The Origin of Species,’ HPB [Helena Petrovna Blavatsky] was the first person to aggressively argue the case for a transphysical element in evolution against the rising Darwinian consensus.”

Where The Evidence Leads

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Professor Roszak continues:

Yet, buried in the sprawling bulk of her two major works…there lies, in rudimentary form, the first philosophy of psychic and spiritual evolution to appear in the modern West.

Her effort, unlike that of the Christian fundamentalists, was not to reject Darwin’s work, but to insist that it had, by its focus on the purely physical, wholly omitted the mental, creative, and visionary life of the human race, in short, it omitted consciousness, whose development followed a very different evolutionary path.

Darwin simply did not go far enough; his was not a big enough theory to contain human nature in the round. As HPB put it: “Darwin’s starting point is placed in front of an open door. We are at liberty with him to either remain within, or cross the threshold, beyond which lies the limitless and the incomprehensible.”

The Patterns Of Intelligence

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“Here Science is once more silent. But since there is no Self-consciousness as yet in either speck, seed, or germ, according to both Materialists and Psychologists of the modern school …what is it that guides the force or forces so unerringly in this process of evolution? Blind force?

“For, whoever knows anything of the anatomy of the human, or even of any animal, body, and is still an atheist and a materialist, must be ‘hopelessly insane,’ according to Lord Herbert, who rightly sees in the frame of man’s body and the coherence of its parts … ‘to be the greatest miracle of nature.’

“Blind forces, ‘and no design’ in anything under the Sun— when no sane man of Science would hesitate to say that, even from the little he knows and has hitherto discovered of the forces at work in Kosmos, he sees very plainly that every part, every speck and atom are in harmony with their fellow atoms, and  these with the whole, each having its distinct mission throughout the life-cycle.” (The Secret Doctrine 2:264)

Evolution On It’s Head

"Anjana and Friend"

In her first major work, Isis Unveiled, Blavatsky plainly laid out her challenging premise:

“Darwin was wholly mistaken in tracing man back to the ape. On the contrary … it is the ape which has evolved from man. That, in the beginning, mankind were, morally and physically, the types and prototypes of our present race and of human dignity, by their beauty of form, regularity of feature, cranial development, nobility of sentiments, heroic impulses, and grandeur of ideal conceptions.”

Hanuman

“This is a purely Brahmanic, Buddhistic, and kabalistic philosophy. Let any one inquire of an educated Brahman the reason for the respect shown to monkeys … indicated in the story of the valorous feats of Hanouma … and he would soon be disabused of the erroneous idea that the Hindus accord deific honors to a monkey-god. He would, perhaps, learn that the Hindu sees in the ape but what Manu desired he should: the transformation of species most directly connected with that of the human family — a bastard branch engrafted on their own stock before the final perfection of the latter.”

A Divine Spirit

“He might learn, further … the spiritual or inner man is one thing, and his terrestrial, physical casket another. That physical nature, the great combination of physical correlations of forces ever creeping on toward perfection, has to avail herself of the material at hand— she models and remodels as she proceeds, and finishing her crowning work in man, presents him alone as a fit tabernacle for the overshadowing of the Divine spirit.”

♥

“…. to reject a scientific hypothesis, however absurd, is to commit the one unpardonable sin! We risk it.“

Peeling the Onion

THIS post is not a review of Gunter Grass’ WWII novelistic memoir of the same title. It is about a much different struggle — of rescuing “consciousness” from the camp of reductionist science, where it had degraded and starved for decades.

This was to be the outspoken agenda of H. P. Blavatsky in her Secret Doctrine.

“The aim of this work may be thus stated: to show that Nature is not ‘a fortuitous concurrence of atoms,’ and to assign to man his rightful place in the scheme of the Universe,” she wrote, and

“—to rescue from degradation the archaic truths which are the basis of all religions; and to uncover, to some extent, the fundamental unity from which they all spring.”

19th Century

“… the rejection of these teachings may be expected, and must be accepted beforehand,” Blavatsky wrote, and that “No one styling himself a ‘scholar,’ in whatever department of exact science, will be permitted to regard these teachings seriously.

They will be derided and rejected a priori in this century—but only in this one. For in the twentieth century of our era scholars will begin to recognize that the Secret Doctrine has neither been invented nor exaggerated, but, on the contrary, simply outlined…” (Introduction, p. xxxvii)

20th Century

There was Frederick W.H. Meyers, whose book, Human Personality And Its Survival Of Bodily Death, came out in 1903. And Does ‘Consciousness’ Exist? (1904), by William James, the accredited father of modern psychology. In these two we sense the first glimmer of the scholarly recognition Blavatsky predicted. 

Yet, “What consciousness is can never be defined psychologically,” Blavatsky wrote, cutting to the chase:

“We can analyse and classify its work and effects—we cannot define it, unless we postulate an Ego distinct from the body.”

21st Century

Pam Reynolds’ Near Death Experience

One of the best documentaries made about Near Death Experiences, by the BBC. Featuring many top scientists that have studied NDEs and other related incidents.

“The Day I Died: The Mind, the Brain, and Near-Death Experiences”

The Consciousness Revolution

That postulate came decades later in 1975, the centennial of the Theosophical Movement, with the appearance of Raymond Moody and Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon–Survival of Bodily Death.

The emerging “consciousness revolution” of the 1970’s, sparked, arguably, by the neuroscientist and Nobel laureate, Roger Sperry, witnessed the appearance of forefront organizations such as the Institute of Noetic Sciences, founded by Apollo Astronaut Edgar Mitchell in 1973.

It was IONS’ President Emeritus, Dr. Willis Harman, who recognized importantly that:

“[We] have previously acknowledged her [H.P. Blavatsky] as an integral part of our own origins.” … “[T]he modern scientific worldview is inherently flawed and misleading in ways vital to the well-being of individuals and societies, and inimical to the future viability of human civilization.”

Dr. Peter Russell

More Thinkers Begin Peeling

Dozens of new frontier thinkers gradually gained momentum in the Twentieth Century.

Luminaries like I. M. Oderberg, Fritjof Capra, William Tiller, Ervin Laszlo, Charles Tart, Dean Radin, Amit Goswami, Rupert Sheldrake, Deepak Chopra, Bruce Lipton, Brian Weiss and many others — gathered around the idea that consciousness is not simply a by-product of matter or the brain—a teaching introduced in 1888 by Theosophist H. P. Blavatsky:

Theosophists…are the first to recognize the intrinsic value of science. But when its high priests resolve consciousness into a secretion from the gray matter of the brain … we protest against the doctrine as being unphilosophical, self-contradictory, and simply absurd, from a scientific point of view, as much and even more than from the occult aspect of the esoteric knowledge. (The Secret Doctrine 1:296)

Bio-Communication

Not to be outpeeled by science’s big new guns, in 1966 professional polygrapher Cleve Backster began his discovery of a new paradigm in science he called Primary Perception.  Here, in some rare footage, Backster describes his thirty-six years of research in bio-communication:

The Mother Of All Onions

Expanding further in the light of Theosophy, consciousness is shown to be the very foundation of the universe. H. P. Blavatsky explains:

“The Boundless (absolute consciousness) can have no relation to the bounded and the conditioned. In the occult teachings, the Unknown and the Unknowable mover, or the Self-Existing, is the absolute divine Essence,” she wrote.

“And thus being Absolute Consciousness, and Absolute Motion- to the limited senses of those who describe this indescribable- it is unconsciousness and immoveableness…

“Consciousness implies limitations and qualifications; something to be conscious of, and someone to be conscious of it. But Absolute Consciousness contains the cognizer, the thing cognized and the cognition, all three in itself and all three one.”

The Global Consciousness Project

Now, Princeton Scientist, Dr. Roger Nelson, and IONS Senior Scientist Dr. Dean Radin, after decades of experimental research, scientifically demonstrate the existence of what appears to be a universal consciousness:

Peeling Reductionism

If H. P. Blavatsky were writing The Secret Doctrine today, many of our century’s fearless thinkers would be included in its pages.

Sir John Eccles

Theosophical writer, David Pratt, describes Nobel Prize winning neuroscientist Sir John Eccles’ “theory of mind.”

“Over the course of several decades, partly in collaboration with the philosopher of science Sir Karl Popper,” Pratt explains, “Eccles has developed an alternative theory of the mind, known as dualist-interactionism. His basic philosophical starting point is one with which theosophists can wholeheartedly agree:”

“I maintain that the human mystery is incredibly demeaned by scientific reductionism, with its claim in promissory materialism to account eventually for all of the spiritual world in terms of patterns of neuronal activity. This belief must be classed as a superstition. . . . we have to recognize that we are spiritual beings with souls existing in a spiritual world as well as material beings with bodies and brains existing in a material world.”

—Evolution of the Brain: Creation of the Self, p. 241

Dean Radin, Ph.D on Quantum Physics

“While mechanistic science concentrates on reducing things to basic material building blocks,” writes Pratt (Theosophy and the Systems View of Life” – Sunrise magazine, April/May 1991,) “the emerging holistic paradigm recognizes that systems are integrated wholes whose properties cannot be reduced to those of smaller units.”

“The two fundamental themes of this systems view of life,” Pratt maintains, “are the universal interconnectedness and interdependence of all phenomena, and the intrinsically dynamic nature of reality, seen in dynamic processes and interrelationships as well as principles of self-organization.”

Peter Russell: “From Science To God”

Mind Over Matter

In her first work, Isis Unveiled, H. P. Blavatsky describes how a trained yogi could, “through the entire subjugation of the matter of his [physical] system,” purify himself and become “nearly freed from its prison.”  He can “produce wonders,” she says, and “a simple desire of his has become creative force, and he can command the elements and powers of nature.”

“His body is no more an impediment to him; hence he can converse ‘spirit to spirit, breath to breath.’ Under his extended palms, a seed, unknown to him … will germinate instantly, and push its way through the soil.

“Developing in less than two hours’ time to a size and height which, perhaps, under ordinary circumstances, would require several days or weeks, it grows miraculously under the very eyes of the perplexed experimenter, and mockingly upsets every accepted formula in Botany.”

“Is this a miracle?”

“By no means,” she assures her readers.

“His magnetism, obeying his will, drew up the akasa [spiritual force] in a concentrated current through the plant towards his hands.”

And concludes: “by keeping up an uninterrupted flow for the requisite space of time, the life-principle of the plant built up cell after cell, layer after layer, with preternatural activity, until the work was done.”

A Qui Gong Master Demonstrates

“In 1888, Blavatsky’s explanations of the creation of the Universe, of physics and metaphysics,” writes forensic psychologist Christopher Holmes, Ph.D, “offered a viewpoint totally incomprehensible in terms of what were the fashionable scientific viewpoints and theories.”

H. P. Blavatsky

“The Secret Doctrine was bound to be ignored and dismissed,” Dr. Holmes continues: “As it happens however… a century of scientific advances and the profound ‘new physics’ and cosmology of twenty first century are beginning to vindicate Blavatsky’s utterly awesome work on cosmic origins and ancient wisdom teachings.”

“Ancient mystical maxims and modern scientific theories can be placed side by side to draw comparisons. When it comes to the ultimate questions of the origin of the Cosmos and understanding the laws of nature, it turns out that science and mysticism are not such a world apart-except in the interpretation of the data and the theories of science.”

“Science is beginning to arrive at those levels of reality spoken of by the mystics who penetrate the Heart and soul to the grounds of Being.“

This is a video of Cleve Baxter, a polygraph scientist who did the controversial experiment with plants and animal cells. In the 60s, he decided on impulse to attach his polygraph electrodes to the now-famous dracaena in his office, then water the plant and see if the leaves responded (p. 4). Finding that the plant indeed reacted to this event, he decided to see what would happen if he threatened it, and formed in his mind the idea of lighting a match to the leaf where the electrodes were attached.

And that was when something happened that forever changed Baxter’s life and ours. For the plant didn’t wait for him to light the match. It reacted to his thoughts!

Through further research, Baxter found that it was his intent, and not merely the thought itself, that brought about this reaction.

Angels and Atoms

William Blake

“The man of real Faith … intuitively feels Divine Presence in all space, Divine Motion in all evolution, Divine Intelligence operating everywhere…” –B.P. Wadia

This Divine Intelligence, or Presence, is also referred to as “Karana” in The Secret Doctrine:

“The ever unknowable and incognizable Karana alone, the Causeless Cause of all causes, should have its shrine and altar on the holy and ever untrodden ground of our heart — invisible, intangible, unmentioned, save through ‘the still small voice’ of our spiritual consciousness.”

“Those who worship before it, ought to do so in the silence and the sanctified solitude of their Souls—making their spirit the sole mediator between them and the Universal Spirit, their good actions the only priests, and their sinful intentions the only visible and objective sacrificial victims to the Presence.”

Life Eternal

“To the follower of the true Eastern archaic Wisdom, to him who worships in spirit nought outside the Absolute Unity,” H. P. Blavatsky says — “that ever-pulsating great Heart that beats throughout, as in every atom of nature — each such atom contains the germ from which he may raise the Tree of Knowledge, whose fruits give life eternal and not physical life alone.” -H. P. Blavatsky, SD 2-588

“Having sprung into being under the quickening influence of the uncreated beam, the reflection of the great Central Sun, that radiates on the shores of the river of Life, it is the inner principle in them which belongs to the waters of immortality, while its differentiated clothing is as perishable as man’s body. Therefore Young was right in saying that

“Angels are men of a superior kind”

Sun, The Heart

“The Sun has but one distinct function; it gives the impulse of life to all that breathes and lives under its light. The sun is the throbbing heart
of the system; each throb being an impulse. But this heart is invisible: no astronomer will ever see it. -Transactions p.116

Awakening

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A Conscious Universe

“Everything in the Universe, throughout all its kingdoms, is conscious,” says The Secret Doctrine, ” endowed with a consciousness of its own kind and on its own plane of perception. We men must remember that because we do not perceive any signs — which we can recognise — of consciousness, say, in stones, we have no right to say that no consciousness exists there. There is no such thing as either ‘dead’ or ‘blind’ matter, as there is no ‘Blind’ or ‘Unconscious’ Law. These find no place among the conceptions of Occult philosophy.”

“The whole order of nature evinces a progressive march towards a higher life. There is design in the action of the seemingly blindest forces.”

The Cosmos Is Guided

“The Universe is worked and guided from within outwards. As above so it is below, as in heaven so on earth; and man — the microcosm and miniature copy of the macrocosm — is the living witness to this Universal Law, and to the mode of its action.

“The whole Kosmos is guided, controlled, and animated by almost endless series of Hierarchies of sentient Beings, each having a mission to perform, and who — whether we give to them one name or another, and call them Dhyan-Chohans or Angels — are “messengers” in the sense only that they are the agents of Karmic and Cosmic Laws.

“All are entitled to the grateful reverence of Humanity, however, and man ought to be ever striving to help the divine evolution of Ideas, by becoming to the best of his ability a co-worker with nature in the cyclic task.”

Becoming Divine

“Each Entity must have won for itself the right of becoming divine, through self-experience,” Blavatsky says, and quoting Hegel, “the Unconscious evolved the Universe only ‘in the hope of attaining clear self-consciousness,’ of becoming, in other words, man—

“This is also the secret meaning of the usual Puranic phrase about Brahma being constantly ‘moved by the desire to create.’ This explains also the hidden Kabalistic meaning of the saying: ‘The Breath becomes a stone; the stone, a plant; the plant, an animal; the animal, a man; the man, a spirit; and the spirit, a god.’ The Mind-born Sons, the Rishis, the Builders, etc., were all men — of whatever forms and shapes — in other worlds and the preceding Manvantaras [Great Cycles].”

Harmonious Revolution

“Pythagoras taught that the entire universe is one vast series of mathematically correct combinations. Plato shows the Deity geometrizing. The world is sustained by the same law of equilibrium and harmony upon which it was built. The centripetal force could not manifest itself without the centrifugal in the harmonious revolutions of the spheres; all forms are the product of this dual force in nature.”

The Brain In Pain

Integral spiritual advancement, Theosophy teaches, can only occur while in a physical body. It’s a two-way street, and any damage, especially to the brain, hinders the expression of the Divine Ego. In “My Fair Lady” Eliza finally “gets it,” and is an apt metaphor — “the brain in pain won’t stay mainly (and healthily) on this plane,” and it is crucial that it does. We progress only “by self-induced and self-devised efforts,” according to the Third Fundamental Proposition of The Secret Doctrine.

The brain has spiritual centers such as the pineal glad. These are harmed by hallucinogens — these medications act as “meditation in reverse,” and the powers required for spiritual progress — meditation, concentration, and will — are thus severely hampered.

Brain Chemistry

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Heavy Weight

“Thus, to illustrate our case, we may designate the spirit as the centrifugal, and the soul as the centripetal, spiritual energies,” Blavatsky writes. And, “When in perfect harmony, both forces produce one result—break or damage the centripetal motion of the earthly soul tending toward the center which attracts it—arrest its progress by clogging it with a heavier weight of matter than it can bear, and the harmony of the whole, which was its life, is destroyed.”

“Individual life can only be continued if sustained by this two-fold force. The least deviation from harmony damages it — it is destroyed beyond redemption, the forces separate and the form is gradually annihilated.”

Harmful Beliefs And Emotions

H. P. Blavatsky’s Teachers, the two Mahatmas of Mahatma Letters, were adamant on this issue:

“The God of the theologians is simply an imaginary power…. Our chief aim is to deliver humanity of this nightmare, to teach man virtue for its own sake, and to walk in life relying on himself instead of leaning on a theological crutch, that for countless ages was the direct cause of nearly all human misery…” (Mahatma KH)

“The Individuality … to run successfully its sevenfold downward and upward course has to assimilate to itself the eternal life-power residing but in the seventh [Spirit] and then blend the three (fourth, fifth and seventh) [Desire, Mind and Universal Spirit] into one – the sixth [Spiritual Individuality]. Those who succeed in doing so become Buddhas … The chief object of our struggle and initiations is to achieve this union while yet on this earth.” (Mahatma M)

Human = A Necessary Stage

“The Doctrine teaches that, in order to become a divine, fully conscious god, – aye, even the highest – the Spiritual primeval INTELLIGENCES must pass through the human stage. And when we say human, this does not apply merely to our terrestrial humanity, but to the mortals that inhabit any world, i.e., to those Intelligences that have reached the appropriate equilibrium between matter and spirit—as we have now…”

Ram Dass Interviews Thich Nhat Hanh
On Mindfulness

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Our Higher Ego

“But if we admit the existence of a higher or permanent Ego in us — which Ego must not be confused with what we call the ‘Higher Self,’ we can comprehend that what we often regard as dreams, generally accepted as idle fancies, are, in truth, stray pages torn out from the life and experiences of the inner man, and the dim recollection of which at the moment of awakening becomes more or less distorted by our physical memory.”

The brain-mind or personal ego, Blavatsky says, only “catches mechanically a few impressions of the thoughts, facts witnessed, and deeds performed by the inner man during its hours of complete freedom.  “The physical man cannot feel or be conscious during dreams,” she says, “for the personality, the outer man, with its brain and thinking apparatus, are paralyzed more or less completely.”

Living The Higher Life

“For our Ego lives its own separate life within its prison of clay whenever it becomes free from the trammels of matter, i.e., during the sleep of the physical man,” she assures her students. And that it is “This Ego which is the actor, the real man, the true human self.”

“We might well compare the real Ego to a prisoner, and the physical personality to the gaoler of his prison. If the gaoler falls asleep, the prisoner escapes, or, at least, passes outside the walls of his prison. The gaoler is half asleep, and looks nodding all the time out of a window, through which he can catch only occasional glimpses of his prisoner, as he would a kind of shadow moving in front of it. But what can he perceive, and what can he know of the real actions, and especially the thoughts, of his charge?”

Atonement

“The Higher Manas [mind] or EGO is essentially divine, and therefore pure,” Mme. Blavatsky writes: “— no stain can pollute it, as no punishment can reach it, per se, the more so since it is innocent of, and takes no part in, the deliberate transactions of its Lower Ego.”

“Yet by the very fact that, though dual and during life the Higher is distinct from the Lower, “the Father and Son” are one, and because that in reuniting with the parent Ego, the Lower Soul fastens upon and impresses upon it all its bad as well as good actions — both have to suffer…

“… the Higher Ego, though innocent and without blemish, has to bear the punishment of the misdeeds committed by the lower Self together with it in their future incarnation. The whole doctrine of atonement is built upon this old esoteric tenet; for the Higher Ego is the antitype of that which is on this earth the type, namely, the personality.”

Nicholas Roerich

"Madonna Oriflamma" Nicholas Roerich

A Mystery

“This subject, being so very mystical, is therefore the most difficult to explain in all its details and bearings—since the whole mystery of evolutionary creation is contained in it. … every atom in the Universe has the potentiality of self-consciousness in it, and is, like the Monads of Leibnitz, a Universe in itself, and for itself.”

It is an atom and an angel.