whether you drop the pill or go to desert to fast etc..if you are receptive and aware as huxley was...( he is my all time favourite thinker)..you will embrace the cosmic consciousness...pill popping and desert / fasting will not get you there is you are not ready...the wolf
Bill and Joe, I think the context within which you meditate is important. I don't doubt that there are both mechanical and chemical methods you could use to configure your body into the same physical state as that when you are meditating, but without the context leading up to this state I don't think the results would be the same, especially the long-term results. Alduos Huxley in his excellent book DOORS TO PERCEPTION suggests many psychoactive drugs produce physical results similar to the results produced by different kinds of spiritual practices. His main premise is that there exists a 'Cosmic Consciousness' which is not too unlike our concept of Buddha Nature. He postulates your brain functions as FILTER rather than an EMANATOR of knowledge. It FILTERS out all the knowledge that would otherwise be available from Cosmic Consciousness. It does so to keep you from being flooded with information not essential to your physical survival. It is only when you can shut down the filtering activities of your brain that you can be aware of the total knowledge of Cosmic Consciousness. He suggests that this cessation of the brain's filtering activity and the resultant access of all knowledge from Cosmic Consciousness is what we commonly call a 'Religious Experience' or 'Communion with God'. He goes onto theorize that the ways mystics often use to dampen the filtering ability of their brains either deprive the brain of sufficient oxygen (as in chanting or slowing down the breaths) or nutrients (as in fasting) or actual loss of blood (as in self-flagellation - which also floods the body with hormones). He claims many psychedelic drugs like mescaline and LSD act to rapidly lower the blood sugar level achieving the same state but in a very short period of time. Going back to the context angle, it's one thing to do as Jesus is said to have done, that is go out into the desert and fast for 40-days while in deep prayer (meditation?) and then receiving a 'vision'. And it's a completely different context if you just pop a tab of LSD and 15-minutes later are 'tripping'. The actual mechanisms and maybe even the experience might be the same or very similar, but the differing context would produce very different long-term results. This is according to Aldous Huxley although I agree with some of his theory do not accept it as 'gospel'. ...Bill! --- In [email protected], "Joe" <desert_woodworker@...> wrote: > > Bill, > > Yes, "it's a 'maybe', for sure!" ;-) > > But I suspect for sure that there is something there. Otherwise, the CIA > would not have funded the research and development at the Monroe Institute. > > Despite this, or because of it, I feel rebuffed or repelled from approaching > closer. ;-) > > --Joe > > PS The idea that brain waves, and a person, benefit from synching to some > particular frequency is a theory not confirmed by Buddhism (where in the > Sutras do we find it?). What is the benefit? Does it have to do with > Awakening? It has no paper trail, nor oral-tradition trail. Its origins are > secret, in the CIA. Ouch. > > > > William Rintala <brintala@> wrote: > > > > I stand corrected but I think that you get the gist of it. > > >but if Theta > > waves produced by the brain induce Deep Meditative states then maybe there > > is > > something there. >
