AI understands me...almost

 

Both ChatGPT and Gemini told me (after the usual tedious prompts et cetera) that my "religious" ideas are fairly close to Neoplatonism and Theosophy. Which seems to be more or less correct. So I suppose the Machine understands me better than the ridiculous quizzes which constantly make me Unitarian Universalist!

Or maybe not, since further conversations made ChatGPT pair me with Kashmir Shaivism (it does that all the time), while Gemini proposed that I sound like a synthesis between Gaudiya Vaishnavism (think Hare Krishna) and Aurobindo´s Integral Yoga?!

Ahem...

Back to square one? 

Off the grid

 

An old hippie from Australia talks about his 54 years "off the grid" in Auroville in India, the intentional community founded by Aurobindo´s spiritual collaborator The Mother. 

Where´s Alan Kazlev at?

 

- Nah, the black stork from Poland couldn´t make it,
so the Brotherhood decided to use me
as their symbol instead! What´s your prob, dude?
Never seen a black swan before???

I just realized that I never linked to this. It´s M Alan Kazlev´s classical critique of Ken Wilber, published at Frank Visser´s website Integral World. It´s undated (as far as I can see), but no footnote is more recent than 2006 (again, as far as I can see). The bizarre "Wyatt Earp" fracas, which took place that year, is treated as a recent event. Kazlev could perhaps best be described as an independent esotericist. At least at the time, he saw himself as a follower of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother (Mirra Alfassa). 

I´m not sure if anyone cares about Ken Wilber anymore, but since Visser´s site is still up, I suppose *somebody* must do so. Wilber´s peak popularity as a spiritual teacher seems to have been circa 1995-2010. I must have discovered him around the time Kazlev wrote his critical essays. 

Wilber´s "Integral Theory" is a grand and eclectic Theory of Everything. Since Wilber believes in cosmic evolution, there is a family likeness with Theosophy and New Age. Transpersonal psychology and Tibetan Buddhism are other sources of inspiration, the latter mediated through the controversial Franklin Jones (Adi Da Samraj). Wilber also claims an affinity with Aurobindo. Indeed, the term "Integral" seems to come from this particular Indian guru. Since Kazlev is/was a follower of Aurobindo, much of his criticism revolves around Wilber´s attempts to integrate (or should we say integralize?) Aurobindo´s teachings with Wilber´s own.

The essays are hard to read unless you have a working knowledge of the Integral and Wilberite scenes. The author argues that Aurobindo´s Integral Yoga is incompatible with Wilber´s Integral Theory. In many ways, the two approaches are exactly opposite. At least if you think Wilber´s goal is similar to Tibetan Buddhism or Advaita Vedanta (not the same thing - I know). But in 2017, Wilber actually wrote a book ("Trump and a Post-truth World") in which the stated end-goal of human-societal-cosmic evolution sounded pretty Aurobindonean! 

My impression of Integral Theory is that there have always been a tension between a this-worldly perspective (which sometimes sounds rather political) and a more other-worldly one in which liberation can only come by a radical break with samsara. Kazlev seems to assume that radical transcendence is the ultimate goal of Wilber´s teachings, either by merging with the Brahman (compare Advaita) or by "realizing" that samsara is really nirvana (compare Vajrayana or Zen). Both approaches imply that the world as we see it is an illusion. By contrast, Aurobindo had a realist metaphysic and strived for "supramentalization" and the divinization of matter (all matter in the universe), a perspective similar to the resurrection of the body and the new heavens/new earth of Christianity, but probably connected to tikkum olam and derived from Lurianic Kabbala by way of Max Théon. But I´m digressing...

One important point in Kazlev´s critique is that Wilber´s spiritual teachings are strangely "physicalist" in the sense that spiritual experiences seem to take place "in" matter rather than "above" or "beyond" it. It´s almost as if spirituality and mysticism (while objectively real) must nevertheless have a material correlate (compare Wilber´s holonic quadrant). To Kazlev, this is a compromise with modern scientism and materialism. Another important point is that Wilber´s de facto gurus Franklin Jones and Andrew Cohen can´t be truly enlightened beings. Rather, they are stuck in what Aurobindo called the Intermediate Zone and what other occultists would probably call the astral or lower astral. This explains both their often dangerous charisma, their half-truths and their abusive behavior. 

In hindsight, it´s also obvious (and kind of funny) that Kazlev himself often falls into the behavior he accuses Wilber of having. This despite the fact that Kazlev often charges Wilber and the Wilberians of projecting their short-comings onto others! Over-intellectualization? Check. Claiming that your critics simply can´t understand your teachings, since they are at a lower spiritual elevation? Check. Claiming that even abusive gurus might do *some* good? Check. It´s possible that Kazlev realized these shortcomings later. Thus, there is a later essay in which the author says that he no longer takes over-intellectualized metaphysical diagrams seriously and admits that he used to indulge in them himself! Bingo. 

Again: these essays are very niche, but if Ken Wilber and/or Aurobindo is the goal of your holonic striving, then I suppose they could be of some interest.

Towards a larger definition of Integral, part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Shadow over Auroville

 

Some really surprising information in this one. I didn´t know that Auroville (the quasi-utopian community in southern India organized by Aurobindo´s supporters) has a de facto special status within the union of India. One of its governing bodies include fairly high-ranking elected Indian officials! It seems the BJP government has claimed the mantle of Aurobindo and may be moving towards making Auroville a federal territory, while making the community more explicitly "Hindu" (or rather Hindutva). 

I suppose the old hippies living in the community don´t like the new developments. The short docu linked above hints at ethnic and perhaps political tensions between native Indians and White Western expats, many of the former supporting the BJP. Note also the special visa provisions for foreigners residing in Auroville.

One thing I didn´t get was *why* (as in "why really") the federal government of India is so interested in this particular location. Let me guess. Some kind of property development? Perhaps this is the end of the Mother´s agenda...       

Realistic Adwaita

 

Swami Medhananda is a scholar and a member of the Ramakrishna Mission. I recently read his article "Cutting the Knot of the World Problem: Sri Aurobindo´s Experiential and Philosophical Critique of Advaita Vedanta". I find it intriguing that a member of the Ramakrishna Order (associated precisely with Advaita Vedanta) would write insightful polemics against it, but there you go! 

Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) was a Indian freedom fighter turned mystic who eventually founded his own ashram, based in Pondicherry (then a French territory) in southern India. The utopian community Auroville, founded by Aurobindo´s spiritual collaborator Mirra Alfassa (The Mother) is still situated there. Medhananda believes that Aurobindo was strongly influenced by Ramakrishna and his disciple Vivekananda (who founded the Ramakrishna Mission). The author has written extensively on Ramakrishna´s mystical-philosophical approach, known as Vijnana Vedanta, which is strikingly different from "main stream" Advaita Vedanta. It is, however, similar to Aurobindo´s "realistic Adwaita" (Aurobindo´s spelling). 

To Aurobindo, the sole reality is the Divine Saccidananda (Sat-Cit-Ananda = Being-Consciousness-Bliss). While this may sound "monist", Aurobindo emphasized that reality isn´t just the impersonal Brahman, but also the personal and dynamic Cit-Shakti (Consciousness-Force), which manifests as everything in the universe. Divine Reality is infinite, both personal and impersonal, both transcendent and immanent. Moreover, the "created" world is real, not an illusion, nor a lower form of reality. Hence the term "realistic (i.e. ontologically realist) Adwaita". 

Medhananda believed that Aurobindo had three sources for his position. First, scriptural interpretation. Aurobindo argued that the Vedic hymns, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad-Gita showed that the world was real, not an illusion, and that several different spiritual paths can lead to liberation. Second, philosophical arguments. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, Aurobindo´s own spiritual experiences. When studying meditation under an Advaita Vedanta guru, Aurobindo did have a powerful mystical experience of a non-dual impersonal Absolute, compared to which everything in the phenomenal world was merely shadows. Later, however, other spiritual experiences came to the fore, experiences which suggested that there is a dimension higher than "nirvana" or the impersonal Brahman. During one particularly dramatic experience in Alipore jail, Aurobindo saw how Krishna had taken the form of everyone and everything around him: trees, walls, jailers, even the other prisoners! While the nirvanic experience isn´t "wrong", it will eventually give way to an even broader and deeper realization. 

A quote from Aurobindo´s writings: "At an early stage the aspect of an illusionary world gave place to one in which illusion is only a small surface phenomenon with an immense Divine Reality behind it and a supreme Divine Reality above it and an intense Divine Reality in the heart of everything that had seemed at first only a cinematic shape or shadow. And this was no reimprisonment in the senses, no diminution or fall from supreme experience, it came rather as a constant heightening and widening of the Truth; it was the spirit that saw objects, not the senses, and the Peace, the Silence, the freedom in Infinity remained always with the world or all worlds only as a continuous incident in the timeless eternity of the Divine." 

It´s clear that Sri Aurobindo considered his spiritual experiences to be more important than "Shankara´s logic", Shankara being regarded as the main ancient proponent of Advaita Vedanta. Still, Aurobindo did criticize Advaita Vedanta on philosophical grounds, as well. This criticism is the usual one, which I think strikes everyone who studies "pure" Advaita Vedanta: if the phenomenal world is "maya" or illusion, where is "maya" located? Since Brahman is the sole reality, maya must come from Brahman itself, but if so, Brahman can´t be perfect, and might even be "dual" somehow. I noticed that some "mayavadins" try to solve the problem by declaring it unsolvable: "maya" is simply unscrutable, and that´s that! But that doesn´t solve anything, since it still implies that the Divine is imperfect - inscrutably imperfect...

Medhananda believes that Aurobindo´s realistic metaphysics can be used to ground an ecological approach to our current civilizational predicament. Maybe, but the most interesting aspect of Aurobindo´s "integral worldview" is surely the evolutionary perspective, in which humans are just a stepping stone to a higher form of life: Gnostic Man or Overman. If this sounds similar to Theosophy, that´s because it *is* similar to Theosophy. It´s also similar to the idea of resurrection found in Judaism and Christianity! These aspects of Aurobindo´s integral theory aren´t explored by Medhananda, however.

That being said, this is still a very interesting contribution. 

The esoteric Krishnamurti

I don´t remember where I read this...

Exoterically, Krishnamurti had a message many people associated with Advaita Vedanta or some form of Buddhist modernism. However, K also had an esoteric message. He believed in...the shakti. If so, what he calls "Love" in his public speeches is really Shakti. However, K refused to teach kundalini yoga to Westerners, since it was too dangerous (probably a true observation, all things considered). 

This is why David Bohm became interested in K´s message. Bohm regarded the shakti as a very real energy field "beyond" or "behind" the cosmos. It could be accessed through our minds, if we could only find the right technique to do so. Bohm was a former Marxist who had given up on radical societal change through material means. However, he still believed in the necessity of a world-wide transformation, and wondered whether access to this energy could change man - all men (and women) - for the better. In other words, he never gave up the global collectivist vision of Marxism. 

But as I said, I don´t know where I read all of the above (in two different places, I think).

Another thing also struck me. Why didn´t Bohm establish contacts with Sri Aurobindo instead? Perhaps he simply never met him. After all, Aurobindo lived in Pondicherry and wasn´t easily available, not even to world famous quantum physicists!

With that, I leave you for now. 

Value realism at the Omega Point

 

Waking Cosmos (or metaRising) is a YouTube channel and podcast devoted to a mostly panpsychist exploration of the problem of consciousness. I linked to some episodes before, and here we go again!

In the presentation above, WC argues that consciousness is not only deeply mysterious by itself (for how can dead or even living matter have a subjective inner world?), but that it could point to something teleological within the universe. Perhaps the cosmos *needs* consciousness in order to become aware of itself? Maybe it´s part of the deep structures of cosmic existence? Among the philosophers and scientists mentioned in the clip, Paul Davies and Thomas Nagel are the two most well known. 

WC tries to avoid the notion of a transcendent creator-god as much as possible, but I think it´s very difficult to do so. For instance, if "value realism" is true, where do the "values" originally come from? Values, I assume, can´t exist without a consciousness, suggesting that the universe must have been fine tuned (i.e. created) by a super-consciousness. And that´s what we call the G-word. WC instead proposes explanations that strike me as even stranger than good´ ol´ God almighty, such as a "future attractor" that "retro-causally" creates the world (that is, the cause-effect relation can move from the future backwards in time). 

One thing that surprised me was the explicit mention of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and his notion of the Omega Point. It feels so retro! WC believes in a strong version of the Western Idea of Progress (at least in my humble opinion) in which the entire universe evolves towards a kind of divine state in which everything is saturated by life and consciousness, presumably of an extremely advanced kind, perhaps manifested in powerful cosmic beings. And while WC denies that this is anthropocentric - humans are only one small part of this grand scheme, after all - I think it can easily be spun that way, since we are part of this drama of increased complexity, and presumably are meant to evolve as much of it as humanly (or over-manly?) possible. It can also be given a Theosophical or Aurobindonian spin...

While I don´t rule out anything (not even a retro-causal computer on planet Kolob gone completely bonkers), if allowed to speculate, I would probably guess that we are in a temporary bubble (or is it manvantaric cycle) created and sustained by a hyper-cosmic super-consciousness with purposes we can´t even begin to fathom, and that our own part in the scheme is only a tiny dot smaller than those of jellyfish...  

Aurobindo among the occultists

Guess where Aurobindo got his ideas from?

Of course it's Western occultism. Or maybe even Jewish occultism!

Max Theon and the Cosmic Movement

En ny teori om wärlden

Jag tror stenhårt att den här killen kan ha rätt. 

Three Realities

Break a leg

I don't understand the negative reviews of this book ("The Lives of Aurobindo"). Is the Sri Aurobindo Ashram some kind of cult? Can't they stand a book written by somebody who doesn't believe in Aurobindo's divine status and doesn't understand his mystical accomplishments? Or is something else going on? Apparently, Aurobindo has been turned into an icon in India and even been appropriated by the Hindutva nationalists.

After skimming this material, reading a few chapters here and there, I think this is a tolerable “secular” biography of Aurobindo Ghose, which doesn't hide his accomplishments in various fields. Personally, I found it interesting that Aurobindo went from “extremist” nationalist to pro-British asset during World War II and then pro-American ditto during the Cold War, quite at variance with many other Indian nationalists, who veered towards Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union.

One thing I didn't notice in the book was a detailed discussion of Aurobindo's sources. Surely, he didn't come up with the evolutionary perspective himself? It sounds, cough cough, Theosophical (or evolutionary-Kabbalist). Aurobindo did have contacts with Western occultists, most notably a certain Mirra Alfassa. Yes, that would be The Mother, who took over the ashram after his death. Perhaps it was just as good that the author left out this Occidentalist aspect of Aurobindo's thinking. I mean, God knows what the Supreme Court of Orissa could have done with *that* kind of material, LOL.

When avatars collide

“Sathya Sai Baba: The Counterfeit Avatar” is an attack on the controversial god-man of Puttaparthi in India. The pamphlet is written by a supporter of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother.

The author says surprisingly little about the serious accusations against Sai Baba concerning sexual molestation of children, although he does seem to accept that the victims were telling the truth. Nor does the author say much about Sai Baba's “magical” ability to materialize objects. He does imply that the materializations were fraudulent. In the West, the accusations of pedophilia and false miracles are the usual ones against the Indian god-man.

Instead, most of the pamphlet is a very “esoteric” attack on Sai Baba's claims to be an avatar (divine incarnation) of the Hindu god Vishnu. Apparently, Sai Baba proclaimed himself to be Kalki, the tenth and final avatar. The author argues that Sri Aurobindo was the genuine Tenth Avatar of Vishnu. His arguments are hard to follow, and seem to rest heavily on astrological speculations. Sai Baba is said to represent the Age of Pisces, with its negative nirvana-centered spirituality. Aurobindo, by contrast, is the avatar of the Aquarian age. He brings a new revelation to mankind, finally revealing the true meaning of the Vedas, preaching the unity of spirit and matter, rather than a nihilistic “liberation” from matter. The notion that an avatar must bring a new message is central to the author's case, since Aurobindo's teachings (and that of his spiritual companion, Mirra Alfassa alias The Mother) differ considerably from orthodox Hinduism, while that of Sai Baba is more in keeping with it.

I get the impression that Aurobindo's followers had some kind of longstanding feud with Sai Baba, since the baba claimed to have been born the day before Aurobindo proclaimed himself to be an avatar. In Sai Baba's rendering, Aurobindo was really making a prophecy about *him*. Rather than being a divine incarnation, the author implies that Sai Baba was the product of the so-called Intermediate Zone, presumably what others call “the astral”, and hence a victim of “astral glamour”. He was used as an instrument of dark, demonic forces out to distort the truth. The rogue guru's sexual appetites are said to be connected to his Intermediate Zone status.

Some arguments against Sathya Sai Baba's divine pretentions are no-brainers, such as his erroneous prophecy about his own death, or the fact that he fell in the bath twice and severely hurt himself. Some avatar. However, the latter accusation is somewhat disingenuous coming from a devotee of Aurobindo, who once also fell so badly that he broke some bones…

This article, which is apparently also available on-line, is probably of interest only to those who closely follow the Integral Yoga teachings of Sri Aurobindo and Mirra Alfassa. I don't think it will sway the fanatical followers of Sathya Sai Baba – if the serious allegations against him didn't do the trick, nothing will. Unfortunately, I might add!

Unsnarling the world...not

"Unsnarling the world-knot" is a book by David Ray Griffin, the leading process theologian. Process theology is a very liberal form of Christian theology, inspired by the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne. Interestingly, neither Whitehead nor Hartshorne were Christians, but their process philosophy did include a personal god.

In this particular book, Griffin makes a bold attempt to actually solve the mind-body problem. Indeed, he believes that he *has* solved it. Griffin's alternative to both materialism and dualism is a form of panpsychism which he dubs panexperientialism. The book is a prolonged argument in favour of this position, with each chapter becoming progressively longer and more difficult. However, the book shouldn't be insurmountable to people seriously interested in the mind-body problem. A working knowledge of Dennett, Searle and McGinn does help. It also helps to have read other books by Griffin himself, to put his panexperientialism in context. A good place to start might be "Whitehead's radically different postmodern philosophy", reviewed by me elsewhere.

Griffin believes that neither dualism nor materialism really solves the mind-body problem. Dualism, while admitting that the mind and the brain are numerically different, cannot explain how they can interact with each other. Materialism cannot explain how mind can emerge from matter, or how it can be identical with it. To Griffin, materialism and dualism are really part of the same problem, since both of them consider matter to be naturally inert and dead (or "vacuous" to use Whitehead's term). In the dualist scenario, God forces matter to organize according to "natural" laws imposed from without. He also creates immortal souls different in quality from matter. To Griffin, this worldview is connected to our alienation from and domination of nature. Materialists simply go one step further, and do away with God entirely, leaving only dead matter. They are then caught in a bind, attempting to derive mind, morality and aesthetics from a dead universe.

Griffin's solution is to embrace the idea that everything that exists has at least a rudimentary form of consciousness. Not just every living organism, but even atoms and molecules have "experience" - hence panexperientialism. What we call "consciousness" is really the last and most complex phase of "experience". Indeed, the most basic metaphysical entities are "occasions of experience", sometimes called "creative occasions". These entities or monads "prehend" each other in a never-ending process. In a sense, matter doesn't *have* experience, matter *is* experience. Each occasion of experience is both subject (when it "prehends" another occasion of experience) and object (when it's "prehended" by others). In this manner, the mind-body problem can be solved, since each monad is both "mind" and "matter", subject and object.

Griffin is clever enough to admit that some things, such as stones, really are dead and inert. A stone doesn't have experience in any meaningful sense of the term. However, even stones are made up of occasions of experience. These are organized in a manner which cannot generate higher-order forms of experience, let alone consciousness. This makes the stone a dead, inert heap. However, if one monad becomes dominant and manages to organize the other creative occasions in a more complex fashion, a "personally ordered society" emerges. This compound individual will have more advanced experience, and eventually something we would recognize as real consciousness emerges.

I admit that Griffin's theory (which is a combination of Whitehead's and Hartshorne's respective ideas) is quite clever. But does it really solve the mind-body problem?

At one point, Griffin distinguishes "the perceptual mode of causal efficacy" with "the perceptual mode of presentational immediacy". The former seems to be a kind of gut feeling through which we become aware of causality, space, time and the existence of an outside world in general. Griffin believes that this gut feeling can exist in a very primitive form, and hence be assigned even to atoms and molecules (or at least to micro-organisms). Presentational immediacy is our unmediated empirical ability to observe such things as the colour red. Presentational immediacy is derived from causal efficacy. At some point during evolution, living organisms translated the gut feeling of red (causal efficacy) into real seeing of red (presentational immediacy). Consciousness of the kind we can observe in humans is a combination of causal efficacy and presentational immediacy: we see "red" in the context of causality, space and time. Thus, we can see red objects, how they change through time, etc. I'm not entirely sure whether this part of Griffin's reasoning makes sense: can our complex minds really be taken apart in this manner? In what meaningful sense can awareness of causality, space and time really exist in a primitive form?

Griffin points out that most of our minds aren't "conscious", but nevertheless has experience. To use everyday language, most of our minds are subconscious. This seems to be one of Griffin's main arguments for the idea that consciousness can evolve from primitive experience. However, the subconscious phenomena mentioned by Griffin strike me as very advanced: the ability to prehend objective moral principles in the mind of God is a good example. Another is paranormal powers such as telepathy and PK. This surely presupposes that the mind is *already* advanced, and cannot therefore be used as an argument that it's derived from primitive ancestral forms.

There is another and perhaps more serious problem with process theology: panexperientialism seems to be redundant, since the system also includes God. Indeed, Griffin cannot derive objective morality from the "occasions of experience", which are wholly amoral. This is solved by appealing to God, whose mind includes moral principles as a kind of quasi-Platonic forms. Sufficiently advanced occasions of experience can then prehend these Platonic forms, but this sounds like a throwback to the dualism the theory was supposed to overcome. The moral principles aren't a part of the panexperientialist process, but are infused from the outside. Objective aesthetics are derived in the same way. Griffin also believes that each occasion of experience gets an initial push in the right direction by God, suggesting that the process isn't entirely self-sustaining. Another contradiction concerns God himself, who according to Griffin is a compound individual consisting of all creative occasions in the entire universe. But where does God come from? Has God evolved from a primitive form of experience? Clearly not, since these need God to give them initial pushes. Therefore, God has always existed - but if so, consciousness does *not* evolve from primitive experience. Rather, we are dealing with an involution-evolution schema, similar to that of Theosophy. Why not simply adopt this scenario, and combine it with a personal God, as in the system of Aurobindo, or a quasi-personal God as in Ken Wilber's Integral Theory? (Incidentally, Theosophists also believe in a kind of spiritual monads, emerging from the Brahman.)

I think the reason for Griffin's reluctance to embrace something like Theosophy is that process theologians want to be seen as scientific and modern, something they wouldn't be able to do if they had adopted a more explicitly Theosophical orientation. (Ironically, Griffin was some kind of Theosophist in his youth before turning to Whitehead and Hartshorne.) Instead, process theology has opted for a panpsychist version of materialist evolution, in which experience (rather than matter) goes from less complex to more complex. Griffin even prides himself on his position being "naturalist" or "physicalist". The limited success of process theology outside Claremont shows that the strategy isn't working: to materialist scientists, Whitehead and Hartshorne were still too religious, due to their belief in a personal God which doesn't seem to be evolving (at least not entirely - strictly speaking, Process God is dipolar). Griffin is less scientific than many other process thinkers due to his support for parapsychology, personal immortality and reincarnation, making his particular version of this theology even harder to swallow for naturalists sensu stricto. Imagine what the New Atheists or CSICOP might do with Griffin's writings, if they ever become interested in process thought!

"Unsnarling the world-knot" isn't a bad book by any means. If you are a dyed-in-the-wool materialist, this book might help you unsnarl a few of your knots. Had I read it a few years ago, this might very well have been the book that swayed me away from materialism (ironically, I read Colin McGinn's "The Mysterious Flame" instead - McGinn is one of Griffin's primary targets). I suppose you could argue that Griffin succeeds in replacing evolutionary materialism with evolutionary panpsychism, "as far as it goes". But how far *does* it go? The fact that Griffin is forced to introduce a personal god into his philosophy, in order to salvage objective morality and aesthetics (in effect, objective meaning without which the Process would be just as nihilistic as in a materialist universe) shows that we have to probe deeper than Whitehead's and Hartshorne's process philosophy.

Or, to use the author's simile, unsnarl a few additional knots...

Aurobindo in Siberia

"The Mysterious Story of X7" is a curious book published by Findhorn Press. It contains channeled messages received by Anne Edwards (Naomi), an American psychic, from 1953 to 1957. Edwards was a friend of Peter Caddy. Both of them were involved in the creation of Findhorn, a group that eventually became well-known within the New Age movement. Edwards seems to have been a follower of Alice Bailey, or at least inspired by her, since she claimed guidance from Master DK. The channeled material has been published several times under different titles, and has apparently been regarded as highly controversial.

Most channeled transmissions are supposedly from discarnate beings, sometimes aliens from other planets. The messages from X7 are unusual, since they claim to have a wholly earthly origin. X7 was supposedly a group of Russian political prisoners, imprisoned in a salt mine and forced to live underground almost constantly. Despite this, X7 were able to communicate telepathically with the Network of Light, to which Edwards belonged. Or so Findhorn Press believes.

The members of X7 claim to have been visited by Master Jesus Christ in the underground caves where they were forced to live and labor. Under his guidance, X7 gradually acquired miraculous powers. The messages are an attempt to explain the teachings of Jesus (or X7). They are broadly similar to those of Theosophy and Anthroposophy, but also contain some novel emphases. X7 don't believe that humans have a purely spiritual destiny. Rather, matter must be transformed and glorified. So must the planet Earth itself. X7 believes in the existence of a "solar substance", which can be manipulated at will by those who have developed suitable powers. They also mention "the Auric Being", which seems to be a kind of etheric or astral body. Humans must learn how to make the Auric Being project a perfect physical body. Interestingly, the members of X7 claims to have completed the transformation, yet their physical bodies are said to be outwardly identical to normal, pre-transformation physical bodies. They also claim to have the ability to mould matter into any form they wish. The messages contain somewhat "esoteric" expositions on various tones and colors, said to be cosmic energies. A few references to UFOs, Atlantis and advanced underground civilizations have been included. The story ends with X7 being abandoned by the prison guards, who apparently assume they are starving to death. In reality, the mysterious group has formed a school in the bowels of the Earth in which they secretly teach the other prisoners...

I think it's obvious that X7 never really existed, and that the whole story is allegorical. The salt mine in which the prisoners are virtually entombed I take to be a symbol of the material world, in which the souls of men are imprisoned. Jesus appears in the mine as he once appeared in our material world, imparting gnosis on the believing few. However, the gnosis turns out to be geared towards transforming the material world, rather than escaping from it. This is symbolically expressed by X7 staying in the mines, even digging deeper and deeper, eventually finding a kind of "paradise" in the depths of the Earth. I think the allegory is glaringly obvious. Plato's cave, anyone? True to form, New Age teachers simply *must* claim that their ideas come from supernatural intelligences somewhere out there...

The mysterious message of X7 made me associate to Aurobindo's and Alfassa's ideas about bringing down a kind of super-consciousness that would transform the material world, rather than destroy it. It's also similar to Steiner's ideas about the Earth being a living organism in evolution, although my impression of Steiner is that the final Vulcan incarnation of Earth (and Man) is more spiritual than material. The recent craze about "ascension" also comes to mind, although X7 sound far less narcissistic - they emphasize the necessity to serve both Jesus and the greater cosmic context. Of course, Christian ideas about the millennium lurk uneasily in the background, too. X7 are unclear on the role of the Second Coming. On the one hand, the messages do contain references to Jesus soon returning in force, and also to UFOs landings. On the other hand, X7 seems to suggest that humans must learn to transform themselves.

To be honest, X7 (or was it Naomi) weren't the best of writers. Like most other channeled messages, "The Mysterious Story of X7" gets extremely tedious to read very quickly. From a purely literary angel, this work only deserves two stars, or maybe three. However, since it has a certain intrinsic interest on a philosophical level, I nevertheless award it four stars.

End of transmission.

Integral incense

No offence, but why on earth is the Sri Aurobindo Ashram selling incense sticks through Amazon??!! It seems cosmic evolution has fallen on hard times. Time to finally bring down that supermental, superhuman superconsciousness! What are they waiting for? I almost feel incensed...

Tantric teaser trailer

"Sri Aurobindo on the Tantra" is a short collection of excerpts from Aurobindo's writings, dealing with his views on the Tantra. They have been compiled by M.P. Pandit, who was the secretary to Mirra Alfassa, Aurobindo's spiritual co-worker.

Aurobindo is mostly positive towards the Tantra, but the excerpt-format doesn't allow for more lengthy analyses. Aurobindo sees the Tantra as Nature- or prakriti-oriented, a form of spirituality that accepts the world and its material energies as they are, while nevertheless transforming and conquering them. However, he also believes that the original teachings have degenerated, and is opposed to aberrant Tantric sects.

Apparently, Aurobindo claimed to have a method by which the power of Shakti could be bought down without the long process of opening the chakras through raising the kundalini. However, the method is never described. The evolutionary perspective towards Overman is only briefly touched upon, but some kind of connection between this and Aurobindo's Integral Yoga obviously exists. There, the little book ends. A typical teaser trailer! Any takers?

Hidden agendas

Unknown MI6 assasin somewhere in Asia

R. C. Zaehner was an Oxford don specializing in various "Eastern" religions, such as Zoroastrianism and Hinduism. In his book "Evolution in Religion", Zaehner comes across as the classical distracted professor, who thanks his Indian hosts for driving him to the local railway station, or he would probably have taken the wrong train. The book itself consists of lectures, which sound exactly how we expect university lectures to sound like: rambling, incoherent, with a stark air of pseudo-profundity. The distracted professorial quality comes across even more in Zaehner's eclectic blend of Roman Catholicism, Teilhard, Marxism and God-knows-what-else.

According to Wikipedia, Zaehner was actually a MI6 intelligence officer in northern Iran during World War II, battling both Nazis and Communists. Later, he was training anti-Communist Albanian insurgents at Malta. The "distracted Marxist scholar" was also involved in a British attempt to overthrow left-leaning (and democratically elected) Iranian leader Mossadeq...

I admit "Evolution in Religion" is a perfect cover. I also admit that I would have felt compelled to push Mr Zaehner under one of those Indian trains at that railway station! For the Mossadeq thing, obviously. Ironically, the author was briefly under suspicion for being a double agent, working for the Soviets, but he was exonerated after an informal MI6 interrogation. Maybe somebody at the SIS actually read the don's distracted, pro-Marxist books?

And now, the book itself. As I already indicated, "Evolution is Religion" is pretty bad. It's ostensibly a comparative study of two great proponents of a spiritual-evolutionary synthesis, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Aurobindo Ghose. However, most of it is virtually unreadable due to the author's rambling, disjointed style. Zaehner seems to be a follower of Teilhard, and the most readable chapter is, I presume, an exegesis of the controversial French Jesuit's message. I admit that this was an interesting read, but it's marred by the author's worthless lecturing overall.

Zaehner identifies the Christian Trinity with the Hindu concept (found in Aurobindo) of Sat-Cit-Ananda. The Father is Sat (Being), the Son is Cit (Consciousness or the Logos, from which Sakti or the creative force emerges), and Ananda (Love) is the Holy Spirit. Creation isn't entirely ex nihilo, since matter seems to exist prior to creation in an inchoate state. By a process Zaehner somewhat daringly likens to sexual intercourse (daringly for a Christian, at least), God impregnates matter (esoterically symbolized by the Virgin Mary!) and a downward process of involution begins. At its lowest point, Spirit forgets its heavenly origins, until the arrival of humanity through a protracted process of evolution. The "Fall" was a fall from a kind of animal-like, collective unconscious to a fully individualized consciousness, a fall "upwards" which contained both new dangers and possibilities. The snake in the Garden and Yahweh are really two aspects of the same god, while Yahweh has both a masculine and a feminine side. Man's view of God (or perhaps God himself) evolves, with the God of the Old Testament still being something of a capricious bully, a bit like Rudra in Hindu mythology. The goal of evolution seems to be the creation of a communist and collectivist (but not Stalinist) society, and eventually the spiritualization of matter.

So far, Zaehner's private theology could presumably be squared with that of Sri Aurobindo. However, Zaehner believes that God has intervened directly in the evolutionary process, and that the Superman (a term derived from Aurobindo) has already arrived. The Superman, of course, is Jesus Christ. By his complete sacrifice on the cross, even to the point of destroying his own atman, and the subsequent resurrection in a glorified body, Jesus has somehow released matter from its fallen stated and helped evolution along. Jesus has also redeemed the fallen spirits, something he did by descending to Hell. Unless the old agent is hiding something, Zaehner regards the Gospel stories as (more or less) literally true. However, he also sees esoteric symbolism in the Bible, such as Jesus being a carpenter (i.e. a demiurgic refashioner of matter) sacrificed on a cross (the cross of matter, at which Spirit is "sacrificed" by its descent). The cross, of course, is made of wood, the chosen medium of the carpenter, and at one point, Zaehner actually writes that Jesus was crucified on a cross of his own making!

Exactly how Jesus has aided evolution along is less clear, since the world (at least arguably) is just as bad as it was 2,000 years ago. Zaehner acknowledges this, but believes that Jesus set new evolutionary impulses in motion. One of them is the Church, where Christ is mystically present. Zaehner feels uneasy about some aspects of Teilhard's and Aurobindo's thought. He doesn't seem to like their idea of evil as inevitable, perhaps even as somehow "good". As an evolutionist, Zaehner doesn't see any good way around it, however. In the end, he has an apocalyptic perspective, apparently also derived from Teilhard, where a good minority somehow disconnects itself from a cosmos gone completely evil...

I admit that Zaehner's theological speculations, give or take a few ideas, are similar to my own. However, due to the generally unreadable and confused character of "Evolution in Religion", I will nevertheless only give it two stars. Due to that, and to the Mossadeq thing!

More than a lifetime

“Founding the Life Divine” is an introduction to Aurobindo's form of yoga, Integral Yoga. Or perhaps the book is better described as an introduction to Aurobindo's approach to yoga or view of yoga, since it only contains general descriptions of the actual techniques used. I found the book somewhat hard to read. You probably need to know more than a few things about different yogic techniques and various interpretations of the Bhagavad-Gita before you start reading it.

What makes Aurobindo's Integral Yoga unusual is that its goal isn't to liberate the soul from a material world identified with suffering. Aurobindo doesn't deny that the soul can be liberated in this way by using the traditional forms of yoga. However, his goal is different. After achieving liberation through a process of ascent to the Divine, the yogi descends again, back to the material world, and uses the newly acquired divine energy to spiritualize matter, eventually turning the material world into a kind of paradise. The ultimate goal of Integral Yoga is to call down the Supermind on Earth!

The author, Morwenna Donnelly, calls this perspective unique. Personally, I suspect Aurobindo got the idea from “occult” Western sources, perhaps the Lurianic Kabbala with its concept of tikkun. What the Indian sage was after is also similar to “the resurrection of the body” in Christianity, not the crudely materialist interpretation in Watchtower magazine, but the original conceptions found in the Gospels or Paul. The difference is that Aurobindo didn't believe in a once-and-for-all miraculous intervention from the outside. Rather than awaiting the Second Coming of Christ, Aurobindo called on people to begin the transformation into “Gnostic Man” themselves through Integral Yoga, always warning that the process was evolutionary and could take many life-times (Aurobindo accepted reincarnation).

But what exactly *is* Integral Yoga? It seems to be a combination of the three paths described in the Bhagavad-Gita: karma yoga, jnana yoga, bhakti yoga. The goal is to make “the psychic being” (roughly equivalent to what we would call the soul) control the mental, vital and physical aspects of our bodies. This can only be accomplished through a process of complete surrender to the Divine. The process is difficult and involves many pitfalls. Even highly accomplished spiritual people can really be victims of a kind of astral glamour. They might be excellent philanthropists or otherwise morally enlightened, but take extreme pride in these achievements, become obsessively beholden to certain dogmas, attempt to convert everyone to their particular religion, etc. To Aurobindo, this isn't the highest possible attainment. More common pitfalls on the path include attempts to misuse spiritual power, to “take the heavens by storm”, or to drop out due to excessive “dark night of the soul”. Donnelly doesn't mention megalomania, another common fault in these dangerous waters…

The easiest way, relatively speaking, to enlightenment is to achieve a merger with the divine in the “heart”, presumably the heart chakra. If this is accomplished, the rest follows easily. A more difficult method is to attempt immediate unification with the Self (the Brahman-Atman, present above the head in occult anatomy), or to change the human being without a merger with the divine in the heart. Aurobindo believes that the yogi can't accomplish anything without Grace. In that sense, there is a miraculous downpour of divine energy from above. However, he also believes that the human must prepare a suitable vessel for the workings of the Grace. Thus, in Christian terms, Aurobindo's path to salvation combines grace and works.

According to Donnelly, Aurobindo sought to develop a yogic practice characterized by balance. It should be possible to do yoga even while you're working or are engaged in other “worldly” pursuits. Nor should absolute asceticism be necessary. However, few details are given concerning how this should be accomplished, and Donnelly points out that Aurobindo's discussions on yoga are voluminous. Overall, the author emphasizes the difficulties involved. It's also important (although not absolutely necessary) to have a guru, a person who have tread the path before and can give instructions about how to avoid pitfalls. The guru should be treated as a manifestation of the Divine.

When reading “Founding the Life Divine”, I was struck by two contradictions. One is Aurobindo's metaphysics, which sound impersonalist and is beset with the same problem as all other metaphysical systems of the same kind: if the Divine is fundamentally a unity, where does diversity come from? How can even the *illusion* of diversity emerge if the Divine is perfect in its unity? And why should we call down the Supermind on Earth and divinize matter, if the Divine is really a purely spiritual unity? Logically, we should simply go back and merge with the Divine, the perspective criticized by Aurobindo! Apparently, Aurobindo did believe that the Divine had a personal aspect, too, suggesting personalist panentheism, but at least in Donnelly's introduction these aspects are never integrated. The other contradiction concerns Aurobindo's own personality, and that of his spiritual co-worker, Mirra Alfassa (known as The Mother). According to George van Vrekhem's book “Beyond the Human Race”, Aurobindo and Alfassa claimed to be avatars. Aurobindo was an incarnation of Krishna, while Alfassa was Shakti, the Creatrix and Logos of the universe?! If so, why didn't they accomplish complete mastery of their physical bodies? Aurobindo fell rather badly and broke his leg at one point during his yogic practices, and both “avatars” are dead. None of them resurrected as a Gnostic Man. (Vrekhem believes that The Mother was resurrected, but in an invisible body! The body of an invisible pink unicorn, perhaps?) Add to this all the weird stories about how Sri Aurobindo and The Mother saved the world during World War I and World War II. Astral glamour?

Perhaps Aurobindo's Integral Yoga really does work, but if so, its developer was right when he said that it would take more than one lifetime…

Speeches from Auroville

The late Georges Van Vrekhem was a devotee of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother (Mirra Alfassa), two spiritual teachers based in Pondicherry in India. “The New Spirituality” is a collection of speeches and interviews in which Vrekhem expounds on various Aurobindonian themes. It's a kind of sequel to “Preparing for the Miraculous”, a similar book. Both books cover essentially the same ground. The speeches were delivered at Auroville, the intentional community of Aurobindo's followers outside Pondicherry.

Vrekhem argues that Aurobindo and the Mother were twin avatars who incarnated on Earth in order to divinize matter and hence push human evolution forward, towards the “supermind”. The author explains certain aspects of Aurobindo's worldview, including cosmic evolution, the Great Chain of Being and the cosmic fall of Spirit into the “inconscient”. World War II plays a central role in Vrekhem's scenario, since he believes that evil forces known as Asuras directed Hitler in a grand attempt to stop human evolution. One article is a tribute to Winston Churchill, who Vrekhem believes was guided by a higher force.

The most extreme aspects of Aurobindo's and the Mother's worldview aren't mentioned, however. For those who want more sensational stuff, I recommend “Beyond the Human Species” by the same author. I admit that I didn't find “The New Spirituality” particularly interesting.

Preparing for the Superman

“Preparing for the Miraculous” is a collection of speeches by Georges Van Vrekhem, a follower of Sri Aurobindo and his spiritual co-worker and heir Mirra Alfassa (known as the Mother). The speeches were delivered at Auroville, “The City of Dawn”, an intentional community in southern India founded by the Mother.

Aurobindo's worldview, while nominally based on Hinduism, was actually closer to Theosophy and Anthroposophy. There are also similarities with Hermetism and Gnosticism. It was based on an evolutionary perspective, according to which Spirit slowly evolves through matter, eventually divinizing it. Humanity is really a transitional form between animals and the Superman, a god-like being made of matter made imperishable by a spiritual force known as the Supermind. Of course, this evolutionism has little to do with scientific Darwinism. In Aurobindo's perspective, evolution comes about by supernatural, “involutionary” forces from above. A kind of Great Chain of Being eternally exists above the material world, which is the result of a fall. However, Spirit descends into matter in order to uplift it. This is done through a succession of avatars. Vrekhem argues that Aurobindo and the Mother were a twin avatar!

Aurobindo's and the Mother's descent into our world is regarded as a kind of sacrifice. They attempted to divinize matter through a process called Integral Yoga, which is never described in detail. The process was resisted at every step by fallen spirit-beings called Asuras, who even started World War II to stop human evolution! Aurobindo's death in 1950 is said to have been a voluntary descent into the nethermost recesses of matter, where he finally succeeded in overcoming the resistance of the evil forces. The Supermind therefore descended on Earth in 1956. As for the Mother, Vrekhem claims that she managed to create an imperishable human body for herself, out of subtle matter invisible to the naked eye. Her death in 1973 was really just a changing of bodies. The parallels with the Gnostic redeemer myth, Hermetic alchemy and Christian resurrection of the body should be obvious. Note also the similarity with the Christian idea of “the harrowing of hell”. It's interesting to note that Aurobindo believed in the necessity of sacrifice in order to transform matter from within, another similarity with Christianity and also with Anthroposophy, where the Christ incarnates as Jesus and sacrifices himself to further Earth's spiritual-cosmic evolution.

Vrekhem also mentions Aurobindo's more provocative ideas. He regarded the mission of Jesus and the Buddha as partial failures, and decided to succeed where they had failed. Aurobindo also had a distinctly “Heraclitean” perspective on war and violence, seeing it as a positive force for transformation. Aurobindo's theodicy was essentially that since everything is God, everything that happens is really for the best, if seen from a higher vantage point. Indeed, the chaotic events of the 20th century (and presumably the 21st century) are really the birth pangs of a new and higher civilization. Sometimes, Vrekhem's claims border the outlandish, as when he says that the Mother's occult powers explain near-death experiences! Apparently, it's thanks to the Mother that deceased people can go straight to the heavenly realms, without passing the infernal lower astral regions on the way… (Even more extreme claims are made in another work by the same author, “Beyond the Human Species”.)

“Preparing the Miraculous” could be read as a “teaser trailer” to Aurobindo's own writings, or to Vrekhem's “Beyond the Human Species”. There is also a sequel, “The New Spirituality”, but it mostly repeats the same points made in this book, and is therefore of lesser interest.

Adyashakti, not Adyashanti

A review of "Monsoon of Grace" 

This is a short essay by Mark Canter alias Adyashakti, not to be confused with the more well-known Adyashanti. The essay is also available at one of Canter's blogs, The Way of Wonder. The author compares four spiritual teachers who emphasized the “descending” force of the kundalini, not just the “ascending” force: Abhinavagupta, Sri Aurobindo, Ramana Maharshi and Franklin Jones (Adi Da Samraj).

The essay sounds scholarly and can therefore be hard to digest for the general reader. I can't say I was slain by the Shakti when reading it, but it's nevertheless interesting to find Aurobindo and Ramana mentioned in a Tantric-kundalini context. Usually, Ramana is depicted as a guru of the Advaita-empty-your-mind-and-despise-your-body sort. Aurobindo is often portrayed very exoterically as an Indian Teilhard (or an Indian Ken Wilber!), who believed in Evolution and is therefore Modern. The “descending” kundalini could also be a new concept for many people, used to the (by now frankly tiresome) pictures of chakras found in every run-of-the-mill spiritual book (yes, that's the “ascending” kundalini).

Canter is careful to add some footnotes on the cult allegations against Franklin Jones, and Ken Wilber's somewhat awkward relation to the man. If you are interested in these subjects, and is used to a more scholarly-sounding language, Adyashakti's little essay may perhaps be of some interest as a “teaser trailer”.