Under the yew tree

 

Dharma Bodhi (Kol Martens) from Trika Mahasiddha Yoga (TMY) explains the place of drugs (as in narcotics) on the spiritual path. I previously linked to a longer discussion on the same topic by Dharma. 

The short form is that TMY doesn´t generally recommend psychedelic drugs to spiritual practitioners. Today, they often lead seekers astray and make them permanently stuck in "the god realm", by which Dharma means the world of the devas, here interpreted in Buddhist fashion as vain demi-gods who don´t realize their own mortality. I assume he means that they are metaphorically stuck in this realm already in this life. Or as Dharma puts it: "You are just high"!

However, drugs can be of some use if somebody has gotten completely stuck on the spiritual path for years. They don´t help the practitioner to become enlightened, but strong experiences of a supernatural dimension can motivate him to continue his sadhana (day to day yogic practice). 

Dharma Bodhi also discusses various related topics, such as how to achieve shaktipata, by which I assume he means enlightenment through divine grace. In this system, it seems that you can´t get the grace through an electric-like transmission from a guru, but only by your own efforts until one day the shaktipata hits you like a thunderbolt. Gurus who claim to be able to transmit shaktipata person to person are just cult leaders, and the ultimate cultist of them all was Franklin Jones who claimed that you could get the grace simply by being present at his satsangs. I think Dharma sees a similarity between this electric stuff and the idea that really potent psychedelics can be a substitute for sadhana. 

On a lesser note, he mentions how to prepare drugs for consumption. I´m not sure of this stuff, so please don´t try it at home, but supposedly you can give poisonous mushrooms to dogs, and then drink their urine! Sitting underneath a yew tree also produces quite some effect, apparently, so you don´t actually have to consume any part of it directly. The idea of a buddha achieving enlightenment under a yew tree does have a certain intrinsic appeal, so please remember that you can´t! Completely in passing, Dharma also claims that he trained with the Aghori...

Ahem, come again?

The most funny proposal in the clip is the claim that all world leaders should get together and take psychotropic drugs, and then this planet would actually become much better! This reminded me of the Taliban trolling Joe Biden with ice cream, but OK, maybe I just have a bad sense of humor.

Nothing in this blog post should be taken as medical advice, or indeed any kind of advice whatsoever. 

The Method of the Siddhas

I´m sure the woke left will now want to cancel Bali as a tourist destination. Or no? 

As for the Balinese authorities, I wonder what kind of Tantra they consider culturally approved? Can I drink "nectar" from a cup made from the fresh cranium of a dead Canadian tourist? How about sacrificing a Lesser Adjutant (a local stork species) during a ghastly ritual devoted to a hunch-backed goddess? Can I curse Pancasila by dancing nude, only smeared in ashes, at the Mother Temple of Besakih? 

Asking for a friend named Franklin Jones... 

Canadian deported from Bali for selling "Tantric orgasm classes"

The Knee of Luxury

“The Dawn Horse Magazine” is an old publication of Franklin Jones' community in California. Franklin Jones, better known as Bubba Free John or Adi Da, was a controversial Tantric guru who attempted to “enlighten” his devotees with a combination of meditation, insults and orgies. People who left his community describe it as a cult and Jones himself as addicted to sex, drugs and pornography. Why are we not surprised?

This issue of “The Dawn Horse” was published in 1974 and contains a long article by one Jerry Sheinfeld about Franklin Jones' famous trip to India, where he was transformed from an ordinary mortal to a divine incarnation. While written in an annoyingly devotional style, Sheinfeld's reminiscences are actually quite revealing. Jones laughs at poor cripples, has no problem with India buying high technology at the expense of starving peasants, and both he and Sheinfeld enjoy living in luxury at a five-star hotel attended by the staff. Jones tricks a boy-servant out of the money he owes him. Above all, he tricks Sheinfeld, who is forced to endure Jones' constant complaints and petty harassment, and even massage him for hours every day! Of course, it's all for a higher spiritual purpose.

Sometimes, the author's interpretation of events almost made *me* laugh (well, thank you). Thus, he writes: “Bubba was constantly forcing me to deal with people throughout the trip. I would make plane and room reservations, and occasionally someone would tell me that the reservations were not available or that it would be impossible to make them. Bubba would never allow me to accept that. I had to insist and make the person move through his limitations and the limitations of miles and regulations.” Of course, a more mundane take is that Mr Bubba was a typically arrogant American tourist, who expects trains to go on time in a Third World country, at least when *he* is around! Since he had no intention of fixing things himself, he let his butler do the dirty work for him…

A large portion of the article is devoted to Franklin Jones dissing various Indian spiritual teachers. He tells Sheinfeld to ask Sathya Sai Baba to materialize a hot dog rather than sacred ash (it's not clear whether Sheinfeld did so). During a visit to Auroville, Jones argues with the true believer assigned to show them around, rejecting both Aurobindo and The Mother, which apparently profoundly shocked the guide. The few gurus Jones seems to recognize are all dead, including Ramana Maharshi and Ramakrishna.

The article ends with the couple finally returning to Los Angeles: “When we arrived in Los Angeles, the entire Ashram was there to greet Bubba. It was definitely the most moving experience of my life. When he is around his devotees, Bubba is able to manifest more of his true nature freely. As he walked down the ramp to greet everyone, he shone like a million suns. The love of all those people for him made me cry with joy. Throughout this entire trip, Bubba showed me only two things: to turn to understanding, and to turn my attention to him in Love. All he ever did was live as the Heart and the Light which he is.”

Glad you find The Way, Jerry. The rest of us just shake our heads. But sure, trick-or-treating Sai Baba (who was probably even worse than Franklin Jones) would have been great fun…

Adi Da meets Ayn Rand: A new paradigm in the making?

Eckhart Tolle 

L. Ron Gardner is an eclectic and controversial spiritual teacher based in Texas. "Beyond the Power of Now" is his first book. It's written in the form of a critique of Eckhart Tolle, but is really a general exposition of Gardner's own system. The book can therefore be read with some profit even by people completely uninterested in Tolle. I readily admit that I'm one of them! I've never read Tolle's bestselling "The Power of Now"...

Although I read most of Gardner's book, I haven't "processed" it yet, and therefore find it somewhat difficult relating to. As I already mentioned, Gardner is very eclectic and draws on a variety of traditions I'm not really familiar with, such as Kashmir Shaivism, Daism and Taoist yoga. He also mentions Advaita Vedanta, Zen, Tibetan Buddhism and astrology. Somewhat unexpectedly, Gardner is also a great admirer of Ayn Rand!

Gardner has many problems with Tolle's message. He believes that Tolle doesn't go deep enough, wrongly assuming that a meditative connection with our etheric body and the life force of the universe is identical to a connection with the Divine. To Gardner, this is skimming the surface. He promotes a much more robust, transformative and even dramatic form of mysticism. Gardner also argues that Tolle in a sense descends below human existence rather than rise above it, since Tolle denigrates the human mind. In reality, the mind is *higher* than the elementary life force, while the divine reality is even higher. Gardner's attack on Tolle's rejection of the mind is to a large extent based on Rand. Gardner also rejects the idea that the world is some kind of illusion. The world is a kind of emanation from the Divine, and it is perfectly real. In their own domain, reason and mind are our best tools for surviving in the ever-changing physical world. Our finite and mortal minds are outshined by the divine grace when it finally descends on us, but they are not destroyed, nor are they wholly negative. Finally, Gardner rejects the apocalyptic perspective of Tolle, arguing that civilization won't collapse any time soon and that capitalism and constitutional republics are the most rational ways to organize human affairs.

The main sources of inspiration for Gardner's own system seem to be Kashmir Shaivism and "Daism", the message of the controversial modern guru Adi Da Samraj. The Divine (or "Being") is both an all-pervading and seemingly passive consciousness, and a dynamic-electric creative force. The Divine isn't personal in the traditional monotheist sense, but it doesn't seem to be entirely impersonal either, at least not in the bleak pantheist sense. The two aspects of "Being" are symbolized by the Hindu deities Shiva and Shakti. For unfathomable reasons, Shakti hides herself from herself by creating the material world. The goal of every living creature is to evolve a consciousness that can grasp Being and hence return to its divine source. This is accomplished by a variety of advanced meditation techniques, which makes it possible for divine grace to descend unto the mystic and fill him with divine energy. Among Hindus, this process is known as "shaktipata" and can apparently be quite dramatic. It seems to be a kind of kundalini von oben. "Shaktipata" doesn't seem to make the body immortal, but I presume it eventually frees the soul or spirit from the wheel of reincarnations. In case anyone thinks this is vaguely similar to Ken Wilber, well, Wilber was at one point a devotee (or quasi-devotee) of Adi Da...

While Gardner uses a New Age-inspired or "Eastern" terminology throughout his book, he attempts at several points to correlate his message with Christianity. This seems to be a mystic Christianity I'm unfamiliar with, where Eucharist and Holy Communion are synonyms for various meditation techniques, while shaktipata is another name for the Holy Spirit. Gardner's interpretation of the Trinity is also curious: the Father is the Divine in its formless aspect, the Son is the mystic, while the Holy Ghost is - to repeat myself - the power of Shakti. There doesn't seem to be a "millennium" in Gardner's system, making its spiritual side somewhat apolitical. The more temporal side is clearly political, though, due to the author's libertarianism, but there doesn't seem to be any necessary link between the spiritual and the temporal. Can the world be made a better place by Randian atheists? Gardner seems to believe that it can.

At several points, "Beyond the Power of Now" made me reel. The author is obviously no feminist, and gleefully quotes Rand's bizarre statement "I am a male chauvinist". Despite supporting civil rights for gays, Gardner nevertheless sounds homophobic. Perhaps gays and other sexual minorities don't fit neatly into the essentialist male-female polarity Gardner believes is fundamental to the cosmos? The author is also oblivious to peak oil, claiming we aren't even close to a collapse of Western civilization. No?

A potential problem with the author's system is its view of morality. On the one hand, Gardner does believe in absolute, objective morality. Ironically, this seems to be a Randian influence (Rand, of course, was an atheist). On the other hand, he says that there really is nothing "good" or "evil" from the higher standpoint of the Divine: "There are no problems for the universe", bank robberies are good for the robbers but bad for the banks, etc. This, on the other hand, sounds pantheist. Kashmir Shaivism, Tibetan Buddhism and Daism seem to have antinomian traits, also suggesting that there isn't an objective morality - anything that will take you back to Godhead goes! Overall, I sense that the Randian-Tantric interface might prove to be the biggest contradiction in Gardner's eclectic new paradigm.

"Beyond the Power of Now" covers a lot of ground, and also contains an extensive list of recommended readings, which includes everything from Ayn Rand and Valentin Tomberg to Ramana Maharshi and W.Y. Evans-Wentz. And, of course, the controversial Adi Da. Even Wilber have been included, under the heading "Miscellaneous". Somehow, I suspect that was deliberate...

I give the book three stars (the OK rating), since it does manage to explain L. Ron Gardner's message well enough. The main problem with the book is perhaps that it uses Tolle's "The Power of Now" as a foil, making it somewhat repetitive - and somewhat boring, if you can't be bothered by Tolle. But then, Tolle is a bestselling author, so I suspect there could be a market for a polemic of this kind. Only time will tell. ;-)

The Avataric Ordeal Of The Great And Dreaded Flying Spaghetti Monster

"Adi Da Samraj: Realized Or/And Deluded?" is a book by William Patrick Patterson, a practitioner of Gurdjieff's Fourth Way. The book is a surprisingly sober criticism of the Californian guru Franklin Jones, better known as Bubba Free John, Da Free John or Adi Da Samraj.

I say "surprisingly sober", since critics of Adi Da and his new religion (Adidam) claim that Da was a cult leader and veritable monster with a penchant for sexual sadism, sodomy, pornography, drugs and money. While Patterson rejects Da and Adidam, he wants to understand the man, feels sorry for him and in some sense even seems to believe that his appearance was inevitable. To be honest, I think the author is too soft on Da, and I can't help wondering if one reason is Patterson's own background as a former devotee of Chögyam Trungpa and current follower of Gurdjieff, both of whom were "crazy wisdom" teachers. As an outsider, I also have a problem with the "in house" character of the book. It seems mostly directed towards former Da devotees and perhaps people interested in the Fourth Way.

Patterson's main objection to Da's spiritual teachings (as opposed to his bizarre practices, which the author rejects as a matter of course) is that he didn't understand "self-observation". What he really was practicing was "self-watching", which means "the mind watching the mind". This is still a duality between subject and object. Real self-observation does away with this dualism by focusing simultaneously on both subject and object, thereby transcending them to a higher state of non-duality. Adi Da claimed to be a non-dual teacher, but according to Patterson, he got stuck - seriously stuck! - at a lower level. According to Gurdjieff, a person doesn't have one "I", but several. It takes long and arduous practice to unite them into a single "I". Sometimes, one "I" might attain a high level of spiritual attainment, while the others are left undeveloped. This creates a lopsided, badly evolved personality who is extremely difficult, perhaps impossible, to change. Patterson speculates that Da did reach some kind of Realization, but that he never created a single "I". His different egos therefore started to use the Realization to further their own ends, not always benign ones. (Of course, this explanation makes sense only if one accepts Gurdjieff's metaphysics.) Patterson also criticizes Adi Da's view that one can reach instant realization. He points out that Da himself practiced under several teachers, indeed, that Da at one point gave up experimenting on his own in favour of learning from a guru. Yet, Adi Da would later claim that anyone could become enlightened simply through a relationship with *him*.

The author's other criticisms of Adi Da are on the level of basic pop psychology. Da had periodic depressions, something he gave a spiritual explanation. He had a narcissistic craving for love and attention - this is ironic, since he made the fight against "Narcissus" a central point of his teachings. Adi Da came from a dysfunctional family, and started experimenting with sex and drugs already in college. He never broke with these habits. Patterson speculates that as a young boy, Da might have been sexually molested by a priest, making him depressed and disillusioned in the God of his childhood. He had an infantile craving for love all his life, apparently owning a lot of teddy bears, making artwork with Disney figures, etc. For rather obvious reasons, these kind of Freudian speculations are difficult to prove.

Patterson admits that Da's "crazy wisdom" teachings were more crazy than wise, and that he broke many lives. However, the author nevertheless proposes that Adi Da might have been a kind of "negative avatar", one who reflects our own negativity in the Kali Yuga: "What if our world-time is so mired in narcissism that a negative Messanger was sent, one blind to - or not caring about - his Herculean narcissism and self-indulgence in his sustained cry that mankind awaken, and awaken by awakening to him, the Narcissistic One? Hasn't mankind become so dense and self-centered it could only be awakened by a Messanger who exactly mirrors what it has become? Of course, there were many devotees hurt, but what of those who say they were helped? If the aim is to awaken people from their mechanicality ... then isn't it worth the hurting of many to awaken the few?". It's not entirely clear whether Patterson believes this or not: he does say he is playing the devil's advocate. However, since Gurdjieff had a pretty bleak outlook on life, claiming that only a handful would be saved, "the devil's advocate" might be difficult to gainsay! If the only way to save the few is to shock them out of their complacency by sadistic "sexual theatre", who is Patterson to disagree with the Ruchira Avatar?

I'm not entirely sure how to rate this book, but in the end, I'll give it three stars.

The electric revolution

“Electrical Christianity” is L. Ron Gardner's second book. His first, “Beyond the Power of Now”, was a polemic against a certain Eckhart Tolle, while the new book deals with esoteric Christianity. The books are pretty similar, however, since they both contain Gardner's general teachings, not just specifics about Tolle or Christian mysticism. I consider “Electrical Christianity” to be the better book, since I couldn't care less about Tolle in the first place.

Ironically, “Electrical Christianity” will *not* appeal to mainstream Christians, since Gardner's electric version of Jesus' teachings is really a form of Tantric mysticism, to a large extent derived from Kashmiri Shaivism, a very different spiritual tradition from traditional Christianity. Esoteric Buddhism and “Daism” are other sources of inspiration. (“Daism” refers to the teachings of Franklin Jones, a controversial guru in California who called himself Adi Da Samraj.) Nor is Gardner silent about these similarities. On the contrary, he attempts to correlate esoteric/electrical Christianity with these Eastern-derived teachings. Gardner's point is that the “electrical” practices can be found in many different religious traditions, forming their inner, mystical core. This is similar to the claims of perennialists, such as Aldous Huxley or Huston Smith, but to Gardner, the perennial philosophy isn't the emptiness of Advaita Vedanta, but rather the Shiva-Shakti dyad of Tantrism, the dynamic and dramatic energy of Shakti in particular. Emptiness is only a method to make the mystic ready for the descent of kundalini (a cosmic energy) as a form of Divine Grace. What the esoteric message of Jesus might have been is anybody's guess at this point, but there are “heretics” whose teachings can be mined for some Tantric gold: Gnostics, Messalians, Meister Eckhart (not to be confused with Tolle!) and the Renaissance Hermeticists. Gardner explicitly mentions the two latter streams. Another thing that will rub non-electrical Christians the wrong way is Gardner's in-your-face language, as when he compares “having a personal relation with Jesus” to masturbation, or claims that Jesus isn't needed for salvation anyway!

Gardner's interpretation of the Trinity is roughly as follows: the Father is Shiva, or the “passive” aspect of the Divine, the Son is the mystic, while the Holy Ghost is Shakti, the active aspect of the Divine. When Shakti comes crashing down on the mystic, he is made one with the Divine. This is true baptism, followed by true Holy Communion. Hence, “I and the Father are one”. The mystical experience is a dramatic and very physical experience, bordering the dangerous, and can involve strong reactions such as shaking or jerking of the body. While kundalini is a form of Divine Grace (shaktipata in Hindu parlance), it can only enter a prepared vessel, and therefore various meditation techniques and other spiritual practices or disciplines (perhaps including celibacy) are necessary to place the mystic in right relation to the Divine. Gardner believes that an advanced mystic doesn't need to raise the kundalini power “from below” through the various chakras, but can concentrate on receiving it “from above”.

Readers of Gardner's first book, “Beyond the Power of Now”, know that the author attempts to combine his Tantric teachings with a right-wing, libertarian perspective. His favourite secular philosopher is the atheist Ayn Rand! In the new book, Gardner introduces an additional element: conspiracy theories about the New World Order, the Federal Reserve, and even FEMA camps. At one point, Gardner expresses fear that Obama's “fascist” government will send *him* to a secret concentration camp, if he ever tells us his real feelings about the system… G. Edward Griffin seems to be Gardner's main source of conspiracist thinking. It will be interesting to see how far Gardner's “Electric Dharma Revolution” will come, with a lethal combination like this one!

As in the first book, Gardner closes with a highly eclectic reading list. The Christian-related material includes Valentin Tomberg's anonymous magnum opus “Meditations on the Tarot”, Evelyn Underwood's “Mysticism” and Ethan Walker's “The Mystic Christ”. A nefarious critic who wants to short-circuit the entire operation, might point out that the New Testament isn't included in the reading list, and that most other books have a Hindu-Buddhist slant.

But then, we are dealing with *electric* Christianity, aren't we? Four stars! ;-)

Narcissus must die

This is the original edition of “The Knee of Listening”, the so-called spiritual autobiography of controversial guru Franklin Jones, perhaps better known as Adi Da. Since this kind of spirituality doesn't really appeal to me, I will be relatively brief.

The point of the book seems to be to establish Jones' credentials as a unique teacher in his own right. He gives the impression that his earthly gurus, Rudi and Baba Muktananda (apparently the founder of Siddha Yoga), didn't really teach him anything important, although he pays them formal homage, even including their photos in the book. His real enlightenment came from Swami Nityananda, Sai Baba of Shirdi and Ramana Maharshi, all three of whom were (physically) deceased when Jones visited India. Since all three were Siddhas or direct agents of the Divine, Jones got his enlightenment straight from the source, and he is now the new Siddha, in whom the form of the Lord perfectly manifests itself. Weirdly, Alan Watts has contributed a positive foreword, and the back cover spouts a blurb by Israel Regardie. Jones have also included a quote from Muktananda!

Jones calls his teaching “radical understanding”. He rejects both earthly and “heavenly” attempts to avoid death and suffering. All form of spiritual seeking really binds the seeker karmically to the world of suffering, including attempts to reach nirvana or theistic ideas about salvation. Rather than seeking a solution to our predicament (above, below or within), we should simply “enquire”, and this “radical understanding” will make us realize that we are already free. By putting ourselves in “relationship” with the Divine at each moment that arises, we will become one with it through love. Jones calls this “abiding in the Heart”.

It's not clear how this process concretely looks like. Sometimes, I get the impression that it isn't a “process” at all, since every process implies seeking and thus an avoidance of relationship with God. Rather, “radical understanding” seems to be an unmediated mystical experience, in which the erstwhile seeker simply posits himself in and as the Heart. Jones wants us to see ourselves as the Amrita Nadi, which he describes both as an actual part of man's esoteric anatomy, and as the Form of the Divine. He claims that his teachings are identical to the esoteric message of Ramana Maharshi, the great Hindu sage.

Still, it *is* difficult to see how somebody entangled in samsara can simply convince himself that he is the Heart, and meet everything that happens in love. Jones must have realized this, too, since in the last section of the book, he proposes that “satsang” with *him* is the best way to reach enlightenment. Relationship with God turns out to be a relationship with Jones, whose very presence is said to be enough to influence the disciples to reach fulfilment.

There is also an antinomian streak in the teachings of Jones, as when he writes concerning the Man of Understanding: “He is not moral. He is not fastidious, lean and lawful. He always appears to be the opposite of what you are. He always seems to sympathize with what you deny. (…) At times he denies. At times he asserts. At times he asserts what he has already denied. At times he denies what he has already asserted. He is not useful. His teaching is every kind of nonsense. His wisdom is vanished. Altogether that is his wisdom”.

While this is presumably a technique to show that everything we associate with “normal” life or spirituality is mere bunk, it was also an effective cover for Jones to transform his “satsang” into a nihilistic cult, with all the usual strapping (sexual orgies, breaking up of marriages, fancy cars and Pacific islands for the guru, etc). Jones also became even more narcissistic about his own position, eventually claiming to be the “Ruchira Avatar” and more spiritually developed than even Jesus or the Buddha. And, I suppose, Ken Wilber.

“The Knee of Listening” exists in several different versions, with the current official version being dated 2004, and published under the pseudonym Adi Da Samraj. Personally, I wanted to read the original version, to see if Jones' message had change appreciably over the years. Although the absolutely wildest claims are absent from the 1972/73 edition, I must nevertheless say that Mr Jones was pretty consistent in his teachings. If that's a good thing, is another matter entirely.

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”.

Nuke the transpersonalists

A faux review of Ken Wilber´s "Quantum Questions" (which is actually quite good!) 

Nice try, Wilbur. When the Bible sounds barking mad, it means what is says. When the Quran sounds barking mad, it means what it says. But when quantum physicists sound like mystics (and hence barking mad), THEY ARE MERELY BEING METAPHORICAL!!! We know this on the authority of Richard Dawkins!!! No doubt Mr Wilbur (another stray from the Dawn Horse stable of the so-called "Ruchira Avatar" Adi Da Samraj Free Love Hubba Bubba Whatever a.k.a. Franklin Jones) is one of those crazy Christian theocrats who believe that the world is controlled by two giant green lobsters named Esmeralda and Keith!!!

Journey home?

David Christopher Lane is a former follower of Radhasoami, a spiritual tradition that exists within both Hinduism and Sikhism. At one point, he was also interested in Ken Wilber's transpersonal psychology. This Kindle article, “The Journey: A Voyage of Light and Sound”, references both Wilber and Wilber's de facto guru Adi Da Samraj, alongside various Radhasoami authorities. Today, Lane sounds more skeptical and regularly bashes Wilber at Frank Visser's site Integral World. He has also written exposés of Eckankar and M.S.I.A (pronounced “Messiah”), two American groups which borrow extensively from the Radhasoami, and perhaps from Scientology, without acknowledging their sources.

“The Journey” is a short article, probably written at some point during the 1980's. Yet, it's quite interesting. Lane describes the spiritual journey of the Radhasoami mystic in some detail. The ascent to the divine could be described as a consciously induced near-death experience, during which the physical body becomes completely numb, as consciousness is concentrated in the “third eye” and then leaves the body behind. The process has obvious similarities with “astral travel”, and Lane explicitly compares one of the regions traversed to the astral. With one exception, all the spiritual dimensions passed by the soul on its journey back to the divine are “positive” and immensely enchanting. In one of the regions, every wish comes true and the mystic can even create entirely new worlds. Or so he imagines! The soul is advised not to dwell too long in these regions of spiritual space, since they really hinder its progression. One region is described as negative and hence constitutes a kind of “hell”. Interestingly, it’s the last dimension traveled by the soul before it merges with the divine.

Only a person with a competent guru can undertake the perilous journey back to godhead, the form of the guru guiding the soul through its meanderings in enchanted astral space. The guru also teaches the future mystic various mantras or passwords necessary for the trip. Ultimately, the soul sees the guru as God, and then sees how the guru merges into God, next realizing that it (the soul) has been part of the guru and hence God all along. A distinctive feature of Radhasoami is the emphasis on the “Audible Life Current”, the various cosmic or spiritual sounds heard by the mystic during his ascent, showing him that he is on the right track.

Another distinctive feature is the idea of a negative force in the cosmos, called Kal, which represents descent from the divine to the material. Kal (sometimes personified as a kind of Gnostic demiurge) is the ruler of the non-divine realms, including the enchanting ones, and his mission is to hinder the soul from reaching its true destiny and merge with the ocean of the divine. The idea that there is a fallen god in charge of the material and the astral strikes me as non-Hindu. Where does it come from? Is it an actual Gnostic idea influencing Radhasoami, or did they develop it independently?

Following Wilber, David C Lane believes that mystical experiences can be studied scientifically and that this is an important future task of transpersonal psychology. (He no longer holds this position, having become a materialist and a skeptic.) However, he eventually admits that it's very difficult to know which spiritual tradition is the correct one. How do we know that Radhasoami's form of yoga (Surat Shabd Yoga) is true, whereas Adi Da's kundalini yoga is false? Lane reaches the conclusion that perhaps we don't, and therefore non-dogmatically advises seekers to freely experiment with and compare different paths. He also has a soft spot for Faqir Chand, who was something of a maverick within the Radhasoami tradition.

While “The Journey” is a very short journey, it might wet your appetite if you're interested in mysticism, and I therefore give it three stars. Not for the general reader, though! As already noted, Lane no longer hold the pro-mystical/pro-Wilber positions expressed in this article, having become a materialist and a skeptic.That's another story, though. And another journey...

Ken Wilber minus AQAL

"Up from Eden" is a book by Ken Wilber, first published in 1981. The current edition was published in 2004 by a Theosophical group in India, and carries the following statement: "For sale in the Indian subcontinent only". So how come I own a copy? How large is the Indian subcontinent, exactly? ;-)

It's not clear how much of the Indian version is original, and how much is re-written. It seems to be based on a "New Edition" from 1996. Some of the footnotes seem to be new. Still, I must say that I prefer this (perhaps slightly edited) "early Wilber" to the scholasticism of his middle period, with all the quadrants, levels, lines and what not. As for Ken's post-metaphysical turn...please come on.

Although I tend to disagree with Wilber's Advaita-Mahayana metaphysics, "Up from Eden" is very interesting and illuminating. Of special interest is the section entitled "The Context", where Wilber discusses the two falls, the theological fall and the scientific fall. Interestingly, he doesn't claim that creation is *necessarily* fallen, and even holds out the prospect of a "non-dual realization" that doesn't negate the material world or the lower spiritual realms, but somehow purges them of their sinfulness and limitations. Is this taken from Aurobindo, who came close to seeing the realization of the Supermind on Earth as a kind of "millennium" in which matter would be divinized? Nor does Wilber believe that Heaven is just around the corner. Instead, the next step in evolution is a "normal", material humanity that somehow manages to integrate spirituality in its day-to-day existence. Wilber's distinction between pre-personal and trans-personal is also very interesting, as is the idea that the personal stage (which includes the development of an ego) is a neccesary precondition for the transpersonal.

I admit that I prefer this perspective to the usual teachings of people inspired by Advaita or Vajrayana, which sounds more nihilistic.

Wilber seems to have changed his main philosophical heroes several times - in "Up from Eden" it's Hegel, in SES it's Plotinus and Schelling, and in both SES and the post-metaphysical works it's Jürgen Habermas (!). On this point, SES seems more logical than "Up from Eden", but its nevertheless fascinating how Wilber uses Hegel to bolster his spiritual case. My guess is that he was deeply moved by Copleston's description of Hegel's philosophy in "History of Philosophy". So was I. Copleston somehow manages to make Hegel sound interesting, relevant and even somewhat spiritual. More problematic are Wilber's references to Da Free John (Adi Da Samraj), the leader of a Tantric sex cult in California, with which Wilber had some kind of association at the time of writing this book.

Weirdly, "Up from Eden" in many ways resemble my own subconscious thinking on metaphysics and the human predicament. And no, I won't and I can't vouch for every detail in Wilber's mythological interpretations. However, the last three chapters did articulate some of my own speculative thoughts concerning the meaning of evolution and existence. But yes, there are some differences between me and Mr. Wilber as well, which lay outside the scope of this review.

It's also intriguing that the Theosophists still reprint this particular work by Wilber (who never was a Theosophist, although Adyar published some of his early works), while paying no particular attention to the author's later AQAL scholasticism. Perhaps Adyar see "Up from Eden" as, in some sense, Theosophical?

Be that as it may, I give this work five stars. I somehow like Wilbie without the quadrant/post-quadrant mumbo-jumbo-jimbo.

SES = "Sex,Ecology,Spirituality", Ken Wilber's main work.