Illumination and Enlightenment

The meaning of both of these terms, "illumination" and "enlightenment," derives from mystical experience, since both refer to light. Light is not just a metaphor for the mystic. In every mystical state, one is literally filled and surrounded by light, of different colors depending on the mystical state. No one knows why. Maybe this is the "uncreated light," which many mystics talk about. Today, "illumination" and "enlightenment" both refer loosely to the acquisition of any kind of knowledge. In some oriental guru-disciple traditions, one can supposedly acquire enlightenment suddenly, perhaps by nothing more than understanding the real meaning of a koan. I hold the exact opposite view. I think illumination and enlightenment will only come after many centuries and millennia of spiritual evolution. And it must come to all of us, if it comes to any of us.

Today, we acquire knowledge by the application of scientific method. And, I have worked to expand the application of scientific method to new problems, and new parts of the spectrum of experience, giving rise (maybe)(I hope) to a renovated Psychical Research, to a science of metaphysics, and to Utopian Analysis, a science of civilization. Yet, even that is not enough. It takes doing as well as knowing. We shall never gain the kind of control over levitation and apportation exhibited by our humanoid brethren in their UFO spacecraft without spiritual evolution. Maybe I should say we shall not be allowed these higher powers without spiritual evolution.

Spiritual evolution is not something I can define. But I know it when I see it. Lord Kenneth Clark made a similar remark about Civilisation. A society which takes care of its homeless and jobless is more evolved than one which does not. Knowledge is more evolved than ignorance, especially knowledge about things that matter, such as Psychical Research, metaphysics and utopian analysis. A cultural peak with many geniuses is more evolved than a dark age, no matter how necessary an occasional dark age might be. Arts which uplift are more evolved than those which incite to murder and riot. All forms of prejudice and discrimination over trivial matters is primitive. Our persecution of people just because they enjoy different recreational drugs is primitive.

On the other hand, the grand ideals of the Enlightenment are very evolved, if only we could learn to follow them, and recognize violations. The life of the Seeker is more evolved than a life of greed and brutality. Not that everyone must cease productive work. One can still meditate, one can still seek to erase hatred and greed in oneself, even with a job and a family. Still, the highest state of spiritual evolution may develop in those Seekers who do withdraw from the world to devote full time to spiritual evolution.

A study of classic figures and books of the New Age wouldn't hurt. Edgar Cayce, Sri Yukteswar, C.G. Jung, Lady Alexandra David-Neel, The Secret of the Golden Flower, the classic tarot, the I Ching and many other things will be found in Whole Earth Inner Space, a kind of underground cult book, first published in 1973, long out of print, but now being revived and put on the Web by Onomasti and myself.

There are a number of important revelations which more or less agree with one another, which can guide us into the new age. My favorite is the Revelations of the Nameless One, which has given us a new tarot, which Onomasti and I are putting on the Web. Eventually, you should be able to print out the New Tarot on card stock, along with associated books, and make your own deck, free. The new tarot gives us a new ecological code of ethics, a description of the path to the Illumination of Fire, and a symbolic description of the proper arrangement and functioning of the chakras, so that we are unassailable, and cannot be abducted by aliens.

Spiritual evolution is possible only when a person understands and applies the divine purpose, which reveals itself in the illumination of fire. It will take lifetimes of spiritual evolution before we are ready to undertake whatever spiritual exercises may be required to gain conscious control over levitation and apports.

Technophiles are so proud of the technological progress we have made in the past two centuries. But on the whole, the past few centuries have been a period of spiritual devolution rather than spiritual evolution. One symptom of this is the decline of the arts in the 20th Century.

Turn on the local classical music station. What do they play? Museum pieces, mostly from the 19th Century. If it is a good classical music station, it will also play music from the Early Renaissance up through the Baroque. Professional musicians will go broke if they play more than a smattering of contemporary "classical" compositions with their aimless tone rows. Are we supposed to believe this is music because the composers say it is? Like rap, it lacks some of the essential ingredients of music, such as melody and harmony.

Consider painting. We have gone from the highest peaks, in the paintings of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists to minimalism and conceptual art, where anything is art if the artist says it is. Have you ever been through the Hirschorn museum in Washington, DC? Junk. Room after room of junk. This is not art. This is the Emperor's New Clothes, a con game played for fun and profit by artists, art-dealers and collectors. The art-dealers provide the "artspeak" to convince the puzzled public why this pile of junk really isn't a pile of junk. And once the price can be jacked up enough, it becomes an investment for collectors, no matter how ugly they may regard the piece.

The worst example of spiritual devolution is architecture. Over the centuries, we have gone from the ecstacy of Gothic architecture to the brutal boxes with endless rows of identical rectangles that define the characteristic building of the 20th Century, the skyscraper. Brutal arts breed brutality in the hearts of man. And the 20th Century saw the greatest mass murders, the worst pogroms, holocausts, purges and ethnic cleansing of any time or place. This is not progress. All that science and technology have done for us is to allow us to build bigger boxes and more effective killing machines.

How do we restore the higher arts to a Civilization which has lost them? This is not an easy problem. My proposal is to bring a spiritual basis back to the arts, by means of the mandala technique, as it was developed and Westernized by C.G. Jung. Jung's approach to the mandala is described in the Afterword of the book Mandala by Judith Cornell, Ph.D. The Afterword is written by Michael Flanagin, Ph.D. and it includes full color reproductions of some mandalas made by Jung and by his patients. The medium appears to be watercolor or poster paint.

My drawn mandalas are made on typing paper with kindergarten supplies. Cornell's mandalas require a trip to an art supply house, because she uses 19" by 25" Strathmore charcoal paper, and Berol white and colored pencils. Get the book first, because she specifies the colored pencils by number. She takes her clients through a series of directed exercises, each producing a particular kind of mandala. The advantage of her technique is that the mandalas that result are invariably beautiful, though not as beautiful as those made by Jung and his patients. Cornell uses a particular Yogic meditation with each session, but I imagine any relaxation technique would work.

My contribution to the subject is to extend the mandala technique to all media, in other words, to music, dance, architecture, drama, and clothing. The trick is to balance form and technique. The circle and the square play a role in all forms of mandala. And so does the improvisational element, so no one has a preconceived idea of what will happen.

I hope someday to see mandala buildings, hear mandala music, participate in mandala drama, wear mandala clothing or use it as wall-hangings or bedspreads, and finally, to see mandala paintings on my walls. But this requires the cooperation of professional artists. I am quite happy to pay an artist to turn my scrappy looking mandala on typing paper into a larger canvas, painted with acrylics. But are there professional artists willing to do this? I don't know. The same distinction between composition and performance can apply to all the arts.

But mandalas are not just pretty. They are symbolic revelations from the deep, written in the little known and lost language of Jungian symbolism. Who can interpret them? You can if you are willing to learn the alphabet of symbolism. That may start you on a lifelong study of symbolism, which is the language of the deep, the language of the gods, the language of mysticism. Mystics always have a hard time describing their experience in English. But things can be said symbolically, that cannot be put into words.

Spiritual evolution is not just a matter of knowing. It is also a matter of doing. Participating in mandalas is a way of doing, alone, or in small circles, or the entire community, when it comes to erecting public buildings designed by the mandala technique. Another necessity is meditation. Indeed, for the serious Seeker, years of solitude in the wilds of nature are necessary. But how can anyone afford that? The chapter on the Seeker shows how freedom is paid for by simplicity. This chapter does not go into the details of meditation. It simply shows how a person can live for a year on $50 without begging or prowling around in trash dumps. The form of meditation which leads to mystical states is sometimes called "carrying wood and water." I experienced it by accident. Or by cosmic plan. Who knows? But the path I followed would be impossible to duplicate. The Seeker shows us a different way of following the same path.

Of course, this is not the only form of spiritual exercise. I do not know what exercises are required to develop conscious control over levitation and apports. Metaphysics is in its infancy. I only know that such talents will only come with spiritual evolution. We have a long ways to go. Murder and war must disappear. Theft and greed must go away. Compassion must flower, so there are no more homeless sleeping in the streets. The irritations of modern life must disappear, including gridlock on the streets or in the air. We must make peace with the planet and the creatures on it. All of that is covered in my free on-line book on Utopia.

I suppose you are eager to learn the powers of levitation and apportation, so you can travel the stars like our brethren humanoids from other stars in their UFOs? Should you study Yoga? Huna? Shamanism? Well, you can if you like, but these studies are no more likely to give you levitation than a study of Christianity is likely to make you able to walk on water.

I do have a suggestion. We know from NDEs that the mind has two powers which come into operation automatically when we go Out-Of-Body (OOB), at death, or near death, or OOB from lucid dreaming. Let us work on developing those same two powers while In-The-Body (ITB). You will recall that these two powers are the de Broglie powers and the apparitional powers (which includes telepathy). Once we have evolved spiritually enough to be allowed these powers ITB, then we can see the chakras and nadi, and see what effect our exercises have upon them. And once we all have the apparitional power, then a teacher can telepathically convey to the student exactly what it feels like to levitate or apport. The teacher will not have to rely on ordinary language, which was developed for practical and earthly purposes. This will enormously speed up our pace of progress.

Home