From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

First put in writing in 1316 BC, the Bhagavad Gita (literally: Song of God; also: The Song Divine) is the central part of the epic poem Mahabharata and is revered as a fundamental part of the scripture in Vaishnava Hinduism. It tells the story of Arjuna, a warrior prince, and his friend Krishna who is steering his chariot through the beginnings of the great Bharata war of 1424 BC. Arjuna and Krishna have ridden out into the middle of a battlefield, with armies arrayed on either side of them. Arjuna's job is to blow a conch shell to announce the commencement of battle. Seeing friends and relatives in both armies, Arjuna is heartbroken at the thought that the battle will cost him many loved ones. He turns to Krishna for advice.

Krishna counsels Arjuna on a wide range of topics, beginning with a tenet of Hindu faith that everybody reincarnates, so the lives lost in battle aren't really lost. Krishna goes on to expound on many spiritual matters, including several different yogas or paths of devotion. In the eleventh chapter, Krishna shows Arjuna that he is in fact an incarnation of the god Vishnu.

At a deeper level of understanding, the war is a metaphor for the confusions, doubts, fears and conflicts that trouble all people at one time or another.

The Gita addresses this discord within us and speaks of the yoga of equanimity - a balanced outlook. The term yoga covers a wide range of meanings, but in the context of the Bhagavad Gita it refers to a unified outlook, serenity of mind, skill in action, and the ability to stay attuned to the glory of the Self, that is, to Atman/Brahman. According to Krishna, the root of all suffering and discord is the agitation of the mind caused by desire. The only way to douse the flame of desire, says Krishna, is by stilling the mind through discipline of the senses and the intellect.

However, total abstinence from action is regarded as being just as detrimental as extreme indulgence. According to the Bhagavad Gita, the goal of life is to free the mind and intellect from their complexities and to focus them on the glory of the Self. This goal can be achieved through the yogas of action, devotion and knowledge.

External links

• http://www.asitis.com/ Full etext, with English translation by Prabhupada A.C. Bhaktivedanta

• http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/intro.html Realaudio of the original Sanskrit verses sung

• http://www.siddhayoga.org Unrelated link, AFAIKT

• http://www.yoga.com Unrelated link, AFAIKT

posted by vitalcoach  # 11:22 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tantra (Sanskrit: loom), tantric yoga or tantrism refers to any of several esoteric traditions rooted in Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. Extolled as a short-cut to self-realization and spiritual enlightenment by some, left-hand tantric rites are categorically rejected as dangerous by most orthodox Hindus.

There are two paths in Tantra: One is the Right-Hand path or Dakshinachara (also known as samayachara) and the other is the left-hand path called vamachara. The latter is associated with many ritual practises that go against the grain of mainstream Hinduism, including sexual rituals, alcohol and other intoxicants, animal sacrifice and flesh-eating.

According to another popular view, tantra is classified as either red (drawing on sexual energy), black (drawing on life energy released in killing) or white (dawing on divine energy.)

Some tantric aspirants simply feel the union is accomplished internally and with spiritual entities of various kinds. For this reason, almost all Tantrik writing has a gross, higher and subtle meaning. This tripartite system of understanding readily obscures the true purport of many passages for those without the neccessary background or deeper understandings so crucial to Tantra. Thus, a 'union' could mean the actual act of sexual intercourse, ritual uniting of concepts through chanting and sacrifice, or realisation of one's true self in the cosmic joining of the divine principles of Shiva and Shakti in Para Shiva.

see also Yoga, Dakini

The Tantras

According to John Woodroffe, the foremost scholar on Tantra, and translator of its greatest works (including the Mahanirvana Tantra):

" The Indian Tantras, which are numerous, constitute the Scripture (Shastra) of the Kaliyuga, and as such are the voluminous source of present and practical orthodox "Hinduism." The Tantra Shastra is, in fact, and whatever be its historical origin, a development of the Vaidika Karmakanda, promulgated to meet the needs of that age. Shiva says: "For the benefit of men of the Kali age, men bereft of energy and dependent for existence on the food they eat, the Kaula doctrine, O auspicious one! is given" (Chap. IX., verse 12). To the Tantra we must therefore look if we would understand aright both ritual, yoga, and sadhana of all kinds, as also the general principles of which these practices are but the objective expression." (Introduction to Sir John Woodroffe's translation of "Mahanirvana Tantra.")

The word "tantra" means "treatise", and is applied to a variety of mystical, occult, medical and scientific works as well as to those which we would now regard as "tantric". Most tantras were written between the 10th and 14th centuries CE.

While Hinduism is typically viewed as being Vedic, the Tantras are not considered part of the orthodox Hindu/Vedic scriptures. They are said to run alongside each other, The Vedas of orthodox Hinduism on one side and the Agamas of Tantra on the other. However, it is notable that throughout the Tantras, such as the Mahanirvana Tantra, they align themselves as being natural progressions of the Vedas that exist for spiritual seekers in the age of Kaliyuga, when Vedic practices no longer apply to the current state of morality and Tantra is the most direct means to realization. Thus, aside from Vajrayana Buddhism, much of Tantrik thought is Hindu Tantra, most notably those that council worship of Lord Shiva and the Divine Mother, Kali.

A tantra typically takes the form of a dialogue between the Hindu gods Shiva and Shakti/Parvati, being that Shiva is known in Hinduism as being 'Yogiraj' or 'Yogeshwara,' 'The King of Yoga' or 'God of Yoga' and that his consort is known to be his perfect feminine equal. Each explains to the other a particular group of techniques or philosophies for attaining moksha (liberation/ enlightenment), or for attaining a certain practical result. [Agamas are Shiva to Shakti, and Nigamas are Shakti to Shiva.]

This extract from the beginning of the Yoni Tantra (translated by Mike Magee) gives an idea of the style.

Seated upon the peak of Mount Kailasa the God of Gods, the Guru of all creation was questioned by Durga-of-the-smiling-face, Naganandini.

"Sixty-four tantras have been created O Lord, tell me, O Ocean of Compassion, about the chief of these."

Mahadeva said:

"Listen, Parvati, to this highly secret one, Dearest. Ten million times have you wanted to hear this. Beauteous One, it is from your feminine nature that you continually ask me. You should conceal this by every effort. Parvati, there is mantra-pitha, yantra-pitha and yoni-pitha. Of these, the chief is certainly the yoni-pitha, revealed to you from affection."

History of Tantra

Tantra as a post-Vedic Hindu Yogic movement began in North India and flourished in the middle ages before declining in the nineteenth century, partly as a result of persecution by the British and orthodox Hindus, and partly, perhaps, because of the increasing popularity of bhakti yoga amongst the masses.

Legend ascribes the origin of Tantra to Dattatreya, a semi-mythological yogi and the assumed author of the Jivanmukta Gita ("Song of the liberated soul"). Others see Lord Adinath, or Shiva, as the first Guru of Tantra. Things become a little more clear with Matsyendranath ("Master of fish" - so-called either because he was a fisherman, or, less probably, because he discovered a tantra inside a fish). He is accredited with authorship of the Kaulajnana-nirnaya, a voluminous ninth-century tantra dealing with a host of mystical and magical subjects, and occupies an important position in the Hindu tantric lineage, as well as in Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. His disciple, Gorakhnath, founded laya yoga. Hatha Yoga was penned by Swami Swatamarama as the secrets of Lord Adinath (another name for Shiva) in the 15th century.

Tantra evolved into a number of orders (sampradaya) and diverged into so-called "left-hand tantra" (varma marg), in which sexual yoga and other antinomian practices occurred, and "right-hand tantra", in which such practices were merely visualised. Both groups, but in particular the left-hand tantrists, opposed many features of orthodox Hindu culture, particularly the caste system and patriarchy. Despite this, Tantra was accepted by some high-caste Hindus, most notably the Rajput princes.

Hindu Tantra spread out from India, chiefly to Tibet, where it became the Vajrayana school of Buddhism. It also had some influence on Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, and even briefly enabled a yogic/sufi synthesis among some Indian Muslims. Nowadays Tantra has a large, though not always well-informed, following worldwide. It is primarily practiced authentically in West Bengal, Kashmir and South India, as well as in Tibet.

Tantric practices

Because of the wide range of groups covered by the term "tantra", it is hard to describe tantric practices definitively. The basic practice, the Hindu image-worship known as "puja" may include any of the elements below.

Mantra and Yantra

As in all of Hindu and Buddhist yogas, mantras plays an important part in Tantra, not only for focussing the mind, often through the conduit of specific Hindu gods like Shiva, Ma Kali (mother Kali, another form of Shakti) and even Ganesh, the elephant-headed god of wisdom (refer to the Ganesha Upanishad). Similarly, puja will often involve concentrating on a yantra or mandala.

Identification with Deities

Tantra, being a development of Atharva Vedic and pre-Brahmanical thought, embraced the Hindu gods and goddesses, especially Shiva and Shakti, along the Advaita (nondualist Vedic) philosophy that each represents an aspect of the ultimate Para Shiva, or Brahman. These deities may be worshipped externally (with flowers, incense etc.) but, more importantly, are used as objects of meditation, where the practitioner imagines him- or herself to be the deity in question.

Concentration on the Body

Tantriks generally see the body as a microcosm; thus in the Kaulajnana-nirnaya, for example, the practitioner meditates on the head as the moon, the heart as the sun and the genitals as fire. Many groups hold that the body contains a series of energy centres (chakra - "wheel"), which may be associated with elements, planets or occult powers (siddhi). The phenomenon of kundalini, a flow of energy through the chakras, is controversial; most writers see it as essential to Tantra, while others regard it as unimportant or as an abreaction. As it is, kundalini is nothing but the flow of the central sushumna nadi, a spiritual current, that, when moving, opens chakras, and is fundamental to the siddhi concept that forms a part of all tantra, including hatha yoga.

Tantra and Sex

As stated before, actual sexual intercourse is not at all a part of all tantric practice, but it is the definitive feature of left-hand Tantra. Contrary to popular belief, "Tantric sex" is not always slow and sustained, and may end in orgasm. For example, the Yoni Tantra states: "there should be vigorous copulation". However, all tantra states that there were certain groups of personalities who were not fit for certain practices. Tantra was personality specific and insisted that those with pashu-bhava (animal disposition), which are people of dishonest, permiscuous, greedy or violent natures who ate meat and indulged in intoxication, would only incur bad karma by following Tantrik paths without the aid of a Guru who could instruct them on the correct path.

Taboo-breaking

Sexual intercourse, preferably with a low-caste partner, was one method by which traditional left-hand practice forced practitioners to confront their conditioned responses. Others include the eating of meat (particularly beef and pork) and drinking of alcohol. Fear has also been used as a method to break down conditioning; rites would often take place in a cremation ground amidst decomposing corpses. This, of course, also falls under the prerequisite of the practitioner's nature, in such cases demanding a vir- (heroic) or even devya- (godlike) -bhava (disposition of purity, self-control, suppression of pride, respect to parents and guru and often celibacy.

Tantra in the Modern World

Tantra is used, in the West, as a general term which relates to sexual practice as a spiritual evolutionary scheme. There are in fact many different approaches as to how this manifests in American society. There have been many civilizations which have deified sexuality as the most approximate expression of cosmic love or God. Regardless, the point is that tantra is moldable. It changes with each moment and environment. It especially depends on the nature of the practitioner.

In traditional pockets of Tantric practice in India, such as in Assam near the venerated Hindu temple of Kali, Kammakha, in parts of West Bengal, in Siddhanta temples of South India, and in Kasmiri Shiva temples up north, Tantra has retained its true form. Its variance in practice is seen, where many tantrics are known to frequent cremation grounds in attempts to transcend their worldly attachment to life, and others are assuredly performing still more arcane acts. But what is common to them all is the intense secrecy in which their secrets are kept and the almost godlike reverence paid to the Guru, who is seen as a the pinnacle of Tantra. It would be safe to say that every single Hindu Tantra Yogin in India is a Shiva and/or Shakti worshipper, and the more wide-spread practices to which all Hindus commit themselves, like pooja and worship through devotion, are maintained while more occult yogic practices involving sacred rites continue. Tibet too has a very strong Buddhist Tantric background which continues, albeit many have been transplanted to monasteries in India, but can be said to widely cleave to the right-hand path, in contrast to the more varied Hindu counterparts.

Modern Tantra may be roughly divided into practices based on Hindu and Buddhist, Indian and Tibetan, traditions. In America, a mutilated and extremely narrow-minded, sensationalist approach encompassing only a misguided thinking about "sacred sexuality," with little reference to its true practice, has captured the Western mind. Real Tantra involves much more than mere wizardy or sexual titillation: like the rest of Yoga (Hindu and Buddhist), it requires self-analysis and conquering of material ignorance, often through the body, but always through a pure outlook of the mind. Those without a guru or lacking in discipline of the mind and body are unfit. It is telling that a Tantrik in West Bengal, a devotee of the Hindu goddess Kali, once said that "those most fit for Tantra almost never take it up, and those least fit pursue it with zeal."

• For two well-known Tantrik practitioners, see Shri Ramakrishna (Hindu) and the Dalai Lama (Buddhist).

Sources

• Shiva Shakti Mandalam contains an introduction to Hindu Tantra and an exhaustive collection of links.
• Mookerji, Ajit (1977) The Tantric Way: art, science, ritual. London: Thames and Hudson. A general introduction.
• Woodroffe, John (1913/1972) Mahanirvana Tantra (Tantra of the Great Liberation). Available online at [1]. A late tantra, but one of the best known.
• Bagchi, P.C. (ed.), Magee, Michael (trans.) (1986) Kaulajnana-nirnaya of the school of Matsyendranath. Varanasi: Prachya Prakashan.
• International Journal of Tantric Studies. Available online (subscription required) at [2]

posted by vitalcoach  # 11:57 AM 1 Comments Links to this post

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Sufism is a Mystic school of thought that includes philosophers and muslims.

Most sufism embraces the Quran and most of Shi'a and Sunni Islam's beliefs. Sufis believe that their teachings are the essence of every religion, and indeed of the evolution of humanity as a whole. The central concept in Sufism is "love". Dervishes -- the name given to initiates of sufi orders -- believe that love is a projection of the essence of God to the universe. God desires to recognize beauty, and as if one looks at a mirror to see oneself, God "looks" at itself within the dynamics of nature. Since everything is a reflection of God, the school of Sufism practices to see the beauty inside the apparent ugly, and to open arms even to the most evil one. This infinite tolerance is expressed in the most beautiful way, perhaps, by the famous Sufi philosopher and poet Mevlana (also known as Rumi) : "Come, come, whoever you are. Worshiper, Wanderer, Lover of Leaving; ours is not a caravan of despair. Though you have broken your vows a thousand times...Come, come again, Come."

Suf (صوف)is the Arabic word for "wool", in the sense of "cloak", referring to the simple cloaks the original Sufis wore, but the Sufis use the composing letters of the words to express hidden meanings, and so the word could also be understood as "enlightenment".

Sufis teach in personal groups, believing that the intervention of the master is necessary for the growth of the pupil. They make extensive use of parables and metaphors, in such a way that the meaning is only reachable through a process of seeking for the utmost truth and knowledge of oneself.

A large part of Muslim literature comes from the Sufis, who created great books of poetry (which include for example 1001 Arabian Nights, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, the Conference of the Birds and the Masnavi), all of which contain the profound, and hardly graspable, teachings of the Sufis.

Offshoots of Sufism in Africa include, for example, the Muslim brotherhoods of Senegal.

Universal Sufism

Sufism is usually seen related to Islam. There is a major line of Sufi thought that sees Sufism as predating Islam and being in fact universal and therefore independent of the Quran and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammed. This view of Sufism has understandably been popular in the West. Major exponents of this view were Hazrat Inayat Khan and Idries Shah.

Orders of Sufism

• Mevlevi Order

• Chishti Order

(Add links & info to other orders: such as Bektashi, Nimatalahi, Quaddiri, Rufi, Noori,...)

Sufi doctrines

Sufi cosmology

Although there is no consent with regard to Sufi cosmology, one can disentangle various threads that led to the crystallization of more or less coherent mythic cosmological doctrines. First is based on purely Quranic notions of the Afterworld (Ahiret), the Hidden (Ghayb- sometimes associated with “hidden” or “invisible” dimensions of human existence, but, more frequently with the state of God before creation or Unmanifest Absolute. Another term for the latter is “Amma”, ie. Divine Darkness) and seven-storeyed Universe explicitly referenced in the Qur’an (and cherished in prophet Mohammad’s “Miraj” or ascent to the God’s face- the powerful spiritual motif that inspired generations of later Sufis and ordinary believers). However, these relatively simple Quranic concepts that gave basic structure to Islamic worldview had soon become exposed to Neoplatonist and Gnostic influences, as well as Zoroastrian religious imagery. As a consequence, Sufism developed a welter of frequently contradictory cosmological doctrines. However, one can point out to a few basic features:

• one of the most influential early Sufis, Mansur Al-Hallaj (martyred in 922. C.E. for the supposed adherence to the heterodox doctrine of “hulul” or incarnationism, according to which Divine nature can take possession or overwhelm human nature) exposed the psychospiritual doctrine of “two natures”. Technical terms were “Lahut” for the Divinity, and “Nasut” for humanity. Ironically, it seems that Al-Hallaj only affirmed the separateness between God and Man: his two natures are polar principles that cannot be mixed or fused. From these rather simple metaphors later Sufis developed intricate Kabbalah-like cosmology.

• Suhrawardi Maqtul (martyr), the highly imaginative Iranian philosopher from 12th century C.E. completed this variant of cosmology. Although nominally not a Sufi (Suhrawardi Maqtul is the founder of Ishraqi or Illuminationist school of Islamic philosophy), his expansion and revision of rudimentary concepts early Sufis had bequeathed to their esoteric posterity played the crucial role in forming the dominant Sufi mythic cosmological Weltanschauung. In his visionary cosmography old Hermetic Ptolemaic cosmos of seven onion-like spheres has dissolved and vast spiritual universe was revealed to the later generations of Sufis. Abstract concepts of “Lahut” and “Nasut”, designating fuzzy metaphors for divinity and humanity, have grown into full-fledged worlds, or dimensions of existence, quite similar to quasi-emanationist “worlds” of Neoplatonism and Kabbalah. Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi Maqtul imagined two more worlds between physical (Alam-I-Nasut) and Divine (Alam-I-Lahut): imaginal or subtle world, corresponding to Western medieval “mundus imaginalis”- Alam-I-Malakut (literally, “world of Angels”) and world of power, Alam-I-Jabarut, resembling Platonic Nous or “world of archetypal ideas”, the source of other worlds two rungs “down” in the emanationist ladder. So, fourfold emanationist universe was conceived in this spectacular cosmography- to stay with the Sufism for later generations. The fifth “world” was equated with unknowable God’s essence and named Alam-I-Hahut (the world of “He-ness”: etymologically, Arabic root word for God with attributes or Manifest Absolute is Al-Lah or “the Divinity” (hence Lahut) and Hu (“He”) for Unmanifest Absolute, naked essence of Godhead nothing can be said about (similar to Christian polarity of Deus revelatus and Deus absconditus, or Hindu notions of Saguna and Nirguna Brahman).

• yet, other schools of Sufi thought came under Neoplatonist influence and operated with concepts like Aql-I-Awwal (Primary Intellect) and Nafs-I-Kulli (Universal Soul), which strictly correspond to the emanationist scheme of Plotinus and his followers.

This, as well as other, more orthodox variants of Quranic Sufism, also adopted Hermetic scheme of Ptolemaic spherical cosmos with planetary spheres serving as worlds of the created universe. The fixed stars (originating in ancient Sumero-Mesophotamian tradition) were a sort of limit of Hermetic cosmos: beyond lay the Quranic “Arsh” or God’s throne. Such a picture was integrated into Sufi mythic cosmography and is very similar to the image of the universe one can find in Dante’s “Divine Comedy”.

The Sufi cosmology is not a uniform and coherent doctrine. But, reading various authoritative texts, one can see that practitioners of Sufism were not much bothered with inconsistencies and contradictions that have arisen due to juxtaposition and superposition of at least three different cosmographies: Ishraqi visionary universe as expounded by Suhrawardi Maqtul, Neoplatonic view of cosmos cherished by Islamic philosophers like Ibn Sina/Avicenna (and later assimilated into majestic metaphysical edifice of Ibn al-Arabi) and Hermetic-Ptolemaic spherical geocentric world. All these doctrines (and each one of them claiming to be impeccably orthodox) were freely mixed and juxtaposed, frequently with confusing results- a situation one encounters in other esoteric doctrines, from Hebrew Kabbalah and Christian Gnosticism to Vajrayana Buddhism and Trika Shaivism.

Sufi psychology

The term "Sufi psychology" is probably a deceptive one, because it implies that there is a relatively homogenous doctrine of the psyche the majority of the Sufis would subscribe to. It is not the case. However, one can point out the terms most frequently used and expound on the meanings of these notions.

Drawing from Qur'anic verses, virtually all Sufis distinguish between Nafs, Qalb, Sirr and Ruh. These concepts designate various psychospiritual "organs" or, sometimes, faculties of sensory and suprasensory perception.

Nafs is usually translated as soul or psyche. Its etymology is rooted in "breath" (similar to Biblical or Kabbalistic nefesh and is common to virtually all archaic psychologies where the act of breathing was connected with life, animating otherwise lifeless object. In this respect, ancient notions of "Atman" in Hinduism (cf. German noun "Atem", breath, respiration) or Greek "pneuma" (as well as Latin "spiritus")-all equate the basic visible process of breathing with energizing principle that confers existence to an individual human being. Some Sufis consider under the term "Nafs" the entirety of psychological processes, encompassing whole mental, emotional and volitional life; however, the majority of Quranic-based Sufis are of the opinion that Nafs is a "lower", egotistical and passionate human nature which, along with Tab (literally, physical nature), comprises vegetative and animal aspects of human life. Synonims for Nafs are devil, passion, greed, avarice, ego-centredness etc. The central aim of the Sufi path is transformation of Nafs (technical term is "Tazkiya-I-Nafs" or "purgation of the soul") from its deplorable state of ego-centredness through various psychospiritual stages to the purity and submission to the will of God. Although the majority of the Sufi orders have adopted convenient 7 maqams (maqams are permanent stages on the voyage towards spiritual transformation), and some still operate with 3 stages, the picture is clear: the Sufi’s journey begins with Nafs-I-Ammare (self-accusing soul) and ends in Nafs-I-Mutma’inna (satisfied soul)-although some Sufis’s final stage is, in their technical vocabulary, Nafs-I-Safiya wa Kamila (soul restful and perfected in God’s presence). In essence, this is almost identical to Christian paradigm of "vita purgativa" and various stages the spiritual aspirant traverses in the journey towards God.

The next term, Qalb, stands for heart. In Sufi terminology, this spiritual heart (not to be confused with the pump in the breast ) is again variously described. For some, it is the seat of beatific vision. Others consider it the gate of Ishq or Divine love. Yet, for the majority, it is the battleground of two warring armies: those of Nafs and Ruh or spirit. Here, one again encounters terminological mess: for the Sufis influenced by Neoplatonism, a "higher" part of Nafs is equated to the Aql or intellect (called Nafs-I-Natiqa) or "rational soul" and is the cental active agens in spiritual battle: Ruh or spirit, notwithstanding its name, is rather passive in this stage. In short, cleansing of the Qalb or heart is a necessary spiritual discipline for travellers on the Sufi path. The term for this process is Tazkiah-I-Qalb and the aim is the erasure of everything that stands in the way of purifying God’s love or Ishq.

The third faculty is Sirr, or "the secret", located for the majority in the middle of the chest. Emptying of the Sirr (Taqliyya-I-Sirr) is basically focusing on God’s names and attributes in perpetual remembrance or Dhikr, hence diverting one’s attention from the mundane aspects of human life and fixing it on the spiritual realm. The "emptying" signifies negation and obliteration of ego-centred human propensities.

Ruh or spirit is the fourth "entity" and the second contender in the battle for human life. Again, opinions on Ruh differ among Sufis. Some deem it coeternal with God; others consider it a created entity. Be as it may, Ruh is the plateau of consensus for the majority of Sufis, especially the early ones ( before 11th/12th century C.E. ). For those Sufis with Gnostic leanings (which can be found in Bektashi or Mevlevi orders), Ruh is a soul-spark, immortal entity and transegoic "true self", similar to the Christian concepts of "synteresis" or "Imago Dei", or Vedantist notion of "jiva", as well as Tibetan Buddhist "shes-pa", principle of consciousness and Taoist "shen" or spirit. But, the majority of the Sufis would consider this an unnecessarily extravagant speculation and would stick to the more orthodox notion of dormant spiritual faculty that needs to be worked upon by constant vigil and prayer in order to achieve the Tajliyya-I-Ruh, or Illumination of the spirit. Ironically, this spiritual faculty is frequently referred to in terms one encounters in connection with Nafs- "blind" life force or life current that needs to be purified by strict religious observances in order to achieve illumination.

So, in these four "organs" or faculties: Nafs, Qalb, Sirr and Ruh, and the purificative activities applied to them, the basic orthodox Sufi psychology is contained. The purification of elementary passionate nature (Tazkiya-I-Nafs), followed by cleansing of the spiritual heart so that it may acquire a mirror-like purity of reflection (Tazkiya-I-Qalb) and become the receptacle of God’s love (Ishq), fortified by emptying of egoic drives (Taqliyya-I-Sirr) and remembrance of God’s attributes (Dhikr), gloriously ending in illumination of the spirit (Tajjali-I-Ruh)- this is the essential Sufi spiritual journey. Other spiritual faculties, like Khafi (the arcane) and Akhfa (the most arcane) are employed in other Sufi orders like Naqshbandi, but this is beyond general basic consensus.

Famous Sufis

• Ibn Arabi

• Rumi, aka Mevlana

• Hakim Bey

• Kabir

• Nasrudin

• Bektash

• AbdulQadir Jilani

• al-Hallaj

• Bedreddin

• Sheikh Edabali

• Idries Shah

• Omar Khayyam

• Hazrat Inayat Khan

• Al-Ghazali

• Abdel Kadir

• Imam Shamil

Literature

• Mir Valiuddin: Quranic Sufism

• Titus Burckhardt: Introduction to Sufi Doctrine

• Henry Corbin: The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism

• Sayyed Hossein Nasr: Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines

Related Topics

Dances of Universal Peace A system of spiritual practise through dance originally based on Sufi teaching but expanded to include all spiritual paths.

External links

• Tasawwuf -- Sufism Sufism & Sufi Orders in Islam

• Sufism -- Sufis -- Sufi Orders by Dr. Alan Godlas, University of Georgia

• Sufi Practices Practices of the Friends

• Haqqani The Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi Order of America

posted by vitalcoach  # 11:14 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Buddhism is the religion and philosophy based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama (Sanskrit; in Pali, Siddhattha Gotama), who lived between approximately 563 and 483 BCE. This religion originated in India and gradually spread throughout Asia, to Central Asia, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, as well as the East Asian countries of China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan.

The Buddha

Buddha is a word in the ancient Indian languages Pali and Sanskrit which means one who is awake. It is related to the word Bodhi which means to awaken.

Origins

Legend has it that the Buddha to be, Siddhartha Gautama, was born around the 6th century BCE. His birthplace is said to be Lumbini, which is in present day Nepal, although in ancient India, it was part of the Kingdom of Magadha. His father was a king, and Siddhartha lived in luxury, being spared any hardship. The legends say that a seer predicted that Siddhartha would either become a great king, or a great holy man, and this led to the king trying to make sure that Siddhartha never had any cause for dissatisfaction with his life. However, at the age of 29, while being escorted by his attendant Channa, he came across what has become known as the Four Passing Sights: an old crippled man, a sick man, a decaying corpse, and finally a wandering holy man. These four sights, as they are called, led him to the realization that birth, old-age, sickness and death came to everyone, not only once but repeated for life after life in succession for uncounted aeons. He decided to abandon his worldly life, leaving behind his wife and child, his privilege, rank, caste, and to take up the life of a wandering holy man in search of the answer to the problem of birth, old age, sickness, and death. It is said that he stole out of the house in the dead of night, pausing for one last look at his family, and did not return there for a very long time. Indian holy men (sadhus), in those days just as today, practiced a variety of ascetic displines designed to 'mortify' the flesh - it was thought that by enduring pain and suffering, the atman or soul became free from the round of rebirth into pain and sorrow. (This was an early form of proto-Hinduism, nowadays called Brahmanism.)

Siddhartha proved adept at these practices, and was able to surpass his teachers. However, he found no answer to his problem and, leaving behind his teachers, he and a small group of companions set out to take their austerities even further. He became a skeleton covered with skin, surviving on a single grain of rice per day, and practiced holding his breath. After nearly starving himself to death with no success (some sources claim that he nearly drowned), Siddhartha began to reconsider his path. Then he remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the season's plowing, and he had fallen into a naturally concentrated and focused state in which time seemed to stand still, and which was blissful and refreshing. Perhaps this would provide an alternative to the dead end of self-mortification?

Taking a little buttermilk from a passing goatherd, he found a large tree (now called the Bodhi tree) under which he would be shaded from the heat of the mid-summer sun, and set to meditating. This new way of practicing began to bear fruit. His mind became concentrated and pure, and then, six years after he began his quest, he attained Enlightenment, and became a Buddha. This meant that he had discovered a way to be free from the troubles of the world.

Historically speaking there are some problems with this story. Firstly, there are other stories of his life which do not exactly match - another story has the Buddha leaving home in the "prime of his youth", and with his parents weeping and wailing. Secondly, we know from other sources that the country of Magadha where he was born was a oligarchic republic at that time, so there was no royal family. However the story is a powerful one and its historical accuracy has not been central to its ability to inspire Buddhists for two and half millennia.

What is a Buddha?

A Buddha is a human being who has awakened to the true nature of universal cause and effect reality, whose insight into the true nature of reality has totally tranformed them beyond birth, death, and subsequent rebirth. A Buddha is not a god in the monotheistic sense of a creator god, and Buddhism traditionally does not emphasize importance in relying on a creator god. Buddha is a title of recognition rather than a personal name. In fact, all schools of Buddhism recognise multiple Buddhas in the past and future.

A Buddha is someone who has (re)discovered the principles by which birth, old-age, sickness, death, and the resultant suffering can be finally overcome. These principles are known as the Buddhadharma, or simply the Dharma. Although the Dharma itself exists outside the confines of space and time, knowledge of the Dharma can be lost. Anyone can attain what the Buddha attained regardless of age, gender, or caste. However, since the Buddha is the one who discovered enlightenment afresh in our time for himself without an enlightened teacher, the Buddha is held in high esteem. His teachings are the main focal point of refuge for Buddhists due to his having attained realization unassisted.

Principles of Buddhism

Buddhist faith is centered around three core concepts called the Three Jewels or Triple Gem. These are the Buddha (the Enlightened teacher), the Dharma (the teaching of the Buddha, therefore, in Buddhist terms, the truth) and the Sangha (which in this context means the Arya-Sangha or community of Enlightened individuals). Every Buddhist vows to take these as their refuge, and also to live by the Five Precepts. Monks take additional precepts.

The Five Precepts

1. I undertake the precept to refrain from destroying living creatures.

2. I undertake the precept to refrain from taking that which is not given.

3. I undertake the precept to refrain from sexual misconduct.

4. I undertake the precept to refrain from incorrect speech.

5. I undertake the precept to refrain from intoxicants which lead to carelessness.

The Four Noble Truths

The Buddha's teaching at his first sermon was that of the four noble truths.

1. Duhkha: All worldly life is unsatisfactory, disjointed, suffering.

2. Samudaya: There is a cause of suffering, which is attachment or desire.

3. Nirodha: The possibility of the cessation of suffering, which is the elimation of attachment and desire.

4. Marga: The path that leads to the cessation of suffering, which is called the Noble Eightfold Path.

The Noble Eightfold Path

1. Right Understanding

2. Right Thought

3. Right Speech

4. Right Action

5. Right Livelihood

6. Right Effort

7. Right Mindfulness

8. Right Concentration

Sometimes in the Pali Canon the Eightfold Path is spoken of as being a progressive series of stages which the practioner moves through, the culimnation of one leading to the beginning of another, but it is more usual to view the stages 'Path' as being able to be developed simultaneously. However without right understanding it would not be possible to really develop the other limbs of the path.

The Path may be grouped into three sections which correspond to another traditional list known as the Threefold Path: wisdom (1,2); morality (3,4,5) representing actions of body speech and mind; and concentration or meditation (6,7,8). It may also be divided into vision (1), and transformation (2-8), with 2-4, and 6-8 representing transformation of self, and 5 representing transformation of the world around us through work.

See also: Noble Eightfold Path

The three marks of Conditioned Existence

According to the Buddhist tradition all phenomena (dharmas) are marked by three characteristics, sometimes referred to as the Dharma Seals:

• Anatta (Skt. anatman): All things are not-self; without an unchanging permanent essence. Atta (Skt Atman) is the Hindu conception of a soul which is a unchanging permanent essence. Reincarnation is literally the soul putting on a new body. However the Buddha challenged this notion, not on a theoretical basis, but on a purely pragmatic one. The soul cannot be found in the body, it is neither the whole body, nor part of it, neither is it the mind or part of the mind. If the soul were permanent and unchanging, then no change would be possible (this is similar to Zeno's paradoxes).

• Anicca (Skt. anitya): All things and experiences are inconstant, unsteady, and impermanent. Everything is made up of parts, and is dependent on the right conditions for its existence. Everything is in flux, and so conditions are constantly changing. Things are constantly coming into being, and ceasing to be. Nothing lasts.

• Dukkha (Skt. duhkha): because we fail to truly grasp the first two conditions, we suffer. We desire a lasting satisfaction, but look for it amongst constantly changing phenomena. We perceive a self, and act to enhance that self by pursuing pleasure, and seek to prolong pleasure when it too is fleeting.

Other principles and practices

• Meditation or dhyana of some form is a common practice in most if not all schools of Buddhism, for the clergy if not the laity.

• Central to Buddhist doctrine and practice is the law of karma and vipaka; action and its fruition, which happens within the dynamic of dependent origination (pratitya-samutpada). A skillful or good action brings positive retribution, while unskillful or bad actions bring negative retribution. These actions are expressed by the way of mind, body or speech. Some actions bring instant retribution while the results of other actions may not appear until a future lifetime.

• Rebirth, which is closely related to the law of karma. An action in this life may not give fruit or reaction until the next life time. This being said, action in a past life takes effect in this one, making a chain of existence. Enlightenment breaks this cyclical existence (samsara).

The Three Vehicles

Since the Buddha's time, Buddhism has been practiced in three major forms. The word used for these forms is yana or vehicles. Each yana sees itself as representing the true, original teachings of the Buddha, although some schools believe that the dialectic nature of Buddhism allows its format and trappings to adapt over time in response to changing circumstances.

The three vehicles include, first, the Theravada, or "Way of the Elders", the most conservative school, which recognizes only the oldest recorded scriptures. The Theravada sect is the only surviving remnant or descendent of the Shravakayana or Hinayana (the latter is a derisive term usually used to describe the ancient non-Mahayana schools). Theravada is practiced today in Sri Lanka, Burma, Laos, Thailand, and portions of Vietnam and Malaysia.

The second vehicle is the Mahayana, or "Great Vehicle", which emphasizes universal compassion and the selfless ideal of the bodhisattva. In addition to the Theravada scriptures, Mahayana schools recognize all or part of a genre of scriptures that were first put in writing around 1 AD. Mahayana is practiced today in China, Japan, Korea, and portions of Vietnam.

The third vehicle is the Vajrayana or "Diamond Vehicle", which, while sharing many of the basic concepts of Mahayana, also includes a vast array of spiritual techniques designed to enhance Buddhist practice. The purpose of Vajrayana, also known as Tantric Buddhism, is to harness the individual's various energies in the most efficient way possible in order to seek enlightenment. In addition to the Theravada and Mahayana scriptures, Vajrayana Buddhists study an arcane body texts called the Buddhist Tantras.

History of the Schools

Three months after the passing of Gautama Buddha, The First Council was held by the Sangha. At this point, no conflict about what the Buddha taught is known to have occurred, so the teachings were divided into various parts and each was assigned to an elder and his pupils to commit to memory. These groups of people often cross checked with each other to ensure that no omissions or additions were made.

By the Second Council, one hundred years later, it was not the dharma that had been called into question but the monks' code of rules or vinaya. This resulted in the formation of the Sthaviravādin and Mahāsanghika schools. Opinions differ on the cause of the split: the Sthaviravādins described their opponents as lax monks who had ceased to follow all the vinaya rules, while the Mahāsanghikas argued that the Buddha had never intended a rigid adherence to all the minor rules. After this initial division, more were to follow. Schism in early Buddhism was typically not on points of doctrine (orthodoxy), but in the area of practice (orthopraxy). So if two schools shared a vinaya, but were in dispute over doctrinal matters, it was not unlikely that they would continue to practice together. However, if one group disputed the vinaya of another, this would often prevent common practice.

In the 3rd century BC the Third Council occurred, where small sects called into to question not only the vinaya but the details of the Dharma. The chairman of the Council, Moggaliputta Tissa, compiled a book called the Kathavatthu, which was meant to refute the heretical, false views and theories held by some sects. Moggaliputta's views were of course disputed by his opponents. The version of the scriptures that had been established at the Third Council, including the vinaya and the Abhidhamma commentaries, was taken to Sri Lanka by the son of Emperor Ashoka. There it was eventually committed to writing in the Pali language. The Pali Canon remains the only complete set of Shravakayana scriptures to survive, although fragments of other versions exist.

Between the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD, the terms Mahayana and Hinayana were first used in writing, in, for example, the Lotus Sutra. During and after the 2nd century AD, the Mahayana vision became clearly defined in the works of Nagarjuna, Asanga, Shantideva, Ashvagosha, and Vasubandhu.

Around the 1st century AD, Buddhism spread from India through successive waves of merchants and pilgrims. It reached as far as Arabia to the west, and eastward to southeast Asia, where the first records of Buddhism date from around 400AD. Mahayana Buddhism established a major regional center in what is today Afghanistan, and from there it spread to China, Korea, Mongolia, and Japan. In 475, the Indian monk Bodhidharma travelled to China and established what became the Zen school. During the first millennium AD, monks from China such as Yijing and Xuanzang made pilgrimages to India.

At one time, different Turkic and Tocharian groups along the northern fringe of East Turkestan (modern Xinjiang in western China) adhered to the Theravada school as well various syncretic mixtures of Christianity and Buddhism. However, Buddhism there was supplanted by the introduction of Islam around 1000 AD.

Vajrayana also evolved at this stage carried from from India to Tibet around 800 AD by teachers such as Padmasambhava and Atisha. There it initially coexisted with native belief systems such as Bön, but later came to largely supplant or absorb them. A form of esoteric Vajrayana known as Shingon was also transmitted to Japan, where it continues to be practiced, by the priest Kūkai.

There is still an active debate as to whether or not Tantrism was initially developed within Buddhism or Hinduism. Buddhist literature tends to predate the later puranic Tantras, and there is some evidence to suggest that the basic structure of tantra depends upon the Buddhist philosophical schools.

See also: Timeline of Buddhism

Scriptures

The Buddhist canon is distinguished from that of many other major religions in the fact that it is, in principle, an open canon. Since it is a basic tenet of the tradition that anyone may become enlightened, it is also possible for new authoritative sermons to be delivered and recorded. The Buddhist canon of scripture is known in Pali as Tipitaka:, and in Sanskrit as Tripitaka. Tripitika literally means "Three (tri-) Baskets (pitika)" and refers to the three main divisions of the canon, which are:

• The Vinaya Pitaka, containing disciplinary rules for the Sangha of Buddhist monks and nuns, as well as a range of other texts which explain why and how rules were instituted, supporting material, and doctrinal material.

• The Sutta Pitaka (Skt. sutra-pitaka), containing discourses of the Buddha.

• The Abhidhamma Pitaka (Skt. abhidharma-pitaka), containing a philosophical systematization of the Buddha's teaching, including a detailed analysis of Buddhist psychology.

The various schools of Buddhism tend to work within a distinctive group of texts, with some measure of overlap. During the first couple of centuries after Sakyamuni the Buddhist teachings were transmitted orally, but around the 1st Century CE they began to be written down. A very important surviving canon from the earliest period is the Pali Canon, named after the language in which it was memorised (Pali did not have an alphabet of it's own). It was preserved in Sri Lanka, by the Theravada school. Full versions of the original text and English translations are now readily available on the Internet.

Concerning the Mahayana canons, probably the best surviving canon is the Tibetan canon, split into those texts attributed to be authored by Buddha (Kanjur), and those texts which are understood to be commentaries by Indian practioners (Tenjur). Every sutra of the Pali canon is found within the Kanjur.

The appearance of the new Mahayana tradition brought with it a collection of texts also declared to be the actual sermons of the Buddha. These include the Perfection of Wisdom (paramita) Sutras, and Vaipulya (expanded) texts such as the Avatamsaka Sutra (Flower Ornament), as well as the Lotus Sutra, Vimalakirti Sutra, Nirvana Sutra, etc. which were translated into Tibetan and Classical Chinese, and are also now read in the West.

The Esoteric Vajrayana tradition also has a distinctive set of texts that it studies, including the Tantras.

The Mahayana canon further expanded after Buddhism was transmitted to China, where new texts were composed for the purpose of adapting the Indian tradition to the East Asian philosophical mindset. Many of these works would be adjudged to be spurious. Others gained acceptance into the canon by being passed off as Indian translations. These texts are known as Chinese Buddhist apocrypha. Other new texts, such as the Platform Sutra (attributed, probably falsely, to a monk named Huineng) and the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment were accepted as bonafide scriptures even though their Chinese provenance was well known. In the course of the development of Korean Buddhism and Japanese Buddhism, indigenous texts from those countries also attained canonical status. For example, in Korea, some of the writings of Jinul, and in Japan, works such as Dogen's Shobogenzo.

Buddhism in specific regions

Indian Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism

Southeast Asian Buddhism

Chinese Buddhism

Korean Buddhism

Japanese Buddhism

Vietnamese Buddhism

Western Buddhism

Relations with other faiths

Some Hindus believe that Gautama is the 9th incarnation of Vishnu, and in the religion of Shintoism, he is seen as a Kami. The Baha'i Faith states he was an independent Manifestation of God. Siddhartha Gautama is thought to have been sanctified by the Roman Catholic Church as Saint Josaphat based on a mistaken account of his conversion to Christianity. Some Muslims believe that Gautama Buddha is Dhul-Kifl, one of the prophets mentioned in the Qur'an.

Buddhism in the modern world

According to statistics from adherents.com, estimates of the number of Buddhists vary between 230 and 500 million, with 350 million as the most commonly cited figure.

The rise, expansion, spread and decline of Buddhism in India

In Northern Asia, Mahayana remains dominant in China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia and Vietnam. Theravada dominates Southeast Asia, including Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, as well as Sri Lanka. Vietnam is the only Southeast Asian nation where Mahayana dominates, largely due to the proximity and cultural influence of China (see also: Confucianism).

In the later half of the 1800s, Buddhism (along with so many other religions & philosophies) came to the attention of West, including American east coast intellectuals such as Henry Thoreau, who translated a French copy of a Buddhist Sutra into English. Western scholars began to learn Asian languages and translate Asian texts. Officially, in 1899, the first Westerner (by the name of Gordon Douglas) was ordained in the Theravada tradition of Buddhism in Myanmar. Religious enthusiasts enjoyed the to-them exotic and mystical tone of the Asian traditions.

The first Buddhists to arrive in the United States were Chinese. Hired as cheap labor for the railroads and other expanding industries, they established temples along the rail lines.

The cultural reevaluations of the Hippie generation in the late 1960s and early 1970s included a renewed interest in Buddhism, proclaimed by some of them as a natural path to awareness and enlightenment. Many people, including celebrities, traveled to the East in pursuit of gurus and foreign philosophy. In the 1990s, Buddhism became the fastest growing religion in Australia, in contrast to the steady decline of traditional western beliefs (see Christianity).

While in the West, Buddhism is regarded often as exotic and anti-establishment, in East Asia, Buddhism is regarded as familiar and part of the establishment. Buddhist organizations in East Asia often are well funded with donations from the wealthy and power. This in some cases has led to criticism that some Buddhist monks and organizations are too closely associated with the rich and powerful and are neglecting their duties to the poor.

A feature of Buddhism in the West has been the emergence of groups which, while they draw on traditional Buddhism, are in fact an attempt at creating a new style of non-sectarian Buddhist practice. The Shambala group set up by Chögyam_Trungpa is one example, and the FWBO by Sangharakshita is another.

Well-known Buddhists today include Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh.

Major Subtopics

• Buddhist Art

• Buddhism and science

• Buddhism in China

• Buddhist monasteries

• Buddhist philosophy

• Buddhist sculpture

• Buddhist symbolism

• Buddhist teachers: historical

• Buddhist teachers: contemporary

• Buddhist terms and concepts

• Timeline of Buddhism

See also: Ahimsa-- being -- Bodh Gaya -- Dalai Lama-- Dharma -- Eastern philosophy -- Hinayana -- Jainism -- List of Buddhists -- Mahayana -- Middle way -- Nonviolence -- Om -- sentience -- Taoism -- Trikaya -- Universal Dialectic --Universal Vehiclism-- Vinaya

External links

• Advayavada Buddhism

• BuddhaNet

• Critical Resources: Buddha & Buddhism

• DharmaNet

• Digital Dictionary of Buddhism

• FAQ about Buddhism @ Access to Insight

• Google directory for Buddhism

• ReligiousTolerance - Buddhism

• UrbanDharma

• A Study of Buddhism in Contrast to Christianity (From a Western Christian perspective)

• Another FAQ style introductory electronic booklet

posted by vitalcoach  # 10:58 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Telepathy (literally "distant perception/feeling") comes from the Greek tele, "distant", and pathe, "feeling", and refers to the supposed ability to communicate information from one mind to another, and is one form of extra-sensory perception or anomalous cognition. This information is generally reported as being "received" in the same form as that from the conventional senses.

Anecdotal accounts of such perception have been noted in many cultures since historical records have been kept. As with all psi phenomena, there is wide disagreement and controversy within the sciences and even within parapsychology as to the existence of telepathy.

Scientific investigation of telepathy is generally recognized as having begun with the inital program or research of the Society for Psychical Research. The apex of their early investigations was the report published in 1886 as the two-volume work Phantasms of the Living. It was with this work that the term "telepathy" was introduced, replacing the earlier term "thought transference". Although much of the initial investigations consisted largely of gathering anecdotal accounts with followup investigations, they also conducted experiments with some of the those who claimed telepathic abilities. However, their experimental protocols were not very strict by today's standards.

In 1917, psychologist John E. Coover from Stanford University conducted a series of telepathy tests involving transmitting/guessing playing cards. His subjects were able to guess the identity of cards with overall odds against chance of 160 to 1, however Coover did not consider the results to be significant enough to report this as a positive result.

Perhaps the most well-known telepathy experiments were those of J. B. Rhine and his associates at Duke University beginning in the 1927 using the distinctive ESP Cards of Karl Zener. These involved more rigorous and systematic experimental protocols than those from the 19th century, used what were assumed to be "average subjects" rather than those who claimed exceptional ability, and used new developments in the field of statistics to evaluate results. Results of these and other experiments were published by Rhine in his popular book Extra Sensory Perception, which popularized the term "ESP".

Another influential book about telepathy in its day was Mental Radio, published in 1930 by the Pulitzer-prize winning author Upton Sinclair (with foreword by Albert Einstein). In it Sinclair describes the apparent ability of his wife at times to reproduce sketches made by himself and others, even when separated by several miles, in apparently informal experiments that are reminiscent of some of those to be used by remote viewing researchers in later times. They note in their book that the results could also be explained by more general clairvoyance, and they did some experiments whose results suggested that in fact no sender was necessary, and some drawings could be reproduced precognitively.

By the 1960s many parapsychologists had become dissatisfied with the forced-choice experiments of J.B. Rhine, partly because of boredom on the part of test subjects after many repetitions of monotonous card-guessing, partly because of the observed "decline effect" where the accuracy of card guessing would decrease over time for a given subject, which some parapsychologists attributed to this boredom. Some parapsychologists turned to free response experimental formats where the target was not limited to a small finite predetermined set of responses (e.g. zener cards), but rather could be any sort of picture, drawing, photograph, movie clip, piece of music, etc. As a result of surveys of spontaneous psi experiences which reported that more than half of these occurred in the dreaming state, researchers Montaque Ullman and Stanley Krippner at the Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, undertook a series of experiments to test for telepathy in the dream state. A "receiver" subject in a soundproof, electronically shielded room, would be monitored while sleeping for EEG patterns and rapid eye movements (REMs) indicating dream state. A "sender" in another room would then attempt to send an image, randomly selected from a pool of images, to the receiver by focusing on the image during the detected dream states. Near the end of each REM period, the receiver would be awakened and asked to describe their dream during that period. The data gathered suggested that sometimes the sent image was incorporated in some way into the content of the receiver's dreams.

While the dream telepathy experiments results were interesting, to run such experiments required many resources (time, effort, personnel). Other researchers looked for more streamlined alternatives. These led to the so-called ganzfeld experiments, which have been most closely followed in recent times and have provided perhaps the strongest experimental evidence of telepathy to date.

To date there has not yet been any satisfactory experimental protocol designed to distinguish telepathy from other forms of ESP such as clairvoyance.

Telepathy and Technology

Some, for example Spider Robinson in the book Deathkiller, have envisioned neurological research leading to technologically assisted telepathy.

The controversial British academic Professor Kevin Warwick of the University of Reading claims that his research into implanted radio transmitters is the first step towards a kind of telepathy. Others view Warwick as a self-publicist, and regard his claims with extreme skepticism.

Telepathy in Fiction

Comic books take greater liberties with telepaths, giving them the ability to not only control minds (through hypnosis-like capabilities, illusion, etc..) but actually turning telepathy into an offensive weapon by overloading the mental communication channel with a "mind-blast" which causes great pain, unconsciousness, and sometimes even death. More broadly, telepathy has been the subject of much other science fiction and particularly soft science fiction.

posted by vitalcoach  # 12:45 PM 0 Comments Links to this post