Transpersonal Psychologies (VI)

excerpts from "Higher States of Consciousness" in States of Consciousness, by Charles Tart (1975):

Three systems for value-ordering d-SoCs [discreet states of consciousness] are described below to illustrate that explicit and detail orderings are possible. Two are from the Buddhist tradition and one from the Arica traditions. While none of these is scientific, each is capable of being cast as a scientific theory and tested. 

    Figure 17-3 presents an ordering of nine d-SoCs that are all higher than ordinary consciousness. These are d-SoCs[2] to be obtained sequentially in seeking enlightenment through a path of concentrative meditation in Buddhism. 

     The underlying value dimension here might be called freedom. The Buddha taught that the ordinary state is one of suffering and entrapment in the forms and delusions of our own minds. The root cause of this suffering is attachment, the (automatized) desire to prolong pleasure and avoid pain. The journey along the Path of Concentration starts when the meditater tries to focus attention on some particular object of concentration. As he progresses, his concentration becomes more subtle and powerful and he eventually moves from formed experiences (all form has the seeds of illusion in it) to a series of formless states, culminating in the eighth jhana, where there is neither perception nor nonperception of anything. 

    Figure 17-4 illustrates another succession of higher states within the Buddhist framework. Here the technique involves not one-pointed, successively refined concentration, but successively refined states of insight into the ultimate nature of one's own mind. Starting from either the state of Access Concentration (where ability to focus is quite high) or the state of Bare Insight (proficiency in noticing internal experiences), the meditater becomes increasingly able to observe the phenomena of the mind, and to see their inherently unsatisfactorily character. The ultimate goal is a state called nirodh, which is beyond awareness itself. Nirodh is the ultimate accomplishment in this particular version of Buddhism, higher than the eighth jhana on the Path of Concentration. The reader interested in more detail about these Buddhist orderings should consult Daniel Goleman's chapter to Transpersonal Psychologies {128}. 

    The third ordering (Figure 17-5) is John Lilly's conceptualization of the system taught by Oscar Ichazo in Arica, Chile. More background is available in the chapter by John Lilly and Joseph Harts in Transpersonal Psychologies {128}, as well as in Lilly's Center of the Cyclone {35}. 

    In the Arica ordering the value dimension is one of freedom and of which psychic center dominates consciousness. The numerical designation of each state indicates the number of cosmic laws supposedly governing that state, as expounded by Gurdjieff (see Kathy Riordan's chapter on Gurdjieff in Transpersonal Psychologies {128} and Ouspensky {48}), with a plus sign indicating positive valuation of that state. For example, in the +3 state only three laws govern; a person is less free in the +6 state, where six law govern. A minus sign indicates negative emotions. Thus the ordinary d-SoC, the-24 state, is a neurotic one of pain, guilt, fear, and other negative emotions. The-24 state is also under 96 laws, making it less free, as the number of governing laws doubles at each lower level. 

    Lilly notes that this ordering of highness does not hold for all possible tasks in this scheme. The +12 state and higher, for instance, involve a progressive loss of contact with external reality and so become lower states if one has to perform some external task like driving a car or eating. 

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-- Charles Tart, 1975 

Transpersonal Psychology (V)

excerpt from The Mind Field by Robert Ornstein (1976):


Caveat Meditator



For many people, the first experiences of an extended consciousness have come from newly organized groups. Some of these groups are resolutely commercial, others clannish and secretive. In considering both types of groups, we encounter, again, the difficulties of understanding and conveying an advanced knowledge of human capacities. In observing how these "franchised mysticism groups" promote and maintain themselves, we can note how the original knowledge seems to shrink to fit commercial requirements.

Many people have been associated with both psychotherapy and parapsychology for many years. The advent of trademarked, franchised mystic cults, however, is a more recent development. Some people seize upon them as the latest stage in their own continual self-preoccupation and indulgence; others seek new "experiences" for themselves.


Such forms of meditation, and of awareness-training, have usually met with immediate and continued disdain from professional psychologists and educators, sometimes justified, sometimes for the wrong reasons. That these pop cults and organizations exist and thrive is in large part due to the same lag in mainstream awareness that has allowed the psychotherapeutic disciplines to extend their rightful role in our affairs. Along with our cultivation of intellectual skills, and the increasing prominence of those skills in education and professional life (with attendant specialization of function) there has been an almost complete abdication of teachings regarding the person and what could be called wisdom and self-knowledge. The trademarked awareness systems have, therefore, moved into an area of "applied psychology" in disuse within the academic and educational professions.

The systems offer either one special technique or a synthetic amalgam of techniques drawn from many sources. These techniques, in spite of the opinion of most academics, may not be entirely worthless. The "systems" do continue the fragmentation and degeneration of an authentic mystical tradition. Although the piecemeal benefits of these cults may be of scattered and transient use, such benefits are often perverted to the perpetration and dominance of the system, or to the personal service and material benefit of the leader. The process is similar to the bureaucratic encrustation of a new and perhaps useful government program: the original impetus is lost.


 If quite important traditional teachings about the person and conscious evolution have fallen into the hands of the contemporary guru-superstar industry, then both the organizers of this industry and those responsible for our education share responsibility. After all, if one is denied normal food one will search out alternatives, even food that makes one sick.



In our society, where is one to learn how to calm one's mind in times of stress, how to improve personal relationships, attain a measure of responsibility for the direction of one's life, and come to terms with one's own creation of experience of the world, let alone an intuitive wisdom of the purpose of life? The existence of "instant-weekend" and simple-minded meditation-training systems tells us more about what is missing from contemporary education, even at a rudimentary level, than any amount of professional criticism could do - we are a society of spiritual illiterates, suckers for a quick answer. Many have turned to the showmen/salesmen and to the recycled Indian dropout to make up for the basic shortcomings of our education - and at great, and often unnecessary, cost.



We are lax in the training of personal knowledge. We may spend years perfecting our tennis stroke, yet precious little training is offered on the nature of our bodies or on the personal dimensions of our own experience. Much modern research, for instance, shows our ordinary consciousness to be a construction of the world, a "best guess" about the nature of reality. Yet rarely, if ever, in psychology or education classes is this fact brought home to students and made part of their experience. Rarely are students acquainted with procedures that might allow them to realize the benefits of this understanding. "Academic" learning is rather determinedly kept in one sphere, with its own professionals and hierarchy, "applied" training in another: rarely does the academic become involved in training people, and rarely does the "applied" psychologist or educator make any dent in mainstream academic thinking.



The new, franchised self-improvement courses are neither the instant self-transcendence-fantastic-enlightenment panaceas that their followers resolutely contend, nor are they, as most academics contend, entirely lacking any phenomena of interest. Most self-awareness programs provide some of the rudiments of a once-complete technology of consciousness. In the absence of anything more highly developed, such programs impress their followers, and yield great benefits to their leaders - after all, a simple tape recorder might be enough to convince a primitive tribe that the bearer was a representative of the deity. From one system, one can learn to relax; from a second, to relate; from a third, to respond. Converts are often attained by classic methods: program leaders offer either a minor service to the inexperienced in the meditation/relaxation system, for example, or they offer a severe initiation/conversion experience, as in the large-scale awareness-training systems. Particular systems come and go, inspired, perhaps by a given site or the particular style of a leader or a particular technique, yet their successes and excesses remain fairly constant.



Consider one such reduced example of a complete tradition: the practices of meditation as developed in various cultures of the world and in various cultural eras are quite diverse. The practice may involve whirling, chanting, singing, or concentration on the movement of the beat, on specially posed questions, or on an internal sound. It may consist solely of ordinary activities, imbued with "mindfulness"; it may involve prayer in the church, in quiescence, or in unison. There may be an attempt to deliberately separate two coexistent streams of consciousness. Other, more advanced techniques may involve the control of various "centers" in the body, as in early Christian mysticism, and receptivity to communications beyond the norm. Meditation practices have many, many diverse functions, depending on the nature of the students and of the society.



The primary function of the diverse techniques of meditation is to begin to answer the basic questions of life, such questions as go unanswered in ordinary social or educational interaction. For instance, one might ask, "What is the purpose of existence?" or "What is death?" in the same verbal analytic mode as one might ask, "What is the size of that building?" Most of us are trained to ask questions in this manner. But those of esoteric tradition contend that personal questions about the nature of existence cannot be answered in the same rational, verbal manner as can questions about the nature of the physical or even social environment. Meditation, then, is "a-logical," intended to defeat the ordinary sequential and analytic approach to problem-solving in situations where this approach is not appropriate.



Questions are sometimes given that have no answer, for the purpose of showing, simply, that not all questions that can be posed can be answered. A Zen Master might ask, "What is the size of the real you?" - then instruct a follower to return with the answer, an answer obviously impossible to express in words or in rational thought. On koan, as such questions are called, is the following: "If you say this stick is real, I will beat you with it. If you say this stick is not real, I will beat you with it. If you do not say anything at all, I will beat you with it." Obviously, this is a situation in which there is little one can say, since the appropriate response lies in another realm.



A Japanese academic who wished to "understand" Zen more fully went to a monastery to submit himself to the koans. He was asked "What is mu?" - to define, that is, a word which has no meaning in Japanese. As a good scholar, he proceeded to look up the syllable in Japanese and other Oriental dictionaries to determine a potential root meaning and habitual usage. He presented his findings to the Master, who repulsed him and immediately sent him away.


Our scholar next thought the question to be more subtle and tried to analyze the tonal component of the syllable in every language of the Chinese group. He again presented his findings to the Master, who now thought it was time to convince this poor scholar of the seriousness of his situation, that it was not a question of another academic excursion. "I will give you one more chance," he said, "and if you do not solve the riddle, I will cut off your leg."


Now, even in the most extreme arguments or thesis examinations of the academic world, thing usually don't become this rough. But the threat did frighten the scholar "out of his wits," so to speak. He completely concentrated upon the syllable itself, trying to puzzle out the meaning, and in the process of concentration itself he achieved the result. The question had a nonanalytic effect, and a nonverbal result as well. Those who are not privy to the extreme concentration brought about by the Zen Master's exercise, or the scholar's reply, might not realize that many of the most important and compelling questions that face us cannot be looked up in an encyclopedia or dictionary. There is no place where the meaning of one's life is "written up."



Chanting, whirling, and other exercises are concentration techniques, exercises whose primary effect is mental, not confined to mere relaxation or to a highly promoted "fourth state of consciousness" involving deep relaxation. That we become confused when considering meditation is partly due to the fact that many of the undeveloped esoteric traditions come to us mixed with their Indian, Japanese, and Middle Eastern backgrounds, with their particular medical and cosmological systems and other cultural trappings. It is again a problem of the container and the content - we cannot sufficiently distinguish those aspects of esoteric tradition which can be important for the development of our own consciousness from the less importable foreign aspects of cultural style.


Vegetarianism, for instance, is widespread and is functional in India due to the short supply of meat (which, when available, is often of poor quality, or even dangerous). Similarly, speaking Japanese, or using soy sauce (or, better, Tamari) is no more "spiritual" than consuming hot dogs, ketchup, or beer. Not useful either is the wholesale adaptation of a particular system of Indian medicine or cosmology, when in these areas the West has developed beyond the East. As we often encounter them today, the ancient esoteric traditions are accidental conglomerations of useful techniques and outmoded cultural trappings. In such an atmosphere, a reduced form of meditation can be mass-merchandised.



And for many, their entire association with the techniques of meditation has been with the most rudimentary and minor form, that of a concentrative repetition, divorced from any cultural background, and divorced from other techniques that are organically associated with it. It is like learning how to spell, without ever learning how to read.



Continual concentration upon any object produces certain biological results. Among them is a loss of contact with the external world - which may be interpreted differently by a person merely amusing himself by staring at a crack in the wall, or by a person in a psychological experiment, or by one who performs these actions at the beginning of serious practice in esoteric tradition.


One particular form of this concentrative meditation, known by its trademarked name as "Transcendental Meditation," is in fact the most elemental and least transcendent form of meditation of all. Indeed, Transcendental Meditation, quite popular in the United States and Western Europe, has offered many their first idea of what these traditions are about - unfortunately, too often in the form of a giggling, smiling guru and a highly developed program of scientific "validation." Descriptions of the efficacy of Transcendental Meditation are displayed in brochures and on posters stuck on laundromats and pizza parlors from Spokane to Boca Raton: "Improves levels or rest, aids natural changes in breath rate, cardiac output, relaxation, restful alertness, brain wave synchrony, faster reaction time, increased perceptual ability, learning ability, academic performance, productivity, job satisfaction, job performance, self-actualization, inner control, mental health, psychology," and so on.



Indeed, it is claimed by the proselytizers of "TM" that it is the "answer to all your problems." Nowhere do we see reference to the major mental purpose of meditation; we are given only the reduction. Common to many of the franchised systems are these commercial claims to improve every aspect of human life. This is a mark of a cult system. Participants believe they have in their grasp a technique good for everyone at all times - not one that might have selective benefits and detriments.



In the case of TM, the bulk of its claimed scientific "validations" are usually marked "submitted for publication" - or are published by the movement's own Maharishi International University Press. TM is promoted as a synthesis of East and West - which means, presumably, that Western science is at last considered able to investigate practices of the East. If there is a synthesis here, it is an unfortunately comic one - the lack of scientific rigor in the East joined with the lack of spiritual advancement of the West. Such claims constitute a debasement of both science and meditation. Here, science is employed to document improvements in personality, or bodily changes, with no consideration given to whether such changes are in fact due to meditation, and what the significance of the change really is.



For instance, the mere report of an alteration in the electroencephalogram means almost nothing by itself. The EEG alone is quite an unstable measure, and rigorous controls must be maintained to ensure that it actually relates to significant brain activity. Recording an EEG might be compared to placing a heat sensor over a computer and attempting thereby to determine the computer's program. The innumerable brochures and posters which promote the TM movement often go beyond scientific evidence. "Increased synchrony" of the brain, for example, which connotes to those versed neither in meditation nor in brain research a measure of the mind's "increased harmony," that both hemispheres are working together, is often claimed as a result of TM. In truth, such "synchrony" (a finding largely unrepeated) derives from the fact that the brain may produce more alpha rhythm in times of quiescence, and thus the correlation of the two hemispheres of the brain is increased.



Similarly, a time-displaced frequency (fourier) analysis is sometimes displayed. The implication here is that mind is "calm" during meditation, since the graphs have an appearance of regularity. This is merely the use of undigested technical vocabulary to impress the credulous. The pattern of an epileptic seizure might well look, to the uninitiated, as a coherent pattern on a frequency analysis. And thus with the relaxation measures, and the various additional studies. The fallacious and promotive scientism here seems to be: if any psychological or physiological measure alters during their practice of the concentrative "transcendental" meditation, then

a. it must be due, exclusively, to this wonderful practice; and

b. the change must be "good."



The studies continually barrage one with measures of increased Goodness and decreased Badness, during and after the practices.


Note how the process works. Herewith a proposed physiological experiment which will yield positive results, and which could be repeated (or, rather, performed for the first time) in any physiological laboratory in the world. I will also draw the same conclusions as do the TM merchandisers from their experiments (A and B). Suppose we assume that reading were not developed in our society. I might claim that reading "sacred" literature, such as the Bible, not only leads to increased Goodness, but that it actually causes physiological changes. Imagine the following experiment (C): physiological measures are taken on selected subjects before reading, while reading, and after reading: eye movement is chosen for the physiological validation of our experiment.



We could naturally conclude that before reading, physiological activity was at a low level, but during reading it dramatically increased, and returned to baseline afterwards. If we wanted to continue the research, we could undoubtedly record alterations in Regional Cerebral Blood Flow (RCBF) to the left hemisphere, changes in Galvanic Skin Resistance (GSR), etc. However, our experiment would not explain how an arbitrary measure, such as eye movement, relates to the supposed benefits of reading, or whether, for instance, other types of reading would show similar effects on the eye-movement measure.



Several points need to be raised about research attempting to validate meditation. This kind of research tends to be promotive and exploitative; it uses science to sell a product. This promotionalism is rather like drug-company television commercials that show one product entering the bloodstream faster than others. The essential question should be: what is the real effect of meditation? Popular forms of meditation are, most likely, a quite reduced and sanitized form of a more advanced exercise, no more useful than repeating the world "Coca-Cola" or "money" over and over for relaxation. This exercise is not at all useless in itself, especially in cases of stress, but as it is packaged it is no quicksand to someone seeking extended knowledge.



The problems of promotive hucksterism are to be expected when so few people are sufficiently acquainted with the intention, possibility, and range of esoteric traditions. Certainly, relaxation of habitual thought patterns, and internal control, as developed in esoteric tradition, can be of help to many people, especially those prone to anxiety and worry. It may even enable "normal" people to stabilize their health and achieve a more flexible repertoire of thought strategies, as a prelude to involvement in esoteric traditions. However, the primary purpose of meditation is not physiological. No one meditates to attain "synchrony of electrical activity of the brain hemispheres" or "a long period of pure, high-amplitude, single-frequency theta waves." Meditation is undertaken to increase one's capacity for experience and self-understanding.



The mental "emptiness" achieved by the concentrative forms of meditation is not a mere lapse in attention but an alteration in one's basic approach to the world, a glimpse of a potential consciousness. Other exercises, such as the "mindfulness" rituals in Zen, are intended to yield in the observer a notation of habitual sequential patterns of mental activity characteristic of the individual. There are a myriad of potential consciousness-alteration techniques. As our culture is opened up to the East, various immigrant have entered with techniques borrowed piecemeal across cultures.



However, although there are many techniques available, most people are not in a position to choose which technique is most appropriate for them. There is, after all, no indigenous cultural tradition to draw upon. "Experts" who have little experience of the unity and coherence of spiritual techniques offer instant-weekend self-improvement courses which promote the particular amalgam chose by the expert himself. They often involve a little meditation, a little indoctrination, a little scientology, and a little "validation," with the audience softened up (as in the best of brainwashing) by fatigue, fasting, and insults. Such courses bear the same relationship to a consistent, spiritual developed teaching as the techniques of a sex manual have to the experience of love. (* Note: I once received a form letter, with a computer address label, from one West Coast instant guru that ended with "I love you.")



The instant-enlightenment weekend approach can be produced by several means. One could duplicate the results by techniques as diverse as the proper use of jewelry, or by fasting, by dancing to exhaustion, by sensory deprivation or overload, or with drugs. Such an upset of ordinary activities and consciousness yields a "first experience" that the world is different from what one had thought. Yet, as a "first experience," we are likely to misinterpret its significance, just as people often overvalue their first sexual experience. We often find any real benefit to the student plowed back into service to the organization.



If, for instance, you had never heard of an automobile, you might be excited to be offered, for $50,000 a vehicle that actually ran on gasoline. Such a vehicle might be comprised of the fenders of a 1921 Ford, the engine of a 1926 Hispano-Suiza, the transmission of a contemporary Mercedes, seats from a Chevrolet pickup truck, the rear body from an Austin. You might be further impressed by the sacrifices and the submission you and many volunteers would need to keep such a vehicle on the road. If no one else of you acquaintance, however, had ever heard of an automobile, you might well become famous as the person "who gave it all up for the vehicle that could move itself." Yet even the most humble contemporary economy car would be an improvement.



The franchised weekends take just such an advantage of the gap in our education. Popular mysticism claims "converted" adherents for techniques which should be part of our basic education. Its enthusiasts take a partial aspect of esoteric tradition, such as an exercise meant for one community, and generalize it to everyone, and offer the same mass indoctrination or initiation to everyone. The initial "experience," then, is often channeled, not into the individual's personal development, but into the service of the system.


Since the systems are synthetic and artificial amalgams, they must be kept going with much infusion of effort and activity. Thus, social gratification begins to substitute for the development of consciousness, with parties, mixers, investment clubs, phone solicitation, uniform dress, and jargon designed to create an elite in-group. Continual reminders are given to stragglers, by mass mailings, letters and phone calls, Christmas gifts, solicitations of service to the head of the organization, all consequence of the artificial nature of the system. The question is not only whether the constellation of techniques has any effect, but also whether in the long run the usefulness of the experience of the technique is outweighed by the benefits of the system itself, whether people seeking to develop themselves are ultimately exploited by those who confuse the container with the content.





II.



The noncommercial, secretive, esoteric cults are unfortunately similar to the well-advertised consciousness systems. The degeneration of a true religious tradition in the West has left those high-minded "metaphysical people" prey to those who substitute an ancient fragmentary teaching for a unified whole. David Pendlebury describes the current situation:



'"Sobriety" and "intoxication" are of course not intended literally; nor are they merely flowery metaphors: these are technical terms denoting twin poles of human awareness, each in its own way indispensable to balanced development. A man has to see the true reality of his situation; he has to take a very sober look at him self. Equally, though, he needs a taste of another condition in which his latent possibilities are recognized. Taken on its own, either pole is sterile, developmentally speaking. There are plentiful examples all around us of such imbalances. Perhaps you too had a Calvinist great-uncle who died heartbroken, having succeeded in convincing himself, a) that "the grace of God" was essential, and b) that such "grace" had been withheld from him. Perhaps you, too, have friends whose Ouspensky-oriented understanding of Gurdjieff has left them eternally bewailing the (obvious facts that "man is asleep," "man cannot remember himself," "man cannot do," etc.) Or other friends who have chosen to "freak out," to "blow their minds"; and are astonished, in rare moments of lucidity, to find themselves inhabiting a "behavioral sink" or terminal sewer." Or other friends, perhaps, who inform you in and out of season that: "I was hopelessly at sea, until (name and address supplied) showed me the answer."'



Pendlebury mentions the Caucasian "mystic" George Gurdjieff, whose followers unfortunately have come to represent the fragmentation of much of contemporary esoteric studies. Although by many accounts Gurdjieff was a man who personally could awaken a sense of life and action in his associates, his work has become the captive of his most doctrinaire and severe followers, who seem to cherish their incompleteness and merely shout "I must wake up" while reading obsolete doctrines. A fragment of a coherent approach has become honored among those who look to each new teacher for the secret that will allow them to turn away from their morbid self-preoccupation and experience the wholeness of life.



This kind of esoteric school serves to promote the abnormality of those involved. Thus, the continuous search for "true teachers" of mysticism often leads enthusiasts to an examination and popularization of the past, of teachings inappropriate for our time and culture. Outmoded books on alchemy, ancient mysticism, commentaries on Gurdjieff and other mystics are all scoured by the devout in their hope of finding "the key" which will unite all. One of Gurdjieff's teachers describes this process to one who sought out the teachings of the East: "You are scrabbling about in the sands, looking for bits of mica to piece together to make a mirror, not realizing that the sand itself is capable of being transformed into the purest glass."



Here, then, is an essential distinction between the obscurantist esotericizers, who continually proclaim to "search the heavens" and the "depths of their souls" for isolated bits of knowledge, and a potentially viable contemporary spiritual teaching. Reductionism, or inflation, can exist on all levels, including the metaphysical. Merely writing in effulgent and self-denigratory terms about an outmoded cosmology is no more relevant to the real development of human knowledge than are psychiatric theorizing or the double-talk of commercial awareness-training groups. That the dead hand of a cold, sterile Metaphysical Inflationism should have touched the students of Gurdjieff - a man, for all his shortcomings, who always sought genuine development - is a great irony.



If there do exist so many difficulties in popularizing the fragmentary remains of esoteric tradition - a meditation technique that is sold for everybody, a man screaming for hours effectively brainwashing an audience, or a turgid "metaphysics" - then what might currently be useful in preparing the ground?



Most of the contemporary fragmentary systems suffer from a confusion of the essence of mystical tradition with the original system itself. They often confuse the system with the knowledge, mixing up mistranslated ancient descriptions of "sight" and what can be "seen" with the technical details of an operation designed, say, to remove occlusions.


A blind person accustomed to hearing inflated exaltations of the joys of sight may not be prepared when someone introduces technical procedures that are actually useful in an eye operation. "What are these cold hard things I touch?" he may exclaim of the surgical instruments. "What is their relationships to the grandeur of green grass, or to a sunset, of which I have heard so many wondrous descriptions?" Why many people of differing specializations may need to be involved in the task of surgery; why there is a need for antisepsis, for someone to have studied the physiology of the eye (or brain hemisphere, in the case of hemianopia), would entirely escape those who have become diverted from the attempt at seeing into a mere interest and expertise on "the dimensions of spiritual experience," "techniques of mysticism," "traditional approaches to the mind," or "the wisdom of the East." Such a person wishes for more availability of effulgent and high-minded descriptions of sight: the fragmentary substitute.



This is a continuous difficulty: the confusion of the vehicle with the objective, of the hard technical knowledge available in this area today with romantic descriptions of the universe, "spiritual experiences," "beings" of all orders, a "cosmic law." However, current literature, travel writings, and scientific facts all can serve a valid and reconstructive purpose: if properly presented, they can convey to the interest student the rudiments of "sight," and can aid in developing a more comprehensive awareness of himself and of life. This can occur even though the literature may not directly mention cosmology, God, mysticism, or any of the things most usually, romantically and traditionally, associated with mystical experience.


Many of the most important books, then, do not appear in "metaphysical" collections, nor are they used by mystical societies. They may not contain one word of reference to this area, or be labeled "metaphysical." They are present but are "invisible" to the hemianopic, or to the blind slave of tradition, or to the devotee of the current cults.


Yakoub of Somnan, explaining the function of the literature that he used, said:

"Literature is the means by which things which have been taken out of the community, such as knowledge, can be returned. The similitude is as of a seed, which may be returned to the earth long after the plant from which it grew is dead, with perhaps no trace of it remaining. The learned may be millers of the grain-seed, but those whom we call the Wise are the cultivators of the crop. Take heed of this parable, for it contains the explanation of much irreconcilability of attitudes in the two classes of students."

Transpersonal Psychology (IV)

Kathleen Speeth, "Beyond the Enneagram," 1994.

Transpersonal Psychology (I)

(Selections from "The Arica Training", by John Lilly and Joseph Hart, found in Transpersonal Psychologies, 1975, Charles Tart ed.)

John Lilly: Graduate of the California Institute of Technology, and received his Doctorate in Medicine from the University of Pennsylvania in 1942. as well as having been trained as a psychoanalyst. He has done extensive research in various fields of science, including biophysics, neuro-physiology, electronics, and neuro-anatomy. Dr. Lilly has done many years of study and research on sensory isolation and confinement. He spent twelve years working on research on dolphin-human relationships including communications and then spent two years at Esalen institute, Big Sur, California, as a group leader, resident and associate in residence. He spent a total of eight months in Chile studying the Arica system with Oscar Ichazo, and now directs Human Software, Inc, a center to investigate consciousness in Malibu, California. Dr. Lilly’s books include … and he has written numerous scientific articles.

Joseph E. Hart, A.B., M.A., Ph.L., Stl. Was formerly director of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences of Parks College of St. Louis University. He was one of the 54 Americans who trained with Oscar Ichazo in Arica, Chile and then he served as a teacher and one of the directors of the Arica school in New York City until July of 1972. He is now associated with John and Antoinette Lilly at Human Software, Inc, Malibu California.

History and Development

On July 1st 1970, fifty-four North Americans, most of them from Esalen and Big Sur, met in a lecture room of the city hospital of Arica, Chile, to start ten months of intensive training under a Bolivian by the name of Oscar Ichazo. Little was known about Ichazo’s background then; not much more is known now. But Claudio Naranjo, John Lilly and Kathy Bliebtreu and John Lilly had made trips to Chile earlier in the year to meet Oscar and had brought favorable reports back to the West Coast. [for those who haven't heard it, Naranjo's 'favorable report' can be heard here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl1yJjGaDQo ]

The little that Oscar has stated about his life can be put very briefly. He was born in 1931 and raised in Bolivia and Peru. His father was prominent in Bolivian politics. When Ichazo was six and a half, he began to suffer very violent attacks during which he had great pain, fear of death then the experience of leaving his body. As the result of these early experiences, he determined to gain control of his own consciousness and overcome these attacks, so he studied Samurai techniques and Zen meditation , was introduced to psychadelic drugs and Shamanism, studied Yoga, read in philosophy.

When he was 19, he was accepted for training by a group in Buenos Aires who were studying consciousness-raising techniques, Zen, Sufism and the Kabbalah. After being with this small group for about 2 years, he began to search for further training in the East, Hong Kong, India and Tibet, where he studied Yoga, Buddhism , Confucianism , the I Ching and Martial Arts.

There is some indication that [Ichazo] became a member of a Sufi school in Afghanistan but left to return to La Paz, Bolivia. Certainly he either came under the influence of the school that taught Gurdjieff, or at least, studied under students of Gurdjieff. For both Oscar and Gurdjieff groups use the teaching device of the 9-sided figure, the Enneagram, though Oscar claims to have worked out the ancient meanings and uses of the Enneagram himself.

His first group of students were Chileans from Santiago where he was lecturing at the Institute for Applied Psychology. When he moved to Arica, some of these students moved there with him and became his assistants in teaching the North American group.

332: After 6 months of introductory exercises a new phase of more intensive training began for the North American group. At that time, 5 of the original group, including Claudio Naranjo, were separated from further training; John Lilly also left, to return to the U.S. All training in Chile ended in 1971 and the group returned to the U.S.

Those who wished to open a school in New York for giving the “Arica Training” and continue working with Ichazo, were to meet in September in NY with 44 of the original members and Ichazo. The Arica Institute in America was incorporated and began giving the first 3 month training to 76 students at Marriott’s Essex House Central Park South on October 1st 1971. A second and third 3-month program followed, and in January 1972 a center was opened in San Francisco. In June, 1972, special training, “The Temple”, was offered to all those who had finished the three month course. Then followed the “Open Path” training to prepare teachers, who now number about 250, with centers in New York, San Francisco, Santa Monica and training programs in a number of other cities.

When a child is born he is pure essence, a natural being in an ordered cosmos, one with all men and with God, instinctive, loving. This is the perfect state of innocence, but the child must grow. Under the influence of his surroundings, parents, society, he begins to develop a personality for survival, the Ego, between 4-6 years of age. The awareness of the joy and harmony of his essence dims until he is conscious only of his ego, which is fighting for survival in a threatening world. This lack of awareness of the essence leads to the unhappiness which many feel as part of man’s condition in this world. But if the ego with its constant fear can be eliminated, man can return to his original state of being in essence with the addition of all the knowledge his life experience has given him.

This knowledge and experience can now enrich the essence which can function more fully in harmony with the cosmos and is now that of an enlightened man.

The ego affects the whole of man, his thinking, his emotions, his bodily movement and energy, which are represented by three centers: the Path, the intellectual center in the head; the Oth, the emotional center in the heart region; and the Kath, the movement/energy/instinct center about 4 finger widths below the navel.

One of the first steps towards enlightenment is to break the hold of the ego on the thinking center—the Path—since man in ego sees himself, others and the world only in terms of his ego structure

333: the Ego functioning in the Path wants the mind to control the emotional center and the movement-instinct center, the Kath. So it is necessary to learn to think with the whole body by the use of the mentations....


To break the hold on the intellect, one must understand his personal ego structure. Each person in ego has a definite pattern of thinking—a fixation. There are 9 basic fixations, usually shown in the form of an Enneagram: the Enneagram is a teaching device used by the Sufi school and developed by Ichazo. Far from being an arbitrary symbol, it has very carefully worked-out interior and exterior dynamic relationships between each point and the whole. It is the subject of constant meditation and study. The relationships are so complex and rich that it would be impossible to explain them in a limited article. To overcome the feeing of unhappiness and emptiness, the individual in Ego searches for something to fill the void according to his fixation

*9- Indolence: this person seeks love outside himself and makes no effort to find his essence and peace.

*1- Resentment: always angry with himself and others for not being perfect.

*2- Flattery: needs an approving audience. Many entertainers belong to this group.

*3- Vanity: strives for degrees, positions of importance, power over others

*4- Melancholy: never happy with the present, always looking toward a happy future

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*5- Stinginess: desires anonymity and to view life from the sidelines.

*6- Cowardice: needs a strong leader to follow, one who can be protective

*7- Planning: always planning what to do and what must happen, always disappointed at the outcome

*8- Vengeance: destructive of self and others out of a sense of injustice.

The ego leads each person into his own fixation Trap, or false substitute for his experience of his own essence. Each fixation has a “trap”, a habitual way of acting that stems from the ego. A person who falls into the trap associated with his fixation will remain in that recurring action loop until such time as he realizes that it is getting him nowhere. At that point he is ready for the “Idea” that will put him through the door of the trap and into his Essence.

Traps

*9- Seeker: he is always seeking outside himself for the solution of his problems, running from guru to guru

*1- Perfection: while demanding perfection of himself, he also expects perfection in others. Of course, he always hates himself for not being perfect and is always disappointed in others.

*2 – Freedom: although dependent on others for constant approval of himself and his actions, he is fighting that dependency in order to be free from social disapproval and approval.

*3- Efficiency: he has little patience with inefficiency in others, is looking for more effective and quicker methods of achieving his goals. Thus he may be rather inefficient himself.

*4 – Authenticity: for this person, the really real mate will always be just around the corner of the next hour or day or year. With such a mate, this person will then be fulfilled and so, authentic.

*5- Observer: for him, life is fascinating to watch from a safe, hidden place but is much to terrifying to take part in.

*6- Security: since such a person lives in fear—life is always threatening—he always seeks something or someone as protector against impending disaster. He will seek to build up a solid fortune, or will become the devoted follower of a strong leader.

*7- Idealism: he is concerned with manipulating the present so that the future will be perfect and the fulfillment of his ideals. When the future becomes the present he is disappointed and must begin working again towards his ideal.

*8- Being aware of living in a very unjust world, he is very sensitive to any unfair actions or thoughts directed at him. His immediate thought is that of revenge.

When the “traps” are recognized as being a source of unhappiness leading nowhere, the person is ready for and eager to accept the proper “idea” for him These “ideas” are but particular facets of the eternal essence which can bring man to an experiential knowledge of his essential self, and so to internal peace and happiness. Experiencing these ideas is dependent upon baraka, divine energy, which must permeate the person. Drawing on baraka is accomplished through meditation, breathing, chanting and other exercises:

*9. Holy love: the Seeker is seeking for someone to truly love him so that he can feel loveable. The experience of Holy Love reveals that his essence is pure Love. Then he is both loving and loveable.

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*1. Holy Perfection: the seeker for Perfection from the outside, experiences that his essence is perfect. He can relax.

*2. Holy Freedom. The experience of the essence forces man from a dependence upon the approval of others and introduces him to the freedom of living the cosmic laws

*3. Holy Hope: the seeker for efficiency, resting in his essence, finds that all things are functioning and will continue to function most efficiently according to the cosmic laws. The continual functioning of the cosmos doesn’t depend solely upon his efforts; there is hope for the future whatever he does or doesn’t do

*4. Holy Originality: Once he realizes that his essence originates from perfect being, then he knows that he is really real now, and not sometime in the future.

*5. Holy Omniscience: The observer , storing up knowledge of life by viewing it from the sidelines, steps into life when he experiences his essence. Then and only then can he truly have full knowledge of life.

*6. Holy Faith. For one seeking security, his essence will give him the assurance that nothing from outside him can hurt his essence, not even physical death, and he is truly his essence.

*7. Holy Work. For the idealistic planner of the future, the touch of the essence will bring him to live and work in the moment, fully and happily.

*8. Holy Truth. Once the seeker for justice realizes, that his essence follows truly the cosmic laws, which are immanently true and just, he will be satisfied and at peace.

Transpersonal Psychology (II)

The Original Arica Training, pt. 2


Breaking the hold of the ego on the emotions, or Oth center, follows much the same pattern of becoming aware of one’s predominant passion and counteracting it with the proper virtue. The passions are the emotional survival systems of the ego. A person with a given fixation would generally react to life in a habitual way. He will feel all the passions at sometime or another, but his predominant passion will set the emotional tone of his personality.

#9. Laziness: for the ego indolent, the ego will persuade him to be very lazy in searching for his essence, though he may be hyperactive in finding ways to avoid working toward his essence. 

#1. Anger: the ego will keep the person in resentful anger because he is not perfect, nor are the people around him. 

#2. Pride: the ego-flattery is dependent upon the approval and applause of others and he works hard to get them. The constant approval and flattery of others produce ego pride. 

#3. Deceit: one who wants to be known for his accomplishments, positions of influence, and efficiency, finds it difficult to admit anything that might  mar his public image, so he is often forced into deceit to protect his ego. 

#4. Envy: the ego-melancholy person, hoping for the perfect mate or situation in order to feel really real and fulfilled, tends to think most others have achieved this, and of course is envious of their seeming happiness and earthiness. 

#5. Avarice: anonymity and security are important to the ego-stinge in order that he can safely watch the world from the peephole of his hiding place. Not only is he avid for the means to maintain his corner, he also is greedy for knowledge of what is going on in life so that he can feel alive. 

#6. Fear: there is a necessary instinctive fear of dangerous situations in order to safeguard our physical existence. We wouldn’t last long without it. But for the ego-coward, all of life is threatening. Enemies surround him, so he must always be on the alert and find someone stronger to protect him. Though such constant fear is painful, yet it is familiar and safe. To live without it would leave one too vulnerable to unexpected attack. 

#7. Gluttony: if a little of something is pleasant, then an unlimited amount should bring unheard-of pleasures. This projection of present enjoyment into future ecstasy through more and more of the same is a recurring emotional reaction to the good, though each time it ends in uncomfortable satiation and physical distress. 

#8. Excess. The person seeking justice and truth very often overdoes his vengeance in his great moral indignation at injustice. Just as he can punish too severely one who he thinks has wronged him, the can be even more punishing to himself when he feels he has failed in justice. Often he will do physical damage  to himself. 

To counteract these passions of the ego which is trying to keep one from experiencing his essence, a person is led by special exercises to experience the opposite virtues or essential feelings. The practical means used are meditation on the virtues and the use of mudras, or hand positions, such as you see represented by figures of Buddha or the bodhisattvas. Much use is made of “ego-reduction exercises” which deliberately try to arouse the passions, so that the person can become aware of his weak points. These reduction exercises are carefully prepared and given only when the person is prepared to undergo them. 

Virtues:

9. Action directed toward experiencing one’s essence, over coming laziness. 

#1. Serenity overcomes anger when one knows that his essence is perfect, as are the essences of all others 

#2. Humility is the obvious means of overcoming pride. Basically, one can realize that he bears the same perfect essence as others. He is not unique. 

#3. Truthfulness will help him to realize that he is what he is. He does not have to use deceit to maintain an outward image of importance. 

#4. Happiness in the present moment, or equanimity, will help overcome the envy of the happiness of others. 

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#5. Detachment form his secure hiding place and from the need to know everything will relieve him from his avarice, the struggle to protect his anonymity. 

#6. Courage can replace fear. No one or no thing can harm his essence. Only he has the choice of strengthening his ego, or experiencing his essence. 

#7. Sobriety will soon teach him that happiness is reached step by step and cannot be achieved once and for all by extreme measures and gluttony. 

#8. The excess of revenge on others and on himself can give way to a childlike innocence, “Why should I want to hurt anyone and why should anyone want to hurt me.” 

Finally the hold of the ego over the Kath movement center is greatly stressed, since the Kath is the center of instincts and of energy. In the Kath are stored all of man’s evolutionary experiences, all the instinctual responses to his environment. Through the Kath man knows and experiences life, being alive, so that the Arica training aims to bring man’s consciousness out of his head an into his Kath. Then man will have the essential responses to life immediately, without deterring through a through process. The samurai… have developed this Kath response to a very high degree. 

The practical development of Kath awareness is dependent upon physical exercises, high-protein diet, breathing, relaxation exercises, the practice of tai chi or other martial arts, special chanting or mantras, and specialized massage. 

Jnnana yoga stresses the development of the Path or mind; Bahkti yoga is centered in the Oth or heart. The Arica training stresses the development of the Kath as being most important at this stage of man’s evolution. Only when a man feels essentially a part of the cosmos and acts instinctively according to the rules of the cosmos can he fulfill the Arican concept of enlightenment. For Ichazo, unless all men can be trained to live in their Kath, and break the hold of the go, particularly on the Path or mind, man’s evolutionary development will come to a halt within 10  years. But a man living in his Kath will know that he is one with al men; individualism will disappear, and with it the conflicts and self-seeking which are leading to the destruction of our culture and our planet. All humanity must become an organic whole or planetary family living in harmony with the Cosmos. For this Ichazo studied and worked, that he might pass on his knowledge to others, the Arica institute. They in turn must share their knowledge until it has spread to all men. 

340: 

“Satori” is a term used very broadly by the Aricans to cover any heightened sense of well-being and happiness. Thus the experience of satori will range from enjoying a game of golf to the highest state of consciousness in which the awareness of the individual essence disappears in the experience of cosmic being. This satori for living is brought about by the development of Kath consciousness and letting the energy from the Kath activate the whole person, in time as the ego is broken, the essence will take over from the mind, which will be in a state without thought, except when thought is necessary, and all man’s activities will flow immediately from the Kath in harmony with nature [as in the case of samurai, Zen masters, or enlightened men] 

The quickest and most efficient way to achieve satori is in and through the group. There is some indication that in the Sufi school of which Oscar is or was a member, a store of baraka, or divine energy had been  built up over the ages to be used at the proper time for the enlightenment of mankind. The Arica group was told that they were to be the receiver of this store of baraka to pass on to others… [so they would be] aided by this low of divine grace which is augmented and shared in the group exercises. Once one is dismissed from the group, he no longer is aided by this special grace.

Nature of the universe: 

The cosmos is filled with divine energy, baraka, and life. This life and baraka spread down through the planetary system. For earth, the immediate source of baraka and life is the sun. For man, the sun and mother earth give life and divine energy. However, the moon which is a dead planet, absorbs life from the earth and energy from man, so man can increase his vital energy, and increase his baraka, by living in harmony with mother earth, by drawing in baraka from the sea and the sun. Just at sunset when the last ray of direct light shoots across the ocean waves, once can, in meditation, breath in the baraka that spreads across the water and breathing it out, sending it to all men. 

341: 

On the highest level of consciousness, man is aware only of God, not of himself. Only when he comes down to the next level does he become aware of what he can understand of the divine plan and of the cosmos. On this level he may receive instructions from the highest entities, such as Metatron, the prince of the archangels, how has given instructions to Ichazo. Below Metatron are the archangels and angels who are guardians of the Sephirath of the Qabalah. These may be contacted by the group through meditation and mantras, and they in turn send baraka upon the group. 

Ichazo has stated that he is in contact with all previous masters of the school because he is now a master and in the line of succession. 

The interior master of all Aricans is called the Green Qutub . He may or may not make himself known to individual Aricans depending on the stage of development of the student. Also, it is possible to be in touch with all enlightened ones, past and present. 

Satan is either the ego or the cause of the ego…. 

In all the explanations of enlightenment, the assumption is that there is an observer who can be aware of ego-produced thoughts in the mind, of the experience of Kath awareness, of the state of the Essence, and higher states of consciousness. This observer can and should function even in the sleep state, recording dreams. Ecstasy in which the observer is blocked is not encouraged. Rather the individual should be able to give a report of his experiences on every level of consciousness. 

342: 

the early stages of the training help the student to become are of this observer within him so that he can watch himself function in thought, in emotion, in bodily movement in the higher states. This “self-awareness” was one of the basic teachings of Gurdjieff. It is not clear in the Arica teaching whether this “observer” is the essence functioning, or whether it is simply the intellect fulfilling its proper role. 

Personality 

… Man is seen to be made up of Ego and Essence. While he is born in the Essential state, the development of the ego seems to be a necessity for the enrichment and maturation of the essence. Only when the individual has undergone the difficulties of living in ego can he return to the essential state and have the necessary skills and knowledge to function as an enlightened adult. 

… the present incarnation for the individual is determined by his past karma so that his ego fixation is to some extent determined in that he has these parents and is brought up in these circumstances in this particular culture. However, he has the freedom to overcome his deviations and his fixation. When he has returned to essence he will still have his own personality because his past is the enrichment and education of his essence.

Emotions 

Emotions come from the Oth, the heart center. For the man in ego, the deviations and fixations determine his emotional responses. As indicated above, each fixation has its predominant emotional response, known as “passion”. Only when one is aware of his predominant passion is he able to gradually overcome it by concentrating on the proper virtue. 

345:

Since love is the emotion proper to the essence, and since all men share in this essence, great stress is place on developing love for all members of the Arica group. It is the bond that helps keep them together as a family. Love must also go out to all men to draw them to Arica and enlightenment until mankind is a loving family. The major exercise for developing this ambience of love is called traspaso. Two people sit opposite each other, preferably in full or half-lotus; the gaze is centered on the left eye of the person opposite, and there is concentration in the Kath to send baraka to the other…. 

… A… goal for the individual Arican is the overcoming of his deviations and fixations so that he can begin to be aware of his essential self. ..the ideal held out to the student is that of the bodhisattva samurai: one who is dedicated to saving the world through the proper use of power and baraka. Thus the great emphasis of living in the Kath, acting instinctively to meet any situation, and using physical energy and baraka to draw others to enlightenment—a warrior for God.

346: 

It is most important for the Arican to live in the present. Therefore the hold of the past must be broken. After the student is shown his deviations, he is required to go through his past life and write down how his deviations affected him. Later, when he is told his fixation, he must re-examine his past, realizing that what he has learned and experienced will be used by his essence in the proper way. Thus his past life was a necessary preparation for the present and the future. But the “now” is the important thing. This is called “cleaning one’s karma”; for acting in essence develops no karma, no wrong actions. 

Each action done under the influence of deviations and fixation affects the body by building up nodules on muscles throughout the body. These nodules can be removed by a special type of massage…

Transpersonal Psychology (III)

The Original Arica Training, pt. 3

Social relationships.

Because of the action of the individual ego, no person is really capable of determining for himself his own ego-fixation. In the Arica system, one is told his ego-fixation by a teacher who has been studying these types for some time. Even teachers often consult Ichazo because of the difficulty of always clearly recognizing each type. Also there are complex rules determining the relationships of one enneagram to another enneagram.

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Thus, one who has the fixation of ego-indolent does not necessarily have the same point on the Social, Conservation and Syntony enneagrams. It would be a mistake to try to determine and correct one’s personality structure from the treatment of the enneagrams given here.

The actions of a man in ego are determined in general by his deviations and fixations. More specifically , in the area of social relationships, his own conservation and his sexual relationship to another, his actions follow definite patterns depending on his fixation. These distortions in social relationships are shown in this enneagram.

Thus (with some exceptions), one with an ego indolent fixation will base his social relations on the need to be in the group

#9. Participation- the need to be in the group

#1. Inadaptability- the difficulty of going along with social customs and behavior

#2. Ambition- Social and business climbing

#3 Prestige- the need for a good public image

#4 Shame- stress of not living up to ideals

#5 totems- having heroes to live up to

#6 duty- the need to obey the laws of the group for existence

#7 social limitations- predetermining his social activities

#8 Social relations – attempting to keep everyone happy

In the “Enneagram of Conservation” the different ego traps for providing for the necessities and luxuries of life are indicated.

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Again, for the ego-indolent fixation, conservation is mainly a question of satisfying the bodily, emotional and intellectual appetites

#9. Appetites- satisfying one’s hungers

#1. Anxiety- worrying about not being perfect

#2. Me-first – the drive to be ahead of everyone

#3. Security – the need for security, money, position

#4. Defensive action- protecting one’s dream of the future

#5. Refuge, a safe place from which to watch the world

#6. Affection- being afraid of everyone; affection is the only assurance

#7. Defenders- the need to band with others who have similar interests

#8. Satisfactory survival- the drive for the type of life one deserves

In the area of sex, Arica admits it does not have all the answers for a satisfactory relationship between individuals. However, there is the enneagram indicating general attitudes of the different fixation points. It is called “Syntony”.

Union, for the ego-indolent, gives him an identity. If someone loves him, he must be somebody.

#9. Union – need for the love of another for one’s own identity.

#1. Jealousy - union with another is always threatened by someone more perfect

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#2. Aggression - love is overcoming resistance

#3. Virility/Femininity - stressing the sex characteristics of the male or female

#4. Competition- if a person is popular, he must be worth striving for

#5. Confidence - Needs someone he feels safe with—a refuge

#6. Strength - Since he is afraid, he must play the macho to be desired

#7. Suggestibility – living in a world of possibilities, he can be manipulated by a smart partner

#8. Possessiveness- he has a right to his mate

Since these “ego games” – social, conservation and syntony—are instinctual and stem from the Kath, part of the problem of freeing the Kath, is recognizing them. When the Kath is fully free, all action will flow from it without being distorted in any way. This seems to mean that instead of the social games there will be a happy, easy family, completely open to one another, essence open to essence. This is the aim of the communes that have been started. Gradually, the whole world should be a family.

The conservation game would give way to a simple communion where each would give according to his ability and receive according to his need. In our present society, the level of living could be very comfortable and the fear of poverty could be destroyed. There is a great stress on comfortable living in the Arica system. The only thing that the system bans are alcohol, pork, crab and addictive drugs.(350)

350:

Arica seems to discourage exclusive unions and the family scene. Rather, since all are brothers and sisters, there should be freedom for everyone with regard to sexual needs. From time to time when a new exercise is being introduced, there will be a temporary ban on sexual activity. This helps focus attention on the exercise and provides extra energy and tension for its success. The children are the responsibility of the whole group, and nurseries, childcare centers and schools have been set up. All members are supposed to spend time with the children in these centers. In order to keep the children in essence as much and as long as possible, avoiding the development of a heavy ego, Arica exercises are a daily feature for the children.

… Narodha… in this state of serenity, the Kath focuses most efficiently, and instinctively acts correctly in any situation. The problem involves reducing the mind chatter to a minimum so one simply is and doesn’t have to think about what to do and how to do it. To blank out the mind chatter, the student learns a nonsense syllable sequence which he repeats continually until it goes on automatically in the head, blocking out the usual mind noise.

… When a reasoning process is required, the mechanics of Trialectics are used … while not much has been done to develop Trialectics in the school , it does help the student become aware of change and movement, that he does not live in a static world. All scientists have concentrated change and movement long before it was named Trialectics by Ichazo, so it is not anything new but is in a form that can be taught.

There is some talk about knowledge in a state of enlightenment. Since man is in his essence then, he is joined with all enlightened men in all time and is aware of the laws of the cosmos, so the knowledge of all is available to each according to his level of enlightenment. This is the teaching of the Askashic record.

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However, this knowledge would seem to be of a very venerable type. [However] because of his ability to concentrate his powers, he could learn much more quickly and efficiently than before.

Dangers:

The group is all important in the Arica system. The individual must find his own personal meaning in being a member of the group and must find his happiness as a member of a large family with Ichazo as the father… The individualist, of course, will find that he has great difficulty accepting group life 24 hours a day, and in accepting without question the decisions and statements of the group. While he undoubtedly will benefit from the exercises, he will use much of his energy fighting internally and externally the group mystique. The training itself is dynamic, given under tension, and at a high level of energy. Such pressure can be dangerous for an emotionally unstable person and the Arica system has not yet developed an effective method of handling breakdowns; the person is simply referred to a psychologist. So a person with a serious psychosis should not look to Arica for a cure. It is only for those with sufficient emotional balance to undergo the pressure and tension.