by
Dick Richardson
On reflection, due to mystical and psychical
experiences that came later in my own life, I recall what is now taken to be my
own first encounter with an anomalous life enhancing experience. This event
took place at the age of five whilst I was a child in London during the blitz.
A popular pursuit for children of that time and place was that of exploring the
debris found on bomb sites, which comprised what seemed to be half of London in
those days. Moreover, they were the playground of the local tribes. Early one
bright spring morning I found myself running (full of the uninhibited childhood
joys of existence) across such a dereliction. I have no idea now as to what was
on my mind at that time; but one was probably seeking anything that might be
found on such a site that could be deemed useful, like bits of string, tools,
bicycle wheels, and who knows what other such childhood artefacts of great
value.
The part I will never forget however, was
that for some unknown reason I suddenly stopped dead in my tracks (whilst
running quite fast), almost rooted to the spot in fact. Suddenly thoughts came
gushing into my head; thoughts which would never have occurred to me to think
about, yet alone I as a mere child to have any interest in. As I stood rooted to the spot, it was as
though another part of myself were talking to me. Questions came, such
questions that I would never have dreamed of asking myself or even thinking
about. I asked myself: What am I doing here? What am I? Why am I me? Why am I
not somebody else? Why am I not a cat that lived on earth many years ago, or a
dog that will not exist here for many years yet to come? Why me, here, and now?
What am I; where have I come from: and why am I here?
We know well enough from hindsight that these
are the perennial questions that Humankind has asked, in rational and
philosophic terms, ever since we were first on earth. Naturally I did not know
that at the time. But these questions popped up in mind of their own accord and
without any forethought, intent, or deliberation. I later came to call these ‘pop-in
thoughts’. Children of five are not
philosophers. However, that weird experience indeed made me begin to think and
ask questions even at that age. They had a direct and motivating effect upon my
topside daily consciousness. An intangible little experience acted upon and
motivated the tangible and volitional thought process—and even directed
it.
Only from the hindsight of many years and
many levels of experience can one see the connection, the flow, the relevance.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing—it is a pity we are not born with it. It also
becomes obvious from hindsight that one person’s profound new finding is
another person’s normal daily reality. On occasions, we each naturally feel
that we have made the discovery and insight that the world has been in need of
for millennia, only to find it is old hat to somebody else. This, of course
puts things, and ourselves, into some kind of perspective and places our feet firmly
back on terra firma, albeit with a shock. Naturally enough a child of five soon
puts away such things and concentrates on the more practical activities of the
day in conscious terms. Nevertheless, a seed has been implanted in conscious
awareness which, like it or not, accept it or not, begins to shape the way one
thinks and gives rise to the questions to which one seeks answers. And the
process goes on, both consciously and subconsciously, for the rest of one’s
life; a kind of revealed path to follow.
Our existence, or life experience, could be
said to be many things. It is unarguably a learning process, but it is more
than just that. It is also an interaction with life and existence itself. One
directly learns that there are levels of conscious existence that are not
discrete isolated existential phenomena existing in their own independent
insular condition. Rather, they are varying levels of inner reality that are
intrinsically tied together and that work in harmony and accord with a
cosmological function within existence.
The How questions, to some extent at
least, can be analysed and got at by scientific methodology as regards tangible
phenomena. But the nature of the mind and consciousness itself are the most
mysterious of all the known intangibles. And it is the mind itself which asks
itself the Why questions—as well as such How questions as, “How do I exist on earth (or at all for that
matter)?,” which require, indeed demand, different answers from the “Why do I
exist” type of questions. And yet, the questions are justified questions.
We observe that every phenomenon in the known
universe has a function to play in the scheme of things. We could all think of
many functions that a tree has, or the sun has, or indeed, the earth itself.
Not only is there nothing in the known universe that has no part to play in its
existence within the sum of the whole, but also nothing that we know of in the
universe contains its own causation. That is to say, every known phenomenon is
a product and emanation of roots that go deeper than the surface level of that
particular perceived extant phenomenon. It would thence be seen to be an
isolated one-off coincidence if human consciousness had no role to play in the
cosmological unfolding of all that exists—Consciousness exists; so how and why;
and what are its cosmological roots and function?
Consciousness experiences itself to be the
centre of all that it perceives and experiences. Everything that is not ‘‘I” is
out there and all around me. In that sense, we could say that two things exist
in creation. One is “I” the observer, and the other is all that which is not
“I”—the observed. What then is the cosmological role and function of these two
phenomena; the observer and the observed? Moreover, what is the absolute nature
or essence of the observer when everything which is not its essential core is
removed; and what is the absolute nature and essence of the observed whilst not
being observed?
How could one even begin to understand what
the observer is while remaining independent of the observed, and vice versa?
What is objectivity when not observed, and what is the observer when not
observing objectivity; and is either case possible? How much of the observer,
in reality, is also a part of the observed and how much of the observed is in
fact the observer? The question then becomes: “What am I (the observer) when
everything which is not really “I” is stripped away from that which is really
the essential “I”?
In spiritual and mystical traditions, for
millennia there has existed a phenomenal process known as Purgation and another
known as Redemption. Purgation (irrespective of some doctrinal religious
beliefs) is a process of stripping things away from a system. Redeeming
something means regaining something which has been lost or hidden from sight
(or knowledge).
Of all the spontaneous anomalous experiences
known to humankind there is one which, in direct experiential terms, does just
that (coincidentally or otherwise). In this experience consciousness undergoes
an event wherein everything which is not
“I” is seemingly stripped away from conscious perception, leaving only
that essential central core or depth conscious experience of the raw primordial
phenomenon of what that “I” is in absolute terms. It is experienced as being
beyond time (changing events), space (as we normally know it), and memory of
ever having existed on earth, and all personality that is attached to the
personal I AM. Thus, it involves transcendence of time, space, and
memory.
This experiential event, in academic terms,
is referred to as Introverted Mystical Experiences opposed to Extroverted
Mystical Experience, in which the latter takes place in otherwise normal
daily reality. It is perhaps the most
profound and far reaching of all known human experiences. It is, from hindsight
(a wonderful thing is hindsight) seen to be the very experience that all
religions were initially founded upon—hence a direct human experience or
personal revelation of the transcendent realm and of that part of our self
which exists there and which is the root foundation of our personal conscious
being.
Irrespective of what that experiences is in
terms of absolute reality, the “coincidental” fact is that it directly
addresses the “why” questions of life, those which no other known avenue of
experience or research methodology can even address. Such an experiential event
(which I have always called the Paradise Event) may be thought of by
some as an irrelevant anomaly of human experience, which many have undergone
personally, but the fact remains that it does address life’s perennial
questions. Also it is a great catalyst for human understanding and inner
transformative change; a perennial wisdom indeed. The effects of these encounters are tangible facts operating in
this world here and now. Moreover, such an experience also addresses such
questions as life and death, meaning, beginnings and endings, and absolute rock
bottom causation, and more. But, in all pragmatic terms, all one need take on
board is the fact that such an event causes change in this world, in the human
beings themselves; and perhaps to the depth and degree of effect and change
which no other known anomalous experience can quite achieve in one
experience/event.
From hindsight of over 60 years of anomalous
mystical and psychical experiences which I have had over the course of that
time, it often strikes me as both profound, and in a way humorous, that life
itself makes us ask questions, indeed forces us to ask questions; and then
mysteriously supplies the answers to those very questions which it made us ask
in the first place. There are a few coincidences too many to be accepted as
mere coincidences to be sure. We then have direct demonstrable justification
for the term ‘Spirit’ or Essence of our being. We also then have direct
justification for the term ‘Spiritualising Process’. An analogy I once used in
a book for a conceptual model of this process is as follows…..
Imagine a very deep water well. Imagine
consciousness to be the surface skin of the water within the well at the
surface at the top of the well. Imagine the phenomenon of the mind to be the
actual water in the well. The water in the spring is pure water (well, as pure
as it can get anyway). However, on the covering of the water in the well there
is stuff of the outside world—bits floating around on the skin of the water
which are not the water itself. Therefore the surface water is polluted, not
pure in the sense that the source water is pure. Imagine, then, that the water
level could fall back right down to the source of the well on occasions to
experience its own root or ground of existence.
The fountain of the water is its essential
existence whereas the water up the well is an extended emanation of it.
Spiritualisation would then be the process of cleaning up of the topside
surface of the water in order that the topside water (human incarnate
consciousness) can be a living incarnate reflection of what it is at root in
its ground of being.
In so doing the outer
(consciousness/personality) becomes as the inner essential core, and what is
above reflects the essence of what is below. The process involves the unfolding
of an implicate seed into the outer and extended reality. It seems to me that
evolution is doing just that—becoming in form what it is in essence. This
applies (it seems to me) to everything which exists within the space/time
levels of existence, including human beings and our own individuality. Are not
even roses more beautiful than they were millions of years ago on earth?
The big bang may well be the dead centre of
physical creation, but what is that mysterious yet knowable dead centre of the
conscious mind? Just as a house brick is connected to the big bang inwards and
downwards through the stuff of its own interdimensional vortex of emanation; in
much the same way the mind itself contains its own inner vortex of emanation
back to its own ground. It is interesting that near-death experiences and
introverted mystical experiences initially travel down a perceived tunnel of
some kind. Indeed, back down the well of its own vortex of emanation at which
root we are all connected in the Paradise Event. (Hence the basis of my own
‘Double Vortex Theory’).
It is perhaps ironic that life provides us with spontaneous anomalous experiences which are at first highly mysterious but which later make absolute sense to the rational and enquiring mind itself. Mystics (so called alas) see no dichotomy between spirit and matter (essence and form). These connections and experiences then are the ultimate coincidence. Or are they? As rational and highly pragmatic beings (as well as being life’s most mysterious phenomenon) we can take coincidence only so far. We fully realise that there is more to be experienced in life than simply that which presents itself to us by way of the five outer senses, and which are in analogy seen as mere periscopes above the waves of creation. Throughout the evolution of human consciousness on earth we have seemingly come a long way in a short time; but that journey is not over. Much of what we now do and aspire to do is a matter of our own determination, or will. Every act which we each perform affects the world around us.
But what is power without something to direct
the mind in the wise use of it? And what is it that gives this mysterious yet
substantial guideline to personal behaviour; a moral and dignified approach to
the wise use of our freedom of choice, and the aspirations that are judged best
to go for? The answers, coincidentally or otherwise, are the very intangible
and anomalous experiences that come to shape our being here and now. The
rational discursive mind without a base wisdom to guide us is potentially
dangerous. Yet ironically or otherwise, this wisdom is innate and built into
our system itself. It is certainly food for thought for the millennium to come.
And, as the world’s genuine mystics of all times have said: ‘Search within for
the deepest answers; and ‘Know Thy Self’. Objectivity is indeed a mystery, but
no more so than the mysteries which abound within the depths of the observers
themselves. And we must take into full account that such experiential events,
and the change which they engender, are spontaneous—yet another coincidence too
far even for the rational discursive mind. We have much yet to learn, to strive
for, and thence achieve; and whilst in accord with the dignity of man.
email: rwr@eggconnect.net