Discussion
Crisis Of Faith Or Religious Revival? You Decide
(This is an expert from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
A new mystical awareness has been sweeping the world since the end of the 19th century, even as technology has brought the human race to the brink of destruction through the manmade disasters of war and ecological collapse. Paranormal phenomena, as they become more frequent in their manifestations, insistently direct our attention to the realms beyond the physical world. These phenomena may yet save us from extinction if we only will open ourselves to the messages they convey. As Jacques Vallee wrote in The Invisible College (1975), “Something happened in classical times that is very inadequately explained by historical theories. The suggestion that the same thing might be happening again should make us extremely interested in bringing every possible light to bear on this problem. What I am referring to is the collapse of ancient civilizations. Beginning in the second century B.C. and continuing until the fall of the Roman Empire, the intellectual elites of the Mediterranean world, raised in a spirit of scientific rationalism, were confronted and eventually defeated by an irrational element similar to that contained in modern apparitions of unexplained phenomena, an element that is dramatized in their summary rejection by modern science.” Vallee continues, “I think the stage is set for the appearance of new faiths, centered on the UFO belief.” As Christianity supplanted the Roman Empire in ancient times, an equally “irrational” new religion may even now be rising in the wake of paranormal and mystical experiences that the materialist establishment known as “science” has still been unable to suppress.
What Julius Evil calls “the terminal decadence of modern civilization,” evident in the increasing frequency of wars and the heedless destruction of the natural environment on which human life is based, results, according to Evil, from the loss of contact with the higher world and the resulting belief that the temporal world is the only reality. In Revolt Against The Modern World (1995) we read: “With the revolt of individualism, all consciousness of the superworld was lost. The only thing that was still regarded as all-inclusive and certain was the material view of the world, or nature seen as exteriority and a collection of phenomena.” Thus, even the study of paranormal phenomena points to how far we have strayed from our spiritual center. However, Evil also tells us in Revolt Against The Modern World (1995) that “According to the Tibetan lama’s teachings, Shamble, the mystical northern seat, is within everyone.” If we can successfully deconstruct the modern point of view within our own minds, we might be able to reforge the link with the Otherworld or “superworld.”
In order to accomplish this feat of mental reorganization, which will in turn enable us to remake our own worlds, we need a map that describes the different realms inside our own minds. Lawrence LeShan, in his book Alternate Realities (1976), has provided us with just such a map. According to LeShan, human experience can be roughly divided into four “modes of being,” also known as “realities.” The inhabitants of one reality do not acknowledge any other mode of being as “real.” Only those with the ability to switch modes at will, and who therefore inhabit more than one reality, are capable of seeing that no mode of being is any more (or less) real than another. In a similar way, someone who understands only one language will hear all other languages as gibberish. Only the multilingual individual is capable of perceiving the fact that other languages actually make sense. All of us switch modes involuntarily when we fall asleep and allow ourselves to dream. In this case, we are moving from what LeShan calls the “Sensory Mode” of being to the “Mythic Mode” of being.
To make our terms more empirical we can change the word “being” to “perception.” This change in terminology will remind us that we are perceiving the world and making it appear the way that it does, rather than just passively existing in a world we never made. The four “modes of perception,” then, can be described as follows: the Sensory Mode, in which we perceive the world by means of the five physical senses; the Clairvoyant Mode, in which we become One with the Universe; the Transpsychic Mode, where we commune with some aspect of the Divine Mind (otherwise known as a god or goddess); and the Mythic Mode, which gives us access to the world known to psychology as the Collective Unconscious in which symbol and symbolized become one. Yoga and other techniques of meditation can provide access to the Clairvoyant Mode of perception. The Clairvoyant world corresponds to the Etheric realm. This Mode provides access to the various psychic powers such as precognition, telepathy, and clairvoyance. The Transpsychic realms can be contacted by means of sincere prayers, ritualized acts of worship, and Ceremonial Magick. This reality corresponds to the Astral plane. UFO’s and Angel contacts can be classed as Transpsychic experiences. The Mythic Mode of perception can be consciously participated in through Lucid Dreaming, or through techniques of realizing that the world of the senses is also a Dream. This realization can lead us into the Mythical spaces that correspond to the superworld or Otherworld. The Mythic Reality, when fully integrated with the conscious mind, becomes One with Sensory Reality. When this happens, you will have journeyed beyond the limits of this map. The wise will heed one final word, for as the ancient treasure maps once warned: Here There Be Monsters. See you in Croatoan.
Ancient mystery leads many people to explore natural phenomenon, unexplained phenomenon, and paranormal phenomenon. This natural desire to understand and explain the unexplained can lead to a conscious exploration of psychic activity, the paranormal, and the supernatural. An ancient supernatural teacher often adds to the mystery. Where does this teacher draw their mystical energy? How have they connected to the supernatural conscious energy? Those considered to be a supernatural teacher would seem to have supernatural understanding of much of the unexplained natural energy on the earth. Much of the paranormal activity we know of will always remain an unexplained mystery. Mysterious phenomenon continues to occur all over the world and continues to mystify anyone with interest.