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The Survival of Bodily Death Summary written by Frank Poletti IntroductionEvery spring for the past eleven years a group of scholars has gathered at Esalen Institute to inquire into one of the greatest mysteries of all time: What happens to us after we die? In May 2009 nearly all of the regular participants attended along with a number of new members who contributed some interesting perspectives to the overall conversation. The following conference summary provides a brief introduction to the presentations during this week. Because this is an ongoing conference series, this summary builds upon and makes periodic reference to summaries from previous meetings. The reader is thus encouraged to look at the content from previous years to help flesh out some of the several complicated issues that are involved with both the research and theory concerning the hypothesis that some kind of “personalized consciousness” survives bodily death. In recent years this group of scholars has given more attention to how a viable theory (or metaphysical system or worldview) might bring intelligibility to the array of well-verified empirical data that suggests that something survives bodily death. This data spans a range of reports and phenomena that include: near-death experiences, multiple personality disorder, the possible existence of subtle dimensions or worlds, mediums who can communicate with dead spirit beings, telepathy, clairvoyance, and the spontaneous appearance of dramatic bodily changes like stigmata. The scientific evidence for these phenomena is described in the book Irreducible Mind, written by Ed Kelly and others from this group. MondayOn Monday morning the conference facilitators Adam Crabtree and Ed Kelly opened the meeting with some overview comments. Kelly said that Irreducible Mind is selling well and has received a number of high quality reviews, such as the one by Paul Marshall in the Journal of Consciousness Studies. Crabtree followed with some orienting comments about the nature of theories. He emphasized two points. First, as William James once said, theories are never accepted purely because of the weight of the facts involved. We also choose our theories on the basis of practical and aesthetic criteria. Second, this Esalen group will be well-served by a diversity of theories. One of the group’s aims is to model a tolerant and pluralistic approach to theorizing in order to avoid the tendency in human history to think that the best “theory of everything” has been attained. Instead, Crabtree noted that the temperament of this group is best served by not reducing its complex views down to a “mono-theory.” Crabtree added that he is currently at work on a position paper on the nature of theory, which will lay out some basic parameters for theory-building and theory choice. During the group discussion that followed, there were two main themes. The first was how our pre-theoretical values shape our choice of theory. For example, if I value the ability of a soul to learn across multiple lives, then I will prefer a theory that includes reincarnation. So, my pre-theoretical value for learning is crucial and shapes my choice. Second, many in the group cautioned that even the best theory or map of reality cannot be absolutely comprehensive. So, at their best what theories can do is spur further research along a particular direction. The process of theory-building is never ending and works in tandem with the steady advance of scientific evidence. At its best, this Esalen group is a model for the open-ended spirit of science because it consciously constrains theory choice with close attention to data. The opening presentation of the week came from the physicist Bernard Carr, who was participating in the Survival conference at Esalen for the first time. On Monday afternoon he touched upon some of the main points from his paper “Worlds Apart? Can Psychical Research Bridge the Gulf Between Matter and Mind?” (This brief summary can only scratch the surface of Carr’s presentation, so the interested reader is encouraged to go to the website listed below for more information.) Carr started by distinguishing the field of “paraphysics,” which extends the basic concepts of physics to include psi phenomena, from the field of “parapsychology,” which emphasizes the psychological aspects of psi and tends to downplay the role of physics. There is much less emphasis on paraphysics than parapsychology at present, but in Carr’s view the field will not be part of mainstream science until this imbalance is redressed. If psi is real, it needs a theory that involves some extension of physics. Carr showed some slides to the group that classified a great variety of psychic phenomena and delineated the ones that could conceivably be described by such an extension of physics. Some of these involve areas of experience that would not usually be regarded as part of science at all. However, if these reports are valid, one needs a radically new paradigm of science, which includes experience as well as experiment. (See Carr’s paper for a more detailed explanation of how he classifies different psi data.) Although there are different theoretical models that attempt to account for psi, Carr’s main interest is in the approach that involves extra or higher dimensions. There is good reason and precedence for explaining psi in this manner. He stressed that a common feature of many psychic phenomena (e.g., ESP, dreams, apparitions, OBEs, NDEs, claims of survival) is that they seem to involve some form of space, which is different from physical space but subtly related to it. Such reports often involve spatialized scenes with distances and so forth but they may also involve some higher-dimensional component that transcends normal space and time. Carr relates the higher-dimensional space required for psychic phenomena to the higher-dimensional space that is currently popular in physics. Indeed, the theoretical move toward extra dimensions is congruent with the larger trend in the history of physics. The 3-dimensional Newtonian space was the norm for more than two centuries, only to be expanded by Einstein who taught us that reality is more accurately described as a 4-dimensional space-time. Then in the 1920s, the physicists Theodor Kaluza and Oskar Klein proposed a 5-dimensional model to integrate electromagnetism and gravity, but with the 5th dimension being wrapped up very small so that it cannot be seen. Nowadays physicists invoke many more wrapped-up dimensions to describe the interactions which have been discovered subsequently. For example, there are 11 dimensions in M-theory. Particularly relevant is the Randall-Sundrum picture, in which the physical world is a 4-dimensional "brane" in a higher dimensional "bulk". There is also a subtle link between time and the extra dimensions. To help the Esalen group think about this, Carr drew an analogy to recorded music. Music takes place over time, but then it is compacted onto a CD that is fully spatialized. Then, from the CD the temporal aspect of the music is “magically” recovered. So, in every day life we are accustomed to interconverting space and time. In describing some of the details of various multi-dimensional theories in contemporary physics, Carr said we need to think in a new way about both mind and space. In a nutshell, we need to mentalize space and spatialize the mind. Overall, Carr said that he regards the higher-dimensional approach in physics as the best hope of linking matter and mind in a single mathematical structure. To see some visual slides by Carr, please go to: http://www.maths.qmul.ac.uk/~bjc/cober.pdf The biologist John Poynton participated in the Esalen conference on life after death for the first time in May 2009. On Monday night he gave a presentation to the group about the philosopher, mystic, and mathematician Michael Whiteman, who is not well-known in America but wrote prolifically on topics of interest to this gathering. Whiteman was interested in a scientifically-grounded mysticism, and he was particularly keen to advance our knowledge of out-of-body experiences. For example, Whiteman argued that people having such experiences tend to project their own assumptions about physical space onto trans-physical dimensions, and thus they often disregard important details about their experiences that are unfamiliar to them. Whiteman had a Platonic conception of the universe in which there is a transcendental logic or coherence that informs the laws of our physical world. He gave importance to various number systems and cycles, such as the16-fold cycle formulated in the Upanishads. Whiteman conceived a multi-level ontology in which causal structures and processes do not operate on the same level. According to this view, we must look for the causes of psi phenomena at higher levels than the physical world. Overall, Poynton suggested that the Esalen group could benefit from a deeper look at Michael Whiteman’s many important ideas, and the best place to start would be with his book titled, Old and New Evidence on the Meaning of Life. Vol. 1. An Introduction to Scientific Mysticism (Colin Smythe, Gerrards Cross, 1986). TuesdayThe Tibetan Buddhist scholar Claire Villarreal attended this Esalen conference for the first time in May 2009. She presented a paper titled, “Mapping the Mind Beyond: Comparative Approaches to Extra-Social Existence,” in which she put into dialogue the Western tradition of Frederic Myers and Ian Stevenson with the Eastern tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Villarreal started by noting that both traditions share the same core questions, such as: What is the human identity? How unified (or diverse) is it? And how continuous is it across lives? Next, she described the life and work of the fourteenth century Tibetan lama, Tsongkhapa, whose Lam Rim Chen Mo (The Great Exposition on the Stages of the Path) gives detailed arguments against the notion of an unchanging and unified self. Interestingly, Villarreal pointed out that both Tsongkhapa and Frederic Myers argued against the notion of an enduring and unified self. Despite this core commonality, there are important differences between the Western and Eastern approaches to the self. In Tibetan Buddhism the close student-teacher relationship involves oral instruction in-person, thus implying that reading of texts alone cannot convey the deepest truth regarding the nature of the self. In contrast, in the West the tradition of personal spiritual instruction is largely, if not completely, absent from academic fields like neuroscience and the philosophy of mind. But figures like Alan Wallace are currently working to bridge the gap between Eastern and Western approaches. Villarreal pointed out that Buddhism is in many ways compatible with the non-theistic approach of Western science. Lastly, Villareal said that both East and West tend to view death as a positive opportunity. For example, Myers’ view of death is that it can be a means to further one’s individual growth and evolution, while Tibetan lamas often view it as a means toward reaching Enlightenment. Overall, Villarreal suggested that further work needs to be conducted in the comparativist spirit that informs this Esalen conference, and she looks forward to further close comparison of Tibetan and Western approaches to understanding just what it is that survives death. Another Tibetan scholar named David Gray followed Villareal. He gave a brief overview of the Buddhist perspective on the dynamic and multi-layered nature of the self and how it reincarnates. Gray started by reviewing the two major views within Buddhism about how reincarnation works. The Theravadan view is that the transmission to the next life after death is instantaneous. While according to the Mahayana tradition, there is an intermediate phase between lives called the bardo. According to the Yogachara school, even after the body dies the flowing process of the mind continues. This school maintains that there are at least eight factors or layers that comprise the complete human body-mind, and only the eighth completely survives physical death. This is called the alaya vijnana, which is vaguely comparable to the “soul” in Western terminology. The alaya vijnana stores every sense impression, and thus it is sometimes called storehouse consciousness. Gray said that all analogies are limited, but one way to think about the alaya vijnana is as a filter or pattern through which the Clear Light projects or shines through to create reality as we know it. One interesting point Gray made is that after death we experience ourselves in our mind-made bodies, or mano-maya kaya (kaya means body). This is a subtle body generated by our thought patterns. While we are in this body, whatever we think about we will immediately see in front of us like a projection screen, which is why a disciplined and prepared mind can be so helpful at the moment of death. Fortunately, Buddhism teaches various practices that enable us to prepare our minds for this moment. Gray said that these practices are layered hierarchically so that one begins with preliminary practices before engaging in advanced techniques. Tibetan Buddhism, in particular, places great emphasis on training the human visualization capacity. After a practitioner concentrates the mind over several years, perhaps even decades, the power of the mind can then engage the moment of death creatively—perhaps even attaining Enlightenment in that moment. Overall, Gray suggested that there is a productive future for those who want to integrate Buddhist perspectives with current scientific research on how the human soul survives death. On Tuesday afternoon Eric Weiss summarized some of the main points from his forthcoming book, The Long Trajectory: Reincarnation and Life After Death. He started by noting that several viewpoints in this conference are converging on the notion of transphysical (or “subtle”) worlds: Bernard Carr describes these worlds as existing in the higher dimensional spaces of physics, Greg Shaw describes the subtle bodies of Neoplatonism, and David Gray and Claire Villareal describe the imaginal realms of Tibetan Buddhism. For several years now Weiss has been developing an understanding of subtle worlds that is resonant with all these approaches. By integrating Aurobindo, Whitehead, and Gebser, Weiss is in effect developing a Transphysical Process Metaphysics. Importantly, this view is fully aligned with the findings of quantum physics. Building on his presentations at Esalen in previous years, Weiss pointed out that the contemporary view from the hard sciences has a strangely inverted view of reality. Instead of starting with their immediate and direct personal experience (“I feel myself in this moment to be an actual person, not a robot”), most scientists start their thinking with highly abstract notions like Cartesian grids, atoms (or insentient energy, or randomly collapsing probability fields), and mathematical equations. Yet, the truth is that no one directly experiences grids, atoms, probability fields, and equations. These are abstractions, or mental constructs that are related to actuality but not in any sense actual in their own right. Thus, in a great irony, modern scientists use elaborate theoretical edifices and spend millions of dollars in order to explain away what is directly at hand: their very personal and immediate experience as actual humans with subjectivity. Put differently, scientists have built elaborate models and now take those models to be more real than the actual experiences from which they are drawn. After describing the historical process that led to this situation, Weiss said that Whitehead’s metaphysics is really quite simple: It all starts with moments of real experience. Indeed, if everyone just started with his or her own experience—and just trusted that as actual—then a metaphysical model of reality could be constructed therefrom. This model would illuminate everyday experience, the results of science, and the domain of parapsychology by showing that they are coherently situated in one actual world. But the key is that everything in that metaphysics would be a moment of experience, what Whitehead calls an actual occasion. All further notions like laws, energy, telepathy, subtle worlds, reincarnation, and so forth can be explained as long as one starts with the fundamental fact of experience itself. This is what Weiss does in his forthcoming The Long Trajectory. For further information about Weiss’ work, please see this weblink: http://ericweiss.com/ On Tuesday afternoon Greg Shaw gave a presentation that compared two different approaches to subtle dimensions of existence: the one of Frederic Myers and the other of the Neoplatonic shaman-mystic Iamblichus (lived 245 to 325 A.D.). Shaw began by noting that Iamblichus distinguished himself from Plotinus and Porphyry with his more incarnational, nature-friendly, and body-friendly view of the relationship between Spirit and Matter. Iamblichus felt that many Greek philosophers, in their zeal for rationality (logos), had dissociated themselves from the more primary dimensions of imagination and embodiment (mythos and soma), which were accessed through ritual spiritual practices called Theurgic Mysteries. Iamblichus’ main surviving work (On the Mysteries) is a defense of the useful function of such evocative practices, which align humans with the gods through the activation of the imagination and enlivening of the body. Shaw then turned to Frederic Myers, whose notion of the “subliminal mind” has interesting similarities to Iamblichus’ focus. Both Myers and Iamblichus honor the role of the non-rational upwellings in human experience, which further human creativity. Although separated by nearly two millennia, they both made similar distinctions about how “the gods” or “the subliminal mind” are channeled into the conscious mind and life of humans. Myers, for example, pointed out that just because one can access the subliminal mind does not always entail that the inspiration that comes through is going to be as pure as gold. Instead, what comes to us as inspiration often is surrounded by rubbish that needs to be discarded. Likewise, Iamblichus said that ecstatic possessions come in a great variety of flavors: some exalted and some quite troublesome or even destructive. Shaw highlighted another interesting parallel between Myers and Iamblichus: they both valued the realization of human perfection in the form of creative genius. By accessing the transphysical or supraliminal realms, humans can become vessels of divine creative energy on earth. Through creative alignment with the muses of inspiration, we become more divine. But lastly, Shaw noted one interesting difference between these men: Iamblichus viewed his own age as a time of degeneration from a former golden age when theurgical intimacy with the gods and nature was prevalent. While Myers, writing in the late nineteenth century, tended to look forward toward a future age of progress, when periodic experiences of our higher nature would be normalized in a more evolved human species. Overall, Shaw’s comparison of Iamblichus and Myers provided a fruitful entrée into an ongoing question for this conference: To what extent can we study paranormal phenomena objectively without engaging directly in the experience (and perhaps even invocation) of them ourselves? One of Iamblichus’ main points many centuries ago was that direct invocational experience of the Mysteries was crucial to the larger transformative process of human divinization—or the embodiment of Spirit in the flesh. Thus, Shaw suggested the group remain open to non-discursive modes of learning, imagining, inquiring together. For further information on Iamblichus’ theurgical practices, please see Shaw’s book Theurgy and the Soul. The Professor of Humanities and Psychiatry David Hufford attended the Survival conference for the first time in May 2009. On Tuesday night he gave a presentation to the group on the topic of sleep paralysis. Often abbreviated “SP”, sleep paralysis is usually a brief period of paralysis occurring just before sleep or upon awakening. It is caused by a neurochemical mechanism in the reticular activating system associated with dreaming sleep (often called REM sleep). Hufford has studied this under-reported phenomenon for 40 years. His initial work is summarized in his book The Terror That Comes in the Night. As he spoke to the Esalen group, Hufford described how geographically widespread SP is, with reports coming from Asia, Europe, America, and elsewhere. Hufford’s research on this topic began in Newfoundland, in 1970, where he found frequent reports of being “hagged” by an old hag (meaning “witch”) while one is paralyzed in bed. Interestingly, Hufford pointed out that the etymology of “haggard” is derived from the colloquial phrase “hag-rid”—“ridden by a hag”.” One becomes haggard after losing sleep due to harassment by a hag. After 40 years of careful research, Hufford has come to the view that the cross-cultural reports of direct encounters with a spirit-being during SP is its own genre of phenomenon, although it can lead to out-of-body experiences and other kinds of parapsychological events. Hufford gave some vivid accounts of SP cases, for which he said the common denominator is the feeling of waking up while being paralyzed and simultaneously attacked or harassed by a spiritual being or ghost-like presence. He emphasized that although cultural beliefs vary enormously, this core experience is almost universal in all the reported cases. As a result, Hufford does not think the so-called Cultural Source Hypothesis (CSH) is supported by the evidence. Briefly put, the CSH argues that strong cultural beliefs essentially create a supportive context for individuals to hallucinate. After describing several possible contributing factors to sleep paralysis (like stress or death in the family), Hufford said the most frequently observed common denominator is the lack of consistent deep sleep for several nights before onset, because of the connection to REM sleep. In the Western cultural context, the stigma of being labeled psychopathological has led to under-reporting of this phenomenon, as with most “visionary” experiences, and full descriptions of SP often do lead to mis-diagnosis of a psychiatric illness. In this regard, SP is an excellent example of the way that psychopathology has been mis-applied as an explanation for “visionary” spiritual experience in the modern world. Hufford discussed this similarity in connection with near-death experiences and bereaved peoples’ experiences of being visited by a deceased loved one. Overall, Hufford said that the attitude among psychiatrists is slowly changing, with some doctors now accepting that there are so-called “normal hallucinations,” but there is still only a small amount of discussion of the paranormal implications of these experiences in the psychiatric literature. Lastly, Hufford said that the internet is helping put sleep paralysis on the map. People can find websites to share stories and find support for this challenging and yet quite real experience. WednesdayOn Wednesday morning, Ed Kelly, Emily Kelly, and Jim Tucker described their recent research conducted through the Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS) at the University of Virginia. Ed Kelly said that DOPS has recently completed building a state-of-the-art research facility, which includes an electromagnetically and acoustically shielded experimental chamber, a high-quality commercial EEG data-acquisition system, and extensive software resources for display, editing, signal-processing, and statistical analysis and modeling of multichannel physiological data. With these new resources, Kelly and his colleagues have resumed a multifaceted program of research on altered states of consciousness and psi phenomena, which they had initiated in the Electrical Engineering Department at Duke back in the 1970's but abandoned (despite early successes) for lack of financial support. Kelly summarized four main areas of research for the future: First, deep meditative states and their relationships to psi performance; second, out-of-body experiences; third, trance mediumship; and fourth, deep hypnosis. For example, research has already shown that deep meditative states are both physiologically distinctive and conducive to unusually strong performance on various kinds of psi tasks. Kelly said the new lab will attempt to pursue both of these threads experimentally in the same individuals. He hopes this research will deepen our understanding of the meditative states themselves, their physiological accompaniments, and their specific connections to psi phenomena. The new lab will support quality research in all of these areas, several of which have been neglected for decades. Kelly is particularly interested in identifying the physiological correlates to success in gifted psi subjects. By identifying such correlations we can gain statistical and perhaps even experimental control of psi, and potentially discriminate among the various theories that have been proposed to explain it. Furthermore, Kelly thinks we can “normalize” the paranormal by demonstrating specific physical and neurobiological correlates. Lastly, if the DOPS research lab can demonstrate that specific physiological conditions are conducive to successful psi, then they can more directly target those conditions, through the use of practices like biofeedback or specific meditation procedures. Overall, Kelly is excited about the new lab and the opportunities it is opening up for groundbreaking new research on psi and altered states. Emily Kelly went next. She updated the group on her various ongoing research projects. For example, she is currently launching some new research into spontaneous psi cases. She has been sending out carefully worded questionnaires to identify people who have had strong psi experiences, particularly those suggestive of survival, not only to find additional such cases but also to identify possible subjects for experimental studies in DOPS’s lab. Kelly then mentioned a second project, which she hopes will culminate in a book reporting some of the "greatest hits" of survival-related cases from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as similar, more contemporary cases. She suspects that this will show that survival-related cases not only continue to occur but are just as robust as the classic cases from a century ago. A third project she mentioned is research on experiences of dying persons and their families, particularly deathbed visions. Kelly said that these seem to be quite common, as reported informally by hospice and palliative care workers. Of particular interest in this context are "revival cases." These involve someone who has severe dementia, perhaps unable to communicate or recognize people, but whose mental functioning suddenly revives just before dying. In such cases it seems that the mind is detaching from the dying brain, allowing it to function more clearly again. The cases may thus support a "filter theory" of consciousness, as proposed by William James and others, by which the brain acts as a filter (not a producer) of our mental experience. Jim Tucker followed the Kellys. He has continued Ian Stevenson’s research with children who report memories of previous lives. After the hundreds of Asian cases that Stevenson studied, Tucker is now focused on American children. He said that it is still rare that he gets a hot lead on a case for which he will fly out to interview the child and family face-to-face. Tucker said that all of the cases in the collection are being coded on 200 variables to be entered into a computer database. He shared with the group some recent analysis of the presence of personality features in both the children and the previous individuals. He listed a few traits that they code for, such as generosity, criminal tendencies, and attachment to wealth. Tucker presented some graphs showing that the level of those traits in the previous individual is strongly correlated with the level in the child. He said his tentative hypothesis is that some personality characteristics can survive and continue in another life. Because so many of the cases involve violent death, Tucker suggested that for many of his cases what may be happening is that the regular death process is getting disrupted. The unresolved nature of these sudden and violent deaths may lead the individual to return quickly to a nearby place. In response to a question, Tucker said that we don’t have enough information to say what may be carrying the memories and personality features across lives. Overall, Tucker is mining his large database to ascertain patterns with respect to how survival might function. On Wednesday morning Charles Tart gave a presentation
about evidence-based or evidence-enriched spirituality. He said
this topic might help the Esalen group to think more about the larger
social and spiritual implications of survival research. How does
this evidence really influence people’s lives? For example, if
we have good evidence for reincarnation, then it should impact the way
we treat the elderly. In a materialistic culture, we are inclined
to think that resolving the spiritual and psychological problems of
elderly people is a waste of time and resources. But Tart suggested
that it is actually a good investment, if we know that reincarnation
happens, along with the idea of life-to-life causality, karma, so a
person's development was an outcome of choices and actions in previous
lives as well as this one. The evidence for reincarnation
could re-orient the way Western society regards the elderly. Another
example of evidence-based spirituality that Tart described was non-physical
people and places, sometimes called “subtle beings” or “subtle worlds.” How
real are they? Tart said there is some evidence for the
existence of both, and thus this should impact the way lead our lives
and do our spiritual practices. For example, if there is good evidence
for particular non-physical beings—like Kuan Yin, the Goddess of compassion—then
it makes much more sense to pray to them or to imagine them when doing
visualization mediations. Overall, Tart’s point was that evidence-enriched
spirituality can be pragmatically helpful in determining how we conduct
our spiritual practices and our daily lives. Scientific evidence
can tip the scales toward stronger belief in the spiritual realms of
existence. In response to Tart’s presentation, someone suggested
that strong belief in subtle worlds and subtle beings is often necessary
for them to manifest in the first place. For example, at a religious
ceremony, if the group belief and expectation is strong for angels to
manifest, then they are more likely to manifest. But if this is
true, then it calls into question the ideal of scientific objectivity. How
can we know what is objectively true, if the group belief is shaping
the experience so strongly? For others who don’t have the same
strong belief, they may not experience or see the same things. So,
what is the objective truth? Tart said that his view on this complicated
issue is that good scientists should reflect on how their own beliefs—or
the beliefs of the people they are studying—influence the outcome of
an experiment. We must incorporate our biases and beliefs into
our scientific attitude. The yogic scholar Ian Whicher joined the Esalen
conference for the first time in May 2009. He gave a presentation
about an integrated and embodied interpretation of classical Indian
yoga, thus countering the mistaken perception that classical yoga is
world-rejecting or radically dualistic. (This brief summary can
only introduce a few key ideas from his talk, so for more detailed information,
please see Whicher’s book The Integrity of the Yoga Darsana.) Whicher
started by pointing out that the famous Indian master Patanjali, who
lived around 200 CE, was a synthesizer of various yogic traditions.
Unfortunately, Patanjali has been mischaracterized as a dualist, in
which purusha (Pure Consciousness) is seen as superior or separated
and dissociated from prakrti (the source as well as manifest life of
mind, body, and nature). This mischaracterization can be seen,
for example, in the work of nineteenth century translators of Sanskrit
texts, such as Max Müller, who referred to yoga as a path of separation.
But Whicher’s presentation demonstrated that Patanjali’s well-known
text, the Yoga Sutras, contains an integrative and world-embracing vision
for life. Patanjali’s yoga is much more than a disembodied and
abstract philosophy; it is a transformative practice that entails real
action in the world. Patanjali considered yoga a fully lived spiritual
path of theory and practice. In technical terms, he defined yoga
as the nirodha of citta vrtti, which means the cessation of the modifications
of the mind that constitute ordinary awareness or self-identity. What
ceases then is the yoga practitioner’s mistaken identification with
prakrti (as one’s egoic-self). As the practitioner’s real identity with
purusha emerges, his mind is less afflicted by impurities or forms of
affliction (called klesas). Thus, the goal of yoga is not the
escape from prakrti but the purification, illumination, and liberation
of prakrti. Too often, Western yoga scholars have confused the
purification process of yoga, in which afflicted states of mind are
transformed, with a world-denying metaphysics. But in Whicher’s
view the mystical and the moral can be synthesized in the yogic path.
Overall, his main point to the Esalen group was to suggest that an enlightened
being does not escape the world but endeavors to transform, enoble,
and enrich it. This is an integrated and embodied view of Enlightenment,
and is the proper meaning of liberated selfhood, or jivanmukti. On Wednesday night, the biologist David Presti gave
a public presentation to the larger Esalen community. Titled “The
Science of Psychedelics”, Presti discussed the fascinating history of
psychedelic chemicals, plants, and fungi. He also made several
comments concerning how psychedelics might become increasingly appreciated
as tools to explore the neuroscience of mind and consciousness.
Thursday
On Thursday morning the physicist Harald Atmanspacher
gave a presentation to the Esalen group titled “Acategoriality as Mental
Instability.” (This brief summary can only introduce this complex
and fascinating topic, so if the reader wants more detailed information,
please consult the weblinks below.) One of the goals of Atmanspacher’s
research is to model and measure various states of consciousness.
He said that one way to look at a particular mental state is for its
degree of stability. Some states of mind pass by very quickly
and are instable, while other states of mind endure for a long time
and are stable. Atmanspacher is synthesizing both quantum theory
and dynamical systems theory to propose a new model for how we can understand
unstable states, in particular, states which the philosopher Jean Gebser
called “acategorial states.” What does this mean? Atmanspacher
said that our normal mental-egoic states pass through our mind in the
form of familiar categories. We think and hear the same categories
of thought again and again in our minds. But some exceptional
states of consciousness do not come in familiar categories. When
a Buddhist practitioner meditates regularly, he can release his mind
from the familiar ego-categories and enter into Gebser’s acategorial
state of mind. This often involves a different experience of time.
When we are in the familiar egoic sense of time, time passes by moment-by-moment,
but when we enter an acategorial state, our sense of time can be manifestly
changed. By focusing our attention, the sense of time can be changed
quite dramatically. Atmanspacher emphasized that in altered states
of mind, the human ego does not necessarily dissolve. Instead,
what may be happening is that the ego-mind has been released from its
normal categories and thus it is functioning temporarily in a “higher”
mode. This state, or mode, of mind is much more fluid, dynamic,
and open. This is why Atmanspacher is using mathematical modeling
from dynamic systems theory to better understand these acategorial states
of mind. Overall, Atmanspacher said that Gebser’s concept of acategoriality
is proving helpful in brain research because it enables us to think
about altered states of consciousness in a new way. Instead of
viewing these states as pathological or strange, we may view the human
mind as capable of “transcending” its normal categories of thought to
become more dynamic and open. For further information about this
topic, please see these websites: On Thursday morning the physicist Henry Stapp gave
a presentation to the Esalen Survival conference titled, “The Mind Is
NOT What the Brain Does.” (This brief summary can only introduce this
complex and fascinating topic, so if the reader wants more detailed
information, please consult Stapp’s website listed at the end of this
paragraph.) Stapp started by noting how ironic it is that we are
here today in the early twenty-first century still debating materialistic
accounts of the mind-body problem. Why? Because materialism
was issued a stunning defeat in the early twentieth century by the discovery
of quantum mechanics. Although there are different interpretations
for the results of quantum experiments, Stapp said that he prefers those
of the mathematician John von Neumann. According to von Neumann’s
view, the dynamical laws of quantum physics are completely psycho-physical.
Both the mind side and the brain side of reality are fully taken into
account in von Neumann’s understanding of quantum theory. Stapp
said this has immense implications for how we study consciousness.
For example, it helps us to model and measure what William James called
“will” or “attention.” When this is applied to specific research
experiments, Stapp said consciousness researchers can use quantum mechanics
to understand how attention affects brain activity. Stapp briefly
described the process like this: Our wandering minds spontaneously
bring forth a thought of a particular action into our conscious awareness,
but instead of just passing away, our willful attention can hold this
thought in place. This holding-in-place of an intentional thought
(and its neural correlate) by a conscious effort tends to cause, in
essentially the manner described by James, the intended action to occur,
even in the face of strong countervailing physical tendencies.
This key “holding-in-place effect” is a straightforward consequence
of a well-known psycho-dynamical feature of orthodox quantum theory
called the Quantum Zeno Effect. Stapp’s central point was that
although mental effort has a well-defined effect upon the physical aspects
of nature, the choice of whether or not this conscious effort will be
exerted is not determined by any known law. This choice (of whether
or not to exert effort) is, in this very specific sense, a “free choice”.
Quantum mechanics, as understood and modeled by von Neumann, provides
a perfect place for the entry of choices that are not determined by
the physically described aspects of the world, but that can nevertheless
influence the physical world we measure. Stapp contrasted this
with the materialistic view of the universe, which assumes that physical
reality is causally closed, meaning that consciousness and human choice
are not efficacious—they have no impact on the causal mechanisms of
the universe. Overall, Stapp emphasized that quantum theory is
the best model for further research on consciousness because it is empirically
validated and is fully open to our emerging understanding of what consciousness
is. For further information about concepts like the Quantum Zeno
Effect, Templates for Action, and Ion Channels and Brain Dynamics, please
see some of the papers at Henry Stapp’s website: ConclusionAs the conference concluded, the facilitators said they were deeply impressed with the rich and diverse content presented at this year’s meeting. The old and new members seemed to mix well with one another and the commitment to further team-building and research is strong. Overall, the group is looking forward to continuing its ongoing commitment to this topic.
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