The Mystical Energy: The Basic Argument
John L. Waters
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Copyright 2000 by John L. Waters.
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I claim that there is a healing energy which spiritual
masters emit from their bodies. This energy is felt
by a disciple or a client engaged in auric energy
exchange with the spiritual master. I argue this
point from independent reports which are to be found
in the literature.
As the spiritual master is projecting this realm to
his students, they are drawn into sensing it directly.
Many spiritual masters are very adept at helping a
person sense this energy in them, which is the same
for all spiritual teachers, saints and so-called
God-persons.
Brief Descriptions: Sensation of The Mystical Energy:
1. Quote from a devotee of the spiritual teacher
Gangaji:
"Two weeks ago I didn't know what satsang or Gangaji
was. But when I saw your tape and I looked into your
eyes, the longing was fulfilled. I didn't see form, I
saw my heart."(1)
2. Consider Austin Rust's experience in the presence
of Benjamin Creme:
"I was transfixed in eye to eye contact with Him. Then
I had the experience that He was in me and outside of
me simultaneously. I experienced Him within myself at
the very center of my Being. I then realized that He
was the one Whom I served. I was His servant and would
help pave the way for His reappearance to the best of
my limited ability." (2)
3. Quote in a recent letter from Phil Servedio who
has studied under several spiritual masters:
When asked in an e-mail, "In your article "Breaking
the Hymen Of The Heart" you describe "Gazing with
Lawrence was really a meeting in being, heart to heart
and wonderfully opening for me." Would you explain
what you mean by "gazing with"? Were you gazing at
the same scene together or were you gazing at each
other?"
Phil Servedio answered:
"John, We were gazing into each others eyes. This is a
common form of initiation and transmission in various
schools, eyes being the 'window to the soul', so to
speak, and more. Gazing is very powerful and moving
stuff."(3)
4. Quote from Molly Jones, a devotee of Adi Da
formerly Da Free John and Franklin Jones:
"It was as though someone had turned on 10,000 lights.
The actual physical light in the tent had not
changed, but the vibratory level of energy went way,
way up, and it was visible as a form of light
emanating from Avatara Adi Da's body..... Everyone was
singing and gazing at Avatara Adi Da. He looked
fiercely around the room, resting his Gaze on
different people as He slowly moved His head. I felt
His Love absolutely, without qualification."(4)
These reports are anecdotal and there are not
thousands of these reports. I believe that thousands
of persons have witnessed this exchange between
themselves and a
spiritual master whom they have worked with. I myself
have worked with a number of clients, under the
relationship of friend and spiritual consultant.
1. The first line of argument:
I claim that there is an energy which is sensed
directly by a spiritual adept or a psychic. I present
you with written accounts of this perception by
independent observers who didn't know each other.
These reports agree on several points. This suggests
that these reports do not just stem from imagination
or from guesswork but from direct experience of an
energy which is commonly not sensed.
Mystical experiences associated with unusual visual
effects
1. As described by Jacob Boehme:
Jacob Boehme was twenty-five years old when he
happened to glance at the reflection of sunlight in a
pewter vessel. As he continued to gaze at the light
the shoemaker felt that he had seen into the very
heart
of nature. Leaving his cobbler's shop Boehme walked
through a gate out into the green countryside, where
he continued to be struck by a change in his
perceptions. Quoting directly from Andrew Weeks,
"Abraham von Franckenberg gave an account that has
become legendary. Surprised by a gleam, presumably of
sunlight, in a tin or pewter vessel, the shoemaker
began to imagine that he was seeing into the secret
heart of nature, into a concealed divine world.
Intent upon clearing his mind of this "phantasy,"
perhaps so that he could resume his shoemaking labors,
the young man went out-of-doors. Since the city was
small, he could easily pass through a nearby gate and
into the green countryside. There, according to
Franckenberg, the rapt cobbler continued to see all
the more powerfully into the secret "center of
nature." Forms, lines, and colors now bore some new
meaning for him. In his own account, the strongest
emotional effect associated with the experience was
his sense of having been embraced by divine love: as
if life had been resurrected from death, he recalled
twelve years afterward."(5)
2. As described by Ruth Dahlen:
She gazed at a snowflake which had landed on a spruce
needle. The needle dissolved into flickering flames
of light. Soon the whole spruce tree was a pillar of
flame. She saw visions of a five dimensional geometry
behind the physical universe. She had repeated
visions of lessening intensity over a five day period
and then these visions left her.(6)
3. As described by Barry Stevens:
She was walking along a New York street and the sun's
reflection off a safety pin caught her eye. As she
gazed into the bright light she experienced a rapid
sequence of thoughts which culminated in her sensing
that she had arrived at "an explanation of the
universe."(7)
4. As described by Martinus:
"I looked right into a figure of flame...A wonderful,
elevated emotion seized me...In the white light, the
world became changed to God's Kingdom."(8)
5. As described by C.M.C.:
"The light and color glowed, the atmosphere seemed to
quiver and vibrate around and within me....On several
occasions, weeks after the illumination described, I
distinctly felt electric sparks shoot from my
eyes."(9)
6. As described by Gustav Fechner:
"Every flower beamed upon me with a peculiar clarity,
as though into the outer light it was casting a light
of its own....Indeed, one will hardly believe how new
and vivid is the nature which meets the man who
himself comes to meet it with new eyes."(10)
7. As described by Alan Watts:
"The sky was in some way transparent, its blue quiet
and clear, but more inwardly luminous than ever at
high noon. The leaves of the trees and shrubs assumed
qualities of green that were incandescent, and their
clusterings were no longer shapeless daubs, but
arabesques of marvelous complexity and
clarity...Flowers--I remember especially the
fuchsias-were suddenly the lightest carvings of ivory
and coral."(11)
8. As described by Orson Bean:
"The sky over the East River...was a deeper blue than
any I had seen in my life, and there seemed to be
little flickering pinpoints of light in it. I looked
at the trees. They were a richer green than any I had
ever seen. It seemed as though all my senses were
heightened. I was perceiving with greater clarity. I
walked home feeling exhilarated and bursting with
energy."(12)
9. As described by a subject of Alister Hardy:
"About 14 years ago when life was difficult and I was
in a state of near despair one evening, the quality of
sunlight seemed to change, and this time, though the
scenic beauty all around was magnificent, it was the
colour and pattern of a common weed's tiny clustered
flowers which I found I was really seeing for the
first time, and in the contemplation of which I was
again swung into that wider vision and
participation."(Quote from (821,F,63))(13)
10. As described by David Boadella:
"If such phenomena as Reich described in the sky in
fact exist, why is it, one may reasonably ask, that
other people have not commented on them. Let us
consider a related phenomenon that can be observed
in the daytime, which Reich also described. If one
looks into the daytime sky on a clear day, relaxes the
eyes, and looks into empty space, a number of minute
brilliant points of light become visible. They appear
to dance about in whirling motions."(14)
11. As described by Jiddu Krishnamurti:
"It was a clear morning though soon clouds would be
gathering. As one looked out the window, the trees,
the fields were very clear. A curious thing is
happening; there is a heightening of sensitivity.
Sensitivity, not only to beauty but also to all other
things. The blade of grass was astonishingly green;
that one blade of grass contained the whole spectrum
of colour; it was intense, dazzling and such a small
thing, so easy to destroy. Those trees were all of
life, their height and their depth; the lines of those
sweeping hills and the solitary trees were the
expression of all time and space; and the mountains
against the pale sky were beyond all the gods of man.
It was incredible to see, feel, all this by just
looking out of the window. One's eyes were
cleansed."(15)
12. As described by Jean-Joseph Surin:
"on a number of occasions my soul was invested with
these states of glory, and the sunlight seemed to
grow incomparably brighter than usual, and yet was so
soft and bearable that it seemed to be of another kind
than natural sunlight. Once when I was in this state,
I went out into the garden of our college at Bordeaux;
and so great was this light that I seemed to myself to
be walking in paradise." Every color was more
"intense and natural," every form more exquisitely
distinct than at ordinary times.(Huxley's
paraphrasing.)(Quotes from Jean-Joseph Surin)(16)
13. As described by Rabindranath Tagore:
"All of a sudden a covering seemed to fall away from
my eyes, and I found the world bathed in a wonderful
radiance, with waves of beauty and joy swelling on
every side. The invisible screen of the commonplace
was removed from all things and all men, and their
ultimate significance was intensified in my mind."
(Quote from Rabindranath Tagore.)(17)
My argument goes like this: The mystical sense is
first keenly felt by a person who has temporarily lost
the ability to think, read, listen and talk in the way
which society and school train a young person to
think, read, listen, and talk. For a person to become
adept in this sense of the mystical, he must spend
time using his brain, mind, and body in a way which
isn't taught to children. This adeptness is radically
different from the adeptness which enables a student
to excel in school and in ordinary social life.
Therefore those persons who do excel in school and in
social life are adept in a way very unlike the
adeptness of a spiritual master.
The line of argument continues. This sense of
"one-ness", "timelessness" and "universal presence" is
a new sense and a new sensitivity which is not one of
the senses which students study about in biology
books. This sense is still not understood by
scientists. And the way for scientists to begin to
understand this sense is for them to take a serious
interest in studying spiritual masters and
professional psychics. However a large number of
spiritual masters and psychics do not seek notoriety
or scientific scrutiny. That is, they avoid
scientists, and many scientists avoid them. There is
a repulsion and revulsion which pushes these two types
of person apart. They work their brains so
differently!
Recapping the first line of argument: There is a
keen-ness of sense which the spiritual adept has
cultivated but which intellectuals have not
cultivated. The mystical perception disrupts or
switches off the capacity to engage in careful
thinking, listening, talking, reading, and writing, so
that in a deep trance the mystic doesn't use the
intellect. The problem here is to integrate the
intellectual mind with the mind of the entranced or
inspired person, spiritual adept, or psychic person.
I claim that I have worked out this integration in
myself and that this integration enables me to write
intelligently and voluminously about this difficult
subject. I also claim that since 1979 this
integration has dramatically improved my mental and
physical health.
2. The second line of argument:
In a mystical trance the entranced person sometimes
moves his or her body in a graceful manner rather as
we can see as we watch people doing "tai chi". These
graceful body movements may be sped up in the master
of martial arts. But whether the movements are fast
or
slow, the same curves in space are traced by the
master. These curves are continuous curves. By
continuous curves I mean that they are the graphs of
continuous mathematical functions.
The graceful movements of a human body whose brain
activity is non-verbal are comparable to the graceful
movements of an animal whose brain activity is
non-verbal. During the state of mystical entrancement
the verbal brain activity is switched off so that the
mystical person's brain activity is comparable to the
brain activity in an autistic person or in an animal
whose brain doesn't use words at all. In this state
of
"no mind" (Jiddu Krishnamurti's term) and grace the
wordless person isn't diverting any brain energy to
thinking consciously and using words. Therefore, all
the brain activity or intelligence is available for
focused use in clearer perception and more graceful
body movement. The autistic child, then, and the
mystically entranced person are both attuned to the
animals more than to the normally cultured verbal,
social, rational humans. Under these conditions the
autistics and the mystics perform certain feats which
might be considered by cultured persons to be
miraculous or super-human. The next step in human
evolution is integrating the mystical grace in body
movement with grace in thinking, speaking, and
writing. This integration enables humans to understand
the development of inspiration in speech and writing.
We can use mathematical language in studying the lines
produced by the graceful movements of an artist or a
dancer who holds a pointed instrument so that it
traces a continuous curve in space-time. We can use
mathematical language to define these movements. Pure
mathematics is the precision language which defines
exactly these graceful body movements. But if a person
is not in a mystic trance, and his attention is
therefore upon thinking in words and using words, then
the biochemical activities in his brain are divided
between the grace of autistic movement and the lack of
grace in the person who is thinking about what to do
and how to move. The grace is more in the person
whose brain activity is not so divided, because the
energy in a brain is limited and the same energy can't
be used twice.
In my efforts to write convincingly and talk
convincingly I am forced to give up a focused
non-verbal, kinesthetic, autistic, mystical, psychic
intelligence. However if I do not do this, then there
is no way for me to talk, speak, or write
intelligently about this subject. My activities may
even seem insane to people. To better understand this
subject, and to better integrate my activities and
explain all this to people, I need to feed my brain
better and work my whole brain harder than I could
before 1979.
3. The third line of argument:
It is easy to take an experimental adult subject out
for a two-hour experimental "mini-vision-quest" and
have the person visit the same spot where other
persons have visited, and assume a similar position
for twenty minutes, and give a report on what he or
she senses as the experiment is being run. Each
subject will produce
one anecdotal report. This procedure produces a
number of records which will be independent records.
Under similar environmental conditions, when each
experimental subject engages in certain similar
behaviors, certain similar reports will be generated.
Naturally there will be some variations in personal
sensitivity and in personal perception.
It is also possible to take each of these experimental
subjects and allow each of them to interact with a
spiritual master for thirty minutes. This could be
another part of the two-hour experimental session.
However the adult subjects would have some prior
knowledge and some prior prejudices which could not be
experimentally controlled. And so to eliminate this
we would need to experiment with very young children.
A very young child is either non-verbal or else is
frequently non-verbal, as it is only after intensive
training that a child comes to spend most all his or
her time thinking or speaking or being especially
attentive to words. The very young child hasn't yet
learned to focus his or her attention on speaking,
thinking, and listening to words the way adults do.
As the spiritual master interacts with a very young
child, the action can be recorded on a videotape. As
a control, the same child can be observed interacting
with an adult who is not a spiritual master. A number
of different controls might be used. Then the
question would be explaining the various behaviors of
the child. The expectation would be that the spiritual
master would engage the child in ways which the
controls would not engage the child. This experiment
could be repeated a number of times on different
occasions with a number of different children.
4. The fourth line of argument:
The natural unity is what the mystic senses. By
natural unity is meant the reality of being one with
the rest of existence so that the person or
personality is not named or imagined as being separate
from others.
The autistic person and the spiritual master do not
focus on a personality that is named. Autistics and
spiritual masters show a wordless presence or grace.
In making the effort to use words, this grace may be
diminished.
----Include here a reference to NADIA the autistic
artist.
The natural unity is also expressed by the child who
is learning to count unities or wholes. We can
observe a child who is learning to count whole
objects, and we can observe ourselves as we are
counting many objects one at a time. Each time we
count one object, and recite the name of a number,
"n", after that we count
one more unity as we proceed to recite the name of the
next number, "n+1". We learned to do this as
children. We count objects now without thinking about
what we are doing. But if you watch the body movement
of a child counting objects, you see that the child
moves his body over and over again repeating the same
movement. This is the non-verbal physical body
helping a person count. The conscious, verbal mind
recites the names of the numbers, but the unconscious,
physical, kinesthetic animal mind registers and
attends to this non-verbal aspect of counting unities.
And it is logical to conclude that the physical body
understands the natural unity and senses the natural
unity by repeating the same movements over and over
and over, the way autistic children do when they rock
their bodies or move their
bodies in other ways, over and over again, often
without reciting any number names at all. The
autistics enter trance and sense the mystical unity,
but they aren't able to think and reason and
argue this point cogently. I claim that many autistic
infants discover the mystical sense but even as older
children they have no way of explaining what they have
discovered.
This subject of the natural unity and the direct
perception and expression of the whole of creation has
been difficult for verbal people to study. Even so,
our own culture is based upon the inspiration of
mystics who intuited or divined certain morals and
ethics which science and rational philosophy haven't
been able to improve upon. So scientists,
intellectuals, and academics sometimes have been
maligned as amoral persons.
Also the problem of medical scientists and other
healers trying to treat autistics and psychotics comes
up. If cultured adults don't really understand the
cause of autism and schizophrenia, then they can't
really deal with these conditions as effectively as
someone can who does understand the fundamental cause
of these conditions.
Notes And References:
1. Taken from the webfile
http://www.gangaji.org/satsang/library/excerpts/darknt.htm
2. Taken from the webfile
http://www.friendsofm.com/wib/wib.html
3. Personal communication. website
http://www.well.com/user/phils/index.html
4. Taken from Beyond Comprehension, a story of
one devotee's first encounter with Avatara Adi Da.
P.27 from the booklet "An Introduction To Adi Da."
5. Weeks, Andrew, "Boehme" (Albany:State University
of New York Press,1991),pp 1,2
6. Jacobson, Nils M.D. "Life Without Death?" (New
York:Dell Publishing Company, Inc.,1971),p.289
7. Rogers, Carl and Stevens, Barry "Person to Person"
(Lafayette, California: Real People Press,1968), p.115
8. Jacobson, Nils M.D. "Life Without Death?" (New
York: Dell Publishing Company, Inc.,1971), p.293-295
9. Bucke, Richard Maurice "Cosmic Consciousness" (New
York: E.P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1946).pp. 325-329
10. Fechner, Gustav and Lowrie, Walter "Religion of a
Scientist" (New York: Pantheon Books Inc., 1946),
p.211
11. Watts, Alan "Nature, Man, and Woman" (New York:
Pantheon Books Inc.,1958), p.125
12. Wilson, Colin "The Quest For Wilhelm Reich"
(Garden City, New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1981),
p.165
13. Hardy, Alister, F.R.S. "The Spiritual Nature of
Man- A study of contemporary religious experience"
Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1972. page 72
14. Boadella, David "Wilhelm Reich- The evolution of
his work." Arkana Press London, Boston and Henley 1985
page 160
15. Krishnamurti, Jiddu "Krishnamurti's Notebook"
Harper & Row, Publishers New York 1976 pages 38, 39
16. Huxley, Aldous "The Devils of Loudun" Chatto &
Windus, London 1970 page 353
17. Kripalani, Krishna "Rabindranath Tagore- a
biography" Grove Press, Inc. New York 1962 page 101
10:40PM Friday, May 19, 2000
Revised Monday, October 30, 2000
John L. Waters
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