tim@cmu-cs-k.ARPA (Tim Maroney) (05/21/85)
New Age Digest #2
Moderator: Tim.Maroney@CMU-CS-K.ARPA
(uucp: seismo!cmu-cs-k!tim)
Sat Jan 5 13:44:01 EST 1985
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
This time around:
Know any New Age types in the D.C. area?
Brief Bio of a Contributor
How to Develop Concentration?
The Teaching of Sri Aurobindo
Hypnotism (from USENET's net.sci)
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Date: Sat, 22 Dec 84 09:57:09 est
From: preuss@maryland (Don Preuss)
Subject: Re: New Age Digest # 1
Tim,
I was thinking that it might be useful to get a local list of new age
people, since there are alot of local happenings that go on around the D.C.
area. Do you by any chance know where people are from, or if not pass along a
request in the next Digest for people in and around D.C. to send me a note.
peace,
don
[Hmm, I don't recall any O.T.O. bodies in that area; I'll check when the new
directory comes out next month. Anyone else know of any covens, lodges, or
what have you in the area? -- Tim]
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Date: Sun, 30 Dec 84 01:08:33 -0100
From: mcvax!diku!kimcm@seismo.ARPA (Kim Christian Madsen.)
Subject: Initial Message...
Short Portrait.
---------------
To help this group getting started I think I will submit a short
portrait of myself and why I joined this group.
Name : Kim Christian Madsen
Sex : Male
Age : 22
Occupation: I study Computer Science.
Interests : Among other things "The meaning of it all"
I have thought a lot about various items concerning `religious' items
since I was baptized (at the age of 14). I then joined the protestant
church, and I think I believed in God at that time. Later on I little by
little lost faith, and now I consider myself an atheist. But nevertheless
I find `religious' subjects very interesting, I have in the later years
read about various beliefs such as: Islam, TM, buddism, spiritism and
tribe religions (mostly about indians and eskimoes).
I find this reading most interesting, as filosofical reading while I
tend to believe there is no allmighty power or spirit ruling the humans or
the universe. But I do believe in some cycle of life, I don't think death
is the end of it all. After we're dead our corpse will live on in many other
creatures (the life cycle) and our thoughts and mind (call it the soul if you
prefer) will be restored somewhere in another form. I consider the soul is
like energy; energy will never disappear but is constantly transformed into
another form.
Why did I subscribe to this mail-list? well I think plenty of you people
have thought about what the h... is the meaning of all this and where are we
to go when death arrives at your frontdoor. I think this could be a great fo-
rum for exchanging thoughs and views and get new ideas and new angles to look
at the world at. About the size of this mail-list (<50 at the time) I think
It would be a good idea to introduce ourselves, so we can work from the know-
ledge of our common background.
-o0o-
{seismo,decvax,philabs}!mcvax!diku!kimcm Kim Chr. Madsen
Institute of Datalogy
University of Copenhagen. Denmark.
[I think this sort of message is a good idea, and more of this sort would be
very welcome. I will not send one myself until the list is more
established, but that's only because I'm the moderator and I don't want to
be too obtrusive with my own beliefs. -- Tim]
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From: ihnp4!ihuxf!pjs1@seismo.ARPA
Date: 3 Jan 85 09:10:30 CST (Thu)
Subject: How have you learned to concentrate?
Almost all "practices" require an ability to concentrate and a development
of ones ability to have a discipline to continue the activity over a period
of time long enough to for it to begin to have an effect. I have a short
attention span and difficulties with continuing any discipline over a long
period. If any of you in this mailing list have any personal experiences
with working on problems of concentration I would enjoy reading about it.
Specifics about what you did, book suggestions, etc. would be most useful.
Replies either to this list or directly to me.
Thanks,
Peter Silverman
ihnp4!ihuxf!pjs1
ATT BELL LABS at Indian Hill
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From: hao!stcvax!lat@seismo.ARPA
Date: Thu, 3 Jan 85 17:48:18 mst
Subject: The Teaching of Sri Aurobindo
This is a brief introduction to the teaching of Sri Aurobindo, a recent
(1872-1950) Indian sage, poet, and revolutionary. He is relatively
unknown in the west. The Sri Aurobindo Ashram, in Pondicherry, is the
largest single ashram in India. He was educated entirely in England,
where he obtained highest honors at Kings College. He returned to
India at the turn of the century, where he and others organized the
Congress Party. He was the first to call for a complete freedom of India
from British rule. At one time he was considered by the British among
the most dangerous (to their rule, at least) men in India. Accused of
complicity in the bombing of a police station, he was arrested and placed
in solitary confinement for one year while awaiting a trial, for which he
was acquitted. He had been studying yoga on his own prior to his arrest.
It was during his confinement that his first spiritual experiences occured.
Some time after his acquittal, he was informed that the British were again
after him. At that time he fled with a number of followers to the
French enclave of Pondicherry, about 100 miles south of Madras. There
he met a French woman Mirra Alfassa, who became his spiritual collaborator.
She was known to their followers simply as The Mother. Her teaching
and his are one and the same, and is known as Integral Yoga.
In 1950, Sri Aurobindo was nominated for the Nobel Literary Prize.
The nomination was seconded by Pearl S. Buck. (The prize that year
was awarded to Bertrand Russell.)
{ihnp4 hao ucbvax!nbires}!stcvax!lat Larry Tepper
Storage Technology, MD-3T, Louisville, CO 80028 303-673-5435
..........................................................
The Teaching of Sri Aurobindo
by Sri Aurobindo
The teaching of Sri Aurobindo starts from that of the ancient
sages of India: that behind the appearances of the universe there is
the reality of a being and consciousness, a self of all things, one
and eternal. All beings are united in that one self and spirit but
divided by a certain separativity of consciousness, an ignorance of
their true self and reality in the mind, life and body. It is
possible by a certain psychological discipline to remove this veil of
separative consciousness and become aware of the true Self, the
divinity within us and all.
Sri Aurobindo's teaching states that this one being and
consciousness is involved here in matter. Evolution is the process by
which it liberates itself; consciousness appears in what seems to be
inconscient, and once having appeared is self-impelled to grow higher
and higher and at the same time to enlarge and develop toward a
greater and greater perfection. Life is the first step of the release
of consciousness; mind is the second. But the evolution does not
finish with mind; it awaits a release into something greater, a
consciousness which is spiritual and supramental. The next step of
the evolution must be toward the development of Supermind and spirit
as the dominant power in the conscious being. For only then will the
involved divinity in things release itself entirely and it become
possible for life to manifest perfection.
But while the former steps in evolution were taken by nature
without a conscious will in the plant and animal life, in man nature
becomes able to evolve by a conscious will in the instrument. It is
not, however, by the mental will in man that this can be wholly done,
for the mind goes only to a certain point and after that can only move
in a circle. A conversion has to be made, a turning of the
consciousness by which mind has to change into the higher principle.
This method is to be found through the ancient psychological
discipline and practice of yoga. In the past, it has been attempted
by a drawing away from the world and a disappearance into the height
of the self or spirit. Sri Aurobindo teaches that a descent of the
higher principle is possible which will not merely release the
spiritual Self out of the world, but release it in the world, replace
the mind's ignorance or its very limited knowledge by a supramental
Truth-Consciousness which will be a sufficient instrument of the inner
self, and make it possible for the human being to find himself
dynamically as well as inwardly and grow out of his still animal
humanity into a diviner race. The psychological discipline of yoga
can be used to that end by opening all the parts of the being to a
conversion or transformation through the descent and working of the
higher, still-concealed supramental principle.
This, however, cannot be done at once or in a short time or by
any rapid or miraculous transformation. Many steps have to be taken
by the seeker before the supramental descent is possible. Man lives
mostly in his surface mind, life, and body, but there is an inner
being within him with greater possibilities to which he has to awake
-- for it is only a very restricted influence from it that he receives
now and that pushes him to a constant pursuit of a greater beauty,
harmony, power, and knowledge. The first process of yoga is therefore
to open the ranges of this inner being and to live from there outward,
governing his outward life by an inner light and force. In doing so
he discovers in himself his true soul, which is not this outer mixture
of mental, vital, and physical elements, but something of the reality
behind them, a spark from the one divine fire. He has to learn to
live in his soul and purify and orient by its drive toward the truth
the rest of the nature. There can follow afterwards an opening upward
and descent of a higher principle of the being. But even then it is
not at once the full supramental light and force. For there are
several ranges of consciousness between the ordinary human mind and
the supramental Truth-Consciousness. These intervening ranges have to
be opened up and their power brought down into the mind, life, and
body. Only afterwards can the full power of the Truth-Consciousness
work in the nature. The process of this self-discipline or sadhana is
therefore long and difficult, but even a little of it is so much
gained because it makes the ultimate release and perfection more
possible.
There are many things belonging to older systems that are
necessary on the way -- an opening of the mind to a greater wideness
and to the sense of the self and the infinite, an emergence into what
has been called the cosmic consciousness, mastery over the desires and
passions; an outward asceticism is not essential, but the conquest of
desire and attachment and a control over the body and its needs,
greeds, and instincts are indispensable. There is a combination of
the principles of the old systems, the way of knowledge through the
mind's discernment between reality and the appearance; the heart's way
of devotion, love, and surrender; and the way of works, turning the
will away from motives of self-interest to the truth and the service
of a greater reality than the ego. For the whole being has to be
trained so that it can respond and be transformed when it is possible
for that greater light and force to work in the nature.
In this discipline the inspiration of the master and, in the
difficult stages, his control and his presence are indispensable --
for it would be impossible otherwise to go through it without much
stumbling and error which would prevent all chance of success. The
master is one who has risen to a higher consciousness and being and he
is often regarded as its manifestation or representative. He not only
helps by his teaching and still more by his influence and example, but
by a power to communicate his own experience to others.
This is Sri Aurobindo's teaching and method of practice. It is
not his object to develop any one religion or to amalgamate the older
religions or to found any new religion -- for any of these things
would lead away from his central purpose. The one aim of his yoga is
an inner self-development by which each one who follows it can in time
discover the One Self in all and evolve a higher consciousness than
the mental, a spiritual and supramental consciousness which will
transform and divinize human nature.
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>From andrea@hp-sdd.UUCP (andrea)
Posted: Mon Dec 31 15:15:00 1984
Subject: Hypnotism
[Reposted from USENET's net.sci by your loyal moderator -- without
permission, heh heh heh]
I have had some training in hypnotism (self- and other-), and it is
definitely useful for behavior modification, relaxation, diminishing pain,
etc.
A conscientious hypnotist using it for therapeutic or demonstration purposes
will generally give some "safety" suggestions fairly early in the session.
Examples:
- if I or anyone else asks you to do something you know is
not in your best interests, you can reject it and stay in
this relaxed state.
(note: the "conscious" and "unconscious" parts of our mind are
both capable of yanking us out of trance instantly if anything
harmful is going on. It is really not a problem to avoid doing
something you know is wrong, harmful, or otherwise not in your
best interests.)
- whenever you need to or want to, you can come back to full
waking consciousness quickly and easily.
(this tends to prevent the wandering-around-in-a-fog that happens
when accidental interruptions occur. It is also sometimes useful
to give the subject a self-trigger, such as "Simply brush your
hand over your hair to dispel any grogginess you might feel".)
- Nobody can put you into a trance unless you want to, and agree to it.
One of the most powerful uses of hypnotism is in the post-hypnotic
suggestions. Simple physical triggers seem to work the best. For instance,
in using hypnosis to help you relax, lower blood pressure, relieve
headaches, etc, you can offer the subject the suggestion that by placing
finger and thumb together in an "o", they will be able to instantly recreate
the relaxed feelings they are having at this moment.
One of the things I learned in the hypnosis workshops was that it is
basically not harmful. In fact, it is very natural - we go in and out of
trance all the time (road fatigue, the dazed feeling after many hours of
sitcoms on the tube, that half-in-half-out stage when you are falling asleep
or waking up slowly are all examples of naturally occurring trances).
One anecdote to illustrate harm from exceeding your knowledge: a simple
induction technique was developed and taught to doctors and dentists in the
1950's, which allowed them to reduce by 1/3 or more the amount of anesthesia
needed. One dentist had the *brilliant* idea to suggest to his patient that
after the wisdom tooth came out, there would be no bleeding and no pain.
This suggestion succeeded all too well: the patient developed dry socket and
a spectacular abscess, but since there was no pain it was several weeks
before the patient saw fit to return to the dentist. Result was a root
canal and much tissue damage. The dentist learned to suggest "only as much
bleeding as necessary to cleanse and heal the wound", and that "there will
be pain to keep you informed of the progress of the healing, but it will be
manageable and will not cause you much distress." Moral: don't mess with
what you don't understand.
We all seem to have what it takes to protect ourselves from harm, and
look after ourselfs. Trust that, and proceed with integrity and caring,
and you can do some very good things with hypnosis, for yourself and others.
If you stay away from amateur psychotherapy, but just do simple relaxation
suggestions coupled with affirmations for desired behaviors, you'll do good.
You can if necessary leave someone in a trance, and they
will come out of it themselves every time. Of course, they may take
several hours - it depends what they need at that "level" of their
consciousness. Of course, people in trance should be watched so
they don't go wandering around on the streets!
Hope this is of some help - there are many myths about hypnosis,
and much to be gained by using it wisely.
Andrea Frankel, Hewlett-Packard (San Diego Division) (619) 487-4100 x4664
net: {allegra|ihnp4|decvax|ucbvax}!hplabs!hp-sdd!andrea
...searchlights casting for faults in the clouds of delusion
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End of New Age Digest #2
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-=-
Tim Maroney, Carnegie-Mellon University, Networking
ARPA: Tim.Maroney@CMU-CS-K uucp: seismo!cmu-cs-k!tim
CompuServe: 74176,1360 audio: shout "Hey, Tim!"