Introduction
for Both Believers and Skeptics Alike . . .
Part 2: The Neutral “Middle Path”
As we know, the term ‘Paranormal,’ applies to that which is unexplainable, strange, and at odds with the normal familiar experiences, accepted perceptions and beliefs associated with our physical existence – i.e., events that cannot be accounted for by any “known” natural law or scientific knowledge.
Paranormal phenomena and its many manifestations have always been with us and our many encounters with it have been faithfully recorded and researched – though not always properly understood, or for that matter, believed or accepted by the general populace. But there are now many that do believe, or if not, they have a genuine and serious interest.
Looking at all the typical and naive beliefs associated with the paranormal – which generally stems from our ignorance about it – we can see that on the border of the first level is ‘superstition’ and this is mostly generated by fear: ‘lucky charms,’ and ‘crystal balls,’ and all the usual paraphernalia that’s associated with it. Those of us who are at this stage of belief are still being exploited by our neuroses and our fears – perhaps a regretful situation that has developed in the present, or a fear of the future: only we are also prone to being preyed on by ordinary people who aim to make a living out our beliefs – mostly con-men and ‘tricksters’ of which only a few are genuine. Of this we now know all too well, as those who are ignorant in the belief that the paranormal is non-existent, are all too ready to inform us of all this trickery.
Just inside this circle are those of us who have an interest in the paranormal, and have some deeper understanding of it. However, this can range from mild (positive) to obsessive (negative) depending on our Materialistic or Non-Materialistic views.
Such a person may have had a paranormal experience, and if sensitive to the greater meaning behind it, will feel a need to find some answers. These answers will of course be searched for in the following ways:
1. The believed “Positive” path (The Physical, Material explanation)
This path may lead us to seek for answers about paranormal phenomena within the knowledge accepted by science. There is the strong possibility that we may stop at the limited “explanations” given by science and accept its own conclusive “facts” about the material world whereby any and all enquiries may then come to an end. If so, then it’s more likely that we will then reject a psychical explanation as to the cause of paranormal phenomena.
Many so-called parapsychologists are of this group: most want to believe and will seek evidence of the paranormal, but perhaps are also held back from actually experiencing this evidence by their Materialistic views or beliefs and their reliance on scientific “facts”. Our perception and experience of reality depends largely on our beliefs views and overall mindset. (See Rosenthal Effect).
2. The believed “Negative” path (The Psychical, Mental explanation)
This path may lead a person to research into the mystical and occult aspects of the paranormal, where he or she may try to decipher its oft-confusing and contradictory, symbolic-metaphoric language, generally considered “nonsense” by the scientific community. These people are apt to reject a mundane, physical, materialistic, explanation as to the cause of paranormal phenomena, and because of this many are in danger of being caught up in the ‘maze’ of various occult teachings and its many contradictions – often the result of misguided and misunderstood research.
If one is not careful, the so-called “negative” path of the occult (if believed) can easily become an obsession which can eventually lead to the individual joining a particular religious group or cult or perhaps create or adopt some form of belief – most of which – when compared to the dogmatic institutions of science – are merely other ‘resting places’ for the mind. Worse, one could go further into the extreme depths of this path which can easily lead to the degradation of the individual’s spirit – whereby the individual may find him/herself a member of a cult; participating in the “People in the UFOs are here to save us” or “Because he says he is Christ, I believe him” ideology – or even the many varied rituals associated with devil worship. Because of the creative power of the mind, some of these beliefs may eventually be realised in one form or another.
There is however a third path:
3. Neutral Path
(Synthesis of both Physical-Material and Psychical-Mental explanations)
By taking the neutral path we may look for answers in both the physical and the psychical realms. We should adopt an agnostic and at the same time, a satirical attitude to life – i.e., believing in NOTHING but at the same time considering EVERYTHING, and all in a kind of light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek manner. And if we remain neutrally impartial and indifferent to each of these opposite paths and their seductions, we will find certain correspondences in both which may then lead us to the higher levels of inner knowledge where step-by-step, both will be seen to be more and more deeply connected.
In this way, one is always in touch with the Infinite.
If our minds are open to perceiving and understanding these deeper connections, then its possible that the truth of these connections will be delivered to us by ‘flashes’ of insight whereby we will also begin experiencing mild paranormal phenomena.
These mild paranormal experiences are mostly based on synchronistic events which will contain further meaning and will lead us to more information and more intense psychic experiences. As to the cause of paranormal phenomena, it is through this neutrally-balanced position – (and knowing that the same primary pattern exists in everything) – that one is then able to make sensible, logical deductions by utilising the ‘connecting principle’ familiar to esoteric studies known as analogy.
It will then be obvious that everything – the material world of the ‘physical’ and the mental world of the ‘psychical’ – is being created by our own divided consciousness and that this divided perception possessed by each of us can be further connected to just One Centre of Consciousness.
In this way such a balanced or centred individual will perceive the Source and Centre within to which all things are connected – something that those of us who identify with either one of the opposite paths as first mentioned – wouldn’t be able to perceive nor contemplate. There is much evidence to show that those of us who follow either one of these opposite paths cannot always perceive the connections between things that are out on the periphery away from this Centre, this is because these two paths are each divided by differences and contradictions which a divided mind cannot get beyond all the time it is divided in ‘two’ between ‘this’ or ‘that,’ ‘us’ or ‘them,’ ‘me’ or ‘you,’ ‘mind’ or ‘matter,’ ‘particle’ or ‘wave,’ and . . . ‘science’ or ‘mysticism.’
What must be made perfectly clear is this:
THE DUALITY IN CONSCIOUSNESS - BEING ITS DIVISION INTO OPPOSITES - IS NECESSARY FOR OUR EXPERIENCE AND PERCEPTION OF REALITY
PARANORMAL, & MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE AND PHENOMENA IS PRODUCED BY A BALANCE, OR SYNTHESIS OR FUSION' OF THESE OPPOSITES WITHIN ONE'S MIND AND CONSCIOUSNESS. THIS IS THE UNION OF
1) THE MALE-RELATED, CONSCIOUS, OBJECTIVE, PHYSICAL WORLD, and
2) THE FEMININE-RELATED, SUBCONSCIOUS, SUBJECTIVE, PSYCHICAL WORLD AND BOTH ARE EQUALLY VALID REALITIES.
Paranormal phenomena is like the ‘child’ conceived and produced via the sex act between the male and female, and correspondingly this fusion can happen within oneself – between the male (conscious-related left brain) and female (subconscious-related right-brain) aspects of one’s own psyche.
A person who has regular flashes of insight, intuition and the odd psychic experience – especially those of us who have developed certain sidhis (an ancient Sanskrit term, meaning ‘psychic abilities’) – is a living example of this neutral synthesis. It is they, who to some extent, have balanced, synthesised, fused and therefore cancelled out (neutralised) these opposite energies – the one that exists within (mental) and the one that exists without (material). It must be emphasised that one is not perpetually in this state but that one's mind will be conducive to it.
In brief, intuition and insight come from the higher levels of the spinal column, which are closer to the topmost Chakra Centre – which according to Hindu mystical traditions is located just above the head. In brief, this is why we use the image of a light bulb suddenly appearing above the head to show a person engaging an insight or an original idea. See left, an amusing but apt interpretation.
The picture on the left is not a portrait of the author - although the numerous insights I have had about the pyramids since my own Kundalini experience in 93 - many would say this picture is indeed appropriate.
Little do many of us know that the archetypal pointed hat as traditionally worn by wizards and witches, is symbolic of the chakra vortex in the head that reduces down to its own centre believed to be what physicists would today call a "point of singularity" – one’s own link with the Divine. This centre is known in Hindu philosophy as the Siva Bindu – otherwise known as the Void – the Godhead in Man – in essence, it represents the same Source and Centre that seeded the physical universe in the so-called “Big-Bang”. And again, it is believed that one’s consciousness and energy will only begin to ascend, and converge on that point, when there is a fusion between the two opposites of one’s dual psyche – as in both yielding to some greater reality. This is the true meaning behind the Triad of positive, (one side of the Triad) negative (the other side) and neutral (the apex and where the positive and negative as phenomena or things in themselves are neutralised and become ONE energy again.)
As said in the last quote given above: “For both are valid modes of knowing which meet in the experiencing individual, in consciousness itself – which is universal.”
I would say, both meet in the point – the universal centre and the source of consciousness itself.
Looking at the shining light bulb above the conical hat, the same imagery appears in the star or angel (Shining One) placed at the top of a cone-like or triangular-shaped Christmas Tree – the stem of the tree representing the human spinal column.
1. Image from a set of cards issued by tea giants, PG Tips, as part of a publicity campaign for their pyramid-shaped tea bags
And we see the same in the symbol of the “all seeing eye” in the separated capstone-apex of a truncated pyramid – again a peaked monument. The traditional Dunce hat stems from the fact that an "idiot" would be required to wear it in the belief that some symbolic reference given to this highest chakra and with everyone’s focus on it might enlighten the "idiot" and make him more intelligent, clever and wiser.
