The Four Domains, pg2
_5 MY OWN EXPERIMENTAL SUBJECT
_
In attempting analysis of the four domains of the senses, I am somewhat my own experimental subject. Albert Einstein came to many of his discoveries by means of ‘gedanken experiments’- thought experiments (This is easier than traveling the speed of light to verify a hypothesis, or so they tell me). So I consider it fair game to look at my own perceptions.
‘My own Experimental Subject’ tells how opposite this process is to randomized, double blind, controlled experimentation. It’s *not* random. It’s *not* controlled. And that is the whole point. It is in the uncontrolled spontaneity of the moment that enlightenment and awakening can come, if you are open to it.
Picture someone in the swamp- an omnivore of course, trying to catch or kill a small animal or bird for dinner. Our subject is looking about for a weapon, and sees several sticks or tree branches to select from. (For vegetarians, substitute the image of someone seeing plants with succulent roots and selecting a digging stick. Vegans, I think you may be on your own. Dig your own hole…)
How likely is it that they will choose a method of selection such as a randomized double blind study so as to prevent experimenter bias? Will they put on a blindfold and pick a stick at random? Bullshit. They will look at them, feel them, flex them and heft their weight, and make their selection with just as much bias (also known as insight and previous experience) as they can muster. Why? Because they are hungry, and because they have good sense. They are not trying to convince a skeptical audience of the validity of their selection. They want dinner.
Randomized, double blind studies, in contrast sometimes result in the most convoluted and bizarre experimental designs I have ever seen. The reported effort to avoid any experimenter bias is extreme.
One of the core parameters of an experimental design is known as ‘the null hypothesis’. This hypothesis is the opposite or counter to the primary hypothesis which is under investigation to be proven or to be found incorrect.
If my hypothesis is ‘Redheads are better at mathematics than blondes’, the countering null hypothesis is ‘There is no difference in the ability at mathematics between redheads and blondes. Any such perceived difference is due to chance, and is not significant.’ An experiment is then designed to test these hypotheses.
A second key element in classical scientific experimentation is the requirement that experimenter bias be eliminated. It is assumed that the experimenter wants to prove that redheads do better at math, and unless the experiment is designed to prevent it, the experimenter may deliberately, subjectively, or inadvertently bias the results. ‘Randomized double blind’ experiments are the standard, where the experimenter is prevented from knowing the subjects’ hair color, and the pool of subjects is chosen at random. In addition, the subjects may not know what is being tested. Various other controls may also be in place. The image is of experimenter and subject both wearing blindfolds as they proceed
Things proceed very differently on the home front, here in the swamp. Here, belief comes first, then testing with an eye to efficiency. That is to say (as in the example of the hungry omnivore), our homemaker who lives in the swamp, our monkey brain subject, has a plan; get food, as quickly as possible. Monkey brain has a knowledge base and a strategy, which is to say, monkey brain is biased. Monkey brain isn’t much interested in the null hypothesis or convincing anyone else of the correctness of hypothetical food gathering techniques. Monkey brain wants what works, right now. And, by the way, monkey brain is not about to put on a blindfold before going out to find what's for dinner. Experimentation proceeds empirically, on the hoof, as it were.
There is a place for rigorous scientific investigation. After basic needs are met by a system that has been tested and, as judged by outcomes, has been shown to ‘work’- then, it may be that there is time and space for investigation into the system parameters. *Why* does it work? *How* does it work? Are there ways in which it could be changed so that it would work better? This is scientific investigation into a known phenomenon.
The disparity between the two approaches may lie partly in the necessity for most scientific efforts to compete for funding from skeptical sponsors. Monkey brain isn’t worried about funding. Monkey brain needs to feed the family, the tribe.
What I am doing is reporting personal (anecdotal) experiences. ‘This is what I have seen, this is how it has gone for me. If it works for you, well and good, if not, then be my guest to try and figure out why.’ (i.e. 'your mileage may vary')
'Escape' shows a sequence of occurrences and analyses which may serve an example.
In attempting analysis of the four domains of the senses, I am somewhat my own experimental subject. Albert Einstein came to many of his discoveries by means of ‘gedanken experiments’- thought experiments (This is easier than traveling the speed of light to verify a hypothesis, or so they tell me). So I consider it fair game to look at my own perceptions.
‘My own Experimental Subject’ tells how opposite this process is to randomized, double blind, controlled experimentation. It’s *not* random. It’s *not* controlled. And that is the whole point. It is in the uncontrolled spontaneity of the moment that enlightenment and awakening can come, if you are open to it.
Picture someone in the swamp- an omnivore of course, trying to catch or kill a small animal or bird for dinner. Our subject is looking about for a weapon, and sees several sticks or tree branches to select from. (For vegetarians, substitute the image of someone seeing plants with succulent roots and selecting a digging stick. Vegans, I think you may be on your own. Dig your own hole…)
How likely is it that they will choose a method of selection such as a randomized double blind study so as to prevent experimenter bias? Will they put on a blindfold and pick a stick at random? Bullshit. They will look at them, feel them, flex them and heft their weight, and make their selection with just as much bias (also known as insight and previous experience) as they can muster. Why? Because they are hungry, and because they have good sense. They are not trying to convince a skeptical audience of the validity of their selection. They want dinner.
Randomized, double blind studies, in contrast sometimes result in the most convoluted and bizarre experimental designs I have ever seen. The reported effort to avoid any experimenter bias is extreme.
One of the core parameters of an experimental design is known as ‘the null hypothesis’. This hypothesis is the opposite or counter to the primary hypothesis which is under investigation to be proven or to be found incorrect.
If my hypothesis is ‘Redheads are better at mathematics than blondes’, the countering null hypothesis is ‘There is no difference in the ability at mathematics between redheads and blondes. Any such perceived difference is due to chance, and is not significant.’ An experiment is then designed to test these hypotheses.
A second key element in classical scientific experimentation is the requirement that experimenter bias be eliminated. It is assumed that the experimenter wants to prove that redheads do better at math, and unless the experiment is designed to prevent it, the experimenter may deliberately, subjectively, or inadvertently bias the results. ‘Randomized double blind’ experiments are the standard, where the experimenter is prevented from knowing the subjects’ hair color, and the pool of subjects is chosen at random. In addition, the subjects may not know what is being tested. Various other controls may also be in place. The image is of experimenter and subject both wearing blindfolds as they proceed
Things proceed very differently on the home front, here in the swamp. Here, belief comes first, then testing with an eye to efficiency. That is to say (as in the example of the hungry omnivore), our homemaker who lives in the swamp, our monkey brain subject, has a plan; get food, as quickly as possible. Monkey brain has a knowledge base and a strategy, which is to say, monkey brain is biased. Monkey brain isn’t much interested in the null hypothesis or convincing anyone else of the correctness of hypothetical food gathering techniques. Monkey brain wants what works, right now. And, by the way, monkey brain is not about to put on a blindfold before going out to find what's for dinner. Experimentation proceeds empirically, on the hoof, as it were.
There is a place for rigorous scientific investigation. After basic needs are met by a system that has been tested and, as judged by outcomes, has been shown to ‘work’- then, it may be that there is time and space for investigation into the system parameters. *Why* does it work? *How* does it work? Are there ways in which it could be changed so that it would work better? This is scientific investigation into a known phenomenon.
The disparity between the two approaches may lie partly in the necessity for most scientific efforts to compete for funding from skeptical sponsors. Monkey brain isn’t worried about funding. Monkey brain needs to feed the family, the tribe.
What I am doing is reporting personal (anecdotal) experiences. ‘This is what I have seen, this is how it has gone for me. If it works for you, well and good, if not, then be my guest to try and figure out why.’ (i.e. 'your mileage may vary')
'Escape' shows a sequence of occurrences and analyses which may serve an example.
6 Escape
One of my recurrent efforts is to understand and 'free up' the spirit; my access to perceptions in and my activities in the spiritual domain. Always bearing in mind that the 4 domains operate simultaneously, I am intrigued and frustrated by how often I feel 'spiritually offline', or chained in the spirit.
If I can draw an analogy to emergency preparedness; one must achieve awareness level before progressing to operations level. It's kind of like walking into a new landscape and feeling out the terrain with your various senses.
First you have to get there. When I feel 'spiritually offline', it is as if I can't get there at all, or if I am there I can't 'see'. This is not a question of feeling as if I am twisting and turning, trying to get free, but rather that to my perceptions, at that time, there is no spiritual reality. It is unavailable.
The 'twisting and turning' or feeling chained in the spirit is different. There I am aware of the spiritual domain, but kept from freedom of perception and movement. I believe this is what the shamanic literature refers to as 'dark twisted cords' (as opposed to 'luminous bands of light') of the 'energy body'. All of these are analogies, but potent ones. The first time I read of 'dark twisted cords' and thought of relationships that had felt like they were strangling me, I had a moment of total recognition.
I have attempted several times to write up experiences where I came 'online' or suddenly 'slipped free' and found myself reveling in that freedom in the spirit. As referred to previously, when you get there, you look around to see what the 'landscape'- perceptions and activities- are. These writings follow.
6a Escaping the battlefield
A visualization that came to me recently is much like having the abilities of ‘Schrodinger’s Cat’ (the cat who walks through walls)- or you could term it (as in the book title) ‘Walker between the worlds’. It had started with a dream, where I felt as if I was on a battlefield or in a severe conflict- but suddenly I could turn ’sideways’ and slip out of that scene and away into another place of serenity and peace- as it should be.
Sideways. Slipping between. Another place. I don’t know what dimension it is that I am describing as ‘sideways’, but there was plenty of room to get through when I turned that way.
Not only room, but ease of movement. Further meditation brings a closer view of the ‘slipping’ characteristic. It is as if friction, or the lack of friction, is a key element. If looked at as an analogy to a physical process requiring effort to drag something along, ‘slipping between’ would be finding the way to turn so there was no friction. I can’t really remember the sensations of learning to skate, or the first time I slid down a hill on a snow-sled, but it must have felt like this; sudden fantastic freedom, unbelievable ease of movement in a new operating system. (And of course, as in these enterprises, there is a need of skills to navigate and avoid injury from the new found freedom.)
The term ‘friction’ takes me back to the second sentence in this piece, and the words ‘battlefield or severe conflict’. The image had come almost simultaneously, that first night, of both; formal battlefield with guns and armed forces, and an argument or interpersonal conflict of much smaller degree. One does not usually use the word ‘friction’ to describe formal warfare, but it is used as common terminology to describe arguments and disagreements. And indeed, when summing up relationship difficulties, people may speak of the situation in such terms as ‘You’re really a drag’, or ‘You’re bringing me down’. Schrodinger’s cat shows me, metaphorically,how to avoid the trap, escape the battlefield, slip away.
My monkey brain bristles with questions and qualifiers. ‘Slip away? Slip away to where? Is it a true escape, or might it be a trap? Are we there yet?’
My present answers are incomplete. ‘Where’ it is seems to be along some kind of orthogonal axis. 90 degrees from anywhere. ‘In the Free Zone’. (are we there yet?)
The question of it being a possible trap is a potent and relevant one, as people have been known to ‘slip away’ into madness to avoid dealing with a conflict which they cannot otherwise escape. As on the old nautical maps, ‘Here there be Dragons’.
6b The Progression of Freedom
This was a specific sequence subsequent to an interaction that had me acutely miserable-trapped, chained, in darkness and turmoil. I could feel the tentacles of misery trying to wrap around me and destroy my serenity.
Instead, somehow, I felt freedom. I was able, in my mind’s eye, to flex my wings and fly free of the encumbrance of anger and obsession.
In this freedom flight was healing laughter, and an empowering dance. It took away the power of the person whose actions had been involved in the sequence 'bringing me down'.
It is curious how very many familiar figures of speech arise when you try to describe this process.
It's also quite intriguing, how in both these instances (6a and 6b) that there was *not* a problem with being spiritually offline. Rather, I was in the physical but also acutely and actively suffering in the spirit. It may be that pulling and tugging on the 'dark twisted cords' of spiritual pain at least, at the minimum, turn on (or allow awareness of) the part of the CPU (so to speak) involving spirituality; the higher self, higher awareness.
My ultimate assessment here is that I have a crying need to be spiritually 'online'. I greatly prefer NOT to have to go through turmoil in order to 'get there'. BUT- get there and fix it. And try to learn to find the 'doorway' without so much angst.
6c Taking off
I was leaving work and driving home, and I felt that familiar ‘lift’ of excitement and anticipation that is especially marked when I have the next day off.
This does not originate in the physical, tho it may echo there. It does not originate in the mental, tho it may be triggered by knowledge of time off.
But here is the question- is it emotional, or spiritual, or does it contain a degree of both?
In that lights seemed brighter and all mundane objects perceived seemed to have a festive air, I can detect the emotional. But in that perception of the spirit buoyant and flying free (or more so), I believe the spiritual is involved as well.
What is interesting is when memory or association triggers a negative thought, which pulls one down into darker emotional territory, and the doors slam shut on the spiritual buoyancy. It is as if tendrils of light energy from the chakras have been yanked back. (Note in 2017; it seems that as time has gone on, it has become harder and harder to avoid this trap. I am glad I have had occasion to re-read this section and to be reminded of the reality of these experiences and this history. The door is there. The freedom is there. It is so close, and it is our birthright. We should not allow ourselves to be robbed or enchained. and we must not be complicit in the process.)
6d Undoing the Lock
In this sequence, I was again leaving work, and had stopped on the way out to drop off a contribution for a co-worker's retirement gift. There was a very distinct point where my 'mindset' changed. I had felt connected to, and drained by, the stress of work. But suddenly, like a key turning in a lock, I was 'disconnected' from the stress and its destructive effects.
It as extraordinary how excellent it felt. Freedom. The locks undone. The ropes sliding off. Walking through the wall. My perceptions explored the feeling, and there was just no confinement. It was lovely.
It also had a bit of an aspect to it of interlocking 'pegs' sliding past each other, like a 'push and turn' mechanism.
None of this is 'what it is'. It's what it 'feels like'. Similes, metaphors, parables- all words to describe the subtle reality.
If I can draw an analogy to emergency preparedness; one must achieve awareness level before progressing to operations level. It's kind of like walking into a new landscape and feeling out the terrain with your various senses.
First you have to get there. When I feel 'spiritually offline', it is as if I can't get there at all, or if I am there I can't 'see'. This is not a question of feeling as if I am twisting and turning, trying to get free, but rather that to my perceptions, at that time, there is no spiritual reality. It is unavailable.
The 'twisting and turning' or feeling chained in the spirit is different. There I am aware of the spiritual domain, but kept from freedom of perception and movement. I believe this is what the shamanic literature refers to as 'dark twisted cords' (as opposed to 'luminous bands of light') of the 'energy body'. All of these are analogies, but potent ones. The first time I read of 'dark twisted cords' and thought of relationships that had felt like they were strangling me, I had a moment of total recognition.
I have attempted several times to write up experiences where I came 'online' or suddenly 'slipped free' and found myself reveling in that freedom in the spirit. As referred to previously, when you get there, you look around to see what the 'landscape'- perceptions and activities- are. These writings follow.
6a Escaping the battlefield
A visualization that came to me recently is much like having the abilities of ‘Schrodinger’s Cat’ (the cat who walks through walls)- or you could term it (as in the book title) ‘Walker between the worlds’. It had started with a dream, where I felt as if I was on a battlefield or in a severe conflict- but suddenly I could turn ’sideways’ and slip out of that scene and away into another place of serenity and peace- as it should be.
Sideways. Slipping between. Another place. I don’t know what dimension it is that I am describing as ‘sideways’, but there was plenty of room to get through when I turned that way.
Not only room, but ease of movement. Further meditation brings a closer view of the ‘slipping’ characteristic. It is as if friction, or the lack of friction, is a key element. If looked at as an analogy to a physical process requiring effort to drag something along, ‘slipping between’ would be finding the way to turn so there was no friction. I can’t really remember the sensations of learning to skate, or the first time I slid down a hill on a snow-sled, but it must have felt like this; sudden fantastic freedom, unbelievable ease of movement in a new operating system. (And of course, as in these enterprises, there is a need of skills to navigate and avoid injury from the new found freedom.)
The term ‘friction’ takes me back to the second sentence in this piece, and the words ‘battlefield or severe conflict’. The image had come almost simultaneously, that first night, of both; formal battlefield with guns and armed forces, and an argument or interpersonal conflict of much smaller degree. One does not usually use the word ‘friction’ to describe formal warfare, but it is used as common terminology to describe arguments and disagreements. And indeed, when summing up relationship difficulties, people may speak of the situation in such terms as ‘You’re really a drag’, or ‘You’re bringing me down’. Schrodinger’s cat shows me, metaphorically,how to avoid the trap, escape the battlefield, slip away.
My monkey brain bristles with questions and qualifiers. ‘Slip away? Slip away to where? Is it a true escape, or might it be a trap? Are we there yet?’
My present answers are incomplete. ‘Where’ it is seems to be along some kind of orthogonal axis. 90 degrees from anywhere. ‘In the Free Zone’. (are we there yet?)
The question of it being a possible trap is a potent and relevant one, as people have been known to ‘slip away’ into madness to avoid dealing with a conflict which they cannot otherwise escape. As on the old nautical maps, ‘Here there be Dragons’.
6b The Progression of Freedom
This was a specific sequence subsequent to an interaction that had me acutely miserable-trapped, chained, in darkness and turmoil. I could feel the tentacles of misery trying to wrap around me and destroy my serenity.
Instead, somehow, I felt freedom. I was able, in my mind’s eye, to flex my wings and fly free of the encumbrance of anger and obsession.
In this freedom flight was healing laughter, and an empowering dance. It took away the power of the person whose actions had been involved in the sequence 'bringing me down'.
It is curious how very many familiar figures of speech arise when you try to describe this process.
It's also quite intriguing, how in both these instances (6a and 6b) that there was *not* a problem with being spiritually offline. Rather, I was in the physical but also acutely and actively suffering in the spirit. It may be that pulling and tugging on the 'dark twisted cords' of spiritual pain at least, at the minimum, turn on (or allow awareness of) the part of the CPU (so to speak) involving spirituality; the higher self, higher awareness.
My ultimate assessment here is that I have a crying need to be spiritually 'online'. I greatly prefer NOT to have to go through turmoil in order to 'get there'. BUT- get there and fix it. And try to learn to find the 'doorway' without so much angst.
6c Taking off
I was leaving work and driving home, and I felt that familiar ‘lift’ of excitement and anticipation that is especially marked when I have the next day off.
This does not originate in the physical, tho it may echo there. It does not originate in the mental, tho it may be triggered by knowledge of time off.
But here is the question- is it emotional, or spiritual, or does it contain a degree of both?
In that lights seemed brighter and all mundane objects perceived seemed to have a festive air, I can detect the emotional. But in that perception of the spirit buoyant and flying free (or more so), I believe the spiritual is involved as well.
What is interesting is when memory or association triggers a negative thought, which pulls one down into darker emotional territory, and the doors slam shut on the spiritual buoyancy. It is as if tendrils of light energy from the chakras have been yanked back. (Note in 2017; it seems that as time has gone on, it has become harder and harder to avoid this trap. I am glad I have had occasion to re-read this section and to be reminded of the reality of these experiences and this history. The door is there. The freedom is there. It is so close, and it is our birthright. We should not allow ourselves to be robbed or enchained. and we must not be complicit in the process.)
6d Undoing the Lock
In this sequence, I was again leaving work, and had stopped on the way out to drop off a contribution for a co-worker's retirement gift. There was a very distinct point where my 'mindset' changed. I had felt connected to, and drained by, the stress of work. But suddenly, like a key turning in a lock, I was 'disconnected' from the stress and its destructive effects.
It as extraordinary how excellent it felt. Freedom. The locks undone. The ropes sliding off. Walking through the wall. My perceptions explored the feeling, and there was just no confinement. It was lovely.
It also had a bit of an aspect to it of interlocking 'pegs' sliding past each other, like a 'push and turn' mechanism.
None of this is 'what it is'. It's what it 'feels like'. Similes, metaphors, parables- all words to describe the subtle reality.