July 28 2024
Many unusual features of observed activities of non-human intelligences associated with UAP craft and other forms of advanced technology (beyond common human attainments) are categorized as "high strangeness". The observations we have access to are the investigated, vetted and published cases of reported close encounter of third and fourth kind experiences.
An internal document in the form of a slide intended for presentations given in the Department of Defense seems to reflect what has been identified of unusual capacities that have apparently been observed:
'DoD Threat Scenario (AATIP Sub-Focus Areas)
The science exists for an enemy of the United States to manipulate both physical and cognitive environments in order to penetrate U.S. facilities, influence decision makers, and compromise national security
— Psychotronic weapons
— Cognitive Human Interface
— Penetration of solid surfaces
— Instantenous sensor disassembly
— Alteration/Manipulation of biological organisms
— Anomalies in the space/time construct
— Unique cognitive interface experiences' .
DoD Advantages
— DoD has been involved in similiar experiments in the past
— DoD has relationships with renowned subject matter experts
— DoD controls several facilities where activities have been detected. What was considered “phenomena” is now quantum physics."
The above list matches much of what has been frequently reported as aspects of encounter experiences: communication via telepathy; ability to instill or trigger virtual reality images and memories; affect a person's neurology, level of awareness; ability to move through solid objects (bright light energy seems to enable alien actions here); ability to just appear and disappear. And, more that puzzles and shocks.
The above-quoted slide was found on an unsecured page at the site belong to Christopher Mellon, former Deputy Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and associate of former Pentagon official Lue Elizondo. Mellon and Elizondo engineered at the end of 2017 the revelation of a Pentagon UFO study effort through the pages of the NY Times.
On August 20th Elizondo 's memoir "Imminent" is released but significant portions were leaked for a short bit and excerpts related to his reported involvement with using the psychic "remote viewing" tool for intel-gathering has sparked an angry firestorm from those critical of the high strangeness or the "woo" factor associated with the UFO/UAP mystery.
I am reposting a summary of a case where a non-human being, seen exhibiting unusual abilities, explains to the observing human that he too had the potential to do likewise if he knew how to use his brain. Case published by Dr. Ardy Sixkiller Clark, professor emeritus from Montana State University:
"Witness: Alaskan native Ross approaches Clarke at a diner after being told by the superintendent of the local school district that she collects UFO stories. He is a snow plow driver.
Entity Description: Small, size of a 10 year old. Large dark eyes evident behind protective gear. Four-digited hands.
Craft Description: Disk shaped, bright orange lights around bottom. Blinding bright white light when departing. Covered 2 lanes of highway (covered in snow).
Activity Observed/Experienced: The snow plow driver was clearing a highway buried in the midst of a blizzard when “about an hour into the shift that night, I got a call from Bill, the other driver [working in the opposite direction], that there was a strange glow up ahead of Lucky Gil’s. He asked if I saw it.
Before I had a chance to respond, I came upon a disk setting in the middle of the highway. It covered the full two lanes. It was round with bright orange lights at the bottom. I stopped within 20 feet of it. I flipped my lights up and down. I tried calling Bill, but my radio was dead.
Suddenly, blinding white lights came on and the craft moved upward and was gone. I watched until it was gone, but that was not long because the storm cut visibility that night to nearly zero.”
After the craft departed, he found that his vehicle engine was off, but he restarted it ok. Starting to drive, he felt a bump and stopped to check it out. At that point, he saw first one hand (each with 4 digits), then another on the side window, and finally a face: “It wore some kind protective gear on its face, but I saw the eyes, big dark eyes staring at me. Suddenly, it turned and ran across the road to a stand of trees and disappeared”.
The driver thought that was the end of it, but in an instant the being “reappeared in the middle of the road ahead of me. Somehow I understood that it was cold and needed a place of shelter. I offered him to come inside my snow plow but he wanted nothing to do with that”.
Ardy asked how they were communicating and the driver really didn't know. But, he noted also the being (who he sensed was male) had conveyed his predicament was the driver’s fault.
As he would learn, there had been a craft malfunction which the being had gone out to check on. His comrades had evacuated quickly. “I invited him inside again. I told him I had to clear the roads and I could not leave him outside in the cold. Reluctantly he came inside, but not like you and I would climb inside. HE JUST APPEARED…. [My emphasis].
They communicated very little during the time the entity sat in the cab but a few things were conveyed. The alien had gone outside during the repair work being done from inside to do “some testing of the snow”. This unexpected contact with Ross was by a young crew of explorers whose rules of the road included avoiding contact with humans, so this incident was problematic.
Also, Ross tells Clarke that the alien “was fascinated with the snowplow and how it worked. He considered it a rather primitive machine but one that he was curious about. He told me that humans put too much reliance on oil-based machines. He said they should spend their energy on studying the use of magnetic propulsion for travel…”
Since a heavy snow blizzard was their current circumstance, the alien had also noted that “he had never experienced snow before or extreme cold.” He reported the weather didn't vary much on his home planet.
And, Ross for his part on this mostly quiet ride, asked about the capacity to appear and disappear like the alien had done: “He said everyone from his world could come and go like that. He said I could do it too. I just had to learn to use my brain in the right way. I didn't understand what he meant.”
Eventually the craft returned and the alien left."
This journal will share via dated entries various human-sourced tools and practices that reportedly develop extraordinary capacities. Also there will be info revealing results for things like ESP experiments and more.
We will also attempt to address the concern many seem to have with attention directed to the "woo" or high strangeness aspects.
First, in this entry, I will share meditation practices from the traditions of Dzogchen (advanced Buddhism), Kashmir Shaivism (non dual tradition) and original Buddhism. These practices aren't primarily adopted to gain "powers" or enhanced capacities. Instead, the point is to realize one's essential nature, as non dual and non local Consciousness. Still, "powers" like telepathy may be a byproduct.
~~~~~The 14th century body of texts by Karma Lingpa known in the west as the Tibetan Book of the Dead (and, actually “The Great Liberation by Hearing in the Intermediate States”) includes one text that is a Dzogchen (or Atiyoga) vehicle-based “direct introduction”.
[Reference Note: Chapter 4, “introduction to Awareness: Natural Liberation through Naked Perception”; THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD, “first complete translation”, 2005 Penguin Books, copyrights by the various contemporary figures identified (i.e., minus Karma Lingpa and Padmasambhava); since these writings are supposedly based on initiations initially by the 8th Century figure Padmasambhava, it is said to be “by Padmasambhava” and revealed by the “Terton” (i.e. treasure revealer) Karma Lingpa; translated by Gyurme Dorje; edited by Graham Coleman and Thupten Jinpa; introductory commentary by His Holiness The Dalai Lama.]
This text is simply an introduction to the actual nature of “intrinsic awareness”.
It opens up by noting that the intrinsic radiance, lucidity, luminous clarity, and bare awareness of our basic nature (or, as phrased here, “nature of mind”) is typically “not recognized” by most everyone even though it is continuously ever-present, seamlessly threaded with every unfolding experience and aspect of existence.
In the next short subsection of the “Introduction to Awareness….”, the point is made that “samsara” (illusion and entranced bondage to the round of birth, death, and rebirth) and “nirvana” (the condition of being awake and liberated) are “inseparable” in the full realization of our non-dual nature. So, the 8 vehicles preceding Dzogchen are described here, and all are noted to reinforce dualistic notions through their strategic efforts via the approaches of renunciation, purification, and transformation.
Then, the text identifies many of the “names” for the enlightened condition, just before offering the “three considerations” that serve as the method for directly recognizing the non-dual and enlightened base (for all!).
Rather than paraphrase the content of the “direct introduction”, I will quote the full short section that translator Gyurme Dorje entitled “Three Considerations”:
“The following is the introduction [to the means of experiencing] this [single] nature of mind
Through the application of three considerations:
[First recognize that] past thoughts are traceless, clear, and empty,
[Second recognize that] future thoughts are unproduced and fresh,
And [third, recognize that] the present moment abides naturally and unconstructed.
When this ordinary, momentary
consciousness is examined nakedly (and directly) by oneself,
Upon examination, it is radiant awareness,
Which is free from from the presence of an observer,
Manifestly stark and clear,
Completely empty and uncreated in all respects,
Lucid, without duality of radiance and emptiness,
Not permanent, for it is lacking inherent existence in all respects,
Not a mere nothingness, for it is radiant and clear,
Not a single entity, for it is clearly perceptible as a multiplicity,
Yet not existing inherently as a multiplicity, for it is indivisible and of a single savour [my note: savour = taste].
This intrinsic awareness, which is not extraneously derived,
Is itself the genuine introduction to the abiding nature of [all] things……”
[Reference Note: pages 41-42 The First Complete Translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Penguin Books, 2005]
~~~~~This next text was a product of the Kaulism Tantrics, who clearly highlighted an approach to realization of the ultimate condition of non-dual Consciousness (Shiva) through a vibrant engagement with the Goddess-Shakti. This text from the 7th Century is the Vijnana-Bhairava Tantra and consists of an instructive dialogue between Shiva (here “Bhairava”) and the Goddess.
This text was first made available to the English speaking/reading world by the writer Paul Reps who in the early 1950s studied under Swami Laksmanjoo when Laksmanjoo was beginning to work on translating the text into English. Reps then wrote, and published in 1952, in the first edition of Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, a version of the Bhairava Tantra in a section of the book (“Centering”) otherwise devoted to Zen. Reps mistakenly represented this text as 4000 years old (it’s 1400 years old) and as the basis for Zen! By the time
Laksmanjoo’s translation effort is complete, through the efforts of Jaideva Singh, these mistakes are not repeated (Singh correctly notes the age of this text). By the late 60s or early 70s I have read the Reps version. His book was very popular, liberally stocked on bookstore shelves everywhere.
In the late nineties I came across a very poetic and fluid version of this text by Lorin Roche. That beautiful piece of work, along with Jaideva Singh’s and Paul Rep’s version helped inform my understanding of this text. I also studied Daniel Oldier’s version, which was translated into English from his French. So, I will use the above versions when describing the content and doing my own free rendering of specific verses. I will do a few comparisons of verses from the various versions so the reader can see the different styles.
The Bhairava Tantra is presenting practices that are known as “limited means”, or “anava-upaya”. This is the fourth of basic types of practice offered in the Kashmir Shaivism tradition, as laid out in the 9th Century “Shiva Sutras” presented by Vasugupta from the Kashmir Valley. The categories of “means” to realization are:
(1) No means or “anupaya” (upaya is translated as “means”). Without any effort whatsoever, and spontaneously, a person realizes their essential nature (as non-dual Consciousness and Its primary Energy manifesting as everything) merely upon hearing the teaching or, in other words, receiving transmission from the Guru.
(2) “Shambu’s means”, or Shambhava-upaya. Shiva was also known as “Shambu”. This category of practice also involves, like number one, the element of “grace”, or the spontaneous recognition and realization of non dual Shiva-Shakti, but in a more limited way than anupaya or non means. Here the practice simply entails stilling the chatter of the mind and in that stillness there may be the dawning spontaneously an awareness of “Shiva-Consciousness”.
(3) Shakta-upaya. For the person finding it difficult for the mind to come to rest, it’s suggested that the person adopt a focus on, and a pondering of, “higher” concepts that counter those already fixed in place in a person’s mind.
(4) Limited means or anava-upaya. A whole array of practices are available as options in this category, including the use of mantras, breathing practices, concentration, and meditation. The rise of the primal Energy current or Shakti up a central channel corresponding to the spinal line into the “crown” of the head is a key practice in this category.
The Vijjnana-Bhairava Tantra is a dialogue between Bharaiva (or “Shiva”) and Bharaivi (the “Goddess” or “Shakti”). The Goddess begins (in the first ten verses) with her questions to Shiva regarding his most essential Nature and whether that can be recognized through the various manifestations and concepts highlighted by teachers and texts, or showcased via rituals.
Beginning with verse 11, Shiva responds by saying “no”. The teachings about him (i.e. his essential nature) are insubstantial and illusory. But, useful for people heavily caught up in illusion and conditioned living. The stories and the rituals and all the practices are not “it”, but can serve to bring people to a place of greater capacity for realization of one’s essential nature. Another way to put it would be that one is made more open to the spontaneous grace of realizing one’s true and fullest nature.
Verses 14 through 16 note the radical non dual Nature of our essence, which Lorin Roche translates this way:
“I am beyond measure. I cannot be calculated. I am beyond space and time. I am beyond ancient and beyond the future. There are no directions to me.I am always here. I am the embrace of your most intimate experience. Though I am beyond the intellect, I am not beyond your daring.I am the nourishing state of fullness that is the essence of soul. You belong to me, and I am yours. My nature is spotless, completely uncontaminated. I am not covered up, not even by a billion galaxies. So who is there to worship and adore? There is no one to appease.”
The next three verses (17-19) emphasize the seamless “not-two” nature of the always existing Shiva/Goddess union. The point is that they are not two separate things made into one thing. Lorin Roche’s version of verses 18 and 19 clearly conveys this key point to understand, directly and in one’s own experience:
“Heat and fire are not two things. These are just verbal distinctions.[18] The Goddess and the One who hold Her Are one and the same. We are inseparable’ . The way to me is through Her.”
The Goddess in verses 22 and 23 voices an ardent interest in the instruction related to Shiva’s statement (in verse 21, a repeat of point made at end of 19) that the essential nature of Shiva can be realized through a vibrant engagement with the Goddess (Shakti, or the all pervasive Energy of the Cosmos).
So, with verse 24, Shiva begins to share instructions on 112 ways of meditating through a focus on the expressive energy states available to all beings, beginning with one’s breathing and the flow of the related life force. Verses 24 through 135, out of the total 162 in this tantra, are ways anyone can practice in using the “laboratory” of their own body and energy to realize directly in one’s awareness and feeling the primary Heart of All.
Below is a detailed description of the first 18 of these 112 focal points for meditation, verses 24 through 42. After that, there’s a wide range of options for a practitioner, of which a sampling will be noted.
Verses 24 through 27 direct the focus of feeling and awareness to the breath, and the gaps between inhaling and exhaling, as a preface to a focusing on the related flow of the life force or energy.
In feeling the spacious quiet alertness between breaths, awareness of our most essential nature can become acutely clear. Here, in this gap, no sense of “I” and “other” is felt or seen (as noted in verse 27).
With verse 28, focusing of awareness and feeling is on the ascending movement of the life force along a central axis corresponding to the spine. This movement of energy through increasingly subtler energy centers along this axis culminates in the crown of the head with the experience of the radiant and spacious energy of the “Goddess” and the realization and recognition of the centerless Consciousness unaffected by all movements. This latter realization is of “Shiva”.
The rhythmic movement of the breath remains as a felt focus, in feeling with awareness the ascending movement of energy up the central axis and into the crown of the head and beyond.
With verse 31, an additional focal point is introduced: the “third eye” region in the forehead. This focus deep behind a point between the eyebrows onto the “eye of light” (as Lorin Roche translated it) grows into feeling and perceiving a brightening of energy and light from the third eye focal point which then expands upward in feeling and awareness into the crown and beyond.
The next verse (#32) shifts the focus to the play of all five senses, pictured as like five colored circles of a peacock feather. This focusing entails a further deepening of feeling and awareness of this unfolding and colorful display of the senses, to the point of realizing the insubstantial, “empty”, and spacious underlying nature and condition of the senses.
Verse 33 suggests that whatever one’s point of focus, give in to it completely, and to the point of recognizing the insubstantial spaciousness of that chosen focal point. That focal point could literally be anything at all, chosen from whatever is grabbing one’s attention in any given moment.
Verse 34 points to the space inside our cranium, where with eyes closed one sees and feels the spaciousness of our essential nature.
Verse 35 returns the focus back on the central channel and the very thin (“like a stem of a lotus”) channel (“nadi”) for the life force current. Here it is suggested to meditate on this channel’s “empty”, spacious, insubstantial but electrifying nature. There maybe, as a result, a dawning recognition of the divine condition at the heart of everything.
With verse 36, a focal point for awareness and attention is established by using fingers and thumb to close the sensory “opening” of the eyes and ears, and, enabled by this closing, seeing a point of light dawn at the third eye region. Surrendering awareness and feeling at this point of light, (1) “the yogi is established in the highest (spiritual) state” (Jaideval Singh’s translation), or (2) “an orgasm of light” [then] “breaks out” (as Lorin Roche put it). The English version of Daniel Oldier states that merging at that “bindu” (i.e. a concentrated point, in this case of the light at the third eye) brings about a recognition and experience of “the infinite space between [the] eyebrows”. Paul Reps noted in his version that practicing this focus (the 12th of 112 shared in this text), “a space between your eyes becomes all inclusive”.
With the verses so far, the central focal points of the breath, vital life force energy, the anatomy of the central channel, third eye area, and the crown have been introduced.
There has been also a description of the concentrative focusing on internal light, sprouting and expanding from
the third eye focal point upward into the crown, and beyond. Verse 37 takes the reader to a place of blissful absorption in radiant clear light. These practices, and identification of the subtle anatomy involved, were described in early Upanishads. And, widely elaborately upon in the medieval Yoga Upanishads and in Saivite and Vajrayana “tantras” or texts.
Verses 38 through 42 also describe an essential focal point present in earlier and later works: sound. First (in verse 38), there is a focusing inwardly on internal sounds which over time become more refined and bring awareness and feeling to realization of the source of these internal currents of sound. (The ears are plugged here.) Sounds reportedly heard include heavier grosser sounds at first, with continued inward focusing on the internal sound “current” eventually evoking more subtler sounds like flutes and bees buzzing. The empty spacious silence, full of awareness and the feeling of being, is the subtlest condition of “Shiva”, and the space out of which all sounds (external and internal) emerge, manifest and play, and then disappear or dissolve.
Verse 39 suggests slowly intoning the primal sound “OM”, deeply entering that sound, and as it fades away, feeling the silent space afterwards.
With verse 40, the same feeling exercise in awareness is recommended with the emergence and disappearance of any syllable or vowel or consonant heard or voiced.
Verse 41 suggests using music for the same focusing practice.
Verse 42 has the reader taking a letter and pronouncing it while picturing and feeling it radiantly impacting the body with the sound, and then coming to realize the “void” (the Shiva condition) that is the basis for all of that.
The many more ways of focal points for meditation described further are wide ranging, including feeling and picturing one’s own body becoming on fire, spreading from the feet and consuming the body completely. And, the same for the whole world.
Verses 68 through 70 entail not the picturing of a fiery consumption of the body in the above way, but instead an embrace of the bodies sexual energies, either with partner or alone when inspired by memory of being with a partner. This brings about a similar feeling and awareness of limited and contracted identification and solidity melting away, the basis for all of existence realized in that state.
As verse 140 notes notes, any single one of these ways can suffice for a practice, opening up the door to a graceful realization of “Shiva” that enables a passing on and sharing of the primal energy (“Shakti”) of the Goddess.
~~~~~~~~~~Today’s students and practitioners of Buddhist teachings and practices have a wealth of published material available to them. Translations of texts from the wide variety of Buddhist schools or systems, and the commentaries and explanatory examining texts, teachings, and practice, heavily populate bookstore shelves, clearly outshining in sheer number and volume all the nearby books covering the so called schools of Hinduism (like Advaita Vedanta, the focus of the previous chapter).
One of the contemporary works standing out on these booksellers’ shelves worldwide was Sam Harris’s 2014 book “Waking Up ~ A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion”. Therein (on page 35) he correctly notes the expressive manner of the second text this chapter will examine, The Satipatthana Sutta (or Sutra) or Full Mindfulness of the Four Fields (Body, Mind, Feeling, Perceptions): “Highly repetitious” and, perhaps excepting avid students, “exceptionally boring to read. Yet, he also notes (correctly, I feel!) this sutra is a “rigorously empirical guide to freedom from suffering”.
The two instruction talks on mindfulness by the Buddha to be looked at here, both expressed in this very boring repetitive manner apparently to aid the memorization of the instructions, represent a key fruition aspect of awakening practice which altogether, in the Buddha’s system, rests on a foundation of addressing all aspects and movements of one’s life: right view, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, and concentration.
Mindfulness, with effort and concentration, are the maturest aspect of practice prior to the full breakthrough awakening.
The mindfulness process is interwoven with the development (in one’s practice) of six other “factors” contributing to awakening:
1.) First is the capacity to discern our various states, stay free of delusion, and further see and understand our life’s patterns (including the movements of thought).
2.) The Buddha notes, in the Full Mindfulness of the Four Fields or Foundations, that the aware-feeling inquiry involved in sustaining mindful awareness arouses a “tireless energy”. The factor of energy aroused and stabilized helps sustain one’s spirit, and inspiration, through this awakening process.
3.) Tied to the previous factor of “energy”, the development of “rapture” is noted to involve five deepening phases. The Buddha reported that the factor of rapture is enabled by by the “tireless energy” manifesting through a stable mindful focusing.
Initial signs of rapture are minor, slight thrills (perhaps producing goose bumps) through the body that may serve to straighten one’s posture. Then lightening like burst of rapturous energy may be momentarily experienced. A further deepening of rapture may be felt as intensely pleasurable wave like currents sweep over the body. A more refined feeling of upliftment, to the point when one may feel like they are floating and levitating, may next arise. A final degree of rapture is said to be an extremely refined thrill, seemingly all
pervasive.
A key warning note is often imparted related to these experiences, not to become fixated upon and attached to these states of rapture. Let them arise as they will.
4.) The cultivation of calmness is the next phase identified by the Buddha as key to the awakening process. The mindful focusing on breathing is the practice the Buddha emphasized for developing the capacity to abide calmly in the face of unfolding experiences.
In a sense, this is a further refinement or deepening of that all-pervasive subtle thrill described in #3. Here, in a stable calm abiding state, there’s a deeper sense of ease and a simple enjoyment beyond the more excitable charge of the rapture states.
5.) In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, the “conclusive” practice sequence is one-pointed concentration to states of meditative absorption and then awakening to one’s essential nature. In the Buddha’s “Noble Eightfold Path”, the awakening factor of “concentration” is the final step on that path, with mindfulness the preceding one.
An adept concentrative capacity involves developing a stabilized capacity to remain undistracted in an effortless and easeful manner. Which contributes to the stabilizing of the last of the six factors standing with “mindfulness” as the seven factors of awakening:
6) Equaniminity
The Buddha identified maturing signs and levels of awakening awareness from one pointed concentration and meditative absorption. These deepening states are called “Jhanas”. The Buddha’s two gurus taught him the practices of experiencing increasingly more refined states of blissful absorption, where in a state of lucid awareness one begins to lose the sense of bodily solidity and experience has a “formless” feel to it.
Enhanced or paranormal perceptual capacities may awaken here, like clairvoyance.
Many teachers consider cultivating these blissful states of “formlessness” a distraction from the main focus of fully awakening. Instead, concentrative efforts shed light on the ever shifting and fluid motion of our experience, where we clearly see the rising, appearance, and passing away of thoughts, emotions, sensations….the whole range of our experiences. Undistracted thusly, we are prone less to get lost in thought and reverie.
The Buddha taught a basic practice using breathing as the concentrative focal point in serving the development and deepening of the seven factors of awakening. That narration of the circumstances and content of the Buddha’s instruction on this is provided in the Anapananasati Sutra, or The Sutra on the Full Mindfulness (or, Full Awareness) of Breathing.
August 13 2024
Among the six major schools of thought in India is the Yoga system which is associated with a dualistic philosophical system (Samkhya) but with its practices also adopted by non dual adherents of practice traditions associated with Vedanta. A text known as the Yoga Sutra, thought to be written within the first two centuries of the Common Era by an unknown person named Patanjali, is a collection of 195 terse aphorisms in four chapters or sections.
The Yoga Sutra presents an eight-stepped practice leading to the realization of "samadhi", a lucid and blissful experience or realization of our essential nature and Self as bare Witness-Consciousness unaffected by the movements of Nature or all that is manifested (including thoughts, emotions and sensations). This is where the dualistic perspective of Yoga and Samkhya comes in, with Nature (prakriti) and all its movements distinctly separate from our core identity as motionless Witness-Consciousness (purusha). The philosophical difference with the non dual traditions under the general label of Vedanta is that Nature and Source-Consciousness are "One without a second", or not seen as two distinctly seperate "things".
The Sutra opens up in section one with a terse sentence that the Yoga practice system "restricts" or stills the movements of the mind, allowing the shining forth of our primary Self as unaffected Witness-Consciousness. This process entails an ongoing liberation from the conditioning movements of Nature (like patterns of thinking and emotions).
The Yoga system consists of a sequence of eight steps that may result in a super conscious and ecstatic realization of one's essential nature. They are:
~~unhealthy and unethical actions to avoid.
~~a healthy and ethical code of conduct.
~~maintaining a steady physical position for meditation.
~~positive and stabilizing effect on vital life-force through breath exercises.
~~withdrawal of focus or attention from senses.
~~one pointed concentration.
~~meditation or steady concentration.
~~ecstatic and lucid realization.
The third section of the Yoga Sutra includes some concentration foci that are designed to develop unusual "powers". Focusing on that aspect through this practice system, though, is not the primary point and can be an unhealthy distraction. Some of the concise aphorisms related to powers will be shared using the late Georg Feuerstein's translation.
"[Through direct perception] of [another person's] ideas [in consciousness], knowledge of another's consciousness [is obtained]." (3.19)
Georg Feuerstein comments, related to verse 19 and the unquoted 20th noting that capacity doesn't relate to what is objectively true outside thoughts:
"This aphorism makes the simple point that the yogin's unmediated perception of the thoughts of another person does not give him knowledge of the objective realities on which those thoughts are based....."
"Through [the practice of] constraint upon the form of the body, upon the suspension of the capacity to be perceived, [that is to say,] upon the disruption of the light [traveling from that body] to the eye, invisibility [is gained]." (3.21)
"Through mastery of the up-breath [the yogin gains the power of] nonadhesion to water, mud, or thorns and [the power of] rising up [from them]." (3.39)
Feuerstein comments: "Early on, the yogin's discovered that there are different aspects to the life force (prana), manifesting as breath. Each yields different paranormal powers when fully mastered."
"Through [the practice of] constraint upon the relation between body and space and by coinciding [in his consciousness] with light objects, such as cotton, [the yogin obtains the power of] traveling through space " (3.42)
These are just a few examples.
November 19 2024
A podcast series called The Telepathy Tapes focuses on the reality of telepathy. Here's the first episode:
In this first episode, Ky Dickens (the host), "through a mix of personal anecdotes, scientific explorations, and interviews with experts like Dr. Diane Hennessy Powell, a John Hopkins--trained neuropsychiatrist, unpacks the mysterious connection between parents and their children, who seemingly can read minds." In particular, "non--speaking individuals with autism".
All episodes also (besides Spotify) available here:
Episode 6 covers the history of testing. Here's the link at Spotify for that:
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