Psychosomatic Mysticism

It is easy to see the difficulties people have in grasping spiritual and religious seeking as a constructive subject because of the ease with which science is misplaced in a worldview of scientific materialism. I just watched a debate between Sam Harris and Chris Hedges from 2007, and read up on their biographies. Harris, it turns out, spent some length of time up to eleven years before finishing his bachelors degree. He spent some portion of that time in Asia studying Buddhism and religion there at some level. It´s worth noting that his mother created a popular TV series or two, Soap, the old comedy from the 1970s, for one. That actually begins to explain a few things. Harris´ approach was more a comedy routine, with pop philosophical elements and anti-fundamentalist jibes that play on popular prejudices. While therapeutic psychology would be an appropriate academic subject to use to ground the discussion of spiritual-religious experience, Harris uses none of that. As Hedges pointed out, Harris was talking like those who externalize evil. In my own seeking, observations like Piaget´s in human developmental got my attention, and later Freud´s observations of "abreaction" emotional reconnection as the result of the "talking cure," Freud´s method that spans his work before "free association." By John Bradshaw´s innovative work popularized in the 1990s, Bradshaw referred to the dysfunctional family and "inner child work" in books like "Healing the Shame that Binds You" and "Homecoming." My larger interests have included psychosomatic medicine to address the phenomena of responding to disease, as in OC Simonton MD´s Cancer Clinic and support group, visualization, and psychotherapeutic types of techniques in support of combination treatments. As Simonton quickly began supporting the transpersonal, spiritual interests of his patients, so is comparative religious studies the field that ultimately combines the philosophical methodologies being used to assess spiritual-religious experience. The following text is based on comparative studies

"Having their source in the commonality of empirical findings regarding body-consciousness among various traditions, the core principles of Psychosomatic Mysticism (PM) include decentralized consciousness, structural correlations between the psyche and the body (namely the map of meaningful and essential elements of the psyche and spiritual experiences pertaining to the bodily centers of consciousness), in-depth understanding of subtle energy as intentionality, and the possibility of actualizing cosmic awareness in the individual psyche. In Table 1, we present the summary of the essential features of the various forms of PM. These systems are the integral parts of major religions and are immediately connected with the attainment of the grand goals of human fulfillment—such as Enlightenment, Liberation or Union. This includes Hesychasm in Christianity (Dubrovin, 1990; Spidlik, 1986; Ware, 1986), Sufism in general (Renard, 1985), and especially particular systems including the knowledge of lataif (subtle body centers), such as of Simnani (Elias, 1995) and some sections in the work of al-Ghazzali (Gairdner, 1924/1952) in Islam, Shakta-Vedanta with Kundalini Yoga and Kashmir Shaivism (Briggs, 1938/1998; Muller-Ortega, 1989; Vijnanabhairava, 1979; Woodroffe, 1981) in Hinduism, Buddhist Tantra Vajrayana (Bhattaracharyya, 1999; Lama Kun-zang Rinpoche, August 24, 2002, personal communication), Zen and Ch'an Buddhism (Durkheim, 1962; Hershock, 1996), alchemical yoga in Taoism (Yu, 1973), and developed forms of paganism (Johnson, 1998; Yagan, 1984). The use of the bodily centers of awareness is also found in Gnosticism (The Papyrus of Ani, 1998)."

"Health or particular skills-oriented systems of body and energy-work (e.g., Tai Chi, martial arts, Hatha yoga, or Chi-Gong) appear to have developed after, and as the outcrops of, the forms of PM that are listed in Table I. However, this is a preliminary classification not covering the diversity of all existing forms of PM. Classification questions regarding the genealogy of the various forms, their mutual enrichment, and relationship between PM and mystical philosophies, such as Persian philosophy of Illumination (Walbridge, 2000) or the neoplatonic thought of Pseudo-Dionisius (Pseudo-Dionisius, 1987), remain to be researched. Shamanism is also not covered here, as the forms of embodied awareness in shamanism are extremely complex and require special research attention. The material in Table 1 is based on the first author's (Louchakova's) field studies. Psychospiritual practices in all the forms of PM utilize awareness, concentration, devotion and worship, as well as imagination. Table 1 names only the specific forms of practice, targeting the main centers of embodied consciousness in particular traditions." Luchakova, Olga and Arielle S Warner. "Via Kundalini: Psychosomatic excursions in transpersonal psychology." The Humanistic Psychologist, 31(2-3), 115-158; March 2003

Is Metaphysics and Theology Always About Seeking? What About Being? Beyond Waiting to Die

John Alan Shope 2 hrs · This past year, many that I know have died. I often wonder what my dying will be like. Will I struggle and resist until life is forcefully taken from me? Or will I somehow be able to calmly let go...grateful for having lived and at peace with whatever happens next? Some suggest we practice "letting go" every day, so that when we face that final "letting go", it won't be so hard. Eckhart Tolle advises, "The secret of life is to die before you die - and find that there is no death." "Letting go" everyday may help, not only our dying, but also our living. But what about those who survive brushes with death because they refuse to let go? Their "will to live" keeps them alive. When does "letting go" become losing the "will to live"? Dylan Thomas insists, "Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light." "To be or not to be?" Hold on or let go? My 40 year old seminary professor, Oscar Thompson, was dying of cancer. He shared his struggles with us, and often remarked, "God doesn't give dying grace on non-dying days." I saw my dad rage against death, but then peacefully let go at the end. Elizabeth Berg reminds us, "There is love in holding on and there is love in letting go." These words from Aldous Huxley speak to me... "It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly... Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them....Lightly, lightly – it’s the best advice ever given me. When it comes to dying even. Nothing ponderous, or portentous, or emphatic. No rhetoric...and of course, no theology, no metaphysics. Just the fact of dying and the fact of the clear light. So throw away your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly. Lightly my darling, on tiptoes and no luggage, not even a sponge bag, completely unencumbered." 5 Comments Micah Hoover I don't understand how you can value the "dying grace" God gives while saying "no theology" and "no metaphysics". Are you referring to the over analysis of theology and metaphysics ? Reply 1h Kate Johnson Micah Hoover Because, IMO theology isn't from God, it's our inadequate attempt at trying to explain God, and even metaphysics too because it's always "searching/seeking". There seems like there must be a point of letting go of all analyzing and searching and finally just fully embracing the mystery. JMO Reply 1h Mark Rego Monteiro Micah Hoover My dear soul, I have some strong disagreements with you, but on this matter, I am pretty strongly in agreement, although I emphasize the modernized awareness of Jesus´ legacy of loving integrity in University/modern education-based, UN human rights-sustainability concerns and society with structured pluralism and the need for spiritual modernization. Reply 55mEdited John Alan Shope Micah Hoover over analysis and over confidence. I tend to agree with Kate. There's a time, perhaps, to let go of all our explaining, controlling, debating, judging...and just be. Reply 43mEdited Mark Rego Monteiro Kate Johnson I think you´re really on to something when you say that "there must be a point of letting go ... and embracing the mystery." I was simply raised oriented to education, and with minimal prejudice and strong inclinations of curiosity. So, I strongly agree with how you recognize the problem when you say metaphysics "is always searching/seeking". Yet, I am happy to understand and share from good time and effort that that´s not based on the available reality of resources. I´m an interfaith UU Quaker Christian, aka Gandhian Christian, in which UU stands for Unitarian Universalist interfaith association. Thus, Huxley´s reference to "the clear light" and the "quicksands of fear" hardly does justice to the incredible awareness of loving and just accomplishment that observe resurgent integrity in Christianity most centrally, with Huxley from an accomplished, frequently dissenting, yet privileged family, which deserves identifying in such detail to acknowledge the actual scope and dimensions of his own reality itself. My suggesting that approach isn´t just an idea, but based on my own meditative appreciation of the resources that have been available to me, and how I began to embrace approaches like Chinese Taoism and Buddhism which for all their own anti-intellectual angles, ultimately are not treated with chaos nor limited to mere disconnection from metaphysics not least of all. Quaker-Friend Christianity is perhaps one of the greatest reference points that shows how we can benefit from becoming aware of meditative appreciation of our spiritual-religious reality for its beneficial qualities, and that sustains the meaning of the Divine Love that Jesus actually put a the center of his mission in two loving Commandments for a Transcendental Divine Parent Entity of the Universe and its physical processes that evolved human minds. And the loving quality of that Entity when identified through the hub of the resources that trace to those loving Commandments in Jesus´ context. "The clear light" that Huxley referred to isn´t just a physical reality, or a metaphorical use of symbolic language, but a glimpse of a larger reality that people aren´t used to calling transcendental, which isn´t just a reference to the school of thought of Emerson. Still, Emerson himself had proposed the "Oversoul" for the transcendental Entity based on his studies of Hinduism. And so, "seeking" can very much mean, "facilitating" and I certainly advocate spiritual modernization to emphasize spiritual practice. Much like Karen Armstrong, in fact. I have found that my own interfaith and scholarly interests allow me to grasp the issues in the philosophy of metaphysics to address issues that have been left hanging, and to build on the great modern work in ideas by people like Ms. Armstrong, physicist-Systems Theorist Fritjof Capra, comparative religion scholar Huston Smith, and Process Theologian JB Cobb, not least of all. We definitely don´t need to wait before dying to achieve the benefits of just "being," and making the philosophy of metaphysics relevant to the full meaning of Jesus´ living and spiritual-religious legacy in University-based, UN human rights-sustainability society with structured pluralism with spiritual modernization resources.