Notes and Observations

From The Spirit Wiki

M M M M M M M Mmmmentations

So today I read through John Lilly's Center of the Cyclone, an interesting autobiographical account of one of the pioneers in LSD research. Quite fascinating. There were several things interesting about this book, some of which I will talk about in a future article on Set and Setting. What I want to bring forward here is his concept of the human body as a programmable bio-computer, his use of LSD to "reveal the program" and his use of "mentations" or mantras to reprogram the body. Of course now we know about the importance of ideas and thoughts when programming our "computer." This is the foundation of neuro-linguistic programming, self help affirmation, and the mystical mantras we use to pry open the head and allow consciousness to flow inside.

Now in this context my 2004 Book of Light, which is a cosmological and theological treatise on the nature of God, consciousness, and creation can, in addition, be seen as a high level book of "mentations" useful for reprogramming the Physical Unit (i.e., the human biocomputer as Lilly calls it). The book itself is a combination of poetry and prose designed to initiate a cosmic level rewiring of your physical brain.

Of course, I didn't know this at the time. When I wrote the book I was merely channeling information in and polishing it up as much as I could. However, after reading Lilly's book, I now realize the significance of the poetry in the book and I realize the significance of the culminating mentation/mantra which I have titled The Prayer and which I include in the back of the book. Interestingly enough, unlocking the full power of The Prayer requires that one read the book. Previous excursions are no guarantee that the words of The Prayer are understood properly.

Lilly's books is interesting and provides some useful information on technique, Freudian psychopathology, and mystical possibilities, but I don't recommend you get caught up in all the complexities and "levels" he identifies. Like I always say, it ain't rocket science. And if it sounds like rocket science, then you know it ain't true!!

Those darn scientists. Always pouring on the bafflegab. I suppose it helps them justify their fat salaries amidst a sea of suffering and inequality. No judgment though!! Everybody should live a comfortable life.

MichaelSharp 13:06, 3 March 2008 (MST)

Feb 09, 2008

Towards the end of 2007 I began to take a step back from the channeling and writing that I was doing to take a broader look at what exactly it was that was coming out. As I did that I began to realize that the books that I were writing were answering some of the fundamental existential questions of our existence. While I was in South Africa, I formalized these questions and started to talk about the Big Questions. While writing the introduction for my "story book," on Feb. 09, 2008 I read Leary (1964), where Leary used a similar list. He had four questions and he called these the "four basic spiritual questions." Leary said that someone was having a religious experience when they were "discovering," through ecstatic experience, incontrovertibly certain answers to his four basic questions. Of course, this was at a time when The Veil was so thick that you had to beat at it with a freaking sledgehammer. But times they have changed! Anyway, I am "surprised" (well really I'm not) by the remarkable similarity between my selection of Big Questions and his.

References

Leary, Timothy (1964). The Religious Experience: Its Production and Interpretation. Psychedelic Research. 1: 324-347.

Lilly, John (1972). Center of the Cyclone. Berkley, CA Ronin. [1]