Mysticism is the art of union with Reality. The mystic is a person who has attained that union in a greater or lesser degree; or who aims at and believes in such attainment.

It is not expected that the inquirer will find great comfort in this sentence when first it meets his eye. The ultimate question, ‘What is reality?’—a question, perhaps, which never occurred to him before—is always forming in his mind; and he knows that it will cause him infinite-distress. Only a mystic can answer it: and he, in terms which other mystics alone will understand. Therefore, for the time being, the practical man may put it on one side. All that he is asked to consider now is this: that the word ‘union’ represents not so much a rare and unimaginable operation, as something which he is doing, in a vague, imperfect fashion, at every moment of his conscious life; … ~Evelyn Underhill

“I think that very short definition of mysticism is such a great one, as is the definition of a mystic that follows it. We can find rather complicated definitions elsewhere that are open to interpretation. It is often defined as “union with the Deity” but what Deity? Different people have different ideas of God, different beliefs of how God behaves, and different ideas of how to become one with this Deity.”

< Read the entire blog online at spiritsun.net. >

by Harold Boulette

You are invited to the 2015 “Spiritual State of the World” Conference in Otsu City, Japan from May 22-23, 2015.

There will be one day of talks (May 22nd) and one day of workshops (May 23rd) at the Piazza Omi Hotel, 3rd-floor conference rooms.

Over two hundred people are expected to attend the two-day conference and workshop.
Where is the conference being held?
Piazza Omi
Conference: Main conference room, 3 floor
Workshop: conference room, 3 floor
Adress: 1-1-20 Nionohama, Otsu, Shiga 520-0801
What is the cost?
Conference ticket: $125 (15,000 yen). There is a special discount price of $100 (12,000 yen) for registration before 4/30.
2-day Workshop (5/23&24): $200 (24,000 yen). There is a special discount price of $175.00 (21,000 yen) for registration before 4/30.
How can I register?
If you read Japanese, go to the NPO Solar Culture Organization’s Web site: www.npo-taiyo.com
For registration information in English,
contact Miyuki Okayama in Japan by email (mihime21c.anjel2@gmail.com)
or Robert & Noriko Roy in the United States by phone (775-324-4889).

< Watch the promotional video clip for the Conference & Workshop on YouTube. >

Conference topics:
Echan Deravy: “Pilgrimage to the stars: A Journey Through the Solar System”
Gene Savoy Jr.: “The New Sun”
Sean Savoy: TBA
Dr. Gary Robert Buchanan: “Ancient Solar Cutures of Japan”
Jupiter Joji: TBA
Yukinori Matsushita: TBA
Workshop titles:
Workshops on May 23rd
Echan Deravy: “Pilgrimage to the Stars”
Gene Savoy Jr.: “The New Sun”
Sean Savoy: TBA
Dr. Gary Robert Buchanan: “SONATHERAPY: New Directions & Technologies in Wave Front Bioresonance”
Jupiter Joji: TBA
Yasuko Nishimura: “The Secret of Sex and Life”
Workshops on May 24th
Flower arranging session: “ Meet Life” by Mieko Sibata.
Mieko learned Japanese flower arranging under Toshiba Kawase and communicates with the flowers while she is arranging them. She appreciates Nature and loves to give a second life to flowers and plants in her artwork.

Week 7B

 Two thousand years ago Jews would stone a person for working on the Sabbath.  By comparison, in the 21^st century, people are being criminally charged for the abuse and killing of domestic animals.  A seven-year-old child in Western culture today can do math problems using zeros; a concept unfathomable 1,500 years ago and that child would have been celebrated as being beyond genius.  Many expressions of music, art, and architecture from the past century would be virtually indigestible for anyone living 700 years ago.

A new science lies on the horizon that suggests that humans are evolving in a fashion not apparent by any biological display.  Cognitive anthropology is the study of cognition to identify conscious peculiarities between cultures, past or present, and peripherally includes inter-species investigations of humans, primates, dolphins, birds, canines, rodents, even lizards, ants, and bees. 

Carl Jung made a good case for cognitive anthropology, although a bit wishful, long before the science was born, stating, “The differing degrees of self-knowledge within [humankind’s] own species are of little significance compared with the possibilities which would be opened out by an encounter with a creature of similar structure but different origin. . . . The possibility of comparison and hence self-knowledge would arise only if [humankind] could establish relations with quasi-human mammals inhabiting other stars.” (The Undiscovered Self, rev. trans. by RFC Hull, 1958, paragraphs 526 and 525.

Like all previous weeks in this tour, this is just a brief introduction, and the citations are only a whisper compared to all volumes on the subject.

PART B

Wade Davis,”The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World,” Garrison Institute, June 20, 2013: 40 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuJsbjKKh3E

Marcus du  Sautoy, “History and Wonders of Ancient Indian Mathematics,” BBC,  The Story of Maths, posted January 28, 2014: 19 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FcH33Cuj8w

G. W. Domhoff, “A New Neurocognitive Theory of Dreams,”  Dreaming, vol. 11, (2001), pp. 13–33. In the fourth paragraph of this article, which summarizes the study, Domhoff makes this statement: “Dreaming is a cognitive achievement that develops gradually over the first 8 or 9 years of life.” This statement set off a spark in the dream research community to address the possibility that dream awareness or attentiveness may be a cognitive evolutionary skill; that is, one that evolves. Available online at

http://www2.ucsc.edu/dreams/Library/domhoff_2001a.html

Tim Post, “Lucid Dreaming,”TEDx at TwenteU,November 5, 2013: 14 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK3SfNxbK3Y

Susan Blackmore, “Meme Machine,” published by Karol Jalochowski, September 17, 2013: 8 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O5dBgu3Iz4

by Michael McIntyre

< WEEK 8 >

Only within his own soul can a man find the means to unseal the lips of an initiate. He must develop within himself certain facilities to a definite degree, and then the highest treasures of the spirit can become his own.

He must begin with a certain fundamental attitude of soul. In spiritual science this fundamental attitude is called the path of veneration, of devotion to truth and knowledge. Without this attitude no one can become a student. . . . There are children who look up with religious awe to those whom they venerate. . . . From the ranks of such children are recruited many students of higher knowledge. . . . It is a blessing for every human being in process of development to have such feelings upon which to build. Only it must not be thought that this disposition leads to submissiveness and slavery. What was once a childlike veneration for persons becomes, later, a veneration for truth and knowledge. ~Rudolf Steiner

“It is unfortunate that many people think spirituality, as with some religious cults and churches, is all about worshiping individuals. Mr. Steiner explains that, while this may be true of children (and childish or lazy adults), It is not true of the real seeker, the person seeking a higher life, a higher world. To that person, it is not about worship, but about gaining knowledge, wisdom, and truth. And true knowledge (Gnosis), wisdom and truth can come only from awakening your spiritual faculties and using them regularly until you reach a high state of enlightenment, a state where you don’t have to look up things in books, or debate them with intellectuals, he simply knows what is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is lies, distortions, or half-truths.”

< Read the entire article online on Harold’s blog at spiritsun.net. >

contributed by Harold Boulette

“The time when one’s immediate natural impulse on the first sunny spring day was to get outside and enjoy it is long gone. Only the very courageous or “careless” who defy the grim warnings from medical mandarins and cancer specialists, wholeheartedly endorsed by the sunscreen industry, dare to venture forth into the ‘dangerous’ sun. Unless they are covered head to toe with sun protection factor (SPF) 60, they gamble with their lives, or so they are made to believe, by those who serve their own vested interests. Fortunately, this view is beginning to crumble in the blatant absence of scientific proof that sunlight causes disease. What is being discovered instead is that lack of sun exposure is one of the greatest risk factors for disease.”

The article goes on to summarize the discoveries and efforts made by European doctors to employ ultraviolet radiation to cure some of the most dangerous diseases until pharmaceuticals came into the medical picture after World War II.

< Read the entire article posted December 03, 2007 by Andreas Moritz at naturalnews.com. >

link submitted by Robert Petrovich

Week 7A

 Two thousand years ago Jews would stone a person for working on the Sabbath.  By comparison, in the 21^st century, people are being criminally charged for the abuse and killing of domestic animals.  A seven-year-old child in Western culture today can do math problems using zeros; a concept unfathomable 1,500 years ago and that child would have been celebrated as being beyond genius.  Many expressions of music, art, and architecture from the past century would be virtually indigestible for anyone living 700 years ago.

A new science lies on the horizon that suggests that humans are evolving in a fashion not apparent by any biological display.  Cognitive anthropology is the study of cognition to identify conscious peculiarities between cultures, past or present, and peripherally includes inter-species investigations of humans, primates, dolphins, birds, canines, rodents, even lizards, ants, and bees. 

Carl Jung made a good case for cognitive anthropology, although a bit wishful, long before the science was born, stating, “The differing degrees of self-knowledge within [humankind’s] own species are of little significance compared with the possibilities which would be opened out by an encounter with a creature of similar structure but different origin. . . . The possibility of comparison and hence self-knowledge would arise only if [humankind] could establish relations with quasi-human mammals inhabiting other stars.” (The Undiscovered Self, rev. trans. by RFC Hull, 1958, paragraphs 526 and 525.

Like all previous weeks in this tour, this is just a brief introduction, and the citations are only a whisper compared to all volumes on the subject.

PART A

Daniel Everett, No title (Everett talks about the Pidaha (pronounced pih-ra-ha), a people who have no words for colors or numbers nor consider any distant past or future), September 9, 2013: 46 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad6V9AKt24U&list=PLvUXF94GJw3PJURjalMdE57CNjjAmfCi4

Klaus Zuberbuhler and Con Slobodchikoff, “Wild Talk,”Radiolab,October 18, 2010: 21 minutes. http://www.radiolab.org/story/98611-wild-talk/

Ed Green et al., “End of Neanderthal Man,” September 23, 2008: 5 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIQNzbd4-RY

Robert Sapolsky,”The Uniqueness of Humans,“TED Talks, Stanford University, 2009, posted January 2010: 38 minutes.

https://www.ted.com/talks/robert_sapolsky_the_uniqueness_of_humans

by Michael McIntyre

< WEEK 7B >

No teacher of the spiritual life wishes to establish a mastery over other persons … He would not tamper with anyone’s independence. Indeed, none respect and cherish human independence mote than the spiritually experienced. … Whenever the initiate leaves his enclosed spiritual sphere and steps forth before the world, he must immediately take a third law into account. It is this: Adapt each one of your actions, and frame each one of your words in such a way that you infringe upon no one’s free-will.

The recognition that all true teachers of the spiritual life are permeated through and through with this principle will convince all who follow the practical rules proffered to them that they need sacrifice none of their independence. … Originally all rules and teachings of spiritual science were expressed in a symbolic sign-language, some understanding of which must be acquired before its whole meaning and scope can be realized. This understanding is dependent on the first steps toward higher knowledge, and these steps result from the exact observation of such rules as they are given. ~Rudolf Steiner

“This is one way you can tell the true spiritual teacher from the phony, the cult leader. The true spiritual teacher tells you what you need to know to grow spiritually (note that it is not necessarily the same for each individual), but makes no effort to force you to follow that path. She may recommend that you eat certain foods and avoid others, but will not criticize or ostracize you for eating something you were advised to avoid. A real spiritual teacher may recommend that you dress in certain colors, for example, if you are a very materialistic type, he may advise that you avoid wearing red or orange and instead wear green, blue and purple. He will not, however, kick you out of the school because you show up in an orange jacket.

“On the other hand, the cult leader who tells you what to wear, where to live, who to marry, etc. and enforces it with a strong hand is not at all a spiritual leader. The preacher who insists that you cannot possibly be saved if you do not join his church and follow his rules to the letter is also not a real spiritual teacher. And the preacher, church or religious group that tries to get laws passed to force everyone into their church, or at least to follow it’s teachings,  is also a fraud. A real church or spiritual school would, of course, love it if everyone followed their teachings, but they would never try to force anyone by legal means, by violence, or by any other form or coercion.”

< Read the entire blog online at spiritsun.net. >

by Harold Boulette

This week we will look at the brain. Any of us are able to drive an automobile without knowing the inner workings of the machine. But a professional race course driver is certainly familiar with engine design and dynamics. There are many popular misconceptions about the brain, and having some primary understandings of the brain will leave us better suited to talk about consciousness in light of our Teachings.

The first three videos in this week’s selections are short: 24 minutes total. They are a good introduction to basic brain structure and function that may be referred to at any time and will help prepare you for presentations in later weeks.  

Asap Science. 7 Myths About the Brain You Thought Were True, June 6, 2014.  3 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfgkAJmp9-A

Iain McGilchrist. The Divided Brain, October 2011. 12 minutes. https://www.ted.com/talks/iain_mcgilchrist_the_divided_brain

Armando Hasudungan. Brain Overview: Lobes, Diencephalo, Brain Stem, and Limbic System, September 19, 2012. 12 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRyp8EdRUiE

Nancy Kanwisher. A Neural Portrait of the Human Mind,  March 2014. 18 minutes.

http://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_kanwisher_the_brain_is_a_swiss_army_knife

Neil Burgess. How Your Brain Tells You Where You Are, November 2011. 9 minutes.

https://www.ted.com/talks/neil_burgess_how_your_brain_tells_you_where_you_are

Daniel Wolpert. The Real Reason for Brains, July 2011. 20 minutes.

https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_wolpert_the_real_reason_for_brains

Susan Herculano-Houzel. What Is So Special About the Human Brain?, June 2013. 14 minutes.

https://www.ted.com/talks/suzana_herculano_houzel_what_is_so_special_about_the_human_brain

— Michael McIntyre

< Read WEEK 7A >

For the present we are less intent to the Vision, and cannot yet open the eyes of our mind to behold the incorruptible and incomprehensible beauty of that Good; but then we shall see it, when we have nothing at all to say of it. For the knowledge of it is a Divine Silence, and the rest of all the senses; for neither can he that understands that, understand something else, nor he that sees that, see anything else, nor hear any other thing, nor in sum move the Body. For shining steadfastly upon and round the whole mind, it enlighteneth all the Soul; and loosing it from the bodily senses and motions, it draweth it from the body, and change it wholly into the Essence of God.

For it is possible for the Soul, O Son, to be deified while yet it lodgeth in the body of man, if it contemplate the beauty of the Good. ~Hermes

“In other words, the human brain/mind is not capable of really understanding the worlds of spirit and the beings that dwell their, especially God. Because of this, men have tried to create God, angels, and other spiritual being in their image rather than learning what they truly are.”

< Read the entire blog online at spiritsun.net. >

by Harold Boulette

 One way to better understand consciousness is to study cognitive development in infants and children. Comparing these levels of development may indicate how cognition in the human species became more sophisticated over the course of thousands of years. 

Cognitive science also investigates how humans process thought compared to other animal species, such as dolphins, birds, bonobos, and chimpanzees. Many of these animals display a capacity for thinking in symbols, self-awareness, and the empathetic ability to assess the disposition of other creatures, or in a sense, “read their minds.” The ability to predict what another is thinking or feeling, because we can think or feel as they do, is sometimes referred to as “Theory of Mind.” Fifty years ago these traits were thought to be exclusive to humans.

There is, however, a conscious attribute which may be more present in humans and perhaps absent in any other species: metacognition. Metacognition is the ability to assess, oversee, and then reformulate the way we think. This skill enables us to redefine ourselves, giving us agency over the evolution of our consciousness.

Radiolab, Jules Davidoff, Guy Deutscher. Why Isn’t the Sky Blue? 22 minutes.

http://www.radiolab.org/story/211213-sky-isnt-blue/

Alison Gopnik. What Do Babies Think?, July 2011. 19 minutes.

https://www.ted.com/talks/alison_gopnik_what_do_babies_think

Paul Bloom. What It Is Like to Be a Baby: The Development of Thought, September 2008. 49 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eznq75eBy2oHYPERLINK “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eznq75eBy2o&list=PL00E937C5BB0B1A1C&index=5″&HYPERLINK “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eznq75eBy2o&list=PL00E937C5BB0B1A1C&index=5″list=PL00E937C5BB0B1A1CHYPERLINK “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eznq75eBy2o&list=PL00E937C5BB0B1A1C&index=5″&HYPERLINK “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eznq75eBy2o&list=PL00E937C5BB0B1A1C&index=5″index=5

Alise Shafer Ivey. Metaphor and Metacognition, July 3, 2012. 24 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ymzIdDMDvM

Susan Savage-Rumbaugh. The Gentle Genius of Bonobos, February 2004. 18 minutes.

http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_savage_rumbaugh_on_apes_that_write?language=en

— Michael McIntyre

< Read WEEK 6 >