| MAYA-GAIA INTRODUCTION & SITEMAP Page Update 08 24 07Note:My Anthropic Trilogy web-book, evolving since 1997, is a chronicle of my passing all considered opinion through the lens of my Nirvikalpa Samadhi with both an open-mind and healthy skepticism.Examining Credibility of New Age a brief look at its role in the future of true knowledgeProof of evidence is not evidence of proof.Be Your Own Light “Therefore, be ye lamps unto yourselves, be a refuge to yourselves. Hold fast to Truth as a lamp; hold fast to the truth as a refuge. Look not for a refuge in anyone beside yourselves. And those, who shall be a lamp unto themselves, shall betake themselves to no external refuge, but holding fast to the Truth as their lamp, and holding fast to the Truth as their refuge, they shall reach the topmost height.” – Gautama BuddhaOne of the most baffling qualities of human consciousness is that despite our capacity for critical thinking we are easily led en masse into embracing beliefs that have insufficient justification based on the evidence- to the degree that historically, whole civilizations rose and fell as a result of ideologies that charismatic individuals invented which revolutionized the religion and/or culture of their time. With the rise of the Internet, this propensity is growing exponentially as virtually every conceivable precept or conspiracy theory (historic or brand new) can be afforded a proselytical push to find a constituency- the scale and scope ranging from a few mass religious or political movements as Islamist fundamentalism, communism or Western secular progressivism- to an infinite number of New Age cultists advocating every macro and micro artifact of human imagination. This radical shift in the fracturing of every conceptual aspect of our popular reality is a symptom as fundamental to the intellectual atmosphere in which our collective human consciousness is evolving as global warming is to the alteration of Earth’s ecosystem and may represents as great a threat to our survival as rational hominid.Of course it is impossible to set standards for distinguishing between rational and irrational hypotheses as one shifts perspectives among science, philosophy, religion and mysticism all of which have their place in the quest for understanding reality. Even in the most pragmatic of cognitive processes the axioms of falsifiabilty fall when theoretical physicists delve into the enigmas of consciousness, bosons, cosmological constants, parallel universes and dark matter. It is also obvious that the doctrines of dualistic theism depend on faith alone to justify belief but those precepts are artifacts from historic cultures where superstition was the intellectual modus operandi for explaining nature. Here mainstream New Age is taken to task because it has arisen well past the Age of Enlightenment where a vast array of intellectual resources, tools and applications are available for rationally considering virtually every issue with deductive reasoning- yet it regularly resorts to the most atavistic of all the options- superstition, fantasy and magic!Obviously the ephemeral quality of the topics that New Age encompasses- spiritualism, mysticism, psychism, etc. presents a body of thought limited only by what can be imagined and the credulity of the beholder. On one end of the credibility spectrum we have qualified consensus for some aspects of the mystical traditions as well as the contemporary efforts by “new” and quantum scientists, transpersonal psychiatrists and the integral spiritual community to synthesize metareality models with some sense of responsibility as to establishing plausibility. From that end on- the mainstream New Age spectrum rapidly inflates (is overwhelmed) by an open-ended onslaught of mystical fantasies that lose all sense of rational responsibility- the stuff that popular culture embraces to create its magical reality paradigm.There are two cases to point to from my personal experience that illustrate how belief becomes fixed in the paradigm of those holding cultist concepts despite later evidence that explicitly refutes the premise on which it was based.In 1979 I had established a Bonsai Tree nursery in Miami featuring trees which had been naturally dwarfed by growing in stressful habitats which I collected and re-established in bonsai dishes. I had discovered a rich collecting ground for rare specimens of dwarfed Black Olive (Bucida spinosa) in Bimini Island in the Bahamas in an area that was used as a dumping ground for all the island’s refuse that was rapidly being converted to a landfill. The situation was ideal for my collecting since I was becoming sensitive to the ecological immorality of collecting specimens in pristine habitats while here the landscape was doomed to eventually be buried in garbage. On one trip to the island I had occasion to be on a dock in the main harbor and encountered a group of about a dozen college-age men and women tourists preparing to embark on a seriously-equipped scuba diving adventure with a level of excitement that was palpable. Curious as to what their project was, I could barely distract one guy long enough for him to explain they were an Edgar Cayse “research” team who were going to explore the “Bimini Road”- an undersea formation that resembled a section of a “Giant’s Causeway” made up of massive hand-cut blocks of native limestone.Cayse had proposed that the “artifacts” were archaeological evidence for his theory that the Bahamas Islands were the site of the lost civilization of Atlantis. With an indiscreetness that is my nature, I started to explain to the young man that Eugene Shinn, an oceanographer with the US Geological Survey had actually conducted a scientific examination of the formation in question and published an article in the Oceanographic Research Institute’s magazine Sea Frontiers in 1978 and concluded that the formation was a natural geological formation. Since the publication of the article it was evident that subsequent perpetuation of the Bimini Road hypothesis was a deliberate hoax. Through the analysis of a number of core samples taken on site, Shinn was able to determine there was an unbroken continuity of structure throughout the cores and that the composition of the “stones” was identical to the “beach rock” that was continuously being created on numerous shorelines throughout the Bahamas and Caribbean. In the tidal zone, the calcareous sands forms a cement-like layer through a chemical reaction accelerated when air and seawater is exposed to mixing by wave action. In this dynamic environment the layer becomes fractured and scoured and assumes a characteristic pattern that resembles an assemblage of separate, flattened stones that have been purposely fitted together. Layers that were created on beaches that existed thousand of years ago as in Bimini and many other localities in the region are now submerged at various depths of water due to local submergence and changes in sea level since the end of the last ice age.As I was winding up my expose, the guy became increasingly agitated (a fact I was aware of only later in hindsight) and finally became literally beside himself- swaying from side to side with his hands clapped over both ears- and moaning for me to stop with my revelations and pleaded with me to “get lost”. It was only then that I realized my revelation had been totally inappropriate and that I was intruding on a Edgar Cayce RFE (resource for enlightenment) religious ceremony- so made an awkward apology and retreated post haste to leave the group in peace to pursue their delusions concerning the Bimini Road hoax. See another critique of Shinn’s paper by Dr. Greg LittleIn the years since this incidence at the Bimini docks, there have been numerous attempts Atlantis Rising to refute and discredit Shinn’s conclusion by true believers of the Cayce Group as well as by advocates of a variety of New Age paradigms. The arguments generally resemble the pseudo scientific approach by those who use the inability of geological and paleontological science to provide an unbroken chain of evidence for the case that life has been evolving for billions of years to lay claim to what they propose is an equally valid argument for Biblical accuracy about the age of Earth based on a God of the Gaps logic. Rather than confronting Shinn’s evidence they range far and wide into interpretations of benthic mapping and core sampling from legitimate scientific expeditions which can be interpreted in various ways to create theoretical models as to how plate tectonics may have allowed the Atlantis of mythology and Edgar Cayce’s readings to wind up in Bimini.To assess how the issue has evolved in contemporary popular culture over the past 30-years, I did a quick survey of the first 1K websites that Google brought up in a search for Bimini Road. There are perhaps a few dozen science and skeptical sites that expressed unequivacable support for the conclusion that the formation was a natural and not a man-made structure. The other 97% either promoted the Cayce RFE viewpoint or presented the issue as a totally unsolved mystery. Of these, the vast majority clearly have a vested interest in promoting the myth which included, Atlantian, New Age and Unsolved Mysteries sites, blogs and book publishers, the Bahamas tourist industry, diving outfitters, The Bimini Roads Rally, etc. but also a number of ostensibly objective informational portals like HowStuffWorks– (pseudo-science at its worst) and a now deleted BrainyEncyclopedia– heavily tilted to the artifact theory with the exclusive suggestions for further reading: Dr. Greg Little, Dec. 2004, More Adventures With Bimini Beachrock: Remarkable Blunders in a Purported Scholarly Report Debunking the Bimini Stones and Video Clips of The Bimini Road and Andros Platform: Man-Made or Natural Formations?. The Wikipedia Bimini Roadarticle strives to be objective but succumbs to its policy of not having a point of view by affording the mythical argument parity with the rational, scientific one and affords the mythical view a majority of outside references. See other examples and also here of natural formations that appear man-made.The Yonaguni Monument from Wikipedia: The Yonaguni Monument is a massive underwater rock formation off the coast of Yonaguni, the southernmost of the Ryukyu Islands, in Japan. While many archaeologists and geologists believe that it is a natural formation, some hold the view that some of its features are man-made. Although the article features scientific opinions skeptical of artifact theories- as in the Bimini Road article- the references are heavily weighted in favor of websites asserting the formation is a man-made monument from a lost civilization.The Mystique of Beachrock by Eugene A. Shinn, 2009 – University of South Florida Marine Science Center (full article). Parallel rows of intertidal beachrock composed of large (up to 4 m), oblong, pillow-shape blocks submerged by rising Holocene sea level occur throughout the Caribbean. The best known example is in 5 m of water off the northwest side of Bimini, Bahamas, where the feature is known as the Bimini Road. “New-Age” alternative thinkers assert that the arrangement of the Bimini stones, and similar stones off Andros Island in the Bahamas, is actually man-made. The theory holds that ancient humans, principally citizens of the mythical city of Atlantis rearranged blocks of beachrock to form a harbour. This paper demonstrates that the stones and their arrangement are natural and suggests that some villages protected by ancient harbours in the Mediterranean may in fact have been developed on naturally occurring beachrock.In Jan, 2004, Shinn published A Geologist’s Adventures with Bimini Beachrock and Atlantis True Believersin the Skeptical Inquirer. Natural submerged beachrock off the island of Bimini in the Bahamas has been deemed a remnant of Atlantis by the faithful since the 1960s. In spite of geological research demonstrating the stones are natural, “true believers” continue to be drawn by the strong “force field.”In a special “Tribute to Bob Ginsburg” session of the Geological Society of America in 2005, Eugene Shinn presented a review and update on the Bimini Road issue. The entire program with images and sound online here.In an update on 03/20/08 Eugene Shinn forwarded a copy of an Email he had sent some fellow geologists about his article published in the May Explorer magazine regarding the Bimini “Road” formations- in response to their March cover story which presents another striking example of natural formations that appear man-made.Update 5/21/2013: See Gene’s autobiography Bootstrap Geologist: My Life in Science by Gene Shinn [Florida University Press, 2013] See also: Kindle ebook. Known worldwide among geologists, marine scientists, and petroleum engineers, Gene Shinn sometimes seems a product of another century.Born in the Florida Keys, he attended the University of Miami on a music scholarship, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in biology. A U.S. national champion spearfisher, he worked as a salvage diver, becoming an expert in the use of dynamite underwater. A self-tutored field geologist for nearly 50 years, he made major geological findings that have significantly changed professional and academic knowledge of undersea oil reserves. Shinn helped invent technology for underwater core drilling, and more recently, he has studied the effects of transoceanic African dust on coral reefs, agriculture, and human health. He’s even the basis for a character in a mystery novel. Eugene Shinn – The most interesting earth scientist in the world “Demonstrates how one can achieve professional success by combining a strong work ethic with high intellect and a willingness to learn from mentors and peers. Shinn’s spirited outlook is infectious, and his problem-solving talents have produced a remarkable set of significant discoveries.”–Anthony F. Randazzo, coeditor of The Geology of Florida. End UpdateIn 1972, while waiting for my property in Boone to sell, Patti and I moved down to Durham, NC where I whiled away my time at the Foundation For Research Into the Nature of Man – an outgrowth of the Rhine Group of transpersonal psychology researchers at U of NC- Chapel Hill. FRNM (later named The Psychical Research Foundation) headed by psychologist Bill Roll, was funded by a private grant and split off from the Rhine group to expand research from ESP to broader areas of noetics such as survival of life presence after death, mediumship, poltergeist effect, etc. I proposed to Roll that I volunteer some research in Kirlian photography and recruited some folks in the electrical engineering dept at U of NC to develop the equipment we’d need to conduct our research. Just as we were about to start our lab work a paper came out by researchers regarding the Kirlian photographic effects that established way beyond any reasonable doubt, that all the supposed paranormal attributes could be explained by the presence of residual water moisture remaining on the electrical plates after the subject hand, leaf, etc. was removed. Naturally, this caused everyone to lose interest in conducting any further research. One would expect that thirty five years after the definitive squelching of any mystery being involved in the phenomenon there would be little mention of Kirlian in regards to mysteries but in fact a Google search turns up hundreds of resources that cite the Kirlian effect as physical evidence for establishing the reality of everything from astral artifacts to the presence of life after death. Well after the effect had been explained (in 1972) Parapsychologist Thelma Mosspopularized Kirlian photography as a diagnostic medical tool with her popular books The Body Electric (1979) and The Probability of the Impossible (1983) in which she maintained that the Kirlian process was an open door to the “bioenergy” of the astral body and featured the Kirlian effect as major evidence for her astral paradigm which still has considerable following in total disregard of the scientific refutation that was available years before.The DaVinci Code is a more recent example of how New Age conspiracy theories can almost overnight create a constituency of millions. Of course many historic sites reputed to be the location of major episodes in the cannons of various religions are disputed by evidence provided by modern scientific forensic examination but that does not abate the flow of millions of pilgrims to the holy places. Theistic traditions associated with the site over which theChurch of the Holy Sepulchre was constructed provides a dozen non-overlapping localities- sometimes competing as the true site for various episodes in the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. Since they were excluded from a space in the Catholic church, Protestants pilgrimage to the Garden Tomb nearby, that they claim is the true sepulchre- but some artifacts collected at the site in 2005 date to the eighth-seventh centuries BCE – iron-age.Update 07 26 08 Confessions of a Star Psychic by Keith Harary Ph.D. – Keith “Blue” Harary was a hot young psychic whose ‘extraordinary’ psychic ability was the basis of a significant research study at FRNM, sought after by treasure hunters, stockbrokers and spies. Then he began to question his own extraordinary abilities. An example of how tenuous is the balance between open-mindedness and skepticism when attempting a ‘scientific’ approach to psychic, paranormal and spiritual epiphenomena- where both gullibility and uber-rationalism lurk to confuse reality. End UpdateThe potential for permutation and combination of the factors of human imagination, our gullibility as a result of the paucity of critical thinking and having it all accessible via the internet along with its exploitation by popular media- all portends that future MetaMatrix paradigms may overwhelm all collective rational thought. I suspect that as New Age perceptions about reality proliferate, the rate at which fracturing of knowledge occurs will only accelerate. It may come to pass that true knowledge will be increasingly in the hands of a shrinking population of scientist/mystics who managed to preserve an enlightened synthesis of new scientific rationalism and metaphysical wisdom in secret while the main contestants determining the composition of popular mass-culture reality paradigms continue to be strictly materialist, atheistic science and a steady inflation of open-ended New Age pseudo-scientific/spiritualism with all the major religions of both East and West having a declining influence except Islam. Here its militant fundamentalism will continue to consolidate the economic power provided by oil wealth into dominating the religious, political and cultural composition of their theocratic states and the growing numbers of its expatriate communities and spontaneously proliferating Al Qaeda cells around the globe further shrinking the collective conscious domain in which rational thought can survive. [See below- The Politics of God]This raises an intriguing question as to what effect the World Wide Web has in this process. The most revolutionary aspect of the Internet is the scale, scope and timeliness by which it publishes every conceivable human thought and gives parity to everything within and beyond a scale from the absurd to the astute. Lynn Woodland has a more optimistic outlook and in The Internet- Our New Path to God 2006, says- The chaos theorist, Ralph Abraham…believes the explosive growth of the World Wide Web has increased the bandwidth of the mind’s connections and increased the overall intelligence of our species. The early twentieth century philosopher, Pierre Teilhad de Chardin, anticipated this quickening of human consciousness, Dulcinos writes, in his theory of noogenesis, a theory that as humans stopped evolving biologically, they began an evolution of consciousness. “The World Wide Web is the material manifestation of Teilhard’s vision.” Dulchinos himself speculates that, “the Internet represents the latest manifestation, in the material world, of the ongoing evolution of consciousness.Is Google Making Us Stoopid? by Nicholas Carr- Atlantic Monthly, July/August 2008 – An insightful overview of the benefit-risk trade-off as information technology propels us to instantaneous access to our desired data while disengaging our concentration and contemplation that generate rich mental connections.The Politics of God by Mark Lilla (NYT); Magazine August 19, 2007, Sunday Late Edition – Final, Section MM, Page 28, Column , 7688 words Purchase as a single article. $4.95 Displaying extended abstract:The twilight of the idols has been postponed. For more than two centuries from the American and French revolutions to the collapse of Soviet Communism, world politics revolved around eminently political problems. War and revolution, class and social justice, race and national identity – these were the questions that divided us. Today, we have progressed to the point where our problems again resemble those of the 16th century, as we find ourselves entangled in conflicts over competing revelations, dogmatic purity and divine duty. We in the West are disturbed and confused. Though we have our own fundamentalists, we find it incomprehensible that theological ideas still stir up messianic passions, leaving societies in ruin. We had assumed this was no longer possible, that human beings had learned to separate religious questions from political ones, that fanaticism was dead.[1] We were wrong.An example: In May of 2006, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran sent an open letter to President George W. Bush that was translated and published in newspapers around the world… Its theme was contemporary politics and its language that of divine revelation…it concluded with…a threatening prophecy: “Liberalism and Western-style democracy have not been able to help realize the ideals of humanity. Today these two concepts have failed. Those with insight can already hear the sounds of the shattering and fall of the ideology and thoughts of the liberal democratic systems….Whether we like it or not, the world is gravitating towards faith in the Almighty and justice and the will of God will prevail over all things.”This is the language of political Theology, and for millenia it was the only tongue human beings had for expressing their thoughts about political life. It is primordial, but also contemporary: countless millions still pursue the age-old quest to bring the whole of human life under God’s authority…The problem is ours not Ahmadinejad’s. A little more than two centuries ago we began to believe that the West was on a one-way track toward modern secular democracy and that other societies, once placed on that track, would inevitably follow. Though this has not happened, we still maintain our implicit faith in a modernizing process and blame delays on extenuating circumstances like poverty or colonialism. This assumption shapes the way we see political theology, especially in its Islamic form – as an atavism requiring psychological or sociological analysis but not serious intellectual engagement. Islamists, even if they are learned professionals, appear to us primarily as frustrated, irrational representatives of frustrated, irrational societies, nothing more.(m-g comments:) Of course over the past half century we have had the ongoing warfare in Israel and Lebanon with Palestinian, Hezbollah and their Iranian and Syrian sponsors as a constant reminder of how religious differences can cause political conflicts to remain insolvable. Ahmadinejad defines his enemy as the liberal democratic systems which most pointedly refers to the secular progressive element in the West rather than Christian fundamentalism which the SP community itself holds responsible for engendering Islamist hatred of America. Presently all states with a Muslim majority that have instituted some degree of Western style acculturation- Turkey, Indonesia, Iraq, Afghanistan and especially Pakistan face the possibility of an overthrow by forces intent on establishing Iranian style Islamic theocracies. The factors causing the exponential rate at which Islamist ideology is consolidating influence and power globally is the wealth accruing to the Islamic State of Iran from its oil reserves largely provided by the income from Communist China’s marketing of its industrial production whose rapid expansion is achieved through the state-sponsored pirating of western technology.For some eye-opening revelations concerning Islamic ambitions see Islam-Watch -a production by expatriate muslim documenting state-sponsored Jihad for achieving political hegemony to impose sharia law world-wide. See also: Journal Updating Global JihadFurther Reading:The Gaian Paradigm by Bill Ellis. A comprehensive model for how Gaian consciousness can restructure virtually every aspect of global culture, economics, technology, politics, education and religion- inspired by a synthesis of the best ideas from New Age and tradition.Cults and Cosmic Consciousness: Religious Vision in the American 1960s by Camille Paglia. An in depth examination of the rise and evolution of the New Age in perspective to analogous historical movements.There was a massive failure by American universities to address the spiritual cravings of the post-sixties period. The present cultural landscape is bleak: mainline religions torn between their liberal and conservative wings; a snobbishly secular intelligentsia; an alternately cynical or naively credulous media; and a mass of neo-pagan cults and superstitions seething beneath the surface. All-night radio features call-ins about crop-circles, UFO’s, and abduction by aliens, science-fiction themes popularized by Swiss writer Erich Von Daniken’s 1968 international bestseller, Chariot of the Gods (which attributes archaeological monuments to extraterrestrials). Prime-time TV programs are regularly devoted to seers like Rosemary Altea, James Van Praagh, and John Edward, who claim to hear messages from dead relatives hovering around audience members.Why I Am Not a New Ager by H. Lorrith – Contents: Introduction and Definitions; The Problem With Fuzzy Epistemology; The Problem With Fuzzy Scholarship; The Problem With Warm, Fuzzy Optimism; The Problem With Fuzzy Standards; A Rational Approach to Religion; Appendix: Transcendental Silliness; Related LinksSpooky Paradigm One of Jeb J. Card’s entertaining blogs critiquing the diminishing credibility of made-for-tv “documentaries” on New Age topics by National Geographic, and the History and Discovery Channels.New Age Fundamentalism– a critical overview by Adam Elenbaas.Devil In the Details 3 Keys To Thinking More Clearly About Spirituality 2012 Kindle Edition by Julian WalkerComments on the International Science and Consciousness Conference By Wolf Hass. Wolf strongly believes our current religions are inadequate in the face of the knowledge and insights gleaned from the recent scientific explosion but doesn’t want to embrace much of what he sees as renewed superstitions in the new age movement. Speakers include: Fritjof Capra, Rupert Sheldrake, Rudolph Ballentine, Lawrence Fagg, Peter Russell, Elisabet Sahtouris, and Matthew Fox. For more and hereIntroduction to Transpersonal Psychology by Michael Daniels, PhD “Transpersonal Psychology” is a branch of psychology that is concerned with the study of those states and processes in which people experience a deeper or wider sense of who they are, or a sense of greater connectedness with others, nature, or the “spiritual” dimension. Transpersonal psychology is NOT the New Age. Although transpersonal psychology represents a paradigm shift in consciousness, science and culture, it seeks to distance itself from the kind of uncritical adoption of New Age beliefs that characterises certain elements of the so-called counter culture. Transpersonal psychology has very little, if anything, to do with crystals, UFOs, alien abduction, chakras, auras, fairies, psychism, aromatherapy, levitation, fire-walking, or the millennium, except as these phenomena, practices or experiences may be investigated in terms of their transformational consequences.Bridging the Chasm between Two Cultures by Karla McLaren: A former leader in the New Age culture – author of nine titles on auras, chakras, “energy,” and so on – chronicles her difficult and painful transition to skepticism. She thanks the skeptical community and agonizes over how the messages of scientific and critical thinking could be made more effective in communicating with her former New Age colleagues. Magnificent insight of a reformed sinner.In Search of Self: Beyond the New Age; also titled When the New Age Gets Old: Looking for a Greater Spirituality (1992) by Vishal Mangalwadi One of a series of essays examining values in Neo Hinduism, post-modern Christianity, new science and post New Age spirituality.MysticBourgeoisie by Christopher Locke. The hyperactive rantings of an iconiclastic intellectual- challenging, refuting, debunking the NewAge zeitgeist. New Age “Asiatic” thought … is establishing itself as the hegemonic ideology of global capitalism. See also his RageBoy book reviews.High Profile Conspiracy Theories – From 9/ll Paranoid/Absurd to Somewhat PlausibleAbout Everything Bibliotecapleyades – An international portal promoting every conceivable conspiracy theory.About 9/ll 911 Conspiracy Theory A stunning example of how ideological passion can numb critical thinking and allow a mass delusion to grow a hysterical paradigm.9/11 Scholars for Truth – 2006, We don’t believe that 19 hijackers and a few others in a cave in Afghanistan pulled this off acting alone,” says Steven Jones, physics professor at Brigham Young University in Utah. “We challenge this official conspiracy theory and, by God, we’re going to get to the bottom of this.” While this sinister spin strikes most American academics as absurd, Jones, is not alone. He is a member of 9/11 Scholars for Truth and Justice, a recently formed group of around 75 US professors determined to prove 9/11 was a hoax. In essays and journals, they are using their association with prominent universities to give a scholarly stamp to conspiracy theories long believed in parts of Europe and the Arab world, and gaining ground among Americans due to frustration with the Iraq war and opposition to President Bush’s heavily hyped war or terror.Debunking 911 – Debunking the 9/11 conspiracy.About The Lucis Trust and United Nations This theory actually has some legitimate basis for concern about how involved a world body should be in sponsoring a spiritual world view that originates from a particular metaphysical paradigm originated in the teachings of the Theosophical Society of Madame Blavatsky in the early 20th century. Although it seems ecumenical and inclusive on the one hand it includes controversial proprietary new age concepts antithetical to prophetic traditions some of whom find overtones of occultism and even Satanism. An aspect of the controversy is the role Sri Chinmoy who has played a role by his proselytizing in shaping of the conceptual body in the non-dual tradition which further leaves the prophetic traditions feeling excluded from the alleged ecumenical world view of the UN.Lucis Trust – Wikipedia article.Illuminati – The New World Order & Paranoid Conspiracy Theorists (PCTs)Lucis Trust Conspiracy – Lucis Trust, Alice Bailey, World Goodwill and the False Light of the World – by Terry Melanson, 2001 (Last Update: May 8th, 2005) Article by Terry Melanson that outlines the roles of the global elite within the United Nations and the Lucis Trust. The article demonstrates the openly Luciferian ideologies that are driving the agenda of globalization. part two: Alice Bailey & Master Djwhal Khul: A Satanic Communion.David Icke – reptilian humanoids and the new world order.Paradigm Wars: Worldviews for a New Age By Mark B. Woodhouse Woodhouse defends against Carl Raschke dismissal of the New Age movement: “The New Age Movement is a codification of the idealistic fervor, religious experimentation, anti-intellectualism, millennialism and self immersion of the 1960’s counter-culture, and it reflects, in part, a generational mid-life crisis. The 60’s generation has come up against the limits of opportunity and human mortality, and in the New Age movement it is seeking an innocence and immortality that is beyond human grasp.”Postmodern Paradigms Sampling of postmodern paradigms proposed for various disciplines and some dialectics involved.Critical Thinking About the Paranormal Philosophy Fall 2007 – Sacramento City College, Instructor: Dr. Robert T. Carroll with links to a compendium of online resources concerning New Age paradigms.Concepts of God…good grief!…one could spend several lifetimes just cataloging the hits in Wikipedia and Google on scholarly opinions about immanence, transcendence, monism, pantheism, panentheism and etc. in religion, metaphysics and philosophy- formulated in the demanding linguistics of epistemology, ontology, phenomenology, heterophenomenology, hermeneutics, eteology and on and on.Approaching the scale and scope of the God compendium and in even more challenging intellectual math, is the exponentially growing science archive of hypotheses regarding Consciousness, Quantum Physics and RealityLittle wonder that the open end of New Age is so popular as that is where magical and occult paradigms trump not only empirical logic but even the concepts of new science and philosophy which although often non-materialist and unconventional, follow a relatively rigorous rational protocol. Rather than subjecting hard questions to critical thinking, mainstream New Age offers pseudo-heuristic explanations resulting in a growing body of passionate belief in virtually anything without raising issues about credible evidence or plausibility.The Spiritual Mystique and Yoga Bling Pretensions of Contemporary New Age Festivals and Enterprises and Their Devotees.The heart of authentic yoga is ethical connecting – you to you, and you to others, to other living things and our planet and universe and openess to moksha grace.Hypocrisy, guile and deceit are major refinements of human behavior – evolved from genetic traits evident in the earliest stages of our philogeny. Deception is commonplace in the social interaction among other primates and mimicry appears highly refined in reproductive or predator/prey competition of birds, cuttlefish, insects and even plants. It infects every aspect of humanity’s social, economic and political affairs and never more oxmoronic than when coupled with religion and spirituality.New Age The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts draw on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational psychology, holistic health, parapsychology, consciousness research and quantum physics. The term New Age refers to the coming astrological Age of Aquarius. The New Age aims to create “a spirituality without borders or confining dogmas” that is inclusive and pluralistic. It holds to “a holistic worldview”, emphasising that the Mind, Body, and Spirit are interrelated and that there is a form of monism and unity throughout the universe. It attempts to create “a worldview that includes both science and spirituality” and embraces a number of forms of mainstream science as well as other forms of science that are considered fringe.Unfortunately – the inclusive, non-judgemental character that was the fundamental aspect of the movement’s ideology that contrasted with those of organized religion has resulted in superstitious and magical concepts to have even greater significance than in the established traditions. The consequence is a New Age growth Industry – SMILE: 1. An acronym for Spiritual Marketing Industry Lies & Exploitation or 2. Spiritual Mimetics Indoctrination Love & Ecstacythat is proliferating commercial festivals, workshops and retreats along with merchandizing Spiritual Bling – paraphenalia designed to enhance a devotee’s enlightenment mystique. For both the producers and the groupies, this mystique has become the theme of New Age spiritual festivals. Although often clothed with sophisticated spiritual hype and symbolism, these events provide the social structure to satisfy the ‘psuedo-spiritual meme’ with only slightly evolved sophistication from Woodstock of the 1950s where the level of belief in superstition and magic would make the middle ages blush. The basic structure still features pop music, entertainment, social communion, youth, L O V E (sex, drugs and rock & roll) and with spiritual pretension (often a mish-mash of New Age ALT BS) ranging from sincere to casual to the personification of utterly hypocritical spiritual bling.Some Resources Exposing Various Forms of Religious, Spiritual, Self Actualizing, Realization and Miscellaneos Conversion BSMystic Bourgeoisie a blog by Doctor X – Kat Herding who uses satire and parody to get across some serious issues. The unlikely story of how America slipped the surly bonds of earth & came to believe in signs & portents that would make the middle ages blush. NewAge++ is all about the power of spiritual bling…Fungible muy mojo gris-gris, babycakes. You in? Mystic Bourgeoisie is a history of professional liars, side-show barkers who, for hundreds of years, have promised to help you find a more mythical, mystical story for your life. A deeper meaning. A higher purpose. A better soundtrack. My inspiration, if you could call it that, was the painful death of an important relationship. “I’m spiritual but not religious,” she once told me, and I was actually impressed. It sounded so smart. You’ve heard that one before, for sure. “Who me? Oh, I’m not New Age!” We’ve all heard it. Only terminal cases ever admit to the proclivity. Maybe the last gasp of those people who recently died in James Arthur Ray’s Sedona sweat lodge was “Oh fuck, I guess I am New Age!” But of course, we’ll never know if, even then, the denial was finally overcome. When you get right down to it, nobody wants to be seen as New Age because nobody wants to be seen as irreparably stupid.Guruphiliac A blog by Jody Radzik, employs parody and satire to reveal alleged gurus’ Self-Aggrandizement and superstition in Self-Realization since 2005.Sarlos Guru Rating A somewhat dated but comprehensive effort to rate gurus that have some appreciable following via a variety of criteria for assessment. Jody admits that these ratings can be wildly skewed and in no way should be considered absolute. There are often obvious red flags, which can alert us to the possibility of something awry. For instance, independent of any moral considerations, we can see the vast potential for abuse of power in a sexual relationship between master and disciple, and certainly the stench of hypocrisy will be there if sexual morality is being preached. His red flags are, in no particular order, big money, exploitive sex, hypocrisy, morality, absence of freedom, the master’s death, hype, fanaticism, excessive devotion, delusions of grandeur, tradition and isolation from the rest of the world and on and on.The Bling Ring: Mimetic Desire Symbolized by the tacky religious paraphernalia around the house, it’s a skin-deep moralism that smothers natural desires and makes you aware of their utter vapidity. These characters lack any depth, and it works because that’s the point. The real kids they’re based on totally buy into the cult of celebrity and the narcissistic reality television culture that goes with it. Coppola shows you the insanity of a world in which people fall on their face so publicly and then turn even their bad girl/boy behavior into egomaniacal redemption stories for the press. Nicki is the apotheosis of this cult of the self, played to delicious perfection by Emma Watson. Her performance is at once tongue-in-cheek and shot straight from the hip; she’s so intelligent in her ditzy portrayal that you can almost hear her saying, “Can you believe this girl?” What you do hear from her mouth are lines that boggle the cerebral apparatus. “I think this situation was attracted into my life because it was supposed to be a huge learning lesson for me to grow and expand as a spiritual human being,” she tells an E! News camera crew outside the courthouse. “God didn’t give me these talents and looks to just sit around being a model or being famous. I want to lead a huge charity organization. I want to lead a country, for all I know.” The only thing more stupefying than these words is the fact that it’s what Alexis Neiers, the flesh-and-blood basis of Nicki’s character, actually said. Katie Chang’s Rebecca is the prime agent provocateur without a recognizable ethical thought or moral value to trouble her pretty head.Recovering Yogi by Caroline van Kimmenade – Creepy New Age Characters – childlike channelers live in a perpetual floating state of mind and over-identify with the ‘spiritual’ side of things until they lose touch with the practical reality we all live in; they are not critical thinkers. Simplistic, charming, and naive, the childlike channeler believes that being ‘spiritual’ is the ultimate solution to the uncertainty and fear that comes with finding our own way. It’s important to acknowledge the ways in which these 5 kinds of creepy new age characters tap into our own unexamined wounds and silver-bullet dreams. There are no shortcuts to a real and satisfying life. More often than not, promised shortcuts provide endless detours in which the hopes and aspirations of those who got lost along the way are being used to feed the ego’s of those who have figured out how to appear like masters. These are times of massively hyped bling, little patience, and an expectation of instant success. Taking it slow and finding your own way may well make you the black sheep of many established traditionsEndless Mimetic Spiritual Desire A blog: The Theos Project – theology,pilgrimage and personal revolution by Jonathon Erdman. This 2008 post opens an extensive discussion over how mimetic desire plays out in the first layer of our spiritual questing under the direction of traditional models or attraction to alternative archetypes. The second layer is the degree to which our quest results in regards to a spiritual scale – ranging from a low ‘Pretentious Mystique’ to a high ‘Authentic Spirituality’.The 99th Monkey: A Spiritual Journalist’s Misadventures with Gurus, Messiahs, Sex, Psychedelics, and Other Consciousness-Raising Experiments by Eliezer Sobel, 2008. Now, you would think that with all the great spiritual movements and teachers out there over the past several decades that the world’s population would have gotten past materialism and greed and onto a more enlightened plane of peaceful loving existence. Well, the reason this has not happened is Eliezer (Elliot) Sobel, the 99th Monkey. (Re: The Hundreth Monkey Effect) Not that Sobel hasn’t tried, mind you. The book is a frank and funny collection of Sobel’s encounters with just about every major consciousness raising movement. What encounters he has! Through Sobel we get to meet Ram Dass, Hilda Charlton, Gabrielle Roth, Rabbi David Cooper, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, Muktananda, Asha Greer, and the Dalai Lama. We get to travel to India, Israel, Auschwitz, Big Sur, Nepal, and Brazil. We experiment with LSD, Ecstasy, Daime, mushrooms, marijuana, and every anti-depressant on the market. We laugh, we scream, we trip, we cry, we vomit, and we refuse to drink the water used to cleanse the guru’s sandals. And we go through primal scream therapy, EST, Landmark Forum, Moonie initiation, Daime rituals, yogic meditation of varying forms, sexual therapies of many kinds, and good old western psychotherapy – but what is great and refreshingly different about this book is that Sobel ends these encounters basically unchanged but happy.Thai Monks Living Large: Private Jets and Bling by Jonathan DeHart June 19, 2013 If a video that recently made the rounds on YouTube is to be believed, Thai monks are living it up. The video shows two monastics aboard a private jet decked out in saffron robes and trendy aviator shades, with one listening to headphones and the other toting a luxury brand (Louis Vuitton?) travel bag.Blurred history of Gypsy terms BBC, 2005. Although the terms Gypsy and traveller have become largely synonymous, there is a distinction – albeit one that is blurred. Gypsy has a racial definition – for a people originating in north-west India who left in the first millennium AD, mainly heading north and west and spreading to most parts of Europe by the 16th century. Although the terms Gypsy and traveller have become largely synonymous, there is a distinction – albeit one that is blurred. Gypsy has a racial definition – for a people originating in north-west India who left in the first millennium AD, mainly heading north and west and spreading to most parts of Europe by the 16th century. Discrimination has led to numerous terms to describe Gypsies. The generic usage refers to any itinerant person who is suspected of dishonest practices and derives from traditional, racist stereotypes of the Romani people.Thai Monks spiritual bling video apparently now taken down.Spiritual bling The Phnom Penh Post Feb. 3, 2011. Hor Limhorng, 27, burns imitation US$100 notes, fake gold and other symbolic items as offerings to his family’s ancestors at his home in Chamkarmon district on the eve of Chinese New Year yesterday.Bling Bing Guru: If we chant for real estate, world will be a better place by Sheila Gostick – Siva Baba advertises that he is the guru of Wayne Dyer, which is obviously meant to impress those who know who Wayne Dyer is. Just in case, Baba (formerly Baba Sri Siva, aka Sri Guriji Baskaran Pillai) kindly furnishes the info that Dyer is the best-selling author of Manifest Your Destiny. Explaining who your celebrity bait is kind of defeats the purpose of name-dropping. The Money Guru needs some big-name Hollywood stars like Scientology has. The Ending Bad Money Karma session with Baba is being held November 11 at Bloor Street United Church. This impresses me as very clever. Any proceedings held in a church are bound to seem sacred by association. Would the guy who teaches how to make a fortune in real estate with no money down be allowed to hold his seminar here? “Bubba,” as he is introduced, wants “to put money in the hands of spiritual people to be used for the benefit of the world.”Of course this is very flattering to the crowd of 200 or so. We are spiritual people. We will chant for real estate in a spiritual way rather than venally exploiting mortgage loopholes and the world will be a better place. “I must, must, must have it! Not having it is not an option! I love this reality so much! I will never accept a no!” Then something that sounds like “ara kara” and “Mentally hold on to the object with a passionate embrace.” The sound grows louder as everyone hugs their imaginary cars. Wouldn’t singing in the choir be even more fulfilling?Bling Bling Mainstream hip hop music’s fixation on bling bling and other material and luxury goods has led to much criticism from media pundits and musical critics. They charge that the phenomenon promotes consumerism and materialism, and strengthens racist arguments that young African-American men (the large majority of “bling blingers”) are incapable of higher or more virtuous or spiritual goals than material gain. The short film Bling: Consequences and Repercussions, shot by Kareem Adouard and narrated by Public Enemy frontman Chuck D, explains how diamonds (a staple of bling fashion) occasionally originate as blood diamonds, fueling wars, poverty, slavery and killings in AfricaDifferent Kinds of Masters: ethics, and the value of tradition by Timothy Conway. In a competitive marketplace of ‘spirituality’, whether in India, Japan, China, Europe, the USA, etc., we see quite a lot of the inauthentic pretender. Such persons chronically present themselves as higher and freer than they actually are, in order to draw attention and recognition, lure followings of students/disciples, make money, attain fame, and get high (psychically inflated) on the subtle or not-so-subtle adrenaline rush that comes with being granted power, influence and concomitant comforts by a social group that fawns over them and defers to them as a ‘spiritual authority’. These pretenders are actually anarchists, for they attempt to destroy any rational or intuitive basis for morality and ethics. In this pseudo-nondual realm, ‘anything goes – at least for themselves and their cronies. There are no ethical standards by which to determine appropriate and inappropriate behaviors.On Cinema of the African Diaspora Check Out The Blinged-Out ‘Preachers’ On The Oxygen Network’s New Reality Show bY SERGIO JUNE 28, 2013 Here’s your first look of the Preachers of Bling – I mean the Preachers of L.A., which will premiere on the Oxygen Network this fall. According to the official description from the network which they are ‘thrilled’ about, the series “stars a group of handsome men in LA who drive Bentleys, wear expensive clothes and jewelry, live in fancy homes, have tons of women (wives, girlfriends and baby mommas) AND some gang affiliation. It could be the perfect brew for an urban reality show about athletes or rappers, but…..it’s about men of the cloth.”Bling turns spiritual Shara Ashraf, 2009. Model Nishta shows off bling. Move over junk and bohemian. For the city’s chic, this is the age of spiritual bling, meant to soothe your soul, enhance your spiritual powers and bring good omen in your life. Spiritual jewellery has become the latest craze among youngsters who are rediscovering their spiritual side by flaunting it. Says college student Ridhima Singh who always wears a chic Ganesha pendant around her neck, “It’s the coolest thing to flaunt this season. Spiritual jewellery is being touted as trendy and thanks to designers, now there is no dearth of super chic designs when it comes to spiritual jewellery. Wearing spiritual jewellery makes one peaceful and feel closer to God.Mongolian Bling Hip Hop Oh geeze! Did they really make a doumentary of Hip Hop Blingcraze in Mongolia!?The Allure of Narcissistic Spirituality Rabbi Alan Lurie Spiritual narcissism creates the pretense of holiness as an ego strategy to mask insecurity, receive approval, or avoid struggle and growth. “I’m a spiritual person” it proclaims proudly. “I travel to alternate spiritual festivals, realities, see auras, heal chakras, predict the future, talk to spirits, commune with angels, manipulate energies, meditate for three hours a day, harness the powers of the Universe to attract success.New Age Bullshit Generator by Seb Pearce – Namaste. Do you want to sell a New Age product and/or service? Tired of coming up with meaningless copy for your starry-eyed customers? Want to join the ranks of bestselling self-help authors? We can help. Just click and the truth will manifest. Click the Reionize electrons button at the top of the page to generate a full page of New Age poppycock.On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit Judgment and Decision Making, Vol. 10, No. 6, November 2015, pp. 549-563 – Research Study by Gordon Pennycook, et al – Abstract: Although bullshit is common in everyday life and has attracted attention from philosophers, its reception (critical or ingenuous) has not, to our knowledge, been subject to empirical investigation. Here we focus on pseudo-profound bullshit, which consists of seemingly impressive assertions that are presented as true and meaningful but are actually vacuous. We presented participants with bullshit statements consisting of buzzwords randomly organized into statements with syntactic structure but no discernible meaning (e.g., ‘Wholeness quiets infinite phenomena’). Across multiple studies, the propensity to judge bullshit statements as profound was associated with a variety of conceptually relevant variables (e.g., intuitive cognitive style, supernatural belief). Parallel associations were less evident among profundity judgments for more conventionally profound (e.g., ‘A wet person does not fear the rain’) or mundane (e.g., ‘Newborn babies require constant attention’) statements. These results support the idea that some people are more receptive to this type of bullshit and that detecting it is not merely a matter of indiscriminate skepticism but rather a discernment of deceptive vagueness in otherwise impressive sounding claims. Our results also suggest that a bias toward accepting statements as true may be an important component of pseudo-profound bullshit receptivity. Keywords: bullshit, bullshit detection, dual-process theories, analytic thinking, supernatural beliefs, religiosity, conspiratorial ideation, complementary and alternative medicine… Materials: Ten novel meaningless statements were derived from two websites and used to create a Bullshit Receptivity (BSR) scale. The first, constructs meaningless statements with appropriate syntactic structure by randomly mashing together a list of words used in Deepak Chopra’s tweets(e.g., ‘Imagination is inside exponential space time events’). The second, The New Age Bullshit Generator, works on the same principle but uses a list of profound-sounding words compiled by its author, Seb Pearce (e.g., ‘We are in the midst of a self-aware blossoming of being that will align us with the nexus itself). A full list of items for the BSR scale can be found in Table S1 in the supplement. The following instructions were used for the scale: We are interested in how people experience the profound. Below are a series of statements taken from relevant websites. Please read each statement and take a moment to think about what it might mean. Then please rate how ‘profound’ you think it is. Profound means ‘of deep meaning; of great and broadly inclusive significance’. Participants rated profoundness on the following 5-point scale: 1= Not at all profound, 2 = somewhat profound, 3 = fairly profound, 4 = definitely profound, 5 = very profound. A bullshit receptivity score was the mean of the profoundness ratings for all bullshit items.Geek Nation: How Indian Science is Taking Over the World, by Angela Saini (2011) Mixed messages about real science in India where some 400 universities produce 2m graduates every year, including a staggering 600k engineers, yet, instead of discovering hothouses of intellectual curiosity and innovation, Saini found drones, not geeks. The relentless pressure on India’s students is “disabling imaginations” and driving hundreds to suicide. From the vast Soviet-style Bhabha Atomic Research Centre to the Academy of Sanskrit Research, “the geeky and the bizarre” sit side-by-side; wacky ideas are more easily tolerated than in the west. Indians, Saini observes, have “a unique freedom to explore the edges of what’s believed to be possible”. For this reason, Indian science is far from taking over the world: it currently contributes less than 3 per cent of global research output, lagging far behind the US and UK.Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens by Susan A. Clancy – postdoctoral fellow in psychology at Harvard University. Selected Reviews: Although it focuses on abduction memories, the book hints at a larger ambition, to explain the psychology of transformative experiences, whether supposed abductions, conversions or divine visitations.Esotericism A Pearltrees Catalog Arbitrary selection of website portals to various New Age paradigms – illustrating that people can believe passionately in anything: Spirituality – Dark Night of the Soul – Crystal Energy – Science of the Heart – Seeing the Light – Rituals & Spells – Secrets of Spectacular Sex – Esotricism – Extrasensory Mind – Magical Moon – Witchcraft, Wicca, Magick – Seven Chakras – Tarot – Laws of Karma – Brainwaves – Energy Healing – Sex and Spirituality – Healing Crystals – Magic Spells, Vodoo, Spirits.Kooks: A Guide to the Outer Limits of Human Belief by Donna Kossy. Review: If Ivan Stang’s “High Weirdness By Mail” offered a glimpse into the world of kooks, crackpots, and the fringe, then Donna Koosy’s “Kooks” is a five-star luxury cruise through the uncharted fringes of human belief. Miss Kossy takes the best and most outrageous parts of her “Kooks” zine and puts them together to give us an in-depth look at people so far out there, you’ll have trouble believing that this stuff really exists at all…except that it’s right here, in front of your own eyes. There are racist publications galore, UFO kooks, misunderstood pseudo-scientists, and other visionaries — all of whom are given a fair, understanding, and honest look by Miss Kossy. Many of the most famous kooks are given in-depth presentations, including the Raelians, Wilhelm Reich, the trepanation folks, and lots lots more. Kossy believes in letting their words and their deeds speak for themselves, and this gives her more respect in both the eyes of the kooks, and in the eyes of the readers.MAYA-GAIA INTRODUCTION & SITEMAP |
!–>
The Power of Coincidence David Richo. We do not create our destiny; we participate in its unfolding. Synchronicity works as a catalyst toward the working out of that destiny. Even “bad” synchronicities may be a blessing. You meet someone who captivates you. By synchronicity you meet up with him or her again and again. You are excited and you presume this is the force of destination. You believe he or she is your soul mate but in reality he or she is the trickster who takes all you have and leaves you flat. There was indeed a connection between you but it was not destiny. It was karma. You met him or her so you could learn something, not so you could live happily ever after. This appears to be negative synchronicity but becomes positive when you gain knowledge of yourself from your experience, learn not to seek revenge but let go, and of course, become more careful the next time. –>
Anthropic Trilogy Web-Books
Web Development services by Soumya Vinod