1 = strong will; unity, purity
2 = duality, harmony (Yin/Yang)
3 = magic, intuition (Holy Trinity)
4 = stability, grounded (nature)
5 = travel, adventure, journey
6 = Sincerity, love, truth
7 = magic, mystery, enlightenment

I have always believed that meaning is defined within the context of a person experience. So although 7 might mean good luck to you, it may mean hate and lust to me because of my experiences with that number.

Each culture attributes meaning to numbers: Chinese numerology

Biblical numerology

Vedic numerology

More examples of spiritual meaning of numbers
THE NUMBER 7 IS EVERYWHERE

NUMEROLOGY:
Life path number – signifies intellect and an introspective, analytical mind. Considered to be a spiritual, sacred, and this is evidenced by the fact that there are seven days in the week, and ancient texts propose that the earth was formed in seven phases.
BIBLE:
In the Hebrew, seven ([b’v, – Sheh’-bah) is from a root word meaning to be complete or full.
It is known as the number of God’s seal.
Example: in Revelation 1:16 — “and He had in His right hand seven stars, ” alluding to the seven churches of Asia.
It is used throughout the Old and New Testament repeatedly with deliberate pattern.

The metaphysical use and meaning of numbers are completely at the mercy of interpretation. As such, it is all over the place with little practical application. That is a shame (as with all metaphysics) its talks around some of the most critical aspects of reality but fails to nail anything down. It is easy to see the influence of culture on the meaning attributed to numbers. The tragedy is that the imposed meaning ends up telling us more about the people and/or culture than the subject they are talking about. Here is a new system that relies less on prescribed meaning, focuses exclusively on the actual perspective of the person which in turn give meaning an absolute path.

Here is an Entirely Different Take on the Spiritual Meaning of Numbers.

We are the numbers. Our point of view, our perspective is the equation, the function through which constant values are passed to produce various results, or meaning.

Essentially, meaning is relative to perspective.

Out of western psychology, eastern spirituality and postmodern philosophy there is a new way to use numbers as a way to navigate awareness itself, the cradle of meaning. How much more enhanced is our meaning if we know its source? Its called Integral Mathematics of Primordial Perspectives. To be fair, it less about numbers than it is about perspectives, so numerology is forever safe.

Integral Mathematics of Primordial Perspectives

Oversimplified description:
Created by philosophical genius Ken Wilber, Integral Mathematics of Primordial Perspectives, we’ll call it integral mathematics, is a comprehensive method of referring to natural points of view that we all have. For example, my first-person perspective would be written as 1p (1-p). 1p = my, 1-p = first-person perspective, but there are other perspectives that I can have from my point of view: 2p = your perspective, 3p = his/her/it perspective.

So, from my perspective, I see that you have a first-person perspective:
1p(1p) x 2p(1-p)

I can also be aware of you from a third person perspective:
1p(1-p) x 1p(3-p) x 2p(1-p)

This means I’m observing your from an objective perspective, this could mean I’m using some theory or some measure or book like the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) to evaluated you.

Pathology: Perspective Mathematics

Consider multiple personality disorder (aka Dissociative Identity Disorder). This would be me objectively looking at your multiple personalities:

1p(1p) x 1p(3-p) x (2p(1-p)/n)

n = number of personalities
This may be written wrong, but what I’m trying to express is my first-person perspective (1p(1-p)) view of an objective perspective (1p(3-p)) of your first person view that is (2p(1-p) that is divided by “n” personalities. The slash maybe wrong because Wilber uses “/p” to define something else. By interacting with each of the fractional parts of your first perpective, I can better understand why it has been partitioned. What are you protecting yourself against? What is the common ground of the personailities? One can also explore each personalities perspectives on itself and relationships to the world around it. The end equation could end up looking like the most beautiful monster you have ever seen.

Lucid Dream & Altered States: Integral Math

I had a lucid dream in which I was trying to fly years ago. Once I was aware of my being in a dream, I became peripherally aware of my body. I was able to hold the heavy feeling of my body at bay while I continued my lucid dream. In integral mathematics I would describe it like this:

1p(1p) x 1p(1-p) x 3p(3/p)

I (1p(1p)) had a first person perspective (1p(1-p)) of my body (3p(3/p)). The equation strip away my personal meaning and allows you to put it in your own contexts although you can still understand the mechanics of the perspective. I’m seeing the body as a separate object the same way I might see a tree or my coffee cup, but perhaps (since the body actually holds the perspective) it should be written like this:

1p(1p) x 1p(1-p) x 3p{(1p(1p) x 1p(1-p) x 3p {…}}

Which is to say, I had a first person perspective of my body which contains a my first person perspective of my body which has a first person perspective of my body…. And so on. So it becomes like two mirrors facing one another. The only way to maintain the stability of my lucid dream perspective was to minimize my awareness of my body.

Out of Body Experience

In his book, Astral Dynamics, Robert Bruce talks about similar experiences. But he takes it a step further because his theory is that the body itself continues to dream and have its very own perspectives while the subtle body has its very own experiences. He attributes the relatively low number of the phenomenon to loss of memory caused by the body “overwriting” the “shadow memory” of the subtle body.

So it would look like this…

Sleep & Dreaming mind/body seeing objects in the dream: 1p(1p) x 1p(1-p) x 3p(3-p)

Subtle body experience/altered state of consciousness seeing the sleeping body: 1p(1p) x 1p(1-p) x 3p{1p(1p) x 1p(1-p) x 3p(…)}
Traditional science tends to attribute OBE to some sort of brain anomoly hallucination (despite actual evidence of nonlocal consciousness), but for the purposes of this post we are only concerned with perspective. And the perspective is my first person perspective of the body with a first person perspective of the body… Whatever meaning that Robert Bruce, you or I attribute to this phenomenon should be put in its “own box” so to speak. And with Intergral math, that is easy to do.

8-Coil Shakti – Part 1: Intro

I’ve been real excited about Persinger’s and Todd Murphy’s research. Persinger is a cognitive neuroscientist who has been doing research on the effects of magnetic fields on the human brian. Todd Murphy is an interesting character. He is a Buddhist theologian turned researching behavioral scientist. Both are gathering data on the affects of magnetic fields on the brain. Specific magnetic fields applied to different areas of the brain produce various states of consciousness. I’m not sure what it means to science or spirituality but I’m anxious to find out.

So far neo-atheist have been using Persinger’s research as proof that all mystical experiences are not real because they can be produced. Surprisingly, Persinger does not feel this way. He has in fact tested psychically talented people to see the affects of magnetic fields on them.

Todd Murphy created what he calls the 8-coil Shakti based on Persinger’s research. The 8-coil Shakti is an affordable, homemade device that sends weak magnetic fields into the brain to produce similar experiences… though the technology is different from what Persinger uses.

I decided to get one and test it out.

Intergral Persinger:
He organized the Behavioral Neuroscience Program at Laurentian University, which became one of the first to integrate chemistry, biology and psychology. — wiki

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (entrainment 2.0?)

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation is the next step in the evolution of entrainment.  Instead of using sounds to influence brainwaves, it uses noninvasive electromagnetism. 

Sound entrainment has been used to coax brainwaves into a certain pattern. 

If a tuning fork designed to produce a frequency of 440 Hz is struck (causing it to oscillate) and then brought into the vicinity of another 440 Hz tuning fork, the second tuning fork will begin to oscillate. The first tuning fork is said to have entrained the second or caused it to resonate. The physics of entrainment apply to biosystems as well. Of interest here are the electromagnetic brain waves. — Science of Binaural Beats Brainwave Entrainment

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is the application of variable magnetic fields to the brain — Open-rTMS 

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation is a VERY effective way to induce states of consciousness:

BBC article on Dr. Persinger’s TMS helmet 

How does Dr Persinger induce artificially religious experiences in his patients?

Dr Persinger has designed a helmet that produces a very weak rotating magnetic field of between ten nanotesla and one microtesla over the temporal lobes of the brain. This is placed on the subject’s head and they are placed in a quiet chamber while blindfolded. So that there is no risk of ‘suggestion’, the only information that the subjects are given is that they are going in for a relaxation experiment. Neither the subject nor the experimenter carrying out the test has any idea of the true purpose of the experiment. In addition to this, the experiment is also run with the field switched both off and on. This procedure Dr Persinger claims will induce an experience in over 80% of test subjects.

What sort of experiences do subjects report?

This is very dependent on the belief system of the individual subjects [ADDED Wilber-Combs Lattice]. Dr Persinger talks about his subjects feeling a ‘sensed presence’ – feeling that somebody was in the chamber with them. Subjects who are strongly religious are likely to interpret this presence as god. Whereas, atheists may also report a ‘sensed presence’ but attribute the phenomena to a trick of brain chemistry, perhaps comparable to when they have taken drugs in the past.

TMS is so effective that “Among more sensitive individuals, tests show that their skin will turn red if they believe a hot nickel has been placed on their hand. That’s a powerful psychosomatic effect of the brain on the body. Suppose we could make it more precise?” — This is Your Brain on God, Wired.  

TMS is currently in the hands of reductionists who believe that ALL mystical experiences can be summed up by electromagnetic disturbances.  Mass sightings up UFOs and other strange phenomenon are simply chemicals in our brains being influenced by electromagnetism.  

Perhaps inducing certain electromagnetic frequencies allows our biominds to access a perspective of reality we would not have otherwise been privy too without years of meditation.  Like devices that allow us to see infrared (frequencies that are beyond our normal domain of visible light), perhaps getting to certain states of consciousness allow us to “see” things we are normally oblivious too.    

Science and religion used to fully subscribe to a flat earth the was the center of a static universe.  We have found the complete opposite to be true.  Modern mainstream scientists now agree that we are likely the only sentient life and there are no subtle spiritual type energies and all spiritual experiences are completely the product of the human brain.  All of that seems just as ridiculous as a ”flatworld” theory.  A neo-atheistic reductionism is fine as belief systems and religions go, but what I don’t like is how science marginalizes anyone outside of their mainstream belief structure. 

I love science but its champions seem to have fallen prey to a dogma that is similar in close minded stagnancy to that of some religious denominations.       

TMS links:

BioMag – TMS reasearch

This is your Brain on God, Wired. 7-11-1999

God Helmet, Shakti

Religions Affects on Altered States on Consciousness

I have been studying religions and mystical experiences for years seeking “truth”.

The pinnacle of what I have come across so far is Ken Wilber’s Integral Spirituality. Although I don’t yet fully “grok” his stuff on metaphysics, his ideas on religions, science and states of consciousness are GROUND BREAKING!

For one thing he has what is known as the Wilber-Combs Lattice

The Wilber-Combs Lattice is a matrix that maps states of consciousness with types of religious belief.

I’ve written a little blurb about this on my post “What is an Empirical Spiritualist”
I have been in several religions, faiths and/or societies (but currently hold no allegiance to any one organization). I have had experiences with almost all. Each of these experiences have been colored by the culture, beliefs, dogma of the organization I was in at the time.

Here are some examples of religions that influenced by spiritual experience:

Christian - as a penecostal I was worshiping Jesus surrounded by some of the praising, shouting congregation and I felt an energy bolt going through my body. A penecostal might call this the holy ghost (aka Holy Spirit).

Eckankar – I was in a state of great peace and saw/felt a blue light shine down on me. Eckist call this one part of the “Light and Sound of God” (aka Holy Spirit)

Integral Spirituality – After a session with a Zen Buddhist Genpo Roshi conducting what is called a Big Mind exercise I felt a profound (overwhelming) oneness with anything I looked at.

Each experience has been shaped and interpreted by the culture/religion/faith I was apart of at the time. This in NO WAY INVALIDATES the phenomenon. It did happen. They were very real and in some cases have changed the course of my life.

The religion/culture/society in which I live gives me the language to explain what has happened and simultaneously shapes the experience.  Sometimes the language is to crude to give an effective account.  I believe that many times the original message gets “lost in translation”.  Many religions have been founded and shaped on these crude interpretations of real experiences.

The source of the phenomenon is a different kind of discussion. While we might agree that the phenomenon happend in the brain (or perhaps merely recorded there) from the ‘mind’ we may disagree on whether the source was from subtle energies and/or spirit. We can only theorize and assume what the source of my phenomenon is.  And we can only prove the orgins to ourselves as we can not share PHYSICAL evidence of anything happening with electroencophalographs and other tools used to measure the activity of the brain. Those tools are too crude to tell us anything beyond the brain. Whatever we believe the hows and whys are, it is very important to realize the context to which these phenomenon occur. For example, if I was scitzoprenic and my dog was telling me to kill my landlord, that experience may be real to me, but the phenomenon occuring is dangerous and more than likely pathological.  The best way to make a clear judgment  on  any interpretation is to look at all (or as many as possible) sides: physical history, cultural background, stage and state of consciousness.  All are important factors in examining an inner experience.  AQAL is a perfect map for such an examination.
Language/Semantics/culture/religion and their contextual meaning shape not only altered states of consciousness but “normal” states as well. As in a dream, we construct the meaning as well as the happenings of the experience consciously, subconsciously and/or unconsciously.

I suspect that our perspective is completely relative to our constantly shifting meaning. Ego, states of consciousness, and stages of conscious experiences do have some level of reality and so they do deserve our attetion and management but the only *absolute is Being, Here, NOW. All else is real ONLY relative to something else. The “suchness” of the moment is really all there is.

*The only absolute is being, here now (nowness, the suchness of this single moment – or perhaps the only absolute is NO-absolute or as Wilber says the combination of Form & Emptiness – nondual).

Integral Hacking: Developing Jedi Mind Tricks at DEFCON

“To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men that I may by all means save some.” 1 Corinthians 9:22

How does a 60 year old former Episcopal priest manage to captivate a packed audience of tech savvy red teens, ambitiously orange “20-something” hackers, amber security professionals, and green information freedom hacktivists while speaking about nothing technical at DEFCON, the world largest hacker convention?  Richard Thieme, author of Islands in the Click Stream, has been able to do this since DEFCON 4, 1996 (1). 

There is a body of knowledge growing like a fungus in the cracks of the burgeoning technological super fortress that is the information age.  Hacking is that fungi and the DEFCON hacker convention is the petri dish where this new organism is cultivated.  Like penicillin, this mold can be used for good.  This culture is growing tendrils beyond cyberspace and into the human mind.   Complex systems and technologies are synergizing toward an integral hacking solution now pushing humanity into new levels of communication by slipping passed the psychological firewalls to communicate on a deeper level with kick ass Jedi mind tricks.  Prepare for psychological nudity!

At DEFCON 14, Richard Thieme’s subject was “Beyond Social Engineering: Tools for Reinventing Yourself” in which he discussed how to “manage multiple modular identities” then link them into a seamless life by leveraging them with an intimate knowing of the true inner self (2).  The auditorium was crammed with wide-eyed technophiliacs at the edge of their seats.

Even though Thieme freely admits to not having any discernable technical hacking skills he is able to successfully “hack” (a.k.a socially engineer) his way into a very elitist, and young and mostly apathetic counter-culture.  He is an Integral Hacker.

The same skills used naturally by Mr. Thieme are used by integral leaders like Brett Thomas, co-founder of the Stagen Leadership Institute, to recognize a person’s worldview, determine what stage of development they are likely to identify with and then communicated with them on that level (4).  An integralist would call this “skillful means” but hackers call it a subtle form of social engineering.  Social engineering has a slightly negative connotation as it is usually associated with manipulation rather than enhanced communication. 

As a complete method of hacking people, integral hacking goes way beyond mere social engineering and into Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) techniques.  This subject was also discussed at DEFCON 14.  Brad Smith of Computer Institute of the Rockies discussed how law enforcement, FBI and other three letter agencies use NLP during interviews and interrogations (2).  Full spectrum people hacking would include all of the NLP “physiological lock picking” techniques to get full access the root of ego.

Past DEFCON speakers touching on the outer reaches of wetware and integral hacking have included Thieme’s, “Hacking a Trans-Planetary Net” which touched on the need for hacking to include “an artist’s imagination, an obsessive hunger for knowledge, and a deep understanding of cyborg humanity” (1).  Former hacker Susan Thunder spoke on “Social Engineering and Psychological Subversion of Trusted Systems” which was about infiltrating a company without physical or digital access (3).  People are the weakest part of any secure network.

Hackers are the gun slingers of the Wild, Wild Web, living in a world of 20 year old millionaires who have already change the world and actual evil genius’ who are drifting ghosts pilfering the pockets of the ignorant weak.  Whether their intentions are holistic or selfish all hackers view ignorance as the greatest sin.  The DEFCON prides itself on a borderline dangerous freedom that is fertile ground of both immeasurable brilliance and debauchery of the filthiest sort.  It’s the frothiest edge of technological mayhem and creativity.  It is on the fringes of every digital-civilizations’ decomposing structures that you will find a culture of complex integral hackers of hardware, software or wetware growing and sending out spores.   

References

1. DEFCON. (July 28, 1999). DEFCON 4 Archive. Retrieved November 18, 2006, from http://defcon.org

2. DEFCON. (August 6, 2006). DEFCON 14. Retrieved November 18 2006,
from http://defcon.org

3. DEFCON. (July 28, 1999). DEFCON 3 Archive. Retrieved November 18, 2006, from http://defcon.org

4. Integral Leadership Review. Biography of Brett Thomas. Retrieved November 18, 2006,

http://www.integralleadershipreview.com

Thieme Works. (2001). Keynotes, Workshops and Retreats. Retrieved November 18 2006,
from http://www.thiemeworks.com

Big Heart speaks: Dharmic Body

The greatest way to pray, wish, dream and ask God/higer self/source/universe for anything is to ask by becoming that which you desire.  Don’t just see it, be it! 

Asking with words in a prayer or by writing down goals are powerful techniques, but sometimes the things we desire are just lower parts of our selve’s wants and needs activated by feelings of emptiness.  This can be painful if we don’t know the true self.  Settling for the lower impulses is shallow and many times disappointing (the resultant equivalent of habitually looking in the refrigerator for something when bored).  By looking within and looking fearlessly into that which we really desire we can attain all of our dreams with effortless ease.  For our deepest, peerless desire is no different from who/what we are: formless without begining and without end, “the dreamer” as Aboriginal shamans say.    From that all accepting, painfully joyous emptiness arises all forms “dreams”.  But we should not become attatched to those forms and lose our selves. 

“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?“ KJV Mat 26

“..in the Aboriginal Dreamtime, there is a Dream in which everyone and everything is being Dreamed. Given the Dream, there is also a Dreamer, and the connection between the Dream and the Dreamer is the process of Dreaming. We all have the power of the Dream within us; it is our likeness to the Dreamer.”  — Nigel Taylor, Dreaming our Way Back to the Dreamer 

Never allow the dreamer to get lost in the objects of the dream.

We sometimes get fixated on the external objects and forms of life.  We think material things will make us happy.  We create for ourselves an ironic paradox as strange as the ego with which we interface with the outside world.  The very “desire” of the object can many times become the biggest obstacle because we unknowingly become fixated on the gap (not having) between us and the object which makes an even bigger gap between us and our happiness.  

We can have happiness instantly by simply living from our dharmic selves or dharmic body.  This means living toward our ultimate dream without comprimise and with our every action.

Having objects is not an intrinsically bad thing.  But don’t get fixated on the “wanting gap”.  Instead feel the objects and situations you wish as if they are already in the NOW.  Replace the gap of time/space with the wholness of feeling it NOW.  Allow that feeling to consumne all your fears.  That is the way of the dharmic self. 

“We are the music makers, We are the dreamers of dreams” – Arthur O’Shaughnessy

Big Mind Transpersonal Experience – Genpo Roshi at Dharmapalooza 2006