Mystical Experience and Interpretation (the W-C Lattice at a glance)
January 18, 2007
“I am an empirical spiritualist because the only way one can know truth is by experience. Observing with our eyes, sensing with our intuition, feeling with our emotions: these are all necessary parts of discerning truth. We must trust them. That is how God communicates with us, by providing emotional, visual and intuitive information qued to the empirical experiences of nature.” — Center for Unhindered Living
This is similar to how I feel about how to attain “truth”. Some would immediately discount things like “out of body experiences” and even lucid dreams as having little or no value and then call themselves “scientists”. A real scientist looks for proof prior to making hasty assumptions about what is and is not probable/possible.Â
On the other hand, I don’t instantly believe or agree with everything I hear preached in the pulpit  or claimed in books. I like to experience things for myself (if possible) prior to making an assumption.
Jesus, Buddha and other enlightened beings actually had direct contact and experience. Their teachings have been taken and interpreted by the masses and the results have been social stability at best and subversive population and resource control and manipulation at worse.
The problem with Direct Experience: InterpretationÂ
Because interpretation plays such a huge part in how we use what we know, I don’t believe that even direct experience is a “cure all” for the current human condition. Anyone can have a phenomenological experience, and their interpretation of that experience will be based on their current psychological-sociological (and unfortunately pathological) stage.Â
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How a person interprets those experiences can be seen in the Wilber-Combs Lattice:
The lattice shows the spiritual/religious belief level (or type of belief) a person can have ranging from Archaic to Integral (this is taken from James Fowler’s research on stages of faith). The top of the W-C Lattice shows the type of phenomenological experience a person can have.
A person at an Archaic level can have a phenomenological experience (i.e. feel a holy presence, feel one with all things ect), however their interpretation of the experience will be much difference than someone at say and Integral level. A person on the lower end of the W-C Lattice might come away from an experience of oneness and suddenly think that they are a Messiah or even God.Â
So a person such as Vernon Wayne Howell (a.k.a David Koresh), may have indeed had visions, however the interpretation is determined by the psychological make up of the individual. Vernon’s beliefs and vision (an alleged phenomenological experience he had while on a trip to Israel) guided him to take control of the Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventists, break a bunch of federal laws and get subsequently killed by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) when the Branch Davidian compound was raided.Â
*There are many variables that can be considered which led up to the terrible tragedy that took the lives of 70+ victims (including children), and I won’t disrespect these people by claiming that faith and religion had everything to do with their deaths. For one, there were alot of mistakes made by the U.S. government.
From a different Perspective
When ever we have experiences it is imperative that we keep them in context. Merely keeping all phenomenological experiences in perspective (this doesn’t at all mean ignoring them or devaluing them) we can have the wisdom on how to act. Having perspective means acknowledging biases, assumptions and psychological/physical make up that come from our social upbringing and genetics. Unfortunately, this is a big hurdle for many religious traditions as they claim exclusive rights to all truth and perspectives leaving no room for evaluation and questions.Â
Pathological disorders and phenomenological experiences are a whole different ball game. The truly ignorant would put both in the same category (very 18th century “lets lobotomize and shock everyone until they think like us” kind of dogma).
[...] Penecostal to Integral spirituality This is a very interesting topic. I have been studying religions and mystical experiences for years. Always seeking "truth". The pinnacle of what come across is Ken Wilber’s Integral Spirituality. Although I don’t yet full "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 which is a matrix that maps states of consciousness with types of religious belief. I’ve written a little blurb about this: Source of Miracles » Blog Archive » Mystical Experience and Interpretation (the W-C Lattice at a glance) I have been in several religions, faiths and/or societies (but currently hold no allegiance to any one in particular). I have had experiences with almost all. Each of these experiences has been colored by the culture, beliefs, dogma of the organization I was in at the time. For examples of experiences interpreted by cultural beliefs: Christian – as a penecostal I was worshiping God surrounded by some of the praising, shouting congregation and I had an experience that felt like 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 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" excersise I felt a profound (overwhelming) oneness with anything I looked at. Each experience I’ve had has been shaped and interpreted by the culture/religion/faith I was apart of at the time. This in NO WAY INVALIDATES the phenomenon. They were very real and in some cases have changed the course of my life. But the religion/culture/society gives us the language to explain what has happened and shapes the experience. Language/Semantics/culture/religion and their contextual meaning shape not only altered states of consciousness but "normal" states as well. Like 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, state of consciousness, 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 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). __________________ Follow your bliss — Joseph Campbell http://sourceofmiracles.com http://myspace.com/gnosticrob http://integralhacker.zaadz.com/ [...]
Hello,
This is the story of a dream I had 10 years ago. In my dream a meteor had struck the earth. I was searching for a friend of mine in the aftermath. When I finally found him, the shockwave from the impact was pushing me away. He was scared out of his mind, and frozen with fear. I could see the reflection of the explosion in his eyes, glowing bright red. In the end I couldn’t reach him, and I woke up in a cold sweat…
My Father died a year later on his birthday.
I wrote a song about that dream called ‘Black Winter’. You can listen to it at this link, or type my name in ‘Google’ along with the song title.
http://www.mp3.com.au/track.asp?id=141312
Enjoy,
Jeff Knabel
[...] 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. [...]