ANCESTORS & THE BRAIN
Varieties of 'Sensed Presence'
by Iona Miller, 2016
Varieties of 'Sensed Presence'
by Iona Miller, 2016
Depth Genealogy is an approach to genealogy with its own roots in Jungian and archetypal psychology, Transgenerational Integration, phenomenology, genetic genealogy, the arts, and other relevant areas. It is a soulful approach, attuned to the Earth and Feminine with an eye for the imaginal, the ecological, the embodied, and mythological. We cannot describe symptoms without acknowledging the human origins of the ecological crisis. Our way of understanding human life and activity has gone awry, to the serious detriment of the world around us.
Beliefs organize our experience and condition our experience and interpretation of sensed presence. You can't unperceive a perception once perceived, but you can erroneously project, interpret. or concretize it. However we attribute 'sensed presence' or 'liminal entities' we know that they are evoked potentials, rather than literal beings, but they do exhibit phenomenological qualities that carry meaning.
Similar exotic experiences can be induced in the laboratory with electromagnetic fields on the temporal lobes, as reported by Persinger and Murphy (2016). The amygdala also plays a role in such manifestations, which appear 'good' or 'evil', depending on which side of the amygdala is dominant during the 'visitor experience,' which includes the 'ancestors'.
The specific patterns of magnetic fields that induce or elicit
the sensed presence also produce long-term improvements in depression and reduction in pain -- i.e. a traditional 'healing effects'.
The results of the experiment, that have been replicated many times, involved the sensed presence, which is an experience. It is not religiosity, which relates primarily to shifts in behavioral patterns (“personality”) and beliefs. The distinctions between experiences and beliefs are important because they involve different networks of cerebral activity and imply different strategies for
intervention.
"On one extreme, there is the 'demonic' or evil visitor, and on the other extreme, there are more angelic visitors. It depends on which emotional center (amygdala), left or right, is more active. If the negative one (meaning the one that supports fear) is more active, the visitor experience will become a visitation by a demon, Satan, or a terrifying ghost. On the other extreme, it could be an angel, a spirit protector, or even God." (Todd Murphy)
In private mail (2016) Murphy hypothesized about the benign nature of 'ancestors'. We can conjecture that the rule of thumb of 10% experiencing negative effects may hold.
"Hypothesis: in a sharp crisis, that bears in some way on species survival, an individual may spontaneously sense the presence of non-physical beings becoming, for a time, a divided entity, with a portion of their consciousness more able to access non-verbal (intuitive, psychic, empathetic) information via the right temporal lobes and limbic region."
"Enhancements in intuitive skills increase the chances for surviving the sharp crisis. The person's own non-linear cognitive skills are attributed to the 'spirit' being, who will seem to have guided them in a moment of crisis. In fact, the being was a projection of their own right-hemispheric self, the insight was from their own experiences, and the being enabled to whole process - whether it was 'real' (in the mechanistic sense) or not."
"The profound experiences attributed to the “sensed presence” and their cultural anthropomorphisms such as deities and gods are persistent reports in human populations that are frequently associated with permanent changes in behavior, reduced depression and alleviation of pain. The majority of traditional clinical observations and modern imaging techniques have emphasized the central role of right temporal lobe structures and their directly related networks. The experimental simulation of sensed presences ... can result in attributions to spiritual, deity-based or mystical sources within the clinical laboratory by the application of physiologically -patterned magnetic fields across the temporal lobes." (Persinger, Murphy, http://www.nrgarchive.gdk.mx/2016-reply-to-neuroscience-for-the-soul.pdf )
In the genealogical journey our lineage descent becomes an initiatory experience of the depths of the human psyche and collective unconscious. In-depth research, therapy, and self-help for exploring of your Family Tree. Genealogy is a firm foundation for self-knowledge and any spiritual practice. Our ancestors become living presences informing our lives and being -- our relationship with the past, present, and future and the great cycle of life -- birth, death, and rebirth.
Beliefs organize our experience and condition our experience and interpretation of sensed presence. You can't unperceive a perception once perceived, but you can erroneously project, interpret. or concretize it. However we attribute 'sensed presence' or 'liminal entities' we know that they are evoked potentials, rather than literal beings, but they do exhibit phenomenological qualities that carry meaning.
Similar exotic experiences can be induced in the laboratory with electromagnetic fields on the temporal lobes, as reported by Persinger and Murphy (2016). The amygdala also plays a role in such manifestations, which appear 'good' or 'evil', depending on which side of the amygdala is dominant during the 'visitor experience,' which includes the 'ancestors'.
The specific patterns of magnetic fields that induce or elicit
the sensed presence also produce long-term improvements in depression and reduction in pain -- i.e. a traditional 'healing effects'.
The results of the experiment, that have been replicated many times, involved the sensed presence, which is an experience. It is not religiosity, which relates primarily to shifts in behavioral patterns (“personality”) and beliefs. The distinctions between experiences and beliefs are important because they involve different networks of cerebral activity and imply different strategies for
intervention.
"On one extreme, there is the 'demonic' or evil visitor, and on the other extreme, there are more angelic visitors. It depends on which emotional center (amygdala), left or right, is more active. If the negative one (meaning the one that supports fear) is more active, the visitor experience will become a visitation by a demon, Satan, or a terrifying ghost. On the other extreme, it could be an angel, a spirit protector, or even God." (Todd Murphy)
In private mail (2016) Murphy hypothesized about the benign nature of 'ancestors'. We can conjecture that the rule of thumb of 10% experiencing negative effects may hold.
"Hypothesis: in a sharp crisis, that bears in some way on species survival, an individual may spontaneously sense the presence of non-physical beings becoming, for a time, a divided entity, with a portion of their consciousness more able to access non-verbal (intuitive, psychic, empathetic) information via the right temporal lobes and limbic region."
"Enhancements in intuitive skills increase the chances for surviving the sharp crisis. The person's own non-linear cognitive skills are attributed to the 'spirit' being, who will seem to have guided them in a moment of crisis. In fact, the being was a projection of their own right-hemispheric self, the insight was from their own experiences, and the being enabled to whole process - whether it was 'real' (in the mechanistic sense) or not."
"The profound experiences attributed to the “sensed presence” and their cultural anthropomorphisms such as deities and gods are persistent reports in human populations that are frequently associated with permanent changes in behavior, reduced depression and alleviation of pain. The majority of traditional clinical observations and modern imaging techniques have emphasized the central role of right temporal lobe structures and their directly related networks. The experimental simulation of sensed presences ... can result in attributions to spiritual, deity-based or mystical sources within the clinical laboratory by the application of physiologically -patterned magnetic fields across the temporal lobes." (Persinger, Murphy, http://www.nrgarchive.gdk.mx/2016-reply-to-neuroscience-for-the-soul.pdf )
In the genealogical journey our lineage descent becomes an initiatory experience of the depths of the human psyche and collective unconscious. In-depth research, therapy, and self-help for exploring of your Family Tree. Genealogy is a firm foundation for self-knowledge and any spiritual practice. Our ancestors become living presences informing our lives and being -- our relationship with the past, present, and future and the great cycle of life -- birth, death, and rebirth.
Sensed Presence, Persinger & Murphy, 2016
http://www.nrgarchive.gdk.mx/2016-reply-to-neuroscience-for-the-soul.pdf
http://ionamiller.weebly.com/temporal-lobes.html
Uranus is listed among our primordial genealogical ancestors. The main issue or myth theme of Uranus is the tendency to drastically limit his own potential for engendering and procreation. There are many forms of physical creativity. With no foresight or hindsight, and no perspective on time, he fought against the actualization of his own creative potentialities through self-destructive reactions. When we engage in self-defeating, self-sabotaging efforts that nip our creativity in the bud, we are acting like Uranus or being 'consumed' by him.
This hostile ancestor was a reluctant progenitor, who paid dearly when time (Chronos) finally caught up with him.
In a Newsweek article, the neuromagnetics research of neuropsychologist Dr. Michael Persinger describes Temporal Lobe Transients (TLTs). TLTs are implicated as mini-seizures in producing a variety of perceptual anomalies combined with a sense of deep meaning. Persinger identifies the temporal lobes as the biological basis of the God Experience, "the God Module," in his 1987 book Neuropsychological Bases of God Beliefs. He comments on his research:
"As a human being, I am concerned about the illusionary explanations for human consciousness and the future of human existence. Consequently after writing [NBGB], I began the systematic application of complex electromagnetic fields to discern the patterns that will induce experiences (sensed presence) that are attributed to the myriad of ego-alien intrusions which range from gods to aliens.
The research is not to demean anyone's religious/mystical experience but instead to determine which portions of the brain or its electromagnetic patterns generate the experience. Two thousand years of philosophy have taught us that attempting to prove or disprove realities may never have discrete verbal (linguistic) solutions because of the limitation of this measurement. The research has been encouraged by the historical fact that most wars and group degradations are coupled implicitly to god beliefs and to the presumption that those who do not believe the same as the experient are somehow less human and hence expendable. Although these egocentric propensities may have had adaptive significance, their utility for the species' future may be questionable."
His technique, using solenoids in a helmet for input, is fairly simple. A hand-held computer programs the predefined pattern at which the fields will fluctuate. The impulses move through the temporal lobe and penetrate deep into the brain, where they interfere and interact with the complex electrical patterns of the subject's neural fields. The new patterns spread through the limbic system, producing sensations that range from subtle to profound. Persinger's research goal is to use his device to trigger transcendental experiences in nonreligious people faced with the fear of death.
Persinger has tickled the temporal lobes of around a 1000 people and has concluded, among other things, that different subjects label this ghostly perception with the names that their cultures have trained them to use -- Elijah, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Mohammed, the Sky Spirit, ancestors or aliens. Some subjects have emerged with Freudian interpretations - describing the presence as one's grandfather, for instance - while others, agnostics with more than a passing faith in UFOs, tell something that sounds more like a standard alien-abduction story.
Persinger has discovered that when he aims for the amygdala, his subjects experience sexual arousal. When he focuses the solenoids on the right hemisphere of their temporal lobes, they sense on the left side of their body a negative presence -- an alien or a devil, say. When he switches to left left hemisphere, his subjects sense a benevolent force: an angel or a god.
Focused on the hippocampus, the personal electromagnetic relaxation device will produce the sort of opiate effects that Ecstasy does today. So far, subjects report no adverse side effects. However, "if you interfere with the opiate pattern, people get very irritated," Persinger says. In fact, "they'll actually cuss you out."
Persinger asserts that, "God Experiences are products of the human brain. When certain portions of the brain are stimulated, God Experiences, tempered by the person's learning history, are evoked. They appear to have emerged within the human species as a means of dealing with the expanded capacity to anticipate aversive events. God Experiences contain common themes of "knowing," forced thinking, inner voices, familiarity, and sensations of uplifting movements."
God Concepts are determined by verbal conditioning; perceptions are constructions. When multiple events occur within a week, they are usually given special labels, such as "revelations," "communions," or "conversions."
People with TLTs experience vivid landscapes or perceive forms of living things. Some of these entities are not humans, but are described as little men, glowing forms, or bright, shining sources. The modality of the experience, that is, whether it is experienced as a sound, a smell, a scene (vision), or an intense feeling, reflects the area of the electrical instability.
The experiences, whether visual or auditory, may have actually happened or they may be mixtures of fantasy and reality. Sometimes they may be fixed in space and time, while in other cases they may be as dynamic as everyday experiences. However, whether they are dreamlike or vivid, they are experienced as real.
Persinger is not saying that the experiences of God are synonymous with temporal lobe epilepsy. However, when vast depolarizing waves spread across millions of cells, all types of memories and fantasies are mixed and mashed together. But the God Experience is a normal and more organized pattern of temporal lobe activity, precipitated by subtle psychological factors such as personal stress, loss, and anticipated death.
The gut feeling is a sense of familiarity, deep meaning, conviction and importance, even euphoria or mania (alternately fear and terror). The brain's chemical reaction is to release natural opiates and other mood elevating neurotransmitters. During TLTs, the person peers into another realm which has many names, heaven, the world of spirits, or the other dimension. Trained meditators, (employing rhythmic stimulus to the CNS such as a mantra or "emptying", changes in oxygen and blood sugar levels), can drive the temporal lobe into bouts of theta activity.
Sometimes frank electrical seizures occur and the God Experience is reported.
Neuroscientist Todd Murphy, www.jps.net/brainsci/, has done a good job of summarizing Persinger's research in simpler language. He describes consciousness as a feedback interface of sensory and cognitive modalities. Low intensity magnetic fields orchestrate communication between lobes of the brain, at a speed much faster than the bioelectrical or biochemical process of neurons. Different signals produce different phenomena. The temporal lobes are the parts of the brain that mediate states of consciousness.
Multiple modalities are experienced simultaneously, with the implication that they are 'reset' all at once by neuromagnetic signals which come in pairs, running slightly out of phase with one another. In this way, neuromagnetic signals, like the two laser beams used to produce a hologram, might be able to store information. The speeds at which neuromagnetic signals are propagated and their capacity to recruit/alter multiple modalities suggests that they were naturally selected to make instant choices to alter states of consciousness, and to do so quickly to facilitate adaptive behavior.
Murphy's many articles include not only the production of consciousness and states of consciousness, the God experience, but deja vu, and the spiritual personality. Long-term memory is seated in the surface of the bottom of the temporal lobes in the para hippocampal cortex, closely connected to the hippocampus. Usually, there is seamless integration of past, present and future. We experience something in the present, compare it to the past and decide how to respond in a few seconds.
But once in a while, in Deja Vu, there is too much communication between short-term and long-term memories. Then the present can feel like the past. If present perceptions are shunted through the brain areas that process memories from the past, those perceptions feel like memories, and we feel we are re-living a moment stored in long-term memory.
The opposite happens in Jamais Vu: things seem totally unfamiliar because of too little connection between long-term memory and perceptions from the present. Nothing we experience seems to have anything to do with the past. If these experiences spill over into the amygdala they are highly emotional. If goes to the right it is unpleasant or fearful, to the left from ecstatic to beatific. Another experiential phenomenon is time distortion.
Murphy describes the phenomenon of the Sensed Presence and how it emerges from out of phase processes in different hemispheres of the brain. He also relates the sensed presence with the behavior and feelings of romantic love.
The 'self' is what we experience when a specific pattern of brain activity is happening. It is linked to the Forty Hertz Component which appears from the temporal lobes, and two of it's deeper structures, the amygdala and the hippocampus. The 40 Hz signal is only not there in dreamless sleep. The maintenance of the sense of self is repeated 40 times per second and each time it can manifest a new emotional response to changing circumstances every 25 milliseconds.
These structures on both sides of the brain yield two 'selves,' two senses of self. One is on the left, and one on the right, but they are not equals. The left-sided sense of self is dominant in most people; right side subordinate non-verbal, introspective. The left is the one where language happens, maintaining our stream of inner words and thoughts about everything we experience or can imagine.
Each normal brain function involves a primary operative area on one side with a subordinate homologous or corresponding area on the other. On the other side of the brain, following the rule that each thing on one side of the brain does the opposite of what the same thing on the other side does, we get the conclusion that there is a non-linguistic sense of self on the right side of the brain. Usually the two selves work in tandem. But if the two fall out of phase, and the left-sided self manifests by itself, we experience our own, right-sided silent sense of self coming out where the left sided sense of self experiences it as "other," as not-self. This leads to the phenomenon of Sensed Presence, actually the Silent Self.
Electrical activity in the amygdala, hippocampus and temporal can 'spill over' into nearby structures. If it ignites the visual area, intense visions of an entity of some sort emerge (left amygdala-positive imagery; right side-negative images/entities).
Kindling the olfactory region leads to unique scents; the somatosensory stimulation leads to buzzing, energetic, or tingly sensations or perceptions of being lifted or floating; language center activation produces voices, music or noise; long-term memory (lower portion of temporal lobes) access yields interactive virtual realities, complete with emotions, much like waking dreams. The thalamus is implicated in aura vision, and the reticular activating system in life reviews.
Because positive thoughts (involving the right hippocampus), and positive feelings (involving the left amygdala) are on opposite sides of the brain, prayer or meditation changes the balance of activity on the two sides. These structures have some of the lowest firing thresholds in the brain and are thus likely to mismatch their metabolic rates of activity. Whenever that's happening, chances of the activity of the two sides falling out of phase with each other increases. Then the 'right self' is experienced as an external presence.
Sensed presence experiences become more common until the day arrives when God's presence is something the person feels at all times. In mystical experience language fails, and a person's sense of themselves can be transformed. Since we can't experience two senses of self, one is projected as other, the Beloved, either romantic or spiritual. There is thus some truth to the saying that the beloved is God, and that when we love God we are loving ourselves. I and Thou are One. The other becomes the Self.
Uranus is listed among our primordial genealogical ancestors. The main issue or myth theme of Uranus is the tendency to drastically limit his own potential for engendering and procreation. There are many forms of physical creativity. With no foresight or hindsight, and no perspective on time, he fought against the actualization of his own creative potentialities through self-destructive reactions. When we engage in self-defeating, self-sabotaging efforts that nip our creativity in the bud, we are acting like Uranus or being 'consumed' by him.
This hostile ancestor was a reluctant progenitor, who paid dearly when time (Chronos) finally caught up with him.
In a Newsweek article, the neuromagnetics research of neuropsychologist Dr. Michael Persinger describes Temporal Lobe Transients (TLTs). TLTs are implicated as mini-seizures in producing a variety of perceptual anomalies combined with a sense of deep meaning. Persinger identifies the temporal lobes as the biological basis of the God Experience, "the God Module," in his 1987 book Neuropsychological Bases of God Beliefs. He comments on his research:
"As a human being, I am concerned about the illusionary explanations for human consciousness and the future of human existence. Consequently after writing [NBGB], I began the systematic application of complex electromagnetic fields to discern the patterns that will induce experiences (sensed presence) that are attributed to the myriad of ego-alien intrusions which range from gods to aliens.
The research is not to demean anyone's religious/mystical experience but instead to determine which portions of the brain or its electromagnetic patterns generate the experience. Two thousand years of philosophy have taught us that attempting to prove or disprove realities may never have discrete verbal (linguistic) solutions because of the limitation of this measurement. The research has been encouraged by the historical fact that most wars and group degradations are coupled implicitly to god beliefs and to the presumption that those who do not believe the same as the experient are somehow less human and hence expendable. Although these egocentric propensities may have had adaptive significance, their utility for the species' future may be questionable."
His technique, using solenoids in a helmet for input, is fairly simple. A hand-held computer programs the predefined pattern at which the fields will fluctuate. The impulses move through the temporal lobe and penetrate deep into the brain, where they interfere and interact with the complex electrical patterns of the subject's neural fields. The new patterns spread through the limbic system, producing sensations that range from subtle to profound. Persinger's research goal is to use his device to trigger transcendental experiences in nonreligious people faced with the fear of death.
Persinger has tickled the temporal lobes of around a 1000 people and has concluded, among other things, that different subjects label this ghostly perception with the names that their cultures have trained them to use -- Elijah, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Mohammed, the Sky Spirit, ancestors or aliens. Some subjects have emerged with Freudian interpretations - describing the presence as one's grandfather, for instance - while others, agnostics with more than a passing faith in UFOs, tell something that sounds more like a standard alien-abduction story.
Persinger has discovered that when he aims for the amygdala, his subjects experience sexual arousal. When he focuses the solenoids on the right hemisphere of their temporal lobes, they sense on the left side of their body a negative presence -- an alien or a devil, say. When he switches to left left hemisphere, his subjects sense a benevolent force: an angel or a god.
Focused on the hippocampus, the personal electromagnetic relaxation device will produce the sort of opiate effects that Ecstasy does today. So far, subjects report no adverse side effects. However, "if you interfere with the opiate pattern, people get very irritated," Persinger says. In fact, "they'll actually cuss you out."
Persinger asserts that, "God Experiences are products of the human brain. When certain portions of the brain are stimulated, God Experiences, tempered by the person's learning history, are evoked. They appear to have emerged within the human species as a means of dealing with the expanded capacity to anticipate aversive events. God Experiences contain common themes of "knowing," forced thinking, inner voices, familiarity, and sensations of uplifting movements."
God Concepts are determined by verbal conditioning; perceptions are constructions. When multiple events occur within a week, they are usually given special labels, such as "revelations," "communions," or "conversions."
People with TLTs experience vivid landscapes or perceive forms of living things. Some of these entities are not humans, but are described as little men, glowing forms, or bright, shining sources. The modality of the experience, that is, whether it is experienced as a sound, a smell, a scene (vision), or an intense feeling, reflects the area of the electrical instability.
The experiences, whether visual or auditory, may have actually happened or they may be mixtures of fantasy and reality. Sometimes they may be fixed in space and time, while in other cases they may be as dynamic as everyday experiences. However, whether they are dreamlike or vivid, they are experienced as real.
Persinger is not saying that the experiences of God are synonymous with temporal lobe epilepsy. However, when vast depolarizing waves spread across millions of cells, all types of memories and fantasies are mixed and mashed together. But the God Experience is a normal and more organized pattern of temporal lobe activity, precipitated by subtle psychological factors such as personal stress, loss, and anticipated death.
The gut feeling is a sense of familiarity, deep meaning, conviction and importance, even euphoria or mania (alternately fear and terror). The brain's chemical reaction is to release natural opiates and other mood elevating neurotransmitters. During TLTs, the person peers into another realm which has many names, heaven, the world of spirits, or the other dimension. Trained meditators, (employing rhythmic stimulus to the CNS such as a mantra or "emptying", changes in oxygen and blood sugar levels), can drive the temporal lobe into bouts of theta activity.
Sometimes frank electrical seizures occur and the God Experience is reported.
Neuroscientist Todd Murphy, www.jps.net/brainsci/, has done a good job of summarizing Persinger's research in simpler language. He describes consciousness as a feedback interface of sensory and cognitive modalities. Low intensity magnetic fields orchestrate communication between lobes of the brain, at a speed much faster than the bioelectrical or biochemical process of neurons. Different signals produce different phenomena. The temporal lobes are the parts of the brain that mediate states of consciousness.
Multiple modalities are experienced simultaneously, with the implication that they are 'reset' all at once by neuromagnetic signals which come in pairs, running slightly out of phase with one another. In this way, neuromagnetic signals, like the two laser beams used to produce a hologram, might be able to store information. The speeds at which neuromagnetic signals are propagated and their capacity to recruit/alter multiple modalities suggests that they were naturally selected to make instant choices to alter states of consciousness, and to do so quickly to facilitate adaptive behavior.
Murphy's many articles include not only the production of consciousness and states of consciousness, the God experience, but deja vu, and the spiritual personality. Long-term memory is seated in the surface of the bottom of the temporal lobes in the para hippocampal cortex, closely connected to the hippocampus. Usually, there is seamless integration of past, present and future. We experience something in the present, compare it to the past and decide how to respond in a few seconds.
But once in a while, in Deja Vu, there is too much communication between short-term and long-term memories. Then the present can feel like the past. If present perceptions are shunted through the brain areas that process memories from the past, those perceptions feel like memories, and we feel we are re-living a moment stored in long-term memory.
The opposite happens in Jamais Vu: things seem totally unfamiliar because of too little connection between long-term memory and perceptions from the present. Nothing we experience seems to have anything to do with the past. If these experiences spill over into the amygdala they are highly emotional. If goes to the right it is unpleasant or fearful, to the left from ecstatic to beatific. Another experiential phenomenon is time distortion.
Murphy describes the phenomenon of the Sensed Presence and how it emerges from out of phase processes in different hemispheres of the brain. He also relates the sensed presence with the behavior and feelings of romantic love.
The 'self' is what we experience when a specific pattern of brain activity is happening. It is linked to the Forty Hertz Component which appears from the temporal lobes, and two of it's deeper structures, the amygdala and the hippocampus. The 40 Hz signal is only not there in dreamless sleep. The maintenance of the sense of self is repeated 40 times per second and each time it can manifest a new emotional response to changing circumstances every 25 milliseconds.
These structures on both sides of the brain yield two 'selves,' two senses of self. One is on the left, and one on the right, but they are not equals. The left-sided sense of self is dominant in most people; right side subordinate non-verbal, introspective. The left is the one where language happens, maintaining our stream of inner words and thoughts about everything we experience or can imagine.
Each normal brain function involves a primary operative area on one side with a subordinate homologous or corresponding area on the other. On the other side of the brain, following the rule that each thing on one side of the brain does the opposite of what the same thing on the other side does, we get the conclusion that there is a non-linguistic sense of self on the right side of the brain. Usually the two selves work in tandem. But if the two fall out of phase, and the left-sided self manifests by itself, we experience our own, right-sided silent sense of self coming out where the left sided sense of self experiences it as "other," as not-self. This leads to the phenomenon of Sensed Presence, actually the Silent Self.
Electrical activity in the amygdala, hippocampus and temporal can 'spill over' into nearby structures. If it ignites the visual area, intense visions of an entity of some sort emerge (left amygdala-positive imagery; right side-negative images/entities).
Kindling the olfactory region leads to unique scents; the somatosensory stimulation leads to buzzing, energetic, or tingly sensations or perceptions of being lifted or floating; language center activation produces voices, music or noise; long-term memory (lower portion of temporal lobes) access yields interactive virtual realities, complete with emotions, much like waking dreams. The thalamus is implicated in aura vision, and the reticular activating system in life reviews.
Because positive thoughts (involving the right hippocampus), and positive feelings (involving the left amygdala) are on opposite sides of the brain, prayer or meditation changes the balance of activity on the two sides. These structures have some of the lowest firing thresholds in the brain and are thus likely to mismatch their metabolic rates of activity. Whenever that's happening, chances of the activity of the two sides falling out of phase with each other increases. Then the 'right self' is experienced as an external presence.
Sensed presence experiences become more common until the day arrives when God's presence is something the person feels at all times. In mystical experience language fails, and a person's sense of themselves can be transformed. Since we can't experience two senses of self, one is projected as other, the Beloved, either romantic or spiritual. There is thus some truth to the saying that the beloved is God, and that when we love God we are loving ourselves. I and Thou are One. The other becomes the Self.
Personal Philosophy Inventory
(Makarec and Persinger, 1990)
(Sample items indicating complex partial epileptic temporal lobe signs.)
While sitting quietly, I have had uplifting sensations as if I were driving over a rolling road.
I often feel as if things are not real.
At least once, before falling down, I had an intense smell from childhood, apparently for no reason.
Once, in a crowded place, I suddenly could not recognize where I was.
I have had a vision.
People tell me I "blank out" sometimes when we're talking.
When relaxed or before falling asleep I sometimes feel pleasant vibrations moving through my body.
Sometimes in the very early morning hours I have meaningful experiences.
I have heard an inner voice call my name.
I use hunches more than simple learning to solve new problems.
Sometimes an event occurs that has special significance for me only.
I have had experiences where I felt as if I were somewhere else.
There have been brief times when I felt very close to a Universal Consciousness.
I have had dreams of floating or flying through the air.
At least once in my life I have felt the presence of another being.
(Sample items indicating Psi experiences or exotic beliefs)
I have been taken aboard a space ship.
I would like to time travel.
When I have a tough decision a sign will be given and I will know what to do.
If God told me to kill, I would do it in His name.
I think there is a good possibility that I have lived a previous life.
Telepathy is a real phenomenon.
An inner voice has told me where to find something and it was there.
Alien intelligence is probably responsible for UFOs.
I have felt as if I have left my body.
*****
Subjective Experiences Questionnaire
(Ruttan, Persinger and Koren, 1990) {exit survey}
( Sample items indicating targeted experiences test for vestibular, depersonalization, and imaginings.)
I felt dizzy or odd.
I felt the presence of someone or something near me.
There were tingling sensations.
I saw vivid images.
There were pleasant vibrations moving through my body.
I heard an inner voice call my name or speak to me.
I experienced anger.
I experienced sadness.
The experience did not come from my own mind.
I heard a ticking sound.
There were odd smells.
I experienced terror or fear.
There were odd tastes in my mouth.
I felt as if I were somewhere else.
I experienced thoughts from childhood.
The same idea kept occurring.
I felt as if I were spinning around.
There were images from dreams I've had.
The red light became brighter or darker.
(Makarec and Persinger, 1990)
(Sample items indicating complex partial epileptic temporal lobe signs.)
While sitting quietly, I have had uplifting sensations as if I were driving over a rolling road.
I often feel as if things are not real.
At least once, before falling down, I had an intense smell from childhood, apparently for no reason.
Once, in a crowded place, I suddenly could not recognize where I was.
I have had a vision.
People tell me I "blank out" sometimes when we're talking.
When relaxed or before falling asleep I sometimes feel pleasant vibrations moving through my body.
Sometimes in the very early morning hours I have meaningful experiences.
I have heard an inner voice call my name.
I use hunches more than simple learning to solve new problems.
Sometimes an event occurs that has special significance for me only.
I have had experiences where I felt as if I were somewhere else.
There have been brief times when I felt very close to a Universal Consciousness.
I have had dreams of floating or flying through the air.
At least once in my life I have felt the presence of another being.
(Sample items indicating Psi experiences or exotic beliefs)
I have been taken aboard a space ship.
I would like to time travel.
When I have a tough decision a sign will be given and I will know what to do.
If God told me to kill, I would do it in His name.
I think there is a good possibility that I have lived a previous life.
Telepathy is a real phenomenon.
An inner voice has told me where to find something and it was there.
Alien intelligence is probably responsible for UFOs.
I have felt as if I have left my body.
*****
Subjective Experiences Questionnaire
(Ruttan, Persinger and Koren, 1990) {exit survey}
( Sample items indicating targeted experiences test for vestibular, depersonalization, and imaginings.)
I felt dizzy or odd.
I felt the presence of someone or something near me.
There were tingling sensations.
I saw vivid images.
There were pleasant vibrations moving through my body.
I heard an inner voice call my name or speak to me.
I experienced anger.
I experienced sadness.
The experience did not come from my own mind.
I heard a ticking sound.
There were odd smells.
I experienced terror or fear.
There were odd tastes in my mouth.
I felt as if I were somewhere else.
I experienced thoughts from childhood.
The same idea kept occurring.
I felt as if I were spinning around.
There were images from dreams I've had.
The red light became brighter or darker.
In a more mundane, yet typical example, a couple of lovers involved in this level would allow one another to symbolize their unlived aspects of life (contrasexual side), instead of developing a consciousness which perceives all individuals as having both male and female qualities.
Folie à deux [fä l´ a doo´] is the simultaneous occurrence of the same mental disorder in two people who are closely associated, when one appears to have influenced the other. (From French; "double insanity.") Similarly, folie à trois, folie à quatre. Shared psychotic disorder (Folie à Deux); a variety of dissociative behavior. Delusion develops in a person in the context of a close relationship with someone who has an already established delusion; Similar content to delusion; Not due to another mental disorder. Not due to medical, neurological or substance-induced disorder.
Excerpt from The Modern Alchemist,
by Miller and Miller:
Your identification with objects, your roles, other people, and your possessions may border on what is known as participation mystique. It is a way of being involved with externals to the point where they seem to exert a magical effect over you. If you use people or objects to mood-alter yourself, they possess you, and you can't possibly relate to rationally. You have literally invested your energy in something other than yourself...and have given a piece of yourself away.
Mutual projections by lovers can result in all sorts of folly and shared delusions. Frequently people fall in love with those who have traits they would like to actualize in themselves. Instead of manifesting that, we let the other carry those qualities and try to patch the hole in our wholeness. This counter-projection can result in the syndrome of folie a deux, or the "madness of two." This accounts for the "just us against the world" mentality. Any psychological deviation of one is condoned and reinforced in the other in a spiraling move away from consensus reality into isolation. A less radical version of this process happens for most who fall in love.
The delusion is usually within the realm of possibility and often is based on past common experience. Their ability to deal with reality is undermind in favor of an escape into romantic fantasy and self-justification. This is much easier for weak egos. Mutual projection is also the basis of personality cults, but the roles are simply switched to teacher and disciple as Platonic lovers. There is an unconscious fascination, an enchantment, which comes from seeing yourself reflected in your beloved, whether it is true or not.
Another example of this fascination or participation mystique is the creation of talismans. Talismans are objects you invest with seemingly magical powers to influence a situation. This is the basis of sympathetic magic. It accounts for the recent fad of using crystals as healing stones. It is fine if you use them to focus your creative imagination, but don't mistake the fact that it is your own investment of energy that brings the transformations rather than any inherent quality in the crystal. Belief systems perpetuate a mystery feeling that can lead to illusory convictions about the way things work.
When not of pathological character, shared follies still happen to us and are called "participation mystique" in Jungian psychology. They are the product of psychic contagion and when they are positive are the basis of the placebo effect, faith healings, shamanic healing, and psychotherapeutic healing.
There is an unconscious fascination which comes from seeing oneself reflected in the "other," whether the other contains this quality or not. It appears to contain it when we are under the influence of participation mystique. Another example is investing an object with "magical" powers to influence a situation, like a love charm or talisman. This type of thinking perpetuates an illusory conviction concerning "the ways things are."
As this fascination dissolves, the individual's attitudes and reactions to situations becomes freer and more objective. The projected contents "return" to their proper home in the psyche, and are realized on a conscious level. They are perceived as psychological reality, instead of physical reality. We are no longer at the mercy of the actions and moods of another person or the environment. The source of feelings is known to exist within ourselves. Participation mystique is the original unconscious condition of psychological ignorance.
The gods and demons in Jung's writings were not regarded as psychic projections of the unconscious, but as self-evident realities. In the Age of Enlightenment people "discovered" that the gods did not really exist, but were simply projections of our unconsciousness. Thus, they were promptly dismissed as lacking religious value, and deposed from their thrones.
But the corresponding psychological function was by no means ended by this over-rational analytical rejection. It was Uranus rejecting the children once again. The activity of the collective patterns was repressed into unconsciousness where it became mental and physical diseases, such as tumors and hysterical reactions. Modern man has been poisoned by this surplus of libido or psychic energy which once was contained in the cult(ure) of the divine images.
Our conscious awareness can assimilate, understand and elaborate its relationship to projections of the unconscious contents. It can come to know various autonomous portions of the psyche as personified archetypes. All the archetypes are the generations of the primordial ancestor Uranus. All patterns come from the archetype of patterns descended from matter. These personifications appear as guides, demons, gods or goddesses, etc.
Failure to voluntarily acknowledge them may result in consciousness being overwhelmed by a somatic reaction or disturbance of the body. Or mental illness and disorientation may be the result of a flood of unconscious psychic contents.
Personification helps the conscious ego create a dialogue with these inner beings. It is the multiple consciousness form of I-Thou dialogue. We experience them as "Other" or "Not-I". Yet, they are a part of ourselves. These dynamic mythological images, when neglected, may lead to psychosis or physical death in extreme cases. They are psychological and behavioral imperatives.
(c)2015-2016; All Rights Reserved, Iona Miller, Sangreality Trust
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iona_m@yahoo.com
Fair Use Notice
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
