Psychosis is a mental disorder characterized by a life of emotions, perceptions, and thoughts that are so distorted that the individual has severely impaired contact with reality. Neurosis is essentially everyone else. My dad used to say that ‘we’re all nuts.’ Now add to the mix the notion of subtle sight, hearing, etc. and we are in a delicate arena indeed. You can justify anything with the intellect and people certainly do!
How do you know if you perceptions are perception, psychosis, or neurosis? To my way of thinking psychosis is blatant, even to the ordinary observer. However, regarding neurosis verses subtle perception, I have seen many, New Agers in particular, who could use a lot more humility in the matter. It boils down to having ‘a healthy relationship with’ your perceptions.
No one really perceives. We all project. We perceive on to. Wisdom includes having a healthy relationship with that fact. The more fully integrated the surface of your being is with the depth, the healthier your relationship with these matters. But then, how do you know how integrated you are?
You must learn to discern. This includes learning how to use other people as a mirror. That too is subtle. You can find people to collude with easily enough. However, do keep in mind that everyone, at the depth of their being, is infinitely wise… one with the Unified Field… one with God. Therefore, on that level everyone can sense how healthy they and others are. Yet that knowing is masked by ones neurosis or psychosis, i.e. ones conditioning (samskaras).
It is a double bind, isn’t it? It seems like there is no way to know, doesn’t it? Well that’s life, isn’t it? Most look for a solid handle on life to cling to. However, the only absolute there is has no handle. It is like a soft cloud you rest upon. It is the Self. It is God… the place you are one with God. From a scientific perspective, it is the Unified Field. As you evolve you awaken to it more and more. Your physiology becomes more and more fully integrated with it. However, it does not come with a handle.
Introducing subtle perception to others must be done wisely. Otherwise, the introduction becomes an invitation to neurosis, if not psychosis. But to throw out the baby with the bathwater and reject the entire arena is unfortunate. You must learn to discern. I strive to help my students, as well as my kids, cultivate discernment. Only then can you well navigate the subtle arena of life.
I remember years ago I attended an expo where there was a room of people offering ‘psychic readings’. One glance at the group was enough to convince me I wanted nothing to do with it. If you are honest with yourself, and reflective, then you can develop insight enough to have a good sense of the person you are speaking to.
This may be disconcerting to many who want a simple cookbook approach to all of life. There are many out there that offer that and many cling to those offerings. I will not do that, because it is not the way life really is. On the other hand, the beauty of life lies in its subtlety… in its elusive nature… in knowing that the only true knowing is knowing that you know nothing.
After all, the unified field is beyond relativity. It is the field of ‘No Thing Ness’. How beautiful… God is beyond thingness, yet permeates all things.
This is beautiful and moving-and reading it brings up for me my failures and judgments. And my longing for being able to discern, go gradually. Maybe it will sneak up on me ‘while sleeping’ as the poet Antonio Machado invokes in one of the stanzas of his poem ‘Last Night As I Was Sleeping’:
‘Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt-marvelous error!-
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.”
Beautifully humbling
If you should feel so inclined, I would love to hear more about subtle sight/hearing. Does this refer to perceptions of “other dimensions” of reality beyond this physical, earthly dimension and why is it that certain individuals have these subtle perceptions while others do not? And how would one “handle” all these subtle perceptions while still maintaining a sense of balance and serenity? Thank you.
What a beautiful blog, so rich and so timely. Coming from a family with mental disorders (schizophrenia), the reality of psychosis has always felt close and frightening to me. I’ve figured many times I was right there on the edge myself. I’m humbled and so grateful for the support of nature in helping me navigate through fearful waters, and for leading me to your teaching and the Surya class. Our culture is adamant about insisting that we be in control of everything and have “pat” answers. That’s enough to make one neurotic in itself.
Patricia,
I have spoken many hours on the subject of subtle sight, hearing, feeling, etc. Let’s see what I can make available. Perhaps a video blog. Right now I a swamped with many things so please be patient. Your questions are good. I will respond in time in some form… video, blog, book, etc.
Thank you for the wonderful message…
In the words of Ice cube; check yourself before you wreck yourself… 🙂
By the grace of God, I have been exposed to such a transforming knowledge. I have not exerienced any subtle sight or profound enlightenment experience, but the growth I have experienced through listening to your teachings has been profound. As I have woken up to or attained an awareness of my various neurosis I have been able through the light of awareness to move past many karmic patterns in my life. The process continues what seems endlessly but the happyness and bliss that comes with the grow is amazing. Again, for me, no grand experience but a subtle, gradual, very positive growth. My questioning is, what about the aspect of grace? The way I see it, how can we have any idea of what we are doing or what influences us if not for Grace of God, and of course Brahmarishi.
I was wondering recently what the difference or relationship between conditioning/neuroses and raksashas are. I suppose raksashas are the personified aspects… Our conditioning seems to create a structure or container for those “living” aspects of neuroses (and psychoses) to operate through. And we do the work of maintaining our conditioning so these illusions can perpetuate their “reality”! Corrections/insights? Thanks for speaking on this general topic! Always rich reflections.
Thank you for your response. I look forward to learning more about subtle perceptions in the future — no hurry on this — just whenever the time is right for you.
Erik,
Grace of God lies in the omnipresence. In technical terms: The unified field underlies all that is. It birthed and sustains all that is. Everything come out of it and all is gravitating back to it. Like the out breath and in breath. Evolution refers to the return… the in breath. Manifestation refers to the out breath. Gods Grace, God’s Love, is the eternal ‘gravitational pull’ of the unified field. “Pull’ is one word. Perhaps you may prefer another. It may also be referred to al ‘Teh Support of Nature.’ The understanding is the important thing. We are like water atop a mountain returning to the ocean. The pull of gravity that propells the water is Gods Grace. As you evolve, that Grace is felt more and more fully. As you fight it less [even often done in the name of it!] you receive it more. In time it overtakes what you thought was you and you awaken to the fact that you are one with it… one with God. God’s divine will and your will are then realized to be one. See?
Joy Anna,
Neurosis and Psychosis are two forms of conditioning. Everything has a personified aspect. Raksashas, demons, devils, etc. are personified aspects of conditioning. That is to say, personified aspects of lack of awareness of one’s own true nature which is Divine. They are maintained out of habit really… like programming a computer.
This is why there is such a thing a Absolute ‘good’, i.e. God but no absolute evil, i.e. Devil. Evil is just a confused state of something that in its essence is Divine. In other words, when anything awakens to it true nature, it is realized [Self Realized] to be one with God. The confusion melts away as one awakens to ones true nature. Only God exists. Everything is, in its true nature, the unified field, i.e. God. Unified field is the scientific aspect. God is the personified. Just as your body is the material aspect, your soul is the personified.
The last few words of your comment to Joy Anna hit me strangely – “Just as your body is the material aspect, your soul is the personified.” I thought and felt into that last part, “personified,” as deeply as I could and it did not square with my “preconceived notion” of “soul.” I always felt that somehow the personified aspect of God was the picture of God that people conjured up to enable them to more easily relate to different aspects of the unified field, but somehow less that the true essence of “Godness,” hence the Jewish God, the Christian God, the Hindu Gods, and on and on, all different personifications of the same God essence. Now you are saying that the soul, something I understand to be the true essence of each human being or even any living thing, is the “personified” aspect of that being. By my current notion of “personified,” that would make the soul the aspect which is essentially projected on to the real core of a being, and not the core itself.
To continue in that line of thought – I thought the soul was the aspect of each being that continued after death. Does that mean that it is only the “personified” aspect of each being that continues after death? Isn’t a being only personified when another being, other than him/herself, perceives them in a certain way? Can you be aware of your “personified” self? How can there be any individual self-awareness after death, if only the “personified” aspect of our being continues? I’m getting very confused, can you help me out here. Thanks for any insight you can give me.
Gwen,
You are like a diamond with many facets. On a superficial level you are just flesh and blood…. a biochemical machine if you will. On a deeper level you are a personified being. When you think of another person, you think of that being. The body of flesh and blood is just what that being is occupying. I used the word ‘soul’ to mean the essence of that being… It is the junction point of the persona with the absolute. You can feel your soul deep inside. However, you can not feel the absolute… it is beyond relativity. Similarly, though you can not feel the Sun… it is too far away… you can feel the Sun’s rays. By so feeling the rays, you come to know the nature of the Sun. The Soul is like the rays… emitting from the absolute. The picture of a person serves as a portal or gateway to their persona, then the soul, then the absolute. It is a continuum.
The picture or image of a God is structured in the finest level of existence… the fabric of existence… eternal. The Gods can be viewed as diffferent aspects of the one God… facets of the one diamond. Each facet is a portal into the entire diamond. They are operators of existence just as addition and subtraction are operators within the field of mathematics.
Thanks for your help. I can feel into the different facets of the one God and the continuum between persona, soul, and absolute, but when taking those concepts to the issue of death everything gets very fuzzy for me. At some point could you please address my questions regarding death? At death does persona slip away, leaving your soul and the absolute? If yes, is individualized perception still possible after death of persona and physical senses? What would be the mechanics of that individual perception, if you are one with all that is? Thanks again for continually helping the blind to see.
Beautifully written and beautiful and timely responses… rich very rich… yum yum… 🙂
Gwen,
What occurs after death is quite individual. Some cling to the persona of the previous incarnation for a time. Others do not. But there certainly is an individuated aspect that goes on and on. Being one with all that is does not preclude also having an individuated aspect. The individuated aspect can manifest grossly with a physical body or more subtly as a angel for example. The hierarchy is vast… the possibilities endless.
Thank you again for your quick reply. Your words touch deeply for a moment, bringing peace – what grace! Sadly though, I then feel a wall, a wall of fear that cries out how can that be, a vast night of emptiness must await. An existence that does not end is too good to be true. When and how can I let the fear go and rest into the knowing that we all go on and on? I so long for the cosmic cushion, but as death experiences come closer and closer it seems that the cushion is farther and farther away, too far away to be experienced.
Your most powerful engine is meditation… Attending Meditation Retreats at Mount Soma is the best thing you can do for your evolution. Use time wisely. Doing so during Kali Yuga offers the fastest grow. Opportunities like this are extremely rare. The decision is yours.
Your advice and guidance has remained constant through the years and for this I am very grateful. The use of time and the significance of the choices I am making everyday is becoming more evident to me. Too many areas in life continue to pull me away from focusing on the deeper meaning of life and a deeper connection with the Self. It is time to return to Mount Soma and make my “journey on the path” a constant on my daily planner. Thanks again for the dialogue. It means a lot to me.
Thank you Brahmarshi. Beautifully said, and such a beautiful truth! The teachings I heard about the topic of evil, Satan, etc growing up in Christianity never made sense to me. I am grateful now to have an explanation and understanding that resonates with my inner knowing. I look forward to continuing to explore truth and insight!