I was recently asked my opinion on the work and teachings of A.H. Almaas, called the Diamond Approach. This article is not a general review of his work, it is about something that I believe to be a common misconception of spirituality, particularly throughout the West (e.g. many proponents of Integral philosophy). However I found in Almaas' work a clear and succinct expression of that misconception, which has inspired me to say something about it now.

Firstly let me say that I am not familiar with Almaas or his work, however after reading an article on the core principles, written by him and an interview with him I think I can sense the gist of where he is coming from. He has many deep insights that suggest genuine realisations, hence I suspect that many spiritual aspirants could get some benefit from his fusion of depth psychology with aspects of both dualist and nondual spirituality. That is all I have to say regarding his work in general.

However, from my perspective and the perspective of Eastern spirituality, he succumbs to a critical mistake. It is this mistake that I will discuss here because it is very limiting and it is prevalent and growing in popularity throughout the West.

I am talking about a misconception of spirituality that is based on a partial realisation that is mistaken for a full realisation. The seeker attains a degree of realisation, but mainly at an intellectual level, which has not penetrated very deeply into their subconscious / unconscious mind – they are often not even aware that it should penetrate deeply or how deep it must go before one has full realisation. Hence they believe themselves to be realised and to understand the spiritual path, even whilst the bulk of their mind is unconsciously dominated by the ego and still bound within the illusory world that the ego imagines itself to inhabit and the illusory life that the ego imagines that it is living.

The partial realisation results in thinking that could be phrased as “Okay, so now I'm realised, but I'm still me, an individual person in the world - so what now? How can this realisation help me and others to lead a better, more spiritual life? That is after all what spirituality is really about.” This thinking results in the tendency to approach spirituality more as a spiritually themed lifestyle for the ego as it lives its illusory life in the world. Rather than seeking to deepen their realisation and eventually attain full and complete realisation of reality and truth, and thereby overcome the ego and all of its delusions; thus traversing the greatest paradigm shift of all and coming to apprehend and live in reality, which is radically different to what the ego imagines.  More >

Hello again everyone :)

I hope you have all been well!

I have been away for a while, maintaining abstinence from all in-depth discussions in order to still the mind and focus it. I'm not about to dive back into the fray of online discussions but I have re-opened my facebook profile for now and will generally hover on the periphery of cyberspace for a while. For those of you who are interested, I'll share a little of what has transpired for me over the past couple of months.

I've journeyed far and wide in a metaphorical sense, stilling the mind to explore deeply into certain issues, as well as going beyond the realm of ideas and emotions (the symbolic content of awareness) to penetrate deep within consciousness itself (the stream of awareness). Delving down through the layers, from the conscious mind, down through the unconscious and into the psychosomatic interface between body and mind. From this vantage point some very interesting work has been done and will continue. However this is getting ahead of myself, I'll back track and tell a little story, which also sheds light on information wars, propaganda, oppression, authoritarianism, effective resistance and other issues relevant to our times.  More >

I empathise with the difficulty that people have in grasping the mystic perspective. For those with an empiricist perspective these issues are usually perplexing and seemingly inside-out and back-to-front. I will briefly describe an approach to the mystic perspective that some have found useful.

Consider an AI mind within a VR simulation. If this mind had an empirical perspective it would seem to it that it had inner cognitive phenomena and that it lived within an external physical universe. However in a deeper sense these are just perceptual illusions and the actual reality is a single unified information process that is imperceptible, universal, non-local, timeless, all-pervading, etc. Realising this fact leads to a mystic perspective.  More >

• What questions can science not answer? http://qr.ae/7Xh2

• What are some taboos in science? http://qr.ae/Jzq

• What is consciousness? http://qr.ae/7FD

• What is sentience? http://qr.ae/TRw

• Hard Problem of Consciousness http://qr.ae/7nhU

• What is naive realism? http://qr.ae/0cq

• What exactly are qualia? http://qr.ae/7NA4

• What is matter? http://qr.ae/7nnn

• Does matter exist? http://qr.ae/7nta

• What is it like to be a quantum computational process? http://qr.ae/7nht

• Is the universe a simulation? http://qr.ae/TlI

• Is it possible to create a general system simulator? http://qr.ae/jab

• In simple terms, what does the Stern-Gerlach experiment imply about the nature of quantum systems and observable phenomena? http://qr.ae/7vvJ

• Now that naive realism has been disproved by quantum mechanics, how will this impact our collective paradigm? http://qr.ae/0Sr

• If society undergoes a paradigm shift to a non-naive realist paradigm, which words will retain their meaning and which will change? http://qr.ae/7nCC

• Is a photon a particle or a wave? http://qr.ae/7KBb

• What basic principles would need to be covered by a “virtuality tutorial”? http://qr.ae/72X9

• What are memes and memeplexes? http://qr.ae/7ndi

• Is the concept of a ‘person’ a social construct? http://qr.ae/7nUN

• How do you know if you are self-aware? http://qr.ae/7Ryr

• Can we have an agreed-upon definition of ‘reality’? http://qr.ae/KSb

• What is the “problem of the external world”? http://qr.ae/7vyG

• Do spirits exist in Reality? http://qr.ae/7G76

• How can you learn faster? http://qr.ae/7tA7

• What is evil? http://qr.ae/7tmW

• How have Enlightened beings lived in human society? http://qr.ae/7nyv

• What is a memetic disease and how do they operate throughout our minds and cultures? http://qr.ae/7nMq

• How is the concept of a memetic disease related to the concepts of physical, psychological and social diseases? http://qr.ae/7nEi

• What is the most endemic and destructive cultural phenomenon of all time? http://qr.ae/7tBw

• Is the phenomenon of ethnogenesis an example of memetic autopoiesis of a collective intelligence? http://qr.ae/7Ih0

• What use is the I Ching? http://qr.ae/1N8

• What does it mean to be a person with big karma? http://qr.ae/cmc What is karma?

• What does it mean that everything in the world is a teacher? http://qr.ae/0yV Sadguru - teacher within.

• What is one thing you have to believe before you can experience it? http://qr.ae/030 Experiencing oneself as a “person in a world”…

• What is the unique quality that is in the consciousness of the human beings who have attained the Supreme Enlightenment? http://qr.ae/dIU Complete absence of delusion

• What is the likelihood humans don’t have the brain power to fully comprehend the answer to why we exist? http://qr.ae/7p14

• What are system leverage points and why is it useful to know? http://qr.ae/7IF3

• Is nature self-similar across scales? If so, what is the principle in which it is self-similar? What are some examples of self-similarity? http://qr.ae/a3a

• What is one important thing that no one told you about? http://qr.ae/7RGl The universe isn’t a mechanism that one must ‘manipulate’ and that events are not just ‘accidental’ happenings - instead the universe is alive and responsive…

• What is a narrative? http://qr.ae/0OG

• What is a fractal? http://qr.ae/0gU

• Is there a meaningful relation between fractals and cellular automata? http://qr.ae/0bu

• What do the results of the PEAR GCP ICRL experiments say about consciousness and how can we scientifically explain them? http://qr.ae/v0h Consciousness itself, unaided by known physical mechanisms, can influence physical reality.” The likelihood that this is due to chance is one in a trillion (10^-12)…

• What major social problems have been solved by philanthropy in the last 50 years? http://qr.ae/7r9u

• What do you think of the many-worlds interpretation of Quantum Mechanics? http://qr.ae/7yfA

• Also “System Science of Virtual Reality” is a relevant ebook http://bit.ly/9XhElB for those who wish to explore deeper.

• Signs of an emerging Paradigm http://bit.ly/dfxL4R

• Shape of the Emerging Memeplex and How to Nurture It http://bit.ly/bWtL1e

• I Ching’s Advice on Nurturing the Emerging Memeplex http://bit.ly/cjRgrC

• The I Ching’s “Wisdom for this Phase of the Journey” http://bit.ly/cFxqD5

I see two approaches to this issue and will introduce them by briefly describing the context and development of each, showing how one leads into the other. I have endeavoured to keep this as simple and concise as possible for a subject of this depth.  More >

"The person is merely the result of a misunderstanding. In reality, there is no such thing. Feelings, thoughts and actions race before the watcher in endless succession, leaving traces in the brain and creating an illusion of continuity. A reflection of the watcher in the mind creates the sense of 'I' and the person acquires an apparently independent existence.

In reality there is no person, only the watcher identifying himself with the 'I' and the 'mine'. The teacher tells the watcher: you are not this, there is nothing of yours in this, except the little point of "I am", which is the bridge between the watcher and his dream. "I am this, I am that" is dream, while pure "I am" has the stamp of reality on it.
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I am That http://bit.ly/bvBQYR [full text pdf]

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"So long as people do not understand the true nature of the objective world, they fall into the dualistic view of things. They imagine the multiplicity of external objects to be real and become attached to them and are nourished by their habit energy. Because of this system of mentation, mind and what belongs to it is discriminated and is thought of as real; this leads to the assertion of an ego-soul and its belongings, and thus the mind-system goes on functioning."
- Lankavatara Sutra http://bit.ly/azCaUY [full text pdf]

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"When the television set is burned or destroyed, will the people in the movie feel the pain and die? You have no form, no shape..."
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Seeds of Consciousness

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"What is it that had birth? Whom do you call a human being? If, instead of seeking explanations for birth, death and after-death, the question is raised as to who and how you are now, these questions will not arise...

The body is born again and again. We wrongly identify ourselves with the body, and hence imagine we are reincarnated constantly. No. We must identify ourselves with the true Self. The realised one enjoys unbroken consciousness, never broken by birth or death - how can he die? Only those who think 'I am the body' talk of reincarnation. To those who know 'I am the Self' there is no rebirth.

Reincarnations only exist so long as there is ignorance. There is no incarnation, either now, before or hereafter. This is the truth."

- Sri Ramana Maharshi

Again for emphasis...

"There is no incarnation, either now, before or hereafter. This is the truth"

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“Greatest assumption in human history: The existence of a personal identity. 99,99% of our global communications refer to a you and a me, but no one actually ever found an 'I' to exist anywhere! All our thoughts, emotions and words refer to something no one has ever been able to confirm to even exist. HA HA HA!! It's hilarious!! :D

And it's very very sad at the same time! The single cause of our current state as a species. We're all like sheep, following the herd, assuming what everybody else has also been taught to assume. Time to wake up my friends.” (Bentinho Massaro) ...  More >

Monica Anderson said on Facebook: “I can't figure out if the SA (simulation argument) is dualist and would like to know”

Note: That which she calls SA I have elsewhere called the VR analogy or computational metaphysics.

I have contemplated this issue of SA and dualism at some length from many angles, in particular by studying an intuitively received mathematical model (SMN) of the reality generative process and how it processes information in order to create the appearance of indivudual perspectives upon a physical universe.

In brief I have found that the term 'dualism' has a certain meaning within a particular context, however SA changes that context and thereby also the meaning of the term.

To explain, first here is a comment I made earlier in the same thread, which explains the context of our current meaning of the term.  More >

Quote from the Lankavatara Sutra http://bit.ly/azCaUY

"So long as people do not understand the true nature of the objective world, they fall into the dualistic view of things. They imagine the multiplicity of external objects to be real and become attached to them and are nourished by their habit energy. Because of this system of mentation, mind and what belongs to it is discriminated and is thought of as real; this leads to the assertion of an ego-soul and its belongings, and thus the mind-system goes on functioning. Depending upon and attaching itself to the dualistic habit of mind, they accept the views of the philosophers founded upon these erroneous distinctions, of being and non-being, existence and non-existence, and there evolves what we call false-imaginations...

False-imaginations rise from the consideration of appearances; things are discriminated as to form, signs and shape; as to having colour, warmth, humidity, mobility or rigidity. False-imagination consists of becoming attached to these appearances and their names... The five sense functions and their discriminating and thinking function have their risings and complete ending from moment to moment... By setting up names and forms greed is multiplied and thus the mind goes on mutually conditioning and being conditioned. By becoming attached to names and forms, not realising that they have no more basis than the activities of the mind itself, error arises, false-imagination as to pleasure and pain arises, and the way to emancipation is blocked...

By the cessation of the mind-system as a whole is meant, the cessation of discrimination, the clearing away of the various attachments, and, therefore, the clearing away of the defilements of habit-energy in the face of Universal Mind which have been accumulating since beginningless time by reason of these discriminations, attachments, erroneous reasonings, and following acts... Getting rid of the discriminating mortal-mind is Nirvana.

But the cessation of the discriminating-mind cannot take place until there has been a “turning about” in the deepest seat of consciousness. The mental habit of looking outward by the discriminating-mind upon an external objective world must be given up, and a new habit of realising Truth within the intuitive-mind by becoming one with the Truth itself must be established.... With the ending of pleasure and pain, of conflicting ideas, of the disturbing interests of egoism, a state of tranquilisation will be attained in which the truths of emancipation will be fully understood..." (Lankavatara Sutra http://bit.ly/azCaUY )

I am not very familiar with the "Integral Theory" memeplex, however I have begun to observe and contemplate it. In particular my mind is contemplating the epistemological issue of...

How do Integral theory and naïve realism relate?

This question can be disected into two questions:

• How does Integral theory recognise (i.e. understand, describe, represent and assimilate) the phenomenon of naïve realism, either directly or indirectly via related phenomena?

• How is Integral theory influenced at an epistemological level by naïve realism?

If anyone has any comments, links etc regarding these questions and potential answers, then please let me know via facebook or twitter or email.

Regarding the second question,

The following quote from "An approach to critiques of integral theory" points to an area in which the influence of naïve realism may potentially be found within integral theory.  More >

@notthisbody how do memetic algorithms relate 2 collectiveIntelligence?

Related questions are, What is a meme, memeplex, mind, collectiveMind?

• A meme is a cognitive virus that breeds via repetition. Symbolic expressions are its outer form & ideas, beliefs, etc are its inner form.

• A memeplex is an integrated self-reinforcing network of memes, for example 'modernism' & 'Hinduism' are two memeplexes.

• A mind is a memetic ecosystem where memes & memeplexes compete for dominance. The ego / personality is the 'mainstream' memeplex.

• When minds communicate they interlink & form a multidimensional socioCognitive landscape - a larger memetic ecosystem - a collectiveMind.

• When the ideas that we think come filtered through our socialNetworks we are experiencing reality through the lens of the collectiveMind.

• When we share ideas with others we are contributing to the reality experienced by the collectiveMind.

• Culture is collectiveIntelligence in action.

More tweets from @anandavala at http://twitter.com/anandavala

• One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious (CarlJung)
• Our present ego-feeling is a shrunken residue of a much more inclusive all-embracing-feeling, a more intimate bond (Freud)
• Freud gave us insight/demonstration that the ordinary person is a shrivelled desiccated fragment of what a person can be (RDLaing)
• For man has closed himself up, 'till he sees all things thro' the chinks of his cavern (WilliamBlake)
• The 'I' that I think I am is a self image formed in the mind. I am not what I think I am. So what am I? That is THE question!
• When a thought is born you are born. You think there's 'somebody' who feels your feelings; that's the illusion. (UGKrishnamurti)
• Nothing keeps you from liberation except fear. You are afraid of being impersonal, of impersonal being. (Nisargadatta)
• That which is the subtle essence, in it is the self of all that exists. It is the True. It is the Self & thou art it. (Chandogya Upanishad)
• Imagine ur a sentient being within a VR, it would seem physical, you would seem separate, yet the true agent behind every action is the CPU.
• In this VR scenario computation "is the self of all that exists. It is the True. It is the Self & thou art it. (Chandogya Upanishad)
• RT @petervan Virtual Reality you can reach out and touch http://bit.ly/cJS08I When virtual reality feels real http://bit.ly/dtTvxA
• In tech VR we look from the outside in but in cosmic VR we are emergent from the information process, which animates every thought/action.
• Quantum Mechanics also provides an information theoretic analogy for the nature of reality
• The "physical universe" is analogous to a VR animated by "universal consciousness" and it evolves as a unified holistic process.
• Hence - events happen, deeds are done but there is no individual doer of any deed (Buddha)
• The objects we experience are objects-of-perception; the contents of awareness that are imagined to exist "out there" due to naive realism
• Hence - "with our thoughts we make the world" (Buddha)
• Signs of an emerging paradigmShift http://bit.ly/dfxL4R : quantum mechanics categorically proves naive realism is a false perspective.
• For details of QM disproof of naive realism search for "Stern Gerlach" http://bit.ly/cCOjTx or see relevant chapter of http://bit.ly/9XhElB

Extracts from two different Satsangs...

We are nothing. You have no reason to exist. As a matter of fact, you do not exist. (Laughter) You have never really existed. It is all a cosmic joke. There is no reason for you to be alive and to be here. This may sound like an insult – it is! (More laughter) But it is the truth and the truth hurts.

You may think you are important, that you have come to earth to accomplish great deeds, or to get enlightened. That is not true. The enlightenment is already here and it doesn't need you. You are not wanted by anything or by anybody. (Laughter) You are a complete failure. (Loud laughter)

In truth you do not exist. The illusion of your existence makes you think that you are important, that you are somebody. That is why we talk about being nobody so much; there is no body.

(It's All a Cosmic Joke, Robert Adams)

Below are extracts from the Lankavatara Sutra that are related to naïve realism, information theoretic metaphysics and self-realisation.

All that is seen in the world is devoid of effort and action because all things in the world are like a dream, or like an image miraculously projected. This is not comprehended by philosophers and the ignorant, but those who thus see things, see them truthfully. Those who see things otherwise walk in discrimination, they cling to dualism. The world as seen by discrimination is like seeing ones own image reflected in a mirror, or ones shadow, or the moon reflected in water, or an echo heard in a valley.

People grasping their own shadows of discrimination become attached to this thing and that thing and failing to abandon dualism they go on forever discriminating and thus never attain tranquillity. By tranquillity is meant Oneness, and Oneness gives birth to the highest Samadhi which is gained by entering into the realm of Noble Wisdom that is realisable only within ones inmost consciousness...  More >

My good friend Glisten was recently asked to describe the vision arising from my work in one sentence; I too gave this some thought.

The work is broad so here are five sentences that address different aspects:

• The allegedly physical universe is a construct of observable phenomena arising from a cosmic quantum computational process, and the stream of awareness that witnesses phenomena is a 'thread' of the cosmic process.

• All objects, places and events arise due to the unified cosmic process experiencing itself as it unfolds according to its nature; within that broadest context there is no separation and nothing is by chance.

• We are like virtual beings in a virtual reality simulation, where the world and the self that appear to exist are objects of perception reflected in memory, whilst the true Self of all manifest forms is the One Self, which is the unified animating process.

• Virtual reality provides a scientific / mathematical / computational analogy by which to understand the nature of reality; the cutting edge of modern science is beginning to realise this and will eventually be able to comprehend the ageless wisdom.

• The only obstacle to realising the true nature of ones Self and the cosmic Whole is naïve realism, which is a habit that operates at the root of the mind and distorts each moment of awareness; once this habit is overcome (by whatever means) awareness of reality shines through.

The distilled essence of my input to a conversation on the forum of the Society for Scientific Exploration (SSE), which is still continuing so this will grow.

Within the latest SSE newsletter there is an article called "Signs of an Emerging Paradigm Shift", which is about naive realism. The newsletter can be read at: http://www.scientificexploration.org/explorer/explorer_22_3.pdf

The relevance of these issues for SSE is that naive realist assumptions are the foundation of the wall of denial that is maintained by established science. Thus by overcoming these assumptions that wall is falling apart. This has profoundly revolutionary consequences for the whole of civilisation, and SSE is in a prime position to be at the vanguard of the paradigm shift if it chooses to be.

Warning: This discussion explores an alternate paradigm that is radically different from the established paradigm. For many people the established paradigm is intrinsic to the familiar world that they have known most of their lives and within which their ego has found its comfortable and secure niche. So be warned that this subject matter can elicit an unconscious irrational ego defence mechanism within your mind. To keep an open mind one must exercise self-awareness and from this much can also be learnt.

Enter the discussion...