* By Direct Physical Correlate I mean the physical process corresponding exactly (or directly) with the phenomenon of the Divine Light or Inner Light of Pure Consciousness which is experienced as being like an electrical energy field which is constantly pulsating or flowing in the form of waves. Any physical process whose activity varies predictably in relation to a subjective phenomenon can be called a physical correlate of the phenomenon. Thus the neuronal impulses and neurotransmitters of the Reticular Activating System (which underlie the higher-level brainwave phenomenon) would thus be Indirect Physical Correlates of the Inner Light of Pure Consciousness.
Most
people are not aware of the fact that Science-Spirituality
Integration is already well underway as there has been little publicity
for the fact that the Physical Correlate of the Divine Light of Pure Consciousness, the central element of all True Spirituality:
(a.k.a.: Atman, cit or Pure Consciousness, Buddha Nature, al haqq,
Godhead, Inner Light of Conscience, Sofia or Cosmic
Light of Wisdom, Holy Spirit, The Archetypal Light, Inner Light of
Christ, The Philosopher’s Gold, saksin or the Witness
Consciousness, The Stream of Consciousness, the Absolute or Temporal
Consciousness, The Holy Grail, The Fount of All Wisdom, The Fount of
Youth, Prana or Life Energy, The Elixir of Life, The Water of Life, The Divine Spark, the Imago Dei,
the Inner Man, the Clear Light of Death, The Hidden Observer, The
Twin of Mani etc.) was identified by myself with a
well-established brain process, the brainwaves of
the brainstem Reticular Activating System (RAS) back in
1994. The RAS is known to all medical doctors (see below).
This
correlation is supported by overwhelming evidence primarily
from authoritative Hindu and Buddhist yogic phenomenological knowledge.
The fact that Western academia does not recognize non-European
knowledge, even when based on facts of experience which have been
verified repeatedly (i.e. the same intersubjective consensus approach as
utilized by Science which most scientists mistake for 'objectivity')
over thousands of years says more about the bigotry of the West than the
validity of this phenomenological knowledge. [The information below is Copyright © 2014 Sutapas Bhattacharya].
Much of this evidence was first presented in my The Oneness/Otherness Mystery: The Synthesis of Science and Mysticism (O/OM) published
in 1999 by the world's most authoritative scholarly publisher of Hindu
and Buddhist philosophy, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi - who
co-publish The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies with Princeton University Press.
[O/OM can be previewed on Google Books]. My O/OM excited the heads of
the Scientific and Medical Network and other distinguished professors
well-versed in the Science-Spirituality interface (see quotations on Testimonials
page). However, although my work excites open-minded people who are
scientifically-literate, it seems to scare the Sanskrit-obsessed
linguists who dominate so-called academic studies of Indian Philosophy.
Clearly, their careers, based on simply churning out yet more new
translations of ancient texts and unsubstantiated speculative
interpretations based on etymological reasoning are threatened by my
scientifically-grounded explanations backed up by masses of
authoritative evidence.
M.K. Kaw, Indian Union Minister of
Education in the year 2000, was excited by my book as he himself had
called publicly for a scientific understanding of spirituality in a
little book he had published.
However, due to the fact that the
book was published in India, and not available in mainstream Western
bookshops and, because it undermines various New Age mythologies, it did
not get much publicity. This was partly because it was suppressed by
the main US New Age organization so as not to upset Ken Wilber. Wilber's
hyped-up pop philosophy ideas (denying the possibility of
Science-Mysticism integration) were undermined by my own work. He had
just received large donations from millionaire Joe Firmage (the
so-called ‘UFO-CEO’ who had been removed from the company he had
created, USWeb, due to his public endorsement of outlandish ideas such
as (extraterrestrial) aliens performing the 'miracles' in the Bible).
Along with
identifying the physical correlate of the Divine Light, I went on to
show how the entire Physicalist-Materialist ontological picture of
modern science can be integrated into the bigger, deeper
Transcendentalist core picture of Indian yogic mysticism - this is that
the phenomenal universe manifests through the energetic vibrations
arising within the macrocosmic Light of Pure Consciousness, the Ground
of all Being. Anomalous phenomena such as paranormal psychic phenomena,
Creativity and Insight, Past-Life memories and the paradoxes relating to
Quantum Mechanics including the Pauli Exclusion Principle (underlying
the stability of matter), nonlocality and questions such as how the Laws
(and Constants) of Nature actually come into being can be accommodated
within this bigger, deeper Transcendentalist picture based on the
Primacy of Consciousness.
In my new book I show that this is the
only tenable Ontology by deconstructing and demolishing alternative
views based on mere speculation, false assumptions and anthropocentric
myths. I have the Authority of the Evidence supported by
scholarly-level critical analysis to demonstrate clearly the false
status of competing viewpoints and establish the ontological and
scientific validity of my own – which is a refined and factually based
elaboration of the Perennial Philosophy. Due to the vast amount of
information collated in my research and limitations of time and space,
this new book (over 600pp long) does not deal with the analysis of
paranormal phenomena.
The brainstem Reticular Formation (bRF) projects axons into all brain centres ['reticular' means net-like] and fires continuously, activating the brain. The technical definition of brain-death is cessation of the RAS. The brainwaves generated by the RAS underlie all other gross brainwave activity continuing even during dreamless sleep and only ceasing at death. The fact that this bRF/RAS activity underlies the so-called 'brainwave' activity detected by the EEG has been known since the pioneering work of Moruzzi and Magoun in 1949. All medical doctors will be familiar with the bRF/RAS primarily due to its cessation constituting brain-death. Modern medicine distinguishes the Arousal component of Consciousness due to the RAS activity and the Contents which medicine presumes arises solely from activity in the cerebral cortex. [In April 2018 I came across this web essay by retired medical doctor W.C. Muller which refers positively to my work and gives much more information about scientific knowledge of the RAS and the growing appreciation amongst open-minded scientists of its central role in human Consciousness (Muller refers to Pure Consciousness as 'Core Consciousness') and he gives some more information about its central role in Spirituality:
https://coreconsciousness.net/1-core-consciousness
See also his comment about BBAB quoted on Contents page of this website]
However, as the likes of Susan Blackmore and others pointed out, Coherent alpha rhythm is also found in coma and near-to-death. This is not surprising for as I stated, Indian Buddhism considers Nirvana to be only slightly different from Death and Enlightenment has long been associated with Death although most New Agers want to believe the myths of the Evolution of Consciousnessassociated with the likes of Richard Bucke, Gopi Krishna, Aurobindo Ghose, Ken Wilber, Ervin Laszlo etc. which assert that enlightenment involves some sort of brain evolution (see Point 5- nearly all philosophical mystics say the Light is present in everyone at all times). Gopi Krishna even put forward ridiculous notions of sperm rising up the spine to nourish the brain cells, yet his ideas have been taken seriously by many New Agers. Note that real biological evolution, unlike New Age pseudoscience, occurs across generations in breeding populations through heritable variation. Evolution does not occur in individuals and an enlightened person does not produce enlightened offspring!
In fact the Coherent Alpha Rhythm all over the scalp data fits perfectly my RAS correlation and Retreat-to-the-Brainstem interpretation of Enlightenment as Near-to-Death and in Enlightened states near Mystical Union, the entire brain will be deactivated leaving only the underlying activity of the RAS. Thus as the scalp electrodes will measure brainwaves coming from this sole underlying source, the readings will be Coherent (meaning only that they are at the same Frequency; no TM myths of global brain integration!). The TM myth of Enlightenment as global integration of brain centres also contradicts the traditional, perennial knowledge that the Divine Wisdom or Prajna (Luminous Wisdom) is inherent nondually or non-objectively in the very Light of Consciousness itself.
16.
My ‘Retreat to the brainstem’ interpretation of Enlightenment ties in
with Eugen Fink’s Neoplatonically inspired concept of deeper
phenomenological ‘reduction’ (than Husserl’s limitation to Wakeful
object perception) as a process of “Unhumanization” as the individuated
consciousness of the yogi leaves behind the uniquely human structures of
the neocortex in the path to enlightenment. In conjunction with
knowledge of the Time/Space Matrix of Perception created by the
underlying flow of the Light, this also allows us to understand yogic
realization of Transcendental Realms, beyond the limitations of Wakeful
Space-Time-Causality, which tie in with the Nonlocality and
Nonseparability of Quantum Mechanics. Such experiences of
underlying holonomy whereby everything is dependent on
everything else and of the Akasha (Space as subtle matter characterized
by Vibration) tie in with the true mystical meaning of philosophia as “Love
of Divine Wisdom” (Gnosis) or ‘omniscient’ realizations. Such
'omniscience' reflects the fact that the holonomic interpenetration of
all phenomena leads to information from all phenomenal manifestations in
the universe being omnipresent in every location.
As
Sten Odenwald states, even Albert Einstein recognized that Time and
Space are modes of our thought and not conditions by which we exist: https://einstein.stanford.edu/content/relativity/q909.html
Such knowledge undermines the dogmatic views of Immanuel Kant, Existentialists (based on Heidegger’s views), Constructivists in Comparative Religion & Mysticism as well as most of Western Philosophy which imagines that it is impossible to transcend sensory phenomena. In fact, I also show how it is possible to understand scientifically the claim to apprehend Ultimate (unmediated) Reality as it actually is.