1. The
first (and only) identification of a specific, scientifically
well-established Physical Correlate of Consciousness; indeed of the
so-called Pure Consciousness itself. Mainstream Western philosophy
clings to the baseless dogma of 'Intentionality' [based on Brentano's
confusing use of the medieval Scholastic notion of 'Intentionality']
which imagines that all consciousness is 'directed toward an object'
and denies the possibility of Pure (nondual, objectless)
Consciousness. But the Medical distinction between the RAS Arousal
component and the Content of Consciousness (see below) already indicates
the dualistic composition of normal consciousness (with its
subject/object superimposition as asserted by Vedanta). Robert Forman
points out the fact that, were Consciousness not distinguishable from
its content, we could not even conceive the thesis of intentionality. As
Sartre said, ‘intentionality’ is the notion that we are confronted with
a concrete presence which is not-Consciousness.
Given
the overwhelming evidence supporting the RAS-brainwaves as the direct
physical correlate (i.e. the physical process directly correlated with
the phenomenon) of the Inner Light of Pure Consciousness (see Evidence page), this epoch-making discovery undermines the Physicalist Ontology of modern Science.
2. This
is simultaneously the first ever and only identification of a physical
correlate of a truly spiritual phenomenon, indeed of the central element
of all True Spirituality, the Divine Light. This phenomenon is also
known by many mystique-laden names including:
Cit (Pure Consciousness), Atman, The Godhead, Buddha Nature, Holy Spirit, al Haqq (The Reality), The Archetypal Light, The Uncreated Light, The Eternal Flame, The Divine Spark, Prana
(The Life Energy), The Philosophers’ Gold, Sofia (The Cosmic Light of
Wisdom), The Inner Light of Conscience, The Inner Light of Christ, The
Christ, The Christ Consciousness, The Fount of All Wisdom, Prajna (Luminous Wisdom-Consciousness), The Holy Grail, The Elixir of Life, The Fountain of the 'Water of Life' (aqua vitae),
The Fountain of Youth, The Clear Light of Death, The Near-Death
Experience Light, The Living God, The Stream of Consciousness, The
Absolute or the Temporal Consciousness, The Light of Life, Saksin or
the Witness Consciousness, The Hidden Observer, The Subliminal Self,
The Heart or the Innermost Self, The Inner Man, The Twin of Mani, Nous Poietikos, The Philosophical Mercury (aqua permanens), The Light of Truth, the Universal Daemon (Spirit).
As stated on page 1, this correlation undermines the Dualist religious myth of Theism!
3. Sutapas' work constitutes the first clear, science-based resolution of the central problem of Indian (and most Eastern) philosophies, the nature and significance of the Mystical Union (Moksa, Nirvana, Satori) in which the core individuated consciousness (ego stripped of all habitual attachments - the Vedantic anandamayakosa, Neoplatonic ochema) dissolves into the Inner Light following enlightened gnosis.
4. The first clear, established-science-based resolution of the seemingly intractable problem that has plagued modern Western philosophy, the paradox of the Ontological Status of Consciousness (usually
referred to misleadingly as the Mind/Body Problem by
Westerners who assume incorrectly that Consciousness is only present in
egoic 'minds').
5. The first clear, science-based
explanation undermining the dogmatic Kantian belief assumed by
mainstream Western philosophies that it is impossible for humans to
attain a Third Mode of Knowledge or an Unmediated Direct Perception transcending sensory phenomena to apprehend Metaphysical (Noumenal) Reality-in-itself or to experience the Divine (the Uncreated) in this mortal life.
6. The first clear integration or synthesis of Natural Science with Spirituality/Mysticism.
Most Westerners imagine that this is impossible given the
dualistic dichotomies and self-created paradoxes of Western Physicalism
and Theism. This work does not involve the mere pointing out of vague
parallels between mystical experience and arcane notions from the New
Physics far removed from everyday experience. Physicalist 'New Ager'
Fritjof Capra's Tao of Physics omitted the fact that experiencing the One (Brahman, Tao) presupposes
the existence of Awareness (Ultimate Reality is not the Energy
that Taoism focuses on) and Capra's later books reduced
Consciousness to Emergent Physicalist falsehoods (as also is the
case with James Austin's Zen and the Brain and
Buddhism-influenced anthropologist Charles Laughlin's claims to explain
Consciousness in his 'Biogenetic Structuralism' ideas).
Unlike
speculative interpretations of Quantum Physics (and largely vacuous
'Quantum Mind babble' peddled by many New Ager physicists) the RAS is a
well-established, easy-to-understand scientific fact. Combined with
explanations of Time/Space Transcendence, Transcendental Causation, the
transcendental origins of the so-called Laws and Constants of Physics,
and numerous other metaphysical arguments (including the explanation of
paranormal phenomena in my O/OM) and explanations for mythological
metaphors for mystical states in BBAB, the reader is left in little
doubt that Science and Spirituality/Mysticism have been integrated (see
quotes from reviewers)
7. Sutapas' work in metaphysics is the first to establish the One
True Ontology integrating Science, Spirituality, Mysticism,
Eastern and Western Philosophies into one coherent whole based
on the Primacy of Consciousness - demonstrating that so-called 'Matter'
is a derivative product of human perceptual and conceptual abstraction
of stable energetic forms (i.e. Matter is not Ultimate Reality but
created continuously out of underlying wave phenomena; the so-called
'Wave Structure of Matter'). Although such 'Perennial Philosophy'
or Sanatana Dharma (Eternal Truth or Eternal Order)
is not new, Sutapas alone has taken such Universalism beyond the
vague, ambiguous and misleading notions of other writers to establish
clearly the One True Ontology. This includes the demonstration of the
invalidity of alternative ontologies (an argument by elimination),
Sutapas' identification of the physical correlate of Pure
Consciousness (grounding his arguments in well-established scientific
and phenomenological facts) and the metaphysical interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (and the New Physics in general) demonstrating that it points
to a deeper Transcendental Ontology in which Matter is but localized
spatiotemporal phenomena arising out of the deeper, nonlocal
and holonomic Wave Structure of Matter. The latter, including
the holonomic 'Dependent Co-Origination' of all phenomena (wherein each
material 'particle' is created by the waves emanating from the
manifestation of all other 'particle' phenomena - as in the work of my
acquaintance the physicist Milo Wolff) even begins to account for the
emergence of so-called Natural Laws and Physical Constants which Physics
assumes without explanation - as well as accounting for the Universal
Coherence which is presupposed in any such notion of 'Laws' applicable
uniformly to the entire universe. As indicated in O/OM, this ontology
can also accommodate Paranormal Psychic Phenomena precluded by
Physics.
8. Sutapas' work is the first in history to truly integrate Eastern and Western philosophies making
a mockery of mainstream academic mythologies of Relativism,
Social-Constructivism and of Incommensurability of ideas from different
cultures*. The Divine Light is central not only to Hinduism and Buddhism, but also to Platonism, Hermeticism, Gnosticism, Christianity*, NeoPlatonism and Islamic Sufism amongst others. Indeed the true meaning of the word philosophia as
in Plato (the mystical basis of which was suppressed by White
Supremacist Western Classics) was Love of (the Light
of) Divine Wisdom. Once this common foundation is established, it
is easy to show the correspondence between Plotinus' Nous [the first emanation of the 'ineffable' One and the Upanishadic Akasa [the first created 'element'] and other parallel notions between traditions*.
By correlating these notions with scientific concepts one establishes a
deeper, common core Universal Metaphysics. The philosophies of Husserl,
James, Heidegger, Existentialists, Jung, Whitehead and Transpersonal
Psychologists are derived from this same phenomenological basis. The
false interpretations and dismissals of Consciousness, Mysticism and
Transcendence by Materialism-Physicalism and other philosophies and the
false status of the Judaic deity Yahweh (which does not represent the
Inner Light) are exposed by critical analysis, examination of
established facts and deconstructing philosophical sophistry such as exposing the tacit appeals to Magic made by mainstream scientists who expound 'Emergent Materialist' mumbo jumbo to 'explain away' Consciousness.
*See also Lakoff
and Johnson's dismissal of 'Postmodern' Relativist myths based on
Cognitive Science/Neurophysiology demonstrating the underlying
universality of human conceptual systems regardless of cultural
conditioning on Western Academic Racism page.
*20th Century Jesuit Bernard Lonergan wanted to shift Christian Theology away from Speculative Metaphysics to a basis in the Dynamics of Consciousness starting with Divine Light and leading to the Whole Universe (i.e. Cosmic Consciousness). This would result in grounding theological notions such as sanctifying Grace on actual experience. Lonergan's arguments were copying tacitly the ancient Vedantic approach which first reinterpreted theological myths in terms of a rational philosophy based on the Transformations of Consciousness 3,000 years before. Lonergan's tacit copying of Vedanta demonstrates that open-minded Christian theologians accept the validity of Vedantic philosophy as universal.
*Indeed, F.G. Bazan argued that Parmenides' Nous [Being - which is supposedly equivalent to 'Thought'] actually refers to Being as Conscious Awareness.
9. Sutapas' new work (BBAB) gives by far the clearest explanation of what Transcendence of Perceptual Space and Time actually means.*
Indeed, this is made possible by the fact that the Flow of the Inner
Light of Pure Consciousness (a.k.a. Husserl's Absolute
Consciousness or Time Stream; James's Stream of Thought or 'Stream of
Consciousness') constitutes the 'Time Space Matrix of Perception'
corresponding to Immanuel Kant's abstract notion of Time, Space (and
Causation) being a priori or innate concepts in human understanding.
*In
2013 Sutapas' short essay Transcendence of Time/Space Matrix
of Perception in Enlightenment and Near-Death Experience was
awarded a prize by the Academy for Spiritual and Consciousness Studies
(a US-based organization studying phenomena excluded by mainstream
Western Academia) and was published in their Journal for
Spiritual and Consciousness Studies in the
April 2014 issue and will be republished in the New Zealand-based
on-line Science-Mysticism journal The Ground of Faith. A pdf file of the manuscript is accessible via the button below:
10. The first clear explanations in clear, scientifically valid and epistemologically consistent, arguments how
it is possible for Phenomenological introspective investigation to lead
to profound Ontological and Cosmological insights and disclosures. No other philosopher even attempts to explain this seeming paradox. Carl
Jung claimed that Indian Philosophy had over-reached itself in making
grand cosmological claims based on exploration of psychic processes.
Indian thought was, claimed Jung, “Pre-Kantian”*(i.e. ignorant of the epistemological limits to human knowledge – see also
Point 5). Most people, being unfamiliar with mystical states,
would be highly sceptical about such claims and correctly so unless one
can give a clear epistemological explanation as to how such profound
conclusions are valid – as given in the final section of Chapter
9 of BBAB.
*In fact Ch.10 of BBAB shows that, contra Eurocentric
History of Science scholars' presentations, the Western successes in
Natural Sciences were actually based on metaphysical immaturity
(anthropomorphic Christian myths etc.) and 21st Century Postmodern
Maths, Physics, Cosmology and Cognitive Science are more in tune with
Indian metaphysics than with Greek metaphysics.
11. Sutapas' work is the first to give clear scientific-knowledge-based interpretations of perennial spiritual wisdom which
is generally expressed by others in arcane or mythological language.
The RAS brainwave correlate of Pure Consciousness explains the perennial
identification of the Pure Consciousness (or Inner Light/Spirit within)
with Life Energy (Prana - see evidence for RAS correlation page for parallels from other traditions) leading to myths of the Elixir of Life or the Water of Life. It also explains why the Inner Light of Conscience is the Second Self or Witness that knows all of our thoughts. It accounts for perennial myths describing the Godhead (the wellspring of Divinity) as like a Fountain or a Stream as in the Fount of all Wisdom, Fount of Youth and the Fountain of the Water of Life. Sutapas' work also explains the mystical meanings of myths of the Spiritual Baptism (in this River or Stream), the Virgin Birth, the Son of God, Rebirth or Resurrection in what appears to be a non-earthly world.
These mystical explanations based on dissolution and
reconstitution of the ego in more subtilized, purified forms (stripped
of habitual attachments) account for myths such as the need to
be 'Born Again' in order to See the Kingdom of God, why we stand Naked before God and why the Moment-of-Death is said to be the supreme opportunity for Enlightenment (or supposed 'salvation').