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An essential element of
our Church’s
perspective will be the realization that the rational intellect alone is not a reliable
source of true knowledge about reality.
While reason is an essential tool for
circumscribed exterior, objective, manipulative areas of study, it is unreliable and
inappropriate for higher philosophical research.
The attempt to obtain true knowledge
about reality through reason alone is fruitless, frustrating, and futile. Real acquisition
of truth is possible only when the faculty of reason is augmented and supplemented by the
equally essential and complementary faculty of intuition.
Ratio = Comparison of Parts
A “ratio” in mathematics is
a method of analysis of a number by breaking it down into its component elements and
studying the relationships that appear between them.
Similarly, the “rational”
thought process involves cutting ideas or thoughts into parts and arranging them into
patterns and categories.
Ratiocination does not conceive of the
“whole,” but only the “part.”
Its only concern is differentiation.
It is the function of intuition to
conceive of the whole, and of unity; it is the function of reason to conceive of the part,
and of division.
Intuition focuses on similarity;
reason focuses on distinction.
Pairs of Opposites
Reason resolves ideas into bipolar
dualities or pairs of apparently contradictory propositions (A vs. Not
- A).
It focuses on one element of each duality as “true” and on the other as
“false.”
Rational thought necessarily excludes
any awareness of the validity of the complementary polar element. Thus it is capable of
dealing with only half of each equation, and is blinded by its nature to the other half.
Every rational thought contains an
inherent contradiction, because each thought is inseparably linked to an
equally true hidden opposite thought.
Annihilation and Transcendence
True knowledge of reality can be
obtained only when rational thought is transcended by the conscious combination of the
apparently contradictory elements of each proposition, so that the “paradoxical”
validity of each polar opposite is recognized.
The “positive” and
“negative” elements (thesis and antithesis) combine [(+) +
(–) = 0] in an
explosive (orgasmic) cognitive reaction, resulting in the “annihilation” of
rational thought and the emergence of a higher, more holistic form of cognition (as it is
written, “Your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as the gods, knowing good and
evil”).
It is the faculty of intuition that
makes this transformative transcendence of rational thought possible. Though largely
denied, denigrated or dismissed by modern Western science, philosophy, and religion,
intuitive thought is an inherent element of the human psyche.
Intuition is direct perception or
awareness of reality, unfiltered by the categorical analysis of ratiocination, and not
dependent on the five physical senses.
Interior Senses
Intuitive thought can be described as
the operation of “interior senses” — channels of perception that are not
dependent on the physical sense organs — or “extrasensory” forms of
perception.
The existence of these “interior
senses” was aptly expressed by the British poet William Blake , recognized as a Prophet
by the CGL:
“How do we know but every bird
that cuts the airy way
Is an immense world of delight,
closed by our senses five?”
and:
“If the doors of perception were
cleansed,
everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.
For man has closed himself up,
till he sees all things
through narrow chinks of his cavern.”
E.S.P.
Such “ESP”
(extra-sensory perception) phenomena as
telepathy, clairvoyance and clairaudience, psychometry, etc., which are studied in the
field of parapsychology, comprise one aspect of the “interior senses” referred
to here.
(Traditional spiritual perspective on
these “powers” is provided in The
Yoga Sutras of
Patanjali, one of the
scriptures of the Hindu religion, which will be recognized by our Church as canonical.)
Mystical Experience
Another way the “interior
senses” are manifested is through the “mystical experience” referred to in
the religious literature of the world.
The mystical experience is a
spontaneously emerging psychic state of expanded awareness in which impressions and
realizations about nature, reality, and life arise in the mind, often with great power and
authority, accompanied by a blissfully celebratory sense of certainty.
Aha!
A form of intuitive thought familiar
to many is the sudden “hunch” that provides valuable information or the solution
to a perplexing problem; this is the “Aha!” or “Eureka!” experience in
which answers are suddenly, inexplicably available and obvious.
Sense of Certainty
Intuitive thought is often accompanied
by a clear subjective sense of absolute certainty, of such intensity that it cannot
be ignored.
Properly attuned and augmented, this
sense can be developed into an instrument of exacting precision, a “truth
detector” — an invaluable and infallible guide in the search for truth — if
insured against dogma and superstition by the checks and balances of the
syncretic/eclectic method of comparative analysis.
The intuitive faculty, like musical or
artistic talent, occurs naturally in some people more than in others. All humans have access to it to some
degree, just as all have, to some degree, the capacity for rational thought.
Like the creative talents, the ability
to use intuition must be nurtured, disciplined, and respected if it is to be developed.
In some people it may be latent,
undiscovered, or inhibited by contrary social conditioning.
Techniques exist, and are being
refined, by which the intuitive talents can be developed. Many of these techniques require
training and involve certain risks. It is often possible to
combine them for synergistic effects.
Our Church will study, research, perfect,
and teach the known techniques of consciousness expansion and intuition enhancement, along
with any new approaches that prove to be valid and effective.
Among the presently recognized
techniques for development of the intuitive talents are:
yoga, the science of
physical and mental training that originates with the Hindu, Buddhist and Taoist spiritual
traditions;
the martial arts;
religious practices,
including prayer, meditation,
ecstatic dance, fasting and austerities, etc.;
qabalah;
ceremonial magick, including
the arts of Invocation and Evocation;
biofeedback
and “brain machine” technologies;
dream work, including
“lucid dreaming”
and the conscious exploration of the “dream dimensions” through use of the dream
journal;
astral travel
or out-of-body experience;
channeling
and other forms of communication
with non-human or extraterrestrial intelligence;
vision quests
in the wilderness;
skrying
and other forms of divination;
the Tantric arts; and
entheogenic psychochemistry
or spiritual, scientific, and philosophical
use of psychedelic sacraments.
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