INTERNATIONAL THEOSOPHY CONFERENCES

VIDEOS & THEOSOPHY

 

DEATH AND DYING

 

MY STROKE OF INSIGHT - including book review

 

"...we intend to prove that modern science, owing to physiology, is itself on the eve of discovering that onsciousness is universal — thus justifying Edison's "dreams." But before we do this, we mean also to show that though many a man of science is soaked through and through with such belief, very few are brave enough to openly admit it--"

"...physiology stands sorely perplexed in the face of its ablest representatives before certain facts. Unfortunately for us, this age of ours is not conducive to the development of moral courage. The time for most to act on the noble idea of 'principia non homines,' has not yet come. And yet there are exceptions to the general rule, and physiology — whose destiny it is to become the hand-maiden of Occult truths — has not let the latter remain without their witnesses.  -H. P. Blavatsky ("Kosmic Mind")

  "IT IS the Spiritual evolution of the inner, immortal man that forms the fundamental tenet in the Occult Sciences." -- H.P.B.

"According to (Hindu) Raj Yoga, Turya is the highest state (of consciousness).  As a man exhausted by one state of the life fluid seeks another; as, for example, when exhausted by the hot air he refreshes himself with cool water… From a lucid state, vision becomes trans-lucid; from normal organic consciousness it rises to a transcendental state of consciousness.... there are brain dreams and memory dreams, mechanical and conscious visions."

 

 The closer the approach to one's Prototype, "in Heaven," the better for the mortal whose personality was chosen, by his own personal deity (the seventh principle), as its terrestrial abode. For, with every effort of will toward purification and unity with that "Self-god," one of the lower rays breaks and the spiritual entity of man is drawn higher and ever higher to the ray that supersedes the first, until, from ray to ray, the inner man is drawn into the one and highest beam of the Parent-SUN. -- - H. P. BLAVATSKY

 

 

 

"Generally the physical brain of the personal Ego, the seat of memory, radiating and throwing off sparks like the dying embers of a fire,,, (is) like an Æolian seven-stringed harp; and his state of mind may be compared to the wind that sweeps over the chords. The corresponding string of the harp will respond to that one of the seven states of mental activity ...If the personal Ego is in touch with its higher (spiritual) principles and the veils of the higher planes (of consciousness) are drawn aside, all is well..."

 

http://www.phx-ult-lodge.org/Transactions.htm

 

 
    MEMO FROM CHARLES TART, PhD             
 
Friends,
 
Back in April I recommended a YouTube video of neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor discussing her stroke and the incredible experience she had at a stroke.  That video is still there at http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/when-a-brain-scientist-suffers-a-stroke/?emc=eta1
 
My wife has now finished reading Taylor's book,  My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey  and is so impressed she wrote a review for friends of ours.  I'm going to share it below.  I've only had time to read part of the book, but it is indeed impressive!  --Charles Tart
 

 
     REVIEW: "My Stroke of Insight"    
by Judy Tart  

Maybe you've seen Jill Bolte Taylor's video on TED or YouTube.  She's a neuroanatomist who had a stroke, from which it took 8 years for her to fully recover.  Both the video and her book, My Stroke of Insight, describe what happened, but the book is far more detailed.  She was able to observe in great detail what was happening to her, moment by moment.  As she lost her verbal, cognitive, left-brain functions, she found herself in a completely altered state of consciousness - vast, peaceful, and all-knowing - which she believes to be the right brain, though it sounds very much like a description of a mystical state, and also very like what are called "near-death" experiences.
 
"As the language centers in my left hemisphere grew increasingly silent and I became detached from the memories of my life, I was comforted by an expanding sense of grace... my consciousness soared into an all-knowingness, a "being at one" with the universe..."
 
Her account of how she overcame the temptation to just slip into euphoria and peace and was able to summon help and save her life is fascinating, but just as interesting, to me, is how she consciously restructured her brain during her long recovery from her stroke.  As she regained her verbal skills, she found that she began running negative circuits that had been active in her previous life.  She found she no longer wanted to live this way, and determined to give energy to positive circuits, joy and compassion and not reinforce her old negativities.  She suggests that all of us can do the same, since our brains are not fixed entities as was previously thought, but are capable of great changes throughout life.
 
Finally, for anyone who has a family member suffering from a stroke, she has a wonderful set of suggestions for how to work with them and understand what they may be experiencing in a very deep and compassionate way - pretty far from what we currently do in our treatment and rehabilitation of stroke victims (or any form of brain damage).
 
I can't recommend this little book highly enough.
 
Judy Tart