-Caveat Lector- full text at http://world.std.com/~awolpert/ A Meditation on Mystical Union Using System Dynamics Abstract: The system dynamics analysis of a religious experience, presented here, establishes a scientific basis for the core of religion. That is, seen from the outside all religions are diverse, but at the very essence or core of each religion resides the sacred structure and essence of religion. The analysis presented here of this structure and essence forms a general theory of religion: e pluribus unum. The theory is a formalized conceptual system built upon the following set of ideas: The essence of religion, called variously God, Allah, Brahman, The One, No Thing, Ground of one's Being, etc., is experienced during the peak or unitive experience, known in the West, for example, as mystical union. Each culture has a name for this holy experience: born again, virgin birth, enlightenment, satori, wu-wei, nirvakalpa samadhi, fana, devekut, ecstasy, etc. During the peak or unitive experience one sounds the fundamental note of one's existence. It is an ecstatic experience of That which is timeless and unconditioned. The essence of science is its use of a testable formalized conceptual system to analyze and comprehend phenomena. For at least the past two-hundred years these testable formalized conceptual systems have usually employed differential equations. The key tool of the analysis is the new phenomenological method, Feedback Phenomenology, which incorporates Forrester-style system dynamics. Feedback Phenomenology is used to analyze subjective consciousness. For the purpose of generating a general theory of religion, Feedback Phenomenology is used to disaggregate and then closely analyze the various aspects of my subjective consciousness during the 10-hour purgative period immediately preceding the roughly 4 to 7 second experience of mystical union. Purgation also has various names in the mystical literature of various cultures: Dark night of the soul, refiner's fire, katharsis, overcoming either knots in the heart or samskaras or nafs or samsara or original sin, etc. The key result of the analysis is the flow diagram shown in Figure 2. It is a representation of the structure of my consciousness during purgation in the form of a multiloop nonlinear feedback system. This flow diagram, together with its mathematical model, can be used to accurately simulate, moment by moment, the resulting disaggregated aspects of my consciousness during the purgative period. At present the model contains 38 aspects of consciousness or 38 variables. These are all operating simultaneously. Once Feedback Phenomenology has been used to accurately simulate the 38 simultaneously operating aspects of consciousness during purgation, then deep scientific insights and conjectures are obtained about the dynamics and the biological nature of consciousness during purgation and mystical union by working along the following lines of attack: Because the body and its nervous system is a multiloop nonlinear feedback system, find the neuroscientific and physiological correlates for the flow diagram for purgation shown in Figure 2. Determine the dynamics of the various aspects of consciousness during purgation as those 38 aspects simultaneously approach the moment of transition from purgation into mystical union. Establish the nonlinear dynamics phase portrait for the set of seven differential equations of the model of purgation. These equations contain purgation's 38 aspects of consciousness. Consciousness during mystical union cannot be modeled or simulated, because it transcends the phenomenal: the change in inner sense ceases in that state and hence the sense of inner time ceases also. This timeless characteristic is why mystical union is called an experience of the Eternal. The approach to a general theory of religion is by induction. First, the Feedback Phenomenological analysis of purgation produces the 38 simulations to describe the various aspects of my consciousness, moment by moment, over their 10-hour duration. In this way the experience of purgation leading to mystical union is laid out as a function of time in greater detail than has ever been done before. Then analysis of the model structure - together with the study of numerous quotes from the mystical literature of the major world religions as they apply at key points in the 10-hour simulations - tends to indicate that the experience is the same peak experience of those religions. As the work proceeded, the above clarification of consciousness during purgation led to a theory of consciousness, a mathematical modeling and simulation of a somatosensory-driven mental imagery which is the intentional object of subjective consciousness during purgation, a solution to Chalmers' hard problem, and from there to a link with neurobiology and cardiovascular physiology. Here was the beginning of a solid link between biology and religion. Then, it occurred to me that Feedback Phenomenology was performing a phenomenological reduction but was doing it in a simpler and a more formalized way than the methods of the German Phenomenological Movement. In addition Feedback Phenomenology appears to be able to bridge or synthesize the split that had opened up in that movement between the transcendental school (Husserl thesis) and what might be called the realist or empirical or physical or existential school (antithesis). As the study has developed in this way, there has emerged a growing conceptual coherence and confidence, what E.O. Wilson calls consilience, in the Feedback Phenomenological Method and its resulting general theory of religion and integration of science and religion. In addition, sections VII.c and VII.i suggest one of the first tests of the theory. The present results of the existential and transcendental reductions emerging from the phenomenological analysis of my religious experience are as follows: The existential or physical reduction: This is the solution to Chalmers' 'hard problem' which gives the neural and biological correlates of consciousness during purgation. See Section VII.c,d, and e for the present results of the existential or physical reduction. The transcendental or eidetic reduction: These transcendental elements or eidetic intuitions or critical insights or electrifying wisdom were obtained after long and careful meditations on the entire religious experience, but particularly meditations on the following two modes of consciousness: consciousness during purgation, as the various aspects of my consciousness approach the moment of transition from purgation into mystical union; and my timeless consciousness during the state of mystical union. The present results of this eidetic reduction are shown at Section VIII.b, c, and d. This set of ideas and their results are isolating and clarifying the blessed core of religion and providing the framework for future investigations in neurobiology, philosophy, phenomenology, consciousness studies, psychology, anthropology, and comparative religion. It is also providing the scientific and philosophical underpinnings for theologies and faith-identity patterns throughout the world. I believe these kind of results will gradually lead to the tearing down of the firewall that now artificially separates the scientific culture and the religious culture. In parallel with this is the main aim of my work: to hold course in my life and avoid shipwreck. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ foot tapping mentalism for all ages http://www.mp3.com/theehumancannonball <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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