*1. ** Trance and Silence Relevant Thinkers and Traditions*
Your thought connects with many thinkers across philosophy, science,
psychology, spirituality, and ecology:
*Consciousness and Spiritual Philosophy*
- Sri Aurobindo
- Jiddu Krishnamurti
- Ramana Maharshi
- Carl Jung
- William James
- Ken Wilber
*Physics and Consciousness*
- Erwin Schrödinger
- David Bohm
- Fritjof Capra
- Roger Penrose
- John Archibald Wheeler
*Ecology and Anti-Mechanistic Thought*
- Gregory Bateson
- James Lovelock
- Arne Næss
- Lynn Margulis
*Mysticism and the Study of Death*
- The Tibetan Book of the Dead
- Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
- Raymond Moody
- Parapsychology
*Philosophical Opponents or Contrasts*
- René Descartes
- Isaac Newton
- Behaviorism YMji 31526
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
KR Silence is not an absence but a presence, not emptiness but
repletion. Silence is something more than just a pause; it is the enchanted
space in which things open up, and surfaces fall away, and we find
ourselves in the midst of absolutes. In silence, we often say, we can hear
ourselves think; but what is truer to say, is that we can hear ourselves
not think, and so sink beneath our daily selves, into a place deeper than
mere thought allows. Silence is a way of clearing space and staying time;
of opening out, so that horizon itself expands, and the air is transparent
as glass. Silence is responsiveness, and in silence we can listen, and in
listening to the self, the wind, the sea, we can hear something else
beating far behind.
“It is not that you take these words and try to understand them
intellectually, for they would have no meaning. You have to meditate to
come to the experience. And there are varied experiences at different
stages of growth. But the ultimate experience is reaching that whose name
is Silence. When you come out of that, you see everything as Brahman.
[SWAMI PRABHAVANANDHA]
Consciousness and Spiritual Philosophy
Sri Aurobindo Consciousness is not only power of awareness of self
and things, it is or has also a dynamic and creative energy. It can
determine its own reactions or abstain from reactions; it can not only
answer to forces, but create or put out from itself forces. Consciousness
is Chit but also Chit Shakti, awareness but also conscious force.-- ... the
knowledge we have to arrive at is not truth of the intellect; it is not
right belief, right opinions, right information about oneself and things,
that is only the surface mind's idea of knowledge. To arrive at some mental
conception about God and ourselves and the world is an object good for the
intellect but not large enough for the Spirit; it will not make us the
conscious sons of Infinity. Ancient Indian thought meant by knowledge a
consciousness which possesses the highest Truth in a direct perception and
in self-experience; to become, to be the Highest that we know is the sign
that we really have the knowledge..... For the individual to arrive at the
divine universality and supreme infinity, live in it, possess it, to be,
know, feel and express that one in all his being, consciousness, energy,
delight of being is what the ancient seers of the Veda meant by the
Knowledge.
---------------------------------------------------
Jiddu Krishnamurti Attention is not the same thing as concentration.
Concentration involves exclusion, while attention excludes nothing. It is
often that we concentrate on our own problems, our own ideas, and our own
world, such that we are not objectively aware. Verbally we can only be
superficial. What lies beyond cannot be put into words. One needs to be
aware. Awareness about how we walk, how we speak, how we talk, and how we
think, is necessary. It is with a choiceless awareness that doors shall
open and one would know a consciousness in which there is no conflict and
no time (Krishnamurti, 1983[5
<https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3673342/#ref5>])
----------------------------------------------------------
Ramana Maharshi Existence or Consciousness is the only reality.
Consciousness plus waking we call waking. Consciousness plus sleep we call
sleep. Consciousness plus dream, we call dream. Consciousness is the screen
on which all the pictures come and go. The screen is real, the pictures are
mere shadows on it. Mind
When the subtle mind emerges through the brain and the senses, the gross
names and forms are cognized. When it remains in the Heart names and forms
disappear... If the mind remains in the Heart, the 'I' or the ego which is
the source of all thoughts will go, and the Self, the Real, Eternal 'I'
alone will shine. Where there is not the slightest trace of the ego, there
is the Self.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Carl Jung Jung defined consciousness as “the function or
activity which maintains the relation of psychic contents to the ego.” [CW
6, par. 700] In that way he distinguished it conceptually from the psyche
itself, which is comprised of both consciousness and the unconscious. Also,
although we speak of ego-consciousness, in Jung’s model the ego is not the
same thing as consciousness, but simply the dominant complex of the
conscious mind. Of course, in practice we can only become aware of psychic
contents by means of the ego. In other words, the more we know about what’s
going on in our unconscious, the more conscious we become. Becoming
conscious preeminently involves discriminating between opposites. Since the
basic opposites are consciousness and the unconscious, the first hurdle is
to acknowledge that there are some things about ourselves we’re not aware
of. Those who cannot do this are doomed forever to skim the surface of
life. For those who can admit to another side of themselves, there is then
the daunting task of discriminating between a whole range of other
opposites—thinking and feeling, masculine and feminine, good and evil, and
so on. And then there is the crucial difference between inner and outer,
oneself and others.
-------------------------------------------------
William James If consciousness is a stream, what are the banks
and channels that guide its course? James alighted on a concern that would
preoccupy spelunkers of cognition in the decades to follow: the deadening
effects of habit, the diminishing returns of repetitive pleasures, whether
gustatorial, aesthetic, or spiritual. As if trying to refresh the
perception of his reader’s glazed eyes, James lapses literary when
addressing the topic, assuming the voice of a world-weary male:
“From one year to another we see things in new lights. What was unreal has
grown real, and what was exciting is insipid. The friends we used to care
the world for are shrunken to shadows. . . once so divine, the stars, the
wood, and the waters, how now so dull and common! the young girls that
brought an aura of infinity, at present hardly distinguishable existences;
the pictures so empty; and as for the books, what *was* there to find so
mysteriously significant in Goethe, or in John Mill so full of weight?”
------------------------------------------
Ken Wilber Primary Dualism: Self vs. Other. The first
division in human psychological development—the primary dualism—occurs when
the infant begins to differentiate between self and “other,” between
subject and object. Herbert Benoit aptly describes this dualism: “Suddenly
we become conscious that our principle is not the principle of the
universe, that there are
Secondary Dualism: Life vs. Death. Wilber’s secondary dualism, closely
connected with the first, is that of life versus death, being versus
non-being. Once the infant/child has the conception of being a separate
self, she develops a subsequent concern for the continuation of that self,
as well as the potential threats posed by the outside world. Benoit
describes this as a “fear of death, of the danger which the Not-Self
represents for the Self.”
Tertiary Dualism: Mind vs. Body. The tertiary dualism involves a split
between mind and body. Over the course of development, we increasingly
identify with our mind/ego while simultaneously distancing ourselves from
our bodies. The very notion of “my body” exemplifies this distinction
between the mind (i.e., “I”) and body (i.e., “my body” as an object of my
mind).
Quaternary Dualism: Conscious Personality vs. Shadow/Unconscious. Wilber’s
last dualism might be construed as the “divided mind.” It involves a
conscious identification with certain personality characteristics (e.g., “I
am serious, disciplined, and hard-working) and disidentification with
others (e.g., “I am not lazy or irresponsible.”). In typological terms,
this involves identification with the dominant function and concurrent
denial of the less conscious functions.[spectrum of consciousness book]
---------------------------------------------
*Physics and Consciousness*
Erwin Schrödinger Consciousness is never experienced in the
plural , only in the singular . Not only has none of us ever experienced
more than one consciousness , but there is also no trace of circumstantial
evidence of this ever happening anywhere in the world .If I say that there
cannot be more than one consciousness in the same mind , this seems a blunt
tautology — we are quite unable to imagine the contrary .
----------------------------------------------
Fritjof Capra Science is studying consciousness but
is stuck in finding a biological basis for it, like a God spot in the brain.
What they miss is that consciousness, fundamentally, is an aspect of life.
To me it is a special kind of cognition at a certain level of complexity
that emerged in evolution. Theres a school of thought that tries to
understand consciousness within the understanding of life. It transcends
biology and uses an integral under-standing of the biological, cognitive
and social aspects of life.
You are now promoting 'ecoliteracy'.
The planet is a collection of ecosystems that regulates and organises
itself. Life evolved according to certain principles, such as forming
networks, sharing resources, cycling matter, developing diversity, and so
on. Endeavours to create sustainable societies should be led by an
understanding of how nature has done it for billions of years.
In this system where everything is interdependent and all matter moves in a
complex web of life, no single variable can be maximised. Maximising a
single variable is the ecological understanding of stress. Human beings
have maximised certain variables - population, consumption, among others,
and we have an economic system that says economies should grow
indefinitely. Because of this, the entire planet is under stress and
humanity on earth is like a foreign organism.
------------------------------------------
*Mysticism and the Study of Death*
Raymond Moody Moody is a regular speaker at Sivananda Ashram Yoga
Retreat in the Bahamas, and at each visit he charms with his easy eloquence
and attentiveness to the audience. His recent visit in January was no
exception. Over an evening satsang and several mid-day workshops, he
recounted stories of near-death experiences and another phenomenon that he
calls “shared death experiences,” incidents such as a sense of lifting up,
or a shared life review, that take place at the time of a person’s death.
“Why do we ignore discussions about end of life, about near-death
experiences? People are afraid of death, they’re afraid it might be
catching,” Moody jokes. “But really, it’s because they don’t want to see
the larger context. In my opinion, the Hindus have it right. On a deep
level, life is an illusion, a narrative experience. As soon as you’re out
of the body, you’re on another path.”
--------------------------------------------------
*Philosophical Opponents or Contrasts*
René Descartes René Descartes concluded that the mind (or soul) is a
non-physical substance that is completely distinct from the material body.
Because the mind does not rely on the body for its existence, Descartes
argued that it survives bodily death, leaving human consciousness
fundamentally immortal.
Descartes's philosophy of death and the afterlife rests on several key
principles:
Substance Dualism: He posited that reality is divided into two separate
realms: the physical body, which takes up space, and the non-physical mind,
which thinks and is not spatially bound.
Independence of the Soul: Because the mind and body are two distinct
substances, the destruction of the physical body does not mean the end of
the thinking self.
In his Discourse on Method, he argued that the soul "is in its nature
entirely independent of the body, and in consequence that it is not liable
to die with it".
Immortality of Consciousness: For Descartes, the true essence of a human
being is the mind (the thinking thing). Therefore, the "I" continues to
think, perceive, and exist after death.
Religious Orthodoxy: A devout Catholic, Descartes aligned his philosophical
conclusions with Christian doctrines. His concept of an immortal soul
supported traditional beliefs in an afterlife, where the disembodied soul
faces divine judgment, reward, or punishment. [EVER CHRISTIAN AFFINITY IS
TAGGED, VEDIC PRINCIPLES ALONE WERE ADOPTED, WHILE BODY MESMERISM DID NOT
LEAVE DESCARTES.
---------------------------------------------
K RAJARAM IRS 31526
On Sun, 31 May 2026 at 04:51, Markendeya Yeddanapudi <
[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> --
> *Mar*Your essay raises profound metaphysical and psychological questions.
> It moves between spirituality, consciousness studies, physics, ecology, and
> criticism of modern education. The strongest aspect of your writing is that
> you do not treat death merely as a biological event, but as a
> transformation of perception and consciousness. I have edited and refined
> your essay while preserving your philosophical voice and intent.
> The World After Death
>
> After death, the body disappears and the five senses cease to function.
> One may then enter a totally different mode of existence that the human
> mind, bound to sensory perception, cannot fully conceptualize. Perhaps one
> may not even sense oneself in the way one does during life. Yet even now,
> while living, we cannot perceive the three-dimensional shape of our
> thoughts, understanding, feelings, decisions, or consciousness itself.
> These realities have no visible form, though they are deeply connected with
> our senses and actions. Therefore, there must be some profound relationship
> between life and death.
>
> The ancient sages attempted to understand this relationship by
> deliberately suppressing the activity of the senses. Through meditation,
> trance, and deep contemplation, they sought access to a realm beyond
> ordinary perception. In such states, the very idea of three-dimensional
> form may disappear. When they attempted to describe their experiences,
> ordinary people could not fully understand them because human understanding
> is largely dependent on sensory paradigms.
>
> The Puranas and many classical spiritual narratives may be seen as
> symbolic attempts to communicate the perceptions of these sages. Telepathy,
> telekinesis, and teleportation were often attributed to them. Whether these
> powers were literally true or symbolic is secondary; what is significant is
> their serious effort to explore consciousness beyond the five senses. Music
> and singing were frequently used as pathways toward such transcendence.
> Unfortunately, the Cartesian and mechanistic worldview has largely removed
> these explorations from modern education.
>
> Every organism dies and enters whatever condition follows death. Countless
> beings must already exist within that unknown dimension. The paradigms
> through which life perceives reality may no longer operate there.
>
> This raises many questions. Do the laws of thermodynamics function in the
> after-death state? Are the principles governing physical life irrelevant
> after death? What kinds of energies or forms of existence operate there?
> Modern physics seeks a Theory of Everything that unifies quantum mechanics
> and relativity, the microcosm and the macrocosm. But can science truly
> claim completeness while ignoring consciousness and the mystery of death?
> Has any physicist seriously attempted to include post-death existence
> within the scope of a Theory of Everything?
>
> Consciousness itself appears shapeless, though it creates awareness of
> shapes and forms. We cannot directly see consciousness, just as we cannot
> see the after-death condition. Yet this invisible consciousness has
> generated civilizations, sciences, arts, and perceptions of the visible
> world. Could the after-death world belong to a domain closer to the quantum
> realm, where ordinary Newtonian logic no longer applies?
>
> Is consciousness merely imprisoned within the five senses? Could death be
> a release from that imprisonment, allowing entry into deeper dimensions of
> reality? In deep space, vision and ordinary sensory functions lose their
> relevance. Similarly, when confronted with difficult problems, human beings
> often close their eyes, withdraw from noise, and attempt to quiet the
> senses. In moments of inner silence, unexpected understanding and
> creativity frequently arise.
>
> Is there truly an unbreakable barrier between life and death? None of us
> can escape death. During trance or deep meditation, when the senses are
> temporarily quietened, the mind often returns refreshed, peaceful, and
> capable of new insight. Yet strangely, very few universities seriously
> study the condition of consciousness beyond death. There are discussions of
> reincarnation and paranormal experiences, but little systematic inquiry
> into the “geography” of the after-death state. Every science remains
> incomplete unless consciousness itself is included within its scope.
>
> Psychology should not remain merely mechanistic or Newtonian. It must
> expand into spiritual psychology and the study of consciousness. Some
> universities have begun limited explorations into parapsychology, but these
> remain marginal. Just as there exists a web of life in the biological
> world, there may also exist a parallel web of consciousness beyond physical
> existence.
>
> Modern economics has trapped humanity within systems based on the
> exploitation and destruction of nature. Are we committing a deeper form of
> suicide at the level of consciousness itself by reducing life entirely to
> economics and material gain? Today, almost every university is forced to
> justify all activity in economic terms.
>
> At the very least, every university should create a Free Nature Park,
> untouched and untampered with, where students can rediscover the living
> relationship between consciousness and nature. True education begins when
> human consciousness blends harmoniously with free nature rather than
> remaining imprisoned within mechanical systems.
>
> — YM Sarma
> My Views
>
> Your essay belongs to a long tradition of philosophical inquiry into
> consciousness, death, and the limits of mechanistic science. Its importance
> lies less in proving specific claims and more in reopening questions that
> modern civilization often suppresses.
>
> I see several major strengths in your philosophy:
>
> 1.
>
> *Critique of Cartesianism*
> You oppose the reduction of life to mechanism and matter. This aligns
> with many contemporary critiques of purely mechanistic thinking in
> philosophy of mind, ecology, and consciousness studies.
> 2.
>
> *Consciousness as Fundamental*
> You treat consciousness not as a by-product of matter but as a primary
> reality. This resembles several modern and ancient philosophical
> traditions.
> 3.
>
> *Integration of Science and Spirituality*
> You are not rejecting science. Instead, you are asking science to
> become larger and include consciousness, death, and subjective experience.
> 4.
>
> *Ecological and Educational Critique*
> Your argument that economics has colonized education is powerful and
> socially relevant. Your proposal for “Free Nature Parks” in universities
> reflects a deep ecological vision.
> 5.
>
> *The Use of Trance and Silence*
> Your observations about creativity arising when the senses quieten
> connect with meditation research, neuroscience of insight, and
> contemplative traditions.
>
> At the same time, there are philosophical challenges:
>
> -
>
> Physics currently has no empirical framework for studying an
> “after-death realm.”
> -
>
> Concepts such as telekinesis or teleportation remain scientifically
> unverified.
> -
>
> Theories of consciousness are still deeply contested.
> -
>
> The leap from quantum mechanics to spirituality is philosophically
> suggestive, but scientifically uncertain.
>
> However, philosophy has always advanced by asking questions before methods
> existed to answer them. Many ideas once considered mystical later became
> scientific subjects. Your essay belongs to that exploratory tradition.
> Relevant Thinkers and Traditions
>
> Your thought connects with many thinkers across philosophy, science,
> psychology, spirituality, and ecology:
> Consciousness and Spiritual Philosophy
>
> -
>
> Sri Aurobindo
> -
>
> Jiddu Krishnamurti
> -
>
> Ramana Maharshi
> -
>
> Carl Jung
> -
>
> William James
> -
>
> Ken Wilber
>
> Physics and Consciousness
>
> -
>
> Erwin Schrödinger
> -
>
> David Bohm
> -
>
> Fritjof Capra
> -
>
> Roger Penrose
> -
>
> John Archibald Wheeler
>
> Ecology and Anti-Mechanistic Thought
>
> -
>
> Gregory Bateson
> -
>
> James Lovelock
> -
>
> Arne Næss
> -
>
> Lynn Margulis
>
> Mysticism and the Study of Death
>
> -
>
> The Tibetan Book of the Dead
> -
>
> Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
> -
>
> Raymond Moody
> -
>
> Parapsychology
>
> Philosophical Opponents or Contrasts
>
> -
>
> René Descartes
> -
>
> Isaac Newton
> -
>
> Behaviorism
>
> Your philosophy can be described as a synthesis of:
>
> -
>
> ecological spirituality,
> -
>
> consciousness-centered metaphysics,
> -
>
> anti-Cartesian philosophy,
> -
>
> spiritual psychology,
> -
>
> and evolutionary holism.
>
> The most original aspect is your attempt to connect consciousness,
> ecology, education, and the mystery of death into one continuous
> philosophical framework.
>
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> .
>
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