Soul to Spirit: The New Spiritual Psychology

In this final post regarding the need to discern between higher and lower psychic powers at the stage of Chela on the Thread, the psychic powers are associated more directly with the various Groups as mentioned by the Ageless Wisdom and levels as mentioned by Integral.

The previous posts discussing the psychic powers have focused on how each of the five senses (associated with extended sensory perception, not “extra” sensory perception) evolved up the various spiritual levels. In this post, we will look at how the each of the psychic powers relate to each level. In addition, correlations with Integral will be made.

Here again is the chart that talks about the various levels.

Here is the chart that describes how the five senses evolve up the various levels.

And, here again is the chart that talks about all five senses as they exist on one level.

Using the chart above we see how on the Physical Level there is not much to say. We simply have the five senses described, hearing, touch, sight, taste, smell.

On the Emotional Level, we once again note that almost all the terms used are associated with psychic phenomena as popularly used. We have clairaudience (related to sound), clairvoyance (related to sight), psychometry (which is also called clairsentience) and is related to touch, and the words imagination (associated with taste), and emotional idealism (associated with smell).  What we have come to understand is that with all these so-called psychic powers there is a great deal of distortion and guess work.  Though the word “clair” means “clear,” rarely are any of these senses (hearing, sight, touch) used in a clear way.  As we have also seen imagination at this level also has a quality of addiction. We are addicted to what we imagine things should be like, instead of how they are. As for emotional idealism, we relate more to ideals and even idols, than ideas.

In Integral, we have discussed how they see all of this as part of the pre/trans fallacy. Using the Ageless Wisdom phrase, Emotional Plane, the so-called psychic powers at the emotional level are “pre-conventional” thought, or “pre” developing the capacity to cultivate a logical, rational, scientific approach with the mind. Because there is not enough use of mind, people often confuse lower psychic powers, which are akin to magical thinking in Integral, with higher psychic powers, which are “trans-conventional thinking” in Integral terms, meaning they include, but transcend the use of the logical, concrete, rational, scientific mind. In Ageless Wisdom terms, they move beyond (trans) the lower concrete mind and go into the higher abstract mind, and eventually go into the Intuitional (or Buddhic) plane.

Pulling our previous understanding together, we also see that people who are attracted to the use of these “emotional or astral plane” so-called psychic powers, are really functioning mainly in what Integral calls the “magical” realms, which are pre-rational and correspond to Integral’s Red and Amber. These Red and Amber levels we have also learned pretty much correspond primarily to Groups 3 and 4 in the Ageless Wisdom teachings. People in this group tend to be “kama-manasic” a term which means “desire-mind.” Though they may be exposed to some rational, logical, or scientific thought in their educational process, for the most part they struggle with what Integral calls rational or conventional thinking, or even reject it.

Going back to the chart on the senses on each of the levels, it is important to notice something about the chart. To begin with I will put up the Ageless Wisdom model again with it’s seven major planes that each have seven sub-planes. Each of these sub-planes represents in some way another stage, or sub-stage of development. And, we are being shown that each of the various senses evolve you to the next sub-plane.

Emotional Level and the Five Senses

What we are being shown is that on the Emotional or Astral Plane if someone can shift into imagination or emotional idealism, that is a step up in their spiritual evolution. For example, children frequently have imaginary friends that they talk to (clairaudience) and say they may even see (clairvoyance). However, they lack the mental capacity to really ask what is going on here. Are they really communicating with some sort of ghost?  Or, are they simply using their imaginations. And, when it comes to their imaginations, could it be that the friends they imagine represent some emotional ideal of what they hope a friend in the physical world might look like?  Do you see the usefulness of the progression here?  If I am to help lift myself out of the Emotional Plane, then the first step is to admit that what I am experiencing just might be a figment of my imagination. Even if at some level it is not, I cannot engage the logical, objective, concrete, scientific mind, until I admit that it may or may not be imaginary. Going one step further, instead of feeling ashamed or stupid for having somehow or another making up imaginary friends, I can have compassion with myself and see how these imaginary friends represented emotional ideals I have for attracting these kinds of friends into my life in the physical realm.

In the audio that I transcribed of Ken Wilber’s talk on Magical vs. Psychic Powers, he says the following, “Kids watch Saturday cartoons and super heroes because they really think you can fly through the air, you can do miracles. People at the level of magic Christianity are in it because they want to walk on water, they want to turn water into wine, they want to raise the dead and do all sorts of magical feats. And, there’s that strong desire, particularly as we grow up and go through the magic stages,  if those are too rapidly, or harshly, or abruptly cut off particularly if we have really rational partents or scientific parents, it can still leave an attachment to those stages. And, that means an addiction.  And, that means an ongoing  subconscious lust for real magical things. And, we are willing to see things that might not be there. Now they might be there. But, there’s a lot of factors that can lead us to want to see them there, when they might not be.

And, the trick again is how tightly we hold on to the magic stage itself, that all human beings go through. And, if we want to hook it to chakras loosely, the oral stage is chakra one, the emotional sexual stage, genital stage, is chakra two and that’s combined  with magic. And, in the third stage that is when intentionality and power comes online in the third chakra. He has guts, and that’s the gutsy thing to do and so on. So, magic with fantasy thinking and things like voodoo (classic magic is voodoo where you make a doll representing a real person, then stick a needle in the doll and the real person suffers, that’s pure magic). The thing representing the object is confused with the object. And, then to hurt the representation of the object is the same as hurting the real object. These aren’t differentiated. And, that’s where magic as  a childhood, not actually psychic, process occurs. And, if people too rigidly repress that, push it away, transcend it too harshly, then they are left with a fixation to that magic drive.  They’re left with a tendency to see magic in the world around them, because it gives them great pleasure. They’re addicted to it after all.”

Now please notice the words, “And, if people too rigidly repress that, push it away, transcend it too harshly, then they are left with a fixation to that magic drive.  They’re left with a tendency to see magic in the world around them, because it gives them great pleasure. They’re addicted to it after all.”  As we link this up with the Ageless Wisdom notion of appreciating the “emotional ideal” behind these “magical thoughts” we actually I feel have a solution for helping to bring about psychological growth and healing.

Let’s go back to our chart and look at the Mental plane and the senses now.

Mental Level and the Five Senses

As we evolve up the various sub-planes the main thing we see is how at the 7th, 6th and 5th sub-planes of the Mental Plane we have higher clairaudience, planetary pschometry, and higher clairvoyance. Here we recognize that we may be hearing, touching, and seeing something that may or may not be real. The difference is, because the 7th, 6th, and 5th sub-planes comprise what is known as the lower concrete mind in the Ageless Wisdom teachings (or Conventional thinking in Integral), we are now more likely to engage in scientific inquiry, analysis, and debate regarding what is really going on here. Are we really telepathically in touch with each other, or just making it up because we are fixated on the astral/emotional plane and locked in magical thinking?  Or, is something really factual going on? The key is to keep on going up the sub-planes of the Mental Plane into discrimination and spiritual discernment. Here we are heading into Integral’s Orange level and Groups 5 & 6 from the Ageless Wisdom model.

To help us understand what is going on with the words discrimination and spiritual discernment, I will re-post a quote from my blog post Chela on the Thread: Psychic Powers, II.  “On the Mental plane then we not only need discrimination (a word associated with taste on the mental plane), we need discernment (a word similar to discrimination). But, this is a special kind of discernment. It is ‘spiritual discernment.’ Why this choice of words? Somehow or another it seems to imply that we have to bring through the spiritual ‘essence,’ compare it to the ‘smell’ we are picking up, and discern if this smell comes from the outside (lathered on), or the inside of a person. After all, there is a difference between the natural smell of an individual, and the smell that person chooses to put on.”

To put it another way, we have to start to shift up into the abstract mind. In the Integral model we start to go “post-conventional” (beyond logical and conventional thinking). This takes us into Green in the Integral model, as well as into Group 7 in the Ageless Wisdom model. It is also the point where in the Ageless Wisdom teachings we move into the stage of Little Chelaship, the first of the Six Stages of Discipleship. As we have talked about in the post on Little Chelaship, as we start to engage the higher abstract mind at first there is a great deal of confusion. If we have not healed the wounds of our childhood, having been snapped out of magical thinking too quickly, we will likely go into what Integral calls the “pre/trans” fallacy.  In short, we will get lost in New Agey psychic phenomena and lose our way unless we actively engage the powers of discrimination and spiritual discernment. We may even fight against the use of discrimination because we are afraid of hanging out in the lower concrete mind that becomes judgmental in the use of the mind and discrimination instead of using the mind to sort out what is really going on. If instead we can avoid doing this and use discrimination and spiritual discernment wisely, we complete what is known as the first initiation (which in many ways is related to Integral’s Tier Two taking us into their Teal and Turquoise levels), and move through the stages of Chela in the Light, and Accepted Discipleship.

Finally, we see in this chart two additional terms not used before as they are not related to the five physical senses.  They are response to group vibration and spiritual telepathy. Again, as we go up each of the sub-planes we are being given a clue. At this point we are within the 2nd and 1st sub-planes of the Mental Plane and have for some time been unfolding the petals (symbolically speaking) of what is known as the “Egoic Lotus.” We are moving into levels that Integral has barely talked about (Indigo, Violet, Ultra-Violet, and Clear Light). In the Ageless Wisdom teachings, we are completing the 2nd initiation (expansion of consciousness) and moving into the 3rd, and possibly even the 4th. What is noticable as we do this is the hint “response to group vibration.” As we continue to talk about the Chela on the Thread stage we will go further into an understanding that at some point we give up the idea of individual enlightenment. We give up the idea of “my soul.” We move into what is known as group enlightenment and group soul, or even the “One Soul.” At some point the self-centered (though necessary) quest for enlightenment or initiation ends. We are humbled and submerged into the group. As I intend to write an entire post on this in the future, I won’t say anymore. It is simply worth mentioning it at this point as because if we really want to use the mind correctly, at some point we have to merge the mind into the group mind. Not as some sort of Red or Amber (Emotional plane) group think. But, rather as an open appreciation of how many points of views and perspectives can come together to enhance our own.

Intuitional/Buddhic Level and the Five Senses

I did not talk further about spiritual telepathy because unless we understand more of what is happening on the Intutional/Buddhic Planes, we can get greatly confused. What we are becoming telepathic to is the plane of the Intuition. As we review the terms used for this plane of “at-one-ment”, we notice that the terms start with comprehension and then go into healing, divine vision, intuition, and idealism. Comprehension means we start to get a sense of how all the various thoughts (sounds) of people come together. We understand how all their ideas interweave. We become “Integral.” So when we hear different people mention this idea or that idea, we know where those ideas fit. They all make sense. Discord turns into harmony. The many sounds (ideas) exist, but the one sound (integral sound) exists as well. Because we comprehend we are better in “touch” with others. We are able to be healers in the true sense of making people whole. We discern, but we do not use the fire of the mind to criticize.  Head blends with heart and helpful, healing suggestions are the result.

The more we are “in touch” with others, the more others feel safe.  The more they reveal to us.  Likewise, the more we are able to “see.” Seeing deeply the real needs of others, free from criticism and becoming judgmental, we are able to get a Divine Vision. We see where humanity as a whole is heading. We see large expanses of time and even space and are able to understand the cyclic evolution of larger and larger wholes. We see how the parts all fit into the whole, and the role of each part within the whole. Out of this we develop Intuition, where at last we have that “clear synthetic vision” (as intuition is defined within the Ageless Wisdom teachings). We imbibe, we taste, the sweet nectar of the Real. It begins to be ingested and to become a part of us, leading us at last to Idealism. At this level that idealism is not emotional idealism. It involves a comprehension of the many ideas that make up the Real. As those ideas come together into a “clear synthetic vision” we at last see what is true. From this space, within our illumined minds and loving hearts, we in turn can reach out to humanity and create Ideals for them, so that they too may strive to comprehend the Divine Ideas that reside on the Archetypal realms.

As for correlations with the Integral levels, some of what they talk about at Indigo and Violet resonates here, though they don’t have much to say at those levels, and again they only partly relate. More likely, as they develop their model what they write about as their Ultra-violet and Clear Light levels may fit better here. As for the Ageless Wisdom teachings we reach into the Intutional/Buddhic plane levels somewhat at what is known at the 3rd and 4th initiations. As for the Stages of Discipleship?  The stages of Chela in the Aura and Chela in the Master’s Heart may apply to some degree here.

Spiritual/Atmic Level and the Five Senses

Finally, we are at the end of the five senses chart. There are no correspondences in Integral at this level. As for the Ageless Wisdom teachings we are well beyond the Six Stages of Discipleship. In fact, we are most likely at the 5th initiation and beyond. If we summarize some of what I talked about in the previous post of Chela on the Thread: Psychic Powers, II, we remember that Beatitude has to do with the power to bestow blessings and grace. Often these are done with words of power, or through loving, powerful speech. As for Active Service, in touch with the masses and full of love for humanity, we do everything in our power to serve, even if it means it is a 24/7 approach. We do this because we have seen, we have realized the Real. We are At-One with the Real. We can do nothing but use what we see, or have realized, for the betterment of all. The more we do this, the more we reach perfection. Everything we imbibe, everything we taste, is transmuted and even transformed. Finally, we gain “All Knowledge.” We Know the Real. And, in knowing we not only smell the Real, like a fully opened flower we emit the sweetest of perfumes.

Have comments, questions, suggestions?  They will be posted so long as they are civil and expand the discussion.

Namaste,

Lisa

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