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Some
thoughts on thoughts
a few interesting ideas on the nature of the mind and our
connection with one another from people with a wealth of experience
in a wide variety of fields...
Alexander Graham Bell
"Can it be said… that there are not
many [frequencies] of [electromagnetic] vibrations that may give us
results as wonderful as or even more wonderful than, the wireless [radio]
waves? It seems to me that in [a range of frequencies] lie the vibrations
which we have assumed to be given off by our brains and nerve cells
when we think… … If the thought waves are similar to the
wireless [radio] waves, they must pass from the brain and flow endlessly
around the world and the universe. The body and the skull and other
solid obstacles would form no obstruction to their passage…
"You ask if there would not be constant
interference and confusion if other people's thoughts were flowing through
our brains and setting up thoughts in them that did not originate with
ourselves?
"How do you know that other men's thoughts
are not interfering with yours now? I have noticed a good many phenomena
of mind disturbances that I have never been able to explain. For instance,
there is the inspiration or discouragement that a speaker feels in addressing
an audience. I have experienced this many times in my life and I have
never been able to define exactly the physical causes of it.
"Many recent scientific discoveries, in
my opinion, point to a day not far distant perhaps, when men will read
one another's thoughts, when thoughts will be conveyed directly from
brain to brain without intervention of speech, writing, or any of the
present known methods of communication.
"It is not unreasonable to look forward
to a time when we shall see without eyes, hear without ears, and talk
without tongues.
"Briefly, the hypothesis that mind can
communicate directly with mind rests on the theory that thought, or
vital force, is a form of electrical disturbance, that it can be taken
up by induction and transmitted to a distance either through a wire
or simply through the all-pervading ether, as in the case of wireless
telegraph waves."
from: The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons, Volume
I—see book list below
Ramamurti S. Mishra, MD
In The Textbook of Yoga Psychology Dr. Mishra
writes about telepathy and clairvoyance being by-products of Yoga meditation
practice:
"…Most theories of the west are built
on non-admission of telepathy and clairvoyance. Yoga admits not only
that such phenomena are possible but that they have been confirmed by
experience of yogins in meditation. The system of Yoga admits individual
mind and says that it is a manifestation of Cosmic Mind. Hence in purity
of individual mind, there must be ability to communicate with all minds
of the universe. Telepathy, clairvoyance, etc., are not the aim of Yoga
practice. They are by-products of this practice… This purity is
achieved only through meditation and contemplation practice according
to the classical system of Yoga.
"Each mind purified through [meditation]
becomes able to connect with other minds without losing its identity…
"…This state of mind is the same
as that of the Self-realization method taught by yogins. The system
of Yoga has evolved a technique to produce the telepathic state of mind,
which operates like radio or television at that particular moment."
Dr. Mishra reiterates that these psychic phenomena
are the by-products, and not the aim of Yoga practice, and notes that
practitioners are warned to use such abilities only for purposes which
further the realization of Cosmic Unity and the true Self.
from: Textbook of Yoga Psychology—see
book list below
Napoleon Hill
"I have proved, times too numerous to enumerate,
to my own satisfaction at least, that every brain is both a broadcasting
and a receiving station for vibrations of thought frequency…
"Every mind, or brain, is directly connected
with every other brain by means of the ether. Every thought released
by any brain may be instantly picked up and interpreted by all other
brains that are 'en rapport' with the sending brain… …It
is the belief of this author that every thought vibration released by
any brain is picked up… and kept in motion in circuitous waves
corresponding in length to the intensity of their release; that these
vibrations remain in motion forever; that they are one of the two sources
from which thoughts that 'pop' into one's mind emanate, the other source
being direct and immediate contact… with the brain releasing the
thought vibration."
from: The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons, Volume
I—see book list below
Jeremy Narby
In his book, The Cosmic Serpent, which explores
the knowledge and visions of shamanic traditions, Jeremy Narby discusses
the possible source of the images within the so-called "hallucinations"
experienced by shamans. He proposes the intriguing idea that, in addition
to the known fact that DNA, when stimulated in a particular way, emits
photons (electromagnetic radiation), DNA can also absorb photons - just
as quartz crystals can receive and emit electromagnetic waves.
"What if DNA, stimulated by nicotine and
dimethyltryptamine (active substances in hallucinogenic plants) activates
not only its emission of photons (which inundate our conciousness in
the form of hallucinations), but also its capacity to pick up the photons
emitted by the global network of DNA-based life? This would mean that
the biosphere itself, which can be considered 'as a more or less fully
interlinked unit' is the source of the images."
from: Cosmic Serpent—see book list
below
Thomas Paine
"Any person, who has made observations
on the state of progress of the human mind, by observing his own, cannot
but have observed that there are two distinct classes of what are called
Thoughts: those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act
of thinking, and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord.
I have made it a rule to treat these voluntary visitors with civility,
taking care to examine, as well as I was able, if they were worth entertaining;
and it is from them that I have acquired almost all the knowledge that
I have."
from: The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons, Volume
I—see book list below
Kyra Mesich
In her book, The Sensitive Person's Survival
Guide, Kyra Mesich describes her ideas regarding communication:
"There are two basic modes of communication
in which humans could be fluent. They are the language of intellect
and the language of emotion. They are separate because they function
differently. Intellect is a projective language. We use it to send out
ideas. Intellectual communication occurs when a person intends to send
a message. Years of learning are required during our childhood in order
to master the sophisticated intellectual language we use today.
"Emotional language is based in empathy.
Empathy is a receptive language that is sensed internally. We receive
others' emotional communication, whether they intend to send it or not.
We are born with a natural ability for empathic communication. Emotional
communication is not superior to our prevalent intellectual language
and vice versa. These two methods of communication are different and
serve different purposes. They are both needed in human society."
from: The Sensitive Person's Survival Guide—see
book list below
Erwin Schrödinger
Physicist Erwin Schrödinger is the author
of "Schrödinger's Wave Equation," one of the most beautiful
and useful descriptions of quantum mechanics, for which he won the 1933
Nobel Prize for Physics.
In addition to his elegant descriptions of the
physical world, Schrödinger also wrote quite eloquently about his
own mystical worldview and of his study of Vedanta, the non-dualist
philosophical literature of India.
In his essay, The Oneness of Mind, he writes
of the apparent "lunacy" of the contrived Western concept
of a multiplicity of conscious monads, existing in the world with no
inter-connection between them, only able to agree on their view of the
world by way of a sort of "pre-established harmony." He counters
this absurd paradigm,
"…There is obviously only one alternative,
namely the unification of minds or consciousnesses. Their multiplicity
is only apparent, in truth, there is only one mind…"
He goes on to quote thirteenth-century Islamic-Persian
mystic, Aziz Nasafi,
"On the death of any living creature, the
spirit returns to the spiritual world, the body to the bodily world.
In this, however, only the bodies are subject to change. The spiritual
world is one single spirit who stands like unto a light behind the bodily
world and who, when any single creature comes into being, shines through
it as through a window. According to the kind and size of the window,
less or more light enters the world. The light itself, however, remains
unchanged."
Schrödinger continues,
"…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…"
In another essay, The I That Is God, he elaborates,
"In itself, the insight is not new. The
earliest records, to my knowledge, date back some 2500 years or more…
the recognition ATMAN=BRAHMAN (the personal self equals the omnipresent,
all-comprehending eternal self) was in Indian thought considered, far
from being blasphemous, to represent the quintessence of deepest insight
into the happenings of the world. The striving of all the scholars of
Vedanta was after having learnt to pronounce with their lips, really
assimilate in their minds this grandest of all thoughts.
"Again, the mystics of many centuries,
independently, yet in perfect harmony with each other (somewhat like
the particles in an ideal gas) have described, each of them, the unique
experience of his or her life in terms that can be condensed in the
phrase: DEUS FACTUS SUM (I have become God).
"To Western ideology, the thought has remained
a stranger… in spite of those true lovers who, as they look into
each other's eyes, become aware that their thought and their joy are
numerically one, not merely similar or identical…"
And in the powerful and expressive essay, The
Mystic Vision, Schrödinger shows us his own true mysticism,
"…the plurality that we perceive
is only an appearance; it is not real. Vedantic philosophy… has
sought to clarify it by a number of analogies, one of the most attractive
being the many-faceted crystal which, while showing hundreds of little
pictures of what is in reality a single existent object, does not really
multiply that object…
"…this knowledge, feeling, and choice
are essentially eternal and unchangeable and numerically one in all
men, nay in all sensitive beings. But not in this sense - that you are
a part, a piece, of an eternal, infinite being, an aspect or modification
of it… For we should then have the same baffling question: which
part, which aspect are you? what, objectively, differentiates it from
the others? No, but, inconceiveable as it seems to ordinary reason,
you—and all other conscious beings as such—are all in all.
Hence, this life of yours… is, in a certain sense, the whole…
This, as we know, is what the Brahmins express in that sacred, mystic
formula… 'Tat tvam asi' - this is you. Or, again, in such words
as 'I am in the east and in the west, I am below and above, I am this
whole world.'
"Thus you can throw yourself flat on the
ground, stretched out upon Mother Earth, with certain conviction that
you are one with her and she with you … For eternally and always
there is only now, one and the same now; the present is the only thing
that has no end."
from: Quantum Questions—see book
list below
Laura Day
Explaining in her book, Practical Intuition,
[Chapter 8 — You Already Know Everything] that we all have access
to information about the world through our intuition, Laura Day writes,
"Intuition is a capacity you're born with
as a human being, like the capacity for language or thinking or appreciating
music. Intuition is not a power one acquires. It's an integral part
of every human mental, emotional, and psychical process.
"Each moment—right now—you
receive information intuitively; you're simply unaware of the process.
You use your intuition in all those practical reasoned decisions you
make every day, from choices as mundane as what to eat for dinner to
what to major in or who to marry.
"The trick to using your intuition more
effectively is to bring the unconscious data it supplies to a place
where your conscious mind can interpret it. It takes work and guidance
to put this unconscious process under control. I'll show you how to
do that. In a sense, this book is about developing awareness of an ability
you already have and use."
from: Practical Intuition—see book
list below
the editors of Mind at Large
"In this 21st century, we should
not have to argue about the reality of psychic abilities. The five chapters
of this book devoted to remote viewing experiments show that most people
have the ability to describe and experience events and locations
that are blocked from ordinary perception. This perceptual ability
has now been demonstrated and documented at Stanford Reaserch Institute,
Princeton University, and numerous other U.S. and international laboratories.
In spite of all this documentation for the existence of our natural
capacity for such psychic abilities, they have not by any means been
accepted as real by mainstream science. How can this be?
"The data are in. But, the debate about
the existence of psychic abilities continues only among the
uninformed."
from: Mind at Large—IEEE Symposia on
the Nature of Extrasensory Perception—see book list
below
References—quotes
are found in the books listed below
(books available at major retailers unless otherwise noted)
Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge
by Jeremy Narby
quote found on page 131
 The
Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons, Volume I
by Napoleon Hill
Alexander Graham Bell is quoted on pages 43-46
Napoleon Hill quote found on pages 47-50
Thomas Paine is quoted on pages 47-49
 Mind
at Large—Institue of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers Symposia on
the Nature of Extrasensory Perception
edited by Charles T. Tart, Harold E Puthoff, Russell Targ
quote found on flap
 Practical
Intuition
by Laura Day
quote found on page 46
 Quantum
Questions:
Mystical Writings of the World’s Great Physicists
edited by Ken Wilbur
Erwin Schrödinger quotes found on pages 85, 92, 95-97
 The
Sensitive Person's Survival Guide:
An Alternative Health Answer to Emotional
Sensitivity & Depression
by Kyra Mesich
quote found on page page 34
 Textbook
of Yoga Psychology
by Ramamurti S. Mishra, MD
available at ashramstore.com
quote found on pages 103-104
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