Mental Plane - The Alchemy of Being (Air):

"In truth, that which puts off the human and puts on the divine is transformed into God, the same as iron in the fire takes on the appearance of the fire and is changed into it.  But the essence of the soul thus deified subsists, just as the red iron does not cease to be iron.  Thus the soul which before was cold is now ardent, which before was dark is now shining, which before was hard is now mollified; all is colored with God, because the divine essence is infused into its being, all is consumed in the fire of divine love, and all is melted and passed into God, and united to him without mode, and become one single spirit with him; just as gold and bronze are melted together into an ingot of metal." --Francois Louis de Blois

Alchemy is essentially a mythic explanation of the archetypal dynamics of consciousness.  It is an elegant and complex mental construct rich in metaphor and analogy between what is known and what remains unconscious or unknown -- Mystery.  It is a mythic description of how the Universe works in terms of symbolism, in terms of the interaction of polarities.  It reveals a depth dimension by providing a useable system of imagery, terms and processes which reflect our own internal dynamics.

Both Western and Taoist alchemy have made extensive use of the sexual act as a means of personal transformation, culminating in a Royal Marriage with the Cosmos.  Like the Taoist, Western alchemists always worked with a female partner, the Soror Mystica, mystical sister or wife, who is the living embodiment of the Feminine.  The Great Work could not be done without her.

We can use alchemy's sumptuous imagery as content for our own experiential journeys.  In our practice of tantra, we can use this abundant metaphorical material for visualization and conceptualization, and contemplation of the archetypal nature of our own Divinity.  Any of the alchemical operations is a suitable theme for meditation, and there are numerous alchemical illustrations which provide ample visualization suggestions.

Alchemy strives to reveal the godhead within matter -- the imminent Divine -- the gold from lead.  The basis of alchemy is the union of opposites, as tantra unites male and female.  Both processes are driven by the fires of desire, of libido (calcinatio).  The goal of alchemy is to create the Elixer of Life, the Tincture, the Quintessence, the Philosopher's Stone, the Royal Marriage.  It is a process of melting or liquifying (solutio), separating (separatio), ennobling (sublimatio) and recongealing (coagulatio) in a renascent form (coniunctio).  Alchemy is a rich repository of visual imagery to channel one's mental processes during tantric encounters.

In alchemy, the natural senses and the wisdom of the body is called Soma Sophia.  Coagulatio is the operation of turning something into earth--spirit manifesting as substance, so it often equated with creation.  Alchemy is all about the spiritual nature of matter.  When psychic substances become earth, they take on a particular, localized form, promoting ego development and solidifying personality, connecting the ego with the Self. 

This union is represented by the substantive reception of physical impulses via the sensory organs, which is also the confinement within the limits of our own personal reality, but with the capacity for redemption.  Soulful embodiment is a tantric notion wherein the body's psychophysical divinity is recognized and immediately experienced as a melting into eternity.

Psychic development is a process of coagulatio--the images of dreams and active imagination coagulate, connecting outer and inner worlds and relationships.  The preexistent totality, the Self is first incarnated, then assimilated through the living efforts of the individual.  Then spirit inhabits body.

The anima media natura corresponds to Sophia caught in the embrace of Physis and is equated with Divine Wisdom, the feminine counterpart of God.  This gnostic Sophia is the alchemical mother.  Our own belief in the light means the spirit draws the soul to itself from its imprisonment in the body. The biophotonic nature of the body is radiant.

Eros, personification of the erotic impulse, moves from sexual objectification toward soulful love. The polarity between sexual passions, secret feelings, and spiritual strivings exerts a definite hold over the ego. Passionate involvement in life unites our spiritual and emotional lives. Facing our fears and pains--becoming conscious of our conflicts--we can find peace.

New realizations appear in their embryonic stage as conflicts which offer us choices in life.  These decision points become either our life's path or roads-not-taken.  Eros, like Fate, is symbolic of the fatal power of attraction which brings opposites together.  He is the incarnating life principle, which ushers in the irrational, passionate intensity which makes transformation possible.  He "turns up the heat" on the psychic process.  He is that spiritual or divine fire which can unite with instinct, to produce transcendence.  This alchemical notion, again, is identical with the core of tantric philosophy.

One may become utterly silent inside, in a gap between thoughts, between breaths, completely perception-free of mental or sensory content, yet awake and fully conscious to primordial being.  This state is amplified many times over during orgasmic cessation of thought -- the formless moment.  This pure consciousness event (PCE) may be defined as wakeful but contentless (nonintentional) consciousness. It is pure undifferentiated awareness.

Advanced mystical experiences result from the combination of regular PCEs with the minimization of the relative intensity of proprioception, emotions, and thoughts.  De-intensifying of emotional attachments (detachment) means that, over the years, one's attention is progressively available to sense its own quiet interior character more and more fully.  It unites soul and spirit while placing the body in a death-like state.  This can be done paradoxically through either sensory overload, or sensory deprivation.

The experience of peace in self, expanded core interior silence, requires the voluntary mystical death that is explicitely connected with the alchemical unio mentalis, the first stage of the three-stage coniunctio.  Direct self-recollection leads toward the I AM experience, but requires becoming utterly dead to the things of the world, and void of conceptions.  It is no less than the emancipation of the soul  from nature--separation from the suffering and grief that nature (Maya) and Time (Kal) brings on the soul.

Unio mentalis is the interior oneness Jung called individuation...a psychic equilibration of opposites "in the overcoming of the body," a state of equanimity transcending the body's affectivity and instinctuality.  The unio mentalis corresponds precisely to the philsophers who make "dying" their profession: mystics.  Desires (anger, greed, lust, attachment, vanity) are to be killed in their obsessive,  projected forms for communion with primal Being.  Then one may abide in the "Fullness of Emptiness," awareness of consciousness itself.

In the solificatio, the operation of the sun, this transient state becomes a permanent or semi-permanent development of that quiet empty interior silence of original consciousness, even during activity.  One maintains a clear sense of the interior awareness, a persisting sense of an unmoving silence at one's core, even while working and living, or engaged in sexual activity.  One has deleted everything inside, becoming "Nothing," blank.

This dualistic mystical state (DMS) creates oceanic feelings, the experience of being expanded, quasi-larger or more spacious than one's own body.  Consciousness is encountered as more like a field  than a localized point, a field that transcends the body and yet somehow interacts with it.

This second stage involves reuniting the spiritual position with the body, manifesting insights.  It corresponds to the Indian concept of purusha-atman, and implies bringing the consciousness of wholeness into full-blooded reality, that is lived out fully in everyday life. In Tantra, it can mean that the ritual allows one to progressively cast off the self-image of the ordinary personality, blur boundaries with the Other, with Universe and realize one's Divinity in a tangible way not just a concept. The emergent way of being becomes stabilized.

In alchemy, the Royal Marriage is a symbolized conjunction of opposites -- of the King and Queen or Sun and Moon.  There is a parallel between this alchemical significance and the intimate union or inner conciliation of one's own unconscious feminine side with spirit.  The Royal Marriage is a transendent symbol of the Self, and embodies psychic totality. Coniunctio is a culminating point of life and at the same time a "death,"  much like marriage entails sacrifice, death of the old self and giving over to the new center. Love is fundamental to the imagery of coniunctio.  But it is love purged of personal desirousness, not cleaving to one side of the pair of opposites, but beyond all opposites.

Transpersonal love is the extroverted aspect of coniunctio which promotes compassion and the unity of the human race, while the introverted aspect promotes connection with the Self and the individual psyche.  Jung wrote his final work on this holding of the tension of inner and outer opposites, his magnum opus, Mysterium Coniunctionis.

Mystic marriage has seven basic stages: 1) the quest; 2) the awakening of love; 3) the attainment of Knowledge; 4) detachment; 5) unification or blending; 6) annihilation; and 7) divine consummation.  These can all be corresponded to phases of psychosexual ritual love-making or tantric sex.

In alchemy, the marriage of King and Queen is an intrapsychic process which is not projected onto another living individual. The meeting point is the heart-center, where the soul marries the Self in self-realization.  Projections of anima or animus have been retrieved and returned to their proper home in the unconscious, or harnessed in the service of spirit as in tantric sex, where the lover is visualized as god/goddess.

There are lesser and greater forms of coniunctio.  In early stages, there is union with the shadow which is the reunion of mind and body.  Later comes the reunification with anima/animus, then union with the Self, which produces the unus mundus, or experience of the "One World," where body, soul, and spirit are reunited.

The greater coniunctio is a high mystery, which engaged the speculation of the alchemists as the "Chymical Wedding." Alchemists never worked in isolation, but always with the aid of their Soror Mystica, mystical sister or wife, embodying the feminine element.

Psychologically, the self is a union of conscious (masculine) and unconscious (feminine), yang and yin, sun and moon, left anf right hemispheres.  It stands for the psychic totality, which is discernable above all in the mandala form and its countless variants.  Historically, these symbols are authenticated as God-images.  The mystery of the reunion of God and his Shekina or Shiva and Shakti leads to the indwelling presence of Divinity, ot the Holy Spirit.  The Heart is the throne of God in mankind.

Unus Mundus, One World is the alchemical name for the Unitive Mystical State.  The mental union is not the culminating point which is experienced only when the unity of spirit, soul, and body is made one with the original unus mundus. The primal unity of the world is experienced as the unitive mystical state (UMS).  It means first turning away from the world of senses, then turning toward the inner world of mind and the hidden celestial substance, the image and truth of God, and finally contemplation of the transcendental unus mundus, the potential world outside time, the unity of the total psychic self with the cosmos.  We now have a stable realization of our embedded reality in the Universe -- that we are that.

The background of our empirical world thus appears to be a unus mundus, analogous to the physical energy field or quantum vacuum field which resides at the basis of matter and the whole of creation. They are immanent within and also trancendent to any particular expression.  This pprimal field is the pregeometric basis of all form.

Unity with all that can be is expressed as the realm of WE ARE; the ground of being, the field of awareness may be common to all.  The object perceived and the perceiving soul are no longer separated from one another.  This temporary vision becomes a permanent way of seeing and knowing.  This is another phase of tantric love-making.

The perceived expansion of the soul is experienced as permeating with and through the objects of the world.  The expanded self seems to be experienced as of the same metaphysical level, or of the same 'stuff' as the world.  Mystics develop this ability through meditation.  The UMS is a permanent shift in the structure of awareness and never fades away whether one is in nature or a busy environment, or has the eyes open or closed.

The transcendental psychological background corresponds to a "potential world,"--the forms of empirical phenomena are inherent in it.  It is the pristine "first day of creation."  The individual who has been reconnected with the body, is now joined with the world through conscious realization of oneness with the cosmos.  The creation or realization of the unus mundus is a transcendent condition, a superlative experience of unity in which subject and object, inner and outer, are transcended in the experience of a unitary reality.

The universal psychological expression of the unus mundus is the mandala, here represented by mandalic cross-sections of sacred DNA, the basis of all life.  The most sacred text of the alchemists, the Emerald Tablet of Hermes, is the cryptic epitome of the opus, a recipe for the second creation of the world, the unus mundus, via the operation of the sun, coniunctio.  Then one truly experiences first-hand the truth of "That which is above is like that which is below."  Now the Philosopher's Stone as the savior of the Macrocosm--the great world--has been created. Time and eternity are paradoxically unified.

Spiritual Plane - Co-Consciousness in Sacred Sex (Fire):

"...in trance I can feel both "here" and "there", connected with you and disconnected from you, "a part of" and "apart from" an experience.  This... gives rise to a nonconceptual and nonverbal experiential state of unity.  It is a more primary,inclusive way of relating than the separating, "either/or" logic characterizing analytical, conscious process.  In other words, trance processes tend to unify relations ("this" with "that"), while conscious processes tend to differentiate relation ("this" vs. "that")...[These features of trance] suggest trance as a state of deep experiential absorption where a person can operate independently from the constraints of regulatory, error-oriented consciousness process." --S. Gilligan, Therapeutic Trances

An even deeper, more therapeutic level of rapport available to lovers is a shamanic state we can call co-consciousness.  Through this wordless telepathic rapport, you can blend your sacred energies, your soul energies, by mixing your energy fields in the sexual sacrament.  We've seen how hypnotic realities -- spontaneous and induced -- influence us consciously and unconsciously at the physical, emotional and mental or mythic level.  Now we will look at the mystical experiential phenomenon of co-consciousness.

In the holographic model of consciousness, the processing of mental forms occurs within the context of a part/whole relationship, where the identified part exists within the code of the whole.  This paradigm can be applied to the tantric hypnotic relationship.  The hypnotic process is thus an undulation of form and transitional states that helps us understand the healing and renewing properties of tantric trance.

This upwelling ZERO POINT creative process manifests cosmos, nature and consciousness. It dissolves and regenerates all forms.  It is the source of formation, transformation, healing and creativity. It is the center of Being. The essence of this transformative, morphological process is chaotic -- purposeful yet inherently unpredictable holistic repatterning.

Healing is the psychophysical equivalent of creativity. Creativity is embodied inspiration and imagination.  To the extent we intentionally commune with the source of infinite  peace, love, health, bounty, and oneness we encourage their manifestation in outer reality. Their embodiment is the natural result of personal growth.

Co-consciousness, the shared virtuality of the journey process, is a telepathic rapport wherein both participant’s brainwaves become synchronized or entrained, in essence, into a single holographic biofield. Co-consciousness might be measured via the observation of spontaneously shared, matching or resonating brainwave frequencies. It can be induced through external entrainment but occurs in lovers after mutually satisfying sexual experience, in the "afterglow" or reverie period, if not before.

"If the inward penetrates the outward, and illustrates it with its sunshine, and the outward receives the sunshine of the inward, then it is tinctured, cured, and healed by the inward, and the inward illustrates it, as the sun shines through the water, or as the fire sets the iron quite through of light glee; here now needs no other cure."  --Boehme

Empathy and rapport between lovers can lead to the emergence of psi abilities and synchronicities, indicating the simultaneity of mundane and transcendent reality.  Altered states expert, Charles Tart devised a proceedure of mutual hypnosis which resulted in such an overlapping of experiential detail between participants that the startling consensually derived (VIRTUAL) reality became too much to tolerate.  The field set up between them became in a sense holographic as one subject could elucidate and resume the experience of the other without prompting.

During tantric trance, our consciousness is dominated more by formlessness, by uncommmitted attention, and by receptivity to new ideas, interpretations, etc.  We are essentially in between frames or states of consciousness, in transitive or empty moments in which vague, unformulated experience occurs.

These states make it possible to assimilate those "contents" of conscious and unconscious into the self by providing a sense "space" for play and experimentation. Somehow the tantric trance experience broadens our capacity to "toy" with form and formlessness. You might experience yourself in any expression of the web of life, organic or inorganic processes. As perception of spacetime telescopes, so does the sense of scale.

The trance experience presumably, holographically, reflects back the wholeness of the self.  It includes both the creative capacity to be formless in consciousness and the shift to the "form-dominated," content-focused, representational reality known as ego-states.  In the state of formlessness of consciousness, in the safety of the tantric relationship, we may temporarily suspend the sense of objectifying ourselves into particular images reflected by other and experience "pure being."

In the transitional space we are neither required to commit our consciousness to a particularized experience or reality, nor to a state of fantasy, though these factors are present in our total self.  The lovers are able to be, as it were, between channels, and to remain whole as well.  Together they merge and melt into a somato-psychic unity.  Kundalini now symbolizes their shared healing energies.

Given Pribram's premise of the ongoing transformation in the frequency domain and the possibility of reality only being a contraction of consciousness, the tantric trance experience is one way of making more accessible the whole patterning of healthy, balanced self-organization throught progressively acquired transitional states.

At some point the lovers transcend their respective organizations of consciousness and merge in some way literally not metaphorically (Pribram says there is no such thing as metaphor; everything is isomorphic with everything else) cross into a wave length or plane in which there is neither reality nor fantasy but the enfolded-implicate-primary reality that is mutually shared.  The slower the brain wave cycles become, the deeper the induced state.

Most people can increase their alpha production easily; theta is more difficult but also can be increased, certainly with binaural beat technology.  A second part of your experiment might be to induce shared states of consciousness. Shared biofeedback allows both parties to synch to the same deepening rhythm, flowing tgoether toward a very deeply internalized focus.  Even a metronome or steady drum beat can be used as a driver of the shared state.

Theta brainwave generation is associated with dreams, creative thinking, and twilight states.  Theta is probably the best model we have for the shared nature of co-consciousness.  Spontaneous psi phenomena have been associated with theta waves by Krippner (1977), the Greens (1977), and more recently Persinger (1997).  These phenomena include but are not limited to telepathy or ESP and synchronicities.  The left hemisphere of the brain is linear and logical, while the right hemisphere is non-linear and perceives gestalts.  Theta generation entrains both hemispheres in a single activity that creates a harmonization and sense of deep-felt meaning and well-being.

Preparing for the co-consciousness process can be described as "emptying".  Any preconceived notions about self, the mentored or the process are completely suspended, and the Journey is approached with a "beginner's mind."  But one's experiential skills and wisdom are brought to the process.  Though theta generally indicates a deep sleep, it is possible to maintain awareness and be interactive in the journey process.  Brainwaves will fluctuate back and forth across the alpha-theta boundary as both participants move deeper into the journey.

The ability to generate theta and remain consciously aware has been demonstrated by yogis and experienced meditators.  It's almost like falling asleep, but then something else happens, a lucidity.  In order to produce theta consciously it is necessary to quiet body, emotions and thoughts all at the same time.  This leads to integrative reverie, a deep focus of attention.  Training in theta reverie leads to integrative experiences of physical and psychological well-being.

What we sense and control is not the brainwave itself, but the state of consciousness, a gestalt of subtle existential cues.  The production of the brainwaves themselves do not constitute a "state", as such. Brainwaves, in and of themselves, have no sensory representation.  What can be detected and restructured are factors such as focus of attention, thought processes, and feelings.  Theta training is awareness training, or level of awareness training, and facilitates creativity.

Theta rhythms are usually associated with near-unconscious or subliminally conscious states.  The presence of theta is often accompanied by hypnagogic or dreamlike images.  It is not a daydream-type experience, but a projection of impulses from unconscious sources.  Although most untrained people are unable to maintain full consciousness during theta production, almost everyone maintains awareness during alpha.

Between lovers there is a spontaneous rapport which kindles the participants’ oscillatory harmonization and entrainment with one another.  Theta probably does not occur in the subject until the later portion of the journey when the rapid eye movement indicative of REM, alpha waves, and the arousal phase has yielded to the profound paradoxical relaxation of the post-coital state.

Dr. Stanley Krippner has demonstrated the reality of dream telepathy in his research on the subject, and we suggest this is the mechanism of co-consciousness in tantric journeys.  Ervin Laszlo (1996) has also attributed these properties to an existentially fundamental "psi field," which he likens to Jung's alchemical notion of unus mundus, where the realms of mind and matter merge.  Such co-consciousness is a classical phenomenon in the practice of shamanism.

"In the 'experience of dual unity' a patient in an ASC [altered state of consciousness] experiences a loosening and melting of the boundaries of the body ego and a sense of merging with another person in a state of unity and oneness.  In this experience, despite the feeling of being fused with another, the patient retains an awareness of his or her own identity.  Then, in the experience of 'identification with other persons,' the patient, while merging experientially with another person, has a sense of complete identification to the point of losing the awareness of his or her own identity.  Identification is total and complex, involving body image, physical sensations, emotional reactions and attitudes, thought processes, memories, facial expression, typical gestures and mannerisms, postures, movement, and even the inflection of the voice.  The "other" or others can be someone in the presence of the patient or someone absent; he or she can be part of an experience from the subject's childhood, his or her ancestry, or even of a previous lifetime."

Lazlo goes on to recount Stan Grof's (1988) extensive work penetrating beyond normal limits of personal sensory experience into "biographic-recollection," perinatal, and transpersonal domains.  He reports identifications with groups and group consciousness, animals, plants and botanical processes, oneness with all life, and all kinds of natural processes, including waters of rivers and oceans, fire, earth and mountains; catastrophes such as storms, earthquakes, tornadoes, and volcanic phenomena, as well as specific materials like diamonds, crystals, and other metals.

In fact, such experiences extend into the microworld, involving the dynamic structure of DNA, molecules, atoms, interatomic bonds, electromagnetic forces, subatomic processes, and the zero-point field.  Cosmic dimensions include "planetary consciousness," and "extraterrestrial experiences" of stars, quasars, galaxies, even black holes, and "identification with the entire physical universe."  All these processes are experienced in tantra as part of the organism and psyche of the all-encompassing dynamic universal process, or holomovement.  These experiences are expanding, even spiritual, which begs the question of their source or origin.

Dr. Michael A. Persinger (1987) has demonstrated the temporal lobe as the biological basis of the spiritual experience, and intense meaning.  The hippocampus and amygdala are within the temporal lobe, and have to do with remembering and evaluation, reward and punishment.  The hippocampus becomes a gateway to the experience of images and its stimulation unleashes a vivid stream of past memories.    It can initiate inundations of imaginal imagery.

Hypnagogic imagery is produced during theta rhythm dominance in the temporal lobe.  Reverie or the “fringe of consciousness”, hypnagogic imagery, dreaming, and creativity are closely related.  When consciousness is alert but unfocused, alpha is found.  When a person becomes drowsy, or moves into a state of reverie, theta waves tend to appear.

As early as 1943, Kubie reports:

“The hypnagogic reverie might be called a dream without distortion.  Its immediate instigator is the day’s “unfinished business,” but like the dream it derives from more remote ‘unfinished business’ of an entire lifetime as well...Whatever the explanation...with [hypnagogic reverie] significant information about the past can be made readily and directly accessible without depending upon the interpretation...of dreams...It is probable that in this partial sleep, in this no-man’s land between sleeping and waking, a form of dissociation occurs which makes it possible to by-pass the more obstinate resistances which block our memories in states of full conscious awareness, and which contribute to the distortion of memory traces in dreams...”

Theta is associated with a deeply internalized state and with quieting of the body, emotions, and thoughts.  This allows usually unheard or unseen things to come to consciousness in the form of hypnagogic imagery. Typical imagery associated with theta is vague and diffuse, but includes a number of classical or archetypal features: images of tunnels, the experience of going through a dark tunnel, or a tunnel lighted at the far end; images of stairs or ladders and climbing up or down; images of a cave or pyramid; of eyes or a single eye, spirals or vortices, etc.

Hypnagogic imagery comes suddenly into the mind from some unconscious source; it may be visual, auditory or somatic, a fragrance or a taste.  It has an autonomous character, seeming to follow its own course independently.  Attempts to observe it too closely or control it voluntarily usually make it disappear.  Pilot studies show that theta training increases the ability to be aware of the images and hold them long enough to report the hypnapompic perceptions.

Many theta trainees report spontaneously “going down there” into the figure, "becoming," or merging with the image.  The borderline of alpha-theta means staying on that thin line between low-frequency alpha consciousness and high-frequency theta semi-consciousness.  The stream of dissociated thoughts and images is constant, perceived as an autonomous flow.  Images simply float by, coming to mind from an unknown source.

There may be dissociation from the body, and thoughts are quite detached--flowing along with the vague images with a feeling of perceptual change.  Some subjects report their focal point changing from being in front of the eyes to behind the eyes, and a slight falling feeling.

The amygdala is the control center of emotions and moods, the heights of euphoria and depths of depression.  Connections between the frontal lobes and temporal lobe means emotions become mixed with the experiences of the self.  Hippocampal cells display the highest electrical instability of all portions of the brain.  These cells are prone to repeated firing long after the stimulation has been removed.

The amygdala and the hippocampus can learn specific electrical patterns.  One of the most frequent electrical patterns generated from this lobe is called theta activity.  Theta is associated with alterations in temporal lobe function.   These waves occur during dreaming, creative thinking, and twilight states, according to Persinger.

Transient electrical perturbations of the human temporal lobe (TLT) result in emergence of innate feelings of the God Experience.  They range from mild cosmic highs, to knowledge infusions, to religious conversions, to peak experiences, and personal communions with God.

Psychic seizures appear without convulsions and the brain experiences vivid landscapes or the forms of living things, glowing forms, or bright, shining sources.  The modality of the experience, that is, whether it is experienced as a sound, a smell, a scene or vision, or an intense feeling, reflects the area of the electrical instability.  These endogenous sensory images are accompanied by a sense of conviction or meaningfulness, personal and profound significance.

The God Experience is a normal organized pattern of temporal lobe activity.  It can be precipitated by personal stress, or loss and the fear of anticipated death, or the awesomeness of nature or sexual experience.  It brings a sense of personal destiny; it feels ineffable as details remain fuzzy.  All one remembers is that something important, profound, or deeply spiritual took place.

These divine seizures bring seeming insight into another realm; feelings of intoxication, lightness, flying, moving, spinning, or even leaving the body (OBEs).  There is both a compulsive and euphoric factor--compulsive behaviors and thoughts, and euphoric or intermediately manic mood.  Personal and natural events become fraught with meaning or symbolism.  Fear and terror are also effects and frequent parts of the temporal lobe seizure experience.

Dreaming is intimately tied to the function of the temporal lobe because of the hippocampus-amygdala complex.  Stimulation of the temporal lobe region can unleash dreamlike experiences over which the person has little control.  Dream production can be induced directly by electrical peculiarities or by interfering with the chemical transmitters that effectively connect the neurons of the brain.  Certain drugs appear to induce dreams during the waking state, where they are experienced as real.  All human cultures have developed some form of meditational technique to enhance the experience.

Psychological addiction to this type of God Experience occurs because of the brain’s chemical reaction to the intense motor agitation or to the seizure.  The release of the brain’s own opiates can cause a narcotic high during the agitation in receptor sites for endogenous opiates within the amygdala.  Elevation of brainstem levels of norepinepherine elevate mood for several days to weeks.  The person can become addicted not only to the mystical experience but to the God high.

High altitudes, and low blood sugar can facilitate TLTs.  Since the temporal lobe is very sensitive to changes in hypoxia (lack of oxygen), blood sugar (hypoglycemia), and blood flow, situations that produce these are most correlated with the spiritual experience.  Another source of hypoxia is low-level breathing during meditation.  A person trained appropriately can drive the temporal lobe into bouts of theta activity.  Sometimes outright electrical seizures will occur, simultaneously with the meaningful experience.

Psychological stress, and radical existential change is the most common condition that facilitates the God Experience.  Elevation of stress hormones in the hippocampus and amygdala influence fantasies to be stored as actual memories; vivid and realistic dream images can burst into awareness.  In general, the more severe the disturbance, the more intense the God Experience.  The most profound occur after the sudden loss (death) of a close loved one.

Depending on the degree of hormonal arousal and the instability of the temporal lobe, the experience can occur due to simple cumulative effects.  They can be less spectacular, but just as impressive and meaningful.  Music can trigger TLTs in a sensitive brain.  Very loud sound patterns or flashing lights can drive the epileptic brain into seizures, as can repetitive sounds, such as white noise or mantras.  Conversely just the sound of ocean waves or even a gentle stream creates a soothing feeling; when the negative ions from actual water are present, the effect is magnified into well-being.  Certain smells, perfume, or incense can be the trigger, as the temporal lobe is the “home” of olfaction. Thus, sensory cues can act as active drivers of theta.

In the context of the present hypothesis, there must be some feature of the temporal lobe that is involved with the experience or origin of the self-concept.  The adult’s sense of “body image” is associated with the parietal lobe.  But, for the first few months of life, the body image is not totally associated with the parietal, but is “stored” in the temporal lobe.  During the time the infant is dependent on the behaviors of the mother and father and the pattern of those behaviors, the temporal lobe integrates and grows with that information.

Usually locked away, they are there ready to be released by the appropriate key.  The key is the temporal lobe transient.  When it occurs the images and protosensations long locked within the old contexts of the temporal lobe are released.  The adult experiences the old sense of the infant self.  Basic images, long forgotten are retreived in the God Experience.  The infantile sense of self is permanently shaped and bound to the pattern of parental behavior.

In tantric journeys after an initial stage of arousal, there is a paradoxical switch to a deep state of tranquility and serenity, described as a healing place.  This switch is from the ergotrophic system to the tropotrophic system of arousal, sympthetic to parasympathetic.  If your partner fails to awaken on command from the hypnotic state, simply say unless they do you will never hypnotise them again.  This is usually enough to bring them back to ordinary awareness, or let them simply sleep it off.

Quintessence - Virtual Tantra & Sex Magick:

When people hear of Virtual Reality, one of the first application that leaps to mind is the possibility of virtual sex.  Extending that idea into magical realism we come to virtual sex magick.  Virtual sex magick awaits the development of tactile feedback systems.  However, the act itself is a generator for surplus magical energy which may therefore be focused on a specific desire or intent.  This is known as the "bud will" or "magickal child."  It uses the emotional energy of enflamment coupled with the directive powers of will, visualization, and intentionality.

We can create a tantric energy generator of our own even without technological VR hardware.  All we need to do is DECIDE to PARTICIPATE in the celebration of cosmic consciousness.  We create our own virtual reality by creating a magical atmosphere in our bedroom or romantic setting, by using the proper physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual orientations.

Self hypnosis, imagery, and good mood music all facilitate this gestalt.  The natural love trance melds and supercedes all tricks. All the physical cues, emotional tones, symbolic imagery, and spiritual attitude seamlessly welded together in a sacred prototypical act create an archetypal virtual reality.  Both lovers united in an all-planes harmonic resonance then unite with Cosmos.  THIS IS VIRTUAL TANTRA.

Perhaps the most commonly recommended application of sex magick is for attaining "knowledge and conversation with the Holy Guardian Angel."  While this wasn't meant as "knowledge" in the Biblical sense, it is certainly a possibility in VR.  The consummation of the act means either identification with, or dialogic interaction with the higher self.  Most acts of sacred sex reenact the holy union (hierosgamos) of God and Goddess, Shiva and Shakti, Krisna and Radha, Yang and Yin forces.  It is a cosmic union of complements.  Here again is fertile ground for either visualization or the programming of a VR reality to enhance the imaginative faculty.

Imaginal variations on the mystic marriage could use images of mythical and historical figures or draw from the symbolism of Tantra, alchemy, and Taoism, to name a few.  One might perceive the experience from the perspective of a particular god or goddess in a classical union.  Each program might contain one or many experiences of a similar nature.  The menu might include the union of God and the Shekinah, God and Sophia, spirit and nature, anima/animus, priest/priestess, or King and Queen.  One time you might be Solomon and Sheba, another Ares and Aphrodite, another Arthur and Guinevere.

The Royal Marriage is a transcendent symbol of the Self, and embodies psychic totality.  With plasticity of form and interaction we can only speculate what hermaphroditic creations might result, what androgynous beings.  These experiences might not represent their mature psychological counterparts, but they could be inspiring dress-rehearsals, which jump-start the creative imagination, adding a new dimension to sexual life--sort of the reverse of pornography.

Normally, we are not taught to direct our thoughts into any higher purpose during sex, much less at the point of orgasm.  Yet, to do so can be healing and connective in a very deep way.  VR could serve as a model and demonstration far beyond any orthodox sexual therapy.  Interactive fantasy could be raised to new heights.  This technology could teach us new ways to relate to our bodies, sexuality, and art (including the art of magick).  *VIRTUAL TANTRA* is a new medium in the sexual arena.

Another VR alternative for sex magick is to engage in actual sex with one's partner.  Both parties have streamlined VR helmets which allow simultaneous visualization of the "bud will," the "magickal child," or goal of the operation.  This dynamic image is the focus of the lovers who invest it with their mutual energy and love to transform it from mere potential into a vital force for change in the real world.  VR insures that both parties' visualizations are identical as possible however the brainchild is characterized.

The moment just prior to orgasm is a very open, suggestible state. For some it is difficult to hold the magickal focus at that moment.  Passive impregnation by the VR system (based on the aspirant's desires) could be readily accomplished at that point with suitable imagery.  It could be a non-literal, yet post-symbolic way of conceiving an inner, spiritual "child" through ritual--the embryonic form of the greater self.  Countless variations on magical talismans and mandalas might constitute part of the programming, as well as explosive imagery of cosmic union.

For the Royal Wedding to be truly consummated, insights must be applied in practice.  For it to fully work its magic, it requires a prior marriage of Anima and Animus within each aspirant.  This is a form of "spiritual body" building.

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