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Re: Faith & Healing
Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <rbalasub@ecn.purdue.edu> writes:
>The point here is not developing the ability to change tempertaure etc. The
>point is that it can be done. For ex., swami Rama was able to produce the
>brain waves that indicated that he was in deep sleep while he was completely
>awake. This changes the way scientists look at things. That is more important.
Exactly. Swami Rama was able to produce delta waves characteristic
of deep sleep while he was exactly aware of things going on in the room,
people speaking etc. In fact, in a study, he was able to tell the exact
conversation between individuals while in "deep sleep" better than the
individuals who were actually awake and conducting the experiments.
>Of course, if you are already throughly convinced about creation etc from
>other sources this is not of much use. However, for people who hold science
>and scientific method in esteem, this is of great use.
Couldn't have said it better.
>Science restricts
>itself to observable facts and inferences drawn from them. So any segment of
>scientists will have to look at things only from this point of view.
>Ramakrishnan.
Yes, Stephen laberge, who "invented" Lucid Dreaming [It is the state
when one is perfectly aware that he/she is dreaming], writes in his
introductory book "Lucid Dreaming" that it was almost impossible to convince
the scientific community that he could be aware while he was dreaming.
In fact, this technique has been used for centuries by yogis and Tibetan
monks as a preliminary step to overcome fear and even as a step to
enlightenment. Of course, now Lucid dreaming is widely recognized by the
scientific community and there have been attempts to build instruments
for "lucid dreaming."
He in fact goes on to say that it is possible to be completely
awake during "deep sleep" and quotes Sri Aurobindo but admits that it would
be an immense feat.
Finally, I would like to quote from the last chapter from the
above book
'What will we be after death ? As far as we are individuals, death appears
to be the end of us. Were we to leave it to that, this would be nothing
more than the "modern" view of death as annihilation. Yet the preceding
pages suggest that our individuality is not our truest being, but only
a representation of it. What you take to be your individuality is a mental
image of yourself. "Who you think you are" is only a thought, a transient
process occuring in time and space, and doomed to pass like everything
else that exists in time.
However, according to the point of view we have been considering,
your essential being transcends space and time: your transpersonal identity
transcends your personal identity. This, your transpersonal identity, may
in the end prove identical with the nature of ultimate reality -"the
Shining Sea" referred to above : "Possessed of all possessions, knower
of the All-knowledge, creator of all creations- the one mind, Reality itself."
At death, "the dewdrop slips back into the Shining Sea." Thus it may be when
death comes, although you are annihilated as an individual and the dewdrop
is lost in the sea, you at the same time return to the realization of what
you have always essentially been : the drop recognizes itself to be not
merely the drop it thought it was, but the Sea.
So to the question "What will we be after death?", the answer may
be given "everything and nothing." '
**
Namaste
Giri
