Tag Archives: mystical experience

November 25, 2013 · 12:12 pm

PHILIP K DICK: MYSTIC

Philip K. Dick
Portrait by Pete Welsch
Washington, DC

Most people know Philip K. Dick (PKD) by way of two main venues- either his science fiction novels or his movies (Minority Report, Blade Runner, etc). If fact, he is more famous now then he ever was in life. Such is the nature of being a visionary- the art world is rife with this. The thing I find fascinating about PKD though, is something most people have never heard about. PKD had many mystical experiences and he wrote about them.

His first encounter happened in Feb. 1974 and what followed would direct a line of inquiry for the rest of his life. After oral surgery and under the influence of sodium pentothal, he opened his door to a delivery girl who was wearing a gold necklace with a pendant in the shape of a fish- an early Christian symbol. The sun glinted off the fish producing a pink beam. The resulting mystical experience involved an encounter with an intelligence which allowed PKD to receive wisdom and clairvoyant messages. Throughout Feb. and Mar., the experiences continued with visions and more encounters. At one point while in trance, PKD received detailed medical information about his son and a life-threatening condition. Rushing the baby to the hospital, doctors indeed confirmed the condition and saved the boy.

In the years of exploration and searching that followed, PKD kept detailed journals, totaling some 9000 pages. Whittled down to 900 pages, Exegesis is a collection of his mystical experiences and the author’s attempts to make sense of what was happening to him. It makes for fascinating reading. There is real passion and honesty in his efforts to understand and deal with what was going on. On one hand, it’s very inspiring but on the other, it’s unsatisfying too. PKD never really accepts any one answer and scholars who view the material are also at a loss. What really happened to PKD during the period known as 2-3-74 (and after) and what did it mean?

PKD’s last novel was entitled The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. It is considered to be one of his best, and truly, it is a metaphysical work. Reading Exegesis and then Transmigration, the reader is encouraged to search for their own answers and fully engage the mind. Happy reading!

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Filed under Spiritual/Mysticism

Tagged as book review, books, Ellis Nelson, fantasy, mystic, mystical experience, Philip K Dick, science fiction, The Exegesis of Philip K Dick, writing

September 19, 2013 · 11:40 am

HER STROKE OF INSIGHT

Thirty seven year old neuroanatomist, Jill Bolte Taylor, rose on the morning of Dec. 10, 1996 to start her morning routine getting ready for work. It turned out to be anything but routine.

A blood vessel exploded in her left hemisphere leaving her unable to walk, talk, read, or write.

To understand what she experienced, it’s important to recognize how the two parts of the brain work. The right hemisphere thinks in pictures and connects us all as “energy beings” as Jill describes it. The right brain is all about being in the moment and sees us as perfect and whole. The left hemisphere thinks linearly, connecting us to past and future. It thinks and plans using language. It is the left hemisphere that creates the experience of the self as separate from everything else.

Jill woke that morning with an intense pain behind her left eye. Not realizing anything was truly wrong, she attempted to get on with her day and proceeded to her cardio-glider to get her exercise done. On the machine, she noticed that her hands looked like strange claws. Then she had the experience of witnessing her body as if it were a separate entity. Her head pain intensified so she got off the machine. It was then that everything seemed to slow down. Gone were her quick and fluid body movements. The rigid boundaries of her body evaporated as she propped herself against a bathroom wall. She watched as the molecules and atoms of her body merged with those of the wall. Next she lost her left brain chatter as her mind was silenced.

In the quiet, Jill was drawn into an expansive field of oneness. This was a peaceful, delightful place until the left brain returned telling her she had a problem and needed help. She would alternate between these two realities: one she called La-La Land which was a beautiful state of pure consciousness and connectedness and the other that called her back into the world with ever-increasing urgency. When her right arm became paralyzed, Jill realized she was having a stroke. She knew she needed help and attempted to call work. But by this time, she had lost the ability to recognize words and numbers and it took 45 minutes to finally make this all important call.

At the hospital, Jill struggled with the pain and sensory overload of being in the body. Those experiences were relieved at times by journeys into nirvana (her word); that profound place of peace, freedom, and expansiveness. On a deeper level she comes to understand that everyone can experience this nirvana state.

“That they could purposely choose to step to the right of their left hemisphere and find this peace.”

This is her stroke of insight, the gift she brought back into the world, the source that would motivate her year long recovery.

We have the choice to move between the hemispheres moment by moment. We choose, we create. Jill believes (and I agree) the more time we spend in the right hemisphere, the more peace we will find as individuals and the more peace we will bring back into the world.

Jill Bolte Taylor has written a wonderful book. It will especially appeal to the scientifically minded, but it will attract just as many mystics. The other true gift of her experience has to do with understanding what it’s like to have a stroke. If the medical community and family members had this level of understanding, it would revolutionize the care we give stroke victims. I would especially recommend her book to anyone who is caring for someone who has had a stroke. To learn from the inside out what it’s like can only make us more compassionate and more understanding.

WATCH DR. TAYLOR AT TED:

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Filed under Book Review, Energy medicine, Spiritual/Mysticism

Tagged as brain, consciousness, Ellis Nelson, energy medicine, Jill Bolte Taylor, left hemisphere, medicine, My Stoke of Insight, mystical, mystical experience, mystics, right hemisphere, science, stroke

August 30, 2012 · 11:57 am

CHARLES A. LINDBERGH- Mystical Experience

Last week I was sure this week’s blog would be on John Dee. I’ve read several books about the Elizabethan alchemist, queen’s spy, and magus. But John Dee is a complicated subject, and well, I got sidetracked in a synchronistic sort of way. Consulting Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical and Paranormal Experiences, I was shocked to find John Dee not included, but stumbled on a fascinating little entry on Charles Lindbergh. Lindbergh? THE Lindbergh? Yup!

I suppose some of you may have heard of John Dee, but I’m sure all of you recognize Charles Lindbergh. The twenty-five year old, unknown air mail pilot became an overnight, worldwide household name in 1927 when he completed his non-stop transatlantic flight. You might even remember the tragic loss of his son in 1932 in what was called “the crime of the century”. And there are a few of you who are mulling over the tag Nazi sympathizer, but I suspect few of you (including myself) are thinking … mystic.

The mystical experience happened in 1927 during the thirty-three plus hour flight over the Atlantic. During the long and lonely flight, Lindbergh experienced an altered state of consciousness. In this state, he became aware of three parts of himself. His body, his mind, and his spirit existed as separate entities. He was not afraid. The plane was filled with ghostly beings which were transparent and weightless. Lindbergh described seeing with “one great eye” the beings around him without having to turn around. These beings consoled and reassured him in friendly human voices. As things progressed, Lindbergh lost the sense of his physical body, something reported in many mystical experiences. He recognized that although he was still attached to life, the beings were not. Furthermore, the famous transatlantic pilot seemed to experience a shift in his view of death. Death no longer seems the final end it used to be, but rather the entrance to a new and free existence which includes all space, all time (Lindbergh The Spirit of St. Louis, 1953).

So what are we to make of this? In his first book describing the transatlantic crossing published in 1927, Lindbergh remained silent on this issue. It wasn’t until 1953 with the release of The Spirit of St. Louis that readers first learn of this incident. More follows after his death with the publication of Autobiography of Death (1977). Unfortunately, my library has none of Lindbergh’s books, not even The Spirit of St. Louis. On face value, it’s easy to dismiss the account. Lindbergh could easily have been hallucinating due to fatigue, boredom, or maybe even fuel fumes. But Lindbergh himself doesn’t seem to dismiss the incident. I’m inclined to think Lindbergh must have viewed the experience as personally significant and important enough to risk ridicule for by coming forward publicly with the account. This is another one of those areas in which readers will have to decide for themselves what the incident means.

Further reading:

Any or all of Lindbergh’s books.

Lindbergh– A. Scott Berg (one paragraph on p. 124 about the mystical experience)

The Mystical Side of Life– Michael Murphy (audio; this is hard to find)

Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal Experience– R.E. Guiley, see Lindbergh entry

Cemetery John- The Undiscovered Mastermind Behind the Lindbergh Kidnapping–

Robert John (new release, profiled in newspaper), nothing mystical here but the latest on the Lindbergh case.

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Filed under Books

Tagged as Lindbergh, mystical experience

March 1, 2012 · 8:54 am

PHILIP K. DICK- MYSTIC

Philip K. Dick
Portrait by Pete Welsch
Washington, DC