Imaginal World, Imaginal Mind E-Book

Elisabeth Egekvist

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 252

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

A series of spiritual experiences send Elisabeth Egekvist on a quest for answers: What happened and why? She embarks on journey that takes her through various university studies. Here she meets both modern and ancient thinkers like English anthropologist, Gregory Bateson, and Islamic mystic, Ibn 'Arabi, who provide insights that help her piece together an understanding of her development up to some point. After this she continues to form her own ideas on the importance of re-introducing an imaginal world which was abandoned and forgotten centuries ago, but now turns out to play a significant role in the development of mankind. In the book Elisabeth Egekvist describes a number of spiritual experiences and examines them with an outset in relevant theories. The book may thus be useful to people who ask questions about their own spiritual experiences, but may also provide an input into an academic discussion of learning and creativity.

Leseprobe

Like a flower on barren ground

Embrace your spiritual experiences

And let your creative potential blossom

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

The Personal Story

The Theoretical Analysis

The Practical Application

Epilogue

List of Works Cited

"The most important task today is, perhaps, to learn to think in the new way" 1

(Gregory Bateson (1904-1980))

Foreword

In the middle of the 1990s I ran into a series of unusual experiences of a 'supernatural' character. At that time I had no idea what impact these would have on me. And I had certainly never imagined that I would spend the following 10 years to try to understand and explain what happened, both in the experiences themselves, but certainly also in the changes I observed in my thinking and my emotional response pattern. Nevertheless, so it was. And despite the skeptical view of the surrounding society I had an unerring confidence that what happened to me was 'natural'. Therefore I had to dig my way through a bulky material of literature and articles to find arguments to support my new belief system. And at some point when I was no longer able to find theories that could offer explanations, I had to develop my own personal ideas and live my life accordingly.

The first thinker I encountered who turned out to be able to help me through most of the process was Gregory Bateson whose metathinking offered me some learning models, which gave me an opportunity to structure my experience within a rational framework. In addition, he showed me that it was possible to explore natural phenomena without being tied up by the scientific paradigm that has dominated Western thinking for several hundred years. Bateson claimed that the Western world suffered from a flawed thinking which he termed hubris. According to this view human beings of the West had placed themselves outside of nature thus separating a part from the whole and then act as if this part could command the whole, - not least by using modern technology. It was therefore with some enthusiasm that at one point it dawned on me that the mindset I want to introduce and argue for in this book to a certain extent can be considered a proposal that offers a 'solution' on this issue.

Whatever you may think of my proposal, it seems true that Bateson's claim is confirmed every day: the planet is facing cultural, environmental, ethical and social problems which cannot be solved solely through technological developments, nor does it seem possible to define human rights without bumping into outdated traditions that are held beyond discussion. Although a growing number of people believe that the new millennium’s biggest challenge is to understand instead of fighting each other and that we must learn to live in harmony with nature instead of trying to control it, the question still remains to be answered: How will this be feasible, considering the apparently immense economic and selfish interests at stake?

Well, Bateson believed the solution could be found in a new way of thinking - which may seem quite plausible. Further reflection on the matter, however, reveals huge problems: this is not simply a case of shifting from one position to another within the prevailing assumption that the part can control the whole, or a matter of seeking a new cultural or religious learning among those already existing. No, this is a totally new way of thinking that must be able to include all humans on the planet, indicating a breach with the pre-understanding, i.e. the unreflective, automatic habit of thinking from which every individual understands herself and her life. This process seems both daunting and demanding, but is nevertheless an indispensable requirement!

In my opinion, Bateson intuitively knew what caused the problem: it is said that throughout most of his life he was trying to think in new ways, but it also said that he had to admit that he did not succeed. There may be many possible causes, but before I offer my personal suggestion on his difficulties, I have to introduce the reader to the concept of imaginal which appears from the title of this book. I was inspired to use this word by the French philosopher Henry Corbin (1903-1978) who was a professor of Islamic religion and who devoted much of his life to studying and disseminating information on Islamic mysticism, - especially to Ibn 'Arabi (around A.D. 1200), much of whose work Corbin has translated into French. In this regard Corbin introduced a mundus imaginalis (i.e. an 'imaginal world’2) to denote the sphere between the intellect and the senses as described by Ibn 'Arabi. This is the dimension in which 'the body becomes spirit and the spirit becomes body', and where revelations occur. It is the inner, hidden world that cannot be achieved with the five known senses, but only with the ‘organ’ called the creative imagination.

According to Corbin the mundus imaginalis was banned (in the Western part of the world) from the accepted worldview by an ecumenical council in Constantinople in A. D. 869 where the former tripartite anthropology of spirit, soul, and body was reduced to a duality of body and soul. The 'truth' of the new worldview was underlined by so cruel reprisals against dissenters that it eventually became impossible to perceive spiritual forms as real3. However, it is a fact that many people in the centuries thereafter have experienced the existence of the mundus imaginalis, and as previously said, I, myself, belong to this group of dissenters. Consequently, I have personally learned how the excommunication still poses problems up to the present day: it is my opinion that this is what made it impossible for Bateson to involve an absolutely crucial aspect in the new way of thinking he wanted to introduce.

In contrast, I, myself, had to rely on spontaneous experiences of the banned nature, and this book is primarily motivated by a sincere desire to understand myself and create meaning in the way that I unwittingly exceeded the 'permissible' limits and unwittingly adapted a new way of thinking. These changes may have occurred in a split second, but it took me (and my surroundings) several years to become fully aware of them. In this connection I have, however, always felt a strong urge to clarify and justify the perceived changes, and I only really began to put them into words when I discovered the writings that Bateson and Ibn 'Arabi left behind.

I know that there is quite a lot which requires further study and deeper reflection than I have the opportunity to perform here. At the same time, I must also admit that my theorists would probably disagree with me in part of what I'm going to say. However, this does not prevent me from feeling a deep gratitude for the thoughts they put forward in their time, and I have allowed myself to use their words in my own way to convey the impressions I perceived.

1 Bateson, 2000, p. 468

2 By the word ’imaginal’ Corbin wishes to distinguish between the experience of a genuine, real dimension which he named mundus imaginalis and the ‘ imaginary’ which belongs to human fantasy.

3 Corbin, 1998, p. xxi

Introduction

"He drew a circle that shut me out:

A villain, a scoundrel, a thing to flout!

But love and I had the wit to win:

We drew a circle that took him in! 4

Worldviews in motion

Looking back in human history there is nothing new in long and tough conflicts on how the world could and should be described. This trend can be seen as a manifestation of the dilemma that humanity has always faced: on the one hand, the need to preserve the existing, on the other hand, the need to innovate and evolve. This means that there is a constant tension between two tendencies that pull in opposite directions: some people are so firmly consolidated in the familiar that they represent a circle that shuts all tendencies to change out, while others move beyond the limits of normality and draw a circle that expands the world and is able to contain both the old and something new.

Although change is often a painful process, there is no doubt that constant change is an essential feature of life. You may talk of personal change - both physical and mental - or there may be changes which are considered discoveries or inventions that somehow mark the beginning of a new era. Over the ages pioneers have risen above the masses and introduced the world to new, often controversial ideas and thoughts which received different forms of fate: some aroused interest and curiosity, while others were subject to prompt rejection if not scorn and ridicule. There can be many reasons for the mixed reception, but an important element for being accepted seems to be that the conditions were ‘ripe’ - the land on which the ‘seeds’ were thrown must have been prepared for the new thoughts to germinate and grow, and several ideas had to be introduced several times to win recognition.

The Alexandrian astronomer, Aristarchus of Samos, is a good example of someone whose ideas were not approved because - it turned out later - he was ahead of his time. Already B. C. 200 he was promoting the idea that the earth moved around the sun and not vice versa. But the astronomer did not manage to convince his colleagues because his hypothesis implied that the universe and hence the distances to the stars had to be considerably longer than people were able to imagine. So the necessary prerequisites for Aristarchus’s thoughts were not present because it was not only the astronomers’ beliefs about the earth's position in relation to the sun that had to be accepted: the whole idea (or prejudice) about the universe's nature had to be changed - and this called for a revolution of a metaphysical nature which was impossible to implement. Not until the 16th century when Copernicus re-introduced the same suggestion the road had been paved for the claim, - and even then it took between 100-200 years before it was widely accepted in the scientific world.

No matter how well innovative ideas are argued for, it appears that research and discoveries which oppose the known and accepted worldview have always found it difficult to prosper. Some people have even had to pay in the cruelest way for their heretical belief - not least during the inquisition where several who spoke against the canonized knowledge expressed in the Bible were condemned to the stake if they were not - as Galileo Galilei - given the option to withdraw their theories to avoid this brutal fate.

It is perhaps surprising, and sometimes you may even smile a little at the conservatism and resistance which time and again turned up when new hypotheses were put forward, and many will say that this is a tendency that belongs to the past and not in our modern times of transparency and openness.

Nevertheless, in recent decades alternative practitioners have had to fight quite a battle to be just a little bit accepted by the National Health Care of my home country, Denmark. One of the problems has been that they were unable to present so-called scientific ‘proof’ of the applied treatments5, some of which are undoubtedly also rather problematic, while others such as acupuncture based on a couple of thousand years of experience in other cultures do not appear to require further documentation.

A lot can be said - and has already been said elsewhere - about this theme. However, what is important here is to discern a positive feature of the process that has taken place and which is not nearly finished yet, namely that a large part of the Danish population now question the basis on which this accepted 'truth' is based. One could also say that a growing number of people have begun to open up to impressions from other cultures and are thus inspired to listen more inwards to their intuitive knowledge. The result seems to be that quite a few can perceive a discrepancy between this internal knowledge and the external which society accept and to a wide extent base any new development on.

Now I have mentioned medicine as an example of an area where many may find the circle too narrow, but in several other places there are cultural, social and even religious challenges that drive us to explore the area outside the accepted circle.

It is at this point in time that something unknown unveils itself and pushes some people over the accepted circle line: the means is an experience of the sphere I have mentioned in the foreword as mundus imaginalis, - in other words a spiritual experience. This may seem to be a pretty hefty claim, which some might find a little farfetched, but it is nonetheless a claim which I will argue for in this book: here I will present some ideas that I personally have found comfort in, when I happened to find myself in a situation which meant that I could no longer be contained within the well-known circle, because I quite spontaneously had a series of mystical experiences.

The solution for me was to draw a new and larger circle - and this book will tell you how I managed to do so by the assistance of various sources. I also want to share with the reader how my reality subsequently appears and how it influences my daily life, which in many ways is very similar to, yet also very different from the life I led before the experiences took place.

The first step for me was to explore how my mystical experiences were perceived around the world, and I wondered why we in Denmark only seem to consider this kind of experience as something pathological, - and I did by no means feel ill. Below I will describe some of the things I have encountered in my quest for meaning.

Perceptions of spiritual experiences

"A philosophy that does not culminate in a metaphysic of ecstasy is vain speculation; a mystical experience that is not grounded on a sound philosophical education is in danger of degenerating and going astray"6

This opinion can be traced to the Iranian mystic Suhrawardi, who was martyred in Aleppo, Syria, in 1197, but hardly many contemporary philosophers would agree with him in the first part of the sentence, and most psychiatrists or psychologists will probably ever have considered the last part. Although great thinkers such as Descartes and Pascal - and probably also Kierkegaard - had spiritual experiences, there is apparently no professional interest to deal with them, just as it is probably unlikely that a Western university would allow such an experience as a criterion for the award of a diploma within the relevant branches of science! The reasons why the importance of spiritual experience are totally neglected are probably many, but one of them is no doubt that a number of powerful men from the Christian church at an Ecumenical council in A.D. 869 reduced the tripartite anthropology of spirit, soul, and body to a duality of body and soul thus making it impossible (i.e. legal) to consider spiritual forms as genuine phenomena that were really existing. Instead they were banished to the illusion and labeled as fiction.

In cultures outside the Western world it is however possible to find support for Suhrawardi’s view. The world's oldest spiritual traditions of which you find scattered remnants all over the globe and collectively name shamanism, thus regard the spiritual experience as essential for becoming a shaman, i.e. a person who acts as a link between humans and the part of reality that goes beyond them in order to promote a person’s or a society's capacity for survival and wellbeing. But apart from this and from the mystic tradition to which Suhrawardi belonged there is not much focus on the spiritual experience.

Both shamanism and some mystical traditions concentrate on education which provides insight into the spiritual dimension, and the spiritual experience is an essential element in it: either a person has a spontaneous experience, which launches a more formal education, or he/she goes through rituals and techniques which may (perhaps!) result in a spiritual experience. Where training in various fields of knowledge is possible and accessible to many with the ability to acquire learning, it is not certain that the spiritual experience is obtained. It does not seem to occur on command. And although the aforementioned methods, ranging from prayer and meditation over fixed and self-inflicted torture to dancing and drumming, can be considered as an indication of the direction in which we should seek, no guarantee is issued: the spiritual experience seems to defy all attempts at control and imitation. It finds its own way, regardless of what humans may exercise of imagination.

Therefore, it is perhaps not quite as odd as you might think at first glance that there are people emerging in a modern and not particularly religious community as the Danish, who claim to have experiences that may be described as spiritual. This may be due to the media's rapidly growing focus on spiritual phenomena which has made it more permissible to think along these lines, so people are no longer afraid of being labeled as crazy, if they experience something mysterious - something supernatural. But it may also reflect the fact that there is a number of Danes who - without knowing it - are made of the right ‘material’ for the spiritual experiences to break through.

These are not always nice and pleasant - they can actually sometimes be rather scary - and I consider it possible at least to some extent to avoid any negative impact through information on the subject. Unlike countries such as Sweden, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and the United States7, Denmark’s scientific community seem to have no wish to learn more about the mystical dimension, so instead of meeting the spiritual experiences with curiosity and appreciation, they are normally ignored or rejected as illusions.

This book is intended as an attempt to make a modest contribution to filling in this gap, since I want to argue for the spiritual experience as a way of obtaining the new thinking which the world so desperately needs. I must admit that I can hardly describe myself as an expert, neither in the philosophical nor in the spiritual area, but I meet Suhrawardi’s main requirement: I have personally had several spiritual experiences and I have spent these last 10 years studying the topic to the best of my ability. Initially, I just wanted to use the knowledge I acquired to understand and accept myself as the person I had become, and during the process I have come to realize that I may well have bumped into an unacknowledged aspect of the human being that is about to emerge and consequently needs serious attention to be received as a gift to humanity. Only the future will show whether my assertion is correct.

I have divided my book into three parts: In the first part I present my own experiences that extend from lucid dreams or visions into powerful spiritual experiences. These descriptions are given on an ordinary ‘daily basis’, because when I had the experiences I had concerned myself with self-development, but only to a limited extent. Moreover, I had no advantage of being able to see the series of experiences in a context or place them in a framework of understanding that went beyond the limits of my normal life with a family and an ordinary job in a bank. I have tried not only to describe the experiences themselves, but also to tell you a bit about how I understood them and to what extent they influenced my life.

Thus these are mystical experiences interpreted with what one might call ‘common sense’ at a time when I was open to, but not particularly drawn to the so-called supernatural. In retrospect it is possible to trace a certain development in my explanatory model, so you can say that my everyday understanding - at least to some degree – over a period of time begins to merge with the thoughts that I have found in various books.

In the second part I will address the subject on a more theoretical basis. I will describe the research taking place in this area and the difficulties encountered in this connection. I will mention other attempts to solve the mystery of the spiritual experience and refer to books and websites on the Internet dealing with the area. There will be parts of the papers I've written during my studies in philosophy and philosophy of science at Aalborg University, and I have tried to adapt the text so that it hopefully becomes accessible for the reader. That said, I would also like to underline that I have made use of some models and theories which have helped me increase my understanding, and thus they have all contributed to give my life meaning. There may be other theories that might have been used.

In the third and final part I will explain how my spiritual experiences have influenced my mind and in this connection I will describe my own personal understanding of the new way of thinking. This is actually not so easy, for one thing to be able to do something - to think in a new way - another thing is to explain how you do it. There is a difference between being able to perform a task and to teach others to do it. When you're born and raised in Denmark, you learn Danish, but being able to speak Danish is not the same as being able to teach others the language. Ask anyone who has tried to teach a foreigner Danish; there are many rules in the Danish language of which persons born and raised in Denmark are not aware, let alone can describe!

That is the way I understand the knowledge I have about my new, imaginal thinking: I can use it to a certain degree, but my explanatory models are still quite primitive. So please bear with me in this respect!

As mentioned, I have chosen to present my own experiences, - a situation which has several advantages: I avoid trespassing the ethical limits of other people, - I can personally vouch for everything I write, - and I can take the liberty of presenting my personal interpretation of the events. In addition, of course, there is the personal motive, which is to know myself at a deeper level. It is an eternal, ongoing and exciting process, the importance of which gets clearer and clearer to me each day.

I do not know if Suhrawardi would have considered my studies of philosophy as 'healthy'. He lived in another culture in another era and essential points can therefore be said to be located far away from the context of my thinking. Nevertheless, I hope he would have appreciated my approach; and he might even have given me an appreciative nod, if he had had the chance!

What is meant by spiritual experiences?

Above, I have been talking about spiritual experiences, as if this concept describes something of which we all share a mutual perception. This is perhaps true to some extent: most people probably have an intuition about what is meant, and some may even have had experiences which they consider spiritual.

To create a framework for the issue I wish to address, I find that the time has come to present more concrete details. This is not as simple a matter, for it turns out that there is no fixed definition of what is actually meant by 'spiritual experiences'.

The events vary greatly and are impossible to recreate because of their spontaneous and volatile character: there is no way to control them, no direct measurements can be made, and everything must be based on individual reports.

This leaves room for diverging interpretations, and these will depend on the worldview of the persons affected.

A frequently occurring form of experiences, however, is identified as the so-called peak experiences, - timeless moments, or moments of ecstasy, like that described below8:

a) On 30 December 1984, about 7 p.m., I was in a bus on my way home from work. Suddenly and without warning I found myself in the midst of a golden light, and I slid into a deep, almost meditative state where the surroundings disappeared: the only thing I noticed was the golden light both inside and outside of the bus - and I was filled with an "otherworldly" feeling of peaceful bliss.

The experience lasted until I got off the bus 5 to 10 minutes later. But the feeling of peaceful bliss still occupied my mind and my body, and now 15 years later I can still sense this feeling when I think of the experience. I was 44 years old when I had this experience, and I was aware that it was a very special experience which I treasured quietly, and I did not tell others about it till many years later.

Today, when I look back on this fantastic experience, I can see that it has had a major influence on my life. It has almost split my life into a life before and a life after.

Before the experience I was an ordinary hard-working, single mother with a good job and an education in public administration and organization. I attended to my work, took care of my children and home. I was politically engaged and sat on the school board.

Suddenly I began to notice things I had never heard of before. Some friends told me that they had their horoscope made by a lady who lived less than 15 km from my home. I had never heard of the lady or heard of horoscopes - I thought they only existed as weekly horoscopes in magazines, and to me that was just nonsense.

Now, however, I got curious and had to my own horoscope made - with great personal benefit. And within 3 months from the experience I found myself on a course in personal development, where I learned about chakras, dreams, projections, meditation, astrology, energy and light workers, and much more. During this course, I also had some wonderful experiences, and my interest in astrology, particularly the psychological approach was aroused, and within 6 months I had started on a 3-year course for astrological therapists.

Other experiences are known as visions or lucid dreams, like the following report:

b) I flew out into space and could see the earth from above. It was very beautiful. Then I 'dived' and I discovered that I was hovering over some Chinese people who were busy with their work.

I got a message: We all have a job. The task is never greater than we can easily perform it. By listening to ourselves - to our intuition or inner voice, we know what to do. If everyone did their job, there would be complete harmony on earth. Then I got a fantastic sense of deep harmony.

Some experiences have a more intimidating nature, like the following:

c) I had suddenly begun to suffer from panic attacks. I became afraid of dying, I feared being alone, I had fear of acting where there were many people, fear of illness, fear of many different things. In retrospect, it was basically fear of life. What will life bring to me? Am I good enough? Who am I? Who was I before – is there a ‘before’? And last but not least: What/ who am I to become - and in what way? In this period of anxiety I contacted an NLP therapist, who explained that in the way I described my situation, she believed that I was close to a big change/breakthrough in my life, and that I should not be afraid if I suddenly had a special experience. About half a year passed before the predicted special experience took place: One night I was sound asleep. Suddenly I woke up and was wide awake. I turned and twisted my body for a while and then suddenly I heard an incredibly deep, loud sound - but only in my left ear. Initially, I considered whether I had begun to suffer from tinnitus, but the sound grew louder and more intense, and my body was lifted up from the bed so that my head touched the pillow and the rest of the body was in an upright position. I could see the situation from above - and the area where my body used to be was filled with a very bright light. Now, I was asked in a way which was not with words or thoughts: "Do you want to have your karma reduced?" To this I replied: "No". Then I was asked: "Will you let go of your anxiety?" To this I replied: "Yes."

The NLP therapist had said that I should not be afraid. But I was - and what can one resort to in such an inexplicable and strange situation? Well, I prayed the Lord’s Prayer repeatedly. Suddenly the sound stopped and I found myself back in bed as if nothing had happened. It was such a strange experience so the next morning I was considering if I had just been dreaming. But no, I was sure I had experienced it. However, I could not really bring myself to talk to anyone about it because I was afraid of being categorized as a lunatic - so I phoned the therapist to share the experience with her. After this experience my life changed radically. My dream has always been to have my own firm and helping others – and I succeeded without any problems at all. I did not seek the solutions; they came to me. My relationship with my parents has changed – one could say that at the age of 34 I have finally grown up - and my worldview has changed - it is still changing, and deep down I know that my experience that night will not be my last - there will be more, but not until I am ready to accept and understand.

As shown by the three reports they differ quite a lot, but nevertheless, it seems possible to point out some common features:

The experiences all have a

communicative

character (not necessarily linguistic)

The persons are apparently affected at a deep level by this communication, i.e. the experiences have a transforming effect.

The communication seems to take place with another kind of reality than we normally perceive through our five senses.

What is learned can only to a certain extent be described in words

When I highlight communication as an essential feature common to the spiritual experience, it is not so much because the content itself has my interest, but rather the fact that there seems to be different levels of communication which may be classified as follows:

A sensory experience that can be considered a wordless, mono-logical form of message from the unknown and goes beyond cognition and logic: it seems to impact the person without being ‘filtered’. In report a), there is light, but 'presence' and sounds also seem to fall into this category.

A mono-logical form of message which the unknown uses some kind of language to express. In case b) it is about life's meaning. Sometimes the messages appear in the form of commands to perform a particular deed (cf. e.g. Joan of Arc).