Steve Briggs
Member
Steve: In an earlier interview on Buddha at the Gas Pump (RIck Archer's popular show) I mentioned how, as I progressed on my spiritual journey, I became more of a heart person. I remember saying something like, 'over time my awareness shifted from my head to my heart.' This shift was monumental for me and it occurred during my 7+ years living and working in India. It was also jump-started by Maharishi when he initiated me at a meditation retreat in the French Alps ('74). Maharishi advised shifting my meditation focus from my head to my heart at the time. To be honest, I wasn't very good at it, but as I worked in India, visited Nepal frequently, and made numerous pilgrimages to the Himalaya, the instruction began to make sense. I began to be comfortable with a new way of functioning.
As Amma (Kerala 'hugging' saint) once said, 'the intellect cuts things asunder like a pair of scissor, but the heart sews things together like a needle.' Generalities never do full justice. For me, Amma's words sum up much of the cultural differences between east and west. I encountered so much heart, especially in Nepal where being in the culture was like a rasayana (natural medicinal remedy). That said, the intellect plays a huge role in our progress.
Michael: I read in yoga and Vedic metaphysics for years, and was profoundly influenced. But I could not conceive a passion for the practice aspect, despite efforts. Something was missing for me, and I am only now beginning to formulate a sense of what that is. Yoga is very much about inward directed awareness, and operates in realms where intellect has limited usefulness. You can get to talk to your Sirian mates because you have followed a path that strengthens and refines (ultimately) inner awareness. Still, its not a perfect path. The West has focused on outer awareness, also imperfectly.
Steve: Maharishi used to talk a lot about 200% of life: 100% material and 100% spiritual. Growing up in upper middle class comfort, the 100% I craved was the spiritual side of the coin. Many of my TM friends seemed to put the 100% material side on equal footing, probably due to the practicalities of raising a family in America. I do not believe that Vedic philosophy demands an inward directed life. The path of Karma Yoga (yoga of action) appeals to dynamic thinkers and doers, and they have a great capacity to improve the quality of life for many. During the years that I was instructing corporate types in India how to meditate (huge irony that a westerner would teach meditation to Indians -- Maharishi kept reminding me that Indians like having their song sung by someone else), I repeatedly interacted with India's Fortune 100 CEOs. These people took their positions very seriously because in every case, the success of their companies meant food and shelter for literally hundreds of thousands of people. Very few can pursue a spiritual path if they are suffering from malnutrition or are homeless. Amma from Kerala tells her 'children' that many of her devotees are not skilled meditators, however they all engage in massive seva (service to others) such as disaster relief, projects for the poor and homeless, and such. It's impressive what she's done for humanity, and with just a 6th grade education.
MIchael: Perhaps ET is talking to both? When I first read in anthropology in the 1980s I was struck by an account of the impact of introducing iron axes into indigenous communities in Queensland. The act broke cultures. In fact every intrusion into an indigenous culture seems to have resulted in traumatic disruption - and that trauma ripples through centuries as peoples are dislocated from the roots of their identities. The price of progress, apparently - but progress toward what? If we take the contemporary West as an example - its toward an angst of meaningless and a confusion of identity. If we heed the lurid conspiracy theories the one percenters are using their captured ET tech to escape the Earth because it has become so crap. That's hardly progress - evolve enough to shit in your nest so badly you have to leave it.
So, Steve, I want to tax your imagination here. Here's a scenario that makes sense to me. Let's say say there is ET who predominantly gets around in craft - ETphys - and there's ET (like your Sirian pals) who operate on a different level mostly - ETpsi. It would seem to me that ETphys would appeal to the materialistic types - fab tech - and might assist them to fly off into the cosmos on a pretty fruitless quest. They could make here a better place but they will not, because screwing up here equals profit and power. On the other hand ETpsi is more about relational interactions with Earthly kin of all creatures. For them love lets you fly without machine wings. Psi tech is different to fab tech.
Steve: Michael, this raises a point that Alex probed but which I didn't fully address during our interview. Alex wanted to know whether I thought these extended consciousness abilities that are associated with ETs (both phys and psi) are inherently spiritual, or not. Alex asked, "Where is God in all this?" I was a bit slow on the uptake because I haven't given that much thought to the 'darker' implications of some of these abilities.
A high school boy who I council each week wanted me to watch Doctor Strange which I viewed earlier this week. Like so many films of this genre, supernatural powers are a big deal, and characters on both sides of the force possessed these powers in the movie. Star Wars, Harry Potter, Marvel Comic themes... everybody employs this theme. And that's a good thing, because, as I've mentioned, free will is a major player in the human condition. BTW: I've discovered that free will is not present in every ET civilization.
Getting back to ETphys vs ETpsi: both groups typically have abilities that dwarf current human capacities, but it's not the advanced abilities that determine whether a group is 'spiritual' or not. It's the intent behind the abilities. Years ago I read a series of books called, 'The Law of One,' dialogues between an American physicist and a group of ETs and their spokesman, Ra. In Ra's commentary on the polarities found in living beings throughout the cosmos, Ra states that some beings are intent on control/manipulation for the purpose of serving self (black magic falls into this category) while other beings are motivated by the desire to serve in ways that promote light/love and oneness with God (Jedi, Harry Potter are fictional examples). This is not new information, but it emphasizes that polarization of light and dark exists in our consciousness, and, as humans, that's what we need to sort out individually and collectively. That's our homework assignment... our PhD dissertation topic if we're a bit further along in our studies.
ETphys and ETpsi can be found in both positive and negative categories. Lesser evolved but loving ETs who fly over our cities may be ETphys but they might have a purer intent than some more developed ETpsi groups. That theme was touched on in Doctor Strange where dark sorcerers betrayed their master and stole secret spells, then tried to take control of the earth on behalf of their evil lord, Dormammu.
The ETpsi such as the Sirians seem to be firing on all cylinders. They are advanced technologically and spiritually. The greatest threat comes from those groups that are tech advanced but lacking in spiritual advancement. If I were to categorize one group that fits that description, it would be AI oriented ETs. AI, in my opinion, is a very major threat to humanity and the rest of our galaxy because it's soulless. Think global virus infecting/controlling all things digital. What if that AI infestation were more advanced than our cutting edge scientists? For me, runaway AI is a concern on the level of global atmospheric change, possibly bigger. As I watch humanity rely more and more on screens and less and less on face to face human interaction, I wonder where this is going. Taken to an extreme, humans may one day in the not too distant future opt for AI bodies that don't grow old or become diseased. What if that AI body can't accommodate our soul. Then what do we have?
