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Use sufi, policy, education, technology, communications, GlobalVillage School
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disintermedation
disintermedation
- ALTERNATIVE STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Peter E. Pflaum. Ph. D.
In Search of the Miraculous:
The Ancient Ways of Knowledge (Sufi)
There are four paths to understanding your full capacities as
a human:
The
wagon is the body (one).
The horses are the passions, the driving
force
(two).
The driver is the mind (three) and the master-passenger
is the soul
and spirit. (four) Seven colors for stages of awareness.
Path One:
The Magician
(
The Wagon) BLUE (Sensual) Progressive Relaxation - Autogentics
- "Body Knowledge"
- bioenergics and deep relaxation - learning
to feel the "life force" - become fully aware of the
body, and your real material nature - WAKE UP! Getting in touch
with your natural powers of intuition, and perception - the keys
to good heath; Nutrition - Exercise
Path Two:
The Lover
(
The Horses) YELLOW and RED (Loving and Passions) Self-Hypnosis,
reprogramming and dream work - Biofeedback and New techniques
free the emotions and passions that are the "driving
Force";
Understand the animal nature. WAKE-UP the free energy that now
is wasted in blame, guilt, shame. Center renewed strength through
love, compassion, hope and union - WAKE-UP your power to have
compassion for yourself and love for others -
The keys to good
relationships and mental health.
Path Three:
The Mind
(
The Driver) RED to BROWN (passion to grounding) Meditation and
visualization - Open the Imagination - Yoga, Tantra - the
Science of Breath - focus of the mind - Spiritual nature - PAY
ATTENTION -
Zen - WAKE-UP to your powers of concentration and focus - the
keys to contentment and satisfaction - success in the tasks of
life Coping Skills -
Assertiveness - Thought Stopping - LETTING-GO
Path Four:
The Commander
(
The Master - Dominating Self)
WHITE Union- GREEN mystic, BLACK passing-on - CLEAR passing-into
the light, you will experience enlightment. You will get in touch
with more of yourself. You will improve your relationships with
others. You will be successful in the tasks of life. You have
learned to control the horses (passions), you have learned to
take care of the wagon (the body); the driver is awake and sober
(the lucid brain) - now you are master of all your spirit -
You are in COMMAND. You have learned Self-observation;
Self-remembering
You have been here before and you will return again
Benefits:
Understanding created by this class will create an autogenetic
response leading to better self-management Techniques. This
experience
will help you think and feel much better. It will help you relax
and reduce stress. You will learn how important and valuable it
is to integrate the mind, body and spirit.
The exercise will help
you to observe and understand your own feeling, character, and
gain more control of your own life.
These sessions will create a feeling of pleasure, joy, and over
all well being.
You will become a calm and relaxed person - with rejuvenated body
sensations, you will see more clearly, you will have clear and
focused thinking. You will experience cheerful thoughts, you will
have a more healthy body, you will be joyful of spirit, you will
be full of energy, you will have clear goals, you will experience
less self-destructive behavior. You will straighten up your
thinking.
You will release your energy that has been tied up in internal
feeling of guilt, blame, accusing others and yourself. You will
be able to forgive others as the cause of your problems and pain.
You will become aware of these negative feeling of shame, fear
- these negative feeling will be replace by positive feeling of
trust - security - certainty - patience - inspiration - You will
become a calm focused person. People will want to be with you.
People will love you. You will know true intimacy - love and
union,
mind, body and spirit. You know true intimacy - love and union,
mind body and spirit; beyond any desires, passions, need, wants,
YOU ARE PERFECT -
Book:
The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook, Davis,
Martha;
Eshelman, E.R.; McKay, M.; New Harbinger Press
Note on prices: Average cost = $1000 a day plus expenses
COURSE OUTLINE
pflaump@wiredbrain.com
RE: Notes from
The Secret Garden:
Mahmud Shabistari, (E.P. Dutton & Co, 1974)
Sufism is not a religion.
The Sufi practice is a the science of
man, or the "Science of Certainty." In most societies,
most of the time, the Sufi could not find acceptance or a
fair hearing. Any ideas that were not devoted to the service of
the state and the prevailing ideology were regarded as not only
odd but dangerous treason, and was feared as subversive.
The
Moslem
cults, the brotherhood, and many others are mixtures. Will the
real Sufi please stand up.
Sufi cloaked their teaching and activities in the outward garb
of religion.
The ability to pretend and remember what is image
and what is real, is a critical Sufi art - but many cults came
to believe the outside as inside. Sufis focused on cultural
pursuits
which in authoritian societies allows certain freedoms and
contacts
with different people.
The Persian-speaking Sufi's dominated the classics, which became
convert Sufi textbooks.
The public forms of Sufism are imitations.
The desire for
fantasies
led to groups and activities that are popular and acceptable to
the dogmatic climate. Imitation Sufis abounded. Scholars and the
public are naturally confused on what is true Sufism and what
is mystic popular imitations.
The Christians have the same problem - the unreal imitations of
Christ and popular but weaken practices. A belief that some cult
has a special way.
Spain became a Sufi center in the Middle Ages, and still in the
south reverberates in songs and stories.
The spread of Culture
from Spain and the Renascence brought Sufi practice to Europe.
The Freemasons were partly based on these traditions.
The Sufi have a special science in psychology and the study of
man. All Sufi activity in the West until after WWI was private.
Sir Richard Burton only saw imitation cults and did not know of
the small private non-cultist Sufis.
The Russo-Armenian philosopher Gurdjief published the first
western
text about a origin in Central Asia with links to the distant
past, early forms of Christianity and the monasteries in the
Hindu
Kirsh. Ouspensky, a disciple, transmitted these ideas in
lectures,
demonstrations, and books.
Dr. Maurice Nicholl and Dr. Kenneth Walker used the
psychologically-oriented
to attempt a system of practice.
The authors of the Bloomsbury
group brought Sufi ideas to literature which continues today by
many writers - Borges, Lesing?, (many more).
The true Sufi potential was largely untouched. Sufi does not have
authority figures, a or a set of customs or habits. It is more
open than Zen and even more difficult to fix in place. Hadrat
Sayed Idries Shah in the major book "
The Sifis" brought
light to the confused situation. His work has brought the Sufi
tradition back into focus for the West.
The all too human desire
to have a talisman, a messianic figure who would transform the
world is not true Sufi but many cults still seek such a ideal.
Idries Shah would not confine himself to closed groups who
thought
they had key to wisdom.
The desire to feel special, to have secrets, ceremonies and
special
knowledge is not unique to these Sufi cults. It is tribal.
Poets, scientist, professors of literature and physics,
anthropologist
claimed something of value in Idries Shah's work. Serious
sociological
journal found the ideas of prime importance in solving current
human problems in advanced societies. It's vital importance to
education and learning became the Society of the Understanding
of the Foundation of Ideas (1966).
So what is Sufi - first you find a Guide - to be continued.
1. FEELINGS - THE NATURE OF BEING HUMAN
After the first exercise each group will report about it's
activity feelings. Each activity will include a presentation
on the next set of activities
The students need to read and
discuss
the short outlines, ideas, and saying in their groups then assign
someone to write up a summary of the discussion and its
connection
to the activity. This is the first level.
The purpose of sufi science is to think systematically about
human behavior including your own. Physical sciences have
accumulated
"knowledge" of the "laws of nature." Because
of magnified thinking, science and technology has changed human
life in basic ways over the last few centuries. Science makes
a distinction between opinion and facts. Facts are parts of
knowledge
that can be believed beyond a reasonable doubt. Facts exist
independently
of the attitude of the person, their culture and interests.
The
practical applications of knowing more and having greater skills
is not a matter for debate. If the student as a person and as
member of a society is better informed and better organized than
other persons or groups they will be more sucessful.
The smart coordinated will gain more points than the stupid and
poorly organized. Compare Haiti and Switzerland or Florida and
Massachusetts or Volusia County and Seminole County, to see the
effects of different levels of wealth, education, skill,
political
institutions, and general sophistication. We must make these
distinctions or everything becomes a meaningless blur. Of course,
some people will not like the comparisons.
In evolution and "creationism" the idea of
scientific
facts is tested against strongly held religious beliefs.
The
facts of geology, astronomy, evolutionary biology and even genics
"prove" that the universe is about fifteen billion
years
old and life is several billion. History is carried in our
genes.
We all agree the earth spins around the sun, energy and matter
are neither created nor destroyed, to every action there is and
equal and opposite reaction, E=mc2 and we believe in other
"laws
of nature."
These are "theories" that explain
phenomena
until there is a "better" theory.
The clockwork image
of the Newtonian theory has been replaced by a
"probability"
quanta theory because of new observations in physics.
The first issue for discussion is the nature of
"knowledge"
and the role of science in the understanding of human relations.
Question two is about the nature of human interactions. Can
there be a scientific study of man and society? If so what
"laws"
have been discovered? Is there a natural law in human affairs?
CONNECTION TO EXERCISE:
The beginning of understanding starts with ourselves and
our "group." We learn to listen to each other and find
out what is important to us as people. What do we know about
ourselves?
"Who am I?" We learn by interaction with others and
seeing how we are the same and different.
The beginning of
awareness
of the "world" is by opening windows into ourselves
and others. It has been called conscienceness raising. A primary
goal of social science education is to become more aware of the
connections between what we are and the larger social and global
context.
Discuss these ideas in your group. Write up a short
statement
of what you believe. (Agreement and disagreement)
Then the groups
pick someone to make a report to the class. Find the connection
to the empathetic recall exercise. What is the mission for your
life ?
PERSONALITY
SUFI Science depends on a theory of psychology. Psychology
and the social sciences are not two separate subjects but just
ways of looking at the same issues. TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS or
SOCIAL RELATIONS is the study of people within systems. People
are not fully "human" except for social systems and
groups and societies are only collections of people.
The
"ME"
is the interpersonal self and the "I" is the
personality
held out to the world.
Psychology is based on the working of the brain.
The under
standing of nerves and biochemistry of mind-brain functions can
give a solid foundation to understanding how people function.
The right and left brain (for right-handed people) is a physical
characteristic where the linear language center is located in
the left part of the brain and the visual holistic centers are
in the right brain.
The YIN and YANG of personalities are the
balances between the ordered step-by-step left brain compared
to the pattern seeking and generalizing right brain.
The
Myers-Briggs
method is based on a psychology developed by Jung.
The four
dimensions
of the test which are; introvert/extrovert, intuition/sensing,
feeling/thinking, and perceiving/judging fit into the two
dimensions
of the yin/yang right/left brain types. People tend to be
practical
(extrovert, sensing, thinking and judging) or spiritual,
(introvert,
intuitive, feeling, and preceiving ) male or female, structured
or weblike. One type is extroverted, sensing, thinking, judging
(practical - concrete sequential/experience) the other is
introverted,
intuitive, feeling, abstract and reflective.
Social groups reinforce certain characteristics and suppress
others.
Learning and behavioral "styles" depend on biology
(temperament)
and social conditioning.
The "ME" depends on the nerves and chemicals in the
brain, the "I" is the result of family and social life.
The two may match or conflict.
The individual seeks pleasure and avoids pain. Social
systems
"function" as pathway of individual behavior - accepted
or repressed.
These pathways can be open, partly open, closed
or completely closed. Evolution, cooperation and competition,
set the biological framework for the species. Human appear to
have evolved from packs.
The "pack" or tribe has both
cooperation and competition in gaining protection from predators
and other packs.
They cooperate in the long process of raising children. (Compare
the movies "Arrowhead" of Ayn Ryan MGM? and "Our
Daily Bread" or "
The Salt of the Earth" from
Warner
Brothers)
The big brain of people requires and large head. Babies
have to be born small enough to get out. Human infants are
especially
helpless for a long time and need the protection and support of
the group. Men are only 20% bigger than women. This suggests that
stable pairs rather than dominate male mating patterns were
common.
In animals where one male dominates the herd the males get very
large because only the toughest male gets to breed.
The function
of social groups is to survive and reproduce.
The development
of language, technology, social habits help one society grow and
expand, while other societies decline and disappear. Vast
majorities
of "tribal" societies have not survived and have been
overrun by more successful groups.
The expansion of the "White, Western" civilization
in the last few centuries was based on advanced military
technology
(growth of modern science) and governmental and private systems
of finance, insurance, taxation, and other forms of social
organization.
Honda and General Motors compete. One form of social organization
is superior to the other.
There are winners and losers of
market-share.
So it is with cultures and empires.
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