Many people claim to be guided by God. This claim is two-fold:
- Guided by something other than themselves - That something is God.
For the purpose of initial analysis, we might take "God" as referring to a higher intelligence.
Many people have claimed themselves guided by God and some have done amazing things - e.g. Joan of Arc and others have done terrible things and most have done nothing much that we know of.
So how would a Mason evaluate a claim to be guided by God?
Many more people who do not claim being guided by God have done amazing things. I agree that we can only reason with the tools available and it isn't just raw data. We can make assumptions and guess, hopefully we guess right. Skepticism and a firm understanding of observational bias is helpful in keeping us from falling deeper into ignorance.
It is a poor strategy to rely upon possible delusion as well. Upright and level would require something that could be shared and demonstrated. Do you have information that can be shared and demonstrated?
Some of the secrets of Masonic Science can be obtained in this lifetime by brethren who put in much hard inner work while living an upright life. I have provided a range of experiments for those interested but there have been few responses and not only on this forum.
The alternate strategy is to wait for the rising tide that lifts all humanity.
Experiments should be rigorous and repeatable by other researchers. What happens if I repeat one of your "experiments" and I achieve different results? Do you immediately discard my results in favor of your own?
Peer review is important in any science. In the early phases of inner work it is useful to conduct experiments in a group context so that others can observe the results also.
It often occurs that various group members have different perspectives of inner events that fit neatly together to provide a fuller understanding.
For example, the member leading the experimental process may not be in a position to observe that the experiment has attracted other entities. I was in that situation on one occasion and suddenly speeded up the process without knowing why. One of the group members commented later on the approach of an entity and that I speeded up (rising out of its reach) at exactly that time.
About a week later, out of the blue, I had an email from the other side of the world in which there was a comment that our group was "whisked out of the way". Presumably the "whisking" was the impulse that triggered my speeding up.
So there was a case of an inner process observed locally and remotely at the same time.
- controlling your own level of consciousness precisely and at will - forming a suitable light body - establishing basic light body skills and senses - establishing constructive relationships with the nearby kingdoms of Creation - building clear connections to appropriate higher beings - discovering co-workers and forming a group light body - progressive resolution of personal and group karma.
The preparation takes decades but we have a potentially unlimited number of incarnations ahead so there is plenty of time.
It was an absolute statement that was contrary to your earlier absolute statements. If you do think that you experiments that you mentioned are repeatable and empirically verifiable please send me your methodology and the experimental design. I will conduct the experiment and report the results back.
How are you going with the requirements in post 10?
And when I say experimental I do not mean arbitrary actions to see if there are results.
I mean experimental actions to deal with observed issues. For example, if you see a dark cloud of astral substance over New York, you may experiment with ways to alleviate the symptom and even investigate means of alleviating the proximate causes - assuming of course that the course of action is compatible with karma and free will.
The use of control groups in these cases of a single intervention is complicated but not impossible as parallel time paths can be used to make the comparisons.
I recall the Golden Dawn used to have the testing officer inspect the completeness of visualisations by candidates for Adeptus Minor.
The GD obviously thought the mental processes are empirically verifiable but such mental skills are not spoken of, perhaps to avoid alarming the profane.
- controlling your own level of consciousness precisely and at will - forming a suitable light body - establishing basic light body skills and senses - establishing constructive relationships with the nearby kingdoms of Creation - building clear connections to appropriate higher beings - discovering co-workers and forming a group light body - progressive resolution of personal and group karma.
The preparation takes decades but we have a potentially unlimited number of incarnations ahead so there is plenty of time.
You just described the process of Freemasonry
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home -Wordsworth
That was not my intention but Freemasonry is indeed a valid path, although rather short on technical mentoring in Masonic Science and a bit mangled by well-meaning editors.
Oh, it can be 'empirically verifiable" all righty... to and by people who are on the same level. You cannot verify "esoteric experiments" with a "mundane mind", any more than you could perform heart surgery with a paring knife and a Skilsaw.
