 by Maurie Pressman Last month I wrote about adventures in the Superworld using the Supermind, which we access when we are quiet, when we remove the encumbrance of ordinary thinking. We enter through meditation and through the dream. We see that it is a wonderful world -- and ready for us. We probably visit it easily and often, and then dismiss it as "only imaginary." The dismissal is the working of the veil of doubt which descends and keeps us convinced that "ordinary reality" is the only thing that exists. But if we remove the veil and linger in these inspired messages, we enter more and more easily. Then we can see not only the promise of the Superworld, of immortality and divine beauty, but also its links with life here and now. The more we practice this entry the more it will be with us. Here are some more of my adventures in that world, again with the hope that they will open the way a little more easily for you. Points Of Potential Rudolf Steiner learned from Goethe, that in studying the plant, one finds that one leaf is like another, is like another. Goethe said that when there is malformation in a plant, such as when a stem bulges instead of becoming a leaf, there is a descent, an inappropriate intrusion of the spiritual plan into the plant, upsetting the design and making for malformation. The same would be true of disease, as in the case of hydrocephalus, wherein the head of an infant bulges because of congenital malformation. This implies that the archetype (the spiritual blueprint) of the entire plant is up there in the spiritual realm, and that it steps down into the material realm. In the regular course of events, each leaf wants to become a whole plant but this is inhibited so that the design may be carried out in an organized way. This is the way the cortex of the brain operates. The cortex is an inhibiting agent, limiting what comes through in the way of information so that we may think in an organized way rather than to become flooded. An example of the opposite would be the idiot savant who remembers all too much of a single topic, crowding out his information flow and causing his maladaptation to society. We, too, experience something similar when we feel the confusion that occurs when too much noise or too much information comes in. In the ordinary course of events, we erect a protective stimulus barrier against such an intrusion. The schizophrenic and the autistic child have an insufficient stimulus barrier, and therefore suffer. All this suggests that in the upper realms, the condensation of information and energy is such that a point of light can represent an entire line of poetry or more, while at the same time containing the color and the sound of, perhaps, a musical composition. It conforms to the fact that in order to become useful on this plane, this highly charged energy must go through a step-down transformer which is the body, into a physically useful plan. This occurs by inhibition (stepping-down). The opposite is seen when the accumulation of energy in foreplay, and then the friction of intercourse results in the subsequent explosion of orgasm. There is an ecstatic contraction, and then the breaking through into the quietude of the upper realm. It conforms also with the fact that the soul is too big for the body -- as is seen when love becomes so strong that it leads to impatience, and becomes near intolerable. The lovers can hardly stay apart. This principle also conforms to the fact that the descent of the high energy of the "above" falls into the containment of the seed, which then unfolds into the plant, or the oak tree, or when gamete seed meets gamete seed, the whole human being is conceived. This gives us a glimpse of the way things are after death, in the upper realms. Not only is this true of the immediate realm after death, but on and on and up, when potential becomes condensed into greater potential, and into yet greater, until we arrive at the point of Light from which everything has descended -- the Void which is, at the same time, the All.
I had a dream which relates to this: The Figure 8 Meditation At a point in meditation, my eyes were retracted to the third eye. I then entered into that realm of Beyond, the Realm of Knowing Beyond Knowing I saw the most marvelous, intricate, three-dimensional figure eights, traveling in colors, exquisite colors, each throughout, interdigitating, not tangled, well-spaced, yet complex. Their counterpart, at the same time, was that of beautiful musical notes, as if through a clear and ethereal horn instrument. Then throughout the day this faded, lost partially to memory. Thus is described the veil of doubt and repression, and thus the workings of the veil. But it doesn't matter. This was a revelation So -- the poem was written as one point spaced after another one with subsequent peaks and valleys spaced differently from the previous, spaced more closely to that, and so on. Each point was a point of the poem, and sounded the sound of music, and, as I think of it, emitting beautifully colored lights. I was trying, and succeeding, in copying it very carefully. Associations: Each point is a point of condensed potential, as things are in the upper realms, very much together, a gestalt of sound, vision, feeling of joy, and color, and the resonant beauty of poetry. All of this wrapped up into the one point of potential. Commentary: It is wonderful to contemplate the vast power that resides "up there." But it is all the more wonderful because we can reside up there, now, in this waking lifetime. It happens all the time when we trust memory and see how powerful it can become if we trust and get doubt out of the way. Speed reading allows us to absorb so much more than we thought we ever could. The release of memory from repression in the course of hypnosis or good psychotherapy shows the vast capacity of the mind. Furthermore, the mind is also in the body. I have had so many patients who have been involved in auto accidents and have sustained injuries and have suffered prolonged pain. When they are placed in a state of relaxed mind, and the painful area is massaged, the memory of the accident will flash before them with all the attendant emotional shock. After this has happened a number of times, the pain will be lessened and even disappear. This indicates that the mind is also in the muscles. I believe that there is no limit to the capacity of the mind, if we were but to get self-consciousness and ambition out of the way. If we were to surrender to the higher power within us, we would release it. But this must be done without selfish ambition, and in surrender to the higher state. This means practicing patience, and waiting till the gift is given. And lastly: Brotherhood When I meditate, and say the Shema Yisrael (The Hebrew High Prayer) I often find myself praying and saying the Shema with Jesus. We are arm in arm, arms around each other, both of us looking up to the holy summit of the mountain, surrounded by the effulgent Light which is a manifestation of God. And then I knew that I had trod those mountain steps with Moses, as Moses and together with Moses, inwardly, outwardly, separately and together. As we ascended we met God. He was Light, as He emblazoned his message on the holy tablets of stone. Then I thought, "That is God, giving the Law; and God gave Grace in the form of Jesus. Jesus was our Rabbi There is no separation between Christian and Jew. I am Jewish by identity, by habit, by birth, by stamped identification. Through my Jewishness I reach everybody and I am everybody. I am Christian, I am Jewish, I am Buddhist, I am Moslem. I am, and they are, us. Commentary: And so it is in the Superworld, the Coming World. We are full of capacity, we are unencumbered by the self-consciousness of the ego as well as the body, we are in felt unity with all our brothers and sisters, and we are all ONE in the All.
Maurie D. Pressman, M.D. is the co-author (with Patricia Joudry) of Twin Souls: A Guide to Finding Your True Spiritual Partner, published by Carol Southern Books, an imprint of Crown Publishers, New York. Dr. Pressman is Emeritus Chairman of Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Temple University Health Sciences Center. He is Medical Director at the Center for Psychiatric Wellness, clinics that operate in Philadelphia and Haddonfield, N.J. These clinics bridge traditional and spiritual psychotherapy. Dr. Pressman can be reached at 200 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106; telephone 215-922-0204.
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