Making SENSE of It All – Pt. 1

SUIT UP & TUNE IN – WE WILL GO DOWN

When we take the Faith Fall from heavenly angelic status to three dimensional mortality, it is as the poet has said, “Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness” but equipped with a backpack full of supplies. These supplies which protect us from suffering irreparable injuries like total amnesia or overexposure to the new elements with which we will come into contact, could be accurately described as the functions of a special space suit. The space suit not only covers us but also features a communication device in the helmet, so that we may ever maintain contact with our Celestial Home Base. When we were issued these psychonaut space suits, we were told that – Inasmuch as we do not defile them, they will be shields and a protection to us until we have finished our work on the earth. The space suit is your physical body and its particular functions with which your soul interfaces are the senses.

Ray Bradburry, who recently completed his “work on Earth”, called it the “Wonderful Ice Cream Suit.” Brother Bradburry spoke of this interfacing not only in terms of the powers with which the suit seems to endow us, but also the gifts that we bring to it. By cherishing it and refusing to die, one may become an illustrious or Illustrated Man. Hue-Man beings clothe themselves in coats of many colors, through which their Christ Light may shine to the world. But we must remember that it is not the clothes that make the man. God makes the man and wears him as clothing. Perhaps this is not the best analogy for we who have been raised in modern materialistic culture to place such importance on clothing and not so much on the body and even less on the spirit. It is this imbalance that turns useful tools into stumbling blocks. But I am of the opinion that many of us are awakening day by day to a greater understanding of the condescension of God. And we are starting the journey with an echoing of Nephi’s humble declaration: “I know that [God] loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.”

Whether Lehi’s Dream or Nephi’s accessing of that same dream; from Joseph Smith’s First Vision to Saul’s Visitation on the road to Damascus, what is being described in these scriptural accounts is typically multi-sensory. There are sights, sounds, tastes, smells and sometimes extreme shaking. But were these in every case detected by the physical senses or were they sometimes only perceived spiritually? Or is it in fact necessary that there be a separation between the two? I believe that what we commonly refer to as the five carnal senses exist only as extensions of their spiritual counterparts. We read the words on the pages, where holy writ admonishes us to activate the spiritual senses, but do we really see with eyes to see or hear with ears to hear?

At church we have all heard mention of our spirit bodies but in our pride and ignorance we rarely pause to ask Sunday School teachers, Priesthood™ leaders or even ourselves about these bodies. The youngest of children in the Nursery and Primary programs sing a version of “Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes” which is peculiar to the disappointingly non peculiar people of LDS culture. Our version, however, shares much in common with the rest of the World’s version and they both end with the lyrics, “Eyes, Ears, Mouth & Nose.” It just so happens, that the Yod, Heh, Vau, Heh of the sacred name of YHWH correspond with Sight, Hearing, Taste & Smell. Touch also is alluded to in this children’s song through the pointing actions which accompany the performance of it. When the spirit brought these facts to my attention, I began to suspect that senses were of more import than I had been led to think. For it had been an Inner Sense in the First Place, that inspired my mind only moments before the revelation, to invoke the name and thereby tune into the radio frequency of  ^EEAA_OOAA^EEAA_OOAA^EEAA_OOAA^EEAA_OOAA^EE

Proverbs 20:12 – The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, Yahweh has made even both of them.

Isaiah 11:3 – His delight will be in the fear of Yahweh. He will not judge by the sight of his eyes, neither decide by the hearing of his ears.

BABY STEPS – GROWING UP UNTO THE LORD

It is not too surprising that we should be generally unaware of our spirit bodies. We are, after all, awakening from a Deep Sleep that came upon us directly after the formation of our physical bodies was completed. At this point, that we are as childish “babes in the gospel” should be to our shame, as Paul teaches in Hebrews. But babes or child-like in terms of purity of soul are exactly what we must become if we are to inherit the Kingdom. At some point after a little baby takes her first “breath of life” it starts to fall into the Deep Sleep. But for a time she retains much awareness of and from within the Heavenly Realms. It is the lower realms that take some getting use to for the newborn at first. For example, how long does it usually take a baby to discover that she has a mouth? But notice how much of the world the baby is already instinctively discovering through that mouth even before understanding that she has one? The young child, upon finding himself in the Lone and Dreary World, already loosing some feeling in his spirit body, seems to retain enough spiritual wherewithal to use the mouth to cry out unto the Lord. “Oh GOD, hear the words of my mouth!” We would do well to realize that the prayers of the righteous are only advanced baby cries. Now we find ourselves working backwards to become like little children again. A psychological map would be helpful. From where we stand now, we have a severely limited concept of things like, spiritual taste buds, even though these pre-seed the physical taste buds on our temporal tongues by who knows how many millennia. We have to grow back into them. Be of good cheer and let the Gods soothe us in our growing pains. These spiritual senses, though they may hurt coming in (like wisdom teeth) are the Gifts of The Spirit. And they are spoken of by many of the mystics of Mormonism and countless other traditions.

Alma the Younger – “It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.” –Alma 32:28

Joseph Smith – “This is good doctrine. It tastes good. I can taste the principles of eternal life, and so can you. They are given to me by the revelations of Jesus Christ; and I know that when I tell you these words of eternal life as they are given to me, you taste them, and I know that you believe them. You say honey is sweet, and so do I. I can also taste the spirit of eternal life. I know it is good; and when I tell you of these things which were given me by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, you are bound to receive them as sweet, and rejoice more and more.” –King Follett Discourse

Where clairgustance  (perception of the essence of a substance through taste from the spiritual realms.) is manifest we can be sure to find clairalience, (the gift of psychic smell). This is so because the temporal gifts reflect those of the spirit. Smell goes hand in hand with taste. Without it, prophets could not have been aware of the presence of brimstone (sulfur) in visions of Hell. Even Lehi, although he never claimed to have seen an angel outside of “visions and dreams” takes special pains to explain the vividness of his perceptions such as, “most sweet, above all that I ever before tasted” and “white, to exceed all the whiteness that I had ever seen.” It is interesting to note that these things were perceived in a dream state yet are unhesitatingly compared to things perceived in a waking state. What is the difference? If anything we can see that Lehi’s perception while in dream state was more intense than “normal” waking experiences typically are. Things seen, heard, felt, tasted or smelled while “in the spirit” are in this “sense” more real or true than those detected with the outer senses. Our mortal frame is only a shadow of our light/spirit body. The five so called Classical Senses are developing in their probationary state and are therefore inferior to the Spiritual Senses.

Although they are today commonly grouped together and referred to by the vague term,  “sixth sense”, the Spiritual Senses were actually much more widely understood and utilized in ancient times. Mankind collectively has, for the most part, followed the same path as we see the individual take. It’s a round leading from enjoyment of intimate contact with the divine through fully functioning Inner Senses, to increasingly lower levels of spiritual sensation while the Outer Senses take over. Then, if we are diligent in honoring the Circle of Life both within and without, we will come back around to heightened spiritual awareness. But when we come back we will notice that although the “Prodigal Sense” has returned, all is not exactly as it was before our departure. No, this time everything is even better! Now the party really begins and we know what it is to FEEL a FULLNESS of Joy!

STUNTED SPIRITUAL GROWTH – A GROWING  PROBLEM

Why should we be shocked that The Gifts of The Spirit are one and the same as the Psychic Abilities we hear spoken of more and more these days? Are we represented by the character of the “Good Son” who never left Home but lacks a great deal of love and understanding when he displays a “goodie goodie” attitude toward his brother upon his return? I hope we will rather exemplify the more positive aspects of adolescence; namely those of curiosity and an adventurous spirit.

Many a Mormon youth at Especially For Youth (EFY) has asked their supposed spiritual leaders: “How can I know if it’s the Spirit or if it’s just me?” Their leaders, who “receive not the spirit” and therefore should “not teach” as per Doctrine & Covenants 42:14, will unhesitatingly respond with some regurgitated piece of vomit about a “burning in the bosom”, which, to hear them describe it, sounds indistinguishable from indigestion induced heartburn. Then they will strongly recommend always double checking it against the rule of thumb issued by “The Brethren”. They are not to be trusted, especially with our youth. They have, in all too many instances, buried alive that portion of spirit with which they were entrusted. Like the wicked and slothful servant whose soul is stripped from him in the parable of the talents, they supposed that they would be justified because of their “knowledge” of “how the World works”. So they buried their Lord’s talent in that dust of the earth which, for now, composes their temporal bodies. That our temples may serve a holy purpose, it is true. But they are nonetheless TEMPles which when not understood, deteriorate to factories of “dead works” (Moroni 8:23) or “whitened sepulchers” (Matt 23:27) wherein the “dead bury the dead” (Luke 9:60) while vainly imagining they are doing some great service. This goes for LDS temple buildings as well as our physical persons.

“Burning in the bosom”, is a term taken from Holy Scripture and it is all too often erroneously applied to mere emotional reactions. In proper context it is used to describe one single sentiment out of endless possible manifestations of clairsentience,or the alignment of external feeling of the flesh with inner feeling of the spirit. One problem with this overemphasis on a “heart warming” sensation as the main fruit of the Spirit is that it is perhaps the most easy to isolate from the Spirit. And once cut off from the Source this vibration fragments into a series of automatic muscular reactions which can be easily replicated and used by the deceiver to synthetically provoke spirit-like spasms on demand. The implications of such emotionally manipulative imitations of the presence and voice of God being available at the flip of a switch to those who seek control over their fellow beings are very terrible. The general public does not know about or think about things such as Extreme Low Frequencies (ELF). This is particularly dangerous because they know and think even less about the still, small voice of the Good Shepherd. Not having anything else to compare it to leaves them in a very precarious path indeed when trick-nology comes into play.

Once again, it is the children who suffer most when “burning in the bosom” is downgraded to “warm fuzzies,” then further diminished in any of its remaining spiritual qualities by uprooting it completely out of the hearts and minds of LDS youngsters and placing it in the physical plane to die alone as a pom-pom in a jar; a false form, literally sealed off from the life sustaining air/ether/prana of the spirit realm of imagination. This was an actual project carried out to honor Pres. Monson’s 82^ndbirthday. (Wasn’t that a dainty dish to set before the king?) They then used it as a gimmick to push sales for his biography “To The Rescue” though Deseret Book.

http://deseretbook.com/warmfuzzies

ELIJAH TO THE REAL RESCUE

So the kids have need of being rescued from imposters. They are ex–peer-encing some inter–fear-ence while trying to re-cognize the REAL voice of the Good Shepherd. Their right brains/hearts are “failing them for fear” [False Evidence Appearing Real] “and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth” Luke 21:26. And Jesus says it’s only going to get worse during the commotion that ensues after the destruction of the Temple. Take special note of the verb ‘looking’ that Jesus uses in that passage. Remember it is crucial that we use our sense of sight correctly and that means developing what is technically and truly our First Sight but often called Second Sight, which ironically and poetically could be said to emanate from our Third Eye. One, Two, Three…Three, Two, One. Are you starting to see how it all works? First, Last…Last, First. “Yes, yes, that is all very interesting.” we might say, “But tell us, who will save the children?” –The Storyteller responds: “Why, who else would come to rescue The Children but The Fathers?!”

The Lord is sending the Spirit of Elijah or in other words, The Spirit of The Ancestors, “To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers,” D&C 110:15. According to D&C 138:48, this great work is “to be done in the temples of the Lord in the  dispensation of the fullness of times, for the redemption of the dead, and the sealing of the children to their parents, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse and utterly wasted at his coming.” But how is this possible when Jesus told us that the Temple itself would be utterly wasted as the kick-off for all this excitement? How will the Fathers rescue the Children? They will act through the Children. And how will they act through us? It will happen via our genes and our senses. So we can see that it is of utmost importance that we purify our physical senses and attune them with the spiritual wavelength of the ante-sensors (ancestors).

THE SACRED SCIENCE OF SENSE

While the act of connecting with one’s ancestors is very organic and bound to blossom in a variety of personalized ways, there is however a scientific side to it. And praise be to the ancient ones for that. Our minds need a healthy level of scientific method. The left hemisphere of the brain has the potential to present us with as many stumbling blocks as it can tools of precision. It is Adam, an inner husband kneeling across the altar from our right brain bride and swearing to play the role of personal protector. But unless the left brain/mind is given the right things to fixate on, it will inevitably become confused. In a confused state it alternates between being a poor protector at best and an abuser at worst. The left brain likes a certain degree of causality. It makes him feel productive and puts him in touch with his creative powers. From this left side of our brain we stand and issue edicts and laws like a king as our queen looks on from her spot enthroned at our right hand, stoic, silent, sexy. When the King and Queen are in agreement as to how to rule the land, it provides balance and peace. Looking to antiquity we find very few examples of this type of arrangement perpetuated perfectly throughout history, whether on an individual or more literal level. What we do find when we retrace humanity’s steps are certain times and places when people considered all things to be more sacrosanct.

The Wadjet Eye  or Eye of Horus, is an ancient Egyptian representation of the inner recesses of the brain. Its individual parts were also used to represent mathematical fractions and the senses

Eye of Horus – Human Brain

Besides the mysterious absence of the last Sixtyfourth, it is also intriguing to see the overall resemblance to the configuration of Thalamus, Hypothalamus, Medulla Oblongata and Corpus Callosum that scientist call the reptilian brain. Furthermore the various pieces of the image seem to match up with those outer body parts which would be used in the gathering of sensory data from the presently detectable world around us. We have glyphs looking very must like the nose, an eye, an ear, the tongue and a finger. But the most fascinating aspect of all this is the fact that thought is presented as one of six senses. Thought is here represented by a linear waveform , which when incorporated with the complete pictogram, becomes the brow over the Eye of Horus.

When we look back in the archives of religious records there are several shining examples of righteous rulers who remind us that you can not have RIGHTeousness without the RIGHT Brain. But one stands out in a special way because we are told that he and his people, who founded a whole city/nation, were taken up, people, place and things alike, into Heaven. This is a singular achievement which has sparked man’s imagination ever since. Many who speak about the concept of Zion will refer to this as the ultimate success story. Whether you are a Mormon who only talks about it, or one of the few who actually desire Zion in reality, you will be somewhat familiar with the City of Enoch. Enoch appears in the ancient Egyptian pantheon as an ibis headed man named Thoth. As the god of magic, healing and wisdom, and patron of scribes, Thoth –Taught –Thought. His main cult center was the city of Khumun, which sounds like ‘Common’ and translates as ‘Eight Town’. Could it be that Thoth or Thought is the Common Sense, the Sixth Sense connecting the five carnal senses with the two houses of our spiritual senses located in our left and right brains? Can Thoth be thought of as the Sixth Chakra ball of energy spinning in the vicinity of the pituitary gland which activates during adoleSENSE alerting the teenage initiate to his potential for adulthood? Is thought then the Christ which, if allowed to roam freely between Heaven and Earth, will eventually succeed in reconciling us with Father & Mother? Think about it.

I THINK, THEREFORE I-SLAM – INTRODUCING AVICENNA

If the ancient inhabitants of Egypt worshiped previously translated beings but failed to grasp certain plain and precious truths lost in translation and so were not collectively translated themselves, then subsequent eras under Greek and finally Arab domination brought with them, not only more open rejection of The Truth, but continued chances for redemption as well. Even from within the cage of enforced religion, the sacred Ibis of human thought yearned to fly again. And the avian aspects of man’s thinking sang a song of freedom through the thoughts of Ibn Sina known in Europe by his Latinized name, Avicenna

Avicenna(981 – 1037 CE) was the major influence upon the history of Islamic psychology, taking the ideas of the Greek philosophers, who had taken them from the Egyptians, he adapted them to fit Islamic doctrine. He began with Aristotle’s idea that humans possessed three types of soul, the vegetative, animal and rational psyches. He held the belief that man shared the first two in common with the plants and animals and that the latter was something shared in common by man and God. Man was thus simultaneously earthbound and heaven-bound.

Avicenna attempted to shed light on this curious condition. He proposed that we have seven inner senses to complement the outer senses. This was an attempt to understand the mechanics of reason. We could say he was presented with an obstacle by the Islamic prohibition of dissection. Nevertheless, he was led by the Spirit and came up with the following psychological map of the inner senses.

• Common Sense: This sense collates the information gathered by the external senses.
• Retentive Imagination: This sense remembers the information gathered by the common sense.
• Compositive Animal Imagination: This sense allows all animals to learn what they should avoid and what they should actively seek in their natural environment.
• Compositive Human Imagination: This sense helps humans to learn what to avoid and what to seek in the world around them.
• Estimative Power: This is the ability to make innate judgments about the surrounding environment and determine what is dangerous and what is beneficial. For example, an innate and instinctual fear of predators would fall under this sense.
• Memory: The memory is responsible for remembering all of the information developed by the other senses.
• Processing: This is the ability to use all of the information and is the highest of the seven internal senses.

COME UNITY – ALL THINGS IN COMMON

“And now come, saith the Lord, by the Spirit, unto the elders of his church, and let us reason together, that ye may understand” – D&C 50:10

If we understand the first point on this chart to be transitional, then we will see that the word ‘Common’ in the phrase, ‘Common Sense’ should not be misconstrued as holding the same meaning as when we say ‘Common Knowledge’, since this term is often no more than a clever euphemism used to try and grant a more regal sounding heir to misleading popular opinion. In reality, ‘Common’ here refers to the meeting place between the outer and inner senses.

Modern neuroscience tells us that it is the cerebral cortex or pallium where the brains of all vertebrates take sensory information to integrate it, learn from it, and decide how to respond. The equivalents to the cerebral cortex in invertebrates are clusters of neurons known as mushroom-bodies. Until recent years, scientists thought that invertebrate mushroom-bodies and vertebrate pallium had arisen independently during the course of evolution. But in-depth research into the marine ragworm has proven this was most probably not the case. How could they possibly determine whether the Gods spoken of in Genesis laid the foundation for the brain of Man at the very moment that their spirit “moved upon the face of the waters”? Well it intuitively makes sense that the blueprint for God’s own children would be present throughout all creation, but the particular proofs that modern research points to were found when comparing the olfactory of the worm with that of man.

What could be more amazing than finding a humanlike brain structure in a worm? How about the identification of a wormlike structure in the human brain? The cerebellar vermis is that worm. In the 14th-century Cambridge brain diagram illustrating Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine, the cerebral worm is represented between the powers of memory (vis memorativa) and cognition or imagination (cogitativa vel ymaginativa). Mediating between the two, the worm works as a valve modulating the active and passive operations of thought, its movement translated in the human tendency to lower the head when thinking (You and each of you, bow your head and say yes) and raise it when we are re-collecting (sense data from the realm of the past). We raise our heads in order to expose our nostrils more directly to the air; so that through this elevation we may evaluate the information which God is whispering on the wind at any given moment and compare it to that which he has communicated to us in times past; so as to have the most potent effect on the present and into the fragrant flow of the future. For everyone who has a nose knows that smell, more than any other sense, has the power to conjure up memory.

Avicenna’s Cannon

Vermis Detail

When we consider that our sense of smell is perhaps the most anciently bestowed of God’s gifts, it seems very appropriate that the olfactory would be associated with the ½ fraction in the breakdown of the Eye of Horus symbol. Halfway between Heaven and Earth., man is endowed with a nose to lead the way before him. Functioning as a sacred rendezvous platform between worlds, the olfactory bulbs are the only parts of the nervous system which have direct contact with the outside world. In-cense stimulates Inner Sense when lit and offered up at the apertures to the Holy Temple. But if the afferent priest, who’s lot it is to “make perfume” going into the sanctuary of the Lord, should doubt the message of his inner senses, it will be with him as it was with Zachariah. The moral of that story is: Don’t be ‘dumb’. Listen and believe in what your inner senses tell you.

The lost people we are, could anything be of more value to us in helping us find our way than memory of past eternities? But alas our odor decoders are taken for granted or repeatedly weakened through doubt, causing this most poignant of sensations to be so fleeting. This is known in scientific terms as sensory adaptation. We might also call it a lack of faith and a rebellion against God. To rebel means to wage war again. Our fallen senses have cut themselves off from the presence of the Lord and still suppose that they know how to interpret their surroundings better.

“For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy [Senses], and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the at-one-ment of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.” Mosiah 3:19

When King Benjamin says that “The natural man is an enemy to God” he is not talking about people who enjoy camping or being in ‘nature’. Nor is he saying anything of those who follow their natural inclination to “multiply and replenish the earth”. Other passages in the Book of Mormon are very clear on the effects of the fall, which King Benjamin cites as the point where the problem began. In speaking of the fall, Alma says:

“Therefore, as they had become carnal, sensual, and devilish, by nature, this probationary state became a state for them to prepare” Alma 42:10

When Alma says ‘sensual’ he does not mean ‘sexy’ or even ‘sexual’ since it was God who made us to be sexual beings. No, he means simply that we are controlled by the carnal senses. We trust the outer senses over the inner and have therefore fallen out of touch with reality. We are double-minded beings, tottering back and forth between inner and outer nature but mostly focusing on the outer. We must do as the scripture advises, put off the natural man and become saints through the at-one-ment of Christ. If our inner and outer natures are not AT ONE with each other, then we will forever be AT ODDS with ourselves. We will be enemies to God.

When we feel both our inner and outer natures come together, this COMMON ground establishes a Zion and a sense of expansiveness comes over us, causing us to exclaim:

“COME ON people now, smile on your brother. Everybody get together, got to love one another right now!”   –  “Get Together” by Youngbloods