philosophy – "I of my own knowledge…"

Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason (6)

Posted on January 18, 2009 by Frank DeMarco

Part VI: Coda

Bob Monroe, bless his heart, thought we could. But we must decide. The clock is ticking; time is short.

We may soon be forced to confront the prospect of humans no longer being the dominant species on this planet. Whether this would be a good or a bad development is, perhaps, debatable. What is not arguable, I think, is that all the old Answerist philosophies are passé. Neither scientism nor religionism will help us one iota with the challenges we must face. We need fresh perspectives, new ideas, and novel approaches. And, above all, open minds and hearts.

The future is open, but closing fast. The question is, do we have the nerve to trust our reason and the verve to practice our magic? As Bob might have said, “Well, you do the best you can.” Let’s make it so.

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Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason (5)

Posted on January 17, 2009 by Frank DeMarco

Part five of six of Joseph Felser’s paper on Bob Monroe’s philosophy.

Part V: “Forms of Freedom Inconceivable”

To make the magical as reasonable as possible and reason as magical as it can be; this, then, is the chief task of the members of this professional division.

Many of the fruitful results of these investigations have been catalogued in the reports of the Focus and the Hemi-Sync Journal, as well as in those two marvelous volumes edited by Ronald Russell, Using the Whole Brain and Focusing the Whole Brain. (38) Contained therein are reports of just some of the many “peak performances” that can be coaxed out of individuals willing and able to “try and test for themselves.” From the healing of physical and mental suffering, and the facilitation of learning, to the sheer, exhilarating fun of exploring There, Hemi-Sync has proven its worth, time and again. Magic can be eminently practical and down-to-earth after all, just as the intellect can soar when it embraces (or at least tolerates) experiential data that may not fit its preconceptions.

As noteworthy as all these particular achievements are, however, I suspect that behind and beyond them there is a still greater purpose at work. What might that purpose be?

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Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason (4)

Posted on January 16, 2009 by Frank DeMarco

Part IV: Monroe’s Philosophy

What impressed me most about Journeys out of the Body, however, was not the author’s narrative of his metaphysical adventures (as captivating it was), but rather, the underlying philosophy of the narrator. This philosophy would find further elaboration, not only in Bob’s later writings, but also in the creation of Hemi-Sync and this Institute. His pragmatic approach was one of word and deed, because, I believe, he intuitively grasped the central importance of uniting theory with practice.

Bob Monroe–a philosopher? You bet he was.

To be a philosopher, one does not need advanced academic degrees or specialized training. This is what I had learned from the work of R.G. Collingwood, whom I mentioned earlier. As I slowly came to realize, Collingwood and Monroe had several important ideas in common.

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Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason (3)

Posted on January 15, 2009 by Frank DeMarco

Part three of six parts

Part III: Accepting Nietzsche’s Challenge

Against this backdrop, our deeply personal preoccupations with such questions as, “How can I harmonize my right and left brain functions?” may seem like selfish, petty conceits. But what I am arguing is precisely the opposite: We do not have the luxury of dismissing or ignoring our own inner warning systems. Nature is speaking to us and through us. Our individual quest for balance and harmony is the expression of a wider and deeper wave of positive change, just as surely as our individual acts of ignorance and greed contribute to the mess we’re in. It works both ways. After all, we have to start somewhere.

As I mentioned earlier, my own search began with a (mostly unconscious) yearning for connection with the lost, “magical” parts of my self. This yearning triggered a disturbing upheaval of right-brained activity, including a number of odd experiences that did not fit my standard, left-brained definitions of rationality–or, for that matter, of reality. The questions continued to pile up.

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Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason (2)

Posted on January 14, 2009 by Frank DeMarco

For part one of this paper by Joseph Felser, Ph.D., see yesterday’s post.

Part II: The Nightmare of Reason

As I struggled to make sense of my experiences, I was not aware that my bad dreams were more than my own private nightmares. The maverick British philosopher Robin George Collingwood argued that we never struggle with our problems in isolation.(3) Whether we know it or not, our deepest personal challenges are rooted in the common ground of our cultural and social difficulties. No one is an island.

What is our chief problem? As Bob Monroe observes in Far Journeys, it is that we are a “half-brained society.” (4) That half, of course, would be the left side of the brain: our rational intellect. But what about the other half of us–the right brain of feeling, intuition, psychic sensitivity, and imagination? Like the sorrowful mother rabbit of my dream, this creatively fertile, “magical” aspect has, by and large, fallen asleep. In psychological terms, this means it has fallen into the unconscious, where it becomes an unknown object of fear and misunderstanding.

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Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason (1)

Posted on January 13, 2009 by Frank DeMarco

My friend Joseph Felser, Ph.D, a professor of philosophy, gave the keynote address to The Professional Division of The Monroe Institute in March, 2006. He called it Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason, and I found his insights remarkable. He has graciously allowed me to reproduce it here. It’s long, so I will publish it in six parts on successive days.

Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason:
The Philosophy of Robert Monroe
by Joseph M Felser, Ph.D.
Keynote Address
20th Professional Seminar
March 25-29 2006
The Monroe Institute

Well, it’s a great delight to be back at TMI once again. Arriving here always feels like a homecoming. As I know you will agree, this is a unique–and uniquely valuable–institution.

I feel deeply honored to have been asked to give this keynote address to the professional division. I want to express my sincere gratitude to Shirley, to Dar, and to Laurie for their most generous and welcome invitation.

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Colin Wilson on the three absolutes

Posted on March 28, 2008 by Frank DeMarco

I have been going through more than 40 years of journals, finding and indexing quotations from various writers and others who have influenced me over the years. In the first rank among these, certainly among the first in point of time and among the longest lasting in terms of continued influence, is Colin Wilson. Perhaps this quote from one of his earliest books, which I copied in April,1970, will give you a sense of how and why he was so significant. As slightly later with Carl Jung, when I first came across Wilson’s work, I recognized immediately a mind that worked as mine did, that valued what I valued.

“This is the problem of our time: to destroy the idea of men as a `static observer,’ both in philosophy and art. All imaginative creation is involved with the three absolutes: freedom, evolution, religion.”
Colin Wilson, The Strength To Dream

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