world peace when so many social and personal factors contribute to war. These objectives can
instead be accomplished by pursuing a lifestyle that encompasses the many practices
contributing to a sentient expansion of the self, as delineated in Technique 15.
TECHNIQUE 15
Invigorating Self-Expansion
Expansion of the sense of self, the summum bonum of human life, unfolds naturally in response
to going within guided by a willingness to think critically and open the heart. As such, it is
activated less by doing than by refraining, requiring the practitioner to periodically pull back from
worldly engagements. Even the proactive practice of pranayama amounts simply to conscious
sensorimotor relaxation. Asceticism, too, entails consciously disengaging from activities in order
to deliberately give the senses a period of rest. In minimizing excessive sensory input, an
intuitively centered life frees up energy for inner exploration and for infusing outer actions with
the spirit of service.
Because no single technique is capable of enlivening self-expanding patterns of energy and
awareness, the routine that follows draws from several disciplines that introduce major aspects
of these patterns. You may use it as a to-do roster consulted in the morning to remind you of the
day’s self-expansion needs or as a checklist to review during your evening introspection, or
both. In any case, bear in mind that the more you engage in these activities the more likely you
are to continue engaging in them. Remember, too, that the only way to monitor finite expansion
of the self is through testing your power to renounce materialism, narrow self-interests, and
restless sensory activities in favor of simple living, service to others, and innate happiness.
Participation in a colloquium (see Technique 1). Spirituality is an ongoing educational adventure
deepened through weekly participation in a colloquium. Setting aside a few minutes each
evening to contemplate ideas shared at a recent colloquium gathering contributes to increased
freedom of thought and expression. By challenging assumptions of the narrow sense of self in
the company of fearless critical thinkers, you clear a path for self-expansion.
Devotion to your personal image of God (see Technique 2). Once you have decided on an ideal
of God that secures your attention, recall it throughout the day and use it during intuitive
practices to focus your mind, open your heart, and center the energies of your body. To
counteract flights of intellectual or emotional imbalance, pull your tongue back and place its tip
on your palate intermittently throughout the day, thereby locking nervous energy and awareness
in the medulla oblongata. To ward off unwanted thoughts that might arise during or after
interactions with others, silently repeat a sound that fills the mind—such as “Aum” (rhymes with
“Home”), “Omne,” (rhymes with “Calm-nay”), or “Amen”—all the while listening within or focusing
on your image of God, your heart, or the point between your eyebrows. A combination of these
methods is also possible if you are in a particularly intellectual or emotional mood. Every
variation of this practice expands the sense of self by directing nervous energy toward the
cerebrospinal plexuses, banishing mental fluctuations through an increased devotional capacity
of the heart, and establishing an inner calm center for rendering service-oriented and ethical
actions.
Visualizing and mentally intoning affirmations (see Technique 3). To improve your odds of
performing affirmations consistently, begin by using them to overcome obstacles to success as
you presently define it. For example, if you want to surmount fears of finding a partner or
acquiring a material object, utilize visual and verbal affirmations that focus on courage and the
positive realization of your desired outcome. Once their practice becomes regular, advance
freely to affirming spiritual progress, the uprooting of unwanted habits and establishment of
supportive habits, enhanced health, and positive thoughts about others. Always bear in mind
that affirmations are a form of asceticism designed to conserve nervous energy otherwise
squandered in mental restlessness, poor habits of thinking and living, and destructive emotions
like fear, anger, and shame. The ideal time to practice affirmations is during the calm morning
hours. Affirmations help catalyze self-expansion by avoiding the energy wasted on nagging
desires or removing restless habits that impede inward concentration.
Introspective reading and writing (see Technique 4). Take a moment each morning to read a
few words that might assist you in facing a particular challenge or keep you centered throughout
the day. Read for longer periods at night, jotting down notes and questions to take to your
colloquium, or analyzing the day and crafting affirmations to counter negative attitudes and
reinforce positive ones. For reading material, choose anything from an academic textbook on
world religions that might help to expand your sense of identity to the life-altering works of great
philosophers from East and West, such as Nagarjuna or Baruch Spinoza, Adi Sankara or
Friedrich Nietzsche. To better assimilate the content, write for at least as long as you have read,
examining your motives and desires, challenging your inherited belief system, and penetrating
your individuated sense of self with better and better questions.
Tension-relaxation methods (see Technique 11). Tension-relaxation methods are best practiced
in the morning when the body is already relaxed. You can even try them in bed. Also practice
them to regain a sense of balance after slipping into a reactive state. When energizing muscles,
it is best to build tension slowly, maintain it for 3 seconds, and then gradually relax. When
striving to relax muscles, practice quick tension, hold it for 1 or 2 seconds, and then quickly
relax. This psychophysical method assists in broadening the parameters of the self by training
muscles to energize and relax at will and thus helping to eradicate unwanted habits recorded in
stifling physiological patterns.
Balanced asceticism (see Technique 8). At the start of each day, decide on a set of guidelines
to follow for moderating behaviors involving food, speech, and sex. Periods of fasting, silence,
and continence conserve energy for intuitive practices and also allow practitioners to devote
more energy to their chosen vocation. To devote more time and energy to sensory introversion,
gradually decrease your sleep and unsupportive social activities as well. Doing so, you will find
that intuition begins to replace sleep and supports innate happiness. Ascetic injunctions free
considerable amounts of nervous energy to gravitate toward the higher plexuses in the spine for
intuiting self-expansion.
Minimizing the ingestion of animal products. Concentration and sensory introversion are
generally impacted by congestion due to the overconsumption of protein. From the perspective
of physical health, countless studies emphasize that a diet natural to human beings consists of
fruits, nuts, and seeds, some grains, vegetables, and legumes, and only small amounts of
flesh.29 Diets rich in eggs, dairy, and meat products, said to be too high in fat and protein to be
ingested on a regular basis, are shown to increase the risk of heart disease, osteoporosis,
obesity, and various types of cancer. A diet with reduced animal products, especially flesh,
leads not only to better health but to enhanced concentration, decreased aggression, and a
lighter experience of the body—all of which can help to broaden the boundaries of the self.
Magnetization through pranayama and energy seals (see Techniques 7, 9, 10, 13, and 14).
Sitting for sensory introversion, as you magnetize your spine and brain through pranayama and
energy seals, is most effective if practiced early in the morning, when the majority of people and
animals in your vicinity are still sleeping, and again in the evening, after others have retired.
With your day sandwiched between practice sessions in pranayama and energy seals, you may
intermittently feel the magnetization of the medulla oblongata as a throb midway between the
eyebrows. Daily practice of these powerful methods of energy control vastly amplifies the
intuitive capacity.
The Great Seal. This method, combining pranayama and an energy seal, was highly praised by
ancient Indian and Hebrew ascetics for its ability to magnetize the spine, building pressure in
the skull and directing awareness of self-expansion to the brain. To practice the Great Seal, sit
on the floor with your feet flat on the surface, knees raised, thighs pressed against your chest,
arms wrapped around your legs, and fingers interlinked. Keeping your spine straight, use your
arms to pull your legs closer to your chest, supporting your lower spine; then close your eyes
and focus on the point midway between your eyebrows.
Now, with your mouth closed and the tip of your tongue touching your palate, slowly inhale
through your nostrils for about 6 seconds. As you continue to hold your breath, let your tongue
relax to its natural position, drop chin to chest, stretch your legs out in front of you, and bend
your head toward your knees. Keeping most of your fingers interlinked and your chin pressed
against your chest, grasp your lower legs or feet and gently pull your torso forward and down.
Still holding your breath, maintain this position for 3 to 6 seconds, feeling pressure in your skull,
before reversing the motions, raising your torso, bringing knees to chest, using your arms to pull
them close, and lifting your chin so it is once again parallel to the floor. Placing your tongue
against your palate, slowly exhale through your nostrils for about 6 seconds. Repeat this
exercise 5 more times.
Lying chest-down on the floor with your legs straight out behind you, interlink your fingers
slightly in front of you and, sliding your forearms under your upper torso, gradually lift your head
and chest. Breathing normally, reverse the forward stretch of the Great Seal by keeping your
head and chest raised and your head tilted slightly upward, resting your upper torso on your
bent arms for about 2 minutes, with your lower spine, buttocks, and legs relaxed. Keeping your
chin up, close your eyes, focus on the magnetization midway between your eyebrows, and
mentally scan your lower body for tension, relaxing where necessary.
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Beyond an indelible sense of the self incorporating more and more of life comes a blissful
knowledge of the infinite substance of self—an unspoken aspiration of most modern religious
and spiritual movements that trace their origins to an accomplished intuitive scientist. Few
seekers find success, however, because when the avenue to knowledge is tapered by the
senses the experience of the self’s innate bliss is interpreted not as a quality of the self but as
an ephemeral physical, emotional, mental, or ecstatic joy. As the sense of self expands a bit,
the bliss may be experienced as the joy inherent in unconditional love, friendship, and
giving—or to the larger self of the humanist, the happiness and well-being of all of humanity.
And with the further development of intuitive knowledge through the steadfast practice of
pranayama and repeated entry into the breathless state, bliss permeates one’s life. This occurs
because as soon as an awareness of it is locked in the spine and brain, the intuition of bliss
becomes physiologically stabilized, at which point the self searching for its infinitude meets with
success, discovering that all along it was seeking itself in eternal substance.
The terminology associated with infinite bliss sometimes differs. The substance of self, for
instance, is occasionally referred to as the true nirvana and the true void because it is empty of
atoms, prana, and causal ideas, including time and space, and even life and death. Practitioners
intent on realizing “the supreme nirvana” or “no self” are simply describing efforts to intuit the
substance of self.
Methods for realizing the substance of self, whatever its designation, often lead back to seekers’
earlier experiences involving their ideas of self. Diced by space and time, such experiences tend
to reinforce discriminatory perspectives, enhancing an attraction to teachings that provoke guilt
or rationalize violence, a propensity to revel in divisiveness, or an urge to pine for an
otherworldly Shambhala or Shangri-la. But the final test of any method is lasting and unqualified
happiness here and now. Those derived from Dark Age practices and intentionally or
unintentionally exploiting the principles of pranayama for commercial purposes, end up
functioning much like monotheistic religions by imposing their ideals on unquestioning followers.
Paths of spirituality anchored in the theory of self, on the other hand, illuminate the infinite
substance of self as the Pure Land humanity seeks, and finds right here on earth.
Vulnerability of the Self
Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.
—Thomas Huxley
The self’s vulnerability causes billions of people worldwide to adopt detrimental modes of
thought and behavior while seeking to expand. Such vulnerability is a direct result of the
psychological insecurity and social uncertainty aroused by the degeneration of outmoded
institutions our society and others have long held dear. Inundated by the sociomagnetism of
these deteriorating religious, cultural, political, economic, educational, legal, and even medical
institutions, many individuals prefer not to face their vulnerability and to instead pursue forms of
escape. Testing these forms and others, by way of the theory of self, might elucidate ways to
reverse the widespread vulnerability of the self.
There are several ways to escape the challenges of the day, some religious and some not. The
mode of choice for many individuals is sensual abandon or puritanical morality, both reactionary
signs of social disempowerment. Other people opt for archaism, an escape to the past where
life was seemingly simpler or more meaningful, investing old sagas with new life because they
consider the present deprived of opportunities for pious or heroic deeds. The popularity of
literary archaism can be seen in the soaring sales of fantasy novels. Examples of religious
archaism include Ayatollah Khomeini’s fiery Islamic Revolution and the violent Islamic State, the
widespread belief in the immanent return of Jesus, and black-clothed ultraorthodox Jews
“returning to the answer.” The more benign and festive Society for Creative Anachronisms and
the popular Southern pastime of reenacting American Civil War battles both commemorate past
etiquettes, attitudes, and animosities between political and social factions.
Still other people escape into futurism, hoping humanity will live more happily and progressively
in times to come. Attempts to counter futurists’ depictions of a perfect tomorrow can be found in
the harsh realism of dystopian novels by such authors as Eugene Zamiatin, Aldous Huxley,
Margaret Atwood, and George Orwell. Members of millennial organizations look to the future, as
well, causing today’s skyrocketing sales of end-of-the-world novels. More radical than Star Trek
fans or other sci-fi groupies, many contemporary millennialists think of themselves as part of a
space-faring generation and create places of worship that may replicate the deck of the
Enterprise or imagine aliens will rescue them from earthly existence, some even committing
suicide, as did Heaven’s Gate members in March 1997, in the belief that their freed souls would
float up to a spaceship docked elsewhere in the solar system.
These and other forms of escapism prevent engrossed participants from confronting society’s
deterioration and directing their creativity toward improved conditions. Beset by feelings of
helplessness, many become smug and incapable of entertaining challenges. The cost of
escapism, it seems, is indifference to society’s eroding institutions and an increased incidence
of cloistered views.
Individuals who face the challenges of societal decay, on the other hand, remain vulnerable to
its sociomagnetic patterns. For a person lacking intellectual and intuitional readiness to expand
and find creative solutions, it becomes easy to spiral into patterns associated with destruction.
Such gyrations widen the frontiers of violence and loneliness, extending them from personal
domains (drug or alcohol abuse, estrangement from parents or other close family members,
delinquent behavior or poor grades resulting in inadequate education and feelings of inferiority,
economic or emotional impoverishment, embittered relationships, failure to find fulfilling work,
and general lack of perceived meaning in life) to collective realities (gun toting in high schools,
sadism in the pornography industry, slavery in underdeveloped nations, the establishment of
nearpermanent military frontiers, and desolation of the rain forests and other planetary
life-support systems). In other words, vulnerable individuals who do not engage in
self-expansion inadvertently stifle their creative energies and, to diminish their psychological
distress and secure a solid sense of identity, direct attention outward in violence toward
predefined rivals, other ethnicities, and the natural world. In the process of harming others, they
cannot help but inhibit their inner experience of resourcefulness.
Religionists, observing these violent changes in social patterns, erroneously conclude that
humanity today needs more religion than ever. A few, however, eventually see that ministering
to humanity through unfounded promises, fear, and guilt can no longer effectively regulate
conduct. Promises of heaven, fear of hell, and theological systems based on reward and
punishment only intensify the problem, rather than help to eradicate it. Spreading the “word” of a
Dark Age monotheistic God—the fallen ideal of the higher age substance of self—prolongs the
very challenges humanity faces. These ecumenical and proselytizing measures actually
endanger humanity’s survival by advancing the virtues of a thwarted intellect, suppression of
natural urges, and expressions of divisiveness. In the best of circumstances, they reveal the
underlying defects, causing many adherents to drift away from their religious moorings.
People raised in every religious tradition are hungry for alternatives to the organized religions of
their parents. This widespread search for a new spiritual identity leads multitudes each year to
experiment with a variety of New Age, exotic, and spiritual movements or join devotional groups
that advocate eclectic or extreme practices like fundamentalism. But while the search itself may
reflect a healthy response, the state of mind people bring to it is not always conducive to finding
a deeper meaning in life. Looking externally for a spiritual identity might be accompanied by
discontent, unhappiness, or desperation. Searching while feeling empty can result in unhealthy
discrimination, biased investigation, or identification with consumer spirituality. Especially
vulnerable individuals often graft their sense of identity onto the personality or mission of a cult,
forfeiting the development of their own expansive self.
The discovery of a new spiritual movement or devotional group is often fraught with peril for
vulnerable individuals. The excitement of embracing a fresh idea of God or a new charismatic
leader or religion can make some people suddenly feel a sense of belonging and power in
response to their unique access to a special dispensation. Often, this sense of
belonging—whether to an orthodox Jewish yeshiva, a Buddhist colony, a Catholic seminary, a
modern guru-led center, a meditation or prayer retreat, a fundamentalist sect, an apocalyptic
cult, or a terrorist organization—swiftly spawns feelings of invulnerability. Many such
movements and groups purposefully promote a compelling sense of community through
cathartic activities that range from dancing and chanting to sharing religious experiences, breath
work, use of herbs and crystals, exercise drills, service-oriented chores, counseling, artistic
expression, holy rolling, group study reinforcing certain ideals, sexual regulations, isolation
followed by togetherness, and animated speeches delivered by charismatic leaders. These
endeavors align the physiomagnetism of newcomers, and hence their thoughts, with the
organization’s prevalent magnetic pattern while enhancing their health and temporarily
bolstering their egos, previously weakened by insecurity and uncertainty. Signs of counterfeit
ego fortification generally appear over time in displays of spiritual affectations, excessive use of
insider terminology indicating narrowed psychological parameters, uninvited proselytizing, and
other facades of piety.
The search for truth, a lifelong endeavor for most scientists and philosophers, generally ends for
the narrow sense of self that has found some modicum of comfort in belonging, believing, and
being free from vulnerability. Besides, an organization’s insistence on loyalty makes it difficult to
question its foundational principles without experiencing guilt. Influenced both inwardly and
outwardly, individuals who have been furnished with a well-defined spiritual identity along with
their health-promoting ecstatic catharsis may therefore be unwilling to release this limiting
identity.
Another problem for vulnerable individuals seeking spiritual meaning outside of religion is that
modern alternative movements and devotional groups may not be equipped to assist members
in expanding the idea of self, though they may advertise this capability. Most offer useful
services, such as meditation retreats, vegetarian guidelines, classes in physical culture, and
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