Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Harney Peak

After one experiences holotropic states [a nonordinary state of consciousness that moves one toward wholeness], there is a tendency for one’s boundaries to dissolve, whether they are boundaries of race, gender, culture, politics, or religion. People tend to move from organized religions to a more mystical, universal view. In my opinion organized religions are more of a problem than a solution in today’s world. The differences among them lead to much hostility and violence, and the same is true even for differences within religions, like the centuries of bloodshed between Protestants and Catholics or Sunni and Shiites. We don’t really need religions, with their internecine conflicts; we need spirituality that transcends them.

. . . The useful God is a God that doesn’t have any shape but that has the potential to create all shapes and forms. As soon as you get stuck on specific images, symbols, and rituals and want to impose them on others, you have a dangerous religion. People who experience holotropic states under good circumstances — and we strive for a loving environment in our sessions — develop a spirituality that is all-encompassing, and their primary commitment is planetary and not related to any specific group or country. As Buckminster Fuller said, this is “Spaceship Earth,” and we are all on board it together.~Stanislav Grof On Nonordinary States of Consciousness

5 comments:

  1. Exactly. Harney Peak. Black Elk. The Dakota. Harney Peak Tin Mining Company owned by Charles Rushmore.

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  2. Doug, I love the work of Stanislav Grof. I recall devouring all his youtube interviews a couple of years back. Thanks for the reminder.

    Jim, I like how you just mention Black Elk as I just uploaded a new post about the heyoka/sacred clown. I believe that Black Elk was one of the most famous heyoka. Here's an article I had open while writing the post. Synctastic!

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  3. "Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.

    And I say the sacred hoop of my people was one of the many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy...
    But anywhere is the center of the world."

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