I like to make a distinction between rational, irrational and
unrational.

Emotion and Intuition are not irrational, they are unrational.

I think too often the pursuit of reason has meant the suppression of
the unrational.

The unrational is not inherently irrational, but it can lead to
irrational ideas. We need both the rational and unrational in order
to be authentic human beings.

The relationship between the rational and unrational needs to be
delineated.

I think that the unrational should have the same status as the five
senses.

For example we may think that we are looking at a cat in the
distance, but through empirical verification we learn that it is
really a crumpled paper bag.

Through practice and continued verification we can learn how to
better distinguish between a cat and a crumpled paper bag.

The same is true of intuition. Our intuitions of life and the
Universe can improve but only through rational and empirical
verification. In time we may come to trust these intuitions without
the need for verification. But we must always be cognizant of the
fact that our intuitions (or senses) could be wrong.

There have been people who have experienced a sublime one-ness with
all that is and intuited that they have transcended the natural or
physical. But this is based on a supernatural paradigm that while
internally logically consistent, is ultimately at odds with all that
we know scientifically about the universe. If we look for the source
of this faulty paradigm I think that it is a faulty notion and
experience of self.

I don't believe that the physical can be transcended, though I do
believe that our normal experience of self and reality can
be "transcended". Furthermore, these alternate experiences of self
can provide valuable information concerning the actual relationship
between self and the universe. For example, we can realize that self
is less like a bit of flotsam tossed about in the stream and more
like a pattern of ripples in the stream - part of a larger and
constantly unfolding pattern of simultaneous, parallel interactions
and serial actions. This has implications for a person's
understanding of and reaction to determinism - we are not controlled
by the chain of causal events, we ARE the causal events. We are not
flotsam tossed about in the stream, we ARE the stream.

Unfortunately, our default experience of the relationship between
self and the universe seems to be that of flotsam in the stream. This
is because of our experience of self (like reason) tends to be
serial. We need to perceive the whole pattern and not individual
serial chain of events. This can only be done through intuiton.


Will