re disturbing aspects of often very effective teachers like Gary Renard, Andrew
Cohen, Eli Jaxon-Bear -- M. Alan Kazler cites the Intermediate Zone, Sri
Auribindo: Murray 2006.12.05
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rmforall/message/67

Those who know me well will agree that I fit into the catagory of the
Intermediate Zone teacher, so I am sharing information that is very helpful to
me.

I am fascinated and excited by the reports in What is Enlightenment? magazine
today, and on their web site about intense, spontaneous, lengthly estatic
enlightment communion in large groups, including a hundred students on phone
conference calls.

I've called similar explorations since 1973 Consciousness Open House, Room For
All, or Lively Communion:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rmforall/messages/1
Lively Communion: Invoking Mutual Meditative Exploration

However, those who facilitate expansions in others are often complexly troubled
and troubling...half-baked...half-awake...

http://www.andrewcohen.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Cohen

http://essentialwhatenlightenment.blogspot.com/

http://whatenlightenment.blogspot.com/

http://www.kheper.net/topics/gurus/false_guru.html

http://www.kheper.net/topics/gurus/fake_guru.html

http://www.kheper.net/topics/gurus/superficial_guru.html

http://www.kheper.net/topics/gurus/narcissism.html#delusional_guru


http://kheper.zaadz.com/blog M. Alan Kazlev

alankazlevNOSPAM@...

11.18.2006
permalink
Gangaji

This is something for Zaadz rather than Integral Transformation

I have just been to two of Gangaji's satsangs, which were held just up the road
from me at the Caulfield Town Hall (in Melbourne). Gangaji is a beautiful lady,
beautiful in her physical appearance, beautiful in her compassion and love,
beautiful in her lack of ego, and beautiful in the simplicity of her message and
teaching style.

Gangaji didn't do anything deliberately, yet I received something (this seems to
be how these things work). The challenge now is to maintain it!

I don't know how many others there felt this; most of them seemed like ordinary
people, although i got the feeling that some of the disciples were a bit blissed
out. But hard to tell without talking to people.

This whole thing has made me more interested in Gangaji's grand-guru (if that's
the right word) Ramana Maharshi. There's also her guru Poonja (Papaji) who is
well respected and seems like a really nice guy, but not enlightened to the
level of Ramana.

I should write about these people for Kheper; so far I've concentrated a lot on
abusive gurus and egotists, but now I should write about the genuine article
too.
Tagged with: Gangaji, satsang, spirituality, gurus, Ramana Maharshi
Access_public Access: Public | Type: Blog | Comment Add Comment
M. Alan : Metaphysician posted by M. Alan

http://www.gangaji.org/


http://www.kheper.net/topics/gurus/Andrew_Cohen.html

http://www.themotherofgod.com/ Luna Tarlo


http://www.kheper.net/topics/gurus/IZ_guru.html

Typology of Gurus, Teachers, Spiritual Masters, and States of Consciousness:

Avidya

Enlightenment
Samsara

Liberation
False Guru

includes the following:

* Totally Fake Guru
* Superficial Guru
* Delusional Guru

Intermediate Zone Guru (Intermediate Zone)
includes both False and Genuine Gurus and Teachers

Sadguru

includes the following:

* Jivanmukti
* Transenlightened
* Avatar

Early/Lower/Near
(Ego + Desire + Samskaras)

Middle
(Desire + Samskaras)

Late/Higher/Far
(Samskaras)

The Intermediate Zone and The Intermediate Zone Guru

The Development of this Theory
Adi Da and the Intermediate Zone
The Abusive Guru theory
The Intermediate Zone Guru
The nature of the Intermediate Zone A Transitional State Some examples
Characteristics of the Intermediate Zone Guru
Subdivisions

The Development of this Theory

Adi Da and the Intermediate Zone

Around 2000 or so, on an Adi Da forum, reference to an online copy of Sri
Aurobindo's letter on the Intermediate Zone on the Kheper website was cited as a
possible explanation for both the guru's powers and his strange behaviour. The
discussion has long since been deleted.

More recently, in January 2005, "XD", an ex-devotee of Adi Da, cited Brunton and
suggested his explanation of the "Intermediate Zone" as an explanation for the
guru's strange behaviour. Discussion has appeared on several Daist and ex-Daist
forums concerning this e.g link link link

The Abusive Guru theory

When I first heard of the association of Da with the Intermediate Zone as
described by Sri Aurobindo, I didn't give it much credence, as I still
considered Da an authentically enlightened and liberated being. Later, as I cam
to know more about Da's abusive behaviour I become more cynical, and felt that
the concept of the Intermediate Zone may indeed be a useful explanation of the
paradox of a teacher who confers such spiritual experiences in their devotees,
but at the same time abuses others. I commented and elaborated on this
phenomenon of the "abusive guru" in part 2b of external link a long essay (a
critique of Ken Wilber from an Aurobindonian perspective) that I finished in
June 2006 and which was published on Frank Visser's Integral World website.
Building on XD's original interpretation of Da, and using Wilber's friend Andrew
Cohen as a case-study, I argued there (as well as on this website) that all
gurus that confer these experiences but are at the same time abusive are in
fact trapped in the Intermediate Zone. More recently (in Nov 2006) I had a
powerful experience with Gangaji through whom I received a transmission of Sri
Ramana's Light. This provided a first-hand experience of the Intermediate Zone,
and revealed that an Intermediate Zone Guru does not have to be abusive; in fact
I argue that Gangaji is an extremely spiritual and selfless teacher. But
controversy over Gangaji's support of her husband Eli, who had a long term
sexually exploitative relationship with a young female disciple, again raised
the spectre of abuse, and, on the other side of the coin, showed as well how
quick people are to judge and shadow project.

It is worth pointing out that Sri Aurobindo was not in his original letter
critiqing gurus. His concern was with Sadhaks undertaking his yoga, who might
mistake a partial experience or half light for the real thing. But his letter --
as with so much of his work -- goes beyond the immediate subject he was
addressing to the wider spiritual and physical world.

If you are involved in any sort of spiritual practice or journey, or with any
spiritual teachers or spiritual practice, there is no way to avoid the danger of
the Intermediate zone. Both your own most profound transpersonal experiences,
and even more so the experiences of your guru, if you happen to sit at the feet
pof one, will be conditioned by this reality. Therefore it behooves the
spiritual aspirant, and indeed the esotericist in general, to carefully study
and consider what Sri Aurobindo has written in this very profound and important
missive.

The Intermediate Zone Guru

The nature of the Intermediate Zone

The Intermediate Zone is a region of profound transpersonal experiences that go
far beyond the ordinary surface consciousness, This experience may be either
temporarary or constant. People who have experienced these states, and revceived
the vast influx of knowledge, love, selflessness, breaking down of barriers
between self and others, expansion of being, inflation, etc consider themselves
enlightened, and are considered so by their devotees, who are attracted to the
magnetic charisma that seems to accompany their experience(s).

All of these experiences pertains to any of a number of possible states of
enlightenment or pseudoenlightenment. that, although emanating ultimately from
the Supreme, and although far beyond ordinary consciousness, have been filtered
through the Intermediate Zone which provides a dangerously beguilling, highly
persuasive, and narcissisticly loaded distortion of the Absolute, instead of the
Absolute in its purity. This is a mixed light in which it is impossible to tell
truth from falsehood. The same Light and revelation and power, the very same
Light, can both heal and harm, both convey enlightenment and even liberation and
yet feed the ego. It depends on the state of the transmitter (the guru), and the
state of the receiver (the devotee)

A Transitional State

In the menu at the top of this page I have represented the Intermediate Zone as
a transitional region between the two primary states of Ignorance/samsara and
Enlightenment/liberation. I have here used Indian (Vedantic, Buddhist, etc)
terminology and concepts because to me these are the clearest. But one could
without much difficulty translate them into other frameworks; e.g. Sufi,
Kabbalistic, Christian mystic, Theosophical, Hermetic, etc.

The first member of each pair refers to the cognitive (epistemological) aspect,
which also determines the ontological state of the individual. So Ignorance or
Avidya, lack of insight into the nature of the Absolute has an ontological,
metaphysical effect on the nature of the individual; i.e. it contracts the being
from a state of openness and at-one-ment with the infinite and universal, to a
state of small and impotent ego-self. Realisation of the nature of the Absolute,
Enlightenment in other words, has the opposite effect, by removing the
boundaries and barriers between the finite self and the All, it allows for
spontaneity, joy, expansion, openness, and freedom.

The state of Ignorance is called Samsara, which means that the finite self goes
around and around, propelled by the force of its own blind actions, helpless to
do anything about its fate. The state of Enlightenment is called Liberation, and
means total freedom, a freedom that comes about not through the activity of the
separate self but by surrendering to the Supreme, which is ultimately one's own
essential nature in any case.

Between these two poles, these two Truths, of Absolute and Relative, there is a
state where there is Enlightenment (or at least degrees of insight, awakening,
and enlightenment), but one still resides in the state of Samsara, because of
the activity of the ego and its desires, and because of samskaras or
habit-tendencies from earlier in one's life and from past lives.

It is this transitional region or state or series of states that constitutes the
Intermediate Zone.

Characteristics of the Intermediate Zone Guru

In my understanding, by far the bulk of charismatic gurus and spiritual teachers
that are around in the world today (and no doubt in past historical periods too)
that claim to be enlightened are actually at one of these transitional stages;
this is where their inspiration, their power, their insights and their charisma
derive from. It is highly misleading to simply explain them away or dismiss them
as con-artists or self-deluded, as many critics and sceptics believe. This
ignores the very real transpersonal experiences that for example devotees have,
and that it can be assumed the gurus and teachers themselves have. Most of them
are in fact totally sincere in their statements and experiences; even the ones
who are abusive towards their devotees. But conversely the naive New Age view
that they are all enlightened masters is equally misleading. Very very few
spiritual teachers could be considered authentic satgurus. This is not to deny
that there are still many that, although not act
ually liberated, are still genuine

Because of the Intermediate Zone's power to puff up the tiny human ego, usually
through identification with a fascinator, or even a lesser nonphysical entity,
many Intermediate Zone gurus suffer from extreme narcissism and delusions of
godhood, which leads to them quickly becoming dysfunctional and abusive on the
interpersonal level, and exploiting their devotees for their own lower desires
and fantasies.

This is not to say that all Intermediate Zone gurus are like this. There are
also those who are awakened to their inner divinity, which prevents them from
acting in a negative manner. Or they may have be in touch with an inner beauty
and sensitivity and/or detachment and discrimination that they don't let
themselves be caught up in fantasies of power and exploitation. In other cases
such individuals don't want set themselves up as "gurus" and teachers, because
they realise they still have a long way to go. They may serve as quiet and
humble friends and mentors, gurus in an informal sense of a spiritual friend who
has advanced a bit further along the path than oneself, but they would have no
interest in attracting a large following, and certainly would never claim to be
enlightened.

Thus, to say that a teacher or mastre or guru is at the level of the
Intermediate Zone doesn't mean that what they say is deceptive, their behaviour
abusive, etc. It is probably more likely that it is just a smaller number of bad
apples giving the rest a negative reputation by association.

Some examples of possible Intermediate Zone gurus

I have met in person or at least had darshan/satsang with four gurus, each of
which is very different. Three of them would seem to fit the description of
Intermediate Zone, while a fourth may or may not be.

The first was Sathya Sai Baba, a world-famous guru with a following of millions
in India, who has since been exposed as a serial sex abuser. I myself have never
had any bad experiences from Sai Baba. I travelled to India to see him a quarter
of a century ago (in 1982 or thereabouts), and it was a great experience. At
darshan he didn't seem to walk, he seemed to glide in a quite uncanny way.
Several times our eyes met as his gaze passed over the crowd and it was a
powerful sort of electric experience. My later experiences with him has been on
an astral level, including a couple of meetings in dreams, and one genuine
remote healing that cannot be explained in physicalistic terms. I was never
attracted to his teachings, which I found banal and flat, watered down
pop-Hinduism. Neither did I fit in with his following, which consisted of
typical Hindus and churchy Westerners. I did many years ago have a couple of
Western friends who were Sai Baba devotees, but in the West at least the
organisation and teaching comes across as simplistic and rather like an exoteric
Christian youth camp or study group. My belief in Sai Baba as an avatar, and
accepting as literal fact the myths and folklore built up around him, was a
combination of immature wishful thinking and wanting to belive in a "Santa
Claus" type god figure, and genuine astral connection, perhaps on the
Intermediate zone level. The first thing that disillusioned me was the
allegations of sexual abuse that are extensive than that of any other absuive
guru. The second thing was the behaviour of certain highly abusive devotees such
as Gerald Moreno, who unfortunately I got to know quite well (I would rather
that I didn't, but certainly I have learned a lot from him about how the
"abusive devotee" works). That such people can be associated with Sai Baba
proves that he is not what he claims, because no genuine teacher or avatar would
tolerate this without speaking out against such abuses. Were it not for these
two things, I would still consider Sai Baba a genuine teacher. Yet
paradoxically, this same guru who has sexually molested so many of his male
disciples, is also associated with enlightening spiritual experiences, healings
and so on the subtle level. That is the paradox of the Intermediate zone.

The second was Barry Long, who I heard at a talk, and afterwards went up and
spoke to him briefly, many many years ago. The Light and Love I felt from him
was amazing, and for a very long time I considered him a genuine Enlightened
being (just as I thought Da Free John was, until I heard about his abusive
behaviour). Nevertheless, I was never attracted to following him, nor was there
any connection or resonance on the subtlke levels, such as I felt with Sai Baba.
Barry Long's teachings are more interesting and subtle than Sai Baba's. He
seemed at the time to have a sensitivity to women and an awareness of the
unfairness and injustice of woman's position and oppression in a male society.
However there seem to be some controversies around him, due to his "neo-Tantric"
position. I don't know enough about him to speak at length on this, but no
longer consider him a fully enlightened being.

The third, around 1988, was Swami Krishna, a Tantric Guru who at the time lived
just down the road from me, and had gathered around him a local following of
naive and gullible adoring Western devotees, from whom he received a large
amount of both money and sex. My feeling is that he was a nice and decent if
somewhat egotistic guy, who simply did not realise the way he is exploitating
his followers. Like a much more powerful guru, Papaji, Swamiji genuinely doesn't
seem to understand the Western mindset and the spiritual weakness of westerners.
He had an amazing presence about him, it was a buzz that produced a sort of
"high". It is likely that his devotees fed on this, and he likewise took
advantage of them fnancially and sexually, resulting in a relationship that
could not be spiritually beneficial to either party. I only heard one of his
talks, and apart from one moment of genuine humility there was nothing in his
teachings that stuck in my mind, the same old watered down pop Hind
uism, albeit of an Osho Rajneeshi highly sexualised tone. Nevertheless he did
take a liking to me, and remembered me from when I had seen him some 8 or 9
years previously at La Trobe University. He also seemed drunk afterwards at the
dinner at his center. So very much a Trungpa/Osho type figure. The buzz I felt
in his presence did not continue after I left, there was nothing in his
teachings that attracted me, nothing in his words that indicated development of
the level of other intermediate zone gurus like Da Free John, Barry Long, or
Muktananda. I found the massive donations he asked from his devotees, and his
own claims of sadguru-hood, to be off-putting. He may be not so much
Intermediate Zone as Subtle-level ordinary consciousness. Nevertheless I am
including him here as a "borderline" example, he could equally be considered
Intermediate Zone or non-intermediate zone. All this was some 19 years ago, but
he is still around (see external link link), although no longer in Melbourne.

One guru that I heard talk (about this same time) and came away convinced that
he had no spiritual experience was Guru Maharaji (before he became Prem Rawat).
Nevertheless his devotees, including a friend who later set himself up as a
guru, came away full of emotional high. So maybe Maharaji did have power, but I
wasn't receptive to it. Or maybe they were just like born-again Christians and
other emotionalistic cults. Really, it is very difficult to tell. But for now I
am classifying Maharaji as ordinary consciousness. His case does show that just
because a guru is worshipped doesn't mean they are at the level of the
intermediate zone.

The most recent intermediate zone guru I met, in November 2006, was Gangaji, who
I have already referred to. Although I only saw her recently, and briefly
(sitting right near the front for two darshans) the experience I received was
profound. What I received from her was a transmission of Sri Ramana's Light. I
don't know if anyone else there got that; many devotees did seem blissed out,
but it was more in adoration of Gangaji herself. Gangaji comes across as a
genuinely humble person, full of Light, very loving and selfless, teaching a
simple Advaitin message, a sort of update for the westerner of Ramana's talks.
From my own experiences, I cannot and will not say a bad word about her, and
consider her an exemplary teacher. Unfortunately her forgiveness of and support
for husband Eli, who had a long term exploitative sexual affair with a young
female disciple behind her back, has caused a lot of hostility towards her among
disillusioned ex-devotees and guru-critics in general. My feeling is that
Gangaji is without doubt an Intermediate Zone guru who has had a level of
transcendent realisation. Apart from certain questions regarding the cost of her
retreats, she has not been involved in any exploitation of devotees; indeed the
person I saw had nothing but love to give for those poeple who came up on stage
with her.

Subdivisions

I have tentatively divided the Intermediate Zone into three gradations, on the
basis of the levels that various gurus would seem to be at, and comparing mixed
realisation gurus with those that seem to be the real deal. These gradations
are:

The Early/Lower/Near Intermediate Zone or IZ-a for short. This stage is
characterised by transpersonal and enlightened experiences, but these are
accompanied by Egotism, Desire, and subconscious Samskaras. A person at this
level may be possessed of amazing charisma. There may be all sorts of occult
experience or siddhis, or there may be none at all. It is assumed that more
people are at this stage then the following ones. However those with
discrimination can see that they have not yet reached the goal, even if their
experiences and realisations are profound. Hence only egotists set themselves up
as gurus at this level, hence the large number of abusive gurus from the lower
Intermediate Zone

The Middle Intermediate Zone or IZ-b for short. This stage is also characterised
by transpersonal and enlightened experiences, charisma, and so on, but Egotism
in the sense of attachment to sense of self and getting upset if people
criticise you has dropped away, being replaced by selfless love. There is
however still desire and subconscious Samskaras, and there may be narcissistic
inflation and delusionism through identification of the individual revelation
with some deity or attractor

Late/Higher/Far Intermediate Zone or IZ-c for short. This stage is also
characterised by perhaps even more profound transpersonal and enlightened
experiences, charisma, and so on, but desire has dropped away, and only some
samskaras or subtle tendencies remain. A person at this level can be considered
very close to the stage of sadguru, although they are not yet a sadguru. This
stage appears to be much rarer than the preceding one.

Another way of subdividing the Intermediate Zone is into Gross, Subtle, Causal,
and Transcendent. These are levels of being that are not limited only to the
Intermediate Zone of course. But at this level they take on a whole new
dimension. Thus gurus and spiritual teachers and masters can be categorised
according to the level of consciousness and being in which they abide, with a
further category of Integral for those who encompass and can equally move
through all the levels.

Basically the descriptions are:

Gross Intermediate Zone --Tantric and Taoist bodily realisations, experiences,
and transmutation, experiences of the subtle body, kundalini, ch'i, chakras,
healing, etc.

Subtle Intermediate Zone --experiences of occult forces and phenomena on the
subtle planes, remote healing, meeting with deities, dream experiences, astral
experiences.

Causal Intermediate Zone -- experiences of deep meditative states, nondual
states that are formless, deep samadhi, subtle archetypal realities.

Transcendent Intermediate Zone -- experiences of the transcendent Absolute or
abiding in the Supreme. The nondual teaching; Advaitin or Mahayanist realisation
, not in words but in actual practice and fact, formless or else equally beyond
form and formless.



http://www.kheper.net/topics/Aurobindo/intermediate_zone.htm

The Intermediate Zone

Introduction
Historical Development
Original use of the term
Later Influence
Theosophy
Paul Brunton
Current Interpretations
Original Letter

Introduction

In Sri Aurobindo's philosophy, the Intermediate Zone is a beguiling and
dangerous transitional region or stage or whole series of stages between
ordinary consciousness and complete enlightenment. I have argued the theory
(which was suggested to me first some years ago by an ex-devotee of Da Free
John) that most so-called gurus -- both in Indian and the West, actually are not
as they claim supremely enlightened or liberated, but rather pertain to the
Intermediate Zone; I have coined the somewhat clumsy phrase "Intermediate Zone
Guru" to designate this very large category of spiritual teachers.

Historical Development
Original use of the term

Sri Aurobindo first describes The Intermediate Zone in a lengthy letter in reply
to a disciple, written (as were most of his letters) in the early 1930s. It was
then published in 1933 in The Riddle of this World, a small booklet that
includes several essays. The letter later appeared in Letters on Yoga, and can
be found in Part 3, Section 3 "Experiences of the Inner and the Cosmic
Consciousness", Subsection 5. More recently, a number of copies have been posted
on the Internet.

A shorter but similar reference to a misleading intermediate consciousness, but
without the distinguishing qualifier "zone", is also found in some of the later
strata of The Synthesis of Yoga (see quote), which dates to the early 1940s (see
the fifth edition of The Synthesis of Yoga, "note on the text", pp.915-6)

Later Influence

Theosophy

An early reference is made in the Theosophist Magazine (edited by Annie Besant),
May 1934-August 1934 issue, p.359 in a review by a certain A.E.A. to "'the
Intermediate Zone' and its perils impossible to overpass without the guidance of
the guru", as well as to other aspects of Sri Aurobindo's teachings.
Paul Brunton

Paul Brunton adopted Sri Aurobindo's concept of the "Intermediate Zone" as a
source of delusion and subtle ego. (see The Notebooks of Paul Brunton (Published
in 1989; 16 volumes) -- Volume 11: THE SENSITIVES -- ch.12. THE INTERMEDIATE
ZONE external link list of contents)

The Original Letter

Here is the complete text, as printed (and repeated in a number of mirrors on
the internet -- (e.g. link, link, link)

"All these experiences are of the same nature and what applies to one applies to
another. Apart from some experiences of a personal character, the rest are
either idea-truths, such as pour down into the consciousness from above when one
gets into touch with certain planes of being, or strong formations from the
larger mental and vital worlds which, when one is directly open to these worlds,
rush in and want to use the sadhak for their fulfilment.

These things, when they pour down or come in, present themselves with a great
force, a vivid sense of inspiration or illumination, much sensation of light and
joy, an impression of widening and power. The sadhak feels himself freed from
the normal limits, projected into a wonderful new world of experience, filled
and enlarged and exalted;what comes associates itself, besides, with his
aspirations, ambitions, notions of spiritual fulfilment and yogic siddhi; it is
represented even as itself that realisation and fulfilment. Very easily he is
carried away by the splendour and the rush, and thinks that he has realised more
than he has truly done, something final or at least something sovereignly true.
At this stage the necessary knowledge and experience are usually lacking which
would tell him that this is only a very uncertain and mixed beginning; he may
not realise at once that he is still in the cosmic Ignorance, not in the cosmic
Truth, much less in the Transcendental Truth, and that whatever formative or
dynamic idea-truths may have come down into him are partial only and yet further
diminished by their presentation to him by a still mixed consciousness. He may
fail to realise also that if he rushes to apply what he is realising or
receiving as if it were something definitive, he may either fall into confusion
and error or else get shut up in some partial formation in which there may be an
element of spiritual Truth but it is likely to be outweighted by more dubious
mental and vital accretions that deform it altogether.

It is only when he is able to draw back (whether at once or after a time) from
his experiences, stand above them with the dispassionate witness consciousness,
observe their real nature, limitations, composition, mixture that he can proceed
on his way towards a real freedom and a higher, larger and truer siddhi. At each
step this has to be done. For whatever comes in this way to the sadhak of this
yoga, whether it be from overmind or Intuition or Illumined Mind or some exalted
Life Plane or from all these together, it is not definitive and final; it is not
the supreme Truth in which he can rest, but only a stage. And yet these stages
have to be passed through, for the supramental or the Supreme Truth cannot be
reached in one bound or even in many bounds; one has to pursue a calm patient
steady progress through many intervening stages without getting bound or
attached to their lesser Truth or Light or Power or Ananda.

This is in fact an intermediary state, a zone of transition between the ordinary
consciousness in mind and the true yoga knowledge. One may cross without hurt
through it, perceiving at once or at an early stage its real nature and refusing
to be detained by its half-lights and tempting but imperfect and often mixed and
misleading experiences; one may go astray in it, follow false voices and
mendacious guidance, and that ends in a spiritual disaster; or one may take up
one's abode in this intermediate zone, care to go no farther and build there
some half-truth which one takes for the whole truth or become the instrument of
the powers of these transitional planes, -- that is what happens to many sadhaks
and yogis.

Overwhelmed by the first rush and sense of power of a supernormal condition,
they get dazzled with a little light which seems to them a tremendous
illumination or a touch of force which they mistake for the full Divine Force or
at least a very great yoga Shakti; or they accept some intermediate Power (not
always a Power of the Divine) as the Supreme and an intermediate consciousness
as the supreme realisation. Very readily they come to think that they are in the
full cosmic consciousness when it is only some front or small part of it or some
larger Mind, Life-Power or subtle physical ranges with which they have entered
into dynamic connection. Or they feel themselves to be in an entirely illumined
consciousness, while in reality they are receiving imperfectly things from above
through a partial illumination of some mental or vital plane; for what comes is
diminished and often deformed in the course of transmission through these
planes; the receiving mind and vital of the sadhak also often understands or
transcribes ill what has been received or throws up to mix with it its own
ideas, feelings, desires, which it yet takes to be not its own but part of the
Truth it is receiving because they are mixed with it, imitate its form, are lit
up by its illumination and get from this association and borrowed light an
exaggerated value.

There are worse dangers in this intermediate zone of experience. For the planes
to which the sadhak has now opened his consciousness, -- not as before getting
glimpses of them and some influences, but directly, receiving their full impact,
-- send a host of ideas, impulses, suggestions, formations of all kinds, often
the most opposite to each other, inconsistent or incompatible, but presented in
such a way as to slur over their insufficiencies and differences, with great
force, plausibility and wealth of argument or a convincing sense of certitude.
Overpowered by this sense of certitude, vividness, appearance of profusion and
richness, the mind of the sadhak enters into a great confusion which it takes
for some larger organisation and order; or else it whirls about in incessant
shiftings and changes which it takes for a rapid progress but which lead
nowhere. Or there is the opposite danger that he may become the instrument of
some apparently brilliant but ignorant formation; for these intermediate planes
are full of little Gods or strong Daityas or smaller beings who want to create,
to materialise something or to enforce a mental and vital formation in the earth
life and are eager to use or influence or even possess the thought and will of
the sadhak and make him their instrument for the purpose. This is quite apart
from the well-known danger of actually hostile beings whose sole purpose is to
create confusion, falsehood, corruption of the sadhana and disastrous
unspiritual error. Anyone allowing himself to be taken hold of by one of these
beings, who often take a divine Name, will lose his way in the yoga. On the
other hand, it is quite possible that the sadhak may be met at his entrance into
this zone by a Power of the Divine which helps and leads him till he is ready
for greater things; but still that itself is no surety against the errors and
stumblings of this zone; for nothing is easier than for the powers of these
zones or hostile powers to imitate the guiding Voice or Image and deceive and
mislead the sadhak or for himself to attribute the creations and formations of
his own mind, vital or ego to the Divine.

For this intermediate zone is a region of half-truths -- and that by itself
would not matter, for there is no complete truth below the supermind; but the
half-truth here is often so partial or else ambiguous in its application that it
leaves a wide field for confusion, delusion and error. The sadhak thinks that
he is no longer in the old small consciousness at all, because he feels in
contact with something larger or more powerful, and yet the old consciousness is
still there, not really abolished. He feels the control or influence of some
Power, Being or Force greater than himself, aspires to be its instrument and
thinks he has got rid of ego; but this delusion of egolessness often covers an
exaggerated ego. Ideas seize upon him and drive his mind which are only
partially true and by over-confident misapplication are turned into falsehoods;
this vitiates the movements of the consciousness and opens the door to delusion.
Suggestions are made, sometimes of a romantic character, which flatter the
importance of the sadhak or are agreeable to his wishes and he accepts them
without examination or discriminating control. Even what is true, is so exalted
or extended beyond its true pitch and limit and measure that it becomes the
parent of error. This is a zone which many sadhaks have to cross, in which many
wander for a long time and out of which a great many never emerge.

Especially if their sadhana is mainly in the mental and vital, they have to meet
here many difficulties and much danger; only those who follow scrupulously a
strict guidance or have the psychic being prominent in their nature pass easily
as if on a sure and clearly marked road across this intermediate region. A
central sincerity, a fundamental humility also save from much danger and
trouble. One can then pass quickly beyond into a clearer Light where if there is
still much mixture, incertitude and struggle, yet the orientation is towards the
cosmic Truth and not to a half-illumined prolongation of Maya and ignorance.

I have described in general terms with its main features and possibilities this
state of consciousness just across the border of the normal consciousness,
because it is here that these experiences seem to move. But different sadhaks
comport themselves differently in it and respond sometimes to one class of
possibilities, sometimes to another. In this case it seems to have been entered
through an attempt to call down or force a way into the cosmic consciousness --
it does not matter which way it is put or whether one is quite aware of what one
is doing or aware of it in these terms, it comes to that in substance. It is not
the overmind which was entered, for to go straight into the overmind is
impossible. The overmind is indeed above and behind the whole action of the
cosmic consciousness, but one can at first have only an indirect connection with
it; things come down from it through intermediate ranges into a larger
mind-plane, life-plane, subtle physical plane and come very much changed and
diminished in the transmission, without anything like the full power and truth
they have in the overmind itself on its native levels. Most of the movements
come not from the overmind, but down from higher mind ranges. The ideas with
which these experiences are penetrated and on which they seem to rest their
claim to truth are not of the overmind, but of the higher Mind or sometimes of
the illumined Mind; but they are mixed with suggestions from the lower mind and
vital regions and badly diminished in their application or misapplied in many
places. All this would not matter; it is usual and normal, and one has to pass
through it and come into a clearer atmosphere where things are better organised
and placed on a surer basis. But the movement was made in a spirit of excessive
hurry and eagerness, of exaggerated self-esteem and self-confidence, of a
premature certitude, relying on no other guidance than that of one's own mind or
of the "Divine" as conceived or experienced in a stage of very limited
knowledge. But the sadhak's conception and experience of the Divine, even if it
is fundamentally genuine, is never in such a stage complete and pure; it is
mixed with all sorts of mental and vital ascriptions and all sorts of things are
associated with this Divine guidance and believed to be part of it which come
from quite other sources. Even supposing there is any direct guidance, -- most
often in these conditions the Divine acts mostly from behind the veil, -- it is
only occasional and the rest is done through a play of forces; error and
stumbling and mixture of Ignorance take place freely and these things are
allowed because the sadhak has to be tested by the world-forces, to learn by
experience, to grow through imperfection towards perfection -- if he is capable
of it, if he is willing to learn, to open his eyes to his own mistakes and
errors, to learn and profit by them so as to grow towards a purer Truth, Light
and Knowledge.

The result of this state of mind is that one begins to affirm everything that
comes in this mixed and dubious region as if it were all the Truth and the sheer
Divine Will; the ideas or the suggestions that constantly repeat themselves are
expressed with a self-assertive absoluteness as if they were Truth entire and
undeniable. There is an impression that one has become impersonal and free from
ego, while the whole tone of the mind, its utterance and spirit are full of
vehement self-assertiveness justified by the affirmation that one is thinking
and acting as an instrument and under the inspiration of the Divine. Ideas are
put forward very aggressively that can be valid to the mind, but are not
spiritually valid; yet they are stated as if they were spiritual absolutes. For
instance, equality, which in that sense -- for yogic Samata is a quite different
thing -- is a mere mental principle, the claim to a sacred independence, the
refusal to accept anyone as Guru or the opposition made between the Divine and
the human Divine etc., etc. All these ideas are positions that can be taken by
the mind and the vital and turned into principles which they try to enforce on
the religious or even the spiritual life, but they are not and cannot be
spiritual in their nature. There also begin to come in suggestions from the
vital planes, a pullulation of imaginations romantic, fanciful or ingenious,
hidden interpretations, pseudo-intuitions, would-be initiations into things
beyond, which excite or bemuse the mind and are often so turned as to flatter
and magnify ego and self-importance, but are not founded on any well-ascertained
spiritual or occult realities of a true order. This region is full of elements
of this kind and, if allowed, they begin to crowd on the sadhak; but if he
seriously means to reach the Highest, he must simply observe them and pass on.
It is not that there is never any truth in such things, but for one that is true
there are nine imitative falsehoods presented and only a trained occultist with
the infallible tact born of long experience can guide himself without stumbling
or being caught through the maze. It is possible for the whole attitude and
action and utterance to be so surcharged with the errors of this intermediate
zone that to go farther on this route would be to travel far away from the
Divine and from the yoga.

Here the choice is still open whether to follow the very mixed guidance one gets
in the midst of these experiences or to accept the true guidance. Each man who
enters the realms of yogic experience is free to follow his own way; but this
yoga is not a path for anyone to follow, but only for those who accept to seek
the aim, pursue the way pointed out upon which a sure guidance is indispensable.
It is idle for anyone to expect that he can follow this road far, -- much less
go to the end by his own inner strength and knowledge without the true aid or
influence. Even the ordinary long-practised yogas are hard to follow without the
aid of the Guru; in this which as it advances goes through untrodden countries
and unknown entangled regions, it is quite impossible. As for the work to be
done it also is not a work for any sadhak of any path; it is not, either, the
work of the "Impersonal" Divine who, for that matter, is not an active Power but
supports impartially all work in the universe. It is a training ground for those
who have to pass through the difficult and complex way of this yoga and none
other. All work here must be done in a spirit of acceptance, discipline and
surrender, not with personal demands and conditions, but with a vigilant
conscious submission to control and guidance. Work done in any other spirit
results in an unspiritual disorder, confusion and disturbance of the atmosphere.
In it too difficulties, errors, stumblings are frequent, because in this yoga
people have to be led patiently and with some field for their own effort, by
experience, out of the ignorance natural to Mind and Life to a wider spirit and
a luminous knowledge. But the danger of an unguided wandering in the regions
across the border is that the very basis of the yoga may be contradicted and the
conditions under which alone the work can be done may be lost altogether. The
transition through this intermediate zone - not obligatory, for many pass by a
narrower but surer way -- is a crucial passage; what comes out of it is likely
to be a very wide or rich creation; but when one founders there, recovery is
difficult, painful, assured only after a long struggle and endeavour."
Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, 3rd ed., pages 1039-1046.


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rmforall/message/66
judicious comments re abuse by Andrew Cohen and Eli Jaxon-Bear; Simeon Alev and
others: Murray 2006.11.22

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rmforall/message/65
Mike L spotlights specifics in Gary Renard's long response to criticism:
Donnellan: Murray 2006.11.22

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rmforall/message/64
Gary Renard vigorously defends the literal reality of Arten and Pursah,
re critiques ("witch-hunt"?) by Mundy, Perry, and Mackie: Murray 2006.11.20

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rmforall/message/63
Gary Renard challenges critics of his claims, Circle of Atonement,
Robert Perry: Murray 2006.11.14

http://www.circleofa.org/interaction/Feedback.php#DU

Comments on

Why Don't the Masters Have an Original Thought?, by Robert Perry
http://www.circleofa.org/articles/DuOriginalThought.php

Entities Should Not Be Multiplied Beyond Necessity, by Greg Mackie
http://www.circleofa.org/articles/Entities.php

and Opening a Dialogue with Gary Renard, by Jon Mundy
http://www.circleofa.org/articles/OpeningADialogue.php

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Disappearance_of_the_Universe/

bless Eli Jaxon-Bear and Andrew Cohen to liberate blessing yourself
[re notes on A Course in Miracles, Robert Perry]: Murray 2006.10.29
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rmforall/message/61
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Rich Murray, MA Room For All rmforall@...
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