CAN WE FEEL THE SUPERNATURAL?

Logic allows us to realize that we will all die.  Logic also makes us admit that there is existence out there (out-skin) that we simply can’t perceive, though we are constantly inventing instruments that expand our perceptions.  Sometimes we can only do this expanding by inventing codes that must be graphed, like the connectors of the brain genome, a gorgeous image we can only see on a computer screen and know is not what it really looks like, which is gray mush.

Brain connections interpreted by computer.

We think that there might be a color more purple than purple, but in fact we are looking at electromagnetic wave lengths that are orderly, in sequence and seen only as translated by our eyes and then our brains.  Same with the air waves we perceive as sounds, though some of them are powerful enough to feel against our skin, in our guts.  And there is a whole chemistry-perceiving apparatus in our noses and mouths that don’t necessarily agree with the results that others get with their taste and smell organs.  Evidently molecules are trickier than wave lengths.

So when we start talking about something like Holy or Sacred, it might not even be real.  How would we know?  We wouldn’t want a God or Sacredness that could be perceived or conceived by our limited flesh senses, right?  But what if some people are able to feel the usually unfelt?  What sense would they use?  Can you taste the Holy Spirit?  Some have claimed they could smell sainthood.

Sensory limitations (some people are colorblind, some can’t smell) are reinforced by limitations of experience.  Can experience of something “mystical” exceed one’s senses?  When is experience real?  The research coming from split brains, which demonstrate that the two sides sense the world in different ways with different content, suggests it is the instrument, the perceiving apparatus cam present artifacts, accounting for things by making up reasons in their brains — in-skin, not out-skin.

Some people would like to use the word “virtual” to describe something imaginary or to be equivalent to religious, because it is a compilation of a mass of senses and thoughts into a pattern.  It is not out-skin, a feature of the world, but rather in-skin produced by the connector.  It may be very useful and a good fit with the information about the outer world, which is taken to be real, factual, and unchanging.  

A METHOD

“Method acting” is based on the actor’s ability to use memory of experience to develop a character.  It is much more structured and disciplined that the pop version of it.  First is the “spine” of the character, where their identity came from, what defines them, and where they are trying to go.  Second in the structure of the play itself, the narrated time and place that forms the situation.  Exploration of the character’s ability to survive in that setting is what gives us the drama.  This is what forms my method, diversion from both logic and emotion, as I confront the “sacred” or “holy.”  it is neither rational in the sense of deduction, nor is it visceral in an emotional physical reaction.  It is usually described as individual and personal experience, but a consideration of what is perceived by a person as instrument when thrust against the world in all its dimensions, some of which are undefined or unrecognized by the person.  Maybe beyond any human awareness.

The writing about these experiences is oxymoronic to begin with, since they are deeper in the mind than words, even poetry or other art forms, though music and art are suggestive and symphonies are a good metaphor that refers to one element contributing to a larger whole.  It's hard to think about. 

One of my first realizations was that the saints, who are more or less defined by this element of intense experience, often spoke in oxymorons: that is, contradictions.  Caught up and dropped; frozen and warmed; deafened and hearing music, total darkness and blinding light; and so on — often in terms of what a baby perceives very early.  From early on in developing a theory about mystic/deep/flaming experience I thought it might be recalling of the original premises of the forming brain, the things recorded as the connectome first began to make connections.  It seems that “liminal” time or sometimes “numinous” experience are addressing those early foundational brain beliefs with enough impact to challenge their truth or, on the other hand, reaffirm them.

People who are always looking for legitimization of their authority will try to claim that there is moral authority in such experiences, that they are proof of God or the Virgin Mary or some other source of power.  This introduces a moral element.  Rudolph Otto was the first thinker (1869 - 1937) to object to this.  Morality, what is right or wrong, develops as social consensus, and is not at all universal.  In fact, some of these intense experiences are demonic, shattering, “bad trips.”  Or can be triggered by intense sex or torture.

Morality tries to find what is best for all, a sort of natural law search that wants homogeneousness, not too much and not too little.  This is a dimension of religiosity that we live with day to day.  It is related to law, which is a consensus, often written out, maybe as a story, compiled in a book.  Otto’s feeling about this caused him to create a new composite word from Greek and Roman roots:  “numen.”  The numinous.  

Mircea Eliade’s book, “The Sacred and the Profane”, describes how we can psychically — almost viscerally — feel the Sacred or the numinous in our world without having it dictated by authorities.  Transitions, extremes, nearness to fire or water, gateways and flights of stairs, will give a sense of something beyond our human perception, and so it is.  It’s not a full scale vision, but one can feel it as though it were a change in the ambient temperature of air.  When doing a home ceremony — wedding or baptism — without any thought about it, people will put the officiant by the hearth, or a picture window, or even a grand piano, responding to their aura of importance.

(This reflecting will continue.)