On Approaching Alternative Dimensions

A stairway I would often climb up to one of the hills of Varshana in Northern India
back in the days not so long ago; Varshana is one of my favorite spots in the Vraja area.

A befitting follow-up to yesterday's off-beat blog on Enter Planet Zorgotron, I am sharing the notes I sent to a friend who wrote in, asking for my angle on The Manual of Steve Bohlert (PDF) of Universalist Radha-Krishnaism fame for entering the utopian world of Radha-Krishna featured extensively in the writings of medieval Gaudiya Vaishnava mystics. Subtitled "Create yourself in an idealized identity",  Steve looks at meditational methods for entering a particular alternative dimension from a fresh and pleasantly fluid angle.

I have myself been an intense student and practitioner of the meditative method up until late 2007, when I made the call to expand my inner domain from what I felt was a rather restrictive model for an ultimate reality presented by the orthodox tradition. While holding a great deal of fascination, it had become too anthropomorphic for my taste. Feeling a need to travel deeper into transhuman existence from the abodes of personal divinities, I embarked on a journey of my own through the Buddhist world and beyond, leaving behind the specifics of the utopian otherworld favored by the esoteric Bengali Vaishnavite tradition.

Steve is definitely onto something there with his meditational approach, contra the orthodox and often stiff methods found among the traditional teachers in India, as they often brush aside the mechanistic aspect of the entire process in favor of counting on descending grace and automatic revelation alone. I find it hard to believe that this was the sole intention of the medieval authors, who spent much of their time in methodically writing detailed volumes of thought, and whose systematic writings provide a rich philosophical and theological framework for a meticulous student with a broad understanding.

From a quick read of his short manual, it's evident Steve has a good grasp on the aspects of mental fluidity and the individual's input as crucial factors in entering new dimensions of experience and interaction.. He further seeks to give this idealized world a more universal context, which I find commendable — even while he retains it in the general religious framework of the tradition, which I am not that big on as I find it too narrow and particular for an ultimate existential frame of reference.

Reality is inherently subjective, and more so in the domain of individual mind and consciousness. If you have a wish for entering alternative worlds and dimensions by meditational effort, whether it's the Radha-Krishna department or any other transhuman world, you will need to develop your skills of concentration, spatial visualization, projection, and psychological insight to a great degree. Such skills are highly useful in any field of endeavor, and as such "in this endeavor there is no loss or diminution"; they are in fact something I intend to write about in more detail myself when I get an opening to put more of my head's contents on cyberpaper.

The bottom line as I see it is that if you want to have any level of certainty over your internal evolution, you will need to understand how things function, over and above the grace factor that religions frequently depend upon as the sole saving factor and means of spiritual evolution. If god gave us methods for attaining his dimension, I'm certain he also intended for us to understand how his methods work as a precursor to attaining the level of existence he inhabits, in particular in preparing to share of his (or rather its) level of multi-dimensional and all-encompassing consciousness.

Enter Planet Zorgotron | Strange Dreams

This is not Planet Zorgotron. It's a cool image I stole from Dave's collections.

I have no idea what it really means, but it's definitely in the right dimension.

I had the strangest dream last night. I was hopping around a planet inhabited by gargantuan cybernetic mutant insects that were generally somewhat disoriented. One of them was more of a humanoid type with long grasshopper legs that let him do crazy long-distance kung-fu sweeps. He soon became a pal of mine and helped me nail down some of the bigger bugs that cluelessly bugged around with their mechanical telescopic extensions.

For some reason I decided to call the place Planet Zorgotron. Woke up in the morning with a big grin, racing to a meeting as I had inadvertently slept in. I can still see the creatures quite clearly if I close my eyes. Must have something to do with the ongoing Internet Industrial Revolution hype and the fact that I watched the jungle slug episode of Stargate Universe before I crashed last night; or otherwise the waiter dropped something very strange for cloves into that glass of hot whiskey I had last night to brush off the cold as I was heading home.

For those of you who were wondering what's been up with the long silence in the blog again; as you can see, it's business as usual and nothing out of the ordinary. I'm still mad as a frog, and evidently going up in the world.