I’m not sure I believe something so innate to the human experience can be lost forever if not “used” by 14.
Continuous improvement, learning, and discovery is part of life. Surely if there exists something to tap into beyond our five senses, we can find our way back again later if approached the right way.
Also, I’m not sure I’d buy anyone that claims to be so sure about anything like that. Humility and submitting to the unknown is part of the ride.
I suspect materialism is declining, openness to the mysteries ascending, and my guess for why is humility forced by our obvious lack of progress learning to live with one another.
A philosophy called Rosicrutianism (not a religion, despite many mischaracterizations) addresses the spiritual sense. They probably won't share much outside the order, but I wonder how much Ms. Pasulka knows about the advanced teachings.
I was raised in a house conflicted, so there was no development of this proposed sense: one parent Anglican (mostly for community), the other a materialist atheist. I solved spiritual conflict with cocaine, alcohol, other drugs.
However, maybe 10 years after sobering up I had an unsolicited, strange, unforgettable, almost indescribable, spontaneous, short, related event. I was walking down an unremarkable street when I was suddenly in a different reality, yet the same place. Suddenly I knew many things, became aware I was part of and influential towards all things, and was somehow aware of both the smallest increment and totality of ... everything.
And then, gone. Never happened again. But I think I saw something real.
Thank you for your comment. The last paragraph reminded me of an experience I had at age 41 that changed me in a profound way.
It seems that some of us abuse substances because we are looking for that transcendent experience to help us feel whole and connected. At 10 months sober, I was having a panic attack while trying to open my apartment door to go outside into the world. I started to cry and tremble and asked out loud "please help me" as I shook all over my body. I heard a calm and loving male voice say "let go of the way you think things should be." I became peaceful and successfully walked outside my apartment, feeling loved and protected. The world and everything in it suddenly felt and looked brighter and more dynamic in every way, as if I had stepped from a black and white silent film into the world of color, sound and dimension. "Let go" became my mantra. That was 15 years ago and the spiritual journey I've been on since that moment has been painful at times but always exhilarating. I no longer feel the need to go to extremes like sky diving to feel alive. I now dive deeply into myself where all doors are waiting to be opened. Finding Diana's work has helped me even more. 💜
"...we are looking for that transcendent experience to help us feel whole and connected."
This feels likely correct, or close, like my spirit could not own my being enough, and the disconnect was a painful mystery. Before I stopped, I remember being in the hallway of my apartment building, observing a nice couple locking their door, thinking, "how do these creatures operate so successfully in this world, when I cannot?"
In my understanding, Rosicrutianism doesn't include priests, a head priest, or pope... it does not require faith, just education/training and continuous progress. It does appear to be a mystical philosophy, but not much like any religion. They encourage and welcome folks who commit to any/all/no religion.
Thought provoking article. I agree, neuroplasticity seems to play a role and there are definitely many instances of people far into adulthood experiencing this spiritual sense for the first time in thier life following a traumatic event.
It's hard to say anything about the spiritual "sense" without a clearer definition of what it is. But I do hear your dismay at the suggestion that someone is cut off from it by their teens if it doesn't just happen. Hopefully your friend is really a friend, not a mind-effer who likes to mess with people and scare them because that's kind of what his declaration sounds like to me.
I was raised by people who had no religion or spiritual beliefs and once out on my own, had to search on my own for a spiritual path. Even as a small child I wanted answers to big questions that my parents could't provide. I see it as a life-long journey with new understanding unfolding all the time, not a hopeless loss because I was oblivous to all of it when I was 15 years old. And one thing my path has taught me is that scare tactics aren't a part of what we are all seeking in one way or another. To be told, "It's hopeless for you!" is to be lied to.
I confess to not being ready for a thought-provoking post this morning. No rain in the forecast, and my recumbent trike waits for me. But here I sit trying to focus IN on this one. One thing that immediately comes to mind with regard to this individuals' "window open/window closing" statement, is the "certainty" that in the statement that is conveyed. Just based on that point alone, the statement seems to beg for inquiry at the very least. I do not mean to infer ridicule here, but I do see far too many flaws in it. Without digging in and categorizing them all, I will say that there is some excellence in the statement. Ultimately whether it has any legitimacy, or not, misses the real value. It has provoked thought and dialogue. And that is excellent. That said, one problem I have with it is a fundamental question, "how do you know this to be true?". Even as I write this, I realize "the allegory of the cave" is looming large behind me. Personally, I do not believe any of this individuals' statement to be valid. But, again. In so much as it generates thought and discussion, it is still a great question. Ok that's it I have to get outside!
I’d argue that the members of the secret Republic are just. But their justice operates on a scale, relative to an absolute standard. In this hierarchy, those who are stronger in justice—more aligned with the Form of Justice (or the Absolute Good)—may rule over or restrain those who are weaker. The strong, in this sense, bring order to the weak by nature and by laws (convention).
Of course, this isn't—(or is it?)—Cloudcuckooland (Aristophanes' Birds), where power is seized by whoever flatters the birds best and builds a city in the sky to block the gods. Unlike Peisetaerus, whose rule is a feathered coup wrapped in honeyed words, the rulers of the secret Republic don’t rule by trickery, but by a radiant gravity, the kind that only comes from knowing the Good.
(From what I’ve gathered in the dialogues, an individual has until around the age of forty to “give birth” with help from the divine spirit (the birds) appointed by God—to bring forth that inner transformation. That’s the window to earn the radiant cloak, the golden fleece, wings to soar out of the cave.)
One of my favorite sayings is an inversion of the famous Asimov quote: "Any magic sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from technology."
The most troubling aspects of the "Phenomenon" is the hints and allusions one encounters to a twisted, psycho-technological pursuit of the life of the spirit, a perversion of the state of grace that Christians pursue through the use of the means of grace and spiritual disciplines.
It seems to me there is an emerging realization by the general public of a synthesis between the worlds of human trafficking, psychedelics, the intelligence community, the UFO phenomenon, space-related scientists and officials, and various occult groups like Scientology. The nexus between them all is the pursuit of spiritual power or enlightenment, and the employment of horrific criminal behavior toward that end. Your allusion to the age of 14 being a cut-off for developing these elevated abilities further hints at the focus on children as a vehicle or channel for these abilities.
I don't necessarily know what to make of it, except to be increasingly suspicious of all proponents of these fields of enquiry that aren't thoroughly rooted in Christian scripture and practice. I'm glad your view on the topic is helping draw attention to the ways the phenomenon can be understood through classic Christian metaphysics and cosmology.
I think you meant “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” —- Arthur C. Clarke. This is Clarke’s Third Law (about the future and scientific progress). Asimov referenced this in many of his essays and this theme often used in his novels, such as “Foundation.”
Thanks, I knew it was either Clarke or Asimov. But I did intend to say it backwards: modern technology, as currently employed, is just the advanced version of what the Hermetics and alchemists were chasing. The magic, once sufficiently advanced, turns out to be technology. CS Lewis makes this point quite a bit throughout his works, especially the Abolition of Man.
Very cool perspective. I never thought of it that way. Clarke and Asimov are two of my favorite authors. My dad had me reading them when I was not even 10. A lifetime of learning!
I truly love to believe that all human beings are born with an innate sense of spirituality in the senses of right and wrong but get lost.
I would wholeheartedly disagree with anyone that would imply that one cannot have a spiritual awakening of several types regardless of age if that is what people were implying to Author.
I've no place to say if your friend is correct or not, but I do think children having spiritual experiences is very common. For every utterance of "it's just your imagination," there is another child detecting things adults can't or won't.
So, fortunately, I would bet most people have had some form of connection during childhood, making most capable of turning it back on.
Humans do have developmental windows in a more physical sense. For example, with speech there are specific sounds. They are learned in some order, and if you miss them, (perhaps you developed a sound altering ear infection)you cannot re-learn them. This can cause speech impediments.
I don't say this means the same happens in a spiritual sense, but maybe if you don't use it you lose it, or more appropriately, if you don't learn it, you can't earn it later.
It would be nice if the speech/language teacher who told me about this could break down spiritual development too. Not his expertise tho.
Perhaps your friend is right... Perhaps we do lose our 'spiritual' senses if don't make sure of them by age 14.
But this assumes that the spiritual is somehow wholly different from this 'matter' we inhabit. Aren't they the same? Isn't that what we find in the Chandogya Upanisads when Svetaketu's father tells him, "Believe me, my son, an invisible and subtle essence is the Spirit of the whole universe. That is Reality. That is Atman. Thou Art That"?
So I'm skeptical of your friend's POV but perhaps they're onto something.
This same person (who made that claim) believes that the spiritual is just another form of matter we have not "discovered" yet. There is nothing, in his opinion, supernatural. Its all gradations of the material.
This makes his stance more interesting. So he believes the brain is acting as a filter past the age of 14 toward this 'matter'—possibly due to synaptic pruning, like with unused senses?
It’s my understanding that Lucas got the term Jedi from the Djed column or pillar in Egyptian Mythology. The Djed column represents the 33 vertebrae of the spinal column or the backbone of Ozirus. What I love about George Lucas is that he is an anthropologist major from SF State. He was trying to teach generations of people about how to develop spiritually using some of these ideas from ancient Egypt and other cultures. The Jedi philosophy is related to the development of Djed column. The movement of spinal fluid up and down the spine that then triggers spiritual development. I hope it’s not true that developing spiritual sight is hindered after 14 years of age. I believe a spiritual sense can atrophy as a muscle does if not used. But like a muscle if engaged with at any age it can develop back. Having an awareness of maintaining animalistic urges without letting them get out of hand, and at the same time maintain your spiritual passions without it letting it burn the earth down which is the key to mastery or become a Jedi. The sense and cultivation of this is key.
Whenever someone uses the word “spirituality” I hear the word “superstition”. Through the decades no “spiritual” person, (be they Buddhists, Christians, Astrologers or fortune tellers), has presented a convincing argument to the contrary.
According to the person in this substack piece, if one opens it, it is opened. If it is never opened, he believes it will never be opened after adolescence. That's his belief. I think he would say that if a person experiences it then it is a sense that is opened, but not activated or cultivated. I know he thinks it can be reactivated. In the modern era there is no emphasis on a spiritual sense because, as the person above noted, where is it? We can see our ears, etc., so we are aware of the five senses, but the spiritual sense has not been identified by moderns like us. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Thank you for the reply! I had experiences seeing orbs and people in my room when i was about 8 or 9, everything stopped at around 11 or 12. Im training to open the gate again, I hope he is right!
“The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.” Obi-Wan Kenobi
I’m not sure I believe something so innate to the human experience can be lost forever if not “used” by 14.
Continuous improvement, learning, and discovery is part of life. Surely if there exists something to tap into beyond our five senses, we can find our way back again later if approached the right way.
Also, I’m not sure I’d buy anyone that claims to be so sure about anything like that. Humility and submitting to the unknown is part of the ride.
It is a dismal view, no doubt!
I suspect materialism is declining, openness to the mysteries ascending, and my guess for why is humility forced by our obvious lack of progress learning to live with one another.
A philosophy called Rosicrutianism (not a religion, despite many mischaracterizations) addresses the spiritual sense. They probably won't share much outside the order, but I wonder how much Ms. Pasulka knows about the advanced teachings.
I was raised in a house conflicted, so there was no development of this proposed sense: one parent Anglican (mostly for community), the other a materialist atheist. I solved spiritual conflict with cocaine, alcohol, other drugs.
However, maybe 10 years after sobering up I had an unsolicited, strange, unforgettable, almost indescribable, spontaneous, short, related event. I was walking down an unremarkable street when I was suddenly in a different reality, yet the same place. Suddenly I knew many things, became aware I was part of and influential towards all things, and was somehow aware of both the smallest increment and totality of ... everything.
And then, gone. Never happened again. But I think I saw something real.
Thank you for your comment. The last paragraph reminded me of an experience I had at age 41 that changed me in a profound way.
It seems that some of us abuse substances because we are looking for that transcendent experience to help us feel whole and connected. At 10 months sober, I was having a panic attack while trying to open my apartment door to go outside into the world. I started to cry and tremble and asked out loud "please help me" as I shook all over my body. I heard a calm and loving male voice say "let go of the way you think things should be." I became peaceful and successfully walked outside my apartment, feeling loved and protected. The world and everything in it suddenly felt and looked brighter and more dynamic in every way, as if I had stepped from a black and white silent film into the world of color, sound and dimension. "Let go" became my mantra. That was 15 years ago and the spiritual journey I've been on since that moment has been painful at times but always exhilarating. I no longer feel the need to go to extremes like sky diving to feel alive. I now dive deeply into myself where all doors are waiting to be opened. Finding Diana's work has helped me even more. 💜
"...we are looking for that transcendent experience to help us feel whole and connected."
This feels likely correct, or close, like my spirit could not own my being enough, and the disconnect was a painful mystery. Before I stopped, I remember being in the hallway of my apartment building, observing a nice couple locking their door, thinking, "how do these creatures operate so successfully in this world, when I cannot?"
I could not join them, and I had no idea.
I love Catholicism for the reason that we are open minded to these mysterious events. I would love to hear your experience in greater detail.
I became interested in Rosicrucianism and read up on it a bit. I would call it a shorthand philosophical mystical Catholicism kind of?
In my understanding, Rosicrutianism doesn't include priests, a head priest, or pope... it does not require faith, just education/training and continuous progress. It does appear to be a mystical philosophy, but not much like any religion. They encourage and welcome folks who commit to any/all/no religion.
Thought provoking article. I agree, neuroplasticity seems to play a role and there are definitely many instances of people far into adulthood experiencing this spiritual sense for the first time in thier life following a traumatic event.
It's hard to say anything about the spiritual "sense" without a clearer definition of what it is. But I do hear your dismay at the suggestion that someone is cut off from it by their teens if it doesn't just happen. Hopefully your friend is really a friend, not a mind-effer who likes to mess with people and scare them because that's kind of what his declaration sounds like to me.
I was raised by people who had no religion or spiritual beliefs and once out on my own, had to search on my own for a spiritual path. Even as a small child I wanted answers to big questions that my parents could't provide. I see it as a life-long journey with new understanding unfolding all the time, not a hopeless loss because I was oblivous to all of it when I was 15 years old. And one thing my path has taught me is that scare tactics aren't a part of what we are all seeking in one way or another. To be told, "It's hopeless for you!" is to be lied to.
I found it again later in life. Like a muscle not used, needs to be exercise back to being used again.
I confess to not being ready for a thought-provoking post this morning. No rain in the forecast, and my recumbent trike waits for me. But here I sit trying to focus IN on this one. One thing that immediately comes to mind with regard to this individuals' "window open/window closing" statement, is the "certainty" that in the statement that is conveyed. Just based on that point alone, the statement seems to beg for inquiry at the very least. I do not mean to infer ridicule here, but I do see far too many flaws in it. Without digging in and categorizing them all, I will say that there is some excellence in the statement. Ultimately whether it has any legitimacy, or not, misses the real value. It has provoked thought and dialogue. And that is excellent. That said, one problem I have with it is a fundamental question, "how do you know this to be true?". Even as I write this, I realize "the allegory of the cave" is looming large behind me. Personally, I do not believe any of this individuals' statement to be valid. But, again. In so much as it generates thought and discussion, it is still a great question. Ok that's it I have to get outside!
I love the first sentence of your post (the rest is good too).
Thanks. It was a pre caffeine lament.
I’d argue that the members of the secret Republic are just. But their justice operates on a scale, relative to an absolute standard. In this hierarchy, those who are stronger in justice—more aligned with the Form of Justice (or the Absolute Good)—may rule over or restrain those who are weaker. The strong, in this sense, bring order to the weak by nature and by laws (convention).
Of course, this isn't—(or is it?)—Cloudcuckooland (Aristophanes' Birds), where power is seized by whoever flatters the birds best and builds a city in the sky to block the gods. Unlike Peisetaerus, whose rule is a feathered coup wrapped in honeyed words, the rulers of the secret Republic don’t rule by trickery, but by a radiant gravity, the kind that only comes from knowing the Good.
(From what I’ve gathered in the dialogues, an individual has until around the age of forty to “give birth” with help from the divine spirit (the birds) appointed by God—to bring forth that inner transformation. That’s the window to earn the radiant cloak, the golden fleece, wings to soar out of the cave.)
I like and prefer your version!
very interesting i think they are onto something because when you are young your mind is'n
full the things of the world. i am 82 but i can remember when i was young i would pray. and i would
instant results. the thing of this world fills our brains with a lot of useless stuff. loved your feed back
One of my favorite sayings is an inversion of the famous Asimov quote: "Any magic sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from technology."
The most troubling aspects of the "Phenomenon" is the hints and allusions one encounters to a twisted, psycho-technological pursuit of the life of the spirit, a perversion of the state of grace that Christians pursue through the use of the means of grace and spiritual disciplines.
It seems to me there is an emerging realization by the general public of a synthesis between the worlds of human trafficking, psychedelics, the intelligence community, the UFO phenomenon, space-related scientists and officials, and various occult groups like Scientology. The nexus between them all is the pursuit of spiritual power or enlightenment, and the employment of horrific criminal behavior toward that end. Your allusion to the age of 14 being a cut-off for developing these elevated abilities further hints at the focus on children as a vehicle or channel for these abilities.
I don't necessarily know what to make of it, except to be increasingly suspicious of all proponents of these fields of enquiry that aren't thoroughly rooted in Christian scripture and practice. I'm glad your view on the topic is helping draw attention to the ways the phenomenon can be understood through classic Christian metaphysics and cosmology.
Kent,
I do love the quote. Another:
"Let the mind be expanded to the grandeur of the mysteries, not the mysteries contracted to the narrowness of the mind." Francis Bacon
A corollary to Azimov's quote might be Deep Prasad's story of the 17th century villager and the F18. https://deep-1645.medium.com/the-villager-and-the-f-18-6d2ea3a30cd2
Interestingly, the make-believe villager lived in Francis Bacon's era.
Surely, both were on to something basic about the nature of the human species'.
Kinda reminds one of the Miracle of Fatima and WW1.
I think you meant “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” —- Arthur C. Clarke. This is Clarke’s Third Law (about the future and scientific progress). Asimov referenced this in many of his essays and this theme often used in his novels, such as “Foundation.”
Thanks, I knew it was either Clarke or Asimov. But I did intend to say it backwards: modern technology, as currently employed, is just the advanced version of what the Hermetics and alchemists were chasing. The magic, once sufficiently advanced, turns out to be technology. CS Lewis makes this point quite a bit throughout his works, especially the Abolition of Man.
Very cool perspective. I never thought of it that way. Clarke and Asimov are two of my favorite authors. My dad had me reading them when I was not even 10. A lifetime of learning!
Only Christian scripture and practice is interesting. Why do you exclude others?
I truly love to believe that all human beings are born with an innate sense of spirituality in the senses of right and wrong but get lost.
I would wholeheartedly disagree with anyone that would imply that one cannot have a spiritual awakening of several types regardless of age if that is what people were implying to Author.
I've no place to say if your friend is correct or not, but I do think children having spiritual experiences is very common. For every utterance of "it's just your imagination," there is another child detecting things adults can't or won't.
So, fortunately, I would bet most people have had some form of connection during childhood, making most capable of turning it back on.
Humans do have developmental windows in a more physical sense. For example, with speech there are specific sounds. They are learned in some order, and if you miss them, (perhaps you developed a sound altering ear infection)you cannot re-learn them. This can cause speech impediments.
I don't say this means the same happens in a spiritual sense, but maybe if you don't use it you lose it, or more appropriately, if you don't learn it, you can't earn it later.
It would be nice if the speech/language teacher who told me about this could break down spiritual development too. Not his expertise tho.
Perhaps your friend is right... Perhaps we do lose our 'spiritual' senses if don't make sure of them by age 14.
But this assumes that the spiritual is somehow wholly different from this 'matter' we inhabit. Aren't they the same? Isn't that what we find in the Chandogya Upanisads when Svetaketu's father tells him, "Believe me, my son, an invisible and subtle essence is the Spirit of the whole universe. That is Reality. That is Atman. Thou Art That"?
So I'm skeptical of your friend's POV but perhaps they're onto something.
This same person (who made that claim) believes that the spiritual is just another form of matter we have not "discovered" yet. There is nothing, in his opinion, supernatural. Its all gradations of the material.
This makes his stance more interesting. So he believes the brain is acting as a filter past the age of 14 toward this 'matter'—possibly due to synaptic pruning, like with unused senses?
Looking forward to hearing more about how AI relates to the "spiritual sense"!
It’s my understanding that Lucas got the term Jedi from the Djed column or pillar in Egyptian Mythology. The Djed column represents the 33 vertebrae of the spinal column or the backbone of Ozirus. What I love about George Lucas is that he is an anthropologist major from SF State. He was trying to teach generations of people about how to develop spiritually using some of these ideas from ancient Egypt and other cultures. The Jedi philosophy is related to the development of Djed column. The movement of spinal fluid up and down the spine that then triggers spiritual development. I hope it’s not true that developing spiritual sight is hindered after 14 years of age. I believe a spiritual sense can atrophy as a muscle does if not used. But like a muscle if engaged with at any age it can develop back. Having an awareness of maintaining animalistic urges without letting them get out of hand, and at the same time maintain your spiritual passions without it letting it burn the earth down which is the key to mastery or become a Jedi. The sense and cultivation of this is key.
Whenever someone uses the word “spirituality” I hear the word “superstition”. Through the decades no “spiritual” person, (be they Buddhists, Christians, Astrologers or fortune tellers), has presented a convincing argument to the contrary.
How about if we experienced that sense before 14 but then we stopped. Can it be reawakened?
According to the person in this substack piece, if one opens it, it is opened. If it is never opened, he believes it will never be opened after adolescence. That's his belief. I think he would say that if a person experiences it then it is a sense that is opened, but not activated or cultivated. I know he thinks it can be reactivated. In the modern era there is no emphasis on a spiritual sense because, as the person above noted, where is it? We can see our ears, etc., so we are aware of the five senses, but the spiritual sense has not been identified by moderns like us. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Thank you for the reply! I had experiences seeing orbs and people in my room when i was about 8 or 9, everything stopped at around 11 or 12. Im training to open the gate again, I hope he is right!
“The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.” Obi-Wan Kenobi
So Saul was fourteen on the Damascus Road? This hypothosis just doesn't ring true to me.