with
Leslie McQuade Griffin
Lesson 2:
Phosphenes
Core magick represents the intersection between science and
spirituality. Core Magick removes the
cultural assumptions, constraints and expectations from magical practices and
puts their methods in plain language, so that it may be grasped easily,
understood accurately and practiced effortlessly.
I have written these lessons in as simple a way as I
possibly can. The primary reason
is because I am reaching out to people who may be considering Magick for the
first time and especially to young people who may for the first time be seeing
alternative ideas which are significantly different from the way in which they
were raised.
Part of the purpose of meditation is to train yourself to
fully relax into your natural center.
In this way, you have a consistent point from which to more accurately
judge the effects of the various exercises, experiments and practices that will
be introduced in these lessons. It
is also important to understand the cumulative nature of many of the
lessons. Much like the electronic
dance music so popular today, layers of practices performed simultaneously have
a cumulative effect that is usually greater than if the practices were
performed separately or in sequence.
I start with meditation because it is through meditation
that a person comes to center. Not
just mental center, but also physical, emotional and energetic center. I tend to think of this as “tareing the
scale of the body”. During my time
in a testing laboratory, I spent a great amount of time measuring powdered
coal. The amounts I used for the
tests were so small, even a random bit of dust or writing on the measuring dish
would change the results. In order
for me to make accurate measurements, it was necessary to “tare”, or re-set the
scale to zero before every measurement.
Press the TARE button to re-set the balance to zero before each measurement.
During my training as an anthropologist, I was taught that I
AM the instrument, and that through data collection (note-taking) and paradigm
assessment/comparison (journaling), I would create a record that could be used
as scientific data by me and those who would follow. In anthropology, we “tare” by knowing who we are, warts and
all. Many anthropologists, like
the late, great Bronislaw Malinowski, show the depth of this through the two
journals all anthropologists keep.
One is for DATA and the other is for SELF. Anthropologists too, have cultural baggage that is so deeply
ingrained, only careful and fearless internal examination can drag it out into
the light. I’ll talk more about
this in just a moment.
Core Magick also
deals with knowing who you are, and tareing your instrument before beginning
the experiment. Meditation is how you tare your spiritual self. The physical exercise prior is to
make your body tired enough to want to sit still for a while. In the silence of a still mind, a still
body, and an emotionally still heart, you find your personal the TARE button.
Once you have found your personal equilibrium point, you can
begin experiments. Having the
body, mind, emotions and spirit all balanced, EVERY TIME before you start the
experiment, you will quickly be able to ascertain what is working and what is
not. For women, this is even more
important because of the reproductive cleansing cycle hardwired into our Meatsuits.
After one month of consistent practice on meditation, on
bringing yourself to tare, you are ready to begin some other experiments. The next series of experiments will
deal with collecting energy.
This particular method was taught to me to teach my students
my Kundalini Yoga teacher, Guru Paranjothiar. He is a truly amazing human being. His gentle teachings and profound insights continue to bring
peace and tranquility in my life.
Jagathguru
Guru Mahan Paranjothiar
Before you begin, there is some preparation you might want
to consider. First, the following
work should be done when it is bright and sunny outside. You will also need a candle, a way to
light it and your journal. Prior to discussing and using phosphenes, I want to
take a moment to talk a little bit more about cultural baggage. If we were in a face-to-face classroom
right now, I would do this demonstration for you. This demonstration is to help you see your paradigm of the
physical world, so that you may move beyond into a new paradigm.
Find
a window in your house that gets lots of sunshine, and from which you can
easily and comfortably see the sky, or simply go outside.
Light a candle of any color and position it so that you
can see the flame against the bright blue of the sky. What do you see?
Concentrate on the space above the candle flame.
You should be able to see the Heat Shimmer, distorting
the air and giving off infra-red light in the form of heat. In this way, you can see what is
usually invisible to the human eye, but easily tangible to the skin.
Look for the place where the Heat Shimmer diffuses and
becomes nearly indistinguishable.
Put your hand there. How
hot does it feel? Move your hand
down. Can you see the Heat Shimmer
washing out and moving around your palm?
Move the Heat Shimmer around.
You will find it behaves in much the same way as smoke. In fact, it is this heat that gives the
tiny incinerated particles that make up smoke their movement.
Whether it is to send prayers to heaven, activate
spells, or give devotional gifts to Deities and ancestors, most of the world’s
cultures use smoke and fire.
Having seen Heat Shimmer coming off the fire on your candle, or if that
was not possible, seeing if come off the fire in this photograph, clearly
demonstrates the way in which fire “releases” the spirit of that which is
burning. The spirit in this case
is the energy produced (heat and light) when matter moves from a solid state to
an energetic one.
Humans
are in many ways incredibly myopic.
I mean this both literally and figuratively. Take for example, our visible spectrum. Compared with game animals like deer
and elk, our range of perception is clearly different. The ability of deer to see in the
ultraviolet range is the reason why my dad insisted we not wash our hunting
camouflage. The phosphates and
phosphate analogs used in laundry detergent leave residues that glow white in
the ultraviolet range. He
explained that we look like we are wearing white suits under a black light.
My father, like all other good hunters, was very aware of the differences between the sensory capabilities of his prey versus his own. Weeks before we were to go hunting, we began a special diet to make us smell less human, and an exercise program targeting squeaky or crunchy joints. We abstained from meat, coffee, potatoes, onions and garlic. Four days before, we began washing with only water and Scotch-Brite pads to keep our skin from glowing or smelling like perfumes. And we would leave all our clothes outside doused with doe sent to allow them to loose whatever human smells might be left. We used banana scented gun oil to hide the smell of metal and gunpowder. And EVERYTHING was covered in camouflage.
Leslie McQuade Griffin in the Field
Take as another example, the visual capabilities of
insects. If we had the same visual
acuity as the humble honey-bee, think of the many ways in which human culture (i.e.
advertising, entertainment) and science (i.e. telescopes, computer monitors) might
be different if we saw more on the purple end of the color spectrum than the
red one. I make this point to
emphasize the importance we as humans place on visual data.
There is an interesting story told in “What the Bleep do we
know anyway” that, although it is probably a folktale, serves to illustrate a
point (like most folktales). The
story goes something like
”One-day, an Incan shaman was standing on the beach, as he did every morning, looking out past the waves to the horizon. He noticed that the waves were moving strangely. He looked at the waves by his feet, and saw that they too were not behaving as usual. He slowly looked out again towards the horizon, looking for the cause of the strange waves. And then, on the horizon, they appeared; ships of the conquistadors. Recognizing the importance of this, he went back to the city to get the chief and his other aids to look at this strange phenomenon. Of course, word quickly spread, and soon everyone was on the beach, looking at the strange waves, but they could not see the ships. It wasn’t until the shaman described what the ships looked like that people could see them, and then it was as they appeared out of nowhere. Once the people knew what they were looking for, they were able to see it”.
The almost sacred importance we place on personal
visual experience is one of the most difficult of the inherent biases of the
human sensory condition.
 |
| Look at this block of text – Do you understand? The answer is at the end of this post. |
If you do, it is only because someone, through written
text or vocal instructions, taught you how to see it. Phosphenes are exactly the same. Once you see them, you see them, but if you can’t, it is
difficult to find a trigger to help jolt you into the new way of seeing. Please be aware that sometimes, like
the Inca discovered on that beach long ago, you must believe it to see it.
Now the western model of science we are taught as children
would have a tough time explaining this.
Science says (in essence) if it cannot be seen, it does not exist. And that if you only see it when you believe in it or know what you are looking
for, it similarly does not exist.
And yet, on a daily basis, we are asked to believe in things we cannot
see (atoms, photons, bacteria, viruses, etc.) simply by the fact that others who
“know” have seen these things. Why
then do we use such a different yardstick to measure those things science
consistently labels magick? Why do
we not, as we do in science, simply believe the reports of the experts? THIS is the cultural bias I endeavor to
show you. Let us move forward with
the demonstration and discussion of phosphenes, and unlearn some things our
culture taught us.
Repeat the steps for Meditation i.e. exercise, sit down,
concentrate on your breathing, lift off, get into space.
Now that you are in space, maintain this clarity, get up and
walk outside into the sunshine.
Look up into the sky, and what do you see? Give yourself some time to really look into the sky. Allow your focus to relax and shift.
Some people find it helpful to relax the focus of your eyes, like when you look for the three dimensional image hidden in “magic eye” artwork. When I do this, I see a number of things. I see the parasitic worms I picked up
by swimming in a river in Kazakhstan (perfectly harmless and, in Kazakhstan, a
rite of passage), I see the occasional bit of fuzz on my contacts, but most
importantly, I see something that as a child I simply called “glitter”.
The “glitter” is bright, pops in and out of view, and
moves quickly in short distances. Science explains these as phosphenes. They are, according to science, a
bio-constant hallucination caused by various external factors acting on the
optic nerve. In fact, this
glitter is none other than Prana, Mojo, Ju-Ju, Mana, Chi, LVX, “the Force”, or
Yods. This is the external energy
that floats all around us, and it is through collecting this and projecting
this that some types of magicks are done.
Once you see these phosphenes, I want you to take a
couple of quick, deep breaths, and then hold your breath. They for most people, they become
brighter, and as you hold your breath longer, they get brighter still, and
usually more numerous. Breathe
normally for a moment.
Phosphenes are exactly the sort of thing my family told
me to ignore when I discovered it as a child. I was deeply curious and precocious, and peppered my
exhausted relations with my insatiable curiosity. To questions like these, I got a pat answer: “It’s not real;
it’s just your imagination playing tricks on you. Just ignore it. You will grow out of it”.
I wish the caption said, “See
the white dots? They’re the one’s
I’m talking about!”
I refused to accept this answer. I had asked all my friends, and we
could all see it. We decided it
was just because they were old and couldn’t see as well as we could. In fact, at the time (I was only 3 or
4), I didn’t know a single adult that did not wear glasses of some kind.
So many times, when talking to spiritual leaders and
teachers around the world, I have heard that deeply mystical experiences occur
spontaneously in children.
Depending on the culture, the reactions of family are different. In the case of my guru, when his out of
body experience occurred, he happened to be in a culture equipped to make the
most of it and train him appropriately.
Not all children are so fortunate, and many of us spend the rest of our
lives coming to terms with, and learning how to induce, these altered states of
consciousness.
Magickal deprogramming starts with language
acquisition, and as such it is extremely difficult to overcome. This is why it is necessary to, in Core
Magick, strip away these cultural blinders. Like a hobbled horse, once the hobble is removed, the
freedom is intoxicating. The joy
of the realization of your co-Creator status with Deity can be the most deeply
moving experience in a person’s life.
After decades of research into the subject, the
physical reality of phosphenes is incontestable. It has also been substantiated that regular meditation can
sensitize a person to this phenomenon. The following link to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphene,
although not admissible as true scientific data, is important to me as an
anthropologist because it represents the current state of knowledge available
to the general public. For those
interested in a little more detail, a good, general history of the study of
phosphenes can be found at the beginning of this interesting article, as well
as a more complicated discussion on Chinese usage of the phosphene phenomenon; http://www.safarmer.com/Indo-Eurasian/phosphenes.innerlight.pdf For
those who are seeking a deeper understanding, might I recommend perusing something
from the Suggested Reading List found at the end of this post.
Anthropologists who specialize in the study of
archaeological and tribal art have discussed the importance of phosphenes in
various motifs throughout space and time. Because phosphenes are a
cross-cultural constant (i.e. something that is found amongst most every human
society, like mother-in-law jokes and table manners), and phosphenes can be
triggered by mechanical pressure on the eyes, deep trance states and/or the ingestion
of entheogenic plants, they can also give anthropologists clues, through the
artwork that looks like phosphenes, to the cognitive states of those who
produced the art. Here is a chart
that compares some known phosphenes with rock art found in s few different locations
throughout the world.
Practice: See the Swarming Phosphenes
We are going to repeat the same experiment, i.e. Tare
your instrument (once you know how Tare feels, you will be able to achieve it
faster and faster, then meditation will take on a different role in your
practice), look up into the sky, and look at the phosphenes. This time however, I want you to hold
up your hands, palm facing palm, about 8 to 10 inches apart, at eye level,
while looking up into the clear blue sky.
What do you notice? Again,
take a couple of quick, deep breaths and then hold your breath. What do you see now?
The first time you see the phosphenes swarming more
thickly around your hands than anywhere else might be a little startling to
you. It was to me. If this is “merely” a hallucination,
why do they cluster around your hands?
Science has shown that as bio-electric organisms, there is a measureable
energy field that surrounds us.
These bits of Yod, or Chi, or Prana, or Mana (in the Hawaiian system) or
Juju are naturally attracted to our energy field. Now that you see them, and know they exist and can be
collected, it will be easier for you to collect and condense these. Cultures that have taken the time to
learn to collect and move the phosphenes describe different methods of
collection and projection.
When I collect phosphenes, I make sure I see them
first. Then, I open my glabella,
and I consciously slide that feeling up my forehead, past my hairline and to
the spot that on babies is called the fontanelle. There is a reason why the fontinelle remains an important
location on the skull after the sutures close. This spot is a major energy point, also known as the crown
chakra. This is an energetic
porthole. When it is open, and
energy is moving through it, you can easily collect energy through it. In
Reiki, they speak of a glittering waterfall pouring out of the heavens, through
the top of your head, down through your hands and into the patient.
Experiment: Soaking up the Phosphenes
Using the bright blue sky as a backdrop and your hands
up in front of your face, concentrate on your breathing and on how your skin
breathes. Your lungs are like a
billow for a furnace. As you draw
air in through your nose and mouth, through the top of your head and through
every pore of your skin, you are also pulling phosphenes into yourself. You are soaking up the phosphenes as if
they were water and you were a dry sponge. Watch carefully, and you will be able to see the
glitter/phosphenes entering your body through your skin. I find it easier if I
consciously soak up when I inhale.
As I exhale, I consciously hold all the phosphenes/glitter in, and let
only the used, empty air escape.
This technique is much the same in Kundalini Yoga, Core Shamanism,
Voodoo/Hoodoo, Shaking (a type of Appalachian Faith Healing I learned from my
Mammaw Musick), Reiki and Hawaiian (Huna) Shamanism.
Don’t shield yourself from it – SOAK IT UP!
How does this energy make you feel? What types of changes do you notice in
your physical body? In your
emotional body? Your mental body? Even though I no longer need to breathe
particularly hard or deep, I nearly always experience a slight dizziness or
lightheadedness as the energy settles in.
Experiment: Moving the Phosphenes
With your hands up in front of your face like you are reaching
out to grab someone’s head, exhale, and push the collected energy out of your
body, through the inner surface of your hands, and collect it into a ball. You can watch yourself do this, if you
use the backdrop of the sky, and relax your eyes a little. Those with experience in these things
will probably also see the Heat Shimmer we mentioned earlier, along with the phosphenes,
which is ideal.
Once you can form a ball, get it to hold together with
only one hand, and then with none, just hovering in mid-air. Now, you should play with this ball of
phosphenes. Try eating it. See what happens if you put it on your
cat. Give it to one of your
houseplants, or put it in food to see how others react. This is raw energy, with no spells or
ideational attachments. This is
the clay of Core Magick, and now that you can see it, and have manipulated it a
little, test it out. Work on this
for a lunar cycle. In the next
lesson, I’ll explain a little more about what you can do with this raw energy.
This takes practice. These Phospheres, glitter-balls, Chi-balls or whatever other
name you choose to give them, are a natural outgrowth of your improved
knowledge of the capabilities of your Meatsuit/body. It’s just like you take
driving lessons to learn to drive a racecar, except you are learning how to
really use this Meatsuit/body you drive.
I recommend you repeat this experiment as often as
possible for a lunar month. This
exercise is like the other one.
The more times you repeat it, the more consistent your results will be. Be
sure to write the results of each experiment. Try fasting on just water before you do this work, then try
eating a full meal. Record the
differences in your experiment.
Everything you eat, drink, smoke, feel, do … these are all factors that
will change your results. Your
body is everything you need for working Core Magick, you simply need to know
how to squeeze the most from it. Your body is everything you need for these
experiments. Remember, you ARE the
instrument.
Recommended
Reading
1.
Derek Hodgson (2006). Altered States of Consciousness and Palaeoart:
an Alternative Neurovisual Explanation. Cambridge Archaeological Journal,
16 , pp 27-37 doi:10.1017/S0959774306000023 http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=390792
2.
Suzanne Carr (1995) Chapter 2: A Cognitive Archaeological
Framework in Entopic Phenomena http://www.oubliette.org.uk/Two.html
3.
A. Szostek, Entopic Imagery and Altered States of Consciousness, October 6, 2011
http://entheology.com/research/entoptic-imagery-and-altered-states-of-consciousness/
4.
Otto-Joachim Grusser & Michael
Hagner. (1990) On the history of deformation phosphenes and the idea of
internal light generated in the eye for the purpose of vision. Documenta
Ophthalmologica 74: 57-84. Kluwer Academic Publishers, the Netherlands. http://www.wiss.ethz.ch/uploads/tx_jhpublications/On_the_History_of_deformation_phosphenes.pdf
5.
Rudolph Phister. Phosphenes and inner light experiences in
medieval Chinese psychophysical techniques – a preliminary Sondage.
(no date) http://www.safarmer.com/Indo-Eurasian/phosphenes.innerlight.pdf
6.
Thomas Blackburn. Biopsychological
aspects of Chumash Rock Art The Journal of California Anthropology (1977) http://escholarship.org/uc/item/7bv6d1mf#page-3
(ANSWER: I don’t like what it says, but the
image was so perfect for the discussion I decided to use it anyway. I do not intend to be offensive, and I
apologize if anyone was in fact offended.)
