"We lie open on one side to the deeps of spiritual nature,"
says Emerson in his Over-soul essay. A revelation is a moment of
connection, of overall comprehension, of divine truth and existence. The
event of revelation is a process, which frightens, soothes and exposes.
Revelation changes a human's view of the world.
Every religion has its own version of revelation. This event of
understanding seems to be a commonly discussed phenomenon in most theologies.
Christianity calls it "gettin' the spirit," which is when a person
starts speaking in gibberish, known as "tongues" while hearing a
sermon. Hinduism describes revelation as Moksha, a communion with the
underlying whole called Brahma. A metaphor used to describe Moksha is based
on Brahma being an ocean and each of us water balloons. During Moksha, our
balloon pops and our water mixes into Brahma, losing separation. Zen
Buddhists call it Satori: the point of revelation. This is the first step on
their path to transcendence. The southern Native Americans use Paodi and
Haijiwaska, both hallucinogens, to induce realization.
Revelation is woefully difficult to explain with words. Emerson attempts
to describe the Over-soul as "the soul of the whole; the wise silence;
the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is related; the
eternal One." A revelation is the understanding of the Over-soul.
Life before revelation is filled with hints of the Over-soul. When humans
look at a flower, before the flower is registered it is felt. The shape,
color and smell intoxicate. When humans are touched, there is a part of a
second before the brain registers that they
have been touched, and all that is present is the sensation of touch.
When humans hear music, before the words are clear, they get a tickle on
their spine, this pleasure is the initial impact of the experience. This raw,
unidentified sensation is mentally unfiltered experience. The lack of
subjective filtering removes separation between the perceiver and the object.
These experiences are little hints that point to an underlying truth.
There are several ways that revelation occurs. It can be induced, through
logical conclusion or chemical enhancement of the earlier discussed raw
sensation. It can also occur through shocking experiences.
Using logic to uncover a fundamental truth that voids logic is a
difficult task. The process involves collecting the above-discussed hints and
adding them together to form a landscape for exploration. Then the explorer
struggles to define what they have discovered. It is discovered that the
analytical mind cannot wrap itself around the conclusion that needs to be
defined. That stage is a cessation of their logical approach. Laws of truth
must be surrendered because it becomes clear that there are none.
Chemical enhancement is another way that people push themselves to
connect with fundamental truth. It is a form of disarming the analytical mind
in order to digest
such a large concept as a truth that cannot be analyzed. Generally,
hallucinogens are chosen for this. The problem with this mode is that the
mind has not bypassed logic of its own volition. It has been forced to bypass
logic through hormonal release in the brain.
This makes the state of transcendent bliss impermanent and harder to
maintain since it was originally reached through drugs.
Shocking experiences such as severe pain or nearly dying can cause
revelation. During this experience, the victim sees the self from outside the
body, witnessing the event objectively. It's called an
out-of-body-experience. Seeing an event that, subjectively, is traumatizing,
from a detached perspective, causes revelation.
The process of revelation has many stages. I will describe several. It
begins with a sense of unity or interconnectedness, as if everything is a
part of everything and there is no separation between a nose in China and a
table in Britain.
This leads to disorientation. Disorientation is the state reached once it
is realized that a nose is the ceiling is the air, which is the entire
continent of Africa. There are no bearings any more because everything is
everything. That means that every distinction made in order to affirm
existence of the individual in relation to the existence of others does not
exist, and therefore there is no other or individual.
Once there is no otherness, an assumption on which conventional human
priorities, rules, and morals is based: meaning, ceases to exist. Meaning, an
entirely subjective concept, is obliterated along with subjectivity.
Subjectivity cannot exist without the individual because subjectivity means
based on individual perception.
Once meaning, individuality and subjectivity are gone, which is entirely
disorienting, fear seizes. The loss of individuality means the loss of
entitihood, which is the basis of society's consensual reality. Sartre
described this state of terror as "Sartre's Nausea." It is
revulsion at the insignificance everything regarded as significant and makes
a person
physically nauseous with adrenalin when they look at the floor and
fundamentally understand that there is no difference between it and their
mind.
Existentialism was developed to aid the acceptance of revelation. This is
the biggest challenge, but can be achieved. Once the revelation is accepted,
universal perspective is all that's left. The understanding that nothing
means anything particular because everything is the same makes existence
easier because there is no investment in events. Everything simply occurs.
Once this perspective is achieved, a fundamental peace is reached, often
referred to as enlightenment or bliss.
A revelation is humbling and incommunicable. "We are nothing, but
the light is all," states Emerson in his Over-soul essay. An underlying
reassurance of meaninglessness takes the place of comfort in meaning. If
nothing means anything, there is no need to take any action. Maintaining
investments in material and circumstantial things is a necessary conviction
for existence on the practical plain. Keeping investments in perspective
based on the lesson of revelation will maintain bliss through the
practical plane.
A revelation is an event in which the individual transcends
individuality. It is a phenomenon discussed throughout spiritual disciplines.
Such a moment can be caused in many ways. The process of revelation is often
rocky and has many stages. The last stage, if reached, is fundamental peace.
After a revelation, a fundamental understanding of emptiness accompanies the
individual through reality. Revelation is the moment when attachment to the
finite ends and acceptance of the infinite begins. Maintaining that
acceptance is the challenge.
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