Spirituality & Light - What/Why the connection?

Light

Misha Rogov

Time

Misha Rogov

As we mentioned in Spoon, the only empirical reality ever given to us directly is the reality of phenomenal consciousness. Hence, the idea of “time” can arise only as a conceptualization of an aspect of our phenomenal experience, namely of alterations we call “change”.

Each “moment of time” is a particular state (hence descriptive mathematical “quantum states”) of constitutive transcendental (inter)subjectivity and constituted phenomenal objectivity which is immediately replaced by another “moment of time” in the stream of causally interconnected successive states of consciousness. Hence, every “thing” is a process of consciousness that consists of particular states.

Is there a fundamental process in the stream of “time”? In other words, is there a process that alters as frequently as the states of consciousness change in the stream of “time”? It is light which alters as frequently as particular “moments of time” change. That explains the fundamental role of light in the theory of relativity: light is the fundamental process of reference.

Modern-day accounts of near-death experience also describe stages of visual phenomena. These include out-of-body experience with psi perceptions, passage toward a light through darkness (or through a tunnel or scenery of some kind), meetings with deceased relatives and other beings in paradise-like locales, and mystical luminosities. For example, Reinee Pasarow (1981) described a near-death experience, brought on by an allergic reaction, in which mystical unity with the light occurred at the end of several stages: (1) a state of darkness and peace; (2) out-of-body experience, with keener sight and hearing than usual, and ability to read the thoughts and feelings of bystanders; (3) upward flight; (4) a sea of light, love, and music, and the presence of a deceased relative; (5) a vast, loving light into which she was drawn and with which she became united. The vast light’s knowledge now her own, she had insights into her life and the “direction of the whole of mankind” (p. 11). The descent from the light again involved stages, including passage through a rainbow-hued tunnel, and further out-of-body experience. It is not just NDEs that can develop through stages toward a mystical light. Warner Allen’s (1946) experience, noted previously, is reminiscent of multistage NDEs but occurred without any real or apparent threat to life. At the time, Allen was in a relaxed state, listening to Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony in a concert hall (p. 30). Closing his eyes, he first experienced simple luminosities: “a silver glow which shaped itself into a circle with a central focus brighter than the rest” (p. 33). The circle transformed into a tunnel along which Allen felt himself drawn into a golden luminosity, accompanied by feelings of power and peace, and a brightening of the light. When the sense of “time and motion” stopped, a “dream scene” appeared, consisting of a flat-topped rock surrounded by sea, with a sandy pool at its base. The scene vanished and gave way to mystical experience proper, with Allen “absorbed in the Light of the Universe,” in “Reality glowing like fire with the knowledge of itself” (p. 33).

Beyond Physicalism: Toward Reconciliation of Science and Spirituality (Kindle Locations 1575-1589). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Kindle Edition.

I think we need to avoid confounding the concept of physical light as expounded by Rogov, with the spiritual Light experienced by NDEers and mystics. I think that in the latter case the problem is the limitations of language, and that there must be something like a synesthesia going on, where the NDEer because of his long experience of physical life and seeing physical light with physical eyes, experiences spiritual energy and spiritual "illumination" as the physical light sensory experience he is used to. This would also apply to the cases of "cosmic consciousness". 

By the way, it seems to me that Rogov's statement, "It is light which alters as frequently as particular “moments of time” change. That explains the fundamental role of light in the theory of relativity: light is the fundamental process of reference", is problematical. This is because I don't think physical light, which he is referring to, can possibly change as fast as it is possible for time to change, which supposedly would be an infinitely small time. Or it might be some sort of "Planck time", but still much smaller than the finite time it takes for an electromagnetic field wave to die away.  

I think we need to avoid confounding the concept of physical light as expounded by Rogov, with the spiritual Light experienced by NDEers and mystics. I think that in the latter case the problem is the limitations of language, and that there must be something like a synesthesia going on, where the NDEer because of his long experience of physical life and seeing physical light with physical eyes, experiences spiritual energy and spiritual "illumination" as the physical light sensory experience he is used to. This would also apply to the cases of "cosmic consciousness". 

By the way, it seems to me that Rogov's statement, "It is light which alters as frequently as particular “moments of time” change. That explains the fundamental role of light in the theory of relativity: light is the fundamental process of reference", is problematical. This is because I don't think physical light, which he is referring to, can possibly change as fast as it is possible for time to change, which supposedly would be an infinitely small time. Or it might be some sort of "Planck time", but still much smaller than the finite time it takes for an electromagnetic field wave to die away.  

Couldn't physical light be one side of a singular fundamental illumination, just as certain "dual-aspect" philosophies posit a single substance that has both "physical" and "mental" sides? Dante, in the Commedia, isn't talking about physical light in the final Canto of Paradiso where he meets God anymore than the Egyptian Book of the Dead is talking about physical light where it says that after death the "Light shines elsewhere".

This is why I think Rogov refers to the Light as Non-Dual. After all Rogov is an NDEr himself.

Couldn't physical light be one side of a singular fundamental illumination, just as certain "dual-aspect" philosophies posit a single substance that has both "physical" and "mental" sides? Dante, in the Commedia, isn't talking about physical light in the final Canto of Paradiso where he meets God anymore than the Egyptian Book of the Dead is talking about physical light where it says that after death the "Light shines elsewhere".

This is why I think Rogov refers to the Light as Non-Dual. After all Rogov is an NDEr himself.

I guess Rogov might have had that in mind. However, his statement that I quoted seems to me to be referring to physical light not spiritual Light or non-dual Light. It's too bad he left that as an ambiguity.

I guess Rogov might have had that in mind. However, his statement that I quoted seems to me to be referring to physical light not spiritual Light or non-dual Light. It's too bad he left that as an ambiguity.

Ideally we will get an interview with him though it seems I will have to try and reach him on Twitter or something...

I think we need to avoid confounding the concept of physical light as expounded by Rogov, with the spiritual Light experienced by NDEers and mystics. I think that in the latter case the problem is the limitations of language, and that there must be something like a synesthesia going on, where the NDEer because of his long experience of physical life and seeing physical light with physical eyes, experiences spiritual energy and spiritual "illumination" as the physical light sensory experience he is used to. This would also apply to the cases of "cosmic consciousness". 

By the way, it seems to me that Rogov's statement, "It is light which alters as frequently as particular “moments of time” change. That explains the fundamental role of light in the theory of relativity: light is the fundamental process of reference", is problematical. This is because I don't think physical light, which he is referring to, can possibly change as fast as it is possible for time to change, which supposedly would be an infinitely small time. Or it might be some sort of "Planck time", but still much smaller than the finite time it takes for an electromagnetic field wave to die away.  

Physics definition of "Planck time": 

The Planck time is the time it takes for a photon to travel a distance equal to the Planck length: = 1.62 × 10-35 m. and is the shortest possible time interval that can be measured. With its associated Planck length, the Planck time defines the scale at which current physical theories fail.

Enter the classic mystical understanding of consciousness as light. This is an ancient and well-worn metaphor, but it takes on a new life in the second half of the nineteenth century as physicists began to discover that visible light is in fact only a small part of a much larger spectrum of energy. Hence Myers’s aforementioned “spectrum of consciousness” through which he sought to draw “a comparison of man’s range of consciousness or faculty to the solar spectrum, as seen by us after passing through a prism or examined in a spectrascope” (HP 1:xxi). Myers uses such a prismatic effect to suggest that the light of consciousness is not singular at all, that consciousness can be broken up into various bands, much like white light can be separated into a rainbow of colors. Most of the light spectrum, moreover, particularly that beyond the infrared (on the lower end) and ultraviolet (on the higher end), appears well outside the bands of everyday awareness. Similarly, Myers suggested, most of the spectrum of consciousness is entirely invisible to our normal senses and present egoic form of awareness.

Kripal, Jeffrey J.. Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred (p. 65). University of Chicago Press. Kindle Edition.

The Middle Ages produced some of the most amazing women mystics in western history. But rarely do we get insight into the entire mystical life of a person in the way that we do for the 13th century German Mechthild of Magdeburg. Her "Flowing Light of the Godhead" is an amazing - if not at times shocking - record of the experiencing being taken into the luminous relationship of the Trinity, the courtship and blissful consummation of love with the Divine and yet finally falling into the very hellish pits of alienation from, and yet, with the Divine. Mechthild's work is a true surviving treasure of mystical piety, phenomenology and literature: explore it in this episode!

The everyday stuff called matter turns out to be both more fascinating and stranger than we usually assume. In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon ask just what matter is, beginning with contemporary ideas from quantum physics, in which matter is frozen light, as the physicist David Bohm put it. They consider the relationship between matter and gravity, as well as matter and ancient notions of potentiality, which turn out to be surprising relevant today. The differences between quantity and quality offer another conversational thread, with the discussion also drawing in wider questions, such as the nature of matter within the philosophy of panpsychism, and also the etymological links between matter and mater, or mother, revealing factors about material of which most are unconscious today.

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We naturally talk about seeking the light at the end of the tunnel, or hoping to be enlightened. But are such phrases that reference light more than metaphors? In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon explore how light is both physical and spiritual, and note the remarkable harmony between scientific and mythical ways of exploring light. They ask about the links between light and intelligence, as discussed by figures from Plato to Dante, as well as how our inner lives, say when we dream, include light. Rupert reflects on his time in the ashram of Bede Griffiths, and Mark recalls remarks made by Roger Penrose. It turns out that the way we talk about the experience of light is hugely suggestive of the nature of reality. There are good reasons light is so closely associated with the divine.