Is the human mind blocking human development? Has it done so from the start of human history?
There are two components of the human mind in particular that seem to keep humans in their present violent state of primitive, unfulfilled spiritual promise.
(Mystics experience this promise as much to be desired over remaining merely human, because in Reality there are no names, no fears, no pain, no anxieties or concerns, just indescribable joy, never ending acceptance (love), and cosmic knowledge – just to mention some aspects of Reality’s state of being).
Component 1: Ego
Ego is a mind defense we’re born with to protect our sense of self.
When left in default, as it usually is, it can aggressively assert or silently insinuate itself against everyone around us with its assertions of selfishness, hubris, cultural narcissism, even the use of violation or violence.
Component 2: Logic, reason and opinions
The same applies to the excuses of ‘logic’ and ‘reason’. Such unsupported ‘logic’, ‘reason’, and ‘opinions’ pass themselves off as the truth without the personal experience of facts to support them.
(Do scientists use the use of ‘experiments’ to justify their lack of first hand spiritual experience, yet still end up with spiritual surmises anyway?).
In other words are ‘opinionated’ people and those who use ‘logic’ and ‘reason’ hiding their ignorance of what they’re talking about?
Nevertheless, ‘opinions’, ‘logic’ and ‘reason’ have been and still are being falsely excreted by the mind to justify atrocities, injustices and harmful cultures.
Has evolution been stalled? Is the mind to blame?
Is this why, historically, wisdom schools have taught that the human mind is the exclusive cause of all human evil and devilment?
Mystical Experiences of Reality 
…. maybe it’s not the mind as such that is doing the blocking of evolution, but human colonisation of the mind …
With the right intent the mind is capable of immersing itself in a mystical experience. It is able to transcend ego and logic and be pure consciousness. So let’s not blame the mind for a stalling of evolution.
In the academic circles that I frequent in order to earn a living, Black Lives Matter and other strategic attempts to be more inclusive and equitable, have evolved into a focus on decolonisation. As we look upon history in a more open and reflective manner, we are beginning to see that just as Europeans colonised other lands, so the European way of thinking, based on ego and logic, swamped other ways in which a mind can work.
Compared to a pre-colonial consciousness (how indigenous peoples always have and still do ‘think’), the willingness to surrender into the flow and ability to enter mystical states, has been squeezed out of us. In most so-called civilised countries and individuals, colonial mentality, which asserts that logic is the only way of thinking, has displaced a natural, flowing mind.
Would not the mind, given sufficient encouragement to relinquish colonial ideas, actually support the evolutionary process?
I have met enough individuals who are doing just that. They, we, are actively working to realign our way of thinking and reset our mind. The true mind, the inner mind, is very much capable of this way of working, of evolutionary consciousness. We do need to remind it of such a role though!
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This sounds as if humans think they’re in charge, can take over from Reality … that’s not the way of mystic experiences of Reality. Precolonial wisdom schools for thousands of years asserted their experience of the evil side of the human mind from which all miseries perennially besetting the human condition are derived. My MER’s concord with that spiritual experience rather than the merely human one you seem to be suggesting.
Keith
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That may indeed be true for mainstream humans.
What I was suggesting was that a few individual human beings, those who agree with your point, are willing to surrender their individual human perspective of being in charge. Those who are able to do this may well be the ones (the only ones perhaps) who can, and do, have mystical experiences of reality?
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Ah yes, Keith, this is a welcome clarification, thank you.
However, in my experiences its not a matter of “willing to surrender”. When the experience of Reality is given there is no negotiation, no debate about freewill, no discussion of “ability”! LOL.
My experiences were bewildering and spontaneous so I have no experience of being able to use the human intellect to invoke Reality. I believe it when the tradition states the experiences of Reality are “caught not taught”. I think whoever dabbles without Reality’s invitation are endangering themselves. Accordingly, the wisdom schools teach how to deal with misleading phenomena …
Best wishes, Keith.
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Evoke? No, that is not a term either myself or friends at the Theosophical Society, for example, would use. And I think we have a rather different usage of the word “allow” too.
Absolutely there is no negotiation or debate! If Reality wants a given person to experience it at a given time then so be it!
What I’m interested in exploring is why some people do get MERs and some don’t?
I think part of the explanation may have to do with the extent, the depth, of a given MER. Many are nowhere near as significant or life-changing as yours were: but they are still a taste of something beyond us.
There are many, many individuals out there who have had these lesser experiences and get them regularly. And they may do so whilst practicing something like yoga, meditation or Reiki.
My understanding and experience is that such practices, or rather, I suspect, the intent and state of mind that goes with them, ‘prepares the way’ … within our own consciousness and being.
Thus, if we are talking about an MER which is not powerful enough to break through our normal thinking mind, but is just there, at a slightly different phase of reality to our norm, we can become able to receive and embrace it through some sort of reflective practice. We allow it, by which I mean we step back from being willful and are thus more receptive.
Not all MERs arrive in sledge-hammer form. Some are more subtle, and those we need to be ready and watchful for.
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“What I’m interested in exploring is why some people do get MERs and some don’t?“
This seems to sum up the drive of your comments, Keith. I have always wondered ‘why me’. The only answer I get consistently is that when my MERs started on the cusp of 14/15 years of age I was and remained a late, introverted developer for some time - gazing at everything thrust at me through very innocent eyes of complete acceptance, only the slightest sense of flickering enquiry, little real curiosity or engagement. I relished being alone, but with senses akimbo … I sensed people found me different, even exaggerated their like, dislike, respect or disrespect for me. My values were embarrassingly old fashioned when I insisted on them. Life was baffling. It took age to know ‘myself’, to know I am “in the world but not of it.” it has been suggested by those who investigate MER that mystics are a separate race.
So I’d be interested to know what it is that qualifies those who experience MER.
Best,
Keith.
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