=kit055.txt

KIT 55 - Transformation; Mutation; Transmutation; Regeneration;
Transfiguration; Resurrection

Achievement, however great does not seem to grant most people a
complete sense of satisfaction. Perhaps the greatest human need is
transformation. No doubt this is because unconsciously we are
tugged forward by the inexorable forward march of the evolutionary
process of which we are participants.

Since time immemorial the best brains of our species have vied to
unearth means of promoting and accelerating the process of human
transformation at both the physical and psychic level. Alchemists
searched their deep unconscious for clues while believing that the
coveted secret must be culled from a study of the processes that
regulate the transmutation of materials. Metals, elixirs,
chemicals, or crystals, were used. They posited that there must be
a unified principle governing all transformation, whether at the
level of the body or the psyche: "as above, so below." Their
objective was "the spiritualization of the body and the
materialization of the spirit."

They posited that if we could only wrest these principles, we
could not only accelerate these processes of transformation in the
laboratory, but similarly enhance the process of transformation in
the psyche of humans. While working with the transmutation of
metals, they were really discovering their own psyche and an
infinite number of valuable clues. The simplest was 'solve et
coagule': all transformation commences with a falling apart of the
constituents, then a new structuring. As applied to the psyche, it
is called the royal art: 'Ars Regia'.

Since the heyday of the alchemists, scientists, physicists,
chemists, biologists, physiologists, psychologists and meditators
have carried that early research a great deal further. Yet, the
tenants of the mechanistic and positivistic theories neglected
much of what the Alchemists were conveying, albeit cryptically.
The mutual interface mind-body is now appearing increasingly on
the scene. The holistic paradigm, and Heisenberg's Uncertainty
Principle, and in general what one might define as a philosophy of
science are emerging in our day. Dr. David Bohm intimated that "A
change in our sense of meaning will affect the circuits of the
brain." Such a far reaching declaration triggers off in us a
renewed vision of prospects. They might be actuated in many
procedures devised to improve ourselves and so fulfil our purpose
in the universe.

Since the dawn of Indian thought, the Yogis have been working with
mental and physical methods designed to promote the influence of
the mind upon the body and the impact of the body upon the mind.
In the view of Buddhists the body provides us with a most
resourceful vehicle in which to foster illumination. This is so
providing its potentialities are exploited and its fabric
transmuted.

We would like to know more about how precisely this works. What we
can do to promote this transformation? Could it be promoted by the
influence of our thinking and emoting upon the endocrine glands,
and therefore on the enzymes that supervise the replication of the
DNA? What can we do by exploring the way that our joy or sadness
affects the light that we emit as an aura, or our electro-magnetic
field? The early Mazdeans, followed by the Sufis highlighted the
role played by the subtle bodies in the transformation of the
physical body.

Advances in science and technology have opened up new vistas as to
how thoughts, images, emotions, affect the brain and particularly
the endocrine functions. It may be said that the choreography of
the molecules, atoms, even electrons and photons of our bodies
ensure the miracle by which the splendor of cosmic software
endeavors to emerge through structures and functions of the
existential realm. What is meant by subtle bodies or acupuncture
meridians, or the 'chi' force, still eludes the grasp of our
middle-range thinking. We are only beginning to investigate how
our resentment, guilt and violence, and our self-image affects the
immune system. Instead of thinking in terms of the psycho-somatic,
Dr. David Bohm considers the soma and the significance as the two
constellated poles of a same reality that he calls the soma-
significance. This way of looking at ourselves challenges us to
explore new ways of fostering transformation.

Many techniques of meditation are devised to unmask the hoax of
our commonplace thinking and emoting. Besides fostering
transformation through insight - called awakening, we are working
with life energy - called quickening.

Nature not only provides for the gestation of stars and atoms, but
for an evolutionary drive in setting up more and more complex
inorganic atomic structures. With the leap forward into the
organic - the advent of the biological field, orderliness gets
more and more intricate. Instead of structuring themselves in
regular lattices, the molecules diversify to assume specific
functions that are meaningfully coordinated. Thus there is
increasing mental sophistication and inventiveness.

Doubtless at the human scale, we need to account for the way the
care and perfecting of body functions affects the personality.
Conversely we need to account for the impact of our grasp of
significance upon this support system provided by nature as it
evolves.

How this can be effected optimally is precisely the question
before us. The cells of our bodies with all their idiosyncrasies
and volitions and dedication to the service of our understanding
need to be participants in the illumination of our minds. Our
personalities need to live up to the challenge of our ultimate
motivation.

Given that nature does provide for an evolutionary progression in
its structuring of atoms, molecules, cells, organisms, etc., the
early alchemists may be considered blacksmiths (the ancestors of
the industrial revolution). They believed that metals were
incubated in the womb of the earth. They posited that we humans
could intervene in the operation of nature and accelerate the
process in the 'athanor' (the oven) or the alembic (the
distiller). The secret was providing heat - obviously energy.

From the beginnings of time, the original state of randomness of
atoms in the universe called the primordial soup (the chaos) gets
gradually ordered. It moves into clearly systematically programmed
atomic structures, evidencing the impact of intelligence upon
energy. The same applies to the way thoughts get structured by our
sense of significance. According to the second law of
thermodynamics, this costs energy. In the realm of the psyche it
is our nostalgia and enthusiasm that represents energy.

This orderliness written into the programming of the universe
falls apart if one does not inject energy into it, like a library
in which the books are scattered randomly. It takes energy to put
them back into their respective places. As in a computer,
information is gained at the price of energy. This is called
entropy.

Note that the same applies to the psyche (as C. G. Jung showed).
Its orderliness out of the chaotic unconscious was gained during
the evolutionary process leading to the human condition throughout
aeons of time. It gets lost very easily unless one keeps putting
ever renewed resolve into it. Besides, should we not also credit
the influence of the sense of meaningfulness of which the atoms,
molecules, cells and organs of our bodies are endowed?

Now supposing these beautifully structured molecules avail
themselves of more energy. For example, one heats them gently,
gradually the molecules begin to free themselves from the
constraint of a rigidly structured program. As Dr. Prigogine says
they self-organize themselves, exploring new combinations or ways
of being. The cosmic programming itself has now unfolded into
infinite ramifications, thus enriching itself considerably.

There is a little understood energy that is self-generated,
illustrated at the physical level by chemical reactions that
generate heat instead of absorbing heat. On the biological level
it is illustrated by phosphorescence rather than fluorescence, for
example in the firefly or deep sea fish. Regarding the psyche, one
might say that enthusiasm is in some way related to the
interfacing with the environment, whereas nostalgia is self-
motivated. 

Basically, we are faced with two steps in evolution: first the
impact of the orderliness of the whole upon the parts; secondly
the incentive of the parts that act upon the overall programming.
The first stage incites one not to come in the way of the
operation of the universe upon ourselves as a fraction thereof -
called the divine operation by the Sufis - by interposing one's
will or vagabonding into one's personal random musings. Evidence
of the importance of this attitude is to be found in passive
volition in bio-feedback.

The will of the universe, called the Divine will in religious
lore, seems to self-organize itself as it unfolds in one's psyche.
Here long-range planning takes precedence over self-determination
that is evidenced in our personal contribution to the programming
of our being, and breaks through as creativity. At a threshold
condition, that is difficult to determine, it is the personal will
that shifts the system from equilibrium as Dr. Prigogine shows and
opens the way for fluctuation, hence new programs, new ways of
being.

As we observe them more deeply, the atoms, or cells, prove
themselves to be not what we imagine matter to be. They display
the mentation or consciousness or inventiveness that we have
consistently denied them and attribute to ourselves. However it is
the availability of energy that actuates this meaningfulness into
physical functions. Useless to say that this is much more marked
at the organic or biological level.

At the level of the psyche, the clues we can infer from this
intrusion into physical nature, point to the role played by
freedom from an imposed order in creativity; and therefore in the
transformation of the personality. Conversely it demonstrates the
role of incentive in freeing oneself from complacency in an
imposed order.

Moreover, it is found that the impact of significance or
purposefulness served by information economizes energy. This is
called negentropy. The better organized one is, the more
economically one runs one's business. Or in respect of one's
personality, the clarity of one's understanding of the
meaningfulness of one's life - called awakening - will spare much
wasted opportunity. The secret resides in availing oneself of both
the insight one gains in life and the psychic energy of the human
evolutionary thrust. In fact, it may well be that in a highly
meaningfully organized state, one is generate fresh energy
internally (like a white hole) instead of absorbing it from
outside. This is one of our objectives in meditation.

The Alchemists substitute the 'athanor' (the oven) and sometimes
the alembic (the distiller) to the womb of the earth in the
incubation of metals, or crystals, or elixirs. The mediator
envisions our body, magnetic field, aura etc., aspects of our
total being in its holistic model as constituting a temple - the
psychic substitute for the athanor, and our subtle bodies form the
altar of the temple.

The primary material the alchemists work with - called the materia
prima - is our given nature before all the transformations it has
undergone during existence. If indeed, if "as above, so below",
then, just as in the blastema, the original cell in the embryo,
all genes are present without yet a determination. Which genes
will be turned on and which turned off to diversify the cells of
the unfolding embryo is undecided. So only a few of the infinite
possibilities invested in what the Sufis, quoting Christ, call our
Divine inheritance are turned on in our personalities, most of
them are recessive.

Just as the initial cell in the embryo is a hybrid in which the
universe having converged in umpteen scores of beings, cross-
pollinates with that of numberless other beings, so the substrate
of our subtle bodies carry the many-splendored bounty of untold
denizens of the heavenly spheres. Still this primeval material, of
which we avail ourselves whether bodily or psychically, has both
evolved and deteriorated during its involvement in the existential
condition. Yet, just as the voice of Caruso is still buried in its
pristine glory in the bad recording of the time, so is the
celestial counterpart of our being unscathed even though defiled.
    
==================================================================
