Arjuna Ardagh - Awakening into Oneness: The Power of Blessing in the Evolution of Consciousness

I accepted to write a few words to introduce Arjuna Ardaghs book because its topic is of extraordinary importance for each of us individually, as well as for all of us collectively. Moreover, it meshes perfectly with my theoretical conceptions and with my own experience. I went to Oneness University in 2006 and had three weeks of meditation, as well as personal encounters with Bhagavan. But this is not an autobiographical essay; the reader will find abundant personal accounts in the chapters that follow. I merely wish to note that what is recounted in this book corresponds to what I experienced myself, and it also corresponds to the results of the research I have conducted over the past two decades.

These considerations give me good reasons to take seriously the experiences described in this book. However, these experiences should be taken seriously by everyone. Now, quite a sizable number of people in nearly all parts of the world have lived the experience and corresponded about it. Combined with the insights we are gaining at the cutting edge of science, these lived experiences are of great theoretical and practical interest. Since the spread of this kind of experience is likely to be a factor in choosing the shape of our future, we can benefit by reading and pondering the ideas and experiences described in the chapters that follow.

Let me summarize why I believe that this book merits the readers full attention.

These are big claims, and they deserve further elucidation.

The Oneness experiencepopularly but somewhat misleadingly said to have enlightenment as its goalis grounded in physical processes that are just as real as the perception of light, color, and sound, but they are conveyed by the reception of a different kind of information by the brain. The experiences are made possible by a balanced state of the brain (though they are not caused by this state in a mechanistic sense). One aspect of this state has been researched in connection with receiving the Oneness Blessing and exposure to the dasas who give Blessings and have presumably achieved the balanced state.

The detailed cerebral mechanisms that constitute a balanced brain state call for further neurophysiological investigation, but one feature is already clear.

The widespread experience of deep prayer and meditationand of altered states of consciousness in generalprovides evidence that in these altered states, the classical information processing of the left cerebral hemisphere is no longer dominant. The brain does not operate predominantly in the classical mode, whereby one item of consciousness follows others in a linear sequence, and perception is not limited to signals conducted by the bodily senses. In altered states of consciousness, the gestalt-perceiving, parallel-processing operating modality of the right hemisphere comes to the fore. This entails opening the receptivity of the brain to a range of information well beyond the sensory signals received through eye, ear, nose, palate, and skin.

In the cerebral states that underlie altered states of consciousness, the brain operates in a nonclassical mode: as a macroscopic quantum system. It shifts from being an EM-wave and photon-wave receiver to operating as a quantum-field transceiver. It receives, as well as sends, information in the form of holographic patterns in the quantum wave-field that, as an element in the quantum vacuum, underlies all things in the universe. (I have called this universal information field the Akashic Field, for its effect recalls the ancient concept of Akasha, the cosmic medium that interconnects and records all things in space and time.)

In commonsense terms, altered states of consciousness liberate us from the ego-limited condition whereby we view the world through five slits in the towerthey open for us the roof to the sky.

Opening the roof is facilitated, even if it is not uniquely caused, by the experience of receiving the Oneness Blessing. In turn, the sensitivity of individuals to this Blessing is facilitated by undergoing the consciousness-evolution regime Bhagavan calls Oneness process. The Oneness process enhances the effect of the Oneness Blessing, and thus helps individuals to achieve the altered states of consciousness in which their brain operates as a macroscopic quantum system.

Is the opening of the brain, and hence of the consciousness associated with it, to quantum fields of major consequence? I believe it is, since these fields link the brain and consciousness of individuals with the world around them. They permit the discovery, or more exactly the rediscovery, of these linkages, for they were known to traditional peoples and are still known to non-Western cultures and to spiritual people wherever they live. The experience of connection with others and with nature has been described by religious leaders, mystics, and spiritually versed or inclined people, whether they had entered altered states through prayer or through meditation. They are the essence of the awakening into Oneness, the consciousness evolution alluded to in the title of this book.

Rediscovering our links with the world around us is important for us as individuals: it makes us more whole, more sensitive, and at the same time more balanced persons. It is extraordinarily important for us collectively. This is because at the root of the problems now faced by humanity is the outmoded, egoically constrained consciousness. It prompts narrowly self-centered values, beliefs, and behaviors. Bhagavan is correct when he states that there is only one cause for human problems, and that is the sense of separatenessthe sense that the world can be divided into me and not me. Of course, this separation is not limited to the dichotomy of me and the rest of the world, but is moderated by various forms of identification that are not purely egoic: with family, community, nation, culture, and even enterprise. But the current forms of identification clearly fall short of the global identification we need to survive as a species. This identification can only be based on the lived experience of onenessof our connection with each other, and with nature.