What causes the experience of sensory perception?

(The current article deals with sensory perception and meditation practices. Other articles are found in the column on the right and are arranged by date of posting. Please click the year and the month to find  the title and the text.)

What causes the experience of sensory perception?

Experiences from the anthroposophical path of spiritual knowledge.

The introduction of pathiaesthesia concept

According to the current, prevailing neuroscientific paradigm, both the content of consciousness and the level of consciousness are considered to be based on a biological foundation. Pragmatically, assumptions that can be tested by the scientific methods are favored in the layout of the questions. This model states that the traditional concept of a separate conscious spirit in addition to physical body, have been rejected. However, there is a long tradition of otherwordly spiritual reality. The balance of the hard problem of the philosophy of consciousness (1) has moved from dualism to monism ontologically. Each of us begins and continues to conceive existence from the building blocks he has come across in his life. In my youth, the undersigned has become familiar with a dualistic – to be more specific, pluralistic - discipline, which is still being supported, namely theosophy and the closely associated ideologies of Rosicrucianism and Rudolf Steiner´s anthroposophy. These doctrines advise on how to learn to perceive the supernatural spiritual world.

To begin with, I'll tell about the theosophical world view from the viewpoint of perception. Next, I’ll move on to the spiritual exercises described by Steiner in order to revive the supernatural means to observe the spiritual world. I publish my own results, the material of which has been gathered mainly about 50 years ago. I have not previously published results in a written form. I have already analyzed the results of the research when collecting the data of my introspection research and shortly thereafter. The main conclusions have not changed over the decades. In the reflection section, I’ll look at recent concepts of neuroscience concerning conscious perception experiences and compare these concepts with my original conclusions, as well as with rosicrucian and anthroposophical views. The unrestrained development of the 21st century neuroscience has opened up new perspectives for explaining the conscious perception.

It can’t be taken for granted that someone should start and continue to study consciousness. One has to have some reasons for this kind of enterprise. A reader of this article presumably wonders the undersigned’s reasons.  Although these reasons are beyond the scope of the present topic, I want to mention one apparently deterministic item, namely the intensive, overwhelming sense of being alive and experiencing the undersigned have undergone repeatedly.

Dualism in Theosophy and Anthroposophy

According to the theosophical and anthroposophical world view, the world of emotion and thought are concrete and objective facts. We not only subjectively feel and think, but our feelings and thoughts can also be the subject of other people's observations directly. We can, under certain conditions, look directly at others' feelings and thoughts, not just by deducting one's behavior or listening to his speech or reading his writings. Directly, without the physical means, the received information can be perception, "vibration", for example sympathy or antipathy, hearing the "inner" voice or seeing with the eyes of the soul.

Theosophy and anthroposophy teach that we will develop new senses according to nature in the future: clairaudience and clairvoyance in the far distant future. However, we can develop these senses previously, even in this life, with active exercise and ethical living. Many theosophical teachers have explained these exercises. To my knowledge, Steiner's Book “The path of Spiritual Knowledge” has been published in Finnish more than a hundred years ago in 1912. The undersigned found Reijo Wilenius’ and Katri Sorma's Finnish version. The title of the book is "How to achieve knowledge of the higher worlds" and it was published in 1968, shortly before I bought it. The English translation can be found at attached internet site (2). I began the experiment intensively, with enthusiasm and excitement. I completely trusted the instructor's personal knowledge of the item and his sincerity. The basic ethical conditions I kept in mind. In addition to Steiner, these ethical terms were offered by other theosophical literature and by Ernest Wood's "Yoga" book. The latter also deals with meditation exercises I conducted according to the instructions given.

Steiner’s training instructions and the presentation of the supposed results of the training

Steiner presents spiritual life and knowledge in three stages: preparation, illumination, and initiation. Each stage includes exercises. I'll look at each step separately in next chapters.

I. Initially, at the preparation stage, he calls for our attention to be paid to sprouting, growing and flourishing life and, on the other hand, to wilting, fading and dying. These phenomena, he claims, are associated with a certain form of emotion, spiritual lines and patterns that always appear in the same phenomena in the same way and in the same way to different persons. The objects of these observations are thus objective facts. In my opinion, the terms emotional form and mental lines and patterns were difficult to understand as ideas. We are used to the thought that a feeling is a feeling and it is not associated with a concept in two- or three-dimensional world. In other words, the shape is a visually perceptible part of two- or three-dimensional space, and it is not associated with the basic concept of subjective emotion. In thoughts, of course, we can create any kind of forms by the eyes of our soul. The end product, the form, is mental or spiritual, but the form is an object and the subject’s emotion is a separate concept.

As a practical exercise, an object is examined visually, the idea of growing is created in the mind, then one should be devoted to the feeling brought by the process of growing, and then forms and lines should be observed. Thus, when we are studying a concrete object, the process goes: first an experience of visual perception → a thought → an emotion → an experience of visual perception. If I have correctly understood, when studying an abstract case: first idea, which does not have a shape → an emotion → an experience of visual perception. Thus, the feeling is followed by a vision that is not a vision of the physical world, but a vision of via the spiritual eyes. Steiner emphasizes that one should not ponder a longer time about what this or that fact means, nor should one try at all by speculative mind to find out what these things mean. Getting acquainted with the higher worlds begins when the student is convinced of the reality of the feelings and the thoughts.

II. The pupil should pay her attention to the sounds. She should take a stand that the voice brings knowledge from the outside world of the human self. She should put her soul to what kind of emotion the producer of the sound expresses out of herself. Observation concerns both living and inanimate nature. In The exercise develops the auditory sense of the soul.

III. Particular attention should be paid to the way in which other people are listened to; one should refrain from criticizing and should lean on the audible attitude. The practice awakens the ability to perceive the inner word. Higher beings speak to the disciple precisely through the inner word that the physical ear cannot hear. Thus, it is the transfer of ideas and thoughts from a higher being to a human being. According to Steiner, internal words are not just ideas, but also have power. He would mean that power is something that causes something. Thus, the spiritual inner word can be divided into parts: idea and power.

IV. During the illumination phase, the pupil must compare a stone and an animal. How they differ from each other in terms of the ability to move. The movement of an animal is caused by desire, the shape of the stone is shaped by the power of indifference. Such exercises should awaken emotional species that are different in an animal and in a plant. These feelings can also wake up without an external object. Such feelings, and thoughts associated with them, develop spiritual eyes that add color to the shapes of observed during the preparation stage. The term color indicates roughly the quality of the observation. From a stone flows blue or purple, from an animal red or reddish yellow and from a vegetable green, which turns into an ethereal rose. Color nuances appear on a large scale. When one has attained the ability to see with the spiritual eye, at some point he also encounters higher or lower beings that are not in the physical world.

V. Take a seed before you. You have to imagine its color and shape and imagine the plant growing from the seed as an adult. Then you have to think that the imagined is accomplished by the power of the earth and the light, but an artificial seed could not accomplish the imagined, only a real seed. One has to create the idea that the invisible becomes visible and remain in this thought. By this way, you can feel by yourself a certain power, which produces a sensory-spiritual flame, a bluish-red middle and a blue edge.

VI. Next, focus on the flourishing plant and think it will die, but there is something in the plant that prevents it from disappearing, it forms seeds. The prevention of disappearing results in a feeling that turns into a new perception that resembles physical coloration; a flame formation whose center is greenish-blue and the edges are yellow-red. These exercises do not only see the present state of the objects but also the beginning and the end state. One should not just imagine the seeds and the plant, that is to say, create them yourself, but it is essential that reality creates observations in me.

VII. The next step is to think of a person whom you have sometimes found longing for something. Attention must be paid to this desire at the moment when it is at its most intense, and it is still uncertain whether the person would obtain the object of his desire. When there is as much inner peace as possible in mind, the image creates in the soul a feeling that grows in the soul to a force, which in turn becomes a spiritual perception of the soul of another person. A magnificent astral image rises in the field of view. The center creates a feeling of yellowish-red and it looks reddish blue or bluish-red at its edges.

VIII. As an addition to the exercise, you should pay attention to a person who has obtained the object of his or her desire. In this case you will experience a spiritual flame formation, the center of which feels yellow and the edges are greenish.

My results and critical comments

I tried my best to understand and follow the instructions. Initially there is an object, either a concrete object or an imagined object or an abstract concept. Then, you should try to be just a receiving observer without your own emotions or prejudices; let the object flow into you information that is expressed only as emotion or lines and patterns, or in particular as a feeling of color. The feeling of color is, to be precise, understood as seeing the color, and the text often refers to seeing color. On the other hand, it could be understood that the feeling is similar to the feeling that a particular color awakens in us. Thus, we would compare the feeling of a matter in question with that of a particular color; if we found it to be similar to, for example, a red-awakened feeling, we would call the result red. In this case, we should have a really wide range of different emotions that match different colors and their intensities. However, I could not imagine myself - and hardly anything else - to have the enormous scale of emotion needed and thus excluded this interpretation. I concluded that the end result is experience of shape and/or color. I practiced closely but I experienced no emotion or color or shape perception.

I changed the exercise so that I created the feeling I imagined the object should generate. Even this training did not generate a color-form perception despite numerous attempts. In the next step I imagined the color that should be detected. In this case I was able to perceive, I could experience, I could see just like by my physical eyes, the color, the color combinations and shapes I had chosen. It is quite easy to combine a specific concept and an appropriate color-form combination and learn to remember what color-form combination appears when you think about the chosen thing. I increased to a thing or a color-form combination, I have chosen, an emotion and the intensity of the color increased amazingly. As a good example of the increase in intensity of colors in physical world, one could say, for example, is the color saturation of a planed wood board that emerges by the use of wood oil.

I was able to attach to each idea what color, color intensity, shape and plastic movement I just wanted. Sometimes I needed hardly a noticeable effort of will or an intention of an effort of will, or it was enough to draw attention to an internal or external object, to create an inner color experience. Eventually, the color-shaped video could start completely spontaneously. Likewise, I could learn, for example, the connection of certain red nuance to passion or pale blue nuance to mental coldness, and the experience of color could be repeated when I paid attention to that meaning.

In my own meditation exercises, I tried to act either only as an insensitive receiver or as an emotional receiver. However, I could not detect to appear information flow that was different from information through physical senses; not from an imagined or concrete object, not a type of sense perception or emotion or meaning. I learned to listen to fellow people without preliminary appraisal or prejudices, and tried to experience the experience of the speaker or the object of my perception. I practiced both mere emphatizing or mere intellectual analysis. The ability to experience empathy increased, but I found the negative feelings and thoughts of others to be very strong and offensive and it was difficult to subside back to a neutral state of the soul.

Color-form films were not the only spontaneously occurring experiences, but I began to hear the inner music that later evolved into a symphony music type. If the music was over, it was only necessary to think of an instrument or a piece of melody, and the musical performance continued. Both the color-form video and the music were, in a sense, without referential meaning; wonderful performances indeed, but no conceptual connection to the surrounding world.

Evaluation especially from neuroscientific viewpoints and discussion

In my opinion, Steiner's way of using the power term is problematic; the feeling does not become a force and further from force to spiritual perception. His text implies conceptual confusion. Power refers to the concept that it changes something to something but it does not change itself to some other concept. Power, of course, can vary in magnitude. The feeling of power can certainly be felt but it is a feeling and not a force. I do not know whether there is any ambiguity in the terms of the original text or a blunder of translators. The difficulty of defining the concepts and words used by Steiner and the deviation from usual sense, blurs and makes it difficult to understand the things presented, unfortunately.

Pekka Ervast, a Finnish Rosicrucian, presents (Ervast 1960. Chapter VII, Värien ja muotojen maalima,The World of Colors and Shapes) that the findings of different clairvoyants from the same subject may be different. As an example, he mentions that one clairvoyant can see red in the aura of a person and the other sees green. Likewise, different clairvoyants may see the shapes in the aura of a person differently. He interprets the differences in observations due to the personal traits of clairvoyants; a person sees, hopes and admires something he lacks. After a man has removed his personal feelings, he sees the right colors and when he has cleansed his thoughts, he sees the right shapes. According to Ervast, clairvoyance is about color and shape detection. The observation can thus vary from a person to a person. Perceptions must be interpreted to understand the significance of the observations. The interpretation must be divided into the analysis of the properties of the object itself and, on the other hand, the analysis of the observer's characteristics and, thirdly, the analysis of the information transfer process. There is also a need for an ontological (the doctrine of the ultimate quality of being) analysis of the connection between feeling and color. Which one is primary, do they always appear together, can there be a feeling without color, what is the emotional and the color substance, etc.? Ervast argues that from one person flows information to another person’s aura, the receiving person becomes conscious of the information and the conscious interpretation of the information is color. He does not clearly state whether the effect of the information is also a conscious or unconscious feeling. If the effect is a conscious feeling, why is color needed for interpretation? If the effect is unconscious, then the color is more suitable for interpretation. But because color as such is not a meaningful experience, it has to be transformed in consciousness into meaning or feeling.

The phenomenon of synaesthesia has been known in literature for centuries. The phenomenon means perception in the area of one sense modality caused by stimulation in the area of another sense modality. That is to say, for example, hearing a sound, say C, causes the perception of blue.  In synesthesia, a stimulus of single sensory region (modality) is attached by a perception that has no counterpart in the object. Additional perception may be within the same sensory region (modality) or another sensory region. This kind of general form of synaesthesia is a color that is automatically associated with a letter, number, day of the week, or month. Traditionally, it has been thought that sensory stimulation produces a perception that has no clear representation in the sensory object. More detailed new studies have shown that this is not a so-called low-level combination of perception experience, but rather a “higher” level idea theory; discerning the idea, meaning, concept, intellectual state, event, thoughts, moods, memories, or imagination in color. Mroczko-Wąsowicz and Nikolić have published a scientific overview of semantic meanings in synesthesia (3). They have come to the ideaesthesia theory that man is not a mechanical mirror, which without distortion creates an image of an external reality. On the contrary, the sensory sensation is subjected to the meaning experience that modifies the sensory sensation. Numbers, letters, and time units are the most common forms of synaesthesia. Such factors are, at least in Western countries, the first truly abstract concepts a child must learn. In the learning process, in the absence of a concrete object, the child creates an internal object - a color - rather than a concrete object, when he has not yet learned thoughtfully demanding abstract content. Thus, the synaesthetic integration facilitates the transition from concrete thinking to abstract. Each synaesthetic has his own, individual, usually quite narrow region of in the experienced world, idea-related sense experience such as colors.

The main purpose of my own research was to investigate, the perception outside physical senses, about reality above material world. My meditation practice was designed and performed for this particular purpose. In order to eliminate the effect of a presumption on possible results, I did not initially read carefully or print in my mind what color or shape should be observed. So the philosophical bottom-up idea was that the object would produce a perception that would then be given an interpretation. Because I didn't generate the observation, I tried to imagine myself the concept-related observations. This way I came to investigate the idea of ​​synaesthesia, even though at that time I did not understand I performed such research and I did not knew the whole concept. In the ideaestesia, the philosophical foundation reverses the traditional from object to observation model; in contrast the flow is from a concept to a perception. In addition, according to an EEG-based study, the concept-based perception is again interpreted as a significant new stimulus (8). I ended up with the same interpretation as the ideaesthesia researchers, although I could not analyze my findings very far. My crystallized conclusion was that I see what I imagine.

I am not the only one who has developed synaesthesic experiences. Adults can be trained to acquire synaesthetic experiences. A study published in 2014 shows how 13 university students acquired letter-color synestesia (9).

Activation of the meaning of words or grammatical modifications can manifest as changes in the saturation or luminosity of the experienced colors (3,4,5,6,7). The undersigned experienced that color saturation and luminosity changed as a function of intensity of emotion. Synaesthesia can be divided into a surface projection, where the colors appear at the object and in the neighborhood projection where the colors are located in the observer's immediate space. The descriptions of Steiner and Ervast are about the surface projection, the undersigned had both forms.

The undersigned's studies deepened and made clearer concepts-based experiences of phenomena, the perception of world, thinking and conceptualization. The title of Steiner's book is strongly associated with the promise of knowledge of higher world. I did not achieve the goal to get experiential knowledge of a higher world in the sense the book means. The extent to which the failure to meet or fail to comply with ethical terms have had an effect on the failure of achieving the goal, has been excluded from the scope of this article. However, I would like to mention that I tried to fulfill the conditions conscientiously. Because I did not have enough references and I found the study as zero study for I did not achieve the presumed results, I did not write my research report, or even tell about my study. The new concept ideaesthesia combines my experience with the experience and research of other researchers. For my part, I would propose a new term to describe some of my own research results, namely the term pathiaesthesia. The name is due to the Greek words pathia, feeling, and aesthesia, sensation. Although the original goal did not materialize as described by Steiner, my research, however, helps to grasp an understanding of how the biological system can produce experience or how the monad of theosophy communicates with our physical world and with the biological system. My study clarifies how the conceptual network communicates with the sensory experience and figure out the conceptual network’s role in the ability to be awake and act in the surrounding world. The results did not reveal the actual transcendental world, as shown by occultism, but they decipher the abstract world.

It is known that sensory stimuli cause electrical impulses to the nerves. How impulses or unknown parallels with impulses or independent unknown factors create consciousness is still a big question mark. According to occultism, consciousness exists even without the physical body. In contrast to Leibniz's windowless monads, consciousness is considered, by occultism, also receiving information through superphysical organs, and this information must be transformed in consciousness into meanings, concepts and feelings. Certain mechanisms and laws must work in this over-physical conversion process. In recent decades, the connection between physical brain function and mental experiences, feelings and thoughts has been explored in a variety of ways. Whatever the essence of the "superphysical" brains is, philosophically the principle is the same concerning physical and superphysical; an object triggers a stimulus, a stimulus causes perception, in other worlds experience, and the higher form of experience is the experience of meaning. In the case of ideaesthesia, the situation is the opposite: the experience of meaning causes sense experience, which can be mistakenly kept as a result of the stimulus created by an external object.

As my training progressed, the inner world, especially for sight and hearing experiences, became very real. I could not doubt its reality. At best, the inner world is more real and brighter than the physical world. I can very well imagine that such intense experiences will entice you to interpret the cause of the experience coming from the world around you, not from the experiencer self. Faith, hope, and a firm belief in transcendental reality are capable of dazzle other interpretations of the experience of the phenomenon. I looked at myself - as today - as a seeker of truth, incorruptibly open to all interpretations. With impartial, accurate observation and analysis, I became disappointed with a different result than Steiner: my perception experience told me about myself, not the outside world. In my view, the relationships of the connection of colors and shapes to concepts described by Steiner and Ervast, can also be explained by the ideaestesia.

Unlike the interpretation of the synaesthesia researchers and the signer, Steiner and Ervast consider visual perception to come from an external, supernatural object. The interpretation of Steiner and Ervast can, of course, be correct but sufficient explanation of their description, and from the findings of the signer presented in this research report, is ideaestesia in which a person's natural way to form concepts, the integral connection of concept formation to sensory perception, modification of sensory perception, and the effect of pre-assumption on sensory experience are essential. Although the phenomena described by Steiner and Ervast are suited to the concept of ideaestesia, their argument cannot be denied directly. My research did not support their understanding; the interpretation remains open.

References:

Ervast, Pekka (1960). Salaperäinen ihminen. Ruusu-Risti Helsingissä 1960. Hyvinkään Kirjapaino. Hyvinkää 1960.

Steiner, Rudolf (1968). Miten saavutetaan tietoa korkeammista maailmoista. Suomalaisten Antroposofien Liitto. Helsinki. Vammalan Kirjapaino Oy. Vammala 1968.

1. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_problem_of_consciousness

2. https://steiner.presswarehouse.com/sites/steiner/research/archive/how_to_know_higher_worlds/how_to_know_higher_worlds.pdf

3. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00509/full

4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=17760774

5. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(07)01760-5?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982207017605%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

6. journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01981.x?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3Dpubmed&

7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=22231728

8. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02103.x

9. https://www.nature.com/articles/srep07089.pdf

Rāja Yoga revised

(The current article deals with the theory and practise experiencies of rāja yoga . Other articles are found in the column on the right and are arranged by date of posting. Please click the year and the month to find  the title and the text.)

Rāja Yoga revised

Yoga as I have understood and experienced it

Yoga is practiced by both a breaded, indigent hermit as well as a trendy, sporty business woman. Yoga can mean stretching and relaxation of extremities like logical thinking, imagination training, astral journey or watchful observation. You need to know the context to understand what a speaker or writer imply. The known roots of yoga disappear into the inaccessible twilight of the cultures of Indus river valley. In the first millennium, prior to Christian times, yoga was well known and manifested in the texts of Rig Veda, Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita (1).

In my presentation I deal with the eight elements of yoga, i.e. anga, and how I ended up studying yoga. My primary source has been Ernest Wood's book “Yoga” translated into Finnish language 1968. The original English publication is apparently “Yoga” by Penguin Books (1959, revised 1962). I will present the most important areas that have emerged specifically for me. I'll leave the discourse of less important, irrelevant, or even, in my opinion, harmful areas of yoga. Next, I´ll move on to my own research and experience. Finally, I evaluate the significance of the results in terms of both practical life and ontology.

Yoga and youth culture in the 1960s

In order to understand the perspective of the signer and his experiences of yoga, one must know the youth culture of 1960s. I've familiarized myself with yoga fifty years ago in the late 1960s as a high school boy. The band The Beatles made yoga widely known throughout the world. Their teacher, for a short time, was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a creator of his own transcendental meditation technique and a global organization. His image has been seen by almost every youth at that time. Some might have read his teachings. I did not study his doctrine more closely. However, the words and music of The Beatles reflected the yoga themes. The youth culture of the time, that is to say music, visual arts and writings, were dominated by the appreciation and emphasis of the inner world, personal experience, and the philosophy of peace and love in ethics (hippies). Famous hits were, for example, “All you need is love” by The Beatles (1967), "The Sound of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel (1964), "Sisältäni portin löysin” (I found a gate inside me)” by the Rock Band Tasavallan presidentti (1970), text Pekka Streng and  “San Francisco” by The Mamas & The Papas (John Phillips) (1967).

In the source list of the High School Foreign Religion Textbook I found the Yoga book by Ernest Wood. The Finnish translation was freshly released. Apparently, the book is not very well-known in Finland because it is not mentioned in Matti Rautaniemi's quite extensive book on yoga (2015) (Rautaniemi 2015). I bought the Wood´s book for myself and I started to learn with enthusiasm, devotion, systematic, and thoroughly. I did not know about Ernest Wood's backgrounds at that time. As I made this presentation, I checked his personal data to learn that he was Professor and President of Physics at Sind National College and Madanapalle College. He promoted theosophical views in writing and lectures in India, in many Asian countries, in Europe and in the Americas. After the death of Annie Besant, she lost the presidential election of the Theosophical Society to George Arundale. He was involved in the groundings of several pioneering schools with Maria Montessori.  Wood was well versed in yoga theory and practice and knew several yogis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Wood).

Yoga philosophy - why yoga?

The purpose of yoga was difficult to understand based on the texts I red. As you read the presentations, it feels like you understand and in the next moment you find yourself completely lost. The more reports one read, the more confusing it is to realize the goal. The presentations swarm terms such as Nirvana, liberation, extinction, joy, bliss, ecstasy, insight, expansion of consciousness, freedom, independence, moksha and the evanescence of everything. However, Ernest Wood presents some clear points. The conclusion of the definition of yoga´s goal is to find undefined. It is a discovery journey that achieves something unknown. This unknown is not suitable to determine because we do not know it. Definitions would create a presumption that we will then find and hold on this discovery, not as our own creation, but as a true, objective thing. Our mind is inclined to produce assumed perceptions that can realistically mimic objective sensations. Yoga's discovery is beyond the physical body (rupa) and mind. Therefore, the physical body must be brought into a state where it does not attach the attention of the mind or disturb the meditation. For this purpose the elements of yoga that train the physical body have been developed: position (āsana), breath control (prānāyāma), and arrest of sensory function (pratyāhāra). We need to understand that our essence is not the same as our mind and therefore our will, feelings and thoughts must also be rejected. Even our desire to develop and achieve is ultimately left out.

On the basis of what I read, I understood one of the goals of yoga as independence (kaivalya in Sanskrit) and secondly the opening of the inner world. Kaivalya can also be considered as oneness. According to Wood, Patanjali's Yoga Sutras present Ishwara, or God, as a Spirit (purusha), who is free and independent. The goal of yogi is to achieve the same independence and the yogi, in this sense of independence, becomes like God, assimilates into God. In one interpretation, the yoga term is said to be due to the Sanskrit verb (yuj), which means binding, the active action of uniting or becoming united. I concluded that my consciousness and experience will widen, the inner world will unfold, but by reading or pondering, I did not find out what the opening of the inner world could bring. The result would be at least worthwhile, obviously surprising, and only living in accordance with yoga advices could reveal this secret. An essential condition for achieving the goal is viveka, a resolution, the ability to distinguish the essential from the non-essential, the true from the false and the limited. The second condition is the colorlessness (vairāgya), which refers to the state where the external objects do not wake up desires. The meaning of kaivalya is close to the autarchy (autarkia) of stoicism and viveka is close to the prohairesis (Epiktetos), respectively. The concepts are not identical and the differences are due, for example, to the differences in the structure of the systems as a whole, as well as the differences in the details of the theories. These ideas of two systems are more relatives when we consider our sense of experience; not so much strictly philosophically.

It is not possible to imagine achieving the ability to make a distinction (viveka) unless you cannot control the stray, sudden changes, fixations and inertia of the mind. According to Patanjali, yoga is precisely the suppression of the changes of mind (yogas chitta vritti nirodhah). The teaching of Yoga´s eight elements (anga) deals with and the training contains the control of the mind's movements. Progress in yoga also requires a great longing for freedom and understanding that work must be done without complaining, because external conditions are not obstacles. Other people cannot help or prevent human development. An aspirant, without resentment or hostility, has to rely on the laws of life and unwaveringly strive for his goal.

According to the philosophy of yoga, all things of life happen between the outside world and the upper, actual self (ātmā). Ātmā is what the student does not know yet. The physical body and mind are the mediators between atmā and the outside world. The physical body and mind must be harmonized, set up, clean and make healthy for the purpose of mediation. With the help of yoga, I thought I would find the answer to the burning questions of the young man looking for: what is consciousness, why does life look dualistic, how to overcome the feeling of evil and to achieve happiness, how to avoid hatred and violence.

From the very beginning, I tried to learn the basic terms of yoga in Sanskrit. Later, I discovered that the choice was particularly successful. Any translation of the terms does not exactly match the meaning of the original language and the translation necessarily makes it difficult to understand the ideas precisely. The original terms can best be used to learn the ideas and practises to be addressed. When you have a deeper insight into the thought structure, the original terms immediately bring to mind the correct concept. On the other hand, yoga species are rich in variety and not necessarily understood the ideas in the same way. Over time, hundreds, even thousands of years, must have had changes in terms of understanding concepts within each yoga domain and yoga school.

First anga - yama

The first steps of yoga for restraint (yama) and adherence (niyama) concern the optimization of body and mind for the purpose of mediation and our attitude towards our outside world, ethics. Yama's first part is ahiṃsā, nonviolence, whose meaning should be understood through the basic doctrines of yoga philosophy, namely karma and rebirth. Although ahiṃsā is a passive ethic, through karma law it also includes an active part, doing good for others, because good deeds shorten karmic debt, while non-violence just prevents the formation of new debt. The second part is satya, truthfulness. You must say and do what you know or think to be true, do not want to lie intentionally or tell half truths. It is quite own chapter to decipher how we know and find out the truth.

The third part is asteya, abstain from theft. The fourth is brahmacarya, which literally means Brahma-like, God-like spiritual behavior and lifestyle. In this context, Ernest Wood only deals with sexual abstinence, which is believed to increase vitality. In fact, I understood the matter much broader. First I tried to find out what God is, what qualities God has and what can be required of man on the basis of these qualities. Fifth part is aparigraha, non-greed, abstain from covetousness. We should not covet more property, but also do not stick to what we already own. Ideally, the abandoning of physical ownership is the result of focusing on spiritual affairs, understanding the karma law and living according to it. An advanced yogi does not make plans for himself, but receives what comes and carries the responsibilities of the world's well-being, witch is the inspiration for his actions.

Second anga - niyama

The first part of adherence (niyama) is purity of mind and body (shaucha), second part satisfaction (santosha). The explanations emphasize satisfaction with the state of the world and the circumstances. You should not complain, but accept the premise and apply your own thoughts and conclusions to the realities at hand. Santosha is tantamount to Stoics´ starting point in their speculations; we are living in the best possible world. Only from this world can we strive and draw our attention and our energies to what we can influence. The third part is self-discipline (tapas). Be determined to live according to what you know is the best. It's about using will. The fourth part is self-examination (swādhyāya). We need to study our own being and character, and especially what we consider to be the true self, eternal, pure, happy and free. As a result of swādhyāya, one is promised contact with the desired divinity. The fifth and final part is the centering of the mind in God (Īshwarapranidāhna), from which a successful contemplation (samādhi) follows.

Third, fourth and fifth anga – āsana, prānāyāma and pratyāhāra

After Yama and Niyama, the three following areas of yoga are position (āsana), breath control (prānāyāma), and stopping of sensory activity or sensory control (pratyāhāra). The purpose of these exercises is to bring the body into a relaxed state where the body is not the focus of our attention and therefore does not interfere with meditation. According to Patanjali, the position must be such as one feels oneself relaxed and effortless. Thought is guided to Endless.

In breathing exercises, not only breathing is practiced, but mind is settled to calm, disciplined, focused state. I practiced some techniques like 1: 4: 2 breathing. While inspiring one unit of time it is recommended to think in mind pūraka. Then breathing is arrested and kumbhaka is pronounced in the mind four times and then rechka twice during the exhalation period. Autonomous activities like breathing work within us without our attention. The state of affairs is a blessing, and I do not think that these activities should be brought back to conscious control. Of course, temporary evaluation and theoretical study of autonomous functions may be appropriate.

As regards the control of the senses (pratyahara) I have realized that one should ignore the data transmitted by the senses. It is advised that the gaze is allowed to rest undisturbed while keeping the sight focus point about a couple of meters from himself during selected yoga sessions. The methods of physical cleansing presented in my source seemed to be strange to a modern western person, and I refrained from becoming more familiar with them.

Internal angas – dhāranā, dhyāna ja samādhi

The inner parts of yoga are concentration (dhāranā), meditation (dhyāna) and contemplation (samādhi). When studying, it is recommended to take a general approach on what you know about a topic before you begin reading and after reading, stop thinking about what new information and thoughts or experiences you got from the book and how they fit into what you knew before (Wood 1968, p. 112). Meditation and contemplation are not sates of mind or just being but they are something that is done. In concentration, attention is directed to one idea, thing or object, for example a cow. Then, search in the mind a thing related to a cow, for example, milk and after that return to a cow. Continue to next thing, for example, a tassel tail and after that again to a cow. This continues until no new features come to mind. The pupil develops a mood or habit of returning to the center. The next move is to shift to meditate the relationship between cow and milk, and when one can´t find any new things about the relationship between cow and milk, one is recommended to move on to the relationship between a cow and a tassel tail, and so on.

Over time exercises lead to contemplation, where self-perception disappears. In this case, the practitioner has been immersed into the object. One acts and conceives being aware of being in the object. The aspirant will become united with the object. The action ends in time and one becomes aware of herself. When you return to your own self, you bring along an idea, thought or feeling connected to the whole subject. In the exercises, you will learn how to feel contemplation. Wood gives an example. The demonstrator's state of mind, in which he is completely immersed in his performance, forgets himself during the lecture, develops and monitors the subject and not before the end of the performance becomes aware of himself. This example deciphers the omen of developing ability to contemplate.

Samādhi is divided into two species, one in which the object is recognized (samprajnāta) and one without recognition (asamprajnata). The former applies to things known in the world and the latter to those behind it. According to Wood, a distinction is made between concrete matters and their ideas. Here, one can´t avoid the observation that the interpretation of Yoga philosophy is done through Plato's treatise of ideas. The pondering deals with such a subtle essence that is out of time and place, is the same in all circumstances and at all times, and always causally relates to other beings and objects. This subtle essence is of the same nature as the mind. It is abstraction, reality, power in the world, the basic power of all growth. This inseparable subtle basic reality is also material (prakriti). Here is a contradiction with the present perception that abstraction is opposite to material. A thing is either abstraction or material, not both at the same time. If both attributes are true at the same time, further logical processing of the matter would be impossible.

Things are a dense substance (prakriti), they have a form, but the mind is a subtle, a formless substance. Meditation and contemplation in prakriti's area have a seed (sabīja), they are aware of matter (samprajnāta).  Sabīja is divided into observing (savitarka) and non-observing (nirvitarka) and on the other hand investigative (savichāra) and non-investigative (nirvichāra). In my understanding, non-investigative contemplation can be used to realize or achieve a sense of something more, using the feeling (love or connectedness or interest) or willpower. Accepting to take along emotion and will contradicts the demand of viveka principle in the sense in which I understood viveka. At least emotion disturbs viveka. At some point, you should feel joy or bliss (ānanda) that maintain the state you have attained.

Behind the materiality is the Spirit (purusha). The true self of man is placed on the level of spirit. The student has made a clear distinction between his physical body and his thoughts, which are not his true self. Contemplation in the area of ​​the spirit is seedless (asamprajnāta samādhi) without an idea or object, without a seer or seen. One should try to think about being that is outside of a thought, called God, Absolute, Consciousness, Self, Reality. No comparisons or opposing layouts should be made, no definitions, no classifications (Wood, 1968, p. 66). It is not about analyzing God, the Absolute, the Consciousness, the Self, the Reality, but about knowing the existence or the knowledge of existence that will be achieved by the power of will, going over the classifications. It is recommended to perform an existence event maintained by will. On the other hand, it is said that all inner yoga members, including samādhi, are doing, not being. At least at this stage, the meaning of the text will be blurred, deceived or lost. Does this concern feeling connected with samādhi? Does feeling here perhaps mean comprehension or (re)identification? How does the will work without an object and subject? If I have understood correctly, Yoga books tell that at this stage the object and the subject will become one.

When you go to the yoga path, you are told that achievements are something that is unknown. That is why you should not lock the results. Of course, references and descriptions of what the results may or may not be can be presented and have been presented. The starting point is, according to contemporary science, that a study based on subjective findings, the previous knowledge and judgment of the researcher, lead observations, results and interpretations to their own channel, shape the results and can prevent the discovery of new experiences and interpretations. In asamprajnāta samādhi we arrive in an area where there is no longer logic and the usual meaning of words, the intentions are lost. From this level of existence or awareness, one cannot say anything positive or negative; one really can't say about it anything truthfully. However, I have kept the attainment of this state or stage meaningful. I would like to agree with Oscar Wilde's statement that "nothing worth knowing can be taught".

My own experiences

Ethics is something that will never come to an end; with each of our conclusions and actions we create an ethical act. Even the things we pay attention do indicate our ethical level. The first two areas of yoga have given me a constant reason for reflection and led to the acquisition of new knowledge in literature and led to decisive choices in my life. I have looked into the matter more in the paper entitled "Ethics in Theosophy - personal experiences concerning theosophical and Rosicrucian ethical road, assessments included".

As for the position, I chose the Egyptian sitting position because, among other things, the lotus position caused tension in my body. The book also shows stretching exercises, some of which I have preserved to launch muscle tension and irritation in the treatment of tendon attachment sites according to modern, target specific physiotherapy treatment guidelines. I quickly learned to calm my breath and soon I just needed my attention for a moment to breathing or I didn't need to remember my breathing at all; it become calm or was calm. I found that the 1: 4: 2-breathing was useful when opening a stuffy nose. Pulling the breath through another nostril and out of the other, breathing in through the same nostril from which you had exhaled and then out of the other and so on. The 1: 4: 2-breathing works perfectly to curb vomiting reflex during gastroscopy.

I rarely used the concentration of consciousness on the physical body. Sometimes I went through my body in imagination for relaxation purposes. I didn't actually do any chakra yoga or kundalini yoga exercises. Hatha Yogis and tāntrikas are of the opinion that thinking of chakras or rather thinking in chakras accelerates or calms them, depending on circumstances. This viewpoint is behind their conception and practices concerning the meditation and worship of chakras (Wood 1968, p. 134). For me the matter has brightened so that the concentration of consciousness on a point in the body does not promote, but prevents understanding and experiencing the true self; hatha and laya yoga are obstacles to raja and ātma yoga. I explicitly wanted to open my consciousness, not to contract.

The instructions recommend regular (dhāranā-dhyāna-samādhi) meditation moments. At the time of getting to know yoga and later in my life, especially during the most intensive bhakti yoga period, I performed regular or almost regular exercises. In the past fifty years, exercises have been mostly irregular and meditation more or less conscious. I have emphasized dhāranā, dhyāna and samādhi differently at different periods and moments. Meditation in the form I describe in this presentation has become a habit, a custom, at times even automation, invaded into my ether if we use theosophical expression. In my own opinion, dhārana and dhyāna can often only last for an instant. Often just focusing on the topic is enough for concentration, and meditation goes to the analytical stage, and samādhi does not necessarily follow. Meditation can happen almost whenever and wherever, can take a fleeting moment or hours. The perfect way of meditation, described by Wood, has still been unreachable. Initially, and also later, at some points in time, I can hardly form or recall a couple of things related to a topic, or I just can´t concentrate.

Besides raja and ātma yoga, I have also carried out bhakti yoga. From the beginning of the 1990s, after studying Rosicrucianism interpreted by Pekka Ervast , I began to follow in practice the law of karma. I felt the unity of the whole creation and served more intensively as I was a part of the whole and my responsibility was the service. According to my understanding, these facts are forms of bhakt, service, devotion (worship). Bhakti is considered here as a trust in the good law of karma, and acting in accordance with the law. From the point of view of thought and action, I performed karma yoga; I was trying not to create a new negative karma and moreover tried to pay with joy karma debt.

Trying to open the inner doors, opening the inner doors, was the most important part of yoga for me, the most important goal, the whole purpose of yoga. I had a deep conviction that the inner world was a reality, even more real than our world of physical eyes. I just needed a way to get into this reality. From the beginning I wanted to find the truth myself. I worked specifically as a scientist, not as a creative artist, such as a writer or painter. My starting point was to make observations, analyze observations and find out, invent interpretations to my observations. My starting point was not to prove anything, a doctrine or a part of a doctrine with my own observations. Even further: even though I had read about the subtle worlds and the spiritual world from theosophical sources, near death experiences, astral travelers, I tried to suppress these preconceptions, tried not to follow these thought images, these lines of thought, in order not to modify the information I received with my preconceived ideas, with my preconceptions. Sure, I occasionally went into creative "play". For example, I attached theosophical ideas of the afterlife into a spontaneous vision or an idea or sensation. This led to a new spontaneous progression of events. When a plot stopped, at its best, only a glimpse of a thought of a thing known to me, got the event chain of experience going on. In my opinion, this was a creative process of my own and did not represent a perception of an otherworldly reality. An example of such a creative process I have compiled the essay "Divine Adventure". From the point of view of my own questioning, and also in a more general scientific sense, this script is mostly sketch, unless if science is considered to be a description of creation and the progress of the creative process.

In the early days, my meditation practice sessions mostly stayed unfinished. Later, for longer periods of time, I ended up having the ability to clear my mind. I was conscious and aware of my existence and that was the only thing I had. No emotion, no thought, no awareness of the external physical world or the physical body. Such going into the state of emptiness and staying therein have become automatic later. At one time in my youth, this state was overwhelmed by a crippling sense of fear and horror. Once in a different situation than meditation, I began to imagine the frightening presence of an outside spirit. After these experiences, I had to hit the bottom of the brake for some time in order to maintain my mental health. Later, sure, I started the meditation exercises again. The negative experience sharpened my insight and belief that I myself choose what I think, believe, read and want to see, excluding asamprajnata samadhi, where the daily controlling self shines with his absence.

I have also completed visualization and meditation practises according to the instructions of Rudolf Steiner. These exercises, their results and the results of the analysis I have described in a thesis, "What sensory experience tells us? - Experiences on the path of spiritual knowledge”. In later decades, especially during the most active bhakti yoga period, the inner gate was often open until I deliberately shut down the gate. The reason for the closure was that I realized that I could not find any new significant knowledge via this gate.

Evaluation

My experience is that yoga is a way to help shape the world and create order and purposefulness for personal life, and therefore at it´s at best yoga is useful. I am not the only one who has been searching for the most fundamental essence of the world with help of yoga. The question concerns ontology. Yoga philosophy is multifaceted and escapes the Western tradition of dualism. He who has received western education tries to look and interpret the philosophy of yoga by his own western way of conceptualization.

In exploring our experience world, Yoga philosophy begins with the idea that yoga technology, self-examination helps us to determine the existence and essence of a more fundamental, more significant thing (purusha) than our starting state can determine. In my view, purusha does not conceptually match, for example, the spirit world of Christianity, although many seem to believe so. Purusha is inconceivable, while clear views are presented about the spiritual world of Christianity. According to theosophy, the basic essence of man, aatma has the same essence as purusha. However, monads, the essence of humans and the group souls of animals, are discernible in purusha (Ervast 1918. Towards Light. Chapter XI. The Origin of Self).

I have found it difficult to figure out what the relationship is between purusha and experiencing purusha. The guidelines emphasize experiencing but separating the subject of experience and experience is problematic. The Western philosophy tradition requires such separation, but it is difficult to find such separation in yoga literature. It is challenging to make yoga philosophy and scientific thinking commensurate.

What does yoga seek and what is the ontology of yoga philosophy? In a sense the goal of yoga and scientific research is similar; their goal is open and thus research results are unknown, often also unpredictable. Results should not be pre-locked. A new theory must be created on the basis of new data. The current neuroscience gives its own viewing angle to the understanding of the conscious experience. Current neuroscience does not seek undefined essence or existence, but seeks to explain how the brain could create consciousness. In current cognition science and neuroscience, it is considered that conscious self-examination cannot explain our conscious experience because the functioning of our nervous system is inaccessible to our consciousness (Fazekas 2018); neuroscience with its new technical equipment, computer science, biochemistry, biology, biotechnology, endocrinology, genetics, psychology, etc, is required. The current scientific approach to understanding our world of experience is to understand the brain as an information processing body in adapting to the human environment, especially from the perspective of evolution.

As a young man, I was struck by the problem of dualism, what my own consciousness is and what is our physical world. In childhood, we talked about heaven and hell. The youth culture of my time, yoga and theosophical literature and other sources presented me new concepts of supernatural worlds that differed from the Lutheran doctrine. I believed that these worlds could be discovered by intensive introspective methods. Ernest Wood as well as the teachers of theosophy, anthroposophy, and the Rose Cross presented these methods credibly. I believed that adherence to these techniques could reveal the knowledge of truth.

Although my contemplation has been almost always fragmentary and irregular, I consider the yogic discipline have had a decisive impact on my life. In my own view, with the practice of the vairaga (colorlessness), my ability for objective, non-affective detection and evaluation is strengthened. Practice, colorlessness and studying have contributed to my viveka, to separate essential from frivolous. My ability to concentrate has been greatly improved. The pursuit of the most objective and thorough analysis of things has become a habit. The development of concentration and analysis has been paramount, central to my studies.

Studying and analyzing for fifty years´ time, I have ended up in the following results:

1. Meditation can help to achieve a significant improvement in concentration, memory recall, and attention, and enhance analytical thinking.

2. A state of internal tranquility can be achieved, where the inner gate of consciousness can be opened. I have received music, images and video like episodes resembling physical world; many of these has been spontaneous, effortless (like the spontaneous revelation). Manipulating these spontaneous revelations by conscious will efforts, one can invent desired ideas, events and descriptions as a creative process.

3. The inner world can become opened with practice, but besides the physical world, I have not found another or other objective worlds that I could observe by superphysical senses. The inner perceptions obtained through the practice are explained by the concepts formed by own study and thinking. Our ideas shape physical external perceptions and intrinsic experiences of perceptions simulate external ones. (ideaesthesia [2]).

4. I have not developed the feelings described to be connected to samadhi: bliss, joy, or ecstasy. Imaginative abilities (siddhi) described in the yogic literature, such as pre-knowledge or levitation, I did not find to develop.

5. Meditation can provide advanced sensory deprivation. Sensory deprivation studies, in which a person is placed in a dark, softly decorated, echo-proof, silent room, similar types of hearing and visual perceptions are obtained, which the researchers call hallucinations. Neuroscience research shows that the brain is in constant activity with irregular, coordinated, information-processing steps (lasting one hundred - hundreds milliseconds), thought cycles (Chater 2018, p. 129). Independently, outside our will, these cycles will follow each other also during sleep, and only during some modes we can be conscious. A conscious knowing of the present moment takes about two seconds, which includes several thought cycles. From an evolutionary point of view, evolution has formed the brain as an organ to direct the activity of the organism to the outside world, and consequently new thought cycles always follow each other. Ending cycles means death. During sensory deprivation, the cyclic operating model continues to function automatically, creating the observational world by itself. According to brain physiological studies, it is challenging and apparently impossible to stop and reactivate the information flow of the brain. That is why it is difficult and even impossible to maintain a longer time asamprajnāta samādhi state. Some neuroscientists assume that consciousness arises as a phase change from nerve activity to metaphysical reality.

6. I can well imagine that books of the type of out-of-body literature can be written on the basis of mere imagination, even though it is claimed that books tell about objective reality.

7. I would like to say a word of warning, and even several world of warning, of an overly enthusiastic meditation, of marketing meditation techniques, and of imaginative promises of meditation.

8. Always up-to-date ethics can be practiced only by taking into account the ethical aspect repeatedly.

9. My research does not cancel out the doctrines of supernatural worlds, masters of theosophy, white brotherhood, clairvoyance, reincarnation, and other metaphysical doctrines, subjects, and persons. The study shows that even at least the undersigned was unable to prove the objective facts of a supernatural world, even by decent work and understanding.

Sources:

Chater, Nick (2018). The Mind is Flat. The Illusion of Mental Depth and the Improvised Mind. Penguin Random House UK. ISBN 978-0-241-20844-1.

Ervast, Pekka (1918). Valoa kohti. Kustannusosakeyhtiö Tietäjä. Saarijärven Paavo O. Y. Kirjapaino. Jyväskylä 1918.

Fazekas, Peter and Overgaard, Morten Storm (compiled and edited). Theme issue `Perceptual consciousness and cognitive access`. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 373; 1755; 19 September 2018. rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/373/1755

Rautaniemi, Matti (2015). Erakkomajoista kuntosaleille. Miten jooga valloitti maailman. Basam Books. ISBN 978-952-260-395-1.

Wood, Ernest (1968). Jooga. Tammi, Helsinki 1968, KK:n laakapaino.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga

2. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00509/full