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A few months ago a friend wrote to me asking about the practice of ātma-vicāra (self-investigation or self-enquiry) and whether his description of his practice indicated that he was practising it correctly, and he ended his email saying: I have tried the technique of diving into the heart exhaling your breath, explained in the small book The Technique of Maha Yoga published by Ramanashramam, [...] but this does not seem to work in my case. The following is adapted from the reply I wrote to him: Firstly The Technique of Maha Yoga [which was not written by K. Lakshmana Sarma, the author of Maha Yoga , but by another devotee called N.R. Narayana Aiyar] is a very misleading book, because the explanation that it gives about the practice of ātma-vicāra is completely wrong, so it is good that you found that it does not seem to work. Secondly, ‘the heart’ is a term that Sri Ramana used metaphorically to denote what we really are, because it is the core, centre or essence of all that we now...

The intelligence speaking through Paulina Peavy said: " . . . we are using her exactly as you use your microphone.  We are beings existing in a world of too high frequency for your comprehension."  (This photo of  'Pauline Peavy' is from the 1971 book  The Age of Flying Saucers  by Paris Flammonde.)       Upon listening to a commercial audio CD with MP3 files of 1950s radio shows hosted by 'Long John Nebel,' the most intriguing guest was described in the show descriptions with her name misspelled: "A Mrs. Pievey went into a trance and communicated with spirits."  The expression 'channeler' wasn't a commonly known term at the time so there was some difficulty for Nebel when he attempted to explain her circumstances.  Joining Nebel in asking questions of the interview guests were a couple of "The Party Line" recurring panelists. D uring this January 1958 broadcast, the predominant interview subject ...

This week's lucky winner... Cheesecake Factory carrot cake!! Read more »

A friend recently asked me to comment on an article entitled The Universe as a Hologram by Michael Talbot, saying that ‘it brings the scientific viewpoint very close to the mystic vision of reality’, and after I replied to him he sent a second email in which he tried to explain why he believed that science is relevant to Sri Ramana’s teachings, saying: Before physics delved deeply into the nature of matter, conviction about the unreality of the perceived world could only be based on complete faith in the teaching. In the modern world however, beliefs are founded upon rational and scientific grounds. Particle physics has provided us with scientific grounds for such faith i.e. belief in the unreality and illusoriness of the perceived world, since it has shown that what we regard as solid matter is actually non-substance. The following is adapted from the replies I wrote to these two emails: First reply: When I skimmed through Michael Talbot’s article I did not find it any closer to the ...

This article offers some examples of recurring metaphors that can be found among diverse case studies involving 'paranormal' or 'unexplained phenomena,' encompassing clairvoyance and diverse cases of transcendental communication, including Electronic Voice Phenomena reported by Friedrich Jürgenson, an incident from contemporary spiritual medium Rosemary Altea's autobiography, a Leslie Flint Direct Voice audio recording, Ouija board communication in the 'Messages from Michael' case, Instrumental Transcommunication chronicled by Anabela Cardoso, an event in the career of physical medium Alec Harris, and an incident reported as chronicled in the nonfiction case study Testament .  Metaphorical parallels in these instance include an oceanic 'ship in the dark' and face masks.  The article concludes with several excerpts from the Edgar Cayce channeled reading transcripts.  Voice Transmissions With The Deceased , an English translation of  ...