Welcome and Greetings! My name is Mike and I am your host. It is my hope that you have come to the right place and that you choose to stay awhile and return.
This blog is created with the intention and vision of offering a place online for seekers of every denomination and ideological stance to respectfully engage with each other and offer their perspective on topics relating to transpersonal levels of consciousness.
By transpersonal, I mean experiences beyond or different than the normal, average experiences of reality that impact or change us in some way. Another name for these experiences are Exceptional Human Experiences, or EHE's. Some examples of these experiences are peak experiences, lucid dreams, telepathy, synchronicity, deja vu, out of body experiences, connection with all else, ESP, hynogogic and so on. Basically, any time you get the feeling that you are somehow connected to a level of reality that is bigger than your individual or egoic self, you may be experiencing a transpersonal state. Traditional methods for reaching this level of reality can be found in basically every religious tradition, from meditation to shamanic journeying. That said, I have had what I would define as a transpersonal experience while listening to my favorite song and driving in a car. This topic remains very abstract and undefined in many ways, so it is very much up to the person who experienced it. In fact, I offer this definition with complete admission that this is my personal understanding of transpersonal reality. I invite anyone who disagrees or wishes to better explain it to please do so.
This blog is not about my perspective. It is my hope that Expansive Discourse will offer a common arena of open discussion on topics relating to transpersonal experiences and their impact on daily lives. If the topics stray into other areas, so be it. That is the nature of holistic inquiry. Ultimately it's about connecting spiritually with others and helping each other make sense of who we are.
There is really just one rule for this blog. That we all respect each other and offer perspectives in a manner that does not harm others in any way. Whether or not we agree, this blog must be a place where people feel safe to openly discuss their experiences and ideas. I reserve the right to screen postings that do not support these very basic requests of common respect.
With that, please feel free to respond and engage with myself and each other. I will be offering my own perspectives on this topic at least once a week and I hope that others too will join me in creating a space online that I feel offers significant potential to all who jump in. Please join me in taking this leap of faith.
This blog is created with the intention and vision of offering a place online for seekers of every denomination and ideological stance to respectfully engage with each other and offer their perspective on topics relating to transpersonal levels of consciousness.
By transpersonal, I mean experiences beyond or different than the normal, average experiences of reality that impact or change us in some way. Another name for these experiences are Exceptional Human Experiences, or EHE's. Some examples of these experiences are peak experiences, lucid dreams, telepathy, synchronicity, deja vu, out of body experiences, connection with all else, ESP, hynogogic and so on. Basically, any time you get the feeling that you are somehow connected to a level of reality that is bigger than your individual or egoic self, you may be experiencing a transpersonal state. Traditional methods for reaching this level of reality can be found in basically every religious tradition, from meditation to shamanic journeying. That said, I have had what I would define as a transpersonal experience while listening to my favorite song and driving in a car. This topic remains very abstract and undefined in many ways, so it is very much up to the person who experienced it. In fact, I offer this definition with complete admission that this is my personal understanding of transpersonal reality. I invite anyone who disagrees or wishes to better explain it to please do so.
This blog is not about my perspective. It is my hope that Expansive Discourse will offer a common arena of open discussion on topics relating to transpersonal experiences and their impact on daily lives. If the topics stray into other areas, so be it. That is the nature of holistic inquiry. Ultimately it's about connecting spiritually with others and helping each other make sense of who we are.
There is really just one rule for this blog. That we all respect each other and offer perspectives in a manner that does not harm others in any way. Whether or not we agree, this blog must be a place where people feel safe to openly discuss their experiences and ideas. I reserve the right to screen postings that do not support these very basic requests of common respect.
With that, please feel free to respond and engage with myself and each other. I will be offering my own perspectives on this topic at least once a week and I hope that others too will join me in creating a space online that I feel offers significant potential to all who jump in. Please join me in taking this leap of faith.
6 comments:
Hello Mike, Congratulations on your site! What I have been taken up with lately regarding transpersonal and parapsychology is how psychic and paranormal experience came upon the scene, given evolution, natural selection, chance factors, etc. As Intelligent Design is a souree of ridicule in scientific circles, I wonder how does one explain these kind of paranormal events, inclusive of perhaps life after death as a possiblity, wihtout having any kind of purpose or design in the universe? Or else how would one argue for purpose and design in the universe in a scientific way, that can explain these paranormal events coming on the scene?
Elliot
Hi Elliot! Thanks for being the first to comment!
You bring up several interesting points. I would argue that it is not paranormal experience that sort of came upon the scene as much as it was a discovery made by mystics and seekers throughout history after chancing upon a naturally occurring level of reality that was always present, but not seen or fully comprehended.
In other words, the "intelligent design" that I envision with regard to transpersonal and paranormal realities simply requires a more complete definition of intelligence than we currently use. We typically associate the word intelligence with cognitive prowess or brain performance, but the type of intelligence that I mean involves a level of reality that if we are able to experience consciously, has naturally occurring patterns consistent with all of the other patterns in nature with the addition of paranormal aspects of reality.
We just seem to lack the tools right now to open our minds enough to see our own collective limitations and work to begin to move beyond them. I'm hoping that is going to change sometime and I think having these type of discussions is a step in that direction.
Thanks very much for your excellent contribution to my blog!
Hey Mikey!
I luv your new blog! Congratulations on taking a leap of faith and putting your ideas out for everyone to engage in. You have always been a leader of transformation in my life and a wonderful guide along my way: teaching me about embracing my cosmic understanding. Thank you.
I'm excited to have this forum to engage with you and others on this topic. I intentionally created my vision board this year with a few Owls to assist me with developing my higher wisdom. "Owl medicine is symbolically associated with clairvoyance, astral projection, and magic." While sitting in our hot tub two days after creating this intention, and vision, a barn owl came and perched in our pine tree, looking directly down on me. I could feel my manifestation being created with purpose, which gave me a deep sense of connection to the transpersonal experience you speak of. I felt supported by something greater than myself and gave thanks to the universe for providing such an obvious "sign."
I look forward to sharing more and learning from this wonderful blog how others are considering this element in their daily lives. Much love to you my friend!
Cynthia
Hi Cynthia! Thanks for visiting my blog!
What a wonderful story and example of a transpersonal experience. I think those type of moments can be extremely powerful because it feels, as Elliot pointed out in his post, as if there is some kind of higher intelligence that is far greater than us attuned to the energy that we put out into the world.
That brings up another interesting idea about energy and the impact of our projections outward toward the world. You lovingly sent a request out into the world for Owl medicine or wisdom, and it was as if the world heard what you asked for and provided a clear sign that it heard you. How can we explain this? How does it work I wonder?
Way cool. Thanks very much for sharing this!
Mike, I am traveling in Arizona for another month, as you know. My internet connection/blog comments might be somewhat sporadic, due to that. I just got a chance to enter on your blog and to tell you I'm glad to see your leadership on this meaningful topic. I look forward to many conversations.
I admire that you are able to find your balance and center in the midst of your busy life. You are being realistic about making a place for transpersonal experience growth in our modern life. I am learning exactly the opposite is best for me, and more available due to my older age. I have tended to be a person occupied with many tasks at many different levels of interaction for most of my life. I have had spasms of growth intersected with busyness.
In order for me to access the impact of transpersonal experiences I now need to have a balance of quiet time with sincere interactions with persons who are also open to other realities. When I don't get at least 30 minutes of quality meditation time I feel myself out of sync. I don't need the interactions on a daily basis, but I do need to be in this kind of human communion frequently too. Conversations with a group of people who are open to personal growth and development. The virtual world has been giving me access to a fantastic group of world visionaries through a series of talks called "Beyond Awakening", put together by Terry Patton. If anyone reading your blog has any extra time and does not have a group of co-creators, I highly recommend joining this teleconference.
Doing artwork takes me into a kind of place of process which somehow binds me with the collective consciousness I know exists. What emerges, like your fantastic artwork you featured here, takes on its own life and meaning.
You know me and for purposes of this blog I would like you to call me Marti Angel.
Hi Marti!
Thanks for the post. A great recommendation of a potential group of visionaries to become involved with. Thanks also for your comment about my art and your experiences with art as a method of consciousness expansion.
I know what you mean about the importance of having time to be still and I certainly agree withthe value of such a daily practice. I would say, however, that the way that an inward perspective and quieting of the mind if obtained is less important that the fact that it is obstained in some way as part of regular daily living. The map that is used is less important than the territory, to paraphrase William James's famous quote, "Don't confuse the map with the territory."
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