laughlin charles - psychic energy trans personal experience - dumo yoga practice
TRANSCRIPT
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 1/36
Being Changed by Cross-Culturol Encounters: The Anthropology ofExtroordinary Experience
ed. David E. Young and Jean-Guy Goulet (Orchard Park, NY: Broadview Press Ltd., 1994).
CHARLES D. LAUGHLIN, JR.
Psychic Energy &
Transpersonal Experience:
A biogenetic structural
account of the Tibetan
Dumo Yoga Practice
INTRODUCTION
Mystical traditions from many cultures describe extraordinary
experiences involving the unusual movement of energy within
the body.l These experiences may be profound, may be the con-
sequence of entering an alternative phase of consciousness, and
may be culturally interpreted as both numinous and sacred. In
this paper, I wish to operationalize the concept of psychic energy
in such a way that a biopsychological account of such experiences
is possible. I will begin with a phenomenological definition of
"psychic energy" and then will offer a personal account of my
exploration of Tibetan tantric Buddhism and the experiences
that arose as a consequence of performing tantric "psychic heat"
PSYCHIC ENERGY & TRANS PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 2/36
rituals. r will then describe what I believe to be the basic struc
ture of psychic energy experiences cross-culturally, and suggest
a tentative neurocognitive and neuroendocrinal model to ac
count for the structural invariants within those experiences. But
first, I must lay the groundwork for this somewhat unorthodox
approach to the ethnography of religious practice.
THE PERSPECTIVE: BIOGENETIC STRUCTURALISM PLUS TRANSPERSONALISM
The perspective taken here is that of biogenetic structuralism
(Laughlin and d'Aquili 1974; d'Aquili, et al. 1979; Rubinstein,
et al. 1985; Laughlin, McManus and d'Aquili 1990), which is an
anthropological framework grounded in the neurosciences and
which has developed a number of formulations to account for
cross-cultural universals in the structures of experience, espe
cially the relations of cosmology, symbolism and experience at
tained in alternative phases of consciousness (d'Aquili 1983;
d'Aquili and Laughlin 1975; MacDonald, et al. 1988; Laughlin
1988; Laughlin, McManus and Shearer 1984; Laughlin, McManus
and Webber 1984; Laughlin, et al. 1986). I am particularly inter
ested in the neurophysiological processes that produce the cross
cultural invariance among extraordinary experiences in general,
and psychic energy experiences in particular (e.g., Laughlin, et
al. 1986).
Transpersonolism
Tdmspersonalism labels a movement in science toward the ac
knowledgment and significance as data of extraordinary experi-
ences that go beyond the boundaries of ordinary ego-conscious
ness (Laughlin, McManus and Shearer 1983). Roger Walsh and
Frances Vaughan in their book, Beyond Ego, use the term trans-
personal to "reflect the reports of people practising various con
sciousness disciplines who spoke of experiences of an extension
of identity beyond both individuality and personality" (1980:16).
A range of such experiences have been reported in the clinical
literature, as well as in textual material from various religious
traditions and cultures. The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology
lists a number of these experiences in the preface to each issue
(see also Lee 1980 and Wilber 1980). Kenneth Ring (1976), work
ing from the research of Stanislav Grof (1976), has developed a
typology that groups such experiences into ever expanding con-
100 CHARLES D. LAUGHLIN, JR.
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 3/36
centric rings from normal waking consciousness in the middle
(the most narrow field), through what he terms preconscious,
psychodynamic, orthogenetic, trans-individual, phylogenetic, ex
t r a - t e r r e s t r i ~ l , and superconsciousness, to void consciousness atthe periphery (the most expansive field) (Ring 1976:127).
As formal disciplines, transpersonal psychology dates to the
latter 1960s (Sutich 1968; Boucouvalis 1980) and transpersonal
anthropology to the mid-1970s (S. Lee 1980:2; Laughlin,
McManus and Shearer 1983:141). Transpersonal anthropology is
simply the study of transpersonal experiences cross-culturally
(Laughlin 1988; Laughlin, McManus and Shearer 1983). "Tran
spersonal anthropological research is the investigation of the relationship between consciousness and culture, altered states of
mind research, and the inquiry into the integration of mind,
culture and personality" (Campbell and Staniford 1978:28).
Anthropologists have all along recorded data on extraordi
nary experiences reported by informants, as well as religious in
stitutions and ritual practices associated with such experiences
(see J. MacDonald 1981 and Laughlin, McManus and Shearer
1983 for surveys). A few researchers have even undergone spontaneous transpersonal experiences themselves while in the field
(see Gorer 1949 [1935]:131, Harner 1973a; Grindal 1983; Coult
n.d.; Chagnon 1977). Others like Katz (1982:6ff) and Stoller
(1989) have reported participating in ritual practices intended
to incubate such experiences, without actually attaining the in
tended state (or failing to report i t if attained).
But looking back over the history of the discipline, few eth
nographers have actually made the effort to incubate alternativestates themselves. This is curious in the face of evidence that
many, if not most, human cultures operate upon a cosmology of
multiple realities (Schutz 1945; Eliade 1964; MacDonald et al.
1988; Poirier 1990), the reality of which is commonly verified
through direct transpersonal experiences attained in alternative
states of consciousness (Bourguignon 1973; Ehrenwald 1978;
Laughlin, et al. 1986; Stoller 1989; Obeyesekere 1981).
However, as other authors in this volume and elsewhere giveevidence, reports of spontaneous transpersonal experiences
while in the field do seem to be on the rise. For example, Carol
Lederman reports such an experience during her investigation
of a Malay shamanic ritual. She found Malays reluctant to talk
about their experiences of the Inner Winds during trance states.
"They told me that the only way I could know would be to ex
perience it myself" (Lederman 1988:805). Eventually, her sha
man/teacher sat her down and began a ritual that led to her
PSYCHIC ENERGY & TRANS PERSONAl EXPERIENCE 101
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 4/36
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 5/36
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 6/36
gaging cogmtlOn, cogmtlOn ~ c t i v e l y engaging perception. Cog
nized reality is thus in part an entrainment of cognitive and
perceptual networks which is designed to portray an unfolding
world of experience to the organism. The functional space within
which cognition and perception are combined into a unitary ex
perience is the sensorium.
A significant feature of sensorial activity is that it normally
forms a total field of experience as it unfolds each and every
moment. Perception does operate to differentiate percepts, at
tentional structure operates to assure a point of view, and cog
nition may perform operations upon percepts, but the world of
experience tends to remain "stuck together" within sensorialspace.5
Dots: the basic unit of experience
There is another significant feature of sensorial activity that is
a bit tricky to talk about, for it may seem contrary to naive
introspection. This is one reason that evidence derived fromtrans personal introspection is so important to our work. Most
westerners, including most scientists, are very poor pheno-
menologists. They are not trained to anything like the level of
transpersonal sophistication to be found in certain other cultural
traditions. As noted earlier, the mature contemplative is a "state
specific" scientist who has undergone training sufficient to ex
amine the internal features of his or her own mentation while
exercising an uncommon degree of tranquility and vigilance.It seems apparent to the mature contemplative that experience
ar.ising within the sensorium is comprised of innumerable, al
most infinitesimal and momentary particles ("sparks," yods, bin-
dus). This is because the process of contemplation inevitably
leads to the lodging of awareness in the ongoing present moment
with a dropping away of anticipatory cognitive processes (the
"future" component of cognition) and of memory of cognitive
processes (the "past" component of cognition).6 What is left isan intense awareness of, and perhaps absorption in, the pheno-
menological components of experience. These particles manifest
and dissolve in epochs, and epochs in temporospatially compact
series ("heaps," "chunks") that are recognized as objects (see Ma
hathera Nanarama 1983). This fact is commonly missed to naive
introspection simply because people are not trained to concen-
trate upon the mechanisms of their own perception; as it were,
to perform a "phenomenological reduction" (Husserl 1960; Mer-
104 CHARLES D. LAUGHLIN, JR.
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 7/36
leau-Ponty 1962:xi). But with training, it is quite easy to become
aware of the activity of these tiny and momentary sensory events
and their organization into cognitions. They are found to com-
o prise phenomena in all sensory modes, and are especially easy
to confirm as the building blocks of objects and movements in
the visual field. Labeling these particles of experience after their
visual form, I will call them sensorial dots.
Thus, the sensorium is experienced as a field of dots that is
perceptually and cognitively distinguished into sensory modes,
and within sensory modes into distinct forms and events. The
basic act of perception is the abstraction and reinforcement of
invariant features in the unfolding field of dots (see Gibson 1969,
1979). It is the job of the sensorium to portray an internalized
world of phenomena by ordering dots into recognizable configu
rations. The notion of dots is thus equivalent to Lonergan's
(1958:442) concept of "prime potency." Potency is the raw "ma
terial" of direct experience that is to be known, Husserl's "life
world." As such, potency exists as a set of primitive limitations
upon form and action. Thus, prime potency is "the potency of
the lowest level that provides the principle of limitation for the
whole range of proportionate being" (Lonergan 1958:442). Dots
are the prime potency of the cognized world without the mani
festation of which the whole intricate fabric of form, anticipation
and action would cease.
Where our construction differs from the many Eastern cos
mological and Western philosophical notions of a fundamental
particle is that we make no claims about the constitution of ob
jects in the world apart from perception of them.7 Furthermore,
experience is comprised of dots whether or not the stimulus
triggering neurocognitive processes is external or internal to the
organism. Both the perception of a car "out there" and a car
"in a dream" involve the forming of phenomena within a field
of dots. The field of dots in perception is analogous to the par
ticles that make up the image on a TV screen, or in a newspaper
photo.
We are ordinarily not aware of these particles, but they are
there. to be seen if we look for them. Dots are introspective
events that are momentary to perception, and yet which contrib
ute to much more enduring events such as forms, patches of
color, textures, etc. It is apparent to the contemplative mind that
all verbalized thoughts, images, percepts, and even perceptual
space, the edges of forms, and colors in all hues (including black)
are comprised of dots. Yet dots are seen to have no permanent
form or enduring substance. They are transitory, impermanent,
PSYCHIC ENERGY & TRANSPERSONAl EXPERIENCE 105
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 8/36
and without stable structure, but are vibrant, scintillating, and
alive. They provide the finest grade of sensorial "texture" of
which awareness is capable of resolving within any sense modal
ity.It is true to say that without dots there can be no phenomenal
form, and that there are phases of consciousness in which the
only awareness of form is awareness of a field of dots. There
are also phases of consciousness that transcend awareness of dots
and dot-comprised form, but this is. a matter beyond the scope
of the present discussion.
Psychic energy
The word "energy" derives from the Greek energeia which means
"activity," the concatenation of the two roots en, "in," plus ergon;;
·"work"· or "action." And, of course, the word "psychic" comes
from the Greek psyche which means soul or mind, and which is
also associated with the principle of life, or breath. Thus the
term "psychic energy" connotes the activity of (or occurringwithin) consciousness, mind or soul. Operationalizing the term
within the present transpersonal framework, we may say that
psychic energy refers to the experience of the activity of dots within the
sensorium. The direct perception of psychic energy, as usually
described in higher psychic energy experiences, may be inter
preted as the perception of the movement, unfoldment, trans
formation or flow of dots and patterns of dots in consciousness,
whether or not the existence of dots per se is recognized by theperceiver.
;7 It is presumed in this definition that the activity of a field of
dots is a pan-human universal. It is universal because the physi
ological structure of the sensoria and perceptual systems of all
humans is the same. As a pan-human universal, the activity of
fields of dots comprising the experiential component of cog
nized reality will produce a recognizable pattern in the reports
ofintrospection
cross-culturally.This presumption amounts to
astrong form of W.T. Stace's (1960:29) "principle of causal indif
ference":
The principle of causal indifference is this: If X has an
alleged mystical experience PI and Y has an alleged mys
tical experience P2, and if the phenomenological charac
teristics of PI entirely resemble the phenomenological char
acteristics of P2 so far as can be ascertained from the de-
106 CHARLES D. LAUGHLIN, JR.
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 9/36
scriptions given by X and Y, then the two experiences can
not be regarded as being of two different kinds.
But methods ofcross-cultural
comparison must besensItIveto the invariance embedded in the seemingly variant, culture
specific, traditional modes of symbolic expression.8 In short,
there is the immediate perception of sensorial events, and "there
is the interpretation of them vis-a.-vis traditional symbolism and
cosmological understanding (Stace 1960:31); and of course there
is the interaction between the two.
EXPERIENCING THE DUMO "HEAT"
The Tibetan tantric Buddhist conception of the psychophysical
body is similar to that of the Hindu view. The body is made up
of a system of channels (Skt.: nadi; Tib.: rtsa ) through which
psychic energy passes. This psychic energy (Skt.: prana; Tib.: sugs)
may be experienced as breath and as psychic heat, or dumo
(Tib.: gtum-ma; see Govinda 1969 [1960]:137-186; Evans-Wentz
1958:172-208; Chang 1963:55-81 for discussions of dumo). Psy
chic energy, and thus dumo, may be experienced as concentrat
ing upon distinct centers in the body, the so-called chakras. Rec
ognizing that the work of contemplation requires energy, there
are ritual techniques for generating and distributing psychic en
ergy in the form of dumo for the purpose of energizing contem
plation. In other words, the minds tate requisite to mature con
templation (Skt.: mahamudra; Tib.: phyag-rgya-chen-pa; a term used
both for the work of contemplation and the realization of the
Void, or sunyata, Tib.: stan-pa-nid; see Wang-ch'uk Dorje 1978) is
only possible when the psychic energy is active and appropriately
distributed throughout the psychophysical body. When the ener
gies are thus active and appropriately distributed, the minds tate
of the mature contemplative spontaneously arises.
In the discussion that follows, I will be mainly concerned with
the experience of dumo, and only indirectly with the appropriate
use of those energies to attain insights into the nature of mind,or the state of contemplation itself. However, I should emphasize
that in Tibetan Buddhism, as with all sects of Buddhism, the
transpersonal experiences that may accompany the generation
of dumo are not the goal of the practice and, if made the goal
and thereafter clung to, are considered hindrances of the worst
kind relative to the real goal, the realization of mature contem
plation.
PSYCHIC ENERGY & TRANSPERSONAl EXPERIENCE 107
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 10/36
Dumo techniques
T h ~ r e are specific ritual practices in Tibetan tantric Buddhism
designed to evoke experiences of psychic heat. What follows isa considerably simplified _ ersion of the yoga of psychic heat.
The practitioner is directed to sit quietly and calm the mind,
and then to imagine the body as an empty vessel. He then v i s ~ alizes an energy center located in the area of the navel (Skt.:
manipura; Tib.: lte-bahi hkhor-lo). He visualizes a small but intense
flame in the navel center and then imagines a drop or radiant
bubble in the energy center located at the crown of the head
(Skt.: sahasrara-padma; Tib.: hdab-ston). While doing breathing exercises designed to bring the breath down through the two main
side channels (Skt.: ida and pingala) to feed the flame in the
navel center, the practitioner imagines the flame entering the
central channel (Skt.: susumna; Tib.: dbu-ma rtsa). The flame
starts out as a thin thread of iridescence and then becomes more
intense as the breathing continues to fan it . It becomes larger
and longer until it reaches the crown center. The flame melts
the drop in the crown center which becomes a bliss-nectar that
flows down to permeate the entire body. The flame also is imag
ined to fill the entire body. Awareness of the body is eventually
lost and all of consciousness is a sea cif dumo. The kinds of
experiences that arise doing this meditative work may also arise
spontaneously, or during other meditation practices, especially
those involving the visualization of central channel or energy
center images.
DU}JlO experiences.v
Wind is mind moving.
Breath is the inner wind.
I am fearful of movement,
Of change.
I scream at the wind!
Wind passes me by,
Too pure for comment.
By author
Numerous visual images have spontaneously appeared during my
practice of dumo or related meditations. My impression from
discussions with other meditators is that some meditators are
108 CHARLES D. LAUGHLIN, JR.
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 11/36
more susceptible to experiencing these images than are others,
but that among those that do experience them, their motifs are
frequently universal.9 Those suggesting energy centers include a
sphere floating in space, suns radiating energy, and spinning
planets with Satumian rings. Those suggesting movement of en
ergy through channels include a radiant sun over a torrential
waterfall, tubes spewing smoke, bubbles or streams of energy.
Any of these may be experienced as inside or outside of the
body. For example, the body may be perceived as an image of
myriad tubes through which pass energies moving away from or
toward radiant spheres, spinning spoked' wheels or planets lo
cated up and down the central channel.One of the earliest and most profound experiences I had of
psychic energy was during a weekend "loving kindness" retreat
in 1979. Part of the work was to imagine a rose in the heart
region while repeating the famous mantrum, Om Mani Padme
Hum, associated with the deity, Chenrezig. Numerous visual im
ages spontaneously arose during this retreat, including a rose
colored sun emitting radiant rays of rose-colored light, two rose
colored planes, one above me and one below, formed by conjoined bubbles, a bush sprouting innumerable red roses, blue
tubes spewing rose energy, and a long lake between mountain
peaks with a golden mountain at the end of the lake.
At one point while in a steady state of absorption and blissful
peace, the image of a beautiful blond female figure dressed in
a red schift appeared walking away from me in my left visual
field. At first, I intended to ignore her as I routinely did with
all other distractions from the object of my meditation, but thenI intuited that "she" was an archetypal expression of my "anima"
(the Jungian term for a male's female aspect). So I sent her a
blast of loving feeling visualized as a laser beam of rose-colored
light emanating from my heart. Both the figure and my bodily
self-awareness instantly exploded -into a rapidly expanding sphere
of rose-colored energy. Within a split second, my consciousness
was in a state of intense absorption upon boundless space filled
with pulsing, shimmering rose-colored particles and ecstatic bliss.There then followed the eruption of a soundless scream and
another energy explosion from the depths of my being that cul
minated in the awareness of the visual image of a tunnel or birth
canal. When corporeal awareness gradually returned, I spent a
couple of hours in complete tranquility, either contemplating the
essential attributes of mind, or in absorption upon this or that
symbol as it arose before the mind's eye.
PSYCHIC ENERGY & TRANS PERSONAl EXPERIENCE 109
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 12/36
A similar experience led to what I came to call the Rue
d'Ecole insight, named for the fact that it occurred while I was
meditating in a small hotel on that street in Paris. I had beendoing breathing meditation and had shifted to meditating on
the myriad sounds around me. In a sudden shift of conscious-
ness, I became aware that the entire sensorium - and not just
the visual sense - is made up of particles. Sight, sound, touch,
taste, feeling, pain emotion, somesthesis, all of these are the way
the mind has of chopping up an essentially undifferentiated field
of dots (remember that I have generalized the concept of "dot"
to all sensory modes). The entire world of phenomena became
a single monad of vibrant sensation. Only much later did I learn
that this experience has been called the coincidentia oppositorum
in the Western mystical tradition.
I discovered early in the dumo work that the practice was
associated with increased sexual arousal. Feelings of lust would
increase in both waking and dream states. I began to understand
why psychic energy is often called "psychosexual" energy or "li
bido." There came a point in the work, however, when I discov
ered that the energy activated in the central channel could be
willfully switched from a lateral, outward direction which was
experienced as sexual arousal to an ascending direction which
was experienced as intense, but non-sexual bliss. I eventually
learned during dumo practice to rapidly flip the direction back
and forth so that one moment I was sexually aroused and the
next in a tranquil, centered, and blissful state. The energy in the
central channel felt much like a hot fluid that was being shunted
one way or the other at a "valve" or juncture in the system of
channels. I realized that this experience accounted for why Ti
betan yogis equate semen with the ascending fiery energy of
dumo. It also became apparent why Freud initially conceived of
the libido in sexual terms and later as referring to the entire
field of life energy.
Practice of dumo often led to an expanding and focusing of
consciousness. The energies in the navel region would initially
ascend into the head and the entire sensorium would seem to
catch fire and discorporate into its constituent dots. This was
always associated with intense rapture. Then as this intense ex
perience subsided, the entire field of consciousness would have
expanded and at the same time cleared of discursive thought,
fantasy, desire, and other distractions. Subsequently, and for
some period of time, the mind was free of distractions and could
focus upon any object it desired to contemplate (an idea, a ques
tion, an image, an aspect of the sensorium, etc.). Concentration
110 CHARLES O. LAUGHLIN, JR.
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 13/36
was exceptional and there was a free flow of insight related to
whatever was the object of meditation. As a consequence of many
such expeJ;"iences, I recognize the essential similarity of these
with the !Kia experience described by Katz (1976; 1982) for the
Bushmen of southern Africa.
PSYCHIC ENERGY AND HIGHER PHASES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Although psychic energy as defined here is apparent in a quite
ordinary way and at any time to mature contemplation, I am
primarily interested in certain regularities in the reported experiences of psychic energy had while practitioners in various cul
tures are in what they report to be extraordinary phases of con
sciousness (or "trance"). As I have described for my own expe
riences with dumo practice, these experiences are frequently
dramatic in description and exhibit a number of invariant fea
tures which should hold for cross-cultural comparison. The
reader should, however, remain aware that we· label these
"higher" phases only because they are coded as such in theirrespective traditions. We make no claim that such dramatic ex
periences are in fact the highest form of mystical experience -
indeed, there are mystical traditions such as Zen and Tibetan
mahamudra that code such dramatic experiences as major hin
drances on the path to mature spiritual awakening and associate
them with low level awareness and immaturity, the healing or
untangling of "energy blocks," and even neurosis. These tradi
tions would hold that the very dramatic quality of these experiences signals the fact that the practitioner is spiritually off-bal
ance relative to the goal of perfect awakening - a view inciden
tally with which C.G. Jung would have agreed. But it is again
beyond the scope of this paper to discuss these issues.
Flow
The experience of a greater flow of energy in the body/sen-
sorium seems to be an inevitable consequence of the exercise
of sustained concentration, be that upon a physical task such as
racing, dancing, swimming, and the like, or upon some object
of contemplation:
Flow is the holistic sensation present when we act with total
involvement, a state in which action follows action accord-
PSYCHIC ENERGY & TRANS PERSONAl EXPERIENCE 111
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 14/36
ing to an internal logic, with no apparent need for con
scious intervention on our part. Flow is experienced in play
and sport, in artistic performance and religious 'ritual.
There is no dualism in flow. . . . Flow is made possible by
a centering of attention on a limited stimulus field, by
means of bracketing, framing and often a set of rules.
There is a loss of ego, the self becomes irrelevant. Flow is
an inner state so enjoyable that people sometimes forsake
a comfortable life for its sake.
(Turner 1979:154; see also Csikskentmihalyi 1975)
Flow is an experience that may be associated with the unfet
tered release of all bodily and mental tension. Total flow is the
experiential polar opposite of total; "up-tight" stress. Depending
upon how blocked the energy resources are under stress condi
tions, flow mayor may not involve the experience of a marked
release or upsurge of energy which may be interpreted at the
time as "floating," "bliss," "ecstasy," "exhilaration," etc. Full flow
may be characterized by the cessation of verbal chatter and fan
tasy. Consciousness is notably clear of worry, defensiveness and
ego-centeredness. Entering flow is commonly reported to be like
"breaking through" to another plane of consCiousness, as "attain
ing one's second wind," and as if the "bottom had fallen out
from under" the normal range of consciousness. During the ex
perience of full-on flow, there may be a sense of access to an
endless source of energy, and the awareness of bodily movement
as smooth, effortless and blissful (Csikskentmihalyi 1975).
Cemeredness
A more refined, and presumably more advanced, form of flow
involves the movement of energy toward (or into) or away from
(or out of) the central axis1 0 of the body. The centering of bodily
energy in a vertical axis may be experienced directly as bodily
(i.e., proprioceptive) sensations and symbolically in visual im-110
. . .h f ·agery. ne may see In a VISIOn t e movement 0 energy In a
central tube or shaft, the trunk of a tree, a vertical stream of
water, etc. The sensations of energy movement ("bliss") may ra
diate outwards to encompass the entire body, even the entire
perceptual world. The variations are endless, and undoubtedly
are related to the axis mundi motif in cosmological myth (Eliade
1964).
112 CHARLES D. LAUGHLIN, JR.
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 15/36
Circul(]tion
Centered psychic energy is often ·experienced circulating
around the. body axis, and often concentrated at one or morepoints along the axis. The classic example of circulating, concen
trated energy is the chakra, a Hindu term that literally ~ e a n s "wheel" (Kakar 1982: 201; see also discussion below). Again, a
discrete center of psychic energy may be experienced somaes
thetically as a sensation of heat, bliss or movement at a particular
place in the body, and symbolically as .a scintillating bubble or
sphere, a rotating wheel, ball of fire, "space station," lotus or
other flower, rings around a planet-like sphere, etc. Referencesto "circulation of light" within the body and cosmos to be found
in the ancient Chinese meditation text, The Secret of the Golden
Flower (Wilhelm 1962), would seem to provide one example of
such experiences.
Circulation of energy may be experienced as moving centri
fugally away from the center, or centripetally toward the center
(Woodroffe 1974:7). The center may feel like a spot of intensely
hot and blissful energy that is radiating outwards from the bodyand into the world. One may perceive a radiant "sun," "moon,"
or other astronomical body emitting rays of light outwards into
the world. On the other hand, one may feel energy moving in
wards and concentrating upon a particular spot in the body. One
may see the image of an inwardly spiraling vortex of light, per
haps condensing at a particular spot.
Ascending (]nd Descending
I t is not uncommon for the report of centeredness to emphasize
the ascending and descending direction of energy flow. Energy
may be experienced as originating from below and moving up
the body axis, originating above and moving down the axis, or
both. Once again, the experience may be somaesthetically one
of a flow of energy from above or below, producing bliss or
ecstasy in the body. The experience may also have a visual com
ponent such as radiant light from a source above or below (see
Eliade 1965; Bucke 1961 for various descriptions), a waterfall
down the central visual field, a shaft of light, tube of flowing
particles, movement of a mist or cloud of energy, movement of
consciousness up or down a shaft, stairwell or hole, etc. Move
ment of energy up and down the central axis is frequently asso
ciated with emotional outbursts and the spontaneous release of
PSYCHIC ENERGY & TRANS PERSONAl EXPERIENCE 113
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 16/36
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 17/36
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 18/36
expressive 'mode) will be determined by various factors, including
whether or not the process is conscious, the perceptual frame
of reference in which the symbol is embedded, the intensity of
evocation, the state of arousal of the organism, the duration of
peripheral stimulation, the degree of novelty involved, and so
on. The range of intentionality to which a symbol or sensorial
field may penetrate is vast and multileveled. Yet it is a process
integral to the functioning of the human nervous system and is
a principal mechanism by means of which different parts of the
organism communicate with one another.
Symbolic processing is often completely internal to the physi-
ology of an organism. The organism is a community of cells
organized into multiple physiological systems and into multiple
levels of hierarchy. And these various somatic systems must com-
municate with each other in order that their discrete functions
remain organized in a manner that maintains their adaptation
within the context of the activities of the organism as a whole.
The nervous system is only one system in the body, and it carries
out its activities in intimate concert with other physiological sys-
tems. The brain acts by moving muscles, it is fed by metabolic
processes and the circulatory system, and it controls many vital
functions by regulating endocrine activities and hormone levels
in the body.
This intimate entrainment between the nervous system and
other somatic systems, and between one neural system and an-
other, entails penetration. That is, the activities of one system
produce effects upon another system. For example, a disorder
in the colon may produce generator potentials in nociceptors inthat organ that in turn penetrate into the central nervous system,
ana the organism experiences abdominal pain. The effect pro-
duced by one system upon another will not be the same as the
change of state in the original system. The change of state of
system B will be only partially isomorphic with the change in
system A that produced it. This is because each system must
manifest its responses to inputs in keeping with its own unique
organization. A change of state in some somatic system pene-trating to, say, the visual cortex can only produce a visual effect.
Thus, although the systems of the body intimately interpene-
trate via entrainment of their functions, the effects they produce
upon each other vary with the particular functional organization
of the systems involved. We can say, therefore, that a morpho-
genesis (a change in form or organization) occurring in one so-
matic system may produce a morphogenesis in other somatic
systems, but that the various changes of state are only partially
116 CHARLES 0, LAUGHLIN, JR.
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 19/36
isomorphic with each other. Penetration between the various
parts and levels of the body may therefore be said to result in
"homeomorphogenesis." 14
Symbolism and Homeomorphogenesis
Homeomorphogenic interactions between entrained neurocogni
tive systems, or between neurocognitive systems and other so
matic systems, can have an expressive, symbolic quality when any
of the neurocognitive systems involved mediate sensorial events.
A quite common situation is one in which a transformation ina s'omatic system that does not mediate experience produces a
transformation in a neural network that does mediate experi
ence. In this case, the sensorial event may be understood as a
symbolic expression of the other non-sensorial somatic event.
For example, the colonic disorder mentioned above produces
the experience of pain. The pain is not the disorder, but rather
signals the disorder. A physician may palpate the abdomen and
ask for reports of any overly sensitive spots. Healers in all cul
tures use experiential events to diagnose the causes of disease,
causes that are usually unconscious to the patient. Diagnosis,
whether by self or healer, is always an interpretive process be
cause of the homeomorphogenic relationship between the dis
order and the symbolic expression of the disorder in experience.
The integrative mode is equally important to our discussion
in that a sensorial system may produce a non-sensorial effect
upon some other somatic system. For example, one can elicit a
stress response from various bodily systems by merely imagining
a dangerous, shocking, or painful experience. One may suddenly
imagine cutting one's finger and evoke motoric and endocrine
activities appropriate to actually cutting a finger. Many societies
utilize symbolic means in healing under the presumption that
in some manner or other the symbols penetrate to the disorder
and effect a cure.
The usual state of affairs is a continuous feedback interaction
between sensorial neural and non-sensorial neural and somatic
systems. Causality is usually systemic and thus recursive - oper
ating in both directions. But emphasis will be laid here upon
which system initiates the interaction, for it has much to do with
the role played by the symbolic process in cognition. It is thus
fair to ask whether the symbol is an expression of unconscious
processes in the organism, or whether the symbol is the pene
trator to unconscious processes. This bidirectional communica-
PSYCHIC ENERGY & TRANSPERSONAl EXPERIENCE 117
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 20/36
tion between discrete systems is crucial to the maintenance of
whatever degree of fragmentation or integration of systems is
characteristic of any particular individual. Much of the 'intent of
the Tibetan tantric system is to evoke integrative homeomorpho
genesis during the process' of maturation.
TUNING THE ERGOTROPIC AND TROPHOTROPIC SYSTEMS
We agree with]. Davidson (1976:359; see also Fischer 1971) that
there exists only one theoretical formulation in the
neurosciences that can effectively be used to account for the
experiences that arise in meditation and higher experiences of
psychic energy.I5 That perspective is Gellhorn's theory of auto
nomic-somatic integration (Gellhorn 1967; Gellhorn and Loof
bourrow 1963; see Lex 1979 for a summary). According to Gell
horn's model, the somatic system that controls the distribution
and utilization of metabolic energy in the body is comprised of
two complementary (sometimes antagonistic) systems, each of
which entrains functions located in cortex, core brain, lower
autonomic and somatic structures. One system is called the er
gotropic system and the other the trophotropic system.
The Ergotropic System
The ergotropic system subserves our so-called fight or flight re
sponses; that is, the physiological components of our adaptationstrategies to desirable or noxious stimuli in the environment.
Matomically, the ergo ropic system incorporates the functions
of the sympathetic nervous system (one-half of the autonomic
nervous system), certain of the endocrine glands, portions of the
reticular activating system in the brain stem, the posterior hypo
thalamus, and portions of the limbic system and frontal cortex.
The principle function of the ergotropic system is the control
of short-range, moment-by-moment adaptation to events in theenvironment. It is designed to come into play when the possibil
ity of responding to stimuli arises. It is so constructed as to shunt
the body's metabolic energy away from long-range developmental
activities and into initiating and carrying out action in the world
directed either at acquisition or avoidance of stimuli of interest
to the organism.
Under generalized ergotropic arousal, a number of organic
responses may be experienced, including shivering, constriction
11 B CHARlES D. LAUGHLIN, JR.
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 21/36
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 22/36
TABLE 1: ASummary of Some Functions of the Trophotropic and
Ergotropic Systems
TROPHOTROPIC SYSTEM
Storage of vital resources.
Digestion and distribution
of nutriments.
Bronchi leading to lungs
constricted and coated
with mucus.
Heart rate and blood
pressure reduced
Collection of waste
by-products.
Constriction of pupils.
None.
Synchronized EEG.
r i ~ c t i o n of penis and
clitoris.
Increased salivation.
Respiration slower
and deeper.
120 CHARLES D. lAUGHLIN, JR.
ERGOTROPIC SYSTEM
Expenditure of vital
resources.
Digestion stopped.
Bronchi opened.
Heart rate and blood pressure
increased
Endocrine system releases
chemicals that increase
efficiency of muscles.
Dilation of pupils.
Erection of body hair.
Desynchronized EEG
Ejaculation.
Decreased salivation.
Respiration faster and
shallower.
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 23/36
patterns (indicating harmonized higher cortical functions). Re
laxation (reduced arousal) and its c;oncomitants are commonly
associated .either with disinterest in events in the environment,
or with dispassionate concentration upon some object. Judg
ments as to desirability or undesirability of the object are sus
pended. The relaxed person is typically experiencing a comfort
able, warm, womb-like indifference to, or enjoyment of, the en
vironment. The fundamental function of relaxation is' perhaps
less obvious than that of ergotropic arousal, but is nonetheless
crucial to the survival of the organism. It is mainly during re
laxation, and particularly during undisturbed sleep, that the body
processes nutrients and uses these to repair itself and grow. Inother words, when the body is not finding food and avoiding
becoming food (ergotropic reactivity), it is reconstructing and
developing itself (trophotropic reactivity).
Complementorily
The ergo ropic and trophotropic systems have often been described as "antagonistic" to each other. This means that the in
creased activity of the one system tends to produce a decreased
activity in the other. This is the case because each system is
physically designed to inhibit the functioning of the other under
most circumstances. If a person gets excited about something
(angry, anxious, afraid, strongly desirous, etc.) the ergotropic sys-
tem not only produces the requisite physiological, emotional and
behavioral responses, it also puts a damper (via reciprocal inhibition) on the trophotropic system which was previously subserv
ing digestion and other metabolic activities. Likewise, when a
person relaxes (say, after a heavy meal), the trophotropic system
actively dampens the activity of the ergotropic system. A sum
mary of the reciprocal functions of the two systems may be stud
ied in Table 1.
The relationship between the two systems would be better
described as complementary, rather than antagonistic, for eachserves the short- and long-range well-being of the organism. It
is really a matter of the balance of functions, the trophotropic
system maintaining the homeostatic balance so necessary for
health and growth while the ergotropic system facilitates the mo
ment-to-moment adaptation of the organism to its environment.
As such, they are not anatomical mirror images of each other.
The "wiring" of the ergotropic system is designed to arouse the
entire body forpotential.
responseto
threat. Under normalcon-
PSYCHIC ENERGY & TRANSPERSONAl EXPERIENCE 121
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 24/36
ditions, . when the ergotropic system is activated, the entire
body/mind become aroused. Properly functioning, it is a turned
on/turned-off kind of system. By comparison, the tr6photropic
system is "wired" for the fine tuning of organs in relation to
each other as the demands of internal maintenance shift and
change. Its 'resources can be activated for one organ or body
part, or it can turn on globally as during sleep when the entire
skeletal musculature is "turned off."
The point to emphasize is that whereas the trophotropic sys-
tem is designed for continuous activity, the ergotropic system is
designed for sporadic activity. We are "wired" for short, infre
quent bursts of adaptive activity interspersed with relativelylonger durations of rest, recuperation and growth. Prolonged
ergotropic reactivity may cause depletion of vital resources
stored up by the trophotropic system in various organs, and may
cause fatigue, shock, body damage, and, in extreme cases, death
(Selye 1956; Antonovsky 1979).
Tuning.
The particular balance of ergo ropic and trophotropic activities
under particular environmental circumstances is susceptible to
learning, and there is evidence that their characteristic balance
under stress is established as early as pre- and perinatal life. The
learned (conditioned) ergotropic-trophotropic balance relative to
any environmental stimulus is called tuning (Gellhorn 1967:110
ff).16 When we say that someone "gets up-tight around authorityfigures," we are referring in part to a discrete ergotropic-trophot
:topic tuning relative to people in authority. Or i f we say that
someone "calmed down when he got a back rub," we are refer
ring to a different discrete tuning relative to being stroked.
A learned change in the characteristic ergotropic-trophotropic
balance relative to a stimulus is called retuning (Gellhorn 1967).
Events like football games, rock concerts and combat patrols that
previously elicited excitement (ergotropic reactivity) may afterretuning be met with a relaxed response (trophotropic reactivity).
Some authorities have argued that ritual control of ergotropic
trophotropic balance forms a basis for primitive healing tech
niques and for evoking alternative phases of consciousness (Gell
horn and Kiely 1972; Lex 1979). There are a number of ways
that ergotropic-trophotropic retuning may be accomplished:
122 CHARlES D. LAUGHLIN, JR.
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 25/36
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 26/36
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 27/36
in other instances produce metabolic events in the body. One
feels pain when a finger is cut, but one can also produce somatic
. responses characteristic of injury by merely vividly imagining a
cut finger. The causality between sensorial and non-sensorial somatic events is interactional.
Furthermore, the sensorium, like the rest of the nervous sys
tem, participates in the ergotropic-trophotropic balance. That is,
the sensorium registers somatic events energized by the bicam
eralergotropic-trophotropic system, and is thus a part of their
organization. Simply put, an excited somatic system produces an
excited consciousness, and vice versa. A calm consciousness is
mediated by a calm body. There is no such thing as a calm mindin an excited body. When tuning is in favor of trophotropic ac
tivity, this activity includes a predominance of trophotropic ac
tivity within the sensorium. The same may be said for predomi
nantly ergotropic tuning. An ergotropically tuned sensorium may
be a welter of rapid, even confused, thoughts, sensations and
images, whereas a trophotropically tuned sensorium may be fairly
clear, even blank.
HIGHER PSYCHIC ENERGY EXPERIENCES
Homeomorphogenic relations between sensorial and non-senso
rial ergotropic-trophotropic events hold as well for higher phases
of consciousness and experiences of psychic energy encountered
during them. From the model presented above, we may hypothe
size four categories of ergotropic-trophotropic events and theirsensorial concomitants that may occur during extraordinary
phases of consciousness:
1. Hyper-trophotropic tuning
Trophotropic activity is tuned exceptionally high resulting in an
extraordinary state of relaxation. This happens of course in nor
mal sleep, but may paradoxically occur during meditative statesaccompanied by keen alertness and vigilance. In extreme form,
hyper-trophotropic tuning may be experienced as a sense of oce
anic tranquility and peace in which no thoughts or fantasies in
trude upon consciousness and no bodily sensations are felt. The
meditator feels like he is floating on a calm and waveless sea.
In Buddhist psychology such a state might be termed "access
concentration" (upacara samadhi).
PSYCHIC ENERGY & TRANS PERSONAl EXPERIENCE 125
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 28/36
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 29/36
dancing of the !Kung Bushman adept which brings about the
arising and ascension of enhanced psychic energy (n/um) may
be interpreted as an example of hyper-ergotropic activity driven
by rhythmic motor activity, resulting (under proper conditions)
in a trophotropic eruption during which the !Kia minds tate
arises. The dancing is a bottom-up driver, as it is operating in
itially upon the lowest level of ergo ropic-trophotropic hierarchy.
Another common bottom-up driver is fasting, a practice often
preceding or accompanying other more active ritual procedures
(e.g., North American Indian vision quests). Fasting is known
not only to reduce caloric and other nutriments available to cells,
but also to decrease the amount of important hormones such asT3 in the blood, as well as their receptor cell sensitivity, thus
providing a probable mechanism of energy conservation
(Schussler and Orlando 1978). Fasting may thus be interpreted
as a bottom-up driver of trophotropic activity, for it tends to
have a tranquilizing effect upon the body.
The two systems may be driven as well from the top down.
This is frequently accomplished by concentrating upon imagery,
which we have already noted may produce an increase or a decrease in somatic arousal, depending upon the content. Pro
longed and intense meditation ("devotion") upon a lotus above
the head, or upon a Sacred Heart in the chest, may first result
in an ever more enhanced concentration leading to hyper-tro
photropic activity, and under the proper conditions, to an ergo
tropic discharge - perhaps a minor discharge at one or another
of the sympathetic plexes, or a full-on discharge throughout the
system as described in Pandit Krishna's "kundalini awakening"in the Hindu tradition (see also Woodroffe 1974; MookeIjee
1982; Prabhavananda 1963; Sarandananda 1978; Vivekananda
1982) or St. Margaret Mary Alacoque's (Tickell 1869) sustained
"rapture" in the Christian tradition (see also Stierli 1957 on St.
Catherine of Siena; Herambourg 1960 on St. John Eudes; Anony
mous 1871 on St. Gertrude; and Jeremy 1962 on St. Mechthild
and St. Gertrude).
CONCENTRATION AND THE PRINCIPLE OF HOMEOMORPHOGENIC
RECRUITMENT
Psychic energy is usually felt as bodily sensations, or "seen" as
visions of energy flows as described above. Occasionally, there
may be auditory or other sensory modal components to the ex
perience. The point to emphasizeis
that the sensorial compo-
PSYCHIC ENERGY & TRANS PERSONAL EXPERIENCE 127
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 30/36
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 31/36
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 32/36
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 33/36
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 34/36
again, an empirical concept. The bindu is directly experienceabie
- at least by yogis - as the building block of phenomena from
the most gross object such as a table or a planet to the ~ o s t sub
tle like the breath or spirit.
Empirical dots and theoretical "atoms" are undoubtedly at least
partially linked. Indeed, we suspect that early atomist theories in
Western metaphysics and science, as well as eastern ontologies,
are examples of projection by inquiring minds of their own essen
tial organization upon the world. The notion of something like
the monad as the ultimate building block of the world goes back
to the early Greeks, and is specifically referenced by that term in
metaphysics in the 18th century by Leibnitz in his Principles of Na-
ture and Grace. Many philosophers over the centuries (e.g., Kant,
Husserl, and Whitehead) have developed monadologies. The term
"monad" derives originally from the Greek root meaning "one" or
"unit," and is used in most cases to refer to a simple, irreducible
particle of reality from which all composite things in the universe
are constructed. The monad is frequently conceived as a source of
power in its own right, and, as in the case of Whitehead's "actual
entity," a point of consciousness.
The concept of monad seems closer to a mental particle than,
say, the notions of atom or molecule, but it is usually not clear
(and this is the crucial point to me) to what extent the monad is
intended in these philosophies either as an empirical, descriptive
term, or strictly to apply to consciousness rather than the whole
universe. The "atomistic" views of pre-Socratic Greek philosophers
like Heraclitus and Empedocles were almost certainly partly based
upon intense mystical introspection (see Edwards 1967:477 ff, 496
ff). Empedocles (a physician and in the latter part of his life a con-
;:firmed mystic) in particular saw the world of the senses as in con
stant change, being comprised of a perpetual remixing of tiny, per-
manent entities (Edwards 1967:497). However, the views of many
later philosophers such as Descartes, although also positing atomis
tic metaphysics, seem more based upon rational analysis than
upon introspection. A major difference between the early Greek
and later views of monads is that the early view - and the onemost akin to direct perception of dots by contemplatives -
stressed the active nature of these particles (often associated with
the subtle element fire), whereas most later philosophers took the
mechanical view of their nature (see Merchant 1980). An interest
ing exception was the seventeenth century philosopher Pierre Gas
sendi, who tried with some success to introduce the early Greek
conception of the atom as an active particle into science (Mer
chant 1980).
132 CHARlES D. lAUGHLIN, JR.
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 35/36
8. The author practiced one of the preliminary meditations (ngon
dro) carried out by Tibetan yogis which is termed dkyil-'khor, or
"mandala offering" (Beyer 1973:433ff). This practice involves the
construction of a mandalic form out of rice atop a round, mirror-
like surface and then wiping the surface clean. The yogi concen-
trates on the operation of assembling and disassembling the rice
form while repeating a chant that speaks of the construction of
the mystical cosmos surrounding the mythical Mount Sumeru.
This operation is repeated, often hours at a time, at least a hun-
dred thousand times during the basic introductory work prior to
advanced tantric practice (MacDonald, et al. 1988 for a more com
plete description of this practice). As with any meditation, many
experiences may arise during the course of this work. One of the
main insights that will inevitably arise is that the mirror practice
is a symbolic replica of the sensorium, and that the rice grains
are dots, the mandala the totality of forms that arise in the sen
sorium via the organization of dots, and the wiping clean of the
mirror is the flux of sensorial events, including the dots making
up the events. Full realization of the essential impermanence of
sensorial events is considered in some Buddhist traditions to be a
principal watershed in the psychological development of a being.
9. For a detailed discussion of the significance of these images, or
"universal signs," see Laughlin, McManus and d'Aquili 1990:200-
202.
ID.lt is interesting that the word "axis" comes from the Latin for
axle, thus denoting a center around which something turns.
11.The author had a relevant experience while participating in Mau
lave (Sufi dancing) in which the task was to spin around to music
while visualizing a central crystal-form axis running up the center
of the body and colorful energy streams flowing out of the
palms. There came a point in the dance when concentration be
came extremely intense and a shift of consciousness occurred dur
ing which energy seemed to center in that axis and the entire
world of phenomena seemed to be spinning around the center of
energy movement in the axis. This was associated with intense
and blissful energy movement in the axis. A moment later concen-
tration was broken by thoughts about the experience, and the
author fell down as a consequence.
PSYCHIC ENERGY & TRANSPERSONAl EXPERIENCE 133
8/6/2019 Laughlin Charles - Psychic Energy Trans Personal Experience - Dumo Yoga Practice
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/laughlin-charles-psychic-energy-trans-personal-experience-dumo-yoga-practice 36/36
12.The concept of symbolic penetration has been worked out with
great care. For further discussion see Laughlin and Stephens
1980; and Laughlin, McManus and d'Aquili 1990.
13. "Entrainment" is a technfcal term in neurophysiology referring to
the interconnection of different neural networks into a single func
tional array. Just like combining different railroad cars into a
train, different neural networks may be combined and recom-
bined to perform different functions.
14. Homeomorphogenesis is a neologism required by the fact that Icould find no currently used term in either systems theory or
mathematics, much less in the neurosciences, for the kind of rela
tion we wish to emphasize. The term combines the concept mor-
phogenesis out of certain biological formulations with the root ho-
meo- (as in the word "homeomorphic," meaning of similar form
or structure) to denote causally linked transformations of a simi
lar, but not exact, kind in two or more structures.
15. For a more complete critique of the psychophysiology of medita-
tion systems, see Laughlin, McManus and d'Aquili 1990:307-333.
16. Gellhorn and his associates have worked within the theoretical for
mulations first outlined by W.R. Hess (1925).