TASTE project

[Guest guest]

Further to the enquiry from Edith Tipple about the contributions

by lay people.

 

I am very pleased by his comments in the second paragraph.

Swami Vivekananda has indeed touched many hearts in the West!

I have been given permission to use any material from the TASTE site.

Attached at the bottom of this message is one very interesting experience

recorded by one young girl who later became a Physicist.

 

jay

 

 

Prof Tart's replied as under:-

 

-

 

Dear Jay,

 

Vera Lind passed along your query to me.

 

> if the proportional number of scientists who

>have had transcendent experiences is the same as the lay population?

 

I don't know if there is any relevant data on this

question. TASTE won't provide the answer, since

contributions are voluntary. It would take a large

scale survey, with representative samples of scientists

and the general population to come up with an answer.

Interesting question, though, even if unanswerable at

present.

 

We have an interesting connection, incidentally. Swami

Vivekananda's books were some of my first introductions

to eastern thought, and his argument that yoga was (or

could be) a science made a deep impression on me that

has influenced me throughout my career.

 

With best wishes,

 

Charley Tart

 

--

Charles T. Tart, Ph.D.

Professor, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Palo

Alto CA

Editor, The Archives of Scientists' Transcendent

Experiences

http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/tart/taste/

 

=========================================

 

We have been sending postings about Raja yoga.

We enclose one of the experiences recorded.

What this contributor is saying is very interesting and

relevant to the study of Raja yoga.

 

...............jay

 

==============================================

Knocking at the Door of Consciousness: Beam Me Up, Scotty!

Claudia A. Robinson

 

This experience occurred in ninth or tenth grade around age 16 in the school

year of 1976-77 or 1977-78. I had a free hour and was sitting in my science

teacher's office next to a large, solid oak table. I was alone in the room

and picked up a physics text book that I had not yet seen. I had not yet

taken physics in high school.

 

I browsed through the book from front to back in sequence, when I came

across a section on particles, and the scientist's quest for the smallest

particle was described.

 

This question: " What is the smallest particle? " intrigued me. I put the book

down on my lap and attempted to imagine what that would be. I sensed a

stirring of energy at the base of my spine. Directing my attention to that

while still holding the question, the energy surged up my spine into the

base of my skull. As it reached my head, I had the inspired insight that the

smallest particle isn't a particle at all! It is a concentrated bundle of

energy that is massless, without matter! All sorts of insights flowed from

that within a mere moment.

 

I realized that the solidness we attributed to the things around us and to

our bodies is an illusion. We are just collections of concentrated bundles

of energy, vibrating. It scared me to realize that with the appropriate

" resonance-laser " we could disintegrate any object into unconcentrated

energy. We are pure energy. The oak table in front of me was not as solid as

it appeared to be. Feeling increasingly unsteady I knocked on the table. I

almost feared my knuckles would just pass through it. But the sound of that

knock brought be back.

 

Continuing to browse the textbook, I found a section about Einstein and his

insight on photons. I almost jumped through the roof when I realized that

what he called " photons " is nothing else but concentrated, massless bundles

of energy, the very things I had just encountered in my experience.

 

 

Contributor's Comments on the Experience

 

This experience is what motivated me to study physics. From the start it was

an innate desire to learn intimately about Life and the Universe. I knew

that the approach at university was more of a technical- scientific nature

rather than the spiritual-philosophical approach I would have preferred. But

where in the world would I be able to expand on the kind of experience I had

that school day? I was quite willing to engage nonetheless as a way to learn

the basics. After a five year hiatus, I went to graduate school to continue

my studies in physics. It was then that I entered a crisis where I realized

that I could no longer approach my quest in this way. I was wilting

psychologically, emotionally and spiritually. I had to leave physics as it

is conventionally practiced and renew my quest through a more contemplative

approach. I did nonetheless graduate with a masters degree in physics.