The Religion Behind the Scenes

• The Religion Behind the Scenes
  • Why is there religion?
  • Conscious States / Mystical Experiences
    • Insights
    • Opening "Critical Periods" of Learning
    • Strange Experiences to consider...
    • Triggers for Mystical Experiences
  • Ancient Priesthoods started modern religions, why?
    • It wasn't all mystical
  • Culture and governments, religious orders
  • Some Information Theory of mind...
  • Directing consciousness
  • Basic cosmology
  • Obvious?
  • Examples of specializations on top the kosmic order
  • Conclusion

Why is there religion?

What motivates human beings to put such stock into "God" or gods, heaven, hell, aliens/UFOs, spirits, ghosts, elves, angels, demons?

Since religion and mysticism is common among humans. Perhaps there's something in the science realm that is fundamental, would be recreated, and explains why. Why have stories that require belief, at all? Isn't reality good just the way it is? Pantheons of gods, supernatural beings, the fairy tale creatures and stories, why are some for children and some are for ever? What motivates grown adults to have this mass delusion, and all sign over large portions of their life, money, time and mental space to it?

So let's explore the science behind what's going on, "The real" (that which leads to mystical systems and religion),
Later we can then talk about why "The Fairy Tale" (that which requires belief). Is there any science there?

Conscious States / Mystical Experiences

We have built in mental hardware / physiology to do lots of things. From logic to emotion to survival, etc. our brain is an expansive (very dense) pattern recognition and information storage/retrieval system. So would it surprise us to find that there's built in ways to experience mystical experiences?

Insights

Pattern recognition and insights happen as knowledge is gained & connections strengthen, and as we shift our perception to explore those connections.

Opening "Critical Periods" of Learning

A critical period of learning refers to a specific time frame in development where the brain is especially receptive to learning a particular skill or behavior. During these periods, exposure to specific environmental stimuli is crucial for normal development of that skill. If the necessary stimuli are absent during this period, it may be difficult or impossible to develop that skill later in life.

Or what the zen buddhists call "beginners mind"

Connections reconfigure when we learn new things, but especially when our brain enters unexpected or new states, which open critical periods, like:

• learning disruption (e.g. new education, schooling, conferences, job training, finding a new mentor)
• mental stress (e.g. loss of job or mate; a new threat or danger)
• deprivations: (e.g. lack of sleep, food fasting, darkness, silence)
• entheogenic molecules (e.g. certain plants, venoms, organic or synthetic chemicals)
• physical trauma (e.g. head injury, extreme sickness, prolonged pain)

Some of these have the potential to open critical periods of learning / imprinting (more on this later).

Strange Experiences to consider...

Familiar examples you may have heard of, witnessed, or even dismissed:

• Psychedelics of the 1960's, LSD, and Mushrooms (Psilocyben). Causes the brain to perceive new colors, shapes, patterns are seen over the world. Large doses can cause a divine experience, or a perceived communication from 'entities'.
  • Another more extreme example is DMT, which comes from a variety of plants like those used to mix Auyasca, which changes the entire picture, like teleporting to a new world full of machines made of glittering diamonds and fabrege eggs and elves, demons, angels, other entities.
• Near death experience - the bright light and floating above the body
• UFOs - abductions, examinations, contact with entities/beings, transportation and return

Each one of these experiences can come from alternate states of consciousness, including mystical experiences.

Triggers for Mystical Experiences

Starting from zero, discovery of these mystical consciousness states can be found in many ways:

• via bloodstream: eating something with the right chemical in it, getting bit by the right venomous creature
• via focus: having a lucid dream under the right circumstances; entering meditation or ecstatic states
• via death: or almost dying (near death), then recovering (and able to remember / lucid experience). Nature’s version of a psychedelic trip
• via physical trauma: head damage, extreme sickness, prolonged pain
• via physiology: brain developmental or genetic variations / disorders / defects, chemical imbalance of the body
• via flashback: practice with these states, makes it easier to slip in/out of at will.

Ancient Priesthoods started modern religions, why?

In ancient times, proto-priesthoods started as intellectual nerds hacking our brain physiology to enhance or shift our perception, to make insights, or create full blown mystical experiences, using a variety of techniques (meditation, plant based medicines, near death experience, ritual, music, sex, imagery, etc).

No one knows when these techniques were first discovered, nor by whom, but we can infer that

• they're as old as time itself, and
• surely these conscious states were discovered over and over by multiple individuals over many timelines
• there's not just one trigger for these mental states
• within a population, someone's stumbled onto it

Brian Murarescu's book The immortality key calls this "the religion with no name". He's talking about psychedelics, entheogens, and sacraments that impart a "divine experience". But this religion with no name has many triggers, not only chemicals.

These various avenues, Bloodstream, Focus, and Death, are just ways to trigger a novel or mystical state in the mind, and are the foundation of spirituality, and what originally started the world's religions.

We're talking about the technology of consciousness, which have been called magic or spirit, but:

These triggers are only facilitators, and early proto-priesthoods learned to direct the hyperconnected insightful states.

It wasn't all mystical

Of course, besides mystical experience for the individual, there were also other very powerful areas of focus:

• sun / solar reverence
• fertility reverence
• focus on human happiness, remove suffering

Which are specific sources of oneness, universal love, connection to others, which have potential to enhance that mystical experience, or the daily experience, alike. These powerful truths are important to humanity, in general.

Culture and governments, religious orders

To keep the collective safe and productive, culture and government puts in rules. Some of these utilize the theology created by those proto-priest nerds to lend cred to their order of things. But much of that nerd-craft ends up getting banned as governments and cultures realize that altered mental states are kind of advanced topics that perhaps not everyone should be doing. e.g. Christianity (original sacrament) and Hindus (soma). Even the proto-priest nerds end up seeking non-drug avenues, e.g. the Buddhists (meditation).

We saw psychedelics of the 1960's get quickly banned by a culture that became uneasy with so much love.

Some Information Theory of mind...

Our brains are products of evolution driven genetics for the physical structure of our brain, and what we’ve been exposed to in our life which forms our world model. Every brain is unique for these reasons. We all share a certain similarities due to both evolution and learning within a similar environment, or via shared ancestral lines

We build a world model in our minds, from sensory input. We don’t see the world, we see our model. When we look at something with our eye, we are viewing our world model focused to the narrow topic being updated by our visuals from the eye. This is updating our world model however.

When we turn off sensory input, like when we dream, our world model isn’t fixed and jumps around to what’s been built before, can “see” whatever our focus settles to, sometimes abruptly changing as we know dreams to do.

Techniques like Psychedelics and meditation can filter out our sensory input, or just make it easier to index into our own world model and avoid our sensory input completely driving how we index that model. experiencing familiarity, insights, visuals, entities, patterns, etc. depending what the technique affects

These techniques sort of hyper connect the brain, or sort of enhanced pattern matching, and bringing in more of our world model than our brain would normally index on, giving us new insights or perceptions (like faces in clouds), or ability to explore environments in our model, or even talk to general archetypes or specific entities in our model

DMT and other psychedelics differ in that DMT doesn’t produce effects in 3D (Cartesian) world space, DMT invokes a "hyper space" perceptional experience - with more dimensions it's hard to describe, but is reported as "familiar". Imagine seeing all sides of an object at once, hear it’s color, feel it’s pointedness as emotion, see machinery behind an idea or concept, weird ineffable stuff that can’t be described when back in 3D space.

Thinking about a few of the available triggers for mystical experience: Psychedelics and Meditation can produce similar results with different levels of difficulty to first effects. Near death is too dangerous, but is interesting to know about for that final trip we apparently all get to have. These are features of our cognition.

Think of hyperspace or higher consciousness, as metaphors for new pattern mappings between higher and lower level layers of our brain. With some translation to visual & audio for us to experience it. It’s basically an enhanced, or remapped, view into our existing world model(s), with some of the remapping allowing access to lower or higher levels of our neural stack than we normally have ability to focus on.

When we are newborns, we apparently flood our brains with DMT, and we develop fully immersed in a hyperspace brain. Our hyperspace brain develops first. It’s our first experience as human. It probably creates our deep social intelligence unique to our species.

When we revisit this state with DMT it feels familiar, and some people think they’re revisiting before birth. Possibly they’re accessing those memories

Basically, we have a massive pattern matching system in our heads, and to make sense of that, we then have layers that interpret this to 3D space for us. But there’s a lot of intuition machinery going on, which is largely hidden from our awareness, it's too detailed to follow when watching our model as we do life. But that supporting information machinery, can be directly experienced in DMT hyperspace as physical stuff, like jewels, machinery, entities, eggs, rooms, all descriptions that are impossible to put into words as I am poorly doing now using 3D words instead of hyperspace ones ;-).

We talk about DMT because it is a piece in the information theory mental map puzzle

DMT reconnects our model view, a different way into our existing neural net model, and it’s coherent, like switching on alternate reality that’s vastly more dimensions than 3. DMT is very fast, minutes and then it turns off. No tolerance, can do it again immediately (not so with lsd or psilocybin which build tolerance quickly, without addictive desire).

In DMT hyperspace it’s common to see fabrege eggs and machine elves, angels and demons, mythical Celtic lore elf creatures which welcome you “hooray you’re back!” Happy familiarity. But a warning there can be an occasional creepy or very rarely a violent entity (representing fear or shadow parts, repressed trauma). These are from your world model you’ve built for archetypes, generalized personas that drive you or protect you, or generalized types of characters you’ve observed in life - also common to other psychedelics. DMT is famous for machine elves that welcome you.

DMT is illustrative to highlight this space. We can infer that the other entheogens, and the other techniques, are exploiting similar model view repositioning features of our brain.

Takeaways:

• this brain is a highly connected pattern recognizer
• it hallucinate if you let it (let our perception index into our model, drift around)
• it will do things for you (instead of pretty lights) if you direct it
• your experiences can manefest into these

Directing consciousness

This is psychology of self, which goes beyond norms of today. It's a self-practice for the mentally disciplined. It's utilized in ancient rites, and should give context to what is going on in those rites.

• mindfulness
  • Identifying your minute to minute thoughts as above or below the line:
    • above the line emotions are delicious, life-giving, informative, wise and relationally connecting. They are an essential part of being awake
      • Personas: Coach, Creator, Challenger (trust based).
      • Trust opens — it allows us to co-create, support, and challenge with compassion.
      • feelings above the line is rare and requires practice.
    • below the line emotions are part of the cognitive emotive loop. Feelings keep recycling and often turn into moods and postures
      • Personas: Villain Victim Hero (fear based).
      • Fear contracts — it makes us protect, control, defend. And is the cause of error. Error is often at the root of what's described as evil, but really is a very human trait.
      • emotions below the line are natural and normal.
  • Practice presence to understand where you are, make insights for change.
    • Realize where you are (above or below), then consciously shift to where you want to be. Savor the change, Build new habits.
    • Realize the universe is mental, and your own mental framing can be transmuted (e.g. from below to above).
  • Practice gratitude, empathy, intentionality, authenticity - as above the line traits, build that habit by going there often.
• archetypes / personas / parts / internal family systems
  • imagine a council (or pantheon) of personas in your mind, the protector, the fighter, the empathizer, the lover, the creative, etc...
  • imagine doing mindfulness coaching with them. Presence to understand them, locate them as above or below, ultimately you'll better Know yourself.
• critical periods
  • This is neuroplasticity, and opening these primitive imprinting periods while doing the self- and parts-work to make lasting changes, like removing attachments (like addiction) and fears. We have these periods when we're young (example of a duckling getting imprinted onto a human caretaker). We can of course learn without these critical periods. But for some deeply seated habits, it is useful to reopen our critical period, to make our brain more imprintable than usual, for some lasting self-work. Classic examples of openers are:
  • bloodstream: ketamine, mdma, or psilocyben, LSD, Ibogaine
    • Interesting Fact: There were LSD therapy trials conducted before Nixon’s prohibition, which showed strong potential for breaking substance addictions based on previous unresolved trauma.
  • trance: cannabis; music; sex; chanting
• Invocation w/ Imagery, Naming, Poetry
  • We can give "an image" to mental framing, for recall of that framing. Images could be literal images or symbols, poetry descriptions, or named personas (as we did with persona work), and impart meaning to that image/name/description. As with information chunking techniques, this serves to recall concepts, more quickly connect with parts of self, or invoke mental framing. In computer science these are named procedures or functions. In magic these are manefested invocations.

These are all limited by our physics, of course, which also limits the potential of what can happen mentally as a result of these. It adds nuance and capability to the crude concept of "positive mental attitude"... This is mental metaprogramming.

Basic cosmology

Let's lay out an understanding of the kosmology of our lives. We're using the greek term kosmos here, the order or structure of things. This structure which affects / describes the mystery.

This will be a lot to unpack, so wait for it all to unfold...

Our thesis is that ancient priesthoods, more than 2000 years ago, across many world religions, followed a similar kosmology to each other at the base, which we will describe. While piling on their own specializations on top of that base, which will be most familiar to you.

• Examples of those specializations: different temple governance and rule structures, rites, songs, hymns, stories, etheogens, different divine casts of characters, different priestly archtypes or roles - all to place the human into the same mental state:
  • a sense of unity with the universe and others
  • understanding of self and others, betterment of fabric of society
• From the base kosmology, important concepts like morality and virtue emerge naturally. Delivered through many religions, or without them.
• From the base kosmology, the mystery can be experienced - gnosis, life can be reset, self can be known, divinity can be defined.
• There is not one true religion, because all share this foundational core. Every religion introduces various degrees of culture and specialization to this foundation, each of which may distract from and obscure the core of this fundamental truth, that base.

• The mystery is at the base of it all.

In a nutshell:

• This is simple and unifying, but hard to communicate or grasp. That is why it is the mystery.
• The concepts behind the mystery allow one to dissolve fear and suffering, and derive morality and virtue.
• The reality behind all religions is this mystery: our consciousness and how we structure our thinking with regard to our place in reality and our relationship to external others and to our inner selves - that kosmos, that order, that structure to it all.
  • there are certain traits and attributes, fundamental realities of how our psyches work, which we all have in common, and which transcend any religion.
  • there are realities to matter which explain the mental as well (the mental arises from matter).
  • that mental realm easily derives from the natural universe, it is it, at all the levels of detail.
• Humans have written many religious texts, trying to make sense of this. Including this work here that you're reading. And they’re all flawed metaphorical representations: crystalized yet incomplete, overcomplicated and imperfect shadows of the truth. But we can see commonalities that we know are true, which reveal what is real.
• The actual truth is simply:
  • the nature of our reality and our place in it. distilling down to:
    • physics of matter (molecular, atomic and quantum interactions, dynamics, all that) and of
    • information (the mental, which is that physics simulation running - a sort of computer constructed on top of the matter).
      • which includes how matter evolves over time, in this grand dynamics system we call the universe (the "unfolding big bang" or... otherwise).
        • which is simply the emergent simple yet complicated-seeming dynamics of matter physics. Examples: flowing rivers that fractally branch; galaxy fractal spirals; and brain synapses all follow these natural sorts of fractal physics; leading to affecting the evolution of biological entities and mental / social processes as well.
      • ...thus includes our inner psychology that kosmos structure within us mentally.
      • ...thus includes our social psychology that kosmos structure outside of us socially.
  • how consciousness works (and how we can manipulate that consciousness). (see Directing consciousness above)

Within this information theory—the mental—there is mind, people, and our relation to life, and thus to ourselves and to others:

• We have emerged from our material kosmos and will return to it after death, like a drop of water spray from the ocean that hangs in the air and then returns, our matter will be used again
• We have one life to experience; so live it well. This life is unique and precious, a special opportunity.
• Everyone is just like us, from the same material as we came from, and like us also have one life to live (so live it well)
  • in that situation we feel virtuous connection to others who also are in our exact situation
• We can think with trust or fear. The ultimate trust-mind is what religions call god, divinity, higher consciousness, or enlightenment; we can also call it godmind (the buddhists call it buddhamind)..
  • ultimate trust-mind is unity consciousness, sense of one-ness, indescribable mystery.
  • between is
    • virtue (constructive/creative)
    • presense (awareness)
    • fear or error (villain/victim mentality)
  • ultimate fear-mind is dead matter, indescribable nothingness.
  • THESE ARE NOT FIXED, they represent a sliding scale

Finally:

• There is one universe (one "everything"), and we are just a part of that ever unfolding dynamic system. therefore, we can say the universe has a "mind" (stay with me here... this isn't supernatural, but explains "god"), if we only consider the human minds, then the universe has (unarguably) a very parallel-independent distributed human-like mind (where those mind-nodes communicate using those physics rules available - e.g. soundwaves, light, smearing matter on other matter to leave marks, carrier pidgeon, electrons, photons, special devices).
  • we are that universe. and that universe is us.
  • there are more minds than just human minds. there's a sliding scale of "people" from human down to dog, to ant, to amoeba, to river, to rock. from spiral galaxy and it's sub components and their dynamics, all the way down. We are the bigbang (or whatever origin you like). we are that physics simulation. we are the universe, and the universe is "us", it's "people", the universe is people, is a person, is one, and we are one with it. just maybe not in the way you might have expected.
• we (and everything) are waves on a giant ocean (metaphor for the dynamic "everything"). we’re drops that emerge and return, undulating the entire time, and it’s one big physics sim.
• while our 'drop' of that ocean (our selves) has coaelesced to give us this life, we can appreciate how special that experience is, and make the best use of that time we have.
  • given how special that is, we can look around and see other people in that situation - and feel a very virtuous connection to others, and oneness with them and everything.
• Morality and Virtue naturally falls out of this picture of nature.
  • our special situation creates natural pressure to care for ourselves and others (balancing both, minimizing suffering of either), which means upholding knowledge, justice, freedom, liberty as foundations to a virtuous life.
  • the consciousness social universe is its own living organism made of conscious across social interaction, creates its own living organism with interconnected nodes that influence each other spreads

On top of that, humans have been creating for 10,000's of years specializations which make use of this kosmology.

Obvious?

These are a lot of words, for what would seem obvious. Perhaps. To some of you.

To others of you, you've been so entrenched into your order's specializations (supernatural beings and their stories and the morals derived from those) that you may see this kosmos framework as foreign and wrong. You may firmly believe there's actual supernatural forces, some anthropomorphic and some unknowable, unexplainable things outside our universe (or dimension).

For those, I would challenge you to realize that belief implies something is not real, not testable. And to embrace knowledge instead.

• Knowledge is powerful. And a way to live free, with justice, liberty and all. To naturally correct for fears or errors that cause suffering.
• Belief is a method to control the population, to force others to enter a state of mind where critical thought is suspended, where leaders can take advantage of them, make them believe things that are unprovable, that influence their decisions and actions.

And to remember, in a mental universe, then yes,

• there actually IS someone watching you, everyone in your social sphere AND your own internal interest as well, whatever you touch in the material world is also affected by you
• there is consciousness to everything, many kinds of people, just not at the same levels, kind of a spectrum of capability here, see Spectrum of Consciousness
• there is a pantheon, but it's inside your psyche, all the personas or parts that make you - see The Pantheon of Self
• there is a universal god, but it's all of us and everything, see godmind
• there is intention to the universe, it is from within it's peoples, and from it's dynamic processes (laws of motion apply here)
• there is magic, it is the transmutation of psyche as a mental shift, within (individually) or external (socially), see The Self and the Pantheon Awakening the Mechanics of Real Magic
• there are entities, you can see or hear them by exploring your mental model, a sort of dream state, in special extreme situations, see Elevated Consciousness Methods.
  • Examples: lucid dreaming, meditation; sensory deprivation; physical or mental trauma; near death; taking certain visionary drugs called entheogens; creating mental settings with music and images and poetry; differences in mental wiring for some people; perhaps more...
• there is no eternal life: that was a mistranslation, sorry. Only Aionic life of higher consciousness during your life.
• there is resurrection: For your body: after our material returns to the earth, we will likely be "reused" into other beings - just dont expect your consciousness to survive that transition. For your mind, you may resurrect during your lifetime, reset, shed your fears, born anew - a common initiatory practice in many religions.

We next explore these mysteries by showcasing the specialized techniques that are unique to every order, every priesthood, every religion. Each one has their own traditional techniques to evoke these mysteries to various degrees. Some are more advanced than others, some are more effective at the mystery or personal growth, some have evolved into placebo designed for enforcing social norms.

Examples of specializations on top the kosmic order

Each priesthood and tradition layered its own rites, myths, and symbols onto the shared kosmic base. The goal was always the same: altered consciousness leading to gnosis, unity, and knowledge of self, connection to all, renewal.

• Hellenic
  • Mystery rites used pharmaka, music, poetry, rhythm, choral song, dance, sexual and sensory techniques to shift the initiate into an altered state, guided by the contexts of the rite. The Eleusinian and Dionysian mysteries sought ekstasis (standing outside oneself) and epopteia (visionary seeing).
  • These states brought the initiate to an aionios experience—a timeless awareness of unity—where fears were dissolved and self was re-ordered in harmony with kosmos.
  • Not all rites used entheogens; some relied on rhythm, fasting, or ritual drama. But all shared the pattern: guidance → altered state → revelation → renewal.
  • It was believed that this experience lead to better humanity, as with every one of these traditions.
• Buddhism
  • In the canonical tale, Siddhartha experimented with extreme fasting and meditation, until—beneath the Bodhi tree—he found balance and attained enlightenment.
  • Tradition depicts him sheltered by seven nāgas (serpent beings). In mainstream Buddhist symbolism, these represent protection and the deep powers of nature. From an Orphic lens, we may read them as guardians of visionary venom, linking the serpent-motif to altered states of mind.
  • His teaching systematizes gnosis: one can practice and reach the same awakened state he achieved.
• Shamanism
  • In many indigenous traditions, the shaman is a position in the society as both healer and guide: master of medicines, set, and setting. Problem solver, and educator of soul, through a gnosis experience.
  • Entheogens (peyote, ayahuasca, amanita), ordeals (sweat lodge, fasting, isolation), and sensory manipulations (chant, drumming, silence) opened liminal spaces.
  • Through these, the shaman helped the initiate face fears, commune with ancestors or spirits, and realign with kosmos.
• Hindu
  • Among the many schools, the Upanishads and Advaita Vedānta most clearly articulate the kosmic unity: ātman (self) is brahman (the whole).
  • Rituals and yogic practices work toward dissolving illusion (māyā) and realizing oneness with the universal.
  • Other currents (bhakti, ritual, dualist schools) emphasize different aspects, but all orbit around the kosmic order and the transformation of consciousness.
  • Similar 'we are the universe', 'we are all one', unity mindset, as the seat of virtue and morality (guide for a life without suffering). Much in common with Buddhism here also. Pantheons of gods which assist with mindset, serve as archetypal guides, embodying aspects of the kosmos and of psyche, assisting the devotee’s alignment.
• Abrahamic / Christian
  • Entheogens?
    • There's evidence that the greek word for Christ (χρίω, χρίστος, χρίσμα) was a previous term for ~1000 years that referred to applying an entheogen for the mystery rite, or for medical application of a medicated slave or ointment or unguent. We see that evidence in some ~3000 citations across classical texts going back to 800BCE. The old testament in the Greek (Amos 4:13) even says that God will announces to men his christ, in 300BCE there was no known person with that name, this is about a drug prophet who will come and educate others.
    • There's multitudes of mentions in the bible about Theriac (polythronic drug panacea called "the beast"), Thonesimon (venom based entheogen called "the death inducer") with the porphura (murex sea snail gland, purple dye), fumigation with muron (mhyrr), frankincense, opium, aconite, the hyoscyamines and scopolomines like henbane/mandrake/nightshade, some indicators of ergot as well (old testament has a story about sweeping a granary floor and either seeing god, or dying if you're not good enough - ergot is toxic if not extracted with water and solids filtered out.). The burning bush was acacia, DMT. We could go on.
    • Why Greek? We look at the Greek language version of Old Testament because that's the book that apostles were using, there's evidence of direct quotes from the Greek Septuagint that do not appear in the Hebrew versions. So the Greek was significant to the apostles.
  • The prophets around John the Baptist talked about "drawing down" christ, angels, or god in order to hear their voices or seeing creatures with hundreds of eyeballs or wings or tetra 4-shaped beings, those cherubim or seraphim, and "revelations" in biblical texts all sound exactly like modern psychedelic trip reports.
  • Not to discount the weight of these experiences, they were revelatory. But once we understand the mechanics given what we know from psychedelics in humans, and about the mystery across religions. This fits. This is simple.
• Sufiism
  • Just as Christian mystics (like the Desert Fathers or Meister Eckhart) sought direct experience of God through contemplative practice, Sufis seek direct experiential knowledge of God (gnosis, or ma’rifah).
  • Early Christian and Jewish mystical practices in the Near East—especially in Hellenistic regions—emphasized inward transformation, asceticism, and symbolic interpretation of scripture. Sufism can be seen as a continuation or parallel development of this type of inward-focused spirituality within an Islamic framework.
  • Sufism can be read as another branch exploring the same underlying psychological/mystical structure that early mystery cults, Hellenistic Christianity, and even some Jewish sects explored
  • Sufi practice emphasizes direct experiential knowledge of God (ma’rifah) through meditation, chanting (dhikr), poetry, music (samā‘), dance (whirling dervishes), fasting, and ascetic discipline. All these are structured to induce a state of unity consciousness, dissolving fear and ego.
  • These practices guide the initiate into altered states, producing experiences comparable to ekstasis in Hellenic mysteries or the gnosis in early Christian cults: a direct, lived sense of the underlying order of reality (kosmos).
  • Poetry and music often encode symbolic and visionary knowledge; rhythm and repetition serve as psychophysical triggers that align the mind with unity awareness.
  • Sufi orders vary widely: some emphasize silent meditation, some ecstatic dance, some devotional love (ishq), but all aim to orient consciousness toward oneness with the universe and others.
  • Through these experiences, morality, virtue, and social harmony emerge naturally, as the practitioner internalizes their connection to the broader kosmos.
  • Sufism shares deep parallels with early Christian and Jewish mystical traditions: the use of music, poetry, fasting, and visionary states to access higher-order understanding of life, self, and divine patterns.
  • The ultimate goal: tawhid—the perception that all is one, that the individual self is inseparable from the universal order, echoing the experiential core of Hindu, Buddhist, and Hellenic mystical traditions.
  • Sufi mystics may also engage in guided visionary exercises, dreams, or even controlled use of substances historically in some orders, though the focus is always on achieving internal transformation, not external spectacle.
  • Like other mystery systems, Sufism encodes this kosmic wisdom in rituals, poetry, and lineage-specific techniques—specializations that allow the initiate to access the universal mental structure safely and progressively.
• Hesychasm: An ancient Eastern Orthodox monastic practice (from ~14th century) where practitioners use the “Jesus Prayer” (“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me”) repetitively to still the mind, align inner consciousness, and attain the experience of theoria—a direct experience of divine light or union with God. This is essentially meditation on Christ as a path to inner gnosis.
• Modern contemplative Christians: There are contemporary Christian meditation schools (like Centering Prayer in Western monasticism) that focus on silent repetition or attention on Christ to open awareness to divine presence.
• Kabbalah / Jewish Mysticism
  • Classical Kabbalah (from 12th–13th century onward, especially Safed school) teaches that the structure of God, the sefirot, and the divine cosmos can be “experienced” through meditation, chanting, and contemplation.
  • Techniques involve visualizing divine names, contemplating the Tree of Life, and using mental focus to alter consciousness toward union with God or to perceive aspects of the divine order.
  • In some strands, there’s also the concept of devekut—attachment to God—where the practitioner cultivates intense, ecstatic awareness of the divine presence.
  • This is mostly non-chemical, relying on meditation, prayer, and sometimes breathwork. All techniques in our known Elevated Consciousness Methods.

Conclusion

With this. We have a new understanding and appreciation for what words like revelation, divine, god, resurrection, rebirth, renewal, drawing down, christing, and magic, may mean in real and literal language. With understanding of the mechanics, we have framework to craft new rites, form new religions, or simply experience the mystery yourself. At a minimum it guides us morally (seek the higher consciousness than the low; help others to grow as well), but builds constructive empathy over villain victim mentality (however sometimes it's ok to choose to be low), and gives tools to reduce suffering (realize when in fear state, shift the mind away from that if desired). We understand more across religions, and we see the commonalities, which can break down fear of the unknown and help us trust that other frameworks are there for the same reason as our own framework is - for benefit of humanity.

Of course, there are corruptions. Any perfect system will have error creep in. And we can all help to correct those errors, those fears. One example is judgement of others promotes a villain victim mindset, causing generational trauma that ripples outwards. An example of this judgement is taking land, conquering those who dont have your same religion in title, rather than treating them as fellow humans in a similar predicament as yourself - one life to live.

I'll leave you with this motivation

That distributed kosmic brain we mentioned earlier, if you can influence some of the other nodes in that mind. We're talking about other people's brains. Remember our definition of people? And they can influence others, like ripples on the water, your influence may ripple over the span of time lasting into the future.