God Beyond Religion: Looking at the Arcane Formulas; Egohood

Egohood

Everywhere you turn these days you can find people who suggest that in solving our most perplexing and disabling problems that the answer is to let go of ego and become one with all. Further that we should deny ourselves and work toward the good of a whole and become one with it. Many spiritual paths suggest that the ego is essentially bad, that is our enemy and needs to be brought under control by denying it.

However, in reading the “Arcane Formulas” by William Walker Atkinson one finds a different view of the ego. The Arcane Formulas is a small written work by Atkinson that gives practical steps and exercises to enable one to do mental alchemy and spiritual feats. First among the steps is the developing of what he calls egohood. For Atkinson, egohood is a goal to be reached and not everyone reaches it. One is not born with egohood. Rather it develops or is developed by awakening. For many esoteric teachings initiates are awakened to an egoless state, but for Atkinson, initiates are awakened to egohood.

With Atkinson, egohood is synonymous with the awareness of the I-AM within the individual. This is differentiated from the me or self. Here is an excerpt from the Arcane Formulas that explains that concept. “Just as one is bound by the illusion of the corporeal nature of the “I,” so is it further bound—and even more closely bound—by the illusion of the personal nature of the Ego. The Ego is not only more, and greater, than the physical body it uses—but it is also more, and greater, than that part of the mind, consisting of a series of inherited or acquired impressions which constitutes the “Me.” There is a great difference between the “Me and the I.” The “Me” is the individual as he thinks he is—a bundle of prejudices, tastes, ties, etc. The “I” is the Individual as he is in reality—free from mental ties of all Lesson IV. Establishing the Ego III. 21 kinds. The “Me” is the character being played by the Ego—the “John Smith” part of him. The “I” is the real player of the part. It is often very difficult for one to disentangle and free himself from the overwhelming force of Personality, so completely is the average person self-hypnotized and race-hypnotized with the “John Smith” idea. The Arcane Teachers have several Formulas for unloosening the bonds of Personality. Let us consider them” ~ The Arcane Formulas, William Walker Atkinson, Timeless Wisdom Collection, 2016, page 14

In this quote, found in the third chapter of this booklet entitled Egohood III, Atkinson points out the difference between the I (I-AM) and the me. He sees the me as a part in a play that the I-AM is acting in. The I-AM or egohood is directly tied to the Will. And as one moves on in the Arcane Formulas it is evident that the Will is the I-AM within the cosmic I-AM, or the cosmic will. This is the source of being able to manipulate and manifest from the infinite potentiality.

Atkinson claims, and I am not certain that I agree or that it resonates with me, but nevertheless, the claim is that no all people have the potential to develop egohood, the I-AM, the will within the cosmic will. That does not resonate with me like the concept of egohood and the I-AM does. I think it is because I see each of us as individual conscious agents on a journey of incarnations that has us at different stages in the growth spiral, and while I have no problem with accepting that some people within a specific incarnation may not be able to achieve egohood, I think that eventually they will. I see our spiritual journey as an upward spiral that may from time to time take downward movement but is ultimately on an upward trajectory. Do not despair about being locked into a cycle of karma. While there is not time to discuss this in this particular article, I believe that we are each in control and there can be rest from the cycle when necessary, and a return when rest has refreshed our spirit.

God Beyond Religion: Panpsychism, Religion and Science

There is a full circle from ancient mystery religions to cognitive and quantum science. The connection is panpsychism. At the basis of Panpsychism is the idea that consciousness is the basic element of the universe. Here is a definition from the Britannica Online Encyclopedia. “panpsychism, (from Greek pan, “all”; psychē, “soul”), a philosophical theory asserting that a plurality of separate and distinct psychic beings or minds constitute reality. Panpsychism is distinguished from hylozoism (all matter is living) and pantheism (everything is God).

For Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, the 17th-century German philosopher and a typical panpsychist, the world is composed of atoms of energy that are psychic. These monads have different levels of consciousness: in inorganic reality they are sleeping, in animals they are dreaming, in human beings they are waking; God is the fully conscious monad.

In 19th-century Germany, Arthur Schopenhauer asserted that the inner nature of all things is will—a panpsychistic thesis. And Gustav Theodor Fechner, the founder of experimental psychology and an ardent defender of panpsychism, contended that even trees are sentient and conscious.” In the United States, Josiah Royce, an absolute idealist, not only followed Fechner in affirming that heavenly bodies have souls but also adopted a unique theory that each species of animal is a single conscious individual—incorporating into itself the individual souls of each of its members

While panpsychism is not a religion, it is adopted by various religions including pantheism and panentheism. There is also a close relationship between panpsychism and animism. Animism is a religion that believes that the cosmos is a living entity. It is common among indigenous beliefs such as the Native America shamanic religions. It sees conscious entities beyond human beings and animals. The mountains, the forest, the sun and moon all are conscious entities. The bottom line is that these beliefs hold consciousness as a top down causation rather than as some material panpsychists see the consciousness at the molecular level and believe that it evolves into greater and greater awareness in a bottom up fashion.

Since I was born into western civilization and thereby into western thought that has been my focus in study. I certainly believe in the recycling of souls or conscious agents, and since I believe that each conscious agent is a mini creative conscious in the likeness of the source, then I believe that free will demands that we are instrumental in choosing our life path in incarnations. I realize that this is not popular with those who have experienced a lot of trauma, and I do not want to victim blame, but at the end of the matter, in my view, this is the least undesirable of all the other possibilities. While someone in the midst of a traumatic life path may find little solace in the reality that he or she is eternal, and that nothing lasts forever except our conscious soul, it remains for me the most logical fact.

That aside, in selecting to be born into western culture, western religion, and western philosophy I can best explain what my thinking is in terms of the development of western philosophy. So, I mention panpsychism, religion, and science in the title. I also see what I would call a preponderance of evidence that consciousness is indeed at the basis of the nature of reality. It does begin with Hermes for me. I assume and I think that the evidence points to the fact that it is at least 5,000 years old and began with the mystery religions of Egypt. It was taken to Greece by Pythagoras and adopted into Greek Philosophy and Metaphysics. This was the forerunner of mathematics and modern physics. The ancients adopted the idea of the ether/aether. Looking back it was essentially a field in which all things existed. The catalyst for matter and the material, corporeal world was the Logos, in other words consciousness. Over time, this gave way to a more materialistic view of the nature of reality, however, with recent developments in cognitive science, physics, and biology we have returned back to a field similar in nature to the ether/aether.

Interestingly enough, in the twentieth century we had individuals that were stating that the universe is consciousness. For example, Aldous Huxley doing controlled experiments with hallucinogens, developed the term the mind at large. Carl Jung, a psychiatrist, developed the term collective unconsciousness. Rupert sheldrake developed the theory of fields of morphic resonance. So there is a circular phenomenon at play but it is a spiral. With an increase in technology and scientific method, what the ancients knew intuitively is being substantiated by scientific method.

I am quite sure that all of the various world belief systems have explored and developed this over arching idea. They have just used different language to express it. At this time, I do not have the study and expertise to validate it but it resonates strongly with my sense of understanding. What I am seeing is more along the lines of the nature of reality and not ethical. However, I certainly believe that ethics can fit well into this cycle that appears to be an upward spiral.