What is so far unknown is a form of sacred
science in which human beings cooperate together
to inquire in a a rigorous manner into the
nature of their own spiritual and subtle
experience, without prior allegiance to any
existing school. ~~John
Heron [Sacred Science]
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Heron,
John. Spiritual Science:
Person-centred Inquiry into the Spiritual and the Subtle.
PCCS Books, Ross-on-Wye, England, 1998. This
is an important book, integral to this consciousness
shift we are moving into, because it gives us a powerful
method with which to study and encourage spiritual experience that leads to an Awakening to
our individual and collective multidimensional beingness.
There is much to be said for the usefulness, even
elegance of this approach. The description from
back cover says in part,
"This
cutting-edge book breaks new ground in
transpersonal psychology. It argues for
a people-based, person-centred [philosophy]
which holds that spiritual authority is within
each individual, and that spiritual initiation
is a path of lived inquiry.. . Topics
covered include:
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The
emergence of a self-generating
spiritual culture of independent
pathfinders
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An
affirmation of the person as a real
spiritual presence on the crest of
divine becoming.
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The
nature of long-term lived inquiry
and of short-term cooperative
inquiry into the spiritual and
subtle.
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An
exploration of the issues involved
in do-it-yourself subtle (psychical)
research.
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A
provisional new dipolar map of the
spiritual and subtle, and a critique
of other maps.
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Reports
of eleven short-term cooperative
inquiries into the spiritual and the
subtle, showing how the method
works.
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A
presentation of a participatory
worldview, with the paradigm of
participatory inquiry ..
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Sacred
Science will be of interest to all those who
believe in the emergence of the
self-determining human spirit within the field
of religious/[spiritual] belief and
practice."
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One
outstanding characteristic has to do with how this
approach transcends the challenge of the "down
side" of boundaries as old as animal instinct and
effectively invites a natural inclusiveness and
collaboration, while fully honoring each person's own
process and perceptions.
LANGUAGING
There
is the divisive use of language to name in order
to split: to split subject from object,
perceiver from perceived, person from person,
tribe from tribe, nation from nation, species
from species, insiders from outsiders .
. ~~John Heron
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To be able to approach the collective Idea of
spirituality together burdened as little as possible
with that which divides us
A
FRESH APPROACH
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and
active engagement among people in their every-day world,
as well as establish a focused network actively engaged
in this work together
I
also came across the collaborative, "person-centred
inquiry into the Spiritual and the Subtle"
perspective of transpersonal psychologist John
Heron, a
an
approach complimentary to methods Rhea A. White utilized
with experiencers, has excited me for sometime. As
a collaborative model of experience-focused
investigation, it is balanced with respect to both
subjective and objective roles within a disciplined
approach that is also continually fresh, because a key
component, languaging, comes straight out of the
experiences themselves. Heron has made available
to us a remarkable synthesis of vital characteristics of
"good science" and experience-based
spirituality without the burden of differing
beliefs suggested by traditional religions and even some
renditions of what we call spiritual.
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