Mudrashram and Other Paths

© 2011 by George A. Boyd

Some seekers have asked us, what is the relationship of the Mudrashram lineage to other lineages? How is your path different from others?

We answer that the Mudrashram lineage exists to support the spiritual work of all other lineages that are established by the Divine purpose and the work of the Hierarchy in its Transcendental, Supracosmic, Cosmic, Transplanetary and Planetary forms. We share the common purposes of:

  1. Unfolding the ensouling entity to fulfill the Divine Purpose and to work out Adi Karma
  2. Tuning up the vehicles of consciousness, their seed atoms and nuclei of identity and to actualize spiritual and personal potentials in synchrony with the unfoldment of the ensouling entity; through this means, resolving the issues of Kriyaman Karma.
  3. Setting the spirit on the path to union with the Divine, guiding the spirit through all the stages of the path and liberating the spirit, thereby working out Sinchit Karma.
  4. Training the attentional principle to contemplate and study the vehicles of consciousness, and the Planes of the Great Continuum of Consciousness, and to learn to become an instrument of the Light through Attunement
  5. Bringing understanding of spirituality by gearing instruction to varying levels of mastery and knowledge, and giving individualized instruction to match the student’s current station on the Path
  6. Facilitating the individual’s communion with the Divine through prayer and mediation, giving guidance for the issues of life and challenges of the spiritual path, and clarifying Dharma and Soul Mission
  7. Inspiring service to humanity, encouraging individuals to use their wisdom, their abilities and gifts, and their personal resources to assist those in need.

As an Integral Mediation lineage, we emphasize it is beneficial and important to focus on what aspirants can do to develop themselves spiritually and personally in a balanced Integral way, to be of service to others, and to find a way to know and serve God in a progressively deeper way. We emphasize:

  • Doing spiritual transformation at the cutting edge of spirituality, aligning all four poles of being with each new initiatory nexus.
  • Empowering aspirants and disciples to actively transform their spiritual evolutionary potentials using bija mantras and transformational techniques.
  • Encouraging aspirants and disciples to express their gifts and abilities through the personality as service, and to continually develop new abilities and gain new knowledge.
  • Owning their human responsibilities and to discharging their duties to community, work, and family to the best of their ability, striving for excellence and improvement, seeking to embody integrity, and aiming for mastery of newly acquired skills and knowledge through continued learning and study

We diverge from other lineages, for:

  • We do not advocate that one religion or Path is the only way for everyone, for each individual has a unique karmic track back to the Divine.
  • We do not believe that transformational path work should be done outside of the cutting edge of spirituality, as this produces imbalances that disrupt the functioning of the personality, and may also alter the energetic equilibrium, which can produce kundalini syndromes.
  • We do not hold that religion or spirituality should teach hatred towards other groups, or advocate violence towards others, for the fruits of genuine spirituality are love, compassion, mercy and peace.
  • We also hold that religion or spirituality should not mystify their teachings, or entrap or enslave others, for the fruits of enlightenment are understanding, discernment and inner detachment and freedom.
  • We further believe that Religion and spirituality should not disempower others because of ethnicity, race, gender, or other criteria, because the actualization of human and spiritual gifts and abilities is every individual’s birthright.
  • We also do not believe that religion or spirituality requires special worship ceremonies, special clothing, or other extraordinary markers, because spirituality is innate to every individual, and requires only that they unite with their spiritual essence and commune with the Divine through prayer and meditation.
  • We also believe that focusing on eschatological themes such as the end of the world, the Last Judgment or other doomsday scenarios, or hoping for the Advent of all-powerful saviors is not relevant because these are themes that the individual cannot affect; but we rather point aspirants and disciples to what they can do—active spiritual development with the aim to make progress on the path.

We further hold that:

  • Each individual must follow their own Dharma, their inner sense of truth, in making spiritual and personal choices, and this choice should not be manipulated or coerced.
  • Debates and arguments about spirituality and the Nature of the Divine are non-productive, for perspectives are different and individuals identified with different spiritual essences perceive the Divine differently, and aspire towards different spiritual horizons.
  • It is important to understand the Great Continuum of Consciousness the nature of the different ensouling entities, the different domains of the spirit, the varying tracks of the Seven Rays, and the Paths of Supracosmic and Transcendental Spheres, will bring respect and tolerance between groups, allowing recognition and appreciation of their own unique contributions to out collective spiritual heritage.
  • Spirituality does not need to uproot or destroy the ego, but to redeem it to appropriately guide it, and to understand and appreciate its role as the protector and provider for the body, family and possessions; moreover, spirituality does not have to suppress the personality, but should aim instead to turn the Self and its vehicles into a tool that the ensouling entity can use for the service of others.
  • Attempts by zealous disciples convert others to the Mudrashram® way, or convince them that this is the best or highest path, or most inclusive path, is abjured for individuals must make their own decision about what is true for them, what is best for them, and what is the correct next step for them spiritually.
  • We welcome others to explore the Mudrashram® teachings, but will not coerce them to follow us.

We tell the seeker:

“We ask you to judge for yourself if these teachings resonate with you. Understand the differences between the Mudrashram way and other paths by studying the articles on our website and decide whether the Mudrashram teachings are relevant for you or not.”

“We are not here to frighten you, fool you or trick you. We will teach you Integral Meditation, which you can learn from us through the Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation or the Accelerated Meditation Program. If this basic course speaks to you, then you can come for the advanced training we offer.”

“You can come for a first course, or you can go all the way with us…it’s all up to you.”

Premature Opening of Inner Channels

By George A. Boyd © 2022

Q: People seem to create imbalances of different types through opening channels along their axis of being, which moves some aspect of their nature out of alignment. You have discussed this relative imbalance and its consequences in the article, “The Cutting Edge of Spirituality.” When can you safely open these channels and when should you leave them alone?

A: When meditation is done in an Integral way, which means that no aspect of being migrates off of the axis of being out of alignment with the ensouling entity at the cutting edge of spirituality, these channels open in their natural order and sequence.

The problems arise when people create misalignments through:

  • Moving a seed atom and its vehicle of consciousness
  • Moving a nucleus of identity and its vehicle of consciousness
  • Moving an ensouling entity and its vehicles of consciousness

As these essences move, they create an energetic channel behind them. The longer the distance this essence migrates from the axis of being, the more energy is released in this channel.

This heightened energy may produce the ability to access higher aspects of love with the emergence of compassion and virtue; higher aspects of wisdom that appear at that deeper strata of the mind; and higher aspects of power, which appear as the ability to access supernormal powers or siddhis.

When certain individuals reached the highest level of development along these pathways of imbalance—and they discovered the enhancement of love, wisdom, and power that accompanies this opening—they promulgated the techniques that enabled others to open these channels and gave teachings to explain what typically occurs as meditation students progress on this Path.

Theoretically, any center along the axis of being can be moved off the axis to open the channels behind it. The more common places where this imbalance is engineered are at the following locations:

  1. Seed atom of the Subtle Etheric Subplane – employed in Taoist meditation groups through techniques such as microcosmic circulation
  2. Seed atom of the Fifth Subplane of the Psychic Realm – used in New Age groups of the Psychic Realm, often generated through the Merkaba method
  3. Moon Soul nucleus of identity of the First Planetary Initiation – activated in Christian and Jewish monastic and mystical sects, and certain of the Mystery Schools through mantras, specialized breathing, or attunements
  4. Solar Angel nucleus of identity of the Second Planetary Initiation – this is awakened in “I AM Movement” groups, who disseminate mantra-like decrees and attunements.
  5. Cosmic Consciousness nucleus of identity of the First Cosmic Initiation – Yogi Preceptors unfold this essence through mantras, Kriya Yoga, Kundalini, and attunements.
  6. Cosmic Soul Awareness nucleus of identity of the Second Cosmic Initiation – Light Masters move this essence through imparting the “five secret names” —mantras keyed to open the track through its vehicles of the Second Cosmic Initiation and to move the Cosmic Soul Awareness through the 22 worlds of God—and making attunements.
  7. Astral Soul (the ensouling entity of the Cosmic Sphere) – The teachers of the Risen Christ Ashram Foundation—George’s first teacher, Maha Genii Turriziani, was the founder of this organization—channel the “Light of Translation,” an attunement that unfolds the Astral Soul directly, and can also be directed to other essences of consciousness to align them with the Astral Soul.
  8. Seed atom of one of the active Supracosmic Paths – Advanced Disciples and Supracosmic Masters activate and develop the Supracosmic seed atom of those who embrace their Path through mantras, Kriya Yoga, Kundalini, and attunements.
  9. Ensouling entity of the Transcendental Paths (T1 to T5 and T7) – Sat Gurus transform the Transcendental ensouling entity upon their Path through Nada Yoga and attunements.

As these imbalances increase, they move through a series of states where:

  1. You experience relaxation and pleasure, as you lower everyday stress.
  2. You dredge up deep issues from the unconscious mind and process them.
  3. You experience inner struggle, during which your identification is transferred from the ego and the Self to the spiritual essence you are developing.
  4. You become fully identified with the spiritual essence—you realize it.
  5. You begin to channel the love, wisdom, and power of this spiritual essence.
  6. You gain the requisite Mastery and empowerment to awaken and unfold this essence in others.
  7. In some cases, your initial activity will be to remove the veil over this essence and open a track that unites with it. Once you have united with it, then you will unfold it on its track, out of alignment with the axis of being. Mantras, or contemplation of successive stages of the track connecting with this essence—often accompanied by attunements—are typically employed to open the channel through which attention can gain stable union with the essence.

    When you achieve stable union, it becomes easy for your attention to unite with this essence. Examples of methods that are used to unite attention with some of these spiritual essences are:

    • Moon Soul nucleus of identity – contemplation of the mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection, confession of sins, or ecstatic identification with the Moon Soul through receiving the Holy Spirit
    • Solar Angel nucleus of identity – use of centering decrees, attunements that open the track to the Solar Angel
    • Cosmic Consciousness nucleus of identity – awakening Kundalini through Shaktipat, direct contemplation of cosmic consciousness [vide Jaggi Vasudev’s Sambhavi mudra], use of specialized breathing, and centering mantras to unite attention with Cosmic Consciousness, attunements, and chanting
    • Cosmic Soul Awareness – opening the tracks to Cosmic Soul Awareness through the repetition of the five “secret names,” riding the current of the Nada into the presence of Cosmic Soul Awareness, chanting, and attunements
    • Astral Soul – awakening Kundalini through Shaktipat, centering mantra, and attunements
    • Supracosmic seed atom – chanting, repetition of targeted mantras, use of specialized breathing, contemplation of the essence, and attunements
    • Transcendental ensouling entity – contemplative mantras to remember the spirit, opening the channels of the Nada, and attunements

    Safe opening of these channels occurs when you unfold your ensouling entity at the cutting edge of spirituality with co-resonant development—where higher octaves of being are moved in synchrony with the ensouling entity at the cutting edge. You can activate this type of unfoldment through repetition of the Alayic Divine Name, or through achieving attunements that unfold each aspect of being along the axis of being, as the Mudrashram® Masters impart in our Light Sittings.

    The aspects of the Continuum you do not develop during your initial unfoldment of your innate spiritual evolutionary pathway can be revisited when you become a Multiplane Master: at this stage, you can isolate and develop that essence to become integrated into your mantle of eternal Mastery through Bodhisattva Projects. You could, for example, develop the Supracosmic seed atoms to Liberation on each Path of the Supracosmic Sphere—those that reach the upper reaches of the seventh stage of spiritual development on the teacher empowerment track in Mudrashram® are introduced to the infinite possibilities of Multiplane Mastery.

    We encourage you to understand the difference between integral development that does not deviate from axis of being and the other varieties of spiritual development that do. If you can avoid opening channels prematurely, you can avoid spiritual imbalance.

Breaking Out of the Prison of Belief

By George A. Boyd © 2022

Many people have difficulty releasing beliefs that are based on lies and misinformation. To begin to let go of these erroneous beliefs, it is important to understand the stages of belief:

Stage One – Belief acquisition. In this stage, you learn about an idea or proposition and you choose to believe it. It may intuitively resonate with you. It may explain something you didn’t understand. It may make connections between ideas that give you a larger perspective and new insights into some world events.

Stage Two – Belief maintenance. In this stage, there is nothing to challenge your belief, so you continue to hold it as true.

Stage Three – Belief confrontation. In this stage, someone challenges your beliefs and tells you it is false. You may defend your belief. You may not listen to the arguments of the person, who confronts you. You may attack and demean the person, who challenges your beliefs.

Stage Four – Belief modification. In this stage, you gather new information about the belief, which allows you expand your understanding of the belief, and you can more cogently communicate it to others. Your experience with belief confrontation allows you to better counter arguments against your belief.

Stage Five – Belief dissemination. With sufficient knowledge of the belief and its implications, you are able to explain the belief so others can understand it, and convince them why there is value in holding it.

Stage Six – Belief reconsideration. When you find inconsistencies or errors in the belief, you may reconsider it. In this stage, you analyze the validity of the belief and you decide whether to maintain or reject it. If you find palatable explanations for the inconsistencies or the error does not detract from the overall coherence and explanatory value of the belief, you will retain it.

Stage Seven – Belief rejection and adoption of a new belief. At this stage, you find the belief is incorrect and you jettison it. You form a new belief based on new knowledge.

Here’s an example of the process:

  • We learned that Pluto was the ninth planet (stage one).
  • We didn’t question this belief for many years (stage two).
  • New astronomical discoveries about the nature of planets and the zone of space where Pluto dwells led some scientists to question the status of Pluto as a planet (stage three).You learn more about the solar system, and this seems to confirm your original belief that Pluto is a planet (stage four).
  • You communicate to your children that Pluto is the ninth planet; if you are a teacher, you teach this to your students (stage five).
  • Other worlds about the size of Pluto are found in the Kuiper Belt; those worlds and Pluto are found to not clear their orbits, as do the other eight planets. Scientists re-examine their belief that Pluto is a planet (stage six).
  • The scientific consensus shifts and re-labels Pluto as a dwarf planet. You learn this new information and reject your old idea that Pluto was a planet; you now embrace the new belief about Pluto (stage seven).

If you learn an erroneous belief based on misinformation, you may never go beyond stage four, where you may modify your belief with new misinformation and learn to defend it against attack. If you are strongly committed to the belief and feel that others must know it, you will disseminate the belief to others through writing, speeches, or social media (stage five). You never critically examine the belief (stage six), so there is nothing that allows you to release it and adopt a more accurate belief.

When many beliefs link together to form a network of beliefs about a topic, these enmeshed beliefs can become a veritable prison within the mind. Conspiracy theories, political and religious dogmas, and the hate-filled ideologies of terrorist and hate groups construct these mental prisons, from which it is very hard for people to escape.

Byron Katie, in “the Work,” used as series of questions that were designed to help break people out of their prisons of belief. This questioning process asked people to consider (a) what is the implication of holding the belief, (b) what might they perceive if they let go of the belief, and (c) what would their life be like if they abandoned the belief.

Examples of this questioning method are:

2020 Election was stolen: (a) “What are the implications of holding this belief?” (b) “If you didn’t hold this belief, what would you perceive?” (c) “What would your life be like if your abandoned this belief?”

Everyone needs to be a Christian [or Muslim, etc.] or risk going to hell: (a) “What are the implications of holding this belief?” (b) “If you didn’t hold this belief, what would you perceive?” (c) “What would your life be like if your abandoned this belief?”

If you are not a Republican [or Democrat], Satan has deluded you: (a) “What are the implications of holding this belief?” (b) “If you didn’t hold this belief, what would you perceive?” (c) “What would your life be like if your abandoned this belief?”

Only the God in which I believe is true, all other gods or goddesses are false: (a) “What are the implications of holding this belief?” (b) “If you didn’t hold this belief, what would you perceive?” (c) “What would your life be like if your abandoned this belief?”

People don’t escape their prisons of belief until they reconsider the implications of holding the framework of beliefs that construct them, and discover the inherent untruth(s) that locks them into its thrall. Those who dwell in the shadow of the lie rarely question it. Those who get free have examined the underpinning of these cognitive structures and found them to be erroneous.

How Do Conspiracy Theories Arise?

By George A. Boyd ©2021

Q: How do we explain the prevalence of conspiracy theories?

A: We can look at this phenomenon from different perspectives:

  1. Targeted information triggers an innate tendency in the mind – this standpoint believes an “informational stimulus” interfaces with people’s karmic substrate and triggers an unconscious pattern. This position posits a stimulus-response mindset; if the tendency is already in the mind, the information will trigger it.
  2. Intentional influence – In this point of view, influencers manipulate people’s unconscious mind through specific words or images: they prey upon people’s desires, fears, hatred, guilt and shame to evoke emotions and to stir them to take action. You see this used in advertising; those with a political or religious agenda also utilize this strategy.
  3. Awakening negative character traits – This view holds that certain individuals only respond to the message of the conspiracy theory because it stirs innate character traits in them. The message draws out the mental aberrations of people with dark triad personality patterns—paranoia, antisocial, and Machiavellian traits—or borderline personality disorder. This perspective suggests that those who believe in conspiracy theories would have high levels of these associated personality disorders.
  4. Genetic substrate – This position holds that people’s response to a conspiracy theory is an inborn predisposition to process information in a non-linear, irrational way. In this perspective, people who believe in conspiracy theories potentially have different neurological wiring.
  5. Learned beliefs – This perspective holds that conspiracy theories are constructed. What people learn about a conspiracy theory consists of an array of beliefs that conform to their unconscious fears and desires. These irrational beliefs, with skilled intervention, can be deconstructed through psychotherapy or deprogramming.
  6. Splitting – In this stance, conspiracy theories evoke psychological splitting of people’s worldview into black and white, good and evil—and those who hold this mindset cannot reconstruct the whole picture of those they demonize. We see these dualistic mindsets in Zoroastrian, Manichean, Christian, and Islamic sects. These world views demonize those who are labeled alien, or non-believers; those who engage in religiously proscribed behavior; or those who support views different than their own. This same dualistic polarization and demonization of opponents can similarly be found in political ideology.
  7. Immersion in thought streams – In this outlook, conspiracy theories arise from listening to the thought streams of Occult Adepts, the purveyors of nonsense from the Psychic Realm, and those who misinterpret scripture in various religious groups. This same dynamics operate in religious cults, radical political organizations, and terrorist groups. This outlook perceives that people tune into a particular inner channel of information through intuition or outer information through the media—and this message resonates with what they have come to believe is true. This information stream (a) defines what is true, (b) gives people a rationale to believe it, (c) rewards them for believing it, and (d) it urges people to take action on these new beliefs.

People are exposed to the information from proponents of a conspiracy theory. Through whatever internal processing takes place for this information—through whichever explanatory perspective among one to seven—it changes their beliefs, reframes their perspective, and leads to new behavior. We can point to certain mental operations of the unconscious mind as contributing to the adoption of conspiracy theories; the cognitive behavioral approach (perspective five — learned beliefs) gives us hope that people who become enmeshed in these delusional frames can regain their rationality again.

Those who are interested in the dynamics underlying religious influence systems may find our book, Religions, Cults, and Terrorism: What the Heck Are Doing? helpful.

We take on these layers of false beliefs in our Cult Recovery Coaching Program, which is designed for those who have been involved in religious or political cults, and want to find their authentic inner compass again. We have several articles we have written about conspiracy theories in our web log: we invite those are interested in this topic to search for these articles.

When Your Intuition and the Internet Lead You Astray

By George A. Boyd © 2021

Q: What if your intuition tells you gonzo stuff?

A: What your intuition tells you is information. This information may be true or false. Where this changes you is if:

  1. You believe it
  2. You emotionally react to it
  3. You act on the basis of the belief

If my intuition tells me there is an abominable snowman that lives in the thicket outside my house, I might consider that my intuition is playing with me.

But if I believe this is true, it affects my emotions and my behavior:

  • I might be afraid to go outside because I fear the yeti might kill me and eat me, injure me so I need to go to a hospital, or drag me off to its lair so its children can eat me.
  • I might walk out the back door, so I avoid the thicket where the yeti lives.

At issue, I have not verified the statement is true—that an abominable snowman actually lives in the thicket. If I do an exhaustive search of the thicket, and there is no trace of Mr. Yeti or his offspring, I might conclude my intuition is tripping, and I might laugh at myself for my gullibility.

When people believe something that isn’t true, it engages their emotions, and may also change their behavior.

If someone is lying to them, they may carry out what the person who is sowing this false narrative wants them to do. We see people manipulated through this means through government propaganda; misleading advertising; the speeches and writing of demagogues, cult leaders, and leaders of hate and terrorist groups. This dissemination of misinformation is rampant on the internet: one “thought leader” can introduce these falsehoods and compromise hundreds—even thousands of people—with a tweet or social media post.

Finding Out What Is True

There are four positions I can take regarding a statement is true, whether I receive it internally from my intuition, or externally through others’ communication:

  1. The statement is true – I have verified its veracity. I conclude the information is reliable.
  2. The statement is false – I have analyzed its message and I have found logical errors, or attempts to deceive me. I conclude the information is not reliable.
  3. The statements truth is unknown – I cannot verify the truth of the statement as the evidence I need to verify it is not available to me. The information may be based on the statements, opinions, testimonials, or beliefs of others, but I cannot independently verify their claims. I conclude the information is not verifiable, and withhold my belief.
  4. The statement is non-sensible and clearly false – The information appears to be the product of fantasy, delusion, or irrationality. I conclude this information is not reliable, and I reject it outright.

Let’s review these four conditions:

In condition A, I am able to prove the statement is true. If I suspect that I have termites in my house, and I find an insect that looks like a termite, I can verify that I do have termites.

In condition B, I am able to prove the statement is false. If a politician tells me that he had the largest crowd size “ever recorded” for his inauguration, and historical records and actual photos of the crowd show that it wasn’t the largest crowd, I reject his statement.

In condition C, there is not enough verifiable information to prove the statement, so I hold it as an unverifiable hypothesis. If someone tells me that there are extraterrestrial bodies in a freezer locker in a secret air force base in the Nevada desert, I have no way of verifying this is true. Maybe this is possible, but I have no way to prove it.

I rather doubt if I ask the guard at the gate of the facility is going to let me in to view them if they were there. For example, if I showed up at the west gate of the base, and told the security officer, who is armed with a high-powered, deadly-accurate automatic weapon, “Oh hi! Hey, I’ve heard that you’ve got ETs in the freezer in here? Mind if I have a look? I promise I won’t take any souvenirs!”

In condition D, the statement is so clearly a statement of fantasy that I can reject it outright. For example, if I told you, “I am Spiderman and I’m actually from the planet Venus,” you would know that I sho’ be trippin’—and you wouldn’t believe me.

Sowing of the Seed

To set up misinformation, the one seeking to disseminate it must make you believe that condition B, a false statement, is actually condition A, a true statement—that something false is true.

This commonly occurs through giving you false proof based on spurious or distorted facts—what one of the press secretaries of the Trump administration famously referred to as “alternative facts.”

Sometimes in my leisure time, I watch UFO conspiracy shows on Netflix. I listen to these reports, and I conclude, “I cannot verify this hypothesis and I suspend my belief that it is true. This is condition C.

However, if the scout ship with the grey aliens—the ones with the large heads and prominent black eyes—lands on my lawn… Three aliens come out of their vessel… they come towards me and one of them gives me a high five—or in their case, a high four, as they only have four fingers—my belief that there are space aliens has been validated. I then can say, “yes, there are space aliens: they are parked on my lawn.” This is condition A.

When people get seduced by conspiracy theories; entrapped in cults, hate and terrorist groups; or deceived by propaganda—they believe something that is false is true—and this conditions their emotions and behavior. They believe the false statement, which should be recognized as false—condition B—is actually A, verified as true.

To bring people back from this alternate reality, these false beliefs that appear to them to be true must be shown to be false. The challenge of this is that they tenaciously defend these false beliefs as “the truth.”

The “Aha Moment”

The sudden insight or realization—the “aha moment”—that makes someone realize that something they believe is false and reject it, is the catalyst that enables someone to escape their alternate reality. For them to change, they must have this realization.

For a person who is committed to a false belief:

  • You cannot argue with them. They will not listen.
  • You cannot convince them through showing them other information. They will not believe what you show them.

They must discover that it is false. Then they emerge, and awaken from the dream.

To the degree that you can catalyze this realization, you can assist them to break the spell. Our best psychotherapists and coaches can do this, once in a while.

Going back to your original question, you must verify what intuition tells you, the same way you might check out something another person tells you, or something you view on social media.

If you can’t verify it, it’s conditional—an unverified hypothesis. Perhaps if people could learn to hold more things as an unverified hypothesis, instead of wildly believing them, we would have fewer people getting lost in conspiracy theories and cults.

Those interested in learning more about the dynamics that underlie religious and political cults, you may enjoy reading our book, Religions, Cults, and Terrorism: What the Heck Are We Doing?