Concerning Transformational Imagination

Posted on February 26, 2023 by George Boyd

Q: Isn’t spiritual work just imagination and none of this is real?

A: Genuine spiritual work is the activity of transformational imagination. To understand what this is, it is important to look at the spectrum of imagination:

Sensory imagination – This is the ability to manipulate three-dimensional objects in space through visualization. Architects visualize a building; scientists imagine what a dinosaur looked like; designers mock up a finished product; game designers picture a virtual reality scenario.

Desire-laden imagination – This experiences the native language of the unconscious mind, which is called fantasy. These are elements of the unconscious that are not allowed expression in human life; they have not been integrated, so they operate in the background of normal awareness. The unconscious includes emotionally charged elements such as fear, anger, shame, guilt, hated, envy, jealousy, grief, lust, greed, addictive craving, attachment, and narcissism—these are called the passions.

Psychotherapy works with people to uncover and integrate intrapsychic elements of this type of imagination through a variety of evocative techniques.

Recovery groups also have people work on elements that arise from this level of the mind that are relevant to their addiction.

Goal-oriented imagination – This is the ability to visualize the outcome of goals. These visions of the future powerfully motivate behavior and substand the drive to succeed at the level of the personality. Goal-oriented imagination is also referred to as a personal dream of what someone wants to achieve.

Metaphysical imagination – This is the ability to imagine what a spiritual state of being may be like. This type of imagines what heaven would be like, how they might be when they reach a certain state of consciousness, and what it would be like to have certain spiritual powers.

This type of imagination is highly speculative, and overvalues and distorts the objects of its speculation. This type is also called glamour. It is commonly associated with the Psychic Realm.

Religious imagination – This type of imagination attempts to interpret scriptures and religious ideas without gaining insight into the actual meaning of what these sources communicate. In Christianity, for example, it generates elaborate fantasies about the Second Coming of the Savior, the Rapture, the Last Judgment, visions of the future (eschatology), and the subjugation of society to its religious dominion and demand for global adoption of its values and beliefs.

Without the development of discernment, this type of imagination can readily degenerate into distorted and paranoid beliefs that give rise to conspiracy theories.

This type is commonly associated with groups that identify with the Moon Soul nucleus of identity in the First Exoteric Planetary Initiation.

Creative imagination – This is the expression of the gifts of the Soul through the personality. This is usually associated with artistic media, literature, and invention, but it can express in other areas like cooking, interior design, gardening, and comedy. The ability to share the gifts of the Soul has been called talent, genius, or giftedness.

Transformational imagination – This type of imagination is based on the ability of the attentional principle to visualize and use intention to engage in inner work to generate transformation of the ensouling entity, to travel in full consciousness on the inner Planes, to make attunements for healing and guiding, and to perform spiritual ministry and initiation.

Because this type of imagination cannot be empirically verified, it is often portrayed as fantasy or self-delusion. In actuality, it is the foundation of genuine spiritual development. Students of Integral meditation are trained to activate and utilize this type of imagination, which enables them to fully actualize their spiritual potentials.

We suggest that developing sensory imagination, goal-oriented imagination, creative imagination, and transformational imagination will help you actualize your personal and spiritual potentials. Moreover, it will be valuable for you to have tools to work with the issues arising from desire-laden imagination, and to develop your wisdom and discernment so you are not entrapped in the illusions and delusions of metaphysical and religious imagination.

Those who wish to learn how to use the methods of transformational imagination that activate your attentional principle can start this process in our intermediate courses, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation or the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program.

The Gentle Art of Slipping into an Alternate Reality

Posted on June 17, 2022 by George Boyd

Q: So many people today seem caught up in an alternate reality. They are lost in conspiracy theories, swept away in cults, or they just believe really strange things. Are there some markers to indicate that someone is slipping into an alternate reality?

A: Perceptual and cognitive changes mark someone entering an alternate reality. Some of these markers that you may see include:

Perceptual anomaly – Things seem strange or different. Your world has changed; you may not be able to put your finger on what has changed.
Derealization – The initial experience of the world seeming strange morphs into a global sense that the world around you is unreal. The actors in the world seem like robots. You may view the world as if it was a matrix-like computer animation.
Depersonalization – As this trance-like migration from reality continues, you may sense your own life seems unreal. You may question the motivations to which you have dedicated your efforts—whether your education or career choices make sense anymore, or if your dreams are really worthwhile to pursue.
Mindset shift – At this step in the journey into an alternate reality, you reach a state of delusional conviction. A demagogue or a cult leader may convince you that you have been lied to—and this person will then promise to tell you the truth that has been hidden from you. They will program you into believing their warped version of reality, so that you look to them to inform you about what is really going on the in world. You may begin to have spurious signs that indicate the truth of what they are saying. You may have delusional “revelations” that prove to you that they are telling you the truth.
Identity shift – At this stage, you will have entered that alternate reality and identify with it. You believe alternative facts about the world you have been told. You now live in the alternate reality and have disidentified with your former life. You now orient your life with new relationships with those who belong to this group, and look to the leader of this group to guide you.
Delusional contagion – When you become established in the alternate reality, you may attack others who do not believe in your new worldview. You may attempt to convert others to join you in your delusional mindset and alternate reality.
Paranoia – If you stay in this state of altered awareness for long enough, you may begin to resort to magical thinking. You believe you can simply wish for what your want and it will manifest. You embrace a feeling that you are omnipotent and can simply create what you want. If people push back on your beliefs, you may feel you are under attack—that others are trying to undermine your movement and drag you back into the matrix—and you can become paranoid at this stage. Alternately, you can continue to believe you are all-powerful; you become grandiose and arrogant.

When people undergo disruptive loss or experience trauma, they may become temporarily uprooted from the established routine of their lives. This can move people into stage three—they are not sure what is true anymore. They question their lives. They question their faith.

It is these people who have had these disruptive experiences that become vulnerable to the demagogues, the cult leaders, the terrorist and hate group recruiters, or the media influencers that introduce them into the mindset, and ultimately, lead them to identification with a movement anchored in an alternate reality.

Q: You mentioned cognitive changes. Can you be more specific with what happens to people’s thinking and belief when they become caught up in an alternate reality?

A: People who are grounded and anchored in their lives have seamless integration between their ego, their Self, and their Soul. The ego is the experiencer of the events of your human life; the Self is the decision maker that decides what path to follow and what goals to pursue; and the Soul expresses its gifts and genius—its super powers—through your life. These three work together: there is little internal conflict and you make progress towards your goals.

As people begin to drift off into an alternate reality, we see a corresponding shift in their cognition—in their thinking and beliefs:

Empirical – Thinking is grounded in observation and experience. Your beliefs are consensually validated; you restrict your beliefs to what you can verify.
Speculative – This type of thinking introduces “what if” and “what might be” scenarios for your consideration. It extrapolates from facts and infers what might be someone’s motivation, or what might be possible if someone did things differently. Used constructively, it can promote positive change or catalyze new insights. Used destructively, it can undermine a person’s sense of identity and meaning—it can attack their ego and their sense of who they are—and this can make people more susceptible to the influence of those who seek to establish them in an alternate reality.
Interpretive – This type of thinking reflects upon the meaning of symbols and events. Symbols are templates of meaning: you can attribute almost any meaning to a symbol. This private interpretation helps you make sense of your world, and enables you to construct a coherent philosophy and a set of congruent values. When you begin to adopt others’ interpretations of symbols and events, you may begin to drift into the mindset established in an alternate reality.
Fixed conviction – One of the signs you have entered the world of an alternate reality is when you begin to have a belief that cannot be verified empirically, and it is not amenable to refutation or criticism. You may consider these convictions as ultimate truths, articles of faith, or sacred revelations that cannot be questioned. If these core convictions have been dictated to you by a demagogue, a cult leader, or a leader of a terrorist or hate group, you may become increasing under their control.
Dissociative – At this stage, you become detached from reality and enter into a trance-like state. Your belief is based on a perception in an altered state of awareness, and may be subject to distortion. If you receive ideas while you are in an altered state of awareness, moreover, you can become extremely suggestible and believe whatever you are told.
Revelatory – As detachment and dissociation with your life and reality is sustained, you may begin to receive communications from a noumenal being—a spirit, a guide, or an angel—or you might receive a purported revelation from the Divine. These types of beliefs have no rational basis and cannot be verified. The most fantastic notions can be conveyed in these encounters with Spirit World.
Identity distortion – At this stage, you adopt a false identity state, divorced from your native grounding in ego, Self, and Soul. You might identify as a nucleus of identity or a spiritual essence that is not aligned with your innate being. In other cases, you might believe a grandiose delusion that you are a world savior or embodiment of another archetype.

In those who embrace conspiracy theories, we commonly see that they tap into stages four, five, and six—many demonstrate fixed conviction and dissociative trance states; some are also having revelations that confirm their delusional beliefs. Cult leaders may additionally induce identity distortion in their followers.

Those who are trying to come back from their involvement with cults and prolonged immersion in an alternate reality may find our Cult Recovery Coaching Program helpful to re-own your life, your genuine values, and your sense of life direction and purpose.

Breaking Out of the Prison of Belief

Posted on January 14, 2022 by George Boyd

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?

Posted on January 7, 2022 by George Boyd

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

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

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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

Posted on January 1, 2022 by George Boyd

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:

You believe it
You emotionally react to it
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:

The statement is true – I have verified its veracity. I conclude the information is reliable.
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.
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.
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?