Utter Nothingness (Primordial Samadhi)
Before the beginning was a cause and this cause made the decision to be. Previously, there were neither “being” nor “not-being”, only a potential to be.
You assume this precise original state almost daily! If you sleep – dreamless sleep – are you conscious that you exist? On the other hand, do you have the idea that you “not-exist”? No, and there is also “no time”, neither the question of”how long was the time before the beginning?”
Andreas Buttler “Spiritologie”
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“I’m not sick… I just got a very funny feeling. It’s like I didn’t belong here. Like if I was to let myself go, I’d disappear.”
— Twilight Zone, “And When the Sky Was Opened“
These quotes point to a limitless, ineffable “state” which we will term “Primordial Samadhi.”The key things to note are:
- You enter Primorodial Samadhi automatically via deep sleep.
- Primordial Samadhi has no being or beings, matter, energy, space or time. Nothing. Utterly nothing.
- Primordial Samadhi is the ‘base state’ and sole cause underlying all resultant effects such as matter, energy, space, time, people, places and events.
Review Questions
- Give a practical example of Primordial Samadhi.
- Is Primordial Samadhi a state of being? Why or why not?
- Arunachala Ramana, founder of HAM.com once said: “Enlightenment is freedom from being an individusal, not freedom as an individual.” Do you agree or disagree?4
Pure Being
Have you ever woken up and wondered where you were? Or who you were? Even just for an instant? Congratulations! That was a moment of Pure Being. If you have not experienced a state of consciousness other than deep sleep, waking, or dreaming, be assured it has been found by many a sage:
Just on rising up from sleep, and before seeing the objective world, there is a state of awareness which is your pure Self. That must be known.”
— Lucy Cornelssen, “Hunting the I”
The Self is pure consciousness in sleep; it evolves as ‘I’ without the ‘this’ in the transition stage; and manifests as ‘I and this’ in the waking state.
— Lucy Cornelssen, “Hunting the I”
Let’s take a look at some, shall we say, impure states of being:
- I am an American.
- I am male.
- I am a proud mother of two lovely boys.
- I am a liberal.
- I am holistic healer, raw vegan, reiki practitioner.
Did you notice “I am” at the front of all of those sentences? That “I am” is Pure Being.
“Not I am this or I am that. Simply I AM”
Vivian Zelig, AHAM.com
What was “God’s” response when Moses asked him his name? The answer was “I am that I am.”
Are you that I am? Well, kinda. You certainly have flashes of it. But flashes of it are not enough to withstand being nailed to a cross. Flashes of it will not give you the power to turn a cane into a serpent. You need to turn your 1-second experience into a 24-7 nonstop party:
This pure state momentarily intervenes between sleep and waking. If prolonged it is cosmic consciousness. This is the only passage to the realisation of the Self-shining Supreme Be-ing.
— Lucy Cornelssen, “Hunting the I”
So we’ve seen a practitioner of the Eastern spiritual arts discuss Pure Being, let’s let a Westerner put his spin on it:
Life is basically a static. Definition: A Life Static has no mass, no motion, no wavelength, no location in space or in time.It has the ability to postulate and to perceive.
— L. Ron Hubbard, “Axioms of Scientology”
Sounds like Pure Being to me. Now go get into the tank for 8 weeks for some direct research.
Reflection and Summary
So far, we have looked at two parts of human experience that don’t get much attention in the mainstream media. When was the last time that the cover of the New York Times read: “Man spends 6 hours tossing and turning in bed completely unaware of who or where he was.”When will the next Nobel Peace Prize be awared to someone who awakens from deep sleep and preserves her lack of identity and geo-sense for 24 hours without fail?
Anyway, I think you get my drift. The deep sleep and pure being states are well-known by certain parties who prefer to be at cause over their experience and to know who they really are and what they are capable of.
There are a number of approaches to enhancing your ability to function in these states. Some traditional and others modern. The purpose of this text is to present the isolation tank as yet another method to the same old goal of enlightenment by seizing the crown of turiya? What’s that? Well, who could put it better than ol’ Lucy:
Actually there is only one awareness underlying the three states of consciousness (waking, dreaming, deep sleep), being their very substance and at the same time transcending them. It is called turiya… Because of the turiya being the substance of the other three states, we can become aware of the transitional ‘I’ and in the same way we can realise turiya as our true nature: Pure awareness, never waking or sleeping, never being born or dying.
Lucy Cornelssen, “Hunting the I”
Review Questions
- Define Pure Being.
- Relate a time in your life when you experienced Pure Being
- Ramana Maharshi once said: “Sugar candy is still sweet even if it is crushed.” Apply this concept to Lucy Cornelssen’s statement about Turiya.
The Dream State
Many religious traditions place extreme emphasis on dwelling in Primordial Samadhi or Pure Being. They live in dark nunneries for decades reciting mala beads all day, flagellating themselves, fasting, meditating, and so forth.
They have no interest in the dream state or waking state. Truth and God are eternal and exist in the solid rock of Primordial Samadhi or Pure Being.
If something changes, it can’t be real.
Robert Adams
In contrast, other systems enjoy trying out various impure states of being to behold the games and problems that ensue in the dream and waking state. For instance, let’s presume I consciously dwell in the dream state (like any self-respecting shaman can) as follows:
- I am a black male (notice “black male” after “I am”. We have assumed an impure state of being).
- Black people are second-class to White people
Now let’s assume some other spiritual being is working in his dream state as follows:
- I am a white male (another impure state of being).
- White people rule and Black people suck. I’m glad I’m a cop so I can fuck them in the ass.
So now we have two subjective dream states. What objective waking state incident do you imagine happens that day? What do you suppose Trayvon Martin was dreaming the night before he was murdered? If you had shadow-walked in the astral with Eric Garner the night before he was handled with excessive force, what thought forms would you have seen?
The cycle of genesis is imagination, intention, creation, perception, experience…over and over. All of which is occurring against an aware, compassionate nospace background–the detached higher self, pure awareness!
Harry Palmer “Living Deliberately”
Before moving further let’s understand:
- Each human is 100% responsible for their waking state experience. Both victim and perpetrator imagined limited identities and both got exactly what they dreamed up.
Type Four belief systems contain intentionally created beliefs. They are created so that their creators can acquire experiences, new perspectives, and ultimately reassure themselves of their own unlimited source. This is the belief system of gods. Avatar is a Type Four belief system.
Type Four belief systems are usually temporary and changeable as there is no hard reality that they pretend to reflect. Type Four believers employ beliefs to knowingly create in the medium of experience. They believe for the purpose of experiencing. They tend to be appreciative and respectful of different belief systems, but will seldom defend any. They frequently change their beliefs to explore new possibilities and new facets of experience.
Harry Palmer “Living Deliberately”
Imagination as Truth
So yes, in Isolation Tank Gnosis, we adopt Imagination as Truth, not Primordial Samadhi or Pure Being. We like the Infinite Game and intend to play it forever.
I had a realization: Truth is relative to the point of view from which it is perceived. What I look as and where I look from determine my perception of truth.
I experienced deep compassion as I understood that everyone, from their viewpoint, is seeing truth. I think this is a key understanding for creating a harmonious civilization.
Harry Palmer “Living Deliberately”
One thing should be noted though. Many people have limited themselves with a long chain of hidden subconscious programs. They really no longer can clearly imagine. They cannot sky-walk between Primordial Samadhi, Pure Being and Impure Being / Imagination in full awareness. Therefore, they are trapped as a victim in finite games instead of having fun in an infinite game.
The isolation tank is a particular approach to rehabiliting a being to full awareness and power.
Imagination as Wasteful Mind Chatter
E. H. Shattock, an Experiment in Mindfulness
Other Planes of Consciousness
The Quiet Center (Turiya)
The Zone
Life State Review
There are pictures of me as a child, but I was not there controlling that body. Yet, somehow it functioned just fine without me thinking and worrying about it and hating others because of it like I do now.
Terrence Brannon
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Enlightenment is freedom from being an individual, not freedom as an individual.
Arunachala Ramana, AHAM.com
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