proving or disproving God .... or not - part 6: the ultimate experiment

So using the scientific method to experiment on your own psyche to determine if there is anything real at the core of all existence is a pretty daunting excursion. And as we noted in the previous post, one could make numerous genuine attempts and still not find the method which correlates to your own personal mental/emotional/psychological/ experiential/ spiritual makeup.

But can we at least examine those who have completed this internal process.

Well, the first problem is: how do we know the genuine from the many pretenders? Assuming you even find someone who has had the legitimate experience and not just a psychological mind trip, how would you know how to know the difference?You pretty much would have to have had the experience to recognize the real ones from the innumerable un-real ones. Which puts us back at square one.

But supposing that theoretically we could get over that rather formidable obstacle, the next problem is that those who have made this journey generally have absolutely no interest whatsoever in proving that experience to anyone. They will sometimes be willing to help others make the journey, providing that person is really prepared for a tremendously challenging inner expedition. But they don't explain themselves, and you'll not be able to do any investigation at all by talking to them. They sure as hell wouldn't let you attach electrodes to their head and are utterly uninterested in publicity.

The one conclusion that can be reached from the accounts of the very rare genuine sages, saints, walis, and perfect ones, who have actually achieved the permanent experience of ultimate reality, and returned to speak or write about it, is that journey cannot be articulated, proved, comprehended, or conceived of, only experienced. You can be guided through the process which will result finally in the experience of ultimate reality, but you can't just stand outside of the process and have it explained.

They also are in agreement that you can't even make the journey if all you want is an intellectual confirmation. The process will completely turn your mind-emotions-psyche inside out. You've got to be damned determined to undergo a complete transformation of everything and anything you've ever thought of as your "self".

This is clearly an entirely different process of inquiry than that used for experimentation and conclusions about external phenomena. As I said in the previous post, processes of inquiry designed to ascertain conclusions for one set of variables can't be used to determine conclusions for a different set of variables. Inquiry into God, spirit, transcendent Reality, ultimate Truth, requires a completely different order of experimentation, a different method of investigation.

Methods designed for external observation and intellectual explanations cannot arrive at accurate conclusions when applied to the experience of those who leap into the darkness of the soul to encounter That which, in and of Itself, transcends all things, encompasses all things and inhabits all things.


So what about the relationship between experience and knowledge? See the next blog.