The realm of the esoteric, properly understood, is the dimension of depth. It is to analytical, rational consciousness what dreaming is to waking consciousness. The realm of the esoteric is the realm of ideas in all their living intensity, which can only be fully encountered not in concepts, but in living symbols.
I’m not saying material life isn’t a thing. I drink H20 and shit entropy like the rest of the species. I’m saying it’s a lot weirder than we’ve dreamt of in any of these peer-reviewed philosophies. Physics is great. I love satellites and semiconductor chips. But we are, um, aware it’s incomplete, and we can’t begin to describe more if we don’t even... See more
I know that some annoying-sounding things that mystics or Zen teachers say, about cosmic oneness or the flow of the Dao, are actually just straightforward descriptions of what the world looks like from a certain point in the contemplative path. “The original face you had before your parents were born” is a phrase that will make perfect, undeniable,... See more
So, while we don’t have any scientifically valid theory about what such “energy” could be—all traditional explanations of it make no sense to the modern understanding of physiology—we can bring a certain empirical sensibility to our experiences anyway. We can become spiritual pragmatists. We can accept “energy” and its various traditional maps in a... See more
A lot of woo is actually true.
We just lack the mental capacity, the frameworks, the language, the ease of articulation, and the consistency of evidence to make it philosophically coherent and scientifically grounded.
But we will get there.
Disregard culture... See more
Woo from people who take phenomenology, cognitive science, machine learning, and epistemology seriously of course will hit different. It's vastly more capable of self-articulation, development, testing, and consistency-checks. It's the good stuff.