Chapter 8. Applying Transcendendal Feedback Phenomenology (TFP): The analysis of consciousness during the sacred experience of the Dark Night of the Soul or Purgation until the traumatic release of an earlier trauma has been carefully described and analyzed.

8.1. Phenomenological Reduction: System dynamics analysis of purgation and its relationship to mystical union.

8.1.1: Figure 2: The noema or flow diagram for purgation: A system dynamics model for core consciousness during purgation or Dark Night:

The present system dynamics (SD) flow diagram for the purgation phase of PMU-16 is shown in Figure 2 below. It was obtained from steps 1 to 6 of the recursive TFP method or procedure shown at Chapter 7.4. Husserl's name for the flow diagram is noema; the rates, auxiliaries, and table functions are called hyle (Follesdal 1998). Stocks or state variables are associated with intentional objects. For example, the two stocks, KnotsInHeart and HeartOpeness, together represent the core of the intentional object, called a somatosensory mental image. The mathematical model associated with the flow diagram can be accessed at this link or at Chapter 8.1.4 below.


8.1.2: The architecture of the flow diagram for purgation:

The architecture of the flow diagram shown in Figure 2 has a quickly operating (milleseconds to seconds) parallel processing cognitive mechanism in the upper sector that interacts with a relatively slow system (seconds to hours) in the lower sector that is felt to be much more embodied than the cognitive mechanism. The former originates in the thalamocortical system and is nonconscious; the latter originates in the limbic-brain stem and neurocirculatory system and is mostly conscious. Jackendoff (1987) called the former the computational mind and the latter the phenomenological mind. Communication between these two sectors of the model is provided by the transducers or transition variables:
  1. The variables, NaturalAttention and WilledAttention, are transducers communicating from the phenomenological mind to the cognitive mechanism or computational mind.
  2. The variable, PrayerTrueness, is the transducer communicating from the cognitive mechanism to the phenomenological mind.
These transcducers are conscious, but didn't appear to really be under my control. Rather, FearDeathDueToKnot was driving WilledAttention and KnotsInHeart was driving NaturalAttention. WilledAttention usually dominates NaturalAttention in its ability to increase AttentionalFocus. However, when KnotsInHeart = 0 NaturalAttention is able to dominate WilledAttention and, hence, dominate AttentionalFocus and the the decrease in short term memory retention time (STMRetentionTime).

Representations for my consciousness are located in the lower sector. The core of the somatosensory mental image is represented by the stocks, HeartOpenness and KnotsInHeart. The hyletic variables include such variables as FearDeathDueToKnot, PsychicStress, ForgivenessResponse, etc., and the set of feedback loops associated with them. The 11 variables representing the nonconscious cognitive mechanism are located in the upper part of the model, above a semicircle that goes just above KnotOriginInsight, AttentionalFocus, and PsychicEnergyFactor. This cognitive mechanism sector is mostly invented. It is only modeled phenomenologically where it is designed to integrate with the phenomenological sector. It incorporates the concept of redundancy from engineering: The background processor is always available in case of a temporary failure in the primary processor. The cognitive mechanism also incorporates Miller's (1956) concepts from information theory concerning channel capacity, recoding, and 'the magical number seven.' In addition it also incorporates the retrieval accuracy of short term memory concept developed by Schouten and Bekker (1967) and critiqued by Wickelgren (1979) and Luce (1986).

In lieu of definitions for the core consciousness variables (see Chapter 7.2.3), tentative definitions of each are given in the mathematical model. The constants in the equations and the table functions have been tuned to give an accurate simulation of my consciousness during the 10-hour Dark Night or purgative stage right up to the moment just preceding mystical union. (See step 6 of the 10-step TFP procedure in Chapter 7.4). Of the 38 variables, 23 are aspects of core consciousness. The simulations of these 23 aspects of consciousness are all simultaneous. For example, simultaneously, the mystic-to-be, myself, was conscious of various changing aspects of his core consciousness: an opening pressure within his heart, an opening heart, the presence of a knot in his heart, a rising of the level of fear of death, psychic stress, intensity of his prayer, attentional focus, etc. Neuroimaging confirms this: Many parts of the brain are operating simultaneously during an experience.

8.1.3: Dynamics associated with purgation:

When I compare the maximum openness of my heart during PMU-16, HeartOpenness=100%, with its openness in my normal life, I estimate that at Time=0 HeartOpenness was stable at 5% of maximum possible openness. In addition I estimate a stable set of twelve KnotsInHeart at Time=0. These initial value are shown at Time=0 in Figure 1 in Chapter 3, above. Then, at Time=0 the phenomenological mind undergoes a change in such a way that OpeningPressure jumps from its NormalOpeningPressure of 5% all the way up to 80%. This is reflected by the fact that I have programmed AdditionalOpeningPressure to go from 0 to 75% at Time=0. To understand the initial dynamics of the model at this point, keep in mind that the flow diagram in Figure 2 and its mathematical model that produces the simulations for the 10-hour experience of PMU-16 is only one subdivision of what will eventually be a larger multisubdivision flow diagram of either the five-year religious crisis or the entire 70+ year lifetime. Therefore, I assume the step input in AdditionalOpeningPressure comes from either a shift in loop dominance (Forrester 1985) or a bifurcation (Strogatz 1994) associated with one of the projected, but not yet modeled, adjacent system dynamics subdivisions. This step input causes limbic-brain stem variables in Figure 2, such as HeartOpenness, PsychicStress, FearDeathDueToKnot, KnotsInHeart and the like, to change from a stable state to a 16-hour transient state, all coordinated by the mental imagery and the memories at the core of the feedback structure.

KnotsInHeart, HeartOpenness, and the three memories in the cognitive mechanism are modeled using what mathematicians call state variables. In SD terminology they are called stocks or levels or accumulations. Each stock has the characteristic of accumulation, analogous to a bathtub accumulating water. Example: 'How open is the heart at this moment?' is analogous to 'How full of water is the bathtub now?' ForgivenessResponse, HeartUnfoldmentRate, PrimaryInformationProcessingRate, and BackgroundInformationProcessingRate are examples of rates. Each acts like either the bathtub's inlet or outlet faucet. In a STELLA (Richmond 1992) display of the flow diagram, such as in Figure 2 above, the direction of flow of the rate is determined by the unshaded arrow. For example, HeartUnfoldmentRate causes HeartOpenness to increase its opening. It acts like a bathtub inlet faucet. Whereas, ForgivenessResponse acts like a drain, causing KnotsInHeart to decrease its number of knots. The smaller arrows associated with auxiliaries, rates, and table functions indicate causation. For example, the arrows coming from the auxiliary variables PrayerTrueness and PrayerIntensity and pointing at the auxiliary PrayerQuality indicate that the first two variables determine the value of PrayerQuality at any time. Specifically, the mathematical model gives the following definition of PrayerQuality:

PrayerQuality = 0.5*(PrayerTrueness + PrayerIntensity) ............equation 1

(The complete mathematical model for purgation is shown below at Chapter 8.1.4.)

When PrayerQuality reaches 100%, which is the 'forgiveness threshold', the ForgivenessResponse is triggered and one KnotInHeart is removed in a ratchet-like fashion. To make this examination of the dynamics of knot removal more specific, let us call this the fourth from last knot. Action then shifts to a negative feedback loop associated with HeartOpenness: The removal of this fourth from last knot has the effect of both slightly unsealing the soul (inverse of SealmentOfSoul) and slightly loosening the restricted or rigid or tight heart (HeartRigidityFactor). The former causes PsychicStress to decrease rapidly, which then causes the HeartUnfoldmentRate valve to open. This caused HeartOpenness to fill or open further, causing PsychicStress to rise again as the heart begins to encounter the next knot: the third from last knot. As a result FearDeathDueToKnot, and then PrayerIntensity, and WillfulAttention, begin to rise again. The rise in fear and attention leads to a shift in loop dominance: Action shifts to the cognitive mechanism, which acts in this particular instance as part of a negative feedback loop concerned with problem solving (Ellis 1995.) The psychic energy, fear, and attention driven PrimaryInformationProcessingRate in the cognitive mechanism speeds up, leading to an increase in KnotOriginInsight. This increasing insight is concerned with the solution to the following problem: What is the particular sin, guilt, or hatred that is at the origin of the third from last knot? The gradual solution to this problem and its gradual acceptance lead to greater PrayerTrueness and then increasing PrayerQuality until the latter reaches the 'forgiveness threshold,' triggering the ForgivenessResponse again. Then, the third from last knot is removed and the second from last or next to last knot cycle begins.

8.1.4. The mathematical model for purgation:

Use a DT of .005 minutes.

8.1.5: A closer look at the knot removal mechanism:

Figure 3: Two-minute simulation of 4 of the 23 aspects of core consciousness during the Dark Night of the Soul or purgation:

(The simulation in Figure 3 below focuses in on a critical two-minute period of the roughly one-hour unstable region that was shown in Figure 1 in Chapter 3. Accuracy of the numbers is not absolute, but I consider the changing horizon of the various aspects of core consciousness to be accurate. The simulation is based on the flow diagram of Figure 2 and the above mathematical model.)

Figure 3 above shows a simulation of an intense two-minute period of the Dark Night of the Soul or purgation. It is part of the 60 minute unstable period (555 to 615 minute mark). During those two minutes the 5th, 4th, and 3rd knots in the heart are purged. For example, the 4th from the last knot is removed at the 607.84 minute mark as shown by curve 1. Then begins the 3rd from last knot period, a 47 second period from the 607.84 to the 608.63 minute mark, during which curve 4, FearDeathDueToKnot, rises because of rising PsychicStress caused by the heart opening against a knot restriction. This fear and trembling associated with a rising FearDeathDueToKnot leads to a rise in PrayerIntensity. When a rising PrayerIntensity approaches 100% it is like the prayer of a drowning man who believes that God will save him at the last moment if only his prayer is true. In behavioristic terms this 'sets' the ForgivenessResponse. PrayerTrueness represents the insightful quality of focused prayer. [Its simulation and PrayerIntensity's simulation are not shown in Figure 3.] PrayerQuality, shown as curve 2, is made up of both PrayerIntensity and PrayerTrueness [see equation 1 above at section 8.1.3].

At the end of this 47 second period - just before the removal of the 3rd from last knot at the 608.63 minute mark - the culminating point of the 3rd knot removal period occurs when, in fear and trembling, the mystic-to-be accepts in the depths of his heart the deep insight into his sin, hatred, or guilt. This high value of PrayerTrueness is what is needed to bring PrayerQuality to 100%, the 'forgiveness threshold,' and trigger the quick, on/off action of the ForgivenessResponse: This causes the removal of one knot, the 3rd from last knot, at the 608.63 minute mark.

Then PsychicStress and FearDeathDueToKnot drop suddenly from a very high value all the way down to close to zero. At that relatively peaceful, blissful, and rapturous state there is thankfulness to the Lord. This thankfulness comes about because the blessed Lord has answered his earnest prayer, granted forgiveness, and thus saved the pilgrim from impending death due to the stress, fear, and anxiety caused by the presence of the third from last knot. The Christian mystic, John of the Cross (1574), gives us an idea of this rapture and thankfulness to God in an excerpt from his poem, Dark Night of the Soul:

"Forgetful of myself,
My head reclined on my Beloved,
The world was gone
And all my cares at rest,
Forgotten all my grief among the lilies."
Then the 2nd or next to last knot period begins, as the cycle repeats itself in this purgation or dark night of the soul. Meanwhile, TruenessOfMind (curve 3) is rising inexorably as the knots are purged, leading eventually to mystical union after the last knot is removed.

8.1.6. Dynamics associated with mystical union (tentative):

The flow diagram incorporates an insight that is based on my experience of PMU-16: Mystical union cannot occur by WilledAttention. It can only occur when the heart has been purged of all knots. Certain schools of 'meditation' claim that mystical union can be obtained by great concentration of the will. I disagree with this claim as follows: An exogenous variable, Will (not incorporated into the model yet), could drive WilledAttention to the point where PrimaryInfoProcessingRate shuts down and the sense of inner time ceases. However, this does not cause mystical union, because there are still knots in the heart, e.g. KnotsInHeart is not zero. It is possible that a timeless state and the stopping of sentience could be attained by will, but the heart would be unchanged.

This insight brings into play a concept I am calling NaturalAttention. It works like this: Toward the end of the purgation at the 615 minute mark the last or twelfth knot had been purged from my heart and the heart was opening, paced by a delay time in the variable, TruenessOfMind. Because KnotsInHeart=0 now, the intensity of PsychicStress and hence FearDeathDueToKnot and hence WilledAttention had all drop to zero. AttentionalFocus was increasing now only because of a rise in NaturalAttention. The rise in NaturalAttention had resulted from a pure, knot-free heart (KnotsInHeart = 0) that had caused TruenessOfMind to go into a deep and powerful exponential rise. This resulted in an increasing NaturalAttention and then increasing AttentionalFocus, which caused a steadily decreasing of the STMRetentionTime in short term memory (STM) or working memory. As the STMRetentionTime decreased, RetrievalAccuracy associated with short term memory decreased until it eventually reached the 'insufficient accuracy' shutoff point, triggering the PrimaryInformationProcessor in the cognitive mechanism to shut down at the 617 minute mark. However, because of redundancy built into the cognitive mechanism, it immediately switched over to the BackgroundProcessor. The shutdown in the PrimaryProcessor caused the cessation of all sentience or inner sense, including the inner sense of time, the ability to think, to imagine, to will, and to make immediate recall. My conjecture here is that these are associated solely with that part of the mind's operation that is processed by what I am calling the primary processor. At the moment of shutdown, and for the next 4 to 7 seconds, I found myself in mystical union. This is indicated when the value of the artificial output variable, ReadinessForUnion, goes off to a very high value.

8.1.7. The background processor (tentative):

The cessation of operation of the primary processor during the state of mystical union left me without the sense of inner time and the ability to think, imagine, will, and make immediate recall. However, during this state the cognitive system associated with the background processor - working automatically - allowed me to be timelessly aware of the holy Ground for a duration of from 4 to 7 seconds. This state of unsurpassable greatness is experienced within the heart and soul. The name the experiencer gives for this unsurpassable greatness depends on his or her native culture. The experience is the same; the name varies: God, Brahman, Allah, The Holy Grail, etc.

The background processor processes and records into LongTermMemory2 details about the experiencer's awareness of the divine Ground. Later, when I descended from the state of mystical union and correspondingly the primary processor returned to operation, I could use the primary processor to recall the information recorded by the background processor about mystical union. I then had the opportunity to endlessly examine that experience, because the information processed and stored in LongTermMemory2 is preconscious. Such information is permanently available for conscious recall.

Not only is the mind aware of the divine Ground in mystical union, it is also apprehending the ego-ideal or what Plato called the Forms: supreme trueness, freedom, integrity, grounding, love. As the mind is aware of and apprehending the state of mystical union, the cognitive mechanism is utilizing what I am calling the background processor. The Watcher that is aware of and apprehends consciousness during mystical union has been known of from time immemorial. Husserl appears to have called it the pure ego. Hindus have called it the purusha or saksin (Hiriyanna 1932); ancient Greeks have called it nous (Guthrie 1978, Aristotle 1941); Spinoza (1982) called it: 'that part of the mind that is eternal.'

8.2. Transition Stage in the TFP Reduction: Transition from the Phenomenological Reduction to the Transcendental Reduction:

8.2.1. How somatosensory mental imagery appears in the mind:

The following quote from Sherrington (1906) gives the key neurophysiological basis for the somatosensory mental image associated with PMU-16:
" ...the contractions of particular sets of muscles in the heart must entail the suppression of activity of other muscles for coordinated movements of the heart to emerge."
Inhibition or suppression of muscles in the heart are caused by neuro signaling originating in the parasympathetic nervous system. These muscles could possibly be associated with neural stretch receptors located at one or more locations or regions of the heart. The action of these muscles were represented by my imagination simply as a knot in my heart. The SD model, via the flow diagram in Figure 2, converts that suppression of muscles to the stock or state variable, KnotsInHeart. The contraction of muscles, which cause opening movements in the heart, was represented by my imagination as an opening of the heart. SD converts that image of an opening heart to the stock, HeartOpenness. These contractions are caused by neurosignaling originating in the sympathetic nervous system. The imagination then generates a somatosensory mental image (not a visual mental image). This somatosensory mental image was one of the intentional object of my consciousness during PMU-16.

The image was both dynamic and orderly, because what Damasio (1999) calls the proto-self is constantly monitoring the body's inner states. In this case the proto-self is monitoring the movements of these sets of heart muscles. The imagination, which perhaps also gets signals from the protoself, then generates an image that has its neurophysiological correlates in antagonistic sets of heart muscles. This physical basis for the mental image gives orderliness to the dynamic functioning of the somatosensory mental imagery, allowing it to be modeled using SD. It is the internal analogue to Helmholtz's (1971) insights on the orderliness of dynamic visual mental imagery produced by moving external objects.

Thought and imagination then add more detail to the somatosensory mental image: My mostly nonconscious understanding had spent some period of time on the airplane from LA to Boston and in my rooms in Boston [see the narrative of PMU-16 in Chapter 2] feeling and exploring the beginning of this novel somatosensory mental image. Eventually enough feeling-type data was collected in memory to allow my imagination to - mostly unconsciously - plan or create the following scenario: The dynamics of the entire mental image that appears in my mind is an opening heart that is restrained by a sequence of knots in my heart that need to be untied one by one as my heart opens. These knots are to be represented by my imagination as a collection of sins, guilts, hatreds, or grievious errors. The untying is to be accomplished through prayer and forgiveness.

This hyletic, feeling-type data, is added to the core of the image, KnotsInHeart and HeartOpenness, to form the rich somatosensory mental imagery for purgation. Husserl called the hyletic, feeling-type data 'filling;' he called the scenario the 'constitution of objective time.' The sociologist, Alfred Schutz, was a close friend and collaborator with Husserl. In Schutz's (1962b) terminology such a scenario for planning an act is called a 'covert action'; the phantasizing of the scenario is called 'projecting'; and the actual execution of the 'covert action' or scenario is the 'act'. Thus, the act, here, is the actual removal of the knots, one by one, during the one hour period that just preceded mystical union.

Thus, the mental image is one of the basic building blocks of consciousness (Ellis 1995) during PMU-16. The other mental image appears to be the archetype of Death (see Chapter 8.2.2. just below).

8.2.2. Purgation's critical fork in the road to mystical union: The relationship of mental imagery and problem solving to the stabilization of the anxious and overstressed mind.

By creating the above scenario and its associated dynamic somatosensory mental image, my imagination had designed a structure with enough leeway in it to enable a precise integration of the imagery with the movements of my antagonistic heart muscles. With that flexible structure available, my mind was no longer overwhelmed by the moment to moment dynamics. Most of the huge amounts of novel information I was dealing with during PMU-16 could be 'compressed and stored' in the mental image.

Now, I could focus on the most pressing problems associated with PMU-16. These pressing problems desperately needed immediate attention:

My conjecture is that the somatosensory mental image and the archetype, with their ability to compress and store information for the scenario, together with the grace of being granted forgiveness, led me to the way toward mystical union rather than the way toward a psychotic episode. (Deikman 1971).

8.2.3. Problem solving and the emergence of the mental image.

Further reflections on the experience of PMU-16 reveal that core consciousness and its associated thought, emotion, feeling, and somatosensory mental imagery arose in my mind in response to a problem (Ellis 1995). The problem was not pain, just a hard-to-describe intense opening pressure. The pressing initial problem I presented to myself was: What has caused this arousal in my heart? In great anxiety I asked myself: How long will it last? Will it ever end? Am I going to die? Without these problems the stress, fear, and anxiety components of my consciousness, perhaps, would not have arisen. Perhaps, my state of mind would have remained relatively unconscious and problem free. Perhaps, this problem solving is what causes the cognitive mechanism (thalamocortical system) and the phenomenal mind (limbic brainstem and neurocirculatory system) to work together to produce dynamic consciousness.

8.2.4. Intentional inexistence:

The somatosensory mental image for PMU-16, the heart opening against knots, brings out the subtlety of the mind and imagination: This somatosensory mental image is called an intentional object, because throughout the 10-hours of purgation consciousness was essentially about the mental image of the heart opening against knots. This mental or intentional object is not a physical object. Brentano (1874) called this characteristic of intentional objects 'intentional inexistence.' However, one must be careful here: Eventually, when the physical reduction of PMU-16 was performed, as explained above, it revealed that the mental image does ultimately have neurophysiological correlates: Its reification in antagonistic heart muscles. Nevertheless, the mental image itself does not physically exist as such. It only exists intentionally. Hence, it has intentional inexistence. (Let me note in passing that from the above insights I take the position that all of consciousness, including mental images and archetypes, must ultimately have neurophysiological correlates.)

8.2.5. Figure 4: Basic circuits of the central nervous system (CNS):

[Modification of Figure 1.3 from Stein (1982)]

Figure 4 below gives insights into how a somatosensory mental image could be reified in the CNS. It indicates how a forgiveness response located in the spinal cord, antagonistic heart muscles, and the thalamocortical system could work together to condition the mystic: Compare the flow diagram in Figure 2 with this drawing.


8.3. Miscellaneous Transcendental Reductions:

8.3.1. Neurophysiological Reduction:

(A neurophysiologist, rather than a rank amateur like myself, could greatly improve this section.)

8.3.1.1. The variables in the lower sector represent consciousness or the phenomenological mind.

These variables represent the feeling that the heart is opening against a restriction or knot. The knot causes restrictions to the opening of the heart and causes stress. When stress is rapidly rising to high levels, anxiety (fear without an object) and fear of death develops. This leads to prayer. Ten hours later at the end of the dark night all restrictions or knots have been released through forgiveness and the heart is fully open; all stress, fear, and anxiety have vanished. What could be the neurophysiological correlates of this deep traumatic sequence?

Neurophysiologists, such as LeDoux (1996), now know that stress, fear, and anxiety have their neurophysiological correlates in an archaic part of the brain called the limbic-brainstem system, particularly the amygdala and its central and lateral nucleuses and the stria terminalis. The central nucleus of the amygdala has projections to the autonomic nervous system, including nerves associated with the heart, particularly the vagus nerve. However, the sequence for purgation goes in the opposite direction: During my experience of purgation the heart opened against a restriction first, then stress, anxiety, and fear arose. Nevertheless, because of the bidirectionality of neuronal signaling in the amygdala (Guyton 1991), it is possible that there are also projections from the vagus nerve to the amygdala. It may be possible that this prediction could be tested (see Chapter 8.4.3 below).

8.3.1.2. The upper sector of the model, called the computational mind by Jackendoff (1987), represents thought processing:

This cognitive mechanism includes variables such as processing rate, working memory, and retention time in working memory. These have their neural correlates in the thalamocortical system.

8.3.1.3. The transducers are intermediaries between the above two sectors: These transducers bring about an integration and coordination between the two sectors.

The transducers are represended by the two key variables for prater and attention, PrayerTrueness and AttentionalFocus. According to LaBerge, attentional processing is associated with the superior colliculus and the thalmus.

8.3.1.4. Conjecture concerning blood flow in the vascular network:

During stress, fear, and anxiety hormones [chemicals, peptides] are released. These hormones could increase cardiac output, dilate blood vessels, increase blood pressure, and increase oxygenization of the lungs. This would allow the cardiovascular system to greatly increase its ability to irrigate the organism with nutrients, remove debris, and, hence, bring the system up to optimum functionality. This would have the purpose of preparing the organism and its nervous system for the experience of mystical union. This conjecture is prompted by the fact that I was internally driven to drink huge amounts of water during purgation while I was on the flight from Los Angeles to Boston [see the excerpt from An Engineer's Story at Chapter 2]. A Guyton Model analysis could eventually confirm or reject this conjecture. The Guyton model (1972, 1973, 1980) was briefly discussed in Chapter 7.3.2.

8.3.2. Behavioristic Subreduction.

8.3.2.1. Conditioned learning:

The flow diagram for PMU-16 details the autonomous mental imagery, ideation, and mediating processes between a stimulus and a response that provides the mystic-to-be with the conditioned learning needed to become a mystic (compare Figure 2 with Figure 4). There are an estimated twelve cycles of autonomous conditioned learning that is centered around the ForgivenessResponse. These twelve cycles of purgation are nested within one cycle of consummatory reinforcement due to mystical union.

The sensory receptor of the stimulus (see Figure 4) is AdditionalOpeningPressure. It sends signals which cause a somatosensory stimulation of heart muscles driven by both the parasympathetic and the sympathetic system. This stimulation tends to increase cardiac output (HeartOpenness). Of course, the parasympathetic system opposes this tendency (KnotsInHeart). This antagonistic stimulation generates the kind of somatosensory mental imagery and its associated ideation and mediating processes between the autonomous stimulation and the ForgivenessResponse that produces the conditioned learning.

Perhaps, the most critical of purgation's autonomous ideations and mediating processes revolve around the ForgivenessResponse. For example, the threshold or limen for the ForgivenessResponse is at PrayerQuality = 100%. A rise in PrayerIntensity occurs first, but even a high value of PrayerIntensity of around 80% to 100% of maximum is still subliminal. It does not evoke a response, because the equation for PrayerQuality in the mathematical model indicates that for the ForgivenessResponse to occur there is a need for a summation at the synapse:

PrayerQuality = 0.5*(PrayerIntensity + PrayerTrueness).............equation 1

Thus, PrayerIntensity 'sets' the ForgivenessResponse. That is, it is set in the direction of finding a way to remove the knot in the heart. Then comes the increasing subtlety of ideation originating in the central nervous system (CNS), which is associated with PrayerTrueness. PrayerTrueness incorporates ideations of sin, guilt, etc. Such ideation aids in the eventual elevation of PrayerQuality until it reaches the ForgivenessResponse threshold and elicits the response, which is the removal of a 'knot in the heart.'

Woodworth and Ladd (1911) clarified the above sequence for the case of a cat trying to get out of a cage to get food: (words in brackets show the analogy of the cat's dilemma with the mystic-to-be's dilemma during purgation)

"The animal desires ... to get out and reach the food [removal of knots in heart]. Whatever be his consciousness, his behavior shows that he is, as an organism, set in that direction [PrayerIntensity aimed at removing knot]. This adjustment [set] persists till the motor reaction is consummated [PrayerTrueness rises until PrayerQuality reaches 100% and the ForgivenessResponse occurs], it is the driving force in the unremitting efforts of the animal to attain the desired end [removal of knot]. His reactions are, therefore, the joint result of the adjustment [set, PrayerIntensity] and of stimuli from various features of the cage [problem solving, PrayerTrueness]. Each single reaction tends to become associated with the adjustment [set]."
The learning is reinforced after the ForgivenessResponse by the reduction in stress (PsychicStress) and fear (FearOfDeath) and the increase of rapture (Rapture). Therefore, conditioned learning occurs for each of the 12 knots removed during the 10-hours of purgation. In addition, a structured memory trace of new neural connections is made (Hebb 1958).

In summary, the mystic-to-be undergoes the following conditioned learning:

  1. The reinforced conditioned learning about the purgation-based aspects of the religious life: a life based on heart-centered prayer and forgiveness of sin, hatreds, guilt, etc.
  2. This conditioned learning is confirmed through consummatory reinforcement by the experience of the unsurpassable greatness during mystical union.
Later, this learning will be part of the mystic's teachings.

8.3.2.2. Unconditioned learning or revelation:

Mystical union not only provides consummatory reinforcement for the conditioned learning of purgation. It also provides unconditioned learning! The unconditioned learning is about the revelation of what Plato called the Forms or what is referred to in psychiatry as the ego-ideal: The mystic-to-be learns by experiencing the supreme form of freedom, trueness, integrity, love of God, purity and depth of character, etc. These Forms serve as reference for the mystic. They have the potential to guide and be a standard for his or her life and his or her judgements from that moment forward.

8.3.2.3. Behavioristic correlates for Figure 4:

...(needs to be written) ...

8.4. Future work:

8.4.1: Refinements of the flow diagram or noema:

Much progress still must be made on the flow diagram for purgation. Here are two such improvements:

8.4.2. Additional Reductions:

8.4.2.1. Visceral Reduction (Preliminary):

I want to pursue the conjecture and, possibly, scientifically establish that the mystical union quest or the quest for God or the quest for profound integrity and meaning is an important behavior of the human visceral nervous system.

Table II below presents my conjecture on the various stages of the three main quests associated with the human visceral nervous system. Note that the feeding quest sequence occurs every 6 to 12 hours, the mating quest sequence lasts anywhere from 9 months to about three years. In the third quest, the mystical union quest or the quest for integrity and meaning, the ingestive phase is called The Return (Campbell 1972). The Return begins after mystical union. It goes on until the moment of death. In my case it has been going on since 1962.


My conjecture is that the long term visceral quest for mystical union or the quest for God or the quest for profound integrity and meaning complements the short term visceral quests for feeding and mating when the three quests are seen from the perspective of the long term survival of the human race.

8.4.2.2. Conjectured Nonlinear Phase Portrait Reduction (Preliminary):

  1. Mathematicians could analyze the nonlinear differential equations developed for purgation to reveal the various behavioral scenarios found among the mystics.
  2. Some notes on mystical union:

8.4.3. Testing the Model:

The flow diagram for PMU-16 was developed strictly from my TFP Reduction of consciousness during purgation. It gives indications of the feedback patterns of the biological correlates of consciousness during a stressful situation and could give insights to neurobiologists now studying neurobiological feedback circuitry during stress. A test of bidirectionality (Guyton 1991) could be performed using a heart stimulant to increase heart activity and blood flowrate while employing neuroimaging to monitor neural activity in the neurocirculatory system, including the heart and brain. Because the flow diagram predicts bidirectionality, a test of the analysis of PMU-16 could be made by focusing on uncovering bidirectionality in the stress circuitry between the amygdala and the vagus.

Arlen Wolpert

http://world.std.com/~awolpert/gtr488.html

Draft of January 12,2004

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