Introduction to the General Theory of Religion

Arlen Wolpert

System Dynamicist and Independent Scholar

(Draft of July 5,2008)

Announcement: My solution to Chalmers hard problem (CHP) for the case of purgation is shown at Chapter 6. CHP is a central problem in science right now. My solution to CHP is now being examined by scientists in the following fields: Consciousness studies, neuroscience, cognitive science, psychiatry, psychology, phenomenology, philosophy, integration of science and religion, genomics, system dynamics, etc. For interested scientists: Please click here to present your analytical critique and assessment of my solution. My understanding is your critique and assessment will be read by the judges.

INTRODUCTION

Table of Contents

Introduction.
Chapter 1: An Engineer's Story, a narrative of my five year religious crisis and its culmination in mystical union in 1962.
Chapter 2: Purgation.
Chapter 3: Mystical Union.
Chapter 4: My religious development during the years that followed mystical union.
Chapter 5: The Feedback Phenomenological (FP) methodology for thoroughly analyzing and understanding consciousness during a deep experience.
Chapter 6: Application of FP to thoroughly analyze and understand purgation (This is also the solution to Chalmers' hard problem for the case of purgation).
Chapter 7: Key insights arising from my search for the Truth.

The GTR Project

In college I was trained as a theoretical mechanical engineer. Later, when I was employed as a high tech engineer my favorite assignments were to analyze machines in order to deeply understand how they operated. I would then hone in on the vulnerable aspects of the design and then try to redesign those aspects. The aim was to surpass the designs of the rival companies. My speciality was heat transfer, so I was usually assigned to analyze machines in which temperature was critical.

However, in 1962 when I was 30 years old, I had an incredibly profound and overwhelming religious experience (see Chapter 1). Later, I found out that my religious experience is called in Western culture: purgation culminating in mystical union. After that experience I needed to enter a monastery, mainly because I needed to settle down and learn how to proceed in my religious life. During the first two months at the monastery, May and June 1962, my mind and heart were in either a profound spiritual state or a state that Csikszentmihalyi (1975) calls a flow state. Around June I requested the head of the monastery to give me some instructions. His brief, but very wise, instructions will be discussed in Chapter 4. After that I slowly began to find monastery life incompatible and only stayed until November. That means I was only in the monastery a total of 7 months. However, for the next 15 years I tried to lead a religious life in my own way (see Chapter 4). My aim during those 15 years was to rise to the greatness of a religious life. It was a very interesting and very difficult time for me. I had many interesting experiences. Some of those experiences led to a certain degree of maturation of my mind, my heart, and my growing religious life. Then, in 1977 I decided to begin my climb back to engineering. That adventurous climb back up to high tech engineering took about 7 years.

As my engineering skills began to sharpen up again, I began to realize that I might be able to use Forrester's system dynamics (SD) methodology to analyze - moment by moment - my religious experience. Eventually, the GTR Project began in 1984 when I was 52 years old. Now, after a relentless 24 year effort I have attained my analytical goal. That goal takes the form of a three step, system dynamics(SD)-based, phenomenological analysis of my ten-hour religious experience of purgation. I call this three step methodology, Feedback Phenomenology (FP). The attainment of that analytical methodology and then its application to analyze my religious experience of purgation is enabling me to slowly penetrate to the very core of religion and to the very ground of my being.

Keep in mind that my ten-hour experience of purgation just preceded the estimated four-to-seven second experience of mystical union. Also keep in mind that the great experience of mystical union is not dynamic. It is a timeless and changeless experience. As a result, it is an experience that cannot be analyzed using SD. However, I believe mystical union can be analyzed, beginning with the first law of thermodynamics. The analysis of my experience of mystical union will be performed in Volume II of the General Theory of Religion (GTR). However, purgation is my focus now in this Volume I of the GTR.

The key to my scientific analysis of the phenomena associated with purgation is that the data for the purgation phenomena was stored in my long term memory (LTM). My exploration of that dynamic, moment by moment, LTM data has enabled me to make the SD-based, phenomenological model of my phenomena system or my core consciousness system during purgation. That SD-based, phenomenological model of purgation is at Figure 2, shown at Key #5. Key #5 is in the General Introduction a few pages below. Key #5 is one of the six keys that open up the heart of this book. I spent ten years - from 1984 to 1994 - constructing the 38 variable, SD-based, phenomenological model of purgation and its associated mathematical model.

After about 7 years of that 10 year period I had obtained a fairly good preliminary model. Then, I began using an iterative technique to bring the model to a much more accurate level. The iterative technique consisted in constantly repeating the following analytical cycle:

  1. Compare the model's various simulations with the corresponding LTM data.
  2. Revise the mathematical model accordingly.
  3. Simulate the model again.
After many of these iterative cycles, carried on over a period of about three years, I found that I became able to accurately model and simulate - moment by moment - all of the important 38 variables associated with my particular phenomena system for purgation. In this way I gained accuracy and mastery of my model, using the iterative technique,

I was then ready to begin the long process of transcendentally grounding the model. That process extended from 1994 to 2008. This 14 year process required me to begin to study the politically correct and unscientific field of phenomenology. Because of its political correctness and unscientific approach the complex field of phenomenology is weak, particularly in the area of transcendental grounding.

To transcendentally ground my phenomenological model means to identify the dynamic material objects or noumena, operating in my neurophysiological system, that were driving my dynamic phenomena system or dynamic core consciousness system, stored in my LTM during purgation. The noumena were driving the phenomena. For example, if the model for the phenomena system associated with my 10-hour experience of purgation is shown to be structured as a second order negative feedback system (SONFS), the particular noumena that are driving the phenomena must also be structured as a SONFS. For example, the dynamics of pairs of antagonistic heart muscles act like a SONFS. Therefore, it is likely that a noumena system in the form of sets of muscles are driving a phenomena system structured as a SONFS. Later, we will find that this transcendental grounding analysis is the very important third step of the three-step, Feedback Phenomenological (FP) methodology. A relatively brief, but very clear, summary of this FP analysis of the phenomena - for my 10-hour experience of purgation - is given at Key #6. A more extended and detailed analysis is given at Chapter 6.

After I had gone through the three steps of the FP methodology, here is what I found out about my religious experience of purgation: The dynamic material objects or noumena driving the dynamic phenomena or my dynamic core consciousness during purgation were, roughly, a dozen spontaneously releasing pairs of cramped or paralyzed, antagonistic, heart muscles. Once I had identified the noumena, I began to realize those muscles had become cramped or paralyzed during my childhood trauma, way back when I was 9 or 10 years old. Therefore, having linked the dynamic noumena with the abreaction or release of my trauma, I began to realize that way back in 1962 at the age of 30 my cramped heart muscles had become ripe for release. This is the same as saying my trauma was now ripe for being released or abreacted. Further, by studying the major religions I began to realize that my peak religious experience - purgation culminating in mystical union - probably had the same origin or noumena as the peak experiences found in all other religions. As a result, I began to see that I was dealing with a general theory of religion: e pluribus unum. I also began to see I was dealing with the long-sought-for integration of science and religion.

I also began to see that, as a byproduct, the analysis had solved the central problem in the emerging field of consciousness studies: Chalmers' hard problem (CHP). A brief summary of the solution to CHP is shown at Key #6 of the General Introduction. This book also includes important personal experiences. Detailing these personal experiences are helpful, particularly during the preliminary stage leading up to purgation and to the formalized, scientific analysis. The fullest presentation of all of these ideas and related insights - with over 500 links - is at http://world.std.com/~awolpert

Key Breakthroughs: The key breakthroughs made during my 24 year effort are listed below. They are establishing the foundations that will ultimately bring about scientific revolutions in consciousness studies, psychiatry, philosophy, phenomenology, and in science itself. Here is an example of a possible scientific revolution: An open collaboration between an important Broad Institute genomics project and the GTR Project (see Key #3).

  1. A general theory of religion (GTR): This is a scientific theory indicating every major religion in the world has - at its core - the same common ground.
  2. The primary purpose of all major religions. It is very important to constantly remind religious leaders and others to focus on the central or primary purpose of religion. My particular insights on the primary purpose of religion is dealt with at Keys #1, #2, and #3 of the General Introduction. Strangely, only a few religious thinkers are confident about the central or primary purpose of religion at the present time. I believe that is why great religions are presently in danger of degenerating: My position is that the primary purpose of religion is to enable people to deal with the release of a trauma: To be able to walk the plank. If a religion has lost its ability to teach its devotees how to deal with the release of a trauma, that religion and the culture that depends on that religion are headed for obsolescence or superficiality or degeneration.
  3. The scientific analysis of the religious experience of purgation, explained in the GTR Project summary just above, has never been done before. In addition, the phenomena associated with my ten-hour religious experience of purgation (see the SD-based, flow diagram at Figure 2) has a first person perspective. As a result, that first person perspective for my scientific analysis of purgation will be the start of the second stage of the scientific revolution. Up until now the first stage of the scientific revolution - from the 17th Century to the present - has been limited to a third person perspective.
  4. My system dynamics(SD)-based, Feedback Phenomenological (FP) methodology is the long awaited Rigorous Science of Philosophy. This methodology will establish the long-sought-for scientific approach to a phenomenological analysis of consciousness during a deep subjective experience. At around the beginning of the 20th Century Franz Brentano, Edmund Husserl, and others could already envision the coming of this great scientific breakthrough in phenomenology. At that time they began to give a name to this relentlessly approaching methodology: The Rigorous Science of Philosophy.
  5. The scientific solution to Chalmers hard problem for the case of my deep subjective religious experience of purgation is being presented for the first time in this book at Chapter 6. It illustrates how the powerful Feedback Phenomenological (FP) methodology is being used for the subjective experience of purgation. (also see Key #6 of the General Introduction below). This solution is leading to key breakthroughs in the science of consciousness. For example, it is identifying the noumena in the experiencer's neurophysiological system that is driving the phenomena of consciousness during purgation.
  6. The coming scientific revolution in the field of psychiatry: The above analysis of my religious experience will enable the psychiatric community to understand how the mind, the body, and religion work together during the successful release of a trauma.

Historical and Personal Introduction

Most religions were generated by a single individual who had a peak experience. However, those religions were gradually conditioned and tamed by social forces, were compromised, and then degenerated into their present form. My solution to this degeneration problem has been to develop a general theory of religion (GTR). The focus of the GTR has been to scientifically examine the data of my core consciousness system or phenomenological system residing in my long term memory (LTM) during my peak experience. In this way the GTR establishes a permanent, stable, and scientific base for all religions.

At this point many religious people will make the following point: We should examine the peak experience of either Moses, the sages of the Upanishads, Parmenides, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Ramakrishna, or other revered avatars and saints? My position is that many people have had a peak experience. Only a few of these people have been known and have had followers: After the peak experience some have become arhats or avatars; others - those who have attained steady wisdom (Plato, Symposium) - have become bodhisattvas [Buddhist], sthitaprajnas (The Bhagavadgita II:54-72), saints [Christian], etc; others have anonymously devoted themselves to family and community and, if they are recognized, are sometimes called a mensch [yiddish], a standup guy [US slang], etc. Still, others are problematic and difficult to categorize. In my opinion it would be best to have an avatar or a saint or a mensch make a scientific analysis of his or her peak experience so we could base the general theory of religion on that analysis. However, no avatar or saint or mensch has stepped forward. Lacking that, the theory will be based on an analysis of my own experience. I give the following credentials for such an undertaking:

  1. I experienced purgation, culminating in mystical union, in 1962.
  2. I have been immersed in religious thinking since then.
  3. I have never joined any religion.
As for my technical and scientific credentials, I hold a 1956 MSME degree with a minor in physics from the University of Minnesota. I came to Boston in 1960 to work in high tech engineering, but in 1962 I had my religious experience. Later, in 1974 at the age of 42 I had a hunch Forrester's powerful System Dynamics (SD) methodology could be used to analyze my religious experience. However, I was involved in other things at the time (see Chapter 4). Eventually, in 1984, I began a lone, relentless study of SD and its application to my religious experience. In doing so I took on the role of an independent scholar.

General Introduction

Section I: The Six Keys that Open Up the Heart of this Book

Key #1: The Primary Purpose of Religion.

The Primary Purpose of Religion is to enable one to walk the plank: This latter phrase applies to the crucial ten minutes of my deep ten hour religious experience. In the West my ten hour religious experience is usually called purgation culminating in mystical union. During the crucial ten minutes I used my religious preparedness, taught to me when I was a child and a youth. That religious preparedness saved me when I had to walk the plank. This means that my religious preparedness saved me from panic, from a nervous breakdown, and from the eventual development of some form of mental illness: Religious preparedness is the The Primary Purpose of Religion.
Yea,
Though I walk through the valley
Of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil:
For thou art with me;

from Psalm 23 of the Bible or the Old Testament

To get deeper into this Primary Purpose of Religion, I would now like to tell you a little more about walking the plank: The desperate minutes during purgation, when I was in danger of panic, a nervous breakdown, etc. Those were the crucial ten minutes of my life. With the profound help of the Divine I made it through those crucial ten minutes when the first knot in my heart was being released. The knots in my heart were caused by my childhood trauma. Walking the plank takes place when the first knot of the trauma is being released. All traumas are eventually released, but usually the release is not completed because the experiencer panics. In my case, once my religious preparedness was able to deal with the first knot, my heart and my imagination were then more able to deal with the entire 10 hour release of the dozen or so knots in my heart during the release of my trauma. Below, you will see that it was because of the profound help of the Lord that I made it through in one piece.

Then sings my soul, my savior God to thee: How great thou art, how great thou art.
(from a favorite Gospel song of the Christians)

A. In order to go deeper into the Primary Purpose of Religion, first let me introduce you to the following phrases: "Walking the razor's edge" or "walking the plank" or walking the way that is said to be "straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life...."

  1. From the Hindus: To walk the razor's edge...
    "Like the sharp edge of a razor is that path,
    difficult to tread and hard to cross."
    Katha Upanishad: 3:14.
  2. From the Christians: Straight is the gate and narrow is the way..
    "Enter ye in at the straight gate: for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
    Because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
    Matthew 7:13-14.
  3. From that Saturday matinee movie, when I was somewhere between 6 and 13 years old. As I recall, the movie was about the life of a young seaman on a 19th century sailing ship, whose ship encounters the dreaded pirates. The movie was being shown over at that 52nd and Lyndale theatre in Minneapolis, sometime between 1938-1945: To walk the plank.

B. Now, let me introduce you to the dynamics of my religious experience, using system dynamics simulations:

Figure 1: Simulation of my entire 16 hour religious experience.

In Chapters 5 and 6 of this book manuscript I am presenting a system dynamics-based scientific analysis of core consciousness or the phenomena during my religious experience of purgation culminating in mystical union (PMU). That religious experience occurred in 1962 when I was 30 years old. The scientific analysis began in 1984. I have been working on it continuously since then. It is fairly good, at present, but still needs further refinement. Figure 1, just below, shows simulations of four important variables of my 38 variable model of my consciousness system during my 16-hour (or 960 minute) religious experience (see Chapter 6). Those 16-hour simulations describe stages 11, 12, 13, and 14 of my religious crisis. The 14 stages of my religious crisis are listed at Table I at Key #2.


Listed below is a more detailed description of what was going on during my religious experience, simulated in Figure 1 above.
(The timetable for my entire 16 hour religious experience, given below, is even further detailed in the narration at The Heart Begins to Open section of Chapter 1. Please note that the simulations of the #3 and #4 PsychicStress variables are not accurate between the 555 minute mark and the 617 minute mark. That is because the release of the knots in my heart were happening too fast to be simulated accurately when the simulation covers a 960 minute period: For example, at times knots were being released every 30 or 60 seconds during that period. Figure 3 below corrects that problem: It presents more detailed and more accurate two minute simulations of the variables during that relatively fast moving period. It also gives the reader a better understanding of how a knot was released.)

Thus, my religious experience included purgation (from 0 to around the 617 minute mark), mystical union (with a duration of around 4 to 7 seconds during the 617th minute), and deep sleep (with a duration of around 6 hours). The total experience was thus around 16 hours or 960 minutes. In summary: purgation lasted roughly 10 hours; deep sleep lasted roughly 6 hours (see Table I, below, at Key #2 of Section I of this Introduction).

Figure 3: Two minute simulations during the walking of the plank.

Here are some two minute simulations during the release of three of the twelve knots in my heart during purgation. The gathering of these four critical simulations attempts to simply describe - via simulation - how the potential mystic 'walks the plank' for three of the twelve knots released during purgation. The release of the crucial first knot is not shown simulated in Figure 3: The release of knots is shown only for the following knots: The 5th from last, the 4th from last, and the 3rd from last knots. Two of the simulations track the oscillation of the intensity of two critical variables, FearDeathDueToKnot and PrayerQuality. During the same two minute time period the other two simulations track (1) the decrease of the variable, KnotsInHeart, and (2) the rise of the variable, TruenessOfMind. As TruenessOfMind rises, it is eventually going to lead to mystical union when all 12 KnotsInHeart have been released. Notice in Figure 3 that a knot is released only when the variable, PrayerQuality, reaches 100%. Here is the mathematical model for the variable, PrayerQuality:

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

C. Now, I need to tell you about my childhood sexual trauma. It occurred when I was 9 or 10 years old. Traumas eventually release themselves, spontaneously. My trauma was released when I was 30 years old. The spontaneous releasing process of my trauma was the driving force of my consciousness during my religious experience of purgation culminating in mystical union.

At some time in 2005 - after 21 years of working on the formalized, scientific, system dynamics-based, phenomenological analysis of my religious experience - the following insight occurred to me: At the same time as my 1962 religious experience of purgation was occurring, the abreaction or complete release of the effects of my childhood sexual trauma was going on. That is, the insight that occurred to me in 2005 was as follows: The physical effects on my body, resulting from my childhood trauma, were about a dozen or so sets or pairs of cramped or paralyzed antagonistic muscles in my heart. Those dozen or so cramped or paralyzed pairs of muscles were then released from my heart during the abreaction of my trauma. The 2005 conclusion is based on the following three sets of interlocking data:
  1. Certain key memories from my childhood that I can still remember fairly well.
  2. The studies and insights of Charcot, Breuer, Janet, Freud, and the bold J.M. Masson on hysteria. {See publications by Charcot, (Freud 1966), Masson, etc.}
  3. The results that have been emerging from the many years I have spent scientifically analyzing my consciousness during my experience of purgation culminating in mystical union.
My childhood sexual trauma occurred around 1941 or 1942 when I was about 9 or 10 years old. The assailant was about 14 or 15 years old and was unknown to me. I saw him running toward me in the distance as I was taking a short cut across the snow-filled school grounds in late afternoon. The snow was about a foot deep - maybe more - and I could not outrun him. When he caught up with me, I immediately blacked out and am unable to remember the nature of the assault. I don't remember having any post-assault pain in the private areas of my body or anywhere else. Also, I don't remember any semen on my clothes or body. I know I would have remembered if these indications had actually occurred. However, as a result of this experience, I believe the cramping of about 12 pairs of my heart muscles occurred. This cramping lasted for a period of 20 or 21 years, from when I was 9 or 10 years old to the time when I was 30 years old and my trauma was completely released.

Here are some memories from my youth and my college years: I believe these memories are related to the trauma:

  1. An experience of hysteria: When I was 11 years old and making the stressful transition in the Fall of 1943 from grade school to the 7th grade in junior high school, my legs became paralyzed for a few hours. Earlier, on my way to school that day, I stopped by at a friend's house and then we walked to school together. He told me his older brother had rheumatic fever. I thought about this during the morning until I began to think I was 'catching' rheumatic fever. Eventually, in early afternoon my legs became paralyzed. I couldn't walk. My father came from work to pick me up at the school nurse's office about 3 or 4pm. When we got home and my father carried me in and layed me down on my bed, my father talked to me for about a half hour and eventually convinced me my legs could not have become paralyzed by rheumatic fever. Then, he told me in a loving way and with manliness and conviction that I could get up and walk. I did so and ran out to play with much joy.
  2. I was a fairly good tennis player in high school and college. Some top players in Minneapolis had remarked from time to time that I had one of the best backhands around. My second serve was arching, spinning, curving, wildly bouncing, and hard to handle (I am exaggerating a bit here). However, when I would get toward the end of any close tournament singles match, I always lost - much to my frustration and disappointment. This was particularly true in my college years. The most contemptuous words in all of athletics are reserved for such a person: 'He choked!' Freud's words are 'strangulated emotions.'
    (Item 2 has to be examined carefully for bias. I may be making a last ditch effort in my old age to free myself from the label given to me in my youth.)

D. Now, let me describe my particular religious preparedness. (This religious preparedness was very important in saving me during the experience of purgation, when my childhood trauma was being released. My religious preparedness enabled me to successfully walk the plank without panicking and having a nervous breakdown.) So, here are four of the factors that made up my religious preparedness:

  1. My precious mother: My Jewish mother's sincere and simple mentioning of God during my early childhood, which led to my simple childhood prayers to God.
  2. Sunday school: My simple Reform Jewish religious training in Sunday school from the age of 5 to about 15 years old.
  3. Community and history: The time I went with my parents and close relatives to the Synagogue during the High Holy Days of 1945 when I was 13 years old. It was about a month after the end of World War II and the news was just coming in about the Holocaust. Many of the leaders of the Jewish community of Minneapolis were there. Everyone seemed serious. My uncle pointed out the owner of the great Minneapolis Lakers basketball team. He seemed serious, too.
  4. The critical religious link to my Jewish ancestors: When I was somewhere between 7 and 15 years old, my father took me up a flight of stairs to an area above the auditorium at the Synagogue and showed me the sacred Everlasting Light. Just below the Light was a plaque with the name of my revered grandfather, who died when I was about three or four years old. My grandfather had escaped from being forced into the Cossack army by fleeing Lithuania at 16 years of age. He then came to the US seeking freedom. Trained as a tailor, he began his life in the US by picking up rags off the streets of New York and then washing, sewing, ironing, and selling them.
The primary purpose of religion is to enable one to successfully negotiate the release of a trauma without panicking and having a nervous breakdown. Here is how it works: When I was 30 years old and the first knot or lead heart muscle of my trauma began the crucial 10 minute process of releasing itself and my stress, fear, and anxiety began to build up, I got scared. I thought: Am I gonna die? What's happening to me? I did not know what to do, but I was deeply prepared: With no options left to me during those crucial 10 minutes leading up to the release of the first knot, I instinctively began to use my simple prayers, my simple Jewish religious belief, and my imagination, in a very spontaneous and natural way. Although it wasn't easy for me to deal with purgation, I believe this religious preparedness was the decisive factor enabling me to 'walk the plank.'

E. Simulations are just not capable of vividly describing what it's like to walk the plank. Let me try to give you a more vivid description or narration: In this narration of what it's like to walk the plank, I am trying to narrate as accurately as I can how my religious preparedness dealt with that crucial first knot:

After the first 9 hours of purgation, particularly after experiencing the preliminary peak in PsychicStress at the 180 minute mark, shown in Figure 1, I knew I was dealing with an opening heart that was stymied by a knot. However, as the first knot began its 10 minute releasing process, particularly during the last 3 or 4 minutes before the 555 minute mark in Figure 1, my stress, my fear, and my anxiety started to mount. It was clear that the situation was getting dangerous.
(This is where I believe panic and a nervous breakdown would have occurred. However, I had already begun to use my religious preparedness. So, I hadn't panicked yet.)

My first step, using my religious preparedness, was to pray: "Lord, save me." Then, slowly and prayerfully, I began to use my imagination and my religious belief to associate the knot with a particular sin in my life and I asked the blessed Lord - now taking on the role of a Judge in the scenario - for forgiveness of that sin. My religious belief told me that, if the Judge were to accept my plea, the sin would be forgiven and the knot would then be released. But, there was no release! I didn't panic, though. At that point, using my imagination, I felt the wise and manly Judge was not releasing the knot yet, because He wanted to make sure I was really serious about asking for forgiveness of that sin. But during this delay I noticed my stress, fear, and anxiety were increasing rapidly. My situation was getting desperate. Time was running out, but God was with me: I had not panicked yet.

Then, out of nowhere, my imagination stepped forward and countered my rising fears and anxiety: My imagination said: "The Judge is not playing around. He is deadly serious and He wants to know if I am serious! He can see through my half-hearted attempts at prayer."

I liked that kind of a guy! No nonsense. Finally, I had found a guy who was serious. He had a much greater standard for integrity and trueness than I had ever had. Now, as my state of mind rose to extreme desperation, I began to pray in earnest. I prayed with an intensity and integrity that was far more profound and intense than the way I had prayed before: I prayed with all my heart and soul. Then, the Judge, calmly standing back and carefully assessing the situation, decided that forgiveness of my sin was justified and, in a very detached way, He allowed the knot to be released at the 555 minute mark.

Because of the integrity and thoroughness by which the Judge conducted this examination during the release of the first knot, I knew He had things under control: I was in good hands. More importantly, I now knew that despite His aloofness and detachment He wanted me on his side. I began to recognize He was a very rare kind of guy: A serious, no nonsense, straight shooting, type of Judge. He was able to penetrate straight into my very heart and soul. (That was where my manhood was bravely waiting for its liberation.)

Then my heart began to open further and I encountered the next knot. "During the tenth hour the above scenario - with many variations - went on relentlessly for about a dozen knots. Yes, the tenth hour was about fear, anxiety, release, and the liberation of my manhood that occurred during this abreaction or release of my childhood sexual trauma. However, the tenth hour was also about a series of intense, serious, earnest, and sacred pledges or promises, made knot by knot in the presence of God. (God always watches over or supervises the activities of the Judge and the person who is being judged.)

In this way - by using my imagination, my prayers, and my religious belief - I was able to walk the plank. This very dangerous process had the potential to either result in panic, a nervous breakdown, and some form of psychosis or result in the release of the cramped or paralyzed heart muscles and convert that release into the intense, profound, and sacred religious experience of purgation culminating in mystical union.

If I had not called upon the Divine and used my imagination, my prayers, and my religious belief, I would have panicked and had a nervous breakdown. Instead, with the Lord at my side I had walked the plank!

Yea,
Though I walk through the valley
Of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil:
For thou art with me;

from Psalm 23 of the Bible or the Old Testament

F. Now, let me tell you how the process, leading eventually to 'walking the plank,' began for me:

Key #2: A Brief Introduction to the General Theory of Religion.

"... if there is ever to be a universal religion, it must be one which will have no location in place or time; which will be infinite like the God it will preach, and whose sun will shine upon the followers of Krishna and of Christ, on saints and sinners alike; which will not be Brahminic or Buddhistic, Christian or Mohammedan, but the sum total of all these, and still have infinite space for development..." (Vivekananda 1893)

Table I, below, gives the 14 stages of my 53 month religious crisis. The details of Table I give the reader a brief and concise base for the concept of a general theory of religion.

Key #3: Why a Culture Cannot Survive without Religion.

(Why has religious belief survived throughout the whole history of mankind?)
Here are some of the most important religious insights of the book: They are based on my very detailed System Dynamics(SD)-based Feedback Phenomenological (FP) analysis of my religious experience, particularly the finer and finer simulations of my core consciousness during purgation. This analysis is being carried out in Chapters 5 and 6. The finer and finer simulations have slowly uncovered the practical reason why prayer, imagination, and religious belief have survived from the time of migrating primitive tribes to the present:

Key #4: A Narrative of my Experience of Purgation Culminating in Mystical Union.

The following excerpt introduces the reader to the religious aspects of this book. It is a two page narrative of my 1962 religious experience of purgation culminating in mystical union. Purgation and mystical union are stages 11 and 12 of Table I, shown at Key #2. The excerpt is taken from An Engineer's Story, presented in Chapter 1.

The Heart Begins to Open

The purification resulting from renunciation came about by a supreme effort of the will and by Grace, but the second stage of the purification that followed proceeded passively. A force began to manifest itself in me and I could do nothing but pray. My will was powerless to effect this Force. It began in the following way:

I returned to Southern California at the end of March 1962 for another ten day vacation after successfully completing the project. I was still running true. I was charged and in a state of openness. On this visit I went to another monastery run by the same Order of monks. Again I found myself in a holy atmosphere (11). I had a deeply restful, enchanting, profoundly moving week, many times bubbling over with mirth and on one occasion, hearing a beautiful piece of religious music, I was unable to contain a weeping which became a prolonged sobbing from the bottom of my heart.

Around noon on Sunday I left the monastery to return to Boston for work the next day. I was to take a cab to the Los Angeles airport and then a non-stop flight to Boston. I had plenty of time. The cab stand was about a half-mile away. I was walking down a hill with a small suitcase in my hand. As I walked reflectively and in peace down that hill in the warm and brilliant Southern California sun, my heart slowly began to feel full. My mind was drawn inward. In this mood I arrived at the cab stand. I told the driver my destination. He was a rather cool and playful young man in his early twenties. I noticed that I was very friendly and mirthful - quite unusual for me since I usually never spoke to cab drivers. During the ride I was joking and at times giggling and had a great time for the half hour drive to the airport. At one point the driver asked me if I had had a 'joint' before getting into the cab. Of course, I had not.

At the airport, however, the warmth or power in my heart began to deepen. I was sitting in the waiting area for the flight but found I could not stay seated. I got up and began to pace the floor of the waiting room. I was well dressed and groomed in a fine conservative suit. Perhaps it was a rather strange sight. The thought occurred to me I was on the verge of a heart attack, but I was only thirty and in good health so dismissed the idea.

The plane was quite full. I took my assigned seat by the window. After the plane circled LA and turned East, the Force in my heart began to get intense. My heart was opening!! There was a struggle going on in my heart. The Force was opening my heart and, because of my fear, my will was waging a losing battle to close it. The opening of my heart brought about a fear - indeed - a terror. At the same time I felt a degree of love for all, forgiveness, brotherhood and sisterhood for all.

I called for the stewardess. I told her something was wrong with my heart. She got me out to the first aid area and gave me oxygen, but it had no effect. She took me to the first class area where there were fewer passengers and I could be alone. The Force continued to try to open my heart and I was in a state of terror, for fear I would die shortly. I kept getting up and walking to the drinking fountain to quench the fire in my breast. I must have drank at least two gallons of water during the five and one-half hour flight.

A few times the stewardess came by to see how I was. Once she sat down next to me. She seemed quite curious about me. She was about 24 or 26. Under the ceiling spotlight I could see her features were delicate but her beauty had now passed its peak. There were the first signs of tension wrinkles around her eyes and mouth. Close up I could sense something about her that had gone cold and there was a sadness underneath her makeup. She was neglecting what I could see was a precious soul. In the course of our quiet conversation I told her, in a somewhat oracular way, 'Please leave this terrible job.' She asked me why I thought it was so terrible. I said, in effect, she was being paid to be pleasant and gay to the passengers even though her heart and soul didn't feel it any more. She needed an honest job. With my heart so open, I knew my intuition was sure and I could see these things clearly, quite in the same way that the lay of the land can be seen and understood better when standing at an elevated place. Under ordinary circumstances such a conversation would have set the stewardess' teeth on edge, but with my heart so open she seemed to sense my good will and took what I said to heart.

Nevertheless, when I arrived in Boston about 10:30pm, I was met by a powerfully built and rather serious airport state police officer. He was about 35 or 40 years old. He escorted me from the plane ahead of the others and led me to the airport shelter. Normally I was rather aloof from police officers, indeed I didn't like authority of any kind, but when the officer met me my heart was so open I felt all men were my brothers. As I walked aside of him to the shelter, I found myself putting my right arm around his broad shoulders. I became aware of the gun at his holster but it made no difference to me. In the state of mind I was in, I felt toward him like toward an elder, beloved brother meeting me at the plane. I chatted with him and thanked him for his trouble and great courtesy and assistance. I told him I had just left a monastery and was overwhelmed by being in a crowd of people and that I would be alright once I got home. Besides being an optimistic prognosis to calm myself, it also seemed to be an appropriate way of explaining my openness and feelings of brotherhood and also of avoiding being detained. Ordinarily this tough, no-nonsense police officer would have given me a difficult time but instead, like the stewardess, he seemed to sense the integrity of my feelings.

The Dark Night of the Soul: The Heart is Purified and Prepared for the Culminating Experience

I took a cab and arrived about 11pm at my South End lodgings. They consisted of two rooms on the second floor of an almost-deserted rooming house overlooking - to the right - the extensive federal housing project near the Cathedral. The dull red brick buildings and barren clothes-lines at the edge of the project could be seen from my front window by the light of the street lamps. The window faced a large tree-lined, but neglected, park called Blackstone Square. Next door - to the left - was a Syrian Church with a domed roof overhung by a huge tree, now bare of leaves in early April. A light, quietly emanating from the ornate glass window in the dome, soothed my soul as I paced the rooms.

Finally I was alone. I lay down on my bed. I knew very little about the writings of the mystics at the time. I did not know that I was now entering purgation or the Refiner's Fire or the Dark Night of the Soul (18) that would purify my heart and make me fit for Union with God:

"But who may abide the day of His coming,
And who shall stand when He appeareth?
For He is like a Refiner's Fire." Malachi 3.2
The events in the cab and on the plane were the beginning but the Dark Night of the Soul began in earnest when I laid down on my bed. As I have said, the fire in the heart led to the opening of the heart. The heart continued to open slowly and inexorably, step by step, like a flower. As it did, it produced forgiveness - forgiveness of those I felt had wronged me, who had teased and mocked me. These vexations departed from my heart one by one as they came to my mind - like water drops from a lotus leaf. At the same time there came to my mind, one by one, things I had done which lay buried in my conscience undermining my life. I prayed for the Lord to forgive me and He did so, one by one (19).

Simultaneous with this forgiveness was terror and joy. I was in terror of losing my life. The Fire or Force was opening my heart and I was naturally terrified since my heart had never been open that wide. Fear keeps the heart closed so if the heart is opened beyond its normal position it produces terror. To alleviate this terror I had to forgive. It allowed the heart to tolerate being opened at that degree of opening. As this proceeded, hatred slowly left my heart and it slowly became more purified.

Then the heart opened more. More terror. More sin and error came to my mind one by one and I asked the Lord to forgive me and He did so one by one. The terror lessened. The heart opened wider. More joy. More terror. More prayers. And as the heart opened ever wider my joy increased to ecstasy or rapture (20).

At the same time I was dealing with another aspect of the terror of losing my life: the dread or remorse that I would lose my worldly ties. I would die in this lonely place never to see my dear ones again. My worldly hopes and dreams would end here never to be fulfilled. Clinging to life, I begged the Lord, Oh save me. Let me live.

This Prayer of Salvation during such an emotional crisis deepened my attachment to God with Form. To confirm and permanently establish this attachment I made a Covenant with God with Form. Once this firm attachment was made I could remove myself from worldly attachments and all its associated complexities and my fears could more easily be borne (21). Only the most simple and fundamental structures of the mind-heart system were now being employed. This stabilized my mind and enabled my heart to continue the process of opening. It opened amidst joy, ecstasy, terror and anxiety while at the same time there was a fierce attention of my mind and being on that which was within.

The Great Silence

Gradually, then, over a period of about an hour this Refiner's Fire succeeded in bringing about an opening and purifying of my heart and bringing along with it peace to my conscience. As a result, my thinking process was able to rest. As this occurred, all of my mind - all of my being - was freed to focus on the present moment within where there existed the blessed open heart. In this undistracted, dramatic state my mind became one pointed. That was its natural, purified state. Then, suddenly, all action within me ceased (22). The pumping of my blood, the beating of my heart, the quivering or hum of my nerves (or perhaps the latter was my body shaking) ceased quite abruptly and I was left in a state of profound silence (23). I had crossed over to the Great Silence (24).

In that state I no longer felt the previous terror, joy, or anxiety. Instead I felt I had come into my True Home, where I was Free(21, 25). I had left the World and was in a state of Pure Being. In that state my mind could not think; it could only observe inwardly and record (26). I had no power to recall or analyze. All of my mind and being continued to focus on the present moment within during the transition into the Silence and at the Silence. In that state of mind and being, my system was satisfied that it had penetrated to the core. Its energy then ran out. It let go and I fell into a swoon: a deep and abiding sleep (27).

It was the silent night, the holy night.

Presently I awoke. It was daybreak. All was peace, bliss. Within me lapped the Living Waters: a serene, wave-like energy of such a subtle frequency that it was capable of flowing evenly throughout my head and body as if they were both made of one substance(4, 28). I was in such a state of peace and bliss, pervaded by a feeling of inner goodness, that the experience has led me to believe this is what is known as Heaven (29). My sincere and earnest search for the Truth during the previous 53 months had finally been satisfied (30). I no longer felt that I must seek the ground of my life, the base upon which to build a sound life. I felt I had found the Ground of My Being: the philosopher's stone, the Formless, the Timeless, the Unconditioned, Knowledge, Bliss (31).

This I now feel is God: no more, no less. Reflection on those blessed hours since early April 1962 has led me to that conclusion (32).

Key #5: Introduction to the phenomena and noumena associated with my experience of purgation.

Figure 2: System Dynamics (SD) model of the phenomena associated with my ten-hour religious experience of purgation.


  1. Introduction:
    My system dynamics model of the various 38 phenomenological variables present during my religious experience of purgation are shown in Figure 2, above. They were modeled, based on the data of my entire experience of purgation. That data was stored in my long term memory (LTM), as it was being experienced. Now, here is my beginning definition of the various kinds of phenomena shown in Figure 2: Phenomena are objects or aspects known by the experiencer only through his or her senses. This definition was found in Webster's dictionary. However, in the case of a subjective experience like purgation, the somatosensory system is, perhaps, the only sensing system involved, although feeling might have been involved. Certainly, the sense of smelling, seeing, and hearing were not involved. Examples of variables that are objects in Figure 2 are KnotsInHeart and HeartOpenness. Examples of variables that are aspects are HeartAdjustmentTime, FearDeathDueToKnots, PrayerIntensity, ForgivenessResponse, etc.

    The model shown in Figure 2 must be studied by the reader to allow him or her to grasp the definition of the phenomena. In Key #6 just below, I will be presenting how I am able to identify the noumena. The noumena can only be known through the thought or reasoning methodology given in Step III in Key #6.

  2. The architecture of the model in Figure 2:
    The architecture of the model of phenomena during purgation or core consciousness durin purgation 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. 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) calls the former the computational mind and the latter the phenomenological mind. Communication between these two sectors of the model is provided by about seven transducers or transition variables, six of which are associated with prayer and attention and one of which is a kind of energy within the mind (PsychicEnergyFactor). These transducers are conscious.

    All of the conscious variables in the lower sector of the model are named in what Husserl called the 'natural attitude.' For example, KnotsInHeart is not a thing. It has no reality as such. There are no knots in the heart, but there may be cramped or paralyzed muscles in the heart. Thus, naming the variables in the natural attitude means the name it feels like to the experiencer as he recalls his core consciousness during the 10 hour experience of purgation. It is not the name of what is actually going on in the experiencer's body. Thus, simulating the variables of purgation in the natural attitude is a way to present a moment by moment description of my experience of purgation.

    Thus, the model's representation for my core consciousness (Damasio 1999) is shown in the lower sector. The intentionality of consciousness during purgation is about a somatosensory mental image. This mental image is about the heart opening against a resistance in the form of knots in the heart. This mental image does not exist. Using the insights of Meinong (1904), Husserl's Transcendental Phenomenology labels such intentionality, 'intentional inexistence.' The mental image does not exist, because it is not a material object. Further, hearts are not opened and they don't have knots. However, eventually, in the second phase of the FP analysis, the SD-based FP analysis finds that what exists are antagonistic heart muscles. Even though the mental image does not exist, it can be modeled and simulated because there is a one to one relationship between the movement of the heart muscles and the dynamics of the mental image. The mind uses the imagination to convert the movement of the heart muscles to the dynamics of the mental image. That is why it is called a somatosensory mental image. There is a saying that a picture is worth 1000 words. For a person experiencing the incredibly stressful and fearful dark night of the soul or purgation, a mental image is worth 1000 neurophysiological facts. Hence, in the crisis of purgation the mind uses a somatosensory mental image. An image makes it easier and quicker for the mind to comprehend and to act or respond to the essentials of what is sensed within. Variables of the model associated directly with the somatosensory mental image include HeartOpenness, KnotsInHeart, FearDeathDueToKnot, and the set of feedback loops associated with them. ForgivenessResponse, PsychicStress, and OpeningPressure are also associated with this mental image. A simulation of these conscious variables allows us to get a good description - in the natural attitude - of core consciousness and how it is driven, moment by moment, during the stressful and fearful experience of purgation.

    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. I conceived or invented this cognitive mechanism sector and use it, because it is able to work well with the lower part of the model. Eventually, this cognitive mechanism sector will be replaced by a model developed by scientists in the field of cognitive science. At present we must use my invented model. It incorporates the concept of redundancy from engineering; Miller's (1956) concepts from information theory concerning channel capacity and recoding; Miller's 'magical number seven' used in cognitive science; and the retrieval accuracy of short term memory concept developed by Schouten and Bekker (1967), Wickelgren (1979), and Luce (1986). The concept of redundancy comes into play during mystical union when the primary information processor shuts down and the background information processor takes over in its place. How the model of consciousness operates when time stops during mystical union will be discussed more fully in items 4 and 5, below.

    Preliminary definitions of each of these variables are given by the 38 variable (11 in the upper sector, 27 in the lower sector) mathematical model, shown in item 6 below. The constants in the equations and the table functions have been tuned to give an accurate simulation of the 10-hour Dark Night or purgative stage right up to the moment just preceding mystical union. Of the 38 variables, 23 are aspects of core consciousness. All 23 are located in the lower sector. The simulations of these 23 aspects of core consciousness are all simultaneous. For example, simultaneously, the experiencer (myself) was conscious of the dynamics or change of the following aspects of core consciousness during purgation: the rise in the opening pressure on my heart, an opening heart, the presence of a knot in my heart and the removal of a knot, the rise and fall of the intensity of fear of death and psychic stress, the rising intensity and falling intensity of my prayer, the rise and fall of the degree of attentional focus of my mind, etc.

  3. Dynamics:
    In my normal life HeartOpenness was stable at 5% of maximum possible openness and there were a stable set of twelve KnotsInHeart. This is shown at Time=0 in the simulation at Figure 1 at item 3, below. (Keep in mind that these numbers are only my best estimates: the initial value of HeartOpenness could have been anywhere from 2% to 10% or 15%; the initial value of KnotsInHeart could have been anywhere between 8 and 15 knots.) However, just after the beginning of the Dark Night or purgation (Time>0), the phenomenological mind undergoes a change in such a way that OpeningPressure jumps from its NormalOpening Pressure 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 for the 10-hour experience of purgation shown in Figure 2 has, at present, only two sectors. Eventually, the flow diagram or noema of core consciousness for the entire religious crisis may have 3 or more sectors. Therefore, the step input from AdditionalOpeningPressure is assumed to come from or originate in either a shift in loop dominance (Forrester 1985) or a bifurcation (Strogatz 1994) associated with a projected, but not yet modeled, adjacent sector or sectors. This step input causes limbic-brain stem variables in Figure 2, such as HeartOpenness, PsychicStress, FearDeathDueToKnot, KnotsInHeart and the like, to change or become dynamic, all coordinated by way of the feedback loops in the structure.

    KnotsInHeart, HeartOpenness, and the three memories in the cognitive mechanism are called state variables by mathematicians. In system dynamics terminology they are called stocks or levels or accumulations. Each stock or state variable has the characteristic of accumulation, analogous to a bathtub accumulating water. Using this bathtub analogy, 'How open is the heart at this moment?' is analogous to 'How full of water is the bathtub now?' ForgivenessResponse, HeartUnfoldmentRate, PrimaryInformationProcessingRate, BackgroundInformationProcessingRate, and InnerSensingRate are examples of rates. They act like either the bathtub's inlet faucets or outlet drains. Whether the faucet is an inlet faucet or outlet drain is indicated by the large arrowhead. (Eliminate the darkened arrowhead and use the open arrowhead to indicate the direction of flow of the thing or entity that is passing through the 'faucet'.) The much smaller arrowheads indicate the direction of causation. For example, the arrows coming from PrayerTrueness and PrayerIntensity and pointing at 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

    When PrayerQuality reaches 100%, which is the 'forgiveness threshold', the ForgivenessResponse is triggered and one KnotInHeart is removed in a ratchet-like fashion. (The knot is removed, rather than added, because the undarkened arrowhead points away from the KnotsInHeart stock.) Action then shifts to a negative feedback loop associated with HeartOpenness and PsychicStress: The removal of this one knot begins to unseal the restricted and rigid or tight heart, causing PsychicStress to decrease rapidly, which then causes the HeartUnfoldmentRate 'faucet' to open. This causes HeartOpenness to fill or open further, causing PsychicStress to rise again as the heart begins to encounter the next 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 is essentially a negative feedback loop concerned with solving the problem of the origin of the knot (Ellis 1995). The 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 this next knot? The gradual solution to this problem and my gradual acceptance of this solution leads to greater PrayerTrueness and then greater PrayerQuality until the latter reaches the 'forgiveness threshold,' triggering the ForgivenessResponse again. Then, the next knot cycle begins.

  4. A closer look at the knot removal mechanism:

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

    The four simulations in Figure 3 above focuses in on a two-minute period between the 607 and 609 minute marks. This two minute period occurs during the 72 minute unstable period shown in Figure 1, between the 545 and 617 minute marks. This 72 minute unstable period is the period during which all 12 KnotsInHeart are purged. Once all the 'knots' have been purged, mystical union occurs during the 617th minute. My experience of mystical union has enabled me to estimate that it lasted anywhere from 4 to 7 seconds.

    Figure 1: 960 minute simulation of four of the 23 aspects of core consciousness during purgation or dark night of soul:

    Please note that in Figure 3 and Figure 1 I am showing the simulations of variables such as Time, FearOfDeath, etc. with 5 place accuracy (e.g., 607.84 minutes, 87.2%), but obviously I can not recall consciousness during my experience with such accuracy. What I am actually doing is making these kinds of simulations and then stepping back and evaluating if this simulation compares well with my memory of the actual experience. If it does not compare well, I either change a constant in the mathematical model shown at item 6, below, or, if the situation calls for it, I change the structure of the model shown in Figure 2. Then, I resimulate until all the simulations of variables simultaneously match the experience. Please bear with me on my use of 5 place accuracy. Engineers do things like this; scientists don't like it. The engineer is focused on the first 2 or 3 digits. He is thinking: "Maybe the 4th and 5th digit can be used when converting from hours to minutes to seconds, etc. It wouldn't hurt to use 5 digits." This iterative process took me many, many months, but it was a labor of love. During this iterative process I was recalling the sacred and fascinating experience of purgation and mystical union in finer and finer detail.

    Thus, Figure 3 above shows a simulation of an intense two-minute period of the Dark Night of the Soul or purgation during which the 5th, 4th, and 3rd knots in the heart were 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 removal 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 the knot restriction variable, MaximumBearableUnboundedness (see Figure 2). This fear and trembling associated with a rising FearDeathDueToKnot leads to a rise in PrayerIntensity. Note: when a rising PrayerIntensity is approaching 100% it is like the prayer intensity of a drowning man, when he is about to go down for the last time. PrayerTrueness is insightful, focused prayer. When PrayerTrueness is approaching 100%, it is like the trueness one feels when a rackety complex machine is carefully adjusted by a skilled mechanic and begins to hummm or run true. (PrayerTrueness's 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 on the previous page).

    At the end of this 47 second period, just before the removal of the 3rd from last knot at the 608.63 minute mark, is the culminating point of the 3rd knot removal period 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 ratchet-like action of the ForgivenessResponse, causing the removal of the 3rd from last knot at the 608.63 minute mark.

    Then FearDeathDueToKnot drops suddenly from 87.2% of maximum all the way down to around 1% of maximum. At that relatively peaceful and blissful state of core consciousness there is extreme thankfulness to the Lord. This extreme 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, anxiety, and fear caused by the third from last knot.

    "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."
    (from the 'Dark Night' by John of the Cross).
    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.

Key #6: Here is the summary of my scientific analysis of the religious experience of purgation, which includes the solution to Chalmers Hard Problem (CHP) for the case of purgation.

(Note: To pursue the details of my analysis of purgation in the most recent draft of Chapter 6, please click on this link.)

SUMMARY

A subjective or deep inner experience began to present itself to me at about noon on April 8,1962, nineteen days after my 30th birthday: I was walking down a hill with a small suitcase in my hand. As I walked reflectively and in peace down that hill in the warm and brilliant Southern California sun, my heart slowly began to feel full. My mind was drawn inward. This was the very beginning of my ten hour religious experience of purgation, which culminated in the great, 4 to 7 second, experience of mystical union. During those beginning moments I was baffled: I thought, "Where is this experience within me coming from?" Right there was the key problem: Where does this experience originate? In science this problem - associated with the onset and the continuation to the end of subjective or deep inner experiences - is an example of what is now being called Chalmers Hard Problem (CHP). The four paragraphs below answer the first of the following three questions:
  1. Where did the ten hour religious experience of purgation originate?
  2. Under what conditions did my subjective or deep inner experience become labeled as a ten hour religious experience of purgation?
  3. How was it possible for my religious experience of purgation to proceed all the way to its ten-hour completion and then culminate in the great experience of mystical union - despite purgation's intense PsychicStress, Fear, and Anxiety?
Solving Chalmers Hard Problem (CHP) for the case of purgation aims at identifying the origins or material forces within me, driving purgation's core consciousness phenomena during that experience. My system dynamics analysis of my core consciousness phenomena during purgation found that the dynamic material forces driving my dynamic core consciousness during purgation were the spontaneous releasing - one by one - of about 12 pairs of cramped or paralyzed, antagonistic, muscles in my heart. Those pairs of heart muscles had become cramped or paralyzed during my childhood trauma, way back when I was 9 or 10 years old. Then, 20 or 21 years later - at the age of 30 - my trauma and its associated cramped or paralyzed heart muscles had become ripe for release. Finally, the abreaction or spontaneous release of those heart muscles began.

However, it is very important to be aware that during the releasing process of a trauma the trauma's associated psychic stress, fear, and anxiety are usually too much to bear for the experiencer. He or she usually panics, has a nervous breakdown, and then develops some sort of mental illness. Therefore, in order for the experiencer to be able to deal with that psychic stress, fear, and anxiety associated with the release of a trauma, the experiencer must use prayer, religious preparedness, etc. Such activity is the Primary Purpose of Religion. That is, my blessed prayers and religious preparedness enabled me to bear the anxiety, fear, and psychic stress without panicking, having a nervous breakdown, etc. This allowed me to go through the emotional crisis and arrive at a complete abreaction or release of my trauma. Because I used prayers, etc, throughout the ten-hour release of my trauma and because the experience was rooted deeply in my heart, my spontaneous religious response has dominated my memory of the abreaction or release of my trauma.

In my particular case, my cramped or paralyzed heart muscles spontaneously went through the process of releasing themselves. The dynamics of my releasing heart muscles drove the dynamic data of my core consciousness phenomena. That dynamic data of core consciousness was then immediately and permanently stored in my long term memory (LTM) at the time of that abreaction or release. The data of core consciousness being stored in my LTM was about the dynamics of my core consciousness during the entire ten hour purgation experience, including the core consciousness data about the state of openness of my heart. (Please note: Because my cramped or paralyzed heart muscles were spontaneously releasing themselves one by one, it naturally caused the state of my cramped up heart to begin to return to its full or open or natural position: Therefore, my heart was opening.)

Twenty two years later, in 1984 when I was 52 years old, I began the system dynamics-based analysis. The first thing I delved into was the dynamic core consciousness data for my ten hour experience of purgation. Immanuel Kant would have called that dynamic core consciousness data, associated with purgation and stored in my LTM, the dynamic phenomena of purgation. Also, he would have called the estimated 12 pairs of cramped or paralyzed, antagonistic muscles in my heart, that were - one by one - being spontaneously abreacted or released, the dynamic noumena.

I will now present how I was able to get the answers to the above three questions:

Getting the answer to Question #1: Identifying the noumena or the origin of the purgation experience.
(This is the scientific solution to Chalmers' hard problem [CHP] for the case of my deep ten-hour religious experience of purgation.)

My analysis leading up to identifying the noumena has been focused on analyzing the core consciousness data of the phenomena stored in my LTM, because I am proceeding according to Newton's Rules of Philosophizing rather than Descartes' Discourse on Method. Proceeding according to Newton's method, which is now called the scientific method, eventually resulted in the transcendental grounding (Natorp/Kim 2003) of core consciousness during the deep inner experience of purgation. The aim of the task of transcendentally grounding purgation is to identify the dynamic physical objects or noumena in my neurophysiological system that were driving the phenomena: These phenomena were associated with my core consciousness during my entire experience of purgation.

Though Kant (1724-1804), Franz Brentano (1838-1917), Paul Natorp (1854-1924), the Marburg School of Neokantianism (1870-1920), Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), Ernst Cassirer (1874-1945), and others (see Holzhey 2005) studied such phenomena deeply, they were unable to transcendentally ground phenomena in a scientific way, because science was not advanced enough in the 18th, 19th, and the first half of the 20th century. The solving of CHP could only have been attained after the first half of the 20th century, because it was only after World War II that the two critical breakthroughs in science, required for solving CHP, occurred:

  1. The publication of the powerful System Dynamics (SD) methodology (Forrester 1961, 1968b).
  2. The invention of computers for implementing the SD methodology, particularly implementing the solution to sets of simultaneous nonlinear differential equations.

SD is the underlying analytical tool of the three step Feedback Phenomenological (FP) methodology (For a short introduction to these three steps see the next paragraph. Later, you can also study Chapter 5 or Section I in Chapter 6.) Using the three steps of the SD-based FP methodology, I am able to mathematically analyze my first person core consciousness data residing in my LTM. In that analysis, shown in Section II in Chapter 6, the SD-based FP methodology scientifically structures the data for purgation in a very compatible way: As a multiloop nonlinear feedback system (MNFS). The reason the FP methodology is compatible with biological phenomena is because the MNFS structure is the same structure as the entire neurophysiological system. The neurophysiological system underlies and drives core consciousness.

Here is a short introduction to the three steps of the SD-based FP methodology. The methodology is illustrated by showing how it is used for analyzing core consciousness during purgation:

My analysis of core consciousness during purgation began in 1984 and has continued steadily right up to the present time. The key breakthrough was Step III, above. It occurred in 2007. The list of nine items below gives the sequence of scientific tasks I have been performing since 1984, together with the collection of observations and insights that I became aware of during that analytical period. Basically, I used Steps I, II, and III of the SD-based FP methodology to analyze the core consciousness data in my LTM. Please note that all the core consciousness data for purgation, residing in my LTM, is associated with or driven by the dynamic noumena. That core consciousness data was dynamic. It varied - moment by moment - during my ten hour experience of purgation.

In summary, here is how this SD-based FP methodology was used to solve CHP for the case of core consciousness during purgation: I first focused on my core consciousness data, associated with my deep ten hour religious experience of purgation. It resided in my LTM. I then use Steps I and II of the FP methodology to analyze that data. (For details of this formalized analysis and construction of the purgation feedback system, see Section I and Section II of Chapter 6. The results of this scientific task are summarized in item 1 of the nine item list below. Then, by focusing on Step III, I obtained the results summarized in items 2 thru 9 of the list below. In those items my SD-based FP analysis of core consciousness during my experience of purgation identifies the probable dynamic physical objects or transcendental objects or noumena that are the origins or driving forces of my core consciousness during purgation. This comprehensive analysis of purgation illustrates how the SD-based FP methodology was able to solve CHP for my deep inner experience of purgation.

  1. In Steps I and II the SD-based FP methodology was used to construct the 38 variable SD flow diagram and its associated mathematical model. This construction used the core consciousness data collected in my LTM during my experience of purgation (see Figure 2 and its derivation in Sections I and II of Chapter 6). The flow diagram in Figure 2 was completed in 1994.
  2. Then, in 2007 I began to use perhaps the most critical and most important step, Step III. First the Step III technique found that the flow diagram for core consciousness during purgation, developed in item 1 above and shown in Figure 2, is a second-order negative feedback system (SONFS). Once the order of the flow diagram or feedback system is identified, the dynamic characteristic of the noumena is also identified.
  3. Then, to determine the noumena driving the phenomena, I needed to search through all the dynamic physical objects within my neurophysiological system and find those dynamic objects that operate as a SONFS. At this particular early period in my search I have found only one promising candidate: Any set of dynamic antagonistic muscles operates as a SONFS.
  4. During my 10 hour experience of purgation I sensed or observed that the dynamics of purgation was being experienced mainly in my heart. Therefore, if the promising candidate is antagonistic muscles, they must be heart muscles.
  5. The great stress, fear, and anxiety - accompanying the releasing process of each set of antagonistic heart muscles - indicated that those muscles had been cramped or paralyzed prior to the estimated 72 minute period when the spontaneous releasing of the cramped or paralyzed heart muscles occurred. That estimated 72 minute period occurred between the estimated 545 minute mark and the estimated 617 minute mark (see Figure 1 in Section II.B of Chapter 6).
  6. During the Step II analysis (which is located just after the Introduction in Section II of Chapter 6), I sensed or estimated that there were about a dozen or so pairs of cramped antagonistic heart muscles released during purgation.
  7. Therefore, the dynamic noumena - that drove my dynamic core consciousness phenomena during purgation as a SONFS - was probably releasing a dozen or so pairs of cramped or paralyzed, antagonistic, heart muscles over an estimated 72 minute period.
  8. I then asked myself what had caused the cramping or paralyzation in my heart muscles. I then remembered I had a childhood sexual trauma when I was 9 or 10 years old: The trauma had probably caused the cramping or paralyzation.
  9. Therefore, the origin or driving force of the purgation experience was probably the abreaction or release of the effects of my childhood trauma.
I believe this is the probable solution to Chalmers' Hard Problem (CHP) for the case of my deep religious experience of purgation. It tells of the origin of my ten hour experience of purgation. It answers the first of the three questions.
(See the summary at the beginning of Chapter 6. It gives the "Primary Purpose of Religion" kind of answers to the second and third questions.)

Additional information associated with the above summary of my solution to CHP for the case of purgation:

The above brief summary illustrates how Chalmers' Hard Problem (CHP) is solved for deep inner experiences, like purgation. It also illustrates how the mind/body problem is solved. Even though these solutions are very insightful - particularly for scientifically oriented philosophers, psychiatrists, and religious people - high level scientists will probably not be satisfied with this kind of solution. For example, for such scientists the solution to CHP is only the first breakthrough. Granted, this first breakthrough - the solution to CHP - is the key to any thorough extended analysis. Nevertheless, neuroscientists and cardiovascular experts - working together - will wish to perform three additional analytical steps to finalize the analysis for the case of purgation. I cannot perform those three analytical steps, because I am not skilled enough in neuroscience and cardiovascular science. (I am a theoretical mechanical engineer and system dynamicist.) The three additional analyses required are:
  1. Determining the precise location in my heart of the cramped, antagonistic heart muscles. This is a very difficult "easy problem" (see Chalmers' statement about the easy problems of consciousness at the end of the summary in Chapter 6).
  2. Determining the neurobiological correlates of consciousness (NCC) during purgation. This is also a very difficult "easy problem." (see the statements on CHP by Crick, Koch, and Searle at the end of this summary). These difficult "easy problems" are available for analysis only after the CHP breakthrough for purgation has been precisely solved (see item 1 just above). Once item 1 has been solved, the neuroscientists and cardiovascular experts need to neurophysiologically link the dynamic sets of cramped, antagonistic heart muscles with the dynamic core consciousness going on during the experience of purgation. (My early conjecture is that the key to this linkage is understanding the operation of the experiencer's somatosensory system. It looks to me like that system extends all the way from (1)the cramped heart muscles that are being released to (2)the postcentral gyrus in the experiencer's cerebral cortex. The location of the latter part of the somatosensory system is probably where the dynamic core consciousness associated with purgation had been generated during the release of my trauma.)
  3. The method for testing the scientific validity of my SD-based, FP analysis of purgation is shown in Chapter 6, Section II.B, item 11.

Section II: Notes on the present state of this book manuscript:

Dive deep, Oh my mind: Dive deep.

Please Return to the homepage of the General Theory of Religion.