AMORC
Sanctum Ritual number 4 for Plane 4
1975
Salutes in omnibus punctis trianguli!
Beloved Members of the Esoteric Hierarchy:
It is our pleasure to send to you another Sanctum Ritual-Exercise. The
performance of this Ritual-Exercise will make more intimate the principles we
have been studying in the recent monographs of Plane Four. You are asked to
kindly arrange to perform this Ritual-Exercise at your earliest convenience. We
would then, of course, appreciate a report from you on what success you may have
had with it. You are privileged to perform this Ritual-Exercise on several
occasions if you so desire.
You will note below the simple accouterment required for the ritual, and the
manner in which the Sanctum is to be arranged:
1. Three candles for your Sanctum
2. Soft appropriate background music if desired
3. A note pad and pencil conveniently located
Sanctum Arrangement:
1. Light the candles before proceeding with the ritual demonstration. Place
them in the usual manner on your Sanctum.
2. Play appropriate music softly, if you wish, so as not to disturb you or
others.
3. Place the pencil and paper close at hand by the sanctum altar.
4. Have sufficient light to read by; however, avoid having the room
brilliantly lighted as this can be distracting.
5. For the best results you should have quiet and, of course, privacy.
Sanctum Ritual-Exercise:
One of the basic mystical concepts is the belief in the unity of
reality. This is the doctrine that there is a substratum beneath all the
myriad manifestations which we perceive in nature. Regardless of the variation
of natural phenomena, whether it be animate or inanimate, there is an underlying
whole substance which has no diversity. In other words, mystically it is held
that there is a single substance out of which arise the variations of phenomena
which we experience. Simply, this substratum can express itself in different
forms such as we see in the things of our world, but nevertheless at the bottom
they consist of the same virgin substance.
This is commonly called unity. From the semantic and philosophical
viewpoint, the word "unity, " however, upon analysis does not apply to
this doctrine. It is because unity is the bringing together of separate parts so
as to constitute, or to appear as, one. That which is truly one in
itself, therefore, is not a unity--it has not integrated formerly separate
parts. We cannot, therefore, logically say that there is a unity in diversity
because we conceive the underlying substance or reality not to be diverse in its
nature.
We may use a simple analogy to better delineate this subject. The musical
scale has a mathematical periodicity. The pitch rises as we advance along the
octaves. The vibrations of each note are different. Yet all that are audible are
nevertheless sounds; in other words, they consist of the same physical quality
of which all sound is. So, then, as Rosicrucians we declare that beneath all
perceivable phenomena there is spirit which is innately unchangeable and
accounts for the immutable oneness of all reality. We take the position that
everything ultimately, if it were in man's power to do so, could be reduced to
this single substratum. In fact, even academic science is speculating that we
can reduce matter much further to an infinite number of subparticles and to the
point where we will approach the theoretical cosmic stream of energy from which
all arises.
Man himself is an example of the common error of thinking of his nature as
being a multiplicity instead of a oneness. We, of course, in our monographs, do
refer to the dual being of man. This terminology we perhaps adopted to make more
distinct the two quite different kinds of phenomena which are so evident in man.
We speak of body and soul as a dichotomy of human nature. There is
also, then, the common reference to brain and mind. However, it
would be far more preferable to say that there are different functions
rather than substances of man's being, or rather to call them attributes of the
one whole of which man consists.
This notion of an absolute duality in man is suggested by what appears to be
the extreme differences in the phenomena which he manifests. The psychic, the
emotional, the rational, and the intuitive functions ot man are certainly
dependent upon, it not derived from, his physical organism, or body.
One class of phenomena, we think of as material, and the other, by its
contrastate, as immaterial. The immaterial, being principally invisible,
is something felt and not seen. Having no weight or measurable content, it was,
in an early time of man's intellectual growth, attributed to the supernatural.
Consequently, it was then given an elevated eminence. The immaterial phenomena
were associated with the spiritual, the divine.
Conversely the body was demeaned by man as a corruptible substance emanating
from a source of lesser eminence. The body, as well as most all matter, seems
pliable in the hands of man, whereas the immaterial attributes of man appear to
transcend his personal powers and his ability to alter their nature in any way.
It was this fact that seemed to further relate these attributes to the
immutable, divine, or spiritual state.
But in comparatively recent years we have learned considerably more about the
nature of man. The ancient Greeks once thought that the faculty of reason was of
the soul, a divine quality not related to the organic structure of man. Now we
know how the brain and nervous system substantially contribute to the function
of reason, and even that which we call mind. We do not deny that there is a kind
of superconsciousness pervading each cell of our being and having an inherent
intelligence, but even this consciousness is part of the whole stream of
consciousness pervading man.
Further, the physical body is just as much a part of a cosmic source as that
which we call divine or term "the soul." After all, man is not
the originator of his body and his functions--these stem from the same
ubiquitous infinite cosmic essence as do those which we designate as "the
spiritual." All of the phenomena are of the One and are diverse only
in their operation and manifestation. After all, the psychic is but another name
for the subliminal powers of man--that is, those that lie behind or beneath what
we term "the objective." It is man who, for example, has divided into
categories the stream of his consciousness and its phenomena into, for example,
objective, subjective, subconscious, and numerous other terms. The fact that man
has divided the phenomena into different categories does not alter the fact that
they emerge from the same source just as all colors are of the one phenomenon of
wavelengths of visible light.
The operation of the brain is electrical in nature. "At any
instant millions or billions of its neurons may be opening or closing their
electrically activated switches. They send currents along those circuits of
neurons (nerve cells) to be detected." These electrical currents have been
measured by sophisticated instruments. Human brain waves were first discovered
in 1924 by Hans Berger of the University of Jena, Germany. Small metal strips
were attached to the scalps of subjects.
Wires running from the strips were then affixed to a sensitive galvanometer.
This instrument measured tiny electrical impulses flowing from the subject's
scalp. Each electrical impulse was a few hundred-thousandths of a volt. The
impulse was not constant, it would wax and wane.
These variations were registered photographically on a roll of paper which
was pulled by the instrument. The wiggly, wavy lines appearing on the paper were
studied and given the name brain waves. Of importance, it was
found varying states of mind of the subject changed the form of the wavy lines.
Here, then, was mind affecting matter, or we can say these changing electrical
impulses of brain produced visible patterns of themselves.
In 1934 more serious and elaborate study of these brain waves became possible
with the invention of the vacuum tube amplifier. The greater amplification made
the tiny electrical impulses more reliably registered. This research resulted in
the sophisticated instrument known as the electroencephalograph (EEG) used
extensively in hospitals, clinics, and institutions for psychological and
neurological research.
One of the first observations was that the electrical patterns, the brain
waves, changed noticeably when the subject was awake, drowsy, or asleep.
Different states or moods of the subject produced consistently the same
patterns. These different patterns or waves were categorized by the names of the
letters of the Greek alphabet, such as alpha, beta, and gamma.
How the brain is a vital factor in producing much of what we have been
accustomed to relate to the psychic has been demonstrated by modern research.
The brain is known to consist of two hemispheres. The right hemisphere
controls the left side of the body. The following functions or distinct
attributes of the right side of the brain are music, intuition, fantasy,
orientation in space, spirituality, and art.
The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body. The
attributes of the left side of the brain are mathematics, logic, science,
language, analytical thinking, and reason. Have you often wondered why some
persons seem to excel in mathematics or music or languages? It may partially be
genetic, that is, an inheritance in the genes, but it may also be for some
reason which is not quite fully understood--a particular development of the
association areas and the complex of neurons in the hemisphere of the brain
where that faculty functions.
There is another definite example of the relationship of electrical impulses
of the brain's neurons to memory and to ideation, or the formation of ideas. In
neurological research, while a patient was anesthetized, electrodes were inserted through the cortex
into certain areas of the brain. The patient did not lose consciousness and was
therefore able to carry on conversation with the physicians. Mild electrical
currents of low potency were transmitted to the electrodes in the brain. These
then apparently stimulated the brain neurons in an adjacent area. In most of the
experiments the patient had a recall of past visual or auditory images.
"One woman heard the voice of her small son in the yard outside her
kitchen, accompanied by the neighborhood sounds of honking autos, barking dogs
and shouting youngsters." "Another patient heard the singing of a
Christmas song in her church at home in Holland. She seemed to be in the church,
and was moved again by the beauty of the occasion, just as she had been on the
Christmas Eve years earlier." These experiments indicated that many
impressions are retained in the neurons similarly to the way impressions
registered on a video tape can be played back when desired. The electrical
impulses stimulated these areas in the brain and released previously registered
impressions in their entirety.
The researchers reported that the memory impressions recalled by such
stimulation always followed a line of continuity; in other words, they never
retrogressed to the beginning but followed through to a sequential ending.
However, if the electrodes were withdrawn from the brain and then reinserted
later, the sequence began again at its beginning with a complete recurrence of
the recalled visual or auditory images.
Now all of this leads us to the exercise which we are to perform. Can we
stimulate one hemisphere of the brain and its images so as to quicken them or
perfect them? In other words, can we activate our intuition, reason, fantasy, or
spirituality, for example?
We have been told that man since his childhood ordinarily suppresses his
intuitive faculty by his schooling and worldly experience which have emphasized
that preference be given to the objective side of the mind. Consequently, the
intuitive aspect of self with most persons is really dormant or is only awakened
with great effort. However, with other persons the intuition is normally quite
active. In such cases it is perhaps due to that particular hemisphere of the
brain being internally more stimulated.
First Step
Place yourself in a comfortable and relaxed position before your sanctum
altar. Next, intone the vowels RA and MA, each three times, softly. This is done
to help create a proper sanctum atmosphere and to stimulate your psychic senses
and their energies.
Second Step
Now determine which would be the most effective in reaching a solution to,
for example, a problem or to arrive at a creative idea necessary for some
purpose. Which would be most effective with you reason or intuition?
You begin by giving careful thought to the project about which you wish
enlightenment. Then you shall take recourse to reason. Remember that the left
hemisphere of your brain is the one in which the faculty of reason principally
functions. However, it is stated that the right hemisphere controls the left
side of the body and its functions.
Third Step
Consequently, you must excite the right hemisphere so that it will stimulate
the left side of the body and the left hemisphere which controls certain
faculties. To accomplish this, you will therefore kindly separate your feet and
take a deep breath, increasing the Vital Life Force, and then while holding your
breath bring together the thumb and first two fingers of the right hand.
Now press the tips of these three fingers of the right hand against your right
temple.
Fourth Step
While the fingers are pressed firmly but comfortably against the right
temple, hold the breath as long as possible, and then exhale slowly. In doing
this the extra energy that flows from the radial nerves of the three fingers
passes into the temple area of the right hemisphere and has its stimulating
effect transferred to the left side of the body and the left hemisphere of the
brain with its faculty of reason.
Fifth Step
As you are doing the breathing exercise (four or five times) hold in mind the
particular problem about which you are concerned. Think about it in
detail. Try to reduce the problem to its simplest terms. Analyze it so as to
endeavor to arrive at a solution. Have your pencil and paper handy and jot down
any ideas that now arise in your consciousness as a result of your reasoning
while doing this exercise.
If you are not satisfied with the results received, then take recourse to the
psychic faculty of intuition. This faculty has its principal center, you will
recall, in the right hemisphere of
the brain, and, as previously said, the right hemisphere has control over the
left side of the body and its powers. Therefore you must endeavor to first
excite the left side of the brain so the faculty of intuition will be quickened.
First Step
This time you will again resort to deep breathing but you wilt bring together
the thumb and first two fingers of your left hand and press them against
the left temple. Inhale and exhale several times slowly.
Second Step
Again keep in mind your problem or the subject about which you are concerned,
but this time do not try to analyze it but think of it in a general way,
having the sincere desire, however, for knowledge of how to cope with it.
Third Step
Keep your eyes closed and try to force all other impressions and ideas from
consciousness. Wait until you feel a surge of exaltation accompanied by some
idea that may flash into consciousness, and immediately write it down.
In conclusion, compare what you wrote as a result of the exercise with the
left hemisphere with that obtained from the right-which seems more effective and
beneficial to you, that from reason or intuition?
If you have a propensity toward, for example, music, logic, mathematics,
spiritual matters, or some other faculty whose principal seat is in either the
right or left hemisphere, then try this exercise to quicken that faculty. What
we are trying to do is to have you use the radiant psychic force of your being
to stimulate the neuron chains in the hemispheres of your brain where these
faculties have their seat.
In conclusion, sit quietly in meditation before your lighted candles for a
few minutes after completing the exercise, thinking of the marvelous cosmic
mechanism with which you have been endowed.
We will indeed appreciate, as said, having your report on the results of this
Ritual-Exercise at your convenience.
Sincerely and fraternally,
YOUR CLASS MASTER