Steve Briggs, Meditation and Indian Yogis Lead to ET |397|

Alex

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Steve Briggs, Meditation and Indian Yogis Lead to ET |397|
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Steve Briggs taught advanced meditation all over the world and learned yogic out of body travel.
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photo by: Skeptiko
Alex Tsakiris:
[Dogon tribal music plays] You are listening to music of the Dogon people, and for me it’s pretty hard to listen to. But the point of playing music from this small ancient tribe in West Africa is that the Dogon pose an interesting dilemma for those of us who want to move from our knowns, our comfortable sciency, archeological, history they teach us in school, to the kind of reality extended reality we explore so much on this show.

The Dogon, like many ancient people, have always claimed that their ancestors came from the stars. It’s an ancient alien kind of thing. But what’s unique about the Dogon and the way that they relate to today’s guest is that when the Dogon first encountered Western anthropologists in the 1830s, they told them some specific information that they were given by their star brother ancestors. In particular, they told anthropologists that they were from the Sirian star system, a star which is one of the brightest stars in the sky, so bright, in fact they said it obscured a smaller dwarf star circling around the visible star. But in the 1830s this was impossible to see, even with the telescopes of the time. In fact, it wasn’t visible until the telescope technology of 1970, when astronomers looked and were able to confirm there is a twin star around Sirius.

But the Dogon had more to say, much more. They correctly said that the orbital of the dwarf star was 50 years and that there were three planets that would show up and they had specific information about the density of these planets and the rotation and other information that would be impossible, it would seem, for an ancient culture without a written language, to know about.

But again, the question for me is, how do we go from the known to the unknown?

Today’s guest, Steve Briggs, is going to take you from his known world of a tennis prodigy and an MBA and someone who got interested in meditation, who went all around the world teaching transcendental meditation to in India, Europe and the United States, to someone who’s had some amazing encounters with individuals that transcend our normal conscious reality.

Alex Tsakiris: Let me approach this from another angle, because in the email you wrote to me, which maybe will jump us into these amazing experiences that you have, because I feel like we’re still nibbling on the outside. You write: “Tibetan lamas voluntarily lock themselves into lightless underground cells for up to three years.” This is what you discovered from a guy who’s been there, been to India, has met with these people, has enough of a credibility, in terms of what you’ve done in your own spiritual journey, to talk to these people on this level and to learn this stuff.

I’m returning to your email: “This would drive the average person insane, but the purpose of the incarceration is, among other things, to develop the ability to soul travel. Once the lama learns to leave the body at will, he can travel throughout the cosmos, his physical incarnation is no longer a limitation. I have been taught these methods and use them.”

(later)

Steve Briggs: Hopefully, my purpose has been served in having these out-of-body experiences because I have chosen to direct where I go, to places where I have received more advanced training, a chance to be closer to divinity. One of the groups that I have been, like I say, fortunate enough, I’ve interacted with and learned from are a group from, the Sirians. Not the Syrians of the Middle East, but the Sirians on Sirius B. I believe it’s the brightest star in the night sky.

I want to step back and say I’ve never, ever been abducted, I’ve never been on a UFO. These are not things where I’ve taken my physical body to have that experience, but they are very real for me, from the point of view of using my light body for travel in a spiritual manner.

So, if we are comfortable with the premise that the flexibility of reality and the flexibility of consciousness is limitless, then we have that ability to move interdimensionally.
 
I came across this after searching Buddhist/Hindu deprivation rituals after reading Alex’s post here. I came across this. The Monk ritual of sokushinbutsu, in northern Japan. In this ritual of “self-mummification” the monk would undergo an extremely vigorous exercise program and eat nothing but nuts and seeds for 1,000 days. After this point, virtually no body fat would remain. Next, the monk would restrict diet even further for 1,000 days and eat only bark. During this time, the monk would begin drinking a potent diuretic and poison daily. After this time the monk was severely starved and dehydrated. All of this was meant to experience physical depravation, but also to preserve their soon to be dead body. The Monk would then lock himself in a dark cell with only a little room to sit. Every morning he would ring a bell if he were still alive. Once they were sure he was dead, they would seal the tomb for 1,000 days. After 1,000 days, they would check the body. If it were preserved, the mummy would be considered a Buddha, and would be worshipped. If it was not preserved, they would seal it back up as a permanent resting place.

Talk about willpower.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.anci...what-was-extreme-ritual-of-sokushinbutsu/amp/
 
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Alex's question at the end of the podcast:

This seemed a wee bit convoluted and I'm not entirely sure I understood it, but for what it's worth:

once we get past taking on board the results of consciousness experiments (such as those performed by Dean Radin), how do we go on to process the information supplied by people like Steve Briggs in this interview? Information at a new level involving contact with beings seemingly very far beyond us?
 
I came across this after searching Buddhist/Hindu deprivation rituals after reading Alex’s post here. I came across this. The Monk ritual of sokushinbutsu, in northern Japan. In this ritual of “self-mummification” the monk would undergo an extremely vigorous exercise program and eat nothing but nuts and seeds for 1,000 days. After this point, virtually no body fat would remain. Next, the monk would restrict diet even further for 1,000 days and eat only bark. During this time, the monk would begin drinking a potent diuretic and poison daily. After this time the monk was severely starved and dehydrated. All of this was meant to experience physical depravation, but also to preserve their soon to be dead body. The Monk would then lock himself in a dark cell with only a little room to sit. Every morning he would ring a bell if he were still alive. Once they were sure he was dead, they would seal the tomb for 1,000 days. After 1,000 days, they would check the body. If it were preserved, the mummy would be considered a Buddha, and would be worshipped. If it was not preserved, they would seal it back up as a permanent resting place.

Talk about willpower.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.anci...what-was-extreme-ritual-of-sokushinbutsu/amp/
wow! amazing!
 
I came across this after searching Buddhist/Hindu deprivation rituals after reading Alex’s post here. I came across this. The Monk ritual of sokushinbutsu, in northern Japan. In this ritual of “self-mummification” the monk would undergo an extremely vigorous exercise program and eat nothing but nuts and seeds for 1,000 days. After this point, virtually no body fat would remain. Next, the monk would restrict diet even further for 1,000 days and eat only bark. During this time, the monk would begin drinking a potent diuretic and poison daily. After this time the monk was severely starved and dehydrated. All of this was meant to experience physical depravation, but also to preserve their soon to be dead body. The Monk would then lock himself in a dark cell with only a little room to sit. Every morning he would ring a bell if he were still alive. Once they were sure he was dead, they would seal the tomb for 1,000 days. After 1,000 days, they would check the body. If it were preserved, the mummy would be considered a Buddha, and would be worshipped. If it was not preserved, they would seal it back up as a permanent resting place.

Talk about willpower.

This reminds me a little of Father Maximilian Kolbe. A Polish monk, Kolbe was interned in Auschwitz for publishing anti-Nazi literature and subsequently volunteered to take the place of a man due to be starved to death. He spent the entire sentence in kneeling prayer, and, after surviving two weeks without food or water, was eventually executed by lethal injection.

When it came, he apparently received the injection calmly, without resistance.

God, this makes me feel soft.

220px-Fr.Maximilian_Kolbe_1939.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilian_Kolbe

+++
 
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This seemed a wee bit convoluted and I'm not entirely sure I understood it, but for what it's worth:

once we get past taking on board the results of consciousness experiments (such as those performed by Dean Radin), how do we go on to process the information supplied by people like Steve Briggs in this interview? Information at a new level involving contact with beings seemingly very far beyond us?


I guess the real question is to find a way to bridge the gap. I mean if reality really is more malleable than we normally think, we need someone who actually teaches some of these techniques to ordinary people - like you Alex!

Put another way, it would be great if Dean Radin could find a way to scale up his experiments to something that simply could not be ignored.

The trouble is that Indian mystics have become a joke - which is probably screening people from a pretty awesome truth.

David
 
Put another way, it would be great if Dean Radin could find a way to scale up his experiments to something that simply could not be ignored.

Unfortunately, as the historical and social knowledge proves us once and again (and again, and again, and again...), there are no results too strong and persuasive to ignore, deny or distort. Humans' proneness (and wilfullness) to push the undesirable observations and arguments away from their minds is truly exceptional - and, if being practiced collectively and even massively (as it is the case, respectively, with the modern academic community and the overall society in which it operates), it literally knows no limits.
 
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This reminds me a little of Father Maximilian Kolbe. A Polish monk, Kolbe was interned in Auschwitz for publishing anti-Nazi literature and subsequently volunteered to take the place of a man due to be starved to death. He spent the entire sentence in kneeling prayer, and, after surviving two weeks without food or water, was eventually executed by lethal injection.

When it came, he apparently received the injection calmly, without resistance.

God, this makes me feel soft.

220px-Fr.Maximilian_Kolbe_1939.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilian_Kolbe

+++
wow... this is amazing on many levels. reality is flexible :)
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reminded shaman from Embrace of the Serpent... machete/lethal injection can trump to shaman spirituality.

also:

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But I've read this script and the costume fits, so I'll play my part
 
This seemed a wee bit convoluted and I'm not entirely sure I understood it, but for what it's worth:

once we get past taking on board the results of consciousness experiments (such as those performed by Dean Radin), how do we go on to process the information supplied by people like Steve Briggs in this interview? Information at a new level involving contact with beings seemingly very far beyond us?


I guess the real question is to find a way to bridge the gap. I mean if reality really is more malleable than we normally think, we need someone who actually teaches some of these techniques to ordinary people - like you Alex!

Put another way, it would be great if Dean Radin could find a way to scale up his experiments to something that simply could not be ignored.

The trouble is that Indian mystics have become a joke - which is probably screening people from a pretty awesome truth.

David

I definitely hear where yr coming from, David... and often feel similarly... then again, I think what Steve's teachers are telling us is that we have the ability to bridge the gap... we're born to bridge the gap :)
 
and, if being practiced collectively and even massively (as it is the case, respectively, with the modern academic community and the overall society in which it operates), it literally knows no limits.
nice one :)
 
Strange to relate, I've actually been thinking about (my understanding of) Alex's question for the past week or so -- sort of, at any rate -- in terms of consciousness and belief. There is the universe-in-itself, whatever it might be, and then there's how we interpret it (i.e. our beliefs about it).

Most if not all of us -- if we aren't perceptually impaired -- agree on certain perceptions (either direct or mediated by instrumentation) such as those of galaxies, stars and planets, and on a smaller scale earthly things like animals, plants, rocks and so forth. We don't really know what things-in-themselves actually are, but how we perceive them seems consistent and unavoidable.

Everything else is an interpretative narrative of consciousness. It may not be so much that reality is malleable, as that how we interpret it is malleable. I can't make the sun look like something else, but I can interpret it in different ways -- according to myth, current consensus cosmology, or less consensual electric universe theory, for example.

The world we seem to live in is more than the appearance of things-in-themselves: these are embedded in interpretative frameworks which take on a seeming concreteness and attract greater or lesser degrees of plausibility according to individual conscious or subconscious preferences. We often apply the term "perception" mistakenly here; for instance, in sentences like: "his perception of the world is that it's a threatening place". It's mistaken because it isn't the same thing as actually perceiving, in an unavoidable way, the universally accepted appearances of things-in-themselves. It's the difference between how we actually perceive the sun and the interpretative framework in which we situate it. We can all agree on the appearance of the sun, yet have different frameworks for interpreting what it signifies, and those interpretations inevitably shape our responses to events.

Why do we have interpretative frameworks? I think it's because we are naturally predisposed to make the world seem meaningful and consistent. We can't bear not to have a model of reality to which we can respond accordingly, and which we try to make unassailably consistent. So much so, that if people point out any inconsistencies, we may resort to rationalisation, self-deception or even sophistry to try to maintain that consistency.

Thing is, these interpretative frameworks are subject to dispute, unlike true perceptual data. Although we can't help but perceive the sun as a shining circle in the sky, it's a matter of individual preference whether we accept the current cosmological model, the electric universe model, a model that postulates it's a conscious entity, or something else entirely. This would include possibilities that combine views; after all, whilst Rupert Sheldrake might entertain the possibility that the sun is conscious, he might also agree with the current cosmological model that describe it as a hot ball of gas fuelled by nuclear processes, around which the earth and other planets revolve.

If you have your model of reality, and are attached to it, then it's quite likely you will react with varying degrees of hostility to models that are at variance with it. But if you can to some extent detach from your preferred model, then you can be an agnostic, a skeptic in the true sense of someone who might lean towards certain interpretations, but is prepared to at least consider others, and can in theory change his mind. Incidentally, what is science? It could be considered, at its best, as the art of being able to change your mind in the light if evidence, because you aren't fanatically attached to fixed interpretations. At its worst, it's being ossified and incapable of change. In the end, is anything that belongs to an interpretative framework actually a true and literal rendition of reality? I have my strong doubts about that.

I've talked about perceptions, thinking about the five senses by which we unavoidably perceive the appearance of at least some things-in-themselves, and I've also mentioned interpretative frameworks. But there's also the possibility of other senses -- the ones that lead to claims of telepathy, clairvoyance, the ability to perceive other beings, and so on. Are they things-in-themselves, or are they part of an interpretative framework?

I don't know for sure. All I can say is that they are claimed to be real by certain individuals. However, they do seem not to be universal and unavoidable perceptions of appearances. Not everyone has them, and so they may be frameworks rather than true perceptions. And here's the thing: it's quite popular to say that "perception is reality", when what we might say from a more detached point of view is that "a framework of interpretation is reality".

I have no reason to doubt that Steve Briggs is sincere in the belief that he can perceive beings and events that most of us can't. But even if he can, the way he explains them, IOW his interpretation of them, may not be what they actually are. They might be interpreted differently by others who also seem to perceive them. I suppose the classic example is NDEs, which are interpreted differently in different cultures, and there may even be individual differences in the same culture -- compare, for example, Eben Alexander's rich account of his NDE with more "run of the mill" Western accounts.

People like Dean Radin use the scientific method to try to verify the existence of such capacities, but in the end whether one accepts the conclusion that they exist depends on one's own frameworks of interpretation -- no less than does whether one accepts what Steve Briggs says. So really, I wonder whether there are gaps to bridge; wouldn't that be tantamount to accepting frameworks of interpretation as real in the first place? Can one attempt to bridge gaps that don't actually exist -- between one explanatory framework and another?

For what it's worth, I tend to believe in the Idealist model of reality. What certain things-in-themselves, such as stars and planets, etc., truly are, we may never know, but they are unavoidably perceivable: some think of them as aspects of "the body of God" or how MAL appears to us. We as alters supplement those true perceptions by what I described earlier as mistaken "perceptions"; but more likely they're artificially constructed frameworks of interpretation.

Moreover, there's no a priori reason to believe that in certain living states, or after death, alters don't (continue to) exist and interpret in light of those frameworks. There might not be an absolute truth that we can all perceive in an identical manner in those states/after death. To that extent, we might all create our own realities, which afford MAL many different ways of experiencing its own being through us. And maybe that's why we think of ourselves as possessing souls; we all seem to be different and unique, all seem to possess free will. If we didn't, then we'd all be much the same and MAL's experience of itself would perhaps be monotonously unproductive.
 
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Recently I suffered some sciatica (for about 6 weeks), and I decided that rather than go to a conventional doctor, I would try alternative medicine. I was given acupuncture, and the problem has more or less resolved. Things started to improve very quickly after the first treatment. I guess that if I had gone the conventional route I would have been shunted off for X-rays, and maybe some other sort of scan, and probably have been prescribed a non-steroidal inflammatory. All of this is available free on the NHS, but there are substantial waiting lists - I might well have the packet of NSAIDS and nothing else but an appointment by now.

I tend to assume that acupuncture is inconsistent with conventional medical science, even though I think some researchers propose conventional ways in which it might work - but think of the conventional explanations for NDE's etc.

The needles need to be left in for a few minutes, which has given me time to talk with the therapist. He has spent a lot of time in the East, and encountered a lot of things that don't make much sense. He also treats people with Reiki - which I guess has absolutely no basis in conventional medicine whatsoever - but he chose the best treatment for me, so I haven't had any experience of Reiki. He tends to shy off the word paranormal, but he is clearly talking about phenomena that we would class as paranormal. Conveniently, he originally took a science degree, so he is aware of the problems of reconciling the Western and Eastern explanatory frameworks.

My point is that a lot of people here and in the US use these facilities, and maybe there is a pool of people already talented in bending reality here in the West.

David
 
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This seemed a wee bit convoluted and I'm not entirely sure I understood it, but for what it's worth:

once we get past taking on board the results of consciousness experiments (such as those performed by Dean Radin), how do we go on to process the information supplied by people like Steve Briggs in this interview? Information at a new level involving contact with beings seemingly very far beyond us?

Answering this question depends on what your starting point is. Steve's information is hardly remarkable, but it is useful. It confirms other sources, and we have to choose whether we credit those other sources. If we do we are then confronted with a set of propositions - including that humans can routinely have interactions with agents who are vastly remote in spatial terms. That means that the medium for that communion is not anything our current 'science' has its head around. Who cares?

I do not accept that 'science' is the arbiter of the real. So, unlike Alex, I have absolutely no interest in opinions expressed by scientists, unless they have inquired into the subject at hand. My view is not 'anti-science'. I simply reject the definition of science that is presented.

Steve confirms what has been reported for ages. That's good.I have difficulty dealing with folk who claim intimate contact with ET. Steve may have really had contact with Sirians, but we need to talk about that in detail before I believe him. I am not opposed to the idea, I just have come across way too many crackpots to easily accept claims.

But the general landscape seems pretty okay. Otherwise I am not bothered by Steve's claims. They fit a pattern, and a logic.

A way more important question has to be "How do we get comfortable with this description of reality?" I think we should be beyond doubt and into strategies for accommodation.

I get the yogi story. But we have to appreciate that yogic devotees tell the same damned story in celebration of their masters endlessly. That's cool in India. No use outside that culture. Serious yogis do serious stuff that just rips materialism to pieces. There are only two choices - believe the materialism bullshit or not. The problem for the 'or not' crowd is what that means.

I am reading Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life at the moment. What I am getting out of it is a persistent sense of being viscerally challenged every strep of the way. And this is just a Christian perspective. A yogic perspective is an other thing entirely. We got a long way to go.
 
I am reading Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life at the moment. What I am getting out of it is a persistent sense of being viscerally challenged every strep of the way. And this is just a Christian perspective. A yogic perspective is an other thing entirely. We got a long way to go.

Can you elaborate a little? Why are you being viscerally challenged? I'm finding it a little difficult to understand where you're coming from when you say this, and why you conclude that we've got a long way to go.
 
Five years back I bet a friend lunch that ET disclosure would occur by the end of the 2014. Lost that bet and realized that we still have a ways to go.
 
If I may, let me offer an example or two of extending consciousness beyond the norm.

1) Two summers back, my wife and I planned a trip to Switzerland. We both enjoy Alpine hiking and we had both spent a couple years in the Swiss Alps 45 years ago where, as teenagers, we had met our guru on extended meditation retreats.

A week before our European trip, I had a disturbing dream that my wife had died in an accident. I immediately told my wife about the dream... a look of disbelief came over her as I shared the dream. She told me that she had also had a dream that night, and that in her dream she had died suddenly. Being somewhat familiar with this sort of thing, we took the omens seriously, but there was no way were we going to cancel our vacation.

Despite jet lag, upon arriving at our destination, we embarked on a four hour hike in a spectacular region above an idyllic hamlet called Engelberg (mountain of angels). Near the end of the hike, we came to a rough, angular section of trail where my wife took a bad fall. She broke her wrist, but the greater injury was a blow to her right temple against a knee-high boulder near the trail.

At this point, I had one of those consciousness altering experiences where time seemed to suspend itself as alertness levels heightened. Within seconds, we were overtaken on the trail by a German doctor and his wife, a nurse. They knew exactly what to do, and after examining my wife, they arranged transportation back to Engelberg. On the drive back to town, I was acutely aware that my wife should maintain consciousness. She was past the shock of the fall and was not in a lot of pain, however her eyes were alarmingly vacant and she was moaning a bit. In the taxi van, she was repeatedly on the verge of nodding off, but I felt that if she were to fall asleep, we might lose her. We made it back to town where a physician put her arm put in a soft cast.

The following day we hiked a bit (at her insistence). Despite having to hold her arm in an awkward position, she hiked in the Alps for 3 weeks, never complaining about anything. In fact, she seemed more alive then ever. After our return to the States, she told me that she could have departed but that she didn't want to ruin everyone's vacation (we were meeting up with some friends we hadn't seen in years).

2) Outside our home, a purple plum tree had provided us with delicious fruit for a decade. It was now dying. I was about to cut the tree down when a family member said, "wait." Silently, the person knelt at the base of the tree for a moment. With cupped hands, she walked from the plum tree to a nearby apple tree where again she knelt down at the base of the tree. I proceeded to cut the plum tree down and forgot about the unusual gesture. Three months later my brother's family came over for a game of croquet. My brother's youngest daughter was walking among the fruit trees in our yard when she exclaimed, "Uncle Steve, look, little purple plums." I replied, "Danielle, that's an apple tree, not a plum tree." Then it dawned on me that the apple tree had been part of the ritual my family member had performed in the spring. Both apples and plums were growing on the same branch.
remarkable. "escaping death stories" are interesting... the ultimate flexible reality... then again, who's plan are we circumventing... or following.
 
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