The silver cord in metaphysical studies and literature, also known as the life thread of the Antahkarana, refers to a life-giving linkage from the higher self down to the physical body. It also refers to an extended synthesis of this thread and a second (the [...]
The Natya Shastra is a Sanskrit text on the performing arts. The text is attributed to sage Bharata Muni, and its first complete compilation is dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE, but estimates vary between 500 BCE and 500 CE. The text consists [...]
Episodic memory is the memory of autobiographical events that can be explicitly stated or conjured. It is the collection of past personal experiences that occurred at a particular time and place. For example, if one remembers the party on their 6th birthday, this is an [...]
George Gurdjieff was a mystic, philosopher, spiritual teacher, and composer of Armenian and Greek descent, born in Alexandrapol, Armenia. George Gurdjieff spent his childhood in Kars, which, from 1878 to 1918, was the administrative capital of the Russian-ruled Transcaucasus province of Kars Oblast, a border [...]
Lucid dreams are dreams during which the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming. During lucid dreams, the dreamer may gain some amount of control over the dream characters, narrative, and environment; however, this is not actually necessary for a dream to be described as [...]
The noosphere is a philosophical concept developed and popularized foremostly by the biogeochemist Vladimir Vernadsky. Vernadsky defined the noosphere as the planetary “sphere of reason”. The noosphere represents the highest stage of biospheric development, its defining factor being the development of humankind's rational activities. The [...]
The global brain is a neuroscience-inspired and futurological vision of the planetary information and communications technology network that interconnects all humans and their technological artifacts. As this network stores ever more information, takes over ever more functions of coordination and communication from traditional organizations and [...]
The mental plane, or the world of thought, in Hermeticism, Theosophical, Rosicrucian, Aurobindonian, and New Age thought refers to the macrocosmic or universal plane of reality that is made up purely of thought or mind-stuff. In contrast to Western secular modernist and post-modern thought, in [...]
The astral plane, also called the astral world, is a plane of existence postulated by classical, medieval, oriental, and esoteric philosophies and religions. It is the world of the celestial spheres, crossed by the soul in its astral body on the way to being born [...]
A form constant is one of several geometric patterns which are recurringly observed during hallucinations and altered states of consciousness. In 1926, Heinrich Klüver systematically studied the effects of mescaline (peyote) on the subjective experiences of its users. In addition to producing hallucinations characterized by [...]
