Source Text
However, I would still face the same situation because one’s level of ignorance increases exponentially with accumulated knowledge. For example, when one acquires a bit of new information, there are many new questions that are generated by it, and each new piece of information breeds five or ten new questions. These questions pile up at a much faster rate than does the accumulated information. The more one knows, therefore, the greater his level of ignorance. This effect does seem to justify my decision to publish this information now.
Much of this information has come through intuitive insight, which is no justification, of course, for omitting a rational support for this material.
Therefore, it becomes possible that the attitude of the experimenter must also influence the outcome of any particular experiment. Now this is serious business, for unless we are able to account for and describe what consciousness is, it will always put an experiment in doubt. So the problem is: What is consciousness?
After Chapter 4 things become pretty outrageous because I rush into places where even angels fear to tread. (I consider angels to be a fairly timid, unenterprising bunch.)
I will, for example, handle reincarnation as a matter of fact, completely disregarding the great controversy that rages over the subject.
This shows how life organizes random minerals into a very stable structure and maintains this order for a long period of time. (This is negative entropy.)
During a (human) lifetime, we organize a lot of information on many levels.
No organized energy is ever lost. An experiment showing the independence of the psyche from the physical body is described in Chapter 4.
When the psyche, after having been without a physical body for a while (the period after death), decides that it needs additional pieces of information obtainable only through the physical body, it will acquire one and continue to associate with the new body until it wears out and dies.
By sound we mean here any random acoustical disturbance that may be composed of many different frequencies. A note, on the other hand, is a sound of a single frequency.
AI Summary
Stalking the Wild Pendulum by Itzhak Bentov presents key insights from the contemplative tradition. The 10 passages above capture the essential teachings.
Core Themes:
- [To be expanded]
Key Passages: Highlights 1, 3, and 10 are particularly representative.
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